Tonight we close the books on another year. 2014 had it’s high points, but I’m happy to finally put it in my rear-view mirror. I know you’re expecting me to say something witty and insightful, but I got nothing. Thank you all for being here for me.
Better luck next year!
The Crawdad Hole 
Thank You for providing a place that is fun, interesting and always filled with great people. May 2015 be a much better year than 2014
X2 Where would we be without you and this site?
I’d probably be locked up.
Ditto! It’s easy for us to come here when we want, but it doesn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated that you are here every day providing provocative, intelligent and witty content for us. Happy New Year to all & let’s hope for some sanity in 2015…then again, human nature being what it is, let’s hope for our own health and sanity in the midst of the madness!
honk honk
^This^ Hope 2015 is better for everyone here.
Yes I agree fif and lyn!
I hope everyone here at TCH has a wonderful 2015!
Hear, hear!
What everyone else has already said. If it weren’t for TCH, I’d be looking for long-term psychiatric care in 2015. Instead, I survived the last several years of pretty stressful work (and life) and will be retiring in June 2015! It definitely will be a better year. Thank you, everyone.
Woot Leslie! Wow, June will be here before you know it. The first couple of months of this year will drag by, but come spring the time will fly.
Thanks, Somebody! ❤
You’re going to love being retired. It’s the best job I’ve ever had.
😉
Happy retirement! So far, 12 years into it, it seems busier than public employment, but it might be just that my honey manages time tighter than the state.
A happy and prosperous New Year, all!
Congratulations, Leslie. Six more months! You are welcome in my home if you ever come to southern Oregon–home of Crater Lake NP and Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Enjoy!
Dittos ❤
http://twitchy.com/2014/12/31/while-you-slept-5-more-detainees-released-from-guantanamo/?utm_source=autotweet&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter
more gitmo detainees released
http://rightwingnews.com/top-news/new-evidence-new-fast-furious-docs-confirm-exactly-eric-holder-wanted-hide/
more on the forgotten fast and furious
They wish it was forgotten Helen. 😡
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/12/having_a_national_conversation_about_the_american_ghetto.html
this is a needed conversation
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/12/30/black-lives-matter-demonstrators-billed-for-mall-of-america-trespass/?singlepage=true
this could be interesting to watch. It might start a trend
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/68638
considering the people in backtrack’s life from birth on , this article makes sense to me
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/68638
Thank you Helen for all the great links. 😀
you are welcome
It also turns out that at least two people involved in publicizing this story have connections to a certain bitter blogger from NOLA.
Noooo, who would report false info – a certain pole dancer.
Was the koolaid that tasty and easy to swallow. Many of us moved from being democrats to disgruntled dems to realists which overall is preferable to always looking for the worst (not liverwurst) in everything. They should move to another country where they can experience communism on a daily basis, or sharia law (can you picture Lena D. in a burka), or a truly poor country where you scavenger for food, water and shelter.
Actually I’d prefer Lena Dunham in a burka, but maybe that’s just me!
😆
I’m shocked at this cooked-up non story, shocked I tell you.
Lemme guess. Also in the audience were the UVA frat boiz and after the talk Steve Scalise went with them to raype innocent coeds on shattered glass coffee tables.
Gilda Reed is connected to skyprancing?
They’re both miseducators at UNO
I’m starting my resolutions early like today by going to the gym and eating / drinking well. Tomorrow is another day.
Happy New Year to everyone at TCH!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, the sooner you get this over with, the sooner you return to real life.
Swiped this from a poster on Noquarter. I know you’ve all seen it before but it’s good for a laugh.
Texas A&M Study Calls Obama 5th Best President in our history
Good research work by a fine institution:
OBAMA RATED 5th BEST PRESIDENT IN OUR HISTORY
From a total of 44 US Presidents: Obama is rated as the 5th best. The A&M’s Public Relations Office released this statement “After only 5 years in office, Americans have rated President Obama the 5th best President ever.”
These are the details according to Texas A&M:
1. Reagan & Lincoln tied for first,
2. Twenty three presidents tied for second,
3. Seventeen other presidents tied for third,
4. Jimmy Carter came in fourth, and
5. Obama came in fifth.
ROFLALALAL!
A fitting spot for the fraud. 🙂
Happy New Year!!! I’m not holding my breath for sanity in DC or in the general public in the coming year, but here’s to some small level of sanity above what we’ve seen in ’14.
Also Go Packers!
YES!!!
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/p/best-of.html
have you seen this cartoon blog site?
http://townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/2014/12/31/ringing-out-the-year-with-liberal-double-standards-n1937232/page/full
double standards
Happy Hogmanay. Hubby is outside dragging limbs, logs, sticks, leaves into a pile for a bonfire tonight. It has rained off and on for the past three days and I doubt it will burn. No accelerants allowed since they caught a tree and a lawn chair on fire one year. The geezers will stand around it and drink while it smokes sullenly. What fun! I think I will stay inside.
Blowtorch?
I do not want to give them any ideas. They are all pyromaniacs especially on semi-pagan holidays. He will probably get it going with some firewood in the garage.
My neighbors are planning a bonfire out in the cul-de-sac tonight. They want to use my portable fire pit which is fine, but I’m not sure I’m up to a block party. I guess it depends on who shows up and who gets drunk. They’re also really pushing me to get some fireworks because they know I can’t resist, but I’m going to. They claim they’re buying stuff, but they’ve claimed that before just to get me and one other neighbor to put on a show with our money…….not going to happen!
Never let them fire off naval flare guns. Never.
I hope liberals get everything they want this year, and we get all of the ramifications of it in time for the 2016 elections. Whatever it takes to wake people up.
That’s some hardcore wishing.
*makes note to stock up on canned goods*
Agreed that is some hardcore wishing……I get where you’re coming from EM, but dayum!
Happy New Year from an awesome place
http://www.space.com/28130-happy-new-year-message-from-space-station-video.html
Thanks, HELEN. That is so cool . . .
I know I’m pretty late to some games – and this one especially. But to see those men in shirt sleeves and not space suits, ala the early years of space exploration, is amazing.
I so look forward to your links to photos from and about the heavens. I’ve used some of them as background for my desktop.
Finally, I want to say thank you for keeping me abreast of news stories I’d never have the time (or inclination) to search out at the end of my work days.
Happy 2015 !!
You are more than welcome.
being retired is great. You will love it. If possible take the time to travel all around and see what a great and diversified county we have. There is no place on earth like it.
My plan is to attend a baseball game in every ball park in the major league. It’ll probably take me more than one summer, but that’s my plan for starters. And I’ll visit Seattle, and Yosemite, and St Augustine and Acadia in ME. And everything in between. I love WI, and southern IL, and TN, and I’ll visit a good friend in Asheville, and my sister in VT. I can’t wait. AND I’ll get to take care of my grandbabies more than I do now. I’ll get to spend time with my kids and my friends. My life will be full. . . and happy.
And I’ll still have TCH as an anchor. You are so right. I will ❤ it.
Congrats on your retirement, leslie!
Watch out, world!!!
Meet you at Fenway?
Great idea!
Fenway w/ em. LOVE it!!
Leslie,
Happy retirement!!! One of my favs is staying up late to finish my book then sleeping in. Also enjoy traveling during off times when the kids are in school.
Definitely – go Packers, one of my neighbor is quite the fan and has a room full of packer memorabilia.
You’re going to be retired for a while, so don’t try to do everything at once. Besides, you want to enjoy those things, not just check them off your bucket list. Pace yourself.
The one piece of advice I would give anyone who is retiring is “keep busy.” If you stop living you start dying. Join clubs, volunteer, start new hobbies, etc. Don’t just sit around and watch television.
Now is the time to do all the things you didn’t have time to do before.
If you make it to Wisconsin, just keep on heading north to visit the U.P. You won’t regret it–it is GORGEOUS.
You are so right! I’ve spent several summer vacations in the UP. So beautiful.
honk
Btw the 91 yo Saudi King is in the hospital.
Could be interesting if he croaks. Succession could impact oil prices and ME geopolitics.
Fracking has already started an international crisis because Russia, Venezuela and other big oil money-dependent nations are hurting bad right now.
just to remember some beauty from the year
http://129.164.179.22/apod/ap141230.html
See, ^this^ is what I mean. 🙂
750 days 13 hours 24 minutes
Until this era of obamania ends
I would prefer 13 hours 24 minutes.
Me too.
http://www.cfr.org/global/turbulent-year-ahead/p35879?cid=rss-analysisbriefbackgroundersexp-a_turbulent_year_ahead-122914
a turbulent year ahead
Oh, this is fun and something I look forward to every year … Dave Barry’s Year in Review. 2014 explained like no one else can, it WAS a bizzaro year …. enjoy!
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article4940373.html
😆
Woot!! In the last hour, the temperature has risen 2 degs; it is now 11. It should be a warm and wonderful 17 by the time First Night begins this evening @7:00.
Heat wave here, it is 22. Usually this time of year, it is below zero. 🙂
In the CA desert at Joshua Tree National Park they had snow last night, and more expected tonight. I blame Gerald Ford.
Sooooo, a balmy new year, everyone.
Jonah Goldberg:
“It’s different when we do it.”
Politics is religion.
My favorite New Year’s song, with drinking and unhappy marriages.
Through the NSA.
Well Saint Nick is an old white guy. Of course they go through his mail.
Wishing everyone here at the C.D.H.a blessed and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! ❤
How many times a day did Mediaite mention Fox?
In fairness, Sharpton was made to represent the WH in race relations, so mentioning a WH official during events related to that position is completely reasonable.
It’s racist because Fox News.
random thoughts
now reporting that the Sony hacking may not have been North Korea but an inside job.
between gruber telling how the backtrack bunch thinks the American people are stupid and now the Hollywood side of the backtrack bunch using the FBI to start a rumor that made a clunker a lot of money, there could be trouble ahead.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fbi-warns-that-the-sony-hackers-have-returned-and-could-hack-more-companies-2014-12
ok is CNN next
Commiefornia law only allowing free range eggs to be sold means egg prices will go up even more everywhere as suppliers comply.
We had free range chickens when I was growing up because there was a hole in the fence around the chicken coop. Collecting eggs was a treasure hunt everyday.
Collecting the eggs was my favorite job. Until my mother found out how I was getting the chickens away from them so quickly.
Eggs are already up to $3 a dozen.
Eggs in wine country are $1.79 a doz. You can find $7.00 per doz eggs if you look.
The law requirement is so far from “Free Range” as we are to the moon.
It just requires coops to alot about 3 sq. ft. per bird.
That is hardly free range.
BTW I raise my own hens and eggs cost more than $3.00 a doz to produce organically and truly free range.
Eggs here are free because my neighbor has way too many chickens.
That is the best free range there is. Lucky you. I also give my extra eggs to neighbors.
Spread the wealth.
http://therightscoop.com/oh-great-protesters-plan-to-disrupt-super-bowl/
this would not be the brightest move ever made
Who ever accused these “folks” of intelligence?
http://hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com/
2014 in cartoons
http://nypost.com/2014/12/31/the-5-most-anticipated-movies-of-2015/
movies to see in 2015?????
I rented Neighbors last night and at the beginning there was a warning about piracy and how it hurts the economy. Sorry Hollywood I think shoplifting is a far bigger problem than file sharing.
Pffft, didn’t even list the James Bond movie.
Happy 2015 to the denizens of the Crawfish hole. You’re a fabulous bunch and Klown, you’re a wonderful ringmaster.
Yep. Yep. And yep. Happy New Year to you, down there.
OT. Sorta strange the AirAsia casualties are being recovered already but not so with MalaysiaAir.
Nice of Twitchy to round up the best of Iowahawk tweets. 🙂
http://twitchy.com/2014/12/31/10-issues-iowahawk-hilariously-summed-up-in-2014/
I just heard that Edward Herrmann, the actor, died today in a NY hospital. He had brain cancer and had been in treatment in the hospital for the past several weeks. I’m so sorry. I thought he was quite wonderful.
Bummer. A neat guy.
He was one of those actors with more face than name recognition. A whole career of solid performances without ever getting the fame he deserved.
Except he did win a Tony. So that’s something!
I think Herrmann’s face and voice were more familiar because he was able to disappear into his character drawing you into the story.
He always did a great job as Roosevelt.
PA gas taxes go up a dime a gallon tomorrow.
Hubby passed by the gas station and apparently there was some panic buying as they are out of regular!
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-NY, calls on House Majority Whip Steve Scalise to resign; ‘It is beyond offensive that a member of House leadership would knowingly court such a hate group’ – statment
End of alert
when his president denounces the nation of islam, rev wrights church, al sharpton and his loony toons and eric holder’s black panthers then maybe democrats could make statements denouncing Steve Scalise
http://eagnews.org/middle-schoolers-attend-conference-where-farrakhan-calls-for-violence-in-response-to-ferguson/
one of backtrack’s bffs.
between ayres and farrakhan many of our kids are totally screwed
Where do Democrats get this crap. Basically Scalise talked to the “wrong” people ten years ago and for that he has to resign?! Sounds like McCarthyism to me.
Yep.
I guess we’ve gone full circle. Except this time, the shoe is on the other party’s foot.
I have to admit that part of me feels sorry for Joe Biden. He spent most of his life in Washington DC and he’ll go down in history as a punchline.
In fairness, it’s a huge slap in the face for the party not to nominate the VP.
In fairness, I agree, vm.
Almost as huge a slap in the face as a party to denounce one of its own leaders as a racist and a fraud. Then openly steal legitimately cast votes, call their most loyal supporters “bitter” and worthless, and nominate a fraud with no experience while courting and making deals with someone who will “go down in history as a punchline”.
Touche!
Very true!
He’s ancient; there’s no way he should even be considering running. I think seventy during the term should disqualify any candidate.
“I am going to win this staring contest with the squirrel.”
😀
Well Happy New Year. Off to pretend I like people.
Wasn’t Edward Hermann the daddy vampire in Lost Borys?
as the year ends, think of this guy the next time you have a bad day at work
http://www.sun-gazing.com/think-man-next-time-rough-day-work/