# Oh beautiful, beautiful meltdown **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 24, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306 "2008-10-24T04:37:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/61 "2008-10-24T18:04:31Z")
Hail to Algher, who saves Gomorrah from being destroyed. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/62 "2008-10-24T18:06:38Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Hail to Algher, who saves Gomorrah from being destroyed. 🙂 That’s a pity…Lord knows, we could use the salt. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/63 "2008-10-24T18:21:46Z")
From Andrew Sullivan: > [@](#): > > I’ve never come across an editor actually calling a piece she has published “embarrassing and outrageous”. But that’s what Kathryn-Jean Lopez [just called](http://kirkpete.blogspot.com/2008/10/catfight-in-corner.html) a [column](http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Njc2YzU3MjE4Nzk0YmVlM2ZlMjZkODRiNDA4YmQyODE=) by Kathleen Parker. And Lopez engages in the ultimate blog-snub: she won’t even link to a piece on her own site! The Corner doesn’t just ostracize those outside their orbit (they have had a policy of not linking to this blog for quite a while), they are now ostracizing writers in their own pages! > > Kathleen, of course, makes the point that is now undeniable. Of course, McCain partly picked Palin because of her looks. And, of course, a large part of Palin’s appeal to white older Republican men is sex. I mean, K-Lo’s own site has published virtual orgasms from male writers about Palin. Rich Lowry’s [“little starbursts”](http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDYzMGFiNjQ0MWRjNmI0ZTlkYjgwZTExMjA3MWNiZTk=)? “Coldest State. Hottest Candidate” posters? Charles Murray’s declaration of falling in love at first sight? > > There have been plenty of embarrassing and outrageous things published in National Review about Sarah Palin. But Kathleen Parker’s column isn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/64 "2008-10-24T18:25:15Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > Bravo, and thanks. I am registered Republican, and embarrassed to admit it in public nowadays (and not just because of my daily interaction with academia). I have hated Bush since he decided to invade Iraq, and I have despised my party since they went on their drunken spending spree once they held control. > > I believe the BEST thing that could happen is that the Republicans kill off those who just joined up due to power. A time in the wilderness to determine what they will stand for would be a Good thing. > > I will admit that my only true concern is the Supreme Court, but since the upcoming retirements are coming from the Left for the most part (I think) even that does not worry me too much. > > Bravo to Obama for running a good campaign. Bravo to the Democrats for bringing in some new blood rather than another person with nasty baggage. I have no idea what Obama plus control of the House and Senate will turn into, and I hope that the Democrats don’t screw up the way the Republicans did when they took control under Bush. > > I have one small hope - that the Democrats do not get a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. I want them to have to get ONE Republican to agree with them, just to keep things under a little bit of control. > > Good luck Dems - you deserve this victory after the crap the Republicans have done over the past several years. Well spoken. I hope you’re gonna go out and try to wrench your party of of the hands of the nutcases. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/65 "2008-10-24T18:25:46Z")
Oh, so everybody’s OK with Sodom getting nuked, so long as Gomorrah is left alone, huh? I think we know why… ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/66 "2008-10-24T18:28:30Z")
I appreciate the comments, but in all Pit honesty - I will STILL get nasty in the mud when we get back to discussing or pitting actual issues and policies. 😉 I am hosting a party at my house on election night, and I have invited all of my Left wing academic friends to drink my wine, eat my food, and watch the returns on my capitalism acquired 50+ inch HD flat screen. I will sit in the corner drinking Scotch as each state tumbles… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/67 "2008-10-24T18:31:45Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > I appreciate the comments, but in all Pit honesty - I will STILL get nasty in the mud when we get back to discussing or pitting actual issues and policies. Good. Do what you can to keep us honest, please. > [@Algher](#): > > 😉 > > I am hosting a party at my house on election night, and I have invited all of my Left wing academic friends to drink my wine, eat my food, and watch the returns on my capitalism acquired 50+ inch HD flat screen. I will sit in the corner drinking Scotch as each state tumbles… Please don’t put me in a position where my preferences result in alcohol poisoning for you. Cheers! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/68 "2008-10-24T18:33:18Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > Just some more fuel for the fire: Insider Advantage now says Georgia is a virtual tie, both in the Presidential and Senate races. (A Senate win in Georgia could give the Democrats their magic 60.) Outstanding! Someday, it will be Texas, but for right now, I’ve got Georgia on my mind… ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/69 "2008-10-24T18:34:50Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > I appreciate the comments, but in all Pit honesty - I will STILL get nasty in the mud when we get back to discussing or pitting actual issues and policies… Note to self: standard treatment for **Algher** , with reacharound. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/70 "2008-10-24T18:38:24Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Note to self: standard treatment for **Algher** , with reacharound. I’m now damn glad that I was on the recieving end of a “respectful disagreement,” seeing the alternative. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/71 "2008-10-24T18:41:13Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Well spoken. I hope you’re gonna go out and try to wrench your party of of the hands of the nutcases. It will be a year of slaughter, I hope. Algher’s Open Letter to the RNC, et al. Best read thinking of Senator Blutarsky. Assholes: I hope you enjoyed the ass-raping we just had. I wanted to take this opportunity to communicate with the few of you dickheads left at the home office. By now the worthless leeches have left the building to try to join the other side, and I hope that a few of you are hanging from the ceiling, having taken the honorable way out. Never mind, you fucks have not had any honor in years. Remember when we stood for getting the Feds off of our backs? Remember when we fought the commies, and said that our military was for protecting America - not for being a cop? Remember when we just wanted local communities to manage things, not Washington? Remember when we said that we wanted to put money back in the working man’s pocket? Yeah, I thought so. You idiots don’t remember ANY of that, you never stood for it. Those were just words you used to get the support of people like me. No more. If you think we are going to retake Congress and the White House, it is going to be with a new team. I will not support ANY Republican outreach where a single person has ties to the Bush mess. Either clean house, or you won’t get shit until all of you die a natural or unnatural death. Go away. Get a “visiting dumbshit” post over at Heritage. Leave. Write a craptastic book that I can purchase from the remainder table and burn on my next camping trip. You don’t belong in my party, you never believed in the ideals of my party, and the best way for my party to return is to cut out the cancer that you represent. Regards, Algher ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/72 "2008-10-24T18:50:56Z")
Well. There’s no need to mince words… ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/73 "2008-10-24T19:05:48Z")
Looks like it’s getting even meltier out there–[Charles Fried](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/24/mccain-adviser-endorses-o_n_137590.html), a McCain advisor, not only endorses Obama, but has already turned in his absentee ballot for Obama/Biden. That’s gonna leave a mark… Here’s a [Wall Street Journal update](http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/24/obamacans-prominent-republicans-line-up-behind-obama/) of prominent Republicans who’ve joined the Obama camp. Palin’s looking more and more like [this](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/2598223173_31a7d01b1d.jpg?v=0)… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/74 "2008-10-24T19:34:52Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Palin’s looking more and more like [this](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/2598223173_31a7d01b1d.jpg?v=0)… Or like [this.](http://www.pythonline.com/files/pythonline/images/dead%20albatross.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/75 "2008-10-24T19:38:37Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > I appreciate the comments, but in all Pit honesty - I will STILL get nasty in the mud when we get back to discussing or pitting actual issues and policies. > > 😉 Excellent. But speaking as a former Republican I have a request. It is one thing to reject the current leadership because of their nastiness, negative campaigning, and choice of a total incompetent as VP. But that isn’t why I left. I left because the one thing I kind of liked about the conservative philosophy, the economics, was tried and found wanting. Perhaps some of the reason for the negative campaigning this year is that the standard platform is indefensible? If the Obama policy leads to a safer, more prosperous, and more equitable country, I hope you’ll examine your beliefs against the data. It is hard, but I feel better for it. ---
**Author:** ![Rack-a-Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/76 "2008-10-24T19:44:48Z")
As Obama and others have said: let us not get to cocky please. All it will take is one media sound bite to sink us all. [Howard Dean] Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhh[/HD] ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/77 "2008-10-24T19:59:11Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Or like [this.](http://www.pythonline.com/files/pythonline/images/dead%20albatross.jpg) Well, McCain and Palin are _both_ looking like [_this_](http://www.toastalicious.com/images/toastHistory.gif). ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/78 "2008-10-24T20:18:25Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Besides, the “nutcases” can serve valuable functions – e.g., paying and calling attention to things the more “mainstream” parties don’t. If we had had a multi-party system in place in 1960, we might never have woken up some time in Johnson’s second term to find we were fighting a massive war in Vietnam. And if we had had a multiparty system in place on 9/11/01 . . . The Great Value of the Extremes is to move the Center. Abolitionists were once considered extremists. Now most 19th century Abolitionists would be on the fringe not for advocating freeing the slaves (which has been accomplished), but for the fact that most of them were still racists (which, interestingly enough, was a selling point back then, making them more appealing to the racist masses.) Social Security, Welfare were once considered extreme ideas. Controlling Alcohol and Drugs was once an extremist idea. Then it became mainstream, and now we’re trying to find a new center. Democracy was an extremist idea. It isn’t until people are allowed to express ideas so radical that they are at first attacked as extremists that we begin to see the wisdom of change. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/79 "2008-10-24T21:10:54Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > Well, McCain and Palin are _both_ looking like [_this_](http://www.toastalicious.com/images/toastHistory.gif). I think not with butter. ---
**Author:** ![Rack-a-Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306/80 "2008-10-24T21:40:47Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > …snip… > > Controlling Alcohol and Drugs was once an extremist idea. Then it became mainstream, and now we’re trying to find a new center. The winner will be whoever (whomever?) controls God \* - or Allah [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-beautiful-beautiful-meltdown/469306.md?page=5)