Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

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

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

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Open Thread

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How is everyone tonight? I spent the day getting the house in order, so was away from the intertubes. It always seems like the week between Christmas and NYE is a news void, so I figured this was as good a time as any to pick up all the things I’ve been ignoring (the basement and garage were train wrecks).

Don’t forget to pick up your copy of the Pets of Balloon Juice 2012 Calendar, and remember, all proceeds go to help needy animals.

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    chopper

    finished the last night of chanukah. waiting for the new year which is also the kid’s birthday, and trying to get motivated to do 2 weeks worth of work in the next 2 days. my 3 year old is a prodigy with a dreidel apparently.

  4. 4.

    MikeJ

    It always seems like the week between Christmas and NYE is a news void,

    Actual funny from Mittbot 2000.

    “I think he compared that to … what was it, Pearl Harbor? I think it’s more like Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory,”

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Well, once again I’ve managed to turn four days off work into a lazy hazy crazy time of accomplishing the square root of sweet fuck-all, and now back to work tomorrow.

    No worries, I have a three-day weekend to look forward to and get everything done!

  7. 7.

    burnspbesq

    Stunning collapse by India tomorrow morning (Australia time). Dropped their last seven wickets before lunch for only 68. Australia now batting.

  8. 8.

    Phylllis

    I’m sitting here listening to the wind howl around the house and dicking around on the ‘net. Did manage to go through the cold weather clothes and find a pile to 86 and a pile to take to the Goodwill.

  10. 10.

    burnspbesq

    I love the Indian commercials I get as part of the live feed on my iPad. Money transfer and marriage arranging are apparently the services that matter most to the worldwide Indian diaspora.

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    I had that weird moment this weekend when you look over and realize that a person you remember holding as a newborn baby (in this case, my niece) will very soon be taller than you are. Very odd.

  14. 14.

    PurpleGirl

    @Phylllis: I’ve been going through unused clothes too and have a pile for Housing Works, as well as some books and other miscellaneous things for them.

    I bought an evergreen tree this year without checking out the tree stand — no eye screws in the box. I couldn’t put the tree up, so it’s tied in front of a table, still in the mesh wrapping but it is in water. Of course the stores I went to didn’t have stands for sale at this point… But I do like looking at the tree.

  15. 15.

    Ben Cisco (mobile)

    I just found out that I lost a cousin yesterday. One year younger than me, he had had several heart surgeries over the years and had a final, fatal attack yesterday morning. This all happened while he was at home after tending to his mom, who is dealing with late stage ovarian cancer. I cannot even imagine what she is going through.

  18. 18.

    Mike in NC

    Went to work today and saw about 80% fewer cars in the lot. I think I was the only person in my building. No calls, no emails. Goofed off all day and left early. Nice!

  20. 20.

    srv

    @Ben Cisco (mobile): Sorry. It’s one thing to be losing 80-90 year old aunts and uncles, but losing cousins starts making one feel more fatalistic about everything, even if I do have ~50 of them.
    …
    My evening was spent getting the parental units in the queue for a new cable modem and diagnosing an auto-pilot with a missing breaker.

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    Thought I would have a quiet extra day off. Then the roofers arrived (damage from the Southern California windstorms). Went to a cafe with Wi Fi. Two items caught my attention.

    Apparently this is the final time period for people with Spanish ancestry to apply for citizenship, so a lot of embassies in Latin America are jammed with applicants.

    And Sinead O’Connor ended her fourth marriage after only 16 days. Kim Kardashian laughed her ass off. And that took a lot of guffaws.

  31. 31.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steeplejack: You and slag fought earlier and it was a good fight. Hard and strong. Like making love to a woman. In the rain. Rain that is strong and true and cold.

  33. 33.

    CaseyL

    @Ben Cisco (mobile): So sorry to hear this; my heart goes out to you and your family.

    I had a terrific day. Started my NEW JOB and so far it’s better than I thought it would be. I’ll have a better sense by the end of the week, but so far this job is looking so much better than the last it’s like different universes.

  34. 34.

    YellowJournalism

    Hubby and I took time off during a really slow work week. We’ve spent the last few days setting up the kids’ toys, taking back a few gifts, and just generally enjoyinf our family time together. I have a ton of organizing to do, especially after the just-throw-shit-in-a-box-and-put-it-n-the-basement method of cleaning right before the in-laws showed up for Christmas supper. I also need someone to tell me to back away from the pile of chocolates we’ve been given, although I’d probably growl like a feral dog and tell them to shut it as I shoved a rum truffle in my mouth.

  40. 40.

    burnspbesq

    Whatever India had in the morning session is contagious. Australia has surrendered four wickets in the first 13 overs.

    Hussey and Ponting need to make an afternoon of it.

  41. 41.

    freelancer

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    @Steeplejack:

    Haven’t seen it yet (I have it on my Hard Drive), but I’m close to finishing up my end of the year movie list.

    Another Earth 9/10
    Rise of the Planet of the Apes 9.5/10
    Drive 10/10
    13 Assassins 10/10
    Red State 8.5/10
    Attack the Block 10/10
    X-Men: First Class 10/10
    Margin Call 10/10
    Warrior 10/10
    Moneyball 9//10
    Super 8 9/10
    Beginners 10/10

    The only movies I’m holding out on before I add to the list are The Descendants, Midnight in Paris, and The Artist. And my rankings are a combination of the execution of the movie coupled with my subjective enjoyment of it. (For instance, last year Unstoppable was on my list not because it was a typical Tony Scott production [see also Deja Vu, Crimson Tide, and Enemy of the State], but I absolutely enjoyed the hell out of it. It was a popcorn flick that knew it was a popcorn flick and was nothing other than pure movie fun.)

    For me, this year, X-Men, Attack the Block, Warrior, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes were picture perfect popcorn flicks.

    To each his or her own.

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    @freelancer:

    Just saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes a few nights ago (missed it in the theaters) and have to say I was a little underwhelmed. Couldn’t escape the feeling of “Everybody knows where this is going, but it’s taking forever to get there.” And I don’t think that was just because I’m the last guy in America to see the movie.

    Of the others on your list, I would second Drive and Thirteen Assassins.

  45. 45.

    hitchhiker

    I swept the pine needles out of my garage.

    I vacuumed my car.

    I met with a client.

    I took a conference call.

    I walked a couple of miles.

    The end.

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL: I was so pleased to see that you had a new job starting that you were excited about, but it was on a dead thread that I was reading on the train to Chicago for Christmas.

    And here you are now sounding like it’s even better than you thought it would be. I am so happy for you!

  47. 47.

    Xboxershorts

    I got laid off from a nice corporate job today.

    I am so fucking happy!

    Seriously, I am not trolling.

    Corporate America sucks horse schwang

  48. 48.

    freelancer

    @Steeplejack:

    And I can respect that analysis. For me, it was a challenge of “Okay, I know what has to happen in a prequel movie where I know what’s going to happen by just reading the title. I DARE you to make me CARE!”

    Franco, Lithgow, and Andy Serkis accomplished that with an okay script and Amazing performances. The direction by Rupert what’s his name was pretty decent too. The fact that Freida Pinto is one of the most beautiful women on the planet doesn’t hurt either.

  49. 49.

    clayton

    Kennedy Center tribute to Yo-Yo Ma just now was beautiful. Elmo was in the choir. The Silk Road Ensemble was fantastic.

    Great tribute to Ma. Brought tears.

  52. 52.

    Xboxershorts

    @freelancer: Oh no…it’s actually awesome.

    See, they want US to move to them and offered both an incredible/negotiable relocation package but….we’re critical employees, so they must, by policy offer severance.

    1 out of 14 took the relo.

    We are, as a team, laughing at their shortdightedness while we pay off our homes/cars/credit cards and such.

    Working for them was the second best fucking thing that ever happened to me.

    Being laid off/relocated and qualifying for severance was the first.

    We’ve tried multiple times to train them and they just don’t quite have the clue factor for deep network engineering…

    Fuck em. I am the 99%

  54. 54.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    I’m happy to see that my cable system now has the 24/7 BBC World Service news channel.

  55. 55.

    freelancer

    @Xboxershorts:

    Sounds like you need a drink. I’ll offer a glass of Johnny Walker Black up for you, and toast the ongoing stupidity of your former employer.

    Cheers.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl:

    Yes. Without giving too much away, I’ll say that Ernest Hemingway appears as a character in the movie, and he speaks in Hemingwayesque dialogue.

  59. 59.

    Steeplejack

    @freelancer:

    Well, no argument about Freida Pinto, at least. If you like that sort of thing.

    I do appreciate the “prequel conundrum.” I just think they could have goosed it along a bit quicker to the “smart apes gone wild” threshold.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @Xboxershorts:

    If you got a nice severance, there are worse things that can happen. I’m seeing more and more announcements from people here that they finally found a job after a long stretch of unemployment, so hopefully that means the job market is finally starting to warm up.

  62. 62.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @dedc79: That Guardian section is appropriately titled, if not in the way they mean it. The commentary there is worth every penny you pay for it.

  64. 64.

    burnspbesq

    If you still harbor doubts about Greenwald’s need for a good editor, read this and count all the errors.

    The Republican presidential primaries – shortly to determine who will be the finalist to face off, and likely lose, against Barack Obama next November – has been a particularly base spectacle

  65. 65.

    cckids

    @YellowJournalism:

    just-throw-shit-in-a-box-and-put-it-n-the-basement method of cleaning right before the in-laws showed up

    My method as well. I loose more mail this way. Sigh.

    Tho this time I lost the key to our mailbox as well, dammit. I’ve been bribing the mailman with homemade rum caramels & truly awesome fudge, but supplies are running low. Tomorrow, the search begins!

  66. 66.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @burnspbesq: I don’t want to examine it too closely, but off the top of my head I would change “to face off, and likely lose, against Barack Obama” to “to face off against, and likely lose to, Barack Obama”.

  68. 68.

    handy

    @burnspbesq:

    I think that’s just a product of our time. In the print world, there was a lot more riding on copy before it went to press. Plus, I can’t imagine most bloggers (particularly those as prolific as Glenzilla) feel they have much need for an editor.

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    Since this was The Year of Practical Gifts, I got one of these dishwasher magnets for G so we can stop bickering over whether the dishes in it are clean or dirty.

    He put it on the dishwasher as soon as we got home from Phoenix last night, so I think he likes it. Though I am now sad that the monster magnet was not in the store when I was buying.

  72. 72.

    clayton

    @Yutsano: The puppet — it was really cool to see and hear Elmo and the kids rock out the last note — mouths wide open!

    Great performance

  73. 73.

    burnspbesq

    @clayton:

    Not to mention that there haven’t actually been any primaries yet. It would be OK to refer to “the primary campaign” or “the run-up to the primaries.” And in either of those cases, the singular form of the verb would be correct.

  74. 74.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @dedc79:

    GG is a fucking nutjob on Obama, as usual. Nothing new there.

    It’s funny how our President can make some people completely lose it.

  75. 75.

    burnspbesq

    Brad DeLong wins the intertubes for today with this one:

    As near as I can see, Rick Perry has on the stump promised to try to impeach–or perhaps lynch–any appellate judge or Supreme Court justice who grants the relief that Perry now prays for…

  76. 76.

    FlipYrWhig

    @burnspbesq: A few threads back, the one about Ron Paul’s fear of catching gay cooties, there was a commenter named Mona who said she was the line editor for Greenwald’s books. As a credential that’s right up there with “Donald Trump’s hairstylist”.

  77. 77.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    On the BBC World News channel, there’s video being show on Kim Jong-Il’s funeral procession. It’s like a dispatch from another planet.

  80. 80.

    burnspbesq

    Paragraph 6 of the complaint in Perry v. Judd reads as follows:

    6. Plaintiff Rick Perry is a resident and Governor of the State of Texas. Governor Perry satisfies all the requirements of Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the United States Constitution and is otherwise eligible and qualified to serve as President of the United States. (emphasis added)

    Rule 11(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure reads as follows:

    By presenting to the court a pleading, written motion, or other paper—whether by signing, filing, submitting, or later advocating it—an attorney or unrepresented party certifies that to the best of the person’s knowledge, information, and belief, formed after an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances: … (3) the factual contentions have evidentiary support or, if specifically so identified, will likely have evidentiary support after a reasonable opportunity for further investigation or discovery;

    Sanctionable?

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    John Oliver came up with the best new word ever on “The Bugle” podcast that he does with Andy Zaltzman: the fuckeulogy.

    He hasn’t done one for Kim Jong-Il yet (it’s probably coming on this week’s, which will also be the penultimate one for them, at least as part of The Times UK) but here’s the one he did for Gaddafi. I’m looking for his bin Laden one, but that was also a work of genius.

  82. 82.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Mnemosyne: I just subscribed to that podcast, and, while doing so, found that Neil deGrasse Tyson has a podcast as well. Awesome.

  83. 83.

    burnspbesq

    Hussey and Ponting have stopped the bleeding. A partnership of 106, over two hours, and still going.

  87. 87.

    Mnemosyne

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    I’m counting down to the new version of “Cosmos” that will be hosted by Tyson this fall and executive produced by Seth McFarlane. Apparently there’s only so many hookers and so much blow you can buy with that crazy “Family Guy” money before you get bored and start looking for other ways to spend it.

    ETA: D’oh, sorry, next fall — 2013. Damn it.

  88. 88.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Mnemosyne: If there was anyone to host a remake of, or sequel to, Cosmos, it would definitely be Tyson, or maybe Derrick Pitts of the Franklin Institute.

  90. 90.

    Yutsano

    @Mnemosyne:

    Apparently there’s only so many hookers and so much blow you can buy with that crazy “Family Guy” money before you get bored and start looking for other ways to spend it.

    He is, quite possibly, one of the most famous bachelors in entertainment today. And his last contract with FOX ran into the nine figures. His only other viable option is a sports franchise, which he seems to have zero interest in. I’d personally like it if he advocated atheism more, but a Cosmos remake is not a bad goal either.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yutsano:

    I’d personally like it if he advocated atheism more, but a Cosmos remake is not a bad goal either.

    Meh. I don’t need MacFarlane proselytizing me about atheism any more than I need Jason Lee proselytizing me about Scientology. Bono can STFU, too. That’s one area where I’m in the “shut up and sing” category.

    Though I do find it fascinating that Andy Partridge of XTC managed to write both an atheist anthem and a modern-day Jesus story.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Actually, I’ll take that back a little — if MacFarlane wanted to tell an interesting and entertaining story about atheism like, say, Julia Sweeney did, I have no problem with that. It’s the “Let me stand up and lecture you about what I believe because I’m an Important Celebrity and you’re not” that I find tedious.

  93. 93.

    freelancer

    @Yutsano:
    @Mnemosyne:

    Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s approach to atheism is understood to me because he isn’t so much anti-theism, but promotion of a scientific worldview and easing the non-inclined to a less hesitant embrace of Skepticism. I get it, because as an atheist/agnostic/whatever you want to call it, the road that took me there was a discovery of science, empirical knowledge about the Cosmos, and an appreciation of the jaw-dropping awe that is the moment you try to ponder what you’re looking at/the idea whose truth you’re trying to comprehend in your own limited ape-like brain. It is that dumbfounding moment that lays waste to the childish dogmas of human religion and thus leads me to atheism, but I get why NDGT isn’t as anti-religion as he is Pro SCIENCE. Tyson is both an atheist and a science communicator. I can see why he focuses on the one that is more interesting to his background, and why he sees that, eventually once one accepts the conclusions of A) Science and it’s own consequences, then B) will take place. B) being the eventual letting go of a religious and dogmatic concept of god. See also this interview:

    youtube.com/watch?v=1ulkX-DA9BM

  95. 95.

    dance around in your bones

    Ok, late – as always! to this thread, but just wanted to say I bought my BJ Pet Calendar (after carefully checking to see if my Guido kitty had made it this year).

    He appears in July in the upper right corner, hanging out in a clay pot that once was full of catmint/nip. Gads, I miss him so.

    My holiday season has been exhausting, exhilarating, frustrating (washer died mid-load, may have to buy a new one….and with three grandkids, the washer is basically going FULLtime)…I have just gone from couch potato in Baja to fulltime gramma.

    Still not sure how I feel about it.. I have so many bruises from little kiddie toes and feets.

    However, I will note that I just woke up, hadn’t actually SUBMITTED this comment, and a pug-faced Boston Terrier popped up from under my covers. He and the Goldie on the floor were watching Pawn Stars on TV, don’t ask me how. It’s a mystery to me, too.

  96. 96.

    freelancer

    @dance around in your bones:

    Hey license,

    How are you?

    I was gonna sqee because I referenced others to a Neil DeGrasse Tyson interview and I thought it made my point well enough alone, but it turns out that in an interview with Colbert around this time a year ago, he totally knocked it out of the park…

    Dig this.

    Other than that, how are you doing?

  97. 97.

    dance around in your bones

    @freelancer: About as well as can be expected, I guess. Some days good, some days get all fally-aparty. Thank you for asking :)

    This goofy little Boston Terrier SNORES like a little old man, that cracks me up.

  100. 100.

    Paul in KY

    @Mnemosyne: I have ‘Dear God’ on my iPod & Xmas eve was out burning some wood & listening to said iPod (on external speakers). The song came on & I fast forwarded it (due to the particular night it was). I know, I’m a weenie.

    I have blasted it out at other times. Great song.

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