Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The revolution will be supervised.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

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

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Second rate reporter says what?

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

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

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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Late Night “Funky As Hell” Open Thread

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Bonnie Raitt was my first concert at Red Rocks…amazing night…if you ever get the chance to go to Red Rocks for a concert, I highly recommend it.

Tonight, I signed up to caucus. I’ve never done it before. I was an independent for eeevah, but then Barack happened and I changed my affiliation, but not in time to be part of the primaries. This will be my first time participating and I’m kind of excited.

This is your late night, funky as hell open thread.

UPDATED: In case you missed this, I hope it ends your weekend on a great note. Imagine what this beautiful woman has seen in her lifetime:

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    Tamara, I went in and fixed the scheduling issue. WordPress failed to post this when you scheduled it. I’ve had it happen several times to me over the past three weeks or so. Just wanted to let you know what I did and why. I’ll email Alain and let him know of the issue and that its happening for more folks than just me.

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Tamara, congrats on participating in the process. Caucus proudly for your preferred candidate – whoever s/he might be.

  6. 6.

    Nate Dawg

    A thunderstorm in February. Full on lightning and thunder.

    If only James Inhofe would get struck by lightning, we might be able to do something about global warming.

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TaMara (BHF): No worries. I’ve emailed Alain and will let you know when I hear back from him. Most likely tomorrow (or later tomorrow here on the east coast).

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    Poor G is freaking out about a 500-word essay that he needs to turn in by midnight (2-1/2 hours from now). He did not appreciate my reminder that, in American English, commas go inside the quotation marks.

  14. 14.

    TaMara (BHF)

    I updated the post with the absolutely joyful video of 106 year old Virginia McLaurin visiting the White House. I was wiping away tears, but I am a bit tired.

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: Seriously. 500 words ain’t no thing.

    I am kinda approaching political burnout. I can’t decide for whom to vote, and the other side doesn’t even make me angry anymore. Just saaaaad.

    I’m going to Rome and Athens in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to getting the hell away from hearing about the dumb shit Republicans do.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    @Suzanne:

    I’m going to Rome and Athens in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to getting the hell away from hearing about the dumb shit Republicans do.

    Then I assume you don’t mean Rome and Athens GEORGIA, but rather the Europe ones! :)

    I hear ya about political burnout. I vacillate between fascination to repulsion hourly. Hubby and I were away for a mini-vacation since Friday and mostly off the grid until today. I didn’t miss following the primary news closely, but we did celebrate the implosion of the Bush dynasty.

  23. 23.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Suzanne:

    I’m going to Rome and Athens in a couple of weeks.

    I always wanted to go there, and maybe Istanbul. Maybe in another lifetime, sigh.

  25. 25.

    Nate Dawg

    Is it fair to say that it’s okay to skip the Dem primary and stop Marcomentum by participating in the Republican primary now?

    Seriously thinking about voting for Trump here, because Cruz is the overall favorite, and I’d like to throw a wrench in the whole damn thing. Or maybe Cruz would be better…Decisions, decisions.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He already has more than 300. It’s the freakout that’s standing in his way, not writing ability. Turns out that going back to graduate school 20+ years after undergrad is kinda freaky.

  28. 28.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    He already has more than 300. It’s the freakout that’s standing in his way, not writing ability.

    500 words. Should be a piece of cake. What’s the topic?

  29. 29.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: Unless personal circumstances forbid it, a drink, a strong one but just the one, can overcome that kind of jitters.

    ETA: I am currently drinking diet ginger ale.

  30. 30.

    Suzanne

    @Betty Cracker: Yes, the Europe ones. Taking my girls. Super-excited.

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Istanbul is the place I want to go more than any other. We were going to do Istanbul instead of Rome, but there’s too much crazy in Turkey right now, and Mr. Suzanne has never been to Italy, despite being of Italian descent. I have been to Rome, but never to Athens. Very excited to nerd out, architecturally.

    I am just sick of all the Berniebots vs. Hillbots infighting, I am sick of the attitude of superiority, I am sick of Applejinx. Like, who cares which one wins? Let’s just beat whichever clown they nominate and move on.

  31. 31.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    It’s a book report. He’s already almost done, but I had to listen to half an hour of freaking out about how going back to grad school was a huge mistake before he sat down to do it. Sigh.

  39. 39.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mnemosyne:
    Tsk, tsk. The American practice of putting extraneous punctuation inside the quote marks risks confusing the reader. Commas and fullstops should go inside the quote marks only if they are actually part of the quotation.

    See? At Balloon Juice, we can argue about things other than Bernie vs. Hillary.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    Yeah, it’s pretty much the 100 percent normal freakout that he was warned would happen even before he started the program. Not much either of us can do but slog through it. As I keep telling him, he’s trying to learn how to take online classes, how to be a graduate student, AND learn new information all at the same time, so of course he’s feeling overwhelmed.

    He’s also still annoyed that he “only” got a 5.5 out of 6 on his GRE essays, so there’s some perfectionism at work here.

  45. 45.

    Nate Dawg

    @Omnes Omnibus: Jeez, nothing worse than having to explain a joke. He said your claiming to be a lawyer was an inconsistency which proved you were a CIA spook or something. I was teasing, referring to that.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    @Nate Dawg:

    Is mclaren starting that CIA spook thing again? My husband and three cats were very amused to find out that someone online thinks that I’m a 19-year-old male spook working for the CIA instead of the middle-aged female secretary I appear to be.

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne

    @Amir Khalid:

    Look, which one of us has been nicknamed “the Comma-kazi” at work for her comprehensive knowledge of all things comma?

    I rest my case.

  51. 51.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mnemosyne: No, no, you’ve gotta get mclaren’s hallucinations correct, you’re not in the CIA, you and Omnes work in the basement of the Pentagon(probably DIA).

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Nate Dawg: It was easier for me in law school being older. I had been an army officer; there were situations where, if I fucked up, people died. It put exams in perspective.

    ETA: The other joke was from too long ago. Sorry. I tend to flush mclaren’s comments within a few minutes.

  54. 54.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Omnes Omnibus: I wish I hadn’t gone straight from undergrad to grad school.

    ETA: This came up last Monday when the kid was visiting, she was thinking about getting her Masters, but decided to put if off for a bit.

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Only one of my brothers went into the service, and he was in the Marines, so I don’t know this stuff. My dad was briefly in the Army, hated every second of it, and never even left the continental US, so he never talked about it.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    Complete bullshit that goes against 150 years of American publishing practice and common usage. And what is “extraneous” punctuation, as opposed to regular punctuation?

  74. 74.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Steeplejack: Of course it is, but I expect Malaysia got some of its English writing and spelling habits from when it was part of the British Empire. And, like spelling in Canada, the habits did not disappear upon its liberation.

    @Steeplejack: And more importantly, thanks for that great song.

  75. 75.

    Amir Khalid

    @Steeplejack:
    I mean extraneous to the quote.And I should point out that British punctuation and spelling is standard in Commonwealth nations other than Canada (unfortunately corrupted by you Americans), which make up most of the English-speaking world.

  79. 79.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    I’m off, and besides that, I’m calling it a night.

    I’ll be here through Thursday, with Tuesday matinee. Tip your servers please.

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack

    @Suzanne:

    My mother traveled all around the world with my father in the Air Force. When I was in Las Vegas last fall, she happened to mention that the one place she always wanted to go back to for a longer visit was Istanbul. “I saw all that color, the gold, the brass, the red, the intricate patterns, and I thought, ‘These are my people!’” It was hilarious because she doesn’t usually use idioms like that.

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: Personally, I think it does make more sense to put the punctuation outside the quotation marks. But here it has to be within except under very narrow circumstances. Maybe there should be an English-speaking nations treaty so we can all get on the same page. We’ll do our punctuation outside the quotes if y’all will lose the extraneous “u” in behaviour, flavour, colour, etc. Surely we could work something out.

  84. 84.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Betty Cracker:

    Maybe there should be an English-speaking nations treaty so we can all get on the same page.

    Never happen; we’re Americans and we’re Exceptional!

  87. 87.

    Amir Khalid

    @Betty Cracker:

    if y’all will lose the extraneous “u” in behaviour, flavour, colour, etc.

    Cold dead fingers, et cetera …
    Part of the problem, as I recall, is that post-independence America wanted to be all different from the British, and have its own spelling and punctuation rules. There’s at least a bit of adolescent “you’re not the boss of me!” attitude behind those differences.

  94. 94.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    More bullshit. Punctuation and spelling varied widely on both sides of the Atlantic in the 18th and early 19th centuries and gradually became standardized—oops, sorry, standardised—with the growing literacy of the population and the proliferation of mass-market books and periodicals. There were two traditions, American and British, but it’s quite a long reach to get to the “You’re not the boss of me!” thesis.

  97. 97.

    Amir Khalid

    @Steeplejack:
    It’s certainly true, English spelling and punctuation hadn’t really been standardised at the time when America won its independence. But as I understand the history, there was quite a bit of national pride involved in settling on standards somewhat different from the British.

  100. 100.

    Origuy

    I’ve taken to putting the final punctuation outside the quotes. Except for BJ and other blogs, most of the writing I do is technical and related to programming. When the quote is something like a command line or bit of code, having a period inside the quotes, when it is not part of the command, is misleading. Maybe it’s the Anglophile coming out, but I think it looks better, too.

  101. 101.

    NotMax

    @Amir Khalid

    Granted that my study was not all-encompassing, but with one of my majors in history and a minor in linguistics, cannot recall anything other than unsupported anecdote for the hypothesis.

  102. 102.

    scav

    @Amir Khalid: That’s what I heard too, although I’m not sure that Webster didn’t mix it up with a little “rationalization” at the same time — and there’s whole ‘nother can of worms that can go in utterly divergent directions. Lieutenant might be among my favorites of the mutual incomprehension. Also disorientate, but that’s probably a geographic thing.

  104. 104.

    chris m

    @TaMara (BHF): Wonderful video. I’m disappointed in Obama for a lot of things but it’s good to be reminded how important the mere fact of his presidency is for black folks.

  105. 105.

    Nate Dawg

    I blame Daniel Webster.

    Brits have the right idea re: commas outside quotation marks, but Americans have the corner on how to pronounce aluminum. But really Hollywood has done most of the “missionry” work for our frontier dialect.

  109. 109.

    Anne Laurie

    @scav: If we’re allowing proper nouns, Featherstonehaugh.

    Pronounced, of course, Fanshaw.

    There’s a Georgette Heyer mystery with a character by that name; in the American trade paperback version, the name had been simplified for us colonials…

  112. 112.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    WordPress failed to post this when you scheduled it.

    . I’ve been a front-pager for five or six years, and the Schedule function seems to be one of the code-bits that fails every time there’s a FYWP “upgrade”. It’ll work just fine for months, then suddenly it turns into a crap shoot.

    Bad enough if it would simply fail to work at all, but there have been patches where it would work sometimes, and fail just as unpredictably. I (& I suspect some of the other FPers) tend to use it only for non-time-constrained posts, the kind which would be just as valuable if they didn’t appear until one had another chance to check the dashboard.

  114. 114.

    gene108

    @Anne Laurie:

    Figured Schenectady was Native American translated a bit.

    But die Schule (school) in German is a soft Sch sound, like the Brits pronounce school. The Brits basically use the German pronunciation.

  116. 116.

    J R in WV

    The first time we saw Bonnie Raite she was an opener for Little Feat (sp?) long ago. I’m amazed I can remember so for back she was not yet a headliner with Grammies and Platinum records. mid-1970s I’m thinking, when we still lived in Beckley.

    We left after 3 or 4 L F songs, just didn’t hjold up after seeing Bonnie tear up the place. Long drive home, all that.

    I love the blues, saw Trucks – Tedeschi Band not too long ago, last summer some time. She is really something, and Derek isn’t bad either.

    I got some Girl Scout cookies yesterday, tiny little girls, most of them still Brownie Scouts, really. I asked “I hope this is to take a camping trip?” and the mom-in-charge, said “Oh yes, last year the girls spent 5 days at a campground near the Grand Canyon!” which is one benefit to living in Arizona, good campgrounds with real sights.

    The after I bought a grocery sack full, one of them ran over and gave me a handmade thank-you card, which was so sweet.

  119. 119.

    john fremont

    Ahh, Red Rocks.

    Don Henley and Innocence Mission in 89.
    Robert Plant and the Black Crowes 1990
    Dwight Yoakam, the Mavericks and Willie Nelson 1999.
    Robert Plant and Allison Krauss in 2008.
    Flogging Molly in 2009.

    Good memories of every show.

  120. 120.

    newnumbertwo

    As the crow flies, I am 17.59 miles northwest of Red Rocks, which is 41 minutes by car. I love living in Colorado.

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