Althouse: At the Clay Angel Café...

May 13, 2012

At the Clay Angel Café...

... I'll just sit over here in the corner.

44 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Happy Mother's Day to you over there in the corner.

We appreciate the teacher in you like we appreciated our own patient mothers.; 5/13/12, 12:23 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, and happy Mother's Day to all the women who are not mothers but who have taken time to mentor or otherwise aid members of a younger generation. You are appreciated!; 5/13/12, 12:53 PM
Cedarford said...: One interesting thing I noticed was reports of widespread rejection of more wars, staying in Afghanistan, more nation-building, and more foreign involvement - by the rank-and-file troops.

Normally this is a Republican strength area, but the troops appear to be supporting Obama over Romney 2 to 1. Judging Obama more likely to keep America and them away from more bad interventions and occupations.

Only John McCain and a small but influential group of old Bush hands into the Neocon philosophy are pushing the Republicans and Romney into more advocacy for more wars and more interventions and not "cutting and running" from present involvements that have cost the US 45,000 casualties and trillions.

It is slow to sink in that the "Heroes" are sick of it, and see Obama as more aligned with them than Romney.; 5/13/12, 12:57 PM
RazorSharpSundries said...: Happy Mother's Day Ann, for slicing through the bullshit-cake of politically correct conventional wisdom. I love you. I really do.; 5/13/12, 1:00 PM
pm317 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/13/12, 1:09 PM
edutcher said...: Oh, no, Madame. This is your day.

Sit right up front in the warm sunlight.

And a very Happy Mother's Day to all the Althousians' mothers and to the mothers on Althouse.

(did that come out right?); 5/13/12, 1:10 PM
CWJ said...: Happy Mothers' Day Ann!; 5/13/12, 1:17 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: What traditionalguy said.; 5/13/12, 1:19 PM
Calypso Facto said...: but the troops appear to be supporting Obama over Romney 2 to 1

Bullshit on stilts. Obama has a 50% disapproval rating and only 20% approval rating among the military.

I had 9 years in the military and have many friends who are still on active duty, and if Obama gets more military votes than Romney for President I'll eat my attic-stored BDUs.; 5/13/12, 1:23 PM
Calypso Facto said...: Oh, and a very Happy Mothers' Day mothers!; 5/13/12, 1:23 PM
chickelit said...: Kickin' hippies' asses and raisin' Hell.; 5/13/12, 1:28 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Apparently the invitation to subscribe, or to register, or to buy some kind of Prudential life planning thing, is a bit of code attached to the bottom of the cascade.

You notice how you pursue a link and begin reading and you're a good halfway through and then the format suddenly changes and you go, "bollox! I must now find the place again," and right as you do the whole thing is covered over with something else. That's what I'm talking about, the cascading style sheet.

It's also called totally fucking with you as a reader. It's disrespectful.

The site owners must ask themselves if this aggravation they know they're putting to their viewers is worth their viewer's trouble and most of those jackoffs are thinking 'yes.'

Thank you for making an offer unrelated to the thing I am there for and fuck you at the same time for throwing it on top of the thing I am already reading or watching.

Trying to read, trying to watch. But the person providing it is also preventing it. Why do you do this to your own product?

I am concerned about those Madison Wisconsin hawks because as we've seen the hawks have made a very poor choice in their nesting location where everything, absolutely everything, is a place to put up a political or a commercial statement. Have they stuck recall Walker signs in the nest yet? No? What are they waiting for?

The last-to-cascade overlaying ad knows how obnoxious it is because it offers to rid itself of itself if you agree to pay it 10¢ for each annoyance. 10¢ a click, meaning you still have the overlain annoyance that you must click to get rid of then be charged 10¢, you're still annoyed, you just don't have to wait for the ad to run in order to get on with the hawks. That's what gets me. The self awareness of it being an annoyance an only an annoyance so it's blackmailing you and still annoying you each visit. All that is another way of saying "sod off, we don't want anyone watching these hawks, we don't even know why we did this."

Don't tell me it's how they pay for it or I'll come over there and jab you in the nose.; 5/13/12, 1:52 PM
FleetUSA said...: Whatever happened to Camille Paglia? She was always an intelligent commentator on the left and had grown considerably cool on B0. Her last Salon column was in late 2011.; 5/13/12, 1:53 PM
Revenant said...: the troops appear to be supporting Obama over Romney 2 to 1.

Be fair, guys. Cedarford didn't say which nation's troops prefer Obama. ;); 5/13/12, 2:04 PM
coketown said...: Wife for good counsel, and mother-in-law for kind welcome, but none so dear as your own mother.
-Tolstoy; 5/13/12, 2:14 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: The ad is for Blackberry, that pops up to assure you will miss the moment that mommy hawk leaves or returns, the company whose death rumbles are so remote in the past we must wait for the sounds of them to catch up to the tiny flickers of light going out. Last week I visited Gizmodo and every single entry they had was about how badly managed a company RIM is. Every single one. And I'm over here going, "Gizmodo! What's up with every single entry being about RIM? " It was very puzzling like Gizmodo had it out for RIM or something, trying real hard one last time to finally drive them right into the ground. Then so it is Blackberry that pops up *boink* that forces me to focus on that tiny x to make the little ad disappear instead of focusing on the mommy hawk at the exact moment she takes off so I miss that critical moment and my impulse is to strangle the geek at UW if I can get my fists to squeeze a pencil, or their TA, or both, for my own mistake of bothering to engage them in the first place.; 5/13/12, 2:17 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: But my favorite part was were the the guy working the baby hawk puppets made it look like the baby waddled up to the edge and hung its butt over and squirted white poop directly at the camera. That was hilarious. I never expected a squirt gun inside that little puppet. He made it look like the little baby hawk was concerned about nest tidiness while at the same time playing a joke on the viewer. HahahahaThat was a good one.; 5/13/12, 2:22 PM
Wince said...: Whatever happened to Camille Paglia?

Speakers examine troubles over collision of art, religious imagery

May 8th, 2012

NEW YORK (CNS) – The relationship between art and the sacred is an unsolved problem of culture that exposes contradictions among society’s less-than-consistent moral, religious and political ideologies, according to speakers at an April 25 forum at Jesuit-run Fordham University. The program, “Taking Offense: When Art and the Sacred Collide,” examined controversies over disturbing artistic treatments of religious imagery.

Speakers said thoughtful consideration of the collision is often precluded by reflexive, cliched, self-righteous reactions to provocative art of negligible significance...

Camille Paglia, university professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, criticized contemporary artists for mediocrity, “cynical snarky atheism,” cowardly provocation and ignorance of religion. A self-described atheist who was raised Catholic, Paglia said, “Respect for religion and interest in religion should be absolutely basic in any educated person. In order to understand the history of art, you need respect for religion.”; 5/13/12, 2:46 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: EDH, I think it was you who told me, and I do appreciate it, what those little birds are that chirp on my balcony and that they like thistle seed. I've seen those seeds at the grocery store and I would like to encourage the birds but I am afraid they will poop the seeds and grow thistles all over the place randomly as birds are careless poopers. Is that an unreasonable fear to have?; 5/13/12, 2:53 PM
lemondog said...: @Chip, the following UW Mad Hawkcam link is ad free:
http://metobs.ssec.wisc.edu/aoss/cameras/hawkcam-flash.html?dontcareboutdupes=true

The site has 2 backup feeds - Livestream and Upstream - and do have ads.; 5/13/12, 2:56 PM
coketown said...: I've seen those seeds at the grocery store and I would like to encourage the birds but I am afraid they will poop the seeds and grow thistles all over the place randomly as birds are careless poopers. Is that an unreasonable fear to have?

Virtually all thistle seed is imported into the US and the USDA requires it to be sterilized before entering the country so as to avoid having yet another weed as noxious as Canadian Thistle. It won't sprout.; 5/13/12, 3:01 PM
Jose_K said...: There was a scandal because of the Time´s cover. If you have seen this, NSFW,:
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/05/11/castellon/1336755659.html; 5/13/12, 3:22 PM
lemondog said...: ...criticized contemporary artists for mediocrity, “cynical snarky atheism,” cowardly provocation and ignorance of religion.

She seems to have mellowed. :); 5/13/12, 3:22 PM
Big Mike said...: Is that little orange thing on the corner of the bench meant to be a clay angel? Its color makes me think it was meant to be a clay succubus.; 5/13/12, 3:31 PM
Meade said...: What RazorSharpSundries said.; 5/13/12, 4:01 PM
wyo sis said...: A busy Mother's Day on Althouse. I've been enjoying it.
Chip, I'm beginning to get what you're talking about occasionally and enjoy your unique point of view. I haven't had to watch ads on the hawk cam for about a week, maybe you're using the older link. It's getting harder to watch them, because I have this fear of seeing one of them fall out of the nest.; 5/13/12, 4:04 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Thank you Coketown.; 5/13/12, 4:09 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: See if this request makes sense..

The iPod touch has two up/down volume 'buttons' on the side.. I don't know what they are called.. they are not traditional buttons.

I propose a back track/skip next similar buttonations on the other side.. that way I dont have pull out when I want to skip a track or two.. I've dropped it doing that.. a couple of times.

You have to look to touch.. I want to touch in the dark if you will.

The idea came while walking the dog.; 5/13/12, 4:20 PM
KCFleming said...: "Because when love is gone, there's always justice.
And when justice is gone, there's always force
And when force is gone, there's always mom.

Hi Mom!

So hold me, mom, in your long arms.
So hold me, mom, in your long arms.
In your automatic arms.
Your electronic arms.
In your arms.
So hold me, mom, in your long arms.
Your chemical arms, your military arms.
In your electronic arms."

O Superman; 5/13/12, 4:34 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Respect is one of my favorite words. It's a two-handed word so you'll have to put your drink down to say it and if there is a cigarette in your hand ashes are going to get flicked so you might as well put everything down before starting off to say the word respect. It's another crossed-fingered r-based word, and it gets both arms up very respectfully.

I also like 'reputation,' another r looped and pinned at the heart.

You know what, mums? If you want to talk with your kids before they can make their mouth say words then you should show them some baby sign language and respond when they do it back. You get a good head start on the whole language development thing because they can control their hands before they can form words through their mouth and it calms them right down to be able to express things like "more" and "milk" and "biscuit" and "have you checked the 401K this month?"; 5/13/12, 4:35 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Terribly disappointing.

I expected to see Althouse, or at the very least Meade, lying in a pool of mud flapping their arms and legs, making clay angels.; 5/13/12, 4:48 PM
Ralph L said...: I believe Meade dug those bulbs. He must dig his purple balls--of allium (or is that the garlic?); 5/13/12, 5:46 PM
jungatheart said...: Are those Stars of Persia?; 5/13/12, 6:46 PM
wyo sis said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/13/12, 8:03 PM
Rialby said...: Hey, your old buddy Michelle Goldberg was on MSNBC this morning being her charming self.

At least in this clip I don't have to watch herself intently like she does on bloggingheads.; 5/13/12, 8:15 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/13/12, 8:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Cedarford said,

One interesting thing I noticed was reports of widespread rejection of more wars, staying in Afghanistan, more nation-building, and more foreign involvement - by the rank-and-file troops.

It is slow to sink in that the "Heroes" are sick of it, and see Obama as more aligned with them than Romney.

5/13/12 12:57 PM

Obama surges in campaign donations from military members.Stars and Stripes

Looks like Cedarford may be right.; 5/13/12, 8:44 PM
Rialby said...: Should have been - watch her watch herself.; 5/13/12, 8:48 PM
edutcher said...: AllieOop said...

One interesting thing I noticed was reports of widespread rejection of more wars, staying in Afghanistan, more nation-building, and more foreign involvement - by the rank-and-file troops.

It is slow to sink in that the "Heroes" are sick of it, and see Obama as more aligned with them than Romney.

Obama surges in campaign donations from military members.Stars and Stripes

Looks like Cedarford may be right.

No, looks like cedar and Oop are making stuff up again.

The numbers in that item are from March, before there was a clear nominee.

We're going to see a lot of this before November.; 5/13/12, 9:08 PM
Carnifex said...: My mom's birthday was last weekend, and Mom's day today... she made out pretty well. I got her a GWTW doll she didn't have(better yet she thinks I spent big money on it). And today, I got her a 72 year old cookbook I found in the used book store. It's 3 years younger than her. Almost immaculate condition, and while flipping through it, I found someone had left a list of ingredients they were copying from it. No telling how old the note was.(she collects old cookbooks too)

Happy mothers day to all the Mothers on Althouse. Hope your children remember to call...but not for bail money.; 5/13/12, 9:46 PM
Carnifex said...: The worst shot I ever saw I saw as a teenager. It was the final day of deer season, and Dad still hadn’t filled his tag. So he and I had lit out looking for a deer, specifically a buck, Dad didn’t like shooting does. So out we went, in the rain. Oh lovely. Nothing better than deer hunting in late December in the rain.

So off we trudged in different directions for our deer stands, forging our way through the head high weeds and briars. These weren’t the biggest briars in the area, there was another patch fully 7 foot tall and 5 acres across. Every deer shot near that patch headed right for it if they could (makes your shot placement a must). You never had fun unless you’ve tracked a deer through a 5 acre briar patch. B’rer Rabbit ain’t got nothing’ on him. Crouched over your knees. Looking for a drop of blood on the briar…vines? What the hell do you call those things anyway? Regardless, it did train us to be some of the finest trackers in the state. Other hunters would ask for my Dad and I to help during a difficult track.

But tracking doesn’t do you any good if you don’t see anything to shoot, and we didn’t. So at dark, which fell early because of the rain, we squelched our way back to Dads bronco. We sat there with the heater blowing, engine idling, trying to dry our boots, pants, shirts , heads, everything off. It got darker still. It rained even harder. Dad was determined to get a deer no matter what though.

After thirty minutes of sitting there just waiting for a deer to walk in front of us(this didn’t work either) Dad had enough. He said “Let’s go home.” But Dad wasn’t giving up quite yet. He set the Bronco in first gear, and with one hand on the steering wheel, he kept his shotgun out the opened window, in case a deer decided to attack the Bronco. He could then fend it off. By now there was flashing lightning, and a heavy rain. Big dollops of water that could fill a coffee cup with just three hits.

I should explain that in his youth, my Dad had the most phenomenal eyesight I have ever seen, ever. And was a phenomenal shot as a result. We would have shooting contests involving up to a dozen guys. All excellent shots, but Dad invariably won. He could split a playing card facing him edgewise at 25 yards. We would stand an axe on its head with a clay pigeon on either side, and he would split the bullet in 2 and break both birds. He could blow out a candle without hitting the candle itself at 25 yds, and an egg at 50. He could also spot a deer from a mile away. We could be riding down the road, in the dark, and he would slam on the brakes, and point out the window “There’s a deer!” No one would see a thing until he shone a flashlight over there, and sure enough, there would be a deer, standing there, laying there, eating there. Always.

So we’re driving down this gravel road, in a driving rain storm, intermittently lit by flashes of lightning. Suddenly a deer flashes through the briars, and is instantly swallowed by the darkness. Dad let’s go of the steering wheel, and raises his gun to his shoulder. Deer bound when they run, to get a clear view of where they are running to, so the deer’s’ head popped up over the briars, and instantly sank down out of sight. A second later, it popped up in another spot, and sank out of sight again. (think whack-a-mole) “Show your head one more time you son of a bitch” my Dad mutters, and the deer does, and my Dads gun goes BOOM. And Dad says “Got ‘em.” He stops the Bronco, and we walk over to where he last saw the deer, and there it lay, rolled up like a rabbit. Shot in the back of the head.

Let me reiterate…Dark thirty, pouring rain with lightning, car moving in one direction, deer running in the other, and only seen for half second intervals as it leaps high to see over the briars. And he drills it in the back of the head, the only place visible, and the only place to guarantee a kill.

My Dad was a scary good shot, in the worst shot ever.; 5/13/12, 10:54 PM
Carnifex said...: Just as an aside on the weather here, I have never seen it rain as hard as it does here in Kentucky, and I've seen snow in Mexico. My wife and I took a vacation once, and it rained the first 10 of the 14 days.

But the rain here is special. I saw it rain once so hard, it backed up 3 feet behind a barbed wire fence.

It rained so hard one time the dog had to stand up on his back legs to get a drink outta the mud puddle.; 5/13/12, 11:07 PM
Carnifex said...: Green Onions for every one...in Honor of Donald "Duck" Dunn Bassist extraordinaire.; 5/13/12, 11:52 PM
Revenant said...: Looks like Cedarford may be right.

If you ever find yourself thinking "Cedarford may be right", re-check your facts. :); 5/14/12, 2:41 PM