I’ll be off the grid until later tonight, so hopefully Tim, DougJ, or Anne Laurie will be around.
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by John Cole| 77 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
I’ll be off the grid until later tonight, so hopefully Tim, DougJ, or Anne Laurie will be around.
Comments are closed.
asiangrrlMN
Where is everyone this morning?
So, who’s doing what today? I’m meeting up with a cousin I haven’t seen in ten years, and then I’m heading over to the bro’s house to watch the kids so he and his wife can go out for his birthday. Then, we’re all going out for his birthday. Or something like that.
Do I live on the edge or what?
Betsy
Mornin’, asiangrrlMN. I’m still recovering from my unfortunate attempt to watch District 9 last night. Nothing much planned for today, but tomorrow I will be packing up for a camping trip with a friend in Acadia. Yay!
Betsy
Oh that’s not true! It’s restaurant week here, so my partner and I are going out with two friends to try Olives, Todd English’s restaurant. I’m very curious – I love watching cooking shows on PBS, and I find him to be absolutely insufferable. So I’m quite curious to see what his actual restaurant is like.
SiubhanDuinne
I’m driving to North Carolina for a conference. Must finish packing and hit the road before it gets too beastly hot.
South of I-10
Morning y’all. we are thinking about heading to New Orleans for a little day trip to the aquarium, but no one seem to be able to make up their mind.
asiangrrlMN
@Betsy: Hi! I just left a comment for you on….I think it’s the Lily/BabyKitten thread about the wonders of ginger pills for motion sickness. Give it a shot the next time you go to a movie that is shaky. Have fun at the restaurant.
@SiubhanDuinne: Oooh, what kind of conference? Anything fun and exciting?
@South of I-10: Go go go! That sounds like a blast.
parksideq
I’m headed to the Jersey shore for my first and probably last beach weekend this summer (the weather’s been atrocious all summer in the Tri-State area). Then Atlantic City for the rest of the weekend for a friend of a friend’s birthday.
@John Cole: what, you don’t trust Tunch enough to man the site while you’re out?
JK
Reminder
Rachel Maddow is on Meet the Press tomorrow along with Dick Armey, Tom Coburn, and Tom Daschle. This should be very exciting in light of Armey’s resignation from DLA Piper http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/15/us/15lobby.html.
I fully expect Armey to be as obnoxious with Maddow as he was several weeks ago with Joan Walsh when they appeared together on Hardball. At one point during that appearance, Armey said he was glad that Walsh wasn’t his wife.
PeakVT
I just finished stuffing in a freshly baked brownie, and now I’m going to do some woodworking.
A Mom Anon
The Husband,The Teenager and I are headed over to something called Pigs and Peaches,a bbq contest/street fair sort of dealie. The Husband is now cleared to return to work and is feeling WAY better than he was a couple weeks ago at this time. The main thing is the horrific bruising from the cath for the angioplasty. Makes it hard to walk,plus he seems to tire alot easier than before. He’s also lost 6 lbs and is adjusting to a new diet. That’s the downside of Pigs and Peaches,no bbq for him. The upside is the artisans with all their nifty stuff on display.
What I SHOULD be doing is yard work,but it’s freaking hot here and I can’t get motivated.
linda
@JK:
oh gawd, i’d forgotten about that hardball appearance. yeah, armey is one delicate asshole when he’s called out. this could be very interesting, esp since she actually prepares beyond the talking points provided by the producers.
oh pleasepleaseplease let the c street house of ill repute be addressed while tom coburn is there sitting next to the lesbian. lol….
jnfr
Hanging out in Second Life listening to Valerie Jarrett talking at Netroots Nation. Have some work to do today, and tonight hubby and I are going to see some teenage friends act in a presentation of Sweeney Todd. Busy day for us!
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
At home on a quiet Saturday night… drawing a drawing – i sold one of my canvases, and need to finish another to fill the now empty spot on the cafe wall.
Dead of winter, supposed to be 28 degrees (that’s Celcius – so that’s 82 degrees for you yanks.)
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
At home on a quiet Saturday night… drawing a drawing – i sold one of my canvases, and need to finish another to fill the now empty spot on the cafe wall.
Dead of winter, supposed to be 28 degrees tomorrow (that’s Celcius – so that’s 82 degrees for you yanks.)
Comrade Mary
I’m still waiting for the heavy hand of unemployment to hit, but a tiny development project that came in at the last moment has doubled in size and has to get done by the end of this weekend. Work is good, but I miss my bike. This should have been a long riding day for me.
Tattoosydney
Agh. I want an edit button.
To atone – the Spaces Between.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
@Betsy:
Unfortunate how? Did you get motion sick from the handheld camerawork, or did you just not like the film?
I saw it last night too and absolutely loved it – it was brutal, exciting, funny, and unexpectedly moving. And made on a budget that would probably barely cover the cost of animating a
pair of giant clanking robot balls in a piece of shit like Transformers 2.
Betsy
@asiangrrlMN:
Hey, thanks! I’ve never had ginger pills, although when I’m at home I do eat crystallized ginger when I’m feeling sick to my stomach. The trouble is knowing which movies are going to be all wobbly – maybe I should just make it a habit to take some with me whenever I go to the cinema!!
Betsy
@tripletee (formerly tBone):
Yeah, I got horribly sick, unfortunately. Had to leave within the first half hour. Which is too bad, because I thought it looked like it was going to be an interesting movie.
asiangrrlMN
@Tattoosydney: Good for you, fake hubby! Woot woot! I am about to take a nap. Yes, I just got up two hours ago. So?
P.S. Nice song!
tripletee (formerly tBone)
@Betsy:
That sucks. On the plus side, though, you have a good excuse for never watching terrible home movies.
Brick Oven Bill
In the previous thread, geg6 blamed budget deficits on the military. Doing more of that pesky math, the military budget is around $1 trillion, out of a total federal budget of, I think $3.7 trillion under Obama. This includes the VA, retirements, and other associated spending, and still is less than 1/3 of the budget.
If the goal is to reduce this percentage, perhaps the President should pull our forces out of the Middle East. As far as I can tell, the only reason we are in Afghanistan is because of a debate tactic used by our Professor.
The reason we are in Afghanistan appears to be that Afghanistan is not Iraq. But we are still in Iraq. I guess Afghanistan is the right war because Osama bin Laden lived there ten years ago.
Maude
@Brick Oven Bill:
That’s pretty good. A good reason as any .
tripletee (formerly tBone)
@Brick Oven Bill:
That there is some highly-concentrated dumb, BoB. I’m glad to see you’re putting some effort into your spoof-trolling again – I was worried about you there for a while.
jacy
How does one make it off the grid? I don’t seem to be able to find my way out.
For the present, my weekends are almost exactly like my weekdays. So today I will work, run errands, and restrain myself from beating the children. I console myself with the fact that maybe by Halloween I’ll be able to take a day off.
So everyboday else out there, go have some fun and I’ll live vicariously through you. :)
bago
District 9 is awesome. Go see it, even if you are a bit squeamish. Watching Wikas change in fits and spurts [SPOILAR]
(both biologically and sympathetically)[/SPOILAR] as the events unfold is magic. It’s like “The Office” turns into “Falling Down” with “Aliens” in the background. Awesome.Bad Horse's Filly
Morning everyone. I got a call early this morning from a close friend, her nephew was serverely injured today in Afghanistan. He’s out of his first surgery, not sure if he’ll have more before he’s shipped to Germany. Prayers, good energy, good thoughts would really be appreciated. Thanks so much. Feeling a bit helpless for her, so I figured I’d mobilize all my contacts to think good thoughts for him.
bago
Oh, Right, my other big idea. Major news shows should do a “The Word” style bit, where facts that contradict what a politico is saying are put up on the screen in nigh real time, complete with hyperlinkage minutes later as the transcript is released.
Since it seems to take an hour to encode and distribute these things on the net anyways, that would be plenty of time to do research and insert “Would you like to know more?” buttons into the broadcast stream.
Tokyokie
Me, I’m going to finish installing hardwood floor in the living room.
arguingwithsignposts
Hey, hey, BJers. probably going to watch “Burn after reading” today and buzz the netflix “watch now” streaming vids for a while. When’s that new BJ 3.0 coming down the pipe?
SiubhanDuinne
@ asiangrrlMN: Well, fun and exciting is as fun and exciting does. It’s a conference of state legislators from the south. I’ve been attending as an observer (as part of my job — I am not a state legislator!) for many years. Sometimes the sessions can be pretty dry, but every now and then there’s a really interesting speaker, and the field trips are always interesting. So I’m looking forward to it, despite the fact that I’m procrastinating about actually getting on the road.
arguingwithsignposts
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
good thoughts commencing in 3, 2, 1 …
bago
@Bad Horse’s Filly: As I understand it the standard procedure is that first surgery is to stabilize the patient so that they can get on a plane to Germany, and then the real work begins. The first two most lethal stages have been passed, which is good. Best of luck. to them. It’s the only reason I still have a brother today.
smiley
You know, I like Royal Pains but you’d think they’d have a medical consultant. I just had on the rerun of the latest episode (“Am I Blue?”) and there was a minor character who turned blue from the sun because she was on chlorpromazine. Chlorpromazine is freakin’ Thorazine, a powerful and effective antipsychotic. Now turning blue from exposure to the sun might be a side effect of Thorazine – if it is I’ve never heard of it – but if it is, there would be a lot of blue schizophrenics out there.
demimondian
I’m going to start filling in the BIGBIG holes in the back yard which will hold the foundations for the new retaining wall. (Sad back yard slopes down abut 20 feet over its 60 foot width. Unsurprisingly, we have runoff problems.)
Betsy
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
That’s awful. I’m so sorry to hear that. Best wishes to your friend, her nephew, and their family for as swift and complete a recovery as possible.
arguingwithsignposts
BTW, not for Bad Horse’s Filly right now, but this NOVA documentary on surgeons in Iraq is really quite good.
Again, major good thoughts flowing to your friend’s nephew. Peace.
gnomedad
@Betsy:
Forgive me if this is obvious, but my wife sits far back for movies like this; seems to help. You might also try staring at your (stationary!) cell phone screen for a while (just guessing here). Maybe the DVD will have a non-puking setting.
SiubhanDuinne
@ Bad Horse’s Filly
Please let your friend know that her nephew has only the best of thoughts from here. You are a good person to mobilise your networks like that.
Michael D.
I suppose I could write a post.
Just Some Fuckhead
You better wait until you get fully drunk.
geg6
Defense spending has been the largest item in the federal budget since at least the Reagan administration, BOB. Especially when you count all the off-the-books spending. But whatever. I have no interest in engaging with the stupid on such a lovely day. For me, it’s another round of NN, followed by swimming, dinner, and cocktails at my sister’s house.
Bad Horse's Filly
@bago: Thanks everyone. And Bago, thanks for that info, good to hear about your brother. I’m sorry he had to go through that.
My understanding of this situation is, that after he got out of surgery, they let him talk to his mom, so that makes me feel positive. We’re all still worried about complications, etc. And two other soldiers were injured along with him, both going to make it, is my understanding. I forgot to add that in the first post. Can’t wait for the edit feature to return.
GReynoldsCT00
Good morning all! we actually have SUN here in CT today… after I have my coffee and get the brain cells working I plan to fiddle in the garden and enjoy it. John, I’m guessing you have Lily with you, have a great Saturday.
geg6
Bad Horse’s Filly: I’ll be sending good thoughts to your friend’s nephew and his fellow wounded warriors. May all be well.
bago
@Bad Horse’s Filly: If he can talk after one local surgery he’s in damn good shape. Means he has avoided most brain damage, has a healthy respiratory system, and has stemmed blood loss. After that’s it’s just limbs, eyeballs, and skin he can lose, and most of those are mostly replaceable.
SGEW
@Michael D.:
I, for one, would quite appreciate that, actually. It’s been too long, no?
SGEW
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
That is some shitty news. Here’s hoping that everyone comes through ok.
The other day I felt I was spending too much time thinking about the Afghanistan war (mission creep, regional and political ramifications, cost in blood and treasure, etc.), but now I feel I’m not thinking about it enough.
MikeJ
@smiley:
Skin Pigmentation — Rare instances of skin pigmentation have been observed in hospitalized mental patients, primarily females who have received the drug usually for 3 years or more in dosages ranging from 500 mg to 1500 mg daily. The pigmentary changes, restricted to exposed areas of the body, range from an almost imperceptible darkening of the skin to a slate gray color, sometimes with a violet hue. Histological examination reveals a pigment, chiefly in the dermis, which is probably a melanin-like complex. The pigmentation may fade following discontinuance of the drug.
Crashman06
Wow, you guys wake up early. It’s Saturday; time to sleep in!
MikeJ
@MikeJ:
And to reply to myself, it looks like they pulled a House. They found a disease or syndrome or side effect that has been reported at least once, but is very, very uncommon. Which is fine. It’s supposed to be entertainment, not real life.
But if you’re on 1500mg of Thorazine daily for three years, turning blue is really the least of your problems.
asiangrrlMN
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
Strong, positive vibes flying out of MN straight to your friend’s nephew in Afghanistan. Please keep us posted on his progress. It’s good that he made it through his first surgery, but what shitty news, nonetheless.
Yawn. Why is it that napping only makes me more tired?????
@Michael D.: Do it! I am a Jenny-Come-Lately, so I have never read one of your front-page posts. I am curious to see what you would write.
asiangrrlMN
@Crashman06: Oh, I would if I could. I can’t get more than four-five hours of sleep these days. Thus, the hour-two hour nap every now and again. It’s not enough, but it’ll have to do.
Bill H
@A Mom Anon:
He’s tiring because of the new diet. Once he gets used to the new diet, he will have way more energy than he did before the angioplasty. You didn’t say if he was on pt; if not, exercise is important.
steve s
Interestng question raised by Steve Benen:
Read the whole post to see what he’s talking about:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019499.php
Michael D.
@SGEW: Hmmm, what could I write that would just piss everyone off?
Maybe something like how implementing the Fair Tax would pretty much stop all off shore tax evasion, since, you know, there would be no taxes to evade. And how all the companies who left the US because of our shitty corporate tax structure would come back. And how companies from other countries would flock to the US because of it, etc.
Would that piss everyone off on this wonderful Saturday morning? ;-)
Leelee for Obama
Filly-good thoughts for the young man. Hope he’s up and about sooner than anticipated. I always wonder how we think we deserve these kids.
Max
I’m heading out to a health care town hall this morning. I live in the Bay Area, so I don’t expect many crazies, but you never know. I did see a couple McCain / Palin bumper stickers during the election.
I hope that more of you, especially those who lamented the end of heath care reform and the democratic party in general in yesterday’s pearl-clutching palooza, do something today to make your voice of support heard. Write your representative, go to a townhall, talk to your neighbor who may be opposed, call your congressmen. If you are not willing to get involved, then IMO, you lose your right to criticize those that do.
The President’s townhall from conservative Grand Junction starts at 6:25pm Eastern. The opposition is already mobilizing against him.
Cue to Glenn Beckers… http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/08/13/081409_1a_Opposition_grows.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=7
Ok, I’m stepping down from my soapbox.
P.S. After the townhall, I’m going for a mani/pedi.
Bill H
@smiley:
My wife likes HawthoRNe, and the capitalization in the name should give you a clue just how bad it is. The nurse loses her temper and starts screaming in fury if anyone looks at her crosswise, and sometimes if they look at her at all; she and all the other nurses are always arguing with and contradicting the doctors, and the doctors always turn out to have been wrong; and one time the head nurse yanked the cardiac paddles out of the doctor’s hands in a “Here, I’ll do it myself” moment.
smiley
@MikeJ: I’ll be damned. After reading your comment I did some digging and see that you are right. Changes in skin pigmentation can occur. My bad. Shouldn’t have commented without checking it out. However, I’m not a psychiatrist but I do teach a course on drugs. In all the prep work I’ve done for lectures on antipsychotics, I’ve never come across that until now. It must be very rare indeed. Thanks, though, I’ll include it in my notes (along with the example from the TV show).
MikeJ
@smiley: I should have blockquoted that, it was straight from the FDA info.
Crashman06
@asiangrrlMN: oh that sounds awful. I don’t know how I could manage that. I seem to need a solid eight hours or else I’m a complete zombie.
smiley
@Bill H: You mean Super Nurse? Yeah, I’ve seen that show. I know some nurses and I don’t think it’s quite as unrealistic as you do (except the Super Nurse part). All that aside, though, I don’t think the show will last more than a season or two. However, I do like looking at Jada Pinkett Smith.
steve s
good job.
SGEW
@steve s: My take is that Obama should adopt the tone of voice and simplicity of message he used when he was interviewed by an 11 year old the other day.
@Michael D.: Meh. Nowadays you need more trash talk than that to really rile us up.
Montysano
For the second time I’ve fixed my buddy’s vintage Volvo 240, both times after pro mechanics failed to do so. I’m like a god around that household.
MBSS
i’m resting up and waiting for my hangover to fade. i have a few hours until i go to work.
also i’m reflecting after some straight talk with my friends last night. they told me point blank about some of my issues, in a loving way and after a few beers. in some ways i resisted what they were saying and a part of me wanted to say “fark off,” but i know deep in my heart they are right.
working on one’s own issues is so hard and painful. no wonder everyone avoids it.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
@MBSS:
One of your issues (and I mean this in a loving way) is that you’re taking advice from your drunken wastrel friends. My advice? Get new friends who are sufficiently sycophantic.
Nah, j/k, always good to have people around who aren’t afraid to call you on your shit. That’s one of the reasons I like this blog.
freelancer
How far is the Appalachian Trail from Cole?
MBSS
@ tripletee:
lol
(and i really did laugh out loud…loudly) hope you have a great weekend.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
@MBSS:
Back at ya.
Skepticat
This is a new one on me. Has any of you had any experience with something like this? The glass tabletop on my outdoor table–a round metal frame with an umbrella, you know the type–just exploded. Thank goodness it’s tempered glass, as there is glass everywhere. I was elsewhere in the house when I heard a funny sound that I couldn’t identify or track down, and it was just a few minutes ago that I glanced out the window into the deck and saw the mess.
It’s pretty warm here–high eighties–and the deck and table are in full sun all day. It’s an old table and the dark green metal must really suck up heat, so I’m assuming the heat just got to it. Still pretty weird. It seems that everything I own–including the old bod–is disintegrating.
Anne Laurie
This is why tempered glass is such a great invention. The culprit in such incidents, I’m told, is that even the best most expensive sheet glass has tiny (grain-of-sand-sized) flaws that degrade catastrophically over time. I was working in a sixtieth-floor office complex with floor-to-ceiling windows when one of them cracked — it sounded like a pteradon had thumped against it, but it was just the glass “giving way”. Fortunately, due to crackpot progressives and their nanny-state safety codes, the window was not only tempered but also coated on both sides with a thick resin shield heavy enough that the maintenance workers had to use giant pliers to break the shards apart. One of the other secretaries was mildly agoraphic, and to say she was perturbed by the incident would be an understatement, but she ended up keeping a clear vase full of “window rubble” (like the clear stones florist shops sell) on her desk to remind herself that The Worst had happened & she’d come through it safely!
Skepticat
Boy, your example is a heckuva lot more exciting than mine! Had this been a window and any higher than the first-floor deck, I too might have been a bit perturbed!
Funny, I was thinking of using the pebbles around my hosta to keep the slugs away, but perhaps I’ll run them through my rock polisher and use them in flower arrangements. Thanks for the idea (and I’m glad you and your cohort have only a great story to tell).
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
Don’t know if you’ll see this, but I really wanted to thank you for “The Spaces Between.” A beautiful song. I have been playing it all night interspersed with a maudlin run of country-inflected songs–the Marshall Tucker Band’s “Heard It in a Love Song,” B.W. Stevenson’s “My Maria” and–strangest of all–Gordon Lightfoot’s “Beautiful.” Good stuff. Excuse me, I need a minute . . .
D-Chance.
And Saturday night rolls on into Sunday morning.
Consider this our offical CBS Morning Show open thread, I guess, until the Balloon Juice silence is broken on.
BTW, has the Gateway Putz not earned himself the title of “The Internet’s Biggest Moron” for his anti-health care reform campaign over the past couple of weeks? This morning is a doozy of an effort; trashing the President’s deceased grandmother, aka “Typical White (note his infusion of race, that darkie bastard never really loved the dear old Caucasoid, you know) Person”. Of course, his (few) commenters are in full, deep-throat agreement…
D-Chance.
Damn lack of an edit button. Is that web-mistress chick sending the new code in via Pony Express, Cole?
/grins