I figured they did what my foreign friends do on July 4th.

Disco Stu wrote:

Houshphandzadeh wrote:It would be hard to notice and a strange question to ask.

Yeah, really hard to mention to your "Jewish" friends, "So, what do you guys do on Christmas as we engorge ourselves to an unholy extent with gifts and food?" I mean, I shutter at the thought...

shutter? (or shudder?)

Having grown up in a Jewish neighborhood, it was hard not to know that Jews go to chinese joints and to the movies on xmas. I even know that in some cities that they have the Matzoh Ball on Xmas eve.

Dammit, I want my presidential candidates to know all of the sterotypes so we can call him anti-semetic when he says that all Jews eat Chinese on Christmas.

The Red Tornado wrote:

Disco Stu wrote:

Houshphandzadeh wrote:It would be hard to notice and a strange question to ask.

Yeah, really hard to mention to your "Jewish" friends, "So, what do you guys do on Christmas as we engorge ourselves to an unholy extent with gifts and food?" I mean, I shutter at the thought...

shutter? (or shudder?)

Having grown up in a Jewish neighborhood, it was hard not to know that Jews go to chinese joints and to the movies on xmas. I even know that in some cities that they have the Matzoh Ball on Xmas eve.

Woodster, can I get a ruling here?

And I did the Matzoh Ball in NYC a couple of times. Hot jewish girls and dsp Jewish tools wearing shirts 2 sizes too small.

"shudder"

I didn't know anything about that tradition growing up in Richmond, VA. I didn't hear about it until I moved to NYC and a Chinese friend whose parents owned a restaurant told me about it.

Disco Stu wrote:

The Red Tornado wrote:

Disco Stu wrote:

Houshphandzadeh wrote:It would be hard to notice and a strange question to ask.

Yeah, really hard to mention to your "Jewish" friends, "So, what do you guys do on Christmas as we engorge ourselves to an unholy extent with gifts and food?" I mean, I shutter at the thought...

shutter? (or shudder?)

Having grown up in a Jewish neighborhood, it was hard not to know that Jews go to chinese joints and to the movies on xmas. I even know that in some cities that they have the Matzoh Ball on Xmas eve.

Woodster, can I get a ruling here?

And I did the Matzoh Ball in NYC a couple of times. Hot jewish girls and dsp Jewish tools wearing shirts 2 sizes too small.

The thing about the Matzoh Ball that always struck me as funny was when I saw the list of cities theyre held in, it was something like:

NYC
Philly
Boston
Chicago
LA
SanFran
DC
Miami
and
Boca Raton

lethal wrote:"shudder"

I didn't know anything about that tradition growing up in Richmond, VA. I didn't hear about it until I moved to NYC and a Chinese friend whose parents owned a restaurant told me about it.

Are you Woody? If not, then kep your rulings to yourself.

TenuredVulture wrote:

VoxOrion wrote:Huckabee bahaha

The candidate on his holiday plans: "We have an unusual tradition that after the Christmas Eve service, we go out and eat Chinese food."

Reporter: "Is that your effort to relate to the Jewish community?"

Candidate: "No, it's Chinese food."

Reporter: "A lot of Jewish people go for Chinese food on Christmas Eve."

Candidate: "Oh. We just like it and go out for it."

One of the surprising things about many evangelicals is their utter and complete ignorance of religion. They know nothing about other Protestant denominations (Presbyterian? What's that?) or Catholicism, not to mention Judaism or Islam.

They know next to nothing of their own tradition or denominational history. They don't even know they're Protestants.

Don't Evangelicals believe that Catholics are pagans?

I'll take Things One Should Avoid in a GOP Primary for $400, Alex.

Offending this hugely influencial talk show host, whose golden microphone reaches upwards of twenty million listeners a week, is probably a bad idea.

"Who is Rush Limbaugh?"

Rush responds

It's also funny to think that this story would never have happened, or at least would have happened in a much different manner without blogs and other such new things.

It had been too many pages since I last bashed Huckabee. I think Hillary's overdue for a swipe from someone too. It's important not to forget the things that matter most this holiday season, like posting about politics on BSG.

jerseyhoya wrote:I'll take Things One Should Avoid in a GOP Primary for $400, Alex.

Offending this hugely influencial talk show host, whose golden microphone reaches upwards of twenty million listeners a week, is probably a bad idea.

"Who is Rush Limbaugh?"

Rush responds

It's also funny to think that this story would never have happened, or at least would have happened in a much different manner without blogs and other such new things.

It had been too many pages since I last bashed Huckabee. I think Hillary's overdue for a swipe from someone too. It's important not to forget the things that matter most this holiday season, like posting about politics on BSG.

One day, people will see that Rush and his ilk have done more harm to conservatism than all the hippies and pornographers combined.

jerseyhoya wrote:I'll take Things One Should Avoid in a GOP Primary for $400, Alex.

Offending this hugely influencial talk show host, whose golden microphone reaches upwards of twenty million listeners a week, is probably a bad idea.

"Who is Rush Limbaugh?"

Rush responds

It's also funny to think that this story would never have happened, or at least would have happened in a much different manner without blogs and other such new things.

It had been too many pages since I last bashed Huckabee. I think Hillary's overdue for a swipe from someone too. It's important not to forget the things that matter most this holiday season, like posting about politics on BSG.

Ugh, you read the politico?

Disco Stu wrote:Ugh, you read the politico?

Not regularly. Link from elsewhere.

Rush is good at what he does. Listening to him isn't a substitute for reading Burke or Milton Friedman, but he fires up the troops and gives them a one sided view of what's going on. On whatever marginal level he influences elections, the net benefit has probably been quite positive for the GOP and conservatism.

jerseyhoya wrote:Rush is good at what he does. Listening to him isn't a substitute for reading Burke or Milton Friedman, but he fires up the troops and gives them a one sided view of what's going on. On whatever marginal level he influences elections, the net benefit has probably been quite positive for the GOP and conservatism.

Well, if turning off brains is good for the GOP (I can't see how it's good for conservatism) then I suppose you may have a point.

Rush and talk radio in general have been instrumental in eliminating what little conservative tradition we had in this country and replacing it with right-wing populism.

What's happened is that conservatives can no longer point to a coherent underlying philosophy. There is a constellation of issues, but nothing really holding it together. The fact that you link Burke and Friedman as representative of the same thing is exactly what I'm talking about. Burke would have been horrified at Friedman's politics.

Liberals are of course are little better.

TenuredVulture wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:Rush is good at what he does. Listening to him isn't a substitute for reading Burke or Milton Friedman, but he fires up the troops and gives them a one sided view of what's going on. On whatever marginal level he influences elections, the net benefit has probably been quite positive for the GOP and conservatism.

Well, if turning off brains is good for the GOP (I can't see how it's good for conservatism) then I suppose you may have a point.

Rush and talk radio in general have been instrumental in eliminating what little conservative tradition we had in this country and replacing it with right-wing populism.

What's happened is that conservatives can no longer point to a coherent underlying philosophy. There is a constellation of issues, but nothing really holding it together. The fact that you link Burke and Friedman as representative of the same thing is exactly what I'm talking about. Burke would have been horrified at Friedman's politics.

Liberals are of course are little better.

I was going to write more, but then my mom sent me out to the store to get horseradish for the cocktail sauce, so I just wrote the last sentence without any connecting thought to what I had started writing.

I mentioned Burke and Friedman because they're two important writers who've influenced conservative thought. I didn't mean to imply they're the same thing or anything. I was going for that you won't learn a whole lot of conservative philosophy from listening to Rush, but that doesn't mean that it hurts conservatism in this country.

I guess I just think in the two party system this whole idea that you're going to find a coherent philosophy that holds a large enough group of people together that you can win elections on a national level isn't practical. I don't think Rush has caused this to happen. On an electoral level, I think Rush has helped Republicans more than he has hurt. And I think by and large he's more conservative than he's populist (compared to say, Bill O'Reilly).

Disco Stu wrote:

lethal wrote:"shudder"

I didn't know anything about that tradition growing up in Richmond, VA. I didn't hear about it until I moved to NYC and a Chinese friend whose parents owned a restaurant told me about it.

Are you Woody? If not, then kep your rulings to yourself.

I'm not sure how to kep anything, but you can choose to ignore anything I say as well. I think I'll do the same to you.

FYP...

Goebbels is good at what he does. Listening to him isn't a substitute for reading Nietszche or Mein Kampf, but he fires up the troops and gives them a one sided view of what's going on. On whatever marginal level he influences elections, the net benefit has probably been quite positive for Nazism.

And now, the standard disclaimer:

"I am not comparing Rush Limbaugh to the propagandist of a regime that murdered millions, blighted most of Europe and set the standard for what can be done when existential evil meets modern industrial capacity. To my knowledge, Goebbels was not sexually dysfunctional, nor was he big into hillbilly heroin or dark-skinned underage boys."

My irresponsible abuse of Godwin's Law aside, there's actually a point here: unlike Burke and Freedman and even--though I'm no fan of either of them--Patrick Buchanan or Michael Gerson, Limbaugh and his vile ilk aren't *for* anything. They are (as you implicitly acknowledge) cheerleaders and propagandists. They might "fire up," but they don't edify--and in the process of that firing up, they encourage Americans to hate other Americans based on really very little.

We might be beyond the point where this is even possible, but I'd like to see public figures who at least try to persuade rather than bully, distort, smear and vilify. And as Vulture says, those on the left generally are no better than those on the right in this regard.

I completely believe, btw, that Limbaugh's fondest wish is for Hillary Clinton to win the election. The only people who might be happier than him are the frightening individuals who work for Regnery Publishing.

lethal wrote:

Disco Stu wrote:

lethal wrote:"shudder"

I didn't know anything about that tradition growing up in Richmond, VA. I didn't hear about it until I moved to NYC and a Chinese friend whose parents owned a restaurant told me about it.

Are you Woody? If not, then kep your rulings to yourself.

I'm not sure how to kep anything, but you can choose to ignore anything I say as well. I think I'll do the same to you.

The point was that I asked Woody specifically, for a reason. But it's all mood now!

dajafi wrote:I completely believe, btw, that Limbaugh's fondest wish is for Hillary Clinton to win the election. The only people who might be happier than him are the frightening individuals who work for Regnery Publishing.

I have an uncle who's a much more experienced Republican operative who also does a lot of corporate work. He's dying for Hillary to win the election so people freak out and pay them gobs of money to do this and that.

Ahhh...America the beautiful.

jerseyhoya wrote:

dajafi wrote:I completely believe, btw, that Limbaugh's fondest wish is for Hillary Clinton to win the election. The only people who might be happier than him are the frightening individuals who work for Regnery Publishing.

I have an uncle who's a much more experienced Republican operative who also does a lot of corporate work. He's dying for Hillary to win the election so people freak out and pay them gobs of money to do this and that.

Ahhh...America the beautiful.

The thing is, everyone falls into this trap. I do too, and if anyone should know better it's me.

Which trap? The idea that, e.g., a "Huckabee administration" means Mike Huckabee. It does, of course, but it also means the literally thousands of high- and mid-level executive branch administrators who actually conduct the people's business on a day-to-day basis, dealing with matters on which the president has no or limited sign-off, even if he or she is a lot more detail-oriented than the Current Occupant.

So while I detest Hillary Clinton, and personally I'd rather see McCain win than her, the truth is that minus the principals, I'd prefer the (ugh) Clinton II administration. It's because of those thousands of Democratic appointees in agencies like the FDA and FCC doing things I'm far more likely to agree with than that other thousand-odd corps of bureaucrats whom McCain (or, more precisely, whomever McCain owes favors to) would arrange to put in place.

Given the Clintons' corporatist inclinations, the idea here is that professional Republicans like your uncle probably would prefer her bunch of appointees to, say, the people Edwards would put in place. But there's just not that emotional investment in hating Edwards (nor does he agitate the potential clients--who, potentially, likely would enjoy even more relative gain with Hillary's crew of royalist weasels--to the same extent the Great Fornicator and His Demon Queen do).

On another topic, did anyone see that Ron Paul evidently characterized the Civil War as an unnecessary mistake? Let's hope that doesn't help him in South Carolina...