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November 05, 2004

Didn't Janis Joplin Say That Originally?

"Quite frankly, I think the table is set for us in the next election. We have lost just about everything that we can lose." -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Let's be honest: Nancy Pelosi is a blithering idiot.*

Thanks to Alarming News, who's been able to get behind the Stop Arlen Specter movement faster than I have.

I'm just not sure if I have it in me for another campaign at this point.

* WTF does "blithering" actually mean? No, don't look it up; I could do that too. We all say "blithering idiot," but how many of us actually know what the hell "blithering" adds to the insult?

posted by Ace at 07:56 PM

Comments

*raises hand*

NOT ME!

Posted by: fat kid on November 5, 2004 08:01 PM

> I'm just not sure if I have it in me for another campaign at this point.

That's what he's counting on.

Just like the Russians assumed the Americans were tired at the end of WWI.

Posted by: on November 5, 2004 08:06 PM

blithering to me is like when you're so excited and talking and spittle flies out of your mouth repeatedly... of course that's never happened to me.

now as for "spittle"....

Posted by: Digger on November 5, 2004 08:12 PM

I think it means bumbling mixed with the spittle thing.

Posted by: Karol on November 5, 2004 08:23 PM

Without looking it up to give you a dictionary definition worthy of the OED, "blithering" means babbling, jabbering, prattling. In short, it means talking without making sense.

That is, indeed, an apt description and to answer your question about what it adds to the term "idiot" it is essential in describing these moonbats. After all, in contrast they could be silent idiots and spare us all their noise, wasted ink and superfluous computer text bytes.

Posted by: Frank Villon on November 5, 2004 08:25 PM

Well, without looking it up, I know that "blather" is nonsense, and I always thought that "blithering idiot" was just a screwed-up way of saying "blathering idiot". (King of like the way "founder" and "flounder" have been conflated)

Of course, I may just be partial to "blather" because once, in college, my genious, math major roommate received a math essay question back after grading. There was no comment on it other that "Blather" written in red ink at the top.

Best. Grade comment. Ever.

Posted by: David on November 5, 2004 08:27 PM

blathering is the word I am familiar with :) blithering sounds like something that happens when you are blathering in an english accent.

Btw, no one loathes nancy more than I. She is a serious piece of work.

Posted by: Jennifer on November 5, 2004 08:50 PM

Here’s what you can do:

** Call the White House at 202-456-1111.

** Call the Republicans on the Senate Judicary Committee:
Hatch (202) 224-5251
Grassley (202)224.3744
Kyl (202) 224-4521
DeWine (202) 224-2315
Sessions (202) 224-4124
Graham (202) 224-5972
Craig 202/224-2752
Chambliss (202) 224-3521
Cornyn 202-224-2934

** Send e-mail to the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee. You can find the contact information here.

** Call and e-mail your own Republican senator. You can find the information at the link above.

** visit Spoons website and read the threads that have been running for the past couple of days. As spoons points out, this is time-sensitive. It’s important to make ourselves heard before the meeting takes place to select a Judiciary Committee chairman, which could happen as early as next week.

Posted by: Lastango on November 5, 2004 08:59 PM

Kris Kristofferson said it originally. But that's nitpicking, isn't it?

Posted by: Joe R. the Unabrewer on November 5, 2004 09:01 PM

Want to know more about Arlen Specter? Get up-to-date quick by reading these articles:

OpinionJournal

Washington Times.

National Review Online

NRO Archives

Washington Times.

Posted by: Lastango on November 5, 2004 09:15 PM

It works best if you're quoting Stimpy, so it sounds like:
"Bleethering eediot!"

Posted by: Steve on November 5, 2004 09:59 PM

My instinct is to tell Pelosi she is dead on.

Yep, you definitely lost as much as you can! The main thing is to focus on educating the ignorant in proper progressive values - particularly Hispanics and middle class whites. Point out the Courts are always wise in deciding such matters to those with less than a graduate degree.

Hillary will save you. You need more Michael Moore and Al Franken. Look how great their books sell! You need more "smirking chimp", Bush lied, foolish Bible-thumper messages. More Hollywood celebrities on talk shows saying why violent sex will become more commonplace under Republicans, literally (thanks Cameron).

More anger! Dammit, you have a right to be mad! Really mad!

Continue to tell blacks that Bush wants to screw them and only elite white Democrats can keep them happy and singing, and guarantee more affirmative action since they can't compete with other races because of the legacy of slavery.

Obviously, the backwards people also need more education on the need for gay marriage, gun bans, and the ACLU. The goals are right, it's just Democrats failed to beat their stupids heads enough with the truth.

Go, Nancy!

Posted by: Cedarford on November 5, 2004 09:59 PM

Steve:

That's actually Ren describing Stimpy. I lost too many brain cells to that show to forget that.

Posted by: Captain Ned on November 5, 2004 11:31 PM

Cedarford, do you have a site or are you as lazy as I...am. Sorry for the prepostion. Anyway, you make good points. I just love the Democratic finger-puzzle.

"Progressive" postions/candidates cause them to lose, so, you know, they to get more, well, progressive. "Damnit, we're not liberal enough. Let's get more liberal."

Listen carefully to what they are saying about their own failings now. You see, they are not getting their message out. They're not reaching people in the red states. Because if they did, then those red staters would understand. For those red staters that they have reached, well, they are just stupid. It would never occur to dems that they might be wrong.

I love that they keep pulling harder on the finger puzzle. I can't wait for the '06 midterms.

Posted by: Dear Johns on November 6, 2004 01:40 AM

An update on the Arlen Specter problem.

Posted by: Lastango on November 6, 2004 08:07 AM

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What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV.
Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.

A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.

The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring.
I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do.
But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.

Finish the job, Mr. President!
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Podcast: Sefton and CBD talk about how would a peace treaty with Iran work, Democrats defending murderers and rapists, The GOP vs. Dem bench for 2028, composting bodies? And more!

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Tomorrow is March 25th, "Tolkien Reading Day," because March 25th is the day when the Ring is destroyed in the book. I think I'm going to start the Hobbit tomorrow and read all four books this time.
The only bad part of the trilogy are the Frodo/Sam chapters in The Two Towers. They're repetitive, slow, and mostly about the weather and terrain. But most everything else is good. Weirdly, the Frodo-Sam chapters in Return of the King are exciting and action-packed and among the best in the trilogy. (Though the chapters with everyone else in Return of the King get pretty slow again. Mostly people talking about marching towards war, and then marching towards war.)

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US decimation of Iran's ICBM forces is due to Space Force's instant detection of launches -- and the launchers' hiding places -- and rapid counter-attack via missiles
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