She-roic dog “Sierra” tried to keep her master from hobnobbing with the sexist knobs who bar women from the Augusta National Golf Club:
As Russ Berkman understood it, desperate times call for desperate measures.
And when your Swiss mountain dog gobbles up your Masters tickets, that means getting out the hydrogen peroxide and getting ready to sift through your canine’s vomit.
That’s the choice the Seattle resident made after a fit of panic when he realized Saturday night that his beloved canine Sierra had eaten his and his friends’ four passes to the prestigious Augusta, Georgia, golf tournament.
Sadly, Sierra’s act of feminist defiance was thwarted when her master pieced together the puke-sodden shreds of the tickets and persuaded the sexist knobs at Augusta National to reissue passes. Oh well. Nice try, Sierra!
swordofdoom
Good dog! Good dog!
swordofdoom
Good dog! Good dog!
c u n d gulag
Conservative POV:
Look, we let in the Irish, some Jews, and a rich Niggra or two..
But we draw the line at the little ladies and their little lady parts!
They’ll want separate showers and ladies tee’s!
It’s “The MASTER’S!”
Not “The Mistresse…” Er, uhm, let’s try that again:
It’s “The MASTER’S!”
NOT, “The Mrs.!”
JGabriel
Good girl, Sierra!
Any way to train her to go after conservative SCOTUS justices?
.
BigSouthern
As much as I understand all the psychological motivations for sexism/misogyny, I must confess to not getting this. There is no situation in my life the presence of women has not enhanced. I can’t imagine wanting to spend my time socializing with just men, especially men like John Boehner.
EconWatcher
OT, but unemployment dropped to 8.2%. We ain’t moving fast, but we’re moving in the right direction.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@BigSouthern:
Not harping on Christians, just those that need to huddle together once or twice a week trying to keep the world out. Churches always give me the image of the Neanderthals huddled on the coast of France in their last cave.
Jonathan
I don’t understand what all the to-do is about this. Is it sexist and mysoginistic now to *not* allow women into a private club?
I’d prefer that they let women in, and I agree with the commenter above that it would certainly improve the experience to me personally, but then, that’s just it, me personally.
If women that want to hang out exclusively with other women wanted to buy a bunch of land, and create a women only membership to the club, they should be able to do so as well.
noodler
@c u n d gulag: Oh, that’s rich! Fore!
butler
Now, then and always. That’s pretty much the definition of sexist, to exclude women simply because they are women. And its especially bad when they traditionally extend an invite to the CEO of IBM, one of their biggest sponsors, but they refured to do that this year because the new CEO is a women.
Personally I don’t care who they have in their club, and I know I’ll never be a member there. But it is definitely sexist.
Steve
@Jonathan: Is it anti-Semitic to not allow Jews? Serious question.
JPL
@EconWatcher: 120,000 jobs ain’t gonna cut it.
scav
OT Sports related: Video on the Marching order of the Saints emerges Even more interesting as it takes place a week after the team was given the traditional “stern warning” and yet the defensive coordinator goes off for 12 minutes on tape. But, never fear, team members are now complaining about how unfair and mean and cowardly it is to release tape (instead of sending people to hospitals with broken body parts) after earlier there was an official whine from the LA Legislature. It’s somehow as though I’ve seen that playbook used before . . .
horse dave
Yeah for the Swissies.
I’ve got 2 and one will take paper out of the recycling bag and shred it into little pea sized pieces. I would return the electric paper shredder but I can’t determine which paper gets the treatment.
butler
@scav: If there was ever a smoking gun, that video was it. Amazing how he keeps emphasizing specific ways to hurt opponents and referring to bounty in a pre-game speech, the guy really was obsessed.
I think the scariest line was that he kept repeating “the way we have to compete”. As in “you guys aren’t good enough to play clean, so we have to try to intentionally injure people”.
redshirt
@BigSouthern: For an insecure person who lacks power, lording power over someone else they deem inferior is an addictive feeling of control. Projection in other words.
Tradition plays a role in the most hidebound minds as well.
Hill Dweller
@JPL: Economic improvement is going to depend on hopes and prayers, because the republicans aren’t going to do anything to help the economy. The imbeciles in the House can’t even pass a transportation bill, which was, historically, less controversial than apple pie.
bemused
It’s not just creepy men who can be sexist. It’s also old white wingnut women. Phyllis Schlafly. said to Citadel students, Find out if your girlfriend is a feminist. They can be pretty too. They don’t all look like Bella Abzug. (Raw Story).
Poopyman
@EconWatcher: Thank goodness we have the Republicans putting the brakes on the economy, or we’d have runaway expansion, fer sher!
Betty Cracker
@butler: Yep, that’s pretty much my take on it too. I don’t object to men’s-only drum circles for the purpose of getting in touch with their masculinity or whatever, but barring women from the power circle at Augusta National definitely qualifies as sexist knobbery in my book.
Schlemizel
I’m old enough to remember a time of Men only restaurants downtown. Heck, the Dayton’s department store had one with a “general population” one right next to it. I remember asking my mom why men would need their own restaurant (I was of an age where I didn’t know why we needed separate bathrooms – not that I do now either after having spent time in other countries but you know what I mean) but I really don’t remember her reply, something about not being distracted by or offending women, whatever, its foggy.
But the world has changed so much I can’t think of a single excuse today. Particularly the woman these clowns want to exclude. Heck she’s one of them, a CEO, megamillionaire – probably a dick (can I call her that?) who views the 99% as resources to be exploited until used up & then discarded. She would fit right in.
EconWatcher
@JPL:
I think we’re going to find out there’s something funky in the data, because it does not make sense that unemployment would drop below 8.3 % (when it was expected to remain steady) while new jobs would be way lower than expected *(120,000 vs. 210,000). Bill McBride at Calculated Risk is crunching the numbers as we speak and will explain all today, I’m sure.
Hill Dweller
@EconWatcher: The drop in unemployment is partly due to a decline in the labor force. Weekly hours also dropped. The seasonal rate adjustments also seemed to play a role.
This is not a good report. Hopefully it proves to be an anomaly.
Romney and Boehner are already attacking Obama.
General Stuck
@EconWatcher:
It’s what I’m hearing from so called experts. Especially the drop in retail jobs not making sense, and against the other indicator data. In the face of persistent lower weekly new claims of ue in the 350,000 range.
I usually look first at new jobs in the manufacturing sector as the most important for perceptions of positive direction from the working class. And that number was again pretty good at 37,000 new manufacturing jobs, including more hiring at local factories.
But then, I have a biology degree to flout for expertise in economics. Dissecting econ data isn’t that different than dissecting frogs, if you concentrate hard enough.
Egg Berry
@Hill Dweller:
Of course they are. It’s a day of the week ending in ‘y’.
Hill Dweller
@General Stuck:
It’s the interwebs. We don’t need no stinkin’ credentials.
One possible bright spot was the drop in government layoffs. If that continues, it will certainly help the recovery going forward.
redshirt
Feminists in the animal world need to get their acts together. Female lions do all the work for half the pay!
butler
But then, I have a biology degree to flout for expertise in economics.
So you’re at least as qualified as the average pundit, if not moreso. The other day Stuart Varney (with a degree from the LSE) was complaining that the decline in new jobless claims had gone from 400k to 350K a week and then “leveled off”, which was a very bad thing indeed apparently. Apparently being at the lowest level in 4 years and consistently at a level consistent with job market growth is actually a bad thing.
Hill Dweller
@butler: Idiocy and mendacity are prerequisites for working at Fox.
Raven
Here’s the link to the live Masters broadcast for those of you who are interested.
John S.
Any minute now a front-pager will post about the job report and then we can have another flame war between the “Obots” (who look for silver linings) and the “Firebaggers” (who look for dark clouds).
It’s so fucking predictable around here these days.
Chyron HR
@John S.:
Well, the important thing is that you’ve found a way to feel superior to both.
schrodinger's cat
Frankly I am a bit surprised by the number of defenders of Augusta’s policy among the commenters.
SiubhanDuinne
@John S.:
How did you DO that? You’re amazing!
redshirt
John S. is a Prophet!
Bago
Personally, I am a big fan of the iterative rhetoric. There was that one time in may, when you lost 250,000 jobs.. And then there was June, when you lost 240k jobs,and tho could forget July when there was greeted with a 260k loss. By October you were up to 450k losses per month, but you peaked at the inauguration, with job losses at 500k a month.
It gets better.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@redshirt:
__
He gave me this gourd!
[holds up scrawny looking gourd]
It is a sign!
MrSnrub
@horse dave: We have one Swissy. Dumbest dog I ever had. Ironically, named after Oliver Wendell Holmes (but not ironically named after OWH, if you know what I mean).
He ate a spool of dental floss, requiring major surgery to correct.
John S.
LOL
Balloon Juice is as constant as gravity.
schrodinger's cat
@redshirt: Or is John S = DougJ?
redshirt
@schrodinger’s cat: Are you DougJ? Am I? Are we all?
alex milstein
Despite Sierra’s noble effort, her master and his friends will still able to watch skilled professionals vie for big money as they see who can best club their little white pockmarked balls, before stroking them gently into a little hole.
schrodinger's cat
@redshirt: That is something we will never know, will we? Let us call that the Balloon Juice Uncertainty principle.
shortstop
@MrSnrub: Their temperaments are excellent, however. Our primarily beagle mix (thank dog there are three or four other breeds in there watering down the crazy) is obsessed with our neighborhood Swissies, and regularly insists on our stopping by each of their houses to see if they’re in their yards. They unfailingly greet her calmly and graciously.
MrSnrub
@shortstop: our dog’s biggest problem is that he views our 8 year old son as another puppy and desperately wants to play with him as such.
Amir Khalid
The Associated Press reports the passing, from cancer at age 88, of Jim Marshall, the man behind the legendary guitar amplifier. Let your ears ring for The Father of Loud.
shortstop
@MrSnrub: Hmmm. Have you told the boy to ixnay the aybowsplay?
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
@schrodinger’s cat:
i don’t think there are as many defenders as there are people who acknowledge that the augusta club is a different situation only because they can’t be pressured by networks and sponsors in the same way othe
r targets can be.
i think they should diversify, but they dont. the only other thing i will admit, is an honest appreciation for some institution somewhere that won’t chase the last dollar. i wish revenue college sports had even one worthwhile example.
Jonathan
@Steve: No, it’s not. It’s like saying j-date is anti-christian.
Now it’s very possible a group could not allow jews, say, the KKK, because they are anti-semitic, but what if it’s a group for Christian Science that only allows Christians?
Wanting to golf with other men isn’t sexist in the pejorative sense if they just want to be able to golf with other men. I don’t see why this is confusing to people.
Hawes
LifeSierra is a bitch and then you die (of forced vomiting).Hawes
Actually, the Masters thing is a perfect opportunity for the GOP to posture on women’s issues without having to actually do anything.
“See! We don’t hate women! We are perfectly fine letting women pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars it takes to join Augusta National! What war on women?”
Just as long as they aren’t using the caddies as baby-daddies.
cmorenc
Yeah, I know, I know, Augusta National GC is comprised of a bunch of genteel stuffed-shirt misogynists who are predominately corporate-type Republicans.
Nevertheless, if only I was good enough at golf to earn an invitation to play in the Masters, Hell yes I’d accept in a heartbeat. Playing in the Masters might be the ultimate anti-DFH anti-hip-sports daydream, but it’s the pipe dream of nearly everyone who’s ever played golf and enjoyed the experience, regardless of political inclinations.
Steeplejack
@Raven:
Thanks for throwing that up. Golf is probably thought to be even more effete than baseball on this blog, but I have found the Golf Channel to be good background video wallpaper while working on the computer or puttering around the man-cave during the day.
They’re killing me today because apparently the ancient white sexists at Augusta have forbidden them to show any actual action. So they have been bloviating with talking heads and endless minutiae. Actual coverage starts at 3:00 on ESPN. And then it will be all Tiger and the top 10 “name” stars condensed into a recap.
The nice thing about the usual Golf Channel coverage on Thursday and Friday (and in the morning on Saturday and Sunday) is that you get to see much more actual golf. Not to mention the European tour and the LPGA. Some of the courses, especially in Europe, are stunningly beautiful. Forget golf, I would love to just walk them. Last week in Sicily was a good example.
/rant off
Kilkee
Even if you care nothing for golf, you have to appreciate the human drama of Henrik Stenson’s first round. On the front nine he eagled both par 5s (for the newbies, he scored a 3 on a hole where a 5 is par, or the standard ‘expert’ score). He was an incredible 5 under after 8 holes, a pace that would have him flirting with the lowest professional score in history (59), never mind the Masters or any other major. Things then went, shall we say, poorly, reaching a breathtakingly cruel finish on the 18th, where he carded a monstrous, soul-crushing QUADRUPLE-bogie 8 on the par 4. Oh, the humanity!
shortstop
@Jonathan: Well, this particular group only wanted to golf with white, Christian men. Then it wanted to golf with other white men. And now it just wants to golf with men. So your storyline doesn’t quite cut it.
Tata
@Jonathan:
Wanting to golf with other men isn’t sexist in the pejorative sense if they just want to be able to golf with other men. I don’t see why this is confusing to people.
Talking about institutionalized sexist power structures as if they’re a backyard barbecue with your mouthbreathing cousins is a defense of the indefensible that deserves no dignifying response. However, it is my fond hope that when aliens attack our fine, blue planet, the first laser beam detonates Augusta.
Nothing of value would be lost.
Commish
I don’t blame golfers for playing in the tournament, but I’d love to see the winner decline the green jacket and donate at least a portion of the prize to an appropriate cause.
Mnemosyne
@Jonathan:
You do realize that non-Jews are not actually barred from joining J-Date, right? It’s not like if they find out you’re not really Jewish, they delete your account.
Mnemosyne
@Jonathan:
Except, of course, they don’t “just want to be able to golf with other men.” They want to be able to host major sports tournaments and take in lots and lots of corporate sponsorship money while restricting their membership.
If this was just a private club that restricted its membership, no one would give a shit. It was when they decided that they wanted to participate in larger society that people noticed that they wanted IBM to pay them millions of dollars in sponsorship money while banning IBM’s CEO from membership based on her sex.
Patricia Kayden
Why is Sierra’s English so poor? No edumacation?
Cute girl, though.
Greyjoy
The problem with Augusta Golf Club isn’t that men just want to play golf only with other men. It’s that they want to hold board meetings and corporate policy and networking events only with other men, at the golf club. You can’t say “Gee whiz, what’s the big deal? I don’t see no glass ceiling,” while systematically excluding women from the same collaborative opportunities that the men have. Augusta is a prime example of exactly that principle. If the IBM CEO didn’t play golf, and this were only about golf, then I doubt she would give a damn if she “couldn’t” get in. It’s not only about golf, it’s about business.
horse dave
@MrSnrub: We have mother and daughter Swissies. Ours are pretty smart but their defining characteristic is stubbornness. I guess breeding for drafting doesn’t require lots of intelligence but they were also used as general purpose farm dogs (guarding and herding) and they needed to operate independently