58 responses to “12 dead in Paris.”

1. 

   coozledad said on January 7, 2015 at 9:26 am

   And some asshole placed a bomb at NAACP headquarters in Colorado Springs.
   http://gawker.com/naacp-office-hit-by-ied-explosion-1677950837

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2. 

   Connie said on January 7, 2015 at 9:34 am

   And the Maryland politician who threatened his local paper for using his name has led to great entertainment: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kirby-delauter-maryland-newspaper-editorial

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3. 

   brian stouder said on January 7, 2015 at 10:04 am

   Connie – thank you for that article, which is a tremendously pleasant diversion from today’s news, and from the news in Cooz’s post

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4. 

   Heather said on January 7, 2015 at 11:16 am

   There’s already a parody Twitter account about Delauter: https://twitter.com/kirbydelauter

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5. 

   Peter said on January 7, 2015 at 11:49 am

   There’s plenty to be sad about the Charlie Hebdo murders, but I was shocked when I read that their circulation was about 30,000, and they had asked for financial support on their website to avoid going out of publication like they did during the ’80’s.

   I was in Paris over the summer and saw that mag at who knows how many news stands, and while I understand that is a wrong sample size, I couldn’t believe they only sold 30K copies.

   Maybe I’m wrong, but I thought that the French value books and periodicals more than we do – they don’t have the same crazy idiot publishers that we do – but now I’m starting to wonder.

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6. 

   coozledad said on January 7, 2015 at 12:06 pm

   Aaaand the Keyboard Commandos are back! Roger Cohen at the NYT calls it an attack on the free world, saying we “should respond ruthlessly”.

   Fuck these people already. Seems like only yesterday they were entertaining the idea of bombing France for shits and giggles.

   Let’s make many suffer for the actions of a few. It’s the shithead way, and it always works out so well.

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7. 

   Charlotte said on January 7, 2015 at 12:30 pm

   “Finally, as something of an Easter egg for the careful reader, the first letter of each paragraph spelled KIRBY DELAUTER.”

   Now that’s how you mock an asshole.

   I just got back into town and saw the Charlie Hebdo thing — horrifying. And a horrible photo popped up on Facebook of the cop being shot — can’t quite process it yet.

   So I might distract myself all day by muttering KIRBY DELAUTER instead …

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8. 

   Jerri said on January 7, 2015 at 12:45 pm

   I live in Frederick County and many of us are delighted with #kirbydelauter. He’s done real and lasting damage to this county, though, that will outlive the laughs.

   When Kirby and cronies came into office 4 years ago, they changed the county ethics law so that his construction company could bid on county contracts, then fired the building inspectors who had given his company numerous citations. They’ve sold off valuable county assets for a fraction of their worth and given huge tax breaks to developers that will leave us responsible for the next 50 years. They’ve approved large developments in rural areas without requiring any infrastructure from developers, gutted school and library funding. But his leader, Blaine Young, was defeated in November by a highly professional and competent Democratic candidate, and we’ve got hope again.

   In the meantime, KIRBY DELAUTER, all day long. I am loving it.

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9. 

   coozledad said on January 7, 2015 at 2:39 pm

   Scum.
   http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/national-review-fox-obama-paris-islamic

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10. 

    brian stouder said on January 7, 2015 at 2:56 pm

    Jonah Goldberg is yet another professional manure spreader.

    He knows that the more bullshit he spews, the more green he’ll reap

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11. 

    Sherri said on January 7, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    Republicans continue to believe that they can change reality: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/congresss-first-act-was-to-declare-war-on-math.html

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12. 

    BigHank53 said on January 7, 2015 at 3:29 pm

    Intelligent commentary on the Paris attacks, as an antidote to our talking heads losing their shit:

    http://www.juancole.com/2015/01/sharpening-contradictions-satirists.html

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13. 

    Danny said on January 7, 2015 at 3:33 pm

    Yeah, I’m with you guys. This was obviously a spontaneous “reaction” to that same amateur video that provoked the Benghazi attack.

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14. 

    Jolene said on January 7, 2015 at 3:37 pm

    John Kerry addresses the French people . . . In French.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/world/parisians-capture-overhead-footage-of-newspaper-attack/2015/01/07/54c31352-9697-11e4-8385-866293322c2f_video.html

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15. 

    Jolene said on January 7, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    Wow, Danny. You have such social finesse. We don’t hear from you for months, and then you pop in and accuse people of saying something no one has said.

    Do you have a point to make, or did you just drop in to irritate people?

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16. 

    Danny said on January 7, 2015 at 4:35 pm

    Whut? I was just agreeing with them about not jumping to conclusions (even if obvious…cough).

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17. 

    Sherri said on January 7, 2015 at 4:38 pm

    BENGHAZI!!111!!

    Thanks, Danny, I thought after the Congressional hearings couldn’t find one shred of evidence backing up any of the ridiculous claims that BENGHAZI!!11!! might die as a conservative rallying cry. Thanks for letting us know that it will never die. Remember the Alamo! Remember the Maine! Remember BENGHAZI!!!11!!

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18. 

    alex said on January 7, 2015 at 4:42 pm

    Benghazi!
    Benghazi!
    What make your big head so hard?

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19. 

    coozledad said on January 7, 2015 at 5:04 pm

    Never underestimate a fundie’s capacity for a death boner. It’s woven into the whole occultism of consuming the blood and flesh, the notion of life through death, money for fuck-all, and prepubescent ass.

    They’ll be throwing shit all over the walls for the next few months in an orgy of non-sequiturs. No matter what happened, no matter who died, these idiots will transpose another of their naive beliefs on it, and puke it up straight from their amygdalas.

    I’m beginning to wonder if any of these mopes have frontal cortexes.

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20. 

    coozledad said on January 7, 2015 at 5:20 pm

    That was quick. Those pussy French: Using law enforcement methods instead of looking for an oil rich country to invade.
    http://gawker.com/report-three-suspects-arrested-in-deadly-charlie-hebdo-1678084629

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21. 

    Dexter said on January 7, 2015 at 5:47 pm

    coozledad, what was the timeline for Iraqi oil money replenishing the American treasury for all war costs + a huge surplus? When is the money coming?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SltOy_F6ZII&list=PL2AC9DB44A3620F80

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22. 

    MichaelG said on January 7, 2015 at 5:47 pm

    That was a great picture of Chicago at the end of yesterday’s thread, Jeff.

    I saw the story of that dope in MD yesterday and thought the usual. “What are these idiots thinking when they do this shit?” Now he’s pissed at the paper but he’s the one who made his own self a laughing stock. Sad commentary, Jerri,

    There has been some talk on here over the last few days about medical costs and plans. I went in this AM for another round of Chemo. There was no co-pay. I don’t know what other people paid but I do know that that Kaiser has a number of different plans and I have seen some people fork out some pretty hefty co-pays. I also had to pick up a prescription. Cost me $1.12. The cash register displays are situated such that it is easy to read them from the pick-up line. One elderly lady had a total of $1387.30 showing for her scrips. She walked away. Another elderly lady walked away from her medicine which showed a charge of $77 and change. That’s two in ten minutes or so at one window at Kaiser. How often does this happen at Kaiser? How often across the country? How awful. Again, I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been.

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23. 

    coozledad said on January 7, 2015 at 6:45 pm

    Dexter: I don’t know if the Bush administration believed half of its bullshit, but sometimes it’s not immediately apparent what these people believe. For market religionists, they seem to have no grasp of the forces which command the distribution of energy commodities, and how since 1973, oil politics have a way of transcending national players, and making allies of such diverse groups as Unocal, Pakistan’s ISI, The Republican Party, Muammar Ghaddaffi and the Taliban.

    Russia is the only country who could come close to using “the oil weapon”. Lord knows they tried. Look at the economic shitter they’re in now.

    You don’t hear Republicans scrambling to suck Putin’s crank like you did just a few months back.

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24. 

    Charlotte said on January 7, 2015 at 7:05 pm

    Michael G — I ran my mother’s finances for a few years, and prescriptions were a huge hit. For a while we were ordering a few online through Canada (via India), then eventually found a Medicare Part D that would cover most of them, most of the way. She asked her local Walgreens which plan covered the most — because it’s a total scam, and they change the coverages every year. I can feel the retroactive fury building even as I type.

    Had a friend nearly bankrupt himself trying to help pay for his dying girlfriend’s meds — her pre-ACA crap plan had a 20% co-pay with no cap. Have another friend who can’t get on medicaid here in Montana because our GOP turned down the expansion, and she’s bankrupt, mortally ill, and costing all the rest of us more than she would if we had a sensible single-payer. Oh, and she might die because she has no money, and couldn’t afford food or housing or drugs or bandages. And a big % of Americans think that’s just fine.

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25. 

    Sherri said on January 7, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    Medicare Part D was a real scam – just a handover of taxpayer money to pharmaceutical companies. Medicare is expressly prohibited from negotiating prices on prescriptions. Free markets!!!!

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26. 

    nancy said on January 7, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    My sister was briefing me on the insanity of Part D over our Christmas visit. It sounds completely insane — only some drugs are covered, and they change every year? I had no idea.

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27. 

    LAMary said on January 7, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    Michael I’m sure Kaiser has some drugs they won’t pay for. I had Blue Shield PPO in 2014 and one drug my doc wanted me to take would have cost me nearly 500 per month. Blue shield would not cover it. I opted to try something cheaper that seems to be working fine, but the doctor is not very happy about that for some reason.

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28. 

    Jolene said on January 7, 2015 at 8:10 pm

    Nancy, you may have heard all this from your sister, but Part D doesn’t operate like original Medicare in that it simply pays a percentage of covered costs. Instead, you purchase a separate insurance plan that pays whatever it specifies for whatever drugs are covered. You can select a plan based on the meds you take regularly, but, if that changes during the year, you could find yourself with substantially higher out-of-pocket costs than you’d anticipated. And there are dozens of plans, insuring that, whatever you get, you’re left wondering if you got the best possible plan for your needs.

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29. 

    David C. said on January 7, 2015 at 8:15 pm

    I’m so tired of feeling like an ATM for the medical industry. I am acquainted with a couple of GPs and they do OK, I think what they make is pretty fair. Specialists are horribly overcompensated as far as I’m concerned. My cousin’s husband is an orthopedic surgeon. According to my uncle, he pulls down close to $1 million a year. That’s just unsustainable.

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30. 

    coozledad said on January 7, 2015 at 8:43 pm

    Someone must sacrificed an entire herd of goats to the god of headlines:
    http://gawker.com/60-minutes-steve-kroft-guzzled-champagne-from-mistress-1678071757

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31. 

    Suzanne said on January 7, 2015 at 9:33 pm

    Meds are such a crap shoot. My husband & I each take one prescription. Mine was $4 per month @ Walmart for a few years and then all of a sudden-BAM!-it went up to $20 a month (not that much, I know, but why the change?). So I had to make phone calls to the doctor, pharmacy, and do a lot of research to figure out where I could find something cheaper. My husband went round & round with doctor & pharmacy & insurance company & back again to find something that would work & not cost an arm and leg-which insurance probably wouldn’t pay for.

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32. 

    brian stouder said on January 7, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    Well, the idea of small-souled people with a grudge against this or that newspaper is – or at least was – about as American as apple pie.

    Recall what was (repeatedly, and then finally) done to Elijah Lovejoy

    http://www.altonweb.com/history/lovejoy/

    an excerpt or two

    He published a religious newspaper, The St. Louis Observer, and began to advocate the abolition of slavery. Despite the bitter feeling against him., Lovejoy persisted in arguing the fights of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom from slavery. After seeing a slave, Francis J. McIntosh, burned at the stake, his editorials became so strident against slavery that he became an object of hatred by both Southerners and slave-holders. His press was wrecked by a mob in July, 1836, and he moved to Alton in the free State of Illinois.

    And THAT move worked out…

    In Alton, Lovejoy became the Stated Clerk of the Presbytery in 1837 and the first pastor of the present College Avenue Presbyterian Church. He actively supported the organization of the Ant-slavery Society of Illinois which enraged the Alton citizens. He continued writing and publishing the Alton Observer even after three presses had been destroyed and thrown into the Mississippi River.

    and we know how it eventually ends; lots of fire, lots of gunfire, and death.

    The bastards that made the attack today were just the same as our own bastards, not so long ago. It’s not an Islamic thing, so much as a human thing. Human beings in general have a basic cruelty, that cannot be refined

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33. 

    Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 7, 2015 at 11:08 pm

    On the other hand, there’s a naked eye comet you can see just right of Orion right now. Check out http://www.skyandtelescope.com for maps and info on Comet Lovejoy.

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34. 

    Dexter said on January 8, 2015 at 3:55 am

    Yeah, this is the sort of cold that’s colder than cold, it’s penetrating all layers, it laughs at gloves and hoods and thermal boots and freezes all the way to your soul. It’s son-of-a BITCH ! cold is what it is. Here’s the only cure:
    http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174348
    “…The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
    But the queerest they ever did see
    Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
    I cremated Sam McGee….”

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35. 

    Dexter said on January 8, 2015 at 3:57 am

    Here’s Robert Service reciting his infamous poem:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZG9kP9kAiY

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36. 

    David C. said on January 8, 2015 at 5:47 am

    Comet Lovejoy isn’t quite naked eye if you live in light polluted areas like most do. It’s easy to find with binoculars though.

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37. 

    Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 8, 2015 at 7:30 am

    Even opera glasses would do it. I had to use binox first, but once I knew where it was, I could side-focus on it and see it naked eye even in my streetlit neighborhood. Worth a brief chill to see. How many naked eye comets does one get in a lifetime, anyhow? This’d be my fourth, but who knows if I’ll get a fifth? And it felt “real-er” after the recent Rosetta-Philae probe landing on a comet surface and pictures.

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38. 

    Basset said on January 8, 2015 at 7:59 am

    Five degrees in Nashville this morning, and no doubt even colder in Minnesota, where frugality is a virtue for some and an obsession for others:
    http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/01/07/minnesota-man-drives-75-pickup-for-38-years/?refer=news

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39. 

    Suzanne said on January 8, 2015 at 8:09 am

    Thank you for that link, Brian @ 32. Like I expected, my Facebook feed has had its postings of bad religion and See? See? Guns are banned in France and look what happened anyway. See?
    Makes me sad, mostly.

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40. 

    alex said on January 8, 2015 at 8:46 am

    Guns are banned in Australia too. Considering there has been only one armed act of terrorism in the whole country in decades, and virtually no domestic gun crimes to speak of at all, it makes an excellent case for the policy, but the NRA knows how to make political hay out of just about anything and its loyal dupes always fall for badly contorted logic over plain common sense.

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41. 

    Kirk said on January 8, 2015 at 10:03 am

    Tnx JeffTMMO re: comet

    Even in my heavily light-polluted inner-ring Columbus suburb, it’s so damned cold that, if it’s clear tonight, I might be able to spot it with my Bushnells.

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42. 

    Jenine said on January 8, 2015 at 10:11 am

    @Jefftmmo: thanks for the Chicago by night pic and the night sky link. Yay stargazing!

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43. 

    Judybusy said on January 8, 2015 at 10:15 am

    I heard a mere sentence about this on Tuesday on NPR. 50 killed in a terrorist attack on the Yemeni police academy.

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44. 

    Judybusy said on January 8, 2015 at 10:16 am

    Here. I give up on HTML.

    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2015-01/07/c_133902443.htm

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45. 

    Deborah said on January 8, 2015 at 10:31 am

    I bet I could see Comet Lovejoy out in Abiquiu tonight. Would love to drive out and see it, but alas, my night vision problem driving back would be a bitch. I can see stars just fine, especially if I close my right eye. My husband went back to Chicago yesterday so I can’t rely on him to drive us back from Abiquiu.

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46. 

    Jolene said on January 8, 2015 at 10:42 am

    I had heard about the bombing in Sanaa a couple times yesterday, Judybusy. On first report, I heard there were 15 victims; later, I heard 30. Now, your link says 50. Most remarkably, it says this was the worst terrorist incident since, wait for it, October of last year, when 47 were killed in a bombing. Add to that 200,000 deaths in Syria and several hundred every month in Iraq. The Middle East is, if such a thing is possible, drowning in death.

    As horrible as the bombings in Paris were, and they were horrible, it’s ordinary people in Africa and the Middle East, who are suffering the most from the various cataclysms taking place in that part of the world. There are struggles for power going on there that we can barely comprehend. In Europe, after a long history of warfare, the continent eventually sorted itself into a reasonably stable arrangement. I can only hope that something similar happens in the Middle East, but there is a long, long way to go.

    Meanwhile, the World Food Programme is running out of money to shelter and feed the millions of Syrian refugees. Help if you can.

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47. 

    alex said on January 8, 2015 at 11:43 am

    Great reading today from Roy Edroso. Maybe Danny will fly by to fling some more Margaret Sanger chestnuts in between his tirades about Benghazi.

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48. 

    4dbirds said on January 8, 2015 at 11:44 am

    I’m a fed and chose the HMO (Kaiser) for our family. I pay 200 each pay period (26). Our primary co-pay is $10.00 and specialist is 20.00. Emergency room is 75, hospitialization is $100.00. Precriptions are $7, 14, 24, 35 depending on what ‘class’ they are in. Thankfully, except for insulin, we mostly us generics. For our purposes, having a young adult child who needs lots of medical care, it was the best bargain on the Federal schedule. I’m very used to the ‘everything under one roof’ type of HMO. I was an army brat, then served in the army and also used the VA.

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49. 

    Sherri said on January 8, 2015 at 12:19 pm

    No comet joy here; we’re fogged in with an inversion that doesn’t look like it’s going to clear until the weekend, when we’ll get rain instead.

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50. 

    coozledad said on January 8, 2015 at 12:44 pm

    Danny and other Thatcher worshippers might be anti-choice because a vaginally invasive government is a strong government. Just ask one of the hundreds of thousands of orphans and abandoned children who survived the Ceaucescu regime. Too bad Bob McDonnel wasn’t able to keep on with his vaginal wanding until people got sick enough of him to drum courtmartial him and execute the sentence against a wall, instead of the two years he’s getting for being a pure scumball.

    Or it could be that, like for many of the MPs close to the Thatcher government, more kids means more places to put your dick.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elm_Guest_House_child_abuse_scandal

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51. 

    brian stouder said on January 8, 2015 at 1:59 pm

    And for those who want to insist (along with Oxy-Rush Goebbels) upon calling today’s terrorist murderers “Islamic terrorists”, all I ask is that you also label our next Pennsylvania shooter-in-the-woods a Libertarian Terrorist, and our next women’s clinic bomber a “Christian terrorist”, and our next whacko-kiddo that shoots a school to pieces a “son of a gun-worshipper”, etc etc

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52. 

    brian stouder said on January 8, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    I’m getting old.

    Picked up Shelby from her school at 8 pm last night; Flag Corps/Winter Guard practice. It was very (very) cold, and today she takes her driving test, which is the last formality before she gets her license to drive. So, out she came (at 8:15!) – and I hopped out and gave her the wheel, so we could do a practice parallel-park, which was no problem at all for her, and then the 8 mile drive home over very slick streets.

    I think she drives better than me, which is re-assuring. But, day before yesterday (seemingly) she was learning to ride her bike, and now I look upon her 10 year old sister, and see that the day after tomorrow she’ll be confidently driving me across town, too.

    PS – and as we drove across town, we got word that school was closed for today, owing to the extreme cold…but this evening’s meeting (regarding transportation cuts), held at Wayne and conducted by the superintendent, is still on…and I’ll be there, and I betcha Shelby will opt to come with me, so as to drive

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53. 

    Sherri said on January 8, 2015 at 4:30 pm

    Ah, Brian, the days are long but the years are short, I always say when it comes to parenting. As of Saturday, I will no longer be the parent of a teenager; my daughter turns 20.

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54. 

    brian stouder said on January 8, 2015 at 4:39 pm

    We have a 19 year old who hits XX in August.

    (Shelby hits 17* in July, and Chloe hits 11 in June…I detect a pattern here…!)

    *thinking Lorde, now. One thing about the young folks is, they cause me to associate events with their music, just as out-of-date music conjures the days when I had hair…!)

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55. 

    Judybusy said on January 8, 2015 at 4:44 pm

    It seems like two years ago I was holding my newly-born niece in my arms. Now she’s 21, just graduated with a teaching degree and is coming over for dinner. It’s been great to see her grow into such a wonderful young person!

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56. 

    brian stouder said on January 8, 2015 at 5:04 pm

    Judybusy – that sounds marvelous!!

    And indeed, if there’s a nobler profession than educating young folks and helping them along in their lives – I don’t know what it is

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57. 

    Deborah said on January 8, 2015 at 5:17 pm

    Well, my daughter turned 40 last Friday, she and I both are having trouble wrapping our brains around that.

    Not to be smug, but it’s 41 here this afternoon and sunny, took a 5 mile walk, of course it’s dry too. My husband sent me a text from Chicago, it’s 9 there and blizzarding.

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58. 

    LAMary said on January 8, 2015 at 5:40 pm

    My boys are 20 and 24. Seeing them grow up to be good men with a sense of what’s fair and strong work ethic as well as wonderfully creative minds has been more amazing than I every would have imagined.

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