My most embarassing moment at YearlyKos

After Harry Reid's speech, a bunch of Kossacks decided to ditch the seedy Splash Bar at the Riviera and check out the much fancier Bellagio casino. We were hanging around the low stakes blackjack tables when an incredibly drunk guy approached us and accused us of being asshole reporters. We bristled at his implication that we were reporters, but we copped to being assholes.

He said he was from Tennessee and that he'd just gotten back from Iraq. His girlfriend had just dumped him, that night at the casino. Apparently she was in the military, too. The guy said he was with an airborne unit. His t-shirt identified him as belonging to the 61st-something, but I couldn't get a good look at it because he kept lurching around.

He said he liked killing Iraqis.

I didn't believe him. He was obviously just trying to shock us reporter-assholes. However, my curiosity was piqued. He seemed to want to talk about something. I offered to buy him a drink. He accepted.

We weren't gambling, so we couldn't order drinks from the cocktail waitress. So, we traversed the cavernous casino to the bar, which is separated from the casino floor by blue wooden bannister. Within seconds the dude started picking a fight with a group of Korean businessmen on the other side of the railing. I was mortified. I also had visions of the next day's headline "YearlyKos Attendee and Vet Arrested in Bellagio Melee." I decided that my source should stay on the safe side of the railing.

"What are you drinking?" I yelled. He said he wanted JD on the rocks. "Okay, I said. You stay here and I'll get it."

By the time I got back he was gone, leaving me with an extra JD.

Lesson learned: Never offer to buy a drink for anyone who jokes about how much he enjoys killing people, especially if he calls you a kyke-reporter-asshole.

Male privilege-besotted assholes be warned: It's all off the record until you stand me up.

Comments

[John]

So as long as we male privilege-besotted assholes show up we're okay, even with our besotted assholery? I'll drink to that!

Seriously, don't ever do that again. Shit-faced belligerent redneck fuckheads are NOT to be trusted. You're a small town kid from NYC, and I live here in the big town: Casper, Wyoming, so trust me when I tell you this: Drunken redneck assholes don't stop being drunken redneck assholes by buying them a drink. In fact they become drunker, redder necked, and assholier. Now stay in the protective confines of your quaint Little Apple. I'm afraid the world outside of it might overwhelm you completely if you were in it too long.

[Swopa]

By the time I got back he was gone, leaving me with an extra JD.

All's well that ends well, if you ask me.

[Thomas]

John, you mean you don't know about Lindsay's stint as a bouncer at Hogs 'n Heifers?

[blah]

It could have been much worse.

You're still young, but you will learn: you simply cannot trust random people that you meet at random places.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

The Bellagio has security. I mean, what what he going to do in a room full of heavily armed off-duty cops? Obviously, I wasn't going to go off anywhere with him.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

I hasten to add that I was with a fairly large group of people, mostly adult males. We'd all been talking to the guy, who had walked up to us. They knew I was walking across the room with him to get a drink, and they were expecting us to come right back. You can see the bar from the blackjack area. I don't think it was that risky.

[Uncle Kvetch]

Fascinating...I guess that's the different between someone like me and someone like Lindsay. When a belligerent, drunken total stranger calls me an asshole, the last thing I can imagine doing is engaging him, let alone offering to buy him a drink.

Yeah, so there's security. My on-the-fly reasoning would dictate that by the time one of those casino rent-a-cops noticed what was going on and intervened, my new friend could easily knock several of my teeth out and require a visit to the optician posthaste. Not worth it.

Yes, it's true. I am a lily-livered wuss. [stifled sob into hankie]

[Alon Levy]

Well, you like making your opponents give you free shrimp; others like making theirs buy superfluous drinks.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Ordinarily, I don't try to engage people who call me an asshole. This particular guy seemed like he wanted to talk about Iraq. I thought it was worth engaging him, just in case he had something interesting to say. I didn't consider him an especially credible source, but you never know what people will tell you if you're willing to listen. I didn't want to confirm his stereotypes about bitchy New York reporters who disrespect vets and won't listen because they don't have the right accent.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

But I actually eat their shrimp!

[burritoboy]

Alon,

Yes, but she actually consumed the free shrimp, thus a net benefit to herself. The incredibly drunk personage didn't actually consume anything, thus ending up with no net benefit to himself whatsoever. Lindsay seems to have net-benefited from both transactions (especially considering that she both consumed the JD and got an amusing story to post on her blog).

[burritoboy]

Lindsay,

Great minds think alike, obviously.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Actually, Ari Melber from Huffington Post was the beneficiary of the JD. I'm counting on his vote when I run for president.

[bob mcmanus]

The road to the orthodontist is paved with good intentions.

I knew dozens of Vietnam combat vets in informal relaxed circumstances, and never met one who enjoyed any part of the their vacation. I can believe Iraq vets are different, even more bitter and broken and guilt-ridden.

Another terrible terrible thing done.

[Dabodius]

"The guy said he was with an airborne unit. ...
He said he liked killing Iraqis."
The miles gloriosus has been exaggerating or lying outright since there were first soldiers; my alltime favorite was the Vietnam vet who insisted that he personally had shot down Chinese (!) fighter-bombers with his rifle. The drunk may not even have seen combat; there are tens of thousands of our people there whose duties will never include a patrol. I doubt subcontracting has eliminated all the forklift drivers, clerks, and grease monkeys from the ranks. And then there are those who wear T-shirts and tell stories but never even served, like Jeff Gannon.

I hope the urethane levels in Jack are lower than they were when I used to drink it and it surpassed all other American whiskeys in that respect.

[John]

Lindsay, I wasn't trying to imply that you were dumb enough to go off with this guy without you making others aware of your whereabouts. I don't think you're stupid enough to risk your personal safety just to shatter a stereotype for one idiotic drunk. I'm just telling you that a hammered hillbilly fuckhead ain't going to improve his manners over a drink, even if you're buying. Just because he seemed mildly placated by your offer doesn't mean you should trust him to suddenly become civilized for a polite discourse on his experiences in Iraq. That's what I meant.

I swear you'll just never understand me. That must be why you ran off and left me with Lindsay, Jr.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

An entirely fair point John.

[jerome_howard]

I had the misfortune of living in Vegas for a few years. One thing I learned was that the more elaborate the backstory the more likely it was that the backstory was a bunch of f'n hooey. The shirt was no doubt part of his very well rehearsed schtick. He's just like one of those guys from the Society for Creative Anachronisms who put on ladies tights and call himself Sir Guy du Malaise D'Anglais. The difference is that the guy from the SCA has a better grasp on reality.

The question being begged here is - did you bring us a souvenir?

[The Continental Op]

There ain't no such thing as "an extra JD" (though I much prefer Rye or Scotch whisky myself).

[Luke]

I like Lindsay--razor sharp, gumption, and a nose for a story. The black tee photo looks real. Sometimes you can dig down with people and find some amazing things if you venture past the exterior and peel back the defensive layers. The power of philosophy at work. Lindsay and I are similar in that we both put that education to work outside of the academy. It definitely shows in her writing.

[Trystero]

I'm just telling you that a hammered hillbilly fuckhead ain't going to improve his manners over a drink

Eh. Replace "hillbilly" with "yonkers" and you have a normal night in NYC. "Duck and cover" is an idiotic response to nuclear war, but pretty good for bar fights in big cities. Except southie Boston, but that's another story.

[R. Mildred]

The question being begged here is - did you bring us a souvenir?

the genitalia of your enemies on a pole? A centrist's scalp &/or teeny tiny shrunken head? The glass slipper of a mysterious manwhore who sweeped you off your feet on the dance floor only to disappear into the night at the stroke of midnight?

Pictures of Wes Clarke singing moon river are all very well and good, but where's the mystery, where's the fantasy of it all?

[LeTigre]

A belligerent drunk, possibly telling make believe stories (or likely embellishing them), being generally obnoxious, unsuccessfully picking fights, and all in a casino bar in Las Vegas...the only thing uncommon with this story is the guy dissappearing without consuming his free drink. Otherwise, he seems to have failed at most of his endeavors that night. I guess that explains his sudden departure after all. Oh, well. Welcome to Vegas. lol...

[Uncle Kvetch]

I didn't want to confirm his stereotypes about bitchy New York reporters who disrespect vets and won't listen because they don't have the right accent.

I hadn't thought of it that way, Lindsay, and it makes what you did seem a lot more reasonable to me.

BTW, maybe I missed something, but how did he identify your crowd as "reporters" in the first place?

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

>And then there are those who wear T-shirts and tell stories but never even served, like Jeff Gannon.

Reminds me of an Onion article which wondered aloud why Tom Clancy was tapped as a "terrorism expert," "having offered his opinion on Larry King Live and countless other TV shows since Sept. 11" and referred to him aptly as "a former insurance broker and avid wearer of naval-warship baseball caps..."