Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Stand up, dammit!

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

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

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

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

“woke” is the new caravan.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

You are here: Home / Archives for 2024

Archives for 2024

Holidays When We Were Little – Albatrossity – Christmas (cards) from when we were little

by | 30 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Albatrossity is getting us started with our Holidays When We Were Little series.  The images in the post are in chronological order, but this one absolutely needs to be featured first.  Precocious!  I could be wrong, but I don’t think that was Elizabird.  I wonder if she knows about this!  :-)

Please send in your holiday pics from when you were little.  Pics from holiday markets and holiday lights and decorations are also welcome!

~ WaterGirl

On The Road - Albatrossity - Christmas (cards) from when we were little 3

I love the idea of posting pics from Christmases past, even if mine date back to somewhere just this side of the last Ice Age. So here are a few to get the ball rolling.

I may have mentioned before that my dad was a professional photographer, so my childhood (and those of my 5 siblings) was well-documented. He produced a Christmas card, with a family portrait, every year to send to friends and relatives. I have a few of these, but not a complete set. Here are some from the early years.

And, like my dad, I have a photographic project or two every Christmas. Click here to see the links for the 2025 bird photo calendars (Hummingbirds, Birds of Flyover Country, and Bird Butts!).

Holidays When We Were Little – Albatrossity – Christmas (cards) from when we were littlePost + Comments (30)

On The Road - Albatrossity - Christmas (cards) from when we were little 4
December 25, 1950

I was born in September of this year, so this is my first appearance on the Christmas card. Click here for larger image.

Medium Cool – Gender!

by | 156 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.


Medium Cool – Gender! Medium Cool – Gender! 1

Tonight’s Medium Cool comes straight out of a comment in a recent post.

Torrey

Late to the party, as always, but I notice that the vast majority of actors mentioned are male. Is that a function of who we think of as important or of the more limited types of roles available to women–even very talented women–or of the fact that women communicating emotion isn’t culturally considered to be anything special, while men communicating emotion is noteworthy? Just wondering.

So tonight, let’s talk about her observations and try to answer the questions she raised.

And, for good measure, here is the rest of her comment from last week, in case that sparks some thoughts.

And I’d watch Vanessa Redgrave in anything because I have never watched actual Vanessa Redgrave in anything. That’s because every time I think I’m going to watch what will surely be a tour de force of acting by Vanessa Redgrave, she gives the audience about 5 nanoseconds to think that you’re about to watch Vanessa Redgrave, and then Ms. Redgrave vanishes and whatever character she’s playing shows up, and that’s where you are from then until the end of the movie or play. That’s why.

Also Nikola Walker: one gets the impression every line she speaks is just one she thought up at the moment. She is like Spencer Tracy in making acting look like not acting at all.

Rufus Sewell for much the same reason as Nikola Walker.

He’s had some very strange characters to play, with some very strange (and often stilted) lines, and he somehow manages to make those characters sound perfectly natural.

Sir Alec Guinness for the same reason as Vanessa Redgrave.

Let’s get started!

 

Medium Cool – Gender!Post + Comments (156)

War for Ukraine Day 1,026: Iskanders Against Kharkiv

by | 11 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , ,

Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Early today the Russians launched Iskanders against targets in Kharkiv.

A few hours ago, there were a couple of explosions in Kharkiv: russia attacked our city with ballistic missiles.

The worst part is that there are still no details, except that one person was injured, and I’m starting to worry.

— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) December 15, 2024 at 7:59 AM

Today, a russian Iskander-M missile struck Kharkiv, leaving a massive crater close to residential buildings. A woman was injured.The intent was clear: terror, unrelenting & deliberate. Every strike is a reminder that words of condemnation are not enough—this violence demands action!

[image or embed]

— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) December 15, 2024 at 9:08 AM

Kharkiv after today’s russian missile attack

[image or embed]

— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) December 15, 2024 at 10:48 AM

Here’s President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

show full post on front page

War for Ukraine Day 1,026: Iskanders Against KharkivPost + Comments (11)

Petty Theft, Doggie Style

by | 156 Comments

This post is in: 

So I have had more than my share of food-loving dogs.

My cocker spaniel figured out how to open the refrigerator.  On her first successful mission, she got into the fridge overnight after I had made a lovely meal for company.  Leftovers in the fridge included chicken in white wine sauce, wild rice, and homemade chocolate cream pie.  Three chicken breasts, bone-in.  (not good for dogs)  Homemade dark chocolate pie filling.  (not good for dogs)

I learned to duct tape my refrigerator shut.

Visiting my sister one time, we were out shopping for  few hours, and my cocker spaniel had gotten into the dry foods cabinet.  Canned good remained unscathed, but she got into all the cereal.  She also got into an envelope of dried stuff that turns into split pea soup when you add water.  She got it open, but that wasn’t up to snuff so she scattered it all over the floor.

My little Henry figured out how to get into the stainless steel canister that holds the King Arthur Flour double-dark cocoa.  That cannister is so tightly sealed that I can barely get into that when I am baking.  But Henry is nothing but persistent, and he got it open.  He had a chocolate muzzle when I returned home.  He had dry cocoa caked inside his mouth, so I had the pleasure of wiping all of that out of his mouth with a wet rag.  It was so dry that he hadn’t really consumed much of it, so at least I didn’t have to rush him to the vet.

I could go on and on with these stories – my pups are often food hounds.

Anyone else have anything to contribute on this front?

*No politics, no hot takes, no blaming, no predicting, no whining about emojis.  Just petty thievery by our beloved furry friends.  Kitties can get in on the action, too, if they are thieves.  Mine certainly are!

Can we do it?  I guess we’ll find out!

Petty Theft, Doggie StylePost + Comments (156)

UFOS!

by | 163 Comments

This post is in: 

Drones!

People are laughing at failed Senate candidate Larry Hogan mistaking the constellation Orion for drones, and I say please do.   A lot of the “drone sightings” are really planes or helicopters, as the members of r/aviation have been pointing out on Reddit–that example is them debunking a WSJ piece.  Another example is a local reporter close to LaGuardia pointing out jets as drones.

Wait until they see a Starlink satellite train. That’s going to be War-of-the-Worlds-level hysteria.

What’s sad about this is that people are so disconnected from the night sky that when they start looking up, probably after a couple of drinks,  they are primed to over-react to stuff that is commonplace and routine for anyone who’s spent time looking up after dark.  (I used to spend a lot of time outside with a telescope, but then I realized I liked sleeping better.  Sighting jets was pretty common, as were shooting stars, satellites, the ISS, and, recently, Starlink trains.  The photo above was one I took on a foggy night in Toronto.  The thing that looks like a spaceship is the CN tower.)

It’s no coincidence that Fox is pushing this nonsense hard.  They want people inside, ignorant and scared.

UFOS!Post + Comments (163)

Why Elon Opposes Car Crash Reporting

by | 79 Comments

This post is in: 

This honestly surprised me:

Tesla’s vehicles have the highest fatal accident rate among all car brands in America, according to a recent iSeeCars study that analyzed data from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).

The study was conducted on model year 2018–2022 vehicles, and focused on crashes between 2017 and 2022 that resulted in occupant fatalities. Tesla vehicles have a fatal crash rate of 5.6 per billion miles driven, according to the study; Kia is second with a rate of 5.5, and Buick rounds out the top three with a 4.8 rate. The average fatal crash rate for all cars in the United States is 2.8 per billion vehicle miles driven.

The study also breaks down some of the data for individual models. The Tesla Model S has a rate more than double than average, at 5.8 per billion vehicle miles driven; meanwhile, the Tesla Model Y — the best-selling vehicle in the world has a fatal crash rate of 10.6, nearly four times the average. It ranked as the sixth worst vehicle overall. (The Hyundai Venue took the top spot overall, with a fatal crash rate of 13.9.)

There are commenters here (like Martin) who have a lot more experience with Elon and his various enterprises, so this piece (from November 15) is probably common knowledge to some of you.  But I would have thought that the fatal accident rate for Teslas would be not as good as you’d think, but not #1 with a bullet, even outpacing Kia.  Also, I thought this was a very carefully worded way to say Tesla drivers are careless assholes:

“The models on this list likely reflect a combination of driver behavior and driving conditions, leading to increased crashes and fatalities,” iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer said in the report. “A focused, alert driver, traveling at a legal or prudent speed, without being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, is the most likely to arrive safely regardless of the vehicle they’re driving.”

Here’s the story on Elon’s desire to do away with car crash reporting requirements.  Oh, and this:

Why Elon Opposes Car Crash Reporting

Why Elon Opposes Car Crash ReportingPost + Comments (79)