Althouse: At the Road-to-Hell Café...

January 22, 2013

At the Road-to-Hell Café...

... we've got nothing but good intentions.

32 comments:

chickelit said...: It looks paved with good indentations.; 1/22/13, 9:31 PM
Anonymous said...: Looks like the road to hell is gonna bust your butt if you fall on that ice.; 1/22/13, 9:32 PM
Unknown said...: On of the better known features of the road to hell is it's propensity to bust your butt.
Been there done that.; 1/22/13, 9:34 PM
Michael K said...: When I first looked at this, I thought it said "Good intestines." It looks like it.; 1/22/13, 9:35 PM
chickelit said...: Trodden ice paths are the first traced and the last erased.

All that pressure of walking on the snow turned the micro structure into denser ice which requires more heat to melt than the surrounding snow. That's why it's last to go.; 1/22/13, 9:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Haha, good intestines, always the doctor:); 1/22/13, 9:39 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: There are tunnels on The Road To Hell... didn't see any tolls however.; 1/22/13, 9:59 PM
Wince said...: I prefer not to recycle comments, but this is the most repugnant thing I have seen in a long time on so many levels.

And it's supposed to be a pro Roe v. Wade ad from the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Happy Anniversary, Baby.

Talk about the Road to Hell.; 1/22/13, 10:06 PM
edutcher said...: Where I went to school, the tagline always was, "and you've got a 4 lane one way highway".

PS Insta has a couple of interesting posts.

One shows how much the Romster has already been vindicated.

The other how Commandante Zero has started using that magical phrase, "Peace in our time".; 1/22/13, 10:19 PM
Penny said...: Pretty nasty looking stretch there.

I think I'll focus on the SPRING in Zeus's step.; 1/22/13, 10:19 PM
Palladian said...: Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ché la diritta via era smarrita.; 1/22/13, 10:20 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The road to hell is paved with mixed metaphors.; 1/22/13, 10:48 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The road to hell has a metal detector.; 1/22/13, 10:57 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: A closer look reveals a firewood pile holder...

It makes total sense.; 1/22/13, 11:01 PM
Emil Blatz said...: Colder 'n a well digger's ass!; 1/22/13, 11:50 PM
gadfly said...: Gates of Vienna has been blown up by Google Blogspot. Something about a terms of service complaint. The Baron and Dymphna are moving to Wordpress and gatesofvienna.net.

All very strange. Watch out for Obama's friends at Google, Althouse.; 1/23/13, 12:08 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I have determined through my despair broadcast as it were here that William Frank Buckley Junior is something worthy.

The film that depicts that really doesn't need much more than a director that read Buckley and wants to make money from those that watched Buckley or read Buckley over his 5600 thing-a-ma-jigs or 33 years of WhoHows or 50 odd (or not as they say) Aces of Forticular Fortitude: Those Surpassing Keppler's Ledge.; 1/23/13, 12:28 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: Speaking of .. a very bad day today starting with a phone call.

The caller was so nice, but I am not. The conversation recalled an unpleasant thing that is another dreadful story that happened last month. I have no patience left and say so and things go to hell after that and I'm marked as a crackpot. And I am.

Then off to a Dr. appt. Headed out but smelled gasoline at my truck. The gas tank to my truck was siphoned leaving it empty. Had I not noticed, I'd have been in real trouble. The tank was locked, but the locking cap was wrenched broken with a tool. The smell indicated the deed was recent.

Takers gonna take. Is all that I though. I assumed another Obama voter. That's how bad my crackpotism has become.

And I thought, as I arrived onetime despite the setback, if the nurse who knows me so well hands me a clipboard with a form to fill out, just leave and come home.

She did hand me a clipboard. "Really?" and I angrily tossed it back and told her I'm sorry, I just don't have patience for that anymore. And left. But was called right back. No problem. And then after that it was all,

"OH MY GOD I LOVE YOUR GREEN PANTS" over an dover an dover.

I mentioned to my doctor an item on one of the blogs we all read, about electronic healthcare records leading to doctors becoming input clerks. And the whole time he agreed a locked onto that like how perceptive a topic to bring up, he was interested in that subject and said, yes, that is happening to him too, and expanded graciously.

I continued by recalling a comment to that item by another doctor like himself who took what I thought an unusual approach that didn't seem to me to add up. He claimed to be a family doctor who does not accept insurance, charges $600.00 a year and $20.00 each visit, maybe it was $50.00, at either rate, it seemed too low to work. And all his clients love it. Says he. And that led to other things about my own doctor's doctorly business doings.

When I told him then I do not comprehend and I do not accept why sixteen trillion dollars doesn't snap somebody right out of their partisan fog his response was so insouciant, so insipid, so stupid and simultaneously offensively aggressive my impulse was to punch him right in the face.

He shrugged and dismissed sixteen trillion dollars by appealing to authority, the worst most idiotic authority of all and buttressed with another authority, one so devalued it's cynical to cite it.

Krugman. Nobel in Economics. Don't you know anything about economics? Why, that's Economics 101.

"I have my degree in economics and I made straight A's, worse than that, I smoked pot through the whole thing just so I could sit there and read their books and listen to their boringass lectures and mind-numbingly boringass theories, and bother their boringass graphs. And I smoked pot before each exam too just to dumb down enough to take them. Even Keynes didn't believe in Keynesian economics. To cede your own thinking to those two authorities is shocking."

So our conversation ended abruptly and we both think much worse of each other.

But. Contrary to all that, the apple turnovers yesterday were a gigantic hit with the ladies and they were so filled with glee and effused expressive appreciation today. And the nurse who drew blood beamed with pride and affection when I mentioned, "Damn, you are really good at this." She patted herself on her own back so I patted her back more vigorously and she radiated, and I mean radiated and said, "Thank you, Chip, he *nods head* (her boss) never says anything.; 1/23/13, 12:30 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Literally, I would not indulge in patronage of those that use the term "progressive" or its variants in describing their business unless I meant some sort of dingus advancement.; 1/23/13, 12:38 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Any Hitchens write anything like that?

We know the dehumanizer-in-Chief C. Hitchenthensome called Ronald Reagan what the terrified everchild called him.

This, because of things that haven't been challenged and so horrendous if such accusations were made, unwarranted, the Heavens would forever echo with the deafness of silence.; 1/23/13, 12:41 AM
Anonymous said...: It looks like a typical Madison street weeks after a snowstorm.; 1/23/13, 3:18 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Wyo sis, my husband is not from Wyoming but did attend graduate school there (UW), as well as undergrad in another cold Rocky Mountain state, and he has told me repeatedly about the treacherous ice paths and that everyone, no exceptions, wound up sprawled on the ground after their feet went out from under them sooner or later. He says its a pleasantly humbling experience as long as you don't land directly on your tailbone, then it just sucks.; 1/23/13, 6:31 AM
Clyde said...: My favorite crime story at The Smoking Gun.com is the bank robber up in Alaska who used a hammer for his stickup. He went into the bank, pulled out a hammer and demanded money, threatening to hit the teller. The cops picked up up a few blocks away, sitting on a bench. The funniest part?

While in custody at the FBI’s Anchorage office, Rice asked if he could make a statement. He then noted that he “wanted to be released so that he could leave the country to serve his god.” Rice, who is being held in an Anchorage jail, is scheduled for an initial appearance this afternoon in U.S. District Court.

And which god might that be? Given the hammer, Clyde is guessing Thor.; 1/23/13, 6:36 AM
Paco Wové said...: "Something about a terms of service complaint"

More insidious than that, from what I can tell.

Google has received a Terms of Service complaint regarding malicious code on your blog.

And poof! Blog gone. Although it sounds like it was just as capriciously restored a day or two later.; 1/23/13, 6:56 AM
Rusty said...: EDH said...
I prefer not to recycle comments, but this is the most repugnant thing I have seen in a long time on so many levels.

And it's supposed to be a pro Roe v. Wade ad from the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Happy Anniversary, Baby.

Talk about the Road to Hell.

The only thing missing were the horns.; 1/23/13, 7:11 AM
Clyde said...: Actually, Patterson Lake Road is the road to Hell. At least, it is if you're talking about the one in Michigan.; 1/23/13, 7:32 AM
Unknown said...: Erika
It's pleasantly humbling when you're young. When you get older you're already humble and then it's just plain scary. Good old UW. They never plow the streets there. At least that was true 100 years ago when I was young. It's a frontier self-reliance thing.; 1/23/13, 8:05 AM
Big Mike said...: If you're going to have to walk on icy paths in the winter then sign up for ju jitsu classes in the fall since the first thing they do is teach you how to fall without hurting yourself.; 1/23/13, 9:40 AM
Big Mike said...: As far as I'm concerned the road leading from Madison to Hell is certain to be an uphill path.; 1/23/13, 9:41 AM
Strelnikov said...: It looks like your good intentions are melting.; 1/23/13, 10:30 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: It was time to research carpet, so I did. Online there were horror stories about "big box stores."

"Oh my," I thought. "I wonder if these are true," and I set off to find out.

"They will charge you for an estimate!" Nope.
"They'll trick you on the labor. They won't tell you that the rate they give you is for you removing the old carpet and moving all the furniture." Nope. They told me that I could get free installation if I wanted to do that, but I said I didn't want to do that, so they gave me a labor estimate including that work.
"They'll quote it with a horrible pad, and you'll have to pay a bunch to upgrade it." Nope. I picked the pad, and they gave me the quote with the one I picked.
"They'll use an installer who doesn't know what he's doing." Nope. I met him. He knows what he's doing.
"The salesperson won't know anything about carpet." Nope. The salesman was a carpet installer for ten years.
"They'll trick you on the carpet and make it impossible to compare." Nope. The names at different places are different, but anyone can read a spec sheet.

As with any other subject, the Internet is full of nonsense.; 1/23/13, 11:35 AM
kentuckyliz said...: My distressed gut last night didn't turn into full blown illness, and I worked today. Was tired from getting up all night thinking I was going to get sick or explode on the terlet, but neither happened. So it was either bad restaurant food, or my flu shot kicked in and squelched a flu.; 1/23/13, 8:47 PM