Last week, I showed off one of my Australorp chicks. This week’s pullet is a Rhode Island Red:
As you can see, she’s sprouting tail feathers, and her wing feathers have developed sufficiently to allow her to briefly achieve liftoff.
In other news, incredibly, it turns out the late Andrew Breitbart really was the brains of his eponymous outfit. His lackeys continued their “Vetting the Bed”* series yesterday with a piece about how President Obama once scandalously colluded with Chicago Cardinal Bernardin to promote universal healthcare:
The law, had it passed, would have forced the state to enact a plan that, in the Orwellian words of the Chicago Tribune, “permits everyone in Illinois to obtain decent health care on a regular basis by 2002.”
God knows we can’t have that. (More here.)
Anyhoo, what are y’all up to this weekend?
*H/T: different-church-lady
[X-posted at Rumproast]
Schlemizel
I have a sad this morning – heard a snippet of the Prez on NPR from the JOBS bill signing & he actually repeated the GOP meme that government can’t create jobs.
I am not sure I ever swore that much in as short a time ever in my life. And, sadly, I swear a lot
Schlemizel
Isn’t the ChiTrib a right-wing bastion? I seem to remember them supporting some pretty awful reporters & stories. Dimbarts illegitimate children really are lost without him aren’t they>
Omnes Omnibus
I thought colluding with priests was supposed to be a good thing according to that lot.
bemused
Joan Walsh had an interesting piece this week in Salon, “Must Women ‘Civilize’ Men?”, digging into motivations of some men to control women.
I liked this heard on msnbc last evening. I didn’t catch the name of the woman who said it.
Women do have PMS problems:
Patriarchy
Misogyny
Sexism
MikeTheZ
@bemused: Really, they just want everyone to hate everyone else at this point.
bemused
@MikeTheZ:
That’s the icing on the GOP cake.
Joey Maloney
C’mon let me see you shake your tailfeather!
kay
She’s cute. All bedraggled and harried-looking.
Comrade Mary said chickens are dinosaurs, and they do look like dinosaurs, so now chickens are different for me.
If you have a pet rabbit, don’t wrap your hand around to cover the ears and look it square in the face, or it’s forever after just a large rodent.
dmsilev
@Schlemizel:
Yes, though of the “businesses can do no wrong” variety, rather than the “God hates gays” variety. They hate hate hate Obama’s health-care law. They endorsed Obama in 2008, probably due to the fact that McCain and Palin were both horrific in their own unique ways, but I’m quite sure that the gushing endorsement of Man Of Business Mittbot 3000 has already been written.
patrick II
I thought their objection with national health care is that it should be left up to the states. So, their objection to state healthcare in Illinois is that …”everyone gets healthcare on a regular basis”?
And that would exceed federal enumerated powers how? One would almost think they were being disingenuous.
gnomedad
This word “Orwellian” you keep using, etc., etc.
dr. bloor
Balloon Juice: Come for the political commentary, stay for the hot chicks.
gnomedad
@Schlemizel:
Less so than they used to be; they endorsed Obama in 2008, but are reverting to genotype. Yesterday they had a “what’s so scary about the Ryan plan?” editorial.
jeffreyw
Chicken practical jokes.
Blackfrancis
I am looking forward to Obama’s second term, when we get single payer and everything else we want, since he will be unencumbered with not having to be elected again.
No, really, people think this, and write it down.
After reading that, I need a shower.
Steve
A friend of mine posted on Facebook that her 16-year-old cat passed away last night. I was about to post a message of sympathy when something brought me up short. The cat’s name… was Galt.
My friend is very conservative, albeit the Christian type, not the libertarian type.
I still feel bad about the cat of course. But still… Galt?!
Schlemizel
@Steve:
so the cat is now not only has the cat gone Galt it is gone Galt? Sorry to make light
A Humble Lurker
@Schlemizel:
He’s been saying that for a while, actually. In that speech he gave to the AP he goes out of his way to say ‘Government can’t do everything’ and/or ‘Government can’t create every job’ or whatever.
It’s cover, I wouldn’t worry about it that much.
Also, Chickens! I had a neighbor who mysteriously had chickens meandering around their yard. I was never sure if that was legal where I live. One day the chickens just disappeared, so maybe it wasn’t. (I would have thought it was because they got eaten, but generally if you’re keeping chickens aren’t you doing it for the eggs and more chickens?)
THE
@kay:
Giant feathered dinosaur found in China.
Just big chickens really.
karen marie
My mind fairly boggles at the assertion that “decent health care for everyone” is “Orwellian.” The shame they endure that their heroine Ayn Rand relied on government-provided “decent health care” is so intense that they’ve managed to scrub any evidence of the fact from her Wikipedia page.
gogol's wife
I’ve been in a foul mood all morning since I glimpsed the headline on Brooks’s column: “Obama takes the partisan low road.”
MattF
@gogol’s wife: This might cheer you up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM9DVC7kd7s
via LGF.
boonagain
Aren’t Rhode Island Reds usually , well, RED?
gogol's wife
@MattF:
Sorry, the thought that that liar stands a very good chance of becoming president doesn’t cheer me up!
Schlemizel
@A Humble Lurker:
I didn’t hear an “every” in his statement it was “govt. does not create jobs”. Maybe he is trying to help Willard so this fall is a challenge for him, or maybe he like having the Congress in GOP hands. Why do Dems accept GOP framing? STOP IT DAMMIT!
Schlemizel
@THE:
Dibs on a drumstick!
redshirt
@kay: Same here. I’ve been reading about this bird/dinosaur link for decades, but it’s really picked up heat the last few years. I see all birds differently now, and it’s cool. I’ve always loved birds, but now I love them even more.
Next time you see a flock in your yard eating bugs/seeds, imagine them all to be dinosaurs in a herd. Fascinating.
Also, I’ll never joke about Ostriches again.
The Moar You Know
@A Humble Lurker: I gotta join with Schlemizel here and agree that it’s completely and totally unacceptable for Obama to be using GOP frames about government jobs. It’s one of the very few things that he does that I have a problem with and it’s a BFD as far as I’m concerned.
WE are the government – of the people and by the people, last I read. The government does things that are needful. Those jobs are important, and they’re no less jobs just because the name on the check is “US Government” rather than “Krapco Incorporated”.
What Obama said is precisely as wrong – and wrongheaded – as if he were telling citizens that the world is flat.
A Humble Lurker
@Schlemizel:
Yes. That is totally going to lose him the election. All those women pissed at the GOP for climbing into their uteri, totally going to go back over to them because of this ‘govt. doesn’t create jobs’ bit.
Again, he’s been saying that for a while. If you’re going to be upset about something O’s done or said, I don’t think that one’s worth it. It’s pretty small potatoes.
Schlemizel
@A Humble Lurker:
Didn’t say he was trying to lose, said he was trying to make it interesting – sort of like Princess Bride where Fezzik says “I just want you to feel you’re doing well. I hate for people to die embarrassed”
Its not just him – its a lot of Dems who accept and even repeat GOP talking point bullshit. How can we convince the great unwashed the GOP is wrong when we repeat their lies as if they were true?
Steve
@The Moar You Know: Is he saying government jobs aren’t real jobs, or is he talking about how private-sector jobs get created? The context is important.
dexwood
@boonagain:
I was wondering the same thing. My Rhode Island Reds were red at that age.
Betty Cracker
@boonagain: Reddish brown as adults. The chicks are a good bit yellower with some reddish highlights. It’s hard to tell from this crappy phone photo, but the adult feathers are coming in reddish brown.
Cmm
I am a devoted reader of this blog, a bleeding heart lib, and a huge believer in and supporter of civil liberties. And I am a cop, in a small town that is just outside the boundary of a big city. Some of what John says is true of some cops but there are more good than bad, honestly. And while way too much motivation from the admin types comes from fear of lawsuits or themselves looking bad, in my experience and in my department they do take complaints and violations of policy and law by officers very seriously.
I love my job. It’s the best one I have ever had. I have a Low boredom threshold and insatiable curiosity about people and what makes them tick. Every day is something different. I also live in the town and the people I work for are my neighbors. I do my best to be helpful to them and respectful to everyone, even the ones who have done bad things and who I am taking to jail.
Just like you say you don’t know which cops are not bad and who you can trust, we have the same problem with the citizens we interact with. Most of us read police websites that publicize the killings of officers around the country, watch dash cam videos of officers shot during “routine” traffic stops and talk about how to make sure no one is watching the video of our last agonizing moments someday. The guy in the Pittsburgh area who killed several cops a few years ago staged a DV call and ambushed arriving officers with rifle fire. The sovereign citizens who gunned down two troopers in AR (one of the killers was a 16 year old boy) were being stopped for traffic violations. I have people get mad at me all the time because I give “firm commands” when they want to jump out of the car, lunge for the glove compartment, or talk on their cellphone during a traffic stop. Are you jumping out to distract me while your passenger gets his gun out? Are you reaching for your wallet or a gun in your glove compartment? Are you talking to your wife or telling the drug trafficker you are caravanning with where you are so he can ambush us? We don’t know, and my first job is to survive my shift and go home to my partner every day. If it means I tell you to get back in the car less than politely, so be it. I am all about people knowing their rights. Refusal to search? No problem. If I actually have PC, I can get a warrant. If I have only a suspicion based on my interactions with you, well, nothing I can do, have a nice day. I could tell you a lot more and am willing to talk with any of you all who have questions, but it is my one precious day off this week and I need to go play with my own beloved rescue dogs, watch my backyard chickens and make a fabulous lunch from their fresh eggs, make some cards so I spend some time putting some beauty back in the world, and kiss my girl.
I started to post this on the actual thread John started yesterday, but decided to move it here since that thread was getting pretty old. I am not hugely practiced commenter so I apologize if this is some sort of faux pas. One last thing…I like this blog so much partly because I admire and respect John so damn much. He seems like someone I would be privileged to have as a friend in the real world. I kind of hate that his default assumption is that I am a malicious cretin and probably a criminal because of my job. I understand it, but I also wish that more of the normal, not-usually-dealing-with-police citizens would think about what we have to be up against too. Check out some sites that officers read like the Officer Down Memorial Page…most of us get updates by email whenever a new name is added there. That’s what most of us have on our minds, not how we can best ruin your day.
Betty Cracker
@dexwood: Hmmmm. Maybe I’ve been had. These guys were mostly yellow with some reddish-looking highlights. The largest one (not pictured) has a lot of reddish-brown adult feathers.
Mino
I’ve been watching the Alcoa eagle nest the last three weeks. They’ve gotten really noisy.
And Rhode Island Reds are mean roosters.
The Raven
This, in response to John’s remarks about the wimpiness of Dems, which I posted in the wrong place: the Democrats threw out their left wing in the 1950s, because they were afraid of being labeled communist. Afterwards, they had a few great leaders, but the ideological strength of the party was gone, and now they’re taking over the Republican mushy-conservative spot.
There is always a temptation to govern as though money and international power are the main objects of governance–to govern as “centrists,” in other words–and without the ideals of the left, the Democrats have fallen prey to this temptation.
dexwood
@Betty Cracker: How old are they? Perhaps they are younger than the ones I bought last year which were 4 weeks old, but definitely red.
Did I miss pictures of the Tajmahen? I’d love to see it. Mine reside in The Sisters of Perpetual Poultry Convent.
A Humble Lurker
@Schlemizel:
I think ‘show and not tell’ is a better method. Just having the guy all the GOP claims is going to set up death panels in charge and nothing like that happens is enough for people to slowly stop trusting them. If you know that you’ll be able to show people the truth, what you say doesn’t matter as much.
Betty Cracker
@Cmm: CMM, I’m glad you posted. I needed to hear your perspective, because I can get all ruffled about being treated brusquely by the police too, and lord knows there are some stone-cold assholes on every force, but that’s true of any profession.
I think there are some jobs that change the way you view your fellow human beings — or at least have that potential. Police work is one of them. It seems to make some cops view the rest of us as scumbags to be bullied and pushed around.
I have very few encounters with the police, and I am always courteous and non-argumentative when I do. But it seems like an alarming percentage of cops do have that attitude — could just be that I’m unlucky enough to encounter the bad apples. But more likely, their justifiable concern for their own safety makes even good cops come across as more brusque than they actually would be in a different situation.
However, you sound like a great cop, and I’m so glad you gave us your view on it. It’s important to see the other side. Have fun with your birds!
Betty Cracker
@dexwood: Yeah, mine are younger. Sisters of Perpetual Poultry! LOL! I will post pictures of the Taj MaHen at some point. We’re still beautifying it.
dexwood
@Betty Cracker: Chicks change a lot, and rapidly, as they grow, you probably didn’t get taken. I’ll keep an eye out for the pictures. Things to do so, I’m out of here.
CMM
@Betty Cracker: There is a very popular author/speaker among police officers named Dave Grossman, who wrote a book called On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill. A lot of cops have read it and embrace his talk of the “warrior mindset.” The world in this mindset is divided into the wolves, the sheep and the sheepdogs who fight the wolves on behalf of the sheep. The sheep get to go about their business without having to know how rough it is out there in the wolf/sheepdog battle. In some ways I think this is a useful construct because it gets to the role of police as protectors of the citizens and the ones who put themselves in between the helpless and those who would prey on them, but on the other hand, sheep are also animals who are considered to be sort of stupid. I think this can lead to a mentality of contempt for the “sheep” from the “sheepdogs”. I know I have to check that impulse in myself when people get mad at me for not asking them “nicely” to keep their hands out of their pockets or to get back in their car. But I am very much aware of the impulse of police to not trust anyone or be friends with anyone but other police, because no one else “gets it” about what they sometimes have to see and do. It leads to some really messed up people, many of whom started out much more balanced, but have had bad experiences on the way. Police die younger, have higher stress, abysmal divorce rates and a high rate of suicide. A lot of them have to embrace that self image of the warrior/sheepdog doing the dirty work on behalf of society that society doesn’t really want to see the results of, because that’s all they have left to feel at least a little good about.
I work really hard to keep the cop world from being my whole world, and if you don’t actively resist and keep other things in your life, I think entropy tends to push you that way. I don’t “carry” off duty for example, and most of my fellow officers think that I am insane for that. I might feel differently if I worked in narcotics or persons crimes where you tend to interact with more vengeful types, or if I had kids, but I think it’s important to be just me and not “Officer Me” when I am off duty. Though the officer is usually right there, as my girlfriend points out when she notices me carefully watching a heated conversation at a bar to see if it is going to escalate. Or insist on having the side of the table where I can face the door. Thanks for being willing to listen to the other perspective.
Blackfrancis
@Cmm: Thanks for that. I am personally no fan of police, but I try to stay out of trouble and usually encounter them when speeding, much to my chagrin. I have learned that the best thing to so is to sit in my car and keep my hands on the wheel, where they can be seen, rather than go to the glove box and be seen moving around prior to the cop approaching the car. That way there is no reason to think I am trying to hide anything (drugs, for example) and I always be polite. I understand it’s a shitty job in that you never know what traffic stop is going to be someone trying to pull a gun or something. I couldn’t do it. I’m glad you can, and also realize that for ever well publicized bad cop story, there are a bunch of cops going about their business trying to help and not get shot at. Sometimes I need a reminder. Have a good day off, officer.
Mnemosyne
For those who don’t know about Cardinal Bernadin, he was the kind of Catholic cardinal that even atheists liked: he was one of the very first American cardinals to make a public declaration that AIDS was not God’s judgment on gay men and established a residential healthcare facility to care for AIDS patients. He also cracked down on child molestation in the archdiocese and established guidelines that probably would have helped root out pedo priests in places like Boston if they had been put into place.
Sadly, he died relatively young of pancreatic cancer in yet another of the weird coincidences that make me think that if there is a God, he’s doing His best to get the Catholic Church to self-destruct.
redshirt
CMM: Thanks for the great posts! Love to hear more – maybe John can set up something more focused for you.
What do you think about “term limits” for certain roles within the police force? I have to assume burnout is a major factor, and limiting the amount of time one person can do any specific role within the Police force might help.
CMM
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne: Cardinal Bernardin was one of the good guys. He emphasized an approach to abortion he called “the seamless garment” of being pro-life, in other words, if you felt morally called to protect life pre-birth, you were also called to oppose the death penalty, nuclear arms race, etc. You can’t truly be “pro life” unless you are pro ALL life. It was a counterbalance to the rabid anti-abortion stuff in the 1980s that I embraced when I was still trying to be Catholic.
CMM
@Blackfrancis: It can be a shitty job but I’m not lying when I say it’s also the most fun I’ve ever had while getting paid for it. A lot of officers take crime in their beat personally and it’s damn hard to catch the guys that do most of the “petty crime” that most often impacts the solid citizens–the burglaries, car break ins, vandalism, and car thefts–and the nights when we catch one of those guys in the act are the best nights on the job for me. And I will admit, I feel pretty good when we run across one of those guys who we *know* is a burglar or car thief who isn’t currently in the act, but is doing a “quality of life” violation like walking around drunk or shouting profanity in the street at 4 AM and we can get him off the street for a day or two, because that’s some break-ins or thefts that won’t happen. I know that is a slippery slope to be very careful of, and I know how “profiling” attitudes can slip in and I have to watch for that in myself and the officers I work with, but it’s part of the fight. I also have resolved situations where I could have arrested someone who was really just down and out, or mentally ill, or somesuch, by paying cabfare, or transit fare, or for a meal out of my own pocket. And all of us have done those things at some point. Our job is to resolve problems, but not all of them are resolved with handcuffs and a ride to jail. Of course there are shitty days, like lately whenever I try to just stop and talk to someone walking around at 3 AM to find out what’s up, and they just start yelling about Trayvon Martin to me and ask if I am going to shoot them, and I can’t say, “Dude, I and every officer I know think that Zimmerman should have been arrested the night of the shooting.” Or the days when someone calls you because their 17 year old is acting like an ass but then wants to help the 17 year old fight you when you have to arrest him, and then files a complaint to the chief and you have to stay an extra hour to write a statement of everything that went down, and you feel like nobody in the world appreciates you. But on the whole, I still love the job, especially when I get to return someone’s stolen property to them or tell them we got the person who took their car. Whether or not the county does anything with the case…well, that’s a whole ‘nother story and one I try not to dwell on!
Mino
Perhaps before that warrior mentality takes hold, recruits might watch a series of best moments from law enforcement posted on You-tube. I think you know the type I’m talking about and there are plenty to choose from.
From the hired vendors of state violence, I think a lot of us would hope to see less corruption and more mental stability.
CMM
@redshirt: I really appreciate the positive responses. I was afraid after the comments in John’s thread that everyone would be like, “You sound nice for a fascist. You should get into a different line of work to save your own soul.”
Term limits…mixed feelings. Our chief was a big believer in not letting people get too complacent in one job and liked to shuffle folks around, and I was a shuffle-ee and probably would have been happy in the job I was in and good at for the rest of my career but on the other hand, as much as I struggle in my current position (first time as a supervisor) I definitely have been learning new things.
I do strongly feel like police in general need to appreciate more of the different strengths people have. There can be an over emphasis on the ones who are excellent tactically, the ones who can run someone down in a foot chase or go through the door with an entry team on one hand, and the ones who can shuffle the paper on the other.
There is a certain amount of term limiting in that the body just can’t do the job for as long as people in more sedentary jobs. Right now in our department, sworn officers and firefighters can begin drawing a reduced pension at 50 and full pension at 55. There are talks of raising that to 60 and 65, which I think would be a terrible mistake. We have people now who are hanging on past 55 because they can’t afford to retire yet and while there are exceptions, mostly they are people you have to work around rather than with, because they can’t or won’t keep up physically or mentally. I for damn sure want to get out before I am one of them.
Not sure I answered your question satisfactorily but that’s all I can think of right now.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@CMM:
I’ve known good cops and bad cops. The good ones are really doing heroic work. Thank you for being there.
Thor Heyerdahl
Thanks Betty for this pullet surprise post
(ducks)