Easter Hedge likes it in there. He really does.
I’m in charge of making two quiches for the Easter feast at my in-laws’ place. I’m definitely going to do a Quiche Lorraine. Not sure what the other will be…broccoli maybe?
Please feel free to discuss whatever.
ETA: Tom Levenson has a guest post up at Ta-Nehisi Coates’ place. You should go read it; it’s good! (H/T: Valued commenter Ranchandsyrup)
Villago Delenda Est
Ham and cheese and broccoli.
OK, so that’s basically quiche Lorraine with broccoli.
So sue me.
What? No praise of peeps?
Steeplejack
Cute hedgehog is cute!
jl
Awww… this is so cute. Is a hedgehog in an Easter egg a new thing?
If I go on an Easter egg hunt this year, I will check for a hedgehog inside.
Villago Delenda Est
Noisemax, being their usual assholish selves:
NYC Abandons Muslim Surveillance
Well, if the city is swept by a wave of bombings, it’s their own damn fault.
trollhattan
Daughter Unit just emitted a loud, “Awwwwwwww!!! I want one.”
Cacti
I never click through on NoiseMax links, but did anyone actually look at Dick Morris’s story on how Democrats “rig” the electoral college?
Is it because the states where people actually live tend to vote blue more than red?
Violet
Adorable!
I vote for a vegetable quiche of some sort–spinach, broccoli, mushroom, whatever.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cacti: I didn’t bother, because it’s most likely Morris whining about precisely that. It parallels their entire take on “voting fraud”…if a Democrat wins, there must have been fraud involved, like busing in thousands of illegal immigrants to skew the vote. I swear, I’ve seen it! Luxury rock star buses filled with mezkins going into polling places!
ranchandsyrup
Some good doctor that we know and love has a good post up at TNC’s place
Suffern ACE
@Cacti: No. It’s that new compact thing that’s been going around where the states agree to give their electoral votes to whomever wins the most votes nationally rather than to whomever wins their state. I have no idea why Democrats are doing that. There may be a time when they actually need to have California’s vote and if Texas isn’t going to go along with it, I don’t see why the Democrats should give up their advantage that way.
On the other hand, it’s no more rigging the electoral college than the Republicans are going to attempt to do by gerrymandering Democratic leaning states and then splitting the electoral count by congressional district. Which I think they proposed doing in VA (right after the last presidential election. I think McConnell quashed it because he thought he was still Presidential material) PA and NC.
marianne19
Swiss chard for the quiche.
Bob In Portland
So is anyone following the civil war in Ukraine? No comments on Brennan showing up in Kiev over the weekend? I hear politicians are getting beat up in the west and soldiers are surrendering to the local militias in the east, but I’m sure if any of this were true western media would have reported it.
AnnPW
OMG, spinach and mushroom with Jarlsberg cheese….soooooo good!
Felonius Monk
I trust that quiche will not be made with Hedge eggs. How about a ham, sausage, and bacon quiche?
dmsilev
@Cacti: I read it. It’s about the National Popular Vote initiative. If you’re not familiar with it, the idea is that states agree to cast their electoral votes for whatever candidate wins the national vote total, but only going into effect once 270 EV worth of states sign on. Morris’s view is that the Democrats’ Cunning Plan is to pass NPV and then use their nefarious control of Big City Electoral Machines to run up the score in places like NYC.
NotMax
Just finished watching the first episode of Years of Living Dangerously online. Pretty much blah and tepid. Too many punches pulled, IMHO.
Still shaking the head, though, at the 46-year-old woman from Texas (who has spent years – years! – relying on prayer to end the still ongoing drought which eliminated her job) saying, in the here and now, “I never heard of climate change before.” That the next shot was not one of the rock she’s been living under was a disappointment.
Steeplejack
We had a bit of a discussion Monday night—okay, I had a rant—about a post at Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight titled “Losing Benefits Isn’t Prodding Unemployed Back to Work.”
It was a weird combination of (warped) basic economics and right-wing, contrarian framing, quoting “some economists” at the (Koch-funded) Manhattan Institute to the effect that:
So I was doing my blog round this morning and was delighted to see that Krugthulhu has weighed in:
I guess the meta here is that if FiveThirtyEight wants to be the go-to site for sharp, cutting-edge analysis, it doesn’t help to publish boneheaded stuff like this.
PsiFighter37
Back at SFO after an evening in Silicon Valley to see a good friend. Off to LA next. The new wing of Terminal 3 is pretty nice.
WaterGirl
Some kind of veggie quiche would be good… lots of non meat-eaters out there. Also, as someone who is deathly allergic to mushrooms, I am always happy when something doesn’t have mushrooms in it.
My sister makes a killer broccoli and sautéed onion quiche – she adds cayenne pepper and crushed red peppers so it has some some zing to it. She also adds more swiss cheese than they say, which is why her version is always better than mine! (even though I think even she would say that I am generally the better cook)
Hoping that no Easter Hedges will be injured in the making of the quiche.
Bob In Portland
Anyone see this?</a
NotMax
It’s Easter.
Rabbit.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Nate seems to be shooting himself and FiveThirtyEight in the foot with a lot of this stuff. Count me as officially disappointed.
I was sorry when Nate left for the NYT, worried that it would change him. I wish I could say my fears were unfounded.
MikeJ
@trollhattan:
They sing on Christmas Eve, too. Or I hallucinated that. One or the other.
Mandalay
This will not end well…
shelly
Greens for the quiche…how about sauteed brocolli-rabe, chopped finely. With roasted garlic.
********
Mister hedgehog enjoying his mini-spa
Ooh, forgot roasted red peppers
Betty Cracker
@MikeJ: Doesn’t Luna from Harry Potter say they sing on Boxing Day? Or maybe I’m mixing hedgies up with some magickal creature she mentioned.
I like the hedgie, but he’s a lot of work. Not for me, thank dog, but my daughter is forever cleaning up after him. And there was that one time he had night terrors and woke us all up with unearthly death-squeals in the middle of the night. Hard to forget that incident!
Violet
@Steeplejack: I think Nate Silver wants 538 to be the go-to site for Contrarianism with a Libertarian leaning. He’s probably succeeding there.
@WaterGirl: Agreed. Not sure Nate has learned yet that his data-centric way of seeing the world doesn’t apply in every situation.
schrodinger's cat
Speaking of Easter, does you like my new hat?
MattF
It’s a Slate link, but it confirms every possible prejudice you might have about the Christian right-wing:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/04/16/douglas_phillips_lawsuit_woman_alleges_sexual_mental_abuse_against_the_former.html
schrodinger's cat
I am not too fond of quiche, too eggy. How about a floofy souffle’?
Paul in KY
Damn, that is a cute little hedgehog. Makes me want one.
PurpleGirl
Hedgehog in the Easter egg is cute, the same way that kittens are cute when they sit and curl up inside bowls.
Bob In Portland
From the BBC:
In a statement on its Facebook page, the Ukrainian defence ministry maintained they were taken there by “extremists” and that Russian secret service agents were involved in their seizure in Kramatorsk.
A soldier guarding one of the carriers told Reuters he was a member of Ukraine’s 25th airborne brigade from Dnipropetrovsk, a city also in eastern Ukraine.
He said the soldiers had had no food for four days until local people fed them.
“All the soldiers and the officers are here,” he said. “We are all boys who won’t shoot our own people.”
In Donetsk, where activists have been occupying the regional government building since 6 April, gunmen met no resistance as they entered the mayor’s office.
They told an AFP correspondent their only demand was for the region to stage a referendum on turning Ukraine into a federation with broader local rights.
WaterGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: Soufflé can’t be made ahead of time and be easily transported. Quiche is great for both of those things.
Though I do love a good cheese soufflé!
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: They crap/piss wherever they happen to be at the moment?
rikyrah
onion, mushroom, multi-pepper, broccoli, asparagus, with at least 3 cheeses- quiche.
Waynski
Anyone else get screwed by Turbo Tax yesterday? The site was crashing constantly. I had to do my taxes three times, which means six (Feds and State). Fkrs. So I’ll have to pay a fine for being a day late b/c the post office was closed. Could’ve tried to e file but not after all I’d been through. Rather trust the Post Office. Never again.
schrodinger's cat
@WaterGirl: Yeah I didn’t think of the transportation problems. I generally like eggs but somehow I have never liked the quiches I have eaten.
Patricia Kayden
@Cacti: If Democratic politicians were truly conniving they’d gerrymander California districts so that Congressman Car Thief Issa would lose his seat.
Betty Cracker
@Paul in KY: Yes. Allegedly, they can be litter box trained, but my kid has had no luck with that. Hedgie has an exercise wheel, and the poor kid has to scrape the crap off of that several times a week. Apparently crapping while running is no problem for a hedgie, and he can produce an amazing amount of crap for such a little critter!
Another Holocene Human
@Bob In Portland: Can you go wank to Putin’s sociopathy on some other blog? I understand they lurve them some KGB jackbootlicking over at Freep, although I wouldn’t know.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Asparagus and mushroom. Yum!
Cacti
@Bob In Portland:
I hear politicians are getting beat up in the west and soldiers are surrendering to the local militias in the east
You mean those “local militias” that have anti-tank weapons and are being led by lieutenant colonels in the Russian Army?
Or maybe it was some of those “pro-Russian protesters” who stormed Kharkiv opera house, thinking it was the City Hall?
Bob hearts Russian imperialist land grabs.
Belafon
@Suffern ACE: The states that have voted for it have stated that it will only take effect if enough electoral votes covered goes above 270. The only thing Democrats would be giving up is if a candidate lost the popular vote but won the electoral college.
schrodinger's cat
We actually had snow last night, thankfully it is all gone by now. Crazy winter, is hopefully over.
NotMax
If you’re going to be using a passel of eggs anyway, shame to let he shells go to waste.
Easter Gelatin Eggs
Cassidy
@Bob In Portland: We have our own nuts to deal with, so no.
? Martin
@Bob In Portland: You still going with the premise that Ukraine has been completely taken over by Nazis? Because that’s Putin’s premise.
Amir Khalid
Why does Courtney Love hate Clarence Clemons?
It’s always bugged me that wearing 3D glasses makes my regular glasses fog up. So I did a little inventing today. First I took a pair of plastic 3D glasses and pulled off the temple pieces. Then I pulled the flip-up shades off the clip part of a pair of clip-on shades, and I super-glued the clip to the frame of the glasses. Et voilà: 3D clip-ons!
I’m a genius, I tell you.
andy
Interesting you should mention that- I’m making 6 mini quiches/savory bread puddings/cheese strata flippy-do’s in one of those giant muffin tins, with some leftover chicken, onion, bread cubes, carrot, taters, and parsley. It’s snowing here (Brainerd MN) so I had the urge to do something warm. I was using The Force when I was notmeasuring everything out and damned if it didn’t all fit in the tin. We’ll see how she goes.
pamelabrown53
@Violet: Agree w/ Violet: adorable.
Still as a medieval type of carnivore, I’d suggest a second sausage quiche, maybe throw in a few cranberries for color and tartness.
Happy Easter, Betty, to you and BJ.
Calouste
@Violet:
Oh, I think Nate Silver is following his data-driven approach quite well:
– Nate needs money to run his site
– A fool and his money are easily separated
– Libertarians are fools
Easy as that.
NotMax
@Cassidy – @? Martin
A song for Bob (who is earning his rubles convincing no one of anything).
Bob In Portland
@Cacti: So you didn’t read the BBC coverage, did you? If the local militias have anti-tank weapons they certainly haven’t had to use them. They only need to have gray-haired ladies with food and beer standing in the streets for the Ukrainian units to surrender their armored personnel carriers.
And you didn’t see where the demonstrators say that they just want a referendum on creating a federation that gives locals more power over their own governance. You know, the wrong kind of democracy. The right kind is having bully boy Nazis in the streets.
Perhaps you saw where political candidates from the Party of Regions were beaten up by street fighters in western Ukraine a couple of days ago. Ah, democracy. If only they had death squads like El Salvador and a military as obedient as Argentina’s junta had.
Well, if you haven’t seen the above then perhaps you saw that CIA Director Brennan made a social call in Kiev over the weekend. The story broke in the Russian press, was roundly condemned in MSM for a day, then finally admitted. And because our CIA has been so trustworthy in upholding America’s democratic principles around the world perhaps you can suggest what he was doing there? What do you think? Bamboo under the fingernails? Water torture? Rape? There are so many ways to get “terrorists” to behave.
I realize some of you don’t want to say anything because you’re getting that feeling again. You know Putin’s crazy like Saddam was crazy like Osama was crazy, like Allende was crazy, like Ghadafy was crazy. And those terrorists like Mandela… er, scratch that. Those terrorists like the people in Guatemala who were murdered by the hundred thousands.
So it’s fine that you don’t want to comment now. You might not want to admit that you’re not certain who’s lying, or if they’re both lying to you. But if you’re realizing you’ve gotten the old okeydoke again, mentioning it is how you can help stop the next war.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: Appreciate the info, Betty!
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: She sounds like what we call a ‘rockist’ on another site (Future Rock Legends). Bill Haley & Comets had saxaphone. Dave Clark 5 went to the Hall with one (I could name 12 other great bands with one, but don’t have the time). Maybe if Hole had a saxaphonist they’d have a better than microscopic chance of induction.
Bob In Portland
@NotMax: You read the BBC? Or are they a Soviet propaganda outlet too?
How long did it take you to realize Judith Miller was lying to you?
Here’s a song for you.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: Courtney is a hot mess, but “Live Through This” was an awesome album. I love your genius 3D glasses idea. I hate wearing double-glasses at the movies too.
Amir Khalid
@Paul in KY:
She also sounds ignorant about the history of the music she plays. Even I know rock’n’roll music had sax players long before people started calling it rock’n’roll.
Cacti
@Bob In Portland:
And as usual, Kremlin Bob has no response for why these “protests” are being headed by Russian Army officers.
Mnemosyne
@Bob In Portland:
You’re getting exactly the results you wanted — Russia is trying to re-absorb Ukraine by sending in secret agents and Russian military forces. At least admit that you’re thrilled at this turn of events.
NotMax
@Bob in Portland
Linking to the BBC one time doesn’t offset the history of selectively partisan screeds under your nym in any way.
What bringing Miller into it has to do with the BBC escapes any semblance of logic. (For the record, I stand by a long string of posts on my own blog at the time dissecting and debunking the war machine propaganda long before Miller’s articles, so had no reason to pay any credence to them at all.)
Mnemosyne
@Cacti:
Why would he? It’s exactly what he’s been cheerleading for — the Russians taking over Ukraine by force.
The USSRRussia can do no wrong in his eyes, and if they have to conquer Ukraine by force, well, you can’t make an omelet without the eggs getting broken, you know?Cacti
@Mnemosyne:
Why would he? It’s exactly what he’s been cheerleading for — the Russians taking over Ukraine by force
BIP also seems to have a bizarre soft spot for Osama bin Laden, who he can’t seem to avoid mentioning any time he goes on one of his “Mother Russia is double plus good” screeds.
He successfully attacked some American targets, so I guess that makes up for the fact that he was a fundamentalist religious extremist, who was as apt to kill heretic muslims as he was to kill yankee imperialists.
Bob In Portland
@Cacti: First off, I haven’t seen any confirmation of where all “protests” are being led by Russian army officers. Can you say with certainty that there are no CIA mercenaries in Ukraine? The Administration has even admitted that Brennan was there. Nuland admitted that the US has put five billon behind the coup. If we can interfere with the internal affairs of a country on Russia’s border, then what moral imperative doesn’t allow Russia to interfere?
That is, if they did. I saw a story in the MSM that Ukrainian soldiers had captured Russian officers a week ago, and yet the coup regime hasn’t been able to produce them for the press. How come? You may remember how the snipers were supposed to be Yanukovitch’s henchmen, but when they were accused of being Right Sector false flag provocateurs the search for the gunmen went cold. I’m still waiting for proof on that one too.
Let’s at least get a few things straightened out here, things we can agree on. The US lied to the American people when they said there were WMDs in Iraq, right? They lied to us when they said we went into Afghanistan to get Osama, right? The death squads in El Salvador were not “freedom fighters” as Reagan said. Nicaragua didn’t invade us, nor did the Viet Cong. Those medical students in Grenada weren’t really in danger. Noriega was not a danger to us (although he probably was a danger to Bush I). The US helped overthrow the democratically elected government of Chile and supported a fascist government where the leader Pinochet played dress-up Nazi. We can agree on that, right? We can agree with the historical record that the US military and CIA have been working with elements of Reinhard Gehlen’s Org in Eastern Europe since the end of WWII.
So what makes this time different? Why isn’t the government lying to you about the Russians massing on the border (inside their own country). Why isn’t our government lying to you about the fascist nature of Svoboda? The fact that Ukrainian soldiers are surrendering to gray-haired ladies in eastern Ukraine who in turn give them sandwiches and beer isn’t being reported in your sources of true information for what reason? Why does the NY Times think you can’t handle the truth?
You can keep calling me names, but you don’t seem to be able to get beyond that. What does Judith Miller tell you about Ukraine?
andy
Here we go- smallish quiche whatever https://flic.kr/p/nbmkQg
Bobby Thomson
@Steeplejack: You’ve completely misread the article. It snarkily sets up the strawman that unemployment benefits discourage unemployment, quoting conservatives. Then it knocks it down, and shows that unemployment benefits don’t dampen employment, and that cutting them off doesn’t boost it, either.
pacem appellant
Is the hedgehog a pet? If so, how does one keep a hedgehog as a pet? I–living as I do in a state that bans ferrets for pets and who has massive allergies to standard livestock-as-pets–am wondering what alternative animals are out there that are a) small, b) easily maintained, and c) more interesting than fish.
Bob In Portland
@Cacti: In case you forgot, Osama bin Laden was in the pay of our CIA. When did they stop paying him? Mentioning bin Laden in the context of the reason why we invaded Afghanistan should not be so hard for you to get your mind around. That’s what Americans were told at the time. Or did you send that down the memory hole too?
You should have figured out what I think about the CIA by now. Apparently, you think that they are on the moral side of history. Or not. Maybe your propaganda sources have you conflicted.
So now that you understand that I never liked Osama bin Laden, when he was with us and when he was against us and maybe when he was with us against us, maybe you can answer MY question: Why are you so sure your government isn’t lying to you this time?
currants
Oooh–make a flamiche! It’s sort of quiche-like but not exactly. You clean and slice leeks, cook them slowly in a saucepan in butter (20-30 mins), then let ’em cool. Then, mix together 3 or 4 egg yolks (depending on how many leeks you’ve got) and either heavy cream or yogurt (depending on what’s in your fridge), salt, and pepper, and stir into cooled leeks. Put into a bottom crust pie/tart shell (I use oil pastry), grate nutmeg over top, and pop in the oven for half an hour or 40 mins (325 or 350). Recipe from the book The Art of the Tart. You can probably find one somewhere online too. Simple, easy, delicious.
It’s delicious warm, luke, or cold. With salad. Good picnic food!
Betty Cracker
@andy: A triumph!
@pacem appellant: The hedgehog is my 15-year-old daughter’s pet. He is interesting, but I wouldn’t call him low maintenance at all. He needs a great deal of care and attention, plus, he’s mostly nocturnal.
Have you ever considered birds? I’ve never kept a bird as a pet (aside from my chickens), but another BJ commenter had a wonderful lovebird as a pet. You can read about him here.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: Agree. Probably doesn’t like any contemporary music beyond her genre.
Schlemizel
Betty – We had an Italian neighbor that made us what she called “Easter Pie” one time. I have dug everywhere and have not found that name ever in English of Italian. I even called that useless sack of conceit Lynn Rossetto Casper when she had some other Italian cook on her show & they had no clue. But it really was a quiche.
In the egg/milk custard was Italian sausage, bits of peperoni, onion and fennel chopped fine and some cheeses. When I try to recreate this I use Pecorino and Romano. It really is quiet good and at least one Italian family had it as a traditional Easter dish even if nobody else in the entire boot ever heard of it!
Schlemizel
@Bob In Portland:
Bob, are you now or have you ever been a brick oven?
TG Chicago
@Cacti: The Dick Morris piece at Newsmax is fantastic. Just so delightful. Here are some of the best parts:
—————–
A plan, now stealthily making its way through state legislatures with astonishing speed, would junk the Electoral College and award the presidency to the winner of the popular vote.
The plan involves an Interstate Compact where states would commit to select electors pledged to vote for the national popular vote winner regardless of how their own state voted. When enough states pass this law — sufficient to cast the Electoral College’s majority 270 votes — it will take effect.
The Electoral College will become a vestigial anachronism.
[…]
The Movement is funded, in part, by the Center for Voting and Democracy, a George Soros-funded election group.
Essentially, it is an end run around the regular constitutional amending process. Rather than get a two-thirds majority of each house of Congress and three-quarters of the states, this proposal would take effect when a simple majority approve it.
Why are Democrats pushing this plan?
Democrats usually see a smaller percentage of their people go to the polls than Republicans do.
Under the electoral vote system, they figure why beat the drums to get a high turnout in New York City when the state will go Democrat anyway? But, if its the popular vote that matters, the big city machines can do their thing — with devastating impact.
And think of the chances for voter fraud! Right now, the biggest cities, the ones most firmly in Democratic control (e.g. Washington DC, New York, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, etc.) are all solidly in blue states. Not only does this make it unnecessary to maximize turnouts there, but it also makes it unnecessary to promote double voting, fraudulent voting, and all the other tricks of the trade at which Democrats excel.
But if the popular vote determines who will be the next president, we can bet that the machines will be out in force lining up voters, real and phony, to pad their statistics.
Some Republicans, particularly in non-swing states, are inclined to back the proposal simply so that they get their fair share of attention. They are tired of delegating to Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Virginia, et al the power to choose the president. And they can’t remember when a candidate for that office last favored their state with his presence.
But don’t let our Attention Deficit Disorder lead us to give away the store. The popular vote is what the Democrats do best. Fighting them on it is, in Winston Churchill’s words, “like going into the water to fight the shark.”
Republicans need to kill this proposal and they better get busy doing it. Some small states are backing it because they are tired of all the attention being focused on swing states. But Republicans must stand firm and not yield to the temptation to back it.
[…]
Our democracy depends on it.
—————————-
Well, that was almost the whole thing because I couldn’t bear to snip much of it. He hit three points of Wingnut Bingo: Soros, unconstitutional, and voter fraud.
And best of all, the line: “The popular vote is what the Democrats do best.”
Plus he actually claims that our democracy depends on keeping a system which doesn’t elect the popular vote winner!
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack: Citing ANYTHING from the “Manhattan Institute” is pretty much the same as citing Noisemax or Faux Noise.
It’s pure shit. Silver’s site is in the process of destroying its credibility. Go for it, Nate. Become Villager scum. You’ll love the tumbrel ride when debts are settled, asshole.
TooManyJens
@TG Chicago:
It’s almost like the people of this country prefer Democratic policies.
NotMax
@Schlemizel
Pizza Chena?
TooManyJens
@Bobby Thomson: I agree, though I guess Casselman could have made his sarcasm a little more obvious.
beth
@NotMax: my dad’s family always made something like this for Easter and called it salami pie. I haven’t had one in years. They also made something called wheat pie which was delicious.
TG Chicago
@TooManyJens: I loved Morris openly admitting that while saying that preventing the will of the people is necessary for democracy.
One actual question about this proposal: What would have happened in 92 or 96 where a 3rd party kept anybody from getting >50% of the popular vote? I guess it would just go back to the EC. But that could lead to someone getting fewer votes than their opponent while still winning the EC.
Steeplejack
@Bobby Thomson:
If Casselman is being snarky, he’s way too subtle for me (and Krugman, apparently).
And I think you meant:
Bob In Portland
@Schlemizel: How do you manage to type with your fingers in your ears?
Where do you disagree with me? On Vietnam, Iraq, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia (you might have missed that one)? Or is it just Ukraine because you are sure the Ruskies have to be lying, because Putin, Ghadafy, Saddam, Osama, the Taliban, Assad, are all crazy?
What is your point? That I’m stupid because when Vicky Nuland says the US spent five billion dollars to overthrow the government and CIA Director Brennan was advising in Kiev over the weekend that I figure that the US is interfering with yet another country?
If you want to say, “I was wrong and I can’t bear to admit it, let’s talk about fuzzy things” then I’ll give you a pass. But I thought we used to discuss world matters here at Balloon Juice. Did I miss a change in format?
Violet
@Schlemizel: That made me laugh.
Cacti
@Bob In Portland:
BIP, we’re all familiar with your list of talking points.
What you haven’t provided to date is any semblance of a reason as to why Russia is trustworthy in any of the recent developments in Ukraine or in its intentions toward any of the former Soviet Republics.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is gone Bob, but you seem to think it’s still in force for one of its former signatories.
seaboogie
It’s spring – roasted asparagus and shiitake mushroom quiche.
Fort Geek
A hedgehog hatchling!
Mnemosyne
@Bob In Portland:
It’s really funny that you keep bringing up Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, given who they spent a decade fighting. So, given that you think anyone who opposes the Sov– sorry, Russians — are neo-Nazis, doesn’t that mean that Osama bin Laden and the Taliban are neo-Nazis, too?
Mnemosyne
@Cacti:
Because Russia is Good and the US is Bad. QED. Why ask any questions when you already know the answers?
Bob In Portland
@Cacti: My position isn’t to trust the Russians. I’ll go so far as to say that you shouldn’t take anyone’s word at face value. My position is that the US shouldn’t be there in Ukraine. And that you shouldn’t trust America because they have continually lied to you.
So now back away from your black-and-white cold war world. Did you like the five billion spent on Ukraine’s nation-building, or could that money have been better spent in, say, Detroit?
All those trillions we’ve spent on wars over the last 25 years. Better spent on healthcare and education here at home?
You seem to presume that everything that comes out of Russia must be lies because that’s what you’ve been told all your life. But it turns out that American foreign policy has been lies all your life. The difference between Russia and the US is that we live in the US, not Russia. People die because of our foreign policy. If you don’t think you have any say in our foreign policy, then lament that. But please, get over your refined Russian hatred.
Bobby Thomson
@Steeplejack: Thanks. Actually, I meant “discourage employment.” Krugman is responding to conservatives making the argument. He’s not responding to the Casselman piece in FiveThirtyEight.
I think most people would read an article entitled “Losing Benefits Isn’t Prodding Unemployed Back To Work” and conclude that the author is not making the case that cutting off unemployment benefits will motivate the unemployed to take any job. And after reading the article, and the point it successfully makes that the problem is job supply, not job demand, I think most people would realize that the author is not agreeing with the Manhattan Institute. Most people.
But for some people, riding an anti-Silver hobby horse takes precedence. Nate has made mistakes, but this ain’t one of them.
Cacti
@Bob In Portland:
My position isn’t to trust the Russians.
LOL
Bob In Portland
@Mnemosyne: Mnem, look above. I said don’t trust Russia. But also don’t trust the country which has brought misery around the world by subverting governments, backing death squads, etc. You see, if our State Department lies, then we can complain to them. We allegedly have a democratic government. We allegedly have a free press.
Russian officers leading the rebellion? If they were captured last week why hasn’t Kiev shown them to us? Anti-tank weapons? Sure, soup, sandwiches and beer and a bus ticket home given to Ukrainian soldiers by little old ladies.
The US supported the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Ukraine. We know how the US would react if Russia overthrew a government on the US’s borders. We almost went to nuclear war over Cuba. If Cuba, separated by water from us, was such a great threat to the US, then why shouldn’t Russia be concerned about our State Dept and CIA operating next door to them in Ukraine?
Understand now? Judith Miller lied in the NY Times about WMDs. Five thousand Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died for that lie.
MazeDancer
Hedgehogs are quite popular on Twitter. And they are cute.
Here’s a cat and hedge eating together https://twitter.com/MariaPulk/status/456531014227996674/photo/1
Here’s teeny weeny infant hedgehogs with their mother: https://twitter.com/FunnyMamaLife/status/421199313264312320/photo/1
Bobby Thomson
@Steeplejack: OK, I went back and Krugman does refer to Casselman’s piece, but not to disagree with it. He just doesn’t see the need to engage with the argument in the first place, but why shouldn’t we look at what the facts show?
And again, the whole point of Casselman’s piece – as Krugman himself says – is to show that we’ve now had an opportunity to test the hypothesis that cutting unemployment benefits motivates those who lost their benefits to take shitty jobs, and that the facts don’t validate the hypothesis.
If you’re in the evidence-based community, you shouldn’t resist that kind of analysis. Hell, even if you’re a political hack, you shouldn’t resist this particular analysis because the results come out the way you want.
Violet
@Bobby Thomson: The author isn’t making the case but the framing of the article is “some economists had argued”. While I guess that’s true, a conservative think tank economist isn’t being paid to be impartial about the data. Any economist worth anything knew that was a lie. The article doesn’t read like “snark” to me. It reads as yet another “some people say” (it’s economists this time) and buries the lede. The actual story is “conservative economists wrong again”. But we all know we won’t see that.
Bob In Portland
@Cacti: Neener neener, Cacti. If you think the US is telling you the truth about Ukraine, then what do you believe?
InternetDragons
For Springtime, it’s hard to beat an asparagus quiche. Asparagus-leek-gruyere or asparagus-mushroom. They’re both heavenly.
Though if you want to go an entirely different route, there are some really tasty green chile quiche recipes out there. I’ll share mine if anyone wants it.
Cacti
@Mnemosyne:
But BIP says it’s not his position to trust the Russians.
Just a huge coincidence that all of his arguments read like the ones coming from Kremlin state media.
Bob In Portland
Four people shot in Mariupol. Were the shooters regular Ukrainian soldiers or the Right Sector thugs that Kiev has been bragging about?
Schlemizel
@NotMax: WOW! That looks like the recipe except there was no top crust.
I am so going to make that
THANKS!
Schlemizel
@Bob In Portland:
So, your answer is yes then is it.
Steeplejack
@Bobby Thomson:
I don’t have a problem with “what the facts show.” What I have a problem with is the tone that I detected in Casselman’s piece—but which you didn’t, apparently—that the Manhattan Institute economists’ position is the commonly accepted view, which Casselman quoted at length and then contradicted—in the blandest, non-snarky (to me) terms, using a tiny data sample and a nearly useless chart (which he has since replaced).
In my original rant I didn’t say that Casselman agreed with the Manhattan Institute economists. But in setting them up for his argument, he gives their position much more importance than it deserves. Why does he “see the need to engage with the argument in the first place”? Why not just look at what the facts show regarding unemployment benefits without reference to the Manhattan Institute piece? It smacks of click-bait.
And that’s what my growing problem with FiveThirtyEight is. Everyone is looking to his site for sharp, data-driven analysis, and instead we’re seeing flawed pieces like the climate-change article and overinflated morsels like Casselman’s blog post. There’s a lot of other stuff on the site—at the top right now is “Beards Are Less Attractive When They’re Everywhere”—but more and more it’s looking like just another click-hungry Web site. But data!
Bobby Thomson
@Violet:
The headline itself says conservative economists are wrong, if you know how to read.
Violet
@Bobby Thomson: No it doesn’t. The headline is: “Losing Benefits Isn’t Prodding Unemployed Back to Work” . It in no way says where that concept originates. To find out that you have to read the article. When you do, you see, as Steeplejack pointed out, that the conservative argument is engaged and given far too much importance. Instead of treating it as ridiculous to begin with, as serious economists did, its treated as if it might have been realistic, but oh look, it didn’t quite turn out the way they expected.
They’re consistently wrong. Why not crunch some data on that.
pacem appellant
@Betty Cracker: If my daughter gets into 4H, we might do chickens. Other than those, I couldn’t stomach caging a winged animal in a cage. My neighbors’ chickens do fine, but they’re essentially free range (though they prefer their coop).
I wish I wasn’t allergic to rabbits, as I remember my childhood pet rabbit fondly.
Steeplejack
@Violet:
Thank you for distilling what I was flailing around trying to get at.
SiubhanDuinne
Betty, I’m hours late to this party so you probably won’t even see this, but in case you do: I am not much of a cook, but I am a KILLER quiche-maker. My secret ingredient? A bit of (preferably freshly-ground) nutmeg in the egg-and-cream custard, along with the usual salt and pepper.
Schlemizel
@Bob In Portland:
I actually owed you a real response but was not in the mood at that time.
It was not my agreeing or disagreeing with what you were saying but the manner in which you said it. The condescension dripped off your post, you went immediately into attack mode and tossed in a heavy dose of insult. It appeared you were much more interested in a fight than an discussion. If that was not your intent then you really need to work on your people skills.
And my money is on you being a re-nymed brickhead bill.