Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This really is a full service blog.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Let’s finish the job.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

No one could have predicted…

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Best Weekend Ever Open Thread

Best Weekend Ever Open Thread

by | 76 Comments

This post is in: 

First weekend in May is still the best weekend ever, with Star Wars Day today (May the Fourth be with you!) as well as Derby Day here in Kentucky on top of Free Comic Book Day (and Iron Man 3 is out!) as well as Cinco de Mayo tomorrow.  Maybe I’ll have more converts than last year, but I’m going to have a blast.

What are your plans for Best Weekend Ever(tm) this year?

Reader Interactions

76Comments

  1. 1.

    Tokyokie

    Driving home from dinner last night, we saw a billboard for a local municipality’s seasonal celebration: “CINCO DE MAYO CELEBRATION: Friday, May 3.” The spousal unit and I found it amusing.

  3. 3.

    Mandalay

    Some great news in journalism:

    From the LA Times:

    The Los Angeles Times has announced new guidelines for covering immigration…That means stories will no longer refer to individuals as “illegal immigrants” or “undocumented immigrants,” but instead will describe a person’s circumstances.

    From Google:

    Internet giant Google has changed the tagline on the homepage of its Palestinian edition from “Palestinian Territories” to “Palestine”. The change, introduced on 1 May, means google.ps now displays “Palestine” in Arabic and English under Google’s logo.

    These changes might not seem like a big deal, but they are in the right direction, they alter public perception, and they may inspire other organizations to make similar changes.

  4. 4.

    raven

    It’s raining like hell and 50 degrees in Athens. There are all kinds of activities getting ruined and I spent the morning doing deck and fence demolition in the muck. Now I’m watching fishing shows.

  6. 6.

    shortstop

    Frantically starting to clean out the disastrous storage unit in the basement. We were lucky enough to sell our condo four days after listing and there is WAY too much to do in a short time.

  9. 9.

    p.a.

    Beer tasting 1-4. Lacrosse 7-9:30. Sunday yard then cookout. Off Monday too. Yum.

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    Right now, YouTube is showing me a logo with the Malaysian flag and a ballot box with “GE13” on it for 13th General Election so I don’t forget to vote on Sunday.

  11. 11.

    scav

    @srv: You lucky flaneur. Greet a few of the green folding chairs on yellowish dirt for me, esp if dragged a little under trees with new leaves.

  12. 12.

    Linnaeus

    Work meeting at 3, then a rooftop gathering after that, as it’s gotten very nice here in the Emerald City.

  13. 13.

    jamick6000

    as well as Derby Day here in Kentucky

    i can’t enjoy that race anymore since i found out they shoot all the losing horses in the head afterwards.

  14. 14.

    JPL

    As Raven mentioned, it’s a rainy day and Georgia and I have two unhappy dogs. My son’s dog is visiting for the weekend and she and Miss Moxie love to romp outside, just not in the rain.

  15. 15.

    lojasmo

    Lunch with the lady, then Iron Man 3D.

    The 15″ of snow we got a couple days ago is melting, and it;’s raining off and on.

  17. 17.

    Nutella

    Question for the academics here:

    Reinhart & Rogoff were famously shown up by a mere grad student from UMass for Excel errors in their austerity paper.

    Rogoff is a full professor at Harvard. Reinhart is also an academic although with a much less classy (but probably much better paying) gig at the Peterson Institute.

    My question is: Why the hell were academics using Excel in their papers? Don’t they have access to real mathematical and modeling tools? Matlab? R? Maybe an actual testable programming language?

    Isn’t it amateurish in the extreme to use Excel in academic analysis?

  18. 18.

    Dee Loralei

    Dammit, Fear The Kitten is out of the Derby. Now I’m gonna have to go with Charming Kitten or Palace Malice. I really wanted to yell ” Fear The Kitten!” Just dammit all.

  20. 20.

    Capt. Seaweed

    Install new alternator in my truck.

    BBQ chicken w/ friends tonight.

    Penguins at 9am tomorrow. They better be ready this time.

    It’ll be a full, rich weekend.

  22. 22.

    Melissa

    Just signed to buy a condo yesterday. Chose the one that allows big dogs for my mutt, Lucky.

    Cleaning and booking painters today to put my house up for sale. Stuff going to the dump & to give away. Lots of stuff going to the Habitat for Humanity Restore. Are Habitat Restores common in the US?

  23. 23.

    RobertDSC-PowerMac G5 Dual

    Going through old CDs and DVDs for stuff to put on my iPhone. No money so I can’t do much otherwise.

  26. 26.

    SiubhanDuinne

    As for me, I’m in a vibrating massage chair with my feet soaking in warm water. First pedicure of the season, although as JPL and Raven both noted, it’s a rainy chilly day here in Atlanta, so I may want to wait a little longer before inaugurating the new sandals.

  27. 27.

    eemom

    @Svensker:
    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Thanks for remembering!

    Eeyiayia is arriving this afternoon, so we shall have a properly cooked Easter dinner this year….plus a kouloura loaf from an authentic Astoria bakery!

  28. 28.

    greenergood

    According to the BBC, Sunday is National Dawn Chorus Day – at 6.35 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, someone will be recording the Dawn Chorus in a wood in England. If you’ve never heard it, you should check out BBC Radio 4 online – it’s lovely, as all the different kinds of songbirds wake up and start shouting ‘Me! Me! Me! My territory! My nest! Let’s get jiggy and make nestlings!, etc. etc.’ and then, once it’s light enough, they go off to find breakfast.

    C’mon Fear the Kitten!

  29. 29.

    Roger Moore

    @Nutella:

    My question is: Why the hell were academics using Excel in their papers?

    What’s wrong with Excel? Lots of people I know use Excel in their papers. It’s a serviceable tool for making plots and doing moderately simple analyses on small data sets, which is all that Reinhart & Rogoff were doing. From an academic standpoint*, the problem with their paper is that their results aren’t robust; you can literally invalidate their whole paper by deleting a single data point. That’s a problem with general methodology and thinness of analysis rather than a poor choice of tool.

    *The much more serious problem was that austerian politicians were happy to take any paper that supported their predetermined decisions, no matter how weak its intellectual value.

  31. 31.

    dmsilev

    @Nutella:

    Isn’t it amateurish in the extreme to use Excel in academic analysis?

    Depends a lot on what sort of problem you’re trying to solve. For some things, Excel is fine. It’s designed for financial and other sorts of modeling, to interact with business databases, and the like. If your problem fits in those domains, sure, it’s a good answer.

    I certainly wouldn’t use it for a lot of the scripted analysis jobs I need (“Take that large text file, dice it into pieces based on the values of various fields inside the file, perform different transformations on the pieces, and produce a graph with 100,000 or more points on it”). Sure, it could be done, but it wouldn’t work very well, debugging is a pain, and of course the default set of graphs in Excel look like complete ass. The graphing tools in general in Excel are really oriented towards business use and are Elder-Gods-level horrific for scientific work.

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    Prosecutor Behind Kiera Wilmot Arrest Filed No Charges For White Teen Who Killed Little Brother

    It turns out that Assistant State Attorney Tammy Glotfelty does not prosecute juveniles equally.

    On Monday, April 23, Glotfelty told the Barlow Police Department to charge 16-year-old high school honors student Kiera Wilmot with two felonies for conducting a botched science experiment. Wilmot mixed a household toilet cleaner with aluminum in an 8 oz. plastic bottle, causing the top to pop and some smoke to rise. The police report states that Wilmot was charged with two felonies at the behest of Glotfelty:

    I THEN CONTACTED ASSISTANT STATE ATTORNEY TAMMY GLOTFELTY VIA TELEPHONE. I ADVISED A.S.A GLOTFELTY OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE AND SHE ADVISED THIS OFFICER TO FILE THE CHARGES OF, POSSESSING OR DISCHARGING WEAPONS OR FIREARMS AT A SCHOOL SPONSORED EVENT OR ON SCHOOL PROPERTY F.S.S. 790.115 (1) AND MAKING, POSSESSING, THROWING, PROJECTING, PLACING, OR DISCHARGING ANY DESTRUCTIVE DEVICE F.S.S. 790.161 (A).

    This makes Glotfelty sound like a hard-ass who over-prosecutes. Yet just two days later, Glotfelty announced that 13-year-old Taylor Richardson would not face charges for shooting and killing his 10-year-old brother, Skyler, with a BB gun.

    In a letter to the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, Glotfelty wrote, ”Our office has considered this case, keeping in mind that (Taylor) is 13 years of age and is a student at Roosevelt Academy.”

    http://raniakhalek.com/2013/05/02/prosecutor-behind-kiera-wilmot-arrest-filed-no-charges-for-white-teen-who-killed-little-brother/

  34. 34.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Missed you in the thread the other day where you talked about cataract surgery. I wanted to give you a little encouragement from my brother, an ophthalmologist with about 3,000 cataract operations under his belt.

    First, it’s elective surgery. You don’t have to have it done. It’s your decision (in consultation with your doctor) whether the cataract is interfering enough with your vision–in low-light conditions, recognizing faces, doing some hobby, etc.–that you want it fixed. He likened it to a knee replacement: some people want to have it done because they have a very active lifestyle, other people can accept some discomfort and/or lack of mobility rather than have the operation.

    Second, the technology is very good now. It’s outpatient surgery, it takes less than 30 minutes, and there should be little or no discomfort. People tend to freak out about it because it’s their eye!

    Finally, he said you should do one eye at a time, and you want the operation done by a doctor who does a lot of cataract surgery. As with everything else, practice makes perfect.

    Good luck!

  35. 35.

    Mandalay

    @rikyrah: And the mother of the kid who killed his brother won’t be prosecuted either:

    Taylor shot Skyler from a distance of about 6 inches, but the gun had a BB in it.

    The BB went from above Skyler’s right ear to the other side of his skull, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Skyler was flown to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa and died a week later.

    Heather Richardson periodically checked on her boys while she made dinner. Her boyfriend, Gary Brown, was also in the house.

    Taylor told Fulcher that the brothers were playing around and shooting air at each other “because it felt weird and stuff like that,” according to a report filed by Fulcher.

    After spring break, Taylor returned to his seventh-grade classes at Roosevelt, Principal Debra Edwards said. She said she is happy that Taylor won’t face charges in the accident. She said not charging Taylor is the right decision.

    “We’re just thrilled about this. We’ve tried not to think about it, but that hasn’t been easy,” Edwards said.

    “The family has gone through enough tragedy, losing a son and a brother. This is something Taylor will have to live with for the rest of his life.”

    So perhaps the logic behind the decision to charge the black student is that she has not yet “gone through enough tragedy”?

    This country is so fucked up.

  37. 37.

    pamelabrown53

    This weekend I’m totally reliving every moment of last weekend: I went to visit my son and daughter-in-law for my 60th birthday and they surprised me by flying my younger son in from Texas. It was a huge surprise and overwhelmingly precious. Life doesn’t get any better and, for now, fuck politics!

  39. 39.

    Valdivia

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I am heading to get that done right now :)
    though I will wait with the sandals too because my big toe still has no nail :(

    it is an absolutely beautiful day in DC. Makes me afraid of what kind of hellish summer awaits us.

  41. 41.

    planetjanet

    So, best weekend ever… Friday night tango lessons. Saturday night Dance party and fundraiser at the French Embassy, Sunday Cinco de Mayo brunch with friends. Got to fit a bike ride in the sunshine in there somewhere.

  43. 43.

    Violet

    Beautiful day today here. Very unusually cool and gorgeous for May. Loving it. Ate lunch outside and am heading to an outdoor birthday party in a bit. Mostly just taking it easy. Probably steaks and baked potatoes for dinner with some carrots and beets from the garden that I roast in the oven. Yum. Probably cook up the beet greens as well–they’re my favorite.

    Seen some footage from the NRA convention. In crowd scenes in the exhibit spaces and also in meetings/speeches, I’d guess the attendees are about 90% white males, 8% white females and 2% non-white (both genders). About 75% of them seem to be over 50. Looks like plenty of overlap with the typical Teabagger and Republican.

  44. 44.

    Maude

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Not a reply to that comment.
    Just think, you get to wear those cool shades after.
    I know a lot of people who have had it done because I ride the bus which is para transit. It is not a difficult time to have those babies removed. You will be so glad to see well.
    Let us know so I can think of you.
    You will be able to see how floofy Tunch and John are in all their glory.

  45. 45.

    MikeJ

    @Capt. Seaweed:

    BBQ chicken w/ friends tonight.

    Penguins at 9am tomorrow. They better be ready this time.

    Penguins do better at a low temp for longer time instead of hot and fast. Also, use a mopping sauce, not a bbq sauce while you cook them.

  47. 47.

    Violet

    Doves built a nest over the window by the front door. So annoying (poop, smell, dive-bombing because protecting young) but also so cute. Adorable dove parent sits on nest looking down at people on the porch. Normally I’d shoo birds away if they tried to build a nest there, but these guys built it before I knew what was happening. So we’re going to let them stay and then hopefully discourage them if they try to do it again.

  48. 48.

    Yutsano

    @MikeJ: I think that Malkin fellow will be toot tough for anything but slow stewing. Sidney on the other hand should still be tender enough for a nice flash barbecue.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    Sitting around waiting for the carpet cleaners. We got all of our crap moved ahead of schedule, so now we’re just killing time.

    @tofubo:

    A headache in your eye is probably a migraine (one-sided headaches are almost always migraines). Take Excedrin and lay down in a dark room until it goes away.

  51. 51.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @MikeJ:

    Penguins do better at a low temp for longer time instead of hot and fast. Also, use a mopping sauce, not a bbq sauce while you cook them.

    It depends on the penguin. If you are cooking large or old penguins, yes, low temp long cooking time. If you are cooking the smaller endangered penguins, you can cook them hot and fast. Just use a meat thermometer to make sure internal temp is over 170 degrees.

  52. 52.

    scav

    @Yutsano: @MikeJ:
    Doesn’t mentioning the source of the flightless birds make it too high-falutin’ and status-ridden? Still, props for paying proper attention to techniques. Any chance of getting one braised?

  53. 53.

    ruemara

    I spent the morning collecting signatures with OFA for expanded background checks for gun sales. Had one threatening NRA guy, but over all, it went really well. Am now doing some design work for what will turn out to be $2 per hour. *sigh*

  54. 54.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: A vague memory from the Psychopharmacology and Behavior (Recreational Drugs) course that I used for distribution (ha!) credit in college tells me that caffeine increases blood flow to the brain which is one of the reasons it is helpful as part of a hangover cure. It may also be part of the reason it works for migraines.

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    That sounds odd to me. Why would you take something with caffeine and then go lie down? One would seem to defeat the purpose of the other.

    They used to think that caffeine helped because migraines were caused by blood vessel dialation and the caffeine would constrict them, but now they’re not sure what the mechanism is. All they know is, the combination works better than a placebo or than using just Tylenol or aspirin on their own.

    You go lie down in a dark room because bright light aggravates migraines. I can sometimes get migraines triggered by nothing more than bright light.

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Steeplejack:

    Thanks very much for that, Steep! Everything you/your brother said aligns perfectly with what my own eye doctor has told me. I’m having just the left eye done at the moment — that cataract is much riper than the other, although I anticipate that I’ll need to get the right eye done at some point. And while the cataract is beginning to interfere with some things, it’s far from crippling. I’m not even having it done until late June/early July, as I have a fair amount of travel planned for June and it’s easier to schedule all the follow-up visits after I return. But everything I’ve heard is greatly reassuring. Many thanks for weighing in.

  57. 57.

    pat

    @efgoldman:

    Grackles will have a harder time getting the suet (not that they won’t try) if you get the feeders that hang upside down.

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    I reduced my migraines in a really major way by getting my nasal allergies under control. Turns out that something like 80 percent of people with nasal allergies also have migraines. Once I started taking Zyrtec every day, I was able to reduce my migraines down to once a month or less, unless I do something stupid like go outside for an extended period of time without my sunglasses. My doc gave me Relpax to try, but I felt like it didn’t work any better than good ol’ Excedrin.

    I also get weather-related migraines sometimes, which is very annoying, but I can usually ward the worst of it off with Excedrin if I take it at the first twinge of pain. It usually happens if the humidity takes a sharp turn (either increase or decrease).

  60. 60.

    Heywood J.

    BBQ tri-tip marinated in lime and jalapeno, con cervezas. Working on cover art for music e-books to release next week.

    Beyond tired of the wind here in NorCal, but better than the wildfires down south. Still, looking forward to breathing again eventually.

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    I also have ADHD, so a caffeine dose that makes normal people hyper actually calms me down. I can take Excedrin at bedtime and sleep like a baby.

  64. 64.

    PIGL

    First glorious day of spring. No leaves yet to speak of, but close, and the fiddlehead greens are in the shops. I am off for a nice stroll towards a new pub down by Le Fleuve. There may be margaritas.

  65. 65.

    Dupe70

    Sully provides cover to Niall on his homophobic statements:

    http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/05/04/a-couple-of-words-on-niall-ferguson/

    I emailed Sully but I am sure it will not be read let alone published for Sully to try and defend against:

    I find it amusing that you attacked and condemned Jodie Foster for being friends with Mel Gibson and bringing him as her date to an awards ceremony arguing (rightly, I would say) that Gibson is most likely homophobic and anti-Semitic. But Foster proclaims that Mel is good person based on their long friendship and feels that she knows what is in his heart and judges him by that rather than his rants and homophobic statements. You correctly argue that Mel should be judged by his statements and not his friendships.

    “Her date last night, believe it or not, was wife-abusing, homophobic anti-Semite, Mel Gibson.”

    But now that Niall Ferguson has said some very ugly, homophobic statements you decide to defend him on the basis of your friendship. Knowing in your heart that Niall is not a homophobe because he had you in his wedding and asked you to be the godfather to his child. Just like Jodie knows by her decades long friendship with Mel he could not possibly be a homophobe so you too know that Niall could not possibly be a homophobe.

    ” But I have known the man closely for many years – even read Corinthians at his recent wedding – and have never seen or heard or felt an iota of homophobia from him. He has supported me in all aspects of my life – and embraced my husband and my marriage … And one other small thing: if he really believed gay men had no interest in future generations, why would he have asked me, a gay man with HIV, to be the godfather to one of his sons? And why would I have accepted?”

    Somehow you are the better person than Jodie Foster. You can know and discern what is in people’s hearts and can correctly act on it yet Jodie simply put cannot.

    How are you any different or better than Jodie Foster? From where I sit, it appears you both have complicated friendships with people that at the very least feel comfortable making homophobic statements. The only difference is that Niall is smart enough to issue an immediate and “well crafted” apology to buy himself some cover and good will.

  66. 66.

    PurpleGirl

    For years I’ve gotten headaches, possibly migraines, by exposure to too much sunlight. Summers I stay pale and wear sunglasses all the time when outside. What I found worked was aspirin, and a cold, dark room for a nap.

  67. 67.

    Keith

    @Dupe70: You left out the part about Sully denouncing Ferguson’s comments in a post covering Ferguson’s apology for his statements. And it seems your beef is not with the Ferguson incident, but rather, is with Sully’s condemnation of Jodie Foster. Not exactly timely.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    FYI, the rules for naming thoroughbred horses raced in U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. An I.D. is tattooed under each horse’s upper lip.

    A. A name may be claimed on the Registration Application, on a Name Claiming Form or through Interactive Registration™ at registry.jockeyclub.com. Name selections should be listed in order of preference. Names will be assigned based upon availability and compliance with the naming rules as stated herein. Names may not be claimed or reserved by telephone. When a foreign language name is submitted, an English translation must be furnished to The Jockey Club. An explanation must accompany “coined” or “made-up” names that have no apparent meaning. Horses that were born in the United States, Puerto Rico or Canada and currently reside in another country must be named by The Jockey Club through the Stud Book Authority of their country of residence.

    B. If a valid attempt to name a foal is submitted to The Jockey Club by February 1 of the foal’s two-year-old year and such a name is determined not eligible for use, no fee is required for a subsequent claim of name for that foal. If a valid attempt to name a foal is not submitted to The Jockey Club by February 1 of the foal’s two-year-old year, a fee is required to claim a name for such a foal (see Fee Schedule).

    C. A reserved name must be used within one year from the day it was reserved. Reserved names cannot be used until notification requesting the assignment of the name to a specific horse is received by the Registry Office. If the reserved name is not used within one year from its reservation, it will become available for any horse. A fee is required to reserve a name (see Fee Schedule).

    D. A foal’s name may be changed at any time prior to starting in its first race. Ordinarily, no name change will be permitted after a horse has started in its first race or has been used for breeding purposes. However, in the event a name must be changed after a horse has started in its first race, both the old and new names should be used until the horse has raced three times following the name change. The prescribed fee (see Fee Schedule) and the Certificate of Foal Registration must accompany any request to the Registry Office for a change of name.

    E. Names of horses over ten years old may be eligible for use if they are not excluded under Rule 6(F) and have not been used during the preceding five years either for breeding or racing.

    Names of horses that were never used for breeding or racing may be available for use five years from the date of their death as reported.

    F. The following classes of names are not eligible for use:

    1. Names consisting of more than 18 letters (spaces and punctuation marks count as letters);
    2. Names consisting entirely of initials such as C.O.D., F.O.B., etc.;
    3. Names ending in “filly,” “colt,” “stud,” “mare,” “stallion,” or any similar horse-related term;
    4. Names consisting entirely of numbers. Numbers above thirty may be used if they are spelled out;
    5. Names ending with a numerical designation such as “2nd” or “3rd,” whether or not such a designation is spelled out;
    6. Names of living persons unless written permission to use their name is on file with The Jockey Club;
    7. Names of persons no longer living unless approval is granted by The Jockey Club based upon a satisfactory written explanation submitted to the Registrar;
    8. Names of racetracks or graded stakes races;
    9. Names clearly having commercial, artistic or creative significance;
    10. Names that are suggestive or have a vulgar or obscene meaning; names considered in poor taste; or names that may be offensive to religious, political or ethnic groups;
    11. Names that appear to be designed to harass, humiliate or disparage a specific individual, group of individuals or entity;
    12. Names that are currently active either in racing or breeding (see Rule6(E));
    13. Names of winners in the past 25 years of grade one stakes races;
    14. Permanent names. The list of criteria to establish a permanent name is as follows:
    a. Horses in racing’s Hall of Fame;
    b. Horses that have been voted Horse of the Year;
    c. Horses that have won an Eclipse Award;
    d. Horses that have won a Sovereign Award (Canadian Champions);
    e. Annual leading sire and broodmare sire by progeny earnings;
    f. Cumulative money winners of $2 million or more;
    g. Horses that have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont Stakes, The Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Breeders’ Cup Classic or the Breeders’ Cup Turf; and
    h. Horses included in the International List of Protected Names.
    15. Names similar in spelling or pronunciation to the classes of names listed in Rule 6(F) 6 – 14 above.
    16. Names of horses previously recorded in The American Stud Book by the same sire or out of the same dam as the foal for which the attempt is made.
    17. Names of horses appearing within the first five generations of the pedigree of the foal for which the attempt is made.

    G. In addition to the provisions of this Rule 6, the Registrar of The Jockey Club reserves the right of approval on all name requests.  Source

  70. 70.

    AA+ Bonds

    Because the Libya thread died before anyone bothered to provide any real answers:


    Old animosities thrive in post-Kadafi Libya

    A Human Rights Watch report released in February said that “several thousand” detainees were being held illegally by private militias. Those armed groups include Ansar al Sharia, blamed for the attack in September that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans but now policing the city where he died, Benghazi.

    Emphasis mine.

  72. 72.

    Dupe70

    @Keith: My point was not about whether Sully denounced behaviour but in the hypocrisy of Sullivan attacking Jodie for being friends with Mel and using the friendship as a shield for Mel only to have Sullivan turnaround and use the exact same argument to defend and forgive Niall.
    This is typical of Sullivan. People he knows or likes or has a professional relationship are honest brokers all other people are usually not unless they get the Sullivan stamp of approval.

  73. 73.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    The last of my new camping gear was delivered Friday. Testing the new Coleman stove today. I’m old fashioned; the stove is a dual fuel Powerhouse model. After that I’ll be creating a new checklist for next week’s Joshua Tree campout.

  74. 74.

    Ben Franklin

    Obama’s putative absence is key to creating the political space Senate Republicans need to negotiate in good faith. As Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) revealed in an interview about the gun bill’s failure this week, “There were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done, just because the president wanted to do it.” (Toomey is one of the Senate’s most conservative members, but will face a tough re-election in 2016 and not coincidentally was an author of the failed gun bill.)

    If the senators can use that space productively, their efforts will be part of a two-pronged strategy: First, force House Republicans to choose between cooperation and rejectionism by building strong bipartisan support for a budget bill in the Senate; second, let Republican Senators, rather than Obama himself, be the emissaries for that legislation.

    http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/05/obamas-permission-structure-and-his-last-best-chance-for-a-budget-grand-bargain.php

    WTF? Wasn’t Obama out front with the gun bill? The push=back against the theories of governance around ‘permission’ bona fides is this productive space theory
    ?
    Did Jon Favreau have final editing authority for this story?

  75. 75.

    JAFD

    Also the 43rd anniversary of the shootings at Kent State.

    May the victims rest in peace, and may we, sometime, rest feeling that we have built a world worthy of their sacrifice.

  76. 76.

    ranchandsyrup

    Sea kayaking then fish and chips today. A bike ride and catching up on work tomorrow then grilling some beer can chicken in the evening. Maybe some home depot. We’ll see if I have time.

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