Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

People are weird.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

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

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

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

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

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

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Consistently wrong since 2002

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

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79Comments

  2. 2.

    jnfr

    We’re off to see John Carter. Everyone in the universe is going to Hunger Games, so we’re opting for counter-programming.

    Nearly done with the downstairs bathroom renovation. A few details that we’ll finish up tomorrow. It looks fantastically better than it did, so we are content.

  3. 3.

    Linnaeus

    Sun’s actually out here in the Emerald City. A little cooler than I’d like, but it’s an improvement.

  6. 6.

    the fugitive uterus

    he’s a looker, alright!

    i love how you captured the length and strength of his front limbs with your perspective – your pics, like jeffreyw’s, are always a joy to behold! both subject matter and technique are sublime. :)

  7. 7.

    burnspbesq

    NCAA men’s hockey tournament is underway. Union leads Michigan State, 2-1, after two periods. Three more games later today.

  9. 9.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    Newt: Obama Makes People Think He’s Muslim

    “He went to a Christian church for over 20 years,” he said. “He was listening to the sermons. The fact is I take him at his word but I think it is very bizarre that he is desperately concerned to apologize to Muslim religious fanatics while they are killing young Americans while at the same time going to war against the Catholic Church and against every right to live Protestant organization in the country. I just think it’s a very strange value system.”

    Rachel Maddow has rightly focused on Mitt’s easy prepensity for lying, as he’s the quite-likely nominee. But that doesn’t negate the fact that Newt’s been peddling his own sack of two-bit shit in the guise of legitimate discourse. He needs to die severely in a fire (severely figuratively, of course).

  11. 11.

    schrodinger's cat

    Test
    I kept getting a 403 error saying that I cannot post from this server. Anybody else with the same problem?

  13. 13.

    Brachiator

    Science is so freakin’ cool

    Higher birthweight ‘linked to grandmother gene’
    __
    Scientists say a gene variation could contribute up to 155g (5.5oz) to a child’s birthweight.
    __
    The gene studied is believed to act as a growth suppressor, reducing birthweight.
    __
    But the UK-based researchers found a particular variant passed down from the mother can add 93g (3.3oz) to the birthweight, or 155g if passed down from the maternal grandmother….
    __
    “We have found a genetic variant of PHLDA2 that when inherited from the mother, causes the baby to be 93g bigger on average, or even 155g bigger on average, if inherited successively from the mother’s mother.”
    __
    The RS1 variation was found in around 13% of the individuals studied, with 87% possessing the RS2 variation.
    __
    “We suggest that the more common RS2 gene variation, which is only found in humans, has evolved to produce a smaller baby as a protective effect to enhance the mother’s survival during childbirth,” said Prof Moore.
    __
    “Dad’s lack of involvement in evolutionary terms may stem from his own survival not being at stake and he can continue to reproduce with other females.”

    Who knew that grannies could be so important?

  15. 15.

    schrodinger's cat

    BTW does anyone else comment on the ICHC family of websites? They are migrating to Facebook comments from WordPress. Many parts of the website/blog have become unusable as a result. Many of the regular users and makers of lols are pissed (myself included). Besides complaining and making protest Lols is there anything we can do.

  17. 17.

    Richard

    The Broncos to face the wrath of God over their treatment of Saint Tebow:

    Pat Robertson, host of “The 700 Club” on his Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), has come out in defense of NFL quarterback Tim Tebow and warned that the Denver Broncos may pay a price for replacing the outspoken Christian athlete with newly-signed quarterback Peyton Manning.

    “And you just ask yourself, OK, so Peyton Manning was a tremendous MVP quarterback, but he’s been injured. If that injury comes back, Denver will find itself without a quarterback. And in my opinion, it would serve them right,” Robertson said on the Thursday airing of his show, commenting on Manning’s long history of injuries.

  21. 21.

    MattR

    Haven’t seen this posted at BJ yet. The Miami Heat took a group photo wearing hoodies in response to Trayvon Martin’s murder. From espn

    Wade posted a photo of himself from a previous photo shoot wearing a hooded sweat shirt, otherwise known as a hoodie, to his Twitter and Facebook pages on Friday morning.
    __
    A couple hours later, James posted another photo — this one of the Heat team, all wearing hoodies, their heads bowed, their hands stuffed into their pockets. Details of when and where the photo was taken were not immediately available.
    __
    …
    __
    “This situation hit home for me because last Christmas, all my oldest son wanted as a gift was hoodies,” Wade told The Associated Press Friday from Auburn Hills, Mich., where the Heat were to play the Detroit Pistons. “So when I heard about this a week ago, I thought of my sons. I’m speaking up because I feel it’s necessary that we get past the stereotype of young, black men and especially with our youth.”

  24. 24.

    burnspbesq

    @S. cerevisiae:

    MSU just took a bad penalty with a minute and a half to go. Hopefully we can close this one out.

    MSU had an apparent goal disallowed in the first period. If it ends 2-1 they’ll have a legitimate beef.

  27. 27.

    WereBear

    @schrodinger’s cat: They own it, they don’t care. It sucks but I am sure they had compelling reasons, maybe even monetary ones… and against do-re-mi reasons the gods themselves contend in vain.

    The weekend is here at last… and so is my Chromebook. Sitting on the couch, surrounded by cats, and hangin’ on Balloon Juice.

    Science is wonderful.

  28. 28.

    MattR

    @Valdivia: According to the arcticle the team has some sort of tribute planned before tonight’s game at Detroit. I hope the NBA gives them an exemption to their uniform policy and allows them (and the Pistons) to wear hoodies during warmups.

    PS. In case anyone notices, the Heat do have a white player on their team (Mike Miller) but he is injured and did not travel on the road trip so he was unavailable for the picture.

  29. 29.

    S. cerevisiae

    @burnspbesq: Bad faceoff leads to Union goal – nice shot on a 2-on-1. This should be a great tournament and I hope Western Michigan can beat the Sue.

  31. 31.

    ruemara

    My car battery is attached to a charger. I’m wondering if I leave it overnight, will it charge properly to turn over, or will it get stolen and will I care?

  32. 32.

    burnspbesq

    Next game is Miami against Lowell in an hour. Winner of that game plays Union tomorrow night for a chance to go to Tampa for the Frozen Four.

    OK, that sentence looks odd. Frozen Four in Tampa? Sacrilege!

    I just want Cornell to beat Michigan. I’m tired of taking shit about the supposed weakness of the ECAC. Plus it will make my brother the Cornell grad happy.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    @jnfr:

    We’re off to see John Carter. Everyone in the universe is going to Hunger Games, so we’re opting for counter-programming.

    Hunger Games may have earned more from the first midnight shows than John Carter in its entire opening weekend.

    But some who have seen John Carter say it is not that bad.

    Other counte programming choices might be The Raid, a very hot and violent actiion movie featuring Indonesian martial arts, and Deep Blue Sea, a British film with Rachel Weisz.

  36. 36.

    ThresherK

    By now I’d have bought some maple syrup from this winter’s haul at my favorite secret XC skiing place. I shudder to think how both parts of their business are doing, but we’ll take a jaunt up there soon anyway.

    Also, a bit of sad news: I had to have my cat Madeline put to sleep. She wasn’t even 10 years old. You can see her in February’s pet calendar. She was a fine cat who spent much time in my lap while I read this blog, and as a black and white animal, was scientifically cute.

    Now my wife and I are down to one cat, my wife’s Dexter. I am taking up a clicker and some of that “positive reinforcment” treat training to see if he will be less of a jerk to me. Just not having the other cat to attack will mean he will be punished less. We’ll see how that goes.

  37. 37.

    Tonal Crow

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    BTW does anyone else comment on the ICHC family of websites? They are migrating to Facebook comments from WordPress.

    GOP Facebook. GOP them hard. I will give up commenting before joining Facebook. The NSA is bad enough, but it’s involuntary. No way will I voluntarily join the spyapalooza that is Facebook.

  38. 38.

    KG

    @Richard: someone should explain to Pat Robertson that NFL teams typically carry 3 or 4 quarterbacks on their roster, so if Payton Manning does get hurt again, the Broncos will have another quarterback.

    In re: Tebow and the Jets, I still don’t get it. Makes absolutely no sense from a football standpoint. Though I do remain of the mind that Tebow could be a pretty good quarterback in a spread offense, with or without the option run game; since that’s when he was most effective as a passer last year, in the fourth quarter when they spread the field.

  39. 39.

    burnspbesq

    @Steve:

    Tough 24 hours for Sparty.

    I’m driving to Fresno tomorrow to watch the Duke women’s basketball team in the Sweet Sixteen. Better leave early so I’m up there and in my hotel by 3:00 to watch Union.

    And there are three great lax games on TV tomorrow: Duke-Georgetown, Maryland-Carolina, and number one Virginia against number two Hopkins.

  40. 40.

    S. cerevisiae

    @ruemara: If the cables are long enough you can lock the charger body in the car and run the cables to the battery. You also have to run the extension cord into the car but there is usually enough give in the weatherstrip. This works on my car but the cables are just long enough.

  41. 41.

    The Dangerman

    …or just lie on a grassy southwest-facing hillside and feel the sunset on your face.

    Yea, but if I do it naked and on my back, limbs splayed out waiting to get my tummy scratched, I get arrested. Totally unfair.

  43. 43.

    KG

    @Brachiator: was it here that I was reading the big problem with John Carter was when the initially rolled out the adverts, the producer/director couldn’t imagine that most people didn’t know who John Carter of Mars was anymore? That seems like piss poor movie management there. Especially of a film that seems built for the backpack/videogame/actionfigure market/moneymachine

  44. 44.

    MattR

    For more gun fun, a man pulled one on a reporter in Arkansas as she was investigating a case of elder abuse (possibly manslaughter?). Turns out he was the brother of one of the people arrested in the case. Thankfully no one was hurt and he has been jailed and charged.

    @burnspbesq: In case you changed the channel, ESPNU is filling time with the Denver-Ferris St game.

  45. 45.

    gogol's wife

    @ThresherK:

    I’m so sorry. I’m in pre-mourning for my beloved Masha, who has a lung tumor (she’s also not yet 10 years old and has led a pampered indoor life). She’s fine right now but getting thinner every day. This is just agony.

  46. 46.

    burnspbesq

    @KG:

    The current speculation is that the Jets will line Tebow up at H-back. That could make for some interesting plays where he goes in motion to get a pitch from Sanchez and then can either pass or run from outside the pocket. If he can catch the ball, then so much the better. We’ll see.

  49. 49.

    MattR

    @burnspbesq: Too bad Tebow can’t block or run a pass pattern. But then again, he can’t throw too well either. The Jets seem to believe that adding a good Christian to their locker room will somehow counter all the cancers that are already in there.

  50. 50.

    ruemara

    @Martin: OK, that made me snicker. But it’s a big white car that’s old, so what I really need to do is arm it and put a fox news sticker on it.

  54. 54.

    Joe Lisboa

    O/T (?): Every time Romney gives one of those little nervous laugh-fits between sentences it only punctuates his phoniness. It’s getting kinda creepy. Sorry, had to vent.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    @KG:

    was it here that I was reading the big problem with John Carter was when the initially rolled out the adverts, the producer/director couldn’t imagine that most people didn’t know who John Carter of Mars was anymore? That seems like piss poor movie management there

    John Carter was a big disappointment, so the fingerpointing has been so frenetic that it is difficult to figure out who was most dumbass.

    But the marketing, which is not controlled by the director or the producer, was especially hapless.

    For weeks, movie industry watchers have been commenting about the woeful inadequacy of Disney’s marketing campaign for John Carter. The Daily Beast ran a long, extensively reported story detailing the uninformative billboards, incoherent trailers and foolhardy title alterations that plagued the attempt to sell the movie. “Although the character has been known as ‘John Carter of Mars’ and was envisioned as a movie trilogy under that name, Disney marketers dropped the ‘of Mars’ part,” the Beast reports, “because of industry-think holding that female movie fans are more likely to be turned off by such overtly sci-fi elements.”
    __
    So, to avoid that peril, Disney left its massive film, based on generally unfamiliar source material — the Edgar Rice Burroughs’s 1917 novel A Princess of Mars — with a title that gives no hint of what it might be about.

    By contrast, the marketing for the Hunger Games has been very well done. Even if you don’t know what it’s about, you can easily stumble upon clear explanations. One of the radio talk show hosts here in Southern Californa even had his teen daughter on to talk about the film (“2,0000 times better than Twilight, almost as good as Harry Potter”).

    As an aside, there are at least four big films out this summer with either female protagonists or women in many of the lead roles: Prometheus, Brave, Snow White and the Huntsman and Hunger Games.

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Breaking news headline on FOX that a black suspect is being sought in a shooting at a tire store in Durham, NC

    But was he wearing a hoodie?

  56. 56.

    Tonal Crow

    @AA+ Bonds: Teh racism: the Republicans aren’t showing us nearly enough of it. Pleaz moar moar moar racism and moar moar moar birtherism also too allof’em!

  63. 63.

    MattR

    Thanks to a commenter at dKos I am reminded of this “hoodie” video from 2004 by Eminiem.

    @efgoldman: Tebow will definitely pay for himself with all the publicity, ticket and merchandise sales he brings. Too bad for Jets fans that won’t bring them any closer to a Super Bowl.

  64. 64.

    Jay C

    @Brachiator:

    According to the NYT, who went into this last week (under the title “Ishtar on Mars”), Disney is resigned to taking a MAJOR bath of red ink on John Carter – $200MM by one account: supposedly, in addition to the incredibly large (squandered) advertising/promotional budget, Disney were unwilling to tick off Andrew Stanton* in his first live-action project, which drove the production costs sky-high as well.

    *HIH (Hugely Important Honcho) at Pixar.

  65. 65.

    Martin

    @Brachiator:

    Even if you don’t know what it’s about, you can easily stumble upon clear explanations.

    Well, unless you run this blog…

  66. 66.

    AA+ Bonds

    What is Brachiator still in here talking about how John Carter isn’t a flop because he wrote this essay-length universal definition of exactly what a flop is (not John Carter! that’s a relief . . . to someone . . . . . )

    Brachiator were you the key grip on this or something, did you cater for the Martians, what

  68. 68.

    Linda Featheringill

    Weather:

    The cool-down has reached NE Ohio. A cool breeze came in a couple of hours ago and the first of the rain has started, although it might not rain in earnest until tomorrow.

    This stalled warm spell in March was nerve wracking. I finally found a good discussion about what was going on at Weather Underground and that settled my mind somewhat. When temperatures drop to “normal” perhaps my emotional upheaval can settle down.

    At any rate, I’m glad to see it.

  70. 70.

    schrodinger's cat

    Just came back from my run, it is gorgeous here in the elitist liberal enclaves of the northeast.

  71. 71.

    CT Voter

    Dear Tim: I’ve always been afraid of Dobermans. Always. Your pictures and videos of Max are slowing erasing that fear. Thank you.

  72. 72.

    Poopyman

    It was pretty warm this afternoon, but it’s cooled to about 74 right now.I’m gonna go catch the last of the warm daylight before it chills and rains in a few hours.

    Later!

  73. 73.

    ThresherK

    @gogol’s wife: Thank you. Our condolences as well. At some point all the medical options don’t extend the quality of life, and the wrenching thing is you have to trust that they trust you.

    @WereBear: I don’t know what the future holds, but some months are needed. Hey, the Way of Cats! For the cat personality types, Dexter is is an “Alpha/Monkey”, who is very curious and has all the leaping and the physical tools to satisfy it. There is also a Jekyll/Hyde switch somewhere in his brain.

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Thanks. This is one of those times it helps having an MSW in the house.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Brachiator were you the key grip on this or something, did you cater for the Martians, what

    You have a rare talent. I’m not sure for what, but I am certain that it is quite rare.

    Fortunately for us all.

  75. 75.

    Brachiator

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Brachiator were you the key grip on this or something, did you cater for the Martians, what

    You have a rare talent. I’m not sure for what, but I am certain that it is quite rare.

    Fortunately for us all.

  77. 77.

    Brachiator

    @Mike Lamb:

    Can I get the genes from both mom and grandma? I was 10 lbs 10 oz at birth…

    This might be the scenario:

    “We have found a genetic variant of PHLDA2 that when inherited from the mother, causes the baby to be 93g bigger on average, or even 155g bigger on average, if inherited successively from the mother’s mother.”

    So, it’s successive generations, not two copies of the gene.

    And this part is noteworthy:

    The PHLDA2 gene is unusual in that only the copy inherited from the mother is active, while the copy inherited from the father is “silenced”. This silencing of the paternal gene results from molecular processes around the DNA known as epigenetics

    Epigenetic mechanisms are important to understanding evolution, soon to be a forbidden branch of science if the GOP has its way.

  78. 78.

    WereBear

    @Steeplejack: Ooooh, thanks for letting me emote! I love it.

    Very light and rather thin. I had it send to my office in case they needed a signature (surprisingly, the USPS did not) and the first thing everyone did was heft it and exclaim over how UNheavy it was. Imagine a couple of hardback Dr. Seuss books.

    Nice clear screen and very responsive, light touch keyboard. (I got the Acer 3G, because the only place on earth that had the Acer WiFi only, Newegg.com, has one of those customer service things untouched by human hands. The order got screwed up and then no power on earth could unscrew it.)

    This wasn’t just about me: we ordered two, because I’m giving one to my darling MIL. She is recovering from successful cancer treatment and is exhausted and going stir crazy. When I told her this thing was virus-proof she lit up like a Christmas tree. Turns out people her age are deathly afraid of viruses, so she hasn’t been surfing, ever. I’m going to get hers all set up and she will be able to lie in bed and Facebook and such. We are going to spend the weekend finding interesting sites for her to explore.

    It’s not set up as a computer; the function keys are all for browsing. Back, forward, reload, full screen, cycle windows; that’s up top. No shift-lock; that’s the Google search button. Because this is a netbook-sized machine to run the Google Chrome browser. And that’s all. It seems obvious, but half the reviews I read were consumers complaining because… that’s what it was. You know. WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN.

    Your basic touch pad (two finger scrolling.) Incredible battery life; charged up in about 2 hours out of the box, and then I or my workmates have been playing with it all day, brought it home and played with it for a few hours and then plugged it in again; and didn’t have to!

    No problem getting onto the WiFi at work, and then logged into my home network which has password protection (WEP) and has been rock steady all night. App store! There are some offline apps; I went there first and got a nice writing app, because that was my main thing; blogging from bed, and plain writing offline if I want to lie on the lawn and be creative. The app store is online (duh!) and so I browsed around before buying to see what was available; lots to play with.

    Our own Alpha/Monkey kitten, Tristan, had spilled wine on my old Powerbook (Mr WayofCats: if you’d been drinking scotch, it might not have killed it) but it wasn’t going to last another year, anyway. Ah, we love that goofy kitten, I had the glass behind my head on a shelf; he tried to get on my lap while I was drinking from it. So I wanted to Blog from Bed; I was trying to remember when I wasn’t using the browser on the laptop; then I got the brainstorm about how to keep my mother in law amused. We could get two of these for almost the price of one iPad and a keyboard. And I wanted it to write with; gotta have a keyboard.

    I’m very very pleased with it.

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