Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Bark louder, little dog.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

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

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Chicken Makeover (Open Thread)

Reader Interactions

115Comments

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    @TaMara (HFG): Her hens are only good for the stew pot now really. Not that I’m suggesting anything…

    Chickens are neat in that they can groom themselves.

  5. 5.

    D58826

    MSNBC is talking about how all of the DWS controversy suddenly disappeared. Funny how that happened since it it was never an issue in the first place.

  6. 6.

    Dork

    Anyone know if Gubnnah McCrory can appeal the No N-Clang Voters Law without his state’s AG approval? If not, anyone wanna wager that he tries to anyways?

  7. 7.

    JCJ

    When I was about 5 or 6 years old I had pet ducks that we had gotten as freshly hatched ducklings. Those two would follow me and I could play fetch with them using pebbles that I would toss about three feet. Not sure I could have groomed them like that, but they did not mind being petted and skritched.

  8. 8.

    Punchy

    Such unBrideled happiness while Grooming that chickern. She’s made of honor and goodness, and thats the Best Manicure I’ve seen.

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    Hey what do you know – Rush Limbaugh got right back to business today, telling listeners that “if Bernie Sanders hadn’t endorsed Hillary Clinton, that would have been the last anyone would have seen of Bernie Sanders”

    So there’s that. After all, you can’t be History’s Greatest* Monster if you aren’t willing to ‘disappear’ your rival for the party’s nomination, dontcha know.

    30 years of this stuff…

    *Is this correct – with Obama being on his way out, my assumption is that in the wingnut mind, he is now demoted to “Second-Greatest Monster”?

  10. 10.

    D58826

    When my Mom was a kid in the 1920’s her Dad bought a live goose for Xmas dinner. Well in the run up to the holiday my Mom and her sister turned it onto a pet. So per the plan the goose became Xmas dinner and no one could eat it. PBJ sandwiches for all that year.

  12. 12.

    Trollhattan

    @Jeffro:
    Who’s gonna ask Rush “Then why are you still alive?” like the BBC asked Alex Jones when they had him on?

    Similar to how Obama is a feckless tyrant. Pick one, boys, you can only have one of those things in the room at a time.

  13. 13.

    D58826

    OT but the link to Bill and the balloons is hilarious. Wonder if he was taking that balloon home for himself or his granddaughter. Now that would have been a photo if Chelsea hand brought the 2 year old on stage and let her play in the balloons.

  14. 14.

    mai naem mobile

    @Jeffro: I’ve seen such ugly stuff on twitter about Hilz and Chelsea,and Michelle. Just ugleee stuff.I don’t remember seeing anything like that about Miss Laura or even the twins. Even Barbara,the only negative stuff I saw had to do with when she made comments about the Katrina victims in Houston and the ‘I don’t worry my pretty head about the war’ statement. But it was never truly ugly stuff.

  16. 16.

    Trollhattan

    @D58826:
    When my Iowa grannie showed up at the folks’ one year for Christmas she had two backyard geese in her suitcase for Christmas dinner, fortunately already plucked. She tormented my poor mom for forty or fifty years with stunts like that but wow, the stories. Promised my bride she’d never be that MIL and was good to her word the rest of her days.

    God how I wish she was alive to witness what we’re all witnessing.

  18. 18.

    Trollhattan

    @mai naem mobile:
    Rush punctured any sense of a hands-off rule mocking Chelsea as the “White House dog.” Yeah, he was a hero back then, “Speaking truff to power” and the actual power people applauded.

  19. 19.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I assumed this meant Chris “Big Chicken” Christie was being rehabilitated. This is cuter. Anything is.

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    @Trollhattan:

    Who’s gonna ask Rush “Then why are you still alive?” like the BBC asked Alex Jones when they had him on? Similar to how Obama is a feckless tyrant. Pick one, boys, you can only have one of those things in the room at a time.

    I’ve often asked my dad that about Obama (and I’m sure I’ll now be asking that about Clinton as well): “which is it? spineless weakling or uber-tyrant?” Supposedly it is both. Me: “Oh…whatever the argument of the moment requires, then?”

    I’m a hit with the rest of the fam this way, too ;)

  21. 21.

    J.

    What, you mean your daughter doesn’t groom your chickens?

    I think Trump should hire that girl to groom his hair.

    Love that video. Thanks for posting.

  22. 22.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Anyone know if Gubnnah McCrory can appeal the No N-Clang Voters Law without his state’s AG approval?

    @Dork: Yep. It’s not that hard.

    In CA we had the courts throw out Prop 8. Neither Brown nor our AG (Harris) would appeal. So the usual suspects had to pony up their own money (they fought like hell to have the state fund it and lost) and appeal it themselves. They lost. McCrory can probably get the state to fund the appeal and can easily get lawyers who will do so. I’d say he has a better than even chance of winning, but NC politics are still confusing to me even though most of my family has now been living there for more than twenty years.

  24. 24.

    burnspbesq

    @Dork:

    Ogletree Deakins represented the state before the Fourth Circuit. It’s logical that since the AG is elected, state law would allow for the hiring of outside counsel if the AG and Guv are from different parties.

    I imagine that the State has already engaged Bancroft (Paul Clement’s firm) to advise on a possible cert petition.

  25. 25.

    Trollhattan

    @Jeffro:

    I’m a hit with the rest of the fam this way, too ;)

    Keep doing the heavy lifting my man, somebody’s gotta! (Cuts down on family event invites with time. Ask me how I know.)

  26. 26.

    Jeffro

    @mai naem mobile:

    I’ve seen such ugly stuff on twitter about Hilz and Chelsea,and Michelle. Just ugleee stuff.I don’t remember seeing anything like that about Miss Laura or even the twins. Even Barbara,the only negative stuff I saw had to do with when she made comments about the Katrina victims in Houston and the ‘I don’t worry my pretty head about the war’ statement. But it was never truly ugly stuff.

    I know. It’s crazy. I figure it’s worse because
    1) It’ll be their 3rd, possibly 4th terms out of power
    2) A black guy is about to be succeeded by a woman
    3) While racist remarks get most everyone busted these days, using the B-word hardly raises eyebrows
    4) 40 years of GOP propaganda (I mean really, Rush, Hillz was just gonna bump Bernie off, is that right?) has these folks in a lather. No, make that A Lather.

    Dems might just be running the show for a while to come, at this rate…

  27. 27.

    ? Martin

    @Jeffro: More than that. Obama is termed out, and Clinton (or Trump, depending on which GOP camp you are in) are in, so he’s perfectly reasonable now – no longer a threat. That’s why you had half the Republican party declaring how great his speech was and demanding to know why he is only now speaking that way. They hadn’t considered that their blind hatred toward him as an existential threat to American made it so they couldn’t hear a word he was saying until just this week.

  28. 28.

    FlipYrWhig

    @D58826:

    MSNBC is talking about how all of the DWS controversy suddenly disappeared.

    What about the unseemly way Sherrod Brown treated Paul Hackett? What about the tension between Tammy Duckworth and Christine Cegelis? Some controversies never die.

  31. 31.

    FlipYrWhig

    @mai naem mobile:

    I don’t remember seeing anything like that about Miss Laura or even the twins.

    The blogosphere, I think especially TBogg, used to like to mock Jenna and not-Jenna.

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    @Trollhattan:

    Cuts down on family event invites with time. Ask me how I know.

    Wait…lemme guess, first…lol

    Actually I’m pretty close with most of my family, even the most hard-headed RW ones. A few of them are coming around here n’ there – Trump is certainly helping. It doesn’t hurt that I can make a case for principled conservatism these days better than they can, either (not that I lean that way, just that I can make the case. Gotta love those old debate skillz ;)

  33. 33.

    J R in WV

    Yes, I have been made physically ill by some of the insane racist stuff about Michelle Obama, who has been above reproach in my book for the past 8 years to my knowledge, and for 40 years before that as far as any Republican can show.

    And Rush Slimbaugh with his filthy jokes about Hillary and Chelsea.

    I’m loving it that Chelsea matured into a beautiful young woman and mother, with a very attractive ( and strong! ) mother of her own. Two women Rush Slimbaugh can not touch, even with his repulsive voice.

    I’m thinking that a unanimous decision by the 4th circuit in Richmond will be upheld by the Supremes, if the NC Ratfuquers bother to appeal. Especially since the equally conservative 5th circuit in NOLA already blew the TX voter removal laws out of the books, I believe also unanimously.

    The Supremes may not even take the cases at this point, since the data shows that these bills are completely about disenfranchising minorities, which is illegal, not that the Republicans care about following the law all that much.

    I’m still pretty happy from the great buzz last night in Philly – I’ll bet there were some great parties into the am hours after the convention hall closed up. Wonder if the Sanders’ delegates were invited to any of those? Nah! They had to roll their own, betcha.

    I would have done espresso until 1 or 2 am, and then boogied until I was ready to fall out if I had been in that hall. I think even the Republican ratfuquers, er, MSM were ready to party…

    I’m hearing actual Republicans, former high-level campaign workers, talking about how Trump has already blown the election by not being started yet… only hoping it is so!

  34. 34.

    Trollhattan

    I know this is way too many ill-fitting pieces for Donald’s tiny bwaaain, but sometimes the dictum “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” doesn’t work when that enemy is also your enemy. Behold, Taliban versus ISIL

    The Taliban and Islamic State have been locked in frequent battles in Afghanistan since January 2015. The Taliban’s dominance in a region home to numerous local and foreign militant groups is facing a serious challenge from IS, which has been gaining some support. There has also been evidence that IS is trying to recruit Taliban fighters, with several Taliban commanders declaring allegiance to IS.

    “Mister Trump, are we allied with the Taliban in the war on ISIS?”
    “I’m yoooge on the Talib…wait, did I tell you about my steaks?”

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    the thing is..you know that’s NOT the first time. Chicken probably pecked at her the first 2 or 3 times, and she was determined, so she paid him no mind…and went about her business. So, the chicken gave in…but, even the lipstick is a step too far..

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA

  36. 36.

    Jeffro

    @? Martin:

    They hadn’t considered that their blind hatred toward him as an existential threat to American made it so they couldn’t hear a word he was saying until just this week.

    So true.
    We’ll just have to make it a priority to point that out to them at every opportunity, now won’t we? =)

    (and once they concede even 1% of that…game. set. match…as Clinton is pretty darn close to O on every issue. They don’t have to adore her, they just have to admit she isn’t History’s Greatest Monster.)

  37. 37.

    Trollhattan

    @Jeffro:
    Am running low on immediate family but have a ginormous mob of in-laws filling in, and they cover a wide swath. Have identified seven or eight sane ones and limit my time to those. Sure I’m no picnic myself, but hey, agree with me and you get all the wine!

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    @Jeffro:

    “if Bernie Sanders hadn’t endorsed Hillary Clinton, that would have been the last anyone would have seen of Bernie Sanders”

    Are we talking politically, or are we talking Jimmy Hoffa?

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    @Yutsano: Not true! They amuse us and still lay eggs, though admittedly much less frequently than they once did. They will never become pot pies!

  41. 41.

    Trollhattan

    @FlipYrWhig:
    Recall Jenna-and-tonic after some kind of DUI incident. But they were a lot older than Chelsea. Also, too, the Ford kids were rather free-spirited after the button-down Nixon years (love me some Betty Ford and I’m not afraid to admit it) and Jimmy should have never dragged Amy into the national discussion, although she turned out just fine.

  43. 43.

    Tee

    Betty, we were talking alliterative, as one does, when doing homeschool curriculum today and I mentioned some of yours to my group and we had a great giggle over them and of course we had to try some out. Consensus winner was Dainty dimwitted demagogue Donald. Then one Mom remarked she thought he was probably dyslexic because of stories about his lack of reading, and wondered if his grades at Fordham or Penn’s Wharton school ever published. And do any of his classmates remember him? After his saying he graduated first in class is there any proof, or did Fred buy his degree after he got in trouble at Fordham?

  44. 44.

    BlueNC

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: No. This is over. They can go to the full 4th Circuit (not going to overrule) and from there to the Supreme Court. I suppose a 4-4 tie is possible, but in that case, the current ruling stands.

  45. 45.

    burnspbesq

    @J R in WV:

    There is one enormously important difference between the two appellate decisions.

    The Fourth flat-out reversed on the question of discriminatory intent. It held that the District Court’s findings of fact on that issue (the District Court said there wasn’t discriminatory intent) were clearly erroneous.

    The Fifth didn’t agree with the District Court’s holding on discriminatory intent (in the Texas case, the District Court said there was discriminatory intent), but didn’t have the balls to reverse, so it remanded for additional fact-finding. No idea what will happen on a second appeal if the District Court sticks to its guns on remand.

    Discriminatory intent is a very big deal in Section 2 cases, because if it is found to exist, the state goes back into preclearance.

  46. 46.

    The Pale Scot

    It’s amazing how pets will accept abuse from the children in the family that they would never put up with from anyone else.

    Was a over a friends house when his daughter was in the princess stage dressed upped carrying his tough tomcat around wearing a bonnet. For just a moment we caught each others eyes. His said “this what I do for family harmony”

    Giggle

  47. 47.

    inventor

    @srv: Because you and Ms Rios have sacrifices so much more than Mr. Khan.

    Racist filth can never be shamed.

  48. 48.

    FlipYrWhig

    @srv: Shyeah, that’s a smart fight to have. “Dumbfuckery” is the practice of lying to the audience of conservative media to advance the cause of tax cuts for rich people.

  49. 49.

    Tenar Darell

    @Trollhattan: I was wishing my mother was still alive last night. Chelsea’s speech wrecked me, & Hillary’s history making wrecked me again.

  50. 50.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    I was invited at the last minute to my nephew’s birthday dinner.

    I wasn’t planning on getting him a birthday present until next week’s Tampa Comic Con.

    I may be in trouble.

  52. 52.

    catclub

    @D58826:

    controversy suddenly disappeared.

    When discussing how divided the Democrats seemed on day one, nobody mentions Cruz’s speech on day 3 of the GOP convention.

    Memory Hole!

  53. 53.

    Trollhattan

    For climate buffs, National Academies Press has published the final version of “Attribution of Extreme Weather Events in the Context of Climate Change.” Whew, guessing it’s not a bodice-ripper. You can buy it for seventy bucks or get the free pdf here. Skimmed the summary and believe this will do as a money graf (emphasis mine).

    The ability to understand and explain extreme events in the context of climate change has developed very rapidly over the past decade. In the past, a typical climate scientist’s response to questions about climate change’s role in any given extreme weather event was, “We cannot attribute any single event to climate change.” The science has advanced to the point that this is no longer true as an unqualified blanket statement. In many cases, it is now often possible to make and defend quantitative statements about the extent to which human-induced climate change (or another causal factor, such as a specific mode of natural variability) has influenced either the magnitude or the probability of occurrence of specific types of events or event classes. The science behind such statements has advanced a great deal in recent years and is still evolving rapidly.

    Gov Jerry’s right, this isn’t merely a legitimate issue for our times, it’s the issue of our time. Elections matter.

  55. 55.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Trollhattan: I was at a W&L event a few years ago and heard a great story about one of the Ford girls who had come down for homecoming. Wild indeed!

  56. 56.

    Punchy

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: Better than even chance? What I read here and other places is that the NC legy left a insanely damaging paper trail (figuratively) that made it a complete no-brainer that every aspect of that law was purposefully intended to fuck just the AAs and their voting proclivities. You’d have to be a complete partisan hack judge to rule otherwise, from what I’ve been led to believe.

  58. 58.

    Trollhattan

    @Tenar Darell:
    Our votes will somehow touch our moms, aunts and grannies. My mom and grandmothers were alive to see women gain the vote so they’ll be out there somewhere, applauding. I’m keeping my daughter close, right through January’s swearing in. Just might take the day off.

  59. 59.

    Trentrunner

    Fuck.

    Those of us a certain age will remember Susan Estrich, Democratic campaign head in the late 80s, and then an “analyst” on political talk shows.

    Well, where is she today? Why, she’s now Roger Ailes’ attorney, defending him from the shitstorm of suits for his sexual harassment over the past 4 decades.

    More here, if you have the stomach for it. Disgusting.

  61. 61.

    scav

    @inventor: Of course not all military are real ‘mericans anymore. They boo gay ones, malign inconvenient POWs, anyone that fails to uphold the party line, stereotype or narrative du jour. Their support for the troops is now as conditional as Trump’s for Nato.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    Totally random side note: I ran into a semi-public figure today that I had a crush on 20+ years ago and was relieved to find that he’s still a nice guy and hasn’t transformed into a conservative troll or something. And I was even able to overcome my shyness and have a normal conversation without gaping like a 13-year-old — yay!

  63. 63.

    JordanRules

    Hey all, any recommendations for 1-year old boy’s birthday gift? I am drawing a complete blank and I’d like to get my nephew something cool.

  68. 68.

    Mnemosyne

    @Emma:

    George Takei is a frickin’ national treasure.

    It’s not uncommon for Japanese and Latino Californians of his age to know each other’s language — on the reverse side, one of the big heroes of WWII was a Latino guy from LA who was able to talk a couple of hundred Japanese soldiers into surrendering by using the Japanese language skills he’d learned from his neighbors.

  72. 72.

    Trollhattan

    @? Martin:
    My tell would be a title such as “He Storms Her Coast” or “Avalanche Denied” But confess I didn’t flip to the end, either.

  73. 73.

    Miss Bianca

    @Emma: Wow. He is so cool.

    Now I’m wondering how much GOTV effort in CO is being targeted at Spanish speaking citizens…I’d like to find out!

    @Trollhattan: Now I wanna read “He Storms Her Coast!”

  75. 75.

    scav

    @JordanRules: What @? Martin: said pretty much works, although anything with a large number of parts that can be stepped on will work in a pinch. Either must come in the most spectacular box possible, impossibly shrink-wrapped and secured in blade-turning plastic (for the parents) and the finest cardboard (for the kid). Classics. Never fails.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @Miss Bianca:

    I bet LMM is already making Spanish-language GOTV commercials. Someone here posted the English-language one he did for the New York primary.

    They didn’t accidentally pick a Veep who’s fluent in Spanish.

  77. 77.

    Quinerly

    Trump babbling now that Clinton should have shown some class and congratulated him for getting the most votes EVER in a Republican primary. First rally since Clinton’s speech. He’s on a roll right now…

  78. 78.

    ? Martin

    @Mnemosyne: The owner of the business I hire to pain my house is Korean. He doesn’t speak much english (it’s getting better), but he speaks spanish very well since all of the painters speaks spanish. His foreman speaks english and spanish (and a growing amount of korean) so you do most of the detailed discussion through the foreman who then communicates it to his boss in some kind of spanish/korean soup. It’s a fairly entertaining conversation.

  79. 79.

    JordanRules

    @srv: Yep! He can use it when he gets older and starts driving…maybe if he keeps a copy on the front seat it will decrease the chance of a bad encounter with the popo.

    Or he can use it to smash bugs in the house.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @JordanRules:

    Scav is right — a toy that comes in a box that the kid can play with instead of the actual toy is a MUST.

    I can say from experience, being an aunt is seriously fun. You get to see infants grow into fascinating people at close range without having to send them to college. And if they start getting fussy, you can hand them back to their parents.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @? Martin:

    I’m a little embarrassed at how rudimentary my Spanish is even after 20+ years out here, but I can usually make myself understood with hand gestures and big smiles to communicate, I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish, so please be patient with me.

  84. 84.

    Trollhattan

    @Miss Bianca:
    My agent’s reaching out to Fabio for the cover shoot. Lacking that, a friend has a lifesize Fabio cutout that could stand (literally) in.

  85. 85.

    D58826

    @J.: and a moment to remember the best bird video ever – Cariboo Barbie talking while the guy in the back was plucking turkeys.

  86. 86.

    Trollhattan

    @? Martin:

    The owner of the business I hire to pain my house is Korean.

    Hiring somebody to pain my house sounds brilliant. It costs me enough goddamn money so time for some payback!

  87. 87.

    dmsilev

    @? Martin:

    @JordanRules: Nephew? The loudest, most obnoxious toy ever made. That is your job as uncle.

    When my niece and nephew were two, I bought them a picture book illustrating the song ‘the wheels on the bus go round and round’. The book had a big red button in the middle of it; pushing it played the song over and over and over again.

    The book “mysteriously” got lost not too long afterwards.

  88. 88.

    Miss Bianca

    @D58826: not just plucking them, as I recall…stuffing them into the automatic-throat-slitting-funnel or some such.

  89. 89.

    D58826

    So the DNC was hacked. The Clinton campaign was hacked and now the DCCC was hacked. Funny no one hacking the GOP. Co-incidence?

  90. 90.

    Mnemosyne

    @JordanRules:

    Also, too, a serious suggestion: “Pat the Bunny” or whatever updated version you prefer. There’s a reason the combo of words and tactile things the kid can touch is a highly imitated classic.

  92. 92.

    Trollhattan

    @Miss Bianca:
    Yes, it was a literal snuff movie, all while word salad was being prepared in the foreground. Still can’t believe it exists.

  93. 93.

    Calouste

    @D58826: No one is releasing anything about hacking the GOP.
    Which tells you that, in contrast to the hacks of the DNC etc., there was actually valuable stuff in there.

  94. 94.

    dmsilev

    @JordanRules: I had good luck with 1-year-old gifts of a couple of creatures from here. Nicely and cutely made, and robust enough to stand up to the punishment a toddler can hand out.

  100. 100.

    D58826

    @Emma: When I was little I banged my moms pots and pans so much that none of them ever sat flat on the stove.

  101. 101.

    Miss Bianca

    @NotMax: yay, Steiff toys! I would get one or two each Christmas for *years* and I loved them – my mother bought them at the thrift store we had in the incredibly snooty suburb we lived in – one of the unlikely joys of growing up poor(ish) in a rich town!

  102. 102.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Pat the Bunny was first published two years before I was born, and — according to my mother’s careful listing in my baby book — it was one of my first gifts. It certainly looms large in my earliest memories (stroking Daddy’s scratchy sandpaper face, putting my chubby finger through Mummy’s wedding ring, tucking Bunny to sleep under a little square of flannel, etc.)

    As soon as my friends and relations began having children, and to this day, I always include a copy of PtB in my shower gifts. Really, I ought to just stock up on a couple of dozen copies so I always have it on hand.

  103. 103.

    Mnemosyne

    @Emma:

    My boss did something really smart with her twin boys: she put child locks on all but one cabinet in her kitchen and then filled that cabinet with old Tupperware and similar unbreakable stuff so the boys could pull it open and play around to their hearts’ content with stuff that couldn’t hurt them, but still made them feel like they’d “discovered” it (which is important for toddler development — letting them try things on their own).

  104. 104.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    One of my co-workers wears a lot of vintage-style clothes and was a little mortified when her 4-year-old pointed to one of the pictures of the grandmother in PtB and said, Mommy, you dress just like a grandma!

  105. 105.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Trentrunner:

    I remember her, certainly, but I’ll admit I hadn’t given her a thought in years. So I looked her up, using the Googling Machine, and discovered the interesting tidbit that in 1976, she was “elected the first female president/editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Review, where she ran against Merrick Garland.”

  106. 106.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    So I was reading earlier (I think it was in a BJ thread) about Ryan Bundy’s sovereign citizen motions. That in combination with discussion about Trump nominations to the supreme court made me wonder: Could a President Trump (aaack, thbht!) conceivably put someone on the Supreme Court who believed in the crackpot sovereign citizen “the government is not the boss of me” legal “theory”? Are there a nonzero number of sovereign citizens who are theoretically eligible to serve as Supreme Court justices? Or, more realistically, as judges at lower levels?

    I guess that means, are there any sovereign citizen types who passed the bar and practice law?

  108. 108.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    Re: kitchen noisemakers.

    I don’t remember being young enough to bang pots and pans except… I always loved the weird sound a pot makes when it has just a little bit of water in it and you swirl it around after banging the pot.

    In fact, I still love that sound and will trot out the pot of water sooner or later when I have a small child to entertain. I’m too embarrassed to do that when it’s just me and my wife, but that doesn’t mean I’m not tempted…

  109. 109.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ceci n’est pas mon nym:

    Technically, I think the president can appoint anyone he wants to the Supreme Court — they don’t have to be a judge or even a lawyer. How about Justice Larry “Judicial Watch” Klayman?

  110. 110.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    I can usually make myself understood with hand gestures and big smiles

    There’s a sweet passage in Josephine Tey’s Miss Pym Disposes that exactly describes this, apparently, universal instinct:

    She was a plump little woman with her hair in a bun at the back, and reminded Lucy of Mrs Noah, as portrayed by the makers of toy Arks. Lucy bowed and smiled that extra-wide-for-foreigners smile that one uses to bridge the gap of silence, and then, remembering that although this little woman spoke no English she might speak German, she tried a phrase, and the little woman’s face lit up.

  112. 112.

    D58826

    @efgoldman: Funny how kids are attracted to empty boxes. One xmas we got the kids a box of boxes. There were maybe 12 of different size/color rectangular boxes. they loved them.

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