Althouse: "Tropical Storm Isaac Crashes Party-Crasher Joe Biden's Party Crashing."

August 25, 2012

"Tropical Storm Isaac Crashes Party-Crasher Joe Biden's Party Crashing."

I'm crushed.

60 comments:

rhhardin said...: Isaac is the most hopeless news hype in memory.; 8/25/12, 12:56 PM
pm317 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/25/12, 1:03 PM
test said...: I guess god wants the Republicans to have their convention uninterrupted after all.; 8/25/12, 1:07 PM
edutcher said...: They're that desperate, they want to grind the last bit of publicity out of Todd Akin and can't afford to let Halo Joe speak his mind.; 8/25/12, 1:09 PM
kcom said...: So is that the reason... or is that the cover story? Did somebody on the Democratic side have a sudden attack of the "grown-ups".; 8/25/12, 1:14 PM
Anonymous said...: What is Dana Milbank's god doing? He is punishing the wrong people.; 8/25/12, 1:18 PM
alan markus said...: Obama campaign must be getting better at math - probability of hurricane hitting 60%, probability of Biden saying something that overtakes any prior gaffes, Republican or Democrat, 97%.; 8/25/12, 1:19 PM
Alex said...: Biden is the gift that keeps on giving!; 8/25/12, 1:19 PM
Roger J. said...: Free slow Joe--let Biden be Biden; 8/25/12, 1:19 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Ah... dang. What am I going to do with all these snacks?; 8/25/12, 1:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Who's Joe Biden?; 8/25/12, 1:21 PM
dreams said...: Poetic justice and proving to me at least in this case that storms really are acts of God.; 8/25/12, 1:52 PM
dreams said...: "Biden is the gift that keeps on giving!"

And remember that this was Obama's first decision regarding our country.; 8/25/12, 1:55 PM
Brian Brown said...: So President Obama's plan to send VP Biden into the eye of a hurricane failed.

Kinda like the stimulus.; 8/25/12, 1:55 PM
Paul said...: Nice pic. Looks like a tropical (shit)storm coming out of Slo Joe's mouth.; 8/25/12, 2:05 PM
Gary Rosen said...: This is bad news for the Republicans. Now they may have to wait until the VP debates.; 8/25/12, 2:05 PM
mesquito said...: Neil Armstrong, R.I.P; 8/25/12, 2:11 PM
Phil 314 said...: One wind storm avoided; 8/25/12, 2:16 PM
edutcher said...: For true?

If so, I'd heard he'd had surgery, but was OK.

He will be remembered.; 8/25/12, 2:17 PM
furious_a said...: ""Tropical Storm Isaac Crashes Party-Crasher Joe Biden's Party Crashing.""

I'm crushed.

That's ok. The Dumb Blonde of the Senate showed up in Tulsa by mistake.; 8/25/12, 2:25 PM
Sorun said...: "Due to...local security concerns"

Why does Biden need security? So he doesn't get lost or hurt himself?; 8/25/12, 2:51 PM
furious_a said...: "Tropical Storm Isaac Crashes Party-Crasher Joe Biden's Party Crashing."

Needed more time on VP debate prep, anyway.; 8/25/12, 3:03 PM
John said...: Who is Joe Biden, indeed! He was that uncle who kept coaxing you over and asking you to pull on his finger...; 8/25/12, 3:06 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Isaac is the most hopeless news hype in memory.

Kind of like the original Issac... first his mother couldn't have him... and then she could.

The was getting sacrificed... and then he wasn't.; 8/25/12, 3:11 PM
Mikio said...: Is Pat Robertson going to be consistent and say a hurricane hitting the GOP convention is God's punishment? Of course not.; 8/25/12, 3:19 PM
Comanche Voter said...: Joe Biden did not need to avoid Tampa just because it might be raining hard. Joe has been all wet for years now.; 8/25/12, 3:25 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Dolan and Warren

Isaac and Biden

Hello Goodbye; 8/25/12, 3:36 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Biden is the gift that keeps on giving!

Could Issac qualify as a Biden gaffe?.. if it does its got to be the biggest in history.; 8/25/12, 3:42 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: If you think I'm crazy... lets play word association.

I say Katrina... you say...

I'll give you a clue, Alex been using it as avatar.. for too long if you ask me.; 8/25/12, 3:49 PM
Revenant said...: Is Pat Robertson going to be consistent and say a hurricane hitting the GOP convention

Pat Robertson is still alive?; 8/25/12, 3:49 PM
Alex said...: My avatar stays that way because I know it annoys the FUCK out of liberals.; 8/25/12, 3:51 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: The hurricane is just a convenient excuse to back out of something which was a horrible idea from the very start.

I'm guessing Biden was afraid of being photographed with protesters, because you know they're going to look rough.; 8/25/12, 4:27 PM
Mikio said...: Pat Robertson is still alive?

I just checked Wikipedia and it says he is -- 82 and going strong. I think his TV show is even still running. Not sure. Anyhow, if that was an attempt on your part to make my point irrelevant, understand that Roberton’s God-as-interventionist mentality is very much alive and well in Christianity and indeed theism worldwide.

So my larger point is that, yes, Christianity and theism are fundamentally absurdly inconsistent and often hypocritical, and since there's a huge overlap with American conservatives, probably over 95%, my derision extends to that percentage of them as well. Exempted in this case are of course the tiny fraction of American conservatives who are at least sensible enough to be atheists.; 8/25/12, 4:29 PM
cold pizza said...: Too bad about Joe Biden. I'd heard the Republicans were planning on punching back twice as hard against the Democrats for sending JB to Tampa by sending Biden back to the Democrat convention in Charlotte. -CP; 8/25/12, 4:58 PM
Lauderdale Vet said...: Biden backed out because the security measures necessary to protect the VPOTUS would have been a burden on the local police/fire/rescue that are being taxed by #Isaac. It was the honorable thing to do. Besides, Debbie Wasserman Schultz will be on hand to help direct the counter programming.; 8/25/12, 5:01 PM
Lauderdale Vet said...: Messed up my link somehow. Probably silly MS Word characters. Here it is again.; 8/25/12, 5:02 PM
Anonymous said...: Jay: So President Obama's plan to send VP Biden into the eye of a hurricane failed.

Obama: Damn, those Secret Service SOBs are no good. I let them screw around in overseas trips, but they couldn't even do the smallest thing for me. They should have kept him in the hurricane and let him swept out to sea. And I would have gotten all the sympathy votes. Americans are not very bright, you know. Those racist SOBs are not reliable, they wanted me to lose.; 8/25/12, 5:02 PM
Quaestor said...: Neil Armstrong, R.I.P

No! It was Neil Young who passed away. You remember, the guy who said "That's one small step for man, and I don't like the American media - particularly Fox." At least that what NBC said on their site, staffed as they from floor to ceiling with all those wise, unerring secular progressives.

xOx, Quaestor the conservative atheist

PS: There are a lot more of us than Mikio would dare imagine, Here's a hint, Mikio, we're the real atheists, not those in-your-face blowhards who think their cool. And we don't despise believers because that implies a level of certainty that a true atheist ought to eschew.; 8/25/12, 5:26 PM
Revenant said...: understand that Roberton’s God-as-interventionist mentality is very much alive and well in Christianity and indeed theism worldwide.

True, yet still irrelevant to this discussion.; 8/25/12, 5:42 PM
Paddy O said...: "Christianity and theism are fundamentally absurdly inconsistent and often hypocritical,"

People who don't know Christian theology (or get their information from the internets) occasionally say this.

Christianity might very well be wrong, and there certainly are examples of hypocrites, but it's also fundamentally coherent and consistent.; 8/25/12, 5:48 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: The Lynch movie Dune ruined my vision of the book by overriding the Spartan simplicity with baroque design. I was unaware of the ton of crap that followed that ruins the Lynch vision until I looked for a clip of my favorite scene and saw it all, which apparently isn't anybody else's favorite scene. Maud'Dib already well knows how to ride a sandworm and for the final attack he's up there on a worm out there in front of a storm that would ordinarily drive people inside and using the storm instead to attack the Harkonnen with the Emperor. And he's up ahead of his troops also on their worms oddly cooperating and says: "There's a storm coming. *dramatic pause* Our storm." Yeaaaaaa boom final attack; 8/25/12, 5:57 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @Mikio,

Actually, you present no reasons to fault PR's judgement as to what constitutes an "Act of God", just rhetorical assertions.

If PR thinks that all natural events are caused by divine intervention (i.e. occasionalism), then he would be guilty of inconsistency. Has PR ever made such a claim that he rejects all secondary causality in the natural order?

If PR believes, as he most likely does, in a world of secondary causes in which God occasionally miraculously intervenes, then PR probably has a list of criteria he uses to determine what are "miraculous" events.

The rest of us are at this point left with two options. We can as theists, disagree with PR as to which criteria one uses to make a judgment on miracles. This we can say that PR is wrong in this case, but miracles do occur, just as someone making a post hoc ergo propter hoc invalid judgement doesn't shake our belief in causality.

Or, one can make the assertion that miraculous intervention is somehow impossible & contradictory. That may be the case, but it is not experientially or philosophically obvious why that would be the case, as is obvious from the number of scientists and philosophers who are theists.

If you'd like to make blowhard off-the-wall statements like Christianity and theism are fundamentally absurdly inconsistent here, I'm afraid that, just like on the math exam, you're going to have to show your work.; 8/25/12, 6:30 PM
Piercello said...: @Mikio: There are no rational people. There are only rational arguments.; 8/25/12, 7:01 PM
Scott said...: Should a person who makes smug and denigrating comments about how proud they are to be atheist be considered a troll?; 8/25/12, 7:03 PM
bgates said...: Mikio, does your derision extend to the top tier of elected Democrats? Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi have all repeatedly reaffirmed their Christian faith. What about the huge overlap between Christians and African Americans, or Christians and Africans, or Christians and Latin Americans?; 8/25/12, 7:16 PM
Mikio said...: @Revenant - True, yet still irrelevant to this discussion.

It’s relevant because a hurricane (“act of God”) hitting a GOP convention so precisely targets, contradicts, and makes a mockery of what is commonly and purely a right-wing act: effusing moral positions by invoking God, especially in politics & government. That’s why there’s a Christian Right in politics, not a Christian Left. That’s why this hurricane headed for the GOP convention is so funny -- to the extent hurricanes can be funny, that is.

@Paddy O - Christianity might very well be wrong, and there certainly are examples of hypocrites, but it's also fundamentally coherent and consistent.

Christianity is fundamentally inconsistent, because its central tenet of an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good deity who intervenes in the affairs of humanity is contradicted by the ubiquity of Ryan Seacrest.

Just kidding, I’ve got nothing against him. I don’t even know what made me think of him. Oh yeah! Earlier today it occurred to me a new name mashup like the old one of Al Gore Vidal Sassoon. I say old because, not to brag, but that one dawned on me years ago in a politics chat room and a couple weeks ago, no lie, I saw coffee mugs and T-shirts online that said Al Gore Vidal Sassoon on them! In fact, maybe someone in the chat room that day took my idea and ran with it! Or maybe not. Oh well, even if they didn’t get it from me they probably didn’t make much money getting off their ass and merching it out like that. Mmm, sour grapes. Yummy. Anyway, here’s a new mashup that occurred to me today, again in a politics chat room. Ready for it? Ru Paul Ryan Seacrest. And if I see coffee mugs and T-shirts on sale… Well, I’ve got to go. I’ve rambled on enough for one post. I’ll get to the rest of you later who responded to me. Probably. No guarantees. But probably.; 8/25/12, 10:19 PM
AlanKH said...: Best comment in the linked article:

'I can't come, Y'all, they're keeping me in chains here.'
: D

Unchain my veep...please...set him free...; 8/25/12, 10:51 PM
Gary Rosen said...: "Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi have all repeatedly reaffirmed their Christian faith."

Sure, but they don't really believe it. You know every time they say that they're rolling their eyes internally and saying to themselves, "Damn, I wish I didn't have to say this crap to satisfy the bitter clingers! If only Americans were as enlightened as Europeans!"; 8/25/12, 11:10 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @Mikio,

Thanks for the 10:19 posting!

Now the rest of us are really sure you're just full of shit. When challenged, you post what could be charitably called a drug-induced ramble.

That’s why there’s a Christian Right in politics, not a Christian Left.

A pity someone forgot to tell the Reverend Martin Luther King that!; 8/25/12, 11:46 PM
Anonymous said...: That’s why there’s a Christian Right in politics, not a Christian Left. A pity someone forgot to tell the ReverendMartin Luther King that! 8/25/12 11:46 PM Clearly, Mikio doesn't know many Episcopalians, or Sr. Mary Pantsuits. The ignorance displayed by the militant atheists on this board is astounding.
I know a fair number of "Social Justice Catholics" and I keep sending them comments like Mikio's. Left-wing Christians don't seem to grasp the hatred and contempt the secular left has for Christianity.; 8/26/12, 12:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Sorry, I was trying to insert breaks in the text, not bold. It's late and I'm tired.; 8/26/12, 1:02 AM
Revenant said...: makes a mockery of what is commonly and purely a right-wing act: effusing moral positions by invoking God, especially in politics & government.

That's so cute -- you think only the political right uses religion to push its agenda. :)

How old are you? I'm going to guess 20.; 8/26/12, 2:12 AM
Revenant said...: A pity someone forgot to tell the Reverend Martin Luther King that!

Or the Nation of Islam, or the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or the liberation theology movement...

Or Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman, and FDR. Heck, even Clinton invited a group of religious advisers to the White House when he got caught porking the help.

Then you've got gems like this:

“I think to myself, if I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense. But for me, as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.’

-- Barack Obama, 2/2/12, at the National Prayer Breakfast; 8/26/12, 2:18 AM
Mikio said...: Quaestor - Here's a hint, Mikio, we're the real atheists, not those in-your-face blowhards who think their cool. And we don't despise believers because that implies a level of certainty that a true atheist ought to eschew.

First of all, you think you’re attacking me, but you’re not. You’re attacking your delusional idea of me. Despite your claim, I don’t despise believers per se, who, being people, have many qualities, some of which I find likeable and some of which I don’t. Okay, dumbass? I don’t even despise their religious beliefs per se. I think they’re mostly silly, but I only despise some of them, namely for the actions which result, such as oppressing science and scientific literacy (e.g. thwarting embryonic stem cell research, “evolution isn’t fact” in classrooms, etc.), oppressing women, oppressing homosexuals, oppressing critical thinking skills in young people, etc.

That you’re offended by “blowhard” atheists who express contempt for such examples of religious toxicity is for two reasons:
1) Conservatives are more tribal and value group loyalty more than liberals do. They see it as a code of honor and are thus more effective as a political bloc than liberals, who, as the cliché goes, are like herding cats. Being a conservative, your allegiance is more strongly to your fellow conservatives, even if they’re religious, than to your fellow atheists who are liberal, as is evidenced by the stupid shit you just lashed out with nonsensically that I just proved is such via its debunking.
2) Being a conservative, you’re prone to selfishness (a.k.a. “individualism”) and anything that doesn’t affect you personally, you really don’t give a damn about, like abortion, gay marriage, teaching ID in science classrooms, etc. Right? If I’m wrong on any of these counts as it pertains to you, prove it by mustering some intellectual honesty and admit religious conservatives are fighting on the wrong side of the issue and secular liberals are the ones fighting on the right side of it. Go ahead, show some of that individualism you RWers brag about and break from your conservative herd.; 8/26/12, 6:13 AM
Mikio said...: YoungHegelian - Now the rest of us are really sure you're just full of shit. When challenged, you post what could be charitably called a drug-induced ramble.

Sue me for lightening it up back there, chuckles. Now you want me to get serious? No problem. As I was saying…

Christianity is fundamentally inconsistent, because its central tenet of an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good deity who intervenes in the affairs of humanity is contradicted by the empirically abundant injustice and suffering of innocents in the world. Such a deity is logically impossible unless one or more of those three characteristics is dropped given our observable existence. This seems so obvious as to be axiomatic, but I’ll try an example anyway.

T or F: A deity who made the singular change -- not just perceivably to humans, but objectively in reality -- of eradicating childhood leukemia from the world last week would be a kinder, superior deity to the “all-good” deity Christians worship and claim exists.

Answer: True. And since childhood leukemia was not eradicated from the world last week, the deity I mentioned a moment ago is superior, and thus, the “all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing deity” Christians claim exists demonstrably isn’t and doesn’t. Prove me wrong that that example (among a gazillion that can be just as easily conjured up) didn’t just prove the foundation of Christianity wrong -- i.e. fundamentally inconsistent with logic and reality. Btw, I don’t remotely believe I’m a genius or anything for crushing Christianity like this. Children all over the place notice this logical impossibility too. I was a teenager before I really thought about it.

I could address more parts of your argument, but I’m going to see how you handle this response first. I suspect you’ll give such a lame reply that I’ll be glad I didn’t waste time going further. Or, you could surprise me and put up an interesting volley worth indulging. We’ll see.; 8/26/12, 6:41 AM
Mikio said...: @bgates

I have much less derision for Democratic Christians, be they Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, African-Americans, Latin-Americans, what-have-you, for the following key distinctions: despite their religious beliefs, they tend to agree with my morals and ideals policywise, re science literacy (e.g. no ID bullshit in science classrooms), pro-choice, gays in the military, etc. and when they don’t agree, they tend not to push for more gov’t to enforce that difference, unlike the Christian Right.

In those cases such as Obama’s former opposition to gay marriage, I considered that stance of his every bit as wrong as loathsome as any conservative/Republican/teabagger with the identical view.

That answer also should cover all the dipshit attacks against me re “the Christian Left.” What is the Christian Left agenda in government? Anyone? See, the difference is that the Left believe in separation of church and state, unlike the lying, hypocritical Right who preach less gov’t and won’t admit, for instance, that their stance on abortion involves MORE gov’t., as does their stance on euthanasia, drug criminalization. etc. But conservatives are nothing without their hypocrisy and lies.; 8/26/12, 6:55 AM
Dr Weevil said...: Mikio demonstrates her multifarious ignorance and arrogance one more time by revealing that she thinks African-American and Latin-American church-going Christians all support abortion, gays in the military, and the teaching of evolution. She might want to try that out at her local AME church or Iglesia Pentecostal. She might also want to think about how Proposition 8 passed in a heavily Democratic state: blacks voted against gay marriage at higher rates than whites, despite very very few of them being Republicans. Then again, she might also want to avoid calling people 'teabaggers', if she doesn't want us to call her something no more offensive like 'buttlicker'.; 8/26/12, 8:53 AM
Mikio said...: Dr Weevil --

Advocating gay marriage is fundamentally socially liberal. Opposing gay marriage is fundamentally socially conservative. Those absolutely do not work vice versa.

Same goes for the abortion issue. Clear liberal vs. conservative ideological sides.

Now, “Democrat” and “Republican” are more umbrella-like terms that refer to political parties which currently overlap largely with liberalism and conservatism respectively, but they don’t align perfectly and they don’t by definition. The parties could conceivably flip with Republicans becoming the left-wing party and Democrats becoming the right-wing party.

If this stuff sounds so basic as to be condescending to you, too bad. Your post indicates you need this primer. As do others here.

So, “Left” aligns primarily with “liberal” not with “Democrat.”
And, “Right” aligns primarily with “conservative” not with “Republican.”

Thus, your examples of Christian Democrats (African-American or otherwise) who voted in opposition of gay marriage? They were effectively voting conservative on that issue -- a.k.a. “Right” a.k.a. Christian Right. It doesn’t matter if all their other stances are liberal. On this issue they were voting as guest members, if you will, of the Christian Right.

As for Christian Republicans (race & ethnicity again making no difference) who voted in favor of gay marriage? Well, there seem so few of them as to make this practically a hypothetical. But the handful that did were voting liberal -- a.k.a. “Left” a.k.a. “Christian Left.”

Incidentally, the phrase “Christian Left” is pretty much non-existent in American political discourse because their separation-of-church-and-state ethic makes them essentially secularists.

So that shoots down your entire pathetic post, along with everyone else’s like YoungHegelian, exiledonmainst, and Revenant who tried the same clueless tack.; 8/26/12, 11:19 AM
Dr Weevil said...: Buttlicking moron Mikio has neither the grace nor the sense to apologize for her own obscenities, but just keeps on repeating her stupid 'arguments'. Pretending that Church-going African-Americans and Latin-Americans who have never voted Republican in their lives are somehow not Democrats when they oppose (as tens of millions of them do) gay marriage, gays in the military, and abortion, and have doubts about evolution as taught in public schools, is deeply stupid and deeply dishonest. But it's what we've all come to expect from buttlicker Mikio.; 8/26/12, 11:33 AM
0s0-Pa said...: Haha, so both sides rallies got messed up / delayed to a tropical storm? Kinda funny, actually :)
-Jackie @ Party Crashers Band; 10/2/12, 5:22 PM