Tell Schrödinger I survived pic.twitter.com/y2LUsL5arU
— SciencePorn (@SciencePorn) May 29, 2016
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Apart from settling accounts, what’s on the agenda for the day?
This post is in: Cat Blogging, Open Threads
Tell Schrödinger I survived pic.twitter.com/y2LUsL5arU
— SciencePorn (@SciencePorn) May 29, 2016
***********
Apart from settling accounts, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Comments are closed.
Rich2506
We had ourselves an anti-drone protest on Saturday.
http://prawnworks.net/rlg/2016/Anti-Drone-Protest-May2016.html
TheMightyTrowel
I dropped my phone in the toilet this morning. Got it out fast and then yanked the battery, sim and SD cards. I have a pretty good case and the battery wasn’t wet nor did the water detection stickers turn red so fingers crossed. It’s still living in a paper towel mummy-wrapping and submersed in rice for the next 24 hours.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Mow lawn and do yard work I suppose.
Might go for a bike ride.
This morning we’ll take Doglius out for a walk. That’s usually an evening activity but it’s been too warm and humid for Mrs. Thunder and the dog so we’re trying this in the am when it’s more tolerable.
OzarkHillbilly
To me those eyes are saying, “You’re going to pay for this.”
More weeding of the garden. Probably plant some gourds and the make up batch of sweet peppers. The hail storm of Sat night once again avoided my peppers and tomatoes, focusing it’s fury on my broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and onions, all of which were damaged but most of which survived.
Oh yeah, mow the grass too. Rained everyday/night this past week and the grass just can’t dry out to mow, and now it’s getting knee high too.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: We’re right on the edge of the huge storm but have not had a drop for a week! I spent all day yesterday building some garden stairs out of some of the 6×6’s we had left from the renovation. I’m at the end of 10 days off so I’ll mow and piddle. Oh yea, I have to get out and get something for our 17th today!
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
Baud
@raven: Happy anniversary.
OzarkHillbilly
Another name added to the Wall: Michael G Frey.
Mustang Bobby
The Big Chore of the weekend — hosing down the patio and the furniture — was accomplished yesterday, so all that’s left is a car wash for the Pontiac and reading “A Pinchbeck Bride” by Stephen Anable.
Posted my annual Memorial Day tribute.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: All the creeks are up, flood warnings on the Meramec, I think we got 4-5 inches all told since Tuesday. I’d send some your way but right now the weather gods just aren’t listening to me
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: The brother lived the best life he could. Thanks for posting this.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Nice piece. I only go to the Wall when it’s a vets gathering or late a night. I realize that it’s “Just Another Roadside Attraction” for many and that’s fine but I don’t need to be there then.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Nice.
@raven: A stronger man than I.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Same here.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Happy Anniversary! Our 19th is tomorrow! We’ll have to do something big for next year, I guess…
BillinGlendaleCA
A friend took us out for Teppan Yaki, I took some 360 degree pics: In the entryway, and waiting for the chef.
ETA: Happy anniversary to raven and Betty!
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: You might want to add a NSFW tag to your link.
ETA:. I’m surprised they allow pictures in there.
Raven
@Betty Cracker: I figure a week at the beach was good. I’ll wait for Trader’s to open and get roses.
satby
@raven: Happy Anniversary to you and your Princess!
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning!
MomSense
I’m glad I got my garden chores done (for now!) because it is raining. Guess it will be a cook- in later today.
Happy anniversary, Raven.
satby
@Betty Cracker: And Happy Anniversary to you and Mr. Cracker!
Kathleen
@raven: Happy Anniversary!
bystander
Rainy morning on the Upper Delaware.
I’m loving the Bill Kristol/Trump feud. How many times have I wanted to yell, “Dummy!” at Kristol? Trump got to call him that and “an embarrassed loser”.
Baud
@MomSense: It’s barely past 7 and you’ve accomplished something already? I’m impressed
satby
Another showing of my house cancelled before they ever even saw it because the prospects didn’t like the area (dead town, I assume). So the day of cleaning is off because they only called to set it up last night after I got home at nine. Maybe some weed whacking before it gets too hot, it keeps me busy now that I forbid my lawn guy from doing it because he can’t seem to resist whacking the flowers too. They’re not that hard to avoid, they’re all in defined beds.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: The links are fine, NSFW if you wander off in my other pics.
As far as allowing pics, still photography was permitted, I was there to practice indoor photography.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: I did wander.
Kathleen
Running a 5K for the Free Store Food Bank this morning. Finishing my cleaning. Writing a piece for my neighborhood’s “Scripted Souls” project, which is a collection of art work, photography, music, video and written word which will be published and performed live. The goal is to create community by sharing stories and experiences about living in my neighborhood. The woman who initiated the project is a writer whom I met at the Price Hill Arts Council. Whenever I start feeling cynical and hopeless about the national political scene I find focusing on what’s happening in my community to be very helpful. We face many challenges but also have many opportunities.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Kind of figured that.
JPL
Happy Memorial Day!
@MomSense: How are you feeling?
satby
@MomSense: sounds like you’re feeling better, hope that’s the case!
BillinGlendaleCA
@BillinGlendaleCA: I reset the privacy levels so my photostream should be SFW, now.
MomSense
I am wonderfully unaccomplished this morning. Sipping coffee and listening to the rain. The last two days were spent in the garden which makes me happy. Thankfully I am feeling much better because I don’t think my flowers would have survived another couple weeks of neglect.
Baud
@MomSense: Glad to hear it.
Betty Cracker
@Kathleen:
Excellent advice.
bemused
I have a lovely ceramic planter that I will plant with colorful Coleus but I don’t want to fill the entire 16″ high, 13″ across planter with soil. We move the planter to storage in the fall and it is heavy even when empty. I’m not sure what material to use filling the bottom third space of the planter that would be easy to remove in the fall. I may end up using large rocks unless anyone has some better suggestions.
OzarkHillbilly
I think my favorite from the article.
Schlemazel Khan
@raven:
I went there a 15-20 years ago, it was a weekday, during the winter and almost dark. I had the place to myself. I found the 2 names I had come to see and spent a few minutes just trying to take it all in but I couldn’t. I have no idea what someone who didn’t live through the times would make of it but as a DFH I preferred it to the heroic monuments to war. I have no clue what it would mean to someone who was there. I guess that is why the conservatives hate it so much, it leaves room for everyone to interpret it for themselves.
We’ll do the Decoration Day thing later today. After 2 weeks of mostly rain it appears it is going to be sunny for a bit today.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: Styrofoam?
JPL
@bemused: I used foam blocks to fill the bottom of a large planter. Since I had a TV set delivered, I used that. Yoga blocks would work also.
Schlemazel Khan
@BillinGlendaleCA:
RATS!
satby
@bemused: got any foam packing peanuts? I put some tied into plastic bags in the bottom of my largest heavy pots, then put soil on top. Cuts the weight down a lot. Or you could put a bag of vermiculite in it first, then soil on top.
MomSense
@bemused:
You could use well washed plastic milk or soda bottles.
Schlemazel Khan
Happy anniversary to the Crackers and the ravens!
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
I doubt we have any kind of styrofoam on hand, hate the stuff. I’m looking for a more natural option. We do have straw that would drain water from bottom hole easily and I may try that.
debbie
Happy anniversary to those who have them!
@OzarkHillbilly:
The one underneath with the kid chasing him around the Oval Office desk is great. I don’t think I’ve seen a president interacting so well with children since Lincoln.
bemused
@satby:
Now that I think of it, I think I do have a bag of those peanut thingies.
@MomSense:
That’s a great idea too. Easy to clean up in the fall.
PaulWartenberg2016
@TheMightyTrowel: kitty litter is an absorbent.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Schlemazel Khan: Can’t please everyone.
PaulWartenberg2016
Wait, someone’s having a birthday?
UNLEASH THE CAKE! FULFILL YOUR DESTINY!
Raven
@Schlemazel Khan: I think it’s just right.
catclub
@Schlemazel Khan: I am not sure the conservatives still hate it. I would guess they have realized the Vets really do appreciate it.
debbie
@catclub:
Of course they hate it: War As Slashing Scar on Humanity. They’ve just learned to keep their mouths shut.
Schlemazel Khan
@catclub:
As if the conservatives ever cared for the vets other than to stand on their back to make themselves look taller.
Schlemazel Khan
@BillinGlendaleCA:
On that topic Tom Lehrer said it best
Ultraviolet Thunder
I’m getting obnoxious posts on FB the last few days. They’ll have a photo of the Normandy invasion, or the iconic pic of raising the flag at Iwo Jima. The text will say that these young people ‘didn’t ask for a safe space, they went out and fought for one’, or similar. This is offensive because under the guise of praising veterans it insults college students. That’s really small minded. If you have to drag in brave people to make your petty argument that today’s youth are soft, you really don’t have much of an argument.
liberal
Thanks, Hillary!
Baud
@liberal: LOL Freddie.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
This guy is a political “reporter” for NYT who thinks Sanders can beat Clinton 70-30 in California + New Jersey + District of Columbia + Puerto Rico + New Mexico + the Virgin Islands.
This is Peggy Noonan Mittens-will-win-cuz-yard-signs territory. Only she’s an alcoholic partisan hack who pretends to be Reagan’s widow. He’s supposed to be a straight reporter.
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I think “NYT” tells you everything you need to know.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Just reply with, “So, where are you in the photo?”
Schlemazel Khan
@liberal:
Yeah, Freddie The Bore links are going to convince me of one thing – don’t bother to click there is only bullshit on the other end.
Besides linking to Freddie I think your nym is a tell. Most conservative trolls figured it out a while back that BS nyms like that fool nobody. You must be new at this.
Schlemazel Khan
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
As I said, standing on their backs to make themselves look taller.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: Happy Anniversary!
Elmo
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for that. What an amazing story of resilience.
satby
So now that I don’t have to clean I’m going to also make the new soap I planned…I keep trying to formulate a non-soy version using rice bran oil instead. First version I sort of liked didn’t hold scent long enough, or I put too little in. I lose my sense of smell fairly early in the process, so I have to rely on formulas and measuring.
Yeah, I have odd ideas about what’s fun.
Betty Cracker
Regarding the Vietnam Memorial Wall: I’ve seen it one time, back in the 90s when I was in DC on business. I didn’t have any preconceived notions about it before visiting. I didn’t know anyone listed. Vietnam was my parents’ generation’s war, not mine. But I was surprised by how moving it was.
The genius of the design is how it draws you in. As you start down the path, the wall is low — you have to stoop down to read the names. But as you continue down the path, it gets higher and higher until it towers over your head, and as you continue, the height dwindles again. It reflects US involvement in the war, which started off on a small scale and then developed into a full-blown quagmire at such a terrible cost, then tapered off again.
The simple presentation of the names doesn’t put anything between you and the sheer number of them. It’s overwhelming. It’s supposed to be.
OzarkHillbilly
@liberal: Totally ignoring the fact that ISIS was already in N Africa. Lots of reasons to think Libya was a mistake, but that ain’t one of them.
Schlemazel Khan
@OzarkHillbilly:
Did you not know the link went to Freddie or did you know and click anyway. Personally my stomach is not strong enough, I just ignore his effluent.
Based on your comment I bet that chickenshit piece of work blamed Hillary for ISIS?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@liberal: Wasnt Sanders co-author of the senate resolution calling for military action on Libya?
oops! he was (photo)
U guys are a bunch of losers, aren’t ya.
Jack the Second
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Yeah, it takes a real asshole to look at war photography and think, “I wish today’s youth could have a character building experience like that!”. Assholes.
Schlemazel Khan
@efgoldman:
So Drumpfs fascism is caused by his foolish perception?
Was Weld an alcoholic? I never paid any attention to him. I find it interesting that retired Republican governors suddenly find the Libertarian Party as home, perhaps the #NeverTrump morons should work & vote for that pair.
OzarkHillbilly
@efgoldman:
That would be the unembarrassed loser calling him an embarrassed loser.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: Not that Trump is right, but having the distilled essence of WASPism invoking Kristallnacht is rich.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel Khan: No, don’t see enuf of liberal to know better I guess. And Yes de Bore blames Hillary for ISIS in Libya. (where, yes again, they already were)
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t doubt that if the Obama admin had not intervened in Libya, the eternally leftier-than-thou set would accuse Obama and Clinton of sitting on their hands instead of preventing war crimes. They are cynical assholes who seem more interested in moral preening than a just foreign policy.
But I do think it’s fair to question the wisdom of the Libya intervention and point out that the resulting power vacuum enabled ISIS to take over large portions of the country. The US didn’t intervene on that scale in Syria, and the same thing happened, so there’s no certainty that Libya wouldn’t be a basket case anyway. But it is undeniably a shit show, and arguably, we made things worse, not better.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: They are, it just rings false to me when his line left Europe nearly 400 years ago.
Jeffro
Heading back to National from Midway in just a moment – what a great weekend!
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Pretty much this. It’s all about fun with unknowable counterfactuals.
Josie
@satby: I always found that rice bran oil made nice soap but tended to be a bit soft. I would always increase the coconut oil a little to make up for that. I don’t remember any effect on the scent. Soap making is fun, kind of like cooking or chemistry. I have not done much lately, since the kitchen in my rent house is not conducive, but plan to get back to it in a year or so.
D58826
A write up on huffington about thr blassted e-mails. Hits many of the same points that Adam hit yesterday (to little or no effect).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cynthia-dill/who-really-cares-about-hillary-emails_b_10193776.html
Schlemazel Khan
@Betty Cracker:
That could be the motto of US foreign policy since WWII. Till 1990 we had a solid partner in making things worse but the last quarter century is all on us. It often seems as if our government’s only tool is the hammer and in our arrogance we think that can fix every problem. It becomes important for us to understand that there are bad things that happen that we can’t save and that adding US munitions to will only make worse.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
Obama agrees with you.
Baud
@Schlemazel Khan: We made things better in Bosnia, no?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: An enforced stale mate is better than daily slaughter, but for those born in the last 20 years it doesn’t feel success.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m not sure what success is supposed to look like then. Is everything going to be compared to Germany and Japan after WWII?
D58826
@Baud: Obama/Clinton helped Daesh by not intervening in Syria and by intervening in Libya. D** if you do and D** if you don’t. Reading thru that twitter chain it seems there is a name missing. Oh yes actually 2 names – Bush/Chaney. No invasion of Iraq – no Al Qaeda Iraq and its bas**d offspring Daesh. Whither keeping a residual force in Iraq would have made any difference Bush/Chaney prevented that with the SOFA they negotiated as they slithered out of Washington. It required a total US withdrawal by the end of 2011. In fairness to Bush/Chaney they probably couldn’t have gotten anything better. The Iraqi’s and their Iranian backers wanted the US gone.
WaterGirl
@raven: Happy anniversary, raven!
@Betty Cracker: Happy anniversary to you, too, Betty!
We are all so young, how can you have been married for so long? :-)
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: it doesn’t feel LIKE success.
Why can’t I edit my own comment 5 seconds after it posts? FYWP!!!
D58826
@Schlemazel Khan: Having that
probably helped our foreign policy. When given the choice most folks preferred to speak English, eat Big Macs and wear blue jeans, as opposed to speaking Russian, looking at pictures of Big Macs and wearing single use blue somethings.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: It’s supposed to look like a resolution of the problems that created the mess to begin with progress for all afterwards. Not a stagnant, mosquito infested, algae filled, cess pool.
WaterGirl
@bemused: Turn a plastic pot upside down in the bottom of your ceramic pot. Use the biggest plastic pot that will fit. That will help a lot!
Schlemazel Khan
@Baud:
There have been cases where the military intervened to stop active killing, Bosnia is one of those. Cases like that do not offer many other choices if we are going to get involved. But the active effort to overthrow governments, no matter how awful, corrupt and repressive (or, as in Viet Nam to prevent the election of someone we don’t like) has never ended up well for us, not in the 50s in Iran, the Caribbean or SE Asia, not in the 60s in Central America, not in the 70’s in South America, not in the 80s in the Middle East, Central America, South America. I think we can say that the efforts in Central Asia in the 80’s 90’s and 00’s have not produced positive results for the region either.
I get that in a few of these cases there was an actual belief we could make things right (though far more often it was to advance American business interests) but we need to be more humble and realistic about what we can do & where & how we can do it. Had the French come crashing in here in 1710 and thrown the English out I do not think the results would be what we have today.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: Which is not to say that that is always possible. Sometimes there are no “good” solutions. That is why Obama’s “Don’t do stupid stuff” is the best foreign policy. Easier said than done, but at least one is trying.
I hear the weeds calling my name.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I guess I’m not aware of what’s going on in the Balkans right now that would make you describe it like that.
@D58826:
Right. It’s not like ISIS hasn’t spread to other places besides Libya.
Schlemazel Khan
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have discovered that if you click edit too soon after a post it won’t let me edit it. I assume there is a lag in the database and now I wait 20-30 seconds at least.
rikyrah
@TheMightyTrowel:
I hope that it works out for you, and thanks for reminding me of what I should do if I find myself in the same situation.
rikyrah
@raven:
Happy Anniversary ?
Ultraviolet Thunder
FYWP eated my post about chipmunk babies in the yard.
Well, time for morning walkies with Doglius.
Schlemazel Khan
@D58826:
I think the CCCP both helped and hurt. They certainly limited the amount of adventures we could take unilaterally but they got many here thinking in terms of “hammer first” diplomacy. I posted Lehrer’s “Smut” above in response to comment here I would go with a different tune of his “When In Doubt, Send the Marines!”
The entire SE Asian fiasco was triggered by the Dulles belief that Ho was a commie & we forced him into the arms of the CCCP and the Chinese (whom he hated more than even the French). But they did balance us both good and bad
raven
Thanks ya’ll! Traders was a success. A dozen each red and white roses, a dozen sunflowers and a stupid dog anniversary card.
raven
@Schlemazel Khan: fuck lbj
Baud
@Schlemazel Khan: I hear you. I do think it’s a little different thinking about foreign Iintervention during the Cold War, given the vastly different geopolitical structure that existed then. Right or wrong, we don’t have the type of national consensus now that we had then that the USSR was an existential threat.
Schlemazel Khan
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
I discovered that there are magic words that can make FYWP eat posts & not all of them are intuitively obvious to the casual observer. Some were put in place to vex specific trolls. Someone else here mentioned that they always copy their posts before hitting send or create them in notepad so when that happens they can play around & discover what magic word caused the digestion (or indigestion I guess).
Well, there are graves in need of decoration on this Decoration Day so we are off – I hope you all have a fine day and peace be upon us all
Elizabelle
@raven: The princess must say “thanks for all the fish.” Happy 17th.
And happy Memorial day, to you and all BJ buds.
D58826
@Betty Cracker: It seems to me we parachute into these ‘countries’ with little or no knowledge of their history/culture and then tell them we know how to fix all of their problems and make them into Switzerland.
I say ‘countries’ because the entities in question – Iraq, Syria, Libya, and to some extent Lebanon, are creations of French and British colonial meddling at the beginning of the 20th century. Tribal/clan/religious/ethic loyalty is still stronger than loyalty to the imposed nation state. The US shows up with a master plan on creating democracy now while bypassing a couple of thousand years of history, theirs and ours. Let’s not forget that the ancestors of the Iraqi’s were inventing writing and government while the folks in the then non-existent Britain and France were hunter/gathers. And as far as teaching the world about democracy, the US has devolved to a government in Washington that is unwilling/unable to perform the simple task of confirming a judge to the Supreme Court. A task that before Turtle’s rewriting the Constitution had been routinely accomplished for over 200 years
The Lodger
@Schlemazel Khan: Yeah, there’s a town in Kansas called Liberal too. Means about as much.
Uncle Cosmo
@Betty Cracker: An issue of magnitudes:
Touring in Kyiv (Kiev) some years ago, I visited the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War II (fka the Museum of the Great Patriotic War). Topped by a 60m statue of “The Motherland”, the museum itself occupies two levels. The entire third level, directly beneath the statue’s base, is a Memorial hall displaying marble plaques with carved names of more than 11,600 soldiers honored during the war with the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union–the highest award the USSR gave out. Like the Wall in white wrapped around a rotunda.
Only about 1/5 of the number of names on the Wall–but each holding the Soviet equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor–in a conflict where 10.6 million Red combatants died. (For anyone who might scoff that ~1.1 HoSU per 1000 deaths is promiscuous, consider that the CMoH was awarded for actions in Vietnam at over 4 times that rate–257 with ~60k US combat deaths.)
War is hell.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: Greetings! The package arrived! Everything is great and Mr. Floofy Dog will get his first bath today with his new doggie soap…but don’t tell him. Yet.
D58826
@Schlemazel Khan: I agree. It’s just a lot of countries were more afraid of the Russian hammer and sickle than our badly aimed hammer. It also gave us an external enemy to help tamp down age old regional rivalries. IT was and is complicated.
And yet looks like we might be making a bit of progress against Daesh. The Iraqi’s have started to take back Falluja, they apparently are probing the outskirts of Mosul and US special forces and local Syrians are within 12 miles of the Daesh capital Raqqa. Maybe no drama Obama’s slow but steady low key approach is working. At least for the moment since the enemy always has a vote in these kinds of things
benw
@raven: happy anniversary!
It’s raining here and supposed to rain all day. Looks like board games and bowling with the kiddos are today’s action items.
D58826
@Uncle Cosmo: And upwards of 30 million civilian deaths. American exceptionalism not withstanding the war was won on the eastern front. And FDR/Churchill were quite happy to fight the war to the last Russian
D58826
@Schlemazel Khan: Hmmm. don’t feel so bad now about the post that went into electron heaven last week.
Zinsky
@D58826: Haha!
PurpleGirl
@Betty Cracker: When you saw The Wall, had the “traditional” bronze statue been erected yet? I wish that thing hadn’t been put up or so close to The Wall. I detest it. A friend and I had gone down to DC for a Neil Diamond Concert and spent some time sightseeing after arriving in DC. Although my brother had enlisted in the Air Force to “avoid” the Army draft, I had no names to look for. I was very affected by all those names. (It was possible that in that list was the name of the man I might otherwise have married.) Vietnam was very much my war, the war and the draft was an ever present possible future for so many of my college friends.
J R in WV
@bemused:
We use styrofoam packing peanuts for the bottom half of big pots, then add dirt etc on top as usual. Rocks won’t help with the weight at all.
The pot is much more maneuverable but can become a little more top-heavy if it has a narrow bottom, so you may need to be more careful about leveling the spot where you place the pot before filling with dirt and planting pretties in it.
Best of luck!
PS: these little plastic gems can be had at a u-ship package shipping locations or a OfficeMax type store, possibly also at Walmart but I don’t shop there and so am not sure about that.
frosty
@raven: I’m a little late to the thread but Happy Anniversary all the same! You too, tomorrow, Betty!
StringOnASick
@bemused: use Styrofoam peanuts inside a large plastic bag to fill the lower pot volume with light material.
raven
@Uncle Cosmo: And, in reality, there is no such thing as the Congressional Medal of Honor, it’s just the Medal of Honor but many folks call it the former.
germy shoemangler
I see Rodrigo Santoro plays Jesus Christ in the new Ben Hur film.
germy shoemangler
And Morgan Freeman teaches Ben Hur to ride a chariot.
raven
@PurpleGirl: What’s the difference? the Wall has been there since 82 and the Three Soldiers since 84. When I went with a Vietnam nurse there in 92 she crossed the barrier and wiped the rain off their faces. She said she never really knew any of her patients, just triaged, bagged and tagged them. I then took her down to the Wall and showed her some of my buddies names and told her abut them. It served a purpose.
SFAW
@Schlemazel Khan:
I didn’t know it went to Ferdy’s tweeterscrawl.
When Ferdy was an FPer here, I don’t think I ever read any of his posts, perhaps one or two, but (thankfully) I can’t remember.
After reading that tweeterscrawl of his, I have an idea of what I was missing all those years. Jesus H. Christ, what a maroon.
Beckya57
We’re visiting the Grand Canyon. I’m almost 60 and have never seen it. Time to fix that!
Uncle Cosmo
@D58826: What did Churchill say about the Reds after Barbarossa kicked off?
NB FDR was also willing to have the UK pay to oppose Hitler to the last pound sterling of their financial assets–Lend-Lease only supplanted cash&carry when the Brits were out of ca$h. Thereby helping (slowly but eventually) to unwind the British Empire postwar, with mixed results.
rikyrah
brought this over from the Mayhew thread. Wish a FPer would, well, FP it.
……………….
Surprise, Surprise. Trump’s Been Lying About His Opposition To Cutting Social Security
By Heather
It should come as a shock to no one that Trump’s been saying one thing to his supporters on the campaign trail, while telling the Zombie-Eyed Granny-Starver from Wisconsin something else in private.
chopper
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
if someone can’t say something as anodyne as praise for vets on Memorial Day without insulting someone else, their intent was never to praise vets in the first place.
A Ghost To Most
Miss Bianca
@Mustang Bobby: I like it.
We had our Memorial Day parade on Saturday in our little town, and I found myself oddly affected by it. Normally I don’t go in for patriotic display, but this time it moved me.
StringOnASick
I’m laid up after knee surgery last Tuesday, a clinical trial for an artificial meniscus. The surgery was closer in intensity to a full knee replacement than I realized but should keep me from needing that in my “good” knee; I’ll replace my bad knee in October. I went from being able to do the things I enjoy to not being able to without days of pain, so it is time.
I’m depending on my friends and neighbors since my FIL passed as I got out of surgery so my husband had to go deal with the aftermath and help out his cancer-stricken brother. I’m doing remarkably well using crutches and a rolling office chair to get food and such, but I’m started to realize I’m going to be out of commission for longer than I expected.
So, I hang out in my nest in our recliner, looking out the window and I’m wondering why I’m not hearing the usual riot of birds for this time of year. Anyone else noticing this?
hovercraft
@OzarkHillbilly:
Agree whole heartedly. I think that people are thrown by the fact that he is not your typical politician in constant need of their approval. He constantly ignores the advice of the wise voices of the village. He does what he believes is right and doesn’t seem to pay enough of price for it. The cool label to them is not the cool dude cool, I think most of them mean cold, detached. I think he is both, cool and rational, he doesn’t panic. So while the beltway is setting their hair on fire he thinks through his response and is measured. To them his biggest failing is not providing them with emotional validation, he doesn’t feel their pain/ panic. That to me is one of his greatest strengths, sober and rational. As for feeling our pain, remember Newtown, Charelston, Pheonix, he is empathetic at the right moments when it is important for our country. Freaking out over ebola, bp oil spill and all of the other Obama’s Katrina’s would not be leadership.
James E Powell
@D58826:
I read statements like this one, especially when the subject is the Middle East, and I have to ask, how does this inform our understanding or guide our discussions today? No disrespect to what some people may regard as their ancient and honorable cultural heritage, but who really cares who invented algebra? How is that going to help any of us with problems we are dealing with right now?
A Ghost To Most
@StringOnASick:
Here’s to a speedy recovery
I haven’t noticed any change here, except regular sightings of bald eagles. Maybe the other birds are trying to keep a low profile.
Miss Bianca
@bemused: styrofoam blocks.
J R in WV
@raven:
@Betty Cracker:
Happy Anniversary to you guys.
Mrs J and I went out to dinner last weekend for our annual anniversary to a very small classy restaurant called Noah’s Eclectic Bistro (which was great food) and found a couple of friends celebrating THEIR anniversary there too, which was quite a coincidence.
They were working on their 38th, and on dessert, which was also great.
Many happy returns all you other married folks!!
D58826
America in 2016:
Draft dodger Trump gets a heroes welcome at the annual Rolling Thunder event.
I saw but can’t find the reference that a speaker at the Rolling Thunder event is blaming Obama for the alleged 250 pows still being held by Vietnam.
The American Sniper Chris Kylie may have over stated his medal count according to the Navy. According to Rick Perry it’s all the fault of Obama and the media snakes. The Navy officials who released the records under a FOIA request should be punished according to Perry. Seems FOIA requests are only valid when it’s Hillary.
Sen. Johnson of Wisc. thinks that Hillary’s e-mail severer played a role in the Russian invasions of the Ukraine and Crimea, which occurred 2 years she left office. Get him a google for dumb senators.
all on twitter
Miss Bianca
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I had the same thing go on while I was still following FB. I posted something to the guy who posted that, about a Vietnam vet I knew who, after a few drinks at the bar we both worked at, finally loosened up enough to tell me about watching his best buddy in the corps, a Jewish guy, flat-out frag their CO in the heat of a battle. Everyone hated this CO, but he had made this kid’s life a particular hell with his non-stop anti-Semitic taunts. So, was this guy “too sensitive”, I asked? Did he not need some kind of “safe space”, even tho’ he was a He-Man Warrior?
Strangely, I got no reply.
D58826
@James E Powell: My point is that we parachute into a culture/society that is thousands of years old and act like the tidy bowl man – we can clean up your mess. These folks have been doing this for a lot longer than we have so maybe we should just step back STFU and let them work it out. I know that in 2016 what happens in the middle east doesn’t stay in the middle east but our actions haven’t helped. And if I had a magic bullet I would apply for the Noble Peace Prize. I don’t think there is a magic bullet. The best we can do is make small improvements at the margins. These folks are going to have to figure it out for themselves.
And more than a few people do take it as an insult that we don’t know who invented algebra and fail to respect
,
Lamh36
#NiecyZoe in a good mood today
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/737305238634369028
hovercraft
@D58826:
This is true throughout Africa as well, people always refer to the corrupt dictators as our number one problem. (I say our because my parents are from Zimbabwe, exhibit one). The British and Americans carved out ‘countries’ that never existed and installed friendly regimes, most of whom became dictatorships in order to maintain control over hostile tribes. The constant wars and mini genocides that have occurred over the last half century have been fueled by western weapons and priorities. Since we have mostly focused on killing ourselves and not on exporting our violence, we are largely left alone with the occasional observation that we are just too uncivilized for self rule. It has taken a long time to create this web of chaos and will take a long time to unravel it. Either way many people are going to die. The question always has to be which will be worse intervention or not. I say let us ( Africans, middle east ), sort out our own shit by ourselves. You’ve done enough to get us to where we are.
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly: I love those photos.
@Lamh36: I love these photos, too!
D58826
@hovercraft: Divide and conquer. then let the locals do the dirty job of keeping internal order. The Brits did the same thing in India/Pakistan
We used tribal differences in the US to help ‘win the west’ or ‘lose it’ depending on you point of view.
gogol's wife
@Betty Cracker:
Good description. It is an incomparably moving memorial.
hovercraft
@D58826:
On the one hand my family is hear with me now naturalized , I was born in Milwaukee, but my mother everyday laments the fact that there is basically is nothing to return to. The brits and the americans felt that UK educated Mugabe was a more reliable partner than soviet educated Nkomo. That was in 1980, and he is still the ‘democratically’ elected president today. They have no free press, thousands murdered and or disappeared, they had to change to the US dollar because inflation was over a million %, unemployment over 50%. This is the legacy of intervention, unintended consequences.
Divf
@Lamh36: pure essence of Cute!
Keep these photos coming, please.
El Caganer
@hovercraft: You’re certainly not alone in your thinking. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/2011/03/2011328194855872276.html
D58826
@hovercraft: Yep the Christian west has left a long trail of blood and sorrow. While it doesn’t excuse what we have done to others we have run up a pretty good body count in our own backyard over the centuries.
D58826
Dick Polman on Memorial day
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/national-interest/item/94163-the-qvile-creatureq-soils-the-meaning-of-memorial-day
and the photo he linked to
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jul/09/john-moore-best-photograph-grieving-woman-arlington-cemetery-washington-dc-memorial-day?CMP=share_btn_fb
Ultraviolet Thunder
@D58826:
And they were ahead of the west in art and architecture for a long time after that. A friend in CA was born in Tehran. She goes back frequently and is a very talented photographer. I look in near disbelief at the complexity and beauty of the architectural decoration that she publishes. A 3 dimensional ceiling mosaic of mirrors, based on the number 8, because why not, from 1363. In western Europe that was still the Dark Ages.
hovercraft
@El Caganer:
It’s funny how the interventionists never learn, the next one is always going to be the one where they get it right. While no one wants to stand to stand by while a genocide occurs, very often the intervention makes the situation worse. I don’t know what the solution is, but so far we have not on balance made it any better.
D58826
@Ultraviolet Thunder: The American educational system seems to be exceptionally good at missing 99% of the history of the rest of the world. But if the fundies have their way we will learn that Jesus rode a dinosaur.
El Caganer
@D58826: You mean when he wrote the Constitution? I’m pretty sure he took Amtrak to Philly for that one.
Germy Shoemangler
19th century fable from Ambrose Bierce
schrodinger's cat
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Western Europe’s domination in world affairs is fairly recent. 400 years or so. As for Britain, it was Elizabeth’s reign that was the turning point.
Gelfling545
@Kathleen: Fairly regularly I share the “best comment I’ve read online today” with my FB friends. Today, yours is the one.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@schrodinger’s cat:
I just started re-reading Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel by Francis and Joseph Gies. It’s about technological advances in Europe during the Dark Ages. Progress still went forward during that time but how, where and why isn’t well documented. It wasn’t until around Elizabethan times that scholarship and communication accelerated the pace. That’s simplified, of course.
Kathleen
@Gelfling545: @Gelfling545: @Gelfling545: Thank you so much! That is most kind.
ETA apologies for multiple nyms. I’m suffering from brain fog today.
D58826
@schrodinger’s cat: Yep. Not to downplay the sins of the west, but history was pretty bloody from one end of the globe to the other before Columbus. The west just turned violence and war into a factory assembly line.
Aimai
@J R in WV: We are in Firenze. Prematurely celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary. Yay for all lovers.
Baud
@Aimai: Very cool. Romantic city. Congratulations.
J R in WV
@StringOnASick:
Don’t know where you are, but we’re in SW West Virginia, and have extra birds that usually just pass through on their way wherever. Whipporwill still whipping all night off in the near distance, for one example. Locally we don’t have them but near the bigger rivers there are something like 114 nesting Bald Eagle pairs – up from none following the DDT poisoning and environmental catastrophe of the 1950s and 60s. They do fish 98% of the time, a little carrion as well – Mrs J saw a Bald Eagle swoop a trout from the Arkansas River in CO when we visited friends out there! All were jealous!
Are you doing rehab for your knee work? They started Mrs J walking with a walker the same day, afternoon of her surgery. She started formal PT a week after surgery and did two sets a day of exercises every day she didn’t go to the PT shop. She’s over all that now and able to do more than before the replacement. Surgery on March 15th.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@A Ghost To Most:I was waiting for somebody to quote that line. Thanks.
schrodinger's cat
@Ultraviolet Thunder: This is totally a lay person’s view but I think the divorce with the Catholic Church may have something to do with the flowering of science in England.
Miss Bianca
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): @A Ghost To Most:
This is the one that’s always killed me:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
ETA: The identity of “the foe” is an interesting problem for me in this one. Since in WWI turned out the enemy was us, in so many ways. I look at the world now and wonder who “the foe” is for me – seems like it’s usually not the ones I’m being told to fear…it’s usually the ones telling me to do the fearing.
gogol's wife
@D58826:
That’s a good piece.
Over 70 years ago we helped to defeat fascism. It’s time to get to work again.
J R in WV
@Schlemazel Khan:
I had an Oracle DBA class outside DC way back, probably in the mid 1990s, went with a friend/co-worker who dragged me downtown one night after a quick dinner, December evening, light blowing snow, cold, dark. WE both cried off and on for the hour or so we were there. There was NO ONE ELSE there on that winter night…
I found in the alphabetical notebook at each end of the wall my family name, Mark lastname, who I had never heard of, from California, where no one of my immediate family ever went. It’s a somewhat rare European name, Swiss or Romanian. Shocking, though.
My friend and I were both in the service back in the day… not career, just draftees. We met as fellow IT software guys, worked together off and on for my whole career, he started earlier than I did.
The wall is the most successful memorial I have ever seen, ever. Moving yet simple. As I say, we both cried.
Shell
Embaressed that I had to look up “Schrodinger.”
schrodinger's cat
@D58826: True. Wingnuts want us to believe that the existence of ISIS proves that all Muslims are barbarous. So why doesn’t the colonial era and the two world wars prove the same about all Christians?
StringOnASick
@J R in WV: I’m in Co, west side of Denver. I sat outside and saw a lot more birds, i think i got up too late ti hear the usuasl predawn chorus. It was so quiet this morning at around 7 that it just seemed weird but since then I saw a hummingbird chasing some small brown bird it was obviously pissed at.
Since this surgery left all my parts in place except for a big trim of the medial meniscus, it isn’t like a joint replacement where they have to get you moving right away because of all the surgical trauma. The main idea is to get the dwelling down so the artificial meniscus doesn’t mangle the remaining rim of meniscus that holds it in place. Just this now I was able to get about half my weight on it, a big break through.
That is such encouraging news about the Missus surgery, good job!
Ultraviolet Thunder
@schrodinger’s cat:
Lotta things, but that too. Perversely, Christian monasteries acted as repositories of classical literature and philosophy during the Dark Ages. A lot of it they were forbidden to read, because Pagansim, but when the world was ready for De Rerum Naturum, there it was in a mouldy library in rural Germany.
Stephen Greenblatt wrote a great book along those lines. And he is actually hostile to the Church for all of its centuries of violent idiocy. http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/07/swerves
Aimai
@Baud: Thank you, Baud, i knew Zi was right to support your campaign. It is a glorious city. Very walkable and the people are very indulgent to the masses of tourists.
Ruckus
@gogol’s wife:
I think most of us have been trying. But like all the rest of those over time who think they would like to live under a fascist government, we have our share. I’m not sure why they think it would be an improvement, but they do and I have no idea how to change or even nullify that view other than to minimalize them. The republican party is trying to do to this country what this country has done to so many others over the years.
@D58826:
He’s not wrong, and yet he is. Yes he’s right about drumpf, but drumpf is a symptom. A horrible one yes but he is a symptom of the disease that is the republican party. It’s not that they disagree with liberals it’s that they disagree with the entire concept of this country. It’s not just drumpf, it’s those who support him, those who won’t condemn him. We talk of good cops and bad cops. The worst cops are those that support the bad cops, that won’t challenge the system, that won’t attempt to fix the problems, even if they don’t actually agree. That’s today’s republican party. Drumpf is a horrible candidate and human. But how many republican politicians are lending him support and cover for his fascism? Do they really hate him or just hate that he went there first?
Miss Bianca
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Very interesting article. And Greenblatt is a fascinating scholar and writer. Oh, dear…I may have to add this book to Mt.To-Be-Read. And then try to tackle Lucretius!
Miss Bianca
@Aimai: Yay for You! and happy anniversaries to all and sundry!
Ruckus
@schrodinger’s cat:
Because that would mean that they would have to question themselves and they might find truths that would shake their entire belief system.
But you knew that. It’s even in your name.
Shell
Wonder what stimulates birds to start the dawn chorus. This morning at 5am that heavy rain was still coming thru and it was as dark as midnight. But the birds were chirping away as if it was daybreak.
raven
@Shell: woims
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Miss Bianca:
If you like Elizabethan literature, his book on Shakespeare is fascinating. It’s called Will in the World. I loved it. Per Wikipedia:
He is the editor of the The Norton Shakespeare (2015) and a contributor to the Norton Anthology of English Literature.
I think he’s also the former General Editor of the OED.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Miss Bianca:
I read Of the Nature of Things years ago, but didn’t have the background for it. Still, there are shocking things in it. All matter consists of vacuum and atoms, which are the indivisible smallest particles of elements. 2000 years ago.
Tom
Ideally, I wanted to crawl back under the covers and just go back to sleep.
However, I had to do the weekly grocery run, plus get my hair cut. Now I’m just getting ready to do some school stuff: grading papers, working on a course design document, answering student email and preparing for tomorrow night’s live streaming classroom session.
On the brighter side, we have leftovers so I won’t have to cook much over the next few days.
Ultraviolet Thunder
We dragged our two huge Ficus trees outdoors for the summer. They’ll get cleaned, pruned and bug-sprayed. Then in the Fall they will come indoors all healthy and fresh.
The biggest weighs 200 lbs. I need a nap.
Elie
@Aimai:
Lucky YOU! And happy anniversary! Enjoy? (I’m assuming this is Italy). Have you ever had squid ink pasta? Oh boy do I love that! I love Italian food generally but squid ink pasta or risotto is just one of the most amazing, rich, subtle pleasures…
I love the artistic parts of the Italian culture. I love that when you buy even a little gift, the wrapping or bag is usually cool in itself. I love window shopping in Italy also… and the gorgeous catholic church interiors — just amazingly beautiful…
Elie
Yes, happy anniversaries and all celebrations to everyone… Enjoy your special days. My special day is beautiful, about 65 and low humidity… Just lolling around — out with hubby later to go to movie (Big Splash with Tilda Swinton).
satby
@Josie: Thanks for the tip. I find it creatively relaxing in the same way I find baking; but if I baked this much I’d be Jabba-sized.
Aimai
@Elie: thanks Elie. Yes it is italy. Just siena and florence so very inland. But magical. Truly magical. Last night. Insert cring emoticon. But it was wonderful.
No One You Know
@Schlemazel Khan: Good to know!
rikyrah
@Lamh36:
Absolutely adorable:)
Miss Bianca
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Will in the World is probably the one I would tackle next. I haven’t really followed him since I was in grad school in the 90s, but I remember liking his writing on Shakespeare.
TerryC
@bemused: wood chips, they are light, bulky and are like time-release fertilizers as they decompose – beware of top-heavy things, though if they are below heavy stiff
satby
@StringOnASick: Late back to the thread but condolences on the passing of your FiL. Good luck with the recovery too.