Reason Morning Links: Brown on the Issues, Mass Shooting in Virginia, Dems Back Away From Health Care

• After Brown win, Dems begin backing away from health care reform bill.
• Man surrenders after killing eight in rural Virginia.
• China bans Avatar from theaters, replaces with biography of Confucius.
• Study: Texting helps kids learn to spell.
• Senator-Elect Brown's positions on issues other than health care.

Comments

[Mad Elf]

Hitler's reaction to Scott Brown's victory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded

[Ska]

He's just concerned about equal rights.

ANd I swore I'd never watch those f***ing Downfall parodies again.

[robc]

The Conan/Leno one is the best I have seen.

[Brown v. Obama]

Suck it, bitch!!!

[Brown v Obama]

I shook up the world!

[JW]

Meh. Fell apart after the halfway mark.

One good line: "And to think I gave money to the Obama campaign!"

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Well, well. It seems that libertarians in Massachusetts were able to vote their conscience without causing the world to end. Better luck next time, Dems and Repubs!

[Joe M]

I hope America realizes this whole thing was like barely dodging a car accident. Perhaps we'll drive a little more carefully from now on.

[wylie]

Nah, its cool, we've got really great auto coverage. No need to be careful....

[Fluffy]

The texting study does not surprise me.

Just about all "internetisms" at some level involve snark or meta-jokes. And snark and meta-jokes are the province of Oscar-Wilde-type hyperliterary affectation. To really, really stupid and illiterate people, I imagine LOLCats are not funny. "Textspeak" may once have been designed to save money on data or to make it easier for people to type messages using really unergonomic keypads, but those "practical" reasons for using it largely don't exist any more - people use it now because it is an expected affectation that texters are supposed to adopt.

[.]

Twitter forces character conservation, however.

[matt]

+1

[Just a phone keypad]

Shortly, the whole family is going on an unlimited text-messages plan. But up until now, we were paying a small amount per text message. Long message or short, it was the same price. Despite having one of the "unergonomic" keypads mentioned above, I always try to text in complete sentences, with full words and correct punctuation. It costs the same amount from the phone usage standpoint. Yes, it takes a little longer to create a text message, but for me it's worth it--to make sure what I'm saying is understood on the other end.

[Suki]

What will learn them better grammar?

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Man surrenders after killing eight in rural Virginia.

Hey, just in time! The legislative session has started. I'm sure the anti-gun crowd will use this as an excuse for every bill and issue, regardless of whether or not it is actually relevant.

[wylie]

Clearly it calls for a ban on rural areas.

[Joe M]

As for pulling Avatar, I hope China realizes this whole thing was like barely dodging a car accident. Perhaps they'll drive a little more carefully from now on.

[Suki]

Ugh, that was news from yesterday and I don't believe it was to make room for Confucius. The rural subjects were seeing the parallel between the RDA bulldozing rural Na'vi and the Chinese government doing the same.

BTW, I posted that link in yesterday's morning links [shakes fist at Radley].

Fresh news, Avatar related death.

[Death Panelist]

Study: Texting helps kids learn to spell.

srsly?

[WWJGD]

lolwut?

[wylie]

Stdy: Txtng h3lps k1ds lrn2sp3ll1ng.

Better?

[wylie]

Oh, and no complaint about "non-english language" from the spam filter. Go Fig.

[Attorney]

Woohoo!

[JW]

Senator-Elect Brown's positions on issues other than health care.

Is it too early to turn on him?

[Joe M]

No, it's too late.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Hard to say for sure since the article is so vague as to be useless. But he's a politician, so I'm sure something disgusting will come out soon enough.

[Kyle Jordan]

+1

[John]

The best you can hope for is that he will do the right thing for the wrong reasons. He was a liberal Republican who voted for Romneycare as a state legislator. Now he is the hero of the Republican right. He has a chance to be a national star, but only if he drops some of his big government beliefs. Being a politician, I would imagine he will have no problem putting his finger to the wind and becoming whatever is good for Scott Brown.

[Kyle Jordan]

Oh man. Can you imagine if he were to vote for the Health Care Bill once seated? (Provided it doesn't get passed or scrapped before then.)

Rightwingers would take to the streets armed and crazier than usual.

It'd be funny, if we all weren't getting the sandpaper condom special, no lube treatment in the above scenario.

[John]

Someone last night suggested that he flip parties after killing health care reform. The Republicans would be devastated. And Democrats would have to kiss his ass to keep their 60 vote majority even though he destroyed HCR and probably the Obama Administration with it.

[Kyle Jordan]

Then not run again when the next election comes. Walk away and do something in the private sector.

That would be epic.

[John]

Something like being a gay porn star.

[Rich]

"Avatar" is ... drawing unwanted attention to the sensitive issue of forced evictions.

Has the film been pulled from theaters in Brooklyn?

[Fluffy]

+1

[@]

Dances With Uyghurs.

[Slut Bunwalla]

+1

[John]

Environmentalists have a nasty habit of evicting indigenous people from land in order to make them into nature parks. You could make a sequel to Avatar where human environmentalists show up and pen up the smurfs in order to make Pandora into a giant nature preserve.

[Warty]

I seem to remember seeing a sign in Yosemite that talk about how the Indians set fires to control the undergrowth, but since they're not there anymore, it has to be mowed (or whatever). No mention about why the Indians don't live there anymore.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

John, I actually like that idea...I'm sure some sci-fi writer has penned such a piece before, but that would be a great addition to libertarian sci-fi on film.

[Slut Bunwalla]

It's called Brave New World.

[James Cameron]

I'll be sending a C&D Order soon. I started the screenplay for that sequel over 6months ago. Stop trying to steal my ideas.

Sincerely,
James Cameron

[Xeones]

John Yoo defending the expansion of presidential power:

Professor JOHN YOO (Law, University of California, Berkeley; Author, "Crisis And Command"): We need a powerful president because we have periods of emergency, crisis and even war where we need part of the government that can act quickly in response, that the powerful president isn't necessary all the time. It's someone who we need to come forward and address unforeseen events and circumstances.

BRAND: You argue in the book that the greatest presidents come forward during times of crisis to do that, to seize power when they can and to expand the world of the executive.

Prof. YOO: That's right. You look at who most scholars think are our greatest presidents, men like Washington, Lincoln and FDR. These are presidents who were no shrinking violets. They embraced their power. They used their powers vigorously to attack the challenges of their day and, often, or sometimes in direct conflict with the Congress and the Supreme Court.

Basically, the man is all about Dictator In A Box.

[Kyle Jordan]

I seem to always find myself angrier after reading Yoo spurt his mental diarrhea than I was prior to reading it. Never fails.

[Pro Libertate]

What a fucking moron.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah, but he directed the hell out of Mission: Impossible II.

[Suki]

+1

[sage]

Basically, the man is all about Dictator In A Box.

So am I, if it's made of pine and buried six feet underground.

[Kyle Jordan]

With that statement, you have lived up to your name. Bravo.

[Pro Libertate]

Because pine needles are green?

[Kyle Jordan]

Because he speaks with the wisdom of a sage.

And smells delicious.

[Pro Libertate]

Kind of a piney freshness? Like being in a coniferous forest?

[Kyle Jordan]

No. Like sausagey goodness and Thanksgiving all rolled in to one.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, okay.

[JW]

Wait, Washington?

What did Washington do *after* he was president to warrant being lumped in with those petty tyrants?

[Pro Libertate]

The guy's a moron who doesn't understand interbranch conflicts versus unlawful, immoral, and unconstitutional abuses of power.

[JD]

Hey! Lincoln and FDR were not petty tyrants.

[Rich]

when pupils replace or remove sounds, letters or syllables - such as "l8r" for "later" or "hmwrk" for "homework" - it requires an understanding of what the original word should be

and what the new word *will* be.

NP

[Pro Libertate]

Bullshit. By that argument, everyone who misspells a word has to know how to spell it in the first place.

[matt]

If they mis-spell it in the exact same way every time and think they're being funny when doing so, then yes!

[Pro Libertate]

Uh, huh. I don't believe it. It's not like people in general are great spellers. But these kids who frequently don't bother to spell correctly magically are? Ha! I have kids.

[Suki]

Quit encouraging that blogging buddy of mine. His bad spelling is maddening!

[The Art-P.O.G.]

People *usually* know what acronyms stand for, for instance. Not always, though.

[Butts Wagner]

LOL! TTFGMJ

[Fluffy]

Texting abbreviations aren't errors, they're code.

People who communicate in code are generally higher semiotic achievers than people who don't.

Textspeak is annoying, but that's not the same as being stupid.

[T]

People who communicate in code are generally higher semiotic achievers than people who don't.

[citation needed]

[Fluffy]

I saw it in the movie Phenomenon.

[Attorney]

Does anyone remember journalists throwing the word "rage" around when the independents who went for Brown last night went for Obama in '08?

Me neither.

[John]

When Democrats win, the public is rejecting cynicism and politics as usual and embracing hope and all that is good about the world. When Democrats lose, the people are angry children acting out on their primitive fears and frustrations and are unworthy of the wonderful leadership and guidance of the Democrats.

Didn't you know that?

[Gilbert Martin]

As I recall when Bush beat Kerry, it was the mostly the mainstream media talking heads that were acting like angry children and throwing a temper tantrum about it.

It is axiomatic that liberals are always guilty of that which they accuse their opponents.

Thus we had the spectacle of angry newsbabblers angrily proclaiming the voters to be angry.

LOL

[John]

In 1994 they were even angrier. Newsweek called 1994, the year of the angry white male.

[Groovus Maximus]

Ah yes, and Micheal Douglas as "D-FENS" the poster child in that movie "Falling Down" preceding '94

Here

[Fluffy]

This coming from a virtual spokesman for the party that invented the phrase "Bush Derangement Syndrome".

[John]

If only they had had texting when I was a child.

[Nick]

It wouldn't help your grammar. Had had?

[John]

It is perfectly appropriate, thought not often used.

Is it ever appropriate to use "had had" in a sentence, or is it just redundant? An example would be - "She had had two prior surgeries."

By Daniel Kies on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 02:38 am:

Dear hypertyper,

First of all, let me say that I love that name. Secondly, the answer to your questions are yes and no: yes, it is appropriate to use "had had" and no, it's not redundant.

Have and its past tense and participle form had can have two equally valid uses -- as a main verb [as in "She had a bad headache earlier"] and as an auxiliary (also known as helping) verb [as in "She had given him more than enough chances already"], where the verb had is the "perfect" auxiliary verb to the main verb gave, seen in its participle form here, given.

Ok. Good. So what?

Well, it turns out that once in a great big while it is possible to use the main verb have simulataneously with the auxiliary verb have and to say something like "had had."

That is perfectly fine. Honest. Really. However, the reality is that many people think that such a construction is not euphonic (even though it is perfectly grammatical) and therefore avoid it.

http://papyr.com/eforum/messages/7/322.html

[Suki]

Thank you! BTW, I an trying to bring whilst back to American English. Anybody want to help?

[James Cameron]

I don't want to bring it back.

Can we "take it back" instead, like Porch Monkey?

[wylie]

(note to self, remember to change joke handle after making joke)

[Attorney]

I think "had had" is OK there.

- If only they had asked me first ...
- If only I had listened to Gillespie ...
- If only he had had a bottle opener ...

[Prototypical Economist]

Assume a bottle opener...

[sage]

Nice. Then when someone makes fun of your spelling you could tell them to iron your shit.

[Barry O'Bama]

And now, the end is here
And so I face the final curtain

[Jerry]

Not before we all sing Send in the Clowns.

[Brown v. Obama]

HEY BUDDY, WHY DON'T YOU JUST IRON MY SHIT!

[SugarFree]

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling, by Mark Twain:

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

[SugarFree]

Reading further, this is yet another of the hundreds of things misattributed to Twain. Interesting.

Sorry, M.J. Shields.

[Groovus Maximus]

Odd, I thought I was reading one of John's posts, but it is lacking in such glittering gems as "shitbag, asshat, twunt fucker" and "cock wobbler".

Well done Saccharin Man.

[SugarFree]

I swear I read it years ago, attributed to someone other than Twain or (the actual author) Shields. It's bugging me.

[Suki]

Didn't Twain do one that morphed English into German? It was different than the one you quote.

[Joe M]

Twain had a passionate hatred for German, and wrote about that hatred on a few occasions.

[Warty]

I don't care a cuss whether you and Roosevelt like it or not!

[Kyle Jordan]

Well done!

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Awesome retroference!

[John]

The TSA nominee has withdrawn. You know you look at one ex girlfriend's new boyfriend's FBI file and everyone wants to use it against you.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....94_pf.html

[Warty]

So what does sexting help kids learn?

[SugarFree]

That their bodies are shameful things that create misery and death wherever they go.

Oh, wait... those are caused by the reactions of parents to sexting.

All the kids learn is that Becky has a surprisingly nice rack.

[Brown v. Obama]

And a mole right next to her beautifully puffy left nipple.

[wylie]

Ahhh, Becky.

/swoon

[CoyoteBlue]

http://www.politico.com/news/s.....31693.html
Democratic leaders insisted they planned to press ahead with health reform, and met late into Tuesday night in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. But they made no decisions about how to proceed, now that Brown has swept away the Democrats' filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate.

Their options are few, and extremely complex, mostly involving legislative tactics that would be difficult to pull off in the best of circumstances, let alone at a time when members are worried they could be the next Martha Coakley ? a seeming Democratic shoo-in laid low, in part, by health reform.

Double-Down Nancy! Show us your balls!
BE the "next Marth Coakley."

[Xeones]

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling

By turning it into Finnish?

[Warty]

Finnish is a beautiful language

[Kyle Jordan]

\m/

[Ska]

As long as you don't have your thumb sticking out. I hate when people fuck up the devil horns.

[Warty]

Don't worry. Ronnie James Dio will come in the night and claw out their eyes with his tiny little fingers.

[Kyle Jordan]

Or do the Moloik over them and give them the cancer.

[hmm]

Can we get off the Progressive train now? On both fucking sides.

I'm enjoying the tossing of Coakly under the bus and the excuses. Weiner just called her a bad candidate, that got won her primary by a fairly decent margin and has been in Mass. politics for a while.

[Xeones]

Double-Down Nancy! Show us your balls!

I think Sweet'n'Low already wrote a story about that.

[P Brooks]

I hope the Lowell Suicide Helpline had extra counselors took the night off, last night.

[I Am Joe's Boil]

Tee hee!

[Tony]

I don't understand why a bunch of cry-babies in Massachusetts gets to control whether or not the rest of the country gets the health care it deserves.

[James Ard]

Yes, damn those already insured pieces of crap for helping to deny insurance to the rest of us. Selfish pricks.

[Liberal Parrot]

Tyranny of the Minority! Squawk!

[Warty]

Real Tony or spoof? It's getting hard to tell anymore.

[SugarFree]

Not real. Way too early. He doesn't crawl out of his sleeping bag full of cocks until at least 2pm EST.

[Tony's Boombox]

On the big cock randy mountain...

[Kyle Jordan]

Next to the Cum River Valley. 37 miles east of the town of Brown Nugget.

[Slut Bunwalla]

In the Big Cock Randy Mountains all the cocks have wood to peg
And the bulldogs all have rubber sheaths
and the twinks have balls like eggs
The restroom stalls are full of fruits and the bars are full of gays
Oh, I'm bound to go where there's lotsa homos
Where my wood don't fail and the bears'll blow
In the Big Cock Randy Mountains

[wylie]

I told him to EAT a bag of dicks, not sleep in one.

[Pro Libertate]

There is no real Tony. It's time we accept that and move on.

[kinnath]

Tony is like the evil spirit in Fallen that travels from body to body causing death and destruction throughout the ages.

[ComradeZero]

Tony is in all of us?

[kinnath]

Tony spreads through web contact.

[Thomas Frank]

I am Tony!

[A.G. Pym]

No, it's Elvis that's everywhere, and in everybody.

Except the evil "Anti-Elvis," who has no Elvis inside.

I don't necessarily accept that Michael J. Fox is that person, though.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

It is hard to understand, since the crybabies who want socialized medicine supposedly outnumber them by a significant margin. Do you suppose it's because the socialist crybabies, instead of getting out and voting, waited for somebody else to do it for them?

[Kyle Jordan]

The gub'mint didn't come and provide transportation through the bad weather which was too fierce for their peaceloving ways.

[James Ard]

Kinda OT but I believe Obama's desperate pickup truck bashing is going to cost the Democrats big time in November. What in the hell are those fools thinking? Nobody will use those tapes in ads in truck country?

[wylie]

Those rednecks dont have tv. Nascar, Wrestling, and Mtv Reality Shows are just on there for OUR Litterate Amusement.

[Brown V. Obama]

"I don't understand"

Exactly!

[Dumble Door]

I think a lot of these folks are just too full of themselves.

RT
http://www.web-privacy.pl.tc

[Groovus Maximus]

I hate you with every inch of my body Anon Bot.

[Warty]

That's not anonymity bot. We'll never know who it is.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Ha ha ha ha, Warty wins the internets, f'real.

[Brown v. Board of Obama]

Republican U.S. Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm.

[P Brooks]

Now (right now!) that fucker is on the teevee, accusing large numbers of American businessmen of being tax cheats.

WTF is wrong with this guy?

[Kyle Jordan]

To whom do you refer, friend?

[John]

Thomas Frank is in the WSJ today saying that the government should sell off all of its gold reserves on EBay just to "get even with all of the right wing cranks" by driving the price of gold down. The left wing psychological breakdown that is going to come with the crash and burning of Obama is going to be damned entertaining and more than a little pathetic.

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....LEFTSecond

[Warty]

Remember that Thomas Frank is a respected member of the intellectual class. Despair, ye mighty.

[SugarFree]

That this guy writes for anything but the Penny Saver is a fucking wonder.

821 words of childish rage.

TRUST DEMOCRACY! Until you get a result you don't like.

[John]

I can't believe the editors let it in the paper. That is pathetic even for Frank. No analysis. No basis in reality. Nothing. Just a bizarre combination of the worst liberal bigotry "all the tea parties and republicans are funded by bitter gold hoarding John Birch types" and childish revenge fantasies. It has to be the worst piece of writing I have ever read in a major newspaper.

[Marc]

Seconded. It is batshit crazy.

[Paul Krugman]

No shit! Turible!

[Warty]

But it is the opposite irony that probably ensures that a great gold-dump will not take place. In addition to denting the holdings of countless extremists, such a move would also deal a massive blow to the hedge funds that have reportedly made enormous bets on the barbaric metal. Their losses would then reverberate through the financial system, inevitably shaking the institutions deemed "too big to fail." And before long, government would have to ride to the rescue of those who have wagered so much on the government's collapse.

I don't know if this most deserves a FAIL pic, the Picard facepalm pic, or just plain old goatse.

[Kyle Jordan]

I actually envisioned the Picard facepalm while reading it. So that's what I'd go for.

[Ska]

Go with the Picard and Riker double facepalm.

[hmm]

There are cases where you never have enough facepalm.

This is one of them.

[wylie]

What if that still isn't enough facepalm?

Also, its got 2 picard facepalms, but lacks the picard/riker dbl facepalm. -10points.

[James Ard]

I regret that the wsj resorts to the tactic of printing the rantings of a raving lunatic to represent the other side.

[Senator Blutarksy]

Yeah, that article is by far the most bizarre lefty reaction to last night's election I've seen in print. This guy sounds like an even bigger nut than Krugman.

[Warty]

I had forgotten that Thomas Frank wrote a book about how people in the Midwest are stupider than him. Fuck that guy.

[SugarFree]

Thomas Frank anagrams to "Stank Farm Ho."

[Thomas Frank]

Everybody is stupider than me.

Especially you.

[Michael]

When the massively inflated price of that metal collapsed, it would probably take with it a hefty chunk of the portfolios of tea-party types, survivalists, Birchers, dittoheads, Objectivists and almost every imaginable species of secular end-timer.

What the fuck? Is there some gold hoarding Randian contingent out there somewhere that I don't know about?

[Marc]

The one saving grace of this column is that he thought Objectivists relevant enough to give a shout out.

[SugarFree]

Why build a mere strawman, when a Wicker Man is within your hyperbolic grasp?

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I like this turn of phrase, SugarFree.

[T]

YAY! The shadow of the Wicker Man is rising up again!

Your time will come, SF.

[hmm]

Study: Texting helps kids learn to spell.
The text version:

Txtng 'hlps ppls spl'
S Coughlan
BBC Nws edu & fmly

Chldrn use abvtd lngage txt msg hlping spl rght
stdy of 8-12 yrlds fnd txt spk hlp w/ strng sklz reding
ppl say txt use wrd play & makes thnk how snds like wrtn Eng
link btwn txt and smrtz prvd suprize.
fndings frm stdy at the U o C say naysayers wrng
betr 'hmwrk'
Insted stdnts reg txt ? w/ fonic spling and abb - appr devlping sklz in frml Eng rsrch, paid by BA, sayz txting fonic aware nded to lrn rght splings.
So whn ppls rplc snds, lttrs or sylbls like l8r - it rqires undrstand orginal wrd
insted txting bad influence stdntz, tchrs say chnce "prctis rding spling evry day"
usng initials/abb. kno fonics/rhyms prt txting - but also prtf sucsesfl rding/spling dev.
" If see dclne in smtrz in youts, its spite of txt mssging, not bcse of it " Dr C Wood dev psych
is intrm rprt, 1 yer stdy 63 stndts Englnd, fnl rprt due nxt yer, no fnd neg btwn using txt abb and sklz
use of txt lngage " actuly drvng dev fonic aware rding sklz in chldrn" Dr Wood.

[Groovus Maximus]

I see Hooked on Phonics worked for you.

[gaijin]

love it. only problem is the 160-character limit.

[chaka]

the question is whether or not you typed that using only your thumbs?

[P Brooks]

It's like he's really pissed off about something. Something he can't actually do anything at all about; so he lashes out in some completely different and unexpected direction.

Weird.

[P Brooks]

This is good news for Caterpillar! The government will be buying lots of frontloaders to scoop up the millions of dead people (people KILLED BY THEIR LACK OF INSURANCE!!) littering the streets.

Buy! Buy! Buy!

[Lamar]

I saw Avatar last night. It was actually Pocahontas, but I had some mushrooms, so no difference.

[Hank]

Drugs - real mature, Lamar. Do you not have any consideration for the children on this site: Tony and Chad!?

I'm only kidding kids.

Btw, the sleeping bag full of cocks - thread winner!

[Groovus Maximus]

I still haven't bothered to see this Avatar. Looks like Ferngully with 9 foot smurfs.

[Kyle Jordan]

What's this about the Republican senator from Nevada?

[P Brooks]

To whom do you refer, friend?

The President of the United States; that's who.

I think he's having a nervous breakdown.

Hail, Biden!

[Kyle Jordan]

Yeah he gets REAL pissy when he doesn't get his way.

Probably vents in the Jezebel comments area.

[SugarFree]

Ladies... start your rationalizations!

Vroom, vroom.

[kinnath]

I now return to my Urban Blue Bubble of Sanity.

pricless

[Kyle Jordan]

Wow. Massive outbreak of sand in the cunt-itus.

And did Brown pimp his daughter during his victory speech? That would be awesome.

[SugarFree]

He just said that she's "on the market," i.e. date-able.

You must remember that anything a man says about a women must be interpreted in the worst light possible and with maximum disregard to notions of humor and accepted uses of the phrase.

[Butts Wagner]

It was pretty awkward though. Especially because that victory speech was so long and rambling.

[Warty]

Thinking is hard! Tee hee!

[JW]

No, daughter isn't much of a narcissistic attention whore at all. Why do you ask?

NoScript wont't allow the comments to load, which I regard as a feature, not a bug.

[Maverick]

In the words of Denis Leary: Ted Kennedy, good senator, but bad date. One of those guys who gets home at 4 o'clock in the morning and goes, "What did I forget? Oh! The fucking girl! What's the matter with me? Jesus, where are my pants? Holy Shit!"

Really funny that women in MA kept voting for Ted and ironic and karmic that his seat was taken by a pubic hair model.

[Maverick]

The town where I grew up: celebrating MLK day with a Rosa Parks skit . . . complete with white-faced 10-year-old actors. And with a special appearance by a Coke machine. So proud . . .

[Brown v. Board of Obama]

RACIST!

[hmm]

That is almost as funny as it is sad. I bet the part selection was chalked full of funny shit.

[hmm]

i forgot

racist

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Is that whiteface? I thought those kids were just dressed up as The Crow.

[P Brooks]

Thomas Frank is the WSJ equivalent of Sugarfree PelosiPorn.

[SugarFree]

"Ahre youh theriouth? ARHE YOUH THERIOUTH?

[Groovus Maximus]

Funny how Pelosi sounds like exactly like Barney Frank...I wonder if they trade technique anecdotes.

Shudder.

[Kyle Jordan]

No. Pelosi is just Frank in drag.

[wylie]

Sure it's not the other way around? Think he/she/it can even tell which entity it began life as?

One hell of a complicated pair of autobiographies there.

[P Brooks]

Don't talk with your mouth full, Nancy!

[Hairy Reid]

Don't worry, just...about to...finish.

[John]

As if any more proof were needed that Andrew Sullivan is a babbling moron. His advice to Obama after last night's election.

"This is a critical moment. How he responds will be everything. I think there is a response and that, oddly enough, his chances of re-election in 2012 just rose. He must not return to Clintonism. He must reignite the center around him."

WTF? Clinton was a centrist. He is the one who did welfare reform and cut capital gains tax and so forth. But Obama needs to reject Clintonism and "ignite the center" by ramming through a huge spending plan disguised as health care reform? How does this shit get published?

[wylie]

He must reignite the center around him.

Self-Immolation? Do it Obama!

[SugarFree]

[Werner Klemperer]

COAK-LEY!

[/Werner Klemperer]

[Kyle Jordan]

Thank you. Now my head hurts.

[JW]

I swear these gals would vote for Ted Bundy as long as he was for equal pay and abortion rights.

[Kyle Jordan]

He was for abortions. In the 80th+ trimester.

[JW]

"I will admit, I don't know a lot about either candidate, nor have I ever been to Mass. I was considering visiting there for a genealogical trip as an ancestral line of mine helped found Nantucket. Seeing that they chose to elect someone who voted against gay marriage and called a lesbian couple with children "unnatural", I sure as hell don't want to go there now."

Note to self: Stay away from monkey cage.

[Groovus Maximus]

Yeah John, AFTER the Repubs retook congress did he get his deep fried ass to the center.

[John]

Exactly. I always thought "Clintonism" was the old DLC triangulation and co-opting stuff.

[P Brooks]

He must reignite the center around him.

Wait- Sullivan thinks Obama should douse himself with kerosene and self-immolate?

NTTAWWT

[wylie]

Dammit Brooks, why didn't you thread this. I came in and made the same joke 2 hrs later because yours was 2 more pages down despite being made 1st.

Fucking resistance to threaded comments.

[SugarFree]

Also, in the "TEH IRONY! IT BURNS!" file...

Krugman went to the Ig Nobel Awards.

And he can't count.

[Marc]

Which one did he win?

[SugarFree]

He got beat out by Homosexual Necrophiliac Duck Rape research.

[TickleStick]

Steve Smith is a mallard???

[Mokers]

I wonder if they'll finally pull the life support on Byrd. Is there any reason to keep him around now that he doesn't make the magic 60?

What's the over/under on how long it takes Spector to change parties again?

[Hank]

Obama HAS ignited the center - as demonstrated in Massachusetts last night.

Don't listed to the idiots, Barry, you know, the citizens. Push on, my man. No need to worry about that Chavez head-sized revolt hemorrhoid about to explode on your anus.

[Hank]

re: John. Above

[P Brooks]

From the Jezebel weepfest:

They [teh pitiful REDNEXES!!] also have a profound misunderstanding of what US Senators actually do.

I guess we have something in common, then.

[P Brooks]

I swear these gals would vote for Ted Bundy as long as he was for equal pay and abortion rights.

You forgot gay marriage.

[JW]

Wouldn't that be for the "right to a not-gay boyfriend who is gay in all respects other than sexual"?

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Fucking resistance to threaded comments.

We shall never give up.

We shall fight them on the second page. We shall fight them on the fifth page. We shall fight them at the very bottom, but we shall never fight them way over to the right side!

[P Brooks]

Dammit Brooks, why didn't you thread this. I came in and made the same joke 2 hrs later because yours was 2 more pages down despite being made 1st.

Fucking resistance to threaded comments.

Resistance may indeed be futile, yet I shall endeavor to persevere.