Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Consistently wrong since 2002

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Second rate reporter says what?

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

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

Petty moves from a petty man.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Let there be snark.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

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

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Meetups / Last NYC thread

Last NYC thread

by | 88 Comments

This post is in: ,

For all those both of you who might make it to Beer Authority at 8:30, I will be the guy with a beard in a dark green polo shirt.

In other news something might be happening in Syria. I am on the road and have no idea what, but commenters seem up in arms that we have not discussed it yet. So here you go. Whatever is going on I recommend that you look up what Bill Kristol says to do and urge your elected officials to do the opposite. That man and Dick Morris are the two most reliably wrong human beings on the planet.

Finally, a video of Max. The doberman truly is a brave and noble breed. I should note that the water there is about two feet deep.

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  2. 2.

    Trollhattan

    Have fun; I’ll toast from 3k mi distant.

    Today, this happened north of here.

    Shasta County sheriff’s officials have identified the three victims killed Tuesday in a triple homicide in Shingletown.

    The three are identified as the wife of the suspect, 34-year-old Sandy Miller, and two daughters, Shelby Miller, 8, and Shasta Miller, 4. The children’s father, Shane Franklyn Miller, 45, is being sought by deputies and is considered armed and dangerous.

    An alert issued by law enforcement at about 10:30 a.m. today said Miller, whose birthday is today, was possibly headed to a cabin in Ferndale, where he may have a cache of weapons.

    Background checks? We don’t need no stinking background checks. Everybody gets a “cache” and besides, could be a cache of hammers.

    Other than a few traffic tickets, Miller does not have a criminal history in Shasta, Tehama, Siskiyou or Trinity counties, according to electronic court records.

    A Humboldt County Superior Court spokeswoman said Miller has an extensive criminal history in that county dating back to the early 1990s.

    His cases included felony hit-and-run with injury in 1996, misdemeanor driving on a suspended license in 1994, being drunk in public and misdemeanor DUI in 1993, she said. Additionally, she said, he was convicted in 1996 of felony marijuana cultivation.

    Three more dead, including two tykes.

    http://www.redding.com/news/2013/may/07/deputies-investigating-stabbing-outside-shingletow/

  5. 5.

    Baud

    @raven:

    I don’t follow details of these types of stories. I thought all three brothers lived at the house.

  6. 6.

    Trollhattan

    Today’s Doodle is a great one. Launch the video and see how many film title sequences you can I.D.

  7. 7.

    ulee

    Tim F. I won’t be there tonight because I’m a housebound agoraphobic. Social anxiety is no picnic but I’ve got my dogs, Joplin and Cassady. I’ll be wearing torn sweatshirt, torn jeans, and carrying an empty wallet. But I love you all here at Balloon Juice.

  9. 9.

    Trollhattan

    @Baud:
    They’ll all be charged, but I’ll bet the brothers are busy dishing on good old Ariel. Per the BBC:

    At least two of the women held captive in an Ohio house for about a decade were raped by their captors, a source close to the case has told the BBC. One woman was forced to help Amanda Berry give birth and was threatened with death if the baby died, the source said as two of the women returned home.

    Cleveland’s police chief has said the women were bound with ropes and chains. Former school bus driver Ariel Castro, 52, has been arrested along with his two brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50.

  10. 10.

    raven

    @Baud: Apparently not. The idiots on CNN are breathless stating the obvious. “The girls must have been hidden so no one could see them”! My cable company moved MSNBC off the analog tier so I’ve been having CNN on my kitchen tube. I never realized how,uh, bad Wolf’s speech, uh, problem is, uh, till now.

  14. 14.

    WereBear

    The doberman truly is a brave and noble breed.

    Louis Doberman bred them to protect him as he made his tax collection rounds. Idiots who create vicious dogs for “protection” have it all wrong.

    We are supposed to cultivate their giant hearts.

    Legend has it that Dobes can beat a man to a hip draw in 50 paces.

  17. 17.

    ulee

    I’ve always wondered if Wolf Blitzer actually has a normal voice. Does he talk to his family in that same breathless newsbreaking method. Is he method? Does he say, “Honey, this shocking news, a squirrel has again raided the birdfeeder.” It was fun watching Andy Richter kick his ass on Jeopardy.

  19. 19.

    MikeJ

    @Trollhattan: When people ask if guns make your home safer, why don’t they ask their insurance agent? Insurance companies are heartless behemoths that do not give a shit about anything except making money. They will do everything they can to get you to minimize your risk so they can avoid ever having to pay out one red cent. This is the sacred free market at work.

    So, if somebody were to buy a gun on the premise that it made their home safer, it would seem as if they should get a cut in their insurance premium. If you have two identical cars but one has side impact airbags, chances are you’ll get a rate cut. So the question is, how much would the dollars and cents centric insurance agency cut your homeowner’s premium?

    I always smile innocently when I ask these questions.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Just discovered a little while ago that there is a radio station here that live streams the audio from MSNBC for most of the afternoon here.

    Used to broadcast solid right-wing during all the daylight hours; now they do Rush, Miller, etc. in the mornings, then switch over after noon.

  23. 23.

    Nick

    Anybody going to the NYC meet and greet better order like 12 pints of “Enjoy By 5-17-13” IPA from Stone. It will be by far the best beer on tap there. And I’m kinda fucking angry San Diego beer is available in the NYC but not here. (Stone distributes this beer by region. So the west will get one batch, then mid america, then East. etc.)

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    Can’t be there. Wrong side of the planet for me. But you all have fun.

  25. 25.

    Trollhattan

    @raven:

    I guess anything’s possible. Hard to imagine they were ignorant of everything for a decade, but maybe brother Ariel is “all that.”

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Still going.

    What is referred to here as ‘Jawaiian’ has been A Big Thing for at least 25 years.

    How times change. When I first moved here there were 2 – count ’em, 2 – AM stations and zero FM stations.

  27. 27.

    Trollhattan

    @Nick:

    You need to shake a giant bottle of Arrogant Bastard (the one with the padlock) at them. That’ll learn ’em.

  28. 28.

    ulee

    @MikeJ: I remember buying my house in 2006. The insurance agent asked if I had any pets. I told her I had two ferrets (now gone, rest their little souls) She asked if they were dangerous. I told her they were harmless. She never asked me if I owned a gun. This is USAA Insurance, and they never asked, appparently ferrets are a more dangerous liability than guns. By the way, I don’t own a gun. Never have, never will.

  29. 29.

    mouse tolliver

    @Baud: Apparently there’s no evidence that links the other two brothers to this. Not even statements from the three women. And apparently that story about the naked woman in the backyard is just hearsay. Literally one of those “I know somebody who said she saw…” kind of stories.

  31. 31.

    Patrick

    Whatever is going on I recommend that you look up what Bill Kristol says to do and urge your elected officials to do the opposite.

    February 20, 2003 regarding Saddam:

    “He’s got weapons of mass destruction. … Look, if we free the people of Iraq we will be respected in the Arab world…. I think we will be respected around the world for helping the people of Iraq to be liberated.”

    – Bill Kristol

  33. 33.

    Trollhattan

    @ulee:

    At some point recently we began getting quizzed on 1. Dog–yes/no and if yes 2. Breed? They had a no-likie list that included pitbulls (duh) German shepherds, dobermans (sorry, Tim) and…I forget what else. Since ours wasn’t on the list I don’t know if they just raised the rate or declined to cover. Gunz? Meh.

  36. 36.

    ulee

    @Trollhattan: My two sister dogs are whippet/jack russell terrier mixes. They are total cowards but if anyone was thinking about breaking in they would say, “I guess I’ll find another house.” They growl and bark and then run to me.

  37. 37.

    Anne Laurie

    @WereBear:

    The doberman truly is a brave and noble breed.

    When I first got interested in AKC obedience classes, I was surprised at how few Dobermans seemed to be involved. Scuttlebutt from the professional trainers was that Dobies tended to fall apart when confronted with ‘novel’ situations. Since the point to obedience competition — at least at that time — was a kind of doggie dressage where the human/canine team was supposed to strive for total streamlined grace however ‘imperfect’ the conditions of a particular ring or round, aspiring top competitors went for breeds who never ‘got ahead of their handler’ (goldens, shelties) or else for those that could recover & still score if they did (border collies, poodles).

    The only two dogs in my first training club who’d ever scored perfect 200 rounds (back in the mid-1980s, when this was still newsworthy) were a standard poodle and a rottweiler. Those two dogs also had a history of dramatic, highly entertaining DQ (disqualifying) rounds. The third professional handler in the club, whose goldens routinely scored 197s and 198s without ever quite reaching “perfect” in the judges’ eyes, was publicly sympathetic about overbred drama dogs who couldn’t help being unreliable, bless their hearts…

  39. 39.

    ulee

    @NotMax: Thanks, Notmax. My ferrets never saved me from drowning in quicksand, but they saved me fom sadness nonetheless. I remember coming home from work and Maggie had dug up all my plants and capsized them. She came running to me and was obviously saying,”Papa, I had the most fun today.”

  40. 40.

    PsiFighter37

    I hope there’s good lighting because that’s an awfully vague description. If you keep your collar down, maybe it’ll be easy enough to find you.

    Hope you are going to be there until at least 9-9:30ish, as I’ll probably make my way over to that part of town by then.

  42. 42.

    JCT

    Poor Max!

    I know that phenotype well – my beagles are comically afraid of the water, taking them to the beach was always a laugh riot. Hell, one of them is so food-obsessed she would probably walk on hot coals for a snack, but water? Ah no.

  43. 43.

    MattR

    Looks like my call should be over by 7:30 so I hope to be there by 9 if the traffic and parking gods permit.

    @JCT: This is why I am glad my kennel bathes Ellie before giving her back to me. If I try to do it, the entire building will think I am murdering her based on the blood curdling squeals.

  44. 44.

    IowaOldLady

    I love the way Max looks away and pretends he doesn’t care. And really, how’s he supposed to know how deep the water is, poor baby?

  45. 45.

    TG Chicago

    @Nick: Good recommendation. I haven’t had that, but I had the Enjoy By 9-??-12, and it was tasty.

    (?? = I forget the exact date)

  46. 46.

    PurpleGirl

    @ulee: My Peekskill friends had 3 ferrets. One albino, who was huge, was the last of her litter still at the pet store and N felt sorry for her so he bought her; the other two were sisters a fellow IBM employee had advertized as needing a new home because they couldn’t be kept any longer. N said he’d take them and find them a permanent home — he did, with himself.

    One of the sisters would sit on my shoulder and lick my cheek. She liked my salty skin. It tickled me — such a small tiny tongue and so soft. I liked watching the sisters play and run around. The albino hadn’t been socialized and was hard to handle at times, but she liked going into plastic bags and being swung around in them.

  47. 47.

    ranchandsyrup

    I coulda fedexed you the Tunch pic poster from the SD meetup. My daughter made me put it in her room for a spell because she loves the “big kitty”.

  49. 49.

    Linkmeister

    You gotta admit, from the camera angle that water looks to be the North Sea from one of the Orkney Islands. I don’t blame Max a bit.

  50. 50.

    Davis X. Machina

    Whatever it is in Syria, BBC World Service’s home page knows naught thereof.

  51. 51.

    PsiFighter37

    Whenever I show up, I’m wearing a black windbreaker over a blue Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt

  52. 52.

    eemom

    From our splendiforous DC area meetup in Feb, I have this advice to pass along: hang out near the door while waiting for folks to arrive….it is very easy to spot the BJers by the way they are looking around as they come in.

  53. 53.

    MattR

    @Trollhattan: That was how I was gonna find the group tonight. Wander through the bar listening for the people discussing the finer points of naked mopping.

  54. 54.

    Yatsuno

    Dobies have very little body fat and wide dense chests. They don’t swim very well, so Max iz smaht puppeh.

  56. 56.

    Tonal Crow

    @Trollhattan:

    The children’s father, Shane Franklyn Miller, 45, is being sought by deputies and is considered armed and dangerous.

    He’s armed with a 1982 Volare hubcap, right?

  57. 57.

    MomSense

    I can’t keep my lab out of the water–he just loves to swim.

    He is terrible at fetch though. He likes to get the stick or ball but refuses to bring it back to you. We call him a Labrador receiver.

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Back when a group of us worked at a summer camp and also lived there year-round, someone who had worked there that summer (whom we didn’t have much respect towards) asked if we would sit her golden lab while she took a two-week vacation at the end of the season.

    Loveable dog, but also the stupidest canine in the known galaxy.

    She was somewhat taken aback when she returned and discovered we had managed to retrain the dog over the fortnight to respond only to the name ‘Veggie.’

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Except beagles.

    Have known three families/friends who owned a beagle.

    In all three cases, from the very first time I set foot in their house onwards, the beagle made a warp speed beeline in order to chomp down hard on my ankle.

  68. 68.

    NorthLeft12

    Chocolate Lab owner housemate here. I would have a hard time keeping my dog Gus out of the water. Whether there was a stick floating out of reach or not.

    Gus is always entertaining to the other owners at the dog park here in Sarnia as he quickly heads for the nearest mud hole for a good lay down and roll after saying hello to the other dogs and their owners. Fortunately there is a large and deep pond nearby to wash him off in.
    I have come to believe that Gus has trained me to do this.

    Dog Park > Mud hole > Swim in Pond !!

  70. 70.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    Going to bed at 8:00 pm so I can catch a 7:15 am flight to Norfolk, then Virginia Beach. This should be an easy gig. I didn’t score a room at the oceanfront hotel I stayed in last time there. In-season rates exceed my travel protocols.
    Monday – Thursday it’s San Diego. I get to see the Atlantic, Great Lakes and the Pacific all in 4 lively days.

    So I’ll be lurking for the next week or so. It’s easy to read BJ on my iPhone, and I do. Commenting mobile-ly is a great hassle so I don’t. But I’ll be around.
    Cheers.

  72. 72.

    Tonal Crow

    @Roger Moore:

    He’s armed with a 1982 Volare hubcap, right?

    Close; it’s a 1979 Datsun 210.

    Oooo, those Datsuns had really light, strong hubcaps. I used to hunt deer with those, and never failed to stock the freezer for the entire year. Never tried ’em on bear, though.

  73. 73.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yatsuno:

    Am I imagining things, or have you changed the speeling of your nym? (Or perhaps you’re someone entirely different and not Classic Yutsano at all.)

  75. 75.

    JWL

    Cut Max some slack. Sure, you know the water is 2 feet deep, but he probably doesn’t. More to the point, that’s a steep angle of bank. Max probably understands that if he commits, he wouldn’t necessarily be able to climb back out.

    David Letterman told the following story about his two dogs. He woke up one morning and glanced down at his swimming pool. One dog was in the deep end of the pool, frantically bumping up against the side trying to get out– the fact there was a shallow end didn’t occur to it. Meanwhile, the other dog, without betraying any feeling one way or the other, sat a few feet away vacantly staring at the other dog’s frantic attempt– as if it was gazing out a window on a lazy afternoon.

  76. 76.

    raven

    @JWL: We had a dead squirrel in our rain barrel. Dude had been in there a while and was really ripe.

  78. 78.

    JPL

    @JWL: We put a pool in Dallas cuz you have to. I didn’t want dog hair so trained the dog to stay out of the water. I realized that if the dog were to fall in, he wouldn’t know how to get out. Long story short, it’s December and we are heating the pool in order to teach the dog how to get out. The boys thought it was wonderful too.

  80. 80.

    Ash

    And back at the airport! Looks like the plane will leave after 10. Hopefully things turn out better this time around. If anything now seems like the perfect time to pick up drinking!

  81. 81.

    PsiFighter37

    I’m fucking wasted: is Tim still at the bar? Will factor into how aggressive I am getting cross town

    PF37 +5 Belgians

  83. 83.

    MattR

    @PsiFighter37: Unfortunately we have left the building. I would have hung out a bit longer if I had seen that you were on the way. That would have kept me from sitting in post-Rangers game traffic trying to get to the Lincoln Tunnel.

  88. 88.

    related

    It’s actually a great as well as practical part of details. I am delighted for you to shared this useful information about. Remember to keep us knowledgeable like this. Many thanks for giving.

Comments are closed.