Open Thread – Ice, Ice, Baby!
This picture is not what it seems.
My main purpose yesterday for being outside at 10 below zero with my camera, was not the moose I posted last night. They just happened to be a lovely added bonus to my little sub-zero adventure.
The actual reason was ice crystals. Now, you have to know that after two decades in Alaska, I have seen a lot of ice crystals. To be impressed by any kind of frozen water really takes some doing. Well, the doing was done by whatever cosmic conditions of temperature, humidity and meteorological magic were required. I was, frankly, stunned.
What looked like a normal dose of frost on the tussocks of my former lawn…
Upon closer examination
turned out to be
anything but
normal.
Every swath of white was a veritable feast for the eye, with beautiful geometric crystals in all shapes and sizes.
Many of them looked like gigantic snowflakes. That large crystal in the center of the photo above was a little smaller than a dime.
Individual blades of grass became crystalline masterworks.
Sometimes the greatest art is free, and right under our noses. And sometimes it only comes once in twenty years.
How wonderful! Something I will never see in person.
Years ago on a trip to Yosemite, friends and I found ourselves in an unseasonal snowfall. The snowflakes that landed in our gloves actually looked like the lacy, geometrical snowflakes you learn to cut from paper in grade school. None of us had seen that before. It’s still a fun vivid memory.
I just sent this thread to my son who also takes wonderful photos of simple (but artful and awesom)acts of nature.
I watched the interview tonight with Gabby’s husband and Diane Sawyer. Found it to be wonderful – touching and it made me cry. He is a sweetheart and very muc loves his wife. I so hope Palin watched the interview as I am one that thinks Palin’s rhetoric and gunsight maps were/did have a negative effect/affect (never can remember which to use!) on our society.
I can hardly wait until we hear Gabby’s words after her recovery. She went through hell during her last election process due to having vote for the health care bill, etc. Thank God we have people like her in our society and in Congress.
You must have some extremely high up connections to get to watch tele with a Congresswoman’s husband and a highly regarded journalist. What’s your secret?
Millie — re: “affect” v “effect” – the way I always remember it is that Effect is the End result. When you affect a situation, you have an effect. Don’t know it that’ll help or not…
And mike from iowa — you goofball, you! I had to reread the op to figure out what the heck you were talking about — made me laugh. beth.
wow!! In the Ozarks, those are called “ice flowers” but ours don’t look anything like that. Must have to do with different plant communities and differing freeze/thaw phenomena. Thank you for the pics.
Anyone hear Jay Leno tonight.? I heard his first joke before changing the channel. Hope he gets a lot of repercussion with the joke about the Obama girls and the guest from China who is visiting the White House today.
Oh my! Colbert just knocked one out of the ballpark! He opened with Misha and Joe and Mischa’s reaction to $arah’s “re-re-re-re-re-re-re-response” to Arizona. He was perfection! If you get a chance, watch it — I think you’ll be glad you did. beth.
Jon Stewart just opened The Daily Show with clips of $arah Palin and her performance on Hannity last night. It was classic Stewart. He SKEWERED her… don’t know if she’ll ‘get’ it, though. He also invited her –again!– to be on his show; anyone want to bet when hell’ll freeze over (AKA when she’ll accept the invite)? beth.
Beyond beauty!
WOW! Gorgeous images (I’m talkin’ about the ice here, folks!). Thanks so much for posting.
I’m gonna ask this next delicate question with an assumed identity so the innocent(me) doesn’t get blacklisted or worse. I haven’t heard anything at all about Quitty’s last books sales and was wondering if it died or worse? Does any one have any information on this? I am deeply in your debt,forever.
I’ve heard pretty negative and here is a link from December. You could google yourself for more current but I am too tired too google more (o:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/09/AR2010120905857.html
I think that is it.
and what do you mean “assumed identity” Now I am freaked out since I re-read your comment. I just went through a weird thing after seldom posting….enough already Waah!
I hope you are really you cuz I know I am really me o:
Like alot of my best intentions,the assumed identity just fell by the wayside. Alright,I just forgot what I was doing while I was doing it. My nose is growing.
First, where in the rules does it say that Alaska gets to have less snow than Pennsylvania. There has to be a rule somewhere…
Next, welcome home AKM, after, what I am sure was a sad/happy trip. My experience with these things is that I have found out some really groovy things about grandparents/parents/relatives that have made me go “WOW,” whilst mourning and at funerals. Funny…it’s the stories, jokes, laughter that I remember about these times so vividly….rather than the sadness.
Finally, Brian’s twins were sent to give you comfort….trust me, I’m not religious, but I believe in angels. (I have one – an aunt who died when I was 10 – we were very close, and she frequently “appears” – with comforting signs when I need her)
since I can’t stomach listening to Ms Palin’s voice, I was searching the internet for summaries of her chat with Hannity. This was the funniest (and probably closest to reality) that I found!! Enjoy….
http://tucsoncitizen.com/in-the-aggregate/2011/01/18/shorter-sarah-palin/
After hearing her speak, one must truly wonder why, in the talent portion of those beauty contests, she didn’t sing! Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I searched, and lo, here she is, singing on TV! 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjnveOPkLq4
LOL – I remembered that episode as soon as the clip started. 🙂
Article in The Guardian of London re Scarah. Love what David Frum said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/18/sarah-palin-facebook-fox-strategy
(and a gentle reminder to please vote for my friend’s son-in-law here – Thank you:
http://www.snowbumcanada.com/entry/alex#
I voted for his – after looking at the other pics so no mudpup bias! Nice job. My sis’s kids have all worked the slopes upstate NY – reminds me of them (o:
Voted -that was beautiful!
A big loss this week…
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/01/john_ross_1938-.php
I’ve known him since I was a child…
bigger than life, squashing at least 144 years of living into his 72-73 🙂
Not sure how I feel about a world without you, John…
For those familiar with some of his work, the Counterpunch link describes him so very well…
I wasn’t familiar with his work but respect it now. Thank you for sharing a wonderful soul with us and keeping his memories and work alive. I am so sorry for your loss xxxxxooooo
That is absolutely gorgeous , AKM!
I have alot of ice crystals on my porch railings..wonder if I can get a good closeup of them.
Will go try.
We had ice crystals on our porch railing when we had snow last week, but I don’t know if they looked like that last picture. I was out there at 1 am because the rain was going to start the next day and I knew it would all be gone. Wish I had taken more time to look more carefully.
As yesterday’s Mudflats article told you, the meeting in Kenai, which is the only opportunity for the public to comment about the proposed strip mining in Chuitna is TODAY:
https://themudflats.net/2011/01/17/voices-from-the-flats-citizens-speak-out-for-salmon-over-coal/
I hope we’ll get boots on the ground reporting, and I hope it results in the salmon runs remaining as pristine as possible.
(Could anyone tell that the only coal I like is jet, the beautiful black stone so common in Victorian America?)
Here’s how to get to the hearing in Kenai, which is at 6 p.m. at the Challenger Learning Center:
http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=challenger+learning+center,+kenai,+ak&sll=59.6425,-151.548333&sspn=0.276234,0.595322&ie=UTF8&hq=Challenger+Learning+Center+of+Alaska&hnear=Challenger+Learning+Center+of+Alaska,+9711+Kenai+Spur+Hwy,+Kenai,+Alaska+99611&ll=60.561666,-151.216164&spn=0.134316,0.297661&z=12
I can’t be there, except in spirit, but I did submit my comments. I hope turnout is excellent, since there’s only one hearing scheduled.
This was on the Bloomberg channel last night. Excellent-informative debate well worth watching.
Topic was REPEAL OBAMACARE.
Pre-debate poll results: 17% for Repeal / 47% Against Repeal / 36% Un-decided
After debate poll results: 22% for Repeal / 72% Against Repeal / 6% Un-decided
For more information about upcoming debates, visit http://www.iq2us.org. You can also watch past debates, view the Bloomberg TV schedule, and stream or download audio podcasts on their website.
As if we hadn’t gone through enough with the final passage of healthcare reform, we now have to watch as the GOP does whatever they can to kill it or starve it. Here in Tennessee the new republican controlled state legislature is trying to figure out some way to exempt us since the AG does not wish to join the other states in filing suit. We got the teabaggers here and they have demands.
I just found this on CNN and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. And thes people are serious. It’s a little diddy about our favorite half gov.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhMepzqJvIw
A great article with understandable argument against Republican rhetoric about health care reform.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0118/Barrier-to-better-health-care-Republican-definition-of-freedom
KJ–38.3
You are right–A person can’t just go out and buy a heart.
I remember when the Doctors told my brother they could not operate on his heart, and a heart trans-plant was the only other option. He told them he would rather go to Oakland. The Drs looked at me and asked—–Where is Oakland?. I told them it was our cemetery.
Bless his heart and may he rest in peace!
Beautiful, beautiful AKM. Both the photography and the vision. Add to that the language of the commentary = perfection. Thanks for sharing yet again with the Mudpups.
As to the breaking scandal; I’ll believe it when I see it. I thought the State got another extension to March or April to release the emails. It’s hard to believe that something will break sooner than that, although the rumors have been flying. Also, with all the other sh!t that is known about Palin, it’s hard to believe that there is something else out there that will knock the existing skeletons out of the closet. On the other hand, she may have a limitless supply of skeletons…
I just read that Sargent Shriver has died (at 95). I had heard earlier that he had been taken to hospital. My thoughts are with his family.
Shriver has always been held in great esteem by us old Peace Corps Volunteers. The work he put into establishing the program was superhuman. The Peace Corps is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this year; I wish he had been aware enough a the end to realize we have acheived a great milestone. Saludos, Sarge!
Seems to be breaking news at PG.
WE HAVE NEWS:
Kim Chatman told us today on the phone that a source within the State of Alaska said to her that a big scandal regarding Palin and maybe even more people is about to break, connected to Palin’s emails that the State of Alaska will be forced to release at some point.
Kim told us that the scandal will be HUGE – that “all hell is gonna break loose.”
It’s possible that the emails will be released soon.
We don’t know more at this point, but we will all keep our eyes wide open. 😉
Who is Km Chatman?
She is an Alaskan and if memory serves me correctly, she was responsible for one of the ethics complaints.
Which I think may have been successful.
I think it was an ethics complaint regarding the Alaska Fund Trust.
The one for the Alaska Fund Trust, the family slush fund. She has to return the money sent while she was still Gov.
Kim Chatman is not one for idle gossip.
I am counting on her info to be true.
I hope it will be huge but I’ve had my heart broken before.
I know how you feel.
It’s obvious by how desperately the Palin administration and then the Parnell administration have stonewalled the release of those emails that there’s something incriminating there.
What is “PG”??
It’s a blog called “Palingates.” A little bit obsessive . . . . okay, a lot obsessive.
http://palingates.blogspot.com/
Not obsessive, just a single-issue blog.
I am from NYC and I am a regular there because this woman scares me and I am on the case and now, waiting for those emails!
palingates
(palingates dot blogspot dot com)
PG is Palingates:
http://palingates.blogspot.com/
The previous date they said they would release the emails was May 15. Does this mean they will break sooner. Please, oh, please.
yes….and no.
hehehe…..well you answered my question.
“feel pity for her?”
Not since the day I stood outside on a street corner with an elderly woman that held a sign that read, “I’m the Mother of the “rogue” Walt Monagan and I love him.”
I’ve seen first hand what see does to good people.
See: http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/27/alaskans-for-truth-demand-accountability-from-palin-huge-rally/
Photo of Mrs. M. here: https://themudflats.net/2009/09/28/the-real-story-behind-the-rogue-in-sarah-palins-new-book/
Pity, no. An epiphany, yes.
..what *she* does..
also, too, it may take more than one epiphany
Well Baker’s Dozen and Scout, I agree with you both. She is a pitiful creature. I had a fleeting feeling of pity for her today….because she looked so wretched. I banished that. You reap what you sow.
I’m with you — too many lives ruined. No pity here. If it was just herself, fine, sorry that you’re so unhappy. But her dominionist beliefs, her hateful rhetoric, no way, no how, no pity.
There are loads of aging women in the world, losing their looks, their children’s respect, and all manner of things. There are also people out there losing their jobs, their homes, their lives due to insurance company evil, their lives due to oil company evil, their lives due to hateful rhetorical evil. No looks, husband hates you, kids can’t stand you — well then, find a reason to make them love you & respect you. It’s just not that difficult if you put others first.
My mother talked today about Hitler, the “words don’t cause violence blah blah blah” from the right — we discussed the fact that Hitler wasn’t out doing the killing, it was his followers & lackeys. SP’s not out doing any shooting, it’s her followers and deluded bots that will do it for her.
She is evil incarnate.
On Progressive AK site there was a comment to the effect that that sweet old couple’s song for SP had something in it about hunting skunks and that that is a southern racist euphemism. Someone less tired of the whole thing can do some googling to see if that’s true. She inspires hate day in & day out. Yuk.
And Walt’s mother was a sweetie, wasn’t she? I took several photos of her that day, and got to know Walt & his wife well later. He is a wonderful guy. SP is not fit to lick his boots. I hope someday that he will have another chance to serve the state of AK, because they need him now more than ever. I don’t know if they’ll ever appreciate him as he deserves, but I hold out hope that they will, and that he will give AK another chance to show that it can do things in its best interests. There are so many ways that he can do good in AK. Let’s hope it can happen.
I pity Palin. Others that are having troubles that are not of their own making–job loss, family difficulties, and so on, I have compassion for. I don’t consider these the same thing at all. The former I see as stewing in their own juices and unwilling to get themselves out. The latter are people that deserve all the help we can muster.
I was born in the South and have lived in the South most my life. Unfortunately, I also am related to some bigots. Never, in my experience, has skunk ever been used as a racial term. Skunk, or Stinker, was always used as to something you didn’t like, or it smelled. I do not believe this was meant as racial. Also, this was recorded in East Tennessee where there has never been the racial tension as in the deep south. I do not know these people, so I can not absolutely say, but this is my experience.
When I learned that she started the lying with her first campaign for mayor, I was totally disgusted and lost any ability to feel sympathy for her.
Whisper campaign that a man who was a friend, was maybe JEWISH and not married, when she knew the MARRIED couple?!! And then the rape kits….I can feel empathy for most anyone but having a real hard time with her.
I’m just wondering if anyone thought last night that Palin looked close to a breakdown? Question number two….does anyone feel pity for her?
A lipsticked pitbull with jowls.
It’s not that looks are everything, or even important, except I doubt that Palin has anything else. These things seem so important to her. Why isn’t she taking care of her looks?
I do pity her. I pity her because she doesn’t seem to get any real joy from what she does. The limelight is some sort of stroke, but it doesn’t satisfy her. She has to have more and more. She doesn’t really seem to enjoy her family, and there doesn’t seem to be real communication. When your kids don’t do as you ask and you don’t seem to notice or correct them, then it’s just blather. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t think her Facebook rants can hurt–no one in her family pays attention to her; why should she expect anyone else to?
I pity her because she doesn’t seem to like where she lives, because she’s actually never taken advantage of the unique opportunities available in Alaska. I pity her because she thinks her life is so pathetic that she has to make a different one up for her public. I pity her because she was in a unique situation that not one in a million find themselves in–a governor–where she could do some real good for others, and she was so disengaged she missed the opportunity completely. I pity her because getting revenge on a BIL was so consuming that she didn’t pay attention to what’s going on. I pity her because it looks like she wants to move to the lower 48, but Todd is a real Alaskan. He seems to love the state and its activities. I pity her because her children haven’t lived up to her expectations–Track is no war hero, or even war average, it seems; Bristol is no Miss Congeniality, dance star or companion; Willow doesn’t seem to like her; Piper is a better reader/comprehender of cake mix boxes and doesn’t hesitate to point out her mom’s very basic deficiencies. I pity her because if she doesn’t get her own way, she can’t find happiness. I pity her because she is losing her looks and Todd (though he looks like a bully) is not. I pity her because her dad seems to have coddled her and babied her and done everything for her and told her she was doing work when she was really just on a mental conveyor belt. I pity her because she didn’t know she didn’t know how to hunt, how to dress for hiking in the outdoors, how to fish, how to give Willow a birthday she’d enjoy. I pity her because she doesn’t know that, after you have your basic needs met, money truly doesn’t buy happiness. I pity her because all my pity and all her followers adoration will not change her life for the better, make her happy, transform her into an inquisitive and intelligent person, make her family like her, or inform her philanthropy.
Palin is the most pitiful and pitiable person I “know.”
Ah, Baker’s Dozen, you’re making a good case that there’s much for which she can be pitied. The fear is that knowing she is pitied might provide her ammunition to press on in her presidential goals. For her the pity might seem like worship. I strongly doubt that she would accept that any one of these drawbacks would be reason enough to withdraw from public life to try and make it better.
AMEN! And the Palinbots think we are jealous. I wouldn’t trade lives with her for anything.
I only saw clips and thought she seemed “giddy” for lack of a better word. Like controlled anger and excitement…? Not happy giddy, manic scary giddy. So ‘yesish’ to 1rst question but she has been in that mode for ages (remember her quit speech) and always gets away with it. Meaning she will never get help nor will we ever get shed of her.
Pity – no. She knows who she hurts and she knows what she’s wrought. It’s been her modus operandi since she was young )o:
Pity? In short, no. Whatever situation she is in that is making her anxious or uncomfortable or whatever, she put herself there, willingly. Now, like the rest of us, she has to deal with and live with the consequences of her actions.
I DO pity her children, up to a point. They didn’t choose her as a mother and their role model. However, some of the older ones are now getting to an age where they should start to notice that not everyone acts the way their parents do. And at least two of them have spent a little time away from home with other people – maybe it will be enough that someday they will take a good look at their mother and decide they want to lead a different kind of life.
“Palin, Fox News, And 2012 Image Rehab”
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201101180034
Otherwise known as Palin’s Pathetic Pity Party on Phox.
If Fox didn’t have so many devoted viewers I’d laugh this off.
Dick Cheney has been dead for years he just hasn’t noticed.
That was extremely harsh and cold.
I had to slap myself because I laughed. I shall now go torture myself further until I admit it wasn’t funny.
(((bubbles)))
i know michigander. naughty ain’t i?( hanging head. tucking tail and going to my corner)
Cheney will probably have some poor sucker kidnapped and extraordinarily rendered in Eastern Europe and take that person’s heart at gunpoint,all in the cause of just freedom and apple pie etc.
Dick Cheney makes a statement and is arrogant as ever. He hasn’t decided if he wants to have a heart transplant.
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/cheney-obama-guantanamo-healthcare/2011/01/17/id/383061?s=al&promo_code=B7C0-1
This makes me so angry that I had to go out and walk around. He is too old.
Wait — Cheney has a heart?
Allegedly. He has, however, no pulse.
Is he aware that you can’t exactly buy a heart any time you want? I would love to hear comments from people on transplant teams. Not even Cheney is rich enough.
And in that picture, he looks like he has lost a lot of weight. He looks terrible.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh he COULD buy a heart!
maybe he’s going to see the Wizard of Oz to get a heart…he can take Sarah with him to pick up her brain…..
Now that Cheney is being artificially kept alive, he resembles Darth Vader more than ever.
Tuning in a bit late, but in case no one else has posted this one, it’s excellent:
Sarah Palin Defends Herself by Treading on Americans� Free Speech
http://www.politicususa.com/en/sarah-palin-limiting-free-speech
“On Fox Newsâ�� Hannity, Sarah Palin spent another half an hour defending herself the only way she knows how: by attacking other Americansâ�� free speech. Sarah Palin, and many conservatives, operate under the illusion that free speech means they can consistently call all liberals enemies of the Republic and call for violent overthrow of the government, but when liberals get upset about their words, all liberals need to shut up or else they are trampling on Sarah Palinâ��s rights to free speech. ”
“Sarah Palin has a serious case of the bubbling Fascist. Her notion of citizensâ�� rights should be chilling, as in her mind, they are limited to what makes her feel good. Never once does she try to understand those who think differently from herself, or even bother to demonstrate a shred of respect for them. If Palin loves America so much, and she love free speech so much, why wonâ��t she show a modicum of respect for anyoneâ��s free speech other than her own?”
Rut roh – went to the moderators…..
will try a different snip with less “labels” …
snip] No group will escape the Dominionists� wrath, and with legislators and the military establishment behind them, America as a nation is in jeopardy. The Taliban and extremist Islamists may be a threat to America from afar, but the real threat is within our borders and within our government. The greatest protection Americans have at their disposal is the Constitution; as long as the Dominionists don�t dismantle it. [end snip
Excellent read @ http://www.politicususa.com/en/dominionists-over-america/comment-page-1#comment-58410
Excellent piece …. well worth the read —
this is the PATH the right wants us to go down……
snip] Politicians in Congress and state legislative bodies who subscribe to fundamentalist Christian beliefs are making dangerous moves to change religion-neutral laws to a theocratic-themed set of statutes meant to reflect evangelical core beliefs that define immorality and sin as the greatest threats to America�s greatness. These so-called Christian Reconstructionists and Dominionists are fighting an imagined threat posed by feminists, homosexuals, liberals, and secular humanists, and have as their provocateurs of hate people like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and the C Street pack of fanatics who if allowed, will install the Ten Commandments as the law of the land. [end snip
more @ http://www.politicususa.com/en/dominionists-over-america/comment-page-1#comment-58410
All that and moose too!
Beautiful
AKM’s photos of frost: fractal on fractal…..of beauty
Palin’s media-spins on Tucson: fractal on fractal ….of angry ignorance.
Thanks, Lee323, I <3 AKM’s fractals. Those others, not so much.
Mandelbrot (fractals) Set Zoom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEw8xpb1aRA
futile=fue-tile fractal=frac-tile
Did someone forget to tell me that it is opposite day today. I came to that conclusion when I read that another member of the GOP urged the current congress not to repeal the Health Care Bill.
“[The bill] has many strong elements,” Frist added later. “And those elements, whatever happens, need to be preserved, need to be cuddled, need to be snuggled, need to be promoted and need to be implemented. But how do you do it? How do you do a lot of what is in this law?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/bill-frist-health-care-repeal-gop_n_810345.html
Frist made statements in favor of reform back when the bill was being debated. I think he got out of the republican party politics business to save his soul. He played a big part in the government overstepping its role around Terry Shavio.
Buffalo Gal-10
Thanks for the Web site—Palin on Fox News with Hannity.
I found it very difficult to read. I was beginning to think I was reading something in a foreign language. Her take on the STARK treaty —-was a very strange analysis.
Would be interesting to hear what she thought about the statement that McCain made and was shown on MSNBC. (Keith O. show) I felt it was almost an apology for bringing SP into the political arena.
I saw these ice crystals along the bike trail near my house and wanted to catch them in the proper sunlight. They looked like a life form working in the same way as coral reefs build themselves. The crystals were as big as a jade plant leaves. It was amazing. I have been hoping for snow for skiing, but what appeared in the absence of snow was a simple gift.
i just can’t get over how beautiful these photos are. i am sharing them with my facebook peeps.
astounding.
amazing.
Good morning, AKM. Thank you for those wonderful pictures. Just breath-taking. Just got home from visiting mother in the hospital. She is doing so well. Maybe home by Friday. When I left, she was conked out for her morning nap. I plugged in her Kindle to charge and left her a note.
I will be sure to bring up this site when I go back in a little while so that she can see the beautiful pictures, too. She will love them!
Another bad news poll for Ms. Palin:
“So with a strong majority of Americans thinking that Palin had no responsibility for the shootings and almost half of them thinking the media mistreats her, she was in a more sympathetic position with voters across the country last week than she had found herself in a long time. And then she made the video…”
http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2011/01/palin-shoots-herself-in-foot.html
I still can not fathom how she can only be 17 points behind Obama. The woman has no brain…how can anyone think she is qualified to lead the most powerful nation on the planet?
I don’t get it either. She is a dimwit. It’s like living in a live version of the “The Emperor Has New Clothes.” People are afraid to tell her how stupid she is.
I know! 17 is frighteningly too close for my liking. Fortunately, other polls show bigger leads by our President.
More on Palin.
“Indeed, even among Republicans, 71 percent approved of Obama’s handling of the shooting, more than 20 points higher than the 48 percent who approved of Palin’s handling of it.
All this suggests yet again the degree to which Palin squandered a major opportunity to improve her image. A significant chunk of the public is actually inclined to believe that Palin is generally mistreated by the media, and majorities say they don’t blame Palin for the shooting, according to a poll released today by the Dem firm Public Policy Polling. If Palin had taken the high road, she might have ended up looking even more wronged by whoever it is that sought to link her to the shooting, and she could have emerged with the moral high ground.
Instead, only a minority of Republicans think she handled the whole mess well, and even Republicans don’t see a problem with the media’s treatment of it. If Palin wanted to cast this conflict as a standoff against her familiar antagonist, the “lamestream media,” then the lamestream media won hands down.”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/01/even_republicans_say_media_han.html
And on Hannity she tripled-down on the hate. She takes no advice and that is the GOOD NEWS.
I know this is neither here nor there, but: Why in the hell should *anything* she says or does be compared to what POTUS says or does?
Is governance of our nation now a popularity contest — which ever person has the best FB rant, Twitter shot, or paid speech is the idea/program/initiative to embrace and is the direction in which our nation should go? Are we to decide how to “handle” things based on whatever un-solicited ‘information’ is electronically provided to us by self-proclaimed ‘experts’ who freely and relentlessly blather on every topic under the sun?
C’mon — gimme a friggin break! beth.
I know this is neither here nor there, but: Why in the hell should *anything* she says or does be compared to what POTUS says or does?
___________________________________________________________________
i wish i knew the answer to that Beth. i suspect that Palin is the designated female attack dog for the right against the President and his policies. that is so he can’t verbally knock her on her ass as she deserves because that would rebound on him. you know how that goes. Black man beats the hell out of little ol’ fragile Sarah Palin. oh boo hoo. somebody get a rope.like that.
the problem is that she is no threat to him but she is a threat to her handlers and her money men. every time she opens her mouth what she says reflects what they think and what they are thinking is sedition and treason and that doesn’t play well with those few rational people left in the Republican party. nor does it get traction among those who say they are independent thinkers and voters. my thoughts for what they’re worth.
I agree. It shouldn’t. She is in way over her head. I can’t believe the MSM are only seeing this now.
But at least they are seeing it. It seems to me that only Scarah and Rush didn’t like the President’s speech. With so many other R’s staying silent then I think it only makes them look out of step with the American people.
Her behavior this past week does NOT say much for how she would handle a real crisis if she were in charge.
I think a lot of people who were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt have had their eyes rudely opened by the two ‘Poor Widdle Ol’ Me’ speeches. Not only does she NOT come across as presidential, she clearly shows herself as the jealous, self-involved, immature child that we all know she is, always looking to blame everyone else for her mistakes. And it’s NOT a pretty sight.
Hah! Double hah! I just read that Newt Gingrich and Gov. Christie have both come out with criticisms of Ms. Palin. Of course, they were coached in the most polite language, but even so…
A change is gonna come!
Here’s a link.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/newt-gingrich-sarah-palin-slow-down_n_810331.html
two bums and a grifter. the worms are turning on each other. great news.
You have a way with words! 🙂
Is that a sequel to “Four Weddings and a Funeral?”
uh huh. LOL
“Two Men and a Baby”?
We need a ‘Like’ button here!
Now you know that Gingrich and others have been telling her to watch her language and rhetoric for a long time privately. Politicians do not talk to each other over the public airwaves unless 1. They want the public to know they agree with someone else. or 2. They want the public to know they disagree with someone else. Gingrich, is just the latest in what started a while back–the public conversation with Palin, letting the public know they disagree with her. Using Barbara Bush was great. I mean, who can attack Barbara Bush? (Well, some people have. But as a Republican, that would be foolish, to say the least.)
The Republican establishment has been talking at her (she hasn’t listened) since the nomination. They didn’t bring it public because they thought they could harness her energy and use it without causing too much collateral damage. Now, they’re seeing the collateral damage far outweighs the benefits. They’re deciding they’re going to have to go ahead with or without their so-called base.
Funny how Democrats and even Greens do not call the radical left their “base.” They don’t rely on them for votes, money or support. As Green as I am, I know that appealing to us greenies for a base of support would not serve the Democratic party. Let’s hope the Republicans smarten up. As much as I greatly desire to elect progressives, I know that ultimately our country is better off with at least 2 viable parties.
As a former scientist, I am curious as to why the crystals formed in such a lovely pattern this time as opposed to all of the other years?
Beautiful though. Just beautiful.
As an avalanche guy, I am quite familiar with hoar frost. It forms during extended cold periods — like the two weeks of temps zero or below which we have recently been enjoying in the Anchorage area. It usually grows on top of the snow pack. Skiers love it. Great skiing over surface hoar.
The problem comes when the next warm storm puts down a heavy layer of well-bonded snow on top of that fragile layer of hoar frost. Buried hoar frost becomes the weak layer which can suddenly collapse, letting that heavy slab over it loose to roar down the mountain.
What is different this year is that Anchorage had warm winds (45 F) around New Years, and in some places the snow pack disappeared during that warm period. Then during the cold period, the hoar frost formed right down on the grass. This provides better contrast for photography. It is also less likely to be the collapsing layer for an avalanche.
If you read the avalanche danger analysis for Turnagain Pass, you will find analyses of buried hoar layers:
http://www.cnfaic.org/advisories/current.php?id=
Scroll down, and there’s a photo of a crystal about four inches across.
Thanks, slipstream. The 4″ hoarfrost crystal photo is incredible. I don’t know much about avalanche science; now I know a bit more. If I ever head to Turnagain Pass, I’ll ask you to accompany me. 😉
well i ‘ll be Slip. hoar frost. i have heard tell of this hoar frost but didn’t understand until today just what it is. thank you Slip. between AKM ‘s extraordinary photos and your explanation i have learn something new and wonderful.
Thank you. That was fascinating to read. I never realized hoar frost was a specific type of frost. I just thought it meant a heavy frost. That 4″ crystal is lovely.
Thanks for the information. It was interesting and informative. Our Cascade mountains are good at avalanches.
Thank you so much for this explanation. I love learning new things!
Exquisite photos! Yes, a camera with a big ole lens is great, but it takes an eye and a mind to observe these things and recognize the whimsy and the beauty. These are amazing.
Gorgeous photos AKM! Thank-you for sharing with us.
And thanks to all here for comments and links – special thanks to BuffaloGal for the Hannity/Palin transcript. I dreaded having to watch a video of Her Lowness but felt I should be aware of what was said.
Back to work for me (o:
please AKM make us a picture book. i know it is a expensive project but maybe a few nice black and whites (like above)+ the lynx pic framed or unframed and you will raise what you need to complete a fine work of art and we will buy that one too.
I am very impressed with this. A district-by-district analysis of the impact of repealing health care reform.
http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?q=news/impact-of-repealing-health-care-reform
Pass it along!
BTW, I’m calling it the “life-saving” health care law.
You should send that in as a suggestion to the WH or the DNC.
What boring documents. Don’t the Democrats know how to sell?
Just say how many lives were saved due to the bill. Put up a website, with a clock-like counter, counting up the number of American lives saved. Now that would convince people.
AKM Love how you led us up to that glorious last picture. Totally, totally awesome!
Here’s a great piece from Washington Montly that I read today:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2011/1101.dickerson.html
Note to mudfriends: Washington Monthly is a super-fantastic-amazing magazine, and if you can afford the $30/yr (or less, maybe it’s $25?) it’s hands-down the best political magazine that we get, and we get a few. I honestly don’t know if it’s available at the newsstand, I’ve never checked.
Apropos the comment above re: Joe Scarborough’s comments, there is another great piece in the magazine about finding rational people in the GOP and bringing their discourse to a wider audience by virtue of reaching out to them:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2011/1101.bartlett.html
I would like to think that Joe S. and others are ready to wash their hands of the insane bunch, and no longer run scared of what Rush/Glen/et al are going to say about them, instead are finally willing & able to speak some truths — they need to be reached out to.
The whole of the issue that these come from is devoted to diverse opinions & suggestions as to what Pres. Obama needs to address for his SOTU speech. I’ve not made it through all of them, but all that I’ve read have been highly informative at the very least. The first one that I linked here is less about suggestion, more about the author’s experience as an educated unemployed single mother waiting for the President to push back against the “slacker” accusations from the right about the unemployed. It’s a bit on the heartbreaking side, particularly when one considers that her story is being played out all over the nation.
The Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen’s blog is a several times per day stop for me. It is succinct, informative & while left-leaning, sticks with the facts, no hyperpartisanship hyperbole.
Thanks for the link.
I’ll chastise myself severely tomorrow for bringing this up-Dick Cheney needs a heart transplant and I am beside myself thinking all sorts of snarky remarks for the heartless one. I’m pretty sure my parents instilled certain values in me that would ordinarily preclude me from commenting in polite company. I will have to wait for a more appropriate setting to pour my heart out about the evil one.
Love the pictures! Picture # 3 reminds me of an arrangement you might see hanging from a bridal bouquet. Now I’m going to be looking down more often/carefully at the snow piled up on the lawn, when icing the driveway, or when shovelling the snow. You have a great way of opening our eyes, AKM, especially those like me who aren’t natural nature lovers, or who walk with our eyes straight ahead 90% of the time.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but it is really quite something.
Sarah Palin Battle Hymn of the Republic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhMepzqJvIw&feature=player_embedded
Wow. Just… wow.
I saw it yesterday and at first thought it was snark, because I couldn’t really hear the first verse clearly. By the end I concluded they were in earnest. ‘Just…wow’ indeed.
I posted it on my Facebook page last week and asked that if anyone who watched it and didn’t either laugh or throw up in their mouth please come by the house and have a glass of ice tea.
No one has been by the house. I think the hand signals are priceless.
thank you for commenting – if it’s not a joke there’s no way i’m going to listen to it. has anyone made one yet where they explain all the reasons they’re so sure she’s the second coming of christ?
Oh for the love of cows, those two are so IN for $P cabinet positions. “Department of Law” prolly.
haaaaaa
With all of me , I fully embrace , “Oh for the love of cows”
On the count of 1….3….2…..5….
Done! It’s offically added to my list of “favorite phrases”
Oh please do not make fun of my fellow Tennesseans. I was so hoping they were from Texas or Kentucky. (lol)
Such gorgeous pictures. I’d have just stomped thru without looking – your eye for beauty is amazing.
Re Palin and the crosshairs: It’s not just the crosshairs – the rhetoric “don’t retreat, reload” is reprehensible. What can a reasonable person assume: crosshairs +reload = ? It equals tragedy.
Just when I want to throw my hands up and forget about her, she does something to get my head spinning. Her behavior is so outlandish – I’ve really run out of words. That’s why I read Mudflats, so many times I read a beautifully worded post and think – yeah, me too. Thanks to all of you – if I have any sanity left with regard to that woman, it is because of you.
That crosshairs map is still on her 3/23/10 FB. They took it off Take Back the Twenty site but not her Facebook.
What an amazing reward for investigating not the usual ice crystals. So many people would just walk by and miss these jewels from nature.
The snow is gone around my place. It melted a few weeks ago, then the winds came, blowing the life out of the remaining snow. What snow, that was able to survive, united and formed ice shields.
Huge smooth ice shields.
The kids went ice skating when it was -17. They laced up the morning the winds died down.
I’ve two trails to choose from for my daily walk. Yesterday I choose the woodland route. Birch, spruce and moss. At dawn it was like the colors were electrified. Glowing. Just wonderful. Even the 4 yr. Old made comment “umma, the birch trees are glowing dirty yellow.”
I love winter.
I know it’s cliche’, but Sarah has made the age old mistake worse than sitting around looking like an idiot. She continues to open her mouth and remove all doubt. She is truly clueless. The poor poor victim.
I am waiting, ever so non-patiently, that the scandal(s) of which a couple of other blogs are referring comes to light, and quickly. Not that I am wishing bad luck on anyone (watch out karma), but would just love to have the dirty facts, whatever they may be, out in the open.
Me too. 🙂
we have a saying around here “if i didn’t bad luck i’ d have no luck at all.”
meaning i suppose that ‘luck’, being fickle, can change to good luck so there is hope even when one is going through tough times. so i wish no one bad luck i just wish them no luck at all.
Bubbles . . . . if it wasn’t for caffeine, I wouldn’t have no feine at all.
LOL. Slip!!!
Beautiful! I’ll be looking at snow and ice with more admiration now – and up close! Thankfully we’re getting lots here in central NY.
It got up to 43 here in Rochester today and felt like a bloomin’ heat wave!
I don’t think we’ve cracked 30 in a couple of weeks and are heading back down to 20 tomorrow. Looks like we won’t see 30 again for the forseeable future so we’re back to winter as usual. We’re currently 2 feet above average for snow and there’s a lot of winter left yet. Good thing I like the cold and snow!
On a sadder note,somebody came up with another sign of the Zodiac and threw my whole life into turmoil. I am/was a Pisces and now I am an Aquariun, I guess I have been a fish out of water all these years and now I’m not even a fish. Next they will tell me the Easter Bunny is fake. And the closest place for insane people is cutting beds and staff,like they figure with less beds there will be less demand. It just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. (I don’t know who to attribute that phrase to)
What new sign? Has the universe gone mad?
YES! and i blame Tawd.
From what I have read, no worries. You are still a Pisces. Western astrology follows the tropical zodiac which has not changed. I was a Cancer, and the new zodiac would have had me a Gemini. No offense, but I surely did not want to be a Gemini. I have enough trouble keeping up with the one of me, never mind twins!
Thanks for the encouragement. I checked the ‘net and it doesn’t affect me except to say my new attributes made me sound more suave and sophisticated. Can’t have everything,I guess.
I think “curiouser and curiouser” may come from Alice in Wonderland….
Mike, I’ve been hesitating to say this not wanting to offend, but I can’t hold it any longer. You almost always make me giggle, or laugh (except for the Arizona write-up, of course). I saw that Zodiac shift piece too, from a Rachel M. segment. As an early ram in the old system, I now move into your previous watery home. Thing is, I don’t swim, and actually won’t be caught in any water which is not surrounded by four walls!
Like Rachel Maddow, I refuse to change! I used to wonder if I was wishy-washy, because I could see both sides of things. Then I realised that Libras are like that. You know, the scales of Justice, and all that.
If I change, how will I explain all that?
Tigerwine Rethugs and conservatives have a tried and trusted method of explaining everything. First you deny having said anything at all. Then,when presented with audio or written evidence that you said what you deny having said,claim your words were taken out of context and then blame the “LIberal Media”. Works like a charm.
Mike–It’s Lewis Carroll (I don’t remember which “Alice” book)–and since Aquarius is The Water Carrier, you get to be a fish in water. And don’t panic, there have always been 13 constellations; astrologers have been aware of it for years, and it’s like Catholics and Episcopalians(sp?)–some practice sidereal astrology and some tropic astrology–which comes with a tiny umbrella in your horoscope. And the Easter Bunny is real, but big time wrestling is not.
Curiouser and curiouser is said by Alice in the book “Alice in Wonderland.” Don’t remember if they use it in the movies.
With the ‘new’ Zodiac signs, I noticed Scorpio has now been reduced to a mere 7-days time span. Poor Scorpio – it has become the $arah Palin of the Zodiac; pretty much trying to hang on for any relevancy. beth.
i think i heard somewhere that i’m now a Leo. i disagree. virgo. virgo!
I refuse to be a Leo. It’s not me. The way I figure it, this is something fairly new so the sign I was born under – Virgo – is the one I’m sticking with.
I’m with you, Pat and Barbara. I was so dismayed when I saw that now I’m supposedly a Leo. Not gonna happen! (sticking out my chin and folding my arms to my chest) I am a Virgo and will stay a Virgo – I don’t care what “they” say.
lol it must be a virgo thing.
She should dubbed , “The Patriot Poet”. It’s as if she channels the beautiful phrasings of the Founding Fathers whenever she blesses us with her words:
From her interview with Hannity:
*** They can’t make us sit down and shut up.
And if they ever were to succeed in doing that, then our republic will
be destroyed. Not necessarily me being sat down and shut up, but having
the voice of respectful dissent being shut up. That would destroy our
republic. ****
Link to the transcript: http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/01/sarah_palin_on_foxs_hannity_ex.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Good lord, at least we all have the sense to be embarrassed for her. A convo between George W. and Sarah would be enough to shatter the Republic of which they speak.
“the voice of respectful dissent”
Since when has SP ever been “respectful” toward anyone with whom she disagrees?
she does not and never has represented the voice of respectful dissent. i’m insulted by her use of the phrase. “palling around with terrorists” respectful? no, just BS! “death panels” respectful? no, just more BS! “don’t retreat reload” not an allusion to guns?!?! respectful? it bothers me when she uses words she doesn’t understand. it makes her sound as if she is respectful when she’s anything but.
Thanks for posting the transcript. I tried listening to the screech, and had to turn it off.
Well, there you go. Someone should point out to her that what she has been doing is NOT respectful dissent. So, in that case, she needs to shut up – I don’t much care whether or not she’s sitting.
I think we have a new word! SP last night twice pronounced the word “futile” as “fyu-tile” (long i), not “fyu-tl
like I’ve always heard it. Anyone else notice that? It’s almost like “blood libel) – someone puts it in a speech, and she doesn’t even go over it before she reads it to the audience.
There is a new meaning for heartburn too. This is from her interview with Hannity and it isn’t a typo. I heard her say it.
“The contract graphic artist did take it down and I don’t think that was inappropriate,” said Palin. “If it was going to cause much heartburn and even more controversy I didn’t have a problem with it taken down.”
That woman is an insensitive fool. She really does need to shut up.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/17/palin-i-am-not-going-to-shut-up/?hpt=T2
Who was that annoying woman in the clip? She never shut up to let the other guy speak.
Dana Loesch – a tea partier!!
I read once Loesch’s says the way to operate is to get the last word in an argument. Right or wrong, just get the last word.
The “paid graphic artist” took the graphic in question down from her site *after* the ‘event’ in Arizona because, we are to assume, Palinworld figured out/realized the graphic was being heavily criticised for being totally out of line. She felt, according to her, taking it down was appropriate (the opposite of “inappropriate.”)
OK — a couple of facts: 1) the graphic in question was uploaded in March 2010. Within minutes! –literally– of its being posted, people all over the internet were commenting on how inappropriate it was! And yet it stayed up on her site. 2) Rep. Giffords even did a TV interview expressing dismay that her district was specifically named and targetted by the graphic and how uncomfortable that made her feel. And yet it stayed up of $arah’s site.
Does Ms QuittyPants-UglyHeart want us to believe she was *not* aware there were grave concerns about the graphic *before* the ‘event’ in Arizona? Does she want us to believe only a “paid graphic artist” can remove a graphic from an internet site (which she assures us hers did because it was “not inappropriate” to do so) and that no one else associated with running a site has the ability to change what is on it? (I’m not even going to go into the ‘surveyor’s marks’ bs — that explanation was too absurd for comment.)
So, the graphic was up from March 2010 to January 2011 — that is over nine months. And she wants us to believe it, combined with her other images and strident talk, had nothing, absolutely nothing!, to do with the ‘event’?
Alrighty, then — Poor $arah, she truly is the victim in all of this…everyone is picking on her; everyone hates her because they hate that she’s not “sitting down and shutting up” about how POTUS, his administration, and liberals are destroying this nation. Riiiiiiight.
There is not a word in the English language — probably not in any other, either — that can capture my disgust and contempt for her. I do not like feeling so roiled. beth.
And one more fact: the map was removed from the Sarahpac site, but it is still up today on the Quitter’s Facebook page. Here is the url:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/sarah-palin/dont-get-demoralized-get-organized-take-back-the-20/373854973434
Lessee . . . . election over in November 2010, no chance to remove “targetted” congresspersons by vote in January 2011 . . . why is this map still up?
my money says it is not “still” up – it is “back” up after palin decided she wasn’t about to apologize or acknowledge that it is inflammatory.
I so agree about feeling so roiled! Well put. Being so disgusted with her all the time is exhausting. Of course she had to throw some techie under the bus re the cross hairs graph. I need to not think about this dangerous nut job for at least a week, she really has become hazardous to my health.
the contract graphic artist took it down! i’m busting up here. sowah, who TOLD the contract graphic artist to take it down??? she is so full of it.
And so we are to believe that the graphic artist is the one who is the site admin and not someone who is really supposed to be doing that job? That made even less sense than putting the map up in the first place and then leaving it after the elections were over.
Heh…
Reminds me of how the father in “A Christmas Story” pronounced “Fragile” on the box that the leg lamp came in: ” Fra- GEE- Lay” Is how he pronounced it.
Can’t really imagine another President that mispronounced as many words as G W Bush did. (And I don’t want to either.)
Oh! I remember that! To funny. What was in there – a monkey, right?
no, a woman’s leg lamp that the wife absolutely wanted broken
she is parroting the Borg. “Resistance is fyutile.” the woman is beyond stoopid.
I should know better when it comes to SP –
For a moment …. just a brief moment ….
I thought I had been pronouncing it wrong all these years
FEW-tile, repeated over and over. One winces for her limited education.
Lovely pictures. I am always stunned by the symmetry and beauty of nature.
The hits keep coming!
“In a January 18 Politico column, Joe Scarborough criticized right-wing media figures, including Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, for their “heated rhetoric,” stating: “Despite what we eventually learned about the shooter in Tucson, should the right have really been so shocked that many feared a political connection between the heated rhetoric of 2010 and the shooting of [Rep. Gabrielle] Giffords?”
From Scarborough’s column:
We get it, Sarah Palin. You’re not morally culpable for the tragic shooting in Tucson, Ariz. All of us around the “Morning Joe” table agree, even if we were stunned that you would whine about yourself on Facebook as a shattered family prepared to bury their 9-year-old girl.
The same goes for you, Glenn Beck. You’ve attacked your political opponents with words designed to inspire hatred and mind-bending conspiracy theories from fans. Calling the president a racist, Marxist and fascist may be reprehensible, but it did not lead a mentally disturbed man to take a Glock to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s “Congress on Your Corner” event.
Good on ya, buddy. You weren’t personally responsible for the slaughter at the Safeway. Maybe you can put it on a poster at the next “Talkers” convention.”
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201101180004
I’m beginning to like this guy…another conservative who sees reality.
I think a lot of conservatives are decent people at heart. One of my friends who is very conservative has talked about his concern the last time we spoke a few months ago. He’s is as disgusted by the like of Savage, et al as we are.
I’m glad to see some conservatives starting to take a stand for sanity and respect.
Wow, Carl Bernstein has apparently said on Morning Joe that Palin is a demagogue. I’ll post the video when it becomes available.
Looking forward to that video.
Here it is.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#41131736
Thanks. It’s too bad that Joe kept interrupting his guest..I found him difficult to listen to.
Yes, that annoyed me as well. I wanted to hear what Carl had to say.
I really like what Carl had to say. It shows just how much journalism has changed over the years. He’s all about asking hard questions and not letting people off the hood if they don’t answer. And Joe just needed to shut up. That’s exactly the reason I never watch his show.
In classic Palin Malaprop fashion that she would mistake Demigod with Demagogue. As long as she’s as revered as she believes she deserves.
Good one!
i went and looked it up and i had done so before and was convinced that palin is indeed a demagogue. looking it up today it seems the word hasn’t quite the correct proportion of negative conjecture to serve by itself. how about lying screeching end-times believing pious narcissistic divisive greedy demagogue?
Yes, at last, someone names her for what she is. She is a demagogue, the worst to appear since the late 30s, early 40s in our natin.
David Frum Reacts To Hannity’s Palin Interview: “She Should Stop Talking Now”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/david-frum-reacts-to-hannitys-palin-interview-she-should-stop-talking-now/
It seems as if the media in general are finally waking up to her. It’s about time. I think this last week has been too much even for those in the MSM who were willing to go along with the charade that she was in anyway qualified to be considering a presidential run. Her own lack of awareness and her pathetic response to the massacre in Tuscon have finally done her in.
2 telling comments at IM…
…$he doesn’t have to shut up…$he just has to live with the consequences
and
$he DOES shut up…anytime $he’s near the “lamestream media”
that about covers it, eh?
I spend some time each day in the gutters with RWNJ arguing every single issue that pops up. There are more than enough people that take Quitty seriously to encourage a run for higher office.Its getting real ugly out there.
Why. Why ruin your life like that. You live in Iowa, a place of incredible history and beauty. Why spend your time with the death people.
The thing about this ‘event’ in Arizona as she refers to it – is that she has been “rattled.” I’m one to criticize her violent rhetoric she’s used since day one to shore up her tough Frontier Woman persona – and I’m one to say she helped create an atmosphere that makes people comfortable with their prejudices and bellicose discourse, but I wouldn’t say she was an accessory to murder. But that she was immediately thought of by the general public at the reporting of the Congresswoman’s shooting helped define the poliscilebrity that is Palin.
Fineman makes a good point, “her interview answers did little to assuage the average American viewer, and even though “she was only talking to her own core supporters,” her answers were barely enough to calm them down, either.” She doesn’t serve to calm them down, she feeds on their fear and anger like a modern day emotional vampire.
yes. Succubus thy name is Sarah Palin.
AKM you really should compile your photographs into a book: Seasons of Splendor, a year in Alaska.
I posted this on the last open thread but since a new one is up….
The Guardian’s take on Palin’s Hannity interview:
“In the interview, Palin – who is a paid Fox analyst – repeatedly said she was not attempting to defend herself. “This isn’t about me,” she said, “My defence wasn’t self-defence, it was defending those who were falsely accused.”
“But in the course of the half-hour interview, she did not name Giffords or any of her fellow victims.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/18/sarah-palin-defends-blood-libel
“Appearing in front of the same fireplace in Wasilla, Alaska where she had made the blood libel remarks, Palin said she would not be silenced by criticism from the left.”
Right, but the flag is missing!
“My defence wasn’t self-defence, it was defending those who were falsely accused.”
Of course, (according to her) the one who was falsely accused was HER.
Question – if I speak of myself in the third person, does it mean I’m not talking about myself?
She’s ALWAYS done that weird third-person thing. Wasilla-royalty, don’cha know….
Wow!
AKM, your photographs are stunningly beautiful, but your statement “[S]ometimes the greatest art is free, and right under our noses” is as memorable. Thank you so much.
My husband remarked, that it is not just your lens that makes your photographs so fantastic. It is your eye, your sense of wonder, and your heightened sense of awareness of the beauty around you.
He is an artist so he appreciates and recognizes artistic vision – which is what you have.
I agree ks sunflower. I studied photography for a number of years….but I would still like that lens! 🙂
“…it is not just your lens that makes your photographs so fantastic. It is your eye, your sense of wonder, and your heightened sense of awareness of the beauty around you.”
and your generous spirit, sharing with all of us, also, too…I slow down, take a deep breath, and enjoy…That’s some mighty fine medicine.
your husband is absolutely right. in November of last year i had the pleasure of meeting that camera and that lens. i was standing around having and nosh and a sip when the camera’s owner, one Miz Jeanne Devon, handed me the camera with this ginormous camera with the humongous lens attached to it and said ” take picture of us” well. i did my best. i don’t know what happened. if the pics came out at all it would be a miracle. that camera is so danged heavy that when i lifted it to my eye i nearly fell over. and yes. i was sober as a Philadelphia judge.
the thing is that all my pictures seem to cut people’s heads off. if i take a picture of a tree i somehow cut it’s head off. so i depend on people like AKM , Irishgirl and my daughter Merry to capture the wonder that i know is all around us. a special mention to Linda for that ice flower fantasy shot she posted the other day.
you can see an example of my photographic work here.(just scroll down. you can’t miss my work:
https://themudflats.net/forum/index.php/topic,10908.0.html
I hadn’t seen those pics bubbles. Very nice.
Agreed ks sunflower – some people have that eye. It’s a gift. Reminds me of poets who see something “else” and have the remarkable ability to gently draw it out for the rest of us to admire and appreciate.
I love looking at crystals almost as much as I love looking at Hubble space photos. These are just spectacular. Thanks for sharing AKM.
Your husband is exactly right. My mother was an artist so I was always aware that she looked at things differently. And my youngest daughter is an artist, as is her husband. When she was little she would see things that no one else saw, especially when she was riding in the car. Her older sister and I were watching the buildings going by for landmarks or watching for street signs, while Laura was looking at the trees, the clouds, the birds, the way the rain landed on the car windows. And she gets amazing photographs because she sees things in a way that most of us don’t.
AKM, you have a gift, and I’m so glad you share your lovely photos with us.
In college, we had a fantastic photography instructor whose classes were always hugely popular. I wanted to take his class on landscape photography, but felt unqualififed because all I had was a Kodak Instamatic. I went to his office, explained my circumstances, and asked if I could just audit the class. He told me something I’ve never forgotten: “It ain’t the kind of camera you have, Maggie, it’s what you see through the viewfinder.” (He was an old cowboy and talked like that.) That’s stood as one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received.
When I went for the interview to get into a community college class….I took a couple of snapshots and wrapped them in a plastic sandwich bag. It did the trick, spent a year at that. I never thought that that year would lead me back into full time education. It was a hoot. I was in my forties and I had a blast with all the other aspiring photographers.
A beautiful progression of images ending in a stunning macro! Just wonderful, and I didn’t have to get cold to appreciate it!
Beautiful, absolutely stunning.
How I would love your lens! That is amazing.
how cool