Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Hot air and ill-informed banter

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

In after Baud. Damn.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Come on, man.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

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170Comments

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne

    Well, it is going to be a little chillier here next week — in the low 70s instead of the low 80s — but I’m guessing my brother-in-law will still consider it a major improvement over Chicago’s current weather when flies in on Sunday.

  4. 4.

    Suffern ACE

    14 inches and rising. I’ve not watched the Olympics yet, but I guess I need to tonight to watch the figure skater from the Philippines. I do like the stories of the skaters discovered at mall skating rinks. There was one last time from Kazakhstan. Not much training but dedicated to teach himself the skills in public.

  5. 5.

    lamh36

    It’s always nice to know when you are appreciated by your co-workers and when you work ethic and abilities are noticed and appreciated by your boss. I turned in my resignation Monday and I was off Tues and Wed, so today was my first day back at work since the announcement was made that I would be scaling back my work and eventually leaving my current company all together. I was very unsure of how things would go, but today was a good day and everyone of my co-workers came up to me and told me that they’d miss me and they felt I was a great person and addition to the lab. I got a hug from one of my bosses and the both of them expressed sadness at my leaving. (Next Friday is my last full weekday, but I’m gonna stay another 2 months and work 2 weekends a month until they can fill the vacancies they need)

    Today was a good day.

  6. 6.

    Litlebritdiftrnt

    Bitching about the weather is my favorite pastime right now. Look at this image of the storm above the UK right now

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/12510658724/

    If that shit doesn’t remind you of the images in “The day after tomorrow” I don’t know what does. Luckily for us the ice melted today. Yesterday was really quite surreal. I went outside to feed the birds and every time the wind blew through the trees is sounded like a thousand wind chimes as the ice covered branches hit each other. The air was absolutely crackling with the sound. We had lots of tree branches weighted down to the ground with the ice but thankfully once it melted today they have all bounced back and we have had no limbs down. My husband’s school district is still closed, the entire county is out of power and the predictions are that they will not get it back until Saturday night. I really hope those people have fireplaces so they can keep warm, because I hate to think of the alternative. He is out of school until Monday.

  9. 9.

    jl

    Northern California Weather Blog says two fairly cold systems with up to moderate precipitation moving through Northern half of state this weekend and next.

    All Californians, cross your fingers that we get more than expected, like the one last weekend.

    The rain moving through the state now is stingy, probably won’t make much of a dent.

    Edit: And NCWB is very good for overview of forecasts for northern half of state, in plain English, with more advanced info as well, for those who can decipher it.

    Northern California Weather Blog
    http://www.northstateweather.com/

  10. 10.

    pat

    Watching the snow chaos to the south and east of us here in western Wisconsin, I really think THEY’VE GOT OUR WINTER.

    Have not had a really heavy snowfall here since December of 2010.

  11. 11.

    Mike E

    I hope you all enjoyed video of snowpocalypse here in Mayberry RFD! That shot of motorists pushing cars up the underpass is literally 100 yards from where I work, and it would’ve been me out there if a coworker hadn’t stepped up, remained for that shift AND stayed overnight, also. I guess that’s why he gets the big bucks. Too.

  12. 12.

    lamh36

    @petesouza 3s
    Pres Obama shows Charles Barkley the Oval Office following their interview for this weekend’s NBA AllStar game pic.twitter.com/VOZefUibwN

  13. 13.

    aimai

    Finished the first season of Sleeper Cell. An unbelievably great show that was cancelled, of course, after its second season. Its one of the best things I’ve ever seen and makes Homeland look beyond dumb and contrived. 2005-2006 seem like a million years ago already, which is when the show aired and when it was set. I highly recommend it.

    Other than that I am prepping for Valeintine’s Dinner which of course I’m cooking because old married couples don’t go out for v day.

  14. 14.

    Litlebritdiftrnt

    @raven: @raven:

    That is so funny, I go out to my car in the morning to start it and get the heater going and come back into the house two minutes later and the dogs greet me exactly the same as they do when I come home from a full 8 hours of work.

    The never ending story of eating cat poop, vomiting, then eating the vomit is also a familiar story.

  15. 15.

    planetjanet

    There is something about me and airline tickets that just seems to attract snowstorms. United cancelled my flight for tomorrow morning, then automatically rebooked me to depart the day after my return flight.

  16. 16.

    Santa Fe

    Sunny and 60 today in Santa Fe. Wouldn’t mind some precipitation. Haven’t used my snowshoes all season; would have to head up in to the mountains to do so, and I’m neglecting brake work on the cars. Warm thoughts for all those suffering under the deluge. This too shall pass.

  17. 17.

    lamh36

    It’s rare for me to hear a song snippet and instantly want to download it, but ever since I heard the snippet of Lana Del Rey’s version of “Once Upon A Dream” for the upcoming movie Malificent. This version of the song is both sweet thanks to the lyrics, but the tempo and Lana Del Rey’s vocals make it more creepy and atmospheric.

    Man, can’t wait for the movie.

    Lana Del Rey – Once Upon A Dream

    In case you need a reminder, here’s the origianl version: Disney’s Sleeping Beauty – Once Upon A Dream

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: I giggled out loud, over and over, and I read through it. Then I cried at the end. It was the “hey, wake up. gotta go stand in the yard and sniff things instead of peeing” that captured the old age so well.

    Edit: “No, no, not there NONONONONO” has been my life 3 different times this week.

  20. 20.

    jl

    @WereBear:

    ” Valentine’s Day this year is Chinese food & Lindt chocolate. ”

    It’s the year of the horse, so inquire about the meat.

    The metal dragon meat I had last year was yummy, though.

    Edit: that’s a little astrology humor, there.

  24. 24.

    geg6

    Olympics for us. And worrying about Otis. He does not want to go outside to pee and has now peed in the sunroom, laying down, two nights out of the last three. He’ll go in the morning, but he’s not wanting to go at all in the evening. And tonight, he insisted on going out on the deck into the snow piled up there and he lurched around and pooped all over the deck. And when I looked, there was some blood on his poop. He has colitis, so we’ve had bloody stools before, but this is bright red. He’s laying down now and there’s no blood oozing and he doesn’t seem to be in pain, so we’ll see how he does tomorrow. If there’s another session like this, it’s a trip to the vet on Saturday. And I will be home alone and have to haul a 90+ pound dog with mobility issues into and out of my car and the vet’s office. Poor boy, I fear we’re getting near the rainbow bridge with our sweet boy.

  25. 25.

    Aji

    Three things:

    1) Bitching about lack of winter. It was fifty-fucking-seven today, and it’s supposed to hit 62 Saturday. The trees are budding, the weeds are growing, the dogs and horses have all shed their winters. We have no snowpack. This summer’s drought will be epic if nothing changes.

    2) Bitching about my health. Fighting a bug for 2-3 weeks now, settled into my sinus, making my teeth hurt like all hell. And I have a high tolerance for pain. Not happy.

    3) Non-bitching category: Major thanks and props to all y’all who donated to the doc-film project of my spirit sister’s daughter. Anne Laurie, I’ve been told that when you posted it, the next 24 hours was their highest-traffic day for donations of the entire campaign. Y’all rock hard.

  27. 27.

    Belafon

    Can someone translate mathematica? Here’s the code:

    f[n_Integer] := Flatten[ Table[ #1] & @@@ FactorInteger[n]]; NextPrim[n_] := Block[ {k = n + 1}, While[ !PrimeQ[k], k++ ]; k]; m = 2; Do[ While[p = f[m]; l = Length[p]; t = Table[m + i, {i, 0, n – 1}]; k = 1; While[k < l + 1 && Union[ Mod[t, NestList[ NextPrim, p[[k]], n – 1]]] != {0}, k++ ]; k == l + 1, m++ ]; Print[m], {n, 2, 50}]

    I know what it's supposed to do, but I'm trying to figure out the details. Each loop finds the first number in a sequence of n numbers such that the first is divisible by 2, the second by 3, the third by 5, … the nth number by the nth prime (for example 158 is divisible by 2, 159 by 3, 160 by 5, and 161 by 7). The particular detail I am looking for is that if its on a number, m, and m does not start a valid sequence, how does it go to the next number? Does the inner loop add 1 or some other value.

    Thanks.

  29. 29.

    lamh36

    USA Network showing the original movie version of “In The Heat Of The Night” with Poitier and Steiger.

    Been a while since I’ve watched it. Gonna def have to DVR it.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    @jl:

    All Californians, cross your fingers that we get more than expected, like the one last weekend.

    It would also be nice if it would extend itself further south so the whole state could benefit.

  33. 33.

    lamh36

    @Mnemosyne: Love that commericial. First time I saw it, it reminded me of my lil cousin and his wife. they have 2 kids a boy and a girl about the same age difference too.

    I swear their lil girl used to run around with this pink tutu she wore once for Halloween all the time. And the lil boy reminds me of my cousin’s son too.

    Diversity…Love it!

  34. 34.

    Mike E

    @MikeJ: I ushered for our latest run of Spamalot, and got to hold the stage door open for Patsy. Went to see it performed at my daughter’s college and had just as much fun, the kids did a great job.

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    My sister (bless her heart) is an Alex Jones devotee, and when I point out to her that the man is a paranoid whackjob, she accuses me of being ignorant, that Alex Jones has made millions of predictions and they’ve all come true.

    It’s amazing how much pure crap is out there on the tubes and how many people accept it uncritically.

    To include my sister.

  39. 39.

    geg6

    @Aji:

    Thanks. Poor Otis is only 12 (and I know that’s pretty old for a big dog, but he’s my baby!), but he’s always had health issues. Being that he was a rescue and it’s always been obvious he was abused in his earlier life, we weren’t surprised by that. The colitis for about six years and before that, he had submissive urination. He’s got a syndrome fairly common in his breed and other large breeds that causes nerve damage that causes him to not be able to control his rear feet and legs, which has been a big problem for the past year or so. We got a harness to help him, but it’s sad to see him lurch around. He’s such a sweet and beautiful and loving boy. If you have a BJ pet calendar, he’s in the top left corner this month, with Koda, our BJ rescue. The photo illustrates their personalities perfectly.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Roger Moore:

    Up here in Tracktown, USA, we had seven inches of snow last week. This week, we’re apparently in between the two major masses of moisture and we’re getting a fairly steady drizzle.

    So enjoy your precip! Hope you get even MORE!

  46. 46.

    Aji

    @geg6: Awww. I’m gonna go look him up now. Ours – Major – is on the June page, left-hand side about half-way down, with his brother Griffin resting his chin on Major’s back. [Sigh] yeah, the large-breed thing. Major was huge, plus had health issues too, and a history of abuse and neglect his first four years. We though making it to ten would be an achievement, and we really didn’t expect him to live past nine or so. He shocked us all by keeping on, by the last two years mostly blind and deaf, but still perfectly happy. Then he developed cancer last year, and by the time he went, he had long since had the “lurching” problem, too (although for different reasons), and was just bones.

    Here’s hoping that your baby’s current issue is just a temporary something-or-other, resolves itself or with the vets help, and he gets to spend more time with you.

  48. 48.

    BGK

    what’s on the agenda for the evening?

    Drinking. Plus six at present, as Publix had 12 packs of the soculist brews from New Belgium on sale. As tomorrow is the day of my zenith of self-loathing, I’m saving half as chasers for the fifth of Bourbon I’ll be drinking with extreme prejudice. One of my recent heartbreakers insists on being a Faceberg friend; she’ll doubtless post repeated instances of schmoopyness with her actually existing boyfriend all goddam day. Or something.

  49. 49.

    Poopyman

    Besides bitching about the weather? Nothing.

    OTOH, the forecast is calling for temps in the 50s Wednesday and 60 Thursday with sun both days.

  51. 51.

    Mnemosyne

    @WaterGirl:

    IMO, the Puppy Bowl just had too much going on — it was hard to see the puppies doing their puppy things with all of the interruptions. The Kitten Bowl left plenty of room for the kittens to hang out and be kittens.

  52. 52.

    raven

    @Aji: Our last tenants have Goliath, a 100 lb black wolfie lookin dude. Some here may recall that we took him for 6 weeks two summers ago. He had this big ass tumor and they gave him maybe 6 months. They moved to College Station this spring and he’s still chuggin along.

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    Is the month-old three-word thing from billmon supposed to mean anything? Or was it randomly plucked out of a hat?

    Confoozed.

  54. 54.

    Mnemosyne

    @BGK:

    Well, it could be worse. I had an acquaintance who took his new girlfriend out for Valentine’s Day, dropped her off at home, and arrived at his apartment to find a voicemail from her breaking up with him.

    (OTOH, it turned out that he was such a rotten boyfriend to several different friends of mine because he didn’t want to be dating women in the first place. He was a much nicer person once he finally admitted what we’d all figured out and started dating men instead.)

  56. 56.

    Aji

    @raven: Oh, I’m glad he’s still going! Yeah, Major’s tumors were pretty sizeable, and we didn’t think he’d last more than a few weeks. He always was stubborn. :-)

  57. 57.

    RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual

    My plans? Keep on archiving my DVDs onto hard drives. I have no energy for anything else except to sit here and read the web. Today was not kind at work.

  58. 58.

    raven

    @Mnemosyne: I took the final step to end my first marriage the day after Valentines Day 21 years ago. It was a painful experience after 23 years together but it was the right thing to do.

  59. 59.

    ruemara

    Well, before I do a final packing check, freeze the food I’m bringing, etc., it would be good if we pin down who’s coming to the BJ LA mini-meet on Saturday. Point of contact still seems to be TBD.

  63. 63.

    TriassicSands

    Besides bitching about winter, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

    Telling everyone I know that climate change must be a hoax — look at all that snow!

    Or maybe I’ll continue my study of crop circles and alien invaders. Can’t decide.

  66. 66.

    jl

    @Roger Moore:

    ” It would also be nice if [the rain] would extend itself further south so the whole state could benefit. ”

    Don’t know what I can do about it. You people been making human sacrifices to the rain god down in SoCal, or not?

  67. 67.

    raven

    @NotMax:

    Jason Filiatrault @jfiliatrault

    Every time you post something on Facebook without checking it on Snopes, God kills an unvaccinated Fukushima GMO aspartame puppy.

  68. 68.

    Aji

    @raven: Aww, poor guy. I’m so sorry.

    BTW, your comic was so moving (a/k/a left me in such a friggin’ puddle, damn you again) that I promptly shared it on FB, with a note to my peeps to buy it.

  70. 70.

    BGK

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’ve had that sober conversation with my personal self. I’m on solid ground in saying I’m not in self-denial.

    My singular skill is getting stuck on women who give no ready evidence they’re already in a serious relationship, always to my determent.

    The one about whom I’m complaining is one I’m better off without, as she turned out to be something of a head case, and I found this out before anything meaningful happened. Still, the sham in which I believed seemed to be the improbable payoff for which one like yrs. trly. hopes comes in return for living clemently. Makes it just a little more awful.

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Thank you, I think. That does not appear on my view.

    Just as well, as it is devoid of any sense whatsoever (and is unworthy of notice, much less a reply).

  72. 72.

    raven

    I took pictures out of my office window all through the storm. There is a day care center behind our house and it was the center of the photos. I walked the dogs there after work and the owner was cleaning up where he has these big tarps on poles that shade the kids on the playground. He meant to take them down but didn’t get to it and the weight of the snow pulled up the 4″ poles and trashed his fence. He’s thinking about filing insurance and I said, “hey, let me see what my pictures show”! It turns out I have before and after shots that also have date and time stamps as part of the meta data. Pretty cool.

  75. 75.

    Brendan in NC

    Looking at the 7 inches of snow on my deck. Remembering that I got rid of all my Northern weather removal tools. And wondering if it’ll all be gone when I drive to Florida on Saturday.

  76. 76.

    lamh36

    @PaulW: Ok, it took me a moment, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what holiday is tomorrow…I’ve been single a long time…lol

  77. 77.

    raven

    @Aji: He’s been gone for over 5 years. I wrote a big story of all my dogs a BJ front page a few years back. It kicks our ass and then we do it again. It gets weird when you are my age and start wondering how many dogs you have left and how to time it so you don’t leave one behind.

  82. 82.

    Mike in NC

    Hundreds of downed tree limbs in our development after the ice storm blew through, but temps well above freezing now and looking to stay that way through the weekend. Raleigh and Charlotte got what Atlanta had two weeks ago.

  89. 89.

    burnspbesq

    @cathyx:

    So glad I moved out of that hell. I love the west coast.

    Going to be a lot less fun when we start running out of water later this year.

    My only beef about winter weather is that we aren’t having any. Two feet of snow in the Sierras every night from now until Easter would be really nice.

  90. 90.

    trollhattan

    @Belafon:

    Staring at that is the same to me as listening to Sarah Palin for twelve minutes. Literally does, not, compute. Good luck!

  91. 91.

    Anoniminous

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’ve had several good friends show up at my door, one was literally shaking with fear of rejection, to tremulously announce in a barely audible voice, “I’m gay.” In every case my response was an exasperated, “No shit, Sherlock.”

  93. 93.

    PurpleGirl

    About a half-hour ago I heard thunder but I haven’t gone to see if it is raining here. (NYC)

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Ah, well. Recall a pic of a temporary staircase, but not a deck. Faulty memory on my part.

    First time this year this month this week today.

  96. 96.

    jl

    Tip of the day for a hot Valentine date.

    SF museum exhibit of funky smells through human history!.

    Potentially the Greatest Museum Exhibit of All Time

    ‘ I recently jammed my schnoz into “Paris 1738,” a scent that recreates the fetid odors of the olden city. France’s Christophe Laudamiel made the unusual odor as a tribute to the novel Perfume, whose murderous antihero was born in a fish market amid the stench of overflowing gutters and unwashed bodies. Now, thanks to a nose-tingling exhibit in downtown San Francisco, anybody can smell how the City of Love may have once reeked – and thank their lucky nostrils they live in an era with hot showers and shampoo.

    “Urban Olfactory,”… is a history lesson made entirely of smells: pine and cedar pulled from the imagined court of Louis XIV, spice-laden air over the Strait of Bosphorus in the Middle Ages, river water and hashish of modern-day Rotterdam… the New Jersey Turnpike during a rainstorm, air pollution in San Francisco, and fresh manure in the French countryside. All these perfumes are presented in a line of lidded vitrines; visitors take a whiff of one, then go breathe into a glass of coffee beans to clear the nose. ‘

    http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/02/potentially-the-greatest-museum-exhibit-of-all-time

  97. 97.

    Mnemosyne

    @BGK:

    Okay, here’s my story (from a woman’s POV):

    I was clinically depressed and basically incapable of dating for years. After I got that dealt with, I dated (for a short time) a guy who was on the verge of becoming a meth addict. That made me decide that my dating skills might be a little rusty, so I joined a now-defunct site that also had personal ads (swoon.com) and resolved to just go on as many first dates as I could. I usually had one date (and sometimes two) a weekend and would just meet them for coffee on a weekend afternoon. I probably met 16 guys total, went on more than one date with 2 of them, and ended up marrying 1 of those 2. The guy I ended up marrying was (I think) #14.

    So, really, you may just want to play the odds, join a dating site (preferably a targeted, not general-interest, one), and go on as many dates as you can with expectations as low as you can. If nothing else, you should mostly meet women who don’t already have boyfriends, so you’ll be ahead of the game right there.

  101. 101.

    Litlebritdiftrnt

    @raven: When my 80 year old Mum lost Merlin she thought twice about getting another dog, but there was Susie an 8 year old Shar Pei at the shelter and she figured that she and the dog had a good few years life left in them. She figured that a couple of years of life with her being spoiled rotten was better than several years in the shelter. I think she figured right.

  102. 102.

    daverave

    @jl:

    Thanks for that jl, although it would appear from the blog that I am in southern California being that I’m in Sacramento ;-)

  104. 104.

    cathyx

    @burnspbesq: Why do you say we are running out of water? I’m in the Pacific North West and there’s no threat of that. We have had plenty of winter weather here, just the kind that we usually have and most people don’t like, rainy and cloudy. I love it.

  108. 108.

    raven

    @NotMax: When they are open, yea. The problem tomorrow is that there was a great deal of melting today but it is going to freeze again tonight. Falling is pretty far down on my things to do list so we’ll probably drive in the am.

  109. 109.

    trollhattan

    @burnspbesq:

    It must be warm as hell up there right now. Wait, let me check….

    Yup, Tioga Pass will drop to a blistering 32 tonight. Here at sea level it was about 70 this afternoon. Le sigh.

    FWIW the storms that are due this weekend are tracking pretty far north, so the best we can hope for is the federal reservoirs, especially Shasta, picking up significant water. Last weekend definitely made a dent, but the deficit is so vast it’s not helping much.

  110. 110.

    burnspbesq

    @cathyx:

    Why do you say we are running out of water?

    Because I’m in SoCal, and we are sure as shit looking at water rationing this year.

    Or did you skim over the reference to the need for snow in the Sierras?

  111. 111.

    Pogonip

    This week I can take out the trash without ice skates or Yaktrax. Praise the Lord. I will really, truly appreciate spring this year and promise not to complain about summer unless temperature and humidity both exceed 95 (which WILL happen).

    Dogs are gross. Dogs ate disgusting. Dogs eat poop. And when they lick our faces we grin foolishly and coo affectionately at them. And this is as it should be, world without end, amen.

    Going back to the weather, last month was so ugly I read 10 books in 30 days. Granted none were particularly long, no “Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich”-type epics, but still–10 books in one month. That is virulent cabin fever indeed.

  113. 113.

    gene108

    Not being raised in a Christian household, I have started to read the Bible to see what it is about. I am in Genesis, where Abraham haggles with some locals to buy land to bury Sarah.

    So far, what has struck me is how can anyone think this stuff is literal and want to base, not only their child’s education on it but the education of other people’s children on it.

    If I have understood what I have read Lot is Noah’s grandson. After the flood the only humans left alive were Noah, his three sons and their wives. Lot is living in Sodom and the towns folk are described as (a) wicked and (b) not his cousins.

    At this point, if Noah and his descendants repopulated the planet, all the people and cities that get described after the flood should all be first cousins. Since they clearly are not, something does not add up and therefore we should not take this literally.

    We’re honestly fighting a centuries long battle over the validity of evolution because people want to believe a story that is not consistent within its own rules as being literally true?

    Cripes…

    On a side note, I’m not an atheist. I just don’t take every bit of religious story telling as being literally true.

  114. 114.

    Anoniminous

    @Belafon:

    You caught one but you’ll have to throw me back. It’s been 20 years since I worked with Mathematica and while I think I see what is happening I’m not sure. Have you tried one of the Mathematica sites?

  115. 115.

    NotMax

    @raven

    You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din.

    Freezing cold and snow and ice triggers my ‘stay in and hibernate’ instinct.

  117. 117.

    trollhattan

    @Belafon:

    My MIT-eddycated code-monkey bro would probably get it, but he doesn’t do the blog-reading thing. But there are a lot of propeller-heads here, so hopefully you’ll snag one before the thread dies that horrid thready death.

  119. 119.

    jl

    @gene108:

    ” (b) not his cousins”

    They were bad people, that is all you have to know.

    When you get to Ecclesiastes and become confused, remember that many fundamentalist Xtians say that God put that book in the Bible as a helpful example of how NOT to think about things. You contrast it to Proverbs, which is the right way to think about things, except for the parts about Lady Wisdom, which sounds too pagan, even if it is not clear who She is, but she might be a lady angel or goddess or something, and something like that cannot be. And Wisdom is bad, anyway, at least for sinful humans to try.

    You got that straight?

    You also need to remember to interpret things like dreams, visions and prophecies literally, that Bible characters themselves, in the Bible, took figuratively. Because, that’s all. Probably, they knew what they were doing and you don’t

    Everything will be clear now, and you will believe it all, I am sure.

  120. 120.

    Pogonip

    @gene108: Sane Christians don’t take the entire Bible literally either; even if we wanted to, it would be a tough job, as parts of it contradict other parts and at least one part, in either Genesis or Exidus, seems to have wandered in from another story entirely. After God explains IN LENGTHY DETAIL the important work he needs Moses to do, God then shows up the following night and tries to kill Moses (he is saved by quick-thinking Mrs. Moses). Use common sense when reading the Bible and you’ll get much more out of it.

  121. 121.

    PsiFighter37

    Getting real sick of the white stuff. I don’t mind it every now and then, but it’s happened so often. The kicker is that temperature/wind chill-wise, this is easily the coldest winter I can remember in my 20 years back here. If this becomes the norm for winter, I might re-think my thoughts about eventually moving to California.

  124. 124.

    trollhattan

    @cathyx:

    Snap! Yeah, but we’re the most importantist left coasters, so there’s that. In truth, the Sierra snowpack is the largest element of water storage for at least thirty-million Californians and much of California agriculture, by extension, much of the county’s food.

  128. 128.

    jl

    @trollhattan: Heck with that. Central Valley agriculture has been unsustainable, waterwise, even before this drought.

    I am certainly a CA chauvinist, and of course fruit grows best here. But what does that have to do with the factory commercial stuff they grow? CA peaches I see in the store are better than they used to be, but a few years back, supermarket bought CA peaches were as likely to get bad from brown rot before they really got ripe. And that is about all I can say. They are reliably OK or better now, which is better than getting ripped off half the time.

    Your WA, NJ, MI, CO peaches are perfectly fine boutique regional niche peaches, and fine to eat. Would get better produce in other parts of the country if it could be grown more locally.

    So, start with the Westlands and get rid of those guys. Or figure out a way to use less water. One or the other has to happen in CA.

    Edit: And to think, there was a reason, I think, that NJ’s nickname is the Garden State. Once they clean the place up, rev up that truck farming back there again, I say.

  129. 129.

    trollhattan

    @jl:

    Grr, don’t get me started on Westlands.

    Anyway, my easy-peasie solution to our water issues is to charge market rate or at least the cost to deliver for the federal water. That will knock the shit out of all that crazy cotton/alfalfa/whatever other crazy water-hungry crops they raise with their free water.

  130. 130.

    jl

    @trollhattan: Actually there is a lot of fruit out in the Westlands. (edit: I think the fruit is mostly citrus and tree nuts, see below).

    From what I have read, and agriculture connections tell me, is that export crop tree nuts have been the big water hogs responsible for drops in water table and land subsidence. Almonds, walnuts, pistachios, for Asian markets, mostly China and Japan.

    Edit2: cotton and rice, probably biggest row crop water hogs. I think cotton has gotten to be a relatively low profit crop in CA, so would not take much increase in cost to get rid of it. Anyone comes by who knows better, chime in with some info.

  131. 131.

    trollhattan

    @jl:

    The transition from row crops to orchards means they can’t fallow fields in dry years, reducing their water use options from year to year. A definite problem. IIUC from the standpoint of inches of water, alfalfa and cotton are very demanding. Plus cotton requires incredible douchings of pesticides and fertilizer, all in a valley with no drainage vehicle for all that contaminated runoff.

  132. 132.

    Belafon

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    The link I put in might explain the sequence better than I can. As for what I am looking for, let’s say you are on the number 241028, and the inner loop figures out that it’s not a valid number. Does the code, start with the next number, 241029, or does it go to 271058?

    A couple of weeks ago i wrote a python program to try to generate the sequence of numbers described at the link. My first iteration just went up one digit at a time, and was really slow. I had managed to only get through about ten numbers in about 4 days. Then I realize that I could increase each check by the adding the product of all the previous primes, and suddenly, in three hours I had solved 2200 digits with a python program.

  133. 133.

    Belafon

    @Anoniminous: No I have not. I was hoping to get an answer from some place I didn’t have to hunt too hard, and I know there are a lot of different people here with lots of different interests.

    Thanks to everyone for staring at it, though.

  134. 134.

    Pogonip

    @jl: At least till St Paul really gets on a roll. St Peter had to warn people that Paul’s long, intricate arguments would confuse them.

  135. 135.

    PurpleGirl

    @jl: In one of the food/water threads recently I mentioned the truck farming that used to be done in NJ and areas of Long Island. I miss that locally grown produce.

  136. 136.

    jl

    @Pogonip: Some one tell gene108 to ignore the gnostic parts of St. Paul, those parts are wrong. St. Paul also does not seem to understand the implications of the last Dispensation before the Endtimes in terms of discounting Jesus’ earthly teachings.

    Other than that, except for some other stuff, everything in the Bible is literally true absolutely.

  137. 137.

    Aji

    @raven: Yeah, my ass is feeling pretty thoroughly kicked right now. Monday is the fifth anniversary of the day we lost Hunter, our sweet beautiful Aussie who adopted me on sight.

    On a more pleasant note, you’ll like this and this. Apparently, the rest of the herd has decided that he’s one of our co-owners now.

  138. 138.

    jl

    @PurpleGirl: Looks like the weather god wants the NJ truck farms back. We’ll have not much to send back east this year, unless we get a miracle March (which is what saved our asses a few years ago).

  139. 139.

    ruemara

    I am cool with whatever, so Roger, Mem and anyone else can email me at ruemara at gmail.com. Let’s say about 6:30, 7 pm? I will be the focal point of this meeting of moral turpitude at, um, tavern somethingsomething. Key thing, I do not like mexican food. To be precise, I do not like burritos, tortillas, masa, mole sauce (hate). I like ceviche and lettuce. I do not mind if everyone loves messican and we are at a messican place, I will just have salad and salsa. So I am fine, even if I do not really eat much. I will also need a lift to get to tavern de something.

  142. 142.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    If you take my advice about a Metro Day Pass (or week pass), one of us Valleyites could probably pick you up at a Gold Line station out Pasadena way.

    ETA: Story Tavern is sammiches and burgers, so another point in its favor.

  143. 143.

    Aji

    @Mnemosyne: Resist? You talk as though we were given a choice in the matter. Bah.

    Thanks for the link – sadly, about four hours away (south of ABQ). But somewhere along the line, someone around here will have one.

  144. 144.

    Mnemosyne

    @Aji:

    I’d email the contact anyway — most of those crazy cat people know people who know people who know people, so they may be able to hook you up with someone closer to you.

  145. 145.

    Aji

    @Mnemosyne: Well, now that Major the Mighty Anti-Cat Warrior is gone, it might be safer for one. But we’d have to make sure 1) the other four didn’t decide they needed to try to fill his mukluks, or 2) the cat didn’t decide to go medieval on the chickens. Can’t go back to commercial eggs now.

  147. 147.

    Roger Moore

    @gene108:

    If I have understood what I have read Lot is Noah’s grandson.

    You have not understood correctly. If you look at Genesis 11, you’ll get 11 generations from Noah to Lot: Noah, Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Haran, Lot. (Yes, I looked it up.) That’s plenty of time to repopulate and have people meet others who they don’t consider to be cousins.

  148. 148.

    Pogonip

    @jl: I don’t think anyone in mainstream ever thought that Dispensation lunacy would become as popular as it did. There are so many other, saner heresies to choose from.

  149. 149.

    Mnemosyne

    @Aji:

    I wouldn’t worry too much about the chickens (chicks, maybe, but not full-grown chickens). A few pecks in the head will teach a cat to leave them alone. A dog is much more likely to be a danger to chickens than a cat would be.

  150. 150.

    WaterGirl

    @mainmata: For what it’s worth, after seeing aimai’s comment, I went searching on Tivo, and it told me Sleeper Cell was available on Netflix.

  151. 151.

    Aji

    @Mnemosyne: Heh. Ever had a barn cat? They’re natural born killers.

    Speaking of dogs and chickens, Stormy found a way out via a hole dug under the adjacent barn wall a couple of evenings ago. I came outside, and lo and behold, there’s a chicken calmly pecking at the grass. With three dogs watching her lazily while they loll on said grass. Raven thought they might make a good snack when they were little, but even he’s not interested now, apparently.

  153. 153.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:

    If you take my advice about a Metro Day Pass (or week pass), one of us Valleyites could probably pick you up at a Gold Line station out Pasadena way.

    Or you could get the, ahem, Pasadenan to do it. I’m not supposed to drink that evening- I’m donating platelets that day- so I even make an OK designated driver. And I’ll accept you recommendation about the place.

  154. 154.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    Or 7-Day Pass, if you have the $20 to spare. The Day Pass is $5 a day and takes you through 3 a.m. the next day, so two Day Passes will probably be fine.

    Make sure it’s Metro and not one of the other agencies — that will get you on Metro buses and the Metro trains (but NOT the Metrolink trains, just to make it extra confusing) and let you buy transfers to other agencies if necessary.

    Also, don’t take pictures of homeless people in Hollywood without paying them. We had a nasty stabbing here recently where a woman got into an argument with some people she photographed.

  158. 158.

    Mnemosyne

    @Aji:

    I’ve lived with barn cats, but not chickens. (Technically, they were my boyfriend’s mother’s barn cats, but I lived there, too.) But theirs were fairly tame — they liked to get a little human attention before returning to their important work of Killing All Mice Dead.

  160. 160.

    ruemara

    @Mnemosyne: Christ on a cracker, that’s confusing. Seems I’m in NoHo, near universal. I’m printing my wandering maps as we speak. Come see the stranger, walking in LA!

  161. 161.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    Story Tavern, Burbank. 7-ish on Saturday night?

    Anyone know which front pager I should email to get it up there? If we have an approximate head count, I may be able to make a reservation.

  163. 163.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    NoHo is perfect for Metro — it’s right on the Red Line. There may be a bus that can get you from NoHo to Burbank, but I’m still figuring it out. I was hoping the Burbank city buses could do it, but they only run Monday through Friday. Seriously, WTF Burbank?

  164. 164.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    Buswise, from NoHo you’ll want to find Metro Local Line 183 and get off at the Olive Ave./San Fernando Blvd. stop. The Story Tavern is on San Fernando between Olive and Angeleno, so it shouldn’t even be that far of a walk. And I’m sure one of us peeps will be able to give you a lift back to NoHo.

  165. 165.

    Ruckus

    @ruemara:
    Now that I’ve read the rest of the comments let me add that I can drive one person, my van only has two seats, so if necessary I can pick you up. I live in the SF valley on the east side, just west of Burbank so Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Hollywood is no problem at all.
    But mainly I just like to talk to like minded folks. The metrolink station is about 4 blocks from Story Tavern if that is of any help.

  166. 166.

    Ruckus

    @ruemara:
    OK we’ve settled at least part of the situation. As I stated above I’m willing to drive if you are willing to ride. Semi retired so my time is wide open.
    @Mnemosyne:
    I’d say AL as she seems to be the most responsive to us asking for favors.

  167. 167.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mnemosyne: Well, since I’m reading this, how about I post something along the lines of “LA-area meetup, Story Tavern – Burbank, ca. 6:30pm Saturday — Ruemara, Mnemosyne, Roger Moore, Ruckus confirmed” sometime Friday evening, and maybe again Saturday morning?

    Revisions or additions, email me (click on my name in the right-hand column, or annelaurie (at) verizon (dot) net.

  168. 168.

    JR in WV

    @raven:

    We’re fortunate to have younger friends on the ridge who will take care of our puppehs and kittens as if they were their own… If neces sary. Hoping to have brave dogs and cuddly kitteys to the very end, which ought to be sudden and painless.

    Feeling optimistic tonite… Not common, but not rare either.

    But we do think about it, how to be sure the fuzzies are well taken care of and happy all their lives!

    Got to be responsible!

  169. 169.

    ruemara

    @Anne Laurie: Sounds like a plan to me.

    @ Ruckus. shoot me an email. I am now going to bed, since I take a train at 5:55 am. Watching Yevgeni Pleshenko have to admit he can’t skate anymore. So sad.

Comments are closed.