The surprises keep coming. Last night I fell into a deep sleep, between 8:00 and 9:00 PM. Since preparations for my prison volunteer trip next week and my ongoing medical mayhem have kept me completely occupied, I had no idea that the opening ceremonies for the annual Portland Rose Festival wired also last night. The launch site for the fireworks is six blocks away. The blasts echoing between they downtown buildings amplifies the noise level. I awakened thinking I had fallen asleep during an MRI. I did get back to sleep eventually, but not soon enough. My doctor’s staff continues to screw up. The Orthopedist to whom they referred me was actually the nurses station of the Orthopedics floor of the hospital. The nurse was quite amused when I tried to schedule an appointment with a doctor through her. I think I found one on my own, but my doctor’s office tool a 5 day weekend. ARGH!
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:22 (average 4:46). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From MoveOn: 10 Ideas to Save the Economy: Reinvent Education
Wall-to-wall testing and skyrocketing tuition have destroyed American education. Here’s how we fix it. \
Amen to everything he said. This is the fifth video in the series and now the Reich on the left has been right five times. Please click through to MoveOn and share it from there.
From Daily Kos: A judge has sentenced an Arizona woman to 3 ½ years in prison for running over her husband with an SUV because he didn’t vote in the 2012 presidential election.
Thirty-one-year-old Holly Nicole Solomon of Mesa pleaded guilty to assault charges stemming from injuries her husband suffered days after President Barack Obama was re-elected. She was sentenced on Thursday.
Authorities say Solomon was upset about Obama’s re-election…
Republicans seem to take voting more seriously that we do, even though their solutions for every obstacle are criminal and/or violent.
From NY Times: Ever since the Gold Rush, California farmers have staked their claim to water and ferociously protected their rights to use it to irrigate the crops that have made the state the greengrocer for the nation.
But on Friday, in a sign of how the record-setting drought is shaking up established ways here, state officials accepted an offer from farmers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to give up a quarter of their water this season, either by leaving part of their land unplanted or finding other ways to reduce their water use. In return, the state has assured them that it will not seek further reductions for the growing season.
It looks like people are going to go hungry, because oil and coal, the m,ain causes of the drought, are not edible.
Cartoon:
22 Responses to “Open Thread–5/23/2014”
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4:12 average still 4:46 I've taken to, if I am having a slow email or errands day, doing the puzzle in the morning, just saving the stats for when you post. I wasn't able to do that today, so tried to use the link – but it didn't work for me. Were you counting on that EXTREMELY healthy looking flamingo for lunch? (Not that I am ever a threat to you LOL!)
MoveOn – Of course he is correct, he actually knows what he is talking about. My only quibble would be with the term "reinvent." It was our (government) trying to reinvent it that damn near killed it. I think maybe we need to return rather than reinvent.
Daily Kos – Yeah, I thought of him when I saw your cartoon yesterday. He did live. Ironically, it was Arizona (you know you can't spell "CRAZY" without "R-AZ," or so they say) so his vote would not have mattered. And it's not like he voted FOR Obama, He just didn't vote at all.
NY Times – Now this is how people who are on the wrong side of something should act. If the NRA had started doing this years ago, when it was still respectable, it would still be respectable and many lives would have been saved. Of course you do have to be smart enough to see you are on the wrong side, which I expect from farmers but not from the NRA (although there was a time back in the day when I thiught some might be, but alas, I was wrong.)
Cartoon – certainly makes the point I just expressed.
3:14 No flamingo lunch for TomCat. I have a feeling that I may not get it either.
3:55 I would have settled for just a taste. Alas, none for me.
3:02 You're correct Jerry . . . no flamingo fricassée today! Instead, feast upon its beauty!
Beauty is nice for the eyes to feast upon, but it does not fill an empty stomach.
That Sasquatch ate OUR bird!
No, I feasted on Nature's beauty! . . . and it is still alive and kicking for all to enjoy!
Oh, and a P,S. (sorry to take so long, I've been scattered) – here's an article that may even raise eyebrows – even jaded as we are, and with our expectations of Republicans so low:
http://www.pogo.org/blog/2015/05/senate-staff-not-senators-decided-to-close-the-ndaa.html
"Allowing staff to vote on the key decision whether to open or close the markup of a bill that determines how to spend over half a trillion dollars is not only a violation of the Senate rules, but a breach of the public trust."
Heads should roll for this!
This is astually far more typical tham most realize.
There is no good excuse for your doctor's staff to keep fouling up the way they are, you should complain to him. Sorry I missed you last night, had a computer crash.
MoveON: I signed the petitions and shared on Facebook. Kids are no longer being educated but being tested to death. My five year old grandchild, who just finished kindergarten, spent one and ahalf to two hours on homework each night for her test at the end of the year. She all ready hates school.
Daily Kos: I am thinking there is more going on there than just whether he voted. Three and a half years seems like a small sentence to me for this act.
NY Times: If more people don't wake up and start acting on climate change, all of us will be going hungry.
Cartoon: I do not feel comfortable with open carry laws anywhere. I don't want to grocery shop with a guy sporting a gun. These laws are insane.
Kindergarten equals 2 hours homework???!!! Insanity your poor grand-daughter!
Sorry – feeling awful so tried not to type as I was sure I would make a mistake, and I did! I tried to comment
"Kindergarten equals 2 hours homework???!!! Insanity – your poor grand-daughter!"
Missing out the hyphen made it look rather odd – so sorry …..
I understood what you meant, Pat. She made the honor role, which didn't impress her all that much.
Bless you Edie!
I do!
I agree with Pat!
Thank you TC
TY TC/
Puzzle — 3:02 You're correct Jerry . . . no flamingo fricassée today! Instead, feast upon its beauty!
MoveOn — As usual, Reich on the left is right. But the Reich on the right won't support education because that might mean people would think critically and for themselves, which means no more sheeple. Oh, if it were only that easy!
Daily Kos — The irony of it . . . she can't vote now either!
NY Times — I wonder what the next step will be when the state and the farmers realise that there are fracking toxins in the water? Nothing to eat and nothing to drink?
Cartoon — Sorry USA, but in general, you are a violent society!
Thanks all. I'm so tired. Big Hugs!
Just one thing. The bombing in OKC was in April 19, 1995. I was working at a convenience store the day it happened. The concussion from the bomb shook the windows in my store and I didn’t know what it was. Later, we learned of the bombing in OKC. It was all over the radio, tv and anything else that was on the air. We thought that a hot water heater had blown up in the building. When we found out the truth, we were flabbergasted!
I went to the site a couple of days later. When I got there, there was the famous picture of the building and a huge hole in the ground.
I don’t know what the rest of the stuff on the cartoon says. My phone can’t make it clear enough for my old eyes to see!
I haven’t gotten a chance to do the puzzle. Suffice it to say, it would not be in the running for first place, for sure! It would sure be in the running for LAST place, tho! LOL!
Thanks, TC! I am always glad to see your card when I check my messages! Take care of yourself! If you aren’t getting what you need at one doctor, go to another one! Doesn’t your insurance pay for SECOND OPINIONS? That should be the first thing they should do!
Take care of yourself, TC!!!! I hope your shoulder gets better, SOONER rather than LATER!
Vivian is right – the OKC bombing was on 4/19/1995.
The Murrah Building was razed on 5/23/95 – but the bombing itself was 4/19/95.