Althouse: At the Rain Lettuce Café...

June 25, 2013

At the Rain Lettuce Café...

... nobody leaves you alone.

82 comments:

Sorun said...: Next year: hoop house.; 6/25/13, 1:18 PM
AllenS said...: There's plugs in the bottom of those containers.; 6/25/13, 1:30 PM
Patrick said...: When the left says that conservatives are racist, they are really just projecting.; 6/25/13, 1:49 PM
rhhardin said...: The central-Ohio daily spot-thunderstorms don't produce rain here but raise hell on the AM radio.; 6/25/13, 1:54 PM
madAsHell said...: Lettuce!!
I'm up to my eyeballs in lettuce, and spinach. We are giving it away to the neighbors, and family.

"Has anybody seen the price of arugula down at Whole Foods?"; 6/25/13, 2:08 PM
Anonymous said...: I'd rather have all this rain than drought, the green is so lush and beautiful this year, last year's brown arid look was depressing. Mosquitoes be damned.; 6/25/13, 2:14 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I started having sympathy and went, "awww," and that thought linked to a scene that happened around the corner a week a go when I described a similar botanical plotz, except mine was the opposite, dried out, went limp, and I showed that with my hands, a plastic basket of flowers gone limp from a single day of neglect, and only recovering partially, and neglected again as I work out the watering scheme, and gone limp again, so the hands droop twice, "and a couple of those episodes..."

My acquaintance finished the sentence "AND IT JUST ISN'T EVER THE SAME" *shrug* "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA"

And that incipient sympathy that I was just starting to feel went poof.; 6/25/13, 2:23 PM
Alex said...: Cabbage, lettuce, Swiss chard!!! Eat healthy and hearty my friends, for tonight....

WE DINE IN HELL!; 6/25/13, 2:25 PM
edutcher said...: Maybe you can have them varnished and used a something decorative at Thanksgiving.

PS more on the vote fraud front:

Granted it's '08, but it involves our own Messiah and his erstwhile Secretary of State.

Funky votes that put him in the IN promary.

Has this guy ever won anything honestly?; 6/25/13, 2:27 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: If I don't clean the grill after is used, it doesn't get clean.
And now that I cleaned it more than a few times, I think I found my calling.

It gets easier after the first time.; 6/25/13, 2:36 PM
Anonymous said...: ... nobody leaves you alone.

Certainly not Obama, who given all the problems facing America, today made a big address on climate change. Never mind that temperatures have been flat since 1998 and even some of the climate faithful are beginning to question whether the alarmists have it right.

Because ultimately it's not about the science.

I once heard a radio show where the speaker addressed an environmentalist audience and said, "Imagine I'm the carbon fairy. With one wave of my magic wand I can neutralize the climate effects of carbon forever. But remember that means people can buy bigger cars, drive more miles, etc. etc. Do you still want me to wave my wand?"

Only two people out of two hundred waved their hands.

No, this is about the leftist-green utopia these people want and will enforce upon the rest of us because they know best.; 6/25/13, 2:39 PM
Patrick said...: I'd rather have all this rain than drought, the green is so lush and beautiful this year, last year's brown arid look was depressing. Mosquitoes be damned.

Seems like the older I get, the less interested the mosquitoes are in my blood. When we're camping, they seem to have a strong preference for my kids. I'd take a bullet for my kids, but they're going to have to deal with the bugs themselves.; 6/25/13, 2:44 PM
lemondog said...: Certainly not Obama, who given all the problems facing America, today made a big address on climate change. Never mind that temperatures have been flat since 1998 and even some of the climate faithful are beginning to question whether the alarmists have it right.

It is about tax and more tax....a carbon tax.

ObamaAir; 6/25/13, 2:56 PM
AllenS said...: We've had an enormous amount of rain this year, but there's hardly any mosquitoes in the woods. Wood ticks are very numerous. Pulled two off of me today after cutting wood.; 6/25/13, 3:02 PM
Lance said...: According to Prof. Althouse, the court says, on the one hand, "not yet", while on the other, it says "not needed anymore" (or at least not needed in the way it was needed in 1968). Why the difference?; 6/25/13, 3:03 PM
Issob Morocco said...: Lettuce Pray.; 6/25/13, 3:48 PM
Issob Morocco said...: Lettuce Pray.; 6/25/13, 3:48 PM
Rabel said...: Defense just semi-smoked a prosecution witness. Depositions did not match testimony today on movements of M and Z.

Not a huge point but a win for Z.; 6/25/13, 3:51 PM
Oso Negro said...: Dear Professor, do you believe that minority students are unable to compete for admission without special "holistic" policy considerations? I have asked the same of President Bill Powers, of my alma mater, the University of Texas. I suspect I will not get a straight answer.; 6/25/13, 3:56 PM
Rabel said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/25/13, 3:59 PM
Rabel said...: I'm of the opinion that if iceberg lettuce was discovered for the first time tomorrow, it would be considered by foodies as the greatest thing since bok choy.; 6/25/13, 4:01 PM
Patrick said...: I'm of the opinion that if iceberg lettuce was discovered for the first time tomorrow, it would be considered by foodies as the greatest thing since bok choy.

Absolutely, and it has already happened. A few years ago, it was really trendy, and they were selling salads that were a wedge of iceberg lettuce for $12.50 at one of the trendier joints in town.

My only question was: how does someone smart enough to be rich enough to pay that for an eight of a head of lettuce get that rich? Must be inherited money is my guess.; 6/25/13, 4:07 PM
harrogate said...: Wonder what your thoughts are on the big controversy happening with the Texas State Legislature right now.; 6/25/13, 4:17 PM
edutcher said...: Good for them.; 6/25/13, 4:22 PM
Anonymous said...: More power to ya Wendy Davis. Hope you have a better outcome than Wisconsin.; 6/25/13, 4:24 PM
harrogate said...: Yeah, Wendy Davis has emerged as a somewhat surprising figure. I confess I didn't expect this much resistance from citizens, let alone from politicians. Either way, it ensures this nonsense will not be quietly implemented.; 6/25/13, 4:26 PM
edutcher said...: The only nonsense is in the minds of Lefties.

Interesting the She Devil of the SS, who says she hates abortion, is behind yet another Planned Parenthood mess.

Even more interesting is how the Demos bellyache when what they do all the time is done to them.; 6/25/13, 4:38 PM
Anonymous said...: Women still deserve a choice, even if that choice is in a narrower window.; 6/25/13, 4:43 PM
edutcher said...: When does the baby get a choice?

Most would choose to live, I'll bet.; 6/25/13, 4:45 PM
edutcher said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/25/13, 4:51 PM
Revenant said...: Defense just semi-smoked a prosecution witness. Depositions did not match testimony today on movements of M and Z. Not a huge point but a win for Z.

Not only did she get busted for changing her testimony, it turns out she signed a petition to have Zimmerman prosecuted. Ouch!; 6/25/13, 4:53 PM
edutcher said...: PS From some of what's going out over Ye Olde Blogosphere WRT the voting rights decision, it may be interesting to see if the vote fraud picture gets a little better in time for the midterms.

(which, I suspect, is why the Demos are crying); 6/25/13, 4:53 PM
Anonymous said...: Why no exception for rape and incest? More people would go along with the 20 week limitation if there were exceptions for rape and incest. Yes, I'm sure some women will lie, but there will also be those who don't, like 12 year olds who don't know they are pregnant until after 20 weeks, by their father perhaps. How can we expect a child to carry her rapist's baby?

Give the clinics a chance to upgrade their centers to be safer, make sure the centers are inspected.; 6/25/13, 5:00 PM
Rusty said...: he president has declared a war on coal.
More jobs lost.
What, besides heat, is made from coal?; 6/25/13, 5:05 PM
edutcher said...: Inga said...

Why no exception for rape and incest? More people would go along with the 20 week limitation if there were exceptions for rape and incest. Yes, I'm sure some women will lie, but there will also be those who don't, like 12 year olds who don't know they are pregnant until after 20 weeks, by their father perhaps.

Boy, there's a justification right out of NOW, I betcha. Strikes right at the heart of that terrible old patriarchy.

But since the She Devil brings it up, I wonder how many phony rapes, etc., are used to justify abortions?

How can we expect a child to carry her rapist's baby?

You mean like it's never happened before in the annals of recorded history, so the innocent kid could be given up for adoption?

Like, never?

Truth in advertising: I have no problem with the whole trapdoor for legitimate cases of rape and incest, but I have this funny feeling this provision was brought about by some heavy defalcatin'.; 6/25/13, 5:11 PM
edutcher said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/25/13, 5:11 PM
Unknown said...: It's not the baby's fault. Why should the baby be killed?; 6/25/13, 5:14 PM
edutcher said...: And what Rusty said.

Wait until winter when heating prices go through the roof. Just in time for those midterm primaries.

And a little visual aid for those who need a little prodding on how Der Fuhrer operates.; 6/25/13, 5:15 PM
Anonymous said...: I wouldn't force my daughters to carry their rapist's baby (God forbid). I wouldn't want anyone to be given that power. Yes, the baby isn't guilty of a thing.; 6/25/13, 5:23 PM
Revenant said...: Why no exception for rape and incest?

Because a rape/incest exception makes no sense from either the pro-life or pro-choice position. If the fetus has rights, why does it lose them because of who its father was? We don't believe in blood guilt in this country.

And if the fetus doesn't have rights, well, aborting it is fine no matter who its father is.; 6/25/13, 5:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Why is it OK to abort for severe birth defects, health of the fetus/ baby (as in the Texas abortion bill), but not for rape or incest? Does a deformed, ill baby have less rights?; 6/25/13, 5:36 PM
Revenant said...: Yes, I'm sure some women will lie, but there will also be those who don't, like 12 year olds who don't know they are pregnant until after 20 weeks, by their father perhaps.

What an odd world we would live in if the political left applied this level of concern to the laws they champion.

You never hear a left-winger bemoaning the people whose businesses go belly-up because of misguided regulations, for example. You always get some variation on "can't make an omelet without breaking eggs" when it comes to regulations... unless the thing being regulated is abortion. Then all you hear about is the 0.01% of abortions performed on underage late-term incest victims. :)

And yes, I do realize the hypocrisy goes both ways. Most people think regulation is great when it can be used to club their political enemies.; 6/25/13, 5:40 PM
AllenS said...: Where is everyone getting their Zimmerman trial information from?; 6/25/13, 5:46 PM
Revenant said...: Why is it OK to abort for severe birth defects, health of the fetus/ baby (as in the Texas abortion bill)

I have no idea what the Texas abortion bill says and don't plan to stir myself to find out. Thus I have no opinion on whether its contents make sense.

I was simply observing that rape/incest exceptions don't make sense.; 6/25/13, 5:47 PM
Revenant said...: Where is everyone getting their Zimmerman trial information from?

The Legal Insurrection blog is doing daily summaries.; 6/25/13, 5:47 PM
AllenS said...: Thanks, Rev.; 6/25/13, 5:52 PM
Rabel said...: Allen, Drudge has a link to live video from the courtroom. Restarts tomorrow at nine.

I've been keeping the audio on in the background.; 6/25/13, 5:56 PM
edutcher said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/25/13, 5:57 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Why no exception for rape and incest? More people would go along with the 20 week limitation if there were exceptions for rape and incest. Yes, I'm sure some women will lie, but there will also be those who don't, like 12 year olds who don't know they are pregnant until after 20 weeks, by their father perhaps. How can we expect a child to carry her rapist's baby?"

Shouldn't the rape victim be most likely to get the abortion quickly? Now that morning after pills will be available to all without a prescription, isn't the late-term rape-victim abortion quite remote?

Maybe an exception for an underaged person, but I would want to see the father arrested and prosecuted.; 6/25/13, 6:02 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Require a showing that this pregnant woman/girl didn't understand that she was pregnant.; 6/25/13, 6:03 PM
harrogate said...: Senator Davis will talk for 13 hours straight without food, water, leaning, or a bathroom. What have *you* done for women's rights today!; 6/25/13, 6:09 PM
Anonymous said...: "Maybe an exception for an underaged person, but I would want to see the father arrested and prosecuted."

6/25/13, 6:02 PM

Yes chances are the rape victim may know she's pregnant early on, my concern is for the young girl already sexually abused, confused, ignorant, scared. Definitely an exception for underage girls, along with arrest and prosecution of the father.; 6/25/13, 6:11 PM
Unknown said...: Again the baby is innocent. As for the Texas exception I don't know about it, but yes a handicapped baby has a right to life as much as any baby. The only exception I can see is if having the child will likely kill the mother. Then it's like self defense.; 6/25/13, 6:16 PM
Saint Croix said...: It's interesting that Roe skips over the two traumatic, emotional issues in the case--infanticide and rape. And of course those are the two issues that really upset the American people. That is what we shout about the most. So the unresolved feeling we get about abortion stems from the Court's unwillingness to talk openly about what is at stake.

Jane Roe was alleging that she was raped (a false claim!). Texas had no exception for rape. So that would have been a good basis for overturning the statute on narrow grounds.

For instance, the Court could have easily found a right to emergency birth control for rape victims under Griswold.

Indeed, the attorneys for Texas argued that the baby's life began at implantation (not conception) because they did not want to run afoul of Griswold.

Also, Texas claimed the purpose of the law was the protect the baby's life. Yet the Supreme Court found Texas was dehumanizing the baby (for instance, by not classifying abortion as murder, and by not punishing the aborting woman as an accomplice).

Why not overrule the statute and send it back to Texas for the state to bring its abortion, death, and homicide statutes into alignment? You could do that on due process grounds, since it's unclear whether an abortionist could be prosecuted for murder or for abortion.; 6/25/13, 6:21 PM
edutcher said...: harrogate said...

Senator Davis will talk for 13 hours straight without food, water, leaning, or a bathroom. What have *you* done for women's rights today!

Whoopee!!! It's got nothing to do with "women's rights" and everything to do with a big campaign contribution from Planned Parenthood.

Der Reichsfuhrer-SS (and his little She Devil) would be so proud.

More to the point, beyond empty gestures, what has she done to save the lives of children?; 6/25/13, 6:23 PM
Revenant said...: Senator Davis will talk for 13 hours straight without food, water, leaning, or a bathroom. What have *you* done for women's rights today!

I haven't leaned on anything or visited the bathroom yet today either. So I'm only half the supporter of women's rights that Davis is.; 6/25/13, 6:23 PM
edutcher said...: Not to change the subject (hey, do I look like a troll?), but what should replace Ready on the Hillary! shirt?

How 'bout

Christoper Stevens
Sean Smith
Glen Doherty
Ty Woods; 6/25/13, 6:25 PM
Saint Croix said...: Really, really hard finding common ground between the pro-life and pro-choice positions. Laurence Tribe wrote a book, The Clash of Absolutes about the fight. But his "solution" was for pro-life people to give up!

Here is Michael McConnell's review of the book. He rips him one!; 6/25/13, 6:27 PM
Revenant said...: my concern is for the young girl already sexually abused, confused, ignorant, scared.

Congrats on feeling sympathy for the two or three incest victims that seek late-term abortions in Texas each year. You've taken your first mincing step on the road to recognizing that individual liberty is the most important thing there is. :); 6/25/13, 6:29 PM
Saint Croix said...: ah, you might have to sign up to be able to read that. It's free.; 6/25/13, 6:31 PM
Saint Croix said...: Maybe this link will work.; 6/25/13, 6:38 PM
Revenant said...: Careful now -- in theory, if you sign up for JSTOR without being affiliated with an academic institution you could be prosecuted for a felony. :); 6/25/13, 6:41 PM
lemondog said...: Lettuce entertain you

Video: Courageous cat cruises around Philly on shoulder of pedaling owner; 6/25/13, 6:47 PM
Anonymous said...: The cat seems to be enjoying herself, even giving him kitty kisses, too cute.; 6/25/13, 6:52 PM
Saint Croix said...: Careful now -- in theory, if you sign up for JSTOR without being affiliated with an academic institution you could be prosecuted for a felony. :)

Yikes!

They asked me if I was affiliated and I said I was not. But I did say I was an "independent researcher."; 6/25/13, 7:06 PM
Saint Croix said...: You click on that link and I'll take you down with me!; 6/25/13, 7:06 PM
Saint Croix said...: you stink of the unindicted co-conspirator; 6/25/13, 7:08 PM
Saint Croix said...: Up and down goes the wave.
Mr. Soul, say hello
If you dream you're alive
You are, you know.; 6/25/13, 7:09 PM
Saint Croix said...: Wrote that when I was in law school. I don't know when babies start to dream. Some time in the second trimester, I guess.; 6/25/13, 7:13 PM
Anonymous said...: St Croix: I'm not interested in registering for free to read, but here's a passage from Richard Posner's book on Public Intellectuals, where he describes books by Gould and Tribe and mentions the McConnell review of Tribe.

Gould's book illustrates the style of public-intellectual work that might be called "splitting the difference" or "above the fray," in which a partisan of one side of a hotly debated topic professes to be navigating a middle course between extremes that he disparages for their extremism, but in fact he gives all the good arguments to his own (undisclosed) side.

The prominent law professor and public intellectual Laurence Tribe wrote a book on abortion purporting (as its subtitle suggests) to find a middle way between the pros and the antis, but in fact coming down hard in favor of the pros.

A review by Michael McConnell pointed out that "Professor Tribe is too little informed about the ethical, scientific, and legal arguments of opponents of abortion to be able to explain them, too unacquainted with pro-life people to understand their motivations or address their concerns, too committed to his own perspective to see things through the eyes of the other side, and too much a lawyer to put aside, even for a moment, the opportunity to argue his case.";); 6/25/13, 7:23 PM
Saint Croix said...: I think the link at 6:38 works, Creeley. I won't rat you out, I swear!; 6/25/13, 7:28 PM
Saint Croix said...: Or maybe not. Grrrrrrrrrrr.; 6/25/13, 7:29 PM
Anonymous said...: St Croix: It works but only shows the first page unless one registers.; 6/25/13, 7:38 PM
Saint Croix said...: It's been a couple of decades since I've read Tribe's book. One passage got him in trouble. He tried to analogize a baby in the womb to an “infinitely more valued...kidney.”; 6/25/13, 7:49 PM
Anonymous said...: As it happens, Obama assisted Tribe on the abortion book.

That's perfect. Tribe and Obama are poster children for that self-serving liberal pose of pretending to be above the fray while being heavily partisan for one side.; 6/25/13, 8:12 PM
Anonymous said...: That "above the fray" business is my problem with Althouse's "cruel neutrality" which seems to be a saltier term for the same conceit.

However, I must say Althouse is managing an amazing, non-cruel neutrality on abortion. I rather think the rest of the country could learn something from her here.; 6/25/13, 8:19 PM
Saint Croix said...: thanks for that link, Creeley!

Ogletree never imagined that his student would become the first African-American in the Oval Office. "My assessment was ... that he was going to be the best damn mayor that we've ever seen in history."

Obama recently joked about that assessment with his old friend and mentor, asking, "Man, why did you downgrade me?"

Ogletree replied: "It wasn't a downgrade. It was an honest grade."

Ouch!; 6/26/13, 3:43 AM
Saint Croix said...: One of the cases the Supreme Court relied upon in Roe to dehumanize the baby was a California case, Keeler v. Superior Court.

It's a criminal case in regard to whether a man could be charged with murder for killing an unborn baby. The defendant attacked his ex-wife, stomping her in the belly with the intention of killing her child. She was very late in the term. The baby, five pounds, was dead upon delivery.

The man was prosecuted and convicted of murder. But the Supreme Court of California overruled the conviction, finding that a unborn baby was a legal non-person, and cannot be murdered.

There was an outcry in California, and the murder statutes were amended.

The case is horrific. The people of California are upset that this baby is murdered and the killer goes free. And they change the law to recognize the humanity of unborn children.

And yet our United States Supreme Court ignores how upset the people of California are by this case. It ignores how the people changed the law to protect unborn babies from murder. It ignores the facts of the case.

In a way I think Supreme Court Justices are the worst people to "resolve" our abortion dispute. All of them are trained attorneys and think in a very detached way. But this detachment can be dangerous, particularly as you are defining who is a person and who is not one. Clearly the Court feels nothing for this baby who was brutally murdered. But the people of California, what did they say?

The popular upset at the infanticides of Roe was predictable from the very beginning. Citing and relying upon Keeler was stupid.; 6/26/13, 4:17 AM
Saint Croix said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/26/13, 4:52 AM
Saint Croix said...: I struggle with tone when I write any pro-life stuff. If pro-lifers are right, our entire reality is wrong. It upsets everything.

So how do you write that? How do you say it?

I try humor here. And here and here and here. Does that work?

I like to read funny stuff more than "you're a baby killer." You can sneak in ideas with humor. But then nobody takes you seriously.

What I need is a Somber Liberal Tone, like the people who made this documentary. Maybe one day I can pull that off. I need to work on my NPR voice.; 6/26/13, 5:29 AM
harrogate said...: Great night on the Texas Senate floor last night.; 6/26/13, 7:26 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: ... nobody leaves you alone.

leaves... I cant believe I missed that.; 6/27/13, 12:44 PM