Watering Hole: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 – Isn’t She Beautiful

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You may have seen this video before.  I wanted to share it because it is one of those stories where we gain more insight with each viewing.

I’ve been bullied as a child.  It took me 50 years to get to love myself and not blame myself for the words and actions of others.

That’s all I got.

This is our Open Thread.  You will not be bullied at The Zoo when you Speak Up.

77 thoughts on “Watering Hole: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 – Isn’t She Beautiful”

    • That’s what I try to do in my Customer Service position. I deal with a lot of doctors, pharmacies, etc., but when I get a regular person, I try to be extra nice and helpful. It feels good to have people tell me “thanks so much, you really helped.”

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  4. Bullies are like NRA members….they’re an insecure, inferior, underachieving group of bottomfeeders.

    as long as they procreate, we’ll continue to have more children who bully. the only hope is school counselling, you know they won’t get it at the trailer park

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  5. At least 75 top Republicans have signed a legal brief to be submitted to the Supreme Court this week, arguing that gay marriage is a constitutional right, according to The New York Times, which got a copy of the document.

    The court is preparing to take on the subject of gay marriage late next month, when it will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of California’s gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, and the Defense of Marriage Act. It is expected to render a decision in early summer.

    The signers of the document are mostly out-of-office Republicans or former top officials, including former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, former Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), former Massachusetts Govs. William Weld and Jane Swift, and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

    Reps. Richard Hanna (N.Y.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) are notable exceptions, and are among the most pro-gay Republicans in Congress.

    Their position stands in contrast to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is poised to spend up to $3 million in defense of DOMA. The law prohibits same-sex married couples from getting federal benefits and allows states not to recognize other states’ same-sex unions. The Obama administration has directed its Justice Department not to defend the law.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/republicans-gay-marriage-supreme-court_n_2764743.html

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    • I thought Boehner wanted to cut government spending. Republicans like to spend money on worthless things like impeaching President Clinton and now the waste of money on defending DOMA. How many millions did Republicans hand over to the man Ken Starr?

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    • Observations:
      1) “Top Republicans” who are no longer in office aren’t “Top Republicans”–they don’t count for anything.
      2) The only names I recognize here are Huntsman and Whitman, both of whom the the current (2008 to 2013 and counting) GOPer would regard as Communist Muslim Loving Gun Stealing America heating Fascist Elites.

      3) Huntsman and Whitman presumably get the “top republican” identification from the HuffPo journalist because they WERE somewhat significant, back in the day when being insane, insanely ignorant and insanely spiteful didn’t count as qualifications but as embarrassing black marks.

      Calling them “top Republicans” will look good on the reporter’s resume/portfolio, but its utter nonsense. Even in their day, they weren’t “top Republicans except, perhaps, in Whitman’s case but that was only because she was Governor of a densely populated state with subsequently significant electoral college clout. She failed to deliver NJ as a newly created Red State, and she also helped cover up the 9/11 WTC Ground Zero health issues.

      These two at least are has-beens in GOP circles and in their respective times actually in office, were still considered RINOs.

      This article helps maintain the Republican Split meme of the present,which appears to be real enough, actually, BUT if there’s an underlying agenda to maiintain the issue for Democratic benefit instead of doing the same for the benefit of the press ( the appeal is the outward drama, not the substance behind this supposed “breaking of the ranks”, then it’s poorly done,.

      I’ve hear plenty of verbiage and pontificating over Obama’s legacy amvitions post election, but if nothing else Obama should be recognized by voters and history as having brought change because he changed himself, profoundly–regarding same-sex marriage and relations:

      He;s told the DOJ not to waste time and money on DOMA, he’s eliminated Don’t Ask Don’t Tell ( and BTW signed women in to Combat roles to serve more equally with male soldiers—I can tell you that gives lesbians in the military not just social peace of mind and equality of status, but greater career advancement options too). . He’s made a particular public points about the status of gays in his 2nd inauguration and the 2013 SOTU, and FOLLOWED THROUGH!.

      So far all the secrecy and drone strikes that he shouldn’t be a party to (and GITMO too) which to me are all straight-up adoptions of Neocon ‘values’, he’s still done these things for social justice for a significant number of citizens in desperate need.

      . .

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  7. And, in breaking news, Conservatives are freaking out at the First Lady’s prominence in the media lately.
    Conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin said Obama’s role at the Academy Awards went too far,
    … trivializing the White House and made “both the president and the first lady seem small and grasping.”

    “There is a sense of going too far and too much and becoming so ubiquitous that people don’t consider you something special,” Rubin told NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker. “She is the first lady for goodness sakes. She’s not just a Hollywood celebrity.”

    Got FL envy? Much?

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    • I have to say, that was odd to me … didn’t seem necessary and I was wondering who pandered to who for that. It was a little tacky – but compared to ‘We’ve seen your boobs’….. I have no idea why I watched the Oscars on Sunday.

      I was happy to see that the CIA’s version of ‘Triumph of the Will’ got a token Oscar – that was perfect, even better than no Oscar at all.

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      • I watch the Oscars as often as I watch sporting events, so naturally I missed it again this year (this century, so far). I did see a snippet on the internet, though, and my only question is, Who could possibly care (about who’s presenting what to whom, or about the ‘show’ itself, for that matter)?

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    • “There is a sense of going too far and too much and becoming so ubiquitous that people don’t consider you something special,” Rubin told NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker.

      It’s not often that someone like Jennifer Rubin describes herself with such total accuracy, but she managed the task perfectly and with no hesitation!

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    • The Right is freaking out. The President has a much better connection to America than they can hope to generate. And the last FLOTUS to reach out in a significant way to the public was Eleanor. Jackie had a start but Michelle is going to drive them nuts.

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    • Especially since:

      How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish
      Special flights brought in tonnes of banknotes which disappeared into the war zone

      The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.
      The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee.

      In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover…

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      • And that doesn’t even include the hundreds of thousands of weapons that disappeared. It would be interesting and horrifying to learn how many Americans and innocent civilians were harmed by those weapons that we casually dropped into a civil war/insurgency.

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  12. Ah! Now I see what he did. Jeff Sessions commissioned a report that assumed the funding for the ACA would be phased out and then quoted the report saying the now unfunded ACA would add trillions to the debt over the next 75 years. is this jackass, who is unwilling to responsibly deal with a funding issue that will explode in three days, really trying to convince people that he’s gravely concerned about a contrived hypothetical problem in 75 years?

    http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/02/26/1641021/gop-senator-launches-the-most-dishonest-attack-against-obamacare-youve-ever-heard/

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    • Even if it would add to the debt, it’s impossible to forecast what our economy will look like that far in the future. 1938 was 75 years ago. How much has happened since then that has changed our economy in ways no one could have predicted? If Sessions and his band of merry morons want to take a long view on something important, I suggest they focus on environmental issues.

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  14. On hot and humid summer days, our bodies are less able to cool themselves due to the moisture in the air around us. Joseph Stromberg explains the impact this might have as the planet warms:

    “According to a study published yesterday in Nature Climate Change, increased heat and humidity has already reduced our species’ work capacity by 10% in the warmest months, and that figure could rise to 20% by 2050 and 60% by the year 2200, given current projections.”

    http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/02/climate-change-is-reducing-our-ability-to-get-work-done/

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    • Hmmm. I would say that threatening to kill an elected representative and start an effing revolution because someone told him he can’t buy every toy he wants is a pretty good definition of “whack job”. Even if he doesn’t spend time in prison he should damn well never be allowed the privilege of owning firearms again.

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  23. Even though John and Lindsey voted against Hagel’s conformation, President Obama invited them over to the Whitehouse this afternoon. Since Hagel was confirmed I suspect the President will show that he harbors no hard feelings by offering John and Lindsey the use of the Lincoln bedroom for a night!

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  24. Last week, Glenn Beck objected to a new WWE wrestler, a racist Tea Partier, and theorized that the WWE is alienating its core audience. Ambinder explains what WWE is thinking:

    “WWE’s reps concede that they’re promoting a storyline that makes anti-immigrant politics look bad because a significant and growing portion of their audience domestically and in Latin America is Hispanic. And here is where Glenn Beck gets his sense of WWE wrong: wrestling might not seem “progressive” to him, but wrestling fans are young. They’re of the Obama generation. They like to be on the right side of history. Actually, if you look at wrestling storylines years back, you’ll see how the script matches or tries to catch up with the political zeitgeist.”

    http://theweek.com/article/index/240525/glenn-beck-does-the-impossible

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    • I just find it hilarious that Beckyboy thinks quoting teabaggers, word for word, makes them look bad. It’s very similar to the effect that Media Matters has on Reichwhiners. I still can’t figure out how such narcissists can survive when they smash every mirror that dares to reflect their true image.

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      • To me the only time glenn Beck Was hilarious was when John Stewart mimiced him in an epic riff. Otherwise, for a while there he was given a very powerful platform and influence on FOX, and even though he is now in has-been territory, the only difference between him and most of the GOP .these days is that even the Teabaggers don’t have the free reign and promotion he was provided.

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        • That was hilarious!

          The teabaggers are on their way out, and I hope they kick and scream as much as possible — until they’re gone. Unfortunately, they dropped a bunch of turds in Congress, so clean up will take a bit of time.

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          • Hey Zooey—the unedited segment is even better, but I didn’t take the time to find it ( and it’s pretty impossible to download original content from Comedy Central TDS)

            As far as the turds go, I;d characterize them as ‘floaters” in the bowl, and there’s a whole lot of plunging needs to happen, because they just won;t go down the fucking trap! they just break up and swirl around and clog everything up again! 😀

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            • Oh jeebus, note to self: 5th will take any given comment all the way to graphic conclusion.

              Especially if it involves turds. 😆

    • Remember the ‘Straight Talk Express”? –that was one of John McCain’s propaganda memes ( also Country First!, just recently puree’d by Jon Stewart).

      Biden is the real deal. Frankly Obama and his political messaging team could learn something form Biden notwithstanding the reality that a president ( especially one with so much at stake in these harsh Republican-engineered) has to be more polite than a veep.

      IMHO the Democratic Party’s best veep in my memory, Al Gore lost his mojo when faced with donning the mantle of the Presidency, and the regained it once he got out of politics and returned to issue advocacy.

      I don’t see Biden being so susceptible to the pressures–after all he’s been a congress critter for ages, and now as Veep he doesn’t reflect badly on Obama , nor does he act as meekly and calculatedly as Obama often does. He’s supportive and passionate, and experienced and smart. and connects with the average citizen.

      Which makes me think…for 2016 who would be the most likely Democratic candidates? Right this second, wouldn’t it be Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton?

      Oh brother! ,

      .
      As

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  27. The term “flip-flopper” comes to mind.

    Flakey.

    Moron.

    Idiot.

    Putz.

    Take your pick.

    Why Rand Paul voted to confirm Chuck Hagel as defense secretary | The Ticket – Yahoo! News

    Only four Republicans crossed party lines on Tuesday to approve President Barack Obama’s defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, but no senator sparked more confusion than Kentucky’s Rand Paul, a vocal critic of Hagel who nonetheless cast his vote in favor of the former Nebraska senator.
    Just hours after he had voted against a procedural measure to end debate over Hagel’s nomination, Paul offered his support for Hagel’s confirmation. Paul’s spokeswoman explained that the senator decided to support Hagel because he believes that presidents should get “some leeway” on political appointments, an opinion he has been open about in the past.

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    • It’s interesting to me that Shelby voted for Hagel, while Sessions didn’t. I have a feeling the defense contractors and sub contractors in my area didn’t want any animosity felt toward North Alabama. Sessions is from Mobile, where the EADS/Airbus assembly plant is being built. Boeing is big here, so Shelby and Sessions competed for the air to air refueling tanker contract, by proxy.

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  29. Some late observations that won’t get a lot of reading:

    Bullies grow up. But they don’t necessarily stop being bullies.

    see workplacebullying.org.

    I, too, was bullied as a kid. I was small for my age, hence a target. Bullies target anyone who’s “different.” Small, large, “four-eyes”, smart, not so smart, crooked teeth, braces, skin color, religion, you name it.

    Conformity becomes the name of the game.

    It plays out in the adult world exactly the same.

    I think a lot of school-yard bullies grow up to become cops. or lower-level management.

    workplacebullying.org.

    a worthwhile group to commiserate with, and, if your so inclined, to advocate for victims.

    It would seem to me we would want to put an end to workplace bullying – far too often victims end up resorting to their 2nd Amendment rights, because there is little recourse available to them legally. Do you want to lose your job, your career, your marriage, your family, your home, your financial well-being, everything you’ve ever worked for your entire life? If so, become a whistle-blower. That should do it. Whistleblower protection laws will not prevent the above from happening.

    end of rant.

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    • That is very difficult to read. Employers, one would think, should care for all employees – and not turn vicious on whistleblowers.
      Thanks for the awareness about the site, workplace bullying.

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  30. Benedict will give up wearing the soft red leather shoes he has become fond of and will instead opt for brown loafers given to him by shoemakers during a trip to Mexico last year.

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