(via commentor MattF)
Blog’s been down for me since late afternoon. Murphy the Trickster God only knows why.
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
(via commentor MattF)
Blog’s been down for me since late afternoon. Murphy the Trickster God only knows why.
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads
Well, thank FSM the teen driver road trip concluded safely. Above is a photo from along the way. As you can see, there’s nothing much to endanger. Thanks for the advice and encouragement in the prior thread.
To celebrate our survival, I think I’ll make tacos (vegetarian and carnivore) and perhaps margaritas. I don’t know where everyone else is, so here’s an open thread to discuss your dinner plans or whatever.
PS: If you think the commenting function on WP sucks, try creating — or FSM forbid, editing — a post from a smartphone. Good Christ, what a sucky UX.
by Betty Cracker| 179 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
The above-pictured dog, Patsy Marie, is the sweetest critter ever, but she has an awful habit: She won’t allow us to sleep in on the weekends. We shut the dogs out of our bedroom almost always because, when we don’t, the humans end up clinging to two five-inch strips of mattress on either edge while the dogs loll and sprawl luxuriously in the middle.
Weekdays, I get up at 5:18 AM, make coffee, make breakfast, pack lunches and then take the dogs for a walk, generally leaving the house just before 6:00 AM. On weekends, I’d love to enjoy the unimaginable indolence of sleeping until 6:30 — or even 7:00 AM!
But Patsy Marie won’t allow it. First, she comes to the door and whines. If that fails to elicit a response, she starts licking the door. You wouldn’t think licking would be loud, but it is. If all else fails, she wags her tail, turning her butt so that the tail whacks the door like a drumstick.
If we curse, yell and throw shoes at the door, she just wags harder. Sometimes we wish she was a goldfish, but mostly we’re glad she’s a dog. She’s very sweet.
Regarding terror, we’re about to take a drive in the country with the teen behind the wheel. FSM be with us, and may the angel hair preserve us.
Please feel free to leave dog-training tips or discuss whatever.
This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes
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Roy Edroso, for the win:
… Try to imagine what a spectacle this presents to normal people: The Loyal Opposition telling them that the President is a dictator, and that non-discrimination laws are the real fascism. Maybe they actually think this is electoral gold. After all, we’re all supposed to be libertarians now, right? And, as we grow weary of repeating, libertarianism is basically conservatism with a brand makeover. At Forbes, Ralph Benko assures us that “Libertarians And Conservatives Must Find Common Ground” to win, and the way he suggests they achieve that is… to turn against gay rights. “Traditional values as vote getter (not just within the party base but with Independents — including ethnics and blue collar workers) violates the meta-narrative of the party elites,” he says. “Still, the conclusion that traditional values is a net, and a legitimate, vote getter is almost impossible to avoid.”
That’ll be news to most people (though maybe Matt Welch will go for it), but conservatives aren’t most people, and decreasingly resemble them. Here’s Ben Shapiro with his own formula for conservative victory:
Ask anybody who’s ever broken up with a girlfriend, no matter what you say to your girlfriend after you break up with her, she’s going to think you’re a jerk. Right? And the same thing is true with the American people.
The American people have broken up with conservativism. You’re not going to convince them that conservativism is the way to go by being really nice. The way that you’re going to convince them that conservatism is the way to go is because this is a two-party system, and we can paint the other side as mean and nasty as they are. And they are. They’re mean and nasty and they’re horrible people. I mean, they truly are.
Maybe Shapiro will get a chance to read that from the podium at the 2016 GOP Convention. You know, in my conspiratorial moments, I think these guys are all plants designed to destroy the Republican Party. Crazy, you say? We’ll see who’s crazy!
Virgin Ben Shapiro’s idea of a winning pitch: Vote for us, America, or we’ll stalk you on Facebook! And tweet threats to release your (nonexistent) sex tape! And call the campus radio station and tell them it’s ALL YOUR FAULT that we’re threatening to shoot up the quad!…
***********
Apart from mocking the Usual Gang of Idiots, what’s on the agenda for the weekend?
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Fortunate In Our EnemiesPost + Comments (139)
by John Cole| 82 Comments
This post is in: Cat Blogging
Praise FSM, someone found the most expensive cat toy in the house:
He noticed it goes up, too:
He went all the way to the top to the two other pieces, but I didn’t get good pics since every picture I have ever taken of my animals looks like the shit you see on those conspiracy theory shows with fuzzy pictures of Bigfoot, but here he is close to top:
And now he has just settled in looking down on his kingdom, as he should:
That pose and attitude totally remind me of Tunch.
by John Cole| 38 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Bedtime potty and treats:
All I have to do is yell treats and all three come running, and Steve bitches up a storm. Normally, they are all at my feet, but Rosie is a JRT and JUST FUCKING KNOWS I AM TRYING TO TAKE A PICTURE, but since I DID NOT ASK PERMISSION, she runs and hides every time I grab the iPhone or camera. It was all I could do to get her into this picture. So sick and tired of being outsmarted by my pets.
Here is Steve with Lily post-treat watching some boob tube with me:
Technically, this is pre-treat, but they are doing the same thing post-treat, and I left the camera in the other room. Such good pets. Even god damned Rosie.
This post is in: Movies
YEAH, HE SUCKS.
There is just too much Pacino bashing in the last thread.
He’s over-rated and over-hyped? I read that shit and then I realize how Dances with Wolves beat Goodfellas in what I will consider the greatest Oscar crime forever.
Fer fuck’s sake. Dog Day Afternoon? The Godfather I and II? Scent of a Woman? Donnie Brasco? Scarface? Carlito’s Way? Serpico? The Insider? Sea of Love with the most fantastic Ellen Barkin? Angels in America?
I’ll give you Gigli and 88 Minutes, but his soliloquy at the end of the Devil’s Advocate and Scent of a Woman alone are screenfilm accomplishments.
If Pacino is overrated in your eyes, I don’t want to hear what you think about Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Alan Arkin or Sean Penn or Robert Redford or Jack Nicholson or FSM forbid DeNiro. Al Pacino is a gift to the country we probably don’t deserve.
Hoo-ah. And I do not claim to be an expert, but his performances have been great. Although, just to give you a baseline, I think John Lithgow as Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp is one of my favorite all time performances. Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie is good, too. And Nicholson in As Good As It Gets.