Friday Open Thread [3.29.13]
From Kos:
Does … any of the idiot conservatives who repeat this nonsense ad infinitum [that families have to balance their budgets] have any clue how people manage their budgets?
They use credit cards, which is debt.
They get mortgages, which is debt.
They get student loans, which is debt.
They get car loans, which is debt.
And let’s not get started on businesses and their leveraged debts.So if Republicans want Washington to act like American families do, then we’re already there!
And now lets put numbers to this story to show you how ridiculous this GOP talking point is:
U.S. household consumer debt profile:
Average credit card debt: $15,266
Average mortgage debt: $149,667
Average student loan debt: $32,559vs Income:
$44,389
So, if we balanced the budget the same way households do, the federal debt to income ratio would be:
78/22 = 3.5/1
But it’s currently approximately 1.7/1
So, if the Republicans actually meant what they said, we should be on a debt spending spree like never seen before in the history of the nation.
So it is too sacrilegious to talk about bacon on Good Friday? Too bad, I’m gonna do it anyway.
Item 1 — Scope is making a bacon-flavored mouthwash. Bacon flavored. According to this, it won’t make your breath smell like bacon, the mouthwash just *tastes* like bacon. It is pretty close to April 1 here, so maybe this is an April Fool’s joke.
Item 2 — Bacon Flavored condoms ‘Nuff said.
How is it sacreligious to talk about dead flesh today? Aren’t we comemorating our salvation via human sacrifice? (See it sounds even more absurd when you think about it.)
Oh my. It does sound absurd. So… we can talk about bacon?
We can talk about bacon! I know that there are folks searching out fish tacos all day today because they are avoiding meat. Didn’t want to add to their temptations today.
They shouldn’t worry about having fish tacos today, they’re already doomed with that premarital sex thing. 😉
So as I long time lurker/occasional commenter, I’m only slightly sad to say that I have retired and in two weeks will be going out to Arizona to spoil the granddaughter. Although I’m moving to the land of MANY crazy republicans 🙂 I figure my time spend in Kent County will have lessened the blow 🙂
When you see the headline: JOE’S POSSE MEMBER PUNCHED BY IRATE GRANDFATHER IN SCHOOL PARKING LOT that will be me 🙂
Best wishes to everyone here
Mark, happy trials
And if you get the chance, punch them again, and say its from me. 🙂
to much of a coward to punch someone in the face yourself?
You will be missed Mark. Hopefully, you’ll still visit DL… especially to give me good book recommendations! Enjoy your granddaughter and your retirement. And if you’re worried about too many crazy people in Arizona, remember we have Ray. 😉
Sigh. Another troll emerges…..or the same one
Either way,trolls are just ugly,and not worth the time.
Enjoy your breakfast? While some knucklehead strolled around with a gun strapped on his side.
To much of a coward to wear one yourself ?
March 29th, 2013, bridgeville, DE
while diners ate their breakfast and drank coffee, a patron of a local diner felt it necessary to parade around with a sidearm . Protecting said diners from what? Heart disease?
Yeah Mark and Pandora we still have Ray, and Ray, and Ray,
Good to know we will be entertained
The scary thing about guns is that it’s always people like Ray owning them.
Which person would that be the person who was enjoying breakfast with a retired DSP trooper, or conversing with Matt Opaliski and Meyer Persow or maybe it was the guy conversing with Jim Weller, or all the other regulars who go on Friday’s to Dan Gaffneys show?
The person wasn’t “parading” around, but G_D knows you are always right Aoine……
Delaware Code allows open carry and the second amendment protects the right to own a gun. There were at least 3 other patrons there who were also carrying sidearms, guess you just didn’t bother to take the time to notice. The owner of Jimmy’s has no problem with patrons exercising their right under Delaware law, something that liberals just refuse to accept. The same patron open carries at Jimmy’s every week and has been doing so for months. No ONE has ever made issue about the person who IS a law enforcement officer carrying a sidearm. Oh one more thing the person ate his breakfast with a child and left with a child. Next time have some courage (besides your liquid courage when you post) and say something to the person. I’m sure if it was an issue the person would have been more than happy to go to their vehicle and secure their sidearm there, so that cowards like you aren’t traumatized. Aoine still wasting your precious time trying to intimidate and out people guess you don’t have to follow the rules like everyone else who posts in here.
Can’t out people that out themselves…..G_D does it all by itself..
Seems you have been called on your sock-puppetry, and that would be the mark of a coward right there
Can’t post what you think under your user name, so to defend yourself you create another IDENTITY and each identity defends the other…..WOW. Pathetic
Why would anyone have a problem with a cop carrying a gun?
Oh. Be careful with the G_D reference, other people use that for religious reasons and it might look like you are trying to be them to make them look bad OR you really are and if that’s the case, you really need A LOT of counseling :-). Have a nice day.
And that person with the gun- is not, in any way, a law enforcement officer
@Bansidhe/Ray — if you have issues with the rules you can go someplace where the rules are more to your liking. We’ll be happy to help you with that choice if you are having a tough time making it.
Ladies and gentlemen – Cassandra!
Bansidhe: I’ve read the rules I don’t see where it says one name but fine.
That is a Yes – isn’t that what you wanted? It was given instantly after being informed. No wonder he didn’t know the sockpuppet rule – he’s right, they’re not posted with the rest of the rules. Regular readers only know them from reading past threads. But to new readers it appears to be anything goes.
As far as the don’t-talk-about-the-rules rule, that’s not posted either. Is that now elevated to another official unwritten rule?
Selective enforcement can be an ugly thing to see, but it is their right as the blog owners. When done by a benevolent ruler it is usually a good thing, but when done by others…
That’s all I have to say on this topic.
Care to make a wager on your belief regarding the person being a law enforcement officer? Non cowards have seen the persons credentials including the retired DSP trooper the person has breakfast with every week. You worry about your G_D usage, and I’ll worry about mine. Why would anyone have a problem with ANYONE carrying a gun who is lawfully allowed to do so? OH I KNOW because it doesn’t fit your very narrow minded belief about peoples rights, hmmmmm watch out you are giving liberals a bad name. Pathetic is someone who claims things are a waste of time yet continues to waste their time in the same exact manner, not only is it pathetic it’s ignorant.
@puck thank you
Biden is on his third vacation of the year after 400,000 and 500,000 dollar one night stays in Paris and London. The Obama girls are on their second ski trip of the year after vacationing in the Bahamas.
Kid visiting from around the country won’t be able to visit The white House because tours which cost $18,000 a week to maintain are closed to visitors because of cost restraints of the sequester. Trump offered to pay for tours for a year. He said “it,s certainly not a lot of money”.
The Democrats should feel some shame about this , but I’m pretty sure it won’t bother them in the least.
Poor Fighting Blue Hen. He is nostalgic for the days when the wing nut press decided what was news worthy.
My biggest rule is add something entertaining or substantive or fuck off. That’s a handy rule for life as well.
Indeed.
I don’t think that who had breakfast at Jimmy’s Grill is entertaining nor is a discussion of who carried what sidearm. Puck, of course, has made the business of not being entertaining, well, his business. There’s other places to be if you are unhappy.
And a note to Mark H — best wishes to you in Arizona! Hope you will drop by occasionally and tell us about the local crazies there.
“Kid visiting from around the country won’t be able to visit The white House because tours which cost $18,000 a week to maintain are closed to visitors because of cost restraints of the sequester. …The Democrats should feel some shame about this , but I’m pretty sure it won’t bother them in the least.”
If you want to play this game, why shouldn’t Republicans feel far more shame for cutting billions from the food stamp program, which means hundreds of thousands of kids will get less to eat?
This is the problem with conservatives. Mel Brooks once said, and he was paraphrasing someone far older, “Comedy is when you break your foot. Tragedy is when I stub my toe.”
Conservatives have no problem sympathizing with millionaires who will have to pay more in taxes, or small businessmen who have to do more paperwork. Starving people with no skills or hope? Fuck them, it’s their own fault.
FBH: Realize it or not, this tub has been thumped for several weeks now on the Noise Machine. All it does for non-conservatives is show how obsessed conservatives are with money and who has more of it than they do. This is the age-old whining of bitter, resentful cranks — that is, conservatives — trotted out again because they have nothing left in the way of intelligent arguments.
Repeat after me: In a budget of $3 trillion, $1 billion is a rounding error. A few million is what you would find between the national sofa cushions.
If you want to bash Biden in a meaningful way, why not take up the cause of the many people around Delaware he has stiffed for goods and services over the years?
I bet FBH didn’t mind when Biden sided with conservatives on banking issues for all those years as the Senator from MBNA.
If you both feel that way then why are you allowing the person who is clearly using this forum as a platform for their personal issues with someone to continue doing so.
I’m not bashing Biden. I like Biden, believe it or not. I’m just saying that claiming you don’t have money to keep the White House open for tours, while simultaneously spending millions of the same public money on fancy hotels and personal vacations, seems to me like they are putting themselves ahead of the people they work for.
They closed the White House to visitors for effect, and that’s pretty lame.
“seems to me like they are putting themselves ahead of the people they work for.”
You mean you would think differently if they made a pious show of parsimony? You would believe they were serious about cutting the spending if they only made a better presentation of compassion?
We are buying more than 2,100 fighter planes that are so screwed up we can’t keep them in the air for the bargain price of about 3/$1 billion. After you do the math I think you’ll agree there are much bigger problems than the national chief executive officer and his daughters going on vacation.
Well, I’ll stick to my original comment that it probably won’t bother the Democrats in the least.
I guess all I can say is that, personally, I would never do that, and I figure those who don’t care, probably would do that.
Obviously it’s not a big deal. Some people just don’t give a shit about the whole leading from behind thing.
…..or leading by example, I should say.
The conservatives wanted sequester, now that they have it they are using the White House tours as a talking point. There was plenty of chance to avoid this mess, but their refusal to allow on tax reform caused a stalemate.
I’m liking how little traction Republicans are getting on the White House tours story. There was a time, not too long ago, when chicken-hearted Democrats would have flooded onto the floors of congress to beg for the tours to resume. Same thing with the Biden travel story. The GOPs confusion is palpable. You can almost hear them saying, “What’s going on? This bullshit used to work like a dream.”.
I’m liking how little traction the effects of the sequester has gotten in the media.
You can almost hear Obama and Carney saying “What’s going on? This sky-is-falling bullshit used to work like a dream”.
I’m liking how little traction either side is getting on the sequester stories.
I don’t like it any more than most people, but given that the big bite is from defense, I can live with it. I suspect starve-the-beast Republicans feel the same way.
“personally, I would never do that, and I figure those who don’t care, probably would do that.”
You mean if I don’t begrudge these people their vacations I must be a moocher myself? Guilt by lack of outrage? Really?
I agree, Defense has had a blank check for a long time. No reason they shouldn’t feel the squeeze of the Obama economy just like everybody else.
You mean the Obama-GOP economy. You break it, you bought it.
Oh, I’m not so sure the sequester is getting little media traction. In various localities I’ve been in the last few weeks, the sequester features pretty large in the local news. And the GOP is having a collective snit over the closure of a bunch of Red State air traffic control towers. A bunch of jurisdictions are having enough of a snit to file a bunch of lawsuits over it.
There doesn’t seem to be one big thing that the national media can grab on to that is an easy depiction of the effects of the sequester. But it was always a mistake to think these effects would happen overnight. I was at a briefing last week with a Deputy Chief of the USACE who seems pretty much ready to pull back on a bunch of water resources projects. This is the kind of thing that seems really designed to draw the fire of Congresspeople who will hear about the pull back from some recreational projects just when summer starts.
I don’t like it any more than most people, but given that the big bite is from defense, I can live with it.
Exactly.