1 Lidane  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 6:14:17pm
2 dog philosopher  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 6:21:11pm

some polling answers you won’t be a-hearin’ on fox news

ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Dec. 12-15, 2013

“Do you think the federal government should or should not pursue policies that try to reduce the gap between wealthy and less well-off Americans?”

should 57%
should not 37%
fish 6%

“Do you think federal government policies currently do more to favor less well-off Americans or more to favor the wealthy?”

do more to favor the less well off 26%
do more to favor the wealthy 64%
treat equally 5%
halibut 5%

ah tell you it’s downright communistical!

3 Charles Johnson  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 6:28:40pm

Glenn Greenwald’s appearance on CNN tonight provided further evidence that this person truly is a dick.

4 Skip Intro  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 6:31:05pm

Those numbers sound fishy to me. I’d like to see the correct results after the Unskewed Polls guy interprets the results properly.

5 EPR-radar  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 6:31:17pm

re: #3 Charles Johnson

Glenn Greenwald’s appearance on CNN tonight provided further evidence that this person truly is a dick.

“It’s true, your Honor. This dick has no man.”

(re-use of the Ghostbusters line is irresistible here)

6 Bubblehead II  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 6:47:12pm

Night Lizards.

Sleep well. But I will leave you with this.

Youtube Video

Sleep well my friends.

7 Stoatly  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 6:48:10pm

Last ones, I promise


And I’m spent….

8 FemNaziBitch  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 6:48:55pm
9 FemNaziBitch  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 6:56:49pm

night all!

10 Skip Intro  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 6:59:59pm

re: #9 FemNaziBitch

Looks like nobody’s left here tonight but me.

11 AlexRogan  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:02:01pm

re: #10 Skip Intro

Looks like nobody’s left here tonight but me.

I’m here, but mostly lurking since I’m at work.

12 RealityBasedSteve  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:02:25pm

I’m here. Just got back to the computer from my workshop. Had a couple of pens to do for some folk.

RBS

13 Dark_Falcon  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:03:41pm

re: #2 dog philosopher

some polling answers you won’t be a-hearin’ on fox news

ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Dec. 12-15, 2013

“Do you think the federal government should or should not pursue policies that try to reduce the gap between wealthy and less well-off Americans?”

should 57%
should not 37%
fish 6%

“Do you think federal government policies currently do more to favor less well-off Americans or more to favor the wealthy?”

do more to favor the less well off 26%
do more to favor the wealthy 64%
treat equally 5%
halibut 5%

ah tell you it’s downright communistical!

I’d like to see the polls methodology and partisan breakdown before I accept it as valid.

14 Decatur Deb  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:03:49pm

re: #10 Skip Intro

Looks like nobody’s left here tonight but me.

Popping in and out—preparing an early Christmas.

15 Pie-onist Overlord  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:16:43pm

GAH my daughter-in-law is “Liking” the most nauseating Glurge on Facebook.

16 BongCrodny  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:21:47pm

re: #13 Dark_Falcon

I’d like to see the polls methodology and partisan breakdown before I accept it as valid.

Here’s the actual poll. The particular question cited is #14.

There’s actually a lot of good news for Republicans in the poll. It’s a mystery to me, because it appears that respondents apparently trust Republicans to do Democratic things.

Washington Post - ABC News Poll

17 Shiplord Kirel  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:21:54pm

A reminder for dealing with tech presents at Christmas:

18 Pie-onist Overlord  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:24:31pm

Teh Twitters is all like HURR HURR TEH LIBRULS HAZ TAKEN ARE BELOVED DUCK DYNASTY PHIL & NAILED HIM TO A CROSS!!!!!11!!!!!!! HURR HURR TEH WAR ON CHRISTMAS & CHRISTIANZ!!!!!11!!!!!

19 Pie-onist Overlord  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:26:46pm

I am sure Christians own at least one if not more cable networks, they can broadcast Fucked Up Dynasty until Teh Rapture.

20 Skip Intro  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:27:39pm

re: #18 Pie-onist Overlord

Teh Twitters is all like HURR HURR TEH LIBRULS HAZ TAKEN ARE BELOVED DUCK DYNASTY PHIL & NAILED HIM TO A CROSS!!!!!11!!!!!!! HURR HURR TEH WAR ON CHRISTMAS & CHRISTIANZ!!!!!11!!!!!

Damn Commie A&E is only running a dozen DD shows tonight! Gutless libturds!

21 Dark_Falcon  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:28:04pm

re: #18 Pie-onist Overlord

Teh Twitters is all like HURR HURR TEH LIBRULS HAZ TAKEN ARE BELOVED DUCK DYNASTY PHIL & NAILED HIM TO A CROSS!!!!!11!!!!!!! HURR HURR TEH WAR ON CHRISTMAS & CHRISTIANZ!!!!!11!!!!!

He’s not an uneducated man, he knew what would happen if he said what he said.

22 Charles Johnson  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:29:48pm

I don’t even know what Duck Dynasty is, and you can’t make me learn.

23 Pie-onist Overlord  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:30:12pm

HURR HURR

24 Dark_Falcon  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:30:42pm

re: #20 Skip Intro

Damn Commie A&E is only running a dozen DD shows tonight! Gutless libturds!

They didn’t take the show off the air, even, all they did was put Phil Robertson on “indefinite production hiatus”, meaning he won’t be in any new scenes filmed for the show until A&E allows it. A&E wasn’t nearly as punitive as it justly could have been.

25 Skip Intro  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:31:24pm

re: #20 Skip Intro

Damn Commie A&E is only running a dozen DD shows tonight! Gutless libturds!

And then on Sunday they’re barely running 12 straight hours of DD! Gay-lovin’ libturds, the whole damn network. Thank God we can still see 30 hours a week of Storage Wars.

26 Pie-onist Overlord  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:31:47pm

re: #22 Charles Johnson

I don’t even know what Duck Dynasty is, and you can’t make me learn.

It is reality show about a bunch of ZZ top impersonators in the backwoods of Louisiana, who made a fortune selling hunting supplies.

I didn’t know what it was until the Transmission group at work dressed up as them for Halloween.

27 Lidane  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:32:05pm

re: #21 Dark_Falcon

He’s not an uneducated man, he’s just a bigot.

FTFY

He knew damn well what he was saying and that his fellow RWNJs would flock to him like a martyr once he said what he did. It’s entirely calculated. Now he’s off the show and he’ll see more book sales and speaking fees.

28 moderatelyradicalliberal  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:34:28pm

re: #16 BongCrodny

Here’s the actual poll. The particular question cited is #14.

There’s actually a lot of good news for Republicans in the poll. It’s a mystery to me, because it appears that respondents apparently trust Republicans to do Democratic things.

Washington Post - ABC News Poll

That’s the story of American politics: Too many Americans vote for Republicans and expect Democratic results. They they elect Democrats only to have Democratic results be blocked by Republicans. Wash, rinse, repeat.

29 Dark_Falcon  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:34:46pm

re: #16 BongCrodny

Here’s the actual poll. The particular question cited is #14.

There’s actually a lot of good news for Republicans in the poll. It’s a mystery to me, because it appears that respondents apparently trust Republicans to do Democratic things.

Washington Post - ABC News Poll

It’s an “all adults” poll, though. Those are of limited value since they contain significant numbers of non-voters.

30 Dark_Falcon  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:37:49pm

re: #23 Pie-onist Overlord

Word Salad incoming:

31 BongCrodny  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:42:33pm

re: #26 Pie-onist Overlord

It is reality show about a bunch of ZZ top impersonators in the backwoods of Louisiana, who made a fortune selling hunting supplies.

I didn’t know what it was until the Transmission group at work dressed up as them for Halloween.

It’s a pretty amazing phenomenon, actually.

There’s a chain of music stores here in Maine called Bull Moose Music. They skew a bit young; pierced body parts is not a bar to employment there.

But there’s an entire shelf full of Duck Dynasty merchandise.

32 Stanley Sea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:43:31pm
33 bratwurst  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:43:39pm
34 Dr. Matt  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:44:58pm

re: #22 Charles Johnson

I don’t even know what Duck Dynasty is, and you can’t make me learn.

Glad I’m not the only one.

35 Stanley Sea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:45:02pm

re: #27 Lidane

FTFY

He knew damn well what he was saying and that his fellow RWNJs would flock to him like a martyr once he said what he did. It’s entirely calculated. Now he’s off the show and he’ll see more book sales and speaking fees.

Wingnut Welfare

36 AlexRogan  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:45:53pm

re: #30 Dark_Falcon

Word Salad incoming:

Dear Sarah and your fellow RWNJs,

Americans’ constitutional right to freedom of speech does not typically apply between individuals and private organizations.

In this case, Phil Robertson is free to be as honest and frank as he wants to be, as abhorrent as it is to many Americans, and A&E is free to do whatever they want within the terms of their contract for the show.

Consequences have actions, as your ilk is want to remind everyone when it suits you.

No love,
Me

37 BongCrodny  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:48:50pm

re: #23 Pie-onist Overlord

HURR HURR

A whole lotta people needs prayers. — Erick Erickson

If Erick Erickson prays for me, and I wind up in hell because I’m a doubter, does that mean that his prayers are worthless, or that God just doesn’t listen to him?

38 AlexRogan  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:49:02pm

re: #31 BongCrodny

It’s a pretty amazing phenomenon, actually.

There’s a chain of music stores here in Maine called Bull Moose Music. They skew a bit young; pierced body parts is not a bar to employment there.

But there’s an entire shelf full of Duck Dynasty merchandise.

That’s nothing; DD merchandise is in many stores here in the Nashville area, from Wal-Mart and K-Mart to pretty much every Mapco Express (a regional gas/C-store chain) around town large enough for the displays.

It’s everywhere.

39 Dark_Falcon  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:50:02pm

re: #36 AlexRogan

Dear Sarah and your fellow RWNJs,

Americans’ constitutional right to freedom of speech does not typically apply between individuals and private organizations.

In this case, Phil Robertson be as honest and frank as he wants to be, as abhorrent as it is to most Americans, and A&E is free to do whatever they want within the terms of their contract for the show.

Consequences have actions, as your ilk is want to remind everyone when it suits you.

No love,
Me

I like it. Though it has too many big words for Sarah Palin to be able to read it.

40 Dr. Matt  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:53:57pm

The same idiots that cheered Bashir getting canned are outraged over Duck Dynasty.

Save your rebuttal that Bashir actually “quit”

41 RealityBasedSteve  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:57:02pm

I’ve seen DD a couple of times, more by accident than intent. It’s basically harmless, they ‘play’ a lot dumber than they really are from what I understand, there is no way that they could have developed the business (which was / is very successful long before the show).

They know who their fan base is, and I have no doubts that this was done with full intent and knowledge of the actions. I’m sure the RWNJs are planning some kind of a ChickFila action, pushing their sales up even higher.

As for me, I’ll bet that by this time next year they will be hanging on for ratings share, and in 2 years they will be nothing but history and stuff showing up at flea markets and dollar stores across the country.

RBS
Who almost has the beard for the show.

42 Skip Intro  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:57:10pm

So, I have to ask. Is DD actually in production right now?

43 RealityBasedSteve  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 7:58:15pm

re: #39 Dark_Falcon

I like it. Though it has too many big words for Sarah Palin to be able to read it.

She would be able to read it if you typed it slow enough.

RBS

44 NJDhockeyfan  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:00:06pm

Evening lizards! What’s new?

45 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:00:28pm

“Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash,” he said. “They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

latimes.com

46 moderatelyradicalliberal  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:02:17pm

re: #45 Gus

“Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash,” he said. “They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

latimes.com

This guy has a half-black grandson. Sweet, Jeebus!

47 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:02:21pm

Also.

48 RealityBasedSteve  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:04:10pm

re: #44 NJDhockeyfan

Evening lizards! What’s new?

Slow night in lizardom. Everybody is off doing exciting things.

RBS

49 Skip Intro  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:05:40pm

re: #47 Gus

Also.

[Embedded content]

He’s already the leading candidate for the GOP Pres nomination if he wants it. Just read the comments at the LA TImes, of all places.

50 Skip Intro  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:09:02pm

re: #42 Skip Intro

So, I have to ask. Is DD actually in production right now?

In answer to my own question, I see the new DD season starts Jan 15, so no, I’d say production using “talent” is already over.

51 Belafon  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:09:23pm

re: #41 RealityBasedSteve

Larry the Cable Guy is another example of this.

52 Killgore Trout  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:09:43pm

re: #47 Gus

Also.

[Embedded content]

So, unenlightened Redneck TV guy has unenlightened redneck opinions, leaves show he was leaving anyways. OMG! Outrage!

53 Amory Blaine  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:10:00pm

It’s a boring show. Bunch of dudes hunting beavers and whittling.

54 NJDhockeyfan  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:10:17pm

re: #48 RealityBasedSteve

Slow night in lizardom. Everybody is off doing exciting things.

RBS

Not much going on here. I just watched the Rangers/Penguins game.

55 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:11:00pm
56 aagcobb  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:11:08pm

re: #24 Dark_Falcon

They didn’t take the show off the air, even, all they did was put Phil Robertson on “indefinite production hiatus”, meaning he won’t be in any new scenes filmed for the show until A&E allows it. A&E wasn’t nearly as punitive as it justly could have been.

Its one of the biggest hit shows on television. The entire clan would have to stone a homosexual to death before they’d take it off the air.

57 moderatelyradicalliberal  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:12:16pm

re: #56 aagcobb

Its one of the biggest hit shows on television. The entire clan would have to stone a homosexual to death before they’d take it off the air.

Or if Uncle Si quit. He’s the only truly funny one.

58 RealityBasedSteve  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:13:45pm

re: #56 aagcobb

Its one of the biggest hit shows on television. The entire clan would have to stone a homosexual to death before they’d take it off the air.

Maybe, but they would ask that they do it during sweeps week. Money is Money after all.

RBS
Is DD count as “Arts” or “Entertainment”?

59 Amory Blaine  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:13:55pm

Or the gold shows where they strip 100’s of acres for a thimble full of gold.

60 NJDhockeyfan  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:14:59pm

So another TV celeb says something stupid. It happens all the time. I’m not getting all the seething I’m seeing on the web. There are plenty of things happening in the world to be outraged or upset about. Celebrity stupidness is not one of them.

61 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:15:22pm
62 aagcobb  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:17:00pm

re: #60 NJDhockeyfan

So another TV celeb says something stupid. It happens all the time. I’m not getting all the seething I’m seeing on the web. There are plenty of things happening in the world to be outraged or upset about. Celebrity stupidness is not one of them.

The same is true about A&E suspending said celebrity, but I guarantee there is going to be a lot of wingnut outrage about that.

63 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:17:09pm

Duck Dynasty meltdown currently at eleventy.

64 Stanley Sea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:18:20pm

re: #63 Gus

Duck Dynasty meltdown currently at eleventy.

The id of the rwnj on display. Hilarious.

65 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:21:58pm

Phil Robertson is now free to run for office in Uganda. Because it’s all about the poo-poo.

66 calochortus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:22:09pm

re: #63 Gus

Duck Dynasty meltdown currently at eleventy.

Freepers are upset-well over 400 comments on it. My favorite so far:

To: Blue Turtle

This nation may be at the end of the line.

50 posted on Wed Dec 18 17:00:30 2013 by OwenKellogg (Fundamental transformation sucks.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Someone is suspended from a show-as the decision of a corporation, not the government-and the country is about to go under.

67 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:22:39pm

re: #16 BongCrodny

Here’s the actual poll. The particular question cited is #14.

There’s actually a lot of good news for Republicans in the poll. It’s a mystery to me, because it appears that respondents apparently trust Republicans to do Democratic things.

Washington Post - ABC News Poll

Yeah, that’ll work.
///

68 Amory Blaine  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:22:57pm

Any opinion on the new Mac Pro?

69 Charles Johnson  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:24:07pm

So basically, Duck Dynasty is a clan of inbred rednecks who happened to hit the media jackpot, and now they’re right wing heroes because one of them spewed a bunch of caveman hatred at gay people?

Is that about right?

70 Shiplord Kirel  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:25:01pm

Louisiana Tech at Alabama, 1966, with none other than Phil Robertson at quarterback for Tech:
Youtube Video

Phil Robertson at Louisiana Tech in 1967:

71 Belafon  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:25:03pm

re: #68 Amory Blaine

Does it take K cups or V cups?

72 Amory Blaine  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:26:22pm

Probably keep your coffee hot.

73 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:27:01pm

re: #72 Amory Blaine

Probably keep your coffee hot.

Toast some bagels.

74 Political Atheist  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:28:04pm

re: #69 Charles Johnson

Yup.

75 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:28:06pm
76 Belafon  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:28:18pm

re: #69 Charles Johnson

From what I understand, they already had more money than the knew what to do with. Hence their turning a camper trailer into a treehouse. I think they fill a very important role: Keep the lower class thinking that they’ll only have to do the one big thing and they can be rich, yet you can stay white trash enough that the wealthy won’t have to deal with you.

77 Shiplord Kirel  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:28:35pm

re: #69 Charles Johnson

So basically, Duck Dynasty is a clan of inbred rednecks who happened to hit the media jackpot, and now they’re right wing heroes because one of them spewed a bunch of caveman hatred at gay people?

Is that about right?

That’s pretty much the show. Like most of TV’s good ol’ boy redneck types, though, Robertson has actually been wealthy and prominent for a long time, and has a college degree.

78 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:30:13pm

Yes. God is “up there” worried about what you think about the gays.

79 Shiplord Kirel  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:30:42pm

re: #75 Gus

Erick Erickson:

Personally, I’ve always taken comfort in the idea of hell fire — that God truly is just and the unrepentant will be in for a smiting.

If so, Erickson and his fellow RWNJ hucksters should be sweating bullets.

80 The Ghost of a Flea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:31:35pm

re: #78 Gus

Yes. God is “up there” worried about what you think about the gays.

So worried that he sent his Son to Earth to never mention them….

81 piratedan  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:31:52pm

and my thoughts on all of this are essentially… meh.

but hey, it plays well with the RWNJ crowd because it feeds their persecution complex. Let ‘em take to the streets in order to right this travesty. If only they gave a fuck about anyone else, good christiantists that they are.

82 Decatur Deb  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:32:05pm

re: #63 Gus

Duck Dynasty meltdown currently at eleventy.

The show and its spinoff activity is hard to avoid around here. (They did a fundraiser at a local church.) They always seemed to do for poor southern whites what Amos ‘n Andy did for Harlem cab drivers.

83 Belafon  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:32:12pm

re: #75 Gus

84 Charles Johnson  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:33:26pm
85 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:33:46pm

re: #75 Gus

[Embedded content]

So, Erick - how do you suppose your god feels about the ‘godly’ who look forward to the people they hate being punished forever? You don’t suppose that might be one of the sins he’d roast you for, do ya?

86 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:39:20pm

87 sagehen  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:39:34pm

re: #69 Charles Johnson

So basically, Duck Dynasty is a clan of inbred rednecks who happened to hit the media jackpot, and now they’re right wing heroes because one of them spewed a bunch of caveman hatred at gay people?

Is that about right?

He also said black people were happier under Jim Crow. He knows this because when he was young white trash he worked on a farm with a bunch of black guys, and none of them ever complained to him.

88 Charles Johnson  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:42:20pm
89 BongCrodny  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:45:12pm

re: #86 Gus

[Embedded image]

Dork Dynasty.

90 Shiplord Kirel  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:45:36pm

Just an idle thought: We could have used a straight shootin’ bushwhacker like Phil in Vietnam, but he was too busy playing football and being Big Man on Campus (presumably with the standard deferment).

91 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:47:02pm

re: #89 BongCrodny

Dork Dynasty.

92 NJDhockeyfan  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:47:06pm

I had no idea MSNBC had a union problem…

Unions push MSNBC hosts to take sides

The AFL-CIO is calling upon liberal MSNBC hosts to meet with workers at the cable network who are trying to unionize.

In a letter sent to Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz, Rev. Al Sharpton, Chris Hayes and Lawrence O’Donnell, the nation’s largest labor federation said the television personalities should speak out in support of workers at Peacock Productions, who produce programming for MSNBC.

Workers at Peacock have complained about their access to health insurance, low pay, long hours and job insecurity, according to the AFL-CIO letter. Signing onto the letter were AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre.

…”We hope that you heed this call to help these brave men and women appeal to Peacock and to NBC to cease their anti-union tactics. Meet with them, talk to them, call your viewers to action, and let’s make a difference together,” said the letter.

MSNBC… the Walmart employer of cable TV.

93 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:48:23pm

re: #84 Charles Johnson


He’s just taking a page from St. Thomas Aquinas:

Wherefore in order that the happiness of the saints may be more delightful to them and that they may render more copious thanks to God for it, they are allowed to see perfectly the sufferings of the damned.

I disagree with Hitchens’ claim that “religion poisons everything”, but here’s pretty good evidence that it poisons some things.

94 aagcobb  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:50:52pm

re: #93 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi

[Embedded content]


He’s just taking a page from St. Thomas Aquinas:

I disagree with Hitchens’ claim that “religion poisons everything”, but here’s pretty good evidence that it poisons some things.

Heaven and Hell are the carrot and the stick of the Christianity meme to win people over. But what gets overlooked is that Hell is also partly a carrot, because it allows you to fantasize about the people you hate suffering while you finally get to enjoy the good life you earned.

95 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:50:58pm

Quack.

96 RinaX  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:53:16pm

Well, I know this must be serious(!), because there are almost 5,000 comments on a freaking EW article about this at this moment, most in support of this guy. They must have sent out a derp signal, because all of the entertainment sites are infested with morons spouting off about freedom and bible and evil liberals.

97 Lidane  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:58:09pm

re: #47 Gus

That too. He’s been making noise about leaving the show for ages. Now he just happens to get fired by making a completely bigoted rant? Pfft.

His rant was a convenient way to go out a martyr and end up on the wingnut welfare circuit.

98 The Ghost of a Flea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:58:14pm

re: #69 Charles Johnson

So basically, Duck Dynasty is a clan of inbred rednecks who happened to hit the media jackpot, and now they’re right wing heroes because one of them spewed a bunch of caveman hatred at gay people?

Is that about right?

The dude in question is college educated. He’s also a ex-drunk and repeat-offender who found Jesus and became an entrepreneur.

It’s not local back-country ignorance he’s spouting. It’s Wingnut Christianity boilerplate talking points.

The whole “rural traditional family” is the product of A&E’s imagineering. Kind of like how they make the Duggars look like anything other than Quiverfull Christian Patriarchy nutbags.

99 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 8:58:28pm

re: #94 aagcobb

Heaven and Hell are the carrot and the stick of the Christianity meme to win people over. But what gets overlooked is that Hell is also partly a carrot, because it allows you to fantasize about the people you hate suffering while you finally get to enjoy the good life you earned.

That only works if you don’t think about what “eternity” means.

I’d be willing to accept some form of Purgatory, but an inescapable Hell would be a moral atrocity.

100 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:00:24pm
101 calochortus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:02:23pm

re: #99 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi

That only works if you don’t think about what “eternity” means.

And if you are cruel. What would be the purpose? I can see putting Hitler and Pol Pot off in some dismal, dull, gray corner, but what would it help to make them suffer after it was too late to do anything about what they did?

102 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:02:45pm

re: #68 Amory Blaine

Any opinion on the new Mac Pro?

Very Darth… Darth Mac it is.

104 aagcobb  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:03:24pm

re: #99 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi

That only works if you don’t think about what “eternity” means.

I suspect that is true of the vast majority of Christians.

105 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:03:33pm

re: #75 Gus

America’s God-problem, on display again.

106 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:03:41pm

Something tells me the Pope isn’t thinking about vagina.

107 aagcobb  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:05:36pm

re: #101 calochortus

And if you are cruel. What would be the purpose? I can see putting Hitler and Pol Pot off in some dismal, dull, gray corner, but what would it help to make them suffer after it was too late to do anything about what they did?

Think about the era in which early Christianity was spreading. Among slaves, who suffered through a harsh life while their pagan masters lived in luxury. I suspect that imagining the Romans having to suffer hopelessly was a big part of the appeal.

108 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:05:41pm

re: #103 Political Atheist

This simple dust blower is a threat to air safety.
[Embedded image]

Looks like a Preparation-H rocket to me.

109 The Ghost of a Flea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:08:18pm

re: #96 RinaX

Well, I know this must be serious(!), because there are almost 5,000 comments on a freaking EW article about this at this moment, most in support of this guy. They must have sent out a derp signal, because all of the entertainment sites are infested with morons spouting off about freedom and bible and evil liberals.

S.F. school bears brunt of ‘merry Christmas’ hoax

…an Internet hoax had people across the country believing it did, resulting in e-mail tirades and more than 75 phone complaints and veiled threats of violence against the fictitious teacher or the actual principal. And taxpayers picked up the tab for beefed-up security and staff time to deal with the phony story.

Because of the threats, Argonne elementary school administrators called an emergency teacher meeting to review security procedures and district officials assigned an extra security officer to the campus. In addition, police have increased patrols around the school this week, said district Assistant Superintendent Leticia Salinas.

The rumor originated about six days ago on what appears to be a satirical website called the National Report, which features content designed to look like real news stories.

110 moderatelyradicalliberal  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:10:31pm

re: #84 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

Hell is an amazing concept. If you believe in it, it’s filled with people you already don’t like.

111 Political Atheist  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:11:41pm

re: #108 Gus

Looks like a Preparation-H rocket to me.

For arrested consular officials.
//

112 palomino  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:12:00pm

re: #60 NJDhockeyfan

So another TV celeb says something stupid. It happens all the time. I’m not getting all the seething I’m seeing on the web. There are plenty of things happening in the world to be outraged or upset about. Celebrity stupidness is not one of them.

So as long as something worse is happening somewhere, we shouldn’t pay any attention at all to this story?

Are you really not able to walk and chew gum at the same time?

113 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:12:33pm

re: #111 Political Atheist

For arrested consular officials.
//

Thwack!

114 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:12:52pm

The NCSE picks up on the Harris poll I mentioned yesterday:

Evolution in a new Harris poll

Eric son of Erick is part of the new essentialism of the current GOP - Either you are for their “God” or you burn.

115 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:16:14pm

re: #114 freetoken

The NCSE picks up on the Harris poll I mentioned yesterday:

Evolution in a new Harris poll

Eric son of Erick is part of the new essentialism of the current GOP - Either you are for their “God” or you burn.

Primates.

116 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:18:39pm

re: #115 Gus

Primates.

tailless monkeys are silly

117 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:19:20pm
Phil On Why He Voted Romney in 2012
“If I’m lost at three o’clock in a major metropolitan area…I ask myself: Where would I rather be trying to walk with my wife and children? One of the guys who’s running for president is out of Chicago, Illinois, and the other one is from Salt Lake City, Utah. [Editor’s note: Romney is from Boston, not Salt Lake City.] Where would I rather be turned around at three o’clock in the morning? I opted for Salt Lake City. I think it would be safer.”

Yeah, a Freeper type.

118 palomino  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:20:54pm

re: #114 freetoken

The NCSE picks up on the Harris poll I mentioned yesterday:

Evolution in a new Harris poll

Eric son of Erick is part of the new essentialism of the current GOP - Either you are for their “God” or you burn.

Indeed, he’s proud of being a near theocrat. When you start losing big political battles in the culture wars (here, gay rights) you search for some comfort. Erickson’s appears to be that his side will win post-Earth. In other words, the Republicans are God’s party and will get their ultimate teabag reward in the End Times.

119 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:20:57pm

re: #116 freetoken

tailless monkeys are silly

Yeah, but we’re smarter than great apes which makes us the smartest most intelligent thing ever in the history of the world. Plus unlike great apes we haz souls that keep on living even after death.

120 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:22:21pm

So what happens to a person that has a soul. They get into an accident and literally become vegetable. But then after they die they’re no longer a vegetable up in heaven. Does the soul break after the accident but comes back to life after they die?

121 Kragar  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:22:46pm
122 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:23:24pm
On growing up in pre-civil-rights-era Louisiana
“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

Yeah, really real Freeper type.

123 BongCrodny  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:23:51pm

re: #117 freetoken

Phil On Why He Voted Romney in 2012

Wow.

I’m not saying that’s the dumbest reason I’ve ever heard for voting for or against someone, but…

…No, strike that.

It is the dumbest reason I’ve ever heard.

124 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:24:57pm

re: #123 BongCrodny

It’s a duck call dog whistle.

125 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:26:21pm

re: #60 NJDhockeyfan

So another TV celeb says something stupid. It happens all the time. I’m not getting all the seething I’m seeing on the web. There are plenty of things happening in the world to be outraged or upset about. Celebrity stupidness is not one of them.

I think the real story is the crazy reaction from the teabagger Right. A business makes a business-based decision to slap the hand of someone whom they pay, because he said things that produced embarassment for that business, and the Propertarian Right goes nuts and screams about censorship.

126 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:27:37pm

So consciousness is driven by this mystical and nebulous soul yet people get Alzheimers, brain damage, etc. People black out and forget not a thing. People forget their whole life memories. Sounds like this soul thing is subject to permanent physical trauma.

127 calochortus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:28:07pm

re: #122 freetoken

Yeah, really real Freeper type.

‘Cause the first person some rural black person in the south is going to complain to about Jim Crow is some random white guy?

128 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:30:28pm
129 BongCrodny  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:30:32pm

If any other Lizards wind up in Hell, be sure to look me up.

I’ll be at the comedy club, watching George Carlin.

130 Kragar  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:30:48pm
131 NJDhockeyfan  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:32:37pm

re: #125 GeneJockey

I think the real story is the crazy reaction from the teabagger Right. A business makes a business-based decision to slap the hand of someone whom they pay, because he said things that produced embarassment for that business, and the Propertarian Right goes nuts and screams about censorship.

I’m seeing major outrage from the left. When Alec Baldwin said filthy anti-gay slurs the left was quiet. Why is that?

132 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:32:37pm

Meanwhile, on the War front:

The War on Christmas Is Real, But Jesus Won’t Bow

But it isn’t just theme parks and dramas that keep the name of Christ alive this time of year. Numerous activists, citizen groups and websites have also risen up to counteract an offensive that has long sought to make Christmas politically incorrect.

It’s just the usual crap. I left a comment - I wonder if the moderators might not let it pass.

133 The Ghost of a Flea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:33:42pm

re: #131 NJDhockeyfan

I’m seeing major outrage from the left. When Alec Baldwin said filthy anti-gay slurs the left was quiet. Why is that?

The left wasn’t quiet.

The left got him booted from his show.

134 The Ghost of a Flea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:34:32pm

Something, something, motes and beams.

135 Kragar  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:39:29pm

re: #131 NJDhockeyfan

I’m seeing major outrage from the left. When Alec Baldwin said filthy anti-gay slurs the left was quiet. Why is that?

Because you didn’t notice?

136 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:43:55pm

Rere: #131 NJDhockeyfan

I’m seeing major outrage from the left. When Alec Baldwin said filthy anti-gay slurs the left was quiet. Why is that?

Really? You must have to look real hard for it, because what I see is a lot of ‘Redneck sounds like redneck. BFD’, and support for a company suspending someone whose statements embarrass them.

137 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:47:15pm
138 Kragar  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:50:23pm

I can honestly say I didn’t realize A&E was still a thing.

139 gwangung  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:50:24pm

re: #131 NJDhockeyfan

I’m seeing major outrage from the left. When Alec Baldwin said filthy anti-gay slurs the left was quiet. Why is that?

Because it wasn’t.

m.theatlantic.com
m.theatlantic.com

This is a common lie from the right, that the left is hypocritical. Not sure why, except that the right is too damn lazy to do the proper research and are just projecting their own hypocrisy about belong silent about racism and bigotry among their own.

140 The Ghost of a Flea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:52:18pm

Hey, it’s like this whole evangelical “gayness is unnatural, men and women are” thing is continuous with a worldwide movement to both criminalize homosexual acts and to endorse anti-LGBT violence or something.

Let’s go laugh at Martin Ssempa and his demons and poo-poo. And forget that his followers occasionally get away with beating out gay people to death.

141 The War TARDIS  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:53:10pm

Pro-tip, the fastest way to end up de-friended on FB with me?

Bringing up the “Friend Zone” thing. That is Douchecon 1 alert right there.

142 Kragar  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:56:12pm
143 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 9:57:46pm
144 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:01:43pm

re: #142 Kragar

[Embedded content]

Meninism = sour grapes.

145 Kragar  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:03:23pm

Matt Barbers certainly knows about quacks, probably from his time researching “reparative” therapy

146 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:04:11pm

re: #143 Gus

[Embedded content]

You know, one of the useful things about the increased acceptance of homosexuality is that it really throws the vicious nature of the Teabagger Right into sharp relief.

147 bratwurst  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:08:21pm

re: #131 NJDhockeyfan

I’m seeing major outrage from the left. When Alec Baldwin said filthy anti-gay slurs the left was quiet. Why is that?

Um, he was suspended and then fired by the rather leftish MSNBC. He was also ripped apart by left-of-center Anderson Cooper and heavily criticized by several different gay organizations, most of which lean pretty damn hard to the left.

Aside from that, great point.

148 goddamnedfrank  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:11:42pm

re: #131 NJDhockeyfan

I’m seeing major outrage from the left. When Alec Baldwin said filthy anti-gay slurs the left was quiet. Why is that?

1.) The left wasn’t quiet, they condemned Baldwin’s behavior, others have provided examples which you are apparently too lazy to look up for yourself.
2.) Baldwin isn’t a bigot, he just has a temper and used inappropriate slurs against specific photographers he was in an altercation with. He’s a longtime major supporter of gay rights. Mindset matters, it’s wrong that in a heated moment Baldwin thought calling his opponents faggots was an insult at all but it’s not equivalent to calmly explaining how consensual homosexuality is equivalent with bestiality, which is what Robinson did.

149 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:12:31pm

re: #147 bratwurst

Um, he was suspended and then fired by the rather leftish MSNBC. He was also ripped apart by left-of-center Anderson Cooper and heavily criticized by several different gay organizations, most of which lean pretty damn hard to the left.

Aside from that, great point.

“All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? “

150 Kragar  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:13:05pm

re: #149 GeneJockey

“All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? “

Brought peace?

151 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:14:11pm

re: #150 Kragar

Brought peace?

SHUT UP!

152 Kragar  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:15:36pm

re: #151 GeneJockey

SHUT UP!

Romanes eunt domus!

153 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:16:34pm

My values are better than your values!

154 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:17:39pm

re: #152 Kragar


Youtube Video

155 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:18:44pm

How much longer does patriarch Phil plan to be part of the show?
“Not long. But I think it’ll go on without me.”

156 palomino  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:18:53pm

re: #125 GeneJockey

I think the real story is the crazy reaction from the teabagger Right. A business makes a business-based decision to slap the hand of someone whom they pay, because he said things that produced embarassment for that business, and the Propertarian Right goes nuts and screams about censorship.

Exactly. Where was this Chick-Fil-A type solidarity in support of Alec Baldwin, a guy who just got fired for the same reason Grandpa Duck just got suspended.

157 The War TARDIS  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:18:57pm

This just showed up in the sidebar on a page.

Boehner Rents His DC Digs From Tanning Bed Lobbyist

It is sourced to the TPM.

Who’s surprised, cause I’m not.

158 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:19:43pm

re: #152 Kragar

Romanes eunt domus!

So tempted … .

159 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:20:09pm

re: #152 Kragar

Romanes eunt domus!

“The Roman, he went, house?”

160 palomino  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:20:49pm

re: #131 NJDhockeyfan

I’m seeing major outrage from the left. When Alec Baldwin said filthy anti-gay slurs the left was quiet. Why is that?

The left was quiet? Alec Baldwin got fired by MSNBC, and it wasn’t because conservatives control the network. He got fired because “the left” made a big deal out of it.

Why should Mr. Duck be any different?

161 goddamnedfrank  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:23:10pm

You see this a lot on the right, an unwillingness to suss out obviously relevant things like context, nuance and mindset. Bringing up Robert Byrd used to be an old favorite, mercilessly judging a man by a status he’d given up and repudiated for over fifty years every time an insidious and unrepentant bigot like Strom Thurmond came up in conversation.

162 goddamnedfrank  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:27:21pm

Dr. Bumquist, do you think the anthropologist Margaret Mead’s strange behavior of late can be explained by a private marijuana addiction?

163 Lidane  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:27:39pm
164 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:29:00pm

Chinese doctors attach hand to man’s ankle

165 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:31:58pm
166 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:32:22pm

$64,337

167 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:34:28pm

re: #164 Gus

Chinese doctors attach hand to man’s ankle

That’s so fucking WEIRD!

But the lagniappe was the 3 seconds after she’d finished narrating that the poor woman stood there, before they cut.

168 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:35:20pm


Derp.

169 palomino  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:35:37pm

re: #131 NJDhockeyfan

I’m seeing major outrage from the left. When Alec Baldwin said filthy anti-gay slurs the left was quiet. Why is that?

I can’t figure out if you’re just a typically underinformed, but sincere, conservative. Or just another mindless troll. The fact that you rarely engage in any debate beyond cut-and-paste followed by a single response leads me to conclude you’re the latter. You’ve got virtually nothing to contribute when you’re in a group of people that are knowledgeable and able to construct an argument.

170 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:37:05pm


I feel sorry for my negro friends who, because of the militant negro rights crowd, will find some hearts sadly turned cold toward them.

171 The Ghost of a Flea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:41:53pm

re: #170 Gus

I feel sorry for my negro friends who, because of the militant negro rights crowd, will find some hearts sadly turned cold toward them.

Those would be his gay friends that he has even though God frowns on them because of their unnatural lifestyle, who are destined for the hellfire he’s so comforted by the existence of? In spite of how it would anger God?

These tweets do not add up.

172 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:42:47pm

re: #171 The Ghost of a Flea

Those would be his gay friends that he has even though God frowns on because of their unnatural lifestyle, who are destined for the hellfire he’s so comforted by the existence of?

Yeah, pretty much.

173 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:43:53pm

re: #170 Gus

[Embedded content]


I feel sorry for my negro friends who, because of the militant negro rights crowd, will find some hearts sadly turned cold toward them.

“I feel sorry for my Jewish friends who, because of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, will find some hearts sadly turned cold toward them.”

I mean, seriously - he feels sorry for gays that people who hate them will now hate them more, because they get called homophobes and bigots for telling people how much they hate gays? This is the same stupid shit as saying I’m intolerant because I don’t accept intolerance.

Yeah, blacks are the REAL racists, feminists are the REAL misogynists, and gays are the REAL homophobes.

174 The Ghost of a Flea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:45:35pm

re: #173 GeneJockey

“I feel sorry for my Jewish friends who, because of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, will find some hearts sadly turned cold toward them.”

I mean, seriously - he feels sorry for gays that people who hate them will now hate them more, because they get called homophobes and bigots for telling people how much they hate gays? This is the same stupid shit as saying I’m intolerant because I don’t accept intolerance.

Yeah, blacks are the REAL racists, feminists are the REAL misogynists, and gays are the REAL homophobes.

White males: umpires of racial and sexual identity.

175 Kragar  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:46:02pm
176 AlexRogan  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:46:38pm

re: #129 BongCrodny

If any other Lizards wind up in Hell, be sure to look me up.

I’ll be at the comedy club, watching George Carlin.

Him and Richard Pryor and Sam Kinison.

177 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:47:00pm

re: #171 The Ghost of a Flea

Those would be his gay friends that he has even though God frowns on them because of their unnatural lifestyle, who are destined for the hellfire he’s so comforted by the existence of? In spite of how it would anger God?

These tweets do not add up.

I once said of the Right, “If you think they’re thinking, you’re overthinking.”

It was a joke, but I’m serious. It’s all buzzwords, slogans, and attitude with many of them. Look at Erickson’s tweets - as you point out, in one he’s comforted by the existence of a Hell that exists to eternally punish the people he feels sorry for, for having to put up with EXTRA hate from people like him who resent being called bigots for practicing bigotry.

Does that make the least fucking sense?

178 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:51:24pm

Just when you thought things were going so well between the gay community and RWNJs out come those militant gay troublemakers.

179 The Ghost of a Flea  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:51:37pm

re: #177 GeneJockey

I once said of the Right, “If you think they’re thinking, you’re overthinking.”

It was a joke, but I’m serious. It’s all buzzwords, slogans, and attitude with many of them. Look at Erickson’s tweets - as you point out, in one he’s comforted by the existence of a Hell that exists to eternally punish the people he feels sorry for, for having to put up with EXTRA hate from people like him who resent being called bigots for practicing bigotry.

Does that make the least fucking sense?

The thing is, I don’t think it’s not thinking; it’s self-serving thinking.

In this case, wife-beater logic: look at what they made us do.

180 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:55:12pm
181 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:56:17pm
182 Gus  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 10:56:48pm

God hates Erick Erickson.

//

183 Lidane  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:01:06pm

re: #131 NJDhockeyfan

I’m seeing major outrage from the left. When Alec Baldwin said filthy anti-gay slurs the left was quiet. Why is that?

Because you’re a fucking moron?

“The left” was plenty angry with Alec Baldwin. He lost his MSNBC show. He got a lot of angry people on the left calling him a bigot and calling him out. Just because you live under your safe little MBF rock doesn’t mean the real world operates the same way.

184 GeneJockey  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:02:18pm

re: #179 The Ghost of a Flea

The thing is, I don’t think it’s not thinking; it’s self-serving thinking.

In this case, wife-beater logic: look at what they made us do.

I don’t know. I’ve run into so many wingers, and libertarians, for that matter, who don’t see to think beyond the first level. They don’t put things together, so they’re constantly making contradictory statements with the same breath - “There aren’t enough good jobs because of Obama!” and “People who work for minimum wage should get better jobs!”, for example.

And in discussions about economics, they never seem to be able to think of the macro effects, or to seem the effect on society as a whole. If you point out how many people have shitty jobs that don’t have healthcare, they say they should work harder and get better jobs, but they seem unable to understand the EVERYBODY can’t get better jobs all at once. It’s like they have a mental block that prevents them seeing it.

185 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:17:42pm

A random music comment:

A great deal of what goes under the label of “Smooth Jazz” is crap.

186 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:18:06pm

Especially when it comes to Christmas music.

187 goddamnedfrank  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:22:44pm

re: #183 Lidane

If anything I think Alec caught more shit than he’d otherwise be due because he’s such a lefty and nominal gay rights supporter. It was a combination of he should have fucking known better and people simply being fed up with his penchant for rants / temper tantrums. He’d already used up a lot of people’s forgiveness from when that voicemail message to his daughter went viral. Dude’s got to learn to chill the hell out.

188 goddamnedfrank  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:25:45pm

re: #187 goddamnedfrank

Still, he’s in a better position than Mel Gibson. Nobody believes Mel’s had a change of heart. Whereas I strongly doubt that Alec holds hateful prejudices, it’s just that his Dick switch is on a hair trigger.

189 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:26:58pm

MP3 Audio

190 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:32:17pm

Yes, Roy did a Christmas song:

MP3 Audio

191 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:33:49pm
PRETTY PAPER” is Roy Orbison’s only Christmas song. Recorded September 11,1963, it was a hit, making it to #15 on the Pop charts. It’s been covered by many artists including the man who wrote it, Willie Nelson. At the time of this song Roy and Patsy Cline were Willie’s claim to fame.
192 Tigger2  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:35:37pm

re: #75 Gus

[Embedded content]

Erick you and your Teabagger crowd have already pissed God off more than you know with all the greed stuff you all spout.

193 Killgore Trout  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:38:13pm

re: #92 NJDhockeyfan

I had no idea MSNBC had a union problem…

Unions push MSNBC hosts to take sides

MSNBC… the Walmart employer of cable TV.

Lol, there’s the difference between a progressive business and a business that markets to progressives.

194 Killgore Trout  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:39:04pm

re: #181 Gus

[Embedded content]

What’s up with the Dennis Kucinich sign?

195 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:42:48pm

Christmas Freud - the Anti-Santa:

MP3 Audio

196 Killgore Trout  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:45:52pm

imgur.com

197 freetoken  Wed, Dec 18, 2013 11:46:36pm

That was from an elite operation of the War On Christmas spec-ops unit.

198 freetoken  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 12:43:17am

cut 5:


MP3 Audio

199 Lidane  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 12:46:45am

re: #188 goddamnedfrank

Still, he’s in a better position than Mel Gibson. Nobody believes Mel’s had a change of heart. Whereas I strongly doubt that Alec holds hateful prejudices, it’s just that his Dick switch is on a hair trigger.

That’s because Mel Gibson is an insane bigot, but he’s a devoutly religious insane bigot. He made Christian torture porn that people have latched on to as some great cinematic achievement, FFS. Any change of heart that he claims is automatic bullshit.

Alec Baldwin is an asshole, but he’s a liberal asshole so a lot of folks on the left cut him slack. His bigoted rant was the final straw for a lot of people.

200 gregusmeus1  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 1:02:18am

re: #181 Gus

Matt Demons? I’m pretty sure he’s straight.

201 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 1:34:14am

re: #200 gregusmeus1

Matt Demons? I’m pretty sure he’s straight.

“Gays are obsessed with Matt Damon” was the intended spelling…

202 Higgs Boson's Mate  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 1:39:36am

This is a fun thread for me. I’m not wired for movies or TV so I have only a vague idea of who these people are.

203 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 2:13:48am

re: #202 Higgs Boson’s Mate

This is a fun thread for me. I’m not wired for movies or TV so I have only a vague idea of who these people are.

One advantage of being an American expat is that you are aware of what is going on in the USA without being overwhelmed and overloaded by it all.

I was aware that there was some TV show featuring hirsute rednecks who seemed to embody the modern American masculine ideals of rugged independence and self-reliance.

And also, unsurprisingly enough, also embody the redneck traits of bigotry and small-mindedness…

204 freetoken  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 2:22:50am

Often imitated but never surpassed, Percy Faith’s now 47 year old recording of a standard, in essential 1960’s style which is about as classic of a 1960’s sound that I can think of:

MP3 Audio

205 Whack-A-Mole  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 2:24:36am

Probably not one that most folks here in the US would consider a Christmas classic, but one of my favorites Chirstmas songs:

Youtube Video

206 freetoken  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 2:25:04am

Ok, enough of that… for the more musical elitists among us, here is a traditional Christmas song performed skillfully:

MP3 Audio

207 Higgs Boson's Mate  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 2:25:46am

re: #203 Sol Berdinowitz

Good point. I was a Navy brat, born on a base in the late Forties. The USN put us in a lot of places where there was neither television nor movies. There were always books and model kits and sundry other things so I just developed bad habits as far as the entertainment industry might be concerned.

208 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 2:31:17am

re: #207 Higgs Boson’s Mate

As an expat, I do get a bit homesick around the holidays, but the annual “War on Christmas” chivarees (and now the “Santa/Jesus was white” debate), coupled with reports of the latest school shootings, all help dampen my melancholy…

209 Higgs Boson's Mate  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 2:41:35am

As a time traveller (I’m 65 so I’ve travelled through some time) I think I know a bit of what it means to be an expat. Although I live in a beautiful Southern California beach town and lack for nothing important I often feel like an observer.

210 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:00:13am

I am just grateful for all the media frenzies I have been spared: The OJ Simpson trial, the Lewinsky scandal, the Michael Jackson trial and funeral, the Miley Cyrus debacles, etc., I know that they are going on, but I am not bombarded by them 24/7 from every loudspeaker or TV screen I walk past…

211 fern01  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:09:56am

re: #75 Gus

When republicans run out of valid arguments they turn to God and faith - only a godless liberal would ever argue against faith.

212 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:11:23am

re: #211 fern01

When republicans run out of valid arguments they turn to God and faith - only a godless liberal would ever argue against faith.

Faith is a goalpost on wheels…

213 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:12:01am

I don’t think that in Duck Dynasty, ducks are the rulers.

If the Robertson family is so successful, why can’t they make their own commercials, instead of having to appear on some inane “reality” show?

My solution? Fire all the TV producers who have ever made, are now currently making, or will ever consider making, another “reality” show.

Or hasn’t the “reality” show industry found its bottom yet?

re: #210 Sol Berdinowitz

I’m with you, Sol, I just don’t bother paying for cable here in the US. I get enough news on the internet by looking for it, and am spared the talking heads, inane programming (even on major outlets), and constant advertising. It’s great not having shit shoved down your throat. : )

214 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:27:25am

re: #213 Justanotherhuman

reality TV has no bottom, it can only sink lower…

I get my news fromt he Internet, do not bother with German TV as it is abysmally bad, would pay for BBC if I could get a license here, but international law makes it impossible.

I had a TV for the first four months of last year, and yes, I could feel it making me stupid, Then they switched over to fully digital broadcasting and i could not be bothered to obtain a converter.

215 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:36:38am

re: #191 freetoken

re: #214 Sol Berdinowitz

reality TV has no bottom, it can only sink lower…

I get my news fromt he Internet, do not bother with German TV as it is abysmally bad, would pay for BBC if I could get a license here, but international law makes it impossible.

I had a TV for the first four months of last year, and yes, I could feel it making me stupid, Then they switched over to fully digital broadcasting and i could not be bothered to obtain a converter.

Oh, I still have a TV, a cheap Best Buy 39 in flat screen, but I subscribe to Netflix which I think you can stream through your computer, too.

216 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:48:01am

Hahahahaha!

217 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:50:40am

re: #176 AlexRogan

Him and Richard Pryor and Sam Kinison.

Yep, they will all be doing their thing in “HELL” a comedy club run by St. Pete. The entertainment gets pretty hot, but once you go backstage or walk outside, you’re back in heaven. It’s God’s little private club for those in the know. I hear they are going to be expanding.

218 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:51:58am

My grandson will want one of these for his 12x12 BR, of course (he already has a 39”).

Samsung to Unveil 105-Inch Curved Ultra HD TV at CES

He mentioned the other day he might need glasses. Ya think?

219 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:56:21am

re: #215 Justanotherhuman

Oh, I still have a TV, a cheap Best Buy 39 in flat screen, but I subscribe to Netflix which I think you can stream through your computer, too.

I would need to get a VPN to stream Netflix in Europe, they have similar offerings here. I just don’t watch much TV or video except at my girlfriend’s.

She actually has me watching “Girls” with her (actually witty and well written if not really my cup of tea), and a few other contemporary series, “Louie C.K. (definitely my taste) and “Orange is the New Black”, which is also witty, and well written and acted.

220 BeenHereAwhile  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:57:59am

re: #38 AlexRogan

That’s nothing; DD merchandise is in many stores here in the Nashville area, from Wal-Mart and K-Mart to pretty much every Mapco Express (a regional gas/C-store chain) around town large enough for the displays.

It’s everywhere.

Couple months ago, one of the DD guys - not the one suspended - this one had a shorter beard, was wandering around in the parking lot behind our office on music row.

I thought he was some homeless guy, until a client came in to the office all excited about getting an autograph from [mumble] on DD.

221 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 3:59:33am

Oh no…local (stoopid) TV news just did a thing on the A&E drama.

That tells me I’m gonna have to “duck” TV today, for fear that I will be hearing this crap a million times.

But hey, I have learned one thing…The First Amendment is all about Free Hate and Freedom for Religious Hate.

Lovely. Happy Holidays…Peace on Earth…Goodwill to (some) Men!

Bah…

222 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:00:27am

Those DD guys look like rock starts and are the embodiment of the Southern male ideal: rugged, individualistic, self-sufficient, and self-assured in their bigotry.

Mess with them and you find yourself messing with everything those other rednecks stand for.

223 A Mom Anon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:27:39am

re: #213 Justanotherhuman

You know, initially, I liked this show. But it wore thin quickly. I found it sad that Phil Robertson could not at all seem to relate to his little granddaughters when left to hang out with them for an afternoon. He wouldn’t play tea party or dress up with them, he HAD to make them go out and “get dirty” and do “boy things”. Uncle Si on the other hand embraced the whole little girl thing right down to a feather boa and nail polish. There was another episode where one of the sons and his wife took their teenagers to the dentist for surgery and the whole thing was staged. No swelling afterwards, no post surgical bruising and they had the son still “loopy” from anesthesia hours later at the dinner table(where both teens were eating after having their wisdom teeth surgically removed). In other words, it’s mostly bullshit. I liked the idea of an extended family working together and mostly getting along and being a bit quirky, but as I said, it’s a bullshit image and they’re no less flawed than anyone else. Phil being a “man of god”(he’s also a preacher at a small church) was played way up too, turns out he’s not a saint, who would have guessed? (ha)

I’m all for an American Success Story. And Phil Robertson came from pretty much nothing to create a successful business. His sons then took that business and marketed the hell out of it. Good on them. But it’s become a fetish for way too many people who don’t realize those “poor” Robertsons are multi millionaires now. They could shutter the whole Duck Dynasty/Duck Commander/Buck Commander thing today and not suffer for a second.

224 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:31:55am

re: #223 A Mom Anon

You see? This is great: I have never watched a single episode of the show, but I am now able to describe what it is about in great detail.

Point is, the show has somehow come to stand for a certain American redneck ideal of self-reliance and individual initiative, family unity and faith in God.

Regardless of the minimal reality content behind the image, it is something that a lot of people seem to identify with on a visceral level, and if you attack it in any way, you find people reacting very strongly.

225 A Mom Anon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:40:43am

re: #224 Sol Berdinowitz

I think that’s a pretty succinct analysis. They really are a success story, at least what I’ve been able to find out about them as a family. But I was always uncomfortable with Phil Robertson’s really strict gender roles, really driven home in the episode I described with his little granddaughters. I don’t think he’s a bad human being, I think he loves his family and has a strong work ethic. He laments the teens in the family not tearing themselves away from technology or learning the value of a hard day’s work(something his sons ought to be instilling in their kids but aren’t. How long before one of them has a very public spoiled brat meltdown?), which I can relate to. But he also uses his religion as a stick to smack others with and he’s judgmental as hell. No one’s even really talking about what he said about Jim Crow laws either, which is another issue. America could find other people to admire, won’t hurt us a bit.

226 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:46:31am

Remember that America was populated by the misfits, outcasts, miscreants and criminals who left Europe on their own or were kicked out. Many of them succeeded here and went on to shape our nation.

These fellows are their moral and social heirs, their values are much the same as the folks who were put on the transport ships in the 18th century.

227 Stoatly  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:46:36am

re: #129 BongCrodny

If any other Lizards wind up in Hell, be sure to look me up.

I’ll be at the comedy club, watching George Carlin.

I’ll try to find the time, but it’s going to take an eternity to catch up on all the good music there

228 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:50:55am

DERP DERP
HURR HURR

229 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:51:14am

It just goes on and on and on.

230 Uncle Obdicut  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:53:42am

re: #229 Pie-onist Overlord

It just goes on and on and on.

Back before 9/11, ‘lefties’ were pretty much the only ones talking about the oppression of women in Islamic countries.

231 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:55:38am

re: #230 Uncle Obdicut

Back before 9/11, ‘lefties’ were pretty much the only ones talking about the oppression of women in Islamic countries.

Intermittently during their complaints about the “martyrdom” of the Duck Dynasty guy, a wingnut will go HURR HURR LOOK THEIR! A MUSLIM!!!!!1!!!!

232 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:56:23am

What did I just get through saying?

233 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:56:53am

Close Gitmo. Problem solved.

234 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:57:56am

Creepy, like he’s responding on Teh Twitters to my posts here at LGF.

235 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 4:58:18am

re: #224 Sol Berdinowitz

You see? This is great: I have never watched a single episode of the show, but I am now able to describe what it is about in great detail.

Point is, the show has somehow come to stand for a certain American redneck ideal of self-reliance and individual initiative, family unity and faith in God.

Regardless of the minimal reality content behind the image, it is something that a lot of people seem to identify with on a visceral level, and if you attack it in any way, you find people reacting very strongly.

Yes, and unfortunately, my granddaughter, whom I thought I taught to think independently, eats it up. It’s very hard, when you’re in this kind of milieu, though, to really be an independent thinker—it’s absolutely all against you, from bottom to top. And the same thing that contributes to people identifying with DD on a visceral level also contributes to the poverty, failure, drug addiction, and alcoholism I see around me, too.

You can be so proud of your “roots” that you’re afraid to move, to discover, to let your curiosity and your intellect, soar and, instead, allow your hardened ideas and prejudices to rule your life. It’s certainly something with which I’ve had to struggle all my life, even though I’ve not always been successful doing it.


Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson Thinks Black People Were Happy Before the Civil Rights Movement

eonline.com

Yeah, right, Phil. And this guy has a Master’s in Education. But in his mind, he’s really nothing but a dumb jock.

236 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:05:56am

I still think a reality show based around my family would be a great idea. We have the “weird, but traditional religion,” huge extended family, spread out all over, but yet doing enough of the same stuff that normal people do everyday so that people can identify.

And pie!

I think I will float this idea when we all get together at New Year’s for my mom’s birthday.

237 A Mom Anon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:06:30am

re: #231 Pie-onist Overlord

Meh, let’em whine. After Christmas, all that Duck Dynasty stuff will be marked 75 percent off and will eventually disappear from the shelves. Hell, our local Kroger has formerly 14.99 insulated cups marked down to 1.99. The only stuff selling there for full price are the matriarch’s cookbook and a couple other books, those will hit the markdown bin when the sales slow to zero after the holidays. It’s like any other thing, overexposure will make most people get bored with it after awhile and then it’s on to something else.

I do always find it funny when wingnuts bitch about free speech being squelched when it’s something they like or say being criticized. Get back to me when the government comes in and stops A&E from making the show or throws the Robertsons in prison. What about that free market they love so much?

238 A Mom Anon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:09:36am

re: #236 Pie-onist Overlord

The tie in merch would be awesome. Cookbooks obviously, but a whole line of bakeware and accessories, Pie-onist Overlord t-shirts and lunchboxes, the possibilities are endless.

239 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:12:18am

re: #238 A Mom Anon

The tie in merch would be awesome. Cookbooks obviously, but a whole line of bakeware and accessories, Pie-onist Overlord t-shirts and lunchboxes, the possibilities are endless.

Make the pie more Zionist!

240 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:13:50am

re: #236 Pie-onist Overlord

I still think a reality show based around my family would be a great idea. We have the “weird, but traditional religion,” huge extended family, spread out all over, but yet doing enough of the same stuff that normal people do everyday so that people can identify.

And pie!

I think I will float this idea when we all get together at New Year’s for my mom’s birthday.

That’s a great idea. “Pie-onist Overlord” is a solid pun, too. I’d go for it!

241 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:14:47am

re: #238 A Mom Anon

The tie in merch would be awesome. Cookbooks obviously, but a whole line of bakeware and accessories, Pie-onist Overlord t-shirts and lunchboxes, the possibilities are endless.

Yeah, but can you boast that you were 14 when you started dating an 18 yr old? That you were 16 when you married a 20 yr old college student (who probably got you pregnant)?

242 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:16:27am

re: #236 Pie-onist Overlord

Love your new name, BTW! Best one yet. : )

243 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:16:50am

re: #241 Justanotherhuman

Yeah, but can you boast that you were 14 when you started dating an 18 yr old? That you were 16 when you married a 20 yr old college student (who probably got you pregnant)?

How else do I explain that I am “49” but I have a 40-year-old son?

244 Stoatly  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:16:55am

re: #205 Whack-A-Mole

Probably not one that most folks here in the US would consider a Christmas classic, but one of my favorites Chirstmas songs:

[Embedded content]

Fairytale of New York is a Christmas standard here in the UK, - someone tried to made a controversy a few years ago over the word “faggot” in the lyrics, to general indifference.

Youtube Video

Either shops are making an effort to change up their Christmas music this year or I’ve been just been lucky - heard a lot of slightly off-the-beaten-track stuff, like the Cocteau Twins version of Frosty The Snowman.

245 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:18:10am

re: #242 Justanotherhuman

Love your new name, BTW! Best one yet. : )

It was “Pieonist Overlord” but I put in the hyphen because it looked like “Pee on us” and that’s just wrong.

246 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:24:08am
247 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:33:25am

re: #244 Stoatly

Fairytale of New York is a Christmas standard here in the UK, - someone tried to made a controversy a few years ago over the word “faggot” in the lyrics, to general indifference.

This dispute has come up a few times (as with Ann Coulter’s comment on John Edward’s “fag haircut”).

“Fag” or “faggot”, at least in the argot I grew up with, did not just mean “gay”, it also meant wimpy or feminine male .

Or in the explanation offered by George Carlin: ” A fag was a guy who wouldn’t go downtown with you to beat up on homos.”

248 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:38:34am
249 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:39:47am

re: #244 Stoatly

Fairytale of New York is a Christmas standard here in the UK, - someone tried to made a controversy a few years ago over the word “faggot” in the lyrics, to general indifference.

[Embedded content]

Either shops are making an effort to change up their Christmas music this year or I’ve been just been lucky - heard a lot of slightly off-the-beaten-track stuff, like the Cocteau Twins version of Frosty The Snowman.

That guy is hysterical. : )

250 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:40:46am

So it turns out that ‘Duck Dynasty’ wasn’t all it was quacked up to be, huh?

251 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:44:12am
252 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:45:18am

re: #250 Dark_Falcon

So it turns out that ‘Duck Dynasty’ wasn’t all it was quacked up to be, huh?

Really? Before six am?

253 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:46:40am
254 Stoatly  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:46:43am

re: #250 Dark_Falcon

Fowl pun

[ducks]

255 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:47:10am

re: #252 darthstar

Really? Before six am?

It’s 7:46 where I am, Darth.

256 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:47:39am

re: #254 Stoatly

Fowl pun

[ducks]

Go lay an egg.

257 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:47:45am

WTF?

Weekly US jobless claims hit 8-month high of 379K

bigstory.ap.org

Oh yeah, around here, the few mfg plants still in existence usually close for a couple of weeks for “christmas vacation”—you only get paid anything considered vac pay if you have vacation time built up, and most don’t. Plus, filing for UI only gets you 1 wk of compensation, unless you work for an employer who also closed down for 2 wks in the summertime (allowing one of those weeks to count for your “waiting week”). It’s so common the unemployment office is usually already set up for the influx of applicants.

258 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:48:20am

re: #252 darthstar

Really? Before six am?

Hey, it’s almost 9 here…

259 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:50:29am

re: #253 darthstar

“Sarah Palin defends Duck Dynasty star”

Of course she would, they both occupy a similar nice in the media ecosystem: Idealized images of rough, self-reliant individualists who don’t need overeddicated elites to tell them what to do or say.

260 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:53:07am

re: #259 Sol Berdinowitz

“Sarah Palin defends Duck Dynasty star”

Of course, they both occupy a similar nice in the media ecosystem: Idealized images of rough, self-reliant individualists who don’t need overeddicated elites to tell them what to do or say.

If they’re so “rough” and “self-reliant” why do they have to depend on “reality TV” and some kind of really hard to explain “fame” to grift from the gullible rubes?

261 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:53:35am

re: #253 darthstar

[Embedded content]

How’s that book selling Sarah?

This current crop of whiney Christians sure are irritating.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

262 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:54:08am

re: #260 Justanotherhuman

If they’re so “rough” and “self-reliant” why do they have to depend on “reality TV” and some kind of really hard to explain “fame” to grift from the gullible rubes?

Those are the idealized images as seen through the filter of “reality” TV.

263 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:54:09am

re: #261 b.d.

How’s that book selling Sarah?

This current crop of whiney Christians sure are irritating.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

“Peace on earth, goodwill toward all.”

FTFY

264 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:54:25am

re: #259 Sol Berdinowitz

“Sarah Palin defends Duck Dynasty star”

Of course, they both occupy a similar nice in the media ecosystem: Idealized images of rough, self-reliant individualists who don’t need overeddicated elites to tell them what to do or say.

What happened to the party of personal responsibility?

265 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:55:51am

re: #262 Sol Berdinowitz

Those are the idealized images as seen through the filter of “reality” TV.

Exactly. It’s a created image, a falsity, nothing more. Sign of the times, I suppose.

266 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:56:13am

re: #264 b.d.

What happened to the party of personal responsibility?

It means that if you are jobless, homeless or pregnant, you are on your own.

267 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:56:57am

re: #225 A Mom Anon

I think that’s a pretty succinct analysis. They really are a success story, at least what I’ve been able to find out about them as a family. But I was always uncomfortable with Phil Robertson’s really strict gender roles, really driven home in the episode I described with his little granddaughters. I don’t think he’s a bad human being, I think he loves his family and has a strong work ethic. He laments the teens in the family not tearing themselves away from technology or learning the value of a hard day’s work(something his sons ought to be instilling in their kids but aren’t. How long before one of them has a very public spoiled brat meltdown?), which I can relate to. But he also uses his religion as a stick to smack others with and he’s judgmental as hell. No one’s even really talking about what he said about Jim Crow laws either, which is another issue. America could find other people to admire, won’t hurt us a bit.

That’s why I mentioned yesterday how that whole Church of Christ thing seriously impacts the Robertson family dynamics. What you’ve been posting perfectly describes that.

268 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 5:57:41am

Image: True_Size_Of_Africa.png

Nice West Wing video clip about this here: upworthy.com

269 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:02:02am

re: #253 darthstar

[Embedded content]

I posted her Tweet last night, but for those who don’t want to scroll upthread I’ve copied it below:

“Free speech is an endangered species. Those ‘intolerants’ hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us,”

270 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:06:35am

re: #248 darthstar

[Scientists cut million-year natural process to convert algae into crude oil to about an hour | The Raw Story]

Now that is a good story, one that all should be happy about. So good it should move the talk away from dumb stuff like Duck Dicks.

But it won’t. Hell, we won’t even hear from Sister Sarah and Erik Erik Erik or Bryan Fischer.

271 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:07:54am

FREE SPEECH FOR MARTIN BASHIR OLD DUCK GUY!!!!

272 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:11:05am

Greets and saluts from the NYC metro area. The big news of the day is that anyone who may have shopped at Target from November 27 through December 15 may have had their credit/debit card information stolen in one of the biggest hacking cases to date.

Up to 40 million accounts may be jeopardized by this, and the company wants people to check their bank/credit accounts for unauthorized charges and to contact the company if they find problems.

Target said that it had alerted authorities and banks, and that the issue was “identified and resolved.” Still, it encouraged customers to look over their account statements and obtain credit reports. Target did not say how it might have happened.

“It is very clear it is a sophisticated crime,” Molly Snyder, a spokeswoman for the company, told Reuters.

At up to 40 million customers, the breach ranks among the biggest in U.S. corporate history. In 2007, the data of more than 45 million customers was stolen from stores including T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.

Last year, the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain said that someone had planted software in PIN pad devices at 63 of its stores in nine states to steal the data from magnetic card stripes. The company responded by taking PIN pad devices out of all its stores.

And in 2011, a hack exposed the credit card information of 100 million user accounts on the Sony PlayStation video game network.

Target, with almost $72 billion in U.S. sales last year, is the third-largest store in America, trailing only Walmart and the Kroger grocery store chain. Target has about 1,800 stores in the United States.

Krebs on Security reported that the breach hit only customers who shopped at physical Target stores, not online. The blog cited reliable sources familiar with the matter.

The data would allow criminals to create counterfeit cards by encoding the information onto any card with a magnetic stripe. If PIN codes were also intercepted, that would allow criminals to withdraw the cash of unsuspecting customers from ATMs.

273 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:11:11am

re: #270 ObserverArt

Now that is a good story, one that all should be happy about. So good it should move the talk away from dumb stuff like Duck Dicks.

As long as we allow the oil companies to gain a monopoly on the process and the profits from it, it will be pushed forward…

274 Stoatly  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:15:53am

re: #247 Sol Berdinowitz

Louis C.K - warning - really NSFW - even the title of the YT vid


Of course “faggot” in the UK is the name of a (nearly extinct) food:
Youtube Video
And “fags” are cigarettes - much to the amusement of you colonials!

275 Mattand  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:15:54am

Branstad: Biden ‘Dead Meat’ For Iowa Voters

I’m sure they’re nice people, blah blah blah. I’m still confused as to why I’m supposed to care what they think, elector-wise. Is it one of those “They real Americans” as opposed to us apparently fake US citizens here in NJ, and elsewhere?

276 wheat-dogghazi  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:16:02am

re: #68 Amory Blaine

Any opinion on the new Mac Pro?

[Embedded image]

Looks like a Braun coffee grinder with a USB port and speaker connections.

277 Mattand  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:17:51am

re: #68 Amory Blaine

Any opinion on the new Mac Pro?

[Embedded image]

Looks great, upgradability is pretty limited for a pro machine. Will probably sell like gangbusters.

278 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:18:38am

My daughter noticed that her kid was happily playing with one of the oven mitts. She didn’t understand why that was such a great toy but kids are creative, right?

Then she found out exactly how creative. :)

279 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:23:28am

re: #274 Stoatly

Louis C.K - warning - >really NSFW - even the title of the YT vid

Of course “faggot” in the UK is the name of a (nearly extinct) food:
[Embedded content]


And “fags” are cigarettes - much to the amusement of you colonials!

When I was a kid, “faggot” was a piece of firewood.

280 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:24:07am

re: #274 Stoatly

Louis C.K - warning - >really NSFW - even the title of the YT vid

Of course “faggot” in the UK is the name of a (nearly extinct) food:
[Embedded content]


And “fags” are cigarettes - much to the amusement of you colonials!

I saw that scene, point is, words do not have a single definition or useage. And I do not get upset at words in and of themselves, only in the context of how they are delivered and to whom.

281 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:25:13am

Just paged this.

282 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:26:17am

re: #272 lawhawk

That explains the “Merry Christmas, we’re freezing your debit card” call I got from BofA two days ago. I told them it was a bad week to be without a card, next Wednesday being Xmas and all. Ended up getting a temp card at the branch.

Still have to spend January re-connecting my auto-pay bills to the new card when I get it.

283 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:26:53am

re: #278 Pie-onist Overlord

My daughter noticed that her kid was happily playing with one of the oven mitts. She didn’t understand why that was such a great toy but kids are creative, right?
[Embedded image]

Then she found out exactly how creative. :)
[Embedded image]

My g-grandson loves to wear them…

284 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:28:26am

re: #283 Justanotherhuman

My g-grandson loves to wear them…

My grandson loves to hide cookies in them. :)

285 sattv4u2  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:31:09am

re: #272 lawhawk

Yeah. Was just finishing reading about this

Going home soon and as soon as I get there I’ll have to log into my Target/Visa account and check (don’t have the log in and password with me here at work)

Hoping for the best

286 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:31:21am

re: #281 Pie-onist Overlord

Wish more people thought like that rabbi and were more tolerant and inclusive. That includes the religious and nonreligious communities around the world.

287 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:32:21am

re: #273 Sol Berdinowitz

As long as we allow the oil companies to gain a monopoly on the process and the profits from it, it will be pushed forward…

It’s my understanding that big oil like Shell and Conoco are already deep into this research. They have the chemists and the infrastructure and the bucks. So, yeah, they will take control of it all.

288 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:33:05am

re: #286 lawhawk

Wish more people thought like that rabbi and were more tolerant and inclusive. That includes the religious and nonreligious communities around the world.

Minority religions have a different view of things, just look at the difference between the Orthodox rabbis in Israel and those in the diaspora.

289 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:33:32am

re: #282 darthstar

Sucks that you had to go through that, but at least the bank limited your exposure going forward by issuing the new card.

I’ve made a habit of regularly checking my bank/credit accounts between billing statements to watch for erroneous charges or debits. Been lucky so far, but hackers aren’t going to ever give up trying to steal other people’s account information.

290 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:33:55am

re: #287 ObserverArt

It’s my understanding that big oil like Shell and Conoco are already deep into this research. They have the chemists and the infrastructure and the bucks. So, yeah, they will take control of it all.

So then we will become dependent on the world’s algae-producing nations…

291 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:34:53am

Deleted. That post was stupid.

292 sattv4u2  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:36:16am

re: #282 darthstar

re: #289 lawhawk

We had $4800 taken out of a Wells Fargo money market account (tied to our checking acct) about 2 years ago

One debit of $5.00 (as a test) and then another of about $4800 to Amazon

Bank made us whole, but we had to close out both accts and get new cards

293 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:37:48am

re: #289 lawhawk

Sucks that you had to go through that, but at least the bank limited your exposure going forward by issuing the new card.

I’ve made a habit of regularly checking my bank/credit accounts between billing statements to watch for erroneous charges or debits. Been lucky so far, but hackers aren’t going to ever give up trying to steal other people’s account information.

I got burned on iTunes once - for about 2,000 dollars. Took me six weeks to get the charges back. Should pay more attention to my account, actually. I go through a bit of money every month and have a number of ‘subscriptions’ I don’t use on that card…so there will be a bright side to this in the end. Probably save me 50-60 dollars a month.

As for the iTunes thing - someone hacked that account and bought gift cards for iTunes - $200 at a time - in Germany. Go figure.

294 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:37:57am
295 BongCrodny  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:38:33am

Quackpot.

296 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:38:37am

re: #290 Sol Berdinowitz

So then we will become dependent on the world’s algae-producing nations…

Yep. Have you read some of the thinking on that already? There are already dreams of big plastic pipe farms out in the hotter parts of America. You pump in the water with some algae in it, the sun hits it, the algae grows and the water turns slimy…pump the “green” water to the processor…fill the pipes with new water, rinse, repeat!

But you know…science is bad, so I don’t know.

297 William Barnett-Lewis  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:38:49am

re: #250 Dark_Falcon

So it turns out that ‘Duck Dynasty’ wasn’t all it was quacked up to be, huh?

I’m surprised he didn’t try to put up a sign saying “Rabbit Season”…

298 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:39:25am

re: #291 Dark_Falcon

Deleted. That post was stupid.

What post? At least wait until someone quotes you next time before deleting.

299 sattv4u2  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:39:52am

re: #293 darthstar

in Germany. Go figure.

Thats a lotta W(V)agner

300 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:40:15am

The last time I shopped at Target was at least a week before going to Alabama, so I think I am good. I only use my Target card there.

I did get my card hacked a couple of years ago after I used it at Marshall’s. I cancelled the card but then I kept seeing bogus charges from Paris, France on my BofA statement, so I cancelled the new card.

But the charges from Paris continued! Finally BofA explained they forgot to cancel the hacked card (after I already cancelled 2 cards after that which had not been compromised).

I suggested that they should offer me some kind of incentive to not change banks and they just snarled “Hey we refunded the bogus charges, what else do you want!”

Also I have to notify them when I go to California so they don’t flag my card for “suspicious activity.”

301 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:40:34am
302 darthstar  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:42:08am
303 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:43:35am

re: #298 darthstar

What post? At least wait until someone quotes you next time before deleting.

It was a DERP that I figured out was a DERP before it got criticized, so I just deleted it.

304 sattv4u2  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:45:27am

re: #303 Dark_Falcon

It was a DERP that Ifigured out was a DERP before it got criticized, so I just deleted it.

By that standard, we may never see another of your posts,,, ever!!

305 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:45:37am

Found A&E’s next reality show topic:

‘Getting high on The Most High’: ‘Weird’ preacher starts ‘drunken glory’ cult where ex-addicts snort frankincense and get wasted through the power of sermon

Read more: dailymail.co.uk

306 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:46:08am

re: #40 Dr. Matt

The same idiots that cheered Bashir getting canned are outraged over Duck Dynasty.

Save your rebuttal that Bashir actually “quit”

hy*poc*ri*sy
noun hi-ˈpä-krə-sē also hī-

: the behavior of people who do things that they tell other people not to do
: behavior that does not agree with what someone claims to believe or feel
: a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion

Why is it that the people who carp the loudest about DA CONSTITION and FREEDUM O’ SPEACH are the ones that don’t actually have a single rotten clue what either of those things actually says?

307 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:47:59am

re: #297 William Barnett-Lewis

I’m surprised he didn’t try to put up a sign saying “Rabbit Season”…

Well I say it’s Duck Season and I say “Fire!”:

Youtube Video

308 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:48:23am

re: #304 sattv4u2

By that standard, we may never see another of your posts,,, ever!!

SMACK!

309 William Barnett-Lewis  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:52:44am

re: #291 Dark_Falcon

Deleted. That post was stupid.

Upding for recognizing and acknowledging it, DF.

310 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 6:55:37am

Remember this guy?
Idaho’s Convicted Rapist Legislator Will Resign To Spend More Time With Family, Guns

311 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:01:27am

From ruthless oligarch to political prisoner.

Putin Says Tycoon Could Be Freed From Prison Soon

nytimes.com

312 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:02:46am

How Jury Nullification Accelerates the Drug War’s Demise

I’ll be watching this for the next 84 minutes or so.

313 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:03:53am
314 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:05:39am

re: #312 FemNaziBitch

How Jury Nullification Accelerates the Drug War’s Demise

I’ll be watching this for the next 84 minutes or so.

That isn’t really a good thing.

315 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:08:02am

re: #313 Pie-onist Overlord

[Embedded content]

That’s silly. Phil Robertson is a White Lord of Creation, while Martin Bashir is a Lousy Foreign Brown. The former may criticize all he wants, while the latter exists to serve him.

/Not kidding, not really

316 Uncle Obdicut  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:09:19am

re: #312 FemNaziBitch

How Jury Nullification Accelerates the Drug War’s Demise

I’ll be watching this for the next 84 minutes or so.

Jury nullification is also how all-white juries let off white murderers after cold-blooded killings of black people.

317 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:12:35am
318 Political Atheist  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:18:55am

Wired

Finally, a Ruling That Recognizes Snowden as a Whistleblower

My comment there, double posting here and there

Misleading headline.

The ruling is all about the NSA program, not Snowden at all. Not in the tiniest bit. If this data was prosecutors evidence, it would be inadmissible, fruit of the poisoned tree. So in my view we have to look at the NSA and Snowden separately. Even if the Supreme court rules like this judge, Snowden will still face prosecution. I’d respect him more if he had stayed here and Ellsberg did. While he may not have sold his data, he sure gave it away to the FSB. Now they have it, our strategic opponent and a nation led by a man that poisons the opposition.

If we as a nation had kept the sunset promises about the Patriot Act, kept to our traditional standards for searches and surveillance, we would have been far better off, and just as safe. That would have been the “best” way to handle this.

319 William Barnett-Lewis  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:19:35am

re: #312 FemNaziBitch

How Jury Nullification Accelerates the Drug War’s Demise

I’ll be watching this for the next 84 minutes or so.

Bad way to deal with bad law. It need to be handled legislatively.

320 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:24:18am

re: #318 Political Atheist

I don’t understand your argument. How has the NSA’s data collection left us less well off?

321 Decatur Deb  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:26:24am

re: #274 Stoatly

Louis C.K - warning - >really NSFW - even the title of the YT vid

Of course “faggot” in the UK is the name of a (nearly extinct) food:
[Embedded content]


And “fags” are cigarettes - much to the amusement of you colonials!

It was also the term for an underclassman assigned as a room servant to seniorclassmen in some Oxbridge colleges in the 20s-30s. (Evelyn Waugh, and all that.)

322 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:27:25am

HURR HURR WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!!11!!
I would not be surprised at all if they sent this “anonymous letter” to themselves.

323 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:29:34am

re: #322 Pie-onist Overlord

HURR HURR WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!!11!!
I would like to see what this family’s decorations look like. I’ll bet that it is totally craptastic.
Also too: would not be surprised at all if they sent this “anonymous letter” to themselves.

[Embedded content]

OMG a sternly worded letter!!!!1!!!
FIRST AMENDMENT APPLIES TO GAUDY CHRISTMAS LIGHTS BUT NOT TO PEOPLE WHO WANT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THEM!!!1!!

324 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:31:02am

This is TEH MOAST INSANE Tweet about Duck Dynasty I have seen all day (but the day is far from over)

325 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:31:33am

You might think twice about buying an iPhone if you’re liberal, because an iPhone parts supplied is now part Koch Industries.

But when Koch CFO Steve Feilmeier was asked recently about the future of the U.S. economy, he launched into a spirited monologue about the bright prospects for the nation’s high-tech industry. “It’s the little things, like these BlackBerrys that didn’t exist eight or 10 years ago,” said Feilmeier, holding up his distinctly last-century smartphone and growing animated in his modest office along executive row. “These technologies have improved the quality of our lives tremendously. That’s going to continue, very rapidly.”

In early December, Koch Industries put some serious money behind that belief when it closed on its $7.2 billion acquisition of Molex, a global electronic components manufacturer headquartered in Lisle, Ill. Molex makes parts for a wide variety of gadgets, including iPhones, and was traded on Nasdaq before the buyout. Koch sees huge potential for Molex to benefit from the so-called Internet of Things revolution that’s on the horizon. (See “Everything Is Connected.”) “Think about sensors and connectors and how [they’re] proliferating right now,” says Feilmeier, a stout 52-year-old who has the rah-rah intensity of a high school football coach. “As technology becomes more user-friendly and machines become wired to be more proactive — whether that be industrial robotics and automation, or you have automobiles doing more for you and telling you more and keeping you out of accidents — we think Molex is really well positioned to capture that growth.”

Feilmeier envisions Molex growing from today’s $3.6 billion in revenue to $10 billion within a decade and says there are hundreds of smaller tech companies that could be acquisition targets. “They just weren’t out acquiring those companies or those technologies to enter new markets, and we’ll really be able to help them with that,” he says.

326 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:32:46am

I haven’t seen this much righteous outrage from the wingnuts since A&E sidelined Dog the Bounty Hunter for using the N word.

327 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:33:39am

re: #324 Pie-onist Overlord

This is TEH MOAST INSANE Tweet about Duck Dynasty I have seen all day (but the day is far from over)

[Embedded content]

A raging semi-literate wingnut goes bananas.

328 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:34:41am

re: #327 Dark_Falcon

A raging semi-ILliterate wingnut goes bananas.

The thing also claims to be a Juice.

329 Political Atheist  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:34:47am

re: #320 Dark_Falcon

I don’t understand your argument. How has the NSA’s data collection left us less well off?

The damage done by the NSA’s domestic actions have far outweighed it’s value.

For example now Google and Microsoft are adding encryption to their cloud systems in such a way as to deliberately thwart the NSA, and maintain public confidence in burgeoning cloud services. Maybe you saw my post “Is this man a dudebro?”

330 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:36:03am

re: #326 b.d.

I haven’t seen this much righteous outrage from the wingnuts since A&E sidelined Dog the Bounty Hunter for using the N word.

The difference being that Duane Chapman immediately went on Hannity and apologized profusely. By contrast, I expect Phil Robertson to go on Hannity and hurl defiance profusely.

331 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:39:23am

re: #329 Political Atheist

The damage done by the NSA’s domestic actions have far outweighed it’s value.

For example now Google and Microsoft are adding encryption to their cloud systems in such a way as to deliberately thwart the NSA, and maintain public confidence in burgeoning cloud services. Maybe you saw my post “Is this man a dudebro?”

They’re adding encryption, but it’s worth remembering that the NSA is the global leader in encryption breaking.

Also I’d ask how you can measure the costs and value of the NSA’s program, given that much of the information around it is not public knowledge.

332 jaunte  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:39:31am

re: #324 Pie-onist Overlord

Big Gay has done messed with the TEEVEE. This means WAR.

333 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:39:57am

There’s no low the Methodists won’t stoop to, either.

Pa. pastor defrocked after performing gay wedding

bigstory.ap.org

334 jaunte  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:41:23am

Good morning, all.

335 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:42:08am

re: #334 jaunte

Good morning, all.
[Embedded image]

Beautiful, Christmas Cactus are teh awesome.

336 Dr. Matt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:42:10am

I can’t believe I’m shocked, but I am….the same RWNJ losers that celebrated and demanded Bashir’s departure are outraged over this Duck Dynasty non-sense. Fucking hypocrites. I have to ask the question: Are they really this oblivious.

337 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:42:31am

re: #325 Dark_Falcon

You might think twice about buying an iPhone if you’re liberal, because an iPhone parts supplied is now part Koch Industries.

You might think twice about buying an iPhone if you’re a human that’s interested in quality products at reasonable prices.

338 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:42:36am
339 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:45:27am

re: #333 Justanotherhuman

There’s no low the Methodists won’t stoop to, either.

Pa. pastor defrocked after performing gay wedding

bigstory.ap.org

He was told “Don’t act do that, it’s against church doctrine” and he did it anyways. His actions should therefore be consider in the same light as civil disobedience.

The Methodists booted him in order to maintain their line against gay marriage, and thus avoid a schism. If the church allowed gay weddings, a large number of more conservative congregations would promptly flounce out the door.

I’m not saying the church is right, just supplying the context.

340 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:45:42am
341 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:47:12am

GET OVER YOURSELVES YOU SELF RIGHTEOUS DUCKFUCKERS.

342 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:47:26am

You are entitled to your own views. You may even be able to get yourself on some tv reality show for whatever reason that producers think that you’ve got something that will draw viewers and more importantly, advertising dollars.

But if your personal views are going to cause problems for the producers, television network, or advertisers because you said something that was homophobic, racist, or otherwise not inclusive, those contracts can be thrown out, modified, etc. You can be fired, suspended, or see penalties imposed. [ed added]

This isn’t the government taking action, but private companies protecting their interests - including the interest to not be smeared with the homophobic rants of one of the stars of their shows they air.

This guy is free to say whatever he wants. He doesn’t have the right to a television show.

And I have the right to not watch whatever it is that his show peddles.

Reality show contracts are all-encompassing, and have provisions that allow for the “stars” to be fired. This is from a Real World Contract, but expect some of the same types of terms to be involved for shows like Duck Dynasty or Honey Boo Boo or any others that come to mind.

For instance, Page 3 gives the producers the unilateral right to terminate participants in the Real Word at their sole discretion. And that can be for any reason.

343 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:47:32am

re: #333 Justanotherhuman

There’s no low the Methodists won’t stoop to, either.

Pa. pastor defrocked after performing gay wedding

bigstory.ap.org

You know, I’m probably going to get dinged for this, but so be it.

It’s not possible to be both a pastor, and a person that supports marriage equality, simultaneously and with complete honesty on both ends. The simple fact is that the Holy Bible specifically condemns homosexuality, along with a great many other things that are today considered innocuous. When you put on the frock, you commit to devote yourself to that religion. If you’re not willing to fully devote yourself to that religion — including the patently absurd things about it — then you shouldn’t be wearing the frock. If you read ‘the good book’ and, as I did long ago, come to the conclusion that on many or even just several points God is dead wrong, it is dishonest to wear the uniform of his supplicants and spread his message.

I think the pastor did the right thing by acknowledging the rights of all of his fellow citizens to be treated equally and fairly. But I also can’t blame the church for de-frocking him based on the fact that he did violate their tenets.

344 Feline Fearless Leader  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:47:36am

re: #336 Dr. Matt

I can’t believe I’m shocked, but I am….the same RWNJ losers that celebrated and demanded Bashir’s departure are outraged over this Duck Dynasty non-sense. Fucking hypocrites. I have to ask the question: Are they really this oblivious.

They’re humans. Therefore, yes. They still haven’t caught on that the felines are running things yet either.

345 makeitstop  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:47:42am

‘Morning, Lizards,

Take a break from Derp Dynasty, with a miniature pig kicking a great dane’s ass. You’re welcome.

346 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:49:15am

re: #338 Pie-onist Overlord

[Embedded content]

Stay Classy, Ted.

Really though, that one was about as predictable as a sunrise. This sort of dust-up always triggers someone wingnut to screech “Keel teh Gheyz!!1”.

347 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:49:50am

Nice to see the self proclaimed protectors of the Christian faith totally have a Face Palm Jesus moment during the holiday season.

348 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:51:32am

THE GAYZ HAVE RUINED CHRISTMAS!!1!!

349 Dr. Matt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:51:36am

re: #338 Pie-onist Overlord

Ah, so if we are enforcing biblical laws, then women can be freely raped just as long as the non-victim’s parents received 3 goats for reparation.

350 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:52:32am

re: #322 Pie-onist Overlord

HURR HURR WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!!11!!
I would not be surprised at all if they sent this “anonymous letter” to themselves.

[Embedded content]

The letter was kind of mean, and I would have complained about the lights themselves.

I always think of those horrible displays as “How much more money can I give to the electric co this xmas?”

Can you imagine having that shining into your house at all hours? You’d have to dig out war time window coverings…

351 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:53:15am

re: #345 makeitstop

‘Morning, Lizards,

Take a break from Derp Dynasty, with a miniature pig kicking a great dane’s ass. You’re welcome.

Looks like a piglet to me. But he does have an advantages, since pigs are much smarter than dogs. (this is documented fact)

352 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:53:37am

re: #337 GunstarGreen

You might think twice about buying an iPhone if you’re a human that’s interested in quality products at reasonable prices.

You might think twice about buying any cell phone if you just want to remain human…

353 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:54:14am

re: #350 Justanotherhuman

The letter was kind of mean, and I would have complained about the lights themselves.

I always think of those horrible displays as “How much more money can I give to the electric co this xmas?”

Can you imagine having that shining into your house at all hours? You’d have to dig out war time window coverings…

I think it is much more likely they wrote the letter to themselves for media attention after some neighbors might have made fun of their display.

354 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:55:28am

re: #352 Justanotherhuman

You might think twice about buying any cell phone if you just want to remain human…

That’s not really an option for me: If you’re in sales, you need a cell phone.

355 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:55:38am

re: #353 Pie-onist Overlord

I think it is much more likely they wrote the letter to themselves for media attention after some neighbors might have made fun of their display.

It does not f*cking matter who wrote what or to whom, it fits the “War on Christmas” narrative and will be blown out of all proportion into another Rageorgasm

356 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:57:14am

re: #339 Dark_Falcon

He was told “Don’t act do that, it’s against church doctrine” and he did it anyways. His actions should therefore be consider in the same light as civil disobedience.

The Methodists booted him in order to maintain their line against gay marriage, and thus avoid a schism. If the church allowed gay weddings, a large number of more conservative congregations would promptly flounce out the door.

I’m not saying the church is right, just supplying the context.

Yes, I get that. Which is why I left religion a long time ago.

357 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:58:10am

re: #345 makeitstop

‘Morning, Lizards,

Take a break from Derp Dynasty, with a miniature pig kicking a great dane’s ass. You’re welcome.

THE BACON IS FIGHTING BACK! WHAT DO I DO NOW?!

358 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:58:18am

re: #355 Sol Berdinowitz

It does not f*cking matter who wrote what or to whom, it fits the “War on Christmas” narrative and will be blown out of all proportion into another Rageorgasm

Junkies gotta get their fix.

359 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:58:35am

I love Christmas time, a time where the ones who think they are better christians than anyone get to scream, get full of butthurt and act like 5 year olds.

360 Political Atheist  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:58:35am

re: #331 Dark_Falcon

They’re adding encryption, but it’s worth remembering that the NSA is the global leader in encryption breaking.

Also I’d ask how you can measure the costs and value of the NSA’s program, given that much of the information around it is not public knowledge.

Yes, and one way they stay ahead is insisting on backdoors and limits on civilian encryption. (They being NSA and FBI) I suspect the advantage is to the people who encrypt but I’m no code smart dude.

Measure the costs? Mild dodge here-I can’t literally answer to that. Still I am not letting them hide behind cya secrecy. The burden of proof in my view is on them. They are the ones who are collecting the metadata against the “relevance” intent of the P.A. authors. The legislators of the day. Show me and I’ll change my mind. It’s been years, surely there are some examples. if this is so helpful there would be many. Or will we accept this argument of “sorry too secret” like we did about past interrogation methods? We put that argument to rest back then.

And I am not impressed with our intel committees members judgement. They won’t fully support the Freedom Act. They should. They are not trying to sunset the PA.

This secret court, secret letter, secret obligation, secret FBI rooms at ISP’s thing as applied to us, us as in ISP’s and providers like Microsoft is counter to our checks and balances. To the degree those checks fail we are in trouble.

Snowden is not my hero. The way this was exposed does not alter the agencies obligations to answer for the things we do know. Answers to straightforward standards. Is it… Legal? Effective? Wise? Efficient? Gonna bite us on the ass?

361 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 7:59:33am

HURR HURR

362 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:01:42am

re: #361 Pie-onist Overlord

HURR HURR

[Embedded content]

Ask him to cite section and paragraph in the United States Constitution that guarantees a citizen free and unfettered access to an A&E reality television series as a platform for their speech.

I’d be interested to hear the answer that one of our so-called “constitutionalists” has for that.

363 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:01:49am

House signs off on a deal that would make closing Gitmo a real possibility. While there are several detainees who wouldn’t be repatriated because they are citizens of states that are sponsors of terrorism - Sudan and Syria, the bulk would be able to be sent to facilities overseas.

Up to half the terror suspects held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay could be closer to heading home under a bipartisan deal reached in Congress that gives President Barack Obama a rare victory in his fight to close the prison.

The deal would lift the most rigid restrictions Congress previously imposed on detainee transfers overseas and is part of a broad compromise defense bill awaiting final passage in the Senate this week. The House approved the measure last Thursday.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said the compromise could have a dramatic impact on the 160 detainees still being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“About half of the detainees would be detainees that could be transferred to their third-world countries from which they come,” Levin told reporters. “About half of the detainees would remain in Guantanamo because of the prohibition on transferring them to the United States for detention and for trial.”

The defense bill marks the first time since Obama came to office promising to close Guantanamo that Congress is moving to ease restrictions instead of strengthen them. And it could signal changing political views toward the prison for terrorism suspects now that the war in Afghanistan is winding down.

The problem is that there are some detainees who can’t be repatriated to country of origin, and bringing them into the US has been blocked by members of Congress for years:

Congressional proponents of keeping Guantanamo open say they felt they had to allow for transfers to other countries to maintain a more important priority — a ban on detainees from coming into the United States. The administration also pushed for the ability to transfer detainees to the U.S. for imprisonment, trial or medical emergencies but lost on that front, leaving Obama a thorny predicament of what to do with captives considered too dangerous to release.

364 jaunte  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:02:44am

re: #361 Pie-onist Overlord

Watch out Ted, there’s still room on your right!

365 Political Atheist  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:02:52am

re: #342 lawhawk

Just like Charles can have his rules, delete comments, or accounts. Or we can on any content we choose to create. That confused old man can sit on his porch and make his own video, show, blog, podcast, or letters. With any content he wants.

366 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:03:18am

re: #361 Pie-onist Overlord

367 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:05:14am

re: #341 Pie-onist Overlord


I had no idea that not having my own reality show makes me a criminal. Maybe I’ll be lucky and just get probation.

368 RealityBasedSteve  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:06:06am

Morning all. Taking a break from my studies to let my mind wander. I hope it comes back when I call it.

RBS

369 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:06:12am

re: #367 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi

[Embedded content]

I had no idea that not having my own reality show makes me a criminal. Maybe I’ll be lucky and just get probation.

A&E did not even cancel the show, they just put Phil Robertson on hiatus.

370 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:06:36am

I WANT MY OWN PIE SHOW!!!!

371 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:06:45am

re: #361 Pie-onist Overlord

Ted is not stupid enough to believe that shit, he just knows what his target audience wants to hear from him. He is a very smart and cynical SOB, we really need to keep an eye on him, I believe he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve.

372 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:08:30am

re: #361 Pie-onist Overlord

HURR HURR

[Embedded content]

I see Cruz doesn’t understand contract law, either.

How the hell did he ever get a law license? (Yeah, I know, his act is for the rubes.

373 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:09:22am
374 Targetpractice  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:11:04am

It never fails to amaze, the number of people in this nation who believe that the First Amendment guarantees a right to a TV show.

375 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:11:11am

re: #363 lawhawk

House signs off on a deal that would make closing Gitmo a real possibility. While there are several detainees who wouldn’t be repatriated because they are citizens of states that are sponsors of terrorism - Sudan and Syria, the bulk would be able to be sent to facilities overseas.

The problem is that there are some detainees who can’t be repatriated to country of origin, and bringing them into the US has been blocked by members of Congress for years:

If Pres Obama had not been so obstructed in his first term, he might have been able to keep this campaign promise earlier.

Close it down!

376 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:11:17am

Wingnuts agree…..bring back Martin Bashir!!!!!

377 Political Atheist  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:11:58am

re: #370 Pie-onist Overlord

I WANT MY OWN PIE SHOW!!!!

I I & Everyone around here wants you to have your own pie show. Heh if you were here I’d shoot and edit your pilot on spec for ya. Kickstarter baby!

378 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:12:09am

re: #352 Justanotherhuman

You might think twice about buying any cell phone if you just want to remain human…

Technically I have a “cell phone”. In reality it’s just a gussied-up MP3 player with bluetooth capabilities to serve as my car/bike music player.

For years I refused to have anything to do with the US cell phone industry because of questionable-at-best business practices. Then my car melted down and left me on the side of the freeway, and even though I was perfectly fine to walk to the next exit and use a phone, I got a weekend full of ear strain from the ‘rents whining about me not having a cell.

So I decided to get one just to make them happy, and found a plan that suited my needs — prepaid daily plan, I drop money into an account and then pay $X the first time I use the phone on a particular day, and get unlimited calling for the rest of the day. Perfect for the exact needs that I have, to wit: only to be used in emergencies, which may involve calling multiple people in a short time period. Simply put, if I want to talk to someone, I talk to them face-to-face, not over a phone, but it can be handy in emergencies.

I added $15 to the account, made a test call to my father to ensure it worked, and thus had $13 remaining in the account, ready for when I needed it. Six months later I move into a new home and decide to give my dad a call, as the landline hadn’t quite been set up yet.

My phone had been deactivated.

Turns out that having money in the account isn’t good enough. You have to continually add money, even if you don’t need it. I read everything, so this must have been some REALLY hidden shit somewhere in the paperwork. The cell company (Verizon, not some local fly-by-night) literally robbed me. They took my money and ran. If I had done it I’d have been sent to prison.

And so the phone continues to serve its primary purpose: a fancy MP3 player. And I will have nothing to do with the US cell phone industry, ever again.

379 Eclectic Cyborg  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:14:11am

Ugh, my FB feed is exploding this morning over the Duck Dynasty thing. It’s a knock down drag out between conservatives who love the show and more center/liberal types who support A&E’s move.

I would like to make a couple of points about this.

1. A&E is NOT the U.S. Government. There is NO FREE SPEECH issue here whatsoever. Robertson is free to say whatever he wants, A&E is under no obligation to give him a permanent platform for those comments.

2. This is NOT “Christian persecution”. Robertson is not being arrested, tortured or otherwise being prohibited from following his religious beliefs.

3. I’m not sure I’d call what Robertson did “preaching”, since in my opinion Preaching is intended to bring people TO God, not drive them away.

380 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:16:05am
381 Feline Fearless Leader  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:17:12am

re: #379 Eclectic Cyborg

Ugh, my FB feed is exploding this morning over the Duck Dynasty thing. It’s a knock down drag out between conservatives who love the show and more center/liberal types who support A&E’s move.

I would like to make a couple of points about this.

1. A&E is NOT the U.S. Government. There is NO FREE SPEECH issue here whatsoever. Robertson is free to say whatever he wants, A&E is under no obligation to give him a permanent platform for those comments.

2. This is NOT “Christian persecution”. Robertson is not being arrested, tortured or otherwise being prohibited from following his religious beliefs.

3. I’m not sure I’d call what Robertson did “preaching”, since in my opinion Preaching is intended to bring people TO God, not drive them away.

Let’s be honest about this. All this butthurt is because someone got some blowback and criticism (and arguably of minimal impact) due to a homophobic rant made in an interview. If anything I half suspect all this was done on purpose since it generates hype and attention for the program and the yelling pundits get to wrap themselves in the flag and wave their Bibles as they defend America.

382 Targetpractice  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:19:24am

re: #381 Feline Fearless Leader

Let’s be honest about this. All this butthurt is because someone got some blowback and criticism (and arguably of minimal impact) due to a homophobic rant made in an interview. If anything I half suspect all this was done on purpose since it generates hype and attention for the program and the yelling pundits get to wrap themselves in the flag and wave their Bibles as they defend America.

This interview and the resulting uproar comes just in time for Christmas. What do you wanna bet the odds are that anything marked “Duck Dynasty” will be gone from the shelves by day’s end?

383 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:20:07am

Is there a store in America that DOESN’T sell cheap Chinese crap?
Explain why Walmart didn’t get hacked. (Oh because the people who shop there don’t qualify for credit cards?)

384 Ian G.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:20:23am

Morning Lizards.

What did I say yesterday? Robertson said what he did to get the RWNJ crowd to solidify their eternal support for him. Without him speaking TEH TRUTH ABOUT TEH GAYZ, the show would have eventually faded from the spotlight like all reality trainwrecks do (Jon & Kate, anyone?). Now, the show will be on for 2 decades because it’s everyone in Real ‘Murka’s patriotic duty to watch the show because it will make the Libtards angry.

Brilliant marketing move by Robertson, if you ask me. It once again makes me wish I didn’t have a conscience that prevents me from taking a job scamming the wingnuts, because it seems like the easiest way to millions in the world.

385 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:21:05am

re: #382 Targetpractice

This interview and the resulting uproar comes just in time for Christmas. What do you wanna bet the odds are that anything marked “Duck Dynasty” will be gone from the shelves by day’s end?

In fact, that is an intentional subliminal marketing point aimed at all the OBAMA IZ TAKING OUR GUNZ folks: Hurry up and buy your DD merchandise before Obama outlaws it!!!

386 Eclectic Cyborg  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:21:30am

re: #381 Feline Fearless Leader

I suspect Robertson’s comments were his actual beliefs. The opinions expressed are more or less doctrine among evangelical Christians.

But then again, I also suspect evangelicals are the largest part of the DD fanbase.

However, I don’t think it was done as a staged PR stunt, I think Robertson just spoke his mind and this is the result.

387 b.d.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:22:27am

Where was the wingnut outrage when MSNBC canned Alec Baldwin over his gay rantings?

388 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:22:49am

re: #386 Eclectic Cyborg

I suspect Robertson’s comments were his actual beliefs. The opinions expressed are more or less doctrine among evangelical Christians.

But then again, I also suspect evangelicals are the largest part of the DD fanbase.

However, I don’t think it was done as a staged PR stunt, I think Robertson just spoke his mind and this is the result.

Don’t forget, he has a marketing and sales team behind him, whether or not they put him up to it, they saw this interview and said “Gold!”

389 Ian G.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:22:50am

re: #386 Eclectic Cyborg

I suspect Robertson’s comments were his actual beliefs. The opinions expressed are more or less doctrine among evangelical Christians.

But then again, I also suspect evangelicals are the largest part of the DD fanbase.

However, I don’t think it was done as a staged PR stunt, I think Robertson just spoke his mind and this is the result.

Oh, I’m sure he genuinely believes what he said, I just think he said it out loud as a strategic calculation. Being a “martyr” is huge business with aggrieved wingnuts.

390 Targetpractice  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:23:23am

re: #385 Sol Berdinowitz

In fact, that is an intentional subliminal marketing point aimed at all the OBAMA IZ TAKING OUR GUNZ folks: Hurry up and buy your DD merchandise before Obama outlaws it!!!

Wouldn’t go that far. But these days, as the saying goes, “any press is good press.” Note that Robertson hasn’t been fired, just “suspended indefinitely.” Odds are he’ll quietly be returned in a couple weeks time, when the fire has died down, and A&E will probably get a lot of press about bringing him back despite the “lingering outrage.”

391 Feline Fearless Leader  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:24:02am

re: #386 Eclectic Cyborg

I suspect Robertson’s comments were his actual beliefs. The opinions expressed are more or less doctrine among evangelical Christians.

But then again, I also suspect evangelicals are the largest part of the DD fanbase.

However, I don’t think it was done as a staged PR stunt, I think Robertson just spoke his mind and this is the result.

I think A&E also knew the effects as well. They’d have to suspend him (and it sounds like he was leaving anyways) and that would not have a negative impact on the show’s ratings. They just get a few days of “A&E is PC” from the ranters before they move onto the next outrage.

392 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:24:27am

When is Vladimir Putin going to make a guest appearance on DD?

393 GeneJockey  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:24:46am

re: #279 Backwoods_Sleuth

When I was a kid, “faggot” was a piece of firewood.

Or a bassoon.

394 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:26:42am

re: #381 Feline Fearless Leader

Let’s be honest about this. All this butthurt is because someone got some blowback and criticism (and arguably of minimal impact) due to a homophobic rant made in an interview. If anything I half suspect all this was done on purpose since it generates hype and attention for the program and the yelling pundits get to wrap themselves in the flag and wave their Bibles as they defend America.

These are the producers of DD and they sell the series to A&E, “Gurney Productions”.

They also list “LouisianaEntertainment.gov” on the “about us” page, so no doubt the series is heavily funded by taxpayers.

395 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:27:43am
396 Eclectic Cyborg  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:27:48am

No, the show’s ratings will stay strong…if not increase. The right wingers are rallying around it.

397 Eclectic Cyborg  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:28:12am

Oh and I forgot one more thing:

4. This Robertson mess has NOTHING whatsoever to do with Barack Obama.

398 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:29:17am

Merry Feckin Christmas from the GOP:

399 Feline Fearless Leader  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:29:25am

re: #397 Eclectic Cyborg

Oh and I forgot one more thing:

4. This Robertson mess has NOTHING whatsoever to do with Barack Obama.

That will be fixed since Robertson can talk about Benghazi in his next interview.
/

400 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:29:36am

re: #395 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

Bobby “Oh wait, you mean I have to allow vouchers for ALL religions?” Jindal doesn’t get to say anything about religious persecution.

401 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:29:56am

Hotels.com keeps sending me promotions for GREAT DEALS IN LOUISVILLE! after I already stayed there for one night.

This is just like all the new car ads that I kept seeing for weeks and weeks AFTER I bought a Ford Escape in 2011.

Targeted Internet marketing: ur doing it wrong.

402 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:30:00am

re: #397 Eclectic Cyborg

Oh and I forgot one more thing:

4. This Robertson mess has NOTHING whatsoever to do with Barack Obama.

I am offended that you could even assume that someting outrageous happened that was not at least in some way Obama’s fault.

/

403 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:30:21am

Gurney Products sold a controlling stake to ITV in Dec 2012 for $40M.

deadline.com

But there’s more:

“Further, Gurney Productions’ revenues will be included in ITV Studio’s international revenues starting in 2013. Sources said the maximum total consideration payable by ITV is $111M, depending on the performance of Gurney Productions over the next 3 to 5 years and payable only if Gurney continues to deliver significant growth. ITV Studios America already produces Hell’s Kitchen, The First 48, Kitchen Nightmares, The Jeremy Kyle Show, The Bill Cunningham Show and Four Weddings.”

404 Ian G.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:30:31am

It’s times like this that I like to get all smug about my Ivy League, New York, atheist, liberal elitism. I never have and never will watch “Duck Dynasty” (or any reality TV, for that matter), not when I’m still finishing up season 5 of “The Wire” and haven’t even begun to dig into “Breaking Bad”.

Suck it, Real ‘Murka. :-P

405 Ian G.  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:33:01am

re: #401 Pie-onist Overlord

Hotels.com keeps sending me promotions for GREAT DEALS IN LOUISVILLE! after I already stayed there for one night.

This is just like all the new car ads that I kept seeing for weeks and weeks AFTER I bought a Ford Escape in 2011.

Targeted Internet marketing: ur doing it wrong.

Facebook has recently been targeting me with “guided tours of Jewish history in Berlin”, which is like “OK, I’d love to visit Berlin and a tour of the Jewish history there would be interesting, to say the least”, but how did they target the guy with the very Scots-Irish surname? Was it all the Facebook friends I have with Jewish names?

406 Targetpractice  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:33:32am

re: #398 Backwoods_Sleuth

Merry Feckin Christmas from the GOP:

[Embedded content]

Tis the season to be douchebags.

407 Feline Fearless Leader  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:33:41am

re: #401 Pie-onist Overlord

Hotels.com keeps sending me promotions for GREAT DEALS IN LOUISVILLE! after I already stayed there for one night.

This is just like all the new car ads that I kept seeing for weeks and weeks AFTER I bought a Ford Escape in 2011.

Targeted Internet marketing: ur doing it wrong.

I’ve been getting emails from a European car rental place for a year and a half since being in Germany for 8 days.

408 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:34:05am

Just in…

Judge has ruled man who shot Renisha McBride will stand trial.

409 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:34:22am

re: #405 Ian G.

Facebook has recently been targeting me with “guided tours of Jewish history in Berlin”, which is like “OK, I’d love to visit Berlin and a tour of the Jewish history there would be interesting, to say the least”, but how did they target the guy with the very Scots-Irish surname? Was it all the Facebook friends I have with Jewish names?

It must be your ZIP code, don’t you live in a heavily Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn?

410 Mike Lamb  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:35:19am

re: #366 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

Right. This is the free market at work.

411 Mike Lamb  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:36:22am

re: #341 Pie-onist Overlord

GET OVER YOURSELVES YOU SELF RIGHTEOUS DUCKFUCKERS.

[Embedded content]

So we’ve now established that “galactically stupid” is a real thing and not just some witty dialogue from “A Few Good Men”.

412 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:38:49am

re: #359 b.d.

I love Christmas time, a time where the ones who think they are better christians than anyone get to scream, get full of butthurt and act like 5 year olds.

This triggers a few thoughts I’ve been having.

There was a time when Christians were humble, meek, helpful, full of unwavering love and all that good stuff.

Lately they have become so full of themselves like they are the chosen, better than everyone, capable of judging and condemning, etc. Righteous to the point of just being in-your-face assholes.

Is a lot of that type of thinking coming from the newer Christian churches that have the arena-like sizes with the stages, sound systems and lighting? Are they all being turned into “Christian Soldiers” that are being taught to go out and proselytize and be more active.

It just seems some of these people just pound on their pumped-out chests and think they are saved and you are not and they just have to tell you.

Which all seems very different from “religion” as I remember it years ago. Maybe it is just the ‘net allowing them to be assholes, but I don’t think this is what the “Message” was all about. Seems to me this is all going to lead to something real bad. Just a feeling…a feeling that this is all so wrong.

413 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:41:45am

re: #412 ObserverArt

This triggers a few thoughts I’ve been having.

There was a time when Christians were humble, meek, helpful, full of unwavering love and all that good stuff.

Lately they have become so full of themselves like they are the chosen, better than everyone, capable of judging and condemning, etc. Righteous to the point of just being in-your-face assholes.

Is a lot of that type of thinking coming from the newer Christian churches that have the arena-like sizes with the stages, sound systems and lighting? Are they all being turned into “Christian Soldiers” that are being taught to go out and proselytize and be more active.

It just seems some of these people just pound on their pumped-out chests and think they are saved and you are not and they just have to tell you.

Which all seems very different from “religion” as I remember it years ago. Maybe it is just the ‘net allowing them to be assholes, but I don’t think this is what the “Message” was all about. Seems to me this is all going to lead to something real bad. Just a feeling…a feeling that this is all so wrong.

It’s just the intertubez allowing them to believe that they’re a greater majority than they really are.

Trust me, as someone who’s lived basically my entire life in the south — and not even the “deep south” — people that identify as highly religious have always been monumental racists and bigots. They just didn’t feel free to express those sentiments without consequence before. My grandmother was the sweetest lady you’d ever meet in public — but at home, around the table? She didn’t hesitate for one moment to complain about ‘the blacks’.

414 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:42:00am

re: #412 ObserverArt

This triggers a few thoughts I’ve been having.

There was a time when Christians were humble, meek, helpful, full of unwavering love and all that good stuff.

Lately they have become so full of themselves like they are the chosen, better than everyone, capable of judging and condemning, etc. Righteous to the point of just being in-your-face assholes.

Is a lot of that type of thinking coming from the newer Christian churches that have the arena-like sizes with the stages, sound systems and lighting? Are they all being turned into “Christian Soldiers” that are being taught to go out and proselytize and be more active.

It just seems some of these people just pound on their pumped-out chests and think they are saved and you are not and they just have to tell you.

Which all seems very different from “religion” as I remember it years ago. Maybe it is just the ‘net allowing them to be assholes, but I don’t think this is what the “Message” was all about. Seems to me this is all going to lead to something real bad. Just a feeling…a feeling that this is all so wrong.

Christianity used to be a personal thing. Now, it’s a marketing scheme.

415 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:42:53am

re: #372 Justanotherhuman

I see Cruz doesn’t understand contract law, either.

How the hell did he ever get a law license? (Yeah, I know, his act is for the rubes.

He understand law just fine. He also understands how to play to the idiots…the ones he hopes keep him in office and/or help get him to the presidency.

Ted is a calculated man. Very much so. What I don’t understand is how you live with yourself knowing it.

416 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:43:27am

re: #415 ObserverArt

He understand law just fine. He also understands how to play to the idiots…the ones he hopes keep him in office and/or help get him to the presidency.

Ted is a calculated man. Very much so. What I don’t understand is how you live with yourself knowing it.

Sociopathic thinking.

417 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:43:37am

re: #383 Pie-onist Overlord

Just bought Lodge cast iron griddle pan. It’s made in US. Not everything in Target is made in China (or other low wage haven). And it’s not like Walmart hasn’t had problems in the past. It’s only a matter of time before hackers do the same to Walmart or other store chain. Every security protocol is only as good as its weakest link…

418 GeneJockey  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:46:09am

re: #415 ObserverArt

He understand law just fine. He also understands how to play to the idiots…the ones he hopes keep him in office and/or help get him to the presidency.

Ted is a calculated man. Very much so. What I don’t understand is how you live with yourself knowing it.

From everything I’ve read about him, he is one supremely confident, incredibly smug asshole, and he probably feels like any other con man, that the rubes he fleeces deserve it for being so stupid.

419 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:47:18am

re: #343 GunstarGreen

You know, I’m probably going to get dinged for this, but so be it.

It’s not possible to be both a pastor, and a person that supports marriage equality, simultaneously and with complete honesty on both ends. The simple fact is that the Holy Bible specifically condemns homosexuality, along with a great many other things that are today considered innocuous. When you put on the frock, you commit to devote yourself to that religion. If you’re not willing to fully devote yourself to that religion — including the patently absurd things about it — then you shouldn’t be wearing the frock. If you read ‘the good book’ and, as I did long ago, come to the conclusion that on many or even just several points God is dead wrong, it is dishonest to wear the uniform of his supplicants and spread his message.

I think the pastor did the right thing by acknowledging the rights of all of his fellow citizens to be treated equally and fairly. But I also can’t blame the church for de-frocking him based on the fact that he did violate their tenets.

does the Bible forbid homosexuality or promiscuity?

I don’t think it address monogamous homosexual relationships in any light other than promiscutiy and violation of the marriage contract.

The idea of two people fo the same sex living as a “couple” wasn’t reality to a people who had arranged marriages and clan-type social structure.

420 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:47:47am

re: #384 Ian G.

Morning Lizards.

What did I say yesterday? Robertson said what he did to get the RWNJ crowd to solidify their eternal support for him. Without him speaking TEH TRUTH ABOUT TEH GAYZ, the show would have eventually faded from the spotlight like all reality trainwrecks do (Jon & Kate, anyone?). Now, the show will be on for 2 decades because it’s everyone in Real ‘Murka’s patriotic duty to watch the show because it will make the Libtards angry.

Brilliant marketing move by Robertson, if you ask me. It once again makes me wish I didn’t have a conscience that prevents me from taking a job scamming the wingnuts, because it seems like the easiest way to millions in the world.

This. So much this. It wouldn’t surprise me if A&E helped out too. Maybe they all set up the GQ interview and knew what to say to get everyone all riled up.

I know one thing…PR people will do anything to manipulate customers to keep on buying.

421 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:49:19am

re: #370 Pie-onist Overlord

I WANT MY OWN PIE SHOW!!!!

Only if you make KEY LIME!

422 calochortus  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:49:41am

re: #384 Ian G.

Morning Lizards.

What did I say yesterday? Robertson said what he did to get the RWNJ crowd to solidify their eternal support for him. Without him speaking TEH TRUTH ABOUT TEH GAYZ, the show would have eventually faded from the spotlight like all reality trainwrecks do (Jon & Kate, anyone?). Now, the show will be on for 2 decades because it’s everyone in Real ‘Murka’s patriotic duty to watch the show because it will make the Libtards angry.

Brilliant marketing move by Robertson, if you ask me. It once again makes me wish I didn’t have a conscience that prevents me from taking a job scamming the wingnuts, because it seems like the easiest way to millions in the world.

Just a drive-by, but a couple weeks ago I saw comments on a conservative site to the effect that Duck Dynasty was seriously over merchandised and over exposed and so presumably was on its way out sooner or later. I’m guessing they’ll be able to milk the franchise a little longer now.

423 Flying Squirrel Girl  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:50:51am

re: #413 GunstarGreen

I agree with this completely. Around my fundie evangelical extended family, if I accidentally drop an “F” bomb , they sweep up their kids and leave the room in a huff, but it’s completely OK to talk about how nice the neighborhood was before the n****** and s**** moved in and ruined it around the kiddos.

They also camped out to be the first to see “The Passion,” as it is known in these parts.

424 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:51:01am

re: #370 Pie-onist Overlord

I WANT MY OWN PIE SHOW!!!!

You should have one. It’d be better than 95% percent of reality and cooking shows.

425 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:52:02am

re: #414 Justanotherhuman

Christianity used to be a personal thing. Now, it’s a marketing scheme.

QFT! I’m going to tweet this!

426 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:52:31am

re: #387 b.d.

Where was the wingnut outrage when MSNBC canned Alec Baldwin over his gay rantings?

There was some criticism along similar lines, but mostly there was laughter at Alec Baldwin being thrown out by “his own side”. They enjoyed watching what the Army calls a “Blue on Blue”.

427 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:54:18am

re: #419 FemNaziBitch

does the Bible forbid homosexuality or promiscuity?

I don’t think it address monogamous homosexual relationships in any light other than promiscutiy and violation of the marriage contract.

The idea of two people fo the same sex living as a “couple” wasn’t reality to a people who had arranged marriages and clan-type social structure.

It acknowledges those relationships to the extent that it acknowledges most others. “If a man lies with a man…” in Leviticus could technically be construed as only referring to the act rather than the relationship, but it’s sort of implied.

I don’t really buy the “well the marriage is okay as long as they don’t actually touch each other” line of reasoning. It smells of rationalizing to justify continued belief in a faith that one knows is fundamentally wrong.

428 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:56:34am

It is Obama’s fault!

429 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:56:43am

re: #426 Dark_Falcon

There was some criticism along similar lines, but mostly there was laughter at Alec Baldwin being thrown out by “his own side”. They enjoyed watching what the Army calls a “Blue on Blue”.

You know what I think…it is fine to dump Baldwin and Bashir…that is God’s work. But if you dump a duck…well, war is on. The devil is at work.

Nothing more nothing less. All part of the righteousness.

430 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 8:58:28am

re: #427 GunstarGreen

It acknowledges those relationships to the extent that it acknowledges most others. “If a man lies with a man…” in Leviticus could technically be construed as only referring to the act rather than the relationship, but it’s sort of implied.

I don’t really buy the “well the marriage is okay as long as they don’t actually touch each other” line of reasoning. It smells of rationalizing to justify continued belief in a faith that one knows is fundamentally wrong.

Yeah, I think we have different interpretations of this.

431 Tim TeaBro  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:00:52am

I’m not surprised Duck Dynasty homophobe shared how he feels.

I’m even less surprised by the social media tempest rushing to his defense, and the vapid arguments made in support of the homophobe.

Not even worth Paging.

432 Skip Intro  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:02:40am

re: #420 ObserverArt

This. So much this. It wouldn’t surprise me if A&E helped out too. Maybe they all set up the GQ interview and knew what to say to get everyone all riled up.

I know one thing…PR people will do anything to manipulate customers to keep on buying.

Since the new season begins in less than a month, I think that’s exactly what they did.

Boob bait for bubbas, we used to call it.

433 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:05:10am
434 Joanne  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:05:20am

re: #168 Gus

Erick Erickson ✔ @EWErickson

I feel sorry for my gay friends who, because of the militant gay rights crowd, will find some hearts sadly turned cold toward them.

Derp.

Erickson: Some of my best friends are….

Uh huh.

435 A Mom Anon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:07:28am

re: #432 Skip Intro

Like I said earlier, they’re a bunch of phonies. Phil never actually seemed all that comfortable being on camera (now we get why possibly) and was out the door anyway, so why not capitalize on that and drum up some PR? This family and their company is worth upwards of a billion dollars now, none of this hurts them.

I may lose another friend over this, she loves this idiot show and is now posting tea party shit on her facebook page. Which sucks, because I really like her, but she believes any shit she sees on facebook. I just took her off my newsfeed so I don’t scream.

436 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:07:44am

re: #427 GunstarGreen

It acknowledges those relationships to the extent that it acknowledges most others. “If a man lies with a man…” in Leviticus could technically be construed as only referring to the act rather than the relationship, but it’s sort of implied.

I don’t really buy the “well the marriage is okay as long as they don’t actually touch each other” line of reasoning. It smells of rationalizing to justify continued belief in a faith that one knows is fundamentally wrong.

Another thing at work may be the actual Bible being used. I don’t know for a fact, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a “New Bible” or 500 newer Bibles that reinterpret what God/Jesus really meant all along. If you can have your David Barton’s reinterpreting the Constitution, you sure can have a new Bible or three, or the latest-bestest.

I remember discussing the different versions of the Bible in Catholic high school in our religion history classes, and even then I was like…what the hell, I thought the was ONE Bible…THE Bible. What, God has a big ol’ printing press and keeps cranking them out?

All of that background just made me realize…ah-ha, it’s all man. This God may not have a thing to do with any of it. The older I get and the more I learn the less I buy.

437 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:10:30am

re: #430 FemNaziBitch

Yeah, I think we have different interpretations of this.

And the bold word…that is the problem. Mine is better than yours and that makes me better than you.

So stupid. So about man.

(Not a dig at you…but you hit a key word.)

438 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:11:02am
439 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:12:18am

re: #432 Skip Intro

Since the new season begins in less than a month, I think that’s exactly what they did.

Boob bait for bubbas, we used to call it.

Or a duck call to all the dumb ducks.

“Hey duck followers…here ducky duck followers…KABLAMO!”

441 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:14:28am
442 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:14:44am

re: #438 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

Ask Bobby “Aw shit I forgot about the muslim schools” Jindal why you’re not allowed to drop an F-bomb on basic cable channels. First Amendment and all that, right?

443 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:15:04am

re: #437 ObserverArt

And the bold word…that is the problem. Mine is better than yours and that makes me better than you.

So stupid. So about man.

(Not a dig at you…but you hit a key word.)

Yes, I am pretty tired of one opinion being FACT.

444 CuriousLurker  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:15:37am

re: #412 ObserverArt

There was a time when Christians were humble, meek, helpful, full of unwavering love and all that good stuff.

Lately they have become so full of themselves like they are the chosen, better than everyone, capable of judging and condemning, etc. Righteous to the point of just being in-your-face assholes. […]

Which all seems very different from “religion” as I remember it years ago. Maybe it is just the ‘net allowing them to be assholes, but I don’t think this is what the “Message” was all about. Seems to me this is all going to lead to something real bad. Just a feeling…a feeling that this is all so wrong.

In my experience many (most?) Christians still are like those you remember, but they get drowned out by the hateful ones. Being an insufferably smug, self-righteous, in-your-face asshole isn’t unique to Christians or even to religious people—just look at Anjem Choudary or Pat Condell.

It’s the ‘net. It serves as a combination magnifying glass + bullhorn for things both good & bad. The anonymity of it allows people to express sentiments they wouldn’t want to be associated with in “real life”, and those sentiments in turn feed others’ confirmation biases. Again, this is true for both good & bad things.

445 Skip Intro  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:17:43am

re: #434 Joanne

Erick Erickson ✔ @EWErickson

I feel sorry for my gay friends who, because of the militant gay rights crowd, will find some hearts sadly turned cold toward them.

Derp.

BUT I’M ALSO HAPPY KNOWING THEY’RE ALL GOING TO BURN IN HELL

446 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:19:56am

re: #444 CuriousLurker

Being an insufferably smug, self-righteous, in-your-face asshole isn’t unique to Christians or even to religious people—just look at Anjem Choudary or Pat Condell.

Or Pam Geller.

447 Skip Intro  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:23:01am

re: #441 FemNaziBitch

[Embedded content]

Our local Teabaggers are up in arms arms that the University might have a problem with this, even though they didn’t. FWEEDUM OF SPEECH!

Frat hosts ‘Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos’ party, university implodes

The party, which asked men to dress up as colonists and women to wear sexy Native American garb, was held last month at Phi Sigma Kappa, an off-campus fraternity of California Polytechnic State University. Some students took offense and filed a complaint with the university, obliging administrators to investigate

448 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:25:13am

Been thinking of possible A&E show titles for VB:

My Big Fat Jewish Pie
Pies of Detroit
Passover the Pies
Vicious Babushka, the Pie Hunter

449 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:25:43am

re: #447 Skip Intro

Our local Teabaggers are up in arms arms that the University might have a problem with this, even though they didn’t. FWEEDUM OF SPEECH!

Reminds me of the tanning salon Thanksgiving ad for “sexy color.”

How clueless and privileged does someone have to be to think of this shit?

450 SidewaysQuark  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:27:21am

re: #420 ObserverArt

This. So much this. It wouldn’t surprise me if A&E helped out too. Maybe they all set up the GQ interview and knew what to say to get everyone all riled up.

I know one thing…PR people will do anything to manipulate customers to keep on buying.

Last I checked A&E Networks was a privately owned joint venture between the Hearst Corporation and Disney-ABC Television Group, and that they independently made this decision.

Why isn’t the Right clamoring for the rights of A&E to act freely (as they are) according to the 1st Amendment? I thought “corporations are people”!

451 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:29:41am

re: #447 Skip Intro

If it is off campus, the University can do little more than to issue a letter of complaint. Does not make it any less offensive, though.

452 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:31:30am

re: #449 Pie-onist Overlord

Reminds me of the tanning salon Thanksgiving ad for “sexy color.”

How clueless and privileged does someone have to be to think of this shit?

About as clueless and privileged as the kid that basically got away with quadruple murder because wealthy privilege.

453 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:33:48am
454 Higgs Boson's Mate  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:33:52am

Duck Gate (There, I said it) just goes to show how malleable even simple concepts like freedom of speech become in the hands of the wingers. I can certainly call my boss a flaming asshole to his face and he can certainly fire me for it. I won’t however be prosecuted by the government for what I said. That’s all that the First Amendment guarantees.

Seems to me that an outfit that truly identified with gun-wielding manly men would eschew whining, sniveling and constant butthurt.

455 Uncle Obdicut  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:34:04am

re: #452 GunstarGreen

About as clueless and privileged as the kid that basically got away with quadruple murder because wealthy privilege.

He didn’t get away with quadruple murder. His sentence is completely appropriate to the crime: ten years of probation, meaning ten years of checking in with a parole officer, taking drug tests, etc. He is sentenced to psychiatric rehabilitation, which is completely fitting for an out of control teenager.

The tragedy isn’t that that is the sentence he got, the tragedy is that we can’t do the same for every other non-rich kid; this kid’s family can afford the therapy he needs.

456 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:34:43am

re: #448 Backwoods_Sleuth

Been thinking of possible A&E show titles for VB:

My Big Fat Jewish Pie
Pies of Detroit
Passover the Pies
Vicious Babushka, the Pie Hunter

Heh.

Pieover Country
Pie By Night
Traveling Down The Pieways of America
Living The Life Of Piely
The Pie Of Your Life

457 Mattand  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:37:05am

re: #456 Pie-onist Overlord

Heh.

Pieover Country
Pie By Night
Traveling Down The Pieways of America
Living The Life Of Piely
The Pie Of Your Life

Just call it “Crust”. Simple, easy-to-remember, looks good on a poster.

458 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:37:30am

Teeny tiny change in medical advice could save billions of dollars over time, which is something unstated but implicit in the outcome of this move:


New guidelines for the management of hypertension suggest that people 60 or older might be able to handle higher blood pressure readings than originally thought.

Hypertension, which can lead to strokes, heart attack, kidney failure and death, is traditionally treated with medication and diet.

The goal of most doctors is to keep their patient’s blood pressure below 140 (systolic) / 90 (diastolic). But after reviewing mounds of evidence, a committee of experts now says the systolic number, especially in older people, can be higher at 150/90. And many of these patients who were on medication would no longer need to be.

It is not clear how many people would be affected by these new guidelines, but experts are estimating in the millions.

The committee was asked to update the guidelines that have been in place for more than 30 years. They were published online Wednesday in the latest edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The group of 17 experts found no reason to change any other section of the guidelines.

It wont help the drug companies bottom line, but it will help the bottom line of millions of people who may no longer need the prescriptions because their blood pressure isn’t high enough to warrant meds.

459 Mattand  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:39:07am

re: #454 Higgs Boson’s Mate

Duck Gate (There, I said it) just goes to show how malleable even simple concepts like freedom of speech become in the hands of the wingers. I can certainly call my boss a flaming asshole to his face and he can certainly fire me for it. I won’t however be prosecuted by the government for what I said. That’s all that the First Amendment guarantees.

Seems to me that an outfit that truly identified with gun-wielding manly men would eschew whining, sniveling and constant butthurt.

The show got yanked? Didn’t know that. L-O-effing L.

Even better that conservatives are getting butt hurt that A&E is somehow inexplicably unwilling to be associated with a bunch of homophobic bible thumpers.

460 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:39:25am

re: #457 Mattand

Just call it “Crust”. Simple, easy-to-remember, looks good on a poster.

Passion Of The Crust
Faith In Crust
Trust In Crust
Crust Our Flavor

461 Skip Intro  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:39:52am

re: #451 Sol Berdinowitz

If it is off campus, the University can do little more than to issue a letter of complaint. Does not make it any less offensive, though.

They didn’t even do that, but that didn’t stop the baggers from being outraged anyway.

462 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:40:11am

re: #455 Uncle Obdicut

He didn’t get away with quadruple murder. His sentence is completely appropriate to the crime: ten years of probation, meaning ten years of checking in with a parole officer, taking drug tests, etc. He is sentenced to psychiatric rehabilitation, which is completely fitting for an out of control teenager.

The tragedy isn’t that that is the sentence he got, the tragedy is that we can’t do the same for every other non-rich kid; this kid’s family can afford the therapy he needs.

Yeah, if they’re poor and/or black they just go to prison.

You know, like everyone else that kills people and isn’t ultra-wealthy.

Probation is nothing. He ended four lives by driving 30 over the speed limit with a BAC 3 times the legal limit (consuming alcohol being illegal in the first place given his age) and jumped up on valium, and he walked.

463 wrenchwench  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:40:27am

re: #454 Higgs Boson’s Mate

Duck Gate (There, I said it) just goes to show how malleable mallardable even simple concepts like freedom of speech become in the hands of the wingers. I can certainly call my boss a flaming asshole to his face and he can certainly fire me for it. I won’t however be prosecuted by the government for what I said. That’s all that the First Amendment guarantees.

Seems to me that an outfit that truly identified with gun-wielding manly men would eschew whining, sniveling and constant butthurt.

Can’t say I FTFY…

sorry

464 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:40:40am

re: #458 lawhawk

My BP was 100/67 when taken at the doctor’s office yesterday.

Think I should be worried?

465 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:41:27am

Well then it’s also impossible for A&E to violate Phil Robertson’s 1st Amendment rights. A&E is not Congress.
Consistency, it’s just for LIBRULZ.

466 Mattand  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:42:08am

re: #458 lawhawk

Teeny tiny change in medical advice could save billions of dollars over time, which is something unstated but implicit in the outcome of this move:

[Embedded content]

It wont help the drug companies bottom line, but it will help the bottom line of millions of people who may no longer need the prescriptions because their blood pressure isn’t high enough to warrant meds.

This is great. I’ve dropped 20 lbs since July and recently got my bp tested. Came in at 121/81, which most sites said was pre-hypertensive. Hopefully, the new guidelines get me out of that category.

Of course, I would love to get back to my longtime 112/67, but I’m guessing that ain’t happening.

467 GlutenFreeJesus  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:42:59am

Imagine if Phil used “Jesus freaks” instead of gays. All their talk of the 1st Amendment wouldn’t be happening right now.

468 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:43:05am

re: #455 Uncle Obdicut

The tragedy isn’t that that is the sentence he got, the tragedy is that we can’t do the same for every other non-rich kid; this kid’s family can afford the therapy he needs.

It’s more than a tragedy. It’s killing us.

So many lives wasted —human resources we NEED.

This kid had every opportunity and still chose to fuck-up. I really do not think justice was served.

469 Mattand  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:43:19am

re: #460 Pie-onist Overlord

Passion Of The Crust
Faith In Crust
Trust In Crust
Crust Our Flavor

Trust in Crust; we have a winner!

470 Uncle Obdicut  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:43:38am

re: #462 GunstarGreen

Yeah, if they’re poor and/or black they just go to prison.

You know, like everyone else that kills people and isn’t ultra-wealthy.

Probation is nothing. He ended four lives by driving 30 over the speed limit with a BAC 3 times the legal limit (consuming alcohol being illegal in the first place given his age) and jumped up on valium, and he walked.

So what would you like to happen to him? How is society improved by also sending him to prison?

Do you think he, as a teenager, is doing all of this shit because he’s happy and carefree?

The same judge tried to send a poor black kid to therapy, but no place would take him. That’s the problem: we need to fund rehabilitation for everyone, it shouldn’t just be for the rich.

471 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:45:11am

Look as though GG won’t get the $250M initially announced for the “news” venture.

Pierre Omidyar Provides Initial Funding of $50M to Establish First Look Media

omidyargroup.com

Still a huge piece of change, though.

472 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:45:35am

re: #469 Mattand

Trust in Crust; we have a winner!

Not only a great name for a band, but a great restaurant/bakery name too.

Love phrases that have alliteration.

473 RealityBasedSteve  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:45:44am

re: #460 Pie-onist Overlord

Passion Of The Crust
Faith In Crust
Trust In Crust
Crust Our Flavor

How about In Crust We Trust?

RBS

474 Flounder  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:46:51am

re: #456 Pie-onist Overlord

Is it Happy Burfday today? I can’t remember if it was today or next week.

475 kirkspencer  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:47:38am

re: #465 Pie-onist Overlord

Well then it’s also impossible for A&E to violate Phil Robertson’s 1st Amendment rights. A&E is not Congress.
Consistency, it’s just for LIBRULZ.

[Embedded content]

Actually it is possible for a school choir to violate 1st amendment rights. Or perhaps Bryan doesn’t realize that public schools are a government entity.

476 gwangung  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:47:59am

re: #471 Justanotherhuman

Look as though GG won’t get the $250M initially announced for the “news” venture.

Pierre Omidyar Provides Initial Funding of $50M to Establish First Look Media

omidyargroup.com

Still a huge piece of change, though.

Omidyar has long been into transparency and shining the light into government actions. He’s also been heavily funding social welfare and other projects that can slotted into social justice projects.

I think he’s using Greenwald as a tool….

477 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:48:23am

re: #473 RealityBasedSteve

How about >In Crust We Trust?

RBS

I was thinking more classical:

The Tale of Two Pies
Down and Out —Pies in Detroit.
A Pie of One’s Own
Baba’s Pie Manifesto

478 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:49:26am

The Infinity of Pie

Forever Crusty

Keep Crusty and Pie On.

479 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:50:26am

re: #474 Flounder

Is it Happy Burfday today? I can’t remember if it was today or next week.

Today is Teh Birthday! Cake is half eated.

480 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:50:47am

Sen. Ted Cruz, in addition to purposefully ignoring the text of the Constitution in making Duck Dynasty into a free speech issue (see above), also hasn’t yet renounced his Canadian citizenship as he had promised to do.

Cruz seems to have fit in just fine in the Senate. The Roman Senate.

Youtube Video

481 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:50:47am

How To Master The Fine Art Of Political Symbolism

“Perception becomes reality in so many areas,” says state Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, a Republican who is running for lieutenant governor. “Voters want to know who you are and what you stand for, and your comfort level with what you’re talking about.”

482 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:51:53am

WTFITS

483 Flounder  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:52:02am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Well Happy Birthday and many more!!!!

484 jaunte  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:52:27am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Happy Birthday!

485 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:52:34am

re: #460 Pie-onist Overlord

Passion Of The Crust
Faith In Crust
Trust In Crust
Crust Our Flavor

Faith In Crust for the win!

486 Higgs Boson's Mate  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:52:35am

re: #463 wrenchwench

Damn, I wish I’d said that. “Mallardable.” Just damn.

487 CuriousLurker  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:52:38am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Today is Teh Birthday! Cake is half eated.

[Embedded content]

Happy Birthday! May you have many more. ;)

488 wrenchwench  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:53:10am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Today is Teh Birthday! Cake is half eated.

[Embedded content]

Happy Birthday!

489 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:53:51am

re: #480 lawhawk

Sen. Ted Cruz, in addition to purposefully ignoring the text of the Constitution in making Duck Dynasty into a free speech issue (see above), also hasn’t yet renounced his Canadian citizenship as he had promised to do.

Cruz seems to have fit in just fine in the Senate. The Roman Senate.

[Embedded content]

A shame there is no one in the US Senate who could PWN him as Cicero would have.

490 Joanne  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:54:13am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, happy birthday…
Happy birthday tooooooo youuuuuuuuu!!

491 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:55:36am
492 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:55:52am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Today is Teh Birthday! Cake is half eated.

[Embedded content]

Youtube Video

493 Bulworth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:57:17am

G-dammit, more commiesochulizm from the Obummer dictator!!11!

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing eliminating sports blackout rules, which prohibits distributors from showing live sporting events that are not available on local television. If the FCC is successful, it would be a huge blow to leagues, like the NFL, that punish fans for the lack of ticket sales.

Shure hope Americans for Koch’s Prosperity will get on this and defend the lowly NFL against the takers in this world who just want to watch FREE Football STUFF!1!

494 kirkspencer  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:57:41am

re: #468 FemNaziBitch

It’s more than a tragedy. It’s killing us.

So many lives wasted —human resources we NEED.

This kid had every opportunity and still chose to fuck-up. I really do not think justice was served.

Since it keeps coming up, I’ll keep hitting my rant.

Our justice system is too oriented on punishment and not enough on rehab. Multiple studies have shown that isolation (imprisonment) does a poor job of rehab. Like abstinence education for sex ed, it’s better than nothing but lots of other things are better.

The Texas law accidentally does things right. Intoxication homicide allows a short significant punishment (four months in jail minimum) followed by several years of community-supported rehab that’s accompanied by independent monitoring. The reasons are bad, the effect is good. The chances are good that this kid will do well as a citizen in the long run and not just because he’s a rich kid’s child.

“Justice was served” is a revenge statement. Anything less than death for death is not truly justice, and there are a host of problems with lex talionis. Rather than make the guilty a resource sponge, continuing to be a drag on our society’s wealth, we should work to see he not only never does the crime again but contributes to society’s increase. In the long run it’s healthier for us all - in my opinion.

495 Bulworth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:57:53am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Happy Birthday to our Pie-onist Overlord!!1

496 GlutenFreeJesus  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:58:31am

re: #460 Pie-onist Overlord

Passion Of The Crust
Faith In Crust
Trust In Crust
Crust Our Flavor

Crust Saves

497 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:58:40am

Just when you thought the wingnuts had lost all their shit, they crap out more turds and lose that too.

498 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:58:58am

re: #482 Pie-onist Overlord

Well, did you expect anything less/different?

And if you did, shame on you… :)

499 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:59:32am

re: #482 Pie-onist Overlord

WTFITS

[Embedded content]

Let’s get on the rooftops and shout it: Jim Hoft supports Gays!!!

500 Bulworth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 9:59:55am

re: #497 Pie-onist Overlord

Troubled hartz luv them duck murderers.

501 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:01:16am
502 Bulworth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:01:50am

re: #497 Pie-onist Overlord

Today, we are all rodeo clowns Phil Robertson.

I sense a wonderously delusional “column” about this whole nonsense from Peggy Noonaners.

503 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:03:29am

And Sarah Palin has to contribute her own notable legal experience and knowledge by making a first amendment argument in favor of Duck Dynasty.

The former Alaska governor just can’t stop bringing up her favorite constitutional amendment — especially when complaining about all the folks using their right to free speech to criticize conservatives for exercising their right to free speech. Or something. (She uses “free speech” and “First Amendment rights” pretty interchangeably, so I’m going to as well. That’s my right as an American.)

Take yesterday, for example, when she wrote a blistering defense of Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson — who was suspended by A&E after making anti-gay comments in a new GQ interview. “Free speech is an endangered species,” Palin wrote on Facebook beneath a photo of her posing with the Duck Dynasty gang. “Those ‘intolerants’ hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us.”
And this, of course, is far from the only time Palin’s gone to that same “free speech” well. Her affair with the First Amendment has been long, torrid, and undoubtedly frustrating for constitutional scholars. Come, let’s take a walk down memory lane:

Yeah, stop laughing. I’m serious.

504 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:03:29am

re: #494 kirkspencer

“The chances are good that this kid will do well as a citizen in the long run and not just because he’s a rich kid’s child.”

What are the elements of this case, of this boy’s life, that would make you draw that conclusion? He has shown absolutely no remorse over what he did. He actually thought he was going to “walk away” from it totally clean.

And he pretty much did.

505 RealityBasedSteve  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:03:37am

re: #482 Pie-onist Overlord

WTFITS

[Embedded content]

I’m going to make my guess, then I’ll go look at Gateway P. and see if I’m right. I’m betting the logic will run something like this.

1. DD guy says something bad about Gays.
2. DD guy has show on A&E.
3. Boycott A&E to show you don’t approve of badmouthing Gays.

Of course that misses the tiny and almost inconsequential detail that A&E has already suspended him. I’m praying that I’m wrong, that even dim jim can’t be that stupid, but I’m not optimistic.

Now off to Gateway P to see what’s up.

RBS

506 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:04:05am

Which words originated in your Birth Year?

1964: HAH

507 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:04:46am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Today is Teh Birthday! Cake is half eated.

[Embedded content]

Happy Birthday.

508 GeneJockey  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:05:45am

re: #343 GunstarGreen

You know, I’m probably going to get dinged for this, but so be it.

It’s not possible to be both a pastor, and a person that supports marriage equality, simultaneously and with complete honesty on both ends. The simple fact is that the Holy Bible specifically condemns homosexuality, along with a great many other things that are today considered innocuous. When you put on the frock, you commit to devote yourself to that religion. If you’re not willing to fully devote yourself to that religion — including the patently absurd things about it — then you shouldn’t be wearing the frock. If you read ‘the good book’ and, as I did long ago, come to the conclusion that on many or even just several points God is dead wrong, it is dishonest to wear the uniform of his supplicants and spread his message.

I think the pastor did the right thing by acknowledging the rights of all of his fellow citizens to be treated equally and fairly. But I also can’t blame the church for de-frocking him based on the fact that he did violate their tenets.

Not gonna get dinged by me for expressing an honest thought!

BUT, in answer, I’d observe that the Bible says a lot of things, and many believers do not think God wants them to follow the literal word. My family, for example, all believe in God, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and Salvation. They believe the Bible reveals the Word of God, but they simultaneously accept it as the mythology of a primitive desert people, and as having been written and edited by men for their own political purposes.

Some of them put themselves on the line for their beliefs, and yet they believe in marriage equality and believe it’s part of what God would want.

So, no, a pastor is not limited by what the Bible says, and is not turning her back on the Bible to support marriage equality.

509 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:05:48am

re: #490 Joanne

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, happy birthday…
Happy birthday tooooooo youuuuuuuuu!!

and me tooooo!

510 Dr Lizardo  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:06:45am

re: #506 FemNaziBitch

Which words originated in your Birth Year?

1964: HAH

1969: Megastar.

511 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:07:38am

re: #494 kirkspencer

Since it keeps coming up, I’ll keep hitting my rant.

Our justice system is too oriented on punishment and not enough on rehab. Multiple studies have shown that isolation (imprisonment) does a poor job of rehab. Like abstinence education for sex ed, it’s better than nothing but lots of other things are better.

The Texas law accidentally does things right. Intoxication homicide allows a short significant punishment (four months in jail minimum) followed by several years of community-supported rehab that’s accompanied by independent monitoring. The reasons are bad, the effect is good. The chances are good that this kid will do well as a citizen in the long run and not just because he’s a rich kid’s child.

“Justice was served” is a revenge statement. Anything less than death for death is not truly justice, and there are a host of problems with lex talionis. Rather than make the guilty a resource sponge, continuing to be a drag on our society’s wealth, we should work to see he not only never does the crime again but contributes to society’s increase. In the long run it’s healthier for us all - in my opinion.

Keep hitting that rant! We need to get away from crime and punishment.

My answer is the same as always:

Cost-Free Contraception and Comprehensive Sex Ed.

Which, I will add: as of Jan. 1, 2014, Illinois is required to teach.

512 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:08:46am

WWBBD

513 Skip Intro  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:09:06am

re: #504 Justanotherhuman

“The chances are good that this kid will do well as a citizen in the long run and not just because he’s a rich kid’s child.”

What are the elements of this case, of this boy’s life, that would make you draw that conclusion? He has shown absolutely no remorse over what he did. He actually thought he was going to “walk away” from it totally clean.

And he pretty much did.

This isn’t the first time he’s walked away from something that would have brought down a shitstorm on a lesser mortal.

There was the time he was found with a naked, drunk 14 year old girl in his car, for starters. The punishment? Yeah, I’m still trying to find that. Apparently he was supposed to tell his parents about it, but didn’t.

514 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:09:28am

WORTH REPOSTING

515 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:11:00am

Now I have that earworm song about Brian Boitano from the South Park Movie going around my head.

516 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:11:23am


OMG, Predators and Prey laying together!

517 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:11:58am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Today is Teh Birthday! Cake is half eated.

[Embedded content]

You say it’s your birthday…happy birthday to you…hope you have a good time…your gonna party party…we’re all glad its your birthday…happy birthday to you!

(How can you go wrong with Beatles themes)

518 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:12:45am

re: #506 FemNaziBitch

Which words originated in your Birth Year?

1964: HAH

mine is good (1952):

noshery, n.
Meaning: A restaurant; a snack bar. Occas.: food, a snack. Cf. nosh

519 Gus  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:14:03am

Argh. The Twitter is like teh nut house. IOW, just another day.

520 lawhawk  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:14:07am

re: #512 Pie-onist Overlord

Youtube Video

Damn you….and therefore everyone else to the same earworm!

521 GeneJockey  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:14:10am

re: #464 FemNaziBitch

My BP was 100/67 when taken at the doctor’s office yesterday.

Think I should be worried?

BITE ME!!!! (he said as he popped his Lisinopril and HCTZ for the day)
//////

522 kirkspencer  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:14:57am

re: #504 Justanotherhuman

“The chances are good that this kid will do well as a citizen in the long run and not just because he’s a rich kid’s child.”

What are the elements of this case, of this boy’s life, that would make you draw that conclusion? He has shown absolutely no remorse over what he did. He actually thought he was going to “walk away” from it totally clean.

And he pretty much did.

First, see my last bit about “justice was served” and revenge.

Why do I make that prediction? Because statistical probability based on the methods being used says it’s probably going to happen. Not guaranteed, just a good chance of it.

Some things you appear to be ignoring:
mandatory counseling.
Mandatory scheduled and unscheduled drug and alcohol tests.
Mandatory checks on academic/job performance.
Mandatory “social interaction” (read community service) actions at regular intervals.
All continuing over the next nine years.
Penalty for failing the above: 16 years in prison, even if he ‘fails’ in the last month of the 9th year.

And it doesn’t matter how ‘nice’ and ‘forgiving’ the judge is, this kid now has to deal with several cynical (though overworked) individuals all of whom can doom him for screwing up.

If I’m reading things right, one of the things that’ll happen is that he’s going to get pulled from his toxic environment - the one that self-acknowledgedly failed to ‘teach a sense of right and wrong’.

again, not a guarantee. Just good odds that by the time he’s 25 he’ll have developed habits that at least mimic if not actually become being part of society

523 Feline Fearless Leader  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:15:21am

re: #447 Skip Intro

Our local Teabaggers are up in arms arms that the University might have a problem with this, even though they didn’t. FWEEDUM OF SPEECH!

Students are subject to university’s Code of Conduct. Latter item is important to the university since actions by students reflect upon the university’s reputation and status. (For example, if there is a wild party and arrests the headline is not “Person XY arrested” it is “Univ of ABC undergraduate arrested”.)

So the university would have a perfectly valid self-interest in investigating and reacting to this. Lots of $$$ involved.

524 SidewaysQuark  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:16:01am

re: #343 GunstarGreen

I think the pastor did the right thing by acknowledging the rights of all of his fellow citizens to be treated equally and fairly. But I also can’t blame the church for de-frocking him based on the fact that he did violate their tenets.

I blame the church for having such backward tenets in the first place.

525 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:16:36am

re: #508 GeneJockey

Not gonna get dinged by me for expressing an honest thought!

BUT, in answer, I’d observe that the Bible says a lot of things, and many believers do not think God wants them to follow the literal word. My family, for example, all believe in God, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and Salvation. They believe the Bible reveals the Word of God, but they simultaneously accept it as the mythology of a primitive desert people, and as having been written and edited by men for their own political purposes.

Which is why our Constitution codifies the separation of church and state and bans any religious tests for office: they do not want theological arguments over interpreting Holy Scripture to play and direct role in how we make and enforce laws.

526 wrenchwench  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:16:50am
527 Backwoods_Sleuth  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:17:08am

more crazy medieval hermit stuffs on the twitterz.

This is the “nice” part…it all goes downhill from here..

528 Gus  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:17:39am
529 Gus  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:18:02am

“Confirms he is gay.” D’oh!

530 makeitstop  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:18:34am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Today is Teh Birthday! Cake is half eated.

[Embedded content]

Enjoy your birthday, Alouette. Many happy returns.

531 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:19:21am

Is Johnny Weir on the Olympic team?

Is Brian Boitano going as a competitor or as a coach? Isn’t he kinda old to be competing?

532 Feline Fearless Leader  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:19:40am

re: #472 lawhawk

Not only a great name for a band, but a great restaurant/bakery name too.

Love phrases that have alliteration.

“In Crust We Trust” along the edge of a circular pie logo. :)

533 andres  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:19:52am

re: #130 Kragar

[Embedded content]

Even if you ignore the position each one has, it’s not even comparable: Pope Francis has said (and acted a little on it) that, while he believes homosexuality is a sin, he’s not the one to judge them, while Phil Robertson went from comparing homosexuality to beastiality and went downhill from there. (On a side note, I couldn’t finish reading the idiocy he said. Too much for me.)

534 Lidane  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:20:04am
535 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:20:34am

The color wheel—for real! From NASA!
The color of the Sun
Youtube Video

536 kirkspencer  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:20:46am

On my rant, I should point out that there are situations where rehab fails. There are people who will not quit being dangers to society regardless of the method used. These people should be removed. for what it’s worth, the probation system does this. The problem is that for a lot of reasons the probation system is abused and overburdened.

No, let me clarify. there are a lot of reasons, but most of them boil out of an ‘original sin’ — the desire for revenge.

537 Gus  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:20:46am

re: #531 Pie-onist Overlord

Is Johnny Weir on the Olympic team?

Is Brian Boitano going as a competitor or as a coach? Isn’t he kinda old to be competing?

Delegation. Non-competitor.

538 makeitstop  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:21:12am

re: #506 FemNaziBitch

Which words originated in your Birth Year?

1964: HAH

1953: frenemy!

I had no idea it was that old. I thought it was invented for recent celebrity feuds. Go figure.

539 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:21:13am
540 GeneJockey  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:21:44am

re: #510 Dr Lizardo

1969: Megastar.

1957: oenophilic.

541 Gus  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:22:07am

I’m curious. Why hasn’t God said anything? You think he’d like say something by now. What’s he afraid of?

//

542 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:22:20am

re: #506 FemNaziBitch

Which words originated in your Birth Year?

1964: HAH

Teehee. “Bad mouth”. FSM knows I do enough of that to rightwingers. My sons were (1959) “beat poetry” and (1960) “bouffy” (for bouffant of puffy). Actually, I never heard that one before and by 1959, the beatnik thing was pretty much over.

Compared to my grandson (1990): Emoticon

2007 doesn’t show yet but it will probably be something like “selfie”.

543 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:22:34am

re: #541 Gus

I’m curious. Why hasn’t God said anything? You think he’d like say something by now. What’s he afraid of?

//

Don’t you follow His Twitter feed?

544 wrenchwench  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:22:54am


Has a link to the 31 page opinion.

I wonder if SpaceJesus and colleagues have broken out the champagne. It ain’t noon yet.

545 RealityBasedSteve  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:23:07am

re: #532 Feline Fearless Leader

“In Crust We Trust” along the edge of a circular pie logo. :)

OH YEA!!!!! That’s the winning combination.

RBS

546 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:24:02am

re: #536 kirkspencer

On my rant, I should point out that there are situations where rehab fails. There are people who will not quit being dangers to society regardless of the method used. These people should be removed. for what it’s worth, the probation system does this. The problem is that for a lot of reasons the probation system is abused and overburdened.

No, let me clarify. there are a lot of reasons, but most of them boil out of an ‘original sin’ — the desire for revenge.

IIRC, the first try in rehab is often not successful. If this kid kills again, he’ll be put away for life.

547 GunstarGreen  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:24:31am

re: #470 Uncle Obdicut

So what would you like to happen to him? How is society improved by also sending him to prison?

Do you think he, as a teenager, is doing all of this shit because he’s happy and carefree?

The same judge tried to send a poor black kid to therapy, but no place would take him. That’s the problem: we need to fund rehabilitation for everyone, it shouldn’t just be for the rich.

I would have the same thing happen to him that happens to everyone else that can’t flash the requisite amount of dollar bills to get out of the consequences for their actions: prison. This case establishes a clear precedent: When you kill someone, you only go to prison for it if you’re too poor to afford the cushy treatment.

He’s not doing this shit because he’s happy and carefree. He’s doing it because he knows for an absolute fact that there are no serious consequences for doing it. He knows now, for an absolute certain fact, that his money will get him out of ANYTHING, up to and including murdering four people. His prior history confirms this. Several violations that would have been jail time for anyone with less money. What he needed was a couple of decades in the slammer to show him that society does not tolerate that kind of behavior. That there ARE consequences when you go too far.

Now he gets to go to what is effectively another country club and occasionally chat with officers that will no doubt have FAR more sympathy for him than they would for a poor kid.

Laws, apparently, are for the smallfolk.

548 Pie-onist Overlord  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:25:08am

Wingnuts found a way to bring Obama into the “Duck Dynasty” uproar.

549 Stanley Sea  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:25:12am

re: #479 Pie-onist Overlord

Today is Teh Birthday! Cake is half eated.

[Embedded content]

Happy Birthday VB!

550 ObserverArt  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:25:32am

re: #541 Gus

I’m curious. Why hasn’t God said anything? You think he’d like say something by now. What’s he afraid of?

//

The Wrath of Palin.

You betcha.

551 FemNaziBitch  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:25:35am

re: #540 GeneJockey

1957: oenophilic.

ah!

Oenophilia (/ˌiːnɵˈfɪliə/ ee-no-fil-ee-ə; Greek for the love (philia) of wine (oinos)) is a love of wine. In the strictest sense, oenophilia describes a disciplined devotion to wine, accompanying strict traditions of consumption and appreciation. In a general sense however, oenophilia simply refers to the enjoyment of wine, often by laymen. Oenophiles are also known as wine aficionados or connoisseurs. They are people who appreciate or collect wine, particularly grape wines from certain regions, varietal types, or methods of manufacture. While most oenophiles are hobbyists, some may also be professionals like vintners, sommeliers, wine merchants, or one who tastes and grades wines for a living.

552 GeneJockey  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:27:52am

re: #547 GunstarGreen

I would have the same thing happen to him that happens to everyone else that can’t flash the requisite amount of dollar bills to get out of the consequences for their actions: prison. This case establishes a clear precedent: When you kill someone, you only go to prison for it if you’re too poor to afford the cushy treatment.

(snip)

Now he gets to go to what is effectively another country club and occasionally chat with officers that will no doubt have FAR more sympathy for him than they would for a poor kid.

Laws, apparently, are for the smallfolk.

And there’s the problem, but I’d prefer that instead of HIM having the same thing happen as everyone else, that everyone else have what happened to him.

553 Justanotherhuman  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:30:23am

re: #522 kirkspencer

First, see my last bit about “justice was served” and revenge.

Why do I make that prediction? Because statistical probability based on the methods being used says it’s probably going to happen. Not guaranteed, just a good chance of it.

Some things you appear to be ignoring:
mandatory counseling.
Mandatory scheduled and unscheduled drug and alcohol tests.
Mandatory checks on academic/job performance.
Mandatory “social interaction” (read community service) actions at regular intervals.
All continuing over the next nine years.
Penalty for failing the above: 16 years in prison, even if he ‘fails’ in the last month of the 9th year.

And it doesn’t matter how ‘nice’ and ‘forgiving’ the judge is, this kid now has to deal with several cynical (though overworked) individuals all of whom can doom him for screwing up.

If I’m reading things right, one of the things that’ll happen is that he’s going to get pulled from his toxic environment - the one that self-acknowledgedly failed to ‘teach a sense of right and wrong’.

again, not a guarantee. Just good odds that by the time he’s 25 he’ll have developed habits that at least mimic if not actually become being part of society

No, I don’t want revenge. I hope you’re right. But a lot is going to depend on how far this kid’s sociopathy is ingrained in him. He obviously has developed certain coping and manipulating methods which he will have to unlearn. If those monitoring him are not clued in to those, he will be able to protect himself just enough to stay out of prison. It doesn’t mean he will have learned to be a fully functioning, responsible adult. That will be revealed later.

554 Gus  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:31:51am

re: #550 ObserverArt

The Wrath of Palin.

You betcha.

“We’re sorry. God is not available right now. Would you like to speak to Phil Robertson or Sarah Palin?”

555 Stoatly  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 10:32:13am

re: #496 GlutenFreeJesus

Crust Saves

Youtube Video
Wigan Church of Pies

556 Joanne  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 11:18:16am

re: #509 FemNaziBitch

and me tooooo!

And youuuuuu tooooooo! (hippy birthday, hoppy birthday!)

557 chadu  Thu, Dec 19, 2013 11:18:29am

re: #171 The Ghost of a Flea

Those would be his gay friends that he has even though God frowns on them because of their unnatural lifestyle, who are destined for the hellfire he’s so comforted by the existence of? In spite of how it would anger God?

These tweets do not add up.

IOKIYAR


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