On the last Sunday in April I was in Säckingen with the boys. They have this Festival, which translates into Medieval Phantastic Spectacle, or some such. Loads of men were wearing kilts there, but I whipped my head around when a saw a guy wearing nice nature colored tartans. Little did I know I’d see the bloke on stage shortly after and, boy, this was fun to watch and listen to. The video above is from the same festival a year ago.
Other than making music, they have a charity going on. See more here and here. As the boys and me are planning for a Scotland visit this summer, we know where to go.
I could have written about the North Carolina Amendment 1 vote tonight, but it depresses me. I could have written about Greece’s troubles, but the fact that they are considering yet another vote rather than listen what the People says, depresses me. I could have written about Chancellor Merkel’s arrogance in the face of European voters’ will, but that depresses me as well. So I decided on music and men in kilts.
This is our Open Thread. Enjoy and weigh in.
Oooh I forgot to add this for Zooey, just in case.
**ducks**
Is Zooey ‘all of a faint with the vapours’?
If she doesn’t show, I am worried for her health. That guitar player is an overdose of cute in real life. Err… I, of course, was totally unaffected.
**opens eyes & looks around**
What? I think I bumped my head…
Wowie, EV!! You are the best!! Nevermind the guitar player, girl, what about the pipes player!?
**swoon**
They’re all awesome, verra doon to eearrrth..
Oh yes…
It’s All Your Money: Taxpayers may be on hook for US Postal Service losses | Fox News
Fox is running with this as their lead story on the web site.
Sigh.
It’s a constitutionally mandated federal department. There’s no requirement that it turn a profit.
And let’s see what other big parts of the government don’t turn a profit? The military! To the tune of $700 billion (with a “B”) per year.
The Republican plan to kill the post office continues…
“The problem lies elsewhere: the 2006 congressional mandate that the USPS pre-fund future retiree health benefits for the next 75 years, and do so within a decade, an obligation no other public agency or private firm faces. The roughly $5.5 billion annual payments since 2007 — $21 billion total — are the difference between a positive and negative ledger.”
http://crooksandliars.com/kenneth-quinnell/assault-american-unions-extends-p
Hey – the notification boxes aren’t checked by default!
I hope that’s true for me – when I got home last night, I had received emails for all 100+ comments up to that point! Oops, I can see right now that the damned box is checked. NOW I can fix it!
And there was much rejoicing!
Yeah, that’s a huge problem. We should insist the military turn a profit, like all that Iraqi oil that was gonna pay for the invasion and occupation.
Right.
Worse yet, the Xe private army and Halliburton take over the military functions in this nation.
Now that is a great idea RUC.
There are no kickbacks to politicians from the USPS unlike other delivery systems. And of course the really big payola comes from the military industrial complex.
Yesterday frugalchariot was talking about what cowards we are. I was thinking exactly the same thing when I saw the people rioting in the streets in Russia. Why did we allow Bush to be installed by the SCOTUS and not take to the strets in every twn?
frugalchariot is spot on. It sickens me to listen to the drivel in my van pool about last night’s reality crapola, be it who had the best ‘Pick your next fucking entertainer shiny trinket person’ show, or how to survive on an island whilst backstabbing the shit out of your partners……
We pay for cable tv and then all that’s on is that reality crap which is the cheapest for them to make boosting their profits and screwing us again.
One notable exception. NatGeoWild. My 9 year old daughter’s favorite channel. Lots of cool nature (vicious as it is) stuff for the young scientist in your family to absorb.
I thought frugal was right on with that assessment from Fareed Zakaria – America has always (since I arrived 23 years ago) seemed to be scared of something, from the Soviets to terrorists to different ideas of government even to soccer.
Americans seem to be innoculated from birth that the country is perfect and that anyone who questions that is someone to be feared. The country has forgotten that actual greatness comes from continually asking questions itself and having the courage to disagree and make it better.
Oh and maybe take a read of this – America’s not #1 in a number of ways these days
I don’t always agree with Zakaria, but he was right on about how the country looks now compared to 65 years ago…
… and yes the stupid f***in… brain dead media feeds the ignorance and the bigotry and the bromides that America will always be number and…
… oh wait, Kim Kardashian !!
Kill your television.
No, really. You should try it sometime.
I threatened to cut off the internet connection and disconnect the satellite dish last night unless the slobs I live with pull their fingers out – not quite the same.
We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
And then of course they had Emmanuel Goldstein as their fictitious radical boogeyman.
Kevin Costner says that it’s in the Constitution – why does Fox hate America?
Why would we listen to a mailman? Heh/
My mate is a mailman and he is more nervous than ever about his job…
Losing the post office would kill my struggling small business stone dead.
Hey! small Business? You must be a job creator!
And a millionaire!
Ah, EV, so now we know your secret secret, laddies in their kilts!
On another bizarre note, here goes gasbaggage Limbaugh, making shit up again! from Media Matters this AM…
Limbaugh Slides Into Birtherism: “Obama’s Social Security Number Is From CT, And He’s Never Been There”
Last time I looked, fat boy, the Federal gummint issued SSNs, not the individual states. Keereist, he’s dumb.
caught redhanded
Why have progressives never figured out where he broadcasts from and protest outside?
Mmmm, because we can’t afford plane tickets to the Dominican Republic?
Actually RUC, SSN’s have always had something of a state code to them. I discovered it in the Navy when I was checking duty rosters that included SSN’s. High 300 #’s back then were for WI.
Yeah, there is some regionality to it, but it isn’t anywhere near 100%, as they recycle dead people’s after a while.
And I can’t help but wonder when Obama actually applied for his SSN. I was a junior in HS before I got mine.
Thanks badmoodman, a more likely explanation, a clerical typo.
Or.
Obama is a secret mooslim mole, or nazi spy from the past or future…
I read somewhere that they are changing that to prevent some types of identity theft.
http://www.thefogbow.com/special-reports/social-security-number/
And just how would Limbaugh know the president’s social security number? Is he Rush planning on identity theft?
If I were Rush Limbaugh, I’d want to be someone else…
I, for one, was certainly glad to see Mittens dissemble when commenting on the whacko nutjob
mobcrowd person who asked him to comment on the president’s ‘treasonous’ behavior.Mittens showed the entire nation his lack of spine, decency and weenie level of pandering (=fear of teaparty nutjobs) that animates him. Independents will see this for what it is. Lucking fooser.
Romney is a pansy and a nerd. That’s probably his motivation to buy the presidency so people regret making fun of him.
The SSN money quote:
So how did President Obama get a Social Security number with an Area Number reflecting residence (or mailing address) in Connecticut?
Most likely, this was due to a clerical error. At the time, President Obama was only 15 years old, and lived with his grandparents in an address on Beretania Street. The President’s house in Hawaii was in zip code 96814 and the zip code for Danbury, CT. is 06814. Since the ’0′ and ’9′ on a typical typewriter are immediately adjacent (remember, the president’s Social Security number was issued in 1977, before the age of computers), it would have been a common error to accidently type a ’0′ when the ZIP code really began with a ’9′. Another possibility is that President Obama, a left-handed 15 year old boy at the time, may have written his own ZIP code in a less-than-fully-legible manner, making the ’9′ look somewhat like an ’0′.
In any event, there is no evidence whatever that President Obama’s Social Securiy number was obtained by fraud.
Occam’s razor castrates fat bastard.
On that post office financial matter, the local lady who runs the window at the local PO (a Faux Noise-fueled ‘elderly’ wingnut) ‘explained’ the problem to me. The problem is caused by “Obamacare”, she said. I’ve since learned that Obamacare is the cause of the nation’s entire malaise, including of course unemployment AND the lingering economic problems brought forth by the Bush Depression. I’ve learned to shrug and shut up. The time I mentioned the grossly excessive military spending as partially driving the Federal deficit, I was told that it was necessary, that it was only our military that stood between us and the Soviet Union, between us and the “Maoists” in China (I got glared at when I said I had heard Walmart was currently more a part of the Chinese model than was Mao Tse Tung).
There is, sadly, no apparent means of dealing with ignorance and stupidity, esp. when it’s fueled on a daily/nightly basis by a gigantic media (propaganda) enterprise (google ‘Joseph Goebbels’ for further details), one that has the ear of so many people in its grasp. Faux can do no wrong, and everything said there is, obviously and of course, absolute truth. My cousin said it best of all several years ago (in March, 2004) when, in one of his email rants about the left wing liberal bias implicit in media outlets everywhere, he put it this way:
I wanted to ask him what ‘objectively slanted toward [his] political views’ had to do with Truth, but decided against wasting my time in such blatant fashion.
The nation and world are at yet another crossroads. Will the rapidly accumulating fear and ignorance finally prevail, again, as it so often managed to do in the past? Sure looks that way. Is this nation really stupid enough, collectively, to vote in Mitt Romney and a Republican majority in Congress to, in effect, drive the final nail in the country’s coffin currently under construction? I have no reason to doubt that such an outcome is not only possible, but closer at hand than ever before.
I shall, therefore, spend part of yet one more day pondering the possibility of living out my few remaining years in a place with no Republicans. Maybe today I’ll research the Tuamotu Archipelago ‘out there’ in the tropical Pacific. I do crave fresh fish, after all, and given the shitty weather of late here on the front face of the Rockies, a tropical breeze would be a nice touch!
Q of the day: Are there car elevators in the Tuamotu Archipelago? If not, hey! Maybe!
One can fly to Papeete non-stop from L.A. in 8.5 hours. The national symbol is the outrigger canoe.
I was able to log on to an MSNBC feed for a few minutes and was surprised to hear a commercial for Keith Olbermann and Countdown!
I’ve discovered that if I minimize a window with video playing the video will continue to play. However, if I try to watch the video for more than a minute I experience a Shockwave crash or a system crash.
I ha’e a kilt an’ I’m not afraid ta wear it!
While Romney contionues to say abolsutely anything to get elected (absolutely stunning piece of dishonesty there).
Rick Sanitation has decided also to join the ‘say anything at all to get Romney elected’ party by endorsing the ‘worst republican in the country’
I simply can’t understand what makes these people tick, I really can’t.
I think the ticking is from their in-built ignorance’s time bomb. Tick-tick-tick ready to go boom.
Andy Borowitz puts it quite well:
Bill O’Reilly can’t understand this
Why do we have to believe in fairies when the garden itself is so beautiful? (Stephen Fry?)
Just tell Billo that it’s God’s Eye. He will likely believe it.
Oh, that his (BO’R) head would explode with the notion:
QOTD:
“I can’t name a single Romney foreign policy adviser who believes the Iraq War was a mistake. Two-thirds of the American people do believe the Iraq War was a mistake. So he has willingly chosen to align himself with that one-third of the population right out of the gate,” – Christopher Preble, Cato Institute.
http://www.thenation.com/article/167683/mitt-romneys-neocon-war-cabinet
That’s disturbing.
The media bugs me. Shock.
Yesterday we knew the results of the elections in Europe. The stock market was relatively flat and the media said Wall Street was shrugging off what was happening in Europe.
Today the market is down by a big chunk. And they’re saying it’s because of what’s happening in Europe.
They really do just make this stuff up. The market goes up, it goes down. And if I can quite Lewis Black: “No one knows the hell why.”
Well yes, the media does seem to have a short… wait…. it’s Courtney Stodden!
I with Lewis Black on that observation.
Men…kilts…OMG
**thud**
Thankfully EV was kind enough to provide smelling salts.
What a great start to the day.
Shocking!
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/05/08/479998/jesse-lee-peterson-women-vote/
“Look at every place where a women is in control,” said Peterson. “You see nothing but confusion. There’s no good in it at all, none.”
(I guess women shouldn’t raise children either if they are so horrible. Why we trust women at all with giving birth, must be especially egregious to this man. He probably sends his mom dead roses on Mother’s Day.)
PETERSON: “I think that one of the greatest mistakes that America made was to allow women the opportunity to vote. We should have never turned that over to women.”
“It was a big mistake…these women are voting in the wrong people. They’re voting in people who are evil, who agree with them…Men in the good old days understood the nature of the women, they were not afraid to deal with them.”
What does that mean exactly? That men would just slap their women folk around and that would be that? Isn’t that what is happening in the Middle East every day to women? And these people call themselves “Christians.”
Back in the “good old days,” men could sock their women in the eye with impunity.
They could rape them with impunity as well.
I know. Repiggies will take us kicking and screaming back to those days, if we let them.
There is no GOP war on women. Move along…nothing to see here….
Yes, sir. Just don’t hit me…
Rev. Peterson sounds a lot like Mohamed Atta.
What I find really bizarre about this is that he’s Black. One would think that he would be aware of the struggle for voting rights for African-Americans over many decades and note the parallel.
On the other hand, he has no use for Black people, either. He is, however, crazy about bigoted white conservatives.
Self loathing people are dangerous because they hate themselves as much or more than they hate everyone else, so they have nothing to lose.
I finally heard this moron speaking on the Thom Hartmann radio show. He can barely speak the English language, and slurs his words.
I am guessing that there has to be some sort of profit motive involved if he appears that often on Faux News.
Just another SubHuman branch off the primate tree. Fire good. Wimmen trubbel.
Looks like we have our trifecta. First Dick Clark, then Goober now Maurice Sendak.
Did you see the “Where the Wild Things Are” movie? Loved it.
No, I’d forgotten about it. Back on the movie bucket list.
That’s an extremely wide triangle.
The FSM has long noodle-y arms.
3 weeks? Well, Goober always a bit slow
I’m sorry, but who is Goober?
George Lindsey. He played Gomer Pyle’s cousin as well as being a regular on Hee Haw and many cartoon movie voice overs.
Oh that guy! I used to think he and the guy who played Gomer were the same person.
Wow, who won that Dead Pool?
Btw, what the hell just happened in Israel??
Israel’s opposition leader, Kadima head Shaul Mofaz, has joined Bibi’s government. Imagine Mitt Romney joining Obama’s government and you get a sense of the verklemptness.
Sounds like it could be a minor outbreak of reality but it is too soon to tell.
This is just creepy… And why would you do it to your own child?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/evil-clown-birthday-surprise-dominic-deville_n_1499369.html
“And why would you do it to your own child? ”
– Because you’d get arrested if you did it to someone else’s.
Because some kids just don’t hate their parents enough, I guess.
My money’s on the evil clown being a child molestation victim at an early age.
It seems to encourage stalking on a regular basis.
Is it possible that the evil clown is really a child stalker?
Crooks and Liars has this Life of Mitt
And this is the comfortably numb twat that is polling within a few % points of the presidency?
I see a new movie remake…”The Public Life of Willard Mitty” The amazing story of a stunningly simple man living in a world of nightmaric fantasy.
You know, there have always been dumb, but well-intentioned people on TP, but now they are friggin’ epidemic. I blame the facebook commenting system.
I don’t know how many times I’ve had to refer these dolts to the damn post they’re commenting on to answer their questions — because they are clearly only reading the headlines.
I hate the FB commenting system.
Now Fox is trying to personalize the bailout to the Post Office by offering a handy calculator by showing how much it will cost you individually should we do the bailout. (Still wonder why they don’t show us how much the DoD costs us individually.)
But the real question here (and Congress knows this; which is why it will get bailed out of course) is how much will it cost us of we don’t bail it out? Longer drives to find the fewer post offices. Longer lines. Higher postage. Being forced to use the higher cost private alternatives. Why doesn’t Fox also delve into that as well? (Rhetorical)
Postal Service Overhaul
The PO doesn’t need a bailout; they need Congress to overturn the stupid law they made about funding the pension for 75 years in advance.
Why does everything have to be so damn complicated?
Shocking, being a Fox poll, here are the results:
Sheep. On demand Baaaaaaa!
The questionable aspect of the bailout is the reason for it in the first place. How many private companies are required to post funds for retirement benefits for their employees for the next 75 years right now?
Exactly. The repiggies planted a poison pill in the PO, and now it’s doing what it was supposed to do.
Never mind that the post office is in the CONSTITUTION.
Is a ‘standing army’ also in the Constitution?
Why do the Republicans hate the Constitution?
Because it doesn’t suit their agenda?
How many private companies provide pensions for their employees anymore?
The part that really maddens me is their reaction when someone makes the valid suggestion of just raising postal rates. Batscat Bachmann called higher rates “another Obama tax hike”.
“THERE’S A PROBLEM! THERE’S A PROBLEM!! EVERYONE RUN AROUND AND PANIC! THERE’S A PROBLEM!!!”
Someone suggests a solution…
“OMG, THERE’S A SOLUTION!! THERE’S A SOLUTION!! WE DON’T LIKE IT! WE DON’T LIKE IT!! MAKE IT GO AWAY!! TAX HIKE! TAX HIKE! TAX HIKE!!!”
Hummm… just another red herring.
I thought the point was that, like rural electrification, government could and should do something for the general welfare and that connecting people all across the country, especially in palces where a regular postal service was not possible to be ‘profitable’ was important to the health of the nation under the Constitution….
Let’s ask frugal’s Foxbot postie if she is ready to sacrifice her job on Grover Norquist’s Small Government Shrine? Maybe you could ask her Frugal?
Our founding fathers knew that the government post office was necessary.
I did. I asked her if, given the problems the Postal Service was having, there was danger of her losing her job here in this small town, or even if there was a chance the local PO might be forced to close. That was when she explained to me the entire problem was caused ‘by Obamacare.’ I said no, it was caused when a lame duck Republican congress passed a law requiring the PO to fund its pensions 75 years in advance. She got mad at me, doesn’t say much to me anymore. Democrats are, you see, lowlifes who always try to blame Republicans for everything bad the evil one named Obama does. Thank god for Fox News who dares to tell the truth, the facts!
Brown Calls On Warren To Release Her Job Applications
Weak impotent flailing, Scott Brown is thy name.
RUC calls on Brown to release his undocumented, illicit viagra source!
The fucking repiggies filibustered the bill to stop the interest rate on student loans from going up. FML
If Obama was having trouble motivating students and the young to give him another term with a Democratic Congress, this should at least help. Tell your lenders to wait until November for your next payment.
Hell, since it seems that I can’t get a job of any type, I haven’t made a single payment.
And i just got another rejection email. Joy.
My son is struggling to find a job as well I forwarded him this today… I’m sure you know these things already, so forgive me if I presume too much.
I don’t have a clue as to searching for a job online these days, I am having trouble giving him useful advise. And since you are pretty new to the Oregon area, maybe you don’t have enough contacts there yet. I do wish you luck.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-b-junge/job-search-in-the-digital_b_1498010.html?ref=topbar
The truly jaw dropping aspect of this is setting the interest rate at double the rate of mortgages.
I don’t understand how anyone should think it should rise when interest rates are at historic lows and have been pretty flat for a while.
Outstanding, it is quite simple. Doubling an interest rate for no apparent reason on either unemployed or recently employed students is not a tax hike. That it is a ‘blood out of turnip’ move totally evades Republican thought.
Oh, my bad. I expect things to make sense and things which impose hardship on folks to be both fair and necessary. It never occurred to me that they do it just because they can.
Because why not make a profit on the backs of those who can’t afford it? They’re used to being poor, and the rich are not!
And I don’t understand why they don’t just end oil subsidies, but I guess I’m just slow.
I despise the repugnant/teapottiers party. Ignorant, obstinate toddlers – every last effen one of them!
They are fighting to save their white dupas because they know that they will be the minority by 2050.
I think Sean Hannity should get on his show right now to apologise for giving that man the idea.
should get *Mitt* on his show
I can just hear their defense plea….”But your honor, we were just giving the kids a Romney ride. “
But they liked it… they just climbed right up there…. they were having a ball. Lucky for us, none of them ate Turkey and had the runs, though.
Damn kids make too much noise sometimes.
Was he related to Mitt Romney?
This from a f’g “celibate”.
Why the hell do people listen to priests? They are no more holier than the general public.
“Salt himself, however, seems a little picky: he also excluded men who are single parents and men who earn less than $60,000 a year.” So just who is being too picky?
Exactly! He’s big bag o’ wind.
Maybe if the Catholic Church took it upon themselves to teach boys and young men that women were to be valued for something besides being a brood mare or that women were subservient to men, then women might have some reason to enter into an equitable partnership instead of a patriarchal arrangement.
Oh, its Wi primary day. Project a Barrett win.
Do you think it will be close, or a landslide? Just how pissed off are the people of WI about Scott Walker’s horrendous behavior?
Just the primary, Zooey. I think Barrett will edge Falk by about 10%. Pity because Falk is the better administrator
Oh lordy, I’m really way ahead of myself.
I should retract the link I just put up about not being stupid.
Over eager is not the same.
Who has a better chance of winning against Walker?
Probably Barrett. Falk is a wonderful administrator, incredibly savvy and would be the better choice. Regrettably she has a public presence that makes John Kerry and 2000 Al Gore look incredibly dynamic and vivacious.
That’s too bad… Often the better person for the job isn’t the most outgoing or gregarious.
Jane, remember that commenter on TP you pointed out who “misunderstood” me? What a friggin’ dummy!
Put on your most exasperated face and read my last comment: “I know, you putz! So am I! Stop talking now!”
The genius had just pointed out that he/she was a “leftist.” *facepalm*
Wow, women really aren’t as stupid as repiggies think we are.
Those dolts (spit, double spit) need to brush up on some history:
4000 Years of Women in Science Biography Listing
Who would’ve guessed?
Answer: Anyone with a brain.
Moonlight, God, Texans, and idiocy all in one wrapper.
You. Are. Shitting. Me.
Oh dear jeesus! What would Billy O’ have to say about that?
Those ‘adults’ in the audience need to take their heads out of their…
Go outside watch the sunset and the Moon rise…simple as that.
Especially this last week when the Moon rise corresponded with the sunset.
Proof positive…oh what the hell am I going on about – these folks wouldn’t take the time to educate themselves. If it’s not on the teeveemachine…”it don’t exist”.
They didn’t hear anything after “the Bible is wrong.” Out of that context they might have even known that the moon doesn’t emit light. In fact, they’ve probably never read the Bible and if they did they never bothered to think about the meaning of the words.
You would think that these people would learn that we have learned a thing or two about our natural world since the knowledge at the time of the Bible.
Story is from 2006 – so not really new, but I’m going to bet Waco is still Whacko and not alone in being so.
Busy, busy, busy!
I painted one plane and did some performance mods to the glider. The paint job left a bit to be desired but it looks good at a distance. The glider is, frankly, astounding me now that I have it tuned up. When I think of all the agony of building the old ones, including developing an allergy to “super glue”, and compare it to my little piece of foam that comes ready to fly I feel like I was a moron. Of course, that was long before the Chinese flooded the market with good, cheap, stuff.
I also found a good RC website. It’s kinda neat because at any given time one can be talking to people from around the world. Europe and Australia are well represented and I’ve had chats with people from South America, Asia, and Africa too. The biggest kick is that I stumbled across one of the guys who taught me how to fly back in 1970! He remembered me when i reminded him that it was my dad who crashed a glider into his car. It didn’t damage the car because the biggest piece flew through the open windows while it deposited the little bits around and in the car.
Then, just to keep me really distracted from a lack of beer, I picked up a new battery charger. Once again I am astounded by how much one can buy for the money nowadays. I’m also coming to the conclusion that it took the Chinese to make electronics really user friendly. The former industry leaders-Germany, Japan, and the U.S.- do things differently.
The Germans over engineer everything. It’s heavy, expensive, and does one thing really well if one has a degree in electronics and can make it work at all. The Japanese place too much emphasis on bells and whistles. One pays a premium for flashing lights and little songs that tell one what the device is doing. We Americans tend towards all in one units which are, of course, assembled from foreign sourced parts. They work well and do everything whether one needs it or not. The Chinese stuff I’ve bought is a different story.
It does what one needs without needing additional stuff, like the German stuff, or doing too much like the American stuff. And everything has the same simple “beep” to tell you that a process is starting or finished instead of the jukeboxes from Japan. But the impressive part is the ease of use. The programing is elegant in it’s simplicity. I’ll happily pay a premium for an American made product but we will have to take some lessons from the Chinese first.
pete, I love your enthusiasm!
That’s the beauty of retirement even if it’s forced. One discovers that one needn’t do anything one is not enthusiastic about. Still, I haven’t been this enthusiastic about model planes in a very long time. The Chinese electronics surpass what I could afford when I was working full time and have allowed me to aspire to a higher level. And I can’t wait until my Czech glider arrives! If it’s as good as the reviews I”l be ecstatic.
I hear you! I recently retrieved my ‘old’ (20 yrs) road bike from the storage shed. Hadn’t ridden it since before my brain surgery nearly 12 years ago, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to manage it at all anymore, what with advanced age and all. But I figured what the hell, why not? If I crash and kill myself, no big deal! So, out it came, the old aluminum-framed Trek 1100 with upgraded derailleurs, 20 mm (wide) tires, Italian saddle, all the goodies. Tires were shot. Cleated shoes didn’t fit anymore; tire pump busted; odometer/speedometer busted; but hey, it’s only money, right? Bought a tire pump, new tires, new speedometer, new shoes, new cleats, new cycling gloves, fixed the busted chin strap on my old brain bucket/helmet, then washed and waxed the bike frame back to its former glory! Finished the entire operation, finally, this afternoon and went out for a nine mile spin around town and now can’t wait till tomorrow to actually take a RIDE! Twenty miles? Bring em on!
Seriously, the old machine is a true work of art. It still amazes me … the simplicity and the workability of what really are complex components, all designed specifically for MY enjoyment!
Nice world, this one.
A few years ago I picked up a Seaside LW8. I call it my “old man bike”. It has a wide soft seat, wide tires, and upright handle bars like a 1950′s Schwinn 3-speed but it has 15 speeds and only weighs about 20 pounds. It’s a marvel. Unfortunately I find myself limited in places to ride. There aren’t any sidewalks in my immediate vicinity and I don’t trust the local drivers on narrow streets. I can summon the courage for a couple rides a year but it’s hard to enjoy it much when one is waiting to get clipped from behind!
That’s one advantage of living as I do in a small rural town. Very little traffic. Very few sidewalks either, but that’s not really an issue when the auto traffic is so scant. I do have to watch myself closely on gravel roads, however; I quickly learned that those extremely narrow tires don’t like ANY surface that’s not hard and smooth.
The wingnuts have freaked because Hillary Clinton had the nerve to appear in public in glasses and without makeup.
Mrs. Clinton addressed the issue in a recent interview with this amazing response:
OMG!! Burn her at the stake!
Substance, anyone? No?
The wingnuts like the Callista look on their wimmen. Hillary clearly isn’t trying hard enough to look like a Fox newscaster, and she’s way old. And she’s just a secretary for Pete’s sake!
So all she needs is a boob job, a bleach job, and a 55 gallon drum of lipgloss, and she’ll finally be good enough…even if she’s only a secretary.
And how old is the oldest women on Faux News?
They get sold off to the highest bidder when they turn 30. Talk about a great trophy wife!
But only after they are shot full of botox and had their butts surgically lifted.
Not a day older than her latest botox treatment?
If they want to throw out the subject of makeup, I’d like to bring up the point that The Speaker Of The House is more orange than a carrot and has more botox than most of Hollywood combined.
So since the Righteous men tend to think with their gonads, women must think with their mammaries? And only pretty people can think at all? No wonder things are so screwed up.
Apparently, non-pretty people should never be seen or heard, whether they can think or not.
I guess that explains why nobody ever listens to me.
What were you saying…?
That’s why I like the internet. Noone judges me by my looks, or rather lack of same.
Me too.
Did you get a chance to see the comments?
Were you aware:
and it goes on and on!
Because wingnuts would rather have Palin’s looks than Hillary’s brains. They’re all morons.
More entertainment from the Catholic League. They’re beside themselves that a company finally paid any attention to their “boycott” of the Daily Show, as our fellow RWNJs at NewsMax.
I’m sure the same people poo-pooed the idea that advertisers fled Limbaugh to any effect.
I might just have to buy some products from Kellogg’s. I love their answer.
And the Greene County Republicans can’t spell for shit, on top of their simple lunacy.
Not Hitler? Mussolini? Stalin? Pol Pot? Rick Santorum?
WTF is a “political socialist ideologue”?
I think the blah guy in the White House.
WTF is a “political socialist ideologue”?
I think it is that new President-elect of France… Hollande.
I think in Greene County, a child was left behind…..
LL
Thanks, Ebb, too bad more RWNJ’s can’t come to the same conclusions.
Giving a political endorsement via email is like breaking up with someone on Facebook.
Breaking up on Facebook is really rude. One should always text message a break up first and then change relationship status on FB.
Where would we be without email?
Or email. Always classy.
This monkey is better at controlling a puppy than I am.
Maybe but you probably aren’t as hairy.
The monkey has bigger, sharper, teeth than you do. Animals respect that.
Indiana polls closed at 6pm eastern. With 14.9% reporting, teabagger Richard Mourdock is leading Dick Lugar 60.6% to 39.4%.
Wow, that’s early! No time for people to vote after work.
NBC is calling the race for Mourdock already. Still 60-40 with 23% in.
North Carolina polls just closed at 7:30pm eastern. We’ll start to see results from Amendment One pretty soon. Wisconsin doesn’t close until 9pm eastern.
Who’s the Dem going to be in the race?
Primary again, Zooey. The good news is polls say the Dem has a better chance against the whacko Mourdock than Lugar
I know! That’s why I said “going to be.” As in, in November.
Good news about the Dem, whoever it is.
Joe Donnelly, a three term Rep for Indiana’s 2nd congressional district.
Thanks!
North Carolina Polling Stations Report Confrontations Over Amendment 1
Sounds like the fundies sent out their shock troops to intimidate the opposition.
The Dems can’t be lazy about poll watching, just because it’s a repiggie primary. I’m shocked that there were none!
Those good, moral, religious types certainly can be a hateful bunch.
grrrr, no one should be poll watching. Any group placing people anywhere near a poll should be shot. Dem or Repub or whatever.
I’m not saying they should be there to get into trouble-making. I think they need to be there as observers, in order to protect against trouble and act as witnesses, if necessary. Like today in NC.
My religious sister doesn’t want to give one our family scholarships to a pre-med student because he’s a Buddhist.
I’m doubling down on this one, while avoiding telling her she’s a religious bigot. I walk the line… *sigh*
That’s truly a shame she won’t educate herself as to the giving/forgiving/compassionate nature of most Buddhist.
She’s a brilliant NICU RN, but she has a HUGE blind spot caused by her religion.
That’s like a computer whiz turning down an offer to work with Steve Jobs.
Or maybe your sister thinks all doctors should be Jews.
Definitely not!! They should all be evangelical christians.
Were you raised evangelical, Zooey, or is this an more recently acquired religious bigotry for your sister?
No, thank goodness! My sister acquired this bit of insanity when she married her third husband, who I can’t believe she looked at twice. They’ve been together for over 20 years, so I guess I’ll have to continue to curb my tongue around them. I’m so glad I can cut loose on the Zoo.
Please – where are the polls, for today’s races, on TPM? I can only find the Presidential poll.
Appreciate any assistance!
This one can be manipulated to different states, then pick the tab for the offices in contest.
http://www.politico.com/2012-election/map/#/President/2012/Primary/
This is where they are reporting on Amendment One. It’s at the very bottom of the page.
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/36596/79999/en/summary.html
Thank you, very much, House!
It’s some twisted irony that as North Carolina is going to the polls today to “defend traditional marriage,” the state’s former Senator and presidential candidate – who did plenty to discredit marriage in his own right – is on trial in a very messy public manner.
Looks like Richard Lugar is out… and a teabagger is in…
Got another one on the Ed Show about a minute or so ago
Wayne, I sure hope your Mom is a watcher of the Ed show – beaming ear to ear at her son’s fame!
Woo hoo!!! Congrats, Wayne! I’ll watch for it when it comes online!
BTW, Zooey, I left a comment on that ’93-year-old’ TP thread in response to that Terry person with whom you were arguing. I think you’ll like it. Heh.
I did like it, and I responded!!
Well, truthfully, I am a little under the ‘genius’ level, but I can probably read your mind at least some of the time.
What am I thinking right now?
If I had your initials and a Twitter account, my address would be:
@andheWAS
Riffing on the Talking Heads song.
“The world was turning, he was right there with it, and he was…”
I like that song a lot.
A mini rant about religion.
I would be more than happy to stand before the Christian God and defend my belief that I agreed with His Son who lived the life of defending the poor and the weak. I would have no problem with my belief that all of the children of the earth were His creation and that I stood tall in defending the rights of all of them to live the life God promised them. I would have no shame in standing before the divine Creator and saying I respected each and every one of his children, whether I agreed with them or not. I would have no problem in telling this God that I heard the words of his son and felt compassion for the poor, that I heard the words of his children when they spoke of love and embraced those words.
That I turned my back on the bitter hate of those who forbore their compassion in favor of their position of power. That I denied the wicked who tried to tell me that God could create children who did not deserve all of his love and compassion. I would sing the praises of a God who embraced all his children, the poor and the weak, the gay and the straight, every child the Lord put upon the earth.
I would listen to the words of his son and know that god damns no one and forgives all.
While I don’t believe there is a deity who would damn a single child on this planet, I would also have no problem with being proven wrong and standing in judgement. I live my life by Christian ideals not because it might get me a place in some mythical heaven. I do it because it makes sense. I do it because I care.
Fuck your god if that isn’t enough.
I think the Zoosters and Critters, no matter what their religious affiliation or lack thereof, lead more Christian lives than most of the liars shouting their piety from the rooftops. I think that’s why they hate us so much.
I do my best to treat other people the way I would like them to treat me. I think Christians call that “The Golden Rule.”
Exactly! Religion doesn’t have a lock on the “Golden Rule,” and a whole lot of them certainly never heard of it, judging by their words and actions.
To republiscums the Golden Rule is:
Do unto othersfuck em before theydo untofuck you.Because in their sick worldview, everyone must be out to fuck over one another. I’m glad my brain doesn’t work that way.
Remember Ron Paul getting booed in one of the debates for mentioning the Golden Rule?
Those R debate audiences were neither Christian nor human.
Apparently, the Joe Wilson family is a shouty bunch.
Sen. Claire McCaskill Getting Beefed Up Security After Tea Party Activist Declares ‘We Have To Kill The Claire Bear’
The peace-loving, jokey teabaggers strike again. Lefties have no sense of humor!
I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t find death threats humorous, especially these days.
Looks like the NC Amendment One is passing in a landslide.
Hate rulz!!
In my non-legal mind, this amendment would require North Carolina to ignore the public acts and records of states that allow same-sex marriage. Therefore, it is unconstitutional.
It violates the equal protection clause in the US Constitution, so by my understanding, it is un-Constitutional. It wasn’t bad enough that the Founders ended up protecting slavery in the Constitution, now we’re doing the shameful business of amending state constitutions to take away rights from citizens. Again.
Off with their heads!
Bin Laden may be dead but Bin Ladenism is still alive | Fox News
So Bush deserves credit for getting Bin Laden. And we still need to be afraid of Bin Laden. This is the right-wing daily doublt in one paragraph.
Rep. King suggests administration may have misled public on bomb plot, calls for review | Fox News
They didn’t seem too worried about such things under Bush.
**banging head on desk**
Funny thing…it doesn’t hurt anymore.
From what I understand (and we all know how unreliable my understanding can be), the bomber was actually a double agent who delivered the improved underwear bomb to our govt, along with information that let the CIA kill another top-level AQAP a-hole in Yemen. I hope King doesn’t start hearings that would reveal classified information just to try to embarrass the Obama Administration.
But the President is an inexperienced and ignorant child, how could he possibly be in charge when such a great plan actually works?
Ugh, I hate channeling racist fuckwits.
What part of “double agent” does King not understand? Maybe King would prefer the CIA did everything out in the open and maybe publish the names of all our agents. I got your “fine line” right here, Petey.
All of it?
So Dick Luger has been sacrificed on the altar of “party purity”. It won’t be long before all GOP candidates will be forced to burn a cross to get on the ballot.
Federal appeals court: Illinois cannot enforce ban on recording police officers
Beside the free speech issues, imagine the nightmarish scene of the cops arresting everyone with a phone, law & motion day held in stadiums, and the hellish costs to the state and local courts.
They’ve already wasted a shitload of the Illinois taxpayers’ money just trying to defend the ban. But they just don’t give a rat’s ass, do they?
I wouldn’t be surprised if ALEC was at the root of this law.
Fascism is on the march.
American Front, super inbred geniuses.
So, Michelle Bachmann is a Swiss citizen. Can we make her move there?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76072.html#.T6nLecyMOKI.twitter
EV would be so pissed!
But if she’s a citizen of another country, that should make her ineligible to hold office in this country. Pete will be so pleased!
Strangely enough, the Constitution does require Members of Congress to be citizens of ONLY the U.S. They have to be a certain age, citizens of the U.S. (so dual-citizenship is allowed), and a resident of the state they represent in Congress. And Congress cannot add any other qualifications.
How can they be citizens only of the US, and have dual citizenship?
Sorry, typo from editing my comment. S/b “does NOT require”. my mistake. Sorry.
Corrected, that entire comment should read:
Okay! That makes more sense — even though it makes no sense whatsoever to allow Members of Congress to have dual citizenship IMHO.
All things considered; I think I would be more pleased if she just choked on her tater tot hotdish.
Hilarious!
My bro-in-law is a fanatic about his nasty tater tot hotdish — he’s from Blue Earth, MN. I dunno if that’s Batshit’s district.
I am, believe me, we just applied for Swiss citizenship after the 12 year waiting period and same 12 years paying taxes, were asked for birth certificates, police reports, credit rating, what not. We were informed they’d consider it, but it’ll take another two to three years. Now this. I seriously consider telling them to shove it.
Wow, that’s unbelievable. I’d be tempted to tell them to buzz off.
I just finished my mail-in ballot for the OR primary next week. So excited!! I hope I get to vote in OR in November.
Inspired by Z’s picture of the guy on the beach through the rainy windshield… (I’ve been working on wet window stuff ever since… it’s harder than it would seem to get the right results… )
http://www.thezxbecollection.com/2012/05/wet-windshield.html
Cool! Always nice to be an inspiration.
Fucking TP comment system! It ate several of my comments (plus the comments of the people to whom I was responding), and then I get to a point where it says “view 44 more”, and I keep clicking on it and it won’t fucking open!!! And here I was arguing religion with some pious jerk with a ‘jesus’ gravatar.
Oh, well, I should be in bed. Goodnight, everyone.
Yeah, I keep getting notices that people are replying to my comments on TP, but when I click over there, nothing is there. Must not be all that interesting.
Goodnight, Jane!
sure it was Jesus – could have been Charles Manson, or maybe Russell Brand ?
It wasn’t a picture, it was just a black background with the word ‘JESUS’ in red.
I bet that was the nutcase I was dealing with the other night.
New bag in the shop!
Really nice!
Thanks, Ebb! I’m not completely satisfied with the pics, so will take better ones tomorrow.
Oooh, I like it!
Wonder if nwog is on a set somewhere. He didn’t even peek in on Music Night.
I haven’t seen him around for over a week, I think.
just lurking ladies. i’m fine, it’s all good. thanks.
Then all is right with world at this moment!
Found on The Last Word blog, a short from an interview with Maurice Sendak. What an amazing man.
Truly a gift! He and Theodor Geisel educators with a sense of humor, wonderment and stimulating the imagination of children (young and we not so young). Thanks Maurice!