Frist!

Second ! Happy turkey day!

“habitual malcontent bitching about a holiday”
~

Or are we allowing enemies of God and freedom to weaken America and curse God?

Wow. Did I wake up in Saudi Arabia this morning?

Oh, dear. That poor woman. What a miserable wretch she must be. I’m sure she poisons the air around her with her mean spirit, too. If only she weren’t so determined to make everyone else as miserable as she. Odd that her family name is so appropriate.

I have to admit it, though. I, too, am unhappy about some of the changes I’ve been seeing.

perhaps thinking we would always have them. Consequently, we have become complacent, and run the risk of losing our freedom.

I’m so old, the public schools at which I got my primary education were better than the private school in town. The private school was for parents who valued their kid’s religious educations over, you know, learning to learn. Also, I got my college education (again, a very good public university) without having to beggar my lower middle class self, though Ronnie and Howie had already made a start at making that difficult.

I also don’t like the way she and her kind have made such effective and largely uncommented on (outside liberal blogs) inroads in civil rights. I mean, they are no longer even bothering to lie about being against contraception any more, and if they get any more blatant in their hatred of non WASPs, my ears are going to bleed.

As for this

America became great through self-reliance, hard work, and belief in God.

America became “great” because North America had such an enormous wealth of natural resources and room (due, in part, to disease, and also to so many european types being so willing to be lying assholes wrt promises and treaties) that we could afford to make any number of mistakes without really paying for them. It’s only now, after we’ve pillaged our way through many of the resources, and reproduced our way into being too much for the rest of nature to be able to compensate for anymore, that things are getting tight.

As for the parable of the Talents – I can be very slow, sometimes. My Holy Bible knowledge is sketchy (unprogrammed Quakers in the 60s did not emphasize bible study), but that parable was one I did learn. But I knew what a parable was, and assumed the money (appropriately called “talents,” I thought) was a metaphor for, well, talent, or other gifts one might be lucky enough to have, and the importance of using one’s talents for everyone’s general betterment, not selfishly keeping them to one’s self. It never occurred to me that people were interpreting that story to mean that having money was an indication you were better than those who didn’t have money. Huh.

It never occurred to me that people were interpreting that story to mean that having money was an indication you were better than those who didn’t have money. Huh.

I believe that’s one of the basic tenants of Calvinism.

Calvin believed that the “elect” and the damned were predetermined before they were even born. There was no choosing salvation, you were either born into the cool fraternity or you were screwed from the get go.

One way you could tell who the “elect” were is that, being the cool kids, God would shower them with cool stuff like money.

I see more than a little bit of Calvin (the religious one not the kid with the tiger) in today’s “God must love me more than you because look how much he’s blessed me with all this cool stuff”.

I believe that’s one of the basic tenants of Calvinism.

Yeah, that’s my understanding, too. It just blew my mind when I learned that, and, decades later, continue to be amazed that that’s taken seriously by anyone. And, yes, I understand it came out of serious discussions about Teh Will of God, and omniscience, and omnipotence, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But, really, if your religious belief (as you practice it) basically boils down to “I’ve got mine, fuck you,” I think you ought to take another look.

When the Pilgrims came to America, the local Native Americans had been decimated by diseases brought by the white people who had beaten them there. The Pilgrims survived by taking stuff from the ghost villages.

Squanto came back from being kidnapped in Europe to find his people gone, so he got in with another local tribe and helped them deal with the Pilgrims and their magic disease gun.

You know the whole “plant fish with corn” deal? Squanto learned that from Basque fishermen. Happy Squanto Day!

FA: Better?

Interesting. I thought the natives already knew about the fish-with-corn thing. They also knew to plant beans, corn and squash (the three sisters) together.

If I have to hear another right-winger trot out their ace in the hole about how “those people” claim to be poor, but then you see them all using CELL PHONES…

I was told by my history professor the planting fish with crops came from the Basque. Possibly it originated independently.

MMMMM, did Basque fishermen grow corn? The standard accounts say that Squanto taught the Puritans a practice that his tribe engaged in with the whole “plant a small fish with a seed of corn” method of agriculture.

This bint both underappreciates the degree of hardship all those people she doesn’t really care about suffer and also way overestimates the help available. IOW, she lives in fantasyland. She’s afraid of change because she knows, somewhere in the back of her mind, that she lives in fantasyland. She’S afraid of facing reality.

Yeah, cell phones and TVs are relatively cheap. Big fucking deal.

Houses are expensive and getting more expensive. We call that a “good housing market”. Funny how when anything else gets more expensive we call it “inflation”.

As housing prices go up, rents also tend to go up. Better have enough cash on hand for first and last month’s rent plus a security deposit.

Cars aren’t cheap. New cars are expensive and older cars can be expensive to keep running and tend to be less fuel efficient. Gas isn’t cheap. Insurance isn’t cheap. Unless you live in one those rare places with decent public transportation a car is a necessity and it has to be reliable enough that you won’t miss work and lose your job.

Food is expensive and getting more expensive. Healthy food costs even more.

I realize I make a fuckton of money but even I know it’s tough to be on the lower end of the economic ladder and it ain’t getting any easier.

Plus one for bint.

I tried the plant fish with corn, beans and squash thing as a young experimental historian. All were dug up by critters. If I was a real Indian I would have eaten those critters.

The Basque had other crops they fertilized with fish.

Honoring the Pilgrims isn’t nearly as bad as honoring Christopher Columbus. Why the fuck do we honor a genocidal monster who doesn’t even have a connection to North America?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Basque did plant fish or inedible fish parts with their crops to start them out, but I would be very surprised that Squanto would’ve been taught the practice by Basque fishermen.

Why the fuck do we honor a genocidal monster who doesn’t even have a connection to North America?

I think the standard retort is “He was a man of his times”.

Funny how that excuse only applies to white Europeans, and only those with some connection (however vague) to our founding.

The Spanish get to be good guys when they’re colonizing America (yes I know he was from Genoa but he worked for Spain) but they’re totally bad guys when they’re fighting England.

The English, as everyone knows, are good guys except when they’re not.

I don’t celebrate Pilgrims. Too whacko even for Roundheads and always ready for some brutal slut shaming and cheerful witch burning.

Major Kong, there is evidence that Columbus was not only not from Genoa, but that he might’ve been a Catalan, based on analysis of his surviving manuscripts:

Estelle Irizarry, a linguistics professor at Washington’s Georgetown University, reached that conclusion after examining his writings in detail and discovering a simple but important clue that had escaped other researchers: a slash symbol – similar to the ones used in Internet addresses – that Columbus employed to indicate pauses in sentences.

That symbol, also known as a virgule, did not appear in texts of that era written in Castilian nor in writings from any other country, but only in records and letters from the Catalan-speaking areas of the Iberian peninsula, namely present-day Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, Irizarry said.

“The virgules are sort of like Columbus’ DNA. They were a habit of his. Columbus was a punctuator and was one of the few of that era,” the professor and author of 34 books on literature said.

Irizarry uses that metaphor as the title of her latest book, “Christopher Columbus: The DNA of his Writings,” in which she pored over the language and syntax the Great Navigator used in more than 100 letters, diaries and documents.

She also found in her research of documents from that era written on the Balearic island of Ibiza that 75 percent contained virgules similar to Columbus’.

At the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, authors normally left punctuation for publishers and even Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” was only filled in once and for all with periods and commas in the 19th century, making Columbus’ virgules all the more noteworthy, Irizarry said.

Her book confirms some of the conclusions drawn by scholar Nito Verdera, who identified many words of Catalan origin in Colon’s writing.

Irizarry thinks the future explorer grew up in a Catalan-speaking region and that that explains why he did not express himself correctly in Spanish, which would have been his second language.</blockquote

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=345716&CategoryId=13003

About so called free cell phones. I have long since ceased to be surprised at the laziness of the right when it comes to verify. As to having TV’s etc. I have taken to offering working items that I am replacing here

I don’t celebrate Pilgrims.

I think Garrison Keillor said “The Pilgrims came here seeking greater restrictions than were possible under English law at the time”.

I seem to remember writing a history paper in Jr. High pointing out the Aztecs were way ahead of the europeans in things like public sanitation, etc. To the “b-b-but human sacrifice!1!!11!!!” I just mentioned the Inquisition.

What is up with evangelicals spending all their time hanging out with a bunch of people who spend all their time talking at them as if they are some base wretches who need to be learned about the basics of the subculture they’ve been in their entire lives.

They know she’s not talking to them, they’re the tattletale hearing the teacher scold someone else.

Aren’t you allowed the right to work in a job of your choosing?

Poor Matt Walsh just had a coronary.

I think Garrison Keillor said “The Pilgrims came here seeking greater restrictions than were possible under English law at the time”.

I remember hearing that the Puritans came here because they felt the State Church was far too liberal. Which was pretty much the reason my dad’s grandparents came here.

Those Pilgrims were such like able people the fucking Dutch kicked them out. The Dutch!

The Puritans were Johnny-come-latelies, even for europeans. St. Augustine, FL celebrated its 448th a couple of months ago. Feliz navidad!

It’s funny how the Spanish settlements like St. Augustine and Santa Fe get left out in favor of the Pilgrims. Even Jamestown only gets a brief nod in the history texts.

The Pilgrims weren’t the same as the Puritans. The Pilgrims wanted to break with the Anglican Church, the Puritans wanted to purify it.

One of them liked to hang Quakers. I think it was the Puritans.

The Pilgrims weren’t the same as the Puritans. The Pilgrims wanted to break with the Anglican Church, the Puritans wanted to “purify” it.

VCarlson skrev:

I seem to remember writing a history paper in Jr. High pointing out the Aztecs were way ahead of the europeans in things like public sanitation, etc. To the “b-b-but human sacrifice!1!!11!!!” I just mentioned the Inquisition.

Did you read Gary Jennings’ Aztec, or did you go to his primary sources?

(“Since God permitted it and the man’s sins deserved it, the flames consumed his body, and of that burning it pleased God that the Aztec should die.”)

Did you read Gary Jennings’ Aztec, or did you go to his primary sources?

Since that came out in 1980, no. I got it from whatever was available in my local library.

The Pilgrims weren’t the same as the Puritans. The Pilgrims wanted to break with the Anglican Church, the Puritans wanted to “purify” it.

Sorry for the sloppiness. In my defense, they both begin with “p.”

It’s okay. Everyone gets it wrong and it’s not likely they were very different. I had to google to remember the difference.

As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly.

“not like they were very different”

The fact is, you liberals know nohing of hard work, sacrafice or praise for God. You hate USA so much you should leave it. This is a Holiday for God, and tomorrow is an important day too because it is about the benefets of capitalism, whcih they did not have in CCCP which the liberals wanted USA to be like, we are frre to buy, to live as we wish, and all the liberals want to do with that freedom is take away toe rights of conservatives and christisn.

[blockquote]So why the fuck do evangelicals put up with it?[/blockquote]

Because every man jack and woman jill of them have decided that St. Augustine’s call to emulate Christ means “have a huge fucking martyr complex.”

Phooey, I’ve spent too much time on vBulletin-based boards.

re: Teh Pilgrims

Stacey turned out pretty well.

I Was a Victim of the Fake “Knockout Game” Trend

But to be clear about something—insofar as there’s supposedly a “game” here where the contestant tries to knock someone out with one punch, that absolutely isn’t what happened. I was knocked down, but definitely not out, and then after that I got kicked a bunch of times. If you’re familiar with the phrase “don’t kick a man while he’s down,” take note—it really hurts quite a bit to be kicked while you’re down. In fact, this substantial deviation from the “rules” of the “game” is a lot of what made getting violently assaulted for no reason such a physically unpleasant experience. But for whatever reason, simply noting that aggravated assaults occur at a pace of more than one per minute nationwide didn’t quite seem good enough. Rather than remarking on man’s cruelty to man as a general phenomenon, it’s more alarming to devise this specific pseudofactual narrative. In other news, at summer camp one time, some boys decided it would be funny to zip this one kid up in his duffle bag and then pretend we were going to toss the bag into the lake. I went along with the “prank.” Another time I participated in a prank that really was a prank, and in retaliation, some of the victims decided that instead of counterpranking they would knock this one kid down and sort of roll him down a steep hill.

And so it goes—at an expensive summer camp, “boys will be boys.” On the streets of Washington, boys will be part of a trend piece.

At any rate, violent crime is a terrible thing. I moved to town in 2003, and there were 248 murders that year. Last year, there were just 88 despite population growth. A safer city is a much more pleasant place to live. Beyond the lives saved, it has broad benefits for peace of mind and people’s economic and social development. It’s very unfortunate that we’ve already had 98 murders this year (12 of them from the Navy Yard shooter), though it’s heartening that we’re still below the 108 murders from 2011 or the 132 the year before that. People shouldn’t minimize these concerns about urban violence, but it accomplishes nothing in terms of tackling them to concoct weird trends and games out of thin air.

Since you asked what I’m thankful for, I’ll tell you.
I’m thankful that through my intelligence and proper upbringing, I’m not a hateful bigot. I’m thankful that I’m not the only one who takes the idea of “liberty and justice for all” seriously.

“Aren’t you being allowed to chase your dreams, your happiness?”

I empathize 100% with your response to this question. Thanks for putting words to it. I find it easier (in that it’s almost possible, as opposed to not) to downplay and ignore some of my own problems. Because “Oh, it’s just $20,000 to fix that.” is tantamount to “never gonna happen.”

I am shocked, shocked to discover that a conservative who allegedly loves “family values” is spending his entire Thanksgiving on the internet waging a one-man war against the “Democrat party”.

are we allowing enemies of God and freedom to weaken America and curse God?

Curse you, God!

And fuck your friends Thor, Allah, Jehovah, Ba’al, too!

Kneel before the wrath of the FSM!

Attention Concern Trolling Purist who claims to be “a proud member of the white-guilt liberal contingent”*: changing your nym**, but keeping the link to the same douche-tacular URL about which I already said everything that needs saying, doesn’t fool anyone. If you want people on this blog to believe you, find a truthful, reality-based source (which is to say, a liberal source) that’s saying the same things. I realize that’s like asking you to include a selfie in which you’re walking your pet winged pig, but I would need major intestinal surgery to give any less of a [poo poo].

(* You can’t be a member, proud or otherwise, of something that has no meaningful existence.
** At least, I don’t think that’s the nym you used the last too-many times you posted that Malkinite URL castigating Oliver Willis for having the bad taste to speak the irrefutable truth that “conservatives want their own Trayvon”. Since your previous vowel movements have been cut off and distributed amongst the poor, I’ve no way of confirming or denying, and I managed to forget your previous nym anyway.)

Have you ever noticed that the only part of the Bible that is never taken literally is the Golden Rule?

“Do unto others before they do unto you”?

I see that “Purist” “Liberal” (ni saint, ni romain, ni empire), who carries his bowels in his skull, posted another discharge while I was reacting to the first. Again, I will reply to it with all due respect (by which I mean, I intend every whit of the respect that you are actually due).

So, by the brand of “logic” that Snooty Concern Troll favors, when tsam calls Charles Kraphammer a Nazi, it’s not a bitter joke about Kraphammer’s insatiable and possibly literal thirst for Arab blood, it’s a hate crime against anyone with a German surname; but, presumably, when John Derbyshire lamented that we’re not like China, so we’re not going to kill Chelsea Clinton before she acts on the criminal mentality she inherited from Bill and Hillary, that was just a harmless joke and not a will-no-one-rid-me-of-this-meddlesome request. In the words of a great American philosopher, “It must be exciting to think that way, but a real drag having to deal with the clinical diagnosis.”

Vell, Purist Liberal’s just zis guy, you know?

It’s interesting to me that the only way to avoid the fire and brimstone-suffer for your sins-God’s punishment hooferaw is by abdicating all personal responsibility as an autonomous individual and surrendering oneself entirely to Teh Lard.

Lazy shiftless folks are destroying America by choosing to be homeless or whatevers. Their suffering is on them for opting to not be born into the Trust Fund caste. OTOH, if you “choose” instead to never think for yourself and just act as a puppet for some religious leader, blindly following wherever they lead since Teh Bible Tells You So™ – that’s the mark of an adult human being.

Question for teh Mad Crabb: What if God told me to fuck your mom?

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.

– Susan B. Anthony

Never do business with a religious son-of-a-bitch. His word ain’t worth a shit — not with the Good Lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.

William S. Burroughs

I think Burroughs was onto something. When you see one of those little fish symbols one someone’s business card it’s time to hide your wallet.

act as a puppet

I know ‘Meat Puppets’ is taken but I bet ‘Lard Puppets’ is available.

Well do I know how treacherous you (the people of Israel) are; you were called a rebel from birth.
For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to destroy you completely.

God

Relevant:

Assorted Fruits of Wrath

when tsam calls Charles Kraphammer a Nazi […] it’s a hate crime against anyone with a German surname
Imagine how deeply offended I am!

Hint for Purest Liar: when I said “find a truthful, reality-based source” above, I very much did not mean “post the exact same race-baiting comment that already got deleted”. You stack of asses.

Speaking of the little fish symbol on the bumper, dumb me thought it really was about fishing. That it wasn’t a bass or a trout or a red drum, llike those window stickers they give away at Bass Pro or Cabelas, well I thought that it must be a fish unfamiliar to me, some kind of sardine or another because they’re small. Later someone told me what they were about, Jesus feeding the many with a couple of fish. Okay. So they like fish! That’s so cool.

Did someone say “fish symbol”?

there is evidence that Columbus was not only not from Genoa, but that he might’ve been a Catalan

You’d have a hard time convincing the Barcelonans that he wasn’t.

You’d have a hard time convincing the Barcelonans that he wasn’t.

According to my Catalan Spanish professor (ha!) they invented or discovered everything.

Imagine how deeply offended I am!

Kraut ROCKED.

In Too Many Cooks, the main suspect and his daughter are both proud of being Catalan and aren’t Spanish.

OTOH:

When Francisco Franco took over Spain in 1939, at the end of the Spanish Civil War, one of the first things he did was to criminalize the use of the Catalan language. Suddenly, all over the province of Catalonia, placards began to appear: “Don’t bark!” they read. “Speak the language of the Spanish empire!” Franco was an ardent nationalist, but mostly he operated from fear. Much of his Republican opposition had originated in Catalonia and been plotted in that region’s sometimes guttural, sometimes musical tongue.

The fact is, Americans needs to speak American. No more kow-towing the line to minorites.

Kraut ROCKED.

Gerry MANDERED.

Karl MARXED.

Yeah, cell phones and TVs are relatively cheap. Big fucking deal.

I can’t buy a replacement for my 15″ LCD TV. I make about $27k/year.

Cars aren’t cheap. New cars are expensive and older cars can be expensive to keep running and tend to be less fuel efficient. Gas isn’t cheap. Insurance isn’t cheap. Unless you live in one those rare places with decent public transportation a car is a necessity and it has to be reliable enough that you won’t miss work and lose your job.

Don’t I know it. Now 7 years, 1 month into carlessness. If not for scooters…
.

The Bush administration put me permanently off this holiday. Fuck Thanksgiving.

Spring morphs into summer.
Strawberries give way to peaches. Mmm. Watermelons before Christmas. Yum. Apricot jam and quince marmalade. Aah.
Sometimes, I am thankful I live in a farming community.
Eat hearty, all you Thanksgivers.

Apparently, apricots do as well in SA as they do here in California. I just made 10 quarts of apricot jam a couple of weeks ago from fruit and puree that’s been in the freezer since May of this year. Until about a month ago, it was too hot for such cooking, which entails 30 minutes at the stove, then you let it cool down, can it(in jars), and then another 20 minutes to render the contents relatively sterile.

I’m going to try making that SA coconut pie with apricot jam on the bottom for Christmas this year. As my wife likes to say, We’ll see what’s gonna happen.

Yup, all the SouthWest corners of the continents – Africa, Aus, North America – all Mediterranean.
Finest kind. That klappertert is pretty good – I’d recommend it.

Best wishes, Cerberus. Your rants are righteous, and are one of my favourite reads; so I worry about you being able to be there to write them. The last few seem to be showing some real nasty life stressors. Forgive me if I read to much into them, but my enjoyment has been somewhat guilty and raw lately. So remember that you’re more important than your rants, and that your public can just await a little longer if you need a break – not that I would presume to make the suggestion. Basically, I love you and hope you’ll be OK.

Ask your facetube friends: Are you gay for guns?
.

Righteous post, all the way through, and I do mean all the way through. Just nodding my head and fist pumping along.

Squanto learned the fish trick from Basque fishermen? Surely you jest. Fish were used as fertilizer in Eastern Mass maize plantings b/c of the particular nature of the (very shitty–thin, acidic) soil there. They also planted beans in the same field to try to keep the Nitrogen balanced since corn is a N hog and coastal soil is thin, acidic, rocky, etc. I mean, it’s basically sand, rocks, ocean spray (no, really), and rotting pine needles. The More You Know.

Btw, the actress who played Wednesday? Surely she is no longer jailbait. Who’s got a recent pix of her?
.

Oops, didn’t scan thread much to see responses to Basque thing. History profs have been known to make spurious connections about stuff. Woodrow Wilson once tried to link the resoundingly African (and Bantu) “okay” to the Cherokee language. Of course that was motivated thinking because Negroes. Usually it’s just because a thing looks like another thing and we’re pattern loving monkeys.

As for the comment: do the Basque grow corn? Well, of course they do, but corn is an old English term for grain, cereal, which of course is only vaguely–as in, they’re monocot grasses, yes–related to maize, also d/b/a Indian corn. Get it? Corn?

Celtic islanders in the 19th century used to fertilize their corn, which was oats, with smoke-treated thatch. People can get kinda creative about that stuff. Whatever works. Which is to say that it’s not surprising when farm techniques spontaneously appear in different parts of the world simultaneously.

Or it was aliens. Definitely aliens.

I was using the term corn in its’ American sense, referring to Zea mays.

That’s Christina Ricci in the picture. If I could figure how to cut and paste on my Android phone I’d paste the link. She’s 33 and quite attractive these days.

Who’s got a recent pix of her?

For your viewing pleasure JP. Borderline NSFW.

Christina Ricci all growed up

I had an unsettling Thanksgiving at the home of a pretty right-wing couple I know who are having some marital problems. We were five minutes into dinner when he started ranting about “death panels,” then she pretty much called him a racist and left the table for the rest of the meal. I guess the lesson is, whatever our divisions, on Thanksgiving we are all Americans, from sea to shining sea.

I always thought the fish symbol thing was weird. I was told it meant “Fisher of Men”, which for me conjures up the image of a dude who lures men to be hooked and gutted, roasted and consumed. [Great, Hannibal Lechter is modeled after Jebus.]

This is supposedly the fate of beliebers, which seems no less horrible than the fate they say awaits us un-beliebers.

Twist a pig’s ear, hear him………

Unsurprisingly, conservative groups instantly put up a big squeal about the IRS rules; after all, they’re the ones who have exploited the murky old rules most assiduously. “These proposed new regulations put the 1st Amendment rights of Americans at even greater risk,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, a big defender of the right of political donors to masquerade as public-spirited philanthropists and remain anonymous to boot. But make no mistake: Organizations across the political spectrum flouted the law, and they were all in the wrong.

Re : Fish.
The story I heard in my Catholic youth was that the Greek word for fish was the acronym for Jesus, Saviour or summat, so it was used as a secret conspiracy-type deal by the early Christians.
But nuns lie regularly, so ?

I swear I read the same screed last year. Or possibly last week. They really have nothing original to say and never have.

Let us give thanks we’re not flat headed assholes.

The same professor said he has people come up to him all the time saying they’re descended from a Cherokee princess and he feels like saying “no you aren’t.”

My mom recently pulled the Native American descent card and I don’t know where she got it but I told her the percentage was too minute to matter.

According to one ancient story, when a Christian met a stranger in the road, the Christian sometimes drew one arc of the simple fish outline in the dirt. If the stranger drew the other arc, both believers knew they were in good company. Current bumper-sticker and business-card uses of the fish hearken back to this practice.
—Christianity Today, Elesha Coffman, “Ask The Expert”[2]

I was told this one years ago by someone who was, at the time, trying to recruit me into his church. I pointed out to him that the main reason that the Christians were persecuted was not so much because of Rome’s intolerance, but because of the Christian’s intolerance and insistence that their’s was the one and only God. I also mentioned that once the Christians gained power they had no problem throwing non-Christians to lions on regular basis. Funny how my Sunday school class always skipped over that part. Anyway, he did not seem so keen to drag me to his church after that.

The nuns weren’t lying to you about this matter, suezboo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icthus

That’s Christina Ricci in the picture. If I could figure how to cut and paste on my Android phone I’d paste the link. She’s 33 and quite attractive these days.

Dang, I knew that at one time! But like a lot of old timers, I have a hard time believing that movie is that old.
.

“These proposed new regulations put the 1st Amendment rights of Americans at even greater risk,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, a big defender of the right of political donors to masquerade as public-spirited philanthropists and remain anonymous to boot

Jay Sekulow hasn’t given much thought to how one can speak silently or perhaps he thinks the first amendment guarantees the right to be used as a sock puppet.

Ooh:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/27-4

I know I’m just dreaming, but Sanders / Warren or Warren / Sanders 2016 sounds good to me.

Jay Sukulow is one of the original grifters. I give him props for longevity in a field that is seriously overcrowded and in the case of people like Palin, far more photogenic.

Other than that, he’s a big waste of skin.

This has been a test of the Wingnut Emergency System. It was only a test. We now bring you back to the regularly scheduled commentary.

We now bring you back to the regularly scheduled commentary manufactured outrage

Fixed.

Let’s see if UnicodetoHTML does the job:

Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ", (Iēsous Christos, Theou Yios, Sōtēr

Anybody but me see Greek?

L|/V¦¢ο∂ε ¢ο/VφL|εя$ /\|_|_.

Anybody but me see Greek?

I see Greek.

But no dead people.

The Sahara desert doesn’t exist! “Egypt” is the same as “Africa”. The Greeks stole everything from “Africa”.

I am now chiming in to something that is no longer there, so…ignore.

It came through in SeaMonkey, which probably means that it did in Firefox and Chrome as well, TVRBoK.

Some black person said something that made you mad and we’re supposed to care?

She had hair like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965…..

Egypt is part of Africa. The Ancient Egyptian civilization was an African civilization. There are cultural similarties between them and sub-Saharan cultures such as chair design. The Afro-centrists have that right, if nothing else.

@ FA:

I know, and I confess Black Athena was me. Dennis’ misquote (or made-up quote) of Al Sharpton just reminded me of this academic “Black Athena” crap. Now nobody makes fun of Eurocentrism more than I do, and I believe in giving every civilization its due, but Socrates did not go down to the Congo and rape all their philosophy, honest to dog, he didn’t.

Egypt was a big influence on Greek civilization, and in so far as Egyptian culture differed from the Semitic-speaking cultures of the Middle East, it was probably by way of influences coming up the Nile corridor along with Nilo-Saharan speakers from the south…but that’s still not Sub-Saharan Africa. I’m very skeptical of cultural influences crossing the Sahara in the timeframe the Afro-centrists talk about, but now it’s basically degenerated into “Anything Greek that originated in or was copied at Alexandria == ‘theft’ from ‘Africa’ “. (Since Alexandria was located on the continent of Africa as currently defined.)

You’re a lying sack of shit, Pennis. Fuck Off And Die.

I suspect George Zimmerman would shoot Djoser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djoser

The Nubian Museum was really really good for Egypt. Web-site’s not very image-heavy though.

http://www.numibia.net/nubia/intro.htm

Hey, if George Zimmerman saw the 12 Apostles hanging around in a suspicious manner, he’d mow them all down and get off again. The only question would be if they were Crips or Bloods.

Well, we all know it went downhill after Cleopatra was in bed with Hepatitis.

I suspect George Zimmerman would shoot Djoser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djoser

Well, Djoser may have been a darky, but I’m sure Imhotep was a blond guy!

You know, Jesus never asked a leper for a co-pay.

The Ancient Egyptians were awesome enough that we don’t need to paste Ancient Greek achievments onto their list for them to be considered a great civilization Africa can be proud of.

There should be more attention paid to the West Africa’s great civilizations, since most African-Americans (slave-descended, not recent) came from them. Too many people believe the slaves came from primitive Stone Age tribes and not kingdoms with advance blacksmith skills.

Ah, again with the argument that Trayvon deserved to die because he smoked pot and thought about getting high off of cough syrup.

And yes, Dennis, I know your bigger point is Trayvon deserved to die for allegedly curb-smashing Zimmerman so bad it left barely any injuries. But do you have to bring marijuana into it as if that’s such a terrible crime? Jesus and his followers drank despite criticism, maybe they would have blazed too if they had the chance.

…see, this is the only reason why deleting troll-scat is a Bad Thing™. Without a record of his actual words, we have only our own memories to tell us whether Pennis has actually said that Trayvon deserved to die. That said, given my experience of Pennis, I’m sure that even if he didn’t say it outright, he at least smarmily implied it in a way that made it at least as hard for any honest person to deny his meaning as it would be for anyone not a lawyer to say exactly where that meaning was expressed.

Did not!
Did too!
Did not!
Did too!
Did not!
Did too!
Did not!
Did too!

Wait! I’ve got it! Let me just fire up my right-wing echo chamber here:

Some people say that Dennis said Trayvon deserves to die.

We report, you decide.

Never once said it or implied it. Only reported the facts of the case.

“Facts” like lies about somebody “jumping” George Zimmerman or “smashing” his head against the sidewalk? With no effect until it was needed, days later? Nice try, Pennis.

I’ve seen the fucking video, asshole. So have you. The fact that the jury wasn’t allowed to see it doesn’t mean shit. IT NEVER HAPPENED!!!!!!

Oh for fuck sake, is it STILL going on about the KKK vigilante psycho?

Oh for fuck sake, is it STILL going on about the KKK vigilante psycho?

And Obamacare. Never forget Obamacare.

The Obamacare!!!11! steamwhistle is the tell that it’s really all about scaryblackman and/or Democrat in the White House. If Obamacare were single payer or had a public option as part of it, there could be room for doubt. But since Obamacare is Romneycare is a big gift tothe health insurance industry, well, not so much.

Jeebus, if this very mild insurance reform, about a quarter of the way from here to Switzerland, sends them into such paroxysms of rage, what would single-payer have done? I say it’s worth the experiment.

Actually, I think single-provider, like the UK (used to be) or the VA, is the only ethically defensible system.

Yeah, we guys and girls, cis and trans, really are getting a shellacking from the problems with Obamacare

Not.

If there’s one article you want to read today about Obamacare, it’s this one. It’s basic polling information about the public’s current thinking on the law, which shows once again that the general public is seriously out of touch with the DC consensus. 54% of voters are confident the problems with the law will be worked out. And while 58% currently disapprove of the law, 14% of those disapprove because it’s not liberal enough. So it’s not at all the case that a sizable majority want to go back to the bad old system. Those folks are clearly in the minority.

It’s fair to say that you can’t just credit single-payer and public option advocates as de facto Obamacare supporters. Indeed, a subset of this group is among the most vitriolic opponents because they see Obamacare as a cop-out compared to the real solution which is Single Payer. But to resurrect some archaic terminology it’s probably fair to say they are objectively pro-Obamacare (yes, I’m being a little cheeky) when you look through the prism of support for going back to the old system. These folks are never going to support going back.

single-provider, like the UK (used to be) or the VA, is the only ethically defensible system.

This.

One shudders to think how bad Obama would’ve prostituted himself trying to push through single payer. He never would have, but if he had, think how bad he would’ve fucked that up compared to the colossal mess he made with his one single signature piece of legislation.

And this.

It’s fair to say that you can’t just credit single-payer and public option advocates as de facto Obamacare supporters. Indeed, a subset of this group is among the most vitriolic opponents because they see Obamacare as a cop-out compared to the real solution which is Single Payer.

And this.

Single-payer WORKS. I know that from experience in the VA healthcare system.

Obama took single-payer off the table before he even STARTED ‘negoitiating’. Then he abandoned the public option and Medicare-for-all. So he (and we) ended up with a timid, marginal, tinker-around-the-edges Rube Goldberg deeliebob that was rolled out with unbelievable incompetance.

Yes, the rollout will be fixed. Yes, the ACA is better than what was there before it. Yes, the pre-existing conditions crap is–hopefully–gone. But you can sign me up with the 14% who disapprove of it because it’s not liberal enough. The ACA was a hugely-botched opportunity when the Democratic Wing of the Corporate Party controlled (1) the Presidency, (2) the House of Representatives, and (3) the Senate. They even had the magical 60-vote supermajority.

And I don’t want to hear weak-tea excuses about the intransigence of the Republican Wing, either. Criminiy, if the Democratic Wing had an ounce of backbone, they would have nuked the Senate ‘supermajority’ at the START of Obama’s first term for both appointments and legislation.

Jeez, I hope Bernie runs. I’ve voted for him twice already and I’m gonna vote for him again (whether he runs or not). But I hope he runs. (And if he does, I guarantee it will be as an Independent, so screw the Clinton steamroller with a rusty harpoon; Sanders won’t be silenced by the end of a primary season. And it’s not gonna be easy for the MSM to freeze a sitting Senator out of the debates.

Jeez, I hope Bernie runs.

One shudders to think how bad Obama would’ve prostituted himself trying to push through single payer. He never would have, but if he had, think how bad he would’ve fucked that up compared to the colossal mess he made with his one single signature piece of legislation.

While I agree that getting single payer passed would have been quite ugly under current circumstances, I heartily disagree that it would be any where near as messy to put in to practice as the ACA. There would be far fewer players and moving parts involved in a single payer system. It would have been a far simpler law to write and a far simpler law to enact. The conservatives like to point to how many pages there are in the ACA and what a crazy, complicated bill it is. Of course, the bulk of those pages have to with compromises and exceptions and exemptions that those self same conservatives insisted must be in the bill in the first place.

Actually, single-payer could have been implemented with a stroke of the pen (well, two)—in the current Medicare law, where it says the minimum age is 65, cross that out and write in “zero”–done and done.

Yeah that would be so easy. I mean Medicare doesn’t cover a lot of things because it is for people who are age 65 and older (with some very rare exceptions for people with end stage renal disease) and it specifically excludes coverage of abortion even though the chances of a Medicare recipient needing one are really slim but some Republican fuckhole had to make a statement. And services for pediatric patients? Not in there. Guess why.

But just changing the age to Zero would have done something and the fact that sorting out little things like how to get the infrastructure needed to support all of those new beneficiaries would take a few years would be ok because someday everyone would have coverage under Medicare.

Yeah.

Well, shit, I was going to flash a roll that would choke a Clydesdale horse walking in Brooklyn this afternoon, guess I’ll do it in Queens instead.

Must have been hipsters. Brooklyn’s overrun with hipsters these days.

Brooklyn’s overrun with hipsters these days.

And Hasidim. Don’t forget the Hasidim.

Must have been hipsters. Brooklyn’s overrun with hipsters these days.

Han Lee (About his new Karaoke Night at the diner): “Hipsters like karaoke!”

Max Black: “OK, replace the word ‘like’ with the word ‘Hitler’, and you have the three worst things ever!”

Wasn’t black Friday the companion of Robinson Crusoe?

Where did Robinson Crusoe go with Friday on Saturday night?

Liberal dog-whistle whisperers can’t be arsed to speak out.

Geez—somebody is inspired (or paid) to imitate a phenomenon made up by Faux Noise by a “rally” to “protest” that very made-up thing. I’m shocked!

does not equal the very real possibility that he very easily could’ve believed his life was in danger when he pulled his gun got out of bed that morning, and pretty much every other day of his miserable cowardly life.

Fixed it for ya.

There was not a mark on him asshole. You know that. You’ve seen that! STFU!!!

Yeah, DA, he fell and hit his head but lied about having the back of his head pummeled into the pavement by TM. How fortunate for him a witness just happened to come forward saying he saw that.

From a distance, and the EMT said that the wounds weren’t severe enough to require stitches like, if you know, there had been a real pounding of the back of his head to the ground.

But hey, your hero threatened a pregnant woman with a shotgun. I can see why you’re attracted to him like flies are to shit.

OK, so our old LLLLLLL troll The Truth was just an earlier incarnation of Dennis all along, wasn’t he? Pull out an isolated incident (or a completely made-up one), cherry-pick the Internet for random inflammatory quotes or misquotes, and weave it into an all-encompassing Unified Theory of the Violent Depravity of Those People. Same old shit, year in, year out. Bookmark it, libs.

I wish The Fool would come back just to give us a break in the monotony.

But what we really want to know is, what’s your opinion on punk rock?

Say, I hear you’re a blues guitar virtuoso with an innovative sexual technique you practice with your Canadian girlfriend. Please share your wisdom with us.

J Neo, I’m ten times better at this than you found ever hope to be. You cannot win. Your efforts are appreciated, though.

You’re ten times better at boring the fuck out of everyone here and getting your comments deleted in the wink of an eye, I admit.

And that’s it for my engaging and/or snarking about the troll. Just trying to keep the thread alive on this tryptophan-sedated Saturday.

I wish The Fool would come back just to give us a break in the monotony.

Or howsabout Coach Urban Meyer, you looney libs? At least Da Cool Coach had a tiny, tiny sliver of style, whereas the current house troll is compensating for his tiny, tiny pennis.

Also, thanx again to Sadlyburg’s vigilant Border Patrol for prompt deletion of the house troll’s brane-dead screeds and copypasta blizzard.

The fact is, I’m ir regular here just like my comrade-in-arms Dennis. None of you lieberals ever talk about Bengazy because you mindlessly march to the orders of The One, the muslin imp oster from Ken ya who stoll the White House not once but twice. Obamacare will reck this great country and you llieberals don’t give a hott.

I resent the implication that I’m Fake Gary. He’s been phoning it in lately.

You are truly an imbecile, Pennis—but we all knew that.

Tryptophan is one of the lost comedies of Aristophanes; only a partial and fragmentary synopsis survived the burning of the Library of Alexandia.

Tryptophan–elder son of Diabetes and Hypoglycemia, the king and queen of Deltoid–commits an unnatural act with Ibuprofen, a goat. Tryptophan is therefore exiled to Plutonium, where he falls in love with the nymph Cialis who rescues him from the merciless tyrant Epiglottis.

Meanwhile, Tryptophan’s inept younger brother Bronchitis plots to usurp the Deltoid throne with aid from Plistocene, a rich merchant, and Petraeus, the village idiot.

Then Photosynthesis, goddess of sweat, descends from Olympus and silliness ensues.

I liked on Titus when Chris’ mother got out (i.e. escaped) from the mental hospital and made Thanksgiving dinner. She went off her meds and put them in the food instead.

Chris’ brother: “What’s that thing in turkey that makes you sleepy?”

Answer: “Tryptophan”.

“Oh, right”.

Few seconds later: same question, same answer.

Few seconds later still,

Chris: “Hey, tryptophan don’t make your legs numb!”

Face down into his mashed potatoes.

J Neo Marvin skrev:

But what we really want to know is, what’s your opinion on punk rock what are your thoughts on yaoi?

FTFY.

Alternative:

But what we really want to know is, what’s your opinion on punk rock Do you know what the queers are doing to our soil?

(You know? I like you, Stuart Dennis. You’re not like the other people here in the trailer park.)

Tryptophan was good but I don’t think it was Nirvana’s best album.

Thiotimoline will send you back for seconds.

Hi Fenwick. Hope you get this. I can’t figure the Sadly time frame (it is now 11:24 pm on Sat in NYC and you’re post says 3:59) but Sadly is saying 6:17 WHAT?? Anyhow. Nice to see you again.

I’m grateful that 1) I don’t have to depend on private charity and 2) I’m not stupid enough to believe that it’s a substitute for an adequate government safety net.

even where some of the regulars here have dumped a blatant turd at a conservative site, they more than often leave it up.

Ha!
.

I’d like to visit Troll Watch’s universe, some time. Just for laughs.
.

It might be like acid.
.

Jeffraham: I’m assuming you are refering to the hallucinogen … because it provides such a weirdly warped view of reality.

Anon: Hiya! I have never understood Sadly time. I’m sure our Overlords could esplane it.

Oh wait – that was me, Helen; Fenwick. Not ananymous

I believe the time discrepancy is because Sadly No is the product of fine German engineering.

I’m assuming you are refering to the hallucinogen … because it provides such a weirdly warped view of reality.

Nudge-nudge, wink-wink!
.

the muslin imp oster

Imp Oysters: band name?

The Blah Imp Oster Cult. That’s what we loony libs belong to.

Liberal dog-whistle whisperers can’t be arsed to speak out.

I have said this before, and I am disappointed to have to say it again: The “can’t be arsed” construction takes a gerund rather than an infinitive.

Write out 200 times, “Liberal dog-whistle whisperers can’t be arsed speaking out”.
Or alternatively, if you were concerned with making some sense, “Colorless green ideas can’t be arsed sleeping furiously“.

I can’t be arsed doing that.

I can’t be arsed getting out of bed this morning.

Read every last word.

Oh, please, give us some more orders, asshole. You’re so butch!

the worst act of government mayhem since FDR’s National Recovery Act.

Anyone whose opinion of the NRA is negative is living in a parallel universe with no connection to our own.

And here I was so looking forward to being denied coverage because that sniffle I had when I was 4 counts as a preexisting condition.

Battleaks, you’re far more eloquent when you do your Gary Ruppert bit.

Your literary sense is as fucked-up as your politics, you pilonidal cyst. On the other hand, your style is much more natural as “justiceisserved”. You should be yourself more often.

You are demonstrably justiceisserved. I am demonstrably not Gary, Real or Fake. You have no idea of the difference between Real Gary and Fake Gary, do you, you pathetic little attention slut? You’re never going to be allowed in the club with the Kewl Kidz™, so give it up.

You have posted many times as justiceisserved. Many, many times. I have never posted as Gary, Real or Fake. Your pathetic delusion that there is some kind of hot tub party that you are so desperate to be included in is what I was making fun of. You are the most brainless fucker I’ve ever encountered anywhere. Go scrape the bottom of the septic tank to find some more right-wing ooze to copy and paste. I’m sure the latest revelation from the tapeworms in that cesspool will convert all of us.

You are justiceisserved. Why do you want to deny it? Own your repulsive racism. It drips from every one of your postings under any of your nyms. You are not smarter than anybody, you nematode. I don’t know whether your brain has been destroyed by reading the right-wing crap you vomit out on here, or whether your mental dysfunction just led you to that maelstrom of putrescent filth, and I don’t care—but you can take it to the bank: You are not smarter than a.n.y.o.n.e. You are an imbecile, a cretin, and you’d better get back to work or your manager will get upset at you using the free WiFi at the Macdonald’s you work at.

The fact is, let’s just ignore him. His arguments aren’t even internally consistent – for example – does DA suck up to the lie-beral hot tub elite, or is he shunned here because he continues to engage with the pathetic shmuck despite numerous requests to stop? It’s both! Because in Trolly McTrollpants’ world nothing means anything from one moment to the next. By arguing his “points” you show that you care more about them than he does. Note – I am not saying that you are just encouraging him or giving his “arguments” more legitimacy than they deserve. I am pointing out that he has zero invested in his own bilge-spew. You can’t prove him wrong because even he doesn’t believe the garbage he says.

The fact is, he’s slightly less comprehensible than a poorly seeded Janus node.

Ask yourself why you deny being justiceisserved. Why are you ashamed of it? I mean, a normal person with a conscience would be ashamed, but you’re not a normal person with a conscience. Why deny your true self? Everything you post is racist in one way or another, so your saying you “Never once posted anything racist” is so laughable it’s giving me pleurisy.

I don’t look down on most Macdonald’s employees, asshole—just you.

Yeah, you’re right, DKW. I’m through with him for the day. I’ve got actual shit to do. This latest delusion that he can distract from the transparent obviousness of his being justiceisserved by accusing me (!) of being Fake Gary is just so pathetic I had to poke the slimeworm with a stick a couple of times.

You know what else no one does? They don’t write whole paragraph-long blog comments minutely dissecting the writing style of other blog commentators. Only big time losers do that. No one does that, no one except you.

HAHAHAHAHAHA Pennis is smearing shit on his face again.

“By becoming “daddy” to those it deems needy, government has taken away incentives for people to work harder to pull themselves out of bad circumstances.”

Ms. Crabb is doing the blind squirrel routine here – she’s managed to hit on the right point, even though she has no idea what it is.

Clearly, the only sensible alternative for poor folks facing the shitty behavior of the 1% is to fall back on the one corrective remedy available since time immemorial: BANDITRY. Maybe after the Hamptons have been looted and put to the torch we can have a more sensible conversation about helping the needy.

Maybe after the Hamptons have been looted and put to the torch we can have a more sensible conversation about helping the needy.

It’s all good fun until someone gets their head on top of a pike.

Too bad it’s only stupid slightly-less-rich teenagers with cameras robbing the homes of the Super Rich these days.

(Note: do not rob any homes)

robbing the homes of the Super Rich these days.

For their first celebrity target, Prugo claims that he and Lee asked themselves, “Who would leave a door unlocked? Who would leave a lot of money lying around?”, and chose Paris Hilton because they figured she was “dumb.”[16]

BANDITRY

Vote for Matt. He will take a STAND for the cause and DELIVER on his promises.

Oops. Forgot to fix teh nym.

Anyways – Vote for Matt! His platform reached for the sky!

The thing about looting is that the really greedy looters make out best. There should be some rules or something.

I aim for the stars, but sometimes I hit London.

Wernher Von Braun

There should be some rules or something.

And orderly queues.

When I think about if I was rich I think of things like being able to go to Starbuck’s anytime I wanted without thinking about the price or donating to every cause I find. I’m like the singer in BNL’s “If I Had a Million Dollars”. Money can buy the freedom to not to think about money.

Once rockets go up, who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department, says Wernher Von Braun.

Can’t be arsed ordering my Qs. Let the letters fall where they may!

And let the tumbrels roll. Start them at the eastern tip of Long Island.

I saw an orderly queue in the hospital cafeteria.

Looting is what you do to the Koch brothers. When forcibly take their loot.

Pillaging is what you do to Rush Limbaugh. When you forcibly take his pills.

I am demonstrably not Gary, Real or Fake. You have no idea of the difference between Real Gary and Fake Gary, do you, you pathetic little attention slut?

For the record, I did the Fake Gary at 2:47. The Rev Battleaxe said I was mailing it in. I tried … but I put in way too many errors. I should have trimmed it down. Let me try again:

The fact is, I’m a regular here like my comrade-in-arms Dennis. You lieberal sdefend Obamacare because you mindlessly march to the orders of The One, the muslim imp oster who stole the White House not once but twice. Obamacare will wreck this great country and you don’t give a hot.

Much more plausible. The first spacing error sets up the ‘imp oster’ joke. All the spelling is correct except “hot’ at the very end. (Always leave ’em laughing…) Finally, Fake Gary is more focused: He’s pissed off by Obamacare, adding only a soupcon of Birth Certificate and ACORN craziness.

I’ll get better. I’ve learned much from the excellent work of other Fake Garys.

Actually, I should have cut the reference to Dennis, too. Hey, I’m still learning the craft of being Fake Gary.

My apologies, Fenwick—I wasn’t really dissing your last post as Fake Gary. The run of Fake Gary posts the last year or two have been pretty miserable in quality compared with some of the previous gems—that’s all I was really pointing out. That was actually pretty good, especially as revised.

I myself have tried one or two (Not the real) Lunch Lady posts, but just can’t achieve the distilled pithiness of the real thing.

Thanks Rev. I didn’t take it as dissing my effort … but as part of your scathing reply to the knucklehead who didn’t even know the difference between Real Gary and Fake Gary.

I may try my hand again at Fake Gary … but I’ll polish it before I send it!

We haven’t done food pron in a while:

I had some elk shoulder in the freezer so I braised it in white wine with onion, green onion, shitake mushrooms, dried figs, and a dry rub made from new mexico chilis, fennel seed and juniper berries.

It didn’t suck.

The fact is their is no fake Gary. Their is no one real Gary. Their is a little Gary Ruppert in all of us. We are all Gary Ruppert deep down in our conservative, socialest-hating core.

We are all Gary Ruppert, defending conservatism in our own way.

Nothing exotic on the food front here, but I did make a turkey yesterday (we let the niece whose house we went to on Thursday do the Thanksgiving day turkey). Thanks to Bridget on America’s Test Kitchen I made a salt-pepper-herb-butter paste and got it in under the skin all over, then roasted it upside down halfway through, turned it the last half. One hell of a turkey if I do say so.

So the roasting upside down thing really works?

Major—

Yeah, it keeps the breast from getting overdone and too dark, and a lot of the juice from the fattier dark meat runs down into it during the first half. Works a treat.

Only problem was, this was a really big turkey and I came within an ace of dropping it while turning it over. It’s better to stick with 12-14 pound turkeys for that, unless you’ve got bigger tongs than I do.

So the roasting upside down thing really works?

Bridget don’t play, yo.
.

unless you’ve got bigger tongs than I do

Now there is a low bar if I ever seed one.
.

unless you’ve got bigger tongs than I do

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.

I just don’t see the humor here.

Nym-jacking is not cool.

Winter white truffles – tuber oregonense – are appearing but all I found this weekend are immature yet. Black truffles – Leucangia carthusiana – won’t be ready for a month yet. Maybe next week I can find some ripe white truffles. Also hedgehog shrooms should be plentiful soon.

Nice,, happy man,, greeting from me 🙂 cool

Terima kasih kerana menghantar sini.

Pups, do you and Teh Ho go out in the woods with your little baskets or do you get them at the marmers farket?

but all I found this weekend are immature yet.

It sounds like he goes hunting for the truffles, I assume he doesn’t employ a pig or dog in the process as they do in Europe.

I hunt them for fun and profit. A new law took effect last month that requires truffle hunters to have a dog, at least on public lands. Feckin people would go out and rake indiscriminately, wreaking havoc with the biome. There’s a loophole in that the dog isn’t required to hunt truffles, you just have to have a dog with you so i’m sure we’ll still see forest killers.

We don’t use pigs because it’s hard to be stealthy with or hide a pig. People see you heading out with a pig, they’re gonna follow you and horn in on your truffle action.

“Truffle Season!”
“Duck Season!”
“Truffle Season!”
“Duck Season!”
“Truffle Season!”
“Duck Season!”

People see you heading out with a pig, they’re gonna follow you and horn in on your truffle action.

If I saw you leading a pig into the woods, truffle hunting isn’t what I’d think you were up to…

Squeal like a hog………er………hog.

I recommend Toaster Strudels over Pop-Tarts. The extra effort in the kitchen is worth it.

Eeewww. They’re each bad enough on their own but strudels over pop tarts?!?! Yech.

If you don’t prefer hand-squeezed icing straight from the packet I pity you.

Strudels uber alles!

Processed breakfast foods are where the market is going, Pup. It’s about choice. Just let it happen.

I do love those strudel thingies, but I’m hoping that science can develop a means to heat them evenly. Having one 3″ x 5″ bit of food that ranges from frozen to scalding hot seems like an engineering feat on its own.

re: knockout game

if it wasn’t real would the world’s most belovedcomic strip meddler be a victim?

Doug Giles will never be a victim!

Neither of those two Tastee Treats have reached me yet, so I googled and they sound disgusting but probably taste(very) sweet and delish. Same as s’mores which I had never heard of until you guys introduced me to them.
So much American type food (with the always brilliant exception of Sadly food pron) sounds quite revolting, incredibly rich or sweet or fat-laden – just over the top. But I am prepared to accept what you say re its tastiness.

So much American type food (with the always brilliant exception of Sadly food pron) sounds quite revolting, incredibly rich or sweet or fat-laden – just over the top. But I am prepared to accept what you say re its tastiness.

this is all most certainly true…but you are missing out on toaster strudels, though…although i have been known to eat poptarts if necessary…but NEVER a hotpocket…

Doug Giles will never be a victim!

whoa…that is some hard core racism, hatred and violence over there!

whoa…that is some hard core racism, hatred and violence over there!

Otherwise known as “an average Monday” at Clownhall.

bbkf is right (as usual). Here’s the #5 tip for avoiding the knockout game:

5. I recommend studying the news clips that show these knock out clowns at work and make a mental note of the age range and the skin color of the culprits. Duh.

And the comments are wall-to-wall toxic sludge.

The comments are like a window into the mind of Dirty Harry. All of the racism, paranoia, and gun fetishization you can drink.

Very exciting news – Ontario’s review of our Long-Term Energy Plan went live a few hours ago. I’m taking a short break between my second and third reading of it to share the .pdf.

So much American type food (with the always brilliant exception of Sadly food pron) sounds quite revolting, incredibly rich or sweet or fat-laden – just over the top.

I recently went to Disneyland. It’s not just the fat, it’s the insane portion size.

I don’t think I have ever saved half a corn-dog for later, but there you go.

7. Get a concealed carry permit, buy a gun and morph into a proficiency with said weapon that rivals Doc Holliday or Annie Oakley.

Brilliant!

Then when they knock you out with one punch they’ve got your money and your gun. Think of it as one-stop shopping.

Then when they knock you out with one punch they’ve got your money and your gun. Think of it as one-stop shopping.

It’s just that simple. The act of buying a gun will magically give you time to practice, the street smarts of a veteran drug dealer, the reflexes of a rattlesnake on speed, money for the hundreds of rounds a month you will need to get and keep the Navy SEAL level of proficiency you’d need, and it will even give you eyes in the back of your head. Also, it means you will never get a concussion even if you do get a full strength punch in the back of the head.

Most of the steps are just “Be a MANLY badass”. Not helpful at all. I guess he was trying to be funny?

Most of the steps are just “Be a MANLY badass”. Not helpful at all. I guess he was trying to be funny?

I doubt it. I think he’s a weirdo gun nut and his answer to everything is to resort to violence.

the reflexes of a rattlesnake on speed,

this made me lol and think of super macho new york storeowner d00d who stared down would be thugs looking to rob his store…you know, the guy who brings his wads of dough to the bank in a brown paper bag while packing heat and spinning around in front of the bank?

I’m just … I can’t … I don’t even http://www.cfjesus.com

possibly the best testimonial EVER written:
Last Wednesday night as we were ending our prayer meeting, one of the men was expressing how much his church family meant to him. He ended by saying, “It’s all because of those Clowns for Jesus.”

The Knockout Game is not violence, actually, it doesn’t even exist.

As near as I can tell the first mention I ever heard of it was an interview with Ice Cube on 60 Minutes (maybe 20/20?) in which he said he and his friends would knock people out for fun.

That’s a long time from seed to growth.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/knockout.asp

http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/montgomery.asp

Little known Clowns for Jesus fact:

Jesus was given a choice and he chose the crown of thorns over the pie to the face.

Is there anything that can’t be done for Jesus? I’ve heard of Jews for Jesus, pole dancing for Jesus, clowns for Jesus. What’s next? Is it any easier to earn a living doing the things you wanted to do anyway if you claim its for Jesus? If so, I might have to start living like a spoiled billionaire for Jesus. I’m sure the good christians of the world would pay good money to see me take luxurious vacations, drive exotic cars, and ski and hang glide all over the world ..for the glory of god of course.

possibly the best testimonial EVER written:

I’ll see your best testimonial ever and raise with perhaps the best headline ever:

Exciting new BRAZILIAN PUSSY FINGERED by overjoyed boffins

The Knockout Game:

Played by gangs of white thugs dressed in expensive suits who spend their free time loitering around boardrooms. The object of the game is to knockout the largest number of senior citizen’s pensions and/or social security benefits with one stroke of a pen. These animals must be stopped.

Fingering Brazilian pussies for Jesus. I’m in!

Long-Term Energy Planning for Jesus!
5 Minute Dispatch of Variable Generators for Jesus!
Development of a Competitive Procurement Process for Renewable Energy Generators Greater than 500 kW in Capacity with More Emphasis on Local Priorities than in Previous Programs for Jesus!

Is there anything that can’t be done for Jesus?

well, jesus can def do things for you:

“Then I started praying and I asked the Lord to guide my hands” Montgomery says she then reached into her purse and and shot in the direction of the teens and they started to flee. However two of them didn’t make without being hit

I’ll see your best testimonial ever and raise with perhaps the best headline ever:

the ‘relateds’ in the sidebar next to the story are just as awesome:
Pics Japanese pussies slurp ‘meow meow’ sex wine
NSFW Jamie Oliver website offers graphic recipe for ‘Pussy’
Videos Pussy-slurping: You think you understand it, BUT YOU DON’T

What Would Jesus Curtail During Surplus Baseload Generation Events?
Jesus Saves by Switching to High Efficiency Appliances!
Jesus Delivers the Sermon on the Mounting Electrictiy Bills!

Does Giles know just how badly his slip is showing?

In my neck of the woods I occasionally see a van with name “Spirit-Filled Sprinkler Systems” on the side. The first time I saw it I thought back to the hot summer days when we used to cool of by running through the sprinklers and now someone has turned this into an interesting adult game. Then I saw the little fish symbol and realized that they were talking about a different sort of spirit.

The closest I ever got to the “knockout game” was two white, frat-boy looking types giving me the “bums rush” on a Fort Worth sidewalk one night.

Nothing happened, I think they just wanted to see my reaction, which was mostly “What the fuck? Over.”

White folks have been the source of all violence directed at me and as a result I make it a practice to avoid them.*

*Other people too.

The closest I ever got to the “knockout game” was two white, frat-boy looking types giving me the “bums rush” on a Fort Worth sidewalk one night.

Nothing happened, I think they just wanted to see my reaction, which was mostly “What the fuck? Over.”

geez, major…that is NOT how to credibly tell a story* such as that…here, take a look at this commentor of doug giles’:

We’ve reached a point in our society where the political correctness and reverse discrimination has emboldened the thugs. The moral relavitism of the libtards has created the entitlement mentality and now they think they’re entitled to polar bear hunt on our city streets. Just two nights ago we were shopping on Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza and were alone on the sidewalk walking to the last store we wanted to patronize when I heard some slang ebonics being yelled at us. I could tell the thugs were far enough away that I didn’t need to turn and face them yet. When we reached the store entrance and tried to go in, it took a while for the 6 of us to filter through, so I covered the 6 and waited for the taunting thugs. Three teenage blacks waddled past with they’re saggin’ and baggin’. They looked back to see if they could get a reaction out of us. I just gave them my ‘You don’t want my kind of trouble!’ look and they kept going. I wasn’t too worried about the knockout game since they were taunting us and trying to get a reaction. Later one of my kids asked about it & whether the thugs were trying to get our attention by being loud. I said that if they had started anything they would have heard my Glock 26 loud and clear. With a marxist/socialist in charge, the evil ones are emboldened. Walk around in condition orange, pack a gun and a warrior attitude, and protect yourself and your loved ones.

*also answers sarcastic comment regarding what do gun weirdos always resort to**

**besides projection…

I just gave them my ‘You don’t want my kind of trouble!’ look and they kept going.

And as a result, the toilet paper dragged from his shoe all the way home.

I can see it now, the heavily armed gang members stand there awestruck while “warrior attitude” guy calmly unholsters his Glock 26, fixes them with his steely gaze and picks them off one by one with well placed 9mm rounds.

Wait a second. What’s he doing packing a wimpy 9mm? I thought all real he-men carried .45s?

In my neck of the woods I occasionally see a van with name “Spirit-Filled Sprinkler Systems” on the side. The first time I saw it I thought back to the hot summer days when we used to cool of by running through the sprinklers and now someone has turned this into an interesting adult game. Then I saw the little fish symbol and realized that they were talking about a different sort of spirit.

so, yesterday, the daughter and i were having breakfast at a local cafe (which was just named as having the best grilled cheese sammie in mn, btw) and these three old ladies were in the booth right next to us and all they could talk about was church, church, jesus, jesus, religion, non-christians (hellfire & damnation for sure!) and then some more about church…anyhoo, the most talkative of the bunch said that she always felt bad about not going to hawaii while she was young and able. but now, she doesn’t feel bad at all, because she will get to see EVERYWHERE she didn’t go once the rapture happens…

so, a clever entrepenurial sort could make some sort of business plan out of culling the gullibles into spending some rapture travel money…

BTW – Country Club Plaza is hardly “the hood”. We used to lay over about two blocks from there. It’s a pretty nice area as I recall.

I said that if they had started anything they would have heard my Glock 26 loud and clear. With a marxist/socialist in charge, the evil ones are emboldened. Walk around in condition orange, pack a gun and a warrior attitude, and protect yourself and your loved ones. Matthew 5:39

Oh, wait…
But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. Matthew 5:39

Say what you will about Marxists but the streets were pretty safe in Soviet days. Police states tend to have a lot of, you know, police.

because she will get to see EVERYWHERE she didn’t go once the rapture happens…

When she gets taken up in the air she may see those places from a distance, but we’ll all see her granny panties.

Many years ago in the Fenway Pahk area of Boston a buddy of mine and I were on our way to a ball game when a couple of spirited African-American yoots wandered up behind us and slipped an empty plastic milk crate over my head. I, of course, jumped pretty high with surprise which elicited a fair bit of laughter from the two yoots. My buddy, a pretty big farm-grown Iowa boy got his hackles up a bit but I just removed the crate, set it down, gave the kids a smile and said “good one”. Then we all went on about our business. No one was shot, we got to the ball game and the Sox won which won me a six pack. Not that sports fans are superstitious or anything, but if the milk crate had still been there the next night I would have picked it up and put it on my own head just for luck. Fortunately, the Sox were only plating the Brewers and I didn’t need the extra luck.

Or possibly they were plaYing the Brewers. I blame milk crate head trauma.

The Biblestitution is not a suicide pact.

I brave being in the proximity of young black men almost every day and none of them have had the guts yet to murder me/rape me/call me a racist and hurt my fee-fees. Bow down to me!

Rochester’s finest heroically save us from likely knockout game thugs.

http://www.rochesterhomepage.net/story/coach-defends-students-arrested-at-bus-stop/d/story/Yc6H5TSM7USEttdWpshzIQ

Oh how I long for the days of rainbow parties.

so, a clever entrepenurial sort could make some sort of business plan out of culling the gullibles into spending some rapture travel money…

I don’t know if it was rapture travel money in particular, but this guy seems to have done quite well in the culling department.

I send what I can to the man with the diamond ring
he’s a part of heaven’s plan and he talks to me

Someone started up a Rapture pet rescue insurance scam service, so the devout don’t have to worry about Spike & Mrs. Pickles when Scotty Dog beams them up.
.

Oh, here it is.
.

Oh, here it is.

that is pretty awesome…there’s gotta be some hella interesting dynamics in the workplace…

but we’ll all see her granny panties

she appeared to be a sharp pantssuit type of lady…thank goodness…

Fingering Brazilian pussies for Jesus. I’m in!

It’s a win-win-win!

Oh, here it is.

Oh that guy. W. C. Fields was right: never give a sucker an even break.

Douthat’s sad about breaking up with Francis is amusing. A slightly left Pope means mo’ compassionate movement conservatism and . . . and. . . and . . . a mo’ Catholic GOP. Yup. Douthat sad.

I miss Seb.

I miss HTML.

Police states tend to have a lot of, you know, police.

Okay, while the Major’s observation is rattling around in your head, go read Thread Bear’s link at 3:30, if you haven’t already done so….

Miskeyed: The link is 2:30.

Douthat’s sad about breaking up with Francis is amusing

Heh indeed. The whole point of signing up with an authoritarian power structure and bowing to the yoke of the moral guidance of LORD GOD ALMIGHTY is that it should tell other people to behave as you think they should behave.

Otherwise the deal is off.

Fuck that neckbeard busybody with a rusty can opener.

Here’s a link with at least as much persuasive power as, and a lot more honest expression of views than, the one Concern-Trolling Parishioner posted: The Knockout Game is Out of Control

It is happening again. Our city centers are being invaded by the black teens. They arrive with a sinister purpose. They intend to harm us. Groups of black teens are spilling across our peaceful towns and monuments like shadows cast by the falling star of prophecy.

The black teens are not like us. They arrive on buses from faraway places that may not even exist. They communicate in the old language. They wear their hats in a vexing manner.

The black teens crave violence like a thirsty man craves the milk of an ox. They covet our golden scapulars. They have escaped from their warrens. They have fled their sectors. They bare their teeth at our daughters. They mock the righteousness of our constables.

Arrhythmic pump-up music issues from the cracked windows of cars with forsaken wheels. The black teens are flexing and posing their muscles. They are making their hands into fists. They are opening drinks while shopping at the grocery store and returning them to the shelves without paying.

At night, we bar our doors and cower in our beds. The black teens rule the streets. They are tireless. They smash up bottles and spray symbols on our favorite walls. They beat their hands on the hoods of passing cars and score showy dunks on superior technical basketball players.

Where do the black teens come from? What catacombs hide their lairs? Do they have a parent? A conjuror? A clutch of eggs? Or are they made, as the cloud and the gyre, by primordial forces set into motion at the moment the old gods created this existence?

Someone started up a Rapture pet rescue insurance scam service, so the devout don’t have to worry about Spike & Mrs. Pickles when Scotty Dog beams them up.

Don’t have faith that God will provide for their pets, eh?

Oy, late to the party, but what the hell…

Millions of us knew what he meant because we stay informed about important issues like freedom, tyranny, and our out-of-control government.

I always love how these people use the word “issues” (and other Very Serious Buzzwords) and then follow up on them with a few buzzwords that would’ve been too simplistic already in fourth grade.

There is no “issue” in the world that can be dissected usefully into words as vague, nonspecific and, frankly, useless as “freedom,” “tyranny” and “out of control government.” Even putting myself in her shoes – “too much government regulation in the financial sector” is an “issue.” “Tyranny” is not. “Privatization of inefficient publicly held companies” is an “issue.” “Freedom” is not.

And if you are experiencing difficult times, aren’t there generous charitable and religious organizations to which you can go to get temporary assistance?

Charitable and religious organizations don’t “give” temporary assistance. They sell it, at prices far more personal than money. (Or worse, they sell the illusion of it). They’re not offering assistance – they’re offering a lever they can use to control your behavior at the most intrusively personal level imaginable. Want to eat? Then I’d better see you in the pews every weekend. Want housing? Then I’d better see you volunteering at all the church activities. Want health care? Then I’d better see some of that money coming back to us in the collection plate, and I still won’t pay for your reproductive needs, or your drug rehab, or anything else that doesn’t fit the lifestyle.

Oh, and by the way, the bulk of the services these churches offer are state-subsidized. Catholic hospitals and all the rest get public money out the wazoo in order to continue operating. It frees up more money for donations to gay-hating, wimminz-hating, missionary work and other useless shit. If you got health care at a Catholic hospital, odds are you don’t have Mother Church to thank for that – you have the government.

Which, actually, is probably the most repellent part of the entire process. They’re not saying “I want my money to only subsidize what I want;” that would be un-Christian, but at least you could say “fine, it’s their money.” They want to be given money from the fucking government but they want to be the ones who decide what that’s spent on. And the oppression they’re always complaining about is the government imposing rules on how their own fucking money is disbursed.

We all know so-called poor people who have at least one car, sometimes own homes, have at least one TV – many times big screen versions, and just about every electronic device available.

Yes, because America is a country where the luxuries are cheap and the essentials are unaffordable.

The fact that TVs and gameboys are affordable when housing and health care aren’t doesn’t prove that poor people have it good, it proves that “the market” and its dictates are wildly out of whack with the needs of actual human beings.

Even FDR’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society haven’t lessened poverty.

Bullshit.

You could scan the entire 2,000 years of “Christian” charity and not find a single thing that did as much to lessen poverty as the New Deal did in one generation. That whole middle class society whose decrepit infrastructure we’re still limping around on? Thank Social Security, the G. I. bill, banking regulation, public works and all the rest of Roosevelt and Truman’s accomplishments. The New Deal is what turned us from a society with a middle class to a middle class society, in which “not rich but not a peon either” was the new normal (at least if you were white). How did it do that? By lifting the peons to middle class status. All those people living in the idyllic 1950s suburban utopia you want to go back to, where “normal” meant having your own house, your own car, two children and a dog? Former inner city workers and rural peasants for whom these things were affordable for the first time in their lives. When has your vaunted “Christian charity” ever done anything to match that?

You had two thousand years, for Christ’s sake.

Furthermore, do we not understand the biblical principle of for those given much, much will be required?

… I agree completely. Those who have much should be giving a hell of a lot more than they are back to the society (and the people) who made that wealth possible.

Sadly, you won’t find too many people outside of Elizabeth Warren supporters who think that. Beginning with yourself.

You’re not the solution to our problems; you are the problem.

We all know so-called poor people who have at least one car, sometimes own homes, have at least one TV – many times big screen versions, and just about every electronic device available.

No, actually we don’t all know. Easy to say from your McMansion in the suburbs where you don’t have to give a second thought to dividing up what money you have between heat, fuel, food, school supplies, the phone bill, electric bill…

And holy SHIT you better not get sick or have a broken water heater or car problems.

We do, however, know (via actual evidence, rather than hyperbolic bullshit) that this is a reality for several million Americans. But hey, it feels good to sever any responsibility you feel toward these people by pointing at a prepaid flip phone and claiming that this person must be rolling in fat stacks of cheese…

Christian and other religious-based social services aren’t bad. I’m currently using a Jewish one and an Episcopalian one and they haven’t protlyetized to me even once. However, they can’t provide everything. The government also helps me.

At the start of the Great Depression religious and local charities were all that existed.

By 1932 they had been completely overwhelmed and were largely out of resources.

The idea that “The churches used to handle it” that I hear thrown about is manifestly false. They couldn’t handle it, regardless of how good intentioned they may (or may not) have been.

Churches only have so many resources, and they don’t have professional staff to direct resources in the most expeditious and efficient manner. They’re first aid, government is triage and treatment.

Christian and other religious-based social services aren’t bad. I’m currently using a Jewish one and an Episcopalian one and they haven’t protlyetized to me even once. However, they can’t provide everything. The government also helps me.

The ones that don’t proselytize are perhaps less inherently bad than ones that do, but everybody would be better off if we had a government-run, tax-based secular system for helping anybody that needs it. You know, like the WHOLE FUCKING REST OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD does.

Ignoring the way the rest of the world has sorted out health care has become a fundamental part of American politics.

OT in my usual way, so sorry to hear Judy Rodgers died. She ran a good restaurant, wrote a great cookbook and made me a better cook.

Ignoring the way the rest of the world has sorted out health care has become a fundamental part of American politics.

This is the problem with the whole concept of exceptionalism. In human interaction terms, the exceptionalist is that know-it-all motherfucker you can’t tell nuthin’.

has there been a hue and cry in wingnuttistan over the bob dylan hate speech kefuffle?

Judy Rodgers died? Damn. Dinner at Zuni Cafe was always one of the best things about being in SF. Roasted chicken with bread salad is one of my favorite dinners when having guests.

For you heathens that don’t know about Zuni Cafe roasted chicken and bread salad, Deb Perelman has a distilled version which makes it look as easy as it really is (the original recipe is pretty lengthy so it scares people off).

Because of the economic crisis in Greece, more citizens are now scavenging from the garbage for their food, just as wingnut trolls scavenge from online garbage like Twitchy, NRO.com. and, of course, Townhall.com

, Deb Perelman has a distilled version

damn your eyes for that link…looks beyond delightful…

We have wealth distribution in this country, the beneficiaries are the 1%, or, to be more precise, the top 0.1% of Amurican bankers, CEOs and job creators like Mitt RMoney.

It’s been good to see the outpouring of respect for Ms Rodgers amongst cooks of my generation.

Because of the economic crisis in Greece, more citizens are now scavenging from the garbage for their food

So how’s that austerity workin’ for ya?

Note that the same people getting apoplectic about the mythical “Knockout Game” are often the same ones fighting against anti-bullying programs in schools.

Note that the same people getting apoplectic about the mythical “Knockout Game” are often the same ones fighting against anti-bullying programs in schools.

Indeed! The knockout punch is the literal blow to their masculinity.

You know who else likes to deliver literal blows to masculinity?

Your mom.

Someone makes a snark comment on a librul snark blog, and our resident troll is pissed.

Mission accomplished!

In your mom’s defense, she is a knockout.

Someone makes a snark comment on a librul snark blog, and our resident troll is pissed.

Just doing my duty.

But I am gratified to see what’s-his-name reaching across the aisle and coming out in support of anti-bullying programs. I think they would make a difference.

Buh buh but when I post thousands of times to praise George Zimmerman as the messiah it’s snark! Why are you deleting my snark??????

What’s a moderstor, fumble-fingers?

eck…it’s getting icy out…i can take just about anything in the wintertime except ice! my ride right now is a ford focus…dora the explora and i had a run-in with a rather large buck last friday night…not fun! i just hope she is repairable…

Well, at least it’s not a White Bronco. Although I understand that they are quite good at handling the snow.

You know who else had a run -in with a rather large buck last Friday night?

Your mom.

dora the explora and i had a run-in with a rather large buck last friday night

Ouch! I hope there were no injuries – only venison.

PENIS!

dora the explora and i had a run-in with a rather large buck last friday night

Was he driving a Cadillac? Did he have T-bone steaks in the car?

he wasn’t what the average mindless liberal here said he was.

As it turns out he was much worse.

New post.

Also, fuck family. Fuck Christmas. Fuck Thanksgiving.

Also WTF, is our resident troll still publicly masturbating to his KKK fanfics of Zimmerman gently coddling the tiny penises of in-bred conservative hicks?

Huh, and I thought my life was shitty.

tsam skrev:

In human interaction terms, the exceptionalist is that know-it-all motherfucker you can’t tell nuthin’.

ObLewisBlack: “I’m the greatest fucker here! And you snivelling shits would die without me!”

If you don’t agree with Cerb’s assessment of her own life, Pennis, would you like to trade with her and experience its wonderfulness for yourself?

Austin Loomis said,
December 4, 2013 at 5:03

OUCH!

I’ll concede on “not all religious charities are assholes,” but with the point still made that far too many of them are, and more importantly that anyone who presents them as a realistic alternative to the safety net (as whatserface was doing) has an agenda. The kind that correlates negatively with the good of the poor.

Here’s a case in point of what I’m talking about, though – there are places right here in America where the Catholic Church has been gobbling up previously non-Catholic hospitals via mergers and acquisitions like crazy in the last few years. Why do they do that? Because then they get to say “whoops, sorry, but we’re Catholic – no birth control here, no abortions here, no visiting rights for gay people here, nothing our religion doesn’t approve of! Better luck at the next hospital, except, yeah, we bought that one too.” A right that they’re fighting against “Obamacare” tooth and nail to maintain, by the way.

Another example – a relative of mine recently went head-over-heels in love with a fundiegelical “health insurance” program. I looked it up; turns out you pay $285 a year for the privilege of being a member, but still have to pay all your medical expenses up front and then send a letter around to the members of the network asking for them to send you money. In exchange for this? You have to make your entire medical history available to them so that they can make sure you’re living up to their standards (no booze, smoking, drugs, or “sexual activity outside of Biblical marriage”); drug rehab and birth control are, needless to say, not covered; oh, and you have to sign a disclaimer promising never to sue the system if it fails to cover your medical expenses.

That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. Take public health insurance completely out of the picture (which of course is what they’re all fighting so hard to do – and it doesn’t end with repealing the ACA) and in much of the country that’s literally all that you’ll be left with. Can the “good” charities like the Jews and the Episcopalians make up for that? Maybe in some places, but certainly not everywhere.

(And that’s before we even get into much more basic things like the efficiency of religious charities at actually getting the job done, like Kong said – which isn’t what you were talking about but is worth mentioning just the same. Tsam’s “first aid vs treatment” analogy is exactly right).

Are any American citizens here thankful to live in the United States?

I guess that answers my question. Who needs gratitude when you’ve got the cyonide of cynicism?