I close the iron door

By Michael J. Smith on Tuesday September 18, 2012 11:14 PM

I know it's not Lent, but I have hereby officially sworn off Facebook until after the 'election'. I mean, really, how much can usefully or entertainingly be said about the idiocy of Mitt Romboma?

The 47% comment seems to have 75% of my friends orgasmic with facile glee: See! We told you he was a plutocratic fool!

Well sure, of course he is, and two plus two equals four. It's like watching Mad Max 2 and having your neighbor elbow your ribs every thirty seconds: I told you that Humongous was a bad guy! I told you!

The joy in Humongous' oafish badness derives in great part from the fact that it takes the heat off the current Murderer-In-Chief, and makes him look relatively sensible, simply because he knows how to keep his mouth shut except to utter some soothing, meaningless, scripted bromide.

It's a sitcom: Obie is Mary Tyler Moore and Willard is Ted Baxter. Though of course Mary never had regular Tuesday assassination meetings, as far as I know.

Comments (32)

diane:

I guess the Mitt, ... is dick van dyke, ..... momentarily.

http://twitpic.com/ljv5x

interchangeable .....

diane:

(once again (sorry if I bore), I'm pretty glad I don't own a gun ...as I'd probably shoot myself ... YUP! .... It is that Ugly! ...for most of us ... sorry for wining ... but I can't resist cheap red wine.... these daze ...can not imagine why?)

diane:

(you are welcome spittle lipped lurkees, ... I know I am not totally worthless .... (a hug to 'younz' ;0)) .....)

jerry:

If you think it's bad now, just wait til the day or two after the election, all the mindless democrat automatons crying with joy for another four years of 'slightly less harmful than Mitt' policy decisions

diane:

(since these are such overwhelmingly bizzy times, I just want to add again, that I haven't forgotten (STO) and added a partial response (still hippety hopping). And thank you, once again, Brian.)

It sounds like you're over-thinking things. The simplest solution would be to swear off your friends.

That's a lonely path though, Happy, at least if one has friends to begin with.

Thank you, diane, for looking into it. I had been leaving that tab open and refreshing every half a day or so (is that how one is supposed to do comment sections?), but I think I'll stare at this one for a while now. Enjoy the rabbit hole.

diane:

Not clear on what your message means, Save the Oocytes, so I'm going to try to cover possibilities.

If, by saying you repeatedly refreshed, you meant I neglected to respond, it was because I wanted to verify my memory and instincts before responding (in that regard I did say it would take me a bit, if you were referring to my day later response?).

I'm not clear on what your message is in stating: "is that how one is supposed to do comment sections?." Do you mean repeatedly refreshing for a response? If so, I'm not that sure myself, as I've asked a lot of questions on the tubez which have disappointingly gone answerless (in that regard (again) I did say it would take me a bit, if you were referring to my day later response?).

As regards to Enjoy the rabbit hole, actually it's not that enjoyable, but believe it or not, I kind of felt obliged to provide something that could be somewhat verifiable, versus my memory and instinct alone, and given that I can't spend all day on the computer, it takes more than a few hours to respond.

(I guess I'm feeling like you might me disappointed in my response time and I feel bad about that. Though I'm sure it may not look like it, as I'm on dial up, and the pages don't instantly 'refresh' (without threatening to freeze up the 'screen'), I do try to respond as quickly as possible when someone asks me something in earnest, or I note that it may take a bit to respond.)

nercules:

Funny, but I deactivated my Facebook account just moments before reading this...and for the very same reason. I can't take it anymore!

Op:

What is a face book?


If looking for an exchange
Diane
here's my e mail
I look at it fairly often

During eastern time zone hours
7 am to 7 pm

Kapshow@hotmail.com

I respond quickly once i check in

I find its use avoids the third party shadow effects

Merkin in Montreal:

Here the Francophones call Facebook fezbook, which to Anglophone ears sounds closer to Phasebook (aptly named). Personally, I continue calling it Fessebook, which means Assbook in French!

On the idiotic Romney comments, I reckon that he suffers from the CEOitis syndrome. In all my working years in America, I don’t ever recall working for one who wasn’t an idiot. They’re so used to receiving adoration for every thing they say and every move they make regardless of how dumb they sound and how bad their decisions are. Plus, they always have someone cleaning up their shit and putting a rosy spin on it. Remember the Pizza man during the primaries? Oh how I miss him! Mitten acts like your average garden variety CEO while Obie acts like a politician.

Boink:

'Francophone' but not 'livre de visage.' One would have guessed that 'les Canadiens français' would be more vigilant regarding "les menaces pour la culture française". (all 'traduction' by 'instrument d'Internet') d'Internet!!?

Won't someone please speak up for Gov. Romney? On Israel-Palestine he was refreshingly honest (one hesitates to adopt that predicate but is it wrong?) as compared to the conventional absolute boilerplate bullshite regarding the 40 y.o. 'peace process' that has seen US loan guarantees carve out most of the West Bank for Jewish immigrants from Cleveland and Odessa, etc.

Then, the 47% point, it must be remembered, was part of an analysis of his chances of success being spieled to a bunch of people who had just paid $50,000.00 per dinner plate in the hope that the guy could get them some more tax breaks.



chomskyzinn:

What's interesting amid the hysterical crowing by libs over Mitt's "gaffe" --- "It' over!" more than one has declared --- is that the race is still pretty much tied. Mitt merely confirmed what the public assumes *all* candidates think of the plebes and rubes. To use the nauseating cliche, this was hardly a Game Changer, libs. And if you think you're beloved POTUS has any less contempt for the great unwashed....

Relatedly, more than 47% are positively SMBIVAn: they don't vote at all.

chomskyzinn:

Coincidentally, MJS, I was thinking just last night about giving up FB for Lent, though I'm certain I can't wait till Ash Wed.

Fadduh Smiff sez:
The joy in Humongous' oafish badness derives in great part from the fact that it takes the heat off the current Murderer-In-Chief, and makes him look relatively sensible, simply because he knows how to keep his mouth shut except to utter some soothing, meaningless, scripted bromide...

...except when the Murderer-In-Chief steps in it by blurting out some inane boneheaded crap like "you didn't build that"*.

That's been the big problem with this campaign season, from a cartoonist's standpoint at least; Mittens' gaffes are unremarkable standard-issue flubs at best, and Obummer's goofs are dry banalities that only inspire me to reach into the TV set and smack him upside the face. Neither one of these knobs has done anything even remotely satire-worthy. I've gotten maybe two decent ideas out of the campaign this year, though I think I may have shot my wad prematurely by doing all my best election gags last year.

--

*and besides, if you consider that the small business owners' taxes helped pay for the highways and bridges and rail infrastructure that the trucks and trains use to bring his merchandise and materials to his shop, then yes, he did, in fact, "build that".

diane sez on 09.19.12 @00:08:
I guess the Mitt, ... is dick van dyke, ..... momentarily.

D'you mean Mittens is Dick Van Dyke in the sense that he keeps tripping over that same ottoman every goddamn' time he walks into the house?

I dunno, Michael. There's evil and then there's Ayn Rand.

Ever since the tape containing Mittens' infamous "47%" remarks surfaced, MSNBC has been replaying the living shit out of it at every opportunity until it turns into pornographic wallpaper -- the same way they (and the other noise networks) kept replaying the footage of burning Space Shuttle wreckage re-entering the atmosphere non-stop the day the Columbia crashed.

On Ed "I Know No-THING!" Schultz's program last night, he was being all huffy and wildly indignant about Mittens' remarks and, of course, dutifully replaying that goddamn' tape over and over as if he were poking a big stick between the bars of a gorilla's cage.

So, aaaaaa-nyway, Ed took a moment from his blustering to catch his breath and let his heart rate drop a bit and announce the results of a poll on whether or not Mittens should apologize to The 47%™. Predictably, the poll ran something like 95% to 5% in favor of an apology, as the clowns who watch MSNBC are really no different from the clowns who watch Fox. (Huh, MSNBC's viewers want an apology. Good luck with that.)

Mind you, the predictability of this outcome made it no less gobsmacking. I mean, c'mon... Mittens didn't say anything he didn't actually mean or believe. The guy's being totally honest about where he's coming from -- more than I can say for your average Democrat -- but all the Pwogs and Libewals who suck down MSNBC's bilge night after night are pissing and whining and getting all offended 'n'shit and demanding an apology. Jesus Christ, what a bunch of pussies.

chomskyzinn:

Mitt was simply saying what many people I know say all the time, and believe. Of course, a good number of those people are among that 47%, they just don't view themselves that way.

billy beer:

i didn't catch all of what obie (our only hope) said on david letterman, but on npr they quoted "i realize 47% of americans didn't vote for me, but i try to be prez of all americans," or whatever.

the cowardice in this statement. omg.

and duplicity. sorry obie. 75% of murkins don't give a fuck about you.

whatever you say obie, make sure it offers no enlightenment on what that 47% really means.

MJS:

@Mike F: Yes, the American cult of wounded feelings, the liturgy of demanded and proffered apologies -- this deserves an essay in its own right.

I think the Mittster was just being a politician, that is, telling the 50,000 dinner folks what they wanted to hear, rather than "the truth."

It's true that if Mitt were to win, at least 47% of the vote would go against him,

AND

47% of Americans don't pay income tax...

BUT

This is just a coincidence. These are completely different sets in different contexts: the first is in the context of voting Americans, the second is taken from all Americans.

He forgot to mention that 47% of egg eaters butter their toast on the far side.

diane:

Owen, thanks so much for that offer. Though I never ever use email to correspond (100% phone voice/letters person) outside of job issues, I may take you up on it later on (after I finally manage to disengage myself from the tubez) to keep in contact, as I value your acquaintance.

(In my above comment I was actually more concerned that maybe Save the Oocytes might think I just blew off responding.)

diane:

Mike F., I was playing off of Michael’s scenario: It's a sitcom: Obie is Mary Tyler Moore ..., with the image of Mary riding Dick as in Obomber’s likely ‘winning the prize’ this time around.

Hell, I didn't even know Romney made these remarks in May, until Karen just told me. God, I can't stand MSNBC. Has anyone noticed how bad that charlatan and scoundrel Al Sharpton looks. I hope it is just that all meat diet he must be on and not some illness. Someone told me that Sharpton was so much smarter than the rest. I did concede he was better than Ed Schultz. I wonder how much these dogs get paid. For all their caterwauling about the down and out, you'd think they were themselves destitute and living in hovels.

Michael, you're going to miss all the cool things I post on facebook!!!

chomskyzinn:

I knew all I needed to know about the "Rev" Al when he was revealed to be an FBI snitch back in the 80s. Nothing that has followed has been a surprise, not least his "maturing" from street activist to establishment pol and commentator.

Plus, the Tawana Brawley circus wasn't exactly a high point in the class struggle. Nothing like using fabrication and incendiary racial rhetoric to divide and conquer. Da Man has always had a reliable friend in Al.

Outta the park, Michael; you hit that one outta the park.

:D

Hey, diane, I'm not disappointed at all. I see I was a little elliptical in that comment, and I'm sorry. Here's the deal.

I genuinely don't know what a good way is to know if someone responds to one in a comment thread. Most of the things I've ever said have gone unanswered, but they're usually not directed to specific people and are probably not worth the effort. I was genuinely asking what the right way to do that is. Some systems allow one to sign up for email if someone responds to you, but that can result in also getting emails from someone responding to them, I think, and false alarms on having more substantial communications.

I really appreciate your offer to fill me on the various evils of Musk and Tesla, and that's why I've been keeping a tab with this post (and previously, that other one) open and refreshing it about twice a day. I'm definitely not disappointed; it takes effort to dig things up, and I'm used to people not responding to what I say at all.

I'm in no rush and not disappointed.

As for the "rabbit hole," you periodically seem to say "Well, I'm going back down the rabbit hole" or something similar, and though I've never completely understood what you meant, you seem to go there often enough that I wanted to wish you good luck on your journey.

Again, my apologies for the terseness of my previous remarks and the resulting confusion.

Michael Yates sez on 09.19.12 @18:38:
...God, I can't stand MSNBC. Has anyone noticed how bad that charlatan and scoundrel Al Sharpton looks...

I don't know about the all-meat diet. I'm guessing it's probably just age.

Someone told me that Sharpton was so much smarter than the rest. I did concede he was better than Ed Schultz...

Wow, sure could've fooled me. Here I thought Rachel Maddow (spit) was the smartest one of the bunch, but perhaps she just plays a smart person on TV. I'm sure a lot of people mistake her facility for slinging around statistics and other wonkish factoids for actual intelligence.

Ed "I Know No-THING!" Schultz, on the other hand, obviously has a brain like a chick pea. I still can't get rid of the bad taste in my mouth from the time I saw him doing his program in a live remote from in front of a Wisconsin workers' rights protest. The guy was basically using the workers' movement in Wisconsin as a prop, a backdrop for him while he dished out Democratic Party talking points.

...I wonder how much these dogs get paid. For all their caterwauling about the down and out, you'd think they were themselves destitute and living in hovels.

I'm sure they're all making well into six figures, at least. I'll bet the bigger names there -- Sharpton, Maddow, Scarborough -- are probably getting seven.

diane:

Save the Oocytes, a hug to ya, I’m just glad you didn’t think I was blowing you off. And I’m glad you’re interested in the musk data, as I now have quite a few pieces I need to sort through and recap. I’ll let you know in a current thread when I’ve posted it (I wish I had more time, than I do, to finish it quickly.)

As to how to quickly determine a response has been made, don’t know, I use your same method of checking.

As to the “Rabbit Hole” reference - outside of the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, illogical ...mean ... world allusion, - I suppose I also attach a more overtly sinister aspect to the phrase due to a life experience a very transient in life man shared with me about his youth once. He had just taken a job on a ranch (I think it may have been in Nevada, or a similar clime) in a dry dessert-ish area with which he wasn’t familiar, when the bitch overlordess, asked him to collect some spring rabbit, as it was her favorite vittle. She explained that they might be caught by inserting one’s had down the rabbit hole in hopes to reach the nest. What she deliberately omitted was that Rattlers frequently go down the same holes in search of that same vittle, and/or nest in deserted rabbit holes. Thankfully, another ranch hand shared that little tidbit with him before he got bit, apparently she pulled that shit with everyone new.

diane:

Michael F., going back to dick van dyke, ... for a second or two. Every time I think of Dick, I’m reminded of a quick blip on a Cali newscast re one of the nastier fire seasons in sout Cali, where they caught Dick ‘splaining’ to the cops who wouldn’t let anyone drive into his neighborhood due to the flames:

I’M DICK VAN DYKE .....

As to why he was an exception to the ‘Rule.’

diane:

(oops ... "hand" versus "had," ...about sticking it down that rabbit hole ...(quite blindly). ... Though, have to say ...I kind of like "had" also, ... but it wasn't my initial thought)

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