... June 27, 2012
Feeling hot? It's not a mirage. Across the United States, hundreds of heat records have fallen in the past week.
From the wildfire-consumed Rocky Mountains to the bacon-fried sidewalks of Oklahoma, the temperatures are creating consequences ranging from catastrophic to comical.
In the past week, 1,011 records have been broken around the country, including 251 new daily high temperature records on Tuesday.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=155868877
53 comments:
Howard is number one!
And Jo is number two--for giving us this space! Yep--weather all over the country seems to be giving the climate change deniers a chance to come up with more of their fol-de-ral!
Great minds and all, we were thinking the same thing. How much longer can climate change deniers keep up their propaganda!
Well, the sad thing is that probably nothing will dissuade them from their "beliefs", that's the scary part. Reality, evidence, reason has no part. We could see that in an interview on the local news. Despite the health care facts, one woman raved on and on on how destructive the health care law was, how it would ration care, how the free market is the best regulator.
We have a serious problem with people in a democracy who are incapable of listening to another point of view, of hearing evidence and reason, and who insist on a belief system, no matter its destructiveness.
But, yes, the West is burning and drying up. The Chaco culture experienced something like 25 years of drought, and people left a thriving city center and dispersed.
What if, what if, we are experiencing the beginning of another decades long drought?
And with that, good morning Jo and Shirlee, and yes, thank for a place for good conversation, friendship, sharing.
don't the nutjobs realize that insurance comapnies are already regulating their health care?!! coming between them and their doctors every day. I'm sick of their lies about the ACA - these people are willingly stupid and hurting their kids and everyone else with their lies.
yes, good morning Pat and Shirlee! happy that Denise is having a much deserved vaca.
hope puddle is okay. bad storms but no weather news for her or the town she lives in. probably the power is out or the new 'puter is giving her fits! xo puddle.
..and there are a LOT of nut jobs out there--and access to a computer seems to make them feel even more convinced that only THEY are right!
Here in GSO we have a man Ed Cone who works as a reporter for years for the local newspaper. He also has a wonderful blog with interesting topics--and he monitors and takes an active part in the discussion. But the nut jobs have to have something to say
no matter what.
Last week he put up a thread about the supreme court decision--and did they ever come out of the wood work then.
I mentioned that the ACA is going through the same acceptance system that social security and medicare did when first introduced.I asked if anyone would want to give those up--and was accused of being "generationally selfish." No one answered my question.
I did get a couple of thank you's from others who have a record of thinking straight.
I am sorry to say there is way too much underlying racism all through the south--from Texas
as far north as NC.
It is not overt but in small slights and assumptions coming from a certain age--mostly women who have not recovered yet from their protected childhoods.
Will be s glad to here from Puddle--everyone else is accounted for!
man--can't spell --
I meant "hear" not "here."
Googling--53 of the 55 counties in W.Va
had power outages, especially hard hit was the eastern panhandle Puddle's Pendleton County seems to be at the south-western tip of the panhandle. Seems to be not a lot of major damage other than power outage.
Sure glad Puddle laid in supplies just lately.
ALERT--just had an e-mail from NARAL. Apparently the anti choice members of the House of Reps are scheduling a vote against the ACA!!!!
As Puddle would say "they just nevah quit"--and never will.
Hi Shirlee,
It's a real power struggle, has nothing to do with principle, with doing one's job, with the greater good, with cooperating, with truly representing the people.
It's despicable. Throw the bums out, I say.
If any of us in an ordinary job behaved the way these so-called Republicans do, we'd be fired.
Hazy, smoky here and hot. Interesting that it's not climate change. Right.
Ah, no--weeks and weeks of a beautiful part of our country going up in flames--nope can't possibly be climate change--or heaven forbid global warming! Ah--you are right--throw 'em out.
but it seems harder and harder to do with the tea party and its hangers on.
Good Night, folks--sleep well.
A nice rain this afternoon. It has cooled the 90 degree temperatures, and moistoned the ground. We need more, but grateful, yes, the first rain more than smattering in weeks, maybe a month. It's supposed to continue this week.
Gosh, what a phenomenon, rain, all that wet falling from the skies.
Well, night folks.
oh, geez! I have fallen in love with a different kitty - he's older so won't be as adoptable, but he is looking straight at the camera and I can almost see his sweet soul. ;) so I will be meeting him as well - soon!
http://www.chittendenhumane.org/pet-adoptions/animal-details?animal_id=822
Congratulations--rain for Pat and a kitty for Jo!!!!
I know, I know--I went to bed once--watched a wonderful French movie "Mon Oncle." My young'uns give me a subscription to Netflix every year for my birthday. I do love it--still get the discs, keep my dvd player on my bed along with a changing row of cds and movies.
And off again--sleep tight.
some tidbits about my senior Senator that I stumbled upon today:
Holy Votes, Batman!
Vermont’s longest-serving senator is poised to reach yet another milestone: his 14,000th vote in the nation’s upper chamber.
Shortly before Seven Days went to press, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) cast his 13,983rd vote since taking office in 1975. His staff expects him to pass the 14K threshold soon after the Senate returns from an Independence Day recess.
Throughout the Senate’s history, only six senators have cast more votes, including such legends as Robert Byrd (18,689), Strom Thurmond (16,348) and Ted Kennedy (15,236). Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), who took office a full 12 years before Leahy, is the only sitting senator who outranks the Vermonter in both years and votes (16,223).
With so many to choose from, which vote is Leahy most proud of?
“I think it was actually a committee vote. In April of ’75, when I was first here, I became the only Vermonter to vote against the war in Vietnam,” Leahy said in a phone interview from Capitol Hill. “By a one-vote margin, we voted to cut off authorization for the war, and so then the war ended.”
Since committee votes don’t really count, Fair Game gave the senior senator a second crack at the question.
His answer? An October 2002 vote against authorizing the use of force in Iraq.
“If everybody else had voted the same way, we would have saved a trillion dollars and would have probably had a balanced budget right now — plus all the thousands of lives we would’ve saved,” Leahy says.
As for the vote he most regrets, it was a September 1996 vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which barred federal recognition of same-sex marriage. Leahy subsequently sought to repeal the law.
Perhaps more impressive than Leahy’s 14,000 votes? His four Batman movies. Leahy was coy in the interview about whether he would appear in the forthcoming The Dark Knight Rises, but a staffer later confirmed that he was filmed for a speaking role in the movie.
The die-hard Batman fan had a line in 2008’s The Dark Knight and cameos in two earlier films about the caped crusader.
http://www.7dvt.com/2012ready-aim-fired
Puddle is a-ok. Yep, power is out til Thursday they tell her. Hope they can manage sooner...
hugz to all
Thankful
Oh, what good news! Thanks, Thankful. I guess if any of us might be prepared to have our power out it would be Puddle.
Will be good to have her back when the power comes on and Clementine is up and running.
Thanks again :)
Attention animal lovers:
Maybe this is why cetaceans are washing up on beaches. *^#@ Navy! Pls spread the word.
The Navy is required to include comments on their Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) re: the use of high frequency underwater sound for testing in Hawaii, the California and Atlantic Coasts, and the Gulf of Mexico. According to their estimates it will deafen more than 15,900 whales and dolphins and kill 1,800 more over the next 5 years. Whales and dolphins depend on sound to navigate and live. Your signature and comment will have to be included in the EIS and could stop this Naval program, potentially saving the lives of these ocean creatures. The comments must be in by July 10, 2012.
Will you sign this petition? Click here:
http://signon.org/sign/navy-under-water-sound?source=s.em.mt&r_by=1724910
Sea
Well started on Fourth of July festivities here in Greensboro. A multi- day affair with the whole she-bang, races, block party, parade, pops concert, fireworks and ending this next week-end with a three night performance of 1776,
The Musical.
Brenda and I will be going to a performance of the musical. Now she is plum busy making sure everything else goes as planned.
Well, she doesn't have to worry about the fireworks--thank goodness!
Hope everyone will be having a fine 4th!
Good Morning,
236 years, what a young country we are. Happy Fourth of July. For all the mistakes, tragedies we can cite, we also can recognize how many opportunities, protections, and support we have had in this country.
The War Babies and Boomers are probably the most fortunate generation ever in this country, and we have much we are grateful for. Now, what can we contribute so that the next generations have the same level of support, protections, and opportunities we have had?
What I love is the many peoples from all the cultures of the world who have found a home here, have brought their own gifts to the nation. That seems to me to say there's much that works, that is just, inclusive, and appreciative of differences.
Many problems: climate change, over population, greed of corporations and other groups that have no ethics or sense of community, over industrialization, loss of species, poisoning of earth, water, air through chemicals like Roundup and others, terrorism, destructive weapons, loss of middle class, authoritarianism, and the list goes on. Can we make a change, I believe so, and if we don't, there will be disasters.
Yes, we can. Let's support the Democrats and particularly Barack Obama for re-election. The Republicans and other right wingers are perpetrating the lies that have caused so much harm since Reagan. We have a chance to reverse that course of greed, militarism, classism, prejudice, one size fits all education, privatization of government, and corporations exploiting resources and citizens.
Hurrah for equality, fairness, opportunity, education, preservation of our environment, and responsibility as citizens and community.
My Fourth of July polemic.
I hope your day is pleasant.
Thanks for your Fourth of July Polemic,
Pat--I love it. Even those of us who THINK we are doing enough need to be reminded of this--again and again.
Fun Fourth Festival
goers are walking north to Center City Park--parking is easier down here on S. Elm--and it is a pleasant walk.
Have a lovely day all--and remember in all the fireworks etc--this is the DAY the Declaration of Independence was signed. Seems obvious--but I sometimes wonder if that gets lost in the celebrations.
A wonderful way to spend the Fourth of July--quietly--a re-listen to Garrison Keillor's 4 disc set
"Homegrown Democrat."
Written/narrated in 2004 during the election--he not only takes on the Bush administration with some pithy words and insights as well as the changes in the Republican Party. The only past Republican Presidents with any concern for the whole of our society were Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower according to him.
A great description of his childhood--and the worth of all public institutions.
I bought this during the 2004 election season when I saw some of my young 'uns leanin toward the right.
I listened to it a couple of times after I bought it and today unearthed it in my cd collection.
It is even more insightful for me now--so am happily
celebrating the 4th with GK!!!
Highly recommended if it is still available from the Prairie Home companion website.
Thinking of Pat and her Polemics reminded me what I wanted to do today!
Thanks, Pat---
Hi Shirley,
Thank you for your kind thoughts. I think Garrison Keillor is our era's Mark Twain. A good way to spend the 4th.
We went to our Storm Mountain community picnic. The people here are great: hugs, conversations, anecdotes, news, generosity, mountain humor (She left a hour a go, said she'd be back in 10 minutes. A bear musta got her!")
Then smoke, haze, can't see the mountains west, a fire in Wyoming.
Anyway, I love this community, love mountain folks, love their independent nature, the willingness to help each other, the individual life experiences.
So, I'll say good night. Glad you are here Shirlee, and hello to Thankful, Puddle, Jo, Listener, Barb, Denise, Seashell, and anyone who comes by.
Hope everyone had as lovely a 4th as possible--thinking of Puddle.
Stay safe--sleep well.
P.S. I truly enjoyed
listening to G.K. talking about what makes a Democrat.
Good Night
Hot news! WSJ says Romney is "squandering " his nomination by saying one thing and then the opposite--especially about health care--and being out of touch with most of us by his expensive vacations, etc, etc.
HA!!!!
I agree, Pat--Garrison is truly this centuries Mark Twain--whom he truly admires.
Hi Shirlee,
Maybe some rain, oh, how I wish. So with thunder and lightning, off with the ocmputer.
HA! This week's New Yorker has a drawing of President Obama in a white coat, a stethoscope around his neck and a wide grin. Love their covers--they always hit the spot--right now!
Hoping rain for Pat, power for Puddle, and internet connection for Jo--and a god vacation for Denise.
Off to Huckleberry Finn on audio book from the library.
Have a lovely evening!
Oops! GOOD vacation...
Got too excited about Huck!
I'm talking to puddle right now and her electricity issue is bigger than first thought. Ten local poles and eleven of the "sky tree" variety as well. Yikes!
The people across the road have had power since Saturday night. But on her side of the road it's spotty, depending on how your wiring got hooked up and when. Heh.
They're now saying "Sunday" but puddle thinks that's a stretch. WOW!!
Sorry to take so long getting this posted! My computer was out of commission and I couldn't seem to get the site to work on my iPhone.
Just to add that puddle says she hasn't been hurting for food or water or anything. She does miss the fans and evening light. Beau loves having her company outside so much (in the light and the breezes) though! Ha!
"There's no great loss without some small gain." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
Thanks so much Listener for the report from Puddle.
Sounds as though her garden could be getting a lot of attention :)
So good to know she is safe.
I am surely enjoying Huck Finn on audiobook. I keep discovering different perceptions of meaning
in listening to the audio as opposed to reading. I have read Huck several times during my life--but the voices make it truly come to life.
Happy, safe afternoon
to all---may fire, winds and bad internet connections
stay far away from
everyone.
Thanks, Shirlee!
So, what audiobook version of Huck are you reading? Which publisher and who does the voices? (Can you tell I work in a Library? We love hearing about audiobooks that people find are quality.) Have you ever listened to The Help as an audiobook? There are four actors, so four voices for the main characters and all the different dialects. Excellent.
Hi,Listener--this Huck Finn is done by
Recorded Books-Classics Library in New York City. The narrator is Norman Diets. He does all the four or five dialects that Mark Twain carefully describes at the beginning of his book.
Another audiobook publisher I have been very happy with is Christian Audio who does the Wendell Berry books. They seem to do a good job of differentiating among the male voices, but not quite so good with the female voices.
There is no listing of the male narrators name. They are done with an accurate northern Kentucky accent--I have a son-in-law from that area of Kentucky. I have had The Help from the library and thought those characters were quite well done--and easy to differentiate.
Yes, Puddle had said you worked in a library. I loved every minute of my 23 years at the Michigan State University library-a great joy. Hope you are having the same experience. Every library is a very special place--and needs to be protected
from the slash the library funding crowd!!!!!!
Thank you again for your report on Puddle--I do hope her electricity will be back on soon!!
Good Saturday Morning,
We had rain yesterday afternoon and last night, a real rain, a flowing down, a density of water, and the meadow looks reborn. A young lilac tree I planted had shriveled, its leaves brown, curled up, and this morning, leaves spread out, green, glistening. Wonderful.
More rain today predicted.
About libraries, as close to heaven as I can get along with a forest, lakes, and mountains. Someone said she wanted her ashes strewn in a library, and I'd agree, all those remaining particles of me browsing and reading forever.
Have a good day, folks. I'm off to a poetry meeting with Green Fuse poets.
So happy for the rain for your area, Pat--it must be a great relief.
And about books--yesterday Brend and her office mates were discussing where those who had lived in multiple locations
considered home. she asked having lived in Mi--several places, TX one town and now GSO. I told her home was where ever I currently lived. but when I gave it a little more thought--I have never been happy without whatever books I own around me. So now I think home is where my books are!
I love the idea of my ashes spread in a library--what a way to spend eternity!
In the90's here today and apparently even higher in Michigan and lower along the Texas Gulf coast--weather is upside down!
Brenda has done shopping and errands for me this morning--and is now off to look at something for herself--or go home and take a nap!
Hope everyone is having a fine Saturday--I am sure Puddle's would be fantastic if her power came back on!
Hi everyone :)
I'm watching Saturday Night Live. The host is Sophia Vergara. I just think she is so funny on Modern Family. That whole show is a riot. The quality of comics on SNL the past few years has been so much better.
Wow did we have the rain the past couple of days, but today it is cool and dry. Clapton has been running around, playing with one of the beanie babies he got down from one of the side tables. He's a jumper, that's for sure, and a hunter! He scared a mama raccoon the other day, and scared me even more cuz I know how vicious they can be. But the coon ran away from that little barking menace!
I've been invited to play cards at the folks where I spent the Fourth of July. I'm looking forward to that, I miss playing cards with friends.
Glad everyone is safe and as sound as possible. I know where all of my candles are if Thor feels like acting up again, pretty easy to lose electricity out here.
Sweet dreams everyone.
Good to hear Denise and Clapton are enjoying their vacation. Main topic here is the weather-HOT--but cooling down this week. Maybe accompanied by thunderstorms. NC weather is fairly moderate Except January and July!
Good Morning All--hot enough here that Brenda and I have cancelled plans to head out and over a block and a half to the musical 1776. I was really looking forward to that but realized last evening--hey--I wouldn't do this in Texas--why would I do it here? Had some problems with heat stress in Texas until I figured out what was going on.
So Brenda is coming here this afternoon, cooking and hanging out.
Have a cool, safe and happy Sunday--still worrying about Puddle--it is deadly hot in W.Va today--hope she has a cool stream near-by.
Quick drop in. We've had 4 inches of rain according to one of our Storm Mountain residents when she checked her gauge. More expected.
The weather has cooled; the ground is spongy; and flood warnings are out for most of the counties on the Front Range.
I hope Puddle is okay. Denise, glad you are enjoying your vacation I can picture Clapton as he romps.
I read an interesting article about Afghanistan in the latest issue of the New Yorker. What a complicated situation: possibilities of civil war, resurgence of the Taliban, peace, a federal type government since a strong central authority doesn't seem to work with three major factions. Also, some noble, smart, and hard working people have created some infrastructure and made significant improvements. No easy answer if any answer at all.
Frankly though, it's good to hear conversation and some thoughts that aren't simplistic and propaganda as on the old blog. I think one of our greatest faults is the simplistic, the righteous conclusions recognizing no complexities. But, that's my perspective.
The ads by the Romney campaign are really dishonest, simplistic, accusatory. I'm hoping they will backfire.
More rain coming, so will say good night. Glad you are here.
So happy for the rain for you, Pat--now if it would just soak in and not flood!!!
Cooling down here--a bit and hoping most of the thunderstorms stay away--we can get a lot of flooding in the many little streams and rivers of the Carolina Piedmont.
Brenda and I had a lovely afternoon together--out of the heat. I hope Puddle is managing to stay cool--but I don't quite see how.
Have a good evening, folks--love to all--and especially Jo who gave us this place. I wish we could help her get on
here!
Good Morning, all--temps are cooling down a bit here today. A relief for those who need to be outside.
Quiet streets --and I think some offices-- after the busy holiday week-end.
Seems the Koch brother just keep dumping money into Romney's campaign.
Bah--and here are the rest of us trying to do our bit for our side with some job, no job, or retirement income :( :(--depressing, depressing---
Chris Hedges on Thought
"How to Think" --
If universities think a Milton Friedman or a Friedrich Hayek is more important than a Virginia Woolf or an Anton Chekhov, then we become barbarians.
snip
**************
from truthdig
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/how_to_think_20120709/
Sea
the electric guys finally showed. . . . Nancy and I were two of the <5 in the county without electric. . . . (She has a generator, so is online for about an hour a day.)
Still mopping up here (Emptying ice from bowls in the freezer.)(And refrigerator.) I *had* been going to get rid of my big mixing bowls, on the theory that I don't cook that much any more. They were life savers through this, so guess not.
Beautifully cool, so I don't need the AC for that, but am soggy to the eyebrows, so it's on, drying stuff out.
Nancy and I were talking this morning, before the guys came, about what to get ready for the next time, things we know *now*. . . . Because it's going to keep happening. Then had a brief discussion of climate deniers. Ended agreeing that at the top, it's greed, and at the bottom, it's just plain old fashioned stupidity. She's a church goer, so runs into more than I do, but her take: save your breath -- their brains are totally calcified and impermeable.
Don't know why the guys haven't followed us. And don't really care, though I do miss Phil considerable. The others? Not really. I could just stand in the warm rain and piss myself if I want that feeling. . . . I'd be *more* interested to know why hanging with them would make one feel superior, lol!?
Ah, Puddle--how good to have you back!!!
How did your garden fare after all this?
Is Clementine set up or are you still dealing with your old computer?
I can remember power outages in Texas during hurricane season --had forgotten
about the melting, leaky refrigerator!
Always a mess.
does your little trickster expect you to be outside with
him more often now?
Garden's good. It's suffering more from predation than heat. I'd check it on my way to get ice, and planned to stop and water it if it looked stressed, but it never did.
Beau was just happy to come IN.
Clementine still sitting where I left her ten days ago. The desk is now ready to receive her, but for the time being, this guy'll do. It's just reassuring to know she's there. The gifter, however, is very antsy, so I suppose it'll be sooner rather than later. But have other things on my plate today.
Just made a meatloaf with the surviving meat. AND a cheesecake, with the surviving cream cheese, eggs, and sour cream. The Splenda was never in danger, lol!
Made one meatloaf early in the outage, and it lasted most of the 10 days, but after the heat up of the house doing it, wasn't about to try again. Had two/thirds of a cheese cake when this began, and it lasted till Friday. According to the CDC, I should be dead: the refrigerator was impossible to keep below 40° (though close). The freezer did a bit better. I need to remember that these are the peeps who ALSO believe that eggs over easy will kill you. . . .
Welcome back, Puddle. Hi Shirlee.
Bright and shiny right now, guess we've had our rain. The land has scent once again. Trees and shrubs seem revived.
I read an article in the most recent New Yorker on TED.com. What it is are free lectures on many topics. The idea was to make knowledge interesting. Most or at least many university lectures, at least in my time, were dull, dull, dull. The originators and producers of TED lectures studied audience responses and determined to make lectures interesting.
They succeeded because most end up with the audience giving standing ovations. The conferences are very expensive, and scholars from every discipline from all over the world attend. Then the lectures that are taped are free for anyone anywhere who wants to see them.
If interested, go to TED.com I found one on the cosmos that I think I'll check out.
A statistic I remember reading is that whites have not voted in the majority for a Democrat as president since Truman. That says something to me about all of us European descendents. I also heard that the Latino minority is now double what it was a decade ago, can't remember the exact percentage. The Obama campaign is working to get them to register to vote.
I see Chris Hedges is his old hysterical self. Come on, Chris, we're not college freshmen anymore.
A new series on HBO called The Newsroom, modeled maybe on Keith Olbermann. The gist is that they are going to present factual news without commercials. Congress allowed corporations to use the air waves free, which belong to the people, and we've been getting propaganda and bias ever since.
A comment made by the anchor, "We have the most dangerous and addled Congress in the history of the country." He's been going after the Tea Party folks, and frankly, it's refreshing.
Aaron Sorkin is the producer and writer - wrote West Wing. So far, it's not quite the character driven West Wing, but worth watching.
We have just had a line of thunderstorms go through GSO--so far
a lot of flashing and grumbling, a burst of wind and a bit of rain. Some parts of town lose power easily and some buildings downtown. Not the one I am in--so if Brenda loses it--she can find a bed here!
Thanks for the report on the new news program, Pat.
Heartening.
Good night all--for now!
P.S. I also never knew what was the big deal about hanging out with"the guys." I do miss Phil also--was learning about Iowa farming from him.
I'm back, peeps! The vacation from hell. Too much to go into detail, sufice to say that that may be the last vacation I go on with daughter and her spoiled brat daughter. Too old to subject myself to that.
Glad to see all is well here and I'll check in again tomorrow.
Sweet dreams to all.
Brand spankin' new thread! Enjoy.
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