See how many seconds you can tolerate after she opens her mouth and starts to sing. For me, it was a few seconds, but not many more than 3. (via)
Monday Morning Open Thread: Impacts
(“Pickles“, Brian Crane, via GoComics.com)
Keeping Democrats in good order is like herding cats, but the current crop of Repubs hasn’t exactly fallen in line for its putative leaders either. The Washington Post is abuzz that Roland Hedley Robert Draper, author of Dead Certain: the Presidency of G.W. Bush, has a new book coming out:
Time and again last year, House Republican leaders faced a nearly intractable opponent: the very freshman class that propelled them into the majority with the historic 2010 midterm elections. Rebelling from the outset of the 112th Congress and later wreaking internal havoc during talks to increase the Treasury Department’s ability to borrow funds, the freshman class repeatedly created problems for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), according to a new book.
The freshman resistance caused feuds among Boehner and his lieutenants that led some to fear a mutiny, heightened several showdowns with President Obama and eventually led to fissures among the rookies, pitting those who seldom trusted the leaders against those who reflexively did, according to “Do Not Ask What Good We Do,” an account of the freshman class’s impact by Robert Draper….
“You’ve created a monster,” Rep. Renee L. Ellmers (R-N.C.), a former nurse elected in 2010, warned House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), according to Draper’s book…
The book, which will be released Tuesday, shows just how much energy had to be expended on the 87 freshmen who took their oath in January 2011, many of them holding office for the first time. Accounting for nearly 40 percent of Boehner’s conference, the freshmen exercised their clout early and often, imposing their will on the rest of the House Republicans.
Many freshmen viewed GOP leaders warily from the outset and compelled Boehner’s team to make the rookies the constant focus of its attention.
“I didn’t come to Washington to be part of a team,” Rep. Raúl R. Labrador (R-Idaho) told the book’s author….
During the debt-ceiling fight, some freshmen were ready to push the government into default. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.), a first-time politician who was a surprise winner of a West Texas district, wrote Boehner to express his fear that the debt ceiling was “very possibly a hostage that we’re unwilling to shoot.”
In an interview Friday, Farenthold said he has some regret that he eventually agreed, under pressure from local businessmen, to support the compromise, because it brought only $2.1 trillion in savings.
“I think we could have survived it,” he said Friday of a federal default…
Also bound to make an impact (h/t commentor PZ), at least upon the delicate sensibilities of its subject, is Michael Sean Winters’ latest TNR review of “The Accommodator“:
ROSS DOUTHAT’S ANALYSIS of religion in America is more sophisticated than the analysis of, say, Rick Santorum—but not by much. There are many ways to be simplistic and coarse. In contending against what he sees as an America afflicted with too many heresies, Douthat’s book, like Santorum’s speeches, is riddled with mistakes of fact and interpretation that would make any learned person blush…
My problem with Douthat’s book is not that his opinions differ from my own. My problem is that he does not seem to have any idea what he is talking about. In the West, there has been no universally accepted authoritative voice on orthodoxy since the Reformation. “What am I to do when many persons allege different interpretations, each one of whom swears to have the Spirit?” asked Erasmus in 1524. But Douthat does not see the larger picture that he aims to explain, and his treatment of his subject is so pitifully mistaken in things large and small that what we are left with is a meandering, self-serving screed…
Apart from being duly grateful that one is neither a member of the House of Representatives or Ross Doubthat, what’s on the agenda for the start of another week?
Open Thread
Game of Thrones, as always, was excellent. I really wanted to like Veep and Girls, but something was just off on both of them. Although Veep definitely had some great quips. Girls just seemed so forced, like a fake edgy. I’ll try again next week.
Sunday Evening Open Thread
(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
Well, the interested parties did kind of ask for this one.
Apart from pawky jokes, what’s on the agenda for the end of the weekend?
I plan to watch NYC 22 (CBS, 10pm EDT) — last weekend’s pilot was promising. It ain’t The Unusuals (sob), but Terry Kinney and Adam Goldberg pretty much recreate their Unusual characters, the rest of the cast hold up their end, and with Robert DeNiro as executive producer and Richard Price writing, I can hope for another Third Watch– style multi-season winner…
Song of the week
Meant to get to this a couple days ago but life has been intruding. Did I miss anything around here? This is a cover of the big Van Halen hit, but torqued in a different direction. What have you all been listening to this week? Also too, R.I.P. Dick Clark and Levon Helm.
Aztec Camera, “Jump” (1985)
P.S. Oh, DougJ is doing songs about rain. I’m going to check to see if anyone has mentioned the Neil Sedaka song, “Laughter in the Rain.”
Open Thread: Sunday Morning Garden Chat
Our lilacs are blooming. This is wonderful, because yay! LILACS!… but then again, in this area the lilacs are supposed to bloom around Mother’s Day. The daffodils are still going strong, and the earliest irises are just blooming. I mean, it’s nice that the creeping phlox is color-coordinating, but I never expected to have the phlox and the lilacs blooming at the same time.
Also, when the lilacs are blooming, I not only need to be outside, I want to be outside, and the godsdamned tree pollen is doing its best to kill me. Anyone who suspected that the allergy season was starting earlier, lasting longer, and hitting harder, your overactive histamines do not lie:
… According to recent studies, pollen is indeed making it into the air earlier, with more intensity, and sticking around for a longer period of time.
“There is data showing that pollen is not only more prevalent as a result of the effects of carbon dioxide and greenhouse exposure, but that the pollen proteins are more potent,” said Dr. Clifford W. Bassett, an allergist and assistant clinical professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine.
In a study published last year, Agriculture Department researchers found that at certain latitudes, especially north of 44 degrees, the pollen seasons were up to a month longer than usual. In Wisconsin, for example, ragweed was in the air two weeks longer in 2009 than it was in 1995.
Other studies, including a recent one at Harvard, have predicted that pollen will continue to increase with rising temperatures. And some scientists suspect a link to the global rise in asthma — a condition that can be triggered by pollen.
Apart from pumping up the bottom line for manufacturers of both prescription and OTC allergy relief/alleviation products, what’s going on in your gardens right now?
Another Open Thread
Everyone has stumbled off to the further recesses of this small town, the book launch was a success, and now I will spend the next 24 hours cleaning.
It was a lot of fun, though.