For hours each day, these prison inmates make personalized quilts for children in foster care https://t.co/nfOwsP8ole
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 18, 2021
We can be more than the sum of our worst days…
Fred Brown was 25 years into a 15-years-to-life prison sentence when he discovered that he enjoyed cutting out fabric squares of princesses and Care Bears and sewing them into quilts.
“When I was a kid [in Chicago], my mom sewed drapes, but I never thought of sewing as something I’d want to do myself,” said Brown, 66, an inmate at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Mo.
As he started quilting in the correctional center’s sewing room, he was struck by a newfound respect for the craft.
“I learned quickly that women who have sewn all their lives are mathematical geniuses,” he said. “It takes a lot of math to calculate your seam allowances. And the angles and circles. There’s a lot that goes into it.”
Brown, who is serving time for armed kidnapping and rape, said he began sewing four years ago when he heard about a small group of inmates who gathered daily in South Central’s sewing room to volunteer to make quilts for charitable organizations and children in foster homes.
“When I learned that I could help bring a smile to a child’s face, I was all in,” he said. “Right now, I’m working on a puppy quilt that will go to a 13-year-old boy. I don’t know anything about him, but I have a feeling he’s going to love this quilt.”
Brown’s latest creation is among more than 2,000 quilts that have been made by inmates from fabric donated to the prison in the last decade, said Joe Satterfield, a prison case manager at South Central who oversees the program…
Most of the men who participate in the program are fathers, he said, and more than a few have known the uncertainty of growing up in foster care.
“They can relate because they’ve been there,” Satterfield said. “It gives them comfort and satisfaction to know that a quilt they’ve made is going to a child who may not get another birthday present.”…
Mousebumples
Awesome! My cousin had been involved with a fostering success program to help foster kids succeed in college. Foster kids need so much more help and support than they are (by and large) given.
Elizabelle
Great story. And props to the quiltmakers, who are indeed skilled with the maths.
Fair Economist
Prisoners being allowed to do something both constructive and likely helpful to rehabilitation? Who’d have thunk it in this era of corrupt prison guards?
Dorothy A. Winsor
What a nice story
narya
That story made my week–YEAR, maybe. I love everything about it.
Baud
This makes me want to go to prison.
Quiltingfool
Well, now I know if I commit a crime that lands me in the slammer, I might still get to make quilts. Lol. I’m glad these guys are doing something for others.
When I worked for the state parks, they had prison crews cutting cedar on park land. We all ate lunch at the same time. Now, the guys who did this were non violent offenders and they stayed in some cabins on park property. A couple of them remarked they were glad to have a job where they could be outside and be productive, and time went by fast. They didn’t want to sit around doing nothing all day. Not sure if they got paid, if they did, it wasn’t much.
Ken
A natural progression for someone in politics.
Another Scott
@Baud: [snort!]
We’ve missed you. Very glad to see you back.
Cheers,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Oh Baud. Never, ever change.
Wag
Great story. But I think I got something in my eye…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
What a nice, heartwarming story ^^
@Baud:
But if you went to prison, how would you run for President, Baud? Well, I guess you could always run as a Republican lo
Oh, at the risk of sounding like a brown-noser you’re always on point dude. Glad to see you back!
Cermet
Is good they are doing good; what isn’t good is most prisoners never get 1) help with their issues – physiological, emotional, drug and/or anger 2) Education to prepare for life outside 3) training on how to live outside 4) skills related to 3 &4. No, we warehouse humans and desire punishment not correction. Typical christian view towards error and why atheist tend to be both more moral and far better people..
debbie
Reminds me of Rosie Greer needlepointing on the Tonight Show.
Comrade Colette
@Mousebumples: Do you know the name of the program, and/or where it’s located?
Alison Rose
Um….am I alone in not finding it sweet and heartwarming that the kidnapping rapist enjoys making blankies for kids?
Another Scott
Popehat is good people.
Another vouch-for-her:
Cheers,
Scott.
Faithful Lurker
My quilt guild makes quilts for Child Protective Services, Hospice, the Oncology Treatment Center at our local hospital and helped with supplies for the quilting program at the medium security women’s prison nearby. We have already overloaded everybody in our families and anybody else with quilts, so we make them for organizations. Oh, don’t forget the Quilts of Valor program. The purpose of that group is to give a quilt to every veteran. I’ve made 4 of those.
When I worked at the local quilt shop, every once in a while a male quilt maker would come it to buy supplies. It was interesting how men approach quilt making. They would have exact plans, color schemes, measurements, etc. More like a woodworking project. As the Quilting Fool and I can attest, quilt making is addictive and very satisfying.
debbie
@Alison Rose:
Redemption, or the possibility of it, is a wonderful thing to see.
eclare
What a wonderful story! So glad for the prisoners and the kids they are helping.
debbie
I received an Amazon order less than 23 hours after I ordered it. I don’t have Prime. Should I be suspicious?
Gin & Tonic
@Alison Rose: Are prisons about retribution or rehabilitation, to you?
Mousebumples
@Comrade Colette: it started at UW Stout but may be at other University of Wisconsin campuses now.
“Fostering Success | University of Wisconsin – Stout”
My cousin was in foster care for a year or so in the middle of her parents’ messy divorce. After graduating college, she worked at Stout for a few years and now has a job with the state, working with foster youth. Great program. ?
Ken
@Elizabelle: Martin Gardner once did a Mathematical Games column on Greco-Latin squares, and the (then-recent) discovery of a 10×10 square. A quilter soon sent him a quilt patched according to the 10×10 pattern.
I’ve also seen quilters use Penrose tiles, which must be an absolute bear to piece (especially the kite-and-dart tiling); and various tilings of the hyperbolic plane, which are great for all those times when you want a quilt that can’t lay flat.
Another Scott
She knows how to do this politics stuff.
Cheers,
Scott.
Comrade Colette
@debbie: You could always leave it on your porch until (a) Wednesday or (b) it’s stolen, just to get that regular-Amazon-service feeling.
dmsilev
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
There’s precedent, and he wouldn’t even have to descend to the Dark Side. Eugene Debs ran for President, as a Socialist, from prison in 1920.
Another Scott
@debbie: No.
They’re seemingly constantly experimenting with delivery processes, and the pandemic has messed up some things and they’re probably trying to adjust. (I have Prime and occasionally it takes a week for stuff that’s in-stock to arrive; other times it is less than 12 hours.)
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Scott.
Faithful Lurker
@Ken: The easiest way to piece the dart and kite patterns or other complex shapes like those tiles is English Paper Piecing. It’s the oldest form of quilt making. Little pieces of fabric are folded around a paper shape and the edges whipped together by hand.
There are examples of quilts made in this way from the 1300’s.
I love this stuff and hearing about how making quilts can change lives.
MomSense
@Alison Rose:
Not alone.
Alison Rose
@Gin & Tonic: I can’t read the whole thing because of the paywall. Does he express remorse? Is there anything about his attempts to truly atone for his crimes? I believe in rehabilitation and strongly oppose the violent and horrid conditions in prisons. But I don’t think that someone who committed a crime as monstrous as rape should get to be seen as a sweet guy because he takes up a cute hobby in jail. That itself is not a sign of rehabilitation.
Steeplejack
@Alison Rose:
I haven’t read the story, but I have gotten cynical enough that when I see these micro descriptions I sometimes wonder if there’s a story behind the story involving a connected daddy who didn’t like someone messing around with his little girl. Not saying that’s the case here, but the thought does arise.
ETA: Okay, I read the story. No further details given.
debbie
@Comrade Colette:
?
satby
@Alison Rose: Well, he’s been in prison for over 25 years and is likely to be there for life, so it’s not like he’s a danger to kids. Besides, aren’t we liberals the people who believe in rehabilitation?
BC in Illinois
@Baud:
@Ken:
In regard to the politician-to-prison pipeline, my brother had a suggestion a number of years back for a specific term limitation law for the Illinois Governor.
You could be elected for only one four-year term, followed immediately by a six-to-ten-year prison sentence.
Baud
@Alison Rose:
The story is about the program. The closest thing to remorse was this.
Steeplejack
@Comrade Colette:
? Well played.
Gin & Tonic
@Alison Rose: I haven’t read the story either, and know nothing about his case. But I think it’s interesting that after 25 years in prison, to you he is a “rapist.” To me he is an inmate who’s been inside for 25 years, and maybe is trying to do some good.
I guess I’m not cynical enough.
Cermet
@Ken: Or needs to cover an infinite area on a finite table … ;)
Baud
@Baud:
osest = closest
Elizabelle
@Alison Rose: Maybe so. Can’t people find some redemption, or outlet for their humanity, no matter what they have done?
Ken
@BC in Illinois: I’m also in Illinois, and when people make remarks about the number of governors we’ve put in prison, I say that we do tend to do that with criminals. I then sometimes ask how many of their governors should have gone to prison. Former Missouri governor Greitens — sorry, I mean prospective Republican Senatorial candidate Greitens — comes to mind.
Gin & Tonic
@Ken: We’ve only imprisoned one Governor here. But an imprisoned Mayor was far more colorful (and, frankly, effective.)
Cermet
Again, didn’t christ say – punish all who do evil – even if just in their heart? Wait, that was the old testament philosophy. That is the issue with our country – all christians care about is punishment, not redemption; the reason why so many black men are in prisons’ for what rich white men are now doing (though, still a federal offence) and are making many millions off of: so-called legal weed
A lot of christians here who this outrageous double-standard and utter hypocrisy doesn’t bother or am I just whistling in the wind, with this group?
mrmoshpotato
Andrya
@debbie: I do not have Amazon Prime, but I sometimes order from Amazon IF I can’t get the thing anywhere else. (Due to Amazon’s appalling labor policies I get it elsewhere if possible). Getting the order within 24 hours isn’t universal, but it sometimes happens, and it has never been a problem. I don’t think that you need to worry.
Alison Rose
@satby: Like I said, I do believe in rehabilitation. But that doesn’t mean we pretend someone who did something so heinous is Mr Rogers now because he learned to sew. Fine if he wants to do it, but giving him a glowing puff piece in a major newspaper seems unearned.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Fuck George Ryan, and FUCK BLAGO!
Greetings from Chicago!
Alison Rose
@Gin & Tonic: Ok, I’m going to bow out because this is getting difficult for me. I will just say, I have personal reasons for the fact that yes, no matter how many years have elapsed, a rapist is still a rapist. If you don’t have the same reasons, count yourself fortunate.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
I think that taking most delivery in house has helped a lot. Building more warehouses that cover large territories with lots of customers helps. Sure there might be a lot of driving for some drivers and sometimes shipping has to be warehouse to warehouse and then to the customer but I’m pretty sure jeff can handle the price of doing all this (about a thousand times over). It really depends on how much he wants to deliver soon so that people want to buy from/through him.
debbie
@Ruckus:
Maybe the drivers should be the first to unionize?
Delk
@mrmoshpotato: I used to walk my dog past the halfway house Betty Loren-Maltese was serving the last of her sentence. She would be in the yard with the smokers not wearing makeup.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose:
Don’t bow out. You have a right to your opinion. I’m the child of a murder victim, and there are things that are just too visceral for me to regard objectively and dispassionately.
Steeplejack
Redacted.
scav
@Alison Rose: I didn’t see anyone handing out unconditional halos to him personally, although I did see some people finding the story heartwarming (along with a crowd considering a life of crime in order to pick up a hobby). Assigning unconditional and irrevocable horns to him (and all his actions) did seem your default option. Plus you seemed more than ready to deny him even the transient pleasure of doing something nice for children in evident need while still serving his sentence.
Lyrebird
@Alison Rose: Sending thoughts of light to you, whether or not you read them, and kudos to you for taking care of yourself.
@debbie: I really appreciate how you worded your comment, especially since I could not think how to say something along those lines while having my own visceral reaction.
Virtual candles for everyone on BJ, anyone who likes the idea at least..
smith
@Andrya: I stopped buying from Amazon several years ago, not only because of their labor practices, but because I think it’s really dangerous for both our economy and our politics to let one company gain a near monopoly on online sales.
the pollyanna from hell
I would not try to measure another human’s rehabilitation without a lot of engagement, even intimacy. It is to me like psychological diagnosis in that way. My own rehabilitation is the one I usually have to work on.
Quiltingfool
@Faithful Lurker: I don’t know where you live, but gee whiz, I wish we were neighbors! I love quilting, but don’t have anyone to talk quilts and I miss that. I refrain from quilt talking to others as their eyes glaze over and that is a terrible faux pas, lol!
Gin & Tonic
@Alison Rose: It seems I have triggered something for you. I am sorry for that.
Quiltingfool
True dat.
CaseyL
@Andrya:@smith:
About the only things I order from Amazon are gifts for my brother, who lives in Norway. Amazon seems to be the only online bazaar with international shipping. (If any of you know someone else who does this, do please let me know!) (Ebay might, but they don’t always have the items I’m looking for.)
Otherwise, I try my best to order from a preferred site, or the site of the company actually making the product. I’ll do a search on Amazon, to set an idea of quality and price, and then go elsewhere to actually buy. (Amazon product reviews are very useful.)
Besides the lousy employment practices, Amazon seems to be the primary source for substandard products made in China. Like the ones you hear horror stories about: people who ordered furniture, or clothing, or housewares, and what they got was dollhouse furniture, ghastly pattern-print copies of the actual clothing item, and housewares that fell apart if you looked at them funny.
debbie
@Lyrebird:
Thanks. If I am hoping for redemption from loved ones I’ve wronged, I have to allow for the possibility of redemption for others.
Sure Lurkalot
For you podcasters, I recommend Ear Hustle about life in San Quentin, produced mainly by a volunteer there and an ex-inmate (who was incarcerated there the first few seasons until Jerry Brown commuted his sentence). At times horrifying, funny, inspiring, galling, the episodes are about 45 minutes long and at least for me, thought provoking for hours after.
I just learned the show was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for audio recordings in 2020, the first year for such category.
https://www.earhustlesq.com/about
Suzanne
@mrmoshpotato: I went to see Steve Hofstetter perform a couple of weeks ago. He is a funny dude. Enjoyed his show very much. He has moved to Pittsburgh and started an arts foundation here.
Morzer
Speaking of future prison inmates, it seems Florida’s Slimiest (excluding the Qunuch of Mar-a-Lardo) married a woman who is waaaay too old for him… and had to “elope” to California to do so:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/22/matt-gaetz-republican-sex-trafficking-investigation-marries-california
different-church-lady
@Alison Rose: That did bring me up short, yes. It’s undoubtedly a jarring juxtaposition, especially without context: “Wait, did you say rape? I’d like to hear a bit more about that before I get the warm-fuzzies about this one.”
Maybe he’s reformed, maybe he’s on the path to reform. Maybe he’s a mass of contradictions. Without the details I think a reasonable person has the right to be disconcerted.
rikyrah
Good story ?
Geminid
@debbie: At a national meeting earlier this year, the Teamsters voted to unionize Amazon, and not just the drivers. This project will take a while, but the union may have what it takes.
mrmoshpotato
@Delk: Had to look her up. No wonder she’s a Rethuglican.
Ruckus
@Alison Rose:
Not projecting to this particular case but in our criminal system many go to jail for a long time and while that may be earned, often it is not. An example, I know a woman who has been in jail almost 50 yrs for murder. She was not the only person convicted for the murder, I believe she is guilty of the crime she was convicted of but she is by far the last one of the group that did the murder still in jail or living. Her parole boards have twice granted her release but two different governors have denied that. Of course she couldn’t support herself out side of jail because of her age and record, her family is gone so I really don’t see what she could do but I suspect that given our system she has very limited options. Which is another reason not to give way overly long sentences. It’s a balancing act and one we do very poorly but our heritage is part of the problem.
Elizabelle
@Morzer: Gag. And he very recently tweeted a photo of her sleeping with her mouth hanging open, while they were on a jet.
Run, girl, run. Too late.
I wonder why they moved the ceremony up so much. Time will tell.
Kay
Very angry that Biden pulled out of Afghanistan and hoping to punish him for it.
They’re the pro Afghanistan war lobby at this point. They’re not even pretending.
NotMax
I iz disappoint.
@debbie
If you find items arriving 22 hours before ordering, that’s the time to begin worrying.
;)
indycat32
@Quiltingfool: Another quilter here. Do you happen to live in Indiana?
Yutsano
@Elizabelle: If she agreed to the marriage then she has to know exactly who and what Gaetz is. But never underestimate a person who wants to believe only the good things about their future spouse.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
Gossip Twitter was chortling that Gaetz got married because a wife can’t testify against her husband.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Link to the specific tweet from Bo Erickson.
Ruckus
@debbie:
I’d bet it will be all or nothing. But yes, if the company/owner won’t be reasonable then I say unionize.
Owners pay people to work, they do not own them. And I say this as an ex employer and a person responsible for people who worked for me, even if I didn’t establish the pay, I could make working better and I could make it worse. As a person who has also collected a paycheck from others I know when I’m being screwed and when I’m screwing others. I don’t like screwing others, it pisses me off that someone thinks I should because it’s wrong and it’s counterproductive. Jeff wants to be the biggest shopping store ever, he has to understand that he can not do this alone and that screwing his employees all the while becoming one of the richest in the world, is not a good look nor a good situation.
Baud
@Kay:
It’s the unprofessionalism that’s really something to see.
Mel
@Faithful Lurker: Yes, it is! It’s one of the few things that clears all the worries out of my mind for a few peaceful hours. My great grandmother taught me when she was in her 80s and I was about 6 years old, and the habit has stuck for almost 50 years now.
Currently working on a batik star quilt for my great nephew, who my niece is teaching how to piece quilt blocks while he waits for his purple star quilt from his old Auntie to be completed.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Related insight from a U.S. senator:
Faithful Lurker
@Quiltingfool: I’m in far western Washington State but there are usually quilting groups, guilds, everywhere. There should be one near you. Where are you?
Capri
@Quiltingfool: Talk to me all you like – I’m also a quilter. When I finish a project I tell my husband that he has to fufill his husbandly duties and ooh and aah over it. He doesn’t know what he’s looking at, but he obliges. I can’t join a local guild due to working insane hours, but have done on-line quilt-alongs. It is fascinating to see the same basic pattern recreated in many ways. I recommend them highly.
Faithful Lurker
@Mel: It would be peaceful for me if I had a better relationship with machines. Sewing machines hate me. I guess I’m not patient enough with them.
zhena gogolia
@Kay: The replies are epic.
Faithful Lurker
@Capri: How do you find the on line quilt alongs? So you have a link?
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: That is exactly my first surmise.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Biden has effectively taken away 20 yrs of news stories from them. They built up news organizations in Afghanistan and across the middle east and now that’s just been cut back. He’s cost them money and they really, really don’t like that. The war gave them one more thing to talk about, to ruminate about and he just took that away from them. They don’t give two shits about peace or a country or war or anything but them making bank. They hired people who believe 100% that war is good for their business and that we are quitting, running away. That does not make good TV, even if it makes good humanity. Of course they are pissed. President Biden has done the unthinkable, he’s cut them off at the knees and the wallet.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Good on Murphy.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: That’s my senator!
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne: I don’t remember how I came across him. But I enjoy his YouTube channel immensely.
Kay
@Steeplejack:
I know there are a lot of people who are genuinely interested in the Afghan people and their future, but can we also admit the obvious? That this thing generates a TON of money for a certain set of people and Biden just shut off the spigot? Because that’s true too.
I would expect a news reporter to present both of those truths. Unless they’re advocates. Advocates pick and choose.
Ruckus
@different-church-lady:
I say I have to agree. I think most jail sentences are way too long. But. It also depends on the person and who they become. Very few people are the people at 65-70 that they were when they were 25. Or younger. That they would do insanely bad criminal things and never learn from that is not a good endorsement of our penal system and says as much about that system as it does the criminal. And our system getting paid on how many they continue to hold within it does not help.
Geminid
@Kay: Erickson is pretty damn full of himself. He and his colleagues ignored this slow motion failure in Afghanistan until they couldn’t. Now he wants to propagate polling influenced by his and others’ stupid hot takes. There used to be this quaint notion that a reporter was not to make himself part of the story. That has gone by the wayside as people like Erickson rediscover their courage after four years of laying down on the job.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay:
I thought it was bad for politicians to be “poll-driven”?
I think CBS has some very strong Fox-Lite tendencies, a lot of back and forth with personnel, I believe, on- and off-camera types.
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus:
Then all of the warhumpers can go enlist to prolong US presence in Afghanistan…
Starfish
@Gin & Tonic: Please be mindful that some people may be victims and may be looking at this as “Would I like to see a heartwarming story about my rapist?”
James E Powell
@Ruckus:
I’ve seen several sources showing that they were not talking about Afghanistan. A total of a few minutes each year for each of the news networks.
James E Powell
@Ruckus:
Watching the many Euro cop shows & movies on Netflix & Amazon Prime – h/t NotMax – I’m sometimes shocked at how short the sentences are compared with the US.
Brachiator
@Sure Lurkalot:
Thanks for the tip. I may check it out.
Sure Lurkalot
@Kay: Yes! They have huge conflicts of interest that they are willfully disclosing. Let’s believe them.
And can we stop calling the Raytheons and Lockheed Martins defense contractors? They are nothing of the sort.
Kay
@James E Powell:
Everyone knows they weren’t talking about Afghanistan. Surely we would have noticed if Trump’s deal with the Taliban had generated this level of outraged insistence that we continue to execute that war.
They were smugly certain we’d remain forever. Sure, people would be TOLD we were leaving or whatever, but nothing would really CHANGE.
SiubhanDuinne
@Morzer:
So she can’t testify against him now, right?
(Was Nestor best man? Ring bearer?)
sab
@Baud: Don’t be a jerk.
Also too we have missed you.
Cameron
@Ruckus: I thought Our Liberal Media had only given about a half hours attention over the last few years.
Kay
@Geminid:
We’re only in Part One of the bender. They’re still drunk. We still have to go through their defensive denials that they went on another bender and then the hungover insistence that they’ll change.
You could plot it on a graph.
HinTN
@Quiltingfool: Back in WWII there was a POW camp in Tullahoma, Tenn. Up the way there was a professor of English who had a passion for natural gardens. He also spoke fluent German, although he had an abiding disrespect for German culture. He arranged for POWs to work every day to create his vision of a beautiful natural garden, which they loved because they got to be outdoors and active. Except, they were harranged in their native language regarding the shortcomings of their culture every single day. Quite a trade!
The Ravine Garden is a wonderful place to walk, sit, think. There it is.
Steeplejack
@James E Powell:
Definitely.
P.S. The MHz channel on Prime is a good source for European crime series.
Quiltingfool
@Faithful Lurker: Missouri! There may be a guild or two around here, I should check that out. Or maybe I should start my own!
Another Scott
@Ruckus: I’m still amazed by the framing of this as a “CRISIS!!” on NPR (specifically Weekend Edition this afternoon/evening). (They called the storm in New England a CRISIS as well, though.)
Yup.
The longer the press continues trying to make the withdrawal from Kabul into some CATASTROPHE the more they reduce their already low credibility.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Wow. IIRC, Matthew Dowd is a right-leaning douchebag.
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
You aren’t likely to understand what it’s like wondering if you are going to be a rape victim as you (and I) have dramatically less chance of that happening. It’s not impossible of course and doesn’t limit you from thinking about it, it’s just that our risk position is rather different than Alison’s. We can sympathize and I’d bet it is possible to actually understand, still, a woman your or my age has had this in the back of her mind (at least we hope it never needed to go anywhere else in there) for how many years, or days or even minutes. How often do we hear about the famous male who is just charged with rape and the victims often come out of the woodwork. We think 2 or 3 and women think 2 or 3 hundred possible victims. They KNOW, we think we know.
Kay
C.J. Chivers
@cjchivers
or maybe people who have worked with afghans, and been helped and protected and welcomed by them for years or even decades, happen to give a shit about them? if these are motivations for outcry that you can’t understand, that’s on you
Moving quickly thru the cycle- we may be able to skip the defensive denial stage since we seem to be at the outraged explanation stage already, which is actually an admission.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
If my husband/fiancée took a photo of me like that, I would boot him out the nearest door.
Faithful Lurker
@Quiltingfool: I would think there would be a quilter’s guild around every corner in Missouri. I spent 5 years there and it was in rural Mo. that I encountered my first serious quilters. That was also where a couple of local men where so proud of the truck bed load of dead wolves on which they were going to claim the bounty . They were feral yellow dogs. I didn’t tell them that, they scared the hell out of me and I was raised in the deep south.
Baud
@Kay: Do they not care about Americans? I don’t recall them giving up their professionalism when American lives are affected by policy decisions (especially when made by Republicans).
Faithful Lurker
@Ruckus: Amen.
Quiltingfool
@indycat32: No, Missouri. Sigh. I’ll bet there are enough quilters on this site that we could have a quilting retreat somewhere! My friends and I would have our own retreats during the school year (when we taught) – we called them “Stitch ‘N Bitch” – and we weren’t bitching about quilts, either!
sab
@Mousebumples: What is it ? Anywhere near Ohio?
MagdaInBlack
@Quiltingfool: That makes me laugh.
My mother was part of a sewing circle they called ” Stitch ‘n’ Chatter .” One didn’t say “bitch” in those days ?
Ruckus
@debbie:
We make redemption rather difficult in our system, and still many do this. But many never do because there isn’t any real thing in it for them. And the system has a hard time accepting that redemption is even possible. And yes for many there is no redemption. None, zero, zilch. But I think there has to be a better way. Even if it involves actual growing the hell up. Which would be strange for many….
HumboldtBlue
My mother was taught to quilt by a group of Amish quilters (I see you, Mrs. Schwartzentruber) and she quilted for more than 40 years. She was an excellent quilter and she was also an excellent mathematician.
Faithful Lurker
I have to go eat dinner, so I’m out of here for a while.
Gin & Tonic
@Ruckus: Of course. But how many years in prison is enough?
Nutmeg again
@Alison Rose: I agree. I don’t find the idea of a rapist–an armed kidnapper and rapist–making cute quilts very, uh, cute at all. Not at all. Not redemptive. I think rapists should just crawl under a rock and rend their garments, never to be heard from again.
Quiltingfool
@Capri: My husband will go to fabric shops with me (on vacation). He has a great eye for color and design. One time we were going to his uncle’s house to do some work, and we stopped at a quilt store. Well, he went in with me. Picture a burly, bearded man, dressed in his “work” clothes, wandering around a fussy, girly fabric store. Lots of side-eye. Anyway, he paused in front of a quilt kit, studied it for a minute, and then announced that he wanted it. I bought it, made it, and it is draped along the back of the sofa!
Went to a fabric store in Hannibal last year – he looked around, then pointed to a quilt kit and said he wanted that quilt, for our bedroom. I just put it on the bed today. Here is a photo.
https://pin.it/3p34ALG
Jay C
@Ruckus:
Yeah, this: most of the “MSM” coverage of the Afghanistan debacle puts me in mind of a “DougJ NY Times Pitchbot” tag:
Polls Show Majority of Americans Erroneously Support Biden’s Afghanistan Policy
Fake Irishman
@Brachiator:
Ear Hustle is outstanding. A podcast by inmates about everyday prison life. the mundane, the ugly, the quirky. Serious issues, slices of life. Never lionizes or sugarcoats people in jail, but always remembers they are human beings with dreams and struggles and feelings too.
Starfish
@Gin & Tonic: Dragging rape victims through their trauma, so you can have Balloon Juice debate club is gross.
What do you think you are going to do? Are you going to come up with the exact perfect number of years for recidivism? Are you going to come up with the perfect number of years for victims to get over their trauma?
Nothing works this way.
Kay
@Baud:
Not a prestige beat. That’s what the Mommy Party and the Daddy Party was really about.
Health care and paychecks and education and rental assistance (Democrats) are the Mommy and wars and foreign policy (Republicans) are the Daddy.
Mommy stuff. Not important. Just housekeeping, really.
Another Scott
@Baud: His Twitter blurb says:
Google tells me he was the Bush-Cheney 2004 “chief political strategist”. Otherwise, I don’t know much about him. (That tweet is being repeated everywhere I’m looking.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@James E Powell:
Wait till you find out the recidivism rates for those shorter sentences. Many can learn, if given the opportunity and a proper chance. We often do the exact opposite, and get the exact opposite effect. And then go, see how bad they were, and we tried to warn you…. There is more to the story than the length of sentence, add in the race of the criminal, add in the treatment of the incarcerated, and it changes a lot.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Thanks. I must be remembering him from the before times. Glad to see him come over to the light.
Quiltingfool
@Faithful Lurker: Oh, we have more than our fair share of ignorant fools in Missouri. I’m rather shocked those guys called them wolves, though – I’m pretty sure we don’t have wolves here. But, there have been bounties on coyotes, and they do look like dogs. And, boy howdy, they stink. You do not want to be around that smell.
Ruckus
@Sure Lurkalot:
Sure they are defense contractors. They are just defending something different that what you think they should be defending – their bottom lines.
Kay
Quilts are lovely, so not in this category, but if you’re ever in a position to give a foster kid something give them an experience. Chip in to take them somewhere. A play, a park, a fun and purely entertaining hobby. The biggest difference between poor-off kids and better-off kids is not clothes or toys. It’s good and interesting and broadening experiences. Take them out of just survival and show them something else.
Another Scott
@Jay C: Oh man!!
How does he do that!
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@Baud:
Trump had quite an impact on him?
Quiltingfool
@MagdaInBlack: My mother, who was a very good person, would not have approved of the name – but I think she might have giggled a bit!
She truly deserved a much better daughter than me. Thank goodness for a mother’s love!
Ruckus
@Cameron:
They may not have given Afghanistan a lot of coverage but they spent money, they may also be invested in our military/industrial complex because they have reporters on the ground and hear stuff. And even if they didn’t actually broadcast anything, they know stuff, just ask them. They are citizens protecting our way of life, which means, we have to protect their way of making money, money being the key to life itself.
Quiltingfool
@HumboldtBlue: Oh my, those Amish ladies are truly Quilt Divas! Tiny quilt stitches, all uniform in length. Makes me swoon.
Yes, I need to get a more exciting life.
Quiltingfool
@Kay: You are right, kids need enriching experiences. We had a poor family in our school that received a chunk of money (can’t remember the circumstance), and with a bit of the money, the mother was going to take her children on a little trip. Well, there was a teacher having a fit about that – thought mama shouldn’t spend money on a frivolous trip. Another teacher in the room asked her why poor kids always have to be denied something fun that other kids get to have. Shut that woman up fast.
Capri
@Quiltingfool: Oooh, very nice. Three weddings and 2 babies in the immediate family in the past 4 years have kept me well and busy. A wall hanging for over our bed is next on the dock, however.
West of the Rockies
Get busy quilting, or get busy dying…
debbie
@Quiltingfool:
Your husband has quite the eye! Beautiful quilt!
Gin & Tonic
@Starfish: It was not and is not my intention to drag anyone through anything. I was – and remain – genuinely curious as to whether our incarceration system (which my dear wife worked in for a few years) is about rehabilitation or retribution. But this isn’t going as I had intended, so I’m out.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Prisons have become monetized. Until we reverse that IDK how we can reform them.
Plus, you know, revenge vs. justice. I’m all for the second.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: You can’t be forced to testify against your spouse. Maybe that’s the reason?
trollhattan
Because I reflexively avoid “country” music I miss out on a lot of fine artists. Take, for example, Kacey Musgraves. Goddamn, but she has a fine voice.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: BG and I talked last week. I suggested that Aug 22 could be a soft date – if he got me a MC post for today that would be fine, if it’s the following week or the week after that, that would be fine also.
His son Xavi is a great age for father and son activities so I thought they might want to have some more Sunday fun before school starts for both of them.
BG will be back very soon.
satby
this place just goes from bad to worse.
Narya
Deleted
Kay
@Quiltingfool:
I read that DC public schools has a “learn to ride a bike” class for little kids. Wonderful, and probably an extremely memorable day, a big group learning that together.
Much hilarity and also a lot of falling and crying :)
trollhattan
@satby:
Starts like a kiss and ends up like a curse.
https://genius.com/The-jim-carroll-band-nothing-is-true-lyrics
trollhattan
@Kay:
My “most funnest” uncle taught me to ride a bike on their driveway. A gravel driveway. Pretty sure I had an eighth or so of the driveway plucked from my knees but I came home from New Jersey able to ride a bike. Still can. Thanks, uncle Smitty!
eclare
@Kay: The school that LeBron started gives all the kids bikes.
Mel
@Faithful Lurker: I do hand quilting, in large part because I’m such a luddite. It isn’t that I hate technology, I just fight with it constantly because it does not appear to be very fond of me.
So, old school it is, and it is s-l-o-w as molasses. Maybe that’s why it’s sort of meditative for me – pretty much all I can focus on is counting my stitches and not becoming a human pincushion!
Steeplejack
@Kay:
They’re getting crazier and crazier.
CNN anchor Jim Sciutto:
Southpaw:
the pollyanna from hell
The recent death of my friend’s family perpetrator brings home to me that if visceral triggers are allowed to erase people and preclude telling the whole story then victims will continue to be erased as often as perpetrators. Yes, every soul is worthy of respect, or my own ugliness will condemn mine along with his.
My triggers, and I do have some, should not be allowed to stifle the story that policy says should be retold.
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
A very valid point and one I think has to see both sides. We make very little point of redemption other than hard time. A lot of hard time. So that subtracts from most people’s possible redemption because we treat them like they can’t redeem themselves, tell them for years they can’t redeem themselves and lock them up for a long time because of that. So even if they do redeem themselves they get nowhere. It’s a vicious circle of fuckup. They fuckup, we fuckup, they have no real way to exist and little idea on how to redeem anything so they resort to what they know. A vicious circle of fuckup. And they can’t break the circle because if they had that tool they wouldn’t have fucked up in the first place. This society has a picture of what life is supposed to look and be like. It’s dated, not as far back as it used to be but it’s still very dated. And very few people actually ever lived it, in the way back or this very moment. Take one issue, marijuana, legal in many states but not in federal law. Hell, I stopped in the early 80s so it doesn’t affect me directly but it’s still stupid and backwards and does not reflect the reality. We breath in the what, 21st century and many of our laws and much of our thinking is still in the 19th century. That’s most prison sentences in this county. Hell we had an attempted violent overthrow of our government because we want to actually live in the 21st century and the boneheads want to live in the 19th.
HumboldtBlue
@Quiltingfool:
Wow, so beautiful.
Dan B
@Elizabelle: Gaetz ceremony rushed!
Now she cannot testify against him. Unless she decides to of her own volition, I assume.
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
From some years back, but recently unearthed (by me), a couple of nice collaborations with the Beach Boys:
Lorrie Morgan, “Don’t Worry, Baby.”
Kathy Troccoli, “I Can Hear Music.”
WaterGirl
@Dan B: I see that at least 5 of us had the same thought. There must be a ton of money involved in this decision.
Kay
@Steeplejack:
Pure lobbying. Just insistently promoting their position. Ratcheting it up, even!
Wait until the next press conference. The one who asked if there would be air strikes will be demanding them.
persistentillusion
@Cermet: Restorative Justice is becoming something of note in Colorado, thanks to a http://State Senator and his wife.https://www.peteleecolorado.com/
eclare
@WaterGirl: And probably some molly
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: It gave me pause, too. I skimmed the tweet and thought, oh, that’s nice and then went back to see what the crime was. Yikes. I can even understand murder more than I can a crime like that.
I’m sorry this has been an upsetting thread for you. As Ruckus said on this thread or another one today. THEY KNOW, we think we know.
Hugs.
Yutsano
@Dan B: IANAL, but from what I understand, spousal privilege applies only after the marriage. Anything that she is aware of before the marriage does not fall under the privilege statute. Legal eagles feel free to prove me wrong!
Fair Economist
@Kay: What makes the MSM drumbeat for eternal war in Afghanistan so suspicious is that the DON’T make pots of money from it. One of the bloggers looking at past reporting said they’d had about 15 minutes of coverage on the network news shows in the entire 4 years under Trump. The American people have long since moved on. Even those who don’t want to face the embarrassment of the failure don’t want to hear about it.
persistentillusion
@BC in Illinois:
As a former Chicogoan, I approve your comment. Save time, imprison early!
Ken
@WaterGirl: If that were the reason for the marriage, wouldn’t it make more sense for Gaetz to marry Joel Greenberg?
Steeplejack
@Ken:
Nestor!
Dan B
@Ken: Well, they are meant for each other. Ther have been worse reasons for marriages…
Dan B
@Steeplejack: Supposedly Nestor was part of “the family” at the wedding. All o could think of was maybe he was in the family way.
Sorta preggers, ya know. Just how creepy is Gaetz?
Kay
@Fair Economist:
I always think their “motives” are much less thought out than other people do. I think what they mostly are is conventional. Not ideologically conservative but conventional. If the majority elite opinion is we should have stayed they go with that.
There’s a New Yorker article that says that Biden’s “middle class” foreign policy will just inspire Trump-like leaders, because Americans won’t trust elites. It’s one step removed now. Americans shouldn’t trust elites because they’re smarter or do a better job, they should just trust them.
It’s like “we have to restore the faith in the DOJ”. No you don’t and you don’t get to demand people have faith in you anyway. People will decide if they have faith. Just go prosecute criminals. The restoration of faith part should take care of itself. If foreign policy elites want to be trusted with war planning they don’t need to work on “trust”. They need to work on war planning. Those two things are connected. Trust is earned.
WaterGirl
@Ken: @Steeplejack: Ha!
WaterGirl
@Dan B:
VERY. Imagine that as bold, red, and flashing for emphasis.
Bodacious
@Sure Lurkalot: Great recommendation~ Thanks! Done with the first one, and it really makes one think about a LOT
Kay
I’m not even mad that Biden gets “blamed”. Blame is a pretty simple idea and he’s the tallest tree, etc.
I’m just shocked and slightly horrified at the unreality of it. That all these people are going to pretend they had nothing to do with the work they did the last 20 years and that apparently will fly.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Agreed. It is surreal to see, day after day, big media names doubling down and redoubling on this crazy structure that is basically a phantasm.
Dan B
@Yutsano: Thank you very much for the positive thought! I’d hazard a guess that Gaetz did plenty of illegal things before this weekend.
debbie
Too impatient to wait for tomorrow’s COVID thread.
Steeplejack
@debbie:
?
James E Powell
@Steeplejack:
CNN anchor Jim Sciutto telling us he has a poster of AQ prisoners on his office wall helps explain why so many in the press/media are hysterical.
9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, and all the horrors that followed are central to his understanding of who he is and what he understands to be his role in the news biz and in our society generally.
In his mind and in the minds of (apparently) nearly every other Village Courtier, The Great War on Terror is World War II. Letting the Taliban regain their country is like letting Hitler stay in power.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: Repost that if AL doesn’t catch it.
Sister Golden Bear
@Kay: The talking heads who are now oh so concerned about the conditions of women (no real mention of LGBTQ folks) who didn’t bother to give it the time of day up until two weeks ago, is not unlike all the folks trying to ban trans athletes who never cared for (and even attacked) women’s spots previously.
Lyrebird
@Starfish:
Whoa, he – at least I think G&T is a he – apologized and stopped going back and forth. Didn’t see him claiming any of those things. Maybe in the spirit of John’s recent post you might apologize and stop, too. And or notice that more than one survivor has expressed more than one view just on this thread.
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
Very nice arrangement on that Kacey Musgraves song! And she does have a beautiful voice.
satby
I bugged out earlier, but just wanted to say thank you for saying that. People in prison are damaged people. All of us are more than the sum of our worst days.
I have mentioned before on this blog (years ago now) that I was roofied and date-raped on a first date with a “nice, clean-cut” guy, not the scruffy long hairs I usually dated. In the almost 50 years since then I have repeatedly heard statements about victims of sex crimes being “better off dead” rather than as psychically damaged as we must all surely be, and I think really? I would have been better off dead than growing through that? I beg to differ; my worth was never measured by my virtue and people who say or think that way are closer in spirit to the people who commit honor killings of daughters that dishonor the family because they’re no longer virgins. The linked article gave me no pause at all, it was about the quilts for kids as a useful project for prisoners, not their personal redemption or remorse. OBV YMMV.
Elizabelle
@satby: Thank you, satby. Well said.
Elizabelle
@satby:
I truly believe this.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Elizabelle: That was weird. It just screamed that he’s trying to pretend they’re a couple by taking normal-looking selfies, but that she won’t allow it. And why is that?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@trollhattan: But only on gravel roads?
We bought our granddaughter her first bike a couple of birthdays ago. The guy in the bike store had some theory that kids should start riding when they are toddlers, and should never be exposed to training wheels.
Over his proselytizing objections, I bought a bike with traditional training wheels. And did not get a baby bike for her baby brother either.