Photo of Penny courtesy commentor Max, who notes “It’s really hard to take a picture of an all black dog in the snow, especially when said dog is spazzing out.”
Less awesome than Penny, but also grateful for the snow, per NYMag:
Scandal-plagued New Jersey governor Chris Christie will be sworn in for his second term in Trenton on Tuesday, but the $500-a-head party at Ellis Island’s Great Hall that was supposed to follow the ceremony has been canceled. The reason given for the cancellation is today’s snowstorm, which is expected to last into tonight and could make ferry travel to the celebration dangerous and unpleasant. It might be for the best, since it doesn’t sound like the party was going to be a particularly great time, anyway…
Click the link for details of what the WSJ called “a drop in enthusiasm” for celebrating Christie…
Violet
Awww…doggie in the snow! Cute!
From the NewsMax headlines on the right column:
Anyone know what that’s about?
Mnemosyne
So if a recipe calls for apple juice, I can use hard apple cider, right? Don’t say no, because it’s already too late.
Also, for the record, a bottle of Angry Orchard Apple Ginger cider is 6 points.
Mnemo +1
billB
When THE BOSS, Springsteen mocks you in Jersey, you should Man Up and leave the Garden State. Hey Chris I hear there is an opening in Kabul for a man of your talents.
J.Ty
Who’s the next front-line Republican to get shiv’d, do you think? I’d say Walker but I think if they had anything real it would’ve hit by now.
Tracy Ratcliff
@Violet:
Some ex-Secret Service guy is selling his book published by World Net Daily. No real juicy details
KG
Snow would be nice… It was 75 in SoCal today. Was reading earlier that we have had like 17% our normal snow/rain. LA has had less than an inch of rain, normally we have close to six by now
jl
Thanks for posting nice doggy pic, and to Max for taking it. I can see how taking it might be difficult, but I think it came out well. Very few pics capture the elusive, yet very austere, dark grandeur of the dachshund
Edit : or whatever dachshund like canine it is. I can’t really tell, the pic’s kind of dark.
piratedan
have to say that the NFL Films: A Football Life: Jerry Smith was one of those rare sport journalism shows that was as awesome as some of those 30 for 30 documentaries…. just incredible.
piratedan
@Violet: probably in regards to all of those FEMA camps and black helicopters that he employs to silence his critics on the right…..
Belafon
@Violet: Does Obama have a concealed carry permit?
Karen in GA
We don’t have the snow this year, so far — we’re just getting nasty cold snaps.
Meanwhile, on Saturday my banjo teacher offered an unsolicited opinion, saying I was a pleasure to teach, very sharp, and that I’m going to be very good. A little while later he shared a stage with Art Rosenbaum. Damn, hearing that kind of praise from someone that good, and who plays with people like that, was just… Wow.
I’m still on a high.
beltane
I rather have snow than the -17 temps we are suffering through at the moment.
Mnemosyne
@KG:
Those clouds that keep hovering overhead to taunt us without bringing any actual rain are making me mad. I’m assuming they’re more “June gloom” than actual rain clouds that would do us some good.
jl
@Violet:
” ‘Ex-Secret Service Agent: Obama Uses Govt as ‘Personal Weapon’
Anyone know what that’s about? ”
About some reactionary, maybe racist, Secret Service agent, maybe, who has wigged out?
danielx
Five above now, high of 17 tomorrow, chance of snow. High of 11 Thursday, high of 18 Friday, 29 and 25 on Saturday and Sunday (big whoop) BUT likely to get a shitload of snow those days. Back down to 11 next Monday, 8 on Tuesday….
The weather just absolutely sucks at the moment. The upside is that when it goes over 25 degrees it feels like summer.
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
Sounds like a desperate rerun of that dipshit ex-FBI agent who asserted that the Clintons put dildoes on the WH Christmas tree.
beltane
@danielx: Yeah, there’s the type of cold you can live with and the type of cold that makes the house itself writhe in pain. If I could hibernate I would.
Suffern ACE
And despite the fact that I mock those in a panic before the storm, I am out of bread and milk. Never thought I’d miss them until I’m told I can’t be on the roads. Dry cereal, here we come.
J.Ty
@jl: Obama *is* a ruthless(ly incompetent) Chicago-style thug who Benghazi IRS, after all.
I clicked over (so you don’t have to!), and apparently “[Obama] does what’s best for his ideology . . . His religion is government. And when your religion is government, you do anything to further that because it really relies on faith. It doesn’t rely on evidence.” Obamacare is the worst kind of tyranny because something Jesus.
Anyway, he’s running for a House seat in Maryland, having failed to win a Senate seat in the last cycle.
ETA: And he has a book to sell (published by WND Media, which is apparently staffed by people literate enough to publish books).
Mnemosyne
@J.Ty:
You have officially broken my brain with that quote. Congratulations. I need another drink.
ETA: I swear I didn’t see this post of Fred Clark’s first: Religious Meteorology Needs More Rigorous Science
jl
@J.Ty: Thanks. Your extract doesn’t make much sense, which I guess makes sense, given the context I hope they can weed out sketchy Secret Service agents before they completely lose it. But the guy was able to hold down an honest job once. Sad.
Roger Moore
@Violet:
There was a wingnut in the Secret Service, and he has a book to sell. Seriously; it’s put out by WND Books. Also, too, he’s running for Congress.
Suffern ACE
@J.Ty: Oh, pooh. I was hoping for tales of Malia’s dates hounded by green berets.
J.Ty
@jl: It gets worse/better: he has an MBA from Penn State.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@KG:
It isn’t just the lack of rain in L.A. the Sierra snow pack, statewide, is at 8% of normal for this date. Last year was the driest in 119 years of record keeping. To someone living in another state the first reaction might be “Too bad, hope things get better for them.” That’s cool save for the fact that California supplies close to 50% of the nation’s fresh fruit and vegetables.
There are some interesting times ahead. Gov. Brown hasn’t yet declared a drought emergency in the state although he may have to. The NorCal/SoCal water wars are far from over and there are plenty of Californians (Not yet a majority, I think) from both halves of the state who would be happy to see it split up.
max
@jl: Thanks for posting nice doggy pic, and to Max for taking it. I can see how taking it might be difficult, but I think it came out well.
Thank you! I ran around chasing her snapping away, hoping something would come out.
Very few pics capture the elusive, yet very austere, dark grandeur of the dachshund. Edit : or whatever dachshund like canine it is. I can’t really tell, the pic’s kind of dark.
Yeah – that’s what I meant. The picture was very dark before I twiddled the brightness, because it was really dark outside. And then she is pitch black from head to toe, except for her tummy, and really hard to get a good picture of when there’s plenty of light. (Extra bonus, she doesn’t like to look at the camera when one is taking a picture.)
Anyways, yeah, she’s a long-haired toy dachshund. I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve outweighed her.
max
[‘My two name choices were Penelope or Persephone and Penny was easier for people to say. Thing is, I should’ve gone with Pandora. Or at least her box.’]
jl
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Even better, the drought comes just as the water table in the Central Valley has been seriously depleted to due to overpumping. Smaller shallower wells running dry subsidence damaging canals, and roads.
Waterwise, it looks like the recent, roaring and profitable, CA tree nut export industry is not sustainable even without drought (the last two years were not really drought years, though did have lower than average rain and snow).
There is a new water management law that would help control over pumping (edit: and put in regs and monitoring system to manage common resource aspects of water table in CA farmland), but I think it is only a year or two old, so won’t help us with this current mess.
GregB
@Violet:
I’m guessing that is Bongino who’s running for Congress in MD. Seems like the classic rightwing militaristic authoritarian douchenozzle.
jl
@max: Looks like the biggest little dog in the world.
Roger Moore
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Actually, he declared a drought emergency a few days ago.
Mike in NC
@Villago Delenda Est: Also ornaments with pieces of aborted fetuses, I shit you not.
jl
Corruption Bob McDonnell style. I feel like its wrong that I laughed at this, somehow. McDonnell’s pay back for the bribes from his sketchy nutrition pill magnate buddy was to pull a bottle of the goofy nutrition pills out his pocket and try to to hawk them to the VA Dept of Health at a meeting.
That is so goofy and pathetic, can it be illegal?
I guess I laughed because I started wondering whether Ferrell, Bill Murray, Martin, or Williams would do that bit better in the movie. (Edit, But it still feels wrong to laugh)
The Eight Juiciest Revelations From The Bob McDonnell Indictment
TPM
‘ 7. Bob McDonnell Told Virginia Officials That He Took Anatabloc
… McDonnell met with Virginia’s secretary of administration and one of the secretary’s aides, to talk about the state’s employee health plan, and ways to reduce costs. At that meeting, McDonnell pulled some Anatabloc out of his pocket. He allegedly told the secretary that Anatabloc had beneficial health effects, and that he was taking it, and that it was working well for him.
McDonnell allegedly suggested that they reach out to the “Anatabloc people.” ‘
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/mcdonnell-indictment-revelations
Edit: If Christie survives and wins 2016, McD for Sect of DHHS?
Yatsuno
@J.Ty:
AFAIK (and OO would know more about this than me) the investigation of his tenure as mayor of Milwaukee is still open. So far none of those indicted have rolled and for some reason the investigation is dragging. But if anything will nail him it will be that.
Calming influence
A Public Service Announcement from Calming Influence! (You will thank me later.)
It’s cold season. If you have a cough, use chocolate. Kevin drum has a piece up in Mother Jones called Today’s Health Tip: Cough Medicines Don’t Work. But a study in 2004 showed that the chemical theobromine in chocolate was actually more effective than codeine in suppressing coughs. (Chocolate ingredient could put a stop to persistent coughs and lead to new, more effective cough medicines)
As I wrote in a comment on Drum’s post: For me, it’s medicine so I don’t care how it tastes. The first time I tried it I had a persistent cough from a cold and couldn’t sleep. The only chocolate we had in the house was baker’s chocolate which is completely unsweetened, so you know I was desperate. I hacked off a chunk of it (it’s really hard stuff) and put it in my mouth, letting it melt and run down my throat. The coughing decreased almost immediately. I’ve used it many times since, and it always seems to reduce if not completely eliminate the cough. If the cough comes back, use more chocolate! It’s probably hard to O.D. on, though many have tried.
Mnemosyne
Do you want to see a music video about a transitional fossil? Since it’s about Tiktaalik, of course you do!
(The song is quite surprisingly catchy.)
YellowJournalism
Justified is disappointing me so far this season. Not enough shirtless Raylan.
The actual dramatic material, though, is great. I think I’m going to enjoy the Crowe family, especially if they start butting heads with Boyd. And Loretta just needs her own show.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Roger Moore:
Thank you for the correction. I’ve been enjoying Governor Christie’s predicament so much that I haven’t been paying attention to my own state.
GregB
@jl:
These fuckers have always been one click away from being the lowliest hucksters shilling snake oil off the back of a wagon.
McDonnell finally proves that theory.
max
@YellowJournalism: The actual dramatic material, though, is great. I think I’m going to enjoy the Crowe family, especially if they start butting heads with Boyd
The show has gotten kind of blood thirsty. (Not disapproval – just a lot of killing for this early in a season.)
@beltane: I rather have snow than the -17 temps we are suffering through at the moment.
Well, yeah! This stuff is just powder. Practically air, unlike that wet soggy stuff we got in December. And it’s a tropical 16 degrees.
max
[‘Which sucks, but sucks 33 degrees less than -17.’]
FlipYrWhig
@GregB: it’s really pretty amazing, because if McDonnell had managed to keep his nose clean he would be the Republicans’ leading presidential candidate, by a goodly margin. Bible-banging champion of businesses with a decent economic record for a Republican governor and even an across-the-aisle compromise on transportation to show how he Gets Things Done. But no. He threw it away for trophies and trinkets like a chump.
MikeJ
@FlipYrWhig:
He wouldn’t be a Republican. The entire point of being a republican is abuse of power and fucking over everyone, individually and collectively.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@MikeJ:
None of the Ten Commandments forbids plunder.
MikeJ
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: The Christie apologists have already rolled out, “to the victor go the spoils.”
Suffern ACE
@FlipYrWhig: yep. A few hundred thousand. Which seems like a lot, but hardly enough to run to Paraguay and live on.
J.Ty
“But the important thing is, I beat up somebody who hurt my feelings in high school.” —
BenderChris ChristieVillago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne:
I know…like any of the morans of the right rely on evidence for anything at all.
Villago Delenda Est
@Calming influence:
Chocolate is also recommended in the wake of a dementor attack.
Dunno if it works as well with Cheney and Christie, though.
Villago Delenda Est
@Suffern ACE:
Probably not a good idea. Green Berets would probably give the date pointers.
tybee
@J.Ty:
did he play football there?
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
Going to LA in a week for my first gay wedding! SIL is getting married. Looking forward to sunshine, warmth, and good food.
Lather rinse and repeat in November for my other SIL (also in LA)
gelfling545
@Calming influence: And, as we learned from Harry Potter, it’s good for shock following dementor attacks.