From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
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Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Note: Christmas is coming but the geese aren't getting fat this year because they finally figured out what happens to fat geese when Christmas is coming. Film at 11.
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11 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the winter solstice:
33
Days 'til the
North Pole Express rides at mid-coast Maine's Boothbay Railway Village:
11
Percent chance October was the hottest on record:
100%
(Source:
Think Progress)
Year by which the demand for chocolate is expected to outpace supply:
2020
(Source:
CBS News)
Number of current and former New York City strippers who
will share $10 million after filing a class-action lawsuit against their employer:
2,000
Percent chance that Apple---run by a gay guy---is now more valuable than the stock market in Russia, which is run by a petty anti-gay despot:
100%
(Source:
The Telegraph)
Number of Americans who intend to eat human brains for Thanksgiving dinner, up from 622 last year and spreading rapidly from northwest to southeast---stay tuned to your short-wave radios for updates and
lock your doors!:
1,942
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
Most of us realize by now that the "environmental movement" is a Communist front group headed by Communists who lobby for, and use, environmental laws and regulations to destroy our nation's industrial base, including mining.
Most informed people now realize that the environmental movement has little to nothing to do with protecting the environment and a whole lot to do with giving the Communist left wing politicians more and more power to regulate our lives and to destroy our Constitutional Republic and replace it with an International Socialist (Communist) Dictatorship (Obama's dream).
---Commenter Christian197 at World Net Daily
All together now: 1…2…3…
Classy!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Beep…beep…Beep…
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CHEERS to a brief moment of unity. Well, hello! Senate Democrats actually held an event yesterday to say it's time for President Obama to go rogue on immigration rules:
"Because House Republicans have not acted, we fully support your decision to use your well-established executive authority to improve as much of the immigration system as you can," wrote Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and five other senior Democratic senators in a letter to Obama. …
The Democrats said they hoped Obama would include parents of the 600,000 or so people who have been approved under the two-year-old program, if they have not committed serious crimes. They also said that they wanted Obama to provide help to certain illegal immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents and "workers who play a vital role in our economy and heritage."
And kudos to the AP for pointing out that
Reagan and Bush I acted unilaterally on immigration through executive orders. In case you're wondering, the right-wing response to that---I trolled through a few of their comment threads yesterday---is, "Yeah, but Reagan sealed the border!" Really.
JEERS to one-dimensional chess played badly. Because sometimes the silly season just can't be silly enough, today the still-Democrat-led Senate is going to vote on the Keystone XL pipeline at the behest of Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu so she can make it part of her plan to win her December 6 runoff election. It's a bold three-step plan:
"I must destroy earth
in order to save me."
Step 1: Get the Keystone bill passed and run on a re-election platform of, "Look! I just helped get a bill drafted by my Republican opponent passed!"
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Re-election!!!
And if that doesn't swing enough Republicans to her side, she's always got a backup plan: castrating hogs while emptying a Glock into a copy of Obamacare.
CHEERS to God's little inspector. America has been naughty lately. So naughty that the Pope said to us, "Don't make me come over there!" And did we listen to him? Nooooo. So get ready, America, because the Pope is comin' over here with the Good Book in one hand and lightning bolts ("Tasers from Heaven") in the other. Clean your plates, kiddies. If you thought Santa was good at making lists…….
CHEERS to the love that dares to shout its name from the rooftops. Eleven years ago today---half a freakin' generation ago---the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that gay couples were entitled to equal marriage rights in the commonwealth. Back then Mitt Romney said that Massachusetts would become the "Las Vegas of same-sex marriage"---as if that was a bad thing. Five years after the decision, only one other state allowed gay marriage, 30 states had constitutional bans against it, and nearly two-thirds of the public viewed men marrying men and women marrying women akin to root canals and jury duty. How things have changed:
Today 33 states representing over 60% of the nation's population issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples as courts knock down the bans one after another. Overall approval is well in the 50s (and much higher the younger you go), and the anti-marriage forces are the ones now being compared to root canals and jury duty. Meanwhile the Massachusetts divorce rate---a true measure of the strength of the so-called "institution of marriage"---remains the lowest among the states, and divorce rates in states with marriage equality remain
the lowest in the country by a mile. So congratulations and thank you, Massachusetts Supremes, for a job well done. By expanding marriage, you may have saved it.
CHEERS or JEERS to tinkering with the primal forces of nature. Oh my…
I call dibs on the first mammoth ride!
The fierce debate over whether to clone a woolly mammoth has been reignited by a fresh attempt to bring the species back from the dead. South Korean scientists believe the extinct 'Mammuthus' can be brought back to life using the DNA of an extremely well preserved mammoth found in the Siberian snow.
Insung Hwang, a geneticist at Sooam, the South Korean biotech company working on the project, said this week his team think it is an achievable goal, using the fresh blood samples they have recovered.
Some scientists believe it's a bad idea. Some scientists believe it's a good idea. And the ivory poachers just peed their pants.
JEERS to drinking the Kool-Aid (as in, really drinking the Kool-Aid, except perhaps not, which I'll explain in a moment). There's a paragraph in the late Randy Shilts's brilliant book, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, that reveals the Rev. Jim Jones' influence in San Francisco politics (Mayor Moscone actually made him chairman of the city Housing Authority, if you can believe that) during the mid-70s, before he moved his sheeple to Guyana:
"Weird and Dangerous."
"Make sure you're always nice to the Peoples Temple," [Milk] admonished [campaign volunteer Tory Hartmann].
"If they ask you to do something, do it, and then send them a note thanking them for asking you to do it. They're weird and they're dangerous, and you never want to be on their bad side."
No shit. Today is the 36th anniversary of the infamous Jonestown massacre. At least 900 followers drank grape
Flavor Aid (not Kool-Aid) laced with cyanide. Time's cover said it all:
Cult of Death. By the way, what's the difference between the Jones cult and today's teabaggers? What the teabaggers are drinking is killing all of us.
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Ten years ago in C&J: November 18, 2004
CHEERS to ribbon cuttings. The Clinton Presidential Center officially opens today in Little Rock. Not to nitpick, but why did they design it to look like a train car about to hurtle off a cliff? That should be Bush's design. [11/18/14 Update: There's currently an amazing display there by glass artist Dale Chihuly. And if you want to see more Chihuly, check out his Denver exhibit in Merry Light's Saturday Garden Blogging guest post. Please---leave your frisbees outside.]
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And just one more…
CHEERS to things that go "Zoom" for $500, Alex. Japan is still going through tough economic times, but they still judo-chop our hiney when it comes to supertrains. Get a load 'o the new magnet-enabled ("maglev") train that just reached 311 mph during a test. When the full track is completed, it'll cut a four-hour Tokyo-to-Nagoya car ride to 40 minutes by rail:
More on the super train here. After the successful test run, each passenger received a souvenir key ring and a complimentary uvula retraction.
Have a zippy Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Five Conservatives Who Don't Understand Cheers and Jeers…But Are Definitely Against It!
---Right Wing Watch
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