Re: I had a cat named Snowball.

1

I've known that the elevator close door buttons don't work. That's why I always push the button for every floor just before I exit the car.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:15 AM
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Unless I have bad gas, in which case, I go with what comes natural.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:16 AM
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The elevator button thing is mostly true in buildings with multiple, dispatched elevators. I believe it's an install-time option. Interestingly but totally tangentially, elevator dispatching was one of the early successes of practical artificial intelligence methods.

Pretty much none of the crosswalk buttons in Boston are hooked up to anything. My uncle was utterly disbelieving when I told him this, and actually pulled a loose button assembly off of a signal to check, one time. In California, on the other hand, there are walk signals that will never illuminate unless you press the button. This led to some high comedy when my dad came to visit me out west, as (having heard about relatively draconian California penalties for jaywalking (in Massachusetts it isn't illegal)) he waited patiently for the walk signal for like 10 minutes at a traffic-free intersection.

I have a thermostat-related anecdote, too, but I'll save it.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:20 AM
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Push buttons, not drugs.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:21 AM
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Drugs push my buttons.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:22 AM
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Drugs make people do strange things.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:22 AM
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Is a mouse up the butt considered a placebo or the real thing?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:25 AM
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OT: Does anyone else read the webcomic Darwin Carmichael Is Going to Hell? I like the pet manticore character, as anyone would, but I really like the colors.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:25 AM
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Is "infestation" really the right word, there?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:26 AM
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I thought no elevator "close" button ever did anything, ever.

In British cities it appeared to me that traffic never stops unless you press the crosswalk button, and upon doing so traffic stops more or less immediately. Over here we have no idea whether it's having any effect and all the lights eventually change anyway, so why bother?


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:26 AM
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I thought no elevator "close" button ever did anything, ever.

Untrue! I used to work in a building where three of the four close buttons were hooked up (it was apparent, but I also checked with building maintenance), which only made the fourth more infuriating.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:28 AM
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7: If the thing you're testing is a mouse coated with a drug.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:31 AM
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Is "infestation" really the right word, there?

I would have chosen "mouse-enhanced" over "mouse-infested", but it isn't wildly wrong.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:34 AM
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"Mouse-laden"


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:36 AM
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"Immurinized"


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:36 AM
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I had a neighbor with a cat named Snowball. One day, the neighbor boy caught a chipmunk. I don't remember how he did it, but it was an impressive catch for an 8 year old using a homemade trap. The animal was unhurt. He made a home for the chipmunk using an empty gallon ice cream bucket. He carefully cut air holes in the top and stocked the bucket with grass, sticks, seeds, and a tiny water bowl. It was all very professional except that he under estimated Snowball's ability to open an ice cream bucket.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:36 AM
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15 is the best neologism I've seen in a while.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:38 AM
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"Mouseturbating"


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:39 AM
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17: If putting mice up people's butts was a medical procedure, that's what it would be called.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:41 AM
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19: Medical science is working to turn "if" into "when."


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:44 AM
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19: Putting a rabbit up your butt would be a coneyoscopy.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:44 AM
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If the rabbit dies, you've got a polyp.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:45 AM
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21: Surerly you mean "colonoconey!"


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:46 AM
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21: "Intrarectal leporinization"


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:48 AM
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6: On the bright side, there's nowhere but up for that fellow's life to go right now.

I heard a story about a farmer with a pig named Snowball once. That didn't work out so well.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:48 AM
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Mushrooms never moved me to shove mice up my arse, I must admit.

The comic linked at 8 is OK. I particularly like the shirt with Band Name on it.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:49 AM
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If the rabbit dies, you've got a polyp haremorrhoids.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:51 AM
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I see a lot of references in Pubmed to "leporine models" of disease or surgery, but "leporinized" doesn't seem to be a scientific term.

Meanwhile there's many memntions of "rabbitized" antibodies, and the authors of all the papers are careful to put "rabbitized" in quotes as if to say "there is no real word for this, but you know what I mean". Come on, if you can say "murinized", you can say "leporinized"!


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:52 AM
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Come on, if you can say "murinized", you can say "leporinized"!

It is harder to know where to put the stress with four syllables. It is clearly mur-IN-ized, but is it lep-OR-in-ized or lep-or-IN-ized?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:54 AM
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Perhaps he was trying to build a human mousipede.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:13 AM
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||

I just found out I'll be in Philly next Wed., November 17th. Anyone there other than Witt? (Lurkers, this means you!) Witt, are you around for meeting up?

|>


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:16 AM
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Give it a rest, TOS Pauly Shore.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:28 AM
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How many mouse orgasms is a rectal infestation?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:37 AM
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As you may have noticed, I'm not one of those people who gets overly concerned about the welfare of animals that aren't dogs and horses. But, rectally inserting mice is well over the line.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:49 AM
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Actually, I rather like Unfogged.


Posted by: Pauly Shore | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:57 AM
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(having heard about relatively draconian California penalties for jaywalking

California is run by the Germans?


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:02 AM
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Is get ticket if they do.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:04 AM
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Actually, come to think of it, they are run by the Germans.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:06 AM
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Austrian, not German.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:07 AM
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I believe that in Schwarzenegger's family that is considered an artificial distinction, the Jews Man keeping the Volk down.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:12 AM
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Drugs make people do strange things.
No kidding.


Posted by: Annelid Gustator | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:15 AM
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Actually, I rather like Unfogged.


Posted by: Pauly Shore | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:23 AM
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40: We all have out little geographical quirks. I've been trying to get Alsace-Lorraine recognized as part of Ireland.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:23 AM
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It is clearly mur-IN-ized, but is it lep-OR-in-ized or lep-or-IN-ized?

Clearly the stress is on the antepenult.

California is run by the Germans?

Once in Berlin I crossed the street against a red light and a little boy on the far side gazed gaping at my Gang progress and made some comment about how I was doing something bad to his mother, who assured him that yes, I was doing something bad.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:31 AM
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Once in Munich, I got threatened by a giant guy for throwing those little coasters they put under the beer mugs.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:39 AM
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Woohoo! I made it on the front page!!!


Posted by: LizSpigot | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:47 AM
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I was doing something bad to his mother

nosflow: Lecher on two continents.


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 10:08 AM
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Perhaps he was trying to build a human mousipede.

Pet peeve: as it has more than one pair of limbs per body segment, the Human Centipede should in fact be called the Human Millipede.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 10:16 AM
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Christine O'Donnell was right. Recount!


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 10:23 AM
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Once in Berlin I crossed the street against a red light and a little boy on the far side gazed gaping at my Gang progress and made some comment about how I was doing something bad to his mother, who assured him that yes, I was doing something bad.

That happened to me in Bonn. (Well, there wasn't any prompting from the kid.)

There are strong penalties in LA against jaywalking, because there are so few cops, they can't have people walking beats. The only way people in patrol cars can interact with the populace is by stopping people for trivial offenses.


Posted by: beamish | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 10:40 AM
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There are strong penalties in LA against jaywalking,

Also in surrounding suburb units, imex.


Posted by: Annelid Gustator | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 10:57 AM
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In all of southern California, in fact. It may be useful as a tool for policing, but it's also something they'll do just because they don't want you to jaywalk (it seems to be mostly kids who actually get ticketed and have to go to traffic school).


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:02 AM
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I thought that southern California was just against walking in general.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:04 AM
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I'm fairly sure I've told this story here before but I was shocked to discover (upon moving to LA) that one of the streets nearest my house had two separate walk signals, on different cycles, for the two traffic directions. So you would press the button, wait for the walk signal, cross to the tiny, concrete island in the middle of the road, and then wait through an entire cycle of traffic lights for the second walk signal so you could continue on to the opposite sidewalk.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:08 AM
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52: I was actually manhandled by a cop in Georgetown for jaywalking. I was stunned, had no idea why I was being grabbed, and so yanked myself away with a sort of crazed Norma Desmond hauteur. The cop ended up apologizing and telling me not to cross in the middle of the street anymore.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:09 AM
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Oops. That was me. Using Camino because Firefox has become a beachball-fest.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:10 AM
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54: Was there room for a Starbucks on the traffic island?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:13 AM
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55: Generally in DC they prefer to get you for jaywalking after you get hit by a car (or van).


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:22 AM
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Firefox has been routinely crashing my computers lately. Weirdly glad to hear it's been causing issues for others.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:24 AM
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OT: Give bob his due: it seems that Obama really is a complete sellout, Democratic division, to corporate interests.


Posted by: ari | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:31 AM
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Your coblogger was selling the bumpersticker two years ago.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:34 AM
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Actually, the bumper sticker was Cala's idea, which Eric and I brought to the market. We've gotten rich off of it, as you can imagine. Which is why I now vote Republican.


Posted by: ari | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:36 AM
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Do I have time to run to Home Depot for a pitch fork? Last time I bought a pitch pipe, but that wasn't right.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:39 AM
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To what are y'all referring?


Posted by: Egglant | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:43 AM
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I should warn you, I'm in an exceptionally good mood, and have hardly worried about the collapse of civilization at all today.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:44 AM
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Great, now I will be troubled by "Egglant" showing up in my autocomplete. Life used to be so simple.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:45 AM
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60: Do you mean the Catfood Commission recommendations? I do sort of like how the members of Congress who'd actually have to vote on it (assuming the recs even get approved by more of the commission than the two chairs) hate it "like the devil hates holy water."


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:47 AM
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Here. Executive summary: Obama's hand-picked commissioners suggest that we eviscerate social security, that we cut the number of federal employees, that we begin charging to enter the Smithsonian's museums, that we charge more to enter the National Parks, and that we kill Big Bird eliminate federal funding for PBS. Who needs Republicans when you have Democrats like these?


Posted by: ari | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:47 AM
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67: I'm not really concerned that any of this will become law any time soon. But it's another case of Democrats legitimating ideas that used to be associated with the right wing of the Republican party.


Posted by: ari | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:49 AM
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Ari, please check your email.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:51 AM
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I changed my mind. You need no longer check your email on my account.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:51 AM
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||
Fucking pouring rain starting just as I'm getting ready for the Frightened Rabbit concert. Between that and the Wednesdayness, I'm afraid it'll be half-empty, like last year's concert by fellow Scottish-angstish Twilight Sad. Grump grump.

Also! The recently broken-up-with lady is meeting my roommates and I at the concert, and still seems eager to IM me whenever she sees me online. Grump!

I suffer so.
|>


Posted by: x. trapnel | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:53 AM
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All their proposals limit Congress to collecting taxes on income made within the United States, reducing or eliminating taxes on American expats and revenues companies earn abroad.

A special favor for large conglomerates and the fabulously wealthy?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:53 AM
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69: Well, the commission sucked from the start, both in make up and concept and never ought to have existed, but it sounds like nearly all the commissioners hate the plan as well, and only Simpson and Bowles are into it (one Republican, one "third-way" bullshit Dem.).


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:54 AM
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69: And then there's this. There used to be all kinds of powerful, corrupting special interests, but now the only ones left are unions? WTF is he talking about


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:54 AM
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74: It's the president's commission, oudemia. You know the optics, you know the spin, you know the long-term impact on the discourse surrounding these issues.


Posted by: ari | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:57 AM
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70: Thanks, neb, but all's well.


Posted by: ari | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 11:58 AM
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Erskine Bowles has a Mekon head.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 12:06 PM
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I don't know what this is. But yes, I agree: his head looks like some combination of a melon and the Mekong Delta.


Posted by: ari | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 12:11 PM
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But it's another case of Democrats legitimating ideas that used to be associated with the right wing of the Republican party.

Which reminds me again of Diane Ravitch's critique of Waiting for "Superman" (I know it's been linked here before, but really, read it if you haven't).


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 12:12 PM
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I guess a Mekon is this, or one of these.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 12:13 PM
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81: The first. Nothing to do with John Langford.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 12:16 PM
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Zizek talks about the phenomenon referenced in the OP. Analogizes it with our "democracy."


Posted by: bave | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 12:20 PM
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OT to Bay Area people: Don't know if you're KPFA fans -- I've generally heard good things about it. If you are . . .

The entire crew of the KPFA's highly successful morning show, hosts -producer, engineer, have been FIRED by the Executive Director of the Pacifica Network, the day after Unfair Labor Practices were filed against her and Pacifica.
Pacifica executive director Arlene Engelhardt needs to hear from you. COME BY KPFA on TUESDAY at 11 AM and/or CALL HER ANY TIME at (510) 402-9880.

saveKPFA.org


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 12:54 PM
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So disappointing!

"According to cops, the mouse recovered was of the computer variety (not, as we initially reported, a pint-sized mammal). Sorry for the confusion/additional repulsion."


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 1:15 PM
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This mouse was supposed to be PINT-SIZED? That's huge.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 1:17 PM
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In fairness, it could have been one of those crazy big gaming mice or something.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 1:31 PM
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Or maybe the mouse had another mouse up its butt, like Russian dolls.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 1:35 PM
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Murussian Infesting Butt-Dolls


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 1:36 PM
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I think you'd need a mouse up the butt of a gerbil up the butt of a largish rat to get to a whole pint.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 1:36 PM
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I'd check, but Petsmart still has my photo behind the register.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 1:37 PM
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Ragerbouse, the rodent Turducken?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 1:39 PM
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90: Butturducken!


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 1:39 PM
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Wow, that's the sort of pwnage that you'd only expect to see here. My day is redeemed.


Posted by: ari | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 1:57 PM
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Unfogged is a special place.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:00 PM
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The important thing isn't who pwned who. The important thing is to be very thankful that mice are smaller than a pint and to remember, as the busy holiday season approaches, that shoving one type of animal into a bigger type of animal makes a special dinner that much more festive.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:01 PM
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88: preparing for anal birth?


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:05 PM
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I'm not even having a mouse.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:11 PM
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Wait, wait. We're going to need to re-calculate in case it was supposed to be an imperial pint.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:12 PM
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I think imperial pints are calibrated using voles.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:14 PM
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Ragerbouse makes me think of Dangermouse. I hope he wasn't used in this manner. I guess you could have an entire cartoon mouse anal turducken thing with Mickey, Pinky, The Brain, and Dangermouse, and then presumably Ri/chard Ge/re.* It isn't a pleasant thought, though.

*No, I don't suppose that many people are googling R. G. but if they are, the man has suffered enough. On the other hand if they are googling "cartoon mouse anal turducken" all bets are off.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:15 PM
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A google image search for cartoon mouse anal turducken is surprisingly varied and (rather more surprisingly) safe for work even with SafeSearch off.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:20 PM
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85: the mouse recovered was of the computer variety

Now if he was able to *operate* the mouse whilst it was lodged in his special place, that would be impressive.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:21 PM
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Well, 95% safe for work, anyhow.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:21 PM
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"The plan would overhaul the federal budget by throwing out hundreds of tax breaks for items such as capital gains and child care."

Here's my prediction: the capital gains tax breaks will survive, the child care tax breaks will not.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:22 PM
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Capital is productive, children are not.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:23 PM
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107

My cough is.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:24 PM
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108

107 to 104.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 2:25 PM
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rodent Turducken?

Inside the mouse, an Etruscan shrew. And inside the shrew—a pea-sized truffle. Exquisite!


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 3:02 PM
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109 sounds perfect for Christmas. 2 each, d'you reckon?


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 3:09 PM
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Shrews are funny-looking. My childhood cats used to murder them and bring them home as love offerings. Shrews live (and die) in Kentucky, which somehow struck me as surprising. They seemed slightly too exotic, possibly just because of their odd initial consonant cluster.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 3:21 PM
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If anyone starts vole blogging, I'm out of here.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 3:26 PM
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Heather voles are the mean ones.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 3:36 PM
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Good god, ari's right: this thing really is a pile of shit. The commentaries I've read don't do it justice.


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 3:42 PM
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They seemed slightly too exotic, possibly just because of their odd initial consonant cluster.

You wouldn't want to be a Przewalski's Gerbil in Kentucky. Blam!


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 3:45 PM
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Good god, ari's right

Day: doubly redeemed. Really, these are not words that one sees round these part often enough.


Posted by: ari | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 4:00 PM
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You wouldn't want to be a Przewalski's Gerbil in Kentucky. Blam!Pshaw!

Fixed.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 4:15 PM
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A google image search for cartoon mouse anal turducken is surprisingly varied and (rather more surprisingly) safe for work even with SafeSearch off.

I have no idea why or how, but it leads to this, which is just totally adorable. Otters! I love!

So, because you all wanted to know, the concert was, like, the bestest ever. Frightened Rabbit hasn't dethroned The Hold Steady as my favorite live band evar--even ignoring certain events in The Archives--but they're easily 2nd place, after this show and one in Park Slope two years ago or something.

On the other hand, it's really kind of awkward when a less-than-a-week-ex gf shows up, and knows no one else at the concert, and so is necessarily hanging out with / dancing with you the whole time. Yes, I know, me me me, but still. Me!

In the future, there will be such an elaborate and fully-articulated set of social conventions that the message "so, I was looking at you, and you were looking at me, and we both were totally into the band, unlike 80% of the squares here, and are also hotter, but alas, weird ex-gf situation here" can be communicated sub silentio in a way that results in email addresses being exchanged.

Or something.


Posted by: x. trapnel | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 4:34 PM
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Wait, you dance at concerts?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 4:42 PM
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I consort at dances, personally.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 4:45 PM
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Well, sort of bop along. I go to concerts with at least kinda-danceable music.


Posted by: x. trapnel | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 4:52 PM
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Lovely suggestions from the let them eat cats folks (catfood costs money, your neighbour's cats are free) Slash spending on the middle eighty percent of the population, slash taxes for the top one percent. Raises taxes for people who are in the top ten percent, but not the top one percent (mortgage deduction phase out, raising but not ending the payroll tax cap, reduction of the top income tax rate to 23%). Presumably also raise consumption taxes since if you want to get to 21% of GDP federal tax revenue while slashing taxes on the top one percent and on corporate profits you need to get it from somewhere and even on the eve of the recession with the Bush tax cuts in place it was running around 18%.

When Shock Doctrine first came out I felt it was more than a little over the top, in part because of her misunderstanding of what was going on in Poland in 1989-1990. The past year makes me think she was spot on in her general case.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 4:56 PM
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||

The White House calls the co-chairman report "only a step in the process". I agree.

1) Bowles-Simpson report
2) Lynch mob
3) ??

I swear, living thru this age makes James Buchanan look better every day. At my most charitable, I might say that Obama believes he has to compromise with bat-shit crazy murderous thugs ( and/or cannibalistic bankers, CEO's, & creditors) to save the country. Buchanan was also wrong, in the same optimistic direction. Lincoln chose to kill.

I don't make that comparison lightly. Many people will suffer and die, the next six months will be only about which people suffer and die. There is no tolerable path out of this mess.

The usual suspects will cover the Deficit Commission and the negotiations. The vast majority of the coverage will be craven and delusional, even or especially from our good guys. This will not be reversed without violence.

|>


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 5:07 PM
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I wonder, Bob -- and this isn't snarky, I genuinely do wonder -- if this is your take on the situation in the US, what do you predict for Ireland / Greece / Spain / the EU in general?


Posted by: x. trapnel | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 5:09 PM
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It does read a bit like psycho-plan, doesn't it? Best (in order to retain one's sanity) to remember that it's an utter mishmash of proposals, apparently not intended to be any sort of cohesive, er, roadmap. The somewhat irresponsible thing about having produced it is that they have to be fools if they don't know that various parties are going to seize on selected portions and attempt to run with them, citing the commission's endorsement as validation. Kind of embarrassing -- indeed, irresponsible, but I see I said that already -- from a public administration perspective to have produced it, then.

Having said all that, maybe I'll go read various commentary about it now.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 5:11 PM
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Indeed. One of the tragedies of our educational system is that so few people intuitively grasp the difference between the linguistic content of a speech act (e.g. a commission report) and its illocutionary force.


Posted by: x. trapnel | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 5:15 PM
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127

127 is making me laugh. For some reason I'm imagining you producing that sentence during a date, and your datee pausing, looking at you, and ... after a brief and grave "Indeed, indeed," bursting out laughing?

Not in a bad way!


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 5:37 PM
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128

Actually 126, it turns out.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 5:38 PM
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Just as I try to go to concerts with at least kinda-danceable music, I try to go on dates with those who'd respond to 126 with a cinematically arched eyebrow rather than a guffaw. But of course, mistakes are sometimes made!

Ok, seriously: I've had about 12 drinks in the last 6 hours. C'mon. Slack, cutting, &c.


Posted by: x. trapnel | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 5:42 PM
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125:People will suffer and die. You forgot the Baltics, which was a recent test run.

I wish I could say "more than is really necessary" but history and contingency feels like an anchor hanging from my neck.

I honestly want to read about Eisenstein instead. Carpenter can blame me for everything.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 5:54 PM
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Kevin Drum had a post a week or so ago on the non-problem that is Social Security. I've heard this numerous times, but frankly don't speak economics in the slightest, so this was the first time a pretty chart clarified the claim for me.

Is it hogwash?

Can we get serious about introducing this into the public debate about Social Security? I mean, it's also fine with me if we raise or eliminate the payroll tax cap on S.S.; I'm just not thrilled with reducing payouts or extending the retirement age.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:06 PM
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129: a cinematically arched eyebrow rather than a guffaw

Oh, nobody said there would be guffawing. More like an arched eyebrow (Indeed, indeed), and a test smile to ask: did you just hear yourself? So earnest it's downright cute. Hopefully you'd laugh too.

Slack is given, absolutely.

Where is Slack lately, anyway?


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:13 PM
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Canada, I'd guess.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:20 PM
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Parsi, no honest person thinks there's a serious problem with SS.

My guess is that the Admin people who wanted to do this expected to be greeted as liberators by Very Serious People in DC. They may have been right when they set out on this road, and they might still be right today. It's not going to be enacted, though, and Obama may well lose so much over this that only Sarah Palin can save him. Well, maybe Boehner.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:22 PM
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Who could have anticipated that Alan Simpson would be a mistake?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:28 PM
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Ok, seriously: I've had about 12 drinks in the last 6 hours. C'mon. Slack, cutting, &c.

If we cut you slack when you comment drunk when do we not cut you slack?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:36 PM
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Re: SS: I'm reminded of the classic development strategy of buying an unused historic building, fiddling about with it just enough to let the elements in, and then declaring loudly that it is beyond repair and must be razed. If a developer waits long enough, that's almost sure to become indisputably true. My (very limited) understanding of Social Security is that creating a path to long-term stability is pretty easy if we take a few steps soon, but will indeed require catastrophic change if nothing at all is done until the last possible instant.


Posted by: Rah | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:36 PM
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134.1: Okay. I was wondering, and checking. Thanks.

I'm not sure I understand 134.2. Expand?


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:38 PM
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In Canada, Slack cuts you.

I keep substituting "Hairball" for "Snowball" in the post title. It'd be a good cat name, you have to admit.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:39 PM
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I swear, living thru this age makes James Buchanan look better every day.... Buchanan was also wrong, in the same optimistic direction. Lincoln chose to kill.

bob, you sound like one of those League of the South tools who blame the Railsplitter for the War of Northern Aggression. Not a compliment.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:51 PM
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There are two ways to look at SS. In one of them Social Security is a closed system completely separate from all other government spending and revenue. From that perspective current estimates have it running into trouble in roughly thirty years, with it only being able to fund eighty percent of the benefits it is supposed to at that point. The second way of looking at it is that SS is just another bit of the budget, albeit a pertty big one. As such, it can never go bankrupt, anymore than the Pentagon or the Capitol's toilet cleaning budget. It's cost will slowly rise by about a point or point and a half of GDP over the next twenty five years and then stabilize. The Serious People suggest a bit of both. It is a closed budget on the spending side - i.e. it cannot get funds outside of SS taxes, but it's open on the revenue side - i.e. SS tax revenue can be used to fund other parts of the federal budget. As a result, it is in serious crisis that must be solved Right Now.

Liberals tend to fall into two categories on how to deal with this set of facts. One group thinks that while the Serious People are greatly overstating things, the looming Crisis of 2040 should be addressed as soon as possible by by a mix of long term benefit cuts and SS tax increases. The second group thinks that given Serious People's peculiar treatment of SS revenue and spending, agreeing to any benefit cuts is just playing a shell game aimed at reducing taxes on the rich at the cost of the middle class and that the first group are just useful idiots. I'll leave deducing my view as an exercise for the reader.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 6:53 PM
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140 The fact that Daniel Larison is a proud member of the LoS is why I can't think of him as one of the 'good' conservatives, regardless of how reasonable he may often sound on his blog.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:00 PM
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135 -- I have no doubt that some morons thought he'd be politically realistic. Getting rid of the home mortgage deduction signals the unseriousness of the effort, though. What kind of idiot thinks Congress can go for that?


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:09 PM
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141: Thanks, teraz. I'll put this in my back pocket and think about it.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:12 PM
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143: One gets the idea that he, or they, thought their task was to come up with a solution regardless of how it impacts citizens. Or indeed the general welfare.

By the by, I really want a journalist to ask one of those who propose significantly cutting the federal workforce: isn't that going to raise the unemployment rate? Isn't that just shifting the burden?


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:18 PM
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140:I think it radically diminishes the solemnity of Lincoln's decisions and the sacrifice of Union soldiers to claim that it was all about defending Fort Sumter.

"The South sent delegations to Washington and offered to pay for the federal properties and enter into a peace treaty with the United States. Lincoln rejected any negotiations with Confederate agents because the Confederacy was not a legitimate government, and that making any treaty with it would be tantamount to recognition of it as a sovereign government." ...Wiki

Whether about slavery or "union" I happen to think it was a "War of Northern Aggression". Praise be.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:24 PM
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||

So, did you guys know that in order to move, you have to put all your stuff in boxes and take it somewhere else?

Apparently you can't do the whole thing online.

(In-town only. I remain your faithful sunny SoCal correspondent.)

|>


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:29 PM
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147: You could invite Megan over. I bet she'd only too happily set your stuff on fire and toss it off the roof. Boom! No need to bring boxes into this.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:33 PM
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Hmm, think I've been laboring under a misapprehension about the post title. Is this the murder DNA cat? I assumed it referred to the cat in Stuart Little but turns out that was Snowbell. Or the TV trope (little white lies which snowball)?

--Confused in Pittsburgh.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:47 PM
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By the by, I really want a journalist to ask one of those who propose significantly cutting the federal workforce: isn't that going to raise the unemployment rate? Isn't that just shifting the burden?

Shifting the burden is exactly what they (the hardcore anti-New Dealers) aim to do. Let individuals and families sink or swim according to their own (God-given?) merits, and let prisons and workhouses take care of policing the poor and of warehousing the unrulier members of a vastly expanded permanent underclass.

(In fact, prisons are actually quite expensive to run, and at taxpayers' expense. But that's only because of modern nanny-state coddling, no doubt [e.g., three meals a day and a separate cot for each inmate]. If they were run on nineteenth-century lines, they would be cheap enough to maintain).

Why any Democrat (e.g., President Obama) would want to legitimize any of this 'we can't afford to be a modern, First World country anymore' ideology is really a bit puzzling. It hardly seems like sensible pragmatism, since it will not pay off at the polls.


Posted by: Mary Catherine | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:50 PM
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143

I have no doubt that some morons thought he'd be politically realistic. Getting rid of the home mortgage deduction signals the unseriousness of the effort, though. What kind of idiot thinks Congress can go for that?

What's so impossible about eliminating the home mortgage deduction?


Posted by: James B. Shearer | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:51 PM
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149:

I had a cat named snowball, she died, she died, mom said she was sleeping, she lied, she lied! Why oh why is my cat dead, couldn't that chrysler hit me instead?... I had a hampster named Snuffy, he died...
DIIIIIEEEED ON STAAAAAANDPIPE'S BLOOOOOOOOG


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:54 PM
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Ah, my Simpsons pop culture lacuna revealed again. However, I like all of mine much better. Simpsons references herewith considered lower than Monty Python ones.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 7:59 PM
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150.1: Correct.

Prisons are increasingly privatized, though; apparently the Arizona anti-immigration law was chiefly penned by a regional private prison outfit which sees illegal immigrants as the next profit center. That's not to say that private prisons aren't funded by government, though.

Why any Democrat (e.g., President Obama) would want to legitimize any of this 'we can't afford to be a modern, First World country anymore' ideology is really a bit puzzling.

I have no idea. Is he still under the mistaken impression that Republicans are serious people? Perhaps he thinks that the legislature is in control of itself, and doesn't need the executive branch to micromanage it.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:02 PM
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Wow, I've seen that episode fifty times and didn't realize this was a reference.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:04 PM
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I've seen that episode fifty times

You lie!


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:06 PM
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I had a cat named snowball, she died, she died,
Mom said she was sleeping, she lied, she lied!
Why oh why is my cat dead,
couldn't that chrysler hit me instead?...

I had a hampster[sic] named Snuffy, he died...
And Snuffy, I miss you more than all the others,
This song is for you, my brother


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:22 PM
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Geez do you have to talk about dead cats?


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:24 PM
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TV isn't real.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:32 PM
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I have élurothanatologorrhoea.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:34 PM
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It's not really about cats, parsimon.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:35 PM
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For some reason I keep trying (unsuccessfully) to fit the Snowball song lyrics into this format.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:38 PM
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161: Oh, I know. I'm just so seriously disgusted by this fucking presidential debt commission crap that my sense of humor has completely fled.

Time for bed. And a bit of walking away in search of peace.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:49 PM
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Perhaps this will cheer you, parsi.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 8:55 PM
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You people make me think of creepy rotents all day and then late at night I see movement in the kitchen out of the corner of my eye. Fortunately, it was only a stink bug crawling across the counter.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:00 PM
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rotents

Something chewed the hell out of that "d", Moby. I'm not saying Rodentia, but...


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:04 PM
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Stupid iTouch.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:07 PM
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Stupid iDouch, you mean.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:10 PM
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iDutch.


Posted by: Opinionated with his finger in the dike | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:23 PM
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iTouché?


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:24 PM
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170: Not unless he looks like Bieber.


Posted by: Opinionated dyke | Link to this comment | 11-10-10 9:31 PM
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I really have to stop reading the local news so that I can sleep at night.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 11-11-10 8:49 AM
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