Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

White supremacy is terrorism.

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

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

Petty moves from a petty man.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Friday Afternoon Open Thread

Friday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 120 Comments

This post is in: , ,

chill boxers

If it seems like my boxer dogs are always pictured snoozing on the sofa, that’s because they spend 80% or so of their lives lolling on the couch. Lucky bastids!

It’s chilly here — for here — but not anything like the blizzard-blasted hellscape many of y’all are contending with at the moment, so I won’t even mention temperatures. It’s cold enough for the dogs to attempt to build a pillow-and-blanket fort. It’s cold enough for the hens to strut around with their feathers puffed out for warmth. It’s cold enough to keep me indoors.

Please feel free to bitch about the weather or whatever else.

Reader Interactions

120Comments

  2. 2.

    Villago Delenda Est

    If it seems like my boxer dogs are always pictured snoozing on the sofa, that’s because they spend 80% or so of their lives lolling on the couch. Lucky bastids!

    Good thing they’re not in North Korea. No lazy dogs snoozing on sofas there! They’ve got work to do! Here…eat my uncle!

  3. 3.

    schrodinger's cat

    My late FIL who lived in Mumbai which never gets cold,ever would tell us how cold it was when the temperatures were in the 70s, at night. So I guess cold is relative, right now it is in single digits but at least it is bright and sunny.

  6. 6.

    Villago Delenda Est

    It’s cold enough to keep me indoors.

    Yup, that’s pretty cold.

    Contrast this with Alaskans who walk around in shorts in just below freezing weather because it’s balmy compared to subzero temps.

  7. 7.

    Butch

    Well, I live in the UP about a 3-hour drive north (yes, north) of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the prediction here is for a high temperature on Monday of minus 8.

  8. 8.

    burnspbesq

    This one’s for you, Betty.

    http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/blogs/swamp-things/os-gators-running-back-dalvin-cook-public-enemy-no-1-in-gator-nation-20140102,0,6035883.post

    I especially liked this part:

    “People were telling me to watch the Duke game, but I feel like you can’t really look at the Duke game because they ain’t the same type of players,” Cook said. “People told me to watch the Duke game, I watched the Duke game. Coach Roper is a great coach, but I don’t think Florida has the athletes like Duke got.

  10. 10.

    Comrade Jake

    Apparently schools in Minnesota are closed due to the cold. Not snow, but just plain cold. Unreal.

  11. 11.

    Cermet

    What amazes me is Boston has below zero wind chills, 13 inches of snow but the weather service is calling for 42 F on Sunday … WTF? Is that normal?

  17. 17.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    @p.a.:

    I supervised the installation of a ship handling simulator in Kochi. My Indian co-workers would where jackets in the climate controlled areas of the facility (the outside temps were often around 100°f).

  18. 18.

    catclub

    @Davis X. Machina: My memorable winter in Montreal, January the temperature never got above freezing, and was usually much colder, but then jan 31 it all melted, then refroze and the ice on the roads was over two inches thick. They had to bring in big graders to bust up the ice.

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    @Gene108:
    To be fair, it can get wicked cold — for a tropical person, wie ich — in an air-conditioned office. I had a boss who liked it at 16 C. I’d need a sweater to keep the shivers under control.

  22. 22.

    shirt

    Except for New Mexico, Colorado appears to be surounded by red states and Texas is awfully close by. Do you think these red state trafic cops will be watching those leaving the rocky state very closely? Who will they target? Young people? black people? out of staters?

    Is anyone watching? (he NSA doesn’t count!!)

    Shirt

  25. 25.

    Bill

    It’s cold enough here that Wisconsinites are passing on a chance to drink in Lambeau. For those not familiar with Cheesehead culture, that’s pretty damn cold.

  26. 26.

    raven

    @Liberty60: Idiot Morning Joe was talking the same shit without having admitted getting loaded himself. He dodged the obvious alcohol comparison. Fucking punks.

  27. 27.

    Butch

    @Howard Beale IV: You beat me. The Packers actually had trouble selling tickets to Sunday’s playoff, and I’m thinking the weather forecast is a big reason – I would love to go but there is no way I’m sitting out in that weather.

  30. 30.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    We haven’t had a double digit temp since last year (Wednesday evening) and it won’t get into double digits until tomorrow late morning. Going down to around -20F tonight. I better bring in a few extra logs for the fireplace.

  31. 31.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Amir Khalid:

    Trying to work in a too-cool office is a problem. I’ve seen lots of secretaries who kept a sweater in their work space, even in the summer.

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    @p.a.:

    Sonar rooms are kept cool, say 60-65°f. The Indian coworkers would wear jackets and sweats.

    At my work, we try to keep the mass spec lab at about 70°F, and we have to keep jackets around so people who stay in there too long don’t get cold. Of course, they’re in there for hours at a time and are mostly sitting around at a computer watching the machine do the real work. That point is actually pretty important; your degree of physical activity has a lot to do with your perception of temperature. A temperature that’s comfortable for mild activity may be too cold if you’re largely sedentary, and one that’s much too cold for sitting around may still be uncomfortably warm if you’re engaged in vigorous exercise.

  38. 38.

    JPL

    @Liberty60: The morality of David Brooks.
    I remember the guilty look on Dave’s face when he saw Mr. Santangelo with the kid by the collar. Later on, he told me that he was tempted to confess, but he also happened to know that that boy did smoke pot, that he was a full-on stoner, so if he got in a little trouble, it might be good for him.
    Nice guy that David Brooks is.

  39. 39.

    Suffern ACE

    @Butch: I know. They’re giving the corporate tickets to ‘military families’. Hopefully the military families do the right things and sell those tickets on Stub Hub. “Your mom is in Afghanistan, so you get to sit outside in -20F” hardly seems to be charitable.

  40. 40.

    Violet

    @Liberty60: That piece is a thing of beauty. I especially liked how he let the black kid at the school take the rap for his own pot smoking.

    When I read today that Dave thinks that “not smoking, or only smoking sporadically gave you a better shot at becoming a little more integrated and interesting,” while “smoking all the time seemed likely to cumulatively fragment a person’s deep center,” I thought about that boy and wondered if getting kicked out of school had helped him hold together his deep center, and if his going to juvy was the kind of subtle discouragement that Dave thinks governments should engage in when it comes to the “lesser pleasures.” I suppose he thought he was doing the kid a favor by letting him take the rap.

    He’s always been a weasel.
    http://www.garygreenbergonline.com/w/?p=449

  42. 42.

    MattF

    It’s cold enough here in MD for winter jacket + sweater + hat + gloves + scarf. I lived in Minnesota for two years, you add + long underwear + boots in that climate. And don’t have anything metallic in your pants pocket.

  44. 44.

    brettvk

    @Violet: I read the piece when someone linked to it in another thread. I thought it was satire, not reporting. Has anyone confirmed that the author actually was a Brooks running buddy?

  45. 45.

    donnah

    Nice pic, Betty. I have a similar version here with our dog and two cats. It was -1 this morning here in SW Ohio and we have bitter cold and snow to contend with.

    I’m flying down to Florida on Tuesday to help my sis, who fell and broke her leg before Christmas. Her hubby goes back to work next week and she still can’t get up on her own. She told me that it will only be in the fifties when I arrive down there. This seems like a rip off. I should be guaranteed at least 70 degree temperatures and I am filing for a refund of twenty degrees.

    Of course, it will be -5 here when I fly down to Florida, so I shouldn’t complain.

  46. 46.

    Violet

    @brettvk: Just re-loaded the author’s page and saw this at the top (it was not there originally):

    Please note: What follows here is satire of the Juvenalian variety. I thought I embedded enough tipoffs, but then again I forgot how much stranger than fiction truth can be. So to those who thought it was real and suffered pain as a result, I apologize.

    So yeah, satire. I wonder how much is actually true. Wouldn’t surprise me if a lot is true and he’s written the disclaimer after some pressure.

  47. 47.

    Suffern ACE

    @Violet: Yeah. But the author of the piece also kind of dropped the ball on that event. David blew the smoke – and pretty much everyone let the black kid go to juvenile detention for it. Which is kind of the story of America’s war on drugs in a nutshell.

  50. 50.

    ranchandsyrup

    Seems like Bobo is going to go all Steven Covey on us with his strategic use of “integrated”. Mean old libruls are individualistic whereas burkean ubermenches promote interdependence through integration.

  52. 52.

    Rosalita

    Yep, it’s about 8 degrees but the sun is out and its a pretty frozen hellscapre. Now I’m going to wrap myself up like Ralphie so I can run a couple errands without getting frostbite.

  54. 54.

    feebog

    Another bone chilling 72 degrees here in SoCal. At least the wind has died down the last couple days, so we don’t have to put up with that. Seriously, for those who watched the Rose Parade or the Rose Bowl, it is every bit as nice as it seemed for the last week or so. Got to go out and water the blueberry bushes before they dry up.

  55. 55.

    beltane

    @ranchandsyrup: This is going to create conflict with Sully, who will argue that a true Burkean keeps the bowl of his bong packed and ready to go at all times.

  56. 56.

    Jay S

    @Violet: The only pain I suffered was about half way through when I realized this was most likely satire. A few of the supposedly internet savvy were punked though.

  57. 57.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Amir Khalid: Hell *I* wear sweaters in air conditioning and its 5F here today. I’ve always kept a light and heavy sweater in an office for summer – the light to go under a blazer or the heavy in lieu of.

    Of course, I find our indoor winter temp of 67F (a compromise with Mr. Q, up from my preferred 65F) nice and balmy. So I imagine I’m a bit odd in that regard.

  58. 58.

    icedfire

    @Comrade Jake: Yep, Governor Dayton ordered all schools in Minnesota closed on Monday. The current forecast is calling for a high of -12F on Sunday and a low of -27F, which is more indicative of what the kiddies would be waiting for their buses in. We also have a wind chill warning for -35F to -60F…in the Twin Cities Metro. It’ll be even worse outstate.

  59. 59.

    Butch

    @Suffern ACE: There was some, I guess I’d say panic, because it looked like the game was going to fall under the NFL’s blackout rule (no local teevee broadcasts) because there were so many unsold tickets. I was assuming the Packers themselves bought a block to prevent the blackout. I hadn’t heard about the military families.

  60. 60.

    ranchandsyrup

    @beltane: Bongs are for proles. True burkeans vaporize.

    I have a relative and a friend that pivot every conversation into Steven Covey’s framing so I fully expect Bobo to jump on that train. He’s just about there with his smarm/snark column and the weed column.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @Comrade Jake:

    Apparently schools in Minnesota are closed due to the cold. Not snow, but just plain cold. Unreal.

    That happened when I was in high school in the Chicago area. Which is why I live in Southern California today. Did I mention our expected high is 77 degrees (above zero) today?

  62. 62.

    Gravenstone

    @Comrade Jake: Safety issue. A lot of older schools likely can’t stay warm enough under those conditions. Plus, if anything happened to a bus loaded with kids, it could be all kinds of ugly. So yes, we in the upper Midwest err to the side of caution when it gets this cold.

  63. 63.

    Ajabu

    Three years ago I left the Caribbean (where our winter temps range from a high of 85ºF to a nightime low of 70ºF) and relocated to Metro Atlanta.
    To most of you, temperatures in the low 40’s would probably seem acceptable but I get cold in October and don’t begin to warm up until late April.
    I can’t even comprehend snow & -0.
    We have our problems back home but at least we’re always comfortable…

  64. 64.

    Ajabu

    Three years ago I left the Caribbean (where our winter temps range from a high of 85ºF to a nightime low of 70ºF) and relocated to Metro Atlanta.
    To most of you, temperatures in the low 40’s would probably seem acceptable but I get cold in October and don’t begin to warm up until late April.
    I can’t even comprehend snow & -0.
    We have our problems back home but at least we’re always comfortable…

  68. 68.

    Suffern ACE

    @Gravenstone: Kids these days have it too soft, I tell you. When I was a kid in Wisconsin, the difference between -10 and -20 was that at -20, the school finally would cancel recess and open the doors at 8:10 instead of 8:20 so that we wouldn’t have to stand around for so long outdoors waiting for the school day to begin.

    And we all grew up to be well functioning adults with only a higher than the average incidence of obesity and alcoholism.

  69. 69.

    Mary G

    We’ve only had one or two days of rain here in south Orange County CA so far this winter. I read somewhere that 2013 was the driest year on record for LA. Makes me nervous, but I am glad I’m here. I don’t think I would survive in some of you all’s environments.

  70. 70.

    Botsplainer

    Today in brilliant scholarship and thought from leading Conservative think tank AEI, as parroted on the ever insightful Politico:

    America Needs a King

    By MICHAEL AUSLIN January 02, 2014

    Does America need a monarch? Ever since, according to legend, George Washington turned down the chance of becoming the new country’s king, America’s identity as a republican nation of citizen rulers has been rock solid. Indeed, nothing can stir patriotic anger more than the suggestion that the U.S. president is acting like unelected royalty. Yet even before independence, John Adams argued in favor of a “republican monarchy” of laws, lamenting, “We have so many Men of Wealth, of ambitious Spirits, of Intrigue … that incessant Factions will disturb our Peace.

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/america-needs-a-king-101691.html#ixzz2pMmE0o19

    Derp!

  71. 71.

    StringOnAStick

    @shirt: As to your question about the states surrounding Colorado, the Wyoming state patrol made it very clear by announcing yesterday that they “expect to be arresting more people” coming into WYO with pot obtained legally in Colorado. Remember, the amount you can buy here depends on if you are a state resident or not, but anything other than zero is an issue at the state border. I suspect who they will be targeting will be anyone who doesn’t look like them, if my recollection of WY and UT is correct…

  72. 72.

    ruemara

    Prepping for my audition for a 3 Sisters. It hit me that the most I’ve talked this week is rehearsing my lines. Ever forget exactly how you talk? I keep struggling not to have an odd accent.

  73. 73.

    Served

    @icedfire:

    When I was growing up, school got cancelled due to the cold a few times because the diesel fuel in the buses gelled overnight.

  74. 74.

    catclub

    @geg6: There was a tweet about the WAPO losing Ezra and keeping Richard Cohen. Not the best possible result, but the most probable.

  75. 75.

    CaseyL

    @Certified Mutant Enemy: I really wish the term “global warming” hadn’t been coined. What’s happening is what you get when you add warming energy to an already-chaotic system: more extreme weather, more extreme changes in weather. Not uniform warming everywhere all the time, dammit.

    @Yatsuno: I can’t believe how nice it is here. Last night I opened the patio door to let the air in (and the kitties out onto the deck).

    Today so far I’ve been hunched over the computer applying for jobs. But I’ll hate myself if I don’t get outside for a walk. Sunny and warm-ish in Seattle in early January is not to be wasted!

    And I will be thinking of my fellow BJers who are fighting the Queen of Winter. Stay warm!

  76. 76.

    catclub

    @StringOnAStick: I live in a dry county. I have heard of police finding out when liquor runs for events like weddings would be. My fantasy is to poison the liquor before it is conifscated and see who dies.

  77. 77.

    geg6

    @catclub:

    Not that I’m such a big fan of Big Media Ezra, but seriously. Who the hell keeps Cohen and lets Ezra go? MoU that bought the Kaplan rag is just as stupid as the old owners.

    Which, of course, does not surprise me. I have yet to read, view or meet a MoU that isn’t one of the stupidest people to ever live.

  78. 78.

    Mnemosyne

    @geg6:

    If it’s any consolation, right now the consensus seems to be that the dog story is probably anti-Kim propaganda. They were probably executed in a more normal way (for North Korea, anyway) but the Chinese are signaling … something by spreading this story. Good thing Ed Snowden made sure we don’t have any access to secret information in China so there’s no way for us to know what actually happened!

  80. 80.

    Hungry Joe

    Brooks’ point seems to be (one can never tell for sure) that pot prevents some kids from fulfilling their potential as moral garbledy something-or-others. Whatever. So to protect them, and our moral garbledy something-or-other society, we should throw them in jail, because (one has to assume) a jail sentence never hurt anybody. But (one also has to assume) it wouldn’t have been right to have thrown Brooks in jail back when he was toking because … I’m lost. But then, I just read a David Brooks column.

  81. 81.

    scav

    @StringOnAStick: Actually, that might be entirely a boon to the hotel / motel / resort industry, especially if the surrounding states are likely to keep it up. (Alas, they’ll probably only up the laws from possession to ingested within the last month or something, with funding by the drug screening industry.)

  82. 82.

    The Pale Scot

    I have been waiting a year for this delicious 50’s weather come again, just wish my dog was still here chew my feet and insist on a run to the dogpark. I guess I’ll have to settle with going over to the P-units to help them take down the Xmas stuff. My mum has more Xmas stuff than I have stuff, no exaggeration. Then knock back a couple of stiff ones and go for a swim in their pool after the sun’s down and the temperature is proper. (doing stuff like that help keeps the “why aren’t you married” etc questions to the minimum)

  86. 86.

    trollhattan

    Yesterday’s 67 notched a new record high for the date, and our ’14 is beginning with evident dedication to continuing the record-breaking low precipitation of ’13. So, yay us!

    In the meantime, wingnuts are declaring “Al Gore’s Global Warming, OVER!” because of that ship stuck in the Antarctic ice. Correct you are, wingnuts, because everybody knows that polar summers used to be all palm trees and drinks with umbrellas. Ice forming? Nevah! Just ask Shakleton.

  87. 87.

    The Dangerman

    Fuck, it’s going to be -5 at kickoff in Green Bay and kickoff is roughly at sunset? Packer fans, I salute you, not a chance in hell I’m paying $100 or so to risk frostbite.

    Now, since I am in shorts and a Tshirt in SoCal today, I feel it is my responsibility to tell you TRAFFIC SUCKS here. And COST OF LIVING SUCKS here. And CRIME SUCKS here. Please, for your own sanity, stay where you are. Thank you kindly.

  88. 88.

    Suffern ACE

    @Roger Moore: Whenever I read about No Labels as a group, I can’t get over the “Only a wealthy man can save us” viewpoint. They want their philiosopher king, above politics, to rescue us all, but they want him to be rich like themselves. Auslin is about the same. Of course, we will select that king from people who’d fit in at the AEI and a fundraising dinner. And that man will obviously be above politics, because his poltics aren’t recogized as such by the other wealthy men in the room.

  90. 90.

    bemused

    Schools in the far northern regions don’t close for cold or snow often. It has to be in the extremes for that to happen such as you can get killed out there in no time. Living here in winter is not for wimps.

  92. 92.

    chopper

    It’s 75, sunny and dry here. Of course we’re in the middle of a terrible drought. But it’s great for getting the kid some playground time n

  95. 95.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Suffern ACE:

    This is why I think that a traditional way of dealing with aristocrat fucks is needed.

    Hence, tumbrels. Knitting. Jeering crowds. The works.

  96. 96.

    Belafon

    @Roger Moore: Yes, they are, but this is also about the fact that they aren’t going to be able to elect presidents for a while, so they want to appoint one. Wait until National Review starts pushing for the most patriotic of institutions, a parliamentary system.

  98. 98.

    Roger Moore

    @Belafon:

    Wait until National Review starts pushing for the most patriotic of institutions, a parliamentary system.

    I would be willing to go for that if we went with straight proportional representation, maybe with a minimum vote share like the have in Germany, rather than individual gerrymandered districts with first past the post voting. And a pony.

  99. 99.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @raven:

    OK, I’m assuming Joe Scarborough never used pot, but he’s still dumber than a sack of hammers and not nearly as useful. So where does this leave us?

  105. 105.

    Hungry Joe

    @Yatsuno: Oh, I dunno. “First Citizen” sounds kinda good — a little futuristic and science fiction-y. The official uniform should definitely be Spandex.

    I nominate Michael Auslin for First Citizen. Think he’d accept?

  106. 106.

    Gene108

    @Amir Khalid:

    16 C would have many Americans bundling up in the office.

    There is a phenomena in the U.S. where folks – though I mostly see this with women – keep a sweater handy in the office because the air conditioning makes it cold for them. Even though it is around 30 C outside.

  108. 108.

    TriassicSands

    Bitch about the weather? Hell no. I live in western Washington and it’s in the mid-forties with a blazing sun. Sure, it would be better if it were 60, but when I look around the country, I’m happy right where I am.

  109. 109.

    TriassicSands

    @raven:

    Joe Scarborough argued against pot legalization on Friday’s “Morning Joe” because “pot just makes you dumb.

    I’m guessing Joe knows that from personal experience.

  112. 112.

    Roger Moore

    @Hungry Joe:

    “First Citizen” sounds kinda good — a little futuristic and science fiction-y. The official uniform should definitely be Spandex.

    It’s actually very old fashioned, in the “official uniform should definitely be a toga” sense. The official title of the early Roman emperors was “Princeps”, usually translated as “first citizen”; the modern English word “prince” is a cognate.

  113. 113.

    PurpleGirl

    In the mid-1970s, I worked at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (NYU). They had a super computer bought for them (for war-gaming originally) by the DoD. It was a CDC 6600; the last of the hand-welded ones. It was very tempermental wrt to temperature. The building, and the computer floor especially, had to be kept at 65 degrees (or there abouts) constantly. The building was cold most of the time and people wore sweaters year round and we opened windows. During the oil price crisis of the late 1970s, they put in a second air conditioning system for the rest of the building and separated the one keeping the computer floor and the CDC 6600 happy. People were much happier after that.

  114. 114.

    Origuy

    Isaac Asimov had his The Mule character in the Foundation trilogy (a Napoleon-like telepath) take the title “First Citizen”. Napoleon’s title was “First Consul”.

  115. 115.

    Origuy

    @PurpleGirl: I worked at Indiana University computer center in 1975. The computer center was in the basement of the PE building. They ran the water from the swimming pools through the cooling tubes for the 6600, heating the pool and cooling the computer at the same time.

  117. 117.

    Mnemosyne

    @Origuy:

    Okay, I may need someone to do math for me — a quick Google leads me to believe the 6600 operated at a top speed of 1 megaflop, while your smartphone operates in the hundreds of gigaflops. So that’s … hella faster?

  118. 118.

    Origuy

    @Mnemosyne: Yes, Giga is 1000 Mega, so a smart phone does 100,000 or so floating point operations while the 6600 would be doing one. There are other factors, though, such as available memory, disk transfer rate, etc. It’s hard to make comparisons between systems 40 years apart. Hella faster is about as precise as you need to get.

  119. 119.

    Roger Moore

    @Origuy:
    The only thing to do is to compare their speed at the same task; that will give you a more real-world idea of their speed. And, FWIW, smartphones are probably only in the tens of GFLOPS range these days, not in the hundreds, and that’s the better-for-number-crunching GPU rather than the CPU.

  120. 120.

    MattF

    @Mnemosyne: I don’t think that’s right. My (admittedly vague) recollection is that the 6600 had a clock speed of around 500MHz, so the floating point speed (for simple operations) would have been in the 100’s of Mflops. Also, it was a precursor of RISC processors, so I’d guess that simple floating point operations were pipelined. It was a speedy machine, for its day.

Comments are closed.