Fuck its silent in here.......

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Jon Huntsman announced he's running for the GOP nomination.

He's intelligent, qualified and moderate.

In other words, doomed.

In Huntsman's time as Governor of Utah, he signed the largest tax cut in the history of the state, mandated parental consent for minors to get abortions, and implemented a school voucher program.

I'm glad to learn that you consider that a moderate record, Fork.  There might be hope for you yet.

He's a Mormon.  Next please.

Also, he accepts that climate change is hai and humans just might have something to do with it, he supports some rights for teh gheys, and Gil likes him. He's got no chance.

Not to mention that he was most recently employed by a Kenyan usurper's tin-pot regime.

[Slaky]

Jon Huntsman announced he's running for the GOP nomination.

He's intelligent, qualified and moderate.

In other words, doomed.

In Huntsman's time as Governor of Utah, he signed the largest tax cut in the history of the state, mandated parental consent for minors to get abortions, and implemented a school voucher program.

I'm glad to learn that you consider that a moderate record, Fork.  There might be hope for you yet.

He's a Mormon.  Next please.

Also, he accepts that climate change is hai and humans just might have something to do with it, he supports some rights for teh gheys, and Gil likes him. He's got no chance.

Not to mention that he was most recently employed by a Kenyan usurper's tin-pot regime.

SOCIALIST MORMON!

[Gilgamesh]

From the marriage debate in New York State...

Though no deal has been reached yet in the fight over the New York marriage equality bill, there's one Republican state Senator who's dropped his poker face.

James Alesi told a crowd in Albany Tuesday that he's supporting the bill, adding: "I'm a Republican -- I was born that way."

"Passing marriage equality is the most important thing that I think I can do in my 20-year history as a legislator," Alesi said.

Referring to the order votes would be cast (which is alphabetical), Alesi added: "I am proud to be a Republican. I will also be proud to be the first Republican voter to vote for marriage equality in this state."

Bravo, sir.  Bravo.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

From the marriage debate in New York State...

Though no deal has been reached yet in the fight over the New York marriage equality bill, there's one Republican state Senator who's dropped his poker face.

James Alesi told a crowd in Albany Tuesday that he's supporting the bill, adding: "I'm a Republican -- I was born that way."

"Passing marriage equality is the most important thing that I think I can do in my 20-year history as a legislator," Alesi said.

Referring to the order votes would be cast (which is alphabetical), Alesi added: "I am proud to be a Republican. I will also be proud to be the first Republican voter to vote for marriage equality in this state."

Bravo, sir.  Bravo.

He's totally stealing Roy McDonald's thunder.

[Gilgamesh]

From the marriage debate in New York State...

Though no deal has been reached yet in the fight over the New York marriage equality bill, there's one Republican state Senator who's dropped his poker face.

James Alesi told a crowd in Albany Tuesday that he's supporting the bill, adding: "I'm a Republican -- I was born that way."

"Passing marriage equality is the most important thing that I think I can do in my 20-year history as a legislator," Alesi said.

Referring to the order votes would be cast (which is alphabetical), Alesi added: "I am proud to be a Republican. I will also be proud to be the first Republican voter to vote for marriage equality in this state."

Bravo, sir.  Bravo.

He's totally stealing Roy McDonald's thunder.

Roy's quote is better, to be sure.  But the "I was born that way" line stuck with me.  I'm sure he's going to feel good when this thing eventually passes.  When he voted against it in 2009, he looked dejected and sad.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Christ. And apologies ahead of time...

Googling "Roy McDonald James Alesi" leads me to (third result) some Christian New York asshole on YouTube who uses "straight-line logic" to conclude that New York allowing same-sex marriage today will lead to Sharia law allowing 50-year-old American men to legally marry 10-year-old runaways a decade hence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=295cQlwZ3uw

Straight-line logic compels me to conclude that Gil is right: Americans are the worst.

(Sorry.)

[J. Walter Weatherman]

From the marriage debate in New York State...

Though no deal has been reached yet in the fight over the New York marriage equality bill, there's one Republican state Senator who's dropped his poker face.

James Alesi told a crowd in Albany Tuesday that he's supporting the bill, adding: "I'm a Republican -- I was born that way."

"Passing marriage equality is the most important thing that I think I can do in my 20-year history as a legislator," Alesi said.

Referring to the order votes would be cast (which is alphabetical), Alesi added: "I am proud to be a Republican. I will also be proud to be the first Republican voter to vote for marriage equality in this state."

Bravo, sir.  Bravo.

He's totally stealing Roy McDonald's thunder.

Roy's quote is better, to be sure.  But the "I was born that way" line stuck with me.  I'm sure he's going to feel good when this thing eventually passes.  When he voted against it in 2009, he looked dejected and sad.

I guess Roy actually stole Jim's thunder, as Alesi came out for it first (no pun something something)...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/nyregion/2d-gop-senator-backs-gay-marriage-in-new-york.html

[Gilgamesh]

Christ. And apologies ahead of time...

Googling "Roy McDonald James Alesi" leads me to (third result) some Christian New York asshole on YouTube who uses "straight-line logic" to conclude that New York allowing same-sex marriage today will lead to Sharia law allowing 50-year-old American men to legally marry 10-year-old runaways a decade hence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=295cQlwZ3uw

Straight-line logic compels me to conclude that Gil is right: Americans are the worst.

(Sorry.)

In order to feel somewhat better about America, let's contemplate how characters in TV shows and movies never say goodbye when they hang up the telephone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APUQeQalRsU&feature=player_embedded

[Gilgamesh]

Unrelated: http://twitpic.com/5ey9n3/full

Additionally unrelated: http://twitpic.com/5ezd1f/full

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Unrelated: http://twitpic.com/5ey9n3/full

Additionally unrelated: http://twitpic.com/5ezd1f/full

We get it. You think bumper stickers put your "carefree" side on display.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

More generally: this is the first I've seen of the Bears specialty plates and they're appropriately bad ass.

[R-V]

Some interesting thoughts on the idea that All Serious People agree that we reduce the deficit Immediately in order to create a billion jobs and win the future.

The past several decades have witnessed an erosion of our manufacturing base in exchange for a reliance on wealth creation via financial assets. Now, as that road approaches a dead-end cul-de-sac via interest rates that can go no lower, we are left untrained, underinvested and overindebted relative to our global competitors. The precipitating cause of our structural employment break is both internal neglect and external competition. Blame us. Blame them. There's plenty of blame to go around.

Solutions from policymakers on the right or left, however, seem focused almost exclusively on rectifying or reducing our budget deficit as a panacea. While Democrats favor tax increases and mild adjustments to entitlements, Republicans pound the table for trillions of dollars of spending cuts and an axing of Obamacare. Both, however, somewhat mystifyingly, believe that balancing the budget will magically produce 20 million jobs over the next 10 years. President Obama's long-term budget makes just such a claim and Republican alternatives go many steps further. Former Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota might be the Republicans' extreme example, but his claim of 5% real growth based on tax cuts and entitlement reductions comes out of left field or perhaps the field of dreams. The United States has not had a sustained period of 5% real growth for nearly 60 years.

Politicians feel that fiscal conservatism equates to job growth. It's difficult to believe, however, that an American-based corporation, with profits as its primary focus, can somehow be wooed back to American soil with a feeble and historically unjustified assurance that Social Security will be now secure or that medical care inflation will disinflate. Admittedly, those are long-term requirements for a stable and healthy economy, but fiscal balance alone will not likely produce 20 million jobs over the next decade. The move towards it, in fact, if implemented too quickly, could stultify economic growth.

Academics also point to a theory known as Ricardian equivalence, a notion named after David Ricardo from the early 19th century. His ivory tower theorem was that consumers would become more and more confident of their financial future if in fact they believed that their own government's exuberance would be held in check. Balance the U.S. or any government budget, he prophesized, and the private sector would extend and lever theirs. Well, commonsensically and anecdotally, I know of no family who, after watching the Republican candidates' debate in New Hampshire, went out the next day and bought themselves a flat screen under the assumption that their Medicare entitlements would be cut in future years and the U.S. budget balanced. Ricardo and his "equivalence" belong in the trash bin of theses and research aimed more towards academics than a practical remedy to America's job crisis.

[Bort]

Christ. And apologies ahead of time...

Googling "Roy McDonald James Alesi" leads me to (third result) some Christian New York asshole on YouTube who uses "straight-line logic" to conclude that New York allowing same-sex marriage today will lead to Sharia law allowing 50-year-old American men to legally marry 10-year-old runaways a decade hence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=295cQlwZ3uw

Straight-line logic compels me to conclude that Gil is right: Americans are the worst.

(Sorry.)

In order to feel somewhat better about America, let's contemplate how characters in TV shows and movies never say goodbye when they hang up the telephone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APUQeQalRsU&feature=player_embedded

Also, no one on TV ever has any urgency to answer a door unless it can lead to slapstick comedy.

And they made the whole plane out of airline food.

[Quality Start Machine]

Some interesting thoughts on the idea that All Serious People agree that we reduce the deficit Immediately in order to create a billion jobs and win the future.

The past several decades have witnessed an erosion of our manufacturing base in exchange for a reliance on wealth creation via financial assets. Now, as that road approaches a dead-end cul-de-sac via interest rates that can go no lower, we are left untrained, underinvested and overindebted relative to our global competitors. The precipitating cause of our structural employment break is both internal neglect and external competition. Blame us. Blame them. There's plenty of blame to go around.

Solutions from policymakers on the right or left, however, seem focused almost exclusively on rectifying or reducing our budget deficit as a panacea. While Democrats favor tax increases and mild adjustments to entitlements, Republicans pound the table for trillions of dollars of spending cuts and an axing of Obamacare. Both, however, somewhat mystifyingly, believe that balancing the budget will magically produce 20 million jobs over the next 10 years. President Obama's long-term budget makes just such a claim and Republican alternatives go many steps further. Former Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota might be the Republicans' extreme example, but his claim of 5% real growth based on tax cuts and entitlement reductions comes out of left field or perhaps the field of dreams. The United States has not had a sustained period of 5% real growth for nearly 60 years.

Politicians feel that fiscal conservatism equates to job growth. It's difficult to believe, however, that an American-based corporation, with profits as its primary focus, can somehow be wooed back to American soil with a feeble and historically unjustified assurance that Social Security will be now secure or that medical care inflation will disinflate. Admittedly, those are long-term requirements for a stable and healthy economy, but fiscal balance alone will not likely produce 20 million jobs over the next decade. The move towards it, in fact, if implemented too quickly, could stultify economic growth.

Academics also point to a theory known as Ricardian equivalence, a notion named after David Ricardo from the early 19th century. His ivory tower theorem was that consumers would become more and more confident of their financial future if in fact they believed that their own government's exuberance would be held in check. Balance the U.S. or any government budget, he prophesized, and the private sector would extend and lever theirs. Well, commonsensically and anecdotally, I know of no family who, after watching the Republican candidates' debate in New Hampshire, went out the next day and bought themselves a flat screen under the assumption that their Medicare entitlements would be cut in future years and the U.S. budget balanced. Ricardo and his "equivalence" belong in the trash bin of theses and research aimed more towards academics than a practical remedy to America's job crisis.

Of course, if the Government were ever able to balance the budget, any growth in the private sector would lead to projected surpluses, which would lead to someone running for office on a platform of tax cuts because "it's your money", which would lead to deficits.

We're boned. Let's go bowling.

[morpheus]

Boned, indeed.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/22/feds-look-to-regulate-food-similar-to-tobacco-with-hopes-of-saving-money-on-health-care/#ixzz1Q0ynJFJL

The federal government has a growing interest in the eating habits of Americans for the same reason it has an interest in tobacco consumption, said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Goddamnit, they can have my bacon when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.