Mrs. stevew and I visited our son and his family, lovely DIL and two beautiful grand daughters, 8 and 6 yrs old, earlier. We had to do a social distance visit, they on their porch, us in the driveway. The girls were exposed to a Covid positive classmate earlier this week. It was so good to see them and chat and be close, despite the hardship of not hugging and visiting in close proximity.
Tonight we are by ourselves, it is really nice in a nostalgic way. Seaside Maine is a quiet and beautiful place right now.
Tomorrow we do Christmas morning together, we have a few gifts for each other but nothing much, we're building a house, that is gift enough. Then we head to our daughter's house with her two terrific kids, a girl and boy, 4 and 2, and wonderful SIL. No need to distance with them. It will be awesome.
I wish you all a wonderful Christmas eve and day, for those that celebrate it, and that you get all or at least most of what you want and need.
Not that I need to justify myself but I'm no tranny nor need to be just love the song and thought you would like it. I have an urge, a ridiculous, to make people feel about themselves. Happy Christmas, my darling, my loved one!
Flew out of Pittsburgh to Denver this afternoon to visit stepson and spouse. Pittsburgh airport was a virtual ghost town. Only 2 people were ahead of us at security. Plane was 20% full. Doesn’t bode well for our economy.
The Coen Brothers would throw you out of their office if you brought this story to them. “We did that!”, they would say. “Even Barry Levinson did that! Nobody is going to buy that premise. It’s too stupid for any modern audience. We like the name, but the story is unrealistic baloney. Take it to Dick Wolf; he’ll do a 51-minute treatment.”
It was a bittersweet Christmas Eve dinner...my younger son flies tomorrow so we had our family meal tonight.
My older boy couldn't find a rapid covid test so he came but wore a mask and stayed away, too afraid to hug his mother who has had some very big health challenges this year.
Me? If it weren't for my wife's health I would have given him a big bear hug.
Life is too fucking short.
Open everything up and let people live according to their own judgement and circumstances.
Merry Christmas to Ann, Meade and all you glorious commenters of all political stripes. You keep me sane. Special shout outs to Freeman Hunt, Dr. K. And especially Laszlo and hey, even Chuck, Howard and Inga. Life is good. Appreciate it. We don' get another one. Or so I am led to believe.
Dr. Fauci told The Times in an interview published Thursday that he had slowly but deliberately been moving the goal posts, partly based on new science, and partly on his gut feeling that the American public was ready to receive the information, which is that 70-90% herd immunity should be achieved before the country can go back to normal.
It takes little imagination to think there are no people closer to God than the crabby old men who log onto the Althouse blog to spew, day after day, vulgar insults against people who do not care if they are insulted or not ..... Why ?
Because God loves us most when we most need God's love.
Fleming I get, jenner I get - rich kids from back in the day when rich kids toyed around in rich kid laboratories, but Pasteur was a real scientist, with a warm and kind human heart, don't mix him in with the other two
So I heard something on the radio by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square--lovely singing of course--and I thought, what happened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?
Fast-moving world--they changed the name in October 2018. Huh.
Never again will kids laugh about the Norman Chubbyknuckle Choir!
My fiancee's children are all here to visit us for the first time since we moved to Naples. Her oldest daughter just finished a case representing a client in CT last week, who also happens to own an Italian restaurant on 5th Ave. We had dinner there tonight at his urging, and as we were finishing up, he and his wife visited our table and thanked her for her work. When we asked the waitress for the check, we were told that it was on the house, and there was nothing we could about it. Of course we left a generous tip.
Merry Christmas Ann, Meade, and all you knuckleheads.
Growing up, the period from Thanksgiving to New Year's was always my favorite time of the year. It's a time of rituals and part of what I mean about being a "cultural Christian." It drives me crazy when people act like Thanksgiving is supposed to be some historical scrutiny of British colonialism. It's a story. That it isn't historical is irrelevant. The important thing is families get together and eat certain food on a specific day.
Christmas is about decorating the house, getting the tree, the look on your mother's face when you hang that thing you made in class on the tree, the parties, the songs, the food, the drinks. Christmas has a taste, a smell, and a look. The story of the Nativity is its foundation, but one's relationship with the Nativity is a matter of personal religious faith.
We are building a 3br/2ba house on a 6.56-ac lot here in King County, WA. Our lot has a 4-ft wide stream (no fish thank God!) going from NE corner to the SW corner. The stream is lovely and my wife is just thrilled having the stream, but it complicates the building permit process no end. We had to do a critical area plan and a minor flood study. We'll be clearing two sites on the property, one for the house and one for an observatory.
Our permit application has reached the point where we put up the Public Notice of Propose Land Use this week. The comment period ends February 8, 2021, but I hope to move that schedule up. Once the County finishes its work, the State Dept. of Ecology and the Fish and Game department get their turn at. So, maybe we can start construction in April 2021. That'll be 14 months to get a permit. It'll probably take 9 months to build the house, so we should be moving in around this time next year. Hurray!
There is a lot of truth to that. I enjoy putting up the decorations (I have the ones my parents had). Such as on one tree are the old glass ornaments from he late 19th-early 20th century. One of these is "Big Green" a large heavy green glass ball that was on my maternal grandmother's first Christmas tree in 1900.
The fear that the media (and Dems) have created about COVID is insane. If you're not old and/or medically at risk, COVID is just another standard risk of getting sick - like with the flu. You're not going do die or be severely impacted - PERIOD. Yes there is the issue and risk that the non-old/medically at risk folk get COVID and then transmit it to the real at risk population - so let's just focus on how to protect those really at risk, and not shut down life for everyone else. Personal experience - we practice basic common sense precautions. Wear masks when in close contact with general public we don't know/trust - not necessarily to protect ourselves but to protect others if by chance we have COVID (or flu) and thus show respect to others. We avoid very crowded situations - aka semi-social distancing - and close contact with anyone we don't know that is coughing / sneezing. Meanwhile since COVID started. We work out at a local gym; go shopping, walks outside, and to restaurants & breweries when they're open - again avoiding unruly or drunken crowds. We have flown to LA and North Carolina twice each to visit the kids, and they came here for XMAS - all without getting COVID. Common sense is what is necessary, not dictatorial rules. If we get it, we'll survive - we've seen equal or worse impacts to our work lives by flu in other years.
I have watched the first 3 seasons of Fargo. I like all three, probably the third season was the best in my opinion (reminded me of Twin Peaks in many respects), but none were unentertaining. I will binge season 4 sometime next month.
Map view of the property. Total cleared area will be 1.88-ac in the SE corner of the wooded area. The property to the east is already cleared with a house on it and small hills beyond the house. To the south is Tokul Forest, which has already been cleared and is regrowing, but won't be in the field of view. The observatory will be near the SE corner, about 75-ft from the forest and about 100-ft from the east property boundary. I'm thinking of putting up a small screen of those short cedar trees, 10 to 20-ft tall, to screen out the house.
Merry Christmas to all, even Chuck who is up to his usual.
We had dinner tonight with my son and his family plus about 20 friends and their kids.
One family cancelled because one kid got sick. Tomorrow, we will open presents and my other daughter and her family will come down to OC. Governor hair gel did not show up so we all had a nice time. Had breakfast with FBI leftist daughter who was too afraid to come to the Christmas Eve dinner that we have had for 25 years.
Good luck with the permits and house building. I moved to WA this year. I'm renting in Kirkland now, but will be looking to buy or build next year or the year after
I watched three seasons of Fargo. I thought season three was the best, followed by season one (which couldn't compete with the movie). Season two not so good.
I wanted to watch and like season four, but the schoolgirl's woke 21th century attitude in the first episode put me off the whole series. It didn't seem like it was going to be an accurate portrayal of the era.
Each season is a self-contained unit, so they could come up with something astounding next season, but to me the show seems to be getting stale, like the Minnesota accents in the first three seasons eventually got annoying.
I just finished watching The Irishman. Interesting bit about fraud in the 1960 election. But the main character's role in electing Biden in 1972 wasn't touched on.
Mike of Snoqualmie - I cannot fathom anyone trying to get through King County permitting these days.
Hubby and I bought our place in Redmond (unincorporated King County) several decades ago. #1 requirement was the stream - so hubby could divert it for a bit and build ponds for wildlife. Moved heaven - and a lot of earth - to get it done before the wetland restrictions were in effect. Couldn't do it today. My hat is off to you.
Fortunately, the stream doesn't empty into any other body of water, but is absorbed into the ground along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, so that make the critical buffer width only 25-ft instead of 65-ft. We still had to do a critical area restoration plan and a minor flood study because the lot is so flat. It's seems that it's taken forever to get it done. Some of the County permit people are responsive, others not so much. We were told the average permit time was 7 months, it's going to take 14 months.
Kirkland's ok. I hate the traffic in downtown Kirkland. What would really be the worst is Seattle. We only go into Seattle now for 1) Wife's hair appointments, once every 3 months and 2) Baseball games. Wife take the bus for the hair appointments, and we park in the T-mobile parking garage for the games. The streets around T-mobile aren't bad and we make a bee-line to I-90 after the game. Don't know what it's like now with all the antifa/BLM rioters.
I just gave my Canadian bride an autographed, framed #4 jersey of Bobby Orr with an overlying photo of him diving /flying across the goal mouth as he scores the winning overtime goal for the 1970 Stanley Cup finals. A Christmas-giving hat-trick, for sure: tears of joy. More Grey Goose and 10 year old Bulleit bourbon getting set up. Life is good.
Santa brought me the Hunter Biden disposable laptop. You can leave it anywhere. Also got the Memory Hole Pillow 100% cotton picked by eager Uighurs. And my very own Dominion counting machine. It lights up but nobody’s home.
So, I see where approximately 30 Seattle Police, dressed up in black riot gear, visited Cal Anderson Park on Dec 20 to shut down a soccer match where participants were wearing "black bloc" clothing. Observers alleged that the police targeted this group as protesters and Antifa members, while ignoring others in the park. Eight were roughed up and arrested for mouthing off to police and one person went to a hospital by ambulance. No protest activity was observed.
Bumble, Crumble, Dumbbell No, Fumbles that's a good one Grumble, Humble, Jumble, Mumble, Numble is the inedible guts, the ingredients for Umble pie Rumble, Stumble, Tumble.
I wish I could link directly, but surely you can find it yourself: Christmas music to me is Johnny Mathis. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire; just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingling too; Oh Holy Night, the stars are brightly calling. I'll be home for Christmas.
Bless him, he is still performing. He'll be on the waterfront at the Van Wezel in Sarasota. Would it be strange to bring my mother's ashes to his concert?
May we still be able to talk about anything in the comments threads, and elsewhere, a year from now. I doubt it. Anyway, thanks for the company.
I decided to play Santa Claus to a guy from Europe and his female partner who were out on the sidewalk selling Canadian Christmas trees in NYC.
Turned out the guy has a severe case of asthma and recently went through pneumonia and another respiratory issue that resulted in intubation and the loss of function in one of his lungs. Also hypotension. He was definitely afraid of catching Covid-19.
So I printed out and gave him around 25 journal articles supporting what I thought he should do supplement-wise to address his lung issues and diminished immune system competence. (I've actually given peer-reviewed presentations at scientific conferences on this subject after retiring from 35 interesting years on Wall Street.)
Then I thought about it a while and came back and gave him a bag with six bottles of the recommended supplements.
The next day his lungs were in very bad shape, couldn't get out of his van, and thought he might have caught Covid. I noticed a strong cold wind was blowing from the Northwest and told his partner his symptoms were consistent with reactivity to positive air ions. Plus, his previous hypotension was consistent with an overactive immune system that had not reset itself after his hospital stays. (Had the same thing myself back for several months in 1992 after a bout of pneumococcal pneumonia.)
Told his partner he should take 120 mg of EGb-761 Gingko extract, which (among other things) acts both as a mild platelet-activating factor and tumor necrosis alpha inhibitor. (Platelet-activating factor lowers blood pressure.)
The next day I came back and his partner told me he was feeling MUCH better and was out and about shopping.
Since the guy turned out to be a compatriot of my wife, she told me I might have earned some time off from the projected, well-deserved stay in purgatory.
Thanks for all the Fargo feedback. Shows we all are different, even if we have our similarities!
One thing I liked about season 2 was the American Indian character. He scared me to death.He was a snake eater! Also, small spoiler alert, if you watched all 4 seasons, did you catch how Chris Rock's son at the end of season 4 turned out to be one of the adult mob characters from season 2?
It'll be on a 12x16 deck with NexDome. The NexDome is a full dome, about 7 to 8-ft in diameter and about the same tall. It'll hold up to a 14" scope. I'll have a solar panel/battery for power; it way to far away to have house current. A friend has one and likes it.
The decking material will be cedar 2x4s milled from the cedar trees on site. I'm having a traveling sawmill come to cut the logs into lumber.
There's also a deteriorating bridge across our stream that I'll be replacing with ground contact lumber for the beams and cedar 2x4s from the on-site cedars.
The observatory deck will not require a building permit from the County since it's less than 200-sq-ft. Neither will the dome for the same reason.
I'm a retired Boeing Defense and Space engineer who worked with the Air Force and Navy on E-3/E-6 and P-8s. Dealing with the County is a piece of cake compared to dealing with the Air Force and NAVAIR. NAVAIR at times wanted ridiculous amounts of analysis before they'd grant an airworthiness clearance. For the building permit, I had a good civil engineering firm, Encompass in Issaquah, who did all the site plans, drainage plans and knew other firms that could do what the County wanted. They also keep in contact about how the permitting is going. My only complaint is the time required to get the permits. This COVID doesn't help that.
NAVAIR at times wanted ridiculous amounts of analysis before they'd grant an airworthiness clearance.
@Mike, I think the 737 MAX shows what happens when the certifying agency does NOT require “ridiculous” amounts of paperwork before issuing an airworthiness certificate.
I plan on using two 100-what solar panels with a 200Ah lead-acid battery, but I'll look into those LFP batteries. I'm going to need power for the dome motors, the scope and a computer.
The 737 MAX was a clusterfck of rapid requirements changes without communicating those changes to all relevant parties. It also was glaring example of a safety system that was not adequately tested in the lab, with real hardware. We always kept NAVAIR in the loop with any changes, and tested safety of flight mods in the lab before we flew them. After the lab testing, we'd right a test report that compared the hardware results to our predicted results. NAVAIR reviewed the report and if they were satisfied, they'd approve the hardware for flight. Then we conducted rigorous flight tests and compared those results to predictions. Again, NAVAIR had to approve the flight test report before the hardware was approved for general fleet usage.
From what I've seen in the papers, BCA didn't do that, and in fact they hid the changes from the FAA and papered-over any changes so the pilots were not aware of what this new system really did.
My wife is watching CBS with all the sad stories of "seniors" who are inside and family who cannot touch them but must place a hand on glass. We are "seniors" and drove 475 miles to be with our family at Christmas, like always. Last night we joined about 25 family and friends, half of them kids, for my son's annual Christmas Eve party. This morning we will go over to watch the kids, now all teens, open presents. Since they all know about Santa, we don't have to be there until 9.
We are staying in my other son's condo since Governor Hair Gel has closed all the hotels. We had breakfast with my leftist FBI daughter who is too afraid of the virus to attend the party. Ate on a patio in drizzle.
Good for you, Michael K. I am observing Christmas alone but knowing my kids and grands are getting together up in WA makes me happy. The sunshine here in AZ today is delightful although we got some rain last night. Only the second rain we've had here in ten months.
Yes, I monitor the County's flood-watch web pages (It's bookmarked for rapid access). Our house will not be in any danger from the Snoqualmie River, but there's one section of our stream that could flood in an 100-yr storm and threaten the house. The land is very flat in that section, so we're mitigating that risk by creating a 1-ft high berm to rechannel any flood waters back into the stream. For the rest of the stream, no flood waters will get near the house.
Scott Adams dons a Santa hat today as he gives approval for Zuckerberg running elections and being the only vote that matters. Also..defends pork. Also approves Fauci moving vax goalposts/lying. I wish there was a THC meter displayed on his feed. By the way, if CDC knows many folks have rona antibodies, where does Fauci get the need for 90% of pop needing vax. Oh right, his ass.
@Mike, I spent most of my career working for a major government contractor, and I am aware of the problem of failure to communicate. After a while I got a reputation as a guy to lob into a project when it was in trouble, and in every single case (but only EACH and EVERY ONE) there was a failure to communicate. Teams walled off from one another, people working to out of date specifications because no one seemed to realize that they had any skin in the game. Yup. Seen it all, and not just once.
The FAA used to -- and perhaps still does -- rely heavily on the manufacturer to play fair. But they often don't. Boeing "proved" that a 767 could be safely flown even in the event of an uncommanded thrust reverser deployment -- 213 people died about a Lauda Air flight when it turns out that the plane couldn't be saved in all flight regimes. McDonnell-Douglas proved that a DC-10 could be flown with asymmetric slats. That cost 273 people their lives when no one thought to ask how a pilot would know that slats weren't deployed on one side. So NAVAIR may be a pain in the ass, but their semi-adversarial approach sure beats planes crashing and people dying.
Yes, NAVAIR is a pain in the ass, but they're thorough. Their asses are on the line if a plane crashes due to a fault that they should have known about. Most of the NAVAIR people are good people, there were one or two that were very big pains because they didn't know what they were doing, so they demanded everything just to be sure.
The P-8 project was very well run. We got Initial Operating Capability a year ahead of schedule, but it was just for the clean configuration, no external weapons or pods. We used lots of risk management tools and plans, sometimes it seemed like too many. But, the technical risks were examined and burned down to green status from red.
The 767-tanker program took the opposite approach: don't worry, be happy. Our guys would raise risks that should have been mitigated before flight, but were not accepted by management. The risks almost always materialized, and had to be solved in flight test. Solving technical problems via flight test is very expensive compared to analysis, lab test or ground test, as you know.
767-tanker also had the habit of ignoring the spec-requirements, then getting called on them. They had to redesign the fuel system multiple times because of that.
So, I see where approximately 30 Seattle Police, dressed up in black riot gear, visited Cal Anderson Park on Dec 20 to shut down a soccer match where participants were wearing "black bloc" clothing.
Bullshit. They were clearing out a homeless camp of hundreds of people. Took them two tries to do it. Stop lying.
Yes, an earlier contract that involved leasing the tankers involved bribery. That contract went down in flames. About 10 years (2002) before the current contract.
Darleen Druyun, who helped negotiate a controversial plan to lease Boeing 767 commercial jets to the Air Force for use as aerial refueling tankers, and Michael Sears, Boeing's former chief financial officer, were both fired after an internal Boeing investigation found they had violated company policies. Sears had communicated directly and indirectly with Druyun about possible employment with Boeing while she still worked for the Air Force and before she recused herself from official involvement with Boeing contracts. The investigation also uncovered that the two had tried to conceal their misconduct.
767-tanker also had the habit of ignoring the spec-requirements, then getting called on them. They had to redesign the fuel system multiple times because of that.
Almost as though the Airbus-Northrop Grumman team should have won after all.
Boeing has lost a bundle on the 767-tanker. The contract is fixed-price. Any cost overruns come out of Boeing's pocket. That's lead to a lot of pennywise, pound foolish decisions. Such as not doing the upfront work to decrease risk and instead finding the problems during flight test and spending big bucks to fix them, long after they could have been fixed at a much, much smaller cost.
@walter said... Andy Ngo's lawsuit against "an idea" moves a step further.
At least Andy can sue. Not so for all the competent innocents that Trump fired for no reason except personal hatred including a half dozen Inspector Generals and even more professional FBI investigators - and the beatdown goes on and on.
@donald said... The only good antifa is a dead antifa. Merry Christmas Gadfly.
And a Merry Christmas to you, Donald.
I have never met an antifa, so I wouldn't know if he/she/it is good as well as dead. From where does this hate originate? Antifa bad. Ugh! So do you think that arrested and convicted Proud Boys and Boogaloo Bois are rightfully bad as well? But at least they are not being harassed for playing soccer in a public park. Then there is the part about carrying long guns or umbrellas . . .
"I have never met an antifa, so I wouldn't know if he/she/it is good as well as dead." I have never met a nazi, but I'm pretty sure they're bad. Your moral relativism undermines your reason. You're statement is the equivalent as saying," Mice originate from piles of soiled clothes."
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126 comments:
Here's hoping you won't have a Blue Christmas!
Thanks for keeping the place open for us cranks.
Happy Holidays!
Shalom and good will to all.
Mrs. stevew and I visited our son and his family, lovely DIL and two beautiful grand daughters, 8 and 6 yrs old, earlier. We had to do a social distance visit, they on their porch, us in the driveway. The girls were exposed to a Covid positive classmate earlier this week. It was so good to see them and chat and be close, despite the hardship of not hugging and visiting in close proximity.
Tonight we are by ourselves, it is really nice in a nostalgic way. Seaside Maine is a quiet and beautiful place right now.
Tomorrow we do Christmas morning together, we have a few gifts for each other but nothing much, we're building a house, that is gift enough. Then we head to our daughter's house with her two terrific kids, a girl and boy, 4 and 2, and wonderful SIL. No need to distance with them. It will be awesome.
I wish you all a wonderful Christmas eve and day, for those that celebrate it, and that you get all or at least most of what you want and need.
All the best to all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qQyUi4zfDs
We ordered some of the Fabrique Cardemom buns based on Freeman Hunt's recommendation a couple of weeks ago. Off the hook! Thanks Freeman!
Merry Christmas and thanks to Ann and Meade for the always interesting Blog.
Not that I need to justify myself but I'm no tranny nor need to be just love the song and thought you would like it. I have an urge, a ridiculous, to make people feel about themselves. Happy Christmas, my darling, my loved one!
Lovely. Tho - could use some colorful twinkle lights.
Merry Christmas to all.
Flew out of Pittsburgh to Denver this afternoon to visit stepson and spouse. Pittsburgh airport was a virtual ghost town. Only 2 people were ahead of us at security. Plane was 20% full. Doesn’t bode well for our economy.
Merry Christmas. Two Christmas songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpkmJ1Kp4PU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEREtfRnwxM
A quiet night. The trees are decorated, the mantle too. The electric candles are lit nd a fire is going. Glass of wine, and just sit and read.
Merry Christmas, Hope is born.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVe-9VWIcCo
“Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman.”
I am not making this up. Nobody could make this up. Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman, from Minot, ND...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/sidney-powells-secret-intelligence-contractor-witness-is-a-pro-trump-podcaster/2020/12/24/d5a1ab9e-4403-11eb-a277-49a6d1f9dff1_story.html#click=https://t.co/8cKQUsCbjw
The Coen Brothers would throw you out of their office if you brought this story to them. “We did that!”, they would say. “Even Barry Levinson did that! Nobody is going to buy that premise. It’s too stupid for any modern audience. We like the name, but the story is unrealistic baloney. Take it to Dick Wolf; he’ll do a 51-minute treatment.”
Once in a Blue mood Christmas
Andy Ngo's lawsuit against "an idea" moves a step further.
Antifa = Maoist goons. Nazi Brownshirts.
Stupidity, eh, but also beauty - it moves me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmrfgj0MZI
Merry Christmas to all.
This is what I wanted to send you -not tonight but before - for I know life and it's terrible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9BbXD-wRfA
Not Christmas music - but so what?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC_zO12nw1o
It gives praise to the Lord, how can it not be Christmas related, excellent choice btw
A Christmas carol from mah pipple, on mah Pappy's side.
I go back and forth on the English and French versions.
This is LIVE... oooo do give a listen hurry!
In the Bleak Midwinter
https://tinyurl.com/y7aa78lp
Gerard Vanderleun used to post this one.
walter said...
Andy Ngo's lawsuit against "an idea" moves a step further.
*****
Hey, what is the KKK but an idea?
meh
"Doesn’t bode well for our economy."
Democrats will be happy to hear that, no doubt.
https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=timonathens&Act=4&Scene=3&Scope=scene
It's all just an idea until you lose an eye...or have blood coming out of your ear.
I have to wonder if Katelyn Jones, the young gal who threatened a female Michigan election official is somehow related to "Chuck!".
Or a permanent brain injury.
I was looking for FACE band's song "O Come, O Come Emmanuel / On the Turning Away"
I've seen it performed live over the years and it is, for me, really something special. This is a fairly lovely version. Live is still best.
It was a bittersweet Christmas Eve dinner...my younger son flies tomorrow so we had our family meal tonight.
My older boy couldn't find a rapid covid test so he came but wore a mask and stayed away, too afraid to hug his mother who has had some very big health challenges this year.
Me? If it weren't for my wife's health I would have given him a big bear hug.
Life is too fucking short.
Open everything up and let people live according to their own judgement and circumstances.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to Ann, Meade and all you glorious commenters of all political stripes. You keep me sane. Special shout outs to Freeman Hunt, Dr. K. And especially Laszlo and hey, even Chuck, Howard and Inga. Life is good. Appreciate it. We don' get another one. Or so I am led to believe.
Merry Christmas everyone. If you are looking to binge this weekend I recommend Tehran on Apple TV. Israeli spy thriller with lots of twists and turns.
Yes its kind of modern but it has its charm.
Dr. Fauci told The Times in an interview published Thursday that he had slowly but deliberately been moving the goal posts, partly based on new science, and partly on his gut feeling that the American public was ready to receive the information, which is that 70-90% herd immunity should be achieved before the country can go back to normal.
Follow the science!
Merry Christmas to all the Althouse commenters!
It takes little imagination to think there are no people closer to God than the crabby old men who log onto the Althouse blog to spew, day after day, vulgar insults against people who do not care if they are insulted or not ..... Why ?
Because God loves us most when we most need God's love.
Think about it. The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 2.
Fleming pasteur jenner all release a primal scream in the ether
Merry Christmas to the House of Althouse and to all the bloggerinos whose comments keep me going in these ominous times. God bless you one and all.
Fleming I get, jenner I get - rich kids from back in the day when rich kids toyed around in rich kid laboratories, but Pasteur was a real scientist, with a warm and kind human heart, don't mix him in with the other two
We're discarding about 300 hundred years of epidemic control protocol for reasons see hcq the cheap effective therapeutic deemed crimethink
So I heard something on the radio by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square--lovely singing of course--and I thought, what happened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?
Fast-moving world--they changed the name in October 2018. Huh.
Never again will kids laugh about the Norman Chubbyknuckle Choir!
Narr
Sad!
Now its just salt lake??
Another stunning photo. Thank you.
https://thenationalpulse.com/news/the-smartest-man-in-the-world-iq-200-is-convinced-the-u-s-election-was-stolen/
WTF the Tampa forecast is 34F tomorrow night. We did not bring winter clothes. Damn global warming.
My fiancee's children are all here to visit us for the first time since we moved to Naples. Her oldest daughter just finished a case representing a client in CT last week, who also happens to own an Italian restaurant on 5th Ave. We had dinner there tonight at his urging, and as we were finishing up, he and his wife visited our table and thanked her for her work. When we asked the waitress for the check, we were told that it was on the house, and there was nothing we could about it. Of course we left a generous tip.
Merry Christmas Ann, Meade, and all you knuckleheads.
Something different
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M-mW5W2208o&feature=youtu.be
Growing up, the period from Thanksgiving to New Year's was always my favorite time of the year. It's a time of rituals and part of what I mean about being a "cultural Christian." It drives me crazy when people act like Thanksgiving is supposed to be some historical scrutiny of British colonialism. It's a story. That it isn't historical is irrelevant. The important thing is families get together and eat certain food on a specific day.
Christmas is about decorating the house, getting the tree, the look on your mother's face when you hang that thing you made in class on the tree, the parties, the songs, the food, the drinks. Christmas has a taste, a smell, and a look. The story of the Nativity is its foundation, but one's relationship with the Nativity is a matter of personal religious faith.
Nice photo.
Anyone here watched all 4 seasons of Fargo?
My wife favored season 1,2,3,4, in that order.
I preferred season 2,1,4,3.
What are your thoughts?
Merry Xmas all!
I forgot the best one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEREtfRnwxM
I think the third was pretty good the onesbefore and after not so much
Oh never mind
https://mobile.twitter.com/FDRLST/status/1342122869673906177
Celtic Woman - O Holy Night
The culmination of Western Civilization
Merry Christmas to everyone.
We are building a 3br/2ba house on a 6.56-ac lot here in King County, WA. Our lot has a 4-ft wide stream (no fish thank God!) going from NE corner to the SW corner. The stream is lovely and my wife is just thrilled having the stream, but it complicates the building permit process no end. We had to do a critical area plan and a minor flood study. We'll be clearing two sites on the property, one for the house and one for an observatory.
Our permit application has reached the point where we put up the Public Notice of Propose Land Use this week. The comment period ends February 8, 2021, but I hope to move that schedule up. Once the County finishes its work, the State Dept. of Ecology and the Fish and Game department get their turn at. So, maybe we can start construction in April 2021. That'll be 14 months to get a permit. It'll probably take 9 months to build the house, so we should be moving in around this time next year. Hurray!
J. Farmer at 12/24/20, 10:15 PM
There is a lot of truth to that. I enjoy putting up the decorations (I have the ones my parents had). Such as on one tree are the old glass ornaments from he late 19th-early 20th century. One of these is "Big Green" a large heavy green glass ball that was on my maternal grandmother's first Christmas tree in 1900.
"Anyone here watched all 4 seasons of Fargo?"
I want to like it but it's difficult.
It's not even in fucking Fargo.
Thanks Ann (and Meade too)...
It doesnt have enough humor, and its too grim. Stormare was the only hammy enough villain.
(Meade can't reach the keyboard)
"We'll be clearing two sites on the property, one for the house and one for an observatory."
I am on the lookout for an observatory site. How big will your clearing be?
The fear that the media (and Dems) have created about COVID is insane. If you're not old and/or medically at risk, COVID is just another standard risk of getting sick - like with the flu. You're not going do die or be severely impacted - PERIOD. Yes there is the issue and risk that the non-old/medically at risk folk get COVID and then transmit it to the real at risk population - so let's just focus on how to protect those really at risk, and not shut down life for everyone else. Personal experience - we practice basic common sense precautions. Wear masks when in close contact with general public we don't know/trust - not necessarily to protect ourselves but to protect others if by chance we have COVID (or flu) and thus show respect to others. We avoid very crowded situations - aka semi-social distancing - and close contact with anyone we don't know that is coughing / sneezing. Meanwhile since COVID started. We work out at a local gym; go shopping, walks outside, and to restaurants & breweries when they're open - again avoiding unruly or drunken crowds. We have flown to LA and North Carolina twice each to visit the kids, and they came here for XMAS - all without getting COVID. Common sense is what is necessary, not dictatorial rules. If we get it, we'll survive - we've seen equal or worse impacts to our work lives by flu in other years.
The culmination of Western Civilzation
Merry Christmas Eve to all you wonderful people. Mahalo Althouse Ohana for this place, gorgeous photo.
I have watched the first 3 seasons of Fargo. I like all three, probably the third season was the best in my opinion (reminded me of Twin Peaks in many respects), but none were unentertaining. I will binge season 4 sometime next month.
Map view of the property. Total cleared area will be 1.88-ac in the SE corner of the wooded area. The property to the east is already cleared with a house on it and small hills beyond the house. To the south is Tokul Forest, which has already been cleared and is regrowing, but won't be in the field of view. The observatory will be near the SE corner, about 75-ft from the forest and about 100-ft from the east property boundary. I'm thinking of putting up a small screen of those short cedar trees, 10 to 20-ft tall, to screen out the house.
I'm disillusioned with the Coen bros. Bored with their shtick.
Merry Christmas to all, even Chuck who is up to his usual.
We had dinner tonight with my son and his family plus about 20 friends and their kids.
One family cancelled because one kid got sick. Tomorrow, we will open presents and my other daughter and her family will come down to OC. Governor hair gel did not show up so we all had a nice time. Had breakfast with FBI leftist daughter who was too afraid to come to the Christmas Eve dinner that we have had for 25 years.
Well noah hawley has taken over and his vision is pretty dark.
Mike of Snoqualmie-
Good luck with the permits and house building. I moved to WA this year. I'm renting in Kirkland now, but will be looking to buy or build next year or the year after
I watched three seasons of Fargo. I thought season three was the best, followed by season one (which couldn't compete with the movie). Season two not so good.
I wanted to watch and like season four, but the schoolgirl's woke 21th century attitude in the first episode put me off the whole series. It didn't seem like it was going to be an accurate portrayal of the era.
Each season is a self-contained unit, so they could come up with something astounding next season, but to me the show seems to be getting stale, like the Minnesota accents in the first three seasons eventually got annoying.
I just finished watching The Irishman. Interesting bit about fraud in the 1960 election. But the main character's role in electing Biden in 1972 wasn't touched on.
We're renting in Bridle Trails right now while we have the house built.
Here's a new Christmas song I heard:
Lovely Christmas Time
Snowflakes falling gently past the window
Family calling just to say they care
Candles glowing warmly on the table
Carols flowing softly through the air
Caring, sharing, lovely Christmas time
Mike of Snoqualmie - I cannot fathom anyone trying to get through King County permitting these days.
Hubby and I bought our place in Redmond (unincorporated King County) several decades ago. #1 requirement was the stream - so hubby could divert it for a bit and build ponds for wildlife. Moved heaven - and a lot of earth - to get it done before the wetland restrictions were in effect. Couldn't do it today. My hat is off to you.
Ignorance is Bliss said...
I moved to WA this year. I'm renting in Kirkland now,. .
Are you crazy??? Not only moved to Washington state, but Kirkland!
Fortunately, the stream doesn't empty into any other body of water, but is absorbed into the ground along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, so that make the critical buffer width only 25-ft instead of 65-ft. We still had to do a critical area restoration plan and a minor flood study because the lot is so flat. It's seems that it's taken forever to get it done. Some of the County permit people are responsive, others not so much. We were told the average permit time was 7 months, it's going to take 14 months.
Kirkland's ok. I hate the traffic in downtown Kirkland. What would really be the worst is Seattle. We only go into Seattle now for 1) Wife's hair appointments, once every 3 months and 2) Baseball games. Wife take the bus for the hair appointments, and we park in the T-mobile parking garage for the games. The streets around T-mobile aren't bad and we make a bee-line to I-90 after the game. Don't know what it's like now with all the antifa/BLM rioters.
I just gave my Canadian bride an autographed, framed #4 jersey of Bobby Orr with an overlying photo of him diving /flying across the goal mouth as he scores the winning overtime goal for the 1970 Stanley Cup finals. A Christmas-giving hat-trick, for sure: tears of joy. More Grey Goose and 10 year old Bulleit bourbon getting set up. Life is good.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
Santa brought me the Hunter Biden disposable laptop. You can leave it anywhere. Also got the Memory Hole Pillow 100% cotton picked by eager Uighurs. And my very own Dominion counting machine. It lights up but nobody’s home.
So, I see where approximately 30 Seattle Police, dressed up in black riot gear, visited Cal Anderson Park on Dec 20 to shut down a soccer match where participants were wearing "black bloc" clothing. Observers alleged that the police targeted this group as protesters and Antifa members, while ignoring others in the park. Eight were roughed up and arrested for mouthing off to police and one person went to a hospital by ambulance. No protest activity was observed.
Bumble, Crumble, Dumbbell No, Fumbles that's a good one
Grumble, Humble, Jumble, Mumble,
Numble is the inedible guts, the ingredients for Umble pie
Rumble, Stumble, Tumble.
A suffix with hat in hand.
I wish I could link directly, but surely you can find it yourself: Christmas music to me is Johnny Mathis. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire; just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingling too; Oh Holy Night, the stars are brightly calling. I'll be home for Christmas.
Bless him, he is still performing. He'll be on the waterfront at the Van Wezel in Sarasota. Would it be strange to bring my mother's ashes to his concert?
May we still be able to talk about anything in the comments threads, and elsewhere, a year from now. I doubt it. Anyway, thanks for the company.
I decided to play Santa Claus to a guy from Europe and his female partner who were out on the sidewalk selling Canadian Christmas trees in NYC.
Turned out the guy has a severe case of asthma and recently went through pneumonia and another respiratory issue that resulted in intubation and the loss of function in one of his lungs. Also hypotension. He was definitely afraid of catching Covid-19.
So I printed out and gave him around 25 journal articles supporting what I thought he should do supplement-wise to address his lung issues and diminished immune system competence. (I've actually given peer-reviewed presentations at scientific conferences on this subject after retiring from 35 interesting years on Wall Street.)
Then I thought about it a while and came back and gave him a bag with six bottles of the recommended supplements.
The next day his lungs were in very bad shape, couldn't get out of his van, and thought he might have caught Covid. I noticed a strong cold wind was blowing from the Northwest and told his partner his symptoms were consistent with reactivity to positive air ions. Plus, his previous hypotension was consistent with an overactive immune system that had not reset itself after his hospital stays. (Had the same thing myself back for several months in 1992 after a bout of pneumococcal pneumonia.)
Told his partner he should take 120 mg of EGb-761 Gingko extract, which (among other things) acts both as a mild platelet-activating factor and tumor necrosis alpha inhibitor. (Platelet-activating factor lowers blood pressure.)
The next day I came back and his partner told me he was feeling MUCH better and was out and about shopping.
Since the guy turned out to be a compatriot of my wife, she told me I might have earned some time off from the projected, well-deserved stay in purgatory.
Display Name, you are welcome! Now you've got me wanting to get more of them.
Merry Christmas to you too, Malesch Morocco, and to everyone at Althouse!
Always loved this Christmas song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dsgAHKkxuY
Thanks for all the Fargo feedback. Shows we all are different, even if we have our similarities!
One thing I liked about season 2 was the American Indian character. He scared me to death.He was a snake eater! Also, small spoiler alert, if you watched all 4 seasons, did you catch how Chris Rock's son at the end of season 4 turned out to be one of the adult mob characters from season 2?
Tina Trent - Johnny Mathis is great, but Nat King Cole (IMO) is super awesome!
Mike of Snoqualmie - Will it be a Roll-Off Observatory?
This old, educated British gentleman is well worth listening to:
Dr. Vernon Coleman: Proof that Face Masks Don't Work.
It'll be on a 12x16 deck with NexDome. The NexDome is a full dome, about 7 to 8-ft in diameter and about the same tall. It'll hold up to a 14" scope. I'll have a solar panel/battery for power; it way to far away to have house current. A friend has one and likes it.
The decking material will be cedar 2x4s milled from the cedar trees on site. I'm having a traveling sawmill come to cut the logs into lumber.
There's also a deteriorating bridge across our stream that I'll be replacing with ground contact lumber for the beams and cedar 2x4s from the on-site cedars.
Mike - Exciting.
The ad says the NexDome "is compatible with other walls", but I can't find out what "other walls" is. Do you know?
I'm not sure of your power needs, but I've had good success powering one of my scope with LFP batteries.
The observatory deck will not require a building permit from the County since it's less than 200-sq-ft. Neither will the dome for the same reason.
I'm a retired Boeing Defense and Space engineer who worked with the Air Force and Navy on E-3/E-6 and P-8s. Dealing with the County is a piece of cake compared to dealing with the Air Force and NAVAIR. NAVAIR at times wanted ridiculous amounts of analysis before they'd grant an airworthiness clearance. For the building permit, I had a good civil engineering firm, Encompass in Issaquah, who did all the site plans, drainage plans and knew other firms that could do what the County wanted. They also keep in contact about how the permitting is going. My only complaint is the time required to get the permits. This COVID doesn't help that.
NAVAIR at times wanted ridiculous amounts of analysis before they'd grant an airworthiness clearance.
@Mike, I think the 737 MAX shows what happens when the certifying agency does NOT require “ridiculous” amounts of paperwork before issuing an airworthiness certificate.
I plan on using two 100-what solar panels with a 200Ah lead-acid battery, but I'll look into those LFP batteries. I'm going to need power for the dome motors, the scope and a computer.
No, I don't know what they mean by "other walls."
The 737 MAX was a clusterfck of rapid requirements changes without communicating those changes to all relevant parties. It also was glaring example of a safety system that was not adequately tested in the lab, with real hardware. We always kept NAVAIR in the loop with any changes, and tested safety of flight mods in the lab before we flew them. After the lab testing, we'd right a test report that compared the hardware results to our predicted results. NAVAIR reviewed the report and if they were satisfied, they'd approve the hardware for flight. Then we conducted rigorous flight tests and compared those results to predictions. Again, NAVAIR had to approve the flight test report before the hardware was approved for general fleet usage.
From what I've seen in the papers, BCA didn't do that, and in fact they hid the changes from the FAA and papered-over any changes so the pilots were not aware of what this new system really did.
"we'd write", not "we'd right."
The thing I really like about LFP is that the output voltage is nearly constant across the entire "depth of discharge" range.
My wife is watching CBS with all the sad stories of "seniors" who are inside and family who cannot touch them but must place a hand on glass. We are
"seniors" and drove 475 miles to be with our family at Christmas, like always. Last night we joined about 25 family and friends, half of them kids, for my son's annual Christmas Eve party. This morning we will go over to watch the kids, now all teens, open presents. Since they all know about Santa, we don't have to be there until 9.
We are staying in my other son's condo since Governor Hair Gel has closed all the hotels. We had breakfast with my leftist FBI daughter who is too afraid of the virus to attend the party. Ate on a patio in drizzle.
Mike of Snoqualmie: If you've lived in that area very long you will know that the flood concern is serious.
The only good antifa is a dead antifa. Merry Christmas Gadfly.
Good for you, Michael K. I am observing Christmas alone but knowing my kids and grands are getting together up in WA makes me happy. The sunshine here in AZ today is delightful although we got some rain last night. Only the second rain we've had here in ten months.
Yes, I monitor the County's flood-watch web pages (It's bookmarked for rapid access). Our house will not be in any danger from the Snoqualmie River, but there's one section of our stream that could flood in an 100-yr storm and threaten the house. The land is very flat in that section, so we're mitigating that risk by creating a 1-ft high berm to rechannel any flood waters back into the stream. For the rest of the stream, no flood waters will get near the house.
The sunshine here in AZ today is delightful although we got some rain last night.
Glad to hear about the rain. I hope some got to Tucson. We will be home Tuesday.
I watered my absent Canadian neighbors' palm trees yesterday anyway.
Merry Christmas to you and Meade, Ann.
Scott Adams dons a Santa hat today as he gives approval for Zuckerberg running elections and being the only vote that matters.
Also..defends pork. Also approves Fauci moving vax goalposts/lying.
I wish there was a THC meter displayed on his feed.
By the way, if CDC knows many folks have rona antibodies, where does Fauci get the need for 90% of pop needing vax.
Oh right, his ass.
@Mike, I spent most of my career working for a major government contractor, and I am aware of the problem of failure to communicate. After a while I got a reputation as a guy to lob into a project when it was in trouble, and in every single case (but only EACH and EVERY ONE) there was a failure to communicate. Teams walled off from one another, people working to out of date specifications because no one seemed to realize that they had any skin in the game. Yup. Seen it all, and not just once.
The FAA used to -- and perhaps still does -- rely heavily on the manufacturer to play fair. But they often don't. Boeing "proved" that a 767 could be safely flown even in the event of an uncommanded thrust reverser deployment -- 213 people died about a Lauda Air flight when it turns out that the plane couldn't be saved in all flight regimes. McDonnell-Douglas proved that a DC-10 could be flown with asymmetric slats. That cost 273 people their lives when no one thought to ask how a pilot would know that slats weren't deployed on one side. So NAVAIR may be a pain in the ass, but their semi-adversarial approach sure beats planes crashing and people dying.
Yes, NAVAIR is a pain in the ass, but they're thorough. Their asses are on the line if a plane crashes due to a fault that they should have known about. Most of the NAVAIR people are good people, there were one or two that were very big pains because they didn't know what they were doing, so they demanded everything just to be sure.
The P-8 project was very well run. We got Initial Operating Capability a year ahead of schedule, but it was just for the clean configuration, no external weapons or pods. We used lots of risk management tools and plans, sometimes it seemed like too many. But, the technical risks were examined and burned down to green status from red.
The 767-tanker program took the opposite approach: don't worry, be happy. Our guys would raise risks that should have been mitigated before flight, but were not accepted by management. The risks almost always materialized, and had to be solved in flight test. Solving technical problems via flight test is very expensive compared to analysis, lab test or ground test, as you know.
767-tanker also had the habit of ignoring the spec-requirements, then getting called on them. They had to redesign the fuel system multiple times because of that.
The 767-tanker program took the opposite approach: don't worry, be happy.
Isn't that the program that involved bribery ? An AF general, female as I recall, went to prison. True or am I misremembering?
So, I see where approximately 30 Seattle Police, dressed up in black riot gear, visited Cal Anderson Park on Dec 20 to shut down a soccer match where participants were wearing "black bloc" clothing.
Bullshit. They were clearing out a homeless camp of hundreds of people. Took them two tries to do it. Stop lying.
Yes, an earlier contract that involved leasing the tankers involved bribery. That contract went down in flames. About 10 years (2002) before the current contract.
Darleen Druyun, who helped negotiate a controversial plan to lease Boeing 767 commercial jets to the Air Force for use as aerial refueling tankers, and Michael Sears, Boeing's former chief financial officer, were both fired after an internal Boeing investigation found they had violated company policies. Sears had communicated directly and indirectly with Druyun about possible employment with Boeing while she still worked for the Air Force and before she recused herself from official involvement with Boeing contracts. The investigation also uncovered that the two had tried to conceal their misconduct.
767-tanker also had the habit of ignoring the spec-requirements, then getting called on them. They had to redesign the fuel system multiple times because of that.
Almost as though the Airbus-Northrop Grumman team should have won after all.
Boeing has lost a bundle on the 767-tanker. The contract is fixed-price. Any cost overruns come out of Boeing's pocket. That's lead to a lot of pennywise, pound foolish decisions. Such as not doing the upfront work to decrease risk and instead finding the problems during flight test and spending big bucks to fix them, long after they could have been fixed at a much, much smaller cost.
Althouse manages to make the ass-end of her neighbor's garage
...look almost picturesque. Kudos!
@walter said...
Andy Ngo's lawsuit against "an idea" moves a step further.
At least Andy can sue. Not so for all the competent innocents that Trump fired for no reason except personal hatred including a half dozen Inspector Generals and even more professional FBI investigators - and the beatdown goes on and on.
@donald said...
The only good antifa is a dead antifa. Merry Christmas Gadfly.
And a Merry Christmas to you, Donald.
I have never met an antifa, so I wouldn't know if he/she/it is good as well as dead. From where does this hate originate? Antifa bad. Ugh! So do you think that arrested and convicted Proud Boys and Boogaloo Bois are rightfully bad as well? But at least they are not being harassed for playing soccer in a public park. Then there is the part about carrying long guns or umbrellas . . .
Trump didn't fire enough of those swamp creatures.
Anfita do actual damage. Leftwing a-holes ignore it all.
"I have never met an antifa, so I wouldn't know if he/she/it is good as well as dead."
I have never met a nazi, but I'm pretty sure they're bad.
Your moral relativism undermines your reason.
You're statement is the equivalent as saying," Mice originate from piles of soiled clothes."
What is love but a stupid tax on our person? The horror, the horror.
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