Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

No one could have predicted…

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Consistently wrong since 2002

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Do We Ever Really Know? (+ Zoom tonight at 7pm eastern)

Do We Ever Really Know? (+ Zoom tonight at 7pm eastern)

by | 64 Comments

This post is in: 

Do we ever really know the impact we have had on other people?

I mean, really know.

It’s a short video, worth watching.

Merry Christmas, everyone!  (or whatever you celebrate)

Open thread.

Update:  Balloon Juice zoom tonight at 7 pm Eastern.  Email WaterGirl for the link.

Reader Interactions

64Comments

  5. 5.

    West of the Rockies

    General opinion is starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed…

    You probably know the rest.

    Happy Christmas,  BJers.

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    Merry Christmas, all! The strata has been baked (delicious), the presents unwrapped (and the boxes and gift wrap piled for recycling), the puppy has been walked.

    Next up: a Christmas Peloton ride.

  8. 8.

    Hungry Joe

    At least it wasn’t during Hanukkah:

    Vaxxed and boosted to the gills, we are. We don’t socialize with unvaxxed folk, and we mask in stores. Yet Ms. Joe and I are currently flattened with COVID. I think I’m sicker because of course I do. Scored Paxlovid yesterday, and it’s helping, but my throat is so swollen, and swallowing so 9-on-a-scale-of -10 painful, that I have trouble getting the capsules down.

    I don’t even want to imagine what this would be like if we weren’t vaxxed.

  9. 9.

    Raoul Paste

    No, you don’t really know.  You could make an offhand comment to someone and think nothing of it, but that person might remember it for the rest of their life

  10. 10.

    Barbara

    @Hungry Joe: ​So sorry! I hope you feel better soon. I’ve had Covid twice and it was really mild, but that’s probably just luck on my part. Just got boosted again last Thursday.

    Rest and take care of yourself.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    @Hungry Joe: I’m so sorry to hear it!  That sounds awful.

    In the spirit of the post:

    Do we ever really know the impact we have had on other people?

    I assume the person who gave you Covid will have no idea of the impact it is having on you!

  12. 12.

    Zifnab25

    @Baud: In Ukraine and Russia?

    In Israel and Palestine?

    In Argentina? The Philippines? India?

    In Texas, even?

    Doesn’t seem like it.

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    Repeated from downstairs; it’s that nice.

    Feel the beat from heartwarming holiday cheer.
    ;)

    Ye olde curmudgeon’s Xmas present? First time since waking up on Friday can employ the right hand to flick my Bic. Yippee!

  17. 17.

    MazeDancer

    Assume I am the last to know, but in case I am next to last, you can make FaceTime and Zoom calls from you iPad and not have that irritating person is looking to the side, not directly to the camera effect.

    Simply turn you iPad so that the camera is on the bottom.

    It works. Really,

  18. 18.

    Ohio Mom

    @Hungry Joe: i started feeling better by my third dose of Paxlovid. I agree, they are hard to swallow because they are so big, and there were so many of them.

    Still, if your urine is dark — you’re dehydrated —‘or your temperature keeps rising, or your oxygen levels drop (assuming you have one of those finger gadgets), you are entitled to go to an emergency room.

  28. 28.

    ArchTeryx

    Very much a reflection of one of the final scenes in Schindler’s List where Oskar Schindler has a total breakdown over the ones he could not save, and that he should have done more to save more. Yitzak tells him that thanks to him there will be generations saved, and paraphrases the Torah: “He who saves a life, it is as if they have saved the world entire.” And all of the survivors hugged him. Incredibly powerful and mostly true scene. He stood up against evil at the great risk of his own life. Sometimes that’s just what you do, if you have any humanity at all.

  31. 31.

    Kirk

    @Zifnab25: What is it with the all or nothing thinking?

    Besides, with sufficient blue voting I do believe that Texas would move against fascists, and that we the US might even move more strongly in opposition of fascists in your other locations as well.

  32. 32.

    bjacques

    Sorry to hear about your sore throat, HJ. Just a stuffy head currently—luckily too, since they don’t do Paxlovid here in Foreign Speaking Nation.

    (The Zoom will be 3am here, alas.)

  33. 33.

    MazeDancer

    @WaterGirl: No, won’t be able to join. But will be enough to know the word is being spread.

    No more switching to the laptop just to make eye contact.

    Google searched this way too many times.No one had a good answer.

    Until today!

  34. 34.

    WaterGirl

    @bjacques: TooMuchCoffeeMan also brought to my attention that 7pm zooms are the middle of the night for BJ peeps in Europe or elsewhere.

    So the Balloon Juice Zoom on New Year’s DAY will be at noon Eastern time, which will hopefully be workable for you wherever you are.

    Yes?

  37. 37.

    Steeplejack

    Merry Christmas and season’s greetings to all!

    I’m off to a slow start—just now having coffee and an apple-cranberry tart—after staying up extremely late last night. No particular reason; I wasn’t tired and I got sucked into two movies, one good and one dreadful (but which I felt compelled to finish). I’m sure it wasn’t the clattering and muffled cursing on the rooftops that kept me up.

    Had a long snooze this morning and feel tentatively ready to face the day. The Sighthound Hall mob left early this morning for a surprise (to the kids) trip to Disney World, so I am going over there to hang with Chip the non-sighthound for the week. But their cleaning ladies come tomorrow morning, which I have learned not to be around for, so I think I will take minimal stuff today (toothbrush and iPad?), spend the night with Chip, then come back here tomorrow morning and make the big move tomorrow. The mob gets back late Friday night, I believe.

    So a quiet Christmas day here in NoVA. Sunny and 55°, quite nice. Bro’ Man texted that many delicious leftovers await me, so I’ll see what’s what for dinner. Might take a few victuals just in case.

    Okay, up and at ’em (sort of).

  40. 40.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    Well, the good movie was The Equalizer with Denzel Washington. Really excellent, but perhaps too much retributive violence for you. It (and the sequel, also excellent) has become one of those movies that if I run across it on cable I have to watch to the end.

    Then the dreadful movie, which was Olympus Has Fallen. North Korean terrorists take over the White House and hold the president hostage. Disgraced Secret Service agent Gerard Butler happens to be on site and has to save the day. Disgraced how? Well, the First Lady previously died on his watch, but it wasn’t his fault! Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. But I felt compelled to finish it in a car-wreck kind of way. All the while thinking whatever happened to Gerard Butler? (Too lazy to look on IMDB.)

    The thing is, I think there was another “capture the White House” movie, equally dismal in my memory, but I can’t for the life of me think of the title.

  41. 41.

    twbrandt

    I had not known of Sir Nicholas Winton until now – thanks so much for posting that.

    There was extremely dense fog here in SE Michigan yesterday, which made driving home late last night exhausting. Fortunately it’s sunny out now. Off to my sister’s place soon with a freshly-baked pecan pie.

  42. 42.

    dmsilev

    My parents and I (and their dog) are getting set to head over to my brother’s place in a bit. My SIL is making traditional German food (she’s apparently feeling a bit homesick) and by sheer coincidence I bought a Stollen the other day to bring with, so that will be very appropriate. Also baked a tart this morning, basically a pie crust with an orange-infused chocolate ganache filling. Tasty..l

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    Huh. Checked IMDB. Olympus Has Fallen was directed by Antoine Fuqua, who did the Equalizer movies and also Shooter, a tight little action movie with Mark Wahlberg and Michael Peña. Who’da thunk it?! Olympus still very dreadful. But I see there have been two sequels, London Has Fallen and Angel Has Fallen. Neither directed by Fuqua, thank God.

    ETA: Gerard Butler has been working steadily but non-distinguished-ly.

    ETFA: “Neither directed by Fuqua, thank God.” No criticism of Fuqua intended. I admire his work and don’t know how he got embroiled in Olympus Has Fallen. Fortunately he avoided the sequels.

  46. 46.

    Brachiator

    I remember the first time I saw this video clip about Sir Nicholas Winton. I still get chills.

    Do we ever really know the impact we have had on other people?

    Many years ago, I went to spend part of the summer in another city with my great aunt. She was a sweet old lady, retired from teaching.

    One day, coming out of a supermarket a young woman in her 20s I guess, came up to us, a little shy and hesitant, and said to my great aunt, “Hello, Mrs M. Do you remember me. I was one of your students in …? I just wanted to tell you what a wonderful teacher you were. I’m studying to be a teacher, too.”

    My aunt remembered her and called her by her name.

    Later, talking to another relative, I learned that my great aunt had won all kinds of awards for being a great and inspiring teacher. I had no idea. But I always remember the young woman approaching my great aunt as though she was coming up to a great celebrity.

  52. 52.

    dmsilev

    @Another Scott: When I lived in Chicago, I used to swing by the annual Christkindlmarket downtown and assemble a care package of sorts for her. LA doesn’t really have anything comparable, sadly.

    Edit: The Stollen came from a Long Beach bakery that has a stall at my local farmers market. Along with that, I brought some baskets of fresh raspberries, which you can’t really get in Boston in December…

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    Heck, anyone is able to spin up a Zoom meeting if so inclined.

    Even west coasters. ;)

    (BTW, noon Eastern time is currently just after sunrise here.)

  54. 54.

    hitchhiker

    Here’s to all of you, and thanks for all the jokes, comments, front page reports, animal updates, and life-giving humanity. This place makes my world richer, funnier, and saner every single day.

    Merry merry merry!

  55. 55.

    Alison Rose

    Exceedingly OT but I just came across this and it made me laugh so I thought others might appreciate it, too:

    The unusual appearance of this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal at first baffled European naturalists. In 1799, the first scientists to examine a preserved platypus body judged it a fake made of several animals sewn together.

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    Finished the eight episode Italian Nero Wolfe series on MHz Choice. Overall give it a hair under a B+, which ain’t bad at all. Grew on me after a slightly shaky start. Infused with just enough mild humor to act as a counterweight to investigatory seriousness.

    There aren’t all that many men of any girth who can pull off sometimes wearing a rust colored business suit. The portly lead in this series, however, does. With panache.

  58. 58.

    trollhattan

    Proof, as though we needed it, that conservatives will use the First Amendment to justify virtually anything.

    Seven years after Tesla released the automated driving feature it calls Full Self-Driving, the California Department of Motor Vehicles is pressing accusations of false advertising, with serious implications for the electric car maker.

    Tesla is defending itself by saying, in effect, that the DMV let the company slide for so many years, the case no longer has legal standing. Plus, the company, run by Chief Executive Elon Musk, says the DMV is violating its free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 1st Amendment.

    Meanwhile, the automaker is recalling nearly all of the vehicles it sold in the U.S. — more than 2 million across its model lineup — to update software and fix a defective system that’s supposed to ensure drivers are paying attention when they use Autopilot, a related suite of applications used by the vehicle. but not itself Full Self-Driving.

    Documents posted earlier this month by U.S. safety regulators say the update will increase warnings and alerts to drivers and even limit the areas where basic versions of Autopilot can operate. The recall comes after a two-year investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into a series of crashes that happened while the Autopilot partially automated driving system was in use. Some were deadly.

    The agency says its investigation found Autopilot’s method of ensuring that drivers are paying attention can be inadequate and can lead to “foreseeable misuse of the system.” The added controls and alerts will “further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility,” the documents said.

    But safety experts said that, although the recall is a good step, it doesn’t fix the underlying problem that Tesla’s automated systems have trouble spotting and stopping for obstacles in their path.

    The recall covers models Y, S, 3 and X produced between Oct. 5, 2012, and Dec. 7 of this year. The update was to be sent to certain affected vehicles Tuesday, with the rest getting it at a later date.

    Meanwhile, it would be great if they programmed turn signals that would display automatically with every turn and lane change, because drivers certainly can’t be arsed to use that stick thingie.

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