So I'll feel better once we've crossed over into the new year. All this year end business is a drag to me. I used to do these year-end posts where I'd highlight one blog post from each month of the past year or list my favorite quotes. I had my archive to mine for this sort of material. But I've written close to 5,000 posts this year. I'm not going to run through all of that, even quickly. I can only wonder what the hell was it? I know the feeling of assurance that there is always something to write about, that each day brings a new set of topics, but I'm puzzled, at year end, at the what could have mattered. 5,000 things?!
If I had to list what really mattered, not for its day, but enduringly, what would it be? Of all the things we talked about, each in its own day, what do we carry with us into 2013?
I know: President Obama got reelected. We did a hell of a lot of yammering for that one take away. Is everything else ephemera?
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247 पैकी 1 – 200 नवीन› नवीनतम»I know: President Obama got reelected.
That's a bigger disaster for the United States than any natural disaster could be, including global warming. We're still trying to recover from similar political catastrophes left over from FDR and LBJ, and now Obama gets four more years to makes them worse.
Professor: interesting insight indeed. Perhaps that is why historians are important in our society. They can digest our individual incremental thoughts and look for larger patterns that may be broad emerging themes. Just my thought, but I do thank you for doing the day to day blogging on topics that interest you, and giving us the opportunity to comment on them.
Movement, moving, move move move, to and from, toward and away, is my takeaway from 2012, online and off, and that goes for politics, too, but far from only that.
Things are less ephemeral when time stops.
Reaching the surface of a fiscal black hole should do it.
Unfortunately he did. All the yammering was to see if we could change that outcome before it happened.
2012 in brief: The polity acted stupidly.
I dont know... I think Roberts about face, which Althouse didn’t go too much into, felt more consequential.
Here's a retort to the point Inga was trying to make late last night: I've Seen All Good People
But give me some ideas for some other stuff, because I'm about to do a conversation where I need some material in this category.
Help me out!
Sadly, even if Romney were elected it is unlikely that the government would take the precipitous action required to secure our economic future.
The MSM cut the legs off anything that was important.
This was the vagina election.
Ann,
Is everything else ephemera?
That's easy to answer. Yes. Spending a few minutes to link to a topic of the moment -- mostly pop-cultural or political -- and then writing a few sentences is not difficult. So you shouldn't expect a large return in understanding or gain in knowledge.
This is one of the main drawbacks of your multi-post format. Each entry is diverting to some degree, but none of them actually probes deeply into any specific topic. Maybe you should challenge yourself this coming year and try to write one well-written post for each day about a topic that is really important to you (or one a week, for that matter).
But, just as warning, your traffic numbers will probably go down and your ego will have to adjust to that.
Let the conversation know that you need material for your blog.
Get the priorities right.
Blogs are forever. Conversations are not.
What of the shift from freedom to security?
This was the vagina election.
...challenge yourself this coming year and try to write one well-written post for each day about a topic that is really important to you...
Help me out!
Use you invagination...gestate on something...then gesticulate wildly!
Of all the things we talked about, each in its own day, what do we carry with us into 2013?
And you've hit it- the most enduring topic is that the nation doubled down on magical thinking and political insanity. For those not as versed in economics, the realities will become increasingly clear in the days and months to come.
We are doing the wrong things.
"[B]ut I'm puzzled, at year end, at the what could have mattered."
Bingo, Joey, and Zeus came into your lives.
"I know: President Obama got reelected. We did a hell of a lot of yammering for that one take away. Is everything else ephemera?"
No, everything else isn't ephemera, especially within our private lives, which continue apace regardless of Obama. And, if we're lucky (and, more important, smart), Obama will be ephemera too.
Which is why Lem's point, and Chip S.'s point too, are more important: Robert's decision, unhinged from the plain, black-letter reading of the ACA, was dismaying. The one institution of the federal government that had some remaining credibility, led by its Chief, decided to serve power rather than the Constitution. That, more than Obama's reelection, served to bolster cynicism about the US's future.
We've always had stupid voters voting stupidly, and the Republic has managed to survive without too many dire consequences.
Failed rulings of the Supreme Court, like Dred Scott, create dire circumstances more troublesome than episodic elections.
Meanwhile, the US Debt Clock keeps spinning past $16.4 trillion. The future is so bright, we'll have to wear sunglasses...from the conflagration of debt.
Shorter me: What rehajm said. We've doubled-down on failure.
How about a top three list? We've got top one and top ten and top fifty. Maybe you can break new ground.
I've always liked this:
The impact of the French Revolution? “Too early to say.” -- Zhou Enlai
(Although I read somewhere that there was a translation problem and he thought he'd been asked about the 1968 riots in Paris, not the 1789 revolution.)
Politics, surprisingly, are of just about no importance to me.
The great thing about 2013 was that my band of friends, The Old Dawgz got out of the gate, and that people enjoy our act.
We make people laugh and sing. What a great thing that is!
@Tim well stated
For me this blog and commenting is an escape, I have a lot of things going on. I value that Ann has done this and been dependable about it.
In the "Fallen Heroes" department, the revelations about General Petraeus and his mistress were certainly noteworthy.
(FBI take note: When a military officer's intercepted emails mention stuff going on "under the table," sometimes he means that literally.)
"I spent a year embedded with General Petraeus in Afghanistan"
-- Paula Broadwell
NY Petunias aka Giants did not even make the playoffs. Trooper was banished and we got stuck with Allie/ Inga.
Global warming is the obvious cause of the snow on my roof and the very cold start to this winter.
Chip Ahoy gets front paged by Insty. President Obama shows he can be even more petulant after being re-elected. Meadhouse starts dog-borrowing trend. I had a good year and gave more money away than the Bidens do in ten years. I will however use some of it to buy a new handgun. On a sad note, when I drive by a school these days, I think how vulnerable it appears.
Premier bloggers such as Althouse nor Insty hasve yet to become a regular on one of the Sunday morning news shows- I predict it will happen by the year 2020. Also, predict Greg Gutfeld will get a prime time gig where he could be the conservative Jon Dtewart.
Walking Dead and Homeland TV series got even better!
The NY Petunia aka Giants will not win the Super Bowl.
America is still broke and we are $1 Trillion more in the hole than we were on New Years Day.
The earth is round not flat and that proves there is a God. I just thought of that the other day when I watched Cavuto's moon walking special and saw a pic of the planed earth from space.
Happy New Year to all even to Garbage.
Personally, both in terms of my own finances, and how much I was able to help others, it has been the most successful year of my life by a long shot, but at the same time the most disappointing.
I feel like someone who is the last one out of the building before it collapses on all the rest still in side.
I have had such an exceptionally lucky life starting from nothing and failing miserably more than once, only to eventually get everything I always wanted, or at least knowing I can have it if I'm willing to overcome some simple inertia.
The disappointing part is seeing so many of my fellow Americans conned so completely. I talk with them, and most seem to have lost the drive, the confidence, the optimism, the pioneer spirit that we used to be made of. We have lost that special thing that was what it means to be American, to take huge risks, to be daring and brash. It was a very unique thing in the world, and it used to ubiquitous among people I would meet. The only place I see it anymore is among some immigrants who came here for that special opportunity, only to find the muck as deep here as it was at home.
I'll be trying to set some people up in business this coming year so they can taste the entrepreneurial spirit for themselves. There will always be some who crave that. I hope enough to carry the growing weight of the rest.
Let's work it this year. Tend your garden.
Maybe you could do a "thing of the year" feature. The mankini, the 30-bullet magazine, the lego brick.
Sex it up with a prize. Maybe do a "worst comment of the year" thing. I'd compete for that! And it could create traffic.
Or do an "I wrote a blog post and my commenters didn't get where I was going" feature.
One more: The enduring lesson of the Althouse Blog comments in 2012:
"Trolls gonna troll."
My 80 year old mother was diagnosed a few months ago with stage four renal cancer and she only has one kidney left, and refused to go through the harsh and unpromising therapy, so the doctors told her to just enjoy the time she has left which is probably less than a year. So all us kids got together and spent Christmas with her for the first time since I was a kid.
Just before the holidays, she had a number of tests and scans done to check the progress of the cancer. Now, the doctors told her the cancer is in total remission, is not growing anywhere, and is no real danger at the moment. Amazing news, and a great Christmas gift.
At 80, the woman is irrepressible. She never shuts up, is very sharp, runs a real estate business, cares for her elderly neighbors, climbs ladders to wash her own windows, fixes plumbing, roofs, and her own computers. A damned dynamo. She amazes me. Her genetics are only half of what made me, but I'm convinced it's 100% of what has gotten me this far, and probably the only reason I'm even still kicking. Much of life is luck, but you have to run with it when it hits.
Althouse, please don't beat yourself up on what is important. At the end of the day, I always feel your blog covers most of the interesting topics of the day, as I see what are newsworthy topics in the Wall St. Journal, Real Clear Politics, and a plethora of other websites and blogs. You raise many good points to discuss on the law and politics, while also showing us what is happening in Madison, things that you come across that are funny, nostalgic, or weird, and lots of miscellaneous categories of things. With that wide of coverage, it would be difficult to boil it down to the major issues or the things that mattered most. I think you are great at this.
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
It usually is, but this year seemed particularly ambivalent, yet definitely trending toward the dark side.
"Is everything else ephemera?"
Blogs are conversations at some level of generality, to paraphrase Blackie Sherrod, a former Dallas sportswriter, 'at the edge of our lives.' There probably will be those (?blogs) at a closer level in the future; I suppose Facebook is an example. Nevertheless, as John Lennon sang, 'We're talking about revolution, evolution' and this election, as well as other American, particularly presidential, elections are that and important even if other things aren't 'ephemera.'
"We make people laugh and sing. What a great thing that is!"
Hard to beat, and when I'm trying to learn guitar or write a song, I always imagine people singing along as the goal. Someday it will be more than just my dogs howling.
ST, your living a dream for most of us. Never forget it, and have a great year.
The significance of 2012.
The people of the US committed sepiku by choosing Socialism.
They chose to be dependents in thrall to government instead of choosing independence and freedom. They chose to take the tainted candy instead working for their own candy. They chose the easy short term path and in the end enslaved their children, grandchildren and all future generations for as long as we can see.
The people carelessly threw away hundreds of years of struggle for freedom and have pissed on those who died for it and who worked and died in the hopes that their children would be better of and free from tyranny.
Accept the Nate Silver view that there was nothing surprising or special about the reelection of President Obama. In other words, nothing much happened in 2012.
Bago - that is wonderful news for you and your family esp your mother!
Isn't it totally redundant to be the Left Bank of the Charles?
I find since the election that I am spending a lot more time reading about, and from, the past. I've just gotten the new volume of Manchester's biography of Churchill. From the size of it, I will be happily entertained for a couple of weeks. Then I will have to return to the dreary present to find another diversion.
Not so much re-elected as stole it, but that shows us all what it's like to live in Chicago.
The weird part is, some people like it there.
Break it down, Althouse. politics, Econ, cafe's. Whatever.
it's you stinkin blog.
All is ephemera, the rest is just whinging about the good old days.
2012 was one step closer to the takeover by the Millennials. The gray and mottled boomers continue their highly examined narcissistic evolution to oblivion while the young forges on into the 21st century.
Blog about the death of boomer culture power. You teach kids every day, you probably have endless sources of new material on how they are taking over the world.
The best moment on the blog, Althouse, was on election night when you just got exhausted and checked out.
I don't mean that in a negative way.
That was a very human response.
I was exhausted by the whole thing, too. Since then, I've just let the whole crisis mentality go. It's a waste of my little time left on this earth.
I want to see more head mounted home-made video from Meade and Bagoh.
The shifty filmmaker being arrested over the Benghazi debacle seems big. The healthcare decision.
Crystal Bridges opened on 11/11/11, so 2012 was really its first year. Not that that was big on this blog. (Huge to me though.)
If you're looking for what matters, you needn't look farther than under your own nose.
Popular film continued to decline. Many big films begin filming now without finished scripts. I don't mean that they change things in the script, that always happens; I mean there is no script. That's why storytelling is so bad in so many of the big films.
EMD is, of course, right that anything truly significant wasn't issue related and is different for every commenter. Friends and family.
The significance of 2012.
The people of the US committed sepiku by choosing Socialism.
Another example of the silly and stupid things that the Althouse lemmings say.
Another example of the silly and stupid things that the Althouse lemmings say.
"Althouse lemmings!"
Clearly, this guy is either shiloh's alter ego, or shiloh himself.
But give me some ideas for some other stuff, because I'm about to do a conversation where I need some material in this category.
How has the mullet managed to become a persistent hair style?
Walker recall and protests of same were interesting. The ACA decision in June was not fun, nor was Barry's re-coronation. Michigan becoming a right-to-work state was encouraging.
Culturally I was uninspired by any events of the past year.
The Nate Silver was pretty funny. I don't know that it was significant, but it was amusing.
Transit of Venus.
This is where you solicit your readers to list in the comments their favorite blog post of the year.
Why do the reading when someone else might?
Freeman Hunt said...
Popular film continued to decline. Many big films begin filming now without finished scripts. I don't mean that they change things in the script, that always happens; I mean there is no script. That's why storytelling is so bad in so many of the big films.
The writing talent is moving to pay channel TV.
AprilApple said...
I want to see more head mounted home-made video from Meade and Bagoh.
You like that POV stuff?
Popular film continued to decline. Many big films begin filming now without finished scripts. I don't mean that they change things in the script, that always happens; I mean there is no script. That's why storytelling is so bad in so many of the big films.
With big films, big budgets need to be recovered, so prudent risk management requires sucessful international distribution. Which requies the movie travels well. Plot does not travel well.
2013 is going to be devastating for business. Imagine how different it would be if the election had gone the other way. I just look at all of 2012 as a tragedy. The re-election of the spendaholic golfer in chief, the choom gang president has sealed our fate. And the re-election of all the worthless culls in the legislature just put extra nails, screws and super-glue in the coffin.
Make a laconic list/map of the tags for this year alone and hopefully a Drugedy like pattern of interpretations will emerge.
How do the top tags relate to each other?
I seem to recall you experimenting something like that via blogger a few years back.
Chickelit- Anything to keep me from ruminating over the truth behind what Rose and DBQ said.
"The best moment on the blog, Althouse, was on election night when you just got exhausted and checked out.
I don't mean that in a negative way.
That was a very human response."
Right, it was exhaustion. Because had the results gone the other way, she and so many of the comments also would have simply "checked out"? Maybe. But after all the self-assured yammering about Romney's forthcoming victory, I sincerely doubt it.
This is the first place online I visit each day and I don't care what you're talking about.
Well, this pretty much makes 2012 for me:
Obama has issued an executive order raising the pay of federal workers, members of Congress, and ... Joe Biden. He'll go from $225,521 to $231,900 per year.
Churchill said that half of what he believed in was wrong, but the catch was that he didn't know which half. As a corollary to that, I would say that half of what we believe is significant is not, and half of what we view as little clouds are impending tornados.....It is said that ephemera, those little popping bubbles on the surface of the river, have the merit of telling us which way the current is flowing. But more often they just mark the eddies and, anyway, it all ends in a vortex.
I've heard the term "crossing an invisible line"... used by people looking back on events and the consequences on their live which at the time they failed to perceived... ergo the invisible line rhetoric.
Roberts decision was the crossing of a very visible line.
"Bingo, Joey, and Zeus came into your lives."
I was looking for material relating to everyone in the country (or world), but I suppose dogs are important. News of dogs... could be a single-issue blog. Just put "dog" into a Google news search each morning and run with it.
As for my personal life, the dogs are a Meade thing, so... from my perspective it's just Meade... the many dimensions of Meade. Not only are they borrowed dogs, but when they are here, I don't do any of the dog-related tasks. I'm really not a dog person. I like them, but I'm just not attached to pets in any way, and I don't want to be. Animals have their own world, and I respect that and only admire them from afar.
"Right, it was exhaustion. Because had the results gone the other way, she and so many of the comments also would have simply "checked out"? Maybe. But after all the self-assured yammering about Romney's forthcoming victory, I sincerely doubt it."
Who was "self-assured" about a Romney victory? I don't remember that.
As for "checking out," once the results are known, it becomes dull. When the game is over, you go home. You don't stay in the bleachers analyzing what happened.
The show is still on TV, because it's a TV show. But why are you watching?
@bag o' water Great news. Makes it seem that the mind had a lot of power to heal the body.
Health care--that was a big issue, right? People are worried about a coming doc shortage under OCare.
So I think it's useful for people to know that, apparently, the place to go for first-class head-trauma treatment is the Dominican Republic.
My senator Menendez went for some kind of head trauma himself.
He's an unpatriotic outsourcer of jobs.
Who was "self-assured" about a Romney victory? I don't remember that.
A lot of your commenters were quite self-assured about a Romney victory. Just look at the comments and electoral college predictions in the weeks leading up to the election and the utter shock that the results caused for more than a few commenters. Let's not drop those items into the memory hole. They are far too humorous to be cast aside like that!
Let's not drop those items into the memory hole.
No. Let's toss them over the fiscal cliff.
It's weird how the only thing your side seems happy about in victory is how depressed your opponents are about it. It's as if you don't expect any substantive benefits from the wise policies Obama laid out before us during his noble campaign.
The Obama reelection feels like the O.J. Simpson criminal verdict. Flat out wrong, and not getting better with age. That is the big punch in the gut of 2012.
The especial verve with which you linked to polls, no matter how nutty, indicating Romney as "alpha", has not gone down the rabbit hole. I don't remember much in the way of serious acknowledgment that Obama could win (let alone an acknowledgment that Silver might know what he was doing).
Of course, compared to your commenters, somefeller is right. Compared to their level of Seven Machos-ness, you were very much of the "who knows what will happen?" persuasion.
Also, based on your blogging throughout the election seasons, the following seems highly suspect:
"once the results are known, it becomes dull. When the game is over, you go home. You don't stay in the bleachers analyzing what happened.
The show is still on TV, because it's a TV show. But why are you watching?"
First of all, I assume the last question is rhetorical, since you don't of course know whether I watched. But second and far more "interesting," is the extreme suspension of disbelief required to take seriously the idea of you responding to a Romney victory with the same line.
Are we supposed to believe you wouldn't have "blogged" Romney's acceptance speech, or Obama's concession speech? Or media responses to a Romney victory?
Oh, we expect plenty of good things, Chip. Those were stated during the campaign, but they include a couple of Supreme Court Justices and the implementation of Obamacare as a permanent part of American life, like the New Deal. But the comment I was responding to related to the topic of forgotten predictions, so I was focusing on that.
Sorry about the interruption, please continue with your regularly-scheduled lamentations.
A hundred years from now, Obama will be a footnote in the history books, unless he actually is the one who manages to destroy the country. Then he'll merit more than a footnote. So it's likely that he's ephemeral, too. The young people of the early 22nd Century will just know him as another name on the list of American presidents, no different from Hoover or Carter or Wilson.
is how depressed your opponents are about it.
Change "depressed" to "delusional."
If you want All Obama Worship/All The Time there are other blogs out there you can visit.
I wish the consequence of the Obama election, was mitigated by desires of some here, to have the other side adknowledge, massage and do some kind of penance for having lost...
If that was the case, if such a thing were possible, I would volunteer to sacrifice myself and bring it up at the first prompting... from now until his last day in office.
However... the desires of the victors to enjoy, in their eyes, a 'proper' reaction from the vanquished here, have very little to do with the horrors we are made to endure at the behest of king Obama for another four years.
So forgive me if I don't dwell on your victory.
"Just look at the comments and electoral college predictions in the weeks leading up to the election and the utter shock that the results caused for more than a few commenters. Let's not drop those items into the memory hole. They are far too humorous to be cast aside like that!"
I think people always knew they were guessing and hoping. I don't think there was assurance. We were just looking at polls, trying to figure out what was happening.
Ann Althouse said...
I think people always knew they were guessing and hoping. I don't think there was assurance. We were just looking at polls, trying to figure out what was happening.
And thinking, "no, the American people couldn't be stupid enough to re-elect him." But nobody ever went broke overestimating the intelligence of the American people.
As an observer of the Althouse blog, I think 2012 marked some changes in the commentariat.
The emergence of harrogate, phx, and somefeller as the neo-Sullivanists.
Ritmo has lost his mojo as the alpha Sullivanist, compared to years past.
This year on Althouse also saw the rise of Inga and the demise of Trooper York.
Meade has noticeably reduced his profile; Ruth Anne has slightly raised hers.
Fen is MIA.
I miss vbspurs though she's not gone gone.
Darcy, readeriam, Ron, Pete, XWL, Jason, Haz, Beth, Sissy, Amba, and a host of other FTA'ers are much scarcer here now and thus more precious in my view; they are Tweeters and FBers now.
A legacy Althouse commenter, Internet Ronin passed away earlier this year. Gotta wonder how often that happens.
We were just looking at polls, trying to figure out what was happening.
No, not really. In fact, not even close. You cherry picked your polls which, in effect, is the opposite of "trying to figure out what was happening."
Wishful thinking, yes. Critical thinking, no.
You know what's really gone down the memory hole? The way that libs never talked about anything during the election campaign except polls. They kept yapping about "leading in the polls" as if that somehow demonstrated the superiority of Obama's "platform". The reason for that, of course, was that Obama ran on absolutely nothing except his ritual invocation of the magical powers of taxing "millionairesandbillionaires".
So it was only natural for cons to take the bait by responding to the damn foolishness with polls more to their liking.
Nobody said anything about the glories of Obamacare for the simple reason that it polled dreadfully. Of course, those polls were only pointed out by delusional cons. We did, however, hear all about Seamus the Dog and Romney the Tax Cheat.
Speaking only for myself, my hope that Silver's method of aggregation was wrong was based on my preference for believing in the ultimate rationality of the US electorate.
No more.
I know the feeling of assurance that there is always something to write about, that each day brings a new set of topics, but I'm puzzled, at year end, at the what could have mattered. 5,000 things?!
Lol. You mean other than the conservative obsession with all things Obama?
Like Althouse was asking the other day, why was it so important for David Gregory to have his prop?
I would ask why is it so important for some people here to rub our faces on this past election?
I mean, do they know something we dont? Was this the last election ever? are they looking forward to the end of the United States as we know it and this was their last chance at playing and winning a super bowl election... so because there isn't going to be another, they have to keep talking about it?
Are they, subconsciously maybe, unsure of what they've done and seek validation?
Yea... you guys were right... Romney would have been a disaster?
Why is it so hard to enjoy money we are never going to pay back?
Funny all along I was thinking the American electorate could not possibly be stupid enough to put a Republican in the White House again.
73% percent of Asians
71% of Hispanics
93% of Blacks
45% of Women
And 53% of Americans felt the same way I did.
But, but, but, Inga... the electorate, according to Rove and Romney, was supposed to be getting whiter!
Lol.
Ann,
Did you try looking at your tags in that "cloud" formation? Sometimes interesting ideas emerge when your tags are visually sized to the frequency of use.
Speak of the angels...
This tread would have been incomplete w/o Inga.
The one note wonder.
Yeah and how many times did we hear that America is right of center?
Ann,
Did you try looking at your tags in that "cloud" formation? Sometimes interesting ideas emerge when your tags are visually sized to the frequency of use.
Thats what I was suggesting @3:06
Yeah and how many times did we hear that America is right of center?
There are not that many people in Omaha.
O Ritmo Segundo said...
But, but, but, Inga... the electorate, according to Rove and Romney, was supposed to be getting whiter!
You know Ritmo, you challenged me a while ago to find that comment of yours where you celebrated the browning of America. I'm usually not wrong about links and recollections. The problem is that you've made it hard to search for your comments because you've changed your handle so frequently in the past:
Montana Urban Legend
O Ritmo Secondo
Ritmo Reanimated, etc.
I'll find it one day.
Inga said...
And 53% of Americans felt the same way I did.
You mean 50.6%, unless you think this is 2008. Which, I suppose, you might.
But I'll give you credit for your choice of verb...felt. That's a pretty good election wrap-up.
Obama, 51%
Romney, 47%, fitting ain't it?
You know, we probably should postpone the fiscal cliff, until after the inauguration.
Why are we going to soil the ceremonies and celebrations parties talking about money and where are we going to find it?
Let the democrats party with peace of mind I say.
Yeah and how many times did we hear that America is right of center?
30 of 50 Governorships
30 of 48 State Upper Houses
28 of 49 State Lower Houses
Outside of the WH, and the Senate, Democrats don't run as much as Republicans currently do.
You also forget the front graphic on the NYT with the interactive map ... the one with many more little red arrows than blue ones?
EMD, maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part, but I suspect that will change drastically in 2014 and 2016.
The Republicans are going to take the blame for this fiscal cliff debacle, it's going to hurt them even more than their stance on social issues did. But hey what do I know?
But I'll give you credit for your choice of verb...felt. That's a pretty good election wrap-up.
Orange felt hats like Inga's were once made using mercuric nitrate salts in a process called carroting (for obvious reasons). Hat makers notoriously suffered brain/nerve damage due to chronic mercury exposure.
Obama, 51%
Romney, 47%, fitting ain't it?
If edutcher shows up and starts yapping about "Romney won in a landslide" but "Democrats stole the election," I'll know who to blame.
This is the year of Honey Boo Boo.
No more and no less.
Politics had just about nothing to do with my life during the past year. Doesn't matter much who's President. You folks are deluding yourself by thinking that it does.
The Old Dawgz got their act off the ground and my daughter is having a baby.
That's important stuff.
I'm semi-retired. The semi is because I'm ramping up my work as a church musician.
Every day I get up to a beautiful view of the mountains and woods in Woodstock, have my several cups of coffee and do my yoga.
That's important. The political bullshit is nonsense... just chatter to fill some time when I get tired of working.
Althouse says: I think people always knew they were guessing and hoping. I don't think there was assurance. We were just looking at polls, trying to figure out what was happening.
So in other words, they were spinning and acting on emotion. Fair enough. But let's note this example next time we hear some conservative babble about how liberals act on emotion and engage in spin while conservatives do neither such thing.
I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a grand plan to take back the state houses, just sayin'.
I gave you folks here so much warning about social and women's issues, no one here listened to me. I feel vindicated.
My grandfather (1885-1977), a colonel in military intel who eventually spent a number of years as our CIA station chief in southern South America after WW2, always told me "What makes the news rarely makes history, and what makes history rarely makes the news."
In that spirit, here are a few much-under-covered things (in no priority of order) from 2012 which might actually be significant over the decades.
a) China's foreign-policy ham-handedness effectively unified its neighbours both militarily and economically.
b) India made large strides towards fielding a powerful blue-water navy, most of it indigenously designed and built.
c) Economic development in both India and China lifted tens of millions out of poverty for the first time.
d) Researchers developped a system for detecting amyloid plaques in the brain decades before they trigger dementia.
e) Adult stem cells were used to generate functional organ tissue which could supplement or replace diseased or injured organs.
f) Despite concerted opposition from the federal government, the US energy revolution began to go parabolic, especially shale gas. The ultimate effect on both trade deficit and federal deficit will be substantial, to say nothing of marginalising a number of decidedly not-nice nations.
g) The banking system in France deteriorated quite badly, already placing hard constraints on the government. France has begun to abandon its traditional spheres of influence in northern Africa, destabilising the entire region.
h) Central banks around the world discovered that their Keynesian pumping efforts are largely ineffective because in a de-leveraging world "velocity" has fallen apart. They do not dare admit that their most aggressive efforts have failed.
I could come up with quite a few more.
Well, I should clarify, no conservatives listened to me, liberals knew what was happening.
chickelit says: As an observer of the Althouse blog, I think 2012 marked some changes in the commentariat. The emergence of harrogate, phx, and somefeller as the neo-Sullivanists.
Thank you for your close attention to my comments. But what exactly is the difference between a Sullivanist and a neo-Sullivanist? I'd prefer to be thought of as the former, as that sounds more old school.
One of the most amazing things about the past year is that, even in the midst of a contentious election, my bandmates and I didn't discuss politics once.
Not once.
We always had better things to talk about. We laughed a lot over our self-designation as Dawgz. If we argued over something, it was about who got to sing which song, and which song we were gonna do.
I know that we have political differences, but it just didn't seem to matter. Even when we got together with the wives and families, we didn't talk about politics.
I've been playing with Big Joe for 7 years, and I really have never had a serious political discussion with him. We talk about raising kids, and our kindred experiences as church musicians, and bicycle riding.
I just don't see politics as that important. In particular, I don't see the political identification of my closest friends as being of any importance.
You know Ritmo, you challenged me a while ago to find that comment of yours where you celebrated the browning of America.
Who cares the color? Oh, that's right -- you do.
So forgive me for making fun of it. White, brown, black, yellow, whatever. As long as it's less boring and stupid.
Yes, I will make fun of those who have a problem with demographics becoming less boring, uptight and predictable. So you can decide, for yourself, whether you fall into that same category as Rove and Romney and the others who took their whiteness (as irrelevant to anything as it is) as if it should be some default standard for all America for all time, at least until they fell on their sword for it on election night.
Now go eat some Wonder Bread and celebrate the boring consistency and lack of hue variation that has been bleached out of it.
You are such a goofball.
I gave you folks here so much warning about social and women's issues, no one here listened to me. I feel vindicated.
I'm trying to tell you, nicely, Inga, that you're obsession with being right about these things is bullshit.
Let it go. It's bullshit.
Being right and two bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
You didn't get elected to a political office. I can't understand how your ego is so wrapped up in this bullshit.
Now go eat some Wonder Bread and celebrate the boring consistency and lack of hue variation that has been bleached out of it.
You are such a goofball.
And, you're a pasty faced white boy, Racist Ritmo.
What in God's name makes you blow shit out your ass like this?
You are so profoundly stupid, and so pathetically unaware of it.
ST, you've been yammering on about Old Dawgs all thread, yet you talk to me of ego?
I'm glad you're howling with the Dawgs ST, perhaps that will mellow your rage a bit.
Thank you for your close attention to my comments. But what exactly is the difference between a Sullivanist and a neo-Sullivanist?
Old school Sullivanists (like Ritmo) were the ones with the PDS creds. I actually didn't notice you in that regard. Are you self-identifying?
I'm glad you're howling with the Dawgs ST, perhaps that will mellow your rage a bit.
Don't have any rage, Inga. That's your constant fabrication. You've got this peculiar notion that having certain political opinions is a sign that you are a virtuous person.
This is utter nonsense, Inga.
What I do have is a life.
Apparently, you don't.
What in God's name makes you blow shit out your ass like this?
Why the comment it was made in response to, you goofy douchebag! (Namely, chicklit's comment).
You are so profoundly stupid, and so pathetically unaware of it.
It takes someone much stupider than me to not understand how cause and effect works. Luckily, you seem up to the job.
Yep, we can always rely on you to not understand what came first. Isn't there a Sesame Street episode that can explain this phenomenon to you?
How do you know this ST? You are on Althhouse more than I am. Does that mean you have no life ?
Let's be mellow tonight, hmmm, can ya do it?
Racist Ritmo, your White Uncle Tom act has got to go.
I suspect you don't know a single black person.
I'm pretty sure you live in a lilly white environment.
Quit pretending otherwise.
You are a lilly white pasty faced white boy, Racist Ritmo. Your political opinions don't do anything for minorities. I seriously doubt whether you do anything for minorities.
When are you going to cease these sordid nonsense?
Chickie - Please stop acting so socially impaired. No one, I mean, no one uses the made-up term "Sullivanist". No one.
Not even people who have reason to object to his writing about their many lies.
Inga, you keep playing the "people who disagree with me are filled with rage" bullshit.
No, they're not. They just disagree with you.
I'm taking a break from learning my new recording studio. When I'm done, I'll go back to work.
You didn't get elected to office, Inga. The last election did not represent a personal accomplishment on your part.
My take away from the year is that people are being forced to choose a position. There is less and less fence riding. This seems to be true about everything. Not just politics or religion, but those for sure. I spent the year examining and clarifying my position on almost everything.
Thomas, I'm starting to wonder if Myrna died just to get away from you.
You are that annoying.
Old school Sullivanists (like Ritmo) were the ones with the PDS creds. I actually didn't notice you in that regard. Are you self-identifying?
Thanks for the clarification. Is PDS some sort of a Palin-related thing? If so, I haven't spent much time on her. I said back in 2008 that she wouldn't be the GOP nominee and that's how it turned out. And she is now a well-paid reality TV celebrity icon for the prole set (just echoing the Paul Fussell conversation from earlier today), so she got what she wanted and good for her for that. Capitalism works!
Racist Ritmo, I'm fed up with lilly white boys like you pretending to be concerned with saving the minorities.
That stupidity has gotten very old. You speak for absolutely nobody but Racist Ritmo. Got it?
You are starting to disintegrate into the usual viciousness. That's probably a good sign. It's a chink in the armor of your intense stupidity.
ST, my accomplishment was not to be tone deaf. As a musician you should be able to appreciate that.
Ritmo, while I probably agree with you more than I do ST (though perhaps not regarding art and music), that was a low blow. And I'm not one to pull a punch.
It's a chink in the armor of your intense stupidity.
Tell us, once again, about the amazing accomplishments you've uncovered in the fields of pharmaceutical research and biochemistry.
We await your tall tales. Enthrall us with the genius that is your sputtering boasts of how you cured, singlehandedly, every ailment under the sun!
And then tell us how you did that while declaring that basic biological concepts are either irrelevant or non-existent.
You really don't realize what a joke you are, do you?
People weren't "tone deaf."
People have different self-interests than you do.
People who voted for Romney voted for him because they thought he would best serve their self-interest. I suspect they weren't thinking of anything else.
When I voted, I didn't spend a second thinking about social issues, racial issues, foreign policy, etc.
I thought solely about which candidates best served my self-interest and the interest of my family. That's it.
Republicans serve the self-interest of people you don't like. That's clear. Why you think that is so important is a mystery to me.
You're collapsing into hysteria, Racist Ritmo.
That's probably a good start.
I've come to realize that there's no blow low enough for ST, somefeller. Believe me, I'm decent enough to have hesitated for a while on that one. But he's a bully, plain and simple. And bullies don't respond to anything but being bullied back.
Also, it's probably true.
Can you imagine what it would be like to live with that guy? Being constantly worshipped by someone too unhinged to ever stop complaining about how the world is against him, and his only salvation is sharing everything about himself with someone who merely happens to be above that kind of nonsensical psychological destructiveness?
I can't. But he found someone who could. Miracle of miracles.
But I shouldn't be expected to perpetuate that kind of security from what the real world thinks of someone who's as much of a deranged, raving asshole as he.
"When I voted, I didn't spend a second thinking about social issues, racial issues, foreign policy."
12/29/12 7:19 PM
Yes exactly. You said it.
No, you're not decent, Racist Ritmo.
Not at all.
Yes exactly. You said it.
And, your problem with that?
As I said, I vote solely for what I think best serves my self-interest and the interest of my family.
I don't pretend, like you, that I'm serving some great moral end.
You're lying when you do that.
You'll forgive me if I decline to take you as an expert in decency, Mr. Thomas.
"But he's a bully, plain and simple. And bullies don't respond to anything but being bullied back."
Yes exactly so.
Lots of bullies inhabit Althouse land, they don't like it when the shoe is on the other foot. It's a lesson in the Law of Reciprocity.
Maybe so, Ritmo. I personally think it's best to keep wives and children out of the conversation unless they jump in or are invoked by a party to prove a point, but this is your fight. I'll stand back and let the two of you hash it out.
Anyway, toying with chickelit and asking Althouse thought-provoking questions is more enjoyable.
O Ritmo Segundo said...
Thomas, I'm starting to wonder if Myrna died just to get away from you."
That has to be of the worst comments ever made here on this blog. Just vile.
I would respectfully request that you rethink that and delete it.
Lots of bullies inhabit Althouse land, they don't like it when the shoe is on the other foot. It's a lesson in the Law of Reciprocity.
Now, you're about to start into your nightly martyrdom play acting, Inga.
No, you're not being martyred.
Your point is well-taken, somefeller. And even if people volunteer sensitive information, one should decline from pointing out what it could reveal, negatively, about them.
But fair's fair, so enough with Thomas. Chickie will at least listen to reason and Althouse has a reputation to think of. Attributes that certain, er, others aren't constrained by.
Best to ignore them. And thanks for reminding us of the better angels of one's nature, and the more enjoyable spirit of a good joust with someone able to channel it.
Cheers -
I would respectfully request that you rethink that and delete it.
Let him leave it. It's quintessential Racist Ritmo. Let him be seen for what he is.
That tactic has been played on me so often I've lost count.
Respect and decency are not part of Racist Ritmo's character. He's a dumb kid.
My goodness, last year when one of Troopers loyal commenters said the exact same thing to me about my husband, Baron didn't as a word. Nor did ST. No calls to remove the content.
That comment is the perfect illustration of what we have become. Both here in this space and in general.
It is sad.
Nor did ST. No calls to remove the content.
Don't want Racist Ritmo to remove it.
Leave it.
ST, no one plays the martyr as well as you, you are the master, I sit at your feet and learn.
I would respectfully request that you rethink that and delete it.
A standard that the person it was directed toward would never lower himself to.
So no, I won't delete it.
But I would, if that person, ever, ever showed an ounce of humility and fallibility, ever.
The sword one lives by is one hell of a harsh one, no? But I can't speak for the double-standards that others would prefer to guide their conduct.
Yes, it IS sad.
I will break my rule and address you Inga just this once.
I did not see that comment Inga but if I did I would have said the same thing.
This is not about you. For once please don't make it about you. Can you do that?
Respect and decency are not part of Racist Ritmo's character. He's a dumb kid.
Let the record show that I have no respect for someone as indecent as Shouting Thomas.
If I am wrong then I humbly request any evidence that anyone can bring forward showing anything decent about him. I will be glad to ask him what I should make of it.
ST, no one plays the martyr as well as you, you are the master, I sit at your feet and learn.
Bullshit, I've led a great life. Absolutely no complaints. I've done just about everything I've wanted to do. Played with my childhood musician heroes. Known amazing people. Travelled all over the world.
And, I'm leading a great life right now.
You're grasping for straws, Inga.
Baron, you have inserted yourself into this conversation, I'm responding as I see fit, it's about decency.
Let the record show that I have no respect for someone as indecent as Shouting Thomas.
I choose my enemies carefully, Ritmo.
It's no accident.
But if ST doesn't care I guess it does not matter.
Except it shows exactly who everyone really is in their heart.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Bullshit, I've led a great life.
If true, too bad it made you into such a little, arrogant, ignorant and angry person.
Which is why we doubt it. You sure haven't learned any of the things anyone claiming to have lived a "great life" would have learned.
ST, I'm not grasping a all, you make it easy. I actually feel bad about some of the go rounds we've had, but then you come back and say and act as if you haven't a moral fiber in your entire being. What gives with you?
Let the record show that I would also consider Thomas indecent separately from any of his tribal "enemies"-making proclamations he makes toward me. His indecency is something I can objectively note. Yes his creepiness makes him find a way to personalize everything, but my observation has nothing to do with his Nixonian sense of retribution.
Ritmo, I actually have some hope of dragging you out of the thicket of propaganda and duplicity in which you are trapped.
Or else I wouldn't be wasting my time.
Back to work!
Happy New Year!
Then why not try reason, if you believe you are so right? That's how one distinguishes "propaganda" from truth.
If you are so right, (which is different from "feeling" right) - then you would try to be reasonable.
But instead we get these quickly shifting changes in mood from enragement to condescension.
Don't you think there's a cognitive limitation that all that makes for? Is it the way to be reasonable?
Are you able to answer that honestly?
Well! That was interesting, revealing and perhaps cleared the air a bit.
Back to work!
Oh, ok. So there goes the painstaking effort to reform me. And I thought you were serious, there, for a moment.
Such a tease.
Life goes on.
ST, howlin' with them Old Dawgs!
Out with the old and in with the new in the spirit of change, forward! 2013 will prove to be a very intersting year, I think.
I have no idea what 2013 will bring, other than less hassles (I hope) and more skepticism with various electronics manufacturers and service providers.
Also, more growth in savings and investments. That will be nice.
And, what I can learn from others. I appreciate what both somefeller and Baron Zemo had to say tonight and would like to perpetuate the spirit proposed by the latter.
Happy New Year indeed!
The double dip recession will certainly be interesting. Good times for Obama's precious shrinking middle class. No mention of the vast and growing poor.
I don't know about everyone else, but over the last year, I have witnessed a record number of homeless people in my area/surrounding area.
I have witnessed a record number of homeless people in my area/surrounding area.
And I'm sure your thoughts as to how they were not paying enough taxes or otherwise pulling their fair share were very comforting to them, April.
It was the 47% dontcha know?
No one, I mean, no one uses the made-up term "Sullivanist". No one.
I'm not certain of its coinage, but it's in the vernacular: Sullivanist
Urban Dictionary will be next.
Be sure to turn the lights out when you're done.
No Ritmo - People can't find work.
There is no work.
That's a good thing for the heartless power hungry democrats.
Never let a crisis go to waste.
Opportune that Obama gave millions upon millions to his Billionaire donors and cronies in that boondoggle called "stimulus".
Abound Solar, started by Billionaire democrat Pat Stryker, is under investigation for fraud. She received her share of "stimulus" millions.
I hear Obama is gaming for a new stimulus. Pay to play, baby.
I don't think Obama gives a rip about the economy or the poorest among us. He's playing golf in Hawaii.
Oh really? Did the Congressional leaders meet with him on Friday in Hawaii or the Whitehouse?
"Abound Solar, the defunct solar-panel manufacturer, is under criminal investigation for possible securities fraud, consumer fraud and financial misrepresentation, the Weld County district attorney's office said Thursday.
Loveland-based Abound [started by billionaire Democrat donor Pat Stryker] closed its Colorado plant in July and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in a move that left 125 workers without jobs and taxpayers holding the bag for up to $60 million in defaulted loans."
60 million! No wonder Obama wants tax hikes. Someone must pay.
51% want more of this. Incredible.
Was in Hawaii/ is heading back to Hawaii. Those trips are expensive too.
April Apple, he flew back to Washington on the night of the 26th. When did he fly back to Hawaii? Link please, I can't find any info to confirm that he flew back to Hawaii again.
Oh boy. Expecting accuracy from April.
This should be interesting.
@AprilApril: I think the Obamas sincerely believe that conspicuous consumption sends the right sort of message to a faultering economy. I also think it's a D.C. thing as they are in the midst of a terrific run on all things economic--employment, housing prices, etc. They are seeking emulation without seriously thinking it through. I mean, the man can't be bothered with murder rates in his erstwhile hometown. It must be a crafted facade is all I can come up with.
Maybe he's not going back. We will see. Whatever. Kind of small potatoes in the grand scheme of the economic crap sandwich we are all forced to eat.
Chick - can you translate that into English, please?
The motives you project onto Obama sound too abstruse to be intentionally malevolent. You reduce him to a very technocratic actor, but it's within a scenario that is so dry anyway, that I think you can't help but to do so.
April, I guess it was just fun saying he was in Hawaii golfing, huh?
Kind of small potatoes in the grand scheme of the economic crap sandwich we are all forced to eat.
Can we not abolish the 22nd amendment and re-elect W. Bush right now, please?
Obviously he's so much more adept with the economic fairy dust that Republicans believe in and could have turned around the big huge crappy mess he made just as easily as it took him to get into it.. by snapping his fingers!
Voila.
Inga - I did find his vacation photos.
note the little slider bar at the bottom.
Entitlement intellectualized:
"Why does it take Democrats so long to get out of the catastrophic economic messes that Republicans create?"
It's funny how they lionize the ad hocisms of Shlaes and her similar take on the Great Depression. But that's uncanny how that happened.
Perhaps she published her revisionist history just in time to anticipate the financial crisis. She knew in advance that the Democrats wouldn't want to do anything about the Republican-created recession.
Or so Republicans might have us believe.
So damn arrogant. And to think, this is the second time in less than a hundred years that they did it.
It really is unbelievable.
Yes Ritmo - Democrats and especially Obama, have zero responsibility. It was Bush's stimulus!
"Right, it was exhaustion. Because had the results gone the other way, she and so many of the comments also would have simply "checked out"? Maybe. But after all the self-assured yammering about Romney's forthcoming victory, I sincerely doubt it."
Who was "self-assured" about a Romney victory? I don't remember that.
As for "checking out," once the results are known, it becomes dull. When the game is over, you go home. You don't stay in the bleachers analyzing what happened.
Not exhaustion as Althouse was depressed and went to bed.
My observation of the entire scene tells me Romney will have a decisive win. ~ Althouse
>
You don't stay in the bleachers analyzing what happened.
hmm, isn't that what Althouse does daily to the point of ad nauseam minutia? Rhetorical.
Indeed, as Althouse is 24/7 anti-Obama in her never ending quest to appease her 90/10 con flock and Obama cleaning Willard's clock on election night didn't fit that meme/theme lol.
It's that basic.
Again, all Althouse really cares about is blog hits so 2013 should be a banner year as her con flock will continue to need a shoulder to cry ...
How did I know that April's links would be tainted?
I almost felt a little dirty at the idea of opening it. And then, once I did, lo and behold... official-looking photos, web-design, and even URL.
And then you look at the tremendous number of embedded "parody" pages.
It goes to show you how they believe the types of things that they believe.
And how no one stopped this.
Tainted. lol. It says at the very top "Not the White House".
It's a light hearted parody.
In fact on the right side it says "Parody".
The best part of the prematurely ejaculated Romney-as-President website is how they had an "apply online" section for parties interested in joining his administration.
I also remember a section on nominees/cabinet that went through a basic explanation of the branches of government and how appointments work and what they do. It was elementary/remedial-level instruction at its finest.
And I assume all for the benefit of the incredibly well-informed Tea Party.
Maybe it's me, but I find it more convenient now that Ephemera is available over-the-counter.
Yes very funny April. I'm sure many believed it was the real thing, even with the disclaimer at the bottom.
Ritmo, that President Romney website gave me a cold chill. I can only imagine what the next 4 years would be like.
Chick - can you translate that into English, please?
Sure. I think he or his advisors think it might be very bad to project austerity in a time of austerity. That is too Carteresque. So project affluence instead in the hope that it will catch on.
As for the economic D.C. bubble he, his handlers, and his sycophantic press admirers live in, I'd refer you to McArdle (she only wrote about the bubble, not the press' attitudes).
"I'm excited about our prospects as a nation. My priority is putting people back to work in America."
omg. How creepy. Romney wanted to get people back to work. *Shiver*
Good thing Obama is working hard in the opposite direction.
April, the real Romney was the one who was giving his 47% talk to his campaign contributors. THAT sunk him, don't you realize this? He is a plutocrat and does not care if the middle class or poor are decimated unless the poverty would trickle UP to hurt his constituents, of which you and I and most Americans don't belong to.
But hey, keep on seeing yourself as someone who's interests he cares about. And don't believe me, I'm a liberal. Why did I bother typing this?
Ann already linked to this I think.
You voted for him. Enjoy.
Careful Ritmo, the link is tainted.
The election is over, Inga. You won.
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