Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

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

Tick tock motherfuckers!

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Come on, man.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

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

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Afternoon Open Thread (Plus NFL Draft-Related Rant)

Friday Afternoon Open Thread (Plus NFL Draft-Related Rant)

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Here are two lizards as seen through a frosted glass window at night:

lizards

Must be a great bug-catching spot since the light will attract prey. It looks like one of the lizards is missing part of its tail. But it will grow back.

Open thread! And football rant below the fold, for those who are so inclined.

There’s a lot of fallout in the Tampa Bay area resulting from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ picking Jameis Winston #1 in the NFL draft yesterday. It’s a controversial pick because as an FSU star, Winston had a fuckton of off-field issues, including a rape allegation.

Winston was also busted for stealing crab legs from Publix, a local supermarket chain — and major sponsor of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So what did Winston do on draft night, right after expressing profound gratitude for the opportunity and imploring people to give him a chance to prove what an awesome citizen he is?

He Instagrammed a picture of himself in a Bucs jersey and hat chowing down on crab legs. Someone advised him that might not go over so well, so he took it down.

Ah well. It’s the Bucs. Of course they were going to fuck up their #1 pick. Winston’s defenders (i.e., FSU fans) are all over the message boards making excuses for the photo, saying it was an innocent shout-out to the crab boat captain who supplied the crab legs.

But Winston isn’t stupid. He got into Stanford before he chose a full-ride scholarship to FSU. He’s not dumb, but he is a gridiron princeling who has been told all his life that he’s more important than anyone else and entitled to anything he wants because he’s good at tossing a ball.

He’s not alone either. Given the way elite players are coddled, it’s a wonder ALL of them aren’t felonious pricks instead of only a third or so.

It’s tough to be a liberal AND a football fan sometimes. There are the very real concerns about the long-term health effects of the game for players. That’s horrifying, though it’s true other sports ask players to take hideous risks too. What level of risk is too much?

Then there’s the absurd financial shenanigans, player exploitation and grade-fixing schemes at the college level. And the ridiculous billionaire-benefiting shakedowns of the public at the pro level, plus the obscene salaries, etc. The league enables heinous behavior on a regular basis, and their policy enforcement is a joke.

Despite all of this, I’ve been a fan all my life, as were my parents and grandparents. When summer eases toward fall, I’m sure I’ll feel that old excitement again — which of the shitty QB prospects will the Gators’ new coach start? Which blue-chip recruits will pan out?

But this Winston pick, for some reason, despite all the other awful shit I’ve seen as a fan over the years and kept on watching, this feels like one straw too many. Maybe it’s time to find something else to do with my fall and winter Sunday afternoons.

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  2. 2.

    Jerzy Russian

    So what did Winston do on draft night, right after expressing profound gratitude for the opportunity and imploring people to give him a chance to prove what an awesome citizen he is?

    He Instagrammed a picture of himself in a Bucs jersey and hat chowing down on crab legs.

    Does Mr. Winston have an agent? If so, that agent should give him some shut-the-fuck-up lessons.

  3. 3.

    Jerzy Russian

    @askew: That can’t be real. Please tell me you were bored out of your mind and you spent the last day with photoshop and fake Twitter accounts.

  4. 4.

    gogol's wife

    @askew:

    Is that real? Hilarious! Christie ally –> Kirstie Alley

    And somebody says, “He really did lose weight!”

  5. 5.

    kindness

    That pic needs another of the same with a kitty on this side of the glass trying to figure out how to get the lizard.

  6. 6.

    gogol's wife

    This is no doubt an out-of-synch comment, since most people watched Wolf Hall on Sunday, but I just caught the last half of the “Devil’s Spit” episode last night, and it made me cry multiple times. I am just in awe at the acting talent on display, especially from Rylance and Lesser, but Claire Foy is also really good.

  8. 8.

    Tree With Water

    Tom Cotton, congressional ally and facilitator of democratic party foreign policy goals? To hear Jim Newell at Salon.com tell it today, the answer is- amazingly- yes.

  9. 9.

    askew

    @Jerzy Russian:

    I found it on twitter. I certainly don’t have the skill to do that. Sadly enough I can’t tell if that is real or if someone just did a perfect parody of our imbecilic media.

  10. 10.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Winston was also busted for stealing crab legs from Publix, a local supermarket chain — and major sponsor of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

    It would have been cool if he’d walked sideways out of Publix.

  12. 12.

    Jerzy Russian

    @askew: Either way it is sad: the media is full of morons or someone has enough free time to pull pranks like that.

  14. 14.

    JPL

    @Goblue72: I really wanted to see him on the stand during the Hernandez trial. Kraft was okay but Bill would have been great.

  15. 15.

    Betty Cracker

    @kindness: We have no cats, but if the window were lower down, I’m sure our dogs would go ape shit over the lizard silhouettes. As it is, the window is high above their heads and in a room they rarely visit, so they don’t notice it.

  17. 17.

    jl

    I heard the top college prospective draft picks at the shindig walked out on a gold carpet, and were supposed to talk about the fancy clothes they wore.

    Is The Onion putting on the NFL draft TV show this year?

    Come to think of it, is The Onion running everything right now? Seems like it from what I read in the news.

    Edit: Two newest stories at TPM
    Child Finds A Loaded Gun In John Boehner’s Capitol Bathroom
    Christie Speaks: Chris Christie: This is excellent news for Chris Christie.

    See?

    Edit2, Now up at TPM: Christie: Charges Prove I Had Nothing To Do With BridgeGate

    See? The Onion’s taken over everything.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: Maybe he’ll be called to testify at the next Hernandez trial. Or did the other two murders take place in the off season?

    Hernandez is another example of what’s wrong with elite-level sports. If he were in any other profession, would he have gotten away with being a stone-cold psychopath for as long as he did?

    Eh, maybe if he was a talented hedge fund manager or real estate tycoon like that idiot who was recently busted for inadvertently confessing to murder while in the can with a hot mike.

  19. 19.

    shell

    Cute lizards. But I wonder, do you bang a couple of pots together before you go out your door at night?

  20. 20.

    Tree With Water

    @Goblue72: Belichick’s career as a chess master began the first Sunday Tom Brady started at QB, and it will end the day Tom Brady retires.

  22. 22.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @gogol’s wife: We record and watch Wolf Hall later too, and as we watched this one, Mr IOL kept saying how glad he was not to be living in that situation.

  24. 24.

    boatboy_srq

    @Southern Beale: You’re assuming security didn’t want the sidearm found – and used – in their jurisdiction. Facts not in evidence and all that. I could certainly see someone on that detail being unhappy enough with one or more Congresscritters to pull something like that in the hope that a) there’d be one or more fewer annoying obstructionists lawmakers on Capitol Hill or b) there’d be an opportunity to play hero, get some good press and get promoted away from said Congresscritters, or c) both at once.

  25. 25.

    JPL

    This made me laugh
    Christie was on a diet and said “close the fridge.” But someone misunderstood, and the rest, as they say, is history.
    copied from a comment on the ny times

  27. 27.

    The Dangerman

    Both Winston and Mariota have bust written all over them (or, in the case of Winston, repeated busts for whatever crime he’ll be committing along the way).

    If rumors were true, these teams could have traded down for a boatload of picks; they will rue the day they picked the way they did.

  30. 30.

    Mandalay

    Go Bernie!………

    Bernie Sanders’ nascent presidential campaign announced Friday that it raised more than $1.5 million in its first 24 hours, a number that far outpaces what Republican presidential hopefuls posted in their first day…

    …more than 100,000 people signed up for the campaign and 35,000 people donated money, according to a campaign press release.

    The average donation was $43.54.

    His web site needs (a lot of) work, but you can donate now.

  32. 32.

    Corner Stone

    @JPL:

    I hope Winston is smarter than that.

    Absolutely *no* facts in evidence to presume that, at any point so far.

  34. 34.

    Mike J

    @Tree With Water: Pete Carroll would still be the head coach for the Patriots and Boston would have yearly Pete Carroll Day parades if Brady had come up one year earlier.

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    @The Dangerman: I think you’re right. It wasn’t an exceptional QB class. The Bucs should have traded down and plugged the many holes they have on both sides of the line. When Winston flops (either on the field by continuing to be an interception machine or by doing something spectacularly stupid off the field), it’ll take down the coach and the GM, and they’ll deserve it too.

  36. 36.

    Nethead Jay

    Well, as a Saints fan I’ve never felt any particular animosity towards Tampa beyond the usual wanna-win thing. But with this Winston stuff, I’d really like to see them beat his ass into the ground. Sorry Betty…

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    @The Dangerman:

    Both Winston and Mariota have bust written all over them (or, in the case of Winston, repeated busts for whatever crime he’ll be committing along the way).

    Winston will follow recent Bucs tradition, by getting sacked 70+ times and throwing 25+ INTs while losing 12+ games.
    Mariota might as well have a loudly bright neon green sign saying, “I’m so busty, I make Dolly Parton jealous!”
    The only thing that would have been more sweet is if the Browns actually did pull off the trade and draft another pure fucking bust at QB.

  38. 38.

    Mandalay

    Since this is an assholes thread….

    Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday that he trusts the legal process that resulted in charges against six Baltimore officers in the death of a man from injuries sustained while in police custody.

    But a president, said the likely 2016 Republican candidate, could do more to address rising anger toward police in poor neighborhoods. “I think we need, as a nation, to have a conversation about why is it that we’re creating these big pockets of poverty,” he said.

    Of course he could have said that yesterday, or last week, or last month. But the profile in cowardice had to wait to see which side was winning before he formed an opinion. What a spineless, worthless slimebag.

  40. 40.

    boatboy_srq

    From the TBO article:

    In the days leading up the draft, Winston said on an ESPN program that the seafood was a freebie and he was “hooked up” by an employee at the Publix. If so, that could be an NCAA violation, and FSU was looking into that version of the incident.

    You’re dumb enough to walk out of a supermarket with “free” food and think that’s appropriate in any way? And you’re dumb[er] enough to think that some NFL-sponsoring business is going to throw goodies your way out of the generosity of their hearts, and then say nothing when you sign with their home team? If Winston’s story has any truth, somebody at Publix is about to get fired and the NCAA is going to have a field day with this. Winston may not need to fumble his way to the unemployment line: there’ll likely be a nice quiet call from an office in Lakeland to the Bucs, and shortly after he’ll be “released” from his contract.

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    @Mandalay: He is a craven piece of shit and always was. It’s somewhat amusing to see him languishing behind the other lunatics and lightweights in the GOP pack, but I expect he’ll collect his nomination prize in the end. Most of the money people are behind him, and that’s really all that matters.

  43. 43.

    Corner Stone

    @raven: It’s not that he isn’t an awesome RB. He is. But given recent history, and the way the NFL actually plays the game now, who gives a 10 pick to any RB?

  45. 45.

    Betty Cracker

    @boatboy_srq: Not gonna happen. The crab legs incident was dealt with while Winston was still at FSU (I believe he paid a fine, served a suspension and did community service), and while it was unbelievably stupid for Winston to change the story, that happened before the draft. I’m sure the front office smoothed that shit over with the sponsor before giving the keys to Winston — even the Bucs front office isn’t THAT stupid.

  46. 46.

    the Conster

    Marilyn Mosby went to the same high school as my daughters – my older one graduated two years after her. She was a METCO student – one of three bussed in. The school is small, public and very white, but rated number one in the state. The white privilege at the school is beyond beyond, and the METCO kids who make it through are the best of the best, because to get there, they have to get on a bus by 5:30 in the morning, and probably don’t get home until 5:30 at night or later. She’s special, and I hope she’s going to be safe.

  49. 49.

    boatboy_srq

    @Mandalay:

    I think we need, as a nation, to have a conversation about why is it that we’re creating these big pockets of poverty

    Translation: we need to figure out what kind of kick in the a## incentive Blahs Poors Other people need to stop mooching of hardworking Real Muricans obtain gainful employment so they can stay out of sight in their barrios achieve pride in their communities.

  51. 51.

    trollhattan

    @Betty Cracker:
    IIUC, under the CBA rookie salaries are pretty much dialed in, so Winston gets his payday no matter what. (I don’t know if signing bonuses and such fall under the CBA.) But, and this is the biggie, product endorsements are where the Big Money is and for him to rake in an amount commensurate with a #1 draft pick who’s also a QB–basically the bestest, most marketable combination that the NFL can dish up–he needs to gather his merde, pronto. Literally tens of millions of dollars are in play if he can.

    He sure sounds like a tool from my far-away perch, and I do believe he skated from a rape charge solely by the good graces of an obfuscatory university and inept local law enforcement, but even a tool gets a chance at redemption (especially if he drags the team above .500).

  55. 55.

    boatboy_srq

    @Southern Beale: Capital cops aren’t “dumb” so much as undervalued and underpaid, and tasked with protecting scum who are where they are because they persuaded enough of their constituents to send them to Washington (FSM knows we gripe about them enough and we don’t see them every day Congress is in session). That’s got to wear you down. I don’t remember where I saw the stats, but the number on that force who are also on some kind of public assistance is considerable. And unlike the Secret Service, which at least has the glamour of “protecting the President” to fall back on, the only time they get noticed is at moments like this. Most likely the guns did get dropped; but you can see how getting to play hero – or getting to watch a Congress too interested in buying F-35s to pay them a living wage get scared into valuing them – would have appeal.

  56. 56.

    Original Lee

    Completely OT, but I think I’ve been reading too many tabloids. When I see Secretary Clinton referred to as HRC, I keep mentally translating it to Her Royal Clintoness.

  57. 57.

    lahru

    I have lived in and around Burlington, VT for 30 years and have watched Bernie’s rise.

    He’s as good at politics as Ben or Jerry are at ice cream.

  60. 60.

    Peale

    @Mandalay: As he knows full well, Trayvon Martin had nothing to do with “big pockets of poverty”. Nor actually did Fergusson. Not everywhere black people are is a big urban ghetto or sharecropper central.

  61. 61.

    The Dangerman

    The shocking thing about Winston (yes, I’m piling on here) is we’ve seen his act recently; he’s Jay Cutler. Million Dollar arm and nothing between the ears. That someone can have that much talent and be that dumb (thus, worthless) is almost shocking.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Original Lee:

    All of the Royal Baby coverage is probably getting to you. It seems like the media is more excited about this one than they were about George. That poor kid is chopped liver now as far as the tabloids are concerned, and he’s under three years old.

  64. 64.

    The Pale Scot

    @Betty Cracker: Over at my sister’s in NJ she has a menagerie of critters that come up to her sliding door. When we use to visit with Himself he’d sit at the door getting so agitated I could see the heat rising off his head. SO many mammals and birds, not like FL at all. And Oh God the squirrels, he’d spend the week stomping up and down the street looking up in the trees.

  65. 65.

    srv

    LAS VEGAS (AP) — Blues legend B.B. King is telling fans he’s in hospice care at home in Las Vegas.

    The 89-year-old musician posted thanks to fans on his official website Friday for well-wishes and prayers.

    Las Vegas police Officer Jesse Roybal says an ambulance was summoned Thursday to King’s address and a person was hospitalized following what was characterized as a dispute over medical care.

  66. 66.

    JPL

    @The Dangerman: In her post Betty mentioned
    But Winston isn’t stupid. He got into Stanford before he chose a full-ride scholarship to FSU. He’s not dumb, but he is a gridiron princeling who has been told all his life that he’s more important than anyone else and entitled to anything he wants because he’s good at tossing a ball.

  70. 70.

    trollhattan

    @skerry:
    He’s one entertainer I love unreservedly and have never known a world without BB. Good journeys, Riley King.

  71. 71.

    FlipYrWhig

    I feel like Winston’s issue is going to be that he gets too fat to play QB well. He doesn’t seem dim like Manziel or, really, particularly cocky (like Cutler?). He just seems mushy-bodied.

  72. 72.

    boatboy_srq

    @kindness: Funny if Cotton were still a private citizen. He’s a Senator (FSM help us). That makes it something far darker.

  74. 74.

    Tree With Water

    The next trial of the century?

    “While the statute of limitations has expired for most Cosby accusers, Bernard was allegedly assaulted in New Jersey, which has no statute of limitations for rape. Yesterday, Bernard and Allred reported the crime at a police station in Atlantic city, with hopes that Cosby will finally be prosecuted. “Unlike most other states, New Jersey has no statue of limitations for rape,” said Allred. “Which means that law enforcement is not prevented from prosecuting a case because of an arbitrary time period set by law.”

    Gloria Allred, hardee har har.. still, it sounds like it might spell trouble for Cosby. And that would be fine with me.

  76. 76.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: Yeah, I think he’s a smart guy — he can read a defense, etc. He’s just an entitled asshole, so he does dumb things.

    @FlipYrWhig: People have been saying that based on his draft day photos, but he looked fit as hell during combines.

  81. 81.

    MazeDancer

    Maybe it’s time to find something else to do with my fall and winter Sunday afternoons.

    You are a wonderful writer and a joy to read, Ms. Cracker. But it’s possible, in a few years, the brain damage evidence of football’s toll will make you consider other afternoon activities. Which I will look forward to hearing in your stylish words.

    Little bitty boys take their tiny brains out and risk them every season because it’s fun and cool and part of their town’s culture and people cheer their risking their little growing heads and spines.

    Goodness knows, as a child, I did plenty of crazy and dim stuff to try and be the coolest, with my parents driving me on to “be a winner” instead of “listen to your heart” or “find out who you are”.

    People love football. It’s their lives, it’s their whole town’s lives, it’s their joy and their social life. But this wonderful blog continues to confuse me. Because climate change deniers are considered crazy. But ignoring the evidence about what football does to young men is considered the sane thing to do. Because football.

    And anyone who brings up any kind of Ta-Nehisi Coates POV gets pummeled. Because football. And football threads get posted often. But the raft of NY Times – or any publication – articles outlining exactly how football is destroying brains are not a parallel communal experience. A NY Times article about some political something is considered a big deal. But ignore that brain jello stuff. Because football.

    All I could think about during the draft was – young men getting millions to destroy their bodies, their brains, their health, their future.

    You should spend your time exactly how you feel good about it, Betty Cracker – football, lizards, backyard tiki huts – whatever you please. And keep using your excellent skills to tell us all about that.

  85. 85.

    bemused

    Steve Kornacki is filling in for Chris Matthews and he is going to discuss Bridgegate coming up.

  86. 86.

    Howard Beale IV

    I see Alan Dershowitz crawled out from wherever bog he hides in and now proclaims the Baltimore cops can’t get a fair trial.

    Hey Alan-go defend them if you believe that. Otherwise, STFU and keep praising how smart Ted Cruz was.

  87. 87.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Open thread gripe:

    About a half hour ago we were looking out our front window and saw a gray-haired gentleman standing on the sidewalk in front of our house. We watched as he bent over and started pulling flowers out of our property. I went outside, and I guess the sound of my door closing made him take off. By the time I was outside he was down the street.

    Just last week we saw a gray-haired lady doing the same thing. I’m guessing they’re husband and wife.

    Is there any decency left? I feel like a sucker for all the money we spent at the garden center. Why not just pull them out of my neighbors’ yards?

    My wife’s mother had a similar experience a few years ago. Someone dug up a flower bush in front of her house. She knows who did it, because it magically appeared in front a house a few doors away from her.

    WTF?

  90. 90.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Tree With Water:

    Cosby is performing in metro Atlanta tomorrow night.

    Protests are planned, and Allred is likely to attend.

    I wish I could like her better: she often (not always!) represents women who deserve her bulldog tenacity, but I have always found her such an attention whore* that it can put me off her message.

    *Yes, I do realize “whore” is itself an unseemly, sexist term, and by using it I have jeopardized, if not negated, all my feminist bona fides. Tough titties, I’m not dealing with that tonight.

  91. 91.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Mike E: I feel like it’s a “manifest destiny” sort of mentality.

    “Oh, I like that.” [yoink] “It’s mine now.”

  92. 92.

    Howard Beale IV

    @MazeDancer:

    But it’s possible, in a few years, the brain damage evidence of football’s toll will make you consider other afternoon activities. Which I will look forward to hearing in your stylish words.

    Something’s changed in the NFL between the 1970’s and today. We’re seeing more deaths of NFL’ers from brain damages in the later years than from the 1970’s thru the late 1980’s.

  96. 96.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @JPL: These were people in their late ’60s/early ’70s. They should know better.

  98. 98.

    Howard Beale IV

    @The Pale Scot: OK, I’ll bite-is that a Westie or a light coloured Scottie? Looks like a White Scottie to me, based on the long-ass muzzle.

  99. 99.

    Tree With Water

    @Howard Beale IV: I believe that something you can’t quite put a finger on is often referred to as “the magic of medicine”. That, and with each passing decade since the 1970’s, the NFL has steadily culled ever speedier, larger, and all-round better athletes on draft day. It’s a lethal combination.

  100. 100.

    Peale

    @Germy Shoemangler: lol. Not to pick on the elders too much, but I’ve noticed these past few years that the people who talk during movies and need to be told to stay off their phones in the theater are the olds. I think it’s that culture of “I don’t have time left to not babble to my wife.” I think it’s the lead paint they ate as kids. Keeps em impulsive through their golden years.

  101. 101.

    Mandalay

    @jl:

    Something wrong with Sanders’ internet pages.

    I donated with no problem. His site has been updated since my original post.

    ***** SANDERS 2016!!! *****
    ***** SANDERS 2016!!! *****
    ***** SANDERS 2016!!! *****
    ***** SANDERS 2016!!! *****
    ***** SANDERS 2016!!! *****

  102. 102.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Tree With Water: I’m not quite buying into that, for the reason that I think what happened is that over the years the materials science guys made significant breakthroughs in equipment, gear, et. al, which reduced the number of career-ending injuries on-field but was unable to mitigate injuries to the brain as we understood them at the time.

  103. 103.

    Mandalay

    Juan Williams just now on fair and balanced FoxNews:

    Just how big a role has the breakdown in black families played in Baltimore?

    Talk about blaming the victim. If you made this up nobody would believe it.

    Of all the odious shitslime on that channel, he is the absolute worst for me. Even worse than Krauthammer and Hannity. Just a despicable human being who has sold his soul and self-respect for the mighty dollar.

  107. 107.

    Corner Stone

    Personally, I think it is completely plausible that Freddie self-injured himself. Not so much as a troubled youth but more as an aficionado of old school rap.
    Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check
    “Woo-Hah
    got you all in check
    I got that head nod shit
    make you break your neck
    Woo-Hah”

  109. 109.

    Peale

    @Mandalay: considering how long the African American family has been broken and babies having babies for t-Bone bucks and whatnot, Williams should ask why riots aren’t more frequent and don’t seem to last that long.

  111. 111.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Peale: Since you seem connected to Far East cinema: any word if/when Attack On Titan will make it stateside? I see I see they got AU/NZ dates planned.

  112. 112.

    Mandalay

    @schrodinger’s cat: Even if you accept that Brooks believes all that stuff, and his heart is in the right place, how can he lack the self-awareness to realize that this is simply not the appropriate time to vocalize his one-eyed pearl clutching? The tone deafness is deafening.

    But while his column sucked, some of the reader comments were awesome…

    What a fantastic column. Your ability to ignore the impact of systemic racism and systemic inequality is truly outstanding.

  114. 114.

    The Pale Scot

    @Howard Beale IV: He was long eared, extended body wheaten Scottish Terrier. Ergo, A Pale Scot. Weighed in at 27 lbs no fat. about 5 lbs over spec.

    Edit: Ya Scotties have a bigger head and are more muscular.

  115. 115.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Peale:

    Not to pick on the elders too much, but I’ve noticed these past few years that the people who talk during movies and need to be told to stay off their phones in the theater are the olds. I think it’s that culture of “I don’t have time left to not babble to my wife.” I think it’s the lead paint they ate as kids. Keeps em impulsive through their golden years.

    Now that you mention it, I’ve noticed that from the oldsters! The talking in the movie theater, the impulsivity, the bad behavior. It’s like a science fiction movie: spoiled teenaged aliens from Ganymede are invading the bodies of senior citizens…

  116. 116.

    Howard Beale IV

    @The Pale Scot: My mother was fortunate to have run across at the local humane society a just-under 1-year old Scotty who had gone from the east coast to the west coast and landed in the midwest when she adopted her.

    One of the best dogs she’s ever had. She’s all muscle and has a serious set of choppers on her. And boy can she let out a howl when she wants in. Next time when I go up to visit I’ll have to record her when I come in the door-she lets out a rather undescribable sound that I interpret as “where have you been?”

  117. 117.

    The Pale Scot

    @Howard Beale IV: The little girl I grew up with could pop a tennis ball in under a minute. They do have a sense of fair play that I don’t always see in other breeds. They give you a blank “Really? why the fuck did you do that?” look.

  120. 120.

    Peale

    @Howard Beale IV: I’m not sure. Don’t know why it’s taking so long to find a date. but then I never understand the international release process. if not August then who knows?

  122. 122.

    Howard Beale IV

    @efgoldman: It’s not the people’s minds are being bent; it’s that people aren’t aware that they are being conditioned-worse still, they aren’t aware of their own stupidity.

  123. 123.

    Peale

    @Howard Beale IV: and? There’s lots of people who are accused of notorious crimes who have to stand trial who don’t have the police union’s access to a press willing to print their side of the story.

  124. 124.

    gian

    @Peale:
    If they can get the same jury who walked the Fullerton cops who beat Kelly Thomas to death they’ll walk.
    The good news is those jurors are in California.

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