Open Thread – Laughing Liberally
The Alaska crew is finally home from Netroots Nation 2011 in Minneapolis. A great time was had by all, but it was an exceptionally busy week for me and I will be catching you up on all of that as I have time to get it down on “paper.”
The first night in Minneapolis we got a great treat. The Minneapolis chapter of “Drinking Liberally” met in a local watering hole with very special and amazing guests Thom Hartmann and Lizz Winstead. It was great to see both of them again, and they certainly had a very appreciative and warmly receptive audience.
~Thom Hartmann
~Lizz Winstead
I also got to meet the awesome Mayor of Minneapolis R.T. Rybak. After speaking with him, I told him right there that I wanted to take him home and make him my mayor. But alas, he feels some sort of “sense of responsibility” to the people that elected him. (Sigh…)
~Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak
Insurance Comoanies are frightening all the same- gotta pay in by law, but when it’s time to pay out, they delay and delay, hoping you will give up and not bother them anymore… Stay TOUGH !! and document EVERY conversation with them. date, time, name of individual… Sounds like Himself has the right idea… ( but a bit of “forceful sterness” sometimes works too !) Bon Chance !
Update. I posted on the Clouds thread about the fawns (9). And, things have pretty much gone downhill from there.
Insurance agent came, and was not particularly helpful. Told us we needed to write a letter to our neighbors, certified mail, that their one tree left needed to come down. If not, and the tree crushed our house before they could get it removed, we’d have to pay our 1K deductible.
Excuse me? Threaten our neighbors? We think not. We’d rather eat sand. These people are faced with at the very least 20K out of pocket clean up, and we are looking at the very least 25K. Insurance doesn’t cover act of God if the tree falls on your property. I explained that my God would never do such a thing, and this should be Act of Nature, but you can guess how far that went.
The assessor will be here this week. We are hoping s/he will at least be semi-human. It’s a toss-up. No bets. Engineer’s report due tomorrow on our back room. He came, he took photos, and hauled himself out from under double quick. I am taking that as a not so good sign. We have to get three reports. Sheesh. I sure hope the danged room hangs in there (literally) while we wait.
You know, this really bites. We’ve paid homeowners insurance for very close to 40 years with the same company. Never had a claim. It looks like a war zone. There are 12 foot high piles of trees. And, we get crap. Sorry. My good friend is an arborist, and is helping us as much as she can. I will only use her company, and that at least is okay with the agent. Himself is rallying his forces, and we may just get all pissy about it, although Himself would rather we use “firm” to describe our course of action. God love him. The mogol part of him is coming to deal with this. We are supposed to have severe storms starting in the early morning again. Please send good thoughts, because enough is enough.
Still haven’t seen the young hawk, but maybe he has been sighted at the High School. I hope so.
Jimzmum, I sympathize with you so very much. It takes me back to 2009 when we lost our home here on the Yukon. Here you are, with an indescribable mess, and the only thing anyone cares about is paperwork and money. Believe me, I know. Good grief, all you want to do is get your home back!
I hope you have taken lots of photos — and make sure the correct date & time are on them. You never know when they could come in handy …
Bless you.
On the farm a number of years ago,we had a severe hail storm that did wonders for the shake roof on the corncrib. Landlord had insurance on all buildings for years and filed claim for hail damage. Adjuster came right out and told him the roof was troo old to have been insured,even though he was billed every year for it. Insurance adjusters are quite like politicians in that you can’t believe a word they tell you today because by tonight the story is gonna be different. We had some trees blown down in Sutherland,Iowa last night. Supposed to have been tornado in the area. I didn’t see it or hear it. Got nearly three more inches of rain since yesterday that we don’t want or need. Hope you get by and everything works out for the best.
Thank you. Himself is in full Corporate Mogol mood and is doing a splendid job. We have a tidy file, a mound of stunning (if I do say so myself) photography, and the realization that not one scrap is going to do one bit of good. But, Himself loves a challenge, so onward and upward we go! Course, if the back of the house falls off, it will be offward and downward…
Don’t know if this is any help, but what the heck …
Does your state have an Insurance Commission that reviews individual insurance cases or companies? You might be able to file a complaint or make some inquiries. In the interest of being prepared, might be something to check into – ?
Oh, most assuredly that number is at the top of the contact page.
Andrew Breitbart was on Hannity tonight with a video of himself at Netroots. I wonder how badly it was edited in his favor?
When I see the name Thom Hartmann, I always have to pause and remind myself that it’s a different person than the one I listened to for years on Long Island.
Msgr. Tom Hartman is one half of the ‘God Squad’, which is comprised of Father Tom and Rabbi Marc Gellman. They had a program on cable as well as a radio show and appeared many times on local and national shows like GMA. Always willing to take on any topic, they even discussed politics and religion, and both had quite a good sense of humor. It was rather refreshing to hear two people of different faiths discuss often difficult topics with tremendous respect for each other. Although I am SO not religious, I enjoyed listening to them because they were both very intelligent and extremely knowledgeable about the world beyond the walls of their respective houses of worship.
I guess there’s something in that name (regardless of the spelling) that makes them get up and get active!
For those who’ve been watching the flap about the NBC dive into patriotism that left “under G_d” out of the “patriotic” montage, I just sent the following to Brian and Nightly News…he addressed the “under G_d” issue on the 6:30 EDT airing, but, obviously, blew it…
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In the interest of full disclosure, you might want to point out NBC left out *more* than “under G_d” in their montage. They *also* left out: indivisible. That word, too, is an integral and vital part of our Pledge. To whit:
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under G_d, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” http://www.usconstitution.net/pledge.html
I have every confidence you, Mr. Williams, and Mike Taibbi and NBC, will make note of the additional omission on your online and on-air accounting of the event; to do any less would be perpetuating the ignorance of those who are up in arms over two words being left out, but are *clueless* that there is a *third* word, too, left out.
It’s one thing for all those folks to be indignant about the snafu; another thing, entirely, for them to be so ‘blissfully’ ignorant about the very thing they are indignant over. Please help educate them!
Thank you.
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Oh, and by the way, $P found the NBC omission of “under G_d” so egregous she even re-tweeted amandacarpenter’s link to a ‘news’ report about it. Of course, with $P being the nation’s foremost authority on all things patriotic and all things Americana [/snark], it rather surprised me that she didn’t notice the dropping of “indivisible” from the montage…but then, upon second thought, upon my reflection about how her leanings towards State’s Rights, go, I see she held true to her divisive form in all of its ignorant, ignorant, ignorant glory. beth.
R.T. Rybak is a fantastic mayor and a great guy. He shows up for EVERYTHING and takes time to talk personally for as long as takes. And he truly listens. He turned up at my husband’s barber shop one Saturday. Seems he gets his hair cut at many shops so he can meet and talk to more folks about what concerns them. He’s informed, engaged, smart, and concerned. I can’t say enough good about him so I’ll just leave it at that.
Thanks for coming to visit our little group. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to say ‘hi’. I am glad that you had a good time, and no we don’t want to give up R. T. or Nick Coleman’s little brother the mayor of St. Paul.
For anyone who has missed this precious video (posted on IM), it’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face. President Obama encounters a VERY unhappy baby…and works his magic (much to the chagrin of the First Lady!). Just adorable!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WPtEGOp5rI&feature=player_embedded
Check out the look on Mrs. O’s face! 🙂
Loved it.
Keith Olbie tonight for your viewing pleasure. Current T V,channel 196 on Dish Network,8/7P.M. Central time.
Anchorage has its own Drinking Liberally chapter (which is just getting off the ground again after a change of organizers.)
Our monthly meeting is tomorrow, at Reilly’s (corner of C and Fireweed) at 7:30. Mention this comment, and I’ll buy you a drink.
Hope to see you there!
What? You’re not meeting at McGinley’s??
I was trying to avoid downtown when picking a location, and to go for something a bit more toward the middle of town. But I do love McGinley’s.
a little late, but that would certainly bother Mr. Sullivan.
This is an excellent column that attempts to debunk the myths about the media and Sarah Palin:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/05/is-the-press-fair-to-palin/239686/
Who votes; or, why Anchorage Baptist Temple controls Republican Alaska:
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2011/06/20/enthusiasm/
I will look forward to your writings on the goingz on. Glad your home.
“A sense of responsibility to the people who elected you;” How novel!
“Bachmann, House Republicans spent taxpayer dollars to hold political rally about cutting spending”
“Bachmann and her Republican colleagues spent $13,000 on the rally, and in order to skirt rules against using public funds for political activities, they lied about the format of the event.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/20/986954/-Bachmann,-House-Republicans-spent-taxpayer-dollars-to-hold-political-rally-about-cutting-spending?via=blog_1
Fiscal conservatives, my bee-hind!
Say it ain’t so…Palin’s and Beck’s fav founding father, George Washington wrote a letter that shows his religious tolerance. Poor Bachmann, Perry and all the other loons in the GOP who insist that the founding fathers designed the country to be a Christian nation:
http://politico-junkie.blogspot.com/2011/06/israel-george-washingtons-letter-in.html
The Hebrew Congregation in Newport RI still exists. Lovely colonial building in a town famous for the “cottages” of the plutocrats.
I missed this editorial yesterday and it is well worth the read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/magazine/sarah-palins-tom-and-jerry-problem.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=bill%20keller&st=cse
Only 21% of Americans have a favorable impression of Palin. That is not because people aren’t favorably impressed with her,it is because of the lamestream media telling lies and untruths about Palin’s record. As for Raygun,I think he was a lot more senile than given credit for.
“Only” 21% = one in five. Yikes.
That was brilliant! Thanks for sharing.
Here is a story to make you bust a gut laughing.. According to AP on Yahoo News, the Nukular Regulatory Commission is relaxing safety rules and regs in order to keep nukular reactors in compliance. Even when water leaks are found,the regs are relaxed to allow even larger leaks and maintain compliance. Apparently the regulators are in bed with operators(seen this before) and have a too cozy relationship,all the while claiming initial regs were too strict and there is no danger. Paul Revere better be ringing those bells and shooting those guns to warn the British that nukular armegeddon is a-coming. Enjoy your day. Welcome home to all Mudpups.
Well, we all know what happens when government regulations of energy facilities are relaxed or ignored…Gulf Coast oil spill anyone? Does the name ‘Fukishima’ ring any bells?
Sigh…
I’m so glad you were able to meet R. T. He is the bet mayor ever, anywhere!
Yeah, happy you’re home safe & sound. Get some rest and then we can hear the stories. Kiss Buf for me, will ya?
I’m looking forward to all your stories in the coming days. Glad you made it home safe and sound.