Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Republicans in disarray!

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

All hail the time of the bunny!

Let there be snark.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

We will not go back.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Bark louder, little dog.

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Reader Interactions

117Comments

  2. 2.

    mothra1

    Thanks for posting that at least. Ive been thinking about you and sending good thoughts your way.

  5. 5.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Thinking and then dealing with stuff is a good thing as long as the decisions you make are good.

    Think carefully. :)

  11. 11.

    mai naem

    @Belafon: Not surprised. My sis just bought a Iphone because IMHO her hubby considers it a status symbol. I have had a couple of samsungs and have been impressed by their quality.

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @David Koch: Yup. He was too close to Broder and a few other buffoons, but I think his voice would’ve been a tonic over the last few years.

    I’m not good at the personal stuff, but if anyone’s interested, Marc Maron in his Monday podcast talks about his 14th anniversary of sobriety, why he decided to quit and what the first year or two were like (short version: it was hard and sometimes it sucked, but now it was worth it). And if you’re a fan of Chopped, Alex Guarnaschelli is his interview guest
    Edited to calm OCD tendencies

  13. 13.

    Belafon

    @efgoldman: Someone should ask him if this means we should all be happy for Windows 8 because Microsoft has sold so many copies of windows.

  14. 14.

    Belafon

    @Belafon: Another interesting tidbit from the article: This is the first time smart phone sales surpassed feature phone (I’m assuming that means non-smart phone) sales.

  18. 18.

    David Koch

    Speaking of the dead.

    It’s been a tough day in Boston with Brady blowing out his knee. I don’t care about him, but that resurrects Tebow, and all the Jesus freaks are saying “it was god’s will”.

  19. 19.

    Betty Gray

    No more dead for our family. we have lost our youngest son and two brothers- in laws in less than two years.

  24. 24.

    Roger Moore

    @hells littlest angel:

    Go to the movies. Cool and dark and they don’t serve alcohol.

    Round her in our elitist liberal enclave on the Left Coast, there are movie theaters that sell alcohol. They charge an arm and a leg for it, but so do a lot of bars.

  25. 25.

    Singing Truth to Power

    Dragging the conversation back to Steve and the cat tree, have you tried just putting him on the highest level of the tree with some really highly-regarded (by Steve) cat treats? Whether the tree is by a window or not doesn’t matter to a lot of cats – my tree is in the middle of the room, not near any windows, and my cat happily surveys her whole kingdom from high above it all.

  27. 27.

    gbear

    @Belafon: I’d like to see is the number of users who decided to just keep the money in their pocket and use last year’s phone. I’m still using the phone I bought in 2005. It a damned phone, not an umbilical cord.

  29. 29.

    Michael Bersin

    At 7:30 tomorrow morning I’ll pick up my media credential for the Governor’s Ham Breakfast at the Missouri State Fair. It’s the largest single gathering of Missouri politicians when the General Assembly isn’t in session. It’s going to be very interesting, to say the least. And this year I will get a picture of the butter sculpture.

  32. 32.

    Ted & Hellen

    Not a good time to be thinking on your own, or making decisions on your own.

    Reach out. Ask for help. Act. Move.

  35. 35.

    Yatsuno

    @Singing Truth to Power: Boss Stevedore Hemingway Esq. may just not be the climber type. Or he has not willed to use the cat tree merely for the amusement of his hairless ape minion. One must maintain one’s dignity after all.

  36. 36.

    Dead Ernest

    @efgoldman:

    Sheesh! Tell a guy he sounds like Socrates, next thing y’know it’s ‘Get off my Hemlock!’

    Really, was just a bit of whimsy. I’ve no problem w you liking what you like.

  37. 37.

    Steeplejack

    @Belafon:

    That is funny. As Kngsley Amis wrote in The Anti-Death League: “Effective concealment conceals the fact of concealment.”

  39. 39.

    sharl

    @kindness: Yeah, Cole might just like that music. But it’s about a 5.5-hr drive to Arrington VA from Bethany WV (according to the Google Maps “Get Directions” thing), so he would need to stay over.

  44. 44.

    Hill Dweller

    Do any of you tech savvy people think Samsung will eventually ditch Android?

    Also too, is Andy Rubin’s departure evidence of Google trying to expand Chrome OS into smartphones?

  45. 45.

    Michael Bersin

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Yeah, Rick Perry will be in Missouri later this month to lobby for the override of Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of HB 253, a republican right wingnut plot, hatched in the General Assembly to defund the state, add a sales tax on seniors’ prescriptions, and give a huge tax break to the top 1% and corporations. Oh, wait, you were referring to the state fair rodeo clown…

  46. 46.

    srv

    > Thinking

    Less thinking and more raging posts, take it out on all the Obots. Even Matt Damon is fed up:

    ‘There are a lot of things that I really question, he said, specifically about the Obama administration’s national security posture.
    ‘The legality of the drone strikes,’ Damon said, ‘and these NSA revelations are – like, you know – Jimmy Carter came out and said we don’t live in a democracy. That’s a little intense when an ex-president says that. So you know, he’s got some explaining to do, particularly for a constitutional law professor.’

    Time to Wake Up!

  47. 47.

    Jane2

    Thinking/dealing good.

    I’m in the middle of dealing with the results of a diagnosis of dust mite allergy and am on what it seems to be day 32948734 of washing and vacuuming and steaming every damn thing.

  52. 52.

    Suzanne

    @Jane2: Do the immunotherapy if you can afford it. I am allergic to dust mites, too, pretty severely. I have been doing drops for about two months and it is already so much better. I put up with 15 years of this shit before I finally got to the FUCK IT point, and that was stupid of me.

  54. 54.

    RaflW

    Hang in there, John. Thinking is good, but taking action will help (I tell myself as much as you).

  56. 56.

    Mark B.

    @srv: wow! I find Matt Damon’s credibility on political issues to be right up there with Tom Cruise’s. I’m holding out to see what Brad Pitt has to say.

  59. 59.

    Jane2

    @Suzanne: I’ve never heard of that. I just started with an allergist and got the diagnosis and am going to research it….I’ve just been gradually getting worse year after year. Not interfering with my life yet, but I go through a lot of Puffs with lotion.

    Being Canadian, affording it is no issue. However, finding the service might be….free (or “free”, you should see my tax bill) comes with limitations.

  60. 60.

    sparky

    John, I ironically decided to “give it a rest” last Thursday before you posted your “I’m done” post. I decided to give it a rest to see if I’d have any physical and mental changes that would give me an indication that I needed to get my drinking under control. (There were none. Thankfully.) I’ve made it through day 6 and am happy to report that I plan on drinking this Friday in celebration of my 7 days of sobriety.

    My main concern is with the expense: I’m a poor and can’t really afford to over-indulge like I did the past 6 or 7 weeks. (School has started here so I would be cutting back anyway.) I like my inexpensive scotch blend, but now I can enjoy it with a little discipline.

    Also, too, the lack of alcohol has really driven my desire for sweets something awful. Mmmm, sugary goodness.

    Glad you’re not dead. You’re sorta young for that and according to you, you wouldn’t leave the right kind of corpse.

  62. 62.

    eemom

    Reach out. Ask for help. Act. Move.

    Just don’t do it HERE….because, as is well known, everyone who posts here is a loser who has no friends IRL.

    Oh wait….

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, too, tonight’s dinner was pan-fried gnocchi with kale and beans — basically, pasta e fagioli. Also with tomatoes and artichokes, though I was out of parmesan cheese, so we went cheeseless.

    And I got to my 10,000 steps while picking the kale up at the grocery store. Aimless wandering FTW!

  64. 64.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @srv: Even Matt Damon is fed up:

    You’re getting sillier as you get angrier. Leaving aside the absurdity of “even”, Matt Damon has been tantruming about Obama since the summer of ’09.

  65. 65.

    Jane2

    @Mnemosyne: Pan-fried gnocchi….never thought of doing that, but my experience with pan-fried perogies tells me it’s a winner!

    And you must be wearing a Fitbit…that thing makes me move way more than I would otherwise.

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne

    @Redshirt:

    G and I go out to dinner once a week to celebrate that we ate healthy the rest of the week. So I can see it. Sometimes, for some people, drinking too much really is just a bad habit that needs to be brought under control.

  69. 69.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Hill Dweller: Though Samsung has been developing Tizen for a while, I really doubt that they’ll stop supporting Android. If they can actually get Tizen to work, the problem will be getting folk to write for it, sort of the problem MS has with Win8. That’s been Android’s problem in the past(vs iOS), the relative lack of applications that would run on the platform,

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jane2:

    I just got a Fitbit Flex last week, and so far I really love it. I used to have one of the activity monitors you clip to your belt or bra, but I kept losing it or forgetting to wear it, so I decided I was better off with the one you don’t take off.

    I also didn’t like my old one because it kept telling me I needed “more” activity without telling me how much. The Fitbit was able to tell me yesterday that I was 775 steps short of 10K, so I walked down the block and back to get them in.

    My best friend also has a Fitbit (they gave her a Zip through work) but I don’t think she’s synced for a while. I just discovered that I can Taunt her through the Fitbit dashboard, but I haven’t done it yet. :-)

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @gogol’s wife:

    I missed it, but I probably Tivoed it from an earlier showing. Now that my other chaos is on the downswing, I really need to get back to my blog.

  73. 73.

    Jane2

    @Mnemosyne: I have a Fitbit that I clip on and just go…it’s taken me from couch potato to an average of 8k steps a day over a week. I’m on my second….I washed the first one which of course died, and I lasted a couple of weeks before I gave in and got a new one. I can’t think of another product that has consistently made me more active.

    As for taunting friends, no one I know is on the boards! Smart of them.

  74. 74.

    gogol's wife

    @Mnemosyne:

    It’s worth a look to see very young Bette Davis, who is already masterly in her facial expressions and body language, but doesn’t have her voice under control yet.

  78. 78.

    Mnemosyne

    @gogol’s wife:

    I keep meaning to watch her version of Of Human Bondage, with Leslie Howard. I probably have a backlog of about 150 pre-Code movies I haven’t watched. I’m formulating some ideas about which actors/actresses were able to make the transition from Pre-Code to Production Code and why. Davis and Stanwyck were able to make the transition, but equally talented women like Ann Dvorak and Miriam Hopkins didn’t (or at least were shunted off into supporting roles).

    @Jane2:

    It’s also nice that it syncs to my iPhone via Bluetooth, so I can check my progress anytime I want. That was another problem with my previous tracker — you had to physically plug it into your computer to see what your progress was.

    I’m going to try to take a bike ride this weekend and see how it counts that — I’m already used to the idea that I’ll need to “tell” the tracker that I was on a bike because they’re all like that (they count walking/running best).

  81. 81.

    Ted & Hellen

    @eemom:

    I don’t know…I guess you think you’re being a smartass, but you’re exactly right.

    I most certainly don’t think this or any other online forum is the place to reach out, act, or move on one’s sobriety or self improvement. Those things need to happen IRL via real, actual people you can see, hear, smell, interact with face to face.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    One of my friends at work is in recovery and finds it strangely reassuring that other people actually do drink normally. I told her one time about the frozen margarita I got in Las Vegas that was so gross and sickly-sweet that I threw it away after three sips. She gave me the side eye and said, “That just means you’re supposed to drink it faster.” But I just don’t feel that compulsion to finish, even if it means passing out, that true alcoholics seem to feel.

  83. 83.

    Jane2

    @Ted & Hellen: T&H I agree with you. However, depending on your community (and I think BJ is a virtual community that is as good as many find in meatspace), Cole doing some of his work here is not unrealistic.

  84. 84.

    Jane2

    @Mnemosyne: A friend of mine, long-time AA person, described it as not having an inner switch that I have…she never knew when it was time to quit.

  85. 85.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jane2:

    And it seems to extend into a lot of other, non-drinking areas of people’s lives, too. When my work friend got sober, she decided to become a vegetarian, which turned into being a vegan, which turned into anorexia. She realizes now that she just doesn’t have a natural “moderation” sense and has to keep an eye on herself to make sure she’s not taking yet another otherwise good thing too far.

  86. 86.

    Roy G.

    @BillinGlendaleCA: We are working on Tizen apps, among other platforms. It’s not going to compete with Android, it’s def more low end. Samsung is looking at it as the future of feature phones, ie. not quite smartphones.

  88. 88.

    Mike in NC

    I’m finishing up watching one of the stupidest and shittiest movies I have ever rented: “Olympus Has Fallen”, about how a handful of North Koreans manage to invade Washington DC and capture the White House. Really fucking retarded.

  89. 89.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Roy G.: That makes sense, the only reason that I could think of for Samsung to create an Android competing OS is to keep Google honest after their purchase of Moto.

  90. 90.

    Violet

    @Jane2: A family member had terrible dust allergy attacks until they were diagnosed with a thyroid condition and also low Vitamin D. Since those were treated, the dust allergy only shows up after significant dust exposure. The allergy can be a sign of something else going on in your body.

  94. 94.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Mark B.:

    I’m waiting for Jon Voight to weigh in on this before I go full metal firebagger. Maybe Cher also. Too.

  95. 95.

    John O

    Glad to hear from you, JC. You’ve been in my thoughts.

    Also, in case you didn’t get the message, move the cat tree to a window.

  98. 98.

    Klare

    Ted & Helen have a good point. The BJ community is really special but face to face w people is vital too. When you feel like retreating, reach out. Healing has it’s counterintuitive aspects. Really pulling for you.

    My cat likes the top of the china cupboard sometime. Or under the bed. Loved the cable box on top of the mantle, because of the heat. Maybe Steve would go for a hot water bottle on one of his tree perches.

  101. 101.

    kindness

    @sharl: Hey I would drive 5.5 hrs to see Neil Young, Furthur, The Black Crowes, John Fogerty, Widespread Panic and all the rest. And judging by the schedule you’d want to be staying over to see the Saturday & Sunday shows at minimum.

    We are blessed with a plethoria of music festivals out here in N. Cal but no lineups like that. That is something I would travel for. And for an old Deadhead like John, Furthur is the good shit. The boys haven’t sounded this good since Jerry left us.

  102. 102.

    Halcyan

    Echoing what folks are saying about decisions. When you quit drinking, they say don’t make any major decisions for a year, because it’s the alcohol, or lack of alcohol, or the need for alcohol talking.

    I was married to an alcoholic, but his drinking didn’t really bother me. He’d drink, get drunk, sleep it off. Not every night, but a good 2-3 times per week. When I said to my AA going brother in law, “the drinking isn’t the problem”, he agreed. He said, “The drinking is the solution” for alcoholics.

    And when you stop, there is all of this LIFE stuff happening that has to be thought about.

    One day at a time. Sometimes, it is one minute at a time.

    Good luck, man.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne

    @stinger:

    If I ever get my blog up and running, I’ll link to it here. In the meantime, I highly recommend Mick LaSalle’s two books about Pre-Code films, Complicated Women and Dangerous Men. They’re what sent me down the path of re-evaluating these films for myself.

  107. 107.

    I Heart Breitbartbees

    @David Koch: It’s cool, though, that it was “God’s will” that Brady blow out his knee. After all, opposing teams’ defenses like to catch balls too. Before Manziel, I would have said Tebow was the worst pick for Heisman ever. After Manziel… I would still say Tebow is the worst Heisman pick ever, because at least Manziel can hit his receivers without gimmicks.

  108. 108.

    I Heart Breitbartbees

    @srv: Cool story, bro, but the time to speak out about that was eight years ago when Buchanan’s second coming was in the White House. Now, it’s locking the barn door after the horse has escaped. It took us a long time to get to this state, and if we can ever get out of it, it will take a long time to do so. It will certainly take longer than any one presidency, especially a presidency that has been stymied by the GOP and the Blue Dogs for four and a half years.

  111. 111.

    Gretchen

    @jane2: been there, done that, with kids. We all had boiled sheets and allergy shots, much better now.

  112. 112.

    LanceThruster

    Sittin’, thinkin’, sinkin’, drinkin’
    Wonderin’ what I’d do when I’m through tonight
    Smokin’, mopin’, maybe just hopin’
    Some little girl will pass on by
    I don’t wanna be alone but I love my girl at home
    I remember what she said

  116. 116.

    lojasmo

    @srv:

    Oh for christ’s sake. For one thing, we live in a democratic republic. It is a system of representative democracy, not a direct democracy.

    Damon can kiss my ass.

  117. 117.

    Greg in Brooklyn

    John, I’ve followed you and this blog for years. I’ve never commented, but I must do so now to give you my best wishes and hopes as you begin this part of your life. No one will know how hard it is for you, but know that many, many people are out here wishing you the best.

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