I had a chore I was determined to finish this weekend — purging my office, a merciless throwing-away project that left me with two full baskets of shred, a garbage bag of trash and best of all, a clean, airy room again. These projects are notoriously boring, which is why they get put off over and over, but this time I decided to try the HBO Go app on the iPad. I’d downloaded it weeks ago, but couldn’t get through an episode of “The Wire” without a freeze every 90 seconds or so.
They must have reamed out the pipe since then, because it worked like a charm and over the course of two days, I watched (in the iPad-propped-against-a-lamp-while-I-worked sense) six episodes of season two, which is in many ways my favorite of the five. The show was building its reputation but hadn’t yet become a Thing, so it was possible to enjoy it as your own secret, while still finding fellow travelers from time to time. The setting of the Baltimore waterfront provided a rich array of dramatic possibilities and big themes, along with a visual environment that looked like nothing you’d seen before. It might be that I enjoyed it more this time because I’ve been thinking, lately, of the great economic restructuring we’re undergoing now, and a question that occurs to me a lot in the course of living in what was once the great, steaming heart of the country’s manufacturing economy: What are we going to do with these people?
The central narrative of “The Wire’s” second season was this very problem, as illustrated on Baltimore’s waterfront: Technology at ports requires fewer and fewer dockworkers, but the people who have done it for multiple generations have failed to get the message, and the economy has failed to offer any alternative other than “work two jobs.” Our society has always produced people across a range of intellect and abilities, and for most of its history, the bargain we made with them was simple: If you’re willing to work, we’ll find something for you to do, and — this is key — you’ll be able to make a living at it. It might not be a lavish one, but if your dreams are modest, there’s a place for you.
I was in a dollar store in Warren a few years back, and saw a young couple there. The woman looked older than her years, but had the sort of whip-thin edge that suggests a survivor — cosmetologist, shift supervisor, maybe a waitress. Her companion, on the other hand, was dressed in the oversized clothing favored by hip-hoppers, which made him look like a toddler playing Eminem dress-up. He tagged along behind her like one, too, occasionally goosing or otherwise bugging her, and you could tell she wasn’t enjoying any part of it. For the first time, I got an idea of why women like this would rather not marry the fathers of their children. The baby has an excuse, pops. What’s yours?
The morning is moving toward maturity, and it’s Hella Monday, so here goes with the bloggage:
New York City’s least-known, but hardest-working, casting director.
An electric fence at the Mexican border? Shucks, I was just pullin’ your leg! And all the people who cheered were, too.
Let’s try for better tomorrow. For now, gotta run.
coozledad said on October 17, 2011 at 10:12 am
“That’s a joke,” Mr. Cain told the journalist David Gregory
Make that two jokes.
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Julie Robinson said on October 17, 2011 at 10:26 am
Was Cain also joking when he said abortion should be outlawed even for rape victims? That’s just hilarious, isn’t it?
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Chris in Iowa said on October 17, 2011 at 10:27 am
Why, of course, just don’t count those pesky state and local sales taxes. See? Simple. That’s what Herman Cain, man of the people, is all about.
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Bitter Scribe said on October 17, 2011 at 10:33 am
My father, God rest his soul, was a man who worked himself cross-eyed and never complained. But the poor man had no common sense, and he kept getting fired from jobs every time he had to exercise the least bit of judgment.
He finally found a niche at the local auto plant. The work was brutal but demanded no decisions–perfect for him. And the UAW protected his rights and kept him paid during layoffs.
I shudder to think what would have happened to him today. And to our family.
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Andrea said on October 17, 2011 at 10:45 am
My husband and I just finished rewatching all 5 seasons of The Wire on DVD (his Christmas present last year) over the last couple of months. Season 2 is my favorite, too, although I think I read in an interview that Dominic West called it the “forgotten season” for most fans. Season 4 comes a close second for me, but it’s just so heartbreaking.
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Laura Lippman said on October 17, 2011 at 10:50 am
And can we have a little Chris Bauer love while we’re talking about Season 2 of The Wire? I thought that was a terrific performance.
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Sue said on October 17, 2011 at 10:58 am
Julie, of course he wasn’t joking about that. He is of the party that just passed the Let Women Die bill (oh, sorry, the “Protect Life Act”) in the House.
Deadly serious.
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Jeff Borden said on October 17, 2011 at 11:23 am
It’s been noted that Herman Cain may have swiped his 9-9-9 plan from an edition of Sim City, where it is the default setting because of its extraordinary simplicity.
The fascinating thing about conservatives is the blind spot they have on issues like abortion, gay marriage, prayer in school, etc. They want government out of their lives except when they don’t. Herman is par for the course for this kind of hypocrite. Dismantle the EPA, sure, but meanwhile, if you want to abort the fetus created by a rape, sorry honey, you’re going to have to suck it up.
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Linda said on October 17, 2011 at 11:40 am
What the GOP needs is to outlaw audiences whenever these clowns speak. It’s easier to say “I’m kidding” when the fellow clowns aren’t there to cheer.
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moe99 said on October 17, 2011 at 11:54 am
Oh, and when Herman is questioned about his 999 plan, his response is “I don’t want to get into this class warfare thing.” Right, except that’s what the GOP has been doing the past two weeks. So it’s ok except when it’s not convenient. RRIIGGHHTT.
He may not be an idiot, but the things he says sure are idiotic.
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Dexter said on October 17, 2011 at 11:59 am
http://rev-views.blogspot.com/2009/05/watching-wire-season-two-episode-one.html
The Russian girls, trapped in the cargo container with a sealed air vent, and they all died from asphyxiation , and there were broken fingernails in the walls from digging desperately…that is my lasting image of S2.
Chris Bauer was so great as Frank Sobotka, the stevedores rep…his role as Sheriff Andy on “True Blood” sort of diminishes the respect I held high for his acting.
I was deep into the series, “The Wire”, before I even knew it was taking off like a rocket ship. Like nance and her fellow journos were really into the series when the setting was the Baltimore Sun plant later on, I was really into S2 , identifying with the union issues, even though my union was the UAW and things definitely are different in the stevedores’ union.
Looking back, I have to say Clarke Peters may have been the best actor, even though we all loved “The Bunk” (Wendell Pierce) and Jimmy (Dominic West), and of course Snoop Pearson,thug of thugs.
http://www.danaroc.com/inspiring_032006snooppearson.html
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nancy said on October 17, 2011 at 12:08 pm
True about Chris Bauer, but — and I say this not to heap more praise onto the tower of it that already teeters atop Mr. Lippman’s head, only to state the facts — the secret to that performance was the script(s) he had to work with. In fact, “The Wire” is a case study in how you can achieve greatness even with B-level actors, if your writers are good enough. So many of the details were perfect in that season, most especially the routine observations about work — how it’s done, what it means, what happens when it’s not there. I guess a lot of the credit goes to people like Rafael Alvarez, who actually worked in the Merchant Marine, right? But ultimately to Mr. L, too.
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moe99 said on October 17, 2011 at 12:12 pm
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/joe-klein-silent-majority-6514612
First Bobo, now Jokeline. Love me some Charles Pierce.
ooh, and this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/14/occupy-gainsville-bo-diddley-son-arrested
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 17, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Nancy, the problem you describe in manufacturing core areas can (obviously) be extended to miners & their families in places like West Virginia & Kentucky. They’re STILL waiting for positions to open up for 9th grade drop-outs that pay enough to buy a house, a cabin up in the mountains (not a big one, mind you) and a boat for down on the river. It was there for fifty years, that way of life, so why would it disappear? So you get the schizo-hill-country view of blaming both government and the wealthy, leaving most of Appalachia not sure which side to boo more loudly in the “Occupy” phenomena.
It’s not that both don’t deserve some boo-ing, but the awful secret is that the smartest (& mostly retired) miners know: the seams are worked out. Closing EPA isn’t going to add one job.
Here in Ohio, the tide is starting to turn for Issue 2/SB 5; it may well yet be repealed, but the the odds are moving towards sustaining it — giving me the space & opportunity to ask my conservative friends “what next?” Because whether we keep or toss SB 5, the hard work on the state budget is only beginning. I seriously doubt that the state sales tax will be raised, and property taxes just got bumped by the ten year statewide reassessment, so unless there’s another huge federal trickledown/stimulosity which isn’t looking likely, there’s a huge challenge ahead for the Statehouse crowd . . . which has precisely zero history of being able to make hard choices. And they’re currently amusing themselves with an unsustainable “Heartbeat” bill which leaves even this pro-lifer rolling his eyes. There’s not a sno-cones’ chance at Cedar Point in July that this will survive judicial review, and that’s all they seem to be spending time on. 2012 is going to be one wild ride, and our unemployment is going to get worse before it gets better, even with a few billion spent on infrastructure. It needs work, so fine, but the money won’t make jobs, it will just keep current workers from being laid off.
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Jolene said on October 17, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Your observation re the distinction between the man and the woman in the dollar store exactly reflects what is going on in the economy. Used to be that guys who couldn’t sit still long enough to do well in school, but who were willing workers, were well-suited to many kinds of physical work, but being strong, agile, and willing to get dirty doesn’t really cut it anymore.
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Jolene said on October 17, 2011 at 2:19 pm
an unsustainable “Heartbeat” bill . . .
Much like the GOP-dominated House of Representatives, which has done nothing to counter our economic ills, but, last week, managed to find yet another opportunity to vote against the possibility of using federal dollars to pay for abortion–the dozens of votes that have already taken on this topic apparently being insufficient.
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coozledad said on October 17, 2011 at 2:27 pm
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/recalled_ex-state_senator_arrested_for_alleged_dui.php?ref=fpb
And he had so much promise. A little grooming, and he could have been a John Sweeney, or as some even dared to think, a Joe McCarthy.
The 25 year old “aide” is a nice touch, too.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 17, 2011 at 3:15 pm
And also ripped from the pages of NN.C – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/opinion/sunday/friedman-a-progressive-in-the-age-of-austerity.html
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caliban said on October 17, 2011 at 3:22 pm
What are we going to do with these people?
Self-proclaimed Moses Cain says we’re going to damn them all to perdition, poverty and starvation, since they are too lazy to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps the way he did, and, you know, it’s all their own fault. They should become self-made men, as he is. Maybe the Kochs have some sort of Astroturf jobs in the class war for the unemployed, downtrodden and forgotten. And if Cainn is really taking cues from an exceptionally boring computer game, he should be deported before idiots vote for him.
Another psycho vocal from Tom Waits with pretty scary lyrics. Like Frank is killing more than just little rat-dogs he never could stand while lapping up a Mickey’s big mouth. Anybody but me ever taste that disgusting brew?
I agree with everything y’all say about “The Wire, and every bit of it is just as true about “Homicide: Life on the Street” (Andre Braugher, the incomparable Yaphet Kotto, Giancarlo Esposito, recently zombified on Breaking Bad, Oscar winner Melissa Leo) which gets little credit, but obviously inspired a lot of what was excellent about The Wire, and was brilliantly adapted from David Simon’s excellent book. The ensemble cast was tremendous. The writing was as realistic as George V. Higgins dialogue. All of this was done within the strictures of NBC control. Ground-breaking. In fact I’d say the story arc (sort of introduced to TV by Barry Levinson on Homicide, not by NYPD Blue) of the murder of Adena Watson and the interrogation room scenes among Frank Pembleton, Tim Bayliss, and Moses Gunn as the Araber were as fine a few hours as American TV ever produced. Oh, and the complicated, incredibly evil Mahoney crime family was a great creation of the writers.
Jeff, you can bet aholes like Kasich will be out front taking credit for whatever infrastructure spending accomplishes. And hell, it may prevent the next bridge from collapsing into the Mississippi.
9-9-9 is just 666 upside down, and as has been proven byanalysis of my Senator Deminted’s plan for a national sales tax, it is spectacularly regressive, and will basically cut federal revenues by more than 50%. Is that small enough for the bathtub drowning Grover. Regressive taxes, taxing yachts and second homes and Lamborghinis at the same rate as necessities for survival, like shelter, school clothes, hamburger helper, and transprtation necessities is potentially fatal to the heart and soul of a society, and it also is plainly harmful to the economy, as it puts people of lesser means below the grasp of any discretionary spending whatsoever.
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Kirk said on October 17, 2011 at 3:42 pm
I believe that Mickey’s Big Mouth was what a friend brought over to my apartment for the pay-per-view of the Holmes-Cooney fight. Fortunately, I had some other brew on hand, but I did taste the stuff. Still probably better than Bud Light.
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LAMary said on October 17, 2011 at 3:53 pm
Mickey’s big mouth is the beverage of choice of the assholes who play basketball at 2 am in the park behind my house.
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Dexter said on October 17, 2011 at 4:04 pm
The years tick rapidly by, but as the late Frank Buckles recalled events of ninety years past in this interview
http://vimeo.com/5966300
I remember which beers I liked and which I detested.
Mickey’s Big Mouth was horrid, flat with a nasty first bite and a bad aftertaste. It was anti-smooth. A beer with similar popularity was the lovely, tasty, sweet Gennessee Cream Ale.
The two strongest beers I ever had were John Molson’s Private Stock Ale and Pilsner Urquell 128. The strongest, best old style brew was the Haffenreffer beer made by brewmaster Otto right in The Fort. That brewery made good beer.
One of the blessing of life is that I am completely content to keep my beer drinking, like my baseball playing, deep in the past, with fond memories, and an awareness that those days are long gone.
LA Mary…got me…L.O.L.ing off my chair rockin’ & rollin’
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Bitter Scribe said on October 17, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Mickey’s is basically for people to whom buzz is more important than taste.
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adrianne said on October 17, 2011 at 4:08 pm
Breaking Amish news alert: Amish thugs in Ohio are cutting off men’s beards and ladies’ buns (the hair kind). They are led by a man called – I’m not making this up – Mr. Mullet. Check it out: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/us/hair-cutting-attacks-stir-fear-in-amish-ohio.html?hp
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caliban said on October 17, 2011 at 4:20 pm
LAMary, I would have bet on King Cobra (another wretched Budweiser product, once advertised to the black community in 40s by Fred “the Hammer” Williamson, another self-made man that probably supportts Moses Cain, but probably has a better excuse than most: long-term brain damage from multiple concussions.
Kirk: Bud Light, Miller Light = recycled beer. Which by the transitive property equals piss.
Mickey’s tastes like something vile decomposed in the brewing vats. Thanatopsis malt liquor.
Anyway, all less nasty than Holmes vs. Great White Dope.
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coozledad said on October 17, 2011 at 4:26 pm
I’ve had a few Mickey’s, but I consumed them at a point where taste was no obstacle. If I were stocking beer according to a quotient of despair, they’d go alongside Little Kings and Olde English 800.
I had a Fat Tire Abbey Belgian Ale a few months ago that reminded me why it sucks not to be able to drink lots of beer. Really good stuff.
Pierce on Rush Limbaugh today:
Is it enough? Is it finally enough? Can we decide, as a nation, that this noxious waste of flesh has nothing meaningful to contribute to the public life of the country? Can we stop seeking him out as though he’s some sort of oracle? Can we determine that his opinions are worthless, his knowledge meager, and his entertainment value long blown away on the breeze? Can the Republican party summon up the gumption to marginalize this complete crackpot, or at least simply tell him to fuck off? Hey, Mitt: He doesn’t like you anyway; how’s about a little gut-check here, big guy? Pick on someone your own size.
“Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. It means God. I was only kidding. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. That’s what the lingo means, “to help regional forces remove from the battlefield,” meaning capture or kill. So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda, and — (interruption) no, I’m not kidding.”
Over 600 stations.
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Bitter Scribe said on October 17, 2011 at 4:52 pm
I had a Fat Tire Abbey Belgian Ale a few months ago that reminded me why it sucks not to be able to drink lots of beer. Really good stuff.
Once a former Anheuser-Busch executive (who was retired and could therefore be honest) told me the reasons American beers are so watery: 1) Most Americans don’t like the taste of real beer; 2) You can pound down a six-pack of the watery stuff without feeling like you swallowed a beachball.
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Bitter Scribe said on October 17, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Hey Coozledad, get a load of what was at the end of that Rush Limbaugh transcript, after he spent 30 minutes lambasting Obama for opposing the “Christians” of the Lord’s Resistance Army:
Is that right? The Lord’s Resistance Army is being accused of really bad stuff? Child kidnapping, torture, murder, that kind of stuff? Well, we just found out about this today. We’re gonna do, of course, our due diligence research on it.
You can’t make this stuff up.
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Sue said on October 17, 2011 at 5:14 pm
adrianne:
“call 911”? “battery operated clippers”?
I guess the Amish have modernized since I saw “Witness”.
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Suzanne said on October 17, 2011 at 5:41 pm
“Our society has always produced people across a range of intellect and abilities, and for most of its history, the bargain we made with them was simple: If you’re willing to work, we’ll find something for you to do, and — this is key — you’ll be able to make a living at it.” Amen! Somewhere along the line, we have become so enamored with success that we’ve wiped out anything less. You see it down to the elementary age athlete who better be giving his or her all, and be on a club travel team by 3rd grade or risk being branded a loser. I believe we should try to succeed, but where is the common sense that everybody can’t and won’t end up on top? In today’s world, there is no room for second place.
I heard about the Amish fracas a week or so ago. Sure, battery operated clippers and cell phones. It’s usually ok as long as it is work related or somebody else owns it. Many Amish have laptop computers, too, that they use for business. Women, however, don’t get modern washing machines or stoves, because we all know that cooking and cleaning are fun and not work!
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LAMary said on October 17, 2011 at 5:56 pm
The Mickey’s consumers were the neighborhood white kids affecting ghetto accents and playing half assed basketball in the middle of the night. When I asked them to leave or keep down the noise, they would tell me to fuck off, and when I spoke to their parents, I was told either, “it’s not my kid. It’s those gang kids from down the hill.” Or “at least it’s the neighborhood kids and not those gang kids from down the hill.” As if the little twits in the neighborhood were scaring off gangsters. Right.
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moe99 said on October 17, 2011 at 6:04 pm
Sorry, Jeff tmmo–I put Thomas Friedman in the same pile as David Brooks and Mitch Albom.
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caliban said on October 17, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Fat Tire is very good, and the company and it’s policies in the heart of Koors KKountry are a fine poke in the eye to the only all-American family-owned authentic Nazi brewery, which actually gets away with putting water in silver beer cans and marketing it as “light beer”. It’s pretty funny in the face of French snobbishness, that the most popular beer in France is a really dogass Budweiser knockoff called Bier du Cardinale (that’s brewed in Switzerland) Even comes in tallboys. Olde Englis is pretty disgusting, but not like zombie plague carrying revolting like Mickey’s.
Lord’s Resistance Army, according to Amnesty International, is responsible for thousands of systematic gang rapes of Muslim women and girls in Congo. There MO is first to rape, and then to cut off the limbs and heads of their victims. The LRA may self-identify as Christians, but they are self-deluded war criminals. They have basically taken a page from Ratko Mladic’s playbook for Srebrenica and Bosnia in general. Fine Christians, going straight to hell.I understand GOPers not getting what constitutes a war crime or a war criminal. After all, their most recent heroes, Dickless and W, were and continue to be war criminals. I dare either sodomite to travel to a country with an extradition treaty with Spain.
The government of their favorite country promotes war crimes and high-seas piracy against palestinians and their supporters. Meanwhile, their overt actions legislatively are outrageous: blocking the International Violence Against Women Act, which they object to because it would involve use of emergency contraception, and they really don’t think violence against women is a problem, for one thing; and, blocking ratification of The international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The US is one of seven countries in the world (Iran, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tonga, and the United States) to not ratify the latter treaty, and the only one in the Western Hemisphere. Apparently Senate Republicans have less regard for women than the nun-raping murderous Central American and South American thugs they trained at the School of the Americas. And everybody knows where Rush stands on equal rights and basic fairness for women.
Now I’d like to go on TV and radio saying Rush Dumbaugh supports rapists and murderers so long as they claim against all evidence to be Christian. That comment would be far more veridic than his implication about the President and Muslims. I understand Charles Pierce’s frustration with Republicans who may be whited sepulchres in empty suits, but otherwise seem more intelligent and serious than Rush, more like halfway decent human beings. Still, the guy to call out first is O’Reilly, who demands he be considered a serious journalist. I mean, in his own mind, Spinmeister Bill won a Peabody Award (chortle), and he used to show flashes of actual sentient humanity. Bill’s tipping point was the outrage of Clinton letting himself get suckered by a chubette (sorry) that left her going-away party at Pepperdine with a red thong and some kneepads, and an expressly stated purpose. Ever heard of Andrea Mackris you hypocritical asshole. Still, even Mini-Loofah wouldn’t have called 13 year old Chelsea Clinton the “White House Dog” or suggest that Janet Reno was her “father” as Fatty Arrrrgh-buckle did in an oxy-induced rant. So in the end, has he left no sense of decency? Is O’loofah not intelligent enough to understand the reanimation he could provide his atrophied reputation by calling Rush out? If I were his agent, I’d insist on it.
Another thing I think is fascinating is how Raygun got away with the absurd invasion of Grenada, Operation Urgent Fury, approved well after the fact by Congress, but wasn’t that Raygun’s way. None of the pretexts for the invasion. The UN said it was “pure bishit” as they’d say down there in the tropics. It produced the stupidest, most deplorable movie in which Clint Eastwood was ever involved. Grenad had the same Commonwealth Nation status as Canada and, at the time, Australia, and England was bound by treaty to come to the government’s defense. In the end, this was surely some sidebar to Iran-Contra that Kerry never dug up. Probably best.
When HW launched his bogus invasion of Panama, he was still wildly pissed-off and spiteful about the Torrijos-Carter Treaties. He also knew for a fact that Pineapple Face had damaging goods on HW running the CIA, and probably Iran-Contra. The odds are very heavy that HW managed the murder of Torrijos, and if you think that sounds unlikely, read Graham Greene’s wonderful book, Getting to Know the General. I don’t enjoy non-fiction, but this is Graham Greene and heightened intrigue. One of the best books I ever read, and reread over and again. For an idea of the evil the Bush family has always been capable of, going back to Prescott and doing the Nazi’s banking, read this book. It’s also the best account of a true bond of friendship forming agains form that I think I’ve read, other than probably Brideshead. But, you know, that was Britschool homoerotic. Herbie Walker made the outrageous claim that Noriega was facilitating drug trade. At his trial, more than 10 DEA agents testified that Noriega was a tremendous asset.
So when Clinton and Obama save lives in ovious danger, their actions are not as defensible as two slimy GOPers covering their own bad acts, and funneling money to military businesses they had flagrant ties to? What the fuck is wrong with people?
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Deborah said on October 17, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Creepy, I had a few minutes and just read the Amish thugs link. I had heard that there is a lot of inbreeding among the Amish, they end up marrying cousins and other relatives because there aren’t that many of them to go around and they’re so isolated. They must be experiencing devolution like the rest of American society.
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caliban said on October 17, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Sorry to go on and on. The spirit moved me, and not a single link. So here.
Herman Cain = ultimate astroturf phony people’s candidate.
Cain, on DUI laws, makes the NRA people kill people argument.I will remember this if I ever make the mistake of blowing an 0.09 again behind the wheel. I was driving without difficulty and went off the road to avoid a kid on a skateboard, on an exway ramp little bastard. Ended up in concussion hospital, never saw the breathalyzer. 10 years ago, not bothered with a driver’s license since. I do own a car, gas-guzzler ’69 Cougar Convertible. I figure if I decide to get my license back, I’d still ride my bike everywhere, and could probably buy a mini or an a restored Triumph Stag for what some fool would pay me for the Cougar. Spotless 351 four-barrel. Ridiculously fast. Flawless body, power everything in working order, all mod cons.
Deborah, there was a remarkably creepy X-Files episode along those lines. But what’s the excuse for the rest of America? Rampant Republican gene?
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caliban said on October 17, 2011 at 6:51 pm
Moe, you got that right on Tom Friedman.He looks like Michael “Meathead” Stivic, for one thing. Who was actually smarter
Koch’s have fishooks in Moses’ balls, steering him whichever way makes them more money. He is so phony, there has never been a day long enough, including actual Good Friday. IMSJHPHUBHOB. I mean, shouldn’t Jesus have pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. Taken Himself down of that cross and said I Am the Way. Just another Sherriff’s a nig… moment and hell with actual Christian behavior. Did the purists miss something or is Moses not actually biblical? The bootstraps argument makes sense to died in the wool racists, but not to anybody else, particularly people that claim they’re Christians. I’m an unusual form of Christian. Raised by Jesuits according to Teillhard, who for Rick Perry and GOPer aholes like that was one of the greatest biologists of the 20th Century, and may have figured out part of God the same way. God’s intention is to have all of creation become God himself. I can sell this idea better in person, but it makes a lot of sense intellectually. Fundagelicals want us to believe God couldn’t possibly intellectual, like He couldn’t have figured out how to get things the way He wants them by evolution over millions of years. Christins insist that would be too much for God to figure out. Guess that’s why we’re just a cult despite being the entire foundation for the reform and protestant churches, like they aren’t the same thing.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 17, 2011 at 7:08 pm
Moe, I probably would, too, albeit for different reasons on certain points, but Flat Tom has some quotes about hiring in the piece that echo what Nancy’s saying above. We’re training kids for college and for advanced tech, but there are big holes in the economy where we’re not orienting either education or the culture around certain jobs, and they are jobs that aren’t going to get outsourced.
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LAMary said on October 17, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Between the Herman Cain news, Rush Limbaugh going off about Obama sending in troops to kill Christians, and the unemployment info, I’m thoroughly depressed.
Here’s a nice photo to cheer us up.
http://jezebel.com/5849891/baby-ocelot-kitten-is-too-cute-for-words
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caliban said on October 17, 2011 at 8:05 pm
The people denyin job preparation now, Jeff, are people stood to make a bundle from the college as the American dream lie decades ago. They started selling it for the so-called greatest generation and they handed out gigantic government welfare for themselves. Viet Nam Vets fucked. Shafted. Shanked, by the “Greatest Generation” fuck ’em, the greedy assholes. Greatest Generation abandoned Viet Nam vets And were in league with draft dodgers like W in doing so. I’m sure they benefitted. According to the Canadian Brokaw, they were better because the cause was more worthy? What did that have to do with the soldiers?
what self-serving bullshit. I avoided the draft legally. I went from #113 to undraftable when my draft board in Royal Oak went to bottom of the list when the draft board produced obscene numbers of volunteers. I let myself go 1-A
and I always felt a little guilty. years later, the huwbqnd of the womqn we hired to take care of my daughter hqd multiple tumorw I WQW WURE HQD TO to do with Agent Orange expoasure. i fought a contentious fight with the VA for years. Maybe I felt guilty. Finally, they payed some minor attention. The problem with the government’s admitting to the health problems of Agent Orange exposure was always that it exposed DOW. None of these Greatest Generation powered plutocrats ever gave q shit about Viet Vets. Kerry expoed them qnd years later after Kerry’s investigative committee work exposed Raygun’s administration as an obscene web of Maryknoll-raping, Jesuit -murdering war criminals, his life was probably hanging in the balance, but then they realized they could use this fucking coward lying tool from the Nixon dayws to slander Kerry. The idea that American voters bought Swiftboat instead of W’s coke-fueled disqppeqrqnce meqns the American electoral process is q hideous scam. How can anybody be that stupid about facts and be allowed to vote for an idiot?
So how can Supreme Court Justices be allowed to fuck over the law qnd not be thrown out. Just ask yourself. How does Citizen’s United make the slightest constitutional sense? If you call yourself an originalist, how do you decide the Founding Fathers wer onsidering billions in media spending as political speech. Doesn’t that argument expose you as a massive anti-Constitutional fraud along partisan lines? Well, if you aren’t an idiot, obviously. And if you already invaded states rights when you had defended them unbendingly and stop a state recount, haven’t you committed legal fraud and shouldn’t you be prosecuted for gross judicial misconduct? These things are ridiculously obvious. Scalia and his homunculus Clarence claim to be originalists. Where do they even get the concept of inserting billions of questionably accurate and not grossly slanderous bullshit into Presidential elections. Not a single swift-boater ever served with Kerry. Everybody that did said he behaved heroically as described in the documentation of his military commendations. How is this not out and out slander. These painfully hsitheel little assholes that oculdn’t carry Kerry’s jock were coward assholes that weren’t there. The attacks on Kerry’s record accelerated when he exposed Raygun and his apparatus as international terrorists. That is a fucking fact, and he got it right. This is why the whackjobs hate him. And resorted to baldface slander, which Kerry could prove in a day or two of court testimony. I think he’d rather not bother with these pisants, like the little midget Nixon acolyte in the seersucker suit that never ever served with Kerry and was outshone. Thinking back, the grotesque mangling of the truth about Kerry’s service, Nixon’s insane hatred, and how that hatred infected the fabulist O’Neill the whackjob who had some sort of bizarre connection to Milhous. God what a bunch of lying sacks of shit. And what a miscarriage. W was a lying, ridiculous ex-maybe-coke addict. His flying career started with Daddy’s bailing on his crew members.
and yeah, better evidence than O’Neills against Kerry’s medals. These people are scumbags and will lie their asses off at the drop of a hat. When it comes to the Supreme Court, they will say anything and deny anything they’re supposed to believe in about the law. Where in hell did the Founding Fathers get an idea about Citizen’s United? Seriously, they couldn’t imagine billions as speech. So if you say one thing is the basis of your judicial approach and then make a mockery of it, how dincere or how purely partisan is your fat ass?
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caliban said on October 17, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Those people in Congo about to be wiped off the face of the earth are not Christians in anybody’s imagination but Rush’s Oxy-addled. They round up Muslim women, rape them, cut off their heads and limbs and claim they are Christian. In hwt world. I say blow their asses to kingdom come. Fucking monsters. Like a bunch of Rush Limbaughs with machetes and functional dicks. Sorry if that’s rude, but how else can you look at it?
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caliban said on October 17, 2011 at 8:19 pm
For American troops, blow they asses sky high. I believe the US can send in 100 elite and blow these rapist shitheels straight to hell. I sure as shit hope so.
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JayZ(the original) said on October 17, 2011 at 9:30 pm
Suzanne at 30
You are right about “there is no room for second place”. Certainly we should strive to do our best, but if we aren’t the undisputed champion, that shouldn’t mean we are failures. Americans cannot accept being among the “top ten” or the “five best” in any category. We must be number one –always and in everything. If we put half as much emphasis on cooperation as we do on competition, on teamwork instead of individual success, we might be better off. Alas, suggesting such a concept is heresy.
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caliban said on October 17, 2011 at 9:30 pm
PAUL O’NEILL, A SLIMY LITTLE seersucker SHIT NIXON THOUGHT WAS A PLAYER. He didn’t no dogshit about Kerry. Kerry in battle, O’Neill waw never once there. Wo h3 lied qbout everything. he was a venomous little venomous jealous piece of shit that inculcated and conumed Nixon’s hatred of Kerry. He was a monstrous piece of shit that lied his ass off without any actual knowledge. He committed such obvious slander it’s embarrqssing to the Swift-boating lying Republicans. Ask Kerry’s crew, assholes. They were there. You weren’t close. What a spectacular bunch of liars. They claimed he wasn’t up the river in Cambodia.
Fucking liars. Everybody knows Nixon pulled this shit.
where was W? Flying protection over the O Club, and Americans bought this shit. How is anbody allowed to vote? NO SHIT? IF YOU ARE THAT FUCKING STUPID AND BYUY THE SCALIA ELECTION? CAN PEOPLE ACTUALLY BE THAT FUCKING STUPID. how di wome phony shitheel like like Scqliq get away with this horseshit? Qre Qmericans dogqss moronw. Scqliq clqimed Conwtitutionql Grounds. Bullshit on the fqce of it. How did anybody let the Brookes Bros. rioters get aaway with this horseshit?
club, or entirely incapable of flying a plane because of cociane intoxication. He was fucking AWOL, and anybody with a brain knows that for a fact. And Kerry was in country. And anybody that says this wasn’t so is an outrageous liar. W japped Kerry served, w2ith honor.
How much of a fucking idiot would somebody have to be to buy that W was some sort of war hero while Kerry waw faking q purple heart? Seriously. W was a chickenshit, Kerry wasn’t. It would require stupidity almost unheard of. You progressives. Who the fuck do you think you qre. We were liberqls before you existed. You’re gall is obnoxious. We knew more about this than you ever will. Beat and beaten in Grant Park. This holier than thou shit is exceptionally obnoxious. Who the fuck you think you are? What we understand? Is there a conceivable fashion in which Scalia isn’t absolutely full of shit? Nope. He is an obnoxious liar and so full of shit legally it’almost hard to to believe. Scalia is one disgraceful piece of shit, qne if progressivew wage war on Obqma for what he couldn’t control, these qssholes will qppoint more judges like Scalia you progressiver than thou assholes.
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alex said on October 17, 2011 at 9:52 pm
Herman Cain is my name
And I run a pizza chain
‘til so much cavalry came
And tore up Afghanistan
‘Twas the winter of two thousand and five
Our party was barely alive
By 2008 Wall Street had fell
It was a time I remember oh so well…
It was the time they brought Old Dixie Back
And all the bells were ringin’
The time they brought Old Dixie Back
And Herman Cain was singin’
He went La dee da da da da
Da da da da
Da da da da
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 17, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Ron Paul, with or without both eyebrows, has issued his spending/cuts plan, which is of course mostly cuts, but he’s as specific as Cain is vaguely hortatory. This should make tomorrow night downright watchable, unless it becomes another “pan or thin crust?” kind of debate.
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marcg said on October 18, 2011 at 1:23 am
Q: What do Coors Light and making love on the beach have in common?
A: They’re both fuckin’ near water!
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caliban said on October 18, 2011 at 1:56 am
I figure it’s been annoying when I whined about my mutual funds on here. But look at how these asshole fund managers have been fucking people like me over while they do their best to do the same to the President I intend to vote for. They aren’t just cheating, manipulating markets and trading inside, they are fucking with elections and getting away with it. And this is from the WSJ. Jeff MMo Cain just means to employ 999 to cut revenues by 50%. What goes first? Medicare and Social Security because them Heckyl and Jeckyl Koch heads are going to make him rich into perpetuity. Judging by his job history, who would you guess gets fucked over? Those lazy assholes slinging pizza that are too lazy to make themselves into Koch brothers heroes in the war on working people? You got that right. At the risk of being the white boy causing trouble, has Moses Cain ever heard the term “house nigger”?
Sorry if that offends anybody or exposes me to accusations of being a closet liberal racist, like that’s a remote reality, but this asshole with his “it’s their own fault” bullshit is offensive to a civil rights activist from way back in the 50s. How many of those 7,000 Godfathers workers did he jerk jobs from overnight, under cover of darkness, because that is how it happened. Nobody had a warning, They were just suddenly unemployed with no way to feed their kids. Only reason he didn’t pull Pearl Harbor on them about health insurance was because he jacked that first. Guy is a phony scumbag, mouth organ for assholes like his employers, the Koch heads, and there is no way of looking at the asshole realistically otherwise. Pilot Joe, your heart is in the right place, but this guy is a shitheel.
I personally fail to understand how anybody that’s a citizen of the United States chooses to fuck over citizens with the smallest resources out of pure greed. I also fail to understand how the people that have the least resources could vote for the assholes that want to do that to them. Which part of that takes a rocket scientist? How can so many people be so fucking stupid at the same time? LEMMINGS? When people vote against their own interests, the only explanation is that they have been dazzled by crooks and demagogues.
edit: And calling him a fool is a kindness, since the sobriqut implies he doesn’t understand his own subheman behavior.
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Dexter said on October 18, 2011 at 3:13 am
Two comments: In the 1970s Godfather’s Pizza was the shit. That means good, very good. It’s main Fort Wayne competitor was Noble Romans , for those who didn’t know how good Lexy’s and Alexander’s pizzas were. At one point when pizza was going south, Noble Romans took over some ailing Godfather’s stores and the whole thing blew up bad and both chains nearly collapsed.
I have not seen a Godfathers store for decades and Noble Romans disappeared from my area years ago, about the same time Papa John’s and Buddy’s Pizza sprung up around here.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 18, 2011 at 7:18 am
For lyrics, we now have this thirty year old classic:
Imagine there’s no pizza
I couldn’t if I tried
Eating only tacos
Or Kentucky Fried
Imagine only burgers
It’s frightening and sad
You’re lucky you have pizza
To feed for kids for you
Only frosting or cookies
And no dishes you must do
Imagine eating pizza
Each and every day
You may say that it’s junk food
But to me it’s so much more
It gives my life its meaning
And it makes a lot of dough
Imagine mozzarella
Anchovies on the side
And maybe, pepperoni
Rounds out your pizza pie
Imagine getting pizza
Delivered to your door
You don’t have to give up now
On my skateboard I will go
I’ll be back in 30 minutes
I just bought Dominoes
All I am saying
Is give pizza a chance
All I am saying
Give pizza a chance!
All I am saying
Is give pizza a chance
All I am saying
You’ve got to, got to give pizza a chance!
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2011/10/17/_imagine_there_s_no_pizza_.html
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Linda said on October 18, 2011 at 7:47 am
Will the last sane person in the Republican Party please turn out the lights?
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coozledad said on October 18, 2011 at 8:17 am
Pilsbury Instant Herman
Herman Cain is gonna get you
gonna bust you in the chops
you’d better grab your fuckin’ bootstraps
before he calls the cops
What in the world are you thinkin’ of
Laughing in the face of Koch
What in the beki-beki is you dreamin?
Your ass is broke
Don’t make me choke you.
Herman Cain is gonna whip you
Gonna spray your ass with mace
better get your dance shoes darlin’
Learn your goddamn place
How in the world you gonna see?
You can’t even get my jokes
I’m just spinning this karmic wheel, babe
you’re a matchbook in my spokes
And we’ll all shine on!
With the shoe polish that we smear on
And we’ll all shine on!
Shinola on!
Shinola on!
Herman Cain is gonna slay you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Throw the switch on all them beaners
Hose them hippies off the street
Why in the world are they here
with that spicy foreign food?
what the fuck is wrong with cheese?
My cheese is good
Lord it’s mighty good!
Chorus
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