The weather is here and I wish you were beautiful!
No, really, it’s a beautiful day, and the start of a three day weekend for me and Soonerwife. The OKC Home and Garden show is going on this weekend, and of course the Broncos are playing in the AFC championship tomorrow.
However, the Rev. Justin Lindstrom, dean of St. Paul’s, said couples have been in no hurry to have a same-sex blessing ceremony at the historic downtown Oklahoma City church, 127 NW 7.
The Rev. Justin Lindstrom, dean of St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral.
He said that may change if a recent federal ruling is upheld upon appeal.
“I can imagine that people will seek a marriage because it is a fuller expression. It’s not only a blessing of the church but it has legal standing under the law,” Lindstrom said.
Tuesday, a federal judge in Tulsa struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. Senior U.S. District Judge Terrence C. Kern prevented his ruling from going into effect while the case makes its way through appeals.
NORMAN — In 1940, after Paris fell under Nazi control, German troops began looting thousands of artworks from museums, galleries and personal collections across France.
Today, one of those paintings hangs in the University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. Now, the daughter of its former owner wants the painting back.
The painting is “Shepherdess Bringing In Sheep,” an 1886 work by French impressionist artist Camille Pissarro. It was stolen from Raoul Meyer, a Jewish businessman in Paris, during the Nazi occupation of France.
The National Pigeon Association show, which concludes Saturday, is expected to attract more than 4,000 pigeons of all breeds and hundreds of pigeon enthusiasts to the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City.
Just back from Scotland (w/ some brown sauce, natch). Anyone posted recently on this ackjass who capped a dad for texting in a movie theater, and is now going full-on SYG defense? Any lawyers wanna opine on the odds this perps walks despite this?
4.
Omnes Omnibus
@Punchy: There has been a lot of talk about it around here. Based on what I know so far, I can’t see how he walks, but I also thought Zimmerman would be convicted so I might not have real good finger on the pulse of Florida law and justice.
5.
Corner Stone
Gay pigeon raising French impressionist artists? In OK?
I’m so confused right now.
6.
Trentrunner
@Omnes Omnibus: He won’t walk. Victim was very, very white.
7.
Suffern ACE
Happy thesaurus day. I’m at a loss for words to express my feelings on this day.
8.
scav
I am really somehow worried by the ratio of pigeons to pigeon fanciers at that show. Can’t figure out if that is more or less crowded than San Marcos and if being in a confined, enclosed, space makes it better or worse. Granted, only pigeon fancier I ever met raised tumblers and for tumbling you really need the space — it’s sorta the point. Racers, Homing, James Bondish Spybirds, same deal. Context. These must be fancied on other criteria. Food is likely to be better in Venice though, sorry, I just like real Italian.
9.
Omnes Omnibus
@Trentrunner: That, I am afraid, probably will be a factor.
10.
gbear
Somehow between 10pm and 8am we got over three inches of snow. I had no idea it was coming. Beautiful not-too-cold sunny day today. Everything is covered with a layer of brilliant white.
11.
kdaug
Current gig just blew up. I was anticipating 2-4 deliverables. Now they want “hundreds”, for them and their “partners”.
Oy.
It’s nice to be appreciated for your work and all, but I wasn’t planning on scaling up that fast.
I’m a freelancer, a loose cannon, a gun-for-hire. I am not a multinational.
Snow starting here now. But I think (hope) it’s too warm to stick.
13.
MoeLarryAndJesus
F**k the Broncos and their Papa John’s quarterback.
14.
Punchy
@Trentrunner: Yeah but the triggerman is former 5-0. Thought the system does a pretty good job of protecting them no matter what. Can he plea and get 100 hours of community service and a bumper sticker put on his car that says “I kill fathers of young girls”?
15.
piratedan
@kdaug: well you have a steady supply of other competent posters here that are struggling, maybe it’s time for you to be a jerb creator and start assembling a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude…..
16.
PsiFighter37
Flew into Austin this morning after my flight last night was cancelled. Franklin BBQ had a 4-hour(!!!) wait, so we went to a delicious Mexican food truck and housed a bunch of tacos. Now at a coffee & beer bar sipping on a 512 IPA.
Digging the vibe so far. Can anyone advise if Franklin is worth the wait? Planning on getting there 2.5 hours early tomorrow
How will giving him a tax cut help with deliverables?
The Invisible Hand somehow will conjure up the deliverables if it’s given the right incentive. The Great Material Continuum will provide!
24.
burnspbesq
Went to get cat food this morning and almost brought home a cat. Saturday is kitteh adoption day at our local PetsMart, and there was an 8-month-old orange male who is a dead ringer for Mr. Sam, the guy who adopted us when the kid was six months old and stuck around for 15 years.
How dare you! How dare you speak that filth against the Holy Trifecta of tax cuts, tax cuts and tax cuts?!
I am outraged.
26.
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est: The Invisible Hand has been busy lately helping Free Enterprise dump toxic chemicals in the water of WV.
Maybe some deregulation could help with this current project.
27.
burnspbesq
Good morning for the good guys.
Arsenal 2-0 Fulham
Nottingham Forest 4-1 Blackburn Rovers
28.
Corner Stone
How happy is MSNBC they gave The Kornack his own show not too long ago?
29.
kdaug
@piratedan: Definitely in play-it-by-ear mode, but if I need to hire people, I know where to go.
Seriously. He really has been spectacular on this story.
42.
ruemara
waiting for my ride to costumers’ function. taking pictures and not wearing a crinoline, thank you very much. Tomorrow a friend plans to come over and … teach me not to poke parts of my car with sticks and call that service.
43.
kdaug
@Barry: Character and solid-modeling art and animation. Usually for video games, but this time it’s an industrial client.
44.
geg6
Watching the Pussy Riot doc HBO has been running. Amazing how they keep being called demons and witches, and I don’t mean figuratively. Great stuff.
45.
Ruckus
@max:
Didn’t the police already arrest him? That’s different for sure. And I believe that a comment was made by police or DA that SYG wouldn’t apply here.
February 2nd, besides being the date of the 48th Superbowl, will be the date of the First Annual Kitten Bowl to be shown on the Hallmark Channel. Many of you know of and watch the Puppy Bowl. Well, now the cat/kitten lovers will have their own Kitten Bowl. The North Shore Animal League is hosting a cam showing kittens training for the game.
Yay! Kitten Bowl!
50.
PurpleGirl
@jeffreyw: The second puppeh looks a little punkish; is that a nose ring?
As far as I can tell, when Florida adopted Stand Your Ground, it also changed the standard for self-defense from whether a reasonable person would have believed themselves to be threatened to whether the accused reasonably believed themselves to be threatened. It seems like a subtle change, but once the standard is what the accused believed rather than what a reasonable person would have believed, the field is fixed in favor of the accused.
52.
mai naem(mobile)
Anybody watch Up today? They talked about the
Rockefeller company. I know a lot of these cos have been bought out. Just wondering if this Rockefeller co. Is still connected to the Rockefeller family being that jay Rockefeller is investigating the senate piece of the Christie scandal?
Wow! Between the poodle smarts and the Jack terrorism, that sounds like a lethal combination. Whoever gives them a forever home is going to have his/her hands full!
But they really are just about the cutest puppehs I’ve ever seen.
@burnspbesq: Pictures please! Orange kittehs are full of win and awesome.
58.
Anya
If this doesn’t end Chris Christie’s career, I don’t know anything else will. I am no lawyer, but I think this is a clear case of public corruption and extortion.
Two senior members of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration warned a New Jersey mayor earlier this year that her town would be starved of hurricane relief money unless she approved a lucrative redevelopment plan favored by the governor, according to the mayor and emails and personal notes she shared with msnbc.
The mayor, Dawn Zimmer, hasn’t approved the project, but she did request $127 million in hurricane relief for her city of Hoboken – 80% of which was underwater after Sandy hit in October 2012. What she got was $142,000 to defray the cost of a single back-up generator plus an additional $200,000 in recovery grants.
Caturday thread needs Caturday kitteh with her noble minion.
60.
PurpleGirl
@kdaug: What kind of deliverable are we talking about?
I knew a woman who sold a proto type safety pin and bead bracelet to a catalog company. The problem was she didn’t either create a time estimate for manufacturing, a budget for supplies or a budget for hiring help (if needed). She also didn’t confirm that she could make the bracelets as they were ordered. The company turned around and asked for 500 of each color (gold and silver). I helped a bit (2 evenings, maybe 8 hours) and didn’t take any pay for it as anything she paid me would have eaten her whole profit. It was a great lesson for me.
@jeffreyw: Tortie has a lot of cattitude, did Mrs J make those colorful kitteh beds?
64.
Anya
@mai naem(mobile): According to Wikipedia, the Rockerfeller family doesn’t own it.
The Rockefeller Group – A private family-run real estate development company based in New York that originally owned, constructed and managed Rockefeller Center, it is now wholly owned by Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd;
65.
Amir Khalid
@Anya:
If Christie clams he didn’t know about this either, someone ought to ask him what he did know about what was going on in his Governor’s office. As more and more things like this come to light, Christie can’t keep pleading ignorance and still look like the person in charge.
We’ve already been through a couple rounds, so everyone’s getting a solid feel for what this requires (layout, storyboards, animatics, timings), and a sense of how long this actually takes. It feels like the educational stage is almost over.
@costareports:
Christie’s team has mostly sat back as subpoenas fly, playing defense. I hear MSNBC report breaking pt inside office. Will now play offense
75.
Helen
@PurpleGirl: Hi PurpleGirl. I saw you on the McDonald’s Flushing thread (I was late to the party) where you said you are near QB. I am on QB and YS Blvd in FH. Hello neighbor!
76.
Another Holocene Human
@Punchy: In Florida, it all depends on whether his buddies are still in the sheriff’s department.
Just being a cop doesn’t mean you have friends.
Turns out one of our local former pols former shire-reeve tossed one of his deputies out on his ass for cohabiting with a fe-male while he himself was yucking it up with his girlfriend.
These insane patriarchial marriage-is-between-a-man-and-a-woman-and-unmarried-cohabitation-is-sinful-and-we-can-fire-you-for-that crowd hurt heterosexuals just as much as gay people back in the day.
It’s funny how they talk about Iranian marriage of conveniences in patronizing terms in the US press when thousands if not millions of young Americans did the same thing in the 60s and 70s (and the marriages lasted about as long as you’d expect). You couldn’t stay in a hotel, rent a room, and if you’re in the military…pfft. My cousin’s Catholic wedding wasn’t her legal marriage because she and her husband had gotten married in a jiffy to fix a housing situation six months earlier. My grandmother (who was the big Catholic wedding pusher in the family) wasn’t really pleased but had to make herself okay with it.
77.
RSA
The National Pigeon Association show, which concludes Saturday, is expected to attract more than 4,000 pigeons of all breeds and hundreds of pigeon enthusiasts to the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City.
In Raleigh (and neighboring Cary) we have the annual Tour d’Coop, a tour of urban chicken coops:
Coop owners are on hand at each location to discuss the how-tos of chicken keeping and there are opportunities for photographing and getting to know the chickens. The wide variety of coop styles as well as the surrounding back yard gardens make the tour interesting for the whole family.
Anyone posted recently on this ackjass who capped a dad for texting in a movie theater, and is now going full-on SYG defense? Any lawyers wanna opine on the odds this perps walks despite this?
I lived on Sanford Avenue in Flushing a very long time ago. In fact (counts on fingers, recites numbers sotto voce), it was, um, 49 years ago! Yikes.
We moved there in 1965. We could see the World’s Fair (Flushing Meadows) from our living room window! And during the Great Northeastern Blackout on November 9, 1965, I hitchhiked there from midtown Manhattan and then climbed nine flights of stairs to the apartment — after having walked down 40 flights in my office building!
Funny what memories that one word — Flushing — unleashes. I hadn’t consciously thought of any of that for a long time.
80.
Another Holocene Human
And oh man, a couple of cycles ago there were some big ugly food fights during the sheriff race that exposed quite a nest of jealousies, cliques, and grudges in the city police dept and the sheriff’s dept.
When the current sheriff took over response time and cooperation with city cops went way up so as a consumer of services I was pretty impressed. However, she’s also been an old school union buster, which I do not care for. I will say with a note triumphant here, not a successful union buster. But she’s been deep into the dirty tricks playbook. (Not being private sector she can’t shutter the jail and reopen elsewhere, which is how the private sector illegally busts their unions, that and using the Feds, for example using INS, using crop insurance programs, using NLRB rules to tie up elections, etc.)
Note she keeps trying to facilitate a switch from FOP back to PBA. The unit was raided by FOP because PBA SUCKS and FOP in Florida was getting results. I won’t deny that PBA defends individual members who are in trouble but as a union they suuuuuuuuuuck. Maybe they are better as an association in RTW/Taft states because they seem clueless as to how to save their members’ jobs when the political winds shift direction. Oh, btw, how are those contributions to GOP state candidates workin’ out ferya? Teamsters are always looking to raid big units (that’s what they do, they don’t organize, they raid, and apparently SEIU after buddying up to them for years has started to pull the same shit in California) but PBA corrections officers in Florida did not go Teamsters out of nowhere. That shit happened for a reason. Their “union” helped put Pink Slip Rick in office. Hell, I count pink-slipped corrections officers among my coworkers.
Look out, America, all those government service jobs you thought couldn’t be outsourced to China/Pakistan, etc? They can be privatized to British or French owned companies, the wages dropped to nothing, no bennies, safety out the frigging window, and if your local people complain, the full power of not only a multinational but the sovereign government that subsidizes and backs them trying to fuck up your shit. Remember Bechtel and water in South America?
Look into Veolia. I dare you.
81.
Barry
@kdaug: I know a guy who deals with computer graphics. Like me to put the two of you together?
82.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Corner Stone: Actually the real news is the President of France’s scandalously inappropriate behavior.
No, I don’t mean cheating on his partner by having an affair with a young actress, which in France is called “being a French male”. I mean declaring out loud that he’s a complete and utter moron about macroeconomics and parroting trickle-down ReaganThatcherLafferRyanThunderCougarFalconBird fairy tales and actually saying “Supply actually creates demand”. He’s a socialist AND about as intelligent as a floor wax, at least on macro issues.
I stood in the Place de la Bastille the night of the election, cheering along with the insanely worked up crowd, and despite knowing that this would all probably be the case (his reputation preceeded him) this was a smegging socialist, for smeg’s sake, replacing the despicable Sarkozy, who for all his macho bluster was a total lap poodle for Angela Merkel when it came to economics, so there seemed at least some hope.
I was there once in my life. It was a kind of epic, unplanned, i-heart-public-transportation ground transportation trip from Western Mass to see my girlfriend who was at her Opa’s house in Queens. I just hopped on a bus and went from there. Did not find Manhattan’s rapid transit as rapid as I expected but yoiks, NYC is BIG. Koreatown was cool, I used to love me some BBQ steamed buns. And it was before MTA had to cut all the bus routes (BECAUSE ALBANY HAS BEEN RAIDING DEDICATED TRANSIT FUNDS FOR YEARS) so I was able to take a bus right where I was going, very nice. I wasn’t sure which bus to take and I just about fell over when the dude in the information booth started talking in this NY accent straight out of the movies. I know, that sounds silly, I grew up in Boston, I should know from accents, but I hadn’t heard this one IRL before.
It was my fault, I was stereotyping–he was African American and I was expecting to hear a lilt reminiscent of Roxbury or Dorchester (Mass). Teachable moment.
I felt like such an unwashed yokel!
84.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I hear MSNBC report breaking pt inside office. Will now play offense
David Gregory will have to consult his doctor four hours from now, but as someone with many years experience as a commenter on political blogs, I don’t know how well that will play. “Carrying on with my job as governor” is about the best he can do, going on offense makes more theatre, draws more attention to the fact that he was at the center of all this, whatever he knew or suspected or pretended not to see his closest aides doing. And all this in service of a doubly hypothetical presidential campaign?
85.
Another Holocene Human
@Bill E Pilgrim: I’m shocked that he had to choose, I mean Mitterand had a wife and a mistress. Didn’t they sit together at his funeral?
86.
Anya
@Amir Khalid: I don’t see anyone from the national media asking this question but the local media will ask. I wish MSNBC would let Steve Kornacki attend Christie’s next press conference.
Christie and his cronies ruined the Port Authority’s once prestigious name beyond repair.
87.
PurpleGirl
@Helen: Yes, Hello neighbor. My dentist has his office on YS Blvd off QB…. small world.
@SiubhanDuinne: I know part of Sanford Ave. That was some hike and climb. In the August 2004 blackout I was lucky enough to get a ride home in a car and since my housing complex has its own power plant, we still had elevators and lights and I didn’t have to climb to the 17th Fl.
88.
PurpleGirl
@Another Holocene Human: I don’t remember if they sat together but they did both attend.
89.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Another Holocene Human: Well I’m not sure he’s chosen any more than Mitterand did, he actually doesn’t have a wife, so in a sense he chose even less. But for the moment he’s still with his partner.
His previous partner was Segolene Royal, including when she ran against Sarko for President, so he somewhat narrowly missed being “First Lady” himself, but not as her husband. Not that the election was narrow, just saying though.
The current partner was the other woman in those days, becoming the primary or “non-other” eventually. You think US politics are entertaining– well they are, no doubt, but the French gives us a run for our money.
90.
max
@Ruckus: Didn’t the police already arrest him? That’s different for sure. And I believe that a comment was made by police or DA that SYG wouldn’t apply here.
Well, yeah. They conducted an actual investigation and charged him. They didn’t do that with Zimmerman.
max
[‘He’s trying to claim he was assaulted. They might be able to make that fly with a jury, maybe.’]
91.
Another Holocene Human
@Anya: please let there be a perp walk for this please
I fucking HATE this kind of shit, it makes me burn inside
I HATEHATEHATE these cronied up development deals. Even if the development itself is nice, all the sidestepping of community input just ripples outward. Plus the disinvestment elsewhere. These people are parasites, but have a lower profile than love-to-hates like banksters, I guess.
Any fans of Leonard Nimoy? Do you know that under the guise of “urban renewal” the heavily Jewish neighborhood where he grew up was eminent domained for a developer so he could build riverfront high rises and make a fat profit? The first stage where he performed as an actor, the little barber shop that his father owned, and the vast majority of the homes, many of them the homes of the burlesque performers who worked in Scollay Sq which was also demolished to get rid of “vice”, replaced with one of the most infamous unusable public spaces in the world, Govt Center/City Hall Plaza and “Red Square”. All gone for private profit.
They targeted Black (see: Mass Pike extension) and “ethnic” ‘hoods because they thought they would get less “resistance”. And because land takings were cheaper. And because of course they did. The whole goal was to displace people.
92.
Another Holocene Human
c’mon Holder, be a partisan, I know you got it in you, fuck this guy into next week for misusing federal funds
shit, they send people to prison all the time for misusing NIH grants
93.
Helen
@PurpleGirl: In the August 2004 blackout I walked from 103rd St and 5th Ave in Manhattan, down to the 59th St bridge – over the bridge and then down QB all the way to Rego Park. About 9 miles total. It was actually kind fun, thousands of walkers took over the service lanes of QB, leaving the middle lanes to the cars. Everyone talked to each other and everyone had a story. When I got home I only had to walk up 6 flights, but it was in the pitch black. I had to count the flights and literally skim my hand on the wall all the way up, and then to my apt. I could not see a thing.
Over in Freeperville, they’re having a nice little internecine war over the popcorn shooting. Some trembling olds are justifying it on the basis of fear of everything (thus, nobody will challenge a nasty old), others are afraid that a walk will be justification to take guns.
None of them are self aware enough to recognize that Stand Your Ground presents a moral hazard.
95.
scav
@Bill E Pilgrim: Yes, and it’s always good to see a cheerful manif of overt, even if watered down, Socialists waving their arms about, even if about to be inevitably disappointed (politicians of all stripes are usually disappointing). A blanque mange over Sarko? Every day of the semaine and twice on Dimanche.
Total agreement, if you full-screen that YouTube video it gives a pretty good sense of being there, better than other videos I’ve seen of it, the people way up on the monument visible at around 15 seconds in, really quite a spectacle, and history in the making and all that.
Earlier in the evening the huge screen, which was a news channel, kept switching to the Place de la Concorde which was Sarko central, and everyone would boo, then they’d switch it back to us and everyone would cheer. When they announced his winning it was bedlam.
Even if the blancmanges really meant to win Wimbledon, a French Presidential election was almost as good.
97.
Punchy
@max:Of course he was as-salted…it was movie popcorn, after all. The other guy got greased. Or Sno-Capped. But I shouldnt Snicker.
98.
Ruckus
@max:
At some point (I believe it’s called the tipping point) enough people will see that SYG doesn’t get the desired results. Even if some have the desired result of getting rid of the “wrong” people.
Sort of like the idea that changing the minds of old people will ruin the conservatives. Problem is new old people are made every day. So maybe we have to do more than convince a few, as the tipping point may be decades or longer away.
[In max parlance, we may just be fucked.]
99.
Ruckus
@Punchy:
OK, if that isn’t funny why am I laughing?
100.
Yatsuno
@SiubhanDuinne: Yup. Definitely squee worthy. Thanks for the heads up!
@Omnes Omnibus: I haven’t read through the comments but one of the articles mentioned that it is a felony to attack the elderly. Because of that, stand your ground might work.
The reason it won’t is not just because the man murdered was white but he’s a sympathetic character texting his child. The Stand Your Ground Law would suffer great set backs, if it did. The NRA and other conservative groups would not allow that to happen.
Ah the joys of fucking with people who call themselves Christians over the death penalty. They’re always amazed at what Jesus had to say about forgiveness. It’s pretty sad how much they’ll contort themselves to justify their glee.
efgoldman: ALEC isT trying to get Stand Your Ground passed in other states. If the guy walks, it won’t happen. The lobbyists have a lot to lose.
105.
Botsplainer
Had an interesting exchange with a support staffer for one of the other lawyers in my office this week. He’s middle aged, lives with his mother, and is a clearly closeted gay evangelical. He was whining about some evangelical pastor (former Muslim) imprisoned in Iran. My observation was that nothing could realistically be done, and that that most of the world is sick of loudmouthed proselytizing Christians, who just need to shut the fuck up, tend to their own flocks, and try conversion by example.
His anguished reply taught me how they’re dealing with criticism from less noisy branches of Christianity – he called me a Christian bigot and ran from the room.
106.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl: I don’t remember the street number of our apartment building, but I want to say it was very near the intersection of Sanford and Parsons (Avenue? Boulevard?). I know it was about a four-block walk to the train station.
Just nothing worked in the 1965 blackout. Certainly not elevators. You were lucky.
@Helen: You’re right about the camaraderie! Instant bonding, and a strange shedding of certain inhibitions. I mean, it would never occur to me then or now, there or elsewhere, to hitch a ride in the winter darkness with strangers — but hitch I did, and the people were very nice and wouldn’t take a cent. And once the power was back on and subways were running again, everyone was chatting up fellow passengers (“Where were you when the lights went out?!” became a catchphrase and a book title) instead of hiding behind their newspapers as usual.
107.
scav
@Botsplainer: You missed the forcing their belief systems and lifestyle choices down every else’s throats, but that might have been over-egging it. A crying bolt is a solid result. Congrats.
108.
Corner Stone
@Botsplainer: I seriously doubt that exchange happened. And if it did, I hope he files a claim against you next week.
109.
ET
I see the calendar is now up for sale. I am a little confuse though. can you start in any month?
Yeah, it might be better to just hire some people to help you.
111.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@scav: I find it a little depressing that the Hobby Lobbies and even the Little Sisters of the Poor aren’t being laughed out the courts for trying to pretend that fucking with their employees’ health insurance over birth control in the fucking fercrissake twenty-first fucking century has something to do with their “religious freedom”
112.
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: In 2004, I was at the corner of Third Ave and 24th St, trying to decide what to do. I saw a car with two young women in it and they had the windows down. When they were stopped from non-moving traffic, I went over and asked if they could give me a ride uptown, wherever depending on where they were headed. They said okay. Turned out they were picking up one girl’s father and then going to a town on Long Island. They would be passing where I live. Totally lucked out. And thank the goddess the black out happened in August when we still had light. (People from my complex were handing out cold water to people walking past.)
I HATEHATEHATE these cronied up development deals.
Are there any other kind of development deals?
122.
WaterGirl
@Corner Stone: I was just thinking about the corollary: How sorry is Chris Hayes that the left the great format and opportunities of UP for just another hour of blah blah blah in the evening.
With Steve’s first-hand knowledge of Jersey, he really is an example of “timing is everything”.
123.
TAPX486
@Amir Khalid: ‘Pay to Play’ politics probably goes back to the time of the cave man so most folks are willing to accept a certain amount of that and look the other way. Tying it to Sandy relief on the other hand puts it in a different category sort of like stealing milk from a baby and then kicking the baby on the way out the door. It’s the hurricane aspect that makes it look so bad
124.
Mike E
@WaterGirl: That’s corollarious! I’m sure Hayes is doing quite well in his primetime slot, and holds no grudges toward anyone. Whatever transition he had to face, he’s now firing on all cylinders. Show a little love for someone who is firmly on the good side, whydonchez…
125.
WaterGirl
@Mike E: “Whatever transition he had to face, he’s now firing on all cylinders.”
That’s good to hear. I was crazy about Chris Hayes, and thrilled when they gave him UP. I stuck with him as long as I felt I could in the new evening time slot, but he just seemed to be going in the wrong direction.
Thanks for encouraging me to give him another try.
Columbus has 17 charter school failures in one year
Schools closing at alarming rate, costing taxpayers and disrupting the lives of hundreds of students
By Jennifer Smith Richards and Bill Bush Sunday January 12, 2014 8:44 AM
At the beginning of 2013, one long-struggling charter school closed. Over the summer, five more did. And in the fall, 11 more Columbus charters closed their doors, most of them brand new.
That’s 17 charter schools in Columbus closed in one year, which records show is unprecedented.
“It shows the power of a couple of players with standards that are not up to par really affecting an overall market,” said Chad Aldis, a vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which sponsors 10 charter schools in Ohio, some in Columbus.
Nine of the 17 schools that closed in 2013 lasted only a few months this past fall. When they closed, more than 250 students had to find new schools. The state spent more than $1.6 million in taxpayer money to keep the nine schools open only from August through October or November.
But while 2013 was unusual, closings are not rare. A Dispatch analysis of state data found that 29 percent of Ohio’s charter schools have shut, dating to 1997 when the publicly funded but often privately run schools became legal in Ohio. Nearly 400 currently are operating, about 75 of them in Columbus.
piratedan
didn’t realize that OKC had enough statues to host the NPA show; that’s why I visit this blog, a constant learning experience….
jeffreyw
Thread needs puppehs!
Punchy
Just back from Scotland (w/ some brown sauce, natch). Anyone posted recently on this ackjass who capped a dad for texting in a movie theater, and is now going full-on SYG defense? Any lawyers wanna opine on the odds this perps walks despite this?
Omnes Omnibus
@Punchy: There has been a lot of talk about it around here. Based on what I know so far, I can’t see how he walks, but I also thought Zimmerman would be convicted so I might not have real good finger on the pulse of Florida law and justice.
Corner Stone
Gay pigeon raising French impressionist artists? In OK?
I’m so confused right now.
Trentrunner
@Omnes Omnibus: He won’t walk. Victim was very, very white.
Suffern ACE
Happy thesaurus day. I’m at a loss for words to express my feelings on this day.
scav
I am really somehow worried by the ratio of pigeons to pigeon fanciers at that show. Can’t figure out if that is more or less crowded than San Marcos and if being in a confined, enclosed, space makes it better or worse. Granted, only pigeon fancier I ever met raised tumblers and for tumbling you really need the space — it’s sorta the point. Racers, Homing, James Bondish Spybirds, same deal. Context. These must be fancied on other criteria. Food is likely to be better in Venice though, sorry, I just like real Italian.
Omnes Omnibus
@Trentrunner: That, I am afraid, probably will be a factor.
gbear
Somehow between 10pm and 8am we got over three inches of snow. I had no idea it was coming. Beautiful not-too-cold sunny day today. Everything is covered with a layer of brilliant white.
kdaug
Current gig just blew up. I was anticipating 2-4 deliverables. Now they want “hundreds”, for them and their “partners”.
Oy.
It’s nice to be appreciated for your work and all, but I wasn’t planning on scaling up that fast.
I’m a freelancer, a loose cannon, a gun-for-hire. I am not a multinational.
Yet, apparently.
gogol's wife
@gbear:
Snow starting here now. But I think (hope) it’s too warm to stick.
MoeLarryAndJesus
F**k the Broncos and their Papa John’s quarterback.
Punchy
@Trentrunner: Yeah but the triggerman is former 5-0. Thought the system does a pretty good job of protecting them no matter what. Can he plea and get 100 hours of community service and a bumper sticker put on his car that says “I kill fathers of young girls”?
piratedan
@kdaug: well you have a steady supply of other competent posters here that are struggling, maybe it’s time for you to be a jerb creator and start assembling a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude…..
PsiFighter37
Flew into Austin this morning after my flight last night was cancelled. Franklin BBQ had a 4-hour(!!!) wait, so we went to a delicious Mexican food truck and housed a bunch of tacos. Now at a coffee & beer bar sipping on a 512 IPA.
Digging the vibe so far. Can anyone advise if Franklin is worth the wait? Planning on getting there 2.5 hours early tomorrow
Barry
@kdaug: What’s your business?
Corner Stone
@piratedan:
How will giving him a tax cut help with deliverables?
Corner Stone
@MoeLarryAndJesus:
Bringin’ tha smack down!
Corner Stone
@Suffern ACE:
The fact that I did not know that item has left me speechless.
piratedan
@Corner Stone: does that really matter, nobody gives a rats ass about customer service these days, do they? At least from the provider’s pov anyways…
Fuzzy
@MoeLarryAndJesus: Agree totally and may our young tatted wonder destroy those yapping juicer Seachickens.
Villago Delenda Est
@Corner Stone:
The Invisible Hand somehow will conjure up the deliverables if it’s given the right incentive. The Great Material Continuum will provide!
burnspbesq
Went to get cat food this morning and almost brought home a cat. Saturday is kitteh adoption day at our local PetsMart, and there was an 8-month-old orange male who is a dead ringer for Mr. Sam, the guy who adopted us when the kid was six months old and stuck around for 15 years.
Corner Stone
@piratedan:
How dare you! How dare you speak that filth against the Holy Trifecta of tax cuts, tax cuts and tax cuts?!
I am outraged.
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est: The Invisible Hand has been busy lately helping Free Enterprise dump toxic chemicals in the water of WV.
Maybe some deregulation could help with this current project.
burnspbesq
Good morning for the good guys.
Arsenal 2-0 Fulham
Nottingham Forest 4-1 Blackburn Rovers
Corner Stone
How happy is MSNBC they gave The Kornack his own show not too long ago?
kdaug
@piratedan: Definitely in play-it-by-ear mode, but if I need to hire people, I know where to go.
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw:
Just adorable!!
Did Mrs J take the picture? You can see her reflection in the puppies’ eyes.
burnspbesq
And Liverpool have come back from two goals down.
Amir, you can come out from behind the couch now.
Amir Khalid
@burnspbesq:
I was, um, looking for some loose change. Honest.
Anoniminous
@kdaug:
Ah. The Joys of Consulting.
Nobody wants anything until everybody wants everything … by the end of the week.
max
@Trentrunner: He won’t walk. Victim was very, very white.
Putting that aside, this guy also did it in front of a theater full of witnesses. Nobody directly saw what happened with Martin & Zimmerman.
max
[‘The guy has one thing going for him – he’s an ex-cop.’]
GxB
@Omnes Omnibus:
FTFY
jeffreyw
@SiubhanDuinne: Yep! They are Jack Russel/Poodle crosses – Jackiepoos.
Smiling Mortician
@Corner Stone: I don’t think he’s slept in like two weeks.
Trollhattan
If it’s Saturday it’s soccer day. Napa, here we go.
Read today we last had measurable rain December 7. Spring without flowers.
kdaug
@PsiFighter37: Franklin’s is a “do it once in your lifetime” thing. There’s a reason for the wait.
jeffreyw
A Tortie in a colorful kitteh bed.
geg6
@Corner Stone:
Seriously. He really has been spectacular on this story.
ruemara
waiting for my ride to costumers’ function. taking pictures and not wearing a crinoline, thank you very much. Tomorrow a friend plans to come over and … teach me not to poke parts of my car with sticks and call that service.
kdaug
@Barry: Character and solid-modeling art and animation. Usually for video games, but this time it’s an industrial client.
geg6
Watching the Pussy Riot doc HBO has been running. Amazing how they keep being called demons and witches, and I don’t mean figuratively. Great stuff.
Ruckus
@max:
Didn’t the police already arrest him? That’s different for sure. And I believe that a comment was made by police or DA that SYG wouldn’t apply here.
geg6
@geg6:
Sooner, I’m in moderation because I used a forbidden word that I forgot was forbidden. Thanks in advance.
raven
What’s up doofuses?
Mike E
@kdaug: Time to outsource to a 3D printer, stat!
PurpleGirl
February 2nd, besides being the date of the 48th Superbowl, will be the date of the First Annual Kitten Bowl to be shown on the Hallmark Channel. Many of you know of and watch the Puppy Bowl. Well, now the cat/kitten lovers will have their own Kitten Bowl. The North Shore Animal League is hosting a cam showing kittens training for the game.
Yay! Kitten Bowl!
PurpleGirl
@jeffreyw: The second puppeh looks a little punkish; is that a nose ring?
Mnemosyne
@Trentrunner:
Doesn’t matter as much as you think — more than half of whites who killed other white people walked free, according to the Tampa Bay Times database.
@Omnes Omnibus:
As far as I can tell, when Florida adopted Stand Your Ground, it also changed the standard for self-defense from whether a reasonable person would have believed themselves to be threatened to whether the accused reasonably believed themselves to be threatened. It seems like a subtle change, but once the standard is what the accused believed rather than what a reasonable person would have believed, the field is fixed in favor of the accused.
mai naem(mobile)
Anybody watch Up today? They talked about the
Rockefeller company. I know a lot of these cos have been bought out. Just wondering if this Rockefeller co. Is still connected to the Rockefeller family being that jay Rockefeller is investigating the senate piece of the Christie scandal?
kdaug
@Villago Delenda Est: Less Material Continuum, more 1s and 0s.
Mnemosyne
@jeffreyw:
I like the black-and-white kitten photobombing in the lower corner. S/he looks a lot like our Charlotte, who also has a crooked “mask.”
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw:
Wow! Between the poodle smarts and the Jack terrorism, that sounds like a lethal combination. Whoever gives them a forever home is going to have his/her hands full!
But they really are just about the cutest puppehs I’ve ever seen.
jeffreyw
@PurpleGirl: LOL! Not sure what that is. The middle pup is a girl, the two on the ends are her brothers.
schrodinger's cat
@burnspbesq: Pictures please! Orange kittehs are full of win and awesome.
Anya
If this doesn’t end Chris Christie’s career, I don’t know anything else will. I am no lawyer, but I think this is a clear case of public corruption and extortion.
schrodinger's cat
Caturday thread needs Caturday kitteh with her noble minion.
PurpleGirl
@kdaug: What kind of deliverable are we talking about?
I knew a woman who sold a proto type safety pin and bead bracelet to a catalog company. The problem was she didn’t either create a time estimate for manufacturing, a budget for supplies or a budget for hiring help (if needed). She also didn’t confirm that she could make the bracelets as they were ordered. The company turned around and asked for 500 of each color (gold and silver). I helped a bit (2 evenings, maybe 8 hours) and didn’t take any pay for it as anything she paid me would have eaten her whole profit. It was a great lesson for me.
jeffreyw
@Mnemosyne: Mrs J says this is that kitteh, 4-5 month old male. He’s chipped, fixed, and up to date on vaccinations.
kdaug
@Mike E:
Shit, I wish it were that easy.
The printer needs a design.
I’m the designer.
schrodinger's cat
@jeffreyw: Tortie has a lot of cattitude, did Mrs J make those colorful kitteh beds?
Anya
@mai naem(mobile): According to Wikipedia, the Rockerfeller family doesn’t own it.
Amir Khalid
@Anya:
If Christie clams he didn’t know about this either, someone ought to ask him what he did know about what was going on in his Governor’s office. As more and more things like this come to light, Christie can’t keep pleading ignorance and still look like the person in charge.
jeffreyw
@schrodinger’s cat: Yup, that’s one of Mrs J’s creations. Attitude?!?
schrodinger's cat
@kdaug: What do you design?
schrodinger's cat
@jeffreyw: Talented Mrs J!
kdaug
@PurpleGirl: Yeah, ding.
~3Kf animations.
We’ve already been through a couple rounds, so everyone’s getting a solid feel for what this requires (layout, storyboards, animatics, timings), and a sense of how long this actually takes. It feels like the educational stage is almost over.
But now they want “hundreds”.
PurpleGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: LOL.
MomSense
@kdaug:
I’m now imagining you in a sorcerer’s apprentice sort of way creating a 3 D printer that makes more 3 D printers.
kdaug
@MomSense: IIRC, that didn’t end well.
schrodinger's cat
@PurpleGirl: Thanks!
Baud
Helen
@PurpleGirl: Hi PurpleGirl. I saw you on the McDonald’s Flushing thread (I was late to the party) where you said you are near QB. I am on QB and YS Blvd in FH. Hello neighbor!
Another Holocene Human
@Punchy: In Florida, it all depends on whether his buddies are still in the sheriff’s department.
Just being a cop doesn’t mean you have friends.
Turns out one of our local former pols former shire-reeve tossed one of his deputies out on his ass for cohabiting with a fe-male while he himself was yucking it up with his girlfriend.
These insane patriarchial marriage-is-between-a-man-and-a-woman-and-unmarried-cohabitation-is-sinful-and-we-can-fire-you-for-that crowd hurt heterosexuals just as much as gay people back in the day.
It’s funny how they talk about Iranian marriage of conveniences in patronizing terms in the US press when thousands if not millions of young Americans did the same thing in the 60s and 70s (and the marriages lasted about as long as you’d expect). You couldn’t stay in a hotel, rent a room, and if you’re in the military…pfft. My cousin’s Catholic wedding wasn’t her legal marriage because she and her husband had gotten married in a jiffy to fix a housing situation six months earlier. My grandmother (who was the big Catholic wedding pusher in the family) wasn’t really pleased but had to make herself okay with it.
RSA
In Raleigh (and neighboring Cary) we have the annual Tour d’Coop, a tour of urban chicken coops:
rikyrah
@Punchy:
The victim was a WHITE man texting his child.
SYG will not work.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl:
@Helen:
I lived on Sanford Avenue in Flushing a very long time ago. In fact (counts on fingers, recites numbers sotto voce), it was, um, 49 years ago! Yikes.
We moved there in 1965. We could see the World’s Fair (Flushing Meadows) from our living room window! And during the Great Northeastern Blackout on November 9, 1965, I hitchhiked there from midtown Manhattan and then climbed nine flights of stairs to the apartment — after having walked down 40 flights in my office building!
Funny what memories that one word — Flushing — unleashes. I hadn’t consciously thought of any of that for a long time.
Another Holocene Human
And oh man, a couple of cycles ago there were some big ugly food fights during the sheriff race that exposed quite a nest of jealousies, cliques, and grudges in the city police dept and the sheriff’s dept.
When the current sheriff took over response time and cooperation with city cops went way up so as a consumer of services I was pretty impressed. However, she’s also been an old school union buster, which I do not care for. I will say with a note triumphant here, not a successful union buster. But she’s been deep into the dirty tricks playbook. (Not being private sector she can’t shutter the jail and reopen elsewhere, which is how the private sector illegally busts their unions, that and using the Feds, for example using INS, using crop insurance programs, using NLRB rules to tie up elections, etc.)
Note she keeps trying to facilitate a switch from FOP back to PBA. The unit was raided by FOP because PBA SUCKS and FOP in Florida was getting results. I won’t deny that PBA defends individual members who are in trouble but as a union they suuuuuuuuuuck. Maybe they are better as an association in RTW/Taft states because they seem clueless as to how to save their members’ jobs when the political winds shift direction. Oh, btw, how are those contributions to GOP state candidates workin’ out ferya? Teamsters are always looking to raid big units (that’s what they do, they don’t organize, they raid, and apparently SEIU after buddying up to them for years has started to pull the same shit in California) but PBA corrections officers in Florida did not go Teamsters out of nowhere. That shit happened for a reason. Their “union” helped put Pink Slip Rick in office. Hell, I count pink-slipped corrections officers among my coworkers.
Look out, America, all those government service jobs you thought couldn’t be outsourced to China/Pakistan, etc? They can be privatized to British or French owned companies, the wages dropped to nothing, no bennies, safety out the frigging window, and if your local people complain, the full power of not only a multinational but the sovereign government that subsidizes and backs them trying to fuck up your shit. Remember Bechtel and water in South America?
Look into Veolia. I dare you.
Barry
@kdaug: I know a guy who deals with computer graphics. Like me to put the two of you together?
Bill E Pilgrim
@Corner Stone: Actually the real news is the President of France’s scandalously inappropriate behavior.
No, I don’t mean cheating on his partner by having an affair with a young actress, which in France is called “being a French male”. I mean declaring out loud that he’s a complete and utter moron about macroeconomics and parroting trickle-down ReaganThatcherLafferRyanThunderCougarFalconBird fairy tales and actually saying “Supply actually creates demand”. He’s a socialist AND about as intelligent as a floor wax, at least on macro issues.
I stood in the Place de la Bastille the night of the election, cheering along with the insanely worked up crowd, and despite knowing that this would all probably be the case (his reputation preceeded him) this was a smegging socialist, for smeg’s sake, replacing the despicable Sarkozy, who for all his macho bluster was a total lap poodle for Angela Merkel when it came to economics, so there seemed at least some hope.
Le sigh. It was a great night though.
Another Holocene Human
@SiubhanDuinne: Only possible response:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkTD1QK_qcw
I was there once in my life. It was a kind of epic, unplanned, i-heart-public-transportation ground transportation trip from Western Mass to see my girlfriend who was at her Opa’s house in Queens. I just hopped on a bus and went from there. Did not find Manhattan’s rapid transit as rapid as I expected but yoiks, NYC is BIG. Koreatown was cool, I used to love me some BBQ steamed buns. And it was before MTA had to cut all the bus routes (BECAUSE ALBANY HAS BEEN RAIDING DEDICATED TRANSIT FUNDS FOR YEARS) so I was able to take a bus right where I was going, very nice. I wasn’t sure which bus to take and I just about fell over when the dude in the information booth started talking in this NY accent straight out of the movies. I know, that sounds silly, I grew up in Boston, I should know from accents, but I hadn’t heard this one IRL before.
It was my fault, I was stereotyping–he was African American and I was expecting to hear a lilt reminiscent of Roxbury or Dorchester (Mass). Teachable moment.
I felt like such an unwashed yokel!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
David Gregory will have to consult his doctor four hours from now, but as someone with many years experience as a commenter on political blogs, I don’t know how well that will play. “Carrying on with my job as governor” is about the best he can do, going on offense makes more theatre, draws more attention to the fact that he was at the center of all this, whatever he knew or suspected or pretended not to see his closest aides doing. And all this in service of a doubly hypothetical presidential campaign?
Another Holocene Human
@Bill E Pilgrim: I’m shocked that he had to choose, I mean Mitterand had a wife and a mistress. Didn’t they sit together at his funeral?
Anya
@Amir Khalid: I don’t see anyone from the national media asking this question but the local media will ask. I wish MSNBC would let Steve Kornacki attend Christie’s next press conference.
Christie and his cronies ruined the Port Authority’s once prestigious name beyond repair.
PurpleGirl
@Helen: Yes, Hello neighbor. My dentist has his office on YS Blvd off QB…. small world.
@SiubhanDuinne: I know part of Sanford Ave. That was some hike and climb. In the August 2004 blackout I was lucky enough to get a ride home in a car and since my housing complex has its own power plant, we still had elevators and lights and I didn’t have to climb to the 17th Fl.
PurpleGirl
@Another Holocene Human: I don’t remember if they sat together but they did both attend.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Another Holocene Human: Well I’m not sure he’s chosen any more than Mitterand did, he actually doesn’t have a wife, so in a sense he chose even less. But for the moment he’s still with his partner.
His previous partner was Segolene Royal, including when she ran against Sarko for President, so he somewhat narrowly missed being “First Lady” himself, but not as her husband. Not that the election was narrow, just saying though.
The current partner was the other woman in those days, becoming the primary or “non-other” eventually. You think US politics are entertaining– well they are, no doubt, but the French gives us a run for our money.
max
@Ruckus: Didn’t the police already arrest him? That’s different for sure. And I believe that a comment was made by police or DA that SYG wouldn’t apply here.
Well, yeah. They conducted an actual investigation and charged him. They didn’t do that with Zimmerman.
max
[‘He’s trying to claim he was assaulted. They might be able to make that fly with a jury, maybe.’]
Another Holocene Human
@Anya: please let there be a perp walk for this please
I fucking HATE this kind of shit, it makes me burn inside
I HATEHATEHATE these cronied up development deals. Even if the development itself is nice, all the sidestepping of community input just ripples outward. Plus the disinvestment elsewhere. These people are parasites, but have a lower profile than love-to-hates like banksters, I guess.
Any fans of Leonard Nimoy? Do you know that under the guise of “urban renewal” the heavily Jewish neighborhood where he grew up was eminent domained for a developer so he could build riverfront high rises and make a fat profit? The first stage where he performed as an actor, the little barber shop that his father owned, and the vast majority of the homes, many of them the homes of the burlesque performers who worked in Scollay Sq which was also demolished to get rid of “vice”, replaced with one of the most infamous unusable public spaces in the world, Govt Center/City Hall Plaza and “Red Square”. All gone for private profit.
They targeted Black (see: Mass Pike extension) and “ethnic” ‘hoods because they thought they would get less “resistance”. And because land takings were cheaper. And because of course they did. The whole goal was to displace people.
Another Holocene Human
c’mon Holder, be a partisan, I know you got it in you, fuck this guy into next week for misusing federal funds
shit, they send people to prison all the time for misusing NIH grants
Helen
@PurpleGirl: In the August 2004 blackout I walked from 103rd St and 5th Ave in Manhattan, down to the 59th St bridge – over the bridge and then down QB all the way to Rego Park. About 9 miles total. It was actually kind fun, thousands of walkers took over the service lanes of QB, leaving the middle lanes to the cars. Everyone talked to each other and everyone had a story. When I got home I only had to walk up 6 flights, but it was in the pitch black. I had to count the flights and literally skim my hand on the wall all the way up, and then to my apt. I could not see a thing.
Good Times!!
Botsplainer
@Trentrunner:
Over in Freeperville, they’re having a nice little internecine war over the popcorn shooting. Some trembling olds are justifying it on the basis of fear of everything (thus, nobody will challenge a nasty old), others are afraid that a walk will be justification to take guns.
None of them are self aware enough to recognize that Stand Your Ground presents a moral hazard.
scav
@Bill E Pilgrim: Yes, and it’s always good to see a cheerful manif of overt, even if watered down, Socialists waving their arms about, even if about to be inevitably disappointed (politicians of all stripes are usually disappointing). A blanque mange over Sarko? Every day of the semaine and twice on Dimanche.
Bill E Pilgrim
@scav:
Total agreement, if you full-screen that YouTube video it gives a pretty good sense of being there, better than other videos I’ve seen of it, the people way up on the monument visible at around 15 seconds in, really quite a spectacle, and history in the making and all that.
Earlier in the evening the huge screen, which was a news channel, kept switching to the Place de la Concorde which was Sarko central, and everyone would boo, then they’d switch it back to us and everyone would cheer. When they announced his winning it was bedlam.
Even if the blancmanges really meant to win Wimbledon, a French Presidential election was almost as good.
Punchy
@max:Of course he was as-salted…it was movie popcorn, after all. The other guy got greased. Or Sno-Capped. But I shouldnt Snicker.
Ruckus
@max:
At some point (I believe it’s called the tipping point) enough people will see that SYG doesn’t get the desired results. Even if some have the desired result of getting rid of the “wrong” people.
Sort of like the idea that changing the minds of old people will ruin the conservatives. Problem is new old people are made every day. So maybe we have to do more than convince a few, as the tipping point may be decades or longer away.
[In max parlance, we may just be fucked.]
Ruckus
@Punchy:
OK, if that isn’t funny why am I laughing?
Yatsuno
@SiubhanDuinne: Yup. Definitely squee worthy. Thanks for the heads up!
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: I haven’t read through the comments but one of the articles mentioned that it is a felony to attack the elderly. Because of that, stand your ground might work.
The reason it won’t is not just because the man murdered was white but he’s a sympathetic character texting his child. The Stand Your Ground Law would suffer great set backs, if it did. The NRA and other conservative groups would not allow that to happen.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Ruckus:The Nazi V-Joke, an attempt to combat the killer joke.
Cassidy
Ah the joys of fucking with people who call themselves Christians over the death penalty. They’re always amazed at what Jesus had to say about forgiveness. It’s pretty sad how much they’ll contort themselves to justify their glee.
JPL
@Baud: @ Chistie’s office released a statement denying the statement by the Hoboken mayor. They are shocked that someone who supports the governor would say such a thing.
efgoldman: ALEC isT trying to get Stand Your Ground passed in other states. If the guy walks, it won’t happen. The lobbyists have a lot to lose.
Botsplainer
Had an interesting exchange with a support staffer for one of the other lawyers in my office this week. He’s middle aged, lives with his mother, and is a clearly closeted gay evangelical. He was whining about some evangelical pastor (former Muslim) imprisoned in Iran. My observation was that nothing could realistically be done, and that that most of the world is sick of loudmouthed proselytizing Christians, who just need to shut the fuck up, tend to their own flocks, and try conversion by example.
His anguished reply taught me how they’re dealing with criticism from less noisy branches of Christianity – he called me a Christian bigot and ran from the room.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl: I don’t remember the street number of our apartment building, but I want to say it was very near the intersection of Sanford and Parsons (Avenue? Boulevard?). I know it was about a four-block walk to the train station.
Just nothing worked in the 1965 blackout. Certainly not elevators. You were lucky.
@Helen: You’re right about the camaraderie! Instant bonding, and a strange shedding of certain inhibitions. I mean, it would never occur to me then or now, there or elsewhere, to hitch a ride in the winter darkness with strangers — but hitch I did, and the people were very nice and wouldn’t take a cent. And once the power was back on and subways were running again, everyone was chatting up fellow passengers (“Where were you when the lights went out?!” became a catchphrase and a book title) instead of hiding behind their newspapers as usual.
scav
@Botsplainer: You missed the forcing their belief systems and lifestyle choices down every else’s throats, but that might have been over-egging it. A crying bolt is a solid result. Congrats.
Corner Stone
@Botsplainer: I seriously doubt that exchange happened. And if it did, I hope he files a claim against you next week.
ET
I see the calendar is now up for sale. I am a little confuse though. can you start in any month?
MomSense
@kdaug:
Yeah, it might be better to just hire some people to help you.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@scav: I find it a little depressing that the Hobby Lobbies and even the Little Sisters of the Poor aren’t being laughed out the courts for trying to pretend that fucking with their employees’ health insurance over birth control in the fucking fercrissake twenty-first fucking century has something to do with their “religious freedom”
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: In 2004, I was at the corner of Third Ave and 24th St, trying to decide what to do. I saw a car with two young women in it and they had the windows down. When they were stopped from non-moving traffic, I went over and asked if they could give me a ride uptown, wherever depending on where they were headed. They said okay. Turned out they were picking up one girl’s father and then going to a town on Long Island. They would be passing where I live. Totally lucked out. And thank the goddess the black out happened in August when we still had light. (People from my complex were handing out cold water to people walking past.)
scav
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Speaking of Nuns, what about the the one in Italy that gave birth in Italy ‘unaware of pregnancy. Thirty one years old — wonder if she considered it a possibility or was unaware of that process too? Second coming? Gabriel must have used a bad SatNav for the Annunciation. Of course, ads with pregnant nuns are mocking Catholic beliefs, one of which is apparently that Nuns don’t get pregnant.
JoyfulA
@kdaug: What kind of deliverables? Maybe someone here can help you out.
(I’m a freelancer, but my work isn’t termed in deliverables, and I’m busy anyway.)
And congratulations, 0.01%er, you.
JoyfulA
@burnspbesq: Go back and get Mr. Sam’s great-great grandkitten, fast!
rikyrah
Kelly O’Donnell ✔ @KellyO
.@GovChristie spokesman releases statement that begins “MSNBC is a partisan network that has been openly hostile to Gov Christie”
kindness
I figure the Broncos will win tomorrow. The Super Bowl though? That’s gonna be a toughie.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: Governor Christie’s morning workouts must be long if he’s never seen any of the hours devoted to his worship on Morning Joe.
Jebediah, RBG
Love Pissarro.
Yatsuno
@rikyrah: Uh-oh. Attacking the messenger usually means your defence is weak…
James E. Powell
@Another Holocene Human:
I HATEHATEHATE these cronied up development deals.
Are there any other kind of development deals?
WaterGirl
@Corner Stone: I was just thinking about the corollary: How sorry is Chris Hayes that the left the great format and opportunities of UP for just another hour of blah blah blah in the evening.
With Steve’s first-hand knowledge of Jersey, he really is an example of “timing is everything”.
TAPX486
@Amir Khalid: ‘Pay to Play’ politics probably goes back to the time of the cave man so most folks are willing to accept a certain amount of that and look the other way. Tying it to Sandy relief on the other hand puts it in a different category sort of like stealing milk from a baby and then kicking the baby on the way out the door. It’s the hurricane aspect that makes it look so bad
Mike E
@WaterGirl: That’s corollarious! I’m sure Hayes is doing quite well in his primetime slot, and holds no grudges toward anyone. Whatever transition he had to face, he’s now firing on all cylinders. Show a little love for someone who is firmly on the good side, whydonchez…
WaterGirl
@Mike E: “Whatever transition he had to face, he’s now firing on all cylinders.”
That’s good to hear. I was crazy about Chris Hayes, and thrilled when they gave him UP. I stuck with him as long as I felt I could in the new evening time slot, but he just seemed to be going in the wrong direction.
Thanks for encouraging me to give him another try.
rikyrah
Columbus has 17 charter school failures in one year
Schools closing at alarming rate, costing taxpayers and disrupting the lives of hundreds of students
By Jennifer Smith Richards and Bill Bush Sunday January 12, 2014 8:44 AM
At the beginning of 2013, one long-struggling charter school closed. Over the summer, five more did. And in the fall, 11 more Columbus charters closed their doors, most of them brand new.
That’s 17 charter schools in Columbus closed in one year, which records show is unprecedented.
“It shows the power of a couple of players with standards that are not up to par really affecting an overall market,” said Chad Aldis, a vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which sponsors 10 charter schools in Ohio, some in Columbus.
Nine of the 17 schools that closed in 2013 lasted only a few months this past fall. When they closed, more than 250 students had to find new schools. The state spent more than $1.6 million in taxpayer money to keep the nine schools open only from August through October or November.
But while 2013 was unusual, closings are not rare. A Dispatch analysis of state data found that 29 percent of Ohio’s charter schools have shut, dating to 1997 when the publicly funded but often privately run schools became legal in Ohio. Nearly 400 currently are operating, about 75 of them in Columbus.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/01/12/charter-failure.html
low-tech cyclist
The weather is here and I wish you were beautiful!
My favorite Buffett song. Makes me want to be on my third drink at a Caribbean beach bar in the late afternoon.