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Open thread 3/12/21 — 43 Comments

  1. How many will know you are referring to one of the Oregon high Cascades volcanos? Possibly Geoffrey, as he lives nearby now.

  2. There’s a “Three Sisters” near Canmore, Alberta, just south of the Trans-Canada Highway)…and probably several more around the globe….

  3. Biden’s speech was awful.

    He looked frail on the long walk to the podium. He wore a mask on his walk to the podium, even though there were no other humans visible, yet, when he walked out he didn’t put it back on even though he was met by other humans at the end of the hall. Theater, but not even consistent theater. It was really poor optics. He walked with slumped shoulders and the shuffle we’ve grown accustomed to in the past year. The leaders of North Korea, Iran, China and Russia were almost certainly pleased with what they saw.

    It was divisive. He opened with an attack on how the last Administration communicated and acted at the onset of the pandemic “a year ago.” He used vaccination statistics to more than tacitly imply that the prior administration had failed at addressing the need and things did not change until he was in control. All laughable lies to anyone paying the least bit of attention. He claimed to offer hope, but he came across as a schoolmarm. “Get vaccinated and maybe, maybe you’ll get to have recess tomorrow.”

    His big carrot was; if we all do as he says we might, MIGHT, be able to gather in small groups to celebrate Independence Day. In July. Does he not know that a majority of states have been allowing gatherings for awhile now, some for over six months? Most of us have been back to work for months. Most of us dine out, in restaurants. We go to stores. Without mentioning states or governors by name he clearly chastised Texas and Florida for not obeying him and his administration.

    There was another weak, promise/non-promise about school and he only specifically mentioned K-8 education.

    Even folks who love the Dems and their policies had to be disappointed with what they saw and heard. I know they won’t say it out loud, but anyone with eyes and ears did not gain confidence watching that man speak those words. A female reporter shouted a question as he turned to leave and he quickened his pace (not too discernible, because, with the old man, Tim Conway “Mrs. Hwiggins” shuffle it’s hard to judge speed). The Leader of the Free WorldTM, afraid to respond to a journalist and fleeing from the slightest confrontation at a snail’s pace.

    Good look, America.

  4. Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Park stadium will be at 100% capacity for opening day on April 5th. When half the attendees don’t end up in the hospital two weeks later it’s going to be more difficult for other states to continue the charade that we will all die if more than two of us are together outdoors*.

    *Unless you are attending a BLM or AntiFa sanctioned riot. Those have always been safe from COVID.

  5. The Tik-Tok’er who came up with the Super Straight gender designation ought to make a new Tik-Tok stating, “Alinsky, you magnificent Bastard! I read your book!*”

    *Thanks to whomever here tipped me off to the trend. It’s wonderful. Very clever. Great to see so many young men and women run with it.

  6. The Three Sisters OR is under the flight path from Seattle to CA. On a clear day you get views of Mt Adams, Mt Saint Helens, Mt Hood, Mt Jefferson, Three Sisters, Mt Mazama (Crater Lake), and Mt Shasta. The Three Sisters OR is what’s left of a much larger volcano (see Mt Mazama). Three Sisters area is still active seismically and not dead yet (like the Cloth Headed Dummy still a threat).

  7. Chris Bedford at The Federalist joins Andrew McCarthy at NR in the gutless hand-wringing that will accompany Derek Chauvin’s lynching in Minneapolis.

    Both these sensitive souls appear regularly on Fox News. Hopefully they will soon join Chris Stirewalt in pundit purgatory.

  8. I just got two vaccine appointments this morning after 127 attempts (exaggeration). Thank God for CVS, the profit motive, and corporate greed. The medical establishment here is fixated on serving “underserved” areas first. It will likely be weeks before they open up vaccinations to the under 65 group.

  9. Off topic, I sense a Bee Gee thread shadowing over the blog. Anyone else have that intuition?

  10. Rufus, 2 quick questions about the Biden* speech–
    1) about how long was the duration?
    2) any evidence of dementia/slurring/confusion or did he present it competently?

  11. About halfway down the Baja California peninsula, on the East (Sea of Cortez) coast, you will find the “Three Virgins” volcanoes. They are not active, but do power a geothermal electricity generating plant.

  12. om:

    Yes, this photo was taken on a flight from southern CA to Seattle, and I have taken flight photos of all those volcanoes as well as Crater Lake. If the weather is at all clear, it is a phenomenal flight path. No sooner do you pass over one volcano than another looms up.

  13. Personally, I am more of a “Dead Can Dance” kind of guy. I find Lisa Gerrard’s singing style interesting.

    Here are three post Dead Can Dance collaborations of hers with Han Zimmer.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBE-uBgtINg
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EpegJFLEok
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwRjaaU3Fhg&t=191s

    Here is the Dead Can Dance track that I used play when traffic sucked the most.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDnlq9pb6u4&list=PLfimnwaZdumhQtd-AkstzoiyGdyTkagjE&index=8

  14. Biden’s speech was 20 minutes long and delivered well considering his usual wandering off and garbing of lines. Many cliches and slogans. His big ask – for people to get vaccinated, was poorly scripted and did not come off well. His freedom by Independence Day promise was qualified as a possible goal – things can always go wrong, ya know. A strange speech that tried to be statesmanlike but failed because of his delivery and the less than coherent way it was composed.

    A reporter shouted a question but was ignored. My question to him would be: Mr. President, if you are so concerned with beating the virus, why are you opening our southern border where many Covid-19 positive people are crossing each day? As with the riots last summer, the progs want it both ways. If they approve of the activity that can be a super spreader, it’s okay. But nothing is okay for the average, law-abiding citizens.

    Thus far the Biden presidency has turned out as expected. I just didn’t expect them (and yes, it is THEM, not him) to go so far, so fast.

  15. re: Biden . . . I was driving while I listened to his speech and he tries hard to sound passionate, but – the guy just comes across as going through the motions of sounding passionate. I saw snippets on the tube when I got home, and sure enough, he has that same, unwavering lifeless gaze when he’s talking.
    Sad for him, and sad for us.

  16. JimNorCal,

    As J.J. wrote, a bit over 20 minutes. He did seem to get fatigued towards the end. At the beginning he was doing a good job reading the teleprompter, although his voice sounded weak (in other words, he sounded like a typical man his age). He was making coordinated hand gestures that made sense with points he was making. He seemed relatively “on the ball,” but after about 15 minutes his skills waned and it became more like rote reading. He seemed to recognize he was fading and, for a moment, you could see a bit of fear or concern in his demeanor. He made a few impassioned pleas, and when he did those they did not seem overly rehearsed or memorized. It came across like a man speaking from the heart, and sincerely. But, as I and others have mentioned; the messages themselves were contradictory and in some cases inaccurate.

    The overarching message was not “freedom” nor “liberty.” It was; “Be a sport. Wear the mask. Get the vaccine. Maybe some little kids will eventually get to go to school. Maybe you’ll get to have a small barbecue in July.” I don’t know who his speech writer(s) is/are, but it was a bit different than Churchill’s “We will fight them on the beaches” speech, or even Rockne’s “Win one for the Gipper” speech. Greta Thunberg’s “How dare you!” speech had more verve.

  17. Chases Eagles at 1:39

    I’m a fan of Dead Can Dance too. I first heard of them when INTO THE LABYRINTH was named a Stereophile Record of the Year. Interesting stuff.

  18. It’s … Spring Break! As a 69 year-old, it gives me particular pleasure to say so. Boast, even.

    Yesterday I demo’d my latest software project, took a mid-term and now I’m done for break. Although I’ll keep working on my project. I also had a special moment.

    In my Discrete Math class I got stumped on a certain homework problem — expressing a greatest common divisor as a linear combination, if you must know. In practical terms it becomes a real bear in terms of sheer arithmetic for a poor human such as myself. Plus the textbook had one of the worst explanations I’ve seen anywhere.

    Anyway, I beat my head against it and I beat my head against it. (Being a programmer teaches one much about head-beating.) Then I had the idea of working top-down instead of bottom-up as the text recommended. And it just popped out like magic. Still tedious, but each step was clear and the process became mechanical.

    I emailed my method to my teacher. He said he would check my work, but assured me the textbook approach worked if one was careful and diligent. Then yesterday I received an email back:
    ____________________________________

    Yes, I like this much better!

    I will definitely teach this method in the future.
    ____________________________________

    Is that cool or what? I appreciate his generosity. It also means that I have made a real, however tiny, very tiny, contribution to Mathematics!

    That’s a wrap, folks!

  19. R.T. Firefly wrote:
    “he sounded like a typical man his age.”

    That smarted — I’m his age!

    But you’re right — he did sound like a person who is either rapidly approaching or just entering his dodderige. Not a pretty sight.

    And just now he went out and read a similarly un-uplifting speech. And walked away, then got turned back by Kamala.

    How long before they just stop having him give public appearances? As someone has said previously: Putin, Xi, Kameini and Kim must be feeling pretty happy with how things are going.

  20. Firefly; F:

    I know plenty of people that age, and unless they are very ill they are all in far better mental and physical shape than Biden.

  21. “Politicians who don’t know a single fact but yet form a conclusion and an opinion are, in my opinion, reckless and dangerous.”

    Guess who said the above?
    ANDREW CUOMO!
    He’s hilarious! A laugh riot! Oh my goodness, that’s funny!

  22. Regarding my statement about Biden’s voice and his age. I did not mean it as an attack on folks in their late 70s. Biden often sounds lost, or addled, but he did not last night, and that was not what I was referring to.

    I meant the strength of his voice. My own father seems very mentally acute but when I speak to him on the phone I’m always initially shocked by the tone of his voice. It is higher and softer than I remember it, and it has more “air” in it. That’s what I meant regarding Biden. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. My own voice is not as deep or forceful as it was in the past. It seems to be something that happens as we age. Vocal cords loosen? Donald Trump is a strong speaker, and mentally sharp, but his voice is weaker than it was ten years ago.

  23. 20 minutes …

    Believe I could have done it in 2/3 minutes and got the same message across.

    And today Cuomo accusers JUMP to 30. How does he make out of this mess. We’ll see!

    Speaking of being 70. I can remember lots from the past. Now today if I don’t talk to a person almost daily I’ll have trouble recalling things. It comes and goes.
    I think I know what uncle Joe is going though and it’s not going to get better.

  24. Rufus: “(in other words, he sounded like a typical man his age).”

    Yep, that smarts. At his age I was squatting 165# and still able to hike several miles in the mountains. People age quite differently. Most of it is genetic. Some of it is proper eating and exercise. Some of it is not smoking or drinking to excess. (Though a tiny few smokers/drinkers live in to their hundreds.) Joe has always been an exerciser. I don’t know about his smoking and drinking. His father lived 87 years and his mother 93. Pretty good genes. However, dementia is a different sort of problem. And that’s what he seems to be suffering from. If so, it was a huge moral failing/fraud for the party to put him forth as their nominee. But he was the the only one that they could sell as Mr. Moderate. The MSM are propping him up as a moderate while he signs whacko left wing EOs and crazy bills like the $1.9 trillion “porkulus” that he just signed. This, like the election fraud that got Biden elected has constituted a coup by the “Central Committee.”. If Biden must step down, they still have a willing puppet in Harris.

  25. And now for something completely different, Black Voter Suppression. The local NPR station will have a discussion on March 23, tune into WGBH! Be still my heart. The only voter suppression I saw on November 4 was at a vote counting station in Philly where armed guards drove out white vote monitors and all the black vote counters inside cheered.

    “Voter ID requirements. Mail-in ballot restrictions. The purging of voter rolls. Across the country, efforts are underway to change voting laws…and many fear Black voters have the most to lose. The State of Race: Voter Suppression is part of a virtual forum series co-sponsored by GBH, The Boston Globe, NAACP Boston and GBH WORLD addressing the impact of racial disparities on key social issues. Join host Dan Lothian and a panel of experts including Cheryl Clyburn Crawford, Executive Director of MassVOTE, and Myrna Pérez, Director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program as they discuss how these laws keep people from voting in Massachusetts and beyond.“

  26. Paul in Boston:

    No Stacey Abrams (big as a M1A1 tank), aka, the real Governor of Georgia? Must be anti-tank warfare. Stacey has been using the “war” theme in her press releases and media appearances lately. She was a contender for Kamala’s slot at one time, or sold herself as a contender IIRC.

  27. Between my junior and senior years of high school, my parents enrolled me in Northwest Outward Bound, which was an outdoor program intended to build character in young men (I needed building, I guess). This was in July, 1969 and our base camp was near the Three Sisters. Along with some rather challenging tasks, we spent several days circumnavigating the Sisters, climbing the South Sister, Broken Top (the peak towards the right side) and North Sister, hiking about 100 miles. Other than when we hiked a segment of the Pacific Coast Trail, we encountered no other people. (don’t expect that now)

    For reasons I can’t comprehend, there was a newspaper box at the base camp (essentially in the middle of nowhere), courtesy of the Portland Oregonian. One of the few days we were in camp, the headline was of the first Apollo moon landing. Given my situation at the time, I thought that was ironic.

  28. Rufus T. Firefly, Kate:

    Thanks!

    After I posted that comment I slept for three hours. I’m still reasonably sharp but I don’t have the stamina of a 20 year-old. College, at least STEM, is a lot of work.

  29. Mike in Snohomish:

    I always wanted to do Outward Bound when I was young. Did you enjoy it or, perhaps more accurately, appreciate it?

  30. Rufus T. Firefly:

    That’s okay. We’re just a bunch of sensitive, crotchety old folks here.

  31. Several years ago we got a phone call and the caller said you have money coming. He said he would get that for us for 30% as a fee. We told him no thanks.

    Then we investigated for ourselves. This is not a scam.

    I went to this site and found my mothers name with her previous address.
    https://claimittexas.org/

    Wife went to this site and did the same.
    https://louisiana.findyourunclaimedproperty.com/

    Between us we recovered almost 10K!

    They do make you jump through hoops with documentation and you have to share it with all dependents which is only fair. It takes up to 6 months to get the money.

    No doubt every state has this. Check it out.

  32. George Floyd’s arrest on May 25, 2020, set the wheels in motion for extremist violence in the US since then.

    But what does the compiled video and body cams show? Informed by the autopsy results?

    “Who killed George Floyd?” Now, a 24 minute documentary compiled by George Parry — himself a veteran police brutality investigator and prosecutor in Philadelphia — show us what it means, as the trial of Derek Chauvin goes on.
    https://centaurfilmworks.com/

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