By about $12 million, according to radio reports (see below).
This post would have gone up on Saturday after I saw the movie in an almost-empty house, if I hadn’t spent the weekend mostly away from the computer. Let this be a lesson for the entertainment industry to trust blog hysteria about as far as they can throw it. That especially holds true when interest peaks months in advance in a medium with an average attention span of about a week.
MrSnrub
A friend saw it and said that you want to go while it’s still an event, and not just a movie. Sounds like the transition happned sometime around noon on Sunday.
Edmund Dantes
This is one of those movies that had enough hype people would see it, but they weren’t going to spend 10-11 bucks on it (the going rate where I live).
It’ll probably do well in rentals or cheap PPV events. The people I know that did see it all loved it for how absurdly absurd it was. One of the classic “it’s so bad and over the top it’s an artform” type thing.
Ancient Purple
Well, it was no “Showgirls.”
zzyzx
I think its real problem is that it was more fun to make Snakes on a Plane jokes than to actually go, y’know, see a movie about that.
Zifnab
One of the rare instances where we were more eager to see Samuel L. hype the movie than actually… see the movie.
That said, I’ve seen so few actual trailers for Snakes On A Plane, it doesn’t feel like the movie was hyped much outside the internet. Before you start ragging on the pitance it dragged in, it might be worth noting how much the movie would have made without the hype.
Vladi G
The problem is that when a movie tries to be that bad, it rarely works.
ThymeZone
Not for nothing, but treating this as a an open thread (or a thread whose jaws are open and ready to strike …. hisssssss) ….
Anyone watching the Bush comedy show this morning? Catch the tape and watch his meltdown over Iraq and the Demoncrats. I think he is about ready to snap.
Also I think that we have now reached the point where every time he throws this “we won’t leave until the job is done” tantrums, more people are going to be convinced that he’s a damned fool. A blind, deaf, stubborn horse’s ass.
cd6
If they had replaced the “Snakes” with “Islamo-facists” then the readerships of Redstate and LGF would have pushed this total up another 40 million.
I should be a movie producer, I’d be rich
Jon H
The thing is, I’m not sure people wanted to see any movies last weekend. SOTP came in first, didn’t it? It may have fallen victim to end-of-summer-itis, where people are more interested in being outside.
Another possibility – they were shopping. Connecticut, for one, started a week without sales tax on Sunday. Massachusetts had a tax-free weekend the week before. I don’t know if other states had similar back-to-school tax holidays over the weekend, but it’s possible.
The Other Steve
Come on. The reason why “Snakes on a Plane” became a joke was because the whole frickin concept sounded so unbelievably stupid.
I can’t believe New Line Cinema didn’t understand that. The Internet wasn’t hyping the movie… the internet was LAUGHING AT IT!
The Other Steve
I don’t think 10 people could possibly have spent that much money over the weekend watching movies.
Punchy
I’m so pissed I want my money back. I thought the movie was about some kids lighting some of those black charcoal 4th-of-July things on a sidewalk that was built on a 30-degree angle.
Turns out the movie is basically the Raiders of the Lost Ark Snake Scene at 30K feet up. Crappish.
ThymeZone
Couple points from King George just now:
Iraq had no WMDs. Bush said so.
Iraq had nothing to do with 911, and Bush said that too.
He further said that “nobody in this administration said” that he had something to do with 911.
How do you like a president that can get 2 out of 3 points right, after only five years of talking about them?
When I went to school 66% wasn’t that good a grade, and we didn’t get five years to keep taking the test over.
Paul Wartenberg
The only good news out of how things went, considering the less-than-stellar turnout for SoaP… It has good buzz from people who saw it (my friend who went with me loved it), and are bound to encourage their friends who haven’t seen it to try to see it this coming weekend.
It all depends on what’s coming out this Friday. If it doesn’t have snakes in it, SoaP could top the charts again this weekend, which means it has … wait for it… legs. ;)
P.S. Talladega Nights only clocked in with $14 mill of business, suggesting this was a slow week no matter what.
cd6
Assuming that Charles Johnson and Jonah Goldberg live near the kind of theaters that don’t throw you out for masturbating during the movie, I beg to differ.
SeesThroughIt
Yeah, it seemed a bit too self-aware at times, which sort of hindered it. So-bad-it’s-good happens when a movie tries earnestly and fails miserably, and this one wasn’t very earnest. There were, however, some really cool death scenes, and really, those are the moneyshots. I do wish I had gotten my act together and seen a matinee screening instead of a full-priced one, but oh well. It was still good dumb entertainment.
cd6
Speaking of things that make Jonah Goldberg masturbate, have you heard that latest jaw dropping oration from our glorious president?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/21/bush/index.html
God, the man is awe-inspiring, isn’t he? Listening to his words gets me so motivated that I want to just go stab a brown person right now.
ThymeZone
{ bushleague }
See, that’s wrong. The thing you wanna do is stab a Texan, not a brown person. Heh heh heh heh.
{ /bushleague }
Bombadil
As long as we’re open-threading, great cartoon here.
Who really gives a shit about Karr?
(h/t Team Slacker at DailyKosO
Andrew
It really was the most fun I’ve had at a movie, ever.
People take themselves to seriously. Their loss.
JoeTx
Bush may have LIVED in Texas, but that doesn’t make him a Texan. I don’t claim him!
mrmobi
Great cartoon Bombadil. You would think that thirty-eight little girls had been killed ten years ago to watch the MSM. They’re just getting all turgid over this story. I’ll bet the guy doesn’t know a damn thing… that he’s just a pedophile/attention junkie.
I’ve been following with some interest the reaction of the media to Judge Taylor’s ruling in the warrentless wiretapping lawsuit by the ACLU. All the focus is on the quality of the written opinion. None of them seem to notice that a federal court “just declared that the President of the United States has been repeatedly violating federal criminal laws, and still is,” according to Glenn Greenwald.
Two-and-a-half more years of Chimpy McFlightSuit. The guy has his head so far up his ass that lump in his throat is his nose.
neil
Who really gives a shit about Karr?
Well, you brought it up…
fwiffo
I saw it. It wasn’t a good movie but it’s worth seeing for the camp factor. My problem is that it wasn’t consistently campy enough.
I don’t think I would wait till video, because half of the fun of it was the crowd. Every time a snake bit somebody, somebody would shout something funny, like “Snakes on a pilot!” or “Snakes on a penis!”
There are a million and one stupid campy movies about an emergency on an airplane. Take for example, the Airport series of moveis (e.g. Airport ’77) which inspired the Airplane movies, or somewhat more recently, Executive Decision. These movies were terrible. But if you want to make fun of a campy movie, they can be enjoyed. Snakes on a Plane is just a campy airplane movie that admits it’s stupid and campy, but isn’t an actual parody or spoof like Airplane.
The main problem is that Snakes only became “admitted” camp after the hype hit and most of production was already done. So they went for the R rating instead of PG-13 and added the nudity and swearing. It almost would have been better camp if it didn’t try so hard. The writing is just terrible and that’s actually it’s appeal.
My favorite part of really bad dialogue is really obvious glaring exposition. And this movie is full of it. It’s like an episode of the A-Team where the bad guys are scheming – “do you think they discovered our plans to assassinate the ambassador tomorrow afternoon at 2pm at the cafe downtown – you know, the one with the really good breadsticks?”
— SPOILER WARNING —
In Snakes, while the hero is hiding in the bushes to witness a murder, our menacing bad guy walks up, announces his name, his evil plan, and all sorts of convenient crap before personally bludgening his victim with a bat. All this in spite of the burly fellows he has on his staff to handle the dirty work so he can keep his hands clean.
Later, we’ve got one of these jobbers spraying down boxes full of leis with pheremones so the snakes will go really crazy. How do we know that’s what he’s doing? Because he calls up his boss and instead of saying something clever like “it’s done *click*”, he describes what he’s doing in detail, because, ya know, the boss might have forgotten what he had asked him to do.
Someone asks our evil boss dude “are you sure you want to do this?” He replies “I had to, we’ve tried everything else.” Yes, if ordering hundreds of exotic snakes overnighted from L.A. to Hawaii, stuffing them on a plane and exciting them with special-formula pheremones is your last resort, then clearly, you really have tried absolutely everything.
That would make a great prequel. All the Crazy Shit I Tried Before Finally Going with the Tried and True Snakes on a Plane.
Punchy
Greenwald has been Pulitzer-esque with his review and critique and analysis of this ruling.
I think the reason no one bothers to comment on it is b/c…well…what’s the point? It means nothing unless the Appeals Court agrees. Even then, this’ll see the SC. I think the media realizes that this won’t be news again for a year, so why bother…
ThymeZone
It’s hard to tell whether he can’t think straight, or is counting on the people not being able to think straight.
We know that he is surrounded by people like Rove, who turn everything into politics and politics into everything, so it’s reasonable to conclude that he thinks we are really stupid out here.
How else to explain a guy whose entire schtick for four years was to employ “agree with me or you’re with the terrorists” tactics, and then claim (today) that he thinks it’s wrong to employ those tactics?
How do you explain a rationale like this: We be wrong to “leave Iraq before the job is done because it sends the wrong message.” The message is, we’re weak. So, the Iraqi people are now disposable props in a game called “The US doesn’t want to look weak.”
This is a much better deal for them than the old game, “Saddam doesn’t want to look weak.”
Clearly, they are much better off being props for our game than they were being props for his game. Well, if you ignore the fact that unrest is killing a hundred people a day now in the streets … that we know of. That’s a pace to kill 36k people a year, and we haven’t even reached the point at which the crazy lying fucks will call it a civil war yet. So yeah, the world is definitely better off now.
Because, you know, we don’t look weak.
You Iraqis, just shut up and die when you’re told to.
Pb
And when you consider that in light of the earlier estimates, that’s surely a lower bound.
mrmobi
I’m starting to believe that it really is years and years of heavy drinking. That and a profound lack of intellectual curiosity. Whatever it is, it seems to be more pronounced lately, even true believers are beginning to see him for what he is, a pathetic spoiled kid/failed businessman who somehow got himself elected POTUS.
Ross
On the topic of movies, a couple weeks ago I saw Little Miss Sunshine. Laughed my head off – in a genuine way, not in an ironic/campy SOAP way. The actors were great, and the characters felt like real people. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a very high 92%. FWIW, It seemed like it would have been a good family movie were it not for two brief scenes of the grandfather using drugs. A shame because those scenes didn’t really add to the movie.
cd6
I liked Talledega Nights
“I’m Ricky Bobby, and if you don’t chew Big Red, then fuck you”
ThymeZone
Mark Twain never wrote such a wonderful character.
fwiffo
Have you ever seen Being There? “And if we stay in Iraq long enough, it will be spring again, in the garden.”
jaime
The people who SAW the film, as I did, loved it for what it was. The people who didn’t see it are laughing at what a “flop” it is.
There’s one thing ths movie has that very few films have this year…word of mouth. There’s a good bet it makes almost 100 million dollars at the Box Office.
ThymeZone
That’s the wild-eyed liberal moonbat, Joe Scarborough, writing today on MSNBC.
John S.
The comic stylings of Joe Scarborough:
All right Joe! Let’s get down to brass tax.
Interesting. So most world leaders are idiots, too? Preach on, Joe.
So even at his worst, Bush is Reagan reincarnated. I’m on the edge of my seat, here.
Jackpot! I mean, it’s crazy to think the 60 year-old leader of the free world is responsible for his own actions. So what’s the solution, Joe?
Are you fucking serious, Joe?
So, how exactly do we pull this off?
Oh, so the president should be more theatrical. Like it’s a big production of “Commander in Chief” starring George Bush. Sounds a little, um, Potemkinesque to me. What is the point of his dog-and-pony show, exactly?
By dressing him up as a president and feeding him lines? That’s fucking brilliant. But shouldn’t the president actually be an office of substance rather than of cheap theatrics?
I guess not. It doesn’t matter if Bush is a capable leader, as long as he appears to be one. And who does the burden of that fall to?
Make-up! Quiet on the set! Lights, camera, WAR!
ThymeZone
Fine post, JohnS.
I think that the press conference today may have been the very final end of this crazy president’s credibility with anyone but a staffer or a total Kool Aid addict (unfortuantely, the kind of opposition we get here in Darrell and his butt buddies. The ludicrous kind, since real and thoughful opposition would require opening all those messy cans of worms around the ME and the war and all of that stuff that John Cole hates to even think about much less talk about. It leads to, you know, histrionics. And the last thing you want when the world is in flames and people are dying and children are being blown to bits in their sleep or in the back seats of their dads’ old beat up cars as they try to flee, is histrionics. I mean, there’s no room for histrionics on a blog called Hot Air in the middle of what some people seem to think is fucking WORLD WAR THREE-FOUR).
But I digress. A reading of today’s transcript can lead any sensible person to conclude that this little alcoholic prick has really gone over the edge. He is unstable at this point and singularly dangerous. A liar, a fraud, and a fucking nutcase.
Pb
Um.
Don’t they already do that, like, all the time?
SeesThroughIt
Is there a transcript of today’s press conference handy?
Pb
SeesThroughIt,
Yes. Transcript here.
Punchy
What he said.
ThymeZone
In the middle of a ten-minute off-script tirade about his failed Iraq policy. Complete with yelling and arm waving.
For me, this is the money blurb.
Pb
And who the hell allegedly doesn’t have that capability nowadays. Sheesh. I suggest that we pre-emptively strike all the high school chemistry classrooms and supermarkets in the United States *first* — before they strike at us! They’re stockpiling chemical weapons precursors, I tell you!
The Other Steve
You want a campy movie! You want a campy movie with style, substance and thoughtfulness.
I bring you Army of Darkness
Pb
Shop smart, shop S-Mart!
SeesThroughIt
Not only that, but some chemistry grad students can actually order cocaine for lab use. Cocaine! We must shut down this international drug-smuggling ring known as “chemistry PhD programs” once and for all!
Also, this is my boomstick.
mrmobi
ThymeZone, I was just about to post almost exactly the same excerpt from the news conference. Don’t you have work to do? You can see the Bush administration beginning their history re-write even as he attempts to speak.
All these thousands of lives that have been lost for nothing in Iraq were not our fault, and we never tried to link Iraq with Al Qaeda. Uh-uh, not us. The Quit-o-crats made us lose.
There’s another section where McFlightSuit promises over 300 million for re-building Lebanon. Why would any government believe what he says? We can’t even fix our own disasters. This is just another in a never-ending series of soon-to-be-broken promises. The only time you can be sure that money is going to change hands is when tax cuts are being planned. Or some industry is about to be handed a monumental government-generated windfall, like Social Security funds diverted to private pension plans.
I’m looking forward to seeing the first installments of the Spike Lee Katrina piece tonight on HBO. He’s an accomplished filmmaker, so I expect it will be like Michael Moore, but with facts. Should be interesting to see what the folks over at LGF and PowerLine think of it. There should be plenty of demonizing and race-baiting, and perhaps, talk of internment camps. Be sure to watch Gruppenfuhrer Darrell, we can’t wait for your piercing analysis.
Ain’t we got fun?
ThymeZone
I’m multitasking.
I am constantly flitting between two desktops, four laptops, and two PDAs plus a Nextel celphone with walkie talkie.
I’m wired, connected, hooked up, stressed out, and mad as hell and not going to take it much longer.
mrmobi
fwiffo, yes. A wonderful, strange film. About a gardener “whose simple TV-informed utterances are mistaken for profundity.” Peter Sellers last film? Now I’m going to have to rent it and watch it again. Spring again, in the garden, indeed. It does remind me a AWOL a little.
Jeebus, Thyme, are those all for you? Personally, I make do with two MacG4s, a Powerbook G4, and an Intel Mac Mini (which also runs Windows XP Pro). Apparently, I don’t multi-task as much as you do.
And remember, “…first, you’ve got to get mad.”
God Bless Peter Finch.
Punchy
This website has 3–THREE–proprieters (sp?) now, and this cheap-ass “open thread” is all they can muster?
This blog is in its last throes. Which actually, if Cheney agrees, could mean it lasts for years.
cd6
The next 6 months of Balloon Juice will be critical
ThymeZone
It would be wrong to pull out of this blog now before the job is done.
As for a timetable … when will the job be done? That’s up to a future president.
I am simply am not that concerned with it right now. And if some people out there disagree, want to destroy us for our nested blockquotes, well, bring it on!
ImJohnGalt
Let me take this perfect opportunity to inform you that a musical that my brilliant and lovely wife produced will be opening up off-broadway (at a 499 seat theatre) in November.
Be the first to see the New York premiere of “Evil Dead 1 & 2: The Musical”. With songs like “What the Fuck was that?”, and “Good Old Reliable Jake”, and a first-of-its-kind “blood-dispensing-unit”, built especially to ensure the front few rows of the audience will go home with corn-syrup based stage blood all over them.
Seriously, even if you hate musicals, you have to see this – I howled all the way through its initial runs in Toronto and at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, and it’s been re-written for the New York production and is even funnier still.
Anyway, you may now return to your regularly scheduled Darrell bashing.
ThymeZone
I dunno, that’s pretty topical.
ThymeZone
I read it twice, I still can’t believe it. This is how George Allen spent his summer vacation … in the Senate?
This list just goes on an on.
Perhaps Darrell can explain it.
SeesThroughIt
If you’re serious, ImJohnGalt, then I am all over that musical.
Ancient Purple
You go with the blog you have, not the blog you want.
Pb
ThymeZone,
I found and attempted to explain one such bill; here’s the short version:
So what are the odds that they’re all like that…
ThymeZone
Seriously? Somewhere around 100%.
Obviously this asshole has a real political death-wish thing going on.
I would imagine that this rather obvious pay-for-play scheme is going to get some attention during the campaign cycle.
Jesus, where do they find these fucking people?
Vlad
“That said, I’ve seen so few actual trailers for Snakes On A Plane, it doesn’t feel like the movie was hyped much outside the internet.”
They’ve been running trailers for it pretty much non-stop on Spike for the last two weeks or so.
Ozymandias
You go to Congress with the politicians you have, not the politicians you want.
neil
Perhaps Darrell can explain it.
By the way, has anyone else noticed that Darrell has his own blog? At least, I think it’s him.
ThymeZone
I thought BJ was his blog.
But all seriousness aside …. I figured Darrell would be the next guy John would invite to be a guest blogger here.
I mean, the loyalty and production alone should get him the nod. To say nothing of the page views he’d gin up.
And on Fridays, we can have Gay Scoutmaster Blogging, starting a new tradition here.
neil
In hindsight I guess it must not be him. The prose is not dissimilar, but the word ‘libs’ doesn’t appear once in the whole archive.
Tsulagi
So now dipshit is suggesting the 9/11 terrorists were created by resentment and despair in Iraq prior to his arrival on the scene. Uh huh. I wonder how many excuses he was busted on during his school years as to why he didn’t have his homework or show up for a test. You would think for a guy who lies as much as he does he’d get good at it.
Now as I recall, 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. None of the other four were Iraqi. So are we now going to freedomize Saudi Arabia to relieve resentment and lack of hope there?
However, some Iraqis have indeed been feeling resentment and despair. I remember what one Iraqi blogger said a year ago: “Their 9/11 lasted for a few terror filled hours leaving 3,000 Americans dead. Not one Iraqi was on those planes! Yet now our 9/11 has lasted for two years leaving 100,000 dead Iraqis.” That was from an Iraqi blogger who had been pro OIF at the beginning and for over a year. Two years later he was looking for blood. Not Saddam’s.
So yeah you stupid fuck, you finally got something correct: resentment and despair can push some to terrorism. You actually have done a heckuva job at that. Another thing said just might become true too…that they’ll follow us here. Maybe they’ll finally show you their gratitude for all you’ve done.
ThymeZone
Fewer gays on tv this season
Obviously Darrell’s campaign to stop the Gay Agenda is bearing fruit. America, under Darrell’s moral leadership, will be rid of the twin stains of the Cornholers and the MongolHispanic hordes.
Thank heavens Darrell is there, standing guard for America.
Andrew
This seems like a nice topic for an ostensibly libertarian blogger to talk about.
Go, police state, go!
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
There will be some interesting gang wars once we’ve sent them all to Gitmo. Along with the ACLU and the RINO defectors, of course. We may have to conquer the rest of Cuba just to find room for the expansion wings of the new prison complex.
That’s why he was elected Senator, moonbat. The people of Texas enjoyed “Life Goes On” just as much as the rest of Americans did. But unlike the rest of us, they actually did something to show it.
Think of it as a highway toll. A $124,000 highway toll.
Okay, maybe that WON’T make you want to stop screaming at the monitor until your vocal cords crack and blood spittles past your teeth. In which case, think of it as a Terror tax. We know that terrorists want to destroy Nebraska, so the Nebraskan police need every dollar at their disposal to keep the state safe from Al Qaeda.
That $124,000 can pay for another officer, who will perhaps be the one who finally nabs Osama at the truck stop near Lincoln where he’s been hiding out all these years. Or, perhaps it will purchase a new squad car, which can be used to run potential car bombers off the road before they can damage anything more than a few square yards of corn. If you like, you can even imagine that it went to pay for the court fees for these appeals, thus enabling the 8th Circuit and, subsequently, the Supreme Court, to set precedents enabling the police to seize all the funding they need to keep Nebraska (and the rest of America) safe.
Please try not to gouge your eyes out in sheer angst, and please refrain from hurling wrathful imprecations and vows of vengeance at the idiot deities of mischief who may have caused this maddening onrush of Fascist jurisprudence (should your theology permit you to believe in such things, anyway). Always look for the silver lining in every cloud, the rainbow in every thunderstorm. This ruling helps keep Nebraska safe from terrorists, and their allies, the drug dealers.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
ThymeZone
Dr. Pangloss, I presume?
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
Voltaire was a moonbat like you.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
You justify infringing American civil liberties to win the mythical GWOT Nebraskan battlefield with the philosopher-spoofs you have, not the philosopher-spoofs you wish you had.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
BTW, Tsulagi, this was an excellent rant. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you.
demimondian
I will fight to the deat to protect your right to be a moonbat. I will fight moonbats to the death.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
That’s the spirit! (Well, at least the second part, anyway.)
ThymeZone
But he wrote more like you.
Slide
guys, guys, guys…. whats all this political talk? This is Balloon Juice for God’s sake…. cat blogging, movie blogging, beer blogging, Steeler blogging, wine blogging… You want to talk politics you’re in the wrong place.
ThymeZone
I hear ya. This kind of thing could lead to histrionics.
Or was it hysterionics? I forget.
Anyway, some kind of -onics.
Ancient Purple
With all the beer and wine flowing, it could be e-bonics.
The Other Steve
Well, I did miss “Jerry Spring: The Opera” when I was in London… so maybe this would be a substitute. :-)
The Other Steve
That’s nice detective work.
Can anybody explain the toaster oven with single slot toaster on top, though? :-)
ImJohnGalt
I never kid.
Evil Dead: The Musical.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
Aw, shucks. Thanks.
The real question is, would Voltaire support Lamont, or Lieberman? Common sense says he’d probably like Lamont, but I bet if you asked Lieberman’s staffers they’d swear up and down that Voltaire would’ve supported the GWOT. He didn’t think much of Islam, after all, and so he might’ve been a Christopher Hitchens kind of liberal. Then again, he didn’t think much of Christianity either, so he’d still be a Democrat.
Yes, the more I think about it, the more I think Voltaire would’ve supported Operation Iraqi Freedom. It also stands to reason that he’d take the sensible middle ground, backing the DLC but opposing Bush. Because you can’t cede America to the religious crazies, but you can’t let the Islamo-Fascists’ apologists take over, either.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
Lieberman in ’06. Because Voltaire would’ve wanted it that way.
The Other Steve
You can hate Christianity and be a Republican.
You just can’t support the Global War on Christmas.
Bombadil
Stunning, TZ. Quite possibly the best single sentence found on Balloon Juice for the entire month.
John S.
Judging from the values that most evangelists and conservative “Christians” who are rabidly Republican hold dear, they DO hate the teachings of Jesus.
ThymeZone
Balanced, and fair.
ThymeZone
Well, the month isn’t over yet. Let’s not be hasty.
And …. that’s quite the odd hobby you have going there. How would you say we do, overall, with dangling participles? After writing them myself, they can degrade readability at times.
Ancient Purple
Taking bets for today on Ballon Juice.
Will today’s post be about:
A. The weather
B. Wine in a box
C. Safeway’s Pabst Blue Ribbon Sale
D. JonBenet Ramsey
E. An open thread
F. A commentary on a Dear Abby column
G. No new post until Friday. Then, beer blogging.
Place your bets, folks.
Ancient Purple
Ballon = Balloon.
Need. More. Caffiene.
Bombadil
It was less the grammatical construction and more the juxtaposition of “Gay Agenda”, “fruit” and “Darrell”.
Bombadil
After watching “When the Levees Broke” I wonder if our host would be open to some cadaver throwing now that we’ve had a year to reflect on what a shitty job was done. Or is it still too early?
(And yes, I know that the “cadaver throwing” was part of the mine disaster discussion, but I think it’s even more germane here).
Punchy
Damn, I need to get my ass to Safeway.
ThymeZone
I was going to say that Darrell had been falling a little behind …. but I decided against it.
ThymeZone
I’m voting for the “Safeway Pabst Blue Ribbon sale” myself.
Not only is this topical, since it addresses the issue of consumer prices under the Bushleague administration, but it’s also summery and fun. Makes us think of backyard cookouts and football and West Virginia.
John S.
Don’t hold your breath.
Our absentee host is particularly opposed to re-hashing old topics where he may have been wrong.
See: Bill Bennett, War in Iraq, Republicans, Jane Hamshers of the Left, Hurricane Katrina, Juan Cole…
mrmobi
My guess for today’s post from Balloon Juice is:
How, in this “best of all possible worlds” those uppity folks in New Orleans got Spike Lee to make a great film about one of the biggest failures of government ever, but just had to have a scene where Bush says “Yore doin’ a heckuvajob Brownie” and loop it three times in a row. Isn’t that just what Michael Moore would do? The horror. It’s Cindy Sheehan all over again.
Seriously, though, what a great piece. It’s important for all of us to see just how little this government is interested in ordinary people. I felt like crying watching the bodies floating in the water, old folks dead in their wheelchairs, children dying in their mother’s arms, and the Gretna police department preventing people from escaping these horrors over the only bridge out, firing shots in the air to make people go back. Kind of makes you proud to be an American, doesn’t it?
As a Democrat who has no illusions about how a new majority might govern, at the very least we’ll have some control over how these homicidally incompetent shitbirds operate, and maybe even start the process of getting our troops out of the meat grinder in Iraq.
Anything less than a majority in both houses of Congress is going to be very bad news for America.
Pb
What are the odds on there not being a “today’s post” at all?
Bombadil
Probably better than even.
There does seem to be some inverse relationship between the number of front-pagers and the number of posts, doesn’t there?
The Other Steve
I think you mean the scene where Dear Leader says “Your doing a heckuvajob Drownie”.
The Other Steve
Pretty good unless we do more taunting.
Dear Leader says “Neeee!”
Andrew
Cans or bottles? Because you can’t shotgun bottles.
skip
I gather “Triumph des Willens” wasn’t playing in Morgantown.
Ancient Purple
Okay. Let’s all taunt then.
Here is my contribution:
Cindy Sheehan deserves to have a postage stamp issued in her honor.
ThymeZone
I heard that Michael Moore has lost a lot of weight and now looks like Errol Flynn.
Pb
I heard that George Allen was actually a freak genetic experiment that went horribly wrong and got loose into the wild–a cross between George Michael and Woody Allen, but more repressed and raised on right-wing propaganda.
ThymeZone
But he is going to lock up the toaster oven vote.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
I just don’t think you can be a real American if you don’t support TWOC. You’re either a soldier in Santa Christ’s Army, or you’re a moonbat. There’s no middle ground in a war, folks. Either you’re with us, or you’re with the Canadians.
I blame it on a typo in their version of the Bible. Something on the order of leaving the word “not” out of, “Thou shalt not kill.” Or maybe the publisher did an extended riff on homosexuality, and attributed it to Jesus. Something like that.
Also, did Jesus ever expressly support supply-side economics? That could explain a lot.
That’s a smart move on his part. Ever since 1992, they’ve been a Reform Party demographic. He’s peeling votes away from the opposition. The next step is to go after dogs. Dogs traditionally tend to vote Democratic. If he can get enough dogs to vote for him by promising them a steak at every dinner and an increase in the squirrel population, he’s got a good shot at winning this thing. (Of course, he has to make sure not to alienate his cat constituents, who have traditionally been amongst his staunchest supporters.)
Andrew
I heard he’s had some trouble with them ever since that joint fundraiser with Frist.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
ROFLMAO
John S.
Their Bibles are fine.
It’s just that they seem to prefer the Jewish parts (Old Testament) to the Christian parts (New Testament). I mean they love all that fire and brimstone type shit like Sodom and Gomorrah, but when it comes to the beatitudes and concepts like turning the other cheek – not so much.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
It’s all about money, anyway. Money and bullshit and power. Empty ritual and empty gestures to make a bunch of unrepentant Pharisees make themselves feel better about telling homeless people to go fuck themselves. The spirituality’s been drained out of most of it, what’s left is the capital concerns and the smugness.
That goes for the churches I’ve been to, anyway. I’m sure there are better ones that contradict me, but I have yet to find them. At least the Unitarians get to read poetry in their ceremonies, that’s marginally more entertaining.