For the record, my whole family has called me to laugh about Betty Cracker’s picture this am, although the group decision is that both I and Tunch are too skinny in it.
In other news, I just heard the greatest line in True Blood: “I am wearing a Walmart suit suit for you all. If that isn’t a demonstration of team spirit, I don’t know what is. Now bury us.” I’d mention the scene, but I don’t want to be accused of spoilers.
What’s going on tonight? I didn’t get up until ten, and have been super lazy, basically just reading and watching tv and surfing the web all day. I didn’t shower until about 6 pm, and had a solid afternoon nap. Yeah, been a real rough day.
Oh, all the wingnuts on my fb feed are upset about Kerry on a boat, and I had serious flashbacks to 2004 and para-sailing or whatever the fuck effete anti-American and vaguely French activity Kerry engaged in then.
Villago Delenda Est
Oh, fuck the wingnuts with a rusty chainsaw, sideways, with somersault.
imonlylurking
She has some of the best lines.
PeakVT
Kerry should know better. He should have said he was clearing brush.
Also, why do the wingnuts care? Didn’t the dreaded Islamofacists take it on the chin? Why aren’t they congratulating Kerry?
The wingnut mind: unknowable even to those who have one.
jo6pac
Kerry who cares, is just another sell out married into $$$$$$$ and then found dog in the never ending cycle-0-path of Amerika path to what the real world of the so called free world should believe in. I’m from the Amerikan govt. and we’re are here to help you
Oh well it all over now Everything is on schedule, please move along
magurakurin
Snowden gets asylum offer from Venezuela. Much better than China or Russia. Beautiful women, great coffee. Hot as hell in most of the country, but up in Merida the climate is near perfect. There is a little coffee shop across from the University, I don’t remember the name…best coffee I ever had, anyway, ever.
Elizabelle
Yeah, I loved BCracker’s drawing, and immediately wondered whether it should be pants or no pants. Gratified to see others were discussing that within 10 comments.
Not in the mood for “The 400 Blows” (translation: couldn’t work the TV system where I’m looking in on pets.)
Hanging out on back deck with glass of red wine.
jeffreyw
Expanding a NAS volume, adding 2 ea 3TB drives. The device is chugging away, looks like it’ll take all night to finish. Had elote today for the first time, with parm in lieu of cotija. Pretty good, looking for the proper cheese to try it again.
RobertDSC-PowerMac G5 Dual
Home after acquiring 6 500 GB IDE hard drives. Each gets a new formatting and name, then I’ll install into the three G4s I have later tonight. All in all, very happy.
LT
That drawing is awesome. And hell yes have I been there.
In other news: SNOWDEN! SNOWDEN SNOWDEN SNOWDEN!
dmsilev
Last day of what is ostensibly a vacation. Of course, that included the better part of a day’s worth of arguing with both a CAD program and a coworker who was maddeningly vague about exactly what she wanted in the model I was building and rendering for her. Thankfully, met spec this morning, since I was pretty close to just mailing out the model files and a download link for the software and saying ‘figure it out on your own’.
burnspbesq
I suppose this is pretty much what one should expect from the pastor of the First Baptist Church At The Mall.
http://mobile.rawstory.com/therawstory/#!/entry/florida-pastor-urges-men-to-destroy-computers-in-quest-to,51d7237dda27f5d9d0f2955d/1
Suffern ACE
I have way to much junk in my house and would welcome the hand of the government to seize it. I waive all rights to it. Any government would do. It doesn’t have to be any nation or state I’ve heard of, or be recognized by the UN.
Tim (The Other One)
Loved the drawing and read all the comments. Then read Cole’s original post and all those comments. There are still some very funny people around here. Think I’ll watch a summer “classic” tonight. Day Of The Jackal or maybe a MST3K or maybe the original Italian Job w/ Michael Caine.
BillinGlendaleCA
@burnspbesq: Anyone want to make any bets on when the good reverand will be found wearing two wetsuits and a dildo in a hotel room
Alison
So I had a not-so-great night last night followed by a much better morning. And who better to share it with than you bastards. Pardon the TMI/rambling/etc.
BACKSTORY: I knew I was bi probably around 14 or 15 (I am going to be 33 next week). Since that time, I’ve had a few boyfriends and a couple girlfriends. I’ve been single for a long time now due mostly to illness and other life circumstances and also just not really giving a crap about relationships at this point. But…for the last couple of years, I’d really done a lot of like, self-examination and whatnot and realized that while I may still find dudes hot occasionally, I have next to zero interest in being with one. When I think back over my relationships, being with women always felt more…natural, fulfilling, something. I certainly loved some of the men I was with and am glad for those relationships but there was just a real difference in how they felt in my heart and mind.
When the SCOTUS decisions came down, I was so thrilled and relieved and joyous about it, and it really hit me that, yeah, this is because while I don’t give a shit about getting married (at least not now nor for the foreseeable future)…if I wanted to, now I could, living in CA. My state would let me and my federal government wouldn’t laugh at it and flip me the bird. And I realized how much that mattered, and that it was because “bi” didn’t fit me anymore. The jokey term I used in my Facebook status was “Ivory Soap lesbian”, aka 99.44% pure :P But I mean, yeah, gay.
SO ANYWAY. Pretty much everyone in my life knew I identified as queer, mostly leaning gay, etc. But it had never really come up with my parents. My mom knew about at least one of my past girlfriends, but it was a long time ago. They also knew I talked a lot about marriage equality and was elated by the rulings, but that could have just been seen as me being a vociferous ally. But my mom saw my FB post and just said she had a feeling and was glad to know for sure and she loved me and yadda yadda. That was of course great, though I wasn’t too concerned about her reaction. My dad though…I knew he supported gay rights, but I also knew for some older folks, when it’s right in their own home, it can be different, and I just wasn’t sure.
So last night my mom said she would tell him, when I wasn’t in the room, and we’d go from there. He didn’t come talk to me last night and I started worrying. I wondered if maybe he wasn’t okay with it, or bothered by it, or worse. What would that mean for our lives together, as I’m not going to be able to move out again any time soon. I was nervous and sad.
BUT. This morning when I got up, he came over and gave me a big hug and said he loved me no matter what, this didn’t change anything, and he’s proud of me and happy I felt free for him to know. He said the only reason he didn’t say anything last night was just that he was really surprised – he’d had no idea and he just wanted to be sure he said the right things. Which he definitely did :)
TL:DR O HAI MOM AND DAD I AM TEH GAY AND YOU STILL HEART ME AND THAT RULES.
Joshua James
John Cole, have you read this yet? This is amazing:
http://www.stonekettle.com/2013/07/and-open-letter-to-idiot-nation.html#comment-form
I’d email ya but I’m not sure if you’re swamped or what, but this post blew me away…
Steeplejack
@burnspbesq:
Link doesn’t work (at least for me). Fixed: “Florida Pastor Urges Men to Destroy Computers in Quest to Live ‘Porn Free.’”
Yatsuno
@Alison: I declare this FRABJOUS!!! :)
Baud
@Alison:
Cool.
BillinGlendaleCA
I just looked at the “Church at the Mall” on google maps and it’s hugh, like mall sized. I looked at it in street view, and it looks like the church bought a shopping mall and it’s their church now.
max
all the wingnuts on my fb feed are upset about Kerry on a boat
And that effete bastard’s got your mustard! And he’s wearing your pants!
max
[‘And he has an NSA-provided of you whacking off to Michael Jackson’s Thriller!’]
burnspbesq
@Yatsuno:
Secomded.
Elie
What a time we are living in! Such joy, such sorrow, anger and amazement… One can hardly hang onto a days events and the next day rolls onto you like a tidal wave…
Even as we break apart in anger and despair, we come together in ways so hopeful and filled with love and understanding that it just amazes, thanks be. Who can know what is next? I so want love to win out and to hold us together and yet I know we have to tread the valley too…
To all my brothers and sisters striving for freedom and the right to be as they are, wherever you are, I salute you and wish you every thing that is strong and good.. for everyone else I wish us strength and patience and endurance — enough imagination for a vision to keep us moving forward, both individually and as a community..
Steeplejack
@Alison:
What a great story! Glad it ended well.
I have a gay brother, and I’ve always been surprised (and happy) at how little family upset it caused, given the colossal level of other dysfunction in my family. There was a stretch where when I visited my parents my mother would invariably pull me aside for a quiet talk about his “lifestyle choices,” but even that is long in the past.
Baud
@Elie:
Betty’s drawing of Cole really had an effect on you, I see.
Elie
@Baud:
Yes, LOL!
I loved that drawing….
Console
Pam and Lafayette are two of the best characters on TV. Lafayette was awesome from the beginning, but I seem to recall Pam taking a while to grow on me.
RSA
@Tim (The Other One):
I sometimes do this, too. From the Mike years, it’s Time Chasers, Space Mutiny, or Prince of Space. Great riffs galore.
Elie
@Console:
Lafayette is amazing… He is so — completely HIMSElF… I have loved him and also Pam, who has , as you say, become more complex and well rounded… I love the show and love that it frequently goes from drame to humor to pathos and farce and back almost seamlessly. I dunno if the cast has as much fun doing it, but I would think that it would be fun
ruemara
@Alison: YAY! For you, mom & dad!
AA+ Bonds
I want to salute Doug J for steadfastly maintaining the opinion that should probably be maintained at this point by all American liberals regarding Egypt, which is none whatsoever.
Your choices are
the Hamdeen Sabahi leftist-populist neo-Nasserists who are at the top levels of the NSF (long shots who look better and better every day, resurgent secular Arab transnationalists who made a poor show in the last election but are suddenly at the top levels of the uprising, ONLY militant good-faith foes of IMF interference, best choice for for Egypt, best choice for MENA, sort of bad for America because they won’t let us fuck around with them?, absolutely despised and hated by Bibi-heads and the Economist and Financial Times and New Republic and various other anti-Muslim bigots so I guess good for America on that count – if they take power every glossy liberal magazine will tell you that Egypt has literally never been as evil and bad off as it is under them)
the Muslim Brotherhood (you know the drill; who knows, they could be back, there are a lot of them and you may have noticed in your own country how political losers with a solid base suddenly look pure and great a decade or less afterwards; they suck, for current obvious reasons like not being able to run the country because unlike Hamas they don’t have Fatah or Israeli gunships to blame for why their solid decades-long semi-Islamist bread distribution program can’t govern a polity)
Al-Nour/Islamic Bloc (the Salafi cretins with big beards, ridiculous pretend Puritans, basically Wahhabis who will put together a lynch mob of cowards against anyone who dares call them Wahhabi; identified in American media as the Egyptian Taliban but actually have the same line on the IMF and Israel as the MB, although they will probably ban women from playing soccer and make other dumb moves that will appear in the Times every couple months; terrible for absolutely everyone except Bibi and Co. who will play nice with them while using their existence to stir up the Israeli ultra-right)
the continued rule of Egyptian Armed Forces and their paramilitaries (It’s never going back to Mubarak times so do you want another Turkey on your hands, only right next to Israel? if so, you don’t know jack about Turkey; uneasy rapprochement with Israel combined with jacked up military buildup and absolute slow death for the rest of MENA, culminating in a series of uprisings until they’re overthrown again)
The IMF loans are the key issue here and naturally the one that isn’t discussed in Anglo-Franco-American dominated discourse because everyone in every major banker-controlled party in every one of the three countries loves the IMF since the IMF will never be allowed to own their countries outright.
lojasmo
@burnspbesq:
thirded.
MomSense
Spent two crazy days celebrating with family and friends at a lake. Lots if dancing and drinking and wonderful food. Nature had her own fireworks last night so the town fireworks were tonight. Watched from a boat listening to music with my youngest. Tonight is old movies and maybe some cards. Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday weekend!
chopper
what the hell is a ‘suit suit’?
Cacti
@magurakurin:
And the fourth highest murder rate on earth.
Mike in NC
Fuck fucking Facebook!
NickT
@chopper:
1% suits wear their own suits to parties.
chopper
@PeakVT:
it’s a corollary to cleek’s law. even if something happens that pleases the wingnuts, if it makes a dem look bad they’ll focus on that instead.
Howard Beale IV
@jeffreyw: Piker.
Alison
@Yatsuno: @Steeplejack: @ruemara: Thanks all :) I am definitely lucky.
chopper
@chopper:
for example: if jesus himself came down from the heavens promising to make sweet love all night long to every wingnut in america, but also obama slipped and broke his femur, they’d spend their time blogging about the latter.
xane
@Alison: Namaste to you, lovey! So happy that you’re happy!
Villago Delenda Est
@Cacti:
It’s that hot Spanish blood, you know.
John O
@Alison: Kudos to you!
Alison
@xane: @John O: *fistbumps* :D
Cacti
@Villago Delenda Est:
This seems like a desperation gambit from Maduro, who inherited all of the problems Chavez left behind with inflation, soaring violent crime, and food shortages, but lacks the personal popularity of his predecessor.
Waving his dick at Tio Sam surely won’t make him less popular.
JWL
Kerry’s single politically “effete” moment of his life (by my lights) was his placing presidential ambition before what must have been his better judgement, when he endorsed the 2003 Big Lie War.
John O
Kerry might make progress in the Mideast because the players there will grow weary of listening to him talk. So I’m optimistic about that.
Mnemosyne
@Alison:
That’s so sweet! I heart both of your parents.
I remember seeing a funny cartoon one time of two elderly parents wearing pro-gay t-shirts with a caption that said: “Imagine a world where your parents were completely open and accepting of you just the way you are. You would still need therapy, just for different reasons.”
Roy G.
It’s not a wingnut thing – Kerry is a joke as SecState. And I say this as someone who voted for him in 2004. Perhaps he’s just the well-compensated fall guy, but he really should be in blackface, wearing a tuxedo and riding in a limousine, because as the old racist joke goes, ‘If i’m gonna be impotent, i’m gonna look impotent!’
Mnemosyne
@Alison:
Also, too, it was brought home to me again recently that I’m probably 99 percent straight, because I re-watched this old 1980s video and had never noticed what the female singer was wearing, which is an outfit that (straight) boys my age remember vividly and fondly.
Howard Beale IV
Prepare to have your mind blown with a Weird Al Yankovic/My Little Pony mashup.
You have been warned.
Alison
@Mnemosyne: Hahaha, that’s good :P
And yes, I heart them too. I am so glad that they are not typical of their age group (Dad is 71, Mom will be 66) and are pro-gay rights, pro-women’s rights, anti-gun, pro-government programs (for everyone, unlike the stupid old people complaining about socialism while on Medicare), etc. I mean…especially since I’ve had to live with them again, I can’t imagine how this would have gone if they were cranky old Fox News lovers. Oy.
Mnemosyne
@RSA:
We saw it at least 10 years ago, but G and I still quote lines from “Space Mutiny” to each other.
“She’s presenting like a mandrill!”
burnspbesq
@Cacti:
Yup. The easiest place imaginable for a deniable takeout.
Guy continues to be his own worst enemy.
burnspbesq
@Alison:
You watching the friendly tonight?
gbear
I was out scooter riding this evening and stopped at Target on the way home. Among the purchases was a box of Gay Lucky Charms. General Mills has been a sponsor of Twin Cities Pride for as long as I can remember, but they decided to do something special after gay marriage was approved by the MN legislature and also for the supreme court rulings.
It’s been really unsettling reading about the horrors that conservative legislatures and governors are wreaking in other states while things have been going so hunky-dory in Minnesota. We really dodged a bullet by electing Mark Dayton as governor.
Rick Massimo
Sigh. For one brief shining moment – or, for maybe two days or so – we treated Egypt like another country. Sure, there were some outcomes we would prefer to others, but it was their deal.
All it took was one report of KERRY ON A YACHT and now it’s wall-to-wall ZOMG HOW COULD WE HAVE LET THIS HAPPEN?!?
What’s the over-under on the use of the word “feckless” on this Sunday’s talk shows? I don’t care what it is; I’m taking the over.
Howard Beale IV
@gbear: Unfortunately, Emmer is running to replace Bachmann. Shit, I’d take Ventura over either Bachmann/Emmer.
gbear
@Alison: Glad that coming out went so well for you Alison. It’s a hard thing to do. I remember driving to my parents house the evening that I was going to come out to them and wondering if I’d ever be welcome in their house again. You don’t really know what’s going to happen and you have to be prepared to lose everything. For me, it was hard to stammer it out, but I got pretty much the same reception from my parents that you got. They were still a little queasy when I brought a boyfriend over for dinner (I put my arm around the back of his chair and I found out years later that everyone flipped out about it. I never even knew -we’re all very German – very well practiced at hiding our feelings), but they were perfectly fine with me being gay on paper.
I wish I would have done it years before I did.
gbear
@Howard Beale IV: I was really glad when Bachman ran for an office in DC. It got her the hell out of state politics. I’ll feel the same way about Emmer, but I do hope that he loses if he runs.
eric nny
Midnight. House full of guests. 18 coming over for partner’s 50th tomorrow. Last cherry pie in oven. Cannot wait to sleep. Damn brisket will not come to temp in smoker. Will have to braise in a.m. I wish I had a Texan’s skill with the brisket.
trollhattan
@efgoldman:
Yeah, wow, damned if that wasn’t a five-tonne can of whoop-ass. Well said, Chief, well said.
Cacti
@eric nny:
If it’s any consolation, after 4-6 hours of smoking, the meat’s taken on about all of the smoke flavor it will hold, and after that, you’re just heating it through. Oven time won’t change the final flavor.
Jerzy Russian
@Joshua James: Jesus Hussein Christ! That was a rant for the ages. Thanks for pointing that out.
TheMightyTrowel
Who ever recommended Brooks running shoes the other day, thanks! I’ve been needing a new pair and o decided to branch out from my traditional Asics. So far so good!
Amir Khalid
@Howard Beale IV:
Oh man, that was just so beautiful … (wipes tear away)
MomSense
@Alison:
Alison!!! Yay!! I am smiling and happy and jumping for joy at your news!!!