I don’t understand what Loko is or why we should want to ban it or why we should be mad that other people want to ban it, but I do know this: if you outlaw Four Loko, only outlaws will drink Four Loko.
Consider this an open thread.
Update. Name that tune at cleek’s!
Violet
Transport Canada on new US airport security regulations. I guess this is how the rest of the world sees us. Not too far off.
jeffreyw
Mmm…sammich
General Stuck
FDIC launches 50 criminal investigations into bankers
Jump, You Fuckers!!
If Obama wasn’t such a corporatist sellout, this would have happened sooner, but why? Shut the fuck up, that’s why!
obligatory puma troll protection.
arguingwithsignposts
@General Stuck:
Pretend I just wrote 15 paragraphs about how Obama is a sellout and you are all obots. I’m too tired for this PUMA stuff. Plus – thanksgiving week coming! My TSA grope is awaiting me!
Citizen_X
@Violet: Rick Mercer FTW!
Zam
@jeffreyw: I had a tuna BLT that was pretty good tonight.
urizon
Let’s just hope they don’t accidentally outlaw Cuba Libres.
jeffreyw
@Zam:
Mmm…tuna on sesame crackers.
Nick
someone want to decipher this nonsense:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/11/17/5484535-post-election-public-hopes-for-change-expects-more-of-the-same
pattonbt
Man, there are days I really hate being on the other side of the planet. I miss some of the good rants and pissing matches.
I love this place – Obots and Firebaggers and all.
Oh, except for Church Lady. She sucks.
El Cruzado
Hyper caffeinated, drunk outlaws at that. Nothing could go wrong with that, could it?
BR
@General Stuck:
In that vein, let me promote the new documentary Inside Job. It’s a must-see. No real other way to describe it.
MikeJ
Almost last chance for name that tune at cleek‘s.
PurpleGirl
Everyone HAS TO GO to Krugman’s blog and watch the video at “Austerity in Action.” I’m still laughing…
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/
Nylund
@urizon:
In Miami, they don’t call it a Cuba Libre, they call it La Mentira (the lie).
BR
Btw, I’m not sure if anyone followed up on this, but the veto override vote failed on the Interstate Notarization bankster bill. And of course, almost every single Republican tried to override Obama’s veto because they a) hate Obama and b) love banksters.
Here’s the vote breakdown:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2010-573
SiubhanDuinne
I never even heard of it until they told me I couldn’t have it. Now I want it.
Suffern ACE
@Nick: I can take a stab at that. For some reason, people always respond that Congress is the least popular of the major political institutions and have done so as long as I can remember. People hate Congress. It is very unpopular. Yet they want it to set the policy agenda… possibly because they think that Congress could perform so much better than it has and would like it more if it does. Surprisingly, this would mean that the idea of the unitary executive is not really all that established outside of neo-con policy circles and they don’t see the President as the Country’s Boss.
frosty
@General Stuck:
B-but, wasn’t that the business plan? Seriously, how else do you explain robo-notaries?
Dennis SGMM
@General Stuck:
Give it the fuck up. They’re going after the Vice President for ashtrays at the First National Bank of Podunk. It’s two years on and Obama’s DOJ has yet to prosecute one single Wall Street type or even anyone from Countrywide. You’re a mirror image of Hillaryis44.
Brick Oven Bill
I would like to discuss combinations.
It makes no sense to mix caffeine and alcohol. Caffeine is for the morning to perk you up, and alcohol is for the evening to refresh the mind, or to cope with a nagging female.
Now onto a different combination. I recently filled a customer order which to most people at The Facility would make no sense. Into this box went four or five doggie treats, and one butt-plug. But I read Balloon Juice, and completely understood, although I remain somewhat concerned nonetheless.
Mostly for the dog.
Svensker
@Violet:
LOL. Or should we cry?
SiubhanDuinne
@Nick #9:
Okay, follow along with me here:
68, 61-33, 60-36, 73, 76, 67, 45, 47, 43, 27, 63, 64, 28, 46, 39, 52-39, 39, 1994, 2006, 30, 21, September 11, 47, 47.
How hard is that?
freelancer
Wow. Anyone else head over heels in love with Rachel Maddow right now? I love that she’s getting down to first principles, explaining the difference between Beltway stenography and journalism. On top of revealing herself in the past few weeks as a Skeptic.
Swoon/slow clap, ma’am.
freelancer
@SiubhanDuinne:
The philosophy of toddlers…and Ayn Rand devotees.
Katie
Murkowski emerges as winner in Alaska Senate race; Miller not conceding
ruemara
@Nick:
Americans are kinda nuts.
@freelancer:
Do not swoon over mah woman! She knows, I’m the only one for her. I wonder how she feels about chocolate love?
FlipYrWhig
@Suffern ACE: I think you’re right. People like the idea/idealization of a Congress, comprised of members of both parties, knocking off the bullshit and meeting in the middle to come up with practical solutions to serious problems. They hate the way that actually-existing Congresses consistently fail to live up to this image.
@Nick:
This, to me, is killer. Think of how often we hear–and lodge–criticisms about how Democrats compromise too often and too easily, proving themselves to be wussies, etc. Now look at what self-identified Democrats say they want. In that light, it’s not too surprising that Democratic politicians position themselves over and over and over again as… compromisers. It’s beyond irritating for us to watch, because we fall towards the left end of the political distribution. But, you know, there aren’t that many of us out here, and that probably has something to do with the party’s actions.
Rod Majors
I bought a 4-LoKo just to see what all the fuss was about. Tastes like old coffee mixed with Hawaiian Punch and a shot of some cheap liquor. Nothing to see here. I can see why people would pound them and thus end up in the ER…it tastes like crap.
MikeJ
@SiubhanDuinne: Wait, I just watched ep 2 of Sherlock this afternoon. First we need the right book…
Roger Moore
@General Stuck:
Heads on pikes! Torches and rusty pitchforks!
MikeJ
@Roger Moore: If they would just jump it would save a lot of wear and tear on my pike.
Roger Moore
@Nick:
Cause and effect is a sissy liberal plot.
freelancer
@ruemara:
Seeing as how she’s pretty much de facto married and happy with her partner/gf Susan, I think she’s about as likely to go for “chocolate” love as she is to go for my “lanky, white, straight guy, but I kind of look like you” love. (I’m 6′ 1′, have jet black dark hair, and wear black framed glasses and wear adidas sneakers with everything.)
SiubhanDuinne
@freelancer #25:
There goes *my* cover.
jayackroyd
I understand the argument about freedom to drink irish coffee or vodka and Red Bull. But I wish that the front pagers would at least address the argument being made for the ban–that these drinks are directed at young teenagers. I mean, cigarettes are legal, but the whole Joe Camel thing was kinda unseemly, wasn’t it?
Again, I am not saying the ban is right, but I would like to hear an argument why the people who say that finding these drinks in your local bodega (okay, MY local bodega, your local 7-11) next to Arizona Iced Tea means that some kids are gonna end up drunker than they are ready to handle.
Roger Moore
@freelancer:
You’re repeating yourself.
Left Coast Tom
Four Loko doesn’t sound like something I’d ever buy.
That said, I’m having a real hard time grokking the concept of an “energy drink” whose ABV is on the low end of table wine. The whole thing seems ridiculous, except for my suspicion that marketing to minors is a major reason for the ridiculousness (I actually think we’d be better off with parents introducing their kids to the idea of having wine with meals, that’s not what this is about). Apart from marketing to minors, the rest seems like “sound and fury, signifying nothing”.
ruemara
@freelancer:
How you doing’? This bi thing is more convenient than I thought.
SiubhanDuinne
@ruemara: As Woody Allen said, it doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.
cleek
bring it, bitches.
General Stuck
@Dennis SGMM:
Like I said, some puma would say just what you said. And I don’t care, stew in that firebag juice if you choose.
Trueblood
I first heard of Four Loko because of those kids in Washington who all got sick off it. A couple days later I was at a local v&d waiting in line for a sandwich, when I glanced into the drink cooler and saw these giant cans in bright colors: Four Loko, Joose, I think at least one more brand. A couple other commentators mentioned it already: these are definitely designed to appeal to teenagers/young college students (read: people not of legal drinking age in America). I was tempted to buy one, but I figured it would taste like crap if I was lucky, and I don’t have any desire to drink a 12% abv caffeinated-malt-beverage. My 18-year-old brother, upon hearing that they were banning the sale of such drinks, called me and asked me to buy a bunch- yeah I don’t think that’s happening.
MikeJ
@cleek: DougJ couldn’t d/l 13 & 14.
DougJ: I’m guessing you’re using chrome. Try a different browser.
hamletta
@jayackroyd: That’s my line of thinking, too. It’s really a beverage only a kid could love.
jayackroyd
@hamletta:
It’s not even necessarily my line of the thinking. But it is the line of thinking of the people who want to ban it. Seems to me that if you are going to disagree with the ban, you have to engage that argument.
Triassic Sands
@Katie:
I wish I could really celebrate Miller’s loss — so richly deserved, but the actual winner is only cause for relative happiness.
Still, the people of Alaska have truly amazed me. The idea that someone could actually pull off a write-in campaign today is pretty amazing. And from all accounts, Alaskans did a good job of spelling her name correctly, something I find difficult to believe.
Relativity aside, I’m still damn glad Miller lost. Murkowski can be considered a “moderate” Republican by today’s standards — though that means little in a party that has gone utterly insane, but Miller is a dangerous thug
Morbo
@Left Coast Tom: Why not make that what this is about? Not a completely perfect data set match, but Wikipedia (cite: Harvard) reports binge drinking among American college students at 44% having participated at least once in the previous two weeks. Meanwhile in Europe (Germany’s DHS), 24% of people aged 15-24 reported binge drinking at least once a week in 2006. By way of comparison, age at first drink of alcohol for Americans in 2002 was estimated at 16.2 years old. Europe: 12 1/2 years old. Correlation does not mean causality of course, but your belief is probably not completely unfounded.
Left Coast Tom
@Morbo: My referent for “this” was the Four Lokos related…stuff…my suspicion is that Four Lokos is intended to feed off our failure to treat alcoholic beverages as a reasonably enjoyable fact of life to which responsible adults should be able to introduce their own children in an appropriate context (e.g.: meals). I think there’s a sensible case to ban Four Lokos…not because of some magical combination of substances, but because it appears plainly marketed to minors in an inappropriate context.
scav
Well, true libertarians know that because people won’t wash their hands before cooking, there’s no reason to regulate keeping fecal matter out of the strawberries and spinach. Wouldn’t want to contaminate the purity of our belief systems now, would we? !
Suck It Up!
@Nick:
Confirms my belief that liberals are more out of touch than they’d like to admit.
Katie
@Triassic Sands:
You do have a point, however I know from personal experience that Murkowski *does* listen when she hears from constituents, and she’s very accessible. She was a very moderate republican when she was a state senator, and only did the harder right turn when she went to the US Senate. I’m hoping/expecting that she returns to her more moderate stance after she got zero support from the republicans after the primary (as it should be I guess). She’s nothing like her father who I detested.
Besides anyone that Sarah Palin hates as much as she hates Lisa can’t be all bad!
I liked McAdams but couldn’t help but feel he wasn’t quite ready for prime time.
Ailuridae
@freelancer:
Where’s that Paul Samuelson quote I can never find when I need it?
Ailuridae +1 (Harpoon IPA)
Matt Mangels
I think a lot of you are missing the main issue. Yeah, maybe these drinks are specifically being marketed to teenagers/college students. A totally baseless accusation that can’t be proven, but let’s assume it is true. We still need to focus on the real issue that is making so many of this country’s young people have problems with drinking in the first place: our absurdly high drinking age.
Triassic Sands
@Katie:
Katie, you sound like you’re living in Alaska. Did you write in Murkowski’s name? Don’t worry, I won’t hate you or call you names if you did. It seemed pretty clear that McAdams had no chance of winning and faced with the specter of Miller, Murkowski looks a whole lot better. Not being from Alaska, I can’t honestly say what I would have done.
I ran through a thought experiment repeatedly with the Nevada race. I despise Harry Reid and I honestly don’t know if I could bring myself to vote for him. Then, along came Angle and I found myself thinking, OK, if the Dems are definitely going to keep the Senate without Reid’s seat, then I won’t vote for him. But if there is a good chance they’ll need his seat to keep the majority, I’ll take a whole bottle of anti-emetics and (trembling) vote for him, knowing I’ll feel terrible about it the rest of my life.
At the same time Angle horrified me, I also desperately want Reid out as Majority Leader and the only way that is going to happen, short of death, is for him to lose. So, I thought, if Reid loses, the Dems will get to choose a new leader, Angle will go to Washington and make a complete fool of herself, and in six years she’ll be ripe for defeat.
The truth is I’m incredibly glad I didn’t have to make a choice about Reid.
Your point about Murkowski becoming more conservative once she got to Washington is not surprising. There seems to be tremendous pressure on Republican senators to toe the line and the whole party has pretty much jumped head first into the abyss in the last decade. A new, moderate Republican senator isn’t going to have much company. Brown from Mass. gets a pass because he’s from Mass., but I don’t see Mitch McConnell saying to Murkowski, gee, Hon, you’re from such a liberal state, I’ll cut you some slack.
This time around, I think the Republicans will be nice to her and she’ll fall back in place. Power is all that matters and she’s one vote.