Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

This really is a full service blog.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

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

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

So many bastards, so little time.

How stupid are these people?

In my day, never was longer.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

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

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

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Reader Interactions

83Comments

  1. 1.

    gogol's wife

    Recovering from playing the piano in church today to give our hard-working organist a day off. I didn’t think I was nervous, but I couldn’t sleep all night, and then when I finally got to sleep my silly cat kept waking me up. But I got through it all right. Made some mistakes I’d never made before, as always when it gets to the actual performance.

    I shouldn’t have watched back-to-back American Masters on Bing Crosby and Judy Garland before bed — it gave me a musical inferiority complex.

  2. 2.

    Rob

    That lamp sconce is awesome!

    Here we are eating pie after having a healthy salad for dinner. We have so many (too many) leftovers…

  3. 3.

    Ruckus

    Up to no good.

    On the improvement scale that’s about 10 steps up for me.
    Some day I might be up to OK.

  4. 4.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I’ve been reading about filial responsibility laws while making beef stew. I used an off-brand steak sauce in the base just because.

  5. 5.

    Bruuuuce

    Laundry, then dinner. Tomorrow is a trip to the dentist followed by driving from Queens, NYC to Fishkill, NY to see my MiL for the holidays (back Tuesday, because I wouldn’t be caught dead on the road on New Year’s Eve).

    In between, watching Doctor Who and, likely, binging on Gotham.

  6. 6.

    SarahT

    Laundry, 2014 accounting / 2015 budgeting (for elderly Mom, too) & plenty of self-pity. A French Dip sandwich would really help, though…

  8. 8.

    Mustang Bobby

    Playing solitaire on my laptop, watching Law & Order SVU until Big Bang Theory comes on, eating cold roast beast leftovers, and … Holy Ned, one of my friend’s brother has a guest-star slot on this episode of L&O. Cool. Hi, Tim!

  9. 9.

    raven

    We were going to go to a party but the girl has to work Monday and she is out of gas. I bought a bone-in turkey breast and made stock from the bones for the jambalaya but that’s on hold now.

  10. 10.

    PurpleGirl

    @efgoldman: I have a friend who never had or wanted children. A few years ago he married a woman who had adult children; her daughter has two children. My friend absolutely dotes on them. He loves them, watches and plays with them, talks about them. It’s incredible to see his reaction to the grandchildren.

    Enjoy your granddaughter whenever you can — that’s a special bond and relationship.

  11. 11.

    divF

    @Roger Moore: Waiting for Madame to get back, so she can give me a haircut. We’re having dinner this evening with a friend who is visiting from Indianapolis (temporary assignment, she’ll be back to rejoin her husband in California in a year or so). She had been living here since college, and this whole winter thing in the midwest is not doing it for her. We expect to get an earful.

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m partway through getting the bedroom closet organized, but Charlotte has decreed it is now Lap Time so I’m hanging out here until she’s satisfied. I need a bunch of skirt hangers because I’m tired of them taking up space in my dresser drawers and getting mixed up with my t-shirts. (Most of my skirts are t-shirt material anyway, so it’s more confusing than it may at first sound.)

  13. 13.

    rikyrah

    GO POPE FRANCIS!!

    …………..

    Pope Francis’s edict on climate change will anger deniers and US churches

    … In 2015, the pope will issue a lengthy message on the subject to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, give an address to the UN general assembly and call a summit of the world’s main religions.

    The reason for such frenetic activity, says Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, is the pope’s wish to directly influence next year’s crucial UN climate meeting in Paris, when countries will try to conclude 20 years of fraught negotiations with a universal commitment to reduce emissions.

    “Our academics supported the pope’s initiative to influence next year’s crucial decisions,” Sorondo told Cafod, the Catholic development agency, at a meeting in London. “The idea is to convene a meeting with leaders of the main religions to make all people aware of the state of our climate and the tragedy of social exclusion.”

    Following a visit in March to Tacloban, the Philippine city devastated in 2012 by typhoon Haiyan, the pope will publish a rare encyclical on climate change and human ecology. Urging all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds, the document will be sent to the world’s 5,000 Catholic bishops and 400,000 priests, who will distribute it to parishioners.

    …In recent months, the pope has argued for a radical new financial and economic system to avoid human inequality and ecological devastation. In October he told a meeting of Latin American and Asian landless peasants and other social movements: “An economic system centred on the god of money needs to plunder nature to sustain the frenetic rhythm of consumption that is inherent to it.

    “The system continues unchanged, since what dominates are the dynamics of an economy and a finance that are lacking in ethics. It is no longer man who commands, but money. Cash commands.

    “The monopolising of lands, deforestation, the appropriation of water, inadequate agro-toxics are some of the evils that tear man from the land of his birth. Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and deforestation are already showing their devastating effects in the great cataclysms we witness,” he said.

    …However, Francis’s environmental radicalism is likely to attract resistance from Vatican conservatives and in rightwing church circles, particularly in the US – where Catholic climate sceptics also include John Boehner, Republican leader of the House of Representatives and Rick Santorum, the former Republican presidential candidate.

    …“A papal encyclical is rare. It is among the highest levels of a pope’s authority. It will be 50 to 60 pages long; it’s a big deal. But there is a contingent of Catholics here who say he should not be getting involved in political issues, that he is outside his expertise.”

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/27/pope-francis-edict-climate-change-us-rightwing

  14. 14.

    Phylllis

    In the hotel room after a full day in Charleston, including a tour of theYorktown and a hockey game. We’d hoped to get back downtown for a bit tomorrow morning but looks like rain fairly early, so we’ll head on back to Tinytown. The weather has been fabulous, 67 and sunny yesterday and 74 today.

  15. 15.

    Schlemazel

    Lovely lamp. Our daughter cooks at a place called “Devils Thumb” in Tabernash, CO. They must have spent a billion dollars on the place as every detail is beyond superbe. You start to notice little details like the lamps & how the decorators matched themes and colors and styles. It’s beautiful to see pulled off. Of course, it costs $10,000 to rent one of the barns for a wedding so I guess they have to justify it.

  16. 16.

    Schlemazel

    @rikyrah:
    It will be interesting to see how the US Bi$hop$ ignore him on the issue. This goes against their one true belief but they cn’t openly defy him. I hope he has a food taster.

  17. 17.

    Mustang Bobby

    Okay, now it’s Small World time on this L&O SVU episode. My friend’s brother, Tim Guinee, on it. His wife is being played by Carrie Preston, who is married to Michael Ensign (Person of Interest), and they are good friends with my nephew. Six degrees of something.

  18. 18.

    Aimai

    Just got back to hotel in ny after seeing an incredible performance of marlowe’s tamburlane parts one and two–three and a half hours. Unbelievable. Totally transporting. Hasnt been put on in ny for sixty years.

  20. 20.

    Violet

    @rikyrah:
    That is awesome from Pop Francis. This cracked me up:

    But there is a contingent of Catholics here who say he should not be getting involved in political issues, that he is outside his expertise.”

    Yeah. Like Popes have never been involved in “political issues.” Whoever thinks that has never studied one bit of European history.

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @PurpleGirl:

    I have a friend who never had or wanted children. A few years ago he married a woman who had adult children; her daughter has two children. My friend absolutely dotes on them. He loves them, watches and plays with them, talks about them. It’s incredible to see his reaction to the grandchildren.

    My ex-husband and I agreed when we got married that we didn’t want children, and we truly didn’t. I’ve never changed my mind, but after Ken and I split, he and the woman he subsequently lived with for many years (who became and remains a good friend of mine, incidentally) were named as godparents for the child of someone they knew. Overnight, Ken turned into a big ole gob of marshmallow fluff whenever he saw the child or even when he talked about her. He lavished attention and gifts on her, and she was devastated when he died. It was a side of him I never, ever saw during the time we were together!

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    Phone call yesterday informing me the regular New Year’s Eve gathering has been changed to include a dinner and by popular request I’ve elected to provide the entree (in addition to the other stuff was planning on making and bringing).

    Leaning to something not too heavy (as well as not too complex or time consuming), a ginger and maple brined pork loin.

  25. 25.

    divF

    @rikyrah:

    “But there is a contingent of Catholics here who say he should not be getting involved in political issues, that he is outside his expertise.” (quoted from the Guardian article).

    But it is within the expertise of John Boehner and Rick Santorum ? In any case, it is not a political question from his point of view, but a moral question, based on scientific information, as is clear from the quotes.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @Violet:

    But there is a contingent of Catholics here who say he should not be getting involved in political issues, that he is outside his expertise.”

    Obviously what they really mean is that the Pope shouldn’t be taking political positions they don’t like. When he says stuff they agree with, he’s just telling it as it is. When he says stuff they don’t agree with, he’s overstepping his bounds and getting political.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mustang Bobby:

    I do know that actors who play DB’s on Dick Wolf shows have their own wrap party at the end of the season.

    Shouldn’t that more properly be shroud party?

  32. 32.

    lamh36

    I have absolutely no interest in this film, aside from seeing pics of all the muscle Bradley Cooper packed on. this certainly doesn’t help pique my interest either.

    @GrooveSDC: Clint Eastwood Turns American Sniper Into a Republican Platform Movie http://t.co/fvMjQTdQgI @vulture

  39. 39.

    Mike in NC

    Bingeing old Woody Allen movies on Netflix: Love and Death, Bananas, and now Sleeper.

    Today was warm enough for a long walk on the beach. Hard to believe this is late December.

  41. 41.

    ruemara

    headache is debilitating, but operation wiper arm is a success! Replacing the light in the shifter was much harder but changing an arm was faster than I thought it would be. Of course, adjusting it properly and fixing the head took over an hour longer than replacing the arm. Oh well, at least I have technical friends. He sent me back inside because I’m holding the cold things against my head to reduce the throbbing. Aww hell, I forgot I have laundry in the laundry room.

  43. 43.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    I really don’t like this new computer. Some of it is that Widows 8 is a giant steaming turd, but it also does things like change the zoom in my browser at random.

  46. 46.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    Sounds like a migraine, unfortunately. Assuming you can take NSAIDs, take one ibuprofen pill and one Tylenol with a cup of coffee (or whatever amount of caffeine you can handle — black tea has less than coffee, green tea has less than black tea).

    If you can’t have caffeine at all, alternate cold and hot compresses over your sinuses where the pain is.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    Also, too, if the headache keeps getting worse and worse and nothing helps, go to the ER. When my brother-in-law had meningitis, his only warning sign was the worst headache he’d ever had and it would not go away no matter what he did.

  49. 49.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    I think I’m great with them, but I’m always very glad they belong to someone else!

    P.S. I’m good at doing things like teaching them to blow bubbles in their milk with their straws. Moms will go to great lengths to avoid having their kids know how to do that, and I can ruin their intentions in the course of one meal.

  51. 51.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Schlemazel: Actually, Microsoft alternates really nice operating systems that I like using (XP; 7) with giant vortices of suck that I resent having to change to (ME; Vista; 8). I can’t figure out how they so consistently manage to follow success with a clusterfuck.

  53. 53.

    Schlemazel

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
    But so often they take what works and wrap it in unnecessarily complexity. Its not just the OS but Office. Things I used to be able to do in 2-3 clicks now takes jumping between ribbons and even then MS decides I really don’t mean it & changes stuff back to the “right” way.

  54. 54.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: That’s probably a gesture with the mouse pad, assume you have a laptop. One of the first things I disabled when I bought my Win8 laptop.

    It takes a while to get everything set up, especially the default applications, but I never see the Metro screen any more. The improvements under the hood really are worth the upgrade.

  56. 56.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: If you have a touchscreen, sometimes small insects can land on the screen and trigger it. Win8 isn’t as bad as some make it out to be. There are issues, but they’re not all that bad.

  61. 61.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Mouse

    There should be a Device Settings for your touchpad. Mine is a Synaptics.

    There should then be a Settings button that will bring up a dialog with the various special options listed. Mine also has animations for how to use them.

  63. 63.

    ruemara

    @Mnemosyne: ugh, you’re activating my paranoia. some of it might be my bp issues. I’m going back on the 3 a day ones and they come with awful side effects. like headaches.

  64. 64.

    Heliopause

    Been watching football all day so I didn’t check in on CNN until 60 seconds ago. I’ll give you three guesses what they’re covering.

    And I have dibs on the phrase “Andaman Triangle.”

  67. 67.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    I was afraid it might be BP-related, so I downplayed the caffeine element. :-( Try the hot and cold compresses and see if that helps — here’s what the academy of ear/nose/throat doctors says to do:

    Alternate hot and cold compresses: Place a hot compress across your sinuses for three minutes, and then a cold compress for 30 seconds. Repeat this procedure three times per treatment, two to six times a day.

    The alternating compresses are supposed to dilate the blood vessels like caffeine does, so it could help.

  69. 69.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    Tore up the stupid vinyl flooring in our kitchen (last bit of the kitchen to go)

    What a fucking mess. New flooring is acclimating now. I’ll put it in tomorrow.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    Yeah, I think I would have made a pretty good grandparent. I am a very good great-aunt. I just never wanted to have to mess with the more-or-less unavoidable parenthood.

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I always thought it was really sweet when Roger Ebert would write about his step-grandchildren — he married his wife when they were both in their 50s and she already had adult children, and he seemed to really enjoy getting to be “Grandpa Roger” without having to raise children from scratch first.

  73. 73.

    PurpleGirl

    I had plans to see a movie or two this weekend and do a restaurant dinner or two. Got the restaurant lunch the one day I went fun shopping but no movies or dinners out. Ended sleeping most of the time. (I think I’ve mentioned before that my sleep cycle is messed up.) So I’m just now making “breakfast”.

    And because the weather is changing, my left ear is reacting to the changes in air pressure and it’s like my ear is stuffed with cotton. (Yes, I’m seeing a doctor about it.)

    With New Year coming this week, I wish John, all the front pagers, and all the commentariat a healthy, peaceful and new year with everything you want to have happen.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    My best friend from high school has a couple of grandkids of her own, but she also married a man late in life who has about six grandchildren, and she is absolutely devoted to them. I think there’s a lot to be said for the Ebert Doctrine of Grandparenting.

  75. 75.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mnemosyne: Yup, that’s what my friend is experiencing. It’s amazing to watch. Thinking about my own family, my father reacted and interacted with my sister’s two kids much differently than he interacted with us, us kids.

  76. 76.

    Tenar Darell

    @Violet: Good for you! I skipped yesterday and today to read Great North Road, and I’m feeling terribly guilty. Hamilton can certainly weave a good plot. I couldn’t put the book down.

  77. 77.

    ruemara

    @Violet: no. I think it’s a combo of the cold, sleeping in essentially a sleeping bag and taking more meds. I feel a lot better after a shower

  79. 79.

    Roger Moore

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    I can’t figure out how they so consistently manage to follow success with a clusterfuck.

    I think they wind up trying to cram too much stuff into a new product without thinking it all through very well. That results in a giant vortex of suck. The next version is mostly about fixing the mistakes in the awful version, which results in a fairly nice one. But that leaves a big backlog of new features to go into the subsequent version, resulting in another poorly thought out version with too much new stuff. Lather, rinse, repeat.

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