Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

No one could have predicted…

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

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

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

“But what about the lurkers?”

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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Reader Interactions

119Comments

  2. 2.

    Suzanne

    It’s a rational fear. I have produced so much snot in the last two weeks that I wish I could monetize it. I netiboarded myself today and I’m still just miserable,

  4. 4.

    Suzanne

    @Cervantes: It’s not paranoia. The typical medicines have just not even come close to this allergy season. My antihistamine looked at this season and basically gave up. Holy balls. THE SNOT.

  5. 5.

    Violet

    Last year someone told me about Xlear, a xylitol-based sinus spray, when I had a brutal sinus infection. Out of desperation I tried it and it really worked for me. It’s not a steroid so you can use it more frequently. Thought I’d mention it in case it might help someone. I find it really helpful. It’s over the counter. I got mine at Whole Foods but you can find it online and probably other places as well.

  6. 6.

    Steeplejack

    Gotta check to see if the DVR recorded all of Battle Creek or just part of it with a big prologue of The Good Wife due to some long-running sporto event. If the latter, I will have to watch Battle Creek right now from the DVR buffer. First World problems.

  7. 7.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    Okay, Battle Creek recorded entire. But I realized I missed last week’s episode because I was out of town. My OCD requires me to watch that first. Over to the on-demand bin.

  8. 8.

    Suzanne

    @Violet: Does it reduce allergic response? I am infection-free at the moment, but the allergy symptoms are just ridiculous. I could lay face down and leak from my nose and eyes. So gross.

  9. 9.

    lamh36

    Spend the majority of my day with my mother, my auntie, my cousins, my uncles and my Maddie for Easter dinner.

    When I got there Maddie was all hopped up on candy, of course and my mom and my aunt were sleeping off all the cooking they did the night before. She showed me some dance moves and took some selfies with her tablet. You heard me correctly. Maddie is 4 years old. She showed me her selfie pics she took with her lil tablet (no internet access, but everything else). She’s 4 years old and she was trying to show ME how her tablet work. She said “nanny, this is how you get to home screen”…lol. I may be biased, but I think she’s a genius.

    Maddie’s Easter Dress

    Happy Easter from me and Maddie

  10. 10.

    smintheus

    A Swiss friend once told me that German speakers call daffodils “Easter bells” (Osterglocke) because they invariably are in bloom on Easter no matter where it is on the calendar. Our daffodils aren’t even close to blooming this spring however; another sign of the impending apocalypse.

  11. 11.

    sdhays

    I imagine there’s a word for that in German. They seem to have a word for everything…

  12. 12.

    Suzanne

    @lamh36: OMG, the kids learn how to use this tech so much earlier and faster than even I expected. I remember when Spawn the Younger was not even two, and I saw her tapping away at the tablet, and I realized that she knew how to swipe and scroll, and hit the back button, completely with intention. Definitely one of those moments that made me See The Future.

  13. 13.

    Violet

    @Suzanne: I’m not sure about reducing allergic response. I think that’s more of what your body itself is doing. It definitely rinses and soothes sinus passages. Apparently xylitol breaks up the biofilms in which bacteria and fungi can hide. Antibiotics don’t reach those. You do have to use it like every hour for a day or so for that effect, but when I did that my sinus infection finally went away.

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    @Violet: I have also used the Neti pot filled with white vinegar when I had a sinus infection. Burned like a mofo, but it knocked that infection out. Desperate measures.

  17. 17.

    jibeaux

    @lamh36:

    She’s a right sweetie!

    totally changing the subject, I liked Wolf Hall but I’ve read the book. I wonder if it might drag a little if you don’t know the story.

  18. 18.

    Violet

    @Suzanne: That sounds brutal. I don’t have any negative reaction to the Xlear. It’s a little sweet as it drips down the back of your sinuses. Xylitol is a sugar-free sweetener. If you have any FODMAP issues, it is in the “P” category, so that’s one potential issue.

  19. 19.

    lamh36

    So…yeah. was talking to my sister and realized I’ll be 39 this year…sometimes things hit ya. I already know how old I’ll be, it’s just that my lil sister is having a baby this year.

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: My 13 y/o nephew is nearly my height; he was four inches shorter than me at X-mas. He also was looking at and trying to interpret some of paintings my parents have. He not only has an individual taste in music, but he can explain why he likes what he likes – and it’s often more sophisticated than “[Singer X] is hot.” He is still a 13 y/o (fart jokes still crack him up), but the adult he is going to be is starting peek out.

    ETA: And the adult might be a rather interesting person.

    @jibeaux:

    totally changing the subject, I liked Wolf Hall but I’ve read the book. I wonder if it might drag a little if you don’t know the story.

    I liked it and I also have read the books, but, in the first episode, they do need to establish who is who and what is what.

  21. 21.

    p.a.

    There should be a technical term for the fear that my over the counter allergy medication has secretly been replaced with a placebo.

    Invisible hand of the free market. ‘Miltonfuckery’ for short.

  25. 25.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: I remember when I was a teenager, my grandmother had had two strokes at one time and was in intensive care. While two of her doctors were in the room with her (completely comatose) and some family members, she ripped an enormous fart. Her doctors, both of whom were at least in their fifties, totally busted out laughing. I thought it was awesome. LOL.

  26. 26.

    max

    @jibeaux: totally changing the subject, I liked Wolf Hall but I’ve read the book. I wonder if it might drag a little if you don’t know the story.

    Well, I quite rather liked the 37 minutes of it I saw.

    max
    [‘Nope, haven’t read the books. Have read a bunch of the history, although not the specifics on Cromwell hisownself.’]

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @max: I like that Thomas More is presented in the books as a bit of prig. I never took to the guy in my readings of history.

  30. 30.

    jibeaux

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think they did a good job with it, but it’s a story with a number of threads and timelines and it’s not an easy lift. going forward, it should get more actiony.

  32. 32.

    Mike J

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: A guy who stole every secret America has that he had access to, gave all of them to China and Russia, released <1% of them to the public, and called himself a whistle blower?

  37. 37.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Replying to a comment on an iPad is tricky business. So nice I said it twice.

  39. 39.

    Mike E

    That segue from the pharaoh’s throne to Mt Sinai burning red with holy fire is a real knee buckler! The filmmakers knew that the parting of the Sea of Reeds Red Sea would be a tough act to follow, but, sheesh…I thot Ramses II did alright after all that unpleasantness: didn’t he make it to age 90, father 100 kids and outlive the majority of his subjects?

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mike J: My family used Easter to decide that we are getting tickets for The Merry Wives of Windsor for our annual American Players Theater outing. Picnic, booze, and outdoor theater.

  43. 43.

    srv

    Obama’s Legacy:

    Conservative state legislators frustrated with the gridlock in Washington are increasingly turning to a plan to call a convention to consider a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution — an event that would be unprecedented in American history and one that could, some opponents predict, lead to complete political chaos.

    Legislators in 27 states have passed applications for a convention to pass a balanced budget amendment. Proponents of a balanced budget requirement are planning to push for new applications in nine other states where Republicans control both chambers of the legislature.

    If those applications pass in seven of the nine targeted states, it would bring the number of applications up to 34, meeting the two-thirds requirement under Article V of the Constitution to force Congress to call a convention.

  44. 44.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    @Mike J: Fairly new to downloading apps on my first smart phone I am fucking appalled at how easy people click away their personal souls via Google play for apps or whatever. Access to contacts, personal info, pictures , etc.. wtf! And so it goes….

  46. 46.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    Folgers’ Syndrome.

    A few years ago when pseudoephedrine was taken off the shelves here (home-bakers might make it into amphetamine!!) the cold / flu pills switched to phenylephrine in the formulation, but kept the same name.
    Unfortunately phenylephrine is a placebo.

  48. 48.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    Well, I have a link to a preview of my Kickstarter. At this point, all of the text is subject to revision but this is the general outline. And you get to look at the awesome cover right at the top.

    Meanwhile, it’s really dull here at work, which is the way I like it. In the security business, boring is badly underrated.

  49. 49.

    Tommy

    @Suzanne: Yeah it is stunning. I learned about computers in like 1983, but that was because if we wanted to use a computer you almost had to build one from a kit (my father and I did). I recall entering code for hours from magazines, saving to a cassette tape, just to get a monochrome ball to bounce around the screen.

    My niece Katie just turned six. She has had a tablet in her hands since I want to say 3 or so. She has her own tablet (a hand-me-down), a laptop (bought new at X-Mas this year for her), and AppleTV in her bedroom (everything else Andriod or PC).

    Now part of that is this day and age, but also because her father is a network Cisco engineer.

    I still feel bad at times because I “baby” her.

    She loves to play the games I play (I am 45). Her dad and mother don’t play video games. I have a few games on my tablet I wouldn’t let her play, but MOST are games any kid could play. I like to play games for 15-30 minutes to relax. Mostly puzzle games and stuff like Dots or Paper Toss (to name a few of many).

    I’ll try to help her and she will turn to me and say, “Tommy I know what I am doing. I was just thinking.” Then show me is did in fact know what she was doing and didn’t need my help.

    I find this so wonderful I don’t have words for it. That not only has she been empowered to learn with her own devices but how fast she can pick this up and maybe most importantly retain what she learns if we are playing a game and I show her something, don’t see her for a month, and she still knows exactly what to do.

    Maybe this is common with a 5 or 6-year-old. I don’t have any children and NEVER been around one the fraction of the time I spend with Katie. But I bet there might be a time in my life, and I am a total nerd that kind of write code and develops websites for a living, she is going to be (1) Making suggestions to my coding where I made mistakes and (2) I will buy a product she codes and maybe use it on a daily basis.

    That would make me a VERY happy uncle.

  53. 53.

    Tommy

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Can I ask a stupid question? Do many people use Kickstarter to help with a book? I have looked at a number of campaigns on the site but only in my field. Either technology or tech related.

    I have invested in a few just to help out. Small amounts. $10 bucks here. $25 buck there.

    I invested more than a few, $180 if my memory is correct, for these Bluetooth sports headphones (not buds). I won’t get into the weeds, but they had a prototype, proof of concept, had done a super small production run, and they just needed funding for their first initial run of a few thousand.

    I got them and they some have quality issues. Some other things they will have to improve to be a “mass market product.” But they fucking rock compared to sports Bluetooth headsets (and I have had like 3 other) that were $90-$120 (they hope their price point will be much lower).

    When I look at my four options, two of them billion dollars companies I choose the one from Kickstarter (I don’t even charge two of them at this point).

    Long winded way to ask what I asked before, I see Kickstarter campaigns for movies, this or that, but a campaign for a book, is that common and just not an area I know about (BTW: I own about 500 printed books).

  55. 55.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tommy: Taking you seriously for a moment, I have always made a point of taking conversations with my nephew and niece seriously. Not like they are little kids and I am an “grownup.” The issues that they talked about were important to them, so I treated them that way. As they are entering their teens, they still talk to me about things. I might disagree with them and say so and why, but they know that I didn’t dismiss them out of hand because they are kids.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tommy: Have we never had a previous interaction? If you want to respond to what said after the comma, fine. If not, fine as well. But don’t pretend we haven’t interacted before.

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Seriously, do not let them change the cover. It is perfect. My take would be that you should eliminate 1/3 of the words in every description on the Kickstarter page – your own and Phoebe’s. Distill it down as much as you can. YMMV, of course.

  59. 59.

    Suzanne

    @Tommy: I’m not a coder—I am a designer and need to be able to use tech in order to realize the shit I dream up. I want my kids to have the same skills in whatever arena they pursue. I do not see the tech as an end in and of itself. It is just another point on a continuum that also contains pencils, or stacking rocks. I think we give tech too much credit as a generator of change. The same things that move us now—beauty, meaning, connection—have moved us for millennia. I am happy that my kids are comfortable with tech, but I fear that we are failing as a society to talk to them about the more important stuff.

  60. 60.

    Tommy

    @Omnes Omnibus: Of course we have had interactions before. I have not been hit in the head with a baseball bat multiple times. But if you have issues with me, which it seems you do and have had, then don’t even respond to me with the opening line, “Taking you seriously for a moment.” Honestly, that is only a few steps away from trolling.

    It is just a step up (maybe) from me responding to a comment from you and saying, “You being an idiot, here are my two cents on what you just said” and then you seeming stunned I’d say such a thing to you where your input wasn’t even asked for.

    You know, just saying.

  61. 61.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tommy:

    I have not been hit in the head with a baseball bat multiple times

    Are you sure? Because that would actually explain a lot.

  63. 63.

    Violet

    @Tommy: I’m confused as to what you think is so amazing about a five or six year old child playing games, wanting to play the games the adults are playing and wanting to demonstrate she can do things on her own. That’s pretty typical for that age.

    As for the computer stuff, her playing games on her tablet isn’t substantially different from her playing a card game or a board game. For the card or board game she has to go get it, open the cabinet, set it up, deal out the cards or board pieces, whatever. For the tablet game she has to know how to power it on, swipe, find it, etc. Similar skillset in finding, setting up.

    She may end up being a computer whiz, but for her generation they’re all using tech at a very young age. She may use tech as a tool, like suzanne said, and not code or design apps or programs for a living. Most kids in her generation will have to know their way around technology to a certain extent to function in most jobs. She’s learning a life skill right now.

  64. 64.

    Mike E

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    In the security business, boring is badly underrated

    I’ll second that…sure beats thousands of cosplay enthusiasts, a wedding, a teachers confab and the damn St Patrick’s Day parade, all at the same time :-(

    I actually did (most) of my taxes this morning while watching the ctr.

  65. 65.

    Tommy

    @Suzanne: Said better than I could say it. I came up in the advertising industry (I was a project manager BTW) in the early 1993 to late 2005. Say what you will about my industry, but we created art for “Corporate” usage.

    I have a room in my house of the fonts we developed for a client, original illustrations, photos shots outtakes that were never approved where we did everything from local to models, graphic design work that is so stunning, color proofs (and bluelines — I never threw anything away) of brochures framed.

    We were trying VERY hard to make original and beautiful things for our clients.

    I think it was 1997. The agency I worked at had millions in billings from a large division of Amtrak. The agency had the account for 30+ years. Jim was always the lead from the first pitch but refused to ever touch a computer. I was 27 or so.

    I had no business being in his office. I was a junior person. But he created the most amazing images of a train moving with no computer. I don’t know if he ever said outright, but he had to at one time muttered, “youngster this is how we used to do it.”

    Spend my lunch time there just watching something I knew as a tech nerd, would later be forgotten …

  67. 67.

    divF

    @lamh36:

    Great pictures – Maddie is a sweetheart, and “nanny” is clearly much-loved.

    I flew back from New York yesterday, having had only a couple of hours sleep the night before from coming down with a cold. The only thing that cheered me up from my overall misery were the several families with small children (2-4 y/o) on the flight, clearly on there way to family gatherings. I had an aisle seat, so I was treated with young’ns strolling past. I was generally able to get at least a smile and a wave out of them, even on a crowded 6+ hour flight that was taxing to the adults, much less kids.

    Spent the day trying to recover from the cold. Still sick, we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    There should be a technical term for the fear that my over the counter allergy medication has secretly been replaced with a placebo.

    Dristan and a-flowy.

    I’ve been getting hate mail from the snot futures fund complaining that I’m flooding the market.

    Repeating from below:

    (Un)holy cow! Kudos due Madison.

    (In yer face, Scott Walker.)

  70. 70.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @NotMax: Madison and the Milwaukee will always respond that way. Madison is still full of hippies and Milwaukee is still the only major city in the US that elected Socialist mayors. The rest of the state has become a bit suspect.

  71. 71.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Tommy: It’s not uncommon. If you’re writing a novel, there are basically two paths to publication. The first is the traditional route: sending it off to publishing houses and getting lots of rejection letters until, hopefully, one of them buys it. (More accurately, you send it off to agents and gets lots of rejection letters until hopefully one of them agrees to rep it, and then she sends it out to publishing houses and gets lots of rejection letters until hopefully one of them buys it.)

    The other is self-publishing, in which you hire an editor to help you get the story to a finished condition, hire someone to do the layout and proofing (unless you want to do it yourself and the result will be perfectly abominable if you do), hire someone to do a cover, hire a press to print it, if you’re doing a print edition, and innumerable other little things. All of which takes money. On that, you have four options: be sufficiently wealthy that you have that kind of cash lying around; wait to self-publish until you accumulate that kind of cash (and we are talking anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 depending upon the project unless you want a hack job); go to friends and family to see if someone can front it to you for a project that most likely will never turn a profit; or you can get friends, family, and hopefully some completely strangers to fund it through something like Kickstarter.

    So it’s becoming more popular as a way to do this.

  73. 73.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    Of course, if the Badgers win tomorrow, Madison may be renamed Frankaukee.

  77. 77.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Violet:

    I like the phrase “disorderly goat.” Although that could be a tautology.

    (I was trying to think of the opposite of an oxymoron, and the Google is so helpful.)

  79. 79.

    Amir Khalid

    Two days ago, six people died when a helicopter blew up in the air and crashed. It was on its way from a wedding reception for PM Najib Tun Razak’s daughter to a wedding reception for some other one percenter’s child. The dead were the two pilots; two personal bodyguards; a corporate CEO; and an acquaintance from my days as a journo, former Science Minister and Ambassador to the US Jamaludn Jarjis. Not to speak ill of the dead, but it was JJ who told me to go read The MoU’s The World is Flat.

  81. 81.

    Tommy

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I want to be careful to not say this or that middle ground while sounding like I know more than I do. Book publishing is cutthroat industry.

    LSU Press has asked my father to write a book off of his Distraction for years (I got stories here). When I went to LSU in 1993 my dad introduced me to her, to learn to get around campus, the head of LSU Press, and I got nothing.

    Since like the 80s. His major Professor was T. Harry Willams and dad one of his key students, they could sell books.

    Dad said nope.

    He wanted to write another book, as PhD historian about his military high school that long ago ceased to exist. That when they have class get-togethers in 2012 there are multiple Medal Honor of Winners in attendance from this high school. It would be three.

    So he self-published. Lost a ton of money. I got the “galleys.” All the pics. Hundreds.

    With that all said I still have 60+ on the eBook version. If the book was a bullshit read I’d tell you. Read a few chapters of it and you will KNOW IN SECONDS.

    My email is tommy at young dot gmail dot com.

  82. 82.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @NotMax:

    Glad to hear it. I thought you thought I was a halfwit who needed it pounded into my head.

  84. 84.

    Tommy

    @Tommy: Via typos there are two HUGE things, mistakes in my comments that in fact true but without the context I can’t edit. Come on Balloon Juice I do huge WP installs for a living, my mistakes should take like ten seconds.

  85. 85.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Tommy:

    Not to tell a man his own e-mail address, but could it be “tommy dot young at gmail dot com”?

  86. 86.

    cckids

    @Suzanne: Feeling like this?

    ETA: My spouse has the same thing going on here in Vegas, I think it is the damn wind, stirring up all the pollen & dust.

  89. 89.

    Tommy

    So off topic. Anybody on Netflix watching the BBC show “Death in Paradise?” Just into the second season so no spoilers, but I can not be the only person watching this show with more the a mild level if enjoyment.

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    A couple of quick notes:

    A coming of age novel of a young woman raised in foster homes and her dreams of using hockey to find a place she belongs.

    Better:

    A coming of age novel of a young woman raised in foster homes and following her love of hockey to find a place she belongs.

    The problem with your blurb as written is that “raised in foster homes and her dreams” subliminally jangles, like she’s raised in homes and dreams. Wha—? So you need a phrase to match “raised in foster homes.” “Using her dreams” sounds kind of pedestrian, if not slightly icky, and so “following her dream” sounds better.

    I would even consider throwing out “coming of age,” since “a novel of a young woman [doing anything]” is likely to be a coming-of-age novel.

    I’ve got some notes on the other sections, but if the stuff above makes you grind your teeth I’ll spare you and fuck right off.

    The word following is misspelled in the paragraph that begins “The genesis of this novel [.   . .].”

    Okay, can’t resist one more: “But she knows things are never that simple or easy” is better as “But she knows that things are never that simple or that easy.” When you’re blurbing you want that parallel construction. And “she knows things” is slightly different from “she knows that things [are something].” Yes, the reader will eventually figure it out, but in a short blurb you don’t want the reader to have to figure out anything.

  91. 91.

    Steeplejack

    @Tommy:

    Not criticizing, just trying to help a brother out. It would be too bad if TTP wanted your help and couldn’t get hold of you.

  94. 94.

    Steeplejack

    @Tommy:

    I saw part of the first season on one of the PBS stations here. It is pretty good. But then they had a hiatus and I could never reliably figure out when it was supposed to be on.

    It’s almost like a weird Caribbean police analogue of Doc Martin.

  97. 97.

    Tommy

    @Steeplejack: Today has been a bad day. Family shit is strange here for me. I would have NEVER given out my email, even if off a little if I didn’t want it used.

  99. 99.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @NotMax:

    “It was only premature for her!”

    (What is the word for jokes that consist only of a punchline?)

  104. 104.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Steeplejack: All comments are appreciated. I’m saving them to go over with the person helping me, whose judgment about this sort of thing I trust far more than my own.

  105. 105.

    Amir Khalid

    the fear that my over the counter allergy medication has secretly been replaced with a placebo.

    Sounds like a variation of the well-known, similarly irrational fear that everyone around you has been replaced by an impostor. That has a name, but I can’t quite remember it.

  109. 109.

    sharl

    Just watched John Oliver’s recent show on surveillance, which included his in-person interview in Moscow with “hero and/or traitor” Edward Snowden. Here’s the YouTube link for the whole segment (33m14s). The Snowden interview alone is here; it runs for roughly the final half of the segment.

    Oliver threw a lot more hard balls at Snowden than I had expected, and Snowden seemed surprised at some of what Oliver told him, perhaps because ES’s meetings with non-Russians are (AFAICT) almost exclusively with his diehard supporters.

    Very interesting interview.

  111. 111.

    sharl

    @Comrade Dread: Best wishes and thoughts for your girl’s quick recovery.
    Microbes are so fucking rude, especially when they introduce themselves to little kids.

  113. 113.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Amir Khalid: Except in the US it’s not an irrational fear.

    For decades, pseudoephedrine was a major ingredient in over the counter allergy meds. Because it’s possible to cook meth from pseudoephedrine, it was replaced with phenylephrine.

    Phenylephrine is a placebo.

    That said, my allergies this year have overwhelmed Allegra, benadryl, Nasacort, and pseudoephedrine, which can still be purchased in limited amounts by signing a “I promise not to cook meth” statement.

  114. 114.

    NotMax

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    It’s all a lot of unnecessary hooey. Meth labs also use chlorine bleach, but no limitations on that.

    Best allergy and sinus med I ever used had real ephedrine in it, and was available over the counter before all the nonsense began.

    Nothing has ever worked as well nor as consistently for me in providing relief as did those Haysma brand capsules.

    Still have the box.

    Acetanilid – 1 grain
    Ephedrine HCL – 25 mg.
    Aspirin – 3 grains
    Caffeine – 0.25 grain

  115. 115.

    NotMax

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    That said, if you can find it, might try SudoGest (also have to go through all the pseudoephedrine hoops to purchase it). Best working current pill I’ve yet found, although not as good as the old days.

    Also, it is dirt cheap compared to the name brands ($1.19 for a box of 24 at Costco pharmacy).

  117. 117.

    Cervantes

    @lamh36:

    She’s 4 years old and she was trying to show ME how her tablet work. She said “nanny, this is how you get to home screen”…lol. I may be biased, but I think she’s a genius.

    She may well be! Glad you had time with her — and the more the better for her!

  118. 118.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @NotMax: I’ve always suspected the pseudoephedrine was targeted because it was off patent and could be purchased in bulk.

    In my more cynical moments, I often suspect that the real point was to make more people have to walk through the stores associated with the approved counters and improve their chances of impulse sales. At one point, you couldn’t get pseudoephedrine at the counters in grocery stores or big box stores, only the specialty stores. The big box stores had dramatically eaten into the walk-in traffic at the specialists.

    (How’s that for a bunch of FYWP spam circumlocutions!)

    OTOH, pseudoephedrine isn’t the only thing restricted/taken off the market by the War on Meth House Poisoning. I know a gal who did gorgeous tie-dyes who complained about the same time that some of her dyes had been discontinued for the same reason. And I know quite a few people, otherwise very anti-WoD, who don’t mind the extra hassle for pseudoephedrine because it ran certain neighbors out of business before the idiots managed to turn the entire block into a superfund site.

  119. 119.

    SuperHrefna

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Have you tried astelin or astepro? Nasally administered antihistamine. My allergist prescribes me astepro and sometimes it really helps when tablets just can’t get the job done. Plus it’s generic now so way cheaper than it used to be.

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