I thought this was funny. Open thread.
Reader Interactions
40Comments
Comments are closed.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.
I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.
Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.
The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.
The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.
Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.
DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.
Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.
An almost top 10,000 blog!
They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.
… gradually, and then suddenly.
People are weird.
You cannot shame the shameless.
“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”
“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”
Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.
If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.
Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.
Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.
Our messy unity will be our strength.
The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.
“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)
There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.
Shortstop
It is funny.
raven
Home sweet home.
raven
“I had spinal surgery three weeks ago. I worked in the garden all day and my back hurts”. . . .
Amir Khalid
I’m pretty sure the woman with the nail in her head (ouch!) doesn’t actually want it removed. She’d much rather have the man’s empathy. And of course, it’s not just women who get like this with some of their issues. We’ve all seen men do it too.
sb
That was great. And I needed that laugh.
BGinCHI
There needs to be a guy version of this.
The nail would have to be somewhere else though.
raven
@BGinCHI: Cross to Bear
I have not come to testify. . .
Violet
Sen. Frank Lautenberg has died, according to the Newsmax headlines.
red dog
Hey asshole, grow some balls and reach out and snatch that nail out of her head or pound it in. Tough choice huh ?
BGinCHI
@red dog: But he’s already trying to pound it in with his feelings!
And he’s trying to pull it out with his empathy!
Pay attention.
BGinCHI
@raven: You read my mind.
Maude
@Violet:
Christie will appoint someone.
Don’t know if he’ll choose a raving wingnut.
ETA ACA lives. Mandate upheld as a tax. House GOP to vote to repeal ACA.
TriassicSands
@Violet:
Bad/sad news. At least 89 is a full life.
RIP, Senator Lautenberg.
It’s hard to imagine being 89 and actually wanting to get out of bed and go to the Senate and be surrounded by all those Republican lunatics.
.
aimai
@Amir Khalid: I kind of agree with AK on this one. It absolutely is very funny, but speaking as a woman I’ve had that conversation plenty of times with men, too. It does reflect my experience in having people try to “solve” a problem for me when its insoluble or not solvable under the terms of the debate (“why don’t you do this incredibly obvious thing which obviously you already thought of or tried” remains pretty darned annoying).
I actually just had this conversation, from the problem solving side, with Mr. Aimai over a business matter. I would have handled it completely differently from the way his company handled it. I found that the more I tried to “problem solve” for him the more defensive he became and the more he represented the choice his company had made as natural, inevitable, correct even though (and this was obvious to both of us) it was a hugely stupid decision which would lead to endless trouble in the future.
People do want to be listened to. They usually don’t need our help with obvious problems or what seems obvious to us isn’t the real problem at all.
Debbie(aussie)
Raven I had an ultrasound guided epidural/steroidal injection at L4/L5 this afternoon, had one 12 months or so ago worked then hopefully this one will too. Specially has I has a job (temp) 2 weeks into 4weeks 5 hrs/ day, can’t wait for first pay into account.how fairs your lovely wife? And your garden extension
issues. Deb
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Violet:
Christie’s choice to replace Sen. Lautenberg may provide some insight into Christies future aspirations. Lamentably, his choice will in no way affect the performance of the Senate.
Chet
If you’re having a conversation about your problems – perhaps at your behest – and another person is irritating you by trying to solve the problem that you presented to them, then I would suggest that they’re not the one in error. Problems should be solved whenever possible, and the way you determine if a problem is solvable is to try to solve it. If you keep telling people about your problems and they keep irritating you by trying to solve them, then maybe you need to revisit your expectations for these conversations.
I expect that if you showed up at your doctors office, or at someplace like the DMV, and accurately described your medical or licensure problem only to have them reply “oh, did you expect me to solve your problem? Sorry, I’m just here to listen!” you’d be incensed, because the point of presenting a problem to someone is that they make some effort to solve it. (Except when it’s a woman presenting a problem to a man. Except when she actually does expect him to try to solve the problem.)
shortstop
@aimai: Yep. As funny as I found the video, and as much as I don’t mind acknowledging that there are some established communication tendencies with each gender, I’m also smiling at the plentiful exceptions to the rule. I had a similar conversation with a male condo association member just this weekend. I listened quite sympathetically to his bitching about a problem he could have resolved in three minutes as I stood on a ladder efficiently fixing that problem. He went away happy because I listened to him. Works for me.
Yatsuno
@Debbie(aussie): I had a few of those before my surgery. Because I did get the relief from the injection it made me a good candidate for the microdisectomy/laminotomy I eventually got. It’s a remarkable surgery and worked very well for me. Definitely consider the operation if you can manage it.
And WOOT on the new gig!
Shakezula
According to Blackburn (R-oTteN) it isn’t about the equal pay either.
“Women don’t want laws telling employers to treat them equally. They want to mumble mumble something power control burp (does not apply to control of our own bodies because that would make the men angry).”
StringOnAStick
I guess I see this video not in terms of gender politics, but more as a wry reminder of a few people I have known who want your friendship mainly so they will have another free therapist to yammer at.
For some reason I seemed to attract those folks when I was in my 30’s. I tended to bail after figuring out that actually solving their problems was the last thing they wanted, and having someone they could suck the life force out of while they examined every frickin’ detail of their self-inflicted problem was exactly the point of their existence. Then I had the interesting experience of watching them move on to their next ‘host’, suck them dry; rinse, repeat. I’m glad that era is over…
Mnemosyne
@aimai:
I dunno. I think the point of the video is that she’s supposed to do something about the nail rather than just complaining about how it makes her feel. It’s kinda funny, but it’s also a little annoying (“hey, ladies, always listen to the man in your life when he tells you there’s a simple solution to your problem, because there is!”)
Mnemosyne
@StringOnAStick:
Heh. This is one reason why my now-husband was happy to hear that I was already in therapy when we met — he’d gotten hit by several vampires of that type in previous relationships and had decided he’d rather deal with someone who was in therapy than with someone who expected him to be her therapist.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Debbie(aussie):
I had a microdiscectomy a year ago. I walked out of the hospital on the same day I limped in and I’ve suffered no complications in the aftermath. Other than being on light duty for six months (No heavy lifting, pushing, pulling,etc.) and a two week restriction from driving it was cake. I can empathize completely with you; there were times when the pain was so great that I couldn’t move.
raven
Higgs Boson’s Mate
@Debbie(aussie): Hey! She’s not progressing as quickly as she had hoped but most people involved are counseling patience. The injections did not help her,
The addition project will be delayed while the city replaces the sewer line. We are hoping for six months but are prepared for more.
thx
raven
@Yatsuno: How long did it take for you to become “pain free”?
raven
Damn, it’s a JOKE.
BGinCHI
@raven: See Freud, Sigmund.
Yatsuno
@raven: After healing up from the initial surgery (about 3 weeks) I was lowering the pain meds pretty drastically right after that. I only have some pain back there now because I do have a degenerated disc that will need fused some time in the future, but it bothers me so little that I might never do it. All my pain now is in my hips for completely different reasons. Fun stuff.
Ruckus
Been on the other side of this. As a mental health counselor I would get clients that would come in for an hour a week and tell the same story over and over.
What they wanted was for someone to tell them it was OK not to change or take any risk whatsoever even though they knew that wasn’t working.
Laguna_Bob
This brought my wife of 35 years and me to tears…
Olaugh
This is a beautiful metaphor for the Republicans’ self examination. It’s not about the policies. We just have to stop being so judgmental of what they say and how they say it.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@StringOnAStick:
I had a conversation last night that was ringing those vampire alarm bells hard. Fortunately for me, he was desperately seeking another of his cousins, and I only had to convince him that we hadn’t heard from her in years. I feel kind of sorry for that cousin, though, if he ever finds her.
A Humble Lurker
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah. I get why it’s funny, (I’ve been sucked into conversations with people who didn’t want help but a helpless victim to throw their grievances at myself) but it’s also…yeah.
OzarkHillbilly
my wife did not laugh. I couldn’t stop.
PurpleGirl
@Maude: This would be what, the 39th or 40th vote against ACA in the House? What a waste of oxygen they are!
ricky
@Mnemosyne:
I believe the filmmaker could have avoided the easily predictable and arguably valid accusations of gender stereotyping by using a transgendered couple. The trendsetting casting professional will recognize the value of this underutilized acting pool for biting social/psychological drama without the baggage.
artem1s
@Olaugh:
only the GOP wants us to let them put nails in our heads too. no thx. ;-D
Mnemosyne
@ricky:
It reminded me more of the work of writer/director/actor Eric Schaeffer, who always cast himself as the shlubby guy that impossibly hot women fell madly in love with.
Mary
@raven:
OMG, I always thought it was the Almond brothers….like they had blond hair or something.
Anyways.