January 12, 2021

At the Sunrise Café...

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... you can talk all night.

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And here's a picture of me on my 70th birthday, ice skating:

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Photo by Meade.

And thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday.

192 comments:

Tomcc said...

Will Meade join you on skates? Looks like fun!

Ann Althouse said...

Meade was on skates as he took the picture.

It's a pretty big space — the Vilas Lagoon. He's in the middle of the ice, not on shore.

Ann Althouse said...

It's a little scary. Every year I have to convince myself that I can do it. I was fine somehow. Didn't fall.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Happy 70th to Althouse and to El Rushbo. Doing stuff will keep you feeling young.

The Godfather said...

Happy birthday kid! Keep up the good work.

Francisco D said...

I don't know why, but my first reaction was, "Her hair is really long".

You are going against the grain Althouse. Men and women are "supposed" to have shorter hair the older they get.

God damn you're a rebel!

Howard said...

Good Times!

BUMBLE BEE said...

Not skating on your ankles, way to go!

Quayle said...

Happy Birthday Ann. You are a national treasure.

chuck said...

Happy Birthday.

5M - Eckstine said...

Happy Birthday. The first freeze or snow of the new year always lands me on my behind. And I have the sudden Epiphany that I need to be more careful now. Happens every year.

Winnie said...

Thanks for sharing. You look healthy and happy. Great way to spend a birthday!

Rabel said...

And the number one song in 1950 was "Goodnight, Irene" performed by the Weavers and written by Leadbelly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB1wzgO4B7A

It was a simpler time. And we were better people. Even if the music kinda sucked.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

happy birthday.

The Crack Emcee said...

Happy Birthday, Ann.

And many more.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

And here's a picture of me on my 70th birthday, ice skating:

Aw, no Tik-Toc?


Anyway, good job! Hope you enjoyed your day!

WK said...

Happy Birthday!

MountainMan said...

My wife and I got our first Pfizer injection this afternoon. No problems at all. It was very well-done. We will get our 2nd around Feb 3.

Fulton County can't run an election but their Board of Public Health office in Alpharetta did an excellent job managing the vaccine distribution. Everyone was knowledgeable, friendly, and prepared. We got our shot from a retired doctor who practiced for many years at Atlanta's Grady Hospital. She came out of retirement and volunteered to give the shots. We gave her many thanks for her contribution.

Happy 70th, Professor. Mine is coming up shortly, I will be 70 as well on 2/15.

Freeman Hunt said...

Happy birthday! I'm impressed with the ice skating. Other people skating looks like magic.

Charlie said...

Happy Birthday Ann. You're the first thing I read each day after quick check on the Twitter shit-storm.......keep doing what you're doing.

jaydub said...

70? Still just a kid!

PJ57 said...

Happy birthday. But that hand position suggests you are not NHL ready. Keep working.

jaydub said...

BTW, you look great! Happy birthday.

Marylou said...

Happy birthday!!!

320Busdriver said...

Happy Birthday Professor!!

Owen said...

Happy Birthday, Aquarius Girl!

BarrySanders20 said...

Birthday wishes to Althouse in the cafe. 70 is the new 68.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hot sexy mamma.

I'm Full of Soup said...

You are now in your 8th decade!

Gospace said...

MountainMan said...
My wife and I got our first Pfizer injection this afternoon. No problems at all. It was very well-done. We will get our 2nd around Feb 3.


51 questions to be answered on the NYS website to determine when/if you can get one. I haven't answered any of the questions. I have no intention of getting it until/unless it turns into an employment requirement as the flu vaccine is. Since I work for the feds- they don't have to comply with Dictator Cuomo's edict on who can get it.

DocTeach said...

What Quayle said at 6:12

Narr said...

You go, girl.

I'm a sucker for long hair-- my wife's has never been thick (lotsa baldies on her dad's side) and she loses it by the hank every day; it grew long from about Feb to a few weeks ago, and I liked it just fine, but she got it cut.

Narr
Flaunt it if you got it

Static Ping said...

Happy birthday, Ann.

I could never ice skate. I tried roller skating once and after a full split I decided that was not for me.

J. Farmer said...

70 is the new 60. Whenever I see pictures of my grandparents when they were in their mid-60s, they all looked much older than my parents do now at the same age.

Why is this? More widespread use of sunscreen on the face? Having children later in life? Less necessity for hard physical labor?

mockturtle said...

Bold of you to go ice skating on your 70th! Congratulations!

David Ermer said...

Happy birthday. I enjoy your blog.

mockturtle said...

On a more disturbing note is this: PBS counsel advocates taking children from Trump supporters and putting them into 'Enlightenment Camps'

According to the article 'he is no longer employed by PBS but I'm wondering if this has been planned all along but they weren't ready to let us know. Sad day in America, people. Don't let your kids out of your sight.

Howard said...

J> Farmer: Less smoking and drinking. Mad Men is a documentary

Quayle said...

CNN Airport Network shutting down March 31.

Freedom!!!!

Nothing worse than a 6:00 AM flight, a work colleague you don’t much enjoy, and a $20 cardboard omelette, while being forced to listen to rehashed news from the previous night.

The unctuous earnestness is what kills ya.

Michael K said...

Happy birthday, Ann. My wife's 76th is tomorrow. Two capricorns. She is convinced that astrology works.

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday, Ann!

FullMoon said...

Election 2016, Darrell looks into his Crystal Ball,

(BTW, over 1100 comments! https://althouse.blogspot.com/2016/11/election-night-i-know-youre-not-all.html )



Darrell said...

Podesta--Hold on! We're printing the votes we need to win. We're very confident.
11/9/16, 1:29 AM



J. Farmer said...

@Howard:

J> Farmer: Less smoking and drinking. Mad Men is a documentary

Can't believe I didn't put the decline of smoking on the list. I guess I was too busy thinking of unicorns to remember the zebras.

Fun fact about Mad Men: like a surprising amount of American popular culture, it stems from Matthew Weiner's anti-WASP resentments.

FullMoon said...

70 is the new 60. Whenever I see pictures of my grandparents when they were in their mid-60s, they all looked much older than my parents do now at the same age.

Why is this?


Preservatives in their diet. Grandparents ate the natural stuff.Boomers raised on additives and preservatives. Organic consumers gonna look like granny and gramps.

Lyle said...

Happy Birthday! So very well deserved.

FullMoon said...

Can't believe I didn't put the decline of smoking on the list.

Hence, rise of obesity and liberalism..

lb said...

Happy birthday! No way are you 70! Beautiful lady with a great brain too..thanks for your blog.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Happy birthday, Althouse, and many, many more.

Iman said...

Happy Birthday! For Chrissakes, don’t fall... you’ll break a hip and it’s all downhill from there!

Howard said...

J Farmer: Yeah. I grew up with a bunch of smart Jewish kids in LA and listened to several long-format interviews of Weiner (he grew up in LA as well a few years younger than me). My parents also had a bunch of Jewish friends who they stayed up late drinking and smoking and talking politics. I'm sure many/most died early of smoking and drinking. The greatest generation and their younger siblings knew how to party.

There's tons of aspects of the Jewish struggles in Mad Men. In those days when I was in elementary school, white kids would call the Jewish kids Christ killers penny pinchers, etc. I get it, racism was much more open and widespread. Also, the western US in general was anti-wasp in the 60-70's. hat's why Cali used to be Vermilion.

He makes California look pretty good, so part of it is Weiner's a homer. He is smart as Fuck.

alan markus said...

Happy Birthday.

In high school I had lots of teen age fantasies about the "older girls". I was class of '71, I assume you would have been class of '69.

I was actually attracted to intelligence 1st, looks 2nd, and choice in music 3rd.

Amazing that at the age of 70 you are still hitting all the high notes!

Hope you outlive us all.

KellyM said...

Congrats on the birthday! It's never too late to learn to ice skate. Remember, knees bent and don't watch your feet!

I Callahan said...

Happy Birthday Prof! And skating is fun. I started playing hockey at the age of 36, and I’m 55 now. Never too old to start!

Mrs. X said...

“Happy Birthday! So very well deserved.”

I misread this as “so very well preserved.” True in either case. Happy Birthday!

rcocean said...

You look good on skates. Even though you might be on thin ice.

rcocean said...

Personally, I've never enjoyed skating since I spend all my time thinking about falling. I'd much rather surf, since falling into the unfrozen water is painless and sometimes pleasant.

Rt41Rebel said...

"Preservatives in their diet."

They're called antioxidants now.

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

Natal Day Salutations, Althouse!

Toy

narciso said...

Happy birthday professor.

narciso said...



More of those moderates



https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/01/joe-bidens-racist-civil-rights-nominee-part-one.php

rcocean said...

People today live so much longer (or seem to) for three reasons:

1) Better health care.
2) Far less drinking and smoking
3) A belief that one should stay fit and "Think young", despite being over 55.

Its quite shocking to read old novels or see old movies, where everyone thinks being 40 is old and one should act that way. Not only that, but keeping fit after 55, was thought of as kooky. You were supposed to let nature take its course. If you were fat and flabby, well that was OK. Old people were that way.

The better health care, comes up all the time. It was a shock to read that Veronica Lake died of cirrhosis of the liver at a fairly young age. She went into the hospital at age 50 or so, and was dead within in a week. She didn't even know she had it! Today, she'd have been given a liver enzyme test and probably quit drinking before it got too bad. How many people have gotten bad readings for blood pressure or cholesterol and taken measures? in the old days, that is 50 years, these people would've just kept on their bad habits and died of a heart attack.

effinayright said...

FullMoon said...
70 is the new 60. Whenever I see pictures of my grandparents when they were in their mid-60s, they all looked much older than my parents do now at the same age.

Why is this?

Preservatives in their diet. Grandparents ate the natural stuff.Boomers raised on additives and preservatives. Organic consumers gonna look like granny and gramps.
*************
what unalloyed bullshit. Just take a look at people in the past, including your grandparents, and ask:

* why they didn't live as long, preservatives or no, as people of today

* why they were in much worse shape from a muscular/skeletal standpoint, because they didn't get daily rigorous exercise unless they were on farms, in "the trades", or the like.

* Why their teeth were in much worse shape--if they still had them. Go ask a dentist about that.

Fifty years ago, Sloan Kettering head Lewis Thomas said that scientific medicine didn't start until the late 1940's. So...

* Medical science. Your grandparents didn't have the benefit of 100 years of scientific theories of disease, new therapies, CAT scans, new meds, MRIs and the like. But doctors and hospitals did. When you went to the dr. you benefited from that new science.

* diets changed, but the most important things that happened on a day-to-day level were that (a) people stopped smoking and (b) they became aware they could do things to maximize their health outcomes.

Preservatives had virtually nothing to do with it.

If they did, would you like to explain why life expectancy INCREASED before preservatives ever entered into the picture?

CWJ said...

Happy birthday, and thank you!

iowan2 said...

Happy Birthday.
Thank you for sharing your interests with all of us everyday.

You are an inspiration in your retirement. Carry on!

Ken B said...

As balajis says, the world can no longer trust America. I think this is true.

The rest of us need to get off American run infrastructure, like AWS or Facebook. It’s too great a risk otherwise. We cannot trust your monopolies.

We cannot trust your foreign policy anymore since it gets whipsawed by domestic infighting. Your universities are losing credibility, your dollar is uncertain. I don’t know how far we can trust your military even. We certainly cannot trust your spies (especially as they will now focus on Republicans). Obviously we cannot trust your media.

My friend blames Trump but that’s wrong. Trump is partly to blame but the slide predates him and goes far, far beyond him.

You have serious rebuilding to do. I wonder if you can. You don’t even realize it yet, most of you.

Ken B said...

I forgot to add, we cannot trust your rule of law. Neither can you.

rcocean said...

Mitch McConnell is playing games on impeachment. But he's consistent. He's tried to sabotage trump for 4 years without being too obvious about it. His M.O. is always hide behind the rules, and the Senate Traditions, and pretend to fight the Democrats while actually giving them all they want in exchange for tax breaks for his Corporate Buddies.

I find it hard to believe they would have a trial and would convict Trump one day before he left office, but ANYTHING is possible with this crowd in DC.

Inga said...

“You have serious rebuilding to do. I wonder if you can. You don’t even realize it yet, most of you.”

Americans can and will.

tpceltus said...

Happy Birthday, Althouse!

rcocean said...

I listen to Mark Levin and I like him. He's smart and passionate. But he can never understand that the D's don't care about the constitution. Today he was talking about how much he knew about the Constriction and how it was completely unconstitutional for the D's and McConnell to impeach and convict trump without giving him a fair trial.

Except the D's don't care about the Constitution. If they don't do something, it won't be because its "against the constitution", but because the R's won't let them get away with it, or they fear the R's will retaliate in the future. In other words, they will only follow the Constitution as long as they have to or its to their benefit.

So, we need to shake off Levin's way of thinking. In his world, the R's fall on their swords because "that's what the Constitution, calls for" but the D's NEVER do that. The Constitution restrains us, but never them.

rcocean said...

Pelosi screams about "Law and Order" and "Rioters" when they're trump supporters and never when they are D's. Biden is the same. But the R's pat themselves on the back for being consistent. Where here's your gold star, Mr. Republican, go have a cookie, and be a good loser.

Lawrence Person said...

Democrats’ Tower Of Self-Reinforcing Bullshit.

sterlingblue said...

Happy Birthday, Althouse. You give me inspiration for how to live my future years. I hope I can be as awesome as you at age 70.

Sprezzatura said...

“The Constitution restrains us, but never them.”

And yet there is one side that is trying to overturn a legitimate election thereby destroying our Constitution and this is the side that has also incited trashing our Capitol (that’s the DJT side, if you forgot) but the other side (the Ds and some (many?) Rs) is the side that supports the American people voting in free and fair elections re deciding our Fed gov thereby not destroying our representative democracy and the Constitution.

You type things that are not reality. Presumably that makes your brain feel good, why else would you do this? Seems like you may want to seek mental help. Something is wrong.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

I went out to our property today, 10-min outside of Snoqualmie. The river was heading towards a phase 2 flood alert. Our creek was flowing much above its usually level, with just a couple of inches between the creek and the bridge. The bridge is covered in strands of moss. The drainage ditch that feeds the creek was four feet across instead of one foot and overflowing its banks. The field that it flows through had a new pond about 30-ft by 30-ft.

Ken B said...

Inga
Not under your party's “Hunt and destroy” mindset it can’t. If you think racial quotas and enemies lists will rebuild trust you are loonier than Achilles.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Happy Birthday, Ann. May you have many, many morning runs to come.

Sprezzatura said...

“The river was heading towards a phase 2 flood alert.”

I’ve seen insane pictures of Snoqualmie Falls on Twitter today. Lotsa water.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

rcocean:

I agree with everything you say about fitness. But, our idiot Democrat governors don't care about our fitness. I'm 66 and go to the gym two or three times a week to maintain my muscle tone, and am working on increasing it. King Jay I of Washington state has ruled that the gyms must stay closed even though there's no transmission at the gyms.

My mother had no muscle tone when she was in the nursing home and always used a wheel chair. Her arms always shook when they had even the smallest load.

A friend who is a year older is in fantastic shape and doesn't look 67. He's really muscular. I can only hope to get into half his shape.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

The election was not legitimate. Dems screwed with the election procedures, hid their work and introduce 100,000s of fake ballots. Examining the ballots will prove that, as Mr. Pulitzer showed to the Georgia legislature subcommittee.

J. Farmer said...

@Ken B:

As balajis says, the world can no longer trust America. I think this is true.

It's not clear to me what you mean by "trust America." And if you can "no longer trust America," when could you?

My friend blames Trump but that’s wrong. Trump is partly to blame but the slide predates him and goes far, far beyond him.

If anything, Trump is the product of it, not the cause.

You have serious rebuilding to do. I wonder if you can. You don’t even realize it yet, most of you.

One of the problems is how conditioned our thinking is by the election cycles. These aren't problems that can be solved by winning a presidential term or gaining control of the House for a couple of years. There are major social forces at work in terms of demography and structural changes to the global economy.

narciso said...

Spritzie is full vizzini, all the time.

John henry said...

A belated happy birthday, Ann.

A question for the lawyers:

There was some video of a guy carrying a podium or lectern (the guy's lawyer says he doesn't know what it is called) around in the capital wednesday.

My impression is that he did not take it out of the building.

If he did not take it out of the building, is it legally "theft"?

John Henry

narciso said...

Chinese tool files for another term in the senate.

narciso said...

Feinstein. I know swalwell isin that same group.

Lawrence Person said...

There's no question that Democrats committed election fraud in the 2020 election. The only question is exactly how much they did it, and how much more was committed outside the injection of false votes in the dead of night in six urban counties.

narciso said...


Privilege

https://babylonbee.com/news/congress-upset-as-theyre-the-only-criminals-allowed-in-the-capitol

Ken B said...

Farmer
Well, Balaji is articulate so you should read his feed. But we cannot rely on your tech monopolies to not suddenly interfere in our elections or crush our businesses for example. Nor to keep what we have allowed to become infrastructure running. Big tech is capricious, as monopolies are, and will cater to the whims of politicians. Maybe this was always a problem, but it’s a bigger one now, and no country can rely on It anymore.

Most of the world did rely on America for a long time, with high trust in its brands, its systems, its laws. Governments use Twitter and sites hosted by Amazon for essential work. All that trust is gone or going.

Not clear we can even rely on you to keep your military commitments. That will please you of course.

FullMoon said...

PRESERVATIVES. If preservatives can keep a McDonalds hamburger edible for a year, they can do the same for a human being.
Obviously.
And, smoking curbs appetite and increases heart rate, just like exercise but without the effort.
Govt banning smoking so people die younger from obesity induced heart problems so as to keep MediCare and Social Security payments in check.

Govt encouraging smoking marijuana because it intensifies craving for carbohydrate and sugar laden snacks, thus helping create obese people.

Organic and gluten cults will hasten demise of millions.


Ken B said...

John Henry!

Hello. LTNS. Don’t worry. I know you wanted me to remember you whenever I think of Covidiot denialists. I do!

Joe Smith said...

Trump protesters are wearing masks because of covid, and will take them off once the vaccine is more widespread.

Antifa was wearing masks years ago, and will continue to wear masks after the vaccine is fully deployed.

What does that tell you?

Shouldn’t there be a law against wearing hoods and masks while protesting. We’ll call it the ‘Bank Rule.’ Whatever is OK to wear into a bank is OK to wear at a protest.

Joe Smith said...

@AA

Happy birthday (barely)...nice photo.

MountainMan said...

Joe Smith said..."Shouldn’t there be a law against wearing hoods and masks while protesting."

I believe most jurisdictions do have such a law, originally put into place for the KKK. But I think enforcement has been relaxed everywhere due to Covid mask mandates.

Joe Smith said...

"But I think enforcement has been relaxed everywhere due to Covid mask mandates."

My important point is, before covid, Antifa was wearing masks with no consequences.

When covid is over they will continue to wear masks with no consequences.

Either enforce the laws or strike them from the books.

This isn't difficult.

MountainMan said...

Ken B said..."Most of the world did rely on America for a long time, with high trust in its brands, its systems, its laws. Governments use Twitter and sites hosted by Amazon for essential work. All that trust is gone or going. "

Which is why China is behind all this. This is their plan. They, Big Tech, and the Democrats are all in bed together.

Come noon on January 20, the American era is over. China will the the rising, dominant power. We will be a junior partner. Big Tech and Wall Street want access to China's markets and local cheap labor as well as a small army of H-1B serfs to fill jobs that remain here. They make big money and Democrat elites have all the power and money they want. Elites flourish, middle and lower classes will be crushed.

Lots of articles out there about the new global feudalism, especially by Joel Kotkin and Angelo Codevilla. Kotkin has a new book about it.

gadfly said...

Septuagenarian is a long and difficult word but unfortunately doesn't speed up eligibility for Covid vaccine in the Dairy state. Age 65 and over is phase 1C and shots are still languishing in 1A with no dates set for 1B.

MountainMan said...

China's Unrestricted War on the United States

So far it is proceeding far better then they could possibly have imagined. And we will not fight back with the Dems in charge. That is one of the reasons Trump is gone and they are trying to destroy him completely; he was in the way.

Gahrie said...

You have serious rebuilding to do.

I agree. if we don't fix things now, we could fall to the levels of Canada...

stephen cooper said...

Envy is easy to avoid with good memory

(when I turned 60 last summer I decided I was finally going to figure out the difference between daylight savings time and ordinary time, why tides and the moon have something to do with each other, which pine trees in my neighborhood are horticultural and which are real, what "dew point" means, why does good music touch our heart and less good music does not do any such thing, why is it so hard to understand that years go by, why does the moon tilt one way early in the night and tilt another way later in the night, is Tolkien any good or am I fooling myself, is the "7 year itch" real or just a phony Madison Avenue ploy, how hard can it be to have the water in a 10 gallon aquarium just the way the fish want it, was I kidding myself when I thought I was getting close, after 17 years of effort, to teaching my dogs to talk,
what is the difference between the gratitude of the fortunate and the gratitude of the unfortunate, why is it so hard for so many people to understand the simple truth that God created them and loves them, is it true or not true that today there are more people who are proud of being ignorant than ever before in history, how hard would it be to remember that first day, that first moment, when we understood God loves us and that is the most natural thing in the world, God loving us, and vice versa; how is it possible that each of us have tens of millions of ancestors in a direct line but many people will have no descendants just a short 100 years from now; is it true that you can, if you know how to talk to people, talk to almost anybody except a sociopath, and discover, within an hour or so, that the person you are talking to is the center of a wonderful universe that God created just for that person????
Some of these questions are the sort of question that answers itself (to ask the question is to know the answer), some aren't.
I would have posted this on Parler where I usually post such reflections, but I have been Solzhenitsyned/samizdated (to make a comparison that may not be as exact as I would like ---- which brings me around to my first point. STOP FEELING ENVIOUS OF WHAT OTHERS HAD GOD WOULD HAVE CREATED THIS WHOLE WORLD FOR YOU EVEN IF NOBODY ELSE EXISTED ---- remembering that, extrapolate to whatever good there has been in your life when you are tempted to envy others DON'T ENGAGE IN ENVY, seriously, bro, don't go there

YoungHegelian said...

Happy B-B-B-Birthday, you thing from another world, you!

stephen cooper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gahrie said...

On a more disturbing note is this: PBS counsel advocates taking children from Trump supporters and putting them into 'Enlightenment Camps'

According to the article 'he is no longer employed by PBS


He's probably getting a position in the Biden administration.

J. Farmer said...

@Ken B:

Not clear we can even rely on you to keep your military commitments. That will please you of course.

Because if there's one thing the last 30 years has taught us, it's how reluctant the US is to deploy military force. We've been bogged down in the middle east since the 90s, but if someone invaded and occupied Canada, we'd just sit there and do nothing.

Joking aside, I think America's pursuit of global hegemony in the post-Cold War era was a foolish blunder, especially our choice to become a permanent garrison force in the middle east. The reason the US has made so little progress diplomatically with North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela is because we insist on a maximalist position that is tantamount to unilateral surrender. And we treat anything less than unilateral surrender as evidence of intransigence on the other side.

Readering said...

Yeah, that's a big story today.

Ray - SoCal said...

Looks fun Ann!

Happy Birthday and thanks for doing your blog.

Ken B said...

Farmer
Using the military and honoring commitments are different of course. But you folks just rejected the no new invasions guy anyway, so I would not be surprised to see another invasion.

As for Canada, you know we were practically at war with Denmark, right? Google Canada Denmark island dispute.

Inga said...

“Yeah, that's a big story today.”

It’s a “Squirrel!” sort of story. A distraction from the real story of the week, so it makes them feel better. I can’t blame them for feeling bad.

stephen cooper said...

HOW CAN ANY PERSON FEEL ENVY OF ANY OTHER PERSON, KNOWING THAT EVEN IF WE WERE THE ONLY PERSON WHO EVER EXISTED, GOD WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY TO CREATE THIS WHOLE UNIVERSE JUST FOR US (and those we love) ---- the point is, the greatest failure in life is not to care about others

Shouting Thomas said...

Inga, for God’s sake, get a life.

You sit on your ass here 24 hours a day.

stephen cooper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
stephen cooper said...

THE GREATEST FAILURE IN LIFE IS

"NOT TO CARE"

ABOUT OTHERS

narciso said...

Considering how they have taken children away from brexit supporters how they have threatened to declare trump supporters as terrorists its indicative of a mindset.

Now all those that supported the bombing burning murder of police officers get applause or their statements are ignored.

stephen cooper said...

Ayn Rand would have fallen in love with me, hard.

stephen cooper said...

Poor girl, she never met a man like me.

stephen cooper said...

narciso i will meet you in the future at Stop the Steal Plaza


let not your heart be troubled

narciso said...

With all these stark raving pychos in government that threaten to turn this place into a marxist hellhole with a peanut gallery right here, i cant be that confident well those stalwart republicans (spit)

stephen cooper said...

I am confident because I know lots of people

who love freedom

the sad sacks will not win (my God, look at Pelosi or McConnell ---- if that were your aunt or uncle, you would be devastated at the look of emptiness in their eyes, and your prayers would not be (hey I hope they are not powerful) your prayer would be, may God forgive them soon.)

Readering said...

Keep typing.

stephen cooper said...

Readering -- read Proverbs 8, and then try for a better insult!

My guess is you won't want to, you will have hope in your heart!

J. Farmer said...

@Ken B:

Using the military and honoring commitments are different of course. But you folks just rejected the no new invasions guy anyway, so I would not be surprised to see another invasion.

Agree they are different, but it's still not clear to me what commitments you're worried about not being honored.

I am not so much worried as a "new invasion" per se but further escalation of current conflicts.

stephen cooper said...

you have no idea how many people have insulted me and then, after a few back and forths, said, fuck it, maybe that guy was right, maybe GOD LOVES US ALL after all.

or maybe you have a good idea, maybe you are right, maybe all I do is TYPE!

well, read Proverbs 8 with attention, remembering that the angels themselves, who love everyone you love, are interested in your reactions, and then get back to me.

stephen cooper said...

11-48 was for Mr Readering.

eddie willers said...

I stole this joke from the old TV Show December Bride.

"Be careful....at your age if you break a leg they shoot you!"

J. Farmer said...

@narciso:

With all these stark raving pychos in government that threaten to turn this place into a marxist hellhole with a peanut gallery right here, i cant be that confident well those stalwart republicans (spit)

Thirty years after the end of the Cold War and the advent of a single global economic order based on neoliberal principles, and you're still looking for the Marxist bogeymen under the bed.

Shouting Thomas said...

Going to bed, but I have to say that Trump made a big mistake by organizing that Jan. 6 rally. There was absolutely nothing to be gained by it. Sure, the response by the Democrats is insane. I’d been telling FB commenters for weeks that carrying out that rally would be a mistake because there was nothing tangible and sensible that it could achieve. The notion that Pence would or could overturn the vote of the electors was absurd.

Trump was, obviously, following the example of the left here. I imagine him thinking: “If they can do that, why can’t I?” Well, I hate to break the news to Trump supporters, but Republicans cannot get away with the lawlessness of Democrats. The Democrats have a media base to explain away their violence. Republicans don’t.

Trump never gained control of the FBI, CIA and DOJ. All those agencies were in the hands of enemies throughout his term.

Ken B said...

Farmer
Defending the Baltic republics if attacked by Russia for example.
Defending Israel if attacked by Iran.
I know you are the “we shoulda let Japan conquer Hawaii” type, but I am not.

Gahrie said...

Thirty years after the end of the Cold War and the advent of a single global economic order based on neoliberal principles, and you're still looking for the Marxist bogeymen under the bed.

You don't think Bernie or AOC are Marxists?

stephen cooper said...

Eventually Republicans will get tired of fucking idiots telling them they cannot get away with what Democrats get away with and they will get away with it ....

or wiser people will prevail, and the Democrats will stop getting away with it.

There are no other alternatives, going forward.

Shouting Thomas said...

Actually, there is the other alternative that things will continue as they have for my entire life, and that Democrats will continue to get away with violence and sabotage under the cover of their press and Republicans won’t.

I suspect that’s the case.

I’m a Trump supporter. He made a crucial, unforced strategic error in trying to emulate the Democrats here.

J. Farmer said...

@Gahrie:

Farmer
Defending the Baltic republics if attacked by Russia for example.
Defending Israel if attacked by Iran.
I know you are the “we shoulda let Japan conquer Hawaii” type, but I am not.


I'll give you the Baltic republics. I know you are the "we should risk global nuclear holocaust to insure the independence of Estonia' type, but I am not.

Also, we have no commitments to Israel to come to their defense in case of an attack.

If you look at the last 20 years, the most destructive, disruptive country internationally has been the United States. We've gotten hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed, displaced millions more, sewn chaos and instability across the region, and what worries you is that the US may not come to the defense of Estonia in case of a Russian invasion?

Readering said...

Trumpists pointing me to Bible passages is always a treat. Trump himself can only point me to the whole thing.

stephen cooper said...

So you were afraid to take the challenge?

And I am not a Trumpist, you poor little fool. People like Trump admire people like me. That does not make me a Trumpist, you poor little fool. Well go ahead and take the challenge anyway, and no, it was not Bible verses, it was a full chapter, a beautiful poem that could have shown you, had you cared, how much God loves you. But you go on being your lonely hateful self, if you want, I DON'T WANT THAT, but if you want that ....

so you were afraid to take the challenge, loser?

stephen cooper said...

Shouting Thomas ---- and in the 50s, people thought that, for ever and ever, Lenny Bruce and his ilk would always be the rebels who the powers that be repressed.

They were wrong. Lenny Bruce is now a boring little creep who is loved by the powers that be.

For every stupid 2020 SJW-named plaza today, there are going to be dozens of STOP THE STEAL plazas in the near future.

J. Farmer said...

@Gahrie:

You don't think Bernie or AOC are Marxists?

You could perhaps make a case for Bernie Sanders, but I highly doubt AOC has much familiarity with Marx's work or grasps basic concepts Marxism (e.g. dialectical materialism, alienation, ideology, etc.).

Joe Smith said...

"We've gotten hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed, displaced millions more, sewn chaos and instability across the region, and what worries you is that the US may not come to the defense of Estonia in case of a Russian invasion?"

The 'We' you speak of are the Neocon, country club republicans...mostly Dick Cheney types.

Most sane conservatives want (and wanted) nothing to do with his ilk.

Shouting Thomas said...

@stephen cooper

In the 60s, I was a leftist.

The left was operating in the same way back then, employing the same violent tactics and sabotage, and the press was covering for them.

I just enjoyed the situation back then because my side was winning.

Not a damned thing has changed.

Everything depends now, at least for Trump, on whether he can regroup and find a way to be effective.

Readering said...

Love it even more when folks direct me to Bible verses and insult me all at once!

stephen cooper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
stephen cooper said...

Shouting Thomas, there is no way that the people I know who love this country are ever going to let it be run for long by the clowns who hate Trump in their disgusting hate-filled way. That just won't happen.

By the way, I am glad you had a good time in the 60s, lots of the rebels back then were right to oppose the MacNamaras and the Kennedys and the Johnsons. Even Nixon would have been a much better man if he had listened with a little more carefulness to criticisms. Gotta say, though, lots the 60s rebels kind of creep me out when I think of their selfishness and lust in the personal realm. Just saying. Some of them were decent people, but lots of them weren't. SAD!

stephen cooper said...

Sprezzatura --- close but no cigar

Ray - SoCal said...

I’m not sure if Trump made a mistake with the rally.

Trump is showing how insane and out of proportion the Democratic, media, big business, and Big tech Response are.

Plus he is showing whom is faithless in the GOP. It’s more if Trump ripping the masks off his enemies to show their true selves.

Trump is destroying several more Overton Windows, messily as usual.

The capital mob was a set up, a trap set, and unfortunately Trump did not foresee that and take actions to stop it. All his other rally’s Trump attendees had been super law abiding, and frequently victims of attacks.

Shouting Thomas said...
> Trump made a big mistake by organizing that Jan. 6 rally. There was absolutely nothing to be gained by it. Sure, the response by the >Democrats is insanee.

J. Farmer said...

@Joe Smith:

The 'We' you speak of are the Neocon, country club republicans...mostly Dick Cheney types.

Most sane conservatives want (and wanted) nothing to do with his ilk.


Actually, the "we" I spoke of was the United States of America. I was fairly active in opposing the Iraq War in 2002 and 2003, and I don't recall a lot of conservative opposition to the war. It was a cliché that the antiwar movement were all a bunch of "far left loons" and that only people who were "anti-American" or "pro-Saddam" could oppose the war. In fact, Pat Buchanan and Scott McConnell founded The American Conservative in 2002 specifically to provide a source for conservative criticism of the war.

stephen cooper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AZ Bob said...

Walking through my neighborhood today I spotted a red flag hanging from a pole on someone's porch. It had a weird script letter on it. Walking toward it I started to suspect it was an "A" for Antifa. You know there are lots of signs out in front yards professing virtue but this was going too far. But as I got even closer I noticed the script was familiar. It was the unique script "A" for Alabama.

stephen cooper said...

Trump did nothing wrong.

Think of it this way ---- compare his rhetoric to Obama's.

From that comparison, Trump comes out like a hero. Obama doesn't.

Ray - SoCal said...

I nominate the Saudi and Gulf States due to their funding of Radical Islam World wide.

South Sudan was around 400,000 dead was little US involvement.

If you blame Covid on China, huge death responsibility in the millions.

Congo 3-5 million died in their last civil war.
https://strategypage.com/on_point/2019010822517.aspx

Nice update on current wars:
https://strategypage.com/qnd/wars/articles/20210104.aspx

I’m astonished that Trump started no new wars for the us and actually reduced us forces abroad, not to mention his diplomatic success in the Middle East. Not what I expected for his Presidency.

>We've gotten hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed, displaced millions more, sewn chaos and instability across the region,

Ray - SoCal said...

@J. Farmer

Initially I was for the Iraq War because it was a mess.

I had no idea the US would be so incompetent in the aftermath.

Good news is by intervening the us saved a lot of lives, and overall made Iraq a better place. Bad news is it convinced Iran they needed a bomb. And after Libya, nobody trusted the us’s word.

I have become more Trumpian in the us military, asking what’s in it for the US. And with the belief we should leave other countries alone. Their problems, not ours. We are not the worlds policemen.

Black Hawk down is a troubling movie. Why were we there?

Same with Benghazi, why are we there?

Gahrie said...

You could perhaps make a case for Bernie Sanders, but I highly doubt AOC has much familiarity with Marx's work or grasps basic concepts Marxism (e.g. dialectical materialism, alienation, ideology, etc.).

Neither does Comrade Marvin, though he still pushes Marxist ideas and solutions.

J. Farmer said...

@Ray - SoCal:

I’m astonished that Trump started no new wars for the us and actually reduced us forces abroad, not to mention his diplomatic success in the Middle East. Not what I expected for his Presidency.

Good point about the various internecine conflicts in central Africa. The myriad battles, civil strife, and tribal wars can be difficult to parse as a single conflict. Nonetheless, I should've restricted myself to only the major powers.

Not what I expected for his Presidency.

I was worried myself, especially given how much more latitude a president has in foreign affairs than domestic. Resisting the foreign policy blob was a clear achievement of Trump's term.

J. Farmer said...

@Gahrie:

Neither does Comrade Marvin, though he still pushes Marxist ideas and solutions.

I just find phrases like "Marxist ideas and solutions" extremely broad and amorphous. What differentiates a "Marxist" idea/solution from a non-Marxist one?

J. Farmer said...

@Ray - SoCal:

Initially I was for the Iraq War because it was a mess.

I had no idea the US would be so incompetent in the aftermath.


I don't actually think it was much a matter of competence. Iraq was a divided society held together by a brutal dictator. Once the dictator fell, the society fell. I doubt the US could've done much to constrain those dynamics. Back in the mid-90s, shortly after Dick Cheney ceased being SecDef, he gave an interview in which he defended the administration's decision not to pursue Saddam in Iraq during the First Gulf War. Everything that he said would happen happened.

The term "nation-building" is really a misnomer. What the US was doing in Iraq was state-building. It had no real capacity to build an Iraqi nation.

BUMBLE BEE said...

I was rather amused by a quote from George Harrison on Middle East political problems a few years ago. He said something to the effect that the British government who was at fault for much of it because the empire drew the boundaries very thoughtlessly.

Humperdink said...

" What differentiates a "Marxist" idea/solution from a non-Marxist one?"

Fweedom .... er .... Freedom?

mezzrow said...

Nice to see you got a good weather birthday.

Tom Grey said...

Happy Ice Skating, Ann. Have another great year.

Kai Akker said...

Ms. Althouse, congratulations on making a major milestone yesterday. I hope you have three, four, or five more still to go. Your commenters do their best to help keep the blood circulating up there. Best wishes and good luck.

Stock market top in process, the market action says. A top at this level of overvaluation has to be taken very seriously.

Lars Porsena said...

Three score and ten!!

John henry said...

 stephen cooper said...

narciso i will meet you in the future at Stop the Steal Plaza

Sounds like what Japanese soldiers used to say.

Is stop the steal plaza anywhere near the yasukuni shrine?

John Henry

Curious George said...

"Ann Althouse said...
It's a little scary. Every year I have to convince myself that I can do it. I was fine somehow. Didn't fall."

Happy Birthday. And good on you skating, but falls can lead to broken hips. And broken hips in the elderly are not good.

J. Farmer said...

@Humperdink:

Fweedom .... er .... Freedom?

That doesn’t make any sense.

Achilles said...

J. Farmer said...

@Humperdink:

Fweedom .... er .... Freedom?

That doesn’t make any sense.

Without reading up probably a joke about Kamala making up stories about her child hood.

Ray - SoCal said...

Why do Republicans not help their own side, but virtue signal?

Are they all Charlie Browns? Being constantly tricked by Lucy taking away the ball at the last moment?

I’m very unhappy about my Representative co-sponsoring a resolution to condemn Trumps actions.

I’m not sure the most effective way to communicate my ire to her:

From a comment at the new neo:

https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/01/12/can-congress-impeach-and-convict-a-president-after-the-person-has-left-office/#comment-2535309

From a friend:
“For the last 4+ years, the Democrats have gone scorched earth.
They have salted the fields and now they claim they want to grow crops.
Their problem is we have memories longer than a hamster.
• We remember the protests the day of/after inauguration.
• We remember the 4 years of personal attacks and endless name calling
• We remember “not our president” and the “Resistance…”
• We remember being called racist and evil.
• We remember Maxie Walters telling followers to harass Trump supporters in department stores and gas stations.
• We remember the Presidents press secretary being chased out of a restaurant.
• We remember hundreds of Trump supporters being physically attacked.
• We remember Trump supporters getting Doxed, and fired from jobs.
• We remember riots, and looting.
• We remember “a comedian” holding up the President’s severed head.
• We remember a play in Central park paid with public funding, showing the killing of President Trump.
• We remember Robert de Niro yelling “Fuck Trump” at the Tony’s and getting a standing ovation.
• We remember Trump being accused of being a Russian spy and the media going with it. Trying to frame him for treason.
• We remember Nancy Pelosi tearing up the State of the Union Address.
• We remember how totally in the tank the mainstream media was in opposition.
• We remember non-stop in your face lies and open cover-ups from the media.
• We remember the MSM cabal in 24/7 Hate Trump broadcasts.
• We remember the press not holding Democrats responsible for anything and hiding anything negative.
• We remember conservative voices neutered by Tech companies (Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.).
• We remember the partisan impeachment.
• We remember the President and his staff being spied on; even before he was President and Obama and Biden knew of it.
• We remember Republican congressmen shot on a ballfield by a Socialist supporter of Bernie Sanders.
• We remember every so-called comedy show turn into nothing but Trump hate fest.
• We remember 95% negative coverage in the news from the mainstream media and newspapers.
• We remember the state governors asking for and getting everything they wanted to address COVID-19 then blaming Trump.
• We remember leftists threatening outside the homes of prominent Republicans and TV commentators who support Trump.
• We remember the vile attempted destruction of Brett Kavanaugh by Democrats, Kamala Harris in particular.
• We remember people pounding on the Supreme Court doors.
• We remember that we were called every name in the book for supporting President Trump.
• We remember that many in Hollywood said they would leave after Trump was elected, but they stayed here anyway.
• We remember the hundreds of taxpayer funded police cars burnt during your ‘mostly peaceful’ demonstrations.
• We remember our conservative voices being cancelled on major US campuses.
This list is endless, but you get the idea.”


Achilles said...

J. Farmer said...

The term "nation-building" is really a misnomer. What the US was doing in Iraq was state-building. It had no real capacity to build an Iraqi nation.

We could have.

It would have taken two things. First defeating the enemy and driving them to complete surrender followed by generations of occupation and subsidy like it did in Japan or South Korea.

The question of whether that is worth it to the American people is a different question and has strong arguments on both sides.

It is pretty clear that people like Joe Biden who started the war and then proceeded to undermine in at every step afterward did not have any good intentions for either Iraqi's or Americans. I think Bush was a dupe rather than evil just by the description of his facial expression when Tenet laid out the evidence for starting the war on the UN sanctions violations pretext.

mockturtle said...

Ray SoCal: Thank you for the summary. Yes, we remember and shall never forget.

Ray - SoCal said...

I’m amazed at how Republicans dint help their own side legally. They should set up some type of legal lawfare to help their supporters.

Examples of people they should defend:

- The Arizona librarian who got fired for saying keep a list non political.

- Attendees if the Trump Rally

- Those that lose their job due to supporting Trump

Instead we get Michael Flynn that was bankrupted defending himself for working for Trump.

Contrast with how the Left Supports Legally:
- Blm Protesters
- Trump inauguration rioters - legal and lodging
- Aswan Brothers

chickelit said...

Nice summary there, ray. The other side, including our President elect will do everything in their power rabbit hole every item in that list.

Achilles said...

Ray - SoCal said...

Why do Republicans not help their own side, but virtue signal?

Why is it so hard for people to believe that there is evil and duplicity in the people they once supported and voted for?

Liz Cheney is worse than Chuck Schumer. A much more terrible human being.

She knows she is committing political suicide. She just serves different masters. And it is pretty clear now her husband always was.

Yes we supported her and her husband at one point. That is embarrassing. But we were all young once and did stupid shit.

Ray - SoCal said...

I wonder why the US installed in both Afghanistan and Iraq centralized governments?

When a decentralized federal system, such as the us or Switzerland have would be a better fit? With governors elected, not appointed.

Achilles said...

Ray - SoCal said...

I’m amazed at how Republicans dint help their own side legally. They should set up some type of legal lawfare to help their supporters.

If you believe the purpose of the Republican Party is to represent your interests and advocate for things you want as your representative you will live in a constant state of amazement.

Trump just removed the mask.

rehajm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mockturtle said...

It's time to realize the truth about the 'two party' system. With few exceptions, the GOP is as much a part of the Deep State as the Dems. And know that no one who runs for public office is above duplicity.

mockturtle said...

From Zero Hedge:
Republican leader Senator Mitch McConnell is reportedly "pleased" about the idea of a second Trump impeachment, telling sources that he believes President Trump "committed impeachable offenses", according to a late Tuesday New York Times report.

McConnell believes impeachment will make it easier to "purge [Trump] from the party" ahead of a Wednesday House vote to formally charge Trump with inciting violence against the country.

Kai Akker said...

The rats are scurrying. And I thought I admired Mitch.

Joe Smith said...

"Actually, the "we" I spoke of was the United States of America."

Yeah, I kind of figured that out.

I am non-interventionist by nature. If you don't fuck with me I won't fuck with you.

Similar for foreign aid. I'm not a big fan, but if we give a country money, I expect them to pretty much do what we tell them. There are always strings.

Joe Smith said...

"Resisting the foreign policy blob was a clear achievement of Trump's term."

Resisting the Military/Industrial Complex was a clear achievement of Trump's term.

Fixed it.

Ad throw in the worshippers of Globalism and the New World Order.

Pretty impressive for a novice.

Rusty said...

mockturtle said...
"From Zero Hedge:
Republican leader Senator Mitch McConnell is reportedly "pleased" about the idea of a second Trump impeachment, telling sources that he believes President Trump "committed impeachable offenses", according to a late Tuesday New York Times report.

McConnell believes impeachment will make it easier to "purge [Trump] from the party" ahead of a Wednesday House vote to formally charge Trump with inciting violence against the country."
They got no idea, do they? They can't see what's right in front of them. Coming right at them. One way or another the old GOP is over. It ended in 2016. The establishment can impeach whoever they want now.

Humperdink said...

Humperdink said:

Fweedom .... er .... Freedom?

Farmer responded: "That doesn’t make any sense."

Not surprised. There are two points to my response. It appears neither was understood.

mockturtle said...

Humperdink, I got it. ;-)

J. Farmer said...

@Humperdink:

Not surprised. There are two points to my response. It appears neither was understood.

Guilty. I shouldn't have said it didn't make any sense, only that I did not understand it. My apologies.

J. Farmer said...

@Achilles:

We could have.

It would have taken two things. First defeating the enemy and driving them to complete surrender followed by generations of occupation and subsidy like it did in Japan or South Korea.


The key distinction is that what we did in post-WWII Japan and West Germany was build the state. The German and Japanese nations were preexisting. The state is a political construct; the nation is a cultural construct. What held Iraq together was not a national identity but an authoritarian state. There really is no Arab nation and whatever fledgling Iraqi nationalism does exist, there are a number of countervailing sectarian forces.

rehajm said...

Yes we supported her and her husband at one point. That is embarrassing. But we were all young once and did stupid shit

Don't beat yourself up over it. Most election cycles voters are provided a choice of rubber chicken or stinky fish.

This time though we didn't get to pick. Sorry you said you wanted the stale ham sandwich. No I didn't. Yes, you did.

J. Farmer said...

@Joe Smith:

Fixed it.

Ad throw in the worshippers of Globalism and the New World Order.

Pretty impressive for a novice.


Though they clearly overlap, there are distinctions between the military-industrial complex and the foreign policy blob. The former is mostly to do with the influence of the arms industry on public policy. They're quite happy with Trump and his absurdly bloated Pentagon budgets. The foreign policy blob is more the network of advisors and policy planners who occupy positions in think tanks, academia, and policy planning positions at the White House, Pentagon, and the State Department.

In terms of foreign policy and military matters, Trump has the widest degree of latitude to act. He is much more constrained to act domestically. Even so, we've clearly seen the foreign policy establishment do everything in its power to prevent Trump's withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan. Trump cannot take on an establishment that he must simultaneously rely on to advise him and implement his policies. He needed a "kitchen cabinet" of foreign policy advisors but doesn't have the capacity to identity such individuals. A figure like Trump desperately needs a good, trusted consigliere. Unfortunately we got Jared Kushner.

JPS said...

Gosh, happy birthday! Thank you for sharing that wonderful picture. I hope the rest of your day was that great.

Humperdink said...

Farmer said: "" What differentiates a "Marxist" idea/solution from a non-Marxist one?"

My response: "Fweedom ...er ... Freedom."

"Fweedom" was mocking the empty (pants) suit/fraud for the incoming VP. She claims to have used the term as a child.

"Freedom" I am mystified you see no difference, unless it was a rhetorical question. If the latter is the case, then I am guilty of misunderstanding.

J. Farmer said...

@Humperdink:

"Fweedom" was mocking the empty (pants) suit/fraud for the incoming VP. She claims to have used the term as a child.

Gotcha. First I've heard of it.

"Freedom" I am mystified you see no difference, unless it was a rhetorical question. If the latter is the case, then I am guilty of misunderstanding.

My point is that a phrase like "Marxist ideas" is practically meaningless. Does it refer only to classical Marxist ideas as expressed by Marx and Hegel? Does it apply to the orthodox Marxism that arose after Marx's death? Does it apply to the various neo-Marxist strains that developed in response to the October Revolution?

More often than not, though, the term Marxist is most often used a term of opprobrium by people who often have a very shallow and facile understanding of Marx's work. Instead they merely repeat a partisan narrative based on an assumption that anything that is "Marxist" is ipso facto wrong, bad, evil, etc.

MadisonMan said...

I'm sorry I missed your easy-for-me-to-remember birthday! I'm glad you had Sun on the day. What a tonic!

Michael K said...

What held Iraq together was not a national identity but an authoritarian state. There really is no Arab nation and whatever fledgling Iraqi nationalism does exist, there are a number of countervailing sectarian forces.

Even more true of Afghanistan. I was in favor of the Gulf War and also Gulf War II because I thought there was still a nucleus of middle class. I knew Iraqis who had come to the US. My mistake was assuming there were still some in Iraq. The ones I knew were all refugees and immigrants to the US.

The second huge mistake, still inexplicable to me after all these years, was Bush's appointment of Bremer. That was the real beginning of nation building. Tommy Franks and Rumsfeld were both opposed. Franks retired.

Lurker21 said...

Yes, Trump is "a president like no other," but Pelosi is also "a speaker like no other." Or something close to it. Gingrich was in the same mold. The others seemed content to remain in the background and didn't grandstand. They didn't seek the limelight or indulge in petty personal vindictiveness.

Sometimes, as with Hastert and almost-Speaker Livingston, they had good reason to want to remain in the shadows, but I don't think people realize how out of the mold Pelosi is. In the past, when Speakers had real power the mass media weren't as developed as they are now, so Speakers wielded their power behind the scenes. The older ones looked a little like their counterparts, the largely powerless Presidents Pro Tem of the Senate, though they may have been running things off-stage.

It's like that with the rank and file as well. The ones you know about are the ones who play the media game - Swalwell, Nadler, Waters, Green, Gaetz. It was always like that, I suppose, but the media game changed when TV came in and when cable news and then social media started up.

The Crack Emcee said...

I came here to tell you guys about a big win yesterday:

I'm good friends with Keith Knight, the cartoonist behind the comic "The K Chronicles". We played music at the same time in SF, share many of the same friends, and talents, and genuinely like one another. He did the flyer for a fundraiser for me once.

Anyway, his comic's been turned into a live-action/animated series on HULU called "WOKE" which just got renewed for a second season. Being old friends, I follow his facebook page, and started noticing his new show's "fans" are cultists - so I contacted him, wanting to know if he's gonna become one, too - blaming Trump for everything and looking at me weird? And the son of a bitch actually called me.

We talked about cults, politics, Trump, the history of the Democrats, everything - really talked - for almost three hours.

Long story-short: unless something goes terribly wrong, there will be no slandering of the right on this very black show. The left's gonna a catch it, though.

Please tune in,...the longer it's on, the more likely I get "product placement" opportunities.

Ann Althouse said...

"Happy birthday! I'm impressed with the ice skating. Other people skating looks like magic."

When you first go on the ice, there's a lot of trepidation. Is this a good idea? There's a ridiculous chance of falling and ice is hard. So at first, you feel really stiff and awkward. You just have to keep going slowly until you relax enough that you feel natural.

I often rewatch this video to remember the right moves.

Nana Jane said...

Happy Birthday Ann!!

gpm said...

Yes, happy birthday, Althouse, even though you didn't wish *ME* happy birthday last month when you were totally unaware that it was my birthday!

I haven't ice-skated in over 15 years, though I think I still could with no problem. Even though I didn't start them until I was in my 20s, ice skating and skiing were two of the few athletic efforts I was reasonably good at from the start, probably because we used to roller skate on the street all the time when I was growing up. We used to ice skate all the time in college, because it was free; I was a lot better than my friends who, e.g., never were able to do the backward-skating that I had no trouble with.

>>Whenever I see pictures of my grandparents when they were in their mid-60s, they all looked much older than my parents do now at the same age.

My father had a number of aunts and uncles (grandparents all gone) who came to our (massive) family wedding, graduation, etc. parties when I was growing up in the 1960s. Except for one aunt who was maybe less than ten years older than my old man, they all seemed incredibly ancient and frail (though they mostly all still drove their own cars). I would have sworn at the time that they were probably about 90 years old. In reality, they were in their early to mid 70s. Nobody I know in that age group (which I am rapidly approaching) seems remotely like how I remember them.

>>Why is this? More widespread use of sunscreen on the face? Having children later in life? Less necessity for hard physical labor?

For whatever reason, aging does seem to have changed markedly in the U.S. in the last fifty years or so. None of your suggestions make sense to me, at least in terms of my own family situation. Maybe a lot better nutrition early on (despite the simultaneous presence of bad nutrition). The older generation also went through the depression and both world wars; could that be a factor?

Maybe less smoking, as Howard suggested. The old man chewed on (but didn't really smoke) cigars and lived to 78. Most of his siblings, who chain-smoked, died in their 60s. Can't speak to the older generation.--gpm