Help Support LGF by Subscribing for Yearly Ad-Free Access

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Here’s the part where I announce that we now have a new subscription option at LGF: a yearly subscription that turns off all advertising at a fraction of the price of our monthly subscription. A yearly subscription is only $79.95 US, a 33% discount from the monthly rate.

LGF loads much faster with all advertising turned off, and the layout looks much less cluttered — and you’ll be helping us pay our monthly server costs and other expenses, so we can continue bringing you all the services we provide for free, like our LGF Pages blogging system.

The Subscribe button is in our left sidebar, right underneath the red panel that says “Turn off ads by subscribing,” oddly enough. The drop-down menu lets you select either a monthly or yearly subscription, before clicking “Subscribe.”

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program. Let the open thread commence!

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477 comments
1 Amory Blaine  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 5:57:06pm

I donated like a week ago! Love coming here. Thanks for the continuing upgrades and excellent blog!

2 Charles Johnson  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:04:11pm

By the way, even if you already use an ad blocker, subscribing makes the site respond significantly faster because there’s nothing to block. The ads are completely subtracted from the source code, not just blocked after loading.

3 jaunte  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:05:56pm

Don’t be like that guy, subscribe!

4 dog philosopher  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:07:15pm

if i subscribed, i’d never get to look at the roadkill t-shirt girl

I USED TO CARE

they have a pill for that now

5 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:08:44pm

Not seeing an annual subscription option, just a monthly thing. What am I doing missing?

doh…never mind…got it…

6 dog philosopher  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:09:07pm

re: #3 jaunte

If we #evolved from apes #millionsofyears ago, why hasn’t something evolved fr

don’t look now, but i think i see something evolving on you

7 Charles Johnson  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:11:14pm

re: #5 Backwoods_Sleuth

Not seeing an annual subscription option, just a monthly thing. What am I doing missing?

Click on that monthly thing and you’ll see the drop-down menu with the yearly option.

8 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:12:17pm

re: #7 Charles Johnson

Click on that monthly thing and you’ll see the drop-down menu with the yearly option.

Just figgered that out.
brain freeze…

9 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:14:21pm

done!

10 jaunte  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:16:05pm
11 Charles Johnson  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:16:48pm

re: #9 Backwoods_Sleuth

done!

Thank you so much!

12 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:16:52pm

re: #10 jaunte

[Embedded content]

let’s go there.
NOW!

13 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:17:45pm

re: #11 Charles Johnson

Thank you so much!

you are so very welcome. My apologies for being a slackard about this for so long.

14 PhillyPretzel  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:23:42pm

I am already on the monthly plan. How do you convert it to a yearly plan?

15 Justanotherhuman  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:24:21pm

Holy crap, could this be but a dream?

Poll: McAuliffe Leads Cuccinelli Ahead of Debate

nbcwashington.com

Could this be a portend of the US coming to its senses? At last, at long last, have the Rs gone too far?

But I love the smell I’m smelling these days, even if it’s only VA so far.

16 jaunte  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:25:19pm
17 Charles Johnson  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:26:16pm

re: #14 PhillyPretzel

I am already on the monthly plan. How do you convert it to a yearly plan?

Easiest way is to cancel your monthly subscription, then re-subscribe with the yearly option.

18 Interesting Times  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:27:01pm

re: #11 Charles Johnson

Thank you so much!

Just subscribed, but my PayPal email is different from the one I use for LGF. How would I get the subscription to take effect?

19 PhillyPretzel  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:27:36pm

re: #17 Charles Johnson

Okay. I will do it later. I had a rough day at work and I am exhausted.

20 Kragar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:28:24pm

After all these years, you would think I’d have learn not to mess with a blister, but noooooo….

21 Political Atheist  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:28:33pm

Ten a month is good for me. Just think of the declined discount as for the old tip jar. Oh and a tip of my hat to the monitor lizards. Anonymous need not be un thanked.

22 Charles Johnson  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:31:42pm

re: #18 Interesting Times

Just subscribed, but my PayPal email is different from the one I use for LGF. How would I get the subscription to take effect?

If you’re logged in at LGF when you subscribe, the whole process is automatic. The next time you load the page the ads will be gone.

23 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:35:40pm

re: #18 Interesting Times

Just subscribed, but my PayPal email is different from the one I use for LGF. How would I get the subscription to take effect?

My PayPal and LGF emails are different and I had no problem with subscribing. PayPal had me log in with my PayPal associated email and the subscription went to LGF. But I can see your concern.
I assume it worked out ok, right Charles?

24 ProTARDISLiberal  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:38:42pm

re: #17 Charles Johnson

I want to, but can’t until I get job (crossing fingers on something).

Can I do it later?

25 ProTARDISLiberal  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:42:05pm

Also, what about Free-Lance Mapping?

I realized my Computer is essentially an editing rig. Certainly, when running Skyrim at Highest Settings like it is, the computer is not going above ~20% for CPU or RAM usage.

26 Interesting Times  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:44:25pm

re: #22 Charles Johnson

If you’re logged in at LGF when you subscribe, the whole process is automatic. The next time you load the page the ads will be gone.

Doesn’t seem to have worked :( I logged out and then logged back in, but nothing’s changed. At one point during the subscription process, I had to reset my PayPal password, so that might have messed things up somehow.

27 makeitstop  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:46:03pm

The wife and I decided to take a spur of the moment vacation, so we’re hopping in the truck tomorrow and driving out to the Finger Lakes region of NY - Specifically, Letchworth State Park - they refer to it as ‘the Grand Canyon of the East.’

We got a room at the Glen Iris Inn for the rest of the week. I just got done cleaning my camera gear. I can’t wait to take this trip. Believe it or not, the closest I ever got to that part of the state is driving through it to get to gigs in Rochester and Buffalo - never stayed there.

The inn has no internet, so I’m outta here for a few days once I go to sleep tonight. Hmm… what to do in a scenic setting with no internet? I’m sure we’ll figure something out. Heh…

28 jaunte  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:49:55pm
29 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:51:54pm

oh my…tonight the wee kittehs have discovered the joys of hunting spiders.
One is attacking a wolf spider in the kitchen…the other is stalking a playful fisher spider in the bathroom.
I expect surprise presents on the bed.
Perhaps on the pillows, much like a hotel mint…

30 blueraven  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:52:29pm

re: #15 Justanotherhuman

Holy crap, could this be but a dream?

Poll: McAuliffe Leads Cuccinelli Ahead of Debate

nbcwashington.com

Could this be a portend of the US coming to its senses? At last, at long last, have the Rs gone too far?

But I love the smell I’m smelling these days, even if it’s only VA so far.

McAuliffe has been in the lead for a while now

realclearpolitics.com

31 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:53:02pm

re: #27 makeitstop


I spent my youngest years in the Finger Lakes area. No internet way back then, either, lol!
Have fun…it’s a gorgeous area!

32 ProTARDISLiberal  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:53:10pm

re: #28 jaunte

This guy makes the point quite succinctly.

33 BongCrodny  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:57:15pm

re: #15 Justanotherhuman

Holy crap, could this be but a dream?

Poll: McAuliffe Leads Cuccinelli Ahead of Debate

nbcwashington.com

Fueled by support with women and better likability ratings, Democrat Terry McAuliffe leads Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli 43-38 percent, with Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis at 8 percent among likely voters in the Virginia governor’s race, a new NBC4/NBC News/Marist poll out Monday finds.

Boy, I never thought I’d say this in a million years.

Thank you, Libertarian Party.

34 makeitstop  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:57:16pm

re: #31 Backwoods_Sleuth

I spent my youngest years in the Finger Lakes area. No internet way back then, either, lol!
Have fun…it’s a gorgeous area!

Thank you! I’m really looking forward to it. Quiet time with the wife is a good thing. We both need to decompress for a bit.

35 Charles Johnson  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 6:58:08pm

re: #26 Interesting Times

Doesn’t seem to have worked :( I logged out and then logged back in, but nothing’s changed. At one point during the subscription process, I had to reset my PayPal password, so that might have messed things up somehow.

OK, can you tell me the PayPal subscription ID? It should be in the email you received when you subscribed.

36 Charles Johnson  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:00:31pm

(Send it to me in an email or through the contact form.)

37 Dark_Falcon  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:02:56pm

re: #28 jaunte

[Embedded content]

Reason Number 3 of ‘Why I Hate Glenn Greenwald’: His unhinged hate rants force me to defend Barack Obama against them. I don’t like defending Obama, but when the attacker is Glenn Greenwald, the only just action is to defend Obama.

38 Backwoods_Sleuth  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:11:10pm

re: #37 Dark_Falcon

Good to know sometimes it’s necessary.
Passing the box of tissues to you and giving you a hug.

39 calochortus  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:13:11pm

re: #37 Dark_Falcon

I share your pain-I had to defend G. W. Bush the other day-but I did it. Credit where credit is due and all that.

40 goddamnedfrank  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:15:02pm

re: #37 Dark_Falcon

Reason Number 3 of ‘Why I Hate Glenn Greenwald’: His unhinged hate rants force me to defend Barack Obama against them. I don’t like defending Obama, but when the attacker is Glenn Greenwald, the only just action is to defend Obama.

Your party is attempting to hold the budget and entire US economy hostage but having to defend Obama against Greenwald is what you don’t like.

41 Vicious Babushka  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:15:03pm
42 William Barnett-Lewis  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:23:48pm

re: #3 jaunte

[Embedded content]

Don’t be like that guy, subscribe!

The answer is in my page from earlier today - short form: we are still evolving quite quickly. Lactose and gluten tolerance for example.

43 Lidane  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:24:35pm
44 Interesting Times  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:32:26pm

re: #36 Charles Johnson

(Send it to me in an email or through the contact form.)

Info sent (and yay! It works now :) Though I did clear cookies/cache beforehand, so perhaps Firefox messes up the process (I’m on version 23…oh never mind, it’s updating as I speak o_O )

45 Lidane  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:34:04pm
46 goddamnedfrank  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:38:19pm
Watching the pushback against Senator Ted Cruz right now is like watching a group of kids who have been in thrall to a bully suddenly wake up to who he is and start working to cut him down to size. Republican members of Congress who were once his allies have begun to turn on a man who has become an outsize figure in their party since winning office less than one year ago.

“As soon as we listed Ted Cruz as our featured guest this week, I got unsolicited research and questions, not from Democrats but from top Republicans, to hammer Cruz,” Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said on his show. “Why are Republicans so angry at Ted Cruz?”

“You cannot build a congressional majority, in either party, for any kind of action, unless you are treating your colleagues with some certain amount of respect, and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think of my idea?’” Karl Rove told Wallace, speaking of Cruz and Utah Senator Mike Lee, who are together leading the Don’t Fund Obamacare movement. “Instead they have dictated to their colleagues … and not consulted them about this strategy at all.”

This is kind of funny, they’re complaining about not having been consulted at all and yet only one GOP House Representative dared to vote against the Cruz plan. This is what it means to be a modern Republican, to act like a lemming, to have no personal responsibility or integrity while talking incessantly about nothing but personal responsibility and integrity. To deliberately repeat a laundry list of lies so often that you internalize and begin to reflexively believe them, while still knowing intellectually that your entire ideology depends on you being completely full of shit.

47 Lidane  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:44:15pm

I’ve been out of work for less than a week and I’m already dying of boredom.

48 Carlos Danger  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:44:51pm
49 calochortus  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:47:43pm

re: #47 Lidane

I’ve been out of work for less than a week and I’m already dying of boredom.

Feel free to drop by and help me catch up on the house and yard work. Boredom won’t seem so bad…

50 Interesting Times  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:48:34pm

re: #48 Carlos Danger

CNN’s Piers Morgan Claims ‘It’s Over for Jon Stewart’

Uh…

The comments on that page are epic:

piers morgan is a huge twat.

He should go jump off a “Pier”.

this is why we WON a war in 1776

Should we begin the petition to deport Piers again?

51 Charles Johnson  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:48:52pm

OK - fixed that glitch that was preventing auto-subscribing from working. Paypal’s IPN will be the death o’ me.

52 jaunte  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:50:21pm

re: #48 Carlos Danger

53 Amory Blaine  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:50:37pm

Colbert was on all summer while Stewart was working another project. As Chuck Todd has so thoughtfully reminded us, it’s not Piers’ job to know. All that’s important is how Piers feels.

54 calochortus  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 7:59:33pm

re: #53 Amory Blaine

It is amazing how little interest I have in Piers Morgan’s feelings-or opinions, for that matter.

55 Charles Johnson  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:01:12pm

Everything is Samuel L. Jackson’s Fault

Youtube Video

56 ProTARDISLiberal  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:01:32pm

re: #54 calochortus

He is the epitome of being an upper class twit.

57 goddamnedfrank  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:03:58pm

New Comments button isn’t showing update numbers for me, Auto checkbox isn’t working.

58 calochortus  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:07:09pm

re: #57 goddamnedfrank

They seem to be working for me. Have you tried reloading LGF?

59 Lidane  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:19:34pm

re: #49 calochortus

Feel free to drop by and help me catch up on the house and yard work. Boredom won’t seem so bad…

Are we talking with pay and benefits or is this more of a GOP-style “no work no food” program? Heh.

60 goddamnedfrank  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:20:09pm

re: #58 calochortus

They seem to be working for me. Have you tried reloading LGF?

Yeah, working now.

61 sagehen  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:27:33pm

Did anybody watch the pilot tonight for “Hostages”? (a Bruckheimer production, starring Dylan McDermott)…

It seems a great concept for a movie, or maybe even a 3-5 episode miniseries, but I don’t see how they can carry this for an entire season without lapsing into self-parody. Also, because I like the main “bad guy”, I’m sort of holding out hope there’ll be a clever plot twist that makes this whole thing Not What It Looks Like and he’s really a good guy after all.

62 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:30:59pm
63 Lidane  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:32:33pm

re: #61 sagehen

I saw the trailers for that and I agree with you. I have no idea how it’s supposed to last for more than one season or even stretch out for an entire season.

Tomorrow I get to nerd out shamelessly in front of the TV. Agents of SHIELD starts. Can’t wait. Plus they’re going to have a sneak peak at the new Thor film too.

64 ProTARDISLiberal  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:32:52pm

re: #62 darthstar

Please tell me the bottom picture is fake.

65 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:34:06pm

re: #64 ProTARDISLiberal

Please tell me the bottom picture is fake.

Nnnnnnnnope.

66 Carlos Danger  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:35:09pm

re: #62 darthstar

Looks like the chubby cop sidekick in Hot Fuzz

67 ProTARDISLiberal  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:35:33pm

re: #63 Lidane

And yet, Whovians have still not seen the trailer for the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who episode, The Day of the Doctor.

What the fuck is the BBC doing? Oh right, Cameron is gutting the BBC budget to give more free goodies to his corrupt cronies. Fuck that guy. This is why Moffat and Smith are pushing so hard to gain an international audience. For revenue to keep the show going when Cameron guts it some more.

68 ProTARDISLiberal  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:36:05pm

re: #65 darthstar

I will use this to smear conservatives. Thank you.

69 geosherman  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:37:08pm

I was not smart enough to cancel my monthly subscription before buying into the yearly plan. Can I cancel te monthly plan of paypal or is there some option I missed on LGF?

70 ProTARDISLiberal  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:38:57pm

re: #68 ProTARDISLiberal

Especially as my Conservative friends up and abandoned me. Which means I really no longer feel the need to hold back any more.

Trying again for Oklahoma, and have progress on that front.

71 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:39:03pm

Okay…here’s a must-follow on twitter. @HuffPoSpoilers - a user that reads HuffPo so you don’t have to, then tweets the jist of their leading headlines…an example:

72 Charles Johnson  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:43:25pm

re: #69 geosherman

I was not smart enough to cancel my monthly subscription before buying into the yearly plan. Can I cancel te monthly plan of paypal or is there some option I missed on LGF?

You need to log into Paypal and cancel the monthly subscription yourself - here are some detailed directions with screenshots:

sparkplug9.com

73 Feline Fearless Leader  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:53:35pm

re: #27 makeitstop

The wife and I decided to take a spur of the moment vacation, so we’re hopping in the truck tomorrow and driving out to the Finger Lakes region of NY - Specifically, Letchworth State Park - they refer to it as ‘the Grand Canyon of the East.’

We got a room at the Glen Iris Inn for the rest of the week. I just got done cleaning my camera gear. I can’t wait to take this trip. Believe it or not, the closest I ever got to that part of the state is driving through it to get to gigs in Rochester and Buffalo - never stayed there.

The inn has no internet, so I’m outta here for a few days once I go to sleep tonight. Hmm… what to do in a scenic setting with no internet? I’m sure we’ll figure something out. Heh…

If you’re still reading and looking for restaurants in the area there is a place called “Embers” in Livonia, NY (north of Letchworth and on NY-15) that is pretty good.

emberwoodfiregrill.com

Enjoy the trip, it’s a real interesting place and worth walking about.

74 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:55:57pm

re: #27 makeitstop

The inn has no internet, so I’m outta here for a few days once I go to sleep tonight. Hmm… what to do in a scenic setting with no internet? I’m sure we’ll figure something out. Heh…

Fucking is a lot of fun, if nobody else mentioned it by now.

75 austin_blue  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 8:58:02pm

I don’t do anything on the Internet involving money except plane tickets. Options?

Enquiring minds, &c.

76 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:00:10pm

re: #75 austin_blue

I don’t do anything on the Internet involving money except plane tickets. Options?

Enquiring minds, &c.

I know of this Nigerian prince who’s in a bind…sounds like it could be quite profitable for the right person…

77 freetoken  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:00:42pm

On a tangential note, I wrestle with coming up with new Pages that will catch large audiences. I don’t like just linking to other sites’ stories - that seems to me to defeat the purpose of having all those fancy Page editing tools. Coming up with substantive Pages is not a problem either but my own interests may be too esoteric or technical to attract a large audience.

How does Snooki do it? She (as an example) attracts the attention of huge crowds based on, well, that is the question. It’s all marketing, I know, but being in the stream of “fashion” is one of those group-think type of things at which I am not well skilled.

I know what sells (sex, gossip, hate, delusions for wealth) - that always has a market. But I’m not interested in trying to be a better TMZ.

78 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:01:58pm

re: #75 austin_blue

I don’t do anything on the Internet involving money except plane tickets. Options?

Enquiring minds, &c.

On a more serious note, go to your bank and get a limited debit card ($300 or so) that you can add money to when you need. Use it for all your internet purchases and the worst damage anyone will ever do to you if they get it is $300.

79 blueraven  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:03:53pm

Yikes! The monthly breakdown for the yearly LGF subscription is…6.66

o_o

Bwaaaahaha

80 calochortus  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:05:10pm

re: #59 Lidane

Are we talking with pay and benefits or is this more of a GOP-style “no work no food” program? Heh.

Pay? Benefits? Does the opportunity to help your fellow woman mean nothing to you?

81 Gus  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:06:00pm

Robert Redford in Naked City early TV role neo-nazi Part 1

Youtube Video

Weird man.

82 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:06:05pm

re: #77 freetoken

On a tangential note, I wrestle with coming up with new Pages that will catch large audiences. I don’t like just linking to other sites’ stories - that seems to me to defeat the purpose of having all those fancy Page editing tools. Coming up with substantive Pages is not a problem either but my own interests may be too esoteric or technical to attract a large audience.

How does Snooki do it? She (as an example) attracts the attention of huge crowds based on, well, that is the question. It’s all marketing, I know, but being in the stream of “fashion” is one of those group-think type of things at which I am not well skilled.

I know what sells (sex, gossip, hate, delusions for wealth) - that always has a market. But I’m not interested in trying to be a better TMZ.

Show us yer titties and we’ll talk.

Seriously, just keep writing. Write about what you care about, and write about what you love…esoteric or not. The audience will come in time, and if you want to start your own blog and make money that may be a possibility. The important thing is to keep writing…because that’s how you become a better writer. And write at other sites - there are lots of sites where writers bounce ideas off each other and give honest feedback.

And good luck. Now about those boobies…

83 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:08:47pm
84 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:09:35pm

Love this fucking shit!

85 sagehen  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:12:12pm

re: #77 freetoken

Coming up with substantive Pages is not a problem either but my own interests may be too esoteric or technical to attract a large audience.

“Esoteric or technical” = SPECIALIST!!

You can be the go-to source for something you find fascinating that nobody else wanted to devote a lot of time to.

86 Amory Blaine  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:12:32pm

Picked this baby up at my old favorite music store this weekend. Got it for 500. Set up, action lowered with Elixer strings I never tried before and a dozen picks. Place was packed with kids for the new school year.

87 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:16:09pm

re: #86 Amory Blaine

Picked this baby up at my old favorite music store this weekend. Got it for 500. Set up, action lowered with Elixer strings I never tried before and a dozen picks. Place was packed with kids for the new school year.

I have an Ibanez much like it..tapered neck, built in pick up, classical strings. Love it.

88 darthstar  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:17:24pm

Okay…time to join this slumbering beauty beside me in the land of ZZZZs. Stay beautiful everyone.

89 klys  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:19:43pm

re: #68 ProTARDISLiberal

I will use this to smear conservatives. Thank you.

I vote for using your energy to make positive changes in your community instead of trying to smear a group of people. You’re unlikely to make anyone listen to you that way.

Hate, no matter if it’s “deserved” or not, is never attractive.

90 klys  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:20:32pm

Although right now I am pretty close to hating the damn cat for chewing on the yarn. Hopefully she didn’t eat too much. Ugh. I don’t want to go to the emergency vet because the last time we took a kitty there Coco never came home again. :(

91 Killgore Trout  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:22:19pm

Damn, it’s still going on.
Kenya mall siege: More gunfire, explosion at daybreak Tuesday despite success claims
And it seems the White Widow was killed…

Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said “two or three Americans” and “one Brit” were among those who attacked the mall.

She said in an interview with the PBS “NewsHour” program that the Americans were 18 to 19 years old, of Somali or Arab origin and lived “in Minnesota and one other place” in the U.S. The attacker from Britain was a woman who has “done this many times before,” Mohamed said.

92 Gus  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:22:35pm

Tired eyes. Later.

93 calochortus  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:30:09pm

Time for me to pack it in, as well. Hasta mañana.

94 Dancing along the light of day  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 9:42:59pm

re: #91 Killgore Trout

Having been “out of the loop” for a month, I am questioning the need for so much information.
How are the frogs, is a MUCH more burning question, relevant to our daily lives!

95 Lidane  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 10:24:35pm

re: #46 goddamnedfrank

Speaking of the pushback against Ted Cruz:


Youtube Video

96 freetoken  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 10:41:35pm

re: #85 sagehen

“Esoteric or technical” = SPECIALIST!!

You can be the go-to source for something you find fascinating that nobody else wanted to devote a lot of time to.

Yes, and play to a small audience.

We all can make Pages in whatever field interests us, and thankfully LGF has provided us with easy to use blogging tools.

Yet I return to this question: If a tree falls in the woods but no one hears it, did it really fall?

97 piratedan  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 10:47:16pm

re: #81 Gus

he was a pretty good “death” on a Twilight Zone episode too…..

looked it up… the title is “Nothing in the Dark

98 freetoken  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 10:59:29pm

Long forgotten, Cuban musician who was instrumental in the early days of popular recording of Cuban music, Ernesto Lecuona, here supposedly from ca. 1935:

MP3 Audio

Probably his most famous composition:

MP3 Audio

99 freetoken  Mon, Sep 23, 2013 11:45:10pm
100 freetoken  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:53:36am

And now for a little Pizzetti:


MP3 Audio

101 simoom  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 1:10:09am

re: #95 Lidane

Speaking of the pushback against Ted Cruz:

I was just reading a WaPo story on how the next week will likely play out in congress, and the top comment was kind of amusing. The Dems would never actually consider it, but it’s a suggestion for inserting their own politically impossible demand as an object lesson to the GOP about what they’re doing:

washingtonpost.com

murray1665
9/23/2013 9:40 AM EDT
I think the Senate should respond with a CR that includes the creation of a national gun registry in it.

102 goddamnedfrank  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 1:50:38am

It’s always depressing when one of my Facebook acquaintances from photography school turns out to be a right wing dumbshit. Predictably it’s one of the born rich self centered white girls who’s bitching about her health insurance going up by $1K per month, Obamacare being so unpopular so why doesn’t he abandon it and nonsense about her paying increased taxes that don’t exist.

I don’t have the energy to combat all the stupid, so I dropped this link detailing the popularity of the provisions vs. the word “obamacare” and haven’t responded further to the continuing derp. I don’t think she understands that Obamacare is the only reason she’s been able to be on daddy’s insurance plan these last three years and the idea of pre-existing conditions and struggling to make ends meet is completely alien to her, she’s rich, connected, young and utterly lacking in empathy.

It’s so damned depressing when you see a young person with everything to be thankful for in life be so fucking ugly, selfish and stupid.

103 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 2:03:29am

re: #102 goddamnedfrank

It’s so damned depressing when you see a young person with everything to be thankful for in life be so fucking ugly, selfish and stupid.

and so sad when people hate her for being priveleged…it’s just so…UNFAIR

104 freetoken  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 2:18:18am

Doesn’t deliver on the promise in the headline:

What You Need to Know about the Forthcoming Climate Change Report

105 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 2:30:58am

re: #104 freetoken

Doesn’t deliver on the promise in the headline:

What You Need to Know about the Forthcoming Climate Change Report

What they left out of the Obama Report:

1) it is all lies from the pit of hell

2) they will use it as an excuse to nationalze all energy industries and drive us into slavery

3) anyone opposing or criticizing we will all be rounded up into FEMA camps where LGBT guards will force us to live in lean-tos and wipe our butts with dried leaves

4) Obama hates America and is working to turn it into a secularist socialist Islamist Sharia state

/

106 Amory Blaine  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 2:31:33am

Scott Walker is doing everything he can to destroy the ACA implementation in Wisconsin. It’s going to get ugly.

107 freetoken  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 2:38:40am

Phil Plait tries a little harder:

As Climate Change Report Draws Near, Deniers Raise Voices, Bury Heads Deeper

There is a certain nobleness in holding one’s head high in the face of a certain firing squad of derp (and certainly both the SciAm and the Slate articles will attract derpy comments), but that’s not going to go far in this day and age.

108 freetoken  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 2:45:39am

Looks like a book worth checking out:

Tea partying: When protest movements defend the interests of the ultra-rich

Four years ago, the modern tea party seemed to emerge from nowhere, leaving journalists bewildered and the public with few reference points to understand seemingly spontaneous rallies by middle-class people seeking lower tax rates. A search for the phrase “tea party” in connection with “politics” in major newspapers yielded fewer than 100 mentions in 2008 — and when the words did appear linked together, they suggested studied formality and decorum. The next year, they appeared more than 1,500 times, often connected to “protest demonstration.”

But little was spontaneous about the new party. “Social movements that explicitly defend the interests of the rich and the almost-rich have been a recurring feature of American politics,” Isaac William Martin, a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego, reminds us in his new book, Rich People’s Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent. “Such movements shook the American polity before the Obama era, before the Reagan era and before Barry Goldwater ran for president — before, even, the New Deal.”

[…]

109 goddamnedfrank  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 2:59:26am

This is kind of awesome, and supports a suspicion I had throughout last year’s election:

A new academic paper digging into presidential betting in the final weeks of the 2012 election finds that a single trader lost between $4 million and $7 million placing a flurry of Intrade bets on Mitt Romney—perhaps to make the Republican nominee’s chance of victory appear brighter.

Two economists who studied the data offer various rationales for the trader’s aggressive wagering on Mr. Romney in the final two weeks of the campaign. The anonymous trader placed 1.2 million pro-Romney contracts, some of which were actually in the form of bets against a Barack Obama victory.

The most plausible reason for the betting, the authors conclude, is that “this trader could have been attempting to manipulate beliefs about the odds of victory in an attempt to boost fundraising, campaign morale, and turnout.”

110 Amory Blaine  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 3:13:53am

re: #106 Amory Blaine

Scott Walker is doing everything he can to destroy the ACA implementation in Wisconsin. It’s going to get ugly.

Minnesota is outperforming Wisconsin in crucial metrics (employment, job creation, school test scores, education levels). As a matter of fact in order to throw a bone to Wisconsin, Politifact basically used surveys from business magazines that claims that Wisconsin has a favorable business climate. Total twisting of the intent of the comparison. Other issues:

Minnesota is building the light rail planned to Chicago which will bypass Wisconsin because of Walkers foolish and vindictive rejection.

Gay marriage is law in Minnesota. Their wedding industry will be booming if it’s not already and GLBT will find the environment no doubt more hospitable than Wisconsins, where we passed a Constitutional Amendment banning same sex marriage that is near impossible to repeal.

This next one, I believe has the potential to do great harm to the Wi GOP for the upcoming 2014 election including the gubernatorial election. Health care.

Walker is callously throwing 92,000 people off of Badgercare on 12/31/13. Now he states that they will be on the exchanges for the ACA however this is going to cause great confusion and will cause many to not be enrolled. At the same time however Minnesota has embraced the ACA and may even have the lowest premiums in the country. The short term outlook of the ACA in Minnesota will most likely start bearing good numbers across the board while Wisconsin’s will be dismal. Just in time for the 2014 election.

This could actually have enough weight to actually take Walker down as all his other initiatives and legislation have divided the state, crushed public unions , left us with more debt and hurting school systems statewide. Notwithstanding the criminals he surrounded himself with have gone down in disgrace and current scandals he is embroiled in have potential to do more political harm.

111 Zombie Mutt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 4:12:10am

re: #110 Amory Blaine
Wouldn’t that be a fine day?

112 freetoken  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 4:30:36am

Here is reality: The IPCC, and the UNFCC, were by design not to succeed.

That’s right.

The purpose of organizations like these is to placate apprehensive diplomatic structures, where the larger concept embraced is that nations sitting down and talking with each other is a better scenario than nations shooting at each other.

So I’m going to call these organizations “diplomatic placebos”.

The physical reality of our planet and the biomes which operate upon it do not conform themselves to the idealism of international political theory. Reality is it’s own negotiator, and as a civilization we are not well prepared to enter into negotiations.

As for global warming proper - the inherit chaotic nature of our water planet changes on a scale beyond that for which we as individuals have evolved. Our scale is one of hunger and thirst, and then sexual gratification. These are scaled to hours (thirst) to months (sex). The energy flows on the surface of the planet vary over years to centuries. Two different time scales, two different experiences of entropy.

I propose that if someone wants to expend effort in bettering the world that the best return on investment is getting people, especially young people, exposed to as wide a variety of human cultures as possible, to broaden horizons, and perhaps bring long term change in bilateral and multilateral relations. This was the strategy started decades ago by various philanthropic organizations and it appears to have been one of the few successful strategies in changing human society beyond the family unit. Working against the inherently narcissistic nature of us humans is a tough row to hoe, but getting others to think and act as if they are connected to other people is the one thing that we most need.

113 A Mom Anon  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 4:37:10am

re: #110 Amory Blaine

Georgia is going to have similar roadblocks too, I’m afraid. Gov. Nathan Deal and Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens have openly admitted that they’re going to do whatever it takes to derail the ACA. Deal’s PAC got a million dollars from the insurance lobby to stall and obstruct. I have no idea what’s going to happen.

Husband just did open enrollment at work, I’m not sure what the price increase is going to end up being. Right now, it’s about 425 a month for the two of us(I had to buy a separate policy for the kid because to add him doubled the cost), and another 90 for the kid’s policy. For us, that’s a lot of money. I’m hoping I can opt out, the company isn’t paying for my insurance or the kid’s, just the husband. If we can, it should save us some money. Hopefully alot.

114 A Mom Anon  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 4:44:46am

re: #110 Amory Blaine

Let’s hope Walker gets the political karma he so richly deserves. Wisconsin has a hell of a mess to clean up after he’s gone though, I hope the damage gets undone quickly.

115 Justanotherhuman  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 4:45:57am

In yet another self-serving, blowhard piece in the Guardian, GG admits that both he and Laura Poitras have a full set of the documents Snowden stole from the NSA and hints at more “revelations”.


He replies to a commenter thusly:

23 September 2013 11:31pm

‘Yes, and you are not entitled to possess them.’

“But I do possess them and will continue to not only possess them, but write about them and publish them. And in a country which purports to guarantee a free press (that includes the US, but not the UK), I’m absolutely entitled to do both.

“And I’ll continue to.

‘They were stolen by Snowden, a wanted man.’

“Actually, he has legally recognized asylum in a sovereign country.”

That Russia took Snowden in doesn’t mean that Snowden is not wanted by the US, and the last I heard, there is a provisional warrant outstanding for him based on charges already publicized, including espionage.

And now GG has admitted both his and Poitras’s culpability in releasing secret govt information—stolen govt information. No wonder they don’t bother coming back to the US—they know their asses are in a sling.

In criminal law parlance, that’s known as “receiving stolen goods.”

116 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 4:48:03am

re: #115 Justanotherhuman

In yet another self-serving, blowhard piece in the Guardian, GG admits that both he and Laura Poitras have a full set of the documents Snowden stole from the NSA and hints at more “revelations”.

[Embedded content]


He replies to a commenter thusly:

23 September 2013 11:31pm

‘Yes, and you are not entitled to possess them.’

“But I do possess them and will continue to not only possess them, but write about them and publish them. And in a country which purports to guarantee a free press (that includes the US, but not the UK), I’m absolutely entitled to do both.

“And I’ll continue to.

‘They were stolen by Snowden, a wanted man.’

“Actually, he has legally recognized asylum in a sovereign country.”

That Russia took Snowden in doesn’t mean that Snowden is not wanted by the US, and the last I heard, there is a provisional warrant outstanding for him based on charges already publicized, including espionage.

And now GG has admitted both his and Poitras’s culpability in releasing secret govt information—stolen govt information. No wonder they don’t bother coming back to the US—they know their asses are in a sling.

In criminal law parlance, that’s known as “receiving stolen goods.”

Greenwald will eventually choke himself with his own ego.

117 Justanotherhuman  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 4:51:33am

re: #116 Vicious Babushka

Greenwald will eventually choke himself with his own ego.

IMHO, what GG is doing is “yelling fire in a crowded theater”, not “free speech”.

Also, he is putting lives at risk, and he doesn’t give a flying fuck.

118 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 4:54:09am

re: #117 Justanotherhuman

IMHO, what GG is doing is “yelling fire in a crowded theater”, not “free speech”.

Also, he is putting lives at risk, and he doesn’t give a flying fuck.

What he’s yelling is NAH NAH NAH YOU CAN’T GET ME! I DARE YA TO GET ME!! DOUBLE DOG DARE YAH!!! and dancing around teasing the shortstop while he is trying to steal a base.

119 A Mom Anon  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:24:31am

re: #118 Vicious Babushka

Yep. I also wonder if this isn’t the first time he’s done this. Or tried to. Who else has he fucked over for his own agenda/fame/monetary reward?

This also answers, in part at least, why he really left the US. I think it has less to do with love, and more to do with tax evasion and illegally gaining access to information like Snowden stole. Has he been in the US at all lately? Anyone know?

120 Justanotherhuman  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:27:25am

One of GG’s acolytes has also tweeted another self-serving interview of GG in The Hindu, published as “opinion”:


In it, GG admits this:

“There have been attempts in the U.S. to criminalise journalism, as happened in the case of Fox News and AP? Doesn’t this bother you?

“They are already succeeding in creating a climate of fear against whistleblowers and sources. That’s why some federal lawyers have told me that, at least for now, I shouldn’t go back to the U.S. and I should not try to enter the country. It’s pretty extraordinary for American lawyers to tell an American journalist that you should not try to re-enter your own country for fear that they may try and arrest you. ” (my emphasis)

And the reporter himself didn’t even have to leave India: “Shobhan Saxena is a Sao Paulo-based Indian journalist. He is the first Indian journalist in entire South America, writing on politics, trade and football.”

The Hindu has been described as a left leaning, family owned newspaper. en.wikipedia.org

121 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:29:18am

re: #120 Justanotherhuman

GG keeps calling this thing he is doing, “Journalism.” What GG does, and “Journalism” are completely different things.

122 geoffm33  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:35:26am

Morning all! Election day in Boston as we whittle the field of 12 Mayoral candidates down to 2. There are also several district races in Boston as well as the at-large race.

My guy is John Connolly. Just read an election day piece that had a very funny comment:

“We’ve done well on affordable and we’ve done well on luxury but we have no middle market housing plan in this city and that means we’re hemorrhaging all that talent that our institutions are producing because they can’t afford to find a place to live here,” said Connolly.

Connolly tied all of this back to education, saying that the school system is at the heart of all the problems the city faces. “If we want safer neighborhoods, we need better schools; if we want a stronger economy, we need better schools,” said Connolly.

Here is the first comment:

We would have better schools and safer neighborhoods if they did away will all the free loaders on welfare

I don’t even.

123 A Mom Anon  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:41:30am

re: #122 geoffm33

LOL. Stuck on Stupid. I’d love to hear an elaboration on that, but there’s not enough headache medicine on earth to endure it. “Get rid” of the freeloaders how exactly?

124 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:43:00am

re: #123 A Mom Anon

LOL. Stuck on Stupid. I’d love to hear an elaboration on that, but there’s not enough headache medicine on earth to endure it. “Get rid” of the freeloaders how exactly?

MAKE THOSE MOOCHERS & FREE LOADERS GET JRRBZ TO GET ‘EM OFF TEH WELFARE ROLES!!!11 THEIRS JRRBZ AT WALMART!!!1!!

Oh wait…they’re ALREADY working at Walmart…

125 A Mom Anon  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:48:07am

re: #124 Vicious Babushka

God, I just wish these assholes would READ something. You have to already have a shitty job to get “on welfare”. It’s been that way for what now? At least 20 yrs, maybe more? (I just looked it up, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act was signed into law in 1996)

126 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:50:13am

re: #125 A Mom Anon

God, I just wish these assholes would READ something. You have to already have a shitty job to get “on welfare”. It’s been that way for what now? At least 20 yrs, maybe more? (I just looked it up, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act was signed into law in 1996)

These same people also want to abolish the minimum wage TO CREEYATE MOAR JRRBZ!!!1!!!

127 A Mom Anon  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:52:52am

OK, No Dog Walk, No Peace,lol. BBL after chores, errands and said dog walking.

128 goddamnedfrank  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:53:06am

re: #102 goddamnedfrank

Just to put the degree of misinformation in perspective, the CoveredCA website says the most expensive Platinum plan for a 27 year old living in LA prices out at $307 per month, the cheapest Bronze plan runs $161 / month. This of course assumes the person makes too much to qualify for any kind of subsidy. In the worst case scenario under the plan, someone just past the income cutoff for subsidies can cover themselves for just over 4% of their income.

So how does that stack up against the current recommended average?

Insurance (health, life, disability), 6 percent. Range: 4 to 6 percent.

Health (prescriptions, eye care, dental), 3 percent. Range: 2 to 8 percent.

Since all ACA plans have some degree of vision and prescription coverage it looks like even the worst case scenarios for young single people who have good but not amazing paying jobs will put them right at or slightly below the current recommended household budget range for combined healthcare costs.

I doubt that this is accidental, part of the whole point of setting up the healthcare exchanges was to encourage a market reversion to mean.

129 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:53:21am

re: #122 geoffm33

We would have better schools and safer neighborhoods if they did away will all the free loaders on welfare.

Hire all those poor 6-year olds as school janitors! No food unless people work! Eleventy!

I swear, the modern American right sounds a lot like the factory owners before child labor laws were enacted.

130 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 5:58:20am

re: #129 Lidane

Hire all those poor 6-year olds as school janitors! No food unless people work! Eleventy!

I swear, the modern American right sounds a lot like the factory slave owners before child labor laws were enacted the Civil War was fought.

HURR HURR!! BUT TEH SLAVE OWNERS WAS TEH DEMOCRATZ!!11

131 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:02:37am
132 Justanotherhuman  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:06:39am

re: #115 Justanotherhuman

The revelation that both Poitras and GG each have a full set of the docs Snowden stole from the NSA requires me to ask:

What was Miranda couriering? Annotated docs both to and from Poitras and GG, with written discussion, instructions, etc?

This would put the question to the theft and these “releases” and hold those 3 principals in what could very well be a conspiracy to commit a crime. And we also have to remember that it’s already known that Snowden met with both Poitras and GG before he was hired by BHA to work at the NSA.

I would be very, very nervous indeed if I was in their shoes. They deserve everything that can be thrown at them, IMHO. And it’s why GG continues to try to direct the narrative and the framing.

Narcissists are always master manipulators, and this affair is writ large.

133 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:10:44am

re: #106 Amory Blaine

Scott Walker is doing everything he can to destroy the ACA implementation in Wisconsin. It’s going to get ugly.

The PA version is being referred to as “Corbett Care” and he wants to add requirements to it that unemployed are verified to be in a job search/training program in order to get the coverage. While at the same time admitting that they are not able to currently properly track SNAP eligibility where some of the same requirements are in place now.

134 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:14:25am

re: #112 freetoken

Is the USMC one of those groups? They’ve had the “Travel to exotic places, meet interesting people, and kill them.” creed for quite a while.
///

135 Justanotherhuman  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:15:04am

“The President’s speech this morning will focus on U.S. policy towards the Middle East and North Africa.”


UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also said, ‘When women’s lives are free of violence and discrimination, nations thrive’ and, ‘A lost generation of young people now fills refugee camps’.

136 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:15:52am

re: #114 A Mom Anon

Let’s hope Walker gets the political karma he so richly deserves. Wisconsin has a hell of a mess to clean up after he’s gone though, I hope the damage gets undone quickly.

They’ll flip Dem for one term. And then the GOP will run heavily the next election about the Dem governor not being able to fix things in 1/4 the time it took for the damage to take place.
/

137 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:19:58am

re: #130 Vicious Babushka

Slaves had shelter, food, and a job. What did they have to complain about?

///// x infinity

Sadly, there are RWNJ dipshits in 2013 who think exactly that way.

138 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:20:53am

re: #132 Justanotherhuman

The revelation that both Poitras and GG each have a full set of the docs Snowden stole from the NSA requires me to ask:

What was Miranda couriering? Annotated docs both to and from Poitras and GG, with written discussion, instructions, etc?

This would put the question to the theft and these “releases” and hold those 3 principals in what could very well be a conspiracy to commit a crime. And we also have to remember that it’s already known that Snowden met with both Poitras and GG before he was hired by BHA to work at the NSA.

I would be very, very nervous indeed if I was in their shoes. They deserve everything that can be thrown at them, IMHO. And it’s why GG continues to try to direct the narrative and the framing.

Narcissists are always master manipulators, and this affair is writ large.

Still the possibility that the Miranda trip through the UK was routed that way on purpose in order to get Miranda detained and arrested as another way to grab the headlines and create another martyr for Greenwald and Wikileaks to use.

139 Political Atheist  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:21:30am

The jailed members of Pussy Riot may have some interesting company soon.

Green Peace pirates?

MURMANSK, Russia (AP) — Russian investigators say they will file piracy charges against Greenpeace activists who tried to climb onto an offshore drilling platform in the Arctic owned by the state-controlled gas company Gazprom.

The activists are on a Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, which was seized last week by the Russian Coast Guard and towed Tuesday into a port near Murmansk.

It was unclear how many of the 30 activists from 18 countries face piracy charges, which carry a potential prison sentence of up to 15 years and a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $15,500). The Investigative Committee, Russia’s federal investigative agency, said Tuesday it would question all those who participated in the protest and detain the “more active” among them.

140 Justanotherhuman  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:25:37am

re: #138 Feline Fearless Leader

If that was the intent, it failed miserably. GG & Co have a policy of not having any of those docs in the ether, at least those emanating from either him or Poitras. They’re simply not going to risk it, because it would be evidence.

And now the Brits have the enchiladas Miranda was ferrying between them, which they are no doubt now sharing with US authorities.

141 Justanotherhuman  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:26:24am

re: #139 Political Atheist

The jailed members of Pussy Riot may have some interesting company soon.

Green Peace pirates?

Arrrgh, matey.

142 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:26:37am

re: #130 Vicious Babushka

Sure, some of ‘em got the lash a time or ten, but that was actually good for them, too, because lazy. ////

143 Interesting Times  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:26:46am

re: #137 Lidane

Slaves had shelter, food, and a job. What did they have to complain about?

///// x infinity

Sadly, there are RWNJ dipshits in 2013 who think exactly that way.

Not sarc. On another board I belong to, a wingnut who thinks Fox News is the “least biased” network and loves Ben Stein, went on and on about how wonderful Biblical slavery was…for the slaves! o_O

144 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:27:07am

7.7 earthquake in Pakistan a couple of hours ago.

145 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:27:15am

re: #128 goddamnedfrank

Yup. The plans are meant to provide tax credits/subsidies to those making up to 400% of the poverty level. That means a single person making up to $44,680 would be eligible for a credit/subsidy to bring their health coverage below the 12% threshold for health care costs.

There’s a series of tables indicating the permutations of costs/benefits.

Which is why when you hear the GOP claiming that premiums will be X or are skyrocketing to Y, you have to cut through their BS to realize that this is all before the credits/subsidies kick in and drop the amounts to levels that are not only more reasonable, but are providing coverage to those who until now have not been able to afford insurance at all.

It is providing health insurance to those who haven’t been able to afford it until now. Throw in the fact that the GOP is comparing apples to oranges, and that the plans will have to provide minimum amounts of preventative care, which some states have until now resisted requiring, you’re going to see higher costs in some areas as the plans now reset to these new requirements for higher levels of coverage. States that already required higher levels of care will see rates stabilize or even drop slightly.

146 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:28:26am

re: #137 Lidane

Slaves had shelter, food, and a job. What did they have to complain about?

///// x infinity

Sadly, there are RWNJ dipshits in 2013 who think exactly that way.

Here’s how they think. It hurts my brain.

HURR HURR. TEH FOOD STAMPZ & OBAMACARE R JUST LIKE SLAVERY!!11!!!!
HURR HURR. HAVING A JRRB IS FREEDOM!!11 NO MINIMUM WAGE MEANS MOAR JRRBZ & MOAR FREEDOM!!!1!!

WALMARTS IS TEH JRRB CREEYATERS TEHY IS MAKING JRRBZ TO MAEK AMERCIANS MOAR FREE!!!11 HOW MENY JRRBZ HAS U CREEYATED U LIBRULTARD? TEH WALTONS IS BETTER THEN U!!!11!!

IF WALMART DIDN’T CREEYATE JRRBZ THEN ALL THEM FREE MERKANS WURKIN AT WALMART AN TAKIN FUUD STAMPZ WUD BE ALL UNEMPLOYED AND TAKIN EVEN MOAR FUUD STAMPZ!!11

147 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:29:24am

Meanwhile, the saga at the Westgate Mall continues. The mall is not yet completely cleared of all terrorists, and victims are likely still within the mall.

The questions are now beginning to focus on who the individual attackers were, and how the operation was carried out with deadly success. It appears to be loosely based on the Mumbai attacks that killed over 200 people - multiple cells attacking multiple targets with an intent to maximize the carnage among non Muslims.

148 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:31:53am

re: #120 Justanotherhuman

Snowden….Snowden…I remember that name, vaguely. Was he the guy that defected to Russia? ////

149 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:32:26am

In contrast to all the “No work, no food because the Bible said so!” idiocy on the right, here’s a fantastic story of taking something bad and doing good with it:

150 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:33:30am

re: #143 Interesting Times

But GOP ended Democrat Party slavery and Frederick Douglas was a Repub! /

151 goddamnedfrank  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:38:30am

re: #145 lawhawk

Another thing the exchanges do is ban plans that had lifetime payout limits. A big part of why the bottom of the barrel plans were so cheap was that their expenses were capped, so if a patient had a debilitating stroke or other devastating condition requiring long term care the insurance company could foist the patient and costs off on whatever hospital and state / county system they were in when that limit was reached.

Now everyone has some skin in the game and an incentive to make sure actual preventative care gets emphasized.

152 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:39:31am

re: #149 Lidane

I should also like to point out to Bryan Fischer and the other RWNJ who quote this a lot that the context for that passage (in 2 Thessalonians) is a group of believers basically sitting around waiting for the End Times. You know, not people working at low pay with mouths to feed or people trying to find work who need temporary assistance.

153 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:41:33am

Mr. Burns: And now that I am back to normal I don’t bring love. I bring hate, fear and…

Dr. Nick Riviera: Time for your booster!

Mr. Burns: Good morning starshine…

154 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:41:39am

re: #152 Bulworth

I should also like to point out to Bryan Fischer and the other RWNJ who quote this a lot that the context for that passage (in 2 Thessalonians) is a group of believers basically sitting around waiting for the End Times. You know, not people working at low pay with mouths to feed or people trying to find work who need temporary assistance.

Isn’t Thessalonians one of Paul’s letters? IOW it’s not the teaching of Jesus. I’m not all that familiar with the NT.

155 darthstar  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:42:28am
156 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:43:18am

re: #131 Vicious Babushka

The only thing that is unchanged from that photo is the Ka’aba itself. Practically every other structure has been razed and rebuilt although this view is probably the one least changed. Turn to the opposite direction, and you see how the Saudi government has razed the entire area and built skyscrapers (among the tallest in the world) overlooking the Ka’aba.

157 Dr Lizardo  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:44:26am

re: #154 Vicious Babushka

Isn’t Thessalonians one of Paul’s letters? IOW it’s not the teaching of Jesus. I’m not all that familiar with the NT.

1st and 2nd Thessalonians are Pauline Epistles. Like you said, not the actual teachings of Jesus (a.s.) but rather the teachings as interpreted by Paul.

158 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:48:52am

The NY Post this morning was trying to tie Bill de Blasio to ACORN (a group that no longer exists, but which supported candidates who were liberals), while the NYT reported yesterday that he was a leftist who went to Cuba on his honeymoon and supports lifting the embargo on the country (among other things).

None of this is particularly surprising. And it wont matter to voters much either. The Workers Family Party (which was founded by one of the founders of ACORN) support de Blasio now. Again, not surprising. And not against the law either. Candidates try to get the endorsement of the group in NYC.

159 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:50:08am

re: #154 Vicious Babushka

Yeah, the writer of 2 Thessalonians identifies himself as Paul the apostle.* In 1 Thessalonians Paul waxes eloquently about the soon expected return of Christ, and this appeared to influence some in the community to not bother with the usual demands of life, expecting as they were to be relieved of all earthly troubles. Thessalonians II appears to have been written, in part, to scale back people’s expectations about a soon Return and to get on with life.

160 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:52:19am

re: #159 Bulworth

(cont)
*Scholars disagree about the genuineness of the various letters attributed to Paul (and other NT Apostles), and Thesalonians II might be one of the “disputed” letters, written by a disciple of Paul after his death.

161 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:53:33am

re: #155 darthstar

Voter Fraud!! Tru the vote!!

162 darthstar  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 6:56:17am

re: #161 Bulworth

Voter Fraud!! Tru the vote!!

ObamACORNcare!

163 Decatur Deb  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:04:59am

Hitting the tip jar, and I expect to do that at least 8 times in a given year. (Especially like to time it to Charles hate-mail comments.) I would miss the ads—they give a hint about how the Intertubes see LGF and us as keystrokers.

At my age we are advised never to buy green bananas (h/t Burt Reynolds).

Charles—Hitting ‘Donate’ took me to a Paypal error page.

164 sagehen  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:09:08am

re: #158 lawhawk

The NY Post this morning was trying to tie Bill de Blasio to ACORN (a group that no longer exists, but which supported candidates who were liberals), while the NYT reported yesterday that he was a leftist who went to Cuba on his honeymoon and supports lifting the embargo on the country (among other things).

None of this is particularly surprising. And it wont matter to voters much either. The Workers Family Party (which was founded by one of the founders of ACORN) support de Blasio now. Again, not surprising. And not against the law either. Candidates try to get the endorsement of the group in NYC.

so… guy who wants to lift Cuban embargo vs. guy who wants to run over kittens.

I think we know which NYC voters will prefer.

165 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:11:36am
166 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:11:58am

Glenn thinks he is more important than the POTUS.

167 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:13:15am

re: #166 Vicious Babushka

Glenn thinks he is more important than the POTUS.

So does his fanboys.

168 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:15:23am

Glenn thinks he is TEH MOAST IMPORTANTEST PERSON IN TEH WHOLE WIDE WORLD & EVEN ALL TEH OTHER PLANETZ!!!11!!!!!!!

169 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:15:52am

lolwut

170 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:15:56am

re: #164 sagehen

I happen to agree that the kittens should have taken a back seat to getting the subways going - it’s an economics decision - tens of thousands of commuters stranded b/c of the subway shutdown to corral the two kittens.

No one would think twice if squirrels were along the right of way and got in/near the third rail.

If you happened to be one of those folks who was stuck for hours because the trains got shuttered for a couple of kittens, you’d speak a different tune.

But most folks voting in NYC will back the guy who apparently wants the Cuban embargo lifted.

171 Gus  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:16:23am
172 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:18:04am

re: #171 Gus

Practically the same thing. //

173 William Barnett-Lewis  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:18:30am

re: #154 Vicious Babushka

Isn’t Thessalonians one of Paul’s letters? IOW it’s not the teaching of Jesus. I’m not all that familiar with the NT.

2nd Thessalonians is a mashup. Some legitimate writing of Paul is mixed with later materials that people wanted in his name. Those waiting for the Messiah’s second coming were a later problem. As I quoted yesterday, the much more legitimate Christian response (traditionally ascribed to James who was believed to be the brother of Jesus and the leader of the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem until the revolt against the Romans) is to simply give as much as possible to those in need.

Likewise the “pastorial” letters - where we get all the hardcore antisemitism and anti-women crap (Titus, 1 & 2 Timothy) which were later responses to gnosticism and attempting to fit emerging Christianity into Roman cultural norms despite the fact that the still quite Jewish Christianity that Jesus and Paul taught it did not fit into Roman society.

There is a lot of weird stuff in the New Testament that would make Jesus or Paul want to slap someone for including it.

And I have even gotten started on that bit of fertilizer called Revelations…

174 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:18:53am

lolwut

175 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:19:11am

re: #172 Bulworth

Why stop there: Bonus Outrage Is “Just as Bad and Just as Wrong” as gassing Jews in WWII.

176 Gus  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:19:24am

re: #172 Bulworth

Practically the same thing. //

3/5ths a CEO. //

177 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:20:11am

re: #173 William Barnett-Lewis

And I have even gotten started on that bit of fertilizer called Revelations…

Is it only one “Revelation” or plural “Revelations”?

178 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:20:24am

re: #165 Vicious Babushka

Even with the Kenyan massacre ongoing, U.S. “spying” is the most important, in fact the ONLY issue to consider. /

179 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:21:17am

Wingnuts and Glenn Greenwald are all outrageously outraged by POTUS speaking at the UN.

HOW DARE HE!!!11!!!!!!

180 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:21:47am

re: #165 Vicious Babushka

That’s standard inter-government chest thumping behavior. 90% of public government behavior is like watching 9-10 year-olds on a playground. Have to maintain face and placate the home front by yelling about the other kids.

181 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:22:21am

re: #179 Vicious Babushka

And using a TELEPROMPTER!!!

Also, too, Apology Tour. /

182 sagehen  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:22:29am

re: #170 lawhawk

I happen to agree that the kittens should have taken a back seat to getting the subways going - it’s an economics decision - tens of thousands of commuters stranded b/c of the subway shutdown to corral the two kittens.

And if you were running for office you’d find a better way to phrase that.

183 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:22:57am

I’m really sick of hearing about GG and refuse to click on his timeline ever again. But, is his entire existence focused on “spying”? Does he tweet about anything else? What a sad little “man”.

184 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:23:46am

re: #183 Dr. Matt

When the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like….

185 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:24:41am

re: #174 Vicious Babushka

lolwut

I breathlessly await the flow of Greenwald tweets and columns about the tyranny of Putin for having the state apparatus arrest people for showing portraits of him wearing a dress.
//

186 Gus  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:25:05am

The uproar over bonuses “was intended to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitch forks and their hangman nooses, and all that-sort of like what we did in the Deep South [decades ago]. And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong.”
— Robert Benmosche (AIG)

187 William Barnett-Lewis  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:25:23am

re: #177 Vicious Babushka

Is it only one “Revelation” or plural “Revelations”?

Book of Revelation officially. I hear it refered to in the plural most of the time though. It was one of many floating around in the 2nd & 3rd century when the canon was being decided as it was a very popular literary form. Rather like the modern “Left Behind” crap.

As a result of the popularity of the form, they felt they needed to include one and they chose the one alleged to be written by John of Patmos (who could be mistaken for the Apostle John by those so inclined) because it was the least insane (!!!!) of the bunch.

188 darthstar  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:25:46am

re: #184 Bulworth

When the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like….

Except Glenn’s beating on a plexi-glass ceiling. Not every blogger becomes a respected reporter…and he won’t.

189 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:25:49am

re: #181 Bulworth

And using a TELEPROMPTER!!!

Also, too, Apology Tour. /

And he’s bowing to everyone.

And the color of his tie is signaling his alliance to Moooslims.

190 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:26:14am

re: #183 Dr. Matt

I’m really sick of hearing about GG and refuse to click on his timeline ever again. But, is his entire existence focused on “spying”? Does he tweet about anything else? What a sad little “man”.

No, his entire existence is focused on Glenn.

191 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:26:57am
192 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:27:09am

Is this classic projection or what?

193 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:32:00am

re: #192 Vicious Babushka

But somewhere, everywhere on the planet, TCOTs are being harassed and persecuted by teh gay, seculars, academics, Hollywood actors, Muslims, government bureaucrats, the people who run Twitter, George Soros, and Starbucks coffee.

194 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:33:04am

re: #193 Bulworth

But somewhere, everywhere on the planet, TCOTs are being harassed and persecuted by teh gay, seculars, academics, Hollywood actors, Muslims, government bureaucrats, the people who run Twitter, George Soros, and Starbucks coffee.

AND TEH JUICE!!!111!!!!!!

195 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:34:23am

LOLOLOLOL PRICELESS

196 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:39:36am

re: #173 William Barnett-Lewis

2nd Thessalonians The Bible is a mashup. …

With all due respects …

197 Eventual Carrion  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:40:59am

re: #146 Vicious Babushka

Here’s how they think. It hurts my brain.

[snip]

IF WALMART DIDN’T CREEYATE JRRBZ THEN ALL THEM FREE MERKANS WURKIN AT WALMART AN TAKIN FUUD STAMPZ WUD BE ALL UNEMPLOYED AND TAKIN EVEN MOAR FUUD STAMPZ!!11

The answer to that one should be: They would be working at the mom and pop, locally owned stores providing food, clothing, shoes, auto parts, toys, pharmacy services, jewerly, hair care, etc. that were run out of business by the behemoth that is wallyworld.

198 sagehen  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:42:29am

re: #195 Vicious Babushka

LOLOLOLOL PRICELESS

[Embedded content]

It’s unclear if the person behind this was a true believer, or a supporter who was trying to manipulate InTrade to make Romney’s fortunes appear better than they actually were.

(maybe one of the Romney kids spent their birthday money betting on Dad)

199 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:42:52am

re: #196 wheat-dogghazi

With all due respects …

Basically, only idiots look on it as something to be taken literally. That only leads rational people to reject it outright, which is not the point, either.

The Reverend Shelby Spong makes a good case for the latter in Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, and also makes a convincing case that St paul was a repressed, self-loathing homosexual, which goes a long way in explaining why Christian fundamentlists ahve such a hard time dealing with teh gey.

200 Interesting Times  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:43:14am

re: #196 wheat-dogghazi

Oh hai you can haz a sliver of good news:

The South China Morning Post reports that Facebook, Twitter and other websites will be unblocked in a free-trade zone of Shanghai.

An unnamed official said the move was to make foreigners “feel at home”.

Not sure if you’re in that area, but perhaps it could start a trend…

201 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:43:41am

Is this sarcasm or real?

202 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:44:44am

re: #197 Eventual Carrion

The answer to that one should be: They would be working at the mom and pop, locally owned stores providing food, clothing, shoes, auto parts, toys, pharmacy services, jewerly, hair care, etc. that were run out of business by the behemoth that is wallyworld.

And probably buying/selling US-made items since at the small scales like that it is less economical to arrange for mass shipments of foreign-produced items.

(Basing this in part from buying unglazed plant pots for $0.60 - that were made in Germany. Unless you’re making and move a *lot* of these at once in bulk the transportation and logistics costs bury the profitability of these items.)

203 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:45:03am

re: #201 Dr. Matt

Is this sarcasm or real?

Obama offers to drop ACA in if Sen Cruz will agree to National Gun Control legislation.

204 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:46:22am

re: #200 Interesting Times

Oh hai you can haz a sliver of good news:

Not sure if you’re in that area, but perhaps it could start a trend…

I am nowhere near Shanghai, unfortunately. It’s a bone thrown to lure foreign investors in the new free trade zone that will surely cut into Hong Kong’s business. You can bet those data streams will still be closely monitored.

I am not holding my breath for further loosening of the Party’s stranglehold on the ‘Net. I like oxygen.

205 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:47:33am

re: #202 Feline Fearless Leader

And probably buying/selling US-made items since at the small scales like that it is less economical to arrange for mass shipments of foreign-produced items.

(Basing this in part from buying unglazed plant pots for $0.60 - that were made in Germany. Unless you’re making and move a *lot* of these at once in bulk the transportation and logistics costs bury the profitability of these items.)

Wal Mart was about the idea of bringing big-city shopping to rural areas. But they also took advantage of the dearth of employment possibilities at these locations to keep their labor practices positively Dickensian.

Not unsurprisingly, Wal-Mart bailed out of Germany when they learned that German labor laws and trade unions just would not allow the Wallyworld spirit to flourish there.

206 goddamnedfrank  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:47:41am

re: #195 Vicious Babushka

LOLOLOLOL PRICELESS

[Embedded content]

Not as dumb though as it looks at first blush:

“It is worth knowing that a highly visible market that drove many a media narrative could be manipulated at a cost less than that of a primetime television commercial,” the authors write.

It’s funny because it kind of reconfirms the idea that conservatives can’t distinguish between cause and effect. However the strength of cognitive biases in political betting markets lends credence to the idea that one theoretically could, to a very minor degree, influence the outcome by manipulating the betting market.

Of course Intrade wasn’t the only betting market, it was an extreme outlier giving Romney far better odds than all the other betting websites, so it’s no coincidence that it was by far the one most cited in the American press who wanted a horserace for ratings reasons. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the betting was being done by someone with a major ownership stake in one or more US cable news channels. Such a person / corporation could have made far more money in increased ad rates than they lost on Intrade.

207 Internet Tough Guy  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:48:30am

inb4 impeachment threat:

Encouraged that newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani seemingly as a mandate to pursue a “more moderate course,” President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he’s directing Secretary of State John Kerry to pursue a nuclear weapons deal with Iran.

“We should be able to achieve a resolution that respects the rights of the Iranian people while giving the world confidence that the Iranian program is peaceful,” Obama said during a speech before the United Nations General Assembly.

208 Dr Lizardo  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:51:08am

re: #199 Sol Berdinowitz

Basically, only idiots look on it as something to be taken literally. That only leads rational people to reject it outright, which is not the point, either.

The Reverend Shelby Spong makes a good case for the latter in Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, and also makes a convincing case that St paul was a repressed, self-loathing homosexual, which goes a long way in explaining why Christian fundamentlists ahve such a hard time dealing with teh gey.

That’s one of the best books I’ve ever read; I enjoyed it immensely.

Now if someone could just get around to writing “Rescuing Islam From Fundamentalism”.

Well, there’s various Sufi authors on the subject, but I mean a popular work that doesn’t delve too deeply into philosophy or exegesis for the average reader.

209 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:52:00am

re: #206 goddamnedfrank

Not as dumb though as it looks at first blush:

It’s funny because it kind of reconfirms the idea that conservatives can’t distinguish between cause and effect. However the strength of cognitive biases in political betting markets lends credence to the idea that one theoretically could, to a very minor degree, influence the outcome by manipulating the betting market.

Of course Intrade wasn’t the only betting market, it was an extreme outlier giving Romney far better odds than all the other betting websites, so it’s no coincidence that it was by far the one most cited in the American press who wanted a horserace for ratings reasons. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the betting was being done by someone with a major ownership stake in one or more US cable news channels. Such a person / corporation could have made far more money in increased ad rates than they lost on Intrade.

The betting could also have been done by somebody with a shit-ton of money to throw away, like Sheldon Adelson or the Kochs.

210 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:53:27am

re: #208 Dr Lizardo

Chances are the authors would be the subject of a fatwa.

211 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:53:33am

re: #208 Dr Lizardo

That’s one of the best books I’ve ever read; I enjoyed it immensely.

Now if someone could just get around to writing “Rescuing Islam From Fundamentalism”.

Well, there’s various Sufi authors on the subject, but I mean a popular work that doesn’t delve too deeply into philosophy or exegesis for the average reader.

Maybe a cheap app for Iphones and tablets where you create halal cookies and eventually unlock Quran quotes (or Bible for the western version) along with mainstream discussion of how they should be interpreted.
/ (sorta)

212 goddamnedfrank  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:55:51am

re: #198 sagehen

(maybe one of the Romney kids spent their birthday money betting on Dad)

What’s really surprising is how little money was needed to keep Romney looking competitive on Intrade, how shallowly that market was capitalized. I mean $4 million sounds like a lot until you consider that Sheldon Adelson spent at least 25 times that amount with the avowed purpose of defeating Obama.

213 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:56:15am

re: #209 Vicious Babushka

The betting could also have been done by somebody with a shit-ton of money to throw away, like Sheldon Adelson or the Kochs.

People with a shit-ton of money to throw away are the people who determine the course of politics

214 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:56:19am

re: #211 Feline Fearless Leader

Now you made me want cookies. Damn you! It’s pouring rain outside and all the shops are closed anyway.

215 William Barnett-Lewis  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:56:22am

re: #196 wheat-dogghazi

With all due respects …

To a certain degree that is true. however some things make a more coherent whole than others - the two Isaiahs for example. Or are more obviously two traditions being kept together - the two creations of Genesis. The mess made of the Pauline corpus by those writing the later letters in his name is, to me, of a completely different level.

216 Eventual Carrion  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:56:37am

re: #177 Vicious Babushka

Is it only one “Revelation” or plural “Revelations”?

I think it was plural. It was a long acid trip so there were many visions.

217 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:57:21am

re: #216 Eventual Carrion

I think it was plural. It was a long acid trip so there were many visions.

The Book of Revelation

218 Gus  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:57:55am

BeatleJUICE… O_o //

219 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:59:04am

re: #214 wheat-dogghazi

Now you made me want cookies. Damn you! It’s pouring rain outside and all the shops are closed anyway.

@_@

Cookie Clicker is your friend. Obey the Cookie Clicker!

220 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:59:28am

re: #215 William Barnett-Lewis

To a certain degree that is true. however some things make a more coherent whole than others - the two Isaiahs for example. Or are more obviously two traditions being kept together - the two creations of Genesis. The mess made of the Pauline corpus by those writing the later letters in his name is, to me, of a completely different level.

That’s what happens when a book is written by committee.

221 Dr Lizardo  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 7:59:55am

re: #210 wheat-dogghazi

Chances are the authors would be the subject of a fatwa.

All I need to do is mention that various verses of the Qur’an need to be looked in terms of their historic context and oh, man…….

There are Muslims who do agree with that point of view; ‘higher criticism’, if you will, but generally, it’s not widely discussed, unfortunately.

222 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:00:47am

re: #220 wheat-dogghazi

That’s what happens when a book is written by committee.

More like when a later group is cherry-picking among a bunch of texts to select the ones that promote their desired positions and goals as established dogma.

223 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:04:30am

re: #222 Feline Fearless Leader

More like when a later group is cherry-picking among a bunch of texts to select the ones that promote their desired positions and goals as established dogma.

For some reason, this popped into my mind as I read that: “I thought we were an autonomous collective.”

224 William Barnett-Lewis  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:05:58am

re: #199 Sol Berdinowitz

Basically, only idiots look on it as something to be taken literally. That only leads rational people to reject it outright, which is not the point, either.

The Reverend Shelby Spong makes a good case for the latter in Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, and also makes a convincing case that St paul was a repressed, self-loathing homosexual, which goes a long way in explaining why Christian fundamentlists ahve such a hard time dealing with teh gey.

Spong is an interesting bird and there are some good arguments in his books but I preferred “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” and other works by Marcus Borg. Just fits my style more than Bishop Spong’s in your face “I’m a Bishop and an Atheist” attitude. On my Christmas wishlist is Borg’s newest “Evolution of the Word” on the historical writing of the NT with a special focus on the order the books were written in from 1st Thessalonians first to 2nd Peter as the last.

225 Stoatly  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:09:56am

re: #213 Sol Berdinowitz

People with a shit-ton of money to throw away are the people who determine the course of politics

True, though not as directly as they would want; otherwise Obama wouldn’t be a two-term Prez leaving the legacy of “Obamacare” behind him.

226 The Ghost of a Flea  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:10:24am

re: #180 Feline Fearless Leader

That’s standard inter-government chest thumping behavior. 90% of public government behavior is like watching 9-10 year-olds on a playground. Have to maintain face and placate the home front by yelling about the other kids.

There’s actually an interesting twist to this Brazil thing:

Brazil still has something of a reputation as a defender of Internet freedom, which is fair by the standards of other large emerging economies, but also highlights the degree to which different countries differ on what that means.

According to Google, Brazil led the world last year in government requests for content removal with 640. (The United States was second.) Many of the requests involved alleged instances of defamation of public officials during the 2012 election. Google complied with only 21 of the requests. In 2006, Brazilian authorities threatened to close down Google’s operations in the country after demanding information on users of the company’s Orkut social network that prosecutors said was needed to crack down on child pornography. There have also been reported instances of Brazilian authorities leaning on ISPs to block access to criticism of soccer executives and online journalists being threatened with lawsuits or even violence for going after officials.

Last year, Brazil—along with Russia and China—was one of the countries at the International Telecommunications Union conference in Dubai pushing for national governments to be granted greater control over Internet governance The so-called “cyber-sovereignty” movement was opposed by the United States and other western democracies.

Again, Brazil still has a very free and open internet by global standards, but with Rousseff now calling for the U.N. to reopen the topic of global internet governance, the cyber-sovereignty movement could pick up steam again. As privacy expert Bruce Schneier tells the AP, Brazil’s moves could embolden, “some of the worst countries out there to seek more control over their citizens’ Internet. That’s Russia, China, Iran and Syria.”

As David Bosco notes, the United States and European countries were able to scuttle the drive for governments to be granted more control over internet governance last year partly on the grounds that it would inevitably lead to authoritarian countries stifling and monitoring online free expression. It becomes a lot harder for the U.S. government to stand on principle if it’s clear that the current internet governance arrangement makes it easier for the U.S. to spy on its allies.

It would be an unfortunate irony if one outcome of the NSA revelations was an internet with more control and monitoring by governments

So the outrage over US spying is leading to calls for governments to be able to control their nation’s internet…and therefore be able to censor and spy on their own population easier.

227 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:11:20am

re: #224 William Barnett-Lewis

The trouble with these cool-headed analyses of Scripture is that they are preaching to the choir. The people who need to read these books — the fundies — are the ones who avoid them like they are radioactive.

228 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:12:48am

re: #227 wheat-dogghazi

The trouble with these cool-headed analyses of Scripture is that they are preaching to the choir. The people who need to read these books — the fundies — are the ones who avoid them like they are radioactive.

Why read it when knowledge is not the goal?

229 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:13:29am

A thought provoking article…
What Ronald Reagan Can Teach Barack Obama About Dealing With Iran

Like the Gipper did with Gorbachev, Obama can make history this week with Iran’s Hassan Rouhani. But Obama must pay close attention to Reagan’s real legacy—not the hawks who call themselves Reaganites.

230 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:13:59am

re: #225 Stoatly

True, though not as directly as they would want; otherwise Obama wouldn’t be a two-term Prez leaving the legacy of “Obamacare” behind him.

Obama also works for Goldman-Sachs. he is not about to do anything that will endanger their bottom line.

231 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:17:23am

re: #228 Feline Fearless Leader

Why read it when knowledge is not the goal?

Questioning the veracity and the God-inspired words of the Bible is of the Devil, and cannot be trusted. That’s their party line.

232 William Barnett-Lewis  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:18:34am

re: #229 Killgore Trout

A thought provoking article…
What Ronald Reagan Can Teach Barack Obama About Dealing With Iran

Does it talk about how Gorbachev played him like a cheap fiddle?

233 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:21:29am

The Iran of the 1980s is not the Iran of today. I doubt zombie Reagan would be of much use.

234 sattv4u2  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:22:13am

re: #229 Killgore Trout

A thought provoking article…
What Ronald Reagan Can Teach Barack Obama About Dealing With Iran


By his final years in office, Reagan’s rhetoric toward the Soviet Union had changed utterly. “Do you still think you’re in an evil empire, Mr. President?” asked a reporter while Reagan strolled with Gorbachev through Red Square in March 1987. “No,” replied Reagan. “I was talking about another time and another era.” That December, in the most ambitious arms-reduction deal of the Cold War, Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

235 CuriousLurker  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:22:14am

Drive-by comment—interesting article:

236 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:23:07am

re: #231 wheat-dogghazi

Questioning the veracity and the God-inspired words of the Bible is of the Devil, and cannot be trusted. That’s their party line.

And hand-in-hand with this is not wanting followers to read it unsupervised either. They then might not agree with the desired interpretations, or possibly read sections you do not desire them to read.

237 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:24:53am

re: #232 William Barnett-Lewis

Does it talk about how Gorbachev played him like a cheap fiddle?

The article takes a different perspective….

In the Reagan myth that conservatives have constructed since the Cold War’s end, all this never happened. It’s as if Reagan jacked up defense spending, called the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” hatched the Strategic Defense Initiative, sent some guns to the Contras and mujahideen, and poof, the Soviet empire dissolved. But without Reagan’s dovish turn, it’s unlikely he and Gorbachev would have ended the Cold War. Gorbachev wanted to slash military spending and end Moscow’s costly hold over Eastern Europe in order to revive the Soviet economy. But to disarm and retrench, he had to convince Kremlin hard-liners, long fearful of a Western attack, that the United States would not prey on Moscow’s weakness. By jettisoning the aggressive rhetoric and cutting U.S. nuclear stockpiles, Reagan helped Gorbachev win at home. “If Reagan had stuck to his hard-line policies in 1985 and 1986,” wrote longtime Soviet ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Dobrynin, “Gorbachev would have been accused by the rest of the Politburo of giving everything away to a fellow who does not want to negotiate. We would have been forced to tighten our belts and spend even more on defense.”

238 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:28:49am

re: #236 Feline Fearless Leader

And hand-in-hand with this is not wanting followers to read it unsupervised either. They then might not agree with the desired interpretations, or possibly read sections you do not desire them to read.

Protestantism in some forms has come full circle to the kind of centralized authority that Luther and Calvin were rejecting. With printed Bibles available in vernacular languages, it was easy to remove control of belief and interpretation from priests using the Vulgate. There was a democratization of faith. But some people just crave authority, so some Protestant sects have returned to the same top-down theology that Luther was condemning.

239 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:29:37am

re: #237 Killgore Trout

Reagan’s actions can’t be seen in a vacuum. Gorbochev was dealing with a bunch of different issues - hardliners at home, the moribund economy, and then in April of 1986, the Chernobyl disaster. More than anything else, it was the government’s failures in Chernobyl that hastened the demise of the Soviet Union. Lying for days on end about the nature of the disaster and spiking radioactivity sensors across Europe, lying to the people living closest to the power plant, and trying to manage the propaganda about how they were handling the disaster all showed how empty the government’s promises and statements were.

The Ukraine is still dealing with the fallout from the disaster, and efforts to build a new secure containment facility has been slowed by the lack of funding.

240 Mattand  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:34:31am

re: #229 Killgore Trout

A thought provoking article…
What Ronald Reagan Can Teach Barack Obama About Dealing With Iran

This is absolutely spot on. There’s nothing that frightens other countries more than seeing the US run up a massive deficit with unchecked military spending while severely cutting taxes. That’ll show ‘em!

241 sattv4u2  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:35:49am

Sounds of heavy gunfire erupted from Nairobi’s Westgate mall Tuesday, even as authorities said for the second day they had the building under their control.

cnn.com

242 Semper Fi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:36:22am

Good morning.
I’m usually lurking, when I can, and enjoy the many comments and points of view by all of you. I don’t always sign in but today is different…it’s my first day as an LGF subscriber. Charles’ latest “annual” subscription offer is too good to pass up. Such a deal.

Thank you

243 Dr Lizardo  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:37:00am

re: #239 lawhawk

Reagan’s actions can’t be seen in a vacuum. Gorbochev was dealing with a bunch of different issues - hardliners at home, the moribund economy, and then in April of 1986, the Chernobyl disaster. More than anything else, it was the government’s failures in Chernobyl that hastened the demise of the Soviet Union. Lying for days on end about the nature of the disaster and spiking radioactivity sensors across Europe, lying to the people living closest to the power plant, and trying to manage the propaganda about how they were handling the disaster all showed how empty the government’s promises and statements were.

The Ukraine is still dealing with the fallout from the disaster, and efforts to build a new secure containment facility has been slowed by the lack of funding.

Not just the Ukraine…..Belarus is dealing with it as well, and some parts of Russia proper. There’s contamination in some parts of eastern Poland as well, as well as other parts of Europe.

Chernobyl was an unmitigated disaster of the highest order.

244 William Barnett-Lewis  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:37:18am

re: #238 wheat-dogghazi

Protestantism in some forms has come full circle to the kind of centralized authority that Luther and Calvin were rejecting. With printed Bibles available in vernacular languages, it was easy to remove control of belief and interpretation from priests using the Vulgate. There was a democratization of faith. But some people just crave authority, so some Protestant sects have returned to the same top-down theology that Luther was condemning.

Actually strains of that were there from the beginning, especially in Geneva. The Geneva translation of the bible into English that was especially popular with the puritan movement was full of footnotes and annotations telling people how to “properly” understand the passages. Those annotations were profoundly anti-monarchical as well since the producers of it preferred a theocracy instead.

That was why James 1st of England sponsored his now much more well known translation and why they were required to _not_ put any notes or annotations in except in the case of alternate word choices. That, ironically, lead to many more people reading the bible and gaining their own personal understanding of the work. So thanks for the democratization of the bible in English should be given to a King… ;)

245 b_sharp  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:37:32am

Reagan?

Wasn’t he that actor guy?

246 sattv4u2  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:38:26am

re: #241 sattv4u2

Sounds of heavy gunfire erupted from Nairobi’s Westgate mall Tuesday, even as authorities said for the second day they had the building under their control.

cnn.com

On Monday, Kenya’s foreign minister told CNN it’s clear that Al-Shabaab was not acting alone.

“This bears the hallmarks of al Qaeda,” Mohamed said. “This is not just Al-Shabaab. In fact, the leaders are not Somali, as you may have heard. This was al Qaeda. It was a very well-coordinated effort.”

247 Mattand  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:38:34am

re: #239 lawhawk

Reagan’s actions can’t be seen in a vacuum.

There’s a political party with an elephant mascot that would beg to differ.

248 b_sharp  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:39:37am

re: #247 Mattand

There’s a political party with an elephant mascot that would beg to differ.

Isn’t that party known for always being wrong?

249 wheat-dogghazi  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:40:15am

re: #244 William Barnett-Lewis

Speaking of translations, I wonder how far Andy Schafly is coming with his?

250 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:40:31am

re: #246 sattv4u2

On Monday, Kenya’s foreign minister told CNN it’s clear that Al-Shabaab was not acting alone.

“This bears the hallmarks of al Qaeda,” Mohamed said. “This is not just Al-Shabaab. In fact, the leaders are not Somali, as you may have heard. This was al Qaeda. It was a very well-coordinated effort.”

Interesting

251 Carlos Danger  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:41:54am

Ok, this pissed me off so much, I created a rare page over it:

Sikh Professor Beaten in Possible Hate Crime in New York

It happened just outside of Central Park, of all places.

252 Dr Lizardo  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:42:16am

re: #250 Killgore Trout

Interesting

And disturbing. A coordinated effort - a joint operation between al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda perhaps?

AQ as operational commanders and AS as the soldiers, maybe.

253 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:42:24am
254 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:42:29am

bbc.co.uk

1453: The Financial Times (paywall) quotes a senior government adviser as saying that the militants had rented a shop in the Westgate mall as part of the meticulous planning that went into the assault. He told the paper: “They rented a shop and have slowly been smuggling in equipment; how do you explain them being able to hold fire from Saturday, Sunday, Monday — to sustain for all those hours.”

255 Dr Lizardo  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:43:30am

re: #254 Killgore Trout

bbc.co.uk

That’s the sort of operational planning which is one of AQ’s hallmarks.

256 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:44:13am

re: #240 Mattand

This is absolutely spot on. There’s nothing that frightens other countries more than seeing the US run up a massive deficit with unchecked military spending while severely cutting taxes. That’ll show ‘em!

I thought so too. If nothing else, at least it’s a fresh perspective I hadn’t considered before.

257 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:49:35am

re: #255 Dr Lizardo

That’s the sort of operational planning which is one of AQ’s hallmarks.

Al Shabaab is considered a terrorist group but they are functionally more of a militia. They really don’t have a whole lot of experience with an attack like this so I think it’s possible that Al Qaeda helped with operational details. I think the aspect of separating out the Muslims from the attack was probably al Shabab’s idea. Al Qaeda usually doesn’t bother with this but Al Shabaad, as a militia who occupies towns and cities, would consider this important to maintain support of the Muslim population in occupied territories. IIRC, the Islamists in Mali used similar tactics in hopes of maintaining popular support.

258 Dr Lizardo  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:52:43am

re: #257 Killgore Trout

Al Shabaab is considered a terrorist group but they are functionally more of a militia. They really don’t have a whole lot of experience with an attack like this so I think it’s possible that Al Qaeda helped with operational details. I think the aspect of separating out the Muslims from the attack was probably al Shabab’s idea. Al Qaeda usually doesn’t bother with this but Al Shabaad, as a militia who occupies towns and cities, would consider this important to maintain support of the Muslim population in occupied territories. IIRC, the Islamists in Mali used similar tactics in hopes of maintaining popular support.

Yep. Al Shabaab is indeed more of a militia than Al Qaeda, which is more of an umbrella group that provides organizational and logistical support to other terrorist groups, as well as organizing their own attacks. A sort of braintrust, as it were. I agree that the separation of Muslims from non-Muslims is likely Al Shabaab’s idea for the reasons you mentioned.

259 sattv4u2  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:54:38am

re: #254 Killgore Trout

the militants had rented a shop in the Westgate mall

Also explains why this could be going on for so long. Renters have access to areas the public doesn’t,,, loading areas, mall office areas, non-public hallways. Some could be holed up in there for days,if not weeks

260 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:57:10am

re: #259 sattv4u2

It also provides the perfect cover to do recon and prepare access to the facilities and areas that the public normally doesn’t enter.

It makes trying to secure the mall even more difficult when the person carrying out the attacks knows different routes, and could have stashed explosives or weapons throughout the mall.

261 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:57:50am
262 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:57:57am

Gotta wonder if Al-Q or an affiliate has gotten the bright idea of financing and opening a gun store somewhere in the US yet.

263 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 8:59:21am

re: #260 lawhawk

It also provides the perfect cover to do recon and prepare access to the facilities and areas that the public normally doesn’t enter.

It makes trying to secure the mall even more difficult when the person carrying out the attacks knows different routes, and could have stashed explosives or weapons throughout the mall.

Maybe they read Stephen Hunter’s novel “Soft Target.”

264 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:01:14am

re: #261 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

I am glad he regrets it. They did such a terrible job “vetting” Palin. It’d be nice to hear those words from McCain himself but he’d never say it. I also like that word- assinity.

265 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:02:10am

re: #251 Carlos Danger

Ok, this pissed me off so much, I created a rare page over it:

Sikh Professor Beaten in Possible Hate Crime in New York

It happened just outside of Central Park, of all places.

Pisses me off too. Tired of racist bigots.

266 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:02:52am

re: #265 HappyWarrior

Pisses me off too. Tired of racist bigots.

Especially racist bigots who are FUCKING STUPID.

267 sattv4u2  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:03:37am

I haven’t even finished using the golf clubs yet but it’s already time to bring out the skis!!!

myfoxdc.com
Snow covers parts of California

268 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:04:42am

re: #266 Vicious Babushka

Especially racist bigots who are FUCKING STUPID.

Yeah, we’ll show those Muslims who the real Mericans are by beating up Sikhs. Glad the professor wasn’t killed but this crap is exactly why I support hate crimes legislation.

269 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:06:04am
270 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:08:28am

re: #269 Vicious Babushka

[Embedded content]

I think someone was asleep when the whole lack of colonial representation in the British parliament part of the revolutionary era was brought up but go on Mike and make yourself look stupid in this futile battle.

271 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:10:15am

re: #269 Vicious Babushka

Meanwhile Jonah Goldberg and others are claiming that hundreds of thousands of people wont have insurance as a result of Obamacare. It’s boggling how they arrive at that figure - namely ignoring that Obamacare was designed to get 30 million people coverage that they were currently lacking and that the GOP fought even that effort. They oppose any and all aspects of Obamacare, so now that they’re carping about those Obamacare didn’t get access to insurance for is hypocritical at best.

272 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:12:51am

dre: #271 lawhawk

Meanwhile Jonah Goldberg and others are claiming that hundreds of thousands of people wont have insurance as a result of Obamacare. It’s boggling how they arrive at that figure - namely ignoring that Obamacare was designed to get 30 million people coverage that they were currently lacking and that the GOP fought even that effort. They oppose any and all aspects of Obamacare, so now that they’re carping about those Obamacare didn’t get access to insurance for is hypocritical at best.

I still don’t know what their alternative to ACA was. It seems like they were content to just keep the system as it was. I’ve said it before. I would have liked ACA to be more comprehensive and I liked the public option but I am first things a pragmatist and I’d rather have some health care reform as the president proposed than the shit nothing the GOP proposes. This was their alternative to Clintoncare once upon a time but now that Obama is in office, oh we suddenly hate our own program because being anti-Obama is more important to our donors and supporters. Derpholes.

274 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:19:39am

re: #273 Arrrr, matey!

Rove Comes Clean: Delay Obamacare Until GOP Wins Presidency

Delay and kill it, or delay and then implement it under a modified name and claim the credit?

275 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:20:01am

re: #273 Arrrr, matey!

Rove Comes Clean: Delay Obamacare Until GOP Wins Presidency

Or how about you accept its law period and perhaps improve it. But no fucking with people’s health insurance is more important than actually doing constructive crap. Fucking idiots.

276 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:22:25am
277 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:23:27am
278 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:24:04am

Ann being a douchette, as usual

279 Gus  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:24:21am

re: #277 Vicious Babushka

[Embedded content]

Dude has a one track mind. It’s all about the NSA 24/7.

280 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:24:49am

re: #276 Arrrr, matey!

Bob Beckel is an Islamophobe.

I don’t think Beckel understands that whole first amendment thing. Do we demand that “moderate Christians” denounce Fred Phelps, Joseph Kony, and others before we allow churches built? The double standard placed on Muslims is shit.

281 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:25:36am

re: #277 Vicious Babushka

[Embedded content]

Lol glenn.

282 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:25:39am

re: #277 Vicious Babushka

Oh, I can’t wait to see if Stone and Parker treat Greenwald and Snowden like the smug sanctimonious assholes they are. However, from what I know of Stone and Parker’s leanings, they may actually go dudebro with them.

283 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:25:39am

re: #278 Vicious Babushka

Ann being a douchette, as usual

[Embedded content]

She’s always a douchette. It’s fucking sad that she’s made millions doing that but she has.

284 b.d.  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:26:14am

re: #277 Vicious Babushka

Hahahaha, I have a feeling that the show is not going to kind to Glenn’s point of view and he’ll slam it tomorrow.

Cartman “wants to hold the government accountable for secretly monitoring all of his personal information” and somehow manages to infiltrate the NSA

285 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:26:36am

re: #282 lawhawk

Oh, I can’t wait to see if Stone and Parker treat Greenwald and Snowden like the smug sanctimonious assholes they are. However, from what I know of Stone and Parker’s leanings, they may actually go dudebro with them.

I don’t recall them ever really giving anyone a free pass.

286 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:27:18am

re: #279 Gus

Dude has a one track mind. It’s all about the NSA 24/7.

I’d like to see how SP portrays Snowden & Greenwald.

287 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:27:26am

re: #282 lawhawk

Oh, I can’t wait to see if Stone and Parker treat Greenwald and Snowden like the smug sanctimonious assholes they are. However, from what I know of Stone and Parker’s leanings, they may actually go dudebro with them.

Yeah but either way I think it will be funny but remember Parker and Stone did mock the paranoia about the government and 9/11 conspiracy theories. Yeah, they and us have a different perspective but I think they’re usually reasonably minded. I’ll still watch though. I strongly disagree with their view on AGW and I like the Manbearpig episode.

288 b.d.  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:28:28am

re: #282 lawhawk

Oh, I can’t wait to see if Stone and Parker treat Greenwald and Snowden like the smug sanctimonious assholes they are. However, from what I know of Stone and Parker’s leanings, they may actually go dudebro with them.

They’re using Cartman as the DudeBro character, Glenn will destroy South Park as soon as he brings the UK to its knees.

289 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:28:28am

re: #286 Vicious Babushka

I’d like to see how SP portrays Snowden & Greenwald.

Which is probably why Glenn should’ve kept his mouth shut on this…

290 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:29:34am

re: #285 Feline Fearless Leader

I don’t recall them ever really giving anyone a free pass.

I agree. They are good at pissing off both sides of the aisle.

291 b.d.  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:30:13am

re: #289 Arrrr, matey!

Which is probably why Glenn should’ve kept his mouth shut on this…

[dudebro] Neutral linking!!1!! [/dudebro]

292 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:31:14am

re: #288 b.d.

They’re using Cartman as the DudeBro character, Glenn will destroy South Park as soon as he brings the UK to its knees.

Yeah if Cartman is representing opposition to something, chances are it’s going to be mocked or shown to represent hyperbole. Take Cartman as a representative of 9/11 truthers. He blamed Kyle for 9/11. I don’t expect Parker and Stone to have the episode supportive of the NSA for what it’s worth but I do think they’ll mock the paranoia that came from this and show how funny it is for Greenwald and Snowden to get all puffy and outraged about the US’s NSA while Snowden himself initially fled to the PRC and is now in Russia.

293 sattv4u2  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:33:06am

Cops: Professor Filmed Student “Upskirt” Videos

thesmokinggun.com

Man said he sought proof woman went to class sans undergarments

Ah,, so it was a research project? I wonder if he applied for a grant !?!?!
/

294 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:34:14am

re: #277 Vicious Babushka

[Embedded content]

I weep for Kenny…

295 Justanotherhuman  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:34:37am

re: #271 lawhawk

Meanwhile Jonah Goldberg and others are claiming that hundreds of thousands of people wont have insurance as a result of Obamacare. It’s boggling how they arrive at that figure - namely ignoring that Obamacare was designed to get 30 million people coverage that they were currently lacking and that the GOP fought even that effort. They oppose any and all aspects of Obamacare, so now that they’re carping about those Obamacare didn’t get access to insurance for is hypocritical at best.

Lots of older people in this county don’t have decent health care, regardless of whether or not they have Medicare. Many private physicians simply will not accept patients who don’t have supplemental insurance. Hopefully, that will change, but I’m not placing any bets on it, at least in rural areas—you’re better off in cities.

I keep my health care costs as low as possible (barring an acute occurrence, like the cancer surgery I had 5 yrs ago), by only seeing a doctor no more than twice a year, if possible, so that I can manage any cash copays, which are always less than the supplement would cost. The rest of the time, I try to manage my own health as much as possible by monitoring my diet, blood pressure, etc. Those are pretty routine, and are test based anyway, for the most part, when you see a health care provider. I have a blood pressure monitor of my own, but the new practice where I was seen told me I didn’t need to monitor my own blood sugar any longer (I begged to differ).

The local family practice (where my g-grandson also goes) where I recently was seen (since my PA retired) didn’t even follow up with putting me on a new statin (even though I’d had plenty of trouble w/Lipitor) with an appt for a check on it. Then, this am, waiting on the visiting ob/gyn PA to see me, I got fed up with the long wait, and just told them I’d make other arrangements (they are the only ob/gyn practice on this side of the county and they only visit the fam practice once a week (and only if they can fill up the day). This practice is affiliated with a large health care consortium in Charlotte that built a new hospital here and the service and personnel are just lousy enough that I don’t feel I get good care. It’s very depressing.

I may have to go to Charlotte for any quality health care, and I don’t particular like to travel for that, considering my age and the condition of my car.

296 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:35:25am

re: #294 Backwoods_Sleuth

I weep for Kenny…

He’s just an innocent whistleblower.

297 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:35:57am

re: #288 b.d.

They’re using Cartman as the DudeBro character, Glenn will destroy South Park as soon as he brings the UK to its knees.

Cartman will be a brilliant DudeBro as he was a brilliant Glenn Beck. Butters will be the fanboy. Stan will be the Lizard.

298 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:36:25am

re: #296 Feline Fearless Leader

He’s just an innocent whistleblower.

Maybe Kenny will just end up in a shithole airport transit area…

299 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:37:46am

re: #298 Backwoods_Sleuth

Maybe Kenny will just end up in a shithole airport transit area…

Or Cartman will steal the documents and the NSA secret agents will follow the wrong eavesdropped-on phone call, break in, and shoot Kenny.

300 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:38:28am

“Phuck”
-Kenny

301 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:38:39am

re: #297 Dr. Matt

Cartman will be a brilliant DudeBro as he was a brilliant Glenn Beck. Butters will be the fanboy. Stan will be the Lizard.

I’m thinking Putin will play a much larger role than Greenwald, Glenn may not even make it as a featured character.

I can see Butters as Snowden.

302 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:39:13am

re: #233 wheat-dogghazi

The Iran of the 1980s is not the Iran of today. I doubt zombie Reagan would be of much use.

St. Ronald of Reagan was flawless and pure and is the only Preznit of the last 5000 years who could understand the world today!

/////

303 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:39:20am

Kenny ends up in Russia….hilarity/death ensues.

304 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:39:47am

re: #303 Dr. Matt

Kenny ends up in Russia….hilarity/death ensues.

Or Putin twerks for him.
//

305 Justanotherhuman  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:40:37am

Senate Unanimously Confirms Todd Hughes, First Openly Gay Federal Appeals Court Judge in U.S. History

towleroad.com

Progress. Wonder how many RWNJ heads will explode over this one?

306 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:40:46am

wonder if Cartman still has that alien anal probe with the huge radar dish from the pilot episode.

307 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:40:47am

re: #304 Feline Fearless Leader

They’ve got to work Pussy Riot into it. The group’s name alone is reason enough for South Park to get in on that action.

308 b.d.  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:41:10am

re: #301 Vicious Babushka

I can see Butters as Snowden.

Perfect.

309 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:41:11am

re: #301 Vicious Babushka

I’m thinking Putin will play a much larger role than Greenwald, Glenn may not even make it as a featured character.

I can see Butters as Snowden.

Yeah Butters as Snowden, with Cartman egging him on. I doubt GG is even shown. I expect Putin and Jinping of China to be prominent. GG’s presence will be in the episode though in how the media over-reacts to everything.

310 Dr Lizardo  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:41:33am

re: #305 Justanotherhuman

Senate Unanimously Confirms Todd Hughes, First Openly Gay Federal Appeals Court Judge in U.S. History

towleroad.com

Progress. Wonder how many RWNJ heads will explode over this one?

As many as the stars. I have no doubt the screeching will reach deafening levels.

311 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:42:15am

re: #309 HappyWarrior

Yeah Butters as Snowden, with Cartman egging him on. I doubt GG is even shown. I expect Putin and Jinping of China to be prominent. GG’s presence will be in the episode though in how the media over-reacts to everything.

Hmm, how does GG react to not being featured?

312 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:42:45am

re: #305 Justanotherhuman

Senate Unanimously Confirms Todd Hughes, First Openly Gay Federal Appeals Court Judge in U.S. History

towleroad.com

Progress. Wonder how many RWNJ heads will explode over this one?

RR will cry that this is discrimination somehow because you know there’s never been an openly straight Christian appointed to the Federal Appeals Court. Anyhow good luck Judge Hughes, I’m sure he will serve well.

313 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:43:06am

re: #311 Feline Fearless Leader

Hmm, how does GG react to not being featured?

I dunno.

314 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:43:11am

re: #301 Vicious Babushka

I can see Butters as Snowden.

With USB thumb drives hidden up his anus.

315 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:44:36am

But if I were GG, I wouldn’t have gloated about SP taking on the NSA issue. Parker and Stone are skeptical of government but they mocked the hysteria of the Tea Party movement by showing the hypocrisy and hyperbole of Glenn Beck as represented by Cartman.

316 Gus  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:44:52am

Randy Marsh as Greenwald.

317 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:44:53am

re: #311 Feline Fearless Leader

Hmm, how does GG react to not being featured?

He will declare that South Park is just vulgar toilet humor and only stupid immature teenagers ever watch it.

318 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:45:06am

re: #311 Feline Fearless Leader

Hmm, how does GG react to not being featured?

GG will claim/whine that Stone and Parker are “Obama apologists”.

319 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:45:07am
320 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:45:51am

re: #316 Gus

Randy Marsh as Greenwald.

Sheila Broflovski as Greenwald.

321 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:46:06am

re: #301 Vicious Babushka

I can see Butters as Snowden.

I wish they still had Tweek on there. He’d be a perfect Alex Jones.

322 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:46:32am

Sheila is my favorite SP character, even if she is a big fat bitch.

323 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:47:26am

re: #318 Dr. Matt

GG will claim/whine that Stone and Parker are “drooling croc wearing lickspittal Obama apologists”.

FIFY

324 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:47:40am

re: #322 Vicious Babushka

What… what… whattttt?

Youtube Video

325 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:49:16am

I still lmao at Moses in SP…

326 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:50:15am

Best SP episode of all time: Wood Land Critters Christmas.

327 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:50:56am

re: #322 Vicious Babushka

Sheila is my favorite SP character, even if she is a big fat bitch.

Youtube Video

328 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:51:22am

re: #326 Vicious Babushka

Best SP episode of all time: Wood Land Critters Christmas.

The abortion montage alone with the mountain lion cubs.

329 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:51:56am

Yes, and also too stupid to realize that when CEO’s get lynched the instrument is a guillotine, not a noose.

330 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:53:47am

Wendy Testaburger wants to KILL SMURFS

331 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:55:15am

re: #329 Vicious Babushka

Yes, and also too stupid to realize that when CEO’s get lynched the instrument is a guillotine, not a noose.

[Embedded content]

WTF

332 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:55:21am

And of course, Sheila’s big moment:

Youtube Video

333 Gus  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:56:50am

bbl

334 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:57:42am

re: #329 Vicious Babushka

Yes, and also too stupid to realize that when CEO’s get lynched the instrument is a guillotine, not a noose.

[Embedded content]

Talk about a lack of perspective. Yeah dude, the fact that I’m mad that you’re receiving an obscene bonus is just like you being savagely murdered and tortured for a crime you didn’t do. Goddamnit and these fuckers wonder why many of us resent them.

335 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 9:59:44am

re: #334 HappyWarrior

Talk about a lack of perspective. Yeah dude, the fact that I’m mad that you’re receiving an obscene bonus is just like you being savagely murdered and tortured for a crime you didn’t do. Goddamnit and these fuckers wonder why many of us resent them.

Because lobbying to remove government regulation and then using that deregulated climate to run the entire economy into the ground and then force taxpayers to bail you out while keeping your bonuses is no reason at all to get enraged.

336 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:00:43am

re: #335 Sol Berdinowitz

Because lobbying to remove government regulation and then using that deregulated climate to run the entire economy into the ground and then force taxpayers to bail you out while keeping your bonuses is no reason at all to get enraged.

Sounds like they’re free-loading or mooching off of our tax dollars.
//

337 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:01:56am

re: #336 Feline Fearless Leader

Sounds like they’re free-loading or mooching off of our tax dollars.
//

No, they are successful business executives. It was all those low-interest government loans to minorities that wrecked the economy, remember?

/

338 A Man for all Seasons  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:04:50am

re: #317 Vicious Babushka

He will declare that South Park is just vulgar toilet humor and only stupid immature teenagers ever watch it.

When South Park was new I dropped into my folks house after work one day.
I plop down in the family room and Mom and Dad are laughing like crazy at some stupid ass cartoon. I was like in Twilight zone..Cartman would say fuck fuck fuck or beeps and my dad was laughing like crazy..Wait..I never got to say Fuck in the house..What the hell is going on here?
Ahhh. Folks..What are we watching again? A cartoon? Really? you guys that only watch serious news, golf channel and the weather..Are they really giggling like little fucking kids..Mom he is just farting! It’s not really that funny..Dad? really? They killed Kenny and it’s really funny?
So It has began..My folks go crazy in their old age and I’m stuck with putting them away..It happens so fast..then rolling around laughing at weird cartoons..I’ve never seen this before..Do I call 911 during the break?
Fuck! on the TV..My folks laugh again…Dad! what the fuck is so fucking funny about saying fuck on a cartoon..what the fuck pops? Fuck!
Sit down boy..This South Park is a great show!
So I sat..dumb founded..in the twilight zone..Watching the show with them..
Sure..I know about South Park and how it became so dang popular..
For some reason..I never got into it..It brings a memory to me I can’t shake..brrrr.

339 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:07:37am

re: #338 A Man for all Seasons

Youtube Video

340 Eventual Carrion  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:08:42am

re: #301 Vicious Babushka

[snip]

I can see Butters as Snowden.

Where he is sitting now, he might be more like Tweak.

341 Targetpractice  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:09:48am

re: #329 Vicious Babushka

Yes, and also too stupid to realize that when CEO’s get lynched the instrument is a guillotine, not a noose.

[Embedded content]

Yep, just like getting lynched…except you know for any measure of bodily harm.

342 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:09:49am

re: #340 Eventual Carrion

Where he is sitting now, he might be more like Tweak.

I see a little of both. Tweek’s neurotic-ism combined with Butters’ good old naivete.

343 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:10:02am

re: #338 A Man for all Seasons

When South Park was new I dropped into my folks house after work one day.
I plop down in the family room and Mom and Dad are laughing like crazy at some stupid ass cartoon. I was like in Twilight zone..Cartman would say fuck fuck fuck or beeps and my dad was laughing like crazy..Wait..I never got to say Fuck in the house..What the hell is going on here?
Ahhh. Folks..What are we watching again? A cartoon? Really? you guys that only watch serious news, golf channel and the weather..Are they really giggling like little fucking kids..Mom he is just farting! It’s not really that funny..Dad? really? They killed Kenny and it’s really funny?
So It has began..My folks go crazy in their old age and I’m stuck with putting them away..It happens so fast..then rolling around laughing at weird cartoons..I’ve never seen this before..Do I call 911 during the break?
Fuck! on the TV..My folks laugh again…Dad! what the fuck is so fucking funny about saying fuck on a cartoon..what the fuck pops? Fuck!
Sit down boy..This South Park is a great show!
So I sat..dumb founded..in the twilight zone..Watching the show with them..
Sure..I know about South Park and how it became so dang popular..
For some reason..I never got into it..It brings a memory to me I can’t shake..brrrr.

Kind of like how my kids reacted when they saw how much I am into “South Park”

344 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:10:48am
345 Eventual Carrion  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:11:08am

re: #322 Vicious Babushka

Sheila is my favorite SP character, even if she is a big fat bitch.

Careful, she’ll go Jersey on ya.

346 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:11:08am
347 HappyWarrior  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:12:13am

I think it was an AIG executive who compared tax raises to the German invasion of Poland too. They’re not exactly breeding people with a keen sense of historical perspective there are they?

348 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:14:26am

re: #346 lawhawk

3 mall floors collapsed!?!? WTF!?

349 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:14:53am

This Faux Nooz story has gone viral in Lower Wingnuttia, about some guy whose Humana premiums ballooned, allegedly b/c of ACA, but maybe just because the insurance carrier is being a dick.

350 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:15:45am

Awesome:

351 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:16:09am

re: #338 A Man for all Seasons

I never got that into South Park, Family Guy, or most of the other “edgy” shows that riff 80% of the time on toilet humor with 20% cultural commentary. Too much stuff that was just bad as compared to actually being funny - plus having better things to do with my time.

I have seen episodes that transcended their usual low-brow threshold (more so for South Park than Family Guy.) But never got into watching either on a regular basis.

And Cartman to me is a bit like Colbert - they do the schtick so well I almost can’t tolerate it since I know there are those out there doing it seriously and getting away with it even as Cartman is a satire of it. And even though he’s a cartoon character you just wish once that Cartman would learn from screwing up and be less of an ass.

352 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:16:59am
353 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:18:55am

re: #349 Vicious Babushka

This Faux Nooz story has gone viral in Lower Wingnuttia, about some guy whose Humana premiums ballooned, allegedly b/c of ACA, but maybe just because the insurance carrier is being a dick.

If premiums “ballooned”, they the company they are working for are fucking idiots for not getting a new carrier. At my institution we had United for several years and then United attempted to jack up our premiums. So my institution dumped them and got us on Atena, which was even lower in price than United over the last 3 years and the same coverage.

354 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:20:03am

re: #352 Backwoods_Sleuth

wow…

Golden Eagle attacks Deer

And it freaking killed the deer…

I need AA turrets on my roof.

355 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:20:11am

re: #353 Dr. Matt

If premiums “ballooned”, they the company they are working for are fucking idiots for not getting a new carrier. At my institution we had United for several years and then United attempted to jack up our premiums. So my institution dumped them and got us on Atena, which was even lower in price than United over the last 3 years and the same coverage.

Maybe the company board members had a nice investment going in Humana in their personal portfolios…
//

356 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:21:00am

re: #354 Arrrr, matey!

And it freaking killed the deer…

I need AA turrets on my roof.

Why not just hire the eagles, get them HUDs and additional weaponry, and add them to the minion defense force?

357 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:21:14am

The CEO’s of Humana, United Health Care, and Aetna, are among the top 10 highest paid executives in the US.

358 Targetpractice  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:21:33am

re: #349 Vicious Babushka

This Faux Nooz story has gone viral in Lower Wingnuttia, about some guy whose Humana premiums ballooned, allegedly b/c of ACA, but maybe just because the insurance carrier is being a dick.

[Embedded content]

Who is “Andy Mangione”?

Andrew J. Mangione Jr. is the Vice President, Government Relations, for AMAC. Andy’s career spans the medical device, pharmaceutical and managed care sectors of health care. He has held senior and executive sales positions with organizations including Humana, Inc., Pfizer, Inc. and Invacare Corporation. Andy serves as the lead legislative and government contact in Washington, DC for AMAC, and is also responsible for national grassroots outreach and developing strategic relationships. Andy earned a B.A. in Management from Malone University and his Master of Business Administration from Lake Erie College.

359 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:23:53am

re: #358 Targetpractice

Who is “Andy Mangione”?

The article mentions that he is from Louisville, not DC. Not impossible that this is somebody else with the same name. Or the whole story could be a load of bullshit.

360 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:23:54am

re: #349 Vicious Babushka

This Faux Nooz story has gone viral in Lower Wingnuttia, about some guy whose Humana premiums ballooned, allegedly b/c of ACA, but maybe just because the insurance carrier is being a dick.

[Embedded content]

Fascinating that they have two children and were only paying $330 a month for the entire family. I know single people here in Kentucky who would love to have premiums that low.

Money quote is this:

” Increases aren’t based on your individual claims or changes in health status,” it continued. “Many other factors go in to your premium including: ACA compliance, including the addition of new essential health benefits.”
ACA, of course, is the abbreviation for the President’s new law, the Affordable Care Act — which for the Mangiones will be anything but affordable because the law adds a new tax on every insurance policy and requires a list of additional benefits the Mangiones didn’t want to pay for.
Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for American Health Insurance Plans, which represents insurers,explained that “for people who currently choose to purchase a high deductible, low premium policy that’s more affordable for them, they are now being required to add all these new benefits to their policy.

Humana (if this story is actually true) is using ACA as a scare tactic.
It’s all total bullshit.

361 Targetpractice  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:25:00am

re: #359 Vicious Babushka

The article mentions that he is from Louisville, not DC. Not impossible that this is somebody else with the same name. Or the whole story could be a load of bullshit.

No doubt, it’s him:

Proof: Obamacare Raised Family’s Insurance by $600 per month!

362 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:25:52am

re: #359 Vicious Babushka

The article mentions that he is from Louisville, not DC. Not impossible that this is somebody else with the same name. Or the whole story could be a load of bullshit.

Same guy:
linkedin.com

363 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:30:41am

Speaking of healthcare, this video is making the rounds on my FB feed. Hopefully people will watch all of it and learn something:

Youtube Video

364 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:31:13am

re: #361 Targetpractice

No doubt, it’s him:

Proof: Obamacare Raised Family’s Insurance by $600 per month!

“This is just the beginning of the veracity of Obamacare. I’m not the only person who has received this kind of notification. If you had an experience similar to mine, won’t you please share it with us? If you can, send us the documentation like what I’ve provided above. Please make sure to edit any private and personal information. “

Thus making it impossible to verify.

Welcome to the echo chamber, where Truth weighs more than facts.

365 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:32:57am

re: #364 Sol Berdinowitz

“This is just the beginning of the veracity of Obamacare. I’m not the only person who has received this kind of notification. If you had an experience similar to mine, won’t you please share it with us? If you can, send us the documentation like what I’ve provided above. Please make sure to edit any private and personal information. “

Thus making it impossible to verify.

Welcome to the echo chamber, where Truth weighs more than facts.

So the article is by a health industry lobbyist about how ACA is forcing Humana to screw him over. Right.

366 sagehen  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:34:56am

re: #365 Feline Fearless Leader

So the article is by an health industry lobbyist about how ACA is forcing Humana to screw him over. Right.

A health industry lobbyist who, according to the linkedin profile linked above, his last job was as a sales agent at Humana. Where I presume he got the employee discount; that’s why his previous premiums were so low.

367 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:35:06am

And in the Shitty Advice For Everyone column, we have one of the Real Housewives of New Jersey:

‘Real Housewife’ Melissa Gorga’s New Book Advocates Marital Rape

Real Housewives of New Jersey star Melissa Gorga has written an advice book, Love Italian Style, for people who want a marriage as hot and happy as the one she has with her husband Joe. Her entire ethos on the subject boils down to this sentence: “Husbands want their wives to submit; wives want our husbands to dominate.”

The amount of sexism, gender essentialism, and caveman logic within its pages is so appalling that it’s difficult to believe that her book is anything but a cry for help.

It’s very clear—from her anecdotes, observations, and tips—that she’s married to a controlling asshole that barely views her as human, let alone an equal. He won’t “allow” her to go on overnight trips without him, he has a say in the clothes she wears, didn’t want her to get a job (even before she became a mother), and he has gotten violent when Melissa does things that he doesn’t like.

Joe—Teresa Giudice’s brother—seems to restrict any expression of individualism or independence on her part—including this book. He constantly interjects throughout with his own opinions on how women should behave. His are perhaps the most egregious passages in the book, particularly his thoughts on sex.

368 klys  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:36:52am

So perhaps staying up until 3am was not my brightest idea ever.

369 Dr. Matt  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:42:00am

re: #368 klys

So perhaps staying up until 3am was not my brightest idea ever.

GTAV?

370 Targetpractice  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:44:02am

re: #368 klys

So perhaps staying up until 3am was not my brightest idea ever.

That was me yesterday. Couldn’t tear myself away from Skyrim.

371 klys  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:46:22am

re: #369 Dr. Matt

GTAV?

Guild Wars 2 with the husband. (Hey, I wasn’t the only one staying up.)

372 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:46:47am

Glenn Greenwald retweeted:

373 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:48:33am

This is Shrieking Harpie, Moonbat Edition, who sneaks into press events using her lame, boring real name and then heckles and heckles and heckles and heckles and DENIES FREE SPEECH to the target of her heckling, such as POTUS, and she calls someone else “arrogant”?

That’s fucking arrogant.

374 lawhawk  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:50:30am

re: #371 klys

Guild Wars 2 with the husband. (Hey, I wasn’t the only one staying up.)

That’s what you’re calling it eh? /

375 Eventual Carrion  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:53:06am

re: #358 Targetpractice

Who is “Andy Mangione”?

And here I thought it was Chuck’s non-musical brother. Kinda like Don Ho’s blacksheep brother Dirty.

376 darthstar  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:55:01am
377 klys  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:55:17am

re: #374 lawhawk

That’s what you’re calling it eh? /

Well, since we met in World of Warcraft, it seemed appropriate.

;)

378 Targetpractice  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:56:37am

re: #377 klys

Well, since we met in World of Warcraft, it seemed appropriate.

;)

Match made in cyberspace.

379 b.d.  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 10:58:09am

re: #376 darthstar

[Embedded content]

So all the DudeBros and assorted disgruntled left were really standing with Ayn Rand all along?

Hahahahahaha

380 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:00:10am

Please proceed:

381 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:03:20am

re: #377 klys

Well, since we met in World of Warcraft, it seemed appropriate.

;)

Did you gank him in WoW???
;)

382 wrenchwench  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:03:50am

Pushing back against the white supremacists in Leith, ND:

383 klys  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:06:27am

re: #381 Arrrr, matey!

Did you gank him in WoW???
;)

Haha, I hate PvP.

We did do a duel once (I think when the level cap was 70) in the Darkshore area. I won. Of course, the loser gets brought down to like 10 health or something, and he happened to run right on top of a low-level mob right after that.

I laughed so hard.

384 ProTARDISLiberal  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:06:33am

re: #382 wrenchwench

Those are some awesome women.

Want to buy them lunch.

385 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:07:18am

re: #373 Vicious Babushka

The Pink people again?

386 wrenchwench  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:07:55am

re: #384 ProTARDISLiberal

Those are some awesome women.

Want to buy them lunch.

Grammas with their mini vans will be our salvation.

387 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:08:15am

re: #385 Bulworth

The Pink people again?

So disappointed their 15 minutes are over.

388 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:09:14am

MMOs should be more like Eve.
:evilgrin:

389 Carlos Danger  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:09:46am

Uh oh, just got a bird alert:

Action Alert: 50% of Assateague Bayside Point Woods To Be Destroyed by National Park Service

The NPS is proposing a parking lot. Don’t know why they’d put it there- that’s mosquito alley.

390 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:09:50am
391 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:10:52am

re: #388 Arrrr, matey!

I still love the Zero Punctuation review of EVE:

Youtube Video

392 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:11:56am

re: #349 Vicious Babushka

I didn’t think Obamacare had started yet. But I like a good horror story anyway. /

393 Targetpractice  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:12:51am

re: #380 Lidane

Please proceed:

[Embedded content]

I swear I remember Erick, Son of Erick declaring just the other day that a shutdown over defunding was a bad idea and calling on the GOP to give up on it.

394 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:13:29am

re: #393 Targetpractice

I guess a new memo is being circulated to the faithful….

395 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:13:45am

re: #391 Lidane

I still love the Zero Punctuation review of EVE:

[Embedded content]

Lol, he mad.
:P

396 jaunte  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:14:52am

re: #380 Lidane

“The Cruz strategy would never work in and of itself. It required stronger, braver souls than the GOP currently has to offer,” Erickson wrote.

Plus, alternative math.

397 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:14:54am

HAHAHA
Please proceed.

398 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:15:57am

re: #397 Vicious Babushka

Are there any mainstream Republicans left?

399 wrenchwench  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:16:30am

re: #390 Vicious Babushka

[Embedded content]

Is it irony when a white supremacist is shut down by ‘Custer Health Environmental Services’?

400 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:16:49am

re: #398 Backwoods_Sleuth

Are there any mainstream Republicans left?

Chris Christie?

401 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:16:52am

re: #397 Vicious Babushka

HAHAHA
Please proceed.

So, America has now officially failed conservatism? Where will it have to go next in order to find the fertile ground that it deserves and the citizenry that will properly respect and obey it?

402 Targetpractice  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:17:29am

re: #396 jaunte

Plus, alternative math.

They’re still committed to this fantasy that, if they just hold out long enough, then Dems will join them and force Obama to accept the defunding of the major domestic accomplishment of his presidency simply to end a shutdown.

403 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:17:45am

re: #401 Feline Fearless Leader

So, America has now officially failed conservatism? Where will it have to go next in order to find the fertile ground that it deserves and the citizenry that will properly respect and obey it?

Russia. As we can see from all the wingnut Putie-love.

404 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:19:57am

re: #402 Targetpractice

Except that even agreeing to ‘defund’ Obamacare would mean Obamacare would still be funded because it’s not discretionary spending.

405 Gus  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:21:45am

August 2013 Ratings: MSNBC Down Double Digits

…”Morning Joe” was down -9% in total viewers and -17% in the A25-54 demographic compared to the same month last year, which actually was a better result than many of the programs that came later in the day.

In primetime, “The Rachel Maddow Show” posted all-time low ratings in total and demo viewers, down -43% and -47%, respectively. “The Last Word” posted a low in total viewers, losing -40% of its total viewer audience and -42% of its demo audience. at 8 PM, “All in” was down -48% and -42% in total and demo viewers, respectively, placing behind CNN for the hour.

In dayside, MSNBC was down double digits in pretty much every hour in total and demo viewers, including 6 PM’s “PoliticsNation,” which was down -31% and -37% in total and demo viewers, and 3 PM’s “The Cycle,” which was down -15% and -18% in total and demo viewers. One of the few programs to improve year to year was “The Ed Show” on Saturday and Sunday, which was up both days in total viewers, and in the demo on Saturday. This may help explain why the channel replaced the 5 PM edition of “Hardball” with the former weekend program….

406 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:22:45am

re: #405 Gus

August 2013 Ratings: MSNBC Down Double Digits

I stopped watching cable news when they were all in love with GG.

407 Kragar  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:23:35am

Bryan Fischer attacks girl for being crowned homecoming queen

Anti-LGBT pastor and American Family Association spokesperson Bryan Fischer lashed out at 16-year-old Cassidy Cambell on Monday, the trans girl who won her high school’s homecoming queen title. Fischer proclaimed that the teenager is mentally ill and volubly protested that news networks and media outlets covering her election are calling Cassidy “she” and “her” rather than her birth gender.

“He has a mental illness,” said Fischer on his daily radio show. “He thinks he’s a girl and they elected him homecoming queen and the school officials allowed this charade to go on. That violates everything we know about gender, about sex, about genetics, about biology, about human health, about what mental health is, it violates every known standard of decency and normality in America.”

Fischer’s has been but one of many angry, bullying messages that Campbell, a junior at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, CA, has received. She has been attacked online on Twitter and multiple other forums since Friday night.

“There’s always someone with something stupid to say,” said Vincent Villano of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) in an interview with Raw Story.

“Fischer isn’t convincing anyone with his shameful comments,” Villano said. His remarks are “out of line” and show that he has “no understanding of who trans people are,” he continued.

408 klys  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:23:58am

re: #406 Arrrr, matey!

I stopped watching cable news when they were all in love with GG.

The only cable news I watch is the Daily Show.

409 Kragar  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:25:31am

Note to self: leave blisters alone

410 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:26:08am

re: #409 Kragar

Note to self: leave blisters alone

You popped them, didn’t you?

411 b.d.  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:27:53am

re: #406 Arrrr, matey!

I stopped watching cable news when they were all in love with GG.

Pretty much me too. I haven’t turned on Hayes at all since he jumped on the DudeBro bandwagon and have lost interest in Maddow’s same formulaic insightful outrage.

412 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:27:54am

re: #407 Kragar

That violates everything we I know about gender, about sex, about genetics, about biology, about human health, about what mental health is, it violates every knownmy standard of decency and normality in America.”

Fxd

413 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:28:30am

re: #411 b.d.

I gave up Cable news during the Iraq war and haven’t gone back.

414 jaunte  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:29:18am
415 Kragar  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:29:54am

re: #410 Backwoods_Sleuth

You popped them, didn’t you?

No… well, yeah.

416 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:30:37am

re: #414 jaunte

[Embedded content]

Save us Sean!

417 ContraryLemming  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:31:03am

re: #239 lawhawk

Yeah, I’m going back to Kiev in November for the sixth time, to work with the journos at the University of Mohyla. The slow, relentless cancer blooms out in the rural areas have claimed something like 200,000 lives. Problem is, the gov’t denies any connection to radiation & Chernobyl, since all the people died of “other causes.” Kind of like the climate change denialists here, they point fingers at anything *other* than the longterm effects of ingesting CE131 or Strontium-90, so as to absolve themselves & the pro “Let’s all go back to the way things were under the Soviets” party of any responsibility.

418 Mattand  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:33:14am

re: #405 Gus

August 2013 Ratings: MSNBC Down Double Digits

The next time someone pops in here to claim MSNBC has the same unhealthy partisan influence Fox has, I’m pointing them to this.

419 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:33:24am

WHICH ONE APPLIES?

420 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:33:52am

re: #413 Bulworth

I gave up Cable news during the Iraq war and haven’t gone back.

Yeah, pretty much. Their incessant cheerleading for the Iraq war made me ill.

Give me the BBC any day. I podcast their news and get much more relevant information about what’s actually going on in the world.

421 Dr Lizardo  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:36:53am

re: #401 Feline Fearless Leader

Russia.

422 William Barnett-Lewis  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:38:26am

re: #420 Lidane

Yeah, pretty much. Their incessant cheerleading for the Iraq war made me ill.

Give me the BBC any day. I podcast their news and get much more relevant information about what’s actually going on in the world.

I use NPR.org as well. Their reporting is still far better than anything else in the US though they have their problems too.

423 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:39:28am

oh my…just saw this little tidbit at Andy Mangione’s LinkedIn page:

Host, “His Father’s Apprentice”
Holy Family Radio WLCR-AM 1040

2009 - Present (4 years) Louisville, Kentucky

I host a weekly interview program centering on fathers and their efforts to raise their sons to be men of God. wlcr.net

424 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:41:14am

re: #417 ContraryLemming

Yeah, I’m going back to Kiev in November for the sixth time, to work with the journos at the University of Mohyla. The slow, relentless cancer blooms out in the rural areas have claimed something like 200,000 lives. Problem is, the gov’t denies any connection to radiation & Chernobyl, since all the people died of “other causes.” Kind of like the climate change denialists here, they point fingers at anything *other* than the longterm effects of ingesting CE131 or Strontium-90, so as to absolve themselves & the pro “Let’s all go back to the way things were under the Soviets” party of any responsibility.

Am curious now whether the Japanese are starting to dig out the Chernobyl studies since they have their own long-term contamination hazard sitting there and possibly just getting started in spreading fun isotopes into the local biome.

425 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:41:20am

re: #405 Gus

August 2013 Ratings: MSNBC Down Double Digits

There’s an interesting progressive media critique on the Dkos rec list this morning. dailykos.com
The news stuff starts about half way through…

When it comes to news, I’ve determined that the truly poisonous, debased stuff are the mainstream news channels/programs, like MSNBC, FoxNews (of course), CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC. So I basically stopped watching that trash all together unless I’m doing my “amateur” research on propaganda after a sensational event (mass shooting, terrorist attack, etc.).

That right there has improved my life enormously. When I think that at one point I was watching three hours of MSNBC a day, I just don’t know how anybody can function properly being exposed to that kind of pablum/trash on daily basis.

I think the problem is a bit broader than that. The fox news model works for conservatives but that doesn’t necessarily mean copying it on MSNBC is going to work. People often see something that works for their opponents and try to emulate it but they often misinterpret the model and why it works. The tea party was an imitation of lefty protest movements but conservatives couldn’t quite figure out why the imitation didn’t work for them. We’ve seen similar attempts to emulate sites like media matters but conservatives can’t quite figure it out.
I’m sure MSNBC could find a workable business model for a progressive news network but imitating Fox probably isn’t going to work for them.

427 b.d.  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:41:37am

Smell the Freedom!!

Mr. Kucherena (Snowden’s lawyer) says his client has been living under heavy security at an undisclosed location somewhere in Russia and that all contact with him has been going through the lawyer’s office.

“I am his only link with the outside world at the moment. Even his contacts with his parents are carried out through me,” he said.

Link

428 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:42:46am

re: #425 Killgore Trout

MSNBC isn’t trying to imitate Fox News.

429 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:43:01am

re: #427 b.d.

Smell the Freedom!!

Link

He is so fucked.

But who cares?

430 piratedan  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:43:41am

re: #406 Arrrr, matey!

I stopped watching cable news when they were all in love with GG.

I think the American public simply didn’t buy what GG was selling and when MSNBC made that call that they were going with the GG version of events folks just said, why am I watching this?

Everyone walking the political beat are watching the rhetoric, very few are watching and analyzing the actions. People are perfectly capable of listening, they usually don’t need interpreters…. seems like most of the news organizations have forgotten that.

431 b.d.  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:44:47am

re: #425 Killgore Trout
MSNBC’s primetime is bascially the same show just hosted by 3 slightly different people, it becomes boring and repetitive.

Say what you want to about FoxNews but there certainly is a difference in style, if not substance, between O’Rielly, Hannity and Greta.

432 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:45:32am

Also I think MSNBC’s failure to establish a mainstream progressive network doesn’t necessarily mean progressives inherently smarter. From the DKOS diary….

Then there is real stuff, the real journalism, like Democracy Now!, Alternet, truthdig, truthout, and The Real News Network, WikiLeaks, Bureau of Investigative Journalism Center For Public Integrity, MuckRock News, The National Security Archive, The UpTake, the Sunlight Foundation, ProPublica, MapLight, Moyers & Company, among others.

So, my advice, in case anybody is interested? Turn off the TV, especially when it comes to news.

433 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:45:39am

re: #428 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

MSNBC isn’t trying to imitate Fox News.

CNN on the otherhand….

434 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:45:42am

re: #425 Killgore Trout

There’s an interesting progressive media critique on the Dkos rec list this morning. dailykos.com
The news stuff starts about half way through…

I think the problem is a bit broader than that. The fox news model works for conservatives but that doesn’t necessarily mean copying it on MSNBC is going to work. People often see something that works for their opponents and try to emulate it but they often misinterpret the model and why it works. The tea party was an imitation of lefty protest movements but conservatives couldn’t quite figure out why the imitation didn’t work for them. We’ve seen similar attempts to emulate sites like media matters but conservatives can’t quite figure it out.
I’m sure MSNBC could find a workable business model for a progressive news network but imitating Fox probably isn’t going to work for them.

And the nut-wing wins either way. If you tune-in you get their “spin” and biased coverage/non-coverage. If you tune-out and don’t spend excess time researching on your own you are uninformed and thus more likely to make emotionally-based decisions. If you decide that *all* of them are liars than they have successfully poisoned the well regarding any honest coverage that might be coming out.

435 b.d.  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:46:51am

re: #429 Vicious Babushka

He is so fucked.

But who cares?

Doesn’t this make Greenwald’s claims of regular, unfiltered contact with Snowden doubtful?

436 Carlos Danger  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:46:57am

MEANWHILE… AT CNN

Van Jones, S.E. Cupp & Newt Gingrich on a Crossfire reboot

437 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:47:13am

re: #423 Backwoods_Sleuth

My shock and surprise. Let me show you it.

438 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:47:21am

re: #432 Killgore Trout

MSNBC isn’t trying to establish a mainstream progressive network. This is probably confusing for you because of your cartoonish idea of what ‘progressive’ is.

439 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:47:41am

re: #431 b.d.

MSNBC’s primetime is bascially the same show just hosted by 3 solightly different people, it becomes boring and repetitive.

Say what you want to about FoxNews but there certainly is a difference in style, if not substance, between O’Rielly, Hannity and Greta.

Sort of. I think that’s mostly due to the fact that MSNBC is a much smaller operation. All these pundit shows are scripted by staffs of writters and produces. I think the lack of variety on MSNBC may just reflect smaller staff size.

440 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:49:00am

re: #439 Killgore Trout

Sort of. I think that’s mostly due to the fact that MSNBC is a much smaller operation. All these pundit shows are scripted by staffs of writters and produces. I think the lack of variety on MSNBC may just reflect smaller staff size.

Well, we all know that all of it revolves around who has the biggest staff…
:p

441 Amory Blaine  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:49:22am

Cable tv in general is another barometer in how sick our society has become. Middling service, shitty programs, incessant advertising, widespread corporate propaganda, and the drive for short term profits over a competent product. TWC is charging $7.00 a month to rent their cable modem now because people are leaving in droves. Like Walmart, the “shelves” of cable programming is filled with cheap junk masquerading as value.

442 Gus  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:49:58am

MSNBC is owned by ALEC member Comcast.

443 Interesting Times  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:50:42am

re: #431 b.d.

Apropos of nothing, your avatar reminds me of this.

444 Kragar  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:50:47am

Fox doesn’t provide news. Fox is a crutch to prop up conservatives and lets them feel that they’re right about everything.

445 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:50:55am

re: #436 Carlos Danger

MEANWHILE… AT CNN

Van Jones, S.E. Cupp & Newt Gingrich on a Crossfire reboot

Yeah, CNN is pitiful too. I’ve been watching BCC coverage of Kenya. The news casters pad for time, stretch out segments while waiting for updates but the conversation and banter is so far above what you’d see on CNN. I seriously believe the BBC presenters are just smarter and better informed than their American counterparts. It’s not just a cultural thing, it’s a matter of intellect.

446 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:51:12am

re: #442 Gus

MSNBC is owned by ALEC member Comcast.

Comcast is the only high speed Internet carrier in my town. Whaddaya gonna do?

447 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:51:55am

re: #438 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

MSNBC isn’t trying to establish a mainstream progressive network. This is probably confusing for you because of your cartoonish idea of what ‘progressive’ is.

Thinking is hard, apparently.

449 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:52:22am

re: #446 Vicious Babushka

Comcast is the only high speed Internet carrier in my town. Whaddaya gonna do?

@_@

Bake cookies and send them out!

;)

450 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:52:27am

re: #441 Amory Blaine

There was no golden age of news though. People have this false idea that things used to be wildly different, but if you read the papers back in the 1950s, they were mostly Fox News. A small number of newspapers were more progressive or liberal, and those retained that status for awhile, helped by the journalism classes of the ’60s and ’70s, but they were always anomalies. From its inception until now, newspapers and other media sources have always been heavily biased, politicized— the honest ones were the ones that told you up front about their bias.

Self-aware reporting of that nature, like that of Murray Kempton, is still alive today in people like Ta-Nehsi Coates and to a limited extent Rachel Maddow, but there hasn’t been a qualitative change, just a quantitative one.

451 Varek Raith  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:52:34am
452 Killgore Trout  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:53:27am
Cable tv in general is another barometer in how sick our society has become. Middling service, shitty programs, incessant advertising, widespread corporate propaganda, and the drive for short term profits over a competent product.

I’m seeing a lot of news coverage today of Burger King’s new healthy fries. I think there’s even a category on the front page of google news. Must be 100’s of articles from major news orgs.

453 b.d.  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:54:06am

re: #443 Interesting Times

that is so great

454 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:55:21am

re: #441 Amory Blaine

Cable tv in general is another barometer in how sick our society has become. Middling service, shitty programs, incessant advertising, widespread corporate propaganda, and the drive for short term profits over a competent product. TWC is charging $7.00 a month to rent their cable modem now because people are leaving in droves. Like Walmart, the “shelves” of cable programming is filled with cheap junk masquerading as value.

Your standards are too high. Go listen to sports talk radio for three days and get that threshold lowered!
/// ;P

455 Dr Lizardo  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:55:26am

re: #446 Vicious Babushka

Comcast is the only high speed Internet carrier in my town. Whaddaya gonna do?

That’s what burns me up in the US; here, in my city, we have four high-speed internet providers. This in a city with a population of 250,000.

456 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:55:44am

The Vietnam era is often held up as an example of the media’s independence and/or liberalness, but at the beginning of the war, and throughout it for most media sources, the basic framing of the conflict as between freedom and totalitarianism was not questioned. The rules of discussion were set, going outside them wasn’t going to get you space in a mainstream newspaper or network. Our involvement in Vietnam was questioned only after large amounts of American deaths and primarily for that reason. There was actually a lot more reflection about the wisdom of the conflict before the Iraq War than there was for Vietnam.

457 Carlos Danger  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:56:52am

re: #441 Amory Blaine

Cable tv in general…

It’s Bizarro World. Cable, in theory, shouldn’t have so many commercials, but they have more than even the most pitiful VHF station ever.

At least on HBO or TCM you can watch a movie there without sitting through 10 minutes straight of commercial breaks.

458 Bulworth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:56:58am

re: #452 Killgore Trout

yeah, that’s really weird. All the news sources seem to think that’s a real big deal.

459 piratedan  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:58:52am

re: #438 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

MSNBC isn’t trying to establish a mainstream progressive network. This is probably confusing for you because of your cartoonish idea of what ‘progressive’ is.

aye… Comcast owns MSNBC and has no interest whatsoever in establishing MSNBC as a counterweight to Faux. The guy who is the Program Director (Graham) is in cahoots with Morning Joe Scarborough and is behind the firing of Olbermann (Primadonna though he may be, he WAS interesting). Not saying that MSNBC should have turned into the Obamabot network, but when they essentially abandoned the administration and helping to pushback the GOP avalanche of lies, people stopped watching, in a big way. Is/Was Olbermann a better host than Hayes, obviously he’s more engaging to more viewers in that he established his street cred in being the first to publicly go after the Bushies. When you bring up the laziness of Matthews (who’s still living in the 80’s politically) who is nothing more than a process wonk and have another one like him in O’Donnell and Maddow (who I still have respect for because it appears that she actually does work) as the only person out there actually doing reporting on issues like gender inequity and women’s rights, there’s not a lot to tune in for.

460 Carlos Danger  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:59:25am

re: #456 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

My father says they were screening “domino theory” propaganda films to seniors. This was fairly early on in the war.

He said they ran “Reefer Madness” too, but that’s another story…

461 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:59:29am

re: #452 Killgore Trout

That’s not surprising at all. The networks are just catering to an advertiser.

462 ProTARDISLiberal  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 11:59:41am

re: #414 jaunte

I could see him doing that.

463 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:00:20pm

re: #451 Arrrr, matey!

75-year-old woman smashes up local Comcast office with hammer

Can understand the frustration, but cannot support her terrorizing a customer service rep and other customers. I presume, however, that she viewed it as civil disobedience and was willing to accept the consequences (arrest, fine, etc.)

464 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:01:49pm

So Cruz is apparently starting his completely pointless filibuster right now.

It may also not be very easy for him to give up his Canadian citizenship, if Canada decides he poses some sort of threat to Canada— and being an insane nutjob who’s trying to wreck the world economy (or, more accurately, to do things that would wreck the world economy) may count as a threat to Canada.

465 jaunte  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:02:02pm
466 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:02:37pm

re: #457 Carlos Danger

It’s Bizarro World. Cable, in theory, shouldn’t have so many commercials, but they have more than even the most pitiful VHF station ever.

At least on HBO or TCM you can watch a movie there without sitting through 10 minutes straight of commercial breaks.

and, on the flip side, commercial TV (available for free in urban markets to anyone with an antenna) would cost me almost $10 a month if I want “local channels” on my satellite here in the backwoods.
Not paying for it.

467 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:03:35pm

re: #461 Lidane

That’s not surprising at all. The networks are just catering to an advertiser.

It’s more than that. One change that has occurred, again a quantitative and not qualitative change, is that newspapers are a lot poorer. They are not bringing in revenues anything like that they used to, so they tend to copy reporting a lot more. Either through sourcing, or taking press releases and working them over a little bit, or outright plagiarism, they’re cutting corners on investigative reporting. A lot of what you see in the newspapers started out as a corporate press release.

468 Kragar  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:03:40pm

re: #464 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

So Cruz is apparently starting his completely pointless filibuster right now.

It may also not be very easy for him to give up his Canadian citizenship, if Canada decides he poses some sort of threat to Canada— and being an insane nutjob who’s trying to wreck the world economy (or, more accurately, to do things that would wreck the world economy) may count as a threat to Canada.

Mr Derp goes to Washington

469 ProTARDISLiberal  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:03:47pm

re: #466 Backwoods_Sleuth

You done your will yet?

470 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:03:52pm

re: #464 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

So Cruz is apparently starting his completely pointless filibuster right now.

It may also not be very easy for him to give up his Canadian citizenship, if Canada decides he poses some sort of threat to Canada— and being an insane nutjob who’s trying to wreck the world economy (or, more accurately, to do things that would wreck the world economy) may count as a threat to Canada.

I would die of laughter if Canada tried to extradite Ted Cruz as a threat to their national security.

Won’t ever happen, but it would be funny as hell if it did.

471 BongCrodny  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:04:15pm

re: #349 Vicious Babushka

This Faux Nooz story has gone viral in Lower Wingnuttia, about some guy whose Humana premiums ballooned, allegedly b/c of ACA, but maybe just because the insurance carrier is being a dick.

[Embedded content]

I’m not sure whether this accounts for the difference, but if you look at Mangione’s proof, you will see that under Option A (the cheaper plan), “essential health benefits” are not covered, while under Plan B (ACA compliant), they are.

AARP lists a lot of stuff under “Essential Health Benefits”:

1) Ambulatory Patient Services
2) Patient Drugs
3) Emergency Care
4) Mental Health Services
5) Hospitalization
6) Rehabilitative and Habilitative Services
7) Preventive and Wellness Services
8) Laboratory Services
9) Pediatric Care
10) Paternity and Newborn Care

AARP: Affordable Care Act’s Essential Health Benefits

Does this mean that Mangione isn’t getting *any* of these things under his current plan?

472 Mattand  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:06:27pm

re: #466 Backwoods_Sleuth

and, on the flip side, commercial TV (available for free in urban markets to anyone with an antenna) would cost me almost $10 a month if I want “local channels” on my satellite here in the backwoods.
Not paying for it.

I keep flirting with ditching cord cutting and ditching cable altogether. The one thing that’s stopping us is that we watch enough sports to make keeping cable worth it.

However, given the general shitty play of Philly’s big four right now, that’s becoming less and less an issue. Heck, I got halfway through the NHL strike last year when I realized I didn’t really care about missing the Flyers.

473 sagehen  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:07:21pm

re: #424 Feline Fearless Leader

Am curious now whether the Japanese are starting to dig out the Chernobyl studies since they have their own long-term contamination hazard sitting there and possibly just getting started in spreading fun isotopes into the local biome.

I’d think Japan already had some 65 years worth of research into the long-term effects of radiation exposure.

474 Lidane  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:08:16pm

re: #467 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

It’s more than that. One change that has occurred, again a quantitative and not qualitative change, is that newspapers are a lot poorer. They are not bringing in revenues anything like that they used to, so they tend to copy reporting a lot more. Either through sourcing, or taking press releases and working them over a little bit, or outright plagiarism, they’re cutting corners on investigative reporting. A lot of what you see in the newspapers started out as a corporate press release.

Oh definitely. I agree with you. It was made perfectly clear by Chuck “Fact Checking Isn’t My Job” Todd. We don’t have an actual news media anymore. We have a stenography pool that exists solely to fill 24 hours of air time with every bit of pointless bullshit and advertiser PR that they can while they deliberately ignore the rest of the world.

It’s why I look outsdie the US for my news now.

475 Carlos Danger  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:09:08pm

re: #466 Backwoods_Sleuth

and, on the flip side, commercial TV (available for free in urban markets to anyone with an antenna) would cost me almost $10 a month if I want “local channels” on my satellite here in the backwoods.
Not paying for it.

My provider charges extra for C-SPAN.

…yeah

476 Backwoods_Sleuth  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:11:24pm

re: #469 ProTARDISLiberal

You done your will yet?

just a rough draft so far.

477 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:13:05pm

re: #473 sagehen

I’d think Japan already had some 65 years worth of research into the long-term effects of radiation exposure.

Very true. But is leavings/contamination from a reactor accident into/near groundwater and coastal water sufficiently different from two air bursts to make looking over the Russian and Ukrainian studies worth while? I think so.


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