The chariot race.

Most Mondays I spend in Lansing (City of Light, City of Magic), and I try to get on the road as early as possible — I aim for 6:30 but usually blow it by a few minutes, mainly because I still make breakfast and find some other stupid early-morning chore, like reading Twitter to see who the real insomniacs are.

The difference between rolling out at 6:30 and 6:45 a.m. are noticeable. With every minute, traffic gets crazier, drivers get angrier, and if I can’t be on the road by 7, I might as well stay home. I’m not afraid to keep up with the pack, but there are moments almost every day I drive this route that I think Damn. I’m going 75 in the far-right lane, and still you sit six inches off my rear bumper?

Lately it’s fashionable to point out that some deadly thing “now kills more people than auto accidents,” and yet, if you check out the numbers, auto accidents kill a lot fewer people than they used to. Antilock brakes, seat belts, air bags — turns out they actually work. If you use them.

That said, prescription drug abuse now kills more people than auto accidents. Have a nice day.

Yeesh, Monday. Which will lead directly to a yeesh Tuesday and Wednesday, too. I wouldn’t like to be 10 years older so I could be in Deborah’s shoes, but I sure do wish I was going to Santa Fe this week with nothing in particular to do other than plan for a pleasant future. First item on list: Frito pie on the first of every month.

So, let’s do some bloggage:

This story overpromises something in the headline — the Todd Akin race is the start of “a battle for the soul of the GOP,” really? — but it’s interesting nonetheless. I was born in Missouri. I guess it didn’t take.

Another day, another scandal in Detroit city government. Today it’s the police chief, who retired after two women came forward saying they’d played Hide the Salam’ against all departmental regulations. One said it was straight quid pro quo for a promotion, and she’d saved the condom to prove it, and if that was more than you wanted to read about this particular situation, sorry about that. It sort of took me by surprise, too. Ew.

Kids, when your cocktails destroy your stomach — instantly, not over years and years like with our parents — it’s time to investigate the joys of a well-made Manhattan.

Posted at 12:09 am in Same ol' same ol' |
 

100 responses to “The chariot race.”

  1. LAMary said on October 9, 2012 at 12:36 am

    Happy Birthday a day late Jolene:

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

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  2. Dexter said on October 9, 2012 at 12:47 am

    L. Brooks Patterson joined ex-guv Jon Corzine of New Jersey with that accident. Both were involved in accidents sans seat belts and had to apologize to John Q. Public.

    Before Frank Beckmann of WJR, Detroit, became so much or a radio toadie for the right, I sometimes listened to him in the mornings. He would interview old L. Brooks, and L. Brooks came across the airwaves as a staunch racist, at least to me. Frank asked him a simple question, would he be coming into Detroit to watch a big Tigers game? Patterson went into a tirade about how he valued his life too much to ever cross Eight Mile, and he said he could no longer dodge “the machine gun fire”, and how Detroit was an uninhabitable “jungle” not fit for human life. And there was more, but you get the drift.

    Johnny Pasquale is the Times Square Hard Rock Cafe manager in Manhattan. Last November he had over three-quarters of his stomach removed. He’s lost 170-some pounds from his 420 pound frame. I’ll make sure to send him a Facebook message with this girl’s story. One thing for sure, she’ll always be wispy-thin.
    I used to work around nitrogen when I worked in the heat-treat department. I’d see the big semi truck come and hook up the filler hose. The vapors moved around really fast and of course it would freeze anything it came into contact with instantly.

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  3. JWfromNJ said on October 9, 2012 at 3:11 am

    damm shame that when you are in jail your two dozen no trepassing and beaware of dog (for someone that doesn’t own a dog) signs get vandalized and destroyed.

    You know this neighborhood is hell, someone took out my Obama sign. I look at it this way, one less vote for Mitt Romney.

    filing for a permanent restraining order later today on behalf of my son. I’m going to call the lunatics’s parents and tell them that I want to see a realtor’s sign on the lawn by Monday.

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  4. Jolene said on October 9, 2012 at 3:52 am

    LAMary, that is the weirdest video I have ever seen. I’ll remember this birthday as the one marked by the ugly dancing monkey video.

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  5. JWfromNJ said on October 9, 2012 at 3:58 am

    LA Mary, It’s not my birthday but that damm video has marked me for life.

    JGW

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  6. Deborah said on October 9, 2012 at 4:29 am

    Jolene, sorry I missed your birthday, hope it was a happy one.

    I don’t think I ever had Frito Pie is that the same thing as Chiliquiles? Yesterday we went to Abiquiu, visited a lavender farm, had a picnic on our land, which turned out to be delicious but stressful. Stressful because we had to lug a bunch of stuff around and we were ravenous. Made chorizo sausages over our fire pit, wrapped them in fresh tortillas along with freshly roasted hatch chilies. We stopped at a place along the way where they roast the chilies and found they also had the freshly made tortillas. After the picnic we went to Ojo Caliente for a two hour soak in a private hot mineral springs pool. All of the stress was gone after that. We won’t be doing all of that everyday that’s for sure, but it sure was nice.

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  7. ROGirl said on October 9, 2012 at 5:12 am

    Brooks Patterson started his public life as the lawyer for an anti-busing group in Pontiac back in the days of court ordered busing. Before he ran for the Oakland County job and became somewhat respectable, a Detroit columnist called him L. Bizarre Patterson, which is how I still think of him. His racism comes from a deep place.

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  8. brian stouder said on October 9, 2012 at 8:05 am

    Back in the day, I never wore seat belts. Then, my lovely wife came along, and she pestered me into rehabituating; and then her family had a terrible crash at a rural cross-road, and they were all wearing their seat belts, and I became a true believer. My worst sin (with regard to seat belts) is sometimes driving off before becoming buckled. A few years ago, I had just bought my 79-cent icy cold Diet Coke (I wasn’t a Diet Pepsi person, yet) and was just rolling out of the c-store parking lot while buckling my belt – and a police car was going the other way. The officer saw me putting the belt on, and his lights came alive and he did a U-turn, and my 79-cent soda pop became a $25.79 soda pop! And indeed – I heard from Pam about that for a long, long time

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

    I’ll say again, and maybe this time it’ll generate a comment or two… today is John Lennon’s birthday, he would have been 72.

    A related site to visit: http://stillpissedatyoko.com/

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  10. alex said on October 9, 2012 at 8:27 am

    Well, Jolene, it looks like the Log Cabin Republicans are finally growing a pair.

    Not that it changes my lack of respect for them much. Gay Republicans have always struck me as the sort who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. They choose their party affiliation much the same way as they choose Armani or Cadillac—to compensate for their own sense of inadequacy with snobbery. I know the drill because I was once caught up in it myself. In short: “If you’re going to hate me, hate me for being better dressed than you.”

    On the other hand, they can be forgiven for being so cavalier about politics. Neither party has ever had the balls to embrace them until only just recently.

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  11. brian stouder said on October 9, 2012 at 8:28 am

    Basset – John Lennon’s death, back in the day, meant little to me. It was one of those events that I knew should mean more, but it didn’t (at that time).

    As the years have gone by, though, a person can’t help but appreciate Lennon more and more, and be all the more struck by his fate. It is a strange world, really.

    A non-sequitur; this morning at work I could not suppress a groan when a colleague asserted that the President of the United States was planning on removing “In God we trust” from our money, and that he doesn’t always place his hand on his heart when the Star Spangled Banner is played.

    After stating to him that that was a 4 year old lie (I had a 2012 nickel in my pocket, and damn the luck! – it says “In God We Trust”), I went ahead and asked him what the hell he and his email-buddies would be saying if President Obama insisted on wearing a defaced American flag lapel pin?!

    Honestly, I find that damned blotch on Romney’s American flag pin to be genuinely irritating, and God only knows what the tin-foil hat brigades would be shouting and murmuring, if Obama wore that damned thing every damned day.

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  12. Dorothy said on October 9, 2012 at 8:35 am

    I’m sorry I missed your birthday yesterday, Jolene. Hope it was lovely!

    Brian when I was pregnant with my first baby we met the pediatrician about 2 weeks before she was born. He asked if we wore seat belts. We looked guiltily at each other and then admitted we did not. But we did have a car seat for the baby of course! “Oh great!” Doctor DeBiasse scolded, “The baby will survive an accident but you two will not!” That pretty well summed it up. We’ve been regular wearers since then.

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  13. beb said on October 9, 2012 at 8:50 am

    Seatbelts are not designed for apple-shaped people. For such people (and I am one) the belt rides up to your neck where it becomes really annoying. While I agree seatbelts save lives and vividly remember one winter day being rear-ended at a traffic light, being catapulted towards the window shield then yanked back by the belt so I do wear mine all the time. But I kind of think that if the State doesn’t think it’s necessary for motorcycle riders to wear helmets then they shouldn’t require people to wear seatbelts. Caveat emptor.

    The most racist slogan I’ve heard so far this election season has been “Don’t be niggardly voting this year.” Niggardly doesn’t mean what they think it means but you know exactly what they’re saying.

    I take the freeway for a couple miles while driving to work and have noticed that at 7:00 the stretch I take isn’t too bad. But if I’m ten-fifteen minutes late it’s’ into stop-and-go mode. It’s amazing what ten minutes will mean.

    A cocktail infused with liquid nitrogen… As a chemist I have to say that whoever came up with that idea ought to be jailed as a threat to the public well-being.

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  14. coozledad said on October 9, 2012 at 8:55 am

    While the republicans may battle for their “soul”, they continue to find inner contentment with shit for “brains”. The daddy party doesn’t even know how credit card transactions work. No wonder they fucked up the economy.
    http://wonkette.com/486263/breaking-obamas-campaign-site-rejects-fraudulent-donation#more-486263

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  15. LAMary said on October 9, 2012 at 9:26 am

    Ooh. Sorry Jolene. I just thought it was pleasantly weird.

    I was waiting for confirmation from Deborah on the zero frito pies in NM situation. Frito Pies are a Texas thing. New Mexico food is its own wonderful thing. Maybe on the Texas/NM border they do Frito Pies.

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  16. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 10:17 am

    Antilock brakes, seat belts, air bags

    All a result of the nanny state and it’s intrusive regulations, because, you know, liburls hate our freedom.

    Jaeger is unfit for human consumption anyway, but drinking something with liquid nitrogen in it, much less serving the concoction is a behavior from the shallow end of the gene pool. It seems to me though, that an artificial stomach shouldn’t be beyond medical technology. I’m betting the public house that served that young woman didn’t get adequate legal advice, and will not be in business much longer. Hell, GB pioneered dramshop laws.

    Isn’t a battle for something non-existent like a tree falling in the woods with nobody to hear it?

    Air bags, stories about airbag decapitations particularly, really sealed the seatbelt deal for me. Not a good way to die, I don’t think.

    Why the ‘Glades are overrun with pythons–idiot owners:

    http://onlineathens.com/national-news/2012-10-08/man-dies-after-live-roach-eating-contest-fla

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  17. MarkH said on October 9, 2012 at 10:43 am

    bassett, I’m with you in noting Lennon’s birthday. Would have been 72, wow. Always loved the Beatles, but it took me until early adulthood to realize he was a genius, certainly the genius of the four. George will always be under-appreciated, Paul definitely over-appreciated, and Ringo, well…ok.

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  18. Julie Robinson said on October 9, 2012 at 10:45 am

    Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I found childbirth an instant cure for my days of reckless driving. And I have to restrain myself from yelling when I see families riding bikes where the little ones are wearing helmets and the parents are not. They need a stern scolding from Dr. DeBiasse. Or maybe they’d like to talk to our nephew about negotiating life without a father who died riding his bike. No helmet, and no injuries except for his brain being scrambled.

    Brian, what did your buddies say about Romney’s pin? Isn’t it illegal to deface the American flag?

    Never heard of a Frito pie before, and after googling it, I have to say ick. It looks like the road to indigestion.

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  19. MichaelG said on October 9, 2012 at 10:46 am

    What’s a Frito pie?

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  20. Connie said on October 9, 2012 at 10:53 am

    If you have a Sonic in your neighborhood you can order the chili/cheese/frito wrap. That’s what I think of for Frito Pie.

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  21. Sue said on October 9, 2012 at 10:54 am

    basset: Happy Birthday John Lennon. I wonder what weirdness he would have gotten up to over the years; he seemed an evil-tempered mixture of nastiness and neediness. It might have been fun to see what silly song Paul McCartney felt compelled to write after John’s comments about the Heather Mills marriage.
    brian stouder, the day John Lennon died was one of those ‘I’ll always remember where I was’ moments. I cried. That was several lifetimes ago for me and I don’t know that person anymore.

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  22. coozledad said on October 9, 2012 at 10:59 am

    Sue: “John could be very naughty. Just ask his Aunti Mimi.”
    Paul, in an interview a year after John’s death.

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  23. Jolene said on October 9, 2012 at 11:03 am

    It’s not illegal to deface flags. It’s free speech!

    But the pins that Romney has been wearing can’t really be described as defaced. It’s more like they’re decorated. At the convention, Romney was sighted wearing a pin with a GOP elephant on it. Now he’s wearing one given to him by his Secret Service detail w/ the SS star on it.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/mitt-romneys-flag-pin-whats-that-star-on-the-stripes/2012/10/04/d33c7926-0e68-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_blog.html

    Breaking news: Sandusky sentenced to no less than 30, no less than 60, years in prison.

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  24. Joe K said on October 9, 2012 at 11:07 am

    Brian@11,
    The blotch, on the flag pin in the debate in Denver was a secret service star, the pin was given to Mr Romney by his secret service detail.
    Pilot Joe

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  25. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 11:09 am

    I’m sure millions of Americans found it as galling as I did to hear of John Lennon’s murder from the terminally assholish Howard Cosell.

    Here’s Willard Windsock’ trickle-down government line in the context of an Ann Telnaes animation:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/telnaes

    Sorry to be rude, but anybody that buys that shit is a fracking cretin that should have his vote suppressed.

    Speaking of vote suppression, I suppose its liberal racism to point out the inherently racist core of the GOPer vote suppression initiative. They really should have written it into the platform, if they wanted to be (cough, cough) honest.

    This is a Lennon/McCartney credit, but I always thought it was a John song:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv2QnMNUE3Q&feature=related

    There is a great cover of this by Los Lobos on YouTube, too.

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  26. LAMary said on October 9, 2012 at 11:20 am

    A Texan told me that a Frito pie is a bag of fritos cut open and covered in chili. I guess the home version uses a plate rather than the bag.

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  27. Sue said on October 9, 2012 at 11:20 am

    From Jolene’s posted article: “Romney has worn the Secret Service lapel pin (Paul Ryan wears what appears to be a variant) and occasionally a flag with a GOP elephant.”
    Perhaps if the President started sporting a flag pin with a donkey on it, we could call it even and get on with things.
    Or not. I wonder what would happen if he did.

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  28. Sue said on October 9, 2012 at 11:22 am

    LAMary, around here there’s something similar called a walking taco consisting of a bag of fritos filled with taco ingredients. It’s sold at fairs and open-air events by food vendors.

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  29. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 11:39 am

    Incredibly good Beatles cover by Los Lobos:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei2i1NelYV0&feature=related

    Brilliant high-sustain chorused guitar by David Hidalgo, and interesting comment on the Beatles from Cesar Rojas; fine reproduction of a great Ringo performance with some reverb added.

    And John’s inspiration for the song:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOG54CLlABU&feature=related

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  30. nancy said on October 9, 2012 at 11:40 am

    Mary wins. It’s a version of the Amish haystack, the Hawaiian plate lunch, even spaghetti and meatballs, etc. — a pile of starch topped with a sloppy meat sauce. Very yum and low-rent and bad for you, which is why I would limit it to once a month if I lived there. Huevos rancheros, now — that would be an everyday thing.

    I think I read in one of the guidebooks we used during our trip to the southwest many years ago that the lunch counter at the Santa Fe Woolworth’s served what was acknowledged as the best Frito pie ever. I was delighted to find it, as I thought Dorito’s and other tortilla chips had stamped out the lowly Frito of my youth.

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  31. brian stouder said on October 9, 2012 at 11:43 am

    Julie, all the fellows did was smile (the saying ‘shit-eating grin’ leaps to mind).

    Jolene – indeed, it breaks no law; and we all recall when GHW Bush visited flag factories and there was talk of changing the laws regarding flag burning and the like.

    And Joe – really, sincerely, honestly and truly – I absolutely know in my bones – and you do, too! – that if the president always wore an American flag with a blotch on it, it wouldn’t make one scintilla of difference to the haters whether it was a star from the Secret Service or the US Navy SEALS or whatever else –

    we’d all be getting chain-emails with all sorts of ridiculous assertions about what is really meant by it.

    It would be a Muslim star, or a satanic symbol, or a communist signal for Obama’s secret friends in China, or whatever other dogshit thing that anyone can conjure.

    What I am stating, here and now and forevermore – is that that lapel pin that Romney insists on wearing looks blighted and defaced; and it angers me that the very people who would never, ever accept such a thing on President Obama’s lapel have not one word to say about it.

    And by the way, Joe, if the governor wants to wear the thing, why can’t he ALSO wear an unmodified US flag pin, too? Old Glory is plenty pretty just as she is, no?

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  32. mark said on October 9, 2012 at 11:49 am

    So all brian’s fussing about Romney’s lapel pin these last weeks is just to show his outrage at the fussing republicans would do if Obama wore one? Got it.

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  33. LAMary said on October 9, 2012 at 11:55 am

    There are much better things to eat in New Mexico. Anything with roasted chilies beats a Frito pie.

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  34. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 12:25 pm

    Doritos don’t come close to the goodness of Fritos:

    http://doitandhow.com/2012/06/18/frito-pie/

    My ex-wife liked Doritos on road trips, while I found their stench nauseating in the confines of our TR-6.

    My other favorite John song:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdrGS__yg6Q

    Mary, if the Frito pie were made with my own chili recipe, with Jack Daniel, Guiness stout, Boston butt, sirloin, and Hatch chiles, and high quality cheddar, I’d say Frito pie would be Good Eats.

    Mark, are you claiming that GOPers wouldn’t concoct conspiracy theories in the case of the President wearing an altered flag? Tres naive, son. Fox would have photoshopped enlargements of crescent moons and scimitars, and you know it. Me, I’m still waiting for somebody to advise me of anything Willard said in the debate that was both true and non-contradictory of everything wlse he’s said all the way back to the GOPer primary debates. I’ve read the transcript, and he produced the biggest mound of flagrant lies in 90 minutes in the history of American politics. I’d also say, RMoney’s Secret Service detail has no business giving him a SS lapel pin, any more than active duty troops have wearing uniforms to campaign functions. Of course, W did that proscription in the Uniform Code of Military Conduct in eight years ago.

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  35. Heather said on October 9, 2012 at 12:30 pm

    Please. It’s obvious that if Obama had worn a flag pin with something on it, the outrage would be epic. “Defacement” would be the least of it.

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  36. coozledad said on October 9, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    You can give a republican billions of dollars, and he’ll still build some variation on a mobster shack. There’s no cure for being flat out gutter trash.

    http://gawker.com/5950189/the-ceo-who-built-himself-americas-largest-house-just-threatened-to-fire-his-employees-if-obamas-elected

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  37. Jolene said on October 9, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    Quick reminder: The Frontline show re Romney and Obama is on PBS tonight. It starts at 9 PM EDT, so, if you’re an early-to-bed type you’ll need to set the DVR. Will likely be rebroadcast later in the week and, of course, will be available online.

    There’s an interview with the producer at the Morning Joe web site and a sneak preview (the first 10 minutes) at the PBS web site.

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  38. Jolene said on October 9, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    Edit: There really are two links in the sentence above. I apparently didn’t get the codes right and can;t fix them. Let me put the links here again:

    Interview w/ producer: http://on.msnbc.com/QdcZYQ
    Preview: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/

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  39. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 12:52 pm

    Hastening the endive. Why else would anybody be loony enough to get foreign policy advice from John Bolton and Elliot Abrams?

    Cooze’s link about the timeshare mogul is interesting. Which part of timeshares isn’t a scam? Several lawsuits have been decided that establish in law that you own nothing when you buy a timeshare. And the guy’s house really does look like an exterior in Scarface. From that asshat’s memo to his employees:

    They want you to believe that we live in a class system where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

    Somebody want to explain how that restrictive clause isn’t true. I’m calling it a restrictive clause, because I assume that by “where” the joker meant “in which”. As Clinton would say, “That’s arithmetic.”, and arithmetic is “settled”, even for people that claim settled science is not. And his victimization whine, about how he has to be at work while all the lucky ducky employees get their weekends off is fracking hilarious. What a dickhead.

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  40. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 12:57 pm

    Whoa, I meant to type endtime. How I got endive, God only knows. Must be lunchtime.

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  41. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 12:58 pm

    Happy birthday, Jolene. Those show up as two separate links just fine on my Mac.

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  42. Danny said on October 9, 2012 at 12:58 pm

    So all brian’s fussing about Romney’s lapel pin these last weeks is just to show his outrage at the fussing republicans would do if Obama wore one? Got it.

    He knows it in his bones!

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  43. Dexter said on October 9, 2012 at 1:03 pm

    Juevos rancheros were a staple of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s diet. He also never travelled anywhere without grapefruit. I eat juevos rancheros all the time.

    Here’s one of John’s fave songs. He wrote it sometime in 1968.
    http://youtu.be/GvpfM1NDHD0

    I remember the old safety belts. Nobody ever wore them, at least people I rode with never did. Once in the 1980s I caught a ride to a garage to pick up car that was having an after-marker air conditioner installed, and the ride was on a freeway and the guy drove a restored 1960s pickup truck, and it had a clip-to-the-roof little lap belt, which I un-did and strapped across my chest. Did that man get pissed off! He said that strap had never been down, and I had ruined the effect! Oh brother!
    I am sure the topic of car safety was discussed here a few years ago and I told the story of how I am a “Saved By the Belt” person. I was supposed to attend a ceremony somewhere , a public relations thing the sheriff’s office held, but I worked evenings and I blew it off. I was side-hit by a huge Chevy pickup truck that was going about 60 mph. It was December 15, 1986.
    The old coot just ran the stop sign on Co. Rd. 40 out by the S.D.I. steel mill. I was in a 1980 Chevy Citation and the car was almost cut in half; the rear of the car was just smashed, and another millisecond slower and I would have been instantly crushed to death. The wreckage was so mangled the cops said when they approached my car they braced themselves for the worst, and then I climbed out and started walking around, straight into the ambulance. I could not move a muscle without extreme pain for three weeks. Christian Brothers brandy along with many lager beers were my pain medicine, along with, of course, “doctor meds”.

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  44. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 1:22 pm

    Danny@42, it would take a myopic partisan idiot in denial to deny the truth of what Brian says on this subject.

    And how about trying to respond to anything Fred Kaplan says about Willard’s bogus foreign policy address yesterday. In the Bible, God strikes Ananais dead as a doorknob for lying like RMoney.

    Speaking of coded messages to the Salafi.

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  45. MarkH said on October 9, 2012 at 1:23 pm

    Hey, Deborah,

    Head on up to Abiquiu right now and be ready for this guy if he goes off course and into your fire pit!

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57528476/a-closer-look-at-fearless-felix-free-fall/?tag=cbsnewsHardNewsFDArea;fdmodule

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  46. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 2:03 pm

    John Lennon letters:

    http://www.vulture.com/2012/10/ps-i-hate-you-the-angry-john-lennon-letters.html?mid=vulture-alerts–20121008

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  47. MarkH said on October 9, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    EDIT — Never mind. New Mexico jump postponed. 🙁

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  48. Danny said on October 9, 2012 at 2:13 pm

    Props, Brian, for you two and others to continue to equivocate about Biden’s, Reid’s and Maher’s racist references as if you wouldn’t have a total melt-down if a conservative were to have said the same is laughable. What they said is so much more contemptible than the pin, yet Brian brushes that away in a single post while going on for weeks about the stupid flag pin.

    I mean really guys… c’mon. You all need to chill with the partisanship and come correct.

    Anyway, Obama will probably win the election and you can go back to swapping recipes with the occasional added spice cathartic release about what some “stupid, evil” conservative or another said.

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  49. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 2:15 pm

    RMoney’s gigunda whopper about taxes and the deficit. How is anybody stupid enough to let the aahole get away with this. More proof Teabangers and GOPers don’t care nearly as much about things they claim are important (by lip service), and the perceived indignity of having an uppity President. It’s like, what they actually find objectionable about Obamacare is the first five letters, not the provisions of the law, which, after all, are identical to Romneycare and the original Heritage Foundation blueprint.

    MarkH: is that nutjob carrying some sort of oxygen/breathing assistance for the first part of the plung. No oxygen that high, I don’t think. Supposedly, the descent will last 15 minutes, so I suppose there is time to recover from passing out to pull the ripcord. I’m calling the guy a nutjob, but I’d try this if I could.

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  50. basset said on October 9, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    Best Beatles cover ever: “Tomorrow Never Knows” by 801. Phil Manzanera, Brian Eno, and others. Wilson Pickett’s “Hey Jude” with Duane Allman on guitar is right up there too.

    Great letters, gonna have to get that book.

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  51. coozledad said on October 9, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    And you’ll be out to offer a false equivalence, Daniel, as is your need.
    It’d be damn hard to get more evil or stupid than suggesting disobedient children be killed, or slaves should be grateful to Nathan Bedford Forrest, or that W was functionally literate, but Republicans are committed to pushing that envelope, and they succeed at it remarkably well.

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  52. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    Danny, you can claim until you are blue in the face that there was a racial component to what Biden said about Big Banks and chains, but your interpretation is tortured beyond meaning or sense, way beyond the English language,, pure bullshit. I couldn’t care less what Maher says about anything, and he actually leans as much right as left on a lot of things. In fact, he’s the classic Libertarian type, a GOPer that wants legal pot. He mocks fools, and WShrub was a fool nonpareil, which is why you claim he is somehow a liberal. I have no idea what you think Reid said that is allegedly racist, and little to no interest in same. Racism is inculcated into the GOP, institutionally, and has made up the party’s primary strategy for decades. Back in the days of the Civil Rights movement, the true Southren racist politicians saw the writing on the Dem wall and bolted for the GOP. Sorry, but that is historical fact.

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  53. Minnie said on October 9, 2012 at 2:25 pm

    I have enjoyed visiting here every day, admiring the articulate, informed, and often humorous discussion, relishing links to music and other resources, once in a while making a modest contribution. Over the last few weeks, however, a troll has spoiled the fun, at least for me. I hope that Danny will get a job or find other ways to feed his/her ego, but it’s evident that in the meantime this is a good feeding ground for him/her. I’ll check back after the election. Peace.

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  54. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 2:31 pm

    Can anybody explain to me how calling something bullshit can be described as equivocating?

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  55. coozledad said on October 9, 2012 at 2:51 pm

    Daniel has to come out here because he fancies himself as slightly more intelligent than the folks who inhabit the comment sections of the righty blogs where he gets his gas. He might want to discuss something besides how to convert an Armalite to full auto, or how Jesus would have beaten his wife, but there’s nothing out there but guns, misogyny, and white resentment. Gets old even for the most fervent believers.

    But he always hits a wall when it turns out it’s not the slightly more sophisticated “Bait & Chaw Dinette” of his fragile dreams. Sadly, there’ll never be any varietals at the BCD besides grape essence ethanol, and a Slim Jim for an amuse bouche.

    Just fuckin’ sayin’.

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  56. Connie said on October 9, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    Hear hear Minnie. If he dislikes us so much why does he bother?

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  57. Sue said on October 9, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    Ok, I know we lost one commenter here from the last time Danny was around, and now Minnie’s out for awhile. Don’t you folks see what’s happening here? And he’s ramping it up as evidenced by the reintroduction over three days of the same topic – which managed to set everyone off every time.
    He’s getting what he wants, people. Are we? There is one obvious solution. Discuss with Danny what works for you and don’t rise to the rest.
    We’re losing people here, you don’t have to help Danny drive folks away.

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  58. brian stouder said on October 9, 2012 at 3:42 pm

    Sue – right you are; and seeing as we just got Jeff back from the waiver wire, it was stupid of me to drag Romney’s stupid lapel pin (writing that reminded me of the spitty guy on Animal House, thundering – and raining! – about a “PLEDGE PIN!”) onto this forum.

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  59. Dorothy said on October 9, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    Am I the only one who thinks it’s nuts that Danny is in Hawaii and yet continues to post here?! Not that I mind, Danny. You enliven things around here. But seriously, dude, go outside. Or if you are outside, put down the electronic device and enjoy the surroundings.

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  60. Jeff Borden said on October 9, 2012 at 3:53 pm

    Anything Danny says can be easily refuted by looking in on the regular occurrences of right-wing racism such as the recent statement by some goober Republican state representative in Arkansas that slavery in America was a fine thing because all the black folks who survived got to live in the most wonderful country ever created.

    Or maybe he can check the Facebook page of the Virginia GOP group that still features Obama as a witch doctor with a bone in his nose.

    Or perhaps a more high-profile right-wing star like the loathesome Newticles and his racist dog-whistling about Obama being the food stamp president?

    I don’t think all or even most conservatives or Republicans are racists. Absolutely not. But let’s be honest and note that even reasonably moderate GOPers such as George H.W. Bush (ah, where have you gone Willy Horton?) did not mind tooting the racist dog whistle when it has helped them herd the rubes to the polls.

    Finally, why don’t we just admit the movement that has always –ALWAYS– been on the wrong side of history is conservatism. It wasn’t conservatives marching with women for suffrage, with blacks on the freedom marches, with farm workers rallying behind Cesar Chavez and now with gay rights.

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  61. Danny said on October 9, 2012 at 3:54 pm

    Oh for goodness sakes, guys, get some much-needed perspective, puh-leez. You have a comments section mostly full of kindred spirits and only a few conservatives who have mostly mild disagreements with you and sometimes point out when you are being lame and hypocritical. Just own it and stop being such big partisan babies. MarkH made a non-racist “schoolboy” reference last week and Cooze practically filled his diaper while he is still ostensibly giving Reid, Biden and Maher a free pass.

    Oh no, someone on the internet disagreed with me!!!

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  62. LAMary said on October 9, 2012 at 3:56 pm

    I just ignore Danny. He probably knows that and he probably ignores me.

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  63. brian stouder said on October 9, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    If I was in Hawaii, I’d block out a day or two for Pearl Harbor/Henderson Field.

    Other than that, I’m told one really must do the SCUBA diving thing there, as it is the one thing that makes a trip to Hawaii uniquely attractive instead of the beaches of (for example) California, or the Carribean.

    I’d peak in on the computer before going to bed, I suppose – and come to think of it, I bet Danny was having breakfast and looking in on us. (is it 5 hours earlier there?)

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  64. Dave said on October 9, 2012 at 4:03 pm

    I’m sure I’ve said it on here before but I am very well convinced that the only reason that I have all my family today is because of seatbelts. We were involved in a wreck in Valdosta, GA, on a off-ramp of I-75, when logs came off a log truck and struck our Ford Aerostar minivan and turned us over on our roof in July, 1991. The terrifying moment of my life was crawling in the back of our van to find only that all three of our children, then 9, 7, and 3, were hanging upside down, crying their eyes out. The seatbelts had kept them in place. I know that one or more of them would have gone out the sliding door that came open and ended up who knows where. Yes, big believer in seat belts, which I confess to wearing since I started driving and someone had installed a seatbelt on the driver’s side in the 1955 Chevy my brother and I drove.

    What would an aging John Lennon been like, unless he mellowed, which age certainly does, would we have seen him taking part in London at the Olympics opening ceremony? What music would he have created? Would he and Paul have sniped at one another all these years? Would he have taken part in the Beatles Anthology, circa 1995 or so (when it was rumored George took part only because he needed the money)?

    I’ve been mad at John all these years for thinking he could walk about New York City like average citizens, I didn’t hear it from Howard Cosell, I didn’t learn about it until the next afternoon shortly after pulling into the the parking lot of the Lima Mall, I couldn’t hardly get out of the car.

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  65. Jolene said on October 9, 2012 at 4:14 pm

    Good God, Dave, that is a terrible accident story. I’m glad you survived to tell the tale.

    Before day’s end, will say thanks once more for the birthday greetings above. Nn.com is a lovely place, warts and all, and my life would be the poorer without it.

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  66. Dave said on October 9, 2012 at 4:15 pm

    Goodness, that last sentence needs edited, comma, comma, comma. Looks ugly to me. Sorry.

    I had a history professor at the OU-Lancaster campus who was progressive, who always defined conservatism as a refusal to change, even as everything changed around us. Wish I could remember more of what he said. Ironically, I learned many years after the fact that he and my father were from the same town and been high school classmates, and his wife was a second cousin to my father. I know my father would not have agreed with his views.

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  67. del said on October 9, 2012 at 4:17 pm

    Quite a seatbelt story Dave.

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  68. Jolene said on October 9, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    One more thing: I have been watching Obama’s poll numbers plummet to earth in the past few days. The prospect of a Romney presidency is depressing the hell out of me. If he wins, I’m going to be counting on you all for daily doses of humor and courage. In the meantime, I’ll be calling upon the powers that keep the world turning to inspire Obama that he may inspire the country in the next go-rounds.

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  69. Peter said on October 9, 2012 at 4:24 pm

    Bassett at 50: You are absolute correct. 801’s version is just something to behold.

    And Prospero, I would have to disagree with you about the Doritos. I think they can be a tasty treat, and the nacho cheese version works well for a walking taco.

    The problem I have with Doritos (and especially Tosidos) is that they’re the snack food equivalent of methadone. They’re OK, but then when you go back to the Fritos, whoa daddy.

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  70. Deborah said on October 9, 2012 at 4:31 pm

    There are a lot of Texan tourists in Santa Fe this being fairly close and all, so I have seen Frito Pie advertised but it’s usually at places like the diner at what used to be Woolworths now just called the five and dime on the plaza. I also saw it advertised on the sign at a Sonic Burger. It probably is one of those sinfully delicious things that one day I will try. But as LA Mary says there are so many other fabulous things to eat around here it isn’t at the top of my list yet. I had huevos rancheros for breakfast this morning at Pasquals, if you are ever in Santa Fe I highly recommend it. The green chilies are to die for, they roast them in these cylindrical wire baskets that they crank and use a propane torch to heat them. The smell is out of this world. Hatch chilies originally came from the town of Hatch in NM and now are grown elsewhere. They come in mild, medium and hot varieties. The roast them in the parking lots of just about every grocery store in town and the farmers market. I think the season for it is winding down, I haven’t seen as many roasting stands as I did when I was here in late August.

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  71. brian stouder said on October 9, 2012 at 4:34 pm

    regarding snack food: one of the many indelible impressions Nancy has made upon me has to do with a story her husband has, regarding the barrel of crap they put on those chips.

    Aside from that, fear not, Jolene. For one thing, it will be fun watching how the Flying Monkeys twist and contort to be able to tout the polling numbers, which last week were all lies; and for another, I don’t think anyone at Obama hq would trade nummbers, right now

    http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2012-ohio-president-romney-vs-obama

    they look pretty good to me.

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  72. Danny said on October 9, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    Mary, I do not ignore you. You are usually reasonable too.

    Dorothy, well-said, girl. And believe me, we are mostly doing our thing here. It is just a transition day where we are packing and at most of the other times I have been here at NN.C, I have had down time while waiting for my better half to get ready. What better way to spend that time than arguing with my best buddies on the internets! 🙂

    BTW, Mauna Kea was amazing. Saw the Milky Way and they have volunteers who set up telescopes every night at the visitor center and we looked at some fascinating astronomical delights. Even saw the Andromeda galaxy. Awesome.

    Today we do the northerly drive around Route 19 and end up in Kona. Stay there for a few days (leaving before the Ironman) and then probably off to Kaua’i.

    Aloha

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  73. Judybusy said on October 9, 2012 at 4:49 pm

    Happy belated wishes, Jolene!

    Deborah, I love hearing the stories of NM; keep them coming. My brother brought me some Hatch chilies in September, and I will be eating enchiladas doused with a sauce I made from them for dinner tonight.

    Danny, I’m very envious of your sky-watching adventures! It’s difficult to sky watch in the middle of big cities. However, we were in Puerto Rico in January, on the island of Vieques when the power went out for hours. Even though there are only 10,000 folks on the island, it made a huge difference that the lights were out. Gorgeous sky.

    Dave, that story was amazing–so glad you all were OK.

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  74. LAMary said on October 9, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    Danny’s must be on the big island and if I was there I would be on the beach looking for sea turtles. After a while I’d head over to one of the beachside bars and get a raspberry iced tea with a stick of sugar cane as a stirrer.

    I remember Hatch NM being a fairly grim town other than the chili business and the rock collectors. Isn’t it a point where the glaciers stopped so lots of rocks from other places were dragged south to Hatch?

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  75. Julie Robinson said on October 9, 2012 at 5:08 pm

    Like LAMary, I ignore Danny. When I see his name I skip to the next post. It’s kind of like reading the New-Sentinel; when I see Kevin Leininger I skip directly to the comics. I really like Zits.

    If seat belts saved both Dexter and Dave, we should learn a lesson from them.

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  76. Sherri said on October 9, 2012 at 5:20 pm

    Who’s the craziest Republican in Arkansas? The guy who thinks slavery was a blessing in disguise for African Americans (but he’s not racist, of course), or the guy who thinks we ought to institute the death penalty for rebellious children?

    http://www.kait8.com/story/19755221/ar-rep-makes-multiple-controversial-statements-in-self-published-book

    http://wonkette.com/486233/bible-loving-arkansas-house-candidate-wants-us-to-kill-all-the-children

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  77. Sue said on October 9, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    “Who’s the craziest Republican in Arkansas?”
    Anyone who votes for these lunatics.

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  78. ROGirl said on October 9, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    I loved Fritos when I was growing up, but the few times I’ve eaten them since then they were way too salty for me.

    I’ve been in 2 accidents where seatbelts saved me. In the first one I would have smashed into the steering wheel, and the air bag also protected my face. In the second one I hit some standing water on the expressway, shot across 3 lanes and bounced off the guardrail twice. If I hadn’t had my seatbelt on I would have careened around like a pinball, but I wasn’t hurt at all.

    Danny seems to be getting some enjoyment out of getting a rise out of so many people, but it comes across as hostile and mean spirited sniping for its own sake. What’s the point? Why here? There are so many other places where that is the status quo, but not here. I’m not going to stop commenting because of him, but ignoring him seems like a good idea.

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  79. ROGirl said on October 9, 2012 at 5:46 pm

    Happy birthday, Jolene. Mine was yesterday, too.

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  80. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 5:48 pm

    Danny, isn’t it reasonable to expect you to explain Willard’s idiotic tax claims? 30 years of economic history prove that trickle down is bullshit, and the Laffer Curve is a joke. Even David Stockman says this was all smoke and mirrors. And the Raygunistas had to do bidness with the Ayatollah to ensure the hostages weren’t released ahead of time. Do you deny that transaction and the rest of the frighteningly illegal Iran-Contra took place? Do you deny Elliot Abrams, Mittens’ second in command on foreign policy, was complicit in the murder and rape of Maryknoll nuns promoting social justice in El Salvador? I mean, really, back up your bullshit. Your heroes going back to Ronny are a bunch of international criminals that never valued human lives. That is an incotrovertible fact.

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  81. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    Let’s hear it Danny, identify something from the debate Obama said that wasn’t true. And something Willard Windsock said that had even a kernel of truth. Didn’t happen, so you can’t. How is being a dickhead an enjoyable experience?

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  82. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 6:21 pm

    Regarding Stacey Dash. Forgettable role in an asinine movie made from a frivolous excuse for a novel. Yeah, Sue, I do know that’s Jane Austen. Semi literature. And how is it that GOPers rush to this estimable young woman’s defense when they are clear that Sean Penn, who has moved bulldozers and other resources to try to heal Haiti and set up the most effective NGO in that beleaguered country, has no business expressing a political opinion? I’d like to hear some explanation of how Sean Penn is some Hollywood ahole and Stacey Dash isn’t. And where is it written Beyonce is a “liberal”? What a crock of shit. I am tired of slagoff bullshit from snide conservative jerks without a valid point. For all I know, Stacey Dash is an intelligent and very pretty young woman with a considered point of view, but somehow, she doesn’t emanate that impression. How do reactionary jackasses like Danny slag activists like Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins that obviously know what they’re talking about, and defend Stacey Dash. And I did sort of like the movie, and I’ve read most of Jane Austen. She couldn’t hang with the Brontes without feeling insecure both physically and intellectually. But this is a classic case of monstro hypocrisy from the right. Here’s an example of what a Hollywood liberal might do:

    http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/the-accidental-activist/

    I’d imagine Sean Penn disavows religion, though I have no reason to think that’s right. He just seems to ornery to believe in anything. My favorite Sean Penn movie is the one where his estranged dad steals farm eBut in Haiti, he is doing Jesus’ work when all of the CBN mail-frauds are robbing US citizens istead. Somebody explain to me where I’m wrong about that opinion. The Great Commandment you fundagelicalictment cunts. Read the bible.

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  83. Scout said on October 9, 2012 at 6:32 pm

    I’ll bet I could make some version of frito pie using Food Should Be Good multigrain chips topped with a vegetarian black bean and corn chile. Almost anything that is a potential stroke on a plate can be made not only better for you, but pretty tasty.

    John Lennon was a genius and a hero of mine since I was a wee lass. I became a Beatlemaniac at the tender age of 6 and I swear my ex-husband partially married me for my album collection, which I kept in the divorce of course. The death of John Lennon is up there with JFK, MLK, Bobby, the space shuttle disaster and 9/11 as one of the greatest tragedies of my lifetime.

    The person (let’s call him he-who) who comes here just to poke and then feign hurt feelings feeds on the oxygen he gets from reasonable people trying to, how you say, reason with him. He-who isn’t looking to learn anything or share real ideas. I find it best to ignore trolls like him. When they can’t get a reaction anymore they either go away or stick to discussing recipes. (And yes, I recognize that even posting that last paragraph rattles the boards on his bridge, so it is the last I will say on the subject. He-who is back on the ignore app for this nn.c’er.)

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  84. Scout said on October 9, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    Happy belated Birthday, ROGirl!

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  85. Sherri said on October 9, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    Republican arithmetic still doesn’t work: http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2012/10/08-romney-tax-debate-gale

    Look, this isn’t about partisan jabs. This is important. Romney is running a three card monte scam with his tax plan, and general innumeracy is letting him off the hook. It is not mathematically possible to do what he claims to do with his tax plan, no matter what the assumptions.

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  86. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    ROGirl. I was in the front seat of a Dodge Dart that was hit by a speeding GTO in the wilds of Southland (MI) which I’d imagine no longer exist. If anybody knows anything about the cars involved, we were cream corn. We had WBCN on the radio at impact, I think, Sunshine of Your Love. When we came to rest several hundred feet away, it was that WJR easy listening shit, and I was annoyed. Then I realized my little brother was in the back seat with a gash from his hairline to his brow. I dragged Mark out of the car, and my buddy Dave, that was driving the car helped me. Mark’s wound was bleeding profusely, and I put my brand new suede jacket under his head, and applied direct pressure, as I’d been taught in the BSA. And I have saved four lives in my own lifetime by shit I learned in BSA. And nobody in BSA ever tried pulling any shit with me. BSA 4-pervs 0.

    Anyway, the ambulance insisted on taking us to an Osteopathic Hospital. I mean no insult, but I informed these dolts my dad was a real doctor. Which he was, and spectacularly good at ER. They took us to what seemed to be a Tim Burton set, and dragged my little bro, my closest friend (sort of) into what seemed to be a dungeon. They yanked his leg around for the X-ray, and I was pissed off because it seemed they were hurting my brother. You know, like in Parenthood. So finally, my dad got their and we put Mark into the car and raced towards Beaumont, a real hospital. Mark’s injury was straight down the middle of his forehead. My dad got a cosmetic surgeon and you can see the scar if you look close. So Mark remained pretty handsome and got married to a reconstructed trailer park babe, and they are living happily ever after with a 70-in. Sharp Hi-Def TV.

    No joke, Danny. Defend the tax lie. Not in a billion fracking years. Asshole is quoting HW, read my lips.

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  87. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 6:51 pm

    Scout, Sunchips. Damn those suckers are excellent.

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  88. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 6:55 pm

    RO Girl, you’re name always reminds me of Tank Girl and Lori Petty. Lori Petty is so much like the spectacular woman I/m tied to/ I’ve no idea what any of this means. No shit. What I mean5

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  89. Allex said on October 9, 2012 at 7:04 pm

    Trying to thumb type from my iPhone. I don’t know why anyone would bother texting. The stupid word substitutions are maddening. It changed my name to Allen the first time I typed it In.

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  90. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    Iss there anybody here that doesn’t think this qahole shit isn’t a monstrous lie? Seriouslty lie. Are you claiming this shitheel isn’t lying like a bastard?

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  91. Prospero said on October 9, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    Danny, try whatevever,
    are you still that dumb

    /” No way to consider what you are dumb enough to think.

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  92. MichaelG said on October 9, 2012 at 7:32 pm

    Frito pies sound horrible. Huevos rancheros are wonderful.

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  93. Little Bird said on October 9, 2012 at 8:08 pm

    Here’s a bike to go with that invisible bicycle helmet.
    http://www.thehighdefinite.com/2012/10/the-bicymple/

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  94. derwood said on October 9, 2012 at 8:30 pm

    When I was 16 I cut the seat belts out of my 74 Mustang. They used to get in the way of people getting in the backseat. Yikes. I started wearing one regularly when I lived in Dallas for a bit after high school. Driving the LBJ is scary enough to make anyone wear protection.

    -daron

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  95. alex said on October 9, 2012 at 8:41 pm

    He-who has been a Jekyll and Hyde character from the git and has goaded us over the years with some canards worthy of Glenn Beck, if they weren’t directly cribbed from there. He’s a master at provocation, at playing hurt, at playing indignant and at playing Suck-Uppity Mister Nice Guy when he’s under attack for being a dick.

    It kind of reminds me of the insincere whirlwind that the president is facing off with while constrained by his own honesty and gentility.

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  96. LAMary said on October 9, 2012 at 8:55 pm

    Scout, I just polished off a bag of Late July sea salt multigrain chips and they were way good. Those with a vegetarian chili or a mango salsa would work for me. We had them with the leftovers of the green chili with carnitas I made the other night. Excellent. The first night we had the chili with steamed white corn on the cob wtih lime juice and cayenne.

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  97. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 9, 2012 at 10:05 pm

    Happy birthday, ROGirl!

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  98. alex said on October 9, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    I finally had a moment alone with my home computer to watch the Big Bird ad. It’s divine. Maybe Miss Piggy can do one asking what’s wrong with interspecies love?

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  99. Deborah said on October 9, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    I’m losing track of those I’ve already wished a happy birthday. Not because I don’t care about you but because I’m becoming an old git and memory is an issue. We seem to have a lot of birthdays recenty, my own included. So ROGirl if I haven’t said so previously, happy birthday.

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  100. Brandon said on October 10, 2012 at 3:39 am

    It’s not illegal to deface flags. It’s free speech!–Jolene

    Romney supporters who, unwittingly or not, desecrated the flag.

    “Kid Rock donned what appeared to be an American flag slit in the middle so he could wear it as poncho for his part of the show Sunday, and the VFW is outraged.”
    http://www.sptimes.com/2004/02/04/Artsandentartainment/VFW_slams_Kid_Rock_fo.shtml

    “Flag Day wouldn’t be Flag Day if someone didn’t get accused of misusing the flag.

    “This year, it’s Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), who planted an American flag underwater on an artificial reef during a scuba diving trip with veterans off the coast of his Florida district over the weekend.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/on-flag-day-rep-allen-west-in-trouble-for-scuba-diving-with-the-flag/2011/06/14/AGtzNwUH_blog.html

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