Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

T R E 4 5 O N

Not all heroes wear capes.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

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

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Everybody saw this coming.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

I was promised a recession.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open thread

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  3. 3.

    Yatsuno

    Going in to work just long enough to teach my class then bailing again. This cold can feel free to leave at any time.

  4. 4.

    Mike E

    BB King played at the end of a Mondale(!) rally in Love Park back in the day. I was a lowly file clerk/college student at the time so I was one of the dozen or so people who brazenly stayed past lunch break to catch the end of his set, and scooted up to within 20′ of the blues legend. My mind remains blow’d to this day!

  5. 5.

    Anoniminous

    @MattF:

    And here is analysis they weren’t.

    I note:

    Specifically the first site the UN commission visited was near Moadamiyah, south of Damascus. The investigators took blood and urine samples from some people they met on their visit there. Those samples proved positive for exposure to Sarin. But all environment samples taken in Moadamiyah proved negative (Appendix 6 and 7 of the UN report. Sample 1 to 12 taken on August 26.) If those person found in Moadamiyah would have been exposed in Moadamiyah the environment there would also have been exposed. But the UN team found that this was not the case. The persons must have been moved to Moadamiyah after having been exposed elsewhere. The 140 mm rocket the UN team assessed in Moadamiyah can thereby not be implicated in the chemical attack.

    There is also a report the al Nasra over ran a chemical weapons depot in Aleppo. Whether there was Sarin in the depot at the time is an open question.

    The UN report is evidence that Sarin attacks have happened. It is also proof someone(s) have mucked with the evidence.

  7. 7.

    Svensker

    Saw Bobbie and a buncha famous sidemen in a small blues club in Chicago in the early 80s. Cover was $2 to get in. Still haven’t come down from that night. Dayum.

  9. 9.

    MattF

    I hereby apologize for attracting a troll to this thread. I did it innocently, but ignorance is no excuse. Mea culpa.

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I have a great many friends who live and work in Ottawa and am thinking about them and the tragedy of this morning’s bus-train collision. One of my friends, who works for the House of Commons, was actually on the bus — mercifully not injured — but six people are confirmed dead and perhaps another 30 injured, some critically.

  15. 15.

    raven

    @Mike E: Saw BB and Johnny Winter at the JVC Blues Fest in the ATL a few years back. BB played more guitar than any other time I’d seen him. The pasty dude pushed him methinks! Long John Baldry weren’t bad neither.

  16. 16.

    Mike E

    @ranchandsyrup: Friends of mine on the other side of Panther Stadium from me in Charlotte during a Stones concert (Bridges to Babylon Tour) were accosted by concert goers for, get this, standing and dancing. My one friend who is 6’5″ 300lbs and was holding a stadium cup full of beer, quickly diffused the situation by identifying the one dude in that crowd most likely to start brawling and immediately tossed said beverage in his face. It worked, and they were content to just sit there for the rest of the show.

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    KAY, THIS IS FOR YOU

    …………………

    Why did George Elmaraghy lose his job?
    By Steve Benen
    Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:16 AM EDT.

    George Elmaraghy, the chief of the division of surface water for Ohio’s EPA, recently came to a sensible conclusion: permits sought by the coal industry would likely “have a negative impact on Ohio’s streams and wetlands and violate state and federal laws.” Elmaraghy, a 39-year veteran of the state agency, knew of what he spoke (thanks to my colleague Will Femia for the tip).

    Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), however, not only disagreed, he asked Elmaraghy to resign. In fact, “asked” and “resign” are almost certainly the wrong words — the 66-year-old Elmaraghy did not want to leave, and explained to state officials he had no intention of retiring yet, but was told his career was over anyway.

    Over the last several weeks, a variety of folks, including Democrats in the state legislature and newspaper editorial boards, have sought some kind of explanation for Elmaraghy’s ouster. Kasich, meanwhile, doesn’t want to talk about it.

    That’s up to him, of course, but in the meantime, Elmaraghy seems to have plenty to say. He talked at length to TPM’s Dylan Scott, who heard of a gubernatorial administration “beholden to the coal industry and willing to push out employees who weren’t going to capitulate to its demands.”

    In Elmaraghy’s mind, there seems only one explanation for what had happened: Kasich office’s demanded his removal because Elmaraghy wasn’t getting along with the coal industry. He repeatedly told TPM that nobody had ever mentioned problems with his job performance or told him what he had specifically done that led to his forced resignation.

    “I am left with the impression that somebody in the Governor’s office thought that removing me … would please the coal industry,” he wrote in a Friday goodbye email to his colleagues. “I sincerely hope that my suspicion is wrong.”

    It hardly seems unreasonable to think his suspicions are right.

  21. 21.

    Susan K of the tech support

    It was a few days back, but did you read the Mike Konczal (Rrrtybomb) post at Wonkblog? What we Get Wrong When We Talk About ‘The Financial Crisis’*

    #1 is about Lehman and AIG. but wait, there’s more

    #2 is about housing crisis

    #3 is ongoing: Wall Street Culture. “Meanwhile, there’s still a crisis of confidence over whether or not our financial markets are actually benefiting the economy as a whole.”

    Whole thing is succinct and clear. Highly recommend it.

    That statement, tho about whether financial markets are actually benefiting the economy as a whole is a question that needs to be inserted into the consciousness of each member of the Senate Banking Committee.

    Now, I can call up each of the offices of the members and say, I call attention to this article by Mike Konczal, but I think this could make for effective crowd-sourced democracy. After all, there’s going to be a big hearing about the Fed and all. And it may be not-quite-on-point (Fed ≠ All Financial Markets), but people will be paying attention, and ensuring that hearings address this is a good thing.

    *I know I’ve not been here at B-J of late, so for all I know, there was a delicious thread about this very article. I looked, I was going to bring this up the morning I saw it, which was the morning of the DC Navy Yard incident, but decided to hold off…

  24. 24.

    Susan K of the tech support

    Here is the page that states who all the Senate Banking Committee members are:

    http://www.banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=CommitteeInformation.Membership

    On the page they’re shown in two columns, which I can’t do in comments, so Dems list first, followed by Repubs:

    Democrat
    Tim Johnson Chairman (D-SD)
    Jack Reed (D-RI)
    Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)
    Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
    Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
    Jon Tester (D-MT)
    Mark R. Warner (D-VA)
    Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
    Kay Hagan (D-NC)
    Joe Manchin III (D-WV)
    Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
    Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)

    Republican
    Mike Crapo Ranking Member (R-ID)
    Richard Shelby (R-AL)
    Bob Corker (R-TN)
    David Vitter (R-LA)
    Mike Johanns (R-NE)
    Patrick J. Toomey (R-PA)
    Mark Kirk (R-IL)
    Jerry Moran (R-KS)
    Tom Coburn (R-OK)
    Dean Heller (R-NV)

  26. 26.

    Susan K of the tech support

    @schrodinger’s cat: okay then. All the more reason for crowdsourced action.

    I’m trying to come up with as concise a statement or plan of action to take to the Senate Banking Committee members, besides Konczal’s statement, which I bolded above.

    Entertaining ideas. You all are smart, entertaining, too. How best to bring laser focus in communication with each Banking Committee Member?

  27. 27.

    Mike E

    @raven: I saw BB again in a blues revue with Buddy Guy et al in Charlotte, which opened up for, I shit you not, Joe Cocker. My mind remains b’fuddled to this day.

    That Mondale for prez thing was similarly schizo, music-wise (and otherwise). Stephen Stills opened up the rally, sounding like 20 miles of bad road due to the redeye I’m sure he had to catch to get there in the first place. Also, during the speech which was totally forgettable but I dutifully attended anyways, an anti-abortion heckler tried to derail Fritzy by shouting, “Baby killer!” over and over. At first, some of the libs in that crowd tried to confront/contain said protester while others quickly made them back off of making this into an incident since, you know, 1st Amendment! Being young, naive and idealistic, I neutralized his shouts by timing a “Babies For Mondale!” chant to drown out the dude’s (of course it was a guy, who else?) sad and urgent bleatings. It worked, the crowd chimed in, and the heckler left with his tail between his legs. I wonder if Mondale knew what the hell was going on there.

  29. 29.

    gene108

    I’m getting fidgety.

    I took yesterday and am taking today off from work because I got pink eye in my right eye.

    I ostensibly could be “working from home”, but I don’t really feel like checking my e-mails or making phone calls.

    The condition is driving me nuts. I can usually tell, with a fever for example, when things are starting to get better but with this my eye has just been red for the past four days and I have no clue, how long it’ll take to go away.

  30. 30.

    Jockey Full of Malbec

    For any private space enthusiasts out there… the “other” private space company (Orbital Sciences) successfully launched their unmanned cargo capsule to the ISS this morning.

    (Full disclosure: A few thousand lines of code on the Cygnus capsule –repurposed from an earlier cancelled project– were written by yours truly. And no I don’t work for Orbital).

  31. 31.

    Susan K of the tech support

    @schrodinger’s cat: Will take a look.

    I’m off in twitter attempting to condense my Q to @rortybomb (author of that post) into 2x 140 chars. If I get a reply, will post it here.

  32. 32.

    schrodinger's cat

    @gene108: Has the doctor prescribed any antibiotics? I remember being sent home from school with a pink eye, it took about 48 hours to get better, of course I infected everyone at home too. It was painful but mercifully short.

  36. 36.

    Haydnseek

    @raven: Saw Freddy King open for BB King at the Whisky in Hollywood in the mid 70’s. The audience knew they were in the presence of greatness. Not trying to be all one-upmanship or anything, but that was a show for the ages.

  37. 37.

    Mike E

    @Raven: Heh. Blue/Off. Friendly is cool with the kids these days…they’re a generation removed from being alienated by the concept of “electric music”. It’s the TEA/NRA/prolife rallies that gets ’em worried now.

  40. 40.

    Susan K of the tech support

    Well, following Konczal, he just posted an item about Summers — why it was right that his nomination was defeated.

    http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/17/larry-summers-fednomination.html

    Good on many parts. He discusses Summers’s type of intelligence (fox or hedgehog?), temperament, and past actions

    The Federal Reserve chair is the most important financial regulator in the government. It is difficult to convey the sheer amount of power the Fed has, both to write rules and, crucially, to grant exemptions from those rules. It was unclear whether Summers would espouse a more aggressive or a weaker version of rule writing. What policymakers examined were his instincts and past performance. There in particular, they found the black mark on his resume: his willingness in the 1990s to circumvent and overrule independent regulators.

  43. 43.

    gene108

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I’m on antibiotics, but I probably have viral pink eye for which there is not treatment and I have to let it run its course. Thankfully I live alone and I’m limiting my activity to my bedroom and the kitchen.

    I’m staying away from work because I don’t want to get the whole office infected.

  45. 45.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Doug Milhous J:

    I could sit around and watch footage of 70s music performances all day.

    Okay, now you’re really trolling us elderly shut-ins.

  46. 46.

    gene108

    @MattR:

    So far dodged a bullet. Symptoms came on over the weekend, but I didn’t know what it was. Saw the doctor on Monday. I probably rubbed both my eyes over the weekend, but so far it doesn’t seem to have spread. Knock on wood.

  48. 48.

    Susan K of the tech support

    Heard back from Rortybomb via twitter: https://twitter.com/rortybomb/status/380410471171358720

    I said: Srsly ♥ yr WaPo re: “financial crisis”, esp this ‘crisis of confidence whether financial markets actually benefit whole econ’ … Yr statement: concise, clear, XLNT. Am wondering how to put it to a Q to Sen Bank Committe members for hearings. Any thots?

    “Thanks. Trying to get good Q’s for gov and industry is what I’m also trying to figure out. Lots of good people on Bank Cmte.”

    Good. Let him think up the good stuff to say. I want to help amplify it.

  49. 49.

    Ruckus

    I have a question.
    At work this morning at break guys were talking about how the debt ceiling is getting ever higher and how are we ever going to pay it back.
    I joined in and told them what the debt ceiling is and that it is not how much money we all owe. As they of course doubted me I got a little hot and raised my voice. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was not part of the conversation and my presence was not wanted. I backed away and cooled off, talked to my boss and went home for the day.
    My question is what does everyone do to get along at work with people who discuss politics and are almost always spouting MSM talking points, so they are almost always wrong?
    I like working there but it is a small business and we work in close quarters. I don’t really want to work at a place where I have to sit by myself and never talk to my fellow employees or go to lunch with them. I might as well sit at home by myself, at least there the arguments are pretty calm and I always win.
    Any thoughts?

  51. 51.

    Susan K of the tech support

    @Ruckus: I have no advice or insight to offer. But what I can offer is to bear witness and express support. (better than nothing, I guess)

  54. 54.

    ranchandsyrup

    @Ruckus: I don’t bring up politics at work, but if someone opens the door I have at them but try to do it with the socratic method instead of telling them directly that they’re wrong. I’ll usually ask if they want to see links that helped me form my opinion.

  55. 55.

    Ruckus

    @Susan K of the tech support:
    Thanks!
    I know the smart thing to do for keeping my job, I’m just sure the job is not worth having to turn back into a loner again. Which is what my boss and I talked about as basically the only answer we could think of. But he wants me to stay and said if someone had to go it would at least be one of the other two. I told him I didn’t think that was right and I didn’t want to be the cause of someone losing their job. I can live off my SS at least currently. Not well mind you but I can exist.
    Maybe cooler heads will prevail, one of them being mine hopefully.

  57. 57.

    WereBear

    @Ruckus: I do it with irony.

    I collect solid facts that I offer with a chuckle: oh, those silly news people, they didn’t check X, and that makes me wonder if they got Y right…

    You can’t butt heads. Then people have something to defend. They aren’t going to defend “news” because they know they get things wrong… you have to let them discover it “themselves.”

    I’ve had people go off, check the fact I offered, and come back to me with, “What about Z?” Soon, we are having an actual discussion.

    I’ve made a few converts that way.

  59. 59.

    Violet

    @Ruckus: I make an effort to avoid discussing politics in such situations. But if it comes up, my favorite response is to play dumb and ask lots of questions. Get them to tie themselves in knots. I have had some luck getting people to re-think their positions that way. Lots of “tell me how that works” or “Can you explain that to me?” It’s pretty clear pretty quickly they don’t know how “that works” and no, they can’t explain it to you.

  61. 61.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    My first response as well. If I could have taken my toolbox I may/probably would have. For about 5 minutes. Then I cooled down a degree or two.
    @ranchandsyrup:
    I never do either but others have these conversations several times a week. I think I just reached my limit today. Also I don’t carry around a 6 inch thick 3 ring full of facts to counter bullshit and don’t have access to the internet at work.

    I’m just so tired of it all. I want to go to work, do my job and not hear complete utter bullshit whenever people open their mouths. I think I may be asking too much of many of my fellow humans.

  62. 62.

    Haydnseek

    @Ruckus: Yep. I was in the same situation for close to ten years. Once I let everyone know that I had no interest in their politics or religion, it only took a year or so for them to realize that I was dead serious. It took that long because they were so fucking stupid that they couldn’t actually believe that someone would explain, using logic, reason and facts that their fantasy world was exactly that. It sounds like you’re a lot more gregarious than me when it comes to co-workers. I don’t want to hang out with assholes. I don’t want to eat lunch with them. Sitting by myself was a luxury. Your co-workers sound like poison. Fuck’em. Collect your pay, go home, and live your life.

  66. 66.

    Violet

    @Ruckus: Can you change the subject? Find something you all enjoy talking about? Football? Sailing? Golf? Scrabble? Gardening? Bird watching? Cooking? Maybe there’s something else you can all talk about that would mean at least politics would be discussed less.

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    @raven:

    FIDO! I love it!

    @Ruckus:

    Hang in there. It would be appalling to work with such morans. Violet and WereBear had good suggestions.

    Do you remember Robert Benchley and “Throwing back the European Offensive”?

  68. 68.

    ranchandsyrup

    @Ruckus: I hear you and empathize, Ruckus. Some good suggestions from the other commenters on how to deflect. BINDERS FULL OF FACTS! made me LOL.

    Maybe it should be done in a different venue if you really want to have those conversations? Just spitballing here.

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    I think I like Violet’s second solution — is there something else you can turn the conversation to? With my late father, I did eventually get to the point where my answer to his anti-Obama rantings was, “So how about them Cubs/Bulls/Bears?” (depending on the season) because it was just pointless to continue the conversation.

    So the best solution when they try to drag you in may be, “Meh. Hey, have you guys been watching ‘Breaking Bad’? Awesome show.” Or whatever.

  70. 70.

    Haydnseek

    @raven: Yeah, same mindset. Nothin’ but crabs in the pot. I drove one of the closest friends I have to AA meetings for two years. He didn’t make any real progress until he moved out of the area and away from his former “friends.” He’s doing much better now. Hell, the judge told him he can now actually legally own a car! Progress.

  71. 71.

    Mike E

    @Ruckus: You did good. Dumbasses spout off regardless of job security, it’s a weakness that gets ’em dealt out and clearly your boss sees it this way too. One of my low paying part-time jobs is having to deal with some down time and coworkers in their 70s who don’t seem to realize they are replaceable when they can’t/won’t get along with everybody else. They sort themselves out. Let ’em!

  72. 72.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    They all know I’m a vet.
    Unless you are talking sidearms and full clips I don’t think veterans gear will change anything.

    And I don’t have any percussion gear, nor am I willing enough to purchase nor stupid enough to wear any of it.

  73. 73.

    Yatsuno

    @Ruckus: Pinkeye is a bacterial infection. When I had it they gave me an antibacterial eye drop. I was fine a few days afterwards. The medicine is really good.

  75. 75.

    cckids

    @Violet:

    Can you change the subject?

    This is what I do with my (sadly) Fox “News” watching father. With him, I always bring up either grandchildren or sports. I actually study recent sports events before I call him or see him, so I have a handy change of subject. He’s 82 & has leukemia; I’m just NOT arguing politics with him.

  76. 76.

    Ruckus

    Hey everyone, thanks for all the answers and advice. All of it is stuff that I know and have used in prior situations but as I’ve gotten older and far more liberal and open minded and as politics has become even more of a bullshit topic than it used to be I find myself to be far less tolerant of it. People who spout conservative bullshit on FB? Defriend. When they try to friend me back? Block.
    Maybe the silent treatment, collect my paycheck and go my own way is going to have to be it. Doesn’t look or sound like finding another job will change anything, which is exactly what I figured.

  77. 77.

    Ben Cisco

    @raven: This. I’ve only had to deal with a couple of people wrt that. I had no problems telling them where I stood, especially since they were parroting points that (by the very nature of their jobs and the educational requirements for them) they couldn’t possibly truthfully believe if they were thinking about it at all. Nothing ticks me off more than listening to financial types pretending not to know math and science-based types acting like they just found a witch to burn.

    That said, I know I’m EXTREMELY lucky to be working in a place where the nutters aren’t running things and are a DISTINCT minority.

  79. 79.

    gene108

    On the debt hysteria, I’d point out 45% of it is intra-government debit, i.e. what different departments owe each other like what the U.S. Treasury owes the SSA.

    Might bring some of the hysteria down on what the actual debt owed to outside parties is, which is roughly $9 Trillion and the economy has a GDP of $15 trillion, which is manageable at the moment.

  81. 81.

    gene108

    @Elizabelle:

    Thanks to you and everybody else for the well wishes. I think it is getting better, i.e. feeling better though the eye is still red.

    Part of me is just worried to go out and to do something, because I might be like patient zero and start the Pink-Eye Apocalypse, because it can be very contagious. I think that’s what really irks me because I don’t want to spread it around, but I’m not sick enough to be bedridden.

  83. 83.

    Ruckus

    An additional point. Last time I worked in this line of work I owned my own business. Didn’t get involved in a lot of conversations about politics (and of course politics was only about 1/4 as stupid then) so it was never really a problem. In almost every other job I have been able to just leave the situation or due to one job was never even invited nor involved in them in the first place. And being the person who signed their checks put me in a different position. Haven’t really just been one of the guys for decades. It is an adjustment, one I may not be making as well as I thought.

  84. 84.

    MattR

    @gene108:

    I think that’s what really irks me because I don’t want to spread it around, but I’m not sick enough to be bedridden.

    I got it (both eyes) right after coming home from college one summer so I was not too bothered by having to lie in bed and watch TV while my parents and younger sister served me :) However when I had similar symptoms the next year (which turned out to be an allergic reaction to the eye drops I got as part of a routine exam) I got pretty stir crazy pretty quickly. But at least in that case, I could go out in public and the only risk was all the dirty looks from the people who assumed I was contagious with pink eye.

    @Ruckus: It is one of the nice features of working from home. My dog shares all my political opinions.

  85. 85.

    Ruckus

    @Violet:
    I’ve tried that and can you guess how many answers I’ve gotten?

    Yes, that’s is correct. Zero. Not just no, not even a fuck off, just zero. Kind of makes me think there may be a bigger problem. Now that problem may be me or it may be democrats aren’t all that much better that wingnut welfare, who knows.

  87. 87.

    Violet

    @Ruckus: Yeah, there may be more to the situation than just the politics. It’s always a bit of a challenge to start a new job in general and if everyone else has already-established relationships, you are the new guy trying to break in. Not always easy.

    Hang in there, search for some common ground topics, and work hard at changing the subject when politics comes up. If that doesn’t work, excuse yourself and take a walk for a few minutes. Maybe in a few months, when you’ve established yourself with the guys, you can bring up politics again and not be greeted with such skepticism. Some of their reaction may just be that they don’t know you all that well, and are less inclined to believe you than someone they do know well.

  88. 88.

    Ruckus

    @MattR:
    When I had a dog, so did mine.
    My landlords cats also agree with me all the time.

    Pets can be so much better than humans. Feed them and clean up after them and humans will still argue with you. Not so most pets.

  89. 89.

    Violet

    @Ruckus: Do you volunteer with your local Democrats? At least there would be some like-minded people there. Sometimes volunteer positions lead to actual employment–or at least you hear about jobs sooner.

  90. 90.

    daverave

    Saw BB at some small club in Boston in ’77 or early ’78. Any Beantown natives that know the name of that place? I think it was down by TGIF’s original location as I drank there before the show.

  91. 91.

    Ruckus

    @Violet:
    It also doesn’t help that I’m 20 to 30+ yrs older than them. I’m the old guy that came in and gets jobs that they can’t do because they don’t have my experience.
    I have been there for 6-7 months now, and none of us are getting married or even getting involved in any heavy petting. We know each other well enough, it may be that I just have to keep to myself. If that won’t work for me then I’ll move on.

  92. 92.

    Flying Squirrel Girl

    @gene108: Having just suffered through my first bout of pink eye in more than 20 years, let me share my experience: it took about 2 days after I started using Cipro drops every 4 hours for my eyes to look normal again, and about 4-5 days for all symptoms to disappear. I used the drops for longer than the recommended week, because I wear contacts and was afraid I’d relapse and have to throw away another pair of contacts.

  93. 93.

    Ruckus

    @Violet:
    I have in the past. Other than the last few months my life has been pretty much shit for about 7 yrs. No money, not even enough to drive to the meetings if they were out of walking distance. Doing better now but working as hard as this job requires leaves me with little desire to do much more. Getting old sucks donkeys balls but as the alternative is not even that good I guess we just have to make the best of it.

  94. 94.

    JPL

    @gene108: Don’t change the treatment plan, but I heard about this from a pediatrician when my child was four, he’s now 34.. link
    It should clear up with the treatment plan you are on pretty quickly though. At least that’s how I remember it.

  96. 96.

    eemom

    Wow, reading this thread has alerted me to something that actually does not suck about working at a law firm — NOBODY talks politics unless very privately with people they know agree with them. Just isn’t done.

    ‘course, there was the time back in ’08 when I was so outraged over the fact that the Superintendent of our county’s schools had agreed to let McCain/Palin hold a campaign event in a high school during school hours that I sent a firm-wide e-mail about it. That was interesting.

  97. 97.

    andy

    Turns out even rats are capable of empathy, which just goes to show you why they’ll still be around even after our Galtian Overlords get done destroying the world.

  100. 100.

    Ruckus

    @eemom:
    A firm wide notification at my job has just changed to “Hey guys, watch this” as I self immolate.

    I think I’ll find a different plan.

    How’s that old saying go, “Be the better person”. Maybe I’ll give that a try.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    No worries, not an option. Not even in the slightest. Gave up guns years ago. Too many close calls, some from idiots, some from people just not thinking things all the way through, you know the ones where your life flashes before your eyes.
    That thinking things all the way through, that doesn’t happen with gun nuts does it? Not even for a micro second.

  103. 103.

    gogol's wife

    @Ruckus:

    I feel for you. I’m a hothead, and this would be a terrible situation for me. In my job, pretty much everyone is to the left of me. I run into this situation at parties at my neighbors’ houses sometimes. The former Republican mayor of our town is a friend of my nextdoor neighbors, and he ended up shouting at me through spittle-flecked lips at a barbecue that happened during the ’12 campaign. It was not fun.

  104. 104.

    Trollhattan

    @gogol’s wife:

    There seems to be a “thing” that happens to certain mild-mannered folks when they get behind the wheel or get a gun in their hands, and magically become type A. I prefer to be around neither.

    Can’t say I’ve ever seen a hothead get behind the wheel and become mild-mannered. I avoid armed hotheads at all costs.

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    @Trollhattan:
    A wise man.
    I ride a motorcycle all the time. Fifty mpg normally, even at elevated freeway speeds here 48. Whenever someone acts like an asshole, I leave. Don’t care if it gets me a ticket or lands me in jail. Better than a hospital or the morgue.

Comments are closed.