The Halloween Tree.

Bradbury:

It was a small town by a small river and a small lake in a small northern part of a Midwest state. There wasn't so much wilderness around you couldn't see the town. But on the other hand, there wasn't so much town that you couldn't see and feel and touch the wilderness. The town was full of trees. And dry grass and dead flowers now that autumn was here. And full of fences to walk on, and sidewalks to skate on and a large ravine to tumble in and yell across. And the town was full of ...
Boys.
And it was the afternoon of Halloween.
And all the houses shut against a cool wind.
And the town full of cold sunlight.
But suddenly, the day was gone.
Night came out from under each tree and spread.
...
He took his hand away from his side. His face colored for a moment as if the pain were gone. "On your marks. Get set. Go!"
When Joe Pipkin said "Go," they Went.
They ran.
They ran backward halfway down the block, so they could see Pipkin standing there, waving at them.
"Hurry up, Pipkin!"
"I'll catch you!" he shouted, a long way off.
The night swallowed him.
They ran. When they looked back again, he was gone.
They banged doors, they shouted Trick or Treat and their brown paper bags began to fill with incredible sweets. They galloped with their teeth glued shut with pink gum. They ran with red wax lips bedazzling their faces.
But all the people who met them at doors looked like candy factory duplicates of their own mothers and fathers. It was like never leaving home. Too much kindness flashed from every window and every portal. What they wanted was to hear dragons belch in basements and banged castle doors.
And so, still looking back for Pipkin, they reached the edge of town and the place where civilization fell away in darkness.
The Ravine.
The ravine, filled with varieties of night sounds, lurkings of black-ink stream and creek, lingerings of autumns that rolled over in fire and bronze and died a thousand years ago. From this deep place sprang mushroom and toadstool and cold stone frog and crawdad and spider. There was a long tunnel down there under the earth in which poisoned waters dripped and the echoes never ceased calling Come Come Come and if you do you'll stay forever, forever, drip, forever, rustle, run, rush, whisper, and never go, never go go go ...
The boys lined up on the rim of darkness, looking down.
And then Tom Skelton, cold in his bones, whistled his breath in his teeth like the wind blowing over the bedroom screen at night. He pointed.
"Oh, hey -- that's where Pipkin told us to go!"
He vanished.
All looked. They saw his small shape race down the dirt path into one hundred million tons of night all crammed in that huge dark pit, that dank cellar, that deliciously frightening ravine.
Yelling, they plunged after.
Where they had been was empty.
The town was left behind to suffer itself with sweetness.

Mmm ... they don't write 'em like that anymore.*
Shift in cultural values -- embrace the Safety Net and all.
Tell, don't bother showing. Writing's a lost art.
Lost to some, but not all ...


------------------------

* I see a lot of King's It here earlier.

Madison Lemon Law Attorney Gets Bitter...

when the Legislature moves to slice into his lucrative practice:

Megna is upset with a bill that passed the Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday that would make it a presumption that attorneys' fees should be no greater than three times the damages awarded. The bill was motivated largely by a case in which Megna was awarded more than $150,000 in fees.
...
Megna, 67, is known nationally for his extensive work representing clients who sue under Wisconsin's lemon law, which is designed to protect consumers who buy faulty vehicles. He has argued more than 1,500 lemon law cases and won more than 700 cases against General Motors alone.

He won a $385,000 verdict against DaimlerChrysler Corp. in 2006, and in 2010 he won a $482,000 judgment against Mercedes Benz, which he said at the time was the largest award of its kind involving a single vehicle.

But it was Megna's case against Burlington, Wis., car dealer John Lynch Chevrolet-Pontiac that led to the bill's introduction. Megna represented a man who alleged the dealer charged him $5,000 for a repair he didn't authorize.

A Racine County judge ruled in the dealer's favor, but a state appeals court said the truck owner didn't have to pay since he didn't consent to the repairs. The sides settled days before the trial was to start, with the dealer agreeing to pay $12,500 for damages, $151,250 in legal fees and $5,284 in costs.
...
Republican backers of the bill said the case against Lynch pointed to the need to put a lid on attorneys' fees. The bill as originally introduced would have capped the fees at three-times damages awarded, but the version that passed the Senate was softened to give the judge the discretion to award more.

Megna's response?
Republicans need not apply as clients.

No ... really.

Megna would not be in violation of the state's rules of professional conduct, said Keith Sellen, director of the state's Office of Lawyer Regulation. Nothing prevents him or another attorney from declining representation based on a client's political affiliation, he said.

Maybe the Baby Swings Were Taken?

Happy Friday!

Man stuck in tree trunk rescuedOct. 25, 2011 06:28 PM
Associated Press

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. -- Authorities in Southern California say they rescued a man stuck inside a hollow tree trunk by following the sounds of his screams down into a creek bed.

The Orange County Registerreports that Orange County sheriff's deputies found the man stuck up to his chest inside a narrow hole in the trunk, which extended about four or five feet underground.

The newspaper says firefighters took about 90 minutes to free him once they found him Tuesday morning.

Lt. Roland Chacon says it's unknown why the man climbed into the hole near the base of the tree.

What Time, and Winds, Would Reveal.

Kublai Khan's 4,000+ vessel Yuan Dynasty invasion fleet:

Explorers found the 20-meter-long shipwreck some 25 meters off the coast of Nagasaki using ultra-sound equipment, buried about a meter deep in the sandy seabed. Archeologists believe the ship dates back to 1281, and was part of a 4,400-vessel fleet that China's Mongol rulers deployed in a thwarted attempt to invade Japan.

The discovery of the ship's well preserved and mostly intact 12-meter-long keel "could go a long way to helping researchers identify all the characteristics of the 20-meter warship," CNN reported, citing the head of the research team that made the discovery.
...
According to Japanese legend, two typhoons--known as the Kamikaze--that occurred seven years apart in the 13th century twice saved Japan from Mongol invasion by "destroy[ing] two separate Mongol invasions fleets so large they were not eclipsed until the D-Day landings of World War II," CNN reported. China was not so spared, however, and was ruled by the Mongol Yuan Dynasty from 1271-1368.

To everything: spin, spin, spin...

Do they think we don't read, or watch the news much?

In his own way, President Obama has brought the country to the right strategy for Bush’s “war on terrorism.” It is a serious, focused combination of global intelligence coordination, targeted killing of known terrorists and limited interventions — like Libya — that leverage popular forces on the ground and allies, as well as a judicious use of U.S. power, so that we keep the costs and risks down.

Sorry, but if sodomizing a captured man with a stick shortly before you execute him is the latest face of U.S. "justice" abroad, I'd prefer we just stay at home.

Stick wielding sodomites?
Don't much care what they do to their own, but not on my taxpayer dime.

Let Hillary the White Witch get her cackles somewhere else. "We came. We saw. I cackled at the violent nature of his death, and all the innocents that died along the way achieving it."

No bang for my buck there, but who knows? I might just have healthier relationships, with less to "prove" in my own career thankfully.

Who's next?
Seem to me that one's gonna spin back on us sometime soon... No crying from the ladies cuz the story's sad then, promise me that?

Don't Try This at Home.

21-Year-Old Man stuck in Baby Swing Overnight...

At about 6 a.m., a groundskeeper of Blue Rock Springs Park heard a man screaming when he arrived at work. He then called the police to investigate.


Upon arrival, police found a 21-year-old man stuck in a child's swing, which has two leg holes.

The man told police that he had been stuck in the swing since 9 p.m. Friday after he allegedly made a $100 bet with his friends. He proceeded to lube himself with laundry detergent to get into the swing, police said.

The friends then reportedly left him swinging through the night.

Vallejo firefighters then were called to rescue him by cutting the swing chains off. He was then transported to Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center, where firefighters used a cast cutter to cut the swing off his body, firefighters said.

He sustained non-life threatening injuries.

No mercy in the comments:

James Macalino Jr · Top Commenter
So after the guy got the chains cut, he was still walking around with the swing wrapped around him like a big plastic underwear.
----------------

Minh Nguyen · Virginia Commonwealth University
Hahahahh, what an idiot. Wins a $100 bet, and liable for:

$750 = EMS,
$500 = Hospital Bill,
$350 = Replace Damaged Swing

A memory of a life time = Price less
----------------
Remy Hereford · West Covina, California
aaahhahaha! That is so shady though! His friends are wrong for leaving him like that! 9 hours!? too far. way too far.

Louis Côté · Sun City, Arizona
Yeah, I find it completely senseless that they left without taking pictures to share with the rest of us!

----------------
Mike Notsaying · Top Commenter
hope he has to pay for repairs to the swings, its not fair the baby's have to pay the price for his stupidity

Settling Down for the Season...

Hopefully this time of year, you're ready up here for the down times -- indoors more, or more prepared outside, settled in with sweaters, soups, frozen fruits and reading materials.

This morning is overcast, which isn't all that ugly in the country. The grays and browns have been with us more than a week or two now -- they seem like familiar friends, more worn than weary this time of year, but the same face as mid March, when you're patiently waiting for greener signs of Spring...

I'm ready. This year, more and more every year, I like to think I've prepped, planned and prepared enough to make it a most comfortable winter. Healthy, removed, and in control. Sometimes it starts later in the month; two years ago, we had several inches of sticking snow on my birthday... You never can be too precise by the calendar.

Still, it's here:
the slower season. When you have to think more carefully about manufacturing warmth, and not taking it all for granted -- that easy sunshine of the summer months.

Who Was the First?

Yesterday, the Packers became the 2nd team in NFL history to win 700 total games. (Green Bay has also won 13 straight dating back to last season.)

Who Was the First?

Just Sayin' ...

Tebow for the Win.

Dave George:

It's a wonder that Fox didn't pull him at the start of the fourth quarter. Truth is, Fox might well have been resigned to taking an ugly loss with Tebow in charge just so he could wash the wonder out of Denver fans when it comes to their golden boy.

"I need to get better, that's for sure," said Tebow, now 2-2 as an NFL starter.

Actually, all he really needs to do is play every quarter like it's the fourth.

Declaring the Iraq War "Over".

Is it really "over" or just the height of arrogance to conclude that once the U.S. pulls out, the war is "over".
How about, "American involvement in the longstanding Iraq Civil War, precipitated by American invasion, is finally ending at long last."

Seems more accurate to me.

And "We Came, We Saw, He Died" ?
At least she's not making any false claims of "conquering" anything. How embarrassingly crude -- first, the parading of a dead man around on a car hood. Now, the Wicked White Witch cackling about "We Came, We Saw ...".

No sister.
You sat on the sidelines. If you actually were bloodied even a bit, you'd tone down on the chest-thumping and "victory" celebrations.

Imagine if you will, Barack Obama's bloodied head, or former President Clinton or Bush either, being paraded around, if you simply can't see the shame in treating a defeated dictator this way. It's not PC, or humanitarian concern talking here. It's simple ... class. Once gone, once the boundaries are removed, well let's just say no matter how poor a job they're doing, nobody wants to have Michelle and the girls treated to that kind of spectacle for our head of state either.

And if you honestly think this was some kind of Civil War victory on behalf of the Libyan rebels, I laugh at you. Absent the estimated $1 billion pricetag it cost to kill the man, those rebs aren't capable of raising a government of their own anytime soon without continued American taxpayer support.

I'm sure, for the thrill-seeking middle-aged blonde Secretary of State though, it was worth it. Somebody size her up for a flight suit?

Two Types ...

of people in this world. Either you're rooting for Tim Tebow, or you're not.

Count me in. The kid's got class, and now we get to see him -- more a man this time around -- playing back in Florida this weekend.

"Quarterbacks fit all sizes and shapes," Tebow says. "You're going to have quarterbacks that throw over the top, from the side. Quarterbacks that run, that are pocket passers. You're going to have all types of guys.

"I think the biggest thing for a quarterback is just decision-making and being a leader out there in the field."
...
Tebow has questions; everybody has questions. Tebow is why a matchup of the 0-5 Dolphins and 1-4 Broncos matters.
...
Trent Dilfer, former Super Bowl quarterback with the Baltimore Ravens and current ESPN analyst, is critical of Tebow but adds that he'd love to be proven wrong.

Dilfer wouldn't be surprised if Tebow does well against the Dolphins because, he says, it can take time to solve something unique. Ultimately, it will come down to how Tebow performs in what Dilfer calls "must-pass" situations.

"And that's where the ability to get the ball out quick, with anticipation, and locate the ball is paramount," Dilfer says. "It exposes every flaw a quarterback has and I speak with expertise because it exposed me at times.

"What I can say with Tim is that the three things he really struggles with are getting the ball out quick, anticipating the throws and locating the ball."
...
"I'm fascinated," Dilfer says. "I am hoping to God I am wrong on this. I want the kid to succeed. I believe he is everything that is good about football players."

Dave George:

Pretend that you had never heard of Tim Tebow, or listened to his fully confident critics on television's various panels of NFL experts.

Wipe the slate clean and tell me why a guy with a career NFL passer rating of 84.2 and a 1-2 record as a starter and an uncanny knack for making touchdowns happen has no business trying to run an offense in this league.
...
In three starts for Denver last year, Tebow passed for a total of four touchdowns and ran for three more. If that stinks, then there are a whole lot of NFL coaches who would gladly hold their noses and endure the shame of starting a similarly skunky quarterback.

For a variety of reasons, Tebow is judged on a different scale. If he fails a little, it's proof once and for all of the biggest bust in NFL Draft history. If he succeeds a little, it's the most heroic effort ever witnessed in an NFL stadium.

There won't be any middle ground Sunday, but there should be. Playing quarterback at this level is a bear. Pretty much everybody looks lost at first. Other than Dan Marino, there's no newcomer who has you thinking Hall of Fame fresh out of the box.

What we know about Tebow thus far suggests that he may develop into a competent pro, if not a completely reliable one, for whichever team wants him the most. Could be, of course, that his charismatic leadership helps him beat the odds and go even further. There's simply no way to find out but to play him, and play him a lot.

The larger question here is Denver's commitment to the guy. The Broncos just traded away his best wide receiver, Brandon Lloyd. They may be playing the Andrew Luck lottery. They may want Tebow to fail.

The underlying agenda is vitally important, because no young quarterback makes it through the inevitable rough patches without full backing.

"We Can Handle the Tooth."

My (current) favorite road sign, I pass on the way to Mal's to pick up the dog. For a regional dentist, with a few small town practices...

I wonder if Aaron Sorkin knows about this.

Big Boy Bear.

or, That's a very big bear, for these parts* ...

HUDSON (AP) - A northwestern Wisconsin man may have set a state record with a 648-pound black bear killed last week.

Lon Feia had been hunting for more than a month on his Hudson Township property before shooting and killing the 7-foot-2-inch bear Oct. 9.

The record for a bear's weight is 727 pounds.

But Paul Sickman, a conservation warden for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, says the official record is determined by a bear's dried-skull measurements. The skull would have to have a combined length and width of more than 20 inches.

A taxidermist measured the width and length of the bear head for a total of 28 inches, although that measurement will shrink when the skull has dried.

*No doubt he's hoping the skull dries favorably, eh?

Frrrrrac Sand !

I know different regions in the country are affected differently. Out East, as I understand it, there are concerns, primarily environmental, of the costs of this new technology.

In North Dakota, of course, they are begging for workers, and even have extra gas to burn off, thanks to the presence of the Bakken Formation, and the new way -- frrracking! -- of accessing the reserves.

Here in northern Wisconsin?
We've got the sand, baby!
The perfect type -- named "Northern White" -- the companies want.

"Eastern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin have some of the best fracturing sand in the country. It's called "northern white." It is what they look for because it's hard, it's spherical... and it can be cleaned so it's pretty pure - it actually looks almost white when they wash the iron deposits out of it.
"The better frac sand tends to be the more coarse frac sand."

"Typically, the product that is most in demand is what's called 20/40: it falls through the 20 mesh, and gets caught by the 40 mesh; 40/70 falls through the 40 and gets caught by the 70. Then they have 100 mesh. Those are the three product lines for frac sand.

"The more 20/40 you've got, obviously, the better facility you've got," Duffy said.

My only wish?
That enough of the locals -- some get it, not all -- better understood negotiating principles. You get the promises and guarantees in writing first, before you rezone to give away the ag lands...

Now is the time, if ever there was, to rely on your comprehensive plan, and more importantly, to be killer in those negotiations. You don't just give away the farm, or let one landowner sell out, without negotiating -- road maintenance say -- on behalf of the county.

Some businessmen though, and county execs, they're better at marketing than at negotiating. Or finance, if you think longer term...

And god bless 'em.
Some of these folks up here are still gentlemen, think that what they hear is what's to come, despite all the "at this time" qualifications from the men they are dealing with.

I'm not worldly, necessarily, depends on the category, I guess... and I rarely wish to see more skepticism in this world, but for heavens' sakes, now is the time -- before anything's changed on the ground or signed, to get assurances in writing, and to make certain you're getting the deal you think you're getting.

Then again,
I was engaged, had the date set, even some of the trappings purchased, plus a shower thrown by my good friend Ruth ... and still, we didn't do the deal. For the best, though. People tend to see that kind of thing as failing: considering, asking questions, negotiating, and then a no-go.

I like to think I'm worldly enough, though, to realize that kind of thinking, that's not always right either... No can be just as valuable as Yes, if you play your cards timely, measure and value accordingly.

OK, back to the salt sand mines ...

Chill is in the Air.

Oven is on more.
More books and baths.
Less "Newsflash!"
Plodding toward an Election,
the season provides reason for rejection.
Isolation, home fires are key...
for me, if not for thee.

~An amateur Thursday poet.


Make it a great day out there!

-----------------------
ADDED: Good thing I'm abstaining from tv news ... what's this? Hillary Clinton went over to Libya and bagged herself a trophy head, and there's pictures out on the internet now showing her kills? Um ... good job, Hil? Mission accomplished/money well spent?

Oh well. Beyond my pay grade, eh?
Back to the business of life,
out here in the real world...

Getting Pushed into the Pool.

Some folks, educated folks, are still trying:

Its demise (CLASS longterm care act) does underscore the importance of the much-derided individual mandate that will require most individuals to buy health insurance in 2014 or pay a penalty. That is the surest way, though perhaps not the only way, to push younger and healthier people into the insurance pools to subsidize coverage of sicker people.

Don't do it, people.
Don't push someone involuntarily into the pool of sick people, just because you need to take their money for unneeded, unwanted, unused services to spend on sicker, often wealthier, others.

John Roberts, in his confirmation hearings, compared himself to an umpire.

I wonder... will he serve as a lifeguard too, to take on the bullies who would grab us all and haul our asses into that sorry pool? Sure hope so...

I believe in sink or swim too. I don't condone pushing others into the pool though. That's unfair, unwise, and likely won't help anyone bring down medical costs. It's also ... just plain wrong. Penalizing the non-users, those who properly assess their own risks, don't skip out on their bills, who simply have different medical values and CHOOSE differently.

This issue is so much deeper than simply subsidizing somebody else's already-consumed healthcare. This is about freedom, choice and taking responsibility for oneself.


ADDED:

Right now, if they lack the ability to pay big bills out of pocket, their main options are to try to buy private long-term care insurance or to spend down their assets until they are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.

Ugh. What a mindset. God knows, no one would ever consider "spending down their assets" actually ... taking care of their own medical needs first, paying what you have saved, prioritizing by putting one's own money where one's own health is.

Mindsets like these are what have badly infected the country and need to be properly exposed and drained out.

Yo Hillary?

How'z about dropping in on some AMERICAN cities to offer aid packages? We got cute needy kids here too, so why not pull our influence out of Libya -- you've done enough to help, really -- and start concentrating on the American problems here at home for a bit? Afterall, nobody likes to promise killing a strongman. Because, when Iran does it to the Saudi diplomats say, it's kinda hard to act outraged anymore...

Clinton in Libya to offer new aid package
By MATTHEW LEE

TRIPOLI, Libya —
The Obama administration offered millions of dollars in new aid to Libya as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton encouraged the country's unsteady new leadership to commit to a democratic future free of retribution, and acknowledged in unusually blunt terms that the United States would like to see former dictator Moammar Gadhafi dead.

"We hope he can be captured or killed soon so that you don't have to fear him any longer," Clinton told students and others at a town hall-style gathering in the capital city.

Until now, the U.S. has generally avoided saying that Gadhafi should be killed.
...
The new aid package includes medical aid for wounded fighters and additional assistance to secure weaponry that many fear could fall into the hands of terrorists. Aides said the money is meant partly as a pledge to ongoing U.S. support during what will be a difficult passage to free elections and a new government after four decades of dictatorship.

"Now the hard part begins," Clinton said, heading into a meeting with the transitional leaders.

What? Deciding how to spend American taxpayer money to build up a broken country that posed no security threat to the States? Sometimes, they really do reveal the depth of their cluelessness, these fancy, well-to-do professional women...

Howz-about taking up ... philanthropy? You know, a nice cozy private-sector job, where you can promise killings, and make presents, all on the donated dime? Yes, it indeed is coming to that.

Some of the new medical assistance announced Tuesday would go to help evacuate seriously wounded fighters who need medical care aboard. Clinton saw dozens of such fighters as she entered the hospital.

U.S. officials said there have been about 15,000 wounded during the conflict so far, about 1,500 of whom are now amputees and require specialized care that is not available in Libya.
...
Also as part of the new aid package, the U.S. will re-launch several educational programs, including Fulbright scholarships and English language training, and help fund an archaeological project that will survey eastern Libya, the officials said. In addition, they said Clinton will be stressing the importance of good governance, inclusion, democratization and diversifying Libya's economy so it no longer is almost entirely dependent on oil revenue.
...
Clinton is the most senior American official to visit Libya since the uprising against Gadhafi began in February and only the second secretary of state to visit in the past 50 years. The last secretary of state to visit was Condoleezza Rice, who traveled to Tripoli in 2008 and met with Gadhafi after relations between the U.S. and Libya were restored.

Remember too, diplomacy is cheaper than war.
Less disabled amputees to support long term and all...

ADDED: This photo ... it's sad really. "Clap your hands for cash, men! (Now wave really pretty-like, soldier boys!)"

















.
ADDED: See this comments thread. Great minds, American minds, think alike...

Whether it is comparatively small as aid packages go is somewhat irrelevant since the symbolism carries more weight than the actual dollar amount. The Administration is offering aid to a government/group of rebels of whom we don't know what their true goals or political character is. If the Administration knows more than we do, then at the very least they are dispersing funds for something Americans have little knowledge of whether it's going to a good cause or not.

Sometimes it is best to remain on the sidelines and take a wait and see approach. When the new "government" in Libya proves itself to be a worthy recipient of American aid, then and only then should we dump money into that country. Under the current circumstances however, it's as if we are gambling with dollars at a casino of foreign policy; we may win, but we may lose. Considering the economy we're in, and the proclivity of many in that region to be suspicious of American influence, the visit by the Secretary of State and her announcement on an aid package seems irresponsible and premature.

and

with all my respect to secretary clinton, america needs more help than any other country, maybe the government should focus on helping jobless and hungry americans than focusing on spending billions to overseas countries. It needs to stop now. Secretary clinton and other politicians focus on overseas aid and send our troops all over the world. They need to focus more on helping the american people. Its time to wake up, we are going down the drain and no one seems to care.

One more in the "they just don't get it" department:

Before the US/NATO freedom and democracy bombs Libyans had $160 billion in cash assets, $6 billion in Gold, free health care and education, subsidized housing and cars, no income tax, usury illegal, interest free loans and the highest standard of living in Africa.

Imagine if Americans had that sort of living ?

Another:

The aid package breakdown sources in America:
25% from public schools
25% from roads and infrastructure
25% from union jobs sent overseas or remain in America at slave wages
25% from what is left of the middle class
00% from the 1% of the population that owns or controls over 35% of the total wealth of this nation.

What Have They Learned?

I hope the Israeli's love their children too...
(More than land anyway. Or vengeance, or settlers' rights, or torching mosques... Poor kid. Playing at being a soldier. Feed him something, already.)

But by the time Shalit actually walked free on Tuesday, so frail he passed out on the helicopter ride home, the elation was tempered by the specific reality of the price Israelis had paid to set him free. The 1,027 Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for the lone Israeli corporal turned out to include men and women convicted of some of the worst terror attacks in a country still haunted by the memory of the Second Intifadeh.

Ambivalent," says Aya Ilouz, of her feelings on the matter. Strolling in downtown Jerusalem with her husband, Liron, and their five-month-old baby girl, Yael, the couple is so in synch on the question of the day that they finish each other thoughts.

"Yes," says Liron, "we are very happy and excited to see Gilad meet his family. And on the other hand..."

"...we are very concerned...," says Aya.

"About what happens next," Liron explains. "When the next terrorist blows himself up, someone will have to answer."
...
On Tuesday, Jewish Israelis stopped and stared at televisions wherever they came upon them. On the sidewalk outside the 24-Hour Hillel Market at midmorning, 50 people were gathered under the flat screen to catch the first images of Shalit, looking painfully thin as he was marched through a high-ceiling hall at the Egyptian border. Behind the cash register, Merav Cohen promised champagne for everyone the moment he entered Israel.

"It was moving. It was very exciting," says Anat Rubin, 42. "I just saw photos of him getting out of the car. It gave me chills."

Speaking of...

"The Mormons apparently believe that Jesus will return in Missouri rather than Armageddon: I wouldn’t care to bet on the likelihood of either. In the meanwhile, though, we are fully entitled to ask Mitt Romney about the forces that influenced his political formation and—since he comes from a dynasty of his church, and spent much of his boyhood and manhood first as a missionary and then as a senior lay official—it is safe to assume that the influence is not small. Unless he is to succeed in his dreary plan to borrow from the playbook of his pain-in-the-ass predecessor Michael Dukakis, and make this an election about competence not ideology, he should be asked to defend and explain himself, and his voluntary membership in one of the most egregious groups operating on American soil," - Hitch.

Didn't that deliberately offensive Englishman Christopher Hitchens die of cancer already? Poor fella -- his last gasps at life, clutching to bring others down, still thinking this somehow elevates him from his own petty fate...

RIP sweet suffering soul...
Rest in Peace?

(The country -- this country -- will be in good hands, long after you are gone. Why not make the most of the remaining days, and leave the political pontificating to those with stake in the future? You've "helped" enough already, really, now focus a little bit on your own neglected self?)

I'm a law professor performance artist...

"Lookie at meeeeeeeeee!"

(UW Law Professor embarrasses the school again, performing nutty art on her blog, while posing as a professor in the classroom.... Retire already, Dorthy?)

I'll never understand why these smug East Coast eliters don't simply stay put, and choose to infect the upper Midwest with their juvenile ways of thinking. You don't like it, stay home? And bring your latest husband, and boys, home with ya?

Thanks Annie Althouse! Your performance was much enjoyed, just ... getting staler and staler by the minute. Can't see it yet? Trust me.

As for Titus... yeah, I'd be proud of myself if I did that. As proud as Titus is of his latest "loaf."

Suicide by semi?

Times are tough.
You be tougher!~

Damn Lawyers.

Tough times, we just want to enjoy some prep level football.

Playoff seeds were belatedly released, and only for Division 3 now, because the Milwaukee Messmer-Shorewood co-op team is sore that they can't get in on their record alone and is suing to play instead.

Sad people, sad story, sad actions ...
that affect other people's games.

------------------
ADDED: Nevermind Mosinee, turns out the Warriors will take on Medford this Friday, in Medford. (Originally they faced Mosinee, but you know what they say: ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!)

Tuesday Humor.

From the inbox:

A bald man with a wooden leg gets invited to a Halloween Party. He doesn't know what costume to wear to hide his head and his leg. So he writes to a costume company to explain his problem.

A few days later he received a parcel with the following
note:

Dear Sir,

Please find enclosed a pirate's outfit. The spotted handkerchief will cover your bald head and with your wooden leg, you will be just right as a pirate.

Very truly yours,

Acme Costume Co.


The man thinks this is terrible because they have emphasized his wooden leg and so he writes a letter of complaint. A week goes by and he receives another parcel and a note, which says:

Dear Sir,

Please find enclosed a monk's costume. The long robe will cover your Wooden leg and, with your bald head, you should really look the part.

Very truly yours,

Acme Costume Co.

Now the man is really upset since they have gone from emphasizing his wooden leg to emphasizing his bald head, so again he writes the Company another nasty letter of complaint.

The next day he gets a small Parcel and a note, which
reads:

Dear Sir,
We have TRIED our very BEST.

Please find enclosed a bottle of molasses and a bag of crushed nuts. Pour the molasses over your bald head, pat on crushed nuts, stick your Wooden Leg up your ass and go as a caramel apple.

Very truly yours,

Acme Costume Co.

See now, I wonder if that's been done already somewhere out there...

Have a swell Tuesday, folks.

A Late Start...

to the workweek, deliberately coming in at noon today because of a late afternoon court hearing and a county board meeting this evening.

Otherwise, the weekend went well. Had my Yorkie terrier (he's a mix, a bit poodle the vet, groomer and me and Mal think -- but the terrier instincts dominate. "Tough" like that, which is a good thing, you ask me...) with me since my birthday mid-week. You want to get walking, keep moving and fit from morning until dusk ... find yourself a dog, I say. This one keeps me out in the cool, observing sunrise and sunset, and stays in pursuit ... of squirrels mostly; he leaves the ducks and geese on the Rice Lake flyway alone for the most part. It's amazing their numbers now, on the shores and in the lake, as they pass through town.

Also saw (William) Kent Krueger this Saturday -- he's promoting Northwest Angle, one of his Cork O'Connor series books. I don't know if it's the natural critic in me, or just meeting the author in person, but while this is another good one, you do read more critically after meeting the author. Could have cut a good 25 pages out so far, and I'm only halfway in, focusing too much on what the characters are thinking of, and praying for, and some of their actions don't seem too plausible for real life, if you ask me.

Still, the settings and the action narratives are what sell this series. You think of how you could improve upon it, and you wonder why, at 43, I was the youngest of the approximately 25 in attendance Saturday. It's not that young people don't read necessarily, or read this genre even, or turn out for booksellings and author talks ... you just have to hit upon how to market properly to that crowd, and give them something redeeming, and honest, to spend their time with.

That's my take anyways, and you know how I do love to observe things from my little place up here in northwestern Wisconsin.

Make it a great week, readers,
and never be so closed off to other authors that you inadvertently miss out on their charms due to your own established preferences, thinking you know already what types you like best. (How's that for a week-beginning request, then?)

Saturday morning...

News you can use:

The Duluth News Tribune reports Superior police officers were called to the southern edge of town on a report of a bear mauling about 8 p.m. Saturday.

Police say the man was with a female hunting partner who had set up over some bait, hoping to take a deer, when the bear appeared. The man tried to chase it off, but the animal turned on him.

Sgt. Adam Poskozim says the man wounded the bear with a knife and the woman shot it with an arrow, but the animal was still alive when police arrived.

The man was taken to a Duluth hospital with wounds to his right thigh and wrist. His name was not immediately released.

Friday.

Another week over,
and a new one just begun...

Sad Story.

An expert kayaker dies in Minnesota. (I wonder if I met this man -- or just other racers built and enjoying that lifestyle like him -- at the one kayak race I participated in a few years back in a county north of here. It was the race's first year -- I realized later, that although I signed up for the short course, my type of boat was more for the rec class*. Still, it was a very fun day, with plenty of door prizes after the race -- free local steak dinner! -- and a good group of people.)

This site appears to have the best details on what exactly happened out there, but it is getting plenty of play in the Minnesota papers too.

Everything was going fine until about half way across the lake. This was in the area of “three mile reef” which is about 2.5 miles off the east shore of the lake. At that point, Todd capsized, likely caused by one of the bigger waves associated with the reef. A capsize in a surfski is like taking a fall downhill skiing. It happens all the time and is an expected part of the sport. The fact that Todd had only one fall in that distance of paddling shows that he had been handling the conditions quite well.

The catastrophic event was that when Todd came to the surface of the water, he was no longer attached to his boat. Examination of the boat the following day revealed that the failure was in the velcro wrap that secures the leash to the ankle. In the several seconds it took for Todd to get to the surface and get his bearings, his boat was already blown out of reach. He swam to the the boat that was escorting him, and tried to climb on, which caused that boat to capsize. The waves were very big at that point, and the escort surfski was one of the tippy racing models that the vast majority of us paddle. At that point Todd climbed onto the escort ski, and was balanced there without a paddle. The escort paddler, in the water at this point, separated from his ski and made a desperate attempt to swim for Todd’s boat. This was unsuccessful. He returned to his boat. At that point Todd was back in the water. It is impossible to simply balance in one of these boats in big waves without a paddle.

Not so much "up the creek, without a paddle", but a "in the cold lake water, two men with a capsized single-person boat" story.

Spring 2011 courtesy photo of Todd Ellison, 50, of Marine on St. Croix, paddling on the St. Croix River this spring. Ellison was found dead Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011, on the shore of Lake Mille Lacs after his kayak capsized the day before. (Photo courtesy of David Heieren)Miles offshore in 4- to 6-foot waves Friday on Minnesota's Lake Mille Lacs, Todd Ellison and his friend clung to the friend's kayak.

Ellison's boat was gone - swept away in 20- to 30-mph winds after he capsized about 2-1/2 miles from shore. The pair couldn't both get aboard the tippy, solo racing kayak they clung to, and it would take hours before the wind blew the men to the windward shore, some eight to 10 miles away.

The three other paddlers they had been with were far off. Their only means of contact, a cell phone in a waterproof case, had drifted off with Ellison's kayak, according to an account from members of the group.

The two stranded men calmly talked over their situation and agreed on a plan: Ellison would stay in the water, and his friend would paddle for help.
...
The friend who left Ellison reached shore in 45 minutes and called 911 soon after. Search and rescue was hampered by winds and waves, Turner said. The other three paddlers safely completed their trip.
Ellison was wearing a wet suit and life preserver and was fit, in the view not only of Marine on St. Croix residents who saw him routinely cycling the town's hills with his boat in tow, but also by the standards of his fellow marathon canoe racers.

Several leaders of the paddling community said they weren't keen on second-guessing the men's decision to separate. A detailed account of the events signed by the four surviving members of the paddling party defended the action as "clearly the correct decision."

Boaters overboard are generally advised to stay with a floating boat, but every situation is unique. In this case, the relatively paddle to shore had to be weighed against the exceedingly long drift in the wind as daylight waned, according to those involved.

Those who knew Ellison said he died doing what he loved, and no one should dismiss paddling across Mille Lacs as irresponsible - at least not for the party of five that departed Cove Bay for the 16-mile journey Friday.

"These are five of the best paddlers you'll ever meet," said Carl Shaffer, director of racing for the Minnesota Canoe Association. "These guys were out there doing what they were doing with the right stuff. They had the right equipment, and their heads were right."

ADDED:
* I don't kayak to race, but thought the longer, harder paddle that Spring might be fun. It was a warm May day, iirc, and the wind didn't pick up until later in the afternoon. Plus ... small enough lake.

Can't find the blog entry now, but I did stumble upon this one written earlier, in searching my "kayak" posts. It seems fitting for today...

Thursday, July 22
Why My Kayak is Scratched...

In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dulled and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well oiled in the closet, but unused.

~ Hemingway, Preface to The First Forty-Nine Stories (1944)
-----------------

"If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."

~ Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

posted by Mary at 1:34 PM

Time to Make the Donuts...

No seriously, time to go home.

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!

The least you could do...

is spell her name correctly, Don.
Accuracy matters, especially if you're going to offer up your personal opinions on political, not sexual topics.

Shit like this—endless process, strenuous efforts to ensure that every voice gets heard, consensus-driven everything—is what killed ACT-UP. This kind of shit attracts people who get off on this kind of shit (crazy people) and repels people who can't stand this kind of shit (sane people). I realize this video was posted to a conservative blog to make OWS look ridiculous—but it actually happened. And it's happening in NYC too. Gayle Collins wrote about the "assembly" problem in her column on Saturday:

“You get so many voices and so many opinions, it’s hard to find consensus,” said Ambrose Desmond, a 32-year-old psychotherapist from San Francisco who was the leader of the meeting. Or would have been if there were any leaders. Which there most definitely were not. The people sitting around with Desmond were studying a proposal for reorganizing the way that the various working groups—Donations, Finance, Outreach, Internet, Sanitation, Medical, Direct Action and many, many more—make their opinions felt in the evening assembly. The current system, it said, makes newcomers come away “exhausted by our model of direct democracy, rather than invigorated and inspired by it.”

Once the lunatics realize that you've adopted "a model of direct democracy" that requires you to listen to lunatics, the lunatics will come. Then the sane people—exhausted, not invigorated—leave. And then there's nothing but lunatics left.

How do you spell "overrated" ?
Either he doesn't read much, and thus doesn't know the name, or he just plain ... shit, let's be honest ... doesn't much care.

I vote for ... both.
Pretty much, this appears to be an undereducated gay man, got "married" adopted a son, and then makes himself a spokesman for non-monogamous marriage (criticizing the monogamous-by-choice and practicing Christians alike for being so ... straight) and then leads a campaign to pretty much criminalize childish bullying, all the while using dirty words and underhanded tactics himself to promote ... himself.

The problem with the uneducated sometimes isn't that they don't try. It's that ... they simply haven't worked hard enough, long enough to develop the discipline that would let them honestly compete against rule-playing others. So ... they mock the rules that others choose to operate under, and then cry foul when others don't want to let them play their games, in the already established leagues.

Cry Me a River.

Anyone who has ever participated in any organization over time knows the poison that just one individual, acting underhandedly and trying to disrupt the system, sows. That's why character counts.

No, it has nothing to do with his innate gayness. It simply has to do ... character. Maturity. Respect.

If you don't offer that up to others, as the ACT-UP crew never did, your "movement" tends to die out over time. With the recent bullying by Savage online, it seems that his "It Gets Better. Really. Trust ME." campaign is quickly running out of steam. He knows these tactics; he still plays 'em, online, himself.

The sooner the gay rights movement puts the character-deficient Dan Savage types behind them, to sink or swim in their own egotistical promotion but understanding he is but one individual and does not speak for all others, the sooner it gets better for all of us.

Simple point:
Nevermind the kids. They're simply bearing the backlash of a decidedly unequal, cowardly "fight" for gay rights in the liberal party. If we want to protect the kids, save lives: make a real change on the ground. Legally. Truth be told: gays are our second-class citizens today, legally, in so many states. But too many have traded in special gay privilege -- lookee, I can adopt a child and live non-monogamously, have it all, so to speak , crusade against child "bullying" while engaging as a grown man in those same tactics myself ... -- for a desire to actually work hard on the issues at hand, and work for equal citizen rights for all grownups across the land.

Schoolkids aren't stupid. They simply pick up on these facts of life.

But, if you do the hard work? If:
You get political leaders, voters, the much-maligned Christians to support equal treatment under the law? You get less bullying of marginalized kids. You give them something honest to look forward to, all of them. You don't, you won't. (The IGB campaign to me, always seemed like a basketball superstar saying to the kids coming up: Hey, you've got about a 1 in a million chance on hitting the special exception jackpot like me. See: look at my life. It Gets Better, indeed. And of course, I thrive as an individual in a country where only a fraction of you will indeed be granted legal equality under the law. And ... a non-monogamous marriage to publicize all over the NYT opinion pages too! Dare to dream, little children...)

Pushing for excess -- whether it was the ACT-UP crew tossing blood in the churches, or the self-appointed spokesman spewing forth opinions on the NYT op-ed pages, which I wonder now if he even regularly reads? -- that's for the selfish, Mr. Savage.

Which surely you are, but you ought to talk to a divorced Boomer career woman about the "I want it all!" attitude, and how it simply might be your undoing. Don't know what you got til it's gone, and all that...

Serious News Week?

Over in Egypt:

When the clashes broke out, some Muslims ran into the streets to help defend the Christians against the police, while others said they had come out to help the army quell the protests in the name of stability, turning what started as a march about a church into a chaotic battle over military rule and Egypt’s future.

Nada el-Shazly, 27, who was wearing a surgical mask to deflect the tear gas, said she came out because she heard state television urge “honest Egyptians” to turn out to protect the soldiers from Christian protesters, even though she knew some of her fellow Muslims had marched with the Christians to protest the military’s continued hold on power.

“Muslims get what is happening,” she said. The military, she said, was “trying to start a civil war.”
...
“What’s happening is not sectarian tension,” Mr. Sharaf said in a telephone interview with state television. “It is an escalating plan for the fall and fragmentation of the state. There’s a feeling of a conspiracy theory to keep Egypt from having the elections that will lead it to democracy.”

Echoing the Mubarak government’s propaganda, he added, “There are hidden hands involved and we will not leave them."
...
State news media reported that at least three security officers had died in attacks by Christian protesters, though those accounts could not be confirmed. The protesters did not appear to be armed and they insisted they were peaceful until they were attacked.

In retaliation, military vehicles began driving into protesters, killing at least six, including one with a crushed skull, several witnesses said. Some said they saw more than 15 mangled bodies. Photographs said to depict some of them circulated online.

ADDED: Then again ... no.
Dan "It Gets Better When I Say It Gets Better" Savage distributes more of his bully-boy brand of justice via the Internets:

I'm sure there's another side to this story—maybe you felt your bartender was rude? rude enough for you to stiff her and attack her for her looks?—but however many sides there are, Andrew, however rude a Capitol Hill bartender can be, I shouldn't have to tell someone who works at freaking Microsoft about social media. Bartenders can toss shit up on Facebook too. It's true! And your receipt is all over Facebook. As is your full name, your photograph, your phone number, the name of your employer, the name of your frat, and more. All shit this bartender's angry friends managed to dig up in a weekend. Now bar owners and bartenders are talking about posting your picture—which they also managed to find—at the doors of their bars and clubs and 86ing you from all of 'em.

So, like, basically, Andrew, the days when a guy with a good paying job could say incredibly shitty things to a server with total impunity are pretty much over. Thanks to the tech sector. You know: your industry.

I'm thinking you might wanna head over to Victoria's Facebook page and, I dunno, apologize maybe? Just blame the booze, Andrew.

UPDATE: Andrew doesn't work at Microsoft, says people who work at Microsoft. Also, some are saying I shouldn't have posted this. But it was everywhere already—all over Facebook, all over freakin' Jezebel—and it was a thing that happened, a thing that people were talking about, and my ignoring it or keeping it off Slog wouldn't have made a thing that didn't happen and people weren't talking about. I left Andrew's full name out of it, and kept his signature off Slog, because that felt over the line.

And people honestly take this little fellow seriously?

Something tells me, this 16-year-old disabled stutterer has found himself a role model for the ages!

As for Ms. Snyder, he said he might have had some sympathy for the professor’s quandary if she had expressed it less harshly.

“I’ve been very lucky to never have been teased, bullied or anything, but some people who stutter completely stop speaking because of that kind of abuse,” Philip said. “People don’t think of it as a legitimate disability. They just need to learn.”

Poor little flower.
Somebody should keep an extra eye on him, in case the NYT story doesn't cure his case of the "Hey Everybody! Look at Me! I'm an abused... victim!" disability.

BONUS: Second thought, don't bother to click Dan's link ... yet. He's promising even more personal information online -- he's gonna get somebody to video the guy having sex in his bedroom, and promises the fresh material will be up online for your viewing pleasure shortly...

Brought to you by: Bully Boy Brand.

The Sox Select Ventura.

The White Sox name former player Robin Ventura as their new manager, now that Ozzie Guillen has headed off to Miami's warmer pastures:

“Not having managed before, I did have apprehension,” the former White Sox star third baseman said in a conference call Thursday. “(Williams) never tried to talk me into it. It was more of what was going to be there and be available. Ultimately it was going to be my decision.”

Ventura, known for his slick fielding, clutch hitting and left-handed power, has a good sense of humor and a well-rounded perspective on the game.

Fiery as Guillen? Nope. But he’s had his moments, too.

Who can forget the time he charged the mound after Nolan Ryan plunked him with a pitch in 1993? Once there, Ryan applied a quick headlock and administered several punches before players from both teams reached the confrontation.

And Ventura was tough as a player, too, surviving a grotesque injury in 1997 when he fractured and dislocated ankle in a spring training slide.

Now he’s the 39th White Sox manager overall, a list that includes 17 who played for the team.

“I think there is a challenge there, getting back into the game,” he said.

“I do have a passion for it. I do have a passion for this team and this city. I’m not one to really back away from a lot of things. … The passion is there to do it, I was asked to do it. I’m honored.”

Guillen was released from his contract with one year remaining after eight seasons with the White Sox and immediately was hired by the Florida Marlins as their manager.

“That whole thing surprised me as much as anybody. I figured he would be managing here a long time,” Ventura said of Guillen, his friend and former teammate.

The 44-year-old Ventura played for a host of managers who could influence his style—Jeff Torborg, Gene Lamont, Jerry Manuel, Bobby Valentine, Joe Torre and Jim Tracy.

“I run the gamut on different styles and smart baseball men and just different ways to communicate and get guys to play,” he said.

What kind of manger will he be? Yet to be determined. He said he wants players who care and are accountable.

Ventura was a first-round draft pick of the White Sox out of Oklahoma State in 1988 and spent the first 10 seasons of his 16-year career with Chicago.

After leaving the White Sox, Ventura also played for the New York Mets, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. He was six-time Gold Glove winner and an All-Star in 1992 and 2002.

Interesting Take...

in an old interview with Andre Aciman:

As an adolescent I read voraciously, but I read the classics only. I refused to read Salinger, Orwell, Huxley, Sartre, and Hemingway, lesser writers in my book, partly because they were contemporaries and contemporary anything never appealed to me. In fact, the first time I read contemporary fiction was when I was in graduate school and picked up a book while riding to New York in a friend's crowded car; it was a spy novel by Robert Ludlum called The Scarlatti Inheritance. This is when it finally dawned on me that one couldn't write like Gogol or Stendhal or Proust in today's world, that the spirit of Classicism, which had shaped my sensibilities and which had been my escape, was simply gone. It's not that "one couldn't" write like them; it's just that there was no place, no purpose, and no tolerance for complex, rarefied voices. So you could say that my literary apprenticeship began in a friend's Camaro. I had to learn, not how to write, but how to unwrite -- or, to put it more bluntly, how to write down. It took me forever -- 15 years at least.

By then I was in my very late thirties. (Again, a late bloomer.) My first published piece was a book review which I submitted to Commentary. (By the way, the best way to start is to write book reviews -- not feature pieces or short stories.) Commentary asked me to propose another review after that, and another, and before long I asked whether they might be interested in my writing a little thing about growing up as a Jewish boy in Egypt who eventually moved to Italy and France. The editor said, "Yes, why not." He sounded too noncommittal, I thought. Perhaps he didn't mean it and was just being polite. But I decided to pretend he meant what he had said to me. To my complete surprise he loved what I showed him. Thus Out of Egypt was born.

But the story of my apprenticeship is a bit more complicated. My "induction" to the written page was via poetry, not prose -- and it was old poetry I liked, not new poetry, certainly not Beat poetry. I always felt that prose was a "concession" to our times, to modernity, to America, a way of "compromising" with the hard-and-fast, nuts-and-bolt, here-today-gone-tomorrow, fast-track, come-as-you-are, say-what-you-please world everyone took to be the real world. Prose was a demotion. I wanted poetry. Because in my pre-Camaro view of things, poetry was not entirely wedded to the real world, could turn its back to the real world, knew of a better deal. The Camaro, on the other hand, and the book I found in it, told me that if I wanted to be a writer I had to write with the cards life had given to me, not with those I'd designed myself, and that I had to play at the table history had placed me in, not in a Neverland of my own invention. I had to write for America, in America, because whether I liked it or not, America was going to be my home and I needed to learn to wet my throat with water from the Hudson, not from the Seine, the Tiber, or the Nile.

It's a lesson I never quite learned and may never learn. The classics had been my ticket out of a world I couldn't begin to fit in -- and here I was being told that I had no choice but to fit in. The task was made more difficult when it occurred to me that what I wanted more than acquiring this new citizenship was to acquire it without giving up the old.

Jesse Jr. : "Just Carryin' On...

An Old, Family Tradition."

The House decided Thursday not to take up a resolution demanding that Gov. Rick Perry of Texas apologize for not immediately getting rid of a rock bearing the word Niggerhead from a ranch his family once leased in Paint Creek, Tex.

The measure called for Mr. Perry and his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination to condemn the word. It also called for Mr. Perry to list all of the lawmakers, friends and financial supporters he took to the land while the rock was there and to apologize for taking them.

The measure was offered by Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. of Illinois, who said it was drafted based on an article about the rock in The Washington Post.

“Upon reading that story, the vast majority of the people of the United States were morally outraged,” Mr. Jackson said.

Defending the pretty little ladies.

Paul Krugman steps into the Warren fray:

Scott Brown Locks Up The Jerk Vote
Awesome.

Thank heavens we have chivalrous men like him to protect us from our own mouths, eh?

Wait a minute...
So, as a college boy, he posed tastefully nude, and when she's asked about it, she sneerfully says, "I kept my clothes on."
When he's told that, he responds defensively with, "Thank God."

And all you see is HIM being a jerk here? C'mon. Get over it. Years ago, a college boy posed nude. Eh? Why make him out to be a jerk with his comparable remark, after what she implied about him? (She's a better candidate somehow for NOT having taken her clothes off and posed nude? Please...)

Gigglesnort.

Almost 66-year-old Gail Collins, who I check in on every now and again, is still working what little she has:

All of us, regardless of political persuasion, have a stake in trying to keep the Republican presidential fight going through the winter. These are tough times. (“Sesame Street” just announced it’s adding a poverty-stricken Muppet.) We need diversion.

Plus, it doesn’t look as if there’s going to be a professional basketball season. And I cannot really figure out that many ways to mention that Romney once drove to Canada with the family dog strapped to the roof of the car.
...
But maybe there’s another reality TV host we can get into the race. Jeff Probst, the guy from “Survivor,” might be good. On the show, whenever a team loses a competition, he always says something like: “Kaluha Tribe, I’ve got nothing for you.” It’s sort of a signature. Think how useful that would be for a president. (“Future Social Security recipients, I’ve got nothing for you.”)

Can somebody please tell that lady she's not very funny, and hush her up already? It's all jokes and sillies to her, but to those people honestly struggling with nothing to count on in the future, survival really isn't a game Gail.

Do you really not get that?
Don't care? Hoping to get the female Dave Barry's slot?

I honestly don't get her appeal, nor why she continues to peddle this offensive schtick. At least, she seems to have very few imitators in that liberal niche...

Beat that dead horse, boys ... beat it!

Day 3 (?) of deep Niggerhead discussion over at TaNehisi's Atlantic blog. Call:

I'm sorry, "Runaway Negro Creek" is pretty cool. I prefer the absconding slave interpretation, as opposed to the "Ya'll get from round here!" version.


I understand removing "nigger" from geography. It's basically an obscenity at this point. But some of these names are pretty awesome, if only because they affords people like me the opportunity of saying "I got your Negro Mountain, right here."

What? Too much?

Reply: TStacy

"What? Too much?"

Oh, no. In fact, and stop me if this is going too far, I'm imagining an action movie based on the 2012 election when Obama says to Perry, "I got your Niggerhead right here," before headbutting him across the stage. I know that absolutely nothing good could come out of this, but it sounds pretty cool in my brain.

EDIT: That's the first time I've felt dirty using that term, and I think it's due to the fact that I was using it in a joke. So, just know that it makes me feel slightly bad, but I decided against censoring it.

Funny he can't seem to find anything else these days, outside of quoting historical notable blacks and perusing Civil War history, to write on ...

ADDED: Ohhh, we can see where this thread is heading...:

hillrat 17 minutes ago in reply to TStacy

Alternate scenario: Obama & Rick Perry are playing ball. After burying yet another long range jumper right in Perry's grill, as Obama's backpedaling down the court he grabs his junk and tells Perry, "I got your niggerhead right here!!"

Nevermind the Frac Sand Stories...

Telling these kinds of crime stories, especially the details behind the DNR fines, seems to be my forte.

Unlike covering county board meetings, people really like to read this stuff. (See more here --updated to add the full 58 published online in the past 21 weeks.)

ADDED: I kinda like jobs where, weekly, you get to see the results of your work.

Incentives anyone?

Sometimes, "journalist" Megan McCardle slays me with her ... "brainstorming":

Meanwhile, making student loans bankruptable would offer immediate relief to those who are trapped under crushing debt burdens from which they now can't escape. It might not give a huge immediate boost to the economy. But at least it would give some of those people some hope that they might one day get ahead.

Or...
perhaps it would offer strong incentives for middle-class college grads to discharge their debts early on, before they go on to those happy successful middle-class lives shackled with paying for their educations.

No thanks.

I like the idea of knowing what one is getting into. Can't afford to take out outrageous loans? Don't. Most smart college students learn that one already: don't borrow more than you can afford to pay back.

Some say: oh, but they already spent it, and now they can't get jobs.

But... that's the immutable Consequences part of life. Like buying more house than you can afford. Driving faster than you can handle. Having more children than you can afford to feed.

What the McArdles don't seem to get is, not everybody indulges first, and then worries about the payback, or the pricetag, later. Choose a lesser school, if the financial aid package is nil, and you're being saddled with outrageous student loans.

Better yet: borrow from the Bank of Momma and Poppa first, because you know darn well such bankruptcy plans would be most appealing to those with money, who actually can afford the outrageous college pricetags (compared to those attending state schools, community colleges, or private institutions with better overall financial aid packages for those in-need students who academically qualify.)

This "plan" of hers -- do we call brainfarts a "plan" at that level? -- would be much like what happens to well-to-do families with seniors facing nursing home retirements. They all know about the 5-years to divest of the assets plan. Heck, anyone well-to-do visiting an accountant knows that one, just like all the middle-class kids wanting out of their student loans before starting their families, and beginning their middle-class careers would learn about discharging student loans in bankruptcy, before they come into their own family inheritances, later in life.

No again. You incurred it -- you chose, knowingly, to take out those amounts of loans, with no guarantees. If you default, you'll simply shift the costs of your "education" onto others, much like those seniors who hide their assets and qualify as impoverished to receive free medical care, drive up the medical costs to others.

Personally,
I think we need to bring back the shameful stigma of engaging -- or suggesting we engage -- in this level of "pass-the-buck because I chose poorly". Take on a second job, even if you think it's beneath you. McDonalds IS hiring.

And even if you made poor choices in the past, you college grad you, there's still time to learn a bit about life from the bottom up. Work isn't beneath you. And though you might be underemployed, the illegal immigrants seem to find places to get hired...

Maybe these "kids" as McArdle refers to them, need to spend a summer picking fruit, or changing sheets in a hotel, or indeed, working the drivethrough. Then, they'll learn to better value a buck, plus, they'll have the satisfaction of learning to take care of their own needs (as distinguished from mere wants.)

Letting them off the hook on learning that lesson early on seems to contribute to the overall problem, not very helpful to their -- or the paying peoples' -- futures really...

ADDED: One nice feature of student loans not being dischargeable in bankruptcy is that they are not taken from your estate upon death. You die, that debt dies with you. Not true with credit card debt, or car loans say, which must be settled by the estate left behind. (If any).

Steve, Steve ... We Hardly Knew Ye.

You know what the recent outpouring of love for the late Steve Jobs reminds me of?

The adulation that many paid to Barack Obama, back when he was running for President. We want heroes, that much is true.

Different people just find them in different places, it seems.

Chuckles for the Day.

On a blog thread discussing whether or not Christians can act on behalf of their fellow man, even if they seemingly have "no skin in the game".

Funny, but I thought this line of thinking dropped (Whites are for Whites. Blacks are for Blacks. Only.), after JFK died and thus the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed Congress. Didn't JFK die to set the blacks free? In the story, I mean...

"The man rejected the idea that people might do something because it was right? I feel sorry for him."

You made a logic error there. He pointed out something in the race context that is completely normal to observe generally, that people tend to do what is in their own interest. When people offer to do something out of altruism, it's a good idea to test it by asking: What's in it for them? Are you doing something out of benevolence for other people or are you posing as benevolent when what you want to do serves your interests.

You're a politically vulnerable naif if you don't know how to practice that kind of skepticism.

And you're a calloused cynic, who doesn't know much about history either, if you think that abolition, suffrage, (choose your group) rights were only supported by those directly affected, who stood to directly benefit.

Sometimes, some folks,
especially those mocked religious ones,
have a pretty decent track record of action in helping to cure societal problems, based solely on good will and the brotherhood of man. (The thinking goes: All men are created equal in the eyes of God. or, Whatsoever you do, to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.)

I know it's hard for those more calloused cynics to believe, let alone understand why people would altruistically dedicate their lives to helping others, and having actual real-life results to show for it (see... Catholic schoolteachers -- Sisters and Brothers) but it's sad when the skeptics try to sweep everyone else into their cynical, factually untrue, worldly ways of thinking.

Maybe for you, but thankfully, not for All...

-------------
ADDED: Do they still teach this one in the public schools by any chance?

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mighty in the mightiest;
It becomes the thronèd monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this scepter'd sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute of God himself,
And earthy power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That in the course of justice, none of us
should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, the strict court of Venice
Must give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

ADDED:

"Isn't that a cool thing about parables? It opens up the conversation and give us a new jumping off point.

Think of the parables in the Bible. Why did Jesus use parables? Why didn't he just give us straight answers? I'd suggest that he did it because he valued conversation and the development of the human mind as he invited us into a religion of choice and not just accepting orders."

Actually, I don't think He really wasn't being all deep and hypothetically challenging like a law professor. The opposite, in fact.

He understood that some could comprehend the words he was sowing through his parables, and some -- already infected by the cynical Satan, perhaps? -- would miss the point and let the Gospel truths fall by the wayside.

Remember, he was speaking to illiterate farmers and fishermen who instinctively knew the ways of their trade.

Jesus says he is teaching in parables because he does not want everyone to understand him, only those who are his followers. Those outside the group are not meant to understand them. Thus one must already be committed to following Jesus to fully understand his message and that without that commitment one will never fully understand him or be helped by his message. If one does not correctly understand the parables, this is a sign that one is not a true disciple of Jesus.

Seriously ?

By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Hank Williams Jr., the singer whose opening segment had been removed from ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” earlier this week for remarks he made on Fox News Channel comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler, has been dropped permanently from the broadcast.
ESPN made the announcement Thursday morning.

That's just nutty.

------------------
UPDATE:
What the country signer -- better known as an entertainer, not a diplomat or deep thinker -- actually said:

Williams, famous for his "Are You Ready for Some Football ???" battle cry before the start of Monday Night Football, compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler in an interview on Fox and Friends on Monday morning.

In the interview, Williams slammed the GOP presidential candidates and said House Majority Leader John Boehner's golf game with Obama was a huge mistake.

"You remember the golf game they had? That was one of the biggest political mistakes ever. That turned a lot of people off. It just didn't go over," he said.

Williams said, "It would be like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli leader] Benjamin Netanyahu."

ADDED: Turns out, it was Hank's decision:

On his own website, Williams said he was the one who made the decision.

"After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision," he wrote. "By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It's been a great run."
...
Williams, through his publicist, said on Monday: "Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme -- but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me -- how ludicrous that pairing was. They're polar opposites and it made no sense. They don't see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the president."

Tuesday, he issued another statement."The thought of the leaders of both parties jukin and high fiven on a golf course, while so many families are struggling to get by simply made me boil over and make a dumb statement," Williams wrote on Facebook and his website. "I am very sorry if it offended anyone."

Williams' song has been part of "Monday Night Football" since 1991 on both ESPN and ABC. He is a Grammy award winner who also was a three-time entertainer of the year from the Academy of Country Music in the 1980s.

Thursday Tunes.

I clipped a cartoon that oddly ran in the Spring, or out of season iirc, showing one green fir asking an orange oak, next to a red maple ablaze amidst a virtual color palette of autumnal trees (paraphrasing):

Am I the only one that finds this all a bit ostentatious?

Heh. I kid, because -- have I mentioned? -- I love this season.

Today's drive to work was accompanied, on the LiteFM station, by Blondie singing The Tide is High. Always good times, when the tides are high...

Enjoy a bit of Blondie then,
from way back in 1981.

"It's only words..."

"But words are all they've got,
to take attention on the more important issues away..."

The NYT today opines that it was Rick Perry's family burden, not just to paint over the rock, but to destroy it totally, so no others would be offended.

However much paint was actually applied to Mr. Perry’s rock, it was not enough to wipe away the memory of a national shame.

That's the point.
Keep the shame.
But in perspective: there, in the past. Look, we've come a long way baby...

Plenty of ethnicities have faced their own tragedies. They don't continue blaming all others, and if they do, they are mocked. (Those Irish who still hold a bitter hatred for all people English, in this day and age in America? Why, they'd be missing out on some nice Canadian friends, say, if they lived in Florida... or they'd lose out today, to hold descendants responsible for the sins of the past.)

Did we tear up Twain's books, or put them off limits -- painted over, or *shudder* destroyed -- because they revealed something about the nation's collective past?

Then why do that with this simple rock? Why blame the Perry's for not being firebrands, and continuing to stay with the trends in the black community: first, Negro Rock, then, Black Rock, now: another paint job please Perry's: African American rock.

It's silly, and it's pandering.
The nation faces tough times for working people: black, white, Spanish, and all other minority immigrants. Trying to blame the sins of the past, on plenty of white-skinned folk who neither participated nor benefitted by the slavetrade, and who had their own "overcoming" to concentrate on...

I wonder if, instead of pointing darker fingers and elite white fingers at others, we could move past the "shaming" and try to build better tomorrows, while acknowledging the unvarnished past.

No -- that's obviously hoping for too much in these times and seasons.

Kind of surprising, to me anyway.

Had I spent the past two years sitting in an Iranian prison, for hiking someplace that perhaps in retrospect was not the best chosen path, I like to think I'd have spent an awful lot of my mental time in solitude planning what I'd be doing first, once I was again free...

Shane Bauer of Minnesota though, appears to be still mulling his future plans:

Two weeks after walking out of an Iranian prison, Shane Bauer is still adapting to freedom - and trying to figure out what to do with it.

Bauer and his fiancee, Sarah Shourd, were spending time this week at his mother's rural Minnesota home, taking long walks, singing songs by a fire and cooking meals together. They aren't spending a lot of time talking about the time Shane lost to prison, Shane's mother, Cindy Hickey, said.

"His biggest task is not to get too overwhelmed with things to do and trying to enjoy the simple fact that he's free," Hickey said Tuesday.
...
Bauer, a freelance journalist, grew up in Onamia, Minn., and Fattal, an environmental activist, is from Elkins Park, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb.
...
Hickey said her son was recovering from anemia and an ulcer, but he was "not as gaunt" as he had been. On Tuesday, he went out in the morning for a three-mile run, she said.

Bauer proposed to Shourd while both were in prison. Asked whether the couple had firmed up wedding plans, Hickey said no.

They have been exploring their options for when they will speak in detail about the imprisonment, Hickey said.

She said Bauer has described periods in prison where he felt like he was losing time, but he doesn't appear to be angry.

"Shane has ambition, he has voice, he wants to continue doing things for other people," she said. "He wants to take this experience and do something positive."

Perhaps, they're just waiting for the "offers" to roll in, and evaluating their future lives based on that. (And singing songs together 'round the campfire in the meantime...)

Me though?
I like to think I'd have more concrete plans for my remaining life, beyond that episode. Amanda Knox too -- will her life simply be "the Imprisonment, and beyond..." now?

Like with fame perhaps,
I'd sure hate to miss out on the day-to-day activities of regular life. The planning, the doing, the getting the job done, however you define your life's work. I see Shane "wants to continue doing things for other people."

I like to think I'm as generous and giving as the next guy, but perhaps, and this might just be the isolatoe (see here and here) in me, a streak of self-selfishness is what somewhat separates those of us who like to suck the marrow from the bare bones of freedom, from those who like to wait, evaluate offers, and dedicate their tomorrows to "continue helping others."

Nttawwt, it's just ... there's an awful lot more, and something to be said, for just practicing independence and savoring it daily.

Happy hump day.
Working here -- 7:30 a.m. county executive board meeting (I think a 2+ hours numbers meeting scheduled at that time is more to make one swallow the numbers unquestioningly, perhaps? Especially when the tax levy has to be established Today! And I'm one of the younger ones in attendance, myself...), but we'll get several stories for next week's paper done by week's end, so it all adds up, I suppose.

From the InBox.

Unseasonably cold, snowy winter -- meaning colder and snowier than usual -- predicted in the north-central Midwest. Chicago expected to get hit with major snowfall:

“The brunt of the winter season, especially when dealing with cold, will be over the north-central U.S.,” said Paul Pastelok, a senior meteorologist and leader of the AccuWeather.com Long-Range Forecasting Team.

AccuWeather forecasts 50 to 58 inches of snow for Chicago, in line with the 56 inches we got last season. But snowfall during a normal winter is closer to 30.2 inches.

And temperatures will be 2 to 3 degrees below normal, also in line with last winter, when it was 2.4 degrees below normal.

However, Pastelok said snowfalls will be more frequent and less heavy — at least early in the season — and will be followed by intense overnight cold snaps.
...
Pastelok’s advice? Don’t wait to break out the cold-weather gear.

“I think we get a nice warm six to 10 days going on here in October, everyone’s spoiled and then all of a sudden, boom, it turns around. Especially mid-November. I think we start getting cold fast,” he said.

So perhaps, the woolly caterpillars I've been noticing in the gardens, and the tremendous acorn output is indeed apt. We shall see, eh?

Hat tip: Mom.

--------------
ADDED: And once again, happy birthday Norm. 96 -- woo hoo!

Early in the traditional season, the NBA...

will not be missed. Later on in winter though? We'll miss the sport, all right. If they're all dumb enough to let it go that long...

Here's Ethan J. Skolnick, writing in the Palm Beach Post sports section:

The mood was dour, and the situation dire, at least for anyone still hoping for a full NBA season.

After two days of intense negotiations in New York, the two sides failed to resolve enough of their differences to even agree to a date for another meeting, let alone to end the lockout that began July 1.

For that matter, they couldn't even agree Tuesday on what exactly was discussed.

The owners claimed that in addition to dropping their demand for a hard salary cap, they proposed a 50-50 split of basketball revenues (the players used to get 57 percent; the owners initially offered 46 percent).

The players denied that they were offered an even split.

"We were not able to make the progress we hoped we would make," said Commissioner David Stern, representing the owners.

There's no denying the calendar.

Thus, Stern officially canceled the rest of the pre-season, and indicated that if no deal is struck by Monday, the first two weeks of the regular season would be canceled as well.

The Race Card, The Gay Card...

and now, longstanding liberals must play The Mormon Card ... against frontrunner Mitt Romney. Sad sad sad what we descend to, eh Susan, when we view all of politics as "games". (and increasingly, you're found wanting on the merits.)

(Funny, but if it were a Jewish card being played, I think she'd be the first to stand up and object. Call it a hunch...)

There was a reason (or a host of them) why he didn't get the nomination last time. It certainly wasn't because of any love affair between conservatives and John McCain. Frankly, it's not at all clear to me that Republicans, much less the country, will support a Massachusetts Mormon who used to be a moderate. I'm from Massachusetts, the home of liberals and lobsters. I have nothing against Mormons or moderates. But then, I'm a liberal who likes lobster.

Appealing alliteration, all righty, but please: other than the increasingly desperate libs, who is saying that Republicans would choose not to vote for the best qualified candidate based on his private religion?

Just pointing out the facts here.

She concludes (because criticizing, that simply won't work for even one column, you know. Might be used against Him.)

It's true that many people are disappointed with Barack Obama. But it's also true that when compared to the Republicans, at least as of today, he looks pretty darn good.

Yep. Compared to those ... LDS believers, that is. (You can almost hear the scorn in her voice.)

Charles Lane in the WaPo...

runs alongside, then jumps aboard the "Remand" bandwagon, or more truthfully, the Deny Cert group. (Plenty o' room for all of youse now...)

For all the eagerness with which the law’s opponents have rushed into court to stop it, and for all the urgency with which the Obama administration now demands that the court uphold it, the individual mandate, and the accompanying financial penalty, does not take effect until 2014.

Surely this lawsuit can wait until there’s a plaintiff who’s actually been told to get insurance, or else. In the meantime, Congress could well repeal or change the law -- or at least the mandate -- thus rendering the whole constitutional dispute moot. Letting the political process run its course is what judicial restraint is supposed to be all about.
...
Five years ago, the finest appellate lawyer of his generation stood before an audience of Georgetown University law students and explained that, for the Court, restraint is often the better part of valor:

“If it is not necessary to decide more to a case,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said, “then in my view it is necessary not to decide more to a case.” He and his colleagues need to remember those words, and live by them, now.

I guess ... they can hear us now.