So the first thing I see after this open thread is “Tunch is Loose” from last night. Gasp! Oh no! I’m glad he came back, John. I had that happen before with 2 of my cats and I freaked. Luckily, I found both of them and everything was fine.
I’m so glad Tunch is home.
2.
Demo Woman
Tunch would want you to vote for Bitsy.
3.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Yeah, same here. Our four furry beasties are INDOOR ONLY cats; and so far (knock wood) none have gotten further than a few feet from the door.
I was horrified to see the headline, and relieved to see the update. Yer a mensch, John Cole, I don’t care what the wingnuts say about yas.
4.
gnomedad
We have two indoor cats and one outdoor. Long story. Anyway, one indoor essentially WON’T go out, and the other slips out periodically, checks out the bushes, and is back within 30 minutes. Not to advise carelessness, but for indoor cats, the inside is their turf and they return.
5.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Put the plate on the floor, Tunch or Lily will lick it clean for you.
6.
MikeJ
I know everyone was happy about the return of Tunch, but someone needs to work on speeling.
I’m amazed there’s anything left on your plate, the way Tunch was chowing down after his Excellent Adventure.
And as I said in the other thread, I celebrated his safe return by voting for Bitsy (well, of course I would have voted for her anyhow, but today I pulled the lever in a spirit of celebration). Anyhow, at that time, a little over an hour ago, she was at 2314, so it’s looking good. Let’s keep those votes coming and those numbers rising!
Am having a great day so far — my friend from Australia is visiting, and we had a great gabfest last night. Sam slept beautifully, and today we’re off to do a bit of shopping.
I too am glad Tunch is back and sort of glad I didn’t see that he was missing before I went to bed last night.
Has anyone seen the ad for the Nook, B & N’s new eBook reader? I confess it looks tempting. Please, someone, tell me why I shouldn’t buy it. (Other than the obvious, which is that I’m broke at the moment.)
12.
Napoleon
Well on NPR this morning they had a story on health care and part of it was a short snipit from Joe Lieberman saying he would join with the Republican’s and block a vote on health care if he did not like the plan.
And in case you missed it yesterday, James Wolcott is also encouraging his readers to vote for Bitsy.
15.
R-Jud
2426 for Bitsy. About to go downstairs and cobble together some soup, since I am as sick as a dog (forgive the pun).
16.
John PM
I did not see your post on losing Tunch until this morning. I was happy to see his safe return. No need to apologize for crying. When I was a kid my Grandma’s dog ran out of the house one day and we never saw it again, so bad things can happen when pets get loose. Have a great day.
17.
annie
So glad that Tunch is back. We all would have cried with you if something had happened, and probably half of us would have driven from our homes to help you search.
The little bastard is right. Give him extra kisses and treats from all of us….
18.
The Saff
@Violet: And now I have another reason to love James Wolcott. He’s my favorite VF writer — now I find out he reads Balloon Juice and he likes cats. And he’s voting for Bitsy. Way cool.
19.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
A heads up for PC gamers out there – you can get Assassin’s Creed from Steam for $5 if you buy it by the end of the day.
Well on NPR this morning they had a story on health care and part of it was a short snipit from Joe Lieberman saying he would join with the Republican’s and block a vote on health care if he did not like the plan.
Hopefully when the dust clears and some health care bill is passed, Lieberman will get his payback from Obama via Emmanuel.
I’ve always figured that Obama is a long range player, and I get the impression he doesn’t forget. Think about the old adage, keep your friends cloes and your enemies closer.
23.
Leelee for Obama
So glad the Tunch is back and safe, I also missed the adventure, fell asleep early, but that seems to be part of the new normal! Don’t ever apologize for loving your pets John and being relieved that they are safe. It is the sign of an enlightened being. Tears are necessary, for sorrow, joy and all other emotions.
24.
Laura W
All Right.
Bits is at 2500. Rufus has only 140 more votes! I think that’s the most narrow lead yet. Today needs to be the day she overtakes him. She got her 1,000 votes yesterday, for the first time in all these weeks, thanks to all the ever-widening efforts y’all are making to network for her.
Four more full days to get her to the finish line.
KEEP THINKING OF CLEVER IDEAS, PEOPLE!
25.
Punchy
Anyone else disgusted that the British research findings of no summer Artic ice in about 10 years completely missed the media? For everything we know about the Artic food chain, the reflective properties of ice. and thus the huge feedback loop about to commence sans ice, how is this not boldfaced, capitalized headline news?
Oh yeah, nevermind. Some kid almost didn’t not get stuck in a flying balloon saucer. Priorities, bitches.
26.
Dork
Kristen Bell is TEH HAWT.
27.
Cat Lady
Bitsy voting done. Go Bitsy!
This story should be interesting, as Sudbury, MA is one of the wealthier whitest white bread colonial-era communities in the Boston area. In an earlier time, “terrorist” would mean running the lawnmower before 9 a.m. on a Sunday.
So let me get this straight. Tunch runs away and then gets treats for coming back home?
I have a feeling Tunch may start running away more often.
31.
Leelee for Obama
A question-when did 42% become a third of a polling sample? According to Candy Crowley 42% approving of the NPP for Obama constitutes a third. This may be a math issue, or an interpretation issue, or just plain BS. I waited to hear it a second time, to be sure I heard right. Thoughts?
32.
Laura W
@flukebucket: Seems to be a bi-monthly game they play, John and Tunch.
I suspect John secretly orchestrates it to provide himself with a good cry.
They are very cathartic, you know.
OK, I’m not gonna keep refreshing Bitsy v. Rufus all day again, HOWEVER, she is gaining more votes than he today. I predict by 10am EST his lead will be cut to 100 votes.
33.
geg6
John Cole and James Wolcott are both mensches. Little Bitsy must, must, must win this week.
That said, I am still a little amazed at how emotional I got over the Tunchinator’s escape from Cole Headquarters. Not being a cat person and all. I don’t even wanna think what I’d do if Lily went missing.
Oh, and RedKitten…shopping? Did you say shopping? ;-)
34.
flukebucket
@Laura W: Break up to make up. That is all they do.
I voted for Bitsy early this morning. I think I will vote later tomorrow. Helps build suspense.
35.
Violet
Who’s responsible for this? Stephen Colbert interviews Little Bitsy? If it’s been linked before I’ve missed it. Found it doing a – yes, I’m obsessive – google search for Little Bitsy.
It cracked me right up. If only there were a way to get the Colbert Nation voting for Little Bitsy……
36.
Max
I’m very glad to see Tunch return home.
When Max the cat was alive, he got out and was missing for three days. I went home one afternoon at lunch to do another neighborhood search and caught up with an animal control truck who was in the area to ask them how I could see if Max was picked up. While I was standing outside the truck talking to the driver, I heard a familiar cry coming from one of the bins. I knew immediately that Max the cat was found. The driver was kind enough to open the bin and give him back to me.
My friend’s dog recently got away and it cost him $200 to get him back from the pound.
I can’t imagine Max the dog going missing. I’d be a wreck.
Time to vote for Bitsy.
37.
jibeaux
Glad he’s back. His reserves would not have sustained him for more than four, five weeks, so that’s good news. :)
38.
joes527
I’m currently reading John Adams by David McCullough and it is giving me perspective.
Back when the “united” part of the United States wasn’t yet a habit, when England was hanging back and waiting for us to come running back with our tail between our legs, when our primary ally in the late war was embarked on the reign of terror and had taken to poaching our merchant shipping. (and when we sent envoys, wouldn’t even receive them)
Back when survival of the USoA wa a _real_ question …
We had media that makes Glen Beck and Fox news look like they deserve the Pulitzer by comparison. Seriously.
We had brilliant, but deeply flawed politicians alternating between establishing the nation that would endure and stabbing each other in the back. (the more I read about Jefferson, the more I realize he was an absolute prick) We had political parties that would side with the massacre in France, and were actively rooting for Napoleon rather than agree with the other side.
We even had the Aliens and Sedition acts signed into law. (the patriot act on steroids)
Given that we made it through that time … I’m thinking that we might make it through this time.
Since this is an open thread, this can’t be off topic:
JCole, if you’re ever talking to your web mistress, ask her to add the date field to the story template. Atrios just linked to an old (’08 campaign, not embarrassingly pre-conversion old) story and there’s no way to tell the date until you get to the comments. Nitpicky I know.
42.
Dork
@Leelee for Obama: It appears as though she thinks eating an entire pizza constitues eating a third of it, as well.
She is not the one to be math-inclined, unless it’s counting M&Ms.
I think my favorite line is this, from the 1988 study: “Studies of homosexual veterans make clear that having a same gender or an opposite-gender orientation is unrelated to job performance in the same way as is being left or right-handed.”
Being left-handed was once considered unnatural and indeed sinister (go look up sinister – def #4 in my American Heritage: “On the left side, left”). Children had their left hand tied down in order to force them to change to a more “natural” right-handed life. Is it possible that the day will come that gay people will actually just be treated like a somewhat rare kind of person, like the 7-10% of the population that is left-handed?
@Dork: Dude. Fat jokes are cheap, easy, and reveal more about you than anyone else. I can’t stand her as a reporter either — that’s the problem. Not whatever the hell her size is.
More than 318,000 calls to Congress to support Health Care Reform. Have you called your Congress Critters today? Call today and let them know what you think. They have a call script and a lookup by zipcode to help you find the phone numbers at the link above.
This is O/T but it’s an open thread, yay! Someone was telling me about an Emerson Waldorf school, which is some kinda private hippy dippy thing that frowns on the teevee and the like, in which they actually do still try to retrain left handed kids to use their right hands. I was shocked, I never would have thought that in 2009 in a supposedly progressive environment that kind of stuff would still be going on. And I bet they DON’T try to “rewire” their gay students either….
47.
Laura W
@Violet: My good pal, Ann, who does all of my Project Wonderful ads, along with the free blogad (upper right) John has donated to the cause all these weeks. She did the Colbert Bump graphic John linked a while back. We tried to get Colbert Nation to join us after the dog named for him took week 8 or 9.
I posted some of my favorites she’s done for BJ purposes recently but here’s a little gallery of the best of her bests on my flickr account.After enjoying the Lily Steeler Porn Shots, be sure to scroll forward to the “Welcome Home Lily” ad she did back in June on the night Lily adopted John, along with the uber-classic “Happy Birthday Fuckhead” collection from last May, a personal favorite.
the more I read about Jefferson, the more I realize he was an absolute prick
Almost as much of one as that absolute, little-man-syndrome-suffering prick, John Adams. You know, the one who signed the Alien and Sedition Acts into law. To be declared unconstitutional by that absolute prick, Thomas Jefferson, who voided them and then pardoned and released all who were imprisoned by them.
Just sayin’. ;-)
49.
Violet
Bitsy’s within 100 votes of Rufus right now. This has got to be her day. Vote for Bitsy!
50.
geg6
Thomas Jefferson would have voted for Bitsy, I’m sure.
51.
SenyorDave
A question-when did 42% become a third of a polling sample? According to Candy Crowley 42% approving of the NPP for Obama constitutes a third. This may be a math issue, or an interpretation issue, or just plain BS. I waited to hear it a second time, to be sure I heard right. Thoughts?
Thta’s par for the course for Crowley. I find that political reporters or commentators, even when I competely disagree with them, are generally bright people. She seems like an exception, appearing to be almost slow.
By the way 42% does round to one-third, if you are rounding to the nearest third. It also rounds to one half, if you are rounding to the nearest half.
52.
Violet
@Laura W:
I remember that Colbert pic. I was really busy then and not posting as much, though. Didn’t get the back story. That birthday collection is classic. LOL.
Has anyone followed up with the Colbert Nation recently? I don’t post over on colbertnation, so I wouldn’t be any good because they’d be skeptical of me as a newbie. Is there anyone who posts there often who might be willing to ask for votes?
53.
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: Jefferson would have waffled elegantly, and then, reluctantly, let James Madison organize a “Vote for Anyone but Bitsy” letter writing campaign. The man was a genius, but he was a bit of prick as well.
54.
Laura W
Where’s BOB?
I would like to ask him to enlist the votes of his vast network of Beckites or Beckheads or BeckBots.
I forget what they like to call themselves.
@The Grand Panjandrum: I will absolutely second this! Call your Congress members about Health Care! (I would call mine, but I live in Illinois. The Democrats from Obama-land are a-right).
Honestly, these are two ways that we can make a real, verifiable difference in the world. Ah, I love the smell of tikkun olam in the morning! (“repairing the world” — sorry. I’m a geeky Jew).
And @jibeaux: Seriously? At the Waldorf schools? That is just stunning to me! Wow. Just when you think you know your crunchy granola! I wonder what the rationale is…. (Damn it now I have to go research something! Oh geekiness, you are a cruel and demanding taskmistress, you are!)
(Ok, the following is awaiting moderation, I’m guessing because I linked to two comments + two URLs. So, I will remove the links, as you can find them elsewhere on this thread!)
@The Grand Panjandrum: I will absolutely second this! Call your Congress members about Health Care! (I would call mine, but I live in Illinois. The Democrats from Obama-land are a-right).
And then vote for Bitsy!
Honestly, these are two ways that we can make a real, verifiable difference in the world. Ah, I love the smell of tikkun olam in the morning! (“repairing the world”—sorry. I’m a geeky Jew).
And @jibeaux: Seriously? At the Waldorf schools? That is just stunning to me! Wow. Just when you think you know your crunchy granola! I wonder what the rationale is…. (Damn it now I have to go research something! Oh geekiness, you are a cruel and demanding taskmistress, you are!)
the more I read about Jefferson, the more I realize he was an absolute prick
The most maddening member of the Revolutionary generation, hands down. On the one hand, a polymath whose breadth of curiosity and learning is truly humbling. On the other, a slave-owning aristocrat who couldn’t bear the encroachment of reality on the beautifully formed structures in his mind, even when his denials, in practice, led to terrible policies. Adams, at least, never owned slaves (which is more than can be said for Benjamin “Hey-Baby-Pull-My-Finger” Franklin).
Almost as much of one as that absolute, little-man-syndrome-suffering prick, John Adams.
I agree 100%. It seems that all of the founding fathers were brilliant and insufferable.
In some ways my favourite is Hamilton because he was the only one who would be an asshole to your face as well as behind your back. At least that’s honest.
They really are. The Revolutionary period of American history is my favorite. I also love the Enlightenment period of history. Don’t think the American Revolution would be possible without the Enlightenment.
The Founding Fathers of our country were fascinating. I don’t think the people who bandy about their names these days have much idea of what they really thought and how they really lived.
64.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
I think too many people really don’t care about global warming because many of them probably believe that they will be dead and gone before things get bad, thus the problem is not theirs to deal with. They probably figure their kids generation will deal with the crisis like other generations have dealt with various other crises. There just isn’t the urgency there, much like our government burying future generations in debt that they have no say over now.
I hear ‘think of the children’ in its various forms in the news, but the people saying it are usually mouthing the words with no sincerity. It’s easy to say but harder to follow through with. That is why I think the government should take the lead on this issue. People can be shortsighted in seeking immediate rewards at the lowest cost and that is why I believe that the government should work to keep the country from self-destructing by preventing the pollution of our environment from coast to coast in the name of profit and lower costs.
The problem is that this kind of problem requires real leadership, responsible leadership, something that has been sorely lacking in Washington for decades. Like everything else in our country, cash is what makes the political world run and it has corrupted our government. It is nearly impossible to expect leadership from our politicians when they are bought and paid for by corporations and financial institutions. Voters are deliberately misled or kept in the
How are voters supposed to know what is happening with the crap media we have today? How in the hell can you have an informed electorate when the shit they are fed isn’t fit for consumption? The media runs the lies they are fed, almost always going unchallenged, and call it ‘news’. If it doesn’t provide a clear answer to the issue being addressed then it is wasted time. When two sides are being presented with one being sane and the other screaming batshit insane, then it is less than worthless. The news bobbleheads just sit there, nodding sagely as if both sides are presenting fair points to debate, asking questions that are intended to push the ‘storyline’ of the moment. Then, as John Stewart noted, they say that they ‘have to leave it there’. You are basically given two stories and have to decide which one is right, if there even is a right one. This isn’t news, it is unchallenged opinions being presented as facts.
And that’s the ‘news’ outlets that are trying to give all sides a hearing and not render an opinion (yet still doing so by not doing so). How about outright disinformation being presented as news? I am glad this White House is calling out Faux News, it’s about fucking time that it is pointed out that they are part of the propaganda wing of the RNC. Faux is opinion, not news, end of story.
Everything is falling apart, our jobs, our economy, our environment, and all these ‘news’ outlets do is successfully muddy the waters so nobody knows what the fuck is going on, what is right or wrong and what can be done about it. Which is exactly what the big businesses who own them want them to do. It’s how they win.
I can’t find anything about that philosophy on the interwebs, so that may or may not be an official practice of theirs. But the teacher reported on her efforts at doing so, as part of explaining the practices at a Waldorf school, at a preschool open house. I thought that was the strangest thing. Maybe she’s a rogue teacher or has misinterpreted something, though.
66.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Oops! Should read:
Voters are deliberately misled or kept in the in the dark.
Eh, it’s a rant. ;)
67.
Omnes Omnibus
@R-Jud: Add in that that in their opposition to the (admittedly appalling) Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson and Madison promulgated the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions which argued that the states should nullify the Acts. The compact theory on which they based the K and V Resolutions is the same one that the Confederate States used to justify secession.
68.
Leelee for Obama
@ellaesther: Never apologize for tikkun olam. it may be the only thing to save us and I love the sound of it! I remember the first time I heard it on BookTV, and it just made me feel right with the world.
It’s the same with the line in Schindler’s List-he who saves one life, saves the world entire. A mitzvah, for certain!
@jibeaux: Certainly! Cats are superior to us in every way and know it — they care not for our trifling “words.”
72.
jibeaux
Oh wait, I did. (at the bottom) This is from a website that seems pretty dedicated to criticism of Waldorf schools, so take that as you will. But this bit from wikipedia:
Waldorf teachers use the concept of the four temperaments to help interpret, understand and relate to the behaviour and personalities of children under their tutelage. The temperaments, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, and sanguine,[23] are thought to express four basic personality types, each possessing its own fundamental way of regarding and interacting with the world.
Is also wacky as all hell. I don’t think medieval medicine needs to have a great deal of replication in modern elementary school education, frankly.
73.
Comrade Mary
@Laura W: BOB said something sufficiently vile yesterday to get his comment deleted so quickly I didn’t have a chance to read it. I suspect another ban is in place.
74.
flukebucket
@Dork: The last time I saw Candy on television she had lost a tremendous amount of weight. Maybe she has it figured out now.
I don’t think the people who bandy about their names these days have much idea of what they really thought and how they really lived.
Not even a little bit.
Have you read Maria Kalman’s occasional blog over at the NYT? Her chronicle of a visit to Monticello is beautiful. Ditto her entry on Ben Franklin (who, as a gal raised in eastern PA, I am obliged to love in spite of his many flaws).
Hasty edit: @ Napoleon: “That is why I have always felt [TJ] is more then any other of his generation the perfect embodiment of all that is good and bad with our country.”
Agreed. If you study his life, his thoughts, and his presidency, you can see parallels between the split in his head and the splits that have plagued our national character (or spiced it up) since the beginning.
76.
Ptirebiter
Wolcott has A-listed Bitsy this morning with a link at Vanity Fair.
77.
Leelee for Obama
@jibeaux: The only thing I know about Waldorf is their adorable dolls and their arts and crafts emphasis, using natural materials and supplies. The curriculum sounds out there. Nothing wrong with finding out how a mind learns, but Myers-Briggs would do the same thing and leave out the Alchemist ideas.
How does one thank him directly? No comments, no email? But I did not search further than his page. Wonder if John front paged Wolcott’s support in the next Bitsy Bleg and linked to it would it entice any other highly visible bloggers/pundits/networks to get on board in the final hours?
79.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
Had not checked here in a day and just perused the lost Tunch thread. For some reason, Tom Hanks in Cast Away came to mind with Tunch as Wilson the volleyball!
Agreed. I can never read enough about them. I have entire shelves on my bookcases devoted to Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin. As for Adams, I’ve read McCullough’s book (very well done, as all his stuff is), but I find Abigail much more interesting than he. The only other political figures for whom I have entire shelves devoted to are Churchill and Roosevelt (Franklin, that is). Also very interesting people. My favorite quotes of all time are from Churchill:
We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm.
And at a dinner party where the discussion was of the scandal in the last century regarding Lady Caroline Lamb and Lord Byron:
Caroline Lamb. God damn.
LOL!
81.
Violet
@R-Jud:
Oh, that Monticello entry is beautiful. I just love Jefferson, for all his many flaws. Equally I love Ben Franklin. I would have been one of those women flirting with him, even though he was a total dog. I get his appeal.
In some ways my favourite is Hamilton because he was the only one who would be an asshole to your face as well as behind your back. At least that’s honest.
Agree wholeheartedly. He was an ass, but he was totally up front about it. And our current GOPers with their extramarital dalliances could learn and thing or two from him about how to handle these bimbo eruptions. But they don’t read, so…
@The Grand Panjandrum: I will absolutely second this! Call your Congress members about Health Care! (I would call mine, but I live in Illinois. The Democrats from Obama-land are a-right).
Call yours anyway. I called mine even though they’re pretty reliable. I just wanted to remind them that I care. It was easy enough and made me feel at least minimally useful.
How does one thank him directly? No comments, no email? But I did not search further than his page. Wonder if John front paged Wolcott’s support in the next Bitsy Bleg and linked to it would it entice any other highly visible bloggers/pundits/networks to get on board in the final hours?
I’m sure John is exhausted after Tunch’s Great Escape last night, but I hope he sees the Wolcott post and front pages it with another Bitsy bleg.
I wish Sully would pick up on it. He loves his beagles so much, I’d like to think he’d be open to helping an animal rescue. He’s not above asking people to vote for things. And he’s got a massive audience.
Question – is the site re-do finished or still in progress? I’ve recently switched to Firefox and the Edit option is gone. I had it with IE, but not with Firefox.
I’m ornery about Myers-Briggs, too, honestly, although it has a lot more merit that the four humours. Questions like, “do you prefer to plan your day, or do you prefer to be spontaneous about what you will do?” just rub me the wrong way. Sure, I’d love to just wake up and decide to bake raisin bread and play with play-doh all day, but I have to go do my job and earn money and then I have to go to my son’s piano lesson and then it’s the grocery store, etc. Planning my days is a matter of survival, not preference, and the weekends aren’t much better. And then half of the questions I overanalyze because they’re so dependent on the context and so I don’t know how to give a multiple choice answer. Sometimes I think it would be more revealing to analyze personality based on how someone takes the Myers-Briggs test, you could watch through a one-way mirror…
Me, too. I’d have parked myself right in his lap. I’m told he liked that.
LOL. I would have been a little less forward physically, but the suggestive words and looks would have been cranked up to eleven. I’ve always had a weakness for smart, funny men.
88.
MikeJ
Was Wolcott not coming up with the word “precedent” for some sort of comic effect I just did get?
89.
Violet
Urghhh. Rufus is pulling away from Bitsy again. Vote, vote, vote!
90.
Morbo
Ha, check out more ridiculous contrarianism from Superfreakonomics, this time with extra glibertarianism thrown in. With such awesome pay and so few hours worked, why don’t more women choose to become prostitutes? Because 40 hour per week work is for suckers!
91.
The Ace Tomato Company
The Broncos are the single best team ever to grace international sport for the past 5000 years. McDaniels is Jesus turned up to 11 to the millionth power.
Looks like negotiations with Iran are bearing fruit too, but that’s not nearly as important as a 6-0 start by Denver. Will Obama ever learn?
PS – My spell check still doesn’t recognize “Obama.”
92.
Leelee for Obama
@jibeaux: Yeah, I know there is a contextual problem, but when I took mine-I just free-wheeled. My sister had me take it for shits and giggles about 15 years ago. It was late in life, but what was interesting was how spot-on it turned out to be. Don’t even remember what my findings were, because it read me like an open book so I just put the papers away-SOMEWHERE!
93.
geg6
Another reason that I love Al Franken. Watch the video:
@The Ace Tomato Company: Neither does mine. I take great pleasure in giving spell-check a Bronx cheer every time. It’s like coloring outside the lines in Catholic school.
95.
The Moar You Know
I’m currently reading John Adams by David McCullough and it is giving me perspective.
@joes527: Just finished it. You are quite correct in saying that the media of their day makes even Glenn Beck off his meds look like a sane, judicious, Pulitzer-worthy reporter.
And yeah, if we could survive the craziness and psychotic self-obsession of both Adams and Jefferson, we should get through this current rough patch in our history just fine.
96.
ericblair
If you want to keep up with the Orly Taitz Disbarment 2009 Tour, here you go. Our intrepid polymath wunderkind has filed another Freemasons-are-poisoning-the-well screed after being fined twenty big ones. Let’s see the judge give the wheel a big spin and find out what she gets now!
Well on NPR this morning they had a story on health care and part of it was a short snipit from Joe Lieberman saying he would join with the Republican’s and block a vote on health care if he did not like the plan.
We “lefties” were told to sit down and shut up on Lieberman because even tho he is a war monger, it didn’t matter because he is “with us on everything else.”
Judge Land’s actions that amounted to misstating or misrepresenting ninety percent of what was presented in the pleadings and argument, completely ignoring ninety percent of the argument and facts…
Hang on. In the first sentence she is up to 180% of her argument? Orly! You aren’t supposed to bring teh crazy ’till the SECOND sentence.
A lot of people swear by it. In my case I think it just doesn’t measure ornerniness enough, it’s such an important component of my personality!
102.
The Ace Tomato Company
@Morbo:
Your link disparaged John Elway! Heretic!
You can take your hostile alien-news anchor-ass and shove it!
Nixon loving bastard :-p
103.
The Saff
@geg6: That was awesome. I like how he was prepared for the witness’s follow up regarding cancer survivability rates. Paul Wellstone is somewhere in the ever-after smiling brightly.
104.
Chad N Freude
@geg6: The really ominous thing about this is the blithe tossing out of false statements with the expectation that no one will ask “How do you know that”? I wish Franken had followed up with “Why did you make that claim if you didn’t know the numbers?”
105.
Chad N Freude
For the Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton Fan Club, I recommend A Magnificent Catastrophe by Edward J. Larson. It was from this book that I learned that Jefferson was the 18th century equivalent of a DFH and thought the French Revolution was really cool.
Larson also wrote “Summer For the Gods”, an excellent book about the Scopes trial.
* He was one of the less god-talking FF’s (he did create his own version of the bible, removing all the parts that bothered him.)
* He hated bankers and industrialists. The fact that he spent his life in debt due to his whole “I buy what I see” mentality may have played a part in this hatred.
* He was all “Power to the People!” in his rhetoric.
OTOH
* He was a wealthy landowner. (both wealthy and in constantly debt (living within your means is for suckers))
* He was a slave owner, and frankly, one of the most personally untroubled by the whole slave thing amongst the FFs. His public statements were clear that slavery was a great evil, but that public rhetoric didn’t seem to get through to the private Jefferson. He was, if anything, a more content slave owner as time passed. This in contrast with Washington, who was also a slave owner till the day he died, but struggled with it more and more as he grew older.
* He was an industrialist. (Yes, he hated industrialists. Go figure)
* He was a bit of a dandy, even amongst the FF’s with his powdered wigs and frilly shirts. His shows of austerity were just that, shows. He lived in luxury whenever he wasn’t making a point of rubbing folks’ noses in his simplicity.
There is no question that Jefferson talked a good game, and I can see equating his rhetoric with DFH.
But Jefferson’s rhetoric wasn’t the man.
109.
Steeplejack
Just voted for Bitsy and put her up to 2,765. You go, girl!
Feeling out of it today. We did inventory in my department at the part-time store gig last night, a drawn-out procedure (until 2:00 a.m.) that combines the best of modern computer scanning technology with 19th-century green-eyeshades-and-sleeve-garters nitpicking. Good times.
Was glad that when I got home and checked into Balloon Juice the Tunch affair had been resolved. The helicopters were not laughing. I have had cats go MIA, and it is a horrible experience.
Don’t know why I’m so tired, since I ended up staying up not much later than I normally do after a normal late shift at the part-time gig (health insurance, yay, yeah, whatever). Anyway, I don’t have to work today, and I don’t have any big software projects on my plate, so today is a mini-weekend day. And it’s 70° and breezy in D.C., so I need to get out into that.
Oh, for anyone who is interested in the Barnes & Noble Nook, here’s a link. It looks interesting, except for the dorky name. (But then “Kindle” is not so great either.) The Nook has a removable battery, so you can carry multiples, if you need to, you can expand the memory via microSD card slot, it’s WiFi-enabled (802.11b/g) and it plays PDF and MP3 files. It costs $259. I’m looking forward to fondling one in person.
Not nitpicky. I am surprised how many Web pages I go to where the date of the story is not clearly indicated, and you have to infer it from the file name or the time stamps on the comments. Sometimes you can’t even do that.
Balloon Juice stories do have the month and date at the top of the post when they are “live.” I thought this was not the case with the archives, but I just checked a couple of old threads from June that I bookmarked, and they also have the month and date. I think this might be new. You still have to scroll down to the comments to see the year, but that’s not such a big deal.
Maybe I’m not sure what you mean by “story template.”
Thanks again all of you for your Little Bitsy votes!!
It’s really starting to go to her head – she is sleeping in the middle of the bed- under the covers with her head on the pillow. Really – she thinks she’s special.
@Violet: Apparently, according to a Facebook quiz, I AM Benjamin Franklin.
@jibeaux: They don’t let the younger students at Waldorf use black crayons because black is a negative or dead color. They explain it in the link I provided.
That alone would be enough to stop me from sending my imaginary kids to Waldorf. Or, I would stock them up with black crayons and tell them to use ’em to their hearts’ content. And, if black is a dead color, does that mean my hair is dead? How the fuck would my imaginary daughter be able to color her hair if she didn’t have a black crayon? Or her imaginary clothing?
Fucking bullshit. My imaginary kid would have the black market on black crayons.
Halloween is almost upon us and you’re probably thinking, “Gee, wouldn’t it be great to kick back on the couch and rent a few conservative horror flicks for the big night?”
Right there, that explains what is weird about the mindset of a lot of right-wingers. They’ve got such a persecution complex that they insist on viewing everything through the filter of ideology.
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The Saff
So the first thing I see after this open thread is “Tunch is Loose” from last night. Gasp! Oh no! I’m glad he came back, John. I had that happen before with 2 of my cats and I freaked. Luckily, I found both of them and everything was fine.
I’m so glad Tunch is home.
Demo Woman
Tunch would want you to vote for Bitsy.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Yeah, same here. Our four furry beasties are INDOOR ONLY cats; and so far (knock wood) none have gotten further than a few feet from the door.
I was horrified to see the headline, and relieved to see the update. Yer a mensch, John Cole, I don’t care what the wingnuts say about yas.
gnomedad
We have two indoor cats and one outdoor. Long story. Anyway, one indoor essentially WON’T go out, and the other slips out periodically, checks out the bushes, and is back within 30 minutes. Not to advise carelessness, but for indoor cats, the inside is their turf and they return.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Put the plate on the floor, Tunch or Lily will lick it clean for you.
MikeJ
I know everyone was happy about the return of Tunch, but someone needs to work on speeling.
http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/epic-fail-touchdown-fail.jpg
SiubhanDuinne
I’m amazed there’s anything left on your plate, the way Tunch was chowing down after his Excellent Adventure.
And as I said in the other thread, I celebrated his safe return by voting for Bitsy (well, of course I would have voted for her anyhow, but today I pulled the lever in a spirit of celebration). Anyhow, at that time, a little over an hour ago, she was at 2314, so it’s looking good. Let’s keep those votes coming and those numbers rising!
Must.get.dressed.and.go.to.work.
RedKitten
Am having a great day so far — my friend from Australia is visiting, and we had a great gabfest last night. Sam slept beautifully, and today we’re off to do a bit of shopping.
cleek
we have two indoor cats and they’re about to start their second day of being locked in the kitchen, while we get our upstairs floor redone.
they were pretty freaked out yesterday (the noise of hardwood floor installation is unbelievable!) but don’t seem all that excited so far today.
Jack
The need to discover “conservative” anchor points throughout popular culture is, in short, fascinating as all get out:
http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2009/10/20/10_horror_movies_for_conservatives_to_watch_this_halloween
Maybe there is a pathology here.
H/T Whiskey Fire
Persia
I too am glad Tunch is back and sort of glad I didn’t see that he was missing before I went to bed last night.
Has anyone seen the ad for the Nook, B & N’s new eBook reader? I confess it looks tempting. Please, someone, tell me why I shouldn’t buy it. (Other than the obvious, which is that I’m broke at the moment.)
Napoleon
Well on NPR this morning they had a story on health care and part of it was a short snipit from Joe Lieberman saying he would join with the Republican’s and block a vote on health care if he did not like the plan.
Johnny Pez
In case anyone missed this, Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize has been explained.
Violet
Tunch would definitely want you to vote for Little Bitsy.
And in case you missed it yesterday, James Wolcott is also encouraging his readers to vote for Bitsy.
R-Jud
2426 for Bitsy. About to go downstairs and cobble together some soup, since I am as sick as a dog (forgive the pun).
John PM
I did not see your post on losing Tunch until this morning. I was happy to see his safe return. No need to apologize for crying. When I was a kid my Grandma’s dog ran out of the house one day and we never saw it again, so bad things can happen when pets get loose. Have a great day.
annie
So glad that Tunch is back. We all would have cried with you if something had happened, and probably half of us would have driven from our homes to help you search.
The little bastard is right. Give him extra kisses and treats from all of us….
The Saff
@Violet: And now I have another reason to love James Wolcott. He’s my favorite VF writer — now I find out he reads Balloon Juice and he likes cats. And he’s voting for Bitsy. Way cool.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
A heads up for PC gamers out there – you can get Assassin’s Creed from Steam for $5 if you buy it by the end of the day.
ellaesther
@Demo Woman: Yes, he would, and so I have.
Go Bitsy!
ellaesther
@R-Jud: (Up to 2483 now!)
SenyorDave
Well on NPR this morning they had a story on health care and part of it was a short snipit from Joe Lieberman saying he would join with the Republican’s and block a vote on health care if he did not like the plan.
Hopefully when the dust clears and some health care bill is passed, Lieberman will get his payback from Obama via Emmanuel.
I’ve always figured that Obama is a long range player, and I get the impression he doesn’t forget. Think about the old adage, keep your friends cloes and your enemies closer.
Leelee for Obama
So glad the Tunch is back and safe, I also missed the adventure, fell asleep early, but that seems to be part of the new normal! Don’t ever apologize for loving your pets John and being relieved that they are safe. It is the sign of an enlightened being. Tears are necessary, for sorrow, joy and all other emotions.
Laura W
All Right.
Bits is at 2500. Rufus has only 140 more votes! I think that’s the most narrow lead yet. Today needs to be the day she overtakes him. She got her 1,000 votes yesterday, for the first time in all these weeks, thanks to all the ever-widening efforts y’all are making to network for her.
Four more full days to get her to the finish line.
KEEP THINKING OF CLEVER IDEAS, PEOPLE!
Punchy
Anyone else disgusted that the British research findings of no summer Artic ice in about 10 years completely missed the media? For everything we know about the Artic food chain, the reflective properties of ice. and thus the huge feedback loop about to commence sans ice, how is this not boldfaced, capitalized headline news?
Oh yeah, nevermind. Some kid almost didn’t not get stuck in a flying balloon saucer. Priorities, bitches.
Dork
Kristen Bell is TEH HAWT.
Cat Lady
Bitsy voting done. Go Bitsy!
This story should be interesting, as Sudbury, MA is one of the wealthier whitest white bread colonial-era communities in the Boston area. In an earlier time, “terrorist” would mean running the lawnmower before 9 a.m. on a Sunday.
GReynoldsCT00
Bitsy’s up one more… :)
Cat Lady
@Cat Lady:
Linky.
flukebucket
So let me get this straight. Tunch runs away and then gets treats for coming back home?
I have a feeling Tunch may start running away more often.
Leelee for Obama
A question-when did 42% become a third of a polling sample? According to Candy Crowley 42% approving of the NPP for Obama constitutes a third. This may be a math issue, or an interpretation issue, or just plain BS. I waited to hear it a second time, to be sure I heard right. Thoughts?
Laura W
@flukebucket: Seems to be a bi-monthly game they play, John and Tunch.
I suspect John secretly orchestrates it to provide himself with a good cry.
They are very cathartic, you know.
OK, I’m not gonna keep refreshing Bitsy v. Rufus all day again, HOWEVER, she is gaining more votes than he today. I predict by 10am EST his lead will be cut to 100 votes.
geg6
John Cole and James Wolcott are both mensches. Little Bitsy must, must, must win this week.
That said, I am still a little amazed at how emotional I got over the Tunchinator’s escape from Cole Headquarters. Not being a cat person and all. I don’t even wanna think what I’d do if Lily went missing.
Oh, and RedKitten…shopping? Did you say shopping? ;-)
flukebucket
@Laura W: Break up to make up. That is all they do.
I voted for Bitsy early this morning. I think I will vote later tomorrow. Helps build suspense.
Violet
Who’s responsible for this? Stephen Colbert interviews Little Bitsy? If it’s been linked before I’ve missed it. Found it doing a – yes, I’m obsessive – google search for Little Bitsy.
It cracked me right up. If only there were a way to get the Colbert Nation voting for Little Bitsy……
Max
I’m very glad to see Tunch return home.
When Max the cat was alive, he got out and was missing for three days. I went home one afternoon at lunch to do another neighborhood search and caught up with an animal control truck who was in the area to ask them how I could see if Max was picked up. While I was standing outside the truck talking to the driver, I heard a familiar cry coming from one of the bins. I knew immediately that Max the cat was found. The driver was kind enough to open the bin and give him back to me.
My friend’s dog recently got away and it cost him $200 to get him back from the pound.
I can’t imagine Max the dog going missing. I’d be a wreck.
Time to vote for Bitsy.
jibeaux
Glad he’s back. His reserves would not have sustained him for more than four, five weeks, so that’s good news. :)
joes527
I’m currently reading John Adams by David McCullough and it is giving me perspective.
Back when the “united” part of the United States wasn’t yet a habit, when England was hanging back and waiting for us to come running back with our tail between our legs, when our primary ally in the late war was embarked on the reign of terror and had taken to poaching our merchant shipping. (and when we sent envoys, wouldn’t even receive them)
Back when survival of the USoA wa a _real_ question …
We had media that makes Glen Beck and Fox news look like they deserve the Pulitzer by comparison. Seriously.
We had brilliant, but deeply flawed politicians alternating between establishing the nation that would endure and stabbing each other in the back. (the more I read about Jefferson, the more I realize he was an absolute prick) We had political parties that would side with the massacre in France, and were actively rooting for Napoleon rather than agree with the other side.
We even had the Aliens and Sedition acts signed into law. (the patriot act on steroids)
Given that we made it through that time … I’m thinking that we might make it through this time.
jibeaux
@Leelee for Obama:
If we’re rounding, it’s closer to half than it is to a third, so I’d go with BS.
Laura W
Rufus 2669
Our Girl Bitsy 2564
MikeJ
Since this is an open thread, this can’t be off topic:
JCole, if you’re ever talking to your web mistress, ask her to add the date field to the story template. Atrios just linked to an old (’08 campaign, not embarrassingly pre-conversion old) story and there’s no way to tell the date until you get to the comments. Nitpicky I know.
Dork
@Leelee for Obama: It appears as though she thinks eating an entire pizza constitues eating a third of it, as well.
She is not the one to be math-inclined, unless it’s counting M&Ms.
ellaesther
Well will you look at that!
50 Years Of Pentagon Studies Support Gay Soldiers
I think my favorite line is this, from the 1988 study: “Studies of homosexual veterans make clear that having a same gender or an opposite-gender orientation is unrelated to job performance in the same way as is being left or right-handed.”
Being left-handed was once considered unnatural and indeed sinister (go look up sinister – def #4 in my American Heritage: “On the left side, left”). Children had their left hand tied down in order to force them to change to a more “natural” right-handed life. Is it possible that the day will come that gay people will actually just be treated like a somewhat rare kind of person, like the 7-10% of the population that is left-handed?
One has a right to dream.
ellaesther
@Dork: Dude. Fat jokes are cheap, easy, and reveal more about you than anyone else. I can’t stand her as a reporter either — that’s the problem. Not whatever the hell her size is.
The Grand Panjandrum
More than 318,000 calls to Congress to support Health Care Reform. Have you called your Congress Critters today? Call today and let them know what you think. They have a call script and a lookup by zipcode to help you find the phone numbers at the link above.
jibeaux
@ellaesther:
This is O/T but it’s an open thread, yay! Someone was telling me about an Emerson Waldorf school, which is some kinda private hippy dippy thing that frowns on the teevee and the like, in which they actually do still try to retrain left handed kids to use their right hands. I was shocked, I never would have thought that in 2009 in a supposedly progressive environment that kind of stuff would still be going on. And I bet they DON’T try to “rewire” their gay students either….
Laura W
@Violet: My good pal, Ann, who does all of my Project Wonderful ads, along with the free blogad (upper right) John has donated to the cause all these weeks. She did the Colbert Bump graphic John linked a while back. We tried to get Colbert Nation to join us after the dog named for him took week 8 or 9.
I posted some of my favorites she’s done for BJ purposes recently but here’s a little gallery of the best of her bests on my flickr account.After enjoying the Lily Steeler Porn Shots, be sure to scroll forward to the “Welcome Home Lily” ad she did back in June on the night Lily adopted John, along with the uber-classic “Happy Birthday Fuckhead” collection from last May, a personal favorite.
geg6
@joes527:
Almost as much of one as that absolute, little-man-syndrome-suffering prick, John Adams. You know, the one who signed the Alien and Sedition Acts into law. To be declared unconstitutional by that absolute prick, Thomas Jefferson, who voided them and then pardoned and released all who were imprisoned by them.
Just sayin’. ;-)
Violet
Bitsy’s within 100 votes of Rufus right now. This has got to be her day. Vote for Bitsy!
geg6
Thomas Jefferson would have voted for Bitsy, I’m sure.
SenyorDave
A question-when did 42% become a third of a polling sample? According to Candy Crowley 42% approving of the NPP for Obama constitutes a third. This may be a math issue, or an interpretation issue, or just plain BS. I waited to hear it a second time, to be sure I heard right. Thoughts?
Thta’s par for the course for Crowley. I find that political reporters or commentators, even when I competely disagree with them, are generally bright people. She seems like an exception, appearing to be almost slow.
By the way 42% does round to one-third, if you are rounding to the nearest third. It also rounds to one half, if you are rounding to the nearest half.
Violet
@Laura W:
I remember that Colbert pic. I was really busy then and not posting as much, though. Didn’t get the back story. That birthday collection is classic. LOL.
Has anyone followed up with the Colbert Nation recently? I don’t post over on colbertnation, so I wouldn’t be any good because they’d be skeptical of me as a newbie. Is there anyone who posts there often who might be willing to ask for votes?
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: Jefferson would have waffled elegantly, and then, reluctantly, let James Madison organize a “Vote for Anyone but Bitsy” letter writing campaign. The man was a genius, but he was a bit of prick as well.
Laura W
Where’s BOB?
I would like to ask him to enlist the votes of his vast network of Beckites or Beckheads or BeckBots.
I forget what they like to call themselves.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus:
Jefferson and Madison might have feuded over whether or not to vote for Bitsy, but George Washington would have voted for Bitsy for sure:
Actions count. Vote for Bitsy!
ellaesther
@The Grand Panjandrum: I will absolutely second this! Call your Congress members about Health Care! (I would call mine, but I live in Illinois. The Democrats from Obama-land are a-right).
And then vote for Bitsy!
Honestly, these are two ways that we can make a real, verifiable difference in the world. Ah, I love the smell of tikkun olam in the morning! (“repairing the world” — sorry. I’m a geeky Jew).
And @jibeaux: Seriously? At the Waldorf schools? That is just stunning to me! Wow. Just when you think you know your crunchy granola! I wonder what the rationale is…. (Damn it now I have to go research something! Oh geekiness, you are a cruel and demanding taskmistress, you are!)
Omnes Omnibus
Bitsy is at 2605.
ellaesther
(Ok, the following is awaiting moderation, I’m guessing because I linked to two comments + two URLs. So, I will remove the links, as you can find them elsewhere on this thread!)
@The Grand Panjandrum: I will absolutely second this! Call your Congress members about Health Care! (I would call mine, but I live in Illinois. The Democrats from Obama-land are a-right).
And then vote for Bitsy!
Honestly, these are two ways that we can make a real, verifiable difference in the world. Ah, I love the smell of tikkun olam in the morning! (“repairing the world”—sorry. I’m a geeky Jew).
And @jibeaux: Seriously? At the Waldorf schools? That is just stunning to me! Wow. Just when you think you know your crunchy granola! I wonder what the rationale is…. (Damn it now I have to go research something! Oh geekiness, you are a cruel and demanding taskmistress, you are!)
R-Jud
@joes527:
The most maddening member of the Revolutionary generation, hands down. On the one hand, a polymath whose breadth of curiosity and learning is truly humbling. On the other, a slave-owning aristocrat who couldn’t bear the encroachment of reality on the beautifully formed structures in his mind, even when his denials, in practice, led to terrible policies. Adams, at least, never owned slaves (which is more than can be said for Benjamin “Hey-Baby-Pull-My-Finger” Franklin).
They’re fascinating guys.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W:
Douchebecks.
joes527
@geg6:
I agree 100%. It seems that all of the founding fathers were brilliant and insufferable.
In some ways my favourite is Hamilton because he was the only one who would be an asshole to your face as well as behind your back. At least that’s honest.
But Burr didn’t care for it.
jibeaux
@ellaesther:
Agreed.
Wait, I can still tease Tunch, though, right?
Violet
@R-Jud:
They really are. The Revolutionary period of American history is my favorite. I also love the Enlightenment period of history. Don’t think the American Revolution would be possible without the Enlightenment.
The Founding Fathers of our country were fascinating. I don’t think the people who bandy about their names these days have much idea of what they really thought and how they really lived.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
I think too many people really don’t care about global warming because many of them probably believe that they will be dead and gone before things get bad, thus the problem is not theirs to deal with. They probably figure their kids generation will deal with the crisis like other generations have dealt with various other crises. There just isn’t the urgency there, much like our government burying future generations in debt that they have no say over now.
I hear ‘think of the children’ in its various forms in the news, but the people saying it are usually mouthing the words with no sincerity. It’s easy to say but harder to follow through with. That is why I think the government should take the lead on this issue. People can be shortsighted in seeking immediate rewards at the lowest cost and that is why I believe that the government should work to keep the country from self-destructing by preventing the pollution of our environment from coast to coast in the name of profit and lower costs.
The problem is that this kind of problem requires real leadership, responsible leadership, something that has been sorely lacking in Washington for decades. Like everything else in our country, cash is what makes the political world run and it has corrupted our government. It is nearly impossible to expect leadership from our politicians when they are bought and paid for by corporations and financial institutions. Voters are deliberately misled or kept in the
How are voters supposed to know what is happening with the crap media we have today? How in the hell can you have an informed electorate when the shit they are fed isn’t fit for consumption? The media runs the lies they are fed, almost always going unchallenged, and call it ‘news’. If it doesn’t provide a clear answer to the issue being addressed then it is wasted time. When two sides are being presented with one being sane and the other screaming batshit insane, then it is less than worthless. The news bobbleheads just sit there, nodding sagely as if both sides are presenting fair points to debate, asking questions that are intended to push the ‘storyline’ of the moment. Then, as John Stewart noted, they say that they ‘have to leave it there’. You are basically given two stories and have to decide which one is right, if there even is a right one. This isn’t news, it is unchallenged opinions being presented as facts.
And that’s the ‘news’ outlets that are trying to give all sides a hearing and not render an opinion (yet still doing so by not doing so). How about outright disinformation being presented as news? I am glad this White House is calling out Faux News, it’s about fucking time that it is pointed out that they are part of the propaganda wing of the RNC. Faux is opinion, not news, end of story.
Everything is falling apart, our jobs, our economy, our environment, and all these ‘news’ outlets do is successfully muddy the waters so nobody knows what the fuck is going on, what is right or wrong and what can be done about it. Which is exactly what the big businesses who own them want them to do. It’s how they win.
Divide and conquer, and man are we ever divided.
jibeaux
@ellaesther:
I can’t find anything about that philosophy on the interwebs, so that may or may not be an official practice of theirs. But the teacher reported on her efforts at doing so, as part of explaining the practices at a Waldorf school, at a preschool open house. I thought that was the strangest thing. Maybe she’s a rogue teacher or has misinterpreted something, though.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Oops! Should read:
Eh, it’s a rant. ;)
Omnes Omnibus
@R-Jud: Add in that that in their opposition to the (admittedly appalling) Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson and Madison promulgated the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions which argued that the states should nullify the Acts. The compact theory on which they based the K and V Resolutions is the same one that the Confederate States used to justify secession.
Leelee for Obama
@ellaesther: Never apologize for tikkun olam. it may be the only thing to save us and I love the sound of it! I remember the first time I heard it on BookTV, and it just made me feel right with the world.
It’s the same with the line in Schindler’s List-he who saves one life, saves the world entire. A mitzvah, for certain!
Napoleon
@R-Jud:
That is why I have always felt he is more then any other of his generation the perfect embodiment of all that is good and bad with our country.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Oops again but screw it…lol
Must inject more coffee and smoke a few bowls…
ellaesther
@jibeaux: Certainly! Cats are superior to us in every way and know it — they care not for our trifling “words.”
jibeaux
Oh wait, I did. (at the bottom) This is from a website that seems pretty dedicated to criticism of Waldorf schools, so take that as you will. But this bit from wikipedia:
Is also wacky as all hell. I don’t think medieval medicine needs to have a great deal of replication in modern elementary school education, frankly.
Comrade Mary
@Laura W: BOB said something sufficiently vile yesterday to get his comment deleted so quickly I didn’t have a chance to read it. I suspect another ban is in place.
flukebucket
@Dork: The last time I saw Candy on television she had lost a tremendous amount of weight. Maybe she has it figured out now.
R-Jud
@Violet:
Not even a little bit.
Have you read Maria Kalman’s occasional blog over at the NYT? Her chronicle of a visit to Monticello is beautiful. Ditto her entry on Ben Franklin (who, as a gal raised in eastern PA, I am obliged to love in spite of his many flaws).
Hasty edit: @ Napoleon: “That is why I have always felt [TJ] is more then any other of his generation the perfect embodiment of all that is good and bad with our country.”
Agreed. If you study his life, his thoughts, and his presidency, you can see parallels between the split in his head and the splits that have plagued our national character (or spiced it up) since the beginning.
Ptirebiter
Wolcott has A-listed Bitsy this morning with a link at Vanity Fair.
Leelee for Obama
@jibeaux: The only thing I know about Waldorf is their adorable dolls and their arts and crafts emphasis, using natural materials and supplies. The curriculum sounds out there. Nothing wrong with finding out how a mind learns, but Myers-Briggs would do the same thing and leave out the Alchemist ideas.
Laura W
@Ptirebiter:I assume you mean the one from yesterday afternoon we’ve all had seizures over since it was brought to our attention? Unless there is an update today?
How does one thank him directly? No comments, no email? But I did not search further than his page. Wonder if John front paged Wolcott’s support in the next Bitsy Bleg and linked to it would it entice any other highly visible bloggers/pundits/networks to get on board in the final hours?
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
Had not checked here in a day and just perused the lost Tunch thread. For some reason, Tom Hanks in Cast Away came to mind with Tunch as Wilson the volleyball!
geg6
@R-Jud:
Agreed. I can never read enough about them. I have entire shelves on my bookcases devoted to Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin. As for Adams, I’ve read McCullough’s book (very well done, as all his stuff is), but I find Abigail much more interesting than he. The only other political figures for whom I have entire shelves devoted to are Churchill and Roosevelt (Franklin, that is). Also very interesting people. My favorite quotes of all time are from Churchill:
We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm.
And at a dinner party where the discussion was of the scandal in the last century regarding Lady Caroline Lamb and Lord Byron:
Caroline Lamb. God damn.
LOL!
Violet
@R-Jud:
Oh, that Monticello entry is beautiful. I just love Jefferson, for all his many flaws. Equally I love Ben Franklin. I would have been one of those women flirting with him, even though he was a total dog. I get his appeal.
geg6
@joes527:
Agree wholeheartedly. He was an ass, but he was totally up front about it. And our current GOPers with their extramarital dalliances could learn and thing or two from him about how to handle these bimbo eruptions. But they don’t read, so…
slag
@ellaesther:
Call yours anyway. I called mine even though they’re pretty reliable. I just wanted to remind them that I care. It was easy enough and made me feel at least minimally useful.
Violet
@Laura W:
I’m sure John is exhausted after Tunch’s Great Escape last night, but I hope he sees the Wolcott post and front pages it with another Bitsy bleg.
I wish Sully would pick up on it. He loves his beagles so much, I’d like to think he’d be open to helping an animal rescue. He’s not above asking people to vote for things. And he’s got a massive audience.
Question – is the site re-do finished or still in progress? I’ve recently switched to Firefox and the Edit option is gone. I had it with IE, but not with Firefox.
geg6
@Violet:
jibeaux
@Leelee for Obama:
I’m ornery about Myers-Briggs, too, honestly, although it has a lot more merit that the four humours. Questions like, “do you prefer to plan your day, or do you prefer to be spontaneous about what you will do?” just rub me the wrong way. Sure, I’d love to just wake up and decide to bake raisin bread and play with play-doh all day, but I have to go do my job and earn money and then I have to go to my son’s piano lesson and then it’s the grocery store, etc. Planning my days is a matter of survival, not preference, and the weekends aren’t much better. And then half of the questions I overanalyze because they’re so dependent on the context and so I don’t know how to give a multiple choice answer. Sometimes I think it would be more revealing to analyze personality based on how someone takes the Myers-Briggs test, you could watch through a one-way mirror…
Violet
@geg6:
LOL. I would have been a little less forward physically, but the suggestive words and looks would have been cranked up to eleven. I’ve always had a weakness for smart, funny men.
MikeJ
Was Wolcott not coming up with the word “precedent” for some sort of comic effect I just did get?
Violet
Urghhh. Rufus is pulling away from Bitsy again. Vote, vote, vote!
Morbo
Ha, check out more ridiculous contrarianism from Superfreakonomics, this time with extra glibertarianism thrown in. With such awesome pay and so few hours worked, why don’t more women choose to become prostitutes? Because 40 hour per week work is for suckers!
The Ace Tomato Company
The Broncos are the single best team ever to grace international sport for the past 5000 years. McDaniels is Jesus turned up to 11 to the millionth power.
Looks like negotiations with Iran are bearing fruit too, but that’s not nearly as important as a 6-0 start by Denver. Will Obama ever learn?
PS – My spell check still doesn’t recognize “Obama.”
Leelee for Obama
@jibeaux: Yeah, I know there is a contextual problem, but when I took mine-I just free-wheeled. My sister had me take it for shits and giggles about 15 years ago. It was late in life, but what was interesting was how spot-on it turned out to be. Don’t even remember what my findings were, because it read me like an open book so I just put the papers away-SOMEWHERE!
geg6
Another reason that I love Al Franken. Watch the video:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/21/al-franken-grills-hudson/
Leelee for Obama
@The Ace Tomato Company: Neither does mine. I take great pleasure in giving spell-check a Bronx cheer every time. It’s like coloring outside the lines in Catholic school.
The Moar You Know
@joes527: Just finished it. You are quite correct in saying that the media of their day makes even Glenn Beck off his meds look like a sane, judicious, Pulitzer-worthy reporter.
And yeah, if we could survive the craziness and psychotic self-obsession of both Adams and Jefferson, we should get through this current rough patch in our history just fine.
ericblair
If you want to keep up with the Orly Taitz Disbarment 2009 Tour, here you go. Our intrepid polymath wunderkind has filed another Freemasons-are-poisoning-the-well screed after being fined twenty big ones. Let’s see the judge give the wheel a big spin and find out what she gets now!
Morbo
@The Ace Tomato Company: You just don’t understand football, T.A.T.C. Nah, just kidding, they’re solid.
Svensker
@SenyorDave:
We “lefties” were told to sit down and shut up on Lieberman because even tho he is a war monger, it didn’t matter because he is “with us on everything else.”
Apparently not.
joes527
@ericblair:
Hang on. In the first sentence she is up to 180% of her argument? Orly! You aren’t supposed to bring teh crazy ’till the SECOND sentence.
jurassicpork
Republicans Block “Halt Assault, Rape, Murder, Evisceration and Dismemberment” bill.
jibeaux
@Leelee for Obama:
A lot of people swear by it. In my case I think it just doesn’t measure ornerniness enough, it’s such an important component of my personality!
The Ace Tomato Company
@Morbo:
Your link disparaged John Elway! Heretic!
You can take your hostile alien-news anchor-ass and shove it!
Nixon loving bastard :-p
The Saff
@geg6: That was awesome. I like how he was prepared for the witness’s follow up regarding cancer survivability rates. Paul Wellstone is somewhere in the ever-after smiling brightly.
Chad N Freude
@geg6: The really ominous thing about this is the blithe tossing out of false statements with the expectation that no one will ask “How do you know that”? I wish Franken had followed up with “Why did you make that claim if you didn’t know the numbers?”
Chad N Freude
For the Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton Fan Club, I recommend A Magnificent Catastrophe by Edward J. Larson. It was from this book that I learned that Jefferson was the 18th century equivalent of a DFH and thought the French Revolution was really cool.
Larson also wrote “Summer For the Gods”, an excellent book about the Scopes trial.
Paul L.
Mea Culpa John?
It’s Called Common Sense, McCormack
Scozzfava Campaign Retracts Lie About Weekly Standard Reporter
katiemc
@Violet:
As a long time reader/lurker I thought I would come out of hiding to say I just voted for Bitsy- I feel I have done my part…carry on!
joes527
@Chad N Freude: Jefferson a DFH? I’m not seeing it.
OK,
* He was one of the less god-talking FF’s (he did create his own version of the bible, removing all the parts that bothered him.)
* He hated bankers and industrialists. The fact that he spent his life in debt due to his whole “I buy what I see” mentality may have played a part in this hatred.
* He was all “Power to the People!” in his rhetoric.
OTOH
* He was a wealthy landowner. (both wealthy and in constantly debt (living within your means is for suckers))
* He was a slave owner, and frankly, one of the most personally untroubled by the whole slave thing amongst the FFs. His public statements were clear that slavery was a great evil, but that public rhetoric didn’t seem to get through to the private Jefferson. He was, if anything, a more content slave owner as time passed. This in contrast with Washington, who was also a slave owner till the day he died, but struggled with it more and more as he grew older.
* He was an industrialist. (Yes, he hated industrialists. Go figure)
* He was a bit of a dandy, even amongst the FF’s with his powdered wigs and frilly shirts. His shows of austerity were just that, shows. He lived in luxury whenever he wasn’t making a point of rubbing folks’ noses in his simplicity.
There is no question that Jefferson talked a good game, and I can see equating his rhetoric with DFH.
But Jefferson’s rhetoric wasn’t the man.
Steeplejack
Just voted for Bitsy and put her up to 2,765. You go, girl!
Feeling out of it today. We did inventory in my department at the part-time store gig last night, a drawn-out procedure (until 2:00 a.m.) that combines the best of modern computer scanning technology with 19th-century green-eyeshades-and-sleeve-garters nitpicking. Good times.
Was glad that when I got home and checked into Balloon Juice the Tunch affair had been resolved. The helicopters were not laughing. I have had cats go MIA, and it is a horrible experience.
Don’t know why I’m so tired, since I ended up staying up not much later than I normally do after a normal late shift at the part-time gig (health insurance, yay, yeah, whatever). Anyway, I don’t have to work today, and I don’t have any big software projects on my plate, so today is a mini-weekend day. And it’s 70° and breezy in D.C., so I need to get out into that.
Oh, for anyone who is interested in the Barnes & Noble Nook, here’s a link. It looks interesting, except for the dorky name. (But then “Kindle” is not so great either.) The Nook has a removable battery, so you can carry multiples, if you need to, you can expand the memory via microSD card slot, it’s WiFi-enabled (802.11b/g) and it plays PDF and MP3 files. It costs $259. I’m looking forward to fondling one in person.
Steeplejack
@MikeJ:
Not nitpicky. I am surprised how many Web pages I go to where the date of the story is not clearly indicated, and you have to infer it from the file name or the time stamps on the comments. Sometimes you can’t even do that.
Balloon Juice stories do have the month and date at the top of the post when they are “live.” I thought this was not the case with the archives, but I just checked a couple of old threads from June that I bookmarked, and they also have the month and date. I think this might be new. You still have to scroll down to the comments to see the year, but that’s not such a big deal.
Maybe I’m not sure what you mean by “story template.”
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
The teabag truck nuts were a particularly nice touch.
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
Real Americans.
sylvia
Thanks again all of you for your Little Bitsy votes!!
It’s really starting to go to her head – she is sleeping in the middle of the bed- under the covers with her head on the pillow. Really – she thinks she’s special.
Sylvia (begging for votes!)
asiangrrlMN
@Violet: Apparently, according to a Facebook quiz, I AM Benjamin Franklin.
@jibeaux: They don’t let the younger students at Waldorf use black crayons because black is a negative or dead color. They explain it in the link I provided.
That alone would be enough to stop me from sending my imaginary kids to Waldorf. Or, I would stock them up with black crayons and tell them to use ’em to their hearts’ content. And, if black is a dead color, does that mean my hair is dead? How the fuck would my imaginary daughter be able to color her hair if she didn’t have a black crayon? Or her imaginary clothing?
Fucking bullshit. My imaginary kid would have the black market on black crayons.
asiangrrlMN
@sylvia: She is special. I really hope she wins this week.
sylvia
@asiangrrlMN
Me Too!!!
Violet
@katiemc:
Yay! The more voters the merrier! Thanks for voting and welcome!
Violet
@sylvia:
LOL. I wonder if she knows somehow. Lucky girl, getting to sleep under the covers.
I’m working hard to recruit some new people. That’s the key this week, I think. All the new folks we can get. And keep them voting.
RedKitten
@Jack:
Right there, that explains what is weird about the mindset of a lot of right-wingers. They’ve got such a persecution complex that they insist on viewing everything through the filter of ideology.