Rumper Room

An endless open thread for registered members of Rumproast.  Newest comments appear at the top (150 per page), so read from the bottom if you need to catch up.

@D: Business must be bad in the Monotonous Crank industry.  The ad on my Wordpress blog promises my own domain name for just $17/yr, and it’s not so hard to figure out an HTTP redirect.

@sean: Bob’s had that page for a while - he started it in 2009 (timely!) and hasn’t touched it in two years, going by the dates. However, I must have missed out on Our Monotonous Crank moving his site. Who goes from a proper website to Blogger? What, did his webmaster finally quit?

Your daily dose of creepy surveillance:

The FBI on Tuesday released its incredibly thorough, 191-page report on Steve Jobs.

So it turns out that Our Somerby is taking some time off from hating Rachel Maddow to re-re-litigate Bush-Gore:

How did George W. Bush reach the White House? Americans can’t understand our society’s developing power relations until this question, and others like it, are answered. The liberal world, like the mainstream press, has long avoided these topics. At this site, a deeply consequential part of this story will at last be told.

Oh, yeah.  He wants your money for this, too.  (Via Kevin Drum, who inexplicably still reads Our Somerby.)

I’ve had my hands swabbed a few times at different US airports. Sea-Tac for sure. Maybe Minneapolis-St. Paul as well.

Re: the swabbing thing, I’ve seen many a laptop case or other luggage get the swabbing tx, but not someone’s hands.  I hope the swab isn’t impregnated with some toxic solvent, and/or that your BF washed his hands immediately afterwards.  You just can’t trust a system that was willing to use X-rays (low dose, but still - ionizing radiation is ionizing radiation and therefore potentially mutagenic) until they came up with the millimeter scan units.  All this has made me learn to hate flying. 

As for the arseholes who want to spoil the same sex fun, remember: it is much, much more fun for those closetcases when the forbidden thing is that much more forbidden. I know, twisted, but that’s how they roll.

Re: Syria

When I opened my online electric account the lady asked me for a password.  Obviously I wouldn’t just tell her so she said she’d make it ‘12345’ as it was the most common and I could change it.

I know nobody with that password (until now) because I asked others if they’d heard of that password and they hadn’t either and said they wouldn’t even think to use it. 

Re: ‘People” for Prop 8.

I really dislike those arseholes.  I’m starting to wonder if they’re just too afraid to have a same sex relationship themselves and they want to spoil everyone elses lives.

oops, that should be ‘Little America’.

Little American introduces full body scanning

What I find amusing about this story is in the text it says

The government has assured travellers that they will not appear nude on screen; they will instead appear as a stick-like figure.

but they show a photo of a naked guy with a gun up his arse. 

My boyfriend just moved to Australia for a job ($113k a year, cool, eh?) and while entering he not only got picked for wanding (they did that to me too) but they swabbed his hands for explosive residue.  I told him he must look more like a terrorist than I do. 

Is that explosive swab thing used in the US?  I’d not heard of it before.  I thought they did it because he’s an engineer by trade but apparently he just got accosted at the normal ‘x-ray your carry on’.

Holy fricken Moses!  Night in the cells becomes two years in solitary

If only Syria were more receptive to western culture, it might not end up the butt of “Spaceballs” jokes.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has declared California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional in a 2-1 decision.

In its ruling, the three-judge panel had to decide:

• whether Prop 8 supporters have a legal right to defend the ballot measure since state officials have refused to defend it.

• if Judge Vaughn Walker, who struck down Prop 8, should have recused himself from the case because he was in a long-term relationship with a man.

• if Walker was correct when he ruled that Prop 8 is unconstitutional or whether the state had a rational or compelling reason to limit marriage to heterosexual couple.

Despite the ruling, it could be a while before same-sex couples can resume marrying in the state. Prop 8 backers plan to appeal to a larger Ninth Circuit panel and then to the U.S. Supreme Court if they lose in the intermediate court. Marriages would likely stay on hold while that process plays out.

More here

As expected, Prop 8 has been ruled unconstitutional in the state of California. (I say “as expected” because as a straight guy I had none of the anxiety my buddy and co-worker, gay man, had while waiting for the decision.)

More details to follow

Thanks for the advice, Mike.

Oh, that’s going to be difficult, then - there is a presumption of intent to emigrate, and if she can’t establish to the consular officer that she intends to return to PRC within the year (I think B-1 requests from China are a year or two max), that’s going to be a difficult hurdle. 

IIRC, it’s always essentially at the discretion of the interviewing officer, with more or less leeway allowed in practice according to the visa type - there’s not a lot of movement with the IR-1 spousal visas if you can show a longstanding relationship, for example.  Best advice I can give is for her to bone up on interview technique and to be as convincing as possible. Sorry, I know it’s not too helpful.

It’s just a B-1, but she doesn’t have any major assets and probably can’t get a letter from her employer. She’s worried that she won’t have enough documentation of economic and social ties to China.

Hi D - where is she from and what visa will she want? I have some experience, as a recent immigrant.

Does anyone here have experience with US travel visas? I’m trying to help someone get a visa and apparently I have to prove that she’s not a border jumper first. Not entirely sure how I should go about doing that.

Betty: well, bummer.  I hope nothing tragic has befallen HTP; he has totally fallen off the radar at any blog I used to see him at and people have been asking about him.  I just hope he’s OK.

@ SoaS: Nary a peep, unfortunately.

Just in case part one didn’t put you completely to sleep

“Atlas Shrugged, Part 2” officially greenlit for production

Atlas Productions, LLC announced today that “Atlas Shrugged Part 2”, the second installment of the Atlas Shrugged movie trilogy, has been officially greenlit with principal photography to begin this coming April in Los Angeles, Colorado, and New York.

So filming starting in April, and release…

“Part 2 is set to be in theaters October 2012 amidst what is sure to be a fever pitched presidential election season. “

So a total of six WHOLE months between filming and release??

“We have high aspirations for Part 2. We’ve looked carefully at Part 1 and taken time to analyze and reexamine everything from the script to the casting. John and I are committed to making a great Part 2 and excited about what lies ahead,” according to Producer Harmon Kaslow.”

Well, one of the major flaws of Part One was that it beat Camomile-infused NyQuil mixed with warm milk as a sedative.  I somehow suspect they’re not going to fix that problem in six months.

Things that can’t screen for breast cancer and one that does.

Danzig speaks for me!

Hey Betty C., any word on Hunger Tallest Palin?

The circle of lulz with cats and dogs, too cute

Bonus vid, Maru has a new house

We know one thing for sure, this outstanding street performer in Spokane does not hang out with Len.

Wow, nice to know these 2 nerds have such rich, well-rounded lives with wide-ranging interests…

Well, it’s incredibly petty and dumb, but here goes.

There’s this series of games - Silent Hill - that are known for having fluid narratives and tons of symbolism. As a result, fans have been discussing them for years - what this scene meant, who this character was actually supposed to be, that kind of thing. It’s like film criticism, except that it occasionally gets bogged down in very silly, crazy theories (so exactly like film criticism, I guess).

So recently, I was pointed to these two dickhead fans who are among the most self-important, abrasive nerds I’ve ever seen. Think every stereotype of an Internet-obsessed geek and you’ve got these two. They gained some degree of fame (well, e-fame) for a series of videos called “The Real Silent Hill Experience.” The name pretty much says it all, I think. They insist that they know exactly what happened in these games and if you argue otherwise, you are WRONG and they will explain why at very great length. It’s not like they have an inside track or anything, they’re just fans - incredibly pedantic, obsessive fans.

Yesterday, they were on their Facebook page going on about one of their batty theories when they caught the attention of Jeremy Blaustein, who was on the translation/localization team for the original games. Blaustein states that this theory is absolutely incorrect, that it’s inconsistent with the games as designed by the original Team Silent. Some people point post his remarks to the Facebook page, only to get deleted almost immediately. Finally, Blaustein himself shows up, conveys what the original authors told him and what he personally intended when he wrote the localized scripts. These two and their idiot fans promptly start arguing with him about the “contradictions” in the games (those contradictions stemming from another of their theories, based on a scrap of information retroactively inserted by someone else into a minor market release of one of the games - I hate nerds so much sometimes).

That’s what I was following last night. The Internet opens up new worlds, but often they’re not world you wanted to see.

@D Johnston, more details please!

Anyone ever watch someone argue with a writer over the meaning of his work? Because I’m watching it happen in real time right now, and it’s ridiculous.

In other cool discovery news, my son and I found a 80s Schwinn Caliente in a dumpster, which is in almost as new condition.  OK, so it’s not as cool as discovering a new molecule, but still.

Coolio! I tried to get Levenson to notice but you know how those Northeast coast elitist college-types are.

@HB: Cool!  Due to my lifelong crush on geeky girls, I’m always thrilled to hear stories like this.  I’ve thrown you a tip to Bon at Zandar’s house… I think she’ll really dig that story.

5th grade girl discovers new molecule, get credit as co-author of paper in National Science Journal

Google, busily “not being evil” since 2009:

By the end of the operation in mid-2009, agents were buying Google ads for sites purportedly selling such prescription-only narcotics as oxycodone and hydrocodone. Agents also got Google’s sales office in China to approve a site selling Prozac and Valium to U.S. customers without a prescription.

Hah, hah!  I sense an upcoming comeuppance.

BTW, I recently discovered Ghostery, a plug-in for most browsers that lists the various ad networks and trackers on the current page.  Even if you aren’t as paranoid as I am, it’s eye-opening.

Personally I miss the sociopathic ClownCar desperately trying to get laid.

Chuckles and Lambchop are both clear examples of what happens when you isolate yourself from the rest of the online world, ban people with dissenting opinions, and delete their comments.

There’s an interesting difference from real-world cults in that the leaders in real-life tend to be charismatic figures. Rivers and Lambs tend to alienate a large swath of people, even those that are very close to them ideologically. Sometimes I wish I had a MacArthur grant or a tax shelter in the Cayman islands I could use to study the outre blogs. I’m absolutely fascinated by their behavior in the same way that Diane Fosse would be if she stumbled upon primates discussing the Allegory of the Cave.

And TeresainPa? She’s a keeper.

Shorter Riverdancer: “Everybody in the world is insane except meeeeeeeeeebleepwurblepop!!!!!!”

RD still really seriously thinks there’s a chance Hillary will “primary” Obama:

She has proven herself to be a capable, competent, well-respected politician and administrator, both domestically and abroad.  She beats every candidate of both parties in polls, which Democrats do not mention.  The people who are crazy are not the holdouts.  It is the segment of the Democratic party who insist on clinging to their pre-conceived notions about her.  But whatever.  What’s really crazy is to go into this fluid, unpredictable election year in the fourth year of a dismal economic crisis without a Plan B.  No, Howard Dean is not an option.  Remember, you have to appeal to all of the voters.

And as Craig Crawford mentioned on Saturday night, the deadline for getting on the ballot on some of the biggest states has not expired yet.  Many of the big Democratic states like California, NJ and Pennsylvania have their primaries late.  In NJ, we don’t get to vote until June.  A lot could happen between now and then.  That lot could consist of endless pounding on Obama’s poor performance in Republican primary debates coupled with a lot of sturm and drang on the deficit.

And of course the comments under that post make her look sane by comparison:

Mr. Mike, on January 23, 2012 at 10:56 pm said:

I think Obama’s only hope is a nut bag republican candidate winning their primary. They will need the independents and only Romney has a chance of delivering them.

The other shoe is a House investigation of Obama’s Rezko days starting up after the primary ballot desdlines.
The other shoe is a House investigation of Obama’s Rezko days starting up after the primary ballot desdlines.

  teresainpa, on January 24, 2012 at 6:54 am said:

  the house will not investigate Obama because that might mean they end up running against Hillary and they don’t want to have to do that.

I too would love for her to advocate for the TBI survivors who don’t have access to all the resources she did.

That’s the rub for me in this case.  I feel for her but at the same time I get that ‘at least you can afford to get help’ thing going on.

The Mittbot has been rebooted. Again.
Romney Starts To Take The Gloves Off.

I need some comedy, so I’m hopeing for something like the old SNL skit for robot insurance, but in this case with old people mounting an aggressive counterattack against the Mittbot. Won’t be as funny as the Waterston thing, but it oughtta do.

Soonergunt over at Cole’s place posted a sad account last month about one of his former NCOs.

Yeah, TBI is the ‘gift’ that keeps on giving.

[Precautionary note: comments over there are a mix of thoughtful and sympathetic contributions, along with diatribes and the semi-regular score-settling between some of the regulars; iow, the usual kind of comments often found over there.]

This is a much more honest presentation of her than the interview she gave on the release of the book. There is a great deal of hope for her to have a good rest of her life, but it won’t be the same life she was going to have.

I too would love for her to advocate for the TBI survivors who don’t have access to all the resources she did. At least the VA is trying to do better by its brain-injured wounded, but ordinary civilians are being shortchanged in appalling numbers. There’s a book called “Head Cases” that I found too painful to read. It does describe the situation very effectively.

The vicious YouTube comments have been removed, at least.

Gabrielle Giffords is stepping down from congress.

The video her office released had me a bit weepy. Best to her (and who appears to be a stand-up guy she’s married to).

And, of course, in addition to the heartfelt good wishes contributed there, there were the usual collection of assholes who seem to populate You-Tube comments. I miss the days when those folks were sequestered at the local bar, shouting at the TV/opposite wall/imaginary companion.

I would have liked to see more discussion of our atrocious state of mental health services in this country, but hardly saw that come up with regard to this and previous shooters similarly afflicted. I guess if Jack Bauer and John Galt could tough it out, ain’t no excuse for anyone else. Hell, even Wiley Coyote recovered after being damaged by some Acme product gone wrong - why can’t everyone quite bitchin’ and just do that?

Gabrielle Giffords is stepping down from congress.

Indeed.  If we want to let people live in places like Nome, then we should pay for more than one (heavy?) ice-breaker.  And we do, since we kind of like oil.

We also need them for things like keeping sea lanes open, rescue, scientific research, and maintaining th sonly sustainable fishery we have left.

They’re pretty darned important ships, they just don’t get the play on the news because they don’t make things go kablooey.

@ Lowkey—thanks!

@ Sean—I cannot imagine voluntarily living in such a place. Florida is beastly hot in the summer, but you wouldn’t actually DIE in minutes if you accidentally locked yourself out of the house while going to fetch the mail.

With shades of Gingrich:

In July 1970, Dodd married Susan Mooney; they divorced in October 1982. Afterwards, he dated at different times Bianca Jagger and Carrie Fisher, among others. In 1999, he married his second wife, Jackie Marie Clegg, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

However, even as an MPAA stooge, I doubt he’ll manage the third upgrade.

Wow - Check out former PL fave, Chris Dodd’s latest escapade

Why am I not surprised?  Chris Dodd has always seemed like an almost Lieberman-league tool to me.  Then again, I can’t see his name without thinking of the Daily Show’s campaign song for him, a Broadway number whose only lyrics were “I’m Chris Dodd, Chris Dodd is my name,” and chuckling inside.  He’s not entirely useless.

And what’s sad is USCGC Healy (WAGB-20) is the only functioning Icebreaker we have right now.

Indeed.  If we want to let people live in places like Nome, then we should pay for more than one (heavy?) ice-breaker.  And we do, since we kind of like oil.

This NYT article has some good photos of the ice-breaking.  And here’s the interview of Capt. Beverly Havlik I heard.

Has anyone else been kind of fascinated by the saga of the US icebreaker making a path for the Russian tanker to bring oil to Nome?  I heard in an NPR interview with the ice breaker captain that the crew was planning to be home for Christmas before they were called on to smash through ice for a few months.  The AP Video of weather there is just sick; how can humans stand to live there?  Of course it’s balmy compared to Fairbanks, where my uncle spent a few years.

And what’s sad is USCGC Healy (WAGB-20) is the only functioning Icebreaker we have right now.

Wow - Check out former PL fave, Chris Dodd’s latest escapade
http://tinyurl.com/87ged8z
and for extra lulz
http://firedoglake.com/2007/10/23/in-dodd-we-trust/
Boy, they sure can pick some winners.

Has anyone else been kind of fascinated by the saga of the US icebreaker making a path for the Russian tanker to bring oil to Nome?  I heard in an NPR interview with the ice breaker captain that the crew was planning to be home for Christmas before they were called on to smash through ice for a few months.  The AP Video of weather there is just sick; how can humans stand to live there?  Of course it’s balmy compared to Fairbanks, where my uncle spent a few years.

Some young Michigan men apparently want the football team’s quarterback Denard Robinson to remain in school for his senior year.

Former Red Sox pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee was once interviewed by High Times magazine. Deadspin digs it up for us, it’s a fascinating, wonderful read.

Betty, I know I’m a little late to the party, but congrats on the Balloon Juice gig!  I’m looking forward to the first mighty flame wars in the comments of your posts.  Ad Rumperum Victoriam!

I haven’t been following the Keystone deal super closely but Nancy Pelosi had some interesting comments about the Rethug claims of how supposedly important the pipeline is (from TPM):

The political attack here is based on a number of false and exaggerated claims — including that the pipeline construction would have created 20,000 jobs (the only independent study of the project concluded that the true number would’ve been much lower) and that the oil is now destined for China instead of the U.S.

At her own Capitol briefing Wednesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took issue with these claims.

“If the Republicans cared so much about the Keystone pipeline, they would not have narrowed the president’s options by putting it on the time frame they did,” Pelosi said. “They left him very little choice…. This oil was always destined for overseas. It’s just a question of whether it leaves Canada by way of Canada, or it leaves Canada by way of the United States. So without taking a position on the pipeline, I don’t agree to the stipulation that this is oil that’s going to China now instead of the US. It was always going overseas. I don’t know where to, but it wasn’t for domestic consumption. And that’s really an important point because the advertising is quite to the contrary.”

I am soooooooooooo annoyed with this novel I’m editing for the job. The plot has been totally lost to put forward political, religion, and media rants given by a TV personality; the MCs are completely passive and do nothing but watch said TV show; and there are these leaps in logic with absolutely no basis in the supposed story. I have to edit in very small chunks and keep reminding myself I was paid to do this.

But, on the other hand, if the ranting is any indication, he’d fit right in over here. :P

I like how POTUS turned it back on the rethugs in the House too, saying he’d decided to say no to Keystone because it couldn’t be adequately reviewed in 60 day period.  Of course, 60 days is the deadline the rethugs set so they could use it in their campaign ads this year; glad to see he headed that off at the pass by acting now rather than 60 days later.

Bravo, Mr. President, for saying no to Keystone. What a pointless project.

I think Jane may just say that given the decision, she’s decided not to primary Obama.

Still not sure what’s more toxic: tar sands or FDL.

With Obama killng the pipeline, will Hamsher now take credit for the decision or ignore it altogether?

You have to vote for women even if they are bitches, whores, nutjobs, monsters, lunatics, morons, retards, hysterical backstabbers, relentlessly ambitious soulless Stepford wife robots, and cunts

Unless their name is Nancy Pelosi, Donna Brazile ...

Wow, JasonM, if I was married to that I’d drown myself in the toilet, if just to deny her the pleasure of chopping off my manly nub while I was sleeping.

@justlen, you asked, so I had to check out Murphy’s site for the first time in months.  She uses the new Thatcher bio pic as a jumping off point for a call to action to elect more women, from December 27:

I don’t know why it’s so hard for women to understand this simple concept. If you want a woman president (or senator or mayor or congresswoman) you have to VOTE for the darn women who are actually running for office. You have to give them money if you can, and volunteer time and support if you can. Here’s the hard part: You have to vote for women even if they are bitches, whores, nutjobs, monsters, lunatics, morons, retards, hysterical backstabbers, relentlessly ambitious soulless Stepford wife robots, and cunts. Because to the dudes who run the media and the world, that’s what they ALWAYS are.

Well, Darragh hasn’t posted in awhile, maybe the IRS caught up with her.

Right enough, a “Where are they now?” about the PUMAs would be a hoot. I’m not writing it, though. It would just excite them.

Look out, RD is getting ready to blog about a totally knew topic that’s never been discussed at the Flatulence:

Posted on January 16, 2012 by riverdaughter

I have a post knocking around in my head about the after effects of the 2008 election season on women but it’s not quite there yet.

Mike, I was only joking about you getting married for a green card. lol

len, I don’t know what’s up with that guy.  Maybe nobody in the Navy wants to bum sex him.

Apparently now I’m a homophobe… Who woulda thunk…

The latest from my buddy, Eyez

Delivered with a proper gentle ironic folk melody, some Uncle Bonsai from the 80s (4:00) (would have been a possibly suitable addition to one of Gil Mann’s 80s retrospective posts).

Not there at the live performance myself; I’ve only heard them on the radio.

Listening to old time radio - a 40s show I think (missed the intro) - and just heard that ‘the first rule of guerrilla warfare is no dames.’

Hahaha, just listened to this yesterday.

The Rulez, always changing they are.

Surprise, surprise…  Romney made his fortune through flip-flopping:

This is the moment when Bain Capital would become especially crafty. In my experience — which I heard echoed often by my colleagues around Wall Street — Bain would seek to be the highest bidder at the end of the formal process in order to be the firm selected to negotiate alone with the seller, putting itself in the exclusive, competition-free zone. Then, when all other competitors had been essentially vanquished and the purchase contract was under negotiation, Bain would suddenly begin finding all sorts of warts, bruises and faults with the company being sold. Soon enough, that near-final Bain bid — the one that got the firm into its exclusive negotiating position — would begin to fall, often significantly.

In fact, you get preferential treatment as a spouse because you’re classified as an immediate relative. I can apply for citizenship in 3 years instead of 5, for example.

Rebecca: My loving wife, of course.  4 years married this March, in fact.

Mike, who did you have to marry to get one of those? ;-)

HB, I’m a legal immigrant.  I won’t be mowing any lawns.

Humboldt, you weed addled dick, don’t mock the Lugans and basketball.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN3LCXscleI

Keep it up and you won’t make my Schmenge Christmas list next year.

(Stayed at Hotel Sarunas in Vilnius a few years back, headed there next year.)

Good show, Mike, now please get the lawn mowed.

Congratulations, Mike! I have one poured already. Bottoms up!

Woohoo! Got my green card! Imaginary drinks are on me!

It seems Len’s uncle is a hell of a basketball play-by-play man as he calls this lovely dunk from American Sonny Weems during Lithuanian league action.

I’ve been wondering about him myself, Rebecca. I haven’t seen him lately over at Edroso’s place either - another one of his favorite haunts - so it’s a might bit disconcerting.

I think Betty has been trying to reach him.

Has anybody got word on Hunger Tallest Palin yet?

As an Op-Ed columnist, Mr. Krugman clearly has the freedom to call out what he thinks is a lie. My question for readers is: should news reporters do the same?

You could do that. Alternately, we can replace you with a dictaphone because it can do your current job just as well.

The NYT wonders if it should be doing its job. lol

(Btw, yes, been a bit MIA. Very sick. Can barely keep up with what I should be doing….)

This is fun, add your license plate to a list that includes your residence, cell phone, internet activity and shopping preferences of data gathered by private corporations to be sold or used without your knowledge or consent.

I’m still amused at the way RD talks about how Obama,Dean,Axelrod,DNC,Sauron,Smaug,etc “threw women under the bus”, and in the same breath throws any woman who endorsed for Obama “under the bus”.  Even Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (a hardcore Hillary supporter until the the very end of the primaries) gets trashed as a traitorous careerist for having the gall to campaign for her party’s nominee.

It shouldn’t still amuse me after 4 years, but it does.

Obama has never appreciated the sacrifice Chucky made by voting for McCain/McFail. Out of consideration he could have resigned or at least impeached himself. Anything less is a betrayal of the 18 million whose votes were illegally stolen that day in May, 2008.

Is that the kind of Hopey/Changey we can all believe in?

I think she expected the Obamas to resign on Inauguration Day out of sheer self-disgust and shame.

Did she honestly expect Michelle to actively campaign against her husband?

Is she saying Jackie Kennedy faded into the background?  I sure don’t remember her that way.

Well, thinking one’s husband is the best thing since sliced bread is kinda good, right?

I just checked with Ms. YAFB. “Meh.”

She thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread and there will be no co-presidency with him and her. She is going to fade into the background and become Mrs. Kennedy.

Well, thinking one’s husband is the best thing since sliced bread is kinda good, right? I’m no expert on marriage like Chucky, but I’m under the impression that rooting for your partner is kinda part of deal, no?

And as for the “co-presidency” thing—with all due respect to Mrs. Clinton, I don’t really think it’s appropriate for an unelected spouse to wield power equal to that of the person who was actually elected to the office. I didn’t have a problem with it in practice when it was the Clintons, but, hello, Mary Todd Lincoln anyone?

@Althippo
When I read that “We don’t care,Michelle” quote from RD, Michelle Obama was speaking a few blocks from where I work, where she did this:

After the luncheon, Obama traveled to VCU to announce a major commitment to veterans’, by the country’s top medical colleges.

The announcement pertained to the care of American service men and women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

The VCU School of Medicine—joining 100 members of the American Association of Medical Colleges—signed a pledge to support groundbreaking health care research and care for veterans.

Obama also toured the polytrauma unit at McGuire VA Medical Center where she met with wounded veterans.

More info on her Richmond visit here.
RD said this about Michelle Obama during the 2008 election:

This is what Michelle Obama’s image says to me. it says, “I am not going to rock the boat. I am a support person for my husband. I am not going to challenge the gender roles”. She isn’t a traitor to her gender so much as a collaborator in the demise of the power women have acquired over the past 40 years. She’s almost worse than Laura Bush in that respect because she hasn’t so much as rasied a peep about the overt sexism shown by her own progressive supporters on her husband’s behalf. It’s all just ticketyboo for her as long as Barry makes it to the WH.
Now, her mouth may say something completely different. But the way she campaigns for Obama is consistent with this image. She thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread and there will be no co-presidency with him and her. She is going to fade into the background and become Mrs. Kennedy.

I think it’s a symptom of frothing insecurity, Alt, like those who habitually enlist the mythical “some of us” when cornered in arguments to shore up a position that they know is too weak to stand on its own merits.

It can’t really be the grating editorial “we” beloved of Somerby. If it were, you could singularize the pronouns and it would still hang together somewhat:

We ^I don’t care, Michelle.  By your example, you set the rest of us ^me back by four decades.

I can think of a few things that might have set RD back by four decades (mercury in groundwater is a candidate), but FLOTUS isn’t one of them.

I guess it’s no surprise by now that we are totally in love with Sarah.

I often wonder who the “we” is in Chucky’s screeds. Today she writes (or, if you prefer, projectile vomits):

We don’t care, Michelle.  By your example, you set the rest of us back by four decades.

Does Chucky think she speaks for women, for liberals, for the voices in her head, for the 18 million? Who is this “we”?

I’m just trying to understand to what degree her delusions of grandeur are at work.

It looks like Redstate has a problem with simple mathematics.

And it’s even worse now.  It appears Mr. Erickson may have a rebellion (or rLOVEution?) on his hands:

And if I understand it right, attacking Bain Capital or Mitt Romney for what Bain did is unacceptable as an attack on capitalism.

Well that was quick.

It looks like Redstate has a problem with simple mathematics.