The Watering Hole, Thursday, April 5th, 2012: Short Attention Span News

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I did a bit of wandering around searching for a topic to cover for today’s thread, and currently having an attention span shorter than a kitten’s didn’t help. I started at Newsmax.com, since there’s always something there that makes for good fodder.

At first I got distracted by a bright shiny object which, in reality, was a promotion for the April edition of Newsmax Magazine, with the cover “SHOWDOWN” Iran’s Plan for a Second Holocaust Must Be Stopped” by John Bolton. You have to read not only the fearmongering blurb about Bolton’s piece, but also the subscription offers accompanying it (if you sign up for TWO years, your extra bonus is Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue“…FREE!)

After tearing myself away from the Bolton promo, I then hit another article about Michigan’s legislative initiatives in the RWOW (Republican War on Women.) I wanted to respond to some of the comments, as a couple were truly face-palm/WTF?/gob-smackers, but…

Something else in the Detroit News then caught my eye, about another Michigan initiative to offer ‘CHOOSE LIFE” Michigan license plates. Apparently some states already have the “CHOOSE LIFE” license plates, some of which are shown in this interesting article.

However, from what I read, the pro-life plates didn’t make it into the final bill (which was signed into Michigan State Law as Public Acts 54 and 55.) What was included in Public Acts 54 and 55 was the approval of special license plates promoting organ donation, with the funds generated going the “Donate Life Fund” and the “Gift of Life Fund.” I like that idea a whole lot better.

This is our daily open thread — What’s on your mind?

127 thoughts on “The Watering Hole, Thursday, April 5th, 2012: Short Attention Span News”

    • Bear in mind that these plates usually show up on a large SUV with lots of fish on the back driven by an asshole that just cut you off while they’re talking on a cellphone.

            • If you think about it. The DMV is already an engine from hell.
              What better way to make it more unpleasant than to make car registration and ownership renewal a political forum for a topic like abortion?

  2. RWNJs think seeing “Choose Life” license plates will stop a woman from having an abortion. They are such idiots.

  4. Fear-mongers warn that Obama’s secret radical agenda would be unleashed in a second term. Steve Chapman counters with the QOTD:

    “The doomsayers … assume that someone shrewd, unthreatening and adaptable enough to become the first black president would, at the age of 51, metamorphose into Huey Newton. It’s about as plausible as Santorum undergoing a sex change or Newt Gingrich taking a vow of silence.”

    • Ooh BMM, you’ve been working out…

      You know, I remember having the same concern about Chimpy back in the day and to be honest it wasn’t really as bad as I thought. Not that it was good at all, but even he seemed to recognise finally that Cheney was a paranoid nutcase about Iran.

  5. I’m like John Bolton. I live in absolute fear of the fucking Persians (Iranians). I mean, they are and have always been EVIL and ANTI-AMURKAN! Consider the words, for example, of the Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam from more than 900 YEARS AGO!!!

    There was the Door to which I found no Key;
    There was the Veil through which I could not see:
    Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE
    There was–and then no more of THEE and ME.

    I mean, is THAT not a prediction of atomic war? A call to arms against Amurka? Or how about this one:

    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!

    I mean, how can we not mistake the rotten intentions of those evil and horrible bastards! Amurka has ‘reached the NOTHING it set out from’? Great God in Heaven, how evil can a Muslim ‘phantom Caravan’ be!!

    I could go on, of course, but for now the prosecution rests. Bolton is a fucking genius, a visionary!

    Oh, and an idiot. That goes without saying, no?

    • I’d like to arm this war-mongering walrus with a shotgun and drop him in Tehran. Surely he can handle his imaginary problem all by himself.

      • -chuckle-
        I have similar ideas about what to do with the war mongers and other assorted bigots, only I wouldn’t even give them a slingshot.

        One of my favorites is Cheney, Bush, Bolton, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Rice in open air cages a la Guantanamo, with a lovely view of the mountains in Afghanistan.

        • Karl Rove in a guard shack on Thursday night in Kabul. Works for me.

      • That’s right, he can go all Chuck Norris on Ahmadinnerjacket to his heart’s content – come to think of it send Chuck Norris too.

        And no, we’re not sending Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton to get them out when they get caught.

    • I’ll take Cheney, Bolton, Newt and Rumsfeld, dressed only in loincloths, with a 4 inch knife, dropped off at the highest point in Helmand province.

      Good luck, warmongers!

      • Shall we be kind and let Ted Nugent tag along?
        He can show them how to make bows and arrows.

  9. Jusst when you thought all the irony had played out in the clownfester that is the Repuglycan nomination process, This pops up. Congrats Neut, you’ve done yet another constituency a death blow!

    • Reminds me of (almost) a song from the musical Oliver… with the Wayne Schneider treatment the lyrics are now:

      I’ll say anything, about you dear anything
      For it means everything to me
      I know that I’ll lie everywhere, about your life everywhere
      For I’ve no principles, you see.

      Altogther now…

    • Adding another line to my Republican-Teabagger Screed:

      A white man for every White House!

    • They’d better plan on throwing every masturbating male in prison for life.

      Come to think of it, any male who planned on masturbating back two weeks ago should be locked up…

    • One could call the bill “planned parenthood”.

      If there’s ever a segment of the population that needs to have their wanton breeding curtailed, it’s the ignorant tea-pottiers.

    • I saw this way hot girl downtown this morning and yes I thought about it, oh so briefly …. she’s probably going to be in violation of the AZ law as a result of my naughty thoughts….. knew I should have asked for a courtesy cilice while mine was in ‘the shop’….

    • This means a new bit of information added to your on-line dating profile.
      Plan ahead, you wouldn’t want to be caught with your pants down.

    • Reminds me once again of the ancient Persian poet, Omar Khayyam, who wrote,

      For I remember stopping by the way
      To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay,
      And with its all-obliterated Tongue
      It murmur’d–“Gently, Brother, gently, pray?”

      “thumping his wet Clay” … hmmm. And the wet clay murmured “Gently, Brother, gently pray?” Double hmmm. Sounds like Arizona clay, I’m thinking. All that thumping and then a prayer. “With its all-obliterated tongue” no less. Triple hmmmm.

      I think I soon may well be in need of some time away from politics, esp. the wingnut side of it..

  15. Otter crossing signs go up in Corte Madera and Larkspur

    [A bit of irony the sign is on Lucky Drive — where the death of two otters prompted the warning]

    • It’s good that the river otters are making a comeback.
      They must be adapting to salt water and marine estuaries.
      I was surprised this past winter as I saw river otters, in the ocean happily eating starfish, everywhere I went up and down the Oregon and Washington coasts. They were shy for the most part, especially on beaches with high human traffic, but they were there, many miles from any freshwater river, obviously at home.

        • My suggestion to the Oregon Tourist Board:
          Stop advertising your state in my state (CA) if you aren’t that fond of us///

          • lol

            Last winter when I told folks I was from New Mexico, they didn’t know what to say.
            No handy prejudices to draw from…

        • Could be, I think development (a riverfront cottage to while away retirement) is a likely factor. Also the further upriver you go in Oregon the more people you have with firearms, loose dogs, and leg-hold traps.

  17. Ugh, I hate it when I spend a couple hours working on a bag, with gorgeous fabric, and I hate the way it turns out. 😥

    I think I’ll take it apart and try to salvage the fabric.

  19. Something else in the Detroit News then caught my eye, about another Michigan initiative to offer ‘CHOOSE LIFE” Michigan license plates. Apparently some states already have the “CHOOSE LIFE” license plates, some of which are shown in this interesting article.

    I’m guessing it is only choose life for a non-breathing creature as opposed to choosing life over a breathing creature. In other words, the death penalty is acceptable but abortion is not.

  21. Mitt is so cool. He’s 65 years old, the presumptive Republican nominee for President and he is telling folks “Just wait until you see what I really stand for.”

    • Yeah. We are holding our breath Mitt. You’re gonna tell us whatever you think has the best shot of getting you elected.
      Asshole.

    • And he bitches that Obama has a hidden agenda!!!?!!??! Romney is an enigma wrapped in an empty suit.

      • I don’t think Romney has a clue what he’ll do if elected.
        He just wants to be President.

    • Not to mention the proposed AZ law to push back pregnancy to before it freaking happens.

      • The Catholic Church does say that thinking is the same as doing. This is similar to Santa knowing who is naughty or nice.

        • The guy behind the screen listening to all your dirty laundry gets to decide what’s naughty or nice, and how he can take advantage of it.

  24. Hi, gang. I survived another birthday with no more than a minor hangover. Thank you all for the warm wishes. Since I already had a headache I spent most of the day trying, in vain, to reach an online vendor that’s not performing up to even a minimum standard of customer service. Long story short, they advertised an item they don’t have and haven’t so much as answered my emails trying to cancel the order. I’ll give them another 24 hours and then sick PayPal on them. Sigh…

    I really, really, hate those who don’t give a rip about their customers especially when it would be so easy for them to make good. All I wanted is for them to cancel the order for the out of stock item and send me the 13 items they do have in stock. Now? I want a full refund and, since it’s supposed to be rainy and windy on Saturday, I guess I’ll have to devote a few hours to knocking a couple points off their 96% favorable rating. I’m starting to suspect that the favorable reviews were written by the company in question.

    • Pay Pal can be a major pain in the ass all by themselves.

      Did you actually get to talk to a real (albeit ignorant) young salesperson who spoke in a whiny placating tone while she delivered her stock spiel?

      • Actually, I decided to make one last attempt and they answered the phone! The harried young man said that he would cancel the out of stock item and ship the rest first thing in the morning. I’m not going to hold my breath but I think I can stop grinding my teeth.

        I’m willing to cut them a bit of slack because the out of stock item, an RC radio, has sold out almost everywhere and I tend to believe him when he said they’ve been deluged with orders and inquiries because they are the last U.S. based company that had them in stock. I was also impressed that he admitted that they had oversold the radio due to orders that came in between their last site update on Monday and the time they opened on Tuesday.

        So? Now I’m back to a guardedly optimistic outlook. We’ll just have to see if the refund, at least, makes it to PayPal. I’ve only had one dispute with them and it was rectified to my satisfaction but I’ve heard the horror stories.

  25. I have some news to share with you…..uh….I had it a few minutes ago…damn…wtf…it’ll come to me…hang on…uh…about meds?..no..
    ah I’ll get back to you…

    • You have my empathy.
      If you’re going to put a buzz on, it’s best to do it properly.

  27. Ah yes the news. The Grimm episode I’m in, will air on April 27th. The title of the episode is “Leave it to the Beavers”. Sorry otters.

    • Schlafly has always been such a bizarre character, it’s as if she’s an alien agent sent to Earth from some backwater planetoid that’s running low on sentience.

  31. The righties seem all relieved that Zimmerman didn’t apparently call Trayvon black. Just called him a punk.

    Sigh. Trayvon is dead, and Zimmerman is the one who pulled the trigger.

    • Zimmerman’s father worries me – seems he’s running interference, perhaps using ‘influence’ of his magistrate days.
      As you point out: Zimmerman, the younger, murdered. It matters not what he spoke. The action killed an innocent person.
      It seems the pro-Zimmerman crowd keep attempting to ‘enhance’ videos to make the murderer seem “injured”..it isn’t working.

  32. You can’t have a squirt gun near the Republican Convention, but you can have a real gun.

    The Law of the Gun in Florida – NYTimes.com

    The City Council is sensibly preparing tight security precautions for the downtown area by temporarily banning clubs, hatchets, switchblades, pepper spray, slingshots, chains, shovels and all manner of guns that shoot water, paint or air.
    But not handguns that shoot actual bullets. In other words, someone outside the convention hall will be entitled to pack a handgun, but not a squirt gun.

    • Rachel was making fun of that last night. Completely ridiculous.

      I wonder who the repiggies are going to blame, if one of their teabaggers shoots a few convention attendees?

      I’m sure it would be okay if a waiter or bus boy got shot.

  35. I finished another bag this evening, since I had to redeem myself from the earlier fiasco. It’s mighty cute, and will go into the shop tomorrow. 🙂

  37. As we just passed our 44th, spouse and I are carrying what could be called a –prenuptial, She cooked for 30 years and I am on the duty list for meal preparation and table clearing – 16 years to go.
    Friday night is easy – Shrimp Norfolk (Lent and a family recipe). Saturday is New England pot roast.

    That brings to mind that I forgot to send Xmas and Easter cards to Muses’ GD(she is cute and sharp as a tack). I’ll try to find a date to do that!

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