Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

Republicans in disarray!

Not all heroes wear capes.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Consistently wrong since 2002

No one could have predicted…

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Open Thread

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

General Winfield Stuck, Ok, Draw!

ok-draw

jeffreyw, Buddy.

buddy

Email me a link to your one or two favorite pics on a photo site like Flickr (do not send the image itself please) and I will put up favorites in open threads. Send a short caption if you want one.

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  3. 3.

    kid bitzer

    wow. you’ve got three whole animal kingdoms in those two photos.

    mammals ftw!

    (yeah, or kingdoms or phyla or whatever. they changed it all since i was in school).

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    I’m kind of fond of this one, called ‘Skybox’. This is the new viewing platform atop the Sears (ok, Willis) Tower; basically a box of (thick) glass panes cantilevered out beyond the building.

    -dms

  9. 9.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @The Moar You Know:

    Nope, the waspers and hummers squabble all summer for feeder rights. Just happened to catch this one as they squared off. Mostly by luck to be honest.

  10. 10.

    Evinfuilt

    @kid bitzer:

    Linean classification is so 19th century, but its okay, I like seeing mammals, insects and flowering plants.

    The top photo is an amazing catch.

  12. 12.

    Violet

    Wow, that top photo is amazing. I love the dog photo – the tongue just cracks me right up.

    Jeffreyw, any news on your dog? I hope he turns up. Everything crossed for you guys.

  15. 15.

    Larv

    Yeah, that first one is great. Do you happen to know what kind of wasp that is? I’d recommend submitting the photo to whatsthatbug.com. I doubt the wasp can be ID’d from that pic, but the site is run by a photographer and he’ll love the pic.

  16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    O/T — or I guess not, since it’s an Open Thread — but check out some of the fun ideas on this nifty site http://thefuntheory.com/.

    I really like that it’s a Volkswagen innovation. They’ve always had great marketing and advertising. Must be a fun place to work. (Yeah, yeah, I know, Hitler, yada yada.)

  17. 17.

    Tsulagi

    Both excellent pics.

    Bottom one reminds me of our dog. He’d run like that with tongue flapping in the wind. Miss that guy.

    Top one looks like the hummingbird and the wasp having a face off on who gets the feeder. Haven’t seen quite that coloring on a hummingbird before, and I’ve seen a lot as my daughter is the hummingbird queen of our area. We have three feeders on the front of the house she keeps supplied and it’s not uncommon to see a dozen or more swarming around them. Even in the winter with snow on the front deck we have our regulars.

  22. 22.

    dmsilev

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s not that bad, really. There’s no sensation of movement or wind, so a lot of the internal “I’m up high” cues are missing. There’s just the view.

    -dms

  23. 23.

    Bill H

    @dmsilev:
    There’s one like that over the Grand Canyon, too. Something like 6000 feet straight down, and the glass platforn sticks out something like 100′ or more.

  24. 24.

    ChrisS

    So to recap NPR this morning:

    * Obama is struggling with sub-60% approval ratings.

    * A open GOP house seat is up for grabs between a liberal and a millionaire backed by Palin and the Club for Growth

    * The GOP-nominated candidate dropped out and came out for the liberal.

    * The VA governorship will likely go to a well-known moderate republican that’s running on democratic issues.

    * Thus, Obama is in trouble because independents don’t like healthcare.

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dmsilev: Oh, I’d definitely go there! A couple of years ago I did the London Eye, and there’s a point at which you can’t see the trailing cars (pods) for a few minutes, and you have that similar suspended-in-mid-air feeling. I truly don’t mind heights, there was just something about all the feet and the great distance beneath!

  28. 28.

    GregB

    Remember when the beltway gasbags rose up in collective anger and revulsion at Ned Lamont? How the Democratic Party was purging Joe Lieberman in the way that Stalin and Pol Pot purged dissenters?

    How come that narrative isn’t being used to describe what’s happening to Scozzafava?

    -G

  30. 30.

    Hiram Taine

    A possum nest, Venus, the Crescent Moon and a Jetliner, all in the same frame.

    The way to tell the difference between a possum nest and a squirrel nest is that possums build their nests much closer to the trunk of the tree, squirrels build theirs out near the end of branches so they are not so likely to be attacked by climbing predators.

    I took this image the morning after Obama’s inauguration, Jan 21 of this year, I noted the Crescent Moon in the morning sky, pulled over into a construction site on the side of the road and took the shot handheld but braced against the hood of my truck with my Lumix FX07 pocket camera.

  33. 33.

    Svensker

    @Hiram Taine:

    Beautiful picture. And also thanks for the info about possum vs squirrel nests. Always wondered who was making that big ol’ pile o’ mess in the trees around here, but never thought about possums as the culprits. Should have realized those mangy looking little critters would make mangy looking nests.

  34. 34.

    malraux

    Pic 1 Pic 2
    In my pocket of the urban hellhole, we actually have block parties for the neighborhood. These are some of the neighbors’ kids playing in the leaves around my house. I really need to rake soon.

  35. 35.

    ChrisS

    “How come that narrative isn’t being used to describe what’s happening to Scozzafava?”

    It’s because Obama is struggling to unite the country in his socialist agenda. Duh.

    Although to be fair, David Brooks, who had a crazy man crush on Lieberman, but had this to say about Scozzafazza dropping out: “I think it is a suicide pact for the Republican Party, essentially taking a moderate Republican, dead-center in American politics, and saying, sorry, you are too liberal. That’s crazy.”

  36. 36.

    Violet

    @jeffreyw:

    So sorry. :( I hope he’s just having an excellent adventure and will find his way home. Does he have one of those ID chips in case he does get found? Wishing you guys the best.

  39. 39.

    Elie

    General Winfield Stuck:

    That Hummer and the wasp squaring off — what a great pic!

    That looks like either a Rufus or Allen’s Hummingbird.

    We have the Rufus up here in State of WA and they are a delightful, feisty group who compete aggressively with each other as well as anything else. Love to see it when the babies that hatch out each spring start using the feeders in droves… really cute to watch, a lot of confusion.

    Great photo — amazing that you got that!

  42. 42.

    growingdaisies

    What great pictures, both of ’em.

    General, I’m a big hummingbird fan. Do you sell any prints anywhere?

  43. 43.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @growingdaisies:

    Yup, here is my Hummer photoblog with instructions to purchase, I can make prints of all my hummer photos EXCEPT the ones I took last year and unfortunately include these two.

    The reason is I downsized them to far with Photoshop and deleted the RAW images. And yes, I am a techno idiot.:)

    BJ’ers get 10 percent off.

  44. 44.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    Aw, man GWS! Those are awesome. Love hummingbirds, in part because they don’t seem to be afraid of much. The Ruby Throat (only kind we get out here) will get in your face if you’re late topping up the feeder and frankly an intelligent needle-tipped object moving at a zillon mph is pretty alarming.

    Love the pic of the pup. I suspect he’s somewhere listening to a small child scream BUT I WANNA KEEP HIM! while the parents weigh dog napping against trama-induced deafness.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @malraux: If you were to ask me, I would say, “Why bother to rake?” I adore the look and crunch of lots of leaves on the ground and never could understand what was so desirable about raking them up and filling dozens of ugly plastic bags (and no, I don’t mind raking as a chore, so it’s not just me trying to get out of something).

    Who here besides me is old enough to remember that fabulous aroma of leaves burning, back decades ago before everyone decided it was an environmental hazard to burn leaves? To me, the first whiff of that delicious scent and I always knew autumn had truly arrived. I really really miss it, and if someone could figure out how to bottle it, I’d buy stock in the company.

  46. 46.

    SiubhanDuinne

    BTW, it’s been 36 hours now since the change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time. I was just kinda wondering whether anybody at Balloon-Juice was planning to fall back with all the rest of us . . . ?

  48. 48.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    @ChrisS: This was ABC’s take this morning as well, I about threw my coffee cup at the TV. But I really needed the coffee.

  50. 50.

    IndyLib

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Well, we could burn leaves in our yard if we wanted to, it’s not illegal, however for it to be practical it would frikkin’ have to quit raining here in beautiful southern Wisconsin long enough for the damned leaves to dry out.

  51. 51.

    trollhattan

    The hummer-wasp shot is mindblowing–well titled too.

    Doggie levatating at full tilt is of course cute as heck. I wish mine weren’t terrified of cameras, darn it.

  52. 52.

    malraux

    If you were to ask me, I would say, “Why bother to rake?” I adore the look and crunch of lots of leaves on the ground and never could understand what was so desirable about raking them up and filling dozens of ugly plastic bags (and no, I don’t mind raking as a chore, so it’s not just me trying to get out of something).

    Here, the leaves fall so thick that if I don’t rake, the amount of leaves will end up killing the grass come spring. I’ll be mulching most of them and using them as fertilizer come spring, so it does have some practical importance as well as aesthetic.

  53. 53.

    Demo Woman

    The pictures are wonderful. What talented folks comment on this blog and thank you for sharing your pictures.

  55. 55.

    Svensker

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Who here besides me is old enough to remember that fabulous aroma of leaves burning, back decades ago before everyone decided it was an environmental hazard to burn leaves?

    Me. Yes, bestest smell, ever.

  58. 58.

    licensed to kill time

    @General Winfield Stuck: A beautiful photo. May I take this opportunity to tell you that I hesitated to click on your “Hummercam” link for a long time? At first I thought, naw – not that kinda hummer. Then, I had this vision of a camera placed on your Hummer (vehicle) and I thought “boring!”. Then, I clicked on the link and was awed.

    What can I say, I’m a little slow on the uptick.

  60. 60.

    General Winfield Stuck

    And thanks to everyone, specially fuckhead, cause I know how hard that musta been.:-)

  63. 63.

    cdmarine

    Awesome! I love both of these shots. The first one is just so arresting and alien looking. The second just so perfectly captures the dog-in-motion feeling. So loving seeing everyone’s photos. It’s interesting to see the beauty that surrounds us through other people’s eyes.

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