Will time make him bolder? And what will this mean for those who have built their lives around him?
I invite you to consider these important questions, and any others, in this open thread.
by $8 blue check mistermix| 88 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Will time make him bolder? And what will this mean for those who have built their lives around him?
I invite you to consider these important questions, and any others, in this open thread.
This post is in: Open Threads
I’m tired. Full day of work and I’m going to relax and have a mojito.
by DougJ| 82 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Joe Scarborough says that Ron Rand Paul’s real mistake was going on MSNBC in the first place:
I will not mention any names, but I’ll just say one of the top conservative leaders in Washington, DC, not elected, but a real opinion-shaper, had two questions. First of all, how could he have been so stupid to have walked into this type of controversy? And secondly, this is part of a news story so I’m going to say it, what the hell was he doing on MSNBC? This isn’t an anti-MSNBC situation but you don’t find a whole lot of very liberal Democrats going on Fox News election night or the night after to do their victory lap. They’re wondering whether he’s ready for prime time.
Never mind that Paul announced his intention to run on Rachel Maddow’s show a year earlier.
Similarly, Jeff Golderg thinks Peter Beinart’s real sin was writing his anti-AIPAC/TNR/Weekly Standard piece in the New York Review Of Books because only Jew-haters read NYRB.
Now, I think that Democrats should not appear on Fox News. But if they go on Fox News and say something stupid, it’s their fault, and if they go on Fox News and say something sharp and confrontational, good on them. The idea that we should blame Paul’s gaffe on Rachel Maddow or condemn Peter Beinart for writing something reasonable in NYRB is beyond stupid.
But it’s also a natural continuation: if you can’t believe anything that the liberal media writes, then it follows that you can’t believe anything said on a liberal media outlet, even if you yourself said it.
by John Cole| 35 Comments
This post is in: Cooking, Food, Open Threads
Thursday Night Menu: Turkey Cutlets w/Apple Chutney
I wish I had something exciting to entertain you with, but alas, it was just another week of work with a couple of nice rides thrown in. I did see a Great Horned Owl, sitting in a big cottonwood tree at sunset one night, he was hooting up a storm. That was a first for me. My tomatoes made it through the cold snap, so that makes me happy. I want to try some of the black varieties, but that may have to wait another year.
Tonight’s menu is because I love turkey and don’t like it just at holidays. You can substitute pork chops easily – boneless work best – increase cooking time, cooking until juices run clear. And if you like, substitute boxed stuffing for the rice. It’s all about what you’re in the mood for. The Lace Cookies are a fond childhood memory: a middle school friend and I used to make a version whenever we had the chance, usually rainy, cold days on Cape Cod.
On the board tonight:
1. Turkey Cutlets w/Apple Chutney
2. Rice
3. Green Beans or Brussels Sprouts
4. Coconut Lace Cookies
I’m a big fan of chutney.
by John Cole| 55 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
I just said to hell with it and am just throwing down landscape fabric.
by $8 blue check mistermix| 52 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links, General Stupidity
After this morning’s post on granny fetishism, DougJ sent me this definition:
sen (Latin-senex) ROOT – old
a. senile: of, relating to, exhibiting, or characteristic of old age
b. seniority: a privileged status attained by length of continuous service
c. senior: higher ranking : SUPERIOR
(other words: senator, senescent, senate, senility)
And it fits this interview with Ben Nelson (via):
The Nebraska Democrat pleaded ignorance when asked this week whether Congress should cap ATM fees. Nelson said that while he’s no fan of unnecessary fees, he’s unfamiliar with the charges.
“I’ve never used an ATM, so I don’t know what the fees are,” Nelson said, adding that he gets his cash from bank tellers, just not automatic ones. “It’s true, I don’t know how to use one.
“But I could learn how to do it just like I’ve … I swipe to get my own gas, buy groceries. I know about the holograms.”
By “holograms,” Nelson clarified that he meant the bar codes on products read by automatic scanners in the checkout lanes at stores such as Lowe’s and Menard’s.
I think there are many 70- and 80-year olds who are sharper and more well-informed than people half their age. The problem is that none very few of them serve in the US Senate.
by DougJ| 85 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
I don’t agree with the swipe at lefties, obviously, but otherwise Ann Althouse of all people nails what is so dumb about the libertarian anti-civil rights position:
A few years ago, I was at a conference with libertarians, and I was confronted with exactly this point of view. I expressed my concern that they were putting an extreme and abstract idea above things that really matter in the world. I challenged them — in what I thought was a friendly conversation — to explain to me how I could know that their commitment to the extreme abstraction did not, in fact, have an origin in racism. Which came first, the proud defense of private property or the shameful prejudices that polite people don’t admit to anymore?
For raising the subject, I was loudly denounced, both at the dinner table table, and on the Reason Magazine website. As I said at the time:
I am struck — you may think it is absurd for me to be suddenly struck by this — but I am struck by how deeply and seriously libertarians and conservatives believe in their ideas. I’m used to the way lefties and liberals take themselves seriously and how deeply they believe. Me, I find true believers strange and — if they have power — frightening.
I appreciate libertarians up to a point, but the extreme ones are missing something that is needed if you are to be trusted with power.
That’s always been my gripe with libertarians: they’re too happy to say things like “well, if we started starving the poor, they’d learn to feed themselves” or “if enough people got shot for starting fights, people would stop starting fights” or “eventually, the free market would make racism unprofitable.”. There really aren’t any reasons to believe any of these sorts of things, especially in the absence of any data. (EDIT: I mean data supporting these statements, not data refuting them.)
In theory, theory and practice are the samePost + Comments (85)