Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

In my day, never was longer.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

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

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

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

The words do not have to be perfect.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

I really should read my own blog.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / House of Pets

House of Pets

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Here’s something rare for you all- all the Cole pets in one post. First, the angel, sunning herself on the deck:

Now the devil, sleeping on top of every sheet and blanket he could ball up into a pile:

And now the two wildcards- a dancing and happy Rosie with musical accompaniment from Steve:

Rosie can be such a goofball when she is in a good mood.

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    Keith P.

    I’ve got two happy kittens running around the house right now. I’ll see them dart across a doorway, or they’ll take over the bed (I’m washing sheets), or they’ll fight over my lap while I work at my desk. I’ve had a better individual cat (bottle-raised), and I had a couple of really good kitten-to-cats, but they were two males so didn’t sync quite as well as these two. Just an absolute joy (and their fixing a couple of weeks ago went off without a hitch…they were running around and playing that day)

  4. 4.

    khead

    So here’s something I never, ever thought I would say: “Nurse, I’m gonna need a new room for my wife because the dude across the hall keeps threatening to punch everyone that comes near him”. Wife is still in the hospital and I feel like I’ve been living in Cole’s Bizzarro World – where everything goes unbelievably wrong – for the last 48 hours. Also, lovely doggehs.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: Nope. It swung so far west that what we’re going to get is 30 mph winds and up to, at most, 3 or 4 inches of rain. Basically not even the monsoon/thunderstorm hybrid storms we’ve had all summer.

    The real issue is that because of where it is sitting and the geography of Florida’s west coast, at high tide there will be flooding even though the storm is no where near the areas flooding. So, for instance, this afternoon St. Pete Beach flooded at high tide. The storm surge that will result from the storm in Tampa Bay is expected at 2 feet, which will be a problem for those on the beach, living along the bay, and living in south Tampa, which has never had proper sewerage. If someone sneezes in south Tampa, it floods. I expect that parts of MacDill AFB will flood because it always flood.

  6. 6.

    Adam L Silverman

    @khead: The first rule of hospital fight club is you don’t talk about hospital fight club!

    We’re keeping good thoughts for you all. Also, if the guy across the hall gets worse I highly recommend a strategy of starting with a kick to the groin as hard as possible. As the person you’ve kicked doubles over, place both hands on the pack of their head, pulling the head down as you high knee them to the middle of the face as hard as possible. That should take the fight right out of them.

  8. 8.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That should take the fight right out of them.

    It usually does. That or breaking joints. Requires a bit more, moxie to pull off, but it’s easier than many think. And if you do a knee, they can’t chase you. Bonus points! Of course if you executed your plan even close to proper, they aren’t getting up for a bit either.

  11. 11.

    Juju

    Rosie looks pretty darn good. I love little white faced girls. I have one of my own, but with floppy ears. As my sister-in-law would say, Thurston is Thurston.

  15. 15.

    hilts

    Congrats to the Boston Red Sox and goodbye and good riddance to the goddamn motherfucking NY Yankees!!

  16. 16.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I was sure you knew about joints. And many, many other ways of disabling an annoying individual.
    Soft spots and where they don’t expect, and use their force/weight against them. Turn an assault into your advantage.

  17. 17.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Juju:

    That slide out ad makes my phone hot, or it’s just a weird phone.

    I don’t know what this means.

  19. 19.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @hilts:
    I remember a few years back when the Pittsburgh Pirates almost went to the World Series only to get beaten by the St. Louis Cardinals.

    I hated it. Aside from me being a Pirates fan, it sucked because I think the Cardinals were all-white and the Pirates were diverse. Really bad optics, imo

  20. 20.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    4rh day with the black lab puppy. After 20 years I forgot about the razor sharp teeth and incessant chewing, peeing, and getting up in the middle of the night. Lol….Good times. He is going to be a good boy.

  21. 21.

    divF

    Next time you should do “John Coles’ 3D House of Pets” (after the SCTV horror movie parodies).

  22. 22.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ruckus: I teach aikido and I’m very confident in my abilities to use it in an actual hand to hand situation, however, I’m not an idiot. In a street fight I want it over ASAP. This is one of the fastest ways to end an attack. Especially if you’re living in some place where you have no idea who may be concealed carrying and may decide that they’re going to stand their ground despite initiating the violent interaction.

  25. 25.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Adam L Silverman:
    If I ever got into a fight, I’d definitely try to end it ASAP. First thing I would do is try to knock or tackle the person to the ground and then whale on them until they’re unconscious. As somebody who’s untrained, I’d prefer to run if I can first, but I’d fight if I had to.

  29. 29.

    khead

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Thank you Adam. I should mention that my wife is doing a LOT better. We expected she would come home today but she has one box left on the discharge checklist before she can go home. Insert fart joke here. Folks who have had surgery will understand. As for the jackass across the hall? Well, he appears to be one of Ceciltucky’s finest. A fine gentleman that was admitted for a “finger injury” this morning who then threw a tantrum when he couldn’t get his painkillers. But the hospital took care of it.

    Also, I am somewhat familiar with the YOU WANT MY SHOES?!?! school of defense. Heh.

  30. 30.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Major Major Major Major:

    That motherfucker needs a blunt.

    Elsewhere — Don’t mean much for a Philly phan but the Red Sox beat the fucking Yankees.

    I dashed home from school on an October day in 1978 with my lovely and declining grandma comfortable in the front room with Keith Jackson on the call.

    Yanks v. Red Sox. Game 163.

    Bucky Fucking Dent.

    Fuck the Yankees.

  35. 35.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Major Major Major Major: @HumboldtBlue: Kornacki? I always liked him when he was a nerdy, nuts and bolts political reporter. This bouncy act wears me out. He hyped a 2% poll difference as a lead for Dean Heller, I don’t think I heard the term “margin of error” from MSNBC’s polling expert.

  36. 36.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Not really ??. I’m honestly lazy. Between work and school I don’t have a lot of free time. When I do I’m either watching old SVU episodes or reading fanfiction. One of these days though!

    I generally know what story I want to tell, but I don’t know how to end. I want to go for a goody-goody life-affirming good guys win ending but I don’t know how to do that given I plan on setting it a future where the United States has become like Putin’s Russia (set in either 2030 or 2040). I can’t simply just have the heroes overthrow the far-right federal government as that wouldn’t solve the real underlying problems facing our society.

    But I really want to write a dystopia that I can see happening based on current trends. I also don’t know how explicit I should be in naming the ruling party. Can I get away with identifying the GOP as an authoritarian regime if I ever would want to be published?

  37. 37.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I meant that I’d knock them onto the ground and then kick the shit out of them until they stopped trying to get up if felt I was in danger. My first instinct, if I couldn’t run, would be to put them out of commission before they hurt me. “Shock and Awe” if you will. Would also try to get my hands on anything I could use as a weapon.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    I got 15 postcards written for Stacey Abrams and Sarah Riggs Amico in Georgia (Governor/Lt. Governor dream team). Now I need to do some prep work on my novel so it’s not pointless for me to go to the write-in event I’m signed up for this weekend.

  40. 40.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: I think its crap. Basically its just a mishmash of styles the Israelis created as combatives training for their military and intelligence personnel. I also think, just as the Russians do with Systema, that the Israelis are using it for recruiting assets – witting and unwitting.

    The problem with systems that have been created for quick and effective self defense is both that they’re a mishmash, so no one ever actually achieves proper mastery over what they’re supposed to be learning because there’s nothing deeper to master beyond the technical, but who they attract to them and what they do to those people. Most people who do Krav Maga and other self defense training show up scared and able to be hurt/killed. Once they’ve trained sufficiently to be proficient they are still scared, but are now able to hurt/kill others. The underlying issue – fear – hasn’t been resolved because there’s nothing deeper than the technical physical techniques being offered. People that show up at an aikido, karate (regardless of style/school), judo, ju-jutsu, ken-jutsu, kung fu, escrima, etc school looking for self defense don’t get taught self defense. They get taught the discipline. If they make it through the first 90 days or so, then they begin to actually work on the underlying fear/fears by working through the most superficial and physical layer of the discipline. If they stick with their training, they actually are working on themselves. And as they progress part of what happens is they will gain a proficiency in self defense even though that isn’t the point of the training. Or, rather, is only the most superficial point of the training. Self defense focuses schools do as much, if not more harm than good to the people they attract.

  45. 45.

    Royston Vasey

    Long-time reader, pet lover.
    With great sadness and a very heavy heart, that my wife and I have to announce the passing of our dear family member, Yaya, at 4:35pm NZST 10th October 2018.
    Yaya, a long-haired chihuahua, was just 1 month short of her 15th birthday.
    We are both very cut-up at the moment.

    Rest in Peace, beautiful girl. xx

    RV
    Wellington, New Zealand

  47. 47.

    Brickley Paiste

    Fucking Bryant Gumble, yeah, go ahead and report a story about concussions in NASCAR and then pimp yourself out promoting a boxing match for holy fuck’s sake.

  49. 49.

    divF

    @Miss Bianca: John Candy (as Dr. Tongue) did it by rocking objects back and forth in the direction of the camera. The problem with that would be getting Cole to stand in front of a camera.

  51. 51.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Or ram them into a wall, desk, etc. Any way I would need to survive. I know I’m not good with my fists but I could use my body mass to knock someone down for sure (I’m not fat, but I’m 5’11 and weigh 225 pounds).

    I’d worry though in my fear I wouldn’t have the control needed and I might seriously hurt someone.

  52. 52.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: If the person taking the training is doing so because they’re scared and the training has nothing deeper behind it, then yes. You’re just taking a scared person with no capacity to effectively use violence and turning them into a scared person with the capacity to effectively use violence.

  55. 55.

    Steeplejack

    @Royston Vasey:

    Condolences to you and your wife.

    Raven has no doubt gone to bed, so I’ll offer the quotation from Irving Townsend’s book Separate Lifetimes:

    We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached. Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way. We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necesssary plan.

  56. 56.

    Juju

    @Adam L Silverman: the ad that slides out in the lower tight corner makes my iPhone hot, then my iPhone stops functioning right. It only does this on this site when the ad slides out.

  58. 58.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Major Major Major Major:

    So you’re saying I could explicitly name check the Republican Party as the architects and authoritarian rulers of an illiberal democratic US? Where facial recognition software is able to identify someone wearing a full mask? Or protests are highly discouraged/suppressed? Where journalists are killed with Russian-style wetwork tactics? And state TV is essentially privatized and employs disinformation to control the populace?

  61. 61.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI – Drum at MoJo:

    After Kavanaugh, Women Prefer Democrats by 30 Points
    KEVIN DRUM OCTOBER 9, 2018 6:08 PM

    Yesterday I wrote about a Washington Post poll of battleground districts which found that women favored Democratic candidates by 14 points. This was notable but not a world record or anything.

    However, most of the WaPo polling was done pre-Kavanaugh. Today, CNN has the results of polling done within the past few days and it shows women favoring Democrats by a stunning 30 percentage points:

    [Image of table of generic party candidate preferences, N = 739 likely voters, MOE = +/- 4.4%]

    I’m really not sure what to think of this. It’s almost too big to believe. And yet, the polling for men looks pretty ordinary, so there’s nothing obviously wrong here. If this really does demonstrate the effect that Kavanaugh has had, liberals shouldn’t feel any qualms about continuing to attack Republicans with gusto about their treatment of women. Republicans are doing their best to scare us away from this by claiming we’re a “mob” that lost support thanks to our assault on Kavanaugh, but don’t believe it. We should keep our attacks loud and strong.

    Of course, there’s no reason I should think anything different. I happened to get my advance copy of the November issue of MoJo today, and I have a short piece in it saying exactly that: namely that the white working-class backlash of 2016 was a small and temporary thing. Based on the evidence, I think the backlash was almost solely due to the fact that a black man was in the White House for eight years, and it began fading away the moment he was gone. Overall levels of sexism, racism, and xenophobia are probably back to their 2008 levels already, and Donald Trump’s naked and unrelenting bigotry—which may have served him well during the precise historical moment he ran for president—is now losing him more votes than it gains. Certainly it looks like this has been the case for his handling of the Kavanaugh affair.

    Good, good. More, please.

    Women will save the world if we let them. And if we actually work with them.

    Keep fighting!! 26 days to go!!

    ‘night all.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  64. 64.

    Major Major Major Major

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: As we’ve discussed, I would (as part of marking the universe’s difference, in addition to ass-covering) call them by different names and have them be somewhat different—perhaps shuffle the coalitions a little in an interesting way. But otherwise the basic facts of the fascist party could remain quite clearly republican, but by another name. Sometimes this can even be good in a politically charged work since it lets the reader drop some assumptions/baggage and engage with the ideas directly.

    ETA or, you know, Charles Stross does what you’re talking about.

  67. 67.

    Doug R

    @Juju:

    the ad that slides out in the lower tight corner makes my iPhone hot, then my iPhone stops functioning right. It only does this on this site when the ad slides out.

    Adblock makes an extension for Safari.
    Firefox is available for Iphone, you can get adblockers for it.

  71. 71.

    khead

    @tobie:

    Thank you. I thought about mentioning you earlier given your previous comment (re: Trumpy nurse). I know you know where we are at and our situation. This is the first time we’ve ever had a bad experience there (4th stay in 3 years). We are actually very happy with the hospital and her treatment. It was just a WOW, WTF moment with the locals today.

  74. 74.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I guess I meant an example, but I don’t want to make you do my work for me or anything.

    I fucking hate Trump. If he wasn’t in office, I’d totally feel comfortable portraying a normal world in my story. With all of the crazy shit going, I can’t do that.

  75. 75.

    Juju

    @Major Major Major Major: I have an iPhone 6 with a replaced battery, that seems to be failing again after just six months. I need to get a new phone, but I’m on the fence about getting the Xs. It’s kind of pricy.

  76. 76.

    tobie

    @khead: I’m just sorry you had to deal with annoying nurses and hall neighbors when your wife is in the hospital and you’re both feeling stressed. I’ve only been in the hospital once when a friend was ill and was impressed with how caring the nursing staff was. Here’s hoping it’s smooth sailing from here on in.

  78. 78.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I think I’m beginning to understand why so many authors prefer to set their stories in more fantastic worlds to explore social themes; it gives a degree of separation.

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Oh absolutely.
    Surprise is one of the best defenses. Right after don’t look like a good target. Of course as one ages one begins to look more and more like a good target. And less able to pull off those responses.

  82. 82.

    Ruckus

    @Major Major Major Major:
    No it really isn’t. If you can’t control the adrenaline, use it to your advantage, then you will not asses the situation quickly, you will respond with a set response which may not be correct. Adam uses fear and that is what causes the adrenaline surge. Having that surge with out the knowledge to use it, which is what the discipline teaches you means you are out of control. A victim out of control is not effective. You may get lucky, but you easily may not.
    You have a tool, it may be the right one, but any tool with out control is as dangerous to the user as it is to that to which it is applied.

  83. 83.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Ruckus: I would completely agree if you were talking about a gun but I still am not grokking this.

    A victim out of control is not effective. You may get lucky, but you easily may not.

    I don’t see how this is worse than the alternative. Is the argument that it will provide unearned confidence, which would result in pointless expenditure of energy that would otherwise be spent attempting to flee?

  84. 84.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Major Major Major Major:
    He probably means that victims who are fearful without a presence of mind in a life or death situation might not fight back as effectively if they did

    Also, thank you for your advice.

  88. 88.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Juju:

    I have an iPhone 6 with a replaced battery, that seems to be failing again after just six months. I need to get a new phone, but I’m on the fence about getting the Xs. It’s kind of pricy.

    Same here. I had the battery replaced a year ago (there was some issue so Apple replaced it at no cost to me). Recently, the battery management has been screwy, especially when reading Balloon-Juice on Google Chrome. I have had my phone crash twice last week when loading pages from here.

    As you say, the new iPhones look nice, but apparently they are not free…

  89. 89.

    Juju

    @Jerzy Russian: I’ve read that Apple is coming out with a cheaper Xr that you can order 10/21. I just don’t know if I can wait that long. I really hate my 6, not Trump hate, but just a regular hate/dislike. As far as the price of the Xs goes, maybe I don’t need both kidneys.

  90. 90.

    Jay

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The right training is better than the react training.

    Post Aikido, 4 people are alive because it overwrote my strike training.

    One could make the case that 3 knife muggers didn’t deserve to live,

    One has a hard time making the case that a woman who lost her child, and was “acting out” with a filleting knife, did not deserve to live.

    It also has impact on the “actioneer”,

    There’s lot’s of fights and conflicts I don’t feel good about, pre Aikido, there’s none I feel bad about post Aikido.

  92. 92.

    J R in WV

    @Royston Vasey:

    Oh, gee that’s terrible news for you guys. We’re so sorry for your loss. Nothing strikes harder than the loss of a family member you have loved and cared for fro that long.

    Please remember the good moments with your loved beautiful girl Yaya. You gave her a safe home and happiness her whole life, a wonderful gift for a little dog who needs love.

    Thanks for sharing the news with your friends all over the planet!

  93. 93.

    Ruckus

    @Major Major Major Major:
    To be effective in combating someone attacking you, you must fight every instinct humans have and to do that you have to do to have control of your fear. You will have fear no matter how you are trained. That’s instinct. The difference is that a properly trained human knows how to control that adrenaline rush that fear gives you, how to use that effectively, to assist you, to strengthen you, to not lose sense of place, sense of timing, how to stay loose without losing control. Effectively you become less fearful because you know what will happen to yourself and what you are capable of. With strike training you will know how to hit, with proper training you will know how to focus and control your response, by using that adrenaline rather than it effectively using you.
    Not sure that’s any clearer but do understand many physical things that humans do need this type of training to make effective use of the body in practicing and perfecting whatever “art” you are doing. I used the same concepts to learn motorcycle racing. Some of it is practice, some is experience and a good deal is learning to use the adrenaline. That adrenaline is always there, from the newest practitioner to the learned and seasoned veterans. It’s the learning to understand and use that which is the difference in reaching your physical limitations.

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