- Jack Cust is here
- So awesome (except for the Friday thing)
- Yglesias draws overbroad conclusions — as Atrios sez, oppo to VT Yankee is rational: it’s a really poorly run facility, with a track record of mendacity
- I can’t go away, because I’m not even here
Jack Cust is there 116
116 thoughts on “Jack Cust is there”
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I think MY’s argument is that small-scale one-off nuclear facilities will inevitably be poorly run. Partly because there is less shared knowledge on how to avoid problems and run things safely and efficiently, and partly because the lack of economy of scale puts pressure on them to cut corners.
The Navy does a pretty good job with small scale nuclear facilities. I wonder if they could be of help
The latter point is the big one, I think.
Building 20 plants is a lot less than 20x the cost of one plant.
But wouldn’t a national consortium/firm of nukecos be even better at dissembling to the public about its safety record?
In America, meanwhile, it’s extremely difficult and time-consuming to undertake just about any large-scale infrastructure project, to say nothing of stuff like nuclear plants that freaks so many people out.
Yeah, just try building a stadium, much less a nuclear plant…
Can we make it a nuclear stadium plant? The thing would pay for itself!
Think the Navy could help with that?
The Springfield Isotopes, coming soon IRL!
Nuclear stadium plant and cancer treatment center, just so we make sure someone opposes it.
And Mike Scioscia would help out when the angels were in town.
Heh. Nice one.
Slusser feature on Cust (Slusture?) coming tomorrow.
Also, Ratto on Kouzmanoff. Yay.
Bob Odenkirk did the bestest comedy Manson ever.
Earlier today, I was remembering that Mr. Show sketch where the metalhead kid was chosen as the next Dalai Lama and thinking, “gee, that would be awesome if the next Dalai Lama turned out to be some random American kid in the heartland whom had never even HEARD of Buddhism”
Off to London tonight, and I’ve just been notified that I’ve been upgraded to business class.
Happy happy joy joy.
That would make my night.
If I was on another continent, could they legally still make me make signs?
Picture of LB and his brother:
nice.
Free wifi and beer in the red carpet club … I could get used to this.
My best and worst flying experiences both started with free beer at airline clubs.
You can’t leave it hanging like that.
Well you can, obviously, but it’s much less fun.
Neither are particularly great stories. One involves puking, the other involves passing out and being home “moments” after I got on the flight.
Which was best?
The latter
is the wifi free, or both the wifi and beer?
24 hours of the former and 4 pints of the latter.
Its a pretty good connection too. And Stella Artois since I’m feeling all Euro-trash(ed).
They limit it? I think my last time was Continental and it was AYCD with a local microbrew on tap (plus Bud or something)
A limited number of vouchers for the bar, but there is also a self-service area that may have beer (I haven’t looked, but it does in London).
Stella = bud, no? not in taste but in corporate overlordship.
I can aver they serve it in Buffalo Wild Wings, which as far as I can tell, is the corporate overlord’s soft white underbelly.
I’m so insane, I’m sane.
Conservation of travel-pain kicked in – it just took me 24 hours to get from Leeds to Bologna, with 11 of them spent at Heathrow airport being lied to by Air France, 8 of them actually moving, and only 3 of them in a bed.
They were actively lying to you for 11 hours straight?
“We don’t like cheese. We wash our butts. We dislike that buffoon, Jerry Lewis. We don’t speak English. We think your wines are quite nice.”
Every hour they told me my flight was leaving in an hour, and that my connection was surely being delayed by exactly the same hour!
Reminds me of the Oakland Airport a few years ago during the holidays and their construction. Waiting for baggage “Baggage will be delayed for 5 to 10 minutes.” 5 minutes later “Baggage will be delayed 15 to 20 minutes.” 10 minutes later “Baggage will be delayed 30 to 40 minutes.” 15 minutes later “Baggage will be delayed 45 to 50 minutes.” And as we were leaving “Baggage will be delayed an hour.”
I was there too! Did you abandon hope and return the next day too?
Thankfully I was only picking someone up. But his luggage finallly showed up and we split before they took it away from him and declared it an accident.
Did you calculate the progression?
The Oakland baggage claim is still horribly slow.
Jack Cust slow or Frank Thomas slow?Jack Cust is not slow-ed.
STRICKOUTS!!!!!!1
“By the end of the year, I’ll have Dallas throwing right-handed,” Sheets said.
That quote’s recycled from Slusser.
I did like this, though:
I believe that having your lug nuts removed is a prerequisite to becoming A’s manager.
… and Billy has a bowl of mixed lug nuts on his desk.
… which he plays with a la Captain Queeg.
whatta buncha screwheads.
Any guesses what else he’d been doing in Dam Square.
(Pre-legalization, I once met an American tourist who had spent two hours unsuccessfully trying to buy in Dam Square – now that’s an olympic feat)
wishing upon a star.
I was there in January 1997. The locals were all excited because it was cold enough for this. It pretty much sucked to be walking around as a tourist though.
We were there in July 2004. Easily the best accommodations of any tourist trip I’ve ever taken: we housesat for a wealthy Dutch family. We stayed in style in their 2 MM euro flat right in the heart of Amsterdam. All we had to do was feet the cats and the guinea pig (cavia, as they called it).
Of course, we spent half the week in bed laid up with terrible colds.
Your colds likely the result of all that cat feeting.
[paws nasal drip]
snerk
MILILF
So he just inhaled?
Dude, seriously, where the fuck does the south come up with these guys?
Finally a good use of twitter.
?
Link #1.
Lovers quarrel: O.P. criticizes BBG for not liking espn enough…
“Irreconcilable differences”
They just need a guidance counselor.
iFSU, differences reconcile you.
iFSU, espn criticizes BBG for not liking O.P. enough.
On ESPN, bbg criticizes OP for not liking FSU enough.
At 2 star lounge, slusser criticizes ESPN for not liking crediting local writers enough.
So I might have the opportunity to meet Michael Lewis next week. If so, should I give him one of the “Moneyball Does Not Mean What You Think It Means” stickers?
YES!
Absofrickinlutely.
Here’s hoping he doesn’t have you kicked off an elevator.
He’s chairing a panel with Bill Polian, Mark Cuban, Jonathan Kraft, and Daryl Morey. Security shouldn’t be bad at all, right?
Tell Bill Polian that we miss him.
Or my “i don’t care how rich people raise their kids” trunk magnet?
that sounds interesting.
Pardon my naiveté, but what does it mean?
A trunk magnet is like a bumper sticker, but a magnet.
Man, I’m guessing you were fortunate enough to get a ticket to the Sloan Sports conference? Very jealous, should be a lot of fun, and hopefully informative.
I think maybe this is right
I dunno, is it really worth paying $12M for a long relief guy?
?
If you don’t wait for the stupid ads to load, Colin’s comment about Chavy for relief pitcher appears near the top of the screen.
Reading the comment you actually linked to, I agree that it makes a lot of sense.
I’m not sure, though, that DFAing him would void the policy. I can imagine worlds where it does and worlds where it doesn’t.
Tell me more about your magical worlds!
That’s the way it worked with Albert Belle. The Orioles had to keep him on their 40 man roster every winter, and then put him on the 60-day DL during the season, in order to keep collecting insurance payments.
I am philosophically opposed to not always getting my way. Dammit.
Eh, NFS:
In other words, the GOP is negotiating. This would be like Neyer citing some of the more critical things teams say about players in arb hearings, then comparing statements player to player, and claiming that Team X “turned a lot of
policystatistical differences into questions of first principles.”The lesson here should be for the Obama administration and Congressional D leaders: “it’s harder to compromise on a first principle.” (I could be snarky and say “Problem is, they don’t have any,” but — ah, fuck it.) Problem is, they don’t have any.
No, the problem is precisely that the GOP is refusing to negotiate. Obama, reportedly, offered all the tort reform they wanted and asked what they would offer in return. Answer: nothing.
The GOP, for politically rational reasons, thinks two things (1) HCR makes Dems look good and (2) they can stop HCR. You don’t negotiate from that position, you posture and obstruct from that position, and it’s good political strategy. Which sucks for, well, America.
No, they’re negotiating — just not in good faith. Their position is, as you say, that they want to stop HCR. It’s not just they can’t say that (not publicly, anyway), but that they wield a significant amount of power — Dems are forced to negotiate with them to get anything done (short, of course, of blowing up the filibuster and going by “Hugo Chavez majoritarian rules” [thanks, Newt]). The Dems’ continual mistake has been to approach the negotiations from an abject point of weakness, offering up concessions as a starting point. The GOP has no incentive whatsoever to move off of their position — in fact, I’d say they’re being incented to be even more recalcitrant/regressive — not sure if their overall maximalist negotiating position could move any further to the right, but you do see people like Grassley now vehemently attacking policies they themselves proposed w/i the last 12 months.
Right, and it leads to absurdities like “we philosophically oppose government telling us what insurance is” from a guy who freely admits that his plan would do the same thing.
Absurdities are absurd.
just as in the past, we have contemplated a lineup with nine Jack Custs,
I contemplate a Senate with one hundred Pat Paulsens.
1. The real HCR nut cutting was with Dem Senators 55-60. The rest is narrative.
2. What could have been in the bill that isn’t? Put another way, what further bits of House-approved progressive policy would Bayh, Nelson, Landrieu, Lincoln, or Lieberman have voted for?
1. Suresure — but they were still engaging in (public, perhaps not-in-good-faith/just for show) “negotiations” w/GOP — and were making concessions to people other than the Blue Dogs. If what you say is 100% true, then wouldn’t that make those concessions even dumber?
2. See pt #1 — the Blue Dogs see the WH giving shit away for free to the GOP — who aren’t even the real key players — so they themselves become even more emboldened to make demands.
Again, I come back to the Dems lack of messaging to the general public, with the intent of putting pressure from below on the centrists. And not with the intent of pushing through a 100% Maoist wet dream of a scheme, but of getting the best, most comprehensive bill possible by shoehorning in the most liberal elements that could be made acceptable to each/every centrist douchebag.
Here is where I get stuck:
Your argument is fine, even compelling. I just don’t think it mattered as much as you do.
Unless you are willing to argue that a substantively different policy endgame was possible, then you sort of have to concede that the administration’s strategy (identify the desires of the Asshole Quintet, and work to that), while frustrating to liberal activists, achieved roughly the same result as pushing liberal themes more ardently would have.
Things that would make the bill more progressive:
(a) public option
(b) more subsidies
(c) Medicare expansion
(d) none of the abortion bs
(d) is probably a point in favor of your thesis, (c) was ratfucked (lots of Nixon era terms slipping out today) by Lieberman, who by God was going to ratfuck something, (b) is addressed in the list of fixes Obama published Monday, and (a) was never ever something all five of those Senators were going to vote for, no matter how vigorously Obama sold it. It’s a fight for the next time around, and it always has been (regrettably).
In any event, it seems clear the pseudo-outreach will pay dividends when they run the bill through reconciliation. The GOP’s inevitable partisan politics! obscure parlimentary measure! government by fiat! attacks are just not going to resonate, having been stymied in advance by Obama’s careful, thorough (and I think even you would admit, impressive) post-Massachusetts narrative orchestration.
Oh, I wouldn’t really argue with any of that.
Except maybe your incorrect deployment of the Segretti Term — Lieberman’s verb was pretty much a straightforward fucking. Ratfucking, you don’t want to be traced back to you. But Holy Joe, he wants everyone to know it’s his dick he’s sticking in there.
Mainly I just enjoy typing “ratfuck”.
In Nixon White House, ratfuck enjoys typing you.
I have a half-finished pitch for a cable tv series called RATFUCKING. The opening scene for the pilot is awesome.
this thread was a guilty pleasure. When I tell people that I am addicted to the Internet, they wonder, “are you talking about porn?” and I say, “No,” but now I could add, “although I do spend time reading back-and-forth chats about ‘ratfucking.'”
Hell, even the “Asshole Quintet” (a name I disagree with, except as to Lieberman) is now saying they understand the need for reconciliation since the Republicans are so unwilling to deal.
Seems like a messaging win to me, but (as always) the proof is in the pudding. If HCR passes, Obama’s first-term floor is an A-. If it fails, his floor is a C-.
Mark Ellis: pillow fighter? (scroll down)
oh….pillow Fighter….
“Vegas” o/u on team wins. I think these are generally a better bet (both as a prediction method and as far as these particular results) than any of the projections.
LAA: 84
SEA: 83
TEX: 83
OAK: 78
If betting were legal:
Over, Over, Under, Over
But I don’t feel strongly enough about any to actually do it, which means I agree they’re a good line.
In this particular case, they’re quite close to Cairo and to the LL predictions (and even closer if you agree with me that LL overrated their own team by 2 or 3 wins).
More recent LL predictions (with Kouz/Sheets/Pineiro) have everyone higher.
Making it up, based on nothing, I would go with:
Angels: 86
Rangers: 85
Mariners: 84
A’s: 80
So you’re telling me there’s a chance?
I tend only to be realistic in times of crisis, and this is not a time of crisis, so realists be forewarned, and swallow a salt factory before reading:
My non-scientific non-cynical division prediction:
A’s 88-74 Sheets is out for blood, I’m bullish on Barton, and super bullish on Rajai Davis (my dark horse 2010 AL MVP choice)
Mariners 88-74 They’re gonna pitch their asses off, and not score many runs, just like the A’s
Rangers 83-79 The ghost of Bill King won’t let the Rangers win anything anytime soon
Angels 75-87 This is gonna be a one-year blip due to injuries and a bad offseason, plus Morales will decline.
I will not predict who’ll win the one game playoff. They have to win that on their own if the time comes.
I see you really take that whole anti-sanity thing seriously.
“dark” isn’t really a strong enough word.
Neither is “horse” (although that one’s at least suggestive).
…can I melt it down and shoot it into my veins anyway?
Unlike heroin, my predictions are low-risk, low-reward.
Here’s another one for y’all to laugh at:
2010 Rajai Davis .870 OPS, 80 Stolen Bases…
He’d really have to step up his game to get there, and I think he can do it. However, I realize even that wouldn’t be enough to win MVP, so I’ll revise down to A’s MVP. That’s a minor concession to the realist faction.
You know, Rajai was my IP through May. Upon the A’s visit to SW Florida, I was in favor of them leaving without him.
I should probably clarify… I’m not “anti-sanity”. I’m more “against overvaluing sanity or undervaluing insanity”
I like my blend right around 50/50, myself.
I trust you’re using the terms in only a metaphorical/Abbie Hoffman/Thomas Szasz sense.