Thursday, February 09, 2017

It's Wilson A. "Snowflake" Bentley's Birthday!



32 comments:

  1. Twenty years after Prop. 187, attitudes toward illegal immigration have changed dramatically in California [Click]
    This is from 2014. The aftermath of the GOP's overreach with Prop 187 pretty much consigned the party to the trash heap. Only rarely are they able to elect a single constitutional officer. The same thing could happen on a national scale. I (naturally) like the conclusion of the column:

    “Other parts of the country are experiencing the same kind of demographic and cultural shifts that California did some time ago, so now they’re struggling through the same policy debates that we’ve already experienced,” said Schnur, who now directs the University of Southern California’s Unruh Institute of Politics.

    “History doesn’t repeat itself,” he said. “It just moves east.”

    --Alan

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  2. Susan, thanks so much for your posts on the last thread! I've copied and shared them on FB. Must remember to share them on Google + as well...

    Please friend me on FB. My page is:
    https://www.facebook.com/kerry.e.thompson.9

    Does anybody know if there is an FB group for the resistance? It would have to be a secret group, naturally. If so, I'd like to join it! A small group has started on Fun Trivia for mutual support. One on FB would be very helpful. If one doesn't already exist, it must be started ASAP.

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  3. Thanks for passing along the idea about the 3/15 postcard dump, Susan. I have begun spreading the word to my correspondents. Will buy some postage-paid postcards (I ASSUME they still have them!) at the Post Office. Print the addresses on them, hand-write the messages and return address (using indelible ink). If I write only a single objection per postcard, that will require a number of postcards, but keep each one simple to scan. Hmmmm...maybe TWO objections per postcard? One in the greeting--e.g. "Dear Chowderhead-in-Chief:" ? Well, there's a lot of time to think about it. There must be at least a hundred million households in the USA; one percent of them would be a million. Might we not get a couple of cards from ten percent? Yeah, I could see that.

    Alan

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    1. Yes, they do still sell prepaid post cards at the post office. I intend to send at least a dozen.

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    2. Chowderhead, I like that. It might even be better than louse - certainly classier.

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  4. Bunch dang night owls around here, lol!

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  5. Rust never sleeps, puddle!

    Capitol Hill Flooded with Phone Calls [Click]

    A Short History of the Trump Family [Click] “Foul dust!” My, my!

    Dems slow-walking GOP agenda in Congress [Click] The GOP congresscritters might be getting frantic in the not far distant future, methinks.

    Alan

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  6. One more column—I need to get to work…
    —Alan

    The Gorsuch Confirmation Just Got Much More Interesting [Click] Indeed…

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  7. I was wondering if it would, lol! But you know, I feel warmer about him, which prolly means he's in trubble.

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    1. I had previously read that his only major difference from Scalia is that he thinks judges should use their own judgement in evaluating the legality of executive branch decisions. That could be good in the context of a 45 administration. Absent the shameful way Republicans treated Garland's nomination, it could be an argument for confirming him.

      Of course, you would expect any judge to be upset by Trump's continuing attacks on the courts.

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    2. I should hope that Gorsuch would use standard English, rather that what often seems to be archaic regional juvenile slang of obscure meaning, as Scalia so often did. Clarity of language would win points with me.

      Alan

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    1. It's important to recall that this decision isn't about the constitutionality of the order, but only about whether there is any compelling reason not to hold off enforcement while its constitutionality is being decided.

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    2. At the same time, if the judges had thought there was a strong probability it would be held constitutional, that would have been a compelling reason to allow immediate enforcement. They clearly think there are real constitutional questions to be resolved.

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  9. McConnell's 'Gag Rule' for Warren Echoes the Slavery Debate [Click] A similar debate roiled Congress 181 years ago this week.

    Seantor Warren's 2014 campaign book [Click] Allusions to Louis Brandeis by reviewer.

    Her new book [Click] I might just have to investigate both books. Looks to me like 2020 will be Warren's year; but what about her 2018 Senate campaign?


    ---Alan

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  10. It seems to be most appropriate that there was a huge snowstorm on Snowflake Bentley's birthday! We saw the northern edge of the storm and a couple inches of snow here. It was -4F on our way home from tending the grands tonight.

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  11. My big brother had back surgery this morning in the Boston area and it was Outpatient. So his wife had to drive him home in the blizzard! They made it! Best news of the day is that they removed a large cyst that was pressing on a never and he already feels 1000x better! Hurrah!!!

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    1. Not to worry--we mean what you know, listener.

      Alan

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  12. As far as I'm concerned, this is reason alone to open a Twitter account. Some people's inventiveness just staggers me.

    “Donaeld The Unready” tweets as if Trump is a mad medieval king - Click

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    1. That is cute, Cat; but Æthelrud unrud has had a bad rap because of the incorrect translation of his name from Anglo-Saxon into English. It means not Ethelred the Unready, but Noble Counsel the Uncounseled. One story is illustrative of how he certainly WAS ready: when playing chess with a bishop, the bishop made an illegal move; Æthelrud pulled out his sword and struck the bishop dead on the spot. He was nicknamed Unrud because he didn't take advice. "Rud" is a cognate of "rune" and the modern German "rat," not the rodent, but "council," as in Rathaus--"council house," or as we would say, city hall. Chicken pox is the result of a similar confusion--it has nothing to do with chickens, but the Anglo-Saxon word for "itching" was something like "goechen," which to Enlish speakers sounded like "chicken." So the "itching pox" (certainly descriptive) became the "chicken pox." There are probably many other instances of similar confusion in the transition from Anglo-Saxon to English.

      --Alan

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    2. Agreed about Ethelred. But, frankly, I long ago gave up trying to explain such fine points to non medievalists, or for that matter people without an interest in language.

      I once used "rede" in a poem, a modern English poem that is. Needless to say, the poem fell flat. No one had any idea what it meant.

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    3. Oh, yes--"rede" would be the obvious cognate; but I didn't think of it because it is not part of my active vocabulary--a defect to remedy! Thanks, Cat!

      --Alan

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  13. Very good about your brother, listener. They do so much outpatient surgery these days--less expensive, and less chance of nosocomial (hospital acquired) infections.

    Cat--if you liked "chowderhead," there is also the analogous "mush for brains," alternatively "mushforbrains." I suppose that when used as given names they ought to be capitalized. Time was, leftover mush from dinner would be sliced and fried for breakfast.

    --Alan

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    1. Appropriate but rather too mild, methinks. It still strikes me as the most appropriate term for an entry on Twitter, rather than "tweet."

      Alan

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  14. *sigh* I just pissed off Denise on FB. She didn't like that I told her to be civil but didn't tell the Republican friend of mine she was arguing the same thing. It's my page and in my view Denise is the one who went too far and I said so. There's one friend and ally gone through my clumsiness. Well, that's that.

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    1. Well, don't over-worry. Denise is a stalwart woman who tends to forgive easily.

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    2. Thanks, Listener. I donno. Maybe I was rude to her...

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    3. I hear so many stories of people behaving in uncivil ways on FB; I figure I don't need the grief--besides finding the business plan of FB abhorrent.

      Alan

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