Okay, we don’t have to worry about deer, but those of us gardening in more built-up areas still have enemies. Per faithful commentor Schlemazel:
Here is a picture of our flower garden this year – there seems to be a big yellow invasive taking over.
The nice thing is we have gotten 8 gallons of cherries (pitted volume) from those two little trees.
***********
Apart from life’s little tragedies, what’s on the agenda for the day?
AnderJ
Just enjoying the new dawn of marriage equality
raven
That’s not a Deere it’s a Komatsu!
Botsplainer
Fuck. Daughter’s Greek dig experience just took a bad turn over the Grexit. Apparently, the banks are shut down and there’s no ready cash to pay the local laborers. Both her and her supervising professor have grave concerns about their transport to Athens to fly out on 7/5, because that’s when the decision is being made (not to mention the potential riots). PLUS, she needs some more euros (which always pisses me off), but may struggle to find a full ATM.
Fucking Germans.
mtiffany
Finally forgave Bill Clinton for DOMA and DATD – the path to justice is often by a winding and treacherous stair. And the nominating of the Notorious RBG was a plus in his column, too. But as happy as I am that all the governments that I pay taxes to are all finally going to have to acknowledge my equality, the victims of that terrorist attack in SC are still on my mind. Equality before the law doesn’t protect you from the right-wing hate machine and the violence it foments. And also Obergefell isn’t going to bring back Matthew Shepard, or Brandon Teena, or Nizah Morris or… or. There’s no justice for them today.
So as happy as I am, it’s still tempered by the knowledge that we lost too many getting here and we all still have so much further to go…
raven
Don’t look back, they might be gainin on ya.
Satchel Paige
Cervantes
@mtiffany:
DOMA was awful, and gratuitously so. He and everyone else who made it happen ought to be ashamed of it for the rest of their lives.
DADT, on the other hand, while being less than equality, was still the best that could have been achieved in the circumstances.
I feel the same way.
Baud
@Cervantes:
Agree. Clinton was the good guy on DADT.
Baud
@Botsplainer:
Keep us informed.
sparrow
@Botsplainer: Don’t panic yet. Referendum may well be called off (and will be, if the Europeans have any sense at all). Even if capital controls are in place on Monday, you should be able to get money enough to get around. You just can’t take out 50k to move out of the country.
My only concern (and this would be the case during “normal” times in Greece) is if she is planning to take a boat to Athens and fly out the same day — that’s never a good idea because anything from strikes to high winds can mess you up. But I assume she is getting into Athens well before 7/5. In that case, international flights will still be going on unless there is a war and they bomb the airport. Seriously. If she is very concerned, book a new hotel next to the airport and stay there the day before.
mtiffany
@Cervantes:
I wish I could be specific about the person and the show and the exact date, but right after Obama got the repeal of DADT a Clintonista (a former chief of staff?) was on Charlie Rose(I think?) and his defense of President Clinton regarding DOMA was that Gingrich and Barr were out to screw Clinton as retaliation for trying to “normalize” homosexuality through DADT and essentially told him to pick either a federal statute or a constitutional amendment, and Clinton didn’t want to risk amending the Constitution.
sparrow
I am a bit bummed myself about the situation in Greece, because there is no news outlet in English that is not somewhere between vehemently to mildly anti-Greek and anti-Syriza. As such it is very difficult to get real facts and not spin. But I do think the referendum is the only option they have at this point, because Syriza was elected on an anti-austerity platform, and this proposal (which is “take it our leave it”) will basically sign them up for more crushing austerity, more deflation of the GDP, and thus making the debt situation even worse. It merely prolongs the inevitable in a maximally painful way. Personally, I would vote to give them the finger but I don’t have the right. My partner doesn’t know what to vote yet, but thinks the greeks will cave and vote to accept the deal. I am very doubtful. I think the most likely outcome is that Europe caves and avoids the referendum.
Zinsky
Workout and a bike ride this morning. Practice with my band this afternoon, getting ready for our outdoor music party in August. Then, going to the musical Into the Woods at the community theater this evening with my beautiful wife and some old friends. Life is good. Peace to all – enjoy your life!
Baud
@mtiffany:
IIRC, even solid liberals like Paul Wellstone voted for DOMA. I think the fear of a constitutional amendment was real, for whatever that’s worth.
OzarkHillbilly
@mtiffany: I don’t see amending the constitution as being anything close to a viable threat. It was just Clinton triangulating.
mtiffany
@sparrow:
Really? I’ve always found the BBC is usually pretty decent when it comes to being (compared to US outlets) impartial.
bystander
@mtiffany: IIRC, Clinton even expressly stated that he did not agree with DOMA but knew Congress could override his veto. That override would be thanks to Dems in the House, like Chuck Schumer.
Just watching last night’s Rachel Maddow. Yesterday was one of a kind.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m amazed we didn’t get a constitutional amendment on flag burning. That came close a couple of times to getting out of Congress.
Anne Laurie
@OzarkHillbilly: And yet, after DADT, Jesse Helms could “warn” the President that “he’d better not come down to my state” for fear of assassination by outraged troops.
A few of us DFHs bitched about that, but we didn’t have social media in those days, and all the Very Serious People agreed that it just went to show that Clinton had been most unwise to “pander” to a bunch of whining fairies and their weak-sister lie-brul sympathizers…
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: For my money it was, “I want to get reelected.” Amending the Constitution is just too hard.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
It becomes easier if the Dems lose reelection.
mtiffany
@OzarkHillbilly: DOMA passed with overwhelming, veto-proof majorities, and the public in general was still pretty sour on Teh Gay. So whether or not 3/4 of the States ever got around to ratifying it, 87 Senators voted for DOMA, so they easily (probably) had the 67 necessary to send it out to the states. Besides, absent an explicit sunset provision in the text of the amendment, the things are immortal til they’re ratified (the 27th amendment took 202 years to get ratified in 1992) and I can totally see that rat-bastard Gingrich letting loose an amendment with no expiration date just to fuck with people he hates.
Baud
I like how nobody except the right is taking the conservative justices dissents seriously. They lost all credibility on the notion of judicial restraint by failing to exercise it themselves when they had the chance.
JPL
@Botsplainer: The Guardian is having a live update. It does appear that Merkel is taking the I got mine, fu approach. Please keep us informed.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: You think he was bad wait till his ol lady gets elected.
JPL
The last few weeks have been extremely warm and my day lilies leaves have browned. Can I cut them back?
Normally I wait but as I said they are ugly.
raven
@JPL: I wish the girl was awake, I’d ask her. She, her sis and niece went down to Athfest and I picked em up at 11 so she’s pretty tired.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Over the last 2 years an undeveloped lot next to us was scraped flat, excavated, and a huge house put up as close to ours as legally possible. The disruptions were many. A bunch of 60 year old trees were cut, workers trampled all over, noise all day, etc. But the new neighbors are nice.
Gardening: I just got back from (can’t remember where*) last night and need to at least mow the lawn this weekend. But it’s raining. Didn’t mow last weekend because I was in Dallas Sat/Sun. It’s a frikkin’ jungle. If I can’t tackle it tomorrow I’ll have to find someone to cut it and suffer the consequences of high ‘speed and few courtesies’ commercial mowing.
* Delta Airlines says Hartford CT. Sounds right.
mtiffany
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m not denying he triangulated everything. It’s just that now, since things worked out (for now), we have to admit that DADT and DOMA were both steps on that winding and treacherous path that got us here today. And the thing is, part of me has this uncomfortable feeling that the possibility of an amendment to reverse SCOTUS is actually more likely now, not less. Poutrage and wounded fee-fees being the mother’s milk of the wingnutariat.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Oh, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think triangulating is bad of and by itself, sometimes you do what you have to do. There is another word we use more often that means the same thing: Politics.
***(tho I do get tired of people afraid to lose an election)
mtiffany
@JPL: You can dead head them with a pinch just below the base of the flower but you have to wait ’til the stems dry out and then they’ll come out clean with a firm tug.
Woops. Sorry, misread. Thought you were talking about the spent blooms. I’ve never cut back browned leaves on day lilies. I just watered more and let nature take care of it.
Gimlet
@Baud:
All these cases they are so upset about were instigated by conservatives. “Hoist with their own petard”
Baud
@mtiffany:
No chance. The right wing doesn’t have and can’t get the numbers.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Maybe if our side would show up at the midterms, our pols could be more confident. If you’re in the House, you face any entirely different electorate every two years.
mtiffany
@Baud:
And part of the reason our side seems to only give a shit about the Presidential election years is because days like yesterday seem to help create a “don’t worry about bad laws passed by Krapublicans, the Supremes will eventually get around to fxing it,” mindset among our base.
And also, among my younger LGBTQ friends, according to their Facebook posts and Twitter feeds, some of them think ‘the war’ has been won and now there’s nothing to worry about any more, ever.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
DADT was the politics of the possible and IIRC happened early in his tenure. DOMA and the welfare “reform” where neither. WJC was a better President than either of his Republican opponents but that is a low bar. I hope in 2024 we will say “We should have elected HRC in ’92”
Ultraviolet Thunder
The issue is more useful now on the stump. GOP candidates can point to what degenerates Liberals are to wind up the elderly base. If they actually tried to reverse the decision legislatively they’d lose the few conservative youngs they have, who favor universal marriage by 60%.
OzarkHillbilly
@mtiffany:
Relax a little. Talk is cheap. I don’t think they could even get one out of the House with the necessary 2/3s. This is a done deal. People correlate this to the abortion debate but the 2 issues are so different from each other, night and day really.
There are other battles to be fought on the LGBT front. This one is over. Smile and enjoy it. I know my mother’s favorite “sister” is enjoying the moment. Been living with the same woman in Texas since the early 60s. Maxine hasn’t been doing so well of late, but hopefully her health is enough they can do this one small thing for each other.
Kathleen
@Botsplainer: Praying everything works out for her. And her worrying parents (I would be a basket case).
Schlemazel
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Find a farmer that needs the hay!
Construction is always a pain but at least we will just get a new road (my guess is with more traffic & speed) not a damn McMansion hovering over us so thats a plus for us.
mtiffany
@OzarkHillbilly:
Oh, I am smiling and enjoying. It’s all the proof I need that you can only win if you’re willing to stand up and fight. And it has helped me to even look forward to the next fight. But if you read what the wingnuts are saying about their ‘religious freedom,’ the next fight is going to come very soon, it’s going to be used as a wedge issue, and if we don’t call bullshit on it early and often, I can see it being the next “death panels” and “you won’t be able to see your doctor.”
Baud
@mtiffany:
People come up with all kinds of excuses for not supporting Democrats. Some reasons are more respectable than others.
Gimlet
USA Today
In Louisiana, Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell said in a statement that the Supreme Court’s decision had nothing requiring it to be effective immediately. Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal, who announced Wednesday that he is running for president, also said that the issue trampled on states’ rights and vowed that he would never stop fighting for religious liberty.
“As soon as the Supreme Court mandate issues, then it’s the law of the land. If a clerk refuses to issue a license to a same-sex couple, they’re subject to being sued for violation of that person’s civil rights.” Matt Steffey, law professor
“There is a delay. It’s usually around 20 to 25 days,” said Louise Bond, Ouachita Parish clerk of court. “We’ve been told not to issue anything until we hear back from our counsel on that.”
The foot-dragging meant that Louisiana was the only state Friday not to have issued a marriage-license to a same-sex couple.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
Exactly, GOTV. Still, some of them act as tho losing an election is worse than death. That’s how we got the Iraq war.
Gimlet
Texas AG Ken Paxton – “Religious Liberty”
“But no court, no law, no rule, and no words will change the simple truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Nothing will change the importance of a mother and a father to the raising of a child. And nothing will change our collective resolve that all Americans should be able to exercise their faith in their daily lives without infringement and harassment.
“We start by recognizing the primacy and importance of our first freedom – religious liberty. The truth is that the debate over the issue of marriage has increasingly devolved into personal and economic aggression against people of faith who have sought to live their lives consistent with their sincerely-held religious beliefs about marriage. In numerous incidents trumpeted and celebrated by a sympathetic media, progressives advocating the anti-traditional marriage agenda have used this issue to publicly mock, deride, and intimidate devout individuals for daring to believe differently than they do. This ruling will likely only embolden those who seek to punish people who take personal, moral stands based upon their conscience and the teachings of their religion.
“It is not acceptable that people of faith be exposed to such abuse. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects our religious liberty and shields people of faith from such persecution,
OzarkHillbilly
@mtiffany:
I have a simple reply that shuts them up every time:
Your religion does not trump my freedom.
Botsplainer
@sparrow:
Thank you – we’re on it, as much as we can be. We’ve been nagging her about cash, but I think it took the laborers walking off the dig due to the inability to issue pay because of the bank closure to drive it home (I’m assuming that bars and restaurants operating on a cash basis will be OK for this week, so she can eat). Our primary worries right now are potential transport interruptions on her Pilos-Kalamata-Athens leg. Wife has great Greek travel connections which could help if they’re willing to do special favors for future business, and I’m guessing that her prof has relationships with archaeological teams and authorities in Athens if they get stranded for a period.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gimlet:
Dear AG Paxton,
What in this decision forces people of faith to live their lives in a way that is inconsistent with their beliefs? Do you think people now HAVE to gay marry?
Botsplainer
Been thinking a bit about American Exceptionalism and how it is entangled in Lost Cause mythology. I kinda feel like it became the whitesplanation that excused all the sins of labor thieving, oppressive, entitled, lazy, pretentious planters and their sycophants (both past and present).
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Not sure how well that will actually play with lots of elderly people. My mom has the early stages of dementia, and has become a Fox bot, but she also has an out and proud grandson. The more mainstream and out gays have become over the years has resulted in her and others of her age range moderating their views as well. It’s easy to demonize a faceless “other”, not so easy when it’s your child or grandchildren.
Schlemazel
@Botsplainer: I think you are on to something there, hd notthought of that but they do fit.
@Gimlet: I gotta ask: is the nym a reference to the drink or to “Bored of the Rings”?
satby
@Botsplainer: Best wishes for an uneventful return for her. If they head for Athens early to be near the airport she should get out ok. Even if they don’t, but I’m sure the organizers of the dig are prepared to bail early if the need arises.
scav
They really do seem to be reducing the phrase and entire concept of “Religious Freedom” to Getting Everything My Way, and reflective of My Opinions, especially when My opinions trump others in a mean and limiting fashion, neener neener.
Oddly enough, the whining or non-whining status of the TX AG, let alone random mean people waving crossed sticks doesn’t change the law.
Gimlet
@Schlemazel:
The gimlet-eyed stare at all the foolishness around us.
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I had hoped to do some weed whacking in the dog yard today, but it’s been raining since last night. The pattern so far this year seems to be three days of intermittent rain for a single day of no rain. Everything is always damp. But on the bright side, no drought. Fungal disease, yes, drought no.
Germy Shoemangler
Quote of the day:
“Internet access is not a necessity or human right” -Michael O’Rielly, Republican FCC Commissioner
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
The issue of universal marriage with the elderly is far from clear cut. My mother is a Dem, yet opposes homosexuality because of her religion. Dad is a Republican but a social liberal who’s fine with universal marriage.
But the issue of rights for gays breaks broadly across generational lines within the GOP, with younger people (what few of them there are) generally favoring and the large older base statistically opposed.
Another case of the GOP pursuing a strategy to motivate the segment of their base that’s aging out at the expense of recruiting young new supporters.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
I’m fine with the rain. THursday at 5:30 am when my wife let the dog out he scared up a skunk and took a direct hit to the face. It stinks out there and I want the smell to be rinsed off before I go churning up the grass with a mower. Sunday is soon enough.
BTW: the cure for skunked dogs is peroxide/baking soda/shampoo. Works like a charm.
OzarkHillbilly
@Germy Shoemangler: Michael O’Rielly is not a necessity or human right. -OzarkHillbilly
debbie
A busy morning. I’ve been posting the Scalia Insult link from last night’s thread to all of my unfortunate GOP acquaintances’ FB pages. It’s oddly satisfying.
Germy Shoemangler
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s like saying a cell phone is not a necessity.
Maybe twenty five years ago… but try finding a pay phone nowadays if your car stalls out. One by one, they’ve been dismantled and removed like fucking trolley cars and tracks.
Back in 1977 I remember my car dying suddenly. I got out, walked half a block to a phone booth (containing a phone book) and called for a tow.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
true. Michael O’Rielly is a human, wrong.
Botsplainer
@satby:
Sadly, I suspect that the longer one is in academia and focused on narrow subjects, common sense life skills (like anticipating the consequences of economic crises in a country with 26% unemployment by having contingency plans in place, since you work there all the time) appear to atrophy. We’ve been surprised at the lack of foresight; from the start we’ve been decently proactive by keeping up, sending her with adequate cash and disposable jewelry. It helps that each of us have careers which require quick decision crisis fixits.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Not sure Sunday isn’t too soon. Might want to make up some more peroxide/baking soda/shampoo for yourself.
sparrow
@mtiffany: the Guardian is doing ok, but still injects arguments by the Europeans that are easily refuted with facts, like calling the greeks “stubborn” and “intransigent” when they have practically bent over backwards to compromise.
MomSense
A woman just climbed the flagpole in SC and took the loser flag down. Going back to read the article now.
Gimlet
Media Matters
O’REILLY (2003): Personally I couldn’t care less about gay marriage. If Tommy and Vinny or Joanie and Samantha want to get married, I don’t see it as a threat to me or anybody else. But according to a poll by the Pew Research Center, only 32 percent of Americans favor gay marriage. And the will of the people must be taken into account here.
We simply can’t allow this country to be run by ideological judges. Marriage is not a right, neither is driving a car. Both are privileges granted by the state.
If the good people of Massachusetts want a secular approach to marriage, let them vote on it. But judges have no right to find loopholes in the law and impose their views on everybody else. That’s happening all over America. And if it continues, the core values of this country will be changed dramatically.
O’REILLY (2005): You know, the Founding Fathers didn’t write anything into the Constitution about gay marriage. Because back then, if you were gay, they hung you.
O’Reilly (2015), the push for same-sex marriage is part of a broader secularist plot to marginalize Christianity
sparrow
@Botsplainer: I forgot to mention that I will most likely be in Athens on July 5th, so if your daughter runs into a totally crazy situation (like having no cash for a taxi or something), I would of course be happy to help out… but I wouldn’t worry yet. Here in Northern Greece things are running very normally, cards accepted, etc. I don’t know about the non-payments on the dig, but that seems like something that might have happened anyway, and they are using the crisis as an excuse — they could have had cash well before today (a Saturday when almost no banks are open). In any case, digs are paid by the Ministry of Education per my partner, so he finds that story very baffling.
I don’t mean to belittle your worries, I would worry too if it was a country I didn’t visit regularly and know very well, but Greece is a very, very safe place. There is no societal breakdown, or even transportation issues at present, nor do I expect any beyond what you can occasionally get in any southern European country (strikes, etc). The reason the dig organizers are not worried is because there is little cause to worry. If you are delayed a bit getting out, that is annoying, but not cause for panic. Any riots in Athens (I doubt very much there will be) are unlikely to be wide-spread — they are usually concentrated in a pretty small area, and focused on police and government. It’s not a convenient time, perhaps, but you should not worry one bit about your daughter getting home safely, if a little late. Contrary to media reports, Greece is not a third-world country.
sparrow
@Botsplainer: Also, please do not forward the trope that academics lack “common sense”… almost all academics travel internationally for collaborations and conferences, which makes them far more traveled than the average American (who does not even own a passport). Academia is not some cushy ivory tower as people portray it, it requires not only intelligence and training, but quite a bit of political and management skill. This idea that academics lack common sense gets trotted out to make people who feel intimidated by intellectuals feel better about themselves, but is completely untrue in my experience. If you threw me down in the middle of a random country, I’d way rather have a team of archeologists with me than a batch of “common-sense” soccer moms.
Sorry for the rant, it’s just annoying to have your competence in everyday matters called into question because of your choice of profession.
Cervantes
@Botsplainer:
Hilarious!
Be that as it may, here’s hoping your daughter rolls with the punches and comes out none the worse for wear.
xenos
Unless someone is going to the very center or Athens there is nothing to worry about. Taking a bus through the main bus station might be avoided out of precaution.
Where in Greece is she going?
Cervantes
@sparrow:
Hilarity!
sparrow
@xenos: Apparently from Pilos to Kalamata to Athens, presumably first leg bus followed by second leg train.
Loviatar
Sweet Vindication for Gavin Newsom, Who Staked His Career on Same-Sex Marriage
.
.
.
Damm that Hillary Clinton
xenos
I spent a few days in kalamata, including a day trip to pilos, in April. Aside for some communists handing out literature at a toll gate on the highway there was nothing going on of note.
I thought the passenger train service from kalamata was canceled years ago. By bus it should be zero problem, especially if the bus goes directly to the airport. If she changes at Syntagma there is a theoretical risk of being stranded there if there is a strike by the bus drivers. I always rent a car for that reason, and can hook you up with a good outfit that gives a nice discount if you pay in cash, if you know what I mean.
OzarkHillbilly
@sparrow:
If that rant needs apologizing for…. RWNJ will be prostrating for decades.
Seriously tho, I know more than a few PHDs who are able to navigate a 3rd world hell hole with the ease of parking a car to ever knock their “common sense”. Most of them are blessed with uncommon sense too.
Valdivia
@MomSense: I saw some pictures earlier but they looked so hazy that they could easily be photoshopped. If there’s an article I would love to read it :)
ETA: the new pictures on Twitter look real, as does her arrest. Hope someone is putting her bail together.
OzarkHillbilly
Louie Gohmert freaks out: Marriage equality ruling means God will stop ‘protecting’ the US
Louie? God stopped protecting the US a long time ago. How do you think you got elected?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Valdivia: Black female activist removes Dixie flag at S.C. Capitol
Valdivia
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Thanks!
xenos
If she needs a plan B should Athens be unworkable she could always go to Patras and take a ferry to Bar or Venice.
MattF
Do not swallow a whole porcupine.
bemused
@Gimlet:
No matter what liberals support, the rightwing whines that it is a plot to marginalize Christians, such as themselves.The drama queens love to play the victim game. imo, you have to be into self-punishment if you need to constantly told you are going to burn in hellfire if you don’t toe the church’s line.
I’m not a member of any church. I’m not anti-religion but I was and am almost always bored sitting through church services. Plus, I don’t want to spend a weekend day in church when I can be outside enjoying God’s or Mother Nature’s amazing creations. That’s my church.
Church services should be enjoyable, joyous, uplifting even when the topics are serious. I don’t know much about AME but the eulogy service was wonderful. If that is any indication of their usual way to churchify, I’d probably make an exception to attend a church like that once in awhile.
sparrow
Hmm, Al Jazeera America with a good article on the Greek Crisis… http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/6/three-depressing-lessons-from-the-greek-debt-negotiations.html
Botsplainer
@sparrow:
Heh, sorry. Could just be a quirk of people she’s been with. Or, more likely, our expectations are WAY too high.
Bobby Thomson
Thoughts on Jurassic World? Note that I didn’t like the original movie and thought it was a major let-down from the book’s themes of greed and hubris. Spielberg clearly identified with the Attenborough character, who should have been portrayed as a total douche.
Botsplainer
Thanks, all – and again, sorry for the knock on academics. I’m a rabid checker of State Department alerts, a schedule junkie and must have 3 contingency plans for everything, just because.
satby
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Very cool! Thanks for the link!
satby
@Botsplainer: Contingency plans are good, but sometimes you just gotta roll with things… getting through some challenges and seeing how this is affecting Greece could well be as big a learning experience as the dig itself.
Edited to add: by “big” I meant valuable.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@sparrow: http://www.ekathimerini.com/ (in English) seems pretty good. I’ve been watching it the last few weeks.
It’s a horrible situation. I hope the Greek leadership has the courage to stay strong if the EU banksters don’t agree to a sensible path forward.
Cheers,
Scott.
sparrow
@Botsplainer: No worries. :)
MomSense
@Botsplainer:
I’ve got friends and family in Athens and am also happy to help if she needs it. I do think she should be fine and that the Greeks are very resourceful.
I remember transit strikes and being helped generously (sometimes a little too generously) into the back of army trucks that were filling in for trains and buses. This is a great adventure for your daughter and my guess is that she has plenty of sense and will handle this like a champ.
OzarkHillbilly
@Botsplainer: I’m exactly the opposite. I seek the unexpected, the unplanned, the unknowable. I always leave extra time available for it.
MomSense
My son is on a several months long adventure visiting National Parks out west and my dad is on a several week adventure out west. They just happened to be in the same city (the other Portland) on the same day yesterday and had a nice little celebration.
cmorenc
@mtiffany:
Or more simply, finding some cool new apps for their iPhone is more important to them than voting – because they see benefits (or at least results) tangibly flowing from the former, but not from the latter. YES their perspective on voting is totally short-sighted and wrong-headed, downright selfishly lazy – but the kind of delayed long-term, imperfect, incomplete gratification involved in off-year voting isn’t their long suit.
shell
Anne, are they digging out the cherry trees?
You’re lucky you get so much fruit. A have a wild cherry tree that get’s stripped in days by the birds and squirrels.
cmorenc
@Loviatar:
Back in 2004, that actually was true – the opening salvo of gay marriage in Massachusetts likely contributed to John Kerry not carrying Ohio (and hence giving George Bush the opportunity to nominate Roberts and Alito to SCOTUS instead of the enormously better picks a President Kerry would have). But in the longer arc of history, without the kind of opening salvo that began to take off that year, there never would have been the eventual sea change in public attitudes toward gays and marriage equality. Although it might have been better had this happened in 2005 rather than 2004 for the reason cited.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: cool. very cool.
different-church-lady
@mtiffany:
Good point, but no time to linger on that, we have to back to being “disappointed” in Obama over everything else he didn’t fix this week.
PaulW
blog flog: my take on the Crazy GOOD Week we’ve just had.
http://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-good-kind-of-crazy-bittersweet-yet.html
opiejeanne
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Please, what is rain?
OzarkHillbilly
@opiejeanne: It’s this wet stuff falling from the sky. Been getting it damn near every day since April 23rd.
Just finished (finally) watching Obama’s eulogy for the Rev Pinckney. I find it truly amazing how much hatred that man has for Christians.
Walker
@cmorenc:
Actually, if you talk to young people, many of them will tell you they do not vote because “both sides are the same” As with many people, they are single issue voters and they feel like their issues are ignored.
Of course, when you try to tell them WHY their issues are ignored…
The Gray Adder
Enjoy your cherries. Seriously. Since ours ripened in the middle of the fucking week, the birds (and probably a squirrel or two) got them. Went out yesterday to maybe pick a few cherries, and the tree was stripped bare. Ten quarts (at least) of little tart pie cherries, gone (urp) in a single day. Them’s the breaks, I guess.
PaulW
#FreeBree needs its own Open Thread today.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Dead thread, but open thread…
Ekathimerini.com:
There seems to be little indication thus far that the EU is going to blink. But of course they want Greece to think that….
Cheers,
Scott.
JCT
@sparrow: Not a rant, the simple truth.
Thanks for this – I live in two worlds professionally, academia and clinical medicine – if a week goes by that I don’t get some sort of “clueless scientist” comment from my clinical colleagues it feels like a miracle. After 25 years it’s not very funny.
Elizabelle
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Thank you. Looks like a good article and a good site.
JPL
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: As long as Merkel, shows disdain towards Greece nothing will happen. Germany is the largest benefactor of the euro, but she is treating Greece similar to what Romney did towards the 47%.
I’ve read to contrasting views on how Greece’s default will affect our own economy. I assume the market will react on Monday.
Tree With Water
I’ve made a new friend over the past few weeks. She’s a bit on the tense side, but doesn’t spook in my presence. She drops by unannounced and so far has left my newly planted yard alone, although one night she curled up and caught some zzz’s in a marigold bed. Yesterday I thought to leave a message with the county to request the posting of a deer crossing sign..
Germy Shoemangler
@Tree With Water: She’s lucky to have found you.
SWMBO
@The Gray Adder: Rubber snakes. Put them in the tree before the fruit ripens and it helps scare off the harvesters.