March 5, 2017

At the Death Valley Rainbow Café...

Look Closely — a Rainbow

... you can talk about whatever you want.

(And please think of shopping through The Althouse Amazon Portal.)

36 comments:

Fernandinande said...

I have a nationalist joke!

During the Mexican Inquisition the Spanish invaders were torturing Mexicans to convince them to convert to whatever-it-was, and there was one Mexican holdout who yelled a lot in a very high-pitched voice. The Grand Inquisitor ordered "The squeaky greaser gets the wheel!"

David Begley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David Begley said...

The editor-in-chief of the NYT should order his reporters to read the Althouse blog in any matter citing the NYT or fake news.

tim in vermont said...

Why David, I am sure they know the facts of the matter and choose to ignore it. Like Pravda, they are not interested in the kind of bourgeois truth that might satisfy the lowly likes of you and I, but a higher truth that will lead to a one-party state and and endless supply of cash, perqs, and power.

bagoh20 said...

It's pretty cold here today in the desert (Las Vegas) and tomorrow (high of 57), then in a couple days it will be in the mid 80's. Isn't it great that with a car you can endure almost any weather in comfort while viewing the scenery over hundreds of miles a day chosen at will. In the past it was months of torture to see the same. We have lived in a lucky time thanks to the miracle of the automobile. I love that machine.

Michael K said...

Cooling trend in Tucson tomorrow, too. 83 yesterday, 77 today and 70 tomorrow.

The Ocotillos are leafing out and blooming. Spring is here.

cf said...

OK, so it won't go away. and maybe with this photo as the cafe, I can speak of it.

but forewarning, i speak of cruelty here that I do not / can not look at directly myself, i must shield my eyes. and so it haunts me, this true thing. so don't read any more then if your wisdom says so, instead please toast the best in all humanity and read the next comment, i toast the path that is yours.

---

what won't let me go

is the reality of The Bataclan.

Unexamined it is.

The reality of events on the upper floor -- not those many who were shot in the dancehall (bless their friggin free-thinking hearts!) by bullets in the initial siege of the terrorists, Not from that first part. it is after the seige and takeover, on the upper floor, where the . . . humans? . . . who held their captives had a few hours to murder them. There is much to examine here.

Of the 90 who were killed that night, how many were on the dancefloor and how many in the upper room? I can't find it, but my heart is heavy for those of the upper room, and through them, my heart is heavy for all free peoples now.

The reports of what happened up there was cloaked, and not even told to the French government by the police until months later. And it should be told and and told again and LOOKED AT. SEEN.

We need to see and think quietly on this. and I say that as the most squeemish girly girl on gore that there is. but even I must make myself look.

Like the Buddhist monk self-immolating in protest of the vietnam war.

like the children running towards us naked from the burning napalm.

Like the falling man.

I think we need to look at the morgue bodies of those tortured alive, witness to their dehumanizing death, gouged while conscious in their most human places to their most ghastly end.

We need to look quietly and fully at this evidence of what we must face.

i will let it be with that then. sorry to have to let such ugliness loose. godspeed to you.

Sam L. said...

Michael K, as I recall, the ocotillos leaf out after every rain.

harkin said...

If you travel a few hundred yards up Furnace Creek from the campground, there is a secluded pool where the fish come out and nibble on you, feeding on your dry skin.

It's probably not yet warm enough but if so it's a real experience.

Laslo Spatula said...

From the Fauxhaus Blog:

Hillary coming to terms with her new life

This of course, can mean so many things as to make it truly mean nothing at all. In her 'old life' she was not President, and in her 'new life' she is not President: how much has really changed...?

Oh...but she EXPECTED to be President. THAT is what has changed. Her 'old life' hinged on Expectation, not actual living. What kind of life can you really have when you are waiting to become President, anyway? You have to not make waves, yet inspire the people you need to be inspired: in other words, you can never truly be yourself. I would think that is an 'old life' not worth living, but High Expectations can make people put up with a lot, evidently.

Perhaps they mean to imply that she has made peace with her 'old life', but the article doesn't really support that idea: there are too many Tweets to suggest Peace.

And, at this point, does anyone care about Hillary's new life? My guess is that the Democrats do not want to relive any of her Failed Expectations through New Insights, and the Trump Supporters would only be interested in potential Schadenfreude.

So, in the interest of the latter options, I have put together a poll:

When you read "Hillary coming to terms with her new life" your first expectation is for it to be about:

1. A Fresh and Invigorated Hillary, Healthy and at Peace with her past, finding fulfillment as a Grandmother with ample time for the children.

2. A Depressed and Reclusive Hillary, that -- like Greta Garbo -- just wants to be left alone.

3. Hillary has admitted herself into Rehab for her Alcohol Addiction. She will be proud to be an example of conquering addiction to other hard-working women playing on an unequal field.

4. Hillary has finally come out of the closet as a Lesbian.

5. Please tell me this isn't about the running for NYC Mayor thing.

I am Laslo.

David Begley said...

2 and 4.

She saw "Sunset Boulevard" and will soon have Huma move in with her.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Was just walking at the local rails-to-trails and noticed a few instances of where prople had bagged their dog poop and then left the bag laying beside the trail, making the environmental impact actually worse. Apparently in the belief that someone else, perhaps the government, would pick it up. Seems like the perfect metaphor for the American Left and the hypocrisy of middle-class environmentalism.

Sprezzatura said...

Cracker,

You can't know what sorta person left those.

But, you do know yourself. Presumably that means you did the right thing.

stever said...

Death Valley is too close to LA. I certainly don't see that as a Meade kinda place but anything is possible.

Michael K said...

Maybe Bill will build her a small house on a corner of the Chappaqua property for her and Huma, sort of like FDR did for Eleanor.

Marc in Eugene said...

Snow here in Eugene for three hours this morning; at noon, it's all gone (and indeed scarcely any of it 'stuck' for more than a few minutes). Also, saw the first hummingbird of the season earlier.

Captain Drano said...

https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/838468359125680132
Jonathan Pie: Public Space Protection order:The Fear of Language.

Great video. (Short too.)

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

PB,

Perhaps inevitably (or deliberately), you missed the point altogether.

Marc in Eugene said...

When I take the trash out, from the office, I often find baggies of dog shit on top of the (locked) dumpster; I suppose that's better than just leaving it on the sidewalks.

I like dogs-- don't misunderstand me-- but people walking their dogs who expect me to move off the sidewalk to accommodate them are rather irritating.

tcrosse said...

6. Hillary becomes like Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. She sits by the remains of the election night banquet in her election night outfit and pines for what might have been.

JRoberts said...

Laslo RE: Hillary:

I've been thinking about the photo of her on the airplane, smart phone in hand, while "reading" the USA Today article about Pence's e-mail use while Governor of Indiana.

1) Since when did Hillary start flying commercial? Wouldn't that require her to be in the presence of the much loathed "deplorables"?

2) If she was actually on a private jet, then we know the odds of the photo being staged just jumped dramatically.

I still say she's a fake and a criminal.

Bad Lieutenant said...

i will let it be with that then. sorry to have to let such ugliness loose. godspeed to you.
3/5/17, 12:21 PM

cf, sorry, huh? info? links?

Jupiter said...

Bad Lieutenant said...

"cf, sorry, huh? info? links?"

Google Bataclan torture.

Jupiter said...

Google Mumbai hostage torture

Jupiter said...

google pilot burned in cage

google Yazidi sex slaves

google Boko Haram

google child suicide bomb

google decapitation video

google muslim refugees settled us

rehajm said...

Since when did Hillary start flying commercial?

Where would she need to go that she'd have to fly?

tcrosse said...

Since when did Hillary start flying commercial?

Since the bribes dried up.

John henry said...

If you are heading east out of Las Vegas on the Interstate, check out Valley of Fire state park about 40 miles north/east of LV.

Spectacular!

I left my hotel one Sunday morning and drove up, spent some time seeing the sights, then drove out the backside of the part which connects with the Lake Meade recereational area. A National Park Service venue so your senior card gets you in free. It follows Lake Meade around coming out at Hoover Dam.

If you've never done the Dam tour, go. Very interesting.

Than a 30-40 minute pleasant drive back to LV.

John Henry

Henry said...

When you read "Hillary coming to terms with her new life" your first expectation is for it to be about:

Reading the wrong card at the Oscars.

Gahrie said...

he Left, for the moment, cannot seriously compete in the theater of ideas. So rather than play the ball, it’s play the man. Socialism failed, but there is some juice to be had from convincing people who are not especially intellectually engaged and who are led by their emotions more than by their intellect — which is to say, most people — that the people pushing ideas contrary to yours are racists and anti-Semites, that they hate women and homosexuals and Muslims and foreigners, that they could not possibly be correct on the policy questions, because they are moral monsters. This is the ad hominem fallacy elevated, if not quite to a creed, then to a general conception of politics. Hence the hoaxes and lies and nonsense.

This is why it is important to push back against the idea that emotion is a valid part of reason. When you rely on emotion instead of reason (or somehow as an aspect of reason) you get people playing to emotion instead of reason, and people reacting to emotion instead of reason.

Any reasonable person would acknowledge that Trump is the most gay friendly president we have ever had. Gay activists should be partying in the streets. Instead all you read on social media is that Trump is going to round up gays, strip them of their rights and put them in camps.

The Democratic Party relies on fear because it works. Fear works because people allow their emotions to overrule their reason.

wildswan said...

"Blogger tcrosse said...
6. Hillary becomes like Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. She sits by the remains of the election night banquet in her election night outfit and pines for what might have been."

buwaya said...

My great-grandfather was a very wealthy man. The family manse was a huge place, decorated by my great-grandma with furnishings imported from Spain. He had what was at the time one of the finest Spanish-language libraries in the Islands, especially for modern works. He would often have scholars visit in search of something the universities didnt yet have. Which is curious, a bit, as he was born a peasant and was wholly self-taught.

He also had the habit, popular at the time, of following the news on maps. He had a wall dedicated to maps. If there was a war somewhere it was the family custom to read the communiques in the newspapers (they took dozens of newspapers), and mark the situation with pins, on the appropriate map. So the whole family knew what was up with the worlds wars. This was their thing, his sons and daughters and their spouses and children. I understand they started the custom with WWI.

So they traced the Spanish Civil war, and WW2, until the Japs took Manila (Dec 1941). Then they took down the maps, as that was a suspicious activity, and besides, the news became hard to get. And, eventually, the Japs burned down the house, Spanish furniture, books, and maps.

I have the same bug as my great-grandpa and his family, but this active sort of curiosity doesnt seem to be very common now. Perhaps it is because, among other things, wars aren't really defined by geography anymore, or not too many people have a wall to dedicate to maps. Or there just isnt that inclination or ability to be distant.

The current American cold civil war for instance, deserves to be followed, with a degree of personal distance and objectivity, as it is important. Unfortunately I can't think of a way to follow it graphically.

Big Mike said...

I see that the case of the man who blew a drone out of the air after it was spying on his sunbathing teenaged daughter finally came to trial -- and the judge tossed all of the charges. Including discharging a firearm in a residential area. Three cheers for privacy rights!

Michael K said...

"He also had the habit, popular at the time, of following the news on maps."

When I was in 8th grade, I had a map of Korea pinned to the wall of my bedroom to keep track of the war. It actually began when I was in 6th grade so it may have been earlier.

Michael K said...

"Than a 30-40 minute pleasant drive back to LV. "

Be aware that spring is the time when severe Santa Ana winds can come up suddenly.

My son rolled over a new GMC Jimmy coming back from Lake Meade Easter week when he was in college.

Fritz said...

Iridescent clouds, not rainbows. Usually caused by ice crystals in the clouds. I see them from time to time.

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/irid1.htm