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'I Can't Get Over It'
Rachel Maddow Eviscerates Pat Buchanan Again
Five Creepy Old Men Who Should Settle Down (And One Who's Cool)
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Swifter
07/24/09

In reply to 'I Can't Get Over It'
Andy Rooney has done more for this country than all the people at Gawker Media put together.
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britneyspearstears
07/24/09

@Swifter: Don't you mean to, instead of for?
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Swifter
07/24/09

@britneyspearstears: No.
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BxgrlJeri
07/24/09

In reply to 'I Can't Get Over It'
Have ya ever noticed that sometimes an entire commenting thread will be in italics because one person forgot to " < / em >"?
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Edited by BxgrlJeri at 07/24/09 12:25 PM BxgrlJeri was starred BxgrlJeri was unstarred

CaptainFantastic
07/24/09

In reply to 'I Can't Get Over It'
Andy was likely the first observational-humorist that I ever encountered when watching 60 Minutes each Sunday evening with my father. He's become a cliche, but he earned it.

Also, anyone know why there were two adding machines up on the podium? They could have at least torn the tapes off before the service.
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lobstr
07/24/09

@CaptainFantastic: No, don't tear them! -- They get a refund on the coffin if returned within 14 days with receipt.

Minus re-stocking fees, of course.
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Kayleigh Loves To Dance
07/24/09

@CaptainFantastic: those are silk stoles that help dress the altar and pulpit.
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CaptainFantastic
07/24/09

@Kayleigh Loves To Dance: I wasn't serious.
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TubOfTaft
07/24/09

In reply to 'I Can't Get Over It'
Alessandra Stanley’s piece on Walter Cronkite’s eulogy for Andy Rooney was absolutely heartbreaking.
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Hamilton Nolan promoted this comment Edited by TubOfTaft at 07/24/09 10:48 AM TubOfTaft was starred TubOfTaft was unstarred

Aaron Altman
07/24/09

@TubOfTaft: Brilliant!
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resipsaloquacious
07/24/09

In reply to 'I Can't Get Over It'
I can't get over his eyebrows.
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RussianTaco
07/24/09

@resipsaloquacious: Try going around them.
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Novaload
07/24/09

@RussianTaco: Hah, hah, hah! You're going to hell, but you're brilliantly hilarious!
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Edited by Novaload at 07/24/09 3:57 PM Novaload was starred Novaload was unstarred

HouseBunnny
07/24/09

In reply to 'I Can't Get Over It'
I cried watching this. Until I realized he was referring to the step in front of the podium.

Still sad though...
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lobstr
07/24/09

In reply to 'I Can't Get Over It'
A few years ago while visiting my wife's grandparents in Minnesota, I was forced to sleep in their basement, where a copy of Andy Rooney's "My War" was all by itself on a shelf. I usually never have time to read, but out of boredom, I started to read it, and I could not put the damn book down. Sure, his TV bits about the frustrations of opening produce bags, or cotton in pill bottles are cliché, but that book really resonated with me.

It's about his time at the Stars & Stripes (as he mentions in the clip), and how he was there at D-Day and covered all of the shitstorm.. How almost daily, he'd notice pilot friends missing from the lunch table as they died on their respective missions.. His whimsical observations, in this context, are actually quite fascinating, as the man saw a lot of shit. If you're ever in the mood for a WWII book, I recommend it. It's the last book I've finished in full and that was 10 years ago :[]
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PandoraSpocks
07/24/09

@lobstr: Thanks for the suggestion.
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Artie Fufkin
07/24/09

@lobstr: I always take my book recommendations from someone who hasn't read another one in 10 years. Thx. "BEST BOOK OF THE PAST 10 YEARS!"
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lobstr
07/24/09

@Artie Fufkin: Well, that tells you some'pin, doesn't it?? If a book over 200 pages was able to captivate an ADD-riddled mind, it must be worth a shit. Plus, if I read all the time, how the hell would there be time for Gawker? C'mon, team player..

Seriously, though, it was a great book :[]
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Mike Byhoff
07/24/09

In reply to 'I Can't Get Over It'
I didn't know Andy Rooney was capable of talking about topics other than the fact that owning too many pairs of shoes pisses him off.
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scroll_lock
07/24/09

In reply to 'I Can't Get Over It'
As much as I loved Walter Cronkite, it's not as if he was snatched from us in the bloom of youth. Andy had several decades to prepare himself for this eventuality. And by the looks of him, he's preparing to throw his own feet in the air any minute.
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Edited by scroll_lock at 07/24/09 10:21 AM scroll_lock was starred scroll_lock was unstarred

CaptainFantastic
07/24/09

@scroll_lock: That last sentence paints a wonderful, if morbid, picture.
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scroll_lock
07/24/09

@CaptainFantastic: He will soon have outlived his own relevance by 80 years.
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Aaron Altman
07/24/09

@scroll_lock: "You know what gets me? Me. I mean, who else but me would know about the contents of my kitchen drawers, and would know to write a whole segment about spatulas? Me, you make you laugh."
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scroll_lock
07/24/09

@Aaron Altman: "Y'ever notice how I can go on and on about nothing and make you think to yourself that you never looked at nothing in quite so much detail?"
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Aaron Altman
07/24/09

@scroll_lock: Awww, I kinda like Andy. After nine-minute segments about how radioactive material is leaking from North Korea into a lake where Gary Hart fished from a boat that killed Princess Diana while she was delivering blood diamonds to help restore democracy in Honduras by putting Sgt. James Crowley on desk duty while the US Attorney's office arrests 44 people in New Jersey for shipping substandard body armor to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, a little self-absorbed nitpicking ain't such a bad thang.
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scroll_lock
07/24/09

@Aaron Altman: I'll bite: "HOW SUBSTANDARD WAS IT???!"
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CaptainFantastic
07/24/09

@Aaron Altman: Especially after watching all of that when I was 9 years old. Andy was like dessert after your mother forced you to finish the over-cooked chicken. See my 10:58 comment above.
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Edited by CaptainFantastic at 07/24/09 11:14 AM CaptainFantastic was starred CaptainFantastic was unstarred

Nice Beaver
07/24/09

In reply to 'I Can't Get Over It'
"He was the most wonderful person I've ever known. And I love him deeply! In a way you could never understand!"
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scroll_lock
07/24/09

@Nice Beaver: "Son, sometimes when a newscaster loves another newscaster they want to express it in a very special way."
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Mediahohoho
07/21/09

In reply to Rachel Maddow Eviscerates Pat Buchanan Again
I thought that we built this city on rock and roll.
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FormerEnglishMajor
07/21/09

@Mediahohoho: damn you....now I have that POS going through my head......
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Edited by FormerEnglishMajor at 07/21/09 12:16 PM FormerEnglishMajor was starred

ArleenCookies
07/21/09

In reply to Rachel Maddow Eviscerates Pat Buchanan Again
It seems to me that Sonia Sotomayor is a shining example of how AA is supposed to work. Sure, affirmative action may have helped her get into Princeton and Yale, and also may have helped her pay for the education, however, Justice Sotomayor still had to do the work to graduate at the top of her class and receive the honors she received. She still had to practice law exceptionally well to become a judge in the first place, and she still had to judge in a consistent and reasoned manner in order to be named to the 2nd circuit and now to the Supreme Court. In other words, affirmative action doesn't mean that the individual in question is somehow absolved of doing any of the hard work to get ahead, but rather gives them the opportunity to excel when they might not have had it in the first place. For centuries we squandered the intelligence and industriousness of underprivileged men and women, and affirmative action is one way, maybe imperfect, but a way nonetheless to tap into the vast unused potential within this country. I hope that one day we won't need affirmative action, but after watching the hearings I sadly realize we aren't there yet.
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maddoxhair
07/21/09

In reply to Rachel Maddow Eviscerates Pat Buchanan Again
i have to take issue with some of the finer points. e.g. for yale law review to say that sotomayor's appointment having something to do with affirmative action is buchannan's "opinion" is not really a refutation of his statement. ideally, i would like to see this taken further. as constructed, this was a bit of a stretch, and this and a few other minor points weren't really necessary to make the obvious point, that pat buchannan is a buffoon.

HOWEVER, big picture, buchannan, despite his credentials, merits, experiences, insights etc. (let's give the devil his due), really screwed the pooch on this one and maddow called him out on it eloquently.

i think i'm in love
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thefilth
07/21/09

In reply to Rachel Maddow Eviscerates Pat Buchanan Again
I think the thing that gets lost in Affirmative Action discussions is the acknowledgment that minorities rarely have any network in the job market.

My brother in law is ready to get into his field, having completed his education and the family quickly composed a list of contacts of people that would hire him because of their personal relationship.

I don't have that or anything like that. In my family, I'm only the second person to have finished my college education. My parents didn't pay for it, I worked in a factory and got some grants. I couldn't find work, and when I did, I was usually immediately mistrusted by some members of the staff.

At one job, in my first week, I overheard some employees saying they didn't trust me and wouldn't work for me. Most critics don't anything about going through this.
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TomRegan
07/21/09

@thefilth:

Couldn't that be a socio-economic difference rather than a race one?
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allyzay
07/21/09

@TomRegan: Of course socio-economics are involved, but minorities are more disproportionately affected by socio-economic disadvantages overall.
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MissNormaDesmond
07/21/09

@TomRegan: Huh? Why is it important to you to split hairs in this way? The point is that race and SES are interrelated.
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BernadetteHb
07/21/09

In reply to Rachel Maddow Eviscerates Pat Buchanan Again
When I worked for a southern newspaper in the late 1970s, the company repeatedly refused to hire black reporters, even if they were the most qualified applicants, saying a black reporter could not do the job in their community. That's the sort of thing Affirmative Action helped redress.
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