Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

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

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

People are complicated. Love is not.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Let’s finish the job.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

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

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

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53Comments

  3. 3.

    Nicole

    I loved the “If I Were a Carpenter” CD. Sonic Youth’s cover of “Superstar” made me so happy.

  4. 4.

    Violet

    Posted about this OT in the thread below, but it’s more appropriate here. Dallas has been hit hard with winter weather. DFW airport is shut down pretty much and the roads are a mess. Link.

    And now after three days of being battered by bitter cold, ice storms, treacherous roads, rolling blackouts, mass closures and mass transit breakdowns, North Texans and their Super Bowl guests awoke this morning to … snow.
    __
    …
    __
    At 7 a.m., the temperature was around 20, but with winds, it felt like 8.

    and

    Officials at D/FW Airport said about 120 flights were canceled or delayed already today, because planes had to be de-iced before takeoffs.
    __
    Roads and highways, already a challenge all week long, were a nightmare again this morning. Most were passable but difficult. Throughout the region, however, snow buildup and wrecks were closing lanes and clogging traffic.

    It’s supposed to be nice by Sunday, but people driving to or flying into Dallas are going to have a really tough time.

    So much for not holding the Super Bowl in a northern city because of the ice and snow. LOL.

  6. 6.

    Sentient Puddle

    Austin has been hit with winter weather too. About a quarter of an inch of snow, and I (and everyone else) can’t drive worth shit.

  7. 7.

    suzanne

    I remember my mom listening to the Carpenters when I was young enough to still need a car seat, and “Top Of The World” was my favorite. When I heard Shonen Knife’s cover of it when I had grown into a pain-in-the-ass punk teenager, I had a rare happy nostalgic moment. Though “Riding On The Rocket” is still my favorite of theirs.

  8. 8.

    Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)

    Well, thank you there DougJ, son of DougJ. I’ve inflicted in on several other people, including a few professional musicians, with the subject line “why the internet is a dangerous place,” so that they can chuckle also.

    In honor of the open thread, and to defy the dick whisperer, S & P Paylin file to trademark their names. That’s a Frum Forum link, not the Onion, which leads to a Politics Daily piece complete with links to the USPTO filings. As much as I hate discussing the Great Northern Grifter, I think it is important to point out that anyone who seeks to trademark their name cannot possibly be serious about public service. And thus should in no way ever be considered for a position more important than town drunk. Which is likely unfair to all previous town drunks. Please discuss.

  10. 10.

    srv

    Rand Paul wonders if compromising on gov’t would be the same as compromising on abolition.

    You democrats, you’re the moral equivalent of slavers.

  11. 11.

    cathyx

    We so don’t share the same taste in music. I could only go about halfway until I had to stop the insanity.

  13. 13.

    srv

    @Sentient Puddle: My favorite winter there, 1984-1985. I35 a wasteland of abandoned cars. UT students walking home. Made some snowmen and an orange dyed UT Tower along the lake. APD, being who they are, ran them over that night.

  16. 16.

    Martin

    @teak111: Yes! Without Quentin and too many TV commercials, nobody in the US would have ever heard of them.

    BTW, the phrase ‘case of the mondays’ should be automatically accompanied by a punch in the face. I’m open to upgrading that to ‘hit by a 2×4’ if there are no objections.

  17. 17.

    cmorenc

    I’m normally not one for soft-pop, older or newer, and generally prefer more energetic rock and blues, but the Carpenter’s original “Top of the World” hit that song exactly right. I like the Japanese girl-band’s energy, but the piercing electronic-amped vaguely punk-rockish guitar backing is all wrong for this particular song.

  20. 20.

    maya

    You know what doesn’t cheer me up AWAB-J? Music and, especially, dance videos that revel in how many goddam camera angles they can spew at you in nano-second sight bytes. Camera editors on crack. No wonder ADD has reached epidemic proportions.

  21. 21.

    Josie

    @srv: Just to show you callow youth how far things have come, I can remember the winter of either 1961 or 1962 at UT. It was so cold that the dean of women gave female students the special permission to wear slacks to school, since many of us walked to campus. I was especially grateful because my dorm was a thirty minute walk, mostly uphill.

  23. 23.

    Steaming Pile

    Cute Japanese girls in 60s-style mod pantsuits playing a pop-punk version of the Carpenters. Awesome. Can they play Longview?

  24. 24.

    Tom Hilton

    This song always cheers me up, but only when Shonen Knife do it; every other version of it just depresses me. In fact, everything by Shonen Knife cheers me up, so maybe it’s not the song, it’s them….

  26. 26.

    eemom

    ftr, I’ve always hated “Top of the World.” As saccharine-70s as a smiley face.

    “Superstar” on the other hand — now there’s a SONG.

    And who can forget “We’ve Only Just Begun” — especially after “1408”?

    RIP, Karen.

  27. 27.

    hamletta

    Heh. I just heard this song, because it’s on the soundtrack of The Last Supper, which I watched because somebody mentioned it on an Open Thread.

    Wheels within wheels, man.

  31. 31.

    aimai

    Weird, for some reason when I clicked on the image that went with “cheerful song” post I got Bill O’Reilly explaining about the moon and the tides. I sat through the whole thing thinking “did someone make a mixtape out of this? If I wait until the end will I hear something funny?”

    aimai

  32. 32.

    Kryptik

    @aimai:

    That actually happened earlier. The Shonen Knife video got shifted to where the ads usually are, and was replaced in this post by the Darth Vaderkin video. A refresh fixed it, but yeah.

  36. 36.

    Yutsano

    @freelancer: Dude, who’s having a sad? It’s fucking Super Bowl Friday!!

    (Granted, I have to do my taxes this weekend, but I can do an EZ and TurboTax and I’m set.)

  48. 48.

    Kryptik

    @piratedan:

    Yoko Kanno is a blessing. While I was never able to watch all of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, the music has stuck with me, especially “Rise”.

    And to get off of anime for now, a few more Japanese tracks I’ve grown to love:

    “Rising” by the Yoshida Brothers. Eclectic Shamisen fusion. This is decidedly more rock out than most of their stuff, but it’s really amazing stuff.

    “This Y’all That Y’all” by Rhymester feat. SUPER BUTTER DOG I find a lot of Japanese attempts at rap kind of laughable, but Rhymester seems to be the exception, and SUPER BUTTER DOG is just funky as all hell. Kind of reminds me of early Red Hot Chili Peppers and especially early Incubus.

  50. 50.

    Kryptik

    Also (split up the posts here since the first got moderated for too many links), to get off of anime stuff, a few more Japanese tracks I’ve grown to love:

    “Rising” by the Yoshida Brothers. Eclectic Shamisen fusion. This is decidedly more rock out than most of their stuff, but it’s really amazing stuff.

    “This Y’all That Y’all” by Rhymester feat. SUPER BUTTER DOG I find a lot of Japanese attempts at rap kind of laughable, but Rhymester seems to be the exception, and SUPER BUTTER DOG is just funky as all hell. Kind of reminds me of early Red Hot Chili Peppers and especially early Incubus.

  53. 53.

    Pococurante

    Well Big Doug…

    Anytime you get off your meds you could get back on them.

    Before you go around smearing journalists who, you know, actually uncover abuses in the system and hold people accountable.

    Regardless of who signs their paycheck.

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