Althouse: At the Green Waterfall Café...

June 12, 2013

At the Green Waterfall Café...

... settle in.

60 comments:

ampersand said...: That makes me want to pee.; 6/12/13, 7:17 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Snowden would never pee the coffe.; 6/12/13, 7:20 PM
KCFleming said...: Waterfalls know never to hold it in, even if that violates protocol.; 6/12/13, 7:42 PM
Titus said...: Where is that whore?

I don't know of any waterfalls in Madison.

Is that Olbrich Gardens or some other piece of shit Madison "monument"?

Madison is too quiet and dull.

Fags leave when they start to drive.

The only fags that move there are from like Janesville and Wisconsin Rapids and think they found paradise....sad.; 6/12/13, 7:53 PM
bagoh20 said...: Nice work on the backyard water feature there Meade. That had to take at least a couple hours.; 6/12/13, 7:54 PM
Joe Schmoe said...: I love it when I get to the bottom of a bag of pistachio nuts, and the ones that fell out of their shells are already hanging out down there just waiting to be eaten, no effort required. It's a nice reward after shelling the other 99% of the nuts in the bag.; 6/12/13, 7:56 PM
Joe Schmoe said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/12/13, 7:57 PM
Joe Schmoe said...: Check out Drudge. When did Harry Reid get the shiner? Or is that an old pic?; 6/12/13, 7:58 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Doctor P.; 6/12/13, 8:03 PM
edutcher said...: Gorgeous, Madame, but where's the sunshine?

Joe Schmoe said...

Check out Drudge. When did Harry Reid get the shiner? Or is that an old pic?

I think it's old, but, if not, I won't cry.

Could be it's a metaphor for the fact Harry's blocked the vote on AmnestyCare.

Apparently the Demos are very scared generally. The House Intel Committee was briefed on the NSA thing and it's looking pretty bad for their side.; 6/12/13, 8:12 PM
Clyde said...: The other night, I was thinking about how the NSA scandal was like The Lord of the Rings, with the NSA as the Lidless Eye of Sauron, bringing its baleful glare to bear on hapless hobbits like Bilbo Baggins. Then the next day I read something similar on the National Review site. Call it the National Sauron Agency, if you will, perhaps with Smeagobama yearning after the power of the Precious, the One Ring of Power. (Now there's a morph I'd like to see, Sméagol and Obama.) All you can hope for as a hobbit is to keep your head down and hope that the Lidless Eye doesn't decide to focus on you and smash you down with the power of its alphabet soup agencies. I never set out to be a Mordorian. We never went to Mordor; Mordor came to us.; 6/12/13, 8:13 PM
rhhardin said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/12/13, 8:21 PM
rhhardin said...: Last night Siren Howls video

This morning backyard Baby bunny listening to Imus in the Morning. video; 6/12/13, 8:24 PM
Hagar said...: General Hayden, former head of the NSA, went on national television and stated that the NSA could pick up a telephone number in Wahiristan and go into their database and find all calls in contact with that number for I do not remember how far back.

Of course, it does not matter where in the world their new phone number "of interest" is located; it could also be right here in River City, or anywhere.

The present head of the NSA, Gen. Alexander stated in Congress that Snowden is lying in that he could not possibly have had the access he claimed. Perhaps so, but I think the Senators should ask another "20 something" computer spook, not a white-haired general.

These systems are just too dangerous to allow them to continue operating in secrecy. They are not going to go away, but they had ought to be floodlit at all times, and someone will still find a way to abuse them and will need to be promptly prosecuted upon discovery.

But by who?; 6/12/13, 8:37 PM
rhhardin said...: What I remember of the NSA database was that it used to be kept in the phone companies, for billing and so forth, but they didn't keep the data for long enough.

The government offered to keep it longer, and so they just took on the job of continuing storage, so that they can go back further to correlate stuff.; 6/12/13, 8:40 PM
Hagar said...: This will grow ever larger. The only limits are money to build the storage facilities, and the chips are getting cheaper by the month.

Anyone remember Isaac Azimov's "The Final Question?"; 6/12/13, 8:52 PM
edutcher said...: Hagar said...

The present head of the NSA, Gen. Alexander stated in Congress that Snowden is lying in that he could not possibly have had the access he claimed. Perhaps so, but I think the Senators should ask another "20 something" computer spook, not a white-haired general.

That's the point. There's probably some buck private or corporal (Radar O'Reilley III?) that could give them chapter and verse.

I think our vets will agree the brass just has the Executive Summary.; 6/12/13, 9:03 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I wrote an old friend an email that recalled an earlier camping trip, if you can say staying in a rough little cabin camping. The trip keeps coming to mind because FOX keeps hawking gold and the price is astronomical since that trip. That trip was to a right proper gold mine that was owned by a person in the group, or partially owned, he was a group-oriented type person so probably group. He has died since then and the person I wrote drinks a lot and cannot recall the trip, yet it was pivotal, because it was precisely 100% Colorado. It seemed so ordinary compared to trips to South America, Asia, Europe, and on cruse boats, and such, but it is the thing people from those places come here to see. From my pov it was extraordinary. Everything about it was amazing.

I asked at the time why so little in the interest in piles of ore we were climbing on and the answer was cost. It was low grade ore and too costly to smelt. I took a chunk. Still have it. It is obviously gold in there, you can tell because it's not shiny at all. And you can see how if that were all bashed up and heated to melting you could extract it. But, Man, is that mine hole way up there. Right below tree level, and that's high. It's boarded up and you wouldn't want to crawl in, everything alive is up there to be seen.

Marmots running all around. A beaver dam immediately below. We walked across it. Longhorn sheep visible in the distance above treeline bouncing across impossible crags and crevices. A path behind the shed, a dormitory for the early miners, but really just a small almost worthless frame house, led to a stream that we panned. And here's the thing that kills me. The owner guy brought out a hummingbird feeder stored up there and filled it and I thought, "Eh. What a maroon. There aren't gonna be no hummingbirds up here," and BAM within one minute hummingbirds were flying all over the place crowding the feeder. Getting all juiced up and we sat back in woven lawn chairs looking straight up at the sky and hummingbirds took off doing aerodynamic maneuvers that jet planes do, loop-de-loos barrel rolls, screeching and such. And the guy I wrote the email didn't even remember it.

But he said he read the email four times and as such a traveler was moved by my recollections and suggested lunch.

I'm explaining how to attain free lunches. By manipulating.

No srsly, it's impossible to imagine not remembering hummingbirds up there at the top of the world. Talk about situationally unaware, or inability to sort by importance.

I realized too, if you were on an olden wagon coming back down the curvy mountain trail and through the tunnel of pine forest, and leant backward so that the scenery disappeared into the distance, the vertigo experienced is a disorienting thrill to the pit of the stomach so extreme as any rollercoaster ride invented, and I mean it.

So the guy I had lunch with does not recall the gold mine, nor the little house up there, nor the beaver dam, nor anything. What good is world travel when you cannot remember things or get jack shit straight about it?; 6/12/13, 9:10 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: So here's the weird thing. It actually happened twice in one week. I cannot figure it out. I believe it must be my charming new little belt. It looks like a cheap fake indian bead belt, leather, a craftwork belt in a thunderbird pattern that a boy would wear, like an Alaska souvenir or something. It's disarming. Since I'm so skinny they fit.

After lunch I left and noticed my shoe untied but no good place to sit and tie it and approaching a busy street thought best to bend down and do that and that put my backpack pressed against a brick wall. I tied my shoe. A long truck was stopped immediately in front of me on the street and men milling around. I overheard they were waiting for a spot to unload their truck. It was large and traffic was bolloxed because they were tied up there a bit. I struggled to get up, I'm a klutz and my backpack pinned me against the wall and redistributed weight, right then one of the men said, "Needhelpgettingup?" And answering a different question, I said, "Yeah, I can manage." But all I got out was "Yeah, grunt, grunt, I can.." and in that moment he swooped in like vampire Lestat, grabbed my upper arm as if it were a flagpole with my body as flag and lifted straight up. Actually, I merely stood up and there was a man clamped onto my arm, but it was the easiest standing up I ever experienced. His alacrity was astonishing. But the other men misunderstood what they thought they saw. They thought I sat down from exhaustion. I was actually refreshed. "Do you need water?" "Are you sure?" I honestly didn't know if I was being helped or harassed because I did not require any assistance yet a guy flew in from nearby and clamped onto my arm.

This is the second time that happened in a week. Odd, I know. The first person actually stopped his van, got out in rush our traffic where he had the turn. I thought he needed a push and he thought i needed assistance crossing the street

!

Same thing though. Backpack, charmingly disarming belt. Me apparently loitering or at least not walking determinatively toward a target. I do not understand this sudden unnecessary helpfulness. I keep expecting the worst from people, someone stealing my backpback during a vulnerable moment while taking a picture and breaking my hand along with it, but I keep getting the opposite of that, people flying out of nowhere to assist where none is asked for or needed, now twice in one week. Conclusion: noticing that belt changes people's thoughts towards altruism. Maybe it's clingy Calvin Klein t-shirts + disarming craft belt = altruism provocation. It's a theory.; 6/12/13, 9:10 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Wow. That is gorgeous.; 6/12/13, 9:15 PM
YoungHegelian said...: By a waterfall I'm calling yoo-hoo-hoo!

My favorite Busby Berkeley.; 6/12/13, 9:16 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Today it was all gray and I thought, "oh goody gumdrops, it's going to rain again." But it turned out to be smoke. The whole place is all smoked up. You could get lung cancer up in here it's so smokey. From Black Forest burning.

That's where I got my Big Green Egg. From a guy living in Black Forest. A beautiful house too. Shame if it burned down. The day I was there everything in the back yard was perfect kindle. Even the handles of the Big Green Egg. The wood was 100% dry and splintered. The first thing I did was oil the wooden parts. That's very near were Michelle Malkin lives. Not in Black Forest but not far from there.; 6/12/13, 9:24 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Smoke smoke everywhere smoke. It's snaking in at all angles. Sadly, the smoke is going to hold the hot air in tonight. I'm channeling that waterfall to do something. Please help.; 6/12/13, 9:28 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I bought a SnapCircuit Jr. for the son of woman around here. It was sort of iffy purchase because I don't know either one well at all. I'm concerned about perve-suspicions, so delighted to have feedback so fast that the game became an instant favorite and they were both up to 1:00 am finishing one last project.

So I recommend that toy. I watched up to some 20 videos or so of children playing with SnapCircuits and it is impressive how well behaved and focused they are. I was charmed by every single video they uploaded themselves. Watching them playing like that gives me hope for the future.

The boy told his mum, "Tell Chip I owe him one." *high five*; 6/12/13, 9:31 PM
Hagar said...: About the flap about Clapper, I don't buy the Democrats' excuses.
Senator Wyden's question was submitted to him the day before. If he could not think up a better way to not answer the question in that time, he is too stupid to be Director of National Intelligence.

Don Rumsfeld grumbled that he does not know why there is a DNI and a NSA to start with; he thought it was the CIA director's job to advice the President on intelligence matters.
Well, one reason is for the NSA to go on the Sunday gasbag shows and joust with David Gregory et al., and for the DNI to bullshit CVongress, so that the CIA guy will have some time to actually run the place.; 6/12/13, 9:46 PM
edutcher said...: Chalk up a nepotism scandal at the Energy Department.

When more than half the Cabinet departments are corrupt, shouldn't we just dissolve the Administration and start over?; 6/12/13, 9:49 PM
Dante said...: Nationalism was a great invention.; 6/12/13, 10:01 PM
Hagar said...: Whether Snowden knows it or not, one motive for what he did may be that in his heart, he knows that in the computer game, he is over the hill.; 6/12/13, 10:01 PM
chickelit said...: @edutcher: nepotism is "family friendly" policy for Dems.; 6/12/13, 10:15 PM
Simon said...: Hagar said...
"This will grow ever larger. The only limits are money to build the storage facilities, and the chips are getting cheaper by the month."

Yep. See this; 6/12/13, 10:15 PM
Simon said...: edutcher said...
"When more than half the Cabinet departments are corrupt, shouldn't we just dissolve the Administration and start over?"

No, but we do need to start the process of drawing down the additions that the progressives have made since the new deal.; 6/12/13, 10:17 PM
chickelit said...: bagoh20 said...
Nice work on the backyard water feature there Meade. That had to take at least a couple hours.

Is it really all made from composted leaves? That's amazing!; 6/12/13, 10:17 PM
Simon said...: And elect a better quality of President.; 6/12/13, 10:19 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: According to the Wikipedia Snowden didn't have a large web footprint, add to the Brooks reported tidbit about the rebuffed neighbor and I'm looking at a guy living pretty much in his own thoughts.

I don't think Snowden is behind anything other than some idea that came to him. An idea he was incapable of thoroughly discerning and ultimately rejecting.; 6/12/13, 10:24 PM
Hagar said...: It turns out the honcho at Gibson Guitar was a heavy contributor to the Republican campaign.

So, did the EPA, run by "Richard Windsor" get a heads-up from the IRS that this guy would be a good one to "nail to the cross on their wau into town?"; 6/12/13, 10:24 PM
Titus said...: Drudge, who we all love, natch, is a big fudgepacker.

I mean like constantly Drudge is getting gay sex.; 6/12/13, 10:31 PM
Titus said...: There are videos of Drudge sucking two 10 inch black cocks at the same time.

How hot is that?; 6/12/13, 10:34 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: My guess, based on drunken emotion of the moment, is that at one point a college degree offered (most of) those who had it the ability to respond to stupid arguments in a manner, dignified to both the receiver and with regards to the speaker, that showed the benefit of a college degree.

Not this "you're fat, ugly, and didn't pay out the ass for a shit paper piece" form of argumentation, as if a newly-minted grad from a third-tier-toilet lib arts school is more mock-worthy than someone without that credential.

"College degree" includes "College America" and others too, and this is saying something quite significant to those who use their degree or degrees as a sword.

Dullards.; 6/12/13, 10:39 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Following the IRS Tea Party crimes, everything the IRS did afterwards is suspect in my book.

And if its not cleaned up (by that I mean people are prosecuted) I'm going to use my first amendment right to make sure the connection between IRS and corruption takes hold in the publics imagination if only willed into it by sheer repetition. I'm only one guy so I may have to repeat it... a lot.

Bad idea?

I'm no Snowden, snowing myself in, right?; 6/12/13, 10:40 PM
Dante said...: Dear Ann,

I am in awe of your intellectual capabilities, and I especially like it when you rip apart a sentence and expose it's underlying ideas.

However, I am often at a loss to understand your intent. For instance, on the article about "S", you included all the parts of how she reacted to the huge responsibility of a new life (rectified when the child was 3 months old). You excluded the massive duress the woman was under, which might cause natural reactions in a mother, and failed to show the eventual love that she had for her child.

I do not attempt to divine your intent, but merely ask "Why?"

Not snarky, but I cannot connect the dots.; 6/12/13, 10:45 PM
traditionalguy said...: White water rafting over that category 5 falls is going to require some stronger water flows. Where did all those rainy day's flows go to?; 6/12/13, 10:54 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: We must, must, remember that J. Carrey won many confrontations, including some he didn't create, by saying "alrighty then" in certain unique ways now ubiquitous.

Alrighty then he said.; 6/12/13, 10:57 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Dear Dante..

I would call it a bait... But I'm not saying the professor would ever stoop to such obvious lake bottom dwelling, bush league, sports meta writing tricks.

No never, not me... no seri.; 6/12/13, 11:03 PM
Meade said...: El Pollo Raylan said...
bagoh20 said...
Nice work on the backyard water feature there Meade. That had to take at least a couple hours.

Is it really all made from composted leaves? That's amazing!

Thanks. Yep - all from nothing but composted leaves, repurposed garlic scapes from last year's crop, and a 40 pound bag of 10-10-10 slow-release fertilizer.; 6/12/13, 11:09 PM
chickelit said...: That's awesome Meade!

I'll bet you and Ann collaborated though--she painted the faux background that seamlessly blends into the waterfall foreground, giving it a marvelous feeling of depth, didn't she? It's a real tromp de l'oeil!; 6/12/13, 11:14 PM
chickelit said...: @Meade: And don't be koi about the pond...there are real fish in there, right?; 6/12/13, 11:16 PM
Meade said...: Nope. Tromped you again.; 6/12/13, 11:25 PM
Christy said...: What's up with the JP address?; 6/12/13, 11:30 PM
Dante said...: Incidentally, the waterfall is beautiful. It seems man made, with lots of heavy machinery to move crap around. It's missing ferns. Do ferns grow in WI? I'm guessing not.; 6/12/13, 11:31 PM
Christy said...: And now it's back to .com. ??; 6/12/13, 11:32 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: And don't be koi about the pond...

You got to do better than that my friend. lol.; 6/12/13, 11:43 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: If I commit to commenting on every story I come across about the IRS to drop a mention their corruption with the tea parties...

We are talking signing to lots of websites... for the rest of my natural life... it could get burdensome and then some.

I should try my congressman first... says a voice sounding reasonable.; 6/12/13, 11:51 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Dear Dante

Water is beautiful... but not man made.

Regards.; 6/12/13, 11:55 PM
chickelit said...: @Lem: Trompe the night away, beginning with The Pixies (1991); 6/12/13, 11:57 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I was listening to this song earlier today with some interest.; 6/13/13, 12:10 AM
chickelit said...: @Lem: Dale Bozzio was always more interesting to me than Frank Zappa was.

*ducks*; 6/13/13, 12:23 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I'm new to much of this music.; 6/13/13, 12:29 AM
edutcher said...: Simon said...

When more than half the Cabinet departments are corrupt, shouldn't we just dissolve the Administration and start over?

No, but we do need to start the process of drawing down the additions that the progressives have made since the new deal.

I've been saying that for years, but you may want to go back to Woody Wilson.; 6/13/13, 3:52 AM
Clyde said...: Errata: That should have been Frodo in last night's comment instead of Bilbo, of course. I was in a hurry when I was typing that up.; 6/13/13, 6:21 AM
Clyde said...: Seek and ye shall find:

Sméagol Obama; 6/13/13, 9:25 AM