Mr. President, we must not allow a brainwashing gap!
This was the real illustration that accompanied the original post. It was labeled “Liberal grad”. I don’t feel anything I add to that could be funnier than those two facts.
Henry Olsen, Moonie Times:
Dangers of academia’s ‘indoctrination mills’
Like a perfect gas, wingnut’s usage of the phrase “liberal media” has been so successful in cowing the media that it has naturally expanded to encompass everything but the novelty press of a crazed Korean cultists.
Really, it was the natural conclusion of the phrase, being at its heart a meaningless intimidation routine that could only work if the entire media apparatus forgot what it was supposed to have pride in.
Nonetheless, I’m sure, Washington Times’ exception is based on its strong journalistic integrity and value of the truth rather than it faithfully emulating the most deranged assumptions and half-truths of Wing Nut Daily comment sections…
- Kids are seeing through our self-serving “free market” bullshit. Obviously this isn’t due to them being direct victims of our broken economic system, but rather commie brainwashing from Satanic universities.
Or not.
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum caused a bit of a stir last month when he labeled college campuses “indoctrination mills” that enforce a strict adherence to “politically correct left doctrine.”
Snrk.
Sorry, I have to laugh every time someone tries to argue that “political correctness” is some form of doctrine or otherwise tries and make it sound scary. I mean, first off, “political correctness” doesn’t really exist outside conservative conspiracy theories. And second off, it’s only really ever meant that if you’re a dick, people may call you out on that and exercise their free speech to call you a dick. And pretty much every instance of “political correctness gone wrong” the right can find tends to be some institution or person who recognizes that they aren’t just talking to a Klan rally and so tries to pick words that won’t make them look like an archaic douche so that they won’t be earning bad press with a certain group or people who think they are full human beings.
So yes, grr, argh, educational institutions try and educate students and try not to be dicks. Obviously the Fascists have won.
For conservatives, Mr. Santorum might as well have called the sky blue.
What with being frightened and angry at the very notion of education and all. And thus prone to conspiracy theories about those “damn egghead nerds I used to beat up thinking they know better than me. I don’t need to know any fancy book learnin’. My daddy taught me all I need to know.”
But from the way the media and liberal pundits pounced on his remarks, you’d think he had said something profoundly indecent.
Yes, he only accused our entire educational system of being an Orwellian construction that we’d be better off without. Well, not just that, but also our academic system, which would be that decidedly anti-authoritarian system by which world wide knowledge is shared, thus allowing us to create new technologies and industries that keep us from becoming a third world backwater that the civilized nations use only for underpaid and exploitative manual labor.
Which, hey, would have been fine, if a) he had any evidence beyond “well, every conservative knows in their hearts it must be true” or b) he wasn’t running for President and thus in a really good position to completely eliminate the Education Department.
For decades, conservatives have documented and criticized how liberal ideology runs rampant throughout higher education. Hence William F. Buckley’s famous quip from the 1960s: “I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.” Fifty years later, few conservatives would disagree.
And as we all know the untrustworthiness of the staff at the Free Market‘s alternative to the stifling conformity of public universities is the most damning proof of the latter’s corrupt evil nature.
Also, really, Harvard is the go-to whipping boy? That giant batch of overpaid conservatives?
But could the problem be getting worse? The Pew Research Center released a study in December showing that more Americans age 18 to 29 have a favorable view of socialism over capitalism. In fact, this demographic has a net positive view of socialism (49 percent positive to 43 percent negative) and net negative view of capitalism (46 percent positive and 47 percent negative). When Pew released an earlier version of the same study two years ago, this demographic’s views on socialism were exactly the opposite (43 percent positive and 49 percent negative).
Always trust the shorter.
I mean, sure, most of my friends are only avoiding homelessness and starvation by the kindness of friends and family. Sure, they are using more and more inventive systems to try and stave off illnesses and injuries because none of them have health care in their jobs if they can even find a job. And sure, they’ve had to watch patiently as all the self-described “capitalists” have looked at their suffering and decided that the real crime is how the rich don’t have an extra yacht or two in take-home pay. And sure, this is from a population mostly deriving from a middle class, much less those who began in poverty and have only ever known poverty. And sure, the internet makes it really easy to notice that Scandanavia isn’t actually a frozen waste covered in zombies.
But really, they only started hating capitalism when their schools started prying their eyes open and forcing them to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” 1000 times in a row.
Clearly, more than one’s college education goes into one’s opinions on economic systems.
Nah, it’s just the college education that only a fraction of those between the ages of 18-29 have. It’s like a virus that way.
But just as clearly, few would deny that a college graduate’s opinions are shaped during his or her four years at college – that’s why they’re called the formative years.
Yes, and most of that is totally shaped by the professors, who are universally respected and revered like gods and never ever questioned in a system that constantly encourages questions, investigation, and curiosity.
It’s not at all shaped by… oh say, kids getting some freedom from outside their parent’s narrow-minded worldviews and actually experiencing the meeting of America’s diverse cultures for themselves and having the space to make their own conclusions about such things. Including who they are themselves.
Nope, it’s just that 4 years of college, only from the teacher’s iron-fisted rule to which 24/7 messaging from birth from parents, Church, and the reality that must totally be different from what the universities are saying (in order to be indoctrination rather than listing facts) are simply powerless.
Damn, university professors, you are wasting your time teaching classes. Any one of you could have like a million person cult or take over the entire media and be way more effective with your magical brainwashing powers and be taking home a way bigger paycheck for it!
So when we engage in a spirited debate about the liberal dominance of college, let’s also remember that there are real-world consequences to this imbalance within academia.
I love this line.
So, yeah, let’s assume their little delusion is right. The universities are the most powerful mind-control institution in the world and rewrite the very brainwaves of anyone who enters them so that they reject basic reality and grow to hate everything they know in their hearts as good and pure.
Their solution? Employ more of their propagandists so that the mind-control is only half as effective.
It’s just wonderfully, insanely authoritarian.
I mean, if there was some institution out there that was legitimately brainwashing people (cough cults cough). I wouldn’t want it to be balanced with “my side”‘s brainwashing. I’d want it eliminated completely, its leaders thrown in jail, resources made available so the kids can get their lives back, and a diverse spread of public alternatives for whatever need made them feel they needed said organization.
But to conservatives, the main objection isn’t to the brainwashing per se, but that the brainwashing isn’t supporting their cause.
As always this leads to a number of IT’S ALWAYS PROJECTION speculations about pretty much everything left on the conservative supporter list.
I’m not saying they have a basement filled with those chairs from A Clockwork Orange, but I’m going to be filing some search warrants just in case.
For the 18-to-29-year-olds who have a favorable opinion of socialism, what else does that tell us about them?
That they aren’t from an era where references to socialism would instantly call to mind Soviet Russia and the threat of nuclear annhilation, but rather the post-Soviet era where a number of countries have had socialist reform of capitalism without devolving to the excesses of Stalinist or Maoist communism?
Can one view socialism favorably and still believe in America’s democratic free-market system?
A democratic free-market system? Or America’s “democratic” “free-market” system?
Cause the answers are yes and no respectively.
I would also argue that one having even a rudimentary knowledge of how capitalism is supposed to work might also have difficulty believing in the latter. And might have say, some issue with categorizing a system designed to cripple and prevent new competition from entering systems as a “free market”.
Would these young adults be able to articulate why the social democratic states of Europe and around the world failed to keep pace with the United States in the latter half of the 20th century?
Um, those would be those European countries which started off worse than us after the end of the Second World War (what with them being the battleground for one of the most devastating wars in history and massively in debt to our Johnny-come-Lately asses). The ones now collectively kicking our ass in most of the industries, minus maybe electronics and video game design?
Well, then, sir, I’d say they failed to keep pace because they’re so far around the next bend, we can’t even see them blowing us the raspberry over their shoulders.
This is the dilemma that confronts a nation whose youths don’t understand or appreciate what underlies our prosperity.
Damn straight!
Those damn kids just don’t understand about the magic men who live in people’s sock drawers and make the stock market rise and fall depending on how much people masturbate to Ayn Rand novels.
They’d have you root through those sock drawers for socks crushing the magic men entirely and destroying our entire economy. It happened in 2008, but you brainwashed fools wouldn’t listen to us!
The recent Occupy Wall Street protests presented the perfect irony of this generation and its confusion.
I know! They are so confused they don’t even understand that the the casino based around our economy is the only thing that matters in our economy and that defending it above all other things is everyone’s sacred duty! Those damn kids just want all the chips to themselves. Greedy upstarts!
While decrying the evils of capitalism, the protesters organized their marches via social networks and mobile devices that were the products of capitalism. No government agency or grant created Twitter or the iPhone.
…
Nooooo…
But.
A government agency did create that whole… internet thing designing it to share material between government buildings and military buildings.
And the government expanded it to be the internet we know and love today largely because of those… well what do you know, evil academics, who wanted an easy and convenient means of exchanging chemical brainwashing techniques… I mean, research.
Also, yes, Twitter… that would be the service which is mainly used because it is available for free to all customers regardless of ability to pay and encourages open communication with the entire world as one giant stream.
I mean, I know that Twitter has been adopted by the conservatives as their sainted object because it reduces all conversation to talking points that are easily dittoed with zero intellectual engagement.
But you might want to pick a better example for your “anti-socialism” tool.
Oh, I see, you did. The iPhone. Is this because the Occupy Wall Street crowd used iPhones in particular more than the average citizenry? No, it’s because it’s the only technology that Henry Olsen can name despite supposedly being a capitalism fanatic.
Without a firm background in the benefits of the free market, these same Americans will grow up not only ignorant of much of what makes America great, but supportive of policies that will undermine our greatness.
I love the complete popcorn quality of these comments. There’s no genuine defense, no illustration of the problems that will occur, no real argumentation.
Just, b-b-b-but shut up! That’s why!
Aw, is someone starting to feel their 15 minutes of unearned domination coming to an end? The itch of a citizenry who has had just about enough of our Second Gilded Age? Starting to feel a bit worried about cliffotines?
Good.
This is not a partisan issue.
That is why my only proposed solution so far is more registered Republicans in our academic institutions at the expense of better qualified liberal teachers and researchers.
A generation that is unaware of its nation’s founding principles – freedom, limited government and the free market – is a generation that could lose them.
… Hee hee. No, there is nothing, nothing cuter than someone ranting about other people being unaware idiots right before they completely fail to recall basic facts*.
Damn kids don’t know nothing about photosynthesis. Like how plants absorb… water? in their… mitochondria? … and… uh… shut up, you’re idiots!
The reverse side of the coin involves those young Americans who, after four years of Mr. Santorum’s “indoctrination mills,” miraculously still believe in the power of the free market.
Miraculously!
Somehow despite the super powerful brainwashing rays emanating across the states from the Universities, 46% of kids still think favorably about capitalism. Must be intervention by Jesus rather than proof that there is no indoctrination and it’s one big IT’S ALWAYS PROJECTION about the Chicago School of Economics and how it actually has been trying to turn Economics programs around the country and around the world into Propaganda Mills for a rather extreme and dangerous view of capitalism.
Anything else, would be downright… silly.
But can they defend it against the never-ending assaults from the media and liberal politicians?
That’s it. Sadly no drinking game. Every time a wingnut writes “liberal media” despite our media being painfully obviously in the pocket for our corporate masters, take a mother fucking shot.
Most probably they can’t. In all likelihood, those who can had to go outside their formal education to learn about it.
(singing)We don’t need no educ~ation!(/singing)
While there is not shortage of good, foundational texts to educate the student interested in America’s economic history, there is a shortage of interested students.
Huh, the mental enslavers from Rigel 8 running our academic institutions don’t seem to be having a shortage of interested students, even grabbing the attention of ones who’ve never even stepped foot on campus.
Maybe you just suck?
This is where parents must play an active role in their children’s education. Sending them off to a four-year institution and assuming that upon graduation they will be economically literate flies in the face of reality. If parents abdicate all responsibility to liberal professors, there’s a good chance the graduate will come home spouting liberal claptrap and looking forward to his or her next Occupy Wall Street rally.
Yeah parents, you need to make sure your children know nothing of the real world and are safely kept in the dark. Either denying them any university education just to be safe or shipping them off to Liberty University to receive a substandard education that will leave them only ever qualified to receive Wingnut Welfare for the rest of their lives.
It’s the only way to ensure they never receive brainwashing and thus are free to determine their own lives and future for themselves…
Okay, yeah, I can’t keep it up either. And no, I still can’t get enough about how the supposed cure for brainwashing is “good brainwashing”. Can’t just let the kiddies choose for themselves, that’d be… socialism or something, I’m not actually sure what words mean anymore.
It’s almost like universities are a break from brainwashing and where kids are exposed to actual reality and make their own decisions regarding it, decisions that may disagree with their parents or something. Like maybe kids already had differing views from their parents but only felt safe expressing them when their parents couldn’t throw them out of the house and disown them anymore.
Like IT’S ALWAYS PROJECTION was a truism or something.
Despite decades of calling out the problem, conservatives have yet to make a serious dent in the left’s dominance of academia. This likely won’t change anytime soon.
Huh, it’s almost like it’s complete bullshit and people are hesitant about taking apart the last apparatus keeping our economy even remotely functional just so a bunch of psychotic god-botherers can feel they control their children’s lives into adulthood.
Which means this summer, when students are home for summer break, it’s up to parents to arm them not only with the knowledge of what awaits them on campus, but also with the intellectual curiosity to seek answers elsewhere.
Wow.
Yeah, this will definitely have the kids coming home for the holidays. Hi, honey, nice to see you, I bought you some Evagnelical picture books about how evolution is a lie to counter the evil commie brainwashing you’re receiving to become a worse person… wait, where are you going? Oh god, Mr. Olsen was right. She’s already gone from us. Probably tries to prevent pregnancies like a slut and supports the Girl Scouts now! How could I have gone so wrong.
Otherwise, parents might learn firsthand what Mr. Santorum meant about “indoctrination mills.”
Yes… otherwise they might learn about indoctrination mills.
Henry Olsen is a vice president of the American Enterprise Institute
…
Seriously?
This post reads like the half-formed scribbling of some feeble-minded inbred farmer trying to use words he only knows the most vague notion about. And they gave him a fucking Vice Presidency. Oh yeah, conservatism is the real origin of intellectual curiosity all right.
which publishes the “Values and Capitalism” book series, intended to provide a free-market education for today’s students.
Huh, a totally innocent and concerned post about our Academic System and the need for parents to buy wingnut alternatives, just happens to sell wingnut alternatives.
How incredibly convenient! Why, I was feeling all concernified about dem damn liberal mindtakers stealing my baby boy from me and making him hate Jesus with his fag friends thanks to this post and was worried I wouldn’t know where to go to find them.
Luckily this “free market” alternative exists so I can prove my loyalty to the tribe!**
‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard. Leaving you postless for 5 days is perfected by me. We are aware of all Internet traditions.™
*Well, right up until you realize they are supposed adults and that they make more money in a year than you’ll ever see in your life. Then… slightly less cute.
** The ads below the post are also a bunch of scam offers. I’m pretty sure that conservatism is now entirely made up of scam artists each trying to play the others to make a fast buck.
Every time a wingnut writes “liberal media” despite our media being painfully obviously in the pocket for our corporate masters, take a mother fucking shot.
But I’m drunk already!?!
O.K. *hic*
~
Ibn Thundra !!! Hurrah, sirrah !
Major: Left a comment for ya, end of last thread.
Now I get to plunge into Cerb’s latest. (Hope you are feeling better or soon will be.)
I thought the “formative years” were early childhood…
KWIllow-
Nope, apparently, you gain no lasting effects to your personality in childhood, but become extremely susceptible to outside influence for a narrow band of your adulthood after 12 years of education, 18+ years of life experience, and 18+ years of influence and additional information from parents, social environments, churches, and overall cultural influences.
It’s just common sense.
Mango from another galaxy:
Apparently, we’re not headed back the robber baron era fast enough for Mr. Crane.
~
I would like to see a reference or two that details this Liberal mind control. You know, some evidence, somewhat beyond the fevered imaginings of David Horowitz. What levels of liberalism are there and how does it vary across faculties. They do not mention faculties much, I mean have they ever met a Physics professor?
These people always remind me of The Simpsons episode about Homer going to to College and being unable to see that the Dean was not like the Animal House Dean.
Cerb: Using the real illustration was excellent. I’ve never seen mortarboards with embroided initials. I’m guessing this one must be from Liberty University. Also this was your bestest Shorter ever. Perfect distillation.
shipping them off to Liberty University to receive a substandard education that will leave them only ever qualified to receive Wingnut Welfare for the rest of their lives.
Nuh-uhh! What about the Liberty grads who worked for the L. Paul Bremer designing the new Iraqi stock market (among other things)?
mass immigration from countries where the people had, what Edmund Burke would have described as, little experience in the democratic traditions
Requisite: http://youtu.be/boO4RowROiw
“I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.” Fifty years later, few conservatives would disagree.
MOAR PRUFE THAT ROMNEY IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE!*
*y’all know that many if not most of his advisors are Harvardians, right? Oh – that gives me a yen for some nice Danish cheese!
I don’t suppose the simple fact that the colleges probably teach the kids what socialism actually means might have something to do with it. Or that the poor kids learn that many democratic states with thriving market economies have quite the socialist flavor. Criminy, the profs should be banned from even mentioning Finland. Or Norway. Or Germany. Or….
Having finished the post I can say fairly that Cerberus nailed it. The problem for them is that universities encourage asking questions and using logic and crap. Universities are places for learning about things deeply enough to be able to make informed decisions. It is precisely that colleges are NOT a place for brainwashing (dispensing their approved propaganda) that pisses them off.
My stomach turns when I read that kind of crap. Delusion level: cultist. Wich saddens me as much as sickens me. But then I realize that some of those writers are intentionally dishonest, that they know full well they’re selling snake oil. Tat just sickens me. Also too makes me mad but that’s why there’s gin.
No, don’t thank me – I can talk all day.
Hence William F. Buckley’s famous quip from the 1960s: “I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”
They always go back to this quote, as if it proves something. Guess what, conservatives: just because he said it doesn’t make it fucking true! It doesn’t make it accurate or insightful or meaningful or relevant just because its a sorta memorable half insult about a group of educated people who happen to teach at the main rival of Buckley’s Alma Mater.
But then I realize that some of those writers are intentionally dishonest, that they know full well they’re selling snake oil.
That’s how you get a paycheck from A.E.I.
Recall that David Frum made the mistake of telling the truth (for once or twice in his life) and was fired.
~
“Now that nearly 50% of the population is living off the labors of the other 50% and the probability of an Obama re-election greater than 50% we must start thinking of partitioning the country into two, maybe three countries. Perhaps, one hundred years ago…”
When my son was recently home from college on Spring Break, he asked me how people in the South (where I grew up) could be so stupid as to vote for a lunatic like Santorum. I told him the mistake was made over 100 years ago, when the Northern carpetbaggers figured there was more profit in exploiting the treasonous Confederates’ ignorance and poverty, than in cutting them loose to sink into their own delusional swamp. He readily agreed that the entire region was a squalid waste of time, especially since New Orleans was practically wiped off the map.
So you see, parents can make an impact on their children’s values, in spite of all that liberal propaganda about “representative democracy” they get fed in college…
a third world backwater that the civilized nations use only for underpaid and exploitative manual labor.
That’s silly. There’s also resources. And the fun bombing when you get uppity about said resources.
Oh sure, blame it all on the Puritans.
No, don’t thank me – I can talk all day.
Please do. Two sharp comments in a row whets the appetite for more.
mac said,
+1
Everybody knows the entire education system is a massive trap. All it does is make our brains big and tasty, all the better for for our secret zombie overlords to eat.
I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”
He’s got a point, you know. Woo hoo! Good medical plan and good pensions, baybee
Shorter shorter: “Parents, beware! If you do not take affirmative steps to prevent it, when your children go to college, they will figure out that you are complete dumbfucks!”
Also, too, a shameless blogwhore – I’ve posted an obit, of sorts, for Thomas Kinkade, since thanks to his recent departure my lil’ ol’ blog got over 10,000 views yesterday, almost all of them on the perenially popular Painter of Shite post I did over a year ago.
Ha! Jennifer, I remember reading your Painter of Shite post with great interest because I barely knew who Kincaid was. 10,000 views, eh? Maybe I should post more attacks on right wing symbols.
Thomas Kinkade may be gone, but other shitty artists live on.
(Via the comments section of Lawyers, Guns, and Money.)
I can attest to the accuracy of the WT article. I entered the University of Florida an avowed neo-conservative and I left a Social Democrat. Truly the blame can be laid at the fact that THERE AREN’T ENOUGH CONSERVATIVES AT UF. Hell, only roughly half the student population votes Republican, right?
In closing, KILL THE LIBERALS. Also, CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED!
Ahhhh, now I feel better 🙂
, CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED!
Hockey did a number on my knee carthage.
Hockey did a number on my knee carthage.
Hockney may not be the best painter in the world but really, I don’t see how viewing his works can have hurt you any worse than did seeing those of Kincade. .
Snorhagen,
Kinkade made me retch, but McNoughton has made me genuinely angry. I’m feeling the urge to light a torch and march around menacingly with gardening implements. Anyone with me?
In the last thread–maybe the one before that–I threw in my two cents about how to deal with Hardcore Wingnut Relatives. My solution is to ignore them as much as possible and work on liberating their kids and young people. Pay attention to them, their culture, their world. Listen to them. Tell jokes and laugh at theirs.
After two beers–and usually during the second game of pool in the basement–I volunteer that Uncle Fenwick is a socialist. Omigod! He doesn’t have horns! I also pour bales of scorn on the Invisible Hand and Chicago School capitalism. I underscore the useful things that government does…and link it to their concerns.
Of course, as Comrade Fenwick of Cadre 18, I also do my very best to subvert Two-Party tyranny. At the pool table, I spread my insidious message: Register as an Independent. Think independently. Vote independently.
Plant the seeds in the young. The old fuckers–like myself–will eventually die off. I see some hope in the Pew polling.
Also I pour scorn on the size of the military budget, stoopid weapons systems, idiotic wars (including the GWOT). I’ve got some cred with the young folks on military topics; only one of my cousins was in the military.
Hockney may not be the best painter in the world
I had no idea Hockney pulled pints.
Yes, that’s why he always had a pint-hook with him
Kinkade made me retch, but McNoughton has made me genuinely angry.
I understand where you’re coming from, Snorg. My main reaction to McN, however, is derisive laughter. (Think Colbert Nation.) Also, there’s a certain amusement to the prices. Anyone who pays $150K for hilarious garbage has $150K less for SuperPacs. I’m trying to imagine a Sotheby’s auction a hundred years hence. A McNoughton original might go for a grand as a novelty purchase…..
Also should mention that I’ve got 18 cousins. (Deaths of my parents and their remarriages produced an ever-expanding set of relatives.) So I have spread my Ebil Socialist propaganda among dozens and dozens of young people at various family reunions.
That was Aron’s comment, not mine.
Personally, I think McNaughton is the greatest artist the human race has ever produced, with the possible exception of the guy who created this.
Maybe he’d be happier at Dartmouth, where their pastimes seem to be nurturing future wingnut welfare recipients and puking on each other.
Touchdown Jesus did not end well
Kinkade made me retch, but McNoughton has made me genuinely angry.
McNaughton is basically Kinkade and “Kelly” from The Onion thrown into a matter combiner with a few gallons of santorum.
Now Bob Ross – there was a true genius!
/happy sky
Hi Fenwick.
I responded to your comment on the last thread. I was in the
simulatorbox-of-pain this afternoon.Shall we take it you completed your ordeal successfully, Major? Patrick Smith has written about that trial – have yourself some hard likker, you’ve earned it.
Completed successfully and drinking as we speak.
Tomorrow I’ll be trying to hitch a ride home on Delta, as we don’t have anything going that way on a Monday.
But could the problem be getting worse? The Pew Research Center released a study in December showing that more Americans age 18 to 29 have a favorable view of socialism over capitalism. In fact, this demographic has a net positive view of socialism (49 percent positive to 43 percent negative) and net negative view of capitalism (46 percent positive and 47 percent negative). When Pew released an earlier version of the same study two years ago, this demographic’s views on socialism were exactly the opposite (43 percent positive and 49 percent negative).
This… is fantastic news, if it’s even remotely true, and if this reflects a real generational difference rather than something that fades away with age. I had the impression that my generation was rather taken with the whole libertarian/South Park Republican horseshit. If they’re not only anti-Republican but also favorable towards actual left-wing politics, all I can say is, Go Us! Here’s hoping it sticks.
I don’t understand why people 18 to 29 would want to change the system that has saddled them with crushing student loans and at best low-wage dead-end jobs to show for it.
Despite decades of calling out the problem, conservatives have yet to make a serious dent in the left’s dominance of academia. This likely won’t change anytime soon.
I shouldn’t think so. Conservatives are scarce in academia for the same reason pacifists are scarce in the military – think oil and water. American politics is just about the only place in the world where you can earn a living by hating on the thing you earn your living from.
The trend is towards a brave new world of a reduced wingnut population at last. The demise of the ‘painter’ Kinkade, whose greatest works look like paint-by-numbers excersizes, hopefully will drive the fans of his ‘work’ to speculate in it and try to make fortunes off his issue. Simpletons all.
Dammit. I can’t read that far without a drink.
.
That King of Kings statue makes me think “Up, Daddy! Up! Carry me Daddy!”
Perhaps, one hundred years ago, before the Progressive Era and mass immigration from countries where the people had, what Edmund Burke would have described as, little experience in the democratic traditions
At the time the Founding Fathers created the United States, the biggest group of people living in it were those who’d come over not from Britain but from Germany, not historically a hotbed of democratic traditionalism. Then there’s all the people we inherited when we took over land from Spain, France and Mexico. Just saying.
However, these new immigrants voted for Democrats who promised a “New Deal” and they got it.
Actually, these new immigrants you’re talking about mostly voted for political machines founded on ethnic loyalty. The New Deal wouldn’t have been such a success if it hadn’t crossed ethnic lines and appealed to Americans of all ethnic backgrounds. (Yes, including your precious Real Americans – as you can tell from the way it was championed by people like New York Uber-WASP Franklin Roosevelt and Midwestern, salt-of-the-earth, Protestant-work-ethic Harry Truman).
More recent immigrants from even poorer countries where radicals like Che Guevera and Carlos Marighella are idolized make it easy for unions like SEIU and far-left groups like La Raza to influence government policy on an even more leftward trajectory.
What I love about this is the back-and-forth dichotomy these guys have with immigration. They’ll point to the number of people coming to the United States as proof that everyone loves our values (which automatically means their values, because the United States IS the GOP) otherwise they wouldn’t come here – simultaneously, they whine that all these people hate our values and are dangerously contaminating our pure WASP heritage. Which one is it, folks?
Necrotizing spider bites? NO!
.
Jeff,
Gonna have to agree with you there. I had a friend who was bitten by a brown recluse years ago. She’s still got a abcess in her hand where the bite took place.
Values my ass. People move here to get jobs and make money, and always have.
But, dichotomy pt.2: OMG THESE FURRINERS ARE TAKEN ARE JOBS1!!1!111!1
P.S. Joke’s on them- If they’d have stayed where they were, our jobs would’ve come to them!
“…might as well have called the sky blue.”
It’s not “sky.” It’s firmament. Heretic.
Oooooooh, did I hear the phrase “American Enterprise Institute Vice President” just now?
Spoor AHOY!
“Regularly outperform” – gratuitous cruelty to a dumb animal, or just good wholesome hijinx?
You mean my kid doesn’t really “come with an instruction manual”?
Aron & Snorg: Sorry for the mix-up re Kincaide. I blame Hiltre !
Chris: Articulate & incisive as usual. Always enjoy your comments, bro.
Conservatives are scarce in academia
Not sure that’s even true. It probably depends on which department you’re talking about.
Major: Congrats on the sim completion. Given the explosion of CGI effects, I’ll bet those are brutal / scary moments. Not like those ancient video projection dealie-bobs you probably handled in the earliest days of your flight career. (Although the AF is always state-of-the art, I imagine.)
Yes, that was the same cat. She’s still just as feisty.
Hard to believe: She looked so placid parked on the carpet sample. Does ‘Pookie” derive from Jimmy Stewart’s Harvey ?
Major: Are the sims doing 3D (as in movies and such)?
Major: I posted some follow-up questions on the last thread by mistake. Meant to put them here. I blame WordPress !
Major: Wrong-o. I see I DID post them above. [Sim and Pookie] This time I blame liberal fascism.
Does ‘Pookie” derive from Jimmy Stewart’s Harvey ?
Not sure where that came from.
Her name is actually “Patches”, but her many nicknames include “Pook”, “Pookie”, “Squeak”, “Squeaker” (she sometimes makes a noise like a kid’s squeaky-toy), or if she’s doing something annoying “Caaaaat!!!!”
I’m just surprised no one has proposed privatizing all the Eeeeevil Public Universities. I understand that state legislatures couldn’t easily touch the flagship schools (boosters and alumni would rain down terror–and plus, what would happen to the football teams??), but why couldn’t the Koch brothers buy up smaller colleges, fire all the Eeeevil Professors, and cancel every course of study with any connection to the liberal arts or liberal thinking?
It seems to me that this would be a huge win-win for, say, the state of Florida. Fewer Floridians would be going to college, more money is freed up for, oh, charter schools *and* the legislature would have an academic institution (or plural, depending on whether the Kochs decided to consolidate their private universities) at their disposal which could reliably produce “academic” and “scholarly” studies about…well, everything: creationism, climate denialism, inferiority of dusky-skinned people, etc.
Especially given how conservatives bloviate about how everything should be run like a business, it is a little odd that no one has pushed to have businesses run the universities…
Thanks, Snorghagen!
This one was new to me:
http://www.mcnaughtonart.com/page/view_collection/Patriotic/421
FREE TO FAIL!
Now Bob Ross – there was a true genius!
/happy sky
Pup, you reminded me of this comment from the SA forums:
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go read that Andrew Breitbart thread.
There’s one other group of people who have a more positive reaction to the word “socalism” than to the word “capitalism”: people with family incomes less than $30,000. We must immediately guarantee every American family an income of $30,000 per year. Sure it will be expensive, but how else can we beat back the Commie menace?
http://www.people-press.org/2011/12/28/little-change-in-publics-response-to-capitalism-socialism/?src=prc-number
I’m just surprised no one has proposed privatizing all the Eeeeevil Public Universities.
I’m not.
An epic free lunch in high-tech & sundry cutting-edge research on the public dime … not something I think Big Biz wants to arbitrarily skewer on an ideological altar, even if the status quo DOES make Baby Ayn Rand colicky.
Although the AF is always state-of-the art, I imagine.
The Air Force had a mix of very modern simulators and stuff that was cutting-edge when they had built it 20-30 years prior.
When I first starting training back in 1984, we had an old T-37 simulator which used an actual camera that “flew” over a huge model of the terrain with trees and houses etc.
The instructor had to be quick and shut the simulator off if you were about to “crash”, because it would literally cause the camera to crash into the terrain and break the camera.
When I trained in the B-52 they had an old simulator for teaching air refueling that used a large model a KC-135 and a camera that would travel on rails behind the tanker model. The computer-generated radio calls sounded just like the voice from a 1980s video arcade game.
Way-way-way off-topic:
I’ve been re-reading Joseph Conrad’s novel Under Western Eyes. I’m going take the time to key in a long passage, spoken by the narrator in a conversation. I’ll re-paragraph it to be easier on the eye. The novel is set in St. Petersburg (anarchist students) and Geneva (Russian emigres).
Conrad wrote that in 1911. Prescient, huh?
Are the sims doing 3D (as in movies and such)?
Yes. The simulators we have are state-of-the-art. The FAA considers a landing in the simulator to be just as good as a landing in the airplane.
It’s not 100% like the real thing but it’s pretty darn close.
When you check out in an airliner you’ve never flown before – all your training is in the simulator. The first time you fly the real airplane it’s on an actual revenue flight, with a line check airman (instructor) in the other seat.
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum caused a bit of a stir last month when he labeled college campuses “indoctrination mills” that enforce a strict adherence to “politically correct left doctrine.”
That’s funny, coming from someone on Reverend Moon’s payroll.
And second off, it’s only really ever meant that if you’re a dick, people may call you out on that and exercise their free speech to call you a dick.
It was a big moment in my childhood when it finally dawned on me that all that whining (er, “jokes”) about PC was nothing more than cover for being nasty, rude, and a bully and that “political correctness” was nothing more than common decency; I guess it was a moment similar to the way some people feel about the day they found out Santa was their parents.
Major Kong said,
April 9, 2012 at 5:38
Conservatives are scarce in academia
Not sure that’s even true. It depends on which department you’re talking about.
But Jonah Goldberg told me History professors were just a trade guild, what with their insistence that scholars, you know, read and understand historical sources./wingnut
Seriously. Economics departments are hotbeds of Marxism? Physics departments? Engineering departments?
I mean, I guess in a sense, all scholars at least have to pay lip service to the notion that claims should be supported by evidence, that arguments should stand on their merits, not on the name of their author, so I suppose in that sense, they’re all flaming liberals, so I guess he’s right.
Irrelevant.
And here’s the sad thing, too–for all the talk about morality and family values and raising kids right, I don’t think my education–either public school or Sunday school–spent much time working on being a mensch, on being sensitive to others and caring and a good person. Honestly, I was sort of fascinated with Judaism because mainstream Judaism (as I experienced it) does talk about those things. What I got growing up was a lot of tribalism. Protect the environment because “the Earth is my mother”. And authoritarianism. Say “African-American” because the old terms Are Bad. Actually, the only time I think that grade school really emphasized empathy was when we did a unit on people with disabilities. It was called Understanding Handicaps, but I’m sure that’s been changed since some people spread a vicious urban legend about the origin of the word “handicap” and that is my “PC gone wild” story for the day, although it’s really more of a “people are stupid” story. Anyway, just imagine if SEX ED included a little more encouragement to see things from another person’s point of view–LIKE THE GIRL’S POINT OF VIEW IF YOU’RE A GUY. Instead they just like to truck in a lot of sexist stereotypes and wank about viruses, which is important shit to know but I mean, jeez, WTF is up with ignoring the emotional aspects of sex? WTF is up with not talking about relationships? We got about two seconds on that in the context of domestic abuse. Important lesson to learn but I wish there would have been a bit more, in retrospect. (And I’m not trying to downplay learning about condoms and stuff. Really, in most places, they’ve censored sex ed so much I think it’s backfiring because if you haven’t practiced doing something, when it’s crunch time and you’re nervous you’re just going to say “fuck it” or just plain forget everything.)
So I guess what I mean, Cerb, is that if the school was actively trying to teach students how to be better persons (moral behavior–to me, anyway), that would like be a best-case scenario. I think most schools really abdicate this duty for the most part (oh, sure, some push a notion of academic honor and my alma mater did talk a good game about social responsibility and ran us through a philosophy required class freshman year) and if kids do go through some moral development it’s because of their interactions with other students, having new experiences and running slap against something other than the bubble they’ve lived in up until then. And even so, that experience doesn’t even penetrate for a lot of students.
Here in the South it’s all about tribalism, rah rah our football team, they won and that makes us awesome. And any horrible behavior can pretty much be swept under the rug subordinate to that. Developing girls and boys into men and women doesn’t even seem to be on the agenda. Just be a total immature child and it’s all good because “There’s a time and place for everything, and it’s called college.”
Ugh, just listen to me… I’ll stop ranting… you kids get off my lawn also too… As liberals we hate to hear morals mentioned because the notion of morality gets twisted into two things: serve your masters, and do things our way. The latter is not morality but just mores (latin=customs), fitting in with the accepted notions of the times, because if you don’t, you’ll be ostracized. I guess what I’m saying is you pissed me off, Cerb, because I WISH the world was as you suggested it might be. It is so NOT.
I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard Business School.
Major – did you see the Mythbusters episode where they were able to talk both Jamie and Adam down safely in a simulator (after they first crashed and burned with no help)? I thought it was pretty cool, then I heard many modern planes can land themselves.
mass immigration from countries where the people had, what Edmund Burke would have described as, little experience in the democratic traditions
Edmund Burke? Democratic traditions? HAHAHAHHAhahahahahajajajajajajijijijijijijhahahahahHAHAHAHAH!!! *wipes tears from eyes*
mac said,
April 8, 2012 at 23:38
a third world backwater that the civilized nations use only for underpaid and exploitative manual labor
You mean you’ve been to Florida, too?
Truly the blame can be laid at the fact that THERE AREN’T ENOUGH CONSERVATIVES AT UF. Hell, only roughly half the student population votes Republican, right?
Yeah, watching Florida Blue Key (baby
gatorsFlorida legislators) help themselves to Student Gov funds while running their meetings and committees like the Politboro couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the average student there radicalizing… Neither could administration heavy-handedness. I mean, it’s like one big happy campus! Totes! Must be those liebrull perfessors. (psst, they’re unionized!!!!111)***feeling massive need for a purgative after mentioning Florida Blue Key***
uuuuurrrpp
eehhhggghghh
ohnoes, my eyes are watering and I think I need some mild brain bleach as well
the horror
the horror
Kinkade made me retch, but McNoughton has made me genuinely angry.
Hey, without McNaughton, we wouldn’t have this.
OMG THESE FURRINERS ARE TAKEN ARE JOBS1!!1!111!1
Or maybe not.
Fenwick, that’s brilliant. I’ve always loved Conrad since I discovered him in the school library and now you’ve shown me why (and I thought it was his painterly descriptions of natural settings).
I wouldn’t call him prescient, I would call him a keen observer of human nature. Because that is the truth–that is EVERY violent revolution, including the American one. (Although it’s fair to say that some violent revolutions come out better than others.)
That–exactly what he is talking about–plus the collateral damage, the ordinary people, the women, goddamnit, the women whose lives are torn up, disrupted, and ultimately destroyed by these glorious causes, is why I have never had the time of day for so-called socialist groups in the US. Yeah, I want change–but a revolution? A load of shit.
Or maybe not.
CHECK THERE POCKETS FOR JOBSS11!1!!!1111!!
No shit, Sherlock? Dept.
No shit, Sherlock? Dept.
It’s funny how many of the comments are from people claiming that the article is part of a gay agenda plot.
not a gator: I’m glad you liked it ! I also like Conrad’s ‘painterly’ descriptions, too. He is wonderful with scene and setting.
Thanks, too, for your extended comments above. I certainly agree with you about the moral dimension of life and its importance. (Recognizing, as you do, the negative baggage the word ‘moral’ has acquired in US politics.)
Here’s a strange tie-in from own life about Conrad and education. I first read Under Western Eyes in an interdisciplinary seminar on European History / European Literature forty years ago. A year later, I left college and soon thereafter volunteered for the Army. When people asked me about this surprising change of direction, my favorite reply was “I decided my studies where getting in the way of my education.”
When I returned to college after my military service, I went to a Hampshire College–an ‘experimenting’ school in Amherst, MA…and earned my BA in Fiction Writing. Hampshire’s motto is Non Satis Scire…To know is not enough. [Acting upon knowledge is also necessary.]
I have a great T-shirt with a picture of a football and the boasting statement Hampshire College … Undefeated Since 1970 [when it first opened]. The college has no athletic teams.
Thanx again for your thoughtful and articulate contributions to the thread.
were getting in the way. This time I blame Teh Gheys !
the horror
the horror
I see what you do there, not-a-gator.
I thought it was pretty cool, then I heard many modern planes can land themselves.
A lot of airliners have autoland. We use it mainly in conditions of very low visibility – say 300 ft.
Someone still has to get the plane into a position from where it can land itself. Then you have to monitor the system very closely with your hand near the go-around switch all the way down, because there are a whole lot of things that can go wrong.
It’s pretty cool when it all works the way it’s supposed to.
Gotta admit, I started skimming when I realized the one piece of evidence cited in the Op-Ed can’t possibly support the conclusions the author comes to.
Here’s the Pew report in question:
Little Change in Public’s Response to Socialism
Yes, that is the title.
Okay, besides the fact that 18-29 year olds is not a synonym for college students, there are some other specific things to note from the report:
1. Among Occupy supporters, positive and negative reactions to “capitalism” are pretty evenly split: 45% positive, 47% negative. The majority of Occupy supporters interviewed had a negative reaction to the word socialism.
2. According to the same poll, among 18-29 year olds, 50% have a positive reaction to the word “libertarian” and only 28% have a negative reaction. Just food for thought. Maybe says something about whether the college kids luv the market enough. (Also interesting: “Liberal Democrats” are much more positively inclined towards libertarianism than “Conservative” or “liberal” Republicans.)
3. When I see a poll claiming that 47% of citizens have one reaction, and 46% have another, my very first question is “What’s the margin of error?” if I understand the report correctly, the margin of error ranges from 3.5% to 6.5%, depending on the demographic. To me it certainly looks like the majority of 18-29 year olds might possibly still have a negative reaction to socialism. The poll just isn’t accurate enough to tell us.
Not only does the author completely misrepresent the Pew study, even if the study said what they claim it did it still would be, at best, mildly suggestive about the effects of college on views of socialism.
To put it another way, this article is garbage, and I kind of feel like arguing the author’s politics is granting them too much respect. We can start arguing about why college kids love socialism so much when somebody comes up with some actual evidence that they do.
Now that’s fucking depressing.
‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard. […] We are aware of all Internet traditions.™
Errrrrrrrrrr, not for nothing, but where is it?
Fuckin’ blue sky, how does it work!
Fuckin’ blue sky, how does it work!
Isaac Asimov once answered this in song, responding to a Whiffenpoofs* song:
Asimov’s response:
*Yeah, I know.
Drumroll, please…
.
@Jeffraham – W0000t!!1!!!
Nuclear fusion makes the sun to shine
Tropisms make the ivy twine
Raleigh scattering makes the sky so blue
Testicular hormones are why I love you.
I was with Asimov until the last line. I will confess to being no kind of expert on women, but I gotta think that approach wouldn’t work.
JP – congrats.
LC – I’m not sure the response was meant to be romantic, just explanatory.
JP, congratulations!
a crazed Korean cultists
One or more words are missing. Perhaps they were abducted by the aliens.
@Jeffraham – W0000t!!1!!!
Thanks — to all!
I think you somehow got in the backdoor over at the catblog, and managed to post a comment to the Blogger comments, but danged if I can figure out how — they’re not supposed to be exposed. So, your recent comment over there, sadly, is lost to the ages.
.
Thanks so much for this post. The picture at the top of your last post was making me sick to my stomach.
Drumroll, please…
holy fuckaroo! that’s the best tittyfucking news i’ve heard all day! and ain’t that a bag of tits!
congrats, dude!
Yee-haw, JP!
I think you somehow got in the backdoor over at the catblog, and managed to post a comment to the Blogger comments, but danged if I can figure out how — they’re not supposed to be exposed. So, your recent comment over there, sadly, is lost to the ages.
Just sayin’ about teh Furminator, that we are trying it and the male cat is in heaven and the female cat, younger, skittish, and 100% diva, is dealing as well as can be expected. The li’l buggers shed a full cat every other day..,
Anonymous said,
frakkin’ iPhones…
Just sayin’ about teh Furminator, that we are trying it and the male cat is in heaven and the female cat, younger, skittish, and 100% diva, is dealing as well as can be expected. The li’l buggers shed a full cat every other day..
Yeah, it’s really a miraculous fur farming tool. 🙂
.
Way to go JP!
Kinkade made me retch, but McNoughton has made me genuinely angry. I’m feeling the urge to light a torch and march around menacingly with gardening implements. Anyone with me?
I have all sorts of pointy thingys, and a recalibrated EMF* meter.
*Evil Mother Fucker**
**Sorry for teh blogwhore, but I’m haz a mad-on…
@Jeffraham – Woo Hoo!
Shake, baby shake.
holy fuckaroo! that’s the best tittyfucking news i’ve heard all day! and ain’t that a bag of tits!
congrats, dude!
Thanks again, one and all. And to the dozens of Atriots who have kept me afloat through these horrid times.
This is my favorite congratulatory message of all time, though, bbkf. 🙂 I’ll treasure it always (and share it with Ivy, who will ROTFL).
.
Wow was that ever a case of monumental suckage. It’s like some parody of logic. Let’s break this down Olson.
1. It is a well-established fact that young people by and large are more progressive than older people (see that well known commie Winston Churchill for more on this).
2. Young people are getting smashed by debt and a shitty economy.
3. Every right-wing tool cries “socialism!” for any solution that might help their situation.
So the reason that a majority of young people have a favorable view of socialism is…
evil liberal professors. QED bitches!!!!
Hey Presto! Wonderful! Almost like magic. 🙂
No government agency or grant created Twitter or the iPhone.
Ooh, short messaging via internet and a phone, o the world shaking 21st century creativity brought to us by the holy markets!
And where are these econ departments that take socialism seriously? Are there any that acknowledge anything non-capitalistic except as amusing examples of historical ignorance?
Hey, congrats Jeffraham!
Shake, baby, shake
NBC: <a href="http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/04/09/trayvon-martin-911-call/" “Liberal media? What liberal media?”
Congrats JP. Operation If-You-Thought-Fluoridation-Was-A-Big-Deal-Wait-Until-You-See-What-LSD-Does-To-The-Water-Supply continues apace.
Oh, wow, JP’s got a job !! Yahoo and Well Done !!
Now you can start paying taxes and quit being a moocher and parasite.
(/rightwing angle)
Congrats JP. Operation…
The Department of Homeland Security, who has not completed my background check YET, says “We are not amused.”
.
Just sayin’ about teh Furminator,
does the furminator work on dogs?
Boy do THOSE guys need a sense of humor! Maybe the concentrated THC you’ll add next week will gives them the giggles they so desperately need.
Oh, wow, JP’s got a job !! Yahoo and Well Done !!
Now you can start paying taxes and quit being a moocher and parasite.
In fact, now that you are part of the 23%, I believe you have to either stop posting at Sadly, No! or we will have to consider you a troll from now on.
Just sayin’ about teh Furminator,
does the furminator work on dogs?
Should work on anything with tits.
This is my favorite congratulatory message of all time, though, bbkf. 🙂 I’ll treasure it always (and share it with Ivy, who will ROTFL).
i feel honored…and ha, ha…my mom just was telling me this morning that i have a ‘way with words’…
Should work on anything with tits.
HEY!!!! I KNOW IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I SHAVED MY LEGS, BUT REALLY?!?!?
does the furminator work on dogs?
Works a treat on Bagoas.
I browned a nicely frenched rack of lamb then smeared it up good with Dijon style mustard. Pressed on a bread crumb persillade and finished in the oven. Made a potato pavé with sauteed onion and fennel, cream and lots of cave-aged gruyere. Simple herb glazed carrots. Alas, I was too drunk to take pictures.
does the furminator work on dogs?
They make several different models for dogs, and I think two for cats. They’re spendy, but the last brush you will ever need for you fur farms.
.
Boy do THOSE guys need a sense of humor!
Seriously, there are signs from DHS on the access-controlled front gate that essentially say, “If you have no business being here, GTFO RIGHT NOW. THIS MEANS YOU.”
.
I believe there have been some studies done surveying academics’ political bents. Inspired by David Horrorwits probably. As I recall they found that the business schools and business classes are full of hard right republicans who don’t hesitate to bring politics into the classroom overtly. The hard sciences are filled with left leaning liberals, which should surprise no one. Thing is, they rarely if ever make overtly political comments. The humanities – well, you can figure it out for yourself.
Pupienus Maximus said,
April 9, 2012 at 20:15
Marry me. For a dinner anyhow. My wife will understand.
Wonderful news Jeffraham! Making water clean and potable is noble and necessary work. Good job!
Wonderful news Jeffraham! Making water clean and potable is noble and necessary work. Good job!
I think my answer to Ivy’s “gotcha” about why I wanted to switch from an apparently successful former career as an IT guy to this was perhaps the shining moment for me in the interview, and I put it very much that way; that when it comes to civilization, supplying clean, safe water to people is at the pinnacle of tasks that must be done. Making pixels dance on screens? Not so much. 🙂
.
…supplying clean, safe water to people is at the pinnacle of tasks that must be done.
I read the memoirs of a Doctors Without Borders type—can’t remember if he actually worked for DWB, but if not, he was very much in that mold, with years practicing in the Third World. He said something to the effect that a civil engineer who brought clean drinking water to an African village probably did more good than a planeload of doctors.
Well done, JP.
But the pixels I make dance so damn beautifully!
But seriously, I’d brew beer for a living if I thought it wouldn’t take all the fun out of brewing beer. Beer is almost as important as water — after society collapses, drinking small beer will be one of the only ways to drink clean water.
Huge congrats on the new gig!
To be clear, this is after we forget that boiling water sterilizes it. I’m thinking Riddley Walker timescales here.
And bbkf, I’m, considering how best I might fulfill your hope. We’ll see if I can come up with anything half way clever.
…
Fulfilling the hope.
Hi OBS, how are you? What are you having for lunch? A burrito!? Me too!
Hi OBS! How are you? Stuff and such? Whatcha brew lately?
On topic:
I think the whole “OMG kids these days are turning socialist! It must be the schools! Burn the schools!” thing is utter shit. It’s just another in a long line of “Look what those horrible liberals are doing to the children! Won’t somebody think of the children?!” tropes. It fools who it’s intended to fool.
What I hope is that the number of the people being fooled is slowly decreasing. We’ll see. For some reason I’m not optimistic on that point.
Hello paleo! I made an Imperial Brown Ale yesterday in honor of Zombie Jesus rising from the grave to tear off the Easter Bunny’s head and such as. It shall be aged on oak chips that had been soaked in bourbon to approximate some of what aging in a whiskey barrel might get. Should be about 8.5% and quite yummers. Second runnings of the batch went into my standard Northern English Brown Ale which is a spring/early summer fave.
@OBS
There are a number of bright cats suggesting that this is the start of a considered meme against public education on the whole – teacher’s unions, abstinence-only, monkey bills, etc., starting with Santorum’s slippery attack on California uni’s. Wildly untruthful, but designed to hit the lizard brain right in the primitive g-spot. shudder Salon had it best, but I’m not gonna be arsed at the moment to find the linkee.
The simple reasoning is that an uneducated populace cannot stand up for itself. And if good manufacturing and service jobs requiring that one be educable disappear, well, the ‘folks that matter’ can get what they need elsewhere, while the 99% figure out what box wine goes best with soylent green.
I really can’t understand anyone believing this is a good plan. Hence, Evil Mother Fuckers.
The simple reasoning is that an uneducated populace cannot stand up for itself.
Wow yeah, cause uneducated peasant types have never revolted.
Pretty much just basic conservatism here. It always goes like this:
OMG!!! Choose one (brain-washing, torture, religious extremism, lying, cheating, stealing, racism, sexism, class warfare) is evil and absolutely not to be tolerated in any circumstance unless we’re the ones doing it!!!!11!1!!!
Pretty sure that was a Troma film, The Zombie Also Rises or some such.
Have you done this before, and it worked successfully? (I can’t, well, shouldn’t drink beer, especially good beer, but a buddy is a brewer and if he doesn’t know this trick Imma clue him in.
Paleo: agreed entirely. I guess I wasn’t clear with my “fools who it’s intended to fool” bit. I always hope people will stop believing this shit, but am always disappointed.
while the 99% figure out what box wine goes best with soylent green.
You know, now that corporations are people, I’m thinking that commercial grade soylent green might not be a bad idea.
Yeah, it’s a pretty standard “trick” to get close to what barrel aging gets, without the expense and hassle of the barrel. Homebrew shops sell special spiral oak staves you can use, but I just get oak chips like you’d use for smoking food — give them a little char with a torch and let them soak in bourbon for a while. Let them dry a bit and toss them in the secondary fermenter.
Congratulations, Jeffraham! All the best on your new job!
(Interrobang finally got a new job after over a year out a mere five months ago.)
The peasants are always revolting!
Congrats, Jeffraham! I agree that clean water is the biggest contributor to the recent doubling of life expectancy—the other half being vaccinations, of course. This is why I’ll fight the anti-vaxers and public-service-privatizers to my dying breath! (Which wouldn’t be long if they get their way.)
That said, I hope your area isn’t like here, where we have the softest water in the country, and then add so much chlorine that it tastes like swimming-pool water!
They stink on ice!
@ tigris,
I didn’t mean to discount actual revolution, but that is a whole different critter. An uneducated populace, dependent on authority for it’s gods and TV, and where life for the majority is not dreadful, is less likely to stand up for itself at a ballot box, and strive to improve society as a whole. And there are countries in real need of physical revolution who have not pulled the trigger, due to the precious few having the police and armed forces in their pockets
The peasants are always revolting!
You’re leaving them to hang too long, two days is usually enough.
You’re leaving them to hang too long, two days is usually enough.
No, no. Traditional soylent requires weeks of aging, before being lightly spritzed with spring water, macerated, and garnished with lavender. To do otherwise is pedantic.
The Department of Homeland Security, who has not completed my background check YET, says “We are not amused.”
Hey, it’s just the name of the Operation. For all they know it might not involve hallucinogens and drinking water supplies at all. It might be just about widely disseminating plans to build advanced chemical weapons or some other harmless thing like that.
I didn’t mean to discount actual revolution, but that is a whole different critter.
It is, but I’m not sure if demoralizing the populace for political control purposes is as easily maintained long term as they seem to think it is, or if they’re playing with fire, especially when part of the demoralization process includes fomenting anger and tensions between groups.
It is, but I’m not sure if demoralizing the populace for political control purposes is as easily maintained long term as they seem to think it is, or if they’re playing with fire, especially when part of the demoralization process includes fomenting anger and tensions between groups.
Yeah, you’re right, it’s quite the fine line, and as the stakes go higher, and stuff…
Good news Jeffraham! Trubba not OBS
And bbkf, I’m, considering how best I might fulfill your hope. We’ll see if I can come up with anything half way clever.
oh, i knooooow you can do it…look at your success with the death squard logo…brillian!
eh…brilliant, that is…
anyhoo, have we seen this before?
i cannot believe i do not own this…i do however own and wear a bob ross t-shirt given to me by my local pbs station…
This is why I’ll fight the anti-vaxers and public-service-privatizers to my dying breath! (Which wouldn’t be long if they get their way.)
Well, I hate to say it, but… this is a job with a company who has been contracted to run the city’s water treatment facility. So, boo, hiss, throw rocks.
Five years ago, citizens turned on their taps to find their water was pink. The state said, “This Shall Not Stand,” and thus our (love saying that) company was contracted to take over.
.
Five years ago, citizens turned on their taps to find their water was pink
oooooh, pretty! we’re lucky enough to live in a municipality small enough but smart enough to give us really good water…i don’t buy bottled water at all…the watertower is right above my house!
oooooh, pretty! we’re lucky enough to live in a municipality small enough but smart enough to give us really good water…i don’t buy bottled water at all…the watertower is right above my house!
There are limits to what I can say about it. It’s a politically-sensitive issue to this day, as water and sewer rates went way up, and that’s not because of the privitizing, btw. Plus, the contract is renewed per annum. So, discretion, etc. But none of what I’ve said is anything not covered in the local news.
.
bbkf, I advise against using that toilet paper. The bunghole route is recognised for quick adsorption and LIGHT up the bunghole? Lord knows what would happen then.
Sign of the times, I guess. 55 years ago, when people suddenly realized Lake Washington was a septic tank, and all the cities and King County were pointing fingers at each other, the response was to merge the responsibility into a new government entity, King County METRO. Gradually it’s acquired other responsibilities, like Transit. A huge success story, actually.
Nowadays, since Gummint cain’t do nuthin’ right, I’m sure the response would be the same here as it was there. Good thing our crisis came earlier.
Sheesh! “Response”, “responsibility”, and “responsibilities” in three lines. My Nobel Prize in Literature will be in the mail, I guess.
There are limits to what I can say about it. It’s a politically-sensitive issue to this day, as water and sewer rates went way up, and that’s not because of the privitizing, btw. Plus, the contract is renewed per annum. So, discretion, etc. But none of what I’ve said is anything not covered in the local news.
hmmmmm…veddy interesting…we are in the midst of a new sewer line project…for two years all the sewer lines in the city were replaced up to the connection to residences and this year they will put in new lines from the residences to the hook ups…cannot wait…the lines from our house are super old and tree roots grow through them and all that jazz…
bbkf, I advise against using that toilet paper. The bunghole route is recognised for quick adsorption and LIGHT up the bunghole? Lord knows what would happen then.
i dunno…i think such pretty light coming out of my butt could only add to its value…
To be clear, this is after we forget that boiling water sterilizes it. I’m thinking Riddley Walker timescales here.
HOT WATER BURN BABY.
Beer does not.
Advantage: Beer.
this year they will put in new lines from the residences to the hook ups
Nice. In my burgh the line from the trunk pipe to your house is considered your responsibility. They put a new sewer line in right down the middle of the street a few years ago and that was it, job done.
oooooh, pretty! we’re lucky enough to live in a municipality small enough but smart enough to give us really good water…i don’t buy bottled water at all…the watertower is right above my house!
I live where we have an aquifer full of awesome water. Despite our best efforts to destroy it, it’s still hanging in there.
Beer is also delicious with those terble juicy baby swossages.
this year they will put in new lines from the residences to the hook ups
I drive my car from my residence to my hook ups. I consider them my responsibility.
Nice. In my burgh the line from the trunk pipe to your house is considered your responsibility. They put a new sewer line in right down the middle of the street a few years ago and that was it, job done
yeah, we got some sort of grant for it on account of we’re such a teensie town and a town full of olds…
I drive my car from my residence to my hook ups. I consider them my responsibility.
glad to see you are a traditionalist…
twins just won their home opener!!! and what the hell did ozzie guillen say to piss everybody off?
we’re such a teensie town and a town full of olds…
So are we, but all it got us was a schmancy new “community” aka senior center. No pool, though, because then the schools could’ve used it too and we can’t have that. Also no new high school because those are EXPENSIVE.
twins just won their home opener!!!
oops…my bad…i mis-heard…damn…
No government agency or grant created Twitter or the iPhone.
Correct me if I am wrong, but is not Twitter an add-on to the DARPAnet?
i dunno…i think such pretty light coming out of my butt could only add to its value…
Relevant!!
twins just won their home opener!!! and what the hell did ozzie guillen say to piss everybody off?
He decided (in Miami) to gush about what a great guy Fidel Castro was and is.
Miami deserves this shit, btw. Guillen has been running his punkass fool mouth for years now and they were fucking idiots to hire him.
Hello paleo! I made an Imperial Brown Ale I’m lucky enough to have a co-worker who decided to cope with the stress on the job by starting to homebrew again which he gives to his co-workers. His last distribution was a very good mai boch. He has a 60 minute IPA going now.
while the 99% figure out what box wine goes best with soylent green.
Box wine goes good with more than soylent green.
[ LOL ]No government agency or grant created Twitter or the iPhone.[/ LOL ]
Yeah, all that corporate welfare, ignoring anti-trust legislation and free money in startup grants created no new technology. Hundreds of billions of dollars every year in military contracts to develop new technologies had nothing to do with it either.
I speak english good. “Box wine goes well with…”
Miami deserves this shit, btw. Guillen has been running his punkass fool mouth for years now and they were fucking idiots to hire him.
guillen is indeed a dumbass…i have never gotten what his appeal is…
guillen is indeed a dumbass…i have never gotten what his appeal is…
It’s the same appeal as grabbing a lawn chair and watching a frat/sorority party. If it goes on long enough, something really terrible, yet really funny is going to happen.
I speak english good. “Box wine goes well with…”
I think it box-wine circles, “goes good” is perfectly acceptable.
So are we, but all it got us was a schmancy new “community” aka senior center. No pool, though, because then the schools could’ve used it too and we can’t have that. Also no new high school because those are EXPENSIVE.
the new census revealed that odessa’s population is 132…used to be 113…we are the only city or village in big stone county that gained in population (w00t!)…the odessa school is now a big part of the landscaping in my yard as it was torn down about 15 years ago…here’s what my town consists of: a post office, bar, cafe, grain elevator, seed company, wax rendering plant, two dudes who fix cars, my brother who is a wood carver, sculptor and has a wood finishing business, an art gallery (sculptures and hand woven baskets) fire hall (volunteer dept.), city hall…which is mostly used for wedding dances and bingo…and some pickup basketball games…city park with a ball diamond, a shit ton of stray cats, various horses, chickens, geese and dogs…one of which NEVER STOPS BARKING…it’s pretty awesome though all in all…
It’s the same appeal as grabbing a lawn chair and watching a frat/sorority party. If it goes on long enough, something really terrible, yet really funny is going to happen.
eck…i watched some of ‘house bunny’ yesterday and nothing funny happened…mostly just terrible…
You’re smaller. We’re a bedroom community for Boston, on the train line, small, especially relative to other nearby towns, but not tiny. We do have way more than our fair share of old people, though, and those cranky bastards vote themselves all kinds of shit while bitching loudly about the high property taxes… so they vote to give themselves tax breaks, too.
eck…i watched some of ‘house bunny’ yesterday and nothing funny happened…mostly just terrible…
WHAT? That was a great movie. Maybe it’s just because I’m hopelessly in love with Emma Stone.
If you haven’t seen Easy A, SEE IT. It’s hilarious.
If you haven’t seen Easy A, SEE IT. It’s hilarious.
i have heard it is hi-larious…and i will check it out…i am always more than willing to check out any sophomoric flick…except if they make a dumb and dumber 3…d & d’er is a classic that should not be fucked with…
and those cranky bastards vote themselves all kinds of shit while bitching loudly about the high property taxes… so they vote to give themselves tax breaks, too.
we never get to vote on anything exciting…mostly mayor and council members…and any other voting we do by mail ballot, which totes blows…
our olds have a big grudge against the gubbmint since in the sixties, the feds came in and bought up all the farms in the riverbottoms and created this…which is cool, but g-dang it, it changed our very local economy drastically and created a lot of hard feelings…but i do like having a refuge for my backyard…
I think it box-wine circles, “goes good” is perfectly acceptable.
Being a “I don’t know much about art” type, I find Black Box has some respectable wines. I once had a $100+ bottle of wine from Bordeaux that was disgusting (I believe “tasted of the barnyard” was the term used by the guy who offered it). Apparently, it didn’t travel well. So, if it tastes good to you then go for it. I do have to give a plug to something I have done the last two years. It used to be called Uncork York (Pa) and was a month long pass to tour wineries in Pa. This year it expanded to be the Mason-Dixon wine trail to include some Maryland wineries. Maryland/PA wines used to be on the sweet side (which I don’t really like). We now have the wineries producing drys and semi-drys that aren’t bad. If you are in the area, I encourage you to try it.
And congrats JP. I’m on a project I hate. I love the people and believe in the work but this project is horrible. Everyone blames IT for everything. I’ve been applying to other jobs and I have too many years invested as a Fed to want to go to PI. So I am envious of you that you have a job that fulfills your needs.
Beer is also delicious with those terble juicy baby swossages.
Sausages from babbies? Horrible!
twins just won their home opener!!!
and
I drive my car from my residence to my hook ups. I consider them my responsibility.
seem related somehow but maybe it’s just my dirty mind.
OT but if this team ever became Pres/VP then we would be doomed as a nation.
Jeffraham: Huzzah !!! Imma gonna unclutter my desk and return the Lucky Artifacts back to their normal resting places now that their work is done … and your work begins. Today Sadlyville is Happyville !
bbfk: I’m totes in favor of a Big Stone Refuge everywhere !
Christopher: Thanks for delving into the Pew poll and cautioning against over-interpretation of its results.
Being a “I don’t know much about art” type, I find Black Box has some respectable wines.
I have yet to try a wine that I enjoyed. I’m saying that in the box circles, you’re outside of the pretentious dildo-land, which is a good place to be, I think.
Pfft. Allen West. That dude is a piece of SHIT. That’s the most polite way I can say it.
I’m saying that in the box circles, you’re outside of the pretentious dildo-land, which is a good place to be, I think.
oh, hells yeah! for the past few years, folks around here have been making their own wines…from kits…that is some of the nastiest shit ever…which, fine…if you like wine that tastes like kool-aid good for you! but this group of people are just awfully pretentious about it…i am embarassed for them…and i serve wine from single serve bottles at a supper club which is a pole barn in the middle of the prairie…
I have yet to try a wine that I enjoyed
have you never tasted the ambrosia that is tj swanns or boone’s farm?!?!?
OT but if this team ever became Pres/VP then we would be doomed as a nation.
oooh…west is being touted by cain, palin and haley…the trifecta of stupidity!
have you never tasted the ambrosia that is tj swanns or boone’s farm?!?!?
Boone’s yes, Swann’s no. I have had MD 20-20 as well. Those were my first experiences with wine, and they didn’t go GOOD. There may be an explanation in there somewhere.
wine reviews!
i dunno…i think such pretty light coming out of my butt could only add to its value…
The sun shines out of our behinds.
You need to try these: http://bumwine.com/
Damn you tigris!
Damn you tigris!
i know! i almost peed my pants reading the cisco review…
have you never tasted the ambrosia that is tj swanns or boone’s farm?!?!?
I got violently ill from drinking (way too much) Boone’s when I was in High School and I’ve never touched it since then.
, Swann’s no
tj had classic names like ‘easy days’ and ‘mellow nights’ and i believe there was one called ‘stepping out’…pretty much the same as your basic boone’s farm…i’ve always been partial to tickle pink…
I got violently ill from drinking (way too much) Boone’s when I was in High School
who hasn’t?!?!? but you def didn’t want to hurl up your ‘malt duck’ because you would not be able to drink grape koolaid or beer for a long, long time…
Likewise me and all my friends. Why oh why they thought it was a good idea to offer 2 liter bottles of Boone’s and MD20/20 wine coolers I will never understand. There was always a willing homeless person around to get us a bottle or three if we let them keep the change.
Ah, memories.
I do appreciate good wine now, although I’m certainly not a snob about it.*
…
What?
Oh, and you can make good wine from a kit, you just need to get a good kit. They’re supposedly really popular in Canada (something about taxes?) so they make some good ones. I made a nice pinot noir from a kit that used juice from one of the premier growers in Oregon and it turned out great.
Boone’s yes, Swann’s no. I have had MD 20-20 as well. Those were my first experiences with wine, and they didn’t go GOOD. There may be an explanation in there somewhere.
While in college, I got my mitts on some Civil Defense survival ration crackers so my roommates and I threw a “wine and cheese” party with Night Train and MD, Cheez Whiz and that spray can cheese.
Just want to clarify, the crackers were baked well before I was born.
They tasted like Play-Doh smells.
Insert “Bacon and Play-Doh” joke…
On a completely irrelevant note: Nyan Waits.
Jeffraham: Huzzah !!! Imma gonna unclutter my desk and return the Lucky Artifacts back to their normal resting places now that their work is done … and your work begins. Today Sadlyville is Happyville !
Thank you again, all of you, of course. I’m rather pleased, today. RECOVERY SPRING!!!
.
I got violently ill from drinking (way too much) Boone’s when I was in High School and I’ve never touched it since then.
I was lucky, I watched my older brother get voilently ill from too much MD 20/20 when he was in high school and was able to learn my lesson about cheap wines vicariously. It was a couple years after high scholl that I learned my lesson about cheap rum first hand.
Of course as youngsters, we all probably drank stuff we wouldn’t dream of touching as adults (availability!), but I don’t recall that much wine in my youth. Little Kings Cream Ale, yes. Pure grain punch at parties, yes. Projectile vomiting, of course. 🙂
.
Um… your concern? NOTED. And replaced with badger calisthenics. 😉
.
And congrats JP. I’m on a project I hate. I love the people and believe in the work but this project is horrible. Everyone blames IT for everything. I’ve been applying to other jobs and I have too many years invested as a Fed to want to go to PI. So I am envious of you that you have a job that fulfills your needs.
Sorry for your situation, ‘mint.
I’m fairly excited, knowing what I know about this company, as right now, they are doing nothing with handheld tech in ythe field — and on this job, that could save time, money and increase accuracy tremendously. They’re also open to ideas from the n00bs, so after a bit of time, I’ll work up some proposals to drag them into my world, a little.
.
Um, Pennis? It’s all of us pseudonynmous commenters who are high fiving. IOW, eat shit, fuckwad.
I got violently ill many times from drinking (way too much) Boone’s when I was in High School and I’ve never touched it since then.
Eff’ed for autobiographical accuracy.
Portland FINALLY got a waiver from the feds so we don’t have to build a 2 Billion $ treatment facility for our Bull Run supply. But, crypto they said! It’s deadly! But crypto has NEVER been found in the Bull Run reservoir! This went on for years.
Bitter Scribe said,
April 9, 2012 at 20:38 (kill)
…supplying clean, safe water to people is at the pinnacle of tasks that must be done.
I read the memoirs of a Doctors Without Borders type—can’t remember if he actually worked for DWB, but if not, he was very much in that mold, with years practicing in the Third World. He said something to the effect that a civil engineer who brought clean drinking water to an African village probably did more good than a planeload of doctors.
Yeah. This is why Engineers Without Borders recruits civil e’s and not structural e’s. Really poor people don’t need help building small shelters, but they need water and sewerage.
Dennnis, you’re an idiot. Sad, but true.
Miami deserves this shit, btw. Guillen has been running his punkass fool mouth for years now and they were fucking idiots to hire him.
As a Cubs fan let me just say…*snort, cackle*
Dude, c’mon.
Congrats and all that, but seriously, enough already. Snark everybody on your own blog. It’s like this place is your family room and these anonymous commenters are the only people in the whole world who will pay attention to you, now that your “girlfriend” had your restraining order bumped up to 500 feet.
Okay, this is pretty fucking funny.
George Zimmerman Launches Website, Features Vandalized Black Cultural Center
And, apparently, a picture of a
dirtbagPastor Terry Jones rally.Mind you, the actual site (the above link is thinkprogress) is giving a 503 error now, because everyone and his brother went over their to see for themselves and get screencaps before it got re-edited…
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. nnnnnnnnnnnnnn. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn? nnnnn! nnnnnnnnnn. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn… nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. nnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
Fuckin’ A. THIS. 😆
.
Na na na na nana na nana naaaaaaa!
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Na na na na nana na nana naa hey hey, goooodbye.
I accidentally a “hey.”
NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
I remember YouTube back when it didn’t have commercials…
I accidentally a “hey.”
Hay is for intentional horses.
dammit, i see i missed a pennis sighting…dang.
anyhoo, does hubbkf know my inner-nerd or what? tonight he presented me with ‘the sherlock holmes victorian cookbook’…that’s pretty tittyfucking awesome!
I thought it was for nonny noes. Which are some kind of small furry animal.
‘the sherlock holmes victorian cookbook’
Needs more opiates.
Needs more opiates.
And coca!
Young Frankenstein is on! How did Mel do two classics pretty much at the same time? Gene Wilder and drugs probably help.
MY NAME IS FRANKENSTEIN!!!!!!!
“Boy do THOSE guys need a sense of humor! Maybe the concentrated THC you’ll add next week will gives them the giggles they so desperately need.”
We at the Not-To-Be-Named Water Treatment Plant have no sense of humor that we are aware of. Just kidding. I keep trying to get the boss to add valium to the water to cut down on this town’s whininess but he said something about it not being in the budget. 😉
Delurking to say congrats JP!
what’s jp going to buy us with his first paycheck?!?!?
Raw sewage!
what’s jp going to buy us with his first paycheck?!?!?
Ooh, I hope it’s that forced gaybortion I’ve always wanted!
We at the Not-To-Be-Named Water Treatment Plant have no sense of humor that we are aware of. Just kidding. I keep trying to get the boss to add valium to the water to cut down on this town’s whininess but he said something about it not being in the budget. 😉
OMFG.
See, motherfletchers? I am BUSTED. Ivy’s in charge of the Googling!
.
Ooh, I hope it’s that forced gaybortion I’ve always wanted!
Look under your seat! Forced gaybortion for YOU! Forced gaybortion for YOU! And forced gaybortion for YOU!
.
See, motherfletchers? I am BUSTED. Ivy’s in charge of the Googling!
oh, crap!
.
.
.
i suppose we can’t say things like that anymore…
The day that academia no longer has a liberal bias is the day we are truly fucked.
wow…i am so disappointed with my family…
my mom came over today to tell me that my cousin’s husband committed suicide last night…so, it’s been an icky, icky day…my cousin is 43 and we are a lot alike and my heart just aches for her…but, it looks like i’ll be the only one making the trip to the cities…everyone else either has a) shopping they want to do; b) think it’s kind of far to go and she’ll have enough people there supporting her; c) think it’s just such a weird situation…
my answer? my family is fucking awful…
JP, this is what happens when you join the Sadlynaughts. The Atriots ain’t got shit. Or if they do you can treat it now.
If they ask you to test the latest Giardia culture, just say no.
JP, this is what happens when you join the Sadlynaughts.
Exactly!!!! GOOGLEABLE!!!! Unlike Disqusbisquick!
.
i suppose we can’t say things like that anymore…
Naw. Ivy’s awesomer than awesome ever awesomed, or even THOUGHT about awesomeing. She knows I won’t say anythang in public that has any potential impact without clearing it through her, first. The place is completely transparent in issues that matter, and this I know and believe. The state won’t lie for us to make us look good to the taxpayers. Neither will the EPA. Which is as it should be!
.
ONE OF US, ONE OF US, ONE OF US…
While there is not shortage of good, foundational texts to educate the student interested in America’s economic history, there is a shortage of interested students.
No, Henry, you dunce, the real reason there’s no interest in American economic history is because the right-wing neoliberal wacko pseudo-history you would accept doesn’t acknowledge it because it thinks economics are outside of history and thinks that because actually looking at American economic history would prove it utterly stupid. The major sources of economic prosperity in American history have been the Homestead Act and the New Deal – which neoliberalism can’t help but see as violations of the stateless free market.
Not to mention over and over again the markets clearly couldn’t very easily or quickly fix themselves when things otherwise went wrong, and some of the most successful fixes were either government policies that socialized risks (like Social Security) or directly checked market extremes (federal banking regulations, or popular referenda in Western states that were used to counterbalance the rainroad industrial trusts, which the market couldn’t cut down to size).
If you want economic history, it’s inevitably going to fail to live up to your standards. Reality has a well-documented liberal bias as we all know.
We need to draw Ivy onto the boat.
.
bbkf – Oh god, that sounds awful. I hope you and your cousin and the rest of your family are able to get through this. Best wishes.
bbkf — So sorry to hear. Tragic. 🙁
.
thanks, guys…it is just awful…but i really don’t get my family at all sometimes…i mean, holy shit…they were all here for us when my brother died unexpectedly…they all made trips out here to see my dad one more time before he died and also came back for his funeral…this is arguably the most horrible thing my cousin will experience and my family can’t make time to go be with her…even if it’s just a hug and a few words at the funeral? i’ve always known my mom was self-absorbed, but i really didn’t think my siblings were…
People don’t always act as they should. You are doing the right thing anyway. Strength to you bbkf
“People don’t always act as they should.”
Damn right they don’t, in my somewhat similar experience. I guess you can take note, but there’s no point resenting their behavior. Life seems to consist (in part) of forming reasonable expectations, and then seeing them dashed.
Ah well, bbkf, console your cousin as well as you can. Your family will not be doing what they’re ill-equipped (?) and unwilling do, I guess we can say.
I have tried to make this point, more or less, to my wife about friends that have turned out not-so-supportive now that we’re thousands of miles away and the shit is hitting the fan for us. “Duly noted” is my only reaction, but I am probably too hardened to make a reference-point. I AM there for her, that much is for sure. As are my mom and my brother, but that brings up the separate point that my wife won’t let them in.
Delurking to say congrats JP!
Moi aussi!!! Wooooo0000t!
wow…i am so disappointed with my family…
A momentary joy mingled with sadness.
It is the way of the world,,,High fives to JP and hugs to bbkf.
.
true dat, provider…i was thinking that yesterday…it is indeed the way of the world…golem, i hope whatever you and mrs. golem are going through will pass soon and all will be well…
and yes, ak, i am doing the right thing…i came to grips with it overnight and i am actually looking forward to making this trip on my own…i’ve got a lot of shit to process (as i imagine we all do, but don’t always get the chance to) and 8 hours on the road by myself is just the place to do it…i also need to learn how to get around in the metro area…i can’t be such a wuss all the time and depend on others to drag my ass around threre…
so, such as it is and also…i am feeling much better today…
Safe travels bbkf, that is one long journey you’re going on.
Safe travels bbkf, that is one long journey you’re going on.
Make sure to bring your Yanni and Barney CDs for car listening.
Also, since it’s a such long drive I’d suggest loading up with a gallon or so of coffee before disembarking. Also pick a route with very few rest stops so that you don’t get distracted from reaching your destination.
Be sure to take advantage of all the fine AM talk-radio and religious broadcasting shows available along your route. Especially when traveling through the rural areas.
If you get pulled over for speeding, don’t forget to comment about how fat the cop is and how he should lay off teh donuts. Seeing your obvious concern for his health and well-being, you’ll probably get a police escort to your next destination!
Sometimes the reception’s not so good and you’ll need a podcast.
my answer? my family is fucking awful…
They’re only humans and humans suck in general. You care, which is important. They don’t. That’s just the nature of things.
Karma will work its magic in funny ways, but it eventually catches up with them. The only problem is, they may have forgotten the lesson they were supposed to learn.
Safe trip, bbkf
Oh shit. Here we fucking go
Why is it that any time something bad happens, the only people that show up are the people who are the worst at fixing things?
If you come into a town where all the adults are gone and all you see are wild-eyed children spouting bible verses – RUN!
Why is it that any time something bad happens, the only people that show up are the people who are the worst at fixing things?
Craig Silverman had some harsh criticism of this reporting at Poynter Online. He did not have any criticism of this related media reportage story.
Note that his issue with the New Times story is that they didn’t verify the presence of heavily armed neo-Nazi patrols, they just went with the fact that the leader of a neo-Nazi movement stated that he had heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford. FFS, Silverman cites Newsblusterers and S,N! favourite LeGa-L-PooR-CapsTillAshUn.
Hey, you know what else Sanford PD doesn’t have any evidence of? TEH EFFING SHOOTING OF TRAYVON MARTIN. Yeah, those are totes teh guys to go to for teh facts and such.
Uh, pretend I closed that tag. I blame bbkf.
I have yet to try a wine that I enjoyed.
I like Black Box. I don’t really buy that much box wine any more because I find I drink to much of it a sitting. I stick to bottles.
Why is it that any time something bad happens, the only people that show up are the people who are the worst at fixing things?
Nazis. Is there any problem they can’t solve?
Proof that Reagan was a radical Kenyan communist can be found here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/09/1081980/-Presidents-Reagan-and-Obama-team-up-to-support-Buffett-Rule
Safe travels bbkf, that is one long journey you’re going on.
Make sure to bring your Yanni and Barney CDs for car listening.
i was going to ask for audio book suggestions, but you have gone too far, sir…
“I like Black Box.”
They is miscegenating ! !
and thanks, dkw…
omg…i just read the rest of your comments and you guys crack me up…it’s good to laff…
you have gone too far, sir…
Or maybe I haven’t gone far enough. I wonder…
Uh, pretend I closed that tag. I blame bbkf.
i’m glad i can pay you back for all your earlier helpful advice…
i am talking to my mother as i type, and wonder of wonders! she has made this all about herself…holy shit…if i EVER get anywhere near as self involved? please fucking shoot me…
if i EVER get anywhere near as self involved? please fucking shoot me…
Shooting you isn’t all about you, you know.
Or maybe I haven’t gone far enough. I wonder…
grrrrr, baby, grrrr…
Shooting you isn’t all about you, you know.
true…think about how badly the gun manufacturers would feel in such a case…
I like Black Box. I don’t really buy that much box wine any more because I find I drink to much of it a sitting. I stick to bottles.
according to my new favorite site bumwine.com, thunderbird comes in a 50 oz. jug…
If you haven’t heard them yet, you must do so. Alabama Shakes
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/09/1081980/-Presidents-Reagan-and-Obama-team-up-to-support-Buffett-Rule
arguably the greatest tag team since the road warriors…
Alabama Shakes
is this what happens after drinking the 50 oz jug of thunderbird?
Ugh. No coffee filters.
.
In the “not really that surprising” dept. we have this: http://wonkette.com/469303/fox-calls-neo-nazis-patrolling-sanford-civil-rights-group-to-be-fired-by-national-review-video
I guess the revolution will be televised after all. Imagine that.
I rate for box wine. Less packaging means smaller footprint – which means a market made of enviro-conscious hipsters – which means actually palatable wine going into boxes.
Speaking of smaller footprints, a box of white takes up a lot less space in the fridge than four or five bottles do.
Finally, when in cups sometimes we do things we might regret and boxes are way moar difficult to cut someone with.
A dirty sock adds a certain piquant footiness.
Whenever I find myself in a cup I always regret it. I’ll have to try the box thing. The cats sure seem to enjoy them.
I think Faux meant to call the neo-nazis an “uncivil white’s group.” It must have just been a typo.
Ugh. No coffee filters.
I’ve used paper towels
in a pinchwhen the bastards at my crash pad used all the coffee filters and didn’t buy any more.Nazis. Is there any problem they can’t
solveturn into a disaster?There, fittified.
bbkf: best to you & yours. As D-KW said, you’re doing the right thing and that’s all you can do. That said, ignore his helpful suggestion about coffee and go straight to the cocaine. Nothing better for a long road trip. Bring along a little pot to take the edge off. Offer it to the cop when you’re stopped.
You just drink gallons of Pepsi Max.
Also take dexedrine.
bbfk: I’m so sorry. I hurt for you and your cousin.
The grief that survivors of a suicide must be extraordinarily painful: “I should have done something to prevent it.” They take on a cruel burden that no one should ever have bear, an unfair guilt, as if they had failed in some way, as if they were somehow responsible. If your cousin has children, this can be especially acute, or so I imagine.
Just being there, and listening, and physical touch will help her, of that I am sure. You are such a loving and compassionate person–that shines through so clearly in what you write about hubbfk and aidan. If only one person from your family goes the the funeral, you are the perfect one. You can take on the role of ‘ambassador’ for them
Don’t be bitter about you family’s refusal to go; there is often a social stigma to suicide, which isolates the survivors even further, making them feel like outcasts, shunned when they most need help and support. Many people are uncomfortable dealing with death in any form; I’ll wager it is even worse in the case of self-destruction. In some people, funerals are a too-painful reminder of deaths they have suffered…as with your brother. It may be a reminder of their own mortality. So don’t be too bitter about your family; there may be subsurface currents that are hard to discern.
((I’ve done a lot of thinking about this subject…the effect on survivors. In my worst extremity, this helped hold me back, really the last defense I had: Weighed in the balance, my suffering was less important than causing intense hurt to the people I loved. Jesus, I hurt for your cousin.))
Mood disorders are a disease, not the fault of the victim, and certainly not the fault of other people. If your cousin’s husand’s death had happened in a car crash or by cancer, no ‘fault’ would attach to the people who loved him. He died of a disease.
Another thing that can lift spirits in a surprising way: A sense of humor to help lighten the solemnity and sadness….just as you recognized above that some laughter in Sadlyville helped you.
All Sadlyville is sad for you today. I know I am.
Lots of love,
Yer internets friend Fenwick
have you never tasted the ambrosia that is tj swanns or boone’s farm?!?!?
Don’t forget Ruinite Lambrosco – the reason I don’t like most sweet wines
Dang, I stay away for a day and all hell breaks loose.
Congrats on the new gig, JP.
Sorry to hear about your cousin’s husband, bbkf. It might be that your family isn’t as awful as you’re thinking right now…as uncomfortable as many people are with death, they’re even more freaked out by suicide, because the usual platitudes won’t do. Someone who kills themself was in a very bad place so there’s none of that “he fought really hard” or anything else.
That having been said, you are of course doing the right thing. Just showing up, giving your cousin a hug and telling her “I’m sorry for your loss” might seem like it’s not enough for the other members of your family, but it is. And your cousin will always remember you were there. People don’t forget who stood by them when things were really bad.
Be sure to take advantage of all the fine AM talk-radio and religious broadcasting shows available along your route.
How about a little Prophet Omega accompnied by Adrian Belew.
according to my new favorite site bumwine.com, thunderbird comes in a 50 oz. jug…
They stopped selling by the barrel?
Atticus Finch would have George Zimmerman’s back.
Did I hear this right? Santorum is pulling out?
Did I hear this right? Santorum is pulling out?
The Catholic Church only allows candidates to use the rhythm method to end their campaigns.
Frothy is out!
That’s right, Santorum is being left behind in all the states in the Republican primary.
Dogwhistles to the end:
And bowing out before you get hammered in your home state is some face-saving timing.
lol at Whale Chowder
Or, uh, was it his home state? He didn’t even get on the ballot in Virginia…
I can’t believe I clicked that. I think I would’ve been happier if it had been goatse.
Well he came from PA originally. A Pittsburgh paper sent someone out to the house he had listed as his official residence and found it empty. At the same time he was billing PA for … wait, let me get it right …
I’m so excited that the press can now completely ignore the remaining candidates (what about Rno Pual!?!) and now spend 24/7 contemplating who rMoney’s running mate will be. Yay. Woo.
rMoney’s running mate
As a mormon, he’s allowed up to four running mates.
I’m sad. The delegate count had Mitt ahead in total, but there was enough wiggle-room for nitwits to pretend they had influence.
Breaking!!!!!
Santorum squeezed out of GOP race. Film at 11.
So how long is Newtie going to stay in?
After a long hard struggle to come from behind, Santorum drops out.
The news is awash in a river of Santorum. Newt faces a tough swim upstream; Paul expected to drown.
Ha ha you libtards. You can’t even get basic facts right. It’s not that Santorum’s out – he’s merely suspended his campaign.
You might think that all the Santorum’s gone, but it’s just hanging up in there, holding on and not making any sudden moves. Maybe we can’t expect Santorum spurts and surges anymoar, but he says his fight isn’t over. There’ll be Santorum, tucked away in the dark corners – building in strength and volume – waiting for the perfect opportunity to erupt again all over the national stage.
Santorum will make the announcement at a press conference in Gettysburg
ten bucks (or a vat of thunderbird) says he mentions his daughter’s hospitalization right off the fucking bat…
So how long is Newtie going to stay in?
Until November, by the looks of it.
Ha ha you libtards. You can’t even get basic facts right. It’s not that Santorum’s out – he’s merely suspended his campaign.
You might think that all the Santorum’s gone, but it’s just hanging up in there, holding on and not making any sudden moves. Maybe we can’t expect Santorum spurts and surges anymoar, but he says his fight isn’t over. There’ll be Santorum, tucked away in the dark corners – building in strength and volume – waiting for the perfect opportunity to erupt again all over the national stage.
so, the santorum is just prairie dogging for now?
Strangely, it’s not Substance…
So how long is Newtie going to stay in?
depends on if he’s a power top?
So how long is Newtie going to stay in?
As long as Adelson keeps writing checks.
“So how long is Newtie going to stay in?”
Santorum quitting gives Newtie more incentive to stay in, as “the one true conservative in the field.”
I’ve got some money I’ve been saving up for these guys. Should I give it to Santorum to help him retire his campaign debt, in gratitude for all the moments of hilarity he’s given us? Or to Newtie, in anticipation of the hilarity to come?
Or maybe I’ll just keep the nickel.
Yup. Santorum is – out of the spotlight, but still suspended there in the hidden cracks and crevices of the national consciousness.
Post-mortem analysis: Santorum drops out after Rmomey rectum in Wisonsin.
Can’t wait: http://gawker.com/5900710/announcing-our-newest-hire-a-current-fox-news-channel-employee
This will be good for Republicans.
Can’t wait:
i think i am going to like the fox mole…
also, unguarded mitt is much, much creepier than on camera mitt…i know all the articles say he ‘reveres’ his wife…fuck that, he’s scared shitless of her…what does she have on him? it would be irresponsible not to speculate…
the fox mole
Another genetic experiment gone horribly wrong.
How long do you think it’ll be before Fox News institutes mass polygraphs to catch the Fox Mole?
New post.
the fox mole
Another
genetic experimentMexican dish gone horribly wrong.