Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

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

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

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

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

The willow is too close to the house.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

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Saturday Night Open Thread

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I’m supposed to be at a party to plan the annual Mardi Gras party, but I am so wrapped up in Season 1 of the West Wing I skipped it. I came up with a plan, though- on the night of the party, I will eat dinner, shower, get dressed, and walk down the street with two bottles of wine to the happening. I think it is a solid plan.

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65Comments

  1. 1.

    General Stuck

    My first “fat Tuesday” while living in Biloxi, blew my mind. All these people coming out of their offices and the like, whooping and hollering. And I never seen so many beads, even back in the hippie era.

    We don’t get much Mardi Gras though, out here in the high desert.

  2. 2.

    Mark S.

    SNL’s re-running that Jimmy Fallon episode? It seems like that one was on barely a month ago.

    Oh well, I guess I’ll go over to Cole’s and watch some West Wing.

  3. 3.

    opie jeanne

    That sounds like an excellent plan.

    You really are the social animal, aren’t you. I’m really impressed by how often you go to parties and how often you throw parties.

    We’re retired and we are pikers compared to you.

  7. 7.

    Linda Featheringill

    Complain, complain.

    I’ve done the best I could in several areas this week and have made very little progress. Bah! Life is so hard. Reportedly, death is easy.

    On the brighter side, Newt Gingrich is doing a wonderful job of testing out attacks against Romney. I watched a 7+ minute hit job called Blood Money.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVUQuJDEs04&feature=player_embedded

    We’ll see how well this works.

    Another good thing is that an orange striped cat thinks I’m a nice person.

  9. 9.

    Palli

    Yes, West Wing has a great deal to teach us. One of the many lines that have stayed with me, forget what season… President Bartlett says,mostly to himself= paraphrased: “why is one American life worth so much more”.

  12. 12.

    Violet

    I had Mexican for dinner. Yum.

    I think I’m going to head to bed soon. Had a long day driving. I’m tired.

  13. 13.

    khead

    I came up with a plan, though- on the night of the party, I will eat dinner, shower, get dressed, and walk down the street with two bottles of wine to the happening. I think it is a solid plan

    I applaud you sir. Your action(s) would get me either arrested or actually shot in my hood.

  16. 16.

    Pavlov's Dog

    JC – Add one of those cakes with the little guy baked in, that is standard fare for a Mardi Gras party. I think the tradition is whoever gets the slice of cake with the toy soldier has to bring the cake for the next year. Be sure and wear your “show us your tits” t-shirt.

  17. 17.

    maven

    So I’ve planned my almost 60th year here on Earth. Afternoon BINGO; home to a comforting hotdish; then Lawrence Welk with paisley/orange topstitched polyester song and dance numbers by the boys and girls. (Men and Women to you younguns). Bed by 9 PM. Early to bed and all that…..

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    Well that worked: decided on a little nap at 4:30, woke up a few minutes ago. Her Eminence is next to me commanding attention NAOW!! I guess the only real thing I can do tonight is my taxes.

  20. 20.

    snailbiscuits

    Hi everyone, I am a longtime lurker, not so occasional poster. I am in Kandahar on my 3rd back to back deployment. Having a hard time on this one and just needed a place to vent. I have only been home 22 months since July 2007 and it’s done a number on me. I’ve done all the army behavioral health stuff and I just cannot shake this feeling of apathy. I’ve pretty much unintentionally pushed my wife away. So now I find myself right back here in Afghanistan and I feel stuck. Thanks for listening, hope eveyone has a good Saturday night. (It’s Sunday morning here already.)

  21. 21.

    Dave Ruddell

    In Excelsis Deo is a great episode (probably the best from S1) and What Kind of Day Has It Been is pretty damned good as well.

  26. 26.

    CaseyL

    You’re walking there? I’m going to assume there’s no ice on the street…

    I spent last Sunday snowshoeing through a blizzard. Not as much fun as I’d hoped, but I may try again with a different guide group, in better weather.

    Tomorrow I will be safe and snug and warm at home, waiting for my New Waterbed Mattress to warm up enough to sleep on. (The old one developed a leak that I couldn’t find to fix; replacing it has been an endurance trial lasting two weeks. I had to return one replacement mattress for being, IMO, either defective or shoddily made; and quite happily found a second replacement that is not only very well made, but still manufactured here in the USA.) I have been sleeping on a variety of improvised beds for the last couple weeks, and look forward to moving back to a real bed.

    Does anyone know why waterbeds fell out of fashion? When I tell people I still have one, they look at me as though I’ve stepped out of a time capsule. Waterbeds are the most comfortable things you can sleep on, they’re warm when you get in, the waveless models are very firm and don’t move like the high seas every time you move, they cost less than “dead beds,” and you never have to worry about mites in the mattress. So what happened?

  31. 31.

    suzanne

    I woke up and drove to the office before dawn to spend all day in a prep class for my Building Systems ARE. Feeling good about the test. Wish me luck.

    However, I am bugfuck tired.

    Right now, I’m watching Thursday night’s debate. Wanting to punch all of them in the face.

  32. 32.

    Anonymous At Work

    A party to pre-plan a party in over 5 weeks? That’s either true dedication or pure psychosis…please clarify…

  35. 35.

    snailbiscuits

    I think my last comment was eated by the wordpress. But I wanted to say thanks everyone I will keep you guys updated. Thanks for listening. It makes a difference.

  36. 36.

    Suffern ACE

    @snailbiscuits: Hmmmm. What could we do provide some entertainment to lift your spirits while you draft that letter to your wife. We could rent a blog and put on a show.

  37. 37.

    suzanne

    Hilarious that Mitt brought up that his wife had breast cancer and MS and noted how long they’ve been married right in front of Newt. That had to have been salt in the wound.

  38. 38.

    snailbiscuits

    A show sounds good actually. I nice distraction from the bitter cold and dust storm currently enveloping the airfield.

  40. 40.

    Violet

    @snailbiscuits:
    Vent away. People here can be good listeners. You’ve spent a lot of time in a war zone. That’s a lot to handle. Go easy on yourself.

    @CaseyL:

    Does anyone know why waterbeds fell out of fashion? When I tell people I still have one, they look at me as though I’ve stepped out of a time capsule.

    I was listening to something on the radio today and they were talking about waterbeds and how they were a relic from the 70’s. I think it was on NPR and it was something about how cows liked waterbeds? I can’t remember, but it’s funny you bring them up now. I haven’t thought about waterbeds for ages and now I hear something about them twice in one day.

    I’ve always thought they felt like you were on the ocean. Every time you turn over, the whole thing moves. Doesn’t work for me. And leaks…seems like a big disaster waiting to happen.

  41. 41.

    Suffern ACE

    @Violet: Flipping the mattress was always a chore. Well actually, moving the bed was a chore. I think that had a lot to do with it. They were a “trend” in as much as they were new and some people bought them making it look like they were going to be a big market. But the market for waterbeds saturated rather quickly.

  44. 44.

    DanielX

    Open thread and hyperventilation indeed…

    I was of the opinion that most of the Super Bowl entertainment in my fair city this week sucked. I mean, if the only two choices are being shot and listening to Bret Michaels, well, I’m thinking door #1. (Okay, Patti Labelle was good.) But today, today, I find out that George Clinton/P-funk and Robert Randolph and the Family Band are playing at the same bar on Thursday night and Buddy Guy is playing at the Slippery Noodle Inn* on Saturday night at 10:30. Now I gotta find out how much it costs for a round trip by cab from my front door (150% markup for fleecing out of towners), since I suspect that at least a small amount of tequila will be involved either night. Decisions, decisions…

    *Oldest bar in state, former whorehouse, center of bathtub gin manufacture, scene of at least one murder and hangout for John Dillinger and his homies. Oh yeah, and a resident ghost. What’s not to like?

  45. 45.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    Good lord, if you’re not in New Orleans, who cares?

    You’re close enough to Pennsylvania, take Fastnachts.

    It’s Fastnacht Day, also known as Fat Tuesday. Traditionally, fastnachts were made by Pennsylvania Dutch housewives on Fat Tuesday to use up all the fat in the house before Lent. “Fastnacht” is a German word meaning “night before the fast.”

    The heavy yeast-raised doughnuts are as much a part of the central Pennsylvania food landscape as chicken and waffles and whoopie pies.

  46. 46.

    Ron

    Went to play some poker at closest casino tonight. Saw the craziest hand I’ve ever seen and I was happy to be on the winning end of it. If it was an online poker hand people would try to use it to claim it was rigged.

  47. 47.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @snailbiscuits: Thanks for writing, glad you’re not lurking. I have no advice for you, having no experience in similar matters. Hope someone else does, though, and anyway, keep commenting, it’s a good community (trolls aside).

  48. 48.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @CaseyL: I slept on a waterbed for a year, it was my landlady’s in the 70s. I had to buy the heater for it after my first night. It was a drag lying or sitting in bed trying to read. Maybe they got better, but people who had my experience will never go back.

    Oh, and supporting a ton of water in a second floor bedroom in an 80-year old house? Not something I want to try.

  49. 49.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Suffern ACE:

    What could we do provide some entertainment to lift your spirits …

    If that godawful rendering of Cole’s godawful picture didn’t provide enough entertainment, I don’t know what would!

  51. 51.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @snailbiscuits: Do your job. The rest of your unit is depending on you. Whatever you feel or don’t feel, they need you. If you need to vent, B-J is a great place. Okay?

  52. 52.

    hitchhiker

    There used to be a channel that showed West Wing reruns twice a day; my tivo was set to capture them, so I always had a random selection for the odd hour free . . . I never got tired of them. I think in all five seasons there were only two shows that didn’t quite work.

    I love the one where Glenn Close gets to be Chief Justice, and I just learned the other day that when they were writing the last season, where a Hispanic guy wins the presidency, they were looking at Barack Obama as a model.

    When the West Wing scriptwriters first devised their fictitious presidential candidate in the late summer of 2004, they modelled him in part on a young Illinois politician – not yet even a US senator – by the name of Barack Obama.

    “I drew inspiration from him in drawing this character,” West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie told the Guardian. “When I had to write, Obama was just appearing on the national scene. He had done a great speech at the convention [which nominated John Kerry] and people were beginning to talk about him.”

    More here

  53. 53.

    Anne Laurie

    @CaseyL:

    Does anyone know why waterbeds fell out of fashion? When I tell people I still have one, they look at me as though I’ve stepped out of a time capsule. Waterbeds are the most comfortable things you can sleep on, they’re warm when you get in, the waveless models are very firm and don’t move like the high seas every time you move, they cost less than “dead beds,” and you never have to worry about mites in the mattress.

    I think bad experiences with the early leaky unstable models put a lot of the people in my demographic (back-end Boomers) off waterbeds permanently. And I suspect they never got over being associated with hippies, Hugh Hefner, and other unsavory types, either.

    Also, Select Comfort(tm) — which are essentially very-well-modded air mattresses. My father-in-law got us one of the early models for a wedding gift, and we’ve been devoted users ever since. Since they’re patented, the company has stores in every upper-end mall in America, which is not true of any waterbed companies. The Select Comfort bags are not much less trouble to set up than the mid-80s waterbeds, but air is a lot less trouble than water to deal with for night-by-night readjustments… and you never have to worry about the weight stressing old joists, if you use a larger-than-twin mattress.

  54. 54.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Anne Laurie: God, I have always hated waterbeds. If they have cells, the are marginally less horrible than the ordinary ones. Futons, OTOH, are something with which I can work.

  55. 55.

    opie jeanne

    @CaseyL: I will forever associate them with a very awkward attempted seduction by a neighbor just back from Vietnam. We were both married to other people and I was not impressed.

  56. 56.

    dance around in your bones

    @snailbiscuits: Man, hang in there….just try to stay safe and come home.

    I traveled extensively in AFG many years ago (when they still had a king up until the coup and then the Russians invading in ’79) and it was a very cool place back in the day. It just kills me to see what has happened there in the intervening years. I hope there is still some beauty left in the place that you can appreciate.

    I’m glad you have a place like BJ to vent. Please, try to stay safe and sane. We loves ya.

  57. 57.

    dance around in your bones

    @CaseyL: Ha! Waterbeds! That brings back memories – we had one for more than ten years – it was warm in the winter, cool in the summer (you could adjust the heater thingy) and far and away the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept on.

    The only problem we ever had was right after we got it and our then toddler practiced ‘sewing’ on it – which meant sticking pins straight into the mattress…..we grabbed the ‘patch kit’ that came with it and glued a piece of plastic over the pinholes. Held up for the next ten years just fine.

    Dang, I didn’t know they still made them – now I want one again. Sail away!

  58. 58.

    Yutsano

    @dance around in your bones:

    I traveled extensively in AFG many years ago (when they still had a king up until the coup and then the Russians invading in ‘79) and it was a very cool place back in the day.

    What happened to Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion is a travesty. Forty years ago, Kabul was known as the Paris of the East. Afghanistan was a pluralistic relatively peaceful city with one of the most tolerant forms of Islam in common practice. There were Sufi temples with intellectual discussions shaping a great counterpoint to the Wahhabi fundamentalism growing due to the expansion of Saudi power. And Kabul was one of the most cosmopolitan, beautiful, wealthy cities in Asia. All that changed because they decided to not elect a Communist regime. And then we monkeyed around with creating the Taliban, and everything went to hell from there. I would love a restoration of the monarchy and the reinstitution of the national Loya Jirga again. I fear it will not happen.

    PS: I happen to own a chalice a friend who was stationed there gave me. I only know that it’s very old and in fantastic shape. I think they can make things like this again. And they’re sitting on a shit ton of mineral wealth they can use to rebuild when things finally stabilize. Snow leopards. Also. Too.

  59. 59.

    dance around in your bones

    Oh Yutsano, it was such a beautiful and peaceful place. You could travel freely anywhere you wanted (we sat on the head of one of the Buddhas in Bamiyan before they got blown up) and there was so much beauty…people were friendly and curious, the only religious question you ever got asked is if you were “People of the Book”.

    I’m originally from New Mexico, and when I got to Afghanistan it felt like coming home, in a way. Very similar geography, just a fantastically beautiful place.

    I had to leave with our 7 year old as the situation was getting too dangerous (curfews, tanks and soldiers on the street corners, the American ambassador – who lived across the street from us – was shot) but my husband stayed on to finish up a shipment of carpets and etc. I still vividly remember standing in a Chinese imports store in December of ’79 and hearing over the store loudspeakers that the Russians had invaded…..I just froze and knew that was it.

    Afghanistan was finished. So fucking sad.

  62. 62.

    Ken

    Any plan that involves two bottles of wine, for starters I assume, is a good plan. Well done, John.

  63. 63.

    dance around in your bones

    @THE: Thank you, yes I have seen them before.

    It’s good to remind people that Afghanistan was not always a hellhole. As Yutsy said above, Kabul was a surprisingly cosmopolitan city, and the general vibe throughout the country was infinitely more relaxed than Iran or Pakistan or even India.

    I’m making myself sad thinking about it.

  65. 65.

    music lessons

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