I want to get a little saddle for that horse, and then perch my little dog up in the little saddle, and put a little cowboy hat on my little dog, and then record them running all over the yard.

CUTESPLOSION.

I believe Blazing Saddles said it best:

"Nevermind that shit -- here comes MONGO!"

Should have put a grenade under the saddle.. that's a proper booby trap.

"I'd rather see the Republicans and Democrats pass their legislative agendas, and let the American people hold them accountable for the results, without letting our representatives wiggle out of their promises with "but the minority party we crushed in the last election wouldn't let us do it!" I think it would moderate the campaign promises, as well as break us out of this cycle that keeps us perpetually saddled with a status quo that few are happy with."

That's probably one of the better arguments on this topic in quite a while. Perhaps dangerous, but a good argument.

Okay, you invoke the phrase "checks and balances" -- at least in my civics education, that was always defined as the interactions between the 3 co-equal branches of government, the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative, aka The President, The Supreme Court, and the Congress, and the various ways they can veto (and override) one another.

The Constitution sets up the Senate as a majority rule house, that's why there are two Senators from every state, and a Vice Presidential tie-breaker. The filibuster itself is more of a bug in the rules of the Senate that has been exploited, and never has been exploited this much at any other time in the history of the United States. The only major legislation that was held up before the 1990's by filibuster was the civil rights act. The period for debate on the Senate health care bill was the second longest in history -- the only one longer was the debate on entering World War I (the debate on de-funding the Vietnam war, Civil Rights, and Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton's impeachment...all shorter).

Now we can't even get Republicans to agree to a vote on confirming Obama's appointee for the TSA (though that one's a hold, not a filibuster, at least not yet).

You say the bill would've been improved by the minority. In what way? I've followed this process closely, and I've heard of no proposal Republicans have made that would have included something they wanted, in return for something Democrats would have wanted. They were all proposals that would've only gutted a core aspect of the legislation, or they were non-controversial and passed on a bipartisan or unanimous basis. Despite the latter amendments (of which there were many in committee), Republicans have demagogued throughout about how they'd been "shut out" of the process. Republicans outside the process (like yourself) have echoed this, loudly, despite the basic reality of it -- they had a seat at the table, they just weren't willing to make any concessions at all.

For example, Obama literally said to Republicans that he's open to incorporating their version of tort reform into the bill, but wanted to know what they'd be willing to give him in return for it. Their answer: nothing.

As far as the mid-terms, I do think Democrats are likely to wind up losing a net of 1-3 Senate seats in 2010, meaning they'll still be at the exceedingly large majority of 57-43, and they'll probably still have a 50+ seat majority in the House. So what then?

What incentive is there for Republicans to work with Democrats if being obstinate pricks gives them electoral success? Their maximum incentive to make deals comes when they're so far in the minority it's the only way to influence legislation -- a 60-40 Democratic majority, say. But the Republican party of today is still refusing to compromise even under those circumstances. If they win elections based on that in 2010, why wouldn't they just double down, and hold Congress hostage from 2011-2013 and force Democrats to either pass nothing, or pass Republican legislation? Then, after that shoot to win the White House on a campaign that says "kick those do-nothing uncompromising socialist Democrats out"?

Personally I think the filibuster needs to go precisely because of that dynamic. A time will come again in my lifetime where the shoe is on the other foot, and I guarantee you that I'm going to be telling Democrats to filibuster everything Republicans do, big or small (unless Republicans transform into a very radically different party). I'd rather see the Republicans and Democrats pass their legislative agendas, and let the American people hold them accountable for the results, without letting our representatives wiggle out of their promises with "but the minority party we crushed in the last election wouldn't let us do it!" I think it would moderate the campaign promises, as well as break us out of this cycle that keeps us perpetually saddled with a status quo that few are happy with.

Also, remember how angry you were that they pushed Bush's tax cuts through via reconciliation rules because it broke down the fundamental checks and balances of our Democracy?</snark>

I wish they would've had the balls to privatize social security that way. We'd have wound up with President Howard Dean in '04.

>> ^blankfist:
Didn't I see this scene in Silence of the Lambs?


"It rubs the polish on its saddle, or once again it gets the paddle".

Funny, I always pictured Choggie riding English.

Side-saddle, of course.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'choggie, saddle, polish, cowpunch, youtube' to 'choggie, saddle, polish, cowpunch, youtube, ennio morricone' - edited by therealblankman

Ugh. People almost never kill themselves as a direct result of depression, we just fail to understand their state of mind and start applying labels. When depression is involved, the act of suicide is usually impulsive. I'm not even depressed, and I quite often have the unexplainable impulse to jump when I am in a high place (this is the root of my fear of heights, really), or to jump in front of an oncoming train or bus. I think most people have probably experienced this impulse a few times and it tends to scare the shit out of you because there's no good reason for it.

Most of the time suicidal people think it through to ensure their success, and you don't get to that state of mind from any place we can explain away as depression or anything else. For those people, they've thought it out and somehow it's the right thing to do. They don't have to be depressed (they can be of course), they might be old, sick, or bored with life and unable to find an answer to making the routine day-to-day more enjoyable. I didn't read the story, but it sounds a lot like this girl was tired of the abuse and impulsively took her own life. (That seems to speak to frustration more than depression.) People who do that usually find themselves regretting their behavior in the final moments, and you can hear that a lot from them because a lot of them survive due to impulsive suicide leaving a lot of room for error.

You're right at least in that she probably didn't really want to die, and those final few seconds must have been utter torture as she found herself in a helpless situation.

In my mind, the real problem here is that kids are too young to fully appreciate mortality or even life. They don't bother to think about what their life might be like in 20 years usually, and don't appreciate the full value of the things they will accomplish before their eventual death. But it also doesn't help that kids can also be massive pricks, and culture has saddled young girls with giant piles of double-standards.

I loved this video as it is first hand account of what many consider to be common knowledge. It also shows that the lowly employee at the bottom sometimes have more business sense than the people at the top. Her helping people pay off their debt is a great long-term strategy for the company. Them wanting to keep the people least likely to be able to pay saddled with the most debt is extremely short term thinking as the company is increasing the likeleyhood that those loans will ever get paid at all. While it looks good on their current spreadsheet because they are owed more money and at a high interest in the long term they will have to write off much of that when the loans fail. Bosses at the top probably care more about keeping the poor down than collecting more money since they already have plenty for themselves and many generations of their families to come. Meanwhile the customers and most shareholders suffer in the long term... until the people at the top find themselves under the guillotine of course (sad inevitability unless the people at the top mend their ways)

-Karl

Danny, the definition of indignant is "feeling or showing anger that was caused by something unjust". Yet, twice you call me indignant as though that undermines my point of view. Worse, the only emotion I expressed, in my last sentence, was disgust and not anger. My use of the word ignorant was not an expression of anger either, it was a measurement of lack of understanding. If the posters I was referring to knew the facts(which I attempted to analyse in my first paragraph) or had thought about it more before posting, they would not have cheered; thus, they cheered out of ignorance. That's a fact that is either right or wrong, but even if it's wrong it doesn't mean I'm acting out of anger.

"You enjoy getting outraged at people, i can tell."
I express no outrage. In fact, I think my post is rather calm, rational, and to the point. Your statement to the contrary is hyperbole and unfounded speculation.

Also, I never said I think the girl did nothing, I said there is no evidence of wrong doing. A lack of evidence may imply a lack of wrong doing, but even if we are completely unsure of whether or not the girl was in the wrong, everything in my post would still stand--it would still be completely wrong to cheer at her potentially getting seriously injured.

"Her hit ... really didn't need to be so hard."
How do you know it was that hard? The video starts with her hand practically already on the horse. The muscle shaking you see in the horse could easily be caused by the horse itself; they twitch their own muscles to shake flies off.

"I'd be pretty annoyed if someone hit me like that to get a fly on my back"
Perhaps you misunderstand when I say "fly"--I'm talking about horse flies. They are large, they live off blood like mosquitoes, and their bites can feel more like a bee sting than a mosquito bite.

"Her push was directly onto the horse's neck which as we all know is a very sensitive area... "
Hardly. First, while it's not exactly clear in the video, it looks more like she's pushing on the front of the right shoulder, not the neck. Second, a horse's neck is very muscular; a small girl pushing on it will not bother the horse. In fact, pushing back on the neck/chest is a common thing do when trying to back a horse up, into a trailer for instance. Everything you see the girl doing is absolutely typical of horse ownership. People will also use a horse's mane as a handle in the absence of a saddle and reins; horses are rather robust creatures.

"...over compensated with your prissy ... outburst..."
I don't think any of those words accurately describe my post.

I think my post was calm and concise, yet you accuse me of acting emotionally and in error. In the course of articulating your accusation, you employ baseless speculation, exaggeration, and name calling. I think maybe you have things backwards.

edit: removed a superfluous "not have" in the first paragraph.

Once the religious, the hunted and weary
Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
Came to this country to build a new vision
Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope
Like good Christians, some would burn the witches
Later some got slaves to gather riches

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

And once the ties with the crown had been broken
Westward in saddle and wagon it went
And 'til the railroad linked ocean to ocean
Many the lives which had come to an end
While we bullied, stole and bought our a homeland
We began the slaughter of the red man

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
And she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

The blue and grey they stomped it
They kicked it just like a dog
And when the war over
They stuffed it just like a hog

And though the past has it's share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But it's protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it's a monster and will not obey

(Suicide)
The spirit was freedom and justice
And it's keepers seem generous and kind
It's leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won't pay it no mind
'Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
And now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it's all just an echo of what they've been told
Yeah, there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watchin'

Our cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin' the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can't understand
We don't know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who's the winner
We can't pay the cost
'Cause there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into a noose
And it just sits there watching

(America)
America where are you now?
Don't you care about your sons and daughters?
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster

Reagan did in the 80s, but he was unfortunately saddled with a liberal congress and more than a few RINOs. Also in 1993 there was a brief spurt of rhetorical conservatism as they took the house, but it quickly died. Other than those two faint glimmers, the Republican party really hasn't done anything except pay lip service to those principles. Unfortunate, really. The democrats are worse though. They actively seek to subvert those principles.

It's like Blazing Saddles, if the Sheriff was from Compton.

>> ^kceaton1:
Gabby Johnson: Hey! The president's a nig...
[church bell tolls]
Harriet Johnson: What did he say?
Dr. Sam Johnson: He said the president's near.
Gabby Johnson: No, gone blame it dang varmits! The president is a nig...
[church bell tolls again]


Gotta love Blazing Saddles.