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March 28, 2024

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Friday, January 28, 2022

Open Thread – Mush!

This photo was snapped at today’s Iditarod restart in the (for today) bustling town of Willow, Alaska by none other than Alex Stein – Mudpuppy and documentary filmmaker. His film “MUSH” which showed at the Anchorage International Film Festival this year was amazing! And he even thanked all of YOU Mudpuppies in the credits at the end. Yes, I sat there in the dark and got a little verklempt…

 

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Comments
139 Responses to “Open Thread – Mush!”
  1. I don’t get why this isn’t automatically considered a hate crime. These two men weren’t shot because the killer loved them or even liked them. They couldn’t be mistaken for Blacks or Latinos or any other nationality. This is a hate crime,plain and simple.

  2. Dagian says:

    I’m taking advantage of this open thread to post an article. This is yet another reason why oh-so-many politicians need to be shaken sensible:

    Fatal shooting prompts outcry among Sikhs, Muslims

    By LIEN HOANG
    The Associated Press
    Monday, March 7, 2011; 9:36 PM

    WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The daily stroll had become routine for two elderly Sikh men in a Sacramento suburb, as well as for neighbors and friends accustomed to seeing the men walk by with their long beards and turbans.

    But the traditional headwear might have singled them out late last week when they were gunned down, one fatally, in what police are investigating as a suspected hate crime. On Monday, local religious leaders pleaded for the community to come forward with leads but also said they will not be deterred by violence.

    “Our community will continue to wear our turbans proudly,” said Navi Kaur (NA’vee Kar), the granddaughter of Surinder Singh, 65, who died from his wounds.

    His friend, 78-year-old Gurmej Atwal, remains in critical condition.

    They were walking through their neighborhood in Elk Grove, just south of the capital, Friday afternoon when someone in what witnesses described as a pickup truck opened fire. Police said they have no suspects nor evidence the shooting was a hate crime, but said the turbans could have made the elderly men a target of extremists.

    During a news conference Monday at a Sikh temple, a spokesman said the recent violence has scared some temple-goers into concealing any indicators of their religion.

    Sikhs often are mistaken for Muslims and have been the subject of occasional violence across the country since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

    “The enemies of the United States don’t wear turbans in the United States,” said Amar Shergill, a Sikh leader and attorney. “They don’t want to be singled out. The result is that Sikh Americans since 9-11 have borne the brunt of violent hate crimes.”

    Sikhs draw particular attention because of their traditional beards and turbans, which are mistakenly associated with Islamic terrorists.

    Shergill said Monday also marked the start of a trial involving a confirmed hate crime against a Sikh.

    He is the attorney for a Sikh cab driver beaten four months ago by passengers who shouted anti-Islamic slurs at him in West Sacramento, which sits across the Sacramento River from the state capital. The two defendants pleaded no contest Monday to felony assault.

    As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches, several people at Monday’s news conference drew links between the Sacramento-area crimes and national and international developments. From unrest in North Africa to congressional hearings on radicalization of Muslims in the U.S., speakers warned of an increasingly hostile climate.

    “It is getting ugly,” said Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “And like I said, who suffers the most is the Sikh community because of unfortunately people’s ignorance.”

    The Elk Grove police department said last week’s shooting would be the first targeting Sikhs in the city if it turns out to be a hate crime. Police also said they would meet with FBI officials, a routine move when a hate crime is suspected.

    On Monday, they said they are looking for a tan or beige Ford F150 pickup truck made between 1999 and 2003. Meanwhile, a dozen groups have collected nearly $30,000 in reward money for information about the shooting.

    Singh, a truck driver, had worked in India and Libya before moving to the United States about five years ago, The Sacramento Bee reported. Atwal, the other victim, is a retired civil servant who worked in the revenue department of northwest India’s Punjab state before moving to the U.S. in 2001.

    The two were neighbors who became friends when Singh moved to Elk Grove three years ago. They would have tea in the morning, set out for a walk, return for lunch, and then go out again. They knew just enough English to say, “Hi,” to passersby and met other retired Sikhs at a nearby park.

    “They were total gentlemen,” said Lakhvinder Singh, a family friend.

  3. Pinwheel says:

    This story was on this evening’s TV news, WTUU at least. Federal Judge Holland determined that Dr. Steiner had no position in a claim for the people against Exxon. (Essential to understand, “the people” equals the State of Alaska and the Government of the United States of America.)

    From what I heard and read is that Exxon has bunkered down. And since she is the last lady standing on the North Slope with cash flow, she will do her best to subjugate anyone in her way.

    For lots of years the State of Alaska supported EVOS plaintiffs. But apparently there came a time when this was no longer important to the State of Alaska, (Governor Frank Murkowski, former US Senator ((R)).

    Anyway, perhaps you haven’t heard that TransCanada ( & ExxonMobile) AND BP/ConoocoPhilips(?) now 3/7/11, just can’t find producers who will guarantee product (natural gas). Therefore, the old girls are playing chicken with the State of Alaska. Same old girls who have never complied with a regulation, cost the State of Alaska bizillions proving why Exxon or BP or (you name it),

    The old girls are telling the State of Alaska unless you give all those resources back to us, we’ll just leave here.

    Think about it. Many Alaskans (40,000 less 15,000) actually believed She (Exxon) would make them whole. BP probably can’t move one way or the other. Gaslines in Alaska are dead in whatever tracks they may have thought they had.

    Alaska, rise out of doldrums, face your Representative/Senator. Tell the Statehood story, we are an owner state.

    nem

  4. SuzySnowflake says:

    That’s cool that Alex took that picture of the sled dogs in action. I met him briefly a bit over a year ago when we had the Mudfest gathering in Palmer. It must be time to have another Anchorage area Mudfest!

  5. AKPetMom says:

    Once again big business wins. You can bet that Northern Dynasty is paying very close attention to this outcome:

    http://www.adn.com/2011/03/07/1742083/judge-refuses-to-force-exxon-to.html

  6. AlaskaDisasta says:

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/07/f-rfa-macdonald.html

    If you want to read a really fine journalist and his view of the Republicans (from a non-American), you can’t beat this fellow. Just the best.

  7. scout says:

    Do NOT try to pet moose:ADN
    “Moose kicks woman Downtown park”
    “A moose kicked a woman in Town Square Park Monday afternoon after she got too close to the animal and reportedly tried to pet it, according to Anchorage police.

    The moose kicked the unidentified woman several times — including in the chest and shoulder — but she was not injured badly enough to go to the hospital, according to police spokeswoman Anita Shell.” snip……

    • benlomond2 says:

      ..you just can’t fix stupid……

    • Pinwheel says:

      A video exists of a grand Mother Moose kicking an older man as he was on his way into an UAA building. The older gentlemen, it is supposed, didn’t realize he was walking between Mother and two young ones.

      In my opinion the tape needs to be required ‘reading’ for any visitor or new resident to the State. These fabulous animals are wild, and we are lucky to live among them.

  8. thatcrowwoman says:

    Just replied to bubbles way up at the top of the thread, but re-posting down here.

    These are LoveMyDog’s friends, if I remember correctly…
    Rogue’s Gallery Kennel:
    http://www.rogueskennel.com/1.Home.htm
    Lots of wonderful info about all things mushy!

  9. Lacy Lady says:

    Slipstream—you are too funny!!!!! @ 25.1

  10. London Bridges says:

    Here is how the Koch brothers siphon money from the U.S. taxpayers:

    http://tinyurl.com/5w3c5yq

  11. Irishgirl says:

    Jeremy Paxman hosts that program. Nuff said. He is a serious commentator. Whatever about the American Media…….he would tear strips of her. I’m sorry to sound elitist. She came across as a dumb broad. On this side of the Atlantic…we still have some free press and speech.

    • Irishgirl says:

      Intelligent stuff that is. Palin is a fool and it irratates me that the American MSM tries to pretend she is a contender.

      • leenie17 says:

        Irritates most of us on this side of the Atlantic as well. On second thought, ‘infuriates us’ is probably more accurate than ‘irritates us’.

  12. auni says:

    Spelled both her first and last names wrong–oh well!

  13. auni says:

    Oh, I can only hope that Beck is on his way out–what a wonderous thing that would be. Saw the interview with Michelle Bauchman yesterday–what a weird duck she is–speaks in monotone–repeats herself over and over–can’t imagine her fostering a bunch of kids. Wonder what that household was like?

  14. Lacy Lady says:

    Just received this from my cousin. I have watched the Eagles several times this afternoon. I hear it is sitting on 3 eggs. I am waiting to see how it gets it’s food. Mate?

    http://www.ustream.tv/channel/decorah-eagles and watch live coverage. It’s truly amazing.

  15. stef g. says:

    ‘Palin and Beck, lipstick and dipstick’, bumpersticker on a Subaru Forester in the parking lot of the Eagle River post office.

  16. Irishgirl says:

    Settling down to watch the idiot on BBC.

    • Forty Watt says:

      That sounds rather un-settling to me, Irish. 🙁

      • Irishgirl says:

        I hope this doesn’t come across as elite, but I sat and watched it with my 18 yr old. I asked him what he thought…….he said you can tell she is not capable from the way that she speaks.

        • A Fan From Chicago says:

          Anything else of note in the program? New info? Don’t worry about your son’s comment. If you had said “I sat and watched it with my four year old…and he said you can tell she is not capable” I wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised!

          • Irishgirl says:

            She mentioned Trig. She is fixated with that whole thing. 🙂 Blamed the media about questions about his birth. First I’ve heard of that. 🙂
            She also wanted to know who said she was intellectually stunted? My words.

          • Irishgirl says:

            She also had a HUGE bald spot on the side of her head with the words “Jon Stewart – I’m not scared of you.”

          • Irishgirl says:

            😉

          • scout says:

            It wasn’t a brand was it? ©

            😉

          • Pinwheel says:

            I did watch some of this earlier, and when she brought up her child I was so stunned. How can a Mother express that?

    • dreamgirl says:

      Have you seen Downtown Abbey? I can’t wait for the next season! What a cast… and everything.

  17. leenie17 says:

    If you’ve ever doubted that a dog can smile, just look at a sled dog the moment they start to run with a sled behind them. If that’s not the definition of ‘grinning from ear to ear’, I don’t know what is!

  18. blue_in_AK says:

    I love the Iditarod. I’ve been snapping away at all the festivities and will be out in Nome next Monday for t0 days for the finish. I’ll send you a link, AKM, when I’ve got the pix up at my website.

  19. OMG says:

    Chuck Heath shows his daughter how to lie on camera.

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0311/FBI_No_arrest_in_Palin_stalker_case.html

    Sadly for Mr. Christy, British and American media outlets have already published the news of his FBI arrest which did not happen. Of course, if Sarah and her Dad say it did then maybe the FBI and Alaska law enforcement officials are wrong?

    • Dagian says:

      Just found this on the Washington Post site:

      UPDATED: No record of FBI nabbing Palin stalker
      By Emi Kolawole

      Updated 2:46 p.m.:

      Politico’s Ben Smith reports that an original Daily Mirror report cited by Fox News (and cited in this blog post) that reported Shawn Christy had been arrested was wrong.

      According to Politico’s Smith, the Mirror report appeared to be an exaggeration of a statement Palin’s father Chuck Heath made during an interview with the BBC :

      JL: And people have threatened her life?

      CH: Oh yeah, oh yeah. And her kids too.

      JL: In what way, what are they saying?

      CH: A good example is one guy from Pennsylvania. He sent us and other people copies of a gun he’d bought, copies of a receipt for a gun he bought, copies of a one-way ticket to Anchorage. We kind of laugh it off, we got a restraining order on him, and lo and behold last week he showed up in Anchorage, from Pennsylvania, and fortunately the FBI was on top of it and sent him home.

      Smith goes on to write that Eric Gonzalez, a spokesman for the FBI’s Anchorage field office said the stories were false, and that an Alaska state police spokeswoman and a spokeswoman for the Anchorage Police Department had no record of any contact with Christy.

      Note: The original headline on this post, which read “FBI nabs teenage Palin stalker” has been changed.

      The FBI has arrested a teenager who sent threatening letters to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, warning her to “watch her back” and claiming he had purchased a gun and a one-way ticket to Alaska.

      Shawn Christy, 19, was arrested in Palin’s home state of Alaska after Palin won a six-month restraining order against him in October. The order required that Christy stay a mile away from Palin’s home and from a Wasilla-area high school. An order of protection was also issued for Palin’s friend, Kristan Cole, who testified that Christy had been contacting her since 2009, sending her a letter with proof of a gun purchase and the claim that he had an affair with Palin.

      In an interview with the Associated Press in September, Palin’s attorney, Thomas Van Flien, said Christy had “risen to the top of the dozens and dozens of people” who have threatened Palin since she was tapped as the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008.

      Fox News reported Monday that Palin’s family has revealed Christy was held in Anchorage, 50 miles from their home in Wasilla. The FBI has ordered Christy to return to his home state of Pennsylvania.

      Excuse me, I fail to see where anyone exaggerated what Mr. Heath had to say. They reported what he said.

  20. tallimat says:

    Ah, the sweet smell of a sled dog!
    I’ve a two retired Iditarod dogs, soaking up the sunshine on the livingroom floor. Both are 14 years old and you’d never know. They spent most of thier lives living to mush. They are really healthy dogs. Later this month I get to house two sled dog pups. The musher I work with really likes to infuse his dogs with the behavior of human children. Ear tugs, rolling in the mud, rough housing and sleeping with kids gives his dogs that fun touch. So he says. So I’ve agreed to let my young kids take care of a sled dog pup for a few months each year.

    When the kids were toddlers, I’d tie a sled dog pup to one of the kids, while they ventured outside. Everybody had a good time when I did this. And has a mom, I never had any worries about a toddler running about the property. Yeah, I’d worry about the kid getting worms, cause they smelled of sled dog pup, but they didn’t seem to get worms. As far as I could tell anyway. Gosh, I suppose this paragraph might reveal a little too much about raising kids in rural Alaska.

    Mush kid mush!
    opps…

    Mush dogs mush!

  21. Dagian says:

    Go dogs, go!

    Oh yeah, and their handlers too… 🙂

    Speaking of things that make me feel a tiny bit better about life, here are some statistics to lift spirits:

    Palin book 2010–amazon ranking #5,087
    Palin book 2009–amazon ranking #3182
    Obama’s book (Of Thee I Sing)–amazon ranking of #509

    Hopefully that will brighten someone’s day just a little. ♫

  22. jimzmum says:

    This is today’s Mallard Fillmore “comic” and I have a question.

    http://interact.stltoday.com/comics/?feature_id=Mallard_Fillmore

    I didn’t see one sign at all with crosshairs or wanting the Governor dead. Did I miss them? Thanks!

  23. scout says:

    These paragraphs have been reoccurring in my life of late…food for thought:
    Foreword from “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman

    “We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
    But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another – slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
    What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the or_y porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions”. In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
    …. the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.”

    • bubbles says:

      thanks scout. very interesting.

    • slipstream says:

      I would refute that argument, but I’m too busy playing “Angry Birds.” Those birds!

    • Lee323 says:

      “…the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions””

      To be more precise, they failed to “take into account man’s almost infinite appetites.” Period.

      Build them a Field of Teats, and they will come. Sucking obliviously into oblivion….without questioning Who’s supplying the milk and Why.

      Specifically regarding the Huxley-Orwell prophecy debate: It’s not an either/or proposition. Entities which are interested in controlling the masses CAN and WILL use both pain and pleasure in their methods of control.

      Thanks for the interesting post, scout.

    • Pinwheel says:

      Isn’t this conundrum the reason we still discuss these works of art (i.e. books). And why we still try to talk to each other, Scout, an extremely shrewd geopolitical, and individual observation (yours?) take-away on these books. Since I read them in the ’60’s they have proven to be prophetic. And here we are.

  24. bubbles says:

    Pookie Palin is too stupid to be afraid of anything or any one. America has created monstrous people and these sociopaths are and have been in charge of policy since the beginning. they no longer try to appear human because the dumbing down of the populace means they don’t have to.
    ignorance is bliss to the breathtakingly stupid and greedy people who continue to vote against their own interests and the interests of their own children and descendants. for every Palin, Bachmann, Brewer and McCain there are hundreds of thousands if not millions who support them and inflict these shallow, mean and downright asinine faux humans on the rest of us. damned shame.

    • Lee323 says:

      You got that right, bubbles.

      Reminds me of a show on the history channel tonight: Ivan the Terrible abdicated the throne in Russia in the winter of 1564. The Russian people begged him to come back….whereupon he instituted an even more hideous reign of terror on his own people.

      History teaches lessons…..but the ignorant don’t listen or understand.

      • Pinwheel says:

        “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it”. I’m thinking this is Winston Churchill speaking after WWII. But it could be several other leaders of Western Civilization. Please advise.

  25. Mo says:

    I just had to post this quote, it so captures Palin’s charm:

    http://www.ginandtacos.com/2011/03/07/the-boogeyman/

    If forced to pick only one thing, the worst part of the explosive growth of right-wing talk radio since the 1980s is the way that it makes listeners (and now viewers and blog readers) feel like they are somewhere between moderately and well informed. Glenn Beck’s schtick revolves around a constant barrage of “facts” that make the viewers feel like they are learning something. Limbaugh has been successful with this tactic as well. The hosts inundate the airwaves with what seem to be facts: out-of-context, cherry picked Founders’ quotes, misrepresented statistics, assertions based on no or flimsy supporting evidence, and molehills turned into mountains. The end result is that talking to the average conservative is less like being pedantically lectured by Buckley or George Will and more like being blasted with a wave of hysteria-of-the-day catchphrases and talking points of which the speaker has no substantive understanding (Card check! George Soros! Van Jones! 10th Amendment! Death panels! Caliphate! FHA loans! ACORN!)

    [or, if you’r liberal, The Kochtopus!]

    I’d like to say “Come on, we’re better than that” but unfortunately this underscores the reality that large numbers of people irrespective of ideology are quite enthusiastic in their political beliefs despite being lightly armed with only whatever bits and pieces of information they heard someone else yelling recently.

    [“Lightly armed” made me smile out loud]

    • I stand before the whole Mudflats and plead “Guilty as charged,your Honor” No Twinkie defense here.

    • Lee323 says:

      Dunning-Kruger Effect: “People fail to grasp their own incompetence, precisely because they are so incompetent. And since, overcoming their incompetence would first require the ability to distinguish competence from incompetence people get stuck in a vicious cycle.”

      http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolved-primate/201006/when-ignorance-begets-confidence-the-classic-dunning-kruger-effect

      “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge” ~Charles Darwin~

      Palin is the poster-child of the Dunning-Kruger Effect ……and Darwin seems to have known her personally, eh? 😉

      As to the liberals who view the Koch brothers as the source of all evil to our democracy…..yes, “lightly armed” with the facts and “enthusiastic” comes to mind with some of them, but it’s hard to get too upset about liberals finally enthusiastically rallying around a common true enemy of democracy (instead of the usual navel-gazing and self-cannibalizing). Let’s just say that the Koch brothers have become the sacrificial anode for strengthening the unity of the Democratic party. In comparison, the GOP’s persistent strategy of relegating women, children and the poor to the role of the sacrificial anode to preserve their own partisan and economic aspirations is truly ghastly and immoral.

      • No arguments here. If I was real competent,I’d be someone,and I’m not. The koch bros aren’t the only enemy.just the most highly visible and they seem to feel they are bullet-proof. They aren’t trying to disguise the fact that they aren’t real nice people. They apparently have no qualms about using people and throwing them under the bus.Some one once said he could hire half the population to keep an eye on the other half of the population. Might have been a despicable Rockefeller. That was in the late 1800’s I believe and it seems like the wealthy are trying to return us to their glory days. On a lighter note is there an outlet to find films and documentaries like the listed Mush?

      • Pinwheel says:

        To Lee323: If I mistype it’s because I’m still laughing. I just hope I can remember that spiel(?). We have a comfortable, break in the space, bar here, “Darwin’s Theory”. Visit when you can.

        • Lee323 says:

          I had a few good laughs myself in writing it. It’s not often that one has an opportunity to combine psychology, Darwin and electrochemical corrosion in one comment. 🙂

  26. scout says:

    “Sarah Palin ‘Not Afraid’ Of Jon Stewart, Says Aide”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/07/sarah-palin-jon-stewart-conservatives_n_832001.html

    Oh, Lou, Jon wants to meet you! Jon has a gospel choir don’tcha know, there Lou.

  27. scout says:

    From Keith Olbermann @ http://foknewschannel.com/

    “The latest evidence to support a brilliant but heinous effort to forcibly swing public opinion via the use of phony advocates? A remarkable piece by a website on Jewish faith called The Tablet nonchalantly reveals that the same company that syndicates the shows of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity has also employed actors to call in to those shows and pretend to be real people with real opinions and real problems”

    http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/58759/radio-daze/

    • OMG says:

      A page out of Palin’s book?

      • scout says:

        Yuppers, those uber-Christian Republicans tromping all over #9 of the Christian big 10: “Thou shalt NOT bear false witness.”

        So, where are the clergy of those sheeple that send Beck envelopes of gold? Oh, silly me, they’re right in front of me: Pervo’s got his own mechanisms for the tax-free fleecing of the “lightly armed.” (is it 10 property-tax-free homes in Anchorage?)

  28. Lacy Lady says:

    Hope it is not true, but heard this yesterday. Chelsea Clinton getting a divorce??????

    http://www.cosmopolitan.com/celebrity/news/marc-mezvisnky-three-month-ski-trip

    • tigerwine says:

      I hope it isn’t true, also, too. But something is fishy in the time frame. He left on a 3 month ski trip?
      That would put him out there in June!

    • The article was dated a month ago. If he left then or had already left, then he’d be there through April or May. Yeah, maybe, but odd.

      I hope it’s not true, though. She looked so happy in that photo. If it is true, it’s just more proof that a big fancy expensive wedding does not guarantee a happy marriage. Very sad.

    • jojobo1 says:

      Reminds me that palin was complaining about KG saying something about Willow,while I think the underage should be left alone,Chelsea was talked about and made fun of constantly and ya did not hear the Clinton’s making a big deal out of nothing.They most likely did not like the shots that were taken but better to let it go than cause a ruckus and more news.palin should take a book from Hillary and how she handled her child. Willow put her garbage out there for all to see and so did Bristol and palin herself put her whole family in the spot light constantly.

  29. scout says:

    “Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano Erupts, Shooting Lava 80 Feet Into the Air”
    http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/07/hawaiis-kilauea-volcano-erupts-shooting-lava-80-feet-into-the-air/

    whine of the day – I wanna go to Hawaii and see Pele.

    • tigerwine says:

      Scout – that’s not whining, that’s just wishing!

    • dreamgirl says:

      I wanna go to Hawaii and see Maui with wine.

      • Pinwheel says:

        Me too, although I have to say today, like many recent days, has been pretty spectacular. I know Maui is still lots warmer. Volcanos are really neat expressions from our earth.

  30. London Bridges says:

    Hey Sarah maybe your confused about the 9th and 10th “commandments!”

    9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
    10. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

    😎

    • London Bridges says:

      you’re – duh!

    • CO almost native says:

      Bravo! Well said. Any fundamentalist/evangelical who states this is about protecting marriage and not discriminating against homosexuals is lying– and that’s a sin. If they want to “protect” marriage, why not go after premarital sex, cohabitation, and divorce? Just sayin’…

      • They are, aren’t they? Isn’t someone in Florida trying to ban divorce? I’m so astounded by the rush on the right to go back 100 years. I just don’t get it.

  31. OMG says:

    Take a look at this video of two wonderful men then ask your local right winger how these lovely people threaten the fabric of American society:

    http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/03/how-are-these-men-a-threat.html

    • bubbles says:

      they are lovely. so sweet and kind.

    • ks sunflower says:

      People who stand in the way of these loving and tender men formalizing their union are heartless clods. Love is love, no matter what form it takes, and is precious wherever and whenever we find it. I simply cannot understand why anyone feels threatened by love. It’s not as if the world has an over-supply of it. We should celebrate and nurture love, not condemn and shun it.

      I hope these men find a way to marry soon. To marry the person you love and cherish is such a simple and beautiful wish. Why deny or try to destroy that impulse, that desire? These men are already one; all they want is to formalize their union. I wish them well.

      BTW, I could barely make it to the end of the clip because my stepfather (the only father I ever knew) succumbed to Alzheimer’s a few years ago. It is devastating to everyone involved. My heart goes out to the man who will survive this wretched disease because as difficult as it is to lose a loved one, it is so much more difficult to see them forget who you are and what you have meant to each other, to watch them become strangers even to themselves. To hear the man talk about the importance of having the ceremony so the other can remember just a bit of it for a time just broke my heart.

      For the sake of all that is good and kind in the world, we have to end this senseless discrimination against each other. There is enough sadness and cruelty in the world, why do we use religion to create more of it?

    • leenie17 says:

      They’ve spent forty years together and now all they they want is to legalize their commitment so they can celebrate their love and support each other as they face a terrible disease.

      HOW is that possibly a bad thing???

    • Irishgirl says:

      I cried. Then again, Waay out West and Shadow’s Heart made me cry too. It is comforting to know that there are some rilly good people in teh world.

      • bubbles says:

        yeah. i cried too Irishgirl. so glad.

      • jojobo1 says:

        Way out west and Shadow’s Heart is something I tell people about that are down and out.To show them there are still good people around who will help when they can, and I live in Wi. so it’s not the easiest think to say around here now days.

    • jojobo1 says:

      A lot of marriages of straight people don’t last as long as there relation ship has.

    • dreamgirl says:

      My head hangs in shame for our politicians who value corporate donations (bribes) over American values and life, for a vote or a grift. These men, their commitment to each other, remind me of my parents love- 47yrs. married and life-mates until my father passed.

      What a beautiful union.

      Thanks OMG.

  32. OMG says:

    Michelle Bachmann pushes Palin off Tea Party throne:

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/03/michele_bachmann_is_no_sarah_p.html

    • Gimme-a-break, Sarah says:

      Bachmann is just a different kind of crazy.

    • carol says:

      Now that’s scary, if Bachman starts soundling like she’s making sense (not that she IS making sense, just sounding like it.)

  33. tigerwine says:

    Mush on, you huskies! I’m rooting for #6 Aliy Zirkle, a friend of my kids. I met her just after she had won the Yukon Quest. A very gracious lady.

    Also know Hobo Jim, who wrote “The Iditerod Trail Song.” Does anyone know if he still greets mushers as they race into Nome? He used to be there every year.

    • Alex says:

      Aily is terrific and a great ambassador for the sport — she & Allen Moore put lots of great video upon their website at http://spkenneldoglog.blogspot.com/

      Hobo Jim is always around at the banquet in Anchorage and the start — not sure if he makes it to Nome every year.

  34. jimzmum says:

    Hooray for Mush, Alex!

    Our drive is solid red this morning. It is covered with the “shells” popped from budding growth on the trees. What a lovely sight! This past winter has been the worst in a long time around here. Ice, ice, and more ice. Ick. All kinds of happiness slowly greening up in the flower beds. It is getting into the 50’s nearly every day. Finally!

    • Laurie says:

      “shells” Is that what those things are? I’ve been wondering how the tree is going to bloom when all the buds on the neighbors tree fell off and covered my car. I’ll take a closer look at them.

  35. Irishgirl says:

    Palin interviewed by the BBC.

    “When I asked her about the endless claims that she was not intellectually up to the job, Ms Palin seemed tense. ” 🙂

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9411955.stm

    • OMG says:

      Palin does her usual “they’re out to get me but I’ve got thick skin” schtic. But if she and her family are so thick skinned, they why does she have to attack every slight? Water off a duck’s back? I don’t think so.

    • OMG says:

      And this Palin story was in The Daily Mail over the weekend:

      http://politico-junkie.blogspot.com/2011/03/uk-palin-slams-obamas-experience.html

      Does she think that anything she says will go unchecked in the international press? As she claims that Obama doesn’t understand how things work in government with respect to Constitutional law, the author of the piece writes:

      “But Obama is probably fairly clued up on the 10th Amendment – having been a senior lecturer in constitutional law until 2004.”

      • pacos_gal says:

        Palin on the other hand probably doesn’t know what the 10th amendment is. She even gets the ones she says she knows (the 1st and 2nd) consistently wrong. LOL

        One thing must be said, Palin keeps the American dream alive, even a know nothing idiot can become a millionaire based on nothing in the US.

      • SP is following what has worked for repubs for a long time – make things up, say it over and over and eventually people start to accept it as the truth. The problem them (and she) have is that it doesn’t work anymore. We are more globally informed and most people in the US have some sort of access to all the information on the internet. The ones who still believe all that tripe coming from the right are the ones who refuse or don’t know how to do some fact checking of their own.

        • Baker's Dozen says:

          The only way a lie has any power is to be accepted as the truth. So, of course, she repeats them over and over. That’s what lies make liars do, and then people that don’t know it’s a lie do it, too.

    • bubbles says:

      run Pookie run!

    • jojobo1 says:

      Kind of shows how the heaths and palins lie about some things. .If they ever even received death threats now they know how those palin threatened by putting gun sights on their homes felt.Maybe she should think about that and so should her father.Was quite the article

      • barbara says:

        from the article:”The family had laughed it off, but the man subsequently turned up in the state and was arrested by the FBI, Chuck said.

        “We sleep with the guns,” Palin’s father admitted.

        Newspaper reports in Alaska last month said a Pennsylvania man had visited Anchorage briefly – but without violating an order barring him from contacting the Palin family.

        However, both the FBI and Anchorage Police Department on Monday said they had not had any contact with him.”

        bald-faced lies no less.

    • gens says:

      Sarah Palin’s Narcissism Feeds Her Constitutional Incompetence
      http://goo.gl/FbTUQ

      Why Palin doesn’t need National Grammar Day
      http://goo.gl/tE5Ws

    • dreamgirl says:

      The two words “Intellect and Palin” make the world explode in laughter. Maybe she’s tense because she’s having hot flashes or anger issues dealing with concealing another (fake) pregnancy.Who knows?

      What’s up Buttercup?

  36. OMG says:

    Great (possible) news on the horizon: Glen Beck may lose his Fox contract!

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/business/media/07carr.html?_r=2&src=busln

    Now is the time to remind the world that Pandora Palin is Beck’s BFF.

    • ks sunflower says:

      The possibility brightened my day! Now if only it encompassed SP as well.

    • Faux Noise has credibility as a news agency? The first survivors of Glen Beck U could assume their rightful role with a Failin administration and help shape foreign and judicial policy. If that doesn’t scare you straight,you have more nerves than you can ever use.

    • Irishgirl says:

      The Guardian has picked up on that article too.

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2011/mar/07/glenn-beck-fox-news

      Yay, Alex! Congratulations on Mush.

    • pacos_gal says:

      It’s always dangerous to drink your own kool-aid.

    • jojobo1 says:

      Don’t be to happy they could let palin take his place( Cringe)

    • dreamgirl says:

      Glenn Beck is a libel suit ticking-b0mb. Good riddance. (for many more reasons… loonenybin being #1)

    • Bob.Benner says:

      After the Arizona shooting tragedy, and Sarah Palin played the tried and true “But I’m the real victim here!!” shenanigans, I recall Glen Beck telling her that he didn’t think the Republic could survive if anything were to happen to poor Sarah.. After surviving two world wars and civil war, America was now teetering on the verge of collapse based on what happens to the coo-coo from Wasilla… If this guy isn’t 48 cards short of a full deck, I don’t know who is… But I admit Glen is funny in a sick twisted sort of way… I mean, who else can convince their followers to bury their gold along with carrots and sacks of potatoes in their back yards in order to prepare for the coming Armegeddon??

      • dreamgirl says:

        Whenever I hear about either of “Those Two”, I see The CooCoo Bird flying out of a clock at breakneck speed saying: Coo Coo…Coo coo, to mark the hour they chirped. (or twatted)

        (BTW Bob, sorry the other day.)

  37. merrycricket says:

    *Sigh* I used to feel that way about my old job. I loved getting up in the morning just like those dogs. I’m off to the world of retail.

  38. Kath the Scrappy says:

    Goodness, the dogs look eager. Will be checking as the race goes on. Lovely picture, thanks Alex Stein!

    • bubbles says:

      love them dogs! love Love My Dogs also. too. hoping she will tell us the Iditarod story like she did last year. Love My Dogs can write!

      • thatcrowwoman says:

        Yes, please! I know she’s busy, but I love to mush along with her and her friends and the mush-puppies. 🙂
        Here’s the link to Rogue’s Gallery Kennel:
        http://www.rogueskennel.com/1.Home.htm
        Lots of wonderful info about all things mushy!

      • dreamgirl says:

        Yes she did! I felt the everything LMD wrote last year, and want to experience it again.

        Mush…yee…haw. Goodluck and a have a good ride to all ye mushers! The pictures are adrenalin inducing…. love it! Woof