Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

The words do not have to be perfect.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

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

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Open Thread: Bleah. Humbug.

Sunday Open Thread: Bleah. Humbug.

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axial tilt is the reason phil plait

From Phil Plait at Slate.

Gail Collins looks on the bright side:

… This week, the Senate finished work on legislation that will forestall any government shutdowns for the next two years. Then our lawmakers packed up and went home for the holidays. They kept everything else open and closed down Congress! Finally, America’s getting what it really wants for Christmas.

It’s great, right? And people have noticed. Even as a new federal budget was wending its way from House to Senate last week, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that American approval of the job Congress was doing had rocketed from 12 percent to 16 percent…

***********
What’s on the agenda as we stagger towards the end of a year very few people will regret seeing the back of?

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  3. 3.

    ronin122

    Gonna use the open thread to tell Cole that we in Chicago are grateful to Pittsburgh, who brought us one step closer to having the chance to be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    The best thing about this Christmas is that I really don’t have to do anything for a week. The cousins I have mentioned previously and with whom I usually celebrate (they live here, they have been doubly bereaved in the past year and don’t really want to try to replicate traditional Xmases) decided to postpone the meal, gifts, etc. until the Saturday after Christmas. Fine with me, there’s nothing sacred about December 25th. And it will allow me to join a work colleague that day, who kindly invited me to dinner, but since I don’t know anyone else who’s going to be there, all I have to do is take a nice hostess gift, not a slew of stocking stuffers and the like. It’s all good.

  6. 6.

    KG

    @ronin122: I’ve been playing around with the ESPN playoff machine, there’s about 37 possible scenarios still. Which seem like a lot, I feel like by this time most years, we’ve got the seeding figured out except for the 6 seeds.

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    Yeah, I meant to me, not to people who actually believe there were shepherds abiding in the fields on December 25th. No offense.

  9. 9.

    Mustang Bobby

    I’m going to take off tomorrow for a day trip to the Keys and get away from the madness of the malls and the traffic; go sit on a beach and watch the pelicans soar. Then I’ll come back and have Christmas dinner with some friends and spend the rest of the two-week break sleeping in, working on my novel, and try to get as much lazing as I can.

    Congress can go suck dry green donkey hooters.

  11. 11.

    raven

    I can’t wait to drive for seven hours in this fucking downpour to our room overlooking Liberty University.

  12. 12.

    Hungry Joe

    Agenda?

    Well, there’s a sleazy little place on the edge of town
    That’s where I’m goin’ just to hang around.
    There’s flies on the fries
    The ketchup’s watered down
    But everybody rocks like they don’t downtown.

    (Guess the band and the song and you get … well, you don’t get anything. But you win.)

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    We’re heading out in a few minutes to get a nice steak at our local established in 1936 steakhouse, where the waitresses are all about 80 years old and have worked there since it opened. It’s our own little Xmas dinner together.

    My brother invited us to come over Xmas Eve in addition to Xmas Day, but we declined. G has to work late on Xmas Eve and we really don’t want to have to battle holiday traffic just to go to church or whatever. So it’ll be us at home with a home-cooked meal (probably pork tenderloin), a gin and tonic, and “The Shop Around the Corner.” We don’t even have gift opening stress because we already bought “Book of Mormon” tickets as our mutual gift.

  15. 15.

    Pogonip

    I am going to bed early.

    That is all.

    The day gets one minute longer on the 25th! Merry Christmas!

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    Also, someone needs to explain to Phil that the axial tilt doesn’t bring presents. Well, okay, being a science dude, it probably indirectly brings presents to HIS kids via his paycheck, but not the rest of us. As everyone knows, Befana brings them on her broomstick.

  17. 17.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Mustang Bobby: With you in spirit(s), brother.

    Trying to decide if we can beat the weather on the way to the parents house, now that the winter thaw is decidedly over. Drinking heavily and seeing my teams lose is not helping.

  18. 18.

    Dead Ernest

    @Hungry Joe:
    I see ya done took off, still…

    I don’t know where yours is from but the words and your nym brought this to mind…

    Well’..there’s a puppy in the parlor,
    And skillet on the stove,
    And a smelly old blanket,
    With a Navajo wove,
    There’s popcorn in the pooper,
    And a porker in the pot
    There’s pie in the pantry,
    And the coffee’s always hot
    There’s sausage in the morning,
    And a party every night,
    There’s a nurse on duty,
    If you don’t feel right,
    There’s a chicken on the table,
    But you got to say grace,
    There’s always something cooking down at Old Joe’s Place’

  19. 19.

    Dead Ernest

    @Dead Ernest:
    On second look, I believe the ‘lyrics’ page I copied that from made a couple errors;
    I think it’s “that a Navajo wove.”
    Also pretty sure it should read; “…popcorn in the popper,” but I rather like the change above.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    By the way, for all you kids reading at home, Axial Tilt is white. Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change. Jesus was a white man, too. He was a historical figure. That’s a verifiable fact — as is Axial Tilt. I just want the kids reading to know that.

  22. 22.

    JPL

    It has rained all day and when you are taking care of a neurotic dog, that doesn’t help. Aushi is a large dog, probably around ninety pounds and my Mr. Finch is eighteen pounds. Mine the little tub finally said enough. Stop stepping on me and eating my food. Poor Aushi cowered when Finch barked at him. I felt kinda bad but certainly didn’t interfere. It’s gonna be a long eleven days.

  23. 23.

    lamh36

    Alrighty. It’s redbox movie night in the LAMH ELBA house. On tape for tonight: Monsters University, The Internship, Reds2 and Grown-Ups2, not necessarily in that order. If you haven’t bought my Christmas present yet, then please get me a fresh popcorn machine. I’m sick of microwave.

    Monsters U was great. Just watched REDS2. Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich & Sir Anthony Hopkins being OG badasses. If u liked the 1st you will like the 2nd..

    Next up The Internship just cause I love Vincent Vaughn.

    Happy Sunday everybody.

  26. 26.

    aimai

    I don’t feel that way about this year at all. I felt that way all through the Bush years, sure. But for fuck’s sake we have finally seen the implementation of the ACA, gay marriage legalized in a number of places, the ugly mask is coming off the face of the Republican party and even they know it, the President averted a crisis in Syria, began a new chapter with Iran, and etc..etc..etc… Frankly, despite all the hysteria and the hair pulling and wailing I think its been a pretty good year in some ways. And thanks to the aCA and the medicaid expansion its going to be a much better year for some people, going forward, than any in a long time.

  28. 28.

    Gravenstone

    @KG: And of course, that’s exactly how it will be spun. The bad thing about low numbers, small changes in them are relatively large in terms of percent change.

  29. 29.

    Yatsuno

    Holy Shit. Shaun White cut his hair and actually looks…kinda hawt. I bet he grows it back out before Sochi starts though.

    Day 3 of rehab done. Still pretty sore but making progress on some fronts, especially the OT home care stuff. I got clean teef today!

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Baud:

    I know this is snark, but it seems to me that the white supremacist types are getting more and more vocal and unafraid to be seen for what they really are.

    One one hand, this is good thing. We know who to shun.

    On the other hand, it is a depressing reminder of how much work remains before us in the effort to bring about a truly egalitarian society.

  33. 33.

    Amir Khalid

    @KG:
    Actually, going from 12% approval to 16% is a 33% increase, so it’s even better than you thought.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I see even the reminder as a good thing, because we need to be reminded of reality sometimes.

    And their getting more vocal is also a good thing. The bigots are no longer willing to pretend to be civilized and colorblind precisely because the Reagan coalition is breaking down.

  41. 41.

    Linnaeus

    After over two years of hoping I wouldn’t get hit by a bus (well, no one wants that, but you know what I mean), I once again have access to medical care though my state’s health insurance exchange. I can even go back to my old health care provider. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

  45. 45.

    Poopyman

    @Baud: Well, I’ve been out of work for 9 months, so that colors things. But there indeed have been worse years. Mrs. P is working and our heads are above water, but no one likes flying on one engine.

    OTOH, I’ve gotten very used to this simulated retirement.

  48. 48.

    MomSense

    Shit, crap, ugh. My dog just had either a seizure or an episode of vestibular syndrome. I talked with the vet on the phone and if something else happens tonight we will try to bring him in but unfortunately everything is coated in ice so it isn’t a good night to be driving.

    We have been dealing with health issues for some time now but still this was scary. At least he is calm and resting now but we are all on edge.

  50. 50.

    JPL

    @raven: I just tuned in and read the play by play.. One fumble led to a score. Okay it would be nice if Chicago held on to the ball longer but it’s not just the offense..

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @Poopyman:

    More time for Balloon Juice! You don’t know how many times I’ve come home from work and realized I missed a good thread. Consider yourself a lucky ducky.
    .
    .
    Kidding, of course. Hope the job market picks up for you in the new year.

  57. 57.

    raven

    CHI: 4 plays, 22 yards, 1:43 – Punt
    PHI: 10 plays, 72 yards, 4:33 – Touchdown
    CHI: 3 plays, 5 yards, 1:44 – Punt
    PHI: 5 plays, 39 yards, 1:58 – Touchdown
    PHI: 6 plays, 43 yards, 2:59 – Touchdown
    CHI: 3 plays, -1 yards, 2:07 – Punt

  65. 65.

    Schlemizel

    @Yatsuno:

    Day 3 of rehab done. Still pretty sore but making progress on some fronts, especially the OT home care stuff. I got clean teef today

    There I made that comment a lot more interesting ;)

    Glad to hear things are going well. Its a great feeling for something so simple isn’t it.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    @efgoldman:

    States are getting more polarized, but I think social conservatives and big business are not on the same page anymore. What’s keeping them together is that neither side has anywhere else to go right now.

  68. 68.

    raven

    If we make it through December
    Everythings gonna be all right I know
    It’s the coldest time of winter
    And I shivver when I see the fallin snow

    pretty song

    and, even prettier

    How pale is the sky that brings forth the rain
    As the changing of seasons prepares me again
    For the long bitter nights and the wild winter’s day
    My heart has grown cold, my love stored away
    My heart has grown cold, my love stored away

    . , .
    Get me through December
    A promise I’ll remember
    Get me through December
    So I can start again

  71. 71.

    Poopyman

    McAfee is blocking the ads just below the Newsmax headlines. Sez they’re from potentially dangerous or suspicious sites. Anybody know what they may be? I’ve typically gotten the same ads a lot of folks here have.

  74. 74.

    Ruckus

    @MomSense:
    Good luck.
    Our pets can help us through the worst of times, mine sure did, and all we have to do is the same for them.
    It is tough though.

  75. 75.

    JPL

    @raven: In an odd way, I love Scott Brown for his tweet. Of course, I hope that he lives a long healthy life pulling weeds in N.H. and never returns to Congress.

  76. 76.

    Linnaeus

    The Lions’ loss today will be even worse if Chicago loses because that would mean that, given the Packers’ loss earlier today, the Lions would just need to win their last game (against a bad Minnesota team) to win the division and get in the playoffs. But that’s moot now.

  84. 84.

    Linnaeus

    @raven:

    I don’t know if that was true at the beginning of the season, but maybe after Rodgers got hurt. In any event, they were supposed to be solid contenders for the division. They have the talent to be one of the best teams in the NFL. The problem is coaching, IMHO, but I don’t think the Lions will get a quality coach as long as William Clay Ford owns the team.

  85. 85.

    raven

    @BruceFromOhio: And their uniforms are have the Orange and Blue because George was an Illini. He was coaching the Decatur Staleys and Mr Staley gave him the team to move to Chicago. He had an agreement with Mr Wrigley on the rent and concessions of Wrigley Field that was made on a hand shake and it lasted 50 years. George also played for the Yankees and ran the Morale Recreation and Welfare in the Pacific during WWII.

  86. 86.

    divF

    @Hungry Joe:

    I spent my 21st birthday standing in front of the bandstand watching CCLPA and getting drunk on beer (oh for the simple pleasures of youth).

    Since Hungry Joe has left the building, I will repeat a something a guitarist friend of his said to him years ago (Hungry Joe and I go back a ways). “I can’t learn to play the pedal steel guitar – it’s all mathematics”.

  88. 88.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Betty Cracker: When the family gets testy in the fourth or fifth hours of a long car ride, I break out ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain.’ Suddenly the boring tedium of the journey is embraced like a rescue squad during a structure fire.

  89. 89.

    raven

    @divF: Have you read the book I mentioned? I saw the Commander the night Oakland won the series. It was in Bloomington, Il after they had left Ann Arbor for the Bay Area. The A’s won and he went nuts on them 88’s. He played this little joint up the road about 20 years ago and I had a great time shooting the shit with him.

  90. 90.

    Ash Can

    Excellent. The Bears get handed a golden opportunity all gift-wrapped courtesy of the Giants and Steelers, and all the Bears can do in response is to stand around and load their pants. Oh well — the way they’ve been playing this season, all they’d do by winning tonight is to set up the opportunity for themselves to stand around and load their pants in the first round of the playoffs.

  91. 91.

    Linnaeus

    @raven:

    They’ve been better disciplined this year. But proper coaching would have prevented that from being a problem in the first place. Schwartz himself has some issues with that.

  93. 93.

    Josie

    @MomSense: I know how hard this must be for all of you, especially at this time of year. I hope that things go well and that the good dog has a restful night and a good Christmas.

  95. 95.

    MomSense

    Thanks, everyone. I just love this big old puppy so. Last night the kids had a bunch of their friends over since they are all home on break from school. The dog was in the middle of the action and enjoyed seeing everyone and getting lots of love. Every day we get to spend with him is a gift.

  96. 96.

    barbequebob

    @Hungry Joe:

    “Truck stop rock” by Commnader Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, on the album, “Hot Licks, Cold Steel, and Truckers Favorites”

  98. 98.

    divF

    @raven:

    Yes, I own a copy. Great book. Also, Bill Kirchen gets around here a couple of times a year, and they sometimes open the dance floor at the Freight and Salvage when he plays. Since I courted Madame in the mid-70’s by taking her out to dance to CCLPA, the Moonlighters (another Kirchen band), and Asleep at the Wheel (she learned to like Western Swing and I learned to dance), we try to make those shows if at all possible.

    Also, there was a link to go with the quote.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk5T26P_lVc

  99. 99.

    raven

    @divF: I look a lot like Roy. One they were playing Champaign when I had broken my back and was in a full body cast. We were in the parking lot and he walked up. It was like he was looking in a mirror but with this big plaster cast on! The orginal hippy softball team in C-U was the High and Mighty and our spinoff team was Asleep at the Bat!

  101. 101.

    Origuy

    @Paddy: The sideways cross has apparently been a thing on jewelry for a year or so. I found a few links to Christian blogs where they can’t make up their minds about it. Most seem to have decided not to be offended by it. On flags, of course, it’s been around for centuries, where it’s called the Scandinavian Cross.

  102. 102.

    divF

    @raven: One more thing about “Starmaking Machinery”. Bill and Louise Kirchen’s wedding is described in the book. When he performs now, Louise travels with him, and she will come out and sing for some of the songs they have written together.

    For a long time Kirchen was based in Washington DC. He did not tour much, but was a mainstay of the club scene there. But he has been touring extensively now for at least a decade.

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    @BruceFromOhio:
    I don’t understand boredom even on long trips. Most of the miles I’ve driven/ridden over the last 48 yrs have been driven alone, without radio/cd/mp3 and there have been only a few times I’ve missed the noise. I’ve been across the US a number of times on bikes, cars and big trucks on I-10, 40, 80/90 and none of them are boring. I-5 in central CA is boring unless you like the overwhelming smell of cow dung for about 30 miles in the middle.

  105. 105.

    Betty Cracker

    @Ruckus: I’m with you fellows; I love a road trip above all things and almost never get bored. One time I drove from Pensacola, FL to Tucumcari, NM in one straight shot. I was tired as hell. But not bored!

  106. 106.

    Hungry Joe

    @raven: Yes! Yes! God, NOBODY knows about that great album. I used to see Commander Cody & the LPA in west Berkeley (somewhere on San Pablo) for a nominal cover that included a beer. Man, talk about great days …

  107. 107.

    lamh36

    @Gravenstone: @bewleys:

    Just finshed watching The Internship with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. It was alright, not spectacular, but alright. I’m definitely glad I didn’t waste the $10 it woulda cost to see it in the actual theatre. Still, my love for Vince Vaughn STILL stands.

  108. 108.

    Hungry Joe

    @raven: LOVED that book. Could never figure out why it wasn’t a huge hit. I once wrote a feature story on George Frayne (AKA Commander Cody) for the San Diego Union-Tribune. He had a lot of great stories. One: Originally, there was no “Commander” — it was just the name of the band. Then the (then) pedal steel player, the West Virginia Creeper, said he’d volunteer to be the Commander on stage. Everybody said, “No no no no no no NO!”, and on the spur of the moment (and in desperation) they appointed Frayne. John TIchy, the rhythm guitarist, went on the become the chairman of the Civil Engineering Dept at Renssalaer Polytech; Frayne tours with the Commander Cody Band. Tichy performs with his son, a pretty hot guitarist, as The Tichy Boys.

  109. 109.

    Suffern ACE

    Grrrrr. 11-2 regular fantasy season to win regular season 2 games. Last week, I set the record for most points ever scored by a team in the three year history of the league. And this week, fantasy league championship week? Nuttin doin. No trophy for me!

    Now I know what it’s like to be Bill Bellicheck and it’s not a happy place.

  111. 111.

    Carrie

    I’m back from work Christmas party where attendance was mandatory…..i’m sufficiently drunk and very grateful that i have the rest of the week off from those fuckers.
    I think i goosed the CEO, but i don’t really care.

  114. 114.

    divF

    @Hungry Joe:
    I realize that this is a dead thread, but this is too good to pass up – the name of the dive was “The Long Branch Saloon”, and the space is now occupied by a Good Vibrations outlet (I’ll be interested to see if this has me ending up in moderation).

    Hungry Joe: bedtime now, shoot you an e-mail in the morning.

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