Bastet

Yep, Yakov Smirnoff. Thus Jackoff Greygoose. (Smirnoff and Grey Goose both being vodka brands.)

That one picture should come with a warning; way to harsh my mellow. Other than that, I really enjoyed that behind-the-scenes look back on this year. It just arrived yesterday, so I haven't read it yet, but The Nation put out a special issue, The Obama Years. It's 80 pages (it's The Nation, so minimal advertisement), with articles from Katha Pollitt (taking a look at how some of us on the left were quick to criticize, but slow to give credit), Greg Grandin (Obama as both ardent champion and chief victim of American exceptionalism), Gary Younge (Obama symbolizing the gap between the nation's hopes and its realities), Laila Lalami (promises kept, and those broken), David Cole (Obama's civil rights legacy), Andrew J. Bacevich (a look back on the mistakes and successes during Obama's transformation from rookie to seasoned statesman), Robert Borosage (looking at whether Obama was a transformational president, since his achievements were significant but helped preserve the status quo), Joan Walsh (the racist backlash against his election), and many others.

Daily retractions, then? I remember either during the lead-up to or shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq (thanks to the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld axis of evil), a study revealed people who got their news from FOX News were hideously misinformed compared to people who got their news from other (actual news) sources. Fact after fact they didn't believe to be true, lie after lie they did believe to be true. These people were wandering around in some alternate universe, but fully convinced they were in the real world. It was sobering. And now, FOX News isn't even the half of it! The proliferation of fake news sites on the internet, and the ease with which it is disseminated via social media -- it's truly frightening how impervious many people have become to reality. And how shitty a job our "real" media has been doing for so long now. They switched from reporters to stenographers; instead of "President/Congressperson X said Y today, but as [insert facts here] shows, Y is not true, it's actually Z" we now have "President/Congressperson X said Y today, but Person From Other Party said it's Z."

I'm one of those who has no trouble falling asleep, but rarely stays asleep the entire night. Sometimes I'm only awake for 20-30 minutes in the middle of the night, but it's not unusual for me to be awake for anywhere from 2-4 hours (during which time I stay in bed so as not to disturb the cat, and either read or watch DVDs). I am very fortunate that I can make my own hours, so when that happens I can just sleep in to make up for the lost sleep. On the mornings I have to get up and go to court after having been awake for a big chunk of the night and then just been getting back into good sleep when the alarm went off, I am so miserable. (Well, I'm miserable any time I have to get up early, but extra miserable.)

I don't hate biscuits, but they do absolutely nothing for me and I'll only ever eat one to be polite or help fill myself up if I'm equally un-enthused about the rest of the meal. I don't eat potato salad or beans (I hate potatoes and beans), so this was a decidedly un-droolworthy episode. This was another episode I couldn't pay full attention to, so I don't know who wound up on the bottom in the QF, but it was two people who'd never made a biscuit and one person who'd been making biscuits since he came out of the womb, so I'd have thrown whatever "we judge only on the food, and this challenge's food only" fiction they hide behind and declared Jim the loser. All the backstory meant Sylvia wasn't long for this competition, but I was hoping for a while it was a red herring because I like her food more than several people remaining. "Yours just seemed too murky, like you put too many things in it." Isn't that what he always does? Katsuji can pack his knives and go any time. I don't give a shit whether he is an asshole or he's acting like an asshole in order to garner more camera time; both are, well, asshole moves I don't respect. That was a glaringly white crowd production assembled.

That's what pops into my mind and cracks me up every time I come across someone bemoaning how difficult it is to get their product out of its plastic packaging -- someone needlessly marketed a specialty tool to open such packaging, and promptly packaged it in the same way one supposedly needs said tool to penetrate. I've mocked this so many times I try to restrain myself in most threads, but, yeah -- this shit cracks me up.

Of all the obstructionist actions by congressional Republicans during Obama's two terms, Senate Republicans announcing they would refuse to consider any nomination for Scalia's vacant seat is one of those most sticking in my craw. The people elect a president to do numerous things during his or her (ha) tenure, including fill any Supreme Court vacancies that occur during that time. A shit ton of lower federal court benches have been left unstaffed as well, but to say they won't even hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee because a different president will take office almost a year after the seat opened up is pure bullshit. (I'd have to delve into NLRB v Canning to see whether a recess appointment would pass muster, so I'm not yet commenting on the strategy; I'm just taking yet another opportunity to express my disgust with the refusal to consider Garland.)

Because it wasn't, fucknut. He lost the popular vote and his margin of victory in the Electoral College vote ranks among the slimmest in that institution's history. Running around calling something a landslide doesn't magically turn it into one.

My absolute favorite of her films/performances, with Divorce American Style and In & Out rounding out my top three. I actually haven't seen her in all that much, as many of her films aren't the type I generally enjoy. The episode of The Golden Girls in which she appeared was just on the other night. As I said in the Celebrity Deaths thread, I truly can't wrap my head around what Todd Fisher and Billie Lourd are going through.

I didn't know seeing an imaginary spider upon waking up in the middle of the night was a thing! The one my mind conjures up looks like an oversized daddy long legs crawling up the wall. I only started seeing them in the past few years, and don't do it often (and just go back to sleep, since I know it's not real - and would just deal with it in the morning if it was), but I do that. I had no idea it wasn't just me.

His story is indeed quite interesting. My understanding - from the press generated a few years back, like this article and the Red Button documentary - is that he decided not to inform his superiors the early warning system reported incoming missiles, but instead to report there was a malfunction of that early warning system (which turned out to be true). Had it gone up the chain of command as it was supposed to, someone else may have made a very different decision. But he had satellite radar officers telling him they couldn't see anything, he figured if the U.S. was going to start an atomic war they'd send far more than the five missiles being indicated by his computer, and he didn't believe the data could have passed through the nearly 30 checkpoints in the system that quickly to accurately produce the warnings he was seeing. So he decided to report it as a malfunction rather than a warning. I think it's true, as he notes, that him having had civilian education - rather than being a professional soldier, like most of the others who might have been on duty some other shift, who'd never learned anything other than to give and follow orders - played a role in him thinking as he did and making the decision he did. Anyway, yes, one despairs at the thought someone in a similar situation during Trump's reign of terror would not be able to factor "this would be an illogical action for the U.S. to take" into their evaluation.

Congratulations on the adoption of Louis! I'm so happy you chose an older cat, and that he is making himself right at home.

You can count on that. Carelessly dumping the food onto the table so that some of it spilled onto the ground was wasteful, but you can rest assured that when the cameras stopped rolling, the food that remained on the table was enjoyed. Production crews on shows where food is prepared are legendary for how quickly they can make food disappear.

Yeah, originally, that's what the twins' property was going to be, but now that they don't live together, I'm not sure how they have the "lifers" arranged. Maybe Kanani still lives there. There are some outdoor kennels at the warehouse (not many, obviously), and at Assumption Parish. I loved the set-up she had planned for Tehachapi, with the indoor/outdoor kennels. But New Orleans was much better for the dogs because they had so much interaction with people (being a public facility in a fairly central location, rather than out in the boonies like in Agua Dulce). It stinks that jerks have ruined that, by forcing the cancellation of tours, but they seem to have a lot of volunteers to supplement their staff, so I think the dogs are still getting the socialization and walks they need. I think having the warehouse and the larger country property is going to be a nice set-up, giving them good options depending on what type of environment each particular dog would do best in (plus, it has those great kitty cabins). So long as there remain hundreds of dogs in need of them at any given time, they're going to have to make the best of the space they have available to them. Use of the warehouse was donated by its owner, so not having to pay rent on that frees up more money for the dogs. It's nice that it's built up with upper floors, so they can move dogs up when storms come in, rather than having to evacuate the building.

That "Any Postcards From the Edge fan has to darkly appreciate the thunder stealing" tweet did, indeed, make me laugh for Debbie Reynolds and, especially, Carrie Fisher. But I cannot imagine being Todd Fisher or Billie Lourd right now. I read that Todd said pretty much the same thing of Billie: "Carrie's daughter is 24 years old. To have to lose the girls, it's just horrible. She's got their genes, but you can't even imagine. I can't imagine being 24 and having to do this, and I'm 59." It has been a long time since I've felt this strongly for people I don't know, but to lose your sister and mother or mother and grandmother within barely more than 24 hours of each other -- I honestly can't wrap my mind around it. It would have been hard enough had they, say, been in an accident together, and the possibility of losing both was known. But first Carrie has an unexpected heart attack, they spend a few days waiting and hoping, making decisions, etc. and then she's gone, and then the very next day, in the midst of planning her funeral, they lose Debbie to another unexpected medical emergency.

I'm trying to imagine getting annoyed that someone opted to read rather than watch TV under these circumstances - where everyone is truly just sitting around watching TV, rather that it being any sort of interactive experience - let alone dispatching someone to go drag the reader back to the couch, and I can't do it. This is not surprising; people who think being related, friends, romantically involved, etc. means you must do everything together baffle - and annoy, if I'm the one to whom they're clinging like a barnacle - me.

The "food stamp fraud!" furor reminds me of when Republicans scream about voter fraud. The number of people fraudulently receiving food stamp benefits is negligible, while the number of eligible people improperly denied benefits is a real problem. But they're on about the former, and don't give a shit about the latter. It's the same idea as how the number of people casting fraudulent ballots is practically non-existent, yet voter suppression and disenfranchisement has a serious effect. (And, of course, they lie about the former, and are the perpetrators of the latter.)

As part of my ongoing "I wonder if there really were more celebrity deaths this year, or if it just seems that way" musings, I checked the history of this thread. In 2014 (well, the nine months of 2014 it existed), there were nine pages worth of posts. In 2015, there were almost 15 pages worth. This year? Forty two pages and counting. Now, obviously there are other factors at play - the site gaining new posters each year, certain deaths triggering large numbers of posts, etc. - but I found it interesting.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Maxine Waters for the first time many years ago at a Roe v Wade anniversary event. In the years since, we've interacted quite a few more times, and my respect and admiration have grown each time; it was quite a highlight when I realized she knew me by name (she came up to congratulate me on a case I'd just won). I am heartened by her words, and not at all surprised by them. She takes her job seriously, and she does not suffer fools gladly.

Fisher's quote about her dad's relationship with Elizabeth Taylor - "He first dried her eyes with his handkerchief, then he consoled her with flowers, and he ultimately consoled her with his penis. This made marriage to my mother awkward" - popped into my head, and I went looking for other words of wit and wisdom from her. She's had some great things to say on getting - and looking - older, and society's reaction to that:

I remember that game so well. I love that Tom Coughlin kept the voice mail John Madden left him after that game:

Chris Lehmann (author of The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity, and the Unmaking of the American Dream), wrote an article in The Nation about Trump's "gospel of positive thinking." It's a review of several books about (and one by) Trump, but if you're familiar with The Nation's book reviews, you know it's much more than that. He delves into Trump's "deft rhetorical maneuvering between the poles of apocalyptic despair and spectacular optimism": He also quotes David Cay Johnston's analysis of Trump's success with our idiotic media: But what really made me think of this article again - it ran about a month before the election - is this latest conversation about how Trump is prone to tweeting out blatant lies that can easily be fact-checked, as if he cannot help himself of self-aggrandizing. Because what Lehmann really digs into is how Trump's fear of being publicly perceived as "an also-ran or a bankrupt loser" was influenced by the positive-thinking creed preached by the pastor of the church young Donald's family attended: When Trump sued a NYT reporter for not labeling him a billionaire (in a book Trump admitted he never actually read), in his deposition, Trump responded to a question of whether he exaggerated his net worth by saying, "I think everybody does. Who wouldn't?" and later explained that he regarded his 30 percent interest in a development as 50 percent, because "if the seventy percent owner puts up all of the money, I really own more than thirty percent. And I have always felt I own fifty percent, from that standpoint." Pressed for an actual, accurate accounting of his net worth, Trump replied, "My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with my feelings." Asked, basically, if he really just said that last part, he answered, "Yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day." Lehmann explores the connection between Trump's "fiercely defended citadel of megalomaniacal self-regard" and this positive-thinking gospel he heard as a child and praised in his book. It's an interesting read.

I feel so sorry for Carrie Fisher's family. (Plenty of non-famous people spent the holidays in the same horrible way, I know, and I feel sorry for them, too; I just don't know them by name.) I'm one of the three people in the world who has never seen Star Wars in its entirety (I've tried a few times, and just can't get through it - sci-fi is not my bag, and that one is decidedly not an exception), but I loved her in Soapdish, Scream 3, and When Harry Met Sally. I think Postcards From the Edge is fantastic, and I even like the episode of Roseanne she wrote (with Debbie Reynolds as Dan's mom). And, as noted above, she was highly regarded as a script doctor, including several films that make me laugh. Basically, my distaste at her joking about having had an affair with a married man aside, I liked Carrie Fisher as Carrie Fisher; her sense of humor - especially about herself - really clicked with me.

And that's why you have such a hard time cutting the cord. But whether it's someone we're related to, used to be in love with, once had a close friendship with, whatever -- the past connection matters, certainly, but it doesn't eclipse the present circumstances. Our shared history and the good stuff it involved means we give second (and more) chances we wouldn't otherwise give rather than walking away as we would from someone lesser known to us, but it doesn't require us to do so in perpetuity. Letting go of someone who has become toxic doesn't negate the time in our lives they were a positive part of; we'll always have those memories, and their role in our lives at that time will always be valuable. But if the relationship is unhealthy with no fix in sight, there's no use clinging to it (and there can be harm in doing so).

It might slow her down for about five minutes when you first get her back home. Twenty if she has a cone on her head.