Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

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

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Hot air and ill-informed banter

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

The revolution will be supervised.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: As Above… ?

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I’m given to understand there is some kind of very serious footballery going on this weekend, so perhaps this is timely. From NYMag, “Dartmouth Charges 64 Students With Cheating in Ethics Class“:

Dozens of Dartmouth students were charged with violating the school’s honor code after they were caught cheating in an ethics class, reports the AP. The class, a sports ethics course targeted at student athletes struggling with academics, apparently did not leave a lasting impression on the 64 students the university has punished for cheating…

From David Roth at Vice Sports, “What the Mueller Report Doesn’t Have to Tell Us“:

… On Thursday, the NFL gave us a 96-page report detailing the NFL’s epically drowsy serial mishandling of Ray Rice’s domestic abuse case and the resulting fallout, and assuring those that needed assuring that everything happened exactly as the NFL said it did. It then gave us some forceful circularities from commissioner Roger Goodell to the effect that lessons had been learned…

If there are no real surprises in the report beyond the technicolor splendor with which it portrays the NFL’s determined refusal to give a shit, there is also a broader unsurprise here, and an increasingly unmistakable element of uneasy comedy. For all the real reasons for outrage that have been studded through this unusually nauseous NFL season, it’s increasingly difficult not to see the NFL as a lumbering and hugely expensive workplace comedy. It’s not just that the NFL continues to be categorically incapable of getting basic things right, but the outlandish and grandiose way in which it gets them wrong. After a season spent filling one diaper after another and holding stern press conferences to the effect that the latest round of self-beshittery stands in opposition to all the league’s values, is nothing less than unacceptable, and fundamentally isn’t us, the NFL has settled, ridiculously and predictably, on the one thing it already knows doesn’t work–doing just what it was doing…

***********
Apart from the watching of football, what’s on the agenda for the weekend?

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  9. 9.

    Gvg

    WHy are we even asking the NFL to do what law enforcement is supposed to? and I don’t care if the women doesn’t want to press charges, it’s a society issue.
    The NFL is a business. their business is a lot about publicity and they should worry about their image, especially since the concussion problem is starting to bother more people but if they want to destroy their popularity, they have a right to run the business into the ground. why weren’t more people calling for charges and police? why did all the attention go to the NFL instead of on prosecutors and local authorities? the NFL doesn’t actually have the right authority to deal with this. I have a problem with people automatically focusing on the NFL. But we don’t expect the government to deal with violence? that’s a problem in my view.

  12. 12.

    Hillary Rettig

    We’re going to finish watching Foyle’s War on Netflix – one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

    Also, I hope it’s okay to self-promote a bit: my Weight Loss for Writers class starts at SavvyAuthors.com this Monday. It’s inexpensive, convenient, supportive, and you can participate anonymously from anywhere in the world, or just lurk. (Format is email discussion group.) “Weight Loss for Writers” b/c I frame the problem of overweight as “Dieter’s Block” and adapt solutions for the latter. More info here: http://www.hillaryrettig.com/2014/12/29/why-a-course-on-weight-loss-for-writers/

  16. 16.

    satby

    @PaulW: I think everyone, including the police and the previous judges, knew it was only a matter of time before Georgie got into another scrape. Ticking bomb and all that.

  18. 18.

    satby

    I see the sun coming up, normally unremarkable but it hasn’t been visible for the last 4 days of winter storms. Still bitterly cold but with the sun out and the wind reducing it will be more bearable. I feel like I’ve been under house arrest since Wednesday, so this afternoon I hope to get out and pick up a few essentials. We’re almost out of dog cookies; life won’t be worth living without our dog cookies.

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    @satby: LOL. Saw Hillary post and was just about to tell her you’d been looking out for her.

    @Raven: Kudos for being out. High forecast to be 25 here today in NoVA.

    Good morning all. (tips coffee cup)

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    @PaulW:

    I hope that every time Zimmerman is in the news, it gives a little wave of shame to the jurors who could not see Trayvon Martin as a kid who got murdered.

  22. 22.

    satby

    @Elizabelle: That stretch of 94 is one people hop on and off of to get from one side of town to another. One of the universities is up there too. Just a miracle the death toll wasn’t worse.

  23. 23.

    catclub

    on the one thing it already knows doesn’t work–doing just what it was doing

    Yeah, right. They are only hugely profitable and the dominant entertainment in the US. Tell me how they are failures.

  24. 24.

    WereBear

    I stayed up a bit late last night. The help email for my Oyster app got answered, which is when the light went on about using their built-in booklists. So I couldn’t sleep until I had sorted the 1046 books on my list into subcategories.

    Now I can find science fiction or memoirs or whatever I’m in the mood for, instead of wading through all my books in all the possible categories.

    WIth all the enforced rest my illness has been forcing me to do, this library service ($10 a month for the use of half a million books) has been a miracle. What with juggling Mr WereBear’s chronic illness, my full time job, and the obsessive hobby/mission of my cat blog, I used to pay that much in library fines anyway :) Now, getting back and forth in a timely fashion would take far more energy than I have right now.

    Email me (news AT wayofcats DOT com) if you want a free month to try it out. I can send invitations!

  25. 25.

    MomSense

    I’m getting a puppy! Just got the call. She is a chow, St Bernard, and border collie mix so who knows how big she will be but she was the runt of this litter and has very soulful little eyes.

    ETA Fortunately I have until the afternoon because I need to go get all the puppy things.

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense:

    Are you going to name her Crash?

    Two serious near misses in one week (admittedly not your fault either time).

    Thinking of sending a limo to pick up puppy?

    ETA: you must share pictures, once she’s safely home.

  28. 28.

    MomSense

    @Baud: @Elizabelle:

    I was laughing this morning that I feel like I was hit by a —– oh wait a minute I was. The rescuer is going to drop her off on her way back from an adoption event today. When she called one of my references she told her about the accident.

    The guy who hit us brought us a dozen fresh eggs this morning. Maine is a weird place. I’m achey mostly in my knees. I think they must have hit something. My neck and shoulders are really sore but it’s not too bad. My son chipped a tooth so he will have to go to the dentist to make sure it is ok.

    I’ll send pictures to Anne so you can see how cute she is. Our cat is feeling better today, too so hopefully things are going to get better.

  29. 29.

    Josie

    @MomSense: Sorry to hear about your accident but very happy to hear of your new puppy. Puppies make everything better, and that mix of breeds sounds like a winner. We will be looking forward to many pictures.

  34. 34.

    Cervantes

    @raven:

    What’s timely about it? It’s too early for the whiny anti-football people to launch into the same old shit.

    Don’t know them, but what about the whiny anti-ethics people?

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @MomSense:

    My current dogs wouldn’t do well with a new dog.

    I’ve moved on to a new type of crud. ;) But I’m actually much improved. Thanks.

  38. 38.

    Tenar Darell

    @Cervantes: I have liked him since Enchanted April. He didn’t have a lot of lines, but his quiet presence as the accidental male guest in the villa was noticeable.

  40. 40.

    Tenar Darell

    @WereBear:
    /begin librarian mode
    You can borrow e-books even from most local libraries now. No fines, because they return themselves. And you can renew them online too. Combine that with your subscription (when it’s a brand new bestseller), and you’ll be all set.
    /end librarian mode

  41. 41.

    Bob Munck

    a sports ethics course targeted at student athletes struggling with academics

    According to the Ivy rules, Dartmouth isn’t supposed to have any such easy courses. On the other hand when I was a student athlete (wrestling) struggling with academics (physics) at a better Ivy, I signed up for a known “gut” course about computers to get some relief from the thermo course in my major. Unfortunately that year a new professor named van Dam arrived to teach it, and suddenly I had a new major.

  43. 43.

    Bob Munck

    @OldDave: Yep, Andy. I was in his very first class, just after he got one of the first two PhDs in computer science in the country. I ended up teaching and doing research (Hypertext, etc.) with him for eight more years, and he’s still a good friend 50 years later.

  46. 46.

    Mike in dc

    The normal punishment for cheating is a range from academic probation up to suspension and even expulsion from the school. If they did kick out 64 athletes it would send a strong message. Probably won’t happen though.

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