woohoo – its thersday again! are ya all recovered from your birthday yesterday dood?

Hooray, it’s Thersday! Hippo birdie 2 ewe once again, young whippersnapper!

From what I have read about the polling data, I have to say that, as an actual socialist, I sincerely hope they keep calling Obama (a very moderate centrist) a socialist. They more they call him and his programs that, the more the American public likes and accepts socialism. 8-)

The wingnuts can’t be happy unless they’re completely pissed off about something everything, so Republicans being out of power is the best of all possible worlds for them.

As much as I believe that the right is wrong, I wont call them stupid. I just makes me look stupid too. Insults only invigorates them. Don’t call them stupid, just prove them wrong. It gives them less ammunition.

Thers! Another excellent job! How’s the big 4-0 wearing on ya…? ;-)

First you make me laugh, then you make me think.

Thanks, Thers, this is a good one tonight.

Oh, hell. 4-0 ain’t half bad. Even 5-0 is OK. It’s when your kids turn 30 that you suffer. Mine just turned 36 last week.

Evening all…

Good evening all. Thank you Thers.

Right with ya DrD, but I still don’t feel old. When one of grandchilden make me a great grandpa then I will feel old(:>))

thers – was your birthday good?

The latter could come sooner than I want as well. My oldest grandson turned 13 on the 7th.

I fully concur with that sentiment… I find it interesting that even with the tremendous sh*tpile we’re still facing, We the People seem to think we’re headed in the right direction… 48% RD 44% WD… I guess there really was only one direction to go…! ;-)

Ya got me beat on that one my oldest is my grandson who is 9 going on 10. But lets just hope they all wait a bit before having their own…

Only really celebrating tomorrow, Molly I & I will be going out for a nice dinner. A restaurant w/o kids = heaven.

I have a (completely subjective) theory that the birthdays that end in 5 are most significant. You don’t change that much between 30 and 40 but 30 to 45 seems like a leap. Same with 40-55, 50-65, etc..

fingers and toes crossed that (1) the babysitter doesn’t call during dinner and (2) there is not a crying infant at the table next to ya

You’re only old as you feel. Mentally I’m about 5, physically well past 100.

fork – i turn 55 in october

Personally, my own birthdays have never bothered me (I passed the double nickle a couple of years ago). What really hurts about a 36 year old son is that I don’t feel old enough to have a son that old (except sometimes in the knees). Cognitive dissonance is a bitch.

I refuse to think about my age. But that is because I am so old I can’t remember it. . .

Thers and Suzanne, I’m sorry to interrupt this thread with sad news, but our good friend Persiflage passed away on Tuesday. Her husband emailed me and one of the other beach bumz at relaxed politics earlier this evening. If you’d like to leave a comment in her memory, please stop by.

I also found it interesting that even though only 48 percent said RD, Obama still polls in the mid-60s. It looks to me as if the Thugs’ attempts to blame everything on the new guy have met with something less than rip-roaring success.

As I said, it’s entirely subjective. I hope 55 is a wonderful year for you.:-)

Oh dear. Sorry to hear that. She will be missed.

yup – tis the fact my babies are not babies anymore but are almost 32 and 20 that make me feel old. it was easier when i could still consider myself the mom of a teen but that poofed on stephanie’s last birthday.

at least i am not as old as my orthopedist said my knee was – 85 (and that was 10 years ago)

A restaurant w/o kids = heaven.

*sigh* That would be sheer bliss indeed… A foreign concept even…

That means you are turning “Double Nickles” great age to turn Suz!! So when someone asks your age just say I am “Double Nickles”

Thers – Happy (belated) B-day
ratfood – my mental age is well past 100. Physically, I’ll take a cheney “no comment”

On to my response: I laugh at the socialist label, but I lol (roflcopter actually) when the wingnuts call BO a fascist.

and now (sorry) on to o/t: I just saw a story on MSNBC re Jones Soda powering their offices with human power. I enjoyed it enough to buy some (I don’t drink soda, but I like to support groups/people/companies that at least try to do something positive).

With the exception of the bank bailout, his policies are also heavily favored. Of course most of those policies have been polling 60-70% approval for 20 years.

Oh, I’d LOVE a crying infant at the next table. We look at each other and say “Not. Our. Problem.” Sweeeeeet.

double nickel does sound younger :)

Yeah, I think my mom felt like turning 80 was significant but it probably didn’t have as much impact as when her first kid turned 60.

Very sorry indeed.

does put a damper on the romantic dinner thang – unless, of course, you consider the sound of a crying infant to be an aphrodisiac

I gotta go with Thers, kimmy:

Their problem is that they are crazy.

And, please, let me add stupid, to boot.

Very sorry to hear that, Betsy. RIP Persiflage.

Where do you think second babies come from?

John Stuart Mill was far too generous in his assessment (or else they have deteriorated seriously in the last 150 years). They really are all stupid.

hehehehehe

and third, fourth, and pretty soon ya are competing with the duggar family

From the mother. If the father had to give birth to the second one, everybody would be an only child.

Brain damage or impaired judgment?

Oh, dear. Was persiflage Australian if I remember correctly?

Have to agree with you. The conservatives I know seem to have such an aversion to truth, history, facts, reality…that’s crazy.

Thers, did you see what the TP commenters were suggesting for the Repug party…? ;-)

Yes, Australian woman in Perth. Beautiful soul.

That she was… Her and I would often chat together at Betsy’s place long after the Texans nodded off…! *g*

They subscribe to a faith-based reality. Decide what you want reality to be, then reject anything which doesn’t reinforce that belief.

“Conservatism” now isn’t about winning elections. It’s about making hucksters rich.

I’ve often thought this. Ironic that the party of business has had its audience marketed away. The base acts like pr0n addicts–what began with enjoying an occasional National Geographic has devolved into wild spankfest freakshows. The marketeers must become more outrageous just to maintain attention.

as karl rove said, they create their own reality

Aphrodisiac…? Huh…? Couldn’t think of a better form of deterrent…

Sadly, so are the American voters. Looks like reality made them smarten up and get involved, though.

Maybe the wake-up call is long term this time. Hopefully, anyway.

I gotta get over this business of not seeing friends who voted for W. in 2004 somehow.

No problem with people who voted for him in 2000, but I can’t seem to want to see folks who still helped ruin our country in 2004.

I do believe that meets the DSM IV definition of delusional, which earns you an involuntary committal. Or at least it did before the powers that be decided it was cheaper to simply dump mental patients out on the street without supervision.

Right. Who was our other departed (from FDL) Australian friend?

….. says a father of three

Hah!

The only other Australians I know in the lefty blogosphere are May and Pete Down Under. Or am I forgetting someone?

Oh yeah. PeteDownUnder. Do you still hear from him? He and persiflage were going to show me Australia someday…

$$$!

Hey, there was large gaps in between ‘em…! 8-P

Is the seemingly endless capacity for self-deception a fundamental characteristic of our species or a symptom of our comparatively stress-free age? In other words, it was harder for people to ignore reality when they had to fend off saber-tooth tigers with a pointy stick.

Spoke to him this evening for the first time in a few months. He had met Persiflage and her husband on a trip he took last year.

I think that American voters are less stupid than ill informed and apathetic (the former feeds the latter). That has been at least partly true for a long time. the ill informed part, however, has gotten dramatically worse over the past 30 years thanks to our beloved MSM.

thank goodness for the internet

At some level the capacity for self deception is pretty ingrained (religion has been around for more than a quarter million years). On the other hand, I think the Paleolithic (at least the Upper Paleolithic) was actually much less stressful than today.

Particularly since the advent of Faux Spew…! Well, I shall bid ya’ll another fond adieu! Aloha Oe…!

aloha ct

Yep. If I had to rely on our local dead tree rag I would be totally clueless.

As John Lennon said, they keep us “doped with religion, sex, and TV.” Throw in food, fashion, and trendy consumer technology, who has time to be informed?

Night!

Oy, must be up early tomorrow. Nite all.

That’s cool for going through labor w/o meds. Pretend you’re in your calm meadow with the sun shining down, the breeze blowing, yada yada. Doesn’t work very well there but it’s sort of a coping mechanism.
Dealing with reality should be something you do without resorting (much) to drugs or dissociative mental states or just flat denying reality.

That is the whole point, don’t you know? Bread and circuses all the way.

Night. Hope it is not for a faculty meeting.

Yeah, I was just thinking that life for moderate minded folks in the Swat Valley right now is probably at least as stressful as warding off tigers with sticks.

g’nite thers – enjoy your celebration dinner tomorrow nite

G’nite CT, Thers and anyone else. Think I’ll head out too. Wishing a splendid evening to all.

g’nite ratfood

In all likelihood the tigers were not generally a problem. Humans (and other great apes) really don’t have many predators other than leopards and crocodiles. Some of the other big cats will eat us in a pinch, but don’t seem to care much for the taste of long pig.

As you indicate, the real stresses in our lives are more social or culturally created (traffic anyone?). Lower population densities and a fairly stable and abundant food supply from the Upper Paleolithic probably made that a relatively low stress period.

Night

All best wises for persiflage’s family.

Agreed. People are smartening up.

Night and thanks, Thers. You do the dirty work for us!

Polar bears but they didn’t often cross paths with people until relatively recently. Nothing has ever posed as great a threat to humans as their own kind.

oh boy, that sure is the truth. the inhumanity man shows towards his fellow man (head shaking) is a terrible thang

Good night firepups. I have a staff training to do in the morning.

Night. Hope they are all house broken. Think I will head out as well. Torturing my students with a test in the morning. Take care all.

pain free sleep wishes tex

g’nite dr dick

obama is going to release the prisoner photographs that bushco refused to release:

Reporting from Washington — The Obama administration agreed late Thursday to release dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuse by U.S. personnel during the Bush administration of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least 44 pictures will be released by May 28 — making public for the first time images of what the military investigated as abuse that took place at facilities other than the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Microbe-powered ‘fart’ machine stores energy
Could improve fuel cell technology by turning CO2 into methane

i predict a rise in bean futures (/s)

woohoo! the organic blogging fundraiser has raised $41,193 from 683 donors – almost 1/3rd of the way to the goal in only 2 days

Republics are SUCH knuckleheads.

But they are well down the road to becoming a regional minority party based in the South. I’d really love to know what Kevin Phillips thinks of his Southern Strategy now.

Southern Tragedy.

-G

Totally wrong, Thers. Blue Dogs are the new Republicans and they have enough votes and sway to stop any remotely progressive legislation in its tracks. Look at EFCA. It’s dead in the water. Watch health care. Watch greenhouse gas legislation. They will be compromised down to nothing. Obama will compromise. Blue Dogs will threaten to filibuster. And Blue Dogs control the media. Blue Dogs will win. Name a single “progressive” win in the first 100 days. The Republicans will win by simply forcing Obama to give up on any meaningful change, and instead settling for tiny increments, which themselves will be demagogued away to nothingness but symbolics.

Let’s see what happens. I bet you a dollah.

hey bct – the southern strategy – the wink wink nudge nudge code for racism – i hope that it is deader than a doornail but there is always gonna be a certain segment of the population that loves to hate

Goddammit, great post Thers!

Happy belated birthday ya, youngster.

I do believe you are hammering away at the root of the problem with these crazy sonsabitches, they are unable to discern what is reality and what is their own artificial reality, kinda like a purple microdot that never went away, except the only colors they see are white and brown.

That’s what we called a bad trip.

late late nite upstairs

Suz,

Lyndon Johnson handed Phillips his dissertation when he signed the Civil Rights Act and said, “This has lost us the South for a generation.” Johnson was a consummate politician, but when push came to shove he did the right thing.

So, yeah, the Southern Strategy is a Southern Tragedy in that it plays to racist motivations. That appears to be diluting as educated technogeeks are moving into the South. Look at Virginia and North Carolina in the last election. The Republics just aren’t sure how to run there any more.

I see that as a good thing. If we can bottle those a**holes in the Deep Old South, so much the better.

Doug, you may be right that the Blue Dogs are the beginning of a new conservative party. If you’re right, I hope they have more intellectual honesty than what’s passing for a conservative party right now.

Let’s see if I can be the first human being to break the sound barrier with that.
Three cans of chili, half an onion, and a six pack could make history.

“Doug, you may be right that the Blue Dogs are the beginning of a new conservative party. If you’re right, I hope they have more intellectual honesty than what’s passing for a conservative party right now.”

Evan Bayh? Ben Nelson?

Intellectual honest?

You have got to be shitting me.

Trent Lott has ethics next to these two Janus-like worms.

You make my case.

Conservatives have nothing left but socialism.

they also have Obama.

The disastrous republicanism/conservatism that has so destroyed America, twisting its values and reputation, assaulting decency, science, truth, civil rights, and realty, ruining the economy and in particular the middle class as it seeks to make the US a plutocracy is being kept relevant by Obama with his BS bipartisanship, foregoing the opportunity to banish to irrelevance for the foreseeable future the disease of republicanism/conservatism.

Hi Michael

Hi Bev! Thanks for the hello. I’m really looking forward to Sunday night and discussing my book Demagogue!