Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

No one could have predicted…

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Bark louder, little dog.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread

Tuesday Evening Open Thread

by | 129 Comments

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As faithful readers know, I recently attended a family wedding in NYC, where I took lots of bad pictures. (Luckily for all, I wasn’t the official photographer.)

Here’s one I took outside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I call it, “Now THAT’S a baby!”

thats a baby

The actual wedding was held in a slightly smaller church.

PS: WordPress has been laggy and weird all day in the backroom, which may explain the paucity of posting. The commenting function seems to be working as usual, meaning comments get hoovered up or incinerated at random like terrified humans fleeing the giant vacuum cleaner monsters in the “War of the Worlds” remake. In other words, Tuesday.

Reader Interactions

129Comments

  2. 2.

    yopd1

    I believe I can now say that Conservative Christians have officially cost my family an extra 10 years with living with Parkinson’s Disease because they wanted to save the “babies” from being experimented on and just thrown out.

  5. 5.

    Kropadope

    I read this in a story someone linked to in the last post. This is what qualifies as a “moderate” judge in our MSM:

    In 2012, Griffith’s colleague, Judge Janice Rogers Brown, published a concurring opinion suggesting that all labor, business or Wall Street regulation is constitutionally suspect. “America’s cowboy capitalism,” Brown claimed, “was long ago disarmed by a democratic process increasingly dominated by powerful groups with economic interests antithetical to competitors and consumers. And the courts, from which the victims of burdensome regulation sought protection, have been negotiating the terms of surrender since the 1930s.” Later in her opinion, Brown suggested that the Court went off the rails when it “decided economic liberty was not a fundamental constitutional right.” In the early Twentieth Century, conservative justices relied on ideas of “economic liberty” that were discarded in the 1930s in order to strike down laws protecting workers’ right to organize, laws ensuring a minimum wage and laws prohibiting employers from overworking their employees.

    Griffith did not join Brown’s opinion, but his explanation for why he did not do so is instructive — “[a]lthough by no means unsympathetic to [Brown’s] criticism nor critical of [her] choice to express [her] perspective, I am reluctant to set forth my own views on the wisdom of such a broad area of the Supreme Court’s settled jurisprudence that was not challenged by the petitioner.” So Griffith is “sympathetic” to Brown’s argument that much of the Twentieth Century is unconstitutional, but he did not want to join her opinion because the arguments she made were not raised by the parties in that case. Halbig, by contrast, presented Griffith with a much more direct attack on supposedly “burdensome regulation” brought by the forces of “cowboy capitalism.”

    Waiting for the right opportunity to be an activist judge instead of pounding away at your bugaboo issues constantly regardless of the facts/scope of the case.

  6. 6.

    Trollhattan

    Baby it’s [the opposite of] cold, outside.

    The first six months of 2014 were the hottest ever in California, according to the National Weather Service..

    The period was nearly 5 degrees warmer than the 20th century average and more than a degree hotter than the record set in 1934, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The first half of the year was the second warmest on average in Los Angeles in the last 70 years, with an average temperature just above 63 degrees.

    Northern California cities, including San Francisco and Sacramento, experienced the warmest six months ever, NOAA reported.

    California is already experiencing adverse weather with firefighters across the state reporting bone-dry vegetation and mountains that can explode into fast-moving wildfires with a spark. And drought conditions are worsening in the Central Valley. With more than 80% of the state in an extreme drought, dry conditions will probably continue and will not improve much in the next few months, said climatologist Brian Fuchs of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska.

    The prolonged statewide drought means it will be “harder to break the cycle,” much like some thirsty regions in Oklahoma and the entire state of Texas, which have been struggling with drought since 2010, he said.

    A U.S. Drought Monitor map released last week showed 81% of California in the category of extreme drought or worse, up from 78%. Three months ago, it was 68%.

    http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-warmest-weather-california-20140721-story.html

  7. 7.

    FlipYrWhig

    If shit like the DC circuit/panel ruling is the new normal, is there any way that any future Democratic Supreme Court nominee doesn’t get filibustered ad infinitum? Because I can’t see why any Republicans would ever allow any Democrat to pick judges. And if I were a Democratic Senator, I would swear to filibuster all Republican judicial nominees at all levels for as long as there was a filibuster in my power. If Republican judges are just going to discard basic precepts of American jurisprudence when they don’t like a certain law, we might as well have total judicial review from now on, or, to wit, no judicial review, just clashes of will and stubbornness. To paraphrase Orwell, picture a boot stomping the floor petulantly forever.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    @FlipYrWhig:

    is there any way that any future Democratic Supreme Court nominee doesn’t get filibustered ad infinitum?

    Supreme Court nominees tend to get lots of media coverage. In that past, at least, it’s prevented the GOP from filibustering successfully. There’s also the nuclear option, which the Dems have now used and could use again.

    But it is a whole new world of crazy, so anything is possible.

  9. 9.

    The Pale Scot

    So Betty, are you going to get to the MMA? It’s an all day thing, just stay out of the medieval section because if you’ve seen one Madonna, You’ve seen them all.

  10. 10.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Baud: Yeah. I just feel more than ever like they’re going all in with scorching the earth (per Trollhattan above, in more ways than one), devil take the hindmost. Between this statutory construction thing and the religious liberty for businesses thing… berserk.

  11. 11.

    KG

    @FlipYrWhig: given that the procedural tactics have been used by both sides for a decade now, the nuclear option is probably the only way it gets solved. Once out of committee, up or down vote, no bullshit cloture requirements for nominees.

  12. 12.

    Betty Cracker

    @FlipYrWhig: That’s why I think it’s foolish as hell for lefties to clamor for Ginsberg to retire so Obama can replace her. The old rules are no longer in force.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    @FlipYrWhig:

    As bad as the rulings have been lately, a lot of the bad ones do involve statutory construction, which a Democratic Congress could fix (that’s what Lily Ledbetter was — a fix). Constitutional rulings, like Citizens United, are much harder to deal with.

  15. 15.

    FlipYrWhig

    @efgoldman: Fair enough, but even if this case gets hashed out in a reasonable way, I feel like an important dam is breaking, and that more and more judges are giving up on the pretense of “judging” in favor of waging hand-to-hand combat against laws and policies they just don’t like. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean the government can’t do it. That’s pretty basic civics, or so I thought.

  17. 17.

    Kay

    @Kropadope:

    You’re really tempted to let them have it. Let’s see how Judge Brown does navigating her regulation-free paradise. Nothing she purchases or consumes will be regulated, at all. None of the transactions she enters into will be monitored and we’ll have no standard process. She’ll be on her own on everything from judging the purity of prescription drugs to evaluating her new tires to determine whether they’ll blow up at 90 miles an hour.

    She’s not going to have time to do anything else, and either will anyone else. The entire modern commerce system and economy would grind to a fucking halt as we all attempt to survive and limit personal and financial risk in her “Wild West”.

    They don’t live in the world. They’re not conscious of the elaborate system that surrounds them and allows them to spin these anti-regulatory fantasies, because that’s a luxury. She wouldn’t be able to do it if she lived in the world she wants to create. She’d be busy boiling her tap water.

  18. 18.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay: The downside is clear. Then again, I’m very much in favor of any system that increases Janice Rogers Brown’s potential exposure to toxins.

    ETA: Not really…

    ETA2: Well…

    ETA3: Le Sigh.

  20. 20.

    gwangung

    Relax. Everyone (even the asshole Dem Senators who voted for her) knew Roger Brown was to the right of Judge Dredd (and just as grounded in law) when she was confirmed.
    First of all, the 4th circuit court of appeals found exactly the opposite today. And the admin is going to appeal to the full DC circuit, where they are likely to win. Also, I think there’s another circuit where the law has been upheld at the district level. We’ll be alright.

    Given the judicial activism in Hobby Lobby, I think the reactionaries could conceivably just ignore everything and rule however they damn please.

  22. 22.

    Shakezula

    @Kropadope:

    “decided economic liberty was not a fundamental constitutional right.”

    I wonder if she gave any thought to how that might have worked out in the real world or was she just thrilled to have a chance to barf some libertarian talking points into the opinion?

  25. 25.

    Shakezula

    @srv: I live in Brood X territory (17-year cicadas, big red-eyed beasties that don’t fly too good). But that, is fucking disgusting.

    I wonder how long until SciFi releases the movie. Mayflynado? Mayflies of Death? Shoo Fly, Don’t Suck Out My Brains?

    Bleh.

    But since this is an open thread – I bought two bitter melons at the farmers’ market and would appreciate any tried, tested and not too difficult recipes.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    As bad as the rulings have been lately, a lot of the bad ones do involve statutory construction, which a Democratic Congress could fix (that’s what Lily Ledbetter was — a fix).

    Fixes which the same judges will then throw out using some other strained argument. Statutory construction is just an excuse for indulging their ideology.

  28. 28.

    Davis X. Machina

    @efgoldman: mrs efgoldman sang a concert and made a recording at the cathedral with the Paul Winter Consort a bazillion years ago. I was home in MA with then-toddler daughter.

    Did she have billing above or below the wolves?

  30. 30.

    Baud

    @Roger Moore:

    Always possible, but it’s rare, even with these wingnut judges. It’s impossible to avoid all ambiguities in statutes, but it’s not that hard to fix a statute when the courts have made a specific error.

  31. 31.

    Cacti

    @Kay:

    Let’s see how Judge Brown does navigating her regulation-free paradise.

    Not to mention that during the halcyon days of “economic liberty,” the Supreme Court found that people like the Hon. Judge Brown had “no rights which the white man was bound to respect”.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    It’s such a silly, egotistical conceit. She lives in and probably thoroughly enjoys the modern world but she’s just decided to pretend that all of that certainty and safety came about spontaneously and organically and will remain in place. Someone else built it, and she just gets to reside within it completely oblivious to its advantages.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    Although the Warren court gets tagged with the “activist” label by conservatives and the media, I think the two most activist courts have been (1) the Lochner era court and (2) the current Roberts court.

  35. 35.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Amir Khalid: I blame Paul.

    Interesting trivia. George died at Paul’s house here in LA.

    ETA: Oh, you beetles, not Beatles. Never mind.

  36. 36.

    Calouste

    @Kay:

    The example I would use there is ask Judge Brown if she wants to take a chemistry kit to the gas station every time so she can check that what’s being sold will actually power her car and not blow up the engine. And a measuring kit so that she can make sure she’s not charged for more gallons than actually went into her car. And good luck arguing with the gas station attendant if she thinks she got overcharged.

  39. 39.

    Cacti

    @Baud:

    Although the Warren court gets tagged with the “activist” label by conservatives and the media, I think the two most activist courts have been (1) the Lochner era court and (2) the current Roberts court.

    I think of Roberts as the 21st century Melville Fuller, as it’s been about 100 years since we’ve had a Chief Justice that was so completely in the tank for big business.

  41. 41.

    Elmo

    @Cacti:

    Thank you! I was about to point that out myself. I don’t think many people know that JRB is African-American.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    @Cacti:

    The one saving grace with the Roberts court is that he currently has only a slim majority, which gives us a chance to make Roberts the dissentingest chief justice in history.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    @Calouste:

    I see the temptation of “let it burn” sometimes, I really do. “You know what Janice? I don’t really give a shit if your paycheck lands in your bank account twice a month. I, like you, am willing to depend on market forces for all that stuff”.

  45. 45.

    shelley

    Talk about ‘ laggy and weird ‘. Newsmax headline. “Ruddy: Pat Buchanan Discovers the GOP ‘Comeback’ in Nixon”

    What the hell does that even mean?

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @FlipYrWhig: Appellate panels go rogue a lot. If you get two assholes out of the randome draw, bad shit can happen. That is why rehearing en banc exists.

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    @shelley:

    What the hell does that even mean?

    If you click on the headline- and I truly understand why you might not want to do that- it turns out to be a review of Pat Buchanan’s book about Nixon’s 1968 election and how it provides a blueprint for the Republicans to win again. It’s too complex a concept to express neatly in a headline, so the writer mangled it into incoherence rather than simply it or leave out details.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @Roger Moore:

    Nixon’s 1968 election and how it provides a blueprint for the Republicans to win again

    Step 1: Obama invades Vietnam.
    Step 2: ?????
    Step 3: VICTORY!

  54. 54.

    Kay

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    I’m curious if it will work for them, politically. Republicans aren’t very enthused this cycle, is my feeling. The health care law was the only energizing element they had, and it had really fizzled. I think they overstate the importance of anti-immigrant fervor (just as they did in 2006). I wonder if this gives them a boost w/ the base and if that will be a wash because “normal” voters are just exhausted and sick of this “debate”.

  55. 55.

    Roger Moore

    @Suffern ACE:
    Maybe the cats would see it as an alternative to running rapidly from room to room for no obvious reason. I assume some of that is a desire to burn off nervous energy, so they might like a place where they can keep running without worrying about obstacles.

  56. 56.

    Kay

    I got the best young politico in the county (!) to agree to help Ed FitzGerald in Ohio today, so you can all thank Amanda if he wins :)

  57. 57.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    Step 1: Obama invades Vietnam.
    Step 2: ?????
    Step 3: VICTORY!

    I think Step 2 is “Southern Strategy 2: Electric Boogaloo”, but it might be “UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!!”.

  60. 60.

    Roger Moore

    @bemused:
    The main way I see cats being interested in that kind of thing is if they find some unintended use for it, like trying to climb the outside or getting two cats to go around it in opposite directions.

  61. 61.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Kay: It is a technical legal issue regarding statutory interpretation; it isn’t the ACA is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!!!!11ELEVEN!!!!! like the last case was. I think it is harder to gin up outrage. Also, enough people have benefited by the law that, while they may want to bitch about Obama and the damned liberals, they don’t want the law overturned or the subsidies eliminated.

  63. 63.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    I don’t see what Southern Strategy II could entail, since Southern Strategy I already put the South in their column.

    Sure, but parts of the South are starting to slip back out of their column, and they need to do something about it. They’re going to have a very hard time winning the Presidency without Florida and Virginia, and they’re absolutely sunk if they can’t hold onto North Carolina, Texas, and Arizona. Hence the need to crank up the bigotry ever further.

  65. 65.

    bemused

    @Roger Moore:

    Yes or young kittens crazy with energy. otoh, it you have a kitty that is easily startled as we do, this toy would probably freak her out.

  66. 66.

    Suffern ACE

    @bemused: yeah. I could see Boris getting on that once and running away when it moved. He would then avoid that side of the room for years.

  67. 67.

    Cacti

    @Baud:

    Their national electoral calculus is in its death throes, because the GOP has forgotten how to talk to anyone but disaffected white people.

    Bush 41 and Mitt Romney both carried 59% of white voters in their elections. In 1988, Poppy Bush cruised to a 426-111 electoral college victory. Mittens got drubbed 332-206.

    They’re still in denial about the need to broaden their appeal.

  68. 68.

    Suffern ACE

    @Cacti: or they could punt. Try to split California into six states long term. Hope to hold on to Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin PA and Ohio this cycle and vote to force congressional district based electoral voting on those states.

  69. 69.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Roger Moore: They don’t need the White House. Just for war-starting, and hey, you can’t have everything.

    To not-govern, all you need one house of Congress, that’s it. The courts help.

    And they’ve got the House for as far as the eye can see.

  70. 70.

    bemused

    @Suffern ACE:

    Our girl would be the same. She does not like being surprised and hates if we move things around, always on the alert for danger.

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Davis X. Machina: Gerrymandering is a dangerous thing. One creates a bunch of GOP majority districts where the majority is fairly thin in order to maximize seats. This means that a comparatively small swing in votes can tip an awfully large number of seats our way.

  74. 74.

    Ninedragonspot

    @Shakezula: One of the best things in the world on a hot summer day is bitter melon juice over ice. Perhaps mixed with a bit of apple juice for sweetness.

    You can also serve the bitter melon as a cold dish. Blanche slices of bitter melon briefly, drain and splash with a combination of sesame oil and chicken stock.

    I have had tasty Japanese style stirfries of bitter melon, onion, and egg, flavored with soy. The Hakka also love stir frying bitter melon. If you or your loved ones or a little resistant to the bitter flavor, you can blanch them briefly to take off some of the edge.

    There is also a fun soup where the bitter melon is filled with a pork stuffing which is sliced after poaching and returned to the soup.

  76. 76.

    Trollhattan

    Howard Jarvis’ corpse does not like your non-binding vote on stabbing Citizens United in the neck, not one bit.

    Opponents filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to remove from the fall ballot a non-binding question asking whether Congress should overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United campaign finance decision. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association argues the advisory measure, which passed the Legislature on party-line votes and will appear as Proposition 49, amounts to an illegitimate exercise of legislative power because the ballot is reserved for lawmaking.

    “Legislative power can be exercised in numerous ways but this is not one of those,” said Jon Coupal, the president of the association.

    The organization dismissed the measure as a cowardly effort by the Democratic-controlled Legislature to boost voter turnout in what is expected to be an uneventful statewide election.

    http://www.sacbee.com/capitol-alert/##storylink=cpy

    Probable quote fail: am sure they said “Democrat-controlled.”

  79. 79.

    Ninedragonspot

    @Shakezula: One of the best things in the world on a hot summer day is bitter melon juice over ice. Perhaps mixed with a bit of apple juice for sweetness. An acquired taste perhaps, but those who love it (ME!) absolutely adore it.

    You can also serve the bitter melon as a cold dish. Blanch slices of bitter melon briefly, drain and souse in a combination of sesame oil and chicken stock.

    I have had tasty Japanese-style stirfries of bitter melon, onion, and egg, flavored with soy. The Hakka also love stir frying bitter melon. If you or your loved ones or a little resistant to the bitter flavor, you can blanch the slices briefly to take off some of the edge.

    There is also a tasty soup where the bitter melon is filled with a pork stuffing, which is then sliced after poaching and returned to the soup.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    @Cacti:

    They won’t change unless they lose about 8 years worth of elections. They have too much money and media propping them up.

    ETA: Plus, they’ve not got a sizable cadre of conservative loyalists who would be SOL in a more modern, moderate GOP.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Does that qualify as talking to yourself?

    I don’t blame you, it’s pretty quiet around here. :-)

  85. 85.

    Baud

    In other news today, the court tossed Sen. Johnson’s suit against Obama for lack of standing. IIRC, Johnson didn’t like the fact that his staff were eligible for Obamacare subsidies.

    Ironic.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I hope folks haven’t bailed because Cole is gone for awhile and DougJ is down for the count, politically speaking.

    Or maybe it’s because last week you said you didn’t like all that many people? Some of us here asked for clarification – “but you like us here at BJ, don’t you?” and all we got was radio silence. So sad. Maybe between that and Cole it was too much, they’re all in therapy.

    P.S. Raven and Cervantes are on the other thread.

  91. 91.

    WaterGirl

    John loves us and wants us to be happy, but apparently some of the other front pagers do not. Surely one thread a day is in the front-pager contract.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    @Karen in GA: I enjoyed Iggy today. I always enjoy Iggy and the cat.

    Formatting question, though… Is the singing always in italics? ‘Cause it took me a minute to tell the difference between you and Iggy at first – Iggy is usually in quotes.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: Cervantes and I are discussing that on the other thread. I want them to say what they really think, but I also want to get them elected.

    It’s hard to believe, but none of the candidates call me for campaign advice.

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I would reply to your comment, but I hate it when the last 3 comments on a thread are mine.

    Oh, wait.

  100. 100.

    Corner Stone

    @WaterGirl: I think the problem is this blog went from way too many eleventy!! FP’ers to having 3 fairly steady ones in AL, Mix and B Crack.
    The blog made it through the last month on the back of FIFA, with some random Yargh! posts by Cole.
    Without futbol this place would have been a graveyard of summer doldrums.
    It’s got to be incredibly hard to get up in the morning and tell yourself that some number of assholes “deserve” your time, effort and energy that day. Especially when you know we’re just going to nitpick the fuck out of your post.
    Cole had some salad days, but along with the mustard, that aragula substitute is long gone.

  102. 102.

    raven

    @Corner Stone: We also have some topics that no one is going to change their fucking minds about and the thread just keep going around in circles. You know, the cycle of violence.

  104. 104.

    WaterGirl

    @Corner Stone: No, the Iggy Dialogues.

    I googled Iggy Azalea. Not my cup of tea.

    I like all the front pagers we have, I would just like some more threads. And no one can start a conversation like Cole can, sometimes with just one line.

  105. 105.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: Yeah, those threads I could do without.

    I’ve been pretty impressed, though, that the Israel-Palestine threads haven’t devolved into the GG thread style.

  107. 107.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Corner Stone: I only posted her stuff to punish bad people. I am sorry if any decent folk were caught in the blast area.

  112. 112.

    cmm

    Feeling kinda messed up tonight. I’m an intermittent commenter, loyal reader, and I hope you don’t mind if I vent here a bit, because I can’t really talk to family and coworkers about it. In my day job, I’m a cop — a liberal, pro civil liberties, pro reasonable gun regulation, pro anti poverty program cop, but nevertheless one of those that JC invariably refers to as fuckers.

    So last night this fucker had to draw down on a 14 year old and hold him at point blank range, him yelling and screaming at me the whole time, til we got enough officers on scene to secure everyone in the vehicle. One gun had already been located in the vehicle, and the person who had that gun had fled on foot when officers started to get him out of the car (with 2 of the four on-scene officers chasing him), so the other officer and I pointed our guns at the two remaining people in the car and told them not to move. The kid is screaming at me ” Don’t point a gun at me, I’m 14 years old, man, I’m a kid!” the entire time. We got everyone out of the car and in handcuffs, and then checked where the two left in the car had been. Both of them had guns on the floor where they had been sitting. The kid screaming at me had a gun in a bag that had been between his feet.

    One of the guns was stolen in 1995, 4 years before this kid had been born.

    Everything was fine at the time. But afterward, things were catching up. I had to hold a child at gunpoint. If he had moved wrong, I would have shot him. Since I was only the width of a Honda backseat away from him, he almost certainly would have died.

    The kid had a gun. The one who ran had actually been reaching for the gun at his feet (the one that turned out to be stolen) when the first officer approached and the whole thing started.

    I could have had to kill a 14 year old. I could have been killed by a 14 year old. The kid could have made a wrong move and I could have mistakenly shot a 14 year old.

    My brain was screaming about this the rest of the shift, which was three long busy hours with lots and lots of calls, including a totally separate situation also involving a teen with a gun (he is almost certainly part of a robbing crew, but the gun was a bb gun and all we had on him at the time was carrying concealed, but a bb gun isn’t considered a “firearm” in the carrying concealed law. Argh.)

    I’ve been in law enforcement in some capacity for 14 years, a sworn officer for 11. I’m tired of this. I do help people sometimes, and there are still a few days when I like my job. Mostly I hate it, because I’m burnt out and our department has turned to shit in the last 3 years since the old chief retired.

    And some nights, I think about the fact that I was in a potential kill or be killed situation with a 14 year old kid, and I go home and cry. Very quietly, so my partner doesn’t wake up, because these are the parts of the job that freak her out and I hate to remind her of them.

    So that’s what one of JC’s fuckers does in her down time. In case you ever wondered. Now I have to go to a call. 4 juveniles just jumped out and abandoned a still-running vehicle in the back of an apartment complex. Another day in paradise.

  114. 114.

    raven

    @cmm: John has issues like everyone else. Sounds like you need to get out while the getting is good.

  115. 115.

    Cassidy

    @cmm: I feel your distress. I was a finger pull away from lighting up a car in Baghdad that had a male and, what I assume, was his two kids. He kept circling our position then tried to come through us right around the time the insurgents got VBIED happy. Dude was probably just trying to get home. But I didn’t and you didn’t. Little victories.

  116. 116.

    cmm

    I can retire on partial pension at 50. I turn 48 next month. I’m a pretty good writer and I have done freelance writing on the side for years. I’m working on turning it into a full time business. If it gets to the point where it can support my partner and me (and our 3 insane dogs) before then, I’m gone. I could retire with full pension at 55 but there is no way I can stand it that long. We’ve been downsizing to lower our living costs so it will take less money to hit that “able to support ourselves with our own businesses” point, and my partner already has her own small business that brings in some money. The hope that we can to get to that point sooner rather than later is what keeps me going.

  117. 117.

    Mnemosyne

    @cmm:

    Time to get out and find a new line of work. If you talk to your supervisor and tell them you need counseling, they’ll probably even help you find a new job (I’m only half-joking).

    ETA: Just saw your second post. Is there any way you could get reassigned to desk duty of some kind? If you can write, maybe you can sneak into public relations. Whatever you can do that doesn’t put you on the street every day but lets you hang on until you qualify for your pension.

  119. 119.

    cmm

    Not a chance, for various reasons. I loved being an investigator and would love to get back into that but so far no luck on that request. There are a lot of politics involved.

  120. 120.

    PurpleGirl

    @Suffern ACE: I think it’s cool but I don’t know if there are cats that would like it. Maybe BJers should join together and get one for Steve and see what happens?

  121. 121.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @cmm: I have no good suggestions, just good wishes. One of my best friends is an FBI agent. It’s incredibly stressful to do a dangerous job with people hating on you and then be cast as the bad guy yourself.

  123. 123.

    cmm

    @Cassidy: Thanks for that. It helped.

    As for training, I don’t think so. Part of what has worn me down so much are the current politics in thedepartment and the fact that a lot of the admin’s decisions are opening the department to some heavy liability issues. Getting into training would make me a much bigger part of the liability issues and I would have to fight (and probably lose) a lot more battles. Getting out is really what I need to do.

  124. 124.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Corner Stone: Samsung is using it in an ad now.

    Trying to stay au courant with what is going on in music has its pitfalls.

    @cmm: It sounds to me like you handled the situation with tact and good judgment. Are there counseling options available for “gun drawn” situations like there are for shootings?

  127. 127.

    Karen in GA

    @WaterGirl: Very late to this, but if you see it:

    Iggy’s in quotes, but quotes look weird when he’s singing or rapping or whatever the kids call it these days. So if it rhymes and the font is different — bold or italics or both — it’s Iggy singing/rapping.

    The cat is usually in bold, no quotes. Authoritative.

    Trouble is, the Chihuahua next door is also in italics.

    I need a way to just change the fonts for each each character. No idea how to do that.

  129. 129.

    Betty Cracker

    @cmm: It sounds like you need to get out for your own health, but damn, you’re also exactly the kind of officer we need: an officer with good judgment and compassion.

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