I’ve just been tired, tired, tired the last week or so, and I am over the gloomy weather. Plus, last night I had nightmares and couldn’t fall back asleep (I blame the very spicy Mexican and the fact that I am a head case). There is also the news, which is just depressing.
I’ve been really depressed about the reaction to the Charlie Hebdo attack. There is a strong correlation between the people who wet themselves over the War on Christmas and the ones who seem oddly eager to show solidarity by changing their facebook/twitter avatars to Charlie Hebdo icons; slacktivism at its worst. It’s one thing to do what those cartoonists did under the scrutiny of those guys (even if I didn’t find the cartoons particularly clever or interesting, but rather kind of base in the same way Piss Christ was), but it’s quite another to show all your comfortable friends who aren’t going to behead you or shoot you for showing support for them. In other words, it takes no balls and really says nothing to change your avatar, because there are no terrorists following you to be upset. And if there are, why?
I also don’t understand the need to demand that every paper publish the cartoons. Freedom of the press and freedom of speech doesn’t mean you have to publish something. It just means you should be able to if you want to. You’re also perfectly free to make the judgment that it serves no point and the only thing that might come of it is harm to your employees. I don’t think that makes you a wimp or an unfaithful defender of freedumb, it makes you an individual who has made your own individual choices about what is best for you and those around you, which is what everyone is supposed to do!
I’m probably rambling.
On to something else, I decided last night I do not understand people who don’t let there pets sleep in bed. Sure, there is the hair thing, but you are allowed to wash your sheets, and if you have multiple pets, hair is just a fact of life. While I hate the gloominess of this time of year, one of my favorite things in the world is lying in bed under the comforter with the squirming piglets all squished up to me. You can lie there in the silence and listen to them snore, and hear their little tummies gurgle, and they just radiate heat and you can feel their tiny little hearts beat. They aren’t going to be around forever, so all that time in bed just expands the amount of time I get to spend with them, it’s comfortable and soothing, and just nice.
That is all. I am sleep deprived and need to go to bed. Night.
Sandia Blanca
Good night, John Cole. You are a good man.
Omnes Omnibus
WRT your first point, a lot of people who are jumping on the pro-CH bandwagon from the right are completely unaware that CH is a leftist publication coming from the French Anti-Clericalist tradition.
jl
” I’m probably rambling. ”
Yes, that is a good point.
But thanks for putting up there in the public space that it is silly and inappropriate to demand that the cartoons be published to support free speech. Who exactly is doing that? I would guess Malkin types.
I heard on news this morning that Hebdo was an equal opportunity offender on religion: they recently published a cartoon of the Trinity doing a three-way. So, if any wingnuts are demanding that everyone publish the anti-Islam cartoon in order to exploit the tragedy for spreading as much anti-Islam as possible, I would be OK with that if the Trinity orgy cartoon is published alongside.
But anyone trying to dictate what a particular publisher’s or blog’s response should be, they should be called out on it and told to shut the F up.
PurpleGirl
JC, I hope you can fall asleep again and sleep well until the morning.
When Hugo the Doberman was still alive and my friends still lived in Peekskill, he had bed rights. If I was watching the animals while my friends were away, I’d sleep in their bed (California king) and Hugo would align his spine with mine. If I was sleeping on the couch he’d lie on the floor where my hand would drop down and pet him while we both slept. On those occasions I used the upstairs spare bedroom, he’d some in the room, tramp down a spot on the bed and lie there curled up at my feet. After he passed away, I missed him a lot. The greyhounds just didn’t sleep the same way. (First off, they slept with their legs sticking in front of them.)
KG
@Omnes Omnibus: it’s all about the chance to be a dick. if I had a billion dollars or two, I’d buy a tropical island, declare myself king and issue The One Great Law – don’t be a dick, if you’re a dick, we put you on a raft and send you on your way. So much of the politics that everyone across the political spectrum complains about comes down to someone being a dick, so just don’t be a dick.
(out of purely self interest, there would be The One Great Defense to The One Great Law – I wasn’t being a dick, I was being an asshole, that was my one time)
jl
And when I visit my folks place, their cat is not allowed the room I am sleeping in because it walks all over me meowing all night. I don’t know why, but that is this cat’s preferred way of whiling away the evening. I love the cat, but really, I can’t get any sleep.
Matt McIrvin
@jl:
Not just them; there are also some people who are more free-speech absolutists, and also some cartoonists who are saying it in solidarity with the murdered cartoonists.
In the aftermath of a highly publicized terrorist attack there are always calls to do this or that defiant thing to not let the terrorists win. I’ve come to mistrust it, for probably obvious reasons (you’re letting yourself be trolled into doing stuff one way or another).
Omnes Omnibus
@KG: There have been long threads about this already. I come down on the Douglas side on free speech.
TaMara (BHF)
Sleep well. While I don’t normally let the Great Danes sleep in my bed, Bixby is still small enough and unpredictable enough that having him sleep there means I sleep better knowing where he is. And there is something comforting about the gallump snoring and snuggling up when he gets cold.
The cats always have and always will be welcome to sleep in the bed. Though how one little 10lb ball of fur can manage to take up the space of two people in the bed, I’ll never understand. Cat physics.
srv
You’re tired? I had to ski for three days while the world was melting down.
I’m thinking a Charlie Denbo Tote series would be appropirate for our liberal PBS and NPR. Only question is, when they get attacked, what will wingnuts do – support the attacks or blame Obama for not defending publicly funded institutions?
Violet
@KG: You sound like my friend’s teabagger husband who says his one rule is “Don’t be stupid” and if everyone would just follow that the world would be great. And who’s going to decide what “stupid” is? Or in your perfect world, what “being a dick” is? If it’s your island and you’re king, I guess that’s you. But in the real world it’s more complicated.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: There is no reason to demand that publications post the offensive cartoons. OTOH, if they want to do so they should be able to do so. And if they do post them, shooting them is fucking wrong.
KG
@Omnes Omnibus: eh, in real life (and not one where I’m a multibillionaire-island-buying-would-be-king) i’m probably closer to a free speech absolutist than anything. but I get that rights come with responsibilities (and even limits), which is why despite the strong language of the first amendment, you can be sued for defamation and concealment (which is basically fraud/lying/material misrepresentation) and why things like clear and present danger, incitement, and fighting words aren’t protected speech.
it’s complicated and life is just fucked up and bullshit.
Omnes Omnibus
@srv:
No one really cares, but have a nice night.
Mike J
@Matt McIrvin:
William Gibson tweeted yesterday that even the most horrific terrorist acts are basically no more than a form of trolling.
danielx
….and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Have had a cat (or two or three, depending) sleeping on the bed for the last thirty years or thereabouts, barring those times when cats were/are banished. They truly come into their own at this time of year, what with their natural function as small portable heating units. Not to mention the sedative effect….he or she who has a purring cat curled up by the hip needs no artificial aids to sleep.
Edit: sweet jesus in a tar pit, that reads pompous or insensitive to folks with insomnia issues, especially if they have allergies or can’t stand cats. I’m told there are actual people in that last group, btw.
KG
@Violet: it’s a dumb daydream mostly, nothing more. humanity is a work in process and it is (and always has been) a messy, nasty, complicated process. the world is a better place than it was a decade ago, which was better than it was 20 years ago (and so on…), i’m a big believer that we’ll eventually figure it out maybe not in my lifetime, but eventually. which is probably the result of too much non-dystopian sci-fi over the years.
Omnes Omnibus
@KG: My legal theory on speech is that I think that all speech is protected under the 1st Amendment – even defamation, child porn, and fighting words. It does not mean that one is protected from the consequences of that speech. For example, sharing child porn is illegal despite the 1st Amend.- as it should be.
danielx
@TaMara (BHF):
Truth. Our most notable feline ever was an oriental shorthair who evidently had a slinky where his spine should have been. There was no other explanation for how he could take up half of a king size bed.
Citizen_X
@jl:
That. If you want to be a free speech hero, you have to do it in a way that actually takes some risks. Otherwise you’re just posturing.
divF
@danielx: I love cats, but have been severely allergic to them since my mid-20’s. When that happened, we had to divide the house into the cat section and the non cat section, until our cats went to their heavenly rewards.
So, no I am not offended. Just to let you know.
ETA: OTOH, TV ads showing people covered in cats cause me to start wheezing.
Kropadope
Dude, the terrorists totally inverted an awesome P.R. opportunity.
Instead of letting this magazine continue to embarrass itself and provide a strong recruiting tool for the anti-American war effort, they made martyrs of these folk bolstering the right-wing war on darkie.
jl
As long as the topic includes dubious allies in the cause of a free society…
Fox Host: How Do We Spot ‘Bad Guys’ If We Don’t Know ‘Tone Of Their Skin’?
‘ Fox News anchor Shannon Bream on Wednesday pondered how observers would’ve known that the gunmen who perpetuated the terrorist attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were bad guys if they didn’t know what their skin color was. ‘
…
‘ “That’s my question about these guys because if we know they were speaking unaccented French and they had, you know, ski masks on, do we even know what color they were,” Bream said. “What the tone of their skin was. I mean what if they didn’t look like typical bad guys?’ ‘
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/shannon-bream-fox-charlie-hebdo-skin-color
I saw that story earlier today and assumed it was some nonsense on Fox and Friends. But was curious so I finally read it, and it was a Fox News anchor.
Major Major Major Major
new cat new cat new cat
newlyweds have new cat
http://imgur.com/igzRxKq
go us
KG
@Omnes Omnibus: but if the consequences of speech are legal in nature, and the First Amendment says “no law abridging” then defamation, fighting words, kiddie porn, etc aren’t protected because there are laws abridging those forms of speech, in particular with that last one, prison time.
SRW1
Précisément. There is no conflict between condemning the murderous shooting in the strongest possible terms and and at the same time wondering whether some of the cartoons published by CH were maybe veering into the territory of gratuitous provocations.
Mike in NC
I experience insomnia now and then. A neighbor recommended herbal Lemon Balm capsules as a relief and they really do seem to work.
? Martin
@jl: I love the fact that we’ve hit a point that guys in ski masks shooting cops in the head with assault rifles might just be patriots exercising their 2nd amendement rights or might be bad guys – you can’t really tell without seeing if they’re white or brown.
I don’t even know how you could sell dystopian fiction with Fox News around stealing all of your material.
? Martin
Law of large numbers. If there are only two outlets, they’re easy to attack and shut down. When everyone publishes, you can’t stop it, you can’t kill everyone, there’s nobody to target.
jl
@? Martin: Thanks for explaining. It makes sense. I clearly didn’t understand the Fox News perspective.
kdaug
Night Cole.
(You forgot the scratches in your stomach from “SQURIELLLL”, but I’ll let it pass).
KG
@? Martin:
you write about the Lakers and Knicks season?
magurakurin
@KG: I agree with this completely. I have always though that the entire New Testament teachings of Christ can be simply boiled down to, “Don’t be a dick.”
Schlemazel
I found a lot of the images used to be based on some ugly, racist stereotypes. In a nation where the Jewish & Muslim minorities have had serious problems in the past these are unsettling. Not a reason to kill someone but worth a more serious conversation than they are currently receiving.
I’m on board with questioning the motivations of those demanding publishing them now also, my guess is that many of these same people would be crying for blood at the cartoons of Christ done by these people. In the same vein as above, I am less disturbed by images mocking the majority group than the minority groups but many of them were tasteless also & could be discussed. And to reiterate, I am an atheist so I have no god in this fight.
It was interesting to note tat one defender of the murderers was out old pal Billy of the Catholic League, he felt the cartoonists had it coming apparently. STrange bedfellows.
The one cartoon I liked a lot & could easily be remade for each group was a drawing of a crying Muhammad with the caption “Its difficult when your followers are dicks”
Darkrose
When I got Joxur, I tried to keep him off the bed. It failed miserably. I have come to accept that the subtitle of my non-existent autobiography will be “A Life Covered In Cat Hair.”
Speaking of, I’m happy to report that a week after Ogdred’s vet visit, Alistair has stopped hissing and growling at him. They’re even both on the bed at the moment.
Mike J
@magurakurin:
“What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Major Major Major Major:
I will let you in on a kitty secret: gray cats are the sweetest and most loyal, even better than Maine Coons. Our late and much-missed Boris was mostly Russian Blue with a dose of Persian and the best cat ever. Have fun!
Schlemazel
As for pet sleeping arrangements, I normally sleep like a rock (tonight appears to be an exception) and never had a problem with the kitty’s sleeping next to me. My bride, however, is a light sleeper & simply cannot stand to have anything inhibiting her movement in bed. The cats are OK in bed as long as they stay on my side. Cross the line though & they are going to get set on the floor or pushed back onto me right quick.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Russian Blue, this one.
His favorite toy is Cardboard Box so far, because of course it is.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Schlemazel:
I liked the Canadian story that Anne Laurie posted last night — basically, the CBC’s position on showing the most offensive of the cartoons was, If it didnt meet our standards for publication before the murders, why does it suddenly meet our standards now?
I heard part of an interview on “The World” on NPR where a British journalist was arguing in favor of the cartoons being widely published, but he really didn’t have a good answer for what newspapers and news shows were supposed to do if they had existing standards about what they would or would not publish when it came to nudity or scatological images that those cartoons would violate.
Lavocat
You sound like you have an undiagnosed case of SAD. Quite common, actually. Get yourself to a decent endocrinologist and get all your numbers checked out. You may have low thyroid, among other things. Some synthroid and a special UV lamp will get you into shipshape in no time.
Also, given what you wrote about the piglets, you should know that this is EXACTLY what it is like to have young children. It’s incredibly exhilarating while being incredibly sad at the same time – for precisely the reasons you mentioned.
I think you would be an amazing father. Good god, your piglets love you unconditionally. Even the dog-nazi, Rosie.
You’re a good man, Johnny Cole.
piratedan
latest oldie earworm……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo-4w9A6sVE
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Darkrose:
Lucky. Charlotte and Keaton still have some weird feud going and have to be kept separated. We did have our second session of Charlotte being held on G’s lap while wearing her harness while treats were distributed to all, and it went well with a minimum of hissing, so we have hopes.
Suzanne
I don’t let the dog sleep on the bed because she weighs 75 pounds and takes up as much space as a person. Mr. Suzanne and I already end up getting squished when Spawn the Younger comes into our bed some nights (damn kid takes up more space than an adult). The cats are certainly allowed to go anywhere they want. But the dog has to stay off the furniture so the people have enough space.
However, I did buy her a huge memory foam dog bed last week, and she loves it and doesn’t want to leave.
Redshift
There was a great bit on this topic with Tom Toles and Ted Rall on NPR this evening. In response to a question, Toles said that yes, he has lines he won’t cross on his cartoons. But when pressed on what they might be, he pushed back, saying this discussion is about what people have the right to publish, not about what he chooses to draw or not draw. And that his limits are based on what he thinks is effective, not on avoiding offending people.
wasabi gasp
We don’t let the cat in the bedroom anymore because of the hair (she’s a tumbleweed making machine,) but I sometimes miss those soft and cushy fifteen seconds of that furry beast laying on my bare chest just before sinking in her claws and using me as a launchpad to another room.
Comrade Dread
Fuck everything.
I’m tired too. Getting old. Realizing that I’m on the back nine of Life now at 40 and there ain’t really no rapture that’s coming to save me from dotage and death.
jl
@Comrade Dread:
” I’m on the back nine of Life now at 40 ”
These dang kids tiddeee!
NotMax
@KG
Suggestion for your national anthem.
Because when he formed the Raiders, Paul Revere publicly stopped being a Dick.
@John Cole +0
Shall never, ever understand those who do allow it. Just as they have their own bowls to eat from, pets deserve to have their own beds to sleep in. But whatever floats yer boat.
When had dogs, their becoming housebroken was Lesson One, closely accompanied by Lesson Two: Keep off the furniture.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Comrade Dread:
Assuming you’re not one of those people who hates the Foo Fighters for not being Nirvana Jr., you should listen to their last album. Dave Grohl and I are the same age and we both seem to have come to the same realization at the same time: Wait, I’m NOT going to live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse? Well, shit, what the hell am I supposed to do now?
Mike J
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Most of the Foos stuff is better than most of Nirvana’s. Better than most of the Germs too, and they were the band I listened to in high school, not Nirvana.
delk
I like having the dog in bed with us. Sometimes I wake up and he is just sitting there, watching us sleep. I imagine he’s thinking, “Oh look, they are dreaming”
Tommy
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Not really a fan of their music, not my “cup of tea,” but seen a few interviews with Grohl and he seems like the rare “famous” person I’d like to have a beer with. Seems like an actual nice guy. He also came off as super creative, always working on something, often not music related. Oh and I think it is safe to say he is a card carrying liberal :).
cdmarine
Sleep deprivation is exactly why we had to kick the cats out of the bedroom at night. They would constantly get up and walk around and over us, meowing and squabbling with each other over territory all night. Believe me, I would rather have had them in there with us, but we just couldn’t get any sleep.
That said, one of my boys (my 18 year old Hemingway) died on New Year’s Eve, and right now I feel like I would give up every hour of that lost sleep for just one more snuggle or headbutt.
David Koch
Lawrence O’Donnell gives an incredible review of the movie “Selma” that will move any decent human to tears.
http://on.msnbc.com/1BSkJHr
Villago Delenda Est
Not according to authoritarian fuckheads like Bill O’Reilly and Bill Donohue. Conform or die. Or what the guys who shot up Charlie Hebdo believe.
As you’ve pointed out, they’re flip sides of the same coin.
Melt them down and put the metal to better use.
Botsplainer
Listening to the dog growl in his sleep. It is pretty damned funny.
BillinGlendaleCA
Today is my Nikki’s(the Cocker) 8th B-day. She is truly the happiest dog I’ve ever seen. I call her the big puppy, she even still has puppy fur.
Peale
Looking at the vaults of 1932 and 2012 side by side is like watching two different sports.
ThresherK
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Hey, I never got to congratulate you on the Subaru, and I like the blue paint job.
A friend, an “expat” Woman of a Certain Age, who had lived on Cape Cod and then moved to the Delmarva peninsula to be with her now-husband, has moved back to southeastern MA. (With the husband, to boot!)
While spending New Year’s and the weekend, she gave us one guess as to her next car. As a good New Englander, I immediately piped up “Subaru Forester” and won the day.
PS The Mazda3 hatch is already on my short list. You’re playing on my weak spot and I have not categorically dismissed that color green.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: The original reason for building our addition was because our bedroom isn’t big enough for a bed that will fit the dogs and us at the same time! Here’s another happy Lil BIt.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: 2 king size beds would not be enough for the wife me and the Woofmeister. Simply because he insists on laying right next to whoever he has deigned to bestow his snuggles on. And if he needs more room? He takes it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@ThresherK: She probably won’t want to show up at U$C alumni gatherings in that Bruin Blue car. Then again, I love the color.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Our beloved Wendy(she passed away in 2006) used to suddenly stretch out her legs in the middle of the night, resulting in me waking up on the floor.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: We’ll see what happens if this thing ever gets done! Here’s a shot of them setting one of the doghouse manholes. They are close to finishing the first section and have only hit rock that they can dig through so far.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Lil Bit just has a tendency to scratch like mad at any time. The Bohdi is really good but since my bride had back surgery she needs the space.
BillinGlendaleCA
The B-day girl: Nikki
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Aw a blondie! Ours have both been black but my bride had blondies growing up and a party when she left home for school and beyond.
geg6
At my house, it’s Koda’s bed and she lets us sleep in it.
mdblanche
Hostage situation near Paris. It looks like the authorities think it’s the Charlie Hebdo shooters.
Keith G
David Brooks has written a column where he takes a stand with Cole, re: Hebdo (not pets, sadly)
raven
@mdblanche: In a print shop near the airport.
Mustang Bobby
Neither do I. Sam (see the photo of him in the center of the Pets of Balloon Juice January page) slept on the bed all his life, and even as he was in the last stage of his life and developed incontinence, he slept on a towel. There is still a worn spot on the comforter that is on my bed to this very day. I can’t imagine sleeping under anything else.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: She has freckles on her nose, she’s a sweetheart.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Progress!
Mustang Bobby
@Keith G: Brooks is calling out the Americans who proclaim “Je Suis Charlie” but shut down commencement speakers whom they don’t like.
I think Mr. Brooks is missing the point: when students protest against a speaker or a professor, they don’t murder them in cold blood.
JPL
@mdblanche: Guardian has a story about a person who had a meeting at the company where the suspects are holed up. The man walked in, shook hands with what he thought was a police man and told to leave, because they don’t kill civilians.
That person will have nightmares tonight.
raven
The pups in the rack.
OzarkHillbilly
So most everyone likes sharing their bed with their dogs and cats. How do you all feel about sharing your toilet with a 5’6″ boa constrictor?
Stephanie Lasca, co-founder of the firm Vertical PR + Marketing, went to use the facilities at her second-floor office on Tuesday and noticed the water level in the toilet was high, so she took a plunger to it, said her co-worker Holly Wells.
Lasca saw a snake’s head peep out from the bottom of the basin, with its tongue flickering out, Wells said. Lasca ran out and called Wells, who was a short distance away. Wells said she opened the door to the bathroom and saw the snake coiled behind the toilet.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Aw.
Joey Maloney
I’m reading this on my phone lying on the couch. I have one cat curled up on my chest and another nestled between my thighs. Life is good.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Aw to you two too.
Bystander
Any chance we will learn the name of the Spicy Mexican keeping Cole up at night?
Buster the French bulldog has a million positions and a variety of nasal intonations that would make the organist at Cologne Cathedral jealous. And pride of place in the bed.
NotMax
@raven
What hath raven wrought?
Seriously though, nice to see the work is underway at last. Bound to be a day or two later on when you’re requested to refrain from making use of the facilities while hook-ups are being made, but that’s a small price to pay.
chopper
@? Martin:
This. I’m never really shocked by fox but that is blatant.
Anne Laurie
The cats can’t sleep with us, because the Spousal Unit can’t cope with them wanting out/wanting in/wanting out again, interspersed with dancing-on-the-humans & climbing-on-the-bookcase-headboard-knocking-stuff-down.
The three dogs sleep with us, because they’re neither as nocturnal nor as acrobatic. Also, as others have said, not trusting them alone & bored in a different room for that many hours. Our beloved first dog had been trained to sleep in his crate when we got him (age 16 weeks) and I wish we’d kept that up with the six dogs since then, but Spousal Unit can be a real sucker for the bitches in his life. (/insert your own joke). So bedtime means 15 minutes of territorial sparring / wet noses in ears / pointy little feet on sensitive spots until everybody gets comfortable… and the occasional rude awakening when somebody, usually Sydney the Neurotic, gets seized with a spasm of alarm-barking.
Theoretically, I like sharing the bed with pets. But I already have one guaranteed sleeping partner who snores, thrashes, and has terrible morning breath… and he pays the mortgage!
Raven
@NotMax: Nah, they have that all figured out’
raven
@Mustang Bobby: We’ve had a photo of raven stuck on our dash ever since he died, 7 years.
Just One More Canuck
@magurakurin: be excellent to each other
Mustang Bobby
@raven: I have a photo of Sam on the dashboard of the blog, and his ashes are in a little urn I got in Santa Fe with a little bear fetish on top that looks like a little dog.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Lavocat: agreed. A full spectrum light, fish oil, and vitamin D can do wonders (we olds don’t make vitamin D well.)
TomG
John, totally with you on the “let your pets sleep on the bed” point. My wife and I have a Lhasa Apso and a Giant Schnauzer, and I always let them sleep on my bed if they want. Nothing better on a Saturday than to wake up with two loving dogs nestled right next to you.
(Due to allergies, my wife sleeps separately, so there’s no issue of her objecting to the dogs being on my bed. She keeps them off hers most of the time.)
Elizabelle
@Mustang Bobby:
@raven:
And Sam and Raven and my pups are always in our hearts.
Sounds like Sam has some swish afterlife digs.
Paul in KY
@Comrade Dread: Just wait till you’re 55 :-)
Paul in KY
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Saw The Foos at Voodoo Fest back in early November. Great set, played for over 2 hours.
Paul in KY
@BillinGlendaleCA: Best wishes to her!
Bill
So I shouldn’t use the form of media available to me to show solidarity with people who bravely stood up for free speech rights despite real danger to themselves? Got it.
Should I wait until I become the editor of a national publication to show support? Is an ad in my local weekly paper enough, or do I need to go for something splashier like a full page in the NY tImes?
PaulW
with regards to the Charlie Hedbo nightmare, my thoughts linked here.
As for letting pets sleep with you, I used to be able to with my old cats Tehya and Page, but it took years for them to get used to me and my CPAP machine. Tehya in particular would start off curling up in my arm, while Page would lie against my hip on the opposite side. I’ve tried sleeping with the new kittehs, Ocean and her son Mal, and while Ocean is deferential and sleeps near my feet, Mal does not settle down and is either clawing and pawing at the bedsheets or hopping on and off the bed. I’ve had to close the door on him, which means keeping Ocean out as well as I don’t have a kitty litter in the bedroom.
Josie
@Comrade Dread: Forty sounds so very young to me. After age forty, I reinvented myself several times. I retired in my fifties, went back to school for a master’s, started a small business and worked several years at a bird sanctuary. Now, at seventy, I have moved to a new city and am in the process of revitalizing my business and making new friends. Buck up. You have a lot of living left to do.
PaulW
more horrifying news: Boko Haram unleashing a new wave of violence, apparently has wiped out entire villages with death tolls in the thousands. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30728158
Tractarian
True, but everyday people are constantly doing things that “take no balls” and “really say nothing”. You could argue, in fact, that your post “took no balls” and “really says nothing.” But there’s no reason for me to be mad at you for it.
Slacktivism isn’t activism, but if the cause is worthwhile, it’s not a bad thing.
Steve Finlay
I agree with Bill (96 above). I did change my avatar; it is a means of making a statement that is available to me, and I’ll decline to pay attention to criticism of that action. And while it is true that SOME of the avatar changers are “people who wet themselves over the War on Christmas” and “slacktivists”, that does not make a correlation. Those people may be noisier (an awful lot noisier) than the rest of us, but we are here, and there are probably one hell of a lot of us.
wilfred
This from someone who won’t change his avatar. From the Angry Arab blog:
Matt McIrvin
@Kropadope:
Nah, I think they knew what they were doing: they were escalating. The shootings have already sparked a wave of anti-Muslim reprisals, firebombings of mosques and such, which will have the effect of radicalizing more of the Muslim population. And the right-wing bigotry works as a recuiting tool itself.
16shellsfroma30aught6
Hot take alert! Who’s on Brooks duty these days? Because this very well could be the worst thing he’s ever written.
Mnemosyne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
You’re just mad because our film school is better than yours. The thing is a freakin’ mini-studio now.
Anniecat45
“one of my favorite things in the world is lying in bed under the comforter with the squirming piglets all squished up to me”
This, this, this. And I have two cats, which means as a bonus I hear them purr. That’s very soothing on a sleepless night.
Suffern ACE
@wilfred: Ignoring the fact that they did publish cartoons mocking jews…and catholics, too…
Oh, well. It all comes down to anti-Zionist paranoia in the end. Anti-Zionism and 14 year old slave girls pretty much sums up the Islamic radical skinheads who were behind these attacks. It really seems to be their only concerns. Oh woe is me for the poor, poor, Islamic skinheads. Why don’t we try to understand their anger? Your author at least is pressing only the one button and knows not to display the other.
Sorry, radical fundatmentalist Islam has plenty of protections for itself and its sex obesessed little teachers who get to operate in Europe without nearly as much ridicule as they probably deserve. They have the same protections that skinhead gangs get, which is the same protection other hate groups get.
J R in WV
@jl: There you go! This is why driving while black is a capital offense, why any black person can be shot dead by any white person.
Because dark skinned people are automatically evil bad guys, just ask Fox News anchors.
These folks should be fired today for such incredible evil behavior, and in any real news organization they would have already been laid off, but no such proper thing is going to happen at Fox. because they all, from top to bottom believe that darker folks are evil inside, we know this because of the color of their skins!
As if the most monstrous killers of our times weren’t as white as snow! Stalin and Hitler for examples. The evil among us in news today is at Faux News, as this proves. These anchors are not fit for any news role except perhaps reading the weather forecast between midnight and 6 am.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
Major Major!! Congratulations on the very pretty little kitty!
Happy New Year, and many happy returns. We’ve been married 43 years, 44 next spring, so I can say it gets better!
catbirdman
I love sleeping with my tomcat, Jeremiah, on my back. I don’t mind (too much) when he wakes me at 4 a.m. for emergency pets.
lethargytartare
@wilfred:
this might be interesting if the author didn’t seem to think a magazine was a person, but probably not.
wilfred
@Suffern ACE:
Bullshit. If you knew anything about how some speech is freer than others you wouldn’t make such a comment. Read about the quenelle and Nicolas Anelka.
Krim is French, you don’t know anything.
Anniecat45
@TaMara (BHF): @Major Major Major Major:
Isn’t it amazing how these so-called “small” animals can take up so much room? If my two cats arrange themselves Just Right, they make it impossible for me to get into bed. So of course I gently pick up one cat, murmur sweet nothings to him, place him gently somewhere else on the bed, and get myself in quickly. Once he realizes there’s now A Lap available, he is reconciled to his 30-second exile.
Curt
My chihuahua is the snuggliest little teddy bear at bedtime. I love it when she snores.