Speaking of Ann Romney and her little ponies, she was the target a lawsuit, along with the trainers of her last horse, that alleged that her trainers had given the invisible hand a little chemical assistance:
Soule, who has been the United States Equestrian Team veterinarian since 1978, writes, “In my 38 years of practice, I have never come across a drug screen such as this where the horse has been administered so many different medications at the same time.” The horse had a defect in its foot, and Norris’s lawyers alleged that the Ebelings had drugged the horse in order to hide its condition.
Romney settled out of court, so, as Glenn Kessler would say, it’s ancient history.
Baud
The horse had a defect in its foot, and Norris’s lawyers alleged that the Ebelings had drugged the horse in order to hide its condition.
I think we are starting to get some insight into Romney’s vision for the future of health care in the US.
Applejinx
ARGH NOOO DASHIE
Wait, what? If Ann Romney is getting Rainbow Dash stoned, who is responsible for swapping the pictures out with a picture of Cloudchaser and Flitter?
…
what, you thought it was just the Magical Unity Pony around here?
Glacial Till
I don’t begrudge Ann Romney owning horses but, it’s an extravagant way to rub one out.
“You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie.”
Cargo
That pic was from the episode where Fluttershy was afraid to fly because she was teased as a filly, but the other pegasi needed her wingpower to help create a waterspout up to Cloudsdale in time for the rainy season.
sorry, i’m so sorry
LittlePig
“No, no, Mrs. Romney! Just because it was called ‘horse’ once upon a time doesn’t mean it is horse medicine!”
Yutsano
@Cargo: For what? There be bronies about these parts. Plus Lauren Faust is a fucking genius.
TheMightyTrowel
@Cargo: you don’t even want to know the conversation i had last month with a new friend about the intricacies of plotting in the 3rd season of x-files. I still feel ashamed about that.
SiubhanDuinne
@Applejinx:
@Cargo:
Rainbow dash? Flitter? Cloudchaser? Fluttershy? Who ARE you people and what have you done with the Juicerati?
HL_guy
My Google-ad is for Warhorse (B’way version).
That’s why the internet rules.
It’s interesting that the Romneys will report a loss on a horse for tax purposes, but won’t actually take a loss on a horse in a sale when its market value declines.
jl
@Cargo:
” That pic was from the episode where Fluttershy was afraid to fly because she was teased as a filly, but the other pegasi needed her wingpower to help create a waterspout up to Cloudsdale in time for the rainy season. ”
Yeah, you should feel sorry.
How did it turn out? What happened? Spill!
Edit: And what was Fluttershy on? It looks good.
shortstop
Maybe ornery curmudgeon can explain to us why not approving of people drugging the shit out of horses in order to defraud buyers is hating on equines and will lose us millions of votes.
Cargo
@jl: You’ll have to watch the episode! :)
ornery_curmudgeon
Haha! You know who else hated horses: the f’ing Commies … who killed their best horse bloodlines (‘elitist’ doncha know) and destroyed Russia’s once-great legacy of horsemanship. Cuz rich folks liked ’em!
So now you FP’ers and company come out like dirty leftist scum. Thank you for showing the world how your vision of the world is so ignorant and smug. Thank you for proving the fox f’ing news version of the Democratic base.
It will save me time and money working for ‘our’ side. Damn you are a stupid smug hack, mrmix.
shortstop
@ornery_curmudgeon: Okay, now we know you’re a parody.
Valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Big grin, once again you and I are on the same wavelenght!
jl
@Cargo:
Damn you.
SiubhanDuinne
@Valdivia: LOL, glad to hear it because I just know I’m about to get flamed good and hard :-)
ornery_curmudgeon
@shortstop: @shortstop:
Yeah, people tend to remember things that bug them but are true.
You shortstuff? Fuck if I can remember you or anything you’ve ever said.
I just hate losing elections because of the smug dipshitedness of ‘our side.’ It’s not like there wasn’t PLENTY of issues to attack Romney about, you cowards just picked something you thought was weak and could bully.
gocart mozart
I am rooting for the Romney horse to get the Olympic Gold in Dressage. I think this will help him relate to the common folk. Who’s with me on this?
Yutsano
@ornery_curmudgeon: Still missing the point. Or maybe you could point out some urban dressage leagues.
@SiubhanDuinne: Nope. Bronies love and tolerate. Even those who do not quite understand us.
Valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne:
I got your back girl!
@Yutsano:
so for those of us who don’t know, what is a Bronie?
Applejinx
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m ‘Jinxtigr’, whom ABL enthused over for my explanation of global warming as a largescale chaotic system. (high irony with the fancy mathematics seein’ as I’m basically Applejack as a personality)
And I’m a pony. Deal with it.
Anthony Bourdain is a brony, too. He ate horse on a recent show and started humming the My Little Pony theme and did a voiceover about ‘oh Rainbow Dash, that it should come to this’. Anybody who knows Bourdain at all would realize this is a sign of him LIKING the ponies.
Balloon Juice is a self-selecting gang of miscreants noted for ignoring expectation bias and having fun where it can be had, regardless of what anybody may think. How would it NOT be loaded with bronies?
gocart mozart
Does watching a dressage competition help M.S. sufferers only if they own the horse? If so, this may cause health care costs to skyrocket.
jl
@Applejinx:
OK, fine. What is Fluttershy on, anyway?
SiubhanDuinne
@Applejinx:
‘s cool.
Yutsano
@Valdivia: There are several tales on the origin of the term. But it’s the unintended male fanbase of a show marketed for girls.
SiubhanDuinne
@Valdivia:
Yutsy or Jinx or someone can probably give you a better definition, but as far as I can tell it is short for Brother Pony, e.g. a guy who is obsessed with My Little Pony. I think it is a kind of hipster, post-modern, self-consciously ironic thing, but I’m not one to piss on anybody’s fun.
chopper
@ornery_curmudgeon:
i drug horses and i vote!
Valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Ah thank you. I didn’t even know about the show so now I get to understand what the whole thing is about. Friendly ponies, who am I to get in the way of that either! :)
Josie
@gocart mozart: I know it would just set my common folk heart all aflutter. Think of the pride we would feel in our country’s betters.
Applejinx
@Valdivia: Adult fan of generation 4 ‘My Little Pony’ as reinvented by Lauren Faust.
The big draw for the gen 4 series (which first hit striking acceptance amongst the normally savage denizens of 4chan) is its tone, though the production values are also a big deal. The tone is not so much innocent- the mane cast ponies are contentious snarky little things with striking personalities written consistently well- rather, the key factor is that the show lacks irony and cynicism. It’s intentionally written to be a ‘girl show’ that’s not lame, with distinct feminist undertones that don’t take over but are implicit. A huge number of male bronies see ‘themselves in pony form’ as a female pony with no sense of incongruity, which is not the case with say superhero comic books.
The production animation is phenomenal- it’s done in Flash but the character ‘builds’ are designed so well that it’s hard to find two screenshots of a character that are exactly the same. The characters are given strikingly good acting and animation, and the writing and voice acting are the best in the business, rivalling the old Warner Brothers shorts for effectiveness and timing- it really loses nothing from its Flash origins.
Season One, especially, is wonderful- it’s a picture of a believable and decent world that our hearts are really crying out for after decades of bitter negative media. Season Two includes some amazing extensions on this foundation, like wilder toonier humor in Lesson Zero, and a little Wal-Mart allegory in The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 (not making that up- it really hammers home anticorporatist points, astonishing for what is technically a toy-line franchise show).
Put it this way- there’s a reason this is a thing, OK?
shortstop
@ornery_curmudgeon: Would you say you’re saving money and time “working for our side” only now that we’ve committed this fresh atrocity of opinion, or have you already saved a lot of money and time you’d have spent “working for our side” since the last time you threatened to abandon “your” Democratic party over our faulty recognition of the populism of dressage? If the latter, how much money and time would you say you’ve “saved” so far?
gogol's wife
Would the Bolsheviks really have deliberately killed horses when they needed them desperately for the Civil War (see Isaac Babel)? I thought they were killed off through seven years of WWI, Revolution, and Civil War. I’m no fan of the Bolsheviks, but could this really be true?
jl
Off topic, or maybe not.
More deal, shell game, and sharp dealing from Romney.
The Romney M
odified DreamNightmare Continues Act.What’s Wrong With Mitt’s DREAM Compromise?
Evan McMorris-Santoro June 23 TPM
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/whats-wrong-with-mitts-dream-compromise.php
Some key points in the article:
“You’re basically putting undocumented youth in a corner where they have to choose whether they enlist in the military to continue living a life in the shadows,” said Mayra Hidalgo, an undocumented college graduate planning to seek a graduate degree now under the new White House policy ending deportations of DREAM-eligible youth.
The Washington Post’s Suzy Khimm crunched the numbers and found that Romney’s military-only DREAM plan would only provide a path to citizenship for 1.5% of undocumented youth in the country today.
Cheer said that Romney’s plan might help build up the Armed Forces, but it’s unlikely it would do much to help DREAMers.
“I think in part maybe they’re looking at the particular needs of military,” she said when asked why people favor a military-only option. “I don’t see why it has to be mutually exclusive, why we can’t have both options so that young people can themselves make the choice.”
rikyrah
that picture is HILARIOUS
HILARIOUS!!
Because I have a 3 year old niece, I am cracking up at all the My Little Pony references.
jl
So, why would any example of Romney’s proclivity for con games, scams, deception and bad faith that concerns thousands of dollars or people’s fates or total fricken futures be off limits?
Because it doesn’t involve trivia like fancy mustards, wind surfing, and how often you have gone gun hunting for an appropriately folksy variety of sundry small varmints?
MikeJ
@jl: Romney will offer a new compromise: kids can either enlist in the military or allow rich people to ride them like horses.
Yutsano
@jl:
How quaint. She thinks that’s a happy accident.
shortstop
@gogol’s wife: Probably not. In any case, Bolshies killing horses /= us criticizing Americans for callously drugging lame horses, unless the person arguing the point has been heavily anesthetized him/herself.
Citizen_X
@ornery_curmudgeon:
Teh point, you haz missed it.
shortstop
@MikeJ: Pretty sure that’s what they were doing in that Arizona bathroom champagne bar.
Applejinx
@SiubhanDuinne: Actually it’s the anti ‘hipster, post-modern, self-consciously ironic thing’ but it’s okay, nobody would ever have guessed that. It’s much less self-conscious and not ironic at all. I think we’re all a little tired of irony by now. Poni is an escape from that (as well as a better attitude to have in general).
jl
@Yutsano: I think that phrasing falls in the category of ‘politic’. Or ‘polite sarcasm’
MikeJ
@shortstop: And they probably drugged the “models” there too!
(Who says we can’t stay on topic?)
gbear
When all is said and done, I just can’t bring myself to vote for a guy who doesn’t know what a donut is.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@ornery_curmudgeon:
With his continued War On Horse Drugs, Obama’s even worse than Bush.
jl
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 2 Episode 15 – The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtOdu1WKl00
Wow. Pretty good. I can hardly wait to see how it comes out.
Obviously commie, though.
F it. There goes the weekend.
I can hardly wait until Family Whatever Council denounces it.
You know what else has communist girls skulking around through the countryside, up to commie stuff? Yeah, that’s right. The Girl Scouts.
Valdivia
@Applejinx:
thank you for the explanation. I truly was clueless about any of it, even that the show existed!
As you can see I am not aware of all internet traditions. :)
WereBear
@Applejinx: Must investigate! Thanx.
Yutsano
@Applejinx: The main character is unapologetically smart and studious. Applejack works her butt off at her family’s apple farm. Rarity is a fashion designer yes, but the show demonstrates it as actual work as opposed to dress-up. Rainbow Dash is unapologetically athletic. Pinkie Pie works in a bakery but again it’s not dumbed down or overly cutesy. Fluttershy is kind of a vet/animal rescue sort but again it’s her role. Every one of the Mane Six does actual work. Show me another girl’s show that has that.
Citizen_X
Wait. We’re not in a galactic war against giant space bugs now, are we?
piratedan
@SiubhanDuinne: #7 they’re at the stables….. with shovels
jl
@Citizen_X:
Maybe to fight the Pegasian Amazon threat.
Applejinx
@Yutsano: Not only that- every character has layers beneath the surface (which is why I laud the writing so hard)
Rainbow Dash is a brash tomboy (squeee.. sorry, I’ll continue) but in Sonic Rainboom we see that it’s a front covering up insecurity, and her overcommitting leads to her shivering in a fetal position as her big performance is about to commence (SQUEEEE… sorry, can’t help it. dashie!)
Fluttershy is seemingly a girly, shy, stereotypically airhead oversweet pretty-pony, but in Suited For Success, Rarity’s inability to please her friends’ tastes in clothing leads to her demanding Fluttershy speak openly about her problems with her dress- at which point Fluttershy eviscerates the thing with very insightful and ruthless critique, showing that behind the ‘nice’ mask she’s seeing and analyzing everything!
Pinkie Pie is such a ditz that her ditziness is used as a weapon in the show, but when Twilight doesn’t know what a Sonic Rainboom is, Pinkie hits her with an unexpectedly sharp “You really need to get out more”! She also is the K-Thug of the show, notably in Swarm Of The Century, where she’s figured out the problem from the first instant (something she does alarmingly often) but cannot get her companions to take right action. Her performance when she finally rescues the town singlehoofedly must be seen to be believed, right down to the fed-up, fuck-you-all expression, which is high comedy compared to what she’s actually doing.
Great stuff, and very very ‘Balloon Juice’. Hell, consider all the cute puppy and kitty posting a gateway drug for this ;)
jl
@Applejinx:
What the heck? A My Little Pony Trouble with Tribbles/Sorcerers Apprentice mash up?
MLP: Friendship is Magic: Episode 10 – Swarm of the Century
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3bN5T6iaMA
Edit: Time for a BJ My Little Pony Club! Will give Cole something wholesome to watch, reduce number of deranged late night open threads resulting from junk TV.
Applejinx
@jl:
I think there already is.
Again- SO not surprised. I know this crowd too well, even if I’m usually lurking rather than posting.
Wholesome? Heh. Maybe you don’t know that crowd well enough. Wholesome in the sense of genuinely good and nice people, maybe. That said, what the ponies get up to at times… (chuckle)
Odie Hugh Manatee
Bronies? Here? WTF is this crap? Have the SPUF kidz from the TF2 forum moved over here?
I’m a proud TF2 brony exterminator. If one of them shows up on my server and outs themselves (usually by spamming endless MLP lines and sprays), they DIE!
Very quickly. Over and over again. Once I think they are dead enough, they get kicked If they are dumb enough to return, they DIE again and are banned.
Fuck are they annoying.
Cacti
This is the sort of act that tells you what kind of people the Romneys are.
Rather than take a loss on a piece of chattel that had depreciated below market value, they were willing to defraud a buyer over an amount worth 0.005% of Mitt’s annual income.
Applejinx
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
This isn’t a gamer server. But we’ll tolerate your difficult attitude. ‘Cos we’re just like that ;)
Cacti
@jl:
It’s so cute when they pretend the Goopers are operating in good faith.
The whole point of the “An Army of Juan” Act would be to get desperate non-citizens to volunteer to sacrifice themselves for the next Neocon Excellent Imperial Adventure.
Get the Messicans and Ay-rabs shooting at each other. It’s a racist’s wet dream.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cacti:
You’re right, it’s a telling point.
They love money that much.
Hypatia's Momma
@Applejinx:
Rule 34 and all that, too.
Comrade Mary
Wait — there was once a pony called Dirpy? Really?
Comrade Mary
Ah — Derpy, not Dirpy. This seems to summarize the character’s history and fate.
Hypatia's Momma
@Comrade Mary:
Yes. Derpy. The freakin’ outrage when the character was changed… jeebus.
Comrade Mary
Yeah, from what I can see after viewing a few clips, the old voice really did suggest developmental disabilities. Not cool. And the word “Derp” seems to be the North American equivalent of “Mong“.
jl
@Hypatia’s Momma: Is the commenter troll Derp a Bronie?
Hypatia's Momma
@jl:
I don’t know.
Cargo
Bronies are many things but it’s not ironic, hipster or postmodern. There’s no air quotes around liking MLP, that’s part of what’s so refreshing about it.