Some of y’all give me crap about living in a backward hellhole like Florida. Well, were you able to pluck a Cherokee Purple tomato off your vine last night and have it for dinner with a little salt, pepper and mayo on multigrain bread?
I thought not.
But seriously, I live here because I was born here, as were my father and grandfather and his father, and my family and friends are here. Plus, the mister, an Upstate New Yorker, couldn’t be dragged out of Florida, not even by the Budweiser Clydesdales.
He joined the Air Force right out of high school, and his hitch included stints in Mississippi and a tour of Europe, where he provided background cocktail party music at fancy NATO shindigs as a pianist in the Air Force band.
He didn’t join the Air Force to play music. He’d hoped to learn about electronics or something practical. But someone heard him at the keyboard in the rec hall and drafted him into the band.
When his tour was up and the Air Force deposited him back in Buffalo in the dead of winter, he said to himself, “What was that Air Force base with all the palm trees? I’m going back there.” And he did.
Otherwise, I’d be gone like a shot to somewhere saner. Canada seems much less crazy, and during the peak madness of the Bush years, we did consider it. But we knew in our hearts we wouldn’t be able to stand the weather.
Why is it that the cold countries seem to be the sanest ones? Does the seasonal indoor confinement inspire ruminations on good government? But many of the northernmost US states are bugshit crazy too. It must be the guns and the white supremacy.
Others pointed out yesterday the difference in how the Canadian and American media handled breaking news of the shootings at Canada’s Parliament. It now looks like the shooter was an ISIS-inspired jihadi wannabe like the other Canadian-born convert who ran over a pair of soldiers earlier in the week.
Also this week, a trio of American girls were nabbed en route to join ISIS boyfriends in Syria, whom they’d met on social media. These kids today, with their hyper-modest clothing, murders, beheadings and forbidding of music! I don’t know what the world’s coming to.
It’s tempting to see a larger trend at work here, and Fox News hosts, the future-Reverend Erickson and other dishonest media yappers are running with that theory because they’re hateful pustules on the butt of humanity and/or need boogeymen under the bed for ratings.
But maybe it’s just that people are weird and inexplicable. Serial killers inspire scads of marriage proposals and online fan clubs. People are strange.
Individually, that’s a fact. But we know what crazy on a massive scale looks like and how dangerous it can be. We saw it in the US after 9/11, and history is laden with even more horrifying examples. The trick is to spot the tipping point, and to try to stop it if we can.
It’s also helpful to remember that even genocidal monsters build movements on grievances that contain a kernel of truth. The Nazis were psychopaths, but they probably wouldn’t have been able to persuade an entire country to join their mad scheme without the Treaty of Versailles (or at least German perceptions of its unfairness, depending on which historian you believe).
If you buy into the theory pimped by the future-Reverend Eponymous Eponymouson and label ISIS and jihad under any flag as the New Nazis (as opposed to Neo-Nazis, who are mostly hate-filled Christians), perhaps you can identify their Treaty of Versailles, which seems to be Western occupation of Muslim countries and historical influence over corrupt Middle East governments.
Would an acknowledgement of that injustice, a complete withdrawal of forces and cessation of political meddling and courtesy bombing short-circuit the proliferation of crazies? We’ll never know because it’s not going to happen: It would be Giving In to Terrorists. But it’s an interesting thought experiment.
catclub
I’m PopEye the Say-lor Man.
Stella Rondo
Great writing.
MattF
A modest proposal (and a wee bit of revisionist history):
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/reagan-aide-calls-for-southern-secession
I do wonder why Alabama was left out of the new Confederacy. Too many you-know-whats, probly.
big ole hound
Right-on Betty. Rain is better than snow, warm better than cold, sane better than crazy, honest better than corrupt and calm better than fear. So I guess sane people live in rainy warm honest calm places. Where is that island? Some Juicer must know.
Jerzy Russian
We have nice weather here in southern California. The humidity is lower here also too.
danielx
I keep searching for faint rays of hope/light, and mostly failing. One glimmer of sense in a sea of madness found in Our Lives Are Hell, current Esquire. If there is one item of bipartisan agreement in the US Congress, it’s that Ted Cruz is a complete doucherocket/fuckwit.
Wag
Here in Colorado I’ve been picking ripe green zebra tomatoes, including this morning. And I’m looking forward to snow in the next coup of weeks.
JPL
The girls must have had passports and the money necessary to plan their expedition. Does any one find that unusual?
Cervantes
Mayo? Really?
beth
I spent a few hours this morning in the car repair waiting room watching the idiots on CNN desperately trying to get the Canadians they were interviewing to freak out over ISIS/jihad/terror attacks. The Canadians were surprisingly calm about it all. I wish we could do the same.
catclub
@MattF:
Like a redwood is a wee bit of a tree.
Gin & Tonic
@JPL: My children had passports of their own from the age of about 12.
beth
@JPL: My kid had a passport at a young age. I think they changed the rules since I was a kid and they have to have them now for travel that requires them. She also started working at age 14 (babysitting – $10 an hour off the books) and had quite a bank balance by age 17.
JPL
@Gin & Tonic: Did they have the means to buy tickets to Turkey? I assume that they used a parents credit card, but I still find it unusual.
Beth answered my question.
bemused
otoh, living in far north snow country has advantages. The deep freeze cold means we don’t have poisonous snakes, spiders, alligators or cockroaches among other critters that can kill you. No hurricanes and tornadoes aren’t that common. Also too, this kind of weather does keep out a lot of human riff raff. Still, more than 3 months of summer would be lovely.
scav
Putie-Pute bare-chesty-brute might pose a bit of an exception to your Look North! for Sanity! postulate. And that nation covers a vast number of time zones and digs into history to drive it’s point through its own temple. Then there’s the thrillas of wasilla. Must be something extra in the poutine and the gimli goose.
MattF
I’ll have a cafe au Hitler, danke:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/world/europe/swiss-company-apologizes-for-hitler-coffee-cream-containers.html?ref=world
aimai
@JPL: Yeah, my daughters both have passports and someone could easily arrange tickets for them. They wouldn’t have to have the money. If they look young enough then someone goes with them and acts as chaperone and no one thinks tiwce about it. If they look old enough they can just go on their own.
The thing is that young men and women have been going off and doing crazy things since forever–anyone remember The Children’s Crusade? The wiki says it is now thought to be either apocryphal or based on wandering bands of “the poor” not necessarily children but I have always believed it to be more or less true. At any rate both boys and girls have always left home for adventure–the boys for war and brigandage (even or especially if they don’t know what that is like) and the girls to marry into adventure by following the image or idea of a heroic spouse. (And that doesn’t include the women who threw themselves into wars/adventures in their own right by dressing as men and fighting as soldiers themselves).
beth
@JPL: It is still weird because my daughter had to have an adult as co-owner of her bank account and ATM card until she was 18 so I knew whenever she spent or withdrew money. So some adult should have known they bought plane tickets unless they were 18 and adults.
raven
Back inn the 70’s the Air Force band did tv commercials. Their vocalist was incredible but, as they say, video killed the radio star.
Botsplainer
@Cervantes:
Fuckin’ A mayo, none of that Miracle Whip sludge.
kindness
Here in California I’m still picking my tomatoes. I’ll give you that the green ones still on the vine aren’t likely to ripen at this point. No more 90 degree days and I am thankful for that.
Roger Moore
@Jerzy Russian:
And the residents are generally saner*.
*With notably rare exceptions.
moderateindy
Once you can see the tipping point, it’s all but over.
elmo
I miss living in snow country. Snow starting in September and lasting into June, with occasional inches in July and August. It’s hard work, and you can’t have fresh tomatoes without a greenhouse (and good luck keeping a greenhouse intact in an eight-foot snowstorm), but damn if it isn’t beautiful and thrilling and fun.
And I don’t even ski.
schrodinger's cat
The best thing about living in a colder climate, no cockroaches. All your brooms would be still intact!
Roger Moore
@JPL:
I don’t find it that unusual. I got a passport when I was 16, and I can easily imagine kids from families that liked to take international vacations having them at those kids’ ages. And kids who desperately want to do things have been known to resort to crazy strategies to get the money, like stealing their parents’ credit cards. I find the overall scenario perfectly believable.
schrodinger's cat
@Roger Moore: What about the drought, though? Have you guys had any rain, lately?
Roger Moore
@beth:
You’re assuming they lacked accomplices.
Just One More Canuck
@big ole hound: Vancouver Island comes pretty close – not that warm, but not much snow and great summers
plus the odd cougar (four-legged types) come down into the city to freak everyone out
Bobby B.
Mayonnaise. You people.
John Richards
I didn’t have a Cherokee Purple tomato last night but there are still 2 green ones on the vine. Lots of ripe tomato cherry tomatoes on the vine, too. Of course, I live in the backward hellhole of South Carolina–born and bred here–so I don’t really have an advantage over you.
Betty Cracker
@Botsplainer: Amen. I keep a small jar of Miracle Whip in the fridge for my mother-in-law, but if I didn’t adore her, I wouldn’t allow it under my roof. Vile, disgusting stuff.
burnspbesq
Another round of oral argument yesterday in the D.C. Circuit in al-Bahlul, the case that could fatally undercut the military commission system and indirectly lead ultimately to the closure of Guantanamo.
http://www.scotusblog.com/2014/10/appeals-court-ponders-future-of-war-crimes-trials/#more-220006
Fingers crossed, hoping for the best.
MattF
@schrodinger’s cat: Maybe not:
http://news.sky.com/story/1179833/cockroach-which-survives-cold-found-in-new-york
Roger Moore
@big ole hound:
Oahu?
burnspbesq
I love snow and cold. I especially love that it’s only a two-hour drive to where they have them, and i can put them in the rear-view mirror when I’ve had my fill.
maya
Meh. Tried those Cherokee purps last year. Not to my liking. No flavor a-tol and too mushyl. However, Valley Girl (org) were delicious and used those seeds for this year’s crop. A little french bread, dosed with olive oil and garlic, covered with fresh cut basil, slice of VG, dash salt & pepper , topped with mozzarella and placed in broiler for a few minutes. There is a Dog!
I fully expected a video linkup to Joan Baez after that line. and all the bells were ringing
Amir Khalid
Just what is the big fuss over Renee Zellweger’s face about? She looks leaner and a bit tanned, and she’s still plenty hot at 45, but the TMZs of this world are going on like she suddenly turned into Keith Richards.
shelley
@aimai: My favorite story of the Crusades…
The effect that the preaching of the First Crusade had on people cannot be overly emphasised. …….. A small glimpse of this can be seen when reading accounts of events at this time, some of which even describe a divinely blessed goose who almost led a crusading venture.
PurpleGirl
@bemused: How do you explain the crazies in Alaska?
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
Hollywood stars are expected not to age. She’s supposed to have plastic surgery to maintain her youthful good looks until it’s creepy.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: Next time try a little bit of butter and some cilantro and green chilli chutney with your tomato sandwich.
@MattF: Eewww. Much more gross than the imitation ladybugs currently infesting my window sills.
schrodinger's cat
@Roger Moore: I did not recognize her. Plastic surgery done right should be like expertly applied makeup, should be subtly enhancing and barely noticeable. If you look like a clown, with too much product on your face, you are doing it wrong.
Another Holocene Human
Maybe the US has done so many horrible things for so many horrible years that it’s really not that challenging to feed a child and a graduate of the US Propaganda System a story that is truthy enough to convince them to leave everything behind and become a “freedom fighter”?
p.a.
Would that stop the Salafists from treating their female half of the population like farm animals? Might just strengthen their societies no matter what kind of gvt they have. Maybe try not ramming their religion down everyone’s throats when they actually win democratic elections. (Admitted: we’re still fighting these fights here too, but not close to their level.)
beth
@Roger Moore: I don’t really care whether someone’s had surgery or not and think it’s a shame actresses have to do that BUT if I didn’t know who it was in those pictures I never would have guessed it was her. It’s just weird -it’s not like good or bad surgery, it’s like she got a face transplant.
StringOnAStick
Well, last night one of the leading Denver news channels led with a video from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas; I about fell out of my chair I was so pissed off. I had heard that he’d been sited around here lately, probably because they really think they are going to pick off Sen. Udall and install TP crazy Gardener (sadly, the polling looks like they will right now). Colorado went to all mail-in ballots this year, along with same day registration, so obviously the rethugs are all on the “VOTER FRAUD, SKREE!” mode over it. The news did go to a county clerk who showed how each signature on a ballot is confirmed before the ballot is counted, but O’Keefe got his message out and the rethug shitweasel who is the Secretary of State (and up for re-election) got in a few “oh scary, the vote isn’t safe” licks in his turn on camera.
Here is the email I sent to that station just a moment ago:
Fuckers.
Another Holocene Human
@aimai: Wikipedia has been edited. By Catholics. Very determined Catholics. So anything touching on Catholicism, particularly if it’s embarrassing will have little to do with scholarly consensus and more to do with what Father Ted and the Knights of Columbus wish were so.
The Children’s Crusade I don’t think actually made it out of Europe but it was a real thing because it lead to real political blowback. I don’t think any historian characterizes it as a mass youth mobilization, I mean that’s not what happened … but as I recall, a lot of people were harmed.
Amir Khalid
@burnspbesq:
Is there a distinction to be made here between the detention camp and the naval base, which has been around since the early 20th century?
the Conster
@beth:
Exactly – whatever the configuration of her eyes and cheeks that read “Renee Zellweger” has been altered just enough so that it doesn’t read “Renee Zellweger” anymore. Same thing happened to Jennifer Grey when she did her nose. She became unrecognizable overnight. Not freakish, just completely altered in appearance.
StringOnAStick
Hello? I just submitted a comment about how James O’Keefe and his Project Veritas got a video run on the local Denver news as the headline story last night; did it disappear forever?
Villago Delenda Est
@big ole hound: It’s called “Oregon and Washington west of the Cascades.”
kindness
Tired of all the idiots and assholes out there? Here’s a very cute clip of a man trying to give two panda cubs some medicine that is well worth the 60 seconds it runs.
Gin & Tonic
@schrodinger’s cat: Cilantro is disgusting.
rlrr
@MattF:
They should call the new country the Republic of Gilead…
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
Duncan Hunter, Dana Rohrabacher, Darrel Issa….we’re looking at you, assholes.
Joey Maloney
@big ole hound: It’s called Hawaii. Democratic politics (with impurities, but our Rs can’t get too batshit; even with the JWs and LDS presence, the numbers are against the really bad craziness), multiracial white-minority demographics, and moderate tax rates supported by the tourist trade.
And even if you don’t like tropical climate, Hawaii’s still for you. The Big Island has every type of climate regime in the world except for arctic tundra. Seriously, most of North Kohala looks more like Montana than anything else.
Another Holocene Human
@burnspbesq: That would be great, but look who sits on SCOTUS. I don’t think we’re the right ones.
This is the land where people dedicate their whole lives to move the needle an inch, and then you lose it all at the next xenophobic outbreak.
Am I bitter? Well, bullshit won yesterday in something I’m involved in, time to take a cue from Barack Obama and start community organizing.
Suzanne
@Amir Khalid: I think she looked good then and she looks good now. She just looks so different. I needed to be convinced that the before and after pictures were the same person. I am freaked out by facial plastic surgery, though. But if she’s happy with how she looks, good on her. Being a woman can be hard, and I’m sure being in the public eye makes it harder. If she feels stronger emotionally having had the work done, then that’s awesome.
I too fantasize moving out of this hot hellhole. But moving Spawn the Elder away from her dad, and away from a house/lifestyle that we can afford is difficult to justify. Plus Mr. Suzanne and I both have good jobs. Sigh.
Villago Delenda Est
@rlrr: or Saudi Arabia in the New World.
The Moar You Know
@MattF: Take their nukes and close their AMERICAN military bases and I’m more than happy to have this happen.
We can grant the survivors “commonwealth” status, like Puerto Rico, in about twenty/thirty years. But never statehood with full privileges again. That was the mistake made last time.
Cervantes
Surely there’s a third thing, as plain as plain can be,
No need for us to squint or frown, just take a look and we
Shall find it is not tough to grasp, no Talmudic mystery:
The sooner we stop funding hate the less hate we shall see.
Another Holocene Human
@p.a.:
This is the whirlwind we (through the CIA) sowed.
I think Barack Obama has been trying to back away slowly. But obviously this situation with IS got out of hand and the Iraqi gov’t asked us for help. You’ll noticed BO spent a lot of time getting local players involved. I think he is well aware of how US presence radicalizes and strengthens the hand of firebugs like IS.
There’s another factor here too, which is that Saudi Arabia, our good buddy, has been not so covertly bankrolling IS (even though they made open threats to smash up Mecca, which is SA’s local cash cow you know, aside from that oil business) and Bashir Al-Assad has been accused of purposely going after the most moderate rebels and leaving IS alone to strengthen IS’ hand in order to corral Syrians to the government’s side. He is a disgusting human being.
It’s really unfair to just typify the residents of these various countries as being just stupid violent jihadis when you have serious international interference going on.
On The Other Hand, to go all Kevin Drum here, did you know ME countries (includ. Iran) were some of the last to ban leaded gasoline? Hermmmmmmm????
schrodinger's cat
@Gin & Tonic: Not in the green chutney, you blend it along with some a couple of Thai hot peppers and some lime juice and ginger, you can also add fresh grated coconut and blend it all together along with some salt and a tsp of sugar. You can also throw in some mint in addition to or in place of the cilantro.
I have seen some people put cilantro on a sandwich, like they would lettuce, that is gross.
ETA: It also tastes completely different, when it is cooked. Cilantro+Chilies+Ginger+Garlic makes a great basic sauce for the likes of chicken, shrimp etc.
The Moar You Know
@Joey Maloney: The Big Island is beyond describable. Went for the first time in 2012. If I were still single I’d already have moved there. Sadly, my wife is attached to her yearly trips to NYC and has flat out said we’re not moving there.
/heartbroken
Another Holocene Human
@Gin & Tonic: all the more for me
Gin & Tonic
@schrodinger’s cat: Everything sounds good until the “throw in some cilantro” part, unless the next step is “throw the whole mess in the trash.” Cilantro makes anything you put it in inedible. That’s a scientific fact.
schrodinger's cat
@Another Holocene Human: If Bush was logical about his fight them there business, shouldn’t he have attacked Saudi Arabia instead of Iraq?
Another Holocene Human
@The Moar You Know: You realize they’re suggesting this right as the non-white population has gained enough clout to possibly win (assuming they didn’t shred too many eligible voters’ registrations in GA) to win elections in these states and the white supremacist rule is going to have to revamp, regroup, give back …
They want to secede so they can rewrite voting rules and regain power to maintain the Southern apartheid state.
And if they don’t want Alabama it’s because nobody wants Alabama, fully owned subsidiary of Georgia-Pacific and the Gulf (that’s Gulf of Mexico to you) oil producers.
JCJ
@JPL:
My daughter had a passport before she was two – she went with my wife to visit her grandparents in Thailand.
schrodinger's cat
@Gin & Tonic: You can leave out the cilantro if you wish and use mint instead.
Another Holocene Human
@schrodinger’s cat: Bush was logical about stuffing his pockets with everything he could grab, and so are the Saudi sheiks, and there was no angle on stabbing them in the back when the war grift was so frigging lucrative to his family and the Cheneys….
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Mayonnaise is fat and cholesterol, and not in a good way.
Heaven only knows what “Miracle Whip” is — I’ve never touched it.
Linnaeus
Winters here in the Northwest are mild enough that I consider it to be spring about nine months of the year and summer the other three.
That said, I grew up in a cold winter state, and I could do it again. Don’t love cold winters, but I don’t hate them either. I consider it an acceptable cost.
burnspbesq
@Amir Khalid:
Probably. It’s unlikely that we will give the property back to Cuba while it is run by a Marxist government, but we could be forced to close the detention center and treat the detainees as either criminal suspects or prisoners of war, as they should have been from the beginning.
Actually, it’s now coming to light that the construction of the detention center was so rushed and slipshod that the place may have to be closed because it becomes uninhabitable. Wouldnt that be a hoot?
gvg
I could not survive the cold of most places in the country. Florida fits me. My Grandfather from Massachusetts was stationed down here before WWII and moved back for the warmth right after the war was over. I have visited California in summer and was too cold. This is home. It didn’t seem that insane either until Jeb and his type seemed to take over. Apparently the Democratic party had some sort of competence die out which became visible when Lawton Chiles died. My younger sister had some elementary school teachers who were mean with religion but I didn’t have anything like that. She was 11 years younger so maybe it was creeping in but I didn’t hear much mention of the subject in all my years in public school. I really don’t know where all the lunatics came from. They didn’t seem to be here when I was growing up.
dance around in your bones
@JPL:
My daughter had a passport at the age of one month (she was born in Amsterdam) – you can see my finger in her passport photo holding up her chin. LOL
SatanicPanic
@JPL: Unusual in the sense that what non-drug dealer has $2000 sitting around the house?
burnspbesq
@SatanicPanic:
I have $1000 in my earthquake bag, right between the Mophie JuicePack and the Clif Bars.
SatanicPanic
@Gin & Tonic: You’re dead to me
Betty Cracker
@p.a.:
No, it wouldn’t, and to make it perfectly clear, I hate those motherfuckers with the white hot heat of 20,000 exploding supernovas and am not in any way condoning what they do or excusing their vile ideology. I don’t shed a tear when one of them gets a drone up the poop-chute either, but I do worry about the implications of it. My point is that injustice is a nurturing soil for psychopathic ideologies.
schrodinger's cat
@burnspbesq: Right wing media and the MSM will lose their shit if that happens, which will make the Ebola hysteria seem like a walk in the park.
SatanicPanic
@burnspbesq: I rest my case ;)
StringOnAStick
Test.
JPL
@SatanicPanic: I didn’t mean that. I was just surprised that a fifteen, sixteen and seventeen year old were that resourceful.
burnspbesq
@schrodinger’s cat:
You promise?
schrodinger's cat
@StringOnAStick: You get an A.
EthylEster
@schrodinger’s cat:
Please…when I lived in NYC and Minneapolis there were tons of roached…no palmetto bugs but still plenty of disgusting roaches….the small ones.
Betty Cracker
@Cervantes: I generally make my own mayo using olive oil, seasonings and the eggs from my own personal hens. It’s perfectly healthy, I assure you, not that bad fat and cholesterol ever stopped me from eating something.
StringOnAStick
Huh. That one worked.
Well anyway, I attempted to post a comment twice and nothing happened. My comment was about how a major Denver news channel’s headline story last night was a video from our old buddy James O’Keefe and his Project Veritas, with the target being voter fraud now that CO has an all mail-in ballot system. The email I sent to that channel this morning was blistering and hopefully informative on what a political hit man that guy is.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: Exactly, fat free usually means taste free.
StringOnAStick
@schrodinger’s cat: Well, it just did it again, as in “didn’t post my comment”. Could it be that mentioning J*a*m*e*s O*’K*eef*e and his PV group is the trigger? That bastard was the lead story last night on the local news, his group yelling V0ter Fraud because we have all mail-in ballots this year in Colorado. My email to that station was blistering and hopefully educational since I included links to his personal history.
Another Holocene Human
The problem with “Our Lives Are Hell” and Patrick Leahy’s old-timey nostalgia is that whites dominated both parties back then and, crucially, authoritarian factions in each party were quite present but not, not utterly in charge.
What’s going on now is that we’ve split into white supremacist and non-supremacist factions, into a super-authoritarian-circular-firing-squad party and a quasi-liberal mishmash party, with its share of left-authoritarians and politically moderate authoritarians along with a whole lotta not-authoritarians who never the less end up having to take the reaction-position against the authoritarian party that refuses to behave not-sociopathicly.
The gerrymandering issue is not just perception (I think social media and the MSM cycle’s influence are more perception than reality). The parties are using computer aids to scientifically gerrymander and it is much worse than it used to be as a result. Unfortunately, few states have nonpartisan commissions tasked with creating competitive districts.
Ultimately if “we” ever found the Lost Moderate again, they would be I’s and D’s because the R’s don’t have room in their tent for moderates any more. And who are they anyway but whites who think that civil rights and income redistribution need to happen more slowly? When it has just come out that even the top 10% but for the top 1% have lost ground also in the last 15 years, how does a “less equality, less quickly” message sell to even the educated, middle class suburban Volvo-driver who used to reliably send moderates to Congress?
They’ve either clued in that they are the 99% or they are engaging in fantasy-revenge porn and voting for Ted Yoho or Jeff fucking Flake.
Betty Cracker
@gvg: I agree about the weather; I also froze my ass off in July in California. The part of Florida I grew up in was chock-full of loonies all along, but they used to be balanced by the coastal cities. You’re right about the organizational / competency gap on the Dem side since Chiles. I think that, and the influx of yahoos from up North in places like The Villages, at least partially explains why horrid Rick Scott was ever elected in the first place and might [[[shudder]]] be reelected (FSM forbid it, please!). Don’t forget to vote!
StringOnAStick
OK, too nice a day to stay at the PC; I’m headed out with my SUP board for one of the very last days of warm weather around here.
dance around in your bones
I grew up in ABQ, New Mexico, and then spent much of my adult life in San Diego (between trips to exotic places which I won’t bore y’all about).
I spent one winter on The East Coast – it happened to be the winter that had something like 13 consecutive snowstorms and it was just awful. Try snow-shoveling your car out of thye driveway after the snow plows have been by, and the snow is OVER the top of your car. Fuck that shit.
Plus, I still remember being in the room with the French doors and listening to branches breaking off trees (heavy with ice) and sliding down the hill. I was sure one of those branches would come crashing through the glass panes on the French doors.
Now – as far as Canadians? My best friend in the whole world is Canadian, and she is coming to vist me next week in Santa Barbara. Even SHE gets sick of the cold weather and snow. We have talked a few times about getting ‘gay married’ so that we can spend summers in Vancouver and winters in Santa Barbara. (Sorry if the term ‘gay married ‘ offends – I don’t mean it to).
We used to joke years ago about how we would be old ladies sitting in our rocking chairs on the porch, and laughing about old times. Since my husband died 3 years ago this seems more and more likely. She is my heart sister, and I DO love her very much.
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: One of my favorite things to do is walk down to the beach in June and watch the freezing, huddled tourists cry under the overcast sky.
When that overcast clears out in September, there’s few places nicer – at least between September and early January.
Amir Khalid
@burnspbesq:
As I recall, the idea behind military tribunals (indeed, the whole idea behind keeping detainees at Guantanamo) was precisely to deprive the detainees of the protections available to either criminal suspects or prisoners of war.
Also, I’ve read the stories about the shoddily built US bases in Iraq. I find the same news about Guantanamo disappointing; one expects better of the famously capable US military (he said with a straight face). But given whose administration oversaw the whole thing, it’s no surprise.
wuzzat
OT Ebola update:
Cole’s least favorite Ebola patient may be clear of the virus.
Also, Nina Pham’s condition has improved to “Good” and her dog tested negative.
Another Holocene Human
I also like how in the article they talk about the extremist GOP PACs that whip up the base into a frenzy and then blithely state “both sides do it” even though they can’t name a single one.
Please show me the dishonest PAC whipping up Democratic voters into a frenzy over week to week made-up bullshit?
Sure, there are lobbying groups that work on legislation and then ragequit when the corporate masters come in and rewrite it into crap but I mean, they’re supposed to tell their members when the “save the trees” bill turns into the “save the paper companies, fuck the environment” bill.
What Heritage and FreedomWorks do is constantly move the goalposts because a) they raise money based on fear and b) their base is easily led and apparently has no long term memory.
When your core principle is fear and me me me your political positions can shift by the hour. When your core principles are stuff like clean water and air, good public education, social equality and civil rights, and good government, that shit doesn’t change constantly. You might change tactics or change your mind about what might be effective but you’re not careening around like an out of control top “Friend! Foe! Friend! Foe! Friend! Foe!”
Cervantes
@schrodinger’s cat:
You know, there’s a whole lot of ground between “fat free” and 80-85% fat.
In any event, bon appétit!
Another Holocene Human
And there are liberal groups that attempt to fundraise through fearmongering. Not only do Dem voters have contempt for these groups but I have yet to see where they can control an election. No, not even on guns. The anti-gun groups are not astro-turfing, they’re real people, and they don’t have an ounce of political power, outside a few urban areas, mostly in the Northeast, where gun control regulations are politically popular.
I mean it’s really the perfect comparison, as the NRA engages in a continual rewriting of their position and rewriting of history, escalating demands and upping the stakes of their definition of purity. Going increasingly extremist has yet to be punished by the GOP rank and file.
Good luck finding a majority of D voters to support ALF. Heck, I’d wager most Democrats who have any idea what PETAs been up to in the last 20 years are probably done with them, too. They don’t seem super popular where I hang out. It’s mostly, “They had a few good ideas … once.”
jibeaux
I need Puerto Rico to develop a craft beer industry over the next couple of decades so I can retire there. My waistline isn’t going to handle all pina coladas all the time.
Villago Delenda Est
@Another Holocene Human:
This is the Village we’re talking about, here. They’re vermin.
Wipe them out. All of them.
p.a.
@Betty Cracker: Agreed. A small point but always pisses me off when only Islam is tarred with anti-Semitism for threatening Israel when (and I know Zionism/the desire for a Jewish homeland predates WWII) the state of Israel was formed because of Christian nations’ genocide during the war. (I don’t know much about Muslim/Jewish interaction pre-WWII, but I can’t imagine it was worse than what happened in xtian Europe over 2 milennia.)
Brendan in NC
@Cervantes: yup! That too!
schrodinger's cat
@Cervantes: Agreed, a touch of fat is all that is necessary! I am not a fan of greasy food, either.
ETA: I think it is a fool’s errand to make things like ice-cream low fat or fat free. It is better to eat one scoop of full fat ice-cream than two scoops of the low-fat type which is not satisfying at all. More calories and more sugar.
Another Holocene Human
@dance around in your bones: Shit, I’d get gay-married for summers in Vancouver.
schrodinger's cat
@wuzzat: I thought that was the Winston woman, who flew commercial inspite of having a fever.
Linnaeus
@Betty Cracker:
There is a flip side to whole weather thing, though. I have friends in the Southwest who, every winter, say things like, “don’t you wish you could be here when it’s 70 in January?” Sure, but then it’s 100 fucking 10 in the summer. Naw, you can have that.*
*”Oh, but it’s not so bad with air conditioning.” I’ll still pass.
Another Holocene Human
@p.a.: There was a huge population of Middle Eastern Jews who had to flee their homelands during the 20th century.
While Ottoman attitudes towards Jews were somewhat condescending, they were able to live peacefully in Muslim lands while Western Europe bought a clue really late (Napoleon’s armies opened the ghettos) and grudgingly (the 19th century Popes were furious about Napoleon’s armies opening the ghettos) and then you have the Tsarist government in an increasingly precarious position deciding to go full retard and sic gentiles upon Jews in the Eastern European countryside. The pogroms drove millions of people westward and, unfortunately, sparked a lot of reactionary anti-immigrant animus in Western and Central Europe. But who knows without WWI happening if the reactionary dipshits would have been able to carry the pogrom to end all pogroms? I don’t know. Ignore reactionary fascist movements at your peril.
I don’t know if this is still true but back in the 80s and 90s travelers used to say that you could buy copies of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” that janky late 19th century Tsarist propaganda hatchet piece, easily on the street, translated into Arabic, in Egypt and the Middle East.
schrodinger's cat
@Linnaeus: I hate humidity more than the heat.
Trollhattan
@Linnaeus:
My theory is that too much heat eventually makes you nuts and/or stupid, not necessarily in that order. The entire Phoenix metroplex is basically unlivable during daylight from May to about now. Ugh. Nice in December, though.
Glidwrith
@Betty Cracker: Give, give, give recipe! Pretty please?
Linda
Well, I just ate a perfectly ripe couple of Green Zebras this week, so Toledo is still a pretty good place. Even if my furnace is going great guns.
JPL
Wahoo, it finally warmed up to 63. It was 45 when I woke this morning.
Penn
My theory is that in cold climes people without help will just die. We in Canada understand that the poor and homeless need assistance just to survive while in warmer places they can just be forgotten.
You essentially can’t have a vast underclass of the desperately poor in cold climes, which I posit is why most cold countries lean socialist.
geg6
Trees in the yard that grow bottles of champagne, tins of caviar and Swiss chocolate and guaranteed monthly income of a million dollars for life couldn’t convince me to live in Florida. Sorry Betty. I’m sure you’d never want to live in Western PA, so it’s all good.
Betty Cracker
@Glidwrith: Here you go:
One large egg or two small eggs, room temp
One cup LIGHT olive oil or other type of oil
3 teaspoons of lemon juice or vinegar
Half a teaspoon of salt
OPTIONAL: minced garlic, herbs, Dijon, horseradish, etc.
Put all the ingredients in a canning jar and sink a stick blender all the way to the bottom. Turn the blender on and ~ v e r y s l o w l y ~ bring it up to the top, stopping before you completely remove the whirling blender and splatter mayonnaise all over your kitchen.
It’s so cool to watch the stick blender magically transform the separate ingredients into mayo — like alchemy! Some people — well, many people, actually — find olive oil too strong for mayo, even if they generally like olive oil and you use the light version. You can use another light-tasting oil if that’s you.
I’ve tried this with other types of blenders and in bowls rather than jars, and it just doesn’t work out, so make sure you use a stick blender and a narrow container like a jar.
geg6
@Wag:
I must admit, we picked the last of the hot and red peppers last week. And we still had a few straggling plum tomatoes. So once again, I’m thinking Western PA is still a vastly nicer place for me to live than Florida. Though Colorado does tempt me mightily.
dance around in your bones
@Another Holocene Human: I know!
Better yet, her primary home is in Whistler, B.C. I used to visit her there when Whistler was nothing more than a trailer/gas station. Now it’s ritzy-ditzy!
@Linnaeus: But it’s a DRY heat, LOL. I found the humidity on the East Coast in the summer far more unbearable.
Tom
I can second Cherokee Purple in New York for flavor. Purchased as a graft (tried it myself and failed) it is a stronger plant with better disease resistance.
For northerners, some markets offer a smaller, similarly colored, almost real tomato-flavored variety; one market name is Kumato, another is Brownato. Decent substitutes in Jan, Feb, Mar, etc.
geg6
@Tom:
Yep, we can get those here all the time. They aren’t bad. Not as good as the tomatoes we grow, but they will just fine for the winter months.
SWMBO
@Betty Cracker: 3 teaspoons of lemon juice or vinegar is one tablespoon. Unless you meant 3 tablespoons.
Roger Moore
@SatanicPanic:
I’ve had that much cash around the house before. Of course, I don’t have teenaged children who I might be worried about taking it. Of course there are other possibilities, like the kids grabbing other valuables and pawning them for the money they needed. And there’s always the possibility of accomplices who helped them out with the tickets.
Linnaeus
@Penn:
Funny you should say that. I was at a week long academic colloquium in Canada a few years back and one of the guest speakers was a political science professor. In the course of her talk, she said, kind of offhand, that she thought part of the reason Canadian policies are they way they are is because “in most parts of the country, during most of the year, you can’t sleep under the stars.”
@dance around in your bones:
Sure, humidity can be really uncomfortable. But once you’re into the triple digits, that’s just too much for me.
Glidwrith
@Betty Cracker: Sounds very yummy. I now also have an excuse to go find myself a stick blender. Thanks!
Roger Moore
@Another Holocene Human:
And in a lot of cases they got closed right up again when he got chased out. My maternal grandmother’s family moved from Furth to Baltimore in the 1830s and 1840s to get out of the Ghetto.
Roger Moore
@Trollhattan:
I suspect it’s more that intelligent, sane people who have options move away, leaving behind the crazy, stupid, and otherwise marginalized.
Betty Cracker
@SWMBO: Haha! I got there by trial and error (adding and subtracting stuff from a base recipe until I found one I liked) and never thought of converting the unit, but you’re right. Thanks!
dance around in your bones
@Linnaeus:
Yes, when you have to cover your steering wheel to keep from burning your hands, that’s pretty bad. But I remember in Tucson there were malls that had misters (spraying a fine mist of water) as you walked around the outside.
That said, pretty much in Arizona you went from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned mall, restaurant, wherever.
But – I HATE humidity! Have lived on the east coast a few times in my life, and I would FAR rather deal with the dry heat than the humidity. Just my personal opinion.
The “But it’s a DRY heat” is a common joke in the Southwest. I used to have a fridge magnet with a skeleton leaning against a saguaro with that slogan on the bottom. Ha!
Betty Cracker
@dance around in your bones: I camped out in Arizona once during the summer, and I molted like a lizard for days. I NEED the humidity! The camping was part of a cross-country road trip, and I didn’t feel human again until we crossed that mountain range in California and the sweet, sweet humidity was back in the air.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
The percentage of sane depends on your tipping point for insanity. I believe the crazy may be less rare than first glance would have you think. Maybe fewer completely bat shit but still plenty on the crazy side of the scale.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
I posted last night about how ice cream hits all four food groups and someone responded, Yes! dairy, fat, sugar, and yum. I like to eat healthy but I also enjoy food that has some taste to it. Can’t smell anymore so taste is all I have left.
Chris T.
@dance around in your bones: That’s true … and in Arizona, what comes off the GOP is a dry hate, so much more tolerable. :-)
StringOnAStick
@Linnaeus: I read Pierre Berton’s history of the Great Depression in Canada a few years ago. I suspect part of why Canada has a better social safety net now is because the one that existed in that time truly did let people freeze to death. Lots of them.
JR in WV
@Betty Cracker:
I used to keep hens, and made Mayo in a bowl with a wire whisk, no electricity needed.
But lots of wrist action!
Your recipe seems really good, though. It’s the yolks that help the oil go into suspension, it acts as a – I forget the word, emulsifier! to get the oil and the lemon juice to blend together – without it they would stay seperate, tasty but not mayo at all.
Linnaeus
@StringOnAStick:
Oh, sure. I know that…I was just relating an anecdote. Plus there was a little more context to it, but it would have been too long to go into.
PNW_WarriorWoman
Sinkholes (FL) vs. Volcanos (Washington State). I’ll take Volcanos for $500, Alex.