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March 28, 2024

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Friday, January 28, 2022

Open Thread – A Tent With a View

Here’s the next one from a series of gorgeous shots of interior Alaska taken on Spouse’s camping trip. Ahhhh….

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36 Responses to “Open Thread – A Tent With a View”
  1. lacy lady says:

    This is really a surprise!!!! Former Godfather’s Pizza executive Herman Cain scored an upset victory in Florida’s Presidency 5 straw poll, winning 986 votes out of 2,657 cast. Rick Perry finished in second place and Mitt Romney finished third. The results are a blow to Perry, who made a strong push to try and win the straw poll. Finishing in last place was Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman who captured the Iowa straw poll little over a month ago. She took 40 ballots at the GOP conference in Orlando.

  2. Zyxomma says:

    Coal River Mountain Wind sent me this email today. If there are any WV mudpups in the Charleston area, please try to attend (I’d love to hear boots-on-the-ground reportage, although I’ll probably try to tune in to the livestream of the meeting):

    1. Monday: Congressional “Oversight Field Hearing” in Charleston, WV
    Big Coal’s friends in Congress will stage some political theatre in Charleston, W.Va. on Monday, September 26.

    The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources is staging an “oversight field hearing” that they have titled “Jobs at Risk: Community Impacts of the Obama Administration’s Effort to Rewrite the Stream Buffer Zone Rule”.

    Title aside, you can bet community impacts, especially the health impacts, will not be discussed by six of the eight invited panelists. The list includes members of the West Virginia and Ohio Coal Associations, a spokesperson for the “Mountaintop Mining Coalition” and officials from West Virginia, Virginia and Wyoming environmental protection agencies, agencies that do far more to protect the coal industry’s profits than human health and the environment.

    Our good friends at Earthjustice and the Sierra Club in Washington, D.C. worked with the staff of Rep. Ed Markey, the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee to ensure that this hearing won’t be a complete coal industry public relations show. There will be two panelists who will authoritatively discuss the real and devastating community impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining, as they live them everyday: Boone County resident Maria Gunnoe and Raleigh County resident Bo Webb.

    The hearing starts at 9 a.m. at the Kanawha County Courthouse, 407 Virginia St. East, in Courtroom 4, on the second floor. Please come out to Support Maria and Bo and the movement to end mountaintop removal. The courtroom won’t hold very many people, so come early. At 8 a.m., pro-stream, pro-mountain folks will be there, handing out buttons and stickers. Your presence will show Congressional members in attendance that Appalachians want our protective stream buffer – our lives depend on stream protection!

    Everyone who reads my posts knows how torn up I am over the destruction of mountains in Appalachia, in pursuit of coal. Many of these mountains were my “side” hikes when I was on the Appalachian Trail (which, unlike a certain politician I won’t name, I actually love to hike). For those unfamiliar with the AT, it’s easy hiking, much of it extremely tame. Many of us hikers would go to nearby mountain trails for a greater degree of difficulty, fewer people, different scenery, different forage (wild berries when the season’s right), all kinds of reasons. Yes, I’ve had friends from places like NM and AZ join me on hikes and say things like “OK, nice foothills, but where are the mountains?” because the Appalachian Range are the oldest extant mountains on the PLANET, so they’re worn down sedimentary rock. I liked telling my western friends that they were once taller than the Rockies (more like Himalayas height).

  3. OMG says:

    The guy who took on Bristol in the bar tells his side of the story and a lot more about his opinion of the Palins:

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/update-bristol-palin-heckler-lets-loose-in-tmz-interview-calls-her-homophobic-trash/

  4. Zyxomma says:

    For anyone who hasn’t seen the video of Elizabeth Warren explaining how no one got rich on his own, here’s the link:

    http://www.care2.com/causes/elizabeth-warren-nobody-got-rich.html

    Everyone have a safe and happy first weekend of autumn.

  5. Lani says:

    It’s almost impossible to find news about the Wall Street protests. Here’s a link: Occupy Wall Street Protest Being Systematically Ignored by Mainstream Media http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/145050/occupy-wall-street-protest-being-systematically-ignored-by-mainstream-media/

  6. leenie17 says:

    Oh, good grief! These people are completely insane!

    Now the NRA is complaining because the President is NOT trying to ban guns.

    Seeee, it’s all part of a “massive Obama conspiracy”, see, because he’s making everyone THINK he’s not going after their guns, see, and then, WHAM! There goes the Second Amendment. See?

    Or something like that.

    http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/nra-claims-massive-obama-conspiracy-not-ban-

  7. leenie17 says:

    All you need is a nice, gooey s’more and that scene would be perfect!

  8. Firecracker says:

    Happy Mabon (fall equinox)! We welcome the harvest time of year and prepare for the time of rest that is winter. There is a definite chill in the air in Juneau today and it smells like fall. What few non-evergreen trees that we have are turning yellow. The leaves are starting to cover the trails. The tops of the mountains are turning from our summer green to brown and yellow. Termination dust has hit our tallest mountains. The bears are finding the last of the roots, berries and salmon. The ravens, jays, magpies, squirrels are stashing food. The last cruise ship shows up tomorrow. After that Juneau reverts to the locals with our many fall and winter events to entertain us through the long dark and cold months. I know the world just seems to get crazier but today I wish everyone a wonderful fall equinox as the wheel of time continues to turn.

    • thatcrowwoman says:

      Beautifully shared, Firecracker.
      This will make for some fine flying dreams.
      Thank you.
      Set my compass North,
      I’ve got Winter in my blood.

  9. Ben in SF says:

    Lovely.

    Is that ketchup or some stronger beverage in the background?

    • thatcrowwoman says:

      It sure looked like ketchup at the break of dawn,
      but now I look again and I’m not so sure…
      it was a nice UMS/bendy straw-giggle-trigger anyway.
      🙂
      tcw

  10. johnny says:

    Can’t wait to have a classy gal like Bristol Palin in the white house. Wearing an “empowered” sweatshirt with a cross on it, she giggles madly while the mechanical bull vibrates against her bottom, like a jackhammer. Then, after a noisy heckler yells “did you ride Levi like that”, and makes some slurs on the mother…..Bristol, with her cameras, approaches the heckler to yell back, saying the guy is a homosexual, and even picks on the other guy at the bar who was ignoring her, asking if that guy is the heckler’s boyfriend. Cameras perched just so, to get good looks at her face during her reality show.

    Just can’t wait until this crew represents our country in the white house.

  11. OMG says:

    Since the few remaining sane (is that possible?) members of the republican party have not purged their ranks of fundamentalist zealots, voters must rise up and vote them out of every office that they hold. If they do not, the US will soon be under the leadership of a Taliban-like government:

    http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/39200_Astounding-_FL_Lt._Gov._Bashes_Science_and_Evolution_Calls_for_Christian_Theocracy

    • thatcrowwoman says:

      Oy.
      Oy, vey.
      Florida. What can I say? We are awash in a Deep Red Tide.
      20 years ago, the dominionists started getting elected to our school boards, and now they are ubiquitous in politics at the local and state level.
      But not everyone in Florida is a Floridiot. Really. I promise.
      Vote them out, indeed, and meanwhile
      Call Them Out on their lies and distortions.
      (I feel another letter to the editor percolating…)

      DH Happy wants to see Elizabeth Warren in Congress, 2012 (Watch out, Scott Brown!) during President Obama’s second term. Then wouldn’t she make an Effective Impressive First Female POTUS?!
      Elizabeth Warren/Bernie Sanders 2016.
      🙂
      I’d vote for that.

  12. Ah, what a lovely peaceful scene to wake up to – or was that sunset? Whichever, it truly is beautiful.

  13. merrycricket says:

    I always get a little melancholy in the fall. I am a spring/summer person, but with the expected arrival of my first grandchild, it may be different this year. My daughter-in-law tells me that her OB isn’t going to let her go to her due date (Oct 17) mostly because of her gestational diabetes. The baby is estimated to be almost 7lbs already and is currently footling breech. The kid is already a trouble maker 😀

    I go back to work tonight and I’m not looking forward to it. I was just getting my sense of humor back. My younger son informed me the other night that he hates his job so much everyday is a struggle to not walk out. Repubs may say the economy and jobs are an issue but I am certain that’s a lie. With unemployment so high and jobs so scarce, corporations can treat us any way they like. Workers who aren’t union are stuck and they know it. Oh well, it’s raining today so I think I will stay in and snuggle with the cats until it’s time to go to work.

  14. johnny says:

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/64259.html

    The money quote comes from Mitt Romney, who said in the debate: “There are a lot of reasons not to elect me – lot of reasons not to elect other people on this stage.”

    From the “things we wish we hadn’t said” department.

  15. OMG says:

    Wow…the current GOP is far to the right of Goldwater as you will see by reading this comment posted on Frum:

    “FROM GOLDWATER
    By establishing religion as a basic Republican Party tenet,” he told U.S. News & World Report in 1994, “they could do us in.” In an interview with The Post that same year, Goldwater observed, “When you say ‘radical right’ today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.””

    For more:
    http://www.frumforum.com/who-controls-the-gop#comment-339552

  16. Laurainnorcal says:

    Comoniwona!

  17. thatcrowwoman says:

    Welcome, Equinox, also, too.
    Autumn in my forest.
    Cooler weather coming, and I’ve got winter in my blood.
    Ahhh…

    Here’s a spectacular photo of our world:
    September’s Aurora
    http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

    Library, here I come.
    thatcrowwoman

  18. thatcrowwoman says:

    Ahhh, indeed,
    inviting us to linger,
    catch our breaths,
    and find peace and comfort in the moment.

    …and I smile at that bottle of ketchup (catsup?) with its “natural mellowing ingredients,” according to Prairie Home Companion.

    Happy told littlebird, on more than one occasion,
    when I suffered from UMS (Ugly Mood Swings)
    “Bring your mom the bottle of ketchup…
    and a straw!”

    “Make that a Bendy Straw,” I’d add,
    then we’d all collapse into fits of laughter,
    crisis averted.

    I give thanks for this new day
    for this beautiful world
    for family and friends
    for camping trips and ketchup
    and laughter and memory
    and for the mudflats where we can share it all.

    L’Shalom,
    thatcrowwoman

  19. OMG says:

    At least one republican is acknowledging the current reality of his party by stating that the kooks have taken control:

    http://www.frumforum.com/who-controls-the-gop

    • Frum is one of the few Republicans who ever makes sense. I read through some of the comments and was pleased to see that he is not completely alone. I still disagree with those remaining moderate Republicans on many issues, but they aren’t nuts like those on the far right – and unfortunately for all of us, the nutty ones are the ones in office. And there seems to be no way to get them out without destroying everything good about our country first.

  20. OMG says:

    How beautiful! Lucky spouse!

    Now for your reading enjoyment a little fact checking against GOP claims that have attempted to place the blame for the economy at Obama’s feet:

    http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/23/politics/truth-squad-bachmann-economy/index.html?hpt=po_t2

  21. fishingmamma says:

    Our world is truly beautiful. I am truly grateful. I cannot believe how much absolute beauty I have been blessed with. I am grateful. Thank you for this photo, and for the reminder.

  22. GoI3ig says:

    It doesn’t get any better does it?