Photo by Zooey
So I’m driving along Going To The Sun Road, headed up to Logan’s Pass along with several dozen other cars and “jammers” (red tour buses), and we’re stopped not far from our destination by road construction. The flagger said it would be about 30 minutes — 30 minutes!!?? Well, alrighty then.
Okay, so stretch the legs for a while, listen to the “jammer” driver talk to her blue-haired charges about how the famous red tour buses got their name — they used to have to double clutch every time they changed gears, which was a lot on that road, but since they were updated (under the hood only) in the last few years, the only thing they’re jamming inside as many riders as possible — listen to the sounds of water running un-seen and birds singing, watch the butterflies sampling the wildflowers, and take a bunch of pictures.
In the above picture, you can see the ongoing road construction on the left side of the photo, and Bird Woman Falls is peeking out from between the trees in the middle. Bird Woman Falls is one of the tallest waterfalls in Glacier National Park, and it’s fed by melting snow and the remainder of a glacier on Mount Oberlin, and is an excellent example of a hanging valley, wherein two glaciers have flowed into or past one another. Imagine the size of the glacier that scraped that huge chunk out of Mount Oberlin…
This is our daily open thread — Happy Friday!
TheZoo 
For those that have never driven a manual transmission or, are too young to know what double clutching is:
It is how you shift gears in a manual transmission that does not have synchromesh.
You press the the clutch down twice while shifting to bring the the two gears to the same rotational speed to avoid grinding the two together.
Vinyl, the same people aren’t going to know what synchromesh is either. 😀
And many of them will be clueless regarding manual transmissions.
We are a dying breed…
my son wanted to know what a “three on the tree” was…..
i’m ancient..
I kept breaking the shift collar on my three speed, so I put in a Hurst floor shifter, and that solved the problem.
Shift collars were a constant issue…on most any column shift.
i mentioned the push button shift and his eyes glazed over..
That’s what my old Plymouth Valiant had. 🙂
Can you recall if the engine was a ‘slant six’?
No idea, House. It was a good little car, even if had to keep pot holders on the front seat on hot days, for holding the steering wheel and shifting gears. 🙂
When I first met my husband, he was driving a ’66 Dodge Dart. It was a slant six. The body of the car rotted away but the engine never died.
You push down the clutch and shift into neutral then release the clutch, then push down the clutch to shift into the new gear. Then to make it more interesting let’s add a 2-speed axle!
Add vacuum operated to that 2-speed rear axle, and we’re having some fun!
1952 GMC 2.5 ton flatbed… There was a knob on the dashboard that had to be pulled out at the right moment in the midst of clutching, and the (vacuum operated) windshield
wipers had to be off.
Those vacuum operated mechanisms really sucked!
lol
Couldn’t drive up hills in the rain…
Hell, and all this time I thought it was what a baseball infielder did when he didn’t get the ball out of his glove cleanly before the throw to first!
Clutches? I thought that was what horny teenagers got into in the back seat at the drive in movie.
Fresh out of the Navy I got a job driving dump truck on the endorsement by a friend who already worked there stating I knew how to drive a truck. While I had been driving manuals since I was 14, that extra splitter for low range and double clutching was totally new. I had a 68 IH tandem dumper and the first day or so was a real hoot. By the end of a month I could drive the thing empty without touching the clutch. Great fun.
And they wonder why we can’t balance the budget?
House votes to appropriate $606 billion for defense – Yahoo! News
The collective stupidity of ANY nation that allows its leaders to piss away such a huge pile of money for no purpose other than worldwide control and murder is beyond belief, and that nation’s continued existence as a global tyrant is a travesty of unmeasurable proportion. Time to do it; time to defund and dismantle the American war machine before it defunds and dismantles all of that which is worthwhile. Reduce the “defense” appropriation by 90% or more; reduce it to the size where it can be ‘drowned in a bathtub,’ and all the two-bit warmongers with it (starting with the one who recently got a new heart).
Wage peace, not war.
I was just informed that the government is downsizing the Army, that is, the Army is limiting the number of new recruits. Guess they need this money for the drones.
NRA Victory
12 dead, 50 wounded in shooting at Colorado theater, police chief says – CNN.com
This is exactly what the NRA supports. Why else would the NRA protect the right to own assault rifles? Where did the perp get the tear gas? I thought tear gas was a restricted item, like grenades and rocket launchers.
Tell me again why assault weapons need to be able to load so many bullets? Didn’t we have this discussion when Gabby Giffords was shot?
I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but I have to wonder if Mr. Holmes was a Rush Limbaugh listener especially with Rush’s latest rant about the villain Bane in Batman.
Who are we to allow defense against 18 concurrent deadly assailants but not 19?
BTW, Wayne LaPierre will shortly announce that this was part of Obama’s hidden plot to destroy the second Amendment. See, you can’t just not make any move against guns in your first term – you have to actively *not* respond to at least one insanely outrageous gun crime in order to complete the subterfuge.
If everybody in the theater had their own assault weapon things would have been different. That’s what the gun nuts will claim.
Yeah, it would have been a bigger bloodbath, with more innocent by-standers killed in the crossfire.
Morons.
That Obama again! He sure is a wascally wabbit. By not coming out against guns in his first term he must have mind melded this poor unfortunate weak minded man to create a controversy this close to the election.
we need the TSA at theaters i guess
Maybe after the dust settles the shooter can get on Hannity and raise some money for his defense, bail, etc. Also he could maybe explain how much he regrets it all, but that, as with Zimmerman’s murder of Trayvon Martin, “it was all God’s plan.”
Time to repeal the second amendment, or at least get it properly interpreted and then enforced. For. Once. Also, I’d like to see the entire NRA collectively deported to somewhere nice. China, maybe. Syria?
Somalia. I hear they like guns there, too.
I heard on the radio that the killer’s apartment is booby-trapped and that the police don’t know how long it will take to unrig the explosives in the apartment. Five apartment buildings have been evacuated.
I was going to guess the buses got their name from jamming up the road.
Fun trip Zooey!
How did Bird Woman Falls get it’s name I wonder?
In an article this morning at HuffPo about a Romney TV ad attacking Obama, there’s this:
“Obama told supporters last week that “somebody else” helped create their businesses. The remark came as Obama discussed the supportive role of government in the nation’s economic success.”
My italics. HuffPo can be so damn sloppy and lazy and stupid.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/mitt-romney-tv-ad_n_1688744.html
Huffpo has gone down hill. Yesterday, they left out the “you” in Ann Romney’s remark. They have become very sloppy in their titles. Someone must have told them to put up ‘National Inquirer’ type headings so that people will read the article.
HuffPo has used shrill, over-the-top headlines for a very long time now. It’s become the electronic equivalent of the tabloid at the grocery checkout line.
Cats, I guess it was taken out on purpose, or Arianna will not be invited to the Hamptons anymore. She’s one of them. Was a friend of Andrew Breitbart and turned into a liberal when she saw the right wing blogosphere’s money was already divided up and there was a niche for reaping it on the center-left.
This is so true… Arianna used to appear on Bill Maher’s old Politically Incorrect show as a Conservative Commentator. I used to scream at her opinions. I never trusted her in her current incarnation.
Exactly.
HuffPo headline today — Ann Romney: ‘We’ve Given All People Need To Know’
Oh, have YOU?
They’ve corrected the title in that article, but now their correction needs a correction.
CORRECTION: The original version of this article omitted the word “people” from Ann Romney’s quote.
Schizophrenic + Guns = NRA: “meh.”
Is it true that the original name of Rmoney’s company was Bane Crapitall?
The NRA will probably decry the use of … smoke canisters.
Not very sporting, say wut.
“WASHINGTON — Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Friday that the shootings that took place in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater hours earlier were a result of “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” and questioned why nobody else in the theater had a gun to take down the shooter.”
WHAT. A. PRICK.
The killer was wearing a bullet proof vest and protective head gear. Gohmert is a goober brain. This nation is reverting to the wild west.
Gohmert must wear an rational thought proof vest at all times because rational thought has never penetrated Gohmert’s brain.
Jessica, a hockey reporter for the Sporting News, was killed in last night’s Colorado theater shooting:
@JessicaRedfield
Of course we’re seeing Dark Knight. Redheaded Texan spitfire, people should never argue with me.Maybe I should get in on those NHL talks…
https://twitter.com/JessicaRedfield?tw_i=226185226899058688&tw_e=screenname&tw_p=tweetembed
Chillingly, from a link to her blog through her Twitter feed, {Redfield} was apparently also in Toronto mall shooting in June. Here’s an excerpt:
“I can’t get this odd feeling out of my chest. This empty, almost sickening feeling won’t go away. I noticed this feeling when I was in the Eaton Center in Toronto just seconds before someone opened fire in the food court. An odd feeling which led me to go outside and unknowingly out of harm‘s way. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around how a weird feeling saved me from being in the middle of a deadly shooting.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/jessica-redfield-victim-colorado-aurora-shooting-blog-post-2012-7
That’s really sad.
“We’re going to stand by our neighbors in Colorado during this extraordinarily difficult time,” President Obama told the crowd. “Such violence, such evil is senseless; it’s beyond reason.”
Wingnuts: “See? Obama wants to take away your guns.”
Mittens must be doing a happy dance this morning.
Pretty soon, the pundits will be back to “you people” and “you didn’t build this” and whatever new verbal gaffe overwhelms the competition for the MSM lede.
Romney will be saying something about the shooting today. He’ll manage to say something stupid while trying to pander to the NRA crowd.
QOTD:
“An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect. ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted,” – ABC News.
Say anything to fill the 24 hour news cycle, cuz the competition might say it first! 🙄
Penn State taking down Joe Paterno statue.
http://tracking.si.com/2012/07/20/penn-state-take-down-joe-paterno-statue/
Wow, I didn’t think they’d do it.
That is really surprising. They should also take down the erector set parts of the football stadium, too.
I think you may be a bit premature.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/joe-paterno-statue-removed-penn-state_n_1689679.html
Damn, that’s never happened to me before.
😉
KevinSmith @ThatKevinSmith
Fuck you, James Holmes. Fuck your ego. Fuck your malevolence. Fuck your guns & tear gas. Fuck you and everyone like you, you piece of shit.
Fuck Gohmert, and all the wingnuts who will use this as an excuse for MORE GUNS on the street, too.
I have some predictions for Gohmert.
1. Among the shooter’s personality traits will be evidence that he’s a religious, most likely Christian, fanatic.
2. The shooter followed all applicable laws when he amassed his arsenal.
3. The shooter has exhibited a range of behaviors that, in a saner world, would have rendered him ineligible to buy guns.
3a. Someone in the shooter’s life will come forward and say something to the effect that they knew he was nuts and worried about him having guns but there wasn’t anything they could do about it.
Apparently, his mother is totally not surprised.
He recently dropped out of med school.
What does one want to be the shooter has been having mental difficulties?
Ummmm, didn’t Mittens repeat what the President just said?
It doesn’t matter. He will just claim he said something different when he’s in front of a different crowd.
Shooter was studying for his PhD in neuroscience. Sometimes people with problems in their brains go to school and study the brain.
Yeah, I was a psych major. What’s it to ya? 😆
I’m glad your “hobby” is sewing and not guns. 😉
Mittens given praise for being so sensitive because he was a leader in the Mormon church blah, blah, blah. What a bunch of horse shit.
Robotic Plastic Man gets credit for behaving like a human.
Here’s a cookie.
My daughter went to the midnight movie of Batman last night here in AZ. I am thankful that she is upstairs asleep right now. My heart goes out to the parents that let their children go to a movie in Aurora, CO and will never get to hug their children again.
Absolutely LL, absolutely.
I occurred to me this morning that people that do this sort of thing are people who feel like the most powerless people in the world. And then they get a gun or two and a big clip of bullets. Suddenly, they are not so powerless.
Tragedy.
And Senselessness.
QOTD II:
“The elephant in the room was not whether Mitt was involved in investment decisions but Mitt’s retention of control of the firm and therefore his ability to extract a huge economic benefit by delaying his giving up of that control,” – a former Bain associate to the Boston Globe.
The whole story is a must-read for Bain-wonks. I smell Pulitzer. Money quote:
“Interviews with a half-dozen of Romney’s former partners and associates, as well as public records, show that he was not merely an absentee owner during this period [1999 – 2002]. He signed dozens of company documents, including filings with regulators on a vast array of Bain’s investment entities. And he drove the complex negotiations over his own large severance package, a deal that was critical to the firm’s future without him, according to his former associates.
Indeed, by remaining CEO and sole shareholder, Romney held on to his leverage in the talks that resulted in his generous 10-year retirement package, according to former associates.”
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2012/07/20/what-happened-when-mitt-romney-left-bain-capital-romney-kept-reins-bargained-hard-severance/ZWC9cWdfp0Oh6KbatsCy0K/story.html#share-nav
Which leads me back to my contention that the only question journalists should ask of Mittens is: “were you lying then or are you lying now”? And they should not move to another question until they get an answer.
You shouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that question to be asked.
Oh. Don’t worry. I have no illusions about the media.
Mittens will reply: “We’ve already answered that question. Next.”
He’s a smarmy bastard. Slick, slippery, and worse than a slug.
Batscat Bachmann doubles down. Accuses Keith Ellison of ties to Muslim Brotherhood. I still keep thinking that, when I was a lot younger, we would have locked the freaks up instead of electing them and/or allowing them to buy guns.
http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_21119446/bachmann-broadens-muslim-brotherhood-allegations-include-ellison?source=rss
Yeah but back then we still had mental health facilities. St. Ronnie decided this was a bad thing. The number of Republican MOC’s who qualify for a 72hr psych eval is impressive.
The shootings in Colorado will do nothing to increase gun control just like it had no effect after Columbine, Virginia Tech and the Giffords shooting.
What I think is very likely is a metal detector in every theater in America.
And unless there is an obvious political tinge to this mass shooting I think we’ve learned to wait for the full facts
The Republics backed by the NRA will probably write bills that say it is okay to carry a loaded gun into a movie theater. This is usually how they deal with these tragedies.
Yeah, that will solve things. Crossfire in a dark theater… what could go wrong?
You can carry a concealed weapon in Colorado.
So how come everyone else wasn’t packin’? /Sacr off.
Another social media FAIL. It’s a good idea to read the tweets just to make sure that trend has nothing to do with your stupid Kardashian-inspired dress.
BONUS: Company blames cluelessness on PR dept. that’s not U.S. based:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/07/online-store-posts-clueless-aurora-tweet/#.UAmu2KzeneM.facebook
We are reaping what has been sown. For the past 30 years, doubling down every year for the past twelve, we have been encouraging sociopathic behavior. We have removed regulations aimed at curtailing it, cheered those who indulge in it and made the paranoid bigots a common part of our social and political intercourse. The media cheers them on, giving airtime to them and never questioning the reality of anything they claim.
The conservative Right has embraced the insanity. One of my favorite writers had a character who grew up studying death until at one point he became the embodiment of death and decided on him, it looked good.
HuffPo’s latest cheeky headline: HORROR IN AURORA
Someone there must be a huge fan of ‘THE RURAL JUROR.’
Tweet on the bottom of MSNBC: Movie giant AMC Theaters creates a new rule for audiences: No costumes, no face-covering masks.
Guess they won’t be doing the time-warp in any of their theaters. Except that the Rocky Horror people seldom wear enough to cover any weapons!
Anyway, this guy broke into the theater through an emergency exit, so those rules, or weapons screening metal detectors wouldn’t have helped.
Pretty soon we will choose to go everywhere naked, just so we won’t have to worry about concealed weapons.
Damn we are a such a backward country.
Placing a bandaid on a wound that requires sutures isn’t an intelligent move.
The resulting infection shouldn’t come as a surprise!
We’ve not moved forward from Columbine (1999).
If we’re not going to do away with the Second Amendment – then REGULATE the damn things…make it so damn difficult to obtain the weapons it MAY (more than likely not) curb such actions like those in CO.
Exactly. As most of you know I’m a gun owner and shooting enthusiast but anyone who doesn’t think we need drastic changes in our policies regarding who can buy firearms and the types of firearms appropriate for private citizens is just plain crazy. I would even go so far as to say that anyone who resists the mere mention of “gun control” should be forever barred from so much as touching a deadly weapon.
As a nation we have a horrible and shameful problem with criminals and psychopaths legally purchasing firearms. If the existing laws don’t prevent criminals and psychopaths from legally purchasing firearms? We damned well better change the laws.
W will skip the GOP convention.
Will Cheney be in an undisclosed location?
Cheney will be in disguise as Dark Vader.
Ed Schultz was off tonight, had Thomas Roberts subbing, and Rachel was off, with Melissa Harris-Perry subbing. Nothing except the Aurora shooting on either program so far.
12 people had to die, so MSNBC didn’t have to ‘go to prison’ at 10pm on a Friday night! Chris Jansing is anchoring a special reiteration of all we already know about the tragedy!
I had to turn it off. I was looking forward to going to prison. 😉
On a super bright note, I had a lovely phone conversation with EV this afternoon!!
That’s great about talking to EV!
I usually watch Rachel on the repeat in the morning, then watch UP! No reason to get up early tomorrow.
That had to be such a delight!
Talking with EV!
The Young Turks and Eliot Spitzer have far surpassed MSNBC on the pro-gun-control side of today’s reporting. Cenk was almost foaming at the mouth, he was so angry. Spitzer is letting his guests be the angry ones, but he is obviously supportive.
Wrong thread! 😀
I meant to do that. 😆
Fugelsang on Ann Romney: “She’s a great ‘stay at five homes mom’.
More Fugelsang: “Michelle Bachmann is a Mecca for people who hate Mecca. I’d buy a yacht if she became President. Hey. I’m a comedian!”