January 19, 2008

A Saturday coffeehouse.

It's up to you to make this post interesting. Carry on.

UPDATE: Your humble blogger has returned from my daylong sojourns in the material world. Thanks for upholding life here in virtual reality.

127 comments:

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Carrion.

Meade said...

Luggage.

JSF said...

The Wall Street Journal had an editorial on the hate coming from Democrats regarding other Americans who do not think like them.

Does only Electoral victory make the Left's hate go away? How hard is it to be civil to the other side?

Ruth Anne Adams said...

So she leaves us--to grade exams or God knows what else--but she leaves us. I just want Althouse to love us, too.

Is that so wrong?

/emotional baggage.

KCFleming said...

Carrion, my wayward son.

/teenage baggage

AllenS said...

Oftentimes this means that Ann is on the move. If she's headed back to Madison today, when she walks outside she'll be in for a very rude awakening. It's effin cold!

Meade said...

I'll look for where she hid the remote. You check the freezer. See if she left any love, I mean, ice cream for us.

Crimso said...

There'll be peas when you are done

/podcast

P.S.: if I can't get more cowbell, more Sir Archy will do.

Peter V. Bella said...

I read the WSJ article. If you want to really see hatred just surf the left wing political sites and blogs. Though some of those on the extreme right are no better, the left has degenerated into vulgarity, obscenity, and profanity in their expression of hatred.

My favorite example:
I was driving behind a car that had two bumper stickers on it. One stated “Hate is not a family value”. On the other side of the bumper was a sticker that stated “I hate Bush”.

Meade said...

/dairy product baggage.

Peter V. Bella said...

I found the following quote by William F. Buckley interesting. It sums up the response to severe problems by government- both
parties- quite nicely.

"What isn't likely to come out of it is generic reforms of a kind that might have spared us the collapse. And why is this so? Because economic practices are governed by political considerations. It is tempting to blame the leaking roof on the rainfall."

Trooper York said...

I just brewed up a pot of Daimco's coffee and sat down with the papers, my bagel and a schmear, and a bag of donuts. Ready to start the day.

Love handles on the baggage.

ricpic said...

Vultures carry on carrion, too,
It's luggage of a sort;
When, filled with flies, the air turns blue,
Their baggage is abort.

Bob said...

For those who care about such things, it's Poe Toaster Day.

Trooper York said...

I think the professor went home for the big game. She has to duct tape her sons into their Packer Jerseys.

Rube said...

Good morning, I just voted in the Upstate of SC. Big crowds also people doing exit surveys. New Electronic voting machines which were very easy to use. All big letters for us old folks. LOL
Bob R.

Peter V. Bella said...

Drinking Costa Rican French Roast, reading the papers without laughing at what passes for jounalism, and looking out the window att the bright sunlight streaming in. It is colder than a politicians heart outside.

Bright sun, cold day= Global smarming.

Anonymous said...

POE Toaster?

does that mean somebody has a hot bum?

Entshudigen Sie, ich bin gerade von dem Sonderzug aus Pankow gekommen.

However I was one of the first commenters when blogging from msn/slate people started. Didn't they event it? I quickly left the Reynolds/Vehr/ and about five other people in the forum/ scene because I hate politics and have little in common with people who care about which puppet is going to be our leader. Do any of you remember me?

Elliott A said...

This is why it is easy for the left to hate. Thet invented PC,which has practically removed meaningful discourse from every facet of our society, except in still free places like this. The have adopted every PC position as their own. Anyone who falls outside this perfect little world is racist,greedy, energy wasting, misogynist, religious fanatic bent on converting the masses, etc. It is easy to hate these types of people and is is not politically incorrect to do so. The opposing viewpoints are shouted down, met with loathing, stereotyped, etc. since the people saying them are vile and worthy of the treatment. We would all be much better off in the Mary Matalin/James Carville arrangement, where the opposition is a good and loving person, just wrong.

Anonymous said...

well,

anyway here's to the poe toasters;

Maybe not exactly the right music, but at least something for

D is for democracy
C is for cemetery and c is for looking.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKi01rPexBI

Ron said...

Trooper did you get a little fish for those bagels, hmmm? Some tomato maybe?

Ruth Anne, no matter what Althouse does...we'll always have Paris. And if didn't we got it back last night.

Trooper York said...

No fish Ron. My stomachs a little queasy this morning. One of my clients sold her bar, and she had a blow out party last night to drink up her left over inventory on the house for friends of the bar. So I'm sticking with my usual Saturday breakfast for hangovers of a gallon of coffee, a quart of OJ, a bagel with cream cheese and eight Bavarian cream donuts.

Peter V. Bella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Peter V. Bella said...

Eliot a said
We would all be much better off in the Mary Matalin/James Carville arrangement, where the opposition is a good and loving person, just wrong.


And at the end of the day we have sex.

Maxine Weiss said...

This is the very last time I'm every going to talk about Hillary, or politics on this blog.....

Listen up, Kids :

Maxine Weiss said...

It's like this: If you never read another book on the Clintons....you must read that one book that came out..???.... in the 1990s, I think. It was written by a former Clinton Secret Service official, who I believe, also had connections with the Arkansas State Troopers.

Someone help me....his name was "Osborne" I think.

There's really only two books that I think are worth reading on them. The Olson book is very good. But, this Osborne guy, the former Secret Service man, really blew them out of the water.

She doesn't respect authority of any kind. She detests anyone in uniform except perhaps Lyddie England.

What that means for National Security is frightening.

If you never take any advice from me, if you never read another book on them....(and let's face it---I don't ever want to hear their names come into my brain again !!!)

Find that book and read it! I wish I had the title, but I'll get it.

This goes way back to the Arkansas State Troopers and her, yes HER attempt to villify them, and it's continued with her complete disrespect of the military, and apparantley abuse of her own Secret Service !

dbp said...

Continuing on with what Elliott A was saying...

Isn't it interesting that the same people who look back in horror at McCarthyism and in my estimate, exagerate it, have no problem at all persecuting anyone who dares blaspheme against PC scripture.

I guess it is because, objectively, people (if you can even call them that) who oppose the progressive agenda are quite simply evil and deserve what they get. The poor souls who sided with the Soviets in the cold war should be forgiven and should never have been marginalized. They were, after-all, harmless and their hearts were in the right place.

john said...

MSG

Hoe do you know they had/have sex? Aren't they both over 40?

Back in the day when Carville famously commented about trolling a $20 bill through a trailer park (or was it $10?) to fish for wimmin who would say BC raped them, I had the feeling that he was actually talking about his own experiences.

George M. Spencer said...

"Hotness” of Wives
of 2008 Presidential Candidates…
GQ’s February issue
(All comments guaranteed accurate)

Elizabeth Kucinich…Yowza

Michelle Obama…Fierce!

Elizabeth Edwards…Super super super

McCain…Wife #1—Carol... Former model;
Wife #2—Cindy... Leggy rockin’ bod

Fred…Wife #1—Sarah.. Beauty queen;
Wife #2—Jeri... Boobs

Ann Romney…Pretty awesome, in that Mormony way

Janet Huckabee…Looks a lot like a woman who would register for the Holiday Nouveau china.

Giuliani: Wife #1—Regina...Not bad for a blood relative (third cousin);
Wife #2—Donna... High hotness factor;
Wife #3—Judith... Can you take the Botox down a notch?”

My conclusion....

Manliest: Tennessee Stud. His conquests include the five times-married "Elizabeth Taylor of Country" Lorrie Morgan and three-time-divorcee Georgette Mosbacher, known as the "Divine Mrs. M".

Most Henpecked (by far): Obama. Wife made him stop smoking in order to run for President, wife says he is "stinky" in bed, wife has said he is "a little strange," wife was his superior at work when they met.

(Article does not seem to be available online)

bearing said...

Man, I'm jealous of everyone in real (not virtual) coffee houses. I usually get coffee house time on Saturday mornings, but today my husband is helping a friend build a triple bunk bed for his kids out in the garage, so I've got to hold down the fort with the 7, 4, and 1 year old.

If I only had a bagel.

Simon said...

I'm not quite sure how we got from here to here, but it's damned satisfying that the bad guy lost. If I were him, I'd think himself lucky that he didn't make it out of court and find "semper fi" scratched into his windshield.

reader_iam said...

Maxine, you've referred to a book like that before. Could you be talking about Gary Aldrich's "Unlimited Access" (1998)? He was an FBI agent.

reader_iam said...

Normally, I make myself cappuccino in the morning. But today I'm trying to use up some crappy coffee to get it off my shelf.

On Amazon today, I ordered "Art Fraud Detective" and two other Anna Nilsen books for my kid. His cousin got the former for Christmas, and he couldn't keep his hands off it. My husband ordered a router he needs to continue working on the guitar he's making. I, out of spite, bought Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism," just so I could read the book before NOT commenting on it.

This afternoon, I will be all about laundry and cleaning while listening to the last several Blogging Head[buttings] on my iPod. Meanwhile, husband and son are starting planning work on the doggie escalator son is inventing for a school project and expo.

It's cold as hell here. We have turned the ancient boiler up to 58 degrees. I am actually wearing socks, which I eschew most of the time.

Life goes on.

Chip Ahoy said...

Simon, I thought $600.00 was an awfully low amount.

On an unrelated issue, it's fascinating watching fortunes changing hands right before my eyes. It's exciting, if you can deal with the anecdotal heart-wrenching, or maybe because of it. I believe the real estate crisis conversely presents unheard of opportunities. If you have the energy for it, and if you're already positioned with cash, you can make fortunes in a hundred different ways.

Rather like how fortunes completely changed during the times of the plagues by the reorganization of labor, land and capital.

Please buy my book of ideas and my 16 CD Real-Estate Disaster Investment kit complete with your own personal progress chart designed by an expert, myself. And remember, when the going gets tough, the tough get going!

Unknown said...

Middle Class Guy said: I was driving behind a car that had two bumper stickers on it. One stated “Hate is not a family value”. On the other side of the bumper was a sticker that stated “I hate Bush”.

Obviously made up. Try to do better next time.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Meade: She hid the remote in the freezer! Right next to the Java Chip. /bemusement

Reader: You don't buy those books. If they're true 'spite books,' you borrow them from the library.

reader_iam said...

Ruth Anne: Just consider it another way in which I rebel against what's expected.

Also, I tend, too often, to end up "buying" library books. Why not just cut out the middle man?

reader_iam said...

Those two factors would also explain why I own (and read) Kos/Armstrong's "Crashing the Gate," and also a Soros' "Age of Fallibility."

Wanna borrow 'em?

ricpic said...

With all due respect to Maxine, you don't have to read a whole book to "get" Hillary. Just go to americanthinker.com and read the January 18th article, Hillary's Oedipal Problem, by James Lewis: says it all.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Reader: Thanks, no. For you, reading is like breathing. For me, it's much more effort-laden. I haven't even read all the books I own and want to read.

Peter V. Bella said...

Trooper York,
My favorite cure for a Saturday hangover is an early morning, steaming bowl of menudo or posoles with lots of cilantro and diced raw onions. After a short time you want to start all over again.

Peter V. Bella said...

John said:
Hoe do you know they had/have sex?
Aren't they both over 40?


My friend, I and several others here are over forty- even fifty. Sooooooooo, according to you we either do not have sex or are incapable of having sex?

Peter V. Bella said...

bearing said:
today my husband is helping a friend build a triple bunk bed for his kids out in the garage,



Your husband's friend makes his kids sleep in the garage? Damn!

Peter V. Bella said...

Simon, that story was pretty hot here for a while. The lawyer has had disciplinary problems in the past with the ARDC. He is probaly lucky he did not get disbarred and the plea deal saved him again.

He is also lucky the cops that arrested him were not Marines or veterans. CPD does have a certain reputation, if you know what I mean.

Peter V. Bella said...

verso said:
Obviously made up. Try to do better next time.



Verso, there are just some things so ridiculous one cannot make up.

Peter V. Bella said...

The talking heads are predicting major law suits by the Clinton campaign and other groups if Hillary does not win Nevada. Bill is still talking about disenfranchised voters to any microphone shoved in his face, but he is playing nice and not abusing any reporters.

As of now, Obama is up one point. Gonna be a long day in Nevada. I’d hate to be an odds maker.

Maxine Weiss said...

What is going on with Althouse that she's too lazy to come up with a creative post ?

Is she so busy running errands that she can't think of something?

Today's the shopping day, and this morning she was at the beauty parlor. Still, I'm sure something could have inspired her while she was sitting under the dryer.

Meade said...

"She hid the remote in the freezer! Right next to the Java Chip."

Ruth Anne: Finally! So she DOES still love us. She LOVES us! Yay! Pass me a spoon will ya? Please. Here, can we put the Java Chip right... here... in the middle?
Thanks. Waddaya wanna watch - History Channel? Do we have to share with Maxine? Okay okay okay.

*dairy product baggage back on.

Meade said...

ricpic: Good article. Thanks for pointing it out.

Linkhere.

Jennifer said...

Trooper - Pepcid AC is the official hangover cure of Merck employees. You'll be ready to tie another one (or 42) on before you know it.

Meade said...

Maxine: Go read the article ricpic found and we'll save you some Java Chip for when you get back.

/crossed fingers behind my back.

reader_iam said...

MSNBC is projecting Nevada for Hillary Clinton, with a handy lead.

reader_iam said...

Assuming that plays out, guess we won't see lawsuits from the Clinton camp... .

reader_iam said...

Mitt Romney, of course, creamed everyone else on his side.

reader_iam said...

All the cable networks seem to have it at 50%-45% Clinton-Obama. (Edwards really, really, tanked--obviously.)

titustramp said...

I am very excited about the NFL championship games. I am having a difficult time (with the exception of San Diego) deciding who I want to win.

I am from Wisconsin, went to school in Cambridge, MA and live in NYC so I am very excited about the Pack, Pats and Giants.

I guess I would prefer the Pats and Pack to go to the Super Bowl. My parents spend their winters in Arizona and have two tickets to the super bowl this year so it would be pretty cool to see the pats and pack play.

If they played I would love to see Brett Favre win (at the age of 38) but I want the the Pats to go a perfect season.

The Giants and Chargers will likely lose because it is going to be very cold in Green Bay and New England and I bet that the Giants and Chargers will choke.

Trooper York said...

Jennifer, I am always ready to tie one on, it's just a question of how crappy you are feeling before you start with the hair of the dog. We just opened a bottle of vino to have with some grapes and cheese, and it's going very smoothly.

reader_iam said...

Sushi break!

(And the espresso machine etc. are shining like new.)

Simon said...

reader_iam said...
"All the cable networks seem to have it at 50%-45% Clinton-Obama. (Edwards really, really, tanked--obviously.)"

The question I have is, although Edwards was a non-starter in this race, when he eventually jumps out, will he throw sufficient support to Obama for Obama to beat Hillary? that is, how will Edwards supporters break when Edwards is out?

reader_iam said...

"They're gotten radically unsafe."

...

Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, said that CIA senior analyst Tom Donahue confirmed that online attackers had caused at least one blackout. The disclosure was made at a New Orleans security conference Friday attended by international government officials, engineers, and security managers from North American energy companies and utilities.

Paller said that Donahue presented him with a written statement that read, "We have information, from multiple regions outside the United States, of cyber intrusions into utilities, followed by extortion demands. We suspect, but cannot confirm, that some of these attackers had the benefit of inside knowledge. We have information that cyberattacks have been used to disrupt power equipment in several regions outside the United States. In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks or why, but all involved intrusions through the Internet."
...
The delegates at the meeting were sharing data about cyberattacks on critical utilities and resources, and methods of attack mitigation. One topic of discussion was the new SCADA and Control Systems Survival Kit, a document of best practices for SCADA systems. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition and refers to devices that control critical infrastructure like power generators, traffic signals, and dams. The security of SCADA systems has been a concern among federal officials for years.
...
Citing two Government Accountability Office reports on SCADA security, Paller said that people have been adding wireless and Windows to SCADA systems without really thinking about security. "They're gotten radically unsafe," he said.


How freakin' stupid--grossly incompetent and irresponsible, really--can people be?!?!!!

Peter V. Bella said...

Simon,

The numbers also show that the Republicans turned out over three to one over the Democrats.

Peter V. Bella said...

simon said:
how will Edwards supporters break when Edwards is out?


Like billard balls after a good break?

reader_iam said...

In Nevada, just six days ago ...

***

Jeez, I know I'm not following Althouse's instructions re: interesting. Not feeling too creative today, I guess.

Where are our characters when we need them?

Peter V. Bella said...

reader_iam said...
How freakin' stupid--grossly incompetent and irresponsible, really--can people be?!?!!!



You're kidding, right?

reader_iam said...

What do you think I'm kidding about?

Maxine Weiss said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMbNA88kIfU&NR=1

reader_iam said...

people have been adding wireless and Windows to SCADA systems without really thinking about security.

Me, I don't think that's a kidding matter, but YMMV.

Maxine Weiss said...

I think prank calls are an art form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KAnUSMYvw0&NR=1

Trooper York said...

It was many and many a year ago,
In a toaster by the sea,
That a pop tart there lived whom you may know
By the name of SARAH LEE;
And this sweet tart lived with no other thought
Than to love and be consumed by me.

I was a child and she was a pastry,
In this toaster by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Sarah Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this toaster by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Sarah Lee;
So that the bakery clerk came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a plain brown wrap
In this toaster by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this toaster by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and ruining my tasty Sarah Lee.

(Poe Toaster, 1847

blake said...

MCG,

I'm sure the "sex over 40" thing is a reference that earlier Althouse post.

reader_iam,

No, adding Windows to ANYTHING meant to be secure is no laughing matter. Amazing what MS can get away with.

blake said...

Ha!

Excellent TY.

Once upon a bagel schmeary,
While I pondered weak and weary,
Over a splitting hangover from the night before...

Peter V. Bella said...

This is a female mayor who has real political courage. I wonder what the feminists would think of her versus Hillary?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22742723/

Peter V. Bella said...

Trooper,


Play Misty for me.

Peter V. Bella said...

reader_iam said...
What do you think I'm kidding about?



The fact that you would actually have to ask:
"How freakin' stupid--grossly incompetent and irresponsible, really--can people be?!?!!!"

reader_iam said...

It was rhetorical (with swearing at the end), I assure you, particularly with regard to this area.

reader_iam said...

Go, Trooper and Maxine, go!

(I've temporarily lost my sense of humor; certain tech stories do that to me.)

George M. Spencer said...

Two recent Interesting stories about Egypt...

Selling bread in Cairo....

Iron bars on the bakery's windows. A mob outside. Fistfights. The baker screaming. Flour resold on the black market.

Sounds like France in 1789.

Next, a first person account by a doctor's son who became a jihadi.

"Before each [elementary school] Islamic lesson began, the teacher would dismiss the Christian students, who were then obliged to linger outside the room until the lesson was over. Adding salt to the Christian children's wounds, many Muslim pupils would tease them for their faith - telling them that they would burn in hell eternally because they ate pork and were "infidels." This made a strong impression on me. I felt sorry for the Christians, sensing that they must be hurt by being treated as an inferior minority in an Islamic society. In my short life it was the first time I perceived that my Christian friends were not my equals. My parents had never suggested that we were superior to Christians, and I counted many among my friends. We used to play hide-and-seek and other games together.

"....Muslim children would gather around those who did not fast during Ramadan and sing, "You who eat or drink during Ramadan are the losers... the black dog will tear apart your guts." Such treatment of Christians and nonpracticing Muslims encouraged us to think that nonbelievers were inferior creatures and that it was right to hate them...

When I was nine, I learned the following Koranic verse... "But do not think of those that have been slain in God's cause as dead. Nay, they are alive! With their sustainer have they their sustenance. They are very happy with the reward they received from Allah [for dying as a shahid] and they rejoice for the sake of those who have not joined them [i.e., have not yet died for Allah]" (Koran 3:169-70).

It was the first time I was exposed to the concept of shahid (martyr), and naturally, I began to dream of becoming one. The thought of entering paradise very much appealed to me. There I could eat all the lollipops and chocolates I wanted, or play all day without anyone telling me to study....

....I remember one particularly defining moment. I was reading a book entitled Al-Shaykhan by Taha Hussein that cited the Prophet Muhammad's words: "I have been ordered by Allah to fight and kill all people [non-Muslims] until they say, 'No God except Allah.'" Following the reading of this Hadith, I decisively turned toward [my Christian friend] and said to him, "If we are to apply Islam correctly, we should apply this Hadith to you." At that moment I suddenly started to view [him] as an enemy rather than as a longtime friend."

Who are our political leaders kidding when they talk about al-Qaeda hijacking Islam?

Bush stopped for all of three hours in Egypt a few days ago and praised Pharoa, er, President Mubarak for the “long and proud tradition that you’ve had for a vibrant civil society.”

reader_iam said...

I'm actually very normal. I have a wife now of 10 years. I have two kids who I'm very devoted to. I've portrayed a neurotic personality with such effectiveness that people think that I'm actually neurotic or learned or intellectual. [But] I'm a beer-drinking, television-watching, T-shirt jerk at home. Not someone ensconced in Kierkegaard and Spinoza.
--Woody Allen, to Time this week.

dick said...

Well, Woody is right on part of it.

john said...

MCG

Blake is right.

I still think that Love and Death was prophetic in regards to Woody Allen with the undertones of pedophilia and misogyny; maybe not even undertones.

Still, its my favorite WA movie, that and Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Maxine Weiss said...

She went to the Beauty Parlor, but never returned.

Drowned in a bottle of Jungle Gardenia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNYEjk-w8M4

Incandescent light.

john said...

Back to Nevada. Why were there only 10,000 votes cast for democrats? Because it was on a weekend? I don't understand the dynamics.

Kucinich got 5 votes so far.

john said...

God, I want his wife to be first lady.

Maxine Weiss said...

Earth to Althouse, Earth to Althouse:

See how she takes the liner all the way to the bottom inner corner !

You liner isn't supposed to just stop midway at the bottom---you take it all the way.

john said...

Maxine,

You are interupting my fantasy.

Maxine Weiss said...

"Blend your shadow"

"Never let there be any hard lines"

"Blend it out to nothing"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhm0W_c-ZAc&NR=1

Peter V. Bella said...

Isn’t this coffee house idea charming. Gee, we are talking about our book orders, breakfast, hangover cures, the books we’re ordering, trite and serious politics, mild humorous insults, Ann’s whereabouts or what she is doing, drinking coffee, writing poetry, Woody Allen for some unknown reason, that little thing between trooper and Maxine, and all the other little inanities.

It’s just so, oh, just so, gee, gosh, it’s just so “FRIENDS.”

Ralph L said...

steaming bowl of menudo
Puerto Rican boys are much better fried.

I believe Matalin had a child in the 90's, maybe even Carville's.

john said...

OK, since you won't answer my Nevada question, I'll give it a shot:

1. The only democratic vote the democratic party machine was soliciting in Nevada was the union vote.

2. The polling places were mostly in casinos (well, duh, that's about covers nearly every building in the state). So the gambling industry was the only targeted population.

3. They probably blew off the teachers and the public service unions, or the vote tally would have been much higher.

4. A vote on Saturday would supress democrat turnout more than republican turnout, especially in a state like Nevada, where the population of workers is so transient.

5. I think all the democrats running misread the Latino vote.

6. Now I understand it even less. I need a little help.

Peter V. Bella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Peter V. Bella said...

John said:
Now I understand it even less. I need a little help.


It may- and I mean may- all be irrelevant. This article in the LA Times explains why:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-spivak19jan19,0,6856334.story?track=rss

Peter V. Bella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
reader_iam said...

Sounds to me like Fred Thompson's out ... based what he's saying right now.

Maxine Weiss said...

"The Bellagio hotel had never hosted a caucus before, but they ran the swankest voting site ever in which tiaras were not handed out. The caucus was held in the marble-floored, crystal-wall-sconced Tower ballroom a few yards from the casino. And yet the hotel was still unsatisfied. "For us, that room has nothing in it," said Alan Feldman, Bellagio's senior vice president of public affairs. "Even the water is in pitchers. We would never do that. It would be bottles of Fiji in little cooled metal holders. Next year, we want to sit down with the party and find out how to make it better. And bigger."

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1705409,00.html

reader_iam said...

... except no punch line.

Heh.

Maxine Weiss said...

"When Hillary Clinton won — with the unanimous support of the cocktail waitress lobby...."

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1705409,00.html

(Now there's a stellar group !)

Trooper York said...

Gaily loafers light,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of a Cadillac Eldorado.

But he grew old-
This knight so bold-
And o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No police impound
That looked like an Eldorado.

And, as penis strength
Failed him at girth and length,
He met a pygmy shadow-
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be-
This Pink Cadillac of Eldorado?"

"Over the Mountains
Of do or die Bed Stuy,
Down in the lairs of the Shadows,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied-
"If you seek for a Pink Eldorado”
(Poe Roadster, 1848)

Tim said...

Thompson is every Republican candidate's natural VP, save for Huckabee.

Trooper York said...

Seldom we find," says Freder Federson,
Half an idea in my profoundest stupor.
Through all the flimsy claims we see at once
As easily as I talk from out my pooper-

Trash of all trash!- how can a lady post it?
Yet heavier far than communist tripe-
Puffed nonsense from my crack pipe
Morphs into toilet-paper the best you wipe it."

And, veritably, Sol is right enough.
The general tuckercarlsonites are arrant
Bubbles- ephemeral and so transparent-
But this is, now- you may depend upon it-
Stable, opaque, insane- all bullshit
Of the moronic memes that he concealed within't.

(Poe, Milquetoast, 1851)

reader_iam said...

AP projecting McCain in S.C. ... Fox concurring ... CNN waiting ... MSNBC in commercial (but I don't know what they did before the break) ...

reader_iam said...

MSNBC back, with McC graphic & going to McCain HQ, but again, I missed the first few seconds of the intro, so don't know if they're reporting just AP's thing, or concurring also ...

reader_iam said...

But I'm guessing they do, based on what's being said.

Trooper York said...

Twas first beer of summer,
And budweiser of light;
And lagers, in their orbits,
Shone pale, thro' the light
Of the colder, cold moon,
'Mid drunkards her slaves,
Herself in the Heavens,
Your pee out in waves.
I gazed awhile
On her cold glass;
Too cold- too cold for me-
There pass'd, as a shroud,
A belching cloud,
And I turned away to thee,
Proud Evening Bud,
In thy Eye Mud.

(Poe Beer Coaster, 1847)

Ralph L said...

uh, Trooper, Poe died in 1849.

reader_iam said...

Huckabee (not exact): ... and although I'd ruther there be a little bit of difference--between the first and second place-- ... "

Yeah, I'll bet: that is to say, I think that's true, in that what he's really wishing is that there had been a really, really big difference in the results for Thompson.

Which might have very well taken care of that little bit of difference in the first and second place. (For starters.)

Trooper York said...

So you say. He lives on.

Trooper York said...

Just last year he published a novella about a innocent intern who was walled alive into a room in the White House by the evil wife of a philandering Chief Executive. It was called "The Tell-Tale Twat."

reader_iam said...

And now he's channeling John Edwards (again!).

Then there's this (again, please excuse if I'm off by a word or two, but I'm not off in the sense of hte sentence): "... the Republicans are all about ensuring that everyone has the best possible future."

I'm making this observation--and that's what it is, an observation--in context of Huckabee's compaign, and his history, but above all, in terms of the language.

Meade said...

speaking of living on...

Happy Birthday, dear Janis. You would have qualified for Social Security starting today. Thanks for sharing your sweet soul music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzNEgcqWDG4

Peter V. Bella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Peter V. Bella said...

Ralph said...
uh, Trooper, Poe died in 1849.

Do you have documentation? Can you cite links? Where is the body? Got DNA?

Sheesh, some people will believe anything!
I have it on good authority that he is living in an apartment in Brooklyn with Elvis and Jim Morrison.

Tim said...

"I have it on good authority that he is living in an apartment in Brooklyn with Elvis and Jim Morrison."

Still?

I heard Morrison drove him to suicide, what with his endless heroin-fueled rants he was a much better poet than Poe. That, and Elvis kept eating all the food. I couldn't blame Poe for pulling the plug after that.

Trooper York said...

It is a little known fact that Heather Poe, the lesbian lover of Dick Cheney’s daughter Mary, is the great-great-great granddaughter of Edgar Allen Poe. She has a surprisingly good relationship with her “father in law” and affectionately refers to him as “The Conqueror Worm.”

Anonymous said...

Yale law professor Jack Balkin just noticed that Althouse.blog is banned in China (link).

Over a billion souls who'll never be enlightened by the postings of this esteemed group.

Screw 'em, I say.

reader_iam said...

I just realized that I have not "spoken aloud," blogosphere-wise, a thought I've had for awhile--

And I suppose--I suppose, though reluctantly--that it will only be of interest to (if there's interest at all, of course) the lest-fresh among us--

But when, exactly, in context of political reportage, of political journalism, did it become standard to present results of presidential dysyr relays in terms of wins of the popular vote as opposed to delegate counts? (And I do mean as opposed to: there is, of course, the option to present both, within the same story, but that's the road not taken.)

Does this telegraph anything to you all? Is it supposed to? What do you think about that?

Are we supposed to take from this that the "vote" is in as to whether the concept of republic has been rejected in favor of democracy?

And how does that square with how, even now, the USA is technically set up, according to official documentation?

Just thinking aloud, emphatically curious.

reader_iam said...

When I say "republic" as opposed "democracy," I'm obviously referring to the federal, national government, and not more local ones. I'd think that is obvious, but these days, you never know.

Peter V. Bella said...

Tim,
You heard wrong. It was a rumor put out to keep their where abouts a secret. The three of them are working together to put on a retro concert cum poetry slam.

Morrison is clean, sober, and a born again Christian, Elvis lost weight with Nutri-system, and Poe leaves in mufti everyday to attend AA meetings.

Update:
The jig may be up. Drudge may be reporting on them Sunday.

Meade said...

"Screw 'em, I say."

Okay, but my advice: Don't use condoms made in China. Who knows what's in 'em.

Ralph L said...

who was walled alive into a room
Wasn't that "A Cask of Amantitado"?

Speaking of tale-telling twats, Linda Tripp is apparently running a store in toney Middleburg, Va.

john said...

"The Latin American left, sensing that the story of racial mobility implicit in Obama's personal story is too good an ad for American society, has chosen to moderate its embrace of the black American senator."

Pulled this from Reynolds. This resonates with me, as I think Obama has a major reverse resonance with the American left, for the same reason.

A leftist cannot truck with an Obama candidacy as it would negate his entire world view: a black on the reservation cannot rise to the level of his overseer/benefactor. And it doesn't matter how liberal Obama is, his rise is more a threat to the left than any winning conservative candidate.

Tim said...

"A leftist cannot truck with an Obama candidacy as it would negate his entire world view: a black on the reservation cannot rise to the level of his overseer/benefactor. And it doesn't matter how liberal Obama is, his rise is more a threat to the left than any winning conservative candidate."

Yes, this is absolutely true, and one reason this life-long Republican is thinking of crossing party lines and voting for Obama in the primary. Not because I want him to be president, but because I think it far better for the Republic for the Democrats to abort the Clinton "dynasty" before the nomination than to foist that problem upon the rest of us; and to force the White race-baiting Left to deal with the fact, with apologies to Lynyrd Skynyrd, "a black man don't need him around, anyhow."

Revenant said...

What the heck is wrong with the Republican Party in South Carolina? Two freakin' thirds of them voted for either Huckabee or McCain. Did they mean to vote in the Democratic primary and just showed up on the wrong day?

At least Thompson came in third, albeit a distant third.

Peter V. Bella said...

YOU KNOW YOU'RE ABOUT TO GET JAMMED UP WHEN:

You wake up hung-over in a seedy motel, naked, with your genitals freshly shaved, a ball-gag in your mouth, a bottle of tequila crazy-glued to your hand, a pistol emptied on the floor next to a puddle of someone else's blood...
Suddenly someone outside the door yells:
POLICE DEPARTMENT! SEARCH WARRANT!!!!!!

rhhardin said...

Virtual reality is the most real one. Consider mathematics.

Anonymous said...

the problem is we have never had a real mathematician in the whitehouse.

Perhaps JImmy Carter is the closest with having a BA in physics. If I talk to my own three mathematical sons, physics is the most difficult math. But anyway, I think mathematicians must be too much the humanitarians to be a President. That conclusion works with my three sons, too.

"Poetry must be made by all and not by one."

Tim said...

"What the heck is wrong with the Republican Party in South Carolina? Two freakin' thirds of them voted for either Huckabee or McCain. "

I hear you, except it doesn't appear McCain actually won with Rep votes. This, of course, is a big problem for him.

Kev said...

Late to the game again *sigh*.

It is my true desire that, sometime before the year is up, I'll be able to post some jazz to go with the coffeehouse. It's all about getting my current band recorded; we live in six different cities and teach at or attend four different colleges. But it'll happen...