Althouse: At the Sunset Café...

March 1, 2013

At the Sunset Café...

... just now, enjoying the fresh-cut ski tracks in the thick new layer of snow.

61 comments:

edutcher said...: I am a rock, I am an is-s-s-land.

But you aren't, are you?

Else you wouldn't share your life with all of us.; 3/1/13, 7:15 PM
Irene said...: "Forward," the movie.; 3/1/13, 7:16 PM
ricpic said...: The light lingers now
And soon the tree will bud,
But first the purple snow must melt
Revealing mud.; 3/1/13, 7:18 PM
BaltoHvar said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/1/13, 7:21 PM
BaltoHvar said...: Nice composition - the horizon line just below the center, the tree offset, and the beautiful blues and purples of the sky.

Dawn's beauty is the promise, Sunset's is the delivery.; 3/1/13, 7:22 PM
FleetUSA said...: The stock market more or less has yawned about the sequestration dilemma in DC.

Shouting fire in a theater no longer has the force it did formerly for Choom. Maybe he needs to start governing for all Americans and not just his homie friends.; 3/1/13, 7:40 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Whatever happened to the proposal McConnell was circulating to give Obama temporary carte blanche powers to cut the deficit?; 3/1/13, 7:52 PM
Hagar said...: Harry Reid.; 3/1/13, 8:04 PM
Sim said...: Agree with BaltoHvar. Truly admirable beauty of the orange sunset with a slight mixture of blue and purple. Very nice!; 3/1/13, 8:08 PM
ricpic said...: Maybe he needs to start governing for all Americans and not just his homie friends.

That is so not the plan. But no law against dreaming.; 3/1/13, 8:33 PM
Tim said...: Nice picture.

Am I safe in assuming that "sequestramageddon" has NOT Ended The World As We Know It?

Oh.

I see.

Another failed Obama promise.

Is there anyone left who could have figured that out?; 3/1/13, 8:38 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Nice twist Tim

lol..; 3/1/13, 8:44 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Is there anybody who doubts that Clinton would have made a deal?; 3/1/13, 8:50 PM
Tim said...: Lem said...

"Is there anybody who doubts that Clinton would have made a deal?"

Not me. Hillary! could have made this deal.

So too could have Daniel Day Lewis.

Playing the lead in "My Left Foot."

Hell. My left nut could have made this deal.; 3/1/13, 9:03 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: "Buy a shotgun"; 3/1/13, 9:11 PM
edutcher said...: Lem said...

Is there anybody who doubts that Clinton would have made a deal?

When the occasion arose and he had the chance, he didn't do anything and let the media demonize the Republicans.; 3/1/13, 9:13 PM
AHL said...: I'm a little confused. Don't liberals tend to want to cut military spending? I feel very out of the loop about the sequester and why isn't Obama pulling a Clinton and fixing everything like the election was alluding to?

I'm stuck in bad-French land. BTW, Kerry's French is similar to what I often hear up in Montreal.; 3/1/13, 9:37 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/1/13, 9:40 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: You know what?

Nobody will probably be willing to say this because of the historical implications of this presidency... in short - the fear of being ostracised and wooderized.

But.. Obama has diminished the prestige of the office with his abrasive rhetoric, affinity for dog and pony show and lack of candor.

Its not too late for a makeover.; 3/1/13, 9:47 PM
AHL said...: Could Americans mobilize and refuse to pay taxes? If half the country didn't pay their taxes, how would the IRS and government react?

I play different scenarios in my head.; 3/1/13, 9:47 PM
Synova said...: So... supposedly Obama said something today about a "Jedi mind meld?"; 3/1/13, 9:58 PM
edutcher said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/1/13, 10:01 PM
AHL said...: The Sith Lords can do mind tricks too.; 3/1/13, 10:04 PM
sakredkow said...: On the final day of Zurich the World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand managed to avoid last place by defeating Vladimir Kramnik after Kramnik committed a terrible, uncharacteristic blunder. Fabio Caruana won the tournament, also winning today against the last WCC challenger, Boris Gelfand.; 3/1/13, 10:06 PM
edutcher said...: AEH said...

Could Americans mobilize and refuse to pay taxes? If half the country didn't pay their taxes, how would the IRS and government react?

I play different scenarios in my head

The Administration bought almost 2 billion rounds of ammo for civilian agencies.

And Barry gets all wee-wee around firearms, so there won't be any skeet shooting.

Lem said...

Its not too late for a makeover.

That would mean Barry admitting he was wrong, even to his inner circle.

Consider:

It’s very rare that I come to an event where I’m like the fifth- or sixth-most interesting person.

I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln.

I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.

Ain't gonna happen.; 3/1/13, 10:10 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Jedis have carry permits.; 3/1/13, 10:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Ahhhh, what a Naked Ed Gein Robot sky: enjoying the fresh-cut ski tracks in the thick new layer of Wisconsin snow, Ed wore the last Gatsby sentence as a shawl.

A MAN shawl.

The footprints in the snow indicate a Waltz.; 3/1/13, 10:25 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: By letting the "stupid" cuts happen (and the sky not falling)... "smart" cuts suddenly sound smarter.

Some of the credit should go to Woodward... I believe he, albeit inadvertently, stiffened up the notorious GOP noodle spine.

That was the virtual equivalent of Christie and Obama posing together after Sandy, w/in days of the election.; 3/1/13, 10:30 PM
Synova said...: At the end of that skyfall parody they've got Maxine Waters saying that 170 (or 117?) million people will lose their jobs... Did she accidentally say million instead of thousand and knew the difference or did her staffers say a reasonable number and she just said what made sense to her?

Steyn says "t these heavily staffed congressmen, congresswomen, senators are often entirely economically illiterate,” Steyn said. “It may well be that Maxine Waters has absolutely no idea, could not reliably name the population of this country, or the number of people in employment at any one time.”

Steyn,(...) recalled that Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had made a similar erroneous statement suggesting 500 million jobs could be lost without passage of Obama’s 2009 stimulus."

Of course, there are fewer than 500 million people in this country and fewer than 170 million are employed at all.

As several people have pointed out... if the US budget is a Big Mac Value Meal, (Large), the sequester is a caloric loss of two and a half french fries.

Doesn't sound nearly as terrifying as 170 million lost jobs.; 3/1/13, 10:48 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Speaking of sound...

I feel a set coming on... and the theme Cuts Like a Knife... and it feels just right.; 3/1/13, 10:48 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Speaking of sound

I feel a set coming on.. and it Cuts Like A Knife... and it feels just right.; 3/1/13, 10:53 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: It looks like google its not going to let me celebrate.

I'm trying to do a cutting edge musical theme and its deleting it.; 3/1/13, 10:57 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I'm going to try again.

Cuts Like a Knife; 3/1/13, 11:01 PM
pdug said...: So who is Scalia talking about when he says the "perpetuation of racial entitlement" is something that has been "written about"; 3/1/13, 11:10 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/1/13, 11:18 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Cuts You Up; 3/1/13, 11:24 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Cut My Hair; 3/1/13, 11:30 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: The First Cut is the Deepest Cover; 3/1/13, 11:37 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Too Old to Cut the Mustard Anymore cover; 3/1/13, 11:43 PM
Synova said...: If animals were fat (or swallowed balloons, or something).

Just in case anyone needs a laugh. (I just about hurt myself.); 3/1/13, 11:43 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: That was funny.; 3/1/13, 11:47 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Almost Cut My Hair; 3/1/13, 11:56 PM
Revenant said...: Thanks, Synova. I almost choked laughing at that. :); 3/2/13, 12:12 AM
Jim in St Louis said...: Has anyone seen (mit eigenen Augen) any actual results of the sequester yet?

Politician pantie wetting, and media hooting is all I have seen, nothing concrete like parks closing or something.; 3/2/13, 2:25 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: How about using the term "sequestration"?

That way you don't have to say something was cut due to sequester. You can say it was sequestrated.; 3/2/13, 5:54 AM
AllenS said...: The sun hasn't risen yet, but it's light out and time for me to go feed the critters. It's 2º. Please, please warm up.; 3/2/13, 6:39 AM
rhhardin said...: It's twibreak.; 3/2/13, 6:45 AM
AllenS said...: OK, I'm back. No wind, so it was bearable. This last week, it's been into the 20s in the morning, but with a wind out of the north 10-15 mph, and it felt colder than this morning. No clouds, so I'm expecting a nice day.; 3/2/13, 6:54 AM
Rusty said...: Jim in St Louis said...
Has anyone seen (mit eigenen Augen) any actual results of the sequester yet?

Well. The snow on driveway hasn't melted.
I'm blaming the Republicans.
Also
Cantaloupes are $3.00.
I'm holding Boehner personally responsible.; 3/2/13, 7:01 AM
Scott said...: They won't let Althouse through the firewall at work anymore. Oh well, goodbye.; 3/2/13, 7:02 AM
rhhardin said...: Horizon with chickens, bike route yesterday.; 3/2/13, 7:07 AM
Matt Sablan said...: Sequester signed. Party on.; 3/2/13, 7:55 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Jim, I live in a town with an Army equipment repair facility housed on a naval base, both of which are huge local employers. The repair facility announced that beginning in April and running definitely through the end of the fiscal year and likely for the foreseeable future, full time employees are being cut to 32 hours a week and overtime is cancelled. Contractors who are not direct GS DoD employees are not having their contracts renewed. I teach preschool with eight other women and three of them have husbands who are going to be affected by this. My co-teacher is probably going to have to leave to look for full-time work (along with half the wives in town) because her husband's paycheck will be cut approximately in half. (He shouldn't have been receiving that much overtime in the first place, but that is another story.). This in turn is going to affect local restaurants, bars, movie theaters, clothing stores, etc as people are belt-tightening. So yes, those of us who are directly downstream from the Pentagon are feeling it.; 3/2/13, 8:03 AM
rhhardin said...: There's nothing like living below your means, for independence.

That's how I made it as a employed-at-will contractor.

You just have to live at your average income rather than your momentary income.; 3/2/13, 8:16 AM
Anonymous said...: Erika, looks like the sequester will affect real people in real time. I don't know why many conservatives think it's funny.; 3/2/13, 8:26 AM
AllenS said...: Erica, is that because of the sequester, or because defense is being cut? Seriously, I don't know.; 3/2/13, 8:27 AM
Jim in St Louis said...: Inga- Fuckwad comment per usual.

I think the core issue is that humans have problems with large numbers. Erika and myself can relate to actual real dollars in the community. $16 is 1/2 a tank of gas. $160 bucks is school clothes for two kids. $1,600 is a washer and dryer. $16,000 is a car. $160,000 is a 20 year mortgage on a big house. $1,600,000 is where I lose reference. Just hard to conceive. but the actual debt we are passing to Erika and Inga's grandchildren is $16,000,000,000,000.

See what I mean- blank stares.
We are broke, and the $85,000,000 cut is not going to make any impact.; 3/2/13, 8:46 AM
Anonymous said...: Erika doesn't appear to be unconcerned Jim, only very stupid people such as yourself are.; 3/2/13, 8:49 AM
Jim in St Louis said...: Lost the point already did ya?

I guess you have so much 'concern' for others that your bank account is empty? You have taken your cloak and rent it twain to give 1/2 away?

Hypocrite.; 3/2/13, 8:53 AM
Tim said...: Inga said...

"Erika doesn't appear to be unconcerned Jim, only very stupid people such as yourself are."

And the really stupid people, more stupid than stupid, think the federal governments financial problems are merely a revenue problem.

Smarter people know, smarter than Inga (yeah, I know, a sample size too large to have any utility, sorry...) that there is no rational, conceivable way to fix the nation's fiscal problem without significantly greater cuts in spending, especially in Medicare, than this laughably small "sequestration" of 2% cuts.

Liberal idiocy and demagoguery will, without any doubt whatsoever, cause all of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to inherit significantly greater taxes and significantly fewer government services.

For idiots like Inga, what that means is, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will pay much, much more for much, much less.

That is how this story ends.

And the number of people who will be hurt by that will utterly dwarf the number of people who are being hurt by "sequestration."; 3/2/13, 9:31 AM
Synova said...: "Erika, looks like the sequester will affect real people in real time. I don't know why many conservatives think it's funny."

It's funnier than heck, Inga, like most painful things are. It's funny because of the insistence that two and a half fewer french fries is a disaster... which means we have to spend more, forever, and we're screwed so hard it has to be a joke or we'd have to admit it was rape.

Real People have been "affected" by the economy for five years, out of work, under-employed, struggling with gas prices while Dems block drilling and pipelines, tightening our belts and fighting despair and OH MY FREAKING GAWD government is going to get an across the board "sequester" amounting to two and a half french fries of whatever their budgets are... spending doesn't actually go DOWN at all... and the sky is falling, there will be dogs and cats living together... blah blah blah, 170 million will lose their jobs, the military will grind to a stand-still, Iran will get the Bomb...

How can it NOT be funny?; 3/2/13, 12:26 PM