Displaying the protective instincts that make Dobermans famous, Max takes a rampaging grizzly bear by the leash and calmly leads it away from his owner:
Now go read this and then phone someone about PIPA.
Find your Congresscritter here.
Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Guide for first-timers here.
Also, open thread.
Gus
LOVE Newfies! And Max of course.
Yutsano
ZOMG NEWFIE PUPPEH!! My first dog was a big black Newfie named Sasha.
And Max being his handsome self as well.
Sigh. I need to buy a house. I want my Dane now dammit! :)
artem1s
ironically, Senator Sherrod Brown’s site is down due to ‘technical difficulties’.
schrodinger's cat
Big goggie is big!
slag
So is Max now grown up enough to get a dog walking job?
Litlebritdifrnt
“When God created man
Some several years ago,
He smiled upon his handiwork,
But little did he know,
An Adam with no madam is a certainty to grieve
But when the good lord stumbled it
He lumbered him with Eve.
So Adam looked at Eve
And she looked back at him,
Why don’t you let them talk My Lord
Said one bright Cherubim
So God gave them the power of speech
Which makes a man a prince,
But Women I regret to say,
Have not stopped talking since”
Nag, Nag, Nag
(From “Stop the World I Want to Get Off”)
JGabriel
Rick Perry in third place for the GOP nomination — in Texas:
BO_Bill
It is good to see that reasonable persons can agree that this SOPA thing is crappy legislation. I called my Representative and the lady answering the telephone was really professional. She is setting me up with email updates on the process and says (cough, cough) that she will pass my opinions on to my Representative. The thing about professional women is that they are not females that one would like to date. Domestic zeal is far sexier than some female in a pants-suit. Perhaps we should ban all taxpayer-underwritten student loans to women, as traditional gender roles are humanities’ best guide to lasting happiness.
Triassic Sands
Wow! I wasn’t aware that Max is a miniature Doberman.
Amir Khalid
@JGabriel:
There’s no starting him now!
Triassic Sands
Tim, you’re lucky to have survived this close encounter with a Grizzly Bear. I hope someone shot the beast before it did some real damage.
JPL
It’s come to my attention that we need dog labor laws. Max is not old enough to take on the responsibility of another animal. Call your legislators and request they drop SOPA and instead pay attention to what’s important.
Villago Delenda Est
“That’s no grizzly bear…that’s a space station!”
Aardvark Cheeselog
Marco Rubio’s phone lines are busy and the voicemail box is full. And I was just calling to congratulate him on doing the right thing.
Tim F.
@Triassic Sands: Max was a miniature doberman, but then he grew up. Now he’s a 100-pound crybaby.
Amir Khalid
@BO_Bill:
I don’t quite understand this. I’m not sure how men being men, women being women, and trolls being trolls would help the humanities find lasting happiness. I was not even aware that the humanities were seeking lasting happiness in the first place. Are the sciences on a similar quest?
Maude
@Yutsano:
There are a pair of Newfies that a couple have and they walk them down the street. Another couple has a pair of Danes. The Danes leap into the back of the SUV so gracefully.
Villago Delenda Est
@BO_Bill:
Amazing that the cave you live in has ‘net access.
gaz
@BO_Bill:
The thing about peddling misogynistic stereotypes is that it makes one very lonely and unfvckable.
Good luck with that.
And thank you for calling your representatives. Even if you are an idiot.
Judas Escargot
My favorite Cabaret Voltaire song.
geg6
Oh, look! “Progressive” darling and GG’s hero is touting his newest endorsement:
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/ron-paul-touts-endorsement-from-pastor-who-railed-against-sodomites.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
The sciences are on a quest for the Holy Grail, or perhaps a Grand Unified Theory, or simply for a decent burgundy at a reasonable price.
geg6
@BO_Bill:
I’ll have to mention this to all the guys I used to date and to the man with whom I live. I’m sure they’ll be horrified that they ever spent all that time and money on me and will be eternally thankful to you for letting them know.
Tim F.
The sciences are on a quest for grant renewal.
gaz
@Tim F.: heh. win!
Triassic Sands
I just saw an article about a SCOTUS decision granting a death row inmate a new trial, because his lawyers screwed up badly. The vote was 7-2, with the two grand barbarians (Scalia and Thomas) voting to kill the guy without further bother.
When Roberts and Alito (and to a lesser extent Kennedy) all join the human beings on the court, you know the issue must be pretty extreme. But Scalia and, even more so, Thomas are always around to remind us of just how bad Republican nominees to the courts can be.
Yep, for Scalia and Thomas, no matter how incompetent a defendant’s lawyer is or no matter how egregious are the lawyer’s mistakes, the defendant still needs to die without a fair hearing, because, dammit, a defendant is responsible for his lawyer’s mistakes. An unjust legal system is preferable to an inefficient one, because the system just can’t work if we have all those pesky challenges.
It’s pretty obvious, from this opinion, that accused people should just skip getting lawyers and defend themselves. Even if you’re incarcerated, I guess you’re supposed to micro-manage your lawyers to ensure they don’t mess up.
It would be horrifying, but entertaining, to see what the Bill of Rights would look like if Scalia and Thomas got to rewrite them to fit their own barbaric beliefs (and they couldn’t just throw the Bill of Rights out altogether — Rights? You don’t need no steenking Rights!)
Steeplejack
@JPL:
Balderdash! Why should we (over)pay dog walkers, as we do janitors, when there are plenty of responsible dogs–I am thinking particularly of the herding breeds–that would benefit greatly from an opportunity to make a little money, build a work ethic and gain a little self-respect? One dog walker with 20-30 assistant dogs could take the place of a horde of mooching, overpaid (and probably socialist) dog walkers. Win!
dmsilev
@JPL:
Hang on. In dog years, he’s probably old enough to not run afoul of puppy labor laws.
gaz
@Triassic Sands: Thomas is a disgusting, horrible man.
I wonder what he did on MLK day?
Redshift
Fortunately, my congressman came out publicly against SOPA back in December or November, but I do need to call my senators again. I’ll have to wait until I’m not on a train, though. According to ProPublica, Warner is on record opposing PIPA, so that’s good.
ornery_curmudgeon
@geg6: Oh, look! “Progressive” darling </em?
Ron Paul is not a "Progressive" darling. I'm a Progressive and I do not like, support or respect the man.
I speak for all Progressives, just as you speak for all of whoever.
CaseyL
D’awwww. Where is Max taking his own personal “bear,” anyway?
I love Newfies to bits, but could never have one, because I don’t want myself and everything I own and everyone I live with covered in Newfie-drool. They are prodigious saliva factories… though I’ve heard there was an offshoot Newfie breed that drooled less; does anyone know about that?
I have called Sen. Cantwell’s office, where her contact person told me she is working on an alternative to PIPA, one that “does not kill the Internet.”
Rep. Jim McDermott’s office says his position, which is posted on his Facebook page, is that something does need to be done about internet piracy, but SOPA isn’t it.
I have not been able to get through to Sen. Murray’s office; her line is always busy.
JPL
@gaz: Danced in front of his wife and said I got mine so what’s the problem…
Yutsano
@CaseyL: Don’t call her local office: the building isn’t open today. :)
gogol's wife
Sweet, sweet picture.
I’m so happy I managed to get my cat Masha to the vet today and she had lost a pound and a half! Thanks to WereBear for the recommendation of Innova Evo. Now if only our humongous male tuxedo Louis will have similar news, providing we can wrestle him into the carrier. I got big suede cat-handling gauntlets that really help.
Jager
@BO_Bill: BO_Bill, after my divorce I spent close to 20 years dating professional women and yes some of them were not great around the house. 50-60 hour work weeks diminish the zeal to be a great house keeper-cook-launderess. However, the software company VP, the TV executive and the lawyer I spent most of those years with could set you straight on what’s sexy and so could Mrs J who is a marketing VP. She lets the house “go” until the weekend and I do all the cooking! BTW, I found that being a good cook is a damn fine way to a woman’s heart.
Argive
@BO_Bill:
Fail troll is fail.
Yevgraf
I’m calling to tell them to pass the thing, because I hate being nagged.
Neener, neener.
BO_Bill
My Logic regarding traditional gender roles is solid. The Professions are essentially combat; and males are more ethical on the battlefield than females. Take, for instance, college room-mates. Back in the day my apartment (males) established the Alpha-Beta-Omega hierarchy through wrestling. Having established this hierarchy, we then got along great and drank beer together. In contrast, a female I was copulating with lived with female room-mates, who kept threatening to burn each other’s faces with hot irons during periods of sleep. It was really nasty.
This is why men should practice professions, and women should adopt whatever degree of prostitution that seems appropriate to them. This ranges from TV personalities and housewives, to hostesses, to waitresses, to bartenders, to pole-dancers, to sex-workers. Of these, the housewife is the sexiest, followed by the waitress. When you observed the women Tiger Woods was tagging before his wife beat the crap out of him with a golf-club, leaving him bleeding in the road with a pillow, you will come to realize the Truth in my words.
smintheus
There’s some devastating stuff available for your perusal here, in John McCain’s oppo research on Mitt Romney from 2007.
I hadn’t heard much until now about Mitt’s involvement with Damon Labs in the early ’90s, but it looks ugly for him. Mitt served on the board of directors until Bain sold its shares of Damon in ’93 for a huge profit (Mitt made almost 500K in the sale). In ’96 Damon was fined for Medicare fraud that went on while Mitt was on the board. At the time, it was the largest Medicare fraud settlement in history. Mitt offered contradictory explanations, both of them false: He initially said that he was kept in the dark by Damon’s CEO about the fraud investigation, who told the board that Damon was then (in 1992) in compliance with all regulations; then he claimed that it was he, Romney, who uncovered the fraud. The federal government however says that the fraud continued until Bain sold out in ’93, and that Romney did nothing to uncover the fraud.
A little complicated, but not too hard to explain to the public, and it sums up Romney’s career nicely: Mitt profited from a company that committed Medicare fraud on a vast scale while he sat on the board of directors. He later falsely claimed that he exposed the fraud, when in fact he just went along with it quietly until he could sell his shares for a huge profit.
Maude
@gogol’s wife:
There’s a place that boards cats like a hotel. Really nice. A woman came out with her 5 cats in a large carrier. They were all sitting at one end of the carrier. Gotta love them.
Brandon
Each time you let a friend borrow your car or give someone a ride is a car not sold by dealerships. It is sharing, facillitated by legal loopholes and misguided public policy (carpool lanes anyone?) that is costing dealerships billions in lost revenue. Something must be done to combat this theft and it is only fair that if a dealership suspects that you are giving people rides in your car that the government should be allowed to confiscate it and your drivers license without any due process or recourse. And in your driveway where you used to park your car, the government should be allowed to place a giant sign that reads “THIEF”. Makes perfect sense to me.
Yutsano
@BO_Bill:
I think BoB needs another holiday. Slow learner this one.
Villago Delenda Est
I have duly contacted all my denizens of Congress (DeFazio, Merkley, and Wyden) and all are on board in opposition to SOPA and PIPA.
Woo Hoo!
BO_Bill
Perhaps I am the one to deliver happiness to you Yutsano.
geg6
@ornery_curmudgeon:
Tell it to your “progressive” betters then. When Jane Hamsher, Glenn Greenwald, and Jon Stewart fluff him as they have been, he’s a progressive darling in the eyes of the world.
Myself, I’m a liberal Democrat. I belong to no organized party or faction.
JGabriel
@Amir Khalid: Heh. Nicely turned.
.
Villago Delenda Est
@BO_Bill:
You mean like the solid chunk of granite that is your head?
Where’s my rock crusher?
Amir Khalid
It seems to me that holding an accused person at fault for mistakes made by an inept lawyer means punishing them for someone else’s ineptitude. Whereas the established principle, as I understand it from a lifetime of watching American lawyer shows, is that the right to a lawyer means the right to one who is not glaringly inept.
Is there really such a principle as Scalia describes in anyone’s legal system? I’d like to hear from the lawyers among the Juicitariat.
Villago Delenda Est
@smintheus:
By Mitt’s standards, that’s just a tad more than “not much”.
I don’t see why we’re bothering him about mere pocket change.
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid: Considering incompetent counsel is a legal defense in the US, Scalia is just making shit up. As usual.
@BO_Bill: You’re not ready.
Benjamin Franklin
That reminds me. I need to flush out my blackwater holding tank.
scav
Guardipedia ■ ♥ ■■ ■■■■■.
And if a professional degree keeps away BO, I think we’ve got an explanation for the influx of women into higher education.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yutsano:
Not even close to half-baked. Try about 1/16th baked.
JGabriel
@Judas Escargot:
Mine was Yashar.
“The 70 billion people of Earth. Where are they hiding?”
.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
bernese?
Matthew Reid Krell
@BO_Bill: Stunned by troll, I am.
BO_Bill
Sounds like a challenge.
CaseyL
@Yutsano: I haven’t called any of the local offices, just the DC ones.
I also took advantage of the unexpected day off from work, and the heavy snow that caused it, to test my outdoor gear for a snowshoe hike this Sunday. I put on everything but the gaiters and rain shell and took a couple-mile walk. I discovered, among other things, that LL Bean fur-lined leather gloves are AMAZING for keeping one’s hands and fingers warm and dry.
gaz
@BO_Bill: I’m sure *everything* is a challenge for you, sweetie
Brandon
@Yutsano: granted I haven’t read their opinion or looked at the cases, but the implication of what I read is that they have never heard of agency before. While there may be good reasons to extend liability vicariously to the acts and omissions of agents and contractors, there is a pretty healthy body of legal precedent, like say a couple hundred years worth, that points in the opposing direction. Just more proof that these clowns don’t hold legal principles, just situational opinions of each case colored by their politics. Talk about activist judges.
BO_Bill
I have references.
scav
@Villago Delenda Est: Surely 1/27th baked.
Yutsano
@CaseyL:
Oh yeah. We should get you one of those Dr Zhivago fur hats too, just to complete the look. :)
@Brandon: It’s my understanding that legal counsel is one of the exceptions to that rule. So much so that if a demonstrated pattern of incompetence or malice can be formed it can therefore spoil the fruit of the trial. I could be off base here, but that is my understanding.
dmsilev
@BO_Bill:
Oiled up in the best Spartan tradition, I assume?
(Food for thought: Perhaps BOB takes inspiration from the Honorable J. C. Christian?)
Tim F.
@CaseyL: Yep. I have the Eddie Bauer version of those, many thanks to whoever dropped them last winter on my usual dog walking route. Flexible, snug, warm, dry and suitable for a serious range of temperatures, and I can operate my camera with them.
Matthew Reid Krell
@BO_Bill: Me too!
34 J.L. Prof. 310
21 Geo. Mason. U. Civ. Rts. L.J. 301.
WereBear
@CaseyL: I had a Newfie/Chow mix who was wonderful & drool-free.
Aardvark Cheeselog
I looked at this item by Chas. Pierce and felt motivated. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce publishes its staff directory here. I called up Mr. Brinegar and had a little chat with him about Dr. King’s opinions on right-to-work laws. It would have been frustrating had I expected Brinegar to act like a decent person, but at least he got flustered a little bit.
Not that I want to encourage anyone to waste the time of an important figure like the President of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce or anything.
Villago Delenda Est
@scav:
I see what you did there.
/commence loud cheering
Brandon
@Yutsano: that’s actually my point. With limited exception, one is typically not liable for the acts or omissions of agents or contractors that they employ. Therefore, if you hire a ccontractor to cut down a tree and it falls on a neighbors house, you are not legally responsible for the damages unless some exceptions are met specific to the facts in each case. While the attorney-client relationship is different in many regards, it is seems ludicrous based on any reasonable theory of agency to hold the client responsible for acts or omissions of their lawyer. But it seems that is exactly what Thomas and Scalia are trying to argue. And while agency has in some cases been codified into statute, it is based on long standing common law principles, probably dating back to English law and therefore it strikes me that for these clowns to reach the conclusions presented would seem to make a mockery of their own stated principles of ‘originalism’. But it has been pretty clear for some time that these two hold no consistent legal principles. Just politically biased ones.
MikeJ
@Brandon: The case hinges on the fact that the court sent a letter to the firm the lawyers had used to work for, and the firm returned it unopened to the courts.
I’m curious, did the courts send a copy of the letter to the accused? If not, how can Scalia argue that he should have overseen his defense? And why the fuck has the managing partner of Sullivan & Cromwell not been disbarred for this egregious ethical lapse?
Triassic Sands
@Amir Khalid:
Clearly there is in Scalia’s legal system, but his legal system would never even pretend to be about justice, especially for people without the money to hire the best, most expensive lawyers.
While it is a disaster having Scalia on the SCOTUS, imagine what it would be like to have him presiding over his own court room? A poor defendant’s only hope would be appeal.
Triassic Sands
@gaz:
Probably got together with his fellow CSA re-enactors and practiced defeating the hated Yanks at their next fantasy War of Northern Aggression battle.
Yutsano
@Brandon:
This.
And I was clarifying your thought for my own brain. Sometimes I type that out. We agree here. And Scalia can eat a bag of salted dicks.
patrick the pedantic literalist
@smintheus:
Mitt sees nothing wrong with any of this. Cheating medicare, destroying manufacturing companies and robbing retirement funds is just business. He then honestly thinks he has been such a great guy he should be president.
Morbo
Is that a golf disc in hand?
gaz
@Triassic Sands: Supreme Court Justice Clayton Bigsbee?
debbie
@ Triassic Sands: