The Watering Hole, Monday, November 23rd, 2015: NatGeo, Take Me Away!

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I can’t deal with “Ugly Americans” [of course, “Ugly Americans” = “Republican Presidential Candidates and their Fans/Supporters”] anymore; we keep thinking, “How can these guys sink so low?”, then, the next hour or day or week, one or two or several of them come out with such outrageous shit that we really need a new word to define what circle of hell lies beyond “outrageous” or “horrific” or “despicable” or “abhorrent” or “inhuman” – sorry, I need more words!

And I’ve had it up to HERE with the holidays being turned into meaningless “shop-’til-you-drop” commercialism [how about if “Black Friday” could be turned into “Black Lives Matter Friday” – hell, make every day of the entire Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday shopping season a day of protests]. So I’m going with some beautiful photos from National Geographic to start the week.

Here’s some pretty birds, from “A Flight of Birds”, a section of NatGeo’s Photo Ark, including a photo capturing the iridescent plumage of the Purple Glossy Starling, such as seen below,
purple_glossy_starling
and a more close-up shot of the Javan Rhinoceros Hornbill, like the one seen below:
javan rhinoceros Hornbill

And if you prefer a larger gallery for leisurely viewing, here’s more from NatGeo’s 2015 Photo Contest. The “Week 10” group includes a brooding sunset photo of Godafoss Waterfall in Iceland – here’s a chilly winter shot of the falls, just to start the calming process:
waterfall-godafoss-iceland

This is our daily Open Thread – enjoy the views or rant away – or you can do both!

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51 thoughts on “The Watering Hole, Monday, November 23rd, 2015: NatGeo, Take Me Away!”

  3. I doubt I’m the only citizen of this country who’s getting fed up with its apparent inborn and inbred and irrational and unbelievably widespread sickness that’s defined by hate and fear of _________ (take your pick at any given moment in time). I’m also sick to death of the major politic that inspires, embraces, and encourages such demented irrationality, aka Republicans, mostly. “Sickos” would be a far more descriptive word.

    Muslim student nearly run over by man who called her a terrorist: ‘I’m terrified to cross the street now’

      • A: Cite your work. It’s not that difficult and it actually lends credibility to your work.

        B: Websites now exist whereby students must submit their work for for plagiarism or it does not get accepted.

        C: When I was school, plagiarism was grounds for expulsion. I don’t know if that sword still hangs over students heads.

        I was having a conversation with a waiter and he commented about not getting an A in chemistry. I told him the grade isn’t what matters, it’s what you learn and your ability to problem solve and think.
        I told him “in the real world, no one has ever asked what my grades were while I had their airplane scattered all over the hanger floor”.

  10. Smart man this fella was – he produced the quote for these times almost decades before it was needed

    • I had a discussion a few decades back with a ‘devout’ Mormon, about origins. We agreed down the line to just beyond the Big Bang. When I said that the only thing science had not yet explained was the origin of the singularity that was the apparent origin of the Big Bang. He replied: “Oh, that’s easy. God created it.”

      I paused a few seconds, then asked, “Where did God come from?”

      “Oh, God’s eternal.”

      “Hmmm. Wouldn’t it be more reasonable to say that singularities and the laws of physics are eternal, that God’s a creation of the human imagination?”

      Crickets.

      I’ve asked that question many times over the years and never gotten an answer. Never convinced anyone to think and ponder, either, but I guess that’s no surprise.

      • And God is then squeezed into such a tiny corner, that God is irrelevant – certainly irrelevant at a person level – “neither omniscient, not omnipotent” – actually simply irrelevant – belief in God makes no difference at all. So why bother, just get one with the life you have.

  12. “God’s a creation of the human imagination?”

    Now that’s Creationism I can believe in!

  15. Kevin Swanson: Criticism Of Me Is Criticism Of God Himself

    Swanson told “Generations Radio” listeners that the outrage over his remarks [that gays who do not repent should be sentenced to death] is proof that America is at war with God.

    “Any time the nation has taken up a fight with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Creator of the universe, you don’t pick a fight with the Creator of all of the galaxies, all of the planets, this entire solar system, you don’t pull together a couple of ants and lift a fist to the Almighty and think you can get away with it,” he said. “This is, I think, the reason why the media firestorm — we have touched the conscience of a nation and they realize they’re in trouble, they’re in trouble with the God of the universe.”

    Sweat shit in 3 … 2 … 1 …

  18. Ben Carson admits he can’t tell the difference between New Jersey and East Jerusalem. And Carly Fiorina watched the video of ISIS drowning pregnant women in the Hudson river on 9/11.

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/ben-carson-claims-he-saw-the-film-of-american-muslims-celebrating-on-911/

    • I’d never heard of James Woods, so I googled him. Apparently I’ve seen one movie that he was in (Nixon ca 1995) but have no idea what his role was. The fact that Ted Cruz impresses him is all I need to know to avoid him from now on, prolly.

      • As James Woods tells the story, he took the weekly Flight 11 to LA on September 4, 2001. He noticed a few Arab men looking around, watching, talking among themselves (so far, so legal), and then pointing to things, as if they might be planning something, or so he got that impression. He says when he got home he called the FBI to tell them what he saw. When he finished, he asked if they wanted to know how to get hold of him if they had any other questions. He says they said, “That’s okay. We know where to find you.” Of course, one week later, Flight 11 was one of the ones hijacked and flown into the WTC. Oh, and Seth McFarlane, creator of some very, very popular animated series, was too hungover to make that flight and missed being on it.

        • Wow. He could have saved the WTC if only the FBI would’ve listened.

          No wonder he likes Cruz.

          Reminds me how one time I was on a flight to Phoenix and there were people speaking Spanish on it. I think it was a week later that a flight was hijacked and made to go to Cuba. I should have called. My bad/.

    • James Woods – dude you are dead to me now…. like Steve Segal, Chuck Norris and John wayne.

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