(Arlo and Janis via GoComics.com)
The Spousal Unit was away over the long weekend, and I was going to use the time to do a whole bunch of projects while he wasn’t around to interfere ‘help’. Well, I did make some progress…
What’s on the agenda as we buckle down for another week?
OzarkHillbilly
Egypt has said there is a 90% chance that hidden chambers will be found within King Tutankhamun’s tomb, based on the preliminary results of a new exploration of the 3,300-year-old mausoleum.
Hoping for a mystery of my own to solve.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Maybe Dr. Carson was correct. It’s a grain chamber.
amk
Marriage is a like game of cards. It starts with hearts and diamonds and ends with clubs and spades.
Baud
America needs like a whole month off.
And by America, I mostly mean me.
gene108
Got home last night after a very good Thanksgiving.
Visited my brother and family in NYC. My sister-in-laws sister and her husband and two kids (boy, six and girl, two and 10 mths) also came (my btother’ kids are a bit older at 11 and 8).
My mom also stayed with us and my sister-in-laws parents came during the day. Yesterday, one of my cousins kids, who is a freshman at NYU stopped by. She had gone to NJ to be with her uncle (also my cousin) family.
The almost three year old girl is really, really damn cute.
Though I do not miss either my niece or nephew having the two year old meltdowns, as well as wondering if they need to go the bathroom to avoid accidents.
All in all a very good time.
Also got my hair cut at my brother’s local barber shop place. They did a better job than the local unisex place I go to. I just sat down and the guy started cutting. He did not ask me what I wanted.
In a “sign of our times” moment, we all went to Central Park the day after Thanksgiving. Going from the stone slide play ground to the boat house, to rent row boats (just a bit before the Angel statue) there was a high school marching band from Michigan performing, which had performed in the Macy’s parade the day before (at least that’s what their shirts said).
We listened and at the fourth song, Blue Danube, the band started sprinting to its left (the audiences right). At first I thought it was part of their routine. Then the crowd started sprinting as if something was wrong. So I started running with the crowd.
After we came to rest a couple of hundred feet away, we along with some of the audience waited for a minute or two and when nothing went boom we got on with our day.
Turns out one of the band mothers saw someone put a duffle bag behind where the band was playing, so she “sounded the alarm”. And to me, from the organized manner in which the band ran and the fact they all headed in the same direction, it looked like they had a bomb scare plan in place.
Sign of the times I guess.
gene108
@Baud:
And me. I could use a one month stay-cation…
Though unlike you, I cannot use it to plan a Presidential run…
raven
One more day at the beach. The wading out to my chest in the surf to throw my bait has my left leg hurting quite a bit but I have to get my licks in today! We don’t know if the folks we rent from are going to hang on to this funky old beach house much longer but one can hope. I think ten days may be just a bit too long but it always seems like a great idea when we plan it.
Satby
Woke up at 5 am, and am finishing my coffee and planning my day: orders to fill from my Etsy store, groceries to get because we’re all getting tired of turkey and there’s nothing else but oatmeal, and hopefully time to make a couple loaves of non-soy oil soap, a project I’ve been working on perfecting. Since I’m guaranteed to poop out by dinnertime, I’ll be happy if I get all that accomplished.
Germy
@Baud:
You’re suspending your campaign?
Satby
@Germy: Don’t you wish they’d all suspend their campaigns for the holidays? Even the candidates we like? We could all use a rest.
NotMax
Escalation in the “war on Xmas?”
Baud
@Germy:
@Satby:
Leading by example.
Baud! 2016! Because America needs a break!
NotMax
@Baud
Make America Broke Again!
On second thought, never mind.
:)
greennotGreen
After a good-but-tiring Thanksgiving holiday with the relatives (92 yo mother hosting cousin and her husband, my niece and her husband of 4 months) I’m headed out to the new house-in-progress to paint…some more. Niece and spouse helped me one day so we got a room finished. The ten foot ceiling is nice (unintentional. Let’s just say the original excavator got carried away,) but it makes the walls a pain to paint.
Germy
@Baud: If I read on crooksandliars that you’re clearing brush at your Texas ranch, I may have to reconsider my endorsement.
Headline:
Twisted Sister Will Let Donald Trump Use ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ as a Rally Closer to Help Him ‘Fight the System’
Trump will be using the band’s famous anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It” as the closing song to his rallies. The song previously had a huge reprise after 9/11, when classic rock radio stations around the country put the track back in heavy rotation. (‘Merica.) The band’s frontman Dee Snider told Canadian Business, “[Trump] called and he asked, which I appreciated. I said, ‘Look, we don’t see eye to eye on everything — there are definitely issues that we’re far apart on.’ But thinking back to when I wrote the song and what the song is about, it’s about rebellion, speaking your mind and fighting the system. If anybody’s doing that, he sure is.”
trnc
Carson has stepped in it again. Tour+Words=Policy.
http://www.wral.com/carson-after-camp-tour-absorb-syrian-refugees-in-mideast/15140970/
Exactly. Going through the 2 year process is just a way to pass the time.
I’ve learned something about Carson’s ability to analyze processes. He doesn’t have any. Actually, I guess I already knew that.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone
Germy
@Satby:
Can someone tell me why the campaign season is so long? Was there a chain of events over the last few decades that resulted in these ridiculously long campaigns? Money-raising? Media?
Baud
@Germy:
I think money raising, which would seem unseemly if the candidate wasn’t also campaigning. Also, earlier primaries.
Phylllis
Stuff and things, including a valiant attempt to finish Jay Winik’s 1944, which is due back to the library Thursday.
NotMax
@Germy
Follow the money.
Baud
N.H. Union Leader endorsed Christie. Because terrorism.
Baud
According to the NYT, Obama’s legacy is at stake yet again, this time with the Paris climate talks.
Iowa Old Lady
Back from visiting various people I was glad to see, and glad to sleep in my own bed again.
WereBear
I think four months old is too young to get married.
RedDirtGirl
I’ve got a ten-plus hour drive from Downeast Maine to Brooklyn, following a full 6 days with family. Looking forward to getting back to my cat, roommate, daily grind (seriously) and new guy I’m dating.
Baud
I’m confident there will be much speculation about this guy’s motive.
greennotGreen
@WereBear: What? You thought child marriage was only in other cultures?
Thankfully, he’s a grown young man and quite tall – useful when painting the high corners.
dmsilev
@WereBear: Arranged marriage, one hopes.
NotMax
@RedDirtGirl
If it’s any consolation, there are more grueling ways to get to Brooklyn.
Baud
@NotMax:
Holy cow! That’s amazing.
RSA
I’m off to the gym. Back home this morning, I stepped on the scales and discovered I weigh… exactly the same as at the beginning of the week. But feeling much more flabby. Maybe it’s just psychological? Well, exercise can fix that, too.
David Koch
@Baud: @Baud: I love how the Times says it’s incumbent on the news organizations to directly call Trump a “liar”. Yet they won’t do it themselves.
MattF
Rain for the next few days. Since I won’t get outside, I’ll be sitting around more. Reading more and eating less, I guess.
Kay
This NYTimes piece about the Colorado PP shooter is insane. It starts by telling us how the gunman “was a loner” who “wanted to be left alone”. It then recites a 20 year documented history of how he harassed people, including peering in their windows and following them, to the point where they made police reports.
I love how “loner” now means “I get to aggressively harass everyone else and then retreat to the safety of my isolated trailer and be left alone”.
MattF
@David Koch: “Asshole” would do.
Baud
@Kay:
On GMA this morning, they interviewed one guy who said that the shooter would hand out anti-Obama pamphlets within three minutes of meeting someone. Interviewee called it a strange thing to do.
Baud
@David Koch:
Obviously, they’re not a news organization.
debbie
@Baud:
When did the Union Leader become such a liberal rag?
MattF
@Baud: When did Christie become The Scourge of Terrorists? I missed that.
Kay
@Baud:
The AP described him as a “recluse”. Except for following people in his car, peering in their windows, and eventually taking hostages and killing people. Those people he was spying on, following and taking hostage would not leave him alone.
MattF
@Kay: Just not a people-person.
WereBear
I am waiting for a cable guy, or someone like him.
We got a notice from Time Warner that we need our modem swapped out. I can do it, except we have two modems, a splitter, and a tangle of wire back there. They tell us we canceled the phone and most of the cable, so we shouldn’t have two modems. I said nonetheless, we do, and I’m not risking being without internet for days by messing with what is no longer a straightforward switch of the same kind of equipment. We’ve been asking for this mess to get sorted out for months now.
They wanted to charge us to send a technician. We said it was their mess. Four phone calls later, we have someone coming. And they sent us a box with a new modem and something else in it. Simple and straightforward my foot. I won’t do what they said and lose our internet and have them charge me to fix it.
And this will continue and get worse, because Time Warner is no longer raking in the cash with both hands by simply existing. Now they will keep raising their prices for no reason at all and we will keep calling up and complaining and chiseling the price back down.
Calling up and harassing some hapless employee is now the way we communicate with Time Warner. And as soon as we have another alternative, we will be on it like a shot. Right now, there isn’t one.
Baud
@Kay:
He’s just a little shy.
What I want to know is how a guy from North Carolina ends up in Colorado Springs. Are there no other Planned Parenthoods in between?
David Koch
Union Leader is really stupid. by issuing an endorsing during the mad shopping/holiday period no one will notice (other that us news geeks).
If they waited unitl mid January, after the holidays, when people are playing attention, then it could have meant something.
it just shows us how dysfunctional and bankrupt conservatives are in basic blocking and tackling.
JPL
@MattF: Christie can keep the terrorists in NYC. He knows how to shut down bridges.
JPL
I found it a tad creepy that Dear seemed to hang crosses on his abode. Maybe he was seeking protection for his sins.
Germy
@WereBear: It should be a public utility.
I remember the early ’90s when it was more of a nerd/hobbyist/tech enthusiast thing, with people using “the well” and it was fun but not necessary.
But now you are expected to use the web to get a job. Searching for a job, and then if you get a job, you are expected to set up an online account and download forms, etc.
Germy
@Kay: He was just a mixed up kid… uh, wait…
MomSense
I seem to be doing research on canine politics. It’s a lot like people politics what with all the arguing about stuff and territory, just a lot more sniffing of privates. The rate of acceleration from play to snarling is alarmingly fast.
WereBear
@Kay: We need a new word. And we need better ways of stopping this kind of person much earlier on. A recluse is someone who avoids society and reluctantly surfaces long enough to pay their overdue taxes or get a bit of long-neglected medical care. That’s a severe dysfunction, but they are hurting only themselves. This man was different.
We had a thread a while back where the problem of the outright psychopath was discussed; the law is not designed to handle such, and they don’t have any answers. Like the men who will kill both the ex-wife and then themselves, and often, a whole bunch of others who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. These people have multiple danger signs, these people break the law before it gets this far, these people have a pattern one can see from space.
We need laws to avoid these situations, not belately say, “Okay, now we can deal with you properly.”
JPL
@MomSense: Fun times! Which one is the alpha dog?
WereBear
@Germy: We have an online business. I monitor certain things for work, even from home.
Mr WereBear has an online friend in hospice who is using Facebook to keep in touch. He, himself, has also got a chronic illness and is stuck inside much of the time.
It’s about as needed as electricity at this point.
Another Holocene Human
@Kay: If he’s a “loner” then he lashed out for inscrutable mountain man reasons, not because he’s been watching Carly Fiorina on the teevee box or online.
“No online persona” no way this asshat wasn’t trolling online. Probably just paranoid enough (after all the arrests and shit) to use handles. Some waste of life filth troll that nobody even on his favorite forums will miss, and if he mostly stuck to righty forums it’s not like they’re going to out him either, because that makes them look bad.
Another Holocene Human
@JPL: Maybe he’s afraid of his fellow RAHOWA enthusiasts and want them to know there are no Muslins or j00s about.
They hiss and flee in fear when they see a cross, after all.
donnah
My adult middle son got to stay a whole week home with us, and it was lovely. But today he heads for home and his job at Habitat for Humanity, and we will miss him terribly. Thankfully he comes back for Christmas, though, so we’ll enjoy having him all over again!
Now I can stop cooking every night, having also prepared a Thanksgiving dinner for fourteen people. I want to nail the kitchen shut.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: Well, the best thing to do is deal with it aggressively in childhood and high school, and by aggressively of course I don’t mean “with aggression”, I mean by spending money $$$ on focused intervention and using proven programs that work even if they require hiring specialists $$$ and spending money on kids nobody cares about $$$.
That’s the most effective way.
MattF
@Another Holocene Human: Early intervention in psychosis. It works.
MomSense
@JPL:
Korra. She is not exactly welcoming or nurturing to this puppy. Turns out we have an authoritarian/megalomaniac for a pet. She can fluff up her fur like a cat, too. It’s wild. Last night we were narrating like the old Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom tv shows. They are briefly in their crates this morning.
Zinsky
@Baud: NH Union Leader endorsed Chris KrispyKreme. Because terrorism.
Why? Do they think the fat fuck is going to sit on the terrorists?
Satby
@Germy: apply online and in at least two cases I’ve run across, the applicant needs to set up an online account, download the application, print it out themselves (spending their own money on ink and paper), and then hand carry it into a store.
Hell, one large retail pharmacy chain has two different “skills” tests before they even call anyone for an interview, requiring about two hours total just to apply for an entry level job.
Germy
@MomSense: Our cat went apeshit last night. She was downstairs and suddenly we heard loud meowing and window scratching and thumping.
We investigated, and found her at the downstairs window, her tail fluffed up like a squirrel, hissing and screaming at an outdoor cat who’d wander onto our property to stare fixedly at her. First time I ever saw this particular stray.
Other cats come into our yard, and she watches them, but quietly. For some reason, this new cat triggered intense rage in her. It took quite a while for her to calm down. She kept running back and forth to different windows after the interloper had disappeared.
Later, she was sprawled on her Relax Pillow, in a comfy sleep position, but her eyes were still wide.
Gin & Tonic
@Zinsky: That’s the part I don’t understand. Giuliani can be annoying as all hell with his 9/11 shit, but, you know, he was in fact Mayor of NYC at the time. Krispy was at the same time a lobbyist for a law firm in Trenton, holding no elective or appointive office.
WereBear
@Another Holocene Human: Exactly! It saves so much down the line, and yet we are ruled by assholes.
Baud
@MomSense:
I wouldn’t necessarily say a lot more.
Running for president has opened my eyes to many things.
Germy
@Gin & Tonic: Wasn’t he one of the Brooks Brothers rioters during the Bush/Gore recount?
Baud
@Zinsky:
Maybe if he was president, the terrorists would feel sorry for us and leave us alone.
MomSense
@Germy:
We have a tortoise cat who lives across the street. She delights in doing her fancy pageant walking with tail swishing back and forth in front of our living room window. Drives my dog insane. Now we have a huge squirrel who sits in the tree right outside the same window (when the cat isn’t there) and munches while the dog flips out. He munches, looks at the dog going nuts, munches, looks at the dog, and on and on. This squirrel is definitely trolling us.
Germy
@WereBear:
Depressing, but I suspect we have ALWAYS been ruled by assholes and fools. Ambrose Bierce, in his 19th century “Devil’s Dictionary”
Gin & Tonic
@Germy: I think he was W’s NJ campaign manager in ’00. Whether he went to FL, I don’t know.
MomSense
@Baud:
I knew about the baby holding and hand shaking, but it sounds like you are learning about the inner workings of presidential campaigns. Hmmm.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Hi MomSense. Did I miss it? Did you get a second dog?
WereBear
@Germy: It’s not her. It’s the interloper. He or she is desperate and/or full of hormones, and sent the stare of death at her.
If he/she keeps hanging around, steps will probably have to be taken.
WereBear
@MomSense: How old is Korra? And do you know anything of her background?
Most dogs are innately tolerant of puppies.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: This must be a natural instinct in animals. On our regular walk there used to be a dog that was tied to a stake in the ground, and my cocker spaniel knew exactly how close she could get to that dog without him quite being able to reach her. We decided this was the dog version of the na-na-na-na-na taunt that kids sometimes use.
JPL
@WaterGirl: Squirrels are like mean girls in high school. Once the darn rodent took the dog’s ball up the tree.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: Psychopathy proper (not just sociopathy) also seems to be hastened along by brain damage, so providing appropriate income for families and safe home environments (which includes education for parents) would probably help a great deal.
If you read the recalls it seems like there is an unending stream of killer cribs for sale in America’s Wall Warts and K Clubs.
Coffee tables suck also. Never have one in a home with toddlers. Unless it’s made by Little Tykes (no sharp edges).
I’ve noticed that poor parents can be divided into two categories: those with intergenerational support, and those without. The former have smaller families. Their children are well dressed and very content and quiet in public. The latter seem to have more kids than they can handle. Parents scream and hit, children wail, shriek, and grab things (and people) they shouldn’t.
It’s great when struggling young families can rely on older generations to help them. But that isn’t always available. It seems like we as a society have reneged on providing the kind of social, physical, financial support that in-over-their-heads young parents need.
Those screaming children will be kindergarteners soon … and so on.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Baud:
He’s been registered to vote in Colorado for about a year.
Schlemazel
@WaterGirl:
Years ago I read a book by an English raptor expert. He was gifted some giant African eagle after saving it for some king. He often kept it tethered in his yard. The neighbor used to let his beagle harass the bird & it knew to stay outside the birds reach. After repeated requests to control the dog made no change the guy put the bird out untethered. The dog harassed the bird & the bird swooped down & flew off with the dog & it was never seen again.
Bill Arnold
@Another Holocene Human:
Did his home in Colorado have electricity? According to reports, his home in North Carolina did not have running water or electricity. i.e. it is possible that he did not have much connectivity, or have computer skills. (News reports have not been helpful in this regard – we will find out eventually.)
Another Holocene Human
@MattF: So, funny story, I went to elementary school in a VERY liberal suburb, moment of silence for the Brookline clinic bombings and all that, and in the later grades we studied a short story about a naive, idealistic teacher who tries to reach out to a troubled boy, but fails and instead he draws crude graffiti of her which I guess hurts her feelings or something. Something about that story always bothered me (for one thing, it’s a political message but seems to be made up, IOW it wasn’t written by someone who had the same background as the boy in the story), and I don’t like it any better now. There’s good evidence that even seemingly minor interventions by caring adults can turn abused and neglected children away from a lifetime of sociopathy. It doesn’t have to be a teacher–it could be a doctor or a dentist. Or a barber. Somebody who treats that child like they’re a human being who matters to them.
I don’t know why we were reading reactionary propaganda packaged as “gritty” realism. (Who goes graffiti-ing and draws pictures of their homeroom teacher, is my question.)
Another Holocene Human
@Bill Arnold: It could be he was tuning into hate radio rather than the internet. Just a guy like that, handing out Obama pamphlets … you don’t obtain those over the airwaves, one; and two, just think for a RWNJ like that the internet would be too attractive to pass up.
If you ever tune into hate radio they’re constantly dropping URLs to “find out more”.
Also, it’s clear he wasn’t holed up in the house … ever.
Wifi thief?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Another Holocene Human:
NYTimes:
Another Holocene Human
I fully admit I could be wrong, because this is intuition and not based on facts. But the minute info came out about this Dear guy he just struck me as the sort to have a long (and creepy) internet history.
ETA: see above and there’s the sex angle. Should have known he was trolling BDSM forums with his proven history of sadism and boundary violating.
Bill Arnold
@MomSense:
Troll back. My grandfather drilled walnuts and nailed them to the porch railing so they would spin when the squirrels tried to chew them. Maybe a walnut on a wire, hung 1.5-2 feet up, would work too.
Another thing people do is set up squirrel obstacle courses, and increase the difficulty over time, then capture video.
Amir Khalid
Some interesting news from Malaysia: The Sultan of Johor has issued a decree banning e-cigarettes, effective New Year’s Day. E-cig dealers in the state have until December 31 to close shop. He has ordered the state Exco (cabinet) to find ways to use state and local bylaws to implement the ban. The federal Health Ministry is in favour. But online news site Malaysiakini cites constitutional experts who say the Sultan has no authority to decree such a ban (paywall, so no link; sorry). And the state’s mostly Malay vaping retailers and consumers are upset by the ban, which some of them have warned may cost the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition votes in future.
Meanwhile, old-fashioned cigarettes remain legal in Johor and all over Malaysia.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Bill Arnold: His cabin in NC didn’t have running water. It seems to have been a hunting cabin; he also had a home in nearby Swannanoa.
WaterGirl
@JPL: The image of the squirrel taking the ball up the tree made me laugh. “Mean girls” manages to convey so much with just two words.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
Interesting he would ban vapers but not the real thing. Any clue why? Is the tobacco particularly strong there?
I’ll admit my ignorance (I had to google Johor), is the Sultan prone to these sorts of random decrees?
Elizabelle
Good morning, all. In Brooklyn at an air bnb home; delay this morning as the cat bnb took up residence on my lap. Once I stopped petting and cooing at it, cat kinda stalked off like “eff you.” Forgot about that feature in cats.
WaterGirl
@Schlemazel: Did the author display any regret? I feel bad for the poor dog.
May I ask you a question on this fine Sunday morning? Things seem to be going a bit smoother in your life these days, have you ever thought about going back to your old nym? Or would that be tempting fate?
Kay
@WereBear:
There will always be a tension there though, because even outside the criminal system, in the probate system (which is where mental incompetency petitions go in my state) it’s a profound and complete loss of rights for the ward. There’s a couple of “emergency” levers one can pull, but it’s a long process because it’s a profound loss of what are fundamental rights. If we speed it up there will be mistakes that go the other way- some people will lose rights who probably shouldn’t have. I get the complaints from family members all the time- they’re exhausted (because ti takes years before they turn to courts for help) and they want to know why the process “isn’t working”- it is working. It’s partly designed to protect the rights of the mentally incompetent person. It’s not just “paperwork”- these are fundamental rights they have and they lose them with an “incompetency” adjudication.
WaterGirl
Am I just having a run of good luck, or are comments being eaten with less regularity than they were a week ago?
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Yes! A hound dog who is way too sweet to deal with a very bossy boss dog.
MomSense
@WereBear:
She is a year old and the puppy is almost 8 months and bigger than she is. She is very sweet with little puppies but this dog doesn’t read puppy to her.
Bill Arnold
@Another Holocene Human:
The NYTimes profile linked above (@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: ) is helpful. In North Carolina at least he was not unfamiliar with the internet.
Schlemazel
@WaterGirl:
No, he felt that the dogs owner sealed the dogs fate by not keeping it under control. He had had several encounters with the owner who had refused to cooperate. He was very concerned about the amount of stress it placed on the bird. I believe he felt justified even though it was sort of a dick move.
MomSense
@Bill Arnold:
If my ear drums were tougher, that would be a great idea.
Another Holocene Human
@Bill Arnold: Um… yeah… so… I immediately saw that post when my post loaded. That’s why I added a comment referencing it.
Now that facts have been dropped into the conversation our speculation can end, thus ending the need for this byplay between us … right? Like, I’m trying to figure out why you addressed me again.
WaterGirl
@Schlemazel: If only the bird could have carried the human away!
Another Holocene Human
@WaterGirl: No, I think things have improved a lot on that end. I haven’t seen one of those “no data” errors in some time.
Randy P
Appears we have another budding wingnut in our family.
We managed to have a really nice several days of Thanksgiving, because everybody knows to stay off any political subject. But one of my nieces had brought a boyfriend, apparently a pretty serious relationship. Really nice guy, and like my niece brilliant and talented. And then suddenly out of the blue (well, not totally, we were talking about the strain of refugees on the European countries) on the last afternoon I hear him say “The majority of the Syrian refugees are males in their 20s you know”. And I thought, “uh oh”.
Wasn’t surprised a few minutes later to also learn that “most school shootings are just shootings that happen near schools, and so the problem is being exaggerated” and “numbers of mass shootings are going down”.
Fortunately by that time the combination of my niece pulling on his arm (probably kicking his leg under the table), and the rest of us studiously trying not to respond, managed to sink in. He shut up and the party proceeded along friendly lines.
Kay
@WereBear:
They “cycle” too which makes it harder. So they can have a period where there’s a lot of complaints and then there’s intervention and they get on meds or just don’t just act out for years and then they re-appear. Someone outside the system reading that record would say “there were warning signs!” but this is a 20 year period with big gaps where there’s no anti-social behavior. If we pull the big trigger without giving them a chance to get treatment and retain rights then we’re just telling them there’s no point in getting treatment.
Another Holocene Human
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: And this is how the lazy journalism sausage is made.
Find hunting cabin on internet search.
Write story about “gentle loner”.
Plagiarize story for wire report.
Repeat live on air (less of that, I think, because holiday weekend–be thankful, we’ve been spared Don Lemon’s take on all this so far).
gene108
@Kay:
From my experience, “loner” is a catch-all word used to describe people with bad interpersonal skills. Basically, you do not have friends, therefore you are alone.
Even, if you are aggressively threatening people, you will be considered a “loner” because socially you are isolated or are isolating yourself from interpersonal relationships.
MattF
@WaterGirl: It seems better. I’ve had one WTF crash in Safari on a BJ-reload, but otherwise things are okey-dokey.
ETA: But the text on the comment-edit buttons is still unreadable, despite promises to fix it.
Schlemazel
@WaterGirl:
Nym. I hardly even think of it any more, it just is. I’ll skip the details but there is never a day I am not given a reminder of my condition. Between the radiation & surgery I have issues with eating & choking. Because I have to catheterize multiple times a day I have to be disinfect my hands several times & that worsens my hand eczema – and yet I am fighting a never ending staph infection, been on antibiotics for 21 days now & last test came back positive. The fractured pelvis has deteriorated to where I have pain every day and will probably need replacement when I can no longer put up with it. I am nearing the end of the 20 life expectancy for the lenses used to replace my congenital cataracts and am beginning to notice.
None of this improves my naturally cheerful and upbeat personality. Mostly I just keep that to myself and not dwell on any of it but you asked. I doubt I will ever be Frankly again.
Another Holocene Human
@gene108: But in this case it’s a lazy journalistic lie. Actually, he is the sort who wants people close to him because he is sadistic and likes to fuck with people. We know this from his brushes with the law. And, ding ding ding, he was online. Where sadistic people loooooove to troll, because they get their jollies from fucking with people.
He killed a man* at Planned Parenthood just to watch him die. Mark my words.
*okay, multiple people
MattF
@gene108: Used to be called ‘anti-social’, but I guess that term isn’t used any more.
WereBear
@Kay: Yes, and there were very casual restraints in decades prior, I understand. But aggression and damage need to be contained, I think, and if we have to build a new structure just for such, so be it.
Homeschooled children are beaten and starved with relative impunity in some states; rights of the victims need to be factored in more than they are now, I think.
Yes, that makes sense.
Amir Khalid
@Schlemazel:
The Sultan doesn’t make a habit of decreeing stuff because he has no such power. Indeed, no Malay Ruler can issue decrees in his state; they all rule with the “advice and consent” of (i.e. instructions from) the state’s chief minister (elected head of government).
gene108
@WereBear:
You may “appreciate” this video :-)
WereBear
Aaaaand… Time Warner didn’t show. I called, and they have no record of a service call being ordered. This time I went straight to a supervisor and he will try to get a tech here today, if not, tomorrow. And we piled up some credits on the account and made sure our service tier is correct.
So if all goes well I will be better off than before, but it got totally screwed up twice before, so I’m not hopeful. I’m just not. At this point it seems likely we’ll get two months of free service only we won’t have any service at all.
Time Warner logic.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
Well, that is a good thing then. I knew it was a democratic government but didn’t know what powers the Sultan might have (cool title though!). Do you have a guess as to whether he will be able to pull this off or is he just whistling in the dark?
WereBear
@Schlemazel: If he’d let the raptor carry off the asshole neighbor I wouldn’t have a problem with it.
MattF
@WereBear: Hmm. And Time-Warner was going to merge with Comcast– whicn– wait for it– is generally acknowledged to be even worse in customer service.
Schlemazel
@WereBear:
Agreed, it was a dick move but he was protecting his bird who was bothering nobody. How many times are dogs put down after an attack when it is the owner that should be put down? It’s not fair but it is the way the world runs.
MattF
@WereBear: This is the reason I activated the ‘hot-spot’ functionality on my iphone. It’s not great and it’s not free– but it’s not nothing.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Thanx Kay, every time we have one of these situations it seems the fact that even mentally ill people have rights seems to get forgotten.
Another Holocene Human
@MattF: anti-social as used by psychologists and the courts is worlds away from social anxiety, agoraphobia, and social avoidance
Amir Khalid
@Schlemazel:
Who knows? His Royal Highness has the federal health ministry and the state Exco on his side, so he could get away with it. On the other hand, he has no explicit legal authority to order this, so it could be challenged in the courts, and the federal minister for rural and regional development says the ban will hurt many ethnically Malay small businesspeople.
ETA: That last point is a serious political consideration in Malaysia, especially for PM Najib Abdul Razak who leads an ethnic Malay party.
WereBear
Yes. I’m not arguing with anything you are saying. I’m just saying, as put together at this point, it’s not really a working system. Yet.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: What works in Germany (which has a much lower murder rate than the US) is a lot of supervision. Part of the reason all of these houses of horrors are emerging in Arkansas is that the state both lacks resources for child support and protective services ($$$) but it also is deliberately handicapped by the powers that be in terms of carrying out their mission. Whereas in Germany they had a situation (publicized in a very slanted way by homeschooling outfits in the US, who grifted off of it) where a homeschooling cult was physically abusing and neglecting children, and they swooped in and broke that shit right up and people approved of that. The FLDS engaged in the systemic rape of female children and the throwing away of male children (into the fucking desert!) and Joe American sitting at home felt so bad for those darn mothers, just send the kids back already.
In the US, we DON’T agree that children have rights. Many Americans think that parents SHOULD have ultimate control over children’s lives, even life or death as long as it’s “God’s will” (blame the deity for deliberate human neglect).
And they say the US has the greatest number of serial killers known in the world. I wonder why….
ETA: I got on a tangent but I meant in Germany they supervise folks on probation more than we do, and that includes psychological support and monitoring … which they consider normal
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
Thanks for all this – it is fascinating to learn about the workings there & how different politicians work.
WereBear
@MattF: I can only imagine what that is like. No service AND they come over and beat you with sticks.
MattF
@Another Holocene Human: Hmm. Poking around a little shows that ‘anti-social’ refers to behavior that violates social norms, rather than to the causes of any individual’s behavior. Interesting.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: There’s mentally ill, there’s dangerous, and there’s where the two intersect. This guy committed plenty of crimes, but we’ve got people in jail for life because of three bad checks. And Mr. Dear keeps being able to terrorize his neighbors and accumulate lethal weapons because…
That is my point.
gene108
@Another Holocene Human:
Most Americans approve of taking kids out of abusive situations, as a matter of principal.
The Fundies in this country are very well organized and vocal and have been working for the last thirty-five years to undermine child abuse laws, so they can raise their kids in a Biblical way, without the State’s interference.
Sort of like the gun control issue. Most people favor it, but most people have other shit on their minds, like bills, career, family members, etc. than lobbying for gun control. The gun-nuts have very little else on their minds.
The only real way around this is to get more people to actually vote, so even though 18% of the population may be in favor of turning a blind eye to child abuse, their control on elected officials would evaporate, if 50%+ of the population voted during every election, because their control evaporates as they become a smaller and smaller percentage of the electorate.
When only 35% of the people vote, courting the 18% of crazy people will get you a victory.
Paul Weyrich explains this in 1980.
MattF
@WereBear: In fact, yes.
Brachiator
@gene108:
I can relate to that. I got a haircut yesterday from a new barber. I explained what I wanted, and the barber followed some of my directions, but proceeded to give me the haircut that she thought was best. It looked OK, but again, was not what I wanted, so I asked for some further adjustments. She then rushed through with clippers, comb and scissors, but gave me something that was closer to my preference.
I thought I got all my errands done late Friday and Saturday, but find that I have to some grocery shopping today.
I’ve been having a little fun recommending the new Wirecutter section “Sweethome” to friends looking for appliances, kitchen gear and such.
Some examples:
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Two really can be easier than one, once they work things out and everybody knows where they stand. But it doesn’t sound like it’s easier just yet! :-)
Kay
@WereBear:
It’s complicated and obviously you know that, but even there we run into problems. People go from “rights of the victim” to believing the victim is a party- that it isn’t “state v perpetrator” but is instead “victim v perpetrator”. Then we get into that “analysis” you read all the time where the victim has “forgiven” the person so it’s all fine or the victim wants people imprisoned without process and the public interest completely drops out. Lawmakers never learn, either. They went absolutely bonkers with juvenile sex offenders in my state and now they are looking around, seeing all the collateral damage and quietly dialing it back. They never should have gone so crazy in the first place. They do it over and over and over, because there is no state legislator who is going to stand up and say they’re worried about the rights of an accused sex offender. They know this political reality- that the “check and balance” falls apart on these issues. They swing too far anyway.
MattF
@Brachiator: I’ve followed a few of the ‘Sweethome’ recommendations (bath towels, humidifier, broiling pan) and they’ve been good.
WaterGirl
@Another Holocene Human: Yay for that!
Botsplainer
@Brachiator:
I quit needing a meat thermometer years ago. I’m really good at gauging it by time, color and feel.
WaterGirl
@MattF: Glad to hear it’s a trend. Seems like Germy’s comments were being eaten all the time. Maybe he will be the true test of whether the comments being eaten thing has been truly resolved.
I know Alain is working hard on the website and he’s happy to have input and feedback, which I think is key. I was very happy to hear a recent reference to the back arrow, too, even though it’s not back yet. So even though there’s lots to still fix, I am way more optimistic that we will have a decent website at the end of this process.
WereBear
@MattF: Geez. It’s dingoes all the way down.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
We have demanded a lot from Korra. She had a guest dog here for a few days who ate all her food and played with her toys. She was very gracious and now determined not to make that mistake again. About to go for a four mile drag in the woods. Hopefully they will be 1/4 as tired as I will be at the end.
Brachiator
@Botsplainer:
Can I send you to my cousin to help with her Christmas cooking?
WereBear
@Kay: I know several burnt-out child psychologists. I’m totally familiar with how difficult and byzantine it can be.
But if our current setup with the shovel and the stick isn’t working, it’s an actual task to create a new setup which uses wrenches and pillows. A task legislators find much more difficult than just yelling about how they are going to “Get tough!”
I’ve learned that yelling about Getting Tough is stupid and counter-productive and indicates nothing will really be done about that actual problem. If only more voters knew that.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Missed my chance yesterday, but I do hope you have a relaxing (if that’s what you need), adventuresome (if that’s what you want) vacation cruise. Bon voyage!
Schlemazel
@WereBear:
If only more voters knew anything, anything at all
WaterGirl
@Schlemazel: That’s a lot to deal with.
Stupid me, just because you could eat meat again and haven’t said much about the other stuff lately, I should have known better than to think things were rolling along pretty well for you. I think I mentioned before that my mom had cancer of the mouth and the radiation and lack of saliva made her life a living hell, so some of what you’re going through isn’t just words to me.
Feel free to virtually smack me for my cluelessness. Big hugs.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: That’s what it’s like with Comcast, too. They all suck. It really should be a public utility. sigh.
Edit:
@WereBear: Time Warner doesn’t beat you with sticks? Their customer service really is better than Comcast.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Wow, two big does on leashes! I have enough trouble with a 40 pounder and 12 pounder at once. You are amazing!
Brachiator
@Another Holocene Human:
It’s not just laziness or a deliberate capitulation of the “establishment media” to right wing interests. The downsizing of newsrooms is making it impossible for credible journalism.
I posted some stuff the other day about how the strangulation of the LA Times is reducing the possibility of journalistic integrity. The Tribune Company, which owns the paper, recently fired the recently appointed publisher because the guy was trying to do journalism. And now they are delivering what may be the final death blow via buyouts:
It’s no wonder that other news organizations have been reduced to regurgitating wire copy.
Brachiator
@Schlemazel: A friend and co-worker recently had health and recovery issues that are similar to yours. He is doing much better now. I wish you well, and hope for good outcomes for you.
WereBear
@WaterGirl: Well, the tech person hasn’t shown up yet…
WereBear
@Schlemazel: Damn. Thank goodness for being upbeat. It’s about all you have right now!
Best wishes for any kind of improvement. My MIL dealt with some terrible quality of life issues after oral cancer treatment, so I have some glimpses of the difficulties.
Brachiator
@MattF:
In addition to recommending this site to friends and family, I see quite a few items that I might use as well, and I am generally useless with knowing what household and kitchen items are worth buying.
But I went with the tech side Wirecutter recommendation when looking for a chromebook, and absolutely love my selection (Toshiba chromebook). I guess that I am finding Wirecutter and Sweethome to be the Consumer Reports of the Internet era.
shell
@WereBear: Switched from Comcast to Verizon a couple of years ago. Recently, out of the blue, some Comcast flunky called saying I still had their old modems. Informed then , no, Id returned them to one of their local offices when I switched. ” Did I have the receipt?” she asked. “It was over two years” I said, “of course I don’t.” Had to repeat it three time s before it finally sank in.
WereBear
@shell: Are they still going to hunt you down and make you pay back fees for modems you didn’t have?
Because I wouldn’t put it past them.
And how is Verizon? We have FIOS here and the downstairs neighbors are okay with it, but we have much higher usage than they do. She checks her email once a day, he doesn’t have any, and they occasionally watch a movie together on their Roku box.
And they still have issues. :(
NotMax
@WereBear
Sorry to hear that. Is there an ombudsman in your state whose office you might call to inform?
Lots I could say on the negative about the local TimeWarner (phone tree from hell, billing department straight out of Kafka, bait and switch pricing, etc.), but not when it comes to their service department workers.
Courteous, on time, knowledgeable, amenable to customer preferences and tenacious in tracking down and fixing problems. Couldn’t ask for more. It’s a long run from the telephone pole at the street up to the house. So long that there is a second pole on the property before the wire reaches the abode. Every few years the sun, rain and wind take their toll on the wire along that run and they have always promptly replaced the entire length at no charge and without having to nudge them about it.
Now, my previous internet ISP company (who have since closed up shop and fled the island)…. Nod to keeping blood pressure reasonable mandates saying no more.
Anoniminous
@Brachiator:
Newpapers are a dying business in part due to changing times and because they’ve destroyed their product.
Botsplainer
@Brachiator:
Over or undercooked?
Schlemazel
@WaterGirl:
No, thanks for caring I appreciate that. I try not to focus on all this shit because it doesn’t help and just makes me angry. I make an effort to not talk about it much here because who needs to hear all that?
I joke to myself that I am like Job except God lost the bet (I imagine a dollar, just like the Dukes)
Kathleen
@Kay: I think Times also referred to him as “gentle” (as discussed downstream via Anne Laurie’s post). You know – except for the lashing out violently thing.
NotMax
Enlightening survey (and Amir, if you’re around, Malaysia comes out lower down the chart than I, for one, might have expected – would be curious of your thoughts on the reported numbers there).
In nations with significant Muslim populations, much disdain for ISIS
Schlemazel
@WereBear:
The “good attitude” bit was sarcasm, I was never really upbeat to start with.
It all sounds worse when I lay it all out at once, really you just learn to live with it & make the best.
The one real positive I have from my life is I always have a plan B, C and D at least. I have seen so many people fail because they assume plan A will work and don’t plan beyond that. My experience is failure is always an option & always prepare for it.
NotMax
@NotMax
Pre-coffee link fail.
Fix: In nations with significant Muslim populations, much disdain for ISIS
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
Link doesn’t work. You fix?
opiejeanne
@Schlemazel: Did he ever see the bird again?
Schlemazel
@opiejeanne:
Yeah, it returned a few hours later. This has always been something that fascinated me about falconry, these animals are wild & could easily support themselves without humans yet they willingly return to the fist. I assume some do take off but I’d love to know what makes the birds ‘loyal’ to the human.
I’d like to find the book again but literally the only thing I remember about it is this story. I think it was an interesting story of a life lived caring for raptors at a time they were viewed as vermin but I can’t think of anything about it right now except this episode.
Germy
Helen MacDonald wrote a memoir “H Is For Hawk” which I haven’t read yet.
http://www.amazon.com/H-Is-Hawk-Helen-Macdonald/dp/0802123414
WaterGirl
@Schlemazel: You are a better man than me! I can’t imagine that I could handle all that even half as well as you do.
And on a happier note, I have been catching up with The Librarians. I just finished season 1 so now I can start watching the current season. It’s pretty silly but they don’t take themselves seriously, which is a big part of why I like it.
Marc
I switched from Cox to Centurylink about three years ago. Was sick of the rates being jacked up every year, for service which seemed to get worse, and of course had to fight with phone reps to deal with issues. I only have internet through Centurylink, and have not had an issue the whole time. Google has had its eye on Phoenix to roll out its service, and now Cox is promoting its ‘Gigablast’ Internet. I’ll stay with Centurylink until they give me a reason to leave.
WaterGirl
@Germy: For the past two days, BJ has not been swallowing up any of my comments. Since you seemed cursed by that even more often than I was, I am wondering if this has been resolved for you, too?
Nancy
@Schlemazel: nice how dogs get to pay the price for having asshole owners – I’m sure the dogs death turned the owner into an awesome person
Germy
So far no comment devoured today
JMG
I have FiOS and except for them dropping the Comcast-owned Weather Channel, I have no complaints with cable or internet service. Of course, my town did not allow a local monopoly, so there are three competing services, those two plus RCN, so service damn well better be good. Score one for Adam Smith.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
A quarter of Malaysians surveyed are sitting on the fence re ISIS. I didn’t think it would be that many either. I have a hunch that some are torn between a Muslim’s reflexive support for jihad, which Muslims are taught to think of as a good thing, and horror at ISIS’ terror tactics.
What really surprises me is that a whopping 62% of Pakistanis, five out of every eight people in a nearly all-Muslim nation geographically close to the Middle East, don’t seem to know what to think of ISIS. You’d have thought they would have made up their minds, those people.
opiejeanne
@Schlemazel: That’s really interesting.
Many years ago we were on a narrow, hilly road in Southern California, above Yucaipa, and we were following a vehicle that had a couple of odd dark shapes in the back seat. When we got close enough we could see that there were two Golden Eagles on a large pole where the back seat would have been. They were a little hunched over because they were so big.
I have always wondered what he was doing with them because they are not something you can own legally in Calif; not sure you could even get a special permit. The vehicle didn’t have Forestry markings and it was white, and Forestry didn’t have white vehicles back then.
JMG
@Amir Khalid: It’s a country where the violence level is so high, many folks might regard “don’t know” as the safest answer to any political question.
Amir Khalid
@JMG:
Good point.
Bubblegum Tate
Remember CJ Pearson? The black teenager who made that video criticizing Obama, thereby becoming the both the GOP’s new Black Friend and the GOP’s new Face of Cool Conservative Youth? Yeah, him. Well, funny thing: The Laquan McDonald video has made him turn his back on the GOP:
sukabi
@Germy: Pretty sure its a combination of the media’s needing another horse race, their corporate overlords hunger for ever more ad $$$ and the political parties fund raising for the next time.
MattF
@Bubblegum Tate: Makes you realize that all the conservative activists out there are people who never had their political ‘moment of truth’.
sukabi
@Amir Khalid: could be that folks are just tired of the status quo….seems to be the state of things everywhere.
Amir Khalid
Five minutes of stoppage time after the 90 at Anfield, with Liverpool FC hanging on to a 1-0 lead over Welsh visitors Swansea. Sir Alex Ferguson used to call this “squeaky-bum” time.
ETA: Liverpool hang on for the three points. Up to sixth in the English Premier League table.
Origuy
@opiejeanne: I’ve seen golden eagles at falconry shows in California. You do need a permit. The one I’ve seen had been injured by power lines. They called her “Sparky”. They’re very impressive close up. There were almost a dozen birds at the show I was at, in the Pleasanton Highland Games. The handler said of all the birds there, the golden was the only one that saw humans as prey. That may have been a slight exaggeration.
ETA: It’s a federal permit. The Fish and Wildlife Service is in charge.
Schlemazel
@Origuy:
There is a national Bald Eagle center in Wabash MN (home of Grumpy Old Men). They have a half dozen Bald Eagles that are injured & can’t support themselves any more.It’s stunning to see them up close, they are huge.
Last winter we were driving from Walker to Bemidji MN & saw 40-50 Baldies in a tree, they were taking turns feeding on a deer carcass. I’ll try posting pictures later.
ruemara
@Kay: would you believe that’s the better version? They initially called him a “gentle loner”.
Bubblegum Tate
@MattF:
Yeah, basically. Either that or the money got to be good really quickly.
Another Holocene Human
@Kay: You’re totally right about this, this nonsense about victim as party — until we get to family law. And then you have perps that revictimize victims over and over again using the access and cover of family relationship. Whether it’s angry, obsessed exes, child-rapers, or spouses who use children as pawns (up to and including kidnapping them), the safety and well being of child and adult victims of domestic abuse and of stalking, terrorism, and threats, have not been well attended to by our courts.
Germy
@sukabi: Makes sense to me.
Another Holocene Human
@shell: Why the fuck do they want a 2++ year old modem? (One they’ve probably deprecated.)
Fraud. I guess that’s the answer. Profit margin saver of phone companies since forever.
Another Holocene Human
@Schlemazel: pretty sure they use leashes and conditioning on young raptors
not really that amazing when you think about it … more sad-making, actually
Amir Khalid
@Another Holocene Human:
Because the contract says they got to have it back, so it doesn’t mess up the inventory count. That’s my guess, anyway.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
I love The Librarians. I love shows about smart people.
MattF
@Amir Khalid: So, they get it back and then thow it out because entries in their inventory database don’t have an ‘abandoned at zero value’ option.
Marc
@MattF: When I left Fort Carson, I had to turn in my field gear. They didn’t have a record for my jacket, so the inventory clerk stated it would mess with their records, and to hold on to it until told otherwise. It’s been 21 years, I think it’s mine now.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
@rikyrah:
I also like that show.
opiejeanne
@Origuy: Aha. I did not know that.
This guy had TWO of them in his crappy little car.
opiejeanne
@Bubblegum Tate: He is A voice of his generation; doubt that he’ll become The Voice.
ArchTeryx
@Schlemazel: Being an amateur ethologist, I’d say it’s probably simple conditioning. Predators always seek out the easiest meals possible – every bit of energy you don’t spend locating food is energy you can store for later hunts, or for bad hunting conditions, etc. The unending threat to predators is starvation, and their instinct and intellect both are hardwired to put it off as long as possible. Ain’t no paid vacations in a predator’s world.
Falconers do lose birds on a fairly regular basis, especially early in the training process. In many cases, though, the birds’ prey drive kicks in, they get out of sight of the falconer and the lure, and can’t find their way back. So they simply resume the free-hunter lifestyle.
Ruckus
@ArchTeryx:
They do train with a food reward, don’t they?
I would think that training animals with a source of food to be very effective in getting them to like a situation as long as they don’t perceive anything else as a threat. Works with dogs and cats, why not with other species?
WaterGirl
@rikyrah:@Baud: I see I am in good company!
I guess there are 3 or 4 Librarian movies, but I have never seen them. I think I checked Netflix at some point and they aren’t on there. It would be fun to see those, too.
Schlemazel
@ArchTeryx:
There used to be a guy who displayed raptors at the local ren fest & he once said he releases his birds after a couple of years and lets them return. I didn’t know if he was noble or just BSing.
It seems like a very powerful thing to ‘control’ a bird of prey.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Kay:
This part of the thread may be dead, but now I’m curious — are there steps between having to leave someone alone and a total loss of rights? It seems anecdotally that that’s how it works, but I’m not sure what it looks like from your perspective. Could the missing link be making a few intermediate steps available before being forced to declare someone incompetent?
And, of course, I think we can all agree that our current mental health system really sucks ass, especially when it comes to mentally ill people who are a danger to themselves or others. I think the head of the federal prison system says that he’s running the country’s largest mental health system, but it’s stuck inside a prison system, so he’s limited by law in what he can do.
workworkwork
@Germy: I think the media has found that it beats covering actual news.
Seriously, I grew on on Walter Cronkite and the Huntley/Brinkley Report and I can’t stand two minutes of TV news, either local or national.