Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

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87Comments

  3. 3.

    Nicole

    Quality Road in the Florida Derby (just can’t get behind Dunkirk. Felt the same way about Big Brown, though, and we see how that worked out).

    Oh… wait. What sport are you guys talking about?

  4. 4.

    Comrade Stuck

    The two brackets in play today are dead ones for me, so I can only lose in the pool, and therefore don’t much care.

    And All Hail LauraW. the real power around here.:)

  6. 6.

    Laura W

    Not tourney-related but close…big thanks to Bad Horse’s Filly for posting a link to Kangoo Jumps on last night’s open thread. I checked it out this morning and proceeded directly to eBay and bought me a pair. Very exciting for someone who has missed her power walk three days in a row due to non-stop rain two weeks in a row. I can Kanga Boogie in my carport with my iPod.

    You want to buy them on eBay. The manufacturer sells them for mid-$200 to $300, depending on model. I got mine for $39.99 (Buy It Now) plus $28 shipping from Canada. The seller has great feedback, so no worries there, and they are NIB (new in box).

    You can do it inside, and apparently on any number of surfaces (although the "in snow" claim baffles me). John and others might want to "smoke a shitload of pot, rub chocolate all over themselves, and then get their freak on with PFunk cranking on the stereo with the speakers turned up to eleven."
    I’m hoping they will come out with a line for cats for you-know-who.
    (Obligatory Tourney Edit: GO UCONN!)

  9. 9.

    Shawn in Showme

    As a longtime Missouri resident, I’m amused at how the fanbase is torn between finally realizing their dream of a Final Four and having a black man from outside their close-knit little family one-up their beloved idol, Norm Stewart.

    It’s hard to eat that much crow when the last two years you’ve been belly-aching that the AD should have gotten someone legit.

  11. 11.

    Mission To Marzipan

    @John Cole: Oh noes! I meant to post this a couple days ago when I took a very quick peek for the new B&J’s flavors at my local market (it’s really sort of a crappy little store, but it’s the closest one to my house, and since I, too, hate to drive, and hate to leave the house, pretty much, I go there 9 out of 10 times for sheer ease.) They just got it in! Pomegranate and Blueberry/Pomegranate. I never even knew it was frozen stuff. I thought it was some sort of Latino fruit drink.

    I got really pissed off since they can bring this in but can’t seem to add ONE NEW B&J’s flavor in the two-plus years I’ve lived here. And I don’t really love any of the flavors they do stock. (Although, Willie’s Peach did show up as new, but I’m not so into that flavor.)
    In search of Marzipan!

  14. 14.

    D-Chance.

    a) A final 8 consisting of 4-1’s, 2-2’s, and 2-3’s = boring. Why bother with a 65-team tourney when you get the same thing accomplished with a 12-team tourney? Last year, it was all four top seeds in the finals, and this year could be a repeat.

    b) Google stupidity. This is on par with their "black screen" gimmick from last year.

  15. 15.

    douglasfactors

    Quick quiz:

    If they expanded the tournament to 100 teams, how many games would there be?

    Show your work.

  16. 16.

    Laura W

    @JL: I’M ON THE FRONT PAGE!
    I’m #10! (albeit in a 4-way tie for #10.) UCONN’s win gave me a sniff at the lofty heights of…er…less suckitude!

    Wow. I see Bootlegger is at #14. Where is our host? Been awfully quiet the last few game nights. Prolly has obligations related to his kids’ games or something important that really matters in life.

    Wini still winning 2nd chance by a comfy margin!!

  17. 17.

    Bootlegger

    I may have slipped to 5th, but as long as my champion is still in it and I’m within 32 points of the lead I am still a contendah!!

  18. 18.

    J.

    UCONN PULLS IT OUT!!! Good game. Am about to check out Pitt.

    @Laura W.: Had no idea what Naughty Monkeys were. Just assumed they were those flying critters from The Wizard of Oz or bad chimps. Thanks for enlightening me. Btw, there is currently a special on Jessica Simpsons!

  19. 19.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    "Ah got dah blooz"

    http://crittersbybritty.blogstream.com/

    This is not blog whoring seeing as no one reads my blog other than my family and a couple of friends, but I wanted to post the post here (?) so Laura could see Arnamade (who is lurking in the first shot) my stealth "lived under the bed for two weeks until the smell could not be ignored" kitteh.

    And you know if you like hyacinths, tulips, daffodils and taters whats not to like?

    Oh btw Laura, I will be chowing down on some Mission to Marzipan in an hour or so. Meh! (sorry couldn’t resist)

    Oh yeah Duke lost so my boss is pissed and that is all there is to it.

  20. 20.

    Libby

    Is it bad of me to be excited that I moved into number two? This is closest I’ve ever come to winning.

    And I’m liking all the women in the top ten. This is the most fun basketball pool I’ve ever been in.

  21. 21.

    Comrade Stuck

    Bad day at blackrock. Have suffered major malware attack from somewhere. Luckily I had a couple of spyware removers that got rid of some. But all in all, something like 40 different infections, adware, trojans, several viruses, and even a keylogger. All of it got past Avast unawares. Microsoft Update is even down, or was, so I wonder if anyone else has had this problem today.?It may be one of those scrub hard drive and reistall XP events. What a hassle that is.

    MS update is still down

  22. 22.

    Libby

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I’m glad to run into you again. I wanted to tell you how much I loved your equinox post and I adore your gardens. The flowers on the walk are gorgeous and the shots are great.

  24. 24.

    InflatableCommenter

    Is this the stoner thread?

    Oops. Sorry. Damn this Blackberry is very sparkly.

  25. 25.

    Laura W

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Arnamade is so orange and perfect. As are your flowers. My hyacinths are all up too, but I can’t believe you have the tulips already! Mine don’t come up for weeks still. Here is my Annie last year stalking them. The bold red color blows my mind.

    I prefer not to discuss the ice cream issue tonight as I am still without, although I thought I would procure some today, but I got lazy and blew off all of my longer range (ie, miles from my front door) errands.

    @Libby:

    Is it bad of me to be excited that I moved into number two?

    That would be NO. You and JenJen and Church Lady have been rocking the tourney pretty much from the get go! (I do not know who that #1 person is, and I suspect that is how s/he wants it), and Crusty Dem and our host and others have moved around a bit. But IIRC, the BJ Women have been stable and steady and AWESOME, pole sitting up there. (Yes, yes…I’m pulling up the rear and doing my share anchoring the other end. You’re welcome.)

  28. 28.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Laura W:

    Tulips are like chocolate here in NC, they are so fleeting in their pleasure. For the first year they come up and are beautiful, the next year not so much, and the following year you may get a leaf or so to let you know where they once were. I believe it is the heat which just poops them out, however the ones on the pathway bed are supposedly "perennial" tulips so we shall see

  29. 29.

    JL

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Tulips are fleeting in the south. You have to dig them up and keep them in cold storage and then replant them. Daffodils seem to do okay though. OT, my dogwoods are starting to bloom. I have several trees and by mid week they should be in full bloom.

  30. 30.

    AhabTRuler

    L-dub: As much as the Princessa appreciates your commentary, being that you are the only Juicer to acknowledge her majesty, she would like to ask if the third word in your comment is precisely the one you wish to use?

  31. 31.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I so love spring it is not even funny. I was pulling back the leaves from my flower beds today and there were my asiatic lilies poking their heads up from the ground. Come May they will be absolutely spectacular (and I have twice as many this year as I had last) and then the orientals will bloom and my DH will again be saying when he comes into the house "it STINKS out there" In fact just to please me, he has been saying "it STINKS out there" every night that he has come home at a reasonable hour and had to smell the hyacinths, cause he knows how much I find joy in that.

    JL – I am not one of these dig things up and then replant them types. If I plant you then dammnit you stay planted and grow or fail. Thankfully as I said in my blog post I can get a bag of 20 tulips for 50 cents, so like chocolate, they are worth the expense.

  33. 33.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Libby:

    Libby – thank you so much. Winter has been tough for me, I suffer from SAD badly and the first day of Spring was an awakening and a release. I am relishing the sight of my spring bulbs in bloom, and the sight of my perennials returning. My veggie garden is going great guns, and I wander out there every day, just to watch how things are going. Spring is a renewal of the soul. Like my Daddy used to say (before he passed), "I am just sitting here watching things grow". I like to do just that.

  35. 35.

    JL

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Last week I planted 11 medium size gardenias and 7 indian hawthorne. Both are plants that I would not have considered 20 years ago for the Atlanta area but seem to thrive now. There is nothing like a summer morn with the smell of gardenias.

  36. 36.

    Laura W

    @AhabTRuler: Well, I try to be deliberate with my word choice, and I even Merriamed it before posting, so I felt secure in the "wickedly evil" implication in that she is wickedly evil beautiful and wicked awesome and wicked mighty full of grace and all things wickedly special and hopey y changey y sprouty.
    (Is she buying any of that?)

  38. 38.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @JL:

    Ditto – my neighbor has gardenias, I have none, as I have not found any at the right price yet (ie 50 cents :)) however when hers are blooming I cannot resist stopping by and taking a sniff, according to her you can snip a bloom, put it in water in the house and you can smell it through the entire house.

  39. 39.

    Laura W

    @AhabTRuler: Oh my. Laffin’ and laffin’!
    Why don’t you put tiny little strips of black tape around the thin stalk that remains, or something like that, and do another The Victim shot. It will make my weekend. (yes, my weekend has been that bereft of interesting things. Pretty much the cereal box victim WAS my weekend.)

    Edit: You need to start a whole new series of crime scene shots:
    CSI Momo!

  41. 41.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I’ve got a gardenia out in my front garden bed that is about 3 feet by 3 feet and looks like it’s getting close to blooming. There is no better smelling flower, IMHO.

  43. 43.

    JL

    Nova is in foul trouble but they are not going away easily. Is this still a tournament thread?

  46. 46.

    Terri

    I just love gardenias. When I was a kid, my gma had 2 huge bushes on the side of her porch. We would sit out there at night and eat homemade peach ice cream and watch the lightning bugs. Now, the smell of them makes me think of her and how much I miss her. Luckily they bloom twice a year here in Fla.

  52. 52.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @JL: Yeah, it hasn’t been short of excitement but Pittsburgh kept sloppying the lead away. They’ve pissed me off now, no matter what happens.

  58. 58.

    JL

    Villanova was in foul trouble and Pitt actually has a player foul out. How does that happen?

  59. 59.

    Laura W

    @JL: Did they win? Then, NO.
    I suck so big, I didn’t even have Pitt.
    Thanks for asking, though!

  60. 60.

    Laura W

    @AhabTRuler: Ya know…that looks like something that only a person with A LOT of time on his fishy hands could do.
    I have full faith in you.

  61. 61.

    Bootlegger

    @AhabTRuler: Did your cat(s) do that? I’ve been using pepper tea lately to keep our cat out of the plants. He gives ’em a wide birth now.

    The land around my house is full of daffodils planted over the years, "natural" style, and it is just stunning this time of year seeing the forest floor covered with them.

    If I may share a spring garden tip for those in heavy deer areas, use a fertilizer called Milorganite. It’s made from human waste and the scent keeps deer away. I was the only one in my Alabama neighborhood with perennials.

  62. 62.

    Bootlegger

    For any soccer fans, the US is down 1-0 to El Salvador. The fans in San Salvador probably triggered a tsunami up the coast when their team scored.
    No bags of urine, yet.

  63. 63.

    4jkb4ia

    That was what "One Shining Moment" is made for. Now I will cry for the rest of the evening.

  64. 64.

    AhabTRuler

    heavy deer areas

    You keep that up and we’ll have deer with eating disorders. Do you really want dear upchucking all over the place, huh? Do ya punk?

  65. 65.

    Laura W

    @AhabTRuler: There is nothing funnier on a rainy, thunderstorm-packed, NC Saturday night than bulimic deer jokes.
    phew.
    (I just scrolled thru all the Momo shots again, ‘cuz it makes me happy, even though I have one on my chest that I type over, and two at my feet, challenging me for the couch. No such thing as too many cats, you know.)

  67. 67.

    Church Lady

    With Memphis and now Pitt out, my Final Four is suffering from recession pricing – everything is 50% off. Oh well, the miracle is that I’m somehow still in the top 10. I figure to drop from that lofty height next week. :)

    I’m in Big D with my folks. We took Dad for another CT scan Thursday and should get the results Monday or Tuesday. I don’t think the news will be good. I fear we’ll be enrolling him in hospice care next week. Watching the games to take my mind off of everything he’s going through has been good. It’s nice to have a small diversion.

  69. 69.

    JL

    @Church Lady: Take care and I’m sorry to hear about your father. What hospital at you at? Big D does have decent medical care so you are in pretty good hands.

  70. 70.

    Brick Oven Bill

    I don’t follow basketball.

    But I did attend a Glenn Beck get together today. You guys are wrong for making fun of his 9-12 effort. The participants are not nut jobs. There was a cross section of contractors, technician types, worried moms, and small businessmen. The talk was of organization and the Constitution. The people there were just engaged and concerned. Most were new to the political event scene.

    It was fun.

    There are many people who say that the Founding Fathers were mean people because they were discriminating. But these critics understand neither history nor the human condition. Here is what James Madison wrote in Federalist 46, back in 1788:

    "But were [Europeans] to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it."

    Tyranny has been the standard system of government throughout most of human history. Local governments have not been. The Founding Fathers were the first ones to walk away from power. We need to be very careful about granting it back.

    Caves and shadows and things like that.

  71. 71.

    Laura W

    @Church Lady: Well, you have been up there in the top tier of winners for the whole tourney, so you should just rub that into as many noses as possible. (Or maybe that’s just my personal, vengeful style?)

    Very sorry about your dad. I know this is absolutely no consolation to you, but I admire you for being there helping him through it all. I wasn’t able to do that for my dad when his hospice time came, and really, it’s probably the only thing in my life I would do differently, if I could choose one decision to revisit.

  72. 72.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @AhabTRuler:

    Kittehs are the antidote to everything, in the world, evah. You can be having the most utterly shit day in the entire world and then you get home and your kitteh turns over, presents his belly and you just have to scritch it, And suddenly everything is right with the world. Kittehs are the cure for everything that ails us. I am convinced of that.

  73. 73.

    AhabTRuler

    @JL: My best friend recently went through the same experience with his father, so I know how difficult such times are. You have my deepest sympathies.

    Hospice is a godsend. Also.

  74. 74.

    Laura W

    @AhabTRuler: Yes, I saw you reference that in a recent thread and I thought not only do I admire you for being so candid, but I also thought how important Momo is for you and wondered why you waited so very long to allow her to grace you with her presence. But I do know now you will probably never be cat-less again.

    I seriously wonder what my life would be today had I not had many kitties that I was "accountable to" starting in 1991. Dark, dark years between then and now, but always I had them to think of, so I really had no choice but to press on through all sorts of shit I can’t believe I’ve made it through.

  76. 76.

    AhabTRuler

    @Laura W: The only way to remove the stigma is to be completely honest about it. Many people do not understand, including family members, how difficult it can be to deal with depression. I am not an activist by any stretch, and I certainly feel that others have suffered worse than I, but I am unable to not speak of it when it is germane.

    Plus, a hungry kitty brooks no delay, and sometimes moving is the best thing to do.

  77. 77.

    CD

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    Bill, Thanks for the report on the Beck confab.

    I have one sincere question…do any of the Beck supporters you know, while discussing their newfound fascination with upholding the Constitution, have the honesty to examine why they sat silently as said Document was repeatedly befouled for the previous eight years? If they actually acknowledge their massive cognitive dissonance in public, with one another, it would somewhat renew my faith in the human species…or at least, the subset of humans who follow Beck.

    I look forward to your reply,

  78. 78.

    Bootlegger

    @Brick Oven Bill: I don’t think "nutjob" is synonymous with "delusional". Beck’s Citizens are the latter, not the former. To suddenly act like the Constitution is under grave threat, solely because of who the president and without any regard to what he’s actually done, is, IMO, delusional.

    US still down 0-1 in the 66th minute.

  79. 79.

    Church Lady

    Thank all of you for your kind thoughts.

    Daddy is still at home, and we are hopeful that he will be able to remain home until the end. He had two chemo treatments, which have not seemed to help at all, so his Dr. ordered the CT to see if the cancer has continued to rapidly spread, as he suspects it has. If the CT shows no improvement from the one done six weeks earlier, they will cease chemo and enroll him in hospice.

    @JL: His previous surgeries have all been at H-E-B. I cannot say enough about how wonderful both the facilities and the staff are there. Compared to my experience with the hospitals in Memphis, H-E-B is like the Ritz Carlton of hospitals and anything in Memphis is a Red Roof Inn.

  80. 80.

    Bootlegger

    US down 0-2 to the #108 team in the world rankings. US is 31 and top in the region. Playing in San Salvador is tough, there are no less than 3 sirens going right now. But this will be only the second time in 19 tries the US loses to El Salvador.

  83. 83.

    Bootlegger

    US 2-2! 88th minute but lots of stoppage time with Salvadorans dropping every time an American breathes on ’em.

  87. 87.

    J. Michael Neal

    What a fucking disaster of a tournament. You have two sorts of teams to root for: the ones you like, and the ones you picked. This weekend has been unkind to both. Ten games in we have:

    #1 Michigan loses to #4 Air Force. There goes both my top rooting interest and the team I picked to win it all.

    #1 Denver loses to #4 Miami. I dislike both teams, but I had Denver losing to Michigan in the final.

    #2 Yale loses to #3 Vermont. Okay. I picked Vermont, and I was rooting for them, though only because I dislike Yale more.

    #2 Minnesota Duluth beats #3 Princeton. Yay! The team I like the second most moves on, and I picked the. Bonus points for UMD scoring twice in the last 40 seconds of the game to tie it and force OT.

    #2 North Dakota loses to New Hampshire. I’m all right with this. I can’t stand either team, but I really hate the NoDaks. Besides, I have New Hampshire in the final four. The Wildcats thought that the 0.8 seconds left on the clock when Duluth tied the score was about twice as much as was really needed.

    #2 Northeastern loses to #3 Cornell. Ick. I have nothing positive to say about Northeastern, but nothing negative, either; they’re just inoffensive. Cornell fans are really annoying. Besides, I have Northeastern going on and losing to Notre Dame in the second round.

    #1 Boston University destroys #4 Ohio State. I guess a top seed can win. I’m okay with this.

    #1 Notre Dame loses to #4 Bemidji State. Okay, I guess only one #1 seed can win their opening game. This one was a shocker. I had Notre Dame going to the final four, but at this point, my bracket is such a mess that it doesn’t matter. I’d have been rooting for Bemidji, but I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that they can beat Cornell tomorrow, and I don’t want to deal with those fans in Washington.

    #3 Vermont beats #4 Air Force. Blech. I’ve got no brief for the Zoomies, but I really like their coach, Frank Serratore. It figures that Air Force would beat my favorite despite being badly outplayed, and then lose to a team I don’t like despite outplaying them. Wacky, wacky ending to this game. Late in the second OT, there’s a scrum in front of the Air Force net, and then the refs go huddle in the replay booth for ten minutes. No one knows what’s going on, because the replays of the scrum don’t show anything interesting. It turns out that they were looking at a play moments earlier. Vermont took a shot from the blue line, which caromed off the backboards, and play continued. From the fuzzy overhead angle, it looks like the puck flies just inside the post, and then *through* the back of the net, but it’s fuzzy and hard to tell, though the net definitely ripples. The side angle doesn’t show anything. The camera at the far end of the rink shows the shot rising, and over the Air Force goalie’s shoulder; it looks like it’s probably headed into the net, but, then, as far as my eyes could see, the puck just vanishes. A few frames later, it bounces off the boards, but I couldn’t see it get there, despite there not being any obstructions. The kicker is that there’s no hole in the net. The only camera angle that shows anything looks like the puck probably went in, but how the hell did it get out? They ruled it a goal about fifteen minutes after it happened, which was probably the right call, but weird.

    #2 Duluth loses to #4 Miami. Blech. Crappy end to a crappy day of hockey. I have no real interest in the last to regional finals tomorrow, unless someone can convince me that Bemidji has a chance.

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