Live from the St. Ronald Reagan Library! The GOP presidential candidates will spit up pellets for your dinning and dancing pleasure
2.
Botsplainer
“Conservatives shouting that they are the only inheritors of true spirit of the Founding Fathers, and as such, deserve the mantle of leadership of the nation in perpetuity…”
Note their positioning in the corner.
3.
BD of MN
“We’d go after what looks like dinner on that guy’s head, over there, in front of the cameras, but his screeching is scaring us away”
4.
Morzer
“Oh Jesus, the ape creatures are reading Sarah Palin again.”
5.
OzarkHillbilly
HOLY SHIT! LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT WORM!!!!
6.
Big ole hound
Is the picture an audience pan at a Trump rally?
7.
amk
murka – post gop debate
8.
Greg
Trump! Trump! Trump!
9.
Svensker
Republican presidential candidates finding out that Muslim-American teenagers can make a clock.
10.
scav
Those bands are too rainbowy for it to be a confabulation of Rs. But they’re certainly stunned at who they’re apparently going to have to share the planet with.
“He kept us safe” met with owls of derision. Turns out no one gives a hoot.
17.
shell
Live from the St. Ronald Reagan Library! The GOP presidential candidates will spit up pellets for your dinning and dancing pleasure
LOL! We all had the exact same thought!
18.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: And then it began raining and they realized it was really a p3ni$.
19.
shell
@Right to Rise: Yes, another five minutes goes by, another fucking pointless poll
20.
mai naem mobile
Circa 2015. Under the Obama dictatorship these ten TeaBag Partisans were rounded up and tagged and sent to reeducation camps. Blue tags were for educable partisans. Orange tags became slave labor for black farmers. Photo credit – BJ Skullfvckitten
21.
Elizabelle
Whooo says we gotta grow up and vote Republican?
No way, man.
22.
bystander
How adorable! That little guy with his beak shut on the lower left looks as if he can’t wait to fly the nest.
Like the Republican presidential debates only wiser.
25.
burnspbesq
“Change the channel, please–USA rugby is too painful to watch.”
26.
Amir Khalid
@Right to Rise:
I don’t suppose pointing out the obvious will matter to you, but here goes:
Jeb’s showing is nothing to brag about. He’s polling at 7.8%, less than a third of The Donald’s support at 28.5% and less than half of Dr Carson’s at 18.8%. Jeb is still way behind them in the trailing pack, and will need to rise a lot faster to catch up.
27.
Villago Delenda Est
@Snarly: My thought too…something having to do with being brighter and more aware than anyone standing in front of the old AF1 airframe at the Reagan Presidential “Library” last Wednesday.
Bernie stayed on message and appeared to have fun.
34.
bbleh
The Republican Establishment comments on the latest poll findings.
35.
maya
S’where’s Octomom?
36.
PurpleGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: I detest calling the plane AF1 — it’s an old 7XX (whichever class of Boeing plane it was).
Air Force 1 is the Air Traffic Control designation for any plane which the current president is being flown in. AF1 was developed as the designation to distinguish it from other planes in flight at the time, being technical a civilian flight but not having call numbers and not being a military flight. (Military flights are not usually tracked by Air Traffic Control.)
ETA: I know you know this but it’s something that pushes my buttons.
37.
PurpleGirl
Since they are looking up we can’t say that those itty bitty owls are having an itty bitty committee meeting planning mayhem and scampiness (ala kittens).
ETA: If kittens were in a huddle puddle, we’d say they were in an itty bitty kitty committee. Always planning mayhem and scampiness.
I haven’t seen either interview, but remember that Halperin would love it (rightly or wrongly) if Bernie took down Hillary.
44.
Anya
I am surprised the wingers didn’t ask for Ahmed Mohamed’s report cards. I saw Richard Dawkins, an adult scientist attack Ahmed on twitter. He called him a fraud. When did Dawkins turn into the Donald Trump of the nerds?
He called him a fraud, insinuated that he baited the police into arresting him for, I don’t know, profits. Complete lunatic conspiracy fit for right-wingers.
@Cervantes: Complicated as in worse? Or complicated as in “it’s more nuanced?”
54.
J R in WV
Oh Those Hungary Eyes!!!
Wonderful family portrait, where is it from? Raptor rescue group somewhere? Odd to have that many tiny owllets to rescue, I think they mostly do 1 or 2 a year, over a 10-15 year lifespan, maybe a little longer for bigger owls. What kind of owls are they?
@Cervantes: Still, I didn’t exaggerate or lie about him. He DID ATTACK A 14-year old ON TWITTER! He used the word fraud when describing the kid’s action. He also insinuated the kid wanted to be arrested for fame or whatever. You’re trying to make what he said acceptable.
Few of his tweets about a 14-year old boy’s arrest:
If this is true, what was his motive? Whether or not he wanted the police to arrest him, they shouldn’t have done so
The this is a link to a YouTube video ” Ahmed Mohammed Clock is a FRAUD”
I don’t know. Possibly wanted to be arrested? Police played into his hands? Anyway, now invited to White House, crowdfunded etc
If the reassembled components did something more than the original clock, that’s creative. If not, it looks like hoax
Sounds like he’s excusing or at least normalizing the arrest
My mistake. He was arrested on (v implausible) suspicion of a bomb HOAX. Like people at airports arrested for making jokes about bombs.
If by “surging,” you mean “plummeting like sheep.”
According to the graph — just below the latest tallies — here’s how much Jeb! is “surging”:
July 13, 2015 — 17.8 percent
July 19 — 15.5
July 25 — 13.4
August 1 — 12.2
August 15 — 11.8
August 25 — 10.7
September 5 — 9.3
September 15 — 8.0
September 20 — 7.8
Yeah, quite the “surge.”
So that raises the question(s): Is RtR really that fucking stupid? Or is he a parody troll?
68.
Anya
@Cervantes: He is racist. He proved himself time and again that he’s racist. It’s clear, unless you’re one of those people who only see racism when someone uses a racial epithet.
Dawkins is a troll. His atheism is annoying as any true believer’s religion.
Dawkins has done great work and has written great books; sadly, as you say, he’s turned into an internet troll for reasons I don’t understand.
76.
Anya
@Cervantes: Look, more proof Dawkins is not a racist or islamophobe!
Am I biased against child because Muslim? Absurd, just because Islam is foulest, stupidest, most vile of all religions doesn’t mean bias.
14 retweets 29 favorites
77.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anya: Well, he’s wrong there. Christianity has a lot more to answer for.
@Thoughtful Today: Yeah, I thought he kind of fawned over Jeb! and Colbert said there was a non-zero chance he would vote for Jeb! Thank you so much for coming on the show, thank you so much, blah blah blah. Even called Jeb! the frontrunner after Trump. (not true)
I thought the interview with Bernie was good.
But Colbert pretty much fawned over his guests for the first few days, so that leaves me wondering whether the change in Colbert’s interviews is that he has his legs under him now – he seems to be comfortable on the new show now – or if it really is related to candidates.
It seemed to me that Colbert really really really wants Joe Biden to run.
These are very likely not in a rescue situation. This looks like a family group in an artificially constructed nest cavity: hence siblings. Whoever is tending the nest and banded the owlets doubtless took the picture to document the nest. Natural nests are almost impossible to photograph because they’re impossible to get to without massive disturbance to the occupants. They’re often at the end of a ground squirrel burrow, or similar.
85.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker @ Top:
Caption ideas?
The GOP Presidential Field Narrows Down To Eight Contestants.
He is racist. He proved himself time and again that he’s racist. It’s clear, unless you’re one of those people who only see racism when someone uses a racial epithet.
Was just asking about your basis for the assertion. I saw none in the tweets you had just quoted (if any).
88.
EriktheRed
Caption ideas?
You put your left leg in, you take your left leg out…
Lots of babies in that nest, I didn’t think owls were so fecund, reproductively. Cute too!
Must keep the parents really busy!! I don’t think we have many of these owls here in SW W. Va. More screetch owls, barred owls, tree habitat. I’ve seen a Great Horned Owl fighting with a small flock of crows, Owl won! We see Barred owls around home rarely, we hear them most nights.
“Love to eat them mousies
Mousies what I love to eat.
Bite they little heads off
Nibble on they tiny feet”
Thx to Kliban
91.
Morzer
‘Waddayamean, we have to stand together, very quietly, without moving a feather – on Trump’s head?!!”
92.
Anya
@Cervantes: He consistently attacks Muslims, otherizes them & generalizes all acts of voilene committed by Muslims when he doesn’t do the same to other religions. He also attacks a 14-year old boy and accuses him of harboring nefarious intent. And BTW, he used Alex Jones as a “news source”. Tell me what motivated him to attack a 14-year old kid this obsessively? And when asked if he was targeting him because he’s Muslim this is his answer:
This is what he said
Am I biased against child because Muslim? Absurd, just because Islam is foulest, stupidest, most vile of all religions doesn’t mean bias.
To my knowledge, he never used the N word but he basically has the same views as Sarah Palin when it comes to Muslims and he incites hatred against them all the time. In my book, when you target an identifiable minority group and foment hatred against them, then you’re a racist. But you’re free to disagree.
93.
Patricia Kayden
@mai naem mobile: Applause!! The dreaded FEMA camps for owls.
The whole damned world has lost its damned mind. I’m going to watch some baseball.
96.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@Patricia Kayden: Saw it earlier and was a bit surprised, and I think Maher is saying similar things about Ahmed.
I shouldn’t be too surprised since I’ve just blocked a longtime friend who has simply gone off the deep end over the clock kid. He’s very liberal but this business has him foaming at the mouth and spewing hatred of all things Islamic. His ex is Iranian but not Muslim; can’t remember the name of her particular sect but they were being persecuted 15 years ago. He and she have two sons, and he’s asking how can he be considered a racist or biased against Middle Eastern people when he was married to one. Well, Strom Thurmond is one example of how that works.
What’s really troubling is that we have a mutual friend from Pakistan who is an observant Muslim, and we have all been to lunch at his house and were fed lovely Pakistani food by him and his wife, and there was no hint, no murmur, of anything like this. It makes me almost wonder if something terrible has happened in his life that we missed, or even if he’s having some health problems.
@J R in WV: Almost too cute, if there is such a thing. The adults are pretty attractive little creatures too. I’m sure there are lots of pictures on the web illustrating their charm.
Burrowing owls don’t get anywhere near WV, it looks like FL & TX are the closest states to you that have them. They like open grassy or low-shrub dominated areas, low relief too, and you’re too wooded and generally mountainous for their tastes. I’m in S CA and we do have them here, where they’ve not been obliterated by urbanization. They don’t persist much in town, except occasionally in large vacant lots. I saw a couple of adults a week or so back in the Imperial Valley, where they occupy holes in the dirt sides of deep irrigation ditches. They dine on both rodents and large insects (crickets, grasshoppers, etc.) so at least they have some common food sources. They’re active night and day, so small creatures are vulnerable whenever they’re out on the surface.
Given that I found your rendition of Dawkins’ tweets somewhat one-sided, I’m not sure how much time I should give your (quotation-free) summary of his alleged “racism.” For comparison, here’s a critical analysis of those tweets by Martin Pengelly (Guardian) that does not accuse Dawkins of being a “racist.”
Leaving Dawkins aside, therefore, I will say one thing about your general conclusion:
In my book, when you target an identifiable minority group and foment hatred against them, then you’re a racist.
What if that “identifiable minority group” is “albinos”?
What if it is “Mormons”?
What if it is “Muslims”?
Are people who foment hatred against these groups ipso facto “racist”?
Schlemazel
Live from the St. Ronald Reagan Library! The GOP presidential candidates will spit up pellets for your dinning and dancing pleasure
Botsplainer
“Conservatives shouting that they are the only inheritors of true spirit of the Founding Fathers, and as such, deserve the mantle of leadership of the nation in perpetuity…”
Note their positioning in the corner.
BD of MN
“We’d go after what looks like dinner on that guy’s head, over there, in front of the cameras, but his screeching is scaring us away”
Morzer
“Oh Jesus, the ape creatures are reading Sarah Palin again.”
OzarkHillbilly
HOLY SHIT! LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT WORM!!!!
Big ole hound
Is the picture an audience pan at a Trump rally?
amk
murka – post gop debate
Greg
Trump! Trump! Trump!
Svensker
Republican presidential candidates finding out that Muslim-American teenagers can make a clock.
scav
Those bands are too rainbowy for it to be a confabulation of Rs. But they’re certainly stunned at who they’re apparently going to have to share the planet with.
WereBear
What the heck are you doing with that thing?
OzarkHillbilly
The GOP electorate is in awe of Donald Trumps foreign policy expertise.
Right to Rise
New poll: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/2016_republican_presidential_nomination-3823.html
Jeb surging while Trump, Carson fall.
Cervantes
And so hail to you, O daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis!
Now will I remember you — and another song as well.
Cervantes
@Right to Rise:
We didn’t need the word “surging,” anyway.
Glad you’ve found a productive new use for it.
Benw
“He kept us safe” met with owls of derision. Turns out no one gives a hoot.
shell
LOL! We all had the exact same thought!
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: And then it began raining and they realized it was really a p3ni$.
shell
@Right to Rise: Yes, another five minutes goes by, another fucking pointless poll
mai naem mobile
Circa 2015. Under the Obama dictatorship these ten TeaBag Partisans were rounded up and tagged and sent to reeducation camps. Blue tags were for educable partisans. Orange tags became slave labor for black farmers. Photo credit – BJ Skullfvckitten
Elizabelle
Whooo says we gotta grow up and vote Republican?
No way, man.
bystander
How adorable! That little guy with his beak shut on the lower left looks as if he can’t wait to fly the nest.
redshirt
Baby owls have seen some shit.
Snarly
Like the Republican presidential debates only wiser.
burnspbesq
“Change the channel, please–USA rugby is too painful to watch.”
Amir Khalid
@Right to Rise:
I don’t suppose pointing out the obvious will matter to you, but here goes:
Jeb’s showing is nothing to brag about. He’s polling at 7.8%, less than a third of The Donald’s support at 28.5% and less than half of Dr Carson’s at 18.8%. Jeb is still way behind them in the trailing pack, and will need to rise a lot faster to catch up.
Villago Delenda Est
@Snarly: My thought too…something having to do with being brighter and more aware than anyone standing in front of the old AF1 airframe at the Reagan Presidential “Library” last Wednesday.
gene108
Trump’s Hair Lives!!!
shell
Mousies! Mousies! Love them little Mousies!
jayboat
@Right to Rise:
I guess that’s what it shows if you have your head shoved sideways up your ass.
raven
Looks like Spurrier and the rest go the South Carolina coaches !
Mack
Knock Knock.
Who who who who who who who who who’s there?
Thoughtful Today
hmm
Colbert’s interview with Bernie was much tougher and more aggressive than his interview with Jeb Bush.
Bernie stayed on message and appeared to have fun.
bbleh
The Republican Establishment comments on the latest poll findings.
maya
S’where’s Octomom?
PurpleGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: I detest calling the plane AF1 — it’s an old 7XX (whichever class of Boeing plane it was).
Air Force 1 is the Air Traffic Control designation for any plane which the current president is being flown in. AF1 was developed as the designation to distinguish it from other planes in flight at the time, being technical a civilian flight but not having call numbers and not being a military flight. (Military flights are not usually tracked by Air Traffic Control.)
ETA: I know you know this but it’s something that pushes my buttons.
PurpleGirl
Since they are looking up we can’t say that those itty bitty owls are having an itty bitty committee meeting planning mayhem and scampiness (ala kittens).
ETA: If kittens were in a huddle puddle, we’d say they were in an itty bitty kitty committee. Always planning mayhem and scampiness.
redshirt
@Thoughtful Today: Colbert sold out.
Thoughtful Today
erm, wow, words I never thought I’d type:
Halperin’s interview with Bernie was far superior than Colbert’s interview with Bernie.
Seriously.
debbie
“The Republicans have entered the room!”
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
Not to mention Jeb’s statement yesterday that Obama was both an American and a Christian. He should just pack it in now.
Mustang Bobby
@Right to Rise: If by “surging” you mean involuntary reverse peristalsis, then yeah.
Baud
@Thoughtful Today:
I haven’t seen either interview, but remember that Halperin would love it (rightly or wrongly) if Bernie took down Hillary.
Anya
I am surprised the wingers didn’t ask for Ahmed Mohamed’s report cards. I saw Richard Dawkins, an adult scientist attack Ahmed on twitter. He called him a fraud. When did Dawkins turn into the Donald Trump of the nerds?
Baud
@Anya:
What? That’s insane.
Cervantes
@Anya:
Well, what Dawkins said there is slightly more complicated than that.
Cervantes
@Baud:
On what party label are you running for president, anyway?
And what is your position on PACs and superPACs?
Been meaning to ask.
Baud
@Cervantes:
That doesn’t make him look better.
Baud
@Cervantes:
D all the way.
Mine or other peoples?
Jim Kakalios
They’re all saying the same thing:
“I love to sing-a! About the moon-a, and the June-a, and the Spring-a! I love to sing-a!”
Anya
@Baud:
Richard Dawkins
He called him a fraud, insinuated that he baited the police into arresting him for, I don’t know, profits. Complete lunatic conspiracy fit for right-wingers.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Never said it did.
But you’re welcome.
Anya
@Cervantes: Complicated as in worse? Or complicated as in “it’s more nuanced?”
J R in WV
Oh Those Hungary Eyes!!!
Wonderful family portrait, where is it from? Raptor rescue group somewhere? Odd to have that many tiny owllets to rescue, I think they mostly do 1 or 2 a year, over a 10-15 year lifespan, maybe a little longer for bigger owls. What kind of owls are they?
Baud
@Anya:
He’s now on my Ignore List.
Cervantes
@Anya:
“Slightly more complicated” as in “he said more than your paraphrases here indicate.”
For example, he said:
And:
Not obvious from your paraphrase.
Personally, I think commenting on almost anything via Twitter is ill-advised, at best. Thinking aloud can sometimes get you into trouble.
Anya
@Baud: Racism is so blinding. It turns intelligent people into completely irrational lunatics.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
Post Office owls wait for Republican fundraising letters to deliver to Slitherins.
Thoughtful Today
re: Colbert
It seemed like he was a huge Biden supporter during their interview. He went out of his way to boost Biden. Very emotional interview.
I’d just hoped that Colbert would be more serious and policy minded with Bernie.
schrodinger's cat
@Schlemazel: Why do you hate owls?
gelfling545
@redshirt: I’d say Colbert had more respect for Sanders than for Bush & expected him to be able to handle a tough interview.
Thoughtful Today
Dawkins … /facepalm
Cervantes
@Baud:
I can see your presidency won’t be anything like Nixon’s.
Cervantes
@Anya:
Now you’re calling Dawkins a racist on the basis of those tweets?
Or on some unrelated basis?
Possibly, and yet it’s not the only thing that can do that.
Cervantes
@Baud:
OK, then what is your position on consistency?
Anya
@Cervantes: Still, I didn’t exaggerate or lie about him. He DID ATTACK A 14-year old ON TWITTER! He used the word fraud when describing the kid’s action. He also insinuated the kid wanted to be arrested for fame or whatever. You’re trying to make what he said acceptable.
Few of his tweets about a 14-year old boy’s arrest:
The this is a link to a YouTube video ” Ahmed Mohammed Clock is a FRAUD”
Sounds like he’s excusing or at least normalizing the arrest
SFAW
@Right to Rise:
If by “surging,” you mean “plummeting like sheep.”
According to the graph — just below the latest tallies — here’s how much Jeb! is “surging”:
July 13, 2015 — 17.8 percent
July 19 — 15.5
July 25 — 13.4
August 1 — 12.2
August 15 — 11.8
August 25 — 10.7
September 5 — 9.3
September 15 — 8.0
September 20 — 7.8
Yeah, quite the “surge.”
So that raises the question(s): Is RtR really that fucking stupid? Or is he a parody troll?
Anya
@Cervantes: He is racist. He proved himself time and again that he’s racist. It’s clear, unless you’re one of those people who only see racism when someone uses a racial epithet.
schrodinger's cat
@Anya: Dawkins is a troll. His atheism is annoying as any true believer’s religion.
Benw
@Cervantes: consistency would be a good name for a hobgoblin.
Thoughtful Today
Interesting, I hadn’t thought about the possibility “that Halperin would love it (rightly or wrongly) if Bernie took down Hillary.”
It still surprised me that Halperin‘s questions elicited remarkably specific policy details from Bernie. < Link is to the video interview.
Villago Delenda Est
@PurpleGirl: It’s a 707, btw. And yes, there’s only one AF1 at any time, and it’s only when the President is physically aboard it.
Villago Delenda Est
@SFAW: RtR is the same idiot who told us on the night of the Colorado Primary in 2012 that you could “take to the bank” a Rmoney win in Colorado.
Santorum cleaned Rmoney’s clock.
Yes, he’s that fucking stupid.
SFAW
@Villago Delenda Est:
Not necessarily disagreeing, but it could be that he’s playing the long game re: parody trolling.
redshirt
@schrodinger’s cat:
Dawkins has done great work and has written great books; sadly, as you say, he’s turned into an internet troll for reasons I don’t understand.
Anya
@Cervantes: Look, more proof Dawkins is not a racist or islamophobe!
Villago Delenda Est
@Anya: Well, he’s wrong there. Christianity has a lot more to answer for.
redshirt
I like Dawkins atheism. There needs to be Fundy Atheists.
Rich (In Name Only) in Reno
And our new $20 Family Fill Up meal includes a bucket of owls, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy.
joel hanes
That picture shows why mice must be so fecund.
Elie
they are just darling little beings! thank you for brightening my sunday morning with their wide eyes and lovely naturalness…
SFAW
@joel hanes:
They “must be so fecking” what?
WaterGirl
@Thoughtful Today: Yeah, I thought he kind of fawned over Jeb! and Colbert said there was a non-zero chance he would vote for Jeb! Thank you so much for coming on the show, thank you so much, blah blah blah. Even called Jeb! the frontrunner after Trump. (not true)
I thought the interview with Bernie was good.
But Colbert pretty much fawned over his guests for the first few days, so that leaves me wondering whether the change in Colbert’s interviews is that he has his legs under him now – he seems to be comfortable on the new show now – or if it really is related to candidates.
It seemed to me that Colbert really really really wants Joe Biden to run.
Achrachno
@J R in WV: Burrowing owls.
These are very likely not in a rescue situation. This looks like a family group in an artificially constructed nest cavity: hence siblings. Whoever is tending the nest and banded the owlets doubtless took the picture to document the nest. Natural nests are almost impossible to photograph because they’re impossible to get to without massive disturbance to the occupants. They’re often at the end of a ground squirrel burrow, or similar.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker @ Top:
The GOP Presidential Field Narrows Down To Eight Contestants.
Thor Heyerdahl
Parliament is now in session?
The Who’s latest tour?
Cervantes
@Anya:
Was just asking about your basis for the assertion. I saw none in the tweets you had just quoted (if any).
EriktheRed
You put your left leg in, you take your left leg out…
J R in WV
@Achrachno:
Thanks!
Lots of babies in that nest, I didn’t think owls were so fecund, reproductively. Cute too!
Must keep the parents really busy!! I don’t think we have many of these owls here in SW W. Va. More screetch owls, barred owls, tree habitat. I’ve seen a Great Horned Owl fighting with a small flock of crows, Owl won! We see Barred owls around home rarely, we hear them most nights.
Love me some owls.
cckids
@shell:
“Love to eat them mousies
Mousies what I love to eat.
Bite they little heads off
Nibble on they tiny feet”
Thx to Kliban
Morzer
‘Waddayamean, we have to stand together, very quietly, without moving a feather – on Trump’s head?!!”
Anya
@Cervantes: He consistently attacks Muslims, otherizes them & generalizes all acts of voilene committed by Muslims when he doesn’t do the same to other religions. He also attacks a 14-year old boy and accuses him of harboring nefarious intent. And BTW, he used Alex Jones as a “news source”. Tell me what motivated him to attack a 14-year old kid this obsessively? And when asked if he was targeting him because he’s Muslim this is his answer:
This is what he said
To my knowledge, he never used the N word but he basically has the same views as Sarah Palin when it comes to Muslims and he incites hatred against them all the time. In my book, when you target an identifiable minority group and foment hatred against them, then you’re a racist. But you’re free to disagree.
Patricia Kayden
@mai naem mobile: Applause!! The dreaded FEMA camps for owls.
Patricia Kayden
@Anya: Wow. That’s sad to hear.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
The whole damned world has lost its damned mind. I’m going to watch some baseball.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@Patricia Kayden: Saw it earlier and was a bit surprised, and I think Maher is saying similar things about Ahmed.
I shouldn’t be too surprised since I’ve just blocked a longtime friend who has simply gone off the deep end over the clock kid. He’s very liberal but this business has him foaming at the mouth and spewing hatred of all things Islamic. His ex is Iranian but not Muslim; can’t remember the name of her particular sect but they were being persecuted 15 years ago. He and she have two sons, and he’s asking how can he be considered a racist or biased against Middle Eastern people when he was married to one. Well, Strom Thurmond is one example of how that works.
What’s really troubling is that we have a mutual friend from Pakistan who is an observant Muslim, and we have all been to lunch at his house and were fed lovely Pakistani food by him and his wife, and there was no hint, no murmur, of anything like this. It makes me almost wonder if something terrible has happened in his life that we missed, or even if he’s having some health problems.
Kathleen
@debbie: “I see white people”.
LanceThruster
Caption:
“We’re FABULOUS!!”
Achrachno
@J R in WV: Almost too cute, if there is such a thing. The adults are pretty attractive little creatures too. I’m sure there are lots of pictures on the web illustrating their charm.
Burrowing owls don’t get anywhere near WV, it looks like FL & TX are the closest states to you that have them. They like open grassy or low-shrub dominated areas, low relief too, and you’re too wooded and generally mountainous for their tastes. I’m in S CA and we do have them here, where they’ve not been obliterated by urbanization. They don’t persist much in town, except occasionally in large vacant lots. I saw a couple of adults a week or so back in the Imperial Valley, where they occupy holes in the dirt sides of deep irrigation ditches. They dine on both rodents and large insects (crickets, grasshoppers, etc.) so at least they have some common food sources. They’re active night and day, so small creatures are vulnerable whenever they’re out on the surface.
Cervantes
@Anya:
Given that I found your rendition of Dawkins’ tweets somewhat one-sided, I’m not sure how much time I should give your (quotation-free) summary of his alleged “racism.” For comparison, here’s a critical analysis of those tweets by Martin Pengelly (Guardian) that does not accuse Dawkins of being a “racist.”
Leaving Dawkins aside, therefore, I will say one thing about your general conclusion:
What if that “identifiable minority group” is “albinos”?
What if it is “Mormons”?
What if it is “Muslims”?
Are people who foment hatred against these groups ipso facto “racist”?
That did cross my mind.
brantl
@Thoughtful Today: Bernie can take it, Jeb would’ve cried.
HeartlandLiiberal
David Cameron did THAT with a dead pig’s head????!!!!!