Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

Cole is on a roll !

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

This blog will pay for itself.

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

This fight is for everything.

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

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: Why Can’t We All Get Along?

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  4. 4.

    mai naem

    How very sweet. It’s like they knew each other from their previous lifetimes.

  5. 5.

    asiangrrlMN

    @mai naem: I think that might be true. I mean, we’ve all had the experience of meeting someone and instantly ‘knowing’ that person, right? Plus, with my best friend, no matter how much time passes between us talking/seeing each other, we always pick up right where we left off. I don’t believe in soul mates, but I do believe there are people (and animals) with whom you just fit.

  6. 6.

    Yutsano

    Just as an aside, orangutan means “orange man” in Malay. The fact that one would bond with a dog in a very similar manner as a human would wouldn’t be surprising. It also makes me wonder if Syria isn’t expressing some loneliness by bonding with Roscoe. Orangutans do have strong familial units.

    @mai naem: Kinda like humans and Dawgs? (Sorry couldn’t resist.)

  7. 7.

    OriGuy

    Here’s another feel-good story:

    It happened at a junior varsity girls’ softball game in Indianapolis this spring. After an inning and a half, Roncalli was womanhandling inner-city Marshall Community. Marshall pitchers had already walked nine Roncalli batters. The game could’ve been 50-0 with no problem.
    —
    It’s no wonder. This was the first softball game in Marshall history. A middle school trying to move up to include grades 6 through 12, Marshall showed up to the game with five balls, two bats, no helmets, no sliding pads, no cleats, 16 players who’d never played before, and a coach who’d never even seen a game.
    …
    That’s when Roncalli did something crazy. It offered to forfeit.

  8. 8.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @asiangrrlMN: Yeah, there’s just that ‘click’ like tab A fitting into slot B (get yer minds out of the gutter, girls, you know what I mean). Alas, my only fellow human who was like that frigging died in the frigging WTC. Maybe we knew each other in a past life, and maybe I’ll see him again in the next one, but he’s gone from this one. For frigging ever.

    Colette +2 on an empty stomach and really feeling it tonight

  9. 9.

    asiangrrlMN

    @OriGuy: I saw that story, too–someone else posted it here a few days ago. Very heartwarming, except the end part about saying Marshall might forfeit if they meet Roncalli in the finals. Nope, sorry, the best way to show appreciation is to play their best and maybe beat Roncalli.

    @Yutsano: GROAN! Hiya. How you be?

  10. 10.

    maus

    Orangutans are pretty gross, ok. I’M NOT A SPECIESIST but it’s gross when people keep kissing them :(

  11. 11.

    freelancer (itouch)

    On the recommend of fellow blogger John “27%” Rogers,

    http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2010/06/netflix-friday-8-zulu.html

    I checked out the film Zulu on netflix instant. Holy crap! Great flick. It was at once familiar, but not at all derivative. Rogers labels it as the “Aliens” of 1964. From a narrative pov, he’s dead on, though Aliens had a lot more to say about post-Vietnam America than anyone could have anticipated.

    Something I’ve been noticing for a long time, but I haven’t been able to put a name to that I think this site’s adherents could help with is this:

    We live in a mass media remix culture of memes, tastes, and fads. How often have you viewed or listened to something that was derived , mocking, or paying homage to a previous work that you are ignorant to, and only upon seeing the original piece, does the remix give the original work even more profundity. I’m talking about, as an audience member, being inspired and moved, but only in the exact opposite chronological order as either of the artists would have intended.

    Example 1:
    I watched dean and Hank Venture get slaughtered at the end of S1 of the Venture Bros. by the monarch’s henchmen #21, and 25, only to go to a wide shot of the smoldering wreckage of their bikes next to the roadside. Later, when watching Easy Rider, I notice that the entire end of Venture was an homage to the end of easy rider.

  12. 12.

    Kyle

    Worst ad placement ever —
    Next to the blog entry about the Gaza convoy, I get an ad for Israeli Tourism.
    “There’s a little bit of Israel in all of us”. Yeah, like bullet fragments.

  13. 13.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: That sucks about your friend (and thanks for the clarification as my mind is always in the gutter). It’s only happened to me a few times, but still. And–warning, cheesy positive attitude ahead–if it happened once, it can happen again.

    Here’s my feel-good story of the night. It’s not chicken, but who knows? It may go in that direction.

  14. 14.

    freelancer (itouch)

    Example 2:

    Izzard’s bit about English High art Bronte and Jane Austen film adaptations, then their obnoxious Hollywood remakes.

    “you fuck my wife?! You fuck my wife?!”
    “I AM your wife!”
    “Doesnt matter, I say again, You fuck my wife?!”

    only after seeing that bit did I eventually sit down to watch Raging Bull. Made it a little bit more important.

    So, nite owl Juicers, help me come up with a clever, pithy name for this 21st century phenomenon.

    Thanks in advance.

  15. 15.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: No more bad puns I promise. Well at least not tonight. Just got off a righteous rant in your inbox, and it’s my Friday, plus for the first time in forever my days off aren’t stacked to the gills with stuff I haz to get done. All in all I’m feeling pretty damn good right now. Bribed Got my boss some coffee today, it turned out to be the thing she needed for her migraine. Plus she’s six months pregnant, so anything that relaxes her is a good thing. Oh and she’s one of three at my work. FMLA is gonna bite us in the ass hard. I’m kinda hoping I’ll be gone before that shit hits the fan. :)

    @freelancer (itouch): Well, since Hollywood ran out of ideas like twenty years ago, how’s about Cultural Regurgitation?

  16. 16.

    TenguPhule

    Sigh, for simpler days when we didn’t have to worry about critical author existance failure for Discworld.

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    @TenguPhule: Well, as always, Terry shows us how the universe actually works:

    God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

  22. 22.

    Yutsano

    @Tattoosydney:

    I does want a elephant

    Weren’t those set loose in the Outback once? Or am I just imagining things?

    and a orangutan

    You’re not too far from where you can find them in the wild. Although they are a wee bit expensive to feed.

    and a dawg.

    Mine’s in Europe. Although if you head north to Okinawa there’s a lot of them.

  23. 23.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    orangutan means “orange man” in Malay.

    Ah, so John Boehner’s origins become slightly more clear.

    Malaysia, eh? Birth certificate!

  24. 24.

    Mark S.

    Man, FYWP. I hate when it acts like you never submitted a comment at all, but if you try to resubmit it, it tells you it’s a duplicate post.

    I guess my hi-larious comment about Ashton Kutcher’s new movie will never see the light of day. I know, the universe is a bit poorer now.

  27. 27.

    Yutsano

    @Bill E Pilgrim: I thought it was well-established he’s an overgrown Oompa-Loompa. Except he cut his pretty green locks and dyes his hair. Plus there is no natural birth requirement for Congress, which of course means we may just yet have a Senator Ahhnold. If that happens you may have to fly out here and shoot me. Although I am grateful every day I don’t live in California.

    @Tattoosydney: Ahh yes. They have them wandering the desert in Arizona as well. I think they came in when they decided to grow Egyptian cotton there as well. I just hope you don’t export them for slaughter. That both creeps me out and makes me haz a sad.

  28. 28.

    Joseph Nobles

    I just don’t understand how anyone could watch other primates, really take some time and watch them interact, and not see how we’re all related.

  29. 29.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Mark S.: That pisses me off so much! And, it’ll show up in a few minutes as if nothing was ever amiss. WordPress can DIAF. I saw a trailer for that movie during the NBA game tonight, but I had the mute on. It looks really bad, though.

    @Joseph Nobles: Why do you hate the Baby Jeebuz so much?

  30. 30.

    freelancer (itouch)

    @Yutsano:

    Eh I like it but this is a different animal. How’s post-op life treating you? You doing okay?

    @asiangrrlMN:

    heh, I know what you mean, but the thing I’m talking about is when you see the reference before you ever see the thing it’s referencing. For a hypothetical, imagine watching the izzard bit on the death star cantina first, and only then watching the star wars movies. Or if that doesn’t work, watching Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and only then, afterwards, learning about the narrattive, stories, and films about Robin Hood.

    You caught the joke, before you caught the thing being joked about. So when you watch the original, you have an aha! Moment, that says “This! This is what they were talking about! Wow.”

  32. 32.

    asiangrrlMN

    @freelancer (itouch): Ummmmmm, I’ve only seen the first Star Wars movie, don’t remember it except to say I hated it, so I have no recollection of the Death Star at all. See, this is why I am of no use to you–I don’t watch movies! However, I do know what you mean. How about Vuja De?

    @Mark S.: Oh good heavens. Now movie critics have to worry about hurting the film studios fee-fees? What a fucking joke.

  33. 33.

    Yutsano

    @freelancer (itouch): I’m hanging in there, ducking delicate questions about what exactly I had done to me as best I can. I’m just too damn polite to say “NUNYA!!” so I just fudge the truth a bit. Pain level seem to be backing off nicely. Taking the whole week off work was the right call now, consequences be damned.

    I’ll save that phrasing for a later date then.

  34. 34.

    Platonicspoof

    @Mark S.:

    . . . but if you try to resubmit it, it tells you it’s a duplicate post.

    WP just did that to me, too.
    So I rewrote it, and that one disappeared (except for my copy on Notepad).

  35. 35.

    Andre

    @freelancer (itouch):

    Probably not quite the same things you’re thinking of, but I’ve recently been rewatching Homicide: Life on the Street. At the time when I saw it (as a teenager) I thought it was amazingly gritty and good, but after watching The Wire (also based on David Simon’s books, but with much more direct input from Simon and from Ed Burns, as well as more creative control) it’s interesting to see all those things I loved about The Wire as they would have been handled by producers who did have the network execs breathing down their necks every episode.

    For them still to have made some of the episodes they did (in particular Bop Gun and Night of the Dead Living) is a remarkable achievement.

  36. 36.

    freelancer (itouch)

    @Yutsano:

    Yeah, when I had ankle surgery, I could always point to my crutches or boot and be like STFU, nuff said. With you, I would recommend a similar strategy, and be like, I was CUT on a VITAL area of my torso. The rest is Nunya, and even if I did enlighten y’all, you’d be like “yikes, TMI!”, so just rest easy. You heard?

  37. 37.

    Yutsano

    @freelancer (itouch): I get as far as saying, “It was internal” then refusing to elaborate more beyond it was successful. And I stay pretty much the enigma that most of my work regards me as. 90% haven’t even figured out I’m gay, the 10% who have (which is really two) just smile knowingly. But yeah, on this matter, I’m revealing even less than I do normally.

  40. 40.

    freelancer (itouch)

    @Andre:

    As I type this, I’m currently watching ep 2 of the 3rd season of The Wire. Best. Show. Ever.

    And I say that having watched all of Homicide as a young teen while broadcast, and have all the seasons and the series finale movie on DVD a room away.

    The base of what I’m getting at is if you were to see a joke about Jesus, and laugh at it because the joke itself is funny, but the reference was enough to make you investigate and read the gospels for the first time ever. The opposite of the intentions of the original authors, but still, we live in a nonlinear culture that rewards repeat viewing. It reminds you of the reference, and gives you deeper appreciation for the referenced, that is what you’re watching right this minute.

    I don’t get why this is such a hard thing to grok. Yeah, it’s backwards, at first, but living in today’s pop culture it’s very, very common.

  41. 41.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Ailuridae: I am watching Rachel now. I’m getting my box of tissues ready. Is it the one where she starts by talking about the BP exec interview?

    @Joseph Nobles: Omigod I’m going to hell, but that was funny.

    @freelancer (itouch): I got exactly what you’re saying! Vuja De! OK, not exactly, I can’t think of anything clever right now. Maybe I’ll wake up at three in the morning–oh, wait.

  42. 42.

    Amir_Khalid

    @Yutsano:
    Actually, “orangutan” doesn’t mean orange man in my language. “Orang” means person, “hutan” means jungle, so the phrase means jungle person.
    As for orange-skinned American politicos, I am glad to say that we Malaysians come in every color but that one.

  44. 44.

    Ailuridae

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Its tough to watch. She’s (righteously) angry and NO is my second home and well its brutal. Today has been a long, tough day of being upset about things I can’t even attempt to fix.

    Ailuridae +11?

  45. 45.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Amir_Khalid: Whew! I’m glad that Boehner is not related to the orangutan even in name only. I wouldn’t want to saddle the orangutans with that kind of cruelty.

    @Ailuridae: I have never been, and still, I’m sad, mad, frustrated, heartbroken, and disheartened. I feel for you; I really do.

  46. 46.

    MikeJ

    @freelancer (itouch): When I was a kid I often had that experience with Warner Bros cartoons. They were always making pop culture references, and having not been around in the 40s I didn’t get most of them. Then you grow up and see Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet and the cartoon is funnier.

  48. 48.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Ailuridae: You haven’t been a downer; the situation is a downer. Watching Rachel is hard. And, um, why is the fact that Jose Canseco is talking about Roger Clemens’ steroid use (or lack thereof) supposed to make me feel better?

  52. 52.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Ailuridae: Ooooh! Much better than Canseco and Clemens. I saw them perform something else, but I can’t remember what. I wanna say something old-school, but I can’t even be sure of that. They are amazing.

    This is wrong of me, but I love this song. And, I dig the fact that they do The Cure and Queen, too.

    I’m watching the island segment on Rachel. I’m wavering between enraged and heartbroken.

  53. 53.

    Ailuridae

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I’m simply devastated (but am watching those vids to lift my spirits).

    Never, ever have I been so upset about being right about something. Soul-crushing

    Ailuridae +12 ish

  54. 54.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Here’s the thing that is really enraging me about Piyush’s berm idiocy. He would rather destroy a delicately balanced ecological system to satisfy his need to act like he’s doing something NOW! It’s poorly thought and impulsive, and worse he’s getting rewarded for it. I actually want him to do the berm thing then totally ruin the wetlands, because there’s no way he could escape responsibility. Oh wait, IOKIYAR. Dammit.

    And just when you thought it couldn’t get uglier in GOP land:

    http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/03/nikki-haley-called-raghead-by-political-opponent/?fbid=E4OUQNvyw4a

  55. 55.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: I didn’t even know about this until you mentioned it. I Googled it, and now, I am even more pissed off/disheartened. What. The. Fuck. And, he makes a swipe at Obama for taking so long to study it and not giving him the THIRTY berms he wanted. What a shithead he is.

    @Yutsano: What surprises me is that she’s a Republican! But, it shouldn’t. Maybe after this, she’ll switch parties. Hahahahaha. Ugly, ugly, ugly party, the GOP.

    @Ailuridae: I hope there is a little anger in you, too. It can help alleviate the pain. And videos of cute animals and kids. That helps, too.

  56. 56.

    freelancer (itouch)

    @Yutsano:

    I’m almost always of the wrong mind, but everybody knows that already. That aside, I can turn anything into a dick joke. Two days ago I made the best of a hamlet reference, and twisted it into I high-minded double entendre about jacking it, but fish gotta swim, you know?

    “There’s the rub.”

  58. 58.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: He got one. It A) won’t work (things like this have been tried in the past, the oil just seeps around) and B) will be an expensive boondoggle that I bet you money Piyush will shove off responsibility for onto Obama faster than you can say Jack Robinson. Oh BTW only Obama is playing politics here, Piyush is all about the interests of his state!

    And if you’re curious, yes I refuse to call him Bobby. If he doesn’t have the courage to live under his real name he deserves to have that fact smacked in his face early and often.

    @freelancer (itouch): I hear that and all I can think of is a good porterhouse with a nice seasoning crust. Or something you rub on a good slab of pork ribs to make them taste fantastic. YMMV, although of course I see the unseemly side as well.

    @asiangrrlMN: Dose of Tunch to BJ STAT!

  59. 59.

    asiangrrlMN

    Yutsano: I dunno about the name thing. I mean, lots of people change their names for whatever reason. I just call him shithead. Works for me.

    I thought he got six of them? Yes. He did. I rechecked the article I read. http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/03/louisiana-gets-ok-to-build-sand-berms-to-protect-marshes-from-oi/

    Oh, and FYWP.

    I would love pictures of Tunchie. Or, dare I say it, a video of him playing? I do have mango sorbet, though. That helps.

    Oh, hell. I’m gonna listen to Hurt by NIN and then by JC. I’m just in that kind of mood.

  60. 60.

    demkat620

    Morning all! Got my coffee, can’t wait to start the day. Friday, thank god.

    Does anyone know if that shit BP tried yesterday worked?

  62. 62.

    Yutsano

    @demkat620: The current ruling is they need 12-24 hours to know for sure. However, it is in place and so far functioning normally. I’m choosing to be cautiously optimistic because ONE of these things has to work until the relief well is drilled.

    @asiangrrlMN: I’d agree with you if he didn’t admit to doing it for political reasons. You think he could get elected as a Republican in this day and age with a decidedly Indian sounding name? Granted if he does get delusions of grandeur now and runs the racism will fly like geese in a storm.

    He got six approved but from what I understand they will only finance one now to check for effectiveness. I could be wrong on that point however as it was awhile ago that I read it.

    Mmm…mango sorbet. I haz a purring kitteh on my lap and a pillow summoning me.

    EDIT: Your article says six but not if all are paid for yet. I hate it when we could both be right but not totally accurate. :)

  63. 63.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Wait, when did he admit he did it for that reason? If that’s the case, then fuck him! I just skimmed the article, so I am not sure. One is still one too many.

    @demkat620: I read that as BJ rather than BP, and I thought you were talking about the site problems–until I read Yutsy’s response to you. Maybe it’s time for bed. Nah!

  64. 64.

    demkat620

    @asiangrrlMN: You could come to work with me. Lots of stuff to finish because its Friday and end of the month stuff is due.

    God, I hope this works. We need a break here. The pics are just heartbreaking.

  67. 67.

    demo woman

    Littlebrit is probably still asleep but the pelican pictures are on the airwaves and online media. Kaplan even has the pictures now. Deep water drilling is dangerous to our ecosystem and the pictures highlight that.
    Whether this help Reid gather the votes for an energy bill is unknown but one can help.

  69. 69.

    MikeJ

    Whoops, I spoke to soon. The bottom two cams do show something. They’re probably just aiming the cams somewhere else.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Would somebody who’s more awake or caffeinated than I am right now please help me make sense of the word “but” in the WaPo news flash that just arrived in my inbox:

    *Breaking News: U.S. employers added 431,000 jobs in May, but the unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent compared to 9.9 percent the month before*

    431k new jobs were added. That’s good. The unemployment rate fell by .2 percent. Also good. Yet the conjunctive “but” suggests a contrast or conflict — that one fact is positive *but* the other is negative. I don’t understand the formulation here, but since the Washington Post is, you know, a professional newspaper and everything, I figure it’s me being stupid. And, all snark aside, maybe it is. Anyhow, grateful for any thoughts.

    P.S. No, I haven’t read the full article they linked. I may be stupid but I’m not dumb.

  75. 75.

    burnspbesq

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It could just as easily be bad editing. Or the point (made badly) could be that the unemployment rate fell only 0.2 percent despite the addition of 431K new jobs. What often happens in the early stages of a recovery is that people who previously weren’t counted in the unemployment figures because they had given up looking for a job when things were at the worst start looking again and get put back into the denominator of the fraction.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @burnspbesq: Thanks. On further reading, I gather that the “but” has to do with disappointment at the small number of new jobs in the private sector. The headline didn’t indicate that, however. I agree, probably just bad headline writing/editing. Oh well, it’s Kaplan we’re talking about here. . . . Anyhow, thanks for your thoughts.

  77. 77.

    Hob

    @freelancer (itouch): I grew up reading MAD Magazine in the ’80s, a time when they kind of went overboard with the movie and TV parodies (but were really good at them, thanks to guys like Mort Drucker, who apparently could draw all that shit from memory after seeing something once)… and I wasn’t watching a lot of stuff myself back then, so pretty much all movies from about 1965 to 1985 have that pre-parodied effect for me.

  78. 78.

    fucen tarmal

    to answer freelancer’s question, that i was going to get to before i fell asleep(glorious, and odd considering i had more caffeine than usual go figure),Baudrillard put forth the proposition that the simulacra becomes the real.

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