The Watering Hole January 31 Luney tunes

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Seeming as there is no end to the ridiculous song and dance routines of the dopey GOPoliticians and the shrieking teapartiers, I’m certain the coming week will provide more of the same.

Here’s a link to a story I have been following lately about Vivian Maier, a street photographer whose recently discovered work brings an honest view of what life in these United States was really like in the last half century.
Vivian Maier

This is our daily Open Thread, your comments on these or any other topics are welcome!

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143 thoughts on “The Watering Hole January 31 Luney tunes”

  1. (the link isn’t sync’d – needs to be ‘opened – up’ or whatever the technical term is to be able to just click and it’ll connect to the site)

    “A picture speaks a thousand words”. True/pure photography – she did have an ‘eye’. Ms Maier saw life as it was and froze it in time. Wonderful that this work was preserved (auctioned) instead of being tossed in a dumpster.
    A true treasure – thanks!

  3. Thanks ebb, I figured out the link thing.
    The carving is of several varieties of soapstone, turquoise and jet I did some years ago.

  4. This image takes me back to many a summer camping on a island in the Adirondacks ~ I can hear the loon’s primeval call in my mind now . . .

    Thank you for that little vacation – back to work now :)

  5. The carving is beautiful, Raven.

    I remember a family trip to British Columbia many years ago. We had a little camper bus and were staying at a lake whose name I can’t recall. It was evening, and the rain had cleared, and the loons were calling across the lake as the sun was setting. It was magical. :-)

  6. When I was in my teens, my family vacationed in the Georgian Bay region of Lake Huron. I spent all day, every day, out on a boat or in the water, mostly with a local friend named Paul. One day, Paul and I and some of his friends took a couple of boats out to camp on one of the gazillion little islands scattered through the Bay. Just as I was drifting off to sleep, some sort of banshee/werewolf started howling out in the dark. I was lucky not to wet the sleeping bag, while the locals thought my reaction was hysterical.

    I don’t care; that was some weird scary shit.

  8. When I was a kid, the loons in northern Minnesota almost defined the magic of the lake country. Probably they still do, although I’ve not been up that way in a very long time.

    As friends and family in Minnesota are quick to note, though, there is one less loon in Minnesota these days; she’s in D.C., in Congress.

  10. The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck, and under the fierce conditions of trail life it grew and grew. Yet it was a secret growth. His newborn cunning gave him poise and control. He was too busy adjusting himself to the new life to feel at ease, and not only did he not pick fights, but he avoided them whenever possible. A certain deliberateness characterized his attitude. He was not prone to rashness and precipitate action; and in the bitter hatred between him and Spitz he betrayed no impatience, shunned all offensive acts.

  13. “But especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the summer midnights, listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs of the forest, reading signs and sounds as a man may read a book, and seeking for the mysterious something that called — called, waking or sleeping, at all times, for him to come.”

  15. Zooey’s map of the Med with Iraq IDed as Egypt just went up on C&L!

    That is one picture I am definitely right-clicking and saving to my hard drive.

    Maybe Bill O’Reilly understands it better than I.

    “Map goes up, map comes down. Map goes up, map comes down. You can’t explain it. You can’t explain it. No communication and yet, map goes up, map comes down. And you can’t explain it.”

    Then, after you explain it to him in terms even his almost-as-smart-as-a-fifth-grader mind can handle, he’ll change it to:

    “Well, where did the Middle East come from? Where did it come from? You can’t explain that. You pinheads that attacked me, where did the Middle East come from? You can’t explain it. It takes more faith to believe someone just put it on a map than it does to believe in a deity.”

    I’m paraphrasing, of course.

  18. “Ever bike? Now that’s something that makes life worth living!…Oh, to just grip your handlebars and lay down to it, and go ripping and tearing through streets and road, over railroad tracks and bridges, threading crowds, avoiding collisions, at twenty miles or more an hour, and wondering all the time when you’re going to smash up. Well, now, that’s something! And then go home again after three hours of it…and then to think that tomorrow I can do it all over again!”
    — Jack London

    • Raven, I love love love, Vivian Maier’s work. I started exploring it a while back when I first heard of her, and I see there is more on that blog site now. Amazing.

  21. I wonder if the Repubbies thought about simply turning over the deed to Iraq and Afghanistan to the Chinese.
    It’s what the US borrowed all that money for.

  22. Is there any way we can demand a new election? Or overturn the last one on the basis that the collective Congressional IQ has slipped well below its constitutional mandate? (Ok, I made that up, but maybe the wingnuts would think I’m right and reverse their stupid course!)

  25. Frugal,

    Unfortunately, being intelligent is not a Constitutionally-required qualification to be a Member of Congress. Nor is it required to be allowed to vote for a Member of Congress. I think the Founding Fathers just hoped that stupid people wouldn’t know when the Election was being held and miss it, so they didn’t go to the trouble of requiring an IQ in the three-digit range to be allowed to vote.

    Stupid people voting is one of those things that falls into the category of “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.” We should just tell them that there’ll be a second vote the next day for the people who need a few things explained to them. Then we can explain to them why we lied and kept them from voting the day before.

  26. Wayne, I recommend a mass mailing before the next election, to all registered Republicans in every state. Tell them because of the increased interest in voting and to keep lines shorter, only registered Democrats will be allowed to vote on Tuesday, that on Wednesday registered Republicans will vote, and that Thursday will be reserved for independents and other party members.

    That should do it. Heh.

  27. frugal, you think like a Republican. They’ve actually pulled that stunt, even as recently as last year, I think.

    And, you know, no offense.

  28. Yeah, Gummitch, iirc they tried something like that in Arizona a few years ago, said Republicans would vote on Tuesday and Dems on Wednesday. It didn’t work, of course, because Democrats are too smart and saw right through it. My theory, though, is that Republicans are NOT smart enough to see through it!

  29. ebb, it has taken me the greater part of the day to upload your video post … Now having viewed it, I want to thank you (and “the wild”) for calling me on another mini-vacation today :)

  30. Egypt becomes the first country to be completely shut off from the rest the web by its regime in the history of internet. Google’s response to the new Internet blackout in Egypt:

    Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection.

    We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company we acquired last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

    These are amazing times.

  32. My hard drive crashed for a third or tenth time and I have been down installing a new drive and am currently recovering the rest of my PC. That is one reason why I have gone into hiding today.

  33. “These are amazing times.”

    They certainly are. The collaboration in and of itself is amazing – the unifying goal, follow through and completion make the world go round!
    The Egyptian government probably assumed there was no way to communicate once it ‘pulled the plug’.

    Instant communication will never go away – ingenuity prevails and we are the better informed!

  34. Well I see that Fox is already getting great mileage out of the court decision in Florida. The headline is:

    “Judge Strikes Down ObamaCare.”

    Interesting that a “news” network would use a term used by one partisan side to describe the Act. No hint of bias there.

  35. Q: Surely when the the news broke that each of two judges have upheld it, Fox trumpeted “Judges uphold Obamacare”??

    A: No, they didn’t. And stop calling me Shirley!

  37. I’ve got computer problems too, the cooling fan is starting to make a lot of noise and I had to take the laptop apart which was scary and I had to pull my air card inside cause it’s snowing and now we’ve got two inches and there’s a leaky radiator hose on the truck and and and…..
    sniff sniffle sniffle

  38. I don’t know about how much more snow, haven’t checked the weather yet.
    I found the part number for a new cooling fan, that’s as far as I got.

  39. Lord Loon Almighty! 3 to 5 inches tonight, 6 t0 8 inches tomorrow and winds up to 35 miles an hour.
    I heard there’s a bad storm heading for the Windy City…

  40. I don’t know about how much more snow, haven’t checked the weather yet.
    I found the part number for a new cooling fan, that’s as far as I got.

    • • Raven, I think nature may be suggesting an odd synergy.

  42. From The Chicago Tribune:

    “The National Weather Service has issued an unusually dire blizzard warning, calling the storm expected to start Tuesday “dangerous … and potentially life-threatening.” Forecasts call for up to 18 inches of snow. “

  45. You may be right badmoodman, perhaps I should go outside and blog into the wind.

    Inside in my home ebb, snug with a mug. The realtor is coming out tomorrow (maybe not, what with the weather) with a couple of people to look at the house, I’ve been cleaning all day.

    Those upper midwest blizzards are a pain, I remember well.

    Hope Shayne is hunkered down.

    • Oh jeebus, I miss Keith. I’m watching segments of Tweety’s show, because he’s got a couple topics I’m interested in, but he just can’t shut up! I want him to let his guests talk, but he just talks over them. Waaahhhh!!

  46. 2ebb, it’s moving away from me. We get cold again Wednesday, but the last three days have been open window weather during the day.

    I guess it hasn’t hit Chicago just yet. I’ve been in and out all day.

    • Thank goodness all we’re getting is temps in the teens and 20s — no snow. I really feel for everyone getting walloped again this winter.

  47. O’Donnell had a good segment with Anthony Weiner and Ezra Klein on the Florida healthcare decision.

  48. Military will not use violence against the protesters – as long as they remain peaceful.

    Military not stopping anyone entering Cairo – to attend the million person march.

    No concession say the gathering crowd – Mubarak must go. Change in regime. The protesters don’t understand how M doesn’t get it – they want him to go [Period End of Sentence ]

    The starting point will be the Square. (I need to check the time difference – uncertain when this march will start).

  49. 2ebb, I add 8 hours to my time for Egypt. You should add ten.

    I heard the last cell phone service was cut off, to further disadvantage the marchers.

    • House, are the phones and internet State run in Egypt?

      If not, who are these companies who, when asked to shut down service to an entire country, say “OKAY!”

  50. Egypt’s students are protecting artifacts and libraries, according to Bibliotecha Alexindrina’s director, Ismael Serageldin:

    “The young people organized themselves into groups that directed traffic, protected neighborhoods and guarded public buildings of value such as the Egyptian Museum and the Library of Alexandria. They are collaborating with the army. This makeshift arrangement is in place until full public order returns. The library is safe thanks to Egypt’s youth, whether they be the staff of the Library or the representatives of the demonstrators, who are joining us in guarding the building from potential vandals and looters.”

    This is how you protest.

    • That is truly wonderful, Badmoodman.

      They don’t want to tear down their country, they want to make it better — without Mubarack’s dictatorship.

  51. the last three days have been open window weather during the day.

    oooo, mini-Spring – that is wonderful.

    Here the ornamental cherry and ornamental plum trees are in full bloom. Just in time for the New Year (Chinese) celebrations.

  52. We usually get one or two mini-Springs before the real deal. I bought my first 914 in 1982 on a February day warm enough to ride with the roof off.

  54. All I have heard is that the main cell provider is Vodaphone, which I only know from their F1 sponsorship. They pretty much do what the government wants, when asked.

  55. I’m happy that the Egyptian military realizes they are people too, not just some mindless puppets of the regime.

  56. Zooey,

    badmoodman at 3:08p has a very informative comment re: phone, internet.

    ————-
    The television in Egypt is state run so I’d imagine they have control over other means of communications.

    Just now on Alj they are reporting that land lines have become very important.
    Twitter seems to still be working.
    Before the shut down the word spread widely about the march. The evil government just doesn’t seem to be ahead of this.
    This is what happens when you have an educated citizenry – thoughtful revolution!

    • Cool. Thanks ebb, I had missed his comment. I was looking at a twitter page (because it said it was 5thestate, but it wasn’t our 5th), and was wondering what the tweet/speak thing was. It’s really amazing how fast they got that running.

  57. Well, Barbara doesn’t look like either of her parents and certainly doesn’t think like Daddy:

  62. “Members of the Bush family seemed uneager to discuss her entry into the marriage debate. Ms. Bush declined an interview request. A spokesman for Mr. Bush said he had no comment. Her sister, Jenna Bush Hager, a correspondent for “Today,” has not publicly discussed the topic.”

  63. The Winter Storm Warnings for Pawling (home) and Brewster (work) are different.

    Pawling’s runs from 6AM Tue until 6 AM Thu. Brewster’s runs from 6 AM Tue until 7PM Wed. They’re gonna expect us to be able to get to work Thursday morning.

    Pawling is expected to get 6-14 by Tue morning and another six inches by the time it ends, while Brewster will get 7-12 inches. This is something like the 12th storm of the winter season (maybe just this year) so far. For many years around here, three or more storms was the typical winter. Oh, the climate, she’s a -changin’.

  69. I’ m sure Georges I and II still have dreams (nightmares) of having to spend their retirements down there before the spawn inherit.

  73. I am reinstalling TurboTax now, thank the FSM for the Maxor recovery system. The the last few times, I was restoring the data files by hand from my back-up d:drive.

  74. Oh yeah, taxes…

    Thanks for your help with the link / text thing Walt.
    I ‘m still not sure which buttons I clicked or in what order, but it worked !

  77. I went to the grocery store today and people were stockpiling food like they won’t get out for a month. I hope they’re wrong.

  78. The boomers are the people who brought this country to be the powerhouse it (arguably) is.
    They made a small percentage of Americans very rich, and very powerful.
    Now the robber barons have all the money, and they don’t want to pay the generation whose backs they have trod upon.

    • And then they’ll try to take away Social Security and Medicare, which would be followed by the rest of the social safety net.

      Die quickly!

  79. It’s not going to be pretty.
    The American dream will get re-booted, but not till after many get kicked in the arse.
    Hard.

    • Let’s assume they succeed in bankrupting out the pensions, and getting rid of health care reform, Social Security, Medicare, welfare, subsidized housing, etc.

      What do they think is going to happen to all the people who will be affected by the loss of their money and those programs?

  82. “History does everything twice: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” — Karl Marx

    It should not be a surprise, but it is still just absolutely stunning to me that the people advocating gutting the social safety net seem unaware that that is the world we came from.

    • I get so damned frustrated over this bullshit.

      Yeah, it’s all un-constitutional. Go ahead and get rid of the programs and shut down the government, except for the part that bails out the gamblers in the banks and on Wall Street.

      It truly sucks for the serfs. Is that the kind of country they truly want?

  83. We were the upwardly mobile generation. I know many of you have very talented children, but can you say that they will be better off (in terms of financial security) than we were? So many of our young people are burdened by debt, unable to find jobs that use the education they may still owe money on, that I wonder how different our country will be from Egypt.

  84. This is the complete opposite of the Great Depression Era:

    Then: Social Security was introduced and a saving grace.

    Picture of FDR signing Social Security Act

    It has a ‘who’s who and why they were there’:

    12 . Frances Perkins was appointed Secretary of Labor in 1933, making her the first woman to hold a cabinet-level position. Like FDR, she was a child of privilege, but became a strong advocate for the poor and working class. She began her career in New York City as a social worker and held several responsible State government jobs. She served as head of Roosevelt’s Committee on Economic Security, set up in 1934. The Social Security legislation sprang from this committee.

    Isn’t she the one the spewing meemee’s were after not too long ago?

    Today the fu’ks want to dismantle – kick the foundation out from under those who are most in need.

  85. I know of a few younger people who cheerfully mapped out their whole lives based on how much they could borrow ahead.
    They are terrified at the moment. If either one of the couple loses a job, they’ll go under.

    • Raven, how could people be so clueless!?

      Don’t get me wrong, as a student I have student debt, but going into debt just to bump up your “stuff” level, drive new cars, and buy too much house is just insane!

      Unfortunately, the odds are good that at least one of those people will lose their job. It’s too bad, because they probably had every confidence that what they were doing was pursuing the American Dream.

  86. Snow here, maybe 8″. Cold, below zero tonight, high of 10 tomorrow. Oddly enough, two days ago on Saturday, it was 72.

    Take away teacher’s pensions and S.S. and that’s it for us, that’s all we’ve got. Fucking Republicans. I really have come to hate the bastards. All fiscal problems could be solved easily enough, but not this way.

    • Remember when we were kids? We understood that in order to get the things our parents had — a good house, decent car, more vacation time, etc — we were going to have to work for them. Savings accounts were the norm. Students wore ratty clothes and lived in crappy apartments. We had something to work toward, if we so desired.

      Then came the Reagan years, and it became “I want it all, and I want it now.” Charge!!

      It’s been downhill ever since, for the ‘small people.’

  89. There was a Frances in the name! Damn, seems I may have contracted the mad cow from Shayne

  90. Whatever were people thinking with those big houses? I live in a large home, built about 1800. You can see from the wear on the floors that some of the bedrooms had 3-4 beds in them. Yet, there are families who build homes larger than mine for 2 children, and given the fact that both parents have to work to make the payments, they’re only in that house on weekends and after 6 or 7 pm. on weekdays.

    • Outstanding, that’s why my men decided that the neighborhoods in our town with the McMansions were the “poor people houses.”

      As in, “those poor people have to work all the time and can’t enjoy their houses.”

      Both of them still use the phrase!

  92. This house is about 900 square feet, it originally had 6 rooms. A lot of people grew up here in very small spaces.
    I managed to get the kayak out of the living room and up the stairs.
    Time to call it a day.
    Good night all.

  93. Outstanding – your house has been standing for over two hundred years. The unsightly modern monstrosity start falling apart before or just after completion. Faulty plumbing causing moldy walls, etc.

  94. I love it Zooey! Those are indeed the “poor people”.

    Yeah ebb, they used to build stuff to last. Years ago a 16″ diameter tree fell on my house, big noise, crushed my car, but the house was unscathed. A 400K sheathing and thin siding house would have been flattened.

    • Anthony Weiner on “The Last Word”: This mug knows more about health care reform than Tim Pawlenty.

      That’s gonna leave a mark!!

  96. Yes Zooey they’re talking about 18-20″ by Wednesday and dropping temperatures and high winds. Good times.

  98. G’nite Raven. Please share more of your carvings, I can’t get over the fact that you made that beautiful bird.

  100. Shayne it was the only excuse that came to mind –
    ——————–
    I have Alj on the computer and they are talking to the President of Rwanda about Rwanda.
    Haven’t a clue what’s going on in Egypt until they switch back over.

  101. No. Alj is still talking with the Pres. of Rwanda.
    I’m waiting for 9p (pst) – if it doesn’t switch I’ll try to find another site.

    • Thanks, ebb. I’m glad you’re monitoring the situation. I try to check in now and then, but I’m finding it’s tipping my stress levels into jaw clenching territory.

  102. The Muslim Brotherhood are the only ones handing out food, clothing and water.

    —-
    Alj does weather between segments – they just showed the massive snow cloud over the mid-west to the eastern seaboard – that is big.
    Stay huddled and warm.

    ——

    Million person march won’t begin for two more hours 9a local/Cairo time.

    That’s when the curfew is due to be lifted.
    If one can say it ‘I love this revolution’.
    The citizens are allowed to mill about during the curfew but they will adhere/respect the hours of the curfew before re-starting the revolution.
    I love this citizen take-over.
    We will take notes – we will need those notes.

    • Hoo boy, ebb. I hope that march doesn’t go horribly wrong tomorrow.

      I need to get to bed, so I will bid you goodnight. Goodnight!!

  104. March of a Million People

    Good News: Curfew just lifted

    (could be) Bad News: Egyptian Police re-deployed on the streets of Cairo -

  106. Alj is re-running interviews, with journalists, from yesterday. Don’t understand why not live feed from Cairo.

    Oh, they’ve just switched to live Cairo. ( There’s a small pro-government group.)

    The protesters are pouring into Cairo. They will march to the Presidential palace.

    Alj is really starting to piss me off – re-running short stories, etc. from yesterday.
    They don’t/won’t keep on the crowd or talk about current goings on.
    It’s really infuriating.

  107. Again it’s the re-run of the interview with Rwandan President.

    I haven’t been able to find live-feed elsewhere so I’m done for now.

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