Monsters
This Times article is about the wave of foreclosures in Memphis, so the race angle is especially poignant —
Ms. Thomas and three other Wells Fargo employees have given affidavits for the city’s lawsuit against the bank, and their statements about bank practices reinforce one another.
“Your manager would say, ‘Let me see your cold-call list. I want you to concentrate on these ZIP codes,’ and you knew those were African-American neighborhoods,” she recalled. “We were told, ‘Oh, they aren’t so savvy.’ ”
She described tricks of the trade, several of dubious legality. She said supervisors had told employees to white out incomes on loan applications and substitute higher numbers. Agents went “fishing” for customers, mailing live checks to leads. When a homeowner deposited the check, it became a high-interest loan, with a rate of 20 to 29 percent. Then bank agents tried to talk the customer into refinancing, using the house as collateral.
— but AFAICT Wells and other criminal banking entities did the same sort of thing to poor and lower-middle-class people of all races across the country. Coincidentally, Daniel Foster blargs about another Times article on foreclosures and feels compelled to remind everyone just who the real moral degenerates are in these situations: the victims:
Welcome to Moral Hazard, USA. Population: Us [Daniel Foster]
The New York Times has an infuriating article this morning about the many Americans who have stopped paying their mortgages — and are loving every minute of it. In this Bailout Land, foreclosure is more abstraction than reality, and the road from delinquency to eviction and repossession passes through a grindingly slow legal process and lenders beset by both an unwieldy glut of defaulters and heavy federal regulatory pressure to keep people in their homes. As a result, many delinquent borrowers are in the driver’s seat, and living rent free[.]
He allows that, sure, it’s hard to feel sympathy for the bankers but the renters, ZOMG THOSE PPL are still living beyond their means! No doubt they drive Cadillacs and buy vodka and narcotics with food stamps! Then there’s an amusing moment when he’s confronted in e-mail by a impeccably wingnut military man whose house is being foreclosed. Mr. Sojer wants to know if Foster thinks he, too, is irresponsible. Foster gulps hard and answers in the negative. Then, later, in typical wingnut-weasel fashion (no doubt fortified by a fresh bag of Cheetos) he equivocates.
Some wingnuts have principles enough to object to all welfare in the abstract sense. But the wild fluctuations in their blargometers is the giveaway to the fact that what they might find objectionable when given to rich people (for whom, by the way, it is never a necessity) is outright intolerable and deeply offensive when given to poor people (for whom it almost always is a necessity). The truth is that despite their constant denials, wingnuts very much approve of class warfare. I think wingnuts naturally side with the predatory class — the rich — because wingnuts worship the powerful even more than they worship power itself. The average wingnut pundit is a shut-in, doughy sack of shit who probably resembles (socially, mentally, physically) John Hawkins and Jonah Goldberg. Although these idiots get paid for farting and fapping, they aren’t exactly winners at anything in life. Hence their worship of the powerful, especially those who have accrued power ruthlessly. Hence their worship of bullies in whatever form: a country, a person, an entire class. They want a hero but only a certain kind will suit them; or perhaps it’s better to say, they want a heroic mirror. This is why they feel the greatest loyalty to powerful fuck-ups (because they identify with the latter but long for the former): Presidents who steal elections, CEOs of bankrupt companies who pay themselves obscenely out of bailout money, clerics who molest their own followers, military leadership that promises cakewalk operations only to be greeted with an insurgency, interrogators who torture people to get misinformation, a wealthy criminal class that stole the poor blind but went broke in the process.
Put. That coffee. Down.
Coffee’s for closers only.
Nice evisceration there HTML.
It always seems to come back to the simple fact that these bastards are willing members of an authoritarian cult….End of story.
When the “Real Rapture” (Collapse and the Retreat of the Elect to their heavily guarded redoubts) comes round the only solace will be the knowledge that most of these low rate psychopaths will be in a rude awakening when the boat leaves the dock without them.
I am sure that with a proper roasting, they might be made to taste alright.
.
The latest scoop is that this oil spill could go on until CHRISTMAS!
What do you think the results of the 2010 elections will be when oil is still not only spilling, but washing up in New Jersey and Delaware?
I LOVE it! Obambi is cursed…
Afuckingme, brother.
I just saw some pelican pictures, along with comments from dumbfucks blaming it on environmentalists and obama “partying” and some who concede it sucks but it is still better than “socialism”. Because apparently holding a fucking business accountable for their destruction equals socialism.
I may not be safe to leave the house for a while. These pieces of useless shit fighting tooth and nail to defend their willful ignorance are a fucking blight on the world.
I’ve been away for a while, but wow, it is that same. exact. frigging. troll.
The racism is a bit more overt, but still.
Here is how it will go down next week. First, the results from Virginia and North Carolina will come in, and they’ll be declared for McCain. You’ll be disappointed, but “no big deal, change can’t come overnight” will be your comment. Florida will go red, and a little nervousness will creep in. The usual suspects will fall into the usual categories. As the night drags on, Ohio, Colorado, and (much to your horror) Pennsylvania will be too close to call.
My advice at this point to you will be to go to bed. You will wake up to a McCain presidency and the Great Liberal Freakout will be on.
Bookmark this, liberals, as this is exactly how it is going to go down. You will be wonder how the hell I was able to call this.
New England Fold-Neck: worst fuckin’ representative of Teh Master Race EVAR.
As analysis of wingnuts go, thisn’ here is a gem. Also, negroes.
“Also, negroes.”
EEEEK! WHERE?! [stands on tiptoes, brandishes flashlight]
Some wingnuts have principles enough to object to all welfare in the abstract sense.
No, they’re just the slow ones who can’t be trained to contradict themselves with a straight face, and so are told to just damn all government actions that assist persons making less than a million a year. The central office calls them “libertarians.”
I may not be safe to leave the house for a while. These pieces of useless shit fighting tooth and nail to defend their willful ignorance are a fucking blight on the world.
I wouldn’t blame you.
Of course I also write this, why a 3:12 comment is awaiting clearance, and trolly boy is having its way….do not get.
.
3:32
This is going to be to Obama what the Iranian Hostage Crisis was to Carter.
Spill baby, spill! Day 45 and counting…
What I want to know — and I don’t mean that at all — is how, with the public school system almost collapsed, millions out of work, and a generation faced for economic reasons with having to live with its parents until age 30, we are going to overcome this tide of selfish, ignorant, hateful fuckpates. The angry stupids breed.
“This is going to be to Obama what the Iranian Hostage Crisis was to Carter.”
It’s going to end with a mildly retarded shitty actor committing high treason?
This is going to be to Obama what the Iranian Hostage Crisis was to Carter.
Does that mean the Republicans are planning to bribe the pipe to stay open until shortly after the election?
NO, you dumb libs! It means it gives me a boner! Stop posting while I’m spastically rubbing up against the computer desk! You made me jump and get a socialest splinter!
Well, the troll is probably not really a racist because under the new, Sarah Palin-approved gudielines, a white person cannot be a racist unless he or she has actually killed a newborn black baby and used its blood for the ritual barbecue sauce that goes with the holy meal on the annual celebration of Hitler’s birthday.
Meanwhile, a black person is a racist if he or she ever disagrees with anything Newt Gingrich or Michelle Bachmann or Larry Elder ever said.
Noting or doing anything to draw attention to this discrepancy will automatically bring down the label of “bleeding-heart, liberal-guilt-ridden neo-Stalinist” from one or more blabbering conservative mouthpieces who believe that said phrase has any meaning.
I saw there wading | through rivers wild
Treacherous men | and murderers too,
And workers of ill | with the wives of men;
There Nithhogg sucked | the blood of the slain,
And the wolf tore men; | would you know yet more?
Okay, that’s all on Word Press. It ate my first attempt, which would have worked, if it weren’t for that meddling Kid.
“a white person cannot be a racist unless he or she has actually killed a newborn black baby and used its blood for the ritual barbecue sauce that goes with the holy meal on the annual celebration of Hitler’s birthday.”
You think they would consider them a racist even then? Kinda doubt it. Nothing a white person can possibly do is ever racist because Tawana Brawley or something.
Would it make any difference at all if we reminded you more white people are on welfare than black? Nah, didn’t think so.
I notice a slight obsession with asses, by the way.
Just what we need, more welfare so
large black womendouchebag conservapalins can sit on their big fat giant butts and collect all day without ever having get a job or get off the couch.FTFY
Whew! You had me worried.
I realize NER must be some kind of troll robot but what does crime have to do with foreclosure?
Also, while blacks may be responsible for more murders (against blacks mostly, it should be noted for the conservo piss-in-your-pants-every-time-they-see-a-black-person crowd), whites account for far more rapes in this country than any other group. Moreover, men account for almost all violent crime.
No, this goes much deeper than that, it is the male ghetto culture, more specifically the gangsta rap music that glorifies drugs, gangs and violent crime. Male ghetto culture is the problem here. Until the male community abandons their glorification of ghetto life and work to become normal Americans, then they will continue to live in poverty.
I came.
Fake troll. Too on-the-nose, no arguments presented, just declarative statements [whistle, yellow card]. I wonder how thin the line between real and fake trolls is? We should have a council on this, Vatican-style. If a fake troll proposes and sustains convincing troll idears, is that then a real troll, even if the intent is satirical or merely taking the piss?
Just what I want my tax dollars going to.
Oh please. Like you can even hold down a job.
New England Pickledick, I mean. Not you, Eldritch One.
In these people’s world, no-one is deserving of sympathy. Either they’re crass social climbers who don’t deserve a house and are being punished for their aspirations or they’re greedheads (now, granted, I don’t feel that much sympathy for flippers and the like either) or they’re stupid (usually, actually, simply young and naive) and deserve their fate.
One asks the question of the libertarian, why, if someone is trained to be an expert in some other field, should they not have a reasonable expectation to be treated fairly in a real estate transaction? I mean, not everyone can be a Realtwhore™ or a flipper–and dog knows we wouldn’t want them to be! The libertarians never have an answer, although sometimes they blargblarg about how you can’t cheat an honest man.
This is nonsense as everyone knows an honest man is the easiest one to cheat. They never see it coming!
If a fake troll proposes and sustains convincing troll idears, is that then a real troll, even if the intent is satirical or merely taking the piss?
Troll Turing Test?
Moreover, men account for almost all violent crime.
Straight men, at that*.
I make no claims where white-collar crime is concerned. Also crimes against fashion.
*Boston Globe said that, of course I realize Boston Globe is not exactly the most reputable source although it is slightly more respectable than the Moonie Times or Daily Fail. *cough* I mean it used to be, the old girl seems a bit dotty these days, sometimes shows up late with her lipstick smeared, vodka on her breath and the lingering scent of OldSpice on her natty duds.
One asks the question of the libertarian, why, if someone is trained to be an expert in some other field, should they not have a reasonable expectation to be treated fairly in a real estate transaction?
Well, they idolize capitalism, you see. Adam Smith makes it clear in Wealth of Nations that specialization is a terrible thing, so the best economic conditions result when everybody is jack-of-all-trades but nobody is a master of anything.
Wait now, that doesn’t seem right. I’ll come in again.
Ya, what are the odds this flatscan pays more into the system than he cashes out?
I’m not gonna go with disability check because in that case he would be trolling here all day. I think I’m gonna go with I-90 toll collector west of I-95.
Rilly, anyone from Clinton, MA with a job almost certainly is a niece/nephew of somebody and has been hooked the hell up. Talk about welfare.
Well, they idolize capitalism, you see. Adam Smith makes it clear in Wealth of Nations that specialization is a terrible thing, so the best economic conditions result when everybody is jack-of-all-trades but nobody is a master of anything.
I think I read this on a webpage about the characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
(I actually was going to post a link but decided Samvak is not really a reliable source. But the claim is quite in fitting with the APA picture of NPD.)
What I want to know — and I don’t mean that at all — is how, with the public school system almost collapsed, millions out of work, and a generation faced for economic reasons with having to live with its parents until age 30, we are going to overcome this tide of selfish, ignorant, hateful fuckpates. The angry stupids breed.
I don’t know, man. I was reading an oral history of the wobblies and found out that the Russian Revolution pretty much destroyed the IWW. The US government was imprisoning wobbly leaders on trumped-up charges and the rank and file were drawn to socialism and communism thinking it was the wave of the future. Socialist movements become the evil they seek to destroy by giving into groupthink, but groupthink is what is so appealing about them. We have all the answers, man. It’s going to work this time. Everything looks arrayed against you, hopeless, heartless, but look, this new thing is going to save us, we just band together and sparkleponies for everyone. The IWW was never like that–it was loosely organized and democratic, but when the communists rolled into town, the wobblies disbanded, more or less. And look where we are now.
Seeing the world as it is is immensely stressful. Most people deal with it with healthy servings of delusion. Look at the lack of class consciousness. People deal with their lot in life by imagining that they’re “middle class” (meaning they can spend like people on teevee), rich, or just about to be rich. Because they think they’re part of the ownership class they willingly sign up to be kicked in the nuts. This is preferable to realizing that you ain’t in the ol’ boy’s club and never will be.
What do you think the results of the 2010 elections will be when oil is still not only spilling, but washing up in New Jersey and Delaware?
Hm, if it were me, I’d be voting against corporate whores and for anyone who promises (credibly) to fight the power, but, you know, I’m not a delusional winger who thinks that Obama is magically responsible for Darth Cheney’s giveaways to the oil industry.
I guess I could blame Obama for not immediately nationalizing the well, but given that he’s a moderate and not the soul brother of Hugo Chavez, I would simply be indulging in mental masturbation.
Does he even have the legal authority to do anything like that? (Or even to have the government step in and take the operation away from BP, for that matter?)
None of those black folks would have been given houses they couldn’t afford if Jimmy Carter hadn’t let Saul Alinsky impose the CRA which made banks give free houses to black people 25 years later.
I can’t decide which is more obscene, the pictures of the oil-soaked pelicans or the racism of our current troll. Can’t we soak him in oil?
Gator, you know how I deal with the despair? I write horror novels. And by gum, if the things sell, I’m moving overseas. If not, they’ll just get more horribler.
Does he even have the legal authority to do anything like that? (Or even to have the government step in and take the operation away from BP, for that matter?)
That’s kind of what I’m getting at. I mean, any nation can go ahead and nationalize a foreign company’s holdings on their soil or in their waters, but it usually comes with nasty consequences. We are a debtor nation–something Obama is very much aware of–so even if he had pulled a Bush/Chavez from day one and said, “fuck existing law, get out, we’re going in” and sent in the fucking marines, it might have made foreign investors “nervous” and caused the DOW to take an even bigger shit than it was already involuntarily taking. Which–I mean, the market is the market, I hope Obama cares about something deeper than that–I think the real fear is for the plug being pulled on our debt. Talk about your giant sucking sound.
Basically, countries play nice until playing nice becomes a farce, then nationalization occurs. (Like 3rd world “dirtbag” countries getting slapped around like a $2 whore by the IMF, World Bank, and the Carlyle Group. There’s no mutual interest there.)
Although–and I kind of wonder about this–if you look at this as some sort of national disaster, ultimately does the CIC not have the authority to send in the military? (Short of nationalization–simply to take over the operation which might not even preclude compensating BP for the loss of their (ugh) asset.) I think this is part of the reason BP lied and keeps lying: in order to keep the Feds out. (The other reason was so the top execs could cover before the market moved.)
So, to the lawyers out there, does the property owner literally have to request federal intervention before the feds can intervene? No matter who is suffering the externalized costs of your incompetence and malfeasance? I guess it really is all about
life, liberty, andproperty.Gator, you know how I deal with the despair? I write horror novels.
Shit, does drinking help?
I mean when writing fiction.Can’t we soak him in oil?
And then introduce him to a mirror? I want pix.
Gator, I have to admit this. Don’t tell anybody. I can’t tell you if drinking helps, because I never stop doing it. But hey, I’m a blogwhore.
Socialism for the rich, the free market for the rest – same as it ever was.
At least they came by that assent honestly. Recall that the original “Reagan Revolution” was initiated by many who’d originally gone in for trendy political tendencies like “The New Nihilism,” Maoism, & yes, Viriginia, Randroid Objectivism throughout the 1970s before they “converted” to conservatism … & many of them then carried those original acid-addled nutbar ideologies & philosophies right into the GOP.
Happiness proceeds from the barrel of a warm Liberty Lobby grant!
We must increase our bullshit-shovelling quota to fulfill the Five Year Blart!
We rule you – we fool you – we eat for you
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We work for all, we feed all
Fucking word.
I can only hope America continues to wake up.
Call me thin-skinned and naive but I’m sick from this troll cheering on the oil spill. This is your planet too, you dumb fuck!
Sadly, HW, I don’t think Troofie will get it until the oil reaches the Gulf’s rich reserves of Cheetos, Mountain Dew and crush videos.
“Black people commit a greater percentage of violent crimes in this county than whites, even though blacks make up only 13% of the population.”
And that’s numerically/physically possible how, exactly?
This is your planet too, you dumb fuck!
Some people are a poor use of carbon.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627606.100-living-in-denial-why-sensible-people-reject-the-truth.html?full=true
This here article talks about the psychology of denialists. It’s scary and thought-provoking.
The biggest of the big lies is classlessness and mobility. We don’t want limits on wealth because any of us could become wealthy. Most people don’t even seem to *know* about the dams and sluices and holding ponds in the river of money–they just want their bucketful. They think that the big guys gettin away with shit is a fault in the system, instead of being pretty much the point of the whole exercise. A collective delusion is apparently the only kind of collective we’re gonna get.
Funny you should mention that. I was smacking around a libertarian today, and I pointed out that he’s been bitching about ending the bailouts (new ones haven’t happened for half a year, but who’s counting), and that’s exactly what resolution authority is supposed to do. Instead of realizing this simple fact, that the government is doing what he wants it to do, just with a slightly different method. But he would not shut the fuck up about the fucking CRA. It’s a fucking fetish object for these people. I think if you’re a certain breed of right-libertarian, you basically have to be racist. Libertarians worship money and power, and money and power and inherently tied into race in American society.
Brilliant. Simply and succinctly brilliant, dude. Thanks.
Maybe its the other way around – they’re right-libertarians because it provides an “excuse” for their racism. In the perfect r-l world we’d all get *exactly what we deserve.* – and yr basic r-l is convinced they’re not getting what they deserve because those other people are getting more than they should.
I would agree they’re not getting what they deserve, seeing as how that would be something like oh boiling in oil, say. I have an anti-CRAer in my circle who, when I said that very few banks were subject to the CRA, and anyway the CRA percent default rate was lower than average, he sneered “nice talking points.” No, fuckhead, those aren’t just talking points – those would be facts. Understandable that you wouldn’t recognize them. (Unfortunately my response is still undelivered, but I’m saving it up for next time.)
many Americans who have stopped paying their mortgages — and are loving every minute of it.
Chalk Foster down as a typical stupid NRO motherfucker with a gaping compassion deficit and zero real world experience.
You stop paying your mortgage, for whatever reason, it is probably only a matter of time before you lose your home. There’s absolutely nothing to love about this, people stop paying when they can no longer afford to pay, it’s a last resort. People puking up second, third or fourth properties, that’s basically an economic loss, but losing your home… for a lot of folks is pretty darn close to losing everything.
So that’s the compassion deficit. On the stupid motherfucker side, the NRO goons who prance around like preening glibertarian pedagogs (which is pretty much all of them), fapping over moral hazard and deadbeat borrowers, have never once allowed that walking away from negative equity is an economically rational decision.
Strip libertarianism to its bare essentials, and one of the core tenets is that people are – or should be, glibertarians can never decide which – rational economic agents. And when it comes to non-recourse mortgages, which is what every mortgage sold in this country is (unlike the poor schmucks in Europe where the debt remains attached the borrower, and not the mortgage), there reaches a point where it is utterly fucking rational to walk away from a mortgage. Added bonus – it teaches banks a lesson not to make stupid loans, you know, dealing with all that moral hazard business.
If you actually had a functioning libertarian brain, you’d make this connection instantly. But good luck finding a libertarian ready to say this, I imagine they do exist but to a person they got sidelined by careerist glibertarian douchebags.
Sucking off the powerful is the wingnut reson detre, actually holding consistent views or principles is way too much like hard work when it’s much easier to go whore yourself to one of mommy or daddy’s country-club buddies.
And that’s numerically/physically possible how, exactly?
I do not believe the troll’s claim is true (Tim Wise used to put white violent crime at 65% or so of the total), however the narrow mathematical claim is not impossible. Suppose population A is 10% of the total, and Y% of them have criterion X; whereas population B is 90% of the total and only Z% of them have criterion X, where Y > 10 Z. Then the statement “more As than Bs are X” is entirely possible. For a less offensive example, consider the statement “more black men than white men play in the NBA”.
And when it comes to non-recourse mortgages, which is what every mortgage sold in this country is (unlike the poor schmucks in Europe where the debt remains attached the borrower, and not the mortgage), there reaches a point where it is utterly fucking rational to walk away from a mortgage.
I cannot, literally cannot understand why “libertarians” like Megan McArdle can’t understand this obvious point. People say, “Well, they took out the mortgage, they should have understood the risks.” No, dumbass, the bank took the risk. That’s sort of at the root of our current problem.
These people make an idol of Milton Friedman, who thought that it was immoral for any corporation to go beyond the letter of the law in anything that might impinge on profits. However, they expect private citizens to bankrupt themselves paying on a bad loan when it is perfectly legal and indeed complies with the terms of the contract to turn the house over and walk away. They just have a fetish for indentured servitude.
I cannot, literally cannot understand why “libertarians” like Megan McArdle can’t understand this obvious point.
One explanation is that McMegan is really stupid. But to offer a more charitable alternative, she simply doesn’t understand the legal provisions that underpin a mortgage contract.
But here’s the rub. Even if mortgage contracts were as she assumes they are, there still would come a point that breaking the law (technically breaching contract) is a rational choice. Pose this to a glibertarian tool, and they will start crying and run to their sugar daddies. When rational choice runs up against legal constraints, that’s like carpet-bombing glibertarian theory and people get very sad when that happens to the only world they know.
Man-izer slut-whore Nikki Haley is a MOOSLIM!
And the SC natives are restless…
“We already got one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion.”
Just a guess, there’s one local Haley has not bedded.
The troll is CELEBRATING the oil spill. More proof that wingnuts view everything through the lens of “showing liberals”. Sick.
Pelicans have a well-known liberal bias. Badgers are suspect as well.
Can’t we soak him in oil?
That’s fine with me. I would like to propose a new rule. The next time old “I want my life back” Tony Hayward wants to go on teevee to tell BP’s side of the story we should first be allowed to roll him around in some Louisianna marshland and then cover him with dead pelican feathers. Only then should he be allowed to get in front of any cameras.
Here’s the thing:
If you’re living on borrowed time (e.g. you know the bank would foreclose if it could, but hasn’t because it can’t take the hit to its asset base), why in the hell WOULD you keep paying? It’s not like making less than the monthly minimum payment (which is why you were in foreclosure in the first place) is going to make any headway in preventing your eviction!
So it only makes sense to do what every stinking corporation in the nation can do: ignore your debt. I mean, it’s not like you can DOUBLE default on your loan!
Meanwhile, you’re able to bank some money and put it down on your next residence, or feed your family, or put your kids thru college.
The only moron involved here is the bank, who should have foreseen the possibility that a foreclosure would be impossible and made arrangements to have the property automatically converted into a rental.
Oh? Didn’t see that scenario coming? Figured housing would always increase in value? Shouldn’t be blamed for being blinded by greed? Well, you guys are supposed to be the fucking experts! So why are you foreclosing in the first place on people who AREN’T experts who couldn’t possibly have seen it coming!?
The latest scoop is that this oil spill could go on until CHRISTMAS!
Drill, baby, drill!
Troofie, when you’re at the bottom of the well, it’s time to stop digging.
Man-izer slut-whore Nikki Haley is a MOOSLIM!
That’s just Sikh.
Man-izer slut-whore Nikki Haley is a MOOSLIM!
Rumours are that there’s now a third man lined up, waiting for Haley to win the primary, to come out and admit an affair. This is looking less and less like Republican in-fighting and more and more like some Democratic machinations.
Good on them, I say.
Yup, you’re right, assholes. People who, as a group, own at MOST 5% of the nation’s wealth totally brought our economy down. They are just that fucking powerful.
At least banks are finally fucking figuring out that it makes no goddamn sense to foreclose on people and throw them out on the street because there’s no fucking way they’ll recoup their money anyway (and they never really did, even when the housing market was good).
Also, due to my crankiness this morning, I forgot to mention that was really good, HTML. You’ve been on a tear.
Troofie, when you’re at the bottom of the well, it’s time to
stop digging.plug it with your ass.Troofie, when you’re at the bottom of the well, it’s time to plug it with your ass.
Troofie: Tampon of the Oil Sheiks.
The troll is CELEBRATING the oil spill. More proof that wingnuts view everything through the lens of “showing liberals”. Sick.
The longer I live, the clearer it becomes that activist conservatives are psychopaths. I now assume that your average conservative columnist or blogger has two or three hookers buried in his basement, and the only reason the rate of missing persons in DC doesn’t rise sharply when Congress is in session is because the GOP also gets off by serial killing the whole country…
N__B! How’s your project going?
First off, fantastic post. This bully-worship tendency of the right is something I’ve usually only noticed in the background – something I took as a given. So I never really quite grasped how sick it was, probably because I was noticing the more blatant depravity of the things them conservatives were saying. Thanks for drawing attention to it so clearly.
So being the nitpicker of specifics as opposed to being able to diagnose the sickness behind the symptoms, let me take a crack at Foster.
Speaking of Moral Hazard: you know – when the banks wrote those loans and mortgages they were well aware of the posibility of a borrower just walking away from the home. They didn’t because they had convinced themselves that housing prices can never go down.
You’d think that bankers and people whose careers are built on the real estate market would have a better understanding of the Invisible Hand, but wevs.
So here we are, with millions of homes underwater (8 figures worth as of November 2009 and I’m hard pressed to believe that numbers improved much since then) – and yet we still have banks treating principal modification like some sort of infectious disease. IOW, they are behaving as if those loans they hold are still worth the ludicrous amounts they wrote them for, despite the fact that they outweigh the market value of the homes they are secured on.
So, who’s “living beyind their means”? Especially considering that these loans were used as the basis for 30:1 leveraging.
This foreclosure crisis isn’t an isolated thing – it’s not like some sort of biblical plague that claims the first born homes of the fiscally unwise. The phrase “we’re all subprime now” is such a truism that it’s lost meaning. Delinquincy rates for all classes of loans basically climbed for something like three years running. Some people might consider that a sign of a systemic failure – possibly an industry wide failing. Then again, maybe it makes Foster feel better to blame it on poor folks who have forgotten their place in society – a form of divine retribution for the lower classes that had the audacity to believe they could own their homes.
N__B! How’s your project going?
I’m drafting the last details that have to be done from scratch, be done around 2. Then minor coordination bullshit* the rest of the day and it’s out. We’ve designed a building in twelve days – including reusing a historic facade and bracing the adjacent historic buildings – to the point where the drawings are complete and can be filed with the Department of Buildings and the Landmarks Commission. Really long hours for me, great work by two of my engineers. Of course, both of them are of the female persuasion, so it doesn’t count as real work, you know?
*Otherwise known as pretending to listen to the architect. Smile and nod, smile and nod…
Goddamn it, what the hell is up with the site deleting comments? Is there any fucking point in commenting over here any more?
You’d think that bankers and people whose careers are built on the real estate market would have a better understanding of the Invisible Hand, but wevs.
I think it also has to do with the fact that they didn’t think they’d get caught holding the bag. And, you know, when you have performance-based pay for brokers and salespeople who have no stake in the overall institution, you’re bound to get bad loans.
And, you know, when you have performance-based pay for brokers and salespeople who have no stake in the overall institution, you’re bound to get bad loans.
I’m currently refinancing (dropping 1.75%) and the MORE-MORE-MORE-CLOSE-CLOSE-CLOSE attitude is still there.
This has nothing to do with poverty as liberals continuiously lament, as a good work ethic will bring any American out of poverty regardless of race.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
18% of this nation is below the poverty line. That’s a number that never changes much. Blacks make up 12% of the population, but make up 24.7% of poor people.
So where’s that “greater percentage” now, jackass? Black people commit more crimes because there is less opportunity for blacks of ALL income levels, and that’s. Called. Racism.
Deal with it, bohunk.
N__B said,
June 4, 2010 at 15:35
Damn. I’m impressed. And yay for ladies doin thangs!
Architects are awfully precious, aren’t they?
We’ve designed a building in twelve days
That will fall down in thirteen?
I wonder how thin the line between real and fake trolls is?
Does it matter when Sadlynaughts reflexively respond to them either way?
These people carry their mindset over to everything. Like, “we should kill all the lawyers (hyuk, yuk) and cap damages, and make it nearly impossible for the weak to beat the strong in court….ooooh, lookee, *I* actually have to sue someone! Sky’s the limit!”.
Selfish, self-centered, completely lacking in any ability whatsoever of stepping into another’s shoes, greedy, shameless and utterly, utterly hypocritical.
Does it matter when Sadlynaughts reflexively respond to them either way?
But I thought you liked chastising people for responding to trolls and their Cheetos-laden emissions? No? Yes?
And yay for ladies doin thangs!
My office is one man working full-time, one man working part-time, and four women. If chix didn’t get stuff done, I’d be out of business.
Architects are awfully precious, aren’t they?
Do you have any idea how many people go into that field because they read The Fountainhead when they’re 15? It drives me nuts, because I know a lot of really good architects, but they often lose out to the assholes.
We’ve designed a building in twelve days
That will fall down in thirteen?
18 years on my own, no problems of this type, no lawsuits. And FWIW, I pay higher professional liability rates than a surgeon (as a percentage of gross) because, of course, a surgeon can only kill one person at a time.
Besides, I don’t know about anyone else, but sometimes it’s fun to have a toy to bat around, even if you’re fully aware it’s not sincere.
Like you, Brandi dear?
but sometimes it’s fun to have a toy to bat around
VPR.
Do you have any idea how many people go into that field because they read The Fountainhead when they’re 15? It drives me nuts, because I know a lot of really good architects, but they often lose out to the assholes.
Ugh, I can only imagine. Mr. T&U contemplated architecture school, but he dropped out of film school because he wasn’t interested in dealing with assholes and not getting to work on what he wanted. I think the result would be the same, but with, like, 10 times more debt.
It drives me nuts, because I know a lot of really good architects, but they often lose out to the assholes.
That phenomenon is not limited to architecture, sadly. It’s true of any industry. Indeed, look at the bankstas. All those good banks that were bought up in the 00s, the assholes were the ones who did the buying, the good guys were the ones who made enough money to be profitable but not enough that the shareholders didn’t vote them out of a job in a heartbeat.
VPR.
I was setting that up to go a different direction, but that works, too.
I think it also has to do with the fact that they didn’t think they’d get caught holding the bag.
That’s a big part of it. There was definitely the notion that house prices would never go down, but also that if ever something went wrong with my business, I could still shift my loans.
Rule 1.01 of banking crises – **polishes masters dissertation** – is that everybody rushes for the exit at the same time and you can’t sell what you assumed you could sell.
In my view, it mattered more that these idiots were relying on an assumption of continuous liquidity (thanks again to the fucking Chicago School), but that in itself was tied to the forever rising housing market.
Rule 1.01 of banking crises – **polishes masters dissertation** – is that everybody rushes for the exit at the same time and you can’t sell what you assumed you could sell.
SHORTER: The suckers are the ones still in the room.
Indeed, look at the bankstas
I’m sure you’re right, and I’m sure there are good human beings working in the field of banking. It just feels so black and white with architects – you’ve got smart and talented people on one side, and Randies on the other.
thanks again to the fucking Chicago School
It’s too early for me to be Godwinish, but really…
Don’t harsh on the architects. I’m one of them, and The Fountainhead was shown at my school during Archi-Week every year as a parody.
Re the raghead in the WH nationalizing BP, bad idea. Then he’d own an intractable problem and troofie’s sick fantasy comes true. Have to keep it as teh evil megacompany that’s responsible. Watch as the big O slowly but inexorably gets harsher and angrier.
Don’t harsh on the architects.
Just the asshole percentage. I’m harsher on the engineers who go far out of their way to live up to the stereotypes about us.
Don’t harsh on the architects. I’m one of them, and The Fountainhead was shown at my school during Archi-Week every year as a parody.
I know. Honestly, I admire anyone who does things that are, you know, practical and useful. Because I am really, really bad at those things.
Re the raghead in the WH nationalizing BP, bad idea.
Wait, is he a raghead this week? It’s so hard to keep track of paranoid racists’ calendars!
I admire anyone who does things that are, you know, practical and useful. Because I am really, really bad at those things.
Head is generally useful and practical. Except maybe while skydiving.
Actually, semi-on-topic: The reason I said what I said before to Actor about bankers is that, to some extent, a banker’s job has been defined in recent years* as being an asshole: aggressive sales tactics, faceless corporate manipulation, risky investments. (*Of course, this is largely post-Reagan. Bankers used to boring, more-respectable types – except in farm country – and left the assholishness to brokers.) An architect or engineer or doctor has a job that has no inherent assholishness at all, but many practitioners go far out of their way to be assholes any way. You’ve got doctors who think their gods, architects who think they’re a Randian superman, and engineers who take the teaching that good design practice is “conservative” and use it as an excuse to wallow in a mindset that was laughable in the 1950s and was probably wrong in the 1850s.
So no, I’m not singling out architects. I’m going to have a few tedious conversations this afternoon, but in general they’re professionals and good people. It’s just that, when I encounter one of the asshole architects he’s usually such an asshole. And I don’t often encounter bankers at all.
And, wow, about a dozen spelling and grammar mistakes in one comment. I’ll be back when I’m done drafting.
Tried to offer my kudos for the excellent piece here earlier, but WP eated it. I had no idea this had gone on over in Memphis, though I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised – this kind of activity was the norm nationwide, but for whatever reason, cross the river and hardly any subprime, adjustable-rate, or interest-only loans were made. I’m not entirely sure why that happened; part of it may be due to the conservatism (actual conservatism, not batshitty teabaggerism) with regard to personal finances that people in a perpetually depressed economic environment adopt. While housing “value” was skyrocketing elsewhere, ours climbed but not exponetially, and most folks here continued buying with those stodgy old 30 or 15 year fixed rate mortgages. We’ve had some foreclosures here but nothing like in other states, and here in most cases it was the result of people simply buying more house than they could afford. There was some complicity on the part of local mortgage officers on that count – I think they had also relaxed their rules and I know they were using the second-mortgage-to-dodge-FHA-mortgage-insurance game, because I ended up with a second after an addition and whole-house remodel in 2002. What I noticed most here was a slowing of the market rather than the bottom dropping out; when I bought my house in 1994, and for years both preceeding and following that purchase, homes in my neighborhood typcially were on the market for less than a month, and often sold within a day or two of listing. At the time I bought, the average per square foot cost for an improved home in this area (improved meaning it had central heat and air, which many did not have) was running around $65. By the time I remodeled and added on, 8 years later, it was around $115. The slowdown on sales here started in 2007; by that time, people in the neighborhood were asking $170 and up – and not getting a sale. Not surprising, because there aren’t that many people out there willing to pay that much for a 1200 sf or smaller house, particularly when they could buy a new home 2 – 3 times as big for about the same price. By the time I refinanced about a year ago, the per-square foot value was back down to about $155. Probably still higher than it should be, though homes do seem to be moving at that rate, although it still takes a lot longer on the market for them to move.
I suppose we here should be thankful that we weren’t targeted by the Wells Fargos and whatnot – I guess sometimes being in a poor state can be an advantage, since there’s not as much money laying around to attract the jackals.
Head is generally useful and practical. Except maybe while skydiving.
That’s what my guidance counselor told me!
Memphis is known for the blues, Nashville for country and western.
Which one is about poor people again?
And does any other state have two cities that are the home of two major American musical forms?
It’s just that, when I encounter one of the asshole architects he’s usually such an asshole.
Yeah, I can say the same thing for doctors. Especially surgeons.
The worst assholes? White boy medical students whose fathers were probably doctors or lawyers and are in the field because it sounds good. Condescending little fuckers. But the students who are nice are very, very nice and respectful.
FYWP… ate my post.
Anyway, my ex was a vet, and got a good mortgage deal because of it. Around 2004-2005, we sharted being targetted by companies offering ARMs for refinancing, because the VA had approved one type and the krakens were released. We allowed a saleswoman to come tempt us with easy money.
It was clear she had been trained recently. She had just got one of these herself, and was completely convinced they were the best deal evar! But I kept find holes and asking questions, and she kept having to call back to her boss to find find out if the package worked like I thought it work, or like she thought it worked.
After about an hour of this, her face was completely drained, she’d lost her smile. She knew she had got a crappy loan herself, and was selling a crappy loan.
this package wasn’t even nearly as bad many of the ARM’s out there… it could only ever rise 5% over the inital rate. But that still would have wrecked us or most anyone in our income bracket.
I often wonder how many veterans were screwed by these ARM’s, approved by Bush’s VA.
I had no idea this had gone on over in Memphis, though I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised – this kind of activity was the norm nationwide, but for whatever reason, cross the river and hardly any subprime, adjustable-rate, or interest-only loans were made.
I don’t know, but Memphis is just *so* fucked in general that it doesn’t surprise me, either.
Things that people love every minute of:
* Touching that dial
* Turning me on
* To start me like a motor
* To make me run
* Turning that dial all the way
* Shooting like a rocket into space
Things that people don’t love every minute of:
* GETTING FORECLOSED ON
Hope that clears up the confusion, everybody.
because I know a lot of really good architects, but they often lose out to the assholes.
I am certain this is meant to insult me personally.
Re: Topic
This
I am certain this is meant to insult me
personallyzombieally.FIXED
“Sikh and Destroy mission”
I often wonder how many veterans were screwed by these ARM’s, approved by Bush’s VA.
Cause, you know, they haven’t been fucked over enough to enrich big business, right? We can’t give our Our Troops that we Support 100% a free ride! Bootstraps, people!
Going to punch something. BRB.
And never, ever forget this scumbag.
I was explaining to my daughter the other day, why I’m a liberal. I told her that as a liberal it may perturb me that undeserving people get help in order that deserving people do too, but it would never stop me from supporting the alleviation of suffering. I think most conservatives would rather see 10 people suffer than risk helping 1 person whom they deem undeserving. I will go even farther, if a policy that subsidizes “laziness” prevents 8 out of 10 people from suffering but influences 2 others who might’ve pulled themselves up by their bootstraps to stay on the dole then I would support that too. Relieving suffering when possible is a moral obligation of society.
I think most conservatives would rather see 10 people suffer than risk helping 1 person whom they deem undeserving.
The HILARIOUS thing about this is that these are the same people who don’t want regulations and who generally don’t have a problem with business doing whatever the fuck it wants. They don’t mind if people fuck others over and game the system, as long as they’re the right kind of people.
re: actor’s link. Can’t recall his name, but the smirking moran in the middle of the Sqawkbox banner is the CNBC “reporter” who asked the Texas billionaire Madoff wanabe “how awesome is it to be a billionaire?”
Wait, there’s something only “dubiously” legal about whiting out income figures on loan applications and substituting higher ones? Do subtle legal minds have to confer in endless conference on this one?
Relieving suffering when possible is a moral obligation of society.
Win.
smirking moran in the middle of the Sqawkbox banner is the CNBC “reporter”
You mean either Carl Quintanilla or Joe Kernen
Whoa-oo-oo-whoa-ah-oo-ah.
Wait, there’s something only “dubiously” legal about whiting out income figures on loan applications and substituting higher ones?
Remember, these are the geniuses who came up with products that not only didn’t they understand, but require advanced degrees in rocket science to program into a computer.
I think most conservatives would rather see 10 people suffer than risk helping 1 person whom they deem undeserving.
I think its worse than that; they don’t believe anyone else is deserving. The better conservatives can believe that people they personally know might be deserving, but still can’t understand that people they don’t know might legitimately be deserving for the same reasons as people they do know.
I think its worse than that; they don’t believe anyone else is deserving.
I think it goes deeper than that, even. I think you have a group of people who don’t know how to ask for help. They’re afraid to be perceived as somehow weak, they grew up in highly competitive environments where to be seen as weak was to be bullied and preyed upon. Dad beat them for crying. Mom wouldn’t intervene lest she got beaten. That kind of stuff.
This would explain how even the dirt-poorest redneck in a trailer park could still be a fascistic little shit denying people around him some slice of the pie that he’s being forced to beg for crumbs from.
The better conservatives can believe that people they personally know might be deserving, but still can’t understand that people they don’t know might legitimately be deserving for the same reasons as people they do know.
I think for some people, it has less to do with feeling superior or thinking others are less deserving. Instead, it’s about their devotion to their ideology, which doesn’t allow a lot of flexibility or compassion. So they make allowances for them and for the people they love and justify those allowances, but still cling to the same ideology. Like antichoice activists who get abortions.
I lived in Memphis for several years, and moved away several years ago, and even knowing that this shit went on all around the country, it’s still pretty dismaying. When I left, there was some feeling that the city was making progress, not only in reversing some of the chronic urban blight (brought about by more-than-vigorous white flight) but also in healing some of the very deep racial divides left over from the aftermath of MLK’s assassination there. I’d bet dollars to donuts that the jackals who wrote these shitty loans have either left town entirely or decamped to Germantown or Collierville, where they click their tongues at how “those people” have let their city go all to hell.
I’ll stick with the personal bitterness excuse. It just feels like an application of Occam to me: easier to bitch about THAT GUY getting THAT BENEFIT than to actually make it through Atlas Shrugged.
Also Occam was a nice gentleman so instead of applying him I’ll just apply his razor.
When I left, there was some feeling that the city was making progress, not only in reversing some of the chronic urban blight (brought about by more-than-vigorous white flight) but also in healing some of the very deep racial divides left over from the aftermath of MLK’s assassination there.
I was there for a wedding about a year and a half ago. We stayed downtown, and I’d say at least half the storefronts there were empty. I don’t know what the racial politics were like previously, but I have to say that I found what little I was exposed to pretty fucking dismal.
I had something about not wanting to appear weak and shit, but WP seems to have eated it.
I’ll stick with the personal bitterness excuse. It just feels like an application of Occam to me: easier to bitch about THAT GUY getting THAT BENEFIT than to actually make it through Atlas Shrugged.
You know, I spend a lot of time (too much) thinking about the psychology of these people, but I’m still not sure I’ll ever understand them.
I think most conservatives would rather see 10 people suffer than risk helping 1 person whom they deem undeserving.
To add to what particularly grates… Somehow “undeserving” has a jebus-clause attached to it.
***waiting for sadlyno.com…***
Seriously….are the hammies on strike or something?
“***waiting for sadlyno.com…***”
I swear, sometimes when I click the comments, my browser starts to go there, then seems to lose interest……
I told the woman designing my website to choose the blog platform. She chose WP. Feeling a little uneasy about that now.
I told the woman designing my website to choose the blog platform. She chose WP. Feeling a little uneasy about that now.
I dunno. I have a few friends who use WordPress and they don’t seem to have many problems.
It’s a little better on my end now, but y’all aren’t here to entertain me, so who cares?
Yeah. Seems to be doing betta now.
And that belief is why you — and most of us here — are liberal.
Conservatives, on the other hand, don’t care about relieving anyone’s suffering because:
a.) it’s Somebody Else’s Problem and, thus, not their concern; and/or
2.) certain people (e.g., poor, minorities, et al) deserve to suffer; and/or
iii.) relieving suffering should be done by people, not governments …. just so long as it’s other people.
It’s basically just the “Fuck you! I got mine.” syndrome that’s plagued this nation the past 40 years, and the fact they care more about operating in an economy rather than trying to live in a society.
[ warning: comment may contain explicitly on-topic content ]
Har, indeed!
TEH MENCKENPIRE STRIKES BACH!
The “controversy” of folks going nomad or otherwise getting away from an epidemic of toxic mortgages is an actual story why, exactly?
*gets permission to approach the Bench*
Those little cockteasing banks were wearing a salacious miniskirt made of “pay whenever, live high-roller for-EVAR” snakeoil-skin & a tubetop made out of “things like libraries, school boards & municipal utilities need to join our imploding Ponzi-economy TOO” pleather, yer honor!
Let’s face it – THEY WERE BEGGING FOR IT.
I move that you find my clients innocent by reason of profanity.
*turns to Prosecutor & points at them, grabs crotch*
LOL NAIVETE
Looks to me like exactly what the GOP would do to a Christian lady who also happens to have been brought up as a Sikh – without so much as batting a translucent reptilian eyelid. Largely the same bunch that smeared that quad-amputee veteran some years back, are they not? Also relevant that her opponent already has a nasty rep of doing exactly this sort of thing.
Seems to me a gang that are having a purity-purge are quite happy to settle for ratfuckery-inspired Potemkin McPurging once they run out of the real deal … plus I’d guesstimate that the psychological addiction created by giving in to that impulse makes crack look like brussel sprouts.
Stocks plunging on a disappointing jobs report, barely any private sector growth. Almost all the “growth” was in temporary government census jobs that will start going away this month.
Is a double-dip recession in the works?
giving in to that impulse makes crack look like brussel sprouts.
Dude, I don’t know. I crave brussels sprouts pretty hardcore. In fact, I’m imagining some sauteed with walnuts…yum…
Brussels sprouts are the Jews of radical vegetarianism.
Gaaaah!!! Not the Brussels Sprouts debate. Again,
You know, it’s not even a moral obligation, it’s a practical one. Every decent place to live in the world has mechanisms to take care of the poor. Your society is better when people aren’t begging on the street or selling other people’s stuff to make money.
Oh, fuck. With pancetta. I forgot the pancetta.
Conservatives, on the other hand, don’t care about relieving anyone’s suffering because:
You left out the most pernicious of all:
IV) It isn’t possible to help the poor. Any attempt to do so will only make things worse for them. All we can do is encourage to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Your society is better when people aren’t begging on the street or selling other people’s stuff to make money.
Unless you make enough money or think you’re going to make enough money to live in a fancy compound…
Gaaaah!!! Not the Brussels Sprouts debate. Again,
I had the decency to refrain from offering my opinion of cilantro yesterday when we had THAT debate again, but if there is a slandering of Brussels sprouts… (I know, I know, they’re Yurpean, but at least they’re not French.)
Where are the jobs, liberals?
POOP. Don’t tell zrm, the next picture in this series could cause a zombie uprising.
Some wingnuts have principles enough to object to all welfare in the abstract sense
They’ll never object to corporate welfare. As an electoral tool, maybe, but all these teabaggers, the minute they’re in office, it’ll be back to the same. (And their people, who only get their news from Fox, won’t even fucking notice).
Mexico, Pakistan, India, Indonesia… If you had listened to Michael Moore some 20 years ago or so you wouldn’t need to ask that question now.
Where are the jobs, liberals?
Why don’t you go ask your mom? She’s the one who put me out of business.
God, Friday afternoons are boring. I may have to do some filing for once.
Oh, fuck. With pancetta
My curiosity has gotten the best of me. How does that work, exactly?
God, Friday afternoons are boring. I may have to do some filing for once.
Arrrrrgh. Someone mentioned the F word!
You left out the most pernicious of all:
IV) It isn’t possible to help the poor. Any attempt to do so will only make things worse for them. All we can do is encourage to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Hence why the canned line “we LOVE the poor we LOVE charity actually we’re MORE charitable than liberals we just don’t want the GOVERNMENT to get involved” is bullshit –
Because the rest of their ideology says “helping the poor makes them lazy,” which translates to “don’t help the poor, they’ll pull themselves up.” It’s funny, there used to be Republicans who honest to God didn’t want the government involved in charity but would dedicate their entire lives to performing the good deeds themselves. But in recent decades, that breed’s almost completely died out. It’s “fuck the poor” all along the line now.
Arrrrrgh. Someone mentioned the F word!
It’s terrible. I have shit stacked everywhere. I wouldn’t mind so much if it weren’t for the fact that my boss keeps literally EVERYTHING (really? you need both electronic and hard copies of agendas from meetings three years ago?).
“What do you think the results of the 2010 elections will be when oil is still not only spilling, but washing up in New Jersey and Delaware?”
That’s only step one. Now think about step two. What is step two? Eventually the oil will spread to all the oceans of the world. It has to, given a few years or so.
Then there is step three. Step three is that when the oil on the surface or the oil below comes to the surface, the plankton will start dying.
And of course, there is no step four, is there.
(this is what keeps me awake at night)
Any economics majors here? Doesn’t a thriving middle class benefit everyone?
I will not sit idly by while brussels sprouts are slandered. I will charge off the bench, because my whole career has been leading up to this. I am here to tell you brussels sprouts are some of the nastiest shit that grows on god’s green earth. They were the bane of my childhood. Even if I betray every friend, if I abandon every principle, if I embrace evil and waste my life in selfishness and petty mean spirited greed (you know, kinda like troofus has) as long as I never taste another brussels sprout my life will not have been a complete failure.
In conclusion I would like to offer these words. FUCK BRUSSELS SPROUTS
that is all.
Where are the jobs, liberals?
In the Gulf, cleaning up after conservative rapists.
As usual.
Long Distance Information, Give The Goddamn Batman Memphis Tennessee said
NICELY played, sir!
*golf clap*
Martini? I have a special bloodsucking recipe…
I am here to tell you brussels sprouts are some of the nastiest shit that grows on god’s green earth.
Calm down. You’ve just never had them cooked properly. With pancetta.
People boil the fuck out of them and/or buy them frozen…gross. No wonder people hate them.
What’s your stance on cabbage?
Stocks plunging on a disappointing jobs report
No, you idiot! They plunged on the drop of the euro which is predicated on the report out of Hungary that they’ve mistated their deficit.
You know, Hungary…lowest tax rate in the EU, minimalist spending, perfect conservative haven.
Fucked, ain’t ya, Troofie?
Any economics majors here? Doesn’t a thriving middle class benefit everyone?
“What does that get us? A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty, working class. And all because a few starry-eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey stir them up and fill their heads with a lot of impossible ideas!”
Quite right and FYWP in advance.
Any economics majors here? Doesn’t a thriving middle class benefit everyone?
Double major with finance in college.
And yes.
(really? you need both electronic and hard copies of agendas from meetings three years ago?).
Our department has a policy to print out and keep hard copies of email. All I can do is shake my head.
Paperless office, my aunt Fanny.
Paperless office, my aunt Fanny.
My CEO demands a 200 page report quarterly from my office. He also demands we cut down on the amount of paper.
So I posted last quarter’s report in a PDF file on the intranet. He printed it out and his first comment was “I WANT A HARD COPY, DAMMIT!”
Quite right and FYWP in advance.
I am here to tell you brussels sprouts are some of the nastiest shit that grows on god’s green earth.
I absolutely adore some of the most vile foods on the planet, like broccoli rabe and asparagus.
Brussel Sprouts are conservative reactionary food that should be shot on sight.
actor212 has a job?
actor212 has a job?
If you count making gobs of money for doing nothing “a job”, yes.
Our department has a policy to print out and keep hard copies of email. All I can do is shake my head.
Okay, get this. When I first started here, a HUGE part of my job was to print all the emails my boss got in a day and sort them into folders according to urgency. She would then go through the folders when she left at night or had some extra work time, and would write on the emails what she would like me to do with them. This included filing them electronically and/or in hard copy AND typing out any responses that she had hand-written in the margins. She gets 100-200 emails a day and doesn’t believe in using filters or, like, a personal account for her personal shit. The biggest waste of fucking time ever.
I was finally able to get her to let me just flag stuff electronically and have her take her laptop home and respond to her emails directly. I still have to file all that shit, though.
Cabbage is just bad. I worked in a sauerkraut factory during the summer for a couple years when I was working my way through college. And my parents home is downwind of a second sauerkraut factory. So, I have no love for cabbage. But the “you just haven’t had it prepared right” line about Brussels sprouts is mighty condescending. I have had that shit prepared many different ways, and it was just boiled or steamed or cooked evil.
Cabbage is neo-conservative.
I absolutely adore some of the most vile foods on the planet, like broccoli rabe and asparagus.
Neither one of those are vile.
I am telling you people, if you have them cooked correctly, Brussels sprouts are fucking amazing!
Then again, the only veggies I don’t really like are iceberg lettuce and raw celery. (Or sad supermarket “cucumbers” and “tomatoes”).
Brussels sprouts are a little ashy once you take them out of the incinerator.
Neither one of those are vile.
Are you incapable of the sense of smell? I mean, I realize its different for girls, but DAYUM!
But the “you just haven’t had it prepared right” line about Brussels sprouts is mighty condescending. I have had that shit prepared many different ways, and it was just boiled or steamed or cooked evil.
Sorry. I just find that people generally waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay overcook Brussels sprouts. I will take your word for it. And if you don’t like cabbage, then I really don’t expect you to like them, either.
Cabbage is the Jew of cuisine.
Are you incapable of the sense of smell? I mean, I realize its different for girls, but DAYUM!
I really don’t have that problem unless I’m really dehydrated. Maybe I’m weird.
Beets get a bad rap, too. Those fuckers are delicious.
Wait a minute! Actor and T&U are engaged in intercourse and there is no sexy language going on?
Beets get a bad rap, too. Those fuckers are delicious.
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Actor and T&U are engaged in intercourse and there is no sexy language going on?
you must be missing the code.
I really don’t have that problem unless I’m really dehydrated. Maybe I’m weird.
Seriously?
Cuz I usually end up spraying and I’m as hydrated as the next ultramarathoner….
Wait. I mean, I usually end up spraying air freshener to mask the scent….
you must be missing the code.
Apparently, I am, too. Now I’m afraid what I may have agreed to…
the only veggies I don’t really like are iceberg lettuce and raw celery.
I have the terrible bad luck that the vegetables I most love to eat are iceberg lettuce, raw celery and cucumber.
Why is this terrible bad luck? Well, for one thing, it means T&U will never come over for dinner, but that ship already sailed. No, it’s bad luck because as near as I can determine there is nothing in them but cellulose and water. Nutrition-wise, I might as well dip my notebook in the sink then chew on one corner.
Wait. I mean, I usually end up spraying air freshener to mask the scent….
Ha. Maybe my overconsumption of caffeine has caused my kidneys to mutate in new and interesting ways.
Wait a minute! Actor and T&U are engaged in intercourse and there is no sexy language going on?
Ah yes, the brusselsprouts chasm has reared it’s ugly head. T&U will never get to see those etchings now.
In order that people here do not think I am universally negative, I offer the following list of foods I enjoy:
Pizza, raw spinach, hummus, gyros, dorowat, jambalaya, cauliflower, carrots, ham, bacon, spaghetti, lefse, Black forest cherry cake, steak, burritos, tacos, pretty much the entire Mexican food canon, especially tomatillos, Cornicsh pasty, (get your mind out of the gutter Actor212), etc.
Roast the little fuckers. Sprouts, I mean. Cut em in half. Drizzle with Olivia’s olio. Liberally (of course) sprinkle with kosher or sea salt. Roast at 425. Toss ionce or twice – you want them browned with crispy outer leaves. Toss with lemon zest. They get a nutty taste completely unknown in differently prepared sprouts.
Why is this terrible bad luck? Well, for one thing, it means T&U will never come over for dinner
I am very polite and will eat anything when I’m a guest in someone’s home. Unless it has gluten in it. And that just means you’re an asshole, because I warned you in advance, dammit.
What about romaine? That’s a leeeettle better. And I like cucumbers, but they have to taste, you know, like cucumbers. I’m a snob like that.
They get a nutty taste completely unknown in differently prepared sprouts.
Yes! That’s why I like to sautee them at the end with walnuts.
decamped to Germantown or Collierville, where they click their tongues at how “those people” have let their city go all to hell.
Hey! I know people who live there and you are so right.
I love cabbage. Cole slaw, sauerkraut, REUBEN SAMMICHES, just fried up with caraway seeds and sausage and beer, kimchi, cabbage rolls. Cabbage is amazing. Neo-conservative? Hell no, if there is a proletarian food of the underclasses, it is cabbage.
That said, FUCK BRUSSEL SPROUTS.
T&U, I got a glimpse of your participle dangling. Fappalicious! Be back in a few……
Mmmmmmm….cabbage. Brussels spouts are awesome, too.
But then I’m the only guy in Arkansas that likes Moxie (I have to have it secretly imported, lest I be deported). Ahhh, Moxie, described most excellently by a Farker as “carbonated Havoline”. Yummy.
Cornicsh pasty, (get your mind out of the gutter Actor212)
What? It’s perverted to enjoy a little hen now and again?
Iceberg wedge with blue cheese deserves a revival. Indeed, it has had one in our demesne.
They get a nutty taste completely unknown in differently prepared sprouts.
Look, Pup, I get that “nutty taste” turns you on, but….
decamped to Germantown or Collierville, where they click their tongues at how “those people” have let their city go all to hell
A recent trip to visit father-in-law in a Memphis hospital led to a dining excursion in Germantown. Awful, horrible, sludge.
I told Mrs. LittlePig that next time we drive all the way downtown for barbecue, no matter how much trouble it is. To eat overly-salted cafeteria crapola while the ambrosia of the Gods is but miles away – big mistake.
I believe it was the mayor of Germantown that got in a flap over less-than-flattering Facebook comments he made towards the President a few months back.
Ha! Thought so.
Also I love Brussels sprouts. But if there’s a veggie out there I don’t like I haven’t met it yet.
T&U will never get to see those etchings now.
She’ll have to earn the right.
T&U, I got a glimpse of your participle dangling. Fappalicious! Be back in a few……
Whatever turns your crank, man.
Actor, what you do with consenting adult hens in the privacy of your own home is your business. However, I prefer my pasty to be chicken free.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_pasty
“They get a nutty taste completely unknown in differently prepared sprouts.
Look, Pup, I get that “nutty taste” turns you on, but….”
I say we should all eat more nuts. Builds virility.
I say we should all eat more nuts. Builds virility.
Sorry, man, I outgrew that in college after Nick, my Greek god…
I mean, I’m sure you have a point.
I say we should all eat more nuts. Builds virility.
I can’t imagine they taste very good, but I suppose it’s better than having to read all their crap over at The Corner.
FYWP.
Thanks for da answers, Chris & actor.
Re: Brussels sprouts…if there’s a veggie out there I don’t like I haven’t met it yet.
She’ll have to earn the right.
I doubt it would take much…
I can’t imagine they taste very good, but I suppose it’s better than having to read all their crap over at The Corner.
Yeah, I’m not sure what long pig raised on a diet of Funyuns and Mountain Dew tastes like, but it can’t be good.
Fuck me. Can I get a post up in here?
Oh goodie;
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_pl2410
I fucking love the South.
actor212 has a job?
If you count making gobs of money for doing nothing “a job”, yes.
What’s the phrase I’m looking for? Oh yeah: DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!
The drawings went out (via Dropbox, a first for us) at 3:17.
UGH!! is WP sore at me?
Iceberg wedgeStewed pears with blue cheese deserves a revival.FUCK LETTUCE TOO.
I doubt it would take much…
Nonetheless, no free passes.
Well, maybe if you flash your tits first.
What’s the phrase I’m looking for? Oh yeah: DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!
Hey, don’t hate the playa hate the game!
I might as well dip my notebook in the sink then chew on one corner.
Doesn’t the plastic get caught in your teeth?
if there’s a veggie out there I don’t like I haven’t met it yet.
Terri Schiavo is dead.
The drawings went out (via Dropbox, a first for us) at 3:17.
Yay!
However, I prefer my pasty to be chicken free.
Well, what;s the point of Cornish if it doesn’t involve fucking chickens????
Nonetheless, no free passes.
Well, maybe if you flash your tits first.
Wait. I don’t think that’s how this goes.
LittlePig, the mayor in question was from Arlington, which when I was there still had a bit of that little-town atmosphere–you know, the kind that all the people who move there for it do their best to utterly obliterate once they’re there. Anyway, he looks to be just the sort of jar-headed, peckerwood piss-ant who’d get all pissy about the POTUS making a speech because he hadn’t figured out how to work a fucking VCR and get his Charlie Brown regardless.
Thank you GDB. I knew it was some despoiled Memphis ex-urb.
From Chris’ link:
And on Thursday a state senator who is supporting one of Haley’s opponents casually referred to her as a “raghead” and claimed that she is a Manchurian candidate launched by a “network of Sikhs” to take over the governorship.
What the hell is this- The Protocols of the Elders of Punjab?
this thread is snarkalicious today…
and Brussel Sprouts are good with butter.
Brussel Sprouts are good with butter.
So are snails, but you don’t see me lining up for those, either.
and Brussel Sprouts are good with butter.
Heretic.
Brussels sprouts are good with: fuming nitric acid, napalm, white phosphorus and thermite. Anything less potent might leave some ash or other residue.
corn is still the best veggie though. a fresh ear of sweet corn with just slight touch of slat. yum.
and brussel sprouts are better than any album by Rush. or corned beef.
slat=salt, whatever
hey, I killed the thread!
Nope. Totally with u on fresh sweet corn…yummers
Man, if you’re going to melt some butter for some damn vegetables, get you some artichokes and do it up right. Forget your silly Brussels sprouts; the Belgians give us waffles, chocolate and excellent beer, and they can stop with those. You hear me, all you Walloons and Flemish? Just stop. right. there.
Well, what;s the point of Cornish if it doesn’t involve fucking chickens????
I have never been to Cornwall and now I don’t really want to.