Month: August 2013

Athenae, Diary, Economy11 Comments

A Diamond is Not Forever Money

Allison Hantschel

Huge diamonds as investments are nonsense: When you buy a diamond, you buy it at retail, which is a 100 percent to 200 percent markup. If you want to resell it, you have to pay less than wholesale to incent a diamond buyer to risk their own capital on the purchase. Given the large markup, this will mean a substantial loss on your part. The same article puts some numbers around the dilemma: Because of the steep markup on diamonds, individuals who buy retail and in effect sell wholesale often suffer enormous losses. For example, Brod estimates that a half-carat … Continue reading A Diamond is Not Forever Money

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media

Passive Voice Journalism

Allison Hantschel

If the issue surfaces.All on its own. NBC Universal, which has paid $4 billion dollars for the rights to cover the Olympics from 2014 through 2020, has also been squirmy. Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin’s letter(pdf) asking them to include news of Russia’s human rights violations alongside their standard Olympics coverage has elicited a hasty if mealy-mouthed response from the network saying that it will “provide coverage of Russia’s anti-gay laws if the controversial measures surface as an issue during the upcoming Winter Olympics”. First of all, FOUR BILLION DOLLARS. Yet there’s no money in journalism anymore. I guess … Continue reading Passive Voice Journalism

Adrastos, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks6 Comments

Editorial Of The Day: Cut And Paste Edition

Peter Adrastos Athas

I just got through reading the Lexington Herald-Leader’s editorial about Senator Aqua Buddha’s self inflicted plagiarism problem. It’s nice to see the pouty little baby getting bipped around back home. In the Paulite tradition, I decided to cut and paste the whole damn thing for your perusal.Unlike Senator Aqua Buddha, however, I’m not claiming it as my own work: It’s hard to know where to start with Sen. Rand Paul’s reaction to legitimate criticism of his repeated plagiarism of other authors. Paul said he accepted responsibility and then went on quickly to slough it off, laying it on his rapid … Continue reading Editorial Of The Day: Cut And Paste Edition

Athenae, Marriage Equality, Urban Hellhole6 Comments

This Is My Favorite Comment on Illinois Passing Marriage Equality

Allison Hantschel

Oh man, dude: Well this should be the beginning of the end of Illinois, when they allow abnormal, sexual deviant perverts addicted to an unnatural, disgusting sex fetish, this state is will no doubt go down the toilet, but then again, this state has some of the vilest, vermin excuse of so-called human beings in the entire country. Many of the meanest, nastiest, filthiest, most ignorant, pathetic excuse for leaving, breathing space live in this state, I’ve been to several other cities and states and they outclass the garbage in this state and city, absolute bottom of the barrel live … Continue reading This Is My Favorite Comment on Illinois Passing Marriage Equality

Athenae, Congress9 Comments

It’s Not Just About The Parks

Allison Hantschel

So much for the pro-business reputation of the GOP: Concessionaire Xanterra Parks & Resorts, which operates hotels and other services in national parks, estimates that for every day the parks are closed, it will cost them just under $1 million per day in lost revenue, not including overhead. And that’s just one piece of the puzzle. U.S. cities are losing out on crucial revenue from travel and tourism. Communities near parks are estimated to lose more than $76 million a day in visitor spending. It’s about what’s next to the parks, and what sells to the people who use the … Continue reading It’s Not Just About The Parks

Stupid Republican Tricks, Tommy T7 Comments

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Putrid Pasta edition

tommyfd

Good morning, everyone! The old drums of Freepitude are piling up again, so here we go!

First up –Pasta fongool!!

Barilla: ‘Gays can eat someone else’s pasta’http://nypost.com ^ | September 26, 2013 | Bruce Golding

Posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:50:54 PM by lowbridge

Anger is boiling over at the chairman of the Barilla pasta company after he vowed to only feature heterosexual couples in commercials — and added that anyone offended by his anti-gay stance could buy a different brand of noodles.

Guido Barilla told Italian radio on Wednesday that he would never use a gay family to promote the world’s leading brand of pasta, according to The Guardian.

“For us the concept of the sacred family remains one of the basic values of the company,” Barilla said. “I would not do it but not out of a lack of respect for homosexuals who have the right to do what they want without bothering others…[but] I don’t see things like they do and I think the family that we speak to is a classic family.”

1 posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:50:54 PM by lowbridge

Freepers! This guy is your new hero! Pay tribute to His Noodly Appendage!!

To: lowbridge

awesome!

4 posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:52:51 PM by Viennacon (S)

To: lowbridge

Nice. No fear – just truth

7 posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:53:16 PM by svcw (obama lied my plan died)

To: lowbridge

You fags can go slurp somebody else’s noodles.

Damned straight.

8 posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:53:36 PM by humblegunner

To: lowbridge

AWESOME!! We buy their noodles all the time, now we will be buying more

23 posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:58:20 PM by Sarah Barracuda

Good. In fact, eat pasta every day for a couple of years. If you make it a couple of years, that is.

To: lowbridge
Guido is only exercising his ‘right to choose’ – good for him.

Progressive social engineers can all go p*ss up a rope.

25 posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:58:48 PM by skeeter

And then…

Barilla President Apologizes for Comments About Gays –ABC ^ | 9/26/13 | By SUSANNA KIM

Posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 5:13:33 PM by barmag25

The president of Barilla is apologizing for saying that he would never use a gay family in the pasta maker’s ads.

Guido Barilla said in an Italian radio interview that his pasta is for the traditional family and said gay people could eat another pasta if they did not like his message.

“We accept his invitation to not eat his pasta,” said Aurelio Mancuso, president of gay-rights group Equality Italia, in a statement in Italian.

Boycotting Twitter users shared the hashtag #boicottabarilla, or “boycott Barilla.”

But Barilla quickly walked back his comments.

1 posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 5:13:33 PM by barmag25

Oh noes!!1!

Whatever are the Freeperati going to do with all that pasta they just ran out and bought??

To: barmag25

Gay Nazis strike again.

2 posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 5:16:20 PM by dragonblustar (FU Jaun McCain!!!!!!)

GayNazis
.

To: barmag25

Now that he has demonstrated his cowardice, I would urge heterosexuals to boycott his pasta. Sell it to the fags, chickensh_t. You’re so scared of them …

6 posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 5:18:02 PM by IronJack (=)

To: barmag25
Just wow!
I would have preferred that the president of this company not have made a statement that I wholeheartedly agree with.
But having made it and allowing the Gay Mafia to force him to cower and back off has created a bigger problem for him

I have a pantry-full of Barilla products in our pantry.

Out they go!

The calculus is simple. Which is the biggest market? The perverts? Or normal traditional families most of which are disgusted with aggressively militant deviants?

16 posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 5:29:21 PM by publius911 (Look for the Union label, then buy something else.)
You know – maybe it was a marketing ploy aimed at the Freeperati?
Step 1 – Get Freepers to buy a shitload of your pasta
Step 2 – Get Freepers to throw it all out
Step 3 – PROFIT!
Nah – prolly not.
More Freeper fapping after the al dente’

Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – Putrid Pasta edition”

Athenae, Fuck The Mommy Wars, Immoral Values2 Comments

That Women Do This Lightly

Allison Hantschel

I read stories like this after the Tiller murder, and they enraged me then, too: I was really moved and amazed by the scene where you’re writing down a baby’s name, noting the family’s request for a memory box and a viewing, showing the little ink footprints. Do families often want to engage with their baby like this after an abortion? How many people are ready to—as you say—say hello to their baby at the same time that they’re telling it goodbye? With fetal anomaly patients, we ask them right up front if they plan to hold their baby after … Continue reading That Women Do This Lightly

Athenae, Immoral Values, Religion8 Comments

Students Praying Will Prevent Pregnancy and STDs

Allison Hantschel

These PEOPLE, and no, it being Kentucky does not make it okay or not surprising or not outrageous or whatever.Nobody deserves this, and there is nothing cool about not being enraged by it: The American Family Association of Kentucky –- a fundamentalist Christian nonprofit that says its mission is to “oppose the barriers to the flow of God’s love to all people” –-asked its members to sign a petition last week pushing for the legalization of prayer in local public schoools. The petition states that after the removal of prayer from public schools, teen pregnancy and violent crime rates spiked … Continue reading Students Praying Will Prevent Pregnancy and STDs

Adrastos, Art, Film, Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction Thursday: In A Lonely Place

Peter Adrastos Athas

In A Lonely Place used to be the “lost Bogart classic” but thanks to TCM and Roger Ebert it has become part of the Bogie canon. Bogart is genuinely scary as hot tempered screenwriter Dixon Steele in a film that was, in part, a return to his bad guys roles. Dix, however, was more of an anti-hero, which made it fit the times since anti-heroes were “in” in 1950. In A Lonely Place was the first major film directed by Nicholas Ray who had a great decade in the Fifties before going down in flames in what should have been … Continue reading Pulp Fiction Thursday: In A Lonely Place

Afghanistan, Athenae, War in Iraq4 Comments

McCain: All Those Wars I Supported Are Not Any Fun Anymore

Allison Hantschel

It’s almost like spending a decade destablizing the Middle East had the effect of destabilizing it, you guys; “It was a coup and it was the second time in two-and-a-half years that we have seen the military step in. It’s a strong indicator of the lack of American leadership and influence since we’ve urged the military not to do that,” McCain said Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation,”according to Politico. “The place is descending into chaos but so is the entire Middle East because of the total vacuum and lack of American leadership…Whether it be the massacres in Syria; Lebanon … Continue reading McCain: All Those Wars I Supported Are Not Any Fun Anymore

Athenae, So Called Liberal Media3 Comments

David Brooks: Egypt is Mental

Allison Hantschel

Oh, why don’t you just come right out and SAY IT, BITCH.You think those people, in their backwards-ass country, are just too stupid to handle the kind of high-minded government we have perfected here in our democratic paradise: Islamists might be determined enough to run effective opposition movements and committed enough to provide street-level social services. But they lack the mental equipment to govern. Once in office, they are always going to centralize power and undermine the democracy that elevated them. Um. The “mental equipment?” The fuck does that even mean? Are you saying they need therapy, or possibly a … Continue reading David Brooks: Egypt is Mental

Adrastos, Political Crack, So Called Liberal Media1 Comment

On the comeback trail

Peter Adrastos Athas

The world of politics keeps getting more and more entertaining. Former Noo Yawk Governor and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is running for lesser office, Comptroller. That’s the person who watches NYC’s money and finance is Spitzer’s speciality.Salon’s Alex Pareenethinks this is a good thing. I’m less sure but who among us doesn’t enjoy a gutter press banner headline such as this? I’m sure Spitzer watched Vitter, Sanford, and now Weiner’s comebacks and said” “why not me?” It should be interesting and may even keep the Noo Yawk Post afloat a bit longer. Maybe Spitzer can spin the ho thang and … Continue reading On the comeback trail

Uncategorized19 Comments

Weekend Question Thread

Allison Hantschel

We’ve had the best meal you’ve ever eaten. What was the worst meal you’ve ever had? I’m not an anti-chain snob (love me some Chili’s) but the last time I was at an Olive Garden, ARGH. How do you fuck up cheese ravioli, you ask? Well, you undercook them so the edges are crunchy, cover them in sauce that tastes like ketchup, then melt some pre-shred cheese over that, and leave it under the salamander so long the edges of the entire plate turn brown and crispy. I’ve been poisoned by meals before, but at least they tasted good going … Continue reading Weekend Question Thread

Adrastos, Political Crack3 Comments

A great day for satirists

Peter Adrastos Athas

I’d like to thank the people of the 1st district in South Carolina for sending Mark Sanford back to Congress after a 10 year absence. I was worried that they’d do the sensible thing and elect his opponent, Stephen Colbert’s big sister Elizabeth, then elect a GOPer in 2014. The creepy former Governor clearly had momentum in the last week and the district is so Republican that the only Democrat that could have won was Pitchfork Ben Tillman who has been dead for 95 years. There is, however, one satirist who lost tonight, Stephen Colbert. Sorry, dude, but Sanford essentially … Continue reading A great day for satirists

Athenae, Stupid Republican Tricks10 Comments

I Wanna Kill Bad Guys

Allison Hantschel

Hey, you nitwits, the recruiting office is over there. No. 20 looks like Reagan to me, though all the heat was about the Obama-looking target. As for No. 11, I’m not sure what Louis CK did to these people but this seems like something of an overreaction. Okay, you want to shoot zombies, those are hard to find in the wild, but this is the one that pisses me off: This is sort of like those guys that hunt animals in basically cages, because they want to feel like the world’s biggest swinging dick without actually doing anything remotely dangerous … Continue reading I Wanna Kill Bad Guys

Athenae, Congress1 Comment

*Sean Bean Voice* STUPID IS COMING

Allison Hantschel

Oh NOES, something we’ve never seen before, Republicans being bags of dogshit: WASHINGTON — As the administration struggles to put in place the final, complex piece of President Obama‘s signature health care law, an endeavor on a scale not seen since Medicare‘s creation nearly a half-century ago, Democrats are worried that major snags will be exploited by Republicans in next year’s midterm elections. If only there was something you could do about it instead of worrying in the pages of the goddamn Times and announcing to everyone that you’re so, so, so very worried that those meanie Republicans are going … Continue reading *Sean Bean Voice* STUPID IS COMING

Adrastos, Mad Men Recaps, Television5 Comments

Mad Men Thread: She’s the apple that goes in the pig’s mouth

Peter Adrastos Athas

Thus spake Mere Marie (not to be confused with my friend Mother Mary) after her dinner with Herb the horrible (the Hagar of Jersey) and his twitty wife, Peaches. That’s right, ladies and germs, please give it up for Peaches and Herb: Okay, now that I’ve had my little joke (very little, actually) on to a discussion of For Immediate Release, which is hands-down the best episode of season 6 so far. It fits the classic Mad Men pattern; nothing much seems to happen plot-wise at the start of the season and then WHAMMO. This season’s whammo occurred in episode … Continue reading Mad Men Thread: She’s the apple that goes in the pig’s mouth

Current Affairs, Diary, Doc6 Comments

The Longest Night (Abby, Part II)

docphd

(In case you missed part one, here you go.) The first night with Abby was a long one. She was in a new place for the third time in less than six months. She was in another enclosure, but without other bunnies around her. Before we turned off the lights for the night, I remember looking at her. She was perfectly still except for her nose, which was twitching at about a million miles a minute. She was scared. The Missus and I went to bed, but I was restless. “I wonder how she’s doing,” I mused aloud after rolling … Continue reading The Longest Night (Abby, Part II)

Adrastos, British Politics, Political Crack7 Comments

Thatcher

Peter Adrastos Athas

David Cameron was elected party leader to be the Tory’s pre-Iraq War Tony Blair: non-ideological, pleasant and moderate. As his government went south and seemed increasingly headed to the electoral rocks, they have become more belligerent and Thatcherite by the day.Their muse, Margaret Thatcher, has died at the age of 87. Mrs. Thatcher was a querulous and cranky right winger who was exquisitely packaged by her handlers as detailed by Germaine Greer in this 4 year old piece. When success went to her head, she became increasingly strident and nasty to her own colleagues as well and was ousted by … Continue reading Thatcher

Current Affairs, Doc2 Comments

Grading the graders (again)

docphd

The idea of grade inflation is back in the news around here when a local newspaper decided to put all of those computer-assisted reporting classes to work and investigate the local university.Truth be told, I often enjoy deeper pieces and if anything is going to help newspapers increase their value (both financially and intellectually) it’s going to come in the form of stuff like this. The core of the story is the same as it always is: Grades are going up, professors are doling out A’s like they’re Halloween candy and dammit, why aren’t you using the Bell Curve to … Continue reading Grading the graders (again)

Adrastos, Current Affairs, Law/Justice, Malakatude, New Orleans, Political Crack

The American Way

Peter Adrastos Athas

There’s been a huge case brewing in New Orleans involving the River Birch Landfill. If you’re shocked to hear that “waste management” could be a lucrative source of graft for grifters, you haven’t watched The Sopranos 97 times like I have. Tony Soprano always told everyone he was in “waste management” and so is local lawyer Fred Heebe who was Malaka Of The Week on 3/15/2012. The River Birch Landfill case seems to have finally and definitively collapsed today. Charges against two of the primary shitbirds were dismissed with prejudice, which means they cannot be re-filed. These were the alleged … Continue reading The American Way

Athenae, Congress10 Comments

The Silence Of Our Friends

Allison Hantschel

Last night, watching that massive douchebag Rand Paul be right about something for 13 hours straight, I was struck, not by anything Paul was actually saying but by what other Republicans were doing: “There was a hell of a lot of team play tonight,” a senior GOP leadership aide said Thursday morning, acknowledging that Paul’s filibuster had given the GOP a much needed jolt of energy. “Everybody’s in a three-point stance, helmets on and ready to fight,” the aide said. “I think it was a great show of unity by the Republicans, and I think that the White House really … Continue reading The Silence Of Our Friends