Young love.

Mariam Charara, one of my students from last year, got married in May, and as part of their engagement-photo package, she and her fiancé Hussein, both avid Red Wings fans, took some pictures at the Joe:

As you can see from the brand, it got them named the team’s official Facebook fans of the day yesterday. The last I checked, 850 people “liked” the photo, and 89 had left comments. Eighty-eight were cheery and supportive. One wasn’t:

I don’t like. I see this as a provocation. Arabs will never integrate themselves into the american culture, believe me. When they will be numerous, Arabs will try to impose their culture to America, and when you will become aware, it will be too late. So wake up. We had the same problem in France, and now… it’s too late.

Actually, this is probably good news. One jerkoff among 90 hockey fans? The Pope himself might call that a miracle. To me, it’s a reflection of the utterly unremarkable nature of the scene; you see young women like Mariam all over the area, and all over the sports venues. When I took Kate to a Tigers game a few years ago, we sat behind a father with three daughters, each wearing a team jersey and hijab in matching colors.

And it’s too funny to imagine someone could look at a picture of a Lebanese-American woman dressed in a Red Wings jersey and blue jeans, capering in front of their arena, and draw the conclusion that Arabs are trying to impose their culture on the U.S. Because of course this is a very common sight in Beirut.

Mariam’s career goal, by the way, is to be the first hijab-wearing hockey beat writer in the NHL, and my guess is, she’ll make it.

I have about six hours of work to fit into a four-hour bag, so I’m going to have to get out of here. A few quick blogends:

From one of Sweet Juniper’s side blogs: Urchin with puppies.

Something Gawker is indispensable for: Telling me about parts of the internet I would never visit, but still want to be briefed on.

One reason to give Barack Obama a second term. There is no way Mrs. Mitt Romney will turn herself out like this.

Ta ta.

Posted at 10:12 am in Current events, Detroit life, Same ol' same ol' |
 

58 responses to “Young love.”

  1. Bitter Scribe said on September 27, 2011 at 10:17 am

    I’m just impressed that they were able to strike that pose. If I tried leaping in the air with my feet tucked under me on a stairway holding my beloved’s hand, I’d probably break my neck, and maybe hers as well.

    If this is that jerkoff’s idea of a “provocation,” he can’t be much of a hockey fan. Especially not in a town where their idea of “bravo” is throwing an octopus onto the ice.

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  2. coozledad said on September 27, 2011 at 10:30 am

    I’m with Bitter Scribe: They make a nice couple. And they’re aerodynamically stable.

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  3. Peter said on September 27, 2011 at 10:34 am

    That photo made something click in my brain – when I was growing up several of the young Jewish males in the neighborhood were sporting Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny yarmulkes – How about a Red Wings hijab? That could be hawt. You can have guys wearing them too for a Frank Zappa Sheik Yerbouti look.

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  4. nancy said on September 27, 2011 at 10:36 am

    Those steps are particularly hostile to leaping of any sort, and one of the arguments raised in favor of building a new arena is how inaccessible it is, not just to the disabled but anyone lacking the stamina of Rocky Balboa.

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  5. Kim said on September 27, 2011 at 10:39 am

    How is it that not so far into our history people forget we are a nation of immigrants? That is supposed to be our charm.

    Think I will queue up Mr. Steve Earle now: “Open my door and the world walks in.”

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  6. coozledad said on September 27, 2011 at 10:48 am

    Cultural literacy has sunk to new depths. Everyone knows you can’t be in the Klan if you’ve got sprinkles.
    http://gawker.com/5844177/ice-cream-cone-mascot-mistaken-for-a-kkk-member

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  7. deb said on September 27, 2011 at 10:51 am

    I was impressed with this photo, too — so cool! So athletic! So joyous! Only someone filled with venom could look at this photo and think, “Hmmm….ominous.”

    I have hope, though, when I talk to my kids and their friends; they are so accepting and non-judgmental. They don’t give a rip if somebody’s gay or transgender or biracial or from a different ethnic background. They’ve gone to high school with kids who are all of those things, and their reaction is: {Shrug. What the hell is the big deal?} Patrick told me the other day he thinks his generation can really make a difference in this regard. I hope he’s right. If nothing else, I hope their numbers become signficant enough to make the intolerant miserably uncomfortable.

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  8. brian stouder said on September 27, 2011 at 10:56 am

    anyone lacking the stamina of Rocky Balboa.

    Sitting up high in the (very steep) aluminum stands at Michigan International Speedway, this past August? Took me by surprise.

    edit: all this tolerance talk will only twist our troll’s tail, y’know. Yer all jus’ bein’ provocative

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  9. Julie Robinson said on September 27, 2011 at 11:01 am

    Deb, my kids are the same, and so are theirs, so there is indeed much to be hopeful about.

    Most of my family came here only four generations ago, poor farmers all. They came from Ireland, Germany, and Wales, and I can think of many unkind names they were probably called. They made this country better, and I’m sure Mariam and Hussein will too.

    Wow. Shelley O can bring it.

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  10. Sue said on September 27, 2011 at 11:55 am

    ‘We had the same problem in France, and now… it’s too late’
    Arabs ruined hockey in France?

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  11. Connie said on September 27, 2011 at 12:02 pm

    I will say the same thing about my grad student daughter’s generation. I look at her photos of group activities in her grad program and the folks she hangs out with and I have positive feelings for the future. This is a generation that is multi-racial and had gay friends in high school. This kid has just announced that she is trying out for a roller derby team. I think that means she is far hipper than I.

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  12. caliban said on September 27, 2011 at 12:08 pm

    Anybody else cringe at Mariam and Hussein putting their ankles in obvious jeopardy on those stadium steps? Still, the picture is exhilarating. Does that noxious comment mean that the commenter is from France?

    The puppy photo reminds me of the greatest urchin puppy ever,Petey.

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  13. brian stouder said on September 27, 2011 at 12:08 pm

    I think that over the past two centuries, France has had one hell of a lot more trouble with (lilly-white) Germans than they’ve ever had with any other group of people

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  14. Sue said on September 27, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    Brian wins today.

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  15. Jeff Borden said on September 27, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    I’ve taught a large number of young scarf-wearing Muslim women by now and several have been rabid sports fans. One attended class during football season wrapped in a dark blue and orange Brian Urlacher jersey, while another whose family came from the U.K. often wore her Manchester United shirt. They were extremely knowledgeable about their sports and held their own with any of the young men in class.

    Haters gotta hate, I guess, but Lord, it is so boring, so tiring, so dispiriting. I sincerely hope Connie is right and that a lot of this shit will be washed away by a rising generation comfortable with the racial, cultural and gender differences among themselves.

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  16. LAMary said on September 27, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    I think Mrs. Romney has a better chance of approaching the gorgeousness of Mrs. O’s look than say, Mrs. Santorum. Notice I say approaching, not achieving.

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  17. Mary Sheely said on September 27, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    Holy moly! Mrs. Obama looks amazing. I love the photo above too, very cute (and I pretty much loathe all things sports-related).

    Nancy, you can tell me to shut it and I will, but I have to say the little sidebar to the right –> that follows me makes me crazy. Is there a way to get it to stay at the top of the page? It’s really distracting when I’m trying to read (though I do appreciate wanting people to notice Nance’s Kickback Lounge).

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  18. adrianne said on September 27, 2011 at 1:03 pm

    That one hateful hockey fan is like the morons all over the country (led by a Hasidic guy in NYC) warning of the pending imposition of Sharia law all over the U.S. Look at Dearborn! these alarmists say. OK, let’s. Hmmm…no Sharia law here!

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  19. Sherri said on September 27, 2011 at 1:21 pm

    Young hockey fans in love! The best wedding gift my husband and I got was an hockey stick autographed by Mario Lemieux: “To Dave and Sherri, Best Wishes for a Happy Marriage, Mario Lemieux”. We lived in Pittsburgh at the time and were season ticket holders for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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  20. caliban said on September 27, 2011 at 2:07 pm

    The referee’s daughter, by the Zambonis, the band with the cheesy hockey rink Farfisa.

    http://www.myspace.com/zambonis/music/songs/the-referee-s-daughter-73907258

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  21. Peter said on September 27, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    Sue, you may be on to something.

    Christobal Huet is a star French hockey player.

    Huet was a goaltender for the Blackhawks.

    He had a habit of becoming rattled during important games, like with the Red Wings.

    He told a paper once that Red Wings fans got to him.

    Several Red Wings fans are Arab.

    THEREFORE, Arabs have ruined French Hockey.

    Hey, that logic is a hell of lot better than what you get on Fox News! Am I right Cooz?

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  22. Dorothy said on September 27, 2011 at 2:42 pm

    For Mary Sheely: When Nancy re-did the look of her website a few months ago, we all went round and round about the sliding bar on the right of the screen. She had it tweaked back then, but most of us have sort of learned to ignore it. Hang out here long enough and you’ll probably do the same.

    Looking at the picture of the happy couple here, I have to say what I think they did was this: stood on the 3rd step from the bottom, took a giant leap into the air and intended to end up on the landing. What do you guys think? They did get impressive air under their feet, that’s for sure!

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  23. Kirk said on September 27, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    I would think that the happy couple, wearing hockey gear and posing for a fanciful photo celebrating same, would be candidates for an al-Qaida fatwa as having been consumed by the great Satan.

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  24. coozledad said on September 27, 2011 at 2:49 pm

    Peter: All I can say is, they ain’t making antichrists the way they used to. You’d think Obama would see his way to cause Breitbart to melt into a flaming puddle of lard on camera…

    Uh oh.

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  25. Sue said on September 27, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    Peter, that’s just brilliant.

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  26. moe99 said on September 27, 2011 at 3:37 pm

    http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/florida-straw-poll-6496075

    Delighted to see that Charles Pierce is blogging at Esquire.

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  27. brian stouder said on September 27, 2011 at 4:20 pm

    Moe – that was a truly great link! These two goodies got me laughing out loud –

    It is not possible to run for president as a Republican these days without at some level having to become a parody of yourself. Running within a radicalized, self-contained universe with its own private, physical laws and its own private history, with its own vocabulary and syntax that has to be learned from scratch almost daily, requires an ongoing manic re-invention that can do nothing but make the candidate look ridiculous to people outside that universe. This is how we get Mitt Romney, with his $290 million, telling an audience that he doesn’t “try to define who is rich and who is not rich.” (Here’s a hint, Mitt. You’re rich. You’re filthy, stinking rich. You reek of money. You belong on a card in a Monopoly set, okay? Buy a damn monocle already.)

    and

    (Since he took his act national, Mitt’s finest moment may well have been telling Brian Mooney of The Boston Globe that, when he was doing his Mormon mission in France, he really wanted to be fighting in Vietnam. In other words, rather than pestering wine-growers in Provence, Mitt really wanted to be humping the pig across the Central Highlands. This is so stupefyingly fraudulent as to be goddamn close to immortal.)

    and wait ’til you read his sublime skewering of the governor of Texas….

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  28. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 27, 2011 at 5:02 pm

    Yeah, yeah. Show of hands – do you have a refrigerator at home? OK, then you are in the richest 8% of the world’s population.

    I’m torn by not wanting wars, yet being deeply underwhelmed by the fact that neither Mitt nor any of his seventeen sons enlisted. I’m torn by wanting single payer federal health care for reasons of competitiveness and economic vitality, even as I suspect the program would get gamed by union cream-skimmers more than even Big Pharma would siphon out of the public coffers. I’m torn by thinking an honest look at what Romneycare actually did could be a useful exercise even if (as I strongly suspect) we’d never want to repeat it “as is.” I’m torn by wanting a President who actually knows how to manage people and deployed staff, but not being sure we’ve ever had that.

    What I’m not torn by is Romney’s wealth. We’ve had inconsistent wealthy hypocrites in national leadership since George Washington & Thomas Jefferson, and George W. Bush & Barack Obama haven’t established a pattern for pauper commoners in the White House, even as guests, other than a few carefully selected honorees, and that’s just for beer or lunch at most.

    The pathetic truth is that I really, really liked the movie “Dave.” Give me a president who actually knows an accountant named Murray, and I think we could weather the coming storms just fine. Elizabeth . . . hmmmmm. OK, that makes me feel better right there.

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  29. Sue said on September 27, 2011 at 5:12 pm

    “I’m torn by wanting single payer federal health care for reasons of competitiveness and economic vitality, even as I suspect the program would get gamed by union cream-skimmers more than even Big Pharma would siphon out of the public coffers.”
    Union cream-skimmers? I don’t understand the reference. What have they done this time, or what are they about to do?

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  30. Kim said on September 27, 2011 at 5:26 pm

    Apologies to go off-topic and back to a previous topic, but did anyone hear the NPR interview this afternoon with Brian Price, the former TX prison inmate and cook who offered to prepare the condemneds’ last meal(s)? Of course the powers that be declined, even though he’d been the cook for nearly 200 last meal requests.

    Here it is. And the dude wrote a book called “Meals to Die For,” which is available on Amazon – I mean, Nance’s Kickback Lounge.

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  31. David C. said on September 27, 2011 at 6:17 pm

    My supervisor at work is a Muslim from Iraq. His family settled in Dearborn just before the first Iraq war. He is very well liked, but still I remember just after the undie bomber, some said that all Muslims should be kicked out of the country. When I would say “You mean Hyde too?”, they would look at me as if I was crazy and say something like “oh no, not him”. I don’t know if this is good news or bad.

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  32. moe99 said on September 27, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    Here I’ve been thinking you so reasonable of late Jeff tmmo. In Washington state we have a single payer health care plan that comes in the guise of worker’s comp. The state, rather than a multitude of insurance companies, administers a fund that covers all but the largest of employers, who self-insure. The unions are one influence, but so are the employers. I don’t think the unions game the system any more than the employers do.

    However, as the ACA is phased in, a lot of workers’ comp is going to be redundant. I could be out of a job eventually because of that. That is not such a bad thing.

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  33. MarkH said on September 27, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    Jeffmmo, great post @28. Thanks for putting things in perspective. “Dave”, yes, a favorite of mine as well.

    Dave C., I hear you. Has it not ever been thus?

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  34. Suzanne said on September 27, 2011 at 8:33 pm

    Dave C @31
    I hear you. Ignorance does abound. I remember the shocked look on an elderly clergyman’s widow a few months ago when the “Muslim” topic came up and I mentioned a former co-worker of mine–lovely, pleasant, doting Muslim grandmother. Shock because I, in rural Indiana, actually KNEW one of them! And she was PLEASANT?? I’ll never forget it.

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  35. Catherine said on September 27, 2011 at 8:57 pm

    Those people should be required to read Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand (purchased thru the kickback lounge).

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  36. Linda said on September 27, 2011 at 9:44 pm

    Jeff, why the thing with unions? Seriously, how are they going to “skim” a single payer system? I’m unionized, and I would be fine with a single payer system. In spite of your employment status, Moe, I’m inclined to think worker’s comp going out of biz would be o.k. As it is now, employers complain about the costs, and honest people who try to get well-deserved benefits are harassed away from getting them. When my sister, injured on the job, applied, her dr backed her claim–until WC in Ohio threatened to go through all his records for 5 years. Then, he backed off. Most dr’s in this state won’t even see anybody on a WC claim.

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  37. Dexter said on September 27, 2011 at 10:26 pm

    I’ve been to The Joe a few times and I have also seen the Red Wings on the road in Columbus. I’ve been a fan for thirty years now, and until three years ago I could watch almost all the games. My personal curse here is that I live in Ohio, and the NHL has decided I don’t need to see any Red Wings, I should watch the Columbus Blue Jackets.
    I call Time Warner, I call DISH TV, I call DirecTV, I call the NHL offices, on and on…and no matter what I do, I cannot access Red Wings games.
    Two friends subscribed to DISH-TV to get the entire “Center Ice” program, all the games everywhere, just to watch the Wings. Hundreds of dollars. Guess what? Even though they paid, the Red Wings were still blacked out here!
    As my pal Tim told me, “Dexter, my folks in Coldwater (Michigan) get the Wings on freakin’ BASIC CABLE!”
    I had to give up. I can get a full high-lite package for free on the web. That’s all I can get, except for the Versus and occasional NBC game.
    I wouldn’t whine so badly, but dammittall, they got me hooked by offering these games on FOX Sports Detroit for years, and then the fuckers pull the plug.
    Life sucks and then you die. Columbus Blue Jackets suck, too.

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  38. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 27, 2011 at 10:28 pm

    Linda, my aside as to unions being a hazard in a single payer plan is because you’ll see a big (BIG) push to make health care workers SEIU &/or public employee union members. That’s going to create pressures in the system that we already can’t manage very well in the extended care & long term care nursing fields. RN figures get gamed, low wage housekeeping staff get stiffed, owners press for profits while the organized employees press for theirs and throw unclassified employees under the bus, and back up to run over them a second time. Reality on the floor is two undereducated minimum wage folks with no benefits doing 80+% of patient care, with accompanying high turnover (even in this economy). They have no protections and no advocates, and the poor nursing home residents . . . ah. But the state forbids new permits to protect profits for owners, and the contract calls for a certain number of nurses and trained staff who are always stretched to the absolute maximum allowed by law.

    Meanwhile, I take time off to do school tours last week and this at our local earthworks, 2,000 years old but with cool Civil War and Depression era history written on the land as well. Four days, eight classes from one district’s 4th grades. I talk to the bus driver, third in three days, about how to communicate the drop-off/pick-up to the fourth driver, and ask in exasperation “why isn’t the same driver doing this each time to the site?” She smiles and shrugs and says “hey, it’s in the collective bargaining agreement. It’s all a strict rotation, by seniority. We couldn’t change it if we wanted to.”

    Likewise, I talked to a building lead counselor and the bus driver on a route with a problem child who is on the school’s and my radar screens. “Can we shift the route by a block and switch these two kids onto the adjoining bus route?” “Nah, that’s not allowed. She would file a grievance with the district if they did that.” “But we’re taking a problem kid *off* her bus and putting them on yours?” “Yeah, but then she’d have to make three extra turns. Not gonna happen. Shop steward would pitch a fit all the way to Columbus.”

    I could go on. As a contract employee, the endless conversations about how to “get” all of your sick days as well as personal days along with leave time and state holidays . . . I shrug, and move on to get the work done. Collective bargaining for public employees in Ohio defines everything from what model cell phone staff gets to how many people have to be on a shift. There is no ability to manage or adjust, it’s all about grievances and compliance and the next contract negotiation.

    It’s not that collective bargaining is bad per se, but both parties are using it as a stalking horse for the dirty work they don’t want to get on their hands. In Ohio, I really have no idea how the November vote is going to go, but don’t bet against Gov. Kasich’s bill being sustained. Lots of folk get tired of hearing about why you can’t shift fire districts in a city without union consent, or change police equipment allocations from pagers to smart phones without having to re-open the entire contract.

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  39. caliban said on September 27, 2011 at 10:47 pm

    How can anybody find anyhting to do with these Wings fans other than that they are eings fans. When I was a little kid, I thought Gaty Unger was the coolest professional athlete that ever lived. Gordie, not so much. He cheated and he revelled in cheating. I still think Gordie Howe was an asshole. I still think Gary Unger was all about how you play the game without being an asshole. That;s what I think about hockey, aside from the obvious fact that Raymond Bourke was the best that ever lived other than Brad Park. And Jean Ratelle. And Boffy Orr was the greatest that ever lived. Until Sidney Crosby. And Mario LeMieux was the greatest gentelman and greatest player until Sid the Kid came around. Other than that guy, Cam Neely was the most obvious great player that was a fine gentleman and everything good about hockey, and a true villain wrecked his career on purpose because he couldn;t play as well. Bruins rule and always will. And Redwings will hire scumbags like Ulf Samuelson. Fuck ’em.

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  40. caliban said on September 27, 2011 at 10:54 pm

    Seriously? Ulf Samuelson? To attack Cam Neely when he couldn’t play that game in a million years? What the fuck is wrong with you Loins fans? You have the best QB since Milt Plum, and damn that guy was good.

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  41. Linda said on September 27, 2011 at 10:57 pm

    Jeff, as a union public employee (yes, I’m one of the Evil Public Union Workers Destroying the World), I can give my side as to why unions are so hard-assed. In my workplace, we have tried to flexibly accommodate special demands by management for special circumstances–for instance, doing nonprofessional work when an extraordinary need demands it. Then, management wants us to do it all the time, on top of our regular work. When we object, they say, “well, there’s a precedent. So now it’s part of your job. Too bad.”

    Our librarian’s union has thrown its weight around for the benefit of the public more than once. We have used the power to grieve dangerous work situations so that we had enough security to keep the workplace safe–and middle managers, who have NO clout, have thanked us behind management’s back. Under the proposed law, that would not be possible.

    I fervently hope SB 5 is defeated. I’m near the end of my career, and it’s no skin off my nose, but if the pay and conditions in public service deteriorate, good people will leave the field and not come back. I don’t know how the vote will go either, but I can tell you that the unionized people of my workplace are much more respected than Kasich and his minions.

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  42. caliban said on September 27, 2011 at 11:07 pm

    Gordie cheated like a bastard. Does somebody actually deny this.? He cheated his ass off. Gary Unger never cheated. He played a clean game. He was a better player than Gordie Howe because he did not cheat. You can have your opinion, I’ll take barefoot hippie guy and you can take scumbag cheater. Gordie cheated like it was coming out of his ears. I played years of sports and never cheated. How is it possible that assholes cheating means dick? Anybody cheating actually means dick? We’d have to wonder about the Pats, They Cheat like its going out of style. Bag the Pats. They lie.

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  43. caliban said on September 27, 2011 at 11:11 pm

    Pats just fucking lie. They cheat and everybody knows it. They lie and who’s to say they aren’t lying they’re asses off. They lie like rugs. Beyond lying like a pack of liars. What ever, You liars.

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  44. caliban said on September 27, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    Lying like shitheels.

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  45. caliban said on September 27, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    Major league liars. Lying assholes.

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  46. caliban said on September 27, 2011 at 11:15 pm

    Liars? You liars? What a bunch of fucking liars.

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  47. nancy said on September 27, 2011 at 11:21 pm

    Time for bed, darlin’. Off you go.

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  48. joodyb said on September 28, 2011 at 12:29 am

    this is for brian, in case you didn’t see.

    http://gawker.com/5844293/lincoln-scholars-anxiously-await-bill-oreillys-take-on-the-assassination

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  49. brian stouder said on September 28, 2011 at 6:47 am

    Thanks joodyb; and wow!

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  50. David C. said on September 28, 2011 at 7:37 am

    I even hear the anti-Muslim thing coming from my dad. Any time I’m back home I hear at least one rant about the “Rag head church”. The odd thing is that what he is ranting about is a Hindu temple, not a mosque. I don’t know where this comes from, except the libertooninan web sites he spends time on. Is it OK to tell your dad to STFU?

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  51. caliban said on September 28, 2011 at 8:17 am

    ’m torn by wanting single payer federal health care for reasons of competitiveness and economic vitality, even as I suspect the program would get gamed by union cream-skimmers more than even Big Pharma would siphon out of the public coffers.

    Not even possible, Jeff. You do know about the guy that’s the goobernator of Florida, right? Presumably, the law enforcement learning curve has somewhat caught up to crooks this egregious.

    For Linda and all the librarians. Throw away your glasses, and let down your hair, you are all stunners. with beautiful brains and significant good looks. Carole Lombard in No Man of her Own? Goldie Hawn in Foul Play (a great movie, I think)? Shake out that bun. Take off those glasses. I must say, Goldie is probably the most alluring librarian in the history of movies, but how does she rate with Carole Lombard as a Blonde. And I eschew Donna Reed, because that movie just fucks up Christmas every year it is so revolting and maudlin.

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  52. coozledad said on September 28, 2011 at 8:41 am

    David C.: We get the “We’d sure love to see you, we miss you, how come you never call?” spiel, when they know damn well why we don’t. They want to gripe about blacks and Jews and how nothing’s any good anymore, and it’s liberals’ fault. These are the people who grew up under fair progressive taxation, are drawing social security, rifling the system for elective surgeries and meds, and when we visit, it’s as though they’re pissed off we’re alive.
    I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with that generation, and I never consented to make it my life’s work to figure it out. I haven’t got a minute to spare for that shit.

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  53. brian stouder said on September 28, 2011 at 8:43 am

    I had a lengthy response to Jeff’s thoughtful post about union rules and so on last night, wherein I digressed to our local school district and their buses and unions and so on (gotta utilize all the stuff I learn at the board meetings!), and THEN…

    it went away. I moved the mouse (or something) and the screen scrolled and ‘poof’; the post was gone. And then I took Nance’s advice to Pros, and went to bed.

    As for classically beautiful bookish women, I was hugely infatuated with Jeane Kirkpatrick, back in the day. (Nowadays – Samantha Power strikes me as pretty hot!)

    edit: Cooz, ain’t you heard? That black devil Obama is the Anti-Christ! (Lawrence O’Donnell was very good on this new low [so to speak] amongst our angry righty fringe)

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  54. Sue said on September 28, 2011 at 8:56 am

    caliban, based on your comment at 51 which I assume was meant respectfully, every librarian and library aide/worker on this board just put you in the weird patron category. Sorry.
    MMJeff, with state governments all over the country destroying unions with the stroke of a pen, I’m thinking you’re closer to the non-union utopia you crave. What happens when you eliminate a non-union workplace? You get a… non-union workplace. Somehow, the troublemakers and management pets and gamers are still there, because somehow, somehow they are not swept clear when management is given the ‘tools’ to get rid of them. Or if they are fired, somehow more troublemakers, management pets and gamers find their way in. Because it’s not a union work place, it’s not a non-union workplace, it’s a workplace, with a standard group of screwups who manage to work the system. Funny how that happens.
    Same group of problems, just more difficult to find someone to blame them on.

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  55. brian stouder said on September 28, 2011 at 9:08 am

    What Sue said!!

    I tried to say essentially the same thing last night, and took 6 paragraphs, and didn’t hit the point anywhere nearly as squarely as Sue just did….before the internet gods spiked the post

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  56. caliban said on September 28, 2011 at 9:33 am

    Sue, There are Liberry ladies I wouldn’t look twice at on the street, but I do find attractive in the liberry. But, sorry if you think that finding Carole Lombard and Goldie Hawn good looking women is strange. I was just commenting on a movie shibboleth. Librarians are always gorgeous. There have not been real unions since the 50’s. But I’d trust a union crook more than I’d trust a management crook. It’s an indisputable fact that CEOs earn 300 times what rank and file earn now when 30 years ago it was 30:1. What sort of class warfare shit is that?

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  57. caliban said on September 28, 2011 at 9:43 am

    Chantays on Lawrence Welk:

    http://obituarytypo.blogspot.com/2011/09/chantays-1963.html

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  58. Mustafa said on February 21, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    I too was born and raised by Arabs in an Arabic based community and I devote 99% of my time to hockey and our beloved Wings. Now if you think that my ethnic background is going to foreshadow my knowledge about American sports, you are most likely shallow minded; to keep this conversation at a calm state I will close my case. GO WINGS!

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