Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Open Thread: A Light Twinkling in the Murk

Open Thread: A Light Twinkling in the Murk

by | 63 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Doghouse Riley, on his way to an epic fisking of the latest conventional-wisdom Media Villager attempts to spin Rubio’s post-SotU rebutal:

Maybe it’s just the ever-sunny optimist in me, but I have a vague and happy thoughtbubble, the size of a child’s balloon, that the Middle Way “movement” in this country, the whole anti-partisanship, undecided voter mindset, is turning away, not from the Republican party, which even it has had to recognize for some time now as the source of the problems it was complaining about, but from the Beltway insider view of the problem. Which, if I may summarize, is that there aren’t enough John McCains in the Congress….

Look, don’t get me wrong; I’ve lived through the political popularity of Ronald Reagan and Mitch Daniels, and at least three resurrections of Richard Nixon. I know anything’s possible. I also know that Marco Rubio can take all the soundings he wants, train his crew 18 hours a day, and buy the best admiral’s hat he can find, and his boat will still be on the rocks, and the scuppers overflow’d, and the only functioning lifeboat will already contain the Koch brothers, Rush Limbaugh, and two or three anti-abortion activists waving Bushmasters. I look forward to his finessing that for the next three years….

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    Debbie(aussie)

    I have a terrible decision to make. my almost 16 yr old puppy is not at all well and I think it is time to say goodbye:(

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    That’s actually the first time I have ever read an entire Doghouse Riley piece. And the last.
    It sounds like a me on speedballs but determined to fit 5000 words onto a page.
    I like me and all but shit, that kind of fucked me up a little.

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    Did anyone else waste an hour trying to watch “Zero Hour” on ABC tonight?
    Completely fucking lost me. No idea what’s going on here. And almost Zero reason to care to give it another Hour.
    Yeah. I just did that.

  7. 7.

    Corner Stone

    I don’t want to put on my Big Boy pants and go wading into the thread below so I will just say here, the absolutely best night’s sleep I have had in almost 5 years now came when I was on a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. No phone reception, no internet unless you wanted to trade your first born for minutes, and we had an internal cabin at the end of an inside hallway. AKA, no neighbors on one side and no foot traffic past our cabin. Nights as dark and black as my soul, with the AC cranked down to like 60F. No kids stomping past and no old timers stumbling by wondering where they were. IOW, heaven.

  10. 10.

    Mark S.

    A lot of people are talking a NYT Mag article about young republicans trying to save their idiotic party. I was going to read it but then saw it was 10 pages long and realized I didn’t care that much. According to Ed Kilgore:

    But if you had to choose one theme that underlies the arguments Draper’s hearing from the cool kids of the GOP, it’s that the Christian Right has gotta go. It will be interesting to see if the leaders of that very important Republican faction—who have generated more Republican votes and dollars than all the hip libertarians ever born—realize they are once again being shown the door.

    I’m pretty sure if anyone’s going to be shown the door, it will be the Fonzi of Freedom and not the millions of fundies who provide the actual votes for the goopers.

  11. 11.

    Corner Stone

    I’ve seen the series “Science of Sex Appeal” before but it is just…umm..fucking fascinating, if you ask me.

  13. 13.

    Corner Stone

    @Mark S.:

    and not the millions of fundies who provide the actual votes for the goopers.

    “provide the actual dumb money for the goopers”

    The Koch cash and Club for Growth goes around but robbing Peter is always an easy favorite amongst the GOP faithful.

  14. 14.

    smufobot

    The Eurozone is not even close to being in anything like a recovery. And the continued “look the other way” mentality is not going to work.
    Or oratory of a new trade agreement.
    Just more words.

  15. 15.

    trollhattan

    @Debbie(aussie):

    So, so sorry to hear this. We went to our vet to find out how to know when it’s time and sure enough, when the day came I knew based on what she told us. He was 16 and had lung cancer; the vet told how to tell when he wasn’t getting enough oxygen–the likeliest scenario.

    I won’t lie, it’s the hardest thing there is and yet, it’s ultimately an act of kindness and love. My thoughts are with you and your buddy.

  20. 20.

    Ed or Edna Dane Defender of Donuts

    I wonder what Cole is up to. He keeps having bad luck, computer issues, locking his safe with all the keys inside, buying lots of things that the cat never uses when a cap off a bottle of Coke could probably be more entertaining. I hope he isn’t ill or something.

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack

    @Corner Stone:

    I put it on the DVR but haven’t watched it yet.

    On a similar note, I am thinking about bailing on The Following. It’s a hot mess, and it doesn’t look like it’s getting better. Too bad, because the cast is pretty good.

  25. 25.

    JustRuss

    Apropos of nothing, I just met a woman who worked with Sarah Palin in her mayoral campaign. Felt she was a good mayor, but then got in way over her head. That’s all I got.

  26. 26.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Debbie(aussie): hang in, Debbie. We went through it twice in five months with our cats. It’s awful. Now we’re cat-less. Grief blows. Time does its work, and we never forget, and that’s the way it needs to be, I think.

  27. 27.

    FlipYrWhig

    @burnspbesq: you don’t like Pierce? I think Pierce has much better comic timing. Not quite Wolcott or Bérubé, but few are. Doghouse Riley is to me more like HTML Mencken from Sadly, No. Needs an editor and some self-deprecation that isn’t just a pose.

  29. 29.

    James E. Powell

    Quote from the linked blogpost:

    This country has been vacillating between Reaganomics and Reaganomics Lite for thirty-five years now; if they’re so magical why are we still having this conversation?

    This is true. But it’s never mentioned on any talk shows. No Republican guest, whether a “deficit hawk” or “cut taxes on the rich” Republican. They always get to pretend that we haven’t been using Republican policies for over thirty years without ever seeing the promised results.

    Why do you suppose that is so?

  30. 30.

    James E. Powell

    @JustRuss:

    Palin was mayor of a town of less than 10,000 people, in a state that is awash in money from oil and the federal government. How hard could it be to do a good job?

  31. 31.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Frankensteinbeck: nah. The one-percenters and the Bible-bangers found themselves making common cause over the idea that Those People were bent on taking their hard-earned stuff. That whole party is just different flavors of white resentment against moochers and darkies. Rich, poor, Christian, super-mega-fundie Christian, libertarian, paranoid gun nut, that’s what keeps ‘me all on the same side.

  33. 33.

    Redshirt

    Our very existence is a light twinkling in the murk, literally. Atoms joining with atoms, photons piercing the fog, compounds and reactions leading to any and everything, all at once, bam!

  34. 34.

    ? Martin

    The beeb is saying that there’s been multiple meteorite impacts in central Russia. That NEO that is supposed to whiz by in a few hours looks to have had some friends. If so, this may not be the only one.

  36. 36.

    Spaghetti Lee

    I’ll dissent and say DH is a good writer, if a bit longwinded. I suspect I don’t read him regularly because his stuff is too depressing.

  39. 39.

    Mnemosyne

    @Debbie(aussie):

    The metric our vet gave us when our kitty Natasha had cancer was that as long as she was still able to do her major bodily functions (eat, drink, pee and poop) and was not hiding, she still had enough quality of life that we did not have to rush into anything.

    It is NOT a fun thing to do, but there is some comfort in knowing that you’re preventing your furry friend from suffering. It’s hard, but try to stay focused on what’s best for your dog and if s/he seems ready to go. They really do let you know.

    Good luck and condolences.

  41. 41.

    ? Martin

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    “Russia Today”, one of the most ridiculous non-Onion “news” sources on the planet, are saying that, according to a “source”, Russian air defense detected the meteorite and shot it down.

    Nonsense. Sarah Palin would have seen that from her house.

  46. 46.

    Death Panel Truck

    @Debbie(aussie): My heartfelt condolences. It’s never easy to let go of a pet. I had a grey cockatiel hen for 14 years. Simone was eight years old when I got her from my brother-in-law in 1995. He and his wife had neglected her, and she was happy to be with a family who loved her.

    She stood on my shoulder every day for 14 years until she got progressively sicker with a respiratory ailment. Toward the end she was gasping for every breath, but I just couldn’t bring myself to have my buddy euthanized. I was thinking more of myself than of her. My wife finally convinced me it was time to let go of Simone.

    As we were waiting in the examining room for the vet tech to come in and perform the procedure, Simone died right front of me in the shoebox I had brought her in. The vet tech had left us in the room so we could have a few minutes to say goodbye. I told Simone it was okay for her to go, and about 90 seconds later she breathed her last. I still feel bad that I let her suffer needlessly when it was obvious that it was time for mercy. I only hope she forgave me.

  47. 47.

    Debbie(aussie)

    @Death Panel Truck:
    Thank you for sharing. Patch has respiratory problems too. He had some teeth removed two plus years ago and has had horrible sinus problems ever since. He started on steroids just after Christmas. They have helped, but that is diminishing, he has gained a lot of weirht and is always hungry. As he is stil doing all mnenysone mentioned above and the fact that I love him,I am reluctant to let him go.

  48. 48.

    Debbie(aussie)

    Can’t edit, sorry, should be ‘weight’. I can spell, honest, typing is another matter tho.

  50. 50.

    ? Martin

    @Nemo_N: Wayne LaPierre will run an ad tomorrow warning everyone that under Obama’s America, nobody will be allowed to have a gun capable of shooting down a meteorite.

  54. 54.

    Schlemizel

    @NotMax:

    Is that like Eskimo words for snow? Why 3 words to describe the same thing? I propose “space rock”. So simple a gooper can use it

  57. 57.

    SFAW

    @Schlemizel:

    So simple a gooper can use it

    You lie!

    1) It has two words, not one.
    2) It doesn’t mention Jeebus
    3) It sounds like something a moocher would use
    4) It’s perilously close to “rock and roll,” which is music of the Debbil
    5) It contains no grammatical errors (as far as I can tell)
    6) Ted Nugent
    7) It’s not white

    and there are many more reasons, but you get the idea.

  58. 58.

    ed_finnerty

    Debbie(Aussie)

    I have had two long termers to deal with in the last year. One (14 years) had cancer and died on the way to the vet. But he was himself and happy (though weak) up until the last hour or so. The other, (18+ years) just wore out. The last two weeks I was on vacation and spent every hour with her. She slept during the day and we both stayed up and watched bad TV at night (Yuup). One night she just gave me THAT look and I called the vet the next day. I miss the smell of her ears.

    It is not easy, but whatever you decide don’t regret any of it.

  63. 63.

    central texas

    Well (2) and (6) I beg to differ. IMO, Ol’ Doghouse and Mr. Pierce offer some of the best informed commentary to be read in the blogs. Perhaps, (6) Dave Brooks or Douthat is more to your taste, at least in their NYTs benign version.

    The nice things about both Doghouse and Pierce are that they have been watching for a long time, they remember what they saw and they have an effective way of saying what it means.

Comments are closed.