Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Let there be snark.

Come on, man.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

We still have time to mess this up!

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

The revolution will be supervised.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

This really is a full service blog.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    R-Jud

    It’s three in the afternoon where I am, so it’s just the right time for some of Teh Cute.

  7. 7.

    shortstop

    You need to set up a cam so we can watch the tucking-self-in process. I admit to being as curious as you are about that.

  8. 8.

    LarsThorwald

    I just want to note for the record that when you take an entire week away from blogs and news and such and such to spend it on the beach building sand castles with your kids or talking with folks at restaurants and at bait shops and at museums (Wright Brothers!) etc., and then return to your computer, you become immediately aware that the blogosphere is engaged in a constant barrage of doomsaying with this sort of overwhelming soul-crushing dismay being volleyed about that tends to heighten its own effect.

    Here’s the news, distilled from my time talking with people in Meat World and hanging out with friends and family and strangers and talking with the guy at the local Quick-E-Mart and the manager at the Food Lion and hanging out with the family from Virginia (to the physical right of my rented beach house) and Illinois (to my physical left):

    No one is talking about Michelle Obama’s trip to Spain. No one knows about it. Nor, I suspect, would they care.

    Everyone is complaining about the economy out there in Meat World.

    Gay marriage came up once, and that was when the decision was announced and the guy from Winchester, Virginia, with the McCain sticker on his car in the house next door said it wasn’t any of his business who married whom. And then he went back to grilling chicken.

    And a guy in my beach house who is pretty solid Republican said, “I’m no tree-hugger, but you would think they would have recycling down here, and it pisses me off that they don’t.”

    The day-to-day news is horrifying and terrible. The blogs tell you that. But the arc is bending inexorably towards a more progressive country, at some fundamental levels. Meat World — non-political Meat World, the Meat World most people live in — shows that.

    Just a perspective.

  9. 9.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Is it FYWP or something else that is consistently causing the text to run off the right margin? Can something be done about it? As things stand, it is very difficult to read this blog.

  11. 11.

    shortstop

    It is a testament to my level of (largely self-induced) stress that Lars’s comment actually brought tears to my eyes

  12. 12.

    Brian J

    I had to drop my dog off for a teeth cleaning this morning. Like last week, she knew something was up, and she was very reluctant to come out of the house. She was a little better when she got to the vet, but very, very nervous when she was in the exam room. She’s not bad with the vets (or groomers, if she’s being cleaned up), but I always feel like she worries that she’s being taken away when we leave her. Plus, she wasn’t allowed to have anything to eat or drink from midnight last night, and if you saw how fat she was, you’d realize what a sacrifice that was.

  13. 13.

    gbear

    @LarsThorwald:

    Thanks for that report. Much appreciated this monday morning.

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The border breakage happens for me too. I bring it back in line by deleting my cookies a couple of times. I have no idea why this works but it does.

  14. 14.

    PurpleGirl

    All together now, at the count of 1… 2…3… AWWWWWWWWWWWW.

    Cute overload is good for the soul.

  15. 15.

    QuaintIrene

    You need to set up a cam so we can watch the tucking-self-in proces

    If she’s like my dog, she probably goes in nose first, turns around under the covers and sticks the head back out.

  17. 17.

    shortstop

    @QuaintIrene: That’s what I figured. Noses/mouths are the hands of our canine friends. It’d be funnier if she got as flat as possible and scooched her butt backward under the duvet, though.

  19. 19.

    RedKitten

    Quite the change from the stressed-out beastie she used to be, no? John, I’m surprised you didn’t climb in there with her to snorgle. That’s what I would have done.

  20. 20.

    Alice Blue

    @Lars Thorwald: Thanks for that. A few weeks ago, I was talking with a woman I know who watches nothing but Fox News and regularly spews their talking points when any political discussion comes up. I mentioned that by today’s standards, Reagan and Nixon would be considered too liberal to be Republicans and that they would be trashed by the tea party. Wonder of wonders, she said “I never thought about that.”

    One baby step at a time.

  21. 21.

    Paul in KY

    The ‘comments going way out beyond border’ hadn’t happened to me here for 3 or 4 weeks. It is back in force today, though (sigh).

    Hope everyone had a nice weekend. That’s one satisfied looking dog right there :-)

  24. 24.

    mr. whipple

    @LarsThorwald:

    ” you become immediately aware that the blogosphere is engaged in a constant barrage of doomsaying with this sort of overwhelming soul-crushing dismay being volleyed about that tends to heighten its own effect.”

    Good for you and yours getting away, and I agree totally, which is why I have eliminated the vast majority of my blog tabs and no longer watch MSNBC in the evening.

    The strange thing is that when I am away and don’t have access to any of it, I don’t miss it. But then I come home…

  25. 25.

    Michael

    So full of win….

    http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/08/09/of-ire-and-brimstone.html?sid=101

    Churchgoers, strippers protest one another in Coshocton County
    …
    WARSAW, Ohio – Strip-club owner Tommy George rolled up to the church in his grabber-orange Dodge Challenger, drinking a Mountain Dew at 9 in the morning and smoking a cigarette he had just rolled himself.
    …
    Pastor Bill Dunfee stepped out of a tan Nissan Murano, clutching a Bible in one hand and his sermon in the other, a touch of spray holding his perfectly coiffed ‘do in place.
    …
    Inside the New Beginnings Ministries church, Dunfee’s worshippers wore polyester and pearls.
    …
    Outside, George’s strippers wore bikinis and belly rings.
    …
    Both men agree it is classic sinners vs. saints. But George says it is up to America to decide which is which and who is who.
    …
    …
    “Tom George is a parasite, a man without judgment,” Dunfee said. “The word of Jesus Christ says you cannot share territory with the devil.”
    …
    …
    Every weekend for the last four years, Dunfee and members of his ministry have stood watch over George’s joint, taking up residence in the right of way with signs, video cameras and bullhorns in hand. They videotape customers’ license plates and post them online, and they try to save the souls of anyone who comes and goes.
    …
    Now, the dancers have turned the tables, so to speak. Fed up with the tactics of Dunfee and his flock, they say they have finally accepted his constant invitation to come to church.
    …
    It’s just that they’ve come wearing see-through shorts and toting Super Soakers.
    …
    They bring lawn chairs and – yesterday, anyway – grilled hamburgers, Monster energy drinks and corn on the cob.
    …

    Love the photos.

  26. 26.

    Jay in Oregon

    Of all the ladies you could wake up next to, John, you could have picked far worse.

  31. 31.

    Mary G

    Awww, what a precious baby, now her Person is back, all is right with the universe.

    My aunt had a rat terrier named Sweetie Pie. At night, when my aunt said “Bedtime!”, Sweetie Pie ran to her puppy bed, dragged her blanket off the bed, jumped in, turned around exactly three times, hauled the blanket back in, tucked herself in, shut her eyes and dropped right off to sleep.

  33. 33.

    Poopyman

    @LarsThorwald:
    Thanks for that, Lars.

    In other good news, Poopyman (the real one) almost doesn’t stink of skunk anymore. Eight days ago we got a good whiff of skunk from inside the house, and I let the boy in a little later. He clearly was in some distress, and it didn’t take long to figure out why. He’s a Norwegian Forest Cat, and he got hit in his bib, right where he was going to be smelling it for a long time.

    Efforts to actually bathe him failed (appears I will have no permanent scars, thanks), but I got most of it washed out by pouring the water over him and scrubbing repeatedly. At first it was so strong it didn’t even smell like skunk, so I didn’t think to try the tomato juice method.

    So anyway, that episode seems to be over. I think the skunk comes for the bird feeder spillage, but the cat never really seemed concerned with it. Not any more.

  38. 38.

    peej

    @Gina: Nah, the hair has to be green. He’s already got the skin in Oompa-Loompa territory…he might as well go all the way!

  39. 39.

    JCT

    Awesome pic.

    One of my beagles loves to snuggle under the covers and the other *hates* to be covered up. Go figure.

    On vacation in the SE as well, Lars. Heading to SC eventually – sending this from my RV in a nice rural park in NC, will be curious to see if we have similar experiences. Spent many summers on the Outer Banks when the kiddos were little.

    Oh, and we bought the RV years ago largely because we wanted to bring the dogs along with us on trips- they love their house on wheels.

  40. 40.

    The Dangerman

    So, from all available evidence, Tunch only ate half of Lily.

    I think we need proof of life (Lily, I mean; for Tunch, may be, um, too much to ask).

  41. 41.

    bemused

    @LarsThorwald:
    Oh yeah, I think your examples depict what is really going on in most americans lives and thoughts than what our sucky media pretends. Of course, media keeps telling us that we overwhelmingly prefer hearing every detail of Lindsey Lohan’s life and Michele Obama’s vacation over jobs, health care and boring stuff like that. I caught the tail end of Morning Joe and heard Michele’s vacation being dissected. I’m guessing they spent most of the show on that. I have to wonder if any of the cable news show regulars ever think, “I’m going to hurl if the producers make me talk about this nonsense again….but I love my paycheck”.
    I like the republican guy crabbing about no recycling.

  45. 45.

    licensed to kill time

    The doggiez, they r in ur bed, sawin’ de logzzzzzzzzzzz…..

    that’s pretty damn cute, Lily-wan-kenobi

  48. 48.

    Josie

    Oh boy – how I love this place. Between Lily’s awesome cuteness and LarsThorwald’s report from the hinterlands, my mood is greatly improved. I also enjoyed the turning of the cheek post – talk about karma.

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