Althouse: Blue snow morning.

December 2, 2007

Blue snow morning.

28 comments:

Rube said...: Ann,
I am really enjoying your photography. Thanks.
Bob; 12/2/07, 8:34 AM
ricpic said...: Blessed winter morning, steely blue.
One thing I know is true for sure:
Underneath summer's silly filagree
Lies winter: clean and lean and pure.; 12/2/07, 9:45 AM
rhhardin said...: DUTCHESS OF BERWICK. Agatha, darling!

LADY AGATHA. Yes, mamma.

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Will you go and look over the photograph album that I see there?

LADY AGATHA. Yes, mamma.

DUCHESS OF BERWICK. Dear girl! She is so fond of photographs of Switzerland. Such a pure taste, I think.; 12/2/07, 9:51 AM
Ruth Anne Adams said...: Blue on blue.
Heartache on heartache...; 12/2/07, 11:04 AM
Unknown said...: Ann Althouse's post on Hillary's handling of the hostage crisis was mentioned by Howie Kurtz on CNN's Reliable Sources this morning....; 12/2/07, 11:44 AM
Diecast Dude said...: And to think out here in California people are wrapping themselves in three parkas because it got all the way down to forty last night...; 12/2/07, 12:19 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Martha: Thanks for the tip. Did anyone record it? Or is there a transcript?; 12/2/07, 12:58 PM
AmPowerBlog said...: Go check "Reliable Sources." CNN might have the transcripts, if they're not too busy cherry-picking debate questioners.

American Power; 12/2/07, 3:57 PM
Unknown said...: The transcript from CNN's Reliable Sources is available online. Relevant to althouse.blogspot.com:

GERAGHTY: I have a hard time believing anybody's going to vote one way or another in New Hampshire based on her reaction to this crisis. Did anyone really expect her to fall to pieces, to be turning to a crying, screaming, panic attack? You know, she's -- you know, this is a woman who was senator on 9/11 and -- so I have no gripe about it, but I can't understand what's so surprising about the way she handled this.

KURTZ: On that point, Jim, blogger Ann Althouse -- if we could put this up on the screen -- writes, "Did she do anything other than canceling her appearances -- which she had to do to show decent sensitivity -- she made a lot of ineffectual phone calls. Afterwards, she used the occasion to make a show of her emotions."

I don't know. So now, Linda Douglass, we're getting into kind of reading her mind as to why she reacted the way she did.

DOUGLASS: And again, I would imagine that anyone who had -- who saw young people being held hostage all day long, especially if they work for you, man or woman, is going to see it as a parent. So it just shows you that reporters cannot sometimes look at these candidates as people. And I think that's what happened here.

KURTZ: Right, exactly. Sometimes -- sometimes, once in a while, there should be things that are just divorced from politics, but I guess that's inevitable.; 12/2/07, 4:11 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I see that Howard Kurtz quoted me on CNN's "Reliable Sources" this morning. The subject was Hillary Clinton's appearance after the hostage incident. He shows video of her saying that line that I was scripted and badly so:

"It, you know, affected me not only because these were my staff members and volunteers, but as a mother, it was just a horrible sense of, you know, just bewilderment, confusion, outrage, frustration, anger. I mean, everything at the same time."

And he also quoted that embarrassingly fawning description by Glen Johnson:

"A regal-looking Hillary Clinton strolled out of her Washington home, the picture of calm in the face of crisis. The image, broadcast just as the network news began, conveyed the message that a thousand town hall meetings and campaign commercials strive for -- namely, that the Democratic presidential contender can face disorder in a most orderly manner."

Kurtz asks if there is anything wrong with "the political handicapping so soon after this awful incident?" National Journal's Linda Douglass says "there is just no way to avoid that," and indicates that it was a chance to see how HC behaves in a crisis, and the National Review's Jim Geraghty says "I can't understand what's so surprising about the way she handled this."

"KURTZ: On that point, Jim, blogger Ann Althouse -- if we could put this up on the screen -- writes, "Did she do anything other than canceling her appearances -- which she had to do to show decent sensitivity -- she made a lot of ineffectual phone calls. Afterwards, she used the occasion to make a show of her emotions."

"I don't know. So now, Linda Douglass, we're getting into kind of reading her mind as to why she reacted the way she did.

"DOUGLASS: And again, I would imagine that anyone who had -- who saw young people being held hostage all day long, especially if they work for you, man or woman, is going to see it as a parent. So it just shows you that reporters cannot sometimes look at these candidates as people. And I think that's what happened here.

"KURTZ: Right, exactly. Sometimes -- sometimes, once in a while, there should be things that are just divorced from politics, but I guess that's inevitable."

Well, I take Douglass to be criticizing me, but my problem was with the AP report. It's fine for Hillary to come out and say a few appropriate things. I don't think "bewilderment, confusion, outrage, frustration, anger.... everything at the same time" was very well put or an impressive display of presidential demeanor, but I wouldn't have said anything about if Johnson hadn't come out with that "regal" and "calm in the face of crisis" nonsense and effused about how much it would help her campaign. It shouldn't help her campaign, because she did nothing significant, and, worse, if it seemed to help her campaign, it might inspire other lunatics to try to help someone else by copying the playbook. It's all very stupid.; 12/2/07, 4:12 PM
Unknown said...: LINK for CNN Reliable Sources transcript: Click here: CNN.com - Transcripts; 12/2/07, 4:13 PM
rhhardin said...: It's fine for Hillary to come out and say a few appropriate things. I don't think "bewilderment, confusion, outrage, frustration, anger.... everything at the same time" was very well put or an impressive display of presidential demeanor, but I wouldn't have said anything about if Johnson hadn't come out with that "regal" and "calm in the face of crisis" nonsense and effused about how much it would help her campaign.

That's what Lincoln called Polk.

Again, it is a singular omission in this message, that it, no where intimates when the President[Polk] expects the war to terminate. At it's beginning, Genl. Scott was, by this same President, driven into disfavor, if not disgrace, for intimating that peace could not be conquered in less than three or four months. But now, at the end of about twenty months, during which time our arms have given us the most splendid successes--every department, and every part, land and water, officers and privates, regulars and volunteers, doing all that men could do, and hundreds of things which it had ever before been thought men could not do,--after all this, this same President gives us a long message, without showing us, that, as to the end, he himself, has, even an imaginary conception. As I have before said, he knows not where he is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man. God grant he may be able to show, there is not something about his conscious, more painful than all his mental perplexity!; 12/2/07, 4:26 PM
Zachary Sire said...: Verizon Town is looking beautiful; 12/2/07, 4:47 PM
Anonymous said...: I guess we aren't going to hear Ann "opine" about Rudy's Shag Fund...

Guess it's safer to hope it goes away and never be forced to rationalize it or make excuses for it.; 12/2/07, 4:50 PM
Unknown said...: Ann notes: I don't think "bewilderment, confusion, outrage, frustration, anger.... everything at the same time" was very well put or an impressive display of presidential demeanor, but I wouldn't have said anything about if Johnson hadn't come out with that "regal" and "calm in the face of crisis" nonsense and effused about how much it would help her campaign"
Howie Kurtz quoted your post as a counter to the fawning AP report. Linda Douglas missed your point but I do not think Kurtz did.; 12/2/07, 4:59 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Martha: Thanks.

Verso: You missed the post... and you dare insult me? Loser!; 12/2/07, 5:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Ann,
I apologize for my oversight.; 12/2/07, 5:12 PM
Palladian said...: "Regal: of, resembling, or fit for a monarch, esp. in being magnificent or dignified"

Telling, the choice of that word.

Vivat Hillary Regina Americæ!; 12/2/07, 5:18 PM
Anonymous said...: Ann,
I really must be a loser, because I can't find any post about Giuliani since the one in which you stated your intention to opine later. Did you really post a follow-up with your thoughts about Rudy's "Shad Fund"? If so, I can't find it.; 12/2/07, 5:19 PM
Ann Althouse said...: The post is what it is. If you have something to say on the subject, say it there. I don't spell everything out. But there is a post, and I haven't swept it under the rug, so your snark is out of line.; 12/2/07, 5:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Oh, so you haven't posted anything new about it since you said "I'll opine later."

That's fine -- you're (obviously) under no obligation to post about anything. But that's what I was referring to in my first post in this thread: Ever since you stated your intention to "opine" about Rudy's shag fund, I have been looking forward to hearing your take on it, primarily because I know that you (at least appear to be) a Giuliani supporter. And it would have been interesting to see how you handled it.

Sweeping it under the rug is "handling it," too. And it's a lot easier sweeping it under the rug than addressing it.

PS. Please don't take my posts personally. Just because we disagree about some political things doesn't mean there has to be such acrimony.; 12/2/07, 5:42 PM
hdhouse said...: My grand daughter of 8 months saw the blue snow in Grand Army Plaza. Her first snow. Nothing like it.; 12/2/07, 6:24 PM
Trooper York said...: Nothing is as beautiful as the sense of wonder of a child who sees her first snow. Soon grandpa can take her on a sled and roll down the hill, laughing and singing. You have a lot to look forward too. There are few things in life that are as cool as being a grandpa. I am sure you will be a great one. Congrats!; 12/2/07, 6:34 PM
From Inwood said...: Two beautiful pictures of a natural snow job lead into a comment about the snow job of a fawning reporter!

Seriously, I found your pix magnificent. These capture the romance of NYC as opposed to the harsh reality like the ones you took of a formerly gritty industrial street in DUMBO (York? No, it was Font; ah, yes, I remember it well), now what? A gritty post-industrial, pre-Renaissance street.

And, I'm gonna nag you one more time: go to Green Wood cemetery & take pix of the mausoleums (the final & funniest folly of the rich). And there's more there, Gertrude: you can take your wonderful pix of the best view of the Manhattan skyline (true) from the highest point in Brooklyn (so I'm told)!; 12/2/07, 11:58 PM
From Inwood said...: Prof A

Sorry, that street reference should've been "Front", not "Font". Am I growing old? Oh no, not you.

Spellcheck 101: if one makes a typo & the result is a recognizable word, spellcheck won't save one.; 12/3/07, 12:02 AM
Kurt Shoens said...: Not that it relates to the above fun discussion, but if you look at the top photo carefully you can see Ann's shadow taking the pic!; 12/3/07, 8:59 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Kurt, LOL. I didn't see that.; 12/3/07, 9:41 AM
rhhardin said...: See if you recognize any bridges in this Tibetan song you tube; 12/5/07, 6:34 PM