Looks like we could use an open thread. Tell me something good. What lifts you after a few days like this?
I shared this story yesterday. I was surprised how much it made my day just a bit better:
I needed one thing from the store today. I even picked the location I thought would be the least busy. When I got to the door, a nice young boy held out a bag with a list stapled to the front. He asked if I wanted to shop for the food bank. I thought about that one thing I needed and said, not today. Thinking I’d write a check later.
Then in a moment of, oh, why not, I turned around and took the bag from him.
It changed my day. Not because I filled a bag with much needed staples for the food bank. Not because that young boy gave me the best smile when I both took the bag and returned it filled.
Nope, it was because every shelf that held the requested items looked like locusts had descended. In a few cases I had to improvise with items I thought would be needed, but weren’t on the list, because the shelves were bare.
If I had not decided to shop for that list, I never would have seen how wonderful every person who walked through King Soopers was today.
Heart filled.
(One more video, because I’m quirky like that)
Open thread.
Debbie
I’m not a cook by nature, but after a few minutes of moaning over a lousy batch of apples I bought yesterday, it occurred to me I could make applesauce. Even better, I didn’t cut myself once while coring and peeling all five pounds of them.
Elizabelle
That is a great story about the empty shelves. Makes me smile. Good on you and your community.
Like the pic of the Bixby paw too.
Cervantes
@John Cole:
She does, from time to time.
jmt
I always have mixed emotions about such stories. It’s good to hear that people are moved to help when asked, but sad to think that many local food pantries and food banks still solicit a shopping list of items from donors. The best way to make the most effective contribution is to make cash donations to a regional food bank, because the food banks get donated food by the truck load and only charge a small fee per pound to participating agencies – so $10 at a food bank provides four times the value of food purchased at retail.
Starfish
I love this Nina Simone song because my aerial dance teacher used it a lot. Thank you for posting it.
dedc79
My favorite Nina Simone song (you may remember it from a scene in The Big Lebowski)
dmsilev
@Fixing It: Another new name, RtR? How long until you say something vile enough for Cole to ban you again? A week? 6 o’clock this evening?
Turbulence
I’m a hobbyist acrobat and I really like watching videos of professional acrobats, especially partner acrobats at work. There’s something about the trust displayed in that kind of sharing that I find uplifting.
Here are some recent favorites: Fierce Duality, You and Me, Acrobatrix. This one isn’t a partner act, but he cracks me up every single time: Thom Worrell.
HRA
@Cervantes:
It’s nothing new about her being a neocon.
What was surprising to me as a NYS resident was her use of 911 to defend her campaign donations. Wow – a noun, a verb and 911
sherparick
Environmentalists (and I consider myself a pretty hard core one myself) to often spread bad news stories (and unfortunately, there are many of them). But unfortunately, in telling only half the tale, they given the impression that nothing can be done by humans to sustain the natural world while giving all humans a decent standard of living and lives lived without “quiet desperation.” First, here is a story about a bounce back in the Monarch butterfly population. In part due to a lot of people planting milkweed in their yards and local governments planting milkweed along roads. http://www.dw.com/en/monarch-butterfly-population-likely-to-quadruple-says-mexico/a-18846958
Second is a story about Ya Ming using his celebrity status to change Chines attitudes about shark fin soup. http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/nba-star-yao-ming-saves-millions-of-sharks-from-slaughter/
The Clean Air Act of 1970, and the amendments in 1990, have left America’s air cleaner with a population of 320 million in 2015 then it was in 1970. Our waterways are cleaner and surprisingly habitable in surprising places (http://www.windycityfishing.com/river.htm for fishing the Chicago River and http://windycityfishing.com/des-plaines-river/ for fishing the Des Plaines River – when I was growing up in the late sixties and seventies, both rivers were essentially dead.)
The positive stories have to be told as well as the bad news stories so that can believe we can change and save the world.
Fixing It
@dmsilev:
I see you keep trying to deflect from Hillary’s big stumble.
Do you believe we are at war with radical Islam?
ruemara
Feel good? Haven’t felt that in a long time. I hold things off with work. Sometimes it’s enough, other times it isn’t.
OzarkHillbilly
@Fixing It:
It’s exactly that kind of “moral clarity” that got us into this situation to begin with. If you had half an ounce of reflection you would realize this simple fact.
Fixing It
@OzarkHillbilly:
“If only we were nicer to the Islamic State, they wouldn’t be so mean to us!”
Typical liberal pablum.
We are at war with radical Islam. The Islamic State wants me, you, and everyone reading this blog beheaded.
Cervantes
@Fixing It:
Maybe it was. And George Bush’s invasion of Iraq was an attack by radical X on Y.
What are X and Y?
Fixing It
@Cervantes:
You think George W. Bush is a bigger enemy than the Islamic State?
Linda Featheringill
Feeling good today.
My middle-age daughter is applying for grad school and FINALLY got her “sample” research paper finished. December 15 is the deadline for everything.
BTW, these hoity-toity universities in the east charge a fortune in application fees. New Mexico U, which has an excellent program for her interest, charges 20.00 application fee. It probably costs them that much to process the application. But these robber barons around here demand much more. Sigh.
Fixing It
Talk about “Rape Culture”, but since Muslims are doing it western liberals don’t care. Better to focus on make-believe fraternity campus rapes than actual, real, full-on sex slavery.
Cervantes
@Fixing It:
I’m not interested in what I think. (And frankly, neither are you.)
I can see, though, why’d you’d prefer not to address the question I asked.
Carry on.
Fixing It
@Cervantes:
It’s a non-sequitur.
Amir Khalid
@Fixing It:
W has gotten more Americans killed, after all.
By the way, congratulations on getting the very first comment under your new nym deleted within minutes. That’s quick work.
Doug R
Seems like a smart business decision to donate to the likely president. Better than the 90percent plus of rich families who are donating to the republicans who want to repeal Dodd Frank. Of course Krugman readers should be up to speed on this.
FlyingToaster
@Fixing It: You think that Dubya wasn’t?
Cervantes
@Fixing It:
No, that’s Jeb Bush you’re thinking of.
Fixing It
@FlyingToaster:
We have an Islamic death cult practicing beheadings, rape, kidnapping, slavery, crucifixion, one that is likely planning terrorist attacks over here as we speak (if we don’t do something, another 9/11 is on its way) and you want to talk about George W. Bush?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@jmt: Yup. I give money to a couple of local food banks via payroll deductions at work. It’s a much better way to get them the resources they need.
But food drives are a good way to remind people of the need and that’s important, too.
A local Scout troop does a food drive a few times a year. I am always a bit annoyed by it because the kids put the special plastic bags with the Safeway logos on people’s door knobs and about 80% of them invariably blow away before people take them inside. Grr.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who has another bag to fill by next Saturday.)
Botsplainer
Bored with the whole dynamic of fucking pathetic, trembling, viciously amoral and low testosterone white Christian(spit) olds who NOW get to claim that their racism and paranoia can justify being shitty to refugees.
Fuck them and their filthy shitstain of a faith. They love death and collateral casualties. I’m flipping off Facebook for the most part, since I hate about half my friends and family members over this stuff.
Cervantes
@HRA:
Be careful — the locusts will get you.
Even when she’s ahead, she’s behind.
FlyingToaster
@dmsilev: I don’t think he’ll make it to 6pm. I think as soon as Cole wakes up and takes his antibiotics, he’ll come around with the banhammer.
Botsplainer
@Fixing It:
He did cause more deaths than IS could ever hope to achieve.
Debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Wouldn’t it have been nice if instead of going for the cheap shot of “the dog waving the tail,” the GOP had instead supported and encouraged the effort to go after OBL in Sudan? That’s all the GOP has become, a cheap shot.
FlyingToaster
@Fixing It: If I were a Muslim, given the history of both the Crusades and European Colonialism, if I saw yet another fucking European army invading my home, I’d take to the hills and look to obtain an army’s worth of BFG 9000 to take them out. Anything from caltrops to RPGs and SAMs.
This isn’t about Islam, any more than the Crusades were about “Christianity”. Land-grabs using the veneer of religion are as old as humanity.
I doubt our governments would oppose ISIS if they would sell BP or ARAMCO their oil.
WereBear
@jmt: Yes, but some people like to do it that way.
We don’t always make sense, but our hearts dwell in the right place.
The tweets from Guillermo del Toro on the limits of revenge lifted me up. Once upon a time, such sentiments would not be seen in a large venue. Media is being democratized. We can speak honestly and unfiltered and reach so many more people than we used to.
We are living in Gutenberg 2: Electric Boogaloo. Just like the first one, religion itself is being shattered into new forms, and fundamentalism, all forms of it, is dying. The right wing fundamentalist Christians in our own country are waging terrorism by other means than bombs. But their rhetoric is the same, is it not? As are their motivations.
Like Hitler in the bunker, they don’t want to go out alone.
djchefron
@Fixing It: Maybe if we took the time to educate ourselves on ISIS we could fight it on our terms not theirs What ISIS Really Wants
The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
Cervantes
@FlyingToaster:
Here’s an obvious question that Fixing It obviously hasn’t spent enough time thinking about: Whose actions created “the Islamic State”?
schrodinger's cat
@Fixing It: Without W’s Iraq misadventure, there would be no Islamic state.
FourTen
Meet the Press is a war crime. These people don’t live amoung the rest of humanity. It’s an abstract to them at best, a living experiment from day today and a game to them at its worst. They’ll never be touched by terror attacks or air strikes.
Botsplainer
I’ll add this – these are the dumbest fucking terrorists on Earth. They didn’t hit Paris where it would truly hammer their culture and national psyche.
Schlemazel
@Fixing It:
Well, he has done more damage to the US that those other guys so it is debatable.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: also, there’s something to be said for making volunteers, especially kids, feel like they’re making a difference with full bags, if you can. At my local grocery stores, they usually just put out a big bin for people to put cans in as they leave. That, I can walk past.
Took me a minute to figure out the new ‘nym on the old troll. I guess the next version will “Do wanna see Barbara in your fucking dreams? Cause she can do it, and she fucking will! You’ll be praying for Freddie Kreuger!”
Betty Cracker
What a great topic, TaMara! Love the story about the shoppers’ generosity. Also love the monster paw picture. Sometimes I think my boxers are absurdly large lap dogs, but the two of them put together is maybe two-thirds of your dog.
As for what makes me feel good: getting things done. From major projects like a renovation project to boring and unpleasant household chores, the sense of accomplishment upon completion outweighs the pleasures of indolence. That should make me do more and sit less. Alas, it does not.
But what makes me feel best is doing something that makes a loved one happy. Recently I made a booklet for my old grandma, who is in her 90s and deaf as a post, which makes conversation difficult. I used a big font so she could read it easily and embedded pictures to illustrate some of my favorite childhood memories with her.
It took me less than an hour, and it made her so happy and proud. She’s been showing it to everyone she sees for weeks. I’ve made my living as a writer for 25 years, and that stupid booklet made me happier than anything I’ve ever written — because it made my grandma happy.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: If Grandma doesn’t mind can you share some of the stories with us. I love it when you share your childhood stories with pics. The best was the one about the pest control float.
Schlemazel
I am guilty of this too BTW
We are getting away from the point of this thread to roll in the mud of stupidity with an ugly little troll – back to what makes me happy
We saw #3 Minnesota sweep #5 BSU in womens hockey this weekend. BSU plays an intense style of defensive hockey that always gives us fits so instead of the jet speed ballet these games are a lot more digging and grinding and scrapping for chances to score. But it is great fun to lose yourself in a meaningless (in the real world) contest and cheer kids playing with great intensity and yet great joy.
SiubhanDuinne
After the past few days of marinating in bad news from around the globe and politicians being politicians at home, I’m heading out soon to refresh my spirit at the Bolshoi Ballet (in cinemas). The program is Balanchine’s Jewels, which I haven’t seen for many decades. Really looking forward to it.
WereBear
@ruemara: Hoping your days brighten, moving forward. Helps a lot :)
Baud
To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.
Naturally.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: Compassion. I’ve been thinking that’s the critical element gone missing in so much of what’s happening these days. If compassion isn’t at the core of your beliefs, whatever they may be, then– at best– you’re just rationalizing your prejudices. And at worst…
OzarkHillbilly
@Fixing It: I have a suggestion for you: “RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!!” cause “That rabbit’s dynamite!”
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: So true, I was happy last Sunday when the saffron brotherhood under Modi got their asses handed to them in the Bihar elections.
Best of all, their ugly Muslim baiting and cow hugging rhetoric fell flat.
eric
@Baud: *golf clap*
Eric U.
@Botsplainer: my facebook isn’t too bad. My teabagger aunt is the only one that regularly posts things that implies we should wipe out anything Islamic, and she hasn’t gotten around to it yet.
HinTN
Tommy – Android mobile is stuck at The War of the Wallet for me. Access through archives works.
eric
You cant disinfect heart of a militant, because by the time they are killing for some ideology, it is too late. You can, however, do a couple of things. First, make it harder for the existing militants to find financial and operational support. You can do that through law enforcement and some spookery, if need be. Going forward, you can stop saying and doing the things that the militants use to recruit operational support, as well as new militants. But, that is a deliberate and thoughtful approach, far harder than yelling “reload.” too many in the west and certainly in the GOP have a cartoon view of violence and the retributive justice of the Old American West.
Frankensteinbeck
Baud. Baud lifts my spirits. Finally, a candidate who is aware of all internet traditions.
Kirbster
I was watching one of those nostalgia “Classic TV from the 50s and 60s” channels aimed at the olds last night. It was a “Route 66” mini-marathon, with two clean-cut guys named Todd and Buzz on a never-ending road trip across lily-white America in a classic Corvette convertible.
The commercials were the predictable reverse mortgage, miracle cures, Medicare supplement insurance, catheters, and useless gadgets pitches. Noticeably absent were ads for mobility scooters. Has Medicare stopped paying for those?
max
What lifts you after a few days like this?
? I am not happy about the attack, or the fact that we engaged in that embarrassing and shameful freedom fries nonsense, but I haven’t been happy about any of that stuff since 2001. (I am, incidentally, annoyed that I can’t find a cotton bunting French flag, so I can hang it up indoors when it is not outside.) I have also been paying close attention to Daesh’s antics for a couple of years (or more if we go back to when they were a terrorist group in Anbar), so this sort of thing is distressing, but not the end of the world either.
It does distress me that liberal types have been avoiding dealing with the situation. (C’mon people, the winger asshole brigade is going to get up to their usual antics. Punching them in the face, metaphorically speaking, works for me.)
I have shit to do either way which always helps ward off the blues.
max
[‘Besides my birthday is tomorrow and there’s no point being down about everything – I am still alive so there’s that.’]
mai naem mobile
I had one of the AM shows on in the background. Lindsay Graham was on with his smelling salts soaked hanky nattering on about ‘boots on the ground.’ I’m beginning to wonder if young men in boots a la the SS brownboots are a turn on for Lindsay. I think the Village People had a black boot clad band member. Maybe somebody needs to let Lindsay act out this fantasy IRL so he can stop about ‘boots on the ground.’
Xenos
@Fixing It: what do you mean ‘we’, kafir?
Baud
@HinTN:
I have the same problem. Try refreshing the mobile web page through the browser (by pulling down or tapping on the little circle thing).
Frankensteinbeck
@mai naem mobile:
Well, Hillary said last night that she has no intention of giving him those boots on the ground, so he’d best get his asthma inhaler ready. He’s got another eight years of hyperventilating ahead.
Baud
@max:
Happy birthday!
Amir Khalid
@Xenos:
By “kafir”, do you mean the Arabic for “infidel” or the Afrikaans for “nigger” (typically spelled “kaffir)? Both are taboo words.
schrodinger's cat
What do we have to do to get all the ugly shit on the top of the fold to the sidelines?
PaulW
@Fixing It:
So we need to amp up our fear-mongering by, what, 57 percent?
Schlemazel
@Baud:
So you are running as a Republican?
moonbat
Thank you, TaMara for posting the Nina Simone song! It was recently co-opted for a car commercial and it was driving me crazy every time it came on because the cover they used was all smoothed over and sleek and soulless and I couldn’t pin it down. The original is on a whole other planet.
What gets me back up after a few days like this is taking my little border terrier Larry out to an open field and letting him run like a maniac. So fast his belly almost touching the ground when he corners and his tongue hanging out the side of this mouth in his self-generated wind. His joy is contagious.
OzarkHillbilly
@Eric U.: She probably wants to wait till they wipe out the French first.
TaMara (BHF)
@Betty Cracker: I just got back from walking the Beast which improves any day.
I’m with you, sometimes just vacuuming the place is enough to shift my mood – with three cats and Bixby, there’s always something to vacuum.
BTW, you guys crack me up, because clearly fighting a troll amuses you. It amuses me, too. Carry on. Someone will put up a sports thread soon enough.
p.a.
@schrodinger’s cat:
History began 1/20/09. This goes Orwell one better. No need to ‘update’ past records when they can be unthought.
The Other Chuck
I updated the Troll-B-Gone filter so I don’t have to keep reading RtR’s sputum.
Keith G
@FlyingToaster:
If you were a Muslim with an adequate sense of history, you would recognize that historically speaking the greatest threat to your safety would be other followers of Islam. From the start of this faith
on to the present time territorial, factional, and conflicts of religious interpretation disputes have spilled so much Muslim blood.
While there were certainly a variety of mixed motives in place during the Crusade era, Christianity was certainly a large part of the motivation for many leaders and their followers particularly early on.
If I recall correctly the first call for a Western religious military adventure in the Middle East came from the leaders of Byzantium after Arabic forces had conquered Jerusalem, a land grab. That first request was ignored. Later, Pope Urban II, decided it would be a good idea. His motivations were both political and religious – in many historic times the two are intimately intertwined.
A key thing to recall, is that the Byzantine Empire and the forces of Islam had been fighting it out in Asia Minor and the Levant for centuries by then.
TaMara (BHF)
@jmt: I worked for a non-profit and I know money is always the easiest/best donation. But if you could have seen these boys, I think they were 10-12 in age. This is what turned me around to grab a bag. They were so engaged in this. And clearly so were the shoppers, there was a feeling of community at the store instead of the usual “I hate f-ing shopping on a Saturday” vibe.
And I think filling a bag is a great reminder to people how significant the need is and how small a bag of food actually is in the face of that need.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mai naem mobile: Boots on the ground,
Boots on the ground,
You’re soundin’ like a fool
with your boots on the ground
Too soon? Too late?
Also, too:
Judith Miller apparently deleted her tweet about those stupid college students who should be grateful not to be in French nightclubs, but she was making jokes about John Kerry speaking *snort* French! So I guess the period of solidarity is down to twenty-four hours now.
p.a.
@Keith G:
The Byzantines came to regret that call PDQ.
b1narys3rf
The front page does not auto-refresh and to the best of my knowledge no other sites I visit show that behavior.
I’m using Chrome, latest version, with a few not-too exotic extensions and Windows 8.1. Anyone else?
MattF
@b1narys3rf: Me too, I think. I was going back and forth between two threads yesterday and the front page always showed the same old numbers of responses in both threads until I deliberately refreshed the page. Safari, OS X 10.10.somethingorother.
The Other Chuck
@MattF: I suspect some of the backend work on FYWP is causing it to do more aggressive caching. Saves Cole money and makes the site quicker, so I can’t exactly argue against it.
p.a.
@b1narys3rf: I’m Chrome via android version? and it seems to vary day to day and by mobile/desktop. I generally stay mobile site, but sometimes updates send me to desktop. Kinda fun, like playing lotto.
Amir Khalid
@The Other Chuck:
Do you have a guess as to what’s causing the server connection glitches? Other than Tommy’s uncorrected English, that’s the only thing left that’s bothering me about the new site.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@jmt:
I understand your point, but I sometimes wonder if giving the food to recipients in those bags has a slightly different psychological effect, because it says, Your neighbors care about you and bought you this gift.
Overall, the “grocery store” setup that lets people shop for their own food at the food pantry is best for everyday needs, but letting people also have a gift bag may feel good for the recipients for different reasons.
We’re getting ready to do my favorite holiday tradition at work where we buy gifts for our Adopt-A-Family. Sure, we could probably just give them a gift card to Target because they probably need other things more desperately than PlayStation 3 games, but it’s fun to give and receive gifts.
WereBear
I’ve been sick and unable to do more than the bare minimum, but this weekend things got a bit better and I fixed the cat blog feed that has been burping up duplicates like a time warp was in operation. I mean, I couldn’t fix it and had to create a new one.
So that makes me happy.
And our giant mutant half-feral-when-adopted kitten slept in my lap yesterday. Awesome.
p.a.
“We Are Who We Chose to Be”
Isn’t theoretical physics moving towards the idea that EVERYTHING is predestined?
Botsplainer
Test
The Other Chuck
@p.a.: The Byzantines got the short end of the stick thanks largely to the crusaders themselves, first double-crossing them on handing over land that Constantinople had claimed (the ostensible reason for the Crusades in the first place) then a hundred years later finally sacking Constantinople itself. Turns out that whole “enemy of my enemy” thing doesn’t always work out.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: Thanks! I used actual photos in my book for Grams, and the stories weren’t particularly amusing if you weren’t there, but now that I think about it, she’d probably enjoy seeing the pest control float story, if I removed all the swear words. :)
The Other Chuck
@p.a.: Pretty sure physics is accepting the idea that there is in fact some irreducible randomness in the system, even if it all tends to entropy. The notion of “predestination” as concerns a model of time is the sort of thing left to philosophers, not scientists. To say nothing of the fuzzy illusory construct that is “will”, let alone “free will”.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Baud: I have the same situation on my Android and do the same thing. It’s a trend.
Keith G
@p.a.: the Byzantine Empire may hold the record for being the longest functioning dysfunctional state in human history.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@The Other Chuck: Oh, thank you, thank you!
The Other Chuck
@Amir Khalid: Hell if I know. Maybe they’re bouncing the server more than it ought to be. That ought not to be resulting in empty entity bodies, which is the error we’re getting, but I suspect the whole software stack BJ is running on is pure nightmare fuel of software horror, not just FYWP.
cleek
OT: pie filter has been updated, again.
http://ok-cleek.com/blogs/?page_id=19041
MattF
@The Other Chuck: And continuing experimental confirmations of Bell’s Theorem show that the randomness can’t be explained by deterministic hidden variable theories.
ThresherK (GPad)
@WereBear: Did you get the package in your PO box? They’re guaranteed to cure what ails you.
lamh36
This why I tell folks to not believe everything you read or see or FB, da Gram or any other social media. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, so it’s always a good idea to “VERIFY BEFORE SHARING”
And some ran with it.
Keith G
@The Other Chuck: Collectively speaking there were no wonderful people in that period of conflict. The Western Crusaders, the Byzantines, the Muslims were all pretty rank folks.
It wasn’t any better thousands of miles to the east, south, west, or north. Humanity was a pretty dismal lot then. It is only slightly better now, but at least now we have cable and blogs.
lamh36
This why I tell folks to not believe everything you read or see or FB, da Gram or any other social media. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, so it’s always a good idea to “VERIFY BEFORE SHARING”
Someone Photoshopped A Sikh Man To Look Like An Alleged Paris Attacker
Probably same folks who tweeted the photo of Paris after the attack that was actually Paris after the Hebdo attack, cause someone said it was real
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
My favorite way to support my local food bank (other than cash) is via my CSA. The money might not go as far for the food bank, but I’m supporting two groups with the same dime.
rikyrah
Hillary Clinton came under fire during the CBS News Democratic debate for seeming to use 9/11 attacks to deflect criticism about her relationship to Wall Street.
https://youtu.be/uc9ldTKX6No
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@The Other Chuck: Thanks. But Troll-B-Gone doesn’t seem to be happy with uBlock Origin, More Better Balloon Juice and Cleek’s Pie Filter installed. I’ve turned off Cleek’s filter, and I see the “block” button when I hover near a name, but clicking it doesn’t do anything.
Do I need to uninstall Cleek’s filter rather than just turning it off? Is it something with uBlock Origin?
Latest Chrome on Win7.
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
Also, all this talk of good things is reminding me, Martha Stewart-like, that I have holiday gifts I need to work on, so I’ll be wandering off to do that now.
The Other Chuck
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: TBG will conflict with Cleek’s Pie Filter, so yeah you’ll want to uninstall that. The rest of the stuff it should be fine with, and if it’s not, try disabling uBlock Origin to make sure it’s not breaking the DOM somehow (if UO is the problem, switch to regular uBlock).
p.a.
@The Other Chuck: and then the Crusaders of effort n+1 would dump on the previous ‘Latins’ for becoming orientalized.
Wonderful folks.
Gin & Tonic
I keep hearing about how the Paris attack was “a very elaborate plot.” What am I missing? I see nothing elaborate or sophisticated. Get a small squad, shoot up a few soft targets.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@The Other Chuck: We seem to have an embarrassment of riches now, what with Cleek updating his filter too.
It seems to be something with uBlock Origin – Cleek’s new filter isn’t working right for me either.
Gotta mess around with this later, after some chores. I’m sure it’s on my end.
Thanks again!
Cheers,
Scott.
D58826
Jeb! is ok with taking in refugees as long as they are Christians. (sigh)
MattF
@Gin & Tonic: It seemed to me that it was fairly elaborate. Recruitment, training, planning, equipment, timing, logistics… It’s a matter of scale– one or two gunmen can kill a dozen, but killing hundreds requires more organization.
Steeplejack
@schrodinger’s cat:
“Cow hugging.” That’s funny!
FlyingToaster
@Gin & Tonic: Elaborate because they synchronized their watches.
Our media are pitiful.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Amir Khalid:
The last I heard was that they had tracked the issue down and were waiting for an update to the software FYWP runs on top of. You got your operating system on the server, the actual web server software on top of that, the various languages and toolkits atop that, and finally WordPress itself. The only part of it that is under Tommy’s control is WordPress. It’s not that uncommon for an update to a large site to uncover some obscure issue in the lower levels that the site owner then has to wait for the hosting company to investigate and schedule an update around all the other things happening with the same hardware.
One of my sites was, in its heyday, famous in certain gaming circles for bringing web servers to their knees. We were thrown out of three different web hosts because they didn’t listen when we asked “Are you set up to handle a very busy forum with an enormous database?” and promised us the moon and the stars. And then learned just what a 1.7 GB forum database will do to a shoestring database server.
The last time we had to make a big change, the site proper was down for almost a month, most of which was taken up by hiring a professional to convert the database from one forum software to another.
Believe it or not, from my experience, this whole upgrade has gone exceptionally smoothly.
Botsplainer
To bring discussions about folks like Snowjob into play, one wonders if these pernicious fellows availed themselves of the Internet to coordinate their attacks?
FlyingToaster
@Botsplainer: Google Maps? Waze?
Johnny Coelacanth
@Fixing It: “The Islamic State wants me, you, and everyone reading this blog beheaded.” Yeah, but who gives a fuck what they want?
cleek
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
what happens when you try it?
benw
@TaMara (BHF): this post reminded me to pick up some non-perishables for the food drives at my kids’ schools when I go to the store this afternoon. Thanks!
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Johnny Coelacanth:
Exactly. I’m tired of the West reacting exactly the way terrorists want them to.
(Yes, I was planning to do some of my holiday knitting, but apparently my lap looks irresistibly comfy to cats when I have knitting it it. Maybe later.)
rikyrah
Peanut has been asking me about all these different figures in history. I will help her google them, and finally I asked her – how is it that you’re knowing about these people?
Her answer?
They’re on Sherman and Mr. Peabody
LOL
Gvg
I switched to non iPad mobile version of this site to regular and now have numbered comments but each time I return to this site it brings up the same cached front page of about a day ago now. It fixes easily with a refresh and I prefer the numbered comments so I am staying with it now. The mobile version is more esthetic otherwise with varying shaded comments and nice borders but I find the numbers too useful to give up. I am using safari on an iPad 3 nonair. I will try mobile again after updates are announced done.
J R in WV
G W Bush is our generation’s greatest war criminal. He killed more Americans fighting with a nation that never attacked us, than the nations that did attack us killed. He killed more innocent Iraqis by an order of magnitude than were killed in several wars we fought in living memory.
Because every violent death in Iraq since W. Bush took office is W. Bush’s fault. Every violent death in Syria is partly W. Bush’s fault.
Actually, I’m blaming W. Bush for the 300 odd Americans who died on that beautiful sunny morning in September. Who can forget W Bush’s “All right. You’ve covered your ass now. Go away.” after the Daily Briefing when he was warned about the intent of the terrorists to attack using airliners. Cold, callus, no emotion, just FUVM for bringing us potential bad news.
I’m gonna do some chores. That always makes me feel better, getting something done, even if it’s small.
WereBear
@cleek: Thank you much! I love the pie sayings :)
WereBear
@ThresherK (GPad): Ooooh, thanks, I got the message and must journey over there tomorrow. :)
dlm
When I feel stressed about the world or anything else for that matter, I listen to music. Lately, I’ve been listening to lots of music. Motown, The Who, Queen, Carole King and a few others.
WereBear
Good point, except I never do anything Martha Stewart-like :)
lamh36
I’ve said in once, I’ll say it again. Gun Nuts: How would more guns help against folks wearing suicide vest that can be rigged to go off?
WereBear
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I agree. This is a huge undertaking and complicated.
Which is why my own blog is kind of staying the way it is for now: I’ve got enough challenges keeping up with the bandwidth and security. Paying for this kind of upgrade is quite expensive.
Another Holocene Human
@Botsplainer:
Fuckin’ word. “They love death and collateral casualties.” Word. Racist and hateful as fuck, also, too.
Gimlet
In light of this Paris shoot-up, remember Dubya is still keeping America safe, even with this interloper in the WH.
redshirt
@Keith G:
At times.
I am on a crusade to get people to refer to the Byzantine Empire by its proper name: The Roman Empire.
They were Romans. They referred to themselves as Romans. Other people referred to them as Romans.
It’s a Catholic bias in Western European history that calls them “Byzantines”.
This fact changed my perception of history, as it means the Roman Empire only fell in the late 1400’s, which is a big change from the usual teachings of Rome falling around 500AD and then Europe falling into a Dark Age. It’s not true.
Gimlet
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/ted-cruz-exploits-paris-attack-to-talk-about-christian-persecution-while-honoring-anti-gay-bigots/
GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz held a “Rally for Religious Liberty” on Saturday at Bob Jones University in South Carolina, featuring anti-gay activists and a football coach who violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
There, Cruz made the case that the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night proved that Christians are under siege, even though the attacks were on nightlife hot spots and not religious targets. Before the rally, Cruz told to reporters and said Christians need constitutional protections because they are most ostracized today, according to CNN.
Last week, Cruz joined fellow GOP presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to speak at the National Religious Liberties Conference. The Iowa event was organized by Pastor Kevin Swanson, who believes that LGBT people should be put to death.
Origuy
There was a debate last night? I was Scottish dancing in a 100 year old hall on the Monterey coast. One TV in all of Asilomar. No one was watching it
Another Holocene Human
@FlyingToaster: When the Crusaders attacked Byzantium it kind of gave away the game.
The Crusades were the beginning of the end of the RCC’s credibility, if it ever had any. (It all started, what, 50 years or so after the RCC screamed “You can’t fire me–I quit!” to the Patriarch in Constantinople? And you get an excommunication, and you get an excommunication, and you get n excommunication.) Although I’m starting to feel like it took the Great Plague for the dementia to set in.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: Bombs are for home grown terrorists that don’t have guns.
wmd
In Beirut, a good guy without a gun likely saved many lives.
Another Holocene Human
@Botsplainer:
No kidding.
I feel kind of cold, like the only person on the internet not crying about it. Sure it’s horrible, lots of people in mourning right now. But wtf social media, did people get this upset when those Jews were killed in a terror attack in France? You know, outside of Jewish spaces and conservatard twitter trying to score cheap points? What about that attack on an MNF hospital which the US carried out and then lied about. Did everybody change their fb and twitter avatar in solidarity? Hardly anybody (except MNF) even tried to hold the Pentagon accountable. I find out from comments threads that there was a terror attack in Beirut and another in Baghdad. Where are the Iraqi and Lebanese flags? Even my wife, not exactly a lefty, commented about it. Just finds it weird. Finds it weird that super lefty people are all in with the outsized display #whitepeoplematter and criticizing those who aren’t. Um, inconsistent much?
This particular attack seems reminiscent of US “lone wolf” attacks by angry white guys of the last several years. Similar MO except for the suicide vests (but as some have pointed out, that’s because Americans go for suicide by cop). To me, the Hebdo attack was much more calculated, more polarizing, intended to harden positions and thereby “heighten the contradictions”. By comparison, the RW has to grasp to turn this into one of their favorite passion plays.
redshirt
@Another Holocene Human: Romans, not Byzantines!
Another Holocene Human
@wmd: The gunhumper don’t even know there was a terrorist attack in Beirut and if you try to tell them in comments, they respond that “those people don’t value life the way we do” and “what’s another bombing over there, they’re animals”.
Ksmiami
@Amir Khalid: @J R in WV: 3000. Casualties and don’t forget another 2000 or more during katrina
redshirt
I mean, the city changed its name from Byzantium to Constantinople in the mid 300’s AD. How in the world could it be “The Byzantine Empire”?
Botsplainer
@redshirt:
I always enjoy it when fundies talk about how depravity brought about the fall of the Roman Empire. They get their feelings really hurt when I talk about the notion that Rome became officially Christian over a century before Odoacer deposed the last Emperor in the West. They get REALLY hurt when I point out that Rome was at its zenith when it was unabashedly secularized and nominally pagan.
wmd
@Another Holocene Human:
sure. Just want to point out that Adel Termos’ heroism didn’t require a 2nd amendment talisman, while also sharing something good. It’s a story that could use more circulation.
Another Holocene Human
@redshirt: Were they still calling themselves Romans during the high middle ages? I have looked at some Late Antiquity stuff and despite the prominence of the Greek language in the Eastern Roman Empire yeah, pretty vintage Roman culture stuff going on there. For some reason when I was in school they just skipped from the first century CE or so (Pax Romana era) straight to the Crusades. I’m pretty sure they went through each Crusade individually (they also handwavingly covered the Muslim conquests, oh, blip, this happened–I think the Umayyid empire was colored lavender in my textbook), but I’ve long since forgotten it all. Luckily there was public television so I did learn about the role of Venice in the last Crusade. The Dick Cheneys of medieval Italy.
Another Holocene Human
@redshirt: To be fair, the West has a long history of misnaming things. Case in point: the Welsh. It’s like that Navajo/Dine thing but with added condescension.
redshirt
@Another Holocene Human: They were. They were fully Roman.
Our history completely focuses on Western Europe and ignores Eastern Europe except for the Crusades, which of course were a Western European phenomena.
Germy
@Origuy:
No one was interested in a presidential debate, but I hope they vote, at least.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@cleek: At the moment, with uBlock Origin installed with your latest pie filter on Chrome on Win7, while also using The Other Chuck’s MBBJ script, when I highlight a name and click “Add selected”, I don’t get the popup asking “Add XXX to pie filter” (or whatever – my recollection of what happened before B-J was upgraded). I think it’s uBlock Origin. I’ll try removing it and try another blocker if it still acts up.
If I can’t get it resolved, I’ll let you know on your site.
Thanks muchly.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Holocene Human
@redshirt: Oh, fair points. Although if you look into the Franks and Merovingians and what shitty leaders/administrators they were, plus what happened to educated urban culture at the hands of such shitlords, plus what happened to the economy, I don’t think Dark Ages is entirely unfair.
But I’m starting to come around to the idea that 1347 was the big discontinuity, not the 4th/5th century (although there was the Plague of Justinian, and many historians believe that was a major factor in the economic and cultural damage going into the Frankish era).
That “fall of Rome” thing may be a peculiarly BRITISH bias coming out, not Catholic at all. In the US, Anglophile, not Catholic, voices dominated history instruction until very recently. And to the British, particularly the Victorians, the Romano-British era was the shit, since they considered themselves heir to the glory that was Rome as the faboo British Empire, whereas Celtic history was unspeakable and low, and Lower Saxon/Frisian/Danish influence was kind of an embarrassment. They’re only useful in the notion that they wipe out the Britons/Welsh (a notion disputed by today’s archeologists), who being Celts were of inferior racial stock, I mean, just look at the Irish, QED.
Germy
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”
― Fred Rogers
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Er, the other TamperMonkey script is Even Better Balloon Juice. I’m also using TOC’s More Better Balloon Juice Stylish script.
So far, uninstalling uBlock Origin hasn’t helped. But I see I’m not running the latest MBBJ. I’ll try that…
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Holocene Human
@redshirt: I’ve been looking up tv programs on medieval history. After visiting Czech Republic I’d dearly love to learn more about the Czech Kingdom in the middle ages, but I can’t find anything in English. All those lovely BBC programs are terribly Anglo-centric. If they mention the continent it’s always to compare the continent negatively to England. What is hilarious is when they are talking about the Normans and the Normans come into England from France with far superior technology yet this gets utterly no mention. The French couldn’t be doing anything (other than louche mooching) better than the English. Perish the thought!
Another Holocene Human
My wife did find some Eastern European stuff with Rick Steves but I fucking HATE that guy, even his voice is like poking my ear with hot sticks. The low point was having the radio on one Saturday, probably driving to work, and the motherfucker was trying to flog more “Northern Italians are Germanic and industrious, Southern Italians are Mediterranean and lazy” and his European interviewee fucking schooled his ass about disparate government funding for infrastructure and discrimination. Fuck Rick Steves.
Germy
@Another Holocene Human: The southern Italians are probably exhausted from working all day in the northern factories.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Holocene Human:
British shows about British history on a British network are focused on Britain. Quelle horreur!
Another Holocene Human
@D58826:
Fuck him sideways, the fucking ass.
Immigrants improve the economy, why shouldn’t we take in a bunch? It’s a big fucking country. Just please send them to cosmopolitan cities and not bumblefuck, where they can be miserable together with ignorant ingrates living off the government and defensive about it and who are incapable of learning any better. Look, they got combines in soybean country, they don’t need extra hands.
redshirt
@Another Holocene Human:
Perhaps.
But the Catholic Church and associated states made a concerted effort to pretend they were the inheritors of the Roman state, even though the actual Roman Empire still existed. The Holy Roman Empire, for one example.
I think this colors everything about Western European history, including England’s.
Germy
@Another Holocene Human: during the greek debt crisis I saw an asshole on TV from newsweek magazine; some roundtable discussion, and with an ugly smirk he declared that southern europeans would have to “change their culture” (translation: “the lazy bastards will have to be more disciplined, but of course we know THAT won’t happen har har”)
Another Holocene Human
@Omnes Omnibus: If you can tell me where I can find programs on Eastern European medieval history in English, I’m all ears.
Yes, inhabitants of island trend insular, film at eleven. Not exactly my point, Sherlock.
Another Holocene Human
@Germy: Open racism–so much easier (and more lazy) than acknowledging that corrupt government + US branded multinational banks ripped Greece off and left innocent pensioners holding the bag.
Another Holocene Human
It’s amazing how all those stuffy British banksters manipulating LIBOR rates to stuff their and their buddies’ pockets isn’t proof of how corrupt, shifty, untrustworthy, etc, etc, British people are.
Although I did see some ugly sentiment during the Scottish vote that London is a parasite on “real” Britain (so Scots should vote for Britain). Huh, I wonder who else lives in London, maybe 1st gen immigrants and racial/ethnic minority populations? Uh huh.
Germy
@Another Holocene Human: Exactly.
My ancestors were southern European.
My parents and grandparents were the hardest-working people I ever saw in my life.
And then when their factory shifts were over, they grew food, canned vegetables and fruits, built and fixed things…
Another Holocene Human
@redshirt: Don’t forget that Constantinople left Rome to die (at hands of unlearned Barbarian Franks) and the Romans-living-in-Rome never forgave them for it.
Some of this stuff comes from Gregory (“The Great”!) but it’s hard not to be sympathetic to the guy. He saved his city, for one thing. This is after spending years trying to get the Emperor to do something and getting rebuffed. Bishops and popes wanting to look like princes and kings was a later affectation, not an early one, but Gregory changed the role of Pope by becoming a civic leader in a time of crisis. He also sent out emissaries, and said emissaries went on to tell far flung Catholic outposts that they needed to start doing stuff the Roman way. Constantinople’s “Meh. Whatever,” attitude towards the West impacted Western peoples’ sense of identity. When the RCC broke from the Orthodox Church proper, the entire West went with them.
jmt
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
It’s always good to be reminded that someone cares!
I volunteer at a mobile food pantry every month, where the food bank truck comes to a parking lot and we unload 8-10 pallets of donated food, mostly fruits, veggies, dairy and bakery, and put it out on long tables. Pantry shoppers get to pick out what and (within limits) of how much they get. Usually equals about 3-4 grocery bags worth. Volunteers help them carry it to their homes/vehicles. It’s definitely uplifting for both the volunteers and the shoppers.
Another Holocene Human
@Germy: It’s like poor Black Southerners. You never saw anybody work so hard. Crazy hours, crazy working conditions. Cooking food at home, the labor intensive way. House looks spotless.
“Lazy”. “Shiftless”. “Good for nothing”. “Loose shoes and a warm place to shit”.
redshirt
@Another Holocene Human: To be fair, the Roman Empire at the time had Emperors for the East and the West, so the sack of Rome is on that Emperor.
Also, most of Italy and the rest of the traditional Roman Empire was reconquered by the East and held to the late 700’s. The rise of Islam certainly put an end to that.
Frankensteinbeck
@Another Holocene Human:
I think the Czechs were ruled by Austria-Hungary/The Hapsburgs/Holy Roman Empire (all one thing) during most of the middle ages?
satby
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: You’ve had unusually bad experiences then.
Another Holocene Human
@Frankensteinbeck: I have no idea but I do know from talking to Czechs that there were a lot of wars and political upheavals and stuff. Prague is in the Central European “crossroads of Europe”; just for comparison the Turks made it to the gates of Vienna multiple times. Poland, Serbia, and Hungary were all independent kingdoms during the high middle ages. I don’t think Austro-Hungary was even a thing until the 18th century, well into the “modern” period?
I studied me some Hapsburgs in IB history class but IIRC we started with the 16th Cent, Early Modern Europe. Medieval era is a big question mark for me.
NotMax
@Another Holocene Human
Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror is a good start in sketching a composite picture for a general audience.
brantl
@Fixing It: I am as lefty as anybody I know, and I believe that radical Islam is at war with just about everyone except Antarctic natives, and the only reason that they aren’t at war with Antarctic natives, is because they’re penguins
gene108
@brantl:
The problem with “Radical Islam” is it does not describe the complexities of modern counter-terrorism. It is a poorly used catch-phrase.
There are plenty of state actors behind modern terrorist groups, so the idea that the current batch of terrorists operate as “lone wolf” organizations is distorted.
Gimlet
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/260171-trump-paris-attacks-would-have-been-different-if-civilians-were
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says victims of the terrorist attacks in France on Friday would have had a better chance of defending themselves if they were allowed to carry guns.
“When you look at Paris, you know, the toughest gun laws in the world, nobody had guns except for the bad guys, nobody,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Beaumont, Texas, on Saturday. “Nobody had guns, and they were just shooting them one by one.”
The billionaire business mogul said the outcome would have been “different” if citizens were armed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Trump is now twitter-bating that “Obama must say the words!” Perfect time to ask him what would change if the President used that phrase. As accustomed as I am to being out of step with Beltway CW, I am surprised that virtually no one points out how infantile and inane this argument is. Maybe some “liberal” pundits will accidentally read Paul Waldman’s column since it’s in the right media neighborhood.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well, you’ve gotta say the magic words right, or else this might happen.
Ruckus
@brantl:
gene108 covered some of why using radical Islam is not good. The second reason is the conservatives use that to mean all Islam. They don’t think any Islam is good. Of course they don’t think that anyone other than themselves is worthy. IOW all Islam is radical because it is not christian.
Another Holocene Human
@Ruckus: Still butthurt about the Arab conquest of the “Holy Land”.
I was watching a lecture Yale threw up online, some sort of freshman history tour class, and when the Muslim conquests start the professor has to stress that it would be totally wrong to characterize the first century of Muslim conquest as holy war and that in fact when the Muslim Arabs got their unexpected empire they really were not keen on Christians converting because it would mean less tax revenue– and what sybaritic prince addicted to luxuries wants that?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@satby: I’d be having fits if a corporate IT department with control over their own servers had this sort of rollout.
But given the combination of a consumer-grade host with an unusually large database? When I was haunting the phpBB support forum looking for ways to improve performance, I learned that they considered ~20MB a large database. There were two of us trying to manage anything larger: us and Gaia.
One of the hosts we tried flipped out when we sent them the database to upload to the server for us because the zip file “exploded into all these files” all over the tech’s computer. Best guess is that the “tech” knew how to push buttons on phpMyAdmin and had no idea what to do with anything other than a small dump.
And then there was the small company whose cousin had set up their initial site on a small host that couldn’t conceive of a reason why I would want to connect to their server via FTP. I barely managed to get them moved before the idiots went under. IIRC all files had to be uploaded (and downloaded) via a homerolled cPanel clone.
I don’t think my experiences have been that unusual.
NotMax
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Perhaps a fund raiser to snap up HRC’s now disused server on the cheap?
brendancalling
Getting laid and a solid nap.
sm*t cl*de
It’s all about the political correctness and language-policing with Trump.
redshirt
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Like, right? I feel the same way. However!
I like encouraging all posters, regardless of intellect.