Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Let there be snark.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Infrastructure week. at last.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

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

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Consistently wrong since 2002

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Everybody saw this coming.

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

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

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Second rate reporter says what?

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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I was taking the car to the shop because I had noticed it seemed to be overheating, and halfway there the check engine light came on and it was overheating again. Thank goodness for AAA.

Wonder how much this is going to cost. Ever feel like you just want to go to bed and start over, and it is only one o’clock?

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  3. 3.

    JGabriel

    John Cole:

    Ever feel like you just want to go to bed and start over, and it is only one o’clock?

    Pretty much how I feel about the entire last decade. Is there any way to go back to October 2000 (or maybe 1999) and start over?

    ETA: On further thought, I’d really like to go back to 1995, and start over from there.

    .

  6. 6.

    trollhattan

    New engine! (I kid. T-start is the first place to check. But, isn’t it a gazillion degrees below freezing there between October and May?)

  7. 7.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    Ever feel like you just want to go to bed and start over, and it is only one o’clock?

    Just got back from the vet. My cat has advanced lymphoma. We are at the “make comfortable and take it day-by-day stage.” So yes, I think that is exactly how I am feeling times about eleventy.

  8. 8.

    muddy

    I’m right there with you. I spent all morning with my elderly dog at the vet. Breathing hard, shaking/shivering, temp at 105. I had a hard time getting him there as he weighs 102#. Poor guy could hardly walk, altho he did brighten a bit after I lifted him into the car. X-rays, bloodwork, urinalysis. Cost me $350 for them to be mystified and give him antibiotics as a wild hope. We both feel pretty sick now.

  9. 9.

    steviez314159

    Obviously you didn’t draw a line in the sand and fight with the check engine light, but instead compromised away your vehicle rights.

  12. 12.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Comrade Javamanphil: Damn it, Comrade, that’s a hell of a thing. I’m very sorry. We’ve been through the wringer over the past year or so with an aging cat with several overlapping illnesses.

  14. 14.

    dr. bloor

    @Comrade Javamanphil:

    Ugh. So sorry…it’s heartbreaking to watch them go into old age/illness. Go back to bed and curl up with your kitteh–I’m sure s/he appreciates the good care and attention you’ve provided.

  16. 16.

    gbear

    Ever feel like you just want to go to bed and start over, and it is only one o’clock?

    I’ve been writing specifications for a construction project this week so I’ve felt like that every day.

    My car has also been in the body shop all week and I’ve been driving a Hyundai Accent. It seems reliable but it has negative personality points. What an incredibly bland little car.

  17. 17.

    WyldPirate

    @stuckinred:

    thermostat first.

    Yup. Either that or heater coil rotting out and effing up your fluid levels via leaking. Probably would notice that though given the time of year.

  18. 18.

    amk

    Does anyone know how DREAM Act vote in senate went ? I heard feingold voted no and his was the 60th vote.

  20. 20.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    Thanks, all. He’s just 10. And the epitome of a lovable brute. They are draining fluid from his lungs and we take him home tonight. On the plus side, it finally motivated me to write our rescue tale for Annie’s late night threads. Maybe you’ll read the full story in the next few days.

    Muddy, I am sorry you also had to go to the vet. I hope your outcome is exponentially better than mine was.

  24. 24.

    Morbo

    I had two new engines put in my last car. First one was a long ignored check engine light that eventually led to loss of a cylinder going 75. Second one was a replacement because the check engine light came back, and the root cause of the problem had not been fixed by the mechanic. The second one at least did not cost me anything. Needless to say I take the check engine light more seriously now.

  26. 26.

    Ajay

    I am going thru exactly this just now. For me there is a coolant loss which can be due to various factors (intake manifold gasket, water pump, bad hose etc).

    Yesterday I had coolant puddle under my car. In few minutes, I am going to get under it and look at the possible source. Its just way too cold here. I wish it had happened in summer.

    I dont want to spend a dime on it as its 11 years old (only 79K miles) and its a GM(Venture). New van (sienna) is just ridiculously expensive.

  28. 28.

    Ross Hershberger

    BTW, all you cold-staters. Now is the time to make sure your windshield washer fluid really is good for sub-freezing temps. Add 1Q of 70% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol to tank. Run washer until you smell alcohol in the spray. Now you won’t have the damn thing plugging up with ice when you’re driving on a salty road.
    Voice of experience, here.

  29. 29.

    Rosalita

    Yeah, I know that feeling. I became the proud owner of a new (rebuilt) alternator last week. Merry f’ing Christmas. Good news is that it didn’t just die on me, got to the garage in time.

  30. 30.

    JWL

    “And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are, and how tough we are — and in the meantime, the American people are still seeing themselves not able to get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions”.

    You, sir, could feel OK about your predicament and sanctimonious about your automotive maintenance schedule, about how conscientious you are in that regard– and in the meantime, you could still be cursing Henry Ford, were you not able to afford AAA.

  36. 36.

    WyldPirate

    @stuckinred:

    Haha. They had pretty much gone away by the time I was in the Army. I guess the Army was getting a little PC even in the mid 80s. Couldn’t blatantly offend the female troops back then, at least with the pubs. Not that it wasn’t a strong barely concealed undercurrent of non-PC behavior towards women in the military then in the Combat Arms units (elsewhere too).

  37. 37.

    Mike E

    It’s called driving a Ford… my Gasgiant has been recalled more than 7 times!

    Ever feel like you just want to go to bed and start over

    Every damn day! UI week #91. I’m hoping to score some daycare/manny gigs soon, tho. Beats being a security guard (for me–SG’s a perfectly fine occupation btw)

  39. 39.

    Dennis SGMM

    @amk:
    Harry Reid introduced a measure to table the bill when it became apparent that supporters couldn’t come up with the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture. Reid said that the Senate will take up a House version of the bill later this month. In light of the fact that some Republicans who originally endorsed the act (Including co-sponsor Orrin Hatch) now opposing it I’d say that it’s dead.

  42. 42.

    aimai

    Dead clothes washing machine needs to be replaced. Back to laundromats with laundry for four every week. Dying disposal means I can’t be sure when it will work and when it won’t. Probably needs to be replaced. Car has developed some psychological problems: needs therapy.

    Yeah. I’d like to go back to bed now.

    aimai

  43. 43.

    Ross Hershberger

    I’ve replaced one head gasket, on a 1980 LeCar. I should have just dug a hole and pushed it in, but what did I know? I was 25 and owned wrenches.

  44. 44.

    thefncrow

    At least you got it there to the shop safely.

    One day I was at work, and I left work to stop by the house briefly before heading to college. At the paid parking lot where I’d parked, I’d parked in a spot with one of those concrete blocks, but the block had one of the spikes that was supposed to hold the thing in place had come up out of the cap. I parked with the nose of my car over the block slightly, and when I was backing out, that raised spike got hold of my coolant hose and yanked it loose without me knowing it.

    I then proceeded to jump on the highway to drive home.

    About halfway home, I noticed a significant burning smell, and within 30 seconds, the engine went dead and I’m in the left lane of the freeway with a stalled out car. Worse, the highway has a setup for a reversible HOV lane, which means that the concrete zipper wall for that takes up the entire left shoulder, so my options are to break down in the middle of the highway, or to pull the wheel hard right and try to drift over to the right shoulder.

    I pull the wheel hard right, and as I’m looking back at traffic, around the curve comes an 18 wheeler in the far right lane. If I don’t have enough to drift all the way to the shoulder, I’m going to end up with my car at a 45 degree angle right in the path of this giant 18 wheeler. I only barely made it clear of that lane by the time the guy blew past me.

    That engine was dead, cracked block, and repairing the engine was going to cost more than the car was worth, so it became time to buy a new car.

  48. 48.

    Butch

    My pickemup truck overheated a couple of weeks ago; it was the water pump. Mechanic fixed it but forgot to tighten the radiator hoses and as I was pulling away from the shop I noticed I was leaving a trail of radiator fluid, kind of like Hansel and Gretel with the bread crumbs. Got it back to the mechanic, he fixed it, arrived home and found the picture window smashed. Bill for the water pump was $460.

  50. 50.

    donnah

    How strange: I was driving our van to the garage to get a routine oil change and the oil light came on and started pinging. Scared the crap out of me, but I was only a few blocks from the garage, so I drove it there. I told our mechanic that the light had just come on and he gave me a rather calculating look.

    As in calculating how much it was going to cost. We just had a new water pump put in three weeks ago: $375. It’s an old van and we can’t afford to buy a new one, so we seem to be in that dreaded twilight zone of ongoing repairs.

    Sigh.

  51. 51.

    Benjamin Cisco

    I think McClatchy is trying to branch into comedy. To wit, this headline:
    __

    Unusual GOP-Blue Dog coalition needed for tax-cut votes

    Exactly WTF is unusual about that these days?

  52. 52.

    catclub

    @Rosalita: “I became the proud owner of a new (rebuilt) alternator last week. Merry f’ing Christmas. Good news is that it didn’t just die on me, got to the garage in time.”

    It is not clear that the rebuilt alternator is still working, or did it fail within a week? I have actually had very good luck with them.

  54. 54.

    Tsulagi

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Would be my first guess

    90+% of the time an overheating problem is going to be easy and cheap to fix. Of course I assume you’ve checked the coolant level. And looked to see if there is a little puddle under your engine that might indicate a loose or cracked hose. After that, themostat next. Once you get past that, then the fix can get more expensive like a water pump or radiator. Past those two just spread the legs on your wallet.

    If your car is 8+ years old, thermostat would be my first guess. Wouldn’t hurt to replace it anyway. If you bought it at a parts place would probably be around $10. Generally 5-10 minutes to replace.

    Since your Check Engine light came on, then your car’s computer is storing a fault code. An OBD reader could tell you what it is. Or, with a fair number of cars if you do a process like turning the ignition on and off a certain way a number, the fault code, will display on your dash or the Check Engine light will flash like Morse Code giving you the number. A Google search could tell you if that applies to your car model.

  55. 55.

    soonergrunt

    @Ross Hershberger:
    That’s like being a lieutenant with a compass. When it’s good, it’s merely OK, but when it’s bad, the world sucks ass.

    I vote for stuck thermostat.

  56. 56.

    John (not McCain)

    @Sportello:

    Dilithium crystals do not cause overheating. Clearly, the warp plasma is not venting properly. Core breach imminent.

  57. 57.

    WyldPirate

    @Ross Hershberger:

    I’ve replaced one head gasket, on a 1980 LeCar. I should have just dug a hole and pushed it in, but what did I know? I was 25 and owned wrenches.

    Man, I know what you’re talking about. I had ’79 F-150 with a 300 ci straight six in it. I bottomed it out on a rocky road driving too fast and knocked a hole in the oil pan. Lost engine oil and threw a piston rod before I got home.

    I had wrenches and no money plus lots of time. Pulled it all apart and put it back together in next to no time. There was so much room under the hood I could even sit up on the interior fender well while I was working on it.

    Those days are long gone.

  58. 58.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    Question: If the tax cuts are not passed before the end of this congress, what kind of bill does anyone expect to come out of the Boehner House?

  59. 59.

    Ross Hershberger

    I need to give a talk at work today. I call it “How Not to Screw Up a Vacuum Cleaner”. Basic sweeper care for custodial supervisors. This talk will feature:
    1) Don’t put it in water!,
    2) Don’t vacuum up the cord!,
    3) Empty the full bag!,
    4) Broken plug, don’t use! and other critical knowledge.

  60. 60.

    quaint irene

    Yeah, I know that feeling. I became the proud owner of a new (rebuilt) alternator last week. Merry f’ing Christmas

    What is it about this time of year that leads to ‘the Revolt of the Machines!?”

    Had a clicking noise coming whenever I was making a left turn. Tried to ignore it even as it was getting louder. Finally had to face it when I heard a caller describe the exact same thing to the ‘Car Talk’ guys. Their diagnosis: the front axle is going so get to your garage before you break down on a railroad track with a trunk full of groceries.
    Got to my car guy and I guess I was lucky it was only the left axle. Amazed I was driving around for weeks with it without a mishap.

    Then the left door hinge on my oven broke off three days before Thanksgiving.

  62. 62.

    Ross Hershberger

    I love repairing things. I do it for a living, as a hobby and in my dreams.

    But I hate HAVING to repair things.

  63. 63.

    Rosalita

    @catclub:

    Actually it was my original alt that crapped out. And I had to get another one — the ‘new’ one is rebuilt. I hope it lasts a long time!

  64. 64.

    andy

    I used to have my check engine light come on all the time. I would always say, “why yes, it’s still there,” and keep driving.

    About a year later the timing belt broke and when I had it fixed it never felt the same again. I figured 18 years was pretty old for a Ford Escort so I sold it to a guy for $350 bucks. He ran it for a year or two and then sold it to a guy who drove in demolition derbies and it eventually died in battle!

  65. 65.

    R-Jud

    @quaint irene:

    What is it about this time of year that leads to ‘the Revolt of the Machines!?”

    I have no idea. I do know that we’ve had a very expensive and frustrating five weeks– the dryer, furnace, and fridge all gave up the ghost and needed to be scrapped.

    The car’s doing fine, touch wood.

  66. 66.

    Dennis SGMM

    @amk:
    Reid’s request to table the motion passed 59-40. A test vote taken in September failed 52-44. With a Republican majority in the House and their pickup of Senate seats I’d guess that the DREAM Act will remain a dream. The truly annoying thing about this is that it will likely be spun as “Democrats fail to pass DREAM Act,” rather than “GOP blocks passage of DREAM Act.”

    The Dems should tie this around the Republicans’ necks and mention it at every opportunity. I’m not holding my breath though.

  67. 67.

    Ross Hershberger

    Yesterday I used hotmelt glue and vinyl tape to reconstruct a $1000 vacuum cleaner that had fallen down a flight of stairs and was comprehensively shattered. I had most of the pieces and faked the rest. It will work fine until someone snorts up a chunk of cardboard and burns out the motor, leaves a sink running and drowns it, vacuums up nails and seizes the blower impeller, etc…

    Equipment repair is like an arms race. I foolproof things and they come up with better fools.

  69. 69.

    Mike E

    @quaint irene:

    Then the left door hinge on my oven broke off three days before Thanksgiving.

    You must really put your back into the baking–very admirable. My Annual Northern Turkey Feast had me cooking on my sis’s gormet 6 burner stove/convection oven. Damn. I could live in just a kitchen equipped with that.

  70. 70.

    Chris

    @andy: For those of you who know about Unix (or have used Linux), there’s a great old story about the ancient, venerable “ed” editor…

    Brian Kernighan’s car: its only instrument is a big question mark on the dashboard, which lights when something goes wrong. “The experienced driver,” Dr Kernighan is quoted as saying, “will [usually] know what’s wrong.”
    __
    (Common UNIX koan inspired by the fact that early versions of the ed editor had just one error message, the question mark, which was justified in just that way.)

    (From the first link google came up with when given “kernighan car question mark” as search terms. I added the “usually” which is how I remember the phrasing.)

    The check engine light is, in fact, the big question mark on the dashboard.

  71. 71.

    WyldPirate

    Surprise, surprise. The DOJ goes after small time Wall St fraudsters and not the big fish. Having lots of green means that the laws don’t apply quite as equally. (h/t Atrios)

    The Obama Administration’s Financial-Fraud Stunt Backfires:

    “Jesse Eisinger has a column in today’s New York Times noting that the feds’ insider-trading investigation, while important, misses the bigger issue: prosecuting those who caused the crisis.

    The New York Times’s Andrew Ross Sorkin called out Eric Holder’s Justice Department on Monday, noting that the 343 criminal defendants it said it’s prosecuting in a sweep it lamely calls Operation Broken Trust are small fry. No executive from the major corporations (like, oh, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Countrywide, Ameriquest, etc.) has yet been charged.”

  72. 72.

    amk

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Thx again.

    59-40. Damn. So close. If saint russ indeed voted against it (I’m not sure), then “Democrats fail to pass DREAM Act,” would be right,

  74. 74.

    stuckinred

    @WyldPirate: You can essentially build them from the ground up with the aftermarket outfits. I have owned mine for 24 years and it’s virtually brand new. 4 bolt main 350, new three speed saginaw, wiring, seat covers. . . illegal mufflers and tailights!

  76. 76.

    DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective

    @stuckinred:

    Yes, thermostat is choice number one. Easy and cheap to fix.

    Other possibilities, water pump, belt, hoses. However unless the car is an older vehicle or mistreated, pump and belt are not that likely. Belt problems with newer cars don’t tend to show up as overheating.

    The possibility you don’t want: Head gasket. $$$

  78. 78.

    ruemara

    You driving my car? ’87 Chevy Cavalier. Spent over 800$ on it since summer because it thought it was supposed to smoke, took it in for a smog yesterday. It failed. Need another $300 for…I don’t know what, so it can pass. FML.

  81. 81.

    Violet

    @Ross Hershberger:

    BTW, all you cold-staters. Now is the time to make sure your windshield washer fluid really is good for sub-freezing temps. Add 1Q of 70% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol to tank. Run washer until you smell alcohol in the spray. Now you won’t have the damn thing plugging up with ice when you’re driving on a salty road. Voice of experience, here.

    So true. Just rented a car in UK during last week’s freezing cold weather and whoever had filled up the washer fluid used water. So naturally it was frozen solid and unusable. Try driving in freezing fog with road grit misted all across your windscreen. The car was almost impossible to see out of.

    At one point, during a traffic snarl stoppage on the motorway I opened my window, leaned out and squirted water from the water bottle I was drinking out of all over the windscreen so that a bit of the gunk could get cleaned off. Talk about dangerous driving conditions!

  83. 83.

    WyldPirate

    Speaking of the UK, news reports of students rioting in London protesting the tripling of tuition costs from 4K (US) to 12K (US). Cops using their billy clubs on some of the crowd. Dome of the protesters supposedly kicked a passing car with Prince Charles and Camilla in it.

    We need some good 60s style protests here….

  84. 84.

    D-Chance.

    You aren’t biking? What the fuck are you, Cole, a conservative? Sell off that junk heap and save your planet!

  85. 85.

    Violet

    @stuckinred:
    Heh. I try to use the correct term when describing things in the UK. I find if I don’t, I end up wasting time discussing “We call it an elevator! You call it a lift!” It was the windscreen there. Had it happened here, it would have been the windshield. Although I guess since I’m telling the story on a US-based blog, I should go back to using US terms. So complicated.

    @WyldPirate:
    I’d love to see some real protests here.

  86. 86.

    electricgrendel

    Good luck with the car business. My car shut down at a stop sign and then wouldn’t crank. By the time I got it cranking again the entire car was shaking. It ended up costing me 2500 to get the entire engine replaced! No problems beforehand- no nothing. It just shut off at a stop sign and that was that. So- good luck!

  87. 87.

    Dennis SGMM

    We bought a 2001 Ford Taurus new. For 100,000 miles it was a great car. At 104,000 miles things started going wrong and the car quickly became a money sink. At first I had it repaired because our 1992 Ford Escort is still running strong with routine maintenance and an occasional trip to the mechanic when something needed fixing. Not so the Taurus. It seemed that every time we started it something else would stop working, or fall off, or some part that we’d had replaced would take another shit. Our mechanic, bless his heart, finally told me that the car was a piece of crap and that he didn’t want to take our money any more because the car would never be right. We donated it to our local NPR station.

  88. 88.

    4jkb4ia

    Meta via Kevin Drum links–

    via Modeled Behavior, ModelAI.com has Balloon Juice as 7th most upset blog in last week. Laughed very loudly.

    Andrew Sabl talked about the split between civic republicanism and non-republican liberalism at Mark Kleiman’s place. Was thrilled because standing on principle as far as giving benefits to the rich has a more specific name than “The Left”. The points dday has made about starving government also deserve a better fate than name-calling. Some of the spending we have now I am sure that dday would be happy to see go(V-22 *cough*), but if the only stimulus you have is tax cuts there is no energetic government. There is no thinking through what government can do on centrist issues like energy.

  92. 92.

    TrishB

    Sounds familiar. Months of October and November: Check engine light coming on intermittently. A mere phone call to set up an appointment with the mechanic turned off said light each time, as did driving within 200 feet of any auto repair shop. Thanksgiving day, driving to family dinner: previously unlit check engine light roars back to life, flashing like crazy as car decides gas pedal response is optional, shudders, bucks, and otherwise misbehaves. Car then defies laws of physics and decelerates on the downhill. SOB car towed to shop. Shop closed over 4 day weekend. Amongst other words, estimate included something coil, catalytic doohickey, plugs, wires, ignition bolt whatcha, thingamajig, throttle body something, and, blah blah sensor. Tuesday, I retrieved the beast from the garage. As I pulled into the driveway, the blasted check engine light returned. Tomorrow, it goes back for work on the coolant system.

    Yes, I sound like an idiot about cars, and I won’t debate that. Due some odd family quirks, I’ve seen more MG TCs and TDs stripped to their chassis and spread out piece by piece than I ever will Jettas.

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