The Amazing and Thoroughly Lazy “Open Thread”

Qualified? Where’s the proof that she knows ANYTHING AT ALL about Arabian horses?

What makes me worry (for you guys. I’m not directly affected by whatever happens in your supreme court) is that apparently Dick Cheney rang the Rush Limbaugh radio show and told him “You’ll be proud of Harriet’s record, Rush. Trust me.”

Mmmmmm. Fried tukus. With infallible sauce. (And the guy must use some kinda hair tonic.

Wow, Rush Limbaugh must be in Heaven (Inc. LLC.). I know who he’ll be thinking of as he pounds the pickle under the sheets tonight. (Get that image out of your heads, I dare ya!)

The ‘wingers have not been howling “in unison”; some of the worst of them, in the theocratic wing, have expressed satisfaction with the pick. And given that the nitwit declared President Bush the “smartest man I know”, I think we can safely say that she’ll make Thomas look like an intellectual heavyweight. I am absolutely opposed. Confirming a Bush crony on the court would be a national embarrasment.

Okay, okay…I know this is so “superficial” and has nothing to do with her possible (non) qualifications, but what is WITH the black circular eyeliner? It’s making her look like she’s practicing some sort of Halloween make-up. It just looks harsh…she needs a new haircut and soften the make-up a bit…just not a good look. The first thing I noticed when I clicked on my CNN, etc., links was that BLACK EYELINER.

Miers (and Brownie and Safavian and Just Say Julie Myers and Scott Gottlieb and Norris Alderson DVM…) is qualified for the same reason that Dubya believes Vladimir Putin has a good sould and Rafael Palmeiro didn’t lie to Congress– the Gut Instinct Style of Presidential Decisionmaking.

Did anyone else catch the thing this morning where Bush mentioned being proud of his time as “commander in chief of the Texas National Guard”? I nearly fell off my bicycle.

Well, whoever was out of the room at the time got elected to be “commander-in-chief”. Happens a lot in committees–you get assigned if you’re not there. Since dubya was AWOL, the other Defenders of Texas chose him . . .
and he did a good job. He kept the Viet Cong out of El Paso.

Great, just great. Now we get one more Bushie whose only qualification is loyalty to W.

Competence? Hell, that’s for those reality based folks.

I thought I heard him call Ms. Meirs “Harry” today. Must be her Bushie nickname.

That would make the item I read earlier today about Miers’ being W’s “work wife” after Condi’s promotion even more spectacularly inappropriate.

Mmmmmm, whale.

The lack of concrete information on Harriet Meirs is leading us into another “faith-based confirmation hearing.”

But while the wingnuts are apparently relying on divination and scrying to determine her judicial philosophy, there exists a more objective measure that I’d like to put forward for the rest of us: anagramming.

To start with, “Harriet Meirs” may be rearranged into “Sierra Hermit,” indicating her views on environmental issues are far outside the mainstream.

Another permutation is “Trim Her Raise,” a shockingly backwards take on the equal pay issue.

(Or is that perhaps “Raise Her Trim”? That sounds nautical, but I’m no sailor; I’ll defer to anyone in the boat-based community for interpretation.)

I don’t have time to do a full assessment of her judicial philosophy this morning, but you get the idea.

Mmmmm, concrete.

Maybe we should amend the Constitution so that the Presidency is more like a reality TV show. And if the ratings dip too low, it gets cancelled and a mid-season replacement is scheduled in its slot.

how about “I harm retries” indicating she’ll adhere strictly to established precedent - possibly Roe v Wade is safe?

Jen L, has your hubby not listened to WWDTM? On that basis alone, Adam is a celebrity of the utmost calibre. (Sorry Cooper, that’s “caliber”).
He’s also a FAR better blogger than either Neil or Elvis C (although I’m sure they’d be adequate if they tried). We all should assume that even if Adam’s upcoming super-secret TV series turns into laugh-track fodder, the pilot should air, so he most definitely qualifies as a celebrity. (No wuckas Adam, you don’t need to thank me). Hope this helps, Jen!

Why do all of Bush’s “work wives” look slightly unbalanced when photographed? That eyeliner (shudder) does not help. Nor does claiming Bush is the most intellegnt guy she knows. As if her being single didn’t already qualify her for “Don’t get out much, do you?” labeling. Heck, all she has done is hang around sharks, pols and born-agains. Not a favorable crowd.

Geez, and here I thought that big dick Cheney was just singing Disney showtunes to Rush. I can almost see the spinning hypno eyes on Cheney as he rubbed his nipples and crooned:

Trust in me, just in me
Shut your eyes and trust in me
You can sleep safe and sound
Knowing I am around

Slip into silent slumber
Sail on a silver mist
Slowly and surely your senses
Will cease to resist

Trust in me, just in me
Shut your eyes and trust in me

Cheers,

Naked Ape

I have no disdain for Adam - I’m just using a stricter definition of “celebrity” than Jen does (namely “was there an action figure of him made”). After all, I wasn’t allowed to include Diane Rehm on MY list.

Celebraties tend to be very good at being famous and not very good at any thing else, including being interesting, knowledgable, friendly or gratious.
Given that definition Adam wouldn’t qualify.

Mr Jen : they made an action figure of Elvis Costello??? (I like that clear, concise bloke’s definition of “celebrity”, BTW.)

Mrs Jen : She Who Must Be Obeyed, the Shining Light Of My Life, just laughed when I suggested we consider such a list ourselves. And it wasn’t the “oh, what a great fun idea” laugh, either, it was the “how likely is it that Charles Darwin, Richard Feynman, and Bill Gates are going to a) turn up on the doorstep, and b) suggest romance” kind of laugh. Maybe I should have suggested some opposite sex kinda people…
Naked Ape : that was just plain Evil ™. How the HELL am I going to get that sick, yet strangely unsurprising, Dick Cheney image outta my head? Yeeerch! (hoick, ptui)

I’m torn. So many celebrities have enough plastic content to count as limited edition action figures in their own right…

I’m sure someone has/will made/make an Elvis Costello figure at some point. Errr…perhaps not. But if they do, I’ll be buying it for my wife. As for Neil Gaiman - the line for his autograph at National Library Day in DC last year speaks for itself.

The whole thing came out the theory that “celebrities die in 3s, and my friend’s insistence that “niche celebrities” aren’t really celebrities at all because only a relatively small part of the public is aware of them(this also applies to lesser known historical figures). I responded w/”but (deceased pro-wrestler) the Big Bossman had a freakin’ action figure.” Result: I got an Oscar Wilde action figure for my birthday.

The final conclusion was that the PERSON (their face and name) had to be famous - the fame or notoriety of their work is not sufficient.

I suppose the fact that I felt had to put (deceased pro-wrestler) in my second paragraph to describe “The Big Bossman” thoroughly discredits my claims as to his celebrity status. I guess the action-figure method doesn’t work.

Harold — Methinks you’re right. We’re screwed no matter what happens with Miers.

Harold - I also have to agree that this is very possible and very frightening. I was dwelling on it a bit in discussion with a work colleague, who agreed that, short of a Bush Sr/Souter-style miscalculation, this isn’t a good sign at all.

Harold,
I hope you’re right. But for now “East Tree Stump” ain’t very happy.

Oh… My… God…
Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan: BBC

Mike, a truly chilling new report. Makes you wish “God” had told George to “go jump off a cliff”. Now THAT would have been a hilarious monologue.

So with all the conservatives complaining about Miers’ Supreme Court appointment, I’m wondering if it’s the biggest “Dont throw me in the brier Patch” ever.

Are they just complaining because then the liberals will think there may be something right with her?

My head hurts.

I see. So its not Bush who is responsible for all of his mistakes, its God, the “Intellegent Designer” who is the moron. Bush is actually admitting that he is merely a puppet after all. But maybe what is happening is that its not really God, but maybe Dick Cheney has been sneaking in at night and whispering sweet God-like nothings into W’s ear while he is asleep.

Did anyone happen to watch MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on Thursday night? Anagrammatist Mo Rocca expanded upon the anagram-Miers’-name-for-judicial-insight comments from earlier in this thread.

From the transcript (nearly at the bottom of the page), we have Mo’s findings:

ROCCA: I don’t know.

Look at it also as—as maybe these women aren’t surrogate mothers. Perhaps they’re all wives, in which case President Bush has been married more times than Mickey Rooney.

I want to say that one—it would be sexist for us to look at all of President Bush’s women as the same. They each have unique personalities. And, Keith, you know that my day job is as an anagrammatist. And so I took Harriet Miers’ name and I broke it down…

OLBERMANN: Uh-oh.

ROCCA: … and found that it—there are different clues to her personality. Harriet Miers is an anagram for a hermit riser, which could mean many things, but it means that she can really bring anyone to life. She’s a hermit riser.

It’s also an anagram for trashier Mier, which means that she could make the Supreme Court an even saucier place than it’s already been, even trashier. And, finally, this is vis-a-vis the other women in the Bush collection there, stir harem ire, that she’s going to stir the anger of Bush’s harem. She’s going to really work things up.

Later he pointed out Miers’ existentialist leanings, too: “I’m Sartre heir.”

I forgot who it was that said there were four kinds of soldiers: dumb but hardworking ones, dumb lazy ones, smart hardworking ones, and smart lazy ones. Smart lazy ones are generally the best, because they find a way to do their job efficiently with a minimum of hassle (Adam and his poor excuse for a thread is clearly in this group). Dumb hardworking ones tend to cause SNAFUs–they’re by far the worst.

Harry is a well known workaholic, which could be good or could be very bad. Her career suggest that she is rather intelligent, but her belief that George Bush is a genius suggest one of three things: early Altzheimer’s, pronounced unresolved Oedipal conflicts a la Anne Coulter, or that she is a very crafty double agent of the left.

In any case I’d sort of rather she listened to God than Antonin Scalia.

Sorry Coop, I don’t have any white socks. I use black cotton. So what’s so special about these white socks? Do they stand up on their own or something?

It’s raining here too, thank Lobster. Our reservoirs are now around 40% full, so we’re all happy to see the rain. (I wonder if it’s the same water you are using?)

I’ve just finished loading my new robot controller (I designed it on Friday, etched the board yesterday, and loaded it today while listening to the 3-hour Beatles special by Graham Nash. Cool. Hope I haven’t put any components in frack to bunt). So I had to refocus my eyes. I can’t solder (sorry, soder) like I used to. 600 joints (solder joints, not puffpuff joints, that’s later tonight) and I’m stuffed. At least I can still type. Though perhaps I shouldn’t.

At least it takes my mind of all those strange, disturbing images of Dick Cheney in the comments here. You just know that at some time in the future, when things have finally caught up with him, he’ll mutter something like “Drat those pesky kids” and disappear into a rupture in spacetime and go back to the planet he came from. Well, we can hope, can’t we?

Oh, and thanks for the image of the bacterial soup pouring from Rove’s pores. I’ll be thinking of that next time I see him flushed…

Yo, Pete! About this whole white socks thing… we live on a thick bed of red clay soil here in the Southeast. White socks give an immediate indication that they have been “soiled”. And regarding “standing up on their own”, sure, after 10 - 12 days, chisel them off and they stand up on their own. Another indication that laundering may be warranted.

Do we use the same water? Don’t know, though an interesting concept to consider as I flush the toilet, then go for a drink of water.

“Hope I haven’t put any components in frack to bunt”. I’ll need some help with that translation. 600 solder joints. Impressive, amazing actually. So a ripping good sense of humor and arcane technical profiency - wow, She Who Must Be Obeyed must be a candidate for sainthood, putting up with all that abuse.

We had a break in the clouds at sunset, so I lugged out the Dobsonian mount, schlept the optical tube outside as well, assembled it all, dug out the star charts and just as it began to get dark enough for observing, the clouds rolled in again. The thankless life of a scientist…

Laura used to deal? Oh, what a lovely First Family! Well, it looks like we have a contact for medicinal tetra-hydra-cannabinol! (Oh, my glaucoma - every time I open my eyes it hurts…) Anyone have Laura’s phone #? (Mobile preferred, can’t stand talking to the White House middlemen).

Yeah, it’s a scientific fact that clouds have intelligence (well, more intelligence than most poll-aticians, anyhoo). Maybe you could employ a little maskirovka like the Russkies did during WWII, and fool the clouds: make a cardboard replica of the ‘dob, leave it outside for a while to fool the clouds, then sneak out the real scope…

Er, frack to bunt? “back to front”. I usually spell it phonetically, since ‘frack to bont’ looks even worse.

Yeah, you’re right. She Who Makes The Earth Tremble is without a doubt my angel without wings. No-one else would put up with an übergeek like me, let alone going back to school at 40 to get her 4-year horticultural apprenticeship, then working 7-day weeks to make ends meet while going in to hospital to cheer up her husband every day for weeks on end, every few months, for 16 years… Sainthood doesn’t even begin to cover it. One day I’ll begin to scratch the surface of returning the favo(u)r. No “Twilight Pines Retirement Village” for her!

Pete, I feel a kinship with your wife, since I also did a radical career change at 40 (from library work to computer geek). When you successfully pull off that sort of switch, it gives you the feeling you can do anything; maybe that’s how she manages you )

I’m in on the “Dont throw me in the brier patch” assessment. Surely conservatives realize Miers nomination is a stroke of genius on Bush’s part: A former Catholic who left that liberal bastion to become an Evangelical, and who (because of lack of knowledge and experience) won’t let silly constituitional law stuff get in her way of enforcing God’s agenda. Meanwhile, she has no conservative paper trail for the Democrats to complain about.

Genius, sheer genius.

Murray, we’re still socked in down here. You’re making me crazy… Andromeda Galaxy with the naked eye. That’s some excellent seeing conditions!

“Harry” may be gay, who cares? God-fearing, Born Again, Evangelical Troglodytes care, by Jesus! I’m sure they feel the same about Condi. And now that Jeffrey Gannon is no longer able to shill for Bush during the press conferences, he’s fair game, too. I wonder what became of him anyway. Has he been pushed in front of a bus yet? Thrown onto the third rail? Slipped on a “freshly waxed floor” and fallen down an elevator shaft? That whole enterprise was truly wierd.

Lily, I must say, I’ve been having the same thoughts about those wiley conservatives, bitching and moaning about the Miers selection and all the while knowing she’ll end up being free-thinking America’s worst nightmare.

Pete, if all that robot does is fetch beer, then I award you the use of the copyrighted, franchised and legally ensconsed licensed use of the name “cooper”. If TLF does more than that, you’re aiming way too low for such an honor.

Yeah, she must be good at the low punches, ’cause she looks like she fell out of the Ugly tree and smacked into every branch on the way down… Now don’t get all bitter and twisted about my patriarchal phallophile point of view here, I’m just sayin’ she must be good at something to get where she did, rather relying on stunning good looks and a boob job to sway Billy Bob and his fambly of roughouse boys.

And while I’m on the topic, how the hell did she get labelled as gay? Just because she ain’t pretty enough to be called a trollop? Or is there more that I’m not hearing about?

Mmmmmm… dark skies…. Murray, we all already knew it, but just for the record : you lucky, lucky bastard.