Or, well, me:
Love it. I seriously thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for saving that sweet woman and her child.
Why does Wolf Blitzer have a job again?
This post is in: Open Threads
Or, well, me:
Love it. I seriously thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for saving that sweet woman and her child.
Why does Wolf Blitzer have a job again?
Comments are closed.
catclub
Go Spurs, Go!
dewzke
Thanks for posting this. This tool pissed me off today so many times.
SatanicPanic
What Jim Hoft is to the Internet, Wolf Blitzer is to cable TV.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Don’t know if it’s been mentioned yet, the Moore tornado has been upgraded to EF5.
beltane
Atheism aside, I really find all the prayer talk regarding natural disasters to be highly distasteful. Is God supposed to be like a corrupt politician who only acts if the lobbyist meets his asking price. Is it really moral to take the position that “God spared me because I prayed hard and I’m special unlike that child across the street who wasn’t as special as me”. Not all religious people feel this way, but it is the type of piety that is most visible these days.
ranchandsyrup
@SatanicPanic: truer words have never been posted as a comment. I’m stealing that.
? Martin
And the jihad against religion by the godless continues unabated…
Ash Can
LOL!
Yatsuno
@beltane: There are some who constantly believe that Invisible Sky Daddy must always be pleased, and to displease Him is to invite disaster and misfortune upon their lives. But what displeases Him changes so constantly that they really have no idea what to do, so they cling to their pastors and their Bibles and hope it all works out. Allah forbid they try to think for themselves.
Gopher2b
Ha!! Thank you lord for killing me with the F5 tornado you sent directly at my $!%#& house. Jackass.
Poopyman
Smart kid, trying to keep the microphone away from Leslie.
? Martin
Can we cut her pay now? Need an offset for the funds to rebuild that school.
dewzke
Unimportant but why have why comments disappeared from previous threads?
The Dangerman
The woman handled the comment quite well; “people can or people can’t”, it’s all good, and that’s the way it should be.
Poopyman
@Yatsuno: Why are these supposed Christians so fixated on the Old Testament? It’s like they never heard of the New Covenant.
And yeah, I’m an Atheist as well.
? Martin
@dewzke: God needed those electrons elsewhere.
Yatsuno
@Poopyman: I’m actually a theist, I just have enough security in my own faith that I can see the absurdities that atheists see in it. I don’t attempt to rationalise it nor do I expect you to follow in my footsteps.
As to your other part, at least they’re reading the exciting stuff about wars and kids gored by bears on Invisible Sky Daddy’s command. They just choose to ignore the red letters because sounds too much like pinko hippie Communist talk. Plus their preacher never brings it up.
Irish Steel
Excellent tag, John.
dewzke
Fuck Wolf Blitzer.
? Martin
@dewzke: Yeah, no. Not gonna do that. Besides, it would gross Cole out.
El Cruzado
@beltane: Not to mention “thanks for destroying my house and my neighbors for no apparent reason but barely sparing my life. Motherfucker.”
kdaug
And lo, in the “devoutly christian” state of Oklahoma, there yet resides non-believers.
Do fucking tell. And spared, at that.
Did I tell you about the PhD(!) from Glasgow I toted around Austin after Cole left who was amazed we weren’t all fat and wearing cowboy hats?
JCT
@? Martin: I’ll bet she’s in a UNION. Burn her.
NotMax
CNN has gone directly, without passing Go, from tornado reporting to pornado reporting.
Awaiting FOX trying to somehow tie Michael Moore into the town of Moore.
Kristin
That just made my day. I love that lady.
kc
You must be thanking the Lord. Right? I mean you ARE thanking the Lord, aren’t you? DO you thank the Lord?
dantoujours
Well this wishy-washy practising Episcopalian says good for her. She handled his stupidity with grace and dignity.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
So, either:
1. God sent the tornado which killed a bunch of people and allowed an atheist to live.
2. God did not send the tornado but made sure to notify the atheist to do the right thing.
And if either of these is true, then you Christians really have no clue what your God wants.
NotMax
@kdaug
Suggested response: “We are, but today’s our day off.”
Redshirt
Because the truth is there are thousands of Gods, and they are all petty, and so there are disasters and wars and even miracles – it’s all just Gods competing with each other.
SatanicPanic
@ranchandsyrup: Steal away! OT, but our CD is done, it’s up on my blog.
dewzke
@? Martin: Martin, this ‘wolf’ is pathetic…you know what I mean. You should have seen him asking for a group hug earlier…not just odd but pandering.
Roger Moore
Somebody needs to tell Wolf that it’s OK for the people he interviews to praise God for surviving, but it’s really obnoxious for him to bully them into doing it. Maybe they’re atheists like this woman, or maybe they just don’t want to claim God saved them for fear it will make it sound like He killed those elementary school kids. Just let the interviewee tell their story.
beltane
@Yatsuno: It’s the smugness and egotism that offends me, the need to portray these random, horrific events as being part of a plan that is just and good. It has always been the case that bad things happen to good people while good things happen to bad people, and that those who were doomed prayed just as much or as little as those who were spared. When I hear people talk about the effectiveness of their particular prayers I just want to point out their hubris.
Kristin
Of course, I just saw one of the teachers from Plaza Towers Elementary say, “I did something that I probably wasn’t supposed to do. I prayed out loud.”
Cue the wingnut whingers.
Redshirt
Everyone knows Jesus only cares about American sporting events, and who’s scoring/not scoring.
kdaug
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Just waiting for Pat Robertson to tell us who’s to blame.
Punchy
“Fucksaw”? Fo riz? Translate please
BillinGlendaleCA
@kdaug: For Pat, it’s the gays, it’s always the gays.
Yatsuno
@beltane: A lot of religious folk would be better off if they just realised we really don’t have the first fucking clue what God wants. So maybe instead we should just live a good life and take care of one another. You know, like every holy book actually says to do.
@Redshirt: Oklahoma was punished for insufficient Tebowing. And stealing the Sonics. At least I think that’s what you’re saying.
Narcissus
Wolf Blitzer is an undercover alien agent who can’t seem to get “human” right.
In any other environment his creepy weirdness and lack of humanity would be discovered by the populace and he’d be sent packing back to Fribbulus Xax.
In the Village Media world he fits right in.
Gin & Tonic
@kdaug: The queers. It’s always the same.
ranchandsyrup
@SatanicPanic: awesome and congrats! Will check it out.
TCG
I will wait for Pat Robertson to explain why God allowed this non-believing heathen to live when so many good Christians died. Why I’ll bet he even let someone who has Teh Dreaded Gay live as well.
? Martin
@kdaug: Well, it’s obvious that God is punishing Oklahoma for becoming far too tolerant of gays. For all we know that lesbian epidemic in the school bathrooms is still growing out of control.
mai naem
I find this clip freaking hilarious. Wolf trying to recover. Hee hee.
@? Martin: Well, she did it because she wasn’t a union teacher. It would have against the rules for a unionized teacher to do that. Heard that on Mornin’ Ho today.
Also too, I hope the parents in that Plaza school sue the sheet out of the school system for not having adequate shelters if that’s what it ends up being. That is freaking bullshit. You send you kid to a school in a tornado prone area, you have a right to expect there to be adequate shelter.
Yatsuno
@Gin & Tonic: He actually spoke. It was insuficient prayer. I saw a link for it (Imani found it) but can’t link to it at work. I’ll dig it up when I get home.
? Martin
@Narcissus:
Same planet as Mitt Romney or different one?
Fluke bucket
Wonderful tag
jshooper
I can’t get over the irony of them standing in front of a gigantic pile of rubble from a destroyed town and then having a discussion of whether “the lord” saved them from death.
I don’t understand the mentality of Christians who believe the lord saves them from horrible situations. Does the lord not care about the people who died in the disaster?
Do these people just create this bullshit to make themselves feel special?
It’s so obviously devoid of logic that it seems deranged.
Also why the hell is Wolf Blitzer bringing up religion at all in his reporting / interview. If he was talking to a brown person with uncertain ethnic origins would he have posed this question? It seems like he just felt safe with a white woman from rural Oklahoma.I’m so glad he was made to look like a fool.
kdaug
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Well, cool, then. Westboro can show up and hold a “God Hates Kids N’ Fags / Donation Drive” combo tomorrow.
Two birds, and all that.
Cacti
Surely this lady must be grateful that a capricious deity arbitrarily spared her life while he was snuffing out so many others.
? Martin
@mai naem:
Like the unionized teachers in Newtown, I suppose.
Redshirt
@? Martin: He’s got it wrong. Romney’s from Planet Xenon; Wolf Blitzer is in fact an android controlled by a cadre of Corporate elite. All major news figures these days are androids – or didn’t you know?
Roger Moore
@Yatsuno:
We actually have a pretty good idea; God spends a lot of time commanding people to do or not do things. A lot of what he tells people to do is to help the poor and downtrodden, and a lot of what he tells them not to do is act like jerks. Somehow, the command to help widows and orphans has been turned into a belief that we need to gut Social Security and SNAP, and the command not to abuse strangers within your gates means we need to throw the damn illegal immigrants out. And, in case you hadn’t heard, the reason for the red text in the New Testament is to show those parts are optional.
ETA: All assuming, of course, that you believe in God and that the Bible is His Word.
Betty Cracker
I can’t see the video (stoopit Kindle Fie-wah!), but regarding the rampant god-bothering that accompanies these tragedies: I also used to read it as an incredibly arrogant assertion of one’s own unique special snowflake status, but now I’m more inclined to think it’s just frightened people groping for answers in the face of some seriously scary, random shit. Probably most of them haven’t really thought through the implications and don’t mean it the way it sounds.
El Tiburon
What a fucking douche. God we suck so bad. Poor woman is prolly on malkins hit list now.
Keep Rush and can this asswipe
cbear
Wolf is a shining example of how ugly it can get when stupid meets vapid.
It ain’t no way to go through life, son.
? Martin
@Redshirt: Well, so much for the first law.
hilts
John,
This is a good clip, but I think Wolf has done worse in the past –
On CNN last night, Wolf Blitzer was beside himself with rage over the fact that the U.S. Government had failed to keep all these things secret from him…Then — like the Good Journalist he is — Blitzer demanded assurances that the Government has taken the necessary steps to prevent him, the media generally and the citizenry from finding out any more secrets…
h/t http://www.salon.com/2010/11/30/wikileaks_10
Punchy
Also, need to undystand how they had 51 “confirmed” deaths, then 91 “confirmed”, now only 20-something.
The word “confirmed”…what the fucking hell does it mean?
Comrade Jake
I’m not normally one to complain here, but there are some real issues with the mobile version of this site. I just loaded this post on my iPad, and couldn’t see the comments. Only Cole’s post was showing. Comments showed up briefly, then disappeared.
I will be happy to donate money to fix this if it helps. Just tell me who to send the check to and for how much.
? Martin
@Betty Cracker:
It is. Individually we’re all pretty insignificant life forms in the grand scheme. That’s not easy to face day-in and day-out. Even us atheists remind our kids every day how much we love them and how important they are.
NickT
Wolf Blitzer has a job because we had to do something with the mentally ill creatures that Reagan dumped on the street.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@mai naem: Define adequate shelter for something that doesn’t occur that often (even for Moore), and when it does, is unpredictable in its scale? How much do you think people are going to pay for the underground shelters that would be required to handle an F5? Do yo also think the families in Newtown should sue for inadequate security?
I live in Texas and have three kids in school. I would not expect the schools to be prepared for an F5.
Poopyman
@Betty Cracker:
And thus did proto-humans invent religion.
SatanicPanic
@cbear: He really is a perfect mix of I don’t know anything and I don’t want to know anything. Of course any discussion of Wolf Blitzer is incomplete without his Celebrity Jeopardy appearance.
ranchandsyrup
@Betty Cracker: I think it’s a little from column A, a little from column B. Completely agree that they can’t fathom that people could take things “the wrong way”.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@El Tiburon: First, Malkin will have to find the countertops. “Miss, what are you doing climbing around the debris in a cheerleading outfit?”
Comrade Jake
Oh and fuck Blitzer.
Keith
CNN did something similar yesterday morning. They were doing one of their “we cover every minutiae of an event until it’s a distant memory, then we run specials on it” bits when they were interviewing storm chasers. At one point, they said, “Let’s go to part of your video here” and cut to the chasers saying something like “Pray to God we’re safe”, at which point the hosts began to interview the storm chasers about prayer. I had to turn it off at that point. I’m not atheist, but CNN + proselytizing is a bridge too far.
beltane
@Betty Cracker: I don’t know. The few evangelicals I’m friends with on FB are in the habit of issuing demands that everyone “send prayers” whenever their kids have a T-ball game or their toilet overflowed or whatever. Prayers are apparently like “stuff” and God likes stuff and will take care of those who give him enough of it. This way of thinking seems to be prevalent only with a certain guilt-free subset of Christians, but it does appear to be central to their way of understanding how the universe works.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@mai naem:
First … you’re right. Second … taught for 25 years in a Tornado Alley state. The last thing they think of is a storm shelter/basement/whatever, ’cause every time a vote comes up to build or add on, all anyone’s concerned about is cost – how low can you go. Plus, the only thing you’re allowed to spend real money on is anything related to sports and fitness. Safety? Pffft. Science labs? Well … maybe, cuz we live in a city whose big biz is technology. But anything else? This is the Midwest, Jake.
? Martin
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I gotta agree with him on this one. F5 aside, Oklahoma gets a fuckload of tornadoes. An F2 or F3 hitting a school is no more acceptable of a situation.
All public buildings should have a shelter. They really aren’t expensive to build. Fuck, we put bomb shelters in a ton of public spaces in the 50s. And they would help residents that couldn’t afford to build shelters of their own.
Oklahoma has been doing this. But if we needed shovel-ready projects to get employment going, look no further than this. I’m pretty sure CA would put their support behind doing this in OK, TX and other tornado-prone areas.
? Martin
@beltane: God is totally a hoarder.
Narcissus
One of the great parts of the tornado coverage so far was the stylish hip-hugging jeans Mika wore while touring the ruins this morning. It really defined her posterior, which I appreciate.
beltane
@Keith: My husband once won some Super Bowl tickets in a raffle. The reporter from the local news channel worked very hard to make him admit to some element of divine intervention but he wouldn’t bite. At least in paganism minor matters like football get their own minor gods while matters of real importance have more important gods.
BGinCHI
About Wolf Blitzer I will just quote Goodnight Moon:
? Martin
@beltane: If I could be a god, I’d be the god of not letting the bread get moldy before grocery shopping day. NFL god might seem more popular, but quietly a lot more people would appreciate me.
Redshirt
Wolf Blitzer don’t even believe in The Lord anyways – freaking liberal CNN. Always with the lies.
NickT
@beltane:
I’ve heard that way of thinking described as “penny in the slot prayer”.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@BGinCHI: Sweet. Your baby’s old enough to enjoy this now?
The Fat Kate Middleton
@? Martin: Goddess speaking here – put the bread in the refrigerator. No mold. Guaranteed.
? Martin
@The Fat Kate Middleton: We keep ours in the freezer, actually (acts like a little ice pack for my workday sandwich). But a lot of people leave their out and small sadnesses regularly ensue.
I wouldn’t mind being the god of latex painting. A lot of people need divine help there. I think I could help.
cbear
@SatanicPanic: That clip is hilarious:
“Well, Wolf, even though you’re so fucking stupid that you now owe Celebrity Jeopardy $4650—-we’re still going to let you play the Final Round.”
“Thanks Alec, I’ll take Dumb Fucks for a $Million.”
Felonius Monk
Wolf Blitzer is a compelling reason for keeping abortion legal. The birth of lizards of his ilk should not be permitted.
Redshirt
Seriously, that Jeopardy performance should have been the end of his career. How can you come across that dumb and be taken seriously as a “respected journalist”?
Oh yeah, right. American media.
Scamp Dog
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Goodnight Moon is just appalling. Most people give their kids a goodnight kiss; to give your child a goodnight moon is really messed up.
dewzke
@SatanicPanic:
Awesomely hilarious!
trollhattan
@beltane:
I have noticed every, and I mean every public and NGO official interviewed since yesterday to the question of “What do you need?” begin their answer with “First, your prayers.” I guess it’s a Bible Belt thing, but sheesh, can you at least make it a coda to the actual list?
SatanicPanic
@cbear: At that point Alex Trebek was pretty much the kindergarten teaching giving him gold star on his macaroni collage. “Great effort Wolf!”
Mornington Crescent
Headline of the day from LA Times:
Big rig carrying fruit crashes on 210 Freeway, creates jam
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-big-rig-crash-20130520,0,2642136.story
dewzke
@SatanicPanic:
Trebek was smiling a bit.
Betty Cracker
@The Fat Kate Middleton: No mold, true, but it gets kind of dried out in the fridge, and one is forced to eat sandwiches on chilled bread (or toast). I’d rather leave it in the breadbox and trust the God of Not Letting Bread Get Moody to sort it out.
? Martin
@Mornington Crescent: Not an accident, I assure you. Headline writers don’t have much room for creativity – they take it when they can get it.
trollhattan
@El Tiburon:
Sadly for Malkin, the lady’s countertops are somewhere in north Texas.
trollhattan
@El Tiburon:
Sadly for Malkin, the lady’s countertops are somewhere in north Texas.
Roger Moore
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
No, no, no. Putting bread in the refrigerator makes it go stale faster. If you can’t eat it all before it goes moldy stored at room temperature, you’re much better keeping most of it in the freezer, where it won’t go stale. Or, I suppose, you could start using all those recipes designed to use up stale bread, like French toast, bread pudding, and gazpacho. Maybe keeping it in the fridge isn’t such a terrible idea after all…
Higgs Boson's Mate
It’s hard to believe that in a nation of 319 million people CNN can’t find anyone who could do a better job than Wolf Blitzer.
SatanicPanic
@dewzke: It might have just been the editing but every no sounds a little more like a sigh.
? Martin
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
You know, statements like that make it harder to be an atheist.
Roger Moore
@Mornington Crescent:
Funny headline, not so funny situation. It tied up lanes in both directions for most of the day, which created massive backups. I was lucky enough to see about it on the news before leaving for work, so I was able to avoid it, but it was really nasty for the people who didn’t, or who couldn’t avoid it.
dewzke
I just watched that Jeopardy clip for the third time…too awesome!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
wasn;t Blitzer supposed to retire a few years ago? John King was supposed to take his place?
Forked Tongue
If it had been me, I wouldn’t have said “I don’t blame anybody for thankin’ the Lord.” I would have said “Actually, Wolf, I have no idea why anybody would cling to that ridiculous superstition, especially in light of an incident like this which pretty clearly demonstrates that there isn’t a Lord out there who gives a damn about saving one person here and abandoning another person there.” Still, props to the lady for not completely knuckling under to Wolf’s insipid Godbothering, and the world could use a lot more like her.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Scamp Dog: @Roger Moore: I’d put it in the freezer, but ours is just too small … and we usually eat bread int he form of toast, so …
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
You’ve heard the saying that God helps those who help themselves? Well, the God of Not Letting Bread Get Moldy helps those who bake their own bread, and especially loves those who bake sourdough.
Mornington Crescent
@? Martin:
I can definitely see that.
I don’t think that A-Rod goes deep, Wang hurt was an accident. Nor was Colon absorbs another pounding
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
Are you saying there was a conspiracy to crash the truck?
dewzke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxeBT8YK-Bg
Cheech!
dewzke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2H8IOzWAuo
Then again…
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Scamp Dog: Sorry you ended up in the bread comments. I have no idea how that happened. Anyway … I’m sorry you feel that way about ‘Goodnight Moon’. Maybe it’s snark on your part … but as long as my grandbabies love it, so do I.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yatsuno:
I don’t think there’s anything remotely resembling that sentiment in Atlas Shrugged.
Punchy
So the Grizz go 15-2 down the stretch to force ovey, then shit the bed completely in OT? Whats the point of takin it to ovey if bedshitting is on the agenda?
The Fat Kate Middleton
Re the whole atheist thing – my last year of teaching (’09), I was letting my students know what atheism and agnosticism were. One little girl was horrified: If we were atheists, why wouldn’t we just go out and kill anyone we wanted to? She was VERY upset about this. She waited on me in the pharmacy last week, and I reminded her of this. She laughed, and said, “I’m an atheist now, and I don’t remember that at all. Can’t believe I ever thought that.”
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshirt:
Norman, coordinate.
SatanicPanic
@dewzke: Cheech is pretty smart, I remember watching him win celebrity jeopardy back in the day
Joseph Nobles
I love it. “Actually I’m an atheist. Ha ha ha! Missed me!”
ronin122
So glad that atheists and theists can come together and tell Wolf Blitzer to go fuck himself. I think it needs to be done more often–not so much an interfaith thing or whatever so much as Wolf deserves to be fired for being a moronic prick. Or so I’d like to think. Unfortunately, I think a guy like him is perfect for what’s become of CNN. Which is why I’d rather watch Faux “News”, at least with that I can laugh at Bill O’ and understand what the wingnut talking points of the day are, more informative than whatever CNN covers.
BGinCHI
@The Fat Kate Middleton: Oh yeah. Often.
Villago Delenda Est
@ronin122:
You have to remember that Wolf is the cretin who insisted on arguing with his own on-air experts about the possibility of the “balloon boy” being inside the balloon.
“Wolf, it’s not a matter of if he can fit inside it, it’s a simple question of weight ratios.”
Higgs Boson's Mate
@ronin122:
Don’t leave us Buddhists out.
From the Emerald Sutra:
“Tathagata! World Honored One! How wonderful it is that by Thy mercy we are protected and Instructed! Lord, when men and women announce that they desire to follow the Bodhisattva Path and ask us how they should proceed, what should we tell them?”
“Good Subhuti,” answered the Buddha, “tell them that Wolf Blitzer should fuck himself…”
The Golux
@Mornington Crescent: The Hartford Courant had a good one a couple of years ago, when the Yankee relievers wasted Bartolo’s good start: “Sweet Colon, Smelly Bullpen”.
Origuy
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
If the Buddha actually said that, I would shave my head and put on a saffron robe.
Gavin Kith
@SatanicPanic: Blitzer was so bad on Celebrity Jeopardy, I thought he would get fired from CNN just on general principle.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@? Martin: Romney is from Kolob; Blitzer, being a giant blancmange, is from the planet Skyron, in the galaxy of Andromeda.
Mnemosyne
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
But can Blitzer win Wimbledon?
Steve Crickmore
Why single out Blitzer? Every modern President that I recall, ends every address, with the refrain. ‘And God bless America’. When did that start? The answer: 40 years ago, with Richard Nixon.
Mnemosyne
@Steve Crickmore:
Obama added something very subtle to that tradition — he says, “God bless the United States of America.”
Still a theistic statement, but I find it interesting that he adds “United States” where other presidents did not.
fuckwit
@Steve Crickmore: And the fucking saluting, started with Reagan.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Our single daughter is approached by guys who like to tell her that they are Christians and ask her religion. She tells them that she’s a Pastafarian and that is usually where it ends. One guy asked her what Pastafarianism is and she started going in to great detail about it. She said it didn’t last long and pretty quickly he said that he had to go. She said the looks he gave her were absolutely something to remember.
She would like to say that she’s a member of Landover Baptist Church but she doesn’t want anyone to mistake her for a real Christian.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Mnemosyne: No, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Brainsample would eat him.
Seanly
I know the look that lady was giving – the “I don’t really want to say this, but this creep is going overboard & I need to cut him off at the knees” look.
cckids
@Kristin:
Yes, this is all over my family’s book of face. It makes me so tired. Just . . .tired. Such a symptom of the anger, misplaced defensiveness & willful ignorance that has been so fostered & advanced since Faux News went on the air.
DPS
Well, if being confronted with a massive tornado and Wolf Blitzer over the space of 48 hours doesn’t cause you to doubt the existence of a benevolent, omnipotent creator, what will?
Fort Geek
@Punchy: Changing talking points! Tornaghaziiiii!!
From what I’ve heard, it was a matter of several people doing counts and no one accounting for duplicates at first.
kd bart
“Why does Wolf Blitzer have a job?”
Because he has photos of Ted Turner fucking sheep on his Montana ranch that is why.
Baud
That was hilarious.
Do you thank God? Well DO YOU? ANSWER ME!
BruceFromOhio
@beltane: And thus it is revealed, Her Lord Susscrofa is eternally displeased with the Cleveland Browns, visiting them with an endless fate of poor management, mediocre defense and a shitty offense. Gaia chuckles at the antics of her offspring, and waters the living world with the tears of Cleveland fans that fall as rivers upon the ground.
@kd bart: Gee, thanks for that imagery so early in the morn. Sets the bar for employment kind of low, though.
Lurking Canadian
@Roger Moore: A few years ago, the Conservapedia guy announced that he was working on the Conservabible. Seems all the stuff about loving one’s neighbor, caring for the downtrodden and so on are corruptions of the true text, added by socialist translators. I never heard if he got finished. It’d be fun to read whatever was left.
evodevo
@beltane: YES. My son turned evangelical in his teens, and his in-laws and wife are born-agains. The in-laws’ entire facebook pages are taken up with this kind of stuff. Over and over and over. They get ecstatic when they find a parking place near the front door of WallyMart, praise Jeezus. That kind of self-absorption is alien to me.
nwithers
@DPS:
Bravo! you nearly made me spit soup all over my monitor.
Tone In DC
@BruceFromOhio:
Substitute Redskins for Browns and you’ve got Rex Grossman and friends from 2007-2011.
NickT
@evodevo:
I think Juvenal said it best:
“Just the sort of rare mind a god would want to talk to at midnight.”
Kip the Wonder Rat
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): A relatively simple answer to this is found in asking: What type of shelters do the schools have in affluent districts?
I don’t know for certain, but yesterday I read on the intertoobes that this answer is: Much stronger.
batgirl
Very late on this thread so no one may see this, but did anyone catch the special they did on NBC last night? Briefly turned it on expecting something else and saw Brian Williams and someone else babblering on about how of course these real American working-class people will be just fine cause they are Real Americans TM. Then they started on about faith-based responses and how no one expects the government to respond quickly and so on. Just had to turn that shit off.
Kip the Wonder Rat
@Roger Moore: Sticky situation, huh.
wuzzat
@Punchy: What we have here is a failure to communicate.
Or, at least, a failure to communicate effectively. The same report of twenty-something confirmed deaths was delivered by multiple sources. And the media heard “the hospital reports 24 dead”, “the PD reports 24 dead,” “the FD reports 24 dead” and “the emergency management office reports 24 dead” and got 96 dead.
Turns out,
Becky didn’t actually sleep with the whole football teamthis is the reason why companies/gov’t agencies/etc. usually designate a single person or official to talk to the press.Cris (without an H)
Even setting aside the religious aspect of this clip, Blitzer is doing one of my major pet peeves in television interviewing: feeding the money quote. “You must thank the Lord. You gotta thank the Lord, right?” It’s as if the interviewer thinks they’re not getting anything good, and have to steer the conversation back on script. But there’s not a script, guys. Let the person you’re interviewing be themselves — that’s why you’re interviewing them.
Matt McIrvin
Death tolls in large disasters almost always mount quickly over the first couple of days, then drop as pessimistic estimates are replaced by actual counts, unaccounted-for people turn up and duplicate reports get sorted out.
We saw that with the September 11th attacks: 2,996 people were killed immediately, a few by delayed effects later on, but the initial death tolls were closer to 5,000 (I remember seeing some wild estimates in the tens of thousands on the day itself, but those disappeared quickly).
Matt McIrvin
…A similar effect occurs with body counts in wars and atrocities, as Matt White’s old page on the 20th century world wars points out:
This is not to minimize the death and suffering that happens in these events, but to point out that a dropping death toll is not a sign that something unusual happened.
McJulie
I love this clip so much. The woman seems so sweet, the baby is so cute, Wolf Blitzer is so obnoxious and gets pwned so thoroughly.
I was raised evangelical, and I remember vividly the way they’re always praying over weird little things, blessing AV equipment before sermons and random stuff like that — their God is a fussy little micro-manager, and doesn’t hold up very well under scrutiny. But it seems to me — from my adult, laid-back deist perspective — that what they are is really anxious that there’s nobody there at all, so they’re always telling themselves that this thing or that thing is “proof” of God’s active presence.
Evangelicals are perpetually overcompensating, possibly because the religious culture demands a level of emotional certainty that most humans just aren’t wired to possess.
Thymezone
Why does Wolf Blitzer have a job? Because he isn’t clever enough to run a blog.
Saint Jackanapes
When I watched that idiot Wolf (and known coward – watch his video during the gulf wars while he pisses his pants and cries) once again I saw why his father grossly misnamed him. He pestered this survivor to admit that she thanks the “LORD” for her survival – did h bother beforehand to ask if she was Christian, Hindu, Muslim? No – a typical Christian snob he just assumed and he wanted her to thank HIS “lord” thing for her survival – and to say so on worldwide TV. Wolf Blitzer should be put out to pasture – he’s nothing but a weak talking head who has said repeatedly that he’ll never report on site again. He’s tired of peeing his pants on air.
marvin roberts
If this woman were in a muslim country, she would be in jail and facing the death penalty now.