245 Comments

💔 Pete. Sorry to hear about the loss of your buddy. They are never with us long enough. Sending you and your family lots of love.

Expand full comment

I want to offer a bit of defense for using the word "people" instead of "women." It's so easy to consider reproductive health care, birth control, abortions, breastfeeding, etc., as "women's issues" and not pay attention to them unless one is directly, specifically affected. In other words, it's easy (for men, especially) to ignore that every human being on this planet is inextricably involved with all of those activities. If you're not someone who has given birth, you're someone who was given birth to. Using the word "people" or "person" puts one's humanity to the front and makes it harder to think of that person as a mere subset of the species, or that these concerns only affect a few.

Maybe most of the change in language is motivated by the relatively few transgender people in the world, or our changing understanding and definition of gender or sex, but not ALL of it. There are other valid reasons.

Expand full comment

I am sorry about Pete Charlie, I know how muh losing a beloved pet hurts...

Expand full comment

I'm a day late. When I read the piece about Pete, I stopped and came directly to the comments, knowing they'd mostly be about your dog. It's the worst day of your life- but only because you had the best days with him. I cried more when my dog died than when my mom died. I get it. Sympathy from all of us to you and yours.

Expand full comment

My condolences for your loss. Dogs are family.

Expand full comment

Heartfelt condolences for your loss. I loved hearing about Pete’s magnificent last day.❣️

Expand full comment

My condolences on Pete. We lost our 17 year old lab last September and I still haven't gotten over it. I started following Pete not too long thereafter (to which my wife noted that I was going to be distraught again).

Expand full comment

Charlie, I am so sorry about Pete. His loss leaves a huge hole in your lives, which will never quite be filled. Thank God for the 17 years of joy he brought you.

Expand full comment

So sorry about Pete’s death. Such a tough day for you and your family. A very much loved animal! He was blessed, and you know you were to have had him in your life. XX

Expand full comment

I feel for ya Charlie, there is nothing like losing your dog.

Expand full comment

Republicans are ONLY “pro-life” for the unborn. Seriously. Name a single Republican policy or position that advocates the right to life for any other person.

Republicans are anti-life. All of their policies are designed to increase misery among the most poor, at-risk, and endangered people in society.

Expand full comment

I'm so very sorry about Pete. We're better people because of our animals. Now, I need to talk about the David Weigel retweet issue. Your great conversation started with that and ended up with teachers trying to teach an important American novel with their hands tied behind their back because of the language police. These two issues are not the same but I'm afraid our real problem is our inability to think critically and differentiate one thing from another so please don't conflate them. When you teach a novel you must use the text the author used to construct it. There's no choice there. When you have a national platform, like you do when you're a Washington Post reporter, you have a choice in your words and you must be careful in the same way that any of us that have had to preserve and consider the brand of the company we work for must be careful. This isn't about a joke or who's being fragile. David Weigel writes for a living and now he apologizes for what he forwarded for the entire twitterverse to read? Nope. He failed to do his job so his suspension was appropriate. But since your conversation started with the whole problem of misinformation, why do we all waste our time on a massive platform that's driven by 140-word blobs of [mis]information? Is that in our interest? We're dealing with the patent medicine of information. There's a lot of poison out there for sale and it sure is making people sick. Maybe it's time to start cutting back on the tweet world for a lot of other, bigger reasons besides one WaPo reporter who's having a bad day and can't keep his bad taste to himself.

Expand full comment

So sorry about the loss of your sweet pup, Pete.

Expand full comment

So sorry to hear about Pete. He looked like a sweet boy. My sympathies Charlie. I know how tough it is to lose your best buddy. For what it's worth, remember what Kinky Friedman said,"I believe when you die and go to heaven, all the dogs and cats you've ever had in your life will come running to meet you". Something to look forward too. Thanks for all you guys do at the Bulwark! Love it!

Expand full comment

I've always said if that's not true I'm not going!

Expand full comment

What surprises me is so-called scripture teachers seem to ignore/forget that Revelations actually talked about a New Earth in the final judgement, an Earth that had been destroyed when Adam and Eve fell. Well, the Adam and Eve paradise had animals, all kinds of them. So how could heaven not have our pets in it? When my kitties died, I found the Rainbow Bridge website comforting, sweet, sentimental and yeah, corny too. But the thought of Andy and Skippy waiting to see me was lovely. And Bernie, the holy terror chihuahua who had a violent streak in him - when he died so unexpectedly, it was devastating. Thank God Tewlee needed a forever mommy a week later.

Expand full comment

So sorry about Pete's passing. I know he will be missed. But, he will also be well-remembered. Take care.

Expand full comment

Very sorry to hear about Pete, losing a friend is always hard but he's in good company now, a lot of my friends are already there.

Expand full comment