Party in Slow Motion: A Summer Sun Open Thread

Where's sricki been? (2.00 / 3)

She may not be able to make California, but I'm betting a weekend of sun and fresh water would do that Moose some good.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon

---

by: Chris Blask @ Wed Jul 04, 2012 at 16:14:27 PM UTC

Sigh (2.00 / 4)

Wish I could be there.  Have fun, guys.  BTW, here's a wonderful 4 July piece from Charles P Pierce for the day.

Happy 4th July, my socialist, Kenyan-loving "librul" friends; long may we prevail.

---

by: Shaun Appleby @ Wed Jul 04, 2012 at 22:47:54 PM UTC

check out this link (2.00 / 3)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06...

...especially the slideshow. the photos are a stunning and a powerful reminder on how often, and easily, we can go astray.

i've visited the remnants of the tule lake, hart mtn, and minidoka "relocation centers", and i would encourage any and all to do same given an opportunity. for me, the experience was profound. i left each with a wounded heart.

this article also reminded me of the time when my grandfather took me to see the WWII isolation/detention block for german POWs at Beale AFB. I was just a kid, but I vividly remember the writing and drawings on the walls -- they didn't look 'old'; it was as if they could have been made only days before. I asked my grandfather if germans had made the markings. He said, "men made those, and they happened to be german". i got the impression that this cold and forbidding structure, with it's lamenting, humorous, and occasionally titillating graffiti, was the result of regular men (both those detained, and their captors) who were caught up in something much larger than themselves. i think my grandfather felt it important to separate and recognize the humanity of these people from the generalized historical context.

i miss my grandfather very much.

Earth is the best vacation place for advanced clowns. --Gary Busey
 

---

by: fogiv @ Thu Jul 05, 2012 at 17:41:58 PM UTC

this got me to thinking about the German POW block (2.00 / 1)

so I googled some images.

http://www.yubaroots.com/milit...

unfortunatly, it sounds like much or all of the art/grafitti is now lost.

Earth is the best vacation place for advanced clowns. --Gary Busey
 

---

by: fogiv @ Thu Jul 05, 2012 at 17:50:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The archaeology of our history is so scant. (2.00 / 2)

We just haven't been at it that long. You can see in this example, though, why it is so rare to find anything at all. Most things simply wear out, are disintegrated by time or are torn down to build something else.

We are going to be close to Gatlinburg, TN and will be skiing up there in the winter. Watching a Revolutionary War documentary or two it strikes me just how few people we are talking about in that era, even in the Civil War period, and how few artifacts will have survived the various ravages of time to still exist today.

Keep up the good work finding those scant and scattered clues, young Irishman.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon

---

by: Chris Blask @ Thu Jul 05, 2012 at 21:25:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Crikey (2.00 / 5)

There seems to be no limits to self-parody among Republicans these days (h/t Huffington Post via Charles Pierce):

[Montana State Representative Krayton] Kerns said the moving of 60 bison from Yellowstone National Park to the Fort Peck Native American Reservation this winter is part of "a four step process to crush the republic and bring our populace into perfect dependence on big government - just as Karl Marx dreamed." He said the first part involved Walt Disney's creation of the popular fictional deer "Bambi," which he said allowed people to raise the stature of animals and caused the teaching of the environment in schools, which he said stopped worship of God

Charles P Pierce This Week in the Laboratories of Democracy Espquire 5 Jul 12

Is is just stupidity, cognitive dissonance or something that will eventually show up in DSM IV?

---

by: Shaun Appleby @ Thu Jul 05, 2012 at 22:45:40 PM UTC

unfuckingbelievable (2.00 / 4)

the onion should sue.

Earth is the best vacation place for advanced clowns. --Gary Busey
 

---

by: fogiv @ Thu Jul 05, 2012 at 22:53:08 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'm buying a house. (2.00 / 4)

A lovely little house built in 1906 with the cutest little backyard (10 rows to mow ~ I counted).

I keep waiting for the bank to come back and say it's all been a colossal joke and there's no way I qualify but we're two weeks from closing and so far so good.  If anyone's ever in Swanton, VT come look me up.

And I'm not sure I want to see any of you in any state of dishabille.  :)  Keep yer clothes ON.

"When Fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in teh stupid and waving a gun" ~ Esteev on Wonkette

---

by: HappyinVT @ Fri Jul 06, 2012 at 01:06:48 AM UTC

If this doesn't get to you ... (2.00 / 3)

President Obama stopped shaking hands for a moment today so that he could embrace a sobbing woman whose uninsured sister recently died of colon cancer.

snip

As the president was working the rope line, he consoled a crying woman who was telling him a story. Pool reached the woman, Stephanie Miller, by phone and got these details.

   Ms. Miller said her sister, Kelly Hines, died from colon cancer four years ago because she could not afford proper health insurance. She had no employer-provided coverage

   "Even after she was diagnosed with cancer, she was told her income was too high for Medicaid," Ms. Miller said.

   "I thanked him for the getting the Affordable Health Act passed," she said. http://thinkprogress.org/healt...  

Of course, the leadership on the Right would shake their heads in sorry, proclaim it's too bad, and then change the subject.

"When Fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in teh stupid and waving a gun" ~ Esteev on Wonkette

---

by: HappyinVT @ Fri Jul 06, 2012 at 01:11:59 AM UTC

how long before the first conspiracy theory? (2.00 / 3)

feh, it's already afoot no doubt. sad:

A restaurant owner in Akron, Ohio who served breakfast to President Barack Obama on Friday morning died hours later of a heart attack, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

Josephine "Ann" Harris, 70, complained of "fatigue and a tingling feeling" shortly after Obama left her family diner, Ann's Place. She was taken by ambulance to Akron General Medical Center, and by 11:18 a.m., she was pronounced dead from an apparent heart attack.

Harris met -- and hugged -- Obama just after 8:00 a.m., when he stopped in unannounced for breakfast. Harris' sister, Frankie Adkins, told the Beacon Journal that meeting Obama was likely a "highlight" for her sister since she was a big fan.

"She loved Obama," said Adkins.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Earth is the best vacation place for advanced clowns. --Gary Busey
 

---

by: fogiv @ Sat Jul 07, 2012 at 14:43:55 PM UTC

I read POTUS called Harris's daughter. (2.00 / 3)

And the Daily Caller tweeted the Obama might have lost a voter - 'cause they're classy over there.

"When Fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in teh stupid and waving a gun" ~ Esteev on Wonkette

---

by: HappyinVT @ Sat Jul 07, 2012 at 15:58:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

We had a turtle die just after an old friend visited a number of years ago. (2.00 / 3)

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

The excitement may well have been the trigger, our local Moose doc could likely comment on that. I'm sure the president does not miss that point. But how the late Mrs. Harris would see the whole thing is something else entirely.

It could be that Mrs. Harris had worked very hard all her life taking care of her family without any grand fanfare and as her final act hosted the president of the United States. She might count that a good life, all things considered.

Because each of us did or didn't do something, by my age in life it is propable that some unseen chain of events has translated our actions into someone else's death. By leaving the house five minutes late we end up being the last car to make a yellow light and the car behind us is stuck behind the red, only to be t-boned by a truck when the light turns green.

Heck, my mom held a surprise birthday party for her mother's 80th birthday. She did have a heart attack, but she was such a stubborn Southern cuss she didn't want to spoil the party so went to the doctor the next day. Lived to be 96.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon

---

by: Chris Blask @ Sat Jul 07, 2012 at 19:02:31 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Hiya MOOOOOSE (2.00 / 4)

I just came off 5 fantastic days on me parent's motor yacht, yup the biggest problem I saw the last week of so was their commodores dinghy broke. boo to the hoo, hey it was important to them.  We motored to Catalina and even went on the back side of it to a place called Kat Harbor just across and isthmus from where Natalie Wood died.  So right now the world is still bobbing and I haven't read any news.  I stared into the milky way until I got star drunk every night outside of the normal drunk as they had a red white and blue cocktail theme at the club.

Ever been to Catalina?  It belonged to the Wrigley family and is essentially california scrub hills transplanted 30 odd miles off shore.  Anyway seems like the earth remained on its axis these last few days.

"I honor the place in you where Spirit lives
I honor the place in you which is
of Love, of Truth, of Light, of Peace,
when you are in that place in you,
and I am in that place in me,
then we are One."  Namaste Friends!

---

by: Adept2u @ Mon Jul 09, 2012 at 01:00:28 AM UTC

Cubbies used to do spring training there back in the 1920s (2.00 / 1)

I've been a few times.  Snorkeled, hiked, drank a ton, but that old ball field was my favorite part.

Earth is the best vacation place for advanced clowns. --Gary Busey
 

---

by: fogiv @ Mon Jul 09, 2012 at 17:17:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Quote of the Day (2.00 / 4)

From 2008 CPAC speaker Jonathon Krohn on the reaction of his former fans to his turn away from conservatism:

No wonder I fit in so well when I was 13.

Jonathon Krohn - I was a right-wing child star Salon 8 Jul 12

Heh.  Well put.

---

by: Shaun Appleby @ Mon Jul 09, 2012 at 04:43:44 AM UTC