Althouse: At the Friday Café...

April 6, 2012

At the Friday Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

76 comments:

Scott M said...: Has it occurred to you that you're skipping days are long since over? Is that a good thing?; 4/6/12, 4:09 PM
Wally Kalbacken said...: Snow will obliterate that scene, wherever it is, in a matter of weeks. The winter in Wisconsin wasn't a winter at all. This has been a trick.; 4/6/12, 4:18 PM
sunsong said...: Beautiful!; 4/6/12, 4:28 PM
pm317 said...: My crab apple is blooming and among the fruit trees, it has the best blossoms.; 4/6/12, 4:57 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: Forecast here for Easter Sunday is 86. Too hot. Fortunately by next week it's back in the sixties. Thermally, not chronologically.; 4/6/12, 5:07 PM
edutcher said...: Always makes me happy to see the trees blooming.

Hope it's warming up where you are.

Ty, where are you getting 86?; 4/6/12, 5:13 PM
traditionalguy said...: It's a Good Friday.

The Masters is making Augusta, Georgia the center of the world for a week.

what more could we ask for?; 4/6/12, 5:18 PM
Tarkwell Robotico said...: A NASA scientist says slavery wasn't really a big moral issue.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/06/nasa-scientist-climate-change; 4/6/12, 5:43 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Skipping. Scott, you landed on something there I think.

I saw Adam Richman on a show called Man Against Food. He's a rough looking fellow who eats a lot. He would be easy to ignore were it not for his friendliness, his genuine curiosity and his avoidance of catch phrases that characterize the celebrity chefs. So I watched him.

He was departing the kitchen behind the cook and conveying to the cameraman behind him, "Oh goody, now we're going to do ... " and with his back now to the camera, he skipped a hop, showing the back of his foot. So he appeared to be large dark departing blob with the back of the foot showing, then the other foot, then the first foot again, three footsteps at the most that depicted a child wasting movement, as lambs do, skipping childishly, sloughing excess energy swirling off the back of the foot, as airplanes bleed speed for landings and young children bleed energy to match pace.

I copied the movement. Paid attention to the departing foot. Then the back and forth. It threw off the balance and required all kind of muscular correction along the leg to accept the full weight and account for the weight of the foot cantilevered behind. Back and forth I went balancing each step. It changed the way I walk, It cleared space for the leg swing forward and it propelled me forward more aggressively. I liked it.

The next day without thinking of any of that my regular walking changed. My legs were spring loaded. They automatically shot forward with no effort at all, in fact the effort was in holding back.

This whole last week I've been goofing on that, exaggerating the hold of the back step to see what that exaggeration does. I've been waking up with cramps in weird places which tells me

something.

So what then. The moral of this skipping story is not arrived at yet.; 4/6/12, 6:03 PM
chickelit said...: The Masters is making Augusta, Georgia the center of the world for a week.

I gotta ask why this issue never came up before in its long, long august history. Has the economy improved so much that there's little else to talk about and report on?; 4/6/12, 6:06 PM
Carnifex said...: After winning the NCAA Mens Basketball Championship earlier this week, the SEC continued to cover itself with glory when Head Football Coach of the University of Arkansas Bobbie Patrino was slightly injured when he wrecked his Harley Davidson Motorcycle while not wearing a helmet.

After telling police, and school administrators, that he was riding by himself when he wrecked, it was later discovered that instead of wearing a helmet, he was wearing his newly hired 25 tear old secretary. His wife couldn't be reached for comment, but university regents were not pleased, and placed him on administrative leave.

Bobby is more popular in Arkansas than the governor, so to be riding sans helmets, in the daylight, was asking to be caught, so take that as you will.; 4/6/12, 6:14 PM
Fen said...: /via Insty

Who Is Responsible for NBC’s Zimmerman Edit? We Have a Name.

Executive Producer of the Today show, Jim Bell.; 4/6/12, 6:20 PM
Penny said...: More likely that the economy is bad enough to finally "give in" to the pressure, chicklit.; 4/6/12, 6:24 PM
Penny said...: Private clubs with high membership fees take a beating in a down economy. Even the clubs that were always happy to accept women into their fold.; 4/6/12, 6:29 PM
chickelit said...: Penny said...
More likely that the economy is bad enough to finally "give in" to the pressure, chicklit.

Well, our POTUS, being the anti-JFK, believes "an ebbing tide strands the yachts first."

Seen from sea level, perhaps the Augusta event looks sufficiently "up there" like a rock revealed at low tide and thus a legitimate target of ire in an attempt to "bring it down."

That's how I read your remark, Penny.; 4/6/12, 6:31 PM
chickelit said...: Obama did run on a promise to lower the seas.; 4/6/12, 6:32 PM
Penny said...: Provided we pass "Cap and Trade" to avoid the rising seas of global warming.; 4/6/12, 6:36 PM
Paco Wové said...: "My crab apple is blooming and among the fruit trees, it has the best blossoms."

Same here. The NWS is issuing frost-laden warnings of doom for next week.; 4/6/12, 6:36 PM
Penny said...: Let me make my comment simpler.

The economy is THAT bad, that even this prestigious club needs to rethink their economic model.; 4/6/12, 6:40 PM
chickelit said...: Provided we pass "Cap and Trade" to avoid the rising seas of global warming.

Yes, that was supposed to be his second miracle--after causing Gabrielle Giffords to awaken.; 4/6/12, 6:41 PM
chickelit said...: The economy is THAT bad, that even this prestigious club needs to rethink their economic model.

Thank you, Penny. Your tone of resentment fits my model.; 4/6/12, 6:43 PM
Mike Tanis said...: If Obamacare is such an easy call then why shouldn't we expect the decision to be unanimous?; 4/6/12, 6:46 PM
Penny said...: If you were implying that I'm resentful of private clubs, and even private mens' clubs, you're wrong.

There was a day...way back when...that you were right though. So I'll give you that!

But then I grew up.; 4/6/12, 6:55 PM
Penny said...: I can still remember getting red in the face talking to my male friend about why he should or should not be allowed to sit down with a cigar and a whiskey, and play poker with a group of his buddies wherever the heck they felt like playing in their "private, all male, club".

I was all up into the exclusion of women while he was all up into what "private" REALLY meant.; 4/6/12, 7:34 PM
Penny said...: It's not illegal to have a private club. It's not illegal to charge entry fees to join the club. It's not illegal to set your own rules, within your private club, assuming, of course, that you aren't breaking any "private club" laws.

Do I have to LIKE any of the above?

Of course not.

No more than you have to LIKE that I will smoke cigarettes in my own, very private, home. I can even serve red wine to my all female knitting group that meets every Wednesday, with NO husbands allowed!

Both legal.

BOTH "private" by law.; 4/6/12, 8:04 PM
Penny said...: BUT...

Things change, and rather dramatically, when the economy gets bad enough.

The economy? It's REALLY that bad.; 4/6/12, 8:08 PM
Penny said...: Private clubs charge big bucks for entry, and usually, just to cover things like their extravagant clubhouse and greens, which made them better than the FREE golf course down the road

They have mortgages and maintenance fees, all easily paid, assuming membership numbers don't vary too much.

So what if some members leave because they can't afford entry into this private club? Always more where they came from.

Until there aren't.

But the mortgage still needs to be paid, and no self respecting golfer will play on untended greens, so soon enough, this "private" club is looking just to survive.

Women are looking pretty good about now. Eh, gentlemen?

And they come rushing in! Because they can, goddammit!

ha ha; 4/6/12, 8:41 PM
rhhardin said...: John Derbyshire in trouble.

Mathematician meets moral posturing.; 4/6/12, 8:49 PM
Joe Schmoe said...: The economy is THAT bad, that even this prestigious club needs to rethink their economic model.

So you're the CFO, huh? Methinks Augusta National is pretty recession-proof. They've only opened waiting lists twice in their history. They're not short on members, and as soon as one of them goes toes-up (none of them give up membership prior to death), countless one-tenth-of-one-percenters would sell their mothers into slavery to get a membership.

You could try to gin up some sort of boycott of the Master's tournament sponsors. Lefty boycotts seem to be all the rage right now, although their actual efficacy is still in question.

My inner libertarian doesn't care about a men-only club. I say start the equivalent for women. But, it's probably not so much about playing golf at a nice, private club as much as it's about sticking it to someone you don't like.; 4/6/12, 8:50 PM
Cornroaster said...: I was wondering if Professor Althouse saw this article about the University of Iowa law school faculty, including this line, "To hold a law faculty position at the publicly funded university is viewed as a "sacred cow," Wagner said in an interview, and "Republicans need not apply."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/05/iowa-republicans-blast-law-school-over-refusal-to-hire-conservative-professor/#ixzz1rJbTOtNy; 4/6/12, 8:50 PM
Penny said...: Course, if the economy is tanking, I'm not doing much better in my "private" stale-smoke, red wine stained carpet, home. Am I?

Sell the house and get out from under that mortgage?

CAN do!

Might have to lower my asking price though? Or maybe I should stay and rent out the extra bedrooms to red wine drinking smokers who mow the lawn and fix a clogged drain?

ha ha; 4/6/12, 9:03 PM
Penny said...: "Private".

Very cool, until it isn't.; 4/6/12, 9:08 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: @edutcher

Sorry for the delay! First, more job, then commute, then stuff I had to do at home, then shower, then-- finally-- Althouse. The 86F Easter Sunday forecast is for Lake Elsinore CA, a bedroom community about 25 miles from the blue Pacific.; 4/6/12, 9:15 PM
Penny said...: Joe Schmoe, we agree more than we disagree. At least, I see it that way.

Except for that "sticking it to" part?

If there is anything "sticking"?

I submit that it's this fucking BAD economy.; 4/6/12, 9:22 PM
Penny said...: A BAD economy demolishes "assumptions".; 4/6/12, 9:34 PM
Penny said...: You're probably right about Augusta. But maybe your "certainty" about that is misplaced.; 4/6/12, 9:38 PM
Penny said...: Personally?

I thank the heavens that Augusta is hanging on!; 4/6/12, 9:48 PM
Penny said...: Where would you have them "fall"?; 4/6/12, 9:55 PM
Penny said...: To the 98th percent?

Maybe the 50th percent?

Or would you feel better if they disappeared entirely, because of their arrogance in creating some "private" thing that excluded you from ever dreaming to belong?; 4/6/12, 10:04 PM
Christy said...: Heard a radio ad for a local country club the other day, the one I grew up in. Figured things must be bad. I don't recall that it had any restrictions on women players. Dad would take me around in the late afternoons on weekends, trying to teach me. He was convinced I'd never be a social success unless I played golf.

The club in my Baltimore neighborhood restricted women to certain hours on certain days.

Obama didn't invite any women to join his foursome until the press noticed he excluded them.

Big question: Is Obama the kind of guy who takes mulligans? Bet he is.

2nd questions: Are the azaleas already past their prime at Augusta?; 4/6/12, 10:13 PM
LoafingOaf said...: OMG! I'd always heard people saying that the National Review employed a hardcore racist named John Derbyshire, but I'd never checked him out before because the National Review is lame. But, just read his disgusting piece about what he tells his kids about black people and...WOW. That's the sort of person who finds a welcome home at the right wing's top magazines? Makes you wonder how many closeted racists are at work at those right wing magazines and web sites along side guys like that.; 4/6/12, 10:58 PM
Penny said...: It's always interesting to see how "sticking it to" WHOMEVER is pretty much related to how much time we have. FREE time.

The very young and the very old have "time to spare".

Different clocks for sure, but hey. You know what I mean.

Right?

But what about "adults"...Um, over the age of 26? ha ha Sorry, had to laugh heartily there.

How will THEY "stick it to"...well, nearly anybody except their parents?; 4/6/12, 11:14 PM
Penny said...: Parents take out second mortgages, for cripes sake.

And just for YOU! lol

Nah. That's a myth, kids. But it sure does sound good.; 4/6/12, 11:38 PM
LoafingOaf said...: Not sure when InstaPundit's gonna chime in on Derbyshire, the hardcore racist of the National Review, but I'd say maybe it's time the right wing starts to clean house. THAT is one of the writers at the LEADING right wing magazine? Scary stuff.; 4/6/12, 11:39 PM
Penny said...: Quite like you, "looking for a job".

REALLY HARD!; 4/6/12, 11:49 PM
Penny said...: But then...

The rubber hits the road.

As it ALWAYS does.; 4/6/12, 11:59 PM
Penny said...: Your parents run out of work money or retirement savings to pay the second mortgage they got for your education, and you still don't have a job that pays you what you deserve.

Well that pretty well sucks!; 4/7/12, 12:12 AM
Peter Hoh said...: It's been reported that Thomas Kinkade has died.; 4/7/12, 12:32 AM
Penny said...: Sucks even more when your parents run out of THEIR kind of "time" at the same time you run out of YOUR kind of "time".

Rubber? Have you met Road?

Road?

Road!!!

ROAD!!!!!!!!!!!! ?

Wake up!

They're giving away FREE!; 4/7/12, 12:39 AM
Penny said...: And no rubbers allowed!; 4/7/12, 12:42 AM
Penny said...: Well, at least on subways.; 4/7/12, 12:47 AM
LoafingOaf said...: Scary stuff. Conservative bloggers like InstaPundit and Althouse, who have favorably cited and linked to Derbyshire and the National Review, find absolutely nothing bloggable about Derbyshire's hardcore racist essay.

The silence on the right-wing blogosphere is deafening. Virtually the entire right-wing blogosphere does not find it "bloggable" to comment on a writer for the LEADING conservative magazine exposing himself as basically as hardcore a racist as David Duke?

What does this tell us about the National Review and Derbyshire's colleagues?

Well, a few folks are commenting:

So, while Lowry is advising blacks not to worry so much about the systematic profiling of blacks as criminals due to their race, his colleague Derbyshire is writing a piece specifically urging white people to engage in such profiling, among various other racist nonsense.

And this is the problem for Lowry and other conservatives who want to be taken seriously by broad audiences when they write about racial issues. Lowry wrote a column containing advice for black Americans. Why should black Americans take him seriously while he’s employing Derbyshire? If Lowry wants NR to be credible on race, he should start by firing John Derbyshire. -- Josh Barro, in Forbes

I guess InstaPundit has to sleep on it. But he's quick to link to Althouse when she is shoving cameras in peoples' faces and asking them how they feel about being part of a protest when someone chalked a communist slogan nearby.; 4/7/12, 12:49 AM
Penny said...: In cities, like DC, and Boston before!

No "RUBBERS"!; 4/7/12, 12:58 AM
Penny said...: I'd give you a HUG, but sadly, that would make me a rubber.; 4/7/12, 1:05 AM
Penny said...: Would rather work hard and long at keeping the greens in Augusta, where they WILL decide, for a whole host of reasons, that their holy ghost is closer than they hoped.; 4/7/12, 1:15 AM
Penny said...: Why else would they let "fools rush in"?; 4/7/12, 1:26 AM
Penny said...: Politics?

Well there's a whole bunch of fools rushing in for sure.; 4/7/12, 1:27 AM
Penny said...: "Never let a crisis get in the way of good judgement."

Or was that, "Never let good judgement get in the way of a crisis?"; 4/7/12, 1:32 AM
Penny said...: How the hell would EYE know?

I wear glasses!; 4/7/12, 1:38 AM
Penny said...: And I laugh a lot!; 4/7/12, 1:39 AM
Penny said...: You should too.; 4/7/12, 1:39 AM
Fen said...: LoafingOaf: Scary stuff. The silence on the right-wing blogosphere is deafening

*yawn*

I read it. Blacks have developed a pattern of forming into mobs and attacking whites. There's nothing racist about telling your kids to be careful around blacks.

Like 10e) "If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible."

Good advice. I do the same theing the author does - I profile blacks to see if they are the IWSB-type (intelligent and well-socialized blacks) or if they are Apes (the ones that will pick a fight for looking at their face). I try to stay clear of the Apes.; 4/7/12, 1:42 AM
Fen said...: Hey LoafingOaf, what about this one:

(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.

Do you hang out in heavily black neighborhoods OR are you a racist!
Drive down to Martin Luther King Blvd at night, park your car, and take a long walk. See what it gets you.; 4/7/12, 1:45 AM
rhhardin said...: Derbyshire gets a typical Derbyshire point wrong in the math.

The normal distribution can give you any number you want to compare populations, depending on what percentage point you pick.

Derbyshire picks a point out in the tails, which gives him a pretty big population ratio.

A poet would pick around the common means, and come up with an everyday life difference not worth worrying about.

Derbyshire is into the really smart, which seems important to him. Not so for poets. So they pick different points.

Derbyshire's citing of 5% really hostile blacks and 50% passively going along isn't specific to blacks. Orwell said that, for any group. It's how you control the group.

Look at modern Islam, or the fire Derbyshire movement, or the activist social conservative movement for that matter.

So it's perhaps a good description to give to kids in warning about black crowds, but only because they're not likely to wander into Muslim crowds, and the social conservatives aren't particularly violent.

Those two struck me as less than insightful.; 4/7/12, 5:51 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: Loafing Oaf, you're already halfway around the track with insinuations like 'makes you wonder how many other racists work at all conservative magazines, huh?'. But so far all you've got is Derb.

I'm kind of stunned into silence because I really enjoy reading Derb, and after this episode he'll be sacrificed at the alter of political correctness. He's a brilliant thinker and writer, and if you had read him at all, I suspect you'd develop a grudging respect for him. I don't think he's a racist. He thinks of himself as a rational man of science. He deplores creationism and intelligent design. The thing everyone will overlook about this screed, which will end his career, is that he backs up his argument with studies. The kind of studies no one wants to call attention to because they're not what we want to see. Derb never shied from hard truths, and he'll argue that his views are borne out by the data.

I'm saddened that he probably won't be in the National Review anymore. I suspect he'll find somewhere else to write, and I will seek him out and read him.; 4/7/12, 6:39 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: National Review can clean house, of what I don't know, after NBC and CNN do so for making shit up and passing it off not just as news, but as explosive news that foments class, gender, and racial divisions.; 4/7/12, 7:50 AM
paminwi said...: Interesting article: http://hotair.com/archives/2012/04/06/law-school-refuses-to-hire-professor-who-embraces-politics-the-rest-of-the-faculty-despises/; 4/7/12, 7:51 AM
rhhardin said...: National Review will clean house because they fear blacks.

I don't read NR because they're too PC on the right. Lopez absolutely ruined the site.; 4/7/12, 8:42 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: Fractious, destabilizing conflict seems to be the theme of the day, week, month and year. Women v. men. Black v. white. Dem v. Repub. Rich v. poor. Union v. non-union. Any any combination thereof, i.e. Dem women v. Repub men.

The fight card fills up and overflows. Rather than exacerbate the bloodlust, I'm weary of the rhetoric and am leaving the arena. It's time to do something positive, time to create rather than desecrate, build up rather than tear down. To all my brothers and sisters out there, whatever your indelible traits and chosen affiliations are, peace out and enjoy your weekend.; 4/7/12, 9:03 AM
Peter Hoh said...: Oaf, by what definition of "scary" is Derb's screed "scary"?

As for the idea that there is silence on the right, I suppose you have overlooked Lowry and Ponnuru, both of whom issued statements before you posted here last night.; 4/7/12, 9:15 AM
rhhardin said...: The Obama reelection strategy is: create chaos.

That gives them 50-50 odds of winning, which is a lot better than they'd get from a coherent campaign season.; 4/7/12, 9:28 AM
Lauderdale Vet said...: What kind of tree / flowers are in the picture? Are the flowers part of the tree, or part of something growing on the tree? I googled crab apple, since people were talking about them, but it wasn't clear top me. Never seen anything like that down here in Zone 10.; 4/7/12, 10:09 AM
Michael K said...: "John Derbyshire in trouble.

Mathematician meets moral posturing."

You can get into a lot of trouble for telling the truth. His writing is terrific but not for the weak minded.

Some idiot here posted a slur against him yesterday but, of course, with no link.; 4/7/12, 11:20 AM
Michael K said...: "The silence on the right-wing blogosphere is deafening. Virtually the entire right-wing blogosphere does not find it "bloggable" to comment on a writer for the LEADING conservative magazine exposing himself as basically as hardcore a racist as David Duke? "

Ah, found the idiot. You are obviously not equipped to deal with truth so I suggest you have your reading material screened for you so you read only REv Wright or All Sharpton.; 4/7/12, 11:23 AM
Fen said...: Oaf, by what definition of "scary" is Derb's screed "scary"?

LoafingOaf has to assert by adjective instead of simply posting a sample of the "scary stuff"

His opening attack reads like one of those spam ads. Maybe he has a new job spreading The Narrative around the net.; 4/7/12, 11:50 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Scary stuff. Conservative bloggers like InstaPundit and Althouse, who have favorably cited and linked to Derbyshire and the National Review, find absolutely nothing bloggable about Derbyshire's hardcore racist essay."

I can't remember ever talking up Derbyshire. I don't have a tag for his name.

If I search the whole 8.5 years of this blog, his name comes up a handful of times. Nothing particularly "favorable."

I really disapprove of comments about how I'm not writing about something. I've a very busy person. It's not like I'm a newspaper and what I cover shows my concept of newsworthiness.

I wait until I have something interesting enough to say sometimes or until something about the coverage develops to the point where I can see how to jump in.

Don't make assumptions based on the absence of writing. It's really unfair.

And it actually makes it harder for me to start talking about it, because I don't like looking as though I simply yielded to pressure.

And why don't you ask me in a nice/respectful way if I will contribute some opinion on a particular topic? Why put your "request" in the form that you did? It reads as a cheap criticism of me, and I think it's completely undeserved. It makes me dislike you.; 4/7/12, 1:38 PM