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You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / I’m So Old

I’m So Old

by | 113 Comments

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After having seen several interviews with this Johnson fellow out of Louisiana, I have a couple of thoughts.

First, he has that slimy hyper religious sheen that a lot of the hucksters who are religious in the sense that they cherrypick the bible to justify who they are currently hating on. The whole Tony Perkins patina if you will. And when you see these guys, there’s a scandal in there somewhere whether it is a dead girl or a live boy.

Second, I think the more interviews he does, the better he is for Democrats.

Third, I’m so old I remember when Markos was getting yelled at for calling these guys the American taliban or when everyone got chided for calling them Christianists and that not all Republicans, and here we are in the year of our lord 2023 and they’ve up and had every single elected Republican in the House voted for a live one right there in front of us all.

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    They keep having all these albatrosses show up around their necks and yet they keep getting elected. At some point you gotta just accept people iz dumb and work your asses off to outvote them.

  4. 4.

    Geoduck

    It is interesting that he didn’t tow the MAGA line in regards to Ukraine. Evidently he’s also made noises about not hating black people 100% of the time.

    Still horrible and it sucks he got the job.

  5. 5.

    SmallAxe

    Spot on Cole. That whole adopting a ‘son’ as a single 20 something male is really bizarre too

  7. 7.

    Alison Rose

    @Geoduck: What do you mean, he’s not towing the MAGA line? He rejected the bundled aid package, and said:

    Johnson said of Ukraine funding: “We want to know what the object is there, what is the end game in Ukraine.

    “The White House has not provided that,” he added.

    Translation: He doesn’t wanna give them any more money.

  10. 10.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    slimy

    Gingrich
    Trent Lott
    Bob Livingston
    Coach Dennis Hastert
    Hot tub Tom Delay
    McSqueaker
    Cocaine Mitch
    Bill “cat murderer” Frist
    Granny Killer Ryan

    Sickos and weirdos are par for their course

  12. 12.

    OGLiberal

    I have some Louisiana experience, being married to a New Orleaner and who graduated with Amy Coney.  White people in Louisiana are almost all racist.  My wife was and large parts of her family still are.  It’s like a default position for white New Orleaners and it’s all based on racism and crime stats (look at all those “primate” words….and, yes, that’s what they love to use).

    Anyway, even moderate sounding Republicans from Louisiana are virulent racists.  Half, or more, of them switched parties because Dems decided that black people are people.

    Note:  Neither senator from LA is moderate. Don’t care if John Kennedy was a Dem not that long ago.  Fake Foghorn Leghorn is a monster.  I think the other guy – Cassidy – was a Dem as well but covered that up and isn’t as racist as Foghorn Leghorn.  I think he even voted to impeach, although not getting any badged from me for that because, have you done anything else helpful?

    I rip on Lousiana because it’s easy but a lot – likely a majority- of my NJ county’s white populace, likely feels the same.  I live here – don’t even need to guess.

  13. 13.

    Geoduck

    @Alison Rose: He also has been quoted as saying “We can’t allow Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there. And it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan… We’re not going to abandon them.” So, shrug. Guess we’ll see what he really plans.

  14. 14.

    Mai Naem mobile

    In his monologue the other night, Colbert compared himself with Johnson and they really do look remarkably similar.  He also looks similar to the TV huckster preacher Kenneth Copeland in his younger years except Copeland has those Charles Manson serial killer kind of eyes.

  16. 16.

    Yarrow

    there’s a scandal in there somewhere whether it is a dead girl or a live boy.

    ¿Porque no los dos?

  17. 17.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Geoduck: I don’t know how you came to those conclusions about him.  Re: Ukraine, his position is the one that many GrOPers take: “we need to see an end-state, and we have to see accountability (dun-DUNH!) (and by gum, we’re gonna need to offset this!)”.  Re: black people, he said this:

    https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/louisiana-congressman-mike-johnson-booed-in-juneteenth-hearing-on-slave-reparations/article_065f4cbe-92b7-11e9-976e-873c3670a8dc.html

    U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson was booed multiple times during a hearing on slave reparations and racial injustice on Wednesday when he said such repayments would “almost certainly be unconstitutional on their face” and that “monetary reparations from current taxpayers for the sins of Americans for many years ago” would be unjust.

    […]

    “There’s no doubt that prejudice exists in our society. It exists in communities and many different races and types of people, and it’s not reserved to just one race or class against another,” Johnson said. “All of that is despicable and every single instance un-American.”

    […]

    Johnson said he asked Michael [his black “son”], who turns 36 next week [in 2019] and is a father of four, for his thoughts about reparations over the weekend. He said he explained “in a thoughtful way” that he opposes the idea.

    In short, “all lives matter”.

  20. 20.

    smintheus

    A lot of these slimy creeps seem to have hate-filled spouses who spend their time attacking the usual innocent victims of right-wing bile. I wonder, while the spouse is preoccupied chewing all the scenery, is the creep getting some on the side? Hard to imagine with a useless dweeb like Johnson, but not out of the question in those circles.

  22. 22.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    “there’s a scandal in there somewhere whether it is a dead girl or a live boy.”

    …could be kids.

    Either the human kind, or goats.

  23. 23.

    hitchhiker

    Majorities of adults under 40 don’t go to church except on holidays. Mike Johnson sounds like a crackpot preacher, which is basically what he is.

    I’m with Cole; the more interviews he gives, the better for us. He’s been succored inside that cozy bubble for so long that he assumes it all makes sense to people outside, or at least that he’ll get the benefit of the doubt because he’s “good.”

    It doesn’t make sense, and he isn’t good. Keep talking, Mike. Show us your maggoty underbelly.

  24. 24.

    coin operated

    @OGLiberal:

    White people in Louisiana are almost all racist.

    My time in Lousy-ana was Army time at Ft Polk. I was a medic for a mech infantry company and we were told by our CSM that you *never* let one of your fellow soldiers travel the bayou roads from the base to the gunnery range alone…especially if said fellow soldier wasn’t lily-fucking-white.

    ETA…I got to do a little time in Panama after we kicked Noriaga’s ass to the curb…I felt safer there than I did traveling the Louisiana bayou.

  26. 26.

    Splitting Image

    @SmallAxe:

    Spot on Cole. That whole adopting a ‘son’ as a single 20 something male is really bizarre too

    I would hazard a guess that it’s something they picked up in their studies of ancient Rome. There is a whole subculture of Roman wannabes on Xitter who put classical sculptures as their avatars and whine about degenerates and pre-marital sex. Rome was a “republic” not a democracy, a slave-owning society where women were marginalized from almost all public affairs. What’s not to like? They knew how to deal with long-haired hippies too.

    Adopting an adult male as an heir was something they did back then. Augustus adopted Tiberius, for example.

    Outside of their little cult, it just screams “rent boy”, but these guys think that they are the heirs to the Glory of Ancient Rome, so it’s right up their alley.

  27. 27.

    Anoniminous

    Remember as a kid on family drives south of New Orleans seeing village after village with a “Don’t Let the Sun Set On You” sign on the outskirts. Civil Rights Act may have forced the removal of the sign, the racism and hate that caused the sign to be put up are still there and active.

  31. 31.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Anoniminous:

    For those not getting out of the boat on the Twitter article:

    None of Twitter’s internal numbers are available.  Analysis from outside companies is-

    4% drop in users.  Could be higher.

    15% drop in time spent on platform, dropping more every month.  All other platforms are steadily increasing, mostly around +20%

    Advertising revenue is down 60%.

    Twitter’s CEO is flat out lying to banks about that, claiming things are almost back to normal, but nobody believes her.

    Paid subscriptions make up for about 2% of that shortfall.

    Banks are trying to sell the debt.  It is down 15% in value.  Whoever does ratings is considering declaring Twitter ‘junk bonds.’

    All of these numbers are ‘compared to one year ago.’

  32. 32.

    SectionH

    Slightly OT, got back in the car from my main favorite hangout*, unplugged and noticed the little card on my window. And so got out collected it, and…      it was Kennedy Jr. card, I mean WTF? I think San Diego will mostly unite behind Joe, but idiots are everywhere.

    *yes I have a hybrid and live in a condo with no plug-ins. So yeah. And they are few and far between in San Diego, no matter what we’re supposed to think.  Although why the anti-vax idiot thinks that EV of any sort drivers are a target for votes, I have no idea. Definitely a waste of energy.

  35. 35.

    RaflW

    This next year needs to be the inflection point, or we have to pull up stakes. In between, I will be doing work to try like heck to realize the former.

  36. 36.

    Suzanne

    And when you see these guys, there’s a scandal in there somewhere whether it is a dead girl or a live boy.

    Or diapers, or two wetsuits and a dildo, or a multi-million dollar home and a private jet.

  38. 38.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Alison Rose: Which is really dumb, too – they’ve been told the goal and the object repeatedly, and they just keep pretending they haven’t heard it.

    This guy is just as slimy as the rest of them.

  39. 39.

    MisterDancer

    @Splitting Image: I would hazard a guess that it’s something they picked up in their studies of ancient Rome.

    So far as I’m aware this situation predates that nonsense as a concept.

    Right now, I don’t care to make too many assumptions about why he chose to adopt. Motives don’t do much for me, on this point.

    But: I also think there’s something about his public statements on race, taken as a whole, that point to a big problem with Conservatives and how they see marginalized groups. A problem of myopia. But I need to chew on the point some more.

  40. 40.

    piratedan

    I think it’s easier when you put it in terms that the adoption/fostering/mentoring of a young black man in a multichild family can likely be summed up this way…

    child care and yard work.

    and I would include the thought that perhaps someone should go look at some early tax returns to see if they were claiming Michael as a dependent.

  42. 42.

    moonbat

    Agreed. My first read on this guy is that this man is DEEP in the closet. I just wonder if/pity anyone trapped in there with him.

  47. 47.

    lurker

    @karen marie: supposedly the new speaker has an adult adopted son with a dark complexion and there is not a lot of public information out there about it.  Which seems weird since it supposedly happened many years ago and the guy is not _that_ new to congress or the public eye…

    not quite the same as Gaetz but seems odd

  50. 50.

    piratedan

    @VeniceRiley: considering it’s Louisiana and that noblesse oblige attitude that they apparently tote around, there’s five other kids and a pretty Mom who wants to “be involved”… Perhaps I’m very wrong and this is legitimate, but based on what we know of these folks and their ability to turn exploitation into righteousness, I don’t believe that they’ve earned much in the way of a benefit of doubt… especially while hiding behind the lack of social media and their behavior with the questioning.

  52. 52.

    Citizen Alan

    @piratedan: I am convinced that Amy Coathanger Barret and her Taliban master-husband “adopted” two Haitian girls because it was cheaper than paying for an au pair and/or a maid.

  53. 53.

    something fabulous

    something fabulous joining the chat with something not-fabulous: After 3 years and a piece COVID got me. I had a good run! And i guess by comparison is a pretty mild case? I feel only like lightly-hammered shit, as opposed to some other folks. Had not yet gotten the latest booster tho am fully boosted up til now, so maybe still did some good! Calling the dr in the am…

  57. 57.

    ColoradoGuy

    @something fabulous: Get the Paxlovid ASAP. Get it the same day, do not mail it. The quicker you get on it, the better it works at zapping the virus. You can quickly look up which other meds are in conflict … in my case, Atorvastatin, which I discontinued for ten days, and then re-started with no issues.

    Mild copper-penny taste in the back of my mouth, which stopped after the five-day Paxlovid course. No Covid rebounds, thankfully, and it was great to be symptom-free in 36 hours.

  60. 60.

    Xenos

    @Citizen Alan: the Haitian term for it is “restavec”, a domestic servant child who is “adopted” but not given an education, but is kept around in adulthood if they are willing to remain as an unpaid servant, but usually just cast off to the streets when no longer useful.

    I am convinced this is what the antiabortionists want as the end state of their politics: lots of disposable, desperate people to exploit while they can pretend to be charitable.

  62. 62.

    swiftfox

    Jim and Tammy Faye all over again except Murdoch and allies have dumbed enough people down plus the mainstream media is all publicly owned and needs the money.

  63. 63.

    Geminid

    A couple of these comments raise an interesting question: is it *tow* the line, or *toe* the line?

    Well, it’s kind of an interesting question. Maybe a little bit. Sort of.

  64. 64.

    Xenos

    @Geminid: Toe the line, as in to line up, as in a military formation.

     

    With the E and W next to each other on the keyboard, we may never know what is intended when someone uses the phrase

  66. 66.

    Gretchen

    @Geminid: it’s toe the line, from getting as close to the starting line of a foot race without going over and getting disqualified

  67. 67.

    Geminid

    @Xenos: Yeah, I know. I’m having fun, like when I say, “Ain’t no pedant make me tow the line!” or complain about language pedants “trying to reign me in.”

    But I think “toe the line” originally referred to the line that pugilists stepped up to before a boxing match commenced. That usage connotes courage, not conformity, so maybe this term has been corrupted over time.

    But “tow the line” is what those Volga boatmen used to do. I think 19th century Americans referred to that as “cordelling.” At least I remember an account of the Siege of Chattanooga that said boats had to be “cordeled” around the bend in the Tennessee River immediately downstream of Chattanooga, on acount of the fast current there. That was a new word for me.

  69. 69.

    Kathleen

    On a Blue Ohio Zoom meeting yesterday my congressman Greg Landsman, who is not given to hyperbole, flat out said if this guy is Speaker he will not certify Biden a winner if he wins in 2024.

  70. 70.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kathleen: On a Blue Ohio Zoom meeting yesterday my congressman Greg Landsman, who is not given to hyperbole, flat out said if this guy is Speaker he will not certify Biden a winner if he wins in 2024.

    All the more reason for the  Dems to take back the House.

    And to throw your Congresscritter into the Sun.

  71. 71.

    Geminid

    @Kathleen: If Democrats win back the House, Hakeem Jeffries will be Speaker when the Electoral votes are counted and the result certified. I think Democrats will, and Johnson will be Minority Leader.

    That is, if the Republican caucus can pick a leader. Maybe theyll bring that guy with the bow tie back to be Interim Leader while they fight it out.

  72. 72.

    circular reasoning

    You definitely wouldn’t have to search much harder than lifting up his bangs to find the 666 marked on that Johnson fellow.

  73. 73.

    circular reasoning

    @Geminid: based on absolutely nothing but my own opinion, I agree with you about the origin and use of “toe the line”. I think that “tow” has a different connotation of conformity and teamwork similar to sticking to “the company line”. This is likely an example of our living language evolving over time through misuse and misunderstanding.

  74. 74.

    Rusty

    He is very obsessed with sodomy and what other people are doing in their bedrooms.  He thinks it’s perfectly fine in the name of liberty to criminalize that.  Since he is so obsessed with this, I think a reporter should ask his wife if either of them have ever gone down on the other since clearly they think that is a sin and should be subject to imprisonment.   It would show what freaks these people are and so far out of the mainstream.

  75. 75.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Rusty: My long experience is the people who wag their finger at an issue are the ones who are most guilty of the behavior they object to.

  77. 77.

    Geminid

    I have found national security reporter Laura Rosen”s platform to be a valuable resource for current news stories. She Tweets under @lrozen and I think that her Blue Sky account uses “lkrozen.” She writes some herself, but mostly reposts and links to qualified reporters on topics like Ukraine, the new Speaker and the war in Gaza and Israel.

    Yesterday, Ms. Rozen reposted this from Kansas Governor Laura Kelly:

        Yesterday in Wichita, I spoke with law enforcement officers and mental health leaders about the impact Medicare expansion would have on public safety. [Kansas Legislature] leadership is doing a disservice to Kansans by blocking one opportunity to build a safer, better Kansas.

    I think this was good politicking. If I were a Kansas pundit, I might ask, “How about a “Red Flag” law, Governor? That could have helped in Maine.”

    But Ms. Kelly is a pragmatic Governor, and knows a Red Flag law would never fly in her legislature. Rather, Republicans would say, “See? Medicaid Expansion is just an excuse for gun-grabbing. Never let the Socialist Camel’s Nose Under the Tent! Don’t be that Bedouin.”

    So Governor Kelly is going after what she might get, adding one more reason to the many Kansans have for expanding Medicaid.

    Maine, however, will probably see attempts by Democrats to pass a Red Flag law. They may be successful. Florida passed one after the Parkland shootings.

    In early 2020, when Democrats had just won a “trifecta” and intended to pass a set of gun safety laws, a Wason Center poll of registered Virginia voters found support for a Red Flag lae at over 70%. Proposals like expanded background checks polled similarly.

    The General Assembly passed six gun safety laws that Governor Northam then signed. They were all modest in scope but Republicans still tried to repeal them last year after they won back the House of Delegates. They passed laws overriding 5 of them, and Senator Lucas’s Brick Wall stopped them.

    I wonder if Democrats will emphasize preserving these laws in the days between now and the election. Gun safety measures are popular in the suburban areas that are the political “battleground” here and in many other states..

  80. 80.

    AM in NC

    @OGLiberal:  I’m from New Orleans (and white), and what you write about Louisiana and white racism is mostly true. Certainly outside of New Orleans this is largely true (although white people will tell you they know and love plenty of individual black people so how could they possibly be racist).

    Within the city, many younger transplants are not like the old guard, but so few people leave Louisiana that it’s hard to dilute the racism.

    True family story: my aunt, who is smart, educated, generous personally, and has lived in New Orleans all of her life, except for her college years in Baton Rouge, is a racist. The crime issue (completely conflated with race by local media and local politics and local residents) is mostly what drives this. She has gotten less politically conservative as she has gotten older (since my uncle died and Fox News got turned off; since one of her kids came out as a lesbian; and as the craziness of the GOP became more manifest) – even thinking Bel Edwards was a very good Governor and despising the recently-elected Landry – but ALL of her friends are still old guard, rightwing, New Orleanian conservatives, and she is still racist, because she is SOAKING IN IT, even if she does not see herself that way.

    My mom (her sister) moved away from New Orleans as an adult, and after retirement, we asked her if she didn’t want to move back home and move in with her sister (they were very close).  My mom said she could not live there again because the racism and class oppression was just too much to bear there.  As much as we love to visit the city, the white population is so entrenched in racism, Catholicism (and the attendant misogyny), and the rule of, by, and for the wealthy, living there would be a strain on our mental health.

    Outside of New Orleans, the state is Missippi/Arkansas/Texas, and votes that way.

    Not saying that North Carolina, where I live now, is a civil rights haven, but it isn’t as insular as Louisiana is, and that makes a difference.

  81. 81.

    Ohio Mom

    @mrmoshpotato: Oh no, We like Greg Landsman. He’s a Democrat and that was a warning, not a promise about the next presidential election.

    He is the bone the Ohio Republican redistricting fiasco threw us. The east and west sides of the city of Cincinnati/Hamilton County were reunited after many, many years and we were able to send a Democrat to the House.

    Is Landsman an especially talented politician, probably not. But he’s a good person, he’s Blue, and he’s ours.

  82. 82.

    Princess

    @Xenos: Yes, this. People on here often say that the forced birthers only want white babies but that’s not true. Black and brown babies will ensure them a cheap labour supply. They want servants.

  83. 83.

    RevRick

    Modern, white Evangelicals are the descendants of the churches that vociferously defended slavery, advocated for secession and Civil War, and supported Jim Crow and its violence. I wouldn’t be surprised if Johnson’s great grandfather was part of a lynch mob, even if only as a spectator. And Jim Crow was the original modern version of fascism.
    White Evangelicalism is, at its heart, the very antithesis of what Jesus was about. It is hierarchical, imperialistic, cruel, and dangerous.

  84. 84.

    AM in NC

    @Geminid:  Toe the line – came from the designated spots on British Navy ships where sailors had to stand in formation for Sunday inspection.

  85. 85.

    McDick

    Yes, “I’m so old I remember when Markos was getting yelled at for calling these guys the American taliban or when everyone got chided for calling them Christianists…” Indeed, me too!
    Of the sweetest words of tongue or pen
    The best are these: I told you once, I told you again
    But you wouldn’t listen you called me fool
    How are you missin’ that things are uncool?
    Are you invested in this shitty race to the bottom?
    One has to wonder, “Brains: ain’t you got’em?
    Oh never mind
    Pearls before swine
    Just shut up
    cause you’re rotting MY mind.

  86. 86.

    Princess

    If Johnson had taken this Black 14 year old, gave him support and an education and helped him grow to a mature, responsible independent adult, he’d be shouting the story to the rooftops. It’s what they do. That he doesn’t tells us the story is infinitely skeevy in some way — whether it’s about sex or an unpaid servant or something else.

    Also – I hate saying he reads as closeted because it feels homophobic to say that about a person I hate but, man, it was my first thought seeing him. Like, he goes to a lot of work to look appealing and it’s not women he’s trying to appeal to.

  87. 87.

    Comrade Misfit

    I’ve been referring to them as the “Christian Taliban” on my blog for years.  It’s what they are.  They would happily use force to make the rest of us obey their religious beliefs if they could.

    Fortunately, we vote.  And we also have guns.

  88. 88.

    artem1s

    @ColoradoGuy: I concur on the Paxlovid. I was able to get it delivered to my home the next day by the pharmacy. Contacted my GP thru MyChart. Caught it before it moved into my chest thankfully. Also symptom free (except for sleeping a lot) after about 24-30 hours. No rebound.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @Ohio Mom: Landsman seems serious about the job, and a level headed person. To me, those are the most important elements of a good Representative.

    In prior “rank,” you might say Landsman stands towards the back of the House Class of 2022. Most of them were at least mayors or state legislators before they advanced to U.S. Representative. I think Gabe Vasquez (NM 2nd) was a city councilor too, of Las Cruces.

    Landsman and Vasquez learned things in their council service years that they bring to Congress. I remember looking at a member of the famous “Squad” in 2018 and thinking, “Hmm. Ayanna Pressley served on Boston’s City Council for a decade. She must know stuff.”

    Among other members of the Class of 2022, Marie Gluesencamp Perez (OR 5th?) served on a local Soil and Water Conservation Board. She probably learned stuff there too. At age 32, Ms. Perez is the second youngest Democrat elected to the House last year. Maxwell Frost of Florida is the youngest

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    @hitchhiker: People like my sister who doesn’t pay attention until 45 minutes before the election (slight exaggeration!) and then appears to vote Republican will never see those interviews and will never hear about them.

    So unless there is a MAJOR scandal, and I mean MAJOR, she will never know.  Somehow we have to figure out how to get the word out to normies.

  94. 94.

    lowtechcyclist

    Given that every last House Republican voted for this ambulatory slime mold, can the media types finally admit that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A MODERATE REPUBLICAN.

    Christ, this guy makes even Gym Jordan look like a human being by comparison.

    The term ‘Christofascist’ gets a bit overworked imho, but it fits Mike Johnson like a glove.

  95. 95.

    Ramalama

    @Princess:

    he’d be shouting the story to the rooftops. It’s what they do

    Or get their author friends to write best-selling books about their largesse.

  96. 96.

    oldster

    I know I should not judge by appearance, but these smooth-cheeked, baby-faced, Ralph Reed-looking motherfuckers all give me the creeps

  98. 98.

    Another Scott

    @Geminid: I’m wasting time before my vaccination appointment, so, I’ll throw a few lashes on the dead horse.

    Phrases.org.uk:

    “Toe the line” first appeared in the early 18th century, and there are two possible “lines” to which the phrase might originally have referred. One would be the starting line of a foot race, the mark upon which each runner places his or her foot in preparation for the starting gun. The other possibility, which I find more likely, is a line drawn on a ship’s deck or a parade ground which new recruits must “toe” as they assemble in formation. I find this source more persuasive because it echoes the connotations of “order” and “obedience” that “toe the line” retains today. It is to a runner’s advantage, after all, to “toe” the starting line, but a recruit being ordered to “toe the line” is very quickly learning who is in charge.

    From “The Word Detective” (October 30, 2001)

    This confirms my truthiness, therefore must be correct.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  100. 100.

    Jinchi

    @sab: ​how exactly does Ohio Gov. DeWine think that phonics only reading instruction will improve our reading skills?

    Reminds me of the obsession with teaching cursive writing long after the quill was retired from common usage.

  101. 101.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @smintheus:

    A lot of these slimy creeps seem to have hate-filled spouses who spend their time attacking the usual innocent victims of right-wing bile.

    Apparently his wife has been spending a lot of time on her knees lately…and she’s a little worn out. From, um, er…praying of course

    I think he’s actually scarier than the typical TV evangelist slimers mentioned above. He’s a frigging back bencher Christian Dominionist/Christian Nationalist who never dreamed he’d be in the postion he is today but low and behold, apparently God put him there to do his bidding unraveling the US Constitution and liberal Democracy as fast as possible.

    I think THAT is why he got a 100% R vote– they didn’t realize what they had in their midst either until the Lord revealed why they had been going through all their trials and tribulations…so that the One True Leader For God could hold the Speaker’s Gavel.

    It’s gonna be a rough 15 months, folks. Get ready.

  102. 102.

    Bill Arnold

    @sab:

    Also, how exactly does Ohio Gov. DeWine think that phonics only reading instruction will improve our reading skills?

    That’s a thing? Fuck that. That’s an attempt to weed out/cull those child-minds who do not already have a constant internal monologue, and can think more abstractly (without internally spoken words involved) and less linearly.

  104. 104.

    Trivia Man

    @SmallAxe: I believe he never says “adopted”. He says “our son” and “we took him in when he was 14.”

    Ms Trivia’s take is “like an exchange student?” and I think that is spot on, who lets a 24 year old adopt a 14 year old? I find it likely he moved in and maybe stayed a couple years,

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    The first origin story for “tie the line” that pops up in Wikipedia refers to the Royal Navy.

    The most likely origin of the term goes back to the wooden decked ships of the Royal Navy during the late 17th or early 18th century. Barefooted seamen had to stand at attention for inspection and had to line up on deck along the seams of the wooden planks, hence to “toe the line”.

    It is interesting to note how many phrases have some connection to naval terms and practices.

  108. 108.

    JaneE

    @Splitting Image: For the Romans it was all about inheritance.  Property or power and mostly both.  Under the empire adoption was naming your successor, especially when all your (male) natural children had been killed fighting wars or in power struggles.  Long after the true Julians died out, adoption kept the Roman empire fiction of being ruled by the family of Augustus Caesar.

  109. 109.

    Betty

    @Xenos: I totally misunderstood the phrase for years. I had a clear picture in my mind of guys towing a line pulling a barge.  Later on, my husband,who grew up in the British West Indies, explained that he was required to toe the line every morning before school. I always feel a little better when I see others with the same misconception as I had.

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    @Betty:

     I had a clear picture in my mind of guys towing a line pulling a barge.

    There’s a collision or mash-up of similar sounding phrases

    So, it’s “toe the line…”

    But it’s “Tote that barge! Lift that bale!” (from the song, Old Man River)

  112. 112.

    Subsole

     

     

    @RevRick:

    Very true. It is all of those things because at its core it is a fearful church. It’s why they get regularly roped in by conspiracy nuts, too.

  113. 113.

    Another Scott

    @Old School: Thanks for the pointer.

    @Trivia Man: It does seem to be some sort of cultural arrangement rather than a legal one.

    @Betty: Very strange arrangement if so.  But given the weird arrangements with private/church groups and adoptions, my truthiness meter isn’t saying it’s impossible.

    Dunno.

    Him being the spokesman for Ark Encounter raises more red flags for me, though. (PZ Myers went to see the ark in 2017, so we don’t have to. You’ll be shocked, shocked to learn that Kentucky taxpayers floated tens of millions of dollars of loans for it, with little benefit as a result.)

    Grr…,
    Scott.

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