Oct 8th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Endgame
S-s-sing my song and y-y-you sing along:
— Canadian PM Steven Harper teams up with Yo-Yo Ma to do a Beatles cover.
— This makes the Obama administration look pretty foolish.
— Jonah Goldberg takes on liberal bias in dictionaries.
— A public option compromise that just might work.
— French cabinet minister putting the “dead girl, live boy” theory of political scandal to the test.
I hadn’t realized that Junior Senior was Danish until I got here. Here’s “Move Your Feet”.
35 Responses to “Endgame”
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October 8th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Lead vocals by Thomas Troelsen. Woohoo! Addictive song, by the way.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Apparently Goldberg has a thesaurus that has “dictionary” listed as a synonym for “thesaurus.”
October 8th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Limbaugh declares “entire DC press corps” has been “chickified by the feminazis”
Is “chickified” in the dictionary? Or just (JG) Malted Milk Face’s?
October 8th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Query: If we get a public option will Petey’s head explode?
Today in the NYTimes:
“There will be a public option in the bill,” Ms. Pelosi declared.
Reid said the Finance Committee will vote next Tuesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/health/policy/09health.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all
October 8th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
According to math, “conservative” means “a vector or vector function having curl equal to zero”.
My uncle is conservative and we call him Curly. He doesn’t have curly hair, but still- not equal to zero.
Therefore math has a liberal bias and is false.
My dad wrote about this for the Wall St. Journal years ago.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
If the “DC based television writer” isn’t happy with his current language guides, perhaps he’d be happier with this one.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
This is an overused quote, but it’s certainly fitting here:
“Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” -Stephen Colbert.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
My publisher has a proposal to hand the public option to “Better Health Care Together,” the coalition that includesSEIU, AT&T, and your employer. The secret, she muses, belongs to Wal-Mart.
October 8th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
A public option compromise that just might work.
Hack. What do you mean by “might work”? A lie that fools people into thinking the system has been “reformed”?
October 8th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Hack. What do you mean by “might work”? A lie that fools people into thinking the system has been “reformed”?
I’m pretty sure he means it in the sense of “might actually pass the Senate”. It looks like a pretty damn good one, tbh, especially if it can be Medicare rates. A state opting out of that is about as likely as them opting out of Medicaid.
October 8th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Lend me your ears and sing me a song, and I’ll try not to sing out of key!
October 8th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Was actually slightly impressed with Harper’s performance there. Not the best voice in the world but he didn’t embarrass himself. He truly is a renaissance man.
October 8th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Obviously fascism should be the synonym for liberal in the dictionary.
October 8th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Remind me again why we should be obliged to inspect the droppings of Jonah Goldberg.
October 8th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I’m pretty sure he means it in the sense of “might actually pass the Senate”.
Which is entirely different than effective delivery of health services at reduced prices, but I think that’s the point. It is designed to mollify the grassroots while protecting the large profits of corporate masters and ensuring lucrative consulting positions for themselves in “retirement”.
A state opting out of that is about as likely as them opting out of Medicaid.
I live in South Carolina. I guarantee this state opts out. We tried to opt out of the stimulus package.
Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve had my fill of compromising for the sake of victory. I have no desire to be a Guinea pig in Ezra’s little health outcomes experiment.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
for great danish music, check out the asteroids galaxy tour:
http://www.myspace.com/theasteroidsgalaxytour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoGMg6Uz8jg&feature=player_embedded
October 8th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
That’s Stephen Harper, Matt, just as the Web page says.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I live in South Carolina. I guarantee this state opts out. We tried to opt out of the stimulus package.
Note, *tried* to opt out. I think ordinary citizens will be more up in arms about their state opting out of a public option than a diffuse, scattered collection of stimulus projects.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
How about “generous”–that’s a synonym for liberal.
In any case, Goldberg and his correspondent are blaming the messenger–how many people, outside the right-wing media, say “He’s very liberal with his money” to mean “He’s very stingy with his money”?
And don’t conservatives think that being unorthodox or latitudinarian is a bad thing?
October 8th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
First Polanski, and then this. And then let’s not forget the late and unlamented nihilist hipster Foucault and his attempts to lower the age of concent in France. Does anyone want to defend the French and their penchant for utter and unmitigated sexual barbarism?
October 8th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
“Does anyone want to defend the French and their penchant for utter and unmitigated sexual barbarism?”
I won’t defend the French, but at least it’s not legal for French mercenary companies to rape their employees. It is for American mercenary companies. Al Franken is trying to change that, and 30 Republican senators voted in favor of legalized rape. I don’t think we have any moral high standing when it comes to sexual misconduct. The French are mild compared to the Republican freaks in Congress. Remember Mark Foley? Apparently, his Christian upbringing didn’t help much. Then again, it certainly hasn’t helped in the Catholic Church, either. And given your positive attitude towards the Catholic Church, I’d think you would find pedophilia acceptable.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Late and unlamented…hipster…pot, porn and playstations….yawn.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
I live in South Carolina. I guarantee this state opts out. We tried to opt out of the stimulus package.
Yeah, I also live in South Carolina, and I’m almost entirely sure there’s no fucking chance we would ever opt out of this. Sanford’s stand was about something like 2% of the stimulus money directed here, and the Republican-dominated legislature overrode him and forced him to take it because they didn’t want to deal with angry citizens who didn’t get their promised unemployment benefits. What do you think is going to happen when most of the country has a good public insurance option anyone can join, and South Carolina says they want to prohibit their citizens from joining it? That’s why the plan is so genius. Republicans can posture all they want. When it comes down to it, they’d never kill Medicare or Medicaid, and they’d never kill this even if they had the chance, which they will. It’s just too popular. Funny that the only way to get it enacted is to actually give them that chance.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
@AquaRegion # 12
“slightly impressed”? He sounded just like Paul, spot on key (he succeeded; I’ll lend him my ears) and relaxed. This is a big coup for the Conservative party in Cananda. It humanizes him and goes completely counter to the “Harper is Bush” meme. George Bush would never sing a song about getting high.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
I wish when you clicked on the links from your site they opened a new tab. I like reading the new information at the link side by side with the site that sent you. That’s how TrueHoop does it.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:34 am
Hector really is dull when he’s talking about that particular area of ignorance. He’s much more illuminating on the things he knows.
[Harper] sounded just like Paul, spot on key
Except that Ringo sang the original. And Harper’s a bit flat. Compared to Ringo. It’s sorta funny, though. Though not as funny as being unable to tell Paul’s voice from Ringo’s.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:04 am
All righty. Off to country song of the day now. That should clean that right out.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:26 am
“This makes the Obama administration look pretty foolish.”
Are you kidding? I’m impressed that some chunk of our government is actually thinking about an issue.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Pseudonymous,
Arrgh; you’re right. He sounds just like Ringo. Perhaps you have perfect pitch and can tell he’s a bit flat, but it did sound spot on to me.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Ringo sounds a little sharp on the original. So I guess between the two…
October 9th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Ringo was sharp and flat in various parts of the song, almost certainly, intentionally. He also did it in “Act Naturally”. I believe it was to get more into the character of the song in each case. He had no problem being on key for “Octopusses Garden” or his solo stuff. His problem as a singer was range. I think he could cover about 3/4 of an octave.
October 9th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Well, maybe you’re right, but… 1) Buck Owens didn’t sing out of tune (naturally), and 2)Abbey Road was just much more slickly produced than anything else they did. I mean, everything sounded more in tune on that album…not necessarily for the better…
October 9th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Meant to end italics after “everything.”
October 10th, 2009 at 10:50 am
This is pretty low, even by Goldbergian standards. There is no bias here. The word “liberal” predates the political philosophy of liberalism, both in its classic and modern forms. The word “liberal” has since acquired layers of additional meaning, but it can still be used to denote generosity, tolerance and broad-mindedness. Now, one can argue that modern liberals are actually intolerant and close-minded and therefore unworthy or their name, but one cannot challenge the objective definition of the word.
This would be like saying the word “commune” has nothing to do with human solidarity, because the Soviets oppressed people and stuff.
GOLDBERG FAIL
October 10th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
According to Jonah Goldberg, thesaurus.com (Roget’s Thesaurus) gives, as synonyms for “liberal”: “indulgent,” “lenient,” “loose,” “permissive,” “radical,” “unconventional,” “unorthodox.”
Jonah thinks those are positive things?