Couple quick notes:
1.) I tied Rosie outside for two hours and she loved it. This will be repeated.
2.) New Chuck tonight. WATCH IT LIVE! They need to be renewed for season five.
3.) The Upton tea website makes me dizzy it is so all over the place.
4.) I just got off the phone with my mother, who yelled at me for five minutes about something I did that pissed her off…. in her dream.
gogol's wife
There’s a great scene in an Anne Tyler novel where a couple pick up an old man hitchhiking, and he explains that his wife threw him out because she dreamed that he cheated on her.
El Tiburon
My wife was angry at me for damn near two days for something I did to her in a dream. I think to this day she still holds it against me.
John Cole
@gogol’s wife: My mother was mad at me because in her dream I was driving like an asshole, running stop signs and red lights, speeding, etc., and she yelled at me to let her out. What really pissed her off (in the dream) was that I actually let her out and she had to walk a long way home up a hill.
Joe Beese
Try tying up your mother outside for two hours.
Violet
LOL. I did that to my mom when I was a teenager. Woke up from dozing when I should have been studying, came charging out of my room and starting yelling at my mom about whatever it was she “did” in my dream. I can still see the stunned, amused look on her face as she patiently said, “I didn’t do any of that,” and it slowly dawned on me that I had been dreaming.
TaMara (BHF)
#4 is the best laugh I’ve had all day. And come on, honestly, who hasn’t had a similar experience?
Violet
Sounds like a good solution for everyone.
South of I-10
I once dreamed my husband cheated on me, I was pissed off at him for the rest of the day! I did eventually apologize for being completely irrational.
Jay in Oregon
Basic Instructions has you covered:
http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2006/8/20/how-to-deal-with-a-crazy-spouse.html
Violet
Chuck needs a lot more Jeffster.
Guster
I’m telling you, call Upton and talk to Frank. He’ll help.
gogol's wife
@South of I-10:
It’s hard not to keep feeling the emotion even though it was a dream emotion. I sometimes have the same thing happen in the opposite direction — i.e., I have warm feelings toward someone I don’t know that well because they appeared in a positive light in a dream.
Mark S.
I’m apparently a terrible person in my girlfriend’s dreams.
BGinCHI
@John Cole: In the dream, was the car a stick shift or automatic?
smiley
Mothers know, John, mothers know. She fears that you’ll leave her on the side of the road one day. (OK, enough Freud now.)
Just Some Fuckhead
@TaMara (BHF):
I have never tied up my mother outside. You people are sick and disrespectful. Mother is frowning at you.
joe from Lowell
…followed up with, “And how come you don’t call more?”
lamh34
More comic book geekiness!!!! Meet the new General Zod from the New Superman movie!!!
‘Superman’ lands Michael Shannon
BTW, If anyone wants to buy me a present, how about the first 2 Superman movies! Heck throw in the Richard Pryor one too, cause I’ll admit for Pryor alone, I love it…lol.
NOW…Kneel Before Zod!!!!
Linda Featheringill
@smiley:
Freud and dreams:
Or how about a bit of Jung?
Mom is working out a conflict in which every character is herself. One part wants to go places and do things but wants to do it too fast and in a daredevil manner. Another part of her objects to the dangers involved and demands to be released from that activity. However, when she is released from that driving-going-doing part of herself, she misses out on a lot of good things.
John didn’t kick his mom out of the car for being a killjoy, his mom kicked her out of the car, for the same reason.
So what is a girl to do? [Answer: Call John and yell at him.]
Silver
You piss her off in a dream, you better wake up and apologize…
Maude
@Joe Beese:
WIN
Litlebritdifrnt
@South of I-10: My Dh was completely irrational with me for three days, turned out he was pissed off at me cause he dreamed that I had been unfaithful to him. Glad we got that sorted out.
MattR
I finally caught up with the past few episodes that were on my DVR so now I actually understand what you meant with your references to the big BM.
@lamh34: Ah, that explains it. MSN is the homepage for Internet Explorer on my work laptop. I actually had to use IE today and saw the homepage had a list of popular bing searches. There were all the usual ones I would expect to see and then “General Zod” in the middle of the list.
Keith G
A very good friend and co-worker is trying wishing to begin displaying her art work online and eventually give folks a chance to order/purchase. She asked for some ideas on how to start.
Many commenter’s here have a fair amount of experience doing this, so I will ask:
Can she do this from a blog format or are there hosting sites that any of y’all have used that are novice-friendly?
Are there any “how to” resources that you have come across which may be helpful?
lamh34
@MattR:
yep. the fanboys (and this fangirl…lol) or all atwitter over the news today.
can anyone REALLY take the place of Terrance Stamp’s “General Zod”? I don’t think so. But I’m not a young as the fan base for the last Superman was, so they probably don’t even know who Terrance Stamp. Other than maybe knowing he was the evil dude from “Adjustment Bureau”????
opie jeanne, formerly known as Jeanne Ringland
Oh dear, poor you John, re: #4. I have done that to my poor spouse. I thought I was the only nutjob who did that but I see I’m not alone, and I suspect it is a female thing. None of the guys have admitted to it, but most of the women have.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Violet: My darling precious Lucky would spend hours tied out in the front yard, for no other reason that he liked it that way. I think John Cole has figured out the solution.
stuckinred
@Keith G: etsy
FlipYrWhig
@Joe Beese: Joe, you annoy the living shit out of me on every other thread, and then this. For those about to rock, we salute you. Nicely done.
Arclite
Are you using a rope? Do you have room for a runner?
stuckinred
@lamh34: Check “The Limey” he’s amazing.
lamh34
OMG, I just heard this song on a commercial and I remembered how much I REALLY love that movie Mannequin with Kim Cattrell and Andrew McCarthy! Gonna go add it to my netflix queue. I need to just go ahead a buy it.
Man 80’s movies were cheesy, but I still love em.
Starship – Nothing’s Gonna Stop us Now (Mannequin)
Tunch
مجد الله. جون كول السجين علي ما زال قائما. أنا كنت بالكراهية والحقد عليه أي حروق الشمس اكثر من الف. الرجاء مساعدتي, للوصول إلي ما أسماك التونة.
Tunch
lamh34
speaking of cheesy 80’s movies, does anyone else remember that movie “Date With An Angel”? This may be one of the most sexist movie ever, but damn if I don’t love it.
Date With An Angel
Also, how crappy were trailers back in the day?
stuckinred
@lamh34: Did you see Beart in Bitter Moon? Dammnnnnnnnn!
Tom Hilton
I don’t watch Chuck, but according to the Twitterwebs there was a Game of Thrones reference tonight–is that right? Because that would totally be interesting, if true.
TX Expat
Tunch (loosely) translated:
The glory of God. John Cole, a prisoner on what remains. I hate you and hate it any sunburn more than a thousand. Please help me to reach a tuna.
Ahasuerus
@Tunch: Hey Tunchie, enough with the tuna fish already, ok? You get any more mercury in you and you’ll start to look like a thermometer. And then Cole will have to tie YOU outside.
opie jeanne
Can someone translate Tunch’s comment for those of us who do not speak the language?
opie jeanne
@TX Expat: I posted too soon.
aimai
I feel like John’s list could serve as the basic plot outline for the sci fi version of his life–especially if it were all to be structured as Tunch’s Dream. Maybe its what happens to John after he decides to put on a helmet, pick up a mop, and go out in an icestorm to burn yard waste and accidentally knocks himself out with poisoned oleander and getting Rosie’s leash wrapped around his neck.
aimai
stuckinred
You want sexy, Marelene and Orson!
MazeDancer
Have ordered these two teas often at Upton. Both organic. (Links shortened because they’re so long, though they apparently trigger moderation…)
Nilgiri Orange Pekoe – Iyerpadi Estate http://goo.gl/pUhVR
Assam TGBOP – Banaspaty Estate: http://goo.gl/Jljeh
Here’s link to every Assam there: http://goo.gl/QbF2X
Order a zillion samples, a box of filters (http://goo.gl/aAUcc) and have fun.
opie jeanne
@aimai: When he wakes up is there a bulldozer waiting to knock down his house?
Ahasuerus
And apropos of nothing more than Liberal Bloggy Love, apparently Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly had some nice things to say about Kthug’s post about our host.
nora
John, I have been meaning to mention this for some time: if you are going to get serious about tea, you might want to check out Lupicia. I highly recommend all the green varieties, the rum raisin, champagne, earl gray, morning breakfast, and many others.
RAM
Chuck! Uno! Cheating at Uno!
Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@opie jeanne, formerly known as Jeanne Ringland: Nah, I had a boyfriend once who was really bad about this. I was once in the dog house for three days over something I “did” to him in a dream. Women aren’t more irrational. They’re just (often) more honest about the irrationality inherent in being human.
lamh34
Another sorta cheesy 80’s movie: The Legend of Billie Jean.
Theme song: Pat Benator – Invinsible
Although, I bet more people remember the Billy Idol joint better: Billy Idol – Rebel Yell
Interesting thing about Billy Idol like David Bowie, those dudes just don’t seem to age badly at all!
Mnemosyne
@opie jeanne, formerly known as Jeanne Ringland:
I think it’s one of those things that guys don’t admit to. I know that G got very freaked out once because he dreamed that I tried to kill him with a hammer. He still talks about that from time to time and it was years ago.
THE
I think you should try to behave better, when you are a guest in other people’s dreams.
Maude
Japan had another earthquake. 6.3.
We don’t have problems compared to the people of Japan.
I don’t know how they are going to get through this.
SoINeedAName
Surely you can find a way to blame Sully for your mother yelling at you.
I’m counting on it!
lamh34
@lamh34:
ugh, now I’ve got Billy Idol on the brain. Anyone else remember when MTV actually played videos, and this song was on a loop!!!
Billy Idol – Cradle of Love
cs
Reading my Twitter feed, where I’m mainly a lurker, which is full of various people in the middle of the Middle East revolutions.
There’s a Bahraini woman who posts under @angryarabiya. Today she announced she’s going on a hunger strike after her father, a human rights activist, and two other relatives were viciously beaten and arrested from her house and no one in the regime would tell her what happened to them.
Among all the messages of support were these comments from @TheDivineThaj:
LOL @angryarabiya is going on a hunger strike. & we care because? I’m not the one who’s going to end up looking like a decomposed dead body.
Or… she could be on a liquid diet. Its healthy, requires no food, & she can shed a few pounds. Bikini season? You go girl
Gotta shed the baby weight mushi RT @hassanmushaima: – @angryarabia I thought she was angry because of Politics, turns out she’s FAT!
Who would get so bitchy about an obviously sympathetic story? TheDivineThaj is Thajba Al-Khalifa, a teenaged member of the Bahrain royal family.
FastEddie
JRT’s need a LOT of exercise. WAAAY more than you can do with a leash. We have had good luck with our dogs ( labra- and golden-doodles ) with the invisible fence. It only takes a few days before they learn the boundaries and never get zapped again. Worth every penny.
Msskwesq
That your Mom did that is hilarious! My daughter did the same thing to me just last month! I have to say I have been a bit sad about your rocky relationship with Rosie lately, but have kept it to myself until now. She needs lots of exercise and interesting toys. Be careful with that tying her up, she may get loose… Are you doing a fence this year? My best friend has a JRT and he puts him on his treadmill! He also has a shock collar on him and an invisible fence- it works well for him. Don’t give up on Rosie, she loves you all…
opie jeanne
@Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion: My dh rarely remembers his dreams, which is why I kind of thought maybe it was our personal bit of silliness.
Splitting Image
So your mother is a Republican? I guess not, or you’d be used to it by now.
JGabriel
@gogol’s wife:
I’ve fallen head over heels in love with women, only to wake up and discover they’re a dream.
That part always kind of sucks. Nice dreams though.
.
Kristine
@aimai: Does he bust up his shoulder? He has to bust up his shoulder.
Ellie
On the dream thing, my husband does this from time to time. He does stupid and/or mean things in my dreams causing me to be out of sorts the next day. Don’t give me the “I can’t be responsible for what happens in your dreams” excuse, buddy. Just straighten up.
demz taters
@stuckinred: Not to be confused with regretsy, where she probably doesn’t want to end up.
sukabi
4.) I just got off the phone with my mother, who yelled at me for five minutes about something I did that pissed her off…. in her dream.
transference… your frustration with Rosie, you mother feels it… it’s not like you haven’t been actively looking for a new home for your “favorite bitch”…
Steeplejack
@MazeDancer:
Moderation triggered because you had too many links (four), not because of their length. Three is the limit that WP likes. (And I believe that includes the reply-to link, if you have one of those.)
stuckinred
@demz taters: KILLER! DIY MEETS WTF!
Martin
Naked woodchipping, waznit?
Jay
Kicking around ABL’s long piece on Joan Walsh from a few days back. Let me see if I have this right:
1) Criticism of POTUS is fine, just not the covertly or overtly racist kind. Easy enough,
2) It’s okay to say POTUS has let you down, BUT, taking what might be called a pessimistic liberal’s point of view, he is still the least-worst option.
3) If Obama is primaried and loses, only to have his opponent lose to Trump or somesuch, Obama supporters shouldn’t be blamed and the hardcore primary supporters shouldn’t complain.
One more thing: I don’t think Glenn Greenwald is loyal to a party, but it’s very clear he is an ardent constitutionalist. Students and practitioners of constitutional law can make pretty sharp cases for why a politician’s career should be ended over something like flip-flopping on Gitmo. Me? I think we should close it, but I don’t think any current Republican POTUS candidate would close it as President. Nothing in any of their records or statements says they would. So, better to keep prodding Obama. Yes, he promised to close it, and yes, many of us think that was a deadly serious promise he made, so I believe those of us who were moved by it have a right to say he’s let us down on the issue.
koalaholik
My 80 year old mother lives with me. I come home from work some days and she is not speaking to me. Never says what I did while I was away from home for 10 hours. After a day or two she starts talking again. Either I need to increase my meds or get her doctor to put her on some.
Sarah in Brooklyn
@John Cole: Don’t give up on Upton. The tea is great quality, and you get used to the website after a while. Just pick three or four and see where it goes from there.
mattH
Good, for both of you.
New finish to every fortune cookie.
+3(or 6 or whatever)
Joseph Nobles
@lamh34: “Anyone else remember when MTV actually played videos…”
Dude, I’m so old, I remember when we used to say “Anyone else remember when MTV actually played videos”.
Left Coast Tom
@Jay:
I’d agree.
Arguing that we should, therefore, primary him with someone who voted against closing Guantanamo, like Feingold, would cause me to start going on about magical unicorns.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: There is also the fact that he started to take the steps to close it and Congress went apeshit and denied funding for any such thing. There is a difference between breaking a promise and being unable to keep it.
Jay in Oregon
Ironically, they would know Terrance Stamp as the recorded voice of Jor-El in Smallville. There were a few of us who geeked out at the possibility of finding out down the road that it wasn’t Jor-El’s voice, but a certain General pretending to be him in order to corrupt Jor-El’s only child…
(They did actually put Zod into Smallville, played by Callum Blue. He was okay but didn’t have the same gravitas that Stamp does.)
slag
Interesting info graphic on the supposed health benefits of coffee vs. tea: http://submitinfographics.com/all-infographics/the-health-benefits-of-coffee-vs-tea-infographic.html. White tea takes the prize, it seems.
geg6
Here’s my list, Cole:
1. I don’t watch Chuck. Sorry about that. Well, not really.
2. I once called my current guy John, who is the greatest and most wonderful man in the world, by my ex’s name while drunk on wine. Try living that one down.
3. Although Sully acted like a typical rightwinger by talking over everone trying to rebut his incredibly stupid cheerleading for his latest crush, Ryan, I was heartened to see Maher literally call him stupid to his face. Kept ol’ Sully speechless for a few long seconds and it all went quiet for a second. They didn’t have the camera on him, but I’d have killed to see his face. Made my day, much as your now-legendary rant dud the other day.
4. I’m beginning to think that the 2012 GOP nominee may very well be one of the crazies and that no matter how much the GOP establishment is signalling that they want a serious candidate and that none of the current crop qualifies, they may have lost control. I think lack of enthusiasm for the marginally sane (Romney) leading to depressed turnout among the few remaining marginally sane GOPers paired with hordes of pissed off Teabaggers, racists, and mouthbreathing mental detectives whipped into a frothy peak by Limbaugh and his immitators can make anything happen, even Trump/Bachmann, Ride the Crazy Train 2012.
Omnes Omnibus
@slag:
The average teabagger could have told you that.
suzanne
I am fuckin’ plotzing with excitement. My hubby and I are going to New York in June to see the final show on the Guided by Voices reunion tour. I seriously could fucking orgasm right now.
jeff
For the first time ever when I clicked to andrew, and saw some bullshit about mustachioed victorians or something, I just felt: enough of the fatuous bullshit. The man has brought together tons of stuff I loved to read since 1999, but I don’t ever want to see him again. So I clicked away.
I’ll be back to see what it feels like tomorrow. I’ve been reading him since I was a kid.
Elliecat
@Joseph Nobles:
I’m so old, I remember when we used to say, “Yeah, when that band was on the Midnight Special, they weren’t really on, there was this movie kind of thing of the song with them in it and some other stuff, it was so cool, like a movie of the song but not exactly.” (Okay, I’m partly channeling my less articulate friends.)
Omnes Omnibus
@jeff: I feel like I am in the minority here, but Sully has never been more than a occasional read for me. I never go to his site on my own; I click over to it if someone links, but that is it. I think knowing that he was responsible for things like the Bell Curve debacle before the blogosphere existed helped inoculate me.
slag
@Omnes Omnibus:
Maybe. But just as Darwin theorized, white tea may seem white on the outside but it’s actually brown on the inside.
jibeaux
I am trying to, in my free time, fundraise just a little bit for teacher appreciation week. I’m talking about begging local businesses for $5 or $10 gift cards for a raffle. I have gotten some, but the clearance rate is pretty low and the return-contact rate (even just to say, “I’m sorry but I can’t this year” — how hard is that?) is low and it’s bumming me out. This economy sucks.
Chris
I have placed three orders with Upton Tea since you mentioned them a week or so ago. You really should be getting a kickback. Or I should be getting a group discount.
Omnes Omnibus
@slag: And, with that, teabagger heads asplode.
slag
@Omnes Omnibus:
There alone lies the value of a robust educational system.
Bmaccnm
@demz taters: Regretsy is my favorite website- present company excepted, of course. Friggin’ hysterical. I read it at work, after everybody else has left and I’m alone with my charts.
lamh34
@Jay in Oregon:
As much as I love Stamp for General Zod, I love him just as much as Bernadette from Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
See also, Hugo Weaving as Mr Smith in The Matrix vs Tick in Priscilla. While we are at it, add Guy Pierce as Felicia vs him in Memento!
gnomedad
For Canuckistani Juicers:
Perky ‘Canada’ Has Own Government, Laws
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
@Tunch:
Sounds ominous. If I were Cole, I’d sleep with one eye open and one hand on a predator drone control stick.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Steven Wright once said something along the line of…
Last night I dreamed I had insomnia. I couldn’t wake up.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
4. Where I get in trouble is not generally in dreams but in real conversations, that is, conversations that are decades old. My mother, old girlfriends, my life partner, they all have done something similar; recall a conversation we had literally years or decades before (and when I use the term “literally” I don’t mean it in the Joe Biden sense, I mean literally), then get angry with me for not knowing what the hell she is talking about when she resumes it in mid sentence. Literally (see above). Just lucky I guess.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
TCM is showing Birth of a Nation. I have to admit this is pretty awesome. The klan is riding to the rescue right now!
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
“Helpless whites are looking on…”
General Stuck
@Omnes Omnibus:
You know my good blog friend Omnes. isn’t it wonderful, and why we should rejoice, quit worrying, and learn to love our progressives. I look at it as a permanent primary, every day, sharpening our wits with folks who are both on our side and an opposition party at the same time.
They give us practice at pointing out facts and such, from not bringing any of their own, like the goopers, and have created all kinds of cool Orwellian words, like Obot (fellators), progressives (idealists), capitulation (compromise) sellout (politician) etc….. etc…./
That way we can be sharp for the similar code words stuff that the wingers throw up, and when debating, we don’t have to switch back and forth between republicans and democrats and can just use dems to cover everybody .
They can accuse us Obots of trying to stifle their free speech, just like the wingnuts R, and how we hate the constitution, also too.
IT is all so tidy, and comfy cozy, dontcha” think. Like everyday spending Thanksgiving with the family. Now who wants to carve the cornerstone?
asiangrrlMN
Yeah, that sucks about the dream, Cole. My problem is that I have friends and family die in my dreams. Then, I feel VERY guilty about it. Actually, this hasn’t happened for a few years, knock on wood, but it’s very disconcerting when it does (especially if I’m the cause of the death).
MattR
To paraphrase Jon Stewart right now describing the Tea Party reaction to the budget agreement. “It’s a good deal, but some poor people remain oddly unfucked so my constituents won’t have it.”
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@MattR: we’re watching too and the John Kyl quote about Planned Parenthood almost drove my wife to destroy our TV.
ruemara
@jibeaux: contact me, I’ll donate some jewelry. I’m giving shit away, that’s how bad my economy is. But I’d rather it go to make someone happy than toss it in the trash.
back on topic
I feel like my life is the longest, most interminable nightmare ever. If someone could wake me up about 12 years previous to now, I would certainly appreciate it. Fuck this existence.
MattR
@Gordon, The Big Express Engine: The two best options are either a squishy toy of some sort to throw (as Yutsano suggested to me a couple weeks ago) or a second, old, broken/unused TV whose sole purpose is to take the abuse. Glad to at least see Wyatt call it out in stark terms as a complete lie designed to win a debate that cannot be won with facts.
@asiangrrlMN: For some reason the Louis CK bit where he talks about jokingly telling his friend he hopes his plane crashes popped into my mind. When he won’t take it back his friend says he will feel so guilty if the plane does in fact crash. Louis’s response is that he would gladly trade his friend’s life for the knowledge that he has the power to cause planes to crash.
Tom Hilton
@asiangrrlMN: Have you ever killed anyone in a dream? Now THAT’s traumatic.
Of course, dying in a dream is no picnic either.
Mark S.
Isn’t it great living in a country of dipshits (via)
The people have spoken, so let’s not raise it and see what happens. I’m sure all those banks holding trillions of dollars of T-bonds won’t mind at all. They’ll just fall back on their other assets, like their mortgage-backed securities. It will be fun trying to bail them out when we can’t borrow any money.
rikyrah
I’d give just about anything to hear my mother’s voice again….she passed away in 2008. just appreciate the yell.
Chuck Butcher
I feel so much better now knowing that I’m not alone in having a wife be mad about a damn dream.
Re: The Craziest GOP Ticket You Can Think Of –
Be very afraid, you have no idea how little it will take with things like this for one to win. I’ll say this once and remind all of you of the 2010 election and the 2008 statements about the death of the GOP.
THE
Japan is reported to have raised its nuclear crisis severity level to seven, the same as Chernobyl. Link
Gretchen
You should go to http://www.teadog.com. They have all sorts of wonderful tea there.
Suffern ACE
@Mark S.: I’m fairly certain the type of debt owed to the banks won’t be the first to go. Pretty certain the amount owed to the SS Trust fund would be toast, and I doubt there would be much interest in paying off those savings bonds. The Dems will take a hit by voting for the extension. If there aren’t the votes in the House for it, let the Reps explain to the middle class why those 401-Ks tanked again.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
I’ve done that!
Mark S.
@Suffern ACE:
I think it would fuck up the banks just the same. Banks have to have certain capital requirements, and they use T-bonds to meet them. If all of the sudden those bonds weren’t AAA, they’d be dumping them and finding something else.
General Stuck
I never remember my dreams
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
John, DougJ, et al – not sure if you are reading, but this blog would really be improved by a couple of front pagers who understand and can post and comment on both energy policy and on the financial markets. There is way too much emotion and misinformation (the problem is mainly technical; people really have no idea what they are talking about most of the time). There are probably 10 regular commenters who really get this stuff and maybe 10 more regulars who earnestly seek edification on these matters and add to the discussion, but they are drowned out by frankly a bunch of dumb and misinformed commentary. It starts at the top. Provide solid postings and the comments will improve….
Sure to get flamed for this but there it is…
General Stuck
@Gordon, The Big Express Engine:
Don’t look at me
asiangrrlMN
@MattR: OK, now that’s awesome. I think I would, too!
@Tom Hilton: Yes, I have. I’ve also died in my dreams. I’ve also woken up from a nightmare into another nightmare. I’ve seen people raped, assaulted, and killed, and all of the same have happened to me in my dreams.
Thus, one reason I don’t sleep well.
Scott P.
Interesting. I’ve often experienced intense emotions in my dreams — extreme sadness, anger or happiness. In every case of waking up in the middle of such a dream, the instant I awoke the emotion was gone. Not even a residual trace. Whatever I experienced was gone immediately.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Suffern ACE: The bonds in the Social Security trust fund are probably *safer* than other Treasuries in the case of the debt limit not being raised. At the moment, the trust fund is still running a surplus, so they don’t need to be redeemed. Even bonds that need to be rolled over can be replaced with IOUs.
The debt limit will be raised at some point. It may take a catastrophe to force Congress’ hand, but they will do it. At that point, the trust fund can collect the bonds that it is owed.
Martin
@Jay: I think my starting point on Obama is basically this:
The GOP is holding Congress and America hostage. Obama is the hostage negotiator. The goal of the negotiator is to return the hostage safe. We don’t expect the negotiator to return the hostage younger, hotter, and smarter than they went in. If Obama gets us through 8 years in no worse shape than we entered, I’m going to consider it a victory. I certainly would like more, but you have to consider that the Dems are risk adverse, and the GOP base demands risk. That gives the Dems very little room to maneuver. It’s like trying to balance a pencil on the tip, and the GOP is gravity. We could have true health care reform if we were willing to bet big, to lose something big. Who on the left is willing to lose environmental laws for health care? Or food stamps? The GOP knows that the Dems are risk adverse, and so everything the Dems want is going to cost something. The Dem base isn’t willing to risk anything. Just look at the laundry list of things that come out – from bankers to taxes to health care to social security to oil to Gitmo to EPA and so on.
If Dems want progress here, they need to tell the legislators what they can risk. That’s not to say that they’ll actually lose it – but they have to be willing to throw down and say ‘fine, give us healthcare and we’ll put the EPA on the line’. See if the GOP really is willing to do that. But Dems won’t do that – they aren’t willing to risk giving up anything.
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
I get where both you & Tom are coming from. I love Feingold, but he could do far more good as a SCOTUS pick in Obama’s second term, I think. I also believe he wouldn’t spark a confirmation battle. You know someone like McCain, who’s never dropped his Russ man-crush, would walk him through, if only behind the scenes, and Feingold might get props from Tea Party senators, as well, given that he made an honest effort to talk to Tea Party-leaning voters in the Johnson race (I could definitely see Rand Paul supporting Feingold.).
Aexia
I just met Tim F bitches.
General Stuck
@Martin:
I would tack onto this equation + HCR (universal care) = victory.
trollhattan
“These go to seven.”
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/12_05.html
To all the self-proclaimed experts who, back in mid-March were busy telling us everything was under control and the plants had responded as designed…I fucking wish you’d been right. At least a tiny bit.
Suffern ACE
@Mark S.: Dump them to whom? The Fed? Each other? Sell to distressed debt investors at .50 on the dollar? One thing I think we’ve learned about banks in the past few years is that they don’t admit that they are undercapitalized-EVER. They will change accounting rules, and it’s not like they’ll dump their holdings all at once. It doesn’t all come due at the same time, and there is no calling US bonds early just because you’ve become a bit squeemy at the moment.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
@Omnes Omnibus:
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There is also a difference between making a promise you can’t keep and telling the truth.
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Uncle Clarence Thomas
@General Stuck:
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Please keep your lustful thoughts regarding Corner Stone on your own sex blog.
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Uncle Clarence Thomas
@General Stuck:
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The fact is, President Obama is bringing disgraced general Stanley McChrystal into his purportedly Democratic administration. Please “point out the facts” to progressives and balloonbaggers alike as to how this benefits the United States.
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Martin
Obama is selling us out again:
General Stuck
@Martin:
Obama, the big sneaky coward. Going on national teevee and asking for higher taxes from Americans to pay for their shit. Who is he kidding? This has medicare sellout written all over it. If he thinks this will stop people from making baseless accusations, then, well, then. CATFOOD!!
MattR
@Martin: @General Stuck: I am taking a wait and see approach to see the details of the plan, but this bit from the NY Times is not promising (though I take it with the grain of salt that all anonymous sourced political commentary deserves)
FlipYrWhig
@MattR: Since Mnemosyne isn’t here to make this point, I feel compelled to step in — she would say that the actual report of the fiscal commission was not at all the same as the leaked draft by the chairs. I don’t know enough about it myself to raise the points she would, but I thought it’d be useful to note.
Martin
@MattR: Well, I have no problem with reforming the tax code. As Warren Buffett noted, he shouldn’t be paying a lower tax rate than his secretary. That’s not because of marginal rates, which I know people here get a real hard-on for, but because the effective rates are so radically different from that.
Is there really that much opposition to eliminating the mortgage interest deduction above a certain amount? Treating most cap gains as income? Arguing over a 35% top marginal rate is stupid when nobody ever pays 35%.
Yutsano
@Uncle Clarence Thomas: Link or GTFO.
@Martin: I have yet to hear a single rational justification why anyone needs a mortgage deduction on your second house. That just screams perverse incentive to me. Also limiting the first house deduction to something reasonable like $400,000 seems fair. Or we can go all Canuckistani and dump it. They do just fine with no mortgage interest deduction.
Martin
@Yutsano: Well, 2nd homes is just a no-brainer. On the first home, I’d limit it to the Freddie/Fannie conforming max. Currently that $417K and it increases slowly over time. I think it’s perfectly rational to tie the two together. The GOP sure as hell doesn’t want F/F servicing more loans, and the Dems don’t want to reduce the tax deduction too low.
I wonder how much the value of my house would drop with that? Anything north of $500K would face quite a bit of upward pricing resistance. Might help settle some of the housing market here in SoCal.
Yutsano
@Martin: I also wonder if establishing a ceiling like that would stabilize home prices to a decent median across the country. It definitely would take some of the energy out of house flipping and bubble pricing schemes. And Seattle house prices are still nuts even after blowing up majorly. So I think anything that settles the market can only be a positive.
MattR
@FlipYrWhig: Honestly, I can’t remember the difference at this point, but I am pretty sure the report that was voted on was still pretty bad and that it became the baseline for Ryan’s plan (with Ryan changing the health care part)
@Martin: As I said, I will wait to see the details. The ones you listed make sense (and I am sure that there are quite a few others that I am forgetting right now). If the end result is that Warren Buffett’s effective rate goes up and his secretary’s goes down that would obviously great. But I need to see the math to believe it.
@Yutsano:
I don’t realy have a problem with this in general, but it should not even be on the table when we are still trying to recover from a burst housing bubble.
Martin
@Yutsano: Yeah, it would help. I don’t know if it’d help a lot, but it’d definitely help. My neighborhood would probably get further decimated by this – we’ve got a LOT of 2nd home owners here. A lot of homes would get dumped on the market or rents would go up quite a bit to cover the deduction. That’s probably not horrible as rents here are totally out of whack (way too low) to housing prices.
Anne Laurie
@Tom Hilton:
The dreams that really bug me are the ones where I’m trying to hide the body, actually.
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie: Way OT (in an open thread, what a concept!) but I called home this weekend and my mom got…another border collie. I always thought my mother had tendencies to be a bit off.
HeartlandLiberal
Well, the flip side of your experience with your mom? You still get to have these bouts with her. Wish I could say the same of my departed mom. She died about five years ago after spending the last eight years of her life paralyzed from a stroke. I would drive 1,000 miles round trip every two months during that period to sit with her for a weekend in the nursing home.
At one point before her stroke, we got into such an argument we did not speak for six months. Then one day I got a beautiful brass, hinged business card holder in the mail, engraved with the first initial of my last name. She had had it made and sent it to me. I still treasure it.
Get off your a** and go give your mom a hug, John.
brantl
@Jay: Not when the congress fucked him over on closing it, you don’t.
Paul in KY
@Tunch: Cat writing looks alot like Arabic.
Paul in KY
@Elliecat: Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. Back before there was an MTV.
How’s that for old?