Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

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

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

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

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Let there be snark.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Be a wild strawberry.

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140Comments

  3. 3.

    jl

    Cole obviously did it wrong, and here he is, blaming the cat.

    The impertinence of that human.

    If I were Cole, I would be show, you know, maybe a little contrition. Maybe his masters will let it slide this time.

  4. 4.

    jl

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Oh, yeah, right. Thanks, AsiangrrlMN for reminding me.

    Thnx for pix of the TunchMass.

    PS. I look forward to Cole’s story about where Rosie hid his stuff.

  13. 13.

    The Dangerman

    …then knocked everything he could find off the desk next to me until I paid ATTENTION TO HIM.

    So, you’re confessing it’s your fault?

    Well done, silly human.

  14. 14.

    Wiesman

    Open Thread Story Time:

    I went to a very conservative Christian high school. I have a Facebook friend from my class who is very active in Tea Party/Republican politics. In fact, she was selected by CNN to ask one of the questions at their GOP debate (not last night, but last week). She is (was?) a very enthusiastic supporter of Rick Perry.

    Anyway, we always argue with each other on Facebook about politics. Today on her Wall, I asked her if she was still enthusiastic about Perry, considering his debate performance last night, or if she was willing to give Romney a try.

    She replied, “NEVER Romney.”

    I asked her if she was still a Perrynista. She replied: “I think Perry is more moderate than the others. I ♥ Santorum, yet he is lacking…something. Not sure what it is. Still undecided.”

    Being the evil and godless person I have become I replied: “What is Santorum lacking? Hmmm, not sure. Try Googling!”

    Good times.

  17. 17.

    khead

    That’s what cats do. Or that’s what our cats do, at least. Between them and my wife I’m an afterthought in my own house.

    I’d like to see those little shits try to pay the mortgage though.

  18. 18.

    MikeJ

    For anyone who wants to try it, there’s a new greasemonkey script available for b-j. It will look at your comments when you submit and warn you if a known spam word is in it.

    Requires firefox and greasemonkey. Click on my name to get to the site with it. With any luck cleek will just stuff the whole thing in the pie filter.

  21. 21.

    iriedc

    Next time you’re getting ready to put on a good dark suit, lay it out on the bed and then get distracted for a minute. When you turn back around that big cat will be curled up asleep right on top of it. This works best when all of your other good dark suits happen to be at the cleaners and you have a big meeting in an hour as my cats would be sure to tell you.

  23. 23.

    khead

    @Comrade Mary:

    Saw it earlier this week. Our newest addition LOVES to paw the monitor (or TV) like in that cartoon…

    I’m gonna kill that cat if it knocks over and breaks our TV.

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    I don’t know about y’all but I’ve been watching A Gifted Man on CBS and crying my balls off for the last 30 minutes or so.

  31. 31.

    Wiesman

    @Southern Beale:

    I just can’t be friends with people like that.

    I’d have to disown my whole family if I had a similar policy, but I know how you feel. I’m sure they feel the same way about me.

  33. 33.

    nancydarling

    Cry me a river, Cole. I just came in from giving the 4 mules who live with me their daily apple and getting my foot stepped on. It would be the biggest of the 4. If a race horse tops out at 1150 for 16 hands, she’s got to weigh 1600 as she is huge. No broken skin and no broken toes, but it hurts like hell.

    Memo to self: do not go to the pasture to feed the mules in sandals.

  34. 34.

    Cain

    speaking of fat, my cat snickers I am proud to say lost 2lb from 15 to 13. We are all very proud of her achievement!

    Go stickers!

  37. 37.

    Cain

    speaking of fat, my cat snickers I am proud to say lost 2lb from 15 to 13. We are all very proud of her achievement!

    Go snickers!

  38. 38.

    lamh34

    No time for cat talk, FRINGE is back for what will probably be it’s last season (unless it totally kills on Friday) and I could not be happier. I really can’t wait to see how they handle the mystery of “Peter the Forgotten”. I really have no idea what hey plan to do and I can’t wait to see how it unfolds

  42. 42.

    Jules

    kitteh!

    FYI for the Doctor Who fans. Now that we know River Song much better The Forest of the Damned requires a few tissues to get though it.

    (I DVR’d it the other night and had forgotten the ending…)

  45. 45.

    TaMara (BHF)

    Love that Tunch!!

    I was out of town for a week, the night I got back, my tuxedo removed the entire contents of my purse (at about 2am) and yowled the whole time while strewing the contents around the house. Why? Ask Tunch.

  46. 46.

    Anne Laurie

    Hee. Squinty eyes is “I like you, you make me feel secure” in Cat. If His Serene Tunchness is gonna go to the trouble of telling Cole that, of course he wants his minion’s full attention… and once he’s made the announcement, why hang around waiting for applause?

  47. 47.

    SRW1

    He sauntered out of the room because you obviously were more interested in playing with that picture making thing than him.

  49. 49.

    Wiesman

    @cathyx:

    It’s a pretty common theme, right? I understand the progression from conservative Christian to liberal, having lived it. You go to college, you read some stuff, things you took for granted are suddenly challenged in ways that nobody prepared you for… happens all the time.

    What I don’t get is the reverse process, where someone goes from a liberal to a conservative, which happens too. The conservatives will tell you it’s because young people are compassionate, but that all goes out the window when they start earning more money and paying a high share of taxes.

    But we were pretty poor when I was a kid, and I was a conservative. I’m doing pretty well for myself now, and I want my taxes raised. So I don’t get how liberals turn conservative. At all.

  51. 51.

    MikeJ

    Ooo, got my catalog from the White House Historical Association. Ready to order this year’s xmas tree ornament.

    Santa has heard that there are kids in the White House this year: be prepared for outrage over the lack of religion on the ornament that dates back to at least Andrew Johnson but will surely be seen as a sign of creeping Kenyan mooslimism.

  52. 52.

    Nylund

    You just described my daily life ever since I found a stray a year ago…only mine will continue to knock things off my desk until I pull out the wand toy. The cat has trained me good.

  56. 56.

    fuckwit

    By the way, I want to say thank you to whomever posted the link to that Feist cover of Secret Heart. I don’t know what blog it came from– I have a script that scrapes all the videos from the sites I read, and I have Flash turned off so I don’t have to deal with that stuff when I come to the sites. But if it was someone here, than thank you, that performance was brilliant on so many levels.

  58. 58.

    YellowJournalism

    TUUUUNCH!

    Just what I needed to brighten the last day in a shitty week. That, chinese food, hugs from my boys, and Supernatural back on my TV.

  65. 65.

    burnspbesq

    Sox and FTFY rained out.

    Toronto leads Tampa, 5-0, in the eighth.

    Angels and Oakland start in a half hour.

    I luvs me some scoreboard-watching.

  66. 66.

    jibeaux

    I’m going to share something a friend wrote and put on FB, called Cat Haiku.

    I will kill you all
    Prepare to be ripped open
    Look at my butthole

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    @Svensker:
    My understanding is that it’s probably an adolescent parrot getting food from its parent. Even after they’re full sized, the young ones will still beg for food from their parents sometimes.

  71. 71.

    MikeJ

    @arguingwithsignposts: It should have warned you before that posted. Did you install it after downloading it?

    If not, all you need to do to install is drag and drop it into any firefox browser window, and if you have greasemonkey, it should offer to install it.

  73. 73.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @MikeJ: it didn’t offer the install option for some reason, just add script. i copied the code into another document. i’ll try dragging it into a window.

  74. 74.

    Southern Beale

    What I don’t get is the reverse process, where someone goes from a liberal to a conservative …

    Wait until you have kids.

    Also, I know people who dabbled in a little excessive behavior as liberals and feel they need to atone (and blame) someone/thing for that.

    And finally, the biggest reason: it’s a very cult-like atmosphere in these conservative Christian circles. You get sucked in. Some of these megachurches, they basically become your family, your social circle, your entire world. It’s easy to get sucked in.

  78. 78.

    arguingwithsignposts

    to @all: go back to the way you were, there is no soshulism word in play. it just got pulled out of moderation.

  79. 79.

    MikeJ

    @arguingwithsignposts: Sadly the google page it’s hosted on doesn’t do the right thing with gm scripts when it serves them.

    I was going to throw it on userscripts, but since I built my new computer (that doesn’t have the cookies saved from my old one) I have no idea what my pwd is there.

  82. 82.

    Litlebritdifrnt2

    I went to the airport this evening to pick up my mum. I saw something that I thought I would never see in my lifetime. People were lining up to go through security to go out on the flight that my mum was coming in on. There were two marines stood by the side. One had already taken off his shoes so he was obviously the one who was flying. They lingered until the very last person had gone through security and the marine was the last one. He and his buddy fist bumped and then held hands for a second. The second marine then leant over and very gently kissed the other on the cheek. It wasn’t a huge display of affection and it happened in an instant. The flying marine went through security and the other lingered outside the security area until his friend was out of sight. I wept. When I related the story to my Mum after she had landed I had to choke back tears, thinking that such a thing would have been impossible a week ago. This is truly a new world.

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @Svensker:

    Are you somewhere you can see parrots in the wild?

    I’m somewhere (Pasadena, CA) I can see feral parrots. I’m not sure if that counts as “in the wild”, but they are at least free-roaming. We have several species that have established breeding flocks that survive very nicely by flying around eating fruit from backyard trees. The ones in the picture are Red Crowned Amazons, which are now critically endangered in their native habitat. There are probably more ferals living in Southern California than there are left in their native Mexico.

  90. 90.

    Southern Beale

    @Roger Moore:

    Hey I was in Pasadena back in July. I swear to God I saw a bald eagle soaring over the valley when I was on the 134. I’m sure it wasn’t a turkey vulture or any other really big bird. When I got home I Googled and saw some reports of a bald eagle. Have you ever seen such a thing out there?

  91. 91.

    MikeJ

    @Southern Beale: I almost wound up in hospital when I had to take a friend to A&E for something minor and wouldn’t stop saying, “next time on Biography, the story of a drunken lout who couldn’t step off a curb…”

  97. 97.

    MikeJ

    @MikeJ: I apologize. I had no idea they had censored that video. Of course the line is “I want love, I want drugs, I want sex and affection”, but they seem to double the love in that video so they can skip the drugs.

  98. 98.

    nancydarling

    @Southern Beale: I’m pretty sure they nest on Catalina Island. We have tons of bald eagles who winter here in NW Arkansas. I was up the hill on my place once and saw about 50 of them circling above. Out for a tour of the neighborhood I suppose. I’m about as far from Beaver Lake and the White River as Catalina is from Pasadena, so it’s not impossible. Also, there are probably some in the San Bernardino Mountains which is very close.

  99. 99.

    Delia

    @Roger Moore:

    That’s amazing. I lived in Southern California for nearly 30 years and moved about seven years ago, but never heard about feral parrots. They’re beautiful.

  107. 107.

    handy

    @Delia:

    There’s a pack that hovers around the western San Gabriel valley area, Pasadena and Arcadia in particular. Rumor has it that their progenitors were in transit across the 210 freeway and got loose when the vehicle carrying them had an accident.

    They are very loud, and when they all converge atop the roof of your house on, say, a Saturday morning after an eventful Friday night, they are unbearable.

  108. 108.

    eemom

    @Litlebritdifrnt2:

    they weren’t military, but this reminds me of something I saw on an Amtrak train platform in Philadelphia many years ago: a gay couple parting as one of them boarded the train….and how he took a careful look around the crowd before hugging his partner goodbye.

  109. 109.

    Southern Beale

    We saw some feral parrots when we were in San Francisco, I guess the Telegraph Hill population. It was surreal because when we were in Costa Rica we saw huge flocks of them and of course, that looked bizarre if you’ve only seen parrots in a pet store but you’re in central America so they’re supposed to be there…

  112. 112.

    And Another Thing…

    @Roger Moore: I visited an aunt in Long Beach and there’s a flock of about 40 living in the area near UC Long Beach. It’s a stunningly unexpected sight. They make a lot of noise, also, too.

  113. 113.

    nancydarling

    Driftglass has a lovely take down of aspiring culture critic David Brooks on his blog. It is called “F. Scott Fitzbobo”.

  116. 116.

    Litlebritdifrnt2

    @eemom: This struck me as being so normal, it was obvious that the two were a couple, the lingering before going for the flight, the lingering of the remaining marine, waiting for a last look as his partner went out of sight. It was just so damn NORMAL, and I honestly never thought I would see such a thing. The only part that gave me pause was that kiss on the cheek. Sure they could have worn assless chaps and gone for the full french kiss (as the damn repups have told us they would) but they didn’t, they simply held hands, and then when the time came to say goodbye it was a gentle kiss on the cheek, how many hetro couples would have done that? None. I know that we are a long way from a full acceptance from the LGBT relationships but we are getting there. That I can live with.

  118. 118.

    Southern Beale

    Gah Michael Moore repeating the myth about when Obama “had those 60 votes in the Senate” … he never had them. Al Franken didn’t get seated for months … Kennedy was out sick …

  122. 122.

    celiadexter

    I would in no way fuck with a cat who presented with that expression. I would in no way fuck with a cat CAPABLE of that expression. I speak from experience…

  132. 132.

    Elie

    Tunch is a happy cat.

    He’s got you to manipulate and manage. All is good. That white fur, the best evidence of his frame of mind, is sparkling white and perfectly groomed. In his mind, you are his slave. Its as it should be.

  137. 137.

    Triassic Sands

    Why? Because he can, that’s why.

    It’s true that Tunch acts like a cat, but in my experience he acts more like the way female cats act than males. Of course, there is wide variation, so we can expect to see virtually any behavior from at least some members of each sex. However, the females I’ve had have been much more prone to this kind of demanding/self-centered me-me-me behavior.

    And generally, I think neutered females are more interesting than neutered male cats.

    @khead:

    That’s what cats do. Or that’s what our cats do, at least. Between them and my wife I’m an afterthought in my own house.

    I’d like to see those little shits try to pay the mortgage though.

    Wow, for your sake I hope your wife doesn’t see that last sentence. Maybe you should reword it for absolute clarity.

  138. 138.

    harlana

    aaahh, my longing for Tunch pics is almost sated – a few more pics and i should be ok

    ok, since this is a pet thread, i need to share this. my cat has been disappearing, like when i’m cleaning the house or doing something that gets on her nerves. i will go and check every possible hiding space and she’s not there, for the life of me, i cannot figure out where she goes

    is she teleporting?

  139. 139.

    WaterGirl

    @Anne Laurie :Really? I thought I had read that squinty eyes meant they were scared, which made sense to me because my kitties had very squinty eyes in their photos at the humane society before I got them. Not I don’t know what to think.

  140. 140.

    Triassic Sands

    From the “Handbook of Master-Staff Relations”:

    When the master arrives home it is his duty to inform the staff of his presence so the staff may be appropriately mindful of the master’s needs. Staff members who are unaware of their master’s presence may be able to claim ignorance in the event of poor service and thus make it more uncomfortable for the master to dismiss the derelict staff member even when the master has no choice but to send the slacker packing. In some cases, a lesser punishment may be appropriate (such as the master being faced with difficulty in finding a suitable replacement for a discharged staff member), but in that event the staff member must clearly understand the precariousness of his or her status.

    Tunch is just following the guidelines.

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