Short video of my dogs charging toward me this morning at the dog park. The clinking sound is their collar name tags.
Shortly after we got home, it rained SO hard — lightning, thunder, wind gusts, etc. Good thing we went when we did. Please feel free to discuss whatever.
beth
Boy that’s a nice looking dog park. You’re lucky to have it and the dogs – they seem like a fun duo.
Villago Delenda Est
I’ve got nothin’.
At this moment.
Just wanted to share that with everyone.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
Oh yeah? Well, I got less than that, so there!
Hill Dweller
If I did have something, it would be good for John McCain.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: I have been pwned.
That is all.
JPL
My dog, Finch, is pretty well behaved. He’ll sit, stay, heel and in general is pretty good except….. I have a large fenced yard and he refuses to come when called. Normally it’s because he is digging a hole. We can practice come in a confined space all day long and it doesn’t help.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hill Dweller: Who was apparently on the Teevee machines this morning saying “we had this thing won” in Iraq. Who’s “we”? What’s “this thing”? and what does “won” mean? Other than that… Apparently Mika B, of all people, pushed back. I didn’t see the point in playing the video.
I wonder if any of the Very Serious Poobahs around the table were thinking “I can’t be the only one thinking we should all ignore this bitter old crank”, but I think I’d be depressed by the answer.
skyweaver
Awww! Puppies! That is a nice dog park. My local one is a cramped inner-city compared to yours – about a quarter of the size and no grass, just wood chips and dirt. One enormous tree in the center that I don’t know how survives with so much dog pee watering it constantly.
the Conster
I thought this comment from Devin Nunes was really interesting. This is what dismounting from a tiger looks like.
Rob in CT
I really want to take the afternoon off today. But I would probably be better off saving the time (not that I’m actually low on PTO time, but still).
Decisions, decisions! #firstworldproblems.
I see that Blankfein deigned to state that massive inequality is “destabilizing.” Which puts him on the “not insane” side of the plutocracy, along with Buffet. Of course, he runs the Vampire Squid. ;)
I have a general sense that the Dems are gonna get killed in the mid-terms. Like a 2010 wipeout. I’d love to believe otherwise, but I think once again our side won’t show up to vote. Maybe this dreary weather is getting to me.
pharniel
Fred Hiatt decided that George Will could not be Worst Human In The World contention unopposed.
Article at the GOS on the response
daveNYC
How far gone is FIFA that they let crapsack officiating like yesterday’s happen in the very first match (and the only one that day, so everyone was watching) of the World Cup.
The concept of making a good first impression seems to have escaped them.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Villago Delenda Est: Nothing ain’t worth nothing, but it’s free.
beth
@JPL: Our neighborhood just took a pond, fenced it in and called it a dog park. There’s a little dry land strip around the pond so it’s impossible to take your dog there without it getting wet and muddy. Since my dog loves, loves, loves the water, it’s impossible to get her out of it. She’ll come on command at home but even treats won’t always get her out of the water. I’ve had to wade in a few times.
On the good side, the other side of the fence is the neighborhood tennis courts so there’s always dozens of tennis balls to play with at the park.
Redshift
One of the NewsMax headlines is “David Brat Facing Storm Over Hitler Comments.” This makes me happy.
Rob in CT
@pharniel:
Sully’s got a post up from a reader sorta-kinda defending Will too. It’s sort of a “well, he didn’t really say this thing that is a little bit better sounding, but let’s pretend he did…”
beltane
@JPL: My dog is the same way. The trick I learned to get her to come is to sit on the ground and pretend to cry. Then she runs right over and sits like an angel. Guilt works wonders with my dog.
Amir Khalid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t think John McCain will ever understand that America lost “this thing” precisely by going into Iraq.
MattF
If you were wondering if the fine art market is a scam:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/arts/design/note-to-forgers-dont-forget-the-spell-check.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C%5B%22RI%3A9%22%2C%22RI%3A14%22%5D
So, is it Piccasso or Picasso?
Randy P
Getting ready for a trip to Italy next week. Excited about that.
Violet
@the Conster: From your link:
Heh. I guess “more exotic” is the sanitized version of “batshit crazy.”
Felonius Monk
Third straight day of rain here and cool again. You can see the grass growing. By the time it’s dry enough to mow it will be knee high.
Other than that, I’m a member of the “I got nothin'” club.
Morzer
@MattF:
Picasa
beltane
@Violet: I actually like the use of the word “exotic” here. It makes the teabaggers seem foreign, strange, and subversive.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Amir Khalid: I can’t figure out if he’s trying to use “the surge” et al to compensate for Vietnam, his presidential campaigns, or both
Like Ed Kilgore, I’m having flashbacks to names and outfits I haven’t thought about in years. Moqtada al Sadr and Ayatollah al Sistani are calling on Shi’as to rise up against the Sunnis of ISIS.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Which Ron Fournier will blame on Obama’s lack of leadership
Amir Khalid
@daveNYC:
Crap officiating is pretty much a World Cup tradition. This referee yellow-carded a player three times in a group game in 2006, which should be impossible. He was so embarrassed by his mistake that he retired immediately from refereeing in international tournaments.
the Conster
@Violet:
Yeah, that caught my eye too. I think it’s a good word to describe the tiger he’s riding.
raven
Our sewer project bid opening it at 2pm. If it’s under 200k they can proceed, if over it has to go back to the mayor and council and that adds 2 months. I was all excited that I had a 50/50 shot till the head of water and sewer was out here and said “oh, I don’t think it will be under and if it is we probably wouldn’t accept it”!
japa21
Saw a shirt yesterday with this saying:
To the rest of the world
You are just one person…
To your dog
You are the whole world.
We know that sometime soon we are going to have to make a hard decision with our almost 16 year old beagle. Damn, it’s gonna hurt bad.
raven
@Amir Khalid: So I assume that there is no doubt that this was the most horrible call in the history of the game and that if they used replay like they do in football there is absolutely no doubt that they would over turn it?
beth
@Violet: I think I saw that the Brat guy who beat Cantor has pledged not to vote for a debt ceiling increase during his first five years in Congress. Funny, how that takes him through the next President (probably a Democrat) and allows the party to continue once a proper Republican President has a chance to be put in place.
beltane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: John McCain is something of an alchemist. He believes that you can turn Fail into Win by adding more Fail. It is a matter of faith with him.
Iraq ought to be the stake in the heart of neoconservatism as a legitimate school of thought. Sadly, too many people in the Beltway are incapable of seeing the obvious so I am not sure anything has been learned.
WaterGirl
@raven: That’s got to be a bit discouraging, to say the least. At least it sounds like the head of water and sewer is on your side, and that may turn out to be more important than anything else.
D58826
@Amir Khalid: Leslie Gelb at Daily Beast and Fareed Zakarra at WAPO (link thru kos) both say the same thing, with varying g degrees of anger, – Iraq was never ours to win or lose. Just like China and Vietnam if the locals won’t fight for their country the US can’t make up the difference. The same will apply to Afghanistan in a couple of years, There is a former Bushie complaining about all of the bad things Obama had done in Iraq, as if history started in 2011. It is just beyond d depressing that any of these idiots is given time on a real media outlet (Pravda’s local affiliate Fox doesn’t count)
srv
You get dog parks, I get a morning roasting of Chris Hedges.
At least Obama is considering Courtesy Bombing Iraqis, while the pure here can’t abandon them fast enough.
raven
@WaterGirl: Yea, we are ok. He did take the opportunity to tell me, in front of my neighbor, how lucky we are that the city is going to spend the money to do this. I yukked it up and resisted saying, “yea and if you fucking jackasses knew where your sewer was you would not have issued a building and historic permit”!
Violet
@beltane: It is an interesting word choice. The good thing is, they’re speaking that which they previously wouldn’t name–that they’ve got some utterly batshit crazy people in their caucus. Baby steps.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
Dubious penalty/no penalty calls happen on every matchday in every league at every level all over the planet. So by itself, that one dubious call is no biggie. But the consensus among the FIFA establishment on video replay is: over our dead bodies.
shortstop
Boxers are good people.
JPL
@beth: At least I don’t have a pond.
Cacti
NoiseMax headlines accidentally ask a pertinent question about Iraq:
“Did Americans spill blood in vain”?
Of course they did. We fought a war that never needed to be fought, and didn’t have to be fought. We sent hundreds of thousands to their deaths for neoconservative geopolitical ambitions.
It was a bloody mess and a stain on our nation’s reputation.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Mika B needs to be beaten to within an inch of her worthless life. This is basically the same line that Scott Pelley was using on the CBS Evening Snooze last night…that we paid such a high price in blood for all these Iraqi towns, and now the Al Qaeda guys are just waltzing (or perhaps frugging) into them.
Of course, ignores the entire issue of whether or not we should have been there in the first place, but these are all deserting coward fellators/fellatrixes. Scum who should hang from the same gallows as the neocons themselves.
schrodinger's cat
Doggie thread needs kittehs.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Going to vet in 2 hours with Yeller. Luckily in the 3 years we’ve had him he’s only had to go about 4 times for shots and check-ups and the like. He FUCKING hates the vet. Shaking, whining, barking, howling. Good times. And all the staff, “So that’s why he’s named Yeller.” I didn’t name him, but it sure is fitting.
D58826
@beth: says what-
. It amazes me that these constitutional conservatives donot seem to read the constitution (other than the 2nd amendment). Congressmen only serve 2 year terms. Obviously he is a bigger idiot than we gave him credit for. Last week it was Allan West explaining how Obama violated the rules of Article II signing statements. Which is interesting since there is no constitutional or statutory provision for signing statements.
raven
@Amir Khalid: That’s my problem with all the whining. It’s a human element in a human game. Was is a mistake? Maybe but it was sure not the only mistake made out there yesterday. To slow the game down with replay would be a much worse crime than that call.
schrodinger's cat
David Brooks has the chutzpah to blame Obama and Bush equally for the current mess in Iraq in his column today.
Villago Delenda Est
@srv: Killing Malaki’s enemies for him won’t solve anything. More will rise up to take their place.
Unless you’re advocating genocide as a solution, of course. Are you?
Villago Delenda Est
@D58826: I am of the opinion that “Former Bushies” should all be six feet under by now.
Cacti
@Amir Khalid:
One goal came from a questionable call. 2-goals were fully legit and the keeper was in a position to make saves on either one. In a game that ended 3-1, it’s hard to argue that one bad call was decisive. He also made the right read on the pk and got a hand on it, but couldn’t keep it out.
Weak goal keeping was mostly what boned Croatia.
schrodinger's cat
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I have to take my crew in sometime this month. The two kittehs starts singing the moment I put them in their boxes, they make the most heart rending and sorrowful noises till they reach the vet’s, a few miles away. It is surprising how much noise to normally quiet kittehs can make.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: The way you win is not to play the game.
Grandpa Walnuts never figured that out. Too busy planning the next auger in.
catclub
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was somewhat surprised to learn that the Iraqi Army in Mosul that evaporated rather than fight WAS Shia dominated. I thought it would have had too many Sunnis who did not want fight their co-religionists, but no, just disorganized and feeling outnumbered by the civilian population. It makes the pictures of Shia in Baghdad lining up to sign up and fight the Sunni ISIS groups a little less impressive.
raven
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Ha, Lil Bit went in this morning for her sami-annual blood work and assorted adjustments. She has a gp, ophthalmologist and a heart specialist and she loves them all because they might have a cookie.
schrodinger's cat
@beth: And he is an economics professor so he knows what his nihilism will do to the economy.
Suffern ACE
@beth: Actually that takes him through 3 elections as a congressman, after which time he becomes eligible for the Congressional Pension. Retirement income secure, he can then vote to not ruin the country.
Cacti
@catclub:
The De-Ba’athification policy of Bush/Cheney led to the purging of most of the senior officers from the Iraqi Army.
Just one more in a long line of strategically questionable choices.
Old Dan and Little Ann
My old dog would calmly walk in and lay under my legs until it was our turn. He had a lot more practice going to the vet, though. Yeller can’t even sit on command after nearly 3 years. It’s mostly on me for giving up. Maybe I’ll try telling him while were there to play “World Cup” and see if he flops down on the ground. : )
catclub
@Villago Delenda Est: I liked the amusing posts at LGM that point out we want to back ISIS, which is fighting Assad, in Syria, but we want to aid Iran in opposing ISIS in Iraq. [Where ‘we’ is idiots who want to get involved in whatever clusterfuck of warfare is going on.]
Suffern ACE
I see that the President is about to speak about Iraq. I can’t stream at work. Let me know if I have to crawl under my desk under howls of “Too Little, Too Late” from the right and “Bush’s 4th Term” from the left.
srv
@Villago Delenda Est: We have to deal with the Civil War we have, not that we wish we had.
I didn’t know ISIS represented the will of the entire Sunni populace. Citation required.
Some would say they weren’t going to stop with Syria. Some would say they’re not going to stop with Iraq. How far do they need to go before “Maliki’s” problems become our problems?
Amir Khalid
@raven:
In the gridiron sport (i.e. American football), video replay is not so problematic. Almost every play is a dead-ball situation, and the ball typically goes dead again after less than a minute. But in (association) football you want the play to be as continuous as possible. While I as a fan would welcome the certainty of video replay as an officiating aid, I agree with you that its routine use would be disruptive to the flow of a match.
Suffern ACE
I wonder if the parliment of Turkey has the kind of investigative committee structure that the US and will launch a whole bunch of Benghazi-type investigations into Mosul. It seems that the Kurds were warning the counselate days before Mosul fell to leave the city because ISIL was about to take over.
kindness
That’s a big dog park. Out here in Ca they make them smaller.
schrodinger's cat
@catclub: That’s because they are idiots and we are fucked because they are taken seriously.
raven
@Amir Khalid: Yes, even in the dead-ball situation it really slows and already too slow game.
Suffern ACE
@raven: The game was better without it. The league is absolutely opposed to fumbling the ball for some reason, so every fumble forces the game to stop for a review. If they don’t want fumbles to change the course of the game, perhaps they should just make the ball easier to throw, catch and hold onto.
gene108
@the Conster:
I wonder what would happen, if the Democrats would use the debt ceiling as a hostage to get immigration reform, tax hikes on the rich or some other part of their agenda trough the House, because implicit in Nunes comment about raising the debt ceiling, while “exotic” Republicans will not vote for a debt ceiling hike is that the Democrats will vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling, along with however many Republicans decide to chip in,
WaterGirl
@Suffern ACE: Damn, I didn’t see that until just a minute ago. I caught the last question. What did the President say?
Betty Cracker
@Suffern ACE: Of course the chorus will be deafening, but basically he said we’re not sending soldiers back in, his team is getting a report together for him to review with other support options and that the Iraqi government needs to get its shit together before we’ll do anything.
D58826
John Mccain is right – if we put boots on the ground it will result in the Sunni and Shiites no longer shooting at one another. Unfortunately they will start shooting at our troops. hmmm. what is plan B
Amir Khalid
TPM’s Josh Marshall is surprised that the Tea Party tendency doesn’t have a candidate for the House majority leader post that
EddieEric Cantor is quitting. I think it’s for the obvious reason: they just don’t think that far ahead.D58826
Listening to the scum on Fox. Obama installed Maliki. No one corrected that flat out lie. Obama failed to negotiate a SOFA agreement. Well so did Bush. It was the same sticking point – legal liability of American troops in Iraq. If Obama had agreed to place American troops under Iraqi law the GOP would have exploded.
Bobby Thomson
@D58826: I thought that Plan B was for McCain was to tell the Sunni and Shiites to quit the bullshit. I recommend a peacekeeping force consisting of McCain, Ch*ney, Rumsfeld, Bush, Rice, Powell, and the usual gang of idiots.
Betty Cracker
@srv: What do you think the US should do in Iraq?
burnspbesq
More on the amazing antics of Florida Man:
Don’t have the link handy, but somebody posted something to my Facebook page about a guy who got arrested in Panama City Beach for trying to sell dope to a UNIFORMED cop. While pushing a stroller with a toddler in it.
burnspbesq
@Bobby Thomson:
You forgot Addington.
And can we add Rubio, Cruz, and Gohmert?
srv
@D58826: Your Plan A sounds like a good plan to unify Iraqis. Alas, McCain is not correct.
The Shia and Kurds are not going to shoot at our troops. Many of the Sunni won’t either.
ISIS is a small, but effective terrorist army. There is no evidence the are representative of 10 million Sunni/Baathist Iraqis.
D58826
OH FSM, McCain is talking. Send him back to the Hanoi Hilton. He has a whole list of people who Obama should call in because they were responsible for the success in Iraq. He agrees that Malik is part of the political problem. GEE wiz what an insight. He is concerned that Malik will become dependent on the Iranians. Where has this joker been for the past 6 years. Malik is owned by the Iranians. He spent 24 years in exile most of it in Iran. The Sunni’s and Shia have been at each others throats for 1500 years. WE ARE NOT going to change that. He also wants the US to stay in Afghanistan as a stabilizing force. not a fight force. Exactly what does that mean – the troops just sit in base camps and take casualties from rocket fire w/o shooting back.
Oh glory he won’t put boots on the ground in Iraq but wants to stabilize the country. Obama just has to get his green lantern suit on.
burnspbesq
@raven:
Actually it’s only the second most horrible call in the history of the game.
Have your forgotten TORSTEN FRINGS!!!?
D58826
@srv: ISIS and the majority of the Sunni’s are allies of convince. The enemy of my enemy…… The Shia and Malik have frozen the Sunni minority out and n ow it’s payback time from the point of view of the Sunni tribes.
srv
@Betty Cracker: The evidence is that ISIS, or at least parts of it, are a very effective fighting force. US airpower is not going to hold the ground. I would doubt the SF that will no doubt accompany any courtesy bombings can ‘win’ this conflict on their own.
So we need to sit down with Maliki, the Kurds and Iran and negotiate a status of forces agreement and go back into some level to push back. We need to stop f’ing around in Syria. We need to start courtesy killing whichever ME princes are funding ISIL/ISIS/whatever.
I mean, these guys are too radical for AQ. How do you think that is going to turn out?
Interrobang
Ontario had its provincial election last night, which resulted in a stunning majority government for the Liberals. We now have our first elected female premier, who also happens to be an out and married lesbian (this was absolutely a non-issue in the campaign, even by the Conservatives, for whom no smear tactic seems too low).
She ran to the left after years of Liberal “triangulation”-style rightward drift, which feels like some kind of vindication to me.
The usual suspects are pissed, and bitching and moaning because they’re afraid their taxes will go up, but I’m generally happy with this government, because the last Conservative government here took an enormous human toll — people aren’t sleeping in every second bus shelter around here anymore in part because they’re building geared-to-income housing for the first time in a decade or so (the CRAP guy said “the free market can handle it” and, yeah); the high school graduation rate has gone up ~20%, and we might actually get a high-speed rail link between my hometown and Toronto, like civilised folks.
If that means I pay more taxes (as I make way over the single-person median income for the province), fuck yeah, sign me up.
PaulW
Broward County North Regional Library in Coconut Creek is hosting their 20th anniversary this Saturday.
the Conster
@D58826:
This would be a great time for Obama to come on TV again, flip a double bird to the camera, and tell everyone that since john McCain is president now he can make all the decisions and fuck everybody.
bemused
I must avoid msm tv news as much as possible. McCain will everywhere in the near future or longer, shudder. Early am we scrambled for the remote soon after hearing old crabass having a fit repeatedly saying “we won this”.
fidelio
@JPL: In a closed space, there isn’t anything interesting enough to win out over coming over to you and seeing if there might be a treat involved. Out in the yard, there are all the fascinating things in the yard, plus A Hole! A wonderful, wonderful hole, which has such neat smells in it, plus the dirt feels so good–it would have to be an awesome treat (and you might not even have one, meanie that you are) to top all that.
srv
@D58826: I doubt that the former Sons of Iraq are going to be any happier with ISIS than they were with AQ in Iraq.
Sure, there’s a political problem that needs to be solved. Partition it, I don’t care, but right now you’ve got a tiny minority which is better funded, better managed and more effective than AQI – we have to crush them.
D58826
@the Conster: Excellent idea. lLet Shadow President McCain handle it and he can send Sarah Palin to Iraq on a fact finding mission (assuming that she can see it from her house)
Betty Cracker
@srv: So, boots on the ground. Glad you’re not in charge.
PurpleGirl
Happy goggies are happy.
Morzer
More good news for John McCain!
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-no-us-troops-iraq
Suffern ACE
@Morzer: Good to know. Unfortunately, there is little we can do to make it so as long as Malaki is there.
D58826
@srv: 1. According to several articles the Sons Of Iraq no longer exist. Malik shut tem down as a threat to his power.
2. ‘WE” ? That didn’t work out so well the last time. We bought off the Sunni tribes in 2006/2007. That’s why the surge ‘worked’.
Morzer
@Suffern ACE:
I suspect that might be part of what the President* is implicitly saying.
*I just like being able to put the fact of Obama being our President in bold.
shortstop
I know this is a rather sick and wholly inappropriate thought, but I just realized John McCain’s funeral is going to be the biggest poopfest of policy revisionism, military fetishism, undefined “maverick” worship and general vomit-inducing commentary this country has ever seen. I’d love to stop having to see his sour face and hear his creepy laugh/high-pitched whining, but the final event on the way to that prize is going to be totally grotesque.
srv
@D58826: It was a movement, not a something you got an ID card for.
We bought them before. Why do you assume we can’t buy them again?
shortstop
@Morzer: The president? The smarter, calmer, cooler, more charismatic, younger, taller, non-white guy who shellacked John McCain? That president?
D58826
@srv: Of course we can buy them again assuming the duly elected dictator of Iraq allows us to. Iraq is after all a sovereign nation. George Bush told us that. Remember all of those elections and the purple fingers? We don’t call the shots any more. It’s their country and the Iraqi army has to be willing to fight for it. The problem is the Iraqi army is dominated by the Shia and they are not motivated to protect Sunni cities or citizens. If ISIS moves further south and threatens Bagdad and other Shia cities I think you will see much stiffer resistance.
The entire region is a swamp of ancient hates and blood feud’s. We should have learned that in Lebanon when we backed the Christians and the Shia blew up the Marine compound.
In 1923, after creating the mess, Churchill said that in occupying Iraq Britain was spending 8 million pounds a year to sit on an angry volcano. Nothing has changed except the denomination of the currency
catclub
@srv:
Can you imagine how much fun the peace conference with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria and Turkey at the table, will be? Plus ISIS and the Syrian Free Army… and the Kurds.
Morzer
@shortstop:
Yes, we did!!!
Suffern ACE
@catclub: I’m not certain partitioning is going to solve much. It always sounds like a good idea, if people are willing to move where they “belong”, or if fate has sorted people into the right places. You’re going to end up with the zone for the Shia who like Iran, and one for the Sunnis who aren’t all that interested in fighting Kurds, and another for Shia who don’t like Iran, and another for Sunnis who aren’t Arabs and it goes on and on.
catclub
@Suffern ACE:
I read Midnight’s Children. I never thought it was a good idea. I was just pointing out something amusing. It is more like the worst possible idea, except for all the other bad ideas.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
Actual thinking is not part of their festivities. Long term, short term. No.
Following. That’s what they do. The whole concept is to act alike. And look alike. Thinking? Not so much.
schrodinger's cat
@catclub: I haven’t read Midnight’s Children, but the 1947 partition of India was one of the worst blood baths in history. It casts its long shadow over the subcontinent even to this day.
Ruckus
@shortstop:
Or you can think about pissing on his grave. Gives me a smile just thinking about it. Positive thoughts.
muddy
@Ruckus: Sometimes I feel ashamed of myself because I’ll mock his arm movements while pretending to be him saying stupid things. I tell myself that there is plenty to mock without bringing an injury from his POW days into it. But he’s such a horrible hypocrite warmonger, I just hate him and the impulse overwhelms me.
I hasten to say I do this to amuse myself in my own home, not out in front of people. The dogs think it’s great. You know how it is when you have an appreciative audience for tasteless hijinks.
StringOnAStick
Argh. I’m on day 3 of a screaming case of contact dermatitis, all due to using a tarp to cover a load of brush I was taking to the dump that apparently had landscape juniper pollen on it. Got a steroid shot Weds AM and prescription topic steroid, and it is barely better. Actually, it is full-tilt miserable; can’t sleep, can’t let anything touch my arms, and I would dearly love to scratch my skin off.
And it is all due to driving 5 hours to visit and work on the overgrown yard of my occasionally estranged, 82 year old wingnut parents. I spent 4 days of 10 to 12 hours each, pruning, digging and sweating in 90+ degree sun, then watched my dad first back the trailer into their new Tuff Shed, then nearly jack knife the trailer and smash in the bumper and rear quarter panel. Later I tried to talk to him about recognizing that if they want to stay in their house, they are going to have to start recognizing that they need to hire out a lot of the work and stop doing things they can no longer do safely. He got his rage on and told me to get the hell out, so after a 10 hour day I showered, packed my bag, and headed out for home with a Starbucks to keep me awake while I made the long drive. I wasn’t angry or surprised, I was actually relieved to get out of there after days of my mom trying to pick Fox-associated fights and being afraid of when the next rage outburst was coming from my dad.
My parents are obviously starting to exhibit cognitive decline, and the heavy boozing isn’t helping either. They have good neighbors who help way more than they should, and who couldn’t wait to take me aside and tell me my folks are not quite right compared to last year, but they feel like if they were to move my folks would die of broken hearts. The thing my mom loves more than anything is her house/garden, and for my dad it is his career; now that they are getting too old to maintain either so they are sad and angry. Their lives have always been about those 2 things, not about relationships with their kids or any friends. That doesn’t change the facts on the ground though, being mad isn’t going to make them suddenly younger or stop the ravages of age, it just makes them really unpleasant to be around. Their neighbors are like the kids they wished they’d had, instead of the ones they got stuck with; they didn’t speak to me for several years after Obama was first elected because apparently that was my fault, and besides, Fox says all liberals are to be hated, right?
I have to say too, that I think a good part of their poor reality-testing skills and decline has to do with a steady diet of Fox news combined with their chosen social isolation. If the reality you are buying into is as false as the Fox narrative, is cognitive decline any surprise? Fox is the feeder tube for your daily dose of rage and mental inflexibility.
muddy
@StringOnAStick: That’s horrible. I’m sorry! I was having a bad day, but it’s nothing to that.
I took care of my abusive mother for years, and it was a killer. Literally, I ended up with health problems that there was no fix for. Be careful for yourself.
muddy
double
Betty Cracker
@StringOnAStick: Man, that sucks, and I am sorry you have to deal with such a bad situation.
It must be maddening and saddening on so many levels. Fox is a scourge upon the land. If I could annihilate it with a wave of a magic wand, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so.
I don’t know jackshit about brain science, but it really wouldn’t surprise me if burning neural rage pathways via viewing Fox had all kinds of horrible side effects.
Remember that thread we had about it here awhile back? Fox seems to have turned a lot of people’s olds into rage-o-holics.
raven
Well, the sewer bid came in and it seems that the range on the bid documents was sort of a joke. I had a clue when the city dude said that if it came in under $200k he probably would reject it. The highest bid was $500!!! $295 took it and now it has to go back to the mayor and commission for approval. The purchasing agent said there is normally no problem with a bid being accepted, that the M&C don’t even see the bid docs. This adds time but it is progress.
Morzer
@Betty Cracker:
I really think there must be a link between the way the brain is wired for addiction and the Fox effect on people. Some people really, really crave the rage high and the anger rush – and Fox gives them that 24/7. I remember reading that one of the side effects of heavy meth use is anhedonia – and that seems to apply to Fox junkies as well.
schrodinger's cat
My tiny contribution to Iraq punditry: Mission not Accomplished.
bemused
@shortstop:
Reagan’s funeral was at least a week long media extravaganza, iirc. Maddening on so many levels.
srv
@StringOnAStick: Peace in your mind, however you can reach that.
I’m blessed with parents who get more liberal as they age.
You know what someone needs to invent?
A dongle you can put on your folks’ cable wire that would convert the words:
Fast & Furious -> Iran Contra
Obama -> Reagan
Benghazi -> Beirut
muddy
@Betty Cracker: Not just olds. I have seen this in middle-aged former friends. I was saying in here last night about this one guy who was on about Ant People recently.
raven
@bemused: And killing the dedication of the WWII memorial.
muddy
@Morzer: I agree with this rageahol theory entirely. Speaking of which, I thought of you this morning when I saw this article regarding ants.
bemused
@raven:
Hmm, I avoided watching the lovefest so carefully that I have no memory of the memorial. Did the media pay any attention to that?
raven
@bemused: There were lot’s of WWII vets on hand and it did receive coverage but not what it would have been.
Morzer
@muddy:
No wonder that poor man is so paranoid about the Ant People!
muddy
@Morzer: I know! I wonder what kind of gun would be the best to protect one from this horror? I’m guessing a big one.
bemused
@raven:
Not surprised.
Elizabelle
For your Friday the 13th viewing: 15 mins from now on Turner Classic Movies:
Early, way early Francis Ford Coppola movie (1963; his second directed): Dementia 13.
American International Pictures. Someone’s killing members of a family. (Not Italian.)
Then: 13 Ghosts. Then 13 Frightened Girls.
Then: an evening of pirate movies. Oh well.
Elizabelle
I liked the boxer video. They do move. Nice dog park (as others have mentioned).
We have thundershowers here this afternoon. (Northern Virginia)
StringOnAStick
@Betty Cracker: Thanks for everyone’s concern. I’m really pretty peaceful about it; it’s not like I haven’t had history like this with them before, and my dad’s always been a rage-aholic. That’s rather why I’ve been very limited in how much of myself I expose to them since I know it will usually end up like this. I am fortunate that my older half sister lives in the same town with them, and she is a retired nurse, plus I have a younger sister who has remained much more attached to them than I have (probably not for the healthiest of reasons, but that’s her deal). Now I get to wrestle with guilt over how much (or little) I should be involved. I don’t yet know how much my other sisters are willing to be involved either, but we’ll have a phone conference tonight.
I really do think Fox has messed up a lot of older people, and it is not just the daily rage injection; it’s more than that. What is senility, except decreased ability to recognize reality at a level that is adequate for normal functioning? And what is Fox but an outlet for a carnival mirror reality that makes Murdock rich and keeps the rethugs in greater power than they should be?
SatanicPanic
@Betty Cracker: It’s got to make you nuts. Until I went to visit my aunt and uncle last year after not seeing them for a few years I was skeptical about claims that FOX was ruining our olds. NOT ANYMORE. Jeez, my aunt couldn’t go 10 minutes without dropping some dark hint about Obama or something liberals had done. She was obsessed. Wow that unnerving.
Villago Delenda Est
@shortstop: I don’t know. It’s going to be difficult to top the Reagasm in all those departments.
Betty Cracker
@SatanicPanic: I hear you. My father has always been a wingnut, but Fox has definitely made him worse. We’ve had a long-standing agreement not to discuss politics, but we slip up every now and then. One time he said the University of Florida brainwashed me into being a liberal — as if! And I replied that Fox News was rotting his brain. Then we remembered our agreement and changed the subject to fishing…
KS in MA
@Redshift:
Bravo! Looks like he’s off to a strong start!
FlyingToaster
I got to go to a after-school “we’re not kindergartners any more” picnic in the rain. At a spray park. Where WarriorGirl changed into a T-Shirt she’d painted, then took off her raincoat and boots. She got completely soaking wet, between the rain and the sprayers she kept turning on.
She bitched when only four kids came, but I was like, “it’s pouring rain; you and are playing in the rain and the other two kids are hiding under the roof with the grownups.”
MomSchool starts Monday. Which will emphasize lower-case letters, science kits, and needlepoint. And care of Cherry Tomato Plants, and Bean Plants, and Marigolds. And cleaning the disaster area which is the basement family room.
Fort Geek
@Morzer: On my blog, whenever I invoke him, I always go with “Nobel Peace Prize Winner President Barack Obama.” Takes a little more effort to type…but gawddamn it’s cool to say.
…but since no one reads the blog, it’s more for my own amusement than anything.
WaterGirl
@SatanicPanic: I still haven’t seen it with anyone I know, but my parents and their siblings have been gone a long time. The older people I know are more conservative than I am, but they are not angry or hateful like this.
I imagine it would be a shock to see it in person.
gbear
@shortstop: Unless he’s found wearing two wet suits…
KS in MA
@StringOnAStick:
Helping out parents who are abusive is about as close to doing the Lord’s work as it gets. (You too, Muddy.) Get well soon!
JR in WV
@Cacti:
I have to say, the stains are on the Republicans, not on the nation, and certainly not on me… I remembered the big green choppers flying off the embassy roof in Ho Chi Minh
City, and the smell of tear gas in DC, and hated the bastards planning to kill thousands and thousands of innocents just for the fun of it!
I think we should send troops back into Iraq, Republican party leaders, by dropping then from B-52s – they could even have parachutes if they want.
There’s a policy for you!
SPLATTT!