Derpisepholus the Oracle of Derp-phi.

The following stood out to me in Roy’s most recent piece at the Voice

Obama’s policies “may be archetypically liberal,” snarled FrontPageMag’s Daniel Greenfield, “but Obama carries his own reality with him, his own mathematics, his own history, his own dictionary and his own moral code which he adapts to the moment.”

Having never been previously acquainted with Greenfield and only vaguely with FPM, I decided to take a dive off of the boat. Inspired by the Octoplexiplese link to a hot air article titled “Study: Democrats more likely to think astrology is scientific, less likely to know Earth revolves around the sun.” Which when all is said and done is yet another example of “I am rubber, you are glue…” “It only took us 40 years to bolt 40 IMAX theatres together” levels of projection. Anyhoo let us take a look at the loon, and out of the gate comes:

“My first thought was, he lied in every word.” So began Browning’s famous poem and so began Bill O’Reilly’s interview of Obama.

Blink,,blink,,blink. Can there be enough drugs or alcohol on the planet to convince me that I do not exist in a temporal realm filled to the gills with assholes at the top end of the spectrum that actually pay a vastly more numerous batch of simpering shitheads to write such…I have no…Words escape.

I am not a big fan of poetry so I might be a liability on a quizbowl team on that account, but I presume he is referring to Elizabeth Barrett, [ed: and I would be wrong, it was actually Robert Browning] but what that has to do with “and so began…” other than to cop a veneer of sophistication and “erudition”, I can’t be bothered to cypher.

When Obama doesn’t like a question, he rephrases it. Challenged by Bill O’Reilly on the 72 percent out of wedlock birth rate among black women, he rephrased it as a question about the importance of men paying child support and taking responsibility for their children.

But he avoided the M word: marriage.

First of all, Obama should have countered by asking O’MutherFuckingTeaReilly on the out of wedlock birthrate in Whitemanistan. Fuck this asshole and the horses he rode in on. but one last point, while Obama avoided the “M word…” I guess there really is no bottom to the RacistShitHeelBarrel™

 

Comments: 184

 
 
 

It might be funny (albeit a waste of time) to edit the Obama / O’Reilly interview such that either Obama gives the answers wingnuts think he should have given, or O’Reilly is not self-appointed King of the Shit Golems, or both.

 
 

“Study: Democrats more likely to think astrology is scientific, less likely to know Earth revolves around the sun.”

Dunno if this is true — wingnuts and bonafide studies mix like oil and water, not least because they can’t or won’t read for comprehension — but if there ever was a group of people who could quickly reverse this r/d polarity, it’s our wingnuts.

Also, a few follow-up questions would quickly establish who’s blissfully unmoored. “Astrology? Scientific? Well no, it’s Satanic, to be precise, like yoga … To liberals’ credit, the earth hasn’t always revolved around the sun; six thousand years ago, both spheres were unfunished items on God’s to-do list.”

 
 

Unfinished items. “Funished” — I like it.

 
 

As I recall it was the Bush administration that openly bragged about “creating their own reality”.

 
 

Imagine the horror if we had a President who believed in astrology. Oh wait.

Reagans Follow Astrology

 
 

Thanks for the link, Frank; I missed Provider mentioning that it was a Hot Air article. That increases the likelihood that the study is selectively quoted, actively misquoted, and/or the product of only asking conservative Democrats.

I’m being specious and unfair, I know, but I will be publicly buggered like a Scientologist dwarf if I’m going to click on a Hot Air link. Can somebody with a stronger stomach than mine please tell me who perpetrated the study and whether it really says anything that even rhymes with what the Hot Air headline imputes?

And Provider, the Browning in question is in fact Robert Browning, specifically the opening line of his “The Dark Tower”. I know this because Stephen King quoted that line at least once in his Dark Tower series.

Also too, you need to provide more direct quotes, and more links, lest you leave yourself vulnerable to the Franks of the world thinking they might actually have a leg to stand on.

 
 

“With apologies to T.H.White,” wrote Yancy, “the reign of Barry Obama is no fantasy. In fact, this has been a 6 year reign of terror against Christianity, liberty, the Constitution, self responsibility, employment, and economic opportunity. I have been thinking of a new nickname for Barry to reflect his hacking away and massacre of America as she once was. Barry the Butcher has a wonderful ring to it, don’t you think?”

wow…i’m glad that not one single person i know has had their rights or their livlihoods and most importantly their freedoms butchered by obama’s reign of terror…just where is the terror ocurring besides the imaginations of the wingnuts?

 
 

Also, reading the vowel movements he had while I was polishing that last comment, I hate to admit it, but Pennis is right. Technically, the issues on which Fox News voters are not merely misinformed, but actively de-informed, are issues on which the millionaires who wholly own and operate the Republican Party (they merely own the Democratic Party) have vested interests (or, again to get all ornithological, interested investments).

 
 

bbkf asks:

just where is the terror ocurring besides the imaginations of the wingnuts?

In Plato’s world of Ideal Forms, or possibly the Deep Umbra. (Is there a difference? All my classic World of Darkness books are buried fathoms deep in my mathom-closet, so I can’t easily check.)

 
 

And the hippos were boiled in their tanks I see Pennis’ comments have already been cut off and distributed amongst the poor. Oh well, it was fnu while it lasted.

 
 

Obama is clearly responsible for the Reign of Terroir in foodie circles.

 
 

Let’s repeat the bit that even Pennis cannot dispute:

In eight of the nine questions below, Fox News placed first in the percentage of those who were misinformed (they placed second in the question on TARP). That’s a pretty high batting average for journalistic fraud. Here is a list of what Fox News viewers believe that just aint so:

91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs
72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit
72 percent believe the economy is getting worse
60 percent believe climate change is not occurring
49 percent believe income taxes have gone up
63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts
56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout
38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP
63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)

Fox so-called News viewers lead the pack in believing things that are factually not true, many of which false beliefs are the result of a long history of Republicans and other Fox so-called News employees catapulting the propaganda. I wouldn’t say, as Howard does, that the conclusion is inescapable; I just would have thought it’d take more effort than sticking one’s fingers in one’s ears, as Pennis does, and shouting “Nuh-uh!“, again as Pennis does. (Then again, maybe he’s like a duck; under the surface, where we can’t see, he’s paddling furiously to keep his denial afloat.)

You’re the typical liberal who likes to pretend he became a libersl because that’s what intelligent people are

I’m sure that flies higher than a balloon over on Hot Air, but here, it’s like saying “You’re the typical liberal who likes to pretend the sky is blue.”

 
 

here’s something a little more recent that i find amusing…

“People who only listened to NPR or watched Sunday morning talk shows or “The Daily Show” did best in the study”

 
 

In fact, this has been a 6 year reign of terror against Christianity, liberty, the Constitution, self responsibility, employment, and economic opportunity.

They just don’t make reigns of terror like they used to.

 
 

They just don’t make reigns of terror like they used to.

I know. I haven’t seen a single tumbrel go down the street.

 
 

They just don’t make reigns of terror like they used to.

I know. I haven’t seen a single tumbrel go down the street.

well, once they started outsourcing the reigns of terror…

 
 

At the Voice piece linked, Mark Levin’s listeners (a.k.a. “morons”) show up in the comments to derp and blerp about the double evil tyranny that is Barry The Butcher. It’d be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.

Also from the article:

PJ Media’s Bryan Preston shook his fist at the most fascistic liberal-fascist fascism of all — gay fascism. “At some point, a church somewhere will lose a lawsuit over gay marriage in an activist court, and then the state will feel free to crush what’s left of Christian faith in America under its boot,” cried Preston. “Go ahead and scoff. It’s coming.” He also told conservatives who do not hate homosexuals as much as he does that “without the core organization, finances, manpower and ideological support that social conservatives provide to the broadly defined Right, support which the libertarians can never provide just because the numbers aren’t there, what’s left of the Right will end up as gravel embedded in the road to serfdom.”

I would prefer that they end up as gravel embedded in the road to Surfing.

 
 

About that study … James Lindgren of Volokh conspiracy fame posted it at SSRN, a non-peer reviewed site that ranks papers (and, I believe, authors) by number of downloads. I scanned through it but didn’t look too closely. I had to go back to the top to find his methodology as I scanned right by it, not expecting such a brief statement. He cited a NSF report, Chapter 7: Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Understanding
(http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/content/chapter-7/c07.pdf) which used data from the General Social Survey. Lindgren claimes to have used the same data in his analysis. I can’t be arsed to see whether he fudged or selectively culled data favorable to his view or whether it’s totally honest. Nor can I be arsed to check his statistical analysis. Because SO WHAT? That more than 2% of Muricans believe that shit is the tragedy. The anti-science, anti-intellectual attitude that’s been growing more pervasive over the last few decades is the problem. And who is responsible for that?

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

? Isaac Asimov, 1980

Also, just for fun: http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=192451

 
 

holy fecking shit! i had no idea bronco was evil mastermind of the ‘artic’ vortex! it is true according to this mango:


All our phones, emails monitored… Doubles Down….No tyranny here

The IRS unleashed to punish… Nothing Changes…. No tyranny here

Journalist followed and hacked. Attorney Generals lie… NOTHING… No tyranny here

Pick and choosing which federal law to enforce, ignoring the “peoples’ house”… No tyranny here

Threating Congress not to change one whit of a Obamacare… Followed by 27 strokes of his pen…. No tyranny here.

Threating companies with the IRS if they lay off employees as the result of Obamacare… No tyranny here.

A hundred lies, a thousand lies, a million lies… The “artic vortex” indeed… Try to find that term in print before 2013… and with each lie a pattern of usurpations to “fundamentally change” us.

No tyranny No tyranny No tyranny… Please… Your defense of tyranny is as weak as your understanding of individual liberty… A wingnut… for God’s sake….

 
 

Little-known fact — most Yanni fans are NOT Greek-American hairbanks.

Each Cat to his or her own Bag, I say; different strokes for different folks.

 
 

I say from now on we refer to the greedy bastards not as “the one percent”, but as “the conservative elite”. This will really confuse the rubes when Rush & co. speak of those evil “elites”.

 
 

Go ahead and scoff.

OK.

I can’t be arsed to see whether he fudged or selectively culled data favorable to his view or whether it’s totally honest. Nor can I be arsed to check his statistical analysis.

Folks at blogs.discovermagazine.com found similar, but the numbers don’t quite match and has Independents highest.

 
 

Navy to deploy futuristic laser weapon for first time later this year

How long before they’ve miniaturized one to where a shark can carry it on its head?

 
 

The “artic vortex” indeed… Try to find that term in print before 2013…

How long before they’ve miniaturized one to where a shark can carry it on its head?

and the term ‘sharknado’ was not coined until 2011…more proof of obama’s tyranny!

 
 

I thought it was Archimedes who was all wet.

 
 

I thought it was Archimedes who was all wet.

I thought it was Jacques Cousteau?

 
 

[LexisNexis query] artic AND vortex
[results] no documents found

[Google search term] artic vortex

[Google help] Did you mean: I’m a moron

 
 

People confuse astronomy and astrology.

 
 

Ask ’em whether HOROSCOPES are scientific, eh?

 
 

Our resident troll picks through the detritus of wingnut news sites looking for the magic factoid that will make him right and everyone who’s ever laughed at him sorry. The wingnut is determined to find his diamond in the manure pit of ‘facts’ published by journals with academic reputations slightly to the south of the old Weekly World News, written by authors so ideologically bent that they have to screw their pants on in the morning*. And even if this wingnut could win the lottery and find an actual fact hidden in the pit of lies, half truths, slanders and deliberate misapprehensions that casts liberals in a bad light and conservatives in a good one, he’s so tainted by his tedious repetition and obvious bad judgement, no one is going to take a look at his hundredth handful of manure because this time there’s a diamond in it.

*Hat tip to Dr. Hunter S. Thompson for coining that turn of a phrase

 
 

Leftover penne alfredo with cubed chicken breast sautéed in garlic olive oil.

 
 

If any of you people is surnamed “Ylvisaker,” write it more clearly next time, for fuck’s sake. I figured it out, no thanks to you, Mrs. Y.

 
 

Austin Loomis, there are places even I will not venture and Hot Air is near the top of that list.
I also will never link to them directly. Sometimes I play a lot of inside ball because I know that my intended audience is vastly more on top of shit than garden variety idjits like Frank, and I like to give them some rope.

Lastly, I wanted to punch something, because it has been a little while, but I was constrained for time because I had to get to work. That said I certainly appreciate the input.

Now to finish reading what you goofbots had to add.

 
St. Whale Chowder of the derp respondent Chowders
 

Provider, is this what you think was racist of O’Reilly to ask the President of the United States?

No, what is racist is expecting Obama to answer for his entire race, you fuckwit.

 
 

you fuckwit.

Assumes facts not in evidence i.e. “wit.” We shall grant some lenience on “fuck” however, because BEST WORD EVAR!

 
 

WOOHOO! Switching from Comcast to DSL. 19.95 mo 40Mbps/5Mbps

WOOHOO!

 
 

I just noticed that fuckwad* Lindgren says in the abstract “representative samples” were used. So he didn’t use ALL of the data. I suspect him of selecting samples favorable to his hypothesis polemic.

*Per OBS

 
 

*Per OBS

Yes! I ARE HIGH KING OF INTERTRONICAL GRAMMARIFICATION!

 
 

Yo Snobby McSnobby – North Coast Brewing is a sponsor of the Portland Jazz Fest.* So they’re making a donation from sales of Brother Thelonious Belgian style abbey ale. I’ll buy some because Belgian style Abbey ale and also because I trust North Coast to make something good and also because they support the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz. My question is, do you know it? Should I just go ahead and buy a boatload right up front?

http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/beer-brotherThelonious.htm

*Spring Quartet: Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano, Esperanza Spalding & Leo Genovese

Tord Gustavsen Quartet

Toshiko Akiyoshi (solo piano) and the Quartet

Ahmad Jamal

Buster Williams

Dave Frishberg

Eliane Elias (I fucking LOVE her stuff)

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

Bobby Watson and James Carter

Many mroe. This is going to be FABULOUS!

 
 

I wonder if they pay our resident Derpalerpian by the post. Just browsed through 4 pages of derp in the spam folder. Thanks guys. I just cannot imagine spending so much time and effort in so futile a cause.

Shit most of the regulars, myself included spend less time here.

No, what is racist is expecting Obama to answer for his entire race, you fuckwit.

This.

 
 

That-sa gonna be fun, Pupienus.

I wanna see Joe Lovano play in that quartet. Ah well, cheers to you.

 
 

My question is, do you know it? Should I just go ahead and buy a boatload right up front?

YES!

I even have the t-shirt. Delightfully soft organic cotton of course, because I’m a satanic liberal or something.

The beer is delightful. Lots of sweet malt and toffee notes without being too sweet. YUM.

Did I mention that I have a signed print of one of the Monterey Jazz Festival posters from way back? No? Well, I do.

 
 

The beer is delightful. Lots of sweet malt and toffee notes without being too sweet. YUM.

samples welcome…

 
 

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

Ooh, Mrs. Chowder and I get to see them in Seattle. We’ve seen the band perform in NYC, can’t wait to see them again.

<brag>
I have a picture of my son and Wynton backstage before Young Chowder went onstage with the Essentially Ellington winning Roosevelt High School jazz band to perform with Wynton at Rose Hall. What a night.

And the time and effort Wynton put into ALL the kids who competed that year makes him forever a hero in my eyes.

</brag>

 
 

I have a picture of my son and Wynton backstage before Young Chowder went onstage with the Essentially Ellington winning Roosevelt High School jazz band to perform with Wynton at Rose Hall. What a night.

Congrats to your boy! What a great experience for him.

 
 

Yeah that quartet sounds good. Bobby Watsons great too.

 
 

YES!

I’ll stop by Barbur World Foods tomorrow – they ought to have it.

Also relevant to nothing much, I was looking for Dad’s Hat Rye, a Pennsylvania rye (PA was once the heart of the whisky industry in the US) I asked the clerk at my usual gin store, he said he also works for OLCC as a delivery guy. Said the big liquor store at 11th and Hawthorne stocks pretty much everything OLCC has. Might be useful to know if you’re looking for something special.

 
 

what’s left of the Right will end up as gravel embedded in the road to serfdom.

If you’re making a Road to Hell, you need some good intentions to use as paving material.

 
 

Our resident troll picks through the detritus of wingnut news sites looking for the magic factoid that will make him right and everyone who’s ever laughed at him sorry.

You dig through enough dungheaps, you’re going to find some saltpeter, right?

 
 

blak wimminz got no men but 100 kids
and obummer is the prez

WAKE UP SHEEPLE

 
 

I’ll stop by Barbur World Foods tomorrow – they ought to have it.

They stock it at my local Bi-Mart (living in Oregon has its perks). Typically sells for $6.99 a 22oz bottle. Not cheap, but worth it. It’s 9+ percent ABV, so it’s not like you’ll want to drink 5 of them. Usually…

 
 

I don’t know where this so-called study came from that claims Demonrats are more inclined to believe in astrology, but I’d venture to guess that it was pulled straight out of the ass of a badger.

You’ll never convince me that people who believe in angels and witches and are scared to death of Harry Potter movies have any grasp on any basic scientific principles–whether they involve planetary motion or how being born when certain constellations are visible has fuck-all to do with your personality or what kind of day you’re about to have–are less inclined to know which body is orbiting which. Not buying. Take that snake oil somewhere else. PROTIP: Best place to sell fucktons of snake oil: Any church, synagogue or mosque. You’re welcome.

 
 

The “artic vortex” indeed… Try to find that term in print before 2013

If only Google could digitise old books and magazines and make them available in searchable form!

 
 

If only Google could digitise old books and magazines and make them available in searchable form!

[sigh] If only. Maybe someday. I hope the make telephones wireless someday too. That’d be keen!

 
 

wow…i’m glad that not one single person i know has had their rights or their livlihoods and most importantly their freedoms butchered by obama’s reign of terror…just where is the terror ocurring besides the imaginations of the wingnuts?

The most frustrating part of listening to wingnuts scream about the sky falling is that there plenty of evil things Obama does. He’s kept up a war for 5 years, had another one going for 3, drops bombs from drones on families, spies on everyone in the world, has kept Guantanamo Bay open for 5 years…there’s a ton of ETC there.
But they have to make it about Christianity and shit. WTF?

If you subscribe to the theory that no one is free when others are oppressed, then you can’t really be all high on Obama. He’s another warmongering chickenhawk like the asshole that started both of those wars.

 
 

But tsam, from the wingnut viewpoint those are the things that Obama is doing right!

 
 

The most frustrating part of listening to wingnuts scream about the sky falling is that there plenty of evil things Obama does. He’s kept up a war for 5 years, had another one going for 3, drops bombs from drones on families, spies on everyone in the world, has kept Guantanamo Bay open for 5 years…there’s a ton of ETC there.

But they are in favor of all of that shit. The only problem they have with any of that is that they aren’t running the show and/or they aren’t making a buck off of it.

 
 

Which is why wingnuts all need a junkpunch with sledgehammer attached to a catapult. Gay marriage is tyranny, a million dead people and a few million displaced, starving and diseased–U MAD BRO?

 
 

But tsam, from the wingnut viewpoint those are the things that Obama is doing right!

Exactly. As much as I dislike O’Butcherman, he at least tried to close Guantanemo. He was thwarted at every turn by The Congress Of The Screeching Wingnuts.

 
 

But tsam, from the wingnut viewpoint those are the things that Obama is doing right!

I’m actually shocked and amazed that all the wingnut buttholes haven’t started selling themselves as doves who want these wars ending–just to oppose Obama. I seem to remember Romney trying that and got his hands smacked by the party bosses and emerging teabagger hordes.

 
 

Exactly. As much as I dislike O’Butcherman, he at least tried to close Guantanemo. He was thwarted at every turn by The Congress Of The Screeching Wingnuts.

I’m not so sure that was a sincere effort. He’s a lawyer. He knew he couldn’t try a single one of those detainees in an American court after all the coerced testimony, the utter lack of probable cause, etc. Let’s say they get sentenced to 10 years in prison–then what? He knew that wasn’t going to fly.

 
 

I liked the bit where Obama displayed his tyrannical mindset by directly paraphrasing Bush*.

* “I’m the commander — see, I don’t need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being president.”

 
 

If Obama was serious about closing Guantanamo, he would have sent those guys to The Hague to be tried in international court. He knew there wasn’t nearly enough evidence to convict any or all of them.

I do like that he’s looking at a prisoner exchange, though. That’s a step forward.

 
 

* “I’m the commander — see, I don’t need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being president.”

Obama’s apologist recoil in horror when they hear Nixon say the same thing. I’m growing quite tired of the sanctimonious speeches from war fetishists that tell me I live such a luxurious life because I don’t see what they see or know what they know. They’re really a redux of Jack Nicholson’s soliloquy in A Few Good Men.

We all know it’s a scary world out there. But I’m a hell of a lot more afraid of a drunk/distracted/stupid driver than any fanatical murderer who claims to have some sort of cause to justify bombing a building full of civilians or shooting up a mall. We don’t need to spy on everyone to stop terrorism. 9/11 could have been prevented–the intel was there before this massive security apparatus was installed.

 
 

If Obama was serious about closing Guantanamo, he would have sent those guys to The Hague to be tried in international court. He knew there wasn’t nearly enough evidence to convict any or all of them.

More like the entire wingnutosphere and even the idiotic “centric” talking heads would’ve chopped his balls off for doing something all “international law” and shit. We don’t do that kind of stuff here. We’re special, remember?

And he did actually try to shut down Guantanemo. It wasn’t just talk. He signed an executive order (TYRANNY!) to close the place, but the senate (Dem controlled, natch) blocked the funding to do that on a 90-6 vote. Fuckers.

 
 

More like the entire wingnutosphere and even the idiotic “centric” talking heads would’ve chopped his balls off for doing something all “international law” and shit. We don’t do that kind of stuff here. We’re special, remember?

I guess he did try. His behavior since sort of makes me look at him with a much more cynical eye. And yeah, I know he would have been dragged behind a pickup truck for trying to involve the authorities that hung a bunch of Nazis after WWII. Those guys are such pussies.

 
 

I am disappoint with the title of this post and its failure to mention the 10th Muse, Derpsichore.

 
 

If only Google could digitise old books and magazines and make them available in searchable form!

That person still won’t find anything until they learn to spell “arctic.”

On the astrology thing, I actually don’t doubt it. The difference was fairly slight and there are a number of people who are liberal because they’re open-minded about everything, and also new-agey types, plus ye olde conservative Christians are going to say they disbelieve astrology because it’s satanic rather than because they don’t believe it works.

 
 

until they learn to spell “arctic.”
There are the Goofle features of spelling correction and search completion. Which reminds me, has anyone freaked out lately about the liberal bias of the search-completion’s suggestions?

 
 

I’ll have to cop to some psy-ops with respect to the inspiration for the title.
While reading roys piece at the voice it came to my attention that when someone had used a variation of derp regarding some manufactured winger outrage, that it set Althouse off, and as usual, she lathered up her bunched knicker while completly missing the point.

 
 

On the astrology thing, I actually don’t doubt it. The difference was fairly slight and there are a number of people who are liberal because they’re open-minded about everything, and also new-agey types, plus ye olde conservative Christians are going to say they disbelieve astrology because it’s satanic rather than because they don’t believe it works.

Yup. The new agers think EVERYTHING cool is scientific. If they like it, they’re damn sure it has a basis in science that, like, only aliens understand just now. And I sympathize to a degree: science has barely begun upending common sense and blowin’ minds.

And I reiterate my point that unfortunately it’s no good asking people if they think astrology is scientific without asking them to clarify what they think it is. Or what science is, for that matter. (Hey, has anyone noticed what Americans think evolution is? I heard the damnedest thing at the zoo.)

The -logy suffix is appended to a wide variety of things, from biology (hard science) to numerology (pseudo-math) to scientology (space cult) and on and on. Sexology is scientific, but sounds like a joke, or the name of a funk album. Survey says?…

Astrology and numerology are big tents. The ideas in the tents don’t form coherent wholes. Numerological fallacies are kinda neat because they can pop up in confused minds, independently of traditions. Any level of math knowledge is sufficient to spawn numerology: if you can count, but can’t add, you can decide you see a pattern and make spurious connections to reality and you’re off. People who can do sums and multiply can choose series of operations, decide what’s noise and what’s significant … the only limit is their imagination. I kinda admire these impulses, I just wish they could be channeled better.

People know that the moon affects tides and effluxions of the ladyparts, common sense suggests the stars would do stuff to us, too. And they do, but astrology gets it wrong, and common sense is arguably useless in matters cosmic … Look, if Americans believe that some subset of astrology (nobody buys it all, there’s no big picture) is “scientific” I hope they ARE liberals. I’ll take ’em all. If they’re open-minded reasonable people they can learn.

 
 

The one upside of Obama, which I’ve actually seen pointed out somewhere recently (it might’ve been in driftglass’ comments, or somewhere on St. Chuck Pierce’s Esquire politics blog), is that his Presidency provides a little more evidence for the proposition that wingnuts would’ve freaked out over any President with a D after his or her name, whereas if Hillary had gotten the nomination, and then steamrolled Senator Grumpypants and Half-Governor Moose-Scat-for-Brains the way she steamrolled Rick the Lick, the inevitable wingnut freakout might’ve been chalked up to her being a Clinton.

The biggest downside is that, if he had finished out his Senate term, he might’ve learned what he needed to know: that Republicans on the national level aren’t like the go-along-to-get-along ones in Cook County, that in fact they are no more interested in negotiating with him than an oncologist is in negotiating with a tumor. Combine that with his being the first literally black President and it was probably inevitable that he’d spend his entire first term posing for the dictionary illustration of Robert Frost’s definition of a liberal as “A man too broad-minded to take his own side in a quarrel.” (And that was before the Secret Boys had that private meeting that followed his first inaugural, the one St. Bill Hicks speculated they have with any President who looks like he might get us out of the secret police game and restore the Constitution from its coming-up-on-67-year coma, the one where they show him the footage taken by the camera that was looking over Eddie Blake’s shoulder from the grassy knoll.)

 
 

Knickers…

I had about 20 minutes to get across town to work on some sketchy roads after i hit publish. So it was kinda a dine and dash number. Fortunately my acumen related to dealing with momentary loss of traction of both wheels on a road bike has returned. As well as my sixth sense about black ice.

I also have no trouble taking command of a lane.
“You want to pass me take the other.”

If there was a shittyer winter in which to ride a bike with inch wide tires, I do not recall one. And if there was I was twenty years ago an I still was in possesion of binocular vision.

At least five rides into town in sub zero ( -9 being the lowest) and at least 5 in entering sub 35 with windchill figured in.

Funny that the worst was a ride home from work when it was 16 degrees, and the ride home south but into gusts of 25 mph winds, with a sustained 15-20.

I think when I got home after that one, I was all JFC, and downloaded a windchill app which I have yet to use.

In any event we are only four weeks shy of spring and I am slowly getting back in shape. Managed a 20 to 23 mph burst to beat a light this morning.

 
Smarter Than Your Average Bear
 

Actually it is Robert Browning, Elizabeth’s spouse. It’s from the poem – amazing he didn’t continue the verse – seems like it would have suited his venality just fine. I doubt his avid readers would know whence the quote arose

“Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came”

My first thought was, he lied in every word,
That hoary cripple, with malicious eye
Askance to watch the working of his lie
On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford
Suppression of the glee, that pursed and scored
Its edge, at one more victim gained thereby.

 
Smarter Than Your Average Bear
 

They just don’t make reigns of terror like they used to.

Ah the creaking of the tumbrel’s wheels, the snicking of Dr. Guillotine’s blade, the roar of the crowd and the smell of fresh spilt blood in the air. Ah me the good old days.

 
 

Thank you sttab. But you should note the correction. And the hat tip to Austin Loomis did not take, dodgy connection at the time.

But I do appreciate the input.
🙂 Seriously.

 
Denver Employees Retirement Plan
 

As we clearly state in our website, “DERP makes no guarantees pertaining to the information contained within it.”

 
 

I presume he is referring to Elizabeth Barrett, [ed: and I would be wrong, it was actually Robert Browning]

Poetical wimps, both of ’em.

I developed this bad boy and that’s real poetry to the NRA. Compared to my genius, Mikhail K. was a over-rated hack. He was also a commie. Nuff said.

 
 

Austin Loomis said,
February 18, 2014 at 17:35

bbkf asks:

just where is the terror ocurring besides the imaginations of the wingnuts?

In Plato’s world of Ideal Forms, or possibly the Deep Umbra. (Is there a difference? All my classic World of Darkness books are buried fathoms deep in my mathom-closet, so I can’t easily check.)

Where would you like your Internets trophy delievered, sir?

 
 

@CRA
I take your point, that open mindedness can take people to some pretty weird places, and I’m sure scientology, with its stable of looney celebrities and (not very) science fiction writers has liberals in the midst. But then the study DOES say Democrats, not liberals, so….?

But any attempt to convince me that liberals are more prone believe in mystical bullshit like Christianity and shit will be met with a Colbert eyebrow and a demand for more evidence than asking a bunch of dumb bunnies if they think Astrology Isreal. I’d be taking an awful close look at how the subjects came to define themselves as repubs or dems. Oddly enough, I just happened to see a study this morning which insisted that Pandora knows you’re conservative if you listen to Yanni or Dolly Parton. c’mon now.

 
 

(riffing on Austin L.)

Derp Umbra works as a band name.

 
 

But then the study DOES say Democrats, not liberals, so….?

I haven’t looked at the study. For my purposes, it doesn’t matter. I have learned to write as if a minimum of documentation is reasonably required. The method isn’t for everyone, but I’m going with it.

I’m sure scientology, with its stable of looney celebrities and (not very) science fiction writers has liberals in the midst.

Oh sure. I like Beck, for example — he’s a talented guy, close to my musical heart in several ways, definitely not all ways — but the poor bastard seems to have been raised Scientologist and worse, he won’t denounce it (unless I’m under-informed). I shudder to give me money.

And when I lived in L.A. (Los Angeles, not Lower Alabama) I met some otherwise fine people who were Scientologists.

But any attempt to convince me that liberals are more prone believe in mystical bullshit like Christianity and shit will be met with a Colbert eyebrow and a demand for more evidence than asking a bunch of dumb bunnies if they think Astrology Isreal.

Abso-tively, dude. I don’t care too much about self-identified thises or thatses. Scientists tend to be liberal, and I don’t mean people with specific B.S. degrees seem that way. They are, the actual working scientists. The majority of them. Not angels or whatever, but fallible people that have some experience grinding away at the methods that make for knowledge.

 
 

I don’t think of “mystical” as pejorative. It’s a sense of things that counterbalances the verbal, the symbolic, the weakness of the mind.

Left undiluted, it’s inappropriate it situations. I mean what are you gonna decide to do, keep sitting there at one?

 
 

… inappropriate IN situations.

 
 

fallible people that have some experience grinding away at the methods that make for knowledge

oh yes–well put. And in defense of people, it is extremely difficult to separate fact from fiction these days–maybe more than ever. There was a point in history when the profession of journalism was more credible than a WWE wrestling match. The amount of omission, yellow journalism, beating dead horses and directly challenging actual science with stuff like creationism on news channels these days make it near impossible to keep a clear perspective on humanity. Look how many people honestly think that everywhere from Turkey to India is all Arabs, all Muslims, and crawling bloodthirsty crazy pants jihadist fanatics…its fucking crazy

 
 

I tend to think of mystical as a pejorative, just because asking someone to have faith in something that sensory perception cannot fathom has a strong tendency to be very dangerous. I have no problem with someone choosing to have faith in something, as long as they use scientific knowledge and reality to keep perspective. I know this isn’t a very intellectual argument, but I have faith in what I’m saying…

 
 

But then again, there is a mystical element to a great song, a great art piece…so I get what you’re saying.

 
 

But then again, there is a mystical element to a great song, a great art piece…so I get what you’re saying.

Yeah, and it matters alot to us. But also we can apply slippery judgments to matters that affect people, so long as we don’t cause harm doing so.

There’s a definition of “ideologue” I won’t bother looking up, that makes ’em sound awful, because their ideas come ahead of people. That’s lack of perspective that matters. People suffer, and somebody says “It’s OK because capitalism [or communism or Jesus or what have you].” The fake tree is watered with real blood.

I dunno what’s what, because sometimes in that sort of all-too-familiar situation, it’s the so-called mystic that says “no, something’s wrong here.” But we lack the means to explain. The symbols don’t do the job, just like they can’t describe stuff, really, because that’s not what they’re for.

 
 

Now that you point it out, there’s a mystical element to ethics and compassion. In nature you don’t find a ton of compassion–in fact the animal world is filled with cruelty. Part of life for them. That many among us care for the welfare of people we don’t even know shows a belief in something that doesn’t have a bunch of scientific support. Science says we all have built in survival instincts that make us competitive and driven to acquisition of resources, not caring much for the welfare of others, at least outside of our small tribal circles.

ok, I’ll stop littering up the thread with my little thought experiment or whatever the hell I’m doing.

 
 

Take gender, sex. The realities defy description (not desire). The binaries are for convenience of language, categorization, social control. They’re not primarily descriptive.

There have been advances in discussing such matters. I imagine some communicative subtleties have been obliterated, too, in the cultural extinctions ceaselessly sweeping across the species. Obliterated many times over, perhaps, and reinvented at real cost to people, by nature ineffable, typically diminished by these patterns of thought? Not only lessened, but augmented, as in an unholy pact.

 
 

I’ll think about yer last bit tomorrow, tsam. Good night.

 
 

That many among us care for the welfare of people we don’t even know shows a belief in something that doesn’t have a bunch of scientific support.

Heard something on NPR a couple weeks back…Radio Lab?…wherein they noted that some old silverback gorillas, after they’d had their run and been tossed out by the new king of the heap, would go make friends with the females, grooming them and being nice.

Turns out the girls, after being used by the dominant male, would go to the now-friendly old silverback and give it away. Turns out that chicks dig socialized males, who knew?

What I’m saying is we’ve found it advantageous, evolutionarily speaking, to behave socially in a way that isn’t always the straight line toughest wins sort of bull elk behavior. Your altruism is intended to get your genes propagated.

 
 

So Bill O’Reilly actually asked Barack Obama, on teevee, about the “out of wedlock birth rate” (aside: I always get a laugh out of the word “wedlock”). A sadly missed opportunity! Obama should have counter-asked, “Have you, Mr. O’Reilly, ever had sexual intercourse out of wedlock? (pause) With a woman?”

 
 

You won’t find a Wikipedia reference to the “artic vortex”, but the first entry for “polar vortex” dates back to January 2005. The current article mentions that the concept itself dates back to 1853.

Damn Obama and his TARDIS.

I wouldn’t be surprised if more Democrats than Republicans think astrology is scientific. That’s because most Republicans who take it seriously think that it is the work of Satan, which makes it magic.

I’m more concerned about the studies that show that far more Republicans think that creationism is scientific

 
 

Altruism is an evolved trait. The religious funnymentalists screech that morals come from doG but that’s nonsense, our morality is evolved. Cooperation, it turns out, is good for the gene (in the sense of Dawkins’ selfish gene).

As for “because capitalism” and such you must watch this Dan Dennett TED talk. http://new.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_on_dangerous_memes

 
 

Because he NEVER edits the video to make it seem they are saying the exact opposite of what they are actually saying?

 
 

My philosophical standpoint re altruism is always :
Hoomin beans have two contradictory impulses – co-operation and competition. Which one will be made manifest is determined by environment – family, education, value systems in culture etc etc. Capitalism pushes the ideology of the individual as paramount and in competition with others, whereas socialism emphasizes the value of the group over the individual, hence co-operation wins through. Alternatively, capitalism’s emphasis on the individual leads to the individual’s rights being regarded as sacrosanct e.g. Bill of Rights, whereas socialism says the society’s rights outweigh the individual’s. Either is open to abuse taken to extremes.
I know which one I personally prefer.

 
 

“The new ACORN” — says it all, really.

But why do wingnuts need a new one? They seem happy defunding the old one.

How timely, given that we’re discussing partisans’ nonsensical beliefs (emphasis mine):

ACORN, which was dissolved in 2010, could not be reached for comment.

After the 2012 presidential election, Public Policy Polling found that 49 percent of Republicans believed that ACORN had stolen the election for Barack Obama, a drop from 52 percent who believed ACORN had stolen the 2008 election for Obama. “This is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn’t exist anymore,” PPP determined. Nearly eight months after that poll was released, ACORN still does not exist.

 
 

In today’s youth minister child porn news, http://www.news10.net/story/news/local/stockton/2014/02/18/youth-minister-child-porn/5571621/

No one could have imagined.

 
 

Aw, man. I made sure to link my ACORN-related post to the thread topic, and now it’s gone out with the garbage?

So be it.

 
 

hey pup…thought about you while listening to mpr’s coverage of the st. paul/mpls archdiocese and their continued quagmire and coverups…as an added bonus, the page is interactive!

 
 

When Obama doesn’t like a question, he rephrases it.

Who does that, other than every politician who’s ever won an election?

 
 

this just in…don surber, still a dipshit:

He has no respect for the Constitution because he has no respect for the nation. He considers his voters useful idiots and Republicans enemies of his state. People think communism is about spread the wealth. No. It is about gathering power for a very small clique of elites. America is in trouble and there is no Ronald Reagan to save her. It is up to us.

Hey liberals, have fun when President Palin suspends the whole stupid law on January 20, 2017.

 
 

He considers his voters useful idiots and Republicans enemies of his state.

Just because everyone says they’re enemies of the state doesn’t mean they’re not enemies of the state.

 
 

Whitemanistan.

I saw that. His (Happy Valley, TN) flockees are presumably citizens thereof, but the threat of miscegenation looms large! From the comments:

[Ruffdogg21] this guy is racist and preaching his personal opinions.?

[zombiekiller117 replies] You don’t DENY White Genocide you just want to argue WHO is responsible. Silly Anti-White

 
 

Surber puts the ‘ass’ in arguing from assertion.

 
 

He has no respect for the Constitution because he has no respect for the nation.

Pssst, Don Bob – you got that backwards.

It is about gathering power for a very small clique of elites.
So, the Koch brothers are communist?

Hey liberals, have fun when President Palin suspends the whole stupid law on January 20, 2017.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 
 

so after following pup’s link, i saw this headline:

Fox legal analyst: Abortion and video games may have made woman into Satanic killer

their “legal analyst” is just a big a whackdoodle as their “psychiatric analyst”

and this comment works better if you actually do “rabbit ears” while reading it…

 
 

Fox legal analyst: Abortion and video games may have made woman into Satanic killer

I dunno, but I been told — big leg woman aint got no soul

 
 

I’m sure that before Angry Birds and an abortion she was perfectly well adjusted. Also, this totally the purview of legal analysis.

 
 

Fox legal analyst: Abortion and video games may have made woman into Satanic killer

There getting a lot of mileage out of the word “may” there. In fact every freaking word in that sentence could use those quotes:

“Fox” “legal” “analyst”: “Abortion” “and” “video” “games” “may” “have” “made” “woman” “into” “Satanic” “killer”

I feel that presentation more accurately conveys the reliability of that information.

 
 

my fingers are tired!

 
 

here’s an actual quote from the “legal” “analyst”:

“She lived in the North Pole — that’s right, North Pole, Alaska — up until the time she was 5,” he remarked. “They don’t have that many missing people in North Pole, Alaska. The officials in the county in Pennsylvania are saying we haven’t substantiated anything as of yet. And the fellow that runs the Satanic cults across the United States says she’s not a registered member of this. Maybe she’s part of some underground cult.”

so maybe it’s santa’s fault also?

 
 

And the fellow that runs the Satanic cults across the United States says she’s not a registered member of this.

Say what you will about old Clarence, but he keeps good files and he’s always happy to help researchers.

 
 

And the fellow that runs the Satanic cults across the United States

United Devil Worshipers of America Local 666?

 
 

Who knew that someone crazy enough to kill someone that they contacted through craigslist might also be crazy enough to lie to the police?

 
 

Pup’s link perfectly distills the meaning of whitemanistan™.

Had a lovely lunch with a couple of friends, talked some baseball, ladies, the wheel I a

m building for one of them. Got a bunch of hugs from friends and former co-workers…In other words enjoyed a day of proper living.

Check the spam folder affter watching a couple of venture bros and Archer episoded and see that he who has no life continues to tilt at windmills. Dont worry Derpenstien, I dont bother reading any of your screechings, just appreciative of the magnanimity of your love.

 
The Dark God of Time, AKA DA®
 

United Devil Worshipers of America Local 666?

They’re almost as famous as Unión de Los Satanistas Españoles # 13 Baphomet.

http://i0.wp.com/vigilantcitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/great_he-goat-e1307730966553.jpg?zoom=1.5&resize=500%2C152

 
 

as an added bonus, the page is interactive!

I see what you did there.

/chuckling

 
 

my fingers are tired!

bbkf: Sure, sure, go ahead and pretend this has something to do with the number of quotation marks you had to key. Those of us with Durdy Mines suspect Something Else is the real reason …..

 
 

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/19/georgia-house-votes-to-allow-weapons-in-bars-and-churches/

I wouldn’t worry so much about the churches as the church parking lots after services.

 
 

Heh:

Nobody seemed to mind when an Iowa newspaper dropped Brent Bozell’s syndicated column from its pages last weekend.

The Quad-City Times announced Saturday that it will no longer run the column after it was revealed that the cantankerous conservative watchdog actually had a henchman write it for him.

On Wednesday, the newspaper followed up with a note on the response from its readers.

“We did not receive one letter or comment protesting our decision or defending Bozell,” the editorial board wrote.

Many readers did, however, heed the paper’s call to submit suggestions for a conservative columnist to replace Bozell.

The Times said it’s narrowed down the submissions to five nominees: Michael Gerson, Walter Williams, Kathleen Parker, Megan McCardle and Charles C.W. Cooke.

 
 

Many readers did, however, heed the paper’s call to submit suggestions for a conservative columnist to replace Bozell.

They can save a lot of money by just having a goose shit on the paper.

 
 

They can save a lot of money by just having a goose shit on the paper.

It might be a wash if you factor in the time and effort they’ll have to spend to convince people the vast increase in quality is not caused by a vast increase in cost. Or they could keep their mouths shut about the goose and just pocket the difference.

 
 

Imma wondering given recent interactions whether i might have a bit of the kavorka going on. Now i have pretty much given up on the ladies, have never been a bang and run type, but just returned from the adult beverage store wherin the youngster who carded me gasped audibly. I explained that I had been carded for a pack of cigs at 40. She said with a smile something about good for getting the ladies…continued..

 
 

Then the day began with breakfast and a waitress, my favorite and age appropriate target greeting me with a hand on the shoulder though she was not serving me. More of a happy to see you kind of gesture. Then there was the ice princess at the bank to whom I was immediately attracted who greeted me with a smile as i entered to cash my meager paycheck and pulled the next window sign…more

 
 

Then I think that she initiated the flirtation, midway through the transaction, I get s text from the guy who sold me the road bike, my current sled, if you will, telling me that he witnessed me flipping off a motorist who, well deserved the lengthy bird. This resulted in me doubling over in laughter and she inquired about the genisis of hilarity, I explained, she replied, ” busted” smiles were exchanged and on my way I went….more

 
 

We were in a college-town somewhere having dinner and the Captain, who was around my age, said “You realize that at our age we’re invisible to college-aged women”.

I said “The problem is: I was invisible to them when I was in college.”

 
 

I look a lot younger than I am (still occasionally get carded), and I’m still mostly invisible. Good thing I’m already married.

 
 

Next I run into a truck unloading a truckload of cats, kittens and dogs being delivered to a local spay and neuter joint. I love animals, have the day off, offer to help (which I know will be declined) but do what I can, offering gentle comfort to the caged beasts. Once I realise there names are on the cages I start using them…Did i mention that thid is my Saturday morning and it is yet before 10 am…more

 
 

I said “The problem is: I was invisible to them when I was in college.”

Ha, no shit, man.

 
 

My take, Provider, is that you can find a girlfriend if you so choose … one that’s not spooked by your socio-economic status, but that’s just saying one that has a bit of imagination, discernment. Better you, than a nebbish with a better bank balance … all this assumes that your “never been a bang-n-run” comment is insufficiently descriptive, i.e. that’s not all you’re willing to consider/reject at this juncture.

I’m gonna reject at once the possibility that you’re imagining stuff. I have not pegged you as the type of fellow who wanders about in a giddy haze because he imagines ladies are flirting with him.

 
 

After I forget to buy a c- clamp because destractions related to topping off minutes card for my phone is unavailable at the store in question I make my way home. As the normal sidewalk route is jammed with snow and ice, I have to take the four lane, which happens to pass a pet store with three cats in house. Having watched a bunch I could not lay my hands on I got some feline loving in with Maurice and Sally. Both chorpers…mayby more

 
 

Chirpers…

Guys, litteraly phoning this in and dealing with constraints therein. I can type about 50 wpm, but not on the phone.

That said, today has been a great day, this week has been a great week, this month…same, even mskikimg it to work on the days of sub

 
 

Imma wondering given recent interactions whether i might have a bit of the kavorka going on.

Some days you’re just “on”.

 
 

Guys, litteraly phoning this in and dealing with constraints therein. I can type about 50 wpm, but not on the phone.

I have problems typing on the phone, being a guy with meathook hands.

 
 

20 degree windchill rides on sketchy surfaces.
After more than a decade of less than optimal luck my hour might be at hand…I remain open to whatever the universe wants to throw my way.

CRA, thanks for the kindness. I hope we get to meet in meatspace sometime.

Oh yeah, there was also a comely lass at the petstore.

Oh and to follow up on a previous conversation with the B to the four, the five and change in question was not in possesion of eyes of green, if I had to (given their astonishing nature) suggest an almost silver aspect.

 
 

Bbbb is afoot. Weeee.

Also too graced with meathooks.

 
 

Apparently for the moment have grabbed the sbucks signal across the way.

ping.

tenuous at the best of times…

 
 

Graced With Meathooks would be a band I’d totally play in.

Oh, who am I kidding, I’d play in any band by any name. I’m a hoor that way.

 
 

We do have the intertrons,
and while graced with meathooks might not assemble in a singular room we might be able to assemble a recording.

I am calling the bass, and drums if necessary…

 
 

Perhaps an anti-troll anthem could be composed for Graced With Meathooks to play really loudly.

 
 

obs i’ll start working on the lyrics and buy a lottery ticket

 
 

a blues dirge in the key of a or d or e your choice.

 
 

Well I guess that leaves me with cowbell, maybe backing vocals. Unless we do two bass tracks like on Walk on the Wild Side. But then El Manq would kick ass on doghouse and I’d still be out of a job.

Maybe I could hold your beer or get coffee.

 
 

WC, all the bass players in the sadlyverse can join the jam.

Im easy and may end up on drums or keys, but after jamming with two drummers I have to say that adding a bass player intrigues.

 
 

Graced With Meathooks would be a band I’d totally play in.
Does “Meathook Seed” really warrant a cover band?

They can save a lot of money by just having a goose shit on the paper.
There speaks a man whom nature has endowed with a goose surplus to requirements.

 
 

20 degree windchill rides on sketchy surfaces.

So far, the 2013-14 winter has been mostly shitty for lots of Sadlies from coast-to-coast. The Minnesota Sadlies are buckling up today for even more blizzards and a foot of snow in the twin cities. Snowpocalypse in Oregon, with two layers of ice interleaved with 12-18″ of ice. Georgia and North Carolina shut-down by ice. (There seems to be a fuckton of ice this season.) Provider’s frozen bike rides throughout the winter. The East Coast? My friends in Baltimore & DC have gotten shellacked hard a coupla times … and NYC has endured an even nastier winter. The Major de-ices in Memphis and who knows how many other burgs?

So I feel a tad guilty about the tee-shirt daytime weather in Albuquerque last week. Can’t do much Winter Braggin with a cumulative 4″ of snow ALL WINTER. Last week was Balmy Palmy: highs in upper 60’s–hit 70 once–and lows always above freezing.

However, a windy ‘cold front’ is blowing through as I write. (Oooooo. High Wind Warnings! No precip of any type.) Which will send the temperature plunging down to 51 today (Thursday) …. and the low plummeting to sub-freezing!!! (29 degrees). (((Remember to self: Get the bottles of orange cream soda out of the car.))) But then we’ll get back to normal for the next ten days

Have I mentioned that I’m really glad I moved to New Mexico?

Having lived in some snowy places, I commiserate with all the Sadlies who are enduring the 2013-14 nastiness. I hope Spring comes early for everyone! (Ooog. Just saw that warmer temps and snow melts my produce flooding in the central and eastern states. Y’all stay out of arroyos, y’hear!)

 
 

David Attenborough narrates Olympic curling.

 
 

Sure, I murdered the thread. But I did not shoot no deputy.

 
 

CRA, thanks for the kindness. I hope we get to meet in meatspace sometime.

That’d be cool, but my next likely move (Milwaukee >> Pittsburgh) would take me further away.

 
 

a blues dirge in the key of A or D or E your choice.

All three keys. Blues in one with a bridge in another. Third section being a release at some point. Eight or nine chords at most, likely less given how those keys overlap.

 
 

BoB: I nominate BalmyPalmy.

Fenwick I hope that you do not exclude your own from the battle…
🙂

Gonna look up an idiot or two finish the rest of your comment and suchlike.

Room full of mirrors Jimi live at the Royal Albert Hall, Fucking genius.

 
 

All three keys. Blues in one with a bridge in another. Third section being a release at some point. Eight or nine chords at most, likely less given how those keys overlap.

Point the way brother and I will follow…

🙂
.

 
 

Fenny You crack me the fuck up….

On the other hand, I am being irked by the fucking cap lock key which may be because today I am veering leftward.

I seem to have located the homekeys.

 
 

I just saw a white squirrel while enjoying a smoke at the sbucks across the way.

This is a turning out to be a freakishly weird week.

 
 

Also, too, just heard one of the bands we are gonna be playing with in April. Black Actress out of Chitown. We will not kick their ass, but will hold our own.

I look forward to the challenge. It is gonna be a sick show.

 
 

According to Glenn Kessler, the story of Julie Boonstra doesn’t add up:

Local news reports recount that Boonstra, like many Americans, initially had trouble getting a plan because of the botched launch of healthcare.gov. No doubt that was a difficult experience. She then was invited by her local member of Congress to attend the State of the Union address and participated in a Republican National Committee news conference that highlighted problems with Obamacare’s stumbling launch.

At that news conference, Boonstra said, “I’m paying a higher cost now as far as out of pocket costs and the coverage is just not the same.” But in the new ad she says “the out-of-pocket costs are so high, it’s unaffordable.”

The claim that the costs are now “unaffordable” appeared odd because, under Obamacare, there is an out-of-pocket maximum of $6,350 for an individual plan, after which the insurance plan pays 100 percent of covered benefits. The Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Michigan that appear to match Boonstra’s plan, as described in local news reports, all have that limit.

Meanwhile, Boonstra told the Detriot News that her monthly premiums were cut in half, from $1,100 a month to $571. That’s a savings of $529 a month. Over the course of a year, the premium savings amounts to $6,348—just two dollars shy of the out-of-pocket maximum.

We were unable to reach Boonstra, but on the fact of it, the premium savings appear to match whatever out-of-pocket costs she now faces.

Levi Russell, a spokesman for AFP, said he “would assume there is an OOP max, but this is the story of Julie, a real person suffering from blood cancer, not some neat and tidy White House PowerPoint about how the ACA is helping everyone.” He said there is a possibility that her specific chemotherapy medication will not be covered.

“Julie’s concerns about her new plan are ongoing and very personal. Since her out of pocket costs are so much higher now, her costs have quickly become unpredictable,” he added. “Rather than knowing exactly what she would have to pay every month, she now is facing a roller coaster of expenses that vary with her health. She said she feels like a surprise is around every corner, since she keeps being hit with new out-of-pocket costs every time she needs treatment, or a test, or even an office visit.”

He concluded: “Now her expenses are unpredictable, and that means unaffordable. It could be $600 one month, and three times that the next month. The reality of what she’s dealing with is much more involved and can’t be swept aside by saying, ‘you have an OOP maximum so quit complaining about your cancer.’”
The Pinocchio Test

The Fact Checker surely does not want to play down the emotional anguish that any cancer patient may face, but a fuller accounting is necessary if AFP is going to air ads like this. In order to properly compare the old plan and the new plan, there needs to be fuller disclosure of the costs and out-of-pocket maximums before claims that the new plan is “unaffordable” can be accepted at face value. Too many anecdotal stories, on both sides, have fallen apart under close scrutiny.

Russell passed along a quote from Boonstra: “My plan, the premiums are half, but the out?of?pocket costs are so high that for me, it’s unaffordable. My coverage is 80/20. Blood work, I’m paying 20 percent. If I needed a bone marrow transplant, I would only be covered 80 percent. Everything, everything I do now, I have to pay a percentage of.”

It is one thing to say there are higher out-of-pocket costs, as she did at the RNC news conference, but another to assume that those higher costs are not offset in some way by the significantly lower premium. The reality is that eventually Boonstra will hit the maximum and no longer pay anything. So over the course of the year, the difference in the costs could well even out.

We will initially set this rating at Two Pinocchios, and will update if we get more information.

It might be smart to quit taking what the Hot Air site spews into the Internet without doing a little research, tovarich.

Also, this.

 
 

I can count to potato!

I laughed out loud….

 
 

In about seven weeks I get to play in a show with Black Actress. They fucking rock, and I have never heard them before today. I would pay to see them and I am an extremely low rent sob.

Anyhoo, while I was intending to find something at NRO and take a clue by four upside Goldberg’s, or some other idiots head, I am distracted by the need to practice. Got callouses to work on and chops to hone.

Exchanged texts with the drummer and had a chat with the guitarist letting them know, that I know what we are up against. these guys are too good to blow off the stage, but my goal is for us to make them nervous.

#fuckingstoked

 
 

whoa…there is some strong crazy over at renew america…here’s the current lineup:

Alan Keyes: ‘A Bucket Brigade’: The most simple, feasible way to take back America!

Stephen Stone: PLEDGE TO IMPEACH!

Publius Huldah: Article V convention: how “individuals of insidious views” are stealing our Constitution

Laurie Roth: The Obama Cult–Will you drink the Kool-Aid?

Tom DeWeese: Obamacare: the terrifying consequences to healthcare

Alan Caruba: Obama wants to waste a billion on “climate change”

Donald Hank: Russia asks: What good is a street that does not lead to a church?

A.J. Castellitto: Murder-pedophilia-theft-propaganda

Judie Brown: Perverse fruits of IVF

Ken Connor: Faith: the only sure foundation for human dignity

Curtis Dahlgren: Blizzards, blitzkriegs, and spin (but we “have a pen” TOO)

Alan Keyes: Correcting — and encouraging — Rush Limbaugh

Gina Miller: Obama impeachment fire is burning brightly

Matt C. Abbott: My big announcement!; Handling accused priests; Child euthanasia in Belgium

Madeline Crabb: America’s turned her back on God–now God’s turned His back on us (Part Three)

Robert Meyer: The logical tension of atheistic materialism

Alan Caruba: Hollywood rediscovers the Bible

David Huntwork: Conservative principles and the common man

i think there’s something in there for everyone!

 
 

Gina Miller: Obama impeachment fire is burning brightly

Those Constitutions put off a good glow, I suppose.

 
 

Those Constitutions put off a good glow, I suppose.

They do keep the Tree of Liberty warm and safe. Pay no mind to the danger of fire…

 
 

Judie Brown: Perverse fruits of IVF

In Vitro Fertilization? (I’m not going over there.)

Perverse fruits … in wingnuttia, isn’t that redundant?

 
 

Judie Brown: Perverse fruits of IVF

Is she talking about In Vitro Fertilization? Perverse fruits must be bananas because Gwen Stephani and I get perverse fruitwood watching a woman slowly eat a banana where am I going with this?

 
 

Great mimes, dude.

 
 

In today’s religious whacko (and Whitemanistani) sex crime news, South Carolina white supremacist pastor charged with sexually abusing little girl.

 
 

Is she talking about In Vitro Fertilization?

yes…it’s an abomination against god, and more importantly, the catholic church…

 
 

1st Rule: You do not talk about Whitemanistani.

 
 

In today’s religious whacko (and Whitemanistani) sex crime news, South Carolina white supremacist pastor charged with sexually abusing little girl.

dude’s wearing blue blockers!

 
 

I noticed that the white supremacist (LOL) has 2 daughters. Betcha they have some horrifying stories to tell.

 
 

At risk of offending those who look like that guy, that guy looks like a child molester.

 
 

I noticed that the white supremacist (LOL) has 2 daughters. Betcha they have some horrifying stories to tell.

his family ditched him in 1997…

 
 

his family ditched him in 1997…

I’m quite shocked to hear that.

 
 

“Same sex marriage will grant straight men permission to stray, anal sex”

With women? Wonders never cease. Mr. Regnerus might want to reassess whether getting the word out helps his case.

Oh and folks don’t get gay married unless you wanna know what it’s like to be lashed to a b[u]oy, buffeted about on seas of fate

 
 

New post.

 
 

My bad joke (up yonder) was adapted from William Burroughs, as I remember.

Burroughs is in a bar in Tangiers, see. (He drinks heavily when he’s not on heroin.) Another expatriate is there, a stodgy fellow, telling a story about being at sea. The boat sinks, or whatever. This fellow ties himself to a buoy to weather the storm. So drunk gay Burroughs pretends to mishear, and says “lashed to a boy? That sounds interesting.” Nobody laughs. The end.

 
 

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