An all-links Friday update? Sure, works for me. Opening Day was clear and sunny and beautiful, but damn cold. I was standing on a corner waiting for a light to change near Wayne State, and the wind gusted in my face, and what did I do? I moaned. It’s April. Time for crazy weather to stop this shit and start being spring. Those two weeks of summer were a cruel taunt. Easter Sunday will be rainy and barely 60. But it’s time to strip the cover off the boat and get this show on the road, eh?
Best Tumblr I’ve seen in a while: Texts from Hillary.
But still, my fave is Animals Talking in All Caps.
It’s a tough town: Second law-abiding Detroiter in a week shoots and kills an intruder. Any more of this, and the ghost of Charlton Heston will come to town.
Are any of you even at work today? Happy Passover, and a somber Good Friday. And who’ll be watching “The Ten Commandments?” I will.
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 6, 2012 at 8:48 am
“Oh Moses; Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!”
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Dorothy said on April 6, 2012 at 9:17 am
Yes I’m at work, and still feeling the sore throat and clogged ears that began on Wednesday (a sick day for me). I am taking 6 or 7 vacation days next month for two trips so I’m not complaining.
LOVED the Hillary texts!!!
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Maggie Jochild said on April 6, 2012 at 9:59 am
Almost everyone I know has posted the Hillary texts at FB. My favorite is still the sunglasses one. I find it interesting how much this has softened her image, this “coolifying” meme.
In other news, for those of us addicted to genealogy, the 1940 census images are now online (for a fee at Ancestry). They are not indexed yet but if you know the Enumeration District, you can thumb through slightly blurry pages for a while, testing your orthography skills, and find the old folks you knew as a kid. And your parents, if you’re old enough. This census asked folks (a) where they lived in 1935 and (b) what their income was last year. It will be an invaluable tool for portraying geographic displacement caused by the Depression, right before WWII rearranged the whole country from farm to not-farm. It also asks everyone exactly how many years of schooling they have had, and even I am be surprised by the answers. I knew in rural Texas girls’ families had to pay for them to start school before age 8, but the shortage for boys seems high as well. An agriculture-based economy simply didn’t encourage more than about 6 years of schooling. Our widely-educated public is a brief and recent historic event, and it’s no wonder the Republicans feel confident about dismantling that status. Charter educations are their doorway to isolation and controlled ignorance.
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Deborah said on April 6, 2012 at 10:01 am
Sitting at a starbucks on Mich Ave across from Millenium Park laughing my ass off while reading the Hilary texts. It’s especially funny on an iPhone because you can only see the first image and text and then scroll to the hysterical punch line. What a great way to start the day.
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Connie said on April 6, 2012 at 10:11 am
I am at work today. And tonight I am going to the opening of a friend of a friend’s fiber art show at Huron Valley Council for the Arts. http://www.huronvalleyarts.org/1/257/exhibitions.asp . My husband lived in this area until he was 12 and the HVCA is located in the building where he attended church as a child.
This Fort Wayne news won’t surprise any public librarian:
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Parents are using their local library as a way to keep children occupied during spring break. However, many parents are dropping their kids off and leaving them unsupervised for the day.
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/area-libraries-are-seeing-more-unsupervised-children-due-to-spring-break
My library’s designated age at which kids must be accompanied by an adult at all times. is 8. I found the comments as always both depressing and amusing. My favorite? Thanks for telling the pedophiles where to find unsupervised kids this week. Parents do seem to think the library is a “safe place” for their kids and don’t believe me when I tell them it is no safer than leaving your child at the mall.
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alex said on April 6, 2012 at 10:11 am
Off work today, but hardly—have to finish grouting a new tile floor, clean the intransigent haze with God knows what because vinegar water isn’t working all that well, move appliances back into place, clean the whole friggin’ house and cook a ton of food for ten tons of guests this weekend. The pressure of a deadline has been wonderful, however. The materials had been sitting in the garage forever and this project might never have been started if we hadn’t made up our minds to just put one foot in front of the other. And this is just phase one—family room and kitchen. Still a couple of rooms and a hallway to go once we get inspired again.
I want to take up where Jeff (tmmo) left off in the last thread re: new unfunded mandates to hogtie Ohio educators already trying to make do on shrinking budgets. Is this part of a grand scheme to privatize education like they’re doing here in Indiana? Make the schools fail so you can hand them over to the charter school franchises owned by GOP cronies?
It’s unfortunate, but the public is basically asleep while this transformation is taking place and once it’s a fait accompli and everyone wakes the hell up it will be very difficult to undo.
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Prospero said on April 6, 2012 at 10:21 am
I like the part in The Ten Commandments when Aaron turns Moses’ staff turns his staff into a long gun and plugs Yul Brynner.
Long Dong won’t recuse himself on ACA despite $1.6mill income (and more to come) from anti-reform groups. Which he failed to report for years. Just like the great canned duck hunter Scalia after his little trek with Cheney wouldn’t recuse himself on the Dickless/Enron tea party back in 2001. This should be an impeachable breach of judicial ethics. That’s a helluva lot of cash. What is Ginni Thomas’ lobbying mojo? Well, she’s Mrs. Clarence. And she wears a Statue of Liberty dome at Teabanger events. And she’s Mrs. Clarence.
http://other98.com/time-for-clarence-thomas-to-recuse-himself/
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brian stouder said on April 6, 2012 at 10:30 am
Alex – word.
After reading Diane Ravitch’s marvelous book about the relentless attacks on public schools (and the free-spending, unaccountable oligarchs behind the effort), my next book was Hazel and Elizabeth – about Elizabeth Eckford’s long walk through a screaming throng of hateful people, and to one blocked door (blocked by uniformed Arkansas National Guardsmen) after the next, at Central High School.
Oddly enough, the two books are very much related, and as applicable to today as today’s news.
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coozledad said on April 6, 2012 at 10:37 am
“Fly” Phyllis Schafly, who looks like nothing so much as recently surfaced photos of Dick Nixon at Bohemian Grove, had this to say when speaking at the white trash West Point:
“Find out if your girlfriend is a feminist before you get too far into it,” she said. “Some of them are pretty. They don’t all look like Bella Abzug.”
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JWfromNJ said on April 6, 2012 at 10:48 am
Plenty of kool aid to sip (it was actually flavouraid in Jonestown) and tin foil hats in my community. We are Florida’s most resistent county to the new FPL smart meters. Considering Florida is whacky already this tells you a lot about my county. The commissioners are pushing for opt out clauses:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/apr/03/if-fpl-agrees-some-indian-river-customers-may-be/
Hillary texts were worth a few chuckles. What surprises me is she does’t bitch about being shuttled around in a C-17 cargo plane.
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Judybusy said on April 6, 2012 at 10:48 am
I am also at work today, but the workload’s light and the company pleasant. Like Dorothy, I’m getting over a nasty cold–was out of commission on Sunday and missed the first three days of work this week.
One of the wonderful things about the library is the serendipitous stumbling-upon-interesting-things phenomenon. Yesterday, I went to pick up two holds and in my section, there was a book titled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It’s about an African-American woman whose cells were taken without her permission and replicated millions of times over. Her biological material has helped countless people, and made others rich. Sadly, neither Ms. Lacks nor her descendants have seen a dime. In fact, the family didn’t find out about the theft until twenty years after her death.
Here is the author’s link.
Looking forward to the weekend: dinner and “Hayfever” at the Guthrie Theater tonight, then (hopefully) lots of gardening this weekend, plus a cooking class tomorrow night making Spanish sauces. We’ll head down to the MIL’s on Sunday for Easter dinner. I hope everyone has a great weekend, too.
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beb said on April 6, 2012 at 10:53 am
“it” Coolzedad? What is this ‘it’ that West Pointers shouldn’t get too far into before their in trouble? Sounds like a sex joke,it doesn’t matter how far in it your are, once you get the tip in you’re no longer a virgin. But I’m no good at making jokes.
Watching the Ten Commandments? No way. I’m one of those cultural warriors who would willing wage war on Christianity – if only the Easter chocolates weren’t so tasty.
Judybusy — the book is out in mass paperback for those who like to hold books and savor the smell of pulpwood. And the story is a fascinating story as well as an interesting look into the world of medical research.
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Connie said on April 6, 2012 at 10:56 am
I’m with you Beb. Last couple of days people have said “have a nice holiday” and I’m thinking what holiday. Oh yeah.
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alex said on April 6, 2012 at 11:02 am
Though I’d seldom recommend anything David Brooks has written, here’s a tepid effort to cast Obama as taking the low road—for being assertive and telling the truth. And it’s free, for what that’s worth.
Brian, though I’m not a praying man I’m on my knees begging someone, anyone to please awaken the silent majority before the fanatical minority does any more damage to education or personal freedom. The Republican shit-flinging machine is beyond Orwellian in the absurdity of its claims. In an effort to counteract the fallout over its intentions to privatize Medicare, the GOP is now accusing Obama of trying to destroy Medicare. No doubt there are plenty of low-information partisans who’ll swallow that one hook, line and sinker and we’ll probably be seeing a plethora of Koch-funded agitprop to this effect. I’m amazed at the number of otherwise intelligent people who are willing to buy into this nonsense. Then again, maybe not. Look at how many people are suckers for advertising of all sorts that panders to wishful thinking.
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Bob (not Greene) said on April 6, 2012 at 11:10 am
Anything that happens on a Sunday cannot be classified as a holiday. And since I also don’t get Good Friday off, ain’t no holiday anywhere in my vicinity.
And, yes, Alex, that is exactly what’s happening. Only, at least her in Illinois, it’s not just the GOP pushing the charter school agenda. Stand for Children — the billionaire-funded PAC that lobbies for charter schools all over the nation — dumped giant amounts of money into state rep races this year. One I covered featured a neophyte Democrat aligned with the machine power structure who received $60,000 from the charter school peeps and then another about equal amount from construction companies and related businesses that benefit from the construction/renovations of those schools. More than $130,000 to make sure a nobody state rep got elected to be their rubber stamp in Springfield.
They did lots of advertising, phone calls, etc. The woman had no platform to speak of, avoided the press actively and won over a better known guy who was backed by organized labor, particularly teachers union groups. The anti-union forces are really winning this battle and that spells trouble for American workers. People are just too blind to believe it. They actually believe that “the market” gives a shit about them. Incredible, I know.
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Julie Robinson said on April 6, 2012 at 11:11 am
After church we’ll be watching Jesus of Nazareth, or, as I like to call it, The Gospel According to Zeffirelli. My husband pulls it out every year at Christmas and Easter, and it’s just as hokey as Ten Commandments, but he loves it. Yesterday I listened to Handel’s Messiah and I’ve got Bach’s St. Matthew Passion on now.
Back when my own kids were small we’d often see a woman in her 30’s in the childrens’ department playing on the computers. She seemed to have Down’s and I think her Mom couldn’t afford care for her, or was just at her wits end, I’m not sure. She seemed very trusting and I often worried that she was vulnerable to a predator, but I did observe that the librarians kept a close eye on her. These days they’ve had to cut a lot of positions so I don’t think they’d be able to watch out like that.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 6, 2012 at 11:20 am
Oh, Brooks got the vapors because Obama criticized his opponents? In other startling news, the Cubs lost their opener and the sun came up this morning.
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MichaelG said on April 6, 2012 at 11:50 am
At least folks back east got that warm spell. It’s been ten to fifteen degrees below normal all year so far. I’m beyond ready for a warm day.
I’ll confess to taking off today. Got some things to do. Have a good one!
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LAMary said on April 6, 2012 at 11:52 am
Working half a day here. Right. If you consider 6 or 7 hours half a day. I don’t really mind because most of management took the day off so my phone is quiet and I’m going to go have a cup of coffee out in the garden, watching the new baby ducks. A pair of mallards has been nesting here for the past three years.
We’ve got an egret who flies in and enjoys the koi pond from time to time, too. I believe he is the smartest egret in LA. The koi can’t escape and he has no competition.
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brian stouder said on April 6, 2012 at 12:14 pm
Mary, for some reason I now have Frank Sinatra singing “My Way” stuck in my brain!
(“Regrets, I’ve had a few; but then again, too few to mention” etc).
That egret certainly does things his (or her) way, too.
Come to think of it, fish for lunch sounds pretty good
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 6, 2012 at 1:14 pm
My poor benighted 13 year old son, not knowing yet how utterly uncool it is, just asked as we got back from Good Friday services: “Dad, when are we watching ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’?” For him, it’s a seasonal ritual along with “The Ten Commandments.” Plus, I like to pull out Pasolini’s “The Gospel According to St. Matthew,” which is as socialist as I let myself get each year. But first, we hear Ted Neeley scream!
Prospero, if you’re going to link the Monty Python story, I think we also have to acknowledge our neighbors at the bar and post this one: http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/david-simon-gives-cranky-interview.html
My suspicion is two-fold on the schools. I think there’s a faction who are just maneuvering and lobbying to get their hands on even just a chunk of the firehose of money that goes to the school districts. Now that so much of education funding is not raised directly within districts (property taxes) and routed right from the county assessor’s office to the school treasurer’s desk, but rambles to the state coffers and then is trimmed and nudged and (theoretically) augmented by the state, there’s a stretch of pipe where you can put a shunt and a spigot to suck out a portion before it flows back to the local classroom. Even a whole run of spigots.
The other gnawing horror is that too many in the Statehouse actually think they *do* know better and are not paying attention to the actual impacts of their legislation, in part because they’ve invested so much effort generally into not paying attention to or taking responsibility for what their “laws” are doing. When problems get reported, it just becomes another basis for castigating the other party for not having let “all” of what they wanted to do get put into law.
On teacher assessment, the Dems think they’re protecting teachers from unjust termination by ignorant administrators and mean school boards, while the GOPs think they’re forcing accountability into a fairly unresponsive monopoly. Both have gotten some of what they want, and the result is legislation written by Dr. Moreau. As the warped mandates wreak havoc, I guarantee both parties will blame the other for not allowing their full proposal to be implemented. Meanwhile, a hatful of sacrificial superintendents will end up terminated for not making this work, and possibly even a couple being made example of and getting jail time or at least charges filed as they bend the laws and the truth in trying to make 2+2 appear to equal 5.7.
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Jean S said on April 6, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Passover is tomorrow, too, which makes the 10 Commandments a total must-see.
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Bob (not Greene) said on April 6, 2012 at 1:41 pm
I thought Neil Steinberg pretty much nailed it today:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/11730669-452/tough-words-from-obama.html
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Dexter said on April 6, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Hillary Clinton, POTUS of the future, flies around the world in Air Force 2, not some goddam lumbering cargo jet…what the hell is the history of the photo of her, what’s the story, what’s the joke there?
http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/AntarcticSun/features/images/clinton_plane.JPG
It was frosty here in NW Ohio this morning as I loaded the van with two dogs and headed to the watershed project area to walk the animals. I had on my winter ear-flap hat and my heavy winter coat and it was just right; there are no trees and the wind really packs a punch. Now it’s two o’clock and I have to mow the yard. Light sweater and straw hat time.
Tomorrow, back to the capital city to see my now seven month old baby granddaughter. I am confident I can make it as I just had four new tires installed on the old van yesterday.
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LAMary said on April 6, 2012 at 2:03 pm
The weather is really nice here. And the bear shits in the woods.
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Linda said on April 6, 2012 at 2:12 pm
I’m on lunch, but working all day.
JTMMO: My favorite Ten Commandments quote! Hope you get a big bunch of Easter candy. And Ann Baxter rocks that Biblican Bettie Page look
Connie: As if the pedophiles didn’t already know where to find unsupervised children, as if you and I didn’t know. There are NO rules in my library, and parents are indignant that there isn’t a place where they can dump their kids. And often, they forget to pick them up. We have a whole elaborate set of protocol to deal with that.
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JWfromNJ said on April 6, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Dexter – That’s a C-32, an Air Force designation for a Boeing 757, but as far as I know there is no special callsign for Secretary of State, so when she flies on a plane operated by Special Air Missions (folks who fly the planes that become AF1 or AF2 with the Pres or VP onboard) she would get a SAM XXXXX callsign based on the tail number.
She has increasingly been using a C-17 cargo plane though, I think because it has better abilities to operate discreetly in places like Afghanistan, middle east, and long range. I know they have a few modified Airstream trailers that can be rolled inside to provide comfortable digs but I don’t know if she has used them. So savor that – Hillary slumbering in a shiny Airstream trailer.
A friend of mine was on Madeline Albright’s security detail – went to some very interesting places, but her protective detail was composed mostly of State Department employees, and I’m thinking Hillary’s has more Secret Service types, although I don’t know behind a reasonable guess.
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4dbirds said on April 6, 2012 at 2:19 pm
Teleworking from Redlands, California. Spent the week here watching (actually assessing) my mother while my sister was on a business trip. Mom spent the winter here in California but actually lives in Northern Missouri. My sister isn’t assisting her in getting back home as she’s 89, hard of hearing, almost blind and frail but my mother is insistant that she wants to go home. I’m truly conflicted. She’s a free American who has every right to live where she wants but she has a dodgey network of help back home and we’re afraid it will be the end of her. If mom finds a way back home (with a relative who has said she’d take her) I’m afraid we’ll have to let her go. Yuck no good decisions here.
As for shooting an intruder in your home, I’m not sure I have a problem with it, as long as it is exactly that. An intruder, actually in your home and not the boy next door simply checking up on you.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 6, 2012 at 2:23 pm
Linda, you also have to salute Rameses’ line to Nefretiri:
“You will be mine, like my dog, or my horse, or my falcon, except that I shall love you more – and trust you less.”
So many tasty blocks of cheese. So let it be written, so let it be done.
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Dorothy said on April 6, 2012 at 2:42 pm
As a little girl, I was quite dazzled by that movie. And I can’t let this opportunity go by without re-telling my dad’s old joke. “‘The Ten Commandments’ is being shown two nights in a row: five tonight and five tomorrow.”
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LAMary said on April 6, 2012 at 2:44 pm
Not from the Ten Commandments, but a quote from King Richards and the Crusaders worth remembering:
War, war! That’s all you ever think about, Dick Plantagenet!
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Jolene said on April 6, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Thanks for the Steinberg link, BobNG. Excellent piece.
Is anyone here a Hall China collector? If not, do you know anyone who is? I ask because I’m selling a lot of stuff I unwisely acquired several years ago through an eBay reseller. If anyone is interested, let me know, and I’ll link to some of the listings.
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MichaelG said on April 6, 2012 at 3:10 pm
I generally agree with MMJeff @21. Two things. There are way, way too many school districts. At least in California. They expensively duplicate efforts and employ way too many administrative personnel and provide way too much ego stroking for local, self important school board officials.
Here in California we have term limits so legislators vote for the issue of the moment with no concern over the possible effect their vote will have a year or two down the road. They’ll be termed out by then.
The weather here isn’t bad, it’s sunny and clear. The problem is that it’s ten degrees cooler than it should be. The difference between 62 and 72 is very noticeable. And, yes, I am whining.
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Bob (not Greene) said on April 6, 2012 at 3:14 pm
Jolene, we have a small collection of refrigerator ware made by Hall. I’d be interested in seeing the links if you have any of that stuff.
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Prospero said on April 6, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Fortunately, the huge majority of womenhood is more attractive than Phyllis Sclafly, whose daddy always called her Princess and she bought that bullshit.When you look like quintessential GOPer woman heifer on the hoof, you should be careful about denigrating another’s appearance. Did she ever see Gloria Steinem in her Bunny costume?
http://rosalita54.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/gloria-steinem-feminism-in-a-bunny-suit/
Tape that inside your locker door at the Good Ole Boys Club, Phyl.
Diane Ravitch’s philosophical evolution, in The New Republic. ( Hope the link works. I subscribe to the paper version, which is where I read this.) Definitely worth a read.
Hillary’s traveling in those cargo planes is closer to rigorous military service than W ever got, if you don’t count debilitating hangovers while attempting to fly a jet warplane.
I listened to an unedited clip of the President’s SCOTUS/ACA comments, and those GOPers retreating to the fainting chaises ar phony as $3 bills outside of Hamtramck. The President was clearly quoting GOPer talking points about “activist judges”. His comments were unequivocal on this point. So as I said before, screw ’em if they can dish it out but not take it, the poor dears. Bastards travel constantly in miasma redolent of hypocrisy. Frack their lying asses. Those lardos are a large part of the US national reserve.
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Charlotte said on April 6, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Hillary! I just loved the tumblr — have friends in different capacities who’ve worked with her, and every single one of them has nothing but raves for what a terrific person she is — one friend said that in private B&H are sort of the opposite of their public personas. He can be kind of cool until he’s got a crowd, and she’s genuinely warm and funny, then backs off when there’s a crowd. The picture of she and Aung San Suu Kyi makes me tear up every time.
And Easter! Who knew? Snowing here in MT today, and my “borrowed” kids couldn’t come up from LA for the holiday, so without kids, and without the Church anymore (bring back Vatican II, stop raping children, and support the elderly nuns and I might begin to consider y’all moral authorities again) — well, like I said, who knew? Might go buy some lamb for me and my sweetie anyhow … maybe a chocolate bunny too …
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Jolene said on April 6, 2012 at 3:24 pm
BobNG, the stuff I’m selling is mainly teapots and pitchers. You can check it out here: http://www.ebay.com/sch/planetauctiononline/m.html?_nkw=hall&_sacat=0&_odkw=&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3911.c0.m270.l1313
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Prospero said on April 6, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Jeff, Norman Jewison, who directed Jesus Christ Superstar, is actually pretty cool. He directed The Cincinnati Kid, Agnes of God, Rollerball (the real one), The Russians are Coming (incredibly funny), Thomas Crowne Affair (the real one), And Justice for All (you’re out of order), and one of the five best movies ever made, In the Heat of the Night. Pretty outstanding ouevre. And the tanks in the Negev are cool, too.
I think Hillary looks like a contract killer in those shades.
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mark said on April 6, 2012 at 3:42 pm
“I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” Obama said on Monday.
So the unedited version of Obama’s remarks explains away the factual errors in this sentence? You should send the unedited version to Jay Carney and Eric Holder, as they’ve been struggling to explain these remarks and have yet to mention that Obama was parodying Republicans.
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Jeff Borden said on April 6, 2012 at 3:54 pm
Cooz,
Phyllis Schafly made those remarks at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C., not West Point. Clearly, West Point has higher standards.
Johanna and I were vacationing near Charleston back when a poor young woman had the temerity to attend this state-funded school, being the first female to do so after quite a legal wrangle. The cadets and their supporters were about as vicious as Rush Limbaugh on an Oxycontin withdrawal rant, labeling the somewhat overweight young lady a “whale.” The bumper stickers in great abundance were really something to see. Just awful shit.
I have little doubt that the Supreme Court will toss out ACA because the conservative bloc is just about as non-partisan as Roger Ailes. As much damage as George W. Bush did to fuck our economy, our military and our standing in the world, the gift that keeps on giving are the SCOTUS choices he made. Just seeing those preening douchebags Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and, yeah, Kennedy makes my skin crawl. Ah, but our plutocrat masters must be kept happy and our robber baron insurance industry must satisfy its investors, so we should all just sit down and shut the fuck up.
As George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) intoned in “Easy Rider,” “This used to be a helluva country.”
EDIT: I don’t mean to imply the wee man from Crawford appointed all five, but he really outdid himself with John Roberts.
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Prospero said on April 6, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Jeff, that’s the cracker version of West Pointe, is what cooze was getting at.
There’s no factual error in that statement Mark. It’s pretty much an accurate description of the Court’s consistent, historical care not to overstep with regard to Congressional powers. In fact Judges with solid conservative, non-partisan reputations and resumes on lower courts have already held for ACA. These are GOP jurist with superior legal reputations than the mooks that lied to the Judiciary committee to get on SCOTUS and act like partisan hacks.
I didn’t characterize anything Obama said as parody. He simply quoted what GOPers have been saying for a long time right back at them. And they’re fainting like bewitched schoolgirls in Salem when their words come back to haunt them. It’s just too rude for their delicate conditions.
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Jeff Borden said on April 6, 2012 at 4:21 pm
My only regret is that Obama didn’t start punching the conservatives in the face from the get-go. His ill-fated attempts to try to be the guy who ran in 2008 –a figure who would work across party lines– was doomed from the start and served no one least of all him. You don’t work with pissants. You step on them.
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coozledad said on April 6, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Not a politicized court at all. Immune from such criticisms in fact. Until ALEC decides it’s good for you to waddle around with a nightstick up your ass, or that J.P. Morgan is a person again, or that George Bush’s right to the presidency was infringed upon by the electorate.
I marvel at that freedom you loves so much, Mark. It seems to a specially attenuated kind. You’ll have to describe the freedoms of Bangkok in greater detail sometime. Somehow, I suspect the “Fuck anything you want as long as you’ve got the cash” would fly better with the Roberts Court better than the electorate, too.
But hey, give the Republicans another go at governance, and I’m sure the US will be back in strong contention for those sexual tourism dollars. Some Thai businessmen might even be flying here to lose their Rolexes in a baby-jowelled Kentucky Senator, or a sitting Republican justice for that matter.
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Prospero said on April 6, 2012 at 4:29 pm
Borden @42: It’s difficult to expect, foresee, or prepare for utterly mindless opposition and unmitigated dishonesty from fellow human beings. Ockam’s razor leads me to believe that bigotry is a basis for the brainless, completely unreasoned negativity and obdurate opposition, but if I say so, I’m “playing the race card” which phrase is such an affront to the English language it makes my teeth ache. Bereft of that likely explanation, I’m left only with some form of derangement or mental illness.
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Prospero said on April 6, 2012 at 5:07 pm
More money for Teabanging GOPer Goober-nors to steal.
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brian stouder said on April 6, 2012 at 5:13 pm
Prospero, that WAS an interesting Ravitch article you linked to. One could sense a “but” coming, and by the end of the article he was ripping Diane pretty relentlessly. This is fine – whatever. She’s in the arena and fully armored and capable of dealing with critics.
I absolutely still think she’s marvelous – and for the record, I think her intellectual emphasis on “only” two Big Ideas (curriculum development and the centrality of public education to our democracy) are not only sufficient but superb.
Anyone who does what Ms Ravitch did – that is, change one’s mind – is open to the sort of attack that that New Republic essayist unleashed. I suppose this is another indicator of Ms Ravitch’s courage, in so forcefully changing her mind and communicating that change. (There is no intrinsic value in “consistency” really, in an evolving world)
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Prospero said on April 6, 2012 at 5:38 pm
Brian, agree competely on Ravitch. The idea of vouchers (subsidizing the well off) and corporatizing education are horrifying to me.
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coozledad said on April 6, 2012 at 5:59 pm
Unreconstructed Moselyite dirtbag unburdens his pitiful excuse for a soul.
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Deborah said on April 6, 2012 at 6:11 pm
Jolene, Do you know if Hall has anything designed by Eva Zeisel? I love her pieces. She was still designing in her 90s, but died recently so her pieces will start to cost more. I’d like to start a collection of her work. So far I only have one piece that I got recently in Manhatten, an icebox pitcher, that’s red and has a lid http://www.neuegalerie.org/shops/Design%20Shop/Eva%20Zeisel
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Prospero said on April 6, 2012 at 6:22 pm
Sure cooze, but you can’t point it out without “playing the race card.
Lee Atwater, dog whistles, thugs, racism, and the “race card”, which is usual invoked when somebody points out the real thing.
That Derbyshire thing reminds me of going to see George Clinton and that Parliafunkadelictment thang at the UGA Coliseum back around ’74, four of us were the only white people in a crowd of about 5,000 and we had ingested acid. Very entertaining, and no angst.
edit: Derbyshire’s shabby deployment of statistics makes him look stupid. He sure never passed Quant Anal.
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Prospero said on April 6, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Derbyshire’s photo looks like what would have resulted if the Dallas cops hadn’t been in on Lee Oswald’s assassination by Jack Ruby.
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Suzanne said on April 6, 2012 at 6:36 pm
I doubt I’ll get to watch the 10 Commandments this year. It’s a guilty pleasure once a year; watching all those manly men walking around shirtless saying profound things. Two favorites of mine
~ When Moses is discovered by the pack of unmarried women and the one gleefully yells “Look! A MAN!”
~When Moses is up on the mountain being accosted by the very cheesy looking burning bush and the Israelites were whooping it up with the golden calf and Edward G. Robinson comments “Where’s your Moses now? Where’s your savior NOW?”
They don’t make ’em like that any more, which is probably a good thing.
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Sherri said on April 6, 2012 at 6:50 pm
The article on Ravitch in TNR was written by Kevin Carey, who works for an educational think tank funded in part by the Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation. He’s also a supporter of charter schools: http://www.educationsector.org/publications/how-school-choice-became-explosive-issue. Just sayin, he’s not without his own interests in writing about Ravitch.
For me personally, the best thing about public schools is that I’m almost done with them. One more quarter, and one more year, then the kid goes to college. I’ve had my own frustrations with teachers, principals, and administrators, but the things that are happening outside the classroom seem to me like the equivalent of destroying the village to save it. I’m just happy that the state mandated testing is done here in 10th grade, so we’re past that now.
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Jolene said on April 6, 2012 at 6:54 pm
Deborah, according to this bio, Zeisel did design for Hall. A little more googling would doubtless take you to a place that would provide pictures. Your pitcher looks great.
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Deborah said on April 6, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Thanks Jolene, I googled Zeisel and Hall China and have found some beautiful pieces, some on eBay and Etsy. It’s going to be fun collecting this stuff after I’ve retired in 6 months. I like the more simple sculptural pieces of hers. She has been a hero of mine, I’ve kept her photo displayed in my workspace for years because she remained so active in design for so long. Also we didn’t realize this until she died, but her son was my husband’s advisor at Harvard many years ago. He was interviewed in the New York Times about her life and death that’s how we made the connection.
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Deborah said on April 6, 2012 at 8:18 pm
I saw The Ten Commandments with my family on the big screen when I was about 7. It scared the bejeesus out of me. The part where the green smokey fingers snaked around the streets looking for the first born sons was terrifying to me at that age. I remember wetting the bed the night after we saw the movie because I was too scared to get up and go pee. And shortly after that we were visiting some friends of the family at night who had a pool that was lit with that same greenish tinge and I wouldn’t go near it.
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Brandon said on April 6, 2012 at 8:43 pm
“Moselyite”
Mosleyite.
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coozledad said on April 6, 2012 at 8:50 pm
Brandon: That’s one of about 300 words in my dyslexicon. In a better world I might have a chance to avoid using it.
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Deborah said on April 6, 2012 at 9:58 pm
In our discussions this evening about what to watch we have ended up referring to Game of Thrones as Crown of Thorns, kind of a mash up of pop cultch and Good Friday.
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Brandon said on April 6, 2012 at 10:55 pm
“Brandon: That’s one of about 300 words in my dyslexicon. In a better world I might have a chance to avoid using it.”
As a former state spelling bee contestant, I can’t help but hone in on misspellings.
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Kirk said on April 6, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Or home in on misspellings. Sorry, Brandon, I couldn’t resist.
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Brandon said on April 7, 2012 at 3:34 am
That’s OK. It is “home in.” Kirk, who’s the baseball player pictured in your avatar?
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alex said on April 7, 2012 at 8:41 am
Not a politicized court at all. Immune from such criticisms in fact. Until ALEC decides it’s good for you to waddle around with a nightstick up your ass, or that J.P. Morgan is a person again, or that George Bush’s right to the presidency was infringed upon by the electorate.
Cooz, waking up to a line like this always makes my day.
When the Prop 8 case finally gets its day in court, perhaps the conservative majority will find an arbitrary second trimester of its own in the penumbra of the fourteenth amendment that makes it okay to be gay but only until you’re 41. At that point your gay marriage becomes nullified and you’re constitutionally compelled to do your duty to God and country by finding a beard and purchasing a couple of caucasian castoffs from the baby mills of Eastern Europe.
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Prospero said on April 7, 2012 at 8:56 am
Scot Walker’s War on Caterpillars, or how to make Reince Priebus look like a more clueless idiot.
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ROGirl said on April 7, 2012 at 9:14 am
Newsflash: Thomas Kinkade has died at the age of 54 of “natural causes.”
Let the printing presses start cranking out even more copies of the crap that he mass produced for the suckers. Keep those artists in Taiwan employed painting dots on offset printed posters.
“The other gnawing horror is that too many in the Statehouse actually think they *do* know better and are not paying attention to the actual impacts of their legislation, in part because they’ve invested so much effort generally into not paying attention to or taking responsibility for what their “laws” are doing. When problems get reported, it just becomes another basis for castigating the other party for not having let “all” of what they wanted to do get put into law.”
Jeff tmmo, I couldn’t agree with you more about this. It really applies to any actions any politicians propose or implement. They don’t care about the consequences and they blame the other party or the people charged with carrying it out if it doesn’t work as intended.
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coozledad said on April 7, 2012 at 9:49 am
RO Girl: Naturally, placing a garbage bag over your head and masturbating while you inhale helium will kill your ass.
If there is a hell, Thomas Kinkade might be condemned to wander around inside one of his lavender Burger King paintings for eternity.
I think there’s a Shirley Jackson story about that.
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Prospero said on April 7, 2012 at 11:56 am
Ya know, if SCOTUS torpedoes ACA but the Gangbaggers get kicked out of the House, the administration can bring the bill back next year with bulletproof tweaks and the public option. That would be horroshow, and Boner would never stop crying, Limbo would stroke out, and Roger Ailes would be trapped by villagers with torches and pitchforks in a decrepit windmill. The legion of the great unwashed, the hoi polloi, actually like all of the provisions of Obamacare, they have just had their bigotry stoked against the first five letters by the TeaGOPers’ new Southren Strategy. They sho’ ’nuff likes them some Medicare, and the pre-existing conditions coverage polls over 80%.
Kinkade (Days Inn family motel chain sans bars School) does look like a practitioner of autoerotic asphyxiation in his pictures. I always preferred Bob Ross and his velvet vocal chords. Video and aural diazepam for the masses. Prince Valium. And his 30 minute paintings were superior to Kinkade’s.
in part because they’ve invested so much effort generally into not paying attention to or taking responsibility for what their “laws” are doing
More frequently, I’m afraid, because the financial beneficiaries of those laws have invested so much cash in those legislators. ALEC doesn’t just write boiler plate laws, it buys their passage too. But no more Coca Cola or Pepsi money, and quelle horreur, no more money from Kraft, the 21st Century Beatrice. What’s next? ConAgra jumps ship?
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Kirk said on April 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Brandon, that is Jerry Lynch, pinch-hitter extraordinaire for the 1961 National League-champion Cincinnati Reds.
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Dexter said on April 7, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Kirk, I am sure you remember this dynamic play from 1961. It’s Elio Chacon scoring…NY player #32 is Elston Howard and #20 is Joe DeMaestri, who I am sure no one remembers.
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/9749/32df.jpg
1961 World Series, Game Two: “The Reds went ahead for good with two outs in the 5th when Elio Chacon sprinted home from third on an Elston Howard passed ball that didn’t get much further than fifteen feet away.”–baseball-reference dot com–
This I submit as one of my ten favorite all-time baseball photographs.
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Prospero said on April 7, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Thomas Kinkade is the visual arts equivalent of Lee Greenwood:
http://www.thomaskinkade.com/magi/servlet/com.asucon.ebiz.catalog.web.tk.CatalogServlet?catalogAction=Category&menuNdx=0.14
In 1958, when he had a career high 420 AB, Jerry Lynch hit a robust .312, with 16 HR, 20 2B and 68 RBI, .498 slugging. Damn fine season:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=lynchje01
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Prospero said on April 7, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Joe deMaestri:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=demaejo01
Yep, I’ve got a bookmark for the Baseball Almanac.
My real memories of the Yanks goes back to when Jake Wood was the catcher. I saw him play QB in an Ole Miss-Memphis football game when we lived in Mephis, and saw him catch for the Yanks many times in Tiger Stadium. The days of Kaline Northrup and Stanley, best OF I ever saw until Jim Edd, Freddie and Dewey came together at Fenway. And believe me, Rice played the Monster better than the potato farmer, but the Townies and Southie fans would never admit it. Wrong color. The curse of Mr. Yawkey.
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Bowditch said on April 7, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Prospero, I think you meant Jake Gibbs. Jake Wood played 2nd base for the Tigers.
My dad would take me to the House the Ruth built to see the Yanks, back when Casey Stengel was the manager and Berra was catcher, then continuing after Ralph Houk brought Elston Howard in from the outfield to take over behind the plate.
Speaking of Kaline, I was at the double-header August 19th, 1965, when Al broke his collarbone diving for a catch. Still recall the hush over the crowd. Yankee fans back then had a lot of respect for Kaline.
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Sherri said on April 7, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I’m not old enough to remember the ’61 season, but Jim Brosnan’s book about that season, Pennant Race, is one of the best ballplayer-written books around.
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Deborah said on April 7, 2012 at 8:08 pm
The best headline I’ve read online about TK is, “lights out for Thomas Kincade”.
edit: It’s astounding to me that we even know who this man is. What in the world catapulted him into the national spotlight. Bizarre.
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beb said on April 7, 2012 at 8:13 pm
I’m not sure which irritates me more about comparisons of Thomas Kinkeade to Norm Rockwell, comparisons on a purely technical level, since nothing in Kinkeade’s style compares to Rockwell’s photo-realism, or comparison on a thematic level since Kinkeade’s subjects were conventional kitsch while Rockwell’s paintings strove to catch a moment of understanding and meaning. I was oriiginally going to say something like the Art community celebrated the death of Thomas Kinkeade but that might have been a bit harsh.
Still, I put it out there, so I’m a consciously bastard….
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 7, 2012 at 9:36 pm
Can’t resist this bit of snark – out of curiosity, on seeing here that he’d died, I jumped to ThomasKinkade.com to see what, a la Steve Jobs, they’d do for their mealticket’s passing.
Latin scholars, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m fairly certain that the first two words, “In Memorium,” constitute a Kindadism themselves: an erroneous overreach. It’s “In Memoriam.”
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Kirk said on April 8, 2012 at 12:49 am
Jim Brosnan’s “Pennant Race” is indeed great. His “The Long Season” is not to be missed, either.
Dexter, I shall never forget Elio Chacon scoring on that passed ball. It was part of the only Reds win in that Series. It was in my head as I thrilled to the Reds’ snuffing the Yankees in four straight 15 years later.
And as for Kaline, he was the first American League hoss I ever got to see, at the old Kansas City ballpark in 1973 in a double-header against the Royals, my first AL games. I always had a huge respect for Al Kaline, a well-deserved Hall of Famer.
And baseballreference.com is the mucho excellent website. As I am sure I have mentioned, for the cost of $20 a year, I am the sponsor of the Jerry Lynch page there. No doubt that there are some fine players (including Wayne Schurr, who I do in fact remember, cuz) who need a sponsor.
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Sherri said on April 8, 2012 at 2:32 am
As long as we’re plugging baseball websites, let me mention an organization near and dear to my heart: retrosheet.org. At Retrosheet, you can find the boxscore for the game where Kaline broke his collarbone, which was actually May 26, 1962: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1962/B05260NYA1962.htm
(I was one of the original board members of Retrosheet.)
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ROGirl said on April 8, 2012 at 6:26 am
Rockwell doesn’t do much for me — too literal and sentimental. They were, after all, illustrations for magazines. I do admire his technique and the fact that he took on more serious subjects later in his career. At least he didn’t sell mass-produced motel room fantasy porn fairy tale cottage posters, or real ones (cottages, that is).
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Bowditch said on April 8, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Thanks for pointing to Retrosheet, Sherri. Remembering the event, I had found this reference: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=145 with its reference to the August 1965 date. May 1962 makes a lot more sense, since by 1965, I’d left New York for good.
Does this mean that the Detroit News must be struck irrevocably from the pantheon of Reliable Sources?
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Kirk said on April 8, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Retrosheet’s another winner. It was through Retrosheet that I determined that Lynch homered in the first game I ever saw in person, thus explaining why he was my favorite player.
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brian stouder said on April 8, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Mike Wallace, RIP
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Bill Rotz said on April 8, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Basset: We dined (?) at Stan’s in Columbia today. It’s been there since 1947 and seems to be the precursor of Cracker Barrel. What do you think?
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