... we're not in Austin. We're halfway home to Madison. Greetings from Springfield, Missouri — one of America's many Springfields — where we won't be much longer. It's time to throw our things back in the car and head straight back into winter.
Please use this post to talk about whatever you want. I'll be reading on the iPad in the car.
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103 comments:
And you will be reading for a while. Pretty good snow up here, take it slow and easy.
Did you have barbecued eggs and barbecued toast for breakfast? Washed down with barbecued coffee?
Winter took the day off yesterday but it's back with a vengeance today. Hopefully the snow will be over by the time you hit Wisconsin.
Have a safe drive. Snowing right now. I imagine the morning commute for drivers was not fun today (I walked).
One happy, healthy Wyatt Randall Hunt born on January 15, 2012.
Congratulations to the Hunt family.
Does Andrew view AA as a mother figure and he is goes all out tantrum in a bid for attention?
Congrats, Freeman. Just read the news out loud and Meade said "Great!"
Congratulations to the whole Hunt family!! Lovely name!
"I'll be reading the IPad in the car"
I haven't been able to read in the car since I was a little kid - nausea to the point of vomiting.
Congratulations, Freeman, to you and your family -- and welcome Little Wyatt!
Wally, possibly the most knowledgable Deutz tractor mechanic in the entire US, lives down in the SW part of MO. His wife, Sabrina, makes sure parts get shipped and keeps Wally from being overrun with phone calls by Deutz owners/mechanics who need help repairing tractors. They are wonderful, sweet, salt-of-the-earth fly-over country people.
EPS regs killed air-cooled diesel tractor production. So Wally is busy helping all us radiator-hating tractor owners keep the best green tractors working.
I didn't enjoy winter months driving in my former semi-driver life. Too many days of going from beautiful sunny mornings to rain-ice (the worst)-snow.
Safe driving and good scenery as you head back.
Hi back from Springfield Massachusetts!
(Next town over, if you want to quibble.)
VW = repitism hatred of repitition
congratulations Freeman, IMO, that's a great name choice
Congratulations to the Freemans!
Condolences to the Althouses.
I spent 1 winter north of the Ohio River. I call that my time in white hell. If I ever leave the southeast again, it'll be to go to the southwest.
Lessee, the nor'east 's got yankees and snow.
The midwest has got grass and snow.
The southwest and the west 's got cacti and sand.
And the nor'west 's got libtards and snow.
Why would I ever leave SEC country?
Congratulations Freeman!
@ Gail, yeah that's the problem I had driving too. (that and the loss of hearing, the high blood pressure, and the sleep apnea)
Congrats to you and your family, Freeman! Great name, too! Glad to hear the little guy is doing well...how are YOU doing?
Best wishes to the newly minted Wyatt Randall and the rest of the Hunt family.
Big recall signature turn-in rally today. Any guesses how many? I'm guessing 850K.
Well, who'd a thunk it: two "walt's tractors" in MO. The real "Dr. Deutz" is in SW MO.
@Carnifex: with the irregular off-duty times, sleep apnea must have been horrible to deal with.
@GM: without 1.5 Million sigs...who cares? Forcing a recall is a ways away from winning a recall.
Congratulations Freeman!
I'll take the under, Garage.
dang, I may have to be impressed. The local on-line newspaper just put a story up about the state Dem party delivering 3,000 pounds of recall petitions containing 1.5 million sigs.
Now who's the challenger?
Congratulations Freeman Hunt!
Of course, you are aware that Wyatt Randall will seriously impact your time to comment at Althouse! You will be missed!
Congrats Freeman.
"garage mahal said...
Big recall signature turn-in rally today. Any guesses how many? I'm guessing 850K."
I heard over 800K...the question is how many are valid. While I think that enough will be, the amount will decrease significantly, which will undermine this "no need for voter ID" crap (thanks recallers!), and be quite a bit less than is required to actually win a recall. It's gonna be fun watching the recall effort do everything possible to avoid the real reason this is happening...greedy public employees.
GM asks how far will the fraud go. I'm guessing they will get 2 million. Put a few people in jail for it, and it would stop. I bet GM and most other Dem politicos would fight enforcing such laws. Why?
Congratulations and blessings to Freeman and the Hunts!
Springfield is just a stones throw from Branson. You may never get back this way again.
If you have never been to the Cathedral Basilica at St Louis (and, er, are going home through St Louis) and are interested, it is well worth while. Has the largest installation of mosaics in the world and, IMHO, well worth a visit. Map
Congratulations, Freeman!!
Spending a day allowing your backs to recover.
Very good.
I'm sure Meade will massage those parts of your body numb from all that sitting until the feeling returns.
And you'll reciprocate.
And, yes, many congrats, Freeman. Long life and much happiness to the little guy.
(it is a guy, right? so many unisex names anymore...)
Wyatt Randall Hunt.
Sounds like a sheriff you don't want to cross. I like it.
Congratulations, Freeman.
It's gonna be fun watching the recall effort do everything possible to avoid the real reason this is happening...greedy public employees.
The vast majority of people that signed are not public workers.
Congratulations, Freeman!
Christopher in MA said...
Wyatt Randall Hunt.
Sounds like a sheriff you don't want to cross.
Especially if his 4 brothers are named James, Virgil, Morgan, and Warren and everybody calls his best friends, "Bat" and "Doc".
I have nice, if fuzzy, memories of Springfield, MO. When I was a child, we lived for a couple of years in Warrensburg, MO, near Whiteman AFB, and our neighbors were a big Irish-Catholic family from Boston, the Holmes', whose daddy was the defensive coach for the Central MO State Mules. We'd drive with them to games in Springfield, before there was an interstate, stopping for lunch at a homey little place in the mountains (the Ozarks?) that served fish caught from the stream it overlooked. I remember the poverty along that route, with some homes actually patched with scavenged billboards. And the wonderful cold of a midwestern football game in an outdoor stadium, with a Thermos full of hot chocolate. Lots of stuff for a kid to take in and squirrel away for memories.
"The vast majority of people that signed are not public workers."
But they yearn to hop aboard that gravy train. A job where you can get your boss fired if he doesn't take a whole pile of money from poorer people to give you a raise? Sweet!
Oh, and the free benefits.
Coming through St Louis? Dinner's on me.
Congratulations Freeman and family! Does he do those little scrunches and squeaks? I just love that in babies.
Drive safely Meadhouse. It's that slippery kind of snow here in the greater Chicago-Milwaukee metroplex.
wv: prets
Congrats to Freeman.
Kids are the best.
I gots lots of advice, but I'll keep it to myself. As I should.
CONGRATS! The world needs more rugrats and yours appear to be in good hands.
(have you had to beat him yet?)
Congratulations Freeman and the Hunt Family. The world can't have enough Capricorns :-)
I don't get the animus towards Paula Deen. So? She cooks with butter, sugar and other non politically correct items to make comfort food.
No one says you have to eat that mac and cheese or red velvet cake with cream cheese icing all day or every day. Have some self control people!!!!!
With all the crap going on the the world, we have to focus on a little chunky old lady from the south and beat up on her because she makes pies and developed diabetes? Why it is almost like........>SQUIRREL!!!
Since we ate the last piece of the sour cherry pie last night......I think I'll go make a white chocolate cheese cake with raspberry glaze in honor of Freeman's new son and Paula Deen.
Congrats Freeman!
@Freeman: Congratulations! Allow me to repeat what I said after the birth of your last little one: "You are the strength of America."
All the best to you and your family, Freeman Hunt! Great name.
I'll be reading on the iPad in the car.
I'll be reading on the iPad in the car.
Catching up on your Andrew Sullivan, I presume?
Wow. 20,600 sigs turned in for recall of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Lori Compass, all 5"1' of her, pulling off the Herculean task without any help of any groups inside the state. Nice job Lori!
Nice going Freeman.
Another adventure begins.
Another adventure begins.
I just want my youngest adventure to stop hitting his sisters when they have his toys. Maybe I'm not beating him enough.
"garage mahal said...
The vast majority of people that signed are not public workers."
Really? What "vast majority" is that? So state workers, municipal workers, local and university teachers and TA and their spouses are overshadowed greatly by "others." Because if that's true, you have a problem.
My kids spent nine hours sledding yesterday, only coming in for tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches with hot chocolate.
I watched them and had a dream. That one day my children will live in a nation with a AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's.
Yay, Freeman!!
I'm sure "all 5'1" of her" had plenty of help from groups OUTSIDE the state.
I also didn't realize that one's height had any effect at all on one's ability to organize a recall effort. Would she have gotten even more signatures if she were taller?
garage mahal wrote:
The vast majority of people that signed are not public workers.
This assumes the vast majority of signatures are people.
Happy birthday, Wyatt Randall Hunt!
Just think, by the time we're debating whether Mitt deserves a second term young Wyatt will be commenting here, under Mother's supervision of course.
Governor Walker is currently live on Rush's show discussing the recall. Its the start of the second hour....unusual since Rush rarely ever conducts interviews.
There's only one Springfield that matters. Of course, after more than 20 seasons we still don't know exactly where it is.
Peter
Blessings to the Hunts.
I wish you all a deep and restful sleep.
garage mahal said...
Big recall signature turn-in rally today. Any guesses how many? I'm guessing 850K.
You're boring.
Go away.
Speaking of birthdays guess who was born on January 17th? Michelle Obama.
I discovered this via a quick glance at the junk mail folder. There at the top was a missive from Slow Joe's long suffering wife which invited me to sign Michelle's e-card.
Think I should?
You're boring.
Go away.
Sorry, can't do that.
Garage's boast has no chance of being true. Where are they going to get those signatures except from the only stakeholders who care about the recall?
"Like free health care?"
"You mean versus paying for it? Um, yeah."
"Okay, if you sign this maybe we'll get to keep it."
"And if I don't sign?"
"For sure you'll have to pay."
"Okay." (signs.)
Is there some other argument for the recall besides public workers thinking they deserve lots of free stuff other taxpayers don't get? I haven't heard it.
You can turn in a gazillion signatures, by the way, and this recall is still a loser. The public workers' needs and hopes and dreams and boundless sense of entitlement aren't going to motivate normal people to support this thing.
Where are they going to get those signatures except from the only stakeholders who care about the recall?
When I first read that, it seemed that skateboarders were going to be the only signers of that petition. Things would be a tad different, were that the case, would they not?
@Scott M - especially if they were skateboarding in the snow, or is that snowboarding?
wv: diatica
Yay! Congratulations Freeman!
@freeman: congratulations! gordon would be so proud :)
@gail and @carnifex: yes indeed, and i had the mountains west of denver that i had to traverse just about every single working day. i got spoiled with automatic chains. i lost the auto chains when i changed companies, and losing that convenience really had an impact on my back pain, attitude, and productivity. last year saw a record amount of snow on vail pass. i was chaining up at least twice a day 4 or 5 days a week. thank god i got fired :)
edit: blast blogger for the lack of ability to edit a post.
Garage's boast has no chance of being true. Where are they going to get those signatures except from the only stakeholders who care about the recall?
There are 170k public workers in Wisconsin. Do the math.
What would you possibly know what people in Wisconsin are thinking anyway?
Stodder's prognostications have bested yours, historically.
"garage mahal said...
Wow. 20,600 sigs turned in for recall of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Lori Compass, all 5"1' of her, pulling off the Herculean task without any help of any groups inside the state. Nice job Lori!"
Wow, that about how many votes the Democratics received in November. 2010 afainst Fitz.
Of course he carried the district with 68% of the vote.
Heh.
Lori Compas is just another selfish ass sucking on the tit of the WI taxpayer. Her husband is a UW-Whitewater geography professor. Whatever that is.
And I apologize to Garage, seeing as I mistook his boast about signing the recall petitions twice as evidence he had therefore signed in duplicate.
On reading back, I missed that he'd signed 2 separate petitions.
I still oppose your efforts at parasitism, but you come by it honestly.
"garage mahal said...
Garage's boast has no chance of being true. Where are they going to get those signatures except from the only stakeholders who care about the recall?
There are 170k public workers in Wisconsin. Do the math."
There are more than that. 283,000 in total. Now add all the spouses. Even higher.
I still oppose your efforts at parasitism, but you come by it honestly.
Thanks buddy.
I'm sure the recall can count on non-state public workers at the city, county, and federal levels.
That of course is the problem. At some point, the combination of public employees plus public dole citizens (welfare, Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare) outnumbers the taxpayers.
And that, as Adam Smith first predicted, spells the end of a democracy.
"Pogo said...
And I apologize to Garage, seeing as I mistook his boast about signing the recall petitions twice as evidence he had therefore signed in duplicate.
On reading back, I missed that he'd signed 2 separate petitions.
I still oppose your efforts at parasitism, but you come by it honestly."
Whoa there, slow down. It is true regarding the recall petitions, but garage frequently posts falsehoods regarding Walker/recalls.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the many congrats and clever comments.
I would write more but what with there being a new baby at home...
... gotta go...
So 1,000,000 + sigs for Walker.
Congrats, Freeman!
At some point, the combination of public employees plus public dole citizens...outnumbers the voters.
And that, as Adam Smith predicted, spells the end of a democracy.
A debased democracy in which the parasitic vote their way into the pockets of the productive can unfortunately go on for a long long time. Already has been.
The movie Fargo comes to mind as you head into the north country.
In the movie,"Marge" was about to give birth while her hubby was designing a stamp with ducks on it. That brings to mind Mother Freeman, why I could not tell you.
Congratulations, Freeman!
Of course he carried the district with 68% of the vote.
and now has a Republican challenger.
Pogo said...
Blessings to the Hunts.
I wish you all a deep and restful sleep.
Ha, that's funny.
You are a meanie, Mr. Pogo.
garage mahal said...
"Wow. 20,600 sigs turned in for recall of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald."
Wow. 44,529 votes were turned in to elect Scott Fitzgerald in 2010, and 47,351 in the election before that.
Recall is a cancer in any well-formed political system, I'm afraid, and it ought to be treated. Rapidly.
Garage, guess I should've taken the "over." Of course, maybe we should wait until the fakes and duplicates are thrown out. Uh, maybe not, I guess if you folks are committed enough to fake that many signatures, we might as well just proceed with the election!
So who do you like in the primary?
Freeman, congratulations! And welcome, Wyatt!
1,000,000+? Well, I guess congratulations - still trying to figure out how they were able to find another Madison in the last 4 weeks. I live in Madison and am out and about all the time and was never approached by a recall signature gatherer - the ones that I drove by always looked lonely.
Anyway, I guess the unforgivable sin for Walker was not talking to the unions. Or maybe people are blaming him for unemployment? Regardless, this is a blow to the Republicans, momentum for the union party. Now they just need a candidate - they will probably come out of the woodwork now.
Is that the bridge where all those bats hang out?
Congratulations to Freeman on a new child, and to Wisconsin which produced a million signatures to recall Walker-- a good day all around.
Springfield, Mo. is my hometown. The high today there is 35 degrees. It is understandable that Althouse would want to get out of Wisconsin in winter since it is so cold but it sucks to have to drive so far in bad weather.
One advantage of living in a warmer part of the country is that you tend to go on vacation in summer (to get away from the heat) when it is a lot easier to drive (no ice or snow and the summer days are longer, giving way more hours of daylight driving, better views while driving, and more hours for touristing).
There are 170k public workers in Wisconsin. Do the math.
And millions of dead people!
@Freeman Hunt: Congratulations.
Our first grandson, Bradley Dakota Drici Wright, was born on December 23, 2011, and my wife and I are over the moon over him. His wonderful Momma and Poppa have a delightful son to nurture and develop.
Cheers about your brand new Hunt family person.
Yeah, if you've got 283K public workers, plus retirees, plus spouses, plus Dem activists, govt contractors, I can see a million people, signing petitions in the vain hope that by ousting Scott Walker, suddenly free money will rain from the sky, allowing the public-sector holiday from history that started in the 1990s to continue.
In other words, you'd have California, which I do know about.
Walker is doing the public sector workers an immense service in peaceably conforming their appetites to reality, unlike in my state, where the fantasy is bought and paid for every day -- which doesn't make it any more true -- which will inevitably, one of these years, suffer a very hard landing, with riots, strikes and the final destruction of California as a viable place to do business.
The unions don't like it, but cutting back on the cost of government by cutting back on what workers are paid and given in benefits is the way to avoid layoffs and the destruction of public services. Liberals should run with this agenda, but because they are the tail on the organized labor dog, they fight it.
So, Mahal, I predict today and your million sigs -- it's your high-water mark. And you should enjoy it, and you should trash-talk realists like me. This is your day! You won't get many more.
@Stodder: While you were gone, garage and I had that discussion. Garage wants the californication of Wisconsin. I kid you not.
Who could look at California and say "that's a model of what I want government to look like"?
Who could look at California and say "that's a model of what I want government to look like"?
Someone who likes really fast choo-choo? No, wait...that whole thing is falling apart faster than it can be propped up with crappy legislation.
@Simon: I think garage's argument was that the planned economy wasn't at fault--it was just that the CA rich shirked taxes. Nothing surprising nor original there.
the planned economy wasn't at fault--it was just that the CA rich shirked taxes.
Now the shoe's on the other foot. He knows absolutely nothing about CA, which has a high income tax on the big earners, and a pretty damn high one on the middle class, too.
The rich didn't shirk taxes, but as Thomas Frank has even acknowledged, their money did! When the economy went south, so did state tax revenues, because most unbiased experts see CA as too dependent on the upper quintile's income, which is also the most unreliable due to the swings in fortune applying to that class.
I know, Garage is already preparing some kind of "cry me a river for the rich" reply, as if by saying what I just said, I'm complaining on behalf of the rich (since I'm not one of them by far). But it's just a fact.
What Garage and the Wisconsin Dems need to be working on is a way to get the rich to pay the same amount of tax every year whether they actually earn the income for it or not. Some system whereby everyone has to pay the highest marginal rate to the highest single-year income they ever had, adjusted for inflation. So even if Rom MIttney only made $500,000 in 2011, you could tax him 11 percent on the $5,000,000 he made in 1991.
Either that, or face reality: Scott Walker is right, and the other high-tax, high-cost states need to emulate him. The public workers cost too much and don't produce enough relative to their rising cost. That's the problem.
What Garage and the Wisconsin Dems need to be working on is a way to get the rich to pay the same amount of tax every year whether they actually earn the income for it or not.
Well, that's new twist on taxing "unearned income"--but it's absolutely brilliant! Garage will respond by saying that once someone is rich in Wisconsin, they are rich for life and just need to keep paying "Forward!"
__________
"Forward" is the Wisconsin motto.
It's hard to be Swiftian on the tax issue -- some public policy geek might embrace it as a serious idea. I wonder if the VAT started that way. Some guy had a few drinks (I'm sober) and said, "Like, what if we taxed stuff every time someone touched it?" I'm almost sure cap-and-trade was dreamed up at a pot party.
Congrats Freeman and family on the arrival of Wyatt. Love his name!
Thank you to those whose congratulations came after I posted before. Exciting times!
Note also the time stamp of this comment. Yow!
Hopefully you were here on Saturday--it was a lovely, lovely day.
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