Open Thread – The Color of Cold
I was off the grid today, visiting the Village of Tyonek. I’m not going to lie to you… I liked being off the grid today. And in addition to that, the trip was really great. I attended a hearing regarding the designation of the land surrounding the Chuit River and its tributaries as “unsuitable” for surface coal mining. You may be saying, “well…. YEAH,” but it’s rare that government agencies and giant mining conglomerates are as smart as you are. (you cast your eyes down and look humbly at the floor)
On the way over the Inlet this morning, some time after we took off and before I spilled a cup of coffee in my bag, I took this picture. The trip was almost mystical, and very breathtaking. The whole panorama at times was a seamless horizontal blend, in which you were unable to visually distinguish boundaries between clouds, sky, land, mudflats, pack ice, open water and shadows.
I’ll write more about my trip tomorrow, but right now, travel fatigue is tapping on my shoulder and telling me to go to bed.
interesting article if ya havent seen it yet
http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/post_leadership/2011/02/palin-breastfeeding-joke-gos-sour.html?hpid=smartliving
For the teachers…who make such huge salaries and shouldn’t get to sit at the table when their salaries are determined….
Are you sick of highly paid teachers?
Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – babysit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan– that equals 6 1/2 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET’S SEE….
That’s $585 X 180= $105,300
per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher’s salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days
= $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student–a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!
Make a teacher smile; repost this to show appreciation for all educators.
Great post overthemoon! I am off to share this with my sis and one of my best friends who are both teachers. I know they will love this. 🙂
Thank you OTM,
Without a doubt, the most underpaid and undervalued profession by far.
And yet, we hear so much political rhetoric as to the importance of education and how important the children are. Count me in for the Revolution.
Thanks, OTM,
I’m a teacher, and I so agree with your comments. What’s so funny (??) is that recently our school board addressed the elimination of “snow days” because parents had trouble finding DAY CARE on snow days. The suggestion from the community was that teachers should report to school in order to “babysit students whos’ parents needed to WORK.” I figured that if those of us who could get to school really “baby sat” at “high school babysitter wages”, for these snow days,we could make more money than if we were teaching. AND if we offered to provide parking at going rates to parents and split the money, we could be making nearly as much as the parents of the kids that we teach.
I LOVE being a teacher, don’t get me wrong. I love my students, my colleagues, many of the parents of the students I teach, my principal…. I have been a dynamic, creative, “subversive” teacher for 25 years. BUT, I would NEVER advise anyone to go into education as a career in the current climate. It seems that pretty much everyone wants to decimate America’s public education system, one way or another.
In my 25 years of teaching , I have had to become everything BUT a teacher to my students…parent, nurse, nutritionalist, psychologist, anger management specialist, behavioral specialist, cheerleader, probation officer, pregnancy counselor, drug counselor, etc., etc. My career has become being everything to every student…but I am valued only as a babysitter by most parents and taxpayers.
The biggest issue facing our country in the future (after the economy/jobs) is not abortion, is not the definition of rape, is not repealing health care, is not figuring out how to lesson taxes to corporations…..it is the fact that our public education system has been destroyed .
Welcome to the NEW USA, where only the very rich can afford a good education…and where the rest of us are in factory schools, who just need to pick the best answer out of 4.
Hey, I teach about 150 kids every week…woo hoo, I’m gonna be makin’ me some $$$$$!!!!
Thanks overthemoon, will pass on.
Lacy knitten now!
Their yoo iz!
Just over at Texas 4 Palin where I occasionally check the unofficial calendar the proprietor keeps on Sarah’s engagements. He’s usually on top with all the latest.
Well, nothing more in Feb or March and only one in April and one in May. That’s it.
I knew it would happen. Granted, it is possible she is clearing her calendar for a potential Pres. run, but … I have a hard time believing she’d turn down offers of real money.
Very anxious to read Frank Bailey’s book, with AKM’s coauthorship. Already at T4R it is being called lies simply because a court spokesperson said Bailey got a fact wrong. But as usual they did not read the whole article (The ADN one re: Morgan Cristian). And they can’t refute what Bailey said about what Todd said about her in the e-mails without seeing the e-mails. My money is on Bailey and his e-mails.
Wear iz Lacy? I’m worried know….
Too much lafter…like me…gotta go but thanx fer the lafs.
🙂
*wuried*
Gudnite form eyerland.
I ken cend u sum moor dog hares frum my dog — an flore an vakumb cleener to butt only if Lacy sez itz OK. I got tu manee also, too. (i rilly lyke youre spelyng stile) Gudnite eyerish, sweet dreem’z.
U guise ar’nt being verie nise. Espesully abowt the dog hares. Thatz plane mein.
Da is al over da huose…..I save dem inda hoover. Can sent dem onto lacy…..wit a warning. Don’t mez wit ma doag!
Thanck yoo, dreamgirl. I fink she wint two bed. neener neener Irishgal. Now I haf to git befour akm gits hom.
I nevr did….sleop iz overrated. The doag form sumwhere mad me do it… and know she haz scampered of. Sending u dog hares boooo…..
🙂
You all just made my wine come out my nose!
Quitcher whining.
Gud peeple dont drinc!
It’s hard to laugh anymore. My sides are hurting!!!!!!!
Hop ur not laffing at me an mine. I am cereus!
I fink she iz
If u r, I wil pot my dog hares on u…..I can see u Lacy!
yoo macking fun of dog hares naow?
That was delightful. You sound like you’ve been nipping some Irish grog.Hope someone in Great Britain revives the Bristol Stomp and imports it to Arizona. Hopefully some day the nutters actually discover a sense of humor and get over themselves.
Me…I’m a Baileys fan me self! 🙂
We should have a party, Mike and Irish. I loves me some Bailey’s meself AND I can dance the Bristol Stomp!
Baileys wit a dash (or more) of AKM is gud.
Bailey’s…yummmmmmmmmm!
Okay you found me out for the fraud that I am. Ican’t dance a lick and I don’t snuffle up stuff with alcohol. I am also Scotch-Irish by way of ancestry. Two out of three ain’t good. In the spirit of Mudpupness,let’s go stomp some Bristol. I can imbibe small amounts of liquid fire and then I don’t care if I make a fool out of myself on the dancefloor.
I love it!!!!!
Can you say laughing stock?
http://politico-junkie.blogspot.com/2011/02/india-palins-daughter-googles-for-her.html
Naw, you’re just a hater. We all no Brisdul haz a ecomonics mayjour.
I beleeve you spilled mayger rong. :0
Wot, mooore h8ters!
Sorry to correct but shudent that be “beeleeve”
NO
Scuse the teribal enlish *yur* *h8ter* it shud read
Yur esqused
I fink dat doag is a con con concern tr tr troll.
You have made my day!
We “aim” to puleeze
Made my day too
Open thread-I need some help from cold country Mudpups. I am looking for some cold country garden seeds and have not found anything listed on the internet as such. If any one knows of a seed company that specializes in cold weather-short growing season seeds,I would be forever in your debt. Muchas Gracias from icy Iowa.
I can’t think of anything but I’ll ask around here in Ontario.
Here is a link to our Anchorage Daily News garden writer, Jeff Lowenfels. This is his January column regarding gardening catalogs and there are many great links to garden catalogs that specialize or include northern hardy plant varieties in their offerings:
http://www.adn.com/2011/01/05/1634310/winter-is-catalog-time-for-gardeners.html
Here is a good cold climate gardening blog with links to cold climate seed catalogs:
http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2010/01/14/seeds-for-cold-climates/
Happy gardening!
Another reason to celebrate the cold.
Cold by Little Feat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmG8sdaeCYk
“Wisconsin is a national leader in managing its long-term liabilities for both pensions and retiree health care and other benefits.” This according to the Pew Center.
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewcenteronthestatesorg/Initiatives/R_and_D/Trillion_Dollar_Gap_factsheets_Wisconsin.pdf
So what is Walker talking about? Why the give aways to big business to create a phony fiscal crisis?
He got that move out of the ‘Republican Playbook’, Same as Anchorage Mayor Sullivan.
Right there on page 10 – Give huge tax breaks to your rich donors and refuse to raise taxes to the cap. Then cry foul by previous administration, point to the ‘deficit’ that does not really exist, and clobber the middle and lower class by taking away useful programs and cutting budgets to eliminate all assistance. Institute smoke and mirrors budgeting, shifting costs off-books. Next election, point to the ‘crisis’ that you weathered by implementing your ‘fiscal responsibility’ and warn of the upcoming crisis if you are not re-elected.
I obviously gave up on Palin-free Feb. some time ago but sometimes the need to know about this horrid woman outweighs the desire to ignore her.
This is an amazing reaction to her recent foray into Wisconsin’s troubles:
“I’ve tried to stay away from taking part in Palin bashing over the past couple years. That band wagon has been full enough, and paying her any attention only serves to legitimize her as relevant. And not to pile on as yesterday’s “leaked” insider manuscript further discredits her, but she still had the audacity to weigh in against union leaders in Wisconsin yesterday. Now she’s sticking her unwanted finger in labor’s own hornet’s nest.
“Like many Alaskans, I have witnessed the utter hypocrisy of Sarah Palin up close. Never have I seen someone so chameleon-like, with such influence over a very specific mass of people who are so enthralled with her every Facebook and Twitter post. She has become a caricature of herself, and there is no clearer evidence than her Friday, Feb. 18th Facebook post.”
Please enjoy the rest of his commentary:
Read more: http://community.adn.com/adn/node/155822#ixzz1EXGfoWSp
This is great coming from someone who seems to know the history of Sarah’s statements about employee unions. I read somewhere else that Todd was a union boss himself for a time.
Ah hypocrisy…caught in the cookie jar again? A scathing commentary:
“COMMENTARY | Sarah Palin is often erratic, hard to understand and generally confusing, but one point that she is usually pretty consistent on is her insistence that government spending at all levels should be reduced.
“Turns out that is only true for cutting funding for women’s health initiatives, but not when it means enriching herself. While governor of Alaska in 2008, Palin signed a set of hefty tax incentives into law for film and television producers who spend at least $100,000 in Alaska. ”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110220/us_ac/7894302_sarah_palins_tv_show_takes_advantage_of_government_funding
Just more corporate welfare.
Reminds me of WI were Walker has given big breaks to the wealthy and corporations and now wants to pay for it on the backs of the middle class.
Isn’t it time we started to tax the rich and corporations? When does America wake up.
Well, at least she’s consistent at something.
Off the grid, and soon back on the net. Lucky for all of us.
AKM – what a beautiful shot and all kinds of shades of my favorite color to boot! I can almost smell that crisp, clean, cold air that stings the inside of your nose. Mmmmmm…
AKM….would you ,pretty please, check your mail
Miz Fawnskin – Could you kindly empty your mailbox so that I can send a message to you? I’ve been out of commission of late so haven’t posted anything in ages and realize that I owe you and Bubs some replies. Were you ever in contact with our new friends from DC at the rally- the McFarlane Clan?
Why Parnell should be ridden out of Juneau on a wooden fence rail for refusing the federal insurance exchange money:
Money Won’t Buy You Health Insurance
” this is a story about how broken the market for health insurance is, even for those who are healthy and who are willing and able to pay for it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20Dubinsky.html?ref=opinion
ADN letter to the editor from our friend Elstun Lauesen:
“A recent study by the University of Maryland demonstrated that Fox News viewers were the most uninformed among viewers of all surveyed news media. If I needed anecdotal evidence as to why that is, I got it as I surveyed the coverage of the historic resignation of Egyptian dictator Mubarak.
While MSNBC and CNN both featured interviews with Middle Eastern scholars and local Egyptian experts to gain an understanding of the developments, Megyn Kelly, Fox News’ famous “News Fox” (their label) — recently featured in a revealing spread in GQ magazine — treated us to the fear-mongering of Andrea Tantaros, a conservative columnist and paid talking head who squealed and bleated about the dangers from the Muslim Brotherhood and the lesson from Iran and spoke of “daggers coming out” for President Obama, quoting unnamed Israeli and Saudi “experts” as examples of international “concern” with our president’s positioning. Fox News seems incapable of just gathering information or, failing that, of taking a moment to celebrate a monumental political event that isn’t orchestrated by FreedomWorks.”
It seems like Wisconsin guv only gives interviews to Faux Noise affiliates and I wonder why that is? Its really getting ugly on the comment boards. I probably don’t help matters any. Free speech apparently only includes people that agree with the nutters.
Koch brothers have a volume discount on air time??
It seems so Mike but the people demonstrating are being very civil for the most part or should I say peaceful there was some yelling back and forth and One person told a fox person that they lied and weren’t worth watching
Beautiful blues, AKM, and so serene…
“>>>I saw that ragged soul take flight. I’m like a black crow flying in a blue sky…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV4D1hez-Lw&feature=related
Baily book in India media as well:
http://politico-junkie.blogspot.com/2011/02/india-palin-aide-plans-book.html
I’ve also seen the story in publications throughout the UK from London to Belfast.
I particularly like this part from your link:
“Her rise has many around the world scratching their heads as they watch, with fascination, a politician who, in any other country, would have ceased to garner the attention that Mrs. Palin has amassed.”
A beauty of a pic, you have a definite knack.
Is there anything to report about the meeting you attended? I hope you and any others with progressive views who were there will make a difference. There is too much at stake here to let any company have it’s way with such a fragile and important environment. I shudder to think of the Appellation Mt. way of coal mining: mountain top removal. Instead this would be salmon stream removal and could be even more damaging and disastrous.
With all the blah, blah, blah about debt flinging about these days, the one topic I’m not hearing much about is the elephant in the room. Namely, why aren’t the rich (people and highly profitable corporations) paying their taxes? Corporations are getting away with all kinds of tax dodges to avoid paying their share.
This group is trying to do something about it.
http://www.usuncut.org/blog/a-call-to-action
The R’s are trying to shift the burden of taxes upon the middle class and have been doing so for the past 30 years. It’s time to fight back.
You’ve seen Matt Taibbi’s latest, right?
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216
Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.
“Everything’s f______ up, and nobody goes to jail,” he said. “That’s your whole story right there. Hell, you don’t even have to write the rest of it. Just write that.”
I put down my notebook. “Just that?”
“That’s right,” he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. “Everything’s f_____ up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there.”
Great article. Matt really explains how the way to cozy relationship between Wall Street and its regulators have blocked justice for the crooks.
And I hear this weekend that Angelo Mozillo of Countrywide is not going to get any criminal prosecution either. His toxic loan schemes have cost millions of Americans Trillions in lost home equity and all he gets is a little fine by the SEC that was mostly paid by Bank of America because they took over the toxic assets of Countrywide.
One thing I remember was how Angelo sold something like 600 million of Countrywide stock just as the company was failing. He had insider knowledge that his company was failing. To me, that is insider trading. When Martha Stewart did a little insider trading she got jail time. Why not Angelo?
The other part that ticks me off is that so many Pension Funds were larded up with the toxic mortgage assets and when they failed the value of the funds severely declined and still have not recovered. That’s why there is so much yak about “we can’t afford” public pension blah, blah, blah. They were seriously mismanaged. Why aren’t there actions being taken to “claw back” some of the money that were stolen by Wall Street fraud? Wall Street is back on its feet and getting huge bonuses, shouldn’t duped investors like the pension funds be getting restoration? Just asking?
Is there any way to get a list of the pension funds that took a hit? Who’s done the research on this?
Answering my own question…
And of course there’s more to be mined on Google…I just couldn’t bear to read further
http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/state-pension-funds-have-1-trillion-shortfall
A new study says States have a $1 trillion pension gap:
States may be forced to reduce benefits, raise taxes or slash government services to address a $1 trillion funding shortfall in public sector retirement benefits, according to a new study that warns of even more debilitating costs if immediate action isn’t taken.
The Pew Center on the States released a survey Thursday of state-administered pension plans, retiree health care and other post-employment benefits in all 50 states that blamed a decade’s worth of policy decisions for leaving them shortchanged.
The result for some states will be “high annual costs that come with significant unfunded liabilities, lower bond ratings, less money available for services, higher taxes and the specter of worsening problems in the future,” the study said.
The cost of the trillion-dollar shortfall, which will be paid over the coming decades, is about $8,800 for each American household. The study did not include many city, county and municipal pension plans, which are thought to have similar underfunding.
“We have a significant problem now, but it’s a problem that can be solved by taking relatively modest steps,” said Susan K. Urahn, the center’s managing director. “If they don’t do anything, if they wait, eventually they will have an unmanageable crisis on their hands.”
As of 2008, states had $2.4 trillion to meet $3.4 trillion in promised pension, health care and other post-retirement benefits, according to the report.
.
Well, I just couldn’t let this rest [blame the extra pot of tea this morning].
You can find your state here:
The Trillion Dollar Gap – State Fact Sheets
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/report_detail.aspx?id=57264
Mo, I’m not sure where this ends up posting but this is in reply to the pensions.
Thanks for these references. The big question I think we need to learn is how did pensions get so messed up?
I’ve been doing some research on CalPers to try and understand how things got so out of whack. Some things I’ve come across:
1. In 1984 an R Governor got passed a measure that allowed the fund to take more risky stock market investments for the fund. This did well in boom/bubble years.
2. Some years the boom was so good that the State didn’t even bother to contribute into the trust. They just let “investment returns” grow the fund. Who needs to save for a rainy day? Typical R thinking. Who needs blue chip stocks when gogo stock has such good returns.
3. Wall Street had a lot of “special vehicles” composed of mortgage backed securities that it was selling to pensions.
4. When things blew up in 2008 in both the stock market and the bond market the value of the trust went from $260 Billion to $160 Billion.
5. Just last week CalPers has filed a lawsuit against Lehman and it’s former executives and others. See this http://www.institutionalinvestorsecuritiesblog.com/2011/02/calpers_files_securities_fraud.html Looks like a good site and has some more links on this nationwide story.
chortle.. Happy Thought.. As Corps are now the same as individuals in the eyes of the SCOTUS, then let’s tax them as individuals… same deductions as you and I get, same tax breaks we get as individuals… throw out the subsidies, etc.. If they want to have the same rights as individuals in contributing to the electoral process, then they get the same responsibities to pay for the goverment as we do !
Hear ye,hear ye-benlomond2 for President immediately. I can hear Scalia,Thomas and other jugheads of the less than supreme court. Corporations are individual citizens for the express purpose of skirting established precedent and buying politicians and elections. They remain corporations for ripping off Americans who pay individual taxes. Plus we know Liberals aren’t man enough to impeach any of us five or bush or cheney, Nah,nah,nah,nah,nah,nyah.
We need to fix the individual rates for the really rich too. The Hedge Funds guys who make a Billion a year only pay 15% rate because their earnings are considered Capital Gains.
I think that the only favorable Capital Gains rate should be given to individuals who sell their personal residence and have less than 250K per year income for the last 5 years. This to protect seniors who are downsizing from a family home to a retirement home. Many middle class folks have a lot of their savings tied up in the family home. I’d also allow the middle class to sell a home and shield the profit if it is reinvested in another home. This helps with job changes to another area.
Make them use the 1040EZ – no itemized deductions, no loopholes. Maybe one loophole: if they sign a declaration that they will refuse all participation in the political process for eternity, they can stay at the corporate rate, which should be re-done to eliminate all the issues everyone has long known but refuse to address.
Your suggestion is a job-killer! You will put thousands of corporate tax attorneys and coporate accountants out on the streets!
(evil grin ) To paraphrase our Esteemed Speaker of the House – If we lose a few jobs in doing so, then so be it !
Mornin’, all! Just had to share my experience last night at a local restaurant!
Worked hard all day, and just couldn’t face cooking for myself, so headed down to a local restaurant when I heard their special was meat loaf. When I got there, there was the fellow who has taken care of my yard for 11 years, and on his way out, he mentioned he’d see me in April.
In the meantime, another man came in and sat at the table in front of me, asking who the guy was that I was talking to. After I explained, he then asked if there were any blacks in the the county I live in, and I replied that yes, there was a black community. He then said he had moved up here from southern AL to “get away from the blacks”. Somehow the subject of AK came up, and he said he had spent a short time in Fairbanks, and I, of course, added that I had lived in AK, and still had sons in FBKS. He then asked what I did up there, and I told him my husband had been an air traffic controller, whereupon the launched into a rant about all the mistakes ATC’s make. After ranting about another subject, which I forget, he brought up the subject of Sarah Palin.
Well, I’d had just about enough, made eye contact like I’ve never before, and said softly, in a polite manner – “Sir, don’t get me started on Sarah Palin”. He looked really surprised, and said “Well, I like her”. “That’s certainly your priviledge”, I said. Meanwhile the owner of the restaurant was snickering and trying not to laugh. After he left, the owner came and said to me that he was harmless, to which I replied that no, he wasn’t, not with all those prejudices. She agreed.
The moral of this story is that there is a real live stereotype of the voter that likes SP. And I just met one.
Good for you for replying that he wasn’t harmless.
((((Tigerwine))) i am so proud of you! you stood up to a bully and won the battle and the war! unfortunately Black people meet stereotypes like him every damned day. he didn’t move there to get away from Blacks. he moved there for the free lunch and free ride he gets in the form of those welfare checks he gets every year. he moved there so he can benefit from the tax monies that Black people pay into the federal treasury. perhaps he hasn’t noticed that there are Black people in Alaska. it has evidently escaped his notice that there are Black men and women serving on those military bases in Alaska: and since he is a dumbass he probably never heard of Matthew Henson nor noticed the presence of that great explorers’ descendants in the glorious colors of the Native peoples of his adopted State.
the lady who told you the he is harmless is an enabler. it is people like her, as pleasant as she may be, that make it possible for people like him feel comfortable there. he is harmful. his energy poisons the very air, the land and the sea. it is enablers like her that make people like the Heaths, the Millers; and the Prevos feel at home and empowered to think themselves lords of a land that is not theirs and never will be. this just is my humble tho passionate opinion.
{{{{{{{bubbles}}}}}}}}
xoxox hugs back.
Whoa bubbles – tell us what you really think!!
{{{{bubbles}}}}}
You know a lot about Alaska for not living here – !
If you want to see a great living example of Black/Native ancestry, artistry and culture – check out Pamyua, a local band. You will be encouraged.
Pamyua! now THAT’S what i am talkin’bout. mighty good. thank you Writing from Alaska. you have made me haz a happy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYjRwksZdWE&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8fqeKiKXoY&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYcuXpPLE8w
if sometimes i seem passionate about issues seemingly without cause or reasoning. it isn’t so. my people, all of them, have endured too much and for too long in this place. through blood ties and or bondage.
this a tiny slice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_txH0HJMIYU
if the subject interests you:
http://www.nativeamerican.co.uk/katz.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F10tP5HIpaA
This is for you, dear Bubbles. Joe Strummer was an Irish/English ponk, and I’m just an old irish punk, but I think we all understand Redemption Songs.
Terrific links, all of you! I’ll be busy all day-
You stay passionate bubbles, we can never get apathetic 🙂
Thanks Bubbles for saying it so well!
South Side Chicago
Go…bubbles..go…!!!! Well-friggin’-said..
Years ago I was showing some pictures of the kids from my school to my mother. She had spent most of her life in a white, primarily Irish/Italian Catholic neighborhood in NY and was living then in NH where there were very few people of color.
Her first comment to me was that most of the kids were black. I looked at the pictures and realized that she was more or less right, although we also have a lot of Hispanic kids as well. My next thought was that, although I had also grown up in that same very white neighborhood and there was only one black kid in my high school class, I had never noticed what color my students were until she pointed it out. I noticed the sweet ones, the annoying ones, the smart ones, the not-so-smart ones, the ones who make you tear out your hair, the ones who make you laugh and the ones who make you cry, but I had never noticed that most of them were substantially darker in complexion than I am.
I am sure that the man in the restaurant would have noticed that right away, and probably made some disparaging remark about it. How miserable it must be to go through life being that angry.
(I must admit that I DO get quite a kick out of some of my students’ fascination with my freckles since most of them don’t have any!)
How was the meat loaf?
Ha. 🙂
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for replying in that manner..! I cannot abide ‘people’ like that….
Gosh. That is an otherworldly landscape.
Sure is. Makes me feel like a floating, frozen droplet hanging in the air just checking out what infinity feels like. A beautiful image.
London Bridges@6
Thank you for the web site-Koch brothers
They are out to destroy America as we know it. It seems that the people in all states have no control over what they need or want when money is brought in to fight against their rights.
Nope… This is the amerikkka brought to you by Koch, by way of Russia & Texas (literally!)
AKM – I seem to remember another trip where you spilled coffee in your bag. Is that what gives your photos that special quality ?
Really beautiful photo. If it looked like that outside my window, I wouldn’t half mind the Buffalo cold.
On this morning’s 1/2 hr Chris Matthews show they were talking about why Chris Christie isn’t willing to toss his hat in the ring for 2012. Someone said she thought it was because he’s just simply not willing to pay the “Crazy Tax” that’s necessary to enter. She said anyone from the GOP that jumps in is going to have to deal with the birthers and will also have to coddle Palin and Bachmann and it’s just not worth it. (paraphrased )
She’s been officially lumped in with the crazies. Niiiice.
Perhaps there is a pre-primary “cleanup” underway.
AKM, you’ve hit the Washington Post.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/02/ex-aide-slams-palin-in-leaked.html
I was just about to post this…tee hee. This could actually be the best publicity money can’t buy.
Well you beat me with the HuffPo article on Friday. I was very miffed! 🙂
I forgot to say that that is one stunning photo.
Yes, our AKM is in the Washington Post, but I’m none too thrilled. They claim our mudflats is an anti-Palin website. It’s so much more than that. What a limited, and limiting, view of our gathering place. I feel like someone just pissed in my watering hole!
Once, again, it proves ‘journalists’ are falling down on the job. Seems they pick up a story and run with what is in *that* (picked-up) story, instead of verifying the information first.
Hell, if any one of the ‘copy and paste journalists’ had bothered to actually come to the ‘flats –even for a short visit– they’d know the characterization of it as an “anti-Palin web site” is incomplete and inaccurate; the ‘flats is much broader than that. It’s *not only* an anti-dumb-governance site, an anti-shenanigans-in-politics site, an anti-hypocrisy site, it’s a pro-democracy (in the traditonal sense, not the Palin/Teapublican sense), pro-environment, pro-use-your-intelligence, pro-participate-in-*your*-government, and oh, SO much more.
The ‘flats is an exposing site — it exposes the ugly… every bit of the exposing well-researched, well-documented, well-presented. It encourages discussion and differing points of view; it encourages sharing and intellectual honesty. And, as if that weren’t enough, it also exposes the beauty of the world for folks to immerse themselves in and enjoy … want proof? — just take a gander at any of the photos AKM snaps and shares.
Zounds, but lazy ‘journalists’ bug me! Taking another writer’s ‘word’ on something as gospel, and then passing that ‘word’ off *as if* it were verified and factual, is being lazy…pure and simple, lazy. Unfortunately, that laziness has repercussions immense: The easily de-bunked inaccuracies and bs are, instead, spread to an ever-widening audience, the innacuracies and bs are taken as truth by virtue of their repetition, and everyone continues to believe the false.
Accch; so much for a well-informed populace…a well-informed electorate. beth.
“…copy and paste journalists” sums up the LSM pretty well in my book. Shills, PR puppets and lazy also come to mind when I read what some of these so-called “journalists” consider writing.
Rubber stamping an AP moniker or descriptive is about as lazy as it gets.
I see The Mudflats as pro-Alaska and pro-information. I don’t like that anti-Palin moniker either. It is too narrow. And narrow narrative belongs to the right wingers, not to the rest of us who came here looking for more information that wasn’t controlled by SP.
I disagree withe the author that themudflats is “an anti-Palin” site. I like to think of more as a pro-Alaska site with a progressive attitude.
I agree with you all about the mischaracterization of the Mudflats blog.
Beth mentioned about lazy journalists and I just happened to spot this.
“Once a part of Palin’s inner circle, Bailey joined her campaign for governor in 2006 as a campaign worker. He soon became an administration official and a close confidant before losing his position after the “Troopergate” scandal in 2008.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/02/20/2011-02-20_palin_tellall_written_by_exaide_promises_revelations.html
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t believe that that is the case at all. It was my understanding that Bailey remained in the administration until 2009, until the Palin quit for more money.
chortle… my wife likes it when I go play golf for the same reason ! I should have a 2 handicap for all the encouragement she gives me !
Thank you, AKM, you have such a good eye! There’s no doubt that my awareness and appreciation of nature has inched upwards since my arrival on this blog. Instead of just seeing blue here, as I would in the past, I find myself looking for the boundaries and mentally labelling them (rightly or wrongly). In other words, I find myself giving more than a cursory glance. You might make a nature/art appreciater out of me yet. Hope you have a restful sleep!
Oh, how pretty! Thank you. Sleep well.
Here is a funny.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nangar16/5460052477/in/set-72157626094011402/
It is beautiful here today. Heading outside for some raking and stick pick-up, then booting Himself out of here to go play golf, so I can be a slob and sit on the deck and read the rest of the day away!
Good one! There’s hope for Wisconsin!
What a gorgeous image! I can’t tell whether it was relatively calm or windy, but the cold comes across quite clearly.
Wishing AKM and the other mudflatters a great day.
Thanks, and may you have a great Sunday yourself!
Good weather out there for running dogs! Here comes Iditarod. The dog yards are happy and noisy and quickening, knowing what is coming. We saw a pickup full of big brown bags marked for Takotna checkpoint at Merrill Field yesterday. Around town, teams are starting to arrive from the bush, getting set up for southcentral training runs in warmer winds and trails.
Polarbear- find some dogs and mushers and hug them for me. I am a survivor of diphtheria back in the mid 50’s and not alot of people knew the origins of Iditarod. I for one am grateful .
I will be helping one of Kotzebue teams at the starting line, a musher I have known for a long time. I have your note printed out on a small piece of paper, and will drop it in the bag with the cachets. The race starts in front of the statue of Balto, one of the great lead dogs from the 1925 serum run. Thanks for your rememberance of the serum run.
Twelve years ago, I had to take a test as part of the process for developing Educational Interpreter Certification in NY. Part of the test was a practical test, where we had to voice what a deaf child was signing. In the video was a small boy who was telling a story about something in Central Park. Now, I grew up on Long Island and the last thing I would expect in Central Park in the middle of Manhattan would be a statue that had anything to do with dog sledding in Alaska! Having had no children, I had never read any of the many storybooks about Balto, and my receptive skills were pretty weak back then anyway, so I was completely lost.
In the years since, I have learned all about the story, visited Alaska 4 times, gone dog sledding, seen the statue of Balto in Anchorage and visited the kennels of several Iditarod racers. My education is MUCH more complete now!
I also share a lot of what I’ve learned with my elementary school students who, growing up in a city in western NY, would be unlikely to hear about it any other place. I suspect that my kiddos know more about Alaska than any other kids in the city school district! 🙂
Thanks for sharing our state with ‘your kids’!! As we try to share our experiences and history of the lower 48 with our kids, it is nice to know there are others trying to share their’s of Alaska!
I hav AKM’S sunset picture on my computer and it made my daughter ask wher it was from ,now she wants to go up more than ever.
Leenie,
You may already know this, but the Iditarod has a huge program for using the race in classrooms — and every year Target sponsors a “Teacher on the Trail” who goes up and visits many of the checkpoints and works with teachers all around the country to do lesson plans, etc. (For more info, see http://iditarodblogs.com/teachers/)
Also, Trent Herbst will be running his 5th Iditarod this year — when he’s not mushing, he teaches fourth grade in Idaho and would be a great musher for you and your students to follow!
The Alaska-Dispatch has a lovely story about Seppals’ dogs (Balto) WITH photos.. you’ve probably already seen it.. Although I’m 62, I must be going backward in time..I think I’m the same age as your students..!
Alex-
I teach sign language so I don’t have much opportunity to do activities like that with the kids since I only see each class 30 minutes a week. I do, however, teach a lesson on Alaska each year and give them a lot of information about the state along with showing them some pictures and maps (and the corresponding signs, of course!).
My sister used to teach 3rd and 1st grades and, years ago, she did a major project every year on the Iditarod with her class. She would have each student pick a musher and follow them, checking their progress online. It was a great way to integrate all different subjects (reading, writing, math, geography, history, biology…) into their lessons without them even realizing it! She did such a good job with it that several other schools in her district copied her project in their own buildings.
Unfortunately, she had to give up doing the project when state testing was rolled out because the teachers were put under so much pressure to complete very specific curriculums that they didn’t have time to do anything special. Such a shame that our students are missing out on such enjoyable and worthwhile types of activities so that the teachers can ‘teach to the test’ like they’re told to do. 🙁
I remember reading about that but don’t remember where. I am reading a book by an Alaskan author and because of the flats I know where a lot of the places mentioned are some are very small native villages that I have only heard of here.
Mike, you might like to read “The Cruelest Miles” by Gay and Laney Salisbury. It’s a history of the original serum run, and it’s very well done, with lots of background on what life was like in Nome at the time, and why the medical situation was so critical, as well as a lot of information on the people and dogs who carried the serum.
Thank you to everyone and I will make it to the library ASAP to find and read this book. My only real remembrance of Diphtheria is the emergency tracheotomy scar on my throat and there was one small newspaper article from back when. I have misplaced it.
I’ve got an app on my iPhone that is the story of the 3 dogs: Balto and Fritz and Togo..since my brain is not so hot, all I have to do is touch it , and the story springs to life!….with a beautiful photo…I wish I knew how to display the link.. It’s from the Alaska Dispatch.. I felt like a kid when I first found it!
Polarbear, we’ll be attending all the starting festivities plus going out to Nome for the finish. I’ll be posting some photos at my website when we get back. Watch for them mid-April or so. http://www.northernvisions.smugmug.com . We love the Iditarod. 🙂
Beautiful image and I would love to see your mountains in moonlight(if anybody is paying attention). Read yesreday where there are places in the Gulf of Mexico that are covered with oil(seafloor) and for all practical intents and purposes-dead zones with no aquatic life. The oil isn’t being disolved by bacteria. BP probably doesn’t want you to know this.
Many years ago I worked nights – came home in the middle of the night & checked on my horse – she was staring at the mountains in the frosty cold with the stars and the moonlight.
It’s an intense picture in my mind – sorry I can’t send it to you, LOL.
I read about BP saying the bacteria had consumed all the methane – more likely most of it evaporated. I’m sorry the mousse oil has covered the seafloor… it will probably be better than 20 years before sedimentation covers it to allow species repopulation.
Your horse, groovin’ in the beautiful light… One of our dogs loves the moonlight… she likes to lay in bed between us and look at our faces in the moonlight…she likes to stare a lot…it’s too funny…she’s a creepy little girl. I’ll sense something in the night and it’ll just be Evie, staring at me in the dark.
It was only a matter of time: news of Bailey’s book spreads outside the US:
http://politico-junkie.blogspot.com/2011/02/canada-ex-palin-aide-plans-tell-all.html
Could be an international best seller!
Beautiful. If I had a large image of that photo, I could stare at it while daydreaming all day. Maybe it’s best that I don’t.
Here’s a very thoughtful read about the floundering GOP for all pups to get their day going:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20rich.html?_r=1&hp
The Koch Zombies were main funders for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker election.
http://tinyurl.com/4nwsl39
A must read to understand what is going on in politics and what was once democracy.
Yes and I am saving as much as I can for the 2012 election cycle to show how the GOP lies and what they are trying to do This was something I saved from an article Red States Feed at Federal Trough, Blue States Supply the Feed!
1. Red State North Dakota Pays $1.00 gets $2.03
2.Red State Mississippi Pays $1.00 gets $1.84
3.Red State Alaska Pays $1.00 gets $1.82
4.Red State West Virginia Pays $1.00 gets $1.74
5.Red State Montana Pays $1.00 gets $1.64
6.Red State Alabama Pays $1.00 gets $1.61
7.Red State South Dakota Pays $1.00 gets $1.59
8.Red State Arkansas Pays $1.00 gets $1.53
Get ready to add Wisconsin to the above list!
1.Blue State New Jersey Pays $1.00 gets $0.62
2.Blue State Connecticut Pays $1.00 gets $0.64
3.Blue State Illinois Pays $1.00 gets $0.77
4.Blue State Minnesota Pays $1.00 gets $0.77
5.Blue State Massachusetts Pays $1.00 gets $0.79
6.Blue State California Pays $1.00 gets $0.81
7.Blue State New York Pays $1.00 gets $0.81
The FACT is, Republiturds are FREELOADERS!!!
Okay, can you document WHERE you got this information? Let us know how to substantiate these claims. Just because it sounds right, I want to know it’s correct.
GOOGLE IT. I got lots of hits about this article. The title is in the comment.
thanks
I’m more than a little grossed-out, by the Koch grifters…the lazy bums! Have you noticed a tendency…the more money people have, the more wealth they accumulate: the stingier and tighter they are…! Misers..
What Grid???
…I think that’s the metal grid you put salmon and steaks on when you grill outside… puts those nice sear marks on the meat as you savor the smells and drive the dogs in the neighbor crazy….
This is a beautiful shot, AKM. I know how great it can be to get off the grid. We went to visit my daughter and her family in Costa Rica last month, and I didn’t log on to a computer, turn on a TV or read a newspaper for 10 solid days. It was absolute heaven.
Take care of yourself.
Hope you are having a restful night, AKM.
Agreed! Makes me want to slap some paint around a canvas. . . !!
Beautiful colors!
Did I get that right??? Unsuitable for WTF….?????