641 replies to this topic

[Kirk]

s

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[Kirk]

nk

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[Kirk]

Voodoo

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[Kirk]

I saw a copy of Van Gogh's "starry night" yesterday only it wasn't a copy and it wasn't night, it was a weather radar map of the southern Atlantic ocean.

Good thing global warming is a scam, because that is a scary sight, a broken category, there is no category 6 hurricane.

[artemis]

Jay and I talked about the hurricane that hit Texas when we spoke.  He mentioned neighborhoods that had levees, pumps, day to day data, yadda yadda, and they thought they were safe.  But God's finger hovers ever over the SMITE button, and when he hits it, you're fucked.  Categories, global this, global that, not a thing mankind can do to change it.  Enjoy the the stars while they shine.

 

[jaded prol]

The truth is we as a species have fucked ourselves by dumping heavy carbons and poisoning the planet for a century or two. Warmer air and water and more moisture in the air destabilize the climate we've come to expect and rely on and it'll only get hotter for the next century or two. We can't undo the damage but we can minimize it with massive reforestation and permaculture farming which re-sequesters carbon to the soil. The sad truth is that while progress is being made in that direction, it's too little too late and the big money interests that run our country won't allow the extent of change needed. The most important thing we can do is to adapt as best we can. A small population may survive a generation or three though the odds aren't great.

[Kirk]

People can make changes, governments deal with it. Reforestation and carbon sequestration could go a long way.

[artemis]

I'm all for forests.

I've never been more at ease than in a forest.

[jaded prol]

The paranoia and over-reaction from the "#me too" thing are just getting to out of hand.

A good friend of mine, after 7 years of medical school and training has been fired for one minor indiscretion. He slept with one of his patients and can no longer work in the profession. What a waste of time, effort, training and money. He's still paying on his school loans. This just goes to show one minor mistake can ruin your life. Thoughts for him and his family. He really is a great guy and a brilliant veterinarian.

[artemis]

Not many situations that pussy cannot make temporarily better, or permanently worse.

And I always knew, every single time, which one was happening, and didn't care.

But it was usually both, anyway.

[TheGreenOne]

He's a veterinarian and he slept with one of his patients?

[TheGreenOne]

How beastly.

[artemis]

You're swufter than I.  "Veterinarian" jolted me a little at the end of that post, but I didn't take it that far ... perhaps he was practicing on animals and at the same time studying to upgrade (or down) his practice to humans?

[Kirk]

Ballz?

[Bognoz]

'cept the set-up sez

"one minor indiscretion".

 

Balz is making a career of it.

[Absinthe_1900]

It was inevitable: The #MeToo Movement Hits the Circus: ‘Grandma’ the Clown Resigns
 
https://www.nytimes....wn-resigns.html

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[Bognoz]

C'mon, this is beyond kinda

gettin' to be a big laff.

[Bognoz]

Sad as it is.

[Kirk]

Who the hell voted for Ronald McDonald, he is ruining everything,
I can't believe you support this thief, this lying traitor,
this treasonous son of a bitch
I wish he would kill himself and take his voters with him

[artemis]

Yeah, the alternative was such a wonderful thing. Not lies, no theft, no treason on that side. Get real, please.

[artemis]

I'm getting real with Creole Cream Cheese this week.

 

It used to be in every grocery store in Southern Louisiana (and nowhere else).  Now it's nowhere, period.  Just recently learned from this nicely done page that its disappearance was more a matter of regulation than changing tastes: https://noladairies....e-cream-cheese/ -  In any case, it's not to be found in any store since, I don't know, the 80s.

 

I think the article addresses the fact that products fermented by bacteria are local for a reason - the microfauna in the air differ from place to place.  It's the reason that true Lambic is only made in that one river valley in Belgium.  But I'm not relying on the air for bacteria - I'm using Buttermilk.

 

One of my earliest memories is of a cloth bag hanging on my mom's clothesline, swelled up like a putrid balloon, dripping white liquid and drawing flies.  That's Creole Cream Cheese in production in Cajun Country back in the day.  I wouldn't get near that crap, much less put it into my mouth.

 

So when a local dairy began producing it again a couple of years ago, and vending it at a local farmers market, I had overcome my disgust with sour things (Lambic had surely helped with that), and I tried it.  And that stuff is so fucking good, I became a weekly customer.  But then the dairy burned down and that was the end of that.

 

So a few days ago I took the plunge - skim milk, buttermilk, and rennet (to induce coagulation).  Less than 36 hours for the whole process.  And it is sublime, I tell you.  Can't send you none, Kirk, because of refrigeration issues and all, but show up and we'll eat some.  It will make you forget all about politics.

[artemis]

It's pretty damn satisfying to get something right on the first try.

 

And I have another batch fermenting as we speak, this time at slightly higher temperature to see if that makes it a little more sour (even at its worst it's not bad sour, nothing that can't be overcome with fruit preserves, maple surpul, etc.)

[Kirk]

Yeah, the alternative was such a wonderful thing. Not lies, no theft, no treason on that side. Get real, please.

 I can't see any reason why you wouldn't get this.
This is different,  Trump is talking about handing over our loyal public servants to the Russians for questioning by the Russian police.
 you see an equivalency here, but  you are the one that said Iraq would be a  walk in the park,

that the citizens would greet us with flowers.

[Kirk]

How do you get Trump to change a light bulb?

You don't, he will lie and say that he changed it and all the Republicans

will agree he changed it while they sit in the dark

[artemis]

Trump is talking about handing over our loyal public servants to the Russians for questioning by the Russian police.

 

First time I've heard that one.  In any case, I don't take it for granted that the people in question, especially if they work for the FBI or intelligence agencies, are loyal, or for that matter, even serving the public.

 

but you are the one that said Iraq would be a walk in the park, that the citizens would greet us with flowers.

 

Pretty sure I never said anything of the kind.  I do remember saying we should bomb them with Apple cell phones and pornography, Americanize them so to speak.

Here's the thing: That whole Trump working with Russia business is complete bullshit.  There was never anything to it.  And I don't see why you don't get that.  But the offer of cream cheese stands.  I have some figs I put up that go well with it if that sweetens the deal.

[artemis]

This is different,  Trump is talking about handing over our loyal public servants

 

Different from what?  The cunt he defeated in the election didn't talk about it, she did it.  Bengazi.  She won't talk about it, though, anymore than she will about her other crimes.

[TheGreenOne]

It will make you forget all about politics.

 

Could you put some in the water supply, please?

[TheGreenOne]

Not that I want to ruin what sounds like a very tasty snack.

[artemis]

Food for the Gods is what. I will eat it at any time of day. The texture is remarkable.
I ate the first batch, and made another today. Slightly higher temperature this time, but I don't notice any difference in the flavor. I'm not willing to go all Coonass and hang it outside in the 100 degree heat. Possibly that would yield a result more sauvage but ...
Half a gallon of milk yields three 8-ounce tubs of Creole Cream Cheese, for what that's worth.

[Kirk]

That is sounding like a pretty good offer, worth a trip even

[TheGreenOne]

Indeed!™

[artemis]

A visit would be nice, that's an understatement.

[Bognoz]

What wood a creole

bagel be like?

[Bognoz]

Yeah, the alternative was such a wonderful thing. No lies, no theft, no treason on that side. Get real, please.

 

And uh, yeah, had her majority vote

been eenughe to get her elected, well then,

we'd have something to talk about.

But she wasn't elected and xe ain't xit.

If xe was our malfeasant prezident

I trust even djirk wood rail against her.

That's not even an argument.

[Bognoz]

Drumpf's reign has been one long annoying tweet.

Short on substance, stuffed without pointless shouting,

disrespectful of literacy, truth and consistency

(awright, purty much applies to all pro pols -

butt I thought he wasn't supposta be a pol?).

I'm surprised he doesn't instakram me

his daily intake of minced meat McNauseating.

Or is that exactly all that he does?

[Bognoz]

He's a divisive, autocratic, racist drumpfuck™.

He won't hold a press conference to answer

directly to the people that pay his wages

as he continues to blatantly profit on his name.

[Bognoz]

The higher you get the better you play?

Someone's golf game is outta tune.

[Bognoz]

I'd still be happy for a shmear

o' dat cream cheese though.

[TheGreenOne]

What wood a creole

bagel be like?

 

Quite good is my guess.

https://www.creoleba...com/bagels.html .

[TheGreenOne]

The higher you get the better you play?

 

The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get

[jaded prol]

A person could have phlashbax.

 

I'm smokin' and sipping Suiss medicine recovering form kidley-stone removal.

Still gotta have a stent reamed outta my sore sausage in a coupla daze.

 

 

Speaking of Kocks, the Koch Bros just inadvertently managed to prove that Medicare for all would actually save us 3 Trillion dollars

 

 https://www.commondr...se-medicare-all

 

https://theintercept...lth-care-wages/

 

Meanwhile all I got is billz. pillz & illz

[Kirk]

Did the stones become lodged?

[jaded prol]

Yep.

 

No fun. I was hoping for peridot or jade.

[Kirk]

Apatite?

I've been through stones lodged in the duct , last time they said I waited too long but it passed after they shot me.

They won't go in and grab 5 of  mine because they are only 7 mm or less. Started taking potassium citrate every day and I'm not making any more, before that I was passing 1 or 2 small ones a month.

[jaded prol]

Thanks! I'll get some of that and start taking it. Also, drinking distilled water some of the time should help via osmosis because it has no minerals.

[Kirk]

The urologist said take potassium citrate, or calcium citrate, or 3 shots of lemon juice a day. The lemon juice was hard to handle everyday, the calcium citrate was like battery acid so I stuck with the pot. citrate

[jaded prol]

Reading up on the Potassium Citrate, I think I'll go with Lime juice. I like fresh limes squeezed in water (as well as in tonic with appropriate juniper extract).

[artemis]

Creole bagel be like?

 

[artemis]

Trump is at times clumsy in speaking, and speaks quite a bit when maybe he shouldn't.  He's apparently uneducated and rough as a cob.  Those aren't crimes.  My point to Kirk was that he has done absolutely nothing to compare with what that bitch against whom he was running has done to harm this country, and thank God she hasn't the opportunity to do more.  I'd as soon have a striped-ass baboon in that office than her.  So if Trump did nothing else than keep her out of office, good.  This doesn't allow for Sanders, but she did more to torpedo him than Trump did, and he's a useless asswipe anyway. 

 

He won't hold a press conference to answer directly to the people that pay his wages

 

Directly.  That's a laugh.  It's hard to believe you actually believe that.  Those aren't the people who pay his wages, they're a bunch of sorry-ass hacks with a political agenda. He talks to the people who elected him, when he has a mind to.  Press conference.  That would be funny if it weren't so sad.

 

I would still serve you cream cheese, though.  Come get some.  If you mention Trump, you'll get the one with Oleander syrup.

[artemis]

I've participated in some frightful suffering due to kidney stones, but never one that didn't pass or give up trying, to my knowledge.  There's an herb the Indians (in India) use to break stones, but I can't remember the name of it.  It was hard to source when I learned about it, so I settled for burdock, alleged to have a similar effect, because that was growing near the house.  It's fuzzier than artichoke innards, though, literally hard to swallow.  I haven't had an attack since I started forcing myself to drink mass quantities of water, for what that's worth.

[Bognoz]

He's apparently uneducated and rough as a cob.  Those aren't crimes.

Yeah, not criminal. Butt being proudly ignorant

is not what I think of as the best presidential creds.

[Bognoz]

Seriously, as you said, it's apparent,

I'd say blatantly apparent, that he disdains

intellectual curiosity, which it takes

a bare modicum of to educate yourself.

 

And you're okay with that.

[Bognoz]

Fine, then I'm okay calling a beignet a bagel

and shmearing it with artisanal creole cream cheeze.

[Bognoz]

All may not be right with the world, butt hatless

I don't throw stones out through my wiener.

 

Respect and condolences for those that do.

[Bognoz]

I hope I/1-eyed didn't jinx it.

[Bognoz]

Those aren't the people who pay his wages

 

They do. We all do, is my point. The press

is our mouthpiece. The diverse press pool

with a question and a foul-up for every consumer

groupie with an asshole-like opinion represents

all of us, not just left or right. They're all

in there and the prezzydent otter attend

to more questions than only the ones he likes.

[Bognoz]

He's a thin-skinned fucking pussy

and always has been. So he lies.

He lies as often as he can get away with it.

 

Which is gonna cum back to bite him is the ass.

No one likes a fucking liar for long.

[Bognoz]

I mean, what did lying do for Hillary?

[Kirk]

His business is small, just him and his family, and until recently Cohen.

There are no teams of secretaries, no laborers, nothing.

When he says he does not know something about his business, he is lying, in fact, every time he opens his pie hole, he is lying.

[artemis]

I don't think that intellect as we understand and value it has been a large part (if any part) of his personal life.  He values common sense, which is good, and dollars and sense, which is not so good when it's to the exclusion of all else, but I understand it - that's what has worked for him and he associates it with success, period.  He's not the best man for the job maybe, but anybody truly qualified to be President doesn't want to be.  Not anymore.  We've got a whole system set up to ensure such people can't get elected anyway.

I do like they way he puts a bug up the ass of his opponents.  It's not quite Andrew Jackson beating the dogshit out of a rival with a walking stick, but it gives some flavor of what those times must have been like.

[Bognoz]

You think that he values common sense? You're serious, right?

It must be a different kind of common sense than I value.

I don't see how his values promote or engender commonality

except to sway people with no ability to think critically.

He's not actually persuasive with his jingoist rhetoric,

he's not known to compromise, let alone apologize.

He's not even very good at sticking with a lie. He flies

by the seat of his pants and then sez incomprehensible things

about the actions that his ego-needs drive him to believe are right.

[Bognoz]

He's a fucking loose cannon and that lethal assault

works to kerb some, cow others and infuriate another third.

Butt without the ability to accurately and consistently aim

his hunks of hot lead he hurts friends and foes the same.

He's not used to being under the microscope and it shows.

He could get away with that approach swinging wildly

at one deal after another and lying about the aftermath

but he's wilting under the sustained gaze now applied.

[artemis]

I'm assuming nobody ever got that rich without using common sense, but I never walked that road as far or as diligently as he has, so I could be wrong.

I don't give a shit about "commonality", only about what's right.  At least half the people in this country are wrong, will probably die wrong.  If Trump keeps reminding them that they're wrong, good for him.  I don't hold out hope for him persuading them of anything as much as I do that life itself under Trump will teach them something.

[TheGreenOne]

It's not quite Andrew Jackson beating the dogshit out of a rival with a walking stick, but it gives some flavor of what those times must have been like.

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[Bognoz]

nobody ever got that rich without using common sense

 

Yeeeaaaah, that doesn't really pass the sniff test, duzzit?

You'd be hard pressed to show correlation let alone causality.

 

Multiple filings for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection means

Drumpf's often been ready to take a reckless risk and fail

to learn the obvious lessons, repeating the same or similar

mistakes before resorting to the laws that enable the rich.

 

It may work in business, if after so many failings you can find

partners in foreign countries (follow the money, it smells

of caviar and vodka) to float you a few bills until payday,

which comes when, like thems that have the extra cash,

you marry your bizness interests with political power.

[Bognoz]

You think he's so different from Hillary? Ha!

[Bognoz]

At least half the people in this country are wrong, will probably die wrong.

 

What constitutes "wrong" in your world view?

I may agree. Or I mightn't not. It's a broad brush

stroke to stain every second neighbor with.

 

Maybe you need to update your dated colloquialism

with the fad that's sweeping the nation, if not the whirled,

"Fake news." Don't like what they're saying? Can't agree?

We got a new euphemism for that:  "Fake news."

They're wrong and they ask improper questions.

[Bognoz]

If yudall jest be a liddle more like me

we could all get along without any problems.

[Bognoz]

life itself under Trump will teach them something.

 

Interesting conclusion.  It's good to have

people in your employ that can teach you sumpin.

 

(Except he doesn't really seem to know how to sump

the swamp in the way we thought, or hoped, he might.)

[Bognoz]

Take from them what you can and then you can can

them. And try not to repeat the same mistake.

[artemis]

What constitutes "wrong" in your world view?

 

The opposite of Right.

[artemis]

As for Andrew Jackson, if not for him New Orleans would have fallen to the British, and the Mississippi River with it, and the U.S. would have been limited to this day to east of the Mississippi, if it continued to exist at all.  He rode a horse to New Orleans from Florida, suffering from dysentery all the way, on short notice, and whipped the best army in the world using a ragtag outfit of people who were mostly not even soldiers.  There's not a man in office today fit to tie his shoes, but let's forget all that because he owned slaves.  Fuck that revisionist bullshit.

[TheGreenOne]

Same as it ever was, any man who gives permission for another man to be whipped is deserving of being whipped himself. Fuck all that revisionist bullshit that says otherwise.

[Kirk]

"Out of the blue I asked, “Have you ever read Reinhold Niebuhr?”

Obama’s tone changed. “I love him. He’s one of my favorite philosophers.”

So I asked, What do you take away from him?

“I
take away,” Obama answered in a rush of words, “the compelling idea
that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we
should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things.
But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I
take away ... the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are
hard, and not swinging from naïve idealism to bitter realism.”

 

That was David Brooks interviewing Obama, I miss thoughtful discourse with people who read,

it's hard to believe our president ever talked this way, can you picture Trump discussing a good book?

[Bognoz]

can you picture Trump discussing a good book any serious thought?

 

Sure I can.

 

It's not a pretty picture though.

[jaded prol]

Same as it ever was, any man who gives permission for another man to be whipped is deserving of being whipped himself. Fuck all that revisionist bullshit that says otherwise.

 

Same as it ever was but more so and much more visibly. I totally agree. Jackson, (aside from being a slaver) engaged in genocide against our indigenous population including the Trail of Tears. As for the violent expansion of "manifest destiny," it might've been betterer in the long run if we were a smaller, less arrogant nation sharing the continent.

 

As for Obama, he certainly was more well read, personable and civil but he was also the first president with a weekly kill list and assassin drones. ("But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction") and his secretive and not so secretive military actions, regime change efforts and fostered coups were no model of civility in practice. Nostalgia is the flip side of amnesia and as TGO states from up close knowledge, indeed its "same as it ever was."

[Kirk]

And they are still whipping the slaves, only now we keep them locked up all the time, letting them out occasionally to earn money to pay for their punishment and piss tests.

[artemis]

Same as it ever was, any man who gives permission for another man to be whipped is deserving of being whipped himself. Fuck all that revisionist bullshit that says otherwise.

 

I had second thoughts about the TONE of my post, having no desire to offend you, but just to be clear, what I meant by revisionist is that the evaluation of historical figures gets revised, and almost never for the better.  If we dismiss the accomplishments of every man who was cruel to other human beings, we pretty much eliminate everybody but Jesus and Buddha.  Andrew was a product of his time.  People had read that ad, and they still voted for him for President ...  I like the fact that Trump doesn't back down.  When Teddy Roosevelt went west to start a cattle ranch, someone in a saloon made fun of him and Teddy whipped his ass.

 

"Use every man after his desert, and who should ’scape whipping?" - William S.  There  you have it.

[artemis]

I'm not going to indulge in any more Trump discussions.  Instead, please to be enjoying this photograph, taken last week at sunset.  That's Bayou Gauche.  I used to live there.  We know from our perusing of musty Froggish texts, that Bayou Gauche is the bayou on the left.  But that's only if you're going downstream on Bayou Des Allemands (bayou of the Germans).  No enhancement at all on this photo - didn't need any.  That's pretty much what it looks like around here, in case anybody wondered.

 

 

 

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[artemis]

it might've been betterer in the long run if we were a smaller, less arrogant nation sharing the continent

 

I don't know that arrogant hurts, although it doesn't help, but other than that I agree, and almost said so in my original post.  But the British prolly won't have been satisfied with half, and could have easily revisited controlling the east, with almost certain success.  Not sure that would have been a terrible thing either, though.  It's not like we would have had to change languages.  Hopefully we wouldn't be treating words such as "team" as plural.  The English team were tired, and lost.  Makes me grit my teeth.

[jaded prol]

Undeclaration

 

It was a good idea once --
inalienable rights and the

abolition of tyranny but
we've mucked it up, this great
American Experiment
our own inbred aristocracy madder
than noon-baked Englishmen with
crimes and usurpations running amok,
torn bodies and new hatreds in every
casbah tentacles
in every pocket
an ear in every conversation and a
knife at every throat
and we wage-slave
descendants of the free --
the not free
sinking in the refuse of yesterday's bargains
punch clocked and jackbooting our way
to the fossil record at the speed of credit
with no payments 'til January --
a toxic spoor of ruined
places, broken lives and gulags.

 

We had a bad run but it's time
to come clean
to admit our failure to
examine the bloody Manifest
of our imagined Destiny.

 

Time to Repent
for mass graves and wars of false premise,
for all those dictators, our murky turkeys lurking
in every hot satrapy with trained goons keeping
bloody order and a quota of disappeared.

 

Time to admit
it was all a mistake
made in the bravado of our youth and
rejoin the Commonwealth
stop seeing stars and turn in our
bloody stripes
be British again
take tea and healthcare claim
our place lordless
in the house of commons where
Empire is only a memory
best forgotten.

[artemis]

Not bad.  Did you write that?

[jaded prol]

Yeah, a few years back. Thanx.

 

Nice photo of sunset on the Bayou.

[artemis]

Thanks.  I didn't take it myself - my daughter did.  She goes to church back there.  I took one myself the same day, in the back yard.  Mine is enhanced - had to do it because apart from the sky it was all darkness.

 

Nice piece of writing you did there.

 

 

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[Bognoz]

I likes me some poetry.

Verbal and visual.

[Bognoz]

Concrete teeven.

 

 

 

 

Augusto de Campos & Julio Plaza, “Open (Abre)” (1969)

 

 

[TheGreenOne]

Same as it ever was, any man who gives permission for another man to be whipped is deserving of being whipped himself. Fuck all that revisionist bullshit that says otherwise.

 

I had second thoughts about the TONE of my post, having no desire to offend you, but just to be clear, what I meant by revisionist is that the evaluation of historical figures gets revised, and almost never for the better.  If we dismiss the accomplishments of every man who was cruel to other human beings, we pretty much eliminate everybody but Jesus and Buddha.  Andrew was a product of his time.  People had read that ad, and they still voted for him for President ...  I like the fact that Trump doesn't back down.  When Teddy Roosevelt went west to start a cattle ranch, someone in a saloon made fun of him and Teddy whipped his ass.

 

"Use every man after his desert, and who should ’scape whipping?" - William S.  There  you have it.

 

My apologies, my post was more obscure that I intended. I wasn't trying to point out that AJ owned slaves and thus that all else he did must be ignored/disregarded. Rather, I was trying to say that by offering to pay to have a man whipped he was not only cruel by current standards but also unacceptably cruel even by Olde Testament standards:

 

And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. And if he smite out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.  -- Exodus 26-27; King James Version

 

My statement about who deserves to be whipped was a reference to:

 

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

[TheGreenOne]

I miss the good, old-fashioned days when a man could reference the Bible and still be understood.

[TheGreenOne]

Revisionist indeed.

[TheGreenOne]

Gorgeous pics BTW. They suggest a superior way of living. At least to what I know so far.

[artemis]

The first time I saw Bayou Gauche (the settlement, not the water) it was from a boat on a rainy summer day. People were sitting on most of the porches of the mostly cypress, tin-roofed houses, probably savoring the temporary relief from the heat. Seemed like every family had at least ten people. Squalor is what came to mind. It hasn't changed much - it's a narrow strip of not-so-high ground between the marsh and the water. The houses are more modern and now they have air conditioning, that's all. But if you like to be able to walk out the door and drop a line to catch a catfish or a crab, it's the place to be. Our own back yard is a work in progress. The whole area was once covered with hardwoods, including the live oaks you see in the distance. There's a narrow strip of said forest remaining - it's a green space and buffer zone between this neighborhood and the next one, both "upscale", a far cry from Bayou Gauche. We just learned a couple of days ago that it's in jeopardy - some out of town assholes want to tear it all down and build a million little ticky-tack houses on postage stamp sized lots on that strip. My writing skills are already engaged in the coming fight to put a stop to it. I'm really fucking tired of getting run out of Paradise ... didn't even bite the apples.

[artemis]

Thanks for the details.  I didn't get any Biblical references in your post.  It's for sure that most people misunderstand "eye for an eye" as a license to avenge, when in fact it is a limitation - if you take an eye, you should have to give up ONLY an eye ...  I'm not familiar enough with the Bible to comment on to what extent it addresses slavery, but I'm confident it was a part of everyday life in those parts and times.  Jackson's runaway slave probably didn't deserve even whipping based upon anything he had done himself, but deserve often has nothing to do with it, unfortunately.

[TheGreenOne]

Actually, that you recognize that eye for an eye is a limitation, not a license for vengeance shows you have an understanding of the bible that is far keener than that of most of who show up in church every Sunday. Although the bible does allow slavery under some circumstances, this is probably its best known quote on the subject: 

 

And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

 

As for whipping, although I am deeply opposed to such practices, should you lay hands on the developers who are trying to eradicate the last bit of forest and smite them as they deserve, well, that's a different matter. 

[jaded prol]

Judgment
Prepare for tyrants to be ground to meal.
-- Leonard Cirino

Let nature judge those
who would destroy it
for the illusion of transient wealth.
Let them be bound
to biers in the desert and
let them plead their case
to the sky --

And when the sun has read its blistering verdict,
and the condors of the jury
have had their fill,
then let their remains
be ground to meal
to nourish the depleted soil.

[Bognoz]

What a fuckin' oat soup opera.

[artemis]

Last night a governmental board that deals with planning and zoning unanimously shot down the plan to destroy the woods.

Some sort of waiver would have been required from them to allow the ugly plan to proceed, and I'm confident they grant such all the time, but it's not all the time they have the room packed with outraged citizens.

One old lady said, "If you have to do this shit, wait until after I die".  My sentiment exactly.

I'm proud to have played a small part in inciting the pitchforks and torches.

[jaded prol]

Good for you, glad to hear it!

[Kirk]

General Kelly said he doesn't call the president an idiot, just the opposite,

he calls an idiot president.

Jim Carey said Trump hasn't made America great again, but he's turned back the odometer quite a bit.

[TheGreenOne]

Good for you, glad to hear it!

 

What he said.

[artemis]

There was once a time when the whole neighborhood was a forest left over from a lumber operation that was abandoned before I was born.  The only house you could tell was there from the road was my grandma's, right on the highway.  It looked like something out of House of Seven Gables to me.  Not that style, but that unpainted, weathered, 200 years ago in the fog look.  On school trips to New Orleans (twice a year at most), the bus would go right by it and I would cringe in case some kid said something snarky.  Can't remember that any did, though.  Could have been mystical to them too, for all I know.  Anyway, my family would go hunting for antique bottles in that woods.  It was private property, but a guy who lived in a shack at the gate would let polite people in if they saw fit to slip him $5.  My grandma collected snakes, kept them in a barrel, and sold them to a guy who came by from LSU now and then.

[Kirk]

I don't blame you for not wanting to address a 4oo lb orangutan in the room, or share any responsibility for putting him there.

[Kirk]

I hear a lot of I don't want to talk about it these days, but what I want to hear is "I was wrong" or I understand your pain and now I feel it too.

[Kirk]

I'm assuming nobody ever got that rich without using common sense, but I never walked that road as far or as diligently as he has, so I could be wrong.

I don't give a shit about "commonality", only about what's right.  At least half the people in this country are wrong, will probably die wrong.  If Trump keeps reminding them that they're wrong, good for him.  I don't hold out hope for him persuading them of anything as much as I do that life itself under Trump will teach them something.

He is a broke dick liar, he was born with a golden spoon in his mouth and still fucked up everything he touched, why would you assume he even has common sense?

Walked that road? You must be fucking kidding me.

[Kirk]

Democrats, 25 years in power:

3 indictments

1 conviction

1 prison sentence

Republicans, 28 years in power:

120 indictments

89 convictions

34 prison sentences.

Looks like your half  has a lot more crooks.

Also, half of the country is not wrong, not even close, just you and a small vocal 38%

[artemis]

I said I wasn't going to talk about Trump anymore, and so I won't, other than to say I didn't put him anywhere. I didn't vote for him.
If you're waiting for an apology from me as to Trump, you're going to be waiting a long time.
And no, I do not understand nor feel anybody's pain. I suspect almost everybody who says they do is full of shit.
I don't even understand my own pain.

[Kirk]

You tacitly supported him, don't deny it, and by not voting you helped put him there, non action is an action.

What did you think of Trump sneering and making fun of dog owners, he admits he can't even connect with a dog. "You people and your dogs, you really love your dogs"

So he will never own one, that's good, but you said you would never trust a man who hates dogs, He hates dogs.

[artemis]

Not voting didn't help put him there. Not voting for his opponent helped put him there.

I think I've made it abundantly clear over the years that I wouldn't piss on that bitch if she were on fire - so, vote for her? Are you kidding?

I didn't see or hear the dog comment - but consider the context of my "not trusting" remark.  It was about not allowing someone into a private salon that I frequented daily.  I didn't trust that guy to be IN THERE, knowing next to nothing else about him personally.

Whether I trust Trump or not is irrelevant - he's going to be where he is, regardless.

I don't care what Trump says anymore, nor what is said about him.  There are better things to care about.

[Bognoz]

I couldn't find a way to justify a vote

for either of those moral nullities either.

No way I could endorse someone I felt to be

moral bankrupt as being fit for to lead

the most powerful nation in the world.

[Bognoz]

Being at the pinnacle of military might

is not even the issue I mean though.

The US's greatest strength has always been

about backing what is ethically right.

At least in word if not always in deed.

[Bognoz]

Is Hillary more despicable for being a hypocrite

for talking the talking while walking with one foot in her mouth?

It's hard to swallow when it's so out in the open.

But at some level even being able to mouth the words

means that she knows the difference between right and rwngo.

I have no faith that Trump understands his own immorality.

And that is deeply troubling and something to care about.

[Bognoz]

A great part, maybe the greatest part, of leadership

is about setting the proper example for others to follow.

There are just too few that can follow their own compass.

[Bognoz]

I hear tell that Drumpf's magnetic pole

has the exaggerated shape of a mushroom.

[Bognoz]

Which makes sense since mushrooms

thrive in the dark on a diet of xit.

[Kirk]

No doubt.

That's our brand now

[artemis]

Contrary to popular misunderstanding, darkness is not important to mushrooms, at least not the ones with which I am familiar.

They start growing in cow pies, because the cow pie provides the right nutrients and right textural structure.  And it's dark inside a cow pie (I guess), but that's almost incidental.  But mycelium will grow in daylight with no problem.  Humidity is the essential variable, and temperature plays a part.  Light, not so much.

The fruiting bodies (or sexual organs, if you will), emerge into the light, but they are indifferent to light or darkness after that.

They exist in the wild for only a few days.  Obviously, half that time is in darkness, but again, it's not because they need it, it's because that's the way it is in a pasture.  All light or all darkness in that brief period, doesn't seem to make any difference to them.

[Absinthe_1900]

The mushrooms are strong with her.

Attached Files

•  pull my hoof.jpg   68.46K   1 downloads

[Bognoz]

Hasenpfeffer.

[Bognoz]

And ceps.

[artemis]

My daughter was ranting about that ignorant twat yesterday. Apparently she wants high-speed trains to replace aircraft.

This video sums it up nicely.

[Bognoz]

When I think about it I don't think

she's any worse an ignorant twat

than prezident McDonald Drumpf.

 

Neither plays particularly well

to the moderate middle-ground

if such a thing exists anymore.

[Bognoz]

And it's not really that she wants

to replace planes with trains of any sort.

Nor get rid of all the farting burger cows.

There are other efficiencies to comtemplate

even when they don't exist. Or can't.

There are those who can imagine it.

And those who imagine deregulation

won't have any harmful effect

on the quality of air and water

and standards of workplace safety.

[Bognoz]

One thing's a trade-off for another.

We all want a better future for our children.

A better standard of living. Economy

is a variable, not a fixed thing.

[Bognoz]

One says to me, “I wonder that you do not lay up money; you love to travel; you might take the cars and go to Fitchburg today and see the country.” But I am wiser than that. I have learned that the swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot. I say to my friend, Suppose we try who will get there first. The distance is thirty miles; the fare ninety cents. That is almost a day’s wages. I remember when wages were sixty cents a day for laborers on this very road. Well, I start now on foot, and get there before night; I have travelled at that rate by the week together. You will in the meanwhile have earned your fare, and arrive there some time tomorrow, or possibly this evening, if you are lucky enough to get a job in season. Instead of going to Fitchburg, you will be working here the greater part of the day. And so, if the railroad reached round the world, I think that I should keep ahead of you; and as for seeing the country and getting experience of that kind, I should have to cut your acquaintance altogether. 

Henry David Thoreau

[Bognoz]

I would rather save one of these hawks than have a hundred hens and chickens. It is worth more to see them soar, especially now that they are so rare in the landscape. It is easy to buy eggs, but not to buy hen-hawks. My neighbors would not hesitate to shoot the last pair of hen-hawks in the town to save a few of their chickens! But such economy is narrow and grovelling. It is unnecessarily to sacrifice the greater value to the less. I would rather never taste chickens’ meat nor hens’ eggs than never to see a hawk sailing through the upper air again. This sight is worth incomparably more than a chicken soup or a boiled egg. So we exterminate the deer and substitute the hog.

ibid

[Kirk]

A.O.C. is wildly optimistic about the state we are in, we certainly don't have 12 years to change our ways.

In twenty five years we have made 75% of the insects die, in the next twenty five we will see the last of them die, and if stopping people from flying in jets will fix that then you are grounded.

What a bunch of selfish assholes occupy this planet, the sooner they step off, the better.

[Bognoz]

Every member of that collective "they" you

reference has a name and a face, they

are you and I. You asked me once

kindly not to be so selfish as to step off.

You know I would have done it willingly.

[Bognoz]

We most definitely are a bunch of selfish assholes.

[Kirk]

It's different when it's us

[jaded prol]

All of us are complicit, having to live in the system we have to live in. Still, we can choose to be passive and part of the real crisis or we can be active in supporting solutions.First we have to see through the bullxit of diversionary fake crises we are assaulted with daily to the interconnected real ones -- especially the unfolding climate catastrophe. I recently wrote an article on this for a local rag --

https://almarkowitz....-our-times.html

[artemis]

One thing's a trade-off for another.

 

Indeed. 

Save the planet or save your soul.

And you have a limited amount of time to work, either way.

 

the real crisis

 

I'm sorry, but the real crisis is the state of my soul.

So I'll work on that.

Selfish?

Depends on your perspective, as Ted Breaux used to like to say.  Always got me, that.

 

It's different when it's us

 

Best comment in the whole sorry-ass thread.

[artemis]

[Bognoz]

Theodore "Chipmunk" Nugent.

The irony is achingly rich.

[jaded prol]

>the real crisis

 

I'm sorry, but the real crisis is the state of my soul.

So I'll work on that.

Selfish?

Depends on your perspective, as Ted Breaux used to like to say.  Always got me, that.

 

You got a soul?

No one on a dead planet will even remember you existed.

 

And Ned Tugent is a loud gas-bag moron.

[Bognoz]

Generally speaking, scientists assess the current rate of extinction as somewhere between 100 to 10,000 times Mother Nature's regular pace.

 

The sixth mass extinction

[Kirk]

I don't give a fuck about your soul, I care about the fact that everything is dying. I hand fed my bees the finest food in the world, I bought them expensive houses and took care of all their needs but they still die.

[Kirk]

Trump said he wants summary execution for drug dealers, he didn't mention treason, I would rather see them execute traitors.

Trump is a treasonous son of a mother fucking bitch and I could spot him from a mile away.

[Kirk]

Sorry about your soul, I didn't mean I don't care about it, but I'm not worried about it and I'm not trying to save it.

[Bognoz]

“Arnold went into treason as into a business, surveying the ground and estimating the possible profits.”

Carl C. Van Doren, winner of 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.

[Bognoz]

George Washington expressed complete trust

and respect in General Benedict Arnold.

The current president sez he knows better

than all the generals under his command.

[Kirk]

Lock him up, put him and his family under the jail

[artemis]

Sorry about your soul, I didn't mean I don't care about it, but I'm not worried about it and I'm not trying to save it.

 

That was more or less the whole point.  Nobody can save me but me.  And I have no confidence in my ability to save anybody or anything else, so I'll do the work that I CAN (maybe) do, and that ONLY I can do.

[artemis]

I hand fed my bees the finest food in the world, I bought them expensive houses and took care of all their needs but they still die.

 

I've been there, done that - subject of course to my available resources

- with a human being. 

When we have a shared experience that's remotely equivalent, then maybe we can talking about feeling somebody else's pain.