Photo by Zooey
Cats and Nonewhere are on the road their Big Adventure ™ aka their move West to Oregon. Safe travels!!
I took this picture just down the road from my place, but Cats & Nonewhere will be seeing more and more of this kind of scenery as they drive West. Personally, I think they can handle it. 😉
This is our daily open thread — Where did you go on your last road trip?
TheZoo 
May I move in with you? Ya know, platonically?
Platonically? Hells no! 😆
That’s what I like about you, you give a feeling of hope to dirty old men like me! 😉
Pachy, you’re not old. 😉
Thank you, Zooey. I’m sorry I didn’t get anything posted.
No worries, Wayne. Sometimes you’re busy!
How’s Mom in her new place?
She’s happy, thanks. She doesn’t get out and walk around, both for exercise and to meet people, but my sister, who’s a lot more sociable than I, is trying to get her to do that.
You hear that, Mom? (I know you read this blog.)
You need to get your keys, wrap them around your wrist, and venture out to meet your neighbors.
Charles Johnson has been all over the Greenwald reporting (there does seem to be real animus between them) and a lot of other outlets are debunking the Guardian claims. Here’s the most recent, dealing with the actual numbers for NSA requests for data.
The whole Greenwald/Snowden thing made me uncomfortable from the start. Greenwald has probably sunk himself this time.
I’m staying open minded about the whole Snowden thing. For one thing, I want to know what he leaked that was so vital to national security. Besides the code name “PRISM.” BTW, the name PRISM implies exactly what some of Snowden’s debunkers are saying in that the NSA was not “tapping directly into the communications”, the communications were being split (as light through a prism) and one of the feeds was being sent directly to the NSA. They weren’t tapping into it, they were getting their own direct feed. But even so, so what? That doesn’t make the NSA look any better for knowing that technicality. The point (often overlooked) is that they’re tracking our telephone activity without probably cause and they don;t need to. If they want to have the information to look at, they can get a warrant when they have a phone number to track. And we already knew the NSA was doing this about seven years ago.
So what did Snowden reveal that we didn’t already know?
Hi. I’m back from Seattle. Miss me?
Loads. 🙂 Did you have a nice time?
Yes.
OOOPS of the Day:
“Mr. Rouhani, who has emerged as the default candidate of Iran’s reformists, will not be allowed to win.” – The Washington Post Editorial Board, June 12.
Any questions?
That is as it should be…
not the U.S. wishy-washy ‘let’s see/study/maybe look into it’.
Thank you, Christianity. Where would we be without you?
I’m guessing we could have been posting to this blog from our Martian colony.
Or our Martini Colony. It’s all good!
Too bad there’s no overlap with the Age of Enlightenment and Modern Science.
Thanks, Obama. 🙄
Message to all who loved the Dark Ages concept: vote for wingnuts on every ballot, always and forever. And those who can still use their brain cells, remember the notion Rick Perry pointed out just the other day, ‘Our constitutional guarantee of reedom OF religion does not imply we also have freedom FROM religion’ (or something close to that). Also, I couldn’t help but notice that in the Supreme Court’s decision in re the patentability of human genome modifications, Scalia indicated he didn’t believe molecular biology was part of the process, or some such idiocy (don’t have the quote handy). Give fundie nutcases a mile, i.o.w., and they’ll try for a light year (which they probably don’t understand or believe in, but . . . ) when your goal is eternal darkness immersion for everyone and everything, it’s any port in the storm.
via Mola Mola
– Caballito de Mar
(fascinating creatures)
Somebody is very confused:
The New York Post reports: Patriots owner Robert Kraft said this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin pocketed his Super Bowl ring — worth more than $25,000 — during a 2005 meeting.
Kraft had claimed that the ring was a gift but now says Putin stole it and that the White House tried to help Kraft get it back. The ring reportedly is kept in the Kremlin library.
Heavens to Betsy!.
How shocking!
Or, an insurance scam.
‘Worth $25000? Huh? Why?
The world has gone nuts is the only reason that comes to mind.
Those rings typically are loaded down with big diamonds.
Oh, yes, of course. Now I get it. Diamonds. Super Bowl ring is a tool that works great for ‘engaging’ — in the process of cutting holes in plate glass windows, stuff like that. No wonder Putin wanted it. Damn Soviets. Commies, thieves. Out to destroy Amurka.
Or maybe it’s a Republican thing? That would make sense too.
Why is he pissing and moaning about this 8 years later?
I’m off to the Lewiston Farmers Market.
Try not to miss me too much! 😉
It can’t be helped. Enjoy the market. 🙂
Riot police crush protesters in democratic Turkey while crowds celebrate a peaceful election in streets of theocratic Iran. Whadda world.
Beautiful photo!
What actually happened: a group of people who came to the US as children and grew up here, try to meet with a Congressman to petition him to give them full civic rights.
How Rep. Steve King saw it: OMG illegal aliens INVADED my office! HELP!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/rep-steve-king-illegal-aliens-invaded-office-210709687.html
I think King is just giddy that he is probably going to be the craziest wingnut in Congress once Bartscat Bachmann moves on. But? He isn’t comfortable just depending on his record so he needs to step it up a notch.
Earlier this week I wrote about my CSI project for St. Augustine. I also commented about Rachael Maddow’s report about the FBI visiting a house that Edward Snowden once lived at, in Ellicott City, Md. Since my mind has been occupied with ‘connections” and since this is a slow, boring night I offer some new connections.
Ellicott City, Md. was the location of the 1st terminus of the B&O railroad, America’s 1st railroad. Via rail, Ellicott City is 13 miles from the Mount Clare station in Baltimore. The old Main Line out of Baltimore met the Patapsco River at Relay, Md. and followed the river valley as it headed west. In 1833 the B&O began building the Thomas Viaduct for the Washington Branch.
In 1844 Samuel Morse sent a telegraph message from the Supreme Court Chambers in the Capitol to the Mount Clair depot in Baltimore. The telegraph wire was strung on poles that were erected next to the B&O tracks, across the Viaduct and on to Baltimore. The use of railroad right-of-way for telegraph lines made sense and the practice continued with telephone and today many a fiber optic cable is buried on railroad right-of-way.
I walked the Old Main Line, from Relay to Ellicott City in the mid 90’s and saw evidence of old telegraph and telephone lines above ground and signs warning of the newer underground fiber optic cables. In Ellicott City there is an underground room that I suspect is a major junction of cables, and perhaps one of those cables goes to NSA!
I used to collect glass telegraph, telephone and power insulators. I still have a bunch of the more common ones in old wine and liquor boxes. The cardboard dividers make it easy to keep them from chipping.
I did my railroad walking back in the early to middle 70s.
Found this weird, repetitive original song I recorded in my garage late one night back in 2004. Not really sure what I was rambling…singing. I later strategically added the rain and thunder to the song to cover up the “thump” from my guitar hitting the mike stand while I was “singing” or what I call “mush mouthing” when I’m trying to lay down an idea. Added the equally repetitious intro later on.
Delirium / Rain Of Sorrow – Insidious Prophet
Cool! A friend of mine recorded The Star Spangled Banner, unaccompanied, on harmonica and, by chance, we got hit by a impressive thunderstorm and stuck a mic out the window. So? We combined the two tracks. He hasn’t been able to sell it and I don’t have a copy but the recording sends chills up my spine.
Great vid and music!
Nice afternoon at the farmers market. Lots of people milling around, cuz there was jesus music in the square across the way. Silly music and one awful female singer. 😛
I grit my teeth and smiled, cuz they brought money. 😉
You’re getting a lot of smiling time in!
Donald Trump Gets Demolished On Twitter By Modern Family Writer
It really isn’t all that difficult to demolish Rump, is it?
Thanks Ebb and Pete! 🙂