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[…] (h/t JK) […]
by DougJ| 116 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
It seems like a good time for an open thread.
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[…] (h/t JK) […]
General Winfield Stuck
I confess dougj. I hijacked your previous thread and turned into Animal Farm. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I r guilty as sin.
Incertus
I totally stole that “rooting for injuries” line for tonight’s UM-FSU game. If a sinkhole opened up and swallowed both teams that would be awesome.
DougJ
@GWS
One thread good, two threads better.
burnspbesq
Dang, Oudin won again. She’s in the quarters.
I am not much of a football fan, but I will admit to looking forward to all the lame excuses from the Ohio State supporters after USC steals their lunch money and snakes their dates on Saturday.
madmommy
I hate the Yankees. Just sayin’.
The Grand Panjandrum
I’m still in shock that after 350 comments in a thread about cheesy 80’s music videos I had to post this one. What have y’all got to say for yourselves?
DougJ
Dang, Oudin won again. She’s in the quarters.
burnspbesq
@Incertus:
Only if it means that Miami forfeits all of its conference games. That may be the only way that Duke gets a conference win this year.
DougJ
I’m still in shock that after 350 comments in a thread about cheesy 80’s music videos I had to post this one. What have y’all got to say for yourselves?
That’s a catchy song, though.
Corner Stone
Thank FSM. Ok BJ hivemind – I watched Watchmen last night and that is 2 weeks of my life I will never get back.
So I ask you all, wtf?
bayville
Sorry, I can’t get Morrisey’s lede out of my mind:
This was written without an ounce of sarcasm intended. America 2009, The Land of Oz.
General Winfield Stuck
@burnspbesq:
I just read that a Huffpo. I just love these kinds of stories. Here’s hoping she keeps it up.
*she has the word “believe” labeled on her sneakers. Indeed/
slag
JMM wins for best post title of the day: Post Wingnut Ergo Propter Wingnut.
burnspbesq
@DougJ:
I’m glad to see Clijsters playing again. She is a class act.
slag
@The Grand Panjandrum: I didn’t click on every single video, but did anyone bless the rains down in Africa?
DougJ
JMM wins for best post title of the day: Post Wingnut Ergo Propter Wingnut.
I was just thinking the same thing.
asiangrrlMN
@The Grand Panjandrum: Yeah, well, what can we say? We were trying to find the one-hit wonders and all that crap. Culture Club just slipped through the cracks.
@Corner Stone: No spoilers! I’m reading the graphic novel right now, and then I will watch the movie. Or not. It didn’t look that great.
Cat Lady
@DougJ:
What a great story- all of a sudden, there’s a wonderful American girl to root for. As a Red Sox fan, I can attest that “Believe” as a mantra works. It worked in 2004. Go Melanie Oudin!
JK
These headlines make you wonder who’ll have the last laugh regarding Jones resignation
WorldNetDaily Does Victory Lap on Van Jones
http://washingtonindependent.com/57952/worldnetdaily-does-victory-lap-on-van-jones
5 Reasons Why Van Jones and Progressives are Better Off With Jones Out of the White House
http://www.alternet.org/story/142460/5_reasons_why_van_jones_and_progressives_are_better_off_with_jones_out_of_the_white_house
Demo Woman
@DougJ: She’s been outlasting her opponents. She opens weak but just does not quit. Sharapova had a cute lilac dress when she started the match against Oudin and by the time Sharapova walked off the court her dress was dark purple. Once Oudin develops a strong serve, she will be quite a contender. It’s nice for the US and it’s especially nice for us Georgians.
IMO, there is only one strong female and that’s Sarina.
DougJ
What a great story- all of a sudden, there’s a wonderful American girl to root for. As a Red Sox fan, I can attest that “Believe” as a mantra works. It worked in 2004.
Not so much in 1919 through 2003.
JK
@The Grand Panjandrum:
I’d like to believe that a thread devoted to music from the 1960’s or 1970’s would generate more comments.
Incertus
@The Grand Panjandrum: What can I say. I posted two songs by Europe and “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” among other abominations. I think I held up my end of the deal.
General Winfield Stuck
@Demo Woman:
This last one against Petrova, she was 5 points away from a two set sweep, but came back to win. Amazing for a 17 year old.
JK
Favorite over the top headline on Van Jones resignation
Racist, Communist, America-bashing Obama adviser resigns, over wacky 9/11 conspiracy theory
http://www.examiner.com/x-7812-DC-SCOTUS-Examiner~y2009m9d7-Racist-Communist-Americabashing-Obama-adviser-resigns-over-wacky-911-conspiracy-theory
Corner Stone
@asiangrrlMN: Never read the novel or comics or whatever texts go with it but I can tell you this without spoling anything – read the book and stay the hell away from the DVD.
I freely admit I probably missed a lot of the context by not knowing the written back story. But WTS, the movie sucks teh sack.
I’d rather watch the entire Fast and Furious ouvre over and over than watch that DVD again.
IndyLib
@The Grand Panjandrum:
There was so much crap music in the 80’s that we were bound to miss a few?
Demo Woman
@The Grand Panjandrum: My dog left the room when I tried to play some of the songs For those that remember the Atrios/Sadly No, bad song fest, Sadly No would be proud of the collection on last nights music thread.
arguingwithsignposts
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Paaaaannnnn!
I didn’t even get through the first notes. Damn you!
madmommy
That 80’s music fest last night was full of win.
burnspbesq
@Incertus:
I missed it – was “Nobody Walks in L.A.” included?
Little Macayla's Friend
2009 Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon – $60.5 million.
“. . . . even though the total was down from last year’s record $65 million, it was an amazing accomplishment considering the state of the nation’s economy.” Equals 93% of the record.
http://www.mda.org/news/090907mda-telethon-44-tote.html
Demo Woman
@General Winfield Stuck: No one told her she couldn’t. She doesn’t live that many miles from me. I wonder how many phone calls she has received from the top coaches in the country. She came out of nowhere and did a great job at Wimbledon and now to be in the quarters at the USOpen is great.
Cat Lady
@DougJ:
All those years just made it sweeter. Still happened, dinnit?
arguingwithsignposts
FSM, I need a cleansing after @The Grand Panjandrum‘s dump on the party.
Here ya go. Fight the Power.
Tim
This reminded me of Tunch.
The Grand Panjandrum
Lotta excuses here guys about the 80’s video thread. But I’m feeling ya. It looked pretty hot and heavy for a while and I think Cole was throwing some high and tight fastballs in that thread. I had the luxury of strolling through after the party was over.
TPM always has great headlines. They probably win the internets a couple times a week based on those headlines alone. How many times have you gone over, read a headline, and either laughed your ass off or thought “dayamn, that is gonna leave a mark”? Very clever people writing those headlines. Some of the best around IMO.
JK
Power Line Blog gives a few grudging positive comments on Obama’s speech to students
“I want to address the speech itself, which will mostly be good, if Obama sticks to the script…
Could we please, please have more of this kind of message, and less left-wing, anti-American, anti-free enterprise bullshit?..
The Obama administration is off to a horrible start, but it isn’t yet a lost cause. If Obama could put aside his dopey left-wing ideology and stick to this kind of positive message, he could yet salvage his Presidency. But I’m afraid he doesn’t have it in him to do that.”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/09/024463.php
Comrade Luke
Any musicians out there?
I’m thinking about taking piano lessons, and I’m looking for a good, relatively inexpensive keyboard.
Any suggestions? Should I just get whatever’s at Costco in case it doesn’t stick? :)
Mark S.
@DougJ:
I disagree. I think it’s a lot more interesting when there isn’t one or two women winning every event. I remember when Graf wouldn’t break a sweat until the finals. Ironically, it’s the men’s game that’s pretty dull right now until the semis.
Does anyone serve and volley anymore?
asiangrrlMN
You know, I got my new specs today, and I can see things much more clearly. Mebbe some of the asshats on the right would like to try that? P.S. My new specs make me look smarter while simultaneously giving me that naughty librarian vibe. Thumbs up!
@Cat Lady: The Twins won twice, four years apart when no one thought they could do it. I’m just saying….
P.S. I like the Williams sisters, myself.
The Grand Panjandrum
@JK: I read that post over at PL and just laughed. They still haven’t figured out they lost the election. When Obama’s army of indoctrinated children show up at their houses to take away all of his guns he’ll get it. Maybe.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
@JK: Damn. So, shorter Powerline: “If Obama says what he always planned to say instead of giving the hysterical strawman speech we decided he was going to give, he’ll do fine.”?
raholco
I posted this on a private newsgroup, and an abbreviated version of my local newspaper’s website. For those of you who are aware of Dean Ornishs’ work, this needs no introduction–for those of you who aren’t aware, read this-and then think about what we will supposivley get out of the Gang of Six:
“Also, the third-party reimbursement system (health Insurance, Medicare, etc.) *encourages* the use of drugs and surgery rather than health education. In America more money is spent on treating heart disease than any other illness-$78 billion annually (1990). Last year, $7 billion was spent on bypass surgery in this country. If I perform bypass surgery on a patient, the insurance company will pay at least $30,000. If I perform balloon angioplasty on a patient, the insurance company will pay at least $7,500. If I spend the same amount of time teaching a heart patient about nutrition and stress management, the insurance company will pay no more than $150. If I spend that time teaching a well person how to *stay* healthy, the insurance company will not pay at all.
It’s not surprising that doctors tend to spend time on what is reimbursed, especially since we do not learn much in medical school about nutrition or how to motivate people to change their lifestyles. We are not taught skills for coping with stress in our own lives or for teaching these skills to our patient. So we doctors practice medicine in ways which that we are trained to do and in ways we are paid to do.
I remember making my rounds on the first day of internship in Boston in 1981. I was a little intimidated by how smart everybody seemed to be. We rolled the chart rack down the hall and stood outside the first patient’s room. The resident turned to me and said: “Dean, this is a fifty-three year old man who had a heart attack three days ago. He’s depressed and wants to talk to someone, but we don’t have the time-we have to round on forty-five patients plus six more in the coronary care unit during the next two hours. Just go to his room, listen to his heart and lungs, and get out!”
The following year, when making the rounds (this time I was the resident), a prominent cardiologist, looking very frustrated, walked over to me in the wards. He said, “You’re taking care of my patient, Mr. Smith. He’s scheduled for bypass surgery later today and he’s so worried he’s bouncing off the walls. I send patients to for bypass surgery every day, so I don’t understand why he’s so worried-it’s no big deal to *me*.
We doctors don’t set the best examples. Besides learning to not to value or hear the emotional needs of our patients, we often learn to deny and split off our own feelings as part of our medical training. As a profession, we have the highest rates of drug addiction and divorce of any identifiable group, and we die ten years prematurely. Each year, enough physicians commit suicide to equal a large medical schools entire graduating class. And that’s just the known suicides. ”
(Dean Ornish,
Dr.Dean Ornish’s program for reversing heart disease, pg 28-29, Ballantine Books, 1990, ISBN 0-345-37353-7)
arguingwithsignposts
@JK:
.
See, this is the kind of shit that I can’t read. The obvious question that comes to mind is … “As opposed to the last administration?”
Fuck, these people are stupid. All of them. My keyboard doesn’t have enough non-alphabetic characters to symbolize the curse word I want to throw at them.
madmommy
@asiangrrlMN:
The WIlliams sisters are awesome, but they never play their best against each other, especially in a final. Not surprising, of course, but I like watching one of them just make hash of their opponent.
The Grand Panjandrum
@The Grand Panjandrum: Oy. I can haz edit plz.
slag
@JK: They’d be much happier with Obama if he would just sit in classrooms reading My Pet Goat instead of actually doing stuff.
Cat Lady
@asiangrrlMN:
I always root for the Twins when the Sox aren’t in it, for the reason that they’re unlikely. As a Sox fan for life, you expect them to be right there at the end, but you always waited for the anvil to fall out of the sky onto the winning run. Now, since the 2004 turnaround, we’re just another team, which is what every Sox fan ever wanted. Fate has transferred all of its negative vagaries to the Cubs in full force.
JK
The Other McCain thinks he knows why Jews tend to be liberals
“Although the trend to suburbanization has somewhat ameliorated this generalization, most American Jews are fundamentally urban in their orientation, while most American conservatives are fundamentally rural…
People tend to vote how they live and, despite the particular cultural differences that influence the politics of American Jews, I suspect that lifestyle has a lot to do with the persistence of liberalism in Jewish politics. If Messrs. Podhorhetz, et al., wish to promote conservatism among American Jews, let them find some way to encourage Jewish families to move to small towns in the Heartland, where their kids can grow up hunting, fishing and hot-rodding the backroads.”
http://rsmccain.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-jews-and-liberals.html
slag
@arguingwithsignposts:
I’ve been having this problem myself. Considering going bilingual.
DougJ
@JK
Oh my God. It’s like a final solution to the liberal problem.
Bill E Pilgrim
Something I’ve been meaning to post: This assumption bandied around, even among the non-Wingnuts, that well, France may have vastly superior health care for all but they pay those darn high taxes for it, and so on.
My experience hasn’t fit that at all, and here’s someone who’s done the homework to lay it out:
http://foreignparts.typepad.com/foreign_parts/2009/08/%C3%A0-aimer-getting-sick-part-three.html
Top sheet results:
An American living in California making $90k a year pays 35% in taxes.
A French citizen making €90K a year pays 36% in taxes.
And gets health care with no deductible, no chance of going bankrupt from health care cost of catastrophic illness because it’s all always paid by paying those taxes.
And, in my experience at least, you never wait more than a week for an appointment, except for surgery which took a few weeks to schedule.
Feel free to dissect and quibble with her figures but honestly, it pretty much matches what I’ve experienced first hand.
Just to set the record straight.
noncarborundum
@DougJ:
Obviously we didn’t believe enough. Or clap our hands. I’m a big believer in the efficacy of hand clapping.
kormgar
OK…I wonder if anyone has any advice.
I find myself torn. By almost every measure that I hold dear, Obama is really pissing me off (Holder’s stonewalling, Obama’s openness to “preventative detention”, his betrayal of his promises of governmental transparency, his treasury picks, the pre-emptive freezing out of single payer advocates in the health-care reform process…the list goes on for a very long time)
I actually realized today that I regret campaigning for him. I really don’t think there was a better option, but his presidency is starting to taste like ashes.
I still hold out some hope that this is some fantastic strategic rope-a-dope, that Obama will restore some measure of accountability and transparency to Washington…but so far it seems that we are heading in precisely the wrong direction.
But the hope is fading fast.
And no…the Republican party will never, ever, be an option. As bad as the Democrats may be, they at least exist on the same planet as the rest of us.
Polish the Guillotines
Still recovering from the mighty 80s thread war.
Looks like this thread is on the way to becoming a 300-plus entry critique of last night. May god have mercy on your souls.
arguingwithsignposts
@kormgar:
All I can say at this point is wait until wednesday at least. There are now five bills in the legislature. We have to see what comes out there before totally going nuclear.
asiangrrlMN
@madmommy: Well, given that Venus is out, if Serena makes it to the final, it should be a drubbing. Hopefully.
The Grand Panjandrum
Congratulations, Pittsburgh Pirates:
Tim
@JK:
That quote reminds me of “The Plot Against America” by Philip Roth, in which the anti-semitism of Lindbergh was enacted partially by encouraging Jews to send their kids away to summer camps and such to de-Jew them and make them all-American. Philip Roth conveyed the creepiness very well, as I remember.
madmommy
@asiangrrlMN:
Venus has a bum leg, and probably should have sat out this tourney. Serena is no slouch, and will strike fear into the heart of whomever has to face her.
slag
@kormgar: I’m with you for most of it, but I do see some improvements on the transparency thing. Releasing the list of WH visitors, etc.
But I also know that we’re only 8 months in. And in spite of the missteps, I’m pretending to be patient (fake it ’til you make it).
And if you want to feel a little better, here’s a portion of Obama’s AFL-CIO speech today.
asiangrrlMN
@madmommy: Yeah, I know. I just hold my breath with Serena sometimes because she can be so damn erratic. When she’s on, though, no one can beat her.
Bill E Pilgrim
@kormgar:
I think being disappointed and pissed off is healthy. Healthy for the country as well as oneself.
People who want to turn any expression of disappointment into “Oh, who else are you going to vote for, McCain?” drive me nuts, it’s good to be disappointed, it’s one of the ways that Obama and the WH know what to do. If people are loud and make it clear what they want then the leaders have more reason to listen. After all, that’s what the right does.
Obama spoke to the progressive caucus and, the story read, did so partly “to test what they would accept”, and what they wouldn’t accept. That’s good, that’s how it works. Progressives in an out of Congress should make it clear what they want, and that includes expressing disappointment and even fury when that’s what you feel. It’s how they know about it.
/my 2c
madmommy
@asiangrrlMN:
Well, that’s part of the fun-keep ya on the edge of the couch!
Cat Lady
@JK: My Jewish friend regaled me as a high schooler with stories of how their father came home from a business trip to the Heartland recounting how the good ‘ol boys touched his head looking for his horns. No lie. I don’t think NASCAR is going to prevail over medical school.
JK
Grand Panjandrum, slag, Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist, arguingwithsignposts
Reading Powerline, Special Ed Morrisey and other wingnuts struggle to say something nice about Obama’s speech is interesting. They offer crumbs of praise for Obama, but then accuse him of pulling the old bait and switch and burying the original incendiary marxist diatribe.
I expect this myth to grow over time and wingnuts will insist that the original draft contained passages singing the praises of Malcolm X, Nat Turner, Che Gueverra, Fidel Castro, Stalin’s 5 year plans, Mao’s cultural revolution.
I’ve lost track of how many wingnut posts on Van Jones’ resignation whine about under-reporting of this story by the MSM. It adds a whole new meaning to the term sore winners.
asiangrrlMN
@Bill E Pilgrim: I agree with pissed-off and disappointed. What I don’t agree with is the, “Oh, it’s as bad as the W. regime” bullshit. Or those who say it’s worse. I have no patience for that.
arguingwithsignposts
this is one time when I hope and pray Matt Taibbi is wrong. I haven’t read his latest RS piece, but know he’s sure Obama has sold any real reform down the river.
I hope he’s wrong. That’s all I can say. He’s a great writer following up on colossal fuckups. i hope he’s not as good at predicting them.
Ash Can
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Seeing as I’m sober tonight, I shall keep my fondness for New Wave silliness to myself. That sure was fun last night, though.
Bill E Pilgrim
@asiangrrlMN: Sounds fair enough to me.
arguingwithsignposts
@JK:
That’s because they’re still looking for their next “Dan Rather” to prove they still have it. They don’t.
Bill E Pilgrim
@asiangrrlMN: Your statement, that is.
Cat Lady
@Bill E Pilgrim:
There was a large rally on Boston Common today of people advocating for real health care reform. This is what needs to happen.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/09/1000_rally_for.html
asiangrrlMN
@madmommy: Yes, but my nails take quite a beating when Serena is on one of her down slumps.
@Bill E Pilgrim: Are you back in France now?
Chad N Freude
@JK: Be fair, he’s only riffing on a simpletonposium of Jewish neocons published in Commentary.
I think somebody named McCain needs to be vewy, vewy caweful when writing about Jews.
Chad N Freude
@JK: If he would only show us the long-form first draft of the speech, everything would be fine.
JK
@Chad N Freude: Fair enough
Bill E Pilgrim
@asiangrrlMN:
Good god.
I’m stunned that anyone was paying attention ;) Especially considering how sporadically I post here. Wow.
Yes, thank you. One week in the US and now back home, since Thursday.
How are you?
kormgar
@Bill E Pilgrim:
One of the things that has always been repugnant to me is the leader worship that seems to infuse modern American conservatism…combined with their intense hatred of the ‘other’ they really, truly, scare the crap out of me.
At the moment, there really is only one sane choice, however unpalatable it may be at times.
General Winfield Stuck
@JK:
That’s right, they need to hot rod more to know the bliss of republicanism. Them cities are full of niggers, wops, gooks, wetbacks and white Che worshippers. Get them away from the riff raff of yuckie pinko liverals and they will see they are white hot rodding hunters, and go full wolverine. That JOhn Mccain is a smart one, my friends, also.
asiangrrlMN
@Bill E Pilgrim: I notice things like the Frenchie French folks (I know you’re American, but still!) who post here because someone has to keep an eye on you s o c i a l i s t commies!
I’m doing all right, thank you very much. Better today than yesterday!
Polish the Guillotines
@kormgar:
Yes. First, step in off the ledge.
Second, remind yourself of the depth of the politicization of the Bush DOJ. Holder has his work cut out for him just to restore some independence and morale to the department. Consider the legal no-man’s-land Bush and Cheney created for terror suspects. Nearly eight solid years of figuring out how to side-step the Constitution WILL NOT be reversed in mere months. There are some deep and serious legal issues at stake, and fast-tracking them is bad tactically and strategically. Don’t forget, the Bush DOJ got us into this sewer by way of hasty, reactionary, politically motivated lawyering.
Third, remind yourself of the depth of secrecy the Bush/Cheney administration strove to maintain. Again, eight solid years of lying, obfuscating, and propagandizing means there are skeletons in every closet, scorpions under every rock, and pinless grenades under every desk. You can’t just declassify everything without some sense of the consequences.
Fourth, no president, no matter how well-intentioned during the campaign, can stand by all his (or her) promises once they get into office. To paraphrase The Dude, new shit comes to light. Things that seemed like good ideas during the campaign suddenly look like terrible ideas when you get the briefings on the true state of affairs. It’s naive to think otherwise, and it’s reasonable to allow for some shifts in position.
Fifth, Obama is not solely responsible for changing the tone in Washington. He never said he would or could be. He made it amply clear during the campaign that the only way things can change is we all get engaged. He is also very serious about restoration of checks and balances, which after eight years of imperial presidency means we all get re-introduced to Congress, for better or worse. Don’t like what Congress is doing? Don’t blame Obama. Call or write your reps and give them hell. Oh, and there’s no way in hell you can fault him for the GOP’s strategy of obstruction and aggressive stupidity.
Finally, I recommend a whiskey sour. Maybe two. I like mine with Sazerac Rye. Calms the nerves and makes my tummy all warm inside. Try it.
Chad N Freude
@JK: That’s quite an article by t’other McCain. I particularly like
Clearly, the man has never heard of the GWBush administration.
General Winfield Stuck
OOps wrong Mccain. My bad.
kormgar
@Polish the Guillotines:
*off to buy a single malt*
Chad N Freude
@General Winfield Stuck: I thought you meant that JO, McCain.
kormgar
Hmm…as much as I love the class…I’m wondering if it was a mistake to take George Lakoff’s cog-sci class on political language this semester.
When last week’s homework was to analyze the language of the health-care debate and my lucky group was handed “political language of race” as our group analysis project…
Well, it’s hard to bury myself in this stuff and stay optimistic.
Maybe I’ll just stop reading Greenwald for a month…that might help.
OK…now off to buy the whiskey
Bill E Pilgrim
@kormgar: off to buy a single malt
Oh what the heck, get two, and some Freedom Fries to go with them.
Keith G
@burnspbesq: Buckeye alum here, Sparky. And yeah, USC looks like it has talent to spare and a ground game that will make your daddy cry.
I see some are making it a 1 TD game for USC, but I think that is too kind. With a young defense and a younger QB, it may get scary. No excuses, just the facts.
Steeplejack
@burnspbesq:
Missing Persons’ “Walking in L.A.” was not included.
People, the thread that mutated out of control last night was not a scientific, encyclopedic catalogue of ’80s music, so please forgive the fact that your favorite song/video was not mentioned. It was more like a melee in a demented mosh pit from hell, with Cole as Zeus on a cloud flinging lightning bolts of embedded video everywhere and burning asses right and left.
I still cannot get “Sugar Walls” out of my head. The horror, the horror . . .
Polish the Guillotines
@kormgar: You’ve inspired me. A wee dram of MacCallan sounds like a winner right now.
asiangrrlMN
@Polish the Guillotines: I really love your post at #84. You said it so well. You are forgiven for the monstrosities in yesterday’s post!
asiangrrlMN
@Polish the Guillotines: Sigh. That should have been, “in yesterday’s 80s music thread”.
Ok! Shot of bourbon for me!
Corner Stone
@kormgar: Careful now. You’re *this* close to earning a label here.
Shhhhh…..
burnspbesq
@Keith G:
We’ll see. I just hope Taylor Mays gets one clean shot at Pryor.
Polish the Guillotines
@Steeplejack: It was a brutal assault on good taste in music with much collateral damage.
bedtimeforbonzo
If I may interrupt for a moment, I recommend a movie my wife and I just watched via On Demand, “State of Play,” not a strong recommendation but worth watching.
Russell Crowe stars in this political murder mystery that is at once convoluted and too tidy. It’s also an ode to those of us who still love newspapers.
Rachel McAdams stars opposite Crowe. I’d advise her to do roles other than “the cute girl” — if she doesn’t want to get typecasted. I find her very pretty, but not sexy or edgy.
Look for a short role near the end by Jason Bateman, who seems great in anything he does lately. Really loved him as the yuppie/lost husband in “Juno.”
Yutsano
@bedtimeforbonzo: If you can get a hold of it get the BBC miniseries this movie is based on. (Or it might be a full on series, I forget now.) Basically it’s the whole movie a bit more fleshed out and even more twisted, even though from what I understand it gets a bit preachy in the latter part.
Polish the Guillotines
@asiangrrlMN: Thanks. And just so you know, I did what I did last night not because I wanted too — I felt I had too.
Keith G
@burnspbesq: I hope for a good game where the kids get to play to the best of their abilities, but I’m strange that way.
arguingwithsignposts
@bedtimeforbonzo:
also rec for state of play. i like crowe in this movie, and it makes me pine for some old-time journos.
asiangrrlMN
@Polish the Guillotines: Uh huh. I know you were enjoying every twisted little minute of it.
Steeplejack
@Polish the Guillotines:
I know I was suffering collateral damage this morning. Some of that stuff dredged up last night brought back painful memories.
As Peggy Noonan so memorably said, ““Some things in life need to be mysterious. Sometimes you need to just keep walking.”
Which we didn’t.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think quite a few males on here enjoy titillating you. And probably a couple of the females as well. Which I’m sure suits you just fine.
DougJ
Russell Crowe stars in this political murder mystery that is at once convoluted and too tidy. It’s also an ode to those of us who still love newspapers.
I loved it. Loved that last scene with the papers being printed while “As Long As I Can See the Light” played. I’m a real sucker for that kind of thing.
General Winfield Stuck
@DougJ:
I just watched it and the first half was not so great, but the second half and ended made up for it.
Still liked the Brits version better though, but 7 hours they had to flesh the story out.
burnspbesq
Give ’em enough thread, eh?
What’s next, Sheffield Calling?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@kormgar:
Been there, done that. Actually change that to present tense. Still doing it, almost every day.
Bill E Pilgrim at #64 and Polish the Guillotines at #94 already covered most of what I was going to say, so I’ll echo and supplement what they said with:
(1) Stay pissed off, because P.O.’d people are why things get done, but find a constructive channel for that feeling of outrage, like organizing, rather than just venting (which can feed a sense of helplessness).
(2) Get on Congress’ ass. A lot of the stuff that Obama hasn’t fixed or has backtracked on involves Congress in some fashion or another. We tend to forget that our democracy is at least half legislative by design. We aren’t supposed to have an elective monarchy, but that is easy to forget because our media loves to focus on covering the WH so much (it is easier to confabulate 1 story arc rather than 500+).
Obama is (I think) working to put our system back into balance and that means getting Congress to do its job. Unfortunately that isn’t a pretty sight – it was never a pretty sight even in the heyday of Congressional power, and today’s Congress is like a stroke victim going thru physical and occupational therapy.
(3) Get some perspective. It is really hard to realistically gauge if we are making progress or falling behind if you don’t have a good yardstick to measure things by, and doing that requires some knowlege of what the US political system is capable of processing in the way of change (and what it isn’t) and how fast.
We’ve gone thru some dark times before. There are a number of periods in our past which bear some resemblance to our challenges today – personally I’m fond of looking at the 1890s and the early 1960s as both sharing some characteristics with today (and at late Victorian and Edwardian Britain with regard to structural changes in our economy and the problems of being a global empire in decline). If you aren’t familiar with those periods I recommend starting with books by Kevin Phillips (Wealth and Democracy, American Theocracy) and Rick Perlstein (Gathering Storm, Nixonland) to get up to speed. Then start digging into the history of the Civil Rights movement or the evolution of organized labor in the late 19th Cen/early 20th Cen.
If nothing else, reading some history like that will give you a sense that folks in the past had some mountains to climb much steeper than what we face today, which helps IMHO. Good luck.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Heh. That’s funny. But last night was about posting all the esoteric 80s music that we could find. Cole and Polish the Guillotines were going mano a mano for most of the evening. Good times.
Gina
On an entirely different note, we recently got a Rottie puppy (a rescue from For The Love of Dog in NH), and the deal was the kids could pick a name for her, but I got to set parameters, which were “flower or plant” names. I was thinking Ivy, Iris, something like that. Guess what they picked: Lily!!!
So here are a few shots of Lily in Upstate NY, with my big guy Mo.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gina_martin/sets/72157621952592503/
asiangrrlMN
@Gina: Ok, those Rotties are insanely cute, and so is that cat. Re-post this in Tim F.’s French open thread! More people need to see these pics.
Steeplejack
@burnspbesq:
Sheffield Calling.
You mean that great album by the Tiff?
Steeplejack
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Amen, especially on No. 2, rehabilitating Congress. It’s like Obama is a world-class race driver trying to win with a crapped-out Yugo.
Gina
@asiangrrlMN: I missed out on the Fil Ouvert, I’ll post them in the Daily Bitsy. Thanks for the comment :-)