Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

We’re not going back!

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

We won’t go back.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

White supremacy is terrorism.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

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

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Reader Interactions

156Comments

  2. 2.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Lots of good stuff today.

    I guess the Stillers finally won a game. No one could have predicted that. The bottom half of the cellar salutes.

  4. 4.

    DougJ

    I guess the Stillers finally won a game. No one could have predicted that. The bottom half of the cellar salutes.

    Chargers game had an exciting finish too.

    Same for Fins-Titans.

  5. 5.

    halliga8

    Good win today for Steelers. Great game. That defense of theirs is pretty bad though. I would say for a disappointing season, Mendenhall is the pleasant surprise.

  6. 6.

    asiangrrlMN

    Fanks, DougJ.! That combo ain’t bad. Not too annoying (except Goose sometimes).

    GO VIKES! (Try not to embarrass yourself too much on national TV). Over/under on how long it will take to first hear the phrase, “love of the game”? I’ll take the under.

  7. 7.

    MTmofo

    I hope John’s okay. Is Tunch providing chest compressions? 868 combined passing yards. What a game!

  8. 8.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    Am I wrong or is that Siragua-Kenny Albert-Daryl Johnston comobo pretty good?

    This is a joke, right?

  9. 9.

    Bubblegum Tate

    Am I wrong or is that Siragua-Kenny Albert-Daryl Johnston comobo pretty good?

    You’re not wrong–it’s a good combo. I think Johnston is probably the best color man covering the NFL right now. (And yes it still kinda burns me up to have to say that about a fucking Cowboy, retired though he might be.)

  10. 10.

    ihop

    i only listen to the hometown radio boys (billy-tunch!-wolf) and turn down everybody else.

    life is to short to listen to crapasses.

  11. 11.

    Mark S.

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I go with during the pregame.

    It’s only fair, though, since Favre doesn’t actually receive a salary. He drives a tractor during the week to pay the bills and just shows up on Sundays to play.

  12. 12.

    DougJ

    This is a joke, right?

    No, not at all. Goose is annoying at times, but Moose and Kenny Albert are really solid.

  13. 13.

    khead

    You’re wrong. Siragusa is worthless and should be shot. Kenny Albert too.

    Moose is good.

    Khead +3

  19. 19.

    Mark S.

    Man, looking at the standings, there are eight teams in the AFC within one game of each other for the wild card. That’s the oddest playoff race I can remember.

    Did anyone see Avatar this weekend?

  22. 22.

    Phoenix Woman

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Favre threw lots of birds with the Jets, but he’s been surprisingly pickoff-free this season; he got hammered in Arizona, but that was the game where the Vikes lost half their starters, at least one of them for the season.

    Of course, he didn’t want to be with the Jets, and he did want to play for the Vikings, so perhaps he may have been doggin’ it, consciously or not, last year.

  25. 25.

    Cat Lady

    My Pats won, but they’re not going anywhere this year. The big news in sports talk here is that Tom and Giselle just named their baby, oh, and John Lackey and Mike Cameron, bitchez.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I am not in any sense a football fan or follower, and am just embarrassingly ignorant of the game, the teams, the rivalries, the players, and the casual banter and football jokes — so forgive me if I’m asking something blindingly obvious to everyone else — but why does this thread have a “Going Galt” tag?

  28. 28.

    Max

    @asiangrrlMN: Glad to cheer your boys on.

    If I understand you, I’m not only cheering for the Vikes to win, but I want Brett to get banged up and pulled out of the game.

  29. 29.

    Malron

    Hmmm, the Vikings start to this game looks eerily similar to the way they slipped and stumbled on Arizona’s turf. I’m wondering if Minnesota’s equipment manager doesn’t know how to purchase the right spikes for grass turf.

  34. 34.

    burnspbesq

    Crazy football weekend.

    ManUHated got lit up by Fulham, Liverpool lost to Portsmouth, and Mark Hughes got fired after a win. And the draw for the Champions League set up all sorts of fun.

    Oh, wait – y’all are talking about American football.

  35. 35.

    Texbetsy

    I’m not sure why I keep watching football. My Giants were a disappointment this season. I think I just watch to root against some of the other teams.

  36. 36.

    Malron

    Oh great.

    Both tackles are letting defenders beat them around the edge and hit Favre to sack him or stop him from completing a pass and then Longwell hits the upright and misses.

    Pop quiz: in what way are Brett Favre and Barack Obama alike?

  38. 38.

    Max

    @JohnCole

    This tweet from Rich Eisen reminded me of you…

    Does tonight’s ref remind anyone else of “Monk”? Yes, I’m saying I think Tony Shaloub just flagged the Panthers for holding.

  40. 40.

    Corner Stone

    The Goose and The Moose + Kenny! ?
    Not so good combo. I tire easily of hearing Goose talk about how fat, slow and out of shape he played in the National Football League.
    They rate a solid “Meh”.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @asiangrrlMN 8:52 pm

    Thanks. Not so much a tag as a cryptic means of conveying information, I guess.

  47. 47.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    Goose is annoying at times

    Yes, he’s annoying those times he speaks. He exists for only one reason, to give people who watch Family Guy somebody they can feel smarter than.

    Moose and Kenny Albert are really solid.

    Johnston is idiotic and as egregious a spouter of football conventional wisdom as David Broder on valium.

  48. 48.

    Corner Stone

    @mcd410x: I’m pretty sure he’s a one man stimulus. He stimulates the restaurant/fast food industry every where Fox sends him.

  49. 49.

    AngusTheGodOfMeat

    One of last year’s Super Bowl teams clinched their division today.

    Hint, it was not the Steelers.

    Okay, the division sucks, but a clinch is a clinch.

    What’s a Stiller? Jerry, or Ben? Hm.

  51. 51.

    Rommie

    The Lions showed signs of shaking their Cowardly Lion logo off of the helmets, but still lost. It’s probably for the best, they have a Top 3 pick currently. The way the Bears are playing, they might have a chance at home for the last game of the season.

  54. 54.

    Andy K

    Despite the disappointing loss to the Stillers, I’m in a pretty good mood. Maybe it has to do with Jay “Our Lord and Savior” Cutler’s continued freefall with the Bears. Let’s take a look at those numbers:

    27 attempted passes, 10 completions for 94 yards, 0 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.

    But buck up, Bears fans: Cutler did run the ball 4 times, gaining 23 yards. 5.75 yards per carry is pretty good, no?

    Ahh, the schadenfreude…I could bask in this for a week.

  55. 55.

    J.W. Hamner

    A surprisingly good drive by the Panthers. Who is this Moore guy anyway? He doesn’t appear to be an interception machine, so that’s gotta be nice for Carolina fans.

  57. 57.

    Chat Noir

    @arguingwithsignposts: I saw you mention in another thread that you are letting Smudge play with a piece of string until you get her some cat toys. It’s fine as long as you can monitor her play. You have to be careful because cats can swallow string or yarn which might then get caught in their intestines. My sister (a vet) cautioned me about this a long time ago. She had a client who’s cat got into the bathroom trash and ingested dental floss; the kitty had to have surgery to remove the obstruction.

    Didn’t know if you were aware of this so I thought I’d mention it anywho (I’m all about erring on the side of caution where my kitties are concerned).

    Smudge is sooo cute dolly (love the ears).

  61. 61.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @asiangrrlMN 9:02 pm

    Yeah, just saw that. Next it’ll be Laughing Helicopters or something.

  63. 63.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Keith G:
    you could possibly look into the open thread a couple of days ago when JC threw it open to discuss my new kitty. Or, honestly, any thread over the last few days as I’ve been kitteh blogging in the comments. (sad, I know).

  64. 64.

    demkat620

    Moose and Kenny Albert are really solid

    They don’t bother me. Now, Troy “Captain Obvious” Aikman, that’s a whole other story.

  65. 65.

    lamh31

    I hate football!!! Still mad at that game yesterday with the Saints vs the Cowboys!!! As God is my witness (raising my fist ala Scarlett O’Hara), I’m offa football til after the New Year.

    Being a lowly singleton, I’m gonna spend the rest of my year weeping in my lonely bedroom, watching LMN (for those not in the know, that’ Lifetime Movie Network), nothing makes you feel more secure than seeing a movie from the 80’s where Laurie Loughlin (Uncle Jesse’s wife from Full House) plays a divorcee’ who is ashamed to have people see her paying for her groceries with food stamps (the ole school paper kind, not the cute little debit cards they have now).

    Also watching whatever Rom Com Lifetime/Hallmark/ABCFamily they throw my way. Just finished watching “The Family Stone” about this dude who brings his new girlfriend home to meet his family for the first time, long story short: she ends up with his brother, and the dude ends up with her sister…whatevah.

    I’ve never been dating anyone during the holidays, so I just wondered if people still “ambush” their family at the holidays. Isn’t the holiday stressful enough for everyone, without the added stress of having to impress you partner’s family.

    So do people still do this? If so, is there a “relationship timeframe” before it’s okay to bring the girlfriend/boyfriend home to meet the fam, i.e. if you’ve been dating at least 3 months, or do you wait til you knwo for sure that you love this person b4 introducing them to ur fam?

  67. 67.

    Steeplejack

    @DougJ:

    Am I wrong or is that Siragusa-Kenny Albert-Daryl Johnston combo pretty good?

    I will grudgingly admit that I found myself less irritated than usual by the announcing team. So, okay, yeah.

    Although right now I am suffering through Marv Albert in the night game. I generally like Cris Collinsworth. But God help us if something unusual or controversial happens, because Albert will go ballistic and hog the mike explaining all the ramifications and nuances ad nauseam.

  69. 69.

    asiangrrlMN

    AP, I’ll have your babies any day!

    7-6.

    @lamh31: I can’t help you. I am usually single during the hollys, and I have only introduced one partner to my family. Ever. Well, two, if you count the high school bf. No clue.

    That was a nice story. One of the Vikes, Madeu Williams, gave $2M to his alma mater to start a center for global initiatives (ie, fighting world hunger). He’s from Sierra Leone.

  70. 70.

    Annie

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    i agree with the string or rope. I just spent the last hour with my babysitting cats, and they went crazy over a piece of rope. Really crazy. I hope I wore them out, because I am tired….

    My two darlings when they were little went crazy over rope and over “foil” balls. I made little balls of of alum. foil. They chased those balls all over the house. When we moved, we found hundreds of foil balls under the couch.

    PS. i loved that picture of Smudge with the big ears and the paper ball. Too cute

  73. 73.

    Corner Stone

    @arguingwithsignposts: I dig that tune, and it also rocks as a string quartet version.
    But when it’s amplitude I seek, I go for the classics:
    Godsize

    And this is to say you started it with RATM. I didn’t know we were going to go mellow halfway.

  78. 78.

    Corner Stone

    @freelancer (itouch): Hey touchie. Big fan of Chevelle, and have seen them live a few times. One time at Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston which is claimed to have seated 5000 or so at one time. This time it had about 500 or so, all on the floor. Couldn’t hear for a few days but they rocked the balls off that place.

  86. 86.

    drkrick

    Can I just say I find the woman in the Chase credit card commercials to be really attractive?
    Molly Culver

    She was in VIP, a fairly stupid Pamela Anderson action-adventure series about 10 years back. (Can you spot the redundancy in that sentence?) Glad to see her career has recovered to the point where she can now get some commercials.

  87. 87.

    gwangung

    My back is bothering me as much as my Seahawks are puking it up on the field.

    Frickin’ irritating (though much preferred to the alternatives…)

  96. 96.

    Corner Stone

    @drkrick: Yeah, that’s how I found her real name. I IMDB’s Pam A, then clicked on VIP, then Molly.
    I liked that show. It delivered. Call me what you will.

  99. 99.

    Corner Stone

    This has been blah. Even with that fantastic catch. Blah.
    Nice hand work by S. Smith. Good push.

  101. 101.

    Corner Stone

    @jwb: Some of us have been upthread getting lectured by the ultra-liberal John Cole on why we’re too fucking stupid to breathe if we have an issue with the HCR bill, etc.
    For a stone cold lifelong liberal, Cole really does a fantastic get-along-to-go-along-authoritarian-cultist. He’s also a master at painting an accurate picture of debate, giving reasonable leeway to all sides. A master of perspective – Raphael-esque if you will.

  108. 108.

    PTirebiter

    @Bubblegum Tate:
    And how bout those Cowboys? I just kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and Gawd knows Nick Folk offered his, but Ware was inspired.
    Yea, I like the Albert, Goose and Siragusa team, but Kenny Albert is a little disturbing on-camera. The man does not blink.

  118. 118.

    Steeplejack

    @PTirebiter:

    [. . .] but Kenny Albert is a little disturbing on-camera. The man does not blink.

    And he does this weird “fingertips together, I’m being sagacious” thing with his hands that does not match anything that is being said. I think he is a pod person.

  119. 119.

    Steeplejack

    @asiangrrlMN:

    And I will admit that I want every game to end with a Favre interception, but I want the Vikes to win first.

    Heh. There’s your philosophy in a nutshell.

  120. 120.

    Andy K

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I think that at the point the Vikings have a game won you’re more likely to see Tavaris Jackson throw a pick. Or Adrian Peterson fumble, also.

    Well, this loss didn’t mean much, nor did the Packers’ earlier. The world keeps on turning. And this.

  121. 121.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: You’d better stick around for awhile. I’m stuck at work until midnight covering for someone who decided to take a three day weekend. So yeah I’d better get some entertainment while I’m slogging this out or I will not be one happy camper.

  123. 123.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, pretty much, damn it.

    @Andy K: Don’t care. I can have my fantasy, damn it. And, fuck love!

    @Yutsano: Well, if you want Al Michaels fellating Brett Favre kind of entertainment, you ain’t gonna get it. I’ll be here for a bit, though. Edited to add: Only because you would not want it from me, may I hasten to add. I am by no means implying you are un-fellatable.

  126. 126.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: I’m not sure if you’re teasing me or just cranky. Either way I’ve enjoyed the general feistiness on the blog today.

    And, fuck love!

    Heh. The Dawg and I never use that word. In fact we both call it the L word and avoid it like the plague. It doesn’t seem right to lessen how we feel for each other down to just a four letter word.

  132. 132.

    Brachiator

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    My song for the ex-gf. Bob Mould. although she’d probably say this about me. AWS +too much…

    I haven’t been checking the boards regularly (too much work), so I’ve been missing a few things here and there. My sympathies on your changed romantic circumstances.

  140. 140.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Both. I’m cranky, AND I’m trying to tease you.

    JACKPOT!! Now we needs my other biatch to round off the night. Hell as long as I’m gonna be here tonight he’d better give us a honeymoon update.

    The L word, eh? Wasn’t there a TV show called that….

    More applicable to your circumstances I think. But you get what I’m laying down there. We care for each other and say so. That’s enough.

  143. 143.

    Steeplejack

    @Andy K:

    Merci. Now I’m going to bed before there’s an outbreak of Serge Gainsbourg. I had to walk through deep snow today. Deep snow like in a Jack London story. Miles of it.

  146. 146.

    Andy K

    @Steeplejack:

    Is that a complaint? I’m in west Michigan- I grew up trudging miles through deep snow, four six eight months a year! I laugh at your once-in-two-decades storm! HaHa!

    No, really, i feel for ya. It’s a pain in the ass once you pass the age of 13.

  147. 147.

    Yutsano

    He showed up in this thread.

    Yeah that’s nice and all, but I WANT HIM HERE NOW!! Yes I’m cranky even if I volunteered to do this but this is the direct consequence of having a Pacific Northwesterner off of coffee for too long of a stretch. I reserve the right to be petulant. Although you’re sticking around and I do appreciate it. :)

  149. 149.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Cranky may be the wrong word. Annoyed is more like it. Not because I’m getting three hours of OT on a paycheck that was already promising to be huge (two paid holidays on one check, woot) but because the people I am talking to get REALLY idiotic late at night. I really wish I could just tell them to piss off and call again in the morning when they’d have to deal with someone else.

  150. 150.

    Morbo

    Siragusa helped run Joey Harrington out of Detroit. I’m not saying Joey was any great shakes, but Siragusa can suck it.

  151. 151.

    Yutsano

    @Morbo: Joey had two things going for him: he was a Duck and he’s really cute. But I predicted he’d be a washout in the NFL.

  155. 155.

    Andy K

    @Morbo:

    I’m not a Lions fan, but I’m not a hater, either. Due to a few degrees of separation- I’ve got an uncle who’s a friend of Joey’s dad- I really wanted to see the kid succeed. But Joey had horribly inconsistent footwork and couldn’t be counted on not to throw a horrible pass at exactly the wrong time. The Lions couldn’t afford to keep paying him the kind of money he was making if he wasn’t sufficiently dependable to fill the starting QB role.

  156. 156.

    Midnight Marauder

    @drkrick:

    She was in VIP, a fairly stupid Pamela Anderson action-adventure series about 10 years back. (Can you spot the redundancy in that sentence?) Glad to see her career has recovered to the point where she can now get some commercials.

    @Corner Stone:

    Yeah, that’s how I found her real name. I IMDB’s Pam A, then clicked on VIP, then Molly.
    I liked that show. It delivered. Call me what you will.

    This is amazing. I loved that show. Hot girls, campy action, that black dude who went from being Brooklyn to Jamaican within 10 minutes on the same episode, and then that badass Asian dude who teamed up with them in the end. As I recall, when the main VIP squad was in a pinch–and just when things were at their bleakest–this dude would ride in on a motorcycle and unleash a can of kung-fu whoop ass on everyone. “It delivered” is the perfect phrase for that show.

    I also really enjoyed the girl with short hair, Nikki something, I think. Especially since I’ve never really been a fan of girls with short hair. Maybe it had something to do with the boobs shooting big guns go bang?

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