Here’s an extremely profane and funny short interview with Neko Case. Open thread.
A Modest Proposal
Why pull the pin on a hand grenade when there’s a pile of dynamite, a fuse and some matches within reach?
Open Thread: GOP “Still Evil”, McMegan Still Wrong
Jon Chait at NYMag finds McArgleBargle’s argument indefensible, because “Subsidizing Farmers But Not the Poor Still Evil“:
House Republicans are fighting to impose a $40 billion cut to the food-stamp program while also fighting to lock farm subsidies in place at a higher level than Democrats want. The combination of positions strikes me as indefensible. After all, farmers earn more than the average American, and there’s no rationale for handing government money to somebody just because they own a farm as opposed to a convenience store or a hot-dog stand.
Megan McArdle stands up to say the Republican position is perfectly defensible. McArdle doesn’t like farm subsidies but is even more outraged at disparagement of Republican fiscal priorities, urging, “It seems worth trying to answer the question, rather than merely marinating in our own moral and logical superiority.” The Republicans have a perfectly defensible basis for cutting benefits for poor people but giving them to farmers, she explains — reciprocity:
Here’s one reason Republicans might support farm subsidies, but not food stamps: the sense that you have to do something to get them… They’re not being given money just for breathing.
Actually, that’s not true. The Department of Agriculture does hand out money to people to do nothing. So, yes, they are being given money just for breathing. In fact, breathing is optional — millions of dollars in farm subsidies go to farmers who are dead. This underscores the fact that farm subsidies are a reward for people who own farmland, which they may well have inherited….
Bill “Always Wrong” Kristol better look to his laurels, because McMegan shows real determination to assume his Wingnut Wurlitzer crown for insistent plausibility at a 180-degree angle from the truth.
Open Thread: GOP “Still Evil”, McMegan Still WrongPost + Comments (124)
Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Tech. Dudes.
Because I grew up with four younger brothers, I knew this was gonna happen. Via NYMag, Andrew Couts at Digital Trends tests out his iPhone 5S’s touch recognition system:
… Lastly, I went with the most secure body part I could think of – and all I will say is that I had to take off my pants. Unlike the knuckle and elbow, however, registering my nether region was a breeze. (It was quite chilly, in fact.) And not only did I successfully register this private part with relative ease, I was also able to use it to unlock the device. I think you can understand why there isn’t a video of this one.
Of course, using your junk to secure your iPhone isn’t just gross and absurd, it’s also impractical – you won’t be able to unlock your handset in public without drawing some unwanted attention, for example. But given that you leave your fingerprints everywhere, and that hackers have already broken through Touch ID’s defenses using a photocopy of a fingerprint and some wood glue, your manhood may be the most secure option you have.
Now, excuse me. I have to go buy some Purell.
Apart from finding the brain bleach, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Tech. Dudes.Post + Comments (75)
Late Night Noisy Nuisance Open Thread
One more thing Repubs can’t count — characters:
Question to @gov: how come @BarackObama 's last tweet was more than 140 characters? Does he play by different rules???
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 24, 2013
I believe Twitter totally lets @BarackObama DM you even if you aren't following him. #Dictatorship @pareene @gov @AriFleischer
— William K. Wolfrum (@Wolfrum) September 24, 2013
More like: D'oh! RT @JasonLeopold: Ah doy. "@AriFleischer: @gov I retract my tweet. When I copy and pasted, it included the @BarackObama."
— billmon (@billmon1) September 25, 2013
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Truly, the GOP is obsessed with the fear that somebody, somewhere, might be getting an unfair advantage over them. But then when you’re as dumb as Ari “Watch what you do, watch what you say” Fleischer, how hard could that be?
Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Reeeealy?
(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
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Cue the world’s tiniest violin. Dave Weigel, at Slate:
The Most Powerless Republicans: They’re Not Who You Think!
Monday morning, former New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg—a Republican who was briefly and abortively Barack Obama’s choice to run the Commerce Department—published a column that excoriated his party. It was massively popular, as columns excoriating one’s own tribe tend to be, especially when the topic is debt limit Mexican standoffs. “The rigid stance will also cause massive collateral damage to all Republicans,” wrote Gregg. “Even those who may not support it will be harmed by the label of incompetence that will stick to the whole party as a consequence. The idea is being put forward by people who do not really care what the impact is of a default or a near-default. These are folks who have never governed and are not inclined to do so.”Online, where the column was shared 1,000 times on Facebook, Gregg was not identified as anything but a former senator. He’s moved on, though — he runs the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Gregg’s panic looks even starker when put next to the letter written by former Michigan Gov. John Engler, a Republican who now runs the Business Roundtable…
Pity the Republican who quits politics to become a business lobbyist. He can ask his former colleagues to do what’s in the business association’s interest, but he’s got less oomph than any random staffer at Heritage Action or a blogger at Red State… [I]f you’re a Republican elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2012, you’ve figured out that you can win the support of a business interest that generally distrusts Democrats and go about ignoring their high-profile cries for regulation or a sequestration fix.
My emphases, of course. Weigel is paid to be sympathetic to these “conservatives”, but of course we do not labor under the same burden. If the Robber Baron branch of the GOP comes to open warfare with the Talivangelical “purists”, I will be on the sidelines rooting for injuries.
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With that cheering thought in mind, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Glorifying the FSM Through Blog Content Production (Open Thread)
In case you can’t make out the message on that roadwork trailer, it says, “Serving Christ Through Construction.” Lord knows that particular stretch of highway could use some patchwork, and if the project makes bike lane users less likely to get sideswiped by a rock truck, we shouldn’t begrudge a job creator a few jewels in his heavenly crown, right? Please feel free to park your random comments, complaints and observations here.
Glorifying the FSM Through Blog Content Production (Open Thread)Post + Comments (97)