Just stumbled across this and it made me laugh:
Mixed memes FTMFW.
John Cole started Balloon Juice early in 2002. Those who have followed along know that this has been quite the journey.
by John Cole| 70 Comments
This post is in: Humorous, Open Threads
Just stumbled across this and it made me laugh:
Mixed memes FTMFW.
by John Cole| 95 Comments
This post is in: Garden Chats, Open Threads
Day two of the anti-dandelion counter-insurgency at the Cole household has ended with me sunburnt, exhausted, and with only half the yard done. I put down 12 bags of mulch and got the second herb planter done, hung some wind chimes, and mowed and de-dandelioned half the yard before the shoulder started to ache. I’ll finish the rest tomorrow. I’ve also decided that I need a compost heap.
Also, still no songbirds, but with me outside raising a stink, cackling while throwing dandelion carcasses all over the place, I can’t say I blame them. Some of you wanted to know what kind of feed I picked up, and i looked at the bag and it was Kaytee Ultimate Songbird. Having run a blog for a decade, I am fully aware that this is when you all are supposed to leave 100 comments about why my choice in birdseed sucks/is bad for birds/hazardous to other animals/bad for the environment/all of the above.
I’ll be back in approximately 1/2 bottle of wine to fight back.
This post is in: Garden Chats, Open Threads
Done with the work-work and now am going to spend the afternoon venting my authoritarian impulses on the yard. I figure politicians don’t listen to me, you all don’t listen to me, my friends and family don’t listen to me, my animals, whose continued existence relies upon my generosity and good will, don’t listen to me and actually actively defy me at every opportunity, so all I have left is my yard, and I am going to go impose my will on it for the better part of the afternoon.
Not to mention I am now heavily armed with this implement of destuction:
How awesome is that! You won’t even hear the dandelions scream, it will be that quick.
This post is in: Open Threads
No birds at the bird feeder. I’m assuming this is just because they do not know the seed is there yet.
On the other hand, they could have been intimidated by the fat man, the fat cat, and the barky dog holding vigil on the other side of the window. No one ever said birds are THAT dumb.
by John Cole| 36 Comments
This post is in: Assholes
There’s a different set of rules for the super-rich than for you and me, and one of the reasons they stay super-rich is because of those rules:
One of the directors of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS: News ) told a hedge-fund billionaire about a $5 billion investment by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKa: News ) before a public announcement was made, the Wall Street Journal reported citing a person close to the situation.
The report noted that the Government suspects that Goldman Director told Galleon of Berkshire’s 2008 investment. The report specified that the information came from board member Rajat Gupta and that federal prosecutors has notified Gupta in a letter that they had intercepted phone conversations between him and Galleon’s Rajaratnam.
Apparently there are still a few SEC members working and not surfing porn during office hours.
by John Cole| 84 Comments
This post is in: Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing, Teabagger Stupidity
I see via DougJ that the epistemic closure wankfest is still in full effect, and while I’m really enjoying laughing at the shock the “conservative intellectuals” are having, part of me just wants to tell them to choke on a hamburger. Who do they think came up with all the bullshit that is coming back to haunt them?
These concerns about the “closing of the conservative mind” are humorous until you realize that it was the conservative intellectuals and elites who spoon-fed the masses bullshit for decades in order win elections. Let’s just look at a partial list of the stuff these right-wing Frankenvoters believe:
-stem cell research is murdering babies
-Al Gore is a greater threat to America than climate change
-John Kerry is a war criminal and George Bush is a war hero
-liberals want to teach your kid to be gay
-liberals want to abort your baby
-the estate tax is the greatest infringement on human liberty ever
-we can drill our way to energy independence
-you have to torture people in order to keep America safe
-liberals want to release terrorists into our cities
-only the second half of the first amendment and the second amendment count
-the more you cut taxes, the more money the government will take in
-free markets will handle everything
-evolution is just a “theory”
-liberals hate America
-ACORN stole the 2008 election
-lying about a blowjob is a serious crime, lying about a war is not
-Obama is a socialist Muslim Kenyan
And on and on and on and on. And where were the conservative intellectuals and elites when all this stuff was being spread? Oh, that is right. They were the ones spreading it from their sinecures at Koch funded “think tanks,” wingnut welfare organizations, magazines like the NRO and the Weekly Standard, and at their various right-wing media outlets.
And now the “conservative intellectuals” are SHOCKED that conservatives have closed minds. You all spent the last 30 years turning every issue into a binary construct, and then lying about half of the god damned equation, and now you are shocked that people’s minds are closed? If I believed all liberals wanted to abort my baby, and then if it miraculously survived, teach it to be a certain sexual orientation, and then later on hold death panels to see if it would be allowed to have medical treatment, my mind would be closed, too. I’d be going to tea parties screaming about shit and chanting “I want my country back.”
Here’s what the conservative intellectuals are upset about- they spent years spreading this stuff, knowing it was nonsense, and now the people they convinced have no use for them anymore. Look at the poll a couple years ago about what conservative “intellectuals” and elites thought about evolution. PRO-TIP- they almost all believed in it.
So spare me the shock. You assholes made this mess, and if you read NRO or watch FOX or the rest of the right-wing media outlets, they are still spreading this bullshit and doubling down on the crazy for nothing other than political advantage. I missed all the “conservative intellectuals” calling Mitch McConnell a liar last week when he ignored the 200 pages in the financial reform bill that deals with dissolving failed organizations and instead characterized the bill as creating permanent bailouts. Did you all happen to catch any conservative intellectuals shooting that obvious lie down? I sure missed them.
So just spare me.
This post is in: Garden Chats, Open Threads
Last one was getting clogged with all sorts of suggestions.
I forgot to mention, I finally broke down and picked up one of those topsy turvy tomato growers. We’ll see how that works out.