Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

I really should read my own blog.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

This really is a full service blog.

A consequence of cucumbers

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Cole is on a roll !

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

We won’t go back.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

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Reader Interactions

140Comments

  1. 1.

    kdaug

    Precisely what I was going to say.

    …

    Who?

    (ETA: Thought Hurt was doing this. Or is that just a Christmas special thing?)

  2. 2.

    RSA

    Hey, cool. I’ve only seen him here and there on TV, but he’s the kind of actor who (to me) has presence. I liked him in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, playing the Angel Islington.

  4. 4.

    Ubu Imperator

    In the Loop is also a good vehicle for him–it’s a film sequel to The Thick of It.

  7. 7.

    trollhattan

    @NickT:

    LOL! “C’mon Schteeeeve, lemme down, okay?”

    Based on the pic, don’t think I could even fit that thing in my front door.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    Saw the Big Reveal on the Beeb awhile ago. Still trying to figure out what else I’ve seen him in. It’s driving me nuts, but I am waiting for the answer to come to me rather than looking it up on IMDB.

  11. 11.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    Still haven’t watched The Thick of It yet.

    Find and watch the first three seasons. The film and the fourth season aren’t quite as good.

  12. 12.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Betty Cracker:

    He was in the Doctor Who episode that was set in Pompeii. He was also in, iirc, the film Local Hero. Oh, and he was a transvestite hooker (bait for the spam filter) in Prime Suspect 3.

  13. 13.

    trollhattan

    @NickT:

    “Yes, it will, Rosi, won’t it? It will get the claw!”

    “No no, Mister Smart, that’s not ‘Craw,’ it’s Craw.”

  17. 17.

    Cassidy

    Oh no! Peoria from the British Isles have been responsible for millions of deaths! We should euthanize. It’s the only way to be sure.

  19. 19.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Hawes:

    It pales in comparison to the first three series of the show. It really does. It just isn’t mean enough.

    Given the choice between the film and series 4, however, I’ll take the film. That’s a no-brainer. The writing for series 4 wasn’t all that sharp.

  23. 23.

    gogol's wife

    I know him from an excellent guest appearance on Jericho, a great series about a 1950s British cop that no one here watched, I believe.

    But I’m afraid nothing will get me to watch Doctor Who. I tried once in the Tom Baker era.

    Why does my name and address keep disappearing when I try to comment?

  24. 24.

    Keith P

    In other news, the new title of the show is “Doctor Who The Fuck?”

    In all serious, the guy really does look the part. I don’t mind him being older, either, as you can’t have every generation of the Doctor getting younger; there’s a point where it would get ridiculous, like having Daniel Radcliff play him.

  26. 26.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Betty Cracker:

    Betty not only was he in Dr. Who in the Pompei episode (as noted above) but he played a prominent role in Torchwood Children of Earth (the civil servant who was charged with communicating with the aliens).

  29. 29.

    Comrade Mary

    Pleasepleaseplease let him keep his real accent as the Doctor. Was so disappointed when Tennant was blandified.

  30. 30.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @gogol’s wife:

    I think you will find that the episodes since the reboot with Eckleston in the role have been excellent. Some of the stand alone episodes are crap but those that include the story line forming the big arc are really quite brilliant. The production values have absolutely soared, for an example of that you only have to see Demon’s Run. It looked more like a blockbuster movie than a tv show.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I looked at some Thick of It clips on the yoo tube, looks funny but I think I’d need subtitles, especially for Capaldi.

    In other news, I tried to skim my way through this NYT profile of the Graham/Weymouth heiress who’s taking her turn as the head of the Broderton Daily Shopper, mostly to see if they discuss her debacle about hosting “salons” for lobbyists and politicians (and charging 25K a head to attend) but by the end of the first page I was ready to dive head first into a shallow pool of my own vomit. Even making allowances for it being the Style section– as opposed to, you know, politics or even business– it’s a puff piece that should embarrass the writer and the NYT, as well as the subject and her entire family.

  34. 34.

    different-church-lady

    55? At the rate they were going I thought the new Doctor would go to a 16 year old.

  35. 35.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Now here’s a comment a you won’t see every day.

    I wanted to thank you all for sharing your thoughts over the years. I am doing this because I broke my life in pieces. The only honorable thing left is to climb up into the hills like any other good critter and wait for the end. I can do that. Living in my own skin has become tiresome and oppressive beyond belief. Descending into pitch black will make a welcome change.

    I didn’t want anyone to worry about me as they worried about the estimable General Stuck.

    Please note that this is not a plea for help or advice. I have had chronic PTSD since 1971 so the fact that I have held on for so very long might be considered tiring enough to deserve a rest.

    My real name is Dennis. I would appreciate very much if any of you who cares to would walk outside tonight and say “Goodbye, Dennis.”

  36. 36.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Speaking of which, because John complains when I don’t alert him to a new kick ass Beeb drama, Broadchurch starts August 7, 2013 at 10pm, it stars not only David Tennant but Arthur Darvill (Rory), and Olivia Coleman who played a nice monster in Prisoner Number One.

    You can check out a free screening of episode one here

    http://www.bbcamerica.com/broadchurch/

  38. 38.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    And the man in the rain picked up his bag of secrets, and journeyed up the mountainside, far above the clouds, and nothing was ever heard from him again.

    Sleep well Dennis.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    Dennis, stay with us.

    Your absence will leave a void in our lives, so don’t do it.

    You are whip smart. I am sorry that comes with feeling oppressive and bleak too, but that will pass.

  44. 44.

    ruemara

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: what? what? When?

    On the one hand, I don’t like this at all and I don’t think it’s appropriate to just let anyone do this. On the other hand, PTSD and a life that’s a mess feels like an endless sentence you’d like to just have stop. I’ve been feeling the same way for a long time, but I always hold out hope for some stupid reason.

    Dennis, I hope you are stupid enough to hope.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    Dennis: I will toast to you at cocktail hour no matter what.

    But suppose the real hell is being sent back as a wingnut, with about a quarter of your smarts?

    Don’t do it.

  55. 55.

    Neutron Flux

    I hope you reconsider. PTSD sucks and I hate it effects on folks that were just trying to do their job.

    But,if that is where you are, I wish you smooth seas, and a following wind.

  56. 56.

    Nina-the-first

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Dennis, I know you’re a writer, please write how you’re feeling here, now. I have missed your voice these past few days. You are not just your thoughts, although you do express your thoughts/ideas so well. Please talk about right now.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    Dennis: if you don’t call the hotline (and it’s a good suggestion),

    Do you have someone non-aggravating and non-judgmental you can call, too? Even a neighbor who likes you (and probably likes you more than you know).

    I love that you reached out to the aggravating (us).

    Your decision will be respected, whichever, but the one you’re contemplating is so irrevocable.

    As ruemara suggests, it is good to be stupid enough to have a little hope.

    There may be something, however small, that you need to do in the future for someone or for something good.

  60. 60.

    Yatsuno

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: All problems, no matter how oppressive, are temporary. The only salvation us creatures get is to keep the energy we have inside these ugly bags of mostly water we house them in. Don’t. Just don’t. You are an irreplaceable being in the cogs of the universe.

  62. 62.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @raven:
    You are too clever by half. Haven’t lived in that house for years. In another, temporary place at the moment. Thank you for your dialogue with me. Hope that you did not alert the local coppers that there was a potential suicide at that address. These cops are nobody’s sweethearts.

  63. 63.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @raven:
    You are too clever by half. Haven’t lived in that house for years. In another, temporary place at the moment. Thank you for your dialogue with me. Hope that you did not alert the local coppers that there was a potential suicide at that address. These cops are nobody’s sweethearts.

  64. 64.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @raven:
    You are too clever by half. Haven’t lived in that house for years. In another, temporary place at the moment. Thank you for your dialogue with me. Hope that you did not alert the local coppers that there was a potential suicide at that address. These cops are nobody’s sweethearts.

  65. 65.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @raven:
    You are too clever by half. Haven’t lived in that house for years. In another, temporary place at the moment. Thank you for your dialogue with me. Hope that you did not alert the local coppers that there was a potential suicide at that address. These cops are nobody’s sweethearts.

  66. 66.

    Violet

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Dennis, I would miss you. I enjoy your comments here and notice when you haven’t been here for awhile. I hope you reconsider and call the suicide hotline or another hotline or friend or neighbor.

  69. 69.

    WereBear

    @Yatsuno: You are an irreplaceable being in the cogs of the universe.

    True. How do you know you have not yet fulfilled your best purpose?

    Things have a way of turning around when you least expect it. It has happened to me.

    It can happen to you.

  70. 70.

    NickT

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    I know you hate being called by name, so I’ll just call you Mate, mate. Yes, you’ve fought the good fight for a long time. Yes, you deserve your rest. No arguments there. Still, I hope you’ll be kind enough to hang on a little bit longer, so that those of us who enjoy hearing what you have to say – and find it thought-provoking – won’t be deprived of you just yet. I admit that it’s a selfish request – but it is a heartfelt and honest one. I’d like to imagine that we’ve sometimes made your day a little better just by being our grumpy, freaky, sometimes intelligible selves, just as you have done for us. Please give us the chance to repay some of the good you’ve done us and don’t give up on us right away.

  73. 73.

    Mary G

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Dennis, your life is your own to do with as you please. I’ve been clinically depressed from my earliest memories and I know how hard it is to bear.

    That said, please know I will miss you like crazy. Even though I don’t know you, I stop and read your comments even when I’m just scanning a thread. Your “Higgs Boson’s Mate” nym cracks me up every time I see it. It’s both smart and funny. my favorite on the whole Intertubes. Honestly. And your comments are smart and funny and wise and real too and they make me feel better for having read them.

    Please, there are so many useless people taking up space on the planet and so few really good ones, I hope you will stick around.

  75. 75.

    Ruckus

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:
    Dennis
    I’m torn here. I see two completely different sides.
    On one hand it is your life and you have a right to live it as it works for you and you alone. I know that you have talked about where your life was and where it is now and it has been hard.

    But. You live in a community. None of us really know you but many of us have been positively touched by your presence. I for one would like that to continue.
    I don’t know if you have tried the following but I feel like the VA has saved my life, maybe they can do the same for you. VA Crisis website
    Thanks for being here. It really is a pleasure.

  76. 76.

    MomSense

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    Dennis, I am so sorry that you are suffering and will of course send good thoughts and think good thoughts about you. I can hear how much pain you are in and I just hope you can reach out to a hotline or a trusted friend or a counselor.

    Even though this is just an online community, there are many of us who value your contribution here and want you to stay with us. Sending peace to you, friend.

  78. 78.

    lou

    @gogol’s wife: I was like you about Dr. Who. Tried to watch one with Tom Baker and couldn’t get it.

    But I watched one with David Tennant and was completely hooked. Watch one featuring stone angels and you’ll never look back. Or the one set on the Mars space station starring Servilla from Rome.

  79. 79.

    gogol's wife

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    My ex-husband is one of the most brilliant people I know, educated at various Ivy League institutions and teaching at one. We met for lunch last spring, and he said with a big grin, thinking he’d just invented the funniest line, “I’ve decided I’m a Higgs Boson’s Mate.” I had to tell him that someone at Balloon Juice had beaten him to it a long time ago.

    I know it’s a stupid story, but I’m hoping something gets through to you.

  80. 80.

    Nina-the-first

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Tried your email @71, no go. So…
    Here’s an anonymous stranger wrapped in anonymous strangers from the blog. I scarcely comment, but stand admiringly on the sidelines, finding some comfort from you bolder souls online.

    Your voice, in its extraordinary force, vitality, variety, means a lot to this stranger. That voice can’t be spent yet.

    Stay a while. Just tell us a bit more.

  81. 81.

    lou

    P.S. And all I can say about Peter Capaldi is it will be either fucking brilliant or a disaster. Fuckety bye.

  83. 83.

    lojasmo

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    Dennis; I hope you see your way to find somebody to help you deal with your PTSD.

    If you are determined that this will be your fate, I wish you well.

    Your contributions here will be missed.

    Jason

  86. 86.

    Bjacques

    HBM, you’ve got a lot of people here pulling for you to hang on. There’s something in you that’s helped you to go on living and to do it with grace and wit. You’re one of the people who’ve shared your light and warmth, and we here hope to return the favor.

  87. 87.

    Elizabelle

    Dennis: not to belittle at all the darkness you feel, at this moment. But a good article from yesterday’s NYTimes, on dealing with trauma, big and small, that seems pertinent.

    Trauma is not just the result of major disasters. It does not happen to only some people. An undercurrent of trauma runs through ordinary life, shot through as it is with the poignancy of impermanence. I like to say that if we are not suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, we are suffering from pre-traumatic stress disorder. There is no way to be alive without being conscious of the potential for disaster. One way or another, death (and its cousins: old age, illness, accidents, separation and loss) hangs over all of us. Nobody is immune. Our world is unstable and unpredictable, and operates, to a great degree and despite incredible scientific advancement, outside our ability to control it.
    ……..
    [The author was writing of his mother’s grief over the death of her husband.] Mourning, however, has no timetable. Grief is not the same for everyone. And it does not always go away. The closest one can find to a consensus about it among today’s therapists is the conviction that the healthiest way to deal with trauma is to lean into it, rather than try to keep it at bay. The reflexive rush to normal is counterproductive. In the attempt to fit in, to be normal, the traumatized person (and this is most of us) feels estranged.

    …..“They’re shooting at our regiment now,” a 60-year-old friend said the other day as he recounted the various illnesses of his closest acquaintances. “We’re the ones coming over the hill.” He was right, but the traumatic underpinnings of life are not specific to any generation. The first day of school and the first day in an assisted-living facility are remarkably similar. Separation and loss touch everyone.
    …….The willingness to face traumas — be they large, small, primitive or fresh — is the key to healing from them. They may never disappear in the way we think they should, but maybe they don’t need to. Trauma is an ineradicable aspect of life. We are human as a result of it, not in spite of it.

    Dennis: mind you, you have a rawer and more volatile grief and despair, if you are considering leaving life, but hope this may provide you some comfort.

    The Trauma of Being Alive

  88. 88.

    JD_Rhoades

    I grew up in the Tom Baker Era, quite enjoyed the Eccleston Doctor, struggled through the Tennant years on Netflix (good stories,but I found him a bit screechy and Donna Noble set my teeth on edge), am just now starting the Matt Smith series. With my lack of credentials now firmly established, I will say that this Capaldi fellow looks like I think a Doctor should, and I’m really bummed I can’t find The Thick of It anywhere.

  91. 91.

    Neutron Flux

    Now that you mention it, yes it is. You still should just let the whole pit bull thing butthurt rest for while. You are starting to sound like Corner Stone. That is just fucked up.

  92. 92.

    JD_Rhoades

    And Dennis, just an observation: in my experience, when someone posts to an online community that they’re thinking of ending it all, rather than just doing it, it’s because deep down, there’s some tiny voice expressing a flicker of doubt that it’s the right thing to do. Listen to that voice.

  95. 95.

    trollhattan

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    Dennis,

    I don’t know what you’re going through, can’t know and won’t insult you pretending I do.

    I’m just one of a lot of folks here who value your presence and you, personally. If you can think of another path, please, please, please try it. If not, peace to you, friend.

  96. 96.

    liberal

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:
    Please don’t, man.

    But…I know how you feel. Just had a nasty panic attack/depressive thingee a few days ago. There are definitely moments when nonexistence seems better.

    But despite that, in most cases it’s better to live another day.

  97. 97.

    JGabriel

    Peter Capaldi was really good in Local Hero. And really young. He’s the guy playing Mac’s assistant in Scotland.

    The full movie by the way is here on youtube, should anyone want to see it or see it again. It’s delightful. Highly recommended. The music is by Mark Knopfler, if that’s a selling point.

    You can watch the trailer here if you want to check it out first before watching the movie. Frankly, though, it’s not a particularly good trailer, and utterly fails to capture the sense of light irony that infuses the film.

  100. 100.

    JD_Rhoades

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    If it helps, it hasn’t been that long since I was thinking of doing myself in, and an even shorter time since the stress got so bad I was half scared I was having a fatal heart attack and half scared I’d survive it and have to go on living. I know how it feels to want it all to be over. And I can tell you, you can survive this. And living isn’t all that bad.

  101. 101.

    MazeDancer

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    Dennis, call the suicide hotline. We see you, we hear you, we want you to stay here.

    Took me many decades to get past PTSD. Takes everyone many decades.

    But you can’t let the monsters who told you lies win. You had to listen to the monsters if they were your parents or the gov that sent you to war, whatever situation caused your PTSD. But they don’t rule reality anymore even though your trained and myelinated neural pathways still believe that’s true. It’s not.

    And you can come out on the other side. Not just platitudes. Reality. The road is long and rough. But like @spudgun: and @JD_Rhoadessays. It can happen.

    So that’s 3 people who made it. You can make it 4. Every time someone hangs on and gets free, the world gets better, and the monsters fade where they belong.

    And @JD_Rhoades: is right. Your screen name makes me smile, too. We need more of that kind of mind. Especially with it operating in freedom.

    Google says this is the National Number 1-800-273-8255
    Veteran’s if that’s your situation: 1 (800) 273 8255

  102. 102.

    jenn

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Please, please, please call the Suicide Prevention Hotline. Call up someone you know in real life. I’m sending the best of wishes your way, and if you accept hugs from strangers, those too.

  104. 104.

    I am not a kook

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Dennis, I’m just an intemperate sporadic commenter here, but I’ve always enjoyed your contributions, starting with your nym.

    Don’t go. Stay with us. Please. Please talk to someone. When you put your thoughts into spoken words, you will get a glimpse of a different viewpoint into your situation. Please call a hotline now.

  105. 105.

    scav

    It’s nearly all been said, so i’ll just add Take Care of yourself, whatever that turns out to mean and it’s not always easy (no matter the direction you take.) You are Valued.

  109. 109.

    JGabriel

    Higgs Boson’s Mate: Dennis, don’t do this. Stay inside and reach out to a helpline or a friend or family or someone here at Balloon-Juice. Stay with us Dennis. We’re all hurting inside, too, but there are moments of relief, levity, and revival that make it worth while to keep going. Just wait another day. And another day after that. It gets better.

  111. 111.

    MazeDancer

    @raven: Thanks. You can no doubt be helpful to Dennis. As can all the veterans here. (To whom we are always grateful)

    Judith Hermann, MD, who was part of establishing PTSD as a disorder when the (sexist) American Psychiatric Association was fighting her and her colleagues to prevent that from happening, writes about the overlap and differences of veteran and child/domestic abuse kinds of PTSD in her classic Trauma and Recovery. (A great book.)

    Dr. Hermann has a law of recovery: Safety First. That a person recovering has to establish safety. Literal, physical safety. Over and over and over and over, as often as necessary. So hope Dennis stays safe tonight.

  113. 113.

    raven

    @MazeDancer: Patience Mason has a lot of great info as well.

    Patience Press started in 1993 with the publication of Why Is Daddy Like He Is? a book for the children of veterans with PTSD and the first issue of The Post-Traumatic Gazette. We also sold remaindered hardback copies of the Viking (1990) edition of Recovering from the War: A Woman’s Guide to Helping Your Vietnam Veteran, Your Family and Yourself. When we ran out in 1998, Bob created a new cover for the book and, because so many veterans had found it helpful even those from other wars, we changed the subtitle to A Guide for All Veterans, Family Members, Friends and Therapists.

  114. 114.

    Karen in GA

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: I won’t say don’t do it. I’ll just ask that you give it one more day.

    I know you’re in hell right now (I haven’t had PTSD, but I’ve got a suicide attempt in my own past — suicidal depression is hell). But just one more day. Please? Can you do that?

  115. 115.

    MazeDancer

    @raven:

    Patience Mason looks excellent. Thanks.

    I’m from the childhood PTSD side. Sometimes, I think BJ ought to have the now and then “How & Why I Didn’t Kill Myself” threads, like job postings. PTSD is epidemic. And its prevalence unknown to many people, including many suffering. Everyone who has made it through to the other side (and continually knocks wood to staying there) probably has a book, information, long-term coping tool, therapeutic approach, scientific knowledge, useful anecdote, some kind of how to get through the night resource that helped them that might help others. Just knowing there are others is a gigantic help.

    Though for my first wasted recovery decade, during expensive, useless mainstream fancy therapy – that never discussed childhood abuse – my answer would have been what I imagine many others here would reply: My cats. Who would take care of the cats?

    But it was several decades – and great, body-oriented, trauma focused therapy – later before I truly believed happiness was possible. And then much work to even get close to it. So I fully understand how trite it sounds to say to Dennis healing is possible. I know how impossible that can feel. But I just want him to know another reality can happen. But it starts with staying safe one more night.

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:
    I want to say a lot more than I have but it all feels so selfish. Please don’t go, we like to hear from you.

    This is about you and what you need and desire in life. Once again we all only know you a little bit. But for me that little bit seems to say that you are an honorable person. You have tried to do what is right, and what is expected of you.
    I can relate to that, I hope that’s the type of person I’ve been as well. I don’t know how successful I’ve been at that but I’ve tried. And now I have to turn back to my life because it is all I have. All I can do is relate to you what has happened for me and maybe some of that will apply, even if only a little bit.
    But from my personal experience I can say that many times no matter how hard I tried it didn’t seem to work exactly that way. And I’ve learned that mostly it’s due to things I can’t control no matter how hard I want to or try to. That was a hard lesson for me. But learning that one thing has made my life easier. It has given me patience and serenity I could never imagine. That’s not to say that my life never sucks but that I have learned to live with the down days a lot better.

    Dennis, take care of yourself, please get help. I made a point on a post 2-3 weeks ago that life is much better when I’m not drunk or stoned. It is also better when I’m still breathing.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @MazeDancer:
    For me one of the things that opened my eyes was a very strange source.
    My migraines.
    Was discussing them with someone one day and they asked how you deal with the pain. My answer was that my worst migraine, which I can still remember every second of, made me want to kill myself, to get over the pain. And the only thing that saved me was the absolute knowledge that even though I would probably have another(and another and another…) this migraine would end and the pain would go away.
    It is not permanent pain no matter that it feels like it in the moment.

  124. 124.

    phein39

    Stick around until you see Peter Capaldi in Ken Russell’s Lair of the White Worm. Although he’s fresh and fantastic as Danny in Local Hero, he’s got a different type of earnestness as the archaeologist/vampire slayer, with Amanda Donohoe (vampire), Hugh Grant (playboy), Sammi Davis, & Catherine Oxenberg as the virgin sacrifice. Good fun.

    He’s very good at showing an awareness of menace.

  126. 126.

    fuckwit

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: WTF??? A suicide note on BJ? Um, no. don’t do it! Get help. Talk to someone, anyone, a real person, not on the internet. Even a phone call is better than internet, call someone. There are treatments for PSTD. If you are a veteran (PSTD + 1971 = Vietnam Vet, is a pretty good guess), go to or call the VA, they are experts at this, and after Iraq and Afghanistan, they have seen this over and over again and know what they’re doing. Do me a favor and talk to one qualified person before you do anything, call the VA, call a crisis line, go meet someone in person, but definitely contact an actual human first. Please.

  127. 127.

    walker

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Dennis, lurker for years here at BJ, so you won’t know me, but…what fuckwit says: Please, talk to someone. Stay with us. I’ll raise a glass here to you, to you and the setting sun, but I hope you’ll stay with us.

  128. 128.

    phoebes-in-santa fe

    @phein39: Capaldi was fabulous in “In The Loop”. His swearing with his Scots accent was wonderful. The movie was great and I’m surprised more Balloon-Juicers haven’t seen it. It’s right up our alley.

  130. 130.

    dance around in your bones

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    May the FSM tickle you with his noodly appendages and convince you to stick around, even though you are hurting and tired and ready to check out.

    Look how many people value your presence on this blog – you DO have something to contribute in spite of your pain. I don’t know what else to say, except that there’s one decision you can’t come back from. And I hope you don’t make that decision.

    Stay here with us Balloon Juice goofballs – we’re fun, no?

  131. 131.

    Older

    @MazeDancer: Let’s do have How I Managed to Keep On Living threads every now and then. We’ve all (most of us anyway) got stories to tell, and can use help from others who’ve been there.

    Making Light used to run a Dysfunctional Families thread every year, but it now runs continuously, because there’s a need for it.

    There’s a need for this one too.

  132. 132.

    Stephen

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Sit your fine self down and don’t do it. Call Lifeline or whatever the local suicide prevention hotline is called. Call your friends. Too many people think you’re valuable.

  133. 133.

    debbie

    Sorry I missed this last night. I tried to kill myself when I was in 8th grade and again during my first year in college. Looking back now (four decades), I see that my choice both times was because I couldn’t find a way out of the problem I faced at that moment. Now, I know that my problem was that I didn’t see that there were people who could and would help me.

    A couple of years ago, I read a blog post by a father whose son had just killed himself in college. He was a house-husband and they had been very close, but he had no idea why his son had acted as he had, just like my parents wouldn’t have had a clue that I was hurting. For the first time in all these years, I had a sense of what my killing myself would have done to my family and friends, and I will never get over being horrified at myself.

    Coincidentally, I finished reading “Sparta” yesterday. It’s a novel about an Iraqi veteran dealing with PTSD. It wasn’t his therapist mother or the VA who finally were able to help him; it was his younger brother who just loved him. How powerful is that?

  134. 134.

    phein39

    @phoebes-in-santa fe:

    I love the part where he tells James Gandolfini’s American general — after Gandolfini has obscenely insulted his manhood, family, sex life, and more:

    “Don’t you ever call me English!”

  135. 135.

    DaddyJ

    I’m fascinated by the fact that Capaldi’s latest movie credit (per Wikipedia) is “W.H.O Doctor” in World War Z.

    That’s wibbly-wobbly!

  136. 136.

    DaddyJ

    @scav:

    Local Hero too.

    Yeah, sad for me to say, I first thought, “Hmm, another awkward young nerd.” Then I remembered how long ago Local Hero was.

    Let’s hear it for mid-fifties gravitas!

  137. 137.

    Ruckus

    @Older:
    One of my best xmas gifts is a photo album titled – Dysfunctional Family Album, with pictures of me growing up and other family atrocities. It is about as funny as anything I’ve ever seen and at the same time a little disheartening. But it brings into sharp focus that we are all damaged and we all come from families of damaged people. It is only a matter of degree.
    The only perfection in the world is that we all can learn to survive in a world of dysfunction. Hopefully we learn this in a timely manner, some of us don’t. Some of us need help finding the tools to learn this, that’s what friends are for.

  138. 138.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:
    Our moments of salvation can come from anywhere. A relative, a friend(which can be the same person), and even complete strangers. The funny thing is a lot of us need to find that moment at some point. Some find it without looking. And some never do. That’s the shame in life, that someone who needs that little piece of the puzzle can’t find it. We ask for it, we search for it, we hide from it, and sometimes we just never see it.

  139. 139.

    The Other Chuck

    @kdaug:

    (ETA: Thought Hurt was doing this. Or is that just a Christmas special thing?)

    Nope, and I don’t think he was actually being cast as the next Doctor either. The story being hinted at, best as I can tell, is that The Doctor has actually had twelve regenerations — which is supposed to be all he gets, but there’s no more time lords there to enforce the rules he was never a stickler for in the first place. The missing regeneration would have between doctors 8 and 9, which conveniently puts him between the two runs of the series. This would be the Doctor who ended the Time War by more or less wiping out his own people and possibly countless others in the process. In response to the enormity of this act and as a sort of ultimate expression of denial-as-the-first-stage-of-grief, the Doctor’s next regeneration actually denies the title “Doctor” to his previous one, and doesn’t even count him.

    Obviously it’s a very convenient retroactive continuity device that Moffat and Davies are using, but I think Doctor Who is a pretty appropriate vehicle for retcon.

  140. 140.

    Klare

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: If you get this you’ll observe that John Cole went through a meltdown this week where he tried to break his life all to pieces. I’d say he had a flashback to three weeks ago and lost his marbles briefly. And now thankfully he is up and running. Probably trying to put the pieces back together. Struggling with anger and loss. And this was his cat. if you have combat PTSD we suppose that your pain is even worse, and from what we have seen John go through, his experience has been trully awful.

    All this is to say that no matter how much awful you have experienced and how much of a mess you have made, each hour brings the chance to pick yourself up (no bootstraps please!) and dust off your britches. Start again. No promises things will be better but things will be life, your life. From the comments here, you are held very dearly. I am brand new, but I hope I get to know you and hear from you.

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