It had to happen sooner or later: Driving down I-96 Monday morning, passed a little nook of woods, cut back deep enough that it’s a good bet very little sun ever shines down directly. And saw? A red sumac, living up to its name. Bright autumn color, the third week of August.
Well, summer never lasts forever. As Ned Stark is always telling us.
So, winter is coming. But first will come fall, which explains the next thing I saw: A minivan with what looked to be a professionally made rear-window cling sticker: I WILL NEVER VOTE REPUBLICAN AGAIN.
Oh, what a long, long autumn it will be.
As usual, Charles Pierce has a better handle on this than I have. In the rest of my life, we have conversations now and again about tribalism, which seems to be the only word for a world with bumper stickers like the one above, not to mention party leaders like this one, who took it upon herself to elaborate on what Todd Akin said:
Ms. Barnes echoed Mr. Akin’s statement that very few rapes resulted in pregnancy, adding that “at that point, if God has chosen to bless this person with a life, you don’t kill it. That’s more what I believe he was trying to state,” she said. “He just phrased it badly.”
Blessed. Hmm. I remember, many many many years ago, when the idea of adopted children searching for their biological parents was just starting to take hold, watching a TV documentary about it. They’d had a couple happy-ending stories, and then one that was, well, the opposite: A woman who had been raped — legitimately! — in the classic sense, dragged into a dark alley and raped by a man of a different color. She had the child, gave it up for adoption, and 20 years later opened the front door to find a biracial young man standing on her doorstep saying hi mom. The woman was horrified and, frankly, terrified.
She’s probably dead by now, and I can’t imagine the reunion went anything other than badly. Maybe the son would like to talk to Rep. Akin.
Well, let’s not dwell on this unpleasantness, shall we? We need something fun. How about…dog shaming. Via Hank. I laughed so hard I think I aspirated a bit of food.
You could try a cat shaming site, but face it — cats can’t be shamed.
Happy hump day, all.
Dexter said on August 22, 2012 at 1:43 am
My dog’s sign: “I eat shoes and sandals at will, I run away every chance I get even though my master has figured me out by double-leashing me somehow, I bark incessantly at any cat, squirrel, or dog I see or hear or smell, and I will eat too much grass and puke on the truck or van’s floor or preferably seats if I damn-well feel like it.”
A few days of beautiful summer weather and we forget the suffering many experienced this year due to excessive seat.
It’s like pain; when you have suffered physical pain but are then well again, it’s hard to recall how bad you had hurt just recently.
Fall is my favorite season, as it is for many. I think I’ll make another trip to Ann Arbor for a sandwich at Zingerman’s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl_e7UW-bz8
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Scout said on August 22, 2012 at 2:09 am
The dog shaming site is a stitch. Love it!
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ROGirl said on August 22, 2012 at 6:09 am
A cat would curl up on the sign and go to sleep on it.
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Deborah said on August 22, 2012 at 6:26 am
The dog shaming site is good.
Don’t know why this is funny, but it is http://littlefacemitt.tumblr.com
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David Edelstein said on August 22, 2012 at 7:55 am
Let me be the first to say it was not the “biracial” child’s fault that he was the product of a rape. He wanted to know his biological mom, not to terrify her. Put yourself in his shoes. (All this is quite apart from the vile ignorance of Akin and his ilk.)
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nancy said on August 22, 2012 at 8:26 am
Of course it wasn’t his fault, and I can understand his interest. But his mother was violently raped, and was of the belief that when she turned the infant over to new parents, she would never see him again. Adoption, like attitudes toward women’s issues, has changed a great deal in the last few years, but of the two interests — hers in wanting to be free of the physical issue of her assault, and his in knowing his mother — I come down with her.
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Jolene said on August 22, 2012 at 8:04 am
Looking at the dog shaming site is like being in a therapy group in that you learn other people/dogs have the same problems you do. Heretofore, I thought my dog was the only one who could eat a stick of butter in a single bite before retiring to a nest of already worn underwear.
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Mark P said on August 22, 2012 at 8:50 am
“I pulled my parents’ Thanksgiving turkey off the stove where it was cooling and ate every bit of it.
“But then I did lick the floor clean so there was no trace.”
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Dorothy said on August 22, 2012 at 9:06 am
My son shared the dog shaming site with us on Monday evening and I laughed myself sick for about a half hour. I still haven’t gotten to read all of them. Jolene is right – I kept thinking that my husband has to see this (he was at a meeting on Monday evening) so he can identify with all the other people who have dogs who barf on the carpeting, eat my discarded Kleenex, steal food from the counter tops, etc. And as usual, I’m peeved that I didn’t dream up the brilliant website/blog idea because we’ve been interpreting our dogs’ voices for more than 30 years and I’m sure we have a wealth of expressions buried somewhere in our psyche.
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nancy said on August 22, 2012 at 9:07 am
Spriggy’s shame-note would say, “I chewed the pocket out of an expensive North Fleece jacket after my sister’s friend left a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup zipped inside. AND I’M NOT A BIT SORRY.”
Oh, and he, too, ate the crotches of my underwear. My u-trou, Alan’s socks. Never any shoes. FWIW.
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Dorothy said on August 22, 2012 at 9:32 am
Augie was pissed at me once for secluding him in the sewing room in South Carolina when we had company over (my oldest sister can’t stand being around dogs). So he chewed a hole in my oldest quilt – one I pieced together on a sewing machine but which I had hand quilted thousands upon thousands of stitches. If we’d had a gun I very well might have shot him. I found leftover fabric and patched it. But the dog sure knew he was shamed when I found the damaged quilt.
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alex said on August 22, 2012 at 9:41 am
When I worked at the American Bar Association many years ago, our new executive director was a lady lawyer who had blazed a trail for women in law during the Watergate years. She was controversial from the start, showing up to work in a chauffeur-driven limo, which caused concern that the organization would look like the profligate nonprofit that it was. During her short tenure, she created quite the stir when she sued a veterinarian who failed to save one of her two dalmatians. The dog had swallowed a dirty tampon that became lodged in its bowels. Of course, this wasn’t discovered until after a doggie autopsy had been performed. Much to the delight of those of us who worked in the ABA’s publishing house who were charged with making Ms. Wine-Banks’ personal Christmas stationery on the organization’s dime, we had to pull the cards at the eleventh hour and make them over. On the second run, one of the dalmatians was airbrushed out of the family photo on the front.
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Little Bird said on August 22, 2012 at 9:45 am
There is a YouTube video of a dog named Denver that is very, seriously ashamed of what he did. I would post the link, but for some reason, I can’t.
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Peter said on August 22, 2012 at 9:46 am
Ms. Barnes’ comments about God blessing rape victims with a child remind me of something Cardinal George wrote a few years back.
In the 1970’s, the priests of the archdiocese got the cardinal to agree to stop the practice of naming some priests monsignors. It’s really more of an honorific title, and at that time in order to get the honor the local parish would have to kick in several thousand dollars for the cardinal and a couple of staff members to fly first class to Rome to get the paperwork signed.
A few years ago, George reinstated the practice, and named about 20 monsignors. He wrote an editorial about the issue. To him, it was bad enough that some priests and laity criticized the move; the real injustice was that a few of the priests who were selected declined the honor. George wrote that he forced them to accept, because it is a sin not to accept a gift. He elaborated that no one can ever refuse a gift, because that gift, directly or not, came from God, and you can’t refuse God. He didn’t give the example of the rapist, but he did bring up an example of a murderer asking forgiveness from the victim’s families. He stated that the victims have to accept the apology because it is a gift, and…you get the picture.
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Jolene said on August 22, 2012 at 9:46 am
Oh Dorothy, that’s horrible. When I first had my dog, Sam, he chewed everything, and he had expensive taste. He chewed through the strap on a Coach bag, chewed the cover on a leather Filofax, and lots more. All these things happened one at a time, of course, and, in the moment, I mainly thought of the loss of the thing rather than the money. It was only when I was reporting the damage to a friend that I cottoned to how much he had cost me.
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churchlady said on August 22, 2012 at 9:49 am
Gosh, I wish I could find a “I’ll never vote Republican again” bumper sticker, not that I’ve ever voted for a Republican. But the argument’s been made that the only way to drag the Republican party back towards the center to say things like ‘I’ll never vote for a Republican again.’ To let them know that they are so far out of the mainstream that they’re no longer a viable party.
I do recognize Charles Pierce’s analysis that we’re becoming two nations but I don’t see a willingness to compromise as a solution to that problem. At least not when Republicans are saying that ‘compromise’ meaning coming to the Republican’s position.
As for the womanwho said, “if God has chosen to bless this person with a life…..” Well, that’s why I’m an atheist. Because if God is responsible for all the good things in life, then he’s also responsible for all the bad things in life. And certainly getting pregnant following a rape can’t be considered a good thing in anybody’s judgement.
I read this headline:US To Drive 3,000 Wi-Fi Linked Vehicles In Massive Crash Avoidance Trial [http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/12/08/21/1947228/us-to-drive-3000-wi-fi-linked-vehicles-in-massive-crash-avoidance-trial] and confused it with the many stories about driverless cars and thought this was going to be a test of large numbers of driverless cars operating on the same road at the same time. It seemed like a good reason to avoid Ann Arbor, before all the robot cars reset to “kill all humanoids.” But I see that the program is to come up with a way of linking cars so people won’t run into each other.
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coozledad said on August 22, 2012 at 9:49 am
Knowing your biological parents is not all it’s cracked up to be. After a certain point it would be like a quest for a stamp or a coin.
You could probably make a good living hiring out attractive, sane people to stand in as biological parents for a fake reunion. First reunion- $1,000.00 subsequent reunions much, much steeper.
Even if your biological parents raised you, this service might be of use to people thinking about dating outside their social milieu, or having to have a set of presentable parents to submit for friends and coworker’s consideration.
We could offer stand-in grandparents too. Non-racist, healthy, literate, party-fluent.
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LAMary said on August 22, 2012 at 9:49 am
My first Great Dane ate a five pound chunk of Romano Cheese, got the shits all over the house, and farted for days. His dog sister, a little pit mix, pulled up all the wall to wall carpeting in the living room and shredded the padding. This was not connected to the Romano cheese incident. I love dogs.
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Dorothy said on August 22, 2012 at 10:29 am
Our border collie, Domino, chewed through some indoor/outdoor carpeting in our basement one Friday while we were at work in Cincinnati. I found vomit and crap in the house but at the time we didn’t know why she had gotten so sick. I was in touch with the vet’s office immediately, watched her closely and then was there at the door when they opened up Monday morning. She was put on IV fluids, and the next day had to have emergency surgery. That’s when they found yards and yards of red carpet stringy fiber inside her. We ended up having her put down because she had suffered intussusception, and would have had “short gut syndrome” the rest of her life. That’s no way for a dog to live. I may have mentioned this story here before and I apologize if anyone remembers it. I don’t mean to be repetitive. This is only one of the reasons why we called Domino “The Lawsuit Waiting to Happen”. Like Mary, I love dogs, too. But some are more trying than others.
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Jeff Borden said on August 22, 2012 at 10:30 am
I didn’t realize how lucky we’ve been with our dog, Cosmo. While he did use the one area rug we had downstairs as a place to pee when he was a little puppy –requiring us to remove and toss said rug– that has been the extent of his physical damage aside from his urine blasting the grass into patches of sullen brown. He’s generally pretty quiet. . .he is NOT a morning dog and tends to doze and snooze until around 9 or 10 a.m. . . .he’s not a runner on those rare occasions when his collar slips off. . .he’s made peace with squirrels and birds, though cats still intrigue and baffle him. . .he does not beg at the table or raid the garbage can or jump up at the countertops. At a little more than 2-years-old, he has decided he is something of a watchdog now and will bark at passersby, but anyone casting a glance will see his tail swishing madly back and forth. He is pretty much a perfect dog and quite a handsome fellow, too. Anyone looking to meet funny and interesting people could do a lot worse than get a dog.
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Julie Robinson said on August 22, 2012 at 10:34 am
About a month ago we noticed trees changing color, mostly at their tops, and assumed it was because of the drought. I’m guessing the leaves will go fast this year.
I grew up with cats, and no, they can’t be shamed. We don’t have any pets now because of allergies, but I’m loving these stories. They remind me of the toddlerhood of one of my kids, who somehow found scissors and created a very bad makeover of a dress.
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Charlotte said on August 22, 2012 at 10:41 am
I almost made a sign for Owen (also known around here as Lord Fauntleroy) yesterday — it would have said “I eat chicken shit out of the coop then come inside and lick your leg. Then burp on you.” His other sign would say: “I shamelessly flop out my crippled leg so strangers will give me cookies.” And then it thundered a lot last night and he had to come sleep with his head under our bed. My elderly baby dog …
I have an adopted cousin who spent years spinning out “real parents” fantasies with his older, not-adopted sister. Granted my aunt drank herself to death when they were both in middle school, and their father was a first-class dick, but even so, I never understood why they thought Matt’s bio-parents were anything other than Milwaukee teenagers who got themselves in trouble — why would they have given him up if they were secretly rich and wonderful? I have another friend having the same issue with her Chinese adopted daughter — who was left under a bridge as an infant. Its a psychology I don’t understand (as much as I can wholly understand wanting different parents).
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Peter said on August 22, 2012 at 10:43 am
Cooz, with your brilliant idea for a surrogate parents service, who would have guessed that deep in your heart you’re a closet entrepreneur. It’s OK, but if Mitt’s starting to make more sense to you I recommend that you lay down and drink heavily.
Dorothy, I am so sorry about your dog. Ours had a taste for drywall; he just loved to chew on corners and rip out portions of the corner bead to teeth on. We’d come home and see a pup with a bloody mouth and wagging tail.
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Maggie Jochild said on August 22, 2012 at 10:49 am
A new lover once made me an exquisite 7-layer chocolate cake for my birthday. We went out to eat before having cake, leaving it on the kitchen table which, up to that point, my short-legged little mutt had never been able to ascend. I guess the cake was a powerful motivator, because she somehow scooted chairs and got atop the table, ate every last crumb of the cake, then vomited it up in 17 different places in the house. (Yes, I counted.) Or maybe she ate and vomited, ate and vomited, in serial stages. My lover, an animal advocate, was very concerned the dog might die, but I refused to take her to the vet that night after a 17-stage clean-up. She survived and lived to be 16.
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Jen said on August 22, 2012 at 10:49 am
I still remember the time that I walked into the living room with my mom, and their golden retriever, Baxter, had completely shredded a pillow. Pillow innards were scattered across the entire room and, in the middle of it all, one very happy dog. Mom and I just laughed and laughed. That attitude is probably why Baxter has still not really learned how to behave.
Pilot Joe can probably share quite a few stories about Baxter, who is a huge fan of stealing socks, mittens, and koozie cups, but Baxter feels no shame about anything he does. He is a very good “bad dog.”
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Icarus said on August 22, 2012 at 10:53 am
I remember watching all these adopted children searching for the biological parents Movie of the Week tv specials (and I suppose a few of the parent searching for the child they gave up) and I use to think: Couldn’t they come up with some type of time capsole where when the kid is an adult they can read a note from the parent saying “hey i gave you up because i couldn’t afford you, not that I didn’t love you” or “I gave you up because i was raped please don’t contact me”.
If I were adopted the only reason I can imagine contacting my biological rentals would be to find out about any family medical history.
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coozledad said on August 22, 2012 at 10:58 am
Peter: The trick is to make about 30 million in capital expenditures for clothing and French lessons, then turn around and sell it to someone who needs to avoid paying 175 million in taxes.
Then I can buy my old lady a horse that shits doughnuts.
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Prospero said on August 22, 2012 at 11:15 am
Churchlady: To set your mind at ease, Asimov’s three laws of robotics
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
I’m going to make a bumper sticker that says I was never dumb enough to vote Republcan. I mean, my first Presidential election, the GOPer choice was Milhous touting his clearly spurious plan to end the war. That should put anyone with a sense of common decency of his feed.
We had an Irish Setter when I was a kid (nominally one of my brothers’ dog). Named Katy, and easily the dumbest dog I’ve ever met. Katy would eat anything and once stole a ball of rising bread dough from a kitchen counter. Katy was lucky the video camera hadn’t been invented yet, or she would have ended up the laughing stock of the world intertubes. One of my brothers commented as we watched her try to figure out why her mouth wouldn’t work, “You’d think she would have realized it was a bad idea after the first mouthful.” As the oldest, most resposnsible of the four of us, I realized eventually that the situation might be serious, and used a wooden spaghetti sauce spoon to pry the dough out of the poor critter’s mouth. God knows what would have happened had that nascent loaf made it to her gut.
That dog was dumb as blatherhammers, but she was extremely sweet. She’d be overjoyed to distraction when one of us would show up at home after months away at school. She once ran off for two days, then showed up on the pool deck with the handle of a picnic basket clamped in her muzzle, with linens and fancy plastic china and stainless cutlery in it, wrapped in a red-checked table cloth. So apparently she was the sort of Irish that sell asphalt driveway treatments up and down the East Coast.
I saw Akin on video explaining himself last night. He meant to say “forcible” rape. As in “It ain’t rape if you aren’t nearly killed.” Had a mental picture of GOPers swallowing their tongues, since the “forcible” distinction is one of the “intellectual” Ayn Ryan’s “ideas”. And what shoould an informed voter make of the fact that Willard and Ryan went after Akin with long knives out and then had their flunkies write the same shit into the party platorm? Hypocrites without borders. Anyway, politicians that believe somehow that false rape accusations are more common than actual rapes have no business in public office, and that is the policy of the entire GOP now.
Mark P: Did you have to go out for Peking duck?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPRdj1Ce4ao
And pardon the partisanship, but those littleface Mitt photos simply show him as the alien overlord he really is.
Maggie, dogs and chocolate do not mix, and I have caused more embarrassment than any of those dogs when I’ve seen people feeding chocolate candy to dogs.
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Connie said on August 22, 2012 at 11:18 am
All of my various dogs have liked undie crotches. My current dog is an escape artist. We once left two dogs home for a very long day after Thanksgiving. Came home to find the turkey carcass removed from the trash and beautifully polished on the living room floor.
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Jolene said on August 22, 2012 at 11:42 am
Several years ago, after watching a movie at a friend’s house, we went out to the kitchen and found that their dog had eaten the remains–bones and all–of a roast chicken, leaving the foil that had covered it still positioned over the plate on which it had rested. It didn’t surprise me that the dog would do that, but I was impressed that it did so without making a sound to alert us. No rattling, no pulling the plate on the floor, no nothing.
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nancy said on August 22, 2012 at 11:50 am
The dog that barks at its own “arse” when it farts — is that common? I read that once in a magazine story and laughed my own arse off, but never imagined it was anything other than one dog’s crazy habit.
I should start doing that, just for laughs.
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Julie Robinson said on August 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Dumb as Blatherhammers is a either a great name for a rock band or the Republican Party. I can’t decide which.
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crinoidgirl said on August 22, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Our late Jack Russell mix didn’t bark at his own farts, but was invariably surprised and terrified when they occurred. And then he’d run away from them.
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coozledad said on August 22, 2012 at 12:30 pm
I was just out in the yard digging postholes for a deck and noticed our blind, elderly, and senile dog Minerva lapping at something that looked like a pudding.
I didn’t stop her. She sounded too happy.
But that doesn’t mean I could stand there and listen to her scarf it up.
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Jason T. said on August 22, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Nance: You want to bark at dogs’ asses when they fart? I’m confused.
Two old men are sitting on the porch, watching a dog lick his own genitals.
First guy says, “Gee, I wish I could do that.”
Second guy says, “Go ahead, he’s your dog.”
Thanks, I’ll be here all week, tip your waitress.
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Julie Robinson said on August 22, 2012 at 12:51 pm
And speaking of inappropriate nekkidness, HRH Harry has been exposing the crown jewels: https://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/22/159739363/prince-harry-exposed-photos-show-up-of-naked-royal-cavorting-in-vegas?utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20120822
This is the safe-for-work link.
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Dorothy said on August 22, 2012 at 1:12 pm
An Irish setter was the first dog I owned – a gift to my husband when we got married. She too was “dumb as blatherhammers”. Sweet disposition but devoid of any recognizable brains. She too used to turn towards her arse when she’d fart and look at us like “WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME?!?!?” Then she’d try to run away from it. Her own attached butt.
You only have to watch the first minute and 8 seconds of this clip that is about a dog fart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZLM31yLYAk
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coozledad said on August 22, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Wake me up when the video of the entire staff of the NRO blowing Mittens comes out. Shouldn’t be too long now.
http://wonkette.com/481728/nro-ladies-should-love-mitt-romney-because-of-gold-digging-and-having-daughters-made-obama-gay#more-481728
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Prospero said on August 22, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Well Dorothy, I know lots of humans that have been blaming it on the dog for a long time.
As for the prince, that’s better than being caught in one of his vintage SS unis. Anyway, as David Niven would say, he’s just “showing off his shortcomings.”
http://www.ontheredcarpet.com/David-Nivens-Oscar-introduction-interrupted-by-streaker—Oscar-History-Video/8533766
Damn, David Niven was cool.
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Prospero said on August 22, 2012 at 3:38 pm
We saw Lilly Tomlin talking about Phyllis Diller on TV last night. She said one of her favorite Phyllis Diller jokes was this one liner:
I tried to dress a turkey for this Thanksgiving, but I can’t get past the blouse.
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Prospero said on August 22, 2012 at 3:53 pm
After his hissy fit about how Obama should take that anger and jealousy back to Chicago, maybe Willard Windsock should come clean about his own unseemly Chicago connections:
http://atlantablackstar.com/2012/07/03/romney-also-got-money-from-questionable-obama-donor/
That’s right RMoney, get somebody to pry those bucks out of your greedy clutches and give them to charity. And I don’t mean LDS. The Mormons should have their tax exempt status removed for spending $8billion on a Cali referendum election.
And I really agree with George Carlin’s opinions on GOPer pro-life claims:
http://front.moveon.org/what-george-carlin-knew-about-the-pro-life-movement/?rc=daily.share
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MaryRc said on August 22, 2012 at 4:01 pm
Re that NRO article about the manliness of Mitt: didn’t it occur to the writer that claiming that Mitt could have a harem would be an unfortunate reminder of Mitt’s great-grandfather? Who actually did have a harem?
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alex said on August 22, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Here’s a good read from the NYT. I’ve met Mary Frances Veeck and she’s quite a firecracker indeed.
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basset said on August 22, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Back to dogs for a minute… our basset Eudora was a great counter-surfer, she pulled down and ate a whole loaf of bread once, complete with the wrapper, and shit little plastic tassels for days.
Our first golden, not so much, mainly hairbrushes and chair legs when she was little, but I still have a guitar string winder (a little crank you use to turn the pegs while putting strings on) with puppy toothmarks in it and she’s been dead thirteen years.
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Prospero said on August 22, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Here’s a great idea that went seriously awry: Some fool decided to rob LL Cool J’s house,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fARpKl1Bsc
Yeah, he looks like a pushover.
Somebody should tell that fool at NRO that Willard could only get a date in his younger days by impersonating a police officer and kidnapping young women. And I don’t really mean anything by this, but Mittens strikes me as a wuss. But really, the NRO guy must have a sugar-frosted nutsack if he’s brave enough to talk about evolutionary hypothesis of any sort considering who his reactionary employers are. He also should be aware that the hypotheses is only considered possibly valid as a predictor for polygynous species, which, Lord knows, GOPers don’t think humans are, unless they live in clandestine militia camps in Idaho. As usual, GOPers should leave scientific speculation to people that actually believe in science. Of course, the T-W is entirely incapable of positing any sort of physiological mechanism by which their hypotheses could take place in real life, unless they think it’s another supra-hormonal bit of magic like Akin believes in.
Birthrates for males are higher in China. Does NRO guy want to explain that one. Oh, yeah, right. The evil Chinese abort female fetuses. These dumbasses should leave scientific matters alone and stick to what they know is true, like dinosaurs and humans sharing the earth.
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churchlady said on August 22, 2012 at 5:49 pm
The Three Laws of Robotics (created by John W. Campbell and given to Asimov) was an interesting tonic in a day when all Robots seemed to want to destroy their creators. (If God existed I’d want to kill him, too). But there’s nothing in robotics itself that prevents a robot from attacking a human. It all depends on their programming. And even then it depends on no critical overflow situations that crashes that part of the programming.
And I’m sadden that you didn’t recognize a Futurama reference when I threw it out.
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churchlady said on August 22, 2012 at 5:58 pm
The War on Drugs aint about drugs
“Don’t ever think it’s a war on drugs. It’s a war on the blacks. It started as a war on the blacks and it’s now spread to Hispanics and poor whites… it was designed to take that energy coming out of the civil rights movement and destroy it,” says Ed Burns, co creator of The Wire, who is interviewed in the program.”
http://boingboing.net/2012/08/22/al-jazeera-report-on-the-heart.html
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Connie said on August 22, 2012 at 6:26 pm
Tickets are available for a Romney/Ryan appearance in my neighborhood Friday. Commerce Township, Michigan.
Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are scheduled to be in Commerce Township (Long Family Orchard Farm & Cider Mill) early afternoon on Friday, August 24.
From what I know. Have people get tickets for the event.
http://romneyryanmichigan.eventbrite.com/
Commerce road from Bogie/Wise rd will be closed to Williams Dr. at the Hospital or when ever all the parking is used up at the farm. There is parking at Northern High School and a shuttle service to get over to the farm.
It is expected between 3 and 5 thousand people will show up for this event so expect a lot of people.
If you think you want to attend you could be late by arriving at 9:00 for a 12:00 noon event. That is when Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan will arrive, give or take 10 min. Mr. Romney will give a 45 min speech, and meet with the press and leave some time around 1:00 Mr. Ryan will leave around 2:00 and some place you will be able to get water and eat a ear of corn free.
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Prospero said on August 22, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Well. churchlady, I watch Futurama, but usually only have eye for Turanga Leela.
The war on drugs is also the most gigantic waste of federal money and boondoggle not named Missile Defense. One’s as successful as the other, though. And if it’s not, indeed, true, that there has always been a racial aspect to “Just Say Yo!”, somebody that supports the war on drugs should attempt to explain the geometric progression differences between sentencing for powder coke and sentencing for crack. Then again, there are places like Tejas where less than a decade ago, a person could get 99 years for possession of less than an ounce of pot. Don’t mess with Texas? Damn right. See if Mexico will take its sorry ass back.
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Little Bird said on August 22, 2012 at 7:05 pm
I have to say, I imagine Romney and Ryan probably react to their own farts much like the dogs mentioned today.
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jcburns said on August 22, 2012 at 7:37 pm
There are days when I’m so proud to be hosting the smart, complex, largely civil discourse on this site.
And then there are days youall talk about dogs and farting and stuff.
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nancy said on August 22, 2012 at 8:14 pm
J.C. is a cat person, you see.
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alex said on August 22, 2012 at 8:19 pm
Dogs farting. Republicans politicking. What’s the diff? Unpleasant to be in the same room with either.
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coozledad said on August 22, 2012 at 8:57 pm
At least when dogs are trying to eat the crotch out of some panties, they don’t threaten the use of guns:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/frank_szabo_deadly_force_abortions.php?ref=fpa
I think we ought to take up a collection to buy these oiks their very own dystopia.
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Prospero said on August 22, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Cats fart, whether cats or cat people will admit to it. Thing is, caatfood-induced farts are spectacularly acrid and disgusting.
Willard RMoney parbly has an undocumented Central American on the payroll to take the blame when he sits on a duck. The guy is kinda teflon-coated. How is it people have forgotten Willard’s reaction when it dawned on him that all of the landscapers at his house in Belmont were undocumented immigrants. “I can’t have that. I’m running for President.”
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Suzanne said on August 22, 2012 at 9:24 pm
Oh, heck yes, cats fart. Ours does all the time. It’s lovely, too, when the cat is on your lap, purring, looking ever so sweet and then you notice the smell. Because cat toots are always SBD.
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Prospero said on August 22, 2012 at 9:32 pm
Does that sherrif Bozo idiot know how easy he’s making it for somebody to file a wrongful death suit when some abortion providing GYN gets shot in his juridiction.
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Rana said on August 22, 2012 at 10:38 pm
I can’t recall our particular cat farting, but she is a producer of rather pungent poop… so much so that she’ll spend long minutes attempting to cover the smell as well as the poop, and then runs like a crazy thing to get away from the box when that doesn’t work.
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Dexter said on August 22, 2012 at 11:15 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C4NV_RjN5Q
musical interlude…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=526FDxMxojw
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LAMary said on August 22, 2012 at 11:29 pm
Max the dane/boxer mix growls at his ass when he farts, which is frequently. Amelia the calico cat creates bad smells in solid and gaseous forms. The other cats give her dirty looks.
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Dexter said on August 22, 2012 at 11:31 pm
People just ARE cat people, or dog people, right? Baseball fans just ARE Sox or Cubs or Reds or Tigers fans, right? I mean that’s the way it IS, right?
Ah, bullshit. I love my two dogs and I love my feral-converted cat.
I knew a guy at work who said he was a San Francisco Giants fan. Then one year he switched and began attending Cincinnati Reds games and talking like he was the world’s biggest fan of the Reds. I thought nothing of it, but oh man, did he get razzed as a bandwagon jumper and as a joke of a fan.
We have two kids from here in town who have made it to the Red Sox organization, one in the minors and one on the big club’s injured roster. I hope they do well. I think it’s natural to switch teams for those families and become part of the Red Sox nation.
I just love to see great baseball; this is why I follow whichever team is playing hard and trying to get to the World Series. Being a lifelong fan of one team seems lame as hell.
It’s all money…sometimes. Yesterday basketball owner Mark Cuban had disparaging things to say about free agent Jason Kidd, because he wouldn’t sign with Cuban’s Dallas Mavs. Kidd just wanted to go “up east” and was apparently sick of Dallas. That’s his right.
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Deborah said on August 22, 2012 at 11:47 pm
Our cats (well now it’s only one) fart rarely but they have (had) hideous smelling breath. The surviving cat no longer eats much dry food, we feed her mostly canned food which she loves ridiculously and as a result her breath is actually better smelling. We figure she’s already 15 years old if it kills her, she’s had a great run, and she loves it so much it’s hard to keep her from enjoying it. Bad for her teeth I know, but she’s 15 so… Also since stopping the dry food the remaining cat rarely vomits which she did nearly daily before. So our furniture and carpeting are in better shape.
I’m back in Chicago after a week in Santa Fe, unfortunately facing some temps in the 90s for the next few days. Sigh, when will this end? So looking forward to winter. And on Friday I have only 6 weeks left before my retirement begins!
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Dexter said on August 22, 2012 at 11:48 pm
duplicate-sorry
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Little Bird said on August 22, 2012 at 11:49 pm
Oh GOD yes, cats fart. But nothing quite compares to a really bad dog fart.
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Amanda said on August 24, 2012 at 1:26 am
I was concieved from rape, am adopted, am happily reunited, and have actually not been an “adopted child” for almost 10 years now.
Any evidence that states mothers were legally promised anonymity in adoption is few and far between. Not back then. Not now.
I am sure you did not mean for you anecdote to sound as flippant as it came off.
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