Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Bark louder, little dog.

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

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Innocent people do not delay justice.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

“But what about the lurkers?”

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Ceci N’est Pas Un Chien

Ceci N’est Pas Un Chien

by | 129 Comments

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I simply love this:

Dog lower third

Nothing like Auntie Beeb making sure we have all the news we can use.

I do not love this:

2-15-snow view

For comparison sake, here’s Tuesday’s shot (posted yesterday):

Big snow backyars

This is getting ridiculous.  I’ve spent the morning looking at stuff like this, just to remind me that the at least an idea of beach exists:

Bird crop

 

Yup.  I’m reduced to wader-porn. (That was taken at Reid State Park on Georgetown Island in Maine, for those that hang in that part of the world.)

Chat amongst yourselves.

Reader Interactions

129Comments

  3. 3.

    MomSense

    Reid is one of my all time favorite places! Much too windy to visit today. We didn’t get much snow at all but the wind is pretty fierce.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    Yeah, my mom (in Brookline) said this morning that the teenagers across the street were amusing themselves by jumping off a second-story deck into the snowdrifts down below. Lots and lots of snow; my sympathies.

  5. 5.

    wrb

    I’m envious. Haven’t experience a significant snowfall in decades.

    1″ twice a year is a snowy winter

  7. 7.

    cmorenc

    Down here in Raleigh, we’re about to have a puny 2 or 3 inch snowfall tomorrow night (maybe 4 if the moisture and precip bands set up most favorably) – and we may get a period of sleet/freezing rain mixed in with it on Tue before ending with a topping of another half-inch or so of snow. But that puny amount will be enough to close down the schools on Tue and probably Wednesday as well….

  11. 11.

    Gvg

    I have no idea how northerners survive. It’s chilly here in north Florida so I am still in bed at nearly noon. Need to get up and make a blue bird costume for first graders play. haven’t had a significant hurricane season since 2004. The kid acts bonkers if we have several days of rain and they can’t go out and play. I lived a year in Oklahoma 2nd and 3rd grade so I remember snow as a kid but I didn’t like it. thermometer says it got down to 45 last night and is now 57. Chilly but not miserable. sis took nephew with friend and child to weeki wachie to see the mermaids before friend flys back to Ohio.
    My grandfather from massechusetts was stationed before WWII and moved down here permanently as soon as he was out. we regard it as correcting a climate mistake as no one in the family likes cold.
    Moms family is Wisconsin farmers but they have produced a lot of musicians. Natural result of isolated snowbound farmsteads and large families. also a lot of bookworms and some quilters.
    You all have my sympathies. also your pets.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    For those of us old enough to recall when every winter looked like that, beginning sometime in December (or even late November!), it appears snow business as usual.

  13. 13.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Wader porn – I thought you were pretending to be Philadelphian, where that stuff past the sand on the beach is pronounced “wudder”.

    No, you mean porn referencing wading things.

  14. 14.

    anderj

    Long time lurker and I just flew in from the Netherlands for a week in part for a family visit. Any suggestions for activities next week? Me and my girlfriend planning on doing Mardi Gras in Mobile (if there is anything to that, to honor last weeks developments. Is Mardi Gras in general any good there? Are there others things we should do? Me and my girlfriend live hiking, nature in general, Nice food (what’s up with all these chains) and homebrewed beer (and there is a small brewery in Pensacola). Love to hear any and all suggestions.

  16. 16.

    raven

    @anderj:

    Monday, February 16 (Lundi Gras)
    Noon – King Felix III, Floral parade (Mobile, Route A)
    1 p.m. – Prichard Mardi Gras Association Parade (Prichard)
    3 p.m. – MLK Business and Civic Organization, MLK Monday Mystics, Northside Merchants (Mobile, Route D)
    6:45 p.m. – Order of Mystic Magnolias (Fairhope)
    7 p.m. – Infant Mystics, Order of Doves (Mobile, Route F)

    Tuesday, February 17 (Fat Tuesday)
    10 a.m. – Gulf Shores Mardi Gras Association (Gulf Shores)
    10:30 a.m. – Order of Athena (Mobile, Route A)
    12:30 p.m. – Knights of Revelry, King Felix III, Comic Cowboys (Mobile, Route A)
    2 p.m. – Orange Beach Parade (Orange Beach)
    2 p.m. – MAMGA Mammoth Parade (Mobile, Route B)
    6 p.m. – Order of Myths (Mobile, Route C)

  19. 19.

    raven

    Go to Joe Patti’s Seafood Market near downtown Pensacola.

    http://www.joepattis.com/

    They have a restaurant around the conner that is the real deal for seafood and gumbo and the market is worth going to just to see it even if you don’t buy anything. If you have time go across the bay to Ft Pickens and the wonderful, white sand beaches. Then drive east on 399 to Navarre Beach. You can pop over the bridge there and hit 98. Ft Walton Beach and Destin are just OK but if you got past Destin and go to 30A the beaches are wonderful.

  21. 21.

    Botsplainer

    Here in the border conflict battlefield area between Real America and the People’s Democratic Socialist Republic of Louisville, the prediction is wobbling between 4 and 12 inches, much like a man at a bar telling a woman about his dick size.

  24. 24.

    gogol's wife

    @debit:

    I’m not even in Boston and I feel as if I’m at the Overlook. It’s horrible! Now it’s blowing horizontally and Omar Sharif just appeared in the distance.

  26. 26.

    WereBear

    Just wrote a 4,000 word podcast draft in one hour. Dragon Dictation. Amazing!

    We got a few inches. But previous pattern was, couple days later, we get a bunch spread out over days.

  29. 29.

    tybee

    @MikeBoyScout:

    “… And the Congress just can’t sit by and let the president defy the Constitution and defy his own his oath of office.”

    sounds like Animal House.

  30. 30.

    Emerald

    A request for all you easterners complaining about your snow: could you pack the stuff up and send it to California? Please? We’ll put it on our mountains, we promise. Thence it will melt and trickle down onto our farmland to grow vegetables and fruit and nuts for you.

    We’re going to have to build water pipelines from you to us. (At least when there’s a spill it won’t wreck the landscape.)

    It’s been like summer in San Diego for the last three days. Last thing we need. Cooler weather predicted for this week, but as usual, no rain.

  31. 31.

    Amir Khalid

    @MikeBoyScout:
    If the DHS gets no budget allocation to do its job and all its functions are suspended, does that mean no one can get in or out of the country, or that anyone can?

  33. 33.

    srv

    We cannot take Vienna with “resolultions of ambivalence”

    DAVID BROOKS: Well, I think there are certain things about which there is a national consensus.

    We’re not going to stick ground troops in. There is a national consensus. Nobody wants to do that. We need to degrade ISIS. There is a national consensus about that. I just would like to see leadership which affirmatively for that goal, not one foot in and one foot out.

    And this has been symptomatic of the Obama presidency with a lot of issues on foreign affairs, that we’re going in, we’re not going in. We put some boundaries about what we’re going to do, but we crash through those boundaries. We declare red lines, but we don’t act on the red lines.

    There’s just been a lot of half seesaw action. And it seems to me, if ISIS is worth going after, it’s worth going after. If you’re going to take Vienna, take Vienna.

  34. 34.

    Botsplainer

    @Emerald:

    We’re going to have to build water pipelines from you to us. (At least when there’s a spill it won’t wreck the landscape.)

    Either that, or those conservative descendants of Okies that live and farm outside Fresno are going to have to relocate east of the Mississippi and buy a bunch of abandoned naturally irrigated farmland.

  37. 37.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Amir Khalid: Their operations mostly won’t be suspended because their employees are considered “essential.” So they have to keep working. They just don’t get paid until after the funding is authorized once again. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, that’s a problem.

    If I were the president, I’d be deeply tempted to layoff half the TSA workforce at National Airport and make members of congress wait in the regular line.

  38. 38.

    Shakezula

    I wish there was a way D.C. could take some of that snow off of your hands. This winter has had a lot of dry, bitter, cold alternating with periods when it warms up and rains, only to get cold the next day. The. Worst.

  42. 42.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Mike J: It’s clear you’re not a Republican member of congress because you understand the stupidity of the whole thing.

    The President’s executive order allows a large group of undocumented people to get things like work permits. You might think you could cut the funding for that, but you can’t because it’s funded by application fees.

    My understanding is that the bill the Rs wrote simply rescinds the President’s actions because defunding is pointless.

    I like to point out that every year congress authorizes enough funding to deport about 400K people, and that’s what the Obama administration deports. Since there are something like 10 million undocumented people in the country, they have to set priorities, which is what administrations have always done. Criminals before 10 years olds makes sense to me.

  44. 44.

    gene108

    I should have brought my laptop home with me. I left in the office. Now out of the house, into the cold (14 Deg F, with some wind according to the internet) and off to work I go.

    At least it is sunny, so my house plants have a fighting chance of living through the winter (I have north facing windows, with ample shading from trees in the common space of my condo development, great for keeping things cool in the summer but not enough damn light for plants in the winter and I’ve tried plant lights with minimal success).

  45. 45.

    Botsplainer

    @raven:

    I loved that later remake. In miniseries format, they delivered the full storyline and proper character development.

  46. 46.

    gene108

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    If I were the president, I’d be deeply tempted to layoff half the TSA workforce at National Airport and make members of congress wait in the regular line.

    Either they would impeach him or the Koch brothers would give every Republican their own private plane to avoid rubbing shoulders with the unwashed masses.

  47. 47.

    Downpuppy

    @NotMax: You must be really old, because Boston has a hundred years of snowfall records and this is already the 3rd highest ever. 7 feet in 3 weeks – with no melting – is so much more than we’ve ever had in a short period that they can’t even produce a decent graphic.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    If I were the president, I’d be deeply tempted to layoff half the TSA workforce at National Airport and make members of congress wait in the regular line.

    That would be a thing of beauty. I suspect people like Sherrod Brown would be totally cool with it. I also suspect John McCain would stroke out.

  49. 49.

    grandpa john

    @MikeBoyScout:

    And the Congress just can’t sit by and let the president defy the Constitution and defy his own his oath of office.”

    Why not? Hell those are his main achievements in the job

  50. 50.

    AkaDad

    @Emerald:

    I was going to say yes if you covered the shipping fees, but then I realized that would mean more shoveling, so no.

    Us Massholes can look at the bright side. All the storms have been light, fluffy snow. If it was heavy, we’d truly be screwed, between broken backs and massive power outages.

  51. 51.

    Mike in NC

    The temperature outside is hovering just above freezing and the wind is blowing around 40 knots, so I’m guessing our beach is pretty empty today.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Via BooMan:

    Speaker Boehner appeared this morning on Fox News Sunday with host Chris Wallace. He was challenged about his judgment in inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress without consulting or notifying the White House. What he said in response was amazing:

    Wallace then pointed out that Boehner asked Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., not to tell the White House about the joint meeting with Netanyahu.

    “Why would you do that?” Wallace asked.

    “Because I wanted to make sure that there was no interference. There’s no secret here in Washington about the animosity that this White House has for Prime Minister Netanyahu. I frankly didn’t want that getting in the way, quashing what I thought was a real opportunity,” Boehner responded.

    Wallace challenged Boehner, commenting that the invitation created controversy.

    “Shouldn’t the relationship between the U.S. and Israel be outside of politics?” he asked.

    “It’s an important message that the American people need to hear. I’m glad that he’s coming, and I’m looking forward to what he has to say,” Boehner responded.

    Holy shit, the man is certifiable at this point.

  56. 56.

    max

    @AkaDad: All the storms have been light, fluffy snow. If it was heavy, we’d truly be screwed, between broken backs and massive power outages.

    YES! We haven’t gotten much in the way of snow this year (and not much yesterday, after the hour-long whiteout), but earlier we did get a foot of that gloopy, thick icy stuff and shoveling that was hell. 3 feet of floofy powder is way better than a foot and a half of that ice crud.

    It’s a sunny, cheery superbright minus 3 windchill here, but not much snow so I don’t have to out there and get frostbite.

    I score this winter as not as bad as last winter but a hell of a lot colder.

    max
    [‘Maybe it’ll be shorter, by which I mean over real soon. If we’re stuck with global weirding, we might as well get some goddamn heat out of it.’]

  58. 58.

    Botsplainer

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    “Shouldn’t the relationship between the U.S. and Israel be outside of politics?” he asked.

    Uh, no.

    Shit like this makes me want to send donations to Hezbollah.

  60. 60.

    Hal

    @SiubhanDuinne: Sorry,but Obama doesn’t deserve the kind of respect usually given to POTUS as a matter of basic political etiquette. Besides, an Evan friend had a post on Facebook warning that any country that does not support Israel would be cursed by God. If she’s any indication of Boehner’s electoral base, I can see why he’s so confident. Of course, this probably will blow of in Netanyahu’s and Boehner’s orange face with everyone else. Hopefully.

  63. 63.

    Joel Hanes

    We’re going to have to build water pipelines from you to us.

    That’s the kind of magical thinking that creates water wars.

    Unless the wet weather comes back and stays for several years, the human civilization in California will change dramatically. My daughter already reports miles and miles of bulldozed orchards in parts of the Central Valley. I can tell you that I’ve not planted a garden in two years, and may never plant another here. Parts of the Sierra are losing their forests from drought.

    There’s no not-already-overcommitted readily-accessible fresh water for CA to steal from its eastern neighbors,
    until one gets to Minnesota and Ontario. We’ve already plumbed about as far north as we can; I don’t think Oregon will let us steal the Rogue. Desalinization in large volume remains expensive.

    Fearless prediction:
    Unless the wet years come back, California’s population will begin to shrink before 2040.

  65. 65.

    Botsplainer

    @Hal:

    I never have gotten over just how conservative Cincinnati is. It’s like a completely different mindset kicks in about 70 miles from here.

  68. 68.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Botsplainer:
    @Hal:

    One of BooMan’s commenters — and I’m paraphrasing here — pointed out that Boehner usually ends up folding and folding early. But this time, he’s not budging. The commenter wondered “Who has his back?” Not some vague description of the usual bogeymen, but specifically, exactly who?

  71. 71.

    Kathleen

    @Botsplainer: That storm is heading towards Cincinnati as well but weather people are not sure how much we will get.

    Louisville sounds like a cool city (I watch a half hour show on KET which profiles the different sides of the city, particularly the arts).

  72. 72.

    PurpleGirl

    OT: Just watched an American Masters on WNET about ballet dancer Tanaquil LeClercq. A good deal of it dealt with her becoming paralyzed at age 30 due to polio. What was incredible was that she had the opportunity to have the Salk vaccine just before going on a tour of Europe and she decided to wait until she returned to NYC because she was feeling tired and not quite okay. She caught the polio while on the tour in Copenhagen. Just an incredible series of events.

  74. 74.

    Kathleen

    @Omnes Omnibus: I agree. The exurbs (Warren, Butler, Clermont counties) surrounding Cincinnati are soul sucking and I try to avoid having to go anywhere around the 275 loop.

    However, Cincinnati and Hamilton County went blue in 2008 and 2012 elections. It’s getting better in the city. We have some bright, progressive, dedicated City Council members.

  75. 75.

    currants

    @jeffreyw: Thanks for the photo in the earlier thread–I replied there but here will just ask if there was a brown thrasher in the photo?

  76. 76.

    Yatsuno

    @SiubhanDuinne: Jeebus. I just listened to the interview. There’s going to be even more Benghazi hearings and he fully supports them because DA TROOF!!! is still out there. He’s so far gone into his own world it’s scary.

  77. 77.

    Botsplainer

    @Kathleen:

    My youngest daughter goes to UC and is pretty seriously dating a kid who went to one of those mega Catholic schools you’ve got in the burbs. Of course your Catholics aren’t like Louisville’s lefty social justice Catholics. He’s a nice kid, hardworking, but I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he brings her nose-pierced, multiply-tattooed, gender and racial-equality crusading, outspoken hide to meet mommy and daddy…

  79. 79.

    Botsplainer

    @Kathleen

    So eager to get out of these burbs and living downtown while walking to work. It is really an awesome city – great local food and entertainment culture, plus, the good stuff isn’t all concentrated in one spot.

  80. 80.

    Kathleen

    @Botsplainer: We’ve got a couple of mega schools in the city, also (Catholic high schools around here are rather cult like, actually. Only place I’ve ever lived where people ask “What school did you go to” and mean high school. Other “outsiders” not raised here have commented on the same behavior).

    We do have a group of activist nuns who support social justice initiatives, (Sisters of Charity). They are a God send to the community I live in (a “changing” neighborhood about 5 minutes from downtown).

    Northern Kentucky Catholics are 10 times more fanatical in my opinion that Cincinnati Catholics and are extremely conservative.

    But I do agree that it’s a very strange area. Cincinnati is neither “Midwest” or “Southern”, but a kind of strange hybrid that’s taken me a long time to get used to. (I am not a native nor did I attend high school or college here).

  82. 82.

    Zinsky

    Action item: Call your Senators and Reps. this week and tell them not to back down on not funding the DHS unless the Republicons remove the xenophobic anti-immigration languages. Unless you are a Native American, we are all illegal immigrants!

  83. 83.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kathleen: I’ve found that it is place where, if you ask for tea, the default is the iced not the hot variety. That puts it in the Southern column for me.

  84. 84.

    Botsplainer

    @Kathleen:

    If you come, stay downtown. Walk to some places, cabs and ubers to some other places closeby.

    High recommendations for Doc Crow’s, Troll Bar, BBC, Decca, Proof on Main, Rye, Hammerheads, Garage Bar, Mayan Cafe, etc.

  85. 85.

    trollhattan

    @Joel Hanes:
    Net orchards (mostly almond) are going up in California, even if they’re being ripped out in places (that always happens as a matter of course). But, in drought year 4 some bills will come due, especially from agricultural groundwater overdraft, and I imagine a lot more orchards will revert to row crops. The bidnez model of planting orchards and vineyards where water availability is cyclical is a bad one, and it’s time some farmers learned that.

    California’s population trends won’t be significantly affected but our ag output will be, over the long term. It consumes 80% of the developed water supply and cities and industry will always be willing to pay more.

  86. 86.

    Kass

    @WereBear:
    We only had a dusting of snow here in Brooklyn, but kitteh paw prints could be seen coming to our gate, perhaps seeking some relief from the winds last night. I just fixed up a shelter box with some warm old bedding in hopes said kitteh tries again tonight, when it is 8 degrees. I lost my own cat last week, so this gesture helps me cope.

  87. 87.

    Citizen_X

    @srv:

    If you’re going to take Vienna, take Vienna.

    Well, le petit corporal was right about that, but the rejoinder is always, if you’ve got the urge to try something suicidally unadvisable, like invading Russia or taking sides in the Syrian civil war, don’t.

  91. 91.

    Buddy H

    @Kass: I understand. About twenty years ago, when my little tabby died, I took all her uneaten food, drove to a park where I knew feral cats hung out, and threw them a feast in her honor.

  96. 96.

    Kass

    @Botsplainer:

    Greater Cincinnati is unbelievably conservative, and that is more polite than “bigoted,” which is the atmosphere I experienced growing up there. The last time I looked at the real estate rental ads, a few years ago, some ads even said, “no Section 8.” !!

  98. 98.

    Kathleen

    @Omnes Omnibus: Have you noticed a server saying, “Please?” if they want you to repeat or clarify an order? The natives say that instead of “Pardon?” (I’ve found that I, a migrant, have adopted that habit as well). That’s a vestige of the German influence.

    Never observed the tea dynamic. I will have to pay more attention to that.

  101. 101.

    Kathleen

    @Kass: When were you here? I agree it was very oppressive at one time. It’s still not Nirvana by any means, but we’ve had an influx of outsiders (P&G, GE, college students from other cities who stay because of the architecture and the possibilities they see for the city), all of which have somewhat mitigated the old guard attitudes.

  102. 102.

    mdblanche

    @Citizen_X:

    if you’ve got the urge to try something suicidally unadvisable, like invading Russia or taking sides in the Syrian civil war, don’t.

    Good advice. Unfortunately, none of Syria’s neighbors are taking it.

  103. 103.

    Tenar Darell

    The monster icicle is still there. But the one story one on the corner of the house came down overnight. I’m plowed out. I spent about 3 hours shoveling out. Only thing I haven’t finished is widening the snowbank path between the back stairs and the cars. I’m done in; even if I wanted to, I won’t be shoveling anymore today. (I actually had to do a cool down, stretch out, and take a couple preventative ibuprofen). Oh wow, the sun is shining!

  104. 104.

    Tree With Water

    I didn’t bat an eye when I read this, because it’s so in character (from Daily KOS.com): “A company linked to Jeb Bush blocked a group serving the blind and disabled from landing a government contract, a revelation that could cast Bush’s corporate work in an unfavorable light as he prepares for a possible White House run..”.

  107. 107.

    Botsplainer

    @Kathleen:

    The Cincinnati architecture is so neat that it’s heartbreaking to see what I claim is a culture of abandonment, where maintenance of older, iconic urban spaces is perceived as a burden once a structure is spent.

  109. 109.

    Zinsky

    @JPL: I wish it were that easy. Hillary is going to everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink thrown at her in 2016. Count on it!

  110. 110.

    PurpleGirl

    @Botsplainer: I saw a photo essay of abandoned buildings in Detroit. It was heartbreaking — so many building exteriors and interiors were so beautiful and were left to decay. When I used to take the train to Peekskill, I’d pass by old industrial buildings that were rotting and decaying and they also made me sad because they were beautiful in their own way and should have still been useful. We have no respect for old buildings that could still be used.

  114. 114.

    Another Holocene Human

    @trollhattan: Aren’t these the same people who turned Kansas into a dust bowl and walked away?

    More to the point, aren’t they relying on their wingnut congresscritturs to “renegotiate” their way out of water and/or cashflow issues?

    When I found out we were subsidizing cotton in California to the tune of a billion a year I just about fell over. Jay-zus, let some greater fool overseas grow that horrible stuff. Heaven knows we don’t process it into cloth anymore either.

  115. 115.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Kathleen: Wasn’t Cincinnati the gateway for Appalachian emigration during the mid 20th century? Studs Terkel did some work on that and a personal aquaintance of mine did their anthropology thesis research among Appalachian emigrants there.

  116. 116.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Downpuppy: At least it’s not like that year when it snowed in the summer and ruined the crops during the Colonial period.

    Er, yet.

    I wonder if the damage and destruction is anything like Hurricane Gloria or Blizzard of ’78 (“and many roofs were lost that day”). At some point you might be getting there because even a New England roof built to code can only take so much, I suppose.

    Expect to see a lot of turf scraped right the hell off this spring.

  117. 117.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Gvg: My metabolism kicks up when it’s slightly chilly. I wear woolen clothes and move around a lot.

    I learned to survive in the heat and humidity working outside like my Cracker cousins, but I’m sure there’s been a cost to that. I’m more lively in the chill.

    Probably genetics?

    I have/had peeps in OK too. They are NOT okay. Except for the Osage Indian one of them married. He was sane. He did not like my family. Again, he was sane.

  118. 118.

    Fair Economist

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    That’s not true. Boehner folds, but he generally folds late, sometimes technically past deadlines (but everybody looks the other way.)

    I expect this will come out like the shutdown. DHS will be defunded, and after 2 – 3 weeks of Obama talking about how deportees are piling up because of the Republican Congress, they’ll back down.

  121. 121.

    Tree With Water

    @Another Holocene Human: Before Chicago was a gleam in Illinois eyes, Cincinnati was known as Porkopolis, hog slaughtering capital of the American west. If it were my call, that’s what it would be renamed.

  122. 122.

    Birthmarker

    @anderj: I’ve never been to Mobile for Mardi Gras, but I’ve always enjoyed my trips to Mobile. You may also enjoy checking out Dauphin Island, a quaint small quiet beach area south of Mobile. You can get a car ferry at Dauphin Island across Mobile Bay to Fort Morgan, then it’s about 20 miles to the main area of Gulf Shores. (I don’t know if this ferry runs year round.)

    There is still some visible hurricane damage at Gulf Shores from 2004’s Hurricane Ivan. And as far as the Flora Bama — Well, why the hell not? They don’t call it the Redneck Riviera for nothing…

    Fairhope is a nice small town on the eastern side of the bay. (Fairhope and the Eastern Shore area is between Mobile and Gulf Shores.). There’s a beautiful resort near Fairhope at Point Clear called the Marriot Grand. Ask for a first floor room, bay side. It’s just a beautiful site on the bay with many large live oaks. You may be able to negotiate a rate this time of year. Never hurts to ask.

    The other suggestions offered here are legit, too. Just be aware that the Eastern Shore/Gulf Shores area is a bit of a jaunt from Mobile. Maybe 30 plus miles? You have to go north all the way around the bay.

    Pensacola is east of Gulf Shores. Maybe 20-30 miles? It
    has a nice historic downtown area with a French and Spanish influence, like Mobile. (Pensacola and Pensacola Beach are two separate places.) Joe Patti’s is a fun seafood market we have enjoyed visiting. The National Naval Aviation Museum is interesting and has no admission charge.

    And 30A, an awesome but somewhat quiet beach area, is a long ride from Mobile and Gulf Shores, 2 hours plus by way of I 10 East. (May be more like three.). 30A is so named for the road number that follows the Gulf between Destin and Panama City Beach. The Gulf beaches from Gulf Shores to Panama City Beach are truly beautiful.

    Also, the towns (Mobile, Fairhope and Pensacola) will be great, but the beach areas (Gulf Shores, Dauphin Island and 30A) will be pretty deserted in the winter. Also, the 30A area has no hotels, only longer term condos, with extra cleaning fees that make a night or two a bit expensive.

    I’m wishing for you a great trip! And hopefully some warm weather.

  123. 123.

    Tree With Water

    @Birthmarker: Alabama sounds a lot like the old chestnut about France. God realized he’d gone overboard landscaping ‘Bama, and so to compensate he made Alabamians. If you ask me, he overcompensated.

  124. 124.

    Kass

    @Kathleen:

    I grew up there and was a very frequent visitor until my mom died in recent years. I do not dispute that in the more urban or university-oriented areas, there is lots of great stuff going on, and I used to “go downtown” just to get away from the jerks that lived out in suburbia/exurbia where I was.

  125. 125.

    Kass

    @Another Holocene Human:

    I remember in Cincinnati when I was growing up, the traffic jams going south along I-75, across the Ohio river just before major holidays. The Detroit/Toledo manufacturing workers were going back south for Thanksgiving and Christmas with their extended families.

  126. 126.

    Katy

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Is your preferred bookcase space ABSOLUTELY too small, as in, bracketed by load-bearing walls or cast-iron pipes? Can you move the end obstructions at all, or set the bookcase in at a tiny little angle?

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