Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

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

When we show up, we win.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

We still have time to mess this up!

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

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

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

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

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread – Girls, we do whatever it will take

Open Thread – Girls, we do whatever it will take

by | 68 Comments

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I’m not writing about the election until the next time Romney opens his mouth and says something stupid (which could be ten minutes from now, so you never know). A book thread (along with physics puzzler), a foodporn thread and a realporn thread are on their way.

How goes it with you all?

Oh, and eye candy for your Friday night:

Reader Interactions

68Comments

  3. 3.

    RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    Bring on the physics puzzler. I’ve had a stupid day and need some brain exercise.

  5. 5.

    eemom

    There’s like eleventy three threads going on now, including one by Master “No More Posts Till Sunday” Cole himself.

    Raven, ya gotta admit that even in its glory days, FDL had nothing on this shit.

  7. 7.

    JCT

    @raven: I saw that earlier today. He must have mistaken the paint chip bag for Lay’s as a child. Can’t believe this imbecile has an undergrad degree in Chemistry and took care of patients. Shudder.

  10. 10.

    JCT

    @raven: Wow – this is the sort of stupid that you would think went back generations. Gives new meaning to the term “bad seed”.

  15. 15.

    Ed or Edna Dane Defender of Donuts

    @Or something like that.Suffern Ace:

    No kidding. It was one of the things that irked me. Tattoos are fine but what was that? That and what was that guy’s head on a platter supposed to mean? Took away from the rest of the video.

    Anyways rest of the night involves cooking up something quick to eat and then planning the rest of the weekend. Open at the moment. Might create a Rum Cannonball or two.

    >.>

    blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2011/09/rum_cannonball_life_aquatic_bill_murray.php

  19. 19.

    raven

    SARASOTA, Fla. — Authorities say dozens of travelers have been injured – but no one killed – in a chain reaction of collisions on Interstate 75 along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

    The Florida Highway Patrol reported Friday evening that 52 people were hurt in 12 separate crashes involving 47 vehicles on southbound Interstate 75. Twenty-two persons were taken to area hospitals, including two people who were critically injured, though their injuries weren’t considered life-threatening.

  20. 20.

    geg6

    Currently reading Elizabeth I by Margaret George. I love her historical novels. Fun, with some history thrown in.

    Next up is Jay-Z’s Decoded. I’m not much on hiphop or rap, but I can deal with it more than country. And I really admire and am interested in Jay-Z’s career and inspirations. So I’m looking forward to learning more about him.

    And I’m going to dive into a Neil Gaiman for the first time. My sister gave me American Gods. Still not convinced he’s my cup of tea, but we’ll see.

    Am saving the sequel to A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, Shadow of Night for the long Thanksgiving holiday. I love to do completely fun reading during my down time in November and December. I save the pure fun stuff like the latest Charlaine Harris and what my 11-year-old niece tells me is the newest sensation in YA books, The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. I’ve said this before here, but I think there’s a lot of very good YA stuff out there, and stuff that adults can enjoy and engage.

  23. 23.

    Davis X. Machina

    @efgoldman: They’re small businessmen first, and MD’s later, except for the ones like Bill Frist — they’re big businessmen first, and MD’s later.

    Thanks to our wonderful health care system, which is rapidly becoming subject to Voltaire’s aphorism about the Holy Roman Empire.

  25. 25.

    Citizen_X

    @JCT:

    Can’t believe this imbecile has an undergrad degree in Chemistry and took care of patients.

    And is on the House Science Committee.

  26. 26.

    RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    Books, huh?
    I’m reading Some Remarks, a collection of articles and essays by Neil Stephenson. It includes a massive article for Wired about the development and construction of an international submarine/overland fiber optic data cable. I just love tech stories like this. Especially from someone like Stephenson who can turn the story of a wire into a ripping adventure yarn.

  27. 27.

    Hal

    Reminds of a story years ago on NPR about a Geologist at one of those Evangelical Universities like Liberty who had to go to a real University in order to earn his PhD. He did not actually believe in carbon dating, but did complete his PhD so that he could teach. He actually admitted he did not believe in some of the very science he studied because it contradicted the bible.

  33. 33.

    Elmo

    Odd. Usually Elmo +3 is in a happy giddy place, but I’ve been reading politico and TPM about the jobs truthers as my bedtime reading, and now I’m all dark and stabby. For reals, I’m lying in bed full of rage and hate.

    That isn’t healthy, is it?

  34. 34.

    geg6

    @Citizen_X:

    I sure hope so. People here and IRL keep telling me how awesome Gaiman is, but years ago I tried to start something of his (don’t even remember the name, sadly) and had to just put it down. Didn’t engage me at all. And I’m a voracious reader, with some eclectic tastes. But I’m willing to give it another chance. We’ll see.

  38. 38.

    Darkrose

    I’m still boggling over that blown call in the ATL-STL game. I’m disappointed but not surprised that MLB denied the protest, but this shows exactly why the one-game playoff is stupid.

  42. 42.

    Spatula

    Cute song.

    I want the one with the beard.

    Refreshing to see men treated as sex objects for a change. :D

  43. 43.

    Moonbatting Average

    @geg6: Amercan Gods wasn’t very good, IMO. You’d be better off with Snow Crash, if you want sci-fi/fantasy

  44. 44.

    catclub

    @Elmo: 1. 25th anniversary of THE PRINCESS BRIDE

    2. Mandy Patinkin was talking about one of his last lines in the movie “I have been in the revenge business so long, I don’t know what I am going to do.” And that he personally feels much less angry and less in the revenge business than he used to be. I saw a link (at Ritholtz’s Big Picture) on the Gratitude Lady. It should also make you feel less stabby.

    3. When the Willard mechanism says that he cares about the 100%, I can only envision a soylent green factory manager saying that he cares about every customer.

  47. 47.

    Suffern ACE

    @Darkrose: That’s what they hope you think so you’ll demand moar playoff games. Don’t let them get you.

    /puts on tinfoil cap

  49. 49.

    Sad But True

    @Moonbatting Average:
    Sadly, I have to agree. Was highly recommended to me by someone who otherwise always seems to know exactly what i like, but American Gods left me pretty flat. I may go back and try a different Gaiman sometime, but I’m not in any kind of rush. Wasn’t bad or anything, just nothing special.

    I’m looking forward to The Twelve, which comes out, like, now, I think. The Passage wasn’t perfect but has really stuck with me.

    Also not perfect but still very good and probably the perfect match for the Balloon Juice sensibility is Skippy Dies. Funny, different, subtly political, and quite bitter.

    I will now return to the Keith Richards memoir (very entertaining so far).

  52. 52.

    lamh35

    I saw Tak*n 2 with a friend today. It was exactly what I expected, but not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

    IDK y, but I love Liam Neeson

  53. 53.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    @Sad But True:

    I will now return to the Keith Richards memoir (very entertaining so far).

    It is that – my son forced it on me, and it’s been fun. I also enjoyed the two Gillian Flynn books I just read, but I’m now discussing what I call my ‘trash reading.’ No serious literary merit to speak of other than pure fun – and what’s wrong with that? Plus, could I ever write something that good? No, no. And I rilly, rilly loved “A Cloud Atlas.”

  55. 55.

    Moonbatting Average

    @Sad But True: I agree about The Passage. I’m still not sure if it was “great”, but it sure as hell was memorable.

    But now that you’ve got me thinking about it, that was a pretty fine genre piece. Was that his first book?

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    @geg6:

    If the one you read was Neverwhere (whole thing revolves around a secret world that’s accessed through the London Underground?), I’m a Gaiman fan and I hated that book.

    IMO, Gaiman is a foreigner who writes very well about America and Americans because he admits up front that he doesn’t understand us at all, but he likes us anyway. American Gods is an interesting book because it’s a fantasy story about immigrants, written by an immigrant.

    If you hate American Gods, you’ll probably be able to say definitively that you don’t like Gaiman, so that’s one thing.

  57. 57.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    @Mnemosyne: OK, Neverwhere was the book I read, and I, too, hated it. Enough that I refused to read anything else by Gaiman again. Talk me down, please.

  58. 58.

    PurpleGirl

    @Hal: My head wants to explode trying to understand that. (Although my BA is in American Politics, I started college as a chemistry major and did heavy loads of science in High School. Also hung out with a bunch of science and pre-med people in college.)

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne

    @The Fat Kate Middleton:

    Well, I’ll try …

    IMO, what Gaiman is really good at is taking fairly abstract ideas and turning them into characters, who then have interesting stories. I was a huge fan of his Sandman comic book series, which was a giant stew of Greek myth, history, and the personifications of abstract ideas (Dream, Death, Desire, Destiny, etc.) interacting as a family. Plus, of course, every voracious reader wants to get into Dream’s library, which has every book a writer dreamed of (so it has the completed version of Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood, etc.)

    When he tries to go the standard “hero’s journey” fantasy route, I just don’t find him interesting. I have a feeling I wouldn’t like Stardust for the same reason.

    If you want to watch something that shows what Gaiman can do when he’s at the top of his game, see the animated movie Coraline. If you hate it, then you won’t like anything else by Gaiman.

  60. 60.

    eemom

    @Mnemosyne:

    If the one you read was Neverwhere (whole thing revolves around a secret world that’s accessed through the London Underground?), I’m a Gaiman fan and I hated that book.

    Interesting, because that is the only book of his I liked enough to get through. It’s the one where there’s a whole family of door-named characters (Portia, etc.) right?

    And Coraline the one with the parents with shoe button eyes? That was some very seriously creepy shit.

  62. 62.

    MomSense

    @Sarah Proud and Tall

    Thanks for the video! Best eye candy since the Olympics men’s swimming events.

  64. 64.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Or something like that.Suffern Ace:

    Rule number 2 – you’re going to regret that tattoo…

    I was just telling my lovely wife the other day that in years to come everyone will know hold old the tattoo victims are. Having them removed is no picnic either.

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