Aware of All Internet Traditions
I note that the LGM community had already anticipated the horrifying HORSE GAP Governor Mittens identified.
Additionally, I solemnly pledge to watch this debate without bourbon if Schieffer mentions torture or extrajudicial killings.* ** And I curse the Cardinals for not giving me a better excuse not to watch. (You can tell that Missouri isn’t in play because neither candidate promised to sign legislation banning Kyle Loshe from starting a game 7 on his first day in office.)
*Note: pledge will not be honored.
**Well, since it worked I guess I have to. Fortunately, the wording of the pledge leaves many useful loopholes.
The horses can swim a furlong to support a marine landing, can they not?
I assumed in the olden days they used dolphins as the cavalry of the sea.
I am not mistaken, am I?
Don’t be silly.
Marines traditionally rode sea horses.
There was a brief magic dolphin training program.
I learned tonight that Romney knows shit about foreign policy and can’t even fake it well.
He knows Libya is next to Egypt. The Republicans haven’t run someone that knowledgeable since Dole.
On the other hand, he thinks Iran’s only link to the sea is through Syria.
I nearly fell out the chair when he said that. The cats ran off when I yelled…something.
Apparently he’s said it before.
The charitable interpretation (and the one they have given) is that he means the Mediterranean Sea, and he means that Iran being tied with Syria gives them an opportunity to take advantage of that particular sea. (Which is, after all, the sea that Israel borders.) But that’s still an odd thing to say, for a bunch of reasons.
Persian Gulfs, how do they work?
But it makes no sense. Strategically, just barely getting access to the Mediterranean is much less useful than controlling the straits of Hormuz. Commercially, it’s only useful to them if they can get a pipeline across Iraq. Sure: selling oil to the Mediterranean would be nice for Iran – but you know what would suck for Iran? Iraq having a good oil outlet that doesn’t go through the Straits of Hormuz. Seen that way, Iran better hope Syria isn’t a path for them to reach the sea.
The more likely explanation is that his advisors mean the Mediterranean Sea – that is, they were trying to teach him a legitimate point – and it just didn’t take.
Agreed. Someone who knew what he was talking about would’ve clarified immediately, because the alternative sounds stupid. “Syria is Iran’s link to the sea, to the Mediterranean, and we can’t blahblahblah.”
Well assuming they have a way of getting through Iraq.
That was a good moment, in an otherwise horrifying debate. I stopped watching when they were were competing to see which one of them could fuck Israel harder.
“I stopped watching when they were were competing to see which one of them could fuck Israel harder.”
I wasn’t paying the strictest of attention, but I’m pretty sure that Palestine and the Palestinians didn’t come up once. Netanyahu and company may not have gotten us to fight their idiotic war with Iran for them, but they’ve gotten the Palestinians marginalized like never before. Even just a few years ago the rote answer for Israel was to at least offer token support for a two state solution. Now even that seems to have gotten dropped.
The Palestinians only hope is to find or create a Book Revelations II where it turns out that Armageddon II is the real deal and it only happens if the Palestinian people become masters of their own country and are then vaporized for the greater glory of evangelical Christians.
This all happens (the vaporization) in the very distant, post Armageddon world that no one has understood until an ancient scroll is found in a cave by Franklin Graham who was given a tip on it’s existence by Lanny Davis.
The Palestinians are made full partners in the apocalyptic Christianist narrative. Amazingly, it turns out extremely coincidentally that Franklin Graham and Lanny Davis have options on the ancient cave – for a fraction of their new value. They make a ton of money. And every one lives happily ever after until Armageddon or Armageddon II or until the Sun goes supernova.
Please tell me that Franklin translates the manuscripts by sticking his face inside a hat.
The sun ain’t big enough to go supernova–it can only go nova. So much for Aemrican exceptionalism
Just to ignore some of the layers of snark in Scott’s comment, it was heartening that Obama had a ready reply for that canard. Who knows, perhaps someone on his staff was reading Farley. And leading off with “bayonets” pulled the punch somehow, prosodically or maybe lexically, but I thought it still landed.
Two symbols of archaic warfare.
Punch achieved. It doesn’t matter a whole lot that they weren’t naval symbols. Most people don’t know what a dreadnaught or a first-rate ship-of-the-line is anyways.
Most people don’t know what a dreadnaught or a first-rate ship-of-the-line is anyways.
Leave Crooked Timber aloooooone!
The “horses and bayonets” appears to be the runaway favorite for moment of the night. Red State and FOX Nation both have headline stories right now that seem to think it’s a clever retort to point out that the military still has some bayonets. This isn’t going to end well for them.
Red State and FOX Nation both have headline stories right now that seem to think it’s a clever retort to point out that the military still has some bayonets.
And, given the tiny size of the US army in 1916 (100,000 men), it probably has more bayonets now than it did then.
Definitely not true for 1917, however, what with the War to End All Wars and all that.
But you sure didn’t tell me Syria was Iran’s rote to the sea. I had to learn that from Mittens.
Nobody gives a shit about the Indian Ocean.
I think we care a heckova lot more about the Straits of Hormuz than we do about the territorial waters of Syria. And Iran doesn’t even border Syria …
Israel isn’t on the Indian Ocean, therefore the Indian Ocean doesn’t matter.
Syria’s waters don’t abut Israel’s, because Lebanon.
Syria is Iran’s route to the Sea of Galilee. I’m pretty sure this was a dog whistle to to fundies. Or to actual dogs.
Technically, Syria doesn’t currently border the Sea of Galilee, because Israel holds the Golan heights seized from Syria in 1967 (and has annexed them formally, though I’m not sure any other country recognizes that).
Yes, but the Golan Heights aren’t mentioned in the Bible as being part of Israel.* Your logic is invalid, fundie-wise.
*just taking a wild guess here
True, I wasn’t claiming they did. Israel is the most important place that ever existed. To even share a sea is to make it matter.
Israel is the most important place that ever existed.
There can only be one axis mundi.
Look, if we have learned anything at all from our experiences in Iraq, it is that predominately Sunni polities can be counted on to work in perfect harmony with predominately Shiite ones, and vice versa.
Yeah, but if Obama doesn’t call out John Quiggin in his closing, I’m gonna be pissed.
Romney is now talking about the “Junk Gap” between the US and China.
That will be a taint on his record.
oh balls!
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls?
Ohhh, the Giants play is a reason not to watch. Two straight three game comebacks. Scutaro wins MVP. Sweet.
Go Tigers!
The A’s had a great season, and I was rooting for them. Show some magnanimity, IB. :>)
Rooting for the team that eliminated my team isn’t magnanimity?
Say something complimentary about the Giants, and I’ll concede the point. Those were two incredible comebacks. Otherwise, I suspect your Tiger allegiance is rooted in SF hatred.
As a died-in-the-wool Tribe fan, I would like to note that, for all those years he was a light-hitting backup shortstop in our farm system, many, many loyal Tribe watchers were always supportive of Scutaro.
We waited and waited for him to develop, but…apparently you have to leave the Tribe before that happens {eyes the Tiger’s lineup suspiciously}.
died, dyed…I need more sleep.
Thought about watching debate, cleaned stove.
What’s your stove-cleaning technique?
Indifference and mediocrity.
Just do a half-assed job…If you cut every corner, there’ll be more time for play. It’s the American way!
McG wasn’t talking about your academic pursuits.
I see that someone who’s apparently never commented here before under this ‘nym has decided to launch a gratuitous personal attack against one of the bloggers here. With such massive credibility, how could I fail to take their cheap shot seriously?
A paste of baking soda and vinegar, let sit overnight, the wipe away. Awesome and zero toxicity. ;)
Does vinegar work in coffee makers? I seem to remember that being a good technique…
Yes, but dilute it 1 part vinegar to anywhere from 3-5 parts water. Full-strength takes forever to properly rinse…
Yes. Works great, I do it once a year or so.
Best choice really.
Obama destroyed Romney on foreign policy so Mitt started pushing sob stories about people struggling. Now we only need to wait 15 days to see if those same people decide to vote for the party that enjoys watching them suffer.
And he couldn’t even decide which sob story. Appleton….Philadelphia…Ann at a dinner table crying…her horse will serve like our sons didn’t!
Considering how much Romney ran away from the GOP views on foreign policy tonight, I expect him to drop himself from the ticket.
What a remarkable feeling for bullshit that man has. Turns on a dime.
It really is remarkable. Mitt’s been running for President for six years, and in the last three weeks he’s repudiated every position he held in those six years. And he’s getting rewarded for this flabbergasting exercise in cynicism.
This, after not-winning the nomination in ’08.
There may be no second acts in American politics, but there are apparently long-running spin-off series that then go into syndication forever…
It helps a lot when you have the cash to sponsor your own program…
The thing that gets me is that Mitt’s been doing this for damn near seven years now. And he still sucks at it.
OK, but why did we have to get Herman’s Head?
will there ever be a Dem nominee willing to go to such lengths to win?
If there is, the media will be sure to hammer him as a flip-flopper. You know, like they already have.
CBS snap poll says Obama 53 to Romney 23, with 24 saying a tie. Like the first debate in reverse.
Shorter John Hinderaker:
You have the stomach to read Assrocket?
Rarely, and only for the laughs.
Here’s his partner, the supercilious dolt Scott Johnson, declaring the debate a flurry of haymakers . . . landed squarely on Obama’s chin. He even calls the size-of-navy section, “Obama landing this punch on himself.”
And the other guy, the racist — well, they all are, but the one racist enough that his law firm made him quit blogging until he retired, complaining that Martha Raddatz and Candy Crowley are weak and cunty. With a bonus “Lol Biden is a retard!” joke!
Followed by a wait of two yrs. before Romney is impeached or forced to resign!
GO GIANTS!!!
The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!
Romney sounded like he’s been readin’ all the newspapers and whatnot and can see Libya from his ivory tower.
Don’t be silly. Only The Help read. Then they inform His Bishopness about what they’ve read.
Few people know that bayonets are much like champagne. It is only a bayonet if it is made in Bayonne, otherwise, it is called a gun-stabby-thingy.