Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Democrats are back in array!

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

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

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

Let there be snark.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Pursuit of Happiness (Open Thread)

Pursuit of Happiness (Open Thread)

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bb8-cat

There’s been a lot of doom and gloom around here recently, and with good reason. But not everything sucks. Has anything good happened in your life lately?

I got a little BB-8 droid for Christmas, and I’ve had fun pestering the dogs with it. Mine is controlled by an app rather than cat-powered like the one in the photo above.

Got any plans for New Year’s?

We’re staying home on New Year’s Eve as usual, but the next day, I’m going camping and boating on the Suwannee River, where it’s supposed to be pretty chilly this weekend. I will be near relatives’ homes so I can catch the important football games — best of both worlds, which doesn’t suck.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  1. 1.

    Corner Stone

    Has anything good happened in your life lately?

    Not really in my life, percy, but the firing of Chip Kelly is a tiny ray of sunshine for pro football. Now if only we can get Bill O’Brien to join him back in the NCAA DIV-I.

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    Has anything good happened in your life lately?

    Found out recently that my dad’s previous lung cancer had not migrated into being brain cancer, so there’s that.

  3. 3.

    EconWatcher

    My five-year old son loves to ask hypothetical questions.

    Recently, he posed a hypothetical that combined two of his main interests. He asked, “What if Harry Potter was an Angry Bird?”

    I have been struggling to come up with an answer, but it’s like one of those questions you can pose to cause a computer to overload and melt down….

  4. 4.

    JPL

    @Corner Stone: You’d have a better chance of a new coach, if your team didn’t make the playoffs. You might have to wait awhile, to have that wish fulfilled. Sorry about your dad.

    X-mas, I purchased the dog I was caring for this ball..link Aoshi is seventy-five pounds…
    He was afraid of it. My seventeen pound mutt growled and wanted to kill it, so it went home with the seven pound maltese. She loves it.

  5. 5.

    DCrefugee

    The money for some forgotten work I did early in 2015 came my way, plus I have plans for additional work in the coming year that I didn’t have in 2015. Then I discovered another project, which I thought had fallen through, is still alive. And I had a great time with my kids over Xmas.

    So, yeah, it’s all been fairly good lately…

  9. 9.

    Rashi

    Just heard Pataki dropped out of the race. I’m devastated. Need time to grieve. The dream is over, my friends. The dream is over.

  12. 12.

    Bill

    Good Stuff: My 17 year old son has made a college decision. University of Kansas is gaining a bright, funny, lanky freshman next year!

  13. 13.

    RSA

    Has anything good happened in your life lately?

    I spent a few days with family, including nine nieces and nephews ranging in age from 12 years down to 14 months.

  14. 14.

    Gin & Tonic

    Has anything good happened in your life lately?

    My grand-daughter has been visiting us. She is the cutest baby in the world, so it’s been great, not just good. Unfortunately she leaves tomorrow.

  16. 16.

    Corner Stone

    @JPL: We still have to take care of business this weekend at JAX. I’m actually a little happy the Bengals didn’t lock us in for AFC South. This way we can earn a tough win to put ourselves in the playoffs and have some Big Mo. Of course, if we choke it off and miss out that will be pretty bitter. But maybe that would be the catalyst to seeing Bill O go? So. Many. Questions!

    And it’s actually good news the way I see it for my dad. Being a lung cancer survivor we were worried about some things recently. So when the test showed no brain cancer and no frontal damage it was like dodging russian rool-ette on the third trigger pull.

  17. 17.

    slag

    Almost all good things have been going on in my life. I’d say the big disappointments have been in the fact that the improvements America has experienced in the last several years have not been distributed equally or fairly across the globe. Which can pretty much be summed up in my new slogan:

    Dear Humanity,
    We can do better.

  19. 19.

    Corner Stone

    @Bill: Congrats on the college. But I have to ask, what selling points does U of Kansas present that he made that choice, if as you say a decision was made between options?

  22. 22.

    JustRuss

    Good stuff: Oregon ski resorts actually have snow this year, and I’ll be sliding down some of it on Sunday.

  23. 23.

    thruppence

    I learned last night that the house in which I rent a room in Silicon Valley is going to be sold. I’m back in the housing market where the Craigslist room rental advertisers seem to prefer that their prospective tenants be all the things I’m not – young, female, tech professionals, etc… fun times ahead.

  25. 25.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @RSA: That’s a bunch of nieces and nephews of varying ages.

    I thought of you as I got flustered making some (easy) numbers work and used the wrong word a few of times recently. I was grateful that it was my biggest cognition difficulty that day.

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    I have a huge cold that has just knocked me out. I still have to come in to work for some important projects, but the New Year will see me staying home, watching a couple of movies, catching up on some light reading.

    For those interested, I ran across a great guide to the Syfy channel Twilight Zone marathon.

  28. 28.

    kindness

    Saw the new Star Wars yesterday. Entertaining. Better than all the prequils (thank the FSM). Not as good as the first two. My take is it was a great way to restart the need for new movies in that franchise. Nice story but really it was obviously an opening gambit more than a stand alone movie. Fun though.

    Who wants spoilers?

  31. 31.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Brachiator: These parts here, there’s a monster cold going around. Knocked me down for two whole weeks. Now my cat has it and he’s seeing why I was so grumpy.

  32. 32.

    bystander

    The best thing lately is that a friend suffering from lung cancer is genetically suited for a brand new drug coming on the market.

    My flip side on that is every time I think, what if the money Jr squandered on destroying Iraq had been spent on cancer research, education, infrastructure.

    Edited to add: I was forced to see The View when Bernie Sanders was on today. They all embarrassed themselves. Paula Faris immediately said, “Now you’re a Socialist…how will we ever pay for your profligacy?” When he tried to give a reasoned answer and to talk about why he was on the crappy show in the first place, Goldberg cut him off to ask why there was no money left in Social Security lockbox. Dumber and dumbererer.

  34. 34.

    Corner Stone

    @bystander:

    My flip side on that is every time I think, what if the money Jr squandered on destroying Iraq had been spent on cancer research, education, infrastructure.

    Never happen. They just would’ve found a different way to transfer all that wealth to the already extremely wealthy.

  35. 35.

    Germy

    Every year or so I see another article in some science magazine or another hinting that a cancer cure might just be around the next corner because of gene splicing/manipulation.

    Cancer killed one of my parents and almost killed a sibling; I wish a real cure could be found. And I don’t mean cutting/radiation/chemo.

  36. 36.

    gene108

    I called into work this morning stating I planned on taking the day off, as this is a slow week before things week into gear next week.

    Co-worker asked me to come in for a little bit because he needed help with something.

    In my foggy state of dragging myself to work, I just noticed i grabbed mismatching shoes. My left shoe is a dark blue and my right shoe is black.

    I can’t remember ever leaving the house with mismatched shoes before.

  37. 37.

    donnah

    I finally took possession of my beautiful ’53 Pontiac Chieftain. I’ve been paying her off for eight months, so getting her just before Christmas was a real gift. To myself!

  40. 40.

    bemused

    I’m researching Epson Workforce printers Our HP all in one is crap, prints super slow and now scanner has punked out. I don’t have many big box store options to check out when shopping today, no Best Buy, etc but hopefully Target will have something to look at.

  43. 43.

    rdldot

    @Brachiator: Cool. Thanks. I will catch that marathon – at least when I’m not watching the Breaking Bad reruns on Sundance tonight. Love that show…

  44. 44.

    gogol's wife

    I have the greatest husband in the world, wonderful friends and family. Amazing cute cats who never cease to amuse me.

    And a yucky virus that keeps me up coughing all night and the doc just said will last 10 days. Oh well. I don’t like going out for New Year’s Eve anyway.

  47. 47.

    NorthLeft12

    I am not sure what people expect of life when I keep hearing about what a horrible year it has been, especially from those close to me. My sister has always called me the family optimist, as my family skews a little to the dark side [it’s an ongoing joke between my wife and I].

    I guess I have always looked forward, and though we have lost some very close friends and family [my wife’s mother specifically] I look at the relationships renewed or created [my grandson, a troubled nephew, and cousins who I have not been close to for thirty years], places and people seen and visited, overall health and well being of those closest to me and tend to think it has been a good year.

    Focusing on the negative of 2015 is a dead end in my mind. I know I’ll probably be losing other close relatives in the coming years, as I am fifty-eight, and my Dad, Father-in-law, Aunts, Uncles, even cousins, are getting old and shit happens. I don’t see anything to gain by dwelling on that, but rather making their times with me memorable and enjoyable.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    @gene108: That happened to me once — same type of shoe, but one black and one dark brown. My coworkers jeered at me all day.

    @donnah: That is so fabulous!

    @Germy: I did, and it’s hilarious. I think “Cat raised by coyotes saves doberman raised by different coyotes” is my favorite.

  51. 51.

    bemused

    @gene108:

    I’ve heard from friends that Epsons are more reliable. Looking at workforce 2650 or 3640. Best Buy has sales on those two right now but an hour or so away.

  54. 54.

    Bill

    @Corner Stone: KU hit a bunch of his markers. Good school, right distance from home, right size, and basketball. He was really impressed when we visited, and they have pursued him pretty aggressively. If you’ve ever been to Lawrence the campus is truly spectacular. It’s just a beautiful setting to go to school.

  55. 55.

    Marc

    Getting Miri was something good – for both of us. It will be twenty weeks since she had her kittens, and I still have three running about. Tigger is nearly as big as Miri, Flynn is a clever one, and Sylk lives up to her name. Needless to say, the pitter patter of little cat feet in the condo is more of a low rumble…

  57. 57.

    gelfling545

    Working on the “fond” for my onion soup. It takes about 4 hours. Fortunately I already have the broth frozen. My sister& her husband are coming to dinner tomorrow evening & the menu is soupe a l’oignon & potato pancakes. Yes, it’s a bit odd but she likes it and her birthday is on Friday so she gets to pick. I may see Star Wars tonight. If not tonight, Sunday afternoon.

  59. 59.

    Wiesman

    I believe the correct headline for this post should have been “PURRsuit of happiness”; get it together, Balloon Juice.

  61. 61.

    Germy

    @catclub: CRISPR sounds promising and it made me optimistic, but I honestly don’t know if this translates to anything we can see at our local hospitals any time soon.

  62. 62.

    Roger Moore

    Got any plans for New Year’s?

    My normal New Year’s Eve plan is to walk the Rose Parade route from end to beginning that evening. It’s great fun because people are allowed to start camping along the route starting at noon on New Year’s Eve, so it’s a 5+ mile long party. If I time it right, I’ll get to the start of the route around midnight, by which point they have most of the floats lined up along the stretch before the start of the parade. There are big lights out so people can look at the floats that night, which is lots of fun. Then I’ll take the Gold Line most of the way home, walk the rest of the way, and crash.

  63. 63.

    donnah

    @Germy:

    It does take unleaded, but she only gets ten miles to the gallon!

    I’m still learning how to drive the car, because she doesn’t have power brakes or power steering. But honestly, she’s a real attention-getter. I won’t drive her much because she’s a collector car, but I do want to drive her to rallies and shows for fun.

  65. 65.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @gene108:
    @Betty Cracker:

    I went to work one day in a mismatched suit. Perils of keeping skirts on a multiple skirt hanger and jackets separate. I got to the office to discover the jacket was dark navy and the skirt black. Just the look to convey competence in the courtroom.

    I persuaded my dear friend and colleague, still colloquially known in that crowd as my twin, to swap me her black jacket as she had on a dress with a blazer; the navy worked as well in that combo. They only tease me occasionally about 20something years later.

  70. 70.

    MomSense

    @Lamh36:

    Just watched earlier today. Amazing. Tears and cheers. So good. I loved Janelle Monae, too. And Yo Yo Ma was outstanding.

  72. 72.

    ruemara

    I got a nice bonus for my role in keeping the business afloat. And there’s 2 dogs and a cat in the office. Things are moving toward a good; it’s just the rest of.the world bringing me down.
    Still haven’t seen Star Wars. All my movie attending friends are gone, and I’m struggling with the idea of asking anyone new to me out to the movies. I’m not doing too great with developing friends and I’m really sick of being alone all the time. I probably won’t see anything until my friends suggest something. Which means I also have no NYE or New Year’s plans.

    Kinda thought it would be easier by now, but nope. Trunk still full of baggage.

  74. 74.

    sharl

    @donnah: I’ve been meaning to ask you if there is a gallery* in the Dayton area that exhibits your work (*whether owned by you or not). If there is, I would include it on my schedule for future visits to family.

  75. 75.

    henqiguai

    @Bill (#12):

    My 17 year old son has made a college decision. University of Kansas

    So, staying away from a study of any of the life sciences, eh?

  76. 76.

    JustRuss

    @gene108:

    I can’t remember ever leaving the house with mismatched shoes before.

    It’s New Years Eve eve. As long as you remembered your pants, you’re good.

  78. 78.

    maurinsky

    I had a pretty awesome 2015 on a personal level. I graduated from college (28 years after I started and life pulled me off track), I got a promotion at work, sent my youngest off to college, got married to the most wonderful man, my son-in-law found a post-doc job and ended the year by finding out my oldest daughter is going to have a baby next July (I’m not going to be grandma, though, I’m going to be Mimsy).

    There will be less excitement this year, but I have so much to look forward to!

  80. 80.

    PurpleGirl

    Don’t have plans for NYE or NY day. I’m happy/content as long as a new problem doesn’t pop up.

    ETA: Various chronic health problems seemed to have stablized and haven’t gotten worse.

  81. 81.

    The Pale Scot

    @Bill: Tell him to be careful, the Gestapo is alive and well in Kansas.

    Digby:

    He found the police did everything right. They tracked people who were shopping at a gardening store for things that are commonly used to grow vegetables. Then they found some wet loose tea leaves in their garbage and rather than using a legitimate test to see if it was some kind of illegal substance they relied on a dubious method which returned an invalid result. Then they raided an innocent family’s home and terrorized the them.

    All of this was absolutely fine. No harm done.

  82. 82.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    @Rashi:

    Just heard Pataki dropped out of the race. I’m devastated. Need time to grieve. The dream is over, my friends. The dream is over.

    Indeed. We all feel your pain Rashi.

  84. 84.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Germy: There was an interesting Morning Edition story a couple of days ago about using bacterial infections to cure cancer. It’s an old idea that is getting more attention.

    As a student, Coley had read Charles Darwin, and one of the lessons he took away from Darwin, Hall says, was to always pay attention when there’s a biological exception to the rule. “To ask yourself: Why this has happened?”

    Coley discovered one of these biological exceptions. It was the case of a German immigrant named Fred Stein. Stein had been a patient in New York Hospital eight years earlier. He had a tumor on his neck that doctors tried to remove several times. Unfortunately for Stein, the tumor kept coming back and doctors expected him to die from the disease.

    Then Stein contracted a serious infection of the skin caused by the strep bacteria. “It looked like Stein’s days were numbered,” Levine says. But Stein didn’t die. In fact, his tumor disappeared, and he was discharged. Coley wondered if all these years later, Stein could still be alive.

    So in the winter of 1891, William Coley the surgeon became William Coley the detective. He headed for the tenements of the Lower East Side of Manhattan where the German immigrant community lived. He knocked on door after door asking for a man named Fred Stein who had a distinctive scar across his neck. After several weeks of searching, Coley found him alive and cancer-free.

    There’s a huge amount of stuff that we still don’t know about our bodies. We could probably spend $250B a year on new research and still have 100 years of work ahead of us…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    @maurinsky: Wow. Great to hear of your 2015. 2016 is setting up well too. Whatever you end up being called.

    I like BCracker’s photo of a cat in a bubble. Cat’s down with it. Makes me smile.

  86. 86.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @raven: That is halfway decent news – certainly what I was hoping for, as the alternative was painful and grim.

  89. 89.

    Doug R

    Woken up at 11:39 last night by an earthquake about 50 miles away. Usgs says 4.8, the Canadians say 4.3.

  90. 90.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @donnah: Stylin’!

    My dad had a ’55 Bel Air for almost 40 years. He loved that thing. It was “fun” for us as kids, driving back from Amicalola Falls State Park in the summer with him zooming around the twisty roads like it was a sports car… =:-)

    Enjoy!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    @Roger Moore: Walking the Rose Parade floats route is the best NYE plan I’ve ever heard of.

    Goes on the bucket list for the first opportunity to do it.

  92. 92.

    donnah

    @sharl:

    Thanks, Sharl! I used to have some of my hooked rugs at Gallery 510 downtown, but the owner consolidated her space and I took them out. Mostly I take them with me when I teach, to use as models. Thanks for asking!

  93. 93.

    Mike E

    Just hit my 6 mos on the job, so I’m official (+6 days vac!)…I celebrated by adding my daughter to the health plan so she can look forward to 5+years of coverage, should she opt for that.

  96. 96.

    Anoniminous

    It is doubtful “a cure,” as commonly conceived, for cancer will be found since it’s a pretty good bet there’s no such thing as “a cancer.” But Biology is still in its infancy and we are uncovering previously unknown yet fundamental processes every five years or so. It is conceivable an Epigenetic cure to turn-off the molecular biology of cancer exists, it’s even likely (?) since spontaneous cures for cancer happens and I, for one, don’t believe in magic.

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    @Elizabelle:

    Walking the Rose Parade floats route is the best NYE plan I’ve ever heard of.

    The only problem is that the route I’m taking is about 10 miles round-trip walking, so it’s not necessarily a great trip for everyone.

  102. 102.

    WereBear

    What’s good? My health is better than it was at this time last year, which was better than the year before that. Good to remember. Likewise, DH and his chronic illness. My boss said he likes the way I’m doing my 2 jobs… and that they are trying to hire someone so they can take one away.

    Going out NYE to listen to a Beatles tribute band. They do all three Epochs: Moptops, Sgt Pepper, and Abbey Road. It’s also work, so I will be taking pics, too.

    And no one I know and love in meat space is currently melting down. I’ll take it.

  103. 103.

    Bill

    @FlipYrWhig: He wants to teach. History most likely, but possible political science. There will undoubtedly be literature in his liberal arts education.

  107. 107.

    Snarkworth

    Has anything good happened in your life lately?

    A publisher requested my full manuscript. That’s a good thing.

  109. 109.

    Yutsano

    @Bill: GO JAYHAWKS!!! Tell him to participate in as much stuff as possible and make sure he has fun as well as studying hard!

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