Lately I’ve been spending too much time reading right-wing blogs and Facebook pages. Usually I leave this dirty job to Roy Edroso, but one or two have gotten under my skin and I can reliably be found checking in here and there. It’s like sneaking cigarettes when you’re trying to quit.
You wonder who the 18 percent are who think the president is a Muslim? I found a few. They use words like “usurper” a lot, not a common vocabulary word for those who insist that this or that “needs warshed.” But it’s one of those dog-whistle words; Google “obama usurper” and you get 101,000 results. This is a typical usage, blah blah blah birth certificate blah blah blah. Google “obama muslim usurper” and you get even more — 559,000.
Then I read this latest blog by Roger Ebert, and a phrase jumped out at me:
This many Americans did not arrive at such conclusions (about Obama being Muslim, or the Antichrist) on their own. They were persuaded by a relentless process of insinuation, strategic silence and cynical misinformation. Most of the leaders in this process have been cautious to avoid actually saying Obama is a Muslim. They speak in coded words and allow the implications to sink in. I recently watched Glenn Beck speaking at great length about Obama’s Muslim father, but you would not have learned from Beck that the father, who Obama met only once, was not a practicing Muslim in any sense.
Strategic silence. Yes, that’s it exactly. This, when I pick it apart, is why I’ve reached the point where I feel more or less permanently furious at about half the country. I lived in Indiana for 20 years, feeling like a drag queen in Salt Lake City, but I got used to it. I used to believe that I could call many of them friends, that they had something to offer. We disagreed, but, I would tell myself, they had arrived at this point in time via a different path than mine; of course they reached some different conclusions along the way. (This was not always an indulgence granted in return.) When they lost the presidential election, I figured they’d be sore about it, but I didn’t anticipate a two-year temper tantrum, aided and abetted by their highly paid mouthpieces, who smirk through their silence when their idiot minions roar about Marxism and socialism and Muslim usurpers.
Ebert thinks Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin may announce their intent to run for office when the former appears in the latter’s state on — would you look at that? another coincidence — September 11. I disagree. I think the chance these two will step off the Col’ Col’ Cash Express is slim verging on none. I think we’re due another stupid rally and more tiresome stories in the papers. But I think his concluding point is apt: It’s time for responsible Republicans to put up or shut up. Remember when John McCain gently told that crazy lady that no, his opponent wasn’t a Muslim? I get the feeling the powers that be in the Republican party look at that moment and smack their foreheads: No wonder we lost. The money, and the mojo, comes from the crazies, and who cares if they get every little fact right? Facts are too easy to refudiate, whereas urban legends can be posted endlessly on Facebook, e-mailed around the globe and otherwise allowed to slide.
By the way, may I just say one more thing before I leave? I read not long ago that Sarah Palin was unintentionally conjured by women like me, who “looked down on” women like her and the millions she mangles speech for. Because we are elitists. Because we know what “semiotics” means. Because we say, “that car needs to be washed” and don’t buy Cool Whip, or whatever. Well, if that’s true, I’m very sorry, believe me I am, but let’s not go all holier than thou just yet, shall we? Who, may I ask, referred to the cervical-cancer vaccine as “the slut shot,” and said that any girl receiving it would take it as an e-ticket to Promiscuityville? Who sent me sheafs of letters after I returned to work following the birth of my child, informing me I was an abusive mother? How many times have I been told I’m part of the “culture of death?”
Maybe they didn’t mean anything by those charming comments. If so, like Mitch McConnell, I take them at their word.
OK, enough ranting. I need to get some work done today. Bloggage? Maybe:
Via Hank, a mall that’s dealing with its teen problem sonically, via a device that emits sounds irritating to young ears. (What? When there’s all those Billy Joel CDs lying around?) You know what I fear as I age? The loss of my sense of smell. Kate’s always identifying mystery odors in our house that I can’t detect. I feel as though I’ve started down the path toward Foul-Smelling Old Ladyhood, and there’s no turning back.
Via LA Mary, some video of creatures who dance better than I do: A dog. And a baby. Yes, another dancing baby. I know, I know. But this baby is amazing.
And via Gawker, this is pretty amazing, too. For those of you with powerful processors, I recommend Arcade Fire’s new video, which is interactive and Googlerific. Yes, by all means you should enter the address of your childhood home.
Errands! Editing! E-mail! I have an e-ticket to the grindstone.
Mark P. said on September 1, 2010 at 10:49 am
I know that every generation thinks the world is going to hell and things are worse now than they have ever been, and yet …
And yet I think Beck and Palin and their ignorant followers are the biggest threat this country faces right now.
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Deborah said on September 1, 2010 at 11:04 am
Speaking of Ebert, today’s NYT has an article by Kim Severson about cooking with Roger. He’s come out with a book about cooking in a rice pot. He can’t eat but still thinks a lot about food.
If you want to see a cute kitty video check this one out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 1, 2010 at 11:13 am
Ebert, food, and his fans — http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/q-and-a-with-roger-ebert
For what it’s worth, I don’t judge liberalism by Ed Schultz and Markos Moulitsas. Conservatism has a thin line-up for public figures of stature, and the GOP has precious few this side of Paul Ryan who inspire a sense that you’d want to, let alone enjoy, discussing policy with them in a constructive fashion. But I’m not thinking the Democratic Party has a whole lot to shout “huzzah” about. In that sense, both party leaderships can be said to have created Sarah Palin’s moment of opportunity.
And I would say that, emphatically.
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ROgirl said on September 1, 2010 at 11:20 am
The Tea Party movement has been bankrolled by the Koch Brothers. The public protests that started after the election weren’t “spontaneous” uprisings, they were political operations in support of their agenda.
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Mark P. said on September 1, 2010 at 11:21 am
” … both party leaderships can be said to have created Sarah Palin’s moment of opportunity.”
Certainly the Democrats could have stepped up to strongly advocate for things like health care. But I don’t see how they can be blamed for every rabid dog on the right. That sounds a little bit too much like blaming the victim.
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coozledad said on September 1, 2010 at 11:23 am
Sometimes you just have to go and dig up Frank Zappa:
You is what you be
You be what you was
You might be a Mormon
Topped up with white fuzz
You say you’re a Catholic
Play air-guitar with the pope
But you’re just a plump chicken
Trying to pick up the soap
A foolish young man
Of the Murdock persuasion
Devoted his airtime
To inciting Caucasians
He looked like a sausage
Like most of his groupies
They was all medicated
Britches sagging with poopies
They all came to DC
Bus they rode in was little
Could not stop in Prince George’s
Even for a piddle
You is what you say
You say what you is
Most folks know you’re craaazy
But that ain’t they biz.
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Sue said on September 1, 2010 at 11:26 am
Looking at it from the other side:
Last week (I think) some lefty sites were reporting on a Washington Post story that stated “senior democrats” were caving on the expiration of Bush tax cuts. OMGOMG how could they, etc.
At Balloon Juice, it was the commenters who pointed out that the article didn’t list actual names and that the Washington Post is no longer known as a place of real high journalistic integrity, what with outside-the-box thinking like corporate dinners to sell access. Possibly, just possibly the article was a trial balloon intended to change thinking and/or piss off the professional left, and the site didn’t see it.
I read several lefty sites and can tell when I’m being manipulated either by the site itself or the content that causes the outrage. I don’t like it when they do that, but at least I’m aware of it.
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adrianne said on September 1, 2010 at 11:28 am
Amen, sista! I’m tired of folks trying to delegitimize Obama’s election. 52 percent of the popular vote and a resounding electoral victory, unlike his predecessor, who stole the 2000 election with the help of his buds on the U.S. Supreme Court. But did we whine for eight years? No!
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Jen said on September 1, 2010 at 11:28 am
I can understand being upset when your party doesn’t win. I can understand that people don’t like everything that Obama does or stands for. I certainly don’t agree with everything he does or says. I could understand that people didn’t like everything that George W. Bush did or stood for either, because I didn’t always agree with him, either. But, fer cryin’ out loud, it’s like everyone’s gone nuts. And, sorry to all you Bush-haters, some of it started with the less-than-truthful things circulating about Bush – namely, the stuff about him being a total yokel idiot. I think they’ve turned up the crap-o-meter to 11 for this nonsense about Obama being a Muslim and Kenyan-born and all that shit, but neither side is completely faultless in all this. I wish everyone would take the high road, keep things civil and discuss policy rather than half-baked urban legends that they find online. People on both sides make me want to curl up into a ball and ignore everything political (which would be hard, working at a newspaper).
I’m too young to know whether they pulled this same crap with George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 1, 2010 at 11:38 am
They did.
And they did with Lincoln and Jefferson, too. Washington was the only one who missed out on the experience, and they started some experimental swipes around the end of his eight years.
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Snarkworth said on September 1, 2010 at 11:39 am
Jen, I’m old enough to remember well the Clinton years and the glossy “documentaries” the right bankrolled and distributed that made the president out as a murderous drug kingpin. So no, it’s not new; it’s just worse.
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ROgirl said on September 1, 2010 at 11:55 am
Did someone say “Vast right wing conspiracy?”
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Julie Robinson said on September 1, 2010 at 11:55 am
Here’s a quote I heard from a tea partier about why she had gone to the Beck abomination–“it’s because I love America”. You know what? So do I, and I’d guess that on the whole everyone here does too, or else they could move to a country without such magnificent rights.
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Sue said on September 1, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Whiny little babies, military division, and let’s remember that Simpson is an Obama appointee. I’ve just about had it with bipartisanship.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/simpson-veterans-not-helping-us-save-country-from-debt.php?ref=fpb
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moe99 said on September 1, 2010 at 12:04 pm
I’m in the midst of an argument with another attorney who contends that Clinton lying about his blow job was worse than the lies (he won’t say that) told to get us into the Iraq war. There’s absolutely no equivalence there as far as I’m concerned. But this is part and parcel with the effort to resurrect GWB’s reputation.
And yes, GWB was an idiot, Jen. When I was at the SEC, I was local counsel for the first jury trial involving insider trading. It was in Federal District Court in Seattle and two high powered attorneys from DC did the heavy lifting. They were in Seattle for two weeks for the trial and I had them to Easter dinner and we became friends. They told me details of the pending insider trading case that was going on against citizen GWB at the time, and based upon their personal experience, they didn’t think much of his intelligence.
It’s amazing how elected office can add glamour to a person. Watched it with the ex.
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Dexter said on September 1, 2010 at 12:55 pm
The Brazilian baby is awesome. I stumbled across this one…the fastest crawling baby I ever done-did see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQFKaKKbBZ4
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velvet goldmine said on September 1, 2010 at 1:28 pm
I beg of you. Leave Cool Whip out of this.
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coozledad said on September 1, 2010 at 1:28 pm
It’s really a bit late to use false equivalences to explain the rise of Sarah Palin. She’s the walking and (nearly) talking affirmation of the party’s bone-deep amorality. No one on the Dem side caged the Republicans into putting their money on the stripper. The only thing to blame here is the prison harmonica of the Republicans’ slippery little id. They move from one psychosexual phantasm to the next, from the white northern wolf mother who will suckle them at her mystic Danish nipples, to the secret Mussleman who will part his caftan to reveal a throbbing shaft of ebony and ravish them. And they’re nowhere near forgetting Papa Ron, the daddy of daddies. This is all accompanied by the drumbeat of torture advocacy.
As far as I know, no one’s written a book that explores the byzantine combinations of sexual desire and loathing that pass for the white nationalist weltanschauung, but Ken Russel’s got a fairly good breakdown of it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5SnTm1vBD0
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shirk said on September 1, 2010 at 1:33 pm
“When they lost the presidential election, I figured they’d be sore about it, but I didn’t anticipate a two-year temper tantrum, aided and abetted by their highly paid mouth pieces…”
Amen. Just prior to the 2004 election, when prevailing signs happily suggested Kerry would win, I was nevertheless very concerned that if the left turned the Kerry presidency into political payback for the right-wing excesses under GWB, the cycle would just perpetuate and lead to even more payback when the pendulum swung back the other way. I figured that someone (the Democrats) had to be adult enough to break the cycle by concentrating on running the country instead of political recriminations.
On that score, four years later, I thought Obama was a godsend. Here was a reasonable politician and intelligent policy maker, with an even temperament that instinctively avoided demonizing opponents in favor of keeping the doors open for future cooperation. Here, I figured, was someone that would soothe political (and racial) tensions and calm things down once people saw how moderate his policies actually were, and who would help us all roll up our sleeves and work together to get the country back on track.
I so wanted to believe that all of the political posturing was just that, and that underneath it all, conservatives and Republicans of good faith would win out and favor a smooth, united response to crisis over scoring political points.
How naive I was! It’s all I can do to avoid casting aside principle and just saying, “Fuck ’em all, if they can’t be reasonable.”
I cling to two small hopes.
One, things have gotten extreme enough that it makes plain who the rational conservatives are. Anyone of that stripe who calls bullshit on the current insanity (David Frum, Conor Friedersdorf) is someone I want to keep reading after things (I hope) settle down. I need that kind of healthy challenge to my settled ways of thinking, even when they get a little wingnutty for my taste.
And two, maybe Obama is still playing the chess game many moves ahead of the rest of us, and will outmaneuver everyone with a combination of masterful timing and quiet political spadework. Maybe.
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Mark P. said on September 1, 2010 at 1:37 pm
coozledad, I think there may well be a huge streak of sexual denial and self loathing in the most vocal on the right. But some right-wing strategists also intentionally focus on sexuality to distract the teeming masses from their own self interest: “Someone somewhere is having sex! Ignore your poverty and lack of health care and let’s find out who and stop them!”
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MichaelG said on September 1, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Cooz, “mystic Danish nipples”. I love it (or them).
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4dbirds said on September 1, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Actually Adrianne, I did whine for eight years. I seethed with anger for about three years never giving a Bush any goodwill even through 9/11. My anger abated, not for anything the Bush or the republicans did but only because I didn’t like the way I felt but I was extemely unhappy with them for the last 5 years and voiced it often. That’s why I give the right some leeway with their Obama hating. I know exactly how they feel. They hate him and nothing is going to change it.
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moe99 said on September 1, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Why is it that Vanity Fair has the hard hitting journalism these days?
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/sarah_palin_profile_reveals_her_facebook_ghostwrit.php?ref=fpa
Late add on: Tony Blair’s self serving autobiography is out today and he describes Bush as a “true idealist” who displayed “genuine integrity and political courage” and had a world view of “immense simplicity,” per CNN. Immense simplicity, eh? Just what we need in today’s world…..
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prospero said on September 1, 2010 at 2:30 pm
I’d be willing to bet my condo there is nobody on the face of the earth that’s going with this “Muslim” shit in any way that is not a stone racistYeah, rightYou jack FBAR up beyond belief. You turn a surplus into a massive deficit while not counting neocaon invasion behavior on the books. I suppose you figure you threw that Tar-Baby in the Briar Patch.
Oh. and at the Tea Party, Saul Alinsky is required reading These people are so fucking dumb it’s tiring. . How in the world did making better for poor people become anti-American? I mean, that might be some idiotic Beck interpretation of liberation theology. Like, you know, if you thought School of the Americas criminals shooldn’t rape and murder Maryknoll nuns on Raygun’s dim e,
And there’s no difference between political parties. Like, you know, <Kerry was ms making things up while W was defending the O Club.
Is knowing Ken Blackwell said he;d cheatconspiracy theory, he dheated. And we got four more years of idiocy. And Deanie babies won;t vote because their favorite cause isn;t no. 1 priority?
These assholes thought it was fine to torture people to prove their bogus claims about weapons and intentions. Proved useless. So vote for some race-baiting or religious bigot, because 9/11 hurt you deeply. Those guys were almost all Saudis.
The President of the United States told you we had to do Shock and Awe because Iraq and Saddam had something to do with the WTC. He was lying his ass off, and he’d been warned in certain terms about a month earlier, and he blew it off.
If anybody thinks being an accomplice eto the smartest guys in the room didn’t lead to those tax-free hedge fund managers that love the Bush tax cuts, The self-appointed VP to the President appointed by Scalia, he actually made a tidy fortune. These assholes stole two presidential elections in a row to appoint a dumbs that amounts to Howdy Doodee, and it was because they tried to talk Clinton into invading Iraq. PNAC, you nitwits? They didn’t ask W to join.
And seriously, you angry progressives, he didn’t get to my concern yet? That is mainstream stupid Deanie-Baby Spock bullshit You are clearly the problem and not the solution. Pardon me but if you don’t see that health care reform is more important than DADT, you are officially an idiot and an onanist.
So this he said/shesaid about the parties is positively horseshoe. Some facts: Republicans just make shit up. Name a single instance in which a Democrat did the same.
Fuck that. Did W shirk his duties as a Guard pilot?
What sort of idiot do you have to be to not understand W was an out-and-out cokehead draft-dodger. Really, is this difficult? Bush and Cheney dodged the draft and promoted the invasion of VietNam. Somebody want to say that isn’t true? Just like all the neocon fuckheads. All talk no game. There is nothing more despicable than the neocon chickenhawk asshole.
Obama’s moved social justice ahead. If you want to backbite about the ecosystem or DADT, good luck to you, but you’re just damaging the cause overall.
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coozledad said on September 1, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Blair was always publicly a person in search of a self. Privately he and Cheri are carnies in search of a potent grift. I wonder if either the Vatican or their new benefactors the Carlyle Group let them wear their bioelectric shields. Enormously vulgar people.
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Dorothy said on September 1, 2010 at 2:45 pm
moe I saw that same line about “immense simplicity” describing GWB and the very first thing that popped into my head was “Well he hit that nail right on the head.”
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Courtney said on September 1, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Bravo. I mean, I recently bought cool whip for a jello craving, but otherwise, bravo. Where are the Republicans willing to speak up and at least curb some of this nonsense? Somewhere along the line we started trading vitrolic hate-speech for real conversation.
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Sue said on September 1, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Now, now, we mustn’t make fun of people who use cool whip, they can’t help themselves, poor things.
Now those horrible people who buy whipped cream in a can, that’s another story. How can they live with themselves?
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Dwight said on September 1, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Hey Nance!
I know how much you like to play the “you’re responsible for the nuts you enable” game!
Congratulations! You just scored another nut for your side!
http://tmz.vo.llnwd.net/o28/newsdesk/tmz_documents/0901_demands.pdf
“Wishful Thinking” I guess.
Toodles!
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John C. said on September 1, 2010 at 4:53 pm
“Strategic silence” was used to great affect in the run-up to the Iraq war. BushCheney didn’t come out and say Iraq attacked us on 9-11. But they somehow convinced enough of the country that this ridiculous falsehood was true. Many, many, many thousands of people are dead because of this.
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moe99 said on September 1, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Ah, yes, Dwight, because Nancy always has promoted violence and taking hostages?
I don’t think so.
Troll.
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alex said on September 1, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Good heavens, who let Dwight out of the booby hatch? Isn’t there a notification law?
Courtney, I clicked on your name and read your piece about your dad’s book club and their incomprehension of David Sedaris. If I were him, I’d drop those dolts and find a better book club.
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coozledad said on September 1, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Probably been awhile since Dwight’s nuts have been enabled.
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Jeff Borden said on September 1, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Oh Lord, I see Dwight has managed to escape from his mother’s wood-paneled basement for a few minutes to draw comparisons between a lone whack job worried about over-population and an entire propaganda industry ginning up hatred of immigrants, gays, minorities and, most especially, Muslims. What a tool. Go back to your World of Warcraft, laddie.
I’ve nothing to add to Nancy’s commentary. I’ve been on the wrong side of our nation’s political viewpoints pretty much my entire life because I’m a liberal. Not being a “real American” in the eyes of a dumbass like $P doesn’t compare with the kinds of insults and threats I heard during the Nixon years, when a choice of clothing and hairstyle could get your ass kicked in the tribal warfare of the day.
Still, the level of stupidity on the right these days is chilling. Nixon was a rat-fucking bastard, but he was a very, very smart man and even he had foreign policy triumphs (his trips to China) and a devotion to the middle-class that is utterly lacking in today’s conservative circles. Palin is the avatar of these new know-nothings but she is hardly alone. She’s simply the brightest star in the conservative constellation.
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paddyo' said on September 1, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Oh well, thank GOODNESS Ann Coulter has come around to our point of view . . . right? . . . I mean, the headline and all? . . . uh, well, umm . . .
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38812
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prospero said on September 1, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Did y’all realize that Kathleen Parker is a liberal “kook”?
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Deborah said on September 1, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Eww, I clicked on the link in paddyo’s comment #35 and I had no idea I would end up where I did. Not that I blame you paddyo’, I just didn’t expect to end up there. It makes me sick to read about people expounding on other people’s religious beliefs. That is something between each person and their god and it is NO one else’s business what-so-ever.
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moe99 said on September 1, 2010 at 9:04 pm
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l3gmi5vCyE1qz80pso1_500.jpg
warning: profanity
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prospero said on September 1, 2010 at 9:05 pm
They eat their own. The worst thing about Beck’s Big Revival was coopting American military personnel. Obama and Shinseki are trying to deal upfront with the tremendous debt in money and responsibility resulting from invading Iraq illegally on totally bogus claims. Rummy said “stuff happens”. Rumsfeld served in the Air Force in peacetime. The rest of these assholes had better (lines of coke) things to do or anal cysts or whatever.
Hell, Obama actually acted like a grownup and included the invasion and occupation in the nation’s accounting, and Republicans are counting that as Obama’s part in the deficit. Cheney’s got a team of accountants hiding his part of the whole thing from the IRS.
None of this is rocket science, but if Americans are just so stupid they don’t realize exactly how the surplus was made into a deficit, how do you trust these morons to vote?
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prospero said on September 1, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Jan Brewer and the illegal immigrant law in Arizona: “en tus sueños.”
Jan Brewer’s pretty much flat out crooked. I guess she thought what was good enough for Dickless Cheney.
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brian stouder said on September 1, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Jeff said
I’ve been on the wrong side of our nation’s political viewpoints pretty much my entire life because I’m a liberal.
and really, if our nation has “a political viewpoint”, it turns out I’ve been on the right side of it all my life, mostly because I’ve been a thoughtless lout of a voter, most of that time
Of course, the joke is that our nation even has any such thing as a coherent political viewpoint; really, what we prove is the truth that no one ever went broke by underestimating the itelligence of our nation. Our elections are (and always have been) an odd cross between entertainment and craven con-jobs by wire-pullers and entrenched interests.
I’ve been a wave-riding ignoramus for most of the years I’ve been a voter; it is not too much to say that September 11, 2001 (more than anything else) really started the process of opening my eyes.
Indeed, and even despite being a hackneyed sentiment, as we quickly approach the ninth anniversary of that cataclysm, still I believe that September 11, 2001 remade the entire American polity – for better and for worse.
(and not to sound like the black knight in Monty Python’s quest for the Holy Grail, but we’ve had worse!)
I’d like to think I’m a more thoughtful citizen (and voter) nowadays, but the question arises: can we really blame folks who, for example, were terribly scared by the events of 9/11, and who vote based on narrow-minded fears now?
Afterall, for people who never read US history, 9/11 is the event that looms in their consciousness, towering above all others.
Charlatans and cranks can use it for at least another quarter century
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 1, 2010 at 11:09 pm
“Come back and I’ll bite you!”
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alex said on September 2, 2010 at 12:38 am
As a fag, I’m as let-down by the liberals as I am the conservatives. My problems are too trifling for anyone to stick out his/her neck in my defense, much less rebuke unwarranted demonization by freaks who deserve to be institutionalized more than me.
I could join the ranks of the fuck y’all white trash that is the Tea Party. That’s how widely they’re opening the doors to the disaffected. Sometimes I think we all oughtta join and dilute their noxiouness. You with me? Caveat: I had what prospero always has (in doubtless a chintzier amount, as my proofreading skills at this point will attest).
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Dexter said on September 2, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Well well well…or at least Well, Well. The Louisiana-Gulf of Mexico oil wells are exploding like Orville Redenbacher’s finest. Care to start a death pool as to when the next one vaporizes?
At least this one was “not producing”. We’ll see what that means exactly.
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coozledad said on September 2, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Dexter: It’s Obama’s fault in 3,2,1…
All of this could have been avoided if we’d cut taxes and invaded more oil producing countries.
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brian stouder said on September 2, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Well, now that another oil rig in the gulf has experienced a major anomaly (an explosion, apparently) –
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38973757/
today’s game is: how many minutes into, say, Saint Beck’s homily for today before he utters his first reference to sabotage by black helicopter guys (under orders from President Obama, of course)?
My guess – it will be just before his first commercial, the better to HIGHLIGHT the need to be “buying gold in these uncertain times”
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moe99 said on September 2, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Brian, the owner of the oil rig is Mariner Energy. No connection to BP that I can find, but note with interest that the CEO and the General Counsel and one other high ranking officer came from Enron:
http://www.mariner-energy.com/officers.html#
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Dexter said on September 2, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Bed bugs were “eradicated” when usage of DDT was legal, and now they’re back…but please tell me they can’t fly, because a little bug just flew onto my computer desk and crawled away, too fast to swat…oh gawd! Or am I just super-sensitive to the possibility? OK, they can’t fly, whew!
Well, it takes a lot of space but here’s a PSA: from http://www.deadbedbugs.com/faq-articles/index.php?action=article&cat_id=001&id=29
Bed Bug Facts
Bed Bugs are small insects – the adult is smaller than a quarter of an inch in size – that feast on the blood of animals and, most worryingly humans.
Although not able to fly the bed bug does have the ability to travel; very rapidly and is prone to rapid infestation as a result.
The Bed Bug concern is a worldwide one, as these tiny creatures are believed to have traveled from their place of origin in the Asian continent to the remainder of the globe.
It is hardly unusual to see an infestation of Bed Bugs, but what is important is that we know where they live, how to find them and what to do about them.
The female Bed Bug will give out eggs each day; as she can live for vast lengths of time – over a year – this results in a natural explosion of the Bed Bug population.
The bed bug is active at night – when we are dormant – and the primary clue to the existence of Bed Bugs is the presence of pimples on the skin in the morning.
The bed bug will eat during the night, and as it feeds on our blood it leaves behind marks of its being there.
A bed bug feeds by spearing the skin and feeding in a tube with which it draws out the required blood, and as such the victim will rarely know they are being bitten as they are generally asleep.
After feeding – which could cover as long as ten minutes – the Bed Bug leaves behind a red mark which may swell and will irritate continually, bringing irritation and discomfort to the sufferer.
The problem regarding diagnosis is that the signs of Bed Bugs are often similar to those of other skin conditions.
Scabies displays very similar pointers to bed bug infestation, and many insect bites such as mosquito can also leave behind a similar tell tale mark.
Bed bug bites will generally be found on skin that is exposed while we sleep – the arms and legs, face and neck are all commonly bitten – and it is to these areas we should be vigilant when looking for signals of the creatures.
The Bed Bug is a night active creature and it likes to feast on our blood; it also likes to stay out of sight and this is why it frequents our beds and furnishings.
Though the Bed Bug does not nest like a number of other insects, it does travel to suitable places, hence great numbers will hide together in the crevasses of a mattress, the inside of covers and linings and many dark and secure places.
Bed Bugs are frequently introduced into the home by persons who have been abroad and have maybe slept on a number of unusual and frequently used beds.
A Bed Bug infestation is not necessarily a case of poor hygiene, however, as a lot of hotels and guest houses have also been the source of infestations.
Bed Bug infestations increase very rapidly; with one female bug laying around five eggs per day it is clear to see how rapidly the colony can grow.
To remove Bed Bugs you initially need to remove of the infected mattress and any other furnishings that may be home to the creatures.
As bed bugs are very small and almost impossible to find, getting rid of all the eggs and bugs with off the shelf routines may not be guaranteed to be successful.
During an infestation of bed bugs, all clothes, covers and linings that have been in contact with bugs – or are suspected of having been – must be thoroughly washed; if possible this needs to be done on the hottest setting possible to be certain to kill the bugs.
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Deborah said on September 2, 2010 at 7:17 pm
OK thanks Dexter, now I itch all over.
I’m off for the weekend going to St. Louis to see friends. Have a great holiday everyone.
And we are staying in a hotel in St. Louis, you better believe I’ll check for bedbugs.
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Rana said on September 2, 2010 at 7:32 pm
a number of unusual and frequently used beds
*Now trying to envision what an “unusual and frequently used” bed might look like.*
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Bill said on September 2, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Anyone read the $P article in Vanity Fair?
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/10/sarah-palin-201010
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MichaelG said on September 2, 2010 at 11:50 pm
Enjoy yourself in STL, Deborah. Nighty night, don’t let the bed bugs bite!
I read the other day that there is a study showing bedbugs had actually become immune to DDT which, if true, would contradict the wingers and their call for removing the ban on DDT. But who knows what current generations of the bugs are susceptible to. As long as they stay in NY and Ohio …
For me, Rana, an “unusual and frequently used” bed would be located in a hotel. Gulp.
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Oshkosh Dave said on September 3, 2010 at 7:13 am
The Arcade Fire video is nice, but the effect they were going for is blunted by my childhood home being torn down to make a freeway overpass.
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