1 Iwouldprefernotto  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:27:06am

Good for her.

2 missliberties  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:33:05am

That was so freaking awesome!!

What do they do? Have folks sitting around watching every show, so they can see who is being naughty or nice? They called the show before it was even over?

Best of all, if you are going to put money behind shit, than show your face and stand behind it. Or are the Kochs a bunch of rich whiney cowards who want to put up millions for their agenda, while hiding in the closet?

3 makeitstop  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:36:53am

Ahh, she’s just reading from a script. She’s kinda interesting, though.

/

4 wrenchwench  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:37:01am

”..the selection of stories that we cover on the show reflects my belief as the host….”

WHOODA THUNK IT???!?

5 Ryan King  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:37:26am

Yep, just like Glenn Beck.

6 Justanotherhuman  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:38:12am

re: #2 missliberties

That was so freaking awesome!!

What do they do? Have folks sitting around watching every show, so they can see who is being naughty or nice? They called the show before it was even over?

Best of all, if you are going to put money behind shit, than show your face and stand behind it. Or are the Kochs a bunch of rich whiney cowards who want to put up millions for their agenda, while hiding in the closet?

They have their minions to do it.

Good on Rachel for calling their asses out.

7 Justanotherhuman  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:39:15am

Yikes!


I can’t imagine you could keep this place very warm…

8 William Barnett-Lewis  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:39:20am

re: #3 makeitstop

Ahh, she’s just reading from a script. She’s kinda interesting, though.

/

Hush, or KT will hear you and start using that line.

9 Charles Johnson  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:40:29am

Exclusive Rachel Maddow Interview Part 1: On Ratings, Reckless Romney, and More

Prior to our interview, TRMS Executive Producer Bill Wolff walked me through the paces of the program’s showprep, some of which centers around a massive handwritten whiteboard. One of Rachel’s little handwritten notes on the board is about Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, but it casually refers to him simply as “Governor Ultrasound,” a moniker she uses for him on the show. That’s not a put-on, that’s what she really calls him, that’s how he is known around the office. The Rachel Maddow you get on TV is absolutely authentic.

That show prep begins at around noon, as Wolff lists possible stories on that white board, while Rachel reads and writes in her office. From about 2 to 3 pm, Rachel and her staff go over the whiteboard, making notes and narrowing down or combining the stories into the six or seven segments you see on the show. From three on, Rachel and the show’s writers and producers put the show together, keeping an eye out for late developments like Monday’s Romney hidden video bombshell that throws the earlier plan out the window.

Both Rachel and Wolff are quick to share credit with the staff, who are charged with maintaining TRMS’ distinctive Maddowian voice, which they accomplish seamlessly. Rachel does have a hand in all of the writing, and writes several complete segments a week, but her staff makes it seem, to the viewer, as if she has written and polished every tile in the mosaic of stories they construct every night.

10 wrenchwench  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:41:37am

re: #8 William Barnett-Lewis

Hush, or KT will hear you and start continue to use using that line.

You must have missed the previous thread…

11 makeitstop  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:42:00am

re: #8 William Barnett-Lewis

Hush, or KT will hear you and start using that line.

Where do you think I got it?

12 jaunte  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:43:40am

Love the challenge at the end. Any time, boys.

13 Ryan King  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:43:45am

re: #9 Charles Johnson

She uses a whiteboard? Exactly.

14 William Barnett-Lewis  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:43:59am

Had a crash to contend with (that computer is still rebuilding, alas) so I must have missed it during that time.

smh

15 Lidane  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:44:47am

Rachel continues to be awesome. Good for her.

16 b_sharp  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:45:05am

re: #14 William Barnett-Lewis

Had a crash to contend with (that one is still rebuilding, alas, so I must have missed it during that time.

smh

Why did it crash?

17 darthstar  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:45:21am
18 darthstar  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:46:22am

re: #16 b_sharp

Why did it crash?

Drunk tweeting.

19 ramex  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:46:54am

You would think Phil Robertson’s supporters would want to speak up for Rachel Maddow’s first amendment rights being threatened. Wait… no you wouldn’t.

20 b_sharp  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:47:07am

re: #18 darthstar

Drunk tweeting.

I keep warning people.

But do they listen?

Nooo!

21 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:47:51am

re: #9 Charles Johnson

….writes several complete segments a week, but her staff makes it seem, to the viewer, as if she has written and polished every tile in the mosaic of stories they construct every night.

yeah, it’s not a secret. Nobody could single handedly write and research an hour long monologue every day, it’s just not possible.

22 ObserverArt  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:48:28am

re: #3 makeitstop

Ahh, she’s just reading from a script. She’s kinda interesting, though.

/

Probably. At least from what I read.

/

23 Ryan King  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:48:34am

re: #21 Killgore Trout

yeah, it’s not a secret. Nobody could single handedly write and research an hour long monologue every day, it’s just not possible.

And who believes that she does the whole show herself?

24 Charles Johnson  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:49:35am

re: #21 Killgore Trout

yeah, it’s not a secret. Nobody could single handedly write and research an hour long monologue every day, it’s just not possible.

I think you missed this part of the sentence:

Rachel does have a hand in all of the writing…

25 BongCrodny  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:50:12am

Hey! It’s Randolph and Mortimer Duke! Mor-tay!!

26 Charles Johnson  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:51:27am

re: #21 Killgore Trout

yeah, it’s not a secret. Nobody could single handedly write and research an hour long monologue every day, it’s just not possible.

And the point is that your claim Maddow just parrots words others write for her is simply not true.

27 Lidane  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:51:48am

re: #21 Killgore Trout

No shit. There is an entire staff working on Rachel’s show. This is not news.

It ALSO doesn’t invalidate the fact that she has a significant hand in what is said and done on her show. It’s got her name on it.

28 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:53:15am

re: #24 Charles Johnson

I think you missed this part of the sentence:

Once again we’re in agreement. Maddow, the producers, management, etc choose the topics and editorial direction and a staff of writers does the script. It’s how TV is done.

29 missliberties  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:53:31am

You know what else the Koch brothers get ultra defensive about….. talk of income inequality. Or how wages have stayed stagnant, while the uber wealthy make more in five minutes than a lowly hard working regular guy makes in a whole year. They don’t have a good answer for that and they don’t like it when folks talk about it.

My question for the Koch DudeBros, is why are they always hiding?

30 ObserverArt  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:54:18am

re: #27 Lidane

No shit. There is an entire staff working on Rachel’s show. This is not news.

It ALSO doesn’t invalidate the fact that she has a significant hand in what is said and done on her show. It’s got her name on it.

She didn’t build that!

/ ..wait, what?

31 makeitstop  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:54:18am

re: #28 Killgore Trout

Once again we’re in agreement. Maddow, the producers, management, etc choose the topics and editorial direction and a staff of writers does the script. It’s how TV is done.

Try to be a little more dismissive next time.

32 Ryan King  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:54:20am

All these poor souls that believe she writes every word in her show, all by herself, only to be mistaken because Management writes every word.

Call the Juxtaposition Police, we have an Article 6 infraction.

33 Lidane  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:54:56am

re: #28 Killgore Trout

Except that Rachel writes her own script. She’s not just fed lines from other people and told to read them. She’s got a PhD in public policy, for fuck’s sake. Your tiresome act of pretending it’s all just staged theater belittles her education and her hard work.

34 Ryan King  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:56:16am

Lady Half Gov just returned from a cabin and posted on Facebook:

So resolutions shall be repeated here to hold myself accountable in 2014:

1) Eat more meat.
2) Help others make the Federal Government as irrelevant in our lives as possible.
3) Live out Coach John Wooden’s “Pyramid of Success”, encouraging everyone to do our individual part to live with industriousness, self-discipline and selflessness so we, collectively as a nation, can restore America to her exceptionalism. Certainly don’t wait for politicians or cultural icons to do it - it’s imperative we do our own individual part.

But wait, there’s more:

Here’s #4: Be even more aggressive in calling out media for practicing lapdog laziness. Hey reporters, we know that once Barack Obama got elected you bailed on keeping government accountable; you’ve been abject failures there. Case in point: Nixon’s presidency was over once reporters busted him for allowing his people to spy on political opponents. Today, the Obama Presidency’s hallmark is spying (in addition to violating economic and Constitutional liberties), for which you celebrate Barack Obama. Transparently hypocritical, much?

35 jaunte  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:56:32am

Did anyone ever claim that Maddow’s show was a single-handed effort? I missed that.

36 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:56:44am

re: #33 Lidane

Except that Rachel writes her own script.

Then what do the writers do? The article says she writes a couple segments per week on her own. Who writes the rest of them?

37 darthstar  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:58:56am

The link is an email Todd sent with a picture of his dick.

The rest of the thread is pretty funny.

38 Iwouldprefernotto  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:59:14am

re: #36 Killgore Trout

Then what do the writers do? The article says she writes a couple segments per week on her own. Who writes the rest of them?

I give up.

39 makeitstop  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:59:17am

re: #29 missliberties

You know what else the Koch brothers get ultra defensive about….. talk of income inequality. Or how wages have stayed stagnant, while the uber wealthy make more in five minutes than a lowly hard working regular guy makes in a whole year. They don’t have a good answer for that and they don’t like it when folks talk about it.

My question for the Koch DudeBros, is why are they always hiding?

Let’s remember where their vast wealth initially came from.

A People’s History of Koch Industries: How Stalin Funded the Tea Party Movement

They probably wouldn’t want to talk about that, either.

40 Lidane  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:59:20am

re: #36 Killgore Trout

And again you belittle and dismiss her because she doesn’t exist in a neat, pre-fab MBF world just for you.

Rachel has a PhD in public policy. She takes the topics she talks about seriously. She does research, and she has a heavy hand in her own goddamn show. Just because you want to pretend that it’s all fed to her by other people doesn’t invalidate that.

41 Charles Johnson  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 11:59:44am

re: #28 Killgore Trout

Once again we’re in agreement. Maddow, the producers, management, etc choose the topics and editorial direction and a staff of writers does the script. It’s how TV is done.

No, actually, we aren’t in agreement about this at all. The interview I just posted shows that Maddow controls the editorial direction of her show, that she has a hand in all the writing, and that she writes quite a few complete segments entirely by herself.

Yes, she has a staff. That’s not evidence for your claims that she’s just a talking head saying whatever management wants her to say.

42 makeitstop  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:01:53pm

re: #40 Lidane

And again you belittle and dismiss her because she doesn’t exist in a neat, pre-fab MBF world just for you.

Rachel has a PhD in public policy. She takes the topics she talks about seriously. She does research, and she has a heavy hand in her own goddamn show. Just because you want to pretend that it’s all fed to her by other people doesn’t invalidate that.

She was a Rhodes Scholar as well, no?

Rachel is smart, successful and accomplished. Maybe someone’s a tad jealous.

43 ObserverArt  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:02:50pm

re: #36 Killgore Trout

Then what do the writers do? The article says she writes a couple segments per week on her own. Who writes the rest of them?

So, no idea what a script is, eh? No idea how she could not write it all yet still lay down an outline? Outline, like a script, the direction the show will go.

Oh, you mean she has to script it all? Words are fun aren’t they? Like people in many ways.

44 RealityBasedSteve  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:02:56pm

The ability to follow the money trail is getting harder and harder with the changes that are being suggested and made. Right now it’s possible to make very large contributions to one of the various special interest groups who specialize in “Advocacy and Education” (which is a legal fig leaf more and more), claim a tax deduction, and not have to have your name listed.

Some (the right) would argue that “Forcing people to make their name available opens them up to abuse from the left”, but that argument really doesn’t cut it for me.

Here is what I would like to see.

1. Any contribution to any organization that endorses OR opposes any candidate CAN NOT be tax deductible. Put a reasonable limit on the amount that any one individual can contribute, both to an individual candidate and during any given political cycle.

2. Any contribution to any organization that is a true Advocacy and Education based can be tax deductible, but the names and amount have to be made available.

3. Any organization that wants a tax-deductible / non-profit status has to make the names and amounts of ALL donors available.

I’m sure that I haven’t considered all the aspects of this, but that’s ok with me for now. This is a strategic level overview, not a tactical implementation.

To begin to imagine that I have as much access and influence with my local congresscritter or state rep as the NPO that can donate basically unlimited amounts into that individuals PAC is laughable. Lets try and even things up a bit somehow.

RBS
And a pony… I want a pony.

45 Charles Johnson  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:05:27pm
46 bratwurst  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:06:21pm

re: #42 makeitstop

Rachel is smart, successful and accomplished. Maybe someone’s a tad jealous.

I would say more of a contrarian who shows his low regard for most people here by attacking someone many of us respect.

47 missliberties  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:07:28pm

re: #15 Lidane

Rachel continues to be awesome. Good for her.

I don’t think folks are fully aware of the far reaching agenda of the Kochs.

Love that Rachel moxie. Why do they need to hide? She aint gonna read their script. They are welcome to come on the show and speak for themselves.

The Kochs have quietly pushed free market purists on several school boards, and state universities, spending millions to usurp longtime qualified locals who don’t know how to ‘think right’ about the wonders of pure freedom that would be unleashed by worshipping at the altar of unfettered capitalism.

48 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:08:14pm

Afternoon Lizardim.

49 Lidane  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:08:23pm

re: #35 jaunte

Did anyone ever claim that Maddow’s show was a single-handed effort? I missed that.

She’s just like Bugs Bunny in this cartoon, don’tcha know:

Vimeo

Rachel does it all — sets, lighting, cameras, editing, wardrobe, hair, makeup, etc. If anyone else helps her out, she’s just a useless puppet for The Man.

50 GlutenFreeJesus  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:09:25pm

re: #36 Killgore Trout

Then what do the writers do? The article says she writes a couple segments per week on her own. Who writes the rest of them?

Seriously. Who put a bug up your butt?

51 Eventual Carrion  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:09:43pm

re: #36 Killgore Trout

Then what do the writers do? The article says she writes a couple segments per week on her own. Who writes the rest of them?

People under her direction.

52 Bridgeghazi: Never Forget!!11!!!!11  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:10:01pm

re: #37 darthstar

Was, was that really Todd’s Little Richard?

53 GlutenFreeJesus  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:10:30pm

I’d love to see the Koch family on Undercover Boss. But we all know that will never happen. Ever.

54 missliberties  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:11:10pm

re: #35 jaunte

Or any show for that matter. Of course every show has producers, researchers etc. Rachel has an exceptional staff. Her stories are interesting and often not in sync with the ‘talking points’ of the day, that most other shows succumb to.

55 gwangung  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:11:47pm

re: #21 Killgore Trout

yeah, it’s not a secret. Nobody could single handedly write and research an hour long monologue every day, it’s just not possible.

Yet you keep making idiotic statements like “her saying what the producers tell her to” and minimizing her role.

That’s dishonest.

56 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:12:05pm

I’m seeing a few more reports about this now.

57 Stanley Sea  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:13:39pm

re: #42 makeitstop

She was a Rhodes Scholar as well, no?

Rachel is smart, successful and accomplished. Maybe someone’s a tad jealous.

Someone just wants attention again. It’s all KT’s got.

58 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:15:03pm

re: #40 Lidane

And again you belittle and dismiss her because she doesn’t exist in a neat, pre-fab MBF world just for you.

Actually one of the reasons I don’t care for her show is it does fit into a “neat, pre-fab” world. It’s a show with a target demographic that doesn’t include me. I’m not at all surprised that she’s opposed to the Koch bros., I knew that already. I’m not surprised she refuses to give them the retraction they asked for. Opposition to Koch Bros. projects is editorial policy on all the MSNBC shows and has been for quite some time. I know a lot of people find this exciting and refreshing and it is just what I would have predicted her response would be.

59 Iwouldprefernotto  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:16:32pm

I don’t watch her show a lot, but the few times I have she has given credit to her producers. I’ve even seen her dragging them out to be on camera and report their findings.

60 Eventual Carrion  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:17:47pm

re: #56 Backwoods_Sleuth

I’m seeing a few more reports about this now.

[Embedded content]

And AQ thanks the US profusely.

61 gwangung  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:18:12pm

re: #58 Killgore Trout

Actually one of the reasons I don’t care for her show is it does fit into a “neat, pre-fab” world. It’s a show with a target demographic that doesn’t include me.

You need to do better than that. Not-Kilgore is a BIG category and does not particularly discriminate among different varieties of Not-Kilgore thought, particularly among observations that are obvious and those that are non-obvious and not often heard.

It’s sloppy and lazy thinking as it now stands.

62 Iwouldprefernotto  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:18:25pm

re: #60 Eventual Carrion

And AQ thanks the US profusely.

Has the right wing blamed Obama yet?

63 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:18:53pm

re: #56 Backwoods_Sleuth

I’m seeing a few more reports about this now.

[Embedded content]

Yeah, that’s a bummer. For a while there it looked like Iraq might hold together but regional instability and spillover from Syria isn’t going to stop anytime soon. What a mess.

64 makeitstop  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:19:17pm

re: #62 Iwouldprefernotto

Has the right wing blamed Obama yet?

It’s the weekend. I figure they’ll really get into it in earnest on Monday morning.

65 Lidane  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:22:26pm

re: #58 Killgore Trout

It’s a show with a target demographic that doesn’t include me.

Not enough pepper spray for your tastes, eh?

So basically, because you’re intellectually lazy you see fit to dismiss an educated, successful woman who offers an opinion you don’t agree with just because her show has a staff. Gotcha.

66 GlutenFreeJesus  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:23:23pm

re: #60 Eventual Carrion

And AQ thanks the US profusely.

Liberators!

67 Ming  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:25:09pm

re: #47 missliberties

The Kochs have quietly pushed free market purists on several school boards, and state universities, spending millions to usurp longtime qualified locals who don’t know how to ‘think right’ about the wonders of pure freedom that would be unleashed by worshipping at the altar of unfettered capitalism.

I agree with your comment. I think it’s worth emphasizing that many on the right wing sing the praises of “the free market”, but don’t practice what they preach. Are the Koch brothers against special tax breaks, specifically for the oil industry? Are they against the hundreds of billions of dollars in farm subsidies that go to red states? Do they favor simplifying our Soviet-style ultra-complex tax code?

I don’t know any of these details. But I sometimes would love to ask people like the Koch brothers what exactly they mean by “pure freedom”, “the free market”, or “unfettered capitalism”.

68 wrenchwench  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:36:24pm
69 dog philosopher  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:36:29pm

Pope Francis is calling for a change in the culture of seminaries, saying priests who are taught only to toe the line will become “little monsters.”
…
“Problems are not solved simply by forbidding doing this or that. Dialogue as well as confrontation are needed,” he said.
…
“Formation [of future priests] is a work of art, not a police action,” he added. “We must form their hearts. Otherwise we are creating little monsters. And then these little monsters mold the people of God. This really gives me goose bumps.”
…
“Just think of the religious who have hearts as sour as vinegar,” he said at one point. “They are not made for the people. In the end, we must not form administrators, managers — but fathers, brothers, traveling companions.”
…
“This is really very important to me: the need to become acquainted with reality by experience, to spend time walking on the periphery in order really to become acquainted with the reality and life-experiences of people,” he said.

“If this does not happen we then run the risk of being abstract ideologists or fundamentalists, which is not healthy.”

this advice should have a much wider application beyond merely catholic seminarians

70 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:37:09pm

Marines’ Post-Benghazi Forces Rescue Embassy Personnel -

Marines escorted U.S. State Department personnel aboard a plane Friday, evacuating much of the embassy in Juba, South Sudan, as the conflict there escalated and put the safety of the embassy at risk. It’s the latest action for the Marine Corps task force established last year to respond to such emergencies, and it’s unlikely their involvement in Africa will wane anytime soon. In fact, the Marines’ response in South Sudan comes despite the creation last year of a U.S. Army crisis-response unit that was supposed to handle emergencies in the region. And if recent movements are any indication, the force faces the prospect of mission creep as instability across the region raises the prospect of more violence in Egypt, Libya and other countries. The Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response, as the Marine Corps unit is known, was established in the wake of the Benghazi debacle last spring to respond by air to crises across northern Africa, primarily from bases in Morón, Spain, and Sigonella, Italy, with KC-130J planes and MV-22B tilt-rotor Ospreys.

71 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:41:01pm

Smile break:

72 AlexRogan  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:44:02pm

re: #21 Killgore Trout

yeah, it’s not a secret. Nobody could single handedly write and research an hour long monologue every day, it’s just not possible.

What’s your fucking point, KT?

73 wrenchwench  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:44:37pm

re: #71 Backwoods_Sleuth

Smile break:

[Embedded content]

I laughed.

Ooops, it was a ‘smile’ break!

74 Snarknado!  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:47:36pm

Meanwhile, it’s a sunny day in the Bay Area, weather in the high ’60s (sorry everyone east of me!) and I’m going out into it. See y’all later!

(Go Rachel! Go Rachel! GO RACHEL!)

75 Charles Johnson  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:48:08pm
76 ObserverArt  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:54:21pm

So, Kilgore, do you support the Koch Brothers and all their methods of setting up and/or backing various political groups they can ‘script’ into doing politically predictable stances to support their interests?

What kind of sources do you support and trust, or is that cynicism all encompassing and you trust no one other than your own views on everything? And should you trust no one, then doesn’t your own view become prefabbed preconception?

77 dog philosopher  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:55:05pm

re: #67 Ming

Do they favor simplifying our Soviet-style ultra-complex tax code?

was there really an ‘ultra-complex’ tax code in the soviet union?

78 Romantic Heretic  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:55:40pm

I find it amusing that the person with the biggest balls in journalism is a woman.

79 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:56:28pm

This Arctic cold thing that’s coming reminds me of January 19-20, 1985.
I was at my amateur radio club’s annual club holiday party in Joliet. After dinner & festivities, drove the short distance to a friend’s house in New Lenox to continue said festivities. A bottle of wine in my car had frozen in the very few hours during the dinner. On the way to New Lenox, my oil filter exploded (it was frozen as well).
Spent that Sunday bundled up in many blankets on my friend’s living room sofa, watching ice build up inside the house along the window and door frames.
That was the year that Chicago recorded a record low of −27 °F coupled with 25 mph winds to produce a wind chill of −77 °F, also never recorded before in Chicago.

Seriously, once in a lifetime was more than enough for me.

80 Charles Johnson  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:56:40pm
81 makeitstop  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:57:52pm

Well, this must have been jolly fun…

Plane lands on Major Deegan Expressway

82 Romantic Heretic  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 12:59:36pm

re: #29 missliberties

You know what else the Koch brothers get ultra defensive about….. talk of income inequality. Or how wages have stayed stagnant, while the uber wealthy make more in five minutes than a lowly hard working regular guy makes in a whole year. They don’t have a good answer for that and they don’t like it when folks talk about it.

My question for the Koch DudeBros, is why are they always hiding?

They’re hoping that when the revolution comes they’ll have enough time to escape with all their money. A wall of obvious minions will protect them.

83 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:04:12pm

re: #79 Backwoods_Sleuth

My very first winter here in Minnesota (2006-2007), it got bitterly cold during January and February, in the well-below-zero vein like we’re having this weekend. It was my first experience with cold that frigid, and I spent it in a drafty old cabin that leaked like a sieve. My truck would barely roll over in the mornings and I burned so much gas letting it idle long enough to warm up.

84 CuriousLurker  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:05:05pm

re: #65 Lidane

Not enough pepper spray for your tastes, eh?

So basically, because you’re intellectually lazy you see fit to dismiss an educated, successful woman who offers an opinion you don’t agree with just because her show has a staff. Gotcha.

If you think about it, KT rarely if ever talks about which news shows’ target demographic does include him (if there are any that do). He also manages to avoid revealing news sources he considers reliable, thereby avoiding any criticism or ridicule of his own sources.

All he does is point & laugh at items he’s cherry-picked from liberal sources we’re likely to respect or identify with, portraying their liberal audiences—or in the case of blogs, their active members—as credulous, bobble-headed sheeple who exist in an echo chamber and like it that way (unlike himself, who is neither left nor right, but an independent thinker and very special snowflake). Why? Because he knows it’ll make us twitch and because always straddling the fence & playing the part of contrarian gives him deniability.

Why does he like to make us twitch? I don’t know.

Maybe he’s just bored and does it for shits & giggles.

Maybe it makes him feel superior.

Maybe he really & truly cares about everyone here and believes his efforts are helping us (though you’d think the hostility he encounters would give him a clue that his method isn’t working).

Maybe it’s performance art and he’s doing it for some unknown 3rd party’s entertainment.

Who knows? And at the end of the day, who really cares? We all have interests & activities outside this blog and can walk away from it any time we choose.

As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, Charles is the only one who can’t easily pull the plug and walk away from LGF. Hmm… interesting.

85 Romantic Heretic  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:10:05pm

re: #67 Ming

I don’t know any of these details. But I sometimes would love to ask people like the Koch brothers what exactly they mean by “pure freedom”, “the free market”, or “unfettered capitalism”.

Like all people of their ilk, they care nothing for freedom or capitalism. They are only concerned about power and wealth.

Which is why they are working so hard to remake the country in their image. When America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries they will be the most powerful and most wealthy. Furthermore, they would cheerfully support Communism if it made them more wealthy and powerful.

In fact, as I’ve noted before, many ‘capitalists’ (inheriting money does not make a person a capitalist) agree with Marx’s analysis of capitalism and work hard to make it so. Their only two points of dissent are they believe this form of capitalism is a good thing and the class war their behaviour provokes will be won by them.

86 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:10:40pm

re: #83 thedopefishlives

My very first winter here in Minnesota (2006-2007), it got bitterly cold during January and February, in the well-below-zero vein like we’re having this weekend. It was my first experience with cold that frigid, and I spent it in a drafty old cabin that leaked like a sieve. My truck would barely roll over in the mornings and I burned so much gas letting it idle long enough to warm up.

I spent my younger years in New York State, from Malone to Buffalo, then almost 20 of my young adult years in solidly in the lake effect snow area south of Chicago.
Which is why I chose to spend my “declining years” in eastern Kentucky, which normally has mild winters. You know the kind: “oh yay! pretty snow! oooh…temps dropping to the 20s tonight, fire up that woodstove!”
I so totally hate sub-zero temps, especially with 20-30 mph winds.

Be forewarned everyone…I am going to haz a VERY SERIOUS grumpy Monday & Tuesday…

87 Just never mind.  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:11:20pm

Ok, Lizards….
Say your prayers for the Hoopster.
It’s going down to -55F in Wisconsin tonight & he’s SO not prepared!

88 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:11:44pm

re: #84 CuriousLurker

Ha! I was thinking “performance art” just a few minutes ago.

Needs mohr frogs though…

89 blueraven  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:11:53pm

Mission Accomplished

90 Romantic Heretic  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:12:02pm

re: #72 AlexRogan

What’s your fucking point, KT?

Liberals bad. Conservatives good.

91 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:12:09pm

re: #87 Floral Giraffe

Ok, Lizards….
Say your prayers for the Hoopster.
It’s going down to -55F in Wisconsin tonight & he’s SO not prepared!

Yeah, I’ve been thinking about him a lot over the course of this cold snap, being my (virtual) neighbor and all.

92 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:12:52pm

re: #87 Floral Giraffe

Ok, Lizards….
Say your prayers for the Hoopster.
It’s going down to -55F in Wisconsin tonight & he’s SO not prepared!

dayum…

93 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:13:16pm

re: #86 Backwoods_Sleuth

I spent most of my formative years on the Illinois plain and just off the southeast corner of Lake Michigan. It never seemed to get as cold on the lake as it does up here, though.

94 b_sharp  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:13:39pm

re: #87 Floral Giraffe

Ok, Lizards….
Say your prayers for the Hoopster.
It’s going down to -55F in Wisconsin tonight & he’s SO not prepared!

No central heat?

95 Just never mind.  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:14:13pm

re: #91 thedopefishlives

He’s thinking about burning furniture, if the power goes off.
It’s DAMN cold!

96 b_sharp  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:14:49pm

re: #95 Floral Giraffe

He’s thinking about burning furniture, if the power goes off.
It’s DAMN cold!

What the hell is he living in, a log cabin?

97 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:16:46pm

re: #93 thedopefishlives

I spent most of my formative years on the Illinois plain and just off the southeast corner of Lake Michigan. It never seemed to get as cold on the lake as it does up here, though.

True, but lots and LOTS of snow. I worked about 10 miles west of my house there, I would roll into town with my car covered in snow and people would be looking at me thinking “where the hell did you just come from?”
The lake effect stopped about 2 miles west of my farm. Go from three feet of snow to dry pavement as if there was a force field installed.

98 RealityBasedSteve  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:18:24pm

re: #87 Floral Giraffe

Ok, Lizards….
Say your prayers for the Hoopster.
It’s going down to -55F in Wisconsin tonight & he’s SO not prepared!

Even when you’re prepared, -55 is going to be brutal and then some.

RBS

99 Kid A  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:19:01pm
100 William Barnett-Lewis  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:20:06pm

re: #79 Backwoods_Sleuth

This Arctic cold thing that’s coming reminds me of January 19-20, 1985.
I was at my amateur radio club’s annual club holiday party in Joliet. After dinner & festivities, drove the short distance to a friend’s house in New Lenox to continue said festivities. A bottle of wine in my car had frozen in the very few hours during the dinner. On the way to New Lenox, my oil filter exploded (it was frozen as well).
Spent that Sunday bundled up in many blankets on my friend’s living room sofa, watching ice build up inside the house along the window and door frames.
That was the year that Chicago recorded a record low of −27 °F coupled with 25 mph winds to produce a wind chill of −77 °F, also never recorded before in Chicago.

Seriously, once in a lifetime was more than enough for me.

I remember that cold wave but I was in the Army stationed in Kansas with the 1st Infantry. The wind came down from Canada across those damn plains with nothing to slow it down. We were out on maneuvers and I drew KP that day. Halfway through the day when 75% of one Infantry Battalion had gone down from cold injuries, they pulled the plug on the exercise.

And then forgot about the mess unit. We had broken down everything but one tent and one cook stove we were using for heat. The walls of the GP Large were frozen solid and we just huddled around the stove hoping they’d remember us before we ran out of gas for the stove. They did but barely. It sputtered out as we loaded ourselves onto the truck to go back to the barracks. I pray that hell is hot because the cold hell of norse myth seems even worse to me than that after that night on KP.

101 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:20:56pm

re: #84 CuriousLurker
Well, not that you’re asking me but I’ll answer anyways.
Not much cable news appeals to me. I suppose the closest thing would be BBC which has nice coverage of international, foreign policy stuff. I dislike the TV format because it’s too passive, the viewer just absorbs what their told. With print stories it’s easier to stop reading, google the author, pause and check a fact, look up the author of a quote, etc. For editorial stuff I like Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, Christian Science Monitor, and NYT. I like the longer format and more nuanced opinions over short simplistic partisan stuff.

102 AntonSirius  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:20:58pm

re: #52 People For The Ethical Treatment Of Sarah Palin

Was, was that really Todd’s Little Richard?

Or his toy Kincannon?

103 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:21:27pm

re: #97 Backwoods_Sleuth

True, but lots and LOTS of snow. I worked about 10 miles west of my house there, I would roll into town with my car covered in snow and people would be looking at me thinking “where the hell did you just come from?”
The lake effect stopped about 2 miles west of my farm. Go from three feet of snow to dry pavement as if there was a force field installed.

Yeah, even a good old-fashioned Minnesota blizzard can’t hold a candle to the lake effect snow. We had an April snowstorm that left us without power for 4 days. The tall drift at the top of the driveway was over the hood of our truck; I had to cut it down with a shovel and a snowblower so that Dad could get out to town to get us water. It turned out later that the generator we were running was capable of running the well pump, had we wanted to use it.

104 Kid A  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:21:45pm

The Republican outreach to gays continues:

105 b_sharp  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:21:46pm

re: #98 RealityBasedSteve

Even when you’re prepared, -55 is going to be brutal and then some.

RBS

He needs to build an igloo. If properly built, the snow acts as an insulator and the temperature inside won’t go much below 0C.

but then again, a properly built insulted house with central heating seldom goes below room temperature.

106 Dr Lizardo  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:21:47pm

re: #87 Floral Giraffe

Ok, Lizards….
Say your prayers for the Hoopster.
It’s going down to -55F in Wisconsin tonight & he’s SO not prepared!

I’ve never been in anything that cold. Coldest I’ve been in is -4 F. Berlin, 2010.

107 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:22:00pm

re: #87 Floral Giraffe

Ok, Lizards….
Say your prayers for the Hoopster.
It’s going down to -55F in Wisconsin tonight & he’s SO not prepared!

Damn, I’ll say a prayer in a Siberian accent for added warmth bonus.

108 ObserverArt  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:23:37pm

Sending warm thoughts to ‘hoops!

Sounds like central Ohio is in for this cold dip starting tomorrow night and all through Tuesday. We may see -10 with some wind.

And Sleuth, that cold you wrote about in ‘85. It may not be the exact same snap, but I remember one time that year when it was around -10 or less here in Columbus and I went out to start my VW Rabbit (‘80) and warm it up. I got in, cranked it over and was planning on letting it warm slowly. I was getting ready to go back in the house and as I got out of the car, my usual routine of shutting the car off and getting out took over. I meant to leave the key in the ignition and keep it running. No problem though…I was able to remove the key and car stayed running. Damn thing was so cold, the springs on the connectors in the switch must have been cold and damp with a thin coat of ice enough, they stayed in the on position. Never had that happen before or since.

109 Eventual Carrion  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:24:02pm

re: #99 Kid A

[Embedded content]

And that annoying 3rd grade lesson about the water cycle. Heat causes water to evaporate into the atmosphere, water is suspended in atmosphere until conditions cause it to fall back to earth as precipitation (rain, snow, hail, etc). More heat means, more moisture evaporated into the atmosphere, which means more comes down as precipitation. Is he not smarter than a 3rd grader?

110 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:24:16pm

On this side of the St. Croix, Governor Mark Dayton has already closed the schools for Monday and many businesses are already telling their workers not to come in. My employer is one of them, but like a crazy idiot, I am probably going to try to get into the office.

111 b_sharp  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:24:45pm

re: #109 Eventual Carrion

And that annoying 3rd grade lesson about the water cycle. Heat causes water to evaporate into the atmosphere, water is suspended in atmosphere until conditions cause it to fall back to earth as precipitation (rain, snow, hail, etc). More heat means, more moisture evaporated into the atmosphere, which means more comes down as precipitation. Is he not smarter than a 3rd grader?

Probably not.

112 William Barnett-Lewis  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:26:10pm

re: #110 thedopefishlives

On this side of the St. Croix, Governor Mark Dayton has already closed the schools for Monday and many businesses are already telling their workers not to come in. My employer is one of them, but like a crazy idiot, I am probably going to try to get into the office.

I’ll grant this to the idiot, but Walker wanted to do the same but the Governor doesn’t have the authority to do that in Wisconsin. Figures that one of the few good things he wanted to do he can’t while he can do all kinds of things to screw the state up…

113 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:28:07pm

re: #101 Killgore Trout

Well, not that you’re asking me but I’ll answer anyways.
Not much cable news appeals to me. I suppose the closest thing would be BBC which has nice coverage of international, foreign policy stuff. I dislike the TV format because it’s too passive, the viewer just absorbs what their told. With print stories it’s easier to stop reading, google the author, pause and check a fact, look up the author of a quote, etc. For editorial stuff I like Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, Christian Science Monitor, and NYT. I like the longer format and more nuanced opinions over short simplistic partisan stuff.

I forgot to add Mother Jones. I don’t really consider them an outlet for reliable news but I will read their editorials. Quite often they are surprising and have a fresh perspective I hadn’t considered before.

114 Just never mind.  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:28:16pm

re: #96 b_sharp

What the hell is he living in, a log cabin?

Pretty much. He’s just moved there & is TOTALLY unprepared!

115 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:29:18pm

re: #110 thedopefishlives

On this side of the St. Croix, Governor Mark Dayton has already closed the schools for Monday and many businesses are already telling their workers not to come in. My employer is one of them, but like a crazy idiot, I am probably going to try to get into the office.

Pretty sure you’ll be changing your mind about that…
;)

116 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:30:17pm

re: #114 Floral Giraffe

Pretty much. He’s just moved there & is TOTALLY unprepared!

Is it too late for him to find a hotel that will let Winston stay with him?

ETA: Because that is what I would STRONGLY suggest he do…

117 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:31:04pm

re: #115 Backwoods_Sleuth

Pretty sure you’ll be changing your mind about that…
;)

Oh, I probably will. I’m not worried about the house, the Mrs. Fish has that covered; and the car has just had its latest round of routine maintenance and is ready to fly. It’s trying to navigate around all the other people as stupid as I am that’s the problem.

118 b_sharp  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:31:21pm

re: #116 Backwoods_Sleuth

Is it too late for him to find a hotel that will let Winston stay with him?

Yes, if possible.

119 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:31:48pm

re: #117 thedopefishlives

Oh, I probably will. I’m not worried about the house, the Mrs. Fish has that covered; and the car has just had its latest round of routine maintenance and is ready to fly. It’s trying to navigate around all the other people as stupid as I am that’s the problem.

^^THIS^^

120 CuriousLurker  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:32:29pm

re: #101 Killgore Trout

Well, not that you’re asking me but I’ll answer anyways.
Not much cable news appeals to me. I suppose the closest thing would be BBC which has nice coverage of international, foreign policy stuff. I dislike the TV format because it’s too passive, the viewer just absorbs what their told. With print stories it’s easier to stop reading, google the author, pause and check a fact, look up the author of a quote, etc. For editorial stuff I like Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, Christian Science Monitor, and NYT. I like the longer format and more nuanced opinions over short simplistic partisan stuff.

Interesting, thanks. I don’t much like cable news either and in its place have come to depend on many of the same sources you mention (except for the Daily Beast). Maybe one day soon you’ll post a link to an article by one of them and we can all discuss it like grown-ups for a change.

Believe it or not, I miss the “old” (pre-Occupy) KT.

121 b_sharp  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:34:18pm

re: #114 Floral Giraffe

Pretty much. He’s just moved there & is TOTALLY unprepared!

So you’re saying he has no heat in the house? Oh shit.

-55F (-48C) is nothing to fuck around with. Neither is burning wood inside a house, CO2 and CO build up to dangerous levels.

Does he have a basement?

122 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:35:18pm

re: #120 CuriousLurker

Believe it or not, I miss the “old” (pre-Occupy) KT.

Believe it or not, I am the old pre-occupy KT. You shouldn’t miss me, I’m right here.

123 William Barnett-Lewis  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:36:49pm

re: #122 Killgore Trout

Believe it or not, I am the old pre-occupy KT. You shouldn’t miss me, I’m right here.

No. No, he’s not. You got scared and became some one else. The rest of us still mourn the loss.

124 Justanotherhuman  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:42:38pm

Exposed skin could get frostbite within 10 min in what’s coming to NE Ohio…


I hope they get everyone off the streets and people show some common sense, like staying indoors.

125 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:42:52pm

Just went out and re-attached a board that had fallen out of Outdoor Cat’s kitteh house. Hopefully she will be able to stay warm through this cold. It has a heater pad in it and the Mrs. Fish lined it with ripped-up old jeans and cardboard boxes.

126 Just never mind.  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:43:58pm

re: #116 Backwoods_Sleuth

I tried, but he can’t get out from where he is now.

127 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:44:32pm

re: #126 Floral Giraffe

I tried, but he can’t get out from where he is now.

Ugh. I hope he will be okay. This weekend is going to be rough.

128 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:44:33pm

re: #126 Floral Giraffe

I tried, but he can’t get out from where he is now.

well, crap. Hard-headed he is…

129 CuriousLurker  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:44:42pm

re: #122 Killgore Trout

Believe it or not, I am the old pre-occupy KT. You shouldn’t miss me, I’m right here.

Heh, I had a feeling you were gonna say that. Sorry, but I disagree, and now, sadly, it’s gotten to the point where many feel guarded & hostile towards your mere appearance in a thread. I don’t think it’s a group delusion. Whatever the cause, it makes it damned near impossible to have a civil discussion with you, and I hope thing change this year. Speaking of—Happy New Year.

130 dog philosopher  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:45:39pm

re: #124 Justanotherhuman

Exposed skin could get frostbite within 10 min in what’s coming to NE Ohio…

I hope they get everyone off the streets and people show some common sense, like staying indoors.

the term ‘global warming’ has been such a red herring. we should be talking about Unusual Coldness + Unusual Warmness => Global Climate Change

131 CuriousLurker  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:46:09pm

re: #126 Floral Giraffe

I tried, but he can’t get out from where he is now.

Damn. :-(

132 dog philosopher  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:46:57pm

jehovah’s witnesses came around. tried to scare them off by discussing the Germanic Substrate Hypothesis…

133 Decatur Deb  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:47:12pm

re: #78 Romantic Heretic

I find it amusing that the person with the biggest balls in journalism is a woman.

Always been a bit of that around:

Image: b-17-01.jpg

Image: bourke-white001.jpg

134 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:47:26pm

re: #132 dog philosopher

jehovah’s witnesses came around. tried to scare them off by discussing the Germanic Substrate Hypothesis…

We had a couple of kids from the Latter Day Saints the other night. Part of me wanted to tell the Mrs. Fish to let ‘em in just to keep ‘em warm. It’s a bit cold to be going door-to-door.

135 Just never mind.  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:47:41pm

re: #122 Killgore Trout

Believe it or not, I am the old pre-occupy KT. You shouldn’t miss me, I’m right here.

I don’t miss you a bit! Because you’re still here!
{{{KT}}}

136 Justanotherhuman  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:49:15pm

Now you all have me worried about HH. Hope he’ll be OK…

re: #130 dog philosopher

the term ‘global warming’ has been such a red herring. we should be talking about Unusual Coldness + Unusual Warmness => Global Climate Change

This is abnormal, what’s going on now. It’s to be expected in climate change. The entire country, with the exception of the west coast and southwest bottom, is pretty much in the freezer with this Arctic mass hanging over us.

137 wrenchwench  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:49:19pm

re: #125 thedopefishlives

Just went out and re-attached a board that had fallen out of Outdoor Cat’s kitteh house. Hopefully she will be able to stay warm through this cold. It has a heater pad in it and the Mrs. Fish lined it with ripped-up old jeans and cardboard boxes.

She should be fine with a heater pad, but if you have wool stuff to add to the cotton stuff, she’ll be snuggly.

Mr. w never had pets until he took pity on a feral cat one winter. She would sleep in out newspaper recycling box, and he started putting a sock-wrapped bottle filled with hot water in it at night. We ended up coaxing her indoors, getting her spayed, and keeping her until we moved. She wasn’t tame enough to go with us, so we found her another home.

138 Decatur Deb  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:50:44pm

re: #137 wrenchwench

She should be fine with a heater pad, but if you have wool stuff to add to the cotton stuff, she’ll be snuggly.

Mr. w never had pets until he took pity on a feral cat one winter. She would sleep in out newspaper recycling box, and he started putting a sock-wrapped bottle filled with hot water in it at night. We ended up coaxing her indoors, getting her spayed, and keeping her until we moved. She wasn’t tame enough to go with us, so we found her another home.

I guess that would work with frozen LDS missionaries.

139 thedopefishlives  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:51:28pm

re: #137 wrenchwench

I’m a cat person, always have been. My cat was adopted from a young girl who worked at the grocery store who was getting rid of him. The Mrs. Fish bought her cat from the pet store in town. The outdoor cat was a rescue from the Mrs. Fish’s pet-abusing nieces and nephews. She had a daughter, whom we wound up giving to a no-kill shelter.

140 Justanotherhuman  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:53:32pm

Fucking tourists!

Plane makes emergency landing on Major Deegan Expressway

abclocal.go.com

They’re from CT—charge them for the inconvenience.

141 Killgore Trout  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 1:57:45pm

re: #135 Floral Giraffe

I don’t miss you a bit! Because you’re still here!
{{{KT}}}

That’s the spirit!

142 CuriousLurker  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:00:01pm

re: #137 wrenchwench

Heh, last month I bought a foot warmer heated mattress pad that covers the bottom 25” of the mattress from side-to-side, because my cats were always trying to bogart the small heating pad I used for my feet. Now all three of us are happy—my feet stay warm, and they rarely insist on sharing my blanket or sleeping on top of my back or side anymore.

143 Eclectic Cyborg  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:01:59pm

AP Interview: MS Gov. Bryant supports drug testing for welfare recipients

Bryant: “If I was receiving any federal or state benefits to help raise my family, I’d be glad to take a drug test. I think that would be something that would be acceptable to me if I was receiving tax benefits. I work hard for my money. The federal government or the state government has a right, I think, to merely ask people who are receiving benefits through TANF to submit to a drug test so that we can identify if you’re abusing a substance and then how we go about treating you for that.”

He’s also standing firm on his decision to refuse the Medicaid expansion in the ACA:

AP: Your plan to expand community health centers could help provide more primary care coverage, but it wouldn’t cover hospitalization. Expanding Medicaid could help cover hospital expenses for some people who are currently uninsured.

Bryant: “For us to enter into an expansion program would be a fool’s errand. I mean, here we would be saying to 300,000 Mississippians, ‘We’re going to provide Medicaid coverage to you,’ and then the federal government through Congress or through the Senate, would do away with or alter the Affordable Care Act, and then we have no way to pay that. We have no way to continue the coverage.”

This state drives me mad sometimes.

144 Backwoods_Sleuth  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:03:06pm

A few British weather-related tweets to lighten the atmosphere:

145 wrenchwench  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:05:22pm

re: #142 CuriousLurker

Heh, last month I bought a foot warmer heated mattress pad that covers the bottom 25” of the mattress from side-to-side, because my cats were always trying to bogart the small heating pad I used for my feet. Now all three of us are happy—my feet stay warm, and they rarely insist on sharing my blanket or sleeping on top of my back or side anymore.

That looks like a great idea…

146 Varek Raith  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:06:26pm

re: #58 Killgore Trout

What did she say about the Koch Bros that needs to be retracted?
Specifics.

147 Lidane  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:10:52pm

re: #143 Eclectic Cyborg

AP Interview: MS Gov. Bryant supports drug testing for welfare recipients

Ask Rick Scott how well that shit has worked out in Florida.

Drug testing welfare recipients is the new “PUNISH THE POOR!” on the right. It’s an easy emotional argument to make but in practice it’s a massive waste of time and state resources that would be better spent elsewhere.

148 Dark_Falcon  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:12:42pm

re: #146 Varek Raith

What did she say about the Koch Bros that needs to be retracted?
Specifics.

Yeah, what is this kerfuffle about anyway?

149 CuriousLurker  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:13:12pm

re: #145 wrenchwench

That looks like a great idea…

Oh, here—I just found this at The Weather Channel and thought of you:
Mongolarachne jurassica.

Yes, you’re now forever assocaited with bikes & spiders in my mind. LOL

150 Justanotherhuman  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:14:59pm

Not such a Very British Problem…


I think I’ve gained at least 8 lbs since Thanksgiving. Damn it.

151 Eclectic Cyborg  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:15:40pm

Is it considered morbid that I like to occasionally go back and rewatch the plane strike footage from 9/11?

152 missliberties  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:18:21pm

re: #67 Ming

But I sometimes would love to ask people like the Koch brothers what exactly they mean by “pure freedom”, “the free market”, or “unfettered capitalism”.

Sensible people would ask these questions, for chist’s sake!! Where are the journalists? It is unbelievable to me that the folks with a whit of common sense have let the media run away with this ‘supply side’ freedom crap.

Precious Alan Greenspan recently explained that the housing bubble was unpreventable, noting that capitalism does these things and is always preferrable to regulations which he labeled socialism. Pure capitalism in any country around the world is always preferrable to ‘socialism’ i.e. laws restricting markets! The absolutism expressed in his beliefs was a bit astounding and in my view absurd.

153 CuriousLurker  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:20:57pm

re: #145 wrenchwench

That looks like a great idea…

It was $40 very well spent. Now they both have plenty of room to curl up or stretch out without any fur flying over who gets “the warm” (though there is still the occasional dust-up over preferred sides of the bed).

154 CuriousLurker  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:22:27pm

Okay, time to make a fresh pot of coffee & some dinner.

Later, lizards.

155 Just never mind.  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:23:44pm

re: #151 Eclectic Cyborg

Is it considered morbid that I like to occasionally go back and rewatch the plane strike footage from 9/11?

Yes, but I lost friends there, so my opinion is maybe a little different.

156 wrenchwench  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:31:08pm

re: #149 CuriousLurker

Oh, here—I just found this at The Weather Channel and thought of you:
Mongolarachne jurassica.

Yes, you’re now forever assocaited with bikes & spiders in my mind. LOL

Spiders are often associated with bikes, because people put them away in sheds and garages and forget about them. Then somebody hauls it out and brings it to me….

The first place to check if you suspect a spider has taken up residence on a bike is in the brake levers. Yes, right where you put your hands…

157 wrenchwench  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:34:38pm

re: #151 Eclectic Cyborg

Is it considered morbid that I like to occasionally go back and rewatch the plane strike footage from 9/11?

It’s spectacular footage, in the literal sense. I watched it a lot after it happened, but I don’t think to go back and look again.

158 Justanotherhuman  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:42:30pm

GG doing some self-congratulation at his twatter site; claims members of Congress were “spied on”, although their metadata was no more collected than any other person’s and subject to the same protections.

159 GlutenFreeJesus  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:44:31pm

re: #84 CuriousLurker

If you think about it, KT rarely if ever talks about which news shows’ target demographic does include him (if there are any that do). He also manages to avoid revealing news sources he considers reliable, thereby avoiding any criticism or ridicule of his own sources.

All he does is point & laugh at items he’s cherry-picked from liberal sources we’re likely to respect or identify with, portraying their liberal audiences—or in the case of blogs, their active members—as credulous, bobble-headed sheeple who exist in an echo chamber and like it that way (unlike himself, who is neither left nor right, but an independent thinker and very special snowflake). Why? Because he knows it’ll make us twitch and because always straddling the fence & playing the part of contrarian gives him deniability.

Why does he like to make us twitch? I don’t know.

Maybe he’s just bored and does it for shits & giggles.

Maybe it makes him feel superior.

Maybe he really & truly cares about everyone here and believes his efforts are helping us (though you’d think the hostility he encounters would give him a clue that his method isn’t working).

Maybe it’s performance art and he’s doing it for some unknown 3rd party’s entertainment.

Who knows? And at the end of the day, who really cares? We all have interests & activities outside this blog and can walk away from it any time we choose.

As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, Charles is the only one who can’t easily pull the plug and walk away from LGF. Hmm… interesting.

You could have saved yourself lots if time by just saying:

KT = Troll

160 Feline Fearless Leader  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:46:40pm

re: #147 Lidane

Ask Rick Scott how well that shit has worked out in Florida.

Drug testing welfare recipients is the new “PUNISH THE POOR!” on the right. It’s an easy emotional argument to make but in practice it’s a massive waste of time and state resources that would be better spent elsewhere.

Would probably have better effect if they drug tested all their own legislators before giving them their paychecks.
///

161 Lidane  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 2:49:37pm

re: #160 Feline Fearless Leader

Would probably have better effect if they drug tested all their own legislators before giving them their paychecks.
///

Better yet, pay them the median income in their districts instead of a six figure salary.

162 RadicalModerate  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 3:09:27pm

re: #58 Killgore Trout

Actually one of the reasons I don’t care for her show is it does fit into a “neat, pre-fab” world. It’s a show with a target demographic that doesn’t include me. I’m not at all surprised that she’s opposed to the Koch bros., I knew that already. I’m not surprised she refuses to give them the retraction they asked for. Opposition to Koch Bros. projects is editorial policy on all the MSNBC shows and has been for quite some time. I know a lot of people find this exciting and refreshing and it is just what I would have predicted her response would be.

So let me get this straight.

You are giving ideological cover for the sons of the FOUNDER of the John Birch Society, and who still share those same far-right political views - including racism and antisemitism - over someone who is reporting on their shenanigans based on the semantics of who might be writing the script copy that she is reading on-air? Maddow is the managing editor of her show, which means she has final say on what is or isn’t said by her on the program.

163 makeitstop  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 3:13:56pm

re: #161 Lidane

Better yet, pay them the median income in their districts instead of a six figure salary.

YES!!! Absolutely. Let them earn what their average constituent makes, and not a dime more.

164 Just never mind.  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 3:20:53pm

re: #159 GlutenFreeJesus

I think it’s really RUDE to call other peoples opinions “trolling”.
This site is about discourse.

165 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 3:36:53pm

NEVER MIND

166 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 3:37:04pm

re: #130 dog philosopher

the term ‘global warming’ has been such a red herring. we should be talking about Unusual Coldness + Unusual Warmness => Global Climate Change

Global Weirding

167 GlutenFreeJesus  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 3:38:17pm

re: #164 Floral Giraffe

I think it’s really RUDE to call other peoples opinions “trolling”.
This site is about discourse.

When you repeatedly offer an “opinion” to spite the facts, it’s no longer discourse.

Check post 84 for a good rundown.

168 Romantic Heretic  Sat, Jan 4, 2014 6:20:41pm

re: #133 Decatur Deb

Always been a bit of that around:

Image: b-17-01.jpg

Image: bourke-white001.jpg

In one of my stories a woman documentary maker in 2800 AD travels on a ship named the Margaret Bourke-White.

169 piratedan  Sun, Jan 5, 2014 10:20:37am

re: #162 RadicalModerate

So let me get this straight.

You are giving ideological cover for the sons of the FOUNDER of the John Birch Society, and who still share those same far-right political views - including racism and antisemitism - over someone who is reporting on their shenanigans based on the semantics of who might be writing the script copy that she is reading on-air? Maddow is the managing editor of her show, which means she has final say on what is or isn’t said by her on the program.

well, she’s no Sean Hannity….. /////

170 Fortitudine  Sun, Jan 5, 2014 5:40:46pm

My employer is one of them, but like a crazy idiot, I am probably going to try to get into the office.

There are a lot of cops and firefighters out there who wish you would just STAY HOME, DAMNIT!


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