Trollbait?
Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus will have to suffice.
Enjoy your holidays, and celebrate what you will, as you wish, with your friends and family.
Merry Xmas and/or etc all at unfogged! I am not tiercewise but plan to be shortly... and so for all of you, the seasonal intoxication of yr best pleasure each and every one. Fiona is just kissing Shreck: donkey is donkey again. xxx
Crap. I suppose I have to go buy some Christmas presents now. What does one get for people? (Adults/children, various ages.)
God damned health conscious teetotaling family.
Promise to take them to the farmers' market or something? A sort of IOU (since I don't think they have farmers' market gift certificates).
The gift of your love should be plenty, jms.
Coal. If you can't get coal on short notice, charcoal briquettes.
8: Megan! It's for the family!
and so for all of you, the seasonal intoxication of yr best pleasure each and every one.
My family frowns on intoxication, so have an extra one for me.
I swear in the name of our loving and merciful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that.I will murder every Amtrak official of executive rank or higher, current or retired, if I get out of this with my sanity and spine intact. "Maybe thirty minutes" is not an adequately precise estimate of the time expected to take to remove a motor vehicle from the train tracks, especially when the train in question is already hours late.
Merry Nochebuena Unfogged and hooray for infuriating passing political commentary from Republican relatives!
|| I have to move about 12 boxes, each about 2 feet by 2 feet, from California to the East Coast. They are stackable and could be put into a larger shipment, but I would like them treated reasonably well along the way. Anybody have an idea for the best service to do this? ||>
I'm dreaming watching a white whiteout Christmas.
I can wait til about 4:30, but then I will have to walk the dogs in a blizzard.
Rent me a car and pay for my gas and sleeping arrangements.
Damn. It is Xmas Even isn't it? I guess I'll have everyone SNOW!
max
['They told me to be grateful for what I have.']
|| I have to move about 12 boxes, each about 2 feet by 2 feet, from California to the East Coast. They are stackable and could be put into a larger shipment, but I would like them treated reasonably well along the way. Anybody have an idea for the best service to do this? ||>
I assume you do not wish to use UPS/FedEx? I would not use UPS for this, I have heard tales.
That portable storage pod outfit might work, since you can load the thing yourself and cushion at will. Downside is they gotta park the pod somewhere.
max
['Most of the bulk shippers are going to require a pallet and setup and all that crap, or they'll charge you by the box.']
I'd be glad to use FedEx or UPS. (Thanks for the warning about UPS). But the boxes contain wine, I'm not sure they ship that.
Downside is they gotta park the pod somewhere.
Not necessarily—when I moved to CA from Chicago I used ABF, and while there is an option where they bring the storage thing to your door, I just brought my stuff to their depot or whatever on the south side.
Maybe you could palletize them. Do you know anyone in small business who has a forklift? I've shipped odd pallets of stuff with these guys commercially.
But the boxes contain wine, I'm not sure they ship that.
You have to be in the business and licensed to ship wine, as I recently found out. A person could claim that it was, say, olive oil (indeed, a person has done so for sending individual bottles), but I don't think I'd risk it for that quantity. Maybe a case at a time, though.
My family frowns on intoxication
My family survives by it. It is one of the things that makes it nice to be home for the holidays.
23: Yeah, I, er, uh, someone I know found that out after having sent many individual bottles over the years. Thanks for not breaking, bottles!
Before I go off for Christmas Eve dinner -- Paul Krugman's blog is fantastic on the significance of the health bill, and why progressives should be celebrating its passage. I think today was a good day.
Marry Christmas everybody.
Marry Christmas everybody.
Let's get the gays their rights first before we go whole hog with the human-holiday unions.
Damn. It is Xmas Even isn't it? I guess I'll have everyone SNOW!
Boy, that sentence didn't come out worth a damn, did it? That's what I get for slipstreaming service packs and arguing in comment sections. Let's try that again.
Damn. It is Xmas Eve, isn't it? I guess I'll have to give everyone SNOW!
That's better!
(Thanks for the warning about UPS).
UPS is uh, rough (or so I hear from practiced shippers who are friends with the drivers who give away the secrets of the Brown). Which is OK if you like that sort of thing, I suppose. But next time you get a delivery from them, observe the shape the box is in. Kickity.
But the boxes contain wine, I'm not sure they ship that.
Do the pod, pack it yourself. A pod will be just right - figuring 2'x2'x2' boxes x12 gives me about 96 cubic feet or a tight squeeze in 5'3. (How big are the pods, he said to himself? Hrmm. It seems they only allow 8x7x7 & 8x8x16 for long distance moves.) Yeah, go with the pod, 8x7x7, lots of foam. The pallet shippers are really for bulk freight and likely not vino-friendly.
max
['Great. Next problem!']
27: Let's get the gays their rights first before we go whole hog with the human-holiday unions.
They attached the NOW! NEW! Revised and EXPANDED! 25% Larger, Same Price! Patriot Act to the diddly jobs bill. A coupla days ago. I guess they didn't want the heteros to feel left out.
max
['So, as soon as I wipe all of their spittle off my face, I'll be happy happy joy joy. Yeah.']
What's up with this Republican who hasn't been voting on the healthcare stuff? I think it's Bunning. Anyone know anything about him?
Bunning is old and unreliable (for anyone). Possible he's away for some reason.
Let's get the gays their rights first before we go whole hog with the human-holiday unions.
No worries, Stanley, the database engineers are on it.
Paul Krugman's blog is fantastic on the significance of the health bill, and why progressives should be celebrating its passage.
Yeah, Krugman is very persuasive. I liked this by Chait, too.
And because I'm not above a little Christmas trolling, here's a nifty little quote from the final paragraphs of Chait's piece:
What has re-emerged in recent weeks is the spirit of the New Left--distrustful of evolutionary change, compromise between business and labor, and the practical tools of progressive reform. It is the spirit that rejected Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and Al Gore in 2000.
Paging teo. Stranded in Albuquerque with my Father and MIL. Everyone went to sleep already. Looking for the happening Christmas Eve spot. There has to be one.
36,37:Grrrr....I'm trying to be nice here, not even linking to stuff.
38: Huh, I dunno. It's the sort of place where everything basically shuts down for Christmas. I'd say the happening Christmas Eve spot is any spot that's open on Christmas Eve.
Bunning. Anyone know anything about him?
If it's Bunning, he's pretty widely believed to be suffering from some sort of Alzheimer-ish cognitive disorder. He's retiring when his term's up next year. I was surprised he ran for re-election the last time.
Wait, the Alibi has a list of stuff going on (look at "Music Calendar"). Of the bars listed, the only ones I'm familiar with are Burt's and the Blackbird Buvette, both of which are among the better bars in town. If those two are open tonight, it's likely that at least some of the other downtown bars are open too, if you don't want a dance party. Anodyne is a good, chill place.
I, however, am in Flagstaff, where it's really cold.
Thanks, teo. I ended up at Uptown Bar, because it was the closest bar to my father's. It's busy enough, so it's at least stimulating. I'll be going out again on Saturday night, so I'll take advantage of Alibi that night. I appreciate you responding to the bat signal!
Is Uptown Bar that sports bar? I went on a date there once. Anyway, glad to hear you figured something out. For future reference, though, strictly speaking a "bat signal" should involve a link to the blog of the person whose input is desired.
Also, for the benefit of anyone reading this who might end up in Albuquerque looking for something to do in the future, the Alibi is the place to look.
Yes, it is the sports bar. It's alright because it's busy. Got it re: bat signal. Thanks again for responding. Alibi is my friend.
No problem. Enjoy your stay in the City of Bells.
For future reference, though, strictly speaking a "bat signal" should involve a link to the blog of the person whose input is desired.
This assumes people with blogs know/care to find out if there are links to their blogs, though. If people need to batsignal me, a link would not do the trick.
Neither would my unfogged e-mail address. We really need to get that fixed.
Well, Heebie, I guess you should be checking your hits more often.
If you want to be receiving the bat signal, that is.
Wait, tell more about these "bells.". I'm not exactly a visitor. I did attend Governor Bend(sp?) elementary school back in the day.
This assumes people with blogs know/care to find out if there are links to their blogs, though.
Indeed. I can't seem to find the thread I was thinking of where ogged explains this, but that is exactly the assumption behind this. There is also a batsignal for non-blog people who may notice their name coming up in google results (e.g., philosophy professors), but that's a little different.
53: Bent. And the bells are (probably) the ones in the twin belltowers of San Felipe de Neri church on the Old Town Plaza.
Fine, "Bent.". Maybe we went to middle school together.
Maybe. Did you go to Jefferson MS between 1996 and 1999?
Marry, Crist masto- awl, anto Allah, goo deny't
Merry Christmas, teo. And everyone else, of course.
37:Realize what you are saying here by joining Chait and his historical parallel:
That in 1968 it was good and right to celebrate the nomination of Humphrey & his allies, the defeat of Gene McCarthy and McGovern, and the certain continuation of the war, and that it was morally and politically wrong to take umbrage at being forced into a choice between Humphrey and Nixon.
Go study the 68 demographics. The crowd that switched and tipped the election were white urban professionals, the unions and white ethnics stayed with the democrats. There sure weren't enough lefty kids to swing a national election by staying home. The white urban professionals were mostly reacting to the racial riots, but in general were just expressing the usual desire of the bourgeois for order and incrementalism. And the war went on. And still goes on.
Some objected to the framing of center-left versus center-right, as some now object to the healthcare battlefield being defined as being somewhere between Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, and that we should be pleased & proud to end near Harry Reid.
As in 1968, the establishment and PTB has now won. This was not a fricking revolution or reform. They did not defeat the Republicans. The insurance companies and big pharma beat the hippies. That was what this was all about. If you like to think of yourself as as courageous and righteous by allying yourself with the health insurance and pharma companies, go buy some of their stock. They are very solid bets now.
Two links.
Paul Krugman celebrating this morning. Please read the first comment, "Lafayette" lives in France.
And this by Chris Bowers on progressive frustration and neo-liberal politics.
The roots of the frustration arises from an ideological divide within the party pitting the progressive left, which seeks to use the public sector for public ends, versus the centrist, Third Way, New Democrat approach of using a subsidized and regulated private sector to achieve public ends.
Since you probably weren't following that thread, this link is for you, bob. Do I know it's Christmas?
64:I find myself more amused by the theatrical stylings of my allies: Jane Hamsher making common cause with Grover Norquist. My painful ironies: let me show you them. ...ari
I do like that ari still seems to consider Jane Hamsher an ally. I think that is what he is saying.
The Free State of FDL (trying to put Rahm in leg-irons!!), along with Rosenberg, Sirota, and Emerson at Open Left, have pretty much declared civil war. This could be fun. Jane & Marcy are a force.
And you thought 2009 was interesting. We are always already only at the beginning.
This grouchy crank is re-reading Naomi Klein for Christmas. The rest of y'all enjoy. Peace.
So in 2010 blood is finally going to run in the streets?
62 -- See, that's the thing. A movement that doesn't think Hubert Humphrey and Al Gore are good enough, and is willing to let their opponents win, can't be taken all that seriously. You can go on all you want about what Congress and the Zeitgeist forced Nixon to do (EPA etc) but there's no case to make that Humphrey wouldn't have done more on each issue, including, especially, the war. And all without Rehnquist and Burger. So HHH wasn't going to end the war the day after he took office. Boo-fucking-hoo. He also wasn't part of a coalition dedicated to rolling back civil rights and the Fourth Amendment.
All summer long, Max Baucus was saying that there weren't 60 votes in the Senate for public option. Seems to me it'd be fair to ask people who think he was wrong to identify which among the 40 senators who did not vote on the bill would have supported public option (in place of the few blue dogs you'd lose). Cornyn maybe? Hutchinson?
Surely they could have been made the subjects of moral suasion, high rhetoric, and threats!
Bob, You'd be better off re-reading this. But we love you anyway. Merry Christmas.
66:Read 62 again, CC What did I say was the 68 "swing vote" in 1968?
It wasn't the kids that switched from 64-68 that gave us Richard Nixon, they didn't have the vote, and 20-25 are never a dependable bloc. It wasn't the blacks, we know they would never "compromise" they are the most consistent Democrats. It wasn't the unions and urban ethnics, tho they did move a little thru the 70s.
It was the urban middleclass and professional whites that switched and gave us Nixon. They also switched and gave us Reagan.
Do you think it was the blue collar unions and Communists that gave Italy to Mussolini or Germany to Hitler? Bureaucrats & bourgeois, dude. Doctors. Lawyers. The USSR n the 30s is a story of the comeback of the bureaucrats.
The types right now who are talking about being reasonable and accepting "half-a-loaf." The ones, like Yggles and Klein, who sadlly reluctantly, supported Bush's war in Iraq. The "reasonable, practical" ones.
Apparatchiks and wanna-bes.
Al Gore? I would have drowned this country in blood in December 2000. Y'all are always the ones saying extremism is no answer. and as far as I am concerned it is the "sensible center" not the Naderites that gave us Bush and Iraq.
68:I would have cheered, golly, I might have gotten drunk at a public option set at Med + 5% for the uninsured and uncovered. Of course I compromise.
But there is the difference. I have a limit to how much I will compromise.
Carl Schmitt said, in part in other ways, that is the success of and fatal flaw of liberalism. There is no limit to compromise, by definition.
We got 100 years of slavery because liberals compromised.
(We got the Civil Wa when the South crossed the process liberal line at Fort Sumter. Liberals will not compromise with extremism or violence. Never.)
We got 100 years of Jim Crow because liberals compromised. I could give the obvious 20th century European examples.
Bourgeios liberals will compromise on absolutely anything for efficiency, stability, and some weird self-image as rational welfare maximizers.
The future belongs to Ezra and MY, and I have seen no evidence there is a limit to what they will compromise.
And because I'm not above a little Christmas trolling, here's a nifty little quote from the final paragraphs of Chait's piece:
And some fine trolling that is.
What has re-emerged in recent weeks is the spirit of the New Left--distrustful of evolutionary change, compromise between business and labor, and the practical tools of progressive reform.
'Even the liberal New Republic says...'
It is the spirit that rejected Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and Al Gore in 2000.
Well, 1) the thing I keep thinking of is the winter of 2001-02, when I had been perfectly happy to go kill Osama bin Laden, while at the same time agitating against the Patriot Act, an idiot Congress that couldn't manage to declare declare war, yet allowed that administration to declare they were suspending habeas corpus. I can also recall people from the New Republic spending a lot of time getting down on their knees to give big, wet sloppy blowjobs to Bush's apparently unltra-manly cock. I recall that the same crew thought invading Iraq was a great plan, thought we lived in a New Economy, was entirely fine with ginourmous tax cuts (with piddly and mouse-sounding reservations) and so on and so forth. I can also recall that those same New Democrats shouted me down a lot when I brought up the fact that we had apparently fucking failed to kill Osama bin Laden (and it turned out I was right), telling me it was all good, and damn isn't that grand that now we're off to kill Saddam and have the FBI poking their noses in everywhere.
AND 2), I seem to recall how many limpid jets of love were launched when Gore picked Lieberman. Strangely, if you go back and look at ANY presidential election, you will find third-party candidates drawing 1-2% of the vote from the main contenders every year, making those persons a known obstacle. On the other hand, Lieberman was a guy from state the D party was bound to win. He wasn't from Florida or Ohio, and he also got right up on those Sunday talk shows and gave away the store to the Republican recount effort. Which he followed up by rejoicing in every R legislative effort, and then trying and failing to get the nomination for R Veep. And then, excitingly enough, torpedoing the public option. Now you could point out that the result of 2K election was caused by the Florida election system, R mendacity or the Supreme courth, and not Joe Lieberman. But the same applies to Nader (look at the vote totals) - we don't live in a majority vote wins the presidency system. If we did, Gore would have won, Nader or no Nader. Blaming Nader for 2K is like blaming the fucking weather, but thinking of all the reasons 2K went wrong, it does strike me that Nader (someone I regard as an narcissitic asshole, BTW) serves as a convenient excuse for the New Republic and the like-minded to follow their heart's desire and be more Republican. (By comparison, I rarely hear R people whining about Libertarians running for election.) Additionally, I would add that the New Left is now the New Establishment, so building fucking strawmen so you can whine about the rad kids of 1968 is just like fucking Nixon and Pat Buchanan. (Except I like Buchanan better: at least he's a fucking honest asshole.)
So therefore, in conclusion, I say that Chait is playing the role of establishment amoeba - lacking brains, guts and a spine, oozing in whatever direction 'the big guys' want to go in persuit of nothing in particular except perhaps some sense of personal power, and not different from R party potentates whining about how fucking oppressed they are by CNN or what have you. Thank you, I know you have a tiny dick, you didn't need to remind me.
There's your counter-battery fire.
max
['Merry goddamn Christmas.']
Not sure how I got there, but I spent a few hours at George Scialabba Net the other night.
Randolph Bourne But it isn't about the war.
"If any man has a ghost
Bourne has a ghost
a tiny twisted unscared ghost in a
black cloak
hopping along the grimy old brick and
brownstone streets
still left in downtown New York,
crying out in a shrill soundless giggle:
War is the health of the State." ...John Dos Passos
"Thus far you can go, and no farther, for the safety of our country"
Rauchway's piece on TR has been getting a praise and play on the net. I won't link. Debs is a mere footsoldier, an admirer at the Great Man's feet I suppose. Someone like Bourne is beneath notice. You have to get on Mount Rushmore to get some people to recognize your courage and integrity.
And then there is the agenda. Ugh.
(Except I like Buchanan better: at least he's a fucking honest asshole.)
Hell, at least Grover Norquist has some inner line he won't cross, a limit to compromise. That is why Jane Hamsher can work with him and not with Rahm or Ezra.
Grover Norquist not crossing the line: "Bob Sherwood's seat [in Pennsylvania] would have been overwhelmingly ours, if his mistress hadn't whined about being throttled," said Mr Norquist. Any lessons from the campaign? "Yes. The lesson should be, don't throttle mistresses."
72: Chait's article is not limited to sniping about the Humphrey and Gore.
"There are XX million uninsured in America today. It's a disgrace."
"But what about all those poor healthy young people who wouldn't want to buy insurance even if it was subsidized? Isn't XX million a huge exaggeration?"
What was the liberal response to this, before the past few weeks? "Wow, you're a real progressive, pure of heart and noble in spirit." Or was it "STFU you right-wing troll"? I don't recall.
This narrative that the only obstacles to "good" reform are insurance industry lobbyists and Democratic spinelessness seems to have been fashioned more by delusional self-regard than by clear-eyed cynicism. Seems convenient to ignore all those voters terrified of any changes to the status quo, including the senior citizens who are just so in love with that greatest of government programs, Medicare. (You know, a program created by Real Democrats with thirty goddamn dicks who somehow never got around to creating the single-payer system that we wouldn't have to rely on Rahm Emmanuel to "reform.")
71 - Lieberman was viewed at the time as a pander to Florida Jews.
I'm looking forward to nationalized automated medical records.
I forget if those were in the 'cost savings' part of the bill.
Credit where credit is due: this, by the smooth-skinned Douthat, seems more right than wrong to me.
78: He has what my Dutch friend would call an "ass face," and I would like to punch him in it. (But, yes, the article is unobjectionable, really!)
Weird. I see in the sidebar that my comment posted. And that oudemia posted one after that. But neither of them are showing up here. Haunting, really, if you think about the implications.
What the smooth skinned one misses, because he can't see it, is that only the complete dedication on the part of his side to failure of the O administration keeps him from the post partisan pragmatic position he ran on. The Republican position is no deal ever, and no accomplishments ever.
They are willing to stick to this 'principle' no matter what the issue (although I expect bipartisan majorities for National Pickle Week and the like) and no matter how attractive O tries to make the package.
So, are those big-dicked Texans going to do something about Cornyn or not? Only spineless sellouts talk about limits of political context.
Fuck National Pickle Week. You with me, mcmanus?
82:Solidarity!
81:I never talk about the limits of political context.
Texas is going to gain 3-4 House seats and electors in the next apportionment. California will possibly lose one.
Arizona and New Mexico have stabilized. I think most of yhe gains are up the central plains.
Please come to Texas, folks, and help rid us of Cornyn.
I know I shouldn't look at right wing bloggers, but the 'nuts are going off on Max Baucus, claiming that he was drunk during floor debate on HCR. People who knew him as a child say that he had a serious speech impediment -- which still strongly affects his speaking style, especially when he's excited.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5Y9X5ggxzA
Guess the right doesn't like being called out.