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Words, “meaning,” and the interpretive community

“Wash. lawmaker wants to banish negative language,” AP:

Decades ago, poor children became known as “disadvantaged” to soften the stigma of poverty. Then they were “at-risk.” Now, a Washington lawmaker wants to replace those euphemisms with a new one, “at hope.”

Democratic State Sen. Rosa Franklin says negative labels are hurting kids’ chances for success and she’s not a bit concerned that people will be confused by her proposed rewrite of the 54 places in state law where words like “at risk” and “disadvantaged” are used.

The bill has gotten a warm welcome among fellow lawmakers, state officials and advocacy groups.

Wow.

“We really put too many negatives on our kids,” the state Senate’s president pro tem says. “We need to come up with positive terms.”

Republican Rep. Glenn Anderson disagrees, saying the potential cost of getting the bill from idea to printing-an average of $3,500-is too much. And besides, he says, he is insulted more by the idea of the bill than what he called the political correctness it represents.

“It’s not the label, it’s the people who show up to help (children) that make the difference,” he says. “What helps is a smart, well structured program, that has funding and credibility.”

Positive labeling is more than a gimmick or political correctness, Franklin says. She believes her idea could lead to a paradigm shift in state government and to changes in classrooms across the state.

In some ways, both lawmakers are correct, says Alison Bryant Ludden, associate professor of psychology at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

Labels can work like self-fulfilling prophecies, Ludden says. The most relevant research on labeling concerns stereotypes concerning gender or race. For example, if a kid knows a teacher has low expectations because of his race, he’s likely to not work as hard, Ludden says.

But Ludden says labels pale in comparison to the impact of real help for kids.

“What matters is the time that we invest in them and the support that we provide for their success,” she says.

Wow.

The National Conference of State Legislatures says the proposal is the first they’ve heard of changing the way poor kids are described in state law.

But there’s one group that’s glad about the possibility of getting rid of the phrase “children at-risk.” The people who publish the annual humorous List of Banished Words banned “at-risk” in 2000, calling it an overused and misused phrase.

But the idea of changing state statutes to say “at hope” instead drew a giggle from Tom Pink, a spokesman for Lake Superior State University. Pink’s office also banished “politically correct” in 1994 along with politically correct words and phrases.

“While I respect what the legislator wants to do, I think we can all agree that changing the words doesn’t change the problem,” Pink says, adding “it maybe even takes attention away from what perhaps should really be happening.”

Franklin says she’s been thinking of this idea for a while.

She saw a way to turn her notion into a bill after visiting the local Boys and Girls Club and observing how they were working with a national organization called Children At Hope to change kids’ ideas about themselves and influence the way adults think and talk about them.

The chair of the Senate Education Committee doesn’t expect Franklin’s bill will go very far this legislative session, which is scheduled to begin Monday. But she says that won’t stop the proposal from having an impact on the adults who gather in Olympia.

“At least we’ll hear the voices of the young people,” said Democratic Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, who promised the bill would get a hearing.

Wow.

Wally Endicott, the northwest director of the Phoenix-based Children of Hope, says he was excited to talk to Franklin about the bill.

But he is not thrilled with the idea of using “children at hope” to refer just to the disadvantaged. His group uses the concept to talk about all kids, not just those in poverty, because all children have obstacles to their success.

If Franklin’s proposal is approved, Pink has no doubts the idea has the potential to catch on quickly.

Years from now, he says, “at hope” could even make Lake Superior’s List of Banished Words.

I have half a mind to move to Washington state and petition for a bill that would declare me rich.

If it fails, I’m no worse off — well, other than that I’d now be stuck in Washington state. But if it succeeds? Ka-Ching!

(h/t Terry H)

330 Replies to “Words, “meaning,” and the interpretive community”

  1. newrouter says:

    how’s that at hope and change working for you

  2. Chris S. says:

    So at the end of the day everyone will know that “at-hope” means poor and disadvantaged. Gotcha.

    Will we have to change other documentation as well? “Bring me your sleep requesting, your at hope, your dome shaped communities yearning to breathe free.”

    So what does this new proposal say about the Obamas campaign slogan “Hope and Change”?

  3. sdferr says:

    “Labels can work like self-fulfilling prophecies, Ludden says.”

    David Gergen is a potato. Potatoes want boiling and mashing to a starchy paste.

  4. Pablo says:

    “At least we’ll hear the voices of the young people,” said Democratic Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, who promised the bill would get a hearing.

    Kids say the darndest things. Like “retarded”, “ugly”, “brokeass”, “queer” and “at risk”.

    OK, I was kidding about that last one.

  5. happyfeet says:

    poverty has a stigma cause of the clothes it makes you wear and also it limits your opportunities and makes you watch too much tv and do drugs and live where it’s not safe with the other poverty people…

    you can’t destigmatize this with words you need to put them all on a makeover reality show and even then not all of them will escape the stigma cause of they might be ugly and/or stupid just naturally

  6. sdferr says:

    Was it poverty caused Megan Fox to have a head of cauliflower tattooed on her inner right forearm?

  7. happyfeet says:

    and like if you have an x-box you just have the games it came with unless you like gank somebody, which, that’s not a very at hope thing to do really, is it?

    No. It’s not.

  8. Mikey NTH says:

    The fools keep trying to deny reality, don’t they? The stigma flows to the new word, like when they labled the mentally handicapped kids as “special”.

    Funny thing about reality, though. It keeps showing up at the most inconvenient times, undoing all of the work of the fools.

  9. Mikey NTH says:

    “Labels can work like self-fulfilling prophecies, Ludden says.”

    Building self-esteem outside of any actual achievement hasn’t caused anyone to achieve more afterwards.

  10. sdferr says:

    Barack Obama is a beautiful nipponish aubergine. Which wants frying and mating up with capers, tomatoes, olives and peppers, stewed in a snappy sharp sweet and sour sauce.

  11. Makewi says:

    As it turns out, George Carlin was a prophet.

  12. DarthRove says:

    I think Rosa Franklin wants to live in San Angeles with joy-joy people and three seashells in all the Taco Bell bathrooms.

    Fuck those ratburger eaters in the sewer, though. They’re just icky.

  13. happyfeet says:

    I’m at hope… for some tasty mexican food!

    Me and NG bofe!

  14. I think we should call all of the poor kids “cup” and all of the cups “pencils” and all the pencils “poor kids”. That way when you buy a poor kid from a cup holding a pencil, the poor kid ends up being more useful than the pencil and the cup and it’s usually not that way at all.

  15. You’ll probably get fined because the cup doesn’t have working papers, but what the hell, that cup is probably keeping his family from starving. Or “blossoming” if I have my way.

  16. BJTex says:

    Wait … wait … at EJ’s link the early learning program was was described as designated for “low-income kids.” Would they be “at hope” without the program or “in hope” with the program or … because “low income,” while not necessarily stigmatizing the “in hope” kids might could cause the stigma for their parents, complete with spontaneous bleeding and such.

    Income challenged? Cash Carried? Dis-asset-vantaged?

    Of course the “single mother” begs the deficit addled state not to cut any programs for the “at hope or “in hope” CHILDRENSES! so if they do maybe they’ll be low income “pining for hope” kids.

    Futilely, I might add, making them … hopeless? Hope deprived? Ah, hope disadvantaged!

    I’ve always thought of my over weightiness as being “clothes challenged” but I get lots of smirks when I try that. Oh, and stay away from my X-Box, you ganker!

  17. Makewi says:

    How about we call all poor kids “light skinned and lacking in a negro dialect” since this is now a positive thing to say?

  18. cranky-d says:

    LMC, that was probably racist.

  19. but if it’s a positive thing, why have laws to change that?

  20. cranky-d says:

    Denounced. Denounced and condemned, all of you.

  21. lordsomber says:

    “How many legs does a dog have, if you call his tail a leg? The answer is four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” — some old white guy

  22. BJTex says:

    “You’ve been a very, very bad cup! Go sit in the corner and pine for hope!”

  23. happyfeet says:

    Makewi shoots and scores I think.

  24. Lazarus Long says:

    “It’s not the label, it’s the people who show up to help (children) that make the difference,” he says. “What helps is a smart, well structured program, that has funding and credibility.”

    Mom and Dad?

    Not so much.

  25. sdferr says:

    “Franklin says she’s been thinking of this idea for a while.”

    Democratic State Sen. Rosa Franklin doesn’t qualify as any vegetable known to man. She’s rather more like a chunk of gneiss “rich in feldspar and quartz”.

  26. BJTex says:

    Happyfeet: You should be pining for “undocumented and hoping for citizenship food.” We’ll have to take your X-Box away.

  27. Lazarus Long says:

    “Comment by sdferr on 1/12 @ 12:26 pm #

    Was it poverty caused Megan Fox to have a head of cauliflower tattooed on her inner right forearm?”

    She loves David Gergan.

    NTTAWWT.

  28. BJTex says:

    OK, #26 made me snort something gross and green onto my sweatshirt.

  29. Lazarus Long says:

    “Calling a tail a leg doesnn’t make it one.”

    -Robert A. Heinlein

  30. sdferr says:

    What, you’re intimating she’s more like a bloogie, BJTexs?

  31. Lazarus Long says:

    ‘Words, “meaning,” and the interpretive community’

    “Liberals have stated many times that racism exists in the ear of the offended. If a duly consecrated victim group decides to take umbrage at certain language, it automatically becomes toxic, no matter the intentions of the speaker.On the other hand, victim groups can issue blanket absolution to anyone they wish.”

    http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/01/11/the-power-of-thin-skin/

    Sounds kinda familiar.

    If only there were a web site where such ideas could be discussed…….

  32. I’ve decided to change my name to two and one half minutes of interpretive dance, can someone tell me how to spell it?

  33. DarthRove says:

    LMC:

    I’d suggest this, I think it’s free now.

  34. Nope, giving up. I kept burning myself with the candles.

  35. McGehee says:

    “Wash. lawmaker wants to banish negative language,”

    Undoubtedly because it’s racist.

  36. DarthRove says:

    LMC, you’re supposed to stick the unlit end in. Just tryin’ to be he’pful.

  37. geoffb says:

    This proposal show promise but it doesn’t hit the right note yet. To really get the “magic” of words moving for those “at hope” children there has to be something extra added. All workers who are dealing with these children, perhaps all state employees dealing with everyone should be required to only vocalize in song. It’s “magic” for the children after all.

  38. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    George Orwell phoned in a comment from the grave, but I couldn’t understand it as he was speaking in some strange dialect.

    Possibly “Negro”, but I’m not sure. I will look for a non-light skinned translator.

    “At Risk?” Disadvantaged”?

    No good?

    Ok. With this river in Egypt brain trust at the helm, why not just go on and change all “offending” statute language to describe these kids as “perpetually fucked.” It has the benefit of being true as long as these particular legislators have any input. At least until the kids are free of the US Dept of Education.

    Good grief.

    Since we didn’t get enough back story, I’m just going to go ahead and assume this is part of the reason why Rambo shot up a town in Washington St. in First Blood.

  39. JeffS says:

    I’m sad to report that this is the state that I live in. Olympia is a waste of time and money. I’m amazed the place doesn’t implode from all the airheads parked there.

    Time for me to contact my state legislators. They’re Democrats, but smart ones.

    And, no, that’s not an oxymoron. A rarity, I grant you. But still possible.

  40. Darth,

    Great. How do I get them out?

  41. DarthRove says:

    Miralax and happy thoughts.

  42. The Lost Dog says:

    Rosa asked me if I was “at hope”, and I responded:

    “SLOIGHTLEEEEEEEEE!”

  43. cranky-d says:

    But mostly Miralax.

  44. cranky-d says:

    I’m not sure how much more “help” these poor kids can take. Help them any more and they’ll start dying at an even faster rate. If they are dying, of course. Which the presumably are.

    Poor, poor pencils!

  45. dicentra says:

    So, now if you’re born in the middle class, are you “without hope”?

    “Hope sated”?
    “Hope complete”?

    We really need to be careful that whatever label we give to children in a sad situation it doesn’t redound negatively to the kids who aren’t.

    Lest it become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  46. cranky-d says:

    The question that theses jackasses should be asking is not “What causes poverty,” but “What causes success.” I think most of us know that all their “help” seems to make things worse.

    Yeah, I stole that. So what? You’re not the boss of me!

  47. happyfeet says:

    that was the best undocumented and hoping for citizenship food I’ve every had at that price point… very yummy and austere like those little places in NY you just gotta know except for it’s in Studio City

  48. mojo says:

    What a retard.

  49. Mikey NTH says:

    Let’s just call them ‘princess sparkle ponies’ and move on to another imagilicious topic!

  50. B Moe says:

    They understand the words matter, they just can’t figure out why.

  51. cranky-d says:

    Politics has me thoroughly annoyed. Time to click on the “cornify” button. A lot.

  52. tendationalist says:

    See if she had just said “we’re the lawmakers and we should make the laws this way because that’s what we want them to mean” it would be just fine.

  53. cranky-d says:

    No, it wouldn’t.

  54. Lazarus Long says:

    “Comment by dicentra on 1/12 @ 1:56 pm #

    So, now if you’re born in the middle class, are you “without hope”?

    “Hope sated”?
    “Hope complete”?”

    Howze about “Capitalist exploiter running dogs”?

  55. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    Next the nanny state will just take a page from George Lucas, and flat out clone pliable children from Jango Fett.

    Like a long time ago (in a Galaxy far, far away), it won’t turn out well.

    But, they don’t care.

    Somehow it will still be, “for the greater good.”

  56. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    So, now if you’re born in the middle class, are you “without hope”?

    “Hope sated”?
    “Hope complete”?”

    Hope-monogenized.

    Which in real wakey wakey world means:

    Hope-marginalized.

    Suck on it kid.

  57. B Moe says:

    Next the nanny state will just take a page from George Lucas, and flat out clone pliable children

    Nah, cloning is too expensive, it is cheaper to have them made overseas.

  58. .38 +P says:

    “…I think we can all agree that changing the words doesn’t change the problem…” Well who said anything about changing the problem? This is about feeling good about ourselves and congratulating each other on our good intentions, while those evil Republicans are out there smacking kittens with their polo mallets.

  59. wahsatchmo says:

    Of course changing words changes the problem! It changes it from being a question of resolving poverty issues to one of replacing one word with another, which is something we all understand how to do. In fact, I just solved my problem of not wanting to wear any pants in public to being “at pants” in public.

  60. happyfeet says:

    Stroger’s opponents in the race for board president are smeared: Alderman Toni Preckwinkle is referred to as “Aunt Je’Mamie;” Clerk of Court Dorothy Brown is called “Ass Kizzy;” and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O’Brien is labeled “Cracker Boy Bottom Feeder.” A reference to the n-word is positioned near a photo of Brown.

    I think that’s opposed to be cracka boy bottom feeder, no?

  61. Letitbeme says:

    “Ka-Ching”

    Occidentocentric racist.

  62. sdferr says:

    “…splitting our Black vote…”

    I got mine righ’cheer an its all intact too. humbug the splitting

  63. Mr. W says:

    Compared to liberal Newspeakers, Orwell was a rank amateur.

  64. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    “Alderman Toni Preckwinkle”

    That’s gold Jerry!

    And the best they could come up with is “Aunt Je’Mamie”?!

    Them, uh, Chi-Coms may have corruption down to a science, but they sure as Hell ain’t funny.

  65. And “dead” now equals “pining for the fijords.”

    “Murder” is now “float.”

    “Theft” is now “brew.”

  66. Jack says:

    I guess she has never heard of irony.

    What a moron. Seriously, she is stupid, foolish and totally nuts.

  67. Mr. W says:

    Sorry. I have a one-track mind.

    This just in from Massachusetts: Obama so incompetent that he actually has managed to turn the unions against him, and all the Newspeak in the world will not change that salient fact.

    I love Obama. I used to just like him, but since he started getting serious about destroying the Democrat Party down to their very roots, I now have a huge man-crush on him.

    Call me, ‘Bama!

  68. Blake says:

    Mr. W.

    I’m trying to decide if Obama is staying away from Massachusetts because he doesn’t want to be associated with a losing campaign.

    Or, has President Obama become so toxic, the Coakley campaign asked him to stay away?

  69. cranky-d says:

    Their towering incompetence may be the only thing that saves us.

  70. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    Blake,

    You are the closest between the two prices…

    Come on down! You’re the next contestant on THE PRICE IS RIGHT!!!!

    Also, Bob Barker asks that you “Please spay and neuter your Progressives”.

  71. geoffb says:

    Howze about “Capitalist exploiter running dogs”?

    “Wrecker”, quite traditional and I believe is now in the public domain so it’s use is free.

  72. Blake says:

    Lamont,

    I have no problem neutering progressives, except, my eyesight isn’t up to discerning tiny items any more.

  73. Republican on Acid says:

    Right now, there are probably millions of people in Haiti in a state of “at hope”.

    Prepare to see evidence of Barack Obama saving the entire nation of Haiti even if he does nothing.

  74. Kresh says:

    “At Hope” isn’t even grammatically correct.

    Like we need another pointed reminder that Politicians are frikkin’ retarded. Although, to be honest, having a a D next to you name is a fairly reliable indicator of potential moronic thought processes.

    Just sayin’.

  75. Kresh says:

    …next to your name… Sheesh!

  76. Mr. W says:

    SEE THE AGONY OF A PARTY DESTROYED BY THE MAN THEY LOVED, THE MAN THEY HAD TO HAVE, THE MAN THEY HAD LONGED FOR…THE ONE.

    BARACK OBAMA: NOW STARRING IN ‘THE KARLROVIAN CANDIDATE’

    “I knew Rove was good, but I never imagined he was THIS good!”
    -Bill Ayers

    “I laughed ’til I cried at his sheer incompetence! Tragic!”
    -Saul Alinsky

    “I wept when I realized the damage we had done…to ourselves!”
    -Andy Stern

    “And people thought I was a clownish buffoon with his foot in his mouth!”
    -Joe Biden

  77. Why isn’t Barack Obama already on the ground in Haiti?

  78. Mr. W says:

    I trust that answers the question of why he is staying away from Massachusetts.

  79. donald says:

    God Bless America.

  80. B Moe says:

    When your product is failure incompetence is a feature.

  81. Mr. W says:

    WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A MORONIC SENATE MAJORITY LEADER DOES INTERVIEWS?

    GET THE ANSWER WHEN HARRY REID STARS IN ‘THE COLOR MOCHA’

    “That boy sure is clean and articulate!”
    -Joe Biden

    “Reminded me of that boy that got me and Ted Kennedy coffee!”
    -Bill Clinton

    “I used to be the Grand Kleagle in the West Va. Klan and nobody cares!”
    -Robert Byrd

    “I should have been a Democrat!”
    -David Duke

  82. Joe says:

    Is ragamuffin okay? Urchin? Waif?

  83. Mr. W says:

    Jack Cafferty just launched on Pelosi on CNN. Said she was a, quote, “horrible person”.

    C frickin’ N to the N.

    Methinks even the chumps at the top of the liberal food-chain are starting to get wind of the fetid wave that will soon wash the Dems out to sea.

  84. Pablo says:

    Why isn’t Barack Obama already on the ground in Haiti?

    Barack Obama doesn’t care about black people.

  85. Spiny Norman says:

    dicentra,

    >We really need to be careful that whatever label we give to children in a sad situation it doesn’t redound negatively to the kids who aren’t.

    Are we sure that is not their intention?

  86. Mr. W says:

    Wrong again, Pablo.

    Barack totally cares about black people tons, just as long as they are in his family. Not distant relatives, mind you, like aunts, cousins, grandmothers, and uncles, but he cares about the ones in his ‘nuclear’ family…a lot.

    Barack Obama is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.

  87. Joe Biden says:

    Barack Obama is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.

  88. Harry Reid says:

    Barack is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.

  89. Bill Clinton says:

    Fetch me and Ted a drink of some hot coffee, Barry. Our throats are just parched.

    Ahhhh, you’re a good negro, Barry.

  90. Mr. W says:

    Wow. Good thing Bill is black or he could get in trouble with Toni Morrison for that kind of talk.

  91. newrouter says:

    joe biden doesn’t care about negros unless they’re clean and articulate

  92. happyfeet says:

    Michael Steele is widely understood to be a useless bumblefuck.

  93. happyfeet says:

    oh. And it looks like the googlefags might have learned a Values. Good work, googlefags.

    babysteps

  94. newrouter says:

    As Lileks puts it, “Google lies down with dogs, wakes, does search for ‘flea treatment.'”

  95. Alec Leamas says:

    Might I propose “pre-incarceration?”

  96. Joe says:

    How about unaborted? Too strong?

  97. Barack Obama says:

    How about mistakes?

  98. LBascom says:

    I’m tell’in ya, these miserable fucks got waaaaaay too much time on their hands.

    They need to do four months in DC, then spend the other eight in their own state (district, if in the house)as private citizens with the rest of us.

    It would solve 99% of what’s wrong in this country.

  99. cynn says:

    I love to check in and see the rhightist bumblefucks mumble amongst themselves.

  100. newrouter says:

    “Consider this and their Palin-baiting to be an official admission that they no longer believe that running on a standard liberal policy agenda can carry them over the finish line even in Massachusetts.”

    here

  101. McGehee says:

    101. Comment by cynn on 1/12 @ 7:57 pm

    Speak up, Cynn. E. Nunci. Ate.

  102. Joe says:

    Cruel

    and for Darleen

    UNCual.

  103. sdferr says:

    There’s got to be a lesson in there somewhere, maybe even two, and here they are:

    ONE: I, like most frequent flyers nowadays, am mentally ready to hurl myself at some guy with a weapon or who acts like a terrorist. But I was totally paralyzed by the naked man. It was like watching a silent movie that might turn out to be hard core porn. But then again maybe it was a comedy. You couldn’t tell, because the tempo was so relaxed.

    So it seems to me that naked terrorists might be very dangerous. I hope Homeland Security is working on this;

    TWO: If the airlines are going to permit passengers to take off their clothes and stroll down the aisles, they should limit it to good looking women. They might even charge extra for those flights.

    2B: They make you turn off your telephone, so I didn’t get any pictures…

  104. box o' wine says:

    I’m over here, cynn. Now let’s leave these nice people alone.

  105. happyfeet says:

    where is Bob Reed? he is missing. I can tell cause he’s not here or over at Dan Collins’ place.

  106. happyfeet says:

    Yes. The Dan Collins what wrote a book.

    Same guy.

  107. bh says:

    hf, my eyes aren’t very good. What do the words in the upper right yellow say?

  108. bh says:

    Just can’t make them out.

  109. sdferr says:

    The Holder-Obama Justice Dept. appears not to give a shit what you think of their political machinations. They may come to regret this stance if or when the balance of power changes in the Congress and committee chairmen decide to begin to call them to account. These are very foolish men, these HolderObamamen.

  110. bh says:

    Nevermind, hf. If you go here, and click on the preview link below the book, you can just make it out.

  111. pst314 says:

    “Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.”

    -not Robert A. Heinlein, Abraham Lincoln.

  112. pst314 says:

    I can just see these “children at hope” eventually graduating, thinking that they are going to succeed in life, only to find that they in fact utterly unqualified for anything more demanding than sweeping floors. In their anger and despair they will look for scapegoats for their troubles, and will blame Racist Amerikkka. Oh wait–it’s already happened.

  113. geoffb says:

    So we are now commenting on the Zombie site? Nah, I know it’s, Anno Armadillo.

  114. zombie bh says:

    On the plus side, there are plenty of brains around here.

  115. geoffb says:

    Sheesh, another thread turns to a discussion of food.

  116. zombie bh says:

    As a modern fast zombie, I strongly hope that I can finally use my recipe that calls for both Mal the Tert and Ric Locke.

  117. sdferr says:

    Someone tossed an offhand comment bh, to the very effect contained in that yellow shield and Dan, at the time, snapped it up for later use (effected now, apparently) with an accompanying query whether it wouldn’t be appropriate. I think he got a grudging ok at the time, if I remember all that right.

  118. zombie bh says:

    I remember it, sdferr. The difference between tongue in cheek and passive aggressive? The true amiability of the parties, I’d say.

  119. Lamontyoubigdummy says:

    Deep fried…

    BRAAAAIIINS!

    WITH COOOOUNTRY GRAVY

  120. zombie bh says:

    But, perhaps, the fact the book isn’t being strongly plugged here tells us what is what?

  121. sdferr says:

    Could be. On the other hand, you say brains, I think scrapie, so who knows?

  122. zombie bh says:

    Regardless, I wonder if Bob Reed’s brain actually tastes like rocket science. And how fast he is.

  123. geoffb says:

    The best way with brains is to use those tables with the hole in the middle. Live brain, the freshest ever.

  124. sdferr says:

    Bob may ought to be faster than the old saw would have it, if you modern zombies are willing to pass up his slower companions. I’ll warn him next time I see him, just to be s a f e.

  125. sdferr says:

    Which (brains that is) brings us back to the chunks of gneiss currently running the country — and the difficulties their condition put us in — namely, that when you beat a chunk of gneiss with a stick, it doesn’t respond appropriately, but will wear out your stick in a trice. It’s a puzzle, it is.

  126. zombie bh says:

    Well, death made me stick proof as well. So, I got that going for me.

    Oh, and if you warn Bob? I’ll gnaw your Homer holder.

  127. Pablo says:

    Better dead than red.

    BRAAAIIINNNNS!!!

  128. Pablo says:

    The best way with brains is to use those tables with the hole in the middle. Live brain, the freshest ever.

    You remember the monkey from Faces of Death too, don’t you?

  129. sdferr says:

    Are ya’ll modern zombies more the Searle type zombies or the Romero type zombies? Cause a Usain Bolt Searle type zombie would be a serious problem, I’m thinking.

  130. happyfeet says:

    oh hey yeah there is text in a yellow star thingy… I don’t know what that part means. But it’s a great book. And the whole dealio can be yours for under $20. Which, y’all know what that is. That’s right. Value. You click. Mine is already on the way but it’ll take maybe ten days cause I got the cheap shipping.

  131. zombie bh says:

    Worse yet, sdferr. Some of us modern zombies can ride bikes. Too lull you into a false sense of safety we use little girl bikes with baskets and pink streamers.

  132. sdferr says:

    Professor Hanson puts better what I was trying to get at about 2010 a little while back:

    Get ready and brace yourself. 2009 was spent sowing the seeds of foreign adventurism through apology, kowtowing, trashing the prior administration, reaching out to thugs, neglecting allies, and talking up the corrupt UN. 2010 will be spent reacting to the harvests of that bitter investment. Right now we are down at the OK Corral, with a lot of seedy gunmen looking sideways to see who fires the first shot in expectation that he can get what he wants with a little flashy holster work. If he gets away with his threats and braggadocio, down the road a real shoot-out will follow.

    Or wear goofy helmets and mommy jeans, bh?

  133. geoffb says:

    You remember the monkey from Faces of Death too, don’t you?

    Yeah but also Ray Liotta in “Hannibal”. The human version of HAL in the end.

  134. zombie bh says:

    Heh and lol. Well, that would explain the photo of him and Biden in tuxes, sdferr.

    He wasn’t Joe Cool or condescending. He was hungry and finally realized Biden had no brains.

  135. zombie bh says:

    Great scene, geoff. That Dr. Lector, for a non-undead, he certainly had exquisite taste.

  136. sdferr says:

    “…finally realized Biden had no brains.”

    Always the last to know with that guy. He’s another of these “at Hope” creatures, I’m guessing.

  137. sdferr says:

    In contrast, by the way, ol’ Bush has been practically brilliant choosing as he’s done to remain virtually silent this whole year. Here the Dems want desperately to swing at him but there is nothing there save empty air. Must be damned frustrating, that.

  138. zombyboy says:

    “Wow” is right. The well-meaning condescension of folks who believe that positive labels will miraculously create positive results is obviously a much stronger impulse than I would ever have imagined. Twenty years ago I would never have imagined that this would have been anything other than a SNL skit–a joke about ludicrous extremes, not a news story about creeping idiocy.

  139. geoffb says:

    Any warmer down there this evening sdferr? I’ve got 26 here, practically a heat wave.

  140. sdferr says:

    Yes it is quite a bit warmer… currently I’ve felt no need for the space heater at all. brb

    Says here we’re running at 40.1° which is also the forecast low for the night. so much better indeed.

  141. happyfeet says:

    ohnoes. nishi may have been more right about the Tea Party than I thought.

    And some of the most controversial speakers at the National Tea Party Convention, like Rick Scarborough

    I read that at that Hot Air site. Here. And you know what I thought in my head? I thought wtf is Rick Scarborough? Why so controversial, Rick?

    Scarborough believes that the tenets of fundamentalist Christian morality apply to civic affairs. He was quoted on Christiane Amanpour’s documentary series “God’s Christian Warriors” on CNN as saying, “I’m not a Democrat, I’m not a Republican. I’m a Christocrat.”*

    He’s against HPV vaccination.

    He endorsed… Mike Huckabee.

    He sounds fucking fabulous. A real winner for cable news superstar Sarah Palin to co-brand with. That’s… that’s super savvy.

    God help us.

  142. geoffb says:

    Glad to hear it sdferr.

    Got to say g’night early. Wife has her annual MRI tomorrow morning. Early day for me.

  143. happyfeet says:

    goodnight geoff and my best to your wife too

  144. sdferr says:

    Who is this Weigel guy? Ya’ll know him?

  145. sdferr says:

    Hey, g’night geoffb and best to the missus.

  146. geoffb says:

    I see nishi is still yanking the same chain. Tea Parties are full of lots of different folks, as is the USA. Relax.

  147. happyfeet says:

    Weigel is an utterly homogenized dirty socialist indistinguishable from any other dirty socialist. That was probably a tautology I think. I read another thing of his just recently and only got half way.

  148. happyfeet says:

    I think the National Convention thing might not be kosher. I think the Red State guy is probably bang on.

  149. zombie bh says:

    Well, hf, let me just say that nishi doesn’t make my mouth water.

    The question is this? What is the Tea Party movement? Is it grassroots or is it what you might see at a formalized top down parasitic type teevee event?

    And, I ask that as a guy who went to one where a speaker was talking about gay people in cartoons (seriously) and thought, “What’s that have to do with high taxes and big government?”

  150. bh says:

    Night, Geoff. Best of luck with A.

  151. happyfeet says:

    thi9s guy. erick with a k.

    this feels scammy and why did they invite the Rick guy what wants women to die of cervical cancer?

  152. happyfeet says:

    oh. this isn’t supposed to have a 9.

    hey though. nishi tends to have a point in there. And her point was that the Tea Party was going to be very very easy for the dirty socialists to rebadge. And the next day bam she’s right.

    Or was that this morning? I get all mixed up like that.

  153. geoffb says:

    Thanks guys. It’s just a regular annual MRI, which at least now only takes a few days to schedule. ‘night for reals.

  154. happyfeet says:

    I think it was grassroots. I think it’s being co-opted. And I don’t see what its value proposition is.

  155. bh says:

    I agree, it is being co-opted. But, I think it’s about voting now. If those earlier crowds morph into voters voting out dirty socialists later this year, I could care less what the empty carapace ends up doing on teevee.

    And, thus far, the polling numbers look great.

  156. sdferr says:

    Much of this tea party convention business is news to me since I simply haven’t been following the evolution of the thing. Reading these few articles has to give one pause though. But then, seeing Palin on Bill O’Reilly in that YouTube link gives me pause as well. Stoogery is as stoogery does.

  157. bh says:

    Okay, carapace wrong. Shell or chrysalis, better.

  158. happyfeet says:

    I agree unreservedly with both 157 and 158.

  159. bh says:

    Well, if Palin turns into the hotter version of Bill O’Rly, I gotta admit, that might be a plus.

    I don’t know. I just think elections tend to turn more on the electorate being pissed at the party in power. They are. And how. I think we could run creepy clowns with Stephen King tendencies and we’re still taking it home in 2010.

    People who only see the surface of things, the cool, the hip, they live and die on nothings. And that’s another Glamorama reference for Nishi, this time he hid it in an allusion to a song lyric.

  160. bh says:

    By the way, tip o’ the hat to SBP from quite awhile ago. He said this to meya a surprising long time ago.

  161. bh says:

    “We’ll slide down the surface of things…” -Nishi, every comment ever. Also, Bono. Also, Ellis, with clear parodic intent.

    Okay, ‘night.

  162. […] Words, “meaning,” and the interpretive community […]

  163. An ounce of family is worth a ton of government.

    Why don’t they pass a law requiring kids to mind their parents, while they’re at it? Or would that get in the way of forming future liberals?

  164. guinsPen says:

    Ohnoes, let’s put ‘zono in charge.

  165. B Moe says:

    her point was that the Tea Party was going to be very very easy for the dirty socialists to rebadge.

    Anything we do is going to be easy to rebadge, the socialists own the badge making machines. The question is what to do about it?

  166. Carin says:

    He’s against HPV vaccination.

    So am I. so what?

  167. Carin says:

    hey though. nishi tends to have a point in there. And her point was that the Tea Party was going to be very very easy for the dirty socialists to rebadge. And the next day bam she’s right.

    Nishi doesn’t have a point. They have been “rebranding” the Tea Party movement since it began. Since the very first gathering. Since the first, they have always focused on the extremes who showed up.

    I went to one – met Geoff and his wife there. No crazies spoke. And, one of my favorite local (black) figures spoke.

  168. Carin says:

    y did they invite the Rick guy what wants women to die of cervical cancer?

    Not wanting your 13 y/o to get vaccinated for a sexually transmitted disease is not the same thing as wanting women to die of cervical cancer.

  169. geoffb says:

    I’ve been to two Tea Parties. What most people seem to go for is to meet others who are also fed up with what Washington is doing. Listening to the speakers is secondary. That’s why the word “Party” fits. The are not an audience but a gathering.

  170. B Moe says:

    On a lighter note, Lane Kiffin has left Tennessee for Southern Cal.

    Fans of both teams are outraged.

  171. SDN says:

    Happyfeet, as one of the original Tea Partiers in Dallas, I wouldn’t touch Mike Huckabee with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole. A statist is a statist, whether he worships Gaia or his version of the Christ. No one’s ever been able to show me where Christ recommended charity at the point of a government gun (or spear).

  172. serr8d says:

    Wow.

    All this reminds me of my favorite Elvis Presley tune.

  173. […] surrounding Harry Reid’s comments, Baldilocks goes into more detail about that issue, and Jeff Goldstein looks at the idiocy of a Washington State legislator. In both cases, the underlying matter is the […]

  174. […] surrounding Harry Reid’s comments, Baldilocks goes into more detail about that issue, and Jeff Goldstein looks at the idiocy of a Washington State legislator. In both cases, the underlying matter is the […]

  175. […] surrounding Harry Reid’s comments, Baldilocks goes into more detail about that issue, and Jeff Goldstein looks at the idiocy of a Washington State legislator. In both cases, the underlying matter is the […]

  176. Mikey NTH says:

    haps, quit worrying about the Rick Scarboroughs, worry about the nishis. She’s the type with the zeal and the hankering to kill people in order to achieve her dream of forced evolution of the human species.

  177. serr8d says:

    Oh, and remember this, ‘feets, it was Nishi and her Democrats who created ghettos in the first place (but they called it public housing). Nishi and her Democrats created the welfare state by cleaving husband from wife and taking on the responsibility of raising the overflow of resultant single-parent children (but that they term assisted living). Nishi and her Democrats forced advanced education on barely qualified or unqualified children, and when they failed, they lowered the standards to make ’em feel better (that’s ‘affirmative action’). Nishi and her Democrats are giving us dirty socialisms (that’s a ‘feets exclusive!).

    You can do better, really.

  178. BJTex says:

    ‘feets: Why does the Democratic Big Tent include the likes of Michael Moore and Van Jones but Republicans can only include squishy RINO’s without a fundamentalist Christian to be seen?

    Methinks you over think this. Every grassroots movement, every one, includes those who have their own, out there agenda. The question becomes whether or not the movers and the shakers put forth the “out there” as activist orthodoxy. If we start with the whole “look who else is speaking with her, OMG!” then we should be able to rebrand Democrats because of Wright or Bertha Lewis or KOS.

    Stop worrying about it and concentrate on the fundamentals. Nobody with any pull on the right is going to turn the US into a Theocracy but, as we have seen, there are enough Democrats who are more than willing to turn us into a Socialist State. Don’t let the eugenics pimp focus on what remains a small and isolated part of the grassroots movement while clouding the bigger picture of spending and taxes and Defense and sanity.

    As BMoe said, the Dems own the rebadging machines. It’ll happen no matter who speaks where. Ignore and focus on the important matters.

  179. ThomasD says:

    Let’s not forget that the Dems also have PETA and Code Pink, and Rev. Wright, and the New Black Panthers. They have made no efforts to purge themselves of links to established criminal/terrorist groups like Weather Undergound, FALN,or ELF. No, they serve as a means of re-integrating them back into the ‘mainstream.’

  180. SarahW says:

    This is a decent example of “Words come to mean, what they are used to describe”. The promotion of softened language is indeed an attempt to remove stigma, and control thought, but it is an excercise in futility as well as intellectual and moral manipulation.

    If “at hope” is used to describe those poverty stricken children, the same stigma that attached to them before will attach to their new beneficently bestowed label.

  181. LBascom says:

    Yeah, but you can take Michael Moore, Van Jones, PETA and Code Pink, the Rev. Wright, and the New Black Panthers, give them all the voice they crave, and you still wouldn’t approach the horror of letting a Christian vote.

    So speaketh nishi, so agreeath her #1 fan, HF.

  182. McGehee says:

    Happyfeet, never never never NEVER let proggs tell you whom you may or may not associate with. They do not have your best interests at heart.

    When they tell you to denounce Ann Coulter, shrug and turn away.

    When they tell you to denounce Michelle Malkin, shrug and turn away.

    When they tell you to denounce Robert Stacy McCain, shrug and turn away.

    When they tell you to denounce Jeff Goldstein…

    Get the picture? You let them do it once, they’ll never stop.

  183. Pablo says:

    As BMoe said, the Dems own the rebadging machines. It’ll happen no matter who speaks where. Ignore and focus on the important matters.

    It’s about to get weird. Glenn Beck just announced that he’s keynoting CPAC. Which is extra weird because Marc Rubio was scheduled.

  184. Pablo says:

    Happyfeet, never never never NEVER let proggs tell you whom you may or may not associate with. They do not have your best interests at heart.

    It’s “Six Degrees of Adolf Hitler” all the way down.

  185. Slartibartfast says:

    Not wanting your 13 y/o to get vaccinated for a sexually transmitted disease is not the same thing as wanting women to die of cervical cancer.

    Not that it’s any of my fargan business, but can you share your reasoning, here?

    On a lighter note, Lane Kiffin has left Tennessee for Southern Cal.

    Fans of both teams are outraged.

    I heard this yesterday and I thought: surely, this is something that has been misquoted from The Onion. But no. I think Tennessee fans are only acting outraged, but are secretly relieved. They’re probably more pissed that this series of events didn’t let them land Charlie Strong, or suchlike.

    Lane’s bringing Monty with him. USC football won’t be the same, until Lane leaves there for yet another greener pasture. At least, once upon a time, they had some dignity. Even when they were losing.

  186. SDN says:

    ‘feets has never been nishi’s number one fan (because she’s always been in that spot) or number 10,000 fan, from what I’ve seen.

  187. Slartibartfast says:

    Which is extra weird because Marc Rubio was scheduled

    Marco Rubio

  188. Slartibartfast says:

    Rubio is a better choice. Beck is just an outrage-monger. Or farmer, I guess. The more outrage, the better. He used to amuse me, but he and Coulter and other, similar cultivators of outrage kind of bore me these days.

  189. SDN says:

    Oh, and Slart, when TN fans are actually outraged, they do things like find someone who lives across the street from the head coach’s house and park a United Van Lines truck on the lawn with a sign saying “Ready When You Are”. Ask Johnny Majors.

  190. Carin says:

    Not wanting your 13 y/o to get vaccinated for a sexually transmitted disease is not the same thing as wanting women to die of cervical cancer.

    Not that it’s any of my fargan business, but can you share your reasoning, here?

    HPV is a sexually transmitted disease which can cause Cervical cancer, of course. I’d PREFER that my child didn’t get a sexually transmitted disease. I’d PREFER they waited until marriage. I’d PREFER that they used condoms which also help to prevent the transmission of AIDS, another one of those awful sexually transmitted disease that can cause death.

    Not to mention Herpes and all the other wonderful presents out there.

    the vaccine is recommended for 11 year olds. Eleven. Years. Old. To boot, the vaccine doesn’t prevent all types of HPV- only about 30%. I think a condom or abstinence has a better rate than that? the full series of the vaccine is $375 (all this is from the CDC website).

    Too boot:

    Regular cervical cancer screening and follow-up can prevent most cases of cervical cancer. The Pap test can detect cell changes in the cervix before they turn into cancer. Pap tests can also detect most, but not all, cervical cancers at an early, treatable stage. Most women diagnosed with cervical cancer in the U.S. have either never had a Pap test, or have not had a Pap test in the last 5 years. The HPV test can tell if a woman has HPV on her cervix. This test can be used with the Pap test to help your doctor determine next steps in cervical cancer screening.

    Pap tests – every year. Duh, from 18 y /o or beginning of sexual activity.

  191. LBascom says:

    ‘feets has never been nishi’s number one fan (because she’s always been in that spot) or number 10,000 fan, from what I’ve seen.

    You missed comment #143?

    ohnoes. nishi may have been more right about the Tea Party than I thought

    I never thought nishi was right about anything, nor do I believe she is a “good person”.

    Of course, you are free to believe whatever you wish…

  192. Slartibartfast says:

    Not to try and convince you of anything, Carin, but:

    I think a condom or abstinence has a better rate than that?

    Well, the problem with that thinking is that males carry HPV asymptomatically, so when your daughter does settle down with the Right Guy, if ever, there’s a possibility he could infect her.

    Unless he’s been completely chaste/safe. Which is a gamble.

    Anyway, your choice. I haven’t made any decisions about my 13-year-old yet, either way, so bad on me. This is just stuff I’ve been thinking about.

  193. Carin says:

    Slart, true. But since the vaccination is only 30% effective- or effective for certain types of HPV, not all, the only prudent course of action is to have annual Paps ANYWAY.

    I will not be getting my daughter’s vaccinated. If they decide to get it done when they’re older ? Fine.

    Since I don’t believe in simply having an 11 y/o treated w/o them KNOWING what it’s for, that isn’t an option. And, imho, telling a child the vaccination is so they don’t catch anything from unprotected sex is tacit approval for that activity.

  194. happyfeet says:

    oh. I gotted in trouble…

    I’m late for work.

    Mostly what I was saying is that this National Tea Party Jamboree thing looks like it might be a misguided thing. And Rick Scarborough has nothing with which the Tea Party needs to be informed I don’t think. If Huckabee endorsers are in the big tea party tent then I’ll get my own tent and I bet I’ll have more better tasty snacks in my tent and also music. I think in this news there’s a big head’s up about where things are possibly going, and there’s definitely a path visible where nishi’s observations are very very bang on.

    And cable news superstar Sarah Palin is more Fail by the day.

    I will rethink my views about the HPV vaccine. There’s a lot I didn’t know.

    everybody have a great day everybody and my sister’s in town and I have to work so I won’t be around a lot

    nishi is controversial. But I like her. SDN, I really do like her. I can’t help it.

  195. ThomasD says:

    Not wanting your 13 y/o to get vaccinated for a sexually transmitted disease is not the same thing as wanting women to die of cervical cancer.

    Is the politician in question opposed to the mere existence of the vaccine, or just the state mandating it’s use?

    Because if it’s the former he’s a crank who is attempting to limit the options of others. If it’s the latter then he’s simply a patriot opposed to the government continuing down it’s own path of arrogating ever more power and control unto itself.

    Further, if this is his position, then saying ‘he opposes the vaccine’ is a shamefully dishonest (but unsurprising from the Democrats) attempt to tar him by misrepresenting the issue.

    This is not remotely a public health issue, in the sense that contracting HPV requires a singularly participatory act, as opposed to things like tuberculosis, which (a la Slow Joe Biden) you really can contract by riding in a crowded subway car occupied by someone with an active infection.

    It is not the state’s child. It is my child, and my choice.

    But this does point up how, when government assumes control for health care – writ large – it also assumes ever greater control over your entire existence, writ ever smaller.

  196. happyfeet says:

    oh… my views I think will end up somewhere where the vaccine is offered universally and you need a parent’s signature…

    But the Tea Party is looking very doomed to be perceived as anti-Science at this rate was more the point.

  197. Slartibartfast says:

    the only prudent course of action is to have annual Paps ANYWAY

    Sure, no argument there. But the Pap smear is to catch the disease before it gets too far, not prevent it.

    This is the thinking I’m going through. Again, this is more discussion so I can get my own thinking straight, rather than an attempt to convince you of anything.

    Other bonuses of waiting are that a better vaccine or other solution might be out there in a few years.

    11 is probably young enough so that if you’re who I think you are about raising your kids, you’re not really risking anything.

  198. Slartibartfast says:

    I’ve got kind of mixed feelings about mandatory vaccines and such. On the one hand, there’s too much state-invested power, but on the other hand, there’s herd immunity.

    The few stragglers that turn down vaccinations are, to some degree, freeloading off the herd.

  199. happyfeet says:

    I would have my kid vaccinated cause of I’d feel terrible later if they got the cancer. Plus I like the space age idea of the eradication of disease through the magic of vaccination. It’s probably not the future anymore though. We can’t even drill oil anymore or build a nuclear plant so it’s a laugh to think our laughingstock fail of a country could eradicate a disease.

    But it was a nice dream, used to be. I hope somewheres there are Chinese or Indians what are dreaming it.

  200. happyfeet says:

    oh. you just tipped me back over into mandatory, Slart. Good point.

  201. LBascom says:

    But the Tea Party is looking very doomed to be perceived as anti-Science at this rate was more the point.

    Oh, you mean like the whole global warming thing?

    Yeah, it’s the tea party movement that’s anti-science. Along with Christians. Right.

    Has nishi expressed dismay over the sloppy science behind GW. Of course not. She’s about her agenda, and the ends justify the means. How admirable…

  202. ThomasD says:

    It is only perceived as anti-science because people are willing to traffic in gross misrepresentations of the underlying issue.

    Call them on it.

  203. happyfeet says:

    It’s not much different than the muslims giving us back polio cause of there was anti-vaccine messaging what was successful.

  204. the herd says:

    “The few stragglers that turn down vaccinations are, to some degree, freeloading off the herd.”

    Baaaah, baaaah.

  205. ThomasD says:

    The few stragglers that turn down vaccinations are, to some degree, freeloading off the herd.

    The word you are looking for is kulaks

  206. Carin says:

    More on HPV:

    Having many sexual partners is a risk factor for HPV infection. Although most HPV infections go away on their own without causing any type of abnormality, infection with high-risk HPV types increases the chance that mild abnormalities will develop and progress to more severe abnormalities or cervical cancer. However, even among the women who do develop abnormal cell changes with high-risk types of HPV, only a small percentage would develop cervical cancer if the abnormal cells were not removed. As a general rule, the more severe the abnormal cell change, the greater the risk of cancer. Studies suggest that whether a woman develops cervical cancer depends on a variety of factors acting together with high-risk HPVs. The factors that may increase the risk of cervical cancer in women with HPV infection include smoking and having many children (5).

    Besides, they’re working on a new vaccine that expands prevention.

    So, do the folks that forked over their $375 for the first round then up and go for another round? How much is that set gonna cost?

    People who STILL have to get annual paps are STILL vulnerable to HPV not covered by gardisil?

  207. happyfeet says:

    It’s cause there’s no one what can defend the Tea Party from these charges, ThomasD. There’s a reeking stench of fail what you get when you see Palin burbling on the cable news.

    bh is right. Team Not-Dirty Socialist needs to focus mainly on inflaming anti-dirty socialist sentiment.

  208. Carin says:

    But the Tea Party is looking very doomed to be perceived as anti-Science at this rate was more the point.

    Oh, you mean like the whole global warming thing?

    Yeah, it’s the tea party movement that’s anti-science. Along with Christians. Right.

    Has nishi expressed dismay over the sloppy science behind GW. Of course not. She’s about her agenda, and the ends justify the means. How admirable…

    Nishi holds up the left’s propaganda and claps like a child.

  209. happyfeet says:

    oh. ok you convinced me Carin but the dream is still the dream, for me… I vote new vaccine if it’s promising and then we can talk later.

    but there are other reasons to wonder why Rick Scarborough is speaking at the Nat’l Tea Party convention thinger.

  210. ThomasD says:

    It’s cause there’s no one what can defend the Tea Party from these charges

    To the extent that there is no unified organization, and therefore no appointed spokesman, you are correct. And, if you have any affinity for the underlying principles of the Tea Party, this might be a bit of a problem.

    But, to the extent that one of the best ways to defend anyone against a slander is to not traffic in the accusation, and/or refute the falsity head on then there are as many people who can defend the principles of the Tea Party, simply by doing so, as there are people who support the Tea Party.

  211. happyfeet says:

    the Tea Party turned gay when it invited this loser to their convention I think… who are these losers and Sarah Palin is useless and I don’t like associating with her cause she’s annoying and stupid.

  212. Carin says:

    I honestly don’t know much about Rich Scarborough (not being a Christianist) – but his entry into the HPV “frey” were motivated by the actions of Rick Perry.

    Honestly, I think the folks who benefit most from the vaccination are Merck. $360 for every 6th grader in Texas? In perpetuity.

  213. happyfeet says:

    that’s true, Carin… but there will be more cancers than there would have been otherwise cause of Rick Perry got shut down… He was convinced of that and I don’t see how he’s wrong.

  214. LBascom says:

    Sarah Palin is useless and I don’t like associating with her cause she’s annoying and stupid.

    Got it HF.

    Nishi good, Palin bad.

    Personally I would rather live in Palins vision of America, but each to his own I guess.

  215. Turning the Tea Party into a party party is less like the Bay City Rollers on Mike Douglas and more like the Doobie Brothers on What’s Happening. One is selling out, the other is SELLING OUT!

  216. Pablo says:

    the Tea Party turned gay when it invited this loser to their convention I think

    There is no Tea Party and therefore it has no convention. That this thing aspires to be that is as beside the point as it would be if I decided to hold a Democrat National Convention in my backyard and invited my sister’s dog to keynote.

  217. ThomasD says:

    #211

    So it’s safe then to assume, since you focus on personality, that you really have no regard for what principles underlie the Tea Party?

  218. Slartibartfast says:

    Palin, as far as I’m concerned, is a well-intentioned, smart and well-spoken woman who isn’t really all that well prepared for politics. Newscaster seems like a better career niche for her.

    I’m happy for her, really. Unlike most other politicians, she may actually be good at something useful.

  219. happyfeet says:

    oh please. Sarah Palin has promised to help re-elect Meghan’s coward daddy. She’s not my friend. She’s a craven and unbright tart whose number one issue is what’s good for Sarah Palin.

  220. Pablo says:

    that’s true, Carin… but there will be more cancers than there would have been otherwise cause of Rick Perry got shut down… He was convinced of that and I don’t see how he’s wrong.

    It helps to look at the whole picture. And Perry is wrong because he was making decisions that weren’t his to make for kids that aren’t his either.

  221. Pablo says:

    nishi cheered the fucking end of our little country and its descent into socialist fail.

  222. Slartibartfast says:

    and the death of caps and punctuation too

  223. Slartibartfast says:

    not to mention the death of pointfulness

  224. SarahW says:

    Some faulty assumptions about both the HPV vaccine and annual screening for paps here.

    The vaccine is not full protection against HPV or cervical cancer. It is a partial protection which may or may not have unintended consequences for HPV. In the short term it offers protection against strains of virus with the most virulent, aggressive reputation associated with more cancer. Changes even development of new forms of virulent virus are possible long term.

    As far as “herd riding” goes, most women are at extremely low risk of cervical cancer. I’m not sure it is fully apprehended how low this risk is, and for affected women, how low the mortality rate is in the general population. They are not teeming resevoirs of virus, or even likely vectors of spread – it’s not in the same category as whooping cough.

    In fact annual screening is not necessary to maintain this low mortality except in women with higher than average risk
    I point you to an accessible discussion of risks and benefits here. http://tiny.cc/qwazq

    Mandatory vaccination will not have a sufficiently eradicating or widely protective effect, and the risk to the population from cervical cancer may not justify it.

  225. Carin says:

    In addition to Gardasil not being 100 % (it’s only 70%) – you also have this – which I found by following Pablo’s links and google a tad more.

  226. LBascom says:

    Nishi loves Obama, thinks he’s teh coolest!

    Palin still supports McCain.

    Obviously nishi is the one to like.

    it’s about the principals!

  227. Carin says:

    But, Sarah, maditory vaccination will do a LOT for Merck’s bottom line. But, I’m sure public policy had NOTHING to do with any donations Merck may have made.

    That’s just kookie talk.

  228. ThomasD says:

    Mandatory vaccination will not have a sufficiently eradicating or widely protective effect, and the risk to the population from cervical cancer may not justify it.

    So now we have another possible justification for opposing mandatory vaccination (other than personal autonomy.)

    We now have opposition to rent seeking behavior on the part of HPV vaccine manufacturers.

    Funny how the rent seekers and the statists always seem to find the most common ground…

  229. LBascom says:

    Oh, and “tart”?

    On what do you draw that conclusion sir?

    Because that’s a bullshit slander I imagined you above.

  230. […] goes back to something Goldstein (and while we’re at it, check his perfect, pithy response here; it’s by no means unrelated to the topic at hand) has harped about for years: so-called […]

  231. SDN says:

    I never thought I’d say this but ‘feets #219 just earned him the trollhammer. Sad.

  232. Slartibartfast says:

    Oh, I missed that. ‘feets, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.

  233. LBascom says:

    tart
    [tahrt]
    –noun
    1. a small pie filled with cooked fruit or other sweetened preparation, usually having no top crust.
    2. a covered pie containing fruit or the like.
    3. Slang. a prostitute or promiscuous woman.

    I assume you didn’t mean pie, so where do you get that Palin is a prostitute or promiscuous woman?

    cra?ven
    [krey-vuhn]
    –adjective
    1. cowardly; contemptibly timid; pusillanimous.
    –noun
    2. a coward.
    –verb (used with object)
    3. to make cowardly.

    Sarah Palin a coward?
    Playing pretty fast and loose with the language aren’t you?

  234. Carin says:

    While I don’t believe Sarah Palin is the second coming of the Republican party, neither do I subscribe to the left’s view of her. Happy, it does appear that you’ve been reading the Huffpo write-ups on Sarah.

  235. McGehee says:

    I sure do love this PW echo chamber!

  236. Slartibartfast says:

    Actually my ire was raised by his referral to McCain as “cowardly”.

  237. Pablo says:

    Ditto!

  238. Mikey NTH says:

    Got it haps.
    You hate socialism. You hate public expression of religion. You dislike those that support either.

    You like application of science. You like an anything goes society when it comes to sex. Fine.

    And this leads you to dislike sarah Palin, whose views are pretty innocuous, and like nishi, whose views are pretty horrific.

  239. Slartibartfast says:

    I think feets musta fallen asleep on the crapper, because we haven’t heard from him in a while.

    Wake UP, ‘feets, before your ass falls asleep!

  240. Carin says:

    He said his sister(? I think?) was around today and he’d be busy.

  241. happyfeet says:

    oh hi.. is a busy day. Sarah Palin is doing great harm to Team R I think and Fox News has helped position her to do even more greater harm. The reason people hate you Sarah is you’re a contemptible quitter with clear delusions of presidential grandeur. We already put one no-account in the White House, I don’t think we need to go for a two-fer.

    The daffy hoo thinks what our little country needs is another term for John McCain.

    That’s defining. Sarah Palin is on Team Meghan’s Daddy. That’s a Choice.

    I don’t know what sex has to do wif it.

  242. Silver Whistle says:

    I think ’feets was being rebarbative by way of hyperbolic. At least that was my interpretation, and the humour seems to have escaped some people.

  243. Silver Whistle says:

    Oh, there he is himself. Sorry for stepping on your punchline, old fruit.

  244. happyfeet says:

    McCain’s timid timid scaredyness is why he’s a big global warming pansy cause of he’s scared what the media will say. The media’s disapproval scares McCain into quivering shitlessness. He was scared shitless of Obama to where he never laid a glove on him in any of the debates. Not a brave man, John McCain. And a piss poor human being to boot.

  245. McGehee says:

    I swore years ago never to vote for John McCain. In 2008 I voted for his running mate.

    I’m not going to condemn those who did vote for him, or those who do support him now. I think condemning McCain himself is more to the point.

  246. happyfeet says:

    I think people don’t understand yet the depth of our little country’s FAIL. It’s horrific and not unlike a gangrenous death. I think maybe cable news superstar Glen Beck …damn – phone

  247. happyfeet says:

    *Glenn*

  248. happyfeet says:

    I didn’t condemn McCain voters but he’s not the future and everybody but Sarah Palin knows it.

  249. sdferr says:

    “I think condemning McCain himself is more to the point.”

    But isn’t that the point hf is making McGehee? I.e., about Palin and her insistence on adhering to a misplaced loyalty long after she has herself been betrayed again and again by McCain? That is, despite continuing to be abused at McCain’s hands or at most at one remove from McCain, through his poor judgment choosing Steve Schmidt et al, or even, she might honestly say, herself as vp pick, whereupon she was immediately shoved about and eventually shoved to the side, she continues to carry McCain’s water, rather than call him out for the political inept that he is? Loyalty is fit to those that deserve it. It is foolishness given to those who do not.

  250. newrouter says:

    meghan mac is rebarbative. same with grandpa

  251. LBascom says:

    I didn’t condemn McCain voters but he’s not the future and everybody but Sarah Palin knows it..

    Oh, by all means then, call her a cowardly whore.

    You hero you.

  252. newrouter says:

    actually most of wash dc is rebarbative

  253. Mikey NTH says:

    I don’t see what good Sarah Palin would do for herself – or anyone – if she attacked John McCain. It may make you feel good, haps, but it will not help the Republican Party, it won’t help Palin to continue to dwell on that. It will help the Democrats, so by all means call for that public spectacle.

    And if you will note, McCain hasn’t said much publically at all. I do not know why, but my guess is saying nothing will help put all of that spectacle to rest.

    Steve schmidt? He has plenty of reason to shift the blame as far away from himself as possible. Whether this is wise is open for debate (I think he would have been better off staying silent rather than opening this whole can of worms – but that’s just me).

  254. Silver Whistle says:

    I didn’t condemn McCain voters but he’s not the future and everybody but Sarah Palin knows it

    I’m pretty sure she knows it too, but is playing nice because it is political to do so, and for the “comity”. Palin wants to appear in as noble a light as possible, hence no attacks on the old man himself, but she can call Steve Schmidt a liar as much as she wants.

  255. cranky-d says:

    The Tea Party Convention looks like a scam to me. They are charging around $500 to attend, which is way too much. They are getting support from marginal groups. I doubt there is much “Tea Party” here, but more “let’s make some money,” which is fine from a capitalist point of view but bad because the convention will get labeled as if all Tea Party attendees approved of the convention whether they did or not.

    I think the convention is already dead, but doesn’t know it. I predict that Palin’s son will get ill and she won’t be able to attend or something like that.

  256. happyfeet says:

    It would be hope and change, Mikey. It would be acknowledging how desperately sad the measure of Team R fail has been. McCain and his little dog Lindsay… and. Bosh. This is John McCain’s legacy. It’s a sickening thing.

    He is a most decidedly cowardly whore and with her cynical endorsement of this odious loser, Sarah Palin is become old wine in a new bottle what is faintly reminiscent of Mary Hart I think. If Mary Hart went around endorsing odious losers.

  257. ThomasD says:

    Cranky, I’ve head so many conflicting reports of the upcoming event I’m not sure what to believe. If it’s for the purposes of networking then put-up-or-shut-up money has a way of focusing the participation (ie. each local regional group must decide whether this is a good bang-for-the-buck.)

    Since it is unlikely that whatever follows is entirely dependent (or even mostly dependent) on what occurs there I think the best course is to wait and see.

    The downside of such uncertainty is that it does put off some who might otherwise have made a positive contribution.

  258. LBascom says:

    her cynical endorsement of this odious loser, Sarah Palin is become old wine in a new bottle what is faintly reminiscent of Mary Hart I think

    And your endorsement of nishi says what about you, hero?

  259. Slartibartfast says:

    I’m wondering who happyfeet would have had McCain choose for VP. Paul? Too Stormfronty. Who, then?

    It’s bad choices all around. I don’t fault McCain for not having good choices. It’s not as if he could just say the correct thing: “hey, all of the choices pretty much suck, so we’re going without”. That would not be a winning plan.

  260. cranky-d says:

    Tea Party Nation, the creator of the event, is a for-profit corporation. I have nothing against that, of course, but it does give one pause in that they might be attempting to co-opt a movement to make a buck. Then again, I’m quite cynical.

  261. happyfeet says:

    I think he should have gotten Pawlenty.

    nishi is provocative. It’s her thing. And I have affection for her cause of she’s nishi.

  262. sdferr says:

    Mercury Public Affairs

  263. ThomasD says:

    Again I share your concern Cranky, although ‘profit’ is also synonymous with ‘vested interest’ so if it means the people involved have the knowledge and experience necessary to sustain (and possibly grow) such organizations this may not be a bad thing. Back scratching is not necessarily bad, so long as it is voluntary and productive.

    Ultimately, it depends on what the goals of the organization are, and whether they can be actualized.

  264. Mikey NTH says:

    Your provocative nishi has a deep streak of evil in her. One does not pick up the nickname “Kate Mengele” at this site very easily, yet nishi did so. You find that acceptable, yet not attacking John McCain for no other reason than to be provocative is acceptable.

    Sorry haps. I think that is assinine thinking there. Provocative to be provocative is just childish and in an adult just plain stupid.

  265. BJTex says:

    ‘feets: McCain is old news. It’s time to move on. Bad candidate, bad election, bad circumstances. I don’t see how we advance the idea of removing all of those dirty little Socialists by constantly revisiting the epic fail.

    I’m with sdferr on this. While Palin would have every right to crap all over McCain she won’t do conservatives and Classical liberals any good by making a public spectacle of it. She’s pounding Steven Schmidt because that no account loser and architect of the epic fail should crawl into a hole and rot rather than try to polish his rusted through reputation as a political operator.

    You seem to have chosen as your own test of purity who associates with Huckabee or McCain. I won’t vote for either of these guys ever again but guilt by association, loudly proclaimed, is what the hotheads in the Democrat Party do. We don’t have a presidential candidate yet so rather than obsessing about personalities, let’s get real, real obsessive about principles and who abides in them. Promise me and have demonstrated fiscal responsibility and a real commitment to budgetary sanity, economic growth, limited government and lower taxes along with a healthy 2nd Amendment YEE-HAW! and a real commitment to individual liberty as put forth by the Founders, along with a brain, knowledge and some demonstrated management skills, and I may just vote for him/her.

    No one at this point has sold me but I’m not all that concerned, being more focused on the 2010 kicking the dirty little socialists out of the cesspool Congress. My money and time will be going to Pat Toomey in hopes that he will stomp the living crap out of Gelatinous Traitor Tool™ Spector.

    Again, no theocracies, no screaming social issue types. I want fiscal conservatives who not only understand what that means but have shown the willingness to actually put that idea into work. The future of our poor little wheezing country depends upon it.

    Now go get yourself another couple of packages of undocumented and in hope to be citizens food and chill, man. Stating that nishi may have a point is sorta like dropping a nuke on Port-Au-Prince around here.

  266. Makewi says:

    Maybe she’s more self delusional and wickedly childish than actually evil. She has made claims to having issues with her brain, which should probably be taken into consideration.

  267. happyfeet says:

    I have affection for all of yous almost. I will tell you why before my sister gets here for lunch.

    I used to barback a lot. In Texas. My bartenders were all beautiful and wise womens cause of that’s the way bars work in small towns in Texas. And the most beautiful and wisest of all was named Virginia. I can;t remember waht I said, but it was something dismissive of one or several of our regulars. Guys what showed up at 3-4 everyday and drank and drank until ten or eleven or two. And Virginia said they could be sitting at home. Drinking or not. At least these guys have a place to go and people to talk to and they’re still in the world… it’s the ones that aren’t here what are more worthy or your scorn. She said it differently, but that was the idea.

    And so it is with nishi. She cares. She’s in the conversation. I think people what care enough to join the conversation are involved, and that’s inherently hopeful. With all of them, almost.

    Except for meya. She’a a fascist.

  268. happyfeet says:

    Pat Toomey is the future.

  269. Slartibartfast says:

    To swipe ‘feets’ story a bit, nishi is here not to drink and socialize, but to glorify in how much better her Zima is than your single-malt.

    She’s not engaging in the conversation, she’s griefing. And she’s told you as much. Repeatedly.

  270. Silver Whistle says:

    Her low self esteem and need to be loved by the cool kids sure make her pitiable, I’ll give you that, ‘feets.

  271. Slartibartfast says:

    …and that’s all I have to say about that. Frankly, this is much more consideration than nishi has ever merited.

  272. TheThinMan says:

    Sarah Palin, 2008:
    “This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word “victory,” except when he’s talking about his own campaign.
    But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot…when that happens, what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet?
    The answer — the answer is to make government bigger, and take more of your money, and give you more orders from Washington, and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world.
    America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it. Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit. Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay; he wants to meet them without preconditions.
    Al Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.”

  273. TheThinMan says:

    damn…that’s me, the thread-killer. (I had hoped Mrs Palin would be the veep nominee in early 2008. Liked her then, like her now.) She ain’t perfect, but who is?

  274. McGehee says:

    But isn’t that the point hf is making McGehee? I.e., about Palin and her insistence on adhering to a misplaced loyalty long after she has herself been betrayed again and again by McCain?

    What hf is doing is condemning Palin, ostensibly as a surrogate for McCain — for no other reason than that Palin, in doing what politicians do, favors the re-election of a senior Republican officeholder to his senior Republican office.

    To me it amounts to condemning people for supporting McCain, which is going to work about as well as when people condemn Palin supporters for supporting Palin.

  275. McGehee says:

    I’ll condemn the nishtoon until the cows come home, if I care enough to say anything about her at all — but I won’t condemn happyfeet for liking her.

  276. LTC John says:

    I went through the “cowardly” part with hf a whiles back. I thought we had reached a compromise where he would use “political coward” and not label a guy wearing a CMH and permanent injuries gotten in the armed service of this little country a “coward” en toto.

    We will have to disagree re: Mrs. Palin too, I guess. And nishi, she is boastful of her inhumanity and evil intents. And, as per Slart, that is last I shall say regarding that person. Too much attention – quite so.

  277. baxtrice says:

    I’m looking at my calendar, and it says 2010, but this story feels like 1984.

    Calling George Orwell..Mr. Orwell, please pick up the white courtesy phone..

  278. sdferr says:

    Doing what politicians do, yes, more of the same I suppose. It wouldn’t do to ask for any more honesty than the end (getting the elected re-elected) will allow.

  279. Slartibartfast says:

    I mean, it’s not as if she hasn’t confessed her griefing ways right in front of ‘feets. Multiple times.

    Maybe ‘feets is slow on the uptake. Or composed nearly completely of hope for change.

  280. Pellegri says:

    I am not going to touch the nishi conversation at all, but poking the HPV conversation back into life:

    There can’t be such a thing as “herd immunity” with HPV when you’re only vaccinating women against it because men function as an asymptomatic reservoir for the virus. The idea behind using a vaccine to eradicate a virus in the wild is that you get every potential host vaccinated so that the virus has no available hosts to replicate in. The existence of unvaccinated, asymptomatic carriers foils this strategy, since even if you’re able to eliminate the virus entirely from a given population for a generation through use of the vaccine, contact between someone who hasn’t received the vaccine and a reservoir can restart the infection all over again in the next generation.

    If it really were the intention of the CDC/Merck/whoever to eliminate the various HPV strains from the human population and thus reduce one of the risk factors for cervical cancer on a permanent basis, we’d be vaccinating baby boys to make sure we got them before they became sexually active and picked up the viruses. Which is also, in my mind, extremely distasteful, but there you go.

  281. LBascom says:

    but poking the HPV conversation back into life:

    Don’t you mean stirring the conversa…

    oh, I see what you did there! ;-)

  282. Pellegri says:

    *takes a bow* :D

  283. Slartibartfast says:

    There can’t be such a thing as “herd immunity” with HPV when you’re only vaccinating women against it because men function as an asymptomatic reservoir for the virus.

    So, who’s going to spread it? It only transmits sexually.

    Oh. Other men? Well, I think the vector’s substantially…um…smaller? Less effective?

  284. Slartibartfast says:

    Oh, and I’d volunteer for a vaccine that killed HPV in men, provided it wasn’t completely dangerous.

    So, there’s that. I’d guess that’s next.

  285. Pellegri says:

    You’d have male to male transmission, yes. And Carin points out that the current vaccine is only 30% effective, so even in the theoretical situation of a female population totally “protected” with the current vaccine, there would still be transmission of strains not covered by the vaccine, more aggressive varieties of the strain the vaccine was based on, and any mutant strains. I don’t really know what the rate of mutation is for the HPV family (I presume it is a lot slower than cold and flu viruses), but in any situation where there’s a selective pressure on a group of different viruses (like a vaccine screening out which ones get passed on), you’re going to see mutants pop up that can circumvent the vaccine.

    I would like to think most men would take that approach to it. Unfortunately it would mean vaccinating boys before they become sexually active, and Carin’s objections apply here as well. One possible solution which I hinted at in my original comment is, if you want to become really aggressive about the elimination of certain strains of HPV, folding these immunizations into the TDaP or MMR series everyone gets in the preschool ages–but that presupposes a lot about everyone’s sexual activity, the safety of Gardasil, etc. And, as Carin pointed out, we really do have pretty good control of cervical cancer as-is with regular pap screening; the biggest function of the HPV vaccine seems to be, AFAICT, peace of mind.

    And not getting warts in unsightly places.

  286. ThomasD says:

    It only transmits sexually.

    No. The kinds that are associated with cervical cancer are typically transmitted sexually, but papillomavirii can infect the epidermis and may be spread by non-sexual physical contact.

    Common warts are a variety of papillomavirus.

  287. Pellegri says:

    @ThomasD: Correct. But the strains we’re talking about are the genital HPVs, and I believe the rates on contact transmission for those are negligible?

  288. Slartibartfast says:

    No.

    So, you’re saying I can get one of the cervical-cancer-causing varieties on my foot?

  289. Pellegri says:

    And then it will make your man-womb fall out!

  290. Mikey NTH says:

    I am with LTC John on #276, and McGhee at #274 and #275, and BJTex at 265.

    haps, I like you. If I didn’t I wouldn’t spend the time saying what I did. I think you are wrong; I like and appreciate your skew on things

    LTC John: I think John McCain has the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, and others, but nothing higher. It was his insistence to be repatriated/exchanged in order of capture that was heroic. And that took physical and moral and psychological guts to do, because he had to know what the North Vietnamese response to that insistence would be. He was well-connected – that made him a target, and he accepted that. I respect someone who can go through what he went through and then keep going.

  291. Joe says:

    Rumor has it that Michael Meehan, who works for Martha Coakley, is a Yankee fan. Coakley’s assistant Meehan considers Bucky Dent a personal hero (as is Mookie Wilson). Martha Coakley’s assistant Meehan thought Wade Boggs’ career really came alive when he played for New York. Meehan, who works for Martha Coakley and the Democrats, openly mocks Tom Brady and roots for the Balitmore Ravens.

    And that Martha Coakley does not have a problem with any of this and Michael Meehan’s love of New York and Maryland sport franchises. She is too busy cowtowing to national union representatives and big pharm to worry about the Rex Sox or the Patriots.

  292. happyfeet says:

    John McCain maybe was a brave person a kajillion years ago LTC but he is a corrupt and deeply deeply useless politician now what is zealously intent upon occupying a spot what a not-corrupt, not-useless person might productively occupy. Over and above being a slimy politicians, he’s inarguably a sitting U.S. senator. These ones have no honour. You look at what they done on our little country and tell me these ones have honour. You can’t cause they don’t. They ruint our little country and for what? It’s a sadness.

    what happens when that Bernanke tool raises interest rates you think?

    omg the horror

  293. happyfeet says:

    I am trying to go to my dark place Mikey. It’s time. The health care guillotine is swinging ever closer to the neck of liberty and our little country has already been debased beyond all endurance. Bizarre cults of personality are forming around the manifestly undeserving and our little country is out of options and people are going to get hurt.

    The dirty socialists could easily step aside in 2012 and let inept Team R flounder in the impoverished wreckage and even if Team R were to match the electoral successes of Team Dirty Socialist, our little country will be in no danger of returning to prosperity and liberty in the foreseeable future cause it’s been fucked hard already and left on the side of the road to die.

  294. ThomasD says:

    #288

    Yes, you can contract any papilloma virus on the epidermis. It is what they do.

    Skin is skin, doesn’t matter whether it’s covering your shaft or covering your toe.

  295. Mikey NTH says:

    Um, haps, it is the ‘dirty socialists’ thing that has me confused. Nonplussed, even. As I understand it there is more to socialism than economics, more than health insurance. There is removing those who don’t quite measure up, and nishi is in favor of that – despite cuteness and provactiveness, that concerns me – much more than John McCain’s stated postions, much more than Sarah Palin’s refusal to attack John McCain.

    I am more with Sarah Palin because she has a kid in that fight, and I have a nephew in the fight also.

    nishi, if given her way, would have my nephew killed because he takes more than he could contribute. How can I say that? She approves of eugenics, and eugenics calls for only the ‘fit’ being allowed to breed. See Buck v. Bell. And that is just a short step from making certain that the ‘unfit’ will never breed. And the cold record of history tells me what that will actually mean in practice.

  296. newrouter says:

    “it’s been fucked hard already and left on the side of the road to die”

    martha coakley?

  297. Danger says:

    Feets,

    Love ya man, but you need to read this again (along with all of us):

    “265.Comment by BJTex on 1/13 @ 1:15 pm #

    ‘feets: McCain is old news. It’s time to move on. Bad candidate, bad election, bad circumstances. I don’t see how we advance the idea of removing all of those dirty little Socialists by constantly revisiting the epic fail.

    I’m with sdferr on this. While Palin would have every right to crap all over McCain she won’t do conservatives and Classical liberals any good by making a public spectacle of it. She’s pounding Steven Schmidt because that no account loser and architect of the epic fail should crawl into a hole and rot rather than try to polish his rusted through reputation as a political operator.

    You seem to have chosen as your own test of purity who associates with Huckabee or McCain. I won’t vote for either of these guys ever again but guilt by association, loudly proclaimed, is what the hotheads in the Democrat Party do. We don’t have a presidential candidate yet so rather than obsessing about personalities, let’s get real, real obsessive about principles and who abides in them. Promise me and have demonstrated fiscal responsibility and a real commitment to budgetary sanity, economic growth, limited government and lower taxes along with a healthy 2nd Amendment YEE-HAW! and a real commitment to individual liberty as put forth by the Founders, along with a brain, knowledge and some demonstrated management skills, and I may just vote for him/her.

    No one at this point has sold me but I’m not all that concerned, being more focused on the 2010 kicking the dirty little socialists out of the cesspool Congress. My money and time will be going to Pat Toomey in hopes that he will stomp the living crap out of Gelatinous Traitor Tool™ Spector.

    Again, no theocracies, no screaming social issue types. I want fiscal conservatives who not only understand what that means but have shown the willingness to actually put that idea into work. The future of our poor little wheezing country depends upon it.

    Now go get yourself another couple of packages of undocumented and in hope to be citizens food and chill, man. Stating that nishi may have a point is sorta like dropping a nuke on Port-Au-Prince around here.”

    BJ is a wise man feets. A while back he posted 10 or 12 principles that our representatives should commit to. If I ever ran for a political office I would track those down and base my campaign on them.

    and irt Nishi:

    Provocative is not how I would describe her, I would say she is downright mean. The part of the Lord’s prayer that directs us to forgive those that trespass against us was probably meant for people like her. If she has problems that should be considered she needs to be honest and seek help. I gained a great deal of respect for Cynn when she shared her troubles a while back.

  298. happyfeet says:

    I agree 100% with Mr. BJ I think. But it’s dire, Danger. Very dire. People need to stand up and say they deserve a better future than what this wretched little country what has forsaken both prosperity and liberty is promising them. that they demand better. What’s coming is so so ugly and it won’t be averted by a process. We have to kick the dirty socialists and well over half of our institutions in the balls. Our pussy universities and our pseudojournalist propagandists and our gay to the gills CIA and our pansy legislator class and all the rest of these losers. We’ve come to the point where their suck has become a transitive property what has affixed itself to our piteous little country.

  299. happyfeet says:

    Freedom has to be paramount Mikey, and it’s simply not that way anymore. nishi and her ideas about eugenics are the future. That’s where we’re going, and hapless losers like McCain and his little dog Lindsay and cable news superstar Sarah Palin are deeply vested in portraying this ungodly trainwreck as manageable.

    They’re lying or stupid.

    We are become Venezuela.

  300. newrouter says:

    “We have to kick the dirty socialists and well over half of our institutions in the balls.”

    how about tea bagging with a vice

  301. newrouter says:

    “We are become Venezuela.”

    i smell sulfur

  302. Danger says:

    I hear ya Feets,

    America has had a great run and demonstrates a amazing ability to overcome adversity and poor leadership. Every generation has been blessed with leaders that either gave us a great start or led us back to the right path. We have people like that now, I work with many of them every day.

    No doubt, we have taken our blessings for granted for a while know, but I think we are starting to realize that ur liberty is at serious risk. The Tea party demonstration with over a million people in attendance is evidence that Mr. and Mrs. America have noticed and are willing to act. People with jobs and busy lives don’t attend protest rallies unless the conditions warrant drastic action.

  303. Danger says:

    ur = our,

    It’s late here so G’night all

  304. happyfeet says:

    I want to go back to where I can be optimistic and Ric Locke will say optimism is folly and I’m like hah it probably is but I’m optimistic anyways. But we’re a long way from there.

    And more and more in my heart I feel Team R just wants to exploit the situation for political gain. But to what end? McCain just felt entitled. Palin wants revenge and validation. Huckabee wants the unspeakable. Romney wants vague Romney things except not Romneycare cause that never happened and even if it did it’s entirely too specific.

  305. Danger says:

    Happyfeet,

    Just be true to yourself.
    If I can be optimistic (most of the time) with people shooting rockets at me I am certain you can too 8^)

  306. happyfeet says:

    that’s true… but it seems days simply pass and you have to strain to hear the hue and cry what the indignities our little country is suffering inspire. And sometimes if you listen close you can’t hear anything at all.

  307. happyfeet says:

    Pellegri you are brilliant and sensible and I enjoy to read.

  308. Danger says:

    Hey,

    What happened to Jeff anyway. He comes in here and throws out a few Wows and then bails!
    Whats up wit that? What is he busy tweeting someplace?

  309. LTC John says:

    #290 – er, right, I should have typed “DFC”. I get touchy about that one ’cause my now departed uncle won the same thing in 1942.

  310. Danger says:

    G’night (for reals this time;)

  311. newrouter says:

    “What is he busy tweeting someplace?”

    i think he’s working on pw v2.0

  312. LBascom says:

    You know who really cares about science more than anyone, especially those icky Christians?

    Liberals, that’s who!

    I hope eugenics aren’t our future, ‘cuz this could go a whole different way in the future if they are.

    Berkeley’s “progressive” educrats give us another perfect illustration of Diversity Uber Alles run amok. Because the government schools have failed to close the “racial achievement gap,” they’ve proposed cutting science labs and teaching staff from the high school curriculum because those resources benefit too many white students

    Berkeley High School is considering a controversial proposal to eliminate science labs and the five science teachers who teach them to free up more resources to help struggling students.

  313. Darleen says:

    People need to stand up and say they deserve a better future than what this wretched little country what has forsaken both prosperity and liberty is promising them.

    hf

    that’s about 80% wrong. People need to stand up and say “Get the FUCK off my lawn!” The country doesnt owe you or me “prosperity”. It needs to secure my constitutional rights then get the hell out of my way.

  314. Carin says:

    To swipe ‘feets’ story a bit, nishi is here not to drink and socialize, but to glorify in how much better her Zima is than your single-malt.

    She’s not engaging in the conversation, she’s griefing. And she’s told you as much. Repeatedly.

    You keep commenting like that Slart, and I may have abandon Pablo’s backyard for yours. Mind you, Pablo is always closing his living room curtains, so perhaps if you could promise me something a tad more fruitful …

  315. Pablo says:

    I’ve gotta say, with stuff like #313, Darleen’s getting me hot.

    Get the fuck off my lawn, indeed.

  316. happyfeet says:

    Our little country makes choices, D. Mostly godawful gay ones. Godawful gay ones what are inimical to prosperousness. I think we’re saying the same thing. Mostly for naught. But we’re saying it.

  317. Slartibartfast says:

    Skin is skin, doesn’t matter whether it’s covering your shaft or covering your toe.

    I wondered why my finger tasted like cervix.

  318. Slartibartfast says:

    I may have abandon Pablo’s backyard for yours

    I sometimes forget to close the blinds all the way. Or even a little bit.

  319. SDN says:

    Slart, I would do that, but I got tired of hauling away statues that kept appearing….

  320. Slartibartfast says:

    Those were all Carin. She’s a mistress of disguise.

  321. SDN says:

    Not unless she was living in several neighborhood houses that went vacant about that time… strange.

  322. Jeff G. says:

    Just now catching up.

    Wow. Collins can’t even self-publish a book without taking a shot at me?

    Nice.

  323. Carin says:

    I dunno. I kinda thought he was taking a shot at himself with that line.

  324. Jeff G. says:

    Ostentatious self-effacement.

    There wasn’t any need for it.

  325. Slartibartfast says:

    Protein Wisdom is dead? This blog is in its Twilight years?

    I’m not sure whether to feel trendy or not.

  326. Jeff G. says:

    I’ve always been on the cutting edge of FAIL, slart.

  327. happyfeet says:

    If you click over to where he sells the book it lets you read several pages and he reminisces a lot fondly. It’s very affecting.

  328. sdferr says:

    Words, usage and death.

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