Look, I love my family, but with all of them in South Carolina for the holidays, out doing things they love doing (all things I hate)- shopping, eating out, going to movies, I wish I could credibly say I wish I was there, but that would be a lie. I’m loving it here all alone with the girls. Mom asked if I was lonely, and I just laughed- how do you get lonely with three dogs and three cats? At any rate, it’s just really nice being here alone doing what I want to do. Selfish, sure, but I got a new bathrobe in the mail yesterday, and I’ve been rocking a bathrobe, boxers, slippers and socks since 5 o’clock. Had a little breakfast for dinner, plan to play some SWTOR, and then maybe watch some football with three dogs on my lap.
I can handle this kind of Christmas.
Dee Loralei
The Grinch did love his little dog…….
A Ghost To Most
Merry Christmas, John. Enjoy the peace.
gogol's wife
That sounds good to me. It’s very similar to what’s happening around here, only with two people and three cats and minus the games and with 1930s movies instead of football on TV. (I guess not so similar.)
Litlebritdifrnt
Sorry to repost from downstairs but I feel this is an important subject:
OT but related to Mistermixes post the other day, one of my husband’s students was shot today, by a fucking moron cleaning a high powered rifle on his front fucking porch. The bullet went through THREE FUCKING PEOPLE killing one and seriously injuring two. ONE FUCKING BULLET. We are reliably informed that Jahmesha came through surgery okay ( fuck Hippa everyone knows everyone down there) they were doing nothing but getting in their car to go to Myrtle Beach. A 16 year old girl is dead, another 16 year old is in critical condition and their aunt is also in critical condition because of ONE FUCKING BULLET. I am gutted. DH doesn’t know what to do. The entire community is in total and utter shock.
http://www.wect.com/story/1638…..-chadbourn
This country is fucked when we allow morons to own weapons.
Mudge
So John, as you sit in Christmas bliss..when will the new calendar be ready? All BalloonJuiceshphere wants to know.
MikeInSewickley
Thank God someone is finally honest about this time of year.
Between cell phones and email and Facebook and frequent visits (all of which I greatly enjoy), I find that Xmas is a good time to take advantage of off days and just relax alone.
I know a lot of us have family and loved ones far apart or overseas. May you enough your time together.
But sometimes its nice just being relatively alone (if three cats can ever leave you alone)…
Merry Christmas Everyone and Enjoy this time of Peace…before 2012.
jo6pac
Works for me, going to the Brothers house for a free meal then home and since only a hour away it’s not bad.
Jess
Pictures?
I would be doing something similar, but my dear friends invited me over for a lobster dinner. I can handle that sort of Christmas as well.
CaseyL
Why am I picturing you rocking out a la Tom Cruise in Risky business in your bathrobe and boxers and socks?
SiubhanDuinne
You know what? I saw that thread title and I knew with 100% certitude whose post it was :-)
John, your Christmas will be a great deal merrier — and it won’t take away a scrap of your much-prized Grinchitude — if you take and post a picture* of the three dogs and three cats. Trust me on this.
*Or, even better, pictureS, plural.
Thanks in advance.
Mike in NC
@Litlebritdifrnt:
That is one horrific story. I couldn’t deal with living with the lowlifes and rednecks around Jacksonville.
ellie
My husband and I are driving across country on Christmas. I am interested to see who is out on the road on Christmas.
Suffern ACE
@CaseyL: Well, his parents are away and the house is full of bitches and toms.
cathyx
I’m a loner by nature, always was, even as a kid. I love going to movies alone, dining alone, spending the day alone. But I do prefer to spend the holiday with at least some family. Luckily I have a sister that lives nearby so I have some family to be with. And we have lobster for Christmas eve as a tradition too. Then I cook breakfast for everyone Christmas morning.
RossInDetroit
I spent Thanksgiving more or less alone. I was sick and elected not to share my germs. I was so knocked out that my selfwinding watch ran down and stopped.
But I kinda liked it. We’re supposed to want to spend holidays being social, but how many people would choose to do that if they really had the choice?
So don’t feel like a Grinch. It’s your holiday. Rock boxers and a bathrobe if that makes you happy.
JPL
So no pictures of the dogs and cats. Are they under witness protection or something?
RossInDetroit
@cathyx:
Ditto. Some of us are like that and it doesn’t make us weirdos. Some people want to go to the mall. I want to go hike out in the woods until I can’t hear cars any more, and stay there until the racket in my head dies down.
cathyx
John-
I hope your new bathrobe is fleece. I just got one and I’ll never have a flannel one again.
Joshua Norton
After air travel became literal hell on wheels I stopped making the 6 hour flight to the east coast for the holidays. Not to mention the number of times I was snow bound at Logan Airport waiting for a flight back home.
Now I happily snuggle up in my own bed instead of having nieces and nephews waking my ass up at what-the-frack-time-is-it-it’s-still-dark-out-you-little-shits o’clock in the morning. My job as the cool uncle at Christmas is to teach you to make a dirty martini, kick your ass at Mario Kart Wii, and make you watch “A Christmas Story” 8 times before bed so you appreciate your good fortune. Your job on Christmas is to torture your parents – know your part in the pageant, kiddies.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Mike in NC:
My question is how do you get to own a weapon that can kill/injure three people with one bullet? How do you need something that powerful to bring down a deer for instance? At what point do we deem these damn things weapons of mass destruction and ban them?
PurpleGirl
@Litlebritdifrnt: I hope the injured people come through this. I feel for how your husband feels, and I feel for the student’s family.
What the hell was the guy doing cleaning a loaded rifle? (rhetorical) Really stupid a–hole.
(Links seems to be bad.)
amk
Wait a minute, tunch is a gurl ?
Villago Delenda Est
@PurpleGirl:
This, this, is always the question.
“I didn’t know the gun was loaded!”
That’s always the line.
The fact that you did not check and make sure instantly marks you as someone NOT qualified to wield a firearm.
Period. End of discussion.
It is not a fucking toy. But, unfortunately, in this society it is seen that way.
Mnemosyne
@amk:
Well, they did cut his balls off when he was a kitten.
Litlebritdifrnt
@cathyx:
Me too. My folks thought it was weird when I would go to movies alone. Well, I want to watch the movie, I do not want to discuss it during the movie. I have always been a loner, I can be at my most content out in my yard planting stuff, talking to my plants, conversing with the lizards, greeting the butterflies. I am happiest with only the sound of birdsong.
realbtl
I’ll be BBQing a ham, hopefully not in the snow, and attempting some fancy-ass mac and cheese (that T-day thread got me curious) for the stepkids tomorrow then presents with them. By 6:00 PM it will be back to me and my wife and 2 dogs for the rest of the holidays. Daughter is in Egypt with her mom’s side of the family. With wife’s and my blended families we’ve been doing a quiet Christmas day for about 18 years now.
taylormattd
John, whatever you do, don’t try and get the fucking datacrons. You will want to shoot yourself.
amk
@Mnemosyne: No wonder he always looks pissed off at cole. Fuck cole.
MikeJ
@RossInDetroit: That’s me to a t. The only problem is the safety angle. There are signs where I hike warning that the best way to scare off mountain lions and bears is to have a big group and in big letters, “never hike alone”. Which hasn’t stopped me. The time I most need to head into the mountains is when I can’t stand to be around people.
There are lots of spots up in the Olympics where you can’t hear anything louder than than whichever river you’re next to. Actually rare for planes to fly over at an altitude you can hear them.
If you come out I’ll take you to a trailhead, point you in one direction and I’ll go in the other.
Mnemosyne
I still need to wrap my nephew’s presents, but Charlotte freaks out whenever I close the bedroom door. We’re going to try and leave the house around 6 am tomorrow for the 8-hour drive to Arizona so we can turn around on Monday and come right back. Bleah. But flying would have been worse, and more expensive, too. Where is my fucking bullet train?
Cassidy
@Litlebritdifrnt: Ther is some logic to it. Deer are hardy creatures. Going hunting with smaller, less ppowerful rounds guarantees a wounded animal. Big rounds are more likely to kill in one shot, depending on the marksman’s ability.
Now, here’s the problem with your WMD statement. You are basing it off an arbitrary factor, this time being the power of the bullet. Now, say for instance, someone like me (expert trained marksmen, combat veteran) took a little tiny round like a 22LR and proceeded to go on a rampage with a 100 rnd box magazine and little (manueverable) ruger 10/22. Now which one is the WMD? Point being, you will never win a gun control argument if your position is based on arbitrary factors.
Exurban Mom
Enjoy your peace and quiet. And animals. I love having my dog around this time of year…she doesn’t give a shit about presents or cookies or any of that nonsense.
RossInDetroit
All hell’s about to break loose here. My wife and I rattle around in a pretty big house with one small dog. My brother and sister in law are about to join us for two nights/3 days. that will be great. Their two Basset Hounds I’m not so sure of. I’m sure we’ll work things out but there will be a lot of negotiating with canines.
gbear
I’m in the same boat as JC. I’m going to be in pajama bottoms and a shawl sweater all weekend reading and listening to music. My parents are both gone now so my sisters and I wait until the second weekend in January to get together (a sister in a neighboring state works retail so she’s stuck there for the holiday).
I’ll be spending the day with one cat. There were two last year but one passed on last february. It could be that by this coming february, there will be two again. I don’t think my Halley likes being an only kitty (and I often think she’d rather hang out with another cat instead of with me).
RSA
Not unless one of those three dogs is named Max. Of course, the Grinch also didn’t wear pants…
MikeJ
@Cassidy: This wasn’t a case of a trained marksman going on a rampage. It was a lone fuckwit. Had he been restricted to a .22 he might, in theory, have killed one person.
Doesn’t sound like an arbitrary factor to me.
jeffreyw
Thread needs dog and cat picture.
kwAwk
It would seem like Christmas would be the perfect holiday for a guy who’s hobbies are drinking, buying things and cooking for half the state of West Virginia.
To each his own I guess.
Happy holidays all.
Suffern ACE
@RSA: I don’t know if the Grinch could have handled three dogs and three cats, let alone video games. Having a heart three sizes too small is a very serious medical condition. One that would probably require constant medical attention.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Exurban Mom:
Presents? Cueball not only knows what presents are but knows which bags to search for them in. Today he stole one of his (again) before I got to wrap the rest of them. Last year he stole every last one of his presents out of the shopping bags by the time I had got the rest unloaded from the car. That is why he had a sad. At least this Christmas he has a sweater and some more squeaky toys to unwrap.
wobblybits
Christmas Eve is huge in my family. So marathon of cooking is starting tonight. We also found a 3 month old puppy hiding under a car. She has been with us for three days and was given a pretty good bill of health (minus the round worm thing) from the vet. We will be fostering her until the New Year and then it is off to her forever home. I have named her Lua but I am sure her new family will rename her (as it should be). I will also be squeezing in dissertation proposal writing time.
jl
Merry Christmas, Cole.
I will take your word that you are enjoying a little relaxing Christmas solitude with the animals.
But just in case, make sure you clean up the mess from all the wild parties, especially if they move over to your folks’ house. In case you don’t remember from HS.
Yutsano
I am coming up on an hour of total waste of taxpayer dollars. I have absolutely no idea why we’re even here right now.
wobblybits
Help, my comment is in moderation (FYWP)
jl
@Yutsano: They also serve who stand,er… sit, and wait. Or is it watch?
WaynersT
all i want for christmas is a picture of Cole rocking the robe
MikeJ
@Yutsano: You headed over the mountains tomorrow/tonight?
jl
All we want it a pic of Tunch in a Santy Claus outfit.
Ha, ha, assuming that could happen without Cole getting his guts clawed out. OK, never mind. I will withdraw that request, for the sake of Holiday Spirit.
Mnemosyne
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I’m still marveling at the fact that this asshole felt the need to clean his rifle on the front porch. What, he wasn’t quite comfortable just dropping his pants and whipping his junk out for his neighbors to admire, so he had to wave his penis substitute around instead so everyone could be astounded at how big it was?
birthmarker
Actually one Christmas I particularly remember was a year when the kids got bikes and for some reason we were alone at our house on Christmas afternoon. They rode their bikes up and down the driveway all afternoon while we sat and watched them. It was clear and very cold that day. It was different from our usual madhouse holiday so maybe that’s why I have a vivid and pleasant memory of it.
Overall for me, I have to say I enjoyed my own adult Christmases more after we had children. Christmas is really for your kids in a lot of ways. Even the kids who are grown now.
Mnemosyne
Aw, man. It’s very annoying that the correct word for male genitalia throws one into moderation. Feh.
Roger Moore
@Cassidy:
Also, rifles are designed to kill game at some range. Since the bullet slows down with every foot it travels, ammunition tends to be more powerful than it needs to be at close range. Also, too, some hunting rifles were developed from military rifles for cost reasons, which are likewise designed to be able to kill people at long to extreme range, behind solid cover, etc.
PeakVT
@Litlebritdifrnt: Through three people, unintentionally? The odds of that have to be very, very low.
Your link is borked, so here it is again.
Yutsano
Tomorrow really early MikeJ, the route depending upon how much Snoqualmie decides to behave overnight. I’ll investigate further when I get home. The assumption is I’m staying for my full shift, but at this rate they might just send us home here soon.
Jayne
unlurk/ I say it jokingly, but I call it “Loser Christmas”. Every time I explain it to social compatriots, they all say “Can I just cook and then come hang with you?”
Loser Christmas is the best holiday of the year. It means: pajamas as long as possible, the wine/liquor/beer of your choice, macaroni and cheese, dessert of your choice and action movie marathon.
Simple.
Forget the rest.
/lurk
Suffern ACE
I need to pack. I need to wrap. What’s the current status of just handing people unwrapped gifts. Still frowned upon?
cathyx
@jeffreyw: Ok jeffreyw, you’re making me want to take some pictures of my kitties and post them. I have one cat who is a covergirl model, except he’s a boy, and his brother who got the short end of the straw in the looks department. I’ll see what they’re up to right now.
WereBear (itouch)
@Litlebritdifrnt: What rotten luck combined with utter stupidity. I’m so sorry.
Mr WereBear’s illness is kicking up, but we had a lovely holiday get together last weekend. Rocking the Kindle app, old movies, and the four kitties sounds heavenly this weekend.
Mnemosyne
@Suffern ACE:
You are the reason gift bags were invented.
phoebes-in-santa fe
HOLD IT HERE. I check in pretty regularly but I thought John Cole only had one cat and two dogs. How and when were the numbers raised?
What’s the story? What did I miss?
Admiral_Komack
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season.
Cassidy
@MikeJ: Today it’s the power of the round, tommorrow it’s the size of the bullet, yesterday it was black, scary looking with a bayonet lug and flash supressor….they are always arbitrary factors. Bayonet lugs? Really? The last itme I fixed bayonets was in Basic Training. This is what makes the gun control crowd look so damn stupid. It’s freaking out over singular capabilities of a single firearm. OH MY GOD THE MAGAZINE IS TOO BIG!!!!!! Okay, I’ll just buy more legal magazines and since I can do a rapid magazine change I’m still the rampaging gunman, boogeyman of your dreams. Gun people laugh at these arguments as it betrays a huge lack of knowledge.
You want to have a gun control debate and win, then focus on training. It wasn’t the size of the round that killed that young girl; it was some dumbass who isn’t properly trained. I’m a gun guy and I can’t stand CC. Wanna know why? Because I know 99% of the fuckwits running around strapped have never done a stress shoot. A monkey can plant their feet firmly, bend at the knees, aim a t a target 25 feet away and hit. I can describe to you over this comments section a proper firing stance and you’ll hit your target. That shit is easy. But do these idiots practice employing thier weapon when they are stressed and sweating and the adrenaline is causing them to shake uncontrollably? No they don’t. That’s my argument.
And for the record, I am a gun enthusiast. I was a gun owner until I had to sell them to bridge paychecks. I willown guns oin the future. I am trained to use them properly and maintain my training. I don’t CC and have no intention to do so. I don’t hunt. I simply like to shoot.
Angela
@Litlebritdifrnt: That is terrible. Oh my heart aches for your community and the families of those hit. I was raised with guns, but I swear, the older I get the more thankful I am that there are none in our house.
handy
@taylormattd:
SWTOK reference? So give it to me straight: is this game worth it? I’d frankly rather not get into a WoW with lightsabers, as every review I’ve read invariable makes comparisons to that game. Also, the $15 subscription fee is looking like a big turn-off.
Maude
No one said Three Dog Night. For shame.
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I really can’t write much about this because it infuriates me. The guy with the weapon is going to hell.
Cassidy
@Roger Moore: All rifles are essentailly based off a military design. That’s why you can’t differentiate between sporting rifles and battle rifles/ assault rifles. At some point in time they all came from the same source.
AliceBlue
John, you sound like you’re in a much better mood than you were a few days ago. Good for you.
We’re headed out tomorrow morning to spend Christmas in Memphis with Mr. AliceBlue’s family. I look forward to seeing all of them, but the six hour trip is soul suckingly boring.
Merry holidays, happy Christmas, etc., etc., to all.
BD of MN
We tortured the cats… not really, but they thought so
(edited so there were actually two different pics…)
Carrie
I think I love you.
Cat Lady
@BD of MN:
If looks could kill….
Villago Delenda Est
@handy:
Every MMO right now, and probably for the next few years, at least, is going to be “WoW with (fill in MMO distinctive whatsit here)”.
It’s because, unfortunately, WoW is the standard by which every damn MMO is measured now…particularly subscription numbers.
These games need to find their own audiences, and just as not every damn place that sells prepared food needs to be just like McDonalds, not every MMO needs to be like WoW. If only the industry could get over that.
passerby
Since this is Festivus, I’ll take this opportunity to air my grievances, specifically, Christmas.
I hate the consumerism–I think it’s vulgar and disgusting.
I hate Xmas commercials that change the words of christmas carols in order to sell their junk.
I don’t enjoy–and have NEVER enjoyed–Christmas dinner with my family. They are nice enough people and I love them, but,
with 8-12 people yammering (6-7 conversations at once–none of them I’m interested in),
the goddamn TV on in the background, and
a bustle in the kitchen (where I usually am) trying to time everything to come out of the oven on time,
everyone wanting to help but just in the way
yammering,
it occurs to me the best thing to do is drink. Drink without shame. Drink purposefully. Drink with the stated goal of taking the edge off of the fact that I’d rather be at home spending Xmas quietly.
I hate these occasions. It doesn’t help that I’m not a sentimental slob (anymore).
So, good on you John. Merry (fucking) Christmas and thank you for providing me means for my Airing Grievances.
Enjoy your quasi solitude. I envy you. I really do.
Murakami
@Villago Delenda Est:
One of my good friends is a firearms instructor. When I did a bit of training with him, before we even started shooting at the range, he put the gun on a table and asked me “Is it loaded?” and I replied “No, because you told me you don’t travel with it loaded.”
“Wrong answer! You always assume the gun is loaded and takes steps to verify.” So we pulled out the magazine and checked the chamber and indeed it was unloaded.
Walked away from the gun for a minute so he could show me something else, and then when we walked back to the table, he asked me again “Is it loaded?” with the reply of “No, because we checked it a few minutes ago and the gun is not going to load itself.”
“Wrong answer! Any time you let the gun out of your sight, you’re going to assume the gun is now loaded. Check it again.” And so that habit has always stuck with me.
Even though my lovely and completely unused Sig Sauer gathers dust in its case at the top of the closet and hasn’t been loaded in at least a year, I’ll always check the magazine and check the chamber before doing anything with it or handing it to someone else. Apparently some people never got this simple lesson.
GregB
Cole, you sound like Dr. Doolittle did a mind meld with Hugh Hefner.
Rock on.
Merry Christmas to you and all the Balloonatics who make the interwebs so fun.
Cassidy
@Murakami: Exactly. Every time a gun enters my hand, it gets checked. When it leaves my hand, it gets checked. Hell, sometimes, because I’m a little too hypervigilant, I would pull my gun from the closet (knowing I had not touched it in weeks) just to make sure it wasn’t loaded.
gnomedad
“John Cole” is DougJ’s finest achievement.
Linda Featheringill
href=”#comment-2950493″>phoebes-in-santa fe:
The additional critters are visiting with Uncle John while their humans are of celebrating the holidays.
Anne Laurie
@phoebes-in-santa fe:
Cole’s pet-sitting his brother’s dog & two cats while the young punk socializes down in SC.
handy
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’ve been an off-and on (currently and most likely permanently off) WoW player for the better part of 7 years. Been there, done that. I think I’ll go back to Pac-Man.
jeffreyw
Mmm… creole shrimp.
Mark S.
@phoebes-in-santa fe:
Everybody in town dropped their pets off at Cole’s on their way off to vacation.
Mark S.
@gnomedad:
I hate when this blog gets retconned.
MikeJ
@Cassidy: The best trained person in the world can fire a round they didn’t mean to. If the round is smaller, there’s less chance for catastrophe.
It’s also easier to pass a law that passes constitutional muster regulating the firearm than it is to regulate the user.
And for the record, I had no problem with the regulation on stupid guns with bayonet mounts. If you took every car with a spoiler off the road, roads would be safer. If you took every gun with bayonet mounts off the street, the streets would be safer. Not because spoilers or bayonet mounts are inherently unsafe, but because only morons feel like they’re necessary.
wobblybits
@jeffreyw: I’m drooling over here.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, don’t fucking fire your gun into the air, assholes. The bullet can come down into someone else’s head a mile away.
RossInDetroit
@Mnemosyne:
I have a friend who’s a roofer. Before they replace flat roofs on large buildings they go over them with a metal detector and try to dig out the slugs. Often they find holes clear through. When they did the roof of a courthouse in Detroit they found so many handguns that people had tossed up there before going through security that they brought them to the police in two 5 gal pails.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Yutsano: According to my crystal balls… ;)
WSDOT – Current Snoqualmie Pass conditions: Roadway is bare and dry, wet in places, 35 degrees, no restrictions.
NOAA – Snoqualmie Pass:
Tonight: A chance of rain and snow before 10pm, then a chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 27. Light and variable wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Saturday: A 40 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 37. West wind at 9 mph becoming east.
Sounds like it should be warm enough to melt any road accumulation if it does snow tonight. NOAA shows no weather alerts for the state and the 24 hour satellite loop shows that of the incoming crud, the bulk of it is passing to the north into Canada.
This information has been provided as a courtesy by a very bored individual and a couple of evil government web sites that spend your hard earned tax dollars to inform and assist you.
Damn them!!
Mnemosyne
@RossInDetroit:
Los Angeles has an unfortunate tradition of shooting guns in the air on New Year’s Eve. The massive public service announcement campaign has helped, but there always seems to be at least a few injuries every year. No deaths in over a decade, fortunately.
dance around in your bones
Meester Cole, I am very glad for you that rockin’ your new bathrobe and hangin’ with yer animal companions makes you happy. Really, we should all be so content.
I’m not kidding….I am facing my first year EVER without my partner of 40+ years. It’s very difficult; today I found myself dissolving into tears at the drop of a pixel (i.e., soonergrunt’s post about his friend w/PTSD/TBI and the utter futility of war).
But…. I am also with my kid and HER wonderful partner and three grandkids for the very first time; altogether for Christmas. I find it almost equal parts exhilarating and exhausting/scary. Hahahaha. This afternoon I was teaching the 5 year old how to bat at a softball pitch; yesterday it was listening to a three year old talk to himself about his new ‘big-boy’ underpants and how to ‘pull it through the hole’ to whiz, which just about slayed me as I listened to him playing in the backyard.
I am just getting along, learning how to live this new life. So….I am happy for you, and happy for me, and sad at the same time. It’s a very weird feeling.
Fucking Feliz Festivus, everybody! And may we all be touched by His Noodly Appendage this season.
Also, beer volcanoes for everyone! Pastafaria! Almighty Gawd!
Brachiator
@John Cole:
With that outfit, you’re ready to stand on your front porch and practice “Get off my lawn!”
Also too, happy holidays.
Cassidy
@MikeJ: Back to my example with the ruger 10/22, the AWB most certainly did not make anyone safer. It made people “feel” safer because the scary guns were restricted.
This is completely untrue. For the three people who were shot, there are two plausible scenarios that I can think of. 1) They were standing in a somewhat straight line and the high powered slug went through all three in a straight trajectory. 2) The bullet ricocheted off bone of the first person and it’s energy was caused to enter the other two in a [roughly] straight line. A big round goes through things, but the don’t take ricochet very well and tend to slow down pretty quickly. Smaller rounds, not so much. If his rifle had been a varmint rifle chambered in 5.56/.223 that bullet would have still gone through the people as in scenarios 1 and 2, but at some point it starts tumbling and really doing some damage. Either way, the size of the round would not have altered who had died, and in my opinion, possibly caused more internal harm or death.
Churchlady
@Dee Loralei: No he did not! He abused the poor little guy who was a sweetheart. Remember Mitt the Grinch strapped his dog to the top of the car (OK – in a carrier but still) for a TWELVE HOUR trip that exposed the poor thing to debris, wind, and isolation. If that’s not Grinchy, what is? Bet Newt kicks ’em, Paul and Perry use them until they get old then shoot them, and Santorum drowns ’em at birth. Michele has no pets at all. Grinches. Every damn one of them with respect to dogs as well as human being.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Litlebritdifrnt: Easiest thing in the world. We have one – my husband bought it online, sent to us via UPS. I was (and remain) horrified. He still can’t really explain why he had to buy it. I look out from the hilltop our house sits on, over the ridges that go on about three miles. He tells me he can shoot a bullet that far. God.
Churchlady
@Litlebritdifrnt: Litlbritdifrnt – I am horrified beyond words at this awful, awful thing. I’m so sorry this has happened in general but also to people whom you and your husband know. And the worst is that if you raise this up to discuss gun control, the NRA extremists will call you a “crybaby”. Life doesn’t mean a thing to some people. I am so dreadfully sorry for you and your community’s horror and the families’ suffering and losses.
amk
Fighting over a pair of overpriced pos? (pair of shoes)
Uugghh.
amk
Fed Judge – Every Latino driver and passenger who have been stopped, detained, questioned or searched by that racist punk arpaio and his goon team since January 2007 can join a racial-profiling lawsuit that was expanded to class-action status.
Catsy
I am about to leave to go attend a friend’s wedding. His wedding is the opening “act” at a tavern before a night of nerdcore, with the ceremony performed onstage by Jess Hart of Death*Star. The groom is a longtime friend, so I’m one of a few people he asked to come up onstage and tell a story from our past–with the catch being that it had to be completely fictional, and the more ridiculous the better.
This is going to be fun.
taylormattd
@handy: Yeah, it’s a star wars reference. To be honest, I love it. But I am also a WoW player. The game is just beautiful. It plays very similar to how the single player Knights of the Old Republic games played, and I loved those too. But if you weren’t into those old games, and didn’t care for WoW, it might not be for you.
Raven
Settling in the Holiday Inn Express in Lynchburg in the shadow of Fallwell U. Got a nice rant from the BIL about how the prime minister of Australia told those nasty muslims that the country was founded by people who believed in jesus christ and they better goddamn get on board if they wanted to stay there. I asked, from the backseat, “wasn’t Australia founded by criminals?” The princess gave me the knee. Tomorrow Balckburg for brunch with the liberal professor sis. My head is on a swivel.
Cain
Whelp.. I met with the Obama campaign today, signing up for some leadership stuff, and then went and got my wife her christmas present. And now, I’m trying to decide what to cook for the next two days.
dance around in your bones
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Gads. I am so sorry to hear this….the massive thread generated yesterday by mistermix’s post was traumatic enough for me; I cannot believe that you and your husband have had to live through such an immediate example of the Fickle Finger of Fate: Gunstyle.
Crap. Everything makes me weepy lately. Life is sad, doncha know?
Suffern ACE
Had a report from a Facebook friend in New Zealand about how rather than rebuild the hospitals damaged in the Christchurch earthquake, the plan is to privatize them. He also noted that they have been privatizing the state schools.
phoebes-in-santa fe
@Anne Laurie: Thanks for explaining.
Cain
@Suffern ACE:
Well, let them try I would love to see if their experiment works. ( I bet it won’t)
dance around in your bones
@Jayne: I LOVE your idea of Loser Christmas. Grazi, mil grazi :)
Redshift
OT: In case anyone bought into the line that Perry might make a comeback because he has money and a real campaign organization, unlike Gingrich, Perry just failed to qualify for the ballot in the Virginia primary. Unlike Gingrich, who may be knocked out if some of his signatures are ruled invalid, Perry’s campaign apparently claimed they had submitted enough (or believed they had), but they actually hadn’t.
Apparently Perry is not just a dumbass, he also has an entire staff of dumbasses.
Raven
@Redshift: Topic? You see a fucking topic?
JCT
@Murakami: My father refused to keep a gun in the house, but had one at the local range where he taught me to shoot. I can *still* hear him saying “that gun is loaded until you prove otherwise”. 40 years later…
Cassidy is correct, training is paramount and nothing is more basic than making sure the damn thing is unloaded before handling it.
What a pointless tragedy.
rikyrah
for you, Cole.
now, I think this might be a cultural thing…but, if you know anything about the perverted, but talented singer RKelly, this should make you LYAO:
Trapped in the CLAUSet Part 1,2 and 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-IxxL_0hTrA#!
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Raven: I went backpacking in Europe in the 70s, trying to keep up pint for pint with the Aussies, Kiwis, and Pommies. Instant fight?
Aussie, eh? How come you’re here, time off for good behavior?
Villago Delenda Est
@Murakami:
Same habit, picked up in the military, whether I carried an M16 or a .45 pistol. Check it every time you have left it out of your sight…better yet…NEVER LET IT OUT OF YOUR SIGHT. I had a shoulder holster for my issue .45, and wore it everywhere. When I carried an M16 as a platoon leader, I slept with it in my sleeping bag. Same thing for the .45. Checked the chamber to be sure before I bedded down, of course…
Raven
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I not Australian but I was there on R&R in Aug 69.
PeakVT
@Mnemosyne: I don’t understand how that isn’t manslaughter of some sort. Guns are lethal weapons, and nobody should just be discharging one randomly. Fucking aim at something that will stop the bullet. If there’s nothing vertical that can stop the bullet nearby, the ground can be easily located in most places.
Raven
@Villago Delenda Est: This was my Drill Sgt at Ft Campbell in 1966. He was very firm in his approach to weapons safety. SFC Dallas A. Pinkney
ericblair
Apparently Sir Badger-Lid has left the goopers which paves the way for a third party run. The FSM can’t possibly love us enough for that to actually happen. I’m just assuming this allows another good six months of grift before bowing out for medical reasons due to a severely inflamed wallet.
Suffern ACE
@ericblair: He’ll play around until May sweeps to help influence the network to renew his show, but he is not disclosing his financials publicly. We went through this the last time.
ShadeTail
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I hope they drag that shithead to court and charge him with some kind of homicide. The most effective gun control, in my opinion, is holding people accountable when they do stupid crap with their toys.
horse dave
Didn’t read all the relies.
I stopped at a mall this evening. After 15 min of being bumped by kids and people walking and talking on their cell phones, I found my inner misanthrope. I then went to the package store but my favorite wines had all been bought out. As a devout agnostic this time of year is really annoying. JC your holiday plans sound good to me.
amk
@Redshift: How low the intelligence of texans is to elect this nincompoop to rule over them for 3 terms.
I remember the dkos doomers and gloomers that predicting (in glee) obama is toast if perry got in the race.
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: Oh my gosh, that is a stunning photo of Jack! And our other little baby is growing up, I see.
kdaug
@Suffern ACE:
Depends. If you can pull off a good snear, look them dead in the eye, and grunt out a low, guttural “Here. Take it.”, then it generally works out fine.
Shoving the gift into their chest is optional, but it does add a certain Christmas warmth.
Top off with a “Fa-la-fucking-la” as you turn your back, and you’re golden.
burnspbesq
@Cassidy:
You’re missing the point.
I’ve never owned a firearm of any kind, but somewhere along the line I learned that the first item on the gun-cleaning checklist is make sure there isn’t a round in the chamber. This is about negligence. Guns are different from virtually every other good that we encounter in our lives, in that they are designed and intended to kill, and when handled negligently death is a foreseeable result. When guns are in the equation, the ratio of ruined lives to idiots is unacceptably high.
burnspbesq
Good game on. West Virginia and Baylor going to OT.
Mary G
I am also having a mixed-emotion holidays this year. Second without my mom and first without my 21-year-old kitteh Sophie. I had to choose for her in June. They were my whole family and for a while this fall I was very, very sad and sorry for myself.
I am so lucky to have so many wonderful friends who have made sure I do not wallow. I’ve been out to cocktail parties (ugh) lovely meals (nice) and movies (“My Week with Marilyn” was awesome)galore. Today was a day off before it all starts again tomorrow, and I was curled up in a bathing suit cover up and slippers this afternoon while I did backed-up laundry. (It’s lovely and warm here in So. California this week – 74 degrees forecasted on Christmas Day). I had a guilty-pleasure book out from the Kindle library (“Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins) and I found myself very irritated when some people showed up with cookies, poinsettias and hot chocolate and I had to get up and talk to them in my schmatta. I ended up having a great time, but I do need alone time too.
dance around in your bones
@kdaug:
I fucking love Balloon Juice for comments like these ;)
amk
@burnspbesq: Wasting time with gun nutz.
gogol's wife
@dance around in your bones:
Me too.
TooManyJens
@dance around in your bones: Exactly what I was thinking.
Calouste
@Raven:
Did you tell your BiL that the Prime Minister of Australia a socialist, non-religious, pro-choice woman?
dance around in your bones
@gogol’s wife:
@TooManyJens:
I swear Balloon Juice has kept me sane through the hell that has been my life recently. And, even when it WASN’T hell. I just love this place, ’nuff said.
Thanks, all youse curmudgeons ;)
Calouste
@PeakVT:
Usual people who do these kind of things can’t tell their ass from a hole in the ground, so it might solve two things in one go.
BigSouthern
What complete madness, and I’m sorry it had to happen to anyone, let alone someone you know Litlebritdifrnt.
I’m also supremely tired of arguments like Cassidy’s that until the gun control crowd learns everything about guns there is to know and is fluent in firearm mechanics the other side is never going to respect them. Guess what? The other side is never going to respect gun control advocates until they stop advocating gun control, and likely not even then. So your average advocate may not know the difference between a clip and a magazine, but they know the difference between a live 16-year-old girl and a dead one.
But Cass did make a good point, any gun is dangerous in the right hands, so we should just get them out of as many hands as possible. As usual, Skynyrd was ahead of the curve when they questioned why don’t we dump them to the bottom of the sea? And like MikeJ, I don’t care if we have to sound arbitrary or ridiculous in the restrictions to get them off the streets just so long as we get them off. Maybe old boy would have been out on his porch cleaning a different type of gun had his been outlawed, maybe not, but he wouldn’t have been cleaning that gun and that girl wouldn’t be dead.
And this comes as someone who has all the qualifiers – grew up with guns, they were kept in the house, won my first turkey shoot around the time I learned how to ride a bike, etc. If it were up to me, we’d have mandatory gun safety classes in schools the way we have mandatory drivers ed for kids who want to get their licenses (of course, we’d also have some intranational student exchange system to help facilitate folks learning the lesson that we are ONE country, united, God help us all) and guns would be held in armories on gun ranges, National Guard posts, etc. to be used by anyone who wanted to practice, hunt, or whatever else.
But this middling, weakass interpretation of the second amendment we got now is just not working. We need our firearms to protect against “tyranny,” but we can’t buy the same tanks, planes, and missiles the potential tyrants get. Okay, so the second amendment is suddenly about protecting ourselves from home invasion, but without all the responsibility and training the good people we pay to protect and serve get.
This is one cultural totem I’d just as soon seen buried.
Svensker
@BigSouthern:
Eggs frigging zackly.
burnspbesq
Wow. Auburn really sucks.
Corner Stone
@BigSouthern: Woah, woah, woah.
You’ll take my god damned DRONE out of my cold dead hands before I give it up.
Mnemosyne
@BigSouthern:
I’m pretty convinced that when the Founding Fathers created the right to bear arms as part of a “well-regulated militia,” they didn’t picture the goddamned free-for-all that we have today.
burnspbesq
@Mnemosyne:
You’re probably right, but a majority of the Supremes see it another way.
Corner Stone
@Mnemosyne: They probably didn’t picture you’d ever have the right to vote, either.
ShadeTail
@Corner Stone:
In case you missed it, we’ve amended that part. We have not, however, amended the “well-regulated militia” part.
Anne Laurie
@BD of MN: Send me a .jpg of Guiness’s awkward pet photo, and I’ll front-page it on Sunday.
Corner Stone
@ShadeTail: Meh. People making “Founding Father’s” arguments are just as foolish from either side.
Chuck Butcher
@Mnemosyne:
Now that’s just silly or you have an incredibly sacharine view of the 18th Century.
Burns, Cass didn’t miss shit, the point isn’t to check the chamber when you clean it, the goddam point is to check it when you pick the godddam thing up – always. fucking period. ALL GUNS ARE LOADED.
f**k
Yes, shooting someone by accident is a homocide and it will be prosecuted unless the DA is incompetent as hell.
FlipYrWhig
@Chuck Butcher: The people who wrote the Constitution were spooked by the whole idea of a permanent professional army, so they had a whole different theory that citizens would essentially become the army at a moment’s notice, in which case it’d be handy to… have your own gun. That’s why the well-regulated militia is the context for the right to keep and bear arms.
I don’t know if people also spoke up about how having a gun would be a good way to protect against Indian raids or slave uprisings. But they certainly were used during such.
Epicurus
And naturally, the Framers were much more worried about any government becoming so strong that it would have the powers of the King. Outside of that, I think it’s ridiculous for Constitutional “orginalists” like Scalia et al. to claim that they can divine the intentions of men who have been dead for more than 200 years. Further, the fact that they built in an amendment process is evidence that they knew their “intentions” would be changed by subsequent legislatures. I only wish the Second Amendment were better written, because it’s clear the whole “militia” part does not have anything to do with Joe the Plumber’s right to keep an AK-47 in his bedroom. Oh, and all the best during this holiday season.
4jkb4ia
@Jayne:
OK, I am compelled to post that I would willingly sit fat, dumb, and happy in front of the TV tomorrow with the NBA quintupleheader, or even spend some quality time with the BP oil spill, but the sacred ritual demands something to be done with the movie theater. And I have to cook, too. I got my husband to allow the 28-ounce can of tomatoes in the house so we will have turkey meatballs in sweet-and-sour sauce. The parve ginger snaps necessary for that recipe appeared at the Whole Foods again and there was also a recipe in the NYT Dining section so I can make them myself with margarine now.
(The four or five people absolutely riveted to the feed on all of those threads are fun in a very gruesome way. They’re not experts, but they want to know. The great thing about the EW commentariat has always been the wanting to know–the ratio of “Obama sucks” to trying to figure things out really depends on the post)