This is a Tunchesque picture of Steve:
Yeah. Just sit there Steve and a bird is going to fall off the feeder.
PRO-TIP: They know you are there, that’s why there aren’t 20 birds sitting on the fence taking turns on the feeders like they do the other 24 hours of the day.
redshirt
JGC Wildlife Photo INC
srv
This is how many here will feel waiting for the next DougJ.
Can we at least do a kickstarter to bring Dengre back?
Elizabelle
Oh yeah, would love to see Dengre back.
Do you think he misses us?
Kropadope
I know it’s summer, but the day is not, in fact, longer.
Ash Can
LOL. Maybe if you order him a pizza he’ll forget about the bird feeder.
And belated birthday wishes.
jeffreyw
Homer is a bit more proactive.
ruemara
Cat bloggin’? Ok, because Schrodinger’s Cat asked. I give you, PURRITOS!
The interns were practicing cat towel wrap techniques.
There was minimal fuss and some relaxation. We put one of the dogs on the customer service emails while we dealt with the kittens.
Elizabelle
@jeffreyw:
That is hilarious. Bit of a birdfeeder placement fail, though, if you want to give the birdies a fighting chance.
Elizabelle
John Cole: Happy Birthday a day late. Hope it was a good one. Having Christion and the piglets involved would do that.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@jeffreyw: Homer is hilarious!
@ruemara: Those are great – how’s the customer service working out?
Kropadope
@ruemara: Purritos, the delicious, tortilla wrapped snack you don’t(?) eat.
schrodinger's cat
@ruemara: Thanks! Can I has one to go, [email protected]jeffreyw: Is he still beating up on Ginger kitteh?
Lavocat
At the very least, you’d think a blue jay or crow would start fucking with him.
Even dive-bombings from swallows would be interesting.
Maybe Steve thinks he blends with the fence.
ruemara
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Weeeellll, turns out Maia not only can’t spell reel gud, but those big furry paws had a hard time with the keyboard. She just kept yipping “wtf?” and trying to hide in her safe crate.
@Kropadope: I started to eat one…
redshirt
John,
I’ve been reading about your hummingbird struggles and I can relate. I, too, have witnessed the cruelty of hummingbirds. I’ve seen them fight each other such that no one gets to drink from the sweet, sweet nectar. Why, hummingbirds? Why must you fight so?
Ash Can
@ruemara: Adorable pics!
Howard Beale IV
I got an email from the breeder of my Ozzie: he has two spayed black 7 yr old Persians who need forever homes in Des Moines.
jeffreyw
@schrodinger’s cat: Homer doesn’t get along with anyone. Ginger is getting big enough to not run away, just crouches and hisses.Toby wants to kill him but Homer hides under the couch.
mai naem
Stevie obviously thinks the fence is camouflaging him. Also, your camera skills have improved vastly.
Kropadope
@redshirt: So, Congress models it’s behavior on hummingbirds? Now it all makes sense. All the flapping around and not going anywhere…
ruemara
I keep taking out the cats to “socialize” them but really, I’m cuddling them, kissing them and letting them walk all over me and getting scritched to heck with their adorable, teeny tiny, super sharp kitteh claws. SO cute.
srv
@Elizabelle: Unless he has found a better venue for his writing, he should miss us. Maybe we weren’t appreciative enough.
I think he should be on Medium, or could have been successful at a more establishment venue given time.
Anne Laurie
And yet, Cole, how many hours a week do you spend slavering over hot ladies on the tv/internet even though you are totally aware none of them will ever so much as give you the time of day?…
Steve is no longer interested in hot lady cats, but he still has his dreams!
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Anne Laurie:
A mental picture that no one really needed.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: I always liked dengue’s posts, though I was sorry he went with Dennis G. as his nym intend of the old dengre.
StringOnAStick
@mai naem: You gotta admit, Steve is the perfect color combo to blend into a weathered privacy fence.
I can’t remember if I mentioned that the next door neighbor got a semi-blurry photo of a young mountain lion running away from our respective back yards a few weekends ago. According to several sources, a disease of some sort has seriously reduced the fox and coyote population around here over the last 12 months, which explains why we’ve been having lots of bobcat and now young mountain lion sightings thanks to the opening up of some predator opportunities. It also explains the explosion in the population of bunnies and squirrels too that occurred before the new predators moved in.
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: I snorted! Always so attractive, don’t you think?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@WaterGirl: Dennis G. is not a virus. Shame on you.
Pogonip
@Anne Laurie: STEVE: hey, honey, why don’t we–um, why don’t we–darn. I used to know what comes next.
TaMara (BHF)
Happy belated birthday Mr. JGC.
I’m house hunting. Having my own business and my office here, means I need more space. And maybe with more space I won’t have to play rotate the cats while I try to get work done. I get one moved off my pile of papers and distracted with something or other and another one takes their place. Rinse, repeat.
I need an office where I can shut. the. door.
Frankensteinbeck
It might. Birds are not the sharpest tools in the potato bag. One bird gives another a pecking, the victim falls a couple of feet in surprise, and Steve has a tasty treat. This stuff really does happen.
WaterGirl
@ruemara: How was the meeting you were dreading?
rikyrah
My money is on Steve.
WaterGirl
@ruemara: Oh my gosh, what a little baby!
WereBear
Well, if it’s going to be cute cat pics: we have a new kitten!
Mithrandir, waiting for RJ
Two youngest, paws touching
WaterGirl
@jeffreyw: Homer was such a sweet kitty. I hope he still gets along with the bees, at least. What happened?
jeffreyw
Homer can be patient, but it does wear on him.
Ash Can
I too miss Dennis G, as well as ABL, Zandar, and Sarah Proud and Tall’s delightfully vicious satires. Hopefully things will pick up around here again when the presidential campaign heats up.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Damn, autocorrect! Though I must have mistyped dengre for autocorrect to step in, since it left the second dengre alone.
And I second your notion that we did not need that image of John G.
TaMara (BHF)
@jeffreyw: I didn’t realize Homer was the odd man out. After Harley died and the new guy arrived, we had some serious issues, this stuff worked wonders. I just spritz it around just before bed and in the morning. I also spray it in their crates before vet visits and the vet can’t believe how calm they all have been.
Feliway Comfort Zone.
It also comes in a plug-in atomizer, but I didn’t want that much sprayed around.
redshirt
Steve verses the birds.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: So sweet! (kitty paws touching) First link didn’t work.
jeffreyw
@TaMara (BHF): Mrs J has the atomizers out, they don’t have much effect as far as I can see.
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (BHF):
I strongly recommended that my brother get the Feliway spray and spray it all over his fabric couches before he let his new kittens roam free. Everyone will be much happier that way.
WereBear
@WaterGirl: Aw crap.
Here’s a blog post with lotsa kitty pics. I know they work.
lamh36
OT, but read this and of course my first thoughts were for poor ole Alec Baldwin and Mel Gibson, they were the real victims in each of their cases…victims of that “liberal” Hollywood bias…ugh…
Gary Oldman Blasts Liberal Hollywood, Defends Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
Meh. Bitter old man is bitter.
Hill Dweller
@lamh36: I saw that earlier. Oldman, who I’ve always liked, sounds like a wingnut. Say it ain’t so, Gary.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@lamh36: Oldman seems to fit in the “genius in his field but/because asshole” category.
Frankensteinbeck
@lamh36:
Has anyone, ANYONE, here ever gotten drunk and said that the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world?
TaMara (BHF)
@StringOnAStick: I’m jealous, it’s on my list of wildlife to see, mountain lion and moose, both have eluded me. You may have seen this in the Denver Post, it’s one of our clients:
Cat vs. Mountain Lion
My favorite photo is the mountain lions face to face with her mountain lion sculpture.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Frankensteinbeck: I am pretty sure that I, for one, have not. To be fair though, if I ever were drunk enough to say that, I doubt I would remember much of the two week bender that got me there.
lamh36
@Frankensteinbeck: Ugh, I’d hate to think of Oldman in the same category as James Woods.
Hey, maybe Oldman was drunk during this interview?
Ash Can
@lamh36: Just another asshole who wants the world to give him permission to be, well, an asshole.
redshirt
@Frankensteinbeck: Neocons, yes. Jews, no.
WereBear
@Frankensteinbeck: Craig Ferguson has a very funny standup special on Netflix where his take:
“‘Oh, that Mel Gibson, he was just drunk.’ Oh really? I was a drop dead alcoholic for ten years and I never went Third Reich on anybody!”
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@redshirt: Oh, don’t start that again.
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Start what again?
John (MCCARTHY) Cole
@Frankensteinbeck: One of the greatest standups on Netflix right now is Craig Ferguson, and he does an entire bit about Mel Gibson (that ties into an earlier segment he had on Nazis). The gist of it is that Craig notes he was a blackout drunk for 17 years, and never went all Third Reich on anyone. How drunk was Mel Gibson? I was blacked out for 17 years and never once got so drunk I started hating the jews and goose-stepping. Was I just one drink short?
Seriously fucking brilliant. The whole standup routine is in one of my top ten.
Check it out on Netflix: Craig Ferguson: I’m Here to Help
muddy
@Frankensteinbeck: When things came up missing in the house my mother always used to say, “Yehudi took it!”. That’s about the closest I’ve ever heard.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@redshirt: Never mind.
Howard Beale IV
@lamh36: Oldman’s has had so many second tier roles (The Fifth Element/Lost In Space) it’s no surprise he’s talking shit.
lamh36
@Howard Beale IV: Unlike with James Woods or Voight, I actually love Goldman as an actor, Fifth Element is actually one of my fav movies. This bit just makes me go ugh…why dude why….
Howard Beale IV
@lamh36: Well, I can cut him a little slack on The Fifth Element-Lost In Space, OTOH, forget it. And I’m pretty sure if I rooted around I could find some other second rate roles he did….
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Howard Beale IV: Second rate and second tier are not the same thing.
srv
@lamh36: I missed Jeff Goldblum in Fifth Element.
NotMax
Is this enough to have the Republican party publicly disavow a candidate?
Magic 8-ball sez: Dream on.
Howard Beale IV
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): If I define second rate=second tier, then that’s all that matters to me. Now if you want to nutpick between the two, then that’s your prerogative.
lamh36
I wish I was kidding, but are you guys ready for “Chipotle-gate”?
It really never ceases to amaze me the type of silly BS anti-Obama idjits like Malkin and her twitchy bunch will latch onto.
Maybe we shoulda started a pre-approved list of names ala Hurricane Season, soon as Obama was elected. Shoot, it’s getting ridiculous the number of “gates” we have had with this presidency.
ruemara
@lamh36: wowser. I really liked him. This is why I don’t believe in meeting people you admire.
@WaterGirl: My workload doubled and that’s probably me being optimistic. I need to get a handle on our SEO keywords and fast and sales need to boost. And that’s just the marketing side. I have surrendered to not knowing WTF I am doing, since I am winging everything. I really don’t even know what my position is anymore, because I’m handling so much. I’m just gonna have to do it as a bit by bit process and hope I don’t tank the company in the meanwhile.
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): NEVER!
lamh36
@srv: wait, are you kiddin? was Jeff Goldblum REALLY supposed to play that part?
Wow, I just don’t even see it now. Oldman was great. Which makes his statement even more …ugh
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Howard Beale IV: Okay then. My apologies for trying to differentiate between non-starring but high quality roles and lesser quality roles. I have no idea why that might matter even though Oldman’s career has featured a fair share of both.
srv
@lamh36:
I think you got the wrong MultiPass.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@srv: Yes, she knows it’s a MultiPass.
lamh36
@srv: LOL. Damn spellcheck gets me every damn time…
Of course I meant Oldman.
Yeah, that went totally over my head…lol
And that is obviously my cue to go my happy azz to sleep. Cause if that was a snake, that woulda bit me…lol
NotMax
@lamh36
Did a classic double-take, as at first misread it as Goodman.
max
@lamh36: It really never ceases to amaze me the type of silly BS anti-Obama idjits like Malkin and her twitchy bunch will latch onto.
It never amazes me – they plan to throw rocks, they scrabble for some, they don’t find any, they throw styrofoam, empty cans, bits of confetti, dried grass, whatever they comes to hand.
It’s what they’re paid to do, so I ignore it, just like I ignore reverse mortgage (or what have you) commercials on TV.
max
[‘The spellchecker wants me to capitalize styrofoam. No. I will not.’]
David Koch
The force.
Use the force, Steve
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Doll Face on TCM is very dull. Oy.
Howard Beale IV
@lamh36:
The serial griefer Malkin sold Twitchy to some Christian outfit a year or two ago.
Amir Khalid
I’m disappointed in Gary Oldman. Alec Baldwin is notorious for his lack of self-control, Mel Gibson for his extreme views. Neither is a victim of Jewish-controlled anything.
Meanwhile, anonymous sources at the Royal Malaysian Police have declared that (a) Capt Zahiri Ahmad Shah’s calendar was suspiciously free of work or social appointments for after March 8, and (b) his home flight sim files now show that he practised landings on small islands, which they find suspicious.
Howard Beale IV
@Amir Khalid: I like how the Malaysian Supreme Court put the kibosh on non-Muslims calling Allah Allah.
Jewish Steel
Sorry, BJ pedants. Crown and coronate have subtly different meanings. The way Betty uses it is just fine.
I was busy today, so I’m just catching up now.
Amir Khalid
Linky to MH370 story.
Amir Khalid
@Howard Beale IV:
I thought then, and I think now, that rulings like that make us Malaysians look stupid.
Howard Beale IV
@Amir Khalid: Well, considering some of the rulings that have some out of our own Supreme Court join in such a reading, I will outsource to John McClain
Suffern ACE
@Amir Khalid: Oldman gave a very odd answer to an interview question. It makes me wonder what question was asked?
David Koch
In connected news, new construction in South Dakota keeps pace.
Amir Khalid
@Suffern ACE:
This is why I’d rather see interviews in Q&A format: You know how a question was phrased, you know just what the subject said in response. Better then a free-form write-up in which the journalist picks out quotes, and or all you know may be quoting the subject out of context.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Amir Khalid: Oldman is a Millwall supporter.*
*I am an Arsenal supporter in the Premier League (Gunners? Come on.) and a Richmond supporter in Rugby (back in the amateur days, I became friend with one of their wings and partied a bit with the team).
srv
@Howard Beale IV:
Like crown and coronate, spellcheckers and autocorrect are different thangs.
some guy
chemical weapons removed from Syria? remind me again who actually used chemical weapons in Syria. repeatedly.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@some guy: Why don’t you remind us and provide links? Question for you: if this news is true, isn’t it pretty fucking clear that the Syrian government had control of the weapons – else they would not have been found and removed?
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
But Sirius Black is a West Ham United supporter! How can you cast a Gooner to play a West Ham supporter?
srv
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Perhaps von Ribbentrop at Waterloo? ISIL hasn’t filed charter papers as a political organization with the UN yet, so it can’t possibly carry out terrorist attacks.
David Koch
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Amir Khalid: Like I said, I am a Gunner. All the rest of y’all can fuck off.*
*No offense meant. Just rhetorical effect.
Comrade Dread
I iz Foiliage. Please ignore and feed from low hanging bird feeder?
some guy
perhaps, given the time it took it to do so, Turkey on June 3 finally designated al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organization. The decision was seen as further proof of Turkey’s failed Syria policy, which has left the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan little choice but to fall in line with the United States with regard to radical groups fighting in that country.
Author Semih IdizPosted June 10, 2014
Translator(s)Ezgi Akin
The decision to ban Jabhat al-Nusra also comes tellingly less than a week after President Barack Obama announced that aid to Turkey, as well as Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, would be increased so that they can “confront terrorists working across Syria’s borders.”
The question arises as to why the Erdogan government decided to blacklist Jabhat al-Nusra now, after having resisted doing so for so long. The simple answer seems to be that its Syria policy is in tatters, after all the horses it bet on lost one by one.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has proved to have staying power, and his latest election gambit shows that he will remain in place for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, it has become apparent that there will be no direct Western-led military intervention against the Syrian regime, which continues to get major backing from Russia and Iran.
The Erdogan government has no choice at this point but to also accept that as far as the United States and Europe are concerned, the emphasis in Syria has shifted from toppling Assad to combating the al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist groups in that country.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/idiz-turkey-syria-opposition-nusra-terrorist-unsc-erdogan.html##ixzz35X3WCHkK
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@srv: Professor Plum in the library with the revolver.
some guy
Before or After Senator Walnuts was On Board?
some guy
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
google. it is, indeed, your friend.
Amir Khalid
@some guy:
Is it not your friend? You said it, you show the links.
some guy
The United States and some Western countries, like France, were not averse at first to arming the Syrian opposition with sophisticated weapons. These countries even appeared willing to start a bombing campaign against Assad’s forces after chemical weapons were used in that country.
They pulled back, however, not only because it could not be established conclusively who used the chemical weapons, but also because of the fear that jihadist groups could fill the political vacuum left by the Assad regime if it were to be ousted by a military intervention.
The idea of providing the Syrian opposition with heavy and sophisticated weapons was also overridden by fears that these could fall into the hands of radicals and be turned against the West in the future.
Put in a nutshell, the groups that the Erdogan government may have once seen as providing an advantage against Assad turned out in the end to be serious liabilities for Turkey’s ill-fated, and in hindsight ill-considered, Syrian policy. This liability increased after Syria-related terrorist attacks started to take place in Turkey.
The main attack of this sort, which concentrated Turkish minds and turned the public even more against the government’s Syria policy, was the Reyhanli twin car bombing on May 11, 2013, which left at least 50 dead. Although the government was quick to blame Assad loyalists, the opposition in Turkey still insists that it was jihadist groups that carried out the attack.
Meanwhile, the so-called “Sunni Axis” against Syria, comprising Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, fell apart without having influenced the course of events against Assad. Today, members of this “axis” not only bear grudges against each other, but are also deeply suspicious of each other’s intentions, for a variety of reasons.
This has limited Ankara’s options further, and forced it not only to coordinate its Syria policy more closely with Washington, but to also remain open to fresh regional overtures from Iran, which appears the winner today, given developments in Syria and the crumbling of the “Sunni Axis.”
It was significant, therefore, that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who arrived in Ankara this week for talks, should have told reporters during his news conference with President Abdullah Gul on June 9, that Turkey and Iran were determined to combat extremism and terrorism in the region “and to promote true and divine Islam in the world.”
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/idiz-turkey-syria-opposition-nusra-terrorist-unsc-erdogan.html##ixzz35X5xkfmk
David Koch
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@some guy: Pretending that an internet convention doesn’t exist doesn’t make it disappear. If you want to make a point, make it. Dare to be direct. And then have the facts to support it. Give me evidence that the rebels used chemical weapons and that getting chemical weapons out of the Assad government’s hands is not a good thing.
some guy
@David Koch:
It was significant, therefore, that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who arrived in Ankara this week for talks, should have told reporters
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Iran had entered the fight in Iraq last week by dispatching Quds commander Gen. Qasem Sulaimani to advise the Iraqi army and fighters to help battle Sunni extremists affiliated with al Qaeda known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham or ISIS.
some guy
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
yeah. whatever. is failing to fall asleep while Liz Sly shills us into another Glorious Revolution a crime now.
fuck you, soldier.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Amir Khalid: some guy doesn’t work that way. He provides unattributed quotes in support of his positions and also offers unlinked out of context quotes from those who disagree with him to try to discredit them. As said in GoT, “It is known,”
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@some guy: This is all you have? I have been polite and simply asked you to support your assertions. If you are incapable of doing so, it is not my fault. It does make me feel bad for the students for whom you are a TA, but that is another story. Most of academia asks for textual support for factual assertions. N’est ce pas?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@some guy: Ah, what the fuck… Who the hell is Liz Sly? What the fuck Glorious Revolution are you talking about? (Some of us are familiar with British history and would associate that with 1688 – I take it that you mean something different?) OTOH, you wouldn’t have the first fucking idea of what is like to be soldier.
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
That has considerable explanatory power. Millwall supporters could teach Maryland fans a thing or two about anti-social behavior.
Xenos
@redshirt: the Mayans believed that their most valiant warriors were reincarnated as hummingbirds. Their most gruesome sacrifices were in honor of Huitzilapotchtli, the hummingbird god.
⚽️ Martin
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Apparently you do not subscribe to the One True Liberal newsletter.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@⚽️ Martin: some guy is not a liberal: let’s not insult him. He is too pure for that.
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
There’s a bucket of crap out there that speculates about who might have been responsible for the August 2013 gas attacks. It all predates the intel work that established, to the satisfaction of pretty much every objective observer (a category which never included someguy and no longer includes Sy Hersh), that it was the gubmint done did it.
burnspbesq
@burnspbesq:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/22/allegation-false-turkey-chemical-attack-syria
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@burnspbesq: I am just waiting for some guy to provide some textual support for his position. Ain’t seein’ it. I tend to wonder if he is full of shit. I hate to leap to conclusions.
David Koch
This is hilarious. The usual progressive betters were beating their chests when Hersh’s article came out.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@David Koch: Could you also do the courtesy of linking?
David Koch
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): it’s from the link burnsy just posted
Just One More Canuck
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): no, just go with your instincts
Paul in KY
@ruemara: With beans or without?
Paul in KY
@ruemara: Cute pic.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: Welcome to the club! Americans have been there for quite a while now with various rulings we have made.
Keith G
@Just One More Canuck: ‘Tis often the case here, that the shortest comments provide the best impact.
Antid Oto
Not to pee on Steve’s parade, but cats are a serious threat to birds. Ideally everyone should please keep their cats indoors. Failing that, please don’t create ecological traps by putting out feeders in yards that also have cats.
Older
@ruemara: OMG SO CUTE!! Kiss him for me.