Althouse: At the Let's Get Out of Here Café...

December 12, 2014

At the Let's Get Out of Here Café...

... it's long past lunchtime when you've been up since 4.

27 comments:

Deb said...: Good idea. It's Friday.

I'm nearing the end of my career. I'm ready to start something new.; 12/12/14, 11:59 AM
ALP said...: LOVE this image, especially how the white path cuts through the landscape. I am a lapsed artist; growing up, drawing was practically a compulsion. Not much desire to do it these days, but this image makes me want to grab some pastels or colored pencils to create a hand rendered interpretation. Good work!; 12/12/14, 12:12 PM
Wen said...: Beautiful pic. Is the road white because of snow or its make up? Reminds me of my teenage days. A new neighborhood was started with concrete roads, but no houses were ever built. All the kids would party at the "White Roads".; 12/12/14, 12:36 PM
Meade said...: "Whilst I staid here, I took a view of some mountains that lie about fifteen miles to the southward and abound in lead ore. I as- cended one of the highest of these and had an extensive view of the country. For many miles nothing was to be seen but lesser moun- tains which appeared at a distance like haycocks, they being free from trees. Only a few groves of hickery and stunted oaks covered some of the vallies.”
- Jonathan Carver 1766; 12/12/14, 12:41 PM
SJ said...: So, I saw something on my FaceBook feed that reminded me of a recent post of yours.

One of my cousins is pregnant. She's been posting things about pregnancy and her husband/family somewhat regularly for the past couple of months.

This week, she posts about getting amniocentesis.

And one detail: "[baby/fetus] grabbed the needle during the process."

This comment reminded me of the last post here about abortion, and whether "fetus" should have the same rights as "newborn baby".

However, I can't get past that one detail. The fetus has a hand that is well-formed enough to be capable of grasping objects.; 12/12/14, 12:42 PM
Meade said...: “We got into one of the most exquisitely beautiful regions I have ever seen in any part of the world. The prairie that had hitherto been distinguished by a regular rolling surface, here changed it character, and took the form of ridges somewhat elevated, which fre- quently resolved themselves into masses of gracefully-rounded hills, separated by gentle depressions, that occasionally became deep- ened valleys. In whatever direction our eyes were turned, the most pleasing irregularities of surface presented themselves. But that which crowned the perfection of the view, and imparted an indescribable charm to the whole scene, from the knoll where we stood to the most distant point, was the inimitable grace with which the picturesque clumps of trees, that sometimes enlarges themselves into woods, embellished this rural landscape from the hand of Nature... America will justly boast of this unrivaled spectacle when it be- comes known, for certainly it is formed of elements that no magic could enable all Europe to bring together upon so great a scale.”
- George W. Featherstonhaugh 1837; 12/12/14, 12:47 PM
Meade said...: Over millions of years, the forces of nature changed this place from mountains to a sea bottom to the hill it is today.
An undersea sediment sandwich
Deep down under the Blue Mounds is granite bedrock, the "roots" of mountains that stood here more than 2 billion years ago. The mountains were eroded down to a rolling granite plain.
As Wisconsin warped up and down repeatedly, extensive inland oceans alternately flowed into and retreated from the area. In the process, sand and soft limy sediments were deposited on top of the granite. The first sea covered the area more than 1 billion years ago and the last (the Silurian Sea) about 400 million years ago.
Eons of cementation and pressure changed the sands and limy sediments into sandstones and limestones.
Erosion carves the landscape
For the last 400 million years, most of Wisconsin has remained above sea level and erosion has carved southwestern Wisconsin into its present much-branched, tree-like drainage pattern of rivers, hills and valleys. Hundreds of miles of sandstone and limestone have been remove from southern Wisconsin by the streams during the 400 million year erosion cycle.
Southwestern Wisconsin has had nearly all its Niagara dolomite removed. It remains in this region only as tiny remnants atop Blue Mound, Platte Mound, Belmont Mound and Sinsinawa Mound. If it were not for the hard Niagara dolomite capping, these mounds would have been cut down to the level of the surrounding lowlands. Blue Mound stands hundreds of feet above the surrounding countryside.
Bypassed by the Glaciers
Most of Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota once looked much the same until a series of four glaciers inched their way across the North America thousands of years ago. Massive sheets of ice peeled off hilltops and filled in valleys from Canada to Kansas, leaving a vast, flat expanse in their wake.
Due to certain geological quirks of fate, southwestern Wisconsin was bypassed and encircled by the four glaciers. The area, therefore, stands as an island of hills and valleys amid surrounding plains.
The term "Driftless Area" is given to this region because it is devoid of drift or the accumulated rock and soil left by retreating glaciers.
- Blue Mound State Park
The Mound's Geology, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources 2014; 12/12/14, 1:07 PM
Scott said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/12/14, 3:54 PM
rhhardin said...: Sony execs are being slammed for racist remarks.

I didn't follow it in detail but it's probably not racist. It's "Obama is stupid." Lots of people share that opinion.

Apologizing to Sharpton and Jackson is racist. That's a "blacks are stupid" sentiment. "Here are their leaders."; 12/12/14, 5:31 PM
rhhardin said...: The ridges block the view.; 12/12/14, 5:32 PM
Hagar said...: Hearing Victoria Nuland speaking of how "her building" feels, it is a little chilling - like something out of a Stephen King story.; 12/12/14, 6:29 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I see the photo as a dreary reminder of where I'm headed.

Goodbye blue sky.

Hello Steel Panther.; 12/12/14, 7:12 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: One depressing thing is the divorces I've seen on

http://wcca.wicourts.gov/index.xsl

And the Operating While Intoxicateds.

This is a link with evidence of the extent of the wastedness in Wisconsin as measured by reporters.; 12/12/14, 7:18 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I know an incredible woman, or at least I knew her back in the day, who lives in Mt. Horeb.

I just think of gnomes.

Not lawn gnomes per se, but gnomes.

*Update.

They go by trolls.; 12/12/14, 7:35 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: https://roadtrippers.com/blog/mount-horeb-trolls; 12/12/14, 7:38 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: The young overtake the old according nature paraphrasing the Don.

It's natural.

What does this mean for us, now?

Who is the object and what is the subject?; 12/12/14, 8:22 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: According Nature opened for New Riders of The Purple Sage a couple times I think.; 12/12/14, 8:32 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Fact is I had me an O.E.D. y'all be not y'alling so loud y'all.; 12/12/14, 8:55 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Y'alls y'alling ut done out-y'alled the y'alls needing be y'allin' y'all.; 12/12/14, 8:56 PM
RecChief said...: Geminid meteor shower tonight. If you are in teh part of the country that Buzzfeed wants to write off, you should see a good show.; 12/12/14, 10:37 PM
Saint Croix said...: When I was a kid I had an insane metabolism. I could eat anything, skinny as a rail. As I've gotten older my metabolism has gone away. Now I have to learn to control my appetites, something I never had to do as a child. It's a good lesson for adults. But also, you know, sucks.

Anyway I found a way to bring back the metabolism of youth. It's simple and it doesn't cost any money.

What you do, at the end of your nice, hot shower, is flip the dial to extreme cold.

You're supposed to do it for fifteen seconds, but I'm pretty sure five seconds is enough.

If you're like me you are liable to wake up your spouse, the neighbor's kids, and dogs down the street with loud curse words at 7 in the morning. Fuck! I say. Fuck!

Anyway that's how I start my day now. With an intense cold shock at the end of a long hot shower. And my metabolism is back, I swear. Last night I gorged on steak, french bread--way too much bread--and ice cream. I had Thanksgiving bloat and I was cursing myself for my weakness. This morning my new awesome metabolism burned all that shit away.; 12/13/14, 3:49 AM
Saint Croix said...: You can google brown fat if you want to read about the science of it.; 12/13/14, 3:52 AM
Saint Croix said...: This comment reminded me of the last post here about abortion, and whether "fetus" should have the same rights as "newborn baby".

One of the arguments I make in my book is that aborting women are like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.

We have this paradigm of good vs. evil. But what's awful about abortion, and slavery, is how good people can be on the wrong side.

Think about the amazing people who founded our country. They are our heroes, our best and brightest. Good people, smart people. We name cities after them. Washington D.C. and Madison, Wisconsin. We put them on our money and put up statues to them.

And yet they were slave-owners.

It's quite common for pro-lifers to compare abortion to slavery. And we might say that aborting people are evil and wrong, like slave-owners. But this is a simple-minded mistake.

Just assume that the people who have abortions are good people. They love, they cry, they give money to charity and help others.

They are good people who have a moral blind spot. And that's the evil, the truly awful thing, about defining a class of people as outside the law. When you do that, you convince the nice, the strong, the brave, the smart--you convince our best and brightest--to commit atrocities. They do awful things precisely because they do not see the people whose humanity is denied.; 12/13/14, 4:22 AM
Saint Croix said...: One of the amazing stories that have come out of the UVA gang rape fabrication is a previous story that the disgraced reporter did.

She neglected to mention that she was married to one of the prosecutors(!)

But think in terms of narratives. Remember when the Catholic Church was filled with rapists and pedophiles, how it was the meme of the day? She took that narrative and ran with it.

But the case against these priests seems really weak.

what do you do about sending four men to jail for a sexual crime spree that may have only taken place in the imagination of a junkie criminal scheming to get out of jail?

The alleged victim, "Billy," had been arrested multiple times for drug offenses, including one arrest with intent to distribute 56 bags of heroin. In other words, he is highly motivated to lie. And his father is a Philadelphia police officer (who sat in the interview with the D.A.) So the police are highly motivated to believe any lies that he might tell.

And like "Jackie," his story is dramatically different every time he tells it.

And several people went to prison over this. One priest died in prison.

I want to hear more about this case!; 12/13/14, 5:50 AM
Saint Croix said...: Headhunters is a great flick from Norway. And of course the filmmaker has moved to Beverly Hills. Swimming pools. Movie stars.

Interesting how Hollywood keeps buying up most of the foreign talent. That's a good way to keep worldwide domination in place!; 12/13/14, 7:14 AM
Saint Croix said...: I am aggravated with myself for not taking the opportunity in the Gruber thread to pitch my abortion book that is practically my life's work. Grrrrrrr. Chapter 1 is all about eugenics and abortion!

Also I'm aggravated with myself for omitting Gruber in my book. Already I'm out of date! For fuck's sake. And while I didn't know about Gruber I did know about the book that is based on Gruber's argument. He really is a freak, you got that right.

And now I'm linking to the wrong damn book! Buy my book, not Freakonomics. Although in all honesty I made a D in economics. If you want economics you are better off with Freakonomics. If you're shopping for accusations against the unelected socialists who came up with this crap, I'm your market.; 12/13/14, 5:00 PM
Saint Croix said...: Yes I pitched my book twice on a long empty road thread. Look how long that road is! Don't be my future, you long empty road.; 12/13/14, 5:04 PM