June 10, 2017

In the Semi-Circle Café...

P1130895

... complete your thoughts, begin your thoughts... we'd like to hear from you.

(And we'd like you to use The Althouse Amazon Portal if you have any shopping to do. Maybe you need an aesthetically pleasing lawn mower like Meade's.)

43 comments:

mockturtle said...

In the British press this morning the news that the three London terrorists had attempted to rent a large truck rather than the small van they used but there was a problem with payment. Otherwise, the death toll could have been a LOT worse.

JackWayne said...

I've seen several articles implying that part of May's failure in the vote was the recent attack and her spineless response.

mockturtle said...

Also, Boris Johnson is making a bid for Tory leader/PM. It should be a slam-dunk with his Trumpish hair and all. I wanted him to take the job instead of May and I'm not sure why he didn't, as it was his for the taking right after the Brexit vote.

JackWayne said...

The British establishment doesn't like him. They compare him to Trump.

Gahrie said...

@ Althouse:

Do you believe that 20% of the women who attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison will be raped?

Otto said...

Can't wait for tomorrow's scripture lesson from the NYT.

mockturtle said...

The British establishment doesn't like him. They compare him to Trump.

Exactly. May is British establishment as was Cameron. How's that working?

David Baker said...

The part I like is the recent discussions about building interment camps in the UK - a place to keep the 3,000+ Muslims now under surveillance. Seems like a good start.

Big Mike said...

Took wife and in-from-out-of-town son to see "Wonder Woman." And at an Alamo Drafthouse no less! Great movie. Nice to see CGI used to advance the story and not just for its own sake. Gal Gadot is wonderful in the role. I still say the trailers weren't very good, but I believed the twin 93% ratings at Rotten Tomatoes. And they're right.

But you were wrong, Althouse, when you suggested that we males would be enticed to the theater by being told that we can't see it. OTOH, enticed into the theater by being told it's a good movie? Yeah, that works just fine.

David Baker said...

...(internment)

chickelit said...

Boris Johnson needs some roaring oratory. Otherwise, the Brits will choose Sharia (Corbyn) and his Leftist logic: "Never has so much of so many been owned by so few."

JackWayne said...

NASA selected 12 astronauts from 18,000 applicants. The 12 pretty much match up statistically with all the major people groups. Unexpectedly.

chickelit said...

I been following the antics of the noted anti-semite Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame. Here's one disgruntled fan's opinion of a Tulsa show: Link. It's simply amazing that there are as many lefty trolls in that forum as there are here.

Bill said...

Meade: dapper and dappled.

LordSomber said...

[fnord]

Ralph L said...

Now all you need is some bent grass.
her spineless response.
So vote Labour, its leader is pro-terrorist?

Ralph L said...

Amazon says min. cut is 1", so no bent grass.

MayBee said...

I'm sitting here knitting. Which makes me think of Irene. And Irene makes me think about Kentucky Liz, who we haven't heard from in a while and I hope she is ok.

MaxedOutMama said...

There was some sort of incident on board a flight from Slovenia to London. The plane made an emergency landing in the Cologne airport, the passengers were made to exit the plane via those emergency chute things, and then the police swarmed it. Ultimately a bag was blown up outside the airplane.

I have no idea whether this was real or not - supposedly passengers heard some talk about bombs and explosives and alerted the flight crew, who told the pilot. But they interned all the passengers for a while, anyway. Life in the current era. My hunch is that it is much ado about nothing.

mockturtle said...

...(internment)

Works either way. ;-)

mockturtle said...

MayBee reports: I'm sitting here knitting.

Shrouds? :-D

Comanche Voter said...

I don't know just how old you have to be to have mental alertness exams as part of your annual physical. But I'm old enough. Before I see the doc, one of his nurses comes in a gives a little test; what day of the week is, what city are we in, what county are we in, count down backwards from 100 by seven etc. And the kicker is "Who's the President of the United States?"

Well Nancy Pelosi is pushing 80 these days--and I'm afraid she'd flunk the exam since she repeatedly refers to Trump as "President Bush". The old girl is losing her grip.

Ken B said...

People seem not to have noticed May *won* the election. That's what most votes and most seats means, winning.

Laslo Spatula said...

Need a break from politics?

Need corn-dog action?

Laslo Films presents "The Girl On The Phone!"

"The Girl On The Phone!"

Tucker calls a girl he met at the bar.

Interpretive Dance.

Corn Dogs.

I am Laslo.

Kevin said...

Ann, I thought you were going to finish the post like this:

"Maybe you need an aesthetically pleasing lawn mower like mine."

Of course that would preclude the Amazon link.

Kevin said...

I like the press headlines about how half of Britain's voters want May to quit immediately, as if it's a shocking finding.

I'm assuming those are the half that didn't vote for her. This is what passes for news? It sounds more like advocacy.

Kevin said...

Is anyone out there like me? Don't really want to comment, but can't get enough clicking on cars and street signs?

Deep down I know, when the robots roll down the street killing people but not shooting at cars and street signs, I played a key role in the destruction.

Saint Croix said...

The Girl on the Phone is funny.

Although you about lost me with that damn music at the beginning.

I did a short one time with dolls, a horror story. There was decapitation and ketchup involved. Or maybe it was salsa. When I saw my work on the big screen I was like, "oh shit, I'm the evil kid from Toy Story!" And I never worked with dolls again.

Kevin said...

Another theory of Trump's Tweeting. Not sure it's the entirety of his plan, but I do think it's part of non-traditional Republican Trump's thinking.

"On top of all that, now imagine that you consider nationalism, resurrecting America as it once was, negotiating from strength, returning to older notions of masculinity and “building a wall” as the major issues of the day. You don’t see the traditional Republican concerns with cutting taxes and repealing Obamacare as all that salient for reversing America’s deterioration, even if you are willing to go along with those reforms. Nor, given your nationalism and unilateralism, do you see alienating allies as a major cost of opining so openly.

In that rather pessimistic view of the world, it might make sense to give up entirely on the idea that your administration will accomplish much in the way of policy, at least as the concept is traditionally understood. Instead, you might be thinking of shifting the window of policy debate over a 10- to 20-year period. That is, you might be hoping the American public will be thinking in more Trumpian terms a few administrations from now, even if outwardly they have rejected your legacy. It then will be the case that mainstream politicians will work to implement some Trumpian ideas through more traditional channels."

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-07/there-s-a-strategic-reason-for-trump-s-tweets

Kevin said...

Do you think the press understands the difference between a travel ban and a muslim ban?

I don't.

Hagar said...

In a parliamentary system the party elects a leader. The leader then leads the party through a general election where the citizens get to vote on the party representatives in their district. Theresa May is the Conservative representative for Maidenhead.

The Labour party is still leaderless. The party just has not replaced Jeremy Corbin yet.
It looks like the gain in Labour Party votes is just a faction of the Scottish National Party abandoning the SNP and coming home to Labour.

The Conservative loss may be a faction of the Conservative Party staying home and not voting.

Theresa May had to hold her nose and go to the DUP. While she dislikes Labour, she positively loathes the Liberal Democrats and the SNP and they know it, so she could not go there for a coalition partner.

As it is, she will stay on for a while until the dust settles and people get their bearings, then the Conservatives and Labour both will elect new leaders and another general election will be called.

Hagar said...

And Mrs. May may well be re-elected party leader. Who else do they have?
Perhaps someone will show up.
I have read Boris Jonson's book on Churchill, and I was not impressed.

Hagar said...

In the U.K, the biggest news from this last election really should be the downfall of the Scottish National Party.

mockturtle said...

In the U.K, the biggest news from this last election really should be the downfall of the Scottish National Party.

Yes! At least the weakening of the SNP.

mockturtle said...

Hagar asks: And Mrs. May may well be re-elected party leader. Who else do they have?

You may be right but she is going to have to stiffen her spine as well as her upper lip.

Original Mike said...

Minor drama in the neighborhood yesterday. High winds brought down a tree onto power lines which started a deck on fire 4 doors down from us. Fire department couldn't find the house (hope they do better when it's our house!). Without power for about 8 hours.

Hagar said...

You may be right but she is going to have to stiffen her spine as well as her upper lip.

There as here, the spines of the competitors are quite cartilaginous by comparison, and their complaints about the party leader is largely that his/her spine is too stiff!

David Baker said...

"Works either way. ;-)"

Every western country should have at least one Muslim internment camp at he ready. And two would be better.

ALP said...

A lawmower?? A lawnmower?? I thought for sure Meade used a scythe!

ALP said...

Laslo:

"Girl on the Phone" great take on the Bob Newhart style!

Utah Chris said...

I scanned the comments and there were no questions about the push mower being used in the photo. It appears to be the Fiskars 18 Inch StaySharp Max Reel Mower available on Amazon for 179.99 that comes with free shipping if you are with Amazon Prime. It is rated 4 stars - is that accurate?

ALP said...

Ahhh...I stand corrected on the lawnmower issue. But there was a lively scythe discussion last year or so - could have sworn Meade was using a scythe. We have had scythe on the brain lately - there are many YouTube videos out there of weed whacker vs. scythe - and the scythe wins.

rhhardin said...

Scythes I get from scythesupply.com

For a lawn start with an "outfit" straight snath and 26" grass blade, bar peen hammer, stone and some anvil. They put way too much bend in the bent snath. With experience you can go to a 36" grass blade but it's too fragile to learn with.

For grass the edge should be pounded very thin (which means a weak edge if you run into woody stuff) for best results.

Get all 3 anvils, your taste will vary, so 2 will be extra with the "outfit."

However you don't get the lush lawn that Meade gets with the mower. It's a different style of cut.

A scythe isn't good around posts and trees because there's no efficient cutting pattern. It's great along straight borders and under fences. It can't cut the inside of a corner though. Superior to everything on hills.