I’ve been sitting here noodling over a post and can’t get my brain started. This is a sign I should go upstairs and read something instead.
Would you like a small link? Cinemagraphs, i.e., animated gifs with most of the obnoxiousness taken out. These are from the Minnesota State Fair.
An interesting review of Tyler Hamilton’s new book about St. Lance. Looks like the noose is tightening, not that it matters anymore.
“Breaking Bad” fans, what did we think of the finale? The “Crystal Blue Persuasion” montage was great, but then, I’ve always loved that song.
I had a great weekend; did you?
Dexter said on September 4, 2012 at 1:17 am
What? Now I find out that last week’s “Breaking Bad” was not the season finale! For anyone else who was confused, (my confusion relates to the HBO policy of never showing anything important on a major holiday weekend), AMC will be showing the finale again at 3:56 AM on Friday, a lovely time slot. How will I ever remember to record that?
It’s now been twenty-five years since I last walked the Mackinac Bridge on Labor Day. We drove there four years in a row and we walked it three times. Now times are different. 1987’s $1.31 gasoline today was $3.84 and was $3.92 all weekend, and my brother has been paying over $4 in Chicagoland for a long time. So I was reflecting on those grand vistas we used to see from the bridge, and the Mackinaw City fudge and the post-walk party , draining bottles of beer at The Keyhole Bar in Mackinaw City.
Labor Day weekend, 2012, was spent at my granddaughter’s first birthday party here in town, then we had her and her mom at the house last night. We ate at the local Mexican restaurant and the staff just wasn’t into it…the grub was just plain. I mean plain, no nice touches, no guac, just a couple plain cheese enchiladas, some dry tasting rice and some nasty refried beans. I have actually had tasty refried beans there, but man, that food was as bad as a Mexican TV dinner would have been. The bottle of Mexican mango soda pop was the hi-lite of the meal.
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Dexter said on September 4, 2012 at 1:58 am
Brooklyn’s West Indian Days Parade, September 3, 2012:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/west-indian-day-parade-2012-gallery-1.1150647?pmSlide=0
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brian stouder said on September 4, 2012 at 8:49 am
We also had a great holiday weekend, running hither and yon. Grant ran off to see the airshow, and very much enjoyed the spectacle; I skipped it and therefore avoided the rain and the traffic and all the rest.
We have a big wedding coming at the end of the week, and the girls have been busily pulling together their outfits; and we had a tremendously good Labor Day cookout at Pam’s folks’ place.
To top it all off, our watermelon patch now appears to be fully ripened, and the fruits of Shelby’s and my labor is purty good, I’d say! (although Pam wants us to look for seedless watermelon seeds for next year, if that makes any sense!)
And – I was glad that Fernando Alonso wasn’t killed at Spa-Francorchamps, as the lights went out and the Belgian Grand Prix began.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/more-sports/grosjean-banned-and-fined-after-causing-crash-at-belgian-grand-prix/article4514897/
So, even when it comes down to a fortunate few inches – life is good
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Deborah said on September 4, 2012 at 9:47 am
Went to a cookout Sunday afternoon at the home of a friend he works for one of the unions as a writer. He has this cookout every year, all the folks who attend are liberals, community organizers and such. Conversations are always interesting.
Saw the movie, Sleepwalk with Me, yesterday, it’s by the This American Life folks, it was pretty good, had some funny moments.
And Dexter I paid $5.06 a gallon on one of my rare driving incidents recently.
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Chris from Iowa said on September 4, 2012 at 9:58 am
Since there was plenty of chatter over the weekend about Paul Ryan and his marathon time, maybe it’s not too late to share best line I’ve read on the subject. It comes from Roger Simon of Politico via Twitter: Any man who would fib about his marathon time would fib about his golf handicap. GOP takes latter very seriously.
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coozledad said on September 4, 2012 at 10:27 am
Ryan’s admission that he’d lie about something so easily debunked just shows he’s right up there with the best congenital liars the Republicans have to offer.
However, I wouldn’t be so quick to attribute it to a simple willfulness to make his base do handsprings through a kiddie pool full of dogshit just to prove how much they loves him.
He’s frightfully stupid. He reminds me of the gym rats who are so pumped up on steroids and protein supplements the higher function synapses in their brains have decoupled, and they’re coasting on hormones.
When you cut out all the fat in your diet, it makes you a frightened little dumbfuck virtually overnight. In his case it’s probably starvation edema.
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Joe Kobiela said on September 4, 2012 at 10:27 am
Kaye and Jolene,
As far as marathon times go, I guess its no worse than John Kerry claiming he ran Boston when he didn’t. I do remember my first one was 4:06 my best 3:47. The comment about the right wing drivel was directed at 3-4 regulars I shouldn’t generalize.
pilot Joe
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Dorothy said on September 4, 2012 at 10:30 am
Had a fabulous birthday extended weekend (it was last Friday – I’m a highway Speed Limit now!). We had the premiere of Liberal Arts at Kenyon on Sunday night – rubbed elbows with Josh Radnor at a private gathering beforehand for anyone who had any involvement in the movie. I’ve had so many people come up to me saying how tickled they were to see me walk past Josh and Elizabeth roughly a half hour into the movie. It’s not quite the movie debut I’ve fantasized about but I’ll take it. I got lots of sewing done on the wedding quilt for my son and his bride-to-be, harvested our first batch of honey from the bees Mike is raising, tasted an eggplant salad that Mike tried out and found a dress for the wedding yesterday. A very productive and happy four day weekend.
Anticipating requests for the recipe so here goes:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/whats-for-dinner/whats-for-dinner-roasted-eggplant-salad-with-asian-ginger-sauce-649045/
EDIT: Forgot to address the ? about Breaking Bad. It was a satisfying and chilling way to end the current “season.” Dexter – this is the last year for the show, sort of. AMC ordered 16 episodes – usually they do 13 per season. But they are splitting it up to 8/8. Eight that started on July 15th this year, and next summer we’ll see the last 8 episodes. I can’t wait for the Hank/Walt showdown. I’m guessing Hank will come out the winner eventually.
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Heather said on September 4, 2012 at 10:43 am
Also a nice weekend in Chicago. Skipped out of work a li’l early Friday to go to the beach, where the scene was very Venetian with the calm flat lake and the wide expanse of sand. It was lovely, but the boyfriend is looking forward to post-Labor Day beach days, sans lifeguards, so he can surf. Yes, you can surf Lake Michigan, apparently.
Sunday we headed out to DeKalb county to visit the boyfriend’s ancestral home among the cornfields, visit dad, and do some bike riding. We did a long ride along a trail that’s a former railroad track but made the mistake of leaving at 11 AM on a sunny day that headed into the 90s–we had lots of water but I still had a flirtation with heat exhaustion near the end.
We also stopped at a hot-dog stand for lunch where the very friendly owner had up lots of virulent anti-Obama signs–none of them racist, thank God. I figured it was his place and he can decorate it however he wants. Also he had AC so I wasn’t going to say anything that would get me kicked out.
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brian stouder said on September 4, 2012 at 10:51 am
Congratulations on the movie, Dorothy – and Happy 45th! (it’s 45 mph on the highway leading to where I work)
Pam made a tremendously good asiago/artichoke heart salad, which stopped me from an additional piece of cheesecake.
Joe – you say Senator Kerry lied just the same as Representative Ryan, yes?
If that is your point, I agree with it.
And in 2004, I voted to re-elect President Bush. Times were serious, and (at that time) Kerry simply didn’t look like an improvement, to me.
Does Romney/Ryan look like an improvement to you?
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Charlotte said on September 4, 2012 at 11:05 am
Pine Creek fire is pretty much contained — the church camp and the campground were saved (I was sure I saw them burning up on Thursday, but go firemen) — and Maggie McGuane (daughter of Tom) saved the dog! Don’t have a link to the exact story, but here’s the link to the Enterprise on Facebook (much better than their actual website, clearly an intern is in charge) https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Livingston-Enterprise/106610909368172 —
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alex said on September 4, 2012 at 11:17 am
I don’t recall anything about Kerry lying about participating in a marathon and can’t find anything about it on the web except from the usual right-wing shitmongers who also claim he lied about his military service. Anyone know of a reliable source in this regard?
Ryan’s lies with regard to his personal life hardly matter when I consider the whoppers he told on stage last week.
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coozledad said on September 4, 2012 at 11:17 am
Wonder how many of Haley’s folks have worked the crowd at a lynching, branding the victim with an iron? Probably a few in recent memory, would be my guess.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/barbour-i-would-love-for-christie-to-put
What was it Faulkner said about “the past”?
Haley Barbour is so hoglike he gets nervous at the first sign of frost. He, Christie and Huckabee’s boy would make a fine heavyweight dog-torturin’ team.
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LAMary said on September 4, 2012 at 11:27 am
What did I say last week about Armstrongs?
Billie Joe Armstrong was rushed to the hospital in Italy over the weekend and forced to cancel a Green Day concert. [HuffPo]
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annie said on September 4, 2012 at 11:30 am
Saw an excellent movie: Searching for Sugar Man. The city of Detroit figures prominently in it.
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Icarus said on September 4, 2012 at 11:37 am
So is lying about his marathon experience akin to Rommy and Michelle’s High School reunion where Lisa Kudrow’s character (or was it Mira Sorvino?) says they invented Post-it notes or is it much more serious?
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brian stouder said on September 4, 2012 at 11:51 am
Say, I’m still getting over Cooz’s link to Haley Barbour’s hot poker remark.
And indeed – compare Barbour’s beedy-eyed impulse to brand the president (hence the reference to “the past”), with Turd Blossom Rove’s impulse to simply murder that Akin fellow who wants to be a senator from Missouri.
Oh hell! They wuz only a-jokin’…right?!
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Julie Robinson said on September 4, 2012 at 11:54 am
Heather, might that have been Tom & Jerry’s? My ancestral land is also among the cornfields of DeKalb County, specifically North First Street between DeKalb and Sycamore.
No parties this year but I got to visit with all but one of my loved ones, either in person or via phone. Sunday I sent Dennis off on a 10 day adventure out east with an IU friend, and they will be talking basketball almost every minute.
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Joe K said on September 4, 2012 at 11:59 am
Alex,
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/paul-ryans-marathon-fish-story/
Who knows, both sides lie, read my post yesterday from the Orlando paper.
Pilot Joe
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Heather said on September 4, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Julie–no, I don’t remember the name, but it wasn’t Tom & Jerry’s. And Sycamore is where we were staying! Boyfriend’s dad grows corn so the whole scene out there is charming to me, having grown up in uber-suburbia.
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brian stouder said on September 4, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Joe – your link has an excellent photo of Representative Ryan wearing the American flag lapel pin with the black splotch on it.
Who thought that one up?
“Hey, I know! Let’s put our candidates on national TV with blighted American flags on their suits! That’s the ticket!”
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alex said on September 4, 2012 at 12:13 pm
Joe, from that article it doesn’t sound as if the author even remembers Kerry lying. I suspect this was something concocted in the last few days to deflect the criticism.
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coozledad said on September 4, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Joe’s link to Michelle Malkin reminds me that no one went to inspect Paul Ryan’s mother’s countertops when she started collecting her husband’s Social Security benefits.
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Chris from Iowa said on September 4, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Talk about deflecting criticism … when was the last time someone squawked about Romney’s taxes? Everyone is too busy debating the white lie Paul Ryan told about his athletic prowess — as if he is the only 40-something whose athletic accomplishments have improved with time.
His selection by Romney was either inspired brilliance or blind luck.
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basset said on September 4, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Mine was Sunday, I’m a little past speed limit. We went to a sheepdog trial:
http://shadyacressdt.com/
and then headed out to check some of my deer cameras but passed a winery along the way, ended up going on about half of the local winery trail:
http://www.ntwines.com/
finally got around to the cams and saw no deer on them, lots of nice time-lapse video of soybeans waving in the breeze though.
then out for good pizza.
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Dexter said on September 4, 2012 at 1:28 pm
John Kerry is just too nice a guy. He refused to do battle with those character assassins that were recruited by the Republicans in the summer of 2004 called “Swift Boaters.”
The truth is that John Kerry was the skipper of a Swift Boat on the rivers of Vietnam . These rivers were very dangerous waterways. The boats were constantly under threat of ambush from the riverbanks. It was scary, dangerous duty. These recruited former military people, hired to get voters thinking that somehow Kerry was a coward, fer crissakes, were and are reprehensible.
I was in the US Army during my tour, not the US Navy, but I had a friend (just passed away) who was on the crew of a Swift Boat and he told me first-hand how shaky it was out there when an attack started. So to read that someone is circulating a story about Kerry claiming to be a runner in a Boston Marathon that he did not run in is just another empty attack.
If we’re talking about a party that lies, just go back one more time to the lying Condoleezza Rice and her mushroom cloud scare, to Colin Powell presenting a grainy long-distance video and telling us it was weapons of mass destruction,or to Bush’s concocted story about a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
Are we better off than we were 4 years ago? Are you KIDDING me? Four years ago George W. Bush was POTUS! The worst US President in the history of the US. On that fact alone, we are better off.
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Charlotte said on September 4, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Julie and Heather — I’m headed to Leland this coming weekend to visit my 101 year old grandmother — (Last year I got there and Dennis Quaid, who is next door neighbor to my Chuck down at his cabin, was in town filming a movie. Which was just a little too small world.) … This year, not expecting much. See the grandmother, the aunt, the cousin et famille … then back to the North Shore for a horse show with my mother. That whole scene seems so anachronistic to me now that I find it very weird.
And why is the reply from the right that “everybody lies?” For a group that claims to have the moral high ground, that seems about on par with “I know I am but what are you?”
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Dorothy said on September 4, 2012 at 2:06 pm
Just now took the time to click on the Minnesota State Fair link. They’re great!! Love the baby ducklings! (is that redundant?)
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brian stouder said on September 4, 2012 at 2:11 pm
And, for the record, Chris – that tax return schlomozzle hasn’t been deflected; it just gets to ferment a little bit more…but it’ll be back.
I will bet one nickel that if Romney is stupid enough to challenge the president to release his (choose one): “real” birth certificate, or his grades, or his college papers – or whatever – that President Obama will call forward one of his Secret Service bodies and dump all that stuff out of an attache’ case, right onto Governor Romney’s podium…
and then he’ll ask for just an additional two years of complete tax returns, thus cutting in half the difference between what the governor has released, and what the president has released.
And, when Romney refuses, we will all ruminate anew, about what could possibly be so terrible in there
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Bitter Scribe said on September 4, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Ryan is considered a great intellectual in the right-wing echo chamber. He’s about to find out that that’s pretty small potatoes.
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Prospero said on September 4, 2012 at 2:39 pm
Tyler Hamilton sure as shit knows doping. And he was caught red-handed. And Dex, Ayn Ryan did make a false claim about a marathon. But, shit, he couldn’t help it. His lips were moving.
That GM plant Ayn Ryan is talking about? Closed while Shrub W. Bush was still President. Now, Ryan surely knows this, and just doesn’t fracking care. How can anybody justify voting for s lying bastard like this?
Michelle Malkin? That is her picture in the dictionary next to the c-word, right? Or is it next to twat. What a revolting waste of X chromosomes and carbon. But she doesn’t actually believe in either carbon or chromosomes, because she’s a GOPer and that’s science. She’s kinda the female Forrest Gump in real life, except without the good nature and well-meaning intentions.
Annie, I’m dying to see that movie, but it will never show anywhere near here. I did buy the album off Amazon, and I like it a good deal. Sort of like Love, but not so nuts as Arthur Lee.
And Joe, Kerry served when he could have avoided it, easily. W guarded the bar at the OClub, then bolted for Alabama to avoid the physicals. One way or another, Kerry was in harm’s way in Viet Nam and Laos. One of the reasons Nixon and his toy soldiers hated Kerry was that Kerry talked about Milhous’ forays into Laos and Cambodia. That was supposed to be secret. W never left redneck country. Years later, he pretended to land a plane on a carrier, with some socks stuffed in his codpiece, and said the illegal invasion was over. Anybody that doesn’t know that’s true is a fracking idiot that will apparently believe anything. Oh, and the guys that actually served under Kerry were all supportive of him. And Kerry could actually manage a windsurfing board. Shrub went over the handlebars of a Segway.
RMoney’s tax returns? He made a bunch of his 401K from a company that disposes of aborted fetuses. That just wouldn’t do. And he’s lying about it. Surprise:
http://jezebel.com/5922811/romney-blatantly-lies-about-investment-in-aborted-fetus-disposal-firm
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alex said on September 4, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Who manufactured this narrative about Ryan being an intellectual? He’s hawking the simplistic, juvenile ideology of Ayn Rand fer Chrissake. Other than a few people I knew in college who weren’t all that smart, I don’t know anyone who embraces Ayn Rand.
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brian stouder said on September 4, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Pros – that was a great article about “Stericycle” and Romney’s revolving and ever-evolving definition of the word “resignation”.
Regarding Ayn Rand – back in the days when her book had any chance of appealing to me (if ever) – I was busy crushing on Jeane Kirkpatrick; I always loved her – and she wrote non-fiction (nominally!); I had no shine for Ayn.
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Sherri said on September 4, 2012 at 3:08 pm
John Rogers has the best take ever on Ayn Rand:
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
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Prospero said on September 4, 2012 at 3:31 pm
Brilliant, Sherri.
The thing about Ayn Ryan’s crush on Rand is that he claims to not have understood she was a died-in-the-wool atheist. Seriously? Pretty fracking dense for an intellectual. Doesn’t Atlas Shrugged contain something like a 70 page Atheist diatribe? Don’t know. Tried it and quit 15 pp. in. Just horrendous writing. Moved on to Gormenghast. Steerpike would kick John Galt’s ass black and blue.
Brian, Willard’s idea about retroactivity seems rooted in his LDS beliefs. I mean, if LDS can babdize Elie Wiesel while the guy is still alive, and still quite Jewish, they seem to have the subject of temporality fracking beaten.
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coozledad said on September 4, 2012 at 3:45 pm
From Nate Silver:
Longtime economic engines in the state, like tobacco, textiles and furniture, have been fading, while newer sectors — like banking, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications — have been growing. New kinds of jobs have attracted new kinds of voters, and North Carolina is younger, more diverse and better educated than it used to be.
So not only is the Republican party encountering shortages of angry white men, the jigglebillies just ain’t reproducing fast enough to keep the house of Jesse standing. Not enough dumbshits.
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Prospero said on September 4, 2012 at 4:18 pm
The actual facts of the matter:
http://front.moveon.org/the-graphic-every-obama-blaming-conservative-needs-to-see/
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maryinIN said on September 4, 2012 at 4:25 pm
Nancy,
I would like to clarify something that appeared in your Friday column. Although, possibly I misread something – if so, my apology in advance. You wrote about and linked to an article about a priest-counselor who “excused” some of the pedophilia cases. I was as appalled as you were to read his comments, which have now been (sort of) re-explained and apologized for online. The clarification I would like to make is that the interview was in the National Catholic Register, but in one sentence you referred to it as the NCR. NCR is the common name for the National Catholic Reporter, website http://ncronline.org/
I think the readers of your blog would be much closer in mind to the NCR than the NCRegister which is an arm of the Eternal Word Television Network. I read NCR all the time because of its emphasis on social justice, its editorial stance, and its tolerance of sometimes close-to-the-edge comments. I had never heard of NCRegister until I read your post on Friday but because of its EWTN affiliation, I have little interest in logging on to that one.
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Bitter Scribe said on September 4, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Not enough dumbshits.
Oh, Cooz, if there’s anything the USA has never lacked and never will, it’s dumbshits.
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Bitter Scribe said on September 4, 2012 at 4:44 pm
I was busy crushing on Jeane Kirkpatrick; I always loved her – and she wrote non-fiction (nominally!)
Yeah, “nominally” is right. That stuff about the difference between “authoritarian” and “totalitarian” governments seems pretty damn fictional. (I can’t even remember any more which was supposed to be worse.)
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coozledad said on September 4, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Scribe: Yeah, there are plenty of dumbshits, but they’re not the dumbshits of old. Half of them can’t chew a wad of tobacco and gang up on a drunk at the same time. We’ve lost a lot of them to hunting accidents and autoerotic asphyxiation, too.
The numbers only tell half the story. The Chinese just don’t weave sheets like they did here, and you’ve got to make sure you don’t build that cross out of Trex, cause the sucker’ll poison you when you fire it up.
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brian stouder said on September 4, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Bitter – that’s her in a nutshell (so to speak).
The “authoritarian” sons of bitches were our sons of bitches, firstly; and secondly, they (allegedly) didn’t try and run the whole damned culture the way the totalitarian commies did, but were only brutally repressive when it came to lesser things that we take for granted (due process and the idea of civil rights, for example)
I think the main thing I liked about Ms Kirkpatric was that she had been a D and switched over to R, and she gave as good as she got at the UN, and at State.
Really, I thought at the time, she should have been president; and also Jack Kemp! -who could supply the sunny optimism.
But as it is now (as Rachel reminded us last night) – the Republican party of 2012 would reject Dwight Eisenhower, and his unacceptable respect and fidelity for labor unions
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Julie Robinson said on September 4, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Charlotte, I’d forgotten about the movie buzz last year, and people looking for sightings of Quaid and Zac Efron. Googling around I see the title is At Any Price and it played at Cannes this spring but had no subsequent release.
Not sure if I’ve ever been to Leland, but I’ve been to Maple Park. Probably not a lot of difference.
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Connie said on September 4, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Leland Michigan or somewhere else?
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Julie Robinson said on September 4, 2012 at 5:13 pm
Leland, Illinois. Is Leland, Michigan also a town time forgot?
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Sue said on September 4, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Nancy, are you still teaching? If so and if not, this is for you.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/09/the-joy-of-holding-virtual-office-hours-via-aim-for-students-enrolled-in-multiple-online-courses
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Sue said on September 4, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Julie:
Leland MI is wonderful.
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Prospero said on September 4, 2012 at 5:44 pm
iThe demographics race we’re losing badly. We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.
That’s our senator, Lindsay Graham, speaking the first truth from a GOPer since before the convention. Godamighty what an ahole.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2012/08/29/b9023a52-f1ec-11e1-892d-bc92fee603a7_story.html
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Prospero said on September 4, 2012 at 5:54 pm
Considerably better off than four years ago:
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/fouryears_fig1_web-2.png
It’s a no-brainer.
The news headlines in 2008:
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/09/04/792141/are-we-better-off-10-headlines-from-september-2008/
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Connie said on September 4, 2012 at 6:07 pm
Leland Michigan, old fishing village, harbor town, good restaurants, one of many lovely shoreline places in Leelanau County.
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Prospero said on September 4, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Why are GOPers so keen of vote suppression?
And I know somebody was just joking about the Green Day guy, but holy crap:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/billie-joe-armstrong-green-day-hospitalized_n_1853437.html
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Prospero said on September 4, 2012 at 7:24 pm
Haley Barbour is a big fat pig, and a racist:
http://gawker.com/5940335/miss-governor-hits-perfect-intersection-of-racism-homoeroticism
Those RMoney’s as youngsters, living dividend to dividend. Man it was tough.
But Romney has … evidently does not recognise that a system that taxes speculation at a lower rate than hard work distorts the economy. Indeed, much of the money that accrues to those at the top is what economists call rents, which arise not from increasing the size of the economic pie, but from grabbing a larger slice of the existing pie.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2012/sep/03/mitt-romney-tax-avoidance-society
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Charlotte said on September 4, 2012 at 7:41 pm
Leland, Illinois is tiny — two main streets that T into one another, a grain elevator, a restaurant (sometimes, seems to have been in business the past few visits, has a great cheeseburger and you can get a beer). My family has been there since the 1860s — originally had a mercantile, rumor is Mary Mackin sold bootleg out the back door which is how they raised the money to buy our farm. Originally it was a railroad section, now about 320 acres – pasture, some leased fields, and a big reining horse stable. Mary’s daughter, also Mary, married Charles Plamondon, originally from Ottowa but who moved to Chicago, who had a gear factory — they became fairly wealthy then drowned on the Lusitania (we still have the reparations papers in a box, my grandmother also says the uncashed check is in there somewhere too). Family fortunes started in Leland, expanded for a generation or two, and now have contracted back to Leland again … flat flat flat, conservative (although not my aunt Molly, who is a flaming liberal), farming country.
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Prospero said on September 4, 2012 at 8:01 pm
Wow, against my better judgement, I read that drivel M. Malkin wrote about John Kerry. She reminds me of an old girlfriend of mine that used to say”I’m such a riot.” That is dogass bad wtriting, and whoever told her she could write did a massive disservice to Michell and to the world. It’s also apparent she’s full of shit on the subject, since nobody else in the world remembers it. Revolting sleazebag.
This is what GOPers stand for:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/public-schools-denounced-tea-party-rally-tampa-blamed-election-barack-obama
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Prospero said on September 4, 2012 at 8:15 pm
Some truth about food stamps, for a change:
http://grist.org/food/new-data-says-red-state-residents-going-hungry-while-the-gop-plans-food-stamp-cuts/
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alex said on September 4, 2012 at 10:03 pm
Deval Patrick is pretty rousing. And it sure doesn’t hurt that he holds the same and the only elective office ever held by Mitt Romney, and has had a better run of successes. Health care reform is about Romney’s only net positive.
David Brooks of the NYT is calling it a very “beige” speech, while Gwen Ifill thought it a tour de force. In this partisan season, that can only mean Patrick just knocked ’em dead.
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alex said on September 4, 2012 at 11:03 pm
And Michelle is simply awesome except for the floop-dee-doo hanging off the right side of her head.
on edit: I have more empathy for her than Ann Romney. She’s the one who’s obviously still in love.
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brian stouder said on September 4, 2012 at 11:05 pm
I like the floopy-dee-doo!
Aside from that, SecState Clinton might become our country’s first female president, but then Michelle will be our second
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Jolene said on September 5, 2012 at 12:03 am
I thought Michelle’s hair looked great too. One of her better looks. Was distracted during part of her speech, so am going to watch it again.
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