OK, who won their bet that Friedman would be the Wanker of the Decade?
“The state of the world is what it is in large part because people in positions of great power think this absurd buffoon of man is a Very Serious Person.”
Dick Chenney’s heart must be working. He is already out blasting President obama.
So—–instead of thanking God for an extention of his life, he chooses to be his own hateful self.
Another breath of fresh air! Palin has been in the news a lot as of late but little has to do with her antics or stunts or even her (failed) Fox “Paying at the Pump” special (which received little media attention since the show didn’t fair well in ratings). She is, however, in the news as the anti-VP-choice which clouds over the Romney selection process. This is but one of many articles (even many on conservative blogs) that talks about how Romney will avoid making a Palin mistake in selecting his VP running mate:
I realise that in the Anch Muni nowadays voting can seem worthless, but hopefully this latest kerfuffle will help clean things up. Fingers crossed for ya.
Slipstream is a plump and lucsious cherry on the sundae of Raitt;s recording career. You made quite an impression on Ms Raitt. I didna think you had the time.
too funny, called “The Partisans – Birth Control Hearings (Redux) , do NOT have anything in your mouth while watching this, you will spew for sure. Just a warning. =)
Hate to sound like a squeaky hinge but has every Anchorage person reading this thread sent an email to their assemblyperson today, demanding an independent investigation of that clown show they called an election? If not, take a couple minutes right now and do it. Its easy, just go to the Anchorage Assembly website, member profile and there is your representative’s email. http://www.muni.org/Departments/Assembly/Pages/MemberProfiles.aspx
It’ll only do it if you make it happen.
Just wanted to chip in with positive news. Despite all the tornado watches, we and dozens of others attended a local Democratic caucus on Saturday.
Attendees represented a variety of ages and economic levels.
One hundred percent of the attendees caucused for President Obama!
That so many would turn out with ominous skies hovering over us is such a positive sign in red Kansas. Some were former Republicans, fed up with the current crop of GOP politicians and candidates.
All of us were angry about conservatives taking away the rights of women and the poor. Everyone wanted more money to flow to education and social issues. A truly inspiring start to the Spring political season.
That poor bird,another in the long line of uneducated peons of dumbass dubya’s every child left in the dark non-educational policies. If only retardicans would have allowed youngsters to learn sensible stuff like basic reading skills and accurate history,this feathered miscreant would know enough to not openly flaunt his/her lack of cognitive skills. His/her life is in mortal danger as is the life of his perch when rwnj vigilantes with their concealed carry weapons happen upon hippie-like scofflaws and hose them down to save the republic. Aww, Birdie,we hardly knew ye.
I lied. Hadn’t gotten to GinandTacos yet, wherein C U N D Gulag’s comment made me smile:
“I read an article over 25 years ago, right after NY State was starting its lottery, that before state governments took over the lottery rackets, the Irish, Black, and Italian mobs, ran them, and had much better odds, more people winning, and a better distribution of winnings.
I say, if we have to have lotteries, take them back from the state governments, and hand them back to the mobsters!
Based on recent evidence, who would you trust more, – a politician, or a mobster? One is a well-dressed, sociopathic, soulless, money and power-mad cretin who’ll do anything to attain what he/she wants, and the other is just a mobster.”
I vote for the mobster- you know what you’re getting. A politician often pretends to have your best interests at heart, but stabs you in the back when you’re not looking.
I taught in North Kanasa City years ago; the area was populated with families who worked in the meeting packing companies, and with Mafia families. Both valued education and teachers- any student who got in trouble was punished twice as much at home.
I do remember when the NYS lottery first started, my father used to get tickets all the time and we often won. It was usually just a few hundred dollars, but the frequency of the wins made it very exciting. I think the biggest pot we ever won was 2 or 3 thousand dollars, but what a thrill that was!
I also remember him telling me one night to go upstairs and “get the winning ticket” from the corner of the mirror in my parent’s bedroom, where it was always kept. I had looked at the numbers in the newspaper before I went upstairs and came back down grinning. “Okay, here’s the winning ticket!”, I proudly told him. And it was! I think we won $500 on that one but I was about 12 years old and felt like a million bucks handing it to him!
The biggest fallacy about most state lotteries is that the money goes to education. I know NY used that enticement to encourage people to support allowing our state to offer it. What they DON’T tell you is that the money is not EXTRA money going to education like they imply, but they reallocate the equal amount of money from the state budget and use it somewhere else. The state gets a whole lot of extra money but education gets the same amount, just from a different source!
OK, last one as I finish my tea and blog trolling, this time from Sarah Jones, who has homed in with laser precision on the heart of the “Moms work” issue:
“But first, my question to Republicans is, ‘Would you value a man or a poor woman who stayed home to take care of their children?’ …
The job of staying at home to parent itself is not valued; but rather, the notion of the good, docile, submissive wife as mom is valued so much that it is put on a pedestal. However, the actual job of parenting is not valued because it does not generate income, and making money is the core value of the Patriarchal Republican system.”
My guess is they value neither; Romney announced he wants all women o Medicare with children over 2 years old to be required to go to work. He did say he’d increase child care- but no ideas on creating jobs, let alone ways to get to them.
Yeah, I guess Ann Romney will never know the “dignity” of work.
All her activity as a political wife cannot be considered work as she does not receive a paycheck. Neither would volunteer work in charities (does she do that at all?).
Even if the government ever granted status for Social Security to stay-at-home moms, Mrs. Romney might be hard-pressed to prove her worth because she has cooks and maids. I do not know if she ever had nannies for her kids, but really, that leaves the only real “work” as sleeping with Mitt. That I might consider as real work, given his inability to empathize or relate to other people.
Atrios came up with one of those paragraphs that’s diamantine in its clarity of view of the past decade [he’s been doing a series on the Wankers of the Decade, don’t miss it].
Eschaton seems to be swamped at the moment, possibly because Krugman liked it, too.
“a time when this country stopped even bothering to pretend to live up to many of its supposed ideals. We go to war and kill lots of people for no good reason, elites have eliminated any accountability for themselves for criminal wrongdoing, we’ve tortured and assassinated people, and the response to massive economic suffering and related criminal fraud has been to give lots of free money to the people who caused it all.”
Civil Disobedience is a tried and true way to force change on crooked sections of our society. It worked really well during the Civil Rights Movement. We had oppressed people by the thousands who had nothing to lose because society took away their human dignity. That’s worth standing up for – human dignity. That and the guarenteed right for everyone to have a place at the table especially if the issue has a direct effect on their pursuit of happiness.
Yesterday, I looked out my front door and discovered my best bird feeder and favorite humming bird feeder had been stolen. They were hanging on a double shepherd’s hook and were the only feeders not tied to something with string or wire. Now I need to go searching for their replacements. Looks like I’ll have to find a way to keep them attached. Maybe even keep them closer to the house.
Can someone tell me what party the person (Michelle Scannell) on the right border is? It always bothers me when they don’t list their party affiliation so you can at least get an idea where they are coming from.
Personally, I think it is time we got past the party affiliations, because they are often misleading.
As a good mudflatter, I’m sure you do your research before voting, but too many people just make assumptions about a candidate based on the letter after their names.
We should be taking a good look at each candidate’s history and where they stand on the issues (not just what they say about themselves, but what their record shows). Too many people won’t give a good person of a different political affiliation the time of day, and in doing so, may end up voting for a candidate who is actually less in alignment with their views and values. Awful candidates have been voted in (by both parties) because people voted only for the party, not the candidate.
i love my bumper sticker, which i bought from zendik.org
it reads “stop bitching start a revolution”
i work where people can come in and grouse about what the media told them to be upset about today, and i tend to point to my bumper sticker and ask them what they’re going to do about the issue they’re complaining about. will they work to change what makes them angry? hmmm….
Paul Krugman talks about income inequality in the US (not redistribution of wealth but the 1% vs 99%) and the historical significance of its adverse affects on the economy:
…to everything there is a season…
It’s Test Season in Florida; how ironic is is that the school library is closed for testing during School Library Month?
“You Belong @ Your Library.”
Off to administer more tests.
Sometime this week we’ll reclaim the library
as a library rather than a testing center,
and restore some poetry to Poetry Month while we’re at it, also, too.
Will I keep the Civil in Civil Disobedience?
Signs point to…
In honor of library month, I am re-reading The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan. It’s on a ban list for school libraries some where. Can’t remember where and can’t figure out yet why it’s banned.
We start our testing tomorrow and our library is closed as well. Three days of testing this week and three more next week.
However, you’ll be happy to know that I teamed up with our school librarian (who’s only in our building 2 days a week) for Poetry Month. Every day she sends me a Poem of the Day which I print out in an appropriately fancy font, mount on appropriately colored construction paper and post on the realllly long bulletin board across from our cafeteria.
I don’t know if any of the kids are reading them, but they are a colorful and literary display for the month and maybe make up a little for the library being closed for several days! 🙂
Well, since it’s an open thread,,, seriously worth watching:
My favorite soft-spoken commentator Thom Thurman gives an exceptional walk down history. Probably one of the best he’s ever done IMO (& other people felt the same). I’m just stunned and amazed at his video/arguments linking what’s going on these days with Mussolini’s actions in WW2:
OK, who won their bet that Friedman would be the Wanker of the Decade?
“The state of the world is what it is in large part because people in positions of great power think this absurd buffoon of man is a Very Serious Person.”
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2012/04/one-true-wanker-of-decade.html
Dick Chenney’s heart must be working. He is already out blasting President obama.
So—–instead of thanking God for an extention of his life, he chooses to be his own hateful self.
Cheney really is a horrid, ugly man.
Ralph Waldo Emmerson to Henry David Thoreau: Henry what are you doing behind those bars.
HDT to RWE: Ralph what are YOU doing out there?
That is civil disobedience in a nutshell.
“That is civil disobedience in a nutshell.”
it is. i believe in being civil and disobedient. sort of like being passive and aggressive.
Great photo, AKM. You Anchorage residents know that Brian and his ilk have been wandering all over your fair city:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/loose-moose-roam-alaskan-city.html
I so needed to see that bird on that sign.
When I saw the title of this blog on another site, I immediately felt excited. And well I was to be. Great photo.
Another breath of fresh air! Palin has been in the news a lot as of late but little has to do with her antics or stunts or even her (failed) Fox “Paying at the Pump” special (which received little media attention since the show didn’t fair well in ratings). She is, however, in the news as the anti-VP-choice which clouds over the Romney selection process. This is but one of many articles (even many on conservative blogs) that talks about how Romney will avoid making a Palin mistake in selecting his VP running mate:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitehouse/dont-expect-a-shock-romney-running-mate-search-guided-by-his-methodical-style-palin-lessons/2012/04/16/gIQAZUMEMT_story.html
Concerned about the recent election? You can contact the Anchorage Assembly Members here http://www.muni.org/Departments/Assembly/Pages/contactinfo.aspx
I requested they watch this 15 minute video on the equipment and software, and get the information from the files mentioned. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7262269533321066760
If you watch it, you’ll also want to know what’s in those files. See for yourself.
It seems that US women aren’t as gullible as the GOoPers think they are! http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/16/1083852/-Ann-Romney-s-counter-attack-fails
Vote ladies (and gents)!
I realise that in the Anch Muni nowadays voting can seem worthless, but hopefully this latest kerfuffle will help clean things up. Fingers crossed for ya.
Hey, look at that. Bonnie Raitt named her new album after me.
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/10/150071808/bonnie-raitts-slipstream-a-barnstorming-good-time
It’s nice to know that even after all these years she still thinks of me now and then.
Have you ever seen a barn?
Slipstream is a plump and lucsious cherry on the sundae of Raitt;s recording career. You made quite an impression on Ms Raitt. I didna think you had the time.
No surprise to us mudpups that you left an indelible mark on her, way back when! 😉
awww Slip we all think of you kindly…….now and again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDlZZ5Y32LU&feature=player_embedded
too funny, called “The Partisans – Birth Control Hearings (Redux) , do NOT have anything in your mouth while watching this, you will spew for sure. Just a warning. =)
Hate to sound like a squeaky hinge but has every Anchorage person reading this thread sent an email to their assemblyperson today, demanding an independent investigation of that clown show they called an election? If not, take a couple minutes right now and do it. Its easy, just go to the Anchorage Assembly website, member profile and there is your representative’s email. http://www.muni.org/Departments/Assembly/Pages/MemberProfiles.aspx
It’ll only do it if you make it happen.
Yes I’ve mailed a letter, sent 2 emails and will be attending the assembly mtg tomorrow.
Just wanted to chip in with positive news. Despite all the tornado watches, we and dozens of others attended a local Democratic caucus on Saturday.
Attendees represented a variety of ages and economic levels.
One hundred percent of the attendees caucused for President Obama!
That so many would turn out with ominous skies hovering over us is such a positive sign in red Kansas. Some were former Republicans, fed up with the current crop of GOP politicians and candidates.
All of us were angry about conservatives taking away the rights of women and the poor. Everyone wanted more money to flow to education and social issues. A truly inspiring start to the Spring political season.
kudos
Great news! And very encouraging – we have to keep at it until we turn out the vote in November!
Yayyy for you and the enlightened people of Kansas!
And please be careful and stay safe with the meteorological nastiness twirling and swirling through the midwest these days.
excellent! great news.
That poor bird,another in the long line of uneducated peons of dumbass dubya’s every child left in the dark non-educational policies. If only retardicans would have allowed youngsters to learn sensible stuff like basic reading skills and accurate history,this feathered miscreant would know enough to not openly flaunt his/her lack of cognitive skills. His/her life is in mortal danger as is the life of his perch when rwnj vigilantes with their concealed carry weapons happen upon hippie-like scofflaws and hose them down to save the republic. Aww, Birdie,we hardly knew ye.
I lied. Hadn’t gotten to GinandTacos yet, wherein C U N D Gulag’s comment made me smile:
“I read an article over 25 years ago, right after NY State was starting its lottery, that before state governments took over the lottery rackets, the Irish, Black, and Italian mobs, ran them, and had much better odds, more people winning, and a better distribution of winnings.
I say, if we have to have lotteries, take them back from the state governments, and hand them back to the mobsters!
Based on recent evidence, who would you trust more, – a politician, or a mobster? One is a well-dressed, sociopathic, soulless, money and power-mad cretin who’ll do anything to attain what he/she wants, and the other is just a mobster.”
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2012/04/16/when-income-redistribution-is-ok-the-lottery-part-1/
I vote for the mobster- you know what you’re getting. A politician often pretends to have your best interests at heart, but stabs you in the back when you’re not looking.
I taught in North Kanasa City years ago; the area was populated with families who worked in the meeting packing companies, and with Mafia families. Both valued education and teachers- any student who got in trouble was punished twice as much at home.
Great place to work…
I do remember when the NYS lottery first started, my father used to get tickets all the time and we often won. It was usually just a few hundred dollars, but the frequency of the wins made it very exciting. I think the biggest pot we ever won was 2 or 3 thousand dollars, but what a thrill that was!
I also remember him telling me one night to go upstairs and “get the winning ticket” from the corner of the mirror in my parent’s bedroom, where it was always kept. I had looked at the numbers in the newspaper before I went upstairs and came back down grinning. “Okay, here’s the winning ticket!”, I proudly told him. And it was! I think we won $500 on that one but I was about 12 years old and felt like a million bucks handing it to him!
The biggest fallacy about most state lotteries is that the money goes to education. I know NY used that enticement to encourage people to support allowing our state to offer it. What they DON’T tell you is that the money is not EXTRA money going to education like they imply, but they reallocate the equal amount of money from the state budget and use it somewhere else. The state gets a whole lot of extra money but education gets the same amount, just from a different source!
OK, last one as I finish my tea and blog trolling, this time from Sarah Jones, who has homed in with laser precision on the heart of the “Moms work” issue:
“But first, my question to Republicans is, ‘Would you value a man or a poor woman who stayed home to take care of their children?’ …
The job of staying at home to parent itself is not valued; but rather, the notion of the good, docile, submissive wife as mom is valued so much that it is put on a pedestal. However, the actual job of parenting is not valued because it does not generate income, and making money is the core value of the Patriarchal Republican system.”
http://www.politicususa.com/mitt-romney-mom-poor-women/
My guess is they value neither; Romney announced he wants all women o Medicare with children over 2 years old to be required to go to work. He did say he’d increase child care- but no ideas on creating jobs, let alone ways to get to them.
Such a caring man… 🙁
Yeah, I guess Ann Romney will never know the “dignity” of work.
All her activity as a political wife cannot be considered work as she does not receive a paycheck. Neither would volunteer work in charities (does she do that at all?).
Even if the government ever granted status for Social Security to stay-at-home moms, Mrs. Romney might be hard-pressed to prove her worth because she has cooks and maids. I do not know if she ever had nannies for her kids, but really, that leaves the only real “work” as sleeping with Mitt. That I might consider as real work, given his inability to empathize or relate to other people.
My favorite question ever:
If being a mom is such a noble calling, why does it change when the word ‘single’ or ‘welfare’ is placed in front of it?
Atrios came up with one of those paragraphs that’s diamantine in its clarity of view of the past decade [he’s been doing a series on the Wankers of the Decade, don’t miss it].
Eschaton seems to be swamped at the moment, possibly because Krugman liked it, too.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/the-horror-the-horror/
“a time when this country stopped even bothering to pretend to live up to many of its supposed ideals. We go to war and kill lots of people for no good reason, elites have eliminated any accountability for themselves for criminal wrongdoing, we’ve tortured and assassinated people, and the response to massive economic suffering and related criminal fraud has been to give lots of free money to the people who caused it all.”
Civil Disobedience is a tried and true way to force change on crooked sections of our society. It worked really well during the Civil Rights Movement. We had oppressed people by the thousands who had nothing to lose because society took away their human dignity. That’s worth standing up for – human dignity. That and the guarenteed right for everyone to have a place at the table especially if the issue has a direct effect on their pursuit of happiness.
Yesterday, I looked out my front door and discovered my best bird feeder and favorite humming bird feeder had been stolen. They were hanging on a double shepherd’s hook and were the only feeders not tied to something with string or wire. Now I need to go searching for their replacements. Looks like I’ll have to find a way to keep them attached. Maybe even keep them closer to the house.
Can someone tell me what party the person (Michelle Scannell) on the right border is? It always bothers me when they don’t list their party affiliation so you can at least get an idea where they are coming from.
http://www.facebook.com/votescannell/info
What? “Working hard for things that matter.” Isn’t that specific enough for you?
Sometimes you wonder what are the things that matter to these politicians who won’t align themselves. What are they afraid of specifying?
Personally, I think it is time we got past the party affiliations, because they are often misleading.
As a good mudflatter, I’m sure you do your research before voting, but too many people just make assumptions about a candidate based on the letter after their names.
We should be taking a good look at each candidate’s history and where they stand on the issues (not just what they say about themselves, but what their record shows). Too many people won’t give a good person of a different political affiliation the time of day, and in doing so, may end up voting for a candidate who is actually less in alignment with their views and values. Awful candidates have been voted in (by both parties) because people voted only for the party, not the candidate.
i love my bumper sticker, which i bought from zendik.org
it reads “stop bitching start a revolution”
i work where people can come in and grouse about what the media told them to be upset about today, and i tend to point to my bumper sticker and ask them what they’re going to do about the issue they’re complaining about. will they work to change what makes them angry? hmmm….
Paul Krugman talks about income inequality in the US (not redistribution of wealth but the 1% vs 99%) and the historical significance of its adverse affects on the economy:
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/15/economy_killers_inequality_and_gop_ignorance/
It’s a long piece but a very good read–one worthy of being passed on.
Thanks. Nice to get a long piece to chew on once in a while…
White Bird-It’s a Beautiful Day (1968)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cin0QzuEss
…to everything there is a season…
It’s Test Season in Florida; how ironic is is that the school library is closed for testing during School Library Month?
“You Belong @ Your Library.”
Off to administer more tests.
Sometime this week we’ll reclaim the library
as a library rather than a testing center,
and restore some poetry to Poetry Month while we’re at it, also, too.
Will I keep the Civil in Civil Disobedience?
Signs point to…
In honor of library month, I am re-reading The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan. It’s on a ban list for school libraries some where. Can’t remember where and can’t figure out yet why it’s banned.
How are you doing TCW? Feeling better yet?
Great book! Several of my students chose to read it, while doing an author study on Amy Tan.
Maybe you can tell me why on earth this book would be banned from a school library?
This is what Ms Tan had to say on Facebook.http://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmyTan/posts/269163909768606
Sne doesn’t say why or where it was banned.
No clue… it’s a head scratcher, for sure.
We start our testing tomorrow and our library is closed as well. Three days of testing this week and three more next week.
However, you’ll be happy to know that I teamed up with our school librarian (who’s only in our building 2 days a week) for Poetry Month. Every day she sends me a Poem of the Day which I print out in an appropriately fancy font, mount on appropriately colored construction paper and post on the realllly long bulletin board across from our cafeteria.
I don’t know if any of the kids are reading them, but they are a colorful and literary display for the month and maybe make up a little for the library being closed for several days! 🙂
Well, since it’s an open thread,,, seriously worth watching:
My favorite soft-spoken commentator Thom Thurman gives an exceptional walk down history. Probably one of the best he’s ever done IMO (& other people felt the same). I’m just stunned and amazed at his video/arguments linking what’s going on these days with Mussolini’s actions in WW2:
There are No Communists – but a Heck of a lot of Fascists in Congress!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCm95lwWh8c&feature=youtu.be
Whoa. Good. Send it on.