Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Consistently wrong since 2002

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

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Not all heroes wear capes.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

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Open Thread

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Just had a ton of soil delivered- a mixture of topsoil, Dr. Earth, and compost for my raised bed gardens. I tell you, I really had no idea how much of an undertaking this would be. I opted for four 4’x8′ eight inch tall cedar beds delivered (I went with these guys, because they seemed like good family folks running an honest small business), and I really underestimated how much earth it would take to fill them. It’s also turning into a much more expensive initial outlay than I thought. Hopefully on Sunday, I will assemble all the beds, and since my back yard is not completely even, I bought some stakes to put in the ground to level the beds.

It’s fun, though, and something you really only need to do once. My compost pile will supply all future soil, I know I have non-toxic wood and good organic soil, there will be no fungicides or pesticides, and it should last forever. Plus, since I don’t play sports anymore, this is the kind of activity that gives me an excuse to work up a sweat and spend some quality time outdoors with the girls. Also, I just really like the idea of a neat, orderly garden, as opposed to the sprawling disaster I have had the past two years.

And now… Diablo III.

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  1. 1.

    Raven

    Did you put down landscape cloth before you put the soil in? If not, dig it all out and do it over.

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Did you all catch the Elizabeth Warren plagiarism scandal? You missed it? Too bad, Rich Lowry et al have retracted and apologized. How much do you want to bet that Hannity and Howie Carr pimp it anyway?

  4. 4.

    jharp

    My compost pile is now supplying all of my soil. And got most of my stuff planted just yesterday.

  8. 8.

    jl

    Seems like there are a number of famous last words, or phrases, in that post. Not sure what parts were tongue in cheek and which were not, so will just leave it at that.

    Good luck to Cole with his project. Sounds like he is still in the ‘optimism’ stage. I look forward to the posts where he starts the ‘bargaining’ stage.

    I assume Mr. Cole has read up about how to do compost so it don’t mold, go bad in other sundry ways, and spread weeds, lay waste to his sinuses even more than they are wasted now, kill him, etc.

    Or, turn into one of those mysterious freaks of nature that you see in movies so that when his pet critters get into it, they don’t morph into super beings who then become our overpowering and implacable overlords.

    Funny stuff goes on in that compost.

  9. 9.

    Alison

    The Mustache of Understanding will be on Jeopardy tonight. Quoth @pourmecoffee: “Tom Friedman on Jeopardy will be told when he is wrong. We are all Alex Trebek tonight.”

    I LOL’d.

  10. 10.

    Arclite

    I’m gonna pass on Diablo III in favor of Torchlight 2. I might pick up D3 later, but I’m too turned off by the always on DRM.

  11. 11.

    jl

    @Alison:

    ” The Mustache of Understanding will be on Jeopardy tonight. ”

    I hope a (Edit: soshulist) taxi driver beats him. Badly.

    That is mean, but true.

    Edit: if not soshulist, then a meth addled anarchist taxi driver, like the one that drove me 80 mph and way plus through Los Angeles very early one fine morning years ago.

  12. 12.

    Bubba Dave

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    I followed the Salon link to the actual correction, and was pleasantly surprised by the non-weaselly nature of the retraction, but then noticed a headline above it: “von Spakovsky: Dishonest, Dishonorable, and Illegal.” Amazed at the idea that the National Review would be accurate twice in one day I clicked the link, only to discover that von Spakovsky was the author and not the subject. So apparently the blind pigs at the National Review can find one acorn, but not two.

  13. 13.

    Ash Can

    Saw Kerry Wood pitch his last today. He faced one batter, got him on a swinging strikeout, then was taken out of the game, to a huge ovation. The end of an era.

  15. 15.

    Elizabelle

    @jl:

    You and Alison will be happy with the Jeopardy results.

    Anderson Cooper is very good.

    Otherwise, the teen champions could eat our Villagers’ lunches.

  16. 16.

    Maude

    @Raven:
    I don’t think the soil is down yet. The landscape cloth is essential. I had forgotten about that and everyone around here puts it down before they do anything else.
    Bet we’ll be reading about injuries this weekend. Or, perhaps not.

  17. 17.

    p.a.

    if u see Thai basil plant some- much hardier and less attractive to bugs than Italian, and more flavorful- if you like capsicum it’s the basil to use. French tarragon (a new one for me the last few years) is great with fowl. Can anyone give me tips on growing cilantro? it will germinate on bare rock, but when I treat it like my other herbs (benign neglect once they take, prevent flowering to promote leaf growth) my cilantro just croaks. I’ve tried more watering- ng- I’ve tried letting it flower- wonderful crop of coriander seeds, few leaves. I’m in Southern New England, and put the plants on the SW side of my yard- lots of sun. figure it’s s staple of Mexican and SE Asian food, so it must like heat. am I wrong?

  19. 19.

    Alison

    @Elizabelle: I was surprised the other day at how well I think it was Chuck Todd did – proving that one can both know a lot of stuff but also be really freaking dumb at the same time…

  20. 20.

    jl

    @Elizabelle: Thank you. I am at peace and will trust I can read about a true mess later.

    I don’t know if want the poor mustache to be Blitzed, but… well, if a teen champion could be the one who cleans his clock, I am willing for Friedman to make the necessary sacrifice for the sake of the salutary effects on our precious youth.

  21. 21.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Erick, Son of Erick, has a post up at Redstate that fluffs Breitbart’s Gang of Idiots as real journalists for pushing the Obama may be a Kenyan! line. What makes Erick’s post great is this:

    I do not believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya. I don’t think it matters even if he were born overseas because his mother was an American citizen. I’m not going to debate it with the cult of birtherism.

    Oh boy did he ever step in it…lol! The Birthers came out of the woodwork and the mods are playing Whack-A-Birther with the ban hammer. Erick is getting reamed in the comments, with some comments being deleted.

    This fall is going to be fun.

  26. 26.

    jharp

    Sorry Tiger fans.

    Verlander is one tough customer. I tip my hat to him. And I hope to watch him pitch some day.

    Indians fan here. But dig the Tigers too.

  33. 33.

    Yutsano

    Thank you Thalarctos for the chocolate! Got the all clear to head home tomorrow, then the recovery period is…do nothing. For more or less six weeks. Me no complain! :)

  38. 38.

    Yutsano

    @Maude: That’s the plan. Definitely they don’t want me pushing activity too hard for at least the first two weeks. Percocet. Also. Too. :)

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Yutsano: Perc makes me sleep. That’s it. I had friends who used my leftovers for fun, but I never got any fun out of it. Hopefully, you fare better.

  44. 44.

    Sly

    @Arclite:
    The persistent online component of D3 is not so much DRM as it is:

    1) Hack protection for the auction house component (which needs a lot of work, incidentally… its buggy and slow) that will have a real currency version up in a few days.

    2) Blizzard’s insipid vision of Battle.net as a persistent social network with fewer privacy options than fucking Facebook.

  45. 45.

    Joseph Nobles

    For what the Iraq War cost us, these guys say we could have had the first generation of the Enterprise sailing around the solar system.

    http://www.buildtheenterprise.org/

    Mars in 90 days. A micro-city of mice floating in the thick Venetian atmosphere. Learning to divert asteroids. A moon AND Mars base with 1g gravity areas. I love engineers.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    This week at work just … sucked. At least it went by quickly. I have to work this weekend just so I can get shit done without people BOTHERING ME, but I’m going in on Sunday, not Saturday. I’m way too fried to be able to be productive tomorrow.

  50. 50.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @S. cerevisiae:

    It’s a train wreck of insane, racist fuckers clashing with TPTB there. Erick scratched their veneer of respectability and the ugly is laid bare. Of course there is banning going on so that means that the aren’t real Republican voters.

    At least that’s what TPTB at Redstate are assuring themselves.

  51. 51.

    Violet

    @Raven:

    Did you put down landscape cloth before you put the soil in? If not, dig it all out and do it over.

    You don’t need landscape cloth. You can use regular cardboard. Just make sure it isn’t colored or shiny cardboard. Regular brown cardboard with some lettering on it is fine, though. Works really well to kill weeds, decomposes over time and worms love it.

  58. 58.

    Nellcote

    And Anderson Cooper kicks Friedman’s ass. Friedman did well on the stock ticker abreviation catagory. Heh.

  60. 60.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Yutsano: You might have told her while under the influence of heavy narcos. Or he might have told you… Now I have confuzzled meself.

  62. 62.

    Laura Clawson

    Speaking of compost, I am super excited that where I am moving to in a couple months is right near a farmers market that includes free composting. Every time I trim a vegetable and throw the trimmings away, I say to them “soon I will compost you.”

  63. 63.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Yutsano: Working on it. Weird week at work. My two minions required minding. Most of my management experience was years ago in the Army. Managing combat arms soldiers is different than managing a 31 y/o single mom with a toothache and a hyperactive 22 y/o woman who just graduated from college and expressed shock that I know who Gotye is. Pure lawyering is far easier.

  64. 64.

    Yutsano

    @Omnes Omnibus: Lemme guess, your official position title has the word senior in it somewhere. That usually means you have ducklings. If you’re lucky. Otherwise you’re herding felines. And Vaya con Dios.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Yutsano: My title is in flux. My minions do a great job and, since I have had them, me little section is much more productive; I no longer need to borrow minions from others. They just require maintenance. And I can’t fucking relax for a second. Could be worse… Could have had surgery.

    @Mnemosyne: The 22 y/o minion also called me old. Told me I was older than her dad who is 46. I asked her how she thought I was. She said her “sources” told her I was 48. I let her know that her sources were wrong. Didn’t mention I won’t hit 48 until August. I have to keep some mystery. It is a part of my power. Or something.

  67. 67.

    Yutsano

    @Omnes Omnibus: It is always best to keep at least some air of mystery about oneself. Revelation of all your salient features limits your opportunity to surprise later on down the road.

  69. 69.

    Yutsano

    @Omnes Omnibus: I could accept that interpretation. I’m also drugged up mightily and heavily tired. So I may come back to this later and wonder WTF was I thinking.

  72. 72.

    opie jeanne

    @efgoldman: I took strings (it’s not theory, I know you know this), brass, woodwinds and percussion. I was a keyboard major, performance.

    Music Theory was a 2 year course for us.

  73. 73.

    opie jeanne

    John, we use bird net to keep the cats out of our raised beds. They don’t like stepping on it, and when the plants get a little larger we prop it up with some short stakes. When they fill in enough the cats will leave it alone.

    If you feel the need to plant catnip you will have to put a cage over it until it gets big or they will kill it. They’ll gnaw it down to the ground and then sleep on top of it. We grew it in big pots, away from the rest of the garden. Kept the cats occupied.

  77. 77.

    mazareth

    I cleaned up my veggie beds yesterday before work. I was going to spade up the garden today, but it’s almost 80F at 11:00 AM CDT.

    I’m going to ride my bike to the gym instead. Maybe grocery shopping after lunch. I have fresh local asparagus to look forward to. Maybe a frittata with asparagus, smoked provolone and parmesan???

    I have the upcoming week off from work. I’ll be planting all week. Need to get some pics to Anne L…

  78. 78.

    AHH onna Droid

    @Jibeaux: you know, I was with you until you said that. Nasty and vile. “It” is a dehumanizing slur, whether directed at the autism-y lack of social skills, or the unfeminine style of engagement.

    However irritated you are with mcclaren’s unintentional trollsy comments, she never attacked you personally. Being generous to you, I would say it appeared that your angry overruled your empathy.

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