Just because they're lapdogs

[conuly]

They think they have permission to sit on my lap. Incessantly.

*****************************

A Woman Who Fought in the Revolutionary War (The title frames it like she was the only one, but of course we all know better.)

10+ Of The Oldest Color Photos Showing What The World Looked Like 100 Years Ago

Uncovering Ancient Clues to Humanity’s First Fires

When Fresh Air Went Out of Fashion at Hospitals

How the world's first accountants counted on cuneiform

Gifted Programs Ditched for Hands-On Learning for All at More NYC Schools

The Artful Propaganda of Soviet Children’s Literature

Why Sand Covers the Floor of One of the Western Hemisphere’s Oldest Synagogues

Surviving the Hunt: Female Elk Get Sneakier With Age

Cubans now face same deportation risk as other immigrants

A Resolution Condemning White Supremacy Causes Chaos at the Southern Baptist Convention

Cuomo To NYC’s Suffering Subway Commuters: Drive A Car (Ugh, next time upstate tries to secede, I say we beat them to the punch and do it first. We'll just take part of the NYC metro area with us. This may involve annexing part of NJ. Whatever.)

Summer vacation? Lots of Americans say they can't afford it (Is anybody really surprised?)

Cities fight climate change through ecosystem restoration

Revenge for Sinjar: Syrian Kurds free Islamic State slaves

The primary reason twitter works so hard to protect racists and meninists and such is cuz their bot counts are staggering

Priced out of the favela: The Brazilians turning to squats

World's largest refugee camp strains to keep kids in school

Protests in northern Morocco swell with calls for royal intervention

The Virginia Shooting and America's Creeping National Disease

Despite Tillerson reassurance, Palestinians not stopping 'martyr' payments

Comments

Implied consent...

[thetimesink]

The lap thing is implicit in the agreement: if food is provided, then laps are a line item in the agreement. The exchange is a warm , furry, quiet companion (suitable for lowering blood pressure if we acknowledge yet another line item by providing "petting" or "brush").

Further, the property owner will supply entertainment and a modicum of pest control (an inverse of the food supply), while the tenant will provide sanitary facilities and maintain them in an acceptable state.

I'd continue, but the local version of the form is three pages long...

Re: Implied consent...

[conuly]

Somebody doesn't like getting combed. His fur is actually just the way I like it right now, but I'm still taking him back to the groomer because I can't comb it easily (probably because nobody ever did comb it before he came to us). We're working on the concept. Poor Finn.

[zesty_pinto]

I have to admit, lapdogs always getting on the lap sounds like a problem I wouldn't mind having.

I wish Teachout beat Cuomo, I think she would have done more than offer lip service to New Yorkers about this MTA problem or at least be more honest over this. I guess I should be glad he's at least concerned with Amtrak's infrastructure since it passively helps NJ Transit's as well (and Chris Christie is too much of a turd to even fix a rail bridge that is a chronic issue).

The Twitter bot infestation is ridiculous. It might explain why some of the people I follow on it just aren't using it anymore. Just realized that one of my favorite comedians is no longer on it. I'm honestly glad I'm back on DW so I can keep a distance whenever I need to vent.

That summer vacation article is like that article about people griping about how millenials are "killing Applebees." Like you want them to spend more money on OK food at a price that they could make a much better dinner from?Maybe if the economy wasn't in such a hole for most of us we'd start treating our incomes as more disposable. Next, you'll see them complaining about the death of department stores again.

[conuly]

I have to admit, lapdogs always getting on the lap sounds like a problem I wouldn't mind having.

Until you want to stand up and he looks at you funny.

[mindstalk]

I've made a note to support Cuomo's primary opponents, in either election.

[conuly]

They'd have to be pretty bad not to.

[malkingrey]

What annoys me about most of the articles concerning the SBC's resolution is the way the headlines keep being framed to cast the SBC in a negative light even though the real takeaway from the story is that the SBC passed the resolution after what amounted to a revolt on the floor against the committee that tried to stop it.

As an Episcopalian, I'm about as far as you can get from being a member of the SBC and still count as a sort-of Protestant, but nevertheless -- you'd think that "the SBC actually does a right and good thing" would be a more newsworthy story than "the SBC continues to be exactly as bad as you thought they were." But I'm not a reporter for the Atlantic, so I could be wrong. (Then again, back in the late 1980's, when the SBC started requiring professors at its colleges to sign actual creedal statements, nobody in the mainstream news noticed that a major US denomination had just thrown one of its core doctrines -- individual interpretation of the scriptures and the priesthood of all believers -- right out the window.)

Grumble. Nobody believes me, these days, when I tell them that there used to be a time when fundamentalist evangelicals were harder on themselves than they were on other people, and didn't get involved in things like worldly politics. Then the devil came along in a Brooks Brothers suit and showed them the kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof, and they said, "Thank you, Brother Satan, I do believe I'll have me some."

[conuly]

As an Episcopalian, I'm about as far as you can get from being a member of the SBC and still count as a sort-of Protestant, but nevertheless -- you'd think that "the SBC actually does a right and good thing" would be a more newsworthy story than "the SBC continues to be exactly as bad as you thought they were." But I'm not a reporter for the Atlantic, so I could be wrong. (Then again, back in the late 1980's, when the SBC started requiring professors at its colleges to sign actual creedal statements, nobody in the mainstream news noticed that a major US denomination had just thrown one of its core doctrines -- individual interpretation of the scriptures and the priesthood of all believers -- right out the window.)

They're a bit like Autism Speaks in this regard. They've got a lot of moral credit to rebuild first.

Grumble. Nobody believes me, these days, when I tell them that there used to be a time when fundamentalist evangelicals were harder on themselves than they were on other people, and didn't get involved in things like worldly politics.

Just another thing we can blame Reagan for. I know it wasn't just him, but.

[malkingrey]

They're a bit like Autism Speaks in this regard. They've got a lot of moral credit to rebuild first.

No argument there. But you'd think that the news media would bother to call attention to it when they take a major step in the right direction, instead of leaving the sort of readers who get all their news from the headlines with the wrong impression entirely.

Just another thing we can blame Reagan for. I know it wasn't just him, but.

Not Reagan, so much as his GOP successors. Fundamentalist/evangelical involvement in conservative politics didn't really get off the ground until the Bush I years, when Ralph Reed started the Christian Coalition. Before that point, the power brokers in the party tended to regard the fundagelicals as a bit of an embarrassment -- hicks from the sticks, mostly, and only a generation or so away from tent-show revivalists speaking in tongues.

[konsectatrix]

Please to not attempt to wander off with the parts of NJ that keep the Trumpist contingent outvoted and therefore tolerable for the rest of us. =p

[conuly]

Hm. I was thinking probably Newark. They're close by, right?

(Actually, I was optimistically thinking we could get Philly and Boston to join in, and a nice strip of land connecting all the cities. I'm sure they share our pain of all the local taxes going to the ungrateful people elsewhere in the state. But I dunno, maybe they wouldn't be happier to have to share our budget!)

[konsectatrix]

I would give a LOT to have high-speed commuter lines running along the shore counties from Philly up to Boston. Privatizing public transit here was just another part of a string of terrible ideas starting with the concept of home rule.

[conuly]

YES.

[swiftheartrabbit]

Thank you for the colored pix from 100 yrs ago. I bookmarked the site. :-)