The Watering Hole: Wednesday, September 7, 2011: Nuclear blast kills half a million in India

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A heavy layer of radioactive ash in Rajasthan, India, covers a three-square mile area, ten miles west of Jodhpur. The levels of radiation there have registered so high on investigators’ gauges that the Indian government has now cordoned off the region.

An atomic blast … destroyed most of the buildings and probably a half-million people. Skeletons scattered about the cities, many holding hands and sprawling in the streets. People were just lying, unburied, in the streets of the city. Huge masses of walls and foundations … are fused together, literally vitrified! (In other words, the heat turned the clay in the bricks to glass.)

One account states:

… (it was) a single projectile
Charged with all the power of the Universe.
An incandescent column of smoke and flame
As bright as the thousand suns
Rose in all its splendour…
…it was an unknown weapon,
An iron thunderbolt,
A gigantic messenger of death,
Which reduced to ashes
The entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.
…The corpses were so burned
As to be unrecognisable.
The hair and nails fell out;
Pottery broke without apparent cause,
And the birds turned white.
After a few hours
All foodstuffs were infected…
….to escape from this fire
The soldiers threw themselves in streams
To wash themselves and their equipment.

No one is pointing to Al Qaeda, nor Pakistan. This particular nuclear attack took place thousands of years ago.

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312 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: Wednesday, September 7, 2011: Nuclear blast kills half a million in India”

  1. Interesting story. I’m not convinced that there was an ancient nuclear war or that ET was really here on earth. This story could certainly generate a conversation. As for Atlantis, I don’t know what to think about that. What I do know is that my ancient history education was based on the European perspective which didn’t include the history of Asia, Africa, Australia or the Americas. There was Egypt, the middle east and then the Mediterranean countries. Other than those mentioned, we didn’t even discuss the possibility of other civilizations which I also thought was odd.

  4. Hey, that’s fascinating. We could write a time-loop story based on this, where mankind is doomed to repeat all their mistakes over and over again. Ruin the planet, the planet regenerates and new men arrive just to ruin the planet once again…until we learned from this and then we would achieve eternal peace. Reincarnation on a grand scale.

    I do, however, think in reality this may have been some meteor or something from outer space.

  5. Scared the crapola out of me, did you!

    I not so anxiously await the eventual eruption of Mt Rainier and the destruction of most of Western Washington.
    Nature’s got to clean house, every 600,000 years or so.

    • Well, for years now the evangelical message (and republican, too) has been for smaller government so that people will turn to God for help, not the government.

      Seems Gov. Parry put that into practice, slashing the budget of volunteer fire departments in Texas by some 75%. (ht ThinkProgress). Then the drought came, and stayed. So Gov. Parry held a widely publicized prayer day, to pray for rain.

      Lo and behold, a tropical storm approached. Then, avoided Texas. The winds fanned several wildfires. Texans who relied on God instead of volunteer fire fighters, were burned out of their homes.

      I guess Texas didn’t cut governmental spending deep enough, so God sent them a message that he’s not going to help unless they totally eliminate social programs altogether, get rid of gays, prevent abortions and close down the border.

      Or maybe God is punishing Texas for allowing Bush to live there…

  7. Robert Oppenheimer, upon witnessing the Trinity atomic bomb test at White Sands NM in July, 1945, quoted the Bhagavad Gita:

    “If the radiance of a thousand suns / were to burst at once into the sky, / that would be like / the splendor of the mighty one” and “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

    A subtle reference to the cited event, perhaps?

  8. I don’t want to change the subject of this post, but I read this article on Alternet last night and I am appalled that things like this are allowed to go on in America… I realize that in the 60′s there were other places like in Theocratic Catholic Ireland, in the infamous Magdalene laundries…where this sort of abuse went on, but I didn’t think that it was happening in America…

    http://www.alternet.org/story/152024/the_shocking_stories_of_how_christian_homes_treat_troubled_teens_/

    The fact that most of these institutions are unregulated is horrific.

    • Wow, thanks LL, that was long but well worth reading. The private secular facilities aren’t a whole lot better, less abuse but no real program to address the underlying issues. Any facility that provides mental health services to children should be rigorously inspected and highly regulated. The story of the first child in this piece is especially sad to me, she needed rape crisis services.

      • It breaks my heart that children who end up in these institutions are so severely treated in the name of God. I don’t think that when Jesus said: “Suffer the little children unto me.” that he meant it literally.

        What is disturbing is that so many of these places are specifically designed for girls and young women. It makes me wonder if they truly want women to be submissive and under the authoritarian control of men.

        I was encouraged that one of the managers of these places has opened up to past “inmates” and allowing them to speak their peace to her.

    • This is brainwashing. So sad that parents would send their daughters to such a brutal place. Then again, these are the same people that vote against their own best interests. It’s frightening that these people are so weak and so dependent. There must be a mental defect involved.

    • That is awesome. My prof was always working on wind turbines. He would be very happy about this technology. May he rest in peace.

    • Great news. But I am wondering how long it will take for the denier crowd to come up with the fear that having all these propellers on the planet surface are going to change the planet’s rotational speed. Before you know it we will have innocent skinny people flying off into space.

      • And the deniers will often spout about how they worry about birds that may get killed by the wind turbines.

        Yet the same people defend the right to own a gun so they can hunt.

        And never a peep about how pollution and radiation from other types of power plants affect the wildlife.

  10. Clearly the wizards of the Hyborian age had access to nuclear magic, and weren’t afraid to use it.

  11. NASA Spacecraft Images Offer Sharper Views of Apollo Landing Sites

    NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites. Images show the twists and turns of the paths made when the astronauts explored the lunar surface.

    • Oh come on. Everyone knows we have never put anyone on the Moon. That’s all Photoshopped FX out of Hollywood. Oh wait, is that a 10,000 year old nuke missile launcher at the center of Mare Humorum? Right next to the sign that says “Conan was here.”

      And yes, Shirley, I jest.

  12. .
    Rumble/rumor: Perv may not participate this evening in Repugnant debate – he may stay ‘home’ because of the fires in TX.
    Interesting, the fires have been devastating for weeks and pRick’s been seen ‘gallivanting’ across the U.S.

    I’d heard this on a radio news. At the moment not seeing anything on the webs.
    (pRick is separated from reality and not a very good debater so any excuse will do…stay tuned)

  16. Or, since there is a nuke plant in the area where the radioactive ash was found, it could be as mundane as an undisclosed nuclear accident. There is anecdotal evidence that wood used during the assembly of the core was discarded and used as firewood.

    • Okay, that was weird. I hate that our company uses Internet Explorer. It behaves so oddly. I will have to tell Jane how I managed to login in at work. When we go to enter our names and password, the login box disappears. But I kept typing my name, hit tab, then entered my password. While I was getting the “authorizing…” bar, I went ahead and typed the above “Test” comment, and it worked. Then my gravatar appeared. Weird.

      • It’s simple, really…. the little people that are inside the computer know who you are and just did it for you. It’s magic, you know. The internets. ;-)

  18. Is anyone going to watch the clowns getting out of the clown car tonight – an opportunity for bullshit bingo if ever there was one?

    http://news.yahoo.com/debate-presents-crucial-gop-test-093000808.html

    I love this article – the 5 things to watch for….. none of them involve the second place winnder in the Ames Strawpoll and the subject of a blatantly obvious ‘sending to coventry’ by the right-wing and corporate media…… I shall speak the name which may not be spoken *Ron Paul*…..

    And there at the bottom of this blatantly dismissive article counter to the strength of Rep Paul’s polling – the only mention of his name or presence at the debate:

    “Other than using Paul — who is likely, as he has been doing with gusto, to complain about the lack of mainstream media coverage he receives — as a foil”

    Oh the irony….

    • The interesting part is that if Ron were to decide to run as an Independent he could very likely be the first viable 3rd Party candidate in recent history. He could out Nader Ralph.

      • I think Ron Paul realizes this would effectively re-elect Obama by gutting the Republic Party. I recognize that he would pull some delusional Lefties from the Democrats but never enough to have a real impact, IMO.

        • Very true. But then this is probably Ron’s last shot at the bigs and there just might be enough crazy baggers to give him a chance. Very outside chance he will decide to give ole Ricky a heater.

            • From Major League where the manager tells Wild Thing how to pitch to the home run king. “Give him a heater, Ricky” as in a fastball right down the pipe.

    • This is just another one of myriad times that I’m SO glad I don’t waste my money on, as it was once called a long long time ago, ‘Pay TV.’ I’ll catch the highlights, if there are any, later on the interwebs.

      Republican debates: slightly less interesting than a NASCAR race (if that’s indeed even possible).

      • I do believe if I told my cardiologist I was watching the debates, he’d be calling the ER to make an appointment for me.

      • Me, I’ve decided to go into serious humor mode. There is absolutely nothing anyone can do at this time (short of insurrection which isn’t there quite yet) except listen. And then laugh. The more the Right goes dancing off the cliff, the more we should laugh at them. Taking them seriously is both impossible and nonproductive. There is nothing authoritarian types hate more than being laughed at.

        • Carrying the NASCAR metaphor one step further, how about a massive pileup? Or maybe that’s already happened. Hmmm: wrecked and otherwise immobile cars with names painted on them racing in circles. Yes, that sort of works.

          • “OMG, the clown car has had a blowout on the back turn. Oh, Jesus, there are rubber chickens and whoopee cushions everywhere. Will someone please put that seltzer bottle out of it’s misery?”

            • And the clowns,…the clowns are trying to pile OUT of the wreckage! Wait! Is that Bachmann putting a knife into Perry’s Buttocks? And whose hands are those strangling Mittens!? Now the flame crew is hosing down the wreckage with some kind of foamy agent! But where’s the fire department? …..Oh, yeah, they’re gummint employees that were all laid off.. Never mind!

      • I think I’m going to let Rudepundit watch for me – my liver won’t be able to stand it.

    • I heard one rationale for voting for Paul – “you’d at least get something you want”

      (and whole bunch of wacky stuff you don’t…)

  20. Ok here we go – let’s list questions you’d like the GOP Clown Car to address tonight (of course questions that have almost zero chance of being asked):

    I’ll go first:
    1. Rep Bachmann – can you explain how Jesus is going to get the price of gasline down below $2 a gallon?
    2. Governor Perry – does Jesus hate Texas? How many plagues do think the Lord is going to visit on Texas between now and election day?
    3. Governor Romney – if large, moneyed organizations giving money to poltiical candidates is tantamount to corruption – how corrupt are you?
    4. Rep Paul – …. I got nothing…. next candidate
    5. Rep Bachmann – if God called you to run for president, is God just f***ing with Governor Perry or did God jump ship like Ed Rollins?
    6. Speaker Gingrich – how was Hawaii? Get any island p***y? Or does whatever happens in Hawaii stay in Hawaii?

    Oh that’s enough for now.

    • Also for all candidates…What is the going rate to buy a Republican candidate for President and how much is God’s cut?

      • Mr. Gingrich replies… Whatever Exxon and Mobil say the rate is, and God of course, gets his ten percent.

      • Ron Paul: “Actually I’d rather talk about marajuana and the…”

        Moderator: “Oh that light means your time’s up and our next question is to Herman McCain….. the ‘Right of Return’ in Israel means that if your pizza guys inadvertently put ham on your Kosher Hawaian Pizza that the customer can send it straight back for a full refund, oy vey! – true or false?”

    • Follow up question for Ms Bachmann… Have you asked Rick Perry to attend one of your closeted homosexual pray for healing sessions yet?

      Governor Perry, how many innocent people have you had executed in the last 10 years?

      And Mr. Romney, do those magic underweary things itch?

    • And, Governor Perry, with the 55 million dollars raised by your Super Pac, are you going to have any of your competitors rubbed out?

    • .

      6. Speaker Gingrich – how was Hawaii?

      Didn’t realize the ‘neutered one’ was still vying for the driver’s seat in that clown car.

    • Mr Paul, if elected president, if the Supreme Court didn’t do what you wanted, would you go out and just find nine stooges to make up a new court?

    • 4. Congressman Paul …… ok, let’s take a quick commercial break….

      … OK back from commercials….

      7. Senator Sanitarium – how’s your dog?
      8. Mr Huntsman – does it piss you off that we call you ‘Mr’ Huntsman instead of governor, even though you finished your term in Utah and others… well quit but still get the title?

    • To each of you: How far, into your presidency, would the Constitution be suspended?
      .
      Where are the jobs from the ‘job creators’? You keep touting the mantra as if it were a magical incantation that those filthy rich folk deserve all the tax cuts because they are the ‘job creators’.

    • Governor Perry. What would you say to a governor that threatens to secede from the union, and what would you do, as president, to preserve the union from such rebellion?

    • Any candidate. Since God created the world, he’s constantly had to meddle in its affairs. Would you agree that God screwed up? And as a follow up if you lay the blame on Satan, would you agree that God screwed up when he created Satan?

      • Can I play?

        # 6… If Rudy 9/11 Guilani decides to run, will you get out of the race? After all, we can only have one “also ran irrelevant” candidate at a time.

        #7 Ms. Bachmann If Sarah Palin enters the race, will you get out? After all, we can only have one woman at a time IN the race, since neither of you have a prayer of getting the nomination anyway.

    • “We take you now live to our reporter in Palestine Abu bin About working for the BBC (Broadcasting Before Christ).

      Mr. Jesus? Who do you favor in the US elections?

      What? Hey, I have a hooker lavin my feet with oil. I guess I’ll take the one that thinks camels are gross.

    • Mr Romney, since you proudly claim that corporations are people, would you support a constitutional amendment establishing corporate personhood, and would you extend to them the right to vote?

      • Answer: Already have – one dollar one vote, its working out fine don’t ya think?

        (shepherd’s crook with ‘brought to you by the Koch Brothers and Bank of America stickers – appears and pulls Mittens off stage – ‘urk, aak, gaagh’ says Romney)

    • Ms. Bachmann. You’re often heard saying we should return to the founder’s intentions. Would you be willing to give up your right to vote to return to their original intentions?

    • Moderator: “And now we’ll take a question ‘from the Tweeter’ – and it’s for Governor Palin. Well that’s tricky as she’s not running…. as you know…”

      Ron Paul: “What’s the damn question? I’ll answer it, anything….”

      Moderator: “Well perhaps it’s time for a quickfire family values question…. can the candidates give a show of hands as to which of you have masturbated after having found Jesus – and Mitt and John, just pretend here that your are Christian for a second ok?”

  21. Governor Perry, the National Enquirer is running a story about how you were found in a barn tying a cow’s tail to the rafter. Your response was you didn’t want to get smacked by said tail while milking.

    What inquiring minds want to know is how does one milk a steer?

  22. Perry Outlines Bold Proposal to Repeal Twentieth Century
    Cost-cutting Plan Involves Time-travel, God

    AUSTIN (The Borowitz Report) � In a sneak preview of Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas today unveiled an ambitious plan to cut trillions from the Federal budget by repealing the twentieth century.

    “Wasteful programs such as Medicare, Social Security, and school lunches for poor children all got their start in that infernal century,” the GOP frontrunner told an enthusiastic crowd of supporters in Austin. “So if you want to cut the budget, the only way to do that is for every man, woman and child in this country to travel back in time.”

    While acknowledging that his proposal was unorthodox, Gov. Perry said he was confident that time-travel was possible because “I saw Superman do it in a movie one time.”

    “And I’ve got someone even mightier than Superman to help me out with this,” he said. “Fella by the name of God.”

    Gov. Perry said that at an appointed time, he would ask every American to pray to God to send the country back to the nineteenth century: “Basically you just need to click your heels together and say ‘There’s no place like home.’”

    The presidential hopeful said he knew that critics would be skeptical of his plan, but added that he was “living proof” that it was possible to travel back in time: “For example, my haircut is from 1975.”

    Shortly after his speech, rival candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) blasted Gov. Perry for borrowing from her own plan to take the country back to the Middle Ages.

    But in a positive piece of news for the Texas Governor, a new poll shows him leading the pack among voters who describe themselves as delusional.

    • Thanks, but I’ll still defer and wait for the humor to show up in snippets later on. I will hunt up Obama’s speech tomorrow night, though, I expect on C-Span.

  24. Fox Sports apologizes for Pac-12 video that allegedly mocked Asian students at USC

    Gauge for yourself if the demeaning attitude/tone of the ‘comedian’ is ‘allegedly’ mocking or just full out moronic racist stupidity.

    • Fox doesn’t want to mention how difficult it is to get into USC. What does it say about Caucasian students that they could only find Asians? Better than self reflection insult somebody else.

  25. Another faux outrage. Apparently there won’t be any Baptist preachers at the interfaith event commemorating 9/11 and Gretchen Carlson is livid. Since the hosts are catholic I figure there are three good reasons.

    1. Since it’s hosted by Catholics they figure they have Christianity represented.
    2. Said Catholics are miffed by the many Baptists who have called the Pope the “Antichrist” and similar derogatory remarks about Catholics in general.
    3. The hosts realize that Baptist preachers can’t be trusted to refrain from partisan and interfaith sniping.

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109070027?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MediaMattersForAmerica-CountyFair+%28Media+Matters+for+America+-+County+Fair%29

    • The Protesting Fundies are just livid that the Catholics get a voice when they want to bring back the Inquisition. Catholics are boy loving pussies. Fundies know how to get down and whack heretics.

    • .
      jiminy cricket – Carlson is just too ignorant. All the reference materials in the entire world at her fingertips and she actually blurts out:

      We’re going to have a Buddhist nun, which we didn’t even know existed.

      • She’s another one who makes it very hard to tell if her idiocy is genuine or an act. I would like to think that such a moron couldn’t graduate from Stanford.

      • She’s a former beauty pageant winner and comes from a mega rich family. And Michelle Bachmann was once her nanny.

        She’s a lost cause.

      • Are you fucking kidding? On the air? Can someone ask her which “we” she refers to? Because I sure as hell knew about Buddhist nuns. What a moron.

          • Nah. Buddhism is the one where, if they get really pissed off, they set themselves on fire. Members of the “good” religions set others on fire when they get pissed off.

  27. I should have known. This is from a poster at MMFA.

    Fox seems to be in error. Again. The Program for A Call to Compassion is available. One of the religious figures named in the program is Chaplain Timothy Miner whose education is given as “Baptist Seminary.” Perhaps he’s not enough of a Baptist for Carlson’s ilk?

  29. Tonight’s debate will entail various levels of bought and paid for people telling America we need to totally undo at least 50 years of America. Sad part is, there will be a significant part of America who will be saying, Hell yeah.

    • .
      Depends on which chapter in the playbook: the go after each other or concerted blame the President – jobs. jobs. jobs. Never mentioning their promise to produce same once they were ‘swept into office’.

    • Yea, the baggers harken back to the good ole days of lynching, and women knowing their place, barefoot in the kitchen. They’d be much happier with a hundred years ago. Or perhaps before the Rennaisance and the Age of Enlightenment. Good old flat earth times.

  30. Rather interesting but Christianity has brought down every Western nation that has embraced it. The only way they have survived is by distancing themselves from religious dogma. The US is the last major country in the civilized world clinging to the essence of Christianity. Sort of odd that it is also the last civilized nation denying national health care.

    • We are a young nation and have not yet suffered through a true theocracy. For most of my life I’ve thought we would be able to learn from the mistakes of others but, increasingly, it looks like we will have to suffer through it ourselves.

      • Sadly true since we are too arrogant to notice that every European country has already realized that government and religion never work. Nor that there is not a single Christian nation on the planet. The only countries that are ‘divinely’ ruled are Islamic and only because they are a couple hundred years behind on the theocracy curve.

        • It wasn’t that long ago that Ireland was virtually run by the Church of Rome. I wonder if the big shift came about when all the expatriots came home because of the economic boom–came home from more rational countries around the world.

  31. I was just reminded of an old joke. Just in case there are any lawyers in the house; I heard this from a lawyer who proved that lawyers can be really cool people.

    Why do lawyers wear ties? So their foreskin doesn’t cover their face.

    • Now just why might a homeless, unemployed person who has been abandoned by the state government have any reason to start a fire that might possibly put a whole shitpot full of Texans in his shoes?

      Not saying it is right but when you have been shit upon and hove nothing else to lose, why not?

      • I have a slightly different take.

        Why did the CSM pick out the incident that implicates a homeless man but didn’t mention who these garbage burners might be? Is it because they are rich “ranchers” who would rather burn their garbage than pay a few bucks to have their garbage safely hauled away?

  33. I just checked the road conditions. There are several road closings due to flooding and down trees and wires. I’m at work and I’m hoping that I can make it home safely. We can’t take on any more water here in PA.

  34. Did I hear that right? According to a local liberal talk show host, Erik Paulsen (InSaneR-Mn.) is restricting his town hall meetings to those who have tickets. How does one get a ticket? By making a “modest” campaign contribution.

    So, if one wants to go to one of his town hall meetings to tell him you are displeased with his performance? One must support his campaign with a “modest” donation.

  35. I suspect America is done. We believe our PR while the rest of the world laughs at it. We want the rest of the world to feel for us over 911 when they have been dealing with much the same for over 50 years. We work hard to sell America overseas and do not notice that even though a portion buys our crap, most people are saying WTF?

    America used to be the big dog until we sold ourselves short by supporting any and every dictator who would send a few bucks our way. Americans don’t see that but everyone else does. Just as every other major empire thought they were forever until they were taken down, so stands the US.

  36. .
    MMfA is chock-full of goodies.

    The ignorance of the FauxFcukers is truly astounding!

    Coulter: Hoffa Represents “Useless” Workers Like “Kindergarten Teachers” Instead Of “Men Who Have Actual Jobs”

    • Coulter is desperate for attention. Just wait for her to yell about that n*gger in the White House. “See, I’m outrageous and edgy. Book me on your show. Please. Notice I’m saying please?”

      Plus, well, she’s a vicious, vile and appalling individual who gives vipers a bad name.

  37. Why is Peggy Noonan allowed to comment on anything anymore?

    She’s on MSNBC with Chris Matthews right now pre-debate.

  39. Rick Perry, lying right out of the gate. “95% of thew jobs we created in Texas are above minimum wage.”

  42. ‘Fragility of the free market system’ (Huntsman)

    If it’s so great, why is it so fragile?

  46. Ron Paul believes we should never have bailed out the banks or the auto-companies. And then a weird diatribe against drug company lobbyists.

    • And Huntsman said we didn’t need to start a trade war in a recession. We’re already losing the trade peace.

  48. pRick – chopping down the Federal Government that he’s just begged help from for the devastating fires that consume his state.
    I despise pRick!

  49. If the govt got out of the states and medicare, then why haven’t the states taken care of it already?

  54. Cain, the ‘free market’ of health insurance is run by a anti-trust exempt cartel!

  55. Newt reminds people not to fight each other… then how does one distinguish one from another ?

  57. This debate is 7 miles from my house. I’m torn — do I go watch them file out and get autographs?

    Toss glitter? Vomit?

  63. and tonight’s debate is brought to you by Sprint. and Salonpas. and marriott. Californians to keep Mexicans out ot California, Capella Univeristy. .

  65. This sucks! I’m watching in real time, so I can’t fast forward through the Reagan buttkissing!

    • Me too, gummitch. I don’t watch much TV but that doesn’t mean I want a good reason to smash the damn thing with a brick. “Hearing” the debate through the commentary is actually kinda cathartic if not exactly fun.

  69. Over 30 years ago Chile listened to the Austrian School economists. That’s why their system went broke, Mr. Cain.

  71. I’ve asked this before but… Am I the only one who is totally disgusted by the idea of exclusive “debates” on cable? I have no intention of subscribing to cable as we know it and, even though I can find all the info I want on line, it still seems like an “elitist” thing to do.

    • It’s streaming at HuffPo and MSNBC.com. These debates don’t go on network television — that’s reserved for the nominees from each party.

      • I know. However, there are lots of people who, for whatever reason, have neither cable nor internet access. I guess that those people aren’t supposed to vote.

  73. Score one for Dr. Paul on ‘no executive orders’!

    Perry is leaving out how much money was in that HPV vaccine for his rich buddies!

  78. Wait, Perry boasts of spending billions to tackle cancer. That is a government role but basic health insurance mandates aren’t?

    Romney rising.

  79. In Texas…. lot’s of people are fixin’ to do things … let’s get them busy fixin’ homeland security and fema and social security and medicare….

      • Oops! I forgot that he’s also a Mormon. I’ve read most of the Book of Mormon and it’s hard to claim sanity if one really Believes that stuff.

        • Hunstman is what’s called a Jack Mormon, someone who doesn’t embrace all the quirks of the theology, the politics, or the orthodoxy. For instance, he drinks caffeine and booze.

          Kinda like being a lapsed Catholic.

    • I liked Huntsman’s line about the fortress mentality that is not American. He’s having a much much better debate than last time around. He and Romney are winning this. Perry is a pinata.

  82. Newt is in favor of pell grants for k-12? is that another govt program that the government won’t fund?

  83. It sounded to me like Perry is blaming Texas’s appalling record in high school education on Mexicans. Yep, he was.

  85. If we need to attract foreign brain power to the US (Huntsman), does that mean we’re not as exceptional as we used to be? We don’t have enough smart people here already? Or do we just want to deprive the rest of the world for selfish reasons?

  86. Shelly’s been hearing from Gawd already, and now she’s been hearing from Reagan too.

  88. A friend wrote me:

    “yes, Bachmann’s hair looks like a flying nun attached to an electric socket.”

    • I had to tune in just to see the hair. Then she started talking so I only lasted about 3 seconds. I’m not fashion minded but I would say that all she needs is a black breath screen and she would look like a pint sized Darth Vader.

  89. These people are DELUSIONAL. The idea that Ronald Reagan would not raise taxes, when he did many times!!

  90. “Keynesian policy is now done”, according to Pervy. Wait until tomorrow night pRick!

  92. Shelly is hanging Robert Gates around Obama’s neck. Obama inherited Gates and kept him on so Bush would still own the wars.

    • That’s why he doesn’t have a hope in Hell (do non-devout Mormons believe in Hell?) of capturing the nomination. I have a feeling that even Mittens places too much faith in the cause and effect universe but, at least, he has a talent for denying things he just said moments ago.

  94. Reading the Zoosters take on the debates is a hell of a lot more fun that watching it!

    I’m thinking that Omar Khayyam summed up the current GOP presidential field some 900 years ago when he wrote:

    A Moment’s Halt–a momentary taste
    Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste–
    And LO!–the phantom Caravan has reach’d
    The NOTHING it set out from–Oh, make haste!

  95. My apologies for breaking the stream of though but I just fed y fish and noticed that my female “scooter blenny” is swelling with eggs again! I was thinking she was just getting fat because she’s started taking dried food but I can see the bumps from the eggs. For months she would only eat the frozen food which is mostly shrimp shells and water but now she gobbles up anything I put in the tank.

      • Thanks, Ebb. The aquarium is my passion and damned good therapy. I have had great successes but I have little hope for successful breeding because a 72 gallon tank can be no more than a pale reflection of an entire ocean but, if the little buggers are going to expend the energy to spawn, the least I can do is collect the eggs before the other fish eat them. I have a “rearing container” and try different methods of water flow and other conditions. I have an old plastic tub that used to be my tank for fish that I fed to the “important” fish and I’m thinking of setting it up just for eggs.

        Still, considering that most people can’t keep “scooter blennies” from starving to death, I feel pretty blessed with my success.

  96. Rick Perry’s strategery is apparently to prattle on and say nothing, or make contradictory statements — but say them forcefully, damnit!!

    • All that the pRick has is contradictory statements so, of course, he’s the new front-runner. Heck! He’s been praying for rain for months and his whole damn state is burning down around his ears.

      Hmmm. Could this be the first time that a presidential candidate was brought down by wildfires?

  98. Bachmann wants to drain the Everglades. And she thinks she’s the science defender. PFFFFFT.

  99. Bachmann’s energy statement will be fact-checked for sure!

    Oh Newt, Reagan spent three trillion on the credit card, back when that was a lot more money than it is now. Give ME a three trillion dollar credit card, and I’ll show you how to grow an economy!

    • FDR showed us how to do it. Pay a million people to dig holes and pay another million people to fill said holes. All those wages go back into the general economy, business’s prosper, and nobody goes hungry.

      • Or pay people to build critical infrastructure, build trails in the wilderness, bring modern life (electricity) to thousands of hillbillies, build hydro dams in the PNW to bring cheap power to run industry… two birds (or a whole flock) with one stone.

        Conservatives are just so fucking stupid there is no hope for them.

  100. Brian Williams gives the number of prisoners executed under Perry’s watch …. and the crowd explodes in applause!!

    WTF??

    This audience is repulsive.

    • Any crowd that instantly cheers the execution of 234 individuals is a crowd I want to flee, not join. This is the crowd that believes in torture and executions. Can you imagine the torture that Perry would authorize?

      • I vacillate on the death penalty. There are crimes that I think deserve death but I also think that, at any given moment, there are only a few people on the planet with the wisdom to make that decision. In no case should an execution EVER be a cause for applause.

  103. I’m not even watching it live and I want to puke. The whole damn bunch are sociopaths and anyone who would pay for the privilege of watching them in person is, by definition, a sociopath too.

  104. They’re running over. I thought this was limited to 1:45.

    Cain was too busy making pizzas while the Repubs were moving the production out of the country. That’s why this economy can’t recover like the Reagan Recession.

  105. I’d love to watch/listen to Rachel live but can’t, damn. I’ll catch it on the video, re-run.

    • Ebb, won’t your computer support a live stream? I put up three links to MSNBC at 12:43pm.

      • .
        My wording wasn’t clear, apologies!
        Errands to run (hadn’t planned on listening/watching the debate) so needed to split!

        I grabbed one of the links you put up and thank you for that!

  106. Remember, Simi Valley, CA is where the Rodney King trial was held and the cops got off even after damning video evidence.

  107. I’m getting sick and tired of hearing Michele Bachmann say that she “raised 23 foster children”, when, according to wiki:

    “Bachmann and her husband have also provided foster care for 23 other children,[23][24] all teenage girls. The Bachmanns were licensed from 1992 to 2000 to handle up to three foster children at a time; the last child arrived in 1998. The Bachmanns began by providing short-term care for girls with eating disorders who were patients in a program at the University of Minnesota. The Bachmann home was legally defined as a treatment home, with a daily reimbursement rate per child from the state. Some girls stayed a few months, others more than a year.”

    See also:.http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20072121-503544.html

    She’s a lying sack of shit, and I would hate to have been one of the children that she either bore or fostered.

    • I have to give her credit for that if nothing else. Unlike Palin she has sheltered her kids from the public eye. Of course, if it were not illegal to reveal the identity of foster children, she would probably have the whole gang on stage at every opportunity. Still, I’m waiting for a “tell all” book from one of her victims. I have this vision of her crying “the power of Christ compels you” while shoving Twinkies in the mouth of her poor victim.

    • I can give Santorum the benefit of thinking that he’s too stupid and crazy to realize he’s lying. In fact, I think that applies to the whole field with the possible exceptions of Mittens and Huntsman.

  109. A little flick on of that airplane and the candidates would be burnt toast.

    And when did they start putting airplanes in libraries? I thought libraries were for books.

    • If Batscat Bachmann got sucked into a jet engine would pRick Perry fly the plane over Texas and hope the expelled liquid might put out a fire?

  110. Robert Gibbs was pretty wushu washy about whether Obama was a liberal or moderate or conservative.

  111. There was just now a tourism ad for the Fiji Islands. That always makes me think of Lister whenever Fiji gets mentioned. :D

    • Damnit! Now I have a craving for a fried egg, chile, and chutney sandwich. Sigh… It’s more likely that an unattended sausage will run up my electric bill. I’ve tried the chutney available here in the states and it’s just awful. (NOTE: I was drunk the entire time I was in England and my taste buds may have been a bit off.)

    • .
      All Lister ever wanted was to have his little farm on Fiji – with horses and sheep. And of course his cat!

      Red Dwarf was so damned hilarious – at least the first several series.
      When Cat (Danny John-Jules) acted like cat!

  112. Cain is touting Chilean social security— Chilean model is privatization and also didn’t work

      • Cain might be the craziest of the bunch. There was a brief moment when Colin Powell might have won the GOP nomination but that window is closed forever. No person of color or woman, considering that Perry has taken all of Bachmann’s votes, will ever win the GOP nomination.

    • You shouldn’t have chosen the term “free market” for your drinking phrase. I tried to warn you. :)

      • I didn’t even watch it live! I never allow an outside force to interfere in my drinking. I drink for affect alone and believe that anyone who drinks on command should give up drinking. But? I am thinking that I should go back to beer instead of 85 proof “intense mint” schnapps. I think I might be too old and undisciplined to drink hard liquor. I will continue the experiment and get back to you all with the results. (This is the part where I would include a smiley face if I were sober enough to figure out how to do so.)

          • I’ve tried schnapps in other flavors but I have arrived at the conclusion that schnapps should burn all the way from the lips to the anus. Cinnamon schnapps is acceptable but I can’t abide the fruity ones. Kirsch is a good “sweet” liqueur or, maybe, gran marnier but I like some bite to my schnapps.

    • Wow. That is some seriously stupid shit. He concedes that most climate scientists have concluded that human activity is a factor in climate change — first of all, he’s conceded that climate change exists (ruh oh) and then he’s conceded that the scientific consensus is that humans play a role (ruh oh ruh oh) when real Republics know that “most scientists” scoff at that theory.

      But even though science says it’s true, he is skeptical. Well, he’s got the right tone there, because real Republics think any expert is a socialist faggot liar. The more time you’ve spent studying the subject the more faggoty you are.

      But then he brings in Galileo. Bwahahaha. Oh, I get it. Galileo challenged the consensus of the day — just like Perry! Except, whoopsie, Galileo did it from the standpoint of a scientist and Prick… uh, not so much. Not only a moron but a moron with a tin ear.

      • Galileo was all but burned as a witch. Perry has a torch and a faggot (of wood). Perhaps we should cultivate his affinity for Galileo? Then he could build a big fire, somewhere other than Texas, and jump in.

    • Indeed. 170 year ago they would have been hiring themselves out, as “designated floggers”, to the highest bidder. Lord knows that anyone who whips slaves should enjoy his work.

  115. heh— Rachel called tonight’s debate a pre-buttal to tomorrow’s speech by the president.

  116. G’night, good people. The schnapps will bring pleasant dreams to me and I hope for the same for all of you. For this brief moment let’s assume that the utter insanity of the GOoPers will bring us sane folk a big victory.

  118. Hello Zoosters, coming in late; well we on the left coast have this affliction. Anyway, that is close to two hours of cluster fuckin I have no desire to remember. A bottle of Pinot noir has had little effect on the loss of my sanity watching sociopaths dance their insanity on the tube, and an audience that cheers executions, and liars. You know what? I’m with Pete, I’m going for another bottle.

    • .
      The comfort – may it lull you into a restful slumber.

      (While listening I had a, very fleeting, notion of taking up drinking a spirit infused beverage. That passed quickly. I just kept spouting expletives…)

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