I’m taking the next couple of days off. I’ll be back on Tuesday. I am going to do something I have not done in eleven years of blogging and thirteen years of online work, and just cuttting out. I’m going to work in the yard, sleep in late, and basically shut it all down and not answer emails or texts or anything else, including the cell phone.
If you don’t hear from me in the interim, don’t panic. If you don’t hear from me on Tuesday, well, consider this my GBCW.
I love this:
PhoenixRising
Good on ya. Enjoy. You may find that you like your own company and want to make a regular thing of it.
NickT
Clearly, this is John Cole’s Benghazi-IRS scandal, unfolding before our eyes.
Sandia Blanca
Just to review before you go off the grid: no mopping, no power tools, check for the mustard before you leave the store–anything else?
lamh35
I totally don’t believe you’ll be able to resist, unless it’s a slow weekend…lol.
We all need a vay-kay sometimes
MikeJ
I predict 17 posts before midnight.
YellowJournalism
If we don’t hear from you on Tuesday, we’ll assume you got drunk and fell asleep over the weekend, forgot to feed Tunch, and he ate you.
burnspbesq
Don’t forget to watch the lax Final Four. Semis (Duke-Cornell and Denver-Syracuse) at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. Championship game at 1:00 Eastern on Monday.
NotMax
Gridtease.
TheOtherWA
Everyone needs to unplug occasionally. I hope you have a good time and get a lot done. We’ll be here waiting to see photos of the yard and furry critters next week.
askew
Have fun.
Since this is an open thread, I am in the process of waiting through the First Reactions thread and I am so disappointed in the comments Kay made throughout the thread. Her argument seems to be Obama should just close GITMO somehow. Apparently just stomping your feet and demanding Obama do something is all it takes even though there is NO FUCKING WAY FOR HIM TO CLOSE GITMO WITHOUT CONGRESS’S APPROVAL. He has no money to close GITMO and he can’t get money without Congress. Congress has forbidden the transfer of detainees to US prisons. There is nothing he can do, yet Kay demands he do it anyway. My opinion of Kay just plummeted after reading her comments, since they were so fucking moronic.
TaMara (BHF)
@MikeJ: This.
And btw, I have an awesome recipe post planned for tomorrow night, can’t believe you’re gonna miss it.
Ruckus
Enjoy.
Corner Stone
I tried this once. Once.
Suffern ACE
Since he’s gone, would it be ok to turn this place into the early 80s adult contemporary fan site we’ve always wanted it to be? I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you…
pokeyblow
USA! USA!
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/23/washington-skagit-river-bridge-collapse/2356801/
Corner Stone
@Suffern ACE: I know you were right believing for so long…
kc
We’re not gonna be ignored, John.
pseudonymous in nc
@pokeyblow:
Sorry, all the infrastructure money got spent on a sports stadium.
NickT
@kc:
If Cole were innocent, he wouldn’t be pleading the blog fifth this way…
NickT
@pseudonymous in nc:
Or a casino.
? Martin
@MikeJ: Just 17? I would have gone higher.
pokeyblow
@pseudonymous in nc: That’s like Chicago, where there are simultaneous pressing needs to close a lot of public schools, and to build a publically-financed basketball arena for Catholic DePaul University!
RAHMBO! USA! RAHMBO! USA!
JWL
“Blogger John Cole Found Dead- Apparent Suicide”.
“About Time” Say Critics.
Medical Examiner: “Blogger Pet’s Feasted On Corpse”.
Suffern ACE
@askew: no, you may not post that here. You need to post it in the proper thread.
I’m beginning to think that John is gone for three minutes and someone needs to maintain order and discipline around here. Shees.
Corner Stone
@? Martin: 17?!
She’s only seventeen
Still she gives me love, like I’ve never seen
She’s only seventeen
Stan
Have a great break. You deserve it.
MikeJ
@JWL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3dTc4kyIOU
Corner Stone
@askew: Why are you waiting? Get in there and get to work Obot!
Calming Influence
OT: Our infrastructure superiority asserts itself again – a bridge on interstate 5 north of me has collapsed. Looks like little if any loss of life. Frrreeeedom, you fucking doucebag Tea Party assholes.
Geoduck
WA state’s broken and regressive tax-structure is a far bigger problem than any sports stadium.
NickT
@JWL:
In later years, eccentric recluse had accumulated over 500 Terrible Towels and the largest in-state collection of Tebow porn. Neighbors described him as “different”, “unusual” and a “serial exhibitionist -especially when mopping drunk after midnight”.
Corner Stone
@JWL: “Man masquerading as somewhat well known blogger John Cole found dead tonight. The ugly details in this hour’s broadcast. Stay tuned.”
aimai
I don’t believe you. You will be posting again in five hours, tops. or Tunch will.
Corner Stone
I, for one, welcome our new DougJ overlord.
Clearly this is where he makes his move from wooden puppet to “real boy”.
PurpleGirl
@askew: … waiting through the…
I think you meant …wading through the…
Sorry, but sometimes not using the correct word really makes me crazy.
pokeyblow
I just hope that psycho killer dude doesn’t seize this moment to kill all of us, and his co-workers.
NickT
@pokeyblow:
George Will is loose in your neighborhood?
p.a.
John hasn’t been the same since he kicked the Sully habit.
TheOtherWA
Yes, a bridge on I-5 has collapsed in my state. Thanks Tea Party assholes for pushing for more tax cuts for the rich.
Fuck these crazy people! We need to spend money, a lot of it, repairing the infrastructure.
Poopyman
Try to get laid, will ya?
pokeyblow
Bridges are people too, my friend. Sometimes they let you down.
Corner Stone
“God dammit son! I told you not to touch my Turble Towels collection! Why do you make me do this?! WHY!
Why do you make me treat you this way?? Now get back in the fucking basement, you little imp! Get back down there til Daddy tells you to come out and rub his feet! No! No, you can not watch The Big Lebowski with me again. Stop. Just stopit! You’re not gonna weasel outta that dam dungeon again! I don’t give a fuck what Uncle Wiley Cash has to say!”
pokeyblow
@NickT: Worse. A real threat, right here on this blog.
PurpleGirl
JGC: Enjoy yourself… but I sorta don’t believe you can stay away from blog.
NickT
Erick Erickson justifies his ongoing wife-beating with some .. interesting.. Biblical scholarship.
NickT
@Poopyman:
Let’s not get into wildly apocalyptic predictions too soon.
NickT
Speaking of theologians of our time:
Calming Influence
@Geoduck: Absolutely. No income tax? Oh boy! Tax the fuck out of everything else? Ohhhh…I didn’t think of that.
p.a.
@TheOtherWA: I’ve never read Hofstadter- would he help me understand how the richest society in history produces such a rabid minority of loons? ‘Cause I’m stumped. It has to be more than racism and status anxiety, yes?
NickT
@p.a.:
http://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/1/
? Martin
If that bridge was actually important the free market would have replaced it before now.
FlyingToaster
I think our host should have waited until after the Friday DC trash dump. Even if he’s not here, I’m confident we’ll see an outraged drunken tweet tomorrow evening.
Or Saturday, if the Bruins win. Heh, heh, heh [in my best Pablo as the Master of Disguise voice].
NickT
@FlyingToaster:
If they lose, we can confidently expect some reaction from the brooding volcanic heap that is Cole.
NickT
@? Martin:
In fact, that bridge was clearly illegal, because it self-deported.
mai naem
Apparently this is the main west coast freeway to Canada so obviously it’s Obama targeting Teabaggers who were trying to get into that sweet sweet socialist canadian healthcare system.
Also too, me thinks John is trying to get together with his lady friend. The one from was it Austin? or Charlotte? whichever.
NickT
@mai naem:
Never-Never Land? Isn’t that where the Lost Boys live?
GxB
@Corner Stone: Insert Graham Chapman in military uniform, withdrawing pipe from mouth “Stop that filth! This thread is just silly!”
If it continues I shall have to call out the big guns: Chris DeBurgh “Don’t Pay the Ferryman”
Now that’s some weapons grade ’80’s Limburger (or possibly Frumunda)
Corner Stone
@mai naem: She went back to her husband.
Punchy
I, for one, dont believe you can keep your enormously giant hands off yer child for 4 days.
BGinCHI
Breaking News:
Large man stalking frozen food section in tri-state area dressed as Freddy Mercury.
BOLO.
Narcissus
Hey remember that time when we had bridges that didn’t fall into rivers
That was a hoot
jl
Some commenter said Cole doesn’t need welfare checks because he is always online. What now?
Good luck, John Cole! I hope you survive this hazardous adventure. Keep your folks posted on where you will be around the house. If you plan any bathroom mopping, etc.
YellowJournalism
Earthquake in Reno now? Someone cue up REM.
Mnemosyne
Cat owners should look into getting a Neko Flies toy for their cat(s). I broke it out 45 minutes ago and all three cats are still obsessed with it. Charlotte is making the same noises she does when she’s cornered a real bug.
keestadoll
It’s easy to do JC. I’ve gone off the grid so many times! I know you said no cell, but no land line calling t’boot? How little drunk on the prairie are you going?
Suffern ACE
@mai naem: perhaps a Mexican beauty? Some people say that there’s a woman to blame.
amk
Don’t worry. The booze will wear off by morn.
sacrablue
I just felt my first earthquake!
Poopyman
@Narcissus:
I think we can all agree that at this point that span is “structurally deficient.”
Corner Stone
Yeek yeek woop woop!! why you all in my ear?!
Talking a whole bunch of shit
That I ain’t trying to hear!
mdblanche
@p.a.: It has to be more than racism and status anxiety, yes?
I don’t see why.
TheOtherWA
@p.a.: I haven’t either. I cannot explain or understand these selfish, stupid mother fuckers.
Poopyman
@Me: I really should be citing sources.
Gravenstone
@NickT: Amusing when folks intentionally conflate Old and New Testes like Erick von Erick.
Gravenstone
@NickT: So Herr Fischer is rabidly anti-Catholic, yes?
ruemara
God, I adore that Dead Milkmen song, along with “Punk Rock Girl”. I will not go off the grid, but I will go take pictures of my friend performing in a banjo band. It seems there’s some sort of musical fest and she got me a pass. I think my friends want me to go outside or something.
Mnemosyne
@NickT:
Of course, the people that Christ would “throw a punch” at were the rich and powerful, not the poor and downtrodden. Unless EE is under the impression that the moneylenders in the temple were somehow the equivalent of the homeless guy who asks him for change in front of McDonald’s.
MattR
@Poopyman: I was already nervous every time I cross the Tappan Zee Bridge. and after today’s collapse in Washington I may end up going the long way to a Memorial Day BBQ to avoid crossing it. Thank god they are finally replacing it. Should have been done 20 years ago.
EDIT: And here is a Bloomberg op ed from 2012 stating that there was no rush to replace the TZ because it was “functionally obsolete” not “structurally deficient”
Calming Influence
Just heard on KIRO7 that it’s not easy to see all the bolts during bridge inspections. Expecting to have to remove shoes and bolts when traveling on interstates in the future.
NickT
@Gravenstone:
Fischer is rabidly anti-humanity. Pretty much everyone but Fischer and cronies stands condemned by Fischer’s fantasy god.
SatanicPanic
@NickT: can we be sure that Bryan Fisher isn’t just a Youtube commenter in disguise?
Suffern ACE
@MattR: I don’t know. Do you think bear mountain is any more secure? It’s just shorter.
Gravenstone
@NickT: True, just looking for confirmation that he’s consistent in his anti-sodomite stance amongst religious organizations. Of course, I’m sure his own special brand of religious fanaticism is exempt from such requirements,
MattR
@Suffern ACE: That bridge is kinda scary too (and from what I recall the Newburgh-Beacon is no picnic either). But shorter and scary is better than longer and scary (and with more traffic). If I detour, I would actually go over the GWB or through one of the tunnels and up the west side of Manahattan and deal with the extra traffic.
TheOtherWA
@SatanicPanic: I love your screen name.
NickT
@Gravenstone:
I am so tempted to Twitter troll him by asking how Jesus feels about naked mopping.
Calming Influence
@sacrablue: Cool, huh? I felt my first in northern California in 1981, and the friends we were with were saying “it is NOT cool! You could get KILLED!”
But it is cool.
trollhattan
Hilarious. If history is any guide, expect triple the normal number of JC posts. Flipside is we can really wreck the joint. Win-win!
ruemara
@sacrablue: NorCal?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I posted a link to the bridge collapse on Facebook with the comment “No one will be able to get to the unfunded schools anyway.” (Yep, I’m one of those facebook people.)
Then I also posted the story about the 18 year old who bought a gun at a party, stuck it in his pocket and then shot his dick and a testicle off, with the bullet getting lodged in his thigh. “Ow.”
Suffern ACE
@MattR: and yet we don’t have a large tea party on this state. Just the folks who finance it in other states, but build us crown jewel medical centers and renovate the opera house.
LT
Good onya, Cole. Go away, look at a tree, fart on the doggies, enjoy your damn self.
Come back smarter…
EDIT: I kid! I meant Come back taller! Taller!
SatanicPanic
@TheOtherWA: Thanks!
NickT
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
“My name is Grover Norquist, King of Kings
Look on my works, ye Yankees and despair.
Nothing beside remains. Round that colossal wreck
The lone and level strip malls stretch far away…”
San Fran Beantowner
Always admired you Cole. This just pushes it up to eleven.
sacrablue
@ruemara: Yes, the quake was in Greeneville, Plumas County, felt it in Sacramento.
eemom
fer fuxsake, I am so old I remember when Cole would do a post like this, and everybody knew there’d be like 83 times more Cole posts than usual while he’s “off the grid.”
NickT
@eemom:
Tell us about the mammoth hunting when you were a little girl, venerable crone.
LT
LIttle River Band – never knew until I moved to Oz that they’re a bunch of Aussies! How could I not know that when they owned the radio when I was a kid?!
NickT
@LT:
Hey LT, what’s the latest on Julia Gillard? Is she doomed?
zombie rotten mcdonald
Bitchin Camaro is great, and Punk Rock Girl is even better.
I’ve been leaning toward doing the same thing, John; even put the main blog on Deathwatch while I make the call….
MattR
@Suffern ACE: That is because they already own the politicians in NY state. There was no need to create a new, fake “party” here.
Rockland gets screwed because it is considered a NYC suburb by the follks upstate (who resent the power that NYC holds in state affairs) but is not actually part of NYC so doesn’t have the clout to get much done themselves. I don’t think the people in Westchester care all too much about the TZ. Maybe the business owners who employ Rocklanders coming over it care, but not the average citizen. So nobody with any power ever cared enough to break the gridlock of all the local groups who were insisting on getting everything their way. I think Cuomo finally got scared that the bridge was gonna collapse on his watch and decided he better use his influence to get things moving.
Bob In Portland
@NickT: 35 years ago my punk band had a song, “Jesus Was An Athlete”.
Jesus was an athlete
even though he didn’t compete
as a man he was complete
Jesus was an athlete
He walked on the water and he walked on the land.
He never took money to endorse any brand.
He used to talk to Gary Lavelle
before the bullpen went to hell.
He didn’t care ’bout Rosie Ruiz.
Every loser is a friend of his.
Jesus was an athlete
even though he would compete.
As a man he was complete.
Jesus was an athlete.
trollhattan
@sacrablue:
Looks like Plumas County, a 5.7, Didn’t feel it so it never happened. Last quake I really felt in Sac was Loma Prieta, so I figure we’re well overdue.
Gex
The thing I have learned since cutting WAY back on Balloon-Juice was that it was easier for me to express here because here is where people *can* ignore my stuff without feeling guilty. For me it was easier thinking I wouldn’t be burdening anyone.
Pretty much the opposite of what Mr. Troll thought. Oh well. I hope Mr. Troll can forgive my whining about this also. What an attention whore I am.
sacrablue
@trollhattan: It felt like someone jumped on a 60s-style waterbed. Just a weird rolling feeling. The cats were definitely confused.
dewzke
Have a good, fun weekend. We will pollute your internets in your absence.
Redshift
@MattR:
Speaking of which, David Koch is holding a fundraiser for Ken Cuccinelli. Buying wholesale, I guess…
CaseyL
Ooh! $30 car tabs!
When I-695 passed back in ’99, it kicked the legs out from under the DOT, which depended on the excise tax for a large part of its budget. Washingtonians have Tim Eyman to thank for our decaying transportation superstructure – Eyman, and all the morons who voted in favor of 695. The roads have gone to hell since then, and so have the bridges.
dewzke
Where’s Cole’s liquor at?
Odie Hugh Manatee
I predict that this won’t last for long. :) John will HAVE to yell at something or somebody before long.
OT (because that’s the way we roll here):
G. Zimmerman’s attorney seems to be going for the old ‘it was her lifestyle and that she was dressed for rape and all but asking for it’ in his defense of Zimmerman killing Martin. Except for the fact that Zimmerman didn’t see any of what his attorney is alleging is proof that Martin was trying to kill Zimmerman until after Martin was killed.
It’s like someone using the above ‘rape defense’ and asking us to ignore the fact that the rapist was blind and didn’t know shit about their victim.
Redshift
@Gex: I know the feeling. It’s hard to tear myself away (even when I really should be doing other stuff), but I’ve also had to accept the fact that while I have good conversations here and there’s a good feeling of community, nobody really misses me when I’m gone.
trollhattan
@sacrablue:
I once rode out a quake on a waterbed when I was homebound with stomach flu. This, I must say, was a time I hurled much hatred at mother nature.
Mark S.
Ever watch a movie that insults your intelligence so much that you’re incredibly pissed off afterwards? Fuck you David Fincher.
TaMara (BHF)
@Gex: You know the real BJ-ers welcome your posts and support you. Come vent anytime. We all do it when needed, why shouldn’t you? Fuck him, btw, I saw his nastiness it was uncalled for and unwelcome.
[[hugs]]
trollhattan
@dewzke:
There’s a sort of “Raiders” test, where you must get past Tunch by heaping sand in equal weight to get past the trap.
Bring a lot of sand.
dewzke
I’m gonna post this on behalf of my “not knowing where he is” brother. Even ending number on Interstates are East and West….Odd or North and South. Even starting are around a city and odd are spurs into the city!
dewzke
This comes from him asking “where am I?” How would I know?
Suffern ACE
@Odie Hugh Manatee: this is going to be another one of those high profile cases where everyone knows all of these facts that aren’t going to be entered in as evidence. And 1/2 are going to be outraged at the verdict. I don’t know which 1/2 though.
Mnemosyne
@Mark S.:
Yep, that was pretty much my reaction, too. Fincher did not understand the difference between a twist ending (one that casts new light on everything that came before) and a trick ending (one that makes the whole rest of the movie completely nonsensical).
Mark S.
All you have to do is play the game
Mnemosyne
@Gex:
There’s also something soothing about the semi-anonymity of it — you can bitch and moan about your friend or your boss or your partner and it’s pretty unlikely to come back and bite you in the ass like it could if you confide in the wrong person IRL.
MattR
@Mnemosyne: That is my problem with Fight Club, another Fincher film. Maybe I was spoiled by The Sixth Sense which works beautifully when you rewatch it knowing the twist at the end (and which had come out a couple months before), but I can’t watch Fight Club knowing the twist because it makes too many scenes ridiculous. I was blown away watching the Sixth Sense for the first time when the twist is revealed. I laughed when watching Fight Club. Then I got angry that I had just wasted two hours of my life.
Mark S.
@Mnemosyne:
SPOILERS
If I were Michael Douglas’ character, at the end of the movie I would hunt down and kill every single last mother fucker involved in that thing, starting with my idiot brother. I would not be thinking that was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.
MomSense
@Gex:
Hello!
Ok, so I am now hooked on Doctor Who. Thanks a lot everyone who kept talking about it here. I’m pretty sure I just watched Kylie Minogue. the werewolf from the UK Being Human, and Richard Bucket (bouquet) save Christmas.
I’m starting to think there are only 50 British actors who play all the roles.
dewzke
@MattR: Both were great movies. Sixth Sense I get but I do not want to watch again. Fight Club, yes.
BillinGlendaleCA
@sacrablue: First earthquake? Welcome to CA.
BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: A coworker felt the Loma Prieta quake in downtown LA. She was on the 46th floor though.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Suffern ACE:
For me there’s one unassailable fact in the case:
If Zimmerman had left Martin alone that night, Martin wouldn’t be dead and no crime would have been committed.
End of story.
David Koch
obviously when a bridge collapses it’s God’s judgement.
laugh, but we didn’t have bridges collapsing when we had prayer in school.
also too, it’s all obummer’s fault. he could have stopped it if he wanted too.
NotMax
@David Koch
Never heard of Galloping Gertie, huh?
And we still have prayer in school. Always have. Just not mandated, school authority led in unison prayers.
pseudonymous in nc
@Poopyman:
So it was basically built with the interstate system, and though it was probably overengineered, even old-school overengineering has its limits. Problem is, once something’s been around for nearly 60 years, Americans start to assume it’s been there forever and be there forever. A sports stadium, on the other hand, is considered obsolete within 30 years. (Kingdome: 1976-2000.)
NotMax
@pseudonymous in nc
And nuclear power plants with original operational lives of 35-40 years keep on getting operating permit extensions well past that.
magurakurin
@Mark S.:
Crash and Babel.
nihilistic dreck disguised as art. Babel was particularly bad. There is dialogue in several languages and I guess it is designed to highlight our inability to communicate and relate as humans. Unfortunately for the film maker I understood three of the languages perfectly well, which sort of obliterated that point for me. An utter piece of shit that movie is. An utter piece of shit.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@magurakurin: Which “Crash” are you talking about? The David Cronenberg one, or the Paul Haggis one?
magurakurin
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
The Paul Haggis one. I never saw the other one.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@magurakurin: and I haven’t seen the the Haggis one :-).
magurakurin
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
don’t bother, it’s shitty.
David Koch
@NotMax: the only reason the tacoma bridge failed was because Frances Farmer was an atheist. it’s a proven fact.
eemom
@Redshift:
There’s also the flip side, as with General Stuck….where some of us who missed him and cared about what happened to him enough to try to find out got called stalkers for our trouble. You can’t win on the intertrons, I guess.
OTOH, it is an evolving medium.
Darkrose
@trollhattan: Just had a 4.something aftershock apparently. I thought it was a train.
Joseph Nobles
@Darkrose: 4.9 according to the government site.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
And how about that 8.3 in the Sea of Okhotsk?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@eemom: What did we find out about him?
raven
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Nothing.
Keith G
You post here?
NotMax
@David Koch
Not Butterfly McQueen?
raven
@NotMax: Man we are fucked. All the work and money we spent and the city told us no go on our addition.
c u n d gulag
Enjoy your time off, John – away from us assholes.
We’ll still be here when you come back.
JPL
@raven: I’m so sorry about your addition. Either you choke up the 30,000 or pay thousands in legal fees to repeal the decision. ugh..
raven
@JPL: Oh there is no way we could hack the sewer relocation. I have contacted a lawyer but know I won’t hear anything over the holiday weekend.
David Koch
@NotMax: racist
Jamey
@burnspbesq: Let’s go OR-ange!
JPL
@raven: At this point would they let you rebuild the deck?
Bill E Pilgrim
The best part about this is how it’s such a notable event when someone reports that he’s going to spend a handful of days not doing something that no one ever did at all 15 to 20 years ago.
I think of that partly because I watched the movie “After Hours” by Scorsese last night and I remember so well when it came out, I knew some of the locations used in NYC, I mean saw them being done up as sets as they prepared to shoot the movie, yet as fresh in my mind as that all seems, watching the movie reminds me that the hookup date that starts the whole story had nothing to do with the Internet but was from a casual encounter in a coffee shop. In person. And then a phone call using a dial, and I mean an actual rotary dial, phone. And the cabs were either those boxy style ones or the old Ford sedans that look like they’re from the 60s but are probably 70-something models, and anyway the point is– it looks OLD. And Linda Fiorentino first walked away with my heart and soul by just grunting a few lines of sultry dialog, the rest was sheer raw stage presence.
On the other hand, when I stay with my buddy in SOHO/Little Italy he still throws me the keys down from the loft just like she does in the movie. The neighborhood has completely changed, but my friend and his loft have not.
David Koch
@Bill E Pilgrim: boy, you sound old. how many teeth do you have left?
Bill E Pilgrim
@David Koch: Well, if implants count, all of them. Eastern European ones, at 18 cents on the dollar, but my hoity-toity (and five times as expensive) Paris dentist says it’s the best work he’s ever seen.
Todd
This would be HARVARD LAW graduate Tom Cotton.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/tom-cotton-corruption-of-blood_n_3322251.html
What is it about Harvard?
Todd
@Mark S.:
The Ninth Gate. The ending ruined the whole thing.
soonergrunt (mobile)
@Punchy: unfortunate connotations…
Kay
@askew:
I was hardly “stamping my feet” askew.
I know Congress is never going to authorize closing the prison because they have a kind of “cover”; they can say they didn’t create the problem (arguable, I know) so they don’t have to risk fixing it.
Courts kicked it back to Congress, the
military tribunals are a disaster, so that
leaves The President
I know he’ll get hammered whatever he does but I think 2nd term Presidents have more latitude than 1st termers, especially this one because he has completely unhinged opponents who threaten to impeach and claim everything he does is unlawful.
I was extremely critical of Bill Clinton 2nd term, but you didn’t know me then so you’ll have to take my word on it :)
So. If there is a way, a (perhaps!) extraordinary action he can take on THIS. (not the public option or the whole other list of domestic complaints) I think he should go forward with it.
Congress won’t do shit in response. They’ll be relieved he took care of it.
Baud
@Kay:
No one wants Obama to solve this more than the people who want to succeed him.
Suffern ACE
@Todd: what does that even mean? Do we have laws like that?
So do all the family of GE employees need to go to report to detainment centers?
raven
@JPL: Not sure. Our friends who are in property management and a background as a legal aid said be very careful about suing the city on this.
Kay
@Baud:
Exactly. Rand Paul will give a long speech and raise a lot of money and they’ll huff and puff, but they’re the lawmakers and they did NOTHING.
I mean, seriously, WHAT is their plan here?
Continue to pretend this absolute boondoggle doesn’t exist down there?
He’s already made quite a bit of progress. He was busily arraigning and processing people in 2009 and that was completely ignored. I know the last prisoners are the most difficult, but the fact is no one even noticed (or pretended not to notice, more likely) when they were moving them in front of magistrates.
Poopyman
It’s a man’s world, baby:
It’s been too quiet around here this morning.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Poopyman: Not sure about steel truss bridges, but standard slab highway bridges have to be below 50 to qualify for the Federal bridge replacement money.
JPL
@raven: The deck should have been grandfathered in but I don’t know what happens after you remove the deck. The entire situation sucks btw.
Poopyman
Elsewhere in the WaPo, Jennifer Rubin writes an article titled “Ten most inane things in Obama’s awful speech”, and it’s topped by a picture of a podium, a President, and a Marine with an umbrella.
Or maybe that was The Onion. Can’t tell anymore.
Todd
@raven:
They’ll likely win, and pop you back on legal fees.
Your only option is restoration of the previous status quo – you will have to work to restore your deck as being grandfathered, I suspect.
Does this sewer line appear anywhere in your chain of title? If it doesn’t, you might be able to make a claim via an owners title policy, assuming you have one.
David Koch
@Suffern ACE: No, but maybe we could just flatten Lidice when our GE lightbulbs fail.
raven
@JPL: I built the deck10 years ago and had a permit for that as well.
raven
@Todd: The line is on the plat. That’s what is so confusing, they issued the permit.
Todd
@JPL:
Yup. That’s a problem. He needs a lawyer who is the most well-known, “hail-fellow-well-met” zoning fixer in his community, and those guys aren’t cheap. He could hire a regular lawyer for less, but a regular lawyer will bang his head against the wall, and in the end, he’ll spend even more money because of all the extra work, not to mention the delays.
raven
@Todd: That is exactly who we contacted.
Todd
@raven:
Is the plat line in the correct location?
And did your contractor do the permit application, or did you? I’ve long held that contractors have a duty to check these things out if they’re doing substantial work on permit applications.
raven
@Todd: He did, he’s a friend with a great history with other work. Are you sitting down?
We have no contract with him for a $78,000 addition.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@raven: Do you have a copy of the permit application paperwork? Very curious if there’s any mention of the line in the paperwork, and especially in the permit review correspondence.
raven
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I don’t and I obviously need to. The water and sewer engineer that came out said “Oh, I would have looked at this in the historic preservation phase as well as the building permit.”
Todd
@raven:
Ugh. That could be awkward. Is this a friend friend, or a guy who does good craft work who has become your friend over time?
That doesn’t surprise me at all. A while back, I did a collection for a guy on a $200,000 addition with no written contract and no written specifications. He wrote out a draw schedule on a restaurant menu pad and engaged in multiple changes without any change orders or writings. Plus, he made several major screw ups, was slow and eventually got kicked off the job. I got him some, but it was a very expensive lesson for him, and ultimately was the final straw that cost him his marriage.
Baud
@Kay:
I can’t believe Obama hasn’t been getting credit for his actions.
raven
@Todd: He and his wife are social friends. They are great people, have fought the city to keep chickens and turned off their power for a month just to see how it would be to live that way. Like I said, he did great work on three other close friend’s houses. He doesn’t advertise and does lots of residential and commercial work for the local, how you say, progressive community.
Kay
@Baud:
I think he should just start to move them (looks like he is, actually, with Yemen) but that’s why I should never be in charge. I got so frustrated with the health care law I wanted him to just announce it by executive order. I was seriously thinking, “can’t he do this administratively?”
He’ll want this big public DEBATE :)
Todd
@raven:
I’ve always said that there are some outstanding lonesome tradesmen who have no understanding about the administrative side of their businesses or their responsibilities with regard to the regulatory requirements of their positions. The smart ones recognize their limitations and fill in the gaps with employees or contacts/contracts with reliable consulting professionals.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@raven: Yeah. I’ve been involved in similar projects, cleaning up after similar contractor/surveyor/engineer fuckups, and in this area there’s always a ton of correspondence questioning various things shown on the plans. One church project from a couple of years ago ended up with a 3″ notebook crammed full of just the correspondence.
Was a utility location service ever called in before construction started?
WereBear
@Mnemosyne: Oh, that looks great! Reminds me of the Kitty Tease.
lojasmo
@Gex:
Glad you stuck around. This place has a surprising number of stalkers, trolls, and fuckheads.
Angela
@burnspbesq: I just bought tickets to the three days today for our family. The three sons are home, so I think we will spend the weekend at the Linc watching lacrosse.
Trinity
Cole…you are my hero for posting “Bitchin Camaro”.
That is all.
Thlayli
Obviously Cole is heading out into the Pacific to land a 1000-pound bluefin tuna, which will last Tunch about two days.
Davebo
All of your holiday weekends are belonging to us!!!!
Dupe70
I listened to Watching Scotty Die all Senior year. Good times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjw5KPITaOw
ChristianPinko
Is the video Cole’s way of telling us that he’s going down to the shore?
Violet
Have a good weekend, John. Being off the grid is excellent.
askew
@Kay:
So you are still stomping your feet and saying do something even though there has been tons of people who have clearly explained he doesn’t have the authority to close it. You’ve learned nothing and seem incapable of understanding that Obama isn’t Emperor. So incredibly boneheaded.
askew
@Kay:
Oh, so the problem is that you don’t understand how our government works. I get it now.
Countme-In
Have some excellent down time.
dance around in your bones
@askew: askew, your name is so apropos.
Don’t be dissin’ on our kay! She is teh awesome!
LT
@NickT: Sorry I didn’t see that last night, Nick.
Yes.
But…they’ve said that before…