For those of you who a) care; and b) don’t read the comments, here’s the late-edition Knee News headline:
56-year-old knees fail before expiration; ‘disaster,’ claims primary-care doc
And that’s pretty much it. My left knee, the one I injured two weeks ago, has a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, a tibial plateau fracture and various other trauma. That’s the bad news. The good news is, it really doesn’t hurt much anymore. It’s tender, I can’t flex it much beyond 90 degrees, but just plain old walking and moving? It’s comfortable. But it was a strange visit, as it started out with an examination of an X-ray, with my doctor getting right to the point: “I’ve done replacements on people with less arthritis than this,” he said. He said this while pointing to my right knee — the good one.
I have arthritis? Why yes. Pretty bad, too. I’m a candidate for a new knee, maybe two of them, sooner rather than later. And that sucks. “But we treat patients, not X-rays,” he said, which means that if it isn’t keeping me from enjoying my life and getting around, well, no need to rush.
If I were an 18-year-old soccer player, I’d be having ACL reconstruction, but it’s foolish to fix a ligament on a knee on its way out. I will have to give up my lifelong dream of being a downhill ski racer, but swimming, biking, anything without lateral stresses — all these are fine, as long as there’s little or no pain.
I guess the mature response to all this is to be grateful I live in a world with replacement knees. The immature one would be to say fuck this shit. Guess which one I’ve been thinking about today. But it will pass.
Next on the agenda: Lose 20 pounds. Can’t hurt.
So, with that scintillating medical report completed, how was your day? I wrote a few hundred words, rotated my tires, reflected on the frailties of the human body, did a load of delicates. Started making a Thanksgiving shopping list. Basically, got on with it.
So, bloggage.
The fascinating world of genetics: A 24,000-year-old corpse reveals details of human migration through Asia. I love this stuff.
I was concerned about the next Hunger Games movie, but maybe it’ll be worth a mother/daughter movie outing this season.
The painting of the Danish royal family is simply fantastic.
Limping off to bed.
Dexter said on November 21, 2013 at 1:52 am
After so long, “f. this s.” was my decision a while back when seeking help for a hip that has pained me for 33 years. “You’re too young”. “The damage we see by this MRI and the X-Rays indicate that surgery is not an option yet”.
One doctor in Fort Wayne, a highly respected ortho doc, told me to “just don’t do anything now, just deal with it a few more years…”
So fuck this shit was my attitude. Maybe next year when my insurance changes and more is covered I’ll try it again. It’s getting worse, maybe by now I’m ripe enough. All these years I could ride my bicycles painlessly, now it hurts. It’s nigh-on to bein’ time, dammitt, doctors!
Best of luck with that injured knee, nance. My wife has a from of MD called Charko Marie Tooth, named for the trio of doctors who defined it. One bad thing out of many, it destroys the ability of connective tissue to hold the parts of a knee implant in place. She suffers greatly with this disease. Oh well, the way my old former co-workers are dropping dead while in their sixties and early seventies, I am glad to be above ground. Yesterday a friend, a man in his mid-fifties, told me of the round of chronic depression he has been battling for two weeks. He just wants to run away , cash everything in, take some cash and leave his wife and job and RUN AWAY.
What the hell ya tell somebody like that? He is not asking me for advice because he is going to a shrink who has him in group therapy and on some psychotropics…all I really know is that he tells me “none of this is working this time and I want to split and disappear.” This is contagious, ya know? He told me this hard depression hit after another pal of his burdened him with details of an old fashioned cuckolding: wife came clean about an infidelity with one of her co-workers. We can’t fix anybody, but I guess we can listen; I guess that’s all my friend wants anyway. I will be glad to see my little granddaughter next week on Thanksgiving. I do hate to see friends clinically depressed just as the holidays approach.
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/files/2012/11/Norman-Rockwell-Thanksgiving-thanksgiving-2927689-375-479.jpg
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Deborah said on November 21, 2013 at 6:14 am
That family portrait is simply fantastic as you say. Would love to see what that artist would do for the Bush family, or the Cheney’s.
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ROGirl said on November 21, 2013 at 6:31 am
Sorry about your knee. It seems like we weren’t meant to actually get the use out of our body parts that we expect now that we live beyond the age of 50. Exercising and trying to keep fit aren’t easy any more.
In case you haven’t seen this, it’s awesome:
http://video.bobdylan.com/desktop.html
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David C. said on November 21, 2013 at 7:07 am
It sounds like you have a good doctor. Many would have rushed you into surgery.
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Deborah said on November 21, 2013 at 7:26 am
It’s probably not a good idea to start any dieting until that tibial plateau fracture is healed. When I had my foot fracture I gained 10 or 12 lbs from lack of exercise and sitting around eating because I was bored, but my Dr said to wait until the healing was complete before dieting etc.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 21, 2013 at 7:57 am
Arthritis is, as it turns out, genetic, and not just age related, but it’s funny how much we have mentally clumped it with dementia and incontinence. My wife is on the downhill side of a nasty piece of orthopedic work on her hand, which for a talented keyboard player is frightening from the outset. But the surgeon said, on looking at the comparative x-rays of her two hands “I would have thought I’d be rebuilding your right thumb first.” And he used the “we treat patients, not x-rays” line, which must be a med school lesson. Her deal wasn’t repetitive stress (which she feared was a “I did it to myself” thing from practice & performance) or injury, but just “your cartilage went away.” It’s gone away a number of other places, but how the joints adapt are still apparently somewhat mysterious.
Nancy, sounds like you’re getting good advice, but when they say “replace it now,” don’t hesitate. I keep hearing from parishoners (older ones) that they delayed and stalled and put it off, and then they had to have additional work (like the other knee) because of wear imposed by the hitch in their gait to favor the originally ailing knee or hip. Blessings and healing to you!
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Basset said on November 21, 2013 at 8:02 am
Dexter, clinically depressed BECAUSE the holidays approach is more like it…
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 21, 2013 at 8:03 am
Dexter, listening is HUGE. Blessings to you and your friend. The only other thing I’d suggest after making sure the guy has felt heard, and understood (you don’t have to agree, folks rarely demand that, just an appreciation of their perspective will do), is to ask him “it’s too much, that’s clear. What’s one thing you’d like to change? Not everything, or someone else’s head, but is there one thing I can help you do, or at least think through?” When the answer has been, after a pregnant pause, something like “Well, I guess clean my damn garage,” it’s amazing how many clouds start to lift when you’re in a position to say “we can pull some people together and start on that. It’s something.” And it often helps on the heart level as well as the hurt level.
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beb said on November 21, 2013 at 8:37 am
At 63 I’m feeling my age but the other day, while taking my daughter to the Secrtary of State to her license I saw a man who I thought made me look small and he was “Walking” essentially by rolling from one leg to the other. It made me realize that while I am greatly obsess, I should be grateful that I can still walk with a normal gait, climb stairs and so on. Some people ain’t so lucky.
I read that article about the 24,000 corpse, too, and it was pretty interesting. Another fascinating report says the genome analysis suggests that human interbreed with neanderthals, a second, known hominid group and a third heretofore unknonwn group. Which I guess just proves what we’ve always known – Homo Sapien males will screw anything they see.
And apparently Florida’s own Rob Ford (Rep. Randel) will only see probation for being a cokehead and will not be punished by Speaker Boehner. Proving once again that the War On Drungs is really the War on certain types of people using drugs.
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Heather said on November 21, 2013 at 8:51 am
Wow, that is a lot of health news to take in, Nancy. So you didn’t know you had arthritis? I ask because I’m having some knee pain and I’m in my mid-40s. It’s making me nervous.
The good news is knee replacement technology sounds pretty amazing. My 70-something uncle had it and it went very smoothly. Of course he’s not super active . . . anyway, I am sure you will make the best decisions for you.
Between this, a sobering cholesterol report, and realizing my blood pressure is borderline high, yeah, losing 10-15 pounds is starting to look more like a must and less like a “would be nice.” At least I still look pretty good on the outside even if the inside is going to pot.
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coozledad said on November 21, 2013 at 9:03 am
There’s still a lot to learn about the ethnic and linguistic composition of the neolithic peoples who migrated to north America, but there appear to be some linguistic artifacts from central Asia as well as human remains. There are some Turkic survivals in native languages as far east as Florida, and it usually doesn’t take very long for even a few pure survivals, like Susquehanna “Quiet woman” to flicker out.
There were around 1,500 native languages in South America alone, but the Spaniards winnowed them down to 300. That’s a lot of extinctions, whitey.
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Jeff Borden said on November 21, 2013 at 9:29 am
I’m sorry about your knee, Nancita, but I’ve had several friends go through this and they found it a bearable experience with a terrific payoff. One of my poker buddies –he is just shy of 70– was limping around like Walter Brennan in “Rio Bravo”. He’d been a very active tennis player years ago and it caught up with him. Now, he walks like a man half his age. I wish the same for you.
Sometimes, I think my wimpy background as the most unathletic man in the Western Hemisphere –they still debate in the Lima, Ohio CYO League whether I was the worst right-field in the history of baseball– might’ve been a good thing. A lot of people far younger than I are dealing with all kinds of medical issues related to sports: knees on the skiers and tennis players; shoulder and back problems with the former football players; plantar fascitis for the basketball players.
I have some arthritis in my left hand fingers and a balky right knee on occasion, but otherwise, so far, so good. I had feared arthritis more than anything as my poor mom was bedeviled by rheumatoid arthritis for the last one-third of her life. It was horrible to see. Arthritis like that is truly crippling.
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coozledad said on November 21, 2013 at 9:29 am
The black background of that painting of the danish royal family contributes to the sense of physical dislocation, or floating. it’s a fine painting. Looks like it could have been done by Claudio Bravo.
But grandpa looks like he’s been confined to his armchair because of repeated poisonings by Uta Hagen (there in the red dress) and one of the Udvarnoki twins from “The Other” in the foreground is just begging for someone to take his ring finger off with a pair of pruning shears.
Maybe they’re just trying to warn off gold diggers and would be interbreeders.
Do you really want some of this action?
Then prepare for the death of your soul!
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brian stouder said on November 21, 2013 at 9:58 am
The aging process is the best proof that God DOES have a sense of humor, and that it is in the same genre as the Three Stooges or those kiddos on MTV (St Moe?)
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Bitter Scribe said on November 21, 2013 at 10:53 am
So sorry, Nancy. God, that sucks.
God’s alleged “sense of humor” is pure sadism.
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Peter said on November 21, 2013 at 11:29 am
Nancy, so sorry to hear about your condition. Although it’s not a hip, my elbow was shattered in an accident 20 years ago, and the surgeon who installed the artificial joint said that the most I could hope for is 10 years – well, it’s been 20 and I haven’t had a problem with it yet…hope yours goes even better.
Cooz, if that artist did a family portrait of the Cheneys, I’d pay plenty for a print. It would be one of those paintings they would display in a parochial school to scare you shitless and keep you on the straight and narrow.
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susan said on November 21, 2013 at 11:49 am
‘Way back when, Steve Brodner did a family portrait of sorts, of the Bush Crime Family, which is about perfect.
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brian stouder said on November 21, 2013 at 12:28 pm
Susan, that cartoon IS just about perfect!
I cannot decide if my fave is Georgie Walnuts or Uncle Rummy
(Taking for granted that you cannot even parody Cheney’s defective heart of stone)
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Dexter said on November 21, 2013 at 12:34 pm
Another Thanksgiving Day portrait-of-sorts, a shot from the movie which was a better song than a movie…click it, you’ll remember.
http://s.mcstatic.com/thumb/6161203/17657717/4/flash_player/0/1/alices_restaurant_film_thanksgiving.jpg?v=1
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susan said on November 21, 2013 at 12:49 pm
Brian, I kinda like Big Pussy Ashcroft and Dr. Karen Melfi. But then, they all make me laugh. But back then, they all made me cry.
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coozledad said on November 21, 2013 at 1:18 pm
The Republican talking points on the nuclear option are thus:This will come back to bite the Democrats I’ve already seen about thirty iterations of this phrase in comment threads already, and you’re about to see it a few times here, despite it already being describes as a republican talking point.
Why? They can’t help themselves. Where there is no forebrain, there is no empathy. Where there is no empathy, there is no imagination. Where there is no imagination, there is no sense of humor. Where there is no sense of humor, there are Republicans looking for talking points.
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Deborah said on November 21, 2013 at 1:18 pm
Speaking of presidents and portraits, did you see W with Leno? I didn’t see it on the teevee but I did look at this link http://www.buzzfeed.com/passantino/george-w-bush-paints-an-amazing-portrait-of-jay-leno
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Deborah said on November 21, 2013 at 1:21 pm
My thoughts about the nuclear option: it’s about time.
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Connie said on November 21, 2013 at 1:36 pm
Ditto.
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Jolene said on November 21, 2013 at 2:01 pm
Me too. If Obama can’t get anything else done, at least he can leave us with a fully stocked judiciary.
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Scout said on November 21, 2013 at 2:11 pm
Nancy, the thing that is going to make this whole situation ok for you is your good attitude. Several people I know with knee problems were able to put off or avoid surgery with yoga. Obviously there are certain poses that need to be avoided, but it does help with strength and flexibility in most cases.
Jeff @ 8 – simply wonderful advice.
The Danish family portrait is brilliant. I love it.
The nuclear option – fvck yeah – hit the button. Should have done it years ago.
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Kirk said on November 21, 2013 at 2:17 pm
Late catching up, but I second Basset’s comments pursuant to the Possum discussion on yesterday’s thread.
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coozledad said on November 21, 2013 at 2:28 pm
As my wife says, spare bitter old lizard-faced bitch Chuck Grassley the trouble and go ahead and change senate rules for Supreme court nominees now:
Speaking on the Senate floor shortly after the filibuster rule change was pushed through over his objections and that of all of his Republican colleagues, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) was explicit: When Republicans control the White House and Senate, they will change the Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster for the Supreme Court, too.
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Joe K said on November 21, 2013 at 2:36 pm
You know it just a little sad, that everyone thinks the portrait that Susan linked on is hilarious funny, yet if the same type of humor was shown toward this administration there would crying, calls for investigation, and general bed wetting, from the left, I just don’t understand how it’s ok for one side and not the other. And by the way, when Leno asked President Bush why he hasn’t critized President Obama, I thought his answer showed a lot of class, “because it wouldn’t be helping the United States” or something to that effect. If you don’t like the man fine, it’s your right, but I think he has shown nothing but first class in the last six years.
Hope your knee heals well Nancy, my wife us haveing her right knee done in January
After having her left done 7 years ago at 49, she claims it’s the best thing she ever did, the relief was great, and according to her you will know when it’s time.
Pilot Joe
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coozledad said on November 21, 2013 at 2:45 pm
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/the-poster-police/Content?oid=1185070
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Jeff Borden said on November 21, 2013 at 3:21 pm
Oh, Joe, please.
President Obama has been subjected to the cruelest, rudest and most vile kinds of representations since he was elected. Do I really need to Google all the photoshopped images of him as an African witch doctor? Or the field of watermelons in front of the White House? Or Air Force One outfitted with big wheels? Or even the New Yorker’s famous cover of him and Michelle as Muslim terrorists when he was just a candidate?
The Bush administration was certainly one of the worst in our nation’s history. Where it wasn’t inept, it was simply evil. Where it wasn’t corrupt, it was simply incoherent. We will be a generation or two repairing all the damage.
I’ll always harbor a severe disappointment that President Obama –far classier than the idiot who preceded him– did not investigate, indict and prosecute this felonious bunch of white collar criminals. No one has been held responsible for some of the most egregious actions ever taken by an administration from lying us into a war against a sovereign nation uninvolved with 9/11 to the flouting of the Geneva Conventions with water boarding and other forms of torture to the ongoing horrors of endless incarceration in Guantanomo.
But, yes, Bush refusing to criticize President Obama is “classy,” though it’s apparently not something that has filtered down to assholes like Cheney, Rumsfeld and others. I apologize for being “classless” for bringing this up.
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brian stouder said on November 21, 2013 at 3:22 pm
During the government shutdown, remember the angry fellow who had both the rebel battle flag and the United States Marine Corps flag(!!?!) in front of the White House? With incoherent dunces like that, who needs cartoons?
For the record, political cartoons – even scathingly bitter ones – are fine by me.
When elected officials traffic overtly racist crap, though (the bone-in-the-nose one, for the president, for example) I will indeed object.
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Scout said on November 21, 2013 at 3:28 pm
Joe, I agree that Bush has comported himself in a statesmanlike manner since leaving office. His silence is about the only thing for which I will give him due credit.
Since President Obama was elected we’ve seen everything from depictions of watermelons grown on the White House lawn to pictures of the POTUS with a bone through his nose, (and many of these coming from elected officials)so while “the left” may reasonably find this objectionable I have yet to hear of any investigations or even low level bed wetting.
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Scout said on November 21, 2013 at 3:30 pm
Kaboom.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/harry-reid-nuclear-option-senate
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coozledad said on November 21, 2013 at 3:50 pm
Little Boots was nothing if not thin-skinned. He’d begun his descent into irrelevance in the early days of his appointment as President by giving a spy plane to the Chinese.
Maybe he gets credit for having the Chinese return it in tiny pieces, carefully stacked, and labelled.
Paradoxically, the White House Press Corps saw the catastrophic failure of the executive branch to acknowledge the importance of security briefings as an opportunity to suck him off. They got major assists from the likes of David Broder, David Gergen, Richard Cohen, Bob Woodward, Andrew Sullivan…
If you look at the combination of appointments like Hans Von Spakofsky at the FEC and the general militarization of local police departments with armored vehicles and crowd control guns, it’s clear that Bush was prepared to claim much more than executive supremacy via dubious constitutional claims, he also moved to disable the civil rights division at Justice, interfere with federal elections, and complete an authoritarian sweep of all three branches.
It was his stunning hubris that let the careless, stupid fratboy slip into the public eye during Katrina. His sour old bag of corpsegas of a mother didn’t help much either. The press was forced to stop blowing him long enough for the financial meltdown to finish whatever electoral chances his party had in 2008.
Little Boots and his folks don’t take well to criticism, and they’re notoriously vindictive people. You can’t whitewash the Parvenu trash out of them.
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Joe K said on November 21, 2013 at 4:50 pm
You all make my point exactly,
All the pictures of bush as hitler, or a clown or a dunce? What the hell is the difference? And Jeff, lets not even go their, Bengazi? Fast and furious? Cooked unemployment numbers? Irs? Not to mention the stunning successes of Obama care? 5 million MORE uninsured since it went into effect, or 20+ percent unemployed for young blacks! which has gone up in the last 6 yrs, give me a break, The presidents approval rating is a hefty 39% that’s one to be proud of.
Pilot Joe
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Deborah said on November 21, 2013 at 5:10 pm
Joe K, the worst picture I ever saw of W was a look alike of Alfred E. Nuemann and I don’t think it was a good thing. I have no idea what you mean by “fast and furious” must be some talking point I’m not familiar with. Cooked unemployment numbers, source for that please. What does IRS mean? Is this the rightwing meme that the IRS was supposedly targeting rightwing organizations? I thought that was debunked. Five million more uninsured is soon to be debunked if it hasn’t been already. And what do you suppose the unemployment figures were for young blacks 7 years ago? Where do you get your info? Oh wait, let me guess…
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LAMary said on November 21, 2013 at 5:16 pm
Joe, the racist remarks and pictures that have circulated sine Obama has been elected are an entirely different thing from pictures and comments about Bush’s actions as a president. No one was ridiculing Bush for his race.
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coozledad said on November 21, 2013 at 5:22 pm
You all make my point exactly
He says, trailing a streamer of toilet paper from his shoe, a pair of propellers whirling on the side of his football helmet.
All the pictures of bush as hitler, or a clown or a dunce? What the hell is the difference?
1.Hitler could paint. An entire apartment in a day. Two coats.
2. A clown? You got me there.
3. Duns Scotus was a Scottish philosopher whose name lives on abbreviated as a derisive appellation. Bush will always primarily refer to a tuft of wiry hair over the snotty bits.
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Bob (not Greene) said on November 21, 2013 at 5:30 pm
By crackey! (I think Jeff B. may be the only one who gets that reference)
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Dexter said on November 21, 2013 at 5:42 pm
Ever since R-SC Joe Wilson yelled “LIAR” before Congress in 2009 as President Obama was speaking on health care reform, Obama has been attacked racially, subtlety and openly. But I don’t feel like (mostly) preaching to the choir here, so I will comment on W-43’s portrait of Jay Leno: Damn good likeness. I remember when Bush began painting dogs , then cats, now people. Good ol’ boy, all relaxed…can’t hide or make us forget how he blatantly lied to us about Iraq and WMD and how under his watch hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of US military lives and limbs were sacrificed for a greedy-grab by Halliburton , riding on a promise by Wolfowitz that the captured oil was going to pay for the war effort…all LIES. LIAR! Yes, that’s who the liar was, but really, think of ALL the lies and liars, Tenet, Rumsfeld, Powell, Cheney, Tommy Franks…ah hell…that’s enough for one session. And I can’t help it if Moqtada al-Sadr looks enough like me that he could pass for my son! http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&tbm=isch&tbnid=BA7JxKDaTUEhUM:&imgrefurl=http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1883644_1883653_1884555,00.html&docid=u9ryypAJnapFsM&imgurl=http://img.timeinc.net/time/2009/time_100_walkup/muqtada_alsadr.jpg&w=260&h=410&ei=K4yOUu7yC8vFsATYv4GQBw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:1,s:0,i:84&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=175&tbnw=125&start=0&ndsp=16&tx=61&ty=156&biw=1024&bih=610
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Joe K said on November 21, 2013 at 6:05 pm
Deborah,
Where do you get your news? Oh wait let me guess?
Pilot Joe
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Prospero said on November 21, 2013 at 6:08 pm
Deborah @2: Wouldn’t hide the horns and tails.
I read the editorial content of several newspapers daily and roam the net when I’m not dealing with clients. I have never seen a depiction of Shrub as Hitler. I’ve seen hundreds of the current President with a bone through his nose. And alfred E. Nemann shold be reserved for Jindal, who actually looks like the Mad Magazine icon. Personally, I despise Bush, largely because I believe that his family was involved in NAZI banking, the assassination of JFK and other nefarious chapters in American history. And Obama’s supposed lie about policies rolling over? The law grandfather’s the policies. Insurance companies chose to cancel the worthless policies instead of beef them up in minor ways to make them worth slightly more than the flimsy paper and bad English they are printed on and in, without explaining why. That is the President’s fault. Seems like a nose cutting for face spiting stupid move. Most businesse wouldn’t just cast aside captive customers that way. They’d eat the minor regulatory cost to retain the business. But not when there are GOPer pardners to please and a black President to be made to look bad. I’m sorry, bbut anybody that buys this shit is an ignoramus.
Put it this way. Say President Obama deliberately lied and gave BC/BS the greenlight on cancelling the leeches and bandaids policies that would have been canceled when the first claim was filed anyway. Anybody die? The lies about WMD and yellowcake led directly to Shock and Awe in Bagdhad (50,000 deaths of civilians immediately). I’d call that mass murder based upon outright propaganda. Then somewhere around 3000 service members dead. Beginning to see a difference between the Obama “lie” and Shrub’s campaign of mendacity? Slightly more than 1 million policies have been cancelled, and nothing is stopping those folks from getting actual coverage for aroundwhat they had been paying. Five mil is a Cheney sized lie. The alleged lie about Benghazi (though why this is important is beyond any sane person’ts figuring out) was information passed by the WH to reporters directly from the CIA. Wasn’t that Shrubco’s lame excuse about the bogus WMD claims.
Fast and Furious was a remnant of Shrubco ATF programs. The only person that claimed any of the stuff Issa the Congressional Car Thief happened was his whistleblower former ATF agent who was disgruntled over a failed promotion, actuall did the so-called “slow-walking” of guns (nobody else ever did) and has since been discredited entirel. Turns out the guy is certifiable. All of this crap comes down to a load of shibboleths and cod signifying nothing whatsoever, with a whole pile of wink wink nudge nudge racist garbage attached to it.
Deborah@37: The rightwing septic tank echo chamber.
Joe@42: The real world.
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Scout said on November 21, 2013 at 6:14 pm
I would also be interested in citation for the “Bengazi? Fast and furious? Cooked unemployment numbers? Irs? Not to mention the stunning successes of Obama care? 5 million MORE uninsured since it went into effect, or 20+ percent unemployed for young blacks!” laundry list. Even if any of it is true or has merit (pretty sure NONE of it does if this all came from Faux News) nothing mentioned compares to the horrors of the Bush reign of error. 9/11, two unfunded wars, torture, the Katrina debacle, the implosion of the economy – that stuff really did happen. All on his watch.
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coozledad said on November 21, 2013 at 6:19 pm
Fox news and its viewers are basically a puddle of reeking Calvinist shite:
http://wonkette.com/534875/foxs-john-stossel-jesus-wants-you-to-stop-giving-money-to-all-these-fake-homeless-people-like-john-stossel-again
Fuck them. They’re not worth the oxygen they suck up.
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ROGirl said on November 21, 2013 at 6:20 pm
Jeff B # 31 — the New Yorker cover wasn’t a declaration that the Obamas were terrorists. It was a depiction of the fearmongering and hysteria of Obama critics and crazies who wanted to fan the fears of undecided voters.
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Prospero said on November 21, 2013 at 6:27 pm
Scout@44: And thousands and thousands of people lost their lives, their families, their livelihoods, and their worldly possessions, based upon a deliberate tissue of deliberate lies. Tou know, when the PNAC tried to talk Clinton into blowing up Iraq for oil, they didn’t ask W to sign the letter, they asked Jeb Milquetoast. Hell, they probably would have asked Marvin before they asked W. I think when Shrub got appointed Pretzeldent he figured “I’ll show those smug bastards.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/06/darrell-issa-and-house-republicans-permanent-witch-hunt/258847/
If there were anything to all of the “Obama scandals”, Joe, don’t you think the endless and costly investiigations by Darrell “the Torch” Issa would have turned something up by now. After all, he started before the President was inaugurated the first time. He’s spent a few hundred $mil on the investigations with nothing to show for it, except that it really echoes in the GOPer cesspool. Maybe it’s because Issa is an Ay-rab. Latching onto a scandal with legs has been GOPer Grail since Milhous got caught subborning the Constitution. That’s what Monica Lewinski was all about, and why she was given a pair of kneepads as a going away present when she left Pepperdine for he internship at the WH.
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Sherri said on November 21, 2013 at 6:39 pm
Come on, people, don’t feed the right-wing persecution complex!
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coozledad said on November 21, 2013 at 6:52 pm
I thought Joe and the other congenital suckers came here for the beatdown. It’s like that frat thing where they stub cigarettes out on each other’s asses for “manhood”.
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Prospero said on November 21, 2013 at 7:11 pm
Sherri: You seem to more math and science than anybody I know. I’m two thirds through Ratner’s Star and I’m enjoying the math and science. I have no idea if DeLillo has any idea what he’s talking about. If he doesn’t it’s brilliant satire about idiot savant crackpots. If he does, I suspect the same, but there is a part I’ll never get. Sometimes it seems to make sense, like my clearly crackpot idea about Teilhard, redshift and the Theory of relativity. I’ve read all of his other books and never come across a concept I didn’t get nor even a word I had to look up. I just wondered whether you had ever read the book, and what you may have thought of it.
The hot new all-girl band is Haim, three attractive sisters that have been playing since they were little, whose mom and dad are both musicians. I like Haim, but I thought MMM-Bop was world class radio fare. Well, it was. Good as early Jackson’s records before somebody FUBARed Michael. Hanson brothers are making even better music these days, but Mmmm-bop is entirely astounding, and anybody that would rather listen to the latest tweenie queen has no soul:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHozn0YXAeE
Those boys could play. How does a little kid play Ringo fills like that.
But anyway, I’m hoping Haim is successful, because I read a RS article about them and they seem to have a good attitude (read smartass).
But my favorite all-girl ban recently is savages. It looks a little like Winona Ryder cloned, but the playing is pretty damned good and I’m open to that idea anyway, particularly the juggernaut bass player:
http://www.npr.org/event/music/246166686/sound-opinions-presents-savages-live-in-concert?utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=20131121&utm_source=Music
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paddyo' said on November 21, 2013 at 7:28 pm
Hey, a little defense here, if you please, for editorial cartoonists and professional caricaturists — which is what Susan’s Steve Brodner @17 is, as was that GREAT New Yorker cover, BTW. They are not the same as the crude and racist bullcrap “art” that vile PhotoShoppers and cut-and-paste hacks spread online and in forward-forward-forwarded emails. There is a difference, and it dates back to the famous pen-and-inkman Thomas Nast and his takedowns of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall. It’s a noble and honorable trade. Fine cartoonists have rightly portrayed Obama’s foibles, stumbles, groaners and other problems in his six years in offce, just as they did with Bush.
Frankly, I never saw any of the Hitler-et al. category of pillorying by rabid Bush-haters to which Joe refers, and certainly nothing ever approaching the level of hate spewed by the Obama-haters.
I’m just saying, don’t go lumping that shit in with what editorial cartoonists and caricaturists do. NOT the same thing, at ALL.
And hey, Nance’ — I was 56 when I had both knees replaced, one after the other, about 7 weeks apart. All went well. I had limped and gimped and made do with my chronic bad knees for decades. It started with “housemaid’s knee” in high school, perhaps partly from all the kneeling I did in the seminary. In early middle age, I took Celebrex (200mg) daily for years before deciding, OK, it’s time.
But yes, as JTMMO @6 reminds us, there is the genetic predisposition toward osteoarthritis. My dad and his mother both had gimpy knees. What’s more, I’ll be collecting the whole set of joints. Both hips have arthritis (the surgeon even offered to do them back when my knees were done in 2008; I declined, saying they weren’t bothering me enough). Well, now the right one is starting to say “Enough!,” so I’m expecting that next year, 2015 at the latest, I’ll have that hip replaced.
Hell, someday, we’ll all be bionic . . . and Joe’s wife is right: When it’s time, you will know it. Until then, no hurry.
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Dorothy said on November 21, 2013 at 7:42 pm
We’re practically twins when it comes to knees. The left one is the one I had (partially ) replaced in July. So far the arthritis is me right one is manageable/not problematic. I stopped taking Celebrex in August which ales me very happy.
We sold the house and buy a new one tomorrow. All furry members of the family are happy at a Marriott Residence Inn and so am I.
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Sherri said on November 21, 2013 at 8:11 pm
I haven’t read Ratner’s Star, Pros, so I can’t help you there.
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Dexter said on November 21, 2013 at 8:57 pm
Bowie, 2013 release
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alex said on November 21, 2013 at 9:22 pm
My partner’s big five-oh is tomorrow. His mother’s water busted upon hearing the news of JFK.
His present? The classiest e-cigarette they make. I’ve been using it tonight and have to say it has already wooed me away from commercial tobacco. My doctor told me to use it as a method of quitting — she doesn’t endorse it by any means, as nicotine is bad for you no matter how gently it’s delivered, but taking it as a vapor is way better than taking it via combustion along with a bunch of carcinogenic chemicals, and this lets you dial the strength up or down for weaning purposes. And makes it taste confectionary instead of ammoniac. Wish us luck.
It’s a very selfish present. I want his second half century to be long and healthy, and mine too so we can be there for each other.
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Dexter said on November 21, 2013 at 9:33 pm
Congratulations on switching to vapor, and happy birthday to your partner, Alex.
I know several people who have tried, but now they just use vapor when in nonsmoking areas and old school Marlboros when allowed or at home.
I remember my 50th, a long ,long time ago. A family celebration at brian stouder’s fave eatery, Don Hall’s “The Factory” in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
http://goo.gl/maps/CbQxp
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Deborah said on November 21, 2013 at 9:53 pm
I turned 50 during my honeymoon in Paris. I remember as a kid thinking that at 50 my life might as well be over. I’m 63 now and I think my life is fantastic.
Happy Birthday to your partner Alex, it really does get better and better.
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Dexter said on November 22, 2013 at 12:32 am
A honeymoon in Paris at age fifty…oh crazy kids these days! My friend Jim in New York City has a daughter who is an art school student…this past summer her friends and some family members toured Paris and London. She’s on Facebook and posted such great photos and vignettes of the trip.
When I was working limitless overtime and was taking long vacations regularly, I implored her, sweet wife, to take one trip to Europe, just to look around for a couple weeks. Travel was cheap, we had the money, but then she was afraid to fly. After I retired and our family spread out around the USA, she lost her fear of flying. Bad timing however, for a European trip. What’s today? Oh yeah, MegaMillions Friday. Paris here we come. ha.
Oh, my friend’s daughter is Arabella. Here’s her blog:
http://www.thelibraryofboojum.blogspot.com/
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