Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

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

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Come on, man.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

In after Baud. Damn.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

All hail the time of the bunny!

“But what about the lurkers?”

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

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

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

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Late Evening Open Thread: Time to Rethink the Whole Top of the Food Chain Thing…

Late Evening Open Thread: Time to Rethink the Whole Top of the Food Chain Thing…

by | 169 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Video at this link!

Real or photoshopped?

That might be your reaction when you see a photo of a bobcat dragging a 4-foot-shark from the water.

YouReporter John Bailey sent the picture to us which he said he took at Sebastian Inlet State Park.

He claims the cat leaped into the water, caught the shark, and dragged it to shore.

The photographer thinks he ended up getting too close and may have caused the cat to drop the shark and run off into the forest.

Wildlife experts say it’s not uncommon for bobcats to be wandering Florida beaches.

They say it’s possible the cat is a female and might have been trying to catch food for its babies.

“My first reaction was amazement that somebody actually took that picture  because bobcats are generally very, very reclusive. You don’t really see them out and about too often,” said Busch Wildlife Sanctuary Animal Care Director Amy Kight.

Bobcats are normally not considered aggressive.

Copyright 2015 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Reader Interactions

169Comments

  4. 4.

    ? Martin

    Had a bobcat in the back yard last year.

    Wife: What’s that sound outside?
    Me: [walking out under tree where loud growling is coming from] Don’t know. Too dark. Get a flashlight, I’ll wait here.
    Me: [moments later] Uh, bobcat I think. It’s pretty. Pretty pissed off, though.

    It was maybe 8′ over my head. Had I know they take out sharks, I’d have not lingered quite so long.

  10. 10.

    ? Martin

    So, true to form, California does it’s backlash thing.

    The measure, SB 584, was introduced without fanfare before last week’s deadline for new proposals in the Capitol.

    If approved, 100% of the state’s electricity would need to come from clean sources such as solar and wind by 2045. De León first suggested the idea in a conversation with The Times last month.

    The measure would also accelerate the state’s goal of reaching 50% renewable energy. Legislation approved two years ago set a deadline of 2030 , but the new proposal would move that up to 2025.

    That’s probably achievable. It’s aggressive, no question, but cost are falling faster than projected and we’ve been running more or less on schedule on the renewable rollout. The wildcard will be EV uptake. Adding that capacity on top of the conversion could be tough.

  12. 12.

    kindness

    I don’t doubt a bobcat would get wet. Coulda happened.

    My question is once the photographer realized he scared off the cat, did he throw the shark back in the water? Woulda been the right thing to do.

  13. 13.

    Lyrebird

    @opiejeanne: @Patricia Kayden: A twitter responder was wondering if maybe its tail had been damaged. (and presumably that it’s a cougar or something bigger than a bobcat) The torso sure looks a bit long and wrongly proportioned for a bobcat, not that I have seen many living bobcats.

  15. 15.

    Tokyokie

    @Omnes Omnibus: And as a cat lover, it always pissed me off when Lassie would best a wildcat. A big cat vs. one medium-sized dog? Hell, I had a orange tabby that once killed a medium-sized dog. A wildcat with teeth and claws would make short work of a collie, even if it was the star of the show. (Good lord, that’s had me pissed off for 50 years now.)

  16. 16.

    Davebo

    Has anyone managed to make the video work? I see only stills?

    Now I’ll be up all night wondering what kind of fish it is. To fat for a Ling. Mackerel maybe?

  21. 21.

    danielx

    @Lyrebird:

    Yup. It looks like a cougar with a bobbed tale. Which is to take nothing away from the picture, because it’s still pretty awesome. But…the build is wrong for a bobcat, they are more short coupled and bulky through the shoulders – politespeak for chunky. Also too, the ears don’t look right, even laid back as they are in the pics. Bobcats have pointy ears, and yes, I know, the jokes they write themselves.

    ETA: If I had taken the picture I would have been gibbering (silently if possible) every second I was holding the camera. Fuck a bunch of cougar-bobcat distinctions.

  23. 23.

    hovercraft

    @? Martin:
    What is it with white people always walking into dangerous situations like that. Why would you go out there? My theory is that it’s a form of white privilege, you are so used to being at the top of the pecking order that you assume you’ll be fine. My people have been oppressed and occupied up until very recently so we don’t walk towards danger we run and hide. White people, ya’ll crazy//

  29. 29.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Adam L Silverman: There are lots and lots of kinds of sharks… hundreds… it’d be nice to see it from a different angle… might be but it doesn’t feel right…

    Kind of fascinated by great whites, myself…

  30. 30.

    Lyrebird

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, sure looks more that way to me, and oh yes @danielx: unless the photographer’s got a super duper zoom lens, staying there… well I’d a’been backing away very quietly towards my car…

  31. 31.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @hovercraft: We also need to poke it with a stick if it doesn’t move at first. Dumb? Maybe. But I will say that most adrenalin junkies I know are white as hell. Me included.

  37. 37.

    Lyrebird

    @Adam L Silverman:

    fun fact from your link!

    Did You Know?

    Proportionately, panthers have the largest hind legs of any cat, allowing them to leap up to 15 feet vertically and 45 feet horizontally.

  38. 38.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @amk: OMG… THAT Kevin O’Leary?

    Nooooooooooooo! makes an entertaining villain on Shark Tank, but running for office?

    Nooooooooooooo!

  40. 40.

    opiejeanne

    @Lyrebird: I’ve seen them in wildlife rescue centers in California, animals who can’t be released back into the wild, and in Missouri i’ve seen them in the wild. We have them here in Washington, in our neighborhood but I haven’t seen any sign of them other than footprints in the snow in our yard.
    One thing that makes me doubt this is a bobcat is the size of the feet and legs. Bobcats have big paws and very sturdy front legs. This cat’s front legs are slender and the feet are small.

  41. 41.

    StringOnAStick

    We’ve got both bobcats and mountain lions in our ‘hood, and I’ve watched bobcats that were lounging in our garden less than 10’ from the house. I agree with the many who say that looks much more like a mountain lion/panther with a chewed up tail (from a prior shark hunting attempt perhaps?) than a bobcat. The proportions and the ears are all wrong for a bobcat, but just right for a mountain lion.

    I don’t worry about encountering a bobcat, but I sure do worry about running into a mountain lion on my own when hiking. The saying is that if you have deer in your area, you most certainly also have mountain lions. We had 10 deer in the backyard last week, and on snowy days I’ve counted over 100 elk in the valley below our backyard. The neighbors got a photo of a juvenile Mountain lion running away from under their deck 2 years ago, a summer Sunday morning at around 9.

  44. 44.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Adam L Silverman: Well it is a fascinating picture and story…

    I am a huge animal fan… especially birds…

    And it’s NOT political… ya gotta come up for air sometime…

  48. 48.

    Lyrebird

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    We also need to poke it with a stick if it doesn’t move at first. Dumb? Maybe.

    Not quite as dumb as poking it with your own hand! A wildlife educator I met once claimed that a big proportion of snake-bite injuries are to people’s hands/arms.

    Not related to panthers but to good photos to have on hand – this Republican-administration apologist on CNN looks like he’s been poked with a stick, but he’s just been rebutted by Angela Rye. The photo captures to me not only Rye/Keilar/Spokesbot but also SaneAmericans/AwakeningMedia/HangersOnners.

  49. 49.

    Tokyokie

    @Omnes Omnibus: Whenever I think about it, I try to think instead of Timmy falling into a damn well again and this time the damn dog is sleeping under the porch and can’t rescue him. But sometimes it’s hard.

  52. 52.

    ? Martin

    @? Martin: Regarding the 100% renewable proposal, California has 3 GHG targets – reduce to 1990 levels by 2020, 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. We should now be at or close to the 2020 target, and the existing policies provide a pathway to the 2030 target, though it’s not assured – more policies will probably be needed, but might not be. The 50% renewable by 2030 will probably help assure that, and the 100% by 2045 at least brings the 2050 target into reach.

    You need to combine this with the the ZEV mandate here – 4.5% of auto sales by 2018 and 22% by 2025. There are 9 other states that have signed onto California’s mandate under Section 177 of the Clean Air Act (which allows states to follow CAs standard rather than the federal one). The baseline price of EVs is expected to drop below that of internal combustion engines by 2020, and that will increase uptake significantly. The subsidies for the car purchase can wind back, but will probably shift to adding charging infrastructure.

    California’s air quality office announced the other day that 2-stroke gardening tools now emit more GHG than automobiles do in the state, which is both a testament to how effective the CARB auto standards have been, and a signal that we can probably expect to see 2 stroke engines banned soon.

  53. 53.

    Lyrebird

    (I think I used an automatically-filtered word or messed up my tags on my last comment… or at least I do not see it here. moderator help pls?)

  59. 59.

    Tokyokie

    @Yarrow: You know, after the third or fourth time Timmy fell into a well, you’d think his family would move to a place where they could get water utilities. I’m guessing the show’s producers left out all the times the stupid brat fell into the septic tank.

  63. 63.

    Yarrow

    @Tokyokie: You’d also think the family would start marking wells if Timmy is so stupid as to keep falling into them. Just how many old wells are there on that family’s property anyway? However many there are, Timmy sure knew how to find them.

    @Omnes Omnibus: I COMPLETELY AGREE!1!

  64. 64.

    ? Martin

    @hovercraft: I don’t know. Grew up in NYC in the 70s. Got in a fight in middle school and got stabbed, put a few kids in the hospital in another fight (pipe wrench > knife). I learned early on I couldn’t afford to be afraid of the world. Do what you feel compelled to do, and if it’s your turn, so be it.

  65. 65.

    efgoldman

    @Tokyokie:

    I try to think instead of Timmy falling into a damn well again and this time the damn dog is sleeping under the porch and can’t rescue him.

    Even when I was 10 and 11 years old, I couldn’t stand that damned show. Never liked it, never watched it.
    Nothing against the dog, but Sgt Preston of the Yukon’s dog was cooler.

  66. 66.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    btw… just saw on the news that Milo Yiannopoulos has just resigned from Breitbart…

    I guess Bannon just couldn’t have a self-confessed fan of pedophilia on staff after all…

    And the flame out is complete… from Senior Editor at Breitbart/edgy provocateur/featured speaker at CPAC w/ a book contract to NOTHING but the punchline to a thousand bad jokes in TWO DAYS…

    Karma… it is a beeeyatch…

  67. 67.

    ? Martin

    @Omnes Omnibus: It’s my way of coping with the horror in DC – convincing myself that California will come out on top. And it’s a good reminder that there’s a lot of good, solid progressive governance out there.

  69. 69.

    Tokyokie

    @efgoldman: Well, duh. Sgt. Preston’s dog was in the Yukon. Of course it was cooler! (And I wish I still had my certificate of ownership of 1 square inch of the Yukon that my mom got for me through whatever breakfast cereal sponsored the sarge.)

  70. 70.

    Lyrebird

    @Adam L Silverman: Thank you kindly!

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: When’s the drumbeat gonna start about having Mr. Wild Hair Hate Speaker’s former boss (iiuc Bannon hired him) in the White House, maybe a tenth of the reaction to Pres. Obama’s connection to one preacher saying one easily-misinterpreted thing that was about human decency? Argh.

  72. 72.

    efgoldman

    @Tokyokie:

    I wish I still had my certificate of ownership of 1 square inch of the Yukon that my mom got for me through whatever breakfast cereal sponsored the sarge

    Quaker Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice.
    (I really didn’t remember. I looked it up).
    I always whined at my mother to let me send in a box top for whatever. Only once; got a matchbox-sized 1903 Oldsmobile. It lasted about a week. Maybe my little brother ate it.

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @? Martin: 100 years ago Wisconsin invented unemployment insurance and workers comp. ins.in the US. Forty years ago California came up with things like Prop. 13. We are regressive now. You’ve been in the past.

  74. 74.

    opiejeanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: Good, glad to hear it.

    I didn’t see if you shared with us what she’s dealing with, and you don’t have to for me if you don’t want to. I hope those goals include a complete recovery and return to health.

  75. 75.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Lyrebird:

    When’s the drumbeat gonna start about having Mr. Wild Hair Hate Speaker’s former boss (iiuc Bannon hired him) in the White House?

    I agree… I’m of the opinion we should try to hang Milo around Bannon’s neck like an albatross… after all, as you point out, Bannon did hire him… and the video clip that got Milo into trouble was suppsoedly 17 months old… which could be construed as Bannon KNEW about this months ago and only got uncomfortable when this all went public, big time…

  76. 76.

    hovercraft

    @? Martin:
    I’m not saying run and hide or refuse to defend yourself, sometimes confrontation cannot be avoided. I mean if you are safe inside your home and you hear a strange sound outside, and you can’t see what’s there, why go outside? Turn on the lights see what’s there, and if you’re still concerned call the police. Seems to me a certain type of people seem to go out of their way looking for trouble. Curiosity and all that.

  78. 78.

    Yarrow

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: Of course Bannon knew. It’s not like he cares. His goal is chaos. Someone like Milo who was “provocative” was good for his business model.

    I’m curious about where the little shit ends up. Who will hire him now? Maybe he can check himself into rehab or something and come out all “reformed.” People reinvent themselves all the time.

  79. 79.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    Maybe he can check himself into rehab or something and come out all “reformed.” People reinvent themselves all the time.

    Hah! Born again… just sleazy and desperate enough to try it…

  80. 80.

    efgoldman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Forty years ago California came up with things like Prop. 13. We are regressive now. You’ve been in the past.

    Since the 50s, a lot of political movements have started in California and then rolled East. The conservative revolution => the tax revolt, (fucking Howard Jarvis); the effort to suppress immigrants (Prop 187) => the awakening of Hispanic voters; if the pattern holds, the overwhelming liberalization of politics including raising taxes to pay for services will do the same. Traitor states last, maybe decades from now, and I won’t live to see it, but it will happen.

  81. 81.

    Lyrebird

    @Yarrow:

    It’s not like he cares.

    For sure, but if Creep the Younger is what it takes for some current supporters of the Republican Administration to worry about the influence of Creep the Elder sitting there calling the shots, excellent.

  83. 83.

    Ian

    OT, but I just sent this email to ICE

    To whom it may concern:

    Hello. My name is Ian Fromme and I am a resident of Fort Collins Colorado and I am writing this email in response to an incident I witnessed on Tuesday 2/21/17.

    On the morning of Tuesday, 2/21/17 I witnessed a sight that both gravely concerned and offended me. Parked at the church near the intersection of Horsetooth and Tradition was a vehicle containing the logos of ICE. It had a Texas licence plate. Placed on the dashboard of this government vehicle was a “Make America Great Again” red hat.

    I believe that this parking action and the placement of political propaganda was not accidental. I believe this was done as a message.

    This leads to some very serious concerns I would like to hear addressed by your department.

    1). Does ICE policy allow for employees to make openly political statements in their capacity as government employees? I do not mean to imply any political speech in their free time, but as acting agents of the federal government? I would find it equally offensive if the officer promoted a Democratic or third party candidate. Taxpayer money should not be directed towards an individual’s personal and private opinions.

    2). Given the recent actions of the new administration there is widespread fear and panic in many of our communities. In light of this the placement of an ICE vehicle with said “Make America Great Again” can at best be construed as offensive and more realistically as an open intimidation. Our community has a right to operate in peace and without fear. In this regards, this agent has most certainly failed to ‘serve and protect’. This is especially troublesome following the arrest of an undocumented immigrant trying to testify against domestic abuse. Your agency has a moral imperative to both uphold the law and do so in a way that protects our citizens. This seems to have been forgotten in your haste to implement orders of dubious legal standing.

    3). Your agency has no legal remit to operate as an appendage of the now legal established Trump 2020 re-election campaign. This could certainly qualify.

    4). Erosion of trust. After what I have witnessed, I would not call or contact ICE to report anyone. The standing of your agency is being diminished in the eyes of the people it was created to protect and serve. If you wish for greater public trust than your agency must undertake actions that unite our community, not divide it.

    Please know I have no taken the time to contact you out of a desire to see this individual or any other individual punished. All I desire to see from your agency is a return to standards of operation that do not allow rogue officers to abuse their powers.
    Thank you for your time

    I hope the agent responsible for this shit gets totally shitcanned.

  84. 84.

    Yarrow

    @Lyrebird: I think what it’s going to take is the Russian ties that Trump has. Bannon is involved in that. They’re going down. The question is when and how.

  87. 87.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Yarrow:

    I think what it’s going to take is the Russian ties that Trump has.

    i have been reading and reading about Trump & Russians the last few days… and it appears that Trump is filthy w/ them behind the scenes… in so deep…

  90. 90.

    efgoldman

    @Ian:

    I hope the agent responsible for this shit gets totally shitcanned.

    You have one Dem senator, right? You’re likely to get a better response thru his office.
    Did’st take pictures?

  93. 93.

    Yarrow

    @Ian: Good for you! Question: Is ICE’s directive “to protect and serve”? I think police are supposed to do that. Not sure what ICE is supposed to do.

  94. 94.

    E

    I have a biologist friend who witnessed a rattlesnake plunge into a stream and come out with a fish. She is not the type of person to pull my leg.

  95. 95.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Yarrow: So that was his link to that… he was involved w/ Trump way back when…

    Now his death makes sense… looks like someone is erasing any traces of Trump w/ certain parties… i couldn’t see why anyone would want him dead before…

    Hell… I did find that now-notorious dossier on line… yeah, there’s unconfirmed rumors of salacious behavior in there but the real eye openers are the ongoing contacts w/ out-an-out gangsters… I’d reckon Donny was involved /w some significant money laundering schemes, at the very least…

  98. 98.

    opiejeanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh. Good to hear she’s progressing.
    One of my friends just had a knee replacement at age 66. She runs a lot and was back at it after what seemed like too short a recovery period, but she’s fine.

  99. 99.

    joel hanes

    @kindness:

    I don’t doubt a bobcat would get wet.

    They swim.

    I know a father and son who encountered a swimming bobcat in the middle of a lake in Canada, back in the 1960s.
    They were in a loaded canoe.
    The bobcat decided it was tired of swimming, and NEEDED to rest for a while in that canoe.
    They pushed it away with the big muskie net.
    The bobcat grabbed the net and wouldn’t let go, so they abandoned the net.
    They had to paddle hard for a while.

  101. 101.

    Yarrow

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: Here’s Sarah Kendzior’s thread on it.

    Thread on Vitaly Churkin, who invited Trump to the USSR in 1986 and now finds Trump serving his objectives 30 years later https://t.co/tUcwcO0t9w— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) January 1, 2017

    This tweet was from January 1. She’s been studying these connections for a long time now. Wish more attention had been given to her and others’ knowledge before the election.

    Edit: The suspicion is Putin is taking people out who might endanger his Trump set up. Even if those people are his own ambassadors.

    Edit again: I’ve seen lots of articles and claims that Trump’s Russian connections are only a few years old. Maybe since 2013 or so. Was that when the Miss Universe pageant was held there? In any case, it’s false that his ties began then. They go back to the 1980’s and people that have been studying these ties and connections have loads of data backing up a long time relationship between Trump and Russia.

  102. 102.

    opiejeanne

    @efgoldman: Yeah, and Utah gave women the right to vote first. Or second. I can’t remember which, but what’s your point? That your lovely states are better’n California? I’ve visited both yours and Omnus’s states and they are very nice, but you aren’t going to win at this game.

  106. 106.

    joel hanes

    I was driving the Mount Hamilton road just above Grant Park in a driving rainstorm one night, (slowly!) and came across a soaking-wet California bobcat crossing the road. Just as domestic cats look very different without their fur, the silhouette we expect for a bobcat is partly the product of deep its deep fur. The wet cat looked weirdly out of proportion, but clearly had long wet fur, not short fur, and didn’t have a mountain lion’s slinky length of anything.

  107. 107.

    opiejeanne

    @Yarrow: Speaking of efgoldman, at what age does one attain geezerhood, or is it geezerdom? Trying to be nice here.

    Asking for a husband who will be 70 in a couple of weeks.

    Also, is there a female version? Hag? Harridan? Crone? I’m not quite there, having been a child bride and all.

  108. 108.

    opiejeanne

    @efgoldman: Eight years of marching band, too, four were in college.
    We have enough musicians here we could probably put together a halfway decent marching (staggering) band.

  110. 110.

    Calming Influence

    Speaking of great white sharks, years ago my mom and dad rented a little sailboat on Martha’s Vineyard and accidently sailed on to the set where they were filming “Jaws”. (Mom: “Look at all those friendly people waving at us!”) They were very unhappy that they didn’t end up in the movie. [JAWS: Man against beast! The horror! The bloody carnage! The goofy smiling tourists in the silly little sailboat!]

  111. 111.

    efgoldman

    @opiejeanne:

    but what’s your point?

    My point is exactly what I said: A lot of political trends in the postwar US started in California and worked their way East. Nothing to do with where I live or where Omnes does. Although it is true that the early 20th century Progressive movement started in Wisconsin.

  113. 113.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Adam L Silverman: Well… that’s about as succinct as it gets, I reckon… and he’s craven, shameless, and greedy enough to try the ‘born again’ schtick… he’d probably be pretty good at it, too…

  114. 114.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m not suggesting he’s ill in a way that would require him going to rehab. The word “rehab” was a placeholder for going away to some place that can be seen as self-improvement to make over his image.

    Celeb type people who need to reinvent themselves sometimes go to some variation of time out so they can improve their image. That was the model I was thinking of. Perhaps he’d go on a month-long silent meditation retreat and come out a “Buddhist” who incites violence. Or sail around the world and come back as an “environmentalist” who thinks global warming is a hoax.

    I don’t know. Just can’t think who would hire him and he might need to undergo an image makeover via a time out of sorts.

  116. 116.

    opiejeanne

    @efgoldman: Ok. Omnes sounded like he was trying to start something and I thought you were joining in.
    I’m a bit protective of my native state even if I now only spend a couple of months a year there.

  117. 117.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Yarrow: Hell, I don’t think he’s sick… he’s a con artist… and he’ll be thumping a bible in no time flat…

  118. 118.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @opiejeanne: When I had a car, I could only park it on the street. I don’t have a driveway, there are no charging stations on the street. It’s not like filling up your car with gas, charging a car battery takes a significant bit more time.

  119. 119.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: You do great work! I wish more of our mainstream media read your posts and the great work done by others. It’s not like this info hasn’t been out there. For some reason it was generally ignored by the media before the election. At least people are looking at it now.

  120. 120.

    danielx

    @opiejeanne:

    Speaking of efgoldman, at what age does one attain geezerhood, or is it geezerdom? Trying to be nice here.

    it’s all in yer head, as they say…not that it’s not real. I’ve known people who were geezers at thirty, or younger for that matter. They know what they know and ain’t nobody gonna tell them different. They weren’t born old, they just stopped living and learning and questioning.

    Then there are people like my dearly beloved auntie, eighty five years old, an unreconstructed Roosevelt Democrat, and sharp as a razor. She was a schoolteacher and has never stopped questioning her assumptions, bless her heart and mind.

    So to get back to the point, it’s the person, not the age.

  122. 122.

    efgoldman

    @opiejeanne:

    at what age does one attain geezerhood

    According to my daughter, when I hit 50 (she was in high school).
    According to the people I worked with, when I hit 60.
    According to the gummint, when I hit 70, retired and started receiving Social Security and went on Medicare.
    According to mrs efg, who’s nine years younger, any given day since we got married, 40 years ago in August.
    According to my granddaughter, whatever day it was when she was two and started recognizing me as, and calling me “grandpa.” She’s 3-1/2.

    Ya’ pays yer money and ya’ takes yer cherce.

  125. 125.

    opiejeanne

    @SWMBO: Hahaha!

    I had my appendix out the day before Thanksgiving, and the surgeon said it was in an odd position, facing toward my spine. For a couple of months before that I had been having trouble with what I thought was a pinched nerve in either my lower back or my hip, so I couldn’t walk as far as I usually do. A few weeks after the surgery I realized that the pinched nerve wasn’t bothering me any more. I can walk a couple of miles, maybe more when spring arrives.

  126. 126.

    danielx

    @? Martin:

    California’s air quality office announced the other day that 2-stroke gardening tools now emit more GHG than automobiles do in the state, which is both a testament to how effective the CARB auto standards have been, and a signal that we can probably expect to see 2 stroke engines banned soon.

    That will undoubtedly go over well with the chain saw-owner population, since a four cycle chain saw would weigh about three times what a two cycle weighs.

  127. 127.

    tobie

    @Ian: Thank you for taking the time to respond to what you saw and to do so in such a thoughtful manner. I hope a supervisor reads this letter and does something. If ICE is going to act in the service of a candidate and a party, it should rename itself Freikorps.

  129. 129.

    opiejeanne

    @danielx: I know about it being in your head. I don’t feel 66 at all, but I do have to throw him a party and would like to rib him a little. When he turned 40 I couldn’t do the usual black balloons/over the hill gags because I realized that all of our guests were either his age or older. That would not have gone over so well with that crowd.
    Neither of us is “old” yet; I figure we’ve got about 20 years left before we get there.

  130. 130.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Yarrow: No, he won’t go to rehab to get actual help… if he does that, it’ll be yet another ploy he’ll try to lever financially for his own sake…

    He’s a grifter and a grifter’s gotta grift… he’ll only quit trying when he can’t make it work anymore…

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    I know someone who bought a Tesla about 3 yrs ago and I asked him the question of where can he charge it. He said that the range of one is enough to drive, at least on the major highways to the next one and charge the car in about 1/2 hr. So he could travel the country if he needed to and find a charging station within reason. I’d bet that there are more stations now. BTW a very nice car. The big problem for someone like me is that I live in an apt and there are no outlets in the parking garage so I couldn’t even slow charge an EV. I’d bet there are a lot more people in my position than some realize.

  135. 135.

    Yarrow

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: Yep. That was my point. I can’t see who would hire him in his present leper state. So he needs to reinvent himself in some way. What better way than to go away for a bit. Whatever the “going away” is. Then return either “born again” or off the devil drugs or whatever he chooses to blame for his previous incarnation.

    It’ll all be a lie, of course. But if he can sell his new version of himself, he’ll be right back on the grifting gravy train.

  138. 138.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Ruckus: That’s my point. I think quite a few homeowner really don’t think about renters. If we have a garage, there’s usually not metered power. If we don’t(in my case), we have to park on the street. Sure, if I go shopping or take the train into DTLA, I could charge it then. But that doesn’t help day to day. When my wife bought her last car, I told my former neighbor who owned 2 Prius’s that we’d look at them when we were looking at car(the wife bought an Elantra). She said “why didn’t you get a plug in Prius?”, I said “Nowhere to plug it in”.

  141. 141.

    Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones)

    The tail might look like that because some Florida Panthers descend from a very inbred group of animals that all had the same kinked tail according to this.

    Genetic studies have revealed that panthers in south Florida may belong to two distinct stocks (O’Brien et al. 1990; Roelke et al. 1993): those in the Everglades and those in Big Cypress. Everglades panthers may be descended from seven captive South American pumas released into Everglades National Park between 1957 and 1967 from the Piper Collection of Everglades Wonder Gardens in Bonita Springs, Florida. This idea is supported by lower frequency of kinked tails, cowlicks, and cryptorchidism in Everglades panthers (Roelke 1993).

  142. 142.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Yarrow:

    But if he can sell his new version of himself, he’ll be right back on the grifting gravy train.

    Absolutely… I hadn’t thought about the drugs angle…

    Lay low for a bit… collect unemployment, food stamps, whatever… then make a big deal about going to rehab… kick drugs, get cured from homosexuality, and end up Finding Jesus…

  144. 144.

    Villago Delenda Est

    ICE’s rank and file are delighted to be “unleashed” on those dangerous brown skinned 7 year olds who are threatening the country with baseball bats. On ball fields.

    ICE is going to be remembered as the Geheimne Staatspolizei of the Trump Tyranny.

  145. 145.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Michelle Bachmann’s husband?

    Okay… I’ve seen his picture before… it didn’t look like him, from what I remembered…

    And yes… MIlo should go to him…

    We should form a pool and place some bets… when and where and how and who Milo goes to…

  149. 149.

    Yarrow

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: The only problem with that is his visa. By the terms of the visa, he can’t stay here if he isn’t employed. Maybe some wingnut think tank will pick him up only under agreement that he disappear for a bit to some rehab or equivalent place. He can always go back to the UK and hang out with UKIP.

  151. 151.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Yarrow: Good Lord… does that mean he might get scooped up by ICE and deported? Perhaps under instructions from his ex-boss? There would be something… truly satisfying… about that…

    Even if he goes bak to the UK, he’ll be back as soon as he can find an angle he can play…

  153. 153.

    efgoldman

    @Yarrow:

    The only problem with that is his visa.

    I don’t see that as a problem. Get his miserable ass out of here. We have enough of our own assholes.

  155. 155.

    Yarrow

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: Yep! It’s a beautiful irony. Plenty of discussion about how, as of today. Milo’s an illegal immigrant here in the USA. Time to deport him!

    @efgoldman: It’s totally not a problem. But there is a problem with the suggestion that he collect unemployment and food stamps because he’s not here on a legal visa now that he’s not working.

  156. 156.

    Peale

    @Yarrow: nah. He’s done. its not like his transphobic islamaphobic fuck the p.c. show doesn’t have competitors. He’s their voice of the new generation, but lord knows there’s enough other new generation voices that can play that role.

  157. 157.

    efgoldman

    @Yarrow:

    here is a problem with the suggestion that he collect unemployment and food stamps because he’s not here on a legal visa

    Let him fucking starve.

  158. 158.

    Yarrow

    @efgoldman: Will never happen. He’ll just go back to the UK or, for now, Europe, which he can do because of the UK still being in the EU.

    @Peale: Saw a suggestion that he might reinvent himself by writing a tell-all on Breitbart and the alt-right. Wouldn’t surprise me with someone like him. He’ll grift any way he can.

  162. 162.

    Mnemosyne

    Too lazy to read the whole thread this time of night, but humans are well-advised to remember that we have artificially placed ourselves at the top of the food chain. If it’s Human vs Bear or Human vs Mountain Lion and the human doesn’t have a gun, or at least a pointy stick, the human is dinner.

    Also, domestic cats are naturally paranoid because they’re well aware that they’re in the middle of the food chain. They can never forget that while they can eat things smaller than they are, there are things bigger than they are who want to eat them.

  163. 163.

    J R in WV

    @StringOnAStick:

    Sounds like you need to carry a large caliber sidearm to me. I carry one 24/7 in Arizona ever since I smelled a lion stalking me on hight when the wind changed… I broke and ran for the rv trailer where my gun was safely stored on the counter by the door.

    I also got a bigger gun, went from a .40 to a .45. The actual gun is actually smaller with fewer rounds, but the actual rounds are much larger and moving much faster with more energy. As I told neighbor who also carries since seeing and photographing a footprint far larger than the kingsize cigs he used for scale, my momma didn’t raise no cat chow!

  165. 165.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Mnemosyne: Except that we made it to the top of the food chain in the first place because we figured out how to make pointy sticks and (even more useful) tell our friends how to make more pointy sticks.

  166. 166.

    Lurking Canadian

    @danielx: I had a four-cycle Ryobi engine on my old trimmer. It was a detachable power pack. I didn’t buy the chain saw attachment, but they did sell one.

    Now, it was a Ryobi. Which means it was a Tonka Toy piece of shit that would only start (even on the first day I owned it) after fifteen minutes of begging, praying and bloody blisters. My point is not that anybody should buy that thing.

    My point is that it should serve as an existence proof that four-cycle garden tools can be made. Somebody like Stihl or Husqvarna could probably even make one that worked.

  167. 167.

    NCSteve

    I’m from Kentucky, so I ought to be an expert, but damifino what that thing is. I expect a bobcat in Florida has a lot less fur than one in my neck of the woods even in winter and it could just be drenched to the skin. But you still ought to be able to see a mane. But if it’s a cougar, poor thing.

    Whichever one it is, it seems to be becoming the next “is the dress blue or white?” viral thing.

    And, while bobcats are not normally considered aggressive, those of use who live in proximity with them know that they are also normally considered not to be fucked with.

  168. 168.

    Dmbeaster

    Look at it this way. Evolutionary theory posits that cetaceans got started the same way, from a land creatures preying on sea life in shallow Tehtys sea margins.

  169. 169.

    Dmbeaster

    @Yarrow: I think Trump’s Russian connections grew in direct proportion to his growing inability to get financing from Western banks, except allegedly from Deutsche Bank. Ironically, Deutsche Bank is also up to its neck in Russian corruption on behalf of Russian oligarchs. Trump is highly leveraged and appears to get large amounts of his financing from Russians, and/or their capital is a major part of his deals. It is no mystery why he is a Russian fan – it is essential for his business.

Comments are closed.