Nice gams.

I’m watching Project Runway — the long-awated “real women” challenge, so we can see all these bitches melt down at the sight of a B-cup — and it seems the right night for a mostly links post, eh? And I have some good stuff.

Serena Williams in a tight dress. Man, she looks fierce. Those thighs should be registered as a lethal weapon in most states. She could kill a man with ’em. But I have to say: I can’t WAIT until those hoof-shoes go out of style.

An ex-NPR reporter launches a new website:

“I feel like I am, as a reporter in the Capitol, lied to every day, all day. There is so little genuine discussion going on with the reporters. … To me, as a reporter, everything is spin.”

You DON’t say.

We had a good package in Bridge this week, on land use in Michigan, specifically the question of how much land should be in public hands, i.e., the DNR’s. Start here, and follow the “previous coverage” links if you want to know more.

I’m indebted to Jolene for finding two worth reading in this month’s Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essay, “Fear of a Black President,” and a much shorter, livelier essay on why Fox News-babes are so…painted.

Marinated flank steak for dinner. Man was it good. I’m going to miss grilling season. Good thing it will last a while.

A great weekend to all.

UPDATED: An OID and one great photo essay for you cat lovers out there.

Posted at 12:04 am in Current events |
 

56 responses to “Nice gams.”

  1. Dexter said on August 24, 2012 at 1:45 am

    Detropia. A documentary film about Detroit, by the women who gave us “Jesus Camp”.
    Here’s the trailer. I heard these women being interviewed earlier Thursday on the radio. This one will need to be seen.

    http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/haunting-painterly-detropia-gets-a-new-theatrical-trailer-release-date#.UAdOn7RfFh0

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  2. Hattie said on August 24, 2012 at 3:30 am

    Read and really was impressed with The Atantic Mag this month, which I am not always.

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  3. Deborah said on August 24, 2012 at 4:54 am

    I can’t get either of The Atlantic links to open. I tried going back to Jolene’s comment yesterday and open it that way, no luck. Then I Googled it, still no luck. My computer tells me the server stopped responding or something like that. After trying a bunch of other sites I have bookmarked to see if it was a problem with my router, I think it’s a problem with The Atlantic’s site. I just hope it’s because so many people are reading the Coates article.

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  4. David C. said on August 24, 2012 at 5:19 am

    I had the same problem Deborah. This is only part of the column, but better than none.
    http://www.democraticunderground.com/101639734

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  5. Kim said on August 24, 2012 at 6:05 am

    Serena’s dress, while lovely, is one for standing (ever tried to sit while wearing a garment that has a fat, exposed, metal zipper on your butt?). Her “hoof shoes” (perfect description) are for sitting.

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  6. ROGirl said on August 24, 2012 at 6:27 am

    The exposed zipper seems to be a trend on Project Runway this season.

    Surprisingly, there was only one bitch in last night’s episode, and she got smacked down good by Miss Heidi: “Ven, it’s your fault. We like Terri but we don’t like your outfit.”

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  7. Linda said on August 24, 2012 at 6:28 am

    I always have trouble with Atlantic links. Let’s chip in two bucks and buy the magazine a better server.

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  8. Kim said on August 24, 2012 at 7:25 am

    ROGirl – agreed, and the assholic behavior continued even post-smackdown. Yes, that bitch is making himself so hateable.

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  9. basset said on August 24, 2012 at 8:34 am

    What do you mean, “grilling season”? If these folks can have a tea party outside when it’s 100 below, surely you can stand next to hot coals for a few minutes:

    http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/the-best-cuisine-on-antarctic-ice/

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  10. Jolene said on August 24, 2012 at 8:44 am

    Williams was on her way to an appearance on The Late Show in that dress. She looked even more amazing on the set. The moment when she walked out is missing from this video, so you don;t get that eye-popping moment. Still, she looks pretty great sitting down, where it is apparent that she could also kill a man w/ her arms.

    The servers at The Atlantic appear to be working now.

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  11. Prospero said on August 24, 2012 at 8:57 am

    Serena looked great. And her enduring problem is Venus is the pretty one. On the court, Venus is the better one, without the killer instinct. She is certainly more “tennis-y”, and the Sharapova-mania is foolish compared to Venus’s gams. Those are parbly the greatest gams in mankind’s history:

    I’m voting for Venus

    http://espn.go.com/espnw/more-sports/8293505/espnw-venus-williams-adjusting-illness Astoundingly beautiful legs, and my ex-wife second

    We grill year-round, depending on wind,

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  12. Prospero said on August 24, 2012 at 9:08 am

    Venus Williams has the most attractive female legs on this planet, and their brown-ness has nothing to do with it. They are just perfect. Her jugs are pretty close to perfect also.

    Serena has a large butt, as Newt is fond of pointing out about the First Lady. Somehow he missed the caboose on Mrs. Bush. But that isn’t racism is it Danny?

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  13. LAMary said on August 24, 2012 at 9:37 am

    Newt IS a large butt.

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  14. Julie Robinson said on August 24, 2012 at 9:44 am

    And with that, LAMary wins the day!

    Last night I wrote that the food at Olive Garden was actually okay, but I must rescind that judgment based on my 2 AM acid indigestion attack. OG goes back on my no-go list.

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  15. Deborah said on August 24, 2012 at 9:58 am

    I was able to open the Atlantic’s links this morning but didn’t have time to read the Coates article so read the shorter Fox make-up one. My husband has a theory that many conservatives can’t help their mindset, that it’s a neuroscience thing. They are predominantly left brained, which is a black and white world of rules and regulations. Being predominantly right brained makes you better able to see the big picture with all its subtle nuances. All this to say that the overly made up women become a symbol for “woman” that’s easier for the left brained demographic to understand. They get it. It’s not better to be predominant in one side or the other. It’s better to be balanced on both sides so you get the best of both worlds. I think Obama is a good example of a person with a good balance of both sides of his brain.

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  16. Dorothy said on August 24, 2012 at 10:03 am

    I get the soup and salad at OG if I’m there. Pickings are slim around here and if we go up to Mansfield OH to shop, it’s probably the safest choice for a decent lunch. I like the chicken and gnocchi soup. In Pittsburgh (where I used to take my parents, who loved it) they have wedding soup (it pales in comparison to my from-scratch wedding soup) on the menus. Maybe they have wedding soup in other cities too, but I don’t travel much, and if I do, I don’t go to the Olive Garden.

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  17. coozledad said on August 24, 2012 at 10:18 am

    The structure of the Republican brain also seems to make it difficult for them to just pay their rent:
    http://wonkette.com/481949/gops-new-joe-the-plumber-chris-the-baker-just-as-tawdry-as-the-last-one#more-481949

    Why are all their heroes a bunch of lowlifes?

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  18. Prospero said on August 24, 2012 at 10:22 am

    Deborah, coming from a world of sports, I know for a fact that umps and refs fuck up frequently. Reggie Jackson cheated in the World Series, for instance. How do you do that if you care at all about the game?

    LAMary: Largeass, pindick.

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  19. Prospero said on August 24, 2012 at 10:31 am

    Olive Garden…It’s not horrible. And Romney/Ryan will make the world safe for Massey and those other mountaintop miner. These frackers are evil.

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  20. Deborah said on August 24, 2012 at 10:43 am

    According to my husband being predominantly left brained (rightwing) probably makes you less honest, or less concerned about facts and truth and less empathetic about how your actions effect others. They believe that their world view rules no matter how untethered from planet earth, and they truly believe this with all their heart and soul. So a left brainer sneaking out in the middle of the night to avoid paying rent or cheating on his wife or you name it probably thinks he is perfectly justified for whatever twisted reasoning he has come to whole heartedly believe in. Or something like that, you’d have to ask my husband about his theory, he says it’s rooted in research coming out now in neuroscience. He is interested in how this all affects architecture and how people feel in buildings.

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  21. Deborah said on August 24, 2012 at 10:48 am

    Another crazy ass shooter, this time at the Empire State Building, with what witnesses say was “a large gun”. Two dead (including the gunman), ten shot.

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  22. brian stouder said on August 24, 2012 at 11:38 am

    Deborah – I’m just back from the prairies of Illinois*, and your husband and your working theory of right-wing thinking has the ring of truth, to me.

    on one hand, it is (quite) depressing; and on the other, it is enlightening, as it is certainly nothing new.

    Whereas I used to look at historic, human-made catastrophies, and ask “what were they thinking?” – the past decade has shown me.

    I think the healthiest thing a person can do, is genuinely change their mind, over time.

    There seems to be a tipping point – maybe when a person is in their 40’s? – and then that’s it. You either have the habit of being skeptical and thinking critically, or you have allowed that potential to wither away.

    *don’t get me started; I’ll just vent and vent (and vent)

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  23. Deborah said on August 24, 2012 at 12:28 pm

    Not to belabor this right and left brained thing as it relates to the Fox women, but I once read a book called “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”, and it basically (obviously) said that if you want to learn how to draw well you have to develop the right side of your brain to be able to see what’s really there instead of the symbol for the thing you are drawing. It takes some concentration for some (probably not Coozledad since we’ve seen his excellent drawings). One exercise in tricking your brain that was described in the book was to turn a chair upside down to be able to draw it properly, because you would be forced to really look at the shapes of it instead of the symbol for it that is embedded in your left brain. So thus the overly made up Fox women have been reduced to the embedded symbol for woman which is easier to comprehend and understand.

    edit: Brian please vent about the Illinois prairies. I’m curious what you mean?

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  24. brian stouder said on August 24, 2012 at 2:14 pm

    Deborah – I shall limit myself to 275 words (or thereabouts!) – but I probably won’t be able to submit my essay until tomorrow, as after work it’s “gamenight” tonight, and I’m the host.

    “Gamenight” is where a bunch of fellows (most of whom work at the university down the street from us) and I break out a boardgame or two (mostly so-called “Euro games”) and play until around 11 or so…vital business, you know!

    (See, after we all became old men, we traded in admiring “Nice Gams” for colorful and inventive “Nice Games”)

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  25. Little Bird said on August 24, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    Completely off topic, but I saw this and thought some of the folks here would be interested in it. An invisible bike helmet!
    http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/the-future-is-herethe-invisible-bicycle-helmet-176039

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  26. Prospero said on August 24, 2012 at 2:45 pm

    The cat v. dog shit is nonsense. I have had cats as good as dogs, and I abhor this denigration of cats. Lots of cats are nearly good as dogs. Try reading Get Fuzzy. There are cats and there are Siamese.

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  27. Rana said on August 24, 2012 at 2:59 pm

    ROGirl @6 – I’ve been grumbling about those exposed zippers for a while now. My working theory is that although they’re now a “style” accent, I suspect that they were originally there because (a) big metal zippers are cheaper than nicer, narrower ones, and (b) sewing an exposed zipper is easier and less time-consuming than installing a hidden one. So… cheap laziness/incompetence masquerading as an aesthetic choice, basically.

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  28. Julie Robinson said on August 24, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    Settlers of Catan?

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  29. Jolene said on August 24, 2012 at 4:16 pm

    Ta-Nehisi Coates is going to be on Hardball this evening. Ezra Klein is hosting.

    Did you all hear Mitt Romney’s latest attempt at humor?

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  30. Joe K said on August 24, 2012 at 4:30 pm

    To anyone in the Fort Wayne area, there is a open house Saturday at the Auburn airport, free airplane rides for kids, I hop pancakes for breakfast and burgers for lunch. I will be hanging out around 9:30 till 12:00 beside n43bm and n87403, both Cessna twins parked side by side. Stop out and say hi.
    Pilot Joe

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  31. Sherri said on August 24, 2012 at 4:35 pm

    Brian, what games are your favorites?

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  32. Suzanne said on August 24, 2012 at 4:42 pm

    I heard about the Empire State Building shooter this morning. A 50-something laid off worker who came back to kill. I think we’ll be seeing more of this as us 50-somethings who have been “let go” (sounds so like a term for euthanasia, doesn’t it?) watch our dreams of a decent retirement, or any retirement, go up in flames. All the while listening to your friends and relatives, who have been fortunate enough not to be “let go” whine about these lazy so-and-so’s who don’t want to work. I’ve been turned down for more jobs in the past 5 years than I had in the 30 years previous.

    So, no doubt, this shooter was simply at the end of his rope and took revenge. An excuse? No, but not a surprise.

    Now, on the P.U.- Our Man Mitch front: http://blogs.indystar.com/starwatch/2012/08/22/purdue-has-no-records-to-share-on-daniels-hiring/?fb_comment_id=fbc_10151107492733232_23394092_10151107776783232#f1fbd1ecb1574f2

    Shocked. Not.

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  33. Prospero said on August 24, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    I never stood in a dress, But Serenea looked astounding in that one, Dhe is never going to be pretty as her big sis, who is remarkablyy beautiful, and the better tennis player, without the killer instinct.

    Joe K, please do one in HHI

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  34. brian stouder said on August 24, 2012 at 4:56 pm

    Julie – Settlers – yes!

    And Carcassone, and Pompeii, and Tigris and Euphrates, and many many more that have names I can never remember (Samarkand? Seven Wonders? Puerto Rico is a goodie, plus another around fires in a German port city – named something like Speicher-something or other)

    The group has a little website at http://www.fwgn.com which is good for a chuckle or two

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  35. Maggie Jochild said on August 24, 2012 at 5:17 pm

    I’ve found that playing “Rivers, Rails and Roads” can be extremely challenging among adults. And when playing with children, encouraging them to tell a story about each traveler, stretch of road, or create an ongoing narrative can keep the game more engrossing than you’d believe — plus it won’t matter who wins.

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  36. Sherri said on August 24, 2012 at 5:49 pm

    Dominion is very popular among our crowd, as is Ticket to Ride. I personally don’t like Carcassone; something about it just doesn’t mesh with my brain.

    We also like card games, like The Great Dalmuti and Gang of Four.

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  37. ROGirl said on August 24, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    I was curious about the left brain-right brain thing (I’m left handed), so I went to Wikipedia and typed in left brain. There’s an LA rapper named Left Brain. His real name is Vyron Dalyan Turner, and he’s also known as Scottie Pimpin’, Hype, Wasabi McGruff, and Left Brizzle.

    Wasabi McGruff has my vote.

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  38. Deborah said on August 24, 2012 at 6:13 pm

    ROGirl, As I said before this theory is only about out of whack dominance in one of the hemispheres of the brain or the other. The idea is there should be a good balance of both hemispheres. There are good and bad characteristics of both sides. For instance left brain effects discipline, attention to detail and so forth, which are good things but can have a down side when it comes to things like excessive rigidity etc. On the other hand the right brain has good characteristics like empathy and artfulness, seeing the big picture, but the downside is flakiness, indecisiveness, being too passive and not attending to detail. And remember this is only a theory.

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  39. brian stouder said on August 24, 2012 at 6:25 pm

    Other games I really like include Navegador, San Marco, Steel Driver (a great, fast-playing railroad game), Biblios (very fast-playing), Modern Art (a bidding game, with a sly sense of humor), Jamaica (a fairly simple game that has pirates in it, so it has to be good), Manilla (also has pirates) and Lascaux – which is a very simple bidding/acquisition game…..and so on and so forth!

    Well – gotta go!

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  40. Jolene said on August 24, 2012 at 7:33 pm

    The homebrewers of America are seeking your support. They are collecting signatures on a a petition asking President Obama to release the recipe for the beer they’ve been making there. Sign up! It’s free.

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  41. LAMary said on August 24, 2012 at 7:46 pm

    I’ve got cats and dogs and have had both for the last thirty years. Never had any serious conflicts between the two teams, and some of my cats and dogs have been very attached to each other. Edith the tortie and my first great dane, Charlie were great friends. If they were both outside and it started to rain, she would stand under him to keep dry.
    These days my sweet orange cat, Anna, rubs her face on the dogs’ muzzles and purrs. The current dane mix appreciates the attention. The other two don’t mind her. I often see two of the cats eating from the dog food bowls the same time a dog is eating. It’s a peaceable kingdom.

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  42. basset said on August 24, 2012 at 9:31 pm

    Don’t know any card games, don’t play any computer games, as a straight male with a more or less normal level of lechery as far as I can tell I don’t think Serena is attractive at all. Have a calico cat and a golden retriever right now, though, and they get along fine.

    Mrs. B. had never had a cat at home till we got one not long after we were married. Guy I worked with said he had a litter of kittens under the house and did we want one? Sure… the only stipulation was that we name it Alfalfa. Which we did, little gray tabby maybe five weeks old with so many flea bites the water ran pink during her first bath. She lived to fifteen or sixteen or somewhere in there in happy sisterhood with our basset and our first golden, lost them all within a few months of each other and we are now in the second generation.

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  43. Sue said on August 24, 2012 at 10:02 pm

    basset:
    I have been sad lately realizing that I’ve begun to forget pets, or mix names up among the many animals we’ve had over the years. Also they all had nicknames so I’m mixing up extra names too.
    I loved them all so much, they were all so unforgettable, who knew that I should have made a chart?

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  44. coozledad said on August 24, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    Republicans believe “They Died With Their Boots On” is source material. They’re inclined that way because they see themselves shoulder to shoulder with Errol Flynn, like Ronald Reagan.
    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/susana_martinez_custer.php?ref=fpb

    Thomas Berger’s novel not only rings truer, it’s going to be the best thing written about the West for a long time. The film adaptation was a little sketchier, but still kicked ass.

    I think a lot of old Confederates and Union Army stalwarts would have recognized Arthur Penn’s Custer, even if he was writ slightly large:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWGAdzn5_KU

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  45. MichaelG said on August 25, 2012 at 12:32 am

    When T and I were married and lived together we had dogs and cats for 30 years. They all got along famously, we all got along famously and slept together in a big bunch except when they were regularly and temporarily evicted. We never had problems with dogs eating stuff or chewing stuff. I feel kind of innocent and not at all left out. Also I had never heard of the canine penchant for chewing feminine underware. I thought that I – well never mind.

    Mary, not long ago you indicated that a crucial week was at hand. That there was a crisis with your Ex and that you were looking at potential problems at work. Can we take it that things turned out OK?
    He said with hope.

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  46. Dexter said on August 25, 2012 at 12:46 am

    bassett…don’t like Serena as a model of female attractiveness? Google Image Nicki Minaj and tell us what you think.
    http://static.becomegorgeous.com/gallery/pictures/nicki_minaj_makeup_getty.jpg

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  47. Dexter said on August 25, 2012 at 12:49 am

    Pilot Joe…how do you get the i Hop pancakes from Fort Wayne to the Auburn airport so they are still edible…mermite cans?
    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jgZy7WfGa9A/Ts2-HfCgJII/AAAAAAAAFX4/jDKoxNZQax0/IMAGE_C90628EC-A8A4-4CEB-99F4-E473D27AEB7A.JPG

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  48. brian stouder said on August 25, 2012 at 1:04 am

    Deborah – before I go to bed I’ll see if I can succinctly convey a strong feeling I experienced earlier this week.

    So – I was on this business trip to Bloomington, Illinois – literally out on the prairie (an exposition at a fairground there) and spent 3 days hearing about (among other things) how “&*^#%#^ wrong” and unfair it is that Chicago runs the whole state of Illinois. We can skip right past “Chicago politics” dog whistles, and go right to vile epithets against the people who live and work (and govern) in that city.

    The things that struck me, in that setting, was the unanimity of ill-feeling, and indeed – the uniformity of the demographic there in Bloomington (white, male, older but with a contingent of buzz-cut 20- and 30-somethings.

    I wasn’t wearing my Obama tee shirt(!), but it was known where I stand, so that over dinner one of the fellows went after me about the (wait for it) “You didn’t build that” canard. There was absolutely genuine, passionate anger over that – and I (stupidly, as it turned out) had the f%^#ing nerve to argue the point; but there is no arguing.

    After that evening, I could say “the sky is blue” and I’d get an argument; in our group I had become an enemy sympathizer. (on several occasions, I simply defaulted to repeating “Fine, fine; I don’t care” etc; and this proved completely ineffective) This reminded me of Rana’s excellent point about how white males (like me) can easily glide through things (by nodding in agreement) and not have to face social disapproval or suspicious stares or other socially unpleasant things; a guy could have a perfectly wonderful time, if he’s white and wears a seed company ball cap and nods yes whenever someone parrots something that shit-for-brains Shawn Hannity squawked out that day on the radio.

    I found this depressing, but also illuminating. I think lots of people skip past the genuine complexity inherent in deciding who should govern (our county, or state, or nation), and grab hold of “the bottom-line” – as pre-packaged for them. Of course, this ain’t new – but the thing that really surprised me was the intensity and the certainty with which so many people repeated the same attack-lines.

    One garnish to add is that I was reading a copy of the Bloomington/Normal Pantagraph, and the big news story was that the county prosecutor announced that he won’t prosecute violations of Illinois’ “concealed carry” gun ban.

    http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/prosecutor-hopes-to-stir-1504315.html

    (I suspect that the folks that say “Hell Yes!!” to that prosecutor’s position also bitch and moan about the president’s prioritization of illegal immigrant laws, but we digress)

    For miles on the interstate on the way in and on the way out, there are those old-style one sentence signs that progress alongside a cornfield (or whatever) extolling – in Berma-shave fashion – how it is our God-given right to have all the guns we want, or else face the collapse of society, etc.

    The thing that struck me was, those signs clearly proceed across lots of different people’s farms, and they look like at least a little money went into them, and indeed – they’re only saying what lots of the people who live there think.

    The bottomline (to me) is – I don’t want to become like that, ever; and I want my kids to disagree with me; and if they disagree with a friend or a colleague of theirs, I want then to leave their friends or colleagues room to have their opinion, too.

    One other thing I thought of is that all the major folks who run for the presidency always comment about how striking the experience is, of traveling the country and really hearing what the people in various regions have to say out there; and what their fears and hopes and anxieties are. That stuff ain’t beanbag, for sure.

    PS – one non-sequitur; the always marvelous Omnibus Lecture Series at IPFW announced their schedule, and it looks marvelous! And better yet, Grant’s US History teacher as assigned the class to attend any two of them, and write an essay….so now Grant has to come with me!

    http://www.omnibuslectures.org/

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  49. Prospero said on August 25, 2012 at 3:25 am

    When GOPers bring up Chicago politics, are they really saying the USA would have been better off with three more years of Milhous than JFK? It’s difficult to believe even GOPers are that fracking stupid. And maybe brian’s farmers will all shoot each other. And Custer was an earlier version of Vizzini outsmarting the Dread Pirate Roberts:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2y40U2LvKY&feature=related

    I despise computer games, and for cards, I like the no-luck kind, like bridge and pinochle, where it pays to remember what’s been played. And that Tejas Hold-em, that is for wussies, but poker is pretty much bullshit and lying anyway.

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  50. Deborah said on August 25, 2012 at 4:12 am

    Thanks Brian, I hear you.

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  51. basset said on August 25, 2012 at 8:41 am

    >>Google Image Nicki Minaj and tell us what you think.

    Dexter, I coulda gone all day without seeing that.

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  52. Julie Robinson said on August 25, 2012 at 8:59 am

    Brian, I hear all the Chicago/Democrat corruption tales every week when I talk to Mom, who lives 70 miles away but watches the Chicago TV stations. It’s a popular meme in downstate Illinois, which is everything outside Chicago. But here’s the thing–I’ve seen just as much corruption right here in heartland Indiana, and I haven’t observed that one or the other party has exclusive rights to it. Or elsewhere in the country, either.

    I have a special fondness for Settlers of Catan because it brings back rosy memories of a family stay at a Colorado camp where our daughter was working. We were snowed in for four days and had nothing to do except enjoy the marvelous camp facilities and be with each other. I think one day we played Settlers for 10 hours straight. It’s one of my favorite vacations ever.

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  53. Jolene said on August 25, 2012 at 9:37 am

    Julie, I had a day something like that during a Chicago blizzard. Many rounds of Boggle and lots of joke-telling in a cozy apartment while the wind blew outside. A nice memory, indeed.

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  54. churchlady said on August 25, 2012 at 11:20 am

    “I’m watching Project Runway — the long-awaited “real women” challenge, so we can see all these bitches melt down at the sight of a B-cup…”

    I confess that this confuses me. Since I don’t watch Project RunwayI don’t understand why the contestants would melt down at the sight of a B-cup. Is it because they’ve never seen anything larger than an A, or never seen anything smaller than a C?

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  55. LAMary said on August 25, 2012 at 11:21 am

    Thanks for asking, Michael. All that hapapened is that things are moving. Nothing new or dramatic. His lawyer threw out lots of threats of financial destruction and I stayed deadpan. She (the lawyer) felt the need to remind my lawyer and me that my hubbie is a nice, fair, generous person. After about the fifth time she said that I pointed out that it was helpful for her to tell us that since it wasn’t apparent and we wouldn’t know otherwise.

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  56. Heather said on August 25, 2012 at 11:35 am

    Yesterday was the funeral of a beloved aunt (she passed away at home, while asleep in her own bed–we should all be so lucky). At the “afterparty” (we come from Irish stock), my cousin-in-law and I got into a disagreement with two of my cousin’s friends, delightful people, not rich, who thought Mittens paying only 13 percent in taxes was just peachy, since “he earned that money.” Our points that he didn’t really “earn” it by the sweat of his brow or the workings of his intellect on its own, that he relied on the help of hundreds or thousands of other people working for him that it’s much easier to make money when you already have money, that 13 percent is not much of a burden for someone earning millions and billions compared to that person making $55K (never mind that most of us pay a higher rate), met with palpable anger right off. Not even up for a friendly, critical discussion. Luckily they had to leave soon after. Pretty much all of my friends and my entire family are liberal so we tend to talk in an echo chamber–this was a depressing reminder of what we’re up against in November.

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