COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, November 03, 2006

We Have all Had Our Disappointments, But Not on Friday Night At The Elephant. Raise a Glass To The Chairman.


We got a complaint from one of our regular customers and a member of the founder's circle, our Minister for Energy and The Most Loyal Republican, The Honorable Gentleman, Rufus. He preferred this from a previous Friday Night:
Now I ask you gentleman, "What is your pleasure?"

81 comments:

  1. Deuce,

    re: No virgins

    The Romanian secret police files show the virgins would have to be boys.

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  2. That AIN'T no Cowgirl. :(

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  3. We don't express preferences as to plumbing or raisins.

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  4. Thass awright; I think I'm gonna be a bit grouchy for a coupla days. ;)

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  5. Might be about time for a "beer run."

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  6. Not anymore you won't if you refresh your screen.

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  7. Now, THAT'S What I'm Talking About!

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  8. This will join the "I didn't have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky":

    "A top evangelical leader who is accused of paying a male prostitute for sex admitted today he contacted his accuser "for a massage" and purchased methamphetamine from him. But the Rev. Ted Haggard said he never had sex with Mike Jones and threw away the drugs."

    In this case, I come firmly down on the side of the Democrats. All puns intended and with malicious forethought.

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  9. See, that puts you in a better mood, already, doesn't it?

    Doesn't it?

    Be Honest.

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  10. rufus,

    Herald Ford was just interviewed by Sheppard Smith, as was Mr. Corker. What a shame Ford is not a Republican.

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  11. I'm in a great mood. Week is done, bill's and employees paid, wine is poured.

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  12. Did you hear Joe Lieberman on Imus this morning taking some shot's at his loyal fellows in the Senate?

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  13. Allen, I like Ford; but, he doesn't always vote like he talks.

    Anyway, If I lived in Tn and knew the Senate was safe, I might vote for him just for the hell of it. But, the Senate isn't safe, so I wouldn't. Kind of a shame, though, cause like I said, "I do kinda like him."

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  14. I got me a "RufusBurger" cooking, and I'm going to have a couple of beers in a minute, so I might be in a better mood in an hour, or so, me damned self.

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  15. Dam Allen, I was going to stay in tonight, now you got me thinking, or is it dreaming?

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  16. seems like rufus is also home on the range.

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  17. OH MY LORD, ALLEN! SUMBITCH.

    That'd make a Bulldog bust a Brass Chain!

    DAYYUM!

    Shit I gotta go back to that'n.

    Damn, I Love America!

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  18. I got news for you boys. As long as America's got that, them burka-lovin, death-wishing Jihadist Bastards ain't got a chance in hell. Not even one.

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  19. desert rat said...
    "Darfur, outside of the US Zone of Concern, rufus has told US, many times.
    Just like Somolia & Warizistan, as well as Georgia.
    "
    ---
    I don't know about the whole damned place, but I think the Pubs are quite concerned about Georgia 12.

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  20. That picture got me thinking, do I REALLY oppose polygamy? I do not want to be culturally stilted. Needless to say, this soul searching will be kept to myself. That will be best, I think.

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  21. Doug, right now old Rufus's zone of concern is bounded by the Rufusburger to his north, Deuce's post to the East, Allen's link to the West, and the beer repository (refrigerator) on my south :)

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  22. Allen, the older I get, the better I once was; But, I was Never, Ever, In my BEST DAYS, THAT DAMNED GOOD!

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  23. Ah, yeah, Ga 12 Democratic seat Barrow

    Burns (R) might have a shot.

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  24. "To be is to do"--Socrates.
    "To do is to be"--Jean-Paul Sartre.
    "Do be do be do"--Frank Sinatra

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  25. I've been really tryin', baby
    Tryin' to hold back this feeling for so long
    And if you feel like I feel, baby
    Then, c'mon, oh, c'mon
    Let's get it on
    Ah, baby, let's get it on
    Let's love, baby
    Let's get it on, sugar
    Let's get it on
    We're all sensitive people
    With so much to give
    Understand me, sugar
    Since we've to be here
    Let's live
    I love you

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  26. The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
    Dante Alighieri

    In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.
    Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

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  27. A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.
    Adlai E. Stevenson

    Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.
    Adlai E. Stevenson

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  28. rufus,

    But imagine trying! Even if love turns out to be a “many splintered thing,” who's to know?

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  29. rufus,

    For some reason I can't make the link. Do you have the address?

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  30. These people seem to have Different Idea.

    They're Fucked!

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  31. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  32. Sorry all, I hadn't expected exactly what I got.

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  33. Allen, it's Publius Pundit. I can't get it up (that didn't come out right :) right now, either. I think Blogger's acting up, again.

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  34. I want to ask the house economist, Buddy L., why it is that the Roosians can't seem to create a decent bottle of booze? Surely after all these generations of drinking they should be able to brew booze that doesn't immediately kill them. This seems to have continued through various regimes and systems, etc. I read a few days ago some tens and tens of thousands of them die each year from bad booze. And many Roosians are of Nordic ancestry. What gives?

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  35. You'd think that after many generations those folk in Russia with genes tending toward alcoholism would be weeded out of the gene pool, but doesn't seem to be happening.

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  36. This is Hilarious! You've Gotta Watch This

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  37. SUSA has a new poll with Md Tied.

    Don't know what it means; SUSA consistently estimates the black turnout, and support for Steele, as being higher than any of the other polls. STill . . .

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  38. Yasser was saying, "I want the biggest bang for the butt."

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  39. 2164th,

    I gotta say that photo of Yassar made me laugh out loud.

    Cheers!!!

    and thanks!

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  40. So how do you know early tuesday night if you're in the hunt? Here's a hint:

    If the Pubs are losing in Ky 3 - Northrup, or Ky 4 - Davis, Go get a drink; it's over. If the pubs are losing in In 2 - Chocola, or Ind 9 - Sodrel, ditto. They, also, have to have Chabot in Oh 1.

    If they're winning there you have a chance. Then you've gotta look at Pryce in Ohio, and Gerlacht in Pa. If the Pubs are holding their own there, and look like they may survive with Weldon Pa 7, and Taylor in NC, get ready for a long, but "possibly" victorious night.

    In short, if the pubs are winning the 4 seats in ky and In you could still lose but you've got a shot. If they're losing any of those it's "Dancin with the Stars," time, cause "you're toast."

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  41. Rufus,

    If you dont mind me askin' what's in a rufus burger?

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  42. Best cheeseburger I can recall having is in Silky's in Pittsburgh, Pa - bacon and blue cheese and ground sirloin

    in my limited experience, beef beats the pants of anything else in flavor - just utterly magnificent

    Any EBers coming through chi-town should check out Gibsons btw. Parity with Ruth's chris at < 1/2 the price.

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  43. To the point about the cultural superiority of pro-babe values -

    Can it be said that pork is also a beautiful experience all its own?

    Breakfast was literally revolutionized by it.

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  44. A Crystal Methodist!
    - Savage

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  45. As Iraq slips further into chaos, the war's neoconservative boosters have turned sharply on the Bush administration, charging that their grand designs have been undermined by White House incompetence. In a series of exclusive interviews, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum, and others play the blame game with shocking frankness. Target No. 1: the president himself.
    by David Rose VF.COM November 3, 2006

    According to Perle, who left the Defense Policy Board in 2004, this unfolding catastrophe has a central cause: devastating dysfunction within the administration of President George W. Bush. Perle says, "The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly.… At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible.… I don't think he realized the extent of the opposition within his own administration, and the disloyalty."

    Perle goes so far as to say that, if he had his time over, he would not have advocated an invasion of Iraq: "I think if I had been delphic, and had seen where we are today, and people had said, 'Should we go into Iraq?,' I think now I probably would have said, 'No, let's consider other strategies for dealing with the thing that concerns us most, which is Saddam supplying weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.' … I don't say that because I no longer believe that Saddam had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction, or that he was not in contact with terrorists. I believe those two premises were both correct. Could we have managed that threat by means other than a direct military intervention? Well, maybe we could have."


    Those wonderful speaches, the rhetoric of 2002, well those were written by David Frum, who says, in part
    "I always believed as a speechwriter that if you could persuade the president to commit himself to certain words, he would feel himself committed to the ideas that underlay those words. And the big shock to me has been that although the president said the words, he just did not absorb the ideas. And that is the root of, maybe, everything."

    And then another of Mr Bush's early advisors, Michael Rubin, former Pentagon Office of Special Plans and Coalition Provisional Authority staffer: "Where I most blame George Bush is that through his rhetoric people trusted him, people believed him. Reformists came out of the woodwork and exposed themselves." By failing to match his rhetoric with action, Rubin adds, Bush has betrayed Iraqi reformers in a way that is "not much different from what his father did on February 15, 1991, when he called the Iraqi people to rise up, and then had second thoughts and didn't do anything once they did."

    Dougs favorite writer, the one he and I have agreed with for a number of years, Michael Ledeen, American Enterprise Institute freedom scholar: "Ask yourself who the most powerful people in the White House are. They are women who are in love with the president: Laura [Bush], Condi, Harriet Miers, and Karen Hughes."

    And finally there is:
    Kenneth Adelman: "The problem here is not a selling job. The problem is a performance job.… Rumsfeld has said that the war could never be lost in Iraq, it could only be lost in Washington. I don't think that's true at all. We're losing in Iraq.… I've worked with [Rumsfeld] three times in my life. I've been to each of his houses, in Chicago, Taos, Santa Fe, Santo Domingo, and Las Vegas. I'm very, very fond of him, but I'm crushed by his performance. Did he change, or were we wrong in the past? Or is it that he was never really challenged before? I don't know. He certainly fooled me."

    All in an interesting article in Vanity Fair. Lies and misquotations?
    Doubt it tremendously.

    Read the whole piece, if you're a mind to.

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  46. Ppab, unlike Rufus Stew and Rufus Chili, the Rufus Burger really ain't nothin special. Pretty standard lettuce, homegrown tomatos, brown mustard, yellow onion, butter pickle, and one HUMONGOUS Chunk of liberally salted and peppered Ground Chuck cooked with a couple of strips of maple bacon.

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  47. sounds magnificent!!!

    do you use any special bun to stabilize all the ingredients - other than a large one that is?

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  48. I guess the ertwhile neocons are really missing those A-List Cocktail parties. Time to get back on the Circuit.

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  49. If I got one; tonight's sandwich was on honey wheat bread.

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  50. ppab,
    Gibbons are great, but I like em fresh killed.

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  51. Oh, did I mention the Bud Light in the Chilled Glass?

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  52. "Kerry's remarks were offensive, and disparaging of our fine and brave Military. As are his friend's and fellow democrat Harold Ford, Jr's remarks that they are OIL COPS. All the while voting against drilling/exploring/building in the USA that would make us less dependent on the ME for our oil needs. Oh, he did vote for ethanol use. As if we can grow our way out of the need to import oil."

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  53. Isn't Ga 12 an area with a Representative?
    (Maybe I got the number wrong?)

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  54. Well, I'm convinced. Where do I go register to be a Democrat?

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  55. The local morgue is getting people registered.

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  56. No Doug, you got it right. Ga 12 is a Dem seat (Barrow,) that looks like it might be in play. A Republican, Burns, seems to be within spitting distance, and could get lucky.

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  57. I close my eyes for an hour. I had a real light supper and I wake up lying to myself that I will not even look so I can go back to sleep. Now I am screwed and hungry. That damn burger recipe!

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  58. Red Baboons have more meat, and are getting in the way of the Palm Oil Industry.

    They're a little tough, though; Marinate well in a decent sweet red, and sprinkle well with Greek seasoning the night before cooking.

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  59. Oh, and lots of black pepper; red, if you've got a date with an oriental and want to impress her.

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  60. About that Ga 12 seat, Doug, Kerry carried that district pretty good - 56%, so it's pretty much a toughie. Polls probably make it look closer than it really is. I don't think there's been any redistricting, there, although there might have been.

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  61. The local morgue is getting people registered.

    The more participation there is, the more Democratic it will be.

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  62. allen said...

    Check out these hats.


    The hats on those cowgirls are fine, but those cinderella glass slippers wouldn't last five minutes on the trail. Pretty soon they'd have to crawl into the chuckwagon and ride with Cooky.

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  63. "We Have all Had Our Disappointments, But Not on Friday Night At The Elephant.
    Raise a Glass To the Chairman.
    "
    ---
    And another Glass to the Memory of a fallen Angel:
    Bo Belinsky.
    ---
    "I went from a major league ballplayer to hanging onto a brown bag under the bridge, but I had my moments and I have my memories. If I had the attitude about life then that I have now, I'd have done a lot of things differently. But you make your rules and you play by them. I knew the bills would come due eventually, and I knew I wouldn't be able to cover them."

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  64. Hi Doug - A Reminder

    Jeanie V.'s Call for Change phone party on Maui is coming up this weekend.

    Your current reply is: Not Yet Responded

    Name: Rock the House (and Senate) House Party RSVP
    Host: Jeanie V., (fellow MoveOn member)
    When and Where:
    10:00AM Sat.

    Host's note:
    This is our last chance to call progressive voters and win this election!
    R.S.V.P. Can you make it?

    Yes, I'll come.

    This party won't work.
    Is there another?

    P.S. For more info, click here. And don't worry, this email was sent through the MoveOn system so your personal contact info is still private.

    PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/
    Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

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  65. Them liberal chicks just can't get enough of a real man.

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  66. Them liberal chicks just can't get enough of a real man.

    Q. What's yellow, hen-pecked and lays chicks?

    A. Bill Clinton

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  67. teresia,

    re: Pretty soon they'd have to crawl into the chuckwagon and ride with Cooky.

    Did someone call, "Cooky"?

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  68. I don't think Cooky would mind.

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