Looks like we need an open thread. This song is by a local band who have just released their first album. It sounds a bit like Cat Power took a mommy-sized Valium, but it grows on you.
Open Thread
by $8 blue check mistermix| 98 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
jibeaux
I haz a sad because I have to re-home a generally sweet dog, a 16# very cute terrier mix guy, 1 year old. He snapped at another little girl and bit or scratched my 6 – year old on the face, not enough to break the skin but enough to raise a welt. He is in no way Cujo but I just can’t keep him, he needs a household without young children. My older son is really, really upset. If anyone in NC without young kids and without cats is looking to add a little guy, I’d love to hear from you, I can give you plenty of details and pictures. He does great with most other dogs, if they’re active.
Freemark
FANTASY FOOTBALL
Created a last chance league since I always work too late to get signed up on the other bj leagues. There are 7 spots still open.
draft time 10:15pm
standard ESPN league
bjfl League of Last Chances
http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/leagueoffice?leagueId=1033582
pw: alsotoo
lol
Wasn’t there a derp debate last night? Or did it get delayed?
niknik
Well, finally…
I’ve been waiting for an open thread where I could be the first to troll about whose side I’m on in the ABL-AL WWIII (stands for World War Eleventy-one)
Anyone still interested in $.02 more?
…Bueller…
jeffreyw
Good Morning, Sunshine!
jibeaux
@jeffreyw: That’s just lovely! Is that a light-up hummingbird feeder?
norbizness
Cat Power on valium would be dead, as Cat Power was like Mazzy Star on valium, who in turn was like the Sundays on valium.
jeffreyw
@jibeaux: Thanks! The feeder was back lit by the rising sun this morning. When I first noticed it there was also a halo of hummers flitting about, wings a blur and also lit. I ran a bunch of shots but never got anything really more striking than this one, the very first shot.
jibeaux
@jeffreyw: Wow. It’s like the sun is concentrated into the hummingbird feeder glass. Amazing shot. You ought to enter that into something.
General Stuck
@jeffreyw:
WoWee! Jeffrey. That is an exquisite image. Very well done!!!!
I have a few more hummers hanging around right now. Been a weird year for them, but the season is wrapping up with not being a total wash.
jeffreyw
@General Stuck: Thanks, General. Glad that your birdies are picking up a bit.
jibeaux
One more rant. I just found out that for my kids’ public school, the copying limit last year was 1200 copies per month. That’s about 60 copies per work day, so when you consider the handouts that you need to run off for each of your 25 to 30 kids plus any handouts that need to go home to parents, not a huge amount. This year after significant budget cuts from our newly Republican general assembly, teachers can make 500 copies per nine week period. If you’ve got your calculator handy, that’s enough for the kids in your class to receive two sheets of paper from you per week. If the teacher has to, say, let everyone know about a field trip, then (s)he can make one instructional handout for that week. Douche. Bags.
Amir Khalid
@jeffreyw:
That’s a beautiful picture. My compliments to the photographer — and yes, you should enter that image in a contest.
Not so beautiful, alas, is this story: a Brazilian journalist is turned away from filming a high-school football game in Texas, after saying he’s from Al-Jazeera.
jeffreyw
@Amir Khalid: Thank you, sir.
cleek
@norbizness:
… who in turn was like Belly on valium, who in turn was like Big Star on estrogen.
Mark S.
Is there a bigger assclown in the world than Colin Cowherd (scroll to the end to get to the part about him)? I swear, if Sean Hannity went into sports instead of politics, that is exactly how he would sound.
geg6
Sad…
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/Former-NHL-Players-Among-Dead-in-Russian-Plane-Crash-129369933.html
Svensker
@jibeaux:
Since the kids are in public school they’re all moochers anyway. You want free paper, too, with your sockalism?
/wingnut
Honestly, that just stinks.
The Commish
Still one more spot in the Balloon Juice Fantasy Football League…..draft tonight!
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/797340
Password to join is alsotoo.
Mark S.
@The Commish:
Nice.
jibeaux
@Svensker: It’s idiotic. It goes without saying that there aren’t computers in the classrooms, either, only in the library. Used to be in a computer lab, but that room was needed for a classroom this year. So it’s not like they’re moving to some sort of model where everyone has an iPad or something. More like a model where everyone has a chalkboard. Maybe they can go scratch in the dirt with sticks, that’s free.
jibeaux
@Svensker: Also, too, I asked if it would help for me to send in some copy paper but I’m halfway expecting to learn there’s some sort of fucking toner ration.
*grumpy old lady shakes fist * in my day, the teachers had all the paper they wanted. You had to use those purple mimeograph machines and no one could read the damn things, but by golly no one was going to tell you you had to stop printing them.
cathyx
@jibeaux: I don’t understand that there are no computers on the classroom. Apple donates laptops to schools. It wouldn’t cost anything.
PeakVT
@Svensker: The legislators know that dedicated teachers will just pay for copies out of their salaries. And those that can’t or won’t, well, that just shows how bad all public school teachers are, right? It’s a lose-lose for teachers, which to Republicans means all-win.
Mark S.
Will she . . . or won’t she?
71% Of Republicans Don’t Want Sarah Palin To Run
But . . . there’s still a possibility! Stay tuned for round the clock coverage on this extremely important issue!
In other news, 9/11! 9/11! 9/11!
jibeaux
@cathyx: If you want to give me the details on how to apply for that, I’ll do it. I’m on the fundraising committee. Checking the website quickly, I see a lot of offers to sell my school computers.
Mark S.
@jibeaux:
Um, how do you give tests with those ridiculous requirements? I guess they have to all be about one page long.
geg6
@Mark S.:
If I have to listen to another paen to the “lost” America of pre-9/11, I’m gonna puke. And the fucking anniversary isn’t until Sunday, but I seem to have been assaulted by a “very special” segment on the news every fucking day for the last two weeks. And, living so close to Shanksville, it’s just gonna get worse and worse. I’m not watching any more news until it’s all over. This fetishization of death (I call it death porn) makes me ill. And with everyone urging everyone else to fucking PRAY, as if fucking PRAYERS TO A NON-EXISTENT BEING EVER DOES OR HELPS A FUCKING THING EVER (just ask Rick Perry), someone is gonna get punched before it’s all over. Sick, sick, sick of it.
And this is from someone who knew two people who died in the attacks.
jibeaux
@Mark S.: I do know that nothing, from a paper shortage to the Biblical plagues, is going to interfere with the administration of the EOGs. But those arrive all prepackaged and sealed and whatnot. As far as other tests, I have no idea. My fifth grader is supposed to do a quiz labeling all the states on the map next Monday. Hey, I guess you could print four maps to a page and save that way! That would add extra challenge to labeling Rhode Island.
Kola Noscopy
@jeffreyw:
Your picture brought me out of lurk mode.
I am highly suspicious that it is fake. How long did it take you to stuff and pose each bird while the sun was coming up?
niknik
@geg6: It sure seems like 9/11 comes around earlier each year, doesn’t it?
I don’t even live in the States and in the past three weeks, there have been at least three (different!) 9/11
pr0ndocumentaries a day on the idiot box giving a minute-by-minute breakdown of that day.Been a heckuva crappy decade though.
Phyllis
@efgoldman: I’ve said several times how sad it is that kids today have no frame of reference for the scene in ‘Fast Times’ where Mr. Hand gives out the test & everybody picks up the paper and gives it a sniff. Feelin’ a little old at the thought of it.
Amir Khalid
@Mark S.:
There’s a big hole in that TPM story. If seven out of ten Republicans don’t want Sarah Palin to run for president, why not? Is it because they don’t think she’s qualified? Because they don’t like her any more? Because they prefer some other candidate?
Mark S.
@jibeaux:
You consolidate. Meet the new states New England and Greater New Jersey.
geg6
@efgoldman:
Have a good Sunday morning off. It will be death porn all day on Sunday. I checked the teevee listings and won’t even be able to watch my beloved CBS Sunday Morning. It will be the Food Network all day with the sole exception of the Steeler game. I plan to turn off all sound during the 9/11 fetish moments.
jibeaux
@Mark S.: I like it.
New England and Greater New Jersey
The Bible Belt
Mr. MIMAL
The States That Are Generally Square
California
Texas
The Two Extra Ones
scav
@jibeaux: Bonus points for identifying the states that usually have staples in them.
Frankensteinbeck
I got my roughs for the cover of Wild Children. Finished version most likely the very beginning of next month. Sweet Celestia, is it gorgeous. Why do I stick with Carolyn Laplante? Because her suggested covers are always better than anything I could imagine. That she can capture the whole book in one image without spoilers is amazing.
Yes, I’m quite giddy about this!
Frankensteinbeck
@scav:
We have a Staples in Kentucky. I think there’s two, one in Louisville and one in Lexington.
scav
@Frankensteinbeck: GSD, I am so unhip I forgot about those. I’m stuck in print-word fogiedom which I somehow manage to combine with too much binary. I’ll send you your points all the same.
Yutsano
@geg6: You could do worse than Aarti Sequeria. And I wonder how much whitewashing they’ll do of Mark Bingham’s sexuality. Doesn’t fit teh Narrative to have our heroes be teh ghey after all.
Linda Featheringill
And now for something completely different:
I’m beginning to think that Texas is cursed. Not only did Tropical Storm Lee not cure their drought, it furnished the winds that drove the fires close to Austin and Houston out of control [article on weather dot com]. Damn.
singfoom
Big Picture Kathryn Wylde link
Sign the petition at Credo
Don’t know how many of you are following this story, but Kathryn Wylde is supposed to represent the public interest on the Board of Governors at the New York Federal Reserve. Recently, she’s been involved in pressuring New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to lay off investigating the big banks , hardly a position of public interest.
If you care about this, please sign the petition at Credo. Who knows, they might actually listen if enough people pledge.
FlipYrWhig
@Linda Featheringill: It sure seems like ever since Rick Perry’s big prayer event, the whole country has had an unending series of natural disasters.
geg6
Oh, and by the way…
Attention all BJ pet lovers! The local humane society, Beaver County Humane Society, was recently evicted by a MOU Galtian developer and is raising funds to build a new shelter (right across the street from my house! Yay! I can volunteer!). One way is by trying to win the Pepsi Refresh Project $25,000 Tier grant. We are currently at #31, but with BJers on board, I’ll bet we can zoom up that list.
You can sign in by creating an account with Pepsi (avoiding them getting access to your Facebook information) or text them and vote, vote, vote!
http://www.refresheverything.com/openingnewdoors
JPL
@singfoom: Thank you for the link. I was on Barry’s site earlier and the article wasn’t posted yet.
birthmarker
@jeffreyw: Beautiful!
@jibeaux: The teachers will just ante the money up themselves to do what needs to be done. The great untold story of the public schools is that the teachers subsidize a lot of it already, in supplies and extras for the kids. Because they care.
And of course parents subsidize a lot of the extras too. Like field trips and parties, class supplies…I was once asked to send dryer lint for God only knows what purpose. I just refused. That was a bridge too far. I just thought I would let the type A mommies handle that one.
A neighbor was once asked to send a bowl of blue jello. The only problem was, the kid rode the bus! Can you imagine the chaos?
HA!! I wish I had one!!
@FlipYrWhig: Everything since Katrina has been punishment for the preemptive war.
Brachiator
@FlipYrWhig:
Didn’t Bachmann and other goofballs cover this with the semi-serious nonsense that all these disasters are evidence of the Deity’s displeasure with a nation that dared to elect a Democrat instead of a Republican president of the United States, and which would allow Chaz Bono to appear on the teevee dancing and doing other stuff that will confuse children?
geg6
@Yutsano:
Ick. Didn’t want her to win Next Food Network Star and don’t like Indian food (probably the only cuisine in the world that I can’t seem to find a dish that I’d eat a second time…hate, hate, hate curry and would rather die than be vegetarian). But I’ll watch her anyway. Better than 9/11 porn.
j low
@norbizness: And that song does sound a bit like dead Cat Power.
kindness
My significant other and I were out Monday taking our pups on a run. The dogs ran, we biked. It’s the only way we can keep up with them. This time we chose a local irrigation canal that runs through walnut and almond orchards. At the end, when we had loaded the pups into the truck & were about to load up the bikes we heard a plaintive and very loud MEOW coming from one of the trees about 20 yards away. It was a little kitten about 6 weeks old. Apparently it had been dumped there (great, dump you new litter in a coyote habitat). She was scared, but not scared enough that she didn’t call out loudly for help when she heard us. We heard her. Now we have a new kitten our house, Penny Lane. She immediately liked us, purring up a storm on the way home and wasn’t fazed by the dogs in the least. Nice addition. It’s funny how things work. Last week we had to put down our eldest dog. She was 17 and couldn’t get up on her own any more, could hardly walk. It was terrible, it was sad, but it was the right thing to do for her. It was time.
Some times, when one door closes, another opens. Kinda zen in a way. Nice transition though.
schlemizel - was Alwhite
If you are not reading TNC you should be – here is an excellent catch explaining quite clearly what many of us have known for a long time. It why the Republicans win when government they can make government fail:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/09/asymmetrical-war/244658/
PeakVT
If you live near St. Louis or are a serious comics trader, perhaps you can help Mike recover his comics. (Outrage junkies should click through, too.)
Yutsano
@geg6: I’m a curry nut myself, but I like the Thai iteration personally. Even if Thai cooking is a huge mishmash of different cuisines they just shamelessly stole from other cultures and put unique spins on.
And I was a Herb fan. It was the Cuban food. No really! :)
geg6
@schlemizel – was Alwhite:
I really love his writing (well most of it…he can have stupid comic books and I question his musical tastes, but I just skip that stuff), but I detest the commentariat over there. It’s everything that’s wrong with America minus the wingnuts. Not that the wingnuts aren’t a huge problem, but it’s the libertarians and so-called “moderates” and “independents” that are, IMHO, the real ruin of this country. They enable everything the wingnuts do. And that commentariat is nothing if not “moderates” and “independents” with a bunch of the stupidest libertarians on earth who everyone there (with the exception of the few actual liberals who comment there) worships like gods.
Princess
Some of you might be interested in this new blog by a friend of mine. If you scroll down a little bit, the first two posts are about his experiences at the recent Tar Sands Pipeline protests in DC where he and many, many more were arrested:
http://everydayispoetry.com/
geg6
@Yutsano:
I loooooove Thai food! Main reason being, it’s a mishmash of so many cuisines that I can totally avoid any curries and eat like a queen!
And Brad was my guy with Tom a close second.
PeakVT
From a Robert Reich op-ed, an excellent graphic on the Great Prosperity vs. the Great Regression.
ETA: I’m undecided on “Percentage of women with children under 18 who also worked” as a negative indicator as it strikes me as somewhat sexist.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: Best brunch in RI, by a mile, is at Nick’s on Broadway in PVD.
Yutsano
@geg6: A friend of mine introduced me to larb. Jeff Corwin later taught me larb is a way of using spices for various proteins (since you can make it with tofu too!) and every family has their own way of making it. But it’s fantastic! And pad Thai! I judge a Thai restaurant by that dish alone.
Brad was very cute and knew his shit. He got about as far as I expected. They’re not too crazy about the really young ones. He’s cooking in Vegas now.
PS: I’m having the style over substance debate while car shopping. Audi convertible vs Dodge Avenger? I can’t make a choice here.
Linda Featheringill
@kindness:
Congratulations on your new family member. That’s a sign that the universe likes you. :-)
Mino
@jeffreyw: Wow, did you glue their feet to the perch? How come your hummers get along?
wrb
Lately the stock market looks like it is being run by flash mob.
Word goes out whether it is to be an up or down day, bets are placed, and off they go.
geg6
@Yutsano:
Mmmmmm, pad Thai! Damn, now I’m hungry for some.
Have you ever had Ethiopian food? Damn, that’s some good stuff. Some injera with a bunch of different wat and tib on top? Heaven!
Linda Featheringill
@PeakVT:
Women with children working:
It might be a bit sexist but I think the author was trying to say that most households already have all available adults working to stay afloat. These households are already maxed out.
geg6
@Yutsano:
I’d go with the Dodge, but that’s just my Buy American! persona going wild.
catclub
@geg6: Avoiding thai curries? Sacrilege!
catclub
@geg6: Um, buy Italian you mean, right?
It is owned by Fiat now ( or at least in my fevered imagination that is who bought them out.)
gnomedad
@Mark S.:
RINOs.
Elizabelle
@kindness:
Wonderful story.
geg6
@catclub:
Haven’t tasted a curry that didn’t leave the flavor of dirty feet in my mouth yet. Sorry. Hate, hate, hate curry. Of any nationality.
@catclub:
It’s still manufactured here, which means American workers, UAW members no less, make the cars. I don’t give a flying fuck who takes the profits. It matters to me who gets paid (and how much) to make the cars.
And now that my streaming radio is playing the worst rock band in the world (*shudder* Rush), it’s time to go eat lunch!
Mino
@geg6: I got a weird gazpacho recipe from her. It was pretty good and turned me on to the possibilities of green gazpachos. I LURV them.
Yutsano
An old friend from college’s family owns an Ethiopian restaurant in Seattle. That is some good stuff for sure! Doro wot FTW!
I’m buying used, so the effects on the manufacturer are diluted in that regard. I am supporting small American business though, so there’s that. I’m just kinda dreaming more than anything. The two cars I’m looking at are comparably priced though. If they hang around until next month I’ll have to see. I don’t expect the Audi to though, it’s a really sweet deal!
JPL
@kindness: That is a special story. How long before Penny Lane bosses around the pups?
Send some pictures to Anne L., I’m sure she’d love to post them.
jeffreyw
@Mino: House rules, rowdy birds are ejected.
cleek
@Yutsano:
as the owner of an ’07 A4 convertible, i must recommend the Audi.
A Mom Anon
Re: The Post Office
I’m listening to the radio(KTLK in Los Angeles) and the reason the USPS is going broke is because the Delay/Hastert Congress passed a poison pill law that said the PO had to overpay into their pension funds years into the future. If they had that money back,they’d be doing just fine.
HR 1351 is being introduced to undo this,but Darrell Issa is trying to block it. I don’t have a link,I’m hearing this on the radio,so I’m not sure where to find out the actual story here. All the regular media is just reporting they are going broke without talking about this pension thing. I think it’s time to call the congresscritters and raise some hell.
lacp
Fox News, Fox Cable, Fox Sports…it’s all good…..
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110907_ap_foxsportsapologizesforpac12video.html
Brachiator
@Yutsano:
Hadn’t thought of it this way, but it makes Thai food sound as deliciously mongrelized as American food. A Thai place near me has a great Thai BBQ pork chop.
A Mom Anon
@A Mom Anon: I found some info on HR 1351 at the National Association of Letter Carriers website it explains the situation simply,it’s much easier to read than the actual bill(which appearantly has been sitting in committee since April).
handsmile
Other responsibilities of late have interfered with my customary daily posting of articles from the Guardian. This one outlines the online media topography of Norwegian Christian terrorist Anders Brevik:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/07/anders-breivik-hate-manifesto
A data map has been compiled of web pages Brevik linked to and those pages that linked back to Brevik’s own virulent Islamophobic manifesto. Its graphic display reveals the network between European and American far right activists. Included here is the despicable Pam Geller, whose advocacy of violent intolerance does not preclude a rather breezy recent profile in “even the liberal New York Times.”
rikryah
78 A MOM ANON,
you are correct.
Ed Schultz did a piece on this a few weeks ago.
yes, the GOP passed that bullshyt bill. when the fuck have they EVER given a shyt about funding PENSIONS FOR WORKERS?
and now, that, because of that, the USPS is having deficits, NOW these fuckers are calling for PRIVATIZATION of the USPS.
see how this setup works?
Brachiator
@A Mom Anon:
I’m not sure about that. Operating revenues have been declining as people stop using first class mail. There has been a huge shift in how people use, or don’t use, the Post Office.
But you are right that the pension issue adds to the mess, and there is political crap also at work. From a recent story:
The post office is still a bargain. Problem is, in the age of email, the post office is becoming a relic of an earlier age.
catclub
Friedman column snippet “We can vote out our liars, unlike certain Arab — and Asian — countries.”
Where do I get to vote out Friedman And Rush Limbaugh
and William Kristol and David Brooks?
Redshift
@A Mom Anon:
Oh, they’re talking about it a little, but they’re describing it as the postmaster requesting the authority to “modify pensions” so it sounds just like the pension-gutting crap in the corporate world.
A Mom Anon
@Brachiator: Perhaps,but as John wrote the other day,it’s a service,and as such,whether it makes a profit or not is beside the point. Value comes from lots of things besides money,something we as a nation would be wise to embrace sometimes.
Right now,I’m waiting for paperwork for my car to come so I can go get a tag.Without the post office,the price of that tag is going to be even higher(in GA,we have an ad valorum tax.That means the newer your car,the more expensive your tag-my first one will be around 200 dollars). What about people who get checks or run businesses dependant on mail service? UPS and Fed Ex also use the post office sometimes.
The USPS has somewhere around 600K unionized workers,that’s what that little poison pill was designed to mess with.
Bubblegum Tate
Has this been going on for a while and I just haven’t noticed it, or is this a new development? Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham are not Sarah Palin fans anymore. Quoth Coulter:
Ben Cisco
Via Oliver Willis, this:
__
Rick Perry Signed ACORN Bill, Posed With Group. Complete with pic.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
The grifters at the ACLU have another think coming if they believe that President Obama will heed their new report, A Call to Courage: Reclaiming Our Liberties Ten Years After 9/11. This childish emoprog screed will certainly play into the fantasies of their retarded firebagger clientele, however.
.
.
Brachiator
@A Mom Anon:
I never wrote about the Post Office having to make a profit. The problem is that the Post Office is becoming irrelevant, and people who cheer the demise of print newspapers, of records and CDs, of terrestrial radio, etc to new technology, don’t have much of a leg to stand on when they indulge an inconsistent and false nostalgia for the post office. Here is part of the problem.
My mother and stepfather worked for the post office, as have a huge number of friends of my family. I would not want to see anyone lose their jobs.
But what do you do when the amount of mail that has to be delivered is steadily declining? Do you maintain a service that fewer people use just to keep people in jobs?
My niece and nephew are 14 and 16. They have never used the Post Office to mail a letter in their whole lives. I don’t think they have ever bought a CD either. Email, mp3s, Facebook, greatly determine how they function in their brave new world.
Svensker
@kindness:
Awwww. So sweet. Congrats to all y’alls.
Svensker
@Brachiator:
Perhaps your niece and nephew have never used the USPS, but obviously quite a few people still do. It may be a declining number but a quite large number nonetheless.
FlipYrWhig
@Brachiator:
Yes, but I don’t see why, by their own goofball logic, all the same facts don’t add up to the Deity’s intense displeasure with Rick Perry. I mean, the guy prays for rain and fires break out, he announces he’s running for president and the Washington Monument cracks, you’d think wingnuts would be scared to death of this guy.
Dennis SGMM
@cleek:
It depends on how soon you want your car to fall apart. Audis aren’t cheap to maintain. OTOH, if you compare the cost of Audi maintenance to the cost of having to buy a magnet-equipped trailer to catch the pieces that fall off of your Dodge then it evens out.
Kola Noscopy
@jeffreyw:
Your bird pic is fake. Please confess.
Kola Noscopy
@FlipYrWhig:
hahahaha…sweet.
geg6
@Dennis SGMM:
Bullshit. I’ve owned two Dodges over the last 8 years. Neither fell apart and neither cost me much in maintenance. My current car, an Intrepid, is almost 10 years old. The body is great shape and the most I’ve spent on it is the radiator I had to replace when I ran into a snow bank a couple of years ago during a blizzard.
jeffreyw
@Kola Noscopy: Caught red handed! I equipped several hummers with belly lasers and reflective wing sheaths and trained them to illuminate the feeder. But, you bastard, have foiled my cunning plan!