Thursday, January 15, 2015

HOW BULLSHIT WORKS, PART INFINITY-PLUS.

When every other outlet reports what the Quinnipiac poll says thus:
Poll Shows Low Approval Rating For PBA’s Pat Lynch, Officers Turning Backs On De Blasio (CBS News
New Yorkers Didn't Approve of NYPD Officers Turning Their Backs to Mayor de Blasio: Poll (NBC
Mayor de Blasio Finds Support in Handling of Protests, Poll Says (New York Times
Poll: New Yorkers Overwhelmingly Disapprove Of Cops Turning Backs On Bill de Blasio (Huffington Post
Majority of New York City voters oppose cops’ back-turn on de Blasio, disapprove of PBA’s Pat Lynch: Poll (New York Daily News)

Cops turning backs on de Blasio went too far, says poll (Newsday)
...then it gots to be librul media bias, and that's when you turn to the New York Post and Bob McManus:
De Blasio’s next lesson: He still hasn’t learned last year’s 
Bill de Blasio isn’t the first chief executive of New York City to need remedial education on the state’s political power grid — but he may be the most obtuse. 
And that’s no lie. 
Gov. Cuomo took the rookie mayor to school a year ago on three of the latter’s must-have public-policy initiatives. With Year Two cranking up, it’s time to check back...
Flip flip flip... paragraph #16:
Pestered yet again about whether an apology to cops might be useful in ending the standoff, he tendered this gratuitous gem on Wednesday: 
“The things that I have said that I believe are what I believe. And you can’t apologize for your fundamental beliefs.” 
Rough translation: Hey, cops, all those things that you think are so horrid, that you’re so mad at me about? I meant it all. Kiss my patootie
So, Bill the Peacemaker he surely ain’t.
Finally, graf #23:
Yesterday’s always-estimable Quinnipiac University public-opinion poll suggested that PBA President Pat Lynch’s rhetorical overreaches have damaged the union, something that de Blasio’s own polling operations couldn’t help but detect. 
And all those reports of discord within the PBA, while probably overstated in practical terms, show that the union’s leadership itself is also weary of the angst. 
Yet by ramping up the rhetoric, de Blasio increases the likelihood of a Cuomo crisis-intervention going far beyond the two-hour sit-down the governor had with Lynch and other union bosses this week...
Remember, there is a world of difference between a bullshitter and a bullshit artist.

UPDATE. Most of the brethren at this writing are keeping their mouths shut about this, but thank God for Free Republic commenters:
Quinnipiac can be counted on to release polling data that supports the media narrative...
Of course, NYC is full of far lefties, so who knows... 
In a city that elected a known communist by a significant margin, I don’t see why this poll is inconsistent with observed facts...
Unfortunatley, only about 20% of New Yorkers are intelligent while the majority are incredibly dumb. We’re talking sub morons that can’t handle complex thinking.
Why, they can't even spell "unfortunatley." My favorite:
Yeah, those morons voted for John F#*king Kerry as soon as they could after 9.11 
That should tell you all that needs to be known about that place. I wouldn’t even go there on a field trip, because the firearms I own would land me in jail, and being a smoker I’d go bankrupt. 
To hell with that place. It’s basically the ‘Tower of Babel’, as far as cities go. Well, NYC, and DC may run close together for that title....
I find these guys a lot more enjoyable when they're not pretending to like New York.

156 comments:

  1. AGoodQuestion10:21 PM

    Bill de Blasio isn’t the first chief executive of New York City to need remedial education on the state’s political power grid — but he may be the most obtuse.

    And that’s no lie.



    Is there audio of this column being read by Joe Isuzu?

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  2. Gromet10:36 PM

    To hell with that place. It’s basically the ‘Tower of Babel'

    Wasn't the Tower of Babel the one that was going so incredibly well it was actually unifying all of mankind? Until God got jealous that we were using our Free Will too effectively, so He and toppled it and instigated wars and racism?

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  3. M. Krebs10:39 PM

    I haven't paid close attention, and I'm lazy, so what exactly did de Blasio do that landed him up the NYPD's ass?

    ReplyDelete
  4. M. Krebs10:41 PM

    Free Republic commenters? Come on, man. That far from the boat and nobody's gonna be able to throw you a line.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Another poll that needs to be unskewed! Will their labors never end?

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  6. He said he'd had a talk with his bi-racial son about how the cops might treat him differently because he's Black. In wingnuttia and the minds of the cops, this was equivalent to mowing down an entire precinct with an Uzi.

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  7. "Yeah, those morons voted for John F#*king Kerry as soon as they could after 9.11 "

    Because OBVIOUSLY New Yorkers don't know shit about terrorism. Not like REAL Americans from, say, Skidmark, Ohio or Dipshit Hollow, Tennessee. Those people truly know the horrors of 9/11 because they saw it on TV.

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  8. M. Krebs10:57 PM

    Thanks. Now I think I'll go lie down.

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  9. Megalon11:11 PM

    Comparing N.Y. to the Tower of Babel IS a pretty strange metaphor. I can't imagine what he's trying to say with it unless he got Babel confused with Babylon or something.

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  10. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:11 PM

    I still have trouble believing they actually took that the wrong way, and in public no less. By now I should be beyond surprise at the things H Sap can do with a straight face, but still...

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  11. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person11:17 PM

    “The things that I have said that I believe are what I believe. And you can’t apologize for your fundamental beliefs.”

    I'd disagree (though I can see why he felt he had to say it that way) only to the extent that we're not talking about beliefs here, but demonstrable, repeatable, verifiable facts. That non-whites are treated shabbily by police practically everywhere in this country is no more an opinion than the theory of gravity is.

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  12. mortimer200011:26 PM

    McManus is a piece of work. Speaking of Kerry, the cartoon below nests in his Twitter feed. Thanks to Karl Rove, even three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star can't insulate you from right wing assholes calling you a traitor.
    Here.

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  13. That's the funniest right-wing joke in... 40 years.

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  14. AGoodQuestion11:36 PM

    Can't draw? Can't tell a joke? Doesn't matter! If you have boundless resentment toward out-groups and access to the Comic Sans font, you too can be a cartoonist beloved by the right wing.

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  15. BigHank5311:54 PM

    Mainly, de Blasio is a Democrat. The NYPD has a habit of letting the most reactionary jackasses run the union. Back when Amadou Diallo got himself thoroughly ventilated by New York's finest, some union mouthpiece attempted to bluster out of a hostile press conference by shouting at the reporters "You people don't understand! It's a war zone out there!"

    Having seen what actual war zones do to people since then, I think we can safely say that that particular spokesman was entirely full of shit. Lynch is no different.

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  16. BigHank5311:57 PM

    Between the cheap smokes and all the guns weighing him down, I'd be surprised if that particular commenter ever dragged his ass out of Lard Fondle, NC.

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  17. M. Krebs12:23 AM

    More evidence that these assholes are simply engaged in the greatest farting contest the world has ever known.

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  18. The NYPD had 20 years of indulgence and coddling under Giuliani and Bloomberg, who backed them up regardless of what they did, even to the point of (particularly with Giuliani) trashing a victim of police shooting, even if it meant having to dig up his sealed juvenile record because he was clean as an adult (Patrick Dorismond).

    DeBlasio campaigned on getting rid of stop and frisk (and one of his more famous campaign ads featured his son Dante and his magnificent afro, so he had some skin in the game there), which pissed off the howler monkeys like Lynch. Then he got elected by a wide margin and actually stopped it. That really set them off. His decision not to come out calling Eric Garner a thug for getting himself choked to death but instead offering sympathy to the victim and his family and acknowledging that he'd had "the talk" with Dante sent them over the edge. In their minds, "respect" means "never question us at all, and never think the civilians are actually in charge."

    By the way, I used to do civil rights cases for the City. We'd represent the cops most of the time but If an officer killed or injured someone while on duty, and his actions weren't exactly in the line of duty (such as Justin Volpe, or a guy who threw his radio at a fleeing kid and killed him), the City would decline representation and the PBA would provide an attorney instead. When the civil suit is inevitably filed by the Garner family, pay attention to who winds up representing Pantaleo. If it's not a City attorney, that means the City thinks representing a guy who used a chokehold is counter to its interests.

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  19. Gromet12:36 AM

    Yeah, that's gotta be what's going on, and even then he probably means Gamorrah. I'd be inclined to let the slip go, except it looks like part of a broader failure to be clever, with his chortle over what a gun-toting rebel badass he's gotta be everywhere he goes, such that he couldn't even vacation there for a weekend. Because gun? "The city that went through 9/11 couldn't handle ME, chortle chortle!" /eyes flash with panic at concept of city

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  20. Not surprisingly, that union mouthpiece was one Patrick J. Lynch. https://www.nycpba.org/archive/ch/99/ch-990827-schwarz.html

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  21. AlanInSF12:52 AM

    I loves me a good, "New York, it's so terrible people will pay anything to live there" argument.

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  22. AlanInSF12:55 AM

    Truly, it is the first right wing joke I've ever seen that employed an actual principle of humor.

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  23. AlanInSF12:57 AM

    I know! I thought conservatives wanted everyone on earth to speak English, like they did before God made all the Spanishes and French.

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  24. AlanInSF12:57 AM

    I guess that people speak different languages, which can you imagine anything more horrific?

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  25. Unfortunatley, only about 20% of New Yorkers are intelligent while the majority are incredibly dumb.

    20%? Staten Island? The people who live next to the enormous trash heap?

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  26. A CBS commentor predictably makes the "you liberals will be sorry" comment:

    The voters should get what they voted for. When the good police who try
    to do their job properly get thrown under the bus by the socialist mayor
    retire and transfer out, this city will be left with what they deserve.
    This already happened in the corrections department if you have seen
    the news. Get ready NYC.



    Good police don't kill unarmed guys in broad daylight for selling loosies.

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  27. It's actually worse- the righties never said boo about the nutjob survivalist who killed those cops in Pennsylvania.

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  28. Funny, though, Giuliani and Bloomberg did nothing to provide decent contracts for the cops. It's a weird combination of codddling and dicking-over.

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  29. DocAmazing3:27 AM

    Seems the cops are willing to pass up proper remuneration in exchange for impunity. Makes you wonder how they plan to make up any shortfalls in their incomes.

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  30. I worked in a very rough neighborhood in the South Bronx (Longwood for 718 mainlanders) and it was hardly a "war zone". I did miss walking by a shooting scene by about ten minutes one night on my way to the 2/5 Intervale Avenue stop, but the shooter and victim knew each other.



    It's a rough neighborhood, but it isn't "Fallujah West" by any stretch of the imagination.

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  31. DocAmazing3:30 AM

    I thought Babylon was well up the LIRR line.

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  32. Of course that was a nutjob survivalist, so nobody is responsible. Unlike the Charlie Hebdo massacre for which Democrats are responsible, according to Rush Limbaugh.

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  33. Indeed. You can fight for your country. You can bleed for your country. You can save fellow soldiers from dying in combat.

    But being a Democrat wipes all of that away.

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  34. davdoodles7:20 AM

    I'd like to visit the New York of right whinger nightmares. It sounds like fun.
    .

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  35. I wouldn’t even go there on a field trip, because the firearms I own would land me in jail, and being a smoker I’d go bankrupt.


    ...and my gigantic dick would get stuck in the subway doors 'cause I can't man-spread."

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  36. These guys are fantasizing that they'll ride into a town of fearful New Yorkers, in their serapes, cheroots clamped between their gritted teeth, rename it Hell and rule the roost, I suspect.


    They live in a Sergio Leone flick.

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  37. Naysayer!


    The high percentage of piss-soaked pants in Dipshit Holler have kept the suiciders and mooslims away. Quid Bono QED libruhl

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  38. He wouldn't be using that big member anyway because, as everyone knows, NYC is just wall-to-Wall Street with hairy lesbo feminazis.

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  39. Oh, its that old show with Dennis Weaver--McCloud!

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  40. You can use them to clear a path on the street, though. People really don't want to stop and frisk you.

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  41. Apparently speaking french well wipes it all away.

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  42. Well, but this is the issue which is roiling the NYPD right now and causing a backlash against Lynch within the department itself. Not all the police are willing to give up good starting salaries, contract, and benefits for impunity and for the ability to attack the Mayor. Minority officers are pissed off with Lynch and he may lose his perch, finally, as the demographics of the department have changed and as his confrontational style (which he used with the white mayors as well) starts to really hurt them.

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  43. coozledad7:54 AM

    He doesn't want to entertain the idea that New York has something to gratify even his miserable tastes, beyond all his prejudices and expectations. It's his country even more than his "country" is.

    Unless his country is Alabama:

    http://gawker.com/woman-sentenced-to-219-years-for-her-role-in-incest-sex-1679824110

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  44. coozledad8:00 AM

    Not just that, the bastard who killed the cops is a ringer for Rick Santorum. He was playing Balkan war dressup, as a Serb.


    For anyone who lived through the nineties, it means he was acting out the Republican idea of what our foreign policy should be. They were pro Milosevic.

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  45. THAT'S it!

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  46. Yeah, if by Good he means these fuckers, then good riddance.


    If only that would really happen, but the Galters never actually Go Galt, more's the pity.

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  47. Buffalo Rude8:17 AM

    I'm remiss to remember their outrage when two warriors for Cliven Bundy 2nd Amendemented a couple Las Vegas sheriffs, too.

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  48. GeniusLemur9:33 AM

    "Hey, cops, all those things that [are both true and make you look bad] you think are so horrid, that you’re [throwing embarrassingly childish tantrums]so mad at me about? I meant it all. Kiss my patootie."
    Fixed

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  49. GeniusLemur9:37 AM

    "To hell with that place. It’s basically the ‘Tower of Babel'"
    Yet another "Christian" who doesn't know jack shit about the Bible other than, "The Bible says I, I mean Christians, are better than everyone else. I mean I'm just like Hank Rearden... oh wait, that was the other book that says I'm better than everyone else."

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  50. They'll never forgive Kerry for criticizing the Vietnam War, which the USA totally would have won if it hadn't been for those meddling kids.

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  51. In NYC, it's even worse than that! They have restaurants where they serve food from all those mud-man places like Thailand and Indonesia and Latvia. Why, you can't even get a decent chicken-fried steak with redeye gravy!

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  52. New Yorkers are so incredibly dumb, in fact, that NYC is the financial hub of the world. So dumb that they have one of the most efficient and effective mass-transit systems on the planet.

    Unlike Saladtoss, AR where they gots one bank and you can walk across town by walking across the street.

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  53. dstatton10:35 AM

    Rough translation: Hey, cops, all those things that you think are so horrid, that you’re so mad at me about? I meant it all. Kiss my patootie.


    Isn't that what they love about Chris Christie?

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  54. They sure do. But Christie directs his vitriol at the "right" people--meaning everyone else (for the moment).

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  55. dstatton10:40 AM

    You mean people like schoolteachers? Always punch down.

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  56. susanoftexas10:47 AM

    Unfortunatley, only about 20% of New Yorkers are intelligent while the majority are incredibly dumb. We’re talking sub morons that can’t handle complex thinking.

    This became a right-wing talking point as soon as studies started showing that conservatism and stupidity tend to go together. I've had a couple of people respond to an argument by saying that my logic was laughable.

    For instance, on a Megan McArdle post:

    Me: You have a presumably American Sony executive say that international audiences won't go to pictures lead by a Black man.
    You have Sony executives, again presumably American, make jokes about how Obama will only go to Black movies.
    You say that foreign audiences did indeed go to both MiB and The Equalizer.
    Yet your conclusion is that the Sony executive might be right? That foreign audiences are racist, instead of logically concluding that some (probably American) Sony executives are racist?

    Sigivald: I'm sorry, there are just too many logical problems with that chain of statements to even address them. Congratulations.
    (Hint: The email author can be right and it can be so that some Sony executives are racist.
    His thesis ("foreign box office may be negatively impacted by a black lead") does not make him a racist, and there's plausible reason to believe it possible.)

    Me: Except for the proof that foreigners will go to see movies with Black leads, the box office receipts.
    Let's try this again.
    1. The Sony exec. says that foreigners won't go to movies lead by Blacks.
    2. The box office receipts prove he is wrong; foreigners do go to movies with Black leads, especially very popular movies like MiB.
    Therefore, racism is not keeping foreigners from going to movies lead by Black people.

    Sigivald: ... Read again, for comprehension.
    He did not say they won't go see them. He said they "don't play well overseas".
    Megan pointed out at least one example suggesting he might be right, along with others suggesting he's not always right.
    When you start by rewriting what the guy you're talking about said, you lead to the sort of failures you ended up with.
    Don't confuse "less" with "none", for instance.
    (The idea that when he says "don't play well overseas", he is proven absolutely wrong period by a single counter-example is baffling.
    There is no way for a sane person to take that in context than as a statement of general behavior, not some iron law of nature.)
    This is why we can't reason with conservatives. This commenter is so dishonest that he either believes or pretends that he can just claim words don't mean what they say, they mean something else that the enemy is too stupid to see.

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  57. susanoftexas10:49 AM

    That were dying in it.

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  58. Schoolteachers, fire fighters, municipal workers--all those lazy moochers.

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  59. redoubtagain11:09 AM

    To paraprhase Emerson: "Consistency is the hobgoblin of foolish little minds."

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  60. BG, professional humbug11:27 AM

    Those people truly know the horrors of 9/11 because they saw it on TV.



    Over and over and over and over and over ----


    As a lifelong New Yorker, I, for one , would be perfectly happy if they stayed in Bumfuck, Idaho for the duration.

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  61. BG, professional humbug11:28 AM

    That should tell you all that needs to be known about that place. I wouldn’t even go there on a field trip, because the firearms I own would land me in jail, and being a smoker I’d go bankrupt.



    Two different ways to off yourself. Congrats!

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  62. whetstone12:05 PM

    Hey, who needs a world-class transit system when there's fuck-all to do? Think of all the taxpayer dollars that are wasted supporting the economic and cultural capital of America. Answer me that, lie-beral.

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  63. John Wesley Hardin12:10 PM

    Somewhere, Jonah Goldberg feels a disturbance in the Force. "Intern! To me! I have been challenged..."

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  64. whetstone12:12 PM

    An enjoyable piece by McManus, I think. DeBlasio seems to have Lynch where he wants him—i.e. way out on the limb he crawled out on—so McManus is fantasizing that centrist shitweasel Cuomo will daddy everyone into making it all go away. Pass the popcorn.

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  65. "Pestered yet again about whether an apology to cops might be useful in
    ending the standoff, he tendered this gratuitous gem on Wednesday."

    Interesting word choice. People asking bDb about an apology are pestering but he's supposed to be polite. Maybe McManus is stuck on AutoCrank, a common affliction of the gitterati.

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  66. Do adults go on 'field trips'? I always thought of it as a school kind of thing.

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  67. Yes, and if you're answering a question, your answer is not gratuitous, is it? Just imagine if deBlasio had actually said something mean and sarcastic!

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  68. Gromet12:53 PM

    Also, if you're being asked a question, and you answer it, how is your answer "gratuitous"? Doesn't that word mean "unasked for"?

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  69. Gromet12:54 PM

    Ach, I have made the same point as you.

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  70. Megalon12:55 PM

    Nice try LIEberal, but actually knowing shit would ruin his childlike faith.

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  71. Repugs have persuaded the military (& their Base) that all their problems are caused by liberals... and of course African Americans and Illegals. And Gays. Feminists, of course! Homeless.... basically everyone is out to get 'em except the repugs.

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  72. susanoftexas12:59 PM

    He's a turkey alright.

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  73. Close, uncalled for, unnecessary. "That was uncalled for!" I've never heard it used in a positive way. "Your present was gratuitous!"

    McManus is scolding the person for asking the question and De Blasio for giving the answer he did.

    (Is this BM by any chance the same loon who shows up in various blog comments and takes a grump dump all over?)

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  74. Well, you can at Five Mile Stone on Second Avenue, but only for weekend brunch. On the other hand, the Upper East Side would eat this guy alive.

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  75. Aha! Theory of gravity. You even admit it.

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  76. When the good police who try to do their job properly get thrown under the bus by the socialist mayor, then you can squawk, O commenter, assuming you live long enough for that description to actually apply anywhere in this country. Until that day comes, shut your goddamned ignorant warthog-rimjobbing mouth.

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  77. America would improve by 1,000% if we should ship all of the cowards to any random Lagrange Point between the Mercury and the Sun.

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  78. swkellogg1:22 PM

    Skidmark may suck, but it's better than Akron.

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  79. Maybe. But they'd still be in radio range--at least until they either burned up or were irradiated into jelly.

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  80. swkellogg1:27 PM

    And Jane Fonda.

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  81. Brother Yam1:28 PM

    And faggots, hurr, hurr, hurr.

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  82. J Neo Marvin1:29 PM

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pAqoMYCsc7E

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  83. swkellogg1:37 PM

    Their funnier in the original Fraktur.

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  84. Who said anything about radios. Or spaceships?

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  85. I want to travel to the stars with this comment!

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  86. swkellogg2:05 PM

    I remember being in the vicinity of Mountain Home, AR. A local bank was promoting accounts with free checking.


    The disclaimer at the end of the ad stated that free checking applied only to active accounts.


    Need I say more?

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  87. FlipYrWhig2:07 PM

    I can't say as I've ever been there myself, but friends tell me good things about Bumfuck.

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  88. ". . . Merrick, Bellmore, Wantagh, Seaford, Massapequa, Massapequa Park . . ."

    It's been 35 years since I last rode the Dashing Dan back and forth to Penn Station, and the litany of the line still rings in my ears.

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  89. . . . the Upper East Side would eat this guy alive.

    Can you recommend anyplace that serves good live shitweasel?

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  90. swkellogg2:15 PM

    They were with the Ice Capades.

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  91. BigHank532:16 PM

    As long as you keep a little something extra around to grease the skids if you get caught in a tight spot, Bumfuck can be a great place to visit.

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  92. witlesschum2:51 PM

    We here in New York are too close to the terrorism and the homosexuals. Only people from the red states have enough distance to see things in their perspective. So on behalf of the blue states, we would like to thank the red states for saving us from ourselves.
    — Steven Colbert, on the 2004 election

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  93. satch2:57 PM

    I'm thinking that some enterprising job creator could organize bus tours through NYC along the lines of the tours through Haight-Ashbury in the 60's, where the straights were promised views of the "freaks", and the residents held up mirrors to the bus windows.

    https://books.google.com/books?id=ij4q5Mfb_DYC&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=bus+tours+through+haight+

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  94. DocAmazing2:59 PM

    I actually take care of a fair number of military dependents--there's still a sizable military presence in the Bay Area, despite the closure of Treasure Island Naval Base, NAS Alameda, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyards and the rest. The soldiers and sailors whose kids I take care of haven't voted Republican in many a long year. They didn't like being on food stamps, and they know how they got there.

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  95. satch3:02 PM

    Are we allowed to have " Frites de Liberte`" now? I swear, I just can't keep up...

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  96. swkellogg3:11 PM

    Isn't that a little unfair to the warthog?

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  97. satch3:18 PM

    The thing that always bothered me about listening to vid clips of Christie was not that he was being an asshole (that was a given), it was listening to the crowds he was addressing who would whoop and cheer, as in "Fuck YEAH, give 'em hell, Chris!!!" The crowds were being given license to be assholes as well.

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  98. Too perfect! On the other hand, there are certainly lots of people who would fork over their hard-earned cash and think of themselves as having braved the cannibal islands.

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  99. Yes. But no French's mustard or Heinz ketchup!

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  100. Nobody will fall for that.

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  101. And heavy on the redeye gravy, please.

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  102. satch3:31 PM

    Mayonnaise all the way, mon frere...

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  103. Conservatives in general always remind me of the toadies who hang around the schoolyard bully. They're way too cowardly to engage anyone on their own, but they feel empowered by not being the target of the bully.

    More disturbing is that at least some of the people cheering Christie on are cheering for their own ox to be gored. A friend of my father was a municipal firefighter in New Jersey. A union man now retired in Florida with his union pension, Medicare, VA benefits, etc. He's all for Christie refusing to fund pensions because "government people" don't deserve pensions or any benefits, and he thinks unions are just horrible.

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  104. Definitely doesn't apply to the officer corps. I've spent the last 18 months rubbing up against all sorts of brass (mostly Air Force), and MAN are those guys rightwing reactionaries!

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  105. I thought they were two of those costume guys in Times Square?

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  106. swkellogg4:28 PM

    I love loosies!


    Thud.

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  107. I can't help but think of how many times I've heard conservatives in my native Upstate New York talk about how much better off they'd be if they could just saw off NYC and Long Island and shove it out to sea. They really believe that they're being taxed to death to support the big city, when it's exactly the opposite.

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  108. Gromet5:36 PM

    Next stop, Willoughby!

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  109. Brilliant minds think alike. Or differently. Actually, its stupid minds that think alike. But our comments were errily similar. Think I'll get me a cup of coffee.

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  110. One of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes!

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  111. Gromet5:43 PM

    WHAAAT?!? I ALSO GOT COFFEE!!!

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  112. Gromet5:56 PM

    I keep trying to imagine Andy Griffith's sheriff -- no doubt a good cop -- feeling a need to subdue and arrest Eric Garner. When does it become necessary to cuff this guy, drive him to the station, process him, stick him in a cell, and bring him before a judge? How do "the good police who try to do their job properly" come to that conclusion? It seems like a failure of imagination and humanity.

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  113. LookWhosInTheFreezer6:13 PM

    Kerry made the mistake of exercising his own free speech rather than constantly scolding and reminding everyone that "I fought for your free speech so STFU." He must've thrown his copy of The Real Murkin Patriot's Guide to Vet'Splaining Free Speech Issues to Cowardly Librulz into the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, by mistake.

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  114. In reality, they probably think of themselves as Snake Plisken.

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  115. You call that an Australian cowboy?


    THIS is an Australian cowboy.

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  116. But what do they call a Big Mac?

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  117. PersonaAuGratin6:36 PM

    Same thing in California:

    http://www.news10.net/story/news/2015/01/15/effort-to-split-california-in-two-states-gathers-more-supporters/21832647/


    Though the last time this had any "serious" momentum, it came to an abrupt halt with the attack on Pearl Harbor.

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  118. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person7:28 PM

    Curses, foiled again...

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  119. Tbone7:28 PM

    It's the essence of conservative arguments: words don't mean what they mean, they mean what I say they mean.

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  120. SqueakyRat7:31 PM

    "They don't play well overseas" means they get stuck in those weirdo furrin projector thingies.

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  121. M. Krebs7:52 PM

    Wow. Who'd thought such things could happen out here in the great heartland of America?

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  122. smut clyde8:05 PM

    remedial education on the state’s political power grid

    I'm pretty sure there's a clause in Leviticus against mixing metaphors like this.

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  123. smut clyde9:02 PM

    +L1.

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  124. susanoftexas9:31 PM

    Maybe he meant that the movies have a problem being projected while they are played over the seas on airplane flights.

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  125. susanoftexas9:37 PM

    'Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. `I'm glad they've begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud.

    `Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the March Hare.

    `Exactly so,' said Alice.

    `Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on.

    `I do,' Alice hastily replied; `at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know.'

    `Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter. `You might just as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!'

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  126. Matthew Mikell10:28 PM

    The bitterest satire: the legendary Drew Friedman made a horrifying two-page comic about what happened when Sidney Poitier stopped in the wonderful town of Mayberry to fill up...

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  127. And yet, they're more like Rupert Pufkin.

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  128. AGoodQuestion1:41 AM

    Can the judges test them for burrito doping?

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  129. mrstilton3:25 AM

    ... Amityville, Copiague, Lindenhurst and Babylon. Change at Babylon for the Montauk train.


    My memory is a sieve befallen with amyloid plaques. Almost everything slips through to vanish for ever. Only two texts remain wedged irremovably in its mesh: Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" and that litany of LIRR stations.

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  130. In the new Libertarian paradise, gummint wouldn't need to be involved at all. Andy Taylor and Eric Garner would have worked things over coffee and slices of Aunt Bee's apple pie.

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  131. Brian Schlosser6:22 PM

    There is already the "slum tourism" industry, which fills me with utter loathing

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  132. Brian Schlosser6:27 PM

    Wasn't / isn't French a major language in Vietnam anyway? Whats the fucking joke? More tired surrender monkey/freedom fries bullshit?

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  133. One day, Karl Rove will find himself naked and standing in his quivering flesh at the gate of Hell. Minos, the gatekeeper, will say to him, "Karl, I gotta admit. Your smear job on John Kerry in 2004 was a classic of the genre--not that that's the only reason you're here, of course. But seriously, turning a certified war hero into a sniveling coward was sheer genius--especially in light of the sniveling coward you were working for at the time. Anyway, you're definitely going to the Eighth Circle, I'm just not sure which bolgia to throw you in. Lessee: evil counsellors, sowers of discord, or falsifiers? Well, the deeper the better I always say! Falsifiers it is!" (Rove is dragged away by demons.) "See ya never, fatso! And hey! Have a nice day!"

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  134. Brian Schlosser6:36 PM

    Of course. The lifers are going to be True Believers. They have more invested in the system as it stands.

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  135. smut clyde7:39 PM

    So, Bill the Peacemaker he surely ain’t.
    It is not immediately clear to me why the elected representative of New York's inhabitants should go to any effort to assuage the hurt feelings of a shouty person. I can only suppose that Bob McManus is under the impression that similar allegations of "Not reaching across the aisle / not ending racism" worked against Obama, and therefore he will recycle them against De Blasio, whether or not De Blasio ever promised to unify the city.

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  136. apocalipstick9:06 PM

    I believe "Charlie" is a play on the nickname for the Viet Cong: "I am Charlie" ie, "I am the VC". I think that's the gist.

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  137. apocalipstick9:08 PM

    I bet you can.

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  138. Brian Schlosser9:21 PM

    That's too clever to credit...

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  139. Another Kiwi1:14 AM

    Don't talk to me about those people. Bumfuckonians Always behind in their payments.

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  140. Another Kiwi1:17 AM

    Fetid Dingo Kidney, I think

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  141. It looks true, though. Somebody at some staff meeting made the connection; high fives all around!

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  142. billcinsd11:16 AM

    cheap holidays in other people's misery

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  143. they probably think of themselves as Snake Plisken

    I heard he was dead.

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  144. You don't even need a New York City with some people - my sister (influenced by my wingnut father) dreads going into downtown Rochester, NY, believing it as some kind of Fort Apache: The Bronx.

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  145. Is this the same NYC where crime rates are continuing to fall, and the police are, by their tantrum-throwing, actually concentrating on law enforcement instead of "broken window" harassment?

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  146. In a city that elected a known communist by a significant margin

    Democracy is all well and good, until the people start electing the wrong candidates and acting like they're citizens instead of proper employees.

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  147. Brian Schlosser12:53 PM

    Well I'll be dipped in Goldberg effluvia. Credit where credits due, I guess. But I don't think I can be blamed for assuming it was reflexive Frog-bashing

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  148. billcinsd1:32 PM

    i saw them open for Shields and Yarnell back in '78

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  149. LittlePig1:43 PM

    Ah, Caruso.

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  150. LittlePig1:45 PM

    Nah, that's Jacob McCandles.

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  151. realinterrobang4:49 PM

    I've been to the Babylon LIRR station. Didn't see any whores, but the platform smelled inexplicably of piss.

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  152. ". . . and being a smoker, I'd go bankrupt." Because cigarettes cost $200,000 a pack. Fuck, it's New York, right?

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  153. willf5:38 PM

    Good police don't kill unarmed guys in broad daylight for trying to break up a fight.


    Fixed yer typo.


    I think it was these very threads where I learned that Garner had not been selling loosies, and in fact had no cigarettes in his possession at the time of his death.

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