Hi, Cassandra, hi Martooni.

Second. Curses. Drat.

>Who has gone from frontrunner to roadkill more dramatically? Muskie, maybe. John Glenn? Help me.<

Tom Eagleton. Holds the record for crash-and-burn.

Eagleton? I'm behind that 1000 percent!

Second Mudge, but to a very good post.

I knew a lot of people in the last election who liked McCain. None of them were traditional Republicans. This time around, the base doesn't like him any better. His former fans like his immigration stance now, but don't like his position on the war. I guess maybe he really is a maverick, if that means that nobody really approves of you.

The whole McCain implosion makes me sick on many levels.
Sick because huge segments our our society don't want to hear what they don't want to hear.
Sick because I think he's a decent man who has been caught up in the soul-destroying business of far-left, far-right politics today.
Sick because his failing candidacy is a symptom of just how nightmarish our involvement in Iraq really is and how the he 1 1 are we going to get out of it.
Sick because he wasn't the Republican nominee in 2000.
Sick because the other Republican candidates really make me sick.

I don't think I've ever disagreed with RD before, but when he asks *how many times can we discuss how bad the Bush administration is...* (or something like that) my answer is *over and over again!*
It's like therapy for me. Keeps despair from washing over me after I read the Post and the Times.

Joel is baiting me. I think he wants me to go on my full rant about how McCain was the right guy in 2000, but the Bushies slandered him in South Carolina, and the hard-core conservatives were so enamored of Bush's conservative-ness that they overlooked his fundamental weaknesses. Have I gone on that rant here before, or is it something I just trot out periodically for Raysdad?

As I recall, there was some commentary during the 2000 campaign that McCain seemed uncomfortable when he was doing well, and only seemed fully at ease when he was the underdog. Perhaps he is one of those people who secretly fear success. In any case, if he folds his tent his iconoclastic presence will be missed.

Kim - I hope you didn't view my comment as an indictment to free speech or an attempt to trivialize the importance of the these issues. Sometimes I just suffer from indignation fatigue.

But if it is therapeutic for others, that's great.

Now that I have posted on-topic, I must tell you that I shared my blackberry pie dilemma with Raysdad, as well as the excellent legal analysis by Ivansmom. When I got to the part about "the Lion's Share" he just said "dang skippy." In other words, he believes my imaginary friends gave me excellent advice.

Long before all of the recent pieces about just how powerful Cheney is, perhaps back in 2002 or 2003, my sister and brother-in-law (he's a senior exec for a huge corporation whose CEO is a Bush Ranger or Dodger or Robber or whatever those fundraisers are called) came up with a theory about Pres. Bush. They are reasonable, rational people from the middle of the spectrum, NOT conspiracy theorists and they insist that around 1997 or so, some REALLY big moneymen took a look around the political landscape and settled on GWB as someone they could control and mold. Next they looked around for someone to spearhead that and came up with Cheney. We used to laugh at the sis about that but sometimes, I have to wonder.
And I think Raysmom is right-they used S. Carolina in 1999 to make sure that came to pass.

All of the things Joel lists are the reasons why he might very well be the candidate that the republican party needs right now. His come comfort as an underdog would stand him in good stead once the primaries are done.

I nominate the Right Hon. Kim Campbell for the biggest belly flop. From being Prime Minister with 151 seats and the majority in the Canadian House of Parliament to 2 seats (and she wasn't in one) in just 100 days. There were extenuating circumstances (i.e. Brian) but still.

Raysmom,
I have a variation of that rant myself. McCain got dirty-tricked in SC and the rest of the tale writes itself. I found it very disconcerting that McCain became an enormous suck-up to the administration. His red-meat pandering did not fool the "base" and alienated his moderate supporters.

His entire campaign was a non-starter. George Snuffleupagus interviewed Ron Paul on "This Week" and mentioned in one breath that Paul had NO chance of getting the nomination but that he had out-fund-raised McCain. That had to have been the death knell. The nutjobs are outspending the straight talkers.

McCain's having difficulty because he's done what many Republicans claim is essential for their support: Speak for what he believes. I don't agree with much of what he says, but John McCain represents the kind of politician who is disappearing from public service, respectful of his political adversaries, principled-yet-pragmatic, and thoughtful .

No, RD, I certainly didn't take your comment in that way...I totally understand indignation fatigue. I was just putting my 2 cents in about what a therapy it is for me.

scc House of Commons. geez what's wrong with me?

shriek.. I have to laugh at your SCC.

House of Parliament, House of Commons... we're Americans! We don't know the difference!

I'm with yellojkt. I was very disappointed when McCain began publicly and overtly supporting the Bushies. I always thought that in many ways McCain truly meant it when he said he was more Republican than most people in 2000 wanted to believe, and I know they did have some policy choices in common. However, there were a lot of substantive differences between McCain's & Bush's views and personalities. There was also that "straigh talk" mystique, which Bush (who couldn't, sometimes, speak a coherent sentence) could never hope to equal. After what they did to him in South Carolina, it really made me wonder when he later appeared to join the Dark Side. It is one thing to support the Commander in Chief, which one would expect of McCain. It is another to play all friends together and bygones under the rug.

Reposting from the end of the last Kit, and I do mean the end.

RD:
I mean, there are just so many ways to express outrage over Iraq, and Bush, and Cheney.

But we try, don't we? Hard for me to get at all interested in the story Joel linked to yesterday--then later exaggerated in a bold font, about the military funeral. Headlines in the past several weeks at various news outlets have called attention to the horrible Iraq refugee problem in nation-states such as Jordan and Syria.

I felt so bad providing a green bean recipe late yesterday afternoon and then turning on NBC News to see a disturbing report by Mideast correspondent Richard Engel about "survival sex" in Syria--some daughters of professional-class refugees forced to belly dance at casinos, then pair off with patrons later in the evening for paid sex. Men were shown throwing paper currency at these young girls of the night, many are Saudis, IIRC. One girl on the dance floor was so young, she wouldn't even qualify for a training bra, yet she is now involved in the sex trade.

What I dislaike are stalls so short that there's hardly room to stand without the door hitting me in the nose. And then the door opens inward, which makes it hard to get good footing without contorting my body like Houdini, especially with a handbag, rather than a shoulder bag. The worst short-stall offenders are in the antiquated restrooms at the fairgrounds in Landa Park in New Braunfels, site of our annual Wurstfest. It dampens domestic or international beer consumption to an absolute minimum. And I dislike intensely automatic dispensers: water, soap, paper towel, and flushers. Add the new TP dispensers to the list.

And I feel so guilty about Boodling about these small restroom annoyances compared to what life must be like for families who are refugees from the fighting in Iraq.

I think I may be having a bad morning. I went to the used bookstore close to home, and ran into a really old coot who wanted to socialize much--talk at me, not to me. He called me "sweetheart" in his greeting, which really irritates me no end--the presumed familiarity. Seems he had a hand in F16s, and keeps track of his old "babies" in 10 conflicts around the globe. He bragged on the number of patents he'd developed--his most proud being lasers for laser-guided bombs because they provided such "clean" kills. Then to come home and have annoying Jesus proselytizers knock on my front door.

I posted a response to Eugene Robinson's column yesterday--about how politicans will shortly blame al-Maliki's government for the failures in Iraq. I pointed out that presidential hopeful Gov. Huckabee of Arkansas had done that very same thing--used the blame game, putting on the fault on al-Maliki--Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

**Roadkill is the oft-used Texas term I would have used to describe McCain's campaign, but I see Joel beat me too, it. When so many Americans are opposed to the war, how does a candidate like McCain gain any traction with the electorate by continuing to support fighting in Iraq?

L.A. mayor going down in scandal, dashing his his hopes for higher political office.
To offer an answer: Who has gone from frontrunner to roadkill more dramatically? Villaraigosa story in a few words: the reporter who covered the breakup of his marriage was also the cause of the breakup...

yello have to agree with your post, even as a casual observer, the McCain I remember in the election of 2000 was someone I admired, I liked his ability to go against the grain. In the susequent years I was disappointed when I looked for him to be the voice of sanity in the Bush Admin - but he was not.

Well, I agree with parts of that, Raysmom--but McCain *wasn't* the right guy in 2000; Gore was.

McCain was never the right guy. Yes, on a personal level I tend to like him, too, but when all is said and done, he's a Conserv. Republican, and with me, all Conserv. Republicans are anathema no matter their war record, their personality, their "truthiness," and all the other crap. No one admires McCain's experience as a POW more than I do, but at the end of the day, having been a POW *isn't* a qualification for president. Being a "patriot" isn't a qualification; virtually every person who ever ran for the job, with the possible exceptions of Gus Hall, Aaron Burr, and Angela Davis, were patriots.

Issues and political idealogy count for something (in my book, nearly everything), along with political savy and hopefully a few basic people skills. I'm a moderate-to-slightly-leftish Democrat. I ONLY vote for moderate-to-slightly-leftish Democrats; all other need not apply. I don't need to know much if anything else. I might think a McCain or a Romney might be just the most wonderful, charming, handsome, devil-may-care, family-loving straight arrow in the whole wide world, but why should I vote for him if I don't remotely agree with any issues he stands for? It makes no fording sense to me.

Biden talks to long? I just don't give a rat's patoot; I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. John Edwards pays too much for his haircuts? I don't give a crap; I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. Bill Richardson has a temper? I don't give a crap. I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. Gore might run again? Swell; I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. Obama is young and black and inexperienced? I don't give a crap; I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. Hillary Clinton is ambitious (o horrors!), a b1tch (or maybe not, I have no idea and could care less) and her husband is a horndog? I could care less and would vote for her in the general over any Republican except maybe Lincoln. (Not so happy about voting for her in the primary, but that's not the question, and I'm one of those who suspects or fears she's unelectable, but that's not the issue.) I don't give a crap about "integrity"; every president has to make choices and compromises and course corrections; I want a d@mned pragmatist who's competent, not some flag-waving schmuck with his head up his own butt. (And anyway, McCain's "integrity" is highly overrated; if you thought Clinton's BJ was offensive, McCain's sucking up to the religious right and Pat Fording Robertson was even more offensive.)

See? Told you I was feelin' perky today.

Kim,
I accept your scenario as an Article of Faith. Nearly a Holy Writ. Dubya was the choice of the resource extraction industries cartel and they put everything they had behind him. I think he is too stupid to realize how badly he has been played. And if I were Jeb, I would be livid at him for ruining my chances forever.

What worries me is that I can't tell from the current crop who the power brokers are getting in line behind, but I fear it may be Fred Thompson.

I understand your point, Loomis, about the triviality of our problems and issues, but to be honest, they ARE our problems and issues.

It pains me to read about what the women around the world are facing (even at home) but it can't really stop me from continuing my mundane, easy life. To stop writing about gardening or beans or carbucks does nothing to help these women if I'm still at home in my comfortable home spending my own money on myself and my family.

But what I can do is donate money where I can (and I do), go out and volunteer for the candidates I believe can change things (and I do that, too) and share my thoughts and beliefs with others and hope that I can stimulate one person to perhaps go out and VOTE and change the way our country operates. That's the only real way I personally can bring about any real change.

And perhaps there's a building manager somewhere who is reading the Achenblog and goes into a ladies' room and sees the joke that is the toilet paper roll with its opening only three inches from the floor.

Now THAT would make me very happy.

This is Straight Talk? Gimme a break.

From Frank Rich's NYT April 8 op-ed:

JOHN McCAIN'S April Fools' Day stroll through Baghdad's Shorja market last weekend was instantly acclaimed as a classic political pratfall. Protected by more than a hundred American soldiers, three Black Hawk helicopters, two Apache gunships and a bulletproof vest, the senator extolled the ''progress'' and ''good news'' in Iraq. Befitting this loopy brand of comedy -- reminiscent of ''Wedding Crashers,'' in which Mr. McCain gamely made a cameo appearance -- the star had a crackerjack cast of supporting buffoons: Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who told reporters ''I bought five rugs for five bucks!,'' and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, who likened the scene to ''a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.''

Five rugs for five bucks: boy, we've really got that Iraq economy up and running now! No wonder the McCain show was quickly dubbed ''McCain's Mission Accomplished'' and ''McCain's Dukakis-in-the-Tank Photo Op.'' But at a certain point the laughter curdled. Reporters rudely pointed out there were 60-plus casualties in this market from one February attack alone and that six Americans were killed in the Baghdad environs on the day of his visit. ''Your heart goes out to just the typical Iraqi because they can't have that kind of entourage,'' said Kyra Phillips of CNN. The day after Mr. McCain's stroll, The Times of London reported that 21 of the Shorja market's merchants and workers were ambushed and murdered.

The political press has stepped up its sotto voce deathwatch on the McCain presidential campaign ever since, a drumbeat enhanced by last week's announcement of Mr. McCain's third-place finish in the Republican field's fund-raising sweepstakes. (He is scheduled to restate his commitment to the race on ''60 Minutes'' tonight.) But his campaign was sagging well before he went to Baghdad.

Perhaps a slow death to his campaign and not as dramatic as Joel implies?

Mudge,
You are clearly a yellow dog democrat. 2004 was the first time I didn't vote for a Republican for president and I still haven't voted for a Democrat. As my politics drift leftward (or the Republicans drift right; Einstein states it is the same thing) I can envision certain match ups that would make me do so. I don't think any of them involve Hillary. She is as polarizing a person as I have seen since Reagan. Nobody is lukewarm about her.

Oh for cryin' out loud. My post was just some unsolicited suggestions to Joel about the nature of blogging.

A good blog mixes it up a little.

Which this blog does very well.

You know, I'm pretty lukewarm about Hillary. I used to be more of a supporter, but I've moved to lukewarm.

I think there are folks from the other side who are doing the same thing.

yellowjkt & kim,
The resource extraction industries have been exceedingly successful in politics in most of the western states, at least until lately. It's not at all an accident that a representative of those industries wields such broad power over the Executive Branch.

In Florida, Governor Charlie Crist looks like possible roadkill. Property taxes seem to be rising despite the special legislative session to cut them (not to mention that local governments are quickly hiking fees to make up for the lost revenue). And homeowner insurance rates are rising, too. I'm also not sure that the governor's efforts to slow the rate of increase of carbon emissions will help much, either. Much of the population seems to have come from somewhere else to escape that sort of stuff, and of course part of Florida is in the deep-ish South, where the main "environmental" concern is probably the rising price of gas.

Mudge, I agree with everything you said with the exceptions of the stuff you had to change to get past the Worty Dird filter.

I especially agree with your assertion that "[b]eing a "patriot" isn't a qualification" for being President. GWB may poo red, white, and blue, but that doesn't mean he's qualified to do anything more than pick it up his own danged self.

yello - my sister will be very happy to know that I have imaginary friends who believe that she is not some wacky conspiracy theorists.
Yes, I would say Mudge is a veritable sunflower yellow yellow dog (at least it sure sounds like it) My husband says I'm one as well, but I'm more of butter yellow yellow dog because I don't think I can vote for Hillary. Not just because I don't believe she's electable. I have this raging belief that this country needs to get past Bush/Clinton. PLEASE!

TBG, I should know better. If I scoot 3 cubicles down, stands on the guy's desk and squint my eyes I can see a sliver of the Peace Tower, the central feature of the Parliament building.

Sorry to interrupt the McCaine shredding (Dickinson was at it in Slate yesterday as well) but this woman is too stupid. A 51 yo grandmother, married 4 times already, marries a 27 yo son of good old Ossama Bin Laden. The guy is already married so she'll be no.2. I bet she will keep her maiden name for travel purposes.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2056380.ece

I think I would prefer the term "golden retriever" Democrat, if you don't mind. More stylish. (And I don't like what happened to Old Yeller at the end. Sniff.)

But my larger point isn't that I'm a golden retriever Democrat; it's that i have a position on issues and ideology, and vote based on it; I don't go chasing after pretty faces and insubstantial spin.

I fear that there really is no candidate out there, particularly on the national level, who really gives a rat's patoot about ordinary folks. When you vote, you're merely voting for which special interests you prefer your candidate to represent (resource extractors and corporations vs. NEA and trial lawyers). Not a pretty choice, I'm afraid. Although it doesn't stop me from voting.

I had to stop boodlin' and surfin' for a little while. My son came home from spending the night with a friend after a day at the beach yesterday. My daughter came home from field hockey conditioning this morning after staying outside 'til past 10 last night with the neighborhood kids playing kick the can and capture the flag. They are both sprawled over the chairs in the family room, out cold.
Had to take a picture. With a 14yr old and a 16yr old I feel like these moments are speeding away too fast! TBG's post last (?) night about spending time with son of G is the way I feel.

Loomis-Wow! The Wurstfest in New Braunfels. That brings back some memories. I worked my way through school in Austin in part by driving a campus shuttle bus and getting charter driving jobs on weekends hauling Longhorn fans from hotels to the football stadium and taking fratboys to the Oktoberfest. The first time I got the latter gig I took advantage of their magnanimous offer to bring a date with me. Man, what a mistake! The frat rats and sorority girls were half in the bag before we even got to the fairgrounds, the evening was an extravaganza of spilt beer (I of course was on the job didn't drink and neither did my date), clogged toilets followed by public urination, loud music, and vomit. After we deposited the soggy, smelly, and semicomatose Greeks back at the Rappa Snappa Nappa house, my date helped me hose out the bus. What a great gal! Wonder what ever happened to her? Oh yeah, I married her 37 years ago.

Raining monsoon-like and blowing like crazy hereabouts at the moment.

36 posts and no mention of this typo: "In South Carolina, <it>McCan</it> got only

On the Loomis/TBG thread about suffering in the world, I agree with TBG. I also think, Loomis, that chatting about recipes, gardening, relatives, etc. all help us keep going. And, if we keep going, we will vote, volunteer, donate, pitch in, and even pray, meditate, or think good thoughts.

Paraphrasing Garrison Keillor a bit:

Humor gives weary people the energy to fight back.

And, don't we want a world were ALL can work, study, choose, play, blog, garden, knit,think, vote, post YouTube videos of baby's first steps, grow Mr. Stripey (no, German Gal is better), concoct rhubarb cordials, carve fairy doors, braid g.girl's soft, fluffy hair, and perhaps even play Pooh Sticks.

make that 38, mine is 39...

Smart decision, K-guy (marrying that gal, I mean). Your second smartest decision was getting the he11 out of New Freaking Braunfels, Texas.

(Am I the only one who has trouble linking Oktoberfest and other things Germanic with Texas?)

I posted on the previous boodle after most everyone had left for here that it was raining (just rain, not what mudge describes) in Bethesda. Just a few minutes of it. Afterwards I went out to feel the air. Not cooler at all, but definitely more humid. Weather (or is that climate) on the Eastern Seaboard bites.

Mudge, I am surprised someone as creative as you cannot picture a cowboy in lederhosen (sp).

Mudge, for me that's a case where the use of the phrase: "Inconcievable" would be a hundred percent accurate. Except maybe Austin. "Keep Austin Weird!"

Mudge, Mudge. Texas was the destination for lots and lots of German and Scandinavian immigrants. That's why it has great kolaches and lots of Republicans.

Oh I have nothing at all against New Braunfels. It's just the wholesale public drunkeness I can't stand. I prefer private drunkeness in small groups on the porch. New Braunfels has some really nice things. I especially like cruising the old cemetaries and reading the 19th century tombstones in German. (Any of you are cemetary fans I heartily recommend Congressional in D.C. It's right next to the jail, can't miss it.) Texas is a very cosmopolitan place. Where else can you visit Paris, Athens, Rome, Boston, Washington, Cut and Shoot, and Old Dime Box, all in the same state?

Raysmom: "NEA and trial lawyers"?

Do you mean the National Endowment for The Arts, or the National Education Association? (Clearly, they're both evil commie organizations, but I think we still have to pick one or t'other.)

:-)

byoolin, I meant National Education Association. I hope you know I chose those examples off the top of my head to illustrate a point. I wouldn't necessarily categorize them as "evil, commie."

It's the perfect match of hot climate and beer that makes Texas a German place. As the German say "Bier makes turst a vontervul ding"

Mudge, count me in as yellow dog Democrat.

I have a few minutes of peace and quiet before the family descends for dinner and visitation. It's at times like these when I most appreciate my family. Good, loving, productive people who care about each other and are present when needed. What more can anyone ask?

My brother was an elementary school principal, and a good one. He was the one who was reassigned to pick up the pieces and get a school in difficulties back on track. He had the calm, cheerful demeanor of a born educator who always got the best out of kids because they didn't want to let him down. I never saw him lose his temper, and I never heard him talk down to anyone, regardless of age.

From his youth he was a musician with a marvelous baritone voice and a special way with a keyboard, any keyboard. He credited our aunt with the voice training he needed to be successful and a grounding in piano. I was six when I started accordian lessons with him. I didn't have his gifts but it was my first introduction to music and I loved it. He created a quartet of little girls playing accordians and took us for several gigs; I can't imagine how bad it was! What he really enjoyed, though, was organ. He had an electric organ on a dolly that he could take in his van anywhere, and did. He played wedding receptions, political rallies, at the minor league ballpark, for the local clown troupe at festivals. If you needed music, he could do it. His was a wonderful gift.

He and his wife raised four kids to be good people. His youngest, the only daughter, quit her job to take care of him as his health declined. Thanks to her care and Hospice, he had a peaceful, comfortable end: a good death. It was a holy end for a good life, lived well.

Ivansmom, the Scandinavians who landed in the Upper Midwest trend left and dem.

Can't say too much about Germanish peeps and voting patterns, as I don't know too many of them. But, I really like Shiner Bok beer, which is is both German and Texan. Mudge, you draw the Venn Diagram.

http://www.shiner.com/

I know about Germans in Texas; I was just bein' curmudgeonly. I just have this (largely unflattering) stereotypical view of Texans and all things Texas (and yes, I've been there; in fact, our oldest son -- from whom I am estranged and quite happy about it-- and two of my grandkids live there; his wife [my daughter-in-law] is a San Antonio gal. I'm just used to the customs, food, clothes, dress, speech patterns, folklore, etc., of all the Germans in Pennsylvania, whom I know pretty well (my grandmother having been one of them)--and I was just playing off that, thinking of the image of re-locating, say, the Kutztown (Pa.) Fair to, say, Odessa (q.v. "Friday Night Lights"). Padouk, you know what I'm talking about, doncha?

Monsoon seems to have let up, but the radar map shows a massive storm line in West Virginia (from NY to Carolinas, from the look of it) moving this way.

Slyness, that was lovely. Your brother's story is the answer to "How do you define success?" You were lucky to have each other.

Now don't be hatin' on Texas. Any place that can produce women like Barbara Jordan, Molly Ivins, Frances Farenthold, and my mother cannot be all bad.

Slyness, that was lovely. Your brother's story is the answer to "How do you define success?" You were lucky to have each other.

Slyness, accordian music can be among the best, especially within ethnic genres and for dancing. How joyful! And now, he is a Clown with God. Heaven may very well be a very big, big-top tent, stripes and all. And the organ music at times is Bachlike as if from a German cathedral; other times, like a portable Wurlitzer played full-open vibratto -- baseball style.

Slyness - very lovely tribute. It was a pleasure to read.

Molly Ivins - many times when I have wanted to blame Texas for all manner of things, Molly was the reason I could beat back that impulse.

Oh indeedy I do, Mudge.

Tell me, did your grandmother pronounce words like "power," "flower," and "scour" as "par," "flar," and "scar"?

To me that's one of the true tests of being from PA Dutch country.

That and, of course, an appreciation for potato chips fried in lard.

K-guy, you just named the four best things Texas ever produced. Five if you want to count Kinky Friedman. But it is very difficult to overcome an entire lifteime of loathing the Dallas Cowboys and Tom Landry. A thing like that scars you for life.

I must say, K-guy, that Texas does produce some fine-looking women. So how's this: I'll grant you all the women in Texas if you'll allow me to continue loathing almost all the men. Deal?

You forgot Ann Richards. Remember that she said of Arbusto that he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.

Thundering/lightning/raining here in Maryland's capital.

Padouk, my grandmother wasn't Pa Dutch; her family came from Germany and settled in Phila. Her father was a gunsmith from Germany (don't know where), and the family name was Schmidt. There was a large German population in Philly (one major section of town is called Frankfurt, if that's a help). Down the street was a butcher shop owned by a Mr. Kaufbrenner, who gave out slices of baloney to the kids who came in with their parents. But she was the lone German in my family tree; nearly everyone else was some sort of ex-Viking pillager, with Swedes from Mälmo and Norwegians from who-knows-where, Lutefiskifjiord, most likely.

No deal, Mudge. I got relatives in Lindale and Fort Worth and Denton and Kingsville and Arlington and Wichita Falls and El Paso and some of 'em I even like. Besides, you can't condemn Texas men without including Ronnie Dugger and Jim Hightower and Bob Schieffer. As far as pro football goes, I think that whatever success the local team with the execrable name has had in the (now far distant) past can in part be attributed to the quality of the competition. That which does not kill you makes you stronger. Look at the Buffalo Bills of the early 90's, the cream of the AFC, losers of four straight SBs and all four to teams from the same NFC East. No coincidence.

Oh, and she shopped at the "Acca-me" store, and pronounced those space guys as "Austro-nat." To this day I can say just the one word, "Acca-me," and my wife starts laughing.

I've been trying to catch up on the Boodle for the past couple of days, but dang it, everything's moving too fast.

This is summer in Washington, people. Everything should be moving slowly to avoid sweating through our clothing.

Had comments on the Pope, green beans, all kinds of stuff that are just BOO at this point. Bah!

I don't know if what's going on with McCain is fatal to his campaign yet. We're what - 14 months away from the RNC in St. Paul? If McCain can prove that what he's done here was the right thing to do and can show that he's capable of making decisive moves without being afraid of upsetting anyone's applecarts in doing so, I think he can pull this one out yet.

He's got some time, though he needs to get cracking on the money...

My $.02.

bc

Slyness... thanks so much for writing about your brother. Truly a success story. Your niece is mourning the loss of her parents now, I'm sure, but she can always know that she did such a good thing to take care of her dad like that when he really needed her.

I find it wonderful, too, that it followed k-guy's mention of exploring cemeteries. One of the first pages I turn to in the paper Post is the obituary page. I love to read the stories of the lives around me.

Thanks for letting us get to know your brother a bit. He was proud of you, too, you know.

>Frankfurt, if that's a help

I guess the other hint would be King of Prussia

At this point, bc, I bet McCain would be glad to get that $.02 as a contribution. Just slip the pennies in an envelope and send it on.

Won't even need to do that, Ivansmom.

I expect to see McCain leaning against a building on K street, hair disheveled, with a hat on the ground (and about two fiddy worth of change in it) with a hand-lettered cardboard sign that reads "Will win Iraq War for [the words "food" and "oil" are crossed off] the Presidency."

bc

TBG if you are in the metro area, please do check out Congressional Cemetary at 18th and E in Southeast. It's a great place to walk a dog, many folks do. You can get a map to find the dead and famous- lots of pols, doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs, J.Edgar Hoover with Clyde Tolsen by his side (natch), a large monument to a group of women munitions workers killed in an explosion in WWI, and my personal fave, Thomas "Tip" O'Neil. Here's the grave of one of the most powerful politicians of his generation, forty-leven terms in Congress, Speaker of the House of Representatives, yada yada yada, and his grave is marked with a very plain very simple plaque flush with the ground just like the VA gives every veteran. No frills and easy to mow around. True class. I've found tombstones fascinating for years. When we lived in New England and were poverty stricken students we used to go rubbing in rural graveyards- it was free and the supply is endless. Another tombstone I found interesting is Jefferson's at Monticello. He requested that three of his many accomplishments be recorded- author of the Declaration of Independence, founder of the University of Virginia, and author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

Today's NYT has a story about wineries and German food and kitsch in the Texas hill country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/travel/11frugaltraveler.html

k-guy,
Not to mention you might run into Gene Wiengarten.

That's what I thought, yello. He talks about that cemetary a lot.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302075.html

I hope I didn't commit a boodle faux pas and link to something that's been linked to a thousand times...*looking sheepish.*

I was an intermittent boodle lurker for a long time. That's all the excuse I can offer, if I did just commit a dreadful faux pas.

Hey k-guy! You gonna be around next week for the BPH on Thursday night?

I hope you can make. We're really glad to see you back here again. We'd love to tell you in person, too.

Kim - as far as I can tell the term "boodle faux pas" is an oxymoron. We do redundant links all the time. Sometimes within the same post.

And I have a feeling Mr. Weingarten will take all the links he can get. He seems like a very linky kind of guy.

Speaking of which, I wonder how Joel's exposition on blogging went?

You'd think someone would have live-blogged it.

Hey, Hey, Hey! You forgot Jerry Jeff Walker, migas, and breakfast tacos. And, the Two Step. And Lyle Lovett. And Tejano music. Many great things have come from Texas. Really.

I was thinking about Weingarten, too, but more in reference to bc's 3:09 post about McCain on K Street with his hat on the ground begging for campaign money. Weingarten and a team of observers would be watching from a distance at rush hour to see how many culturally insensitive Washingtonians --especially K Street lobbyists -- walk past McCain without paying any attention to him and his world-class, genius-level panhandling. Weingarten would then write a magazine piece deconstructing why McCain's panhandling deserved better recognition by the average man-on-the-street.

Next Thursday I plan to be taking mine ease on my rented porch on Great Chebeague Island in Casco Bay where the forecast is for highs in the upper 70's and lows around 60. Somehow, M&S just can't compete. Now S&M..., no no I'm going to Maine.

Exposition on bloggin' went fine but I'm not sure I told anyone anything they didn't already know. Best part was hearing Liz Kelly and Chris Cillizza talk about their blogs -- they know how to do all kinds of nifty things with the blogging tool, including indent, post a video, install a "widget," etc.

My blog is so 1997.

I'll post more about the meeting tomorrow.

"Best part was hearing Liz Kelly and Chris Cillizza talk about their blogs -- they know how to do all kinds of nifty things with the blogging tool"

Yeah, but do their readers get together for drinks and ballgames?

Chin up, JA. Widgets, smidgets. I took a few digital humanities scholars on a tour of A-blog a few days aqo. The civility and fun was the talk of the block. And, yes, I did reveal that am CPian.

You can learn to install widgets; but your mom should be so proud of your tone and invitation.

Civility in modern times: a notable deviation from the usual.

Civility in the digisphere: nearly in con SIEVE a ble (in a a Wally Shawn lisp).

"Blogging tool" sounds a bit like one of those expressions that Cockneys use in British war films. "Sod off, ye bleedin' bugger, afore I conk yer pate with this 'ere bloggin' tool!"

Joel, you mean you actually got to *meet* Liz Kelly in person?

Cool.

I'm not dead yet.

And I don't feel like dancing, either, so don't ask. But I do appreciate the concern.

I've been laying low because I don't deem myself fit for civilized company. I've basically been laying on the couch in a half-stupor watching the world disintegrate on CNN before my eyes. I had always suspected that I was nuts, but I'm not worried so much about it now -- the whole world is bat-guano crazy to the n-teenth degree and will probably self-destruct before I do.

Some things...

This will come as no surprise, but I think George W. is the lyingest, wimpiest, connivingest, most disingenuous two-faced, slimy piece of guano that ever had the audacity to slither out from under a rock since Cheney. Impeachment is too good for him.

I think the politician formerly known as John "Straight Talk Express" McCain has turned into the line-toeing wuss he is because Karl (or some other useless monkey with more paunch than soul) is blackmailing him with doctored pics of him French-kissing Jane Fonda while fondling John Kerry's "jewels" and swinging an aborted fetus over his head.

I am just as utterly disgusted with every Democratic presidential-wanna-be as I am with Bush/Cheney and all the Republican "contenders", not to mention dang near every single arsehole in both houses of Congress.

What part of "END THIS ASININE WAR NOW" do they not understand? What part of "ELIMINATE THE HEALTH CARE CARTEL" don't they get? What part of "LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR YOU, DANGIT" is so hard to understand?

Obama needs to get off the porch and offer up some concrete plans (instead of superbly-delivered rosy oratory). I like him, but he needs to not only take a stand, but provide a detail or two about the things he stands for.

Hillary needs to tell America that Bill really did piss her off and that he's lucky he had the Secret Service to keep her from "Bobbiting" him. Then she needs to brush the dust off her universal health care plan and tell the insurance companies and the AMA that their balls are next.

Edwards needs to show us just how much in free legal services he gave to the poverty-stricken before he started his political career. I'm with him on the "Two Americas" thing... I just find it hard to swallow when a multimillionaire is complaining about it while I'm working my butt off and still trying to figure out which utility companies will get paid this month.

As for the Republican candidates, I can't even go there without making a Tourette's Syndrome sufferer seem as soft spoken as Mother Theresa.

As far as I'm concerned, not a one of them (Republican or Democrat) is worth a leaky bucket of warm vomit sprinkled with spittle and phlegm.

I know, I know... I should just come right out with it and let everyone know how I really feel, but I really don't want to have to deal with the Secret Service.

Glad I'm back?

>Glad I'm back?

You bet. Welcome back brother.

Just glad to see you martooni.

I find that a good study of history helps me to feel better about the current world. Last night I started "Coal: a Human History" by Barbara Freese.

The bit about entire families being forced into lifetime servitude in Scottish mines kinda got to me.

You're right TBG. We're unique. But I'm still hoping for a BPH at your house, so I can raid your fridge for leftovers.

Thanks, Error.

Now watch me pull a rabbit from my hat.

(nuttin' up my sleeve)

[cue rhinoceros]

Day is much better with some Martooni in it. Martooni, the world is very bad. But, you must remember the Oscar Wilde posture:

...lying in the gutter but looking up at the stars...

Stars! Martooni, up and also at eye level. Little Bean is the shiniest, sweetest, darlingist star in your heaven. And, even more, you make her world go round.

Glad to see ya.

--
RD -- You must also read John McPhee's _The Crofter and the Laird_. He headed back to Scotland to look at the dark hovels his ancestors wove cloth in NOT FOR THEMSELVES but to sell the idea of Scottish by tartan, to Britishers with a yen for plaidie things.

Nearly done with teaching. ONE MORE DAY! Only two failing students, yet even one is too many.

Sorry, EF, but I may just have to vote for Martooni for president instead of you. Think of it this way: Joel can do a kit on the collapse of your campaign.

RD... thanks.

Haven't read that one, but Thoreau made the point for me with his account of the railroads being built on the backs (and bones) of Irish immigrants.

Oh, and yes, glad you're alive and well. Now we need to hear from Cassandra.

CP, Loved "The Crofter and the Laird" (and all of McPhee, for that matter--one of my idols).

C'mudg: //Frankfurt, if that's a help//

Is that anything like Frankford? :-) Tune Cootie: "You can't get to heaven on the Frankford El 'cause the Frankford El goes straight to Frankford."

Then there's that place called Germ'ntown.

Like you, Mudge, my family is Pennsylvania Deutsch, of the German settlement in Philadelphia. No doubt we had fairly recent ancestors who knew of each other.

Us users can do some neat things if we are given the tools. Like italics and bold and inline links.

Oh Mudge, were we separated at birth? McPhee wins. Period.

Hey, if we were sep.@birth, then I am much older than I appear. Can I bypass the midlife crisis? Got a spare pass or get out of jail card?

Martooni, just to let you know you rant has made my day, please hang in there. The world can be an awful place but there are some great people in it.

CP... you're obviously not Mrs. M. (and if you are, that's one heck of a whopper and I'll meet you on the back porch at 11:30 with a bottle-o-wine).

I think I've reached the point where I've come to realize that absolute sobriety is not in the cards for me. Just gotta deal with my devils as they come and try not to spend too much time in the gutter (but if I do find myself there, the stars do make for a breathtaking vista -- thanks for the Wilde... really needed that).

Hi, Martooni. Glad you're back.

Joel, it is okay that the blog is so 1997. Some of us are technologically stuck in the early '90s anyway, or worse.

What's a widget?

Martooni, it's not one long game...the cards get shuffled and re-dealt. On top of that, I think we're playing Go Fish -- have faith, and keep drawing cards until you find the one you need.

Dana Milbank notes that Senator Vitter's wife had mentioned the bobbiting option if her husband were unfaithful.

Didn't everyone know that Texas is the "other" German state?

Martooni, no sobriety is absolute, even with the peeps whose numbers are like this one:

87655413322628392879879287493874298

Sobriety is moment to moment. Day to day. So, you have the right idea.

The lesson of sobriety is for all of us; life is not fair, Martooni. Some can drink; others find that they cannot. However, all of us need the lessons of sobriety. We are powerless before something. We all have demons. We all have crosses.

The demons and the crosses are not the same. The demons and the crosses do fit some crime. Just very bad luck. Just the randon distribution of glitter and crap in the universe.

We boodle-love you. Be here, M., drinking or not.

...Thoreau made the point for me with his account of the railroads being built on the backs (and bones) of Irish immigrants.

martooni, that is soooo East Coast! *l* Your political rant was wonderful, you know.

*l* too at K-guy's description of that hot date to New Braunfels with his girlfriend/now wife. Who knew?

Thanks, LTL-CA, for the link to the NYT's travel piece about Fredericksburg. We know it pretty well.

You mean John McPhee writes about more than just Shad?

So much to learn.

>Think of it this way: Joel can do a kit on the collapse of your campaign.

I don't know Mudge, I think we'd make a good ticket together.

Plus, MY latest plan against the groundhog insurgency is working!

Thanks for the correction, dbG; yes, it's Frankford. But of course named for Frankfurt (you oughta know by now Fulldulfyins can't spel.) I actually lived in Germantown (on Wister Street, 3 blocks from Germantown Hospital) for 3 years while I was in college. And then I thought of about 20 other German place names and thought about posting them and thought, nah. Leading the list was Schwencksville, home of the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Kulpsville, DeKalb Pike (despite the frog-sounding "de" DeKalb was a Bavarian general who fought (on our side) in the Rev. War). I went to school with kids named Ott, Ruch, Schutt, Furman, Schupeltz, Stebner, Kuntz, Feltz, Stiltz, Bendt, Gross, Kohler (two different families), Detweiler, a Werner and a Warner, musta been dozens of 'em. I guess it vas der beginning mit der Baby Geboomen.

I get home, check me email, and find a message from my baby sister in Seattle. I shall relate to you the complete contents:

Ichiro! Ichiro! Ichiro!

Talk about a SCC whopper!!!

The demons and the crosses do NOT fit some crime.
NOT
NOT
NOT

Off to swim in between rain storms. She who swims, prays thrice. Really. Very spiritual: moving through water with the senses damped. For you, Martooni.

OK, make that der Kinder Geboomen. Gimme a break.

Oh and Martooni, now that you've checked in to our relief, I put on the parent hat that befits my Boodle handle to say: keep in touch regularly or I'll come out there and whop you upside the head.

Not you, Cassandra. You get no head whops. Just say howdy.

John McPhee is one of my favorites as well. My favorite is Coming into the Country, about Alaska. He can make even coal mining and transportation fascinating.

Martooni, Glad you're back. Be careful out there.

Ditto the italics, an underlining would be great too for those who were raised by nuns and shudder when they can't underline a book title.

Slyness, I'm so sorry about your brother. You wrote about him so beautifully.

Could we all pitch in and get Joel a copy of "Boodling for Dummies" that would teach him how to do italics, indents, insertion of widgets, etc.? Or maybe a course in remedial Boodling? Does the Teaching Company have tapes on that?

Oops, look at the time. Gotta run.

dmd... thanks. I know there are some great people still kicking around (more than a few right here), but I've found that if you spend a day (or four) watching the "news", the world is really a very frighteningly insane place.

One good thing that came of it...

I caught a program on the local PBS station about "Share Kenya": http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/international/SHAREKenya/index.htm

Just one of many good causes, this one was founded by a guy who grew up in rural village in Kenya and came to the States to become a medical doctor. He now teaches and practices medicine here in Ohio, but he also recruits med students to come with him on trips to Kenya where they've built a clinic and are now trying to man it year-round.

It was uplifting and depressing at the same time. Here was a guy who came from nothing and in spite of the odds not only earned a medical degree, but built a clinic and saved countless lives. I, on the other hand, had every opportunity in the world and squandered or ignored each and every one presented to me. Other than assisting in the procreation of Little Bean, my most significant contribution to society is that I launched one of the first 5000 websites on the internet.

Sorry, didn't mean to lecture!

As penance, I'll link to some truly wonderful chocolate cookies:
http://www.midwestliving.com/recipe/recipedetail.jhtml?recipeId=39069

Where is the flippin rain? It has been missing us for the last 2 days. I hate thunderstorms and usually hide in my neighbors basement, but we are desperate here. I guess it is time for a rain dance.

Martooni, Welcome back dude!!

Two unrelated thoughts.

Martooni, when I watch or read about someone who has done a great, or even good, thing, I find it useful not to compare my life with that story, remembering that it isn't all about me. I don't mean this as harsh criticism, because I actually find this very comforting.

I ask again, what IS a widget?

'Mudge... thank you for your support (said in my best Bartles & James spokespeaker voice)

Actually, I think Error and I would make an invincible team, politically speaking -- especially when you consider his anti-groundhog record and my ability to build outdoor furniture.

We could run on the "sit back in this very comfortable Adirondack chair and sip sweet iced tea laced with fresh mint while you watch groundhogs exploding in the distance" platform.

And if you don't like that platform, I could build one more to your liking. Maybe one with a ship's wheel. Or a plank.

I like that platform, Martooni. Vote for Error & Martooni in 08!

martooni, glad to have your voice back with us. You do have a way with words.

And speaking of your words, I agree with your rant about the current crop of politicians. They are so UN -- uninspirational, uncarismatic, unleaderlike. I hope they will all realize that part of the reason no one is a real front runner in either camp is that they all started campaigning way too soon, and then we will never have to go thru this again.

Glad you're back Martooni. Great rant, can't improve on it at all. Keep two things in mind, alcohol is a depressant and your pancreas isn't going to be happy.

As someone else mentioned earlier, McCain lost my admiration when he took that hit from the Bush camp in South Carolina and then kissed up to him once he was elected. Not that I would have voted for him anyway. And as Mudge said, sure he's a decorated prisoner of war, but that doesn't give him a free pass in life. Actually, I've always been a bit nervous about his history, The Manchurian Candidate type thing comes to mind. I guess it's the summer doldrums, but I'm pretty disengaged from the candidates right now. Just keeping up with the latest outrage from the White House is work enough for me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widget

Or as I like to call it

What Did You Get?

If you like John McPhee and Henry Thoreau, read "The Survival of the Bark Canoe". McPhee and three companions retrace Henry D.'s canoe trip in Maine in handmade birchbark canoes. Great stuff.

Ivansmom... I remember having to sell widgets in an economics class in college.

I also remember asking the professor just what the heck a widget was, because it's a bit difficult to make/distribute/sell something you know nothing about that never existed (now that I think about it, that never stopped Microsoft). Apparently, he was from the school of thought that "if you make it, they will buy it, whatever 'it' happens to be, as long as the price is right".

I offered to sell him my widget factory's entire output of widgets for a dollar.

He declined.

So I told him that since there was no market for my widgets, there was no point in "making" them unless the widget plant was located in a communist country and the State would subsidize production. Why pay an imaginary workforce imaginary dollars to produce an imaginary product that imaginary consumers won't buy because even imaginary consumers have enough common sense not to buy something that doesn't exist?

Believe it or not, I got an "A" in the class.

Thank you, greenwithenvy. I should have looked in wikipedia myself, but I suppose that were I savvy enough to do that I'd already know what a web widget was.

Martooni, I have always been someone who gets hooked on particular news stories, after 9/11 it became that story. At home with a new baby and too much time on my hands I watched way way too much CNN et all. Thank god no Fox News here then. For months I could do little but watch the news, afraid to go anywhere. Slowly I removed myself from it and found the world was a better place than portrayed on CNN.

Do you get the Cool Jazz channel down there :-). Good luck.

Ivansmom - although the IT folks doubtless can describe it better, a "Widget" is a little self-contained chunk of html code that can be easily added to the html code of an existing website to provide additional functionality through a small graphical interface. For example, Liz Kelly's "Celebritology" blog on the Washington Post website has a widget that webmasters can add to their websites to allow automatic updates from and links to Liz's blog.

Hey, fellow boodlers -- just read where Lady Bird Johnson died (at the venerable age of 94). Whenever I drive to National Airport (*never* Reagan National Airport in my vocabulary) I always pass the wonderful areas just brimming with wildflowers and inevitably think of her, and thank her.

Martooni -- from a fellow ranter: well done, sir! I, too, wish you well in your quest for what you want. May it be never-ending and may it provide you with the strength to continue whenever you need it. Feel free to channel us (even with epithet-filled thoughts). We got yer back.

Hope all is well with Cassandra, too.

Now I'm going to hop off and go back into writing a complaint in a domain name dispute. Kinda cool, that. We be the good guys, natch.

Toodles, boodles.

>I like that platform, Martooni. Vote for Error & Martooni in 08!

Why thank ya ma'am, thank ya verry much.

Mudge, you want quick media response? Martooni mentions groundhogs exploding in the background, here it is. And yes, this is MY footage.

http://web.mac.com/errorflynn/iWeb/Error%20Flynn/Groundhog%20Wars.html

The Arizona story of failed candidacies: Goldwater, Udall, Babbitt, McCain. I don't think the electorate takes the 48th state seriously.

The business next door has been looking out for my errant dog. I found out one of the owners is a Coptic Egyptian, and spoke to him. He is not supporting the trash dumpers. The good people are on my side now.

Curmudgeon says it right, and Martooni raises Cain. All is right with this place.

That was laugh out loud funny error.

martooni, we like you just as you are. Our world is richer with you in it.

Ah, Martooni, yeah, glad you're back, although I'm glad I'm deaf or my ears would have blistered from such language ;).

I was reading "Saints Behaving Badly" by Thomas Craughwell which is a slim volume that summarizes the stuff you often find left out of modern tales of saints.

At the moment, I have a thought cootie in my head-- "St Olaf's concubine"-- for some reason it makes me laugh-- probably because I keep flashing to Betty White and how much she loved St. Olaf (her hometown) on Golden Girls.

Her name was Alfhild, if anybody cares.

And there's St. Callixtus, slave, brawler, and embezzler who became Pope eventually, quite a feat since he was sentenced to a lingering death in the mines of Sardinia some years earlier (he freed out of mercy).

Pope Callixtus decreed that christians who had commited mortal sin, even hersey could still be restored to full communuion once they had confessed and repented. this split the church.

St. Hippolytus became the first anti-pope because he LOATHED this idea, and loathed Callixtus even worse, as he knew his full life story.

But later, after callixtus had died and bitter Hippolytus was sentenced by Emperor Maximinus (who didn't like catholics much) along with Pope Pontian to serve in the same mines in Sardina...

Well, he repented his schism and asked forgiveness before he died in the mines of Sardina. Pope Pontian was later beaten to death by mine guards.

Back to the last boodle-- I really don't understand the objections to Pope Benedict. He defined what the Roman Catholic church IS. He didn't say everybody who attends a non RCC church is a heretic or a nonchristian.

While this might look like inept diplomancy to sensitive eyes, it may be a way to reiterate that a church who does not obey Rome is simply not RCC. Period.

And this involves the Roman Catholic churches in China, which often have state-appointed/approved bishops.

I knew a guy whose family had fled china when he was small to avoid persecutions of Roman catholics for refusing to conform with state controls on religion.

In many countries, persecution of christians is still ever-present and real.

Gujarat, India, killed thousands of christians and also had a mass riot that killed thousands of muslims, around a year before the giant Gujarat earthquake hit.

If you are a "christian" pastor or a known missionary you must sign an affadavit before you enter India stating you will not preach or attempt to convert people.
In fairness to India, India has had way too many cases of so-called missionaries coming in for illicit sex tourism, or otherwise violating Indian law and custom in ways unrelated to their mission.

India ironically has the oldest continuous christian community in the world-- in Kerala, founded by St. Thomas the Doubter, and the Portuguese also left a strong roman catholic community in the south of India.

Let's suppose the Pope wants to set up seminaries in India to help educate local priests and also potentially increase the number of priests for other countries.

What does he have to tell India to get them to agree to this kind of mission, that could possibly mean more foreign priests coming in?

He has to establish that there is in fact a strict definition of Roman Catholic, and that nobody can just call themselves Roman Catholic and use any exemptions or diplomatic loopholes designed for the Roman catholic church for their own purposes; that such missions should be under the control and authority of Rome.

That may reassure India (and other governments) enough to permit greater movement of RCC priests-- a situation that could save lives if another riot ever hit.

Error... strong, the Force with that groundhog is.

[exit Yoda, stage left]

Next time, try peanut butter slathered over the head/neck rest of a guillotine.

I could build you one. Really. ;-)

I was wondering if and hoping that Lady Bird Johnson would be immortal. With a long time obsession for all things wild flowers, Lady Bird was my hero. Some day, when I get to Texas, I really am going first and foremost just to see the blue bonnets.

http://www.wildflower.org/feature/?id=2

A vistory for we wildflower peeps.

Error... actually... y'know what would be really cool?

I'm sure you've seen a pumpkin slingshot/cannon (if you haven't already built one).

D'ya think peanut butter might lure one of them buggers into the "pilot's seat"?

I'm reminded of a tune by an 80's band -- the Dickies? -- "Stukas over Disneyland", except instead of WWII fighters it would be groundhogs arcing ungracefully over the Castle.

Wilbrod... you might not be able to hear me, but I bet I could still make you blush. ;-)

Heck... if I really tried, I bet I could make 'Mudge blush.

I can't see Errors groundhogs, I am guessing a windows/IE issue?

dr as per your request updated Wisteria pics, click on them to enlarge them for a better view.

http://dmdgarden.blogspot.com/

at some point someone will pity the poor groundhogs as a surrogate nemesis for personal demons. typical liberal thinking.

SCC: meant to add "(considering he's the oldest mariner in the world, I'd have to try extra hard, but I bet I could do it)".

Just discovered you all. thanks for an out loud laugh or two, what others think about.. outside florida and outside the beltway. (All that talk about Congressional, maybe you all are close to the beltway)
I think I hear some ...Democrats. Oh NO!
thanks anyway, it was nice to have a smarty face crowd around me tonight.

dmd... I don't think it's a windows/IE thing... I'm running Firefox on Linux and it came up fine.

I suspect I could make Mudge blush, too. You know those old-fashioned caveman types.

martooni,
Regarding the East Coast aspect of Thoreau and Irish immigrant labor to build the railroads, I should have asked you if you knew about the Chinese coolie labor of the West Coast? Not pretty out west either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolies

Although Chinese labor contributed to the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States and of the Canadian Pacific Railway in western Canada, Chinese settlement was discouraged after completion of the construction. California's Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 and Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 contributed to the oppression of Chinese laborers in the United States.

According to the Constitution of the State of California (1879):

The presence of foreigners ineligible to become citizens of the United States is declared to be dangerous to the well-being of the State, and the Legislature shall discourage their immigration by all the means within its power. Asiatic coolieism is a form of human slavery [acknowledged long after the Golden Spike had already been driven in 1865], and is forever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labor shall be void. All companies or corporations, whether formed in this country or any foreign country, for the importation of such labor, shall be subject to such penalties as the Legislature may prescribe.

Sorry to hear about Lady Bird's passing. In many aspects, Claudia Taylor Johnson was ahead of her time.

One positive aspect of LBJ's legacy, as troubled as the Vietnam war was, is that he probably did more than any other president in the early mid-century to advance civil rights (since we were just talking about busing)--more than Eisenhower and Kennedy certainly. His passion for equality probably harkens back to his own days of teaching school in nearby Cotulla.

Shiloh... you may think that groundhogs are a surrogate nemesis for liberalistas, but chipmunks and field mice are the *real* enemy (at least from my vantage point). Groundhogs may take over your garage, but chipmunks and field mice chew up and poop on everything within their reach with an absolute disregard for property rights or authority.

Draw your own parallels.

Another one of our historical minutes, this one on the Chinese who helped build the railway. What was done to them during and after is not a proud moment for this country. After the railway was ocmpleted a head tax was placed on Chinese immigrants, it lasted until 1923.

http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10196

Loomis, you were saying you felt ashamed about posting about too-small bathrooms when there were worse stuff out there to think of.

Too-small bathrooms can lead to injuries or people being unable to use 'em. I speak of course of wheelchair accessibility, but I can also testify that I have had to leave my dog outside the stalls (normally I can get him in a sit in most stalls).

Once I had to do this at an airport- no matter how I tried, there was simply no way to get him inside and close the door.

Well, when I came out he was desperately eager to see me. That was really abnormal for him. I figured somebody had approached him and he might have been in fear of being stolen-- not an implausible fear-- and one I had myself in that bathroom.

(I couldn't use the handicapped bathroom-- all full and I really did have to go quickly and make the layover).

If those restrooms had been normal size, I'd never had to risk my dog being stolen. I can't imagine how real parents with little kids must feel if they can't find a family restroom or other suitable avenue to watch or assist their kids in crowded public places.

The complex history of chinese (and other asian)-americans in the US deserves to be told, and I'm glad more scholarship has been coming out.

Error and Martooni-Are you guys going to preside over a small country first to build your governing chops? Should you wish to be mayor and vice-mayor of a small town first I think I can arrange the requisite resignations and appointments.

Wilbrod's post makes me think that I would be willing to live under the iron fist of the dread HOA again if they made homeowners sign a pledge they wouldn't try to convert fellow residents.

I'm way behind here, but Slyness I'm very sad to hear about your brother. I wish you the best in getting everyone together to celebrate his life.

martooni, it's great to see you back and your returning rant is something worth printing out and keeping.

Lady Bird Johnson, rest in peace. She may have been a better politician than he was and that's a compliment.

granny-"Smartyface?" Why that's the nicest thing a newcomer has called this bunch lately.

The News Hour's obit on Lady Bird included some clips of the Johnson daughters talking about Daddy. That's one southern way I will never give up-calling Frostdaddy "Daddy."

Loomis... I've read of the "coolie" laborers' plight as well. Not from Thoreau, but some other author who's name is on the tip of my tongue but refuses to jump off.

(side note: I wear a straw "coolie" hat when maintaining the grounds of Castle Martooni -- the neighbors think [correctly] that I'm insane, but they don't realize that those conical hats do a great job of keeping the wearer cool and shaded on a 90+ degree day)

Now you've reminded me of another bug that's been up my rear end the last few days of TV watching (I was flipping between CNN and the History Channel).

Why is it that humans have always (and I mean *ALWAYS*) found it necessary to subdue, enslave or otherwise demonize neighboring humans?

Is this some sort of genetic defect?

I would cite examples, but it's all so dang obvious that it's pointless.

Why can't we all just get drunk and screw?

Martooni: armadillos, deer, racoons, opossum, rattlesnakes, foxes,coyotes and occasional 'gators are the local varmints, but we co-exist without the need to name enemies or enmities, or battle as surrogates. But, then, I am of that liberal mindset that recognizes each thing has its place in the scheme of things.

martooni - although I don't fully endorse your alternative philosophy, there are many, many, times when I wish the human race were hardwired differently.

But, as you point out, perhaps that's the cognitive overhead we needed to evolve. Maybe the pleasant and nice early primates kept getting beat up after class and couldn't get dates.

Frosti... if the small town you're referring to can use a jack of all trades (master of one or two) and can also provide a deal on lodging and a bottomless tab at the local watering hole -- count me in.

Mrs. M. would likely protest (as would Stella the Bus), but a colder clime than Ohio suits me well.

dmd, probably a Shockwave/Flash thing.

Frostbitten, yes I have previously suggested Cuba for the purpose. I think El Presidente of a small country is much better than governor of a state. Not much foreign policy there.

>Error... strong, the Force with that groundhog is.
Martooni, that gave me chills... the Son of Maximum Leader and Prince of the Groundhogs is indeed, Luc.

I think we need to talk about this. We have the strongest, most understandable argument to the average Joe for wanting the jobs in the first place - the first rate medical care and large pension.

And we'll make a fortune in t-shirt sales.

RD... you're probably right.

I'm thinking, though, that if we spent half as much energy trying to get along (rather than what we spend to subdue), John Lennon would be the happiest, most jumping-up-and-down corpse in the world.

Imagine *that* Beatles reunion.

by living in respect for one another, I do not let my varmints win. and climate or place don't change anything.

>by living in respect for one another, I do not let my varmints win

I lived in peace with 'em for about 5 years as long as they were out in back 40. I've left the deer alone, they just ate my arbor vitaes.

I'm happy to have a plethora of squirrels and bunnies about.

People may think I'm liberal as hell, but when you attack my cars and bear your 2" teeth at me, the gloves come off.

SCC: "bear" -> "bare"

martooni,

You want Jimmy Buffett as Secretary of State in your administration? Interesting approach to diplomacy, but it might work. "I just bought a waterbed and filled it up with Elmer's glue."

Error... idea for the campaign logo...

a martini glass (with olives, of course) sporting a mushroom cloud.

I'm surprised GWB's team didn't think of that (maybe they did, but took the literal approach).

[i'm plastered... ignore whatevr i manage to post until morning]

pj... I was thinking David Crosby.

now *there's* a guy unafraid to inhale.

Martooni - glad to hear from you.

Error - your 8:27 cracked me up.

Do you think Granny Liked Us? Or not?

dmd - good link at 7:49.

In the middle of a crashing, torrential, windy doozy of a thunderstorm here in Tidewater. It is just pouring and boy, do we need it.

Maybe they are just hungry and losing ground to other hogs. The mechanical is not toothsome.

I think Crosby should be the drug czar in that adminstration. IMHO

Error
Somehow I can picture you running around your back yard looking like Bill Murray in Caddyshack blowing up groundhogs. I bet your neighbors are enjoying the show as much as we are.

That was too flippin funny!!

Martooni,
Good to see you back. Good to hear you rant. If Straight-Talk McCain can talk straight, he would not have been face-planted.

I have had the experience of a too-small stall with both a two-year-old daughter and a two-year-old dog. I devised an excellent solution. I sat on the pot, had the dog/child stand right up against the stall door, and did the necessary whilst leaning forward far enough that I could grasp the ankle/hock in a firm grip. If anyone had laid a hand on either of them, I would first have given a sharp tug toward myself to let the bad-person know I was onto him/her; failing that, I planned to burst out of the staff at speed, spewing invective and, well, anything else irrepressible.

greenwithenvy,

I actually have footage of me getting tripped up in the hose while trying to drown them, getting caught in the Have-A-Heart trap, and with a pitchfork through my sneakers. I'm still editing, and it's all in HD so I'll have to knock it down for the web.

The problem with C4 is I don't want to blow up the garage, or the groundhogs win.

*tune cootie warning*

Martooni's back
And Bush is in trouble

Hey la, nah-nah
Martooni's back!

*happy dances*

Error... what you need is (how to put it?) something doused in groundhog "lust" that you can toss into the neighbor's yard. I would go for both the male and female variants of "lust" and aim for the corner of the neighbor's lot farthest from yours.

Sex doesn't just sell, it diverts.

scotty... I think "I've Got Angst in My Pants" by the Sparks would be more appropriate, but I'll take it.

:-)

btw... if one were to have a centrifuge capable of refining nuclear fuel for personal use only, should one expect black helicopters anytime soon? Not that I *have* one. Just asking for a friend.

The Biblical injunction to subdue the beasts leaves unanswered the dilemma of what we do when we become the dominant life form, except to wage war. Therein may be the inherent death wish of a specie. Demographers have estimated that all of us living on the planet now outnumber all the dead in recorded history. In an era of climate change, survival of the fittest may mean life forms other than our own. Should we battle them in the race to extinction?

I once use the humane mouse trap to catch a mouse at my house. My girlfriend said take it out by the wood pile and let it go. I did and sob beat me back to the house. I almost expected him to lock me out like in the Flintstone's cartoon.

I am looking forward to seeing your groundhog adventure footage Error.

Sorry, Scotty, but I think you're about to have another tough week or two. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/11/AR2007071101895.html?hpid=topnews

I know you can't talk about anything, but hang in.

The Everything family just returned from a short vacation. Last stop the last couple of days was Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. If you have never been there, this is the 800 pound gorilla of caves. Went 310 feet down into the earth on the popular "Historic Tour" today without anything more than sneakers (I'm sure this will digust any real spelunkers). Like most everything else about the earth that isn't created by us, pretty humbling.

Best of all: the National Park was out of cellphone and blackberry range. Priceless.

> I did and sob beat me back to the house.

At least you weren't the guy who tossed one into a fire, only to have the ittle bugger run back under the house and set it ablaze. As they say, "Instant Karma gonna get ya".

Due to popular demand, I have published a HogCast. Hose up first.

http://web.mac.com/errorflynn/iWeb/Error%20Flynn/HogCast/HogCast.html

There aren't all that many baseball fans amongst the Boodle, but for those who are (and especially us old coots), that HBO special on the Brooklyn Dodgers was very good, very moving. I was of course a Phillies fan in those days, but I remember the Dogers, and was always a great fan of Peewee Reese, Junior Gilliam and Roy Campanella.

Martooni-if you can live on love you can live here, as soon as the current squatters are out of the trailer down the road from me. The mayor gig pays $25 a month, and it would be helpful if you have some general electrical and plumbing knowledge. I don't know what current policy is on tabs at the bar. We have to be careful about violating open meeting laws so unless I beat the other council members "uptown" I have to settle for drinking beer with my neighbor across the river. We sit around his fire and feed the tamed chipmunk. She's a cutie, but we'll see if his plan of feeding her outside keeps her outside this winter.

Error-I can't get the groundhog video to work. I think it's a shockwave issue because I've tried on two computers now. I should be working so I'll save the troubleshooting for tomorrow.

Speaking of work. I have plenty so I'll say fondue.

Frostii, try the HogCast, that's in IPod format. (.mv4)

Should work if you have Quicktime. Otherwise yeah, it's the Shockwave file.

Neither one's working for me, either, EF.

Lady Bird had an enormously successful life, both during and after her husband's short life.

I think she played a significant role in re-planning the Mall area and Pennsylvania Avenue. Much of that planning never panned out (a bunch of streets were supposed to be tunneled to allow pedestrians to be separate from cars if they walked from the Smithsonian to the White House, Lincoln Memorial, AND Jefferson Memorial). But overall, that effort at least yielded a handsomer Mall, if not a pleasanter one to hang around on.

It was ironic that Lady Bird was so involved in cosmetic (and presumably other) efforts to spruce up Washington, only for events to set back the center of the city for at least a couple of decades. At least the city didn't collapse and fade away, as a number of others did.

I've never had any involvement with the wildflower center's activities, but it seems to be a thriving institution.

I think Lady Bird would be proud of this summer's exhibits at the US Botanic Garden.http://www.usbg.gov/education/events/Celebrating-Americas-Public-Gardens-A-Sense-of-Place.cfm

I'm pleased to have relationships with five of the exhibiting institutions. Those institutions are certainly proud to be doing the exhibits, especially the smallest one!

Mudge, I saw that story on