As I was out and about last evening, a SOTU open thread.
Unless, of course, you’d like to catch up on some of Coozledad’s back numbers:
So a couple of years ago, we moved an old iron bedframe from the “guest bedroom” upstairs into my studio downstairs. The studio has a large woodstove that will heat most of the house on the coldest of days if you are willing to forgo about half your normal intake of breathable air. The problem with antique iron beds is they have all been previously owned by powerfuckers or jackknifed by large cornfed women during a home childbirth. My wife and I were denied the opportunity to even try and shred it because it was already the goddamn bridge at San Luis Rey.
And then it takes a turn! Read.
We’ll see if Wednesday goes better.
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on February 13, 2013 at 7:15 am
And willingly or not, Cooze continues yesterday’s discussion with this apt observation in his most recent post: “Once I got over the shock of how they just lumped kids with widely divergent disabilities together in a kind of holding pen…”
Hat tip for the carriage bolts.
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alex said on February 13, 2013 at 7:58 am
I’m regretting that I haven’t gotten over to Cooze’s page more often. He’s a master at taking what’s most bawdy and sordid and making eloquence out of it. I suppose some weekend when I’m laid up with gastroenteritis I’ll do Seasons I-V the way people catch up on TV shows via Netflix.
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brian stouder said on February 13, 2013 at 9:37 am
Well, Grant and I were at the fifth and final lecture on the Holocaust at the synagogue on Old Mill Road (presented by a very intelligent and well-travelled protestant teacher from Concordia, but we digress!), so I missed the first half of the State of the Union – and therefore one of my favorite parts – the raucous entrance/greeting of the President of the United States.
But I did see the altogether affecting and powerful conclusion of the president’s address, and THEN I got my big laugh of the day – which was just the thing I needed right at that moment! – when Marco the Rube gave his small-ball response, and kept rubbing his lips and then, near the end, stopped altogether to gulp from a water bottle. DO we live in a great country, or what?
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Bitter Scribe said on February 13, 2013 at 9:53 am
The SOTU went like I expected: Obama proposed many good things which will never see the light of day thanks to the rule-or-ruin House Republicans.
How interesting that they needed two rebuttals: Rubio’s and Rand Paul’s.
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Prospero said on February 13, 2013 at 10:04 am
Was it just me and my bias, or did Rubio seem to be fighting bad cases of both meth mouth and flop sweats? He was sweating like Albert Brooks in Broadcast News:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/12786
Which reminds me of another tubism that drives me nuts: using the noun “bias” as an adjective, as in “Me thinks, I’m not bias, your bias.” Thousands of times daily on the internets.
Of course Rubio’s main problem was that anything remotely specific in his “rebuttal” was a phantom rebuttal because he guessed wrong about what the President would hit on, and was unwilling to or incapable of changing on the fly. That guy was talking-to-your-dad-while-stoned-to-the-gills nervous. Then there are his egregious representations about his freedom fighting family’s flight from Cuba.
I too have done substitute teaching in the short bus classroom. But on a happier note, here’s a link to the website of a wheelchair-bound, paraplegic former student, Sunaura “Sunny” Taylor, who was never relegated to special ed classes. Instead, she excelled in AP classes and has made an impressive way in the world. Check Sunny’s CV, and the trailer for Imagined Life, a movie by Sunny’s sister Astra. My favorite internet moment ever was coming across this young woman on Google. She’s awe-inspiring.
http://www.sunaurataylor.org/
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Randy said on February 13, 2013 at 10:23 am
Watching Rubio, my wife and I kept saying back to the TV:
“The President already said that, and he said it better than you did.”
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Icarus said on February 13, 2013 at 10:23 am
I too regret not getting over to Cooze’s site more often.
I’m soo stealing this line, among others: “I cheerfully accepted each day’s fresh horror as a penance for the athletic drinking I would be certain to undertake on the weekends. “
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Dorothy said on February 13, 2013 at 10:44 am
We are so lucky cooze spends time here and shares his stories with us!
Have any of you read the Esquire article about The Shooter yet? I was riveted by it yesterday. Takes awhile to get through – 15,000 words. But very well worth the time invested.
http://www.esquire.com/features/man-who-shot-osama-bin-laden-0313?click=pp
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Charlotte said on February 13, 2013 at 11:11 am
Whoever does the seating put the Nuge next to a gay civil rights activist from Portland: http://gawker.com/5983929/state-of-the-union-seating-planners-troll-ted-nugent-put-him-next-to-gay-civil-rights-activist-from-portland
Who was, of course, interested and gracious.
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alex said on February 13, 2013 at 11:21 am
If Rubio’s awkward presence and way-off-the-mark talking points are a harbinger of things to come, I’d say the Dems have the White House sewn up well into the 2020s. I would have liked to have seen Boehner’s big orange face during Rubio’s speech; if he was horrified at how good Obama was, I can only imagine the stricken look that must have come over him during the rebuttal.
The anointment of Rubio as the GOP’s greatest hope (because he’s Latino, donchaknow) tells you everything you need to know about his party’s contempt for non-whites. Cubans were traditionally Republican but only because Dems were perceived as soft on communism. With the Cold War long over and a new generation of Cubans who see themselves as full-fledged Americans and not refugees in exile, the GOP can no longer rely on them as a bloc. Furthermore, Cubans are vastly outnumbered by Mexicans, who don’t really see themselves as culturally or socially akin to Cubans and vice versa. Rubio is essentially another Herman Cain or Alan Keyes and will be about as influential among hispanics as those two are among blacks. Kind of reminds me of the rationale put forth by the Bush Pere camp in ’88 when asked why on earth Dan Quayle was chosen as Veep — because he’s a handsome devil who will make the ladies swoon and he’s young so he’ll capture the youth vote. The GOP still vastly overestimates human stupidity. Or just doesn’t have much of a handle on its own.
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Scout said on February 13, 2013 at 11:31 am
Rubio is the latest in a long line of tokenism politics the R’s mistakenly think will turn their ship around. They have yet to have their come-to-Jesus moment of realization that is their ideas and policies that make them irrelevant. Personally, I thought it was apropos that Rubio was one of the 22 male idiots that voted against AVAW that very day. Golf clap for the GOP!
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DellaDash said on February 13, 2013 at 11:35 am
Mark Rubio, meet Bobby Gindal, charter member of the Icouldabeenacontender-UntilIflopsweatedtheSOTUresponse Club.
Obama was most eloquent on gun control with the “[fill in the blank] deserves a vote” riff.
I must confess my conservative roots are showing. Much as I adore the O-bomb, and have been scornful about the ‘fiscal cliff’ being a manufactured crisis (how does that even play when we all got pushed over the cliff 4-plus years ago?); I heard a lotta great-but-big-(deficit)-spending pie-in-the-sky proposals without the how-do-we-pay-for-it math. Claiming such-and-such investments are what’s needed to grow the middle class doesn’t make it so, any more than what the other side claims. When it gets down to it, everyone is flying by the seat of their pants. I AM confident POTUS will continue to keep us airborne, while summoning up that million-dollar grin in a pinch, though. Everything else is just gravy.
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Scout said on February 13, 2013 at 11:37 am
Make that VAWA.
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Prospero said on February 13, 2013 at 12:03 pm
Fascinating essay on Charles Mingus. Apparently, Mingus was crazier than Miles Davis.
I love NYRB.
Rep. Oompa’s painfully evident dyspepsia when the President brought up vote suppression was hilarious. He squirmed as if he may have sharted when the Pres called for his and RMoney’s campaign lawyers to run the discussion. Hilarious.
We looked at Aqua Buddha for a minute without audio. Who would vote for this twat for anything at all. Cunt.
a new generation of Cubans who see themselves as full-fledged Americans and not refugees in exile
And Rubio has dissembled consistently about his parents’ departure from Cuba. Truth is, his parents were smarter than their rich compatriots and saw the handwriting on the hacienda muro for the evil dictator Batista. They got out early and were among the initial looters of Cuban wealth. His misrepresentations will come back to haunt his twitchy ass. Funniest thing about the water bottle lunge was his ridiculous attempt to maintain eye contact. And he looked like a frog bagging bugs with his sticky tongue for much of the address:
http://gawker.com/5983926/heres-a-supercut-of-all-the-dry-mouth-noises-marco-rubio-made-during-last-nights-response
When it gets down to it, everyone is flying by the seat of their pants.
Because the credit card invasions and occupations, the PhARMA welfare giveaway, cum the unaffordable tax cuts FUBARed everything in unprecedented ways. GOPers won’t admit to this, because to do so would be admitting they were out to 86 the government and the country altogether. Boner was discomfitted by the President’s mention of past jobs bills sent to the House, because he personally kept them from floor votes in favor of voting 35 times in the last Congressional term to repeal ACA. The bastards’ wages should be garnished and the costs of their Caddy health care should be clawed back. Fuckers have failed to do their jobs, jobs, jobs. And Smoking Man Boner knows it.
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brian stouder said on February 13, 2013 at 12:17 pm
!) Scout – well said. AT some point the Republican party will presumably disenthrall itself from the charlatans and carnival barkers that currently seem to control it; or else, they will simply disintegrate (or the angry old white people that they still appeal to will time out), and some new party will take its place. The so-called Tea Party is more the Republican Guard (think back to the mid-80’s Iran), and not the ultimate replacement; and indeed, the TPers run the risk of getting the historical blame for splintering and marginalizing the Republicans out of existence. I think the one thing that people always criticize President Obama for – avoiding hard-line stands and direct engagement in partisan fighting – is the “dark matter” (so to speak) which is exerting most of the stresses and strains on that party. Lots of those “Republicans” will (ultimately) have no trouble leaving that party and voting for reasonable Democratic candidates, I think. (or at least, that’s how it went for me)
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beb said on February 13, 2013 at 12:25 pm
Sen. M. Rubio (R-Flopsweat)…
I like that.
At it’s height in the 60s, the minimum wage was the equivalent of $10/hour in today’s money. The President’s proposal to raise it to $9/hour still leaves the working poor under the bus. And even so the Orange Meanie has declared a rise in the minimum wage DOA. Gawd, Republicans really are the party of stupid.
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Bitter Scribe said on February 13, 2013 at 12:31 pm
IIRC, Rubio’s parents were traveling in the U.S. when the Cuban revolution broke out, and decided it would endanger their lives to return. That certainly qualifies them as refugees, IMO.
Maybe I’m biased because my cousin is married to a woman whose parents were in exactly that situation (except it was China, not Cuba). And of course I have no use for Rubio and never will. But I have no problem with his describing his parents as refugees. In fact, I encourage it, because it just highlights the idiotic discrepancy between Cuba and the rest of Latin America with respect to U.S. immigration policy—one that is resented by more than a few non-Cuban Latinos, or so I hear.
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Sherri said on February 13, 2013 at 12:42 pm
Bitter, I think Rubio’s parents came to the US two and a half years before Castro took power, so that was a long visit.
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Danny said on February 13, 2013 at 12:43 pm
Last comment from yesterday’s thread had some interest for me. I am not familiar with Zg… someone new perhaps?
Late to the party, but wow, what a bunch of fossilized thinking on education! Go to any office, factory, hospital today and then compare it to how it was run 50 days ago. Almost unrecognizable. Then walk into a k-12 classroom. Looks pretty familiar. Teachers yak yak yaking in front of students sitting passively in a row. Really? The whole model needs to be busted wide open, and breaking the government school monopoly on access to public funds for education is step 1. Let the experiments begin! Some will be great, some will fail, but choice, innovation, and accountability to students is the right way forward.
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alex said on February 13, 2013 at 12:55 pm
Someone new perhaps? Must be. “Government schools” isn’t part of the vocabulary of anyone I know. Not anyone sane anyhow.
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Jeff Borden said on February 13, 2013 at 12:59 pm
If Marco Rubio is the future of the Republican Party in 2016, Hillary Clinton or just about any other Democrat can start measuring for drapes. A terrible speech presented almost as awkwardly as Bobby Jindal. Any of my public speaking students could do a better job than Rubio, who was unable to rise to the occasion and make it his own.
BTW, the latest right-wing prom king joined 21 of his GOP brethren in the Senate to vote against the Violence Against Women Act. So, he’s a fresh new face of the party? Please.
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Prospero said on February 13, 2013 at 1:28 pm
American polcy towards Cuba has been loony for a long time, mostly because of GOPers that bought into a Western Hemisphere domino theory aimed at Brownsvill, Tejas for decades, and fueled by the Castro-hating Cuban American’s that benefitted greatly from the delusional policy. Those people are the remnants of the supporters of the murderous Batista kleptocracy, and represent a generation of rich as Croesus Cubanos that got the hell out of Didel’s way and took all of the wealth, which of course made them naturals for inclusion in the GOP big tent.
And I don’t think I said anything about Rubio’s parents and immigrant status, but calling them refugees is a dishonor and disservice to actual refugees that flee their countries with nothing. When Rubio starts inveighing against “amnesty” for immigrants, he is a whited sepulcher that must gild his parents flight from the revolucion. Phony as hell. Why shouldn’t everybody get the open arms welcome your family did, Sen. Tweaker?
“Government school monopoly”? Horseshit. Does teaching creationism instead of science represent accountability to students? Ayn Rand instead of Mark Twain? Phony fundagelical theology instead of philosophy and comparative religions? I don’t think so, especially when it ends up being a welfare program for the well off.
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Scout said on February 13, 2013 at 1:49 pm
“government school monopoly” – snort! Thanks for dredging that up and reminding us that we get the occasional whack tourist here.
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Prospero said on February 13, 2013 at 2:00 pm
Regarding GOPer voters against extending VAWA. Their objection is that the bill has been modified to provide protections specifically for same-sex partners, native Americans, and immigrants. How’s that last one workin’ for ya, Marco? And for everybody that read that NYT mag article Nancy linked recently, an entire brilliant legal strategy for getting justice and healing for victims of kiddie porn resides in VAWA, so a vote against renewing the Act is a vote to protect kid pornographer’s pocketbooks. Sounds like a Larry Craig eruption for the GOP to me. Or maybe, they’re protecting RMoney’s rapist bundler Mittens was pallin’ around with. Voting no on this is shameless bullshit. What sort of shitheel votes for anybody that voted against VAWA again, ever?
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Prospero said on February 13, 2013 at 2:11 pm
What’s in the thought balloon over Nugent’s head in that photograph sitting next to the gay guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7soxUKX5Ls
Anybody that employs the term “government school monopoly”, is the sort of dumb as grunt asshole that thinks it’s clever to refer to the Democrat Party. Fracking lame.
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Brandon said on February 13, 2013 at 2:19 pm
About the Grammys: Part of its charm are the curveballs it throws. Steely Dan’s Two Against Nature over Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP; Esperanza Spalding instead of Justin Bieber for Best New Artist; and so on. Even Milli Vanilli for Best New Artist (awarded in 1990).
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on February 13, 2013 at 2:42 pm
Shameless threadjack: anyone else want to take this and post their results? I got a 45 with “combined” for maxing out the subscales, too (22 & 23). Prospero, I will confess that I’d love to see what your number would be, but feel free to take the quiz and not share. Me, I self-medicate with massive doses of caffeine, and wouldn’t want more pills to take than I already have, thank you stupid thyroid.
http://psychcentral.com/addquiz.htm
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Sherri said on February 13, 2013 at 2:59 pm
Government school monopoly – if you really want to shake things up, you’ll expand the government school monopoly to include free universal preschool education starting at age 2. The benefits to poor kids of preschool starting at age 2 are well studied and known; the gap between rich and poor is still there at age 2, but it’s not as big simply because kids haven’t had as much time to learn and be exposed to as much. Pre-K at 4 would be a help, starting at three would be an improvement, and 2 is the highest leverage point of all.
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brian stouder said on February 13, 2013 at 3:10 pm
Jeff – I was a 10-7
Congratulations!
You have answered this self-report questionnaire in such a way as to suggest that you do not likely currently suffer from an attention deficit disorder.
You should not take this as a diagnosis or recommendation for treatment in any way, though.
(I think if you complete the quiz, that should push your score the right direction. Also, I couldn’t bring myself to click “never” more than once or twice; I’m a “rarely” guy, apparently)
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Prospero said on February 13, 2013 at 3:17 pm
Sherri@28: It’s a matter of absolute faith among Raygunistas that Head Start was money down the drain on the offspring of cadillac driving welfare mothers that spent the change from their food stamps on cigs and vodka. It’s a shibboleth for true believers on the right.
Here’s what I got, Jeff:
http://psychcentral.com/cgi-bin/addquiz.cgi
Whatever that means. Back in HS, we used to use Ritalin recreationally. Can’t for the life of me figure out what we thought was fun about it. The test doesn’t ask about my likely indicative ADHD behavior: watching three or four TeeVee shows at once, without split-screen.
Just received UPS with the Maurice Sendak book:
http://www.amazon.com/My-Brothers-Book-Maurice-Sendak/dp/0062234897/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360786515&sr=1-1&keywords=maurice+sendak
Extremely beautiful.
And I’d like to see somebody do something about the Robber Baron power and energy monopoly before the government school monopoly is addressed.
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Julie Robinson said on February 13, 2013 at 3:19 pm
Lots of sometimes, 17/16 for a 33, suggesting moderate ADHD. Had I taken it at age 10 my score would have been sky-high, and before I learned organizational skills during college it would have still been pretty high. We won’t mention possible results for the rest of the fam.
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Icarus said on February 13, 2013 at 3:26 pm
proud to report a score suggesting moderate ADHD:
You scored a total of 32
Inattention Subscale: 16
Hyperactivity/Impulsivity Subscale: 16
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Sherri said on February 13, 2013 at 3:53 pm
I was a 12/13, but I’ve never thought of myself as being ADHD at all.
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Prospero said on February 13, 2013 at 4:01 pm
Westminster photos. My favorite was the doggie du Bordeaux. One of my brothers has a german short hair named Jamie that used to live with my mom and dad. The fox terrier with the half black, half white face is cool, reminds me of Frank Gorshin on Star Trek, but shouldn’t his right ear be white? Not very impressed with Banana Joe. The lady handler in the tight cream suit had an impressive pair of glutei maximi. Prodigious, in fact.
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brian stouder said on February 13, 2013 at 4:13 pm
You should be thinkin’ pooches, and not hoochie-coochie
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Heather said on February 13, 2013 at 4:18 pm
I got 22! I blame the Internet.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on February 13, 2013 at 4:36 pm
Squirrel!
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Kirk said on February 13, 2013 at 4:41 pm
12/11 = 23
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BigHank53 said on February 13, 2013 at 4:43 pm
Overall score of 25.
18/7 split.
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Little Bird said on February 13, 2013 at 5:04 pm
I’m tempted to try that tes- oooohhhh, shiny!
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ROGirl said on February 13, 2013 at 5:25 pm
Banana Joe looks like a Wookie, and his groomed facial hair makes his head look like it’s on a much bigger dog. I was really surprised when I saw a shot of his entire body and he was a miniature.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/westminster-kennel-club-dog-show-2013/2013/02/12/f0787fc8-74f5-11e2-95e4-6148e45d7adb_gallery.html?hpid=z6#photo=2
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Jakash said on February 13, 2013 at 5:42 pm
13/6 = 19 Like Brian, I’m hesitant to say “never” about anything.
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Prospero said on February 13, 2013 at 5:54 pm
You got me wrong, Brian. I just found it amusing to watch this dreadnought woman, straight out of Rubens, in a Kardashian-tight skirt, prancing around MSG with fluffy haired rat dogs.
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Jolene said on February 13, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Check out the Gordon setter (#17). Does this dog look embarrassed or what?
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Sherri said on February 13, 2013 at 7:02 pm
Senate Republicans have decided that “filibuster” is a bad word, and that they don’t want to use it anymore. The word, that is, not the tactic; “60-vote threshold” is the new term, and it’s just the normal way of doing business in the Senate.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/a-filibuster-for-chuck-hagel/273150/
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MarkH said on February 13, 2013 at 7:50 pm
Mine was 15/5 for a 20. I really feel I was being totally honest in my answers, too.
Surprising, since my son was diagnosed with full-blown ADD in middle school.
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Prospero said on February 13, 2013 at 7:57 pm
I’d bet years of smoking chronic kept my ADD potential low.
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basset said on February 13, 2013 at 9:05 pm
17/19 for a 36.
And I was pulling for the foxhound in the Best of Show round.
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Kirk said on February 13, 2013 at 9:13 pm
AP reports that Sen. Rubio has his “working-class” home on the market:
A real-estate listing shows that Rubio, a
41-year-old rising star in the
Republican Party and widely
seen as a potential presidential
candidate in 2016, has set an
asking price for his 4-bedroom,
3.5-bathroom home at
$675,000.
Pictures posted on a real-estate site promoting the property show it has a backyard pool, trampoline and a wooden playhouse for children.
“The property … is no ordinary place, mind you,” reads a description on Realtor.com.
The average market value of houses in West Miami is $202,600, according to the real-estate website Zillow.
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Catherine said on February 13, 2013 at 9:34 pm
One of the better ways to diagnose ADD is to see whether you benefit from the medication, since there’s no definitive blood test or brain scan or genetic marker. I am a dope and I recently did this by accident. I’d set out my daughter’s ADD meds next to my vitamin and mindlessly (pre-coffee) took both pills. What followed was a rather unpleasant, anxious, vaguely angry 10 hours (it’s time-release). I don’t recommend trying this unless you’re pretty sure you might have ADD, and/or you have the non-time release.
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alex said on February 13, 2013 at 9:35 pm
Jolene, that poor Gordon Setter looks like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
Took my ADD score earlier and it was 21, although I forget the other two numbers. So we all have ADD. Just goes to show it’s an overdiagnosed fad disease invented by Big Pharma. There is evdence for such a disorder in some children, but it would be more aptly named impatient/inattentive mommy dysfunction.
So if that’s Rubio’s working-class house, what sort of hovel is he moving up to?
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Catherine said on February 13, 2013 at 9:44 pm
On topic for once, here’s one of Patton Oswalt’s SOTU tweets: “I hope Obama advocates preventing old draft dodgers from fucking underage girls so Ted Nugent lunges at him & gets shot.”
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alex said on February 13, 2013 at 9:52 pm
My own mother put me on Ritalin forty-some years ago. She was exhausted with the demands of motherhood and her doctor told her she needed to be on Valium, and she said no her kids do. Well, he said, there is something kind of like that, as a matter of fact.
My mom was so horrified at seeing me oversedated that she decided she could handle me as I was, as any child is—loud and frenetic and irritating as hell. If there’d been a pill that could have made me a perfect angel child like the stuff of Hollywood movies, I’m sure she’d have gone for that, but here we are all these years later and there’s still no such thing.
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