Sorry- slept in. The weather changed so of course I have a head cold.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.
The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.
One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.
So many bastards, so little time.
Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.
Tick tock motherfuckers!
if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.
Let’s finish the job.
Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.
Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.
“Squeaker” McCarthy
This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.
Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.
The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
Peak wingnut was a lie.
An almost top 10,000 blog!
He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!
How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?
Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.
Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.
This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.
Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL
I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.
Linda Featheringill
Good morning. I hope your cold runs its course swiftly and you won’t suffer too much.
I am still worried about the oil in the Gulf. I read an article on nola dot com about oil washing up onto Dauphin island that is actually part of Alabama. So, did the oil skip Mississippi altogether? Or has the spread suddenly developed a mind of its own and has started to pick and choose landing spots?
I realize that the path taken by the oil is probably determined by wind and waves and geography. But I still wonder.
As I understand the numbers involved [and I am not really sure about all of them], all of this trouble was caused by looking into the possiblity of tapping into an oil reserve that would have kept the US in oil for 15 days. [300 million in the formation divided by 20 mil/day usage.]
Hell-on-Earth just so we could keep going another 2 weeks. Sigh.
demo woman
David Gregory is going to have a round table discussing whether or not the government is doing to much or to little to handle the environmental disaster. Does the round table consist of mama bear, papa bear and baby bear. Probably not baby bear cuz just right was not an option.
eastriver
Could you please get rid of the talking ads on your page? Can you do that? Do you have the power? Or is it out of your hands?
Your head hurts? Gee. My left ankle is a little sore. Wait, it feels better now. No, it aches a little again. Just a little bit. (Just thought I’d share my trivial maladies with you, JC.)
beltane
It’s thirty-five degrees and snowing here, with a howling wind as an added bonus. Not a good day to work in the garden.
jeffreyw
Mrs J and Annie did some gardening yesterday, I didn’t do shit aside from some tilling with the lil tractor.
Phyllis
@jeffreyw: Linky broken.
HRA
32 this am with 28 wind chill and few flakes fell onto my blooming trees and flowers. Yesterday it was wind gust of 63 mph and the carpet of branches in the front and back attest to it.
Today is my day off and DH will have pick up the debris in the yard and deck. I am going to a lunch with my children and grandchildren.
Happy Mothers Day to the BJ mothers
Cat Lady
@demo woman:
Why do you do this to yourself? Obama is never right about anything, doncha know? How could he be? He’s not even American. In fact, he may not even be human. He may not even be real – he could be a holograph generated teleprompted chimera that has Vulcan mindmelded a herd of overeducated libtard zombies into supporting the Soshulistfascist ghey agenda for the benefit of our future Alpha Centaurian overlords, which is just as likely to be discussed on MTP as Obama being right. About anything. Also. too.
Steeplejack
Somebody tell me–should I watch Chelsea v. Wigan or West Ham v. Man City at the top of the hour? Which is more do-or-die for somebody?
jeffreyw
Oops.
Seems I forgot how to link above. I blame lack of coffee.
Josie
@beltane: Approximately where are you? I am always surprised at the differences in weather in various parts of the U.S. Here in South Texas it is so hot that I must water my potted plants twice on some days (in the 90’s already). Of course, we have only two seasons – summer and not summer. Guess which one is longer. On the positive side, my tomatoes and peppers are just starting to ripen and I can hardly wait. I have green beans and tiny eggplants and a couple of squash.
scav
@Steeplejack: tossed a whim. like the sound of directional pork. wish they could be v. Wigan because it’s so mysterious and non-iconic in my brain, but pork-product v. urban humanoid is doable.
mellowjohn
eeek! nosferatu is on my teevee talking to jake tapper!
Phyllis
It’s 64 here, with a nice little breeze. Forecast high of mid-70’s through Wednesday. Likely our last gasp of Spring in these parts.
We’re off to a Division II college baseball playoff game in Aiken this afternoon. Such a pretty, picturesque town.
jeffreyw
Buddy decries the double standards, but hopes for the best.
geg6
Sorry about your cold, Cole. But I have to harangue you for having that thread yesterday about your brother’s new dog and how Otis is not a good enough name for him. One of the best dogs who ever lived is my John’s golden retriever, Otis. Otis is an awesome name if our Otis is any indication. DO NOT DISRESPECT OTIS! Or I might have take a little drive south and punch you in the neck. Grumble, grumble, grumble.
Oh, and happy Mother’s Day to all the BJ moms!
henqiguai
@eastriver (#3):
Have you considered simply turning off your speakers until you actually wish to listen to something ? Just a thought. If that’s too troublesome (as with my office system), simply plug some ear buds into the headphone outlet.
I actually had to go look for those pesky ads y’all all been b!tchin’ about. Yep; but since my speakers are default off, not an issue. ‘Course, as always, YMMV.
Josie
@jeffreyw: I am so taken with your dogs. They are handsome and seem very loyal and attentive. What kind are they and what sort of personalities do they have?
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Cat Lady: Egads, you know too much! Please remain where you are and FEMACORN troops will collect you for transport to DeathPanelCamp #666.
Don’t struggle when the “Men in Chaps” arrive or they’ll have to bludgeon you into submission with rainbow colored sex toys while singing In the Navy. And those unicorns give a nasty bite.
J.
Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers.
Really enjoyed this morning’s CBS Sunday Morning. And, for the record, when Erma Bombeck’s kids told everyone that if they hadn’t called their mother’s already they should do so NOW, my spouse went over to the phone and called his mother.
@John Cole, time to break out the neti pot. And remember to call your mama!
Also what is with the lack of cat and dog pix? Oversleeping (and working) is no excuse.
Well, in honor of John’s sleeping in, I give you fabulous pictures of sleepy kitties and possibly the cutest puppy video EVER.
Comrade Mary
@Steeplejack: When in doubt, choose West Ham.
scav
@Steeplejack: fiend. You made me go look. I still haven’t a clue what a Wigan is but I now know their down one to Chelsea. As today seems to be official trivial random detail day I thought I’d contribute. ManC v Directional Pork Product still nil-nil but I don’t even know if it’s started.
Phoebe
@kommrade reproductive vigor: fabulous.
I get a headache every time the weather changes or the hormones change. This leads me to believe it’s a fluid thing, controlled by the barometric pressure, and, in my gender’s case, the effing gravitational pull of the moon or whatever the hell controls that whole department.
And here’s what helps: drinking more water than you want to. Also Advil, for me.
Corner Stone
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
It may be just me – but I think you have the makings of one helluva Broadway play here.
Cat Lady
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
OH NOES NO ERIC MASSA TICKLE FIGHT TOO
MikeJ
@Steeplejack: I’m watching West Ham.
Bill E Pilgrim
Some of the comments here remind me of this.
In other news, Tom Friedman has a column today which starts with a five-alarm Taibbi alert, demonstrating once again that metaphors in the hands of Friedman are like matches in the hands of a pyromaniac.
Even once he settles down however his thesis is one that I’ve always hated, namely that there’s this thing called “the Baby Boom generation” and it’s both utterly and absolutely monolithic politically, and completely responsible for our financial woes, contrasted to “the Great Generation” which had none of these issues and were just thrifty and saved and all was well end of story g’night now.
Here’s a sample:
Right. The “Boomers” began with “abundance” somewhere in the early 1950s and have done nothing but piss it away ever since.
No 1990s, no balanced budget under Clinton, none of that existed, no differentiation between the Republican and Democratic economic philosophies, no Reaganomics, nope, just “Boomers”.
Oh and just to warn you, his proposed solution is a new demographic unit he wants to call “The Regeneration”.
I sometimes wonder why astonishingly simple-minded “thinkers” like Mark Penn and Tom Friedman sell so many books and get to write articles for major newspapers and magazines. Then I realize that there are so many people who are just too busy surviving that they want some dose of sociological and political analysis that’s quick, easy, and most of all, simple.
Friedman and Mark Penn, the intellectual equivalent of Electro-Muscle Stimulation.
beltane
@Bill E Pilgrim: I work very hard at not condemning all baby boomers just because they have Tom Friedman an Mark Penn in their ranks. It is tempting, yet unfair to do this, as each generation is cursed with its share of wankers.
jeffreyw
@Josie:
Sorry for the late response, was in the kitchen plotting dinner. They are Brittanies. Buddy is 10, Annie 6 I think, Jack is 4. They are curious, friendly, smartish, make good house pets but they do need to get out for a run. They all perk up at “wanna go?” Bird dogs by natural inclination, they will point as puppies and that tendency can easily be reinforced. More fun with a bird on a string than cats. Their feelings are easily hurt. They compete for attention and a chin scratch will elicit a broad grin. I could go on and on.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Corner Stone: Springtime for Obama. A gay romp with Barack & Michelle in Honolulu.
Bill E Pilgrim
@beltane: We appreciate your consideration.
It’s funny but of all the mental divisions one can make, I almost never even think of those that are generation-based. I’m more curious or confronted with the differences between Europeans and Americans, for instance, but in my case for some very concrete reasons. That’s why Friedman’s lumping of the Greek, UK, and US situations now, at least to such a ridiculous degree, also struck me as so absurd.
Taibbi had a lot of fun with one of Friedman’s more absurd flights of over-simplistic BS here, for anyone who doesn’t know it.
Steeplejack
@scav:
Sorry. It’s the last day of the Premier League season (nine months!), and I have been too busy this week to check how things stand. I believe Chelsea will win the league if they win today, but they have to win.
And in soccer there are other things in play. The top four teams (out of 20) get into the (European) Champions League next season, spots 5-7 qualify for the Europa League, and the bottom three teams get booted out of the league–“relegated” (demoted) to the next lower league. So there are wheels within wheels.
And of course I was out of the room and missed the commentators probably going over all this at the start of the game.
PurpleGirl
NYC had lots of wind yesterday and overnight. Seems windy today, although not as bad as yesterday; it’s definitely colder. Hope you feel better John.
Linda Featheringill
Fans of jeffreyw’s pictures might like this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2010/may/07/week-in-wildlife?picture=362346726
jeffreyw
@Linda Featheringill:
Nice, one of these days I’ll get a nice macro lens and pester y’all with bug eyes up close and personal. LOL
This is about the best I can do today.
Steeplejack
@scav:
P.S. I love the English team names. They are geographic–Wigan is a suburb of Liverpool–and they get sketchier as you go down into the minor leagues, e.g., Tranmere Rovers, Torquay United, Burton Albion. Man City is Manchester City (as opposed to crosstown rivals Manchester United). West Ham is just West Ham–well, West Ham United.
World Cup starts June 11! Yee-haw.
Steeplejack
@MikeJ:
I went with West Ham too, because it is in HD on ESPN. I have become such an HD slut since getting the big-ass TV a few months ago.
Steeplejack
@Bill E Pilgrim:
I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Josie
@jeffreyw: Thanks – I just got back to the computer. The dogs sound really delightful. We used to have a golden and he had that sort of personality. I suspected it from looking at their pictures.
PurpleGirl
The baby boom is generally taken to have started in 1946 and lasted until 1964. While that is close to 20 years which is usually considered to be a generation, I think that the conditions we grew up in were very different at the two ends.
Friedman married into money and lives very differently from those who never had his privilege(s). Friedman can take a long walk off a short pier as far as I’m concerned.
scav
@PurpleGirl:
It’s taking too long. I’m starting to saw at the pilings. Shore side first: at least we should be able to isolate him.
Steeplejack
@PurpleGirl:
True dat. And there are little micro-generations in between. The Beatles represent a huge watershed moment (1964). People who had their musical tastes formed (in junior high and high school) before that are very different from those who came after, in my experience.
PTirebiter
We got a pretty good rain here in N TX last night and I unintentionally slept pretty late myself. Now I seem to be jonesing for Lucky Charms, weird.
2liberal
Go Suns – all the way !!!!
PurpleGirl
Scav: LOL. That’s one way to speed things up.
Steeplejack: Yes, there are lots of small subgroups in there. I really dislike how the media have made it seem like it’s one huge group and monolithic. (Someone up-thread also said this.) Our economic situations are all different.
PurpleGirl
I’m experiencing cabin fever and have decided to go out for a walk or whatever. I’ll be back in a few hours. Further talk with people then.
Michael
God, I get tired. I can’t put even the most innocuous stuff on Facebook without somebody somehow drawing an analogy to some fucking right wing media talking point.
Between that and the Franco-like desires of white conservatives on message boards, I’m at the point of despair over what my country became. Between thinking that its a shame that John Hinckley wasn’t a better shot and bemoaning the fact that Limbaugh hasn’t had his fatal coronary yet, it is making me a worse person.
Randy P
@PurpleGirl:
Oh good, I’m back in. While I’ve grown up considering myself a boomer (born in 1957) I rarely see a formal definition, and something I read recently defined it much more narrowly than that so that I was not considered one.
Absolutely, in many ways. But not in all. WWII was still a heavy influence on the culture through much of the 60s, being explored or in the background (even Gilligan’s Skipper talked about “in the war”) in a lot of TV, movies and books. I’m not sure I was exposed to anything about the Korean war in popular culture till MASH.
@Steeplejack:
I used to be fascinated by high-school pictures prior to about 1965. The boys especially looked like they were either just out of the Marines or just about to enter. It was like a different world, but only a few years in the past at the time I was looking at them (maybe 69-70). My brothers and I had buzz cuts ourselves till around 1968 (cut by our mom).
I remember that early 60s music making a big comeback though, as “oldies”, on the top-40 pop stations. So I started to learn Big Bopper and Ricky Nelson stuff.
My microgeneration is kind of post-hippie. The hippies were people’s big brothers and sisters. If you know “The Wonder Years”, that’s my age group. My coming of age was as the Beatles were breaking up, and in college we had streaking instead of protests.
And then, a few short years later, Reagan. I’ve never figured that out.
Maude
@PurpleGirl:
Tommy doesn’t walk.
We’ll have the limo driver open the back door and say, here you go, Mr. Friedman. Oh, and let me help you.
Splash!
2liberal
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Reagans support came from the older folks.
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/voted_80.html
and make no mistake – it was Reagan that legitimized huge defecits.
Steeplejack
Yikes! Chelsea v. Wigan a bloodbath. 7-0. Think 49-0 in the NFL. Back to Man City v. West Ham. 1-1 with under 10 minutes to go.
Steeplejack
@Randy P:
You nailed it with that. You can look at a high school’s yearbooks from that period, even a few years apart, and see huge differences. The girls in 1963 look like they could be the moms of the ones from 1968.
RedKitten
Happy Mothers’ Day to all the moms on here! And a particular happy wish to Mama Cole.
Randy P
@Steeplejack:
Don’t know anything about these teams at all, but on my one brief trip to London, at the table we were sitting at in the pub, one of our table mates pointed to another (the Yorkshireman, I think) and said he used to play for Manchester United. Even I knew that was something I was supposed to be impressed by. If it was true. That would be like playing for the Yankees, right?
We always seem to blunder into these big sporting events. We attended a world series baseball game because we were in a chorus that was singing there. On our trip to Bavaria in 2006, a location basically picked based on train schedules, we found ourselves in the middle of World Cup fever. And on another trip to Basel a couple of years later, we learned we were in the middle of the Euro Cup. (“What are you doing in Basel if you aren’t here for the football?” somebody wanted to know when I couldn’t tell him who was playing on TV). That explains why the hotels were so scarce and expensive, which was puzzling me.
Steeplejack
@Randy P:
Exactly. Except probably fewer people hated him.
Bill E Pilgrim
@2liberal:
All sorts of people voted for Reagan. That chart you linked to shows “22 to 29 year olds” split down the middle, voting for him at 44% and against him at 44%.
And yes, though I think you were saying this to Friedman and not me, but yes Reagan began the deregulation era, no doubt about that.
My point however is that saying that any one economic approach can be pinned on an entire generation is silly.
Bill E Pilgrim
@2liberal: I meant deficits. Deregulation too, but the response to yours should have been deficits, not deregulation.
licensed to kill time
__
Talkin’ ’bout The Regeneration
The Regeneration baby
Regeneration baby
Why don’t The ‘Stache just fuh fuh fuh fuh fade away
don’t try to dig what he-all say
Not tryin’ to cause a big sensation
Just talkin’ about The Regeneration
asiangrrlMN
@henqiguai: I usually listen to music when I am at my computer, so that would be a no-go for me. I have never complained about the ads (because I don’t look at them), but this one is really getting on my last nerve.
@scav: Your idea, I like it a lot. I will help you.
SiubhanDuinne
I didn’t get to see CBS Sunday Morning. Anything interesting today? I’m on my way home from Canadian vacation and the CBS affiliate in whatever Kentucky town I stayed in last night seemed to think I would prefer hours and hours of ranting church services to 90 minutes of Charles Kuralt.
Nearly home now and back to work tomorrow morning.
ETA: duh, not Charles Kuralt. And not Charles Gibson, he’s ABC. Charles, Charles, Charles . . . OSGOOD, that’s it! (Hate it when I forget a name or a word. Love it when I can dredge up the correct one.)
SoINeedAName
PSA Announcement
Speaking as a pediatrician (so I have more than a passing familiarity with “colds”), weather does NOT directly cause infections.
Nor do antibiotics cure a cold, a bad cold, a really bad cold, a really bad cold with a cough, a really bad cold with a bad cough nor a really bad cold with a really bad cough.
Now if you happen to get a secondary bacterial infection possibly related to your cold … well, then antibiotics have a place.
(We all suffer from resistant microbes that have become rampant from the demand/overuse of antibiotics – both in humans and in animals. Quite often a “tincture of time” works just fine.)
fordpowers
dude. that happens to me all the time.