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Sunday Night Open Thread

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 07:35:07 PM EST
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We're about to get a big thunderstorm. More Sunday news:

Whats on your mind tonight? This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

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    Sunday Night Open Thread | 30 comments (30 topical)

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    I read about two people badly burned who (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by jeffinalabama on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 08:19:49 PM EST
    were trying to ride out the fire in their hot tub.

    I fought forest fires one summer while in the Army... they sent us out to Idaho and Oregon. I don't think I'd try to ride one out in a jacuzzi...I value my life too much!

    I would expect a tub (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by andgarden on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 08:28:40 PM EST
    to become a big oven. You don't ride out  a fire--you EVACUATE.

    Parent
    We were issued small aluminum-like (5.00 / 2) (#5)
    by jeffinalabama on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 08:35:19 PM EST
    tents... might have been mylar, I don't know. they were called, gruesomely, "shake and bakes."

    But they'd keep somebody alive. 150-175 degrees is better than 500-1000... if a flash fire cut us off, we were to lie down, cover ourselves with those, and wait. Some USFS smoke jumpers had to use them, and they lived.

    Parent

    Absolutely. (5.00 / 1) (#12)
    by Fabian on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 03:52:24 AM EST
    Those things have saved many lives.

    A hot tub?  Maybe a cistern - if it was large, deep and well covered.  Or a sealed bomb shelter. If the heat doesn't get you, the smoke will and if both of those fail, the lack of oxygen might do the job.  

    Parent

    American royalty (5.00 / 3) (#6)
    by Spamlet on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 08:56:57 PM EST
    Hilarious post by Glenn Greenwald.

    A choice comment (5.00 / 1) (#13)
    by Fabian on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 03:59:07 AM EST
    That MilitaryTracy will appreciate and perhaps others...
    Linebreeding
    should really be left in the hands of skilled practitioners of animal husbandry, otherwise you breed the brains right out of the line, and - as namedujour observes - rather than refinement, you hardwire a certain undesirable coarseness.

    The studbook on these families really needs to be opened for awhile.

    [Linebreeding is the practice of breeding animals to their close relatives - often females are bred to their fathers, grandfathers or brothers presumably to "fix" desired traits, or possibly because the breeder owns those animals and it's cheaper than paying stud fees.]

    Parent

    heh (none / 0) (#36)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 07:08:04 PM EST
    I just saw this.  Is this why so many champion dogs of beauty are clueless wonders :)?

    Parent
    You beat me to it....n/t (none / 0) (#8)
    by oldpro on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 12:32:49 AM EST


    Parent
    Whenever it's fire season (5.00 / 1) (#7)
    by otherlisa on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 10:58:47 PM EST
    I think, there are reasons I pay absurdly high prices to live in Venice.

    It's pretty awful in LA right now. Not so bad in my little corner of it, but if you get to any kind of high ground, you can see the smoke billowing in the mountains from the fires. Really scary. And Mt. Wilson might burn.

    Terrible happenings there, indeed. (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by Radiowalla on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 12:33:35 AM EST
    Not much to say, except "stay safe."

    Parent
    Dick Cheney on Enhanced Interrogation (5.00 / 2) (#11)
    by Woodman on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 01:48:04 AM EST
    Enhanced Interrogation?

    Understand that this is not a newly discovered species.  This is PC-Double-Speak for an age-old carnivore: Torture.  A rose shat upon, by any other name, still stinks to high-heaven.

    Doesn't 'The Media' have a responsibility to call a rose a rose? and not an Enhanced Ingratiation Technique?  Would CNN, MSNBC and even FOX call a rose an enhanced ingratiation technique? just because or even if the vice-president terms a rose so?

    No.  In fact, the Media are complicit in supporting the use of torture each and every time they refer to it as enhanced interrogation.  Webster, American Heritage and the OED have never included 'enhanced interrogation' within the definition of 'torture'.  No encyclopedia has ever defined the iron-maiden, testicular electrocution or thumb-screws as enhanced interrogation techniques.

    Torture is torture.

    Torture has no euphemism.  Types of torture are torture and persons who torture are torturers.  To authorize, order or obey authorized ordered torture makes one a torturer in exactly the same way as are the planner, coordinator and executor of a homicide are all murders...just as the napper, driver and houser are all kidnappers.

    Please, try this: replace the double-speak with reality where ever it occurs...

    e.g., `Waterboarding is an enhanced interrogation technique'.

    replace `waterboarding' with `torture'.

    replace `enhanced interrogation technique' with `torture'.

    Torture is torture.

    It makes no difference if that torture is waterboarding, sleep-deprivation or a loaded weapon being cocked up-against your head.

    Torture is torture.

    Men much wiser, with more direct experience and who suffered a bird's-eye-view of the deaths of quite literally tens of millions...these men came together--following the holocaust of WWII--in neutral Geneva and expressly made a Convention to ensure that non-Nazi-esque techniques of enhanced interrogation were applied to individuals who came into the clutches of soldiers.

    This Geneva Convention is timeless.  There is no wording in it which does not understand, did not take into account, nor falls out of date with the human convention of decency.  That decency is a hallmark of civility, of a free, civilized nation. Such a nation does not revert to barbarism and brutality. Such a nation does not break--in any fashion--this penultimate of humanity's conventions: nothing warrants the torture of human beings and nothing legitimizes the torturer.

    How much more cooperative, forthcoming and confessional might Mr. Cheney become if he were dressed in orange, flown in darkness to a secrete foreign torture chamber, gun-to-head cocked, genitally shocked and waterboarded 183 times?

    Oh now, now now--don't get too excited.  Even the red-alert information surely gleaned from such an eye-for-an-eye enhanced interrogation does not warrant, justify nor legitimize the realization of such an otherwise just contemplation.

    In the interests of transparency (none / 0) (#16)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 08:44:58 AM EST
    let me state up front that I don't consider waterboarding torture. Obviously you do do so let's not get into an "is - is not" discussion. But I would like to ask you this.

    If you believed that a prisoner had information that, if he would tell you, save lives of your fellow citizens or service members, what would you do?

    Now let's don't get hung up in "48" type nonsense, let's just consider this. As a bedrock of Christianity we know that we are our brother's keeper. So would not a failure to do all possible to obtain that information be a moral failure on your part?

    Parent

    Try before you die (none / 0) (#22)
    by Woodman on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 10:33:23 AM EST
    If you don't consider waterboarding to be torture.  Then please consider actually subjecting yourself to the 183 taste-test.  After having been waterboarded yourself 183 times, then tell me your considerations.

    Parent
    I considetr it to be mean and nasty (none / 0) (#24)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 11:22:13 AM EST
    and a proven technique for making terrorists talk.

    But torture? No.

    And since I have done nothing to deserve being waterboarded I see no reason to subject myself to a demonstration of the gag reflex, which is what waterboarding invokes.

    But remember that I said said I see no value in an "is -is not" conversation.

    Parent

    Life without the internet (5.00 / 3) (#15)
    by Anne on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 07:24:25 AM EST
    is hard to get used to, but does have its advantages...

    Almost two weeks ago, we had a bad storm and a very close lightning strike appeared to have taken out the modem.  Verizon sent out a new one fairly quickly, but that didn't solve the problem - we need an actual human being to come figure out what's wrong, and the soonest they could send anyone - that meshed with our schedule - is tomorrow...

    In some ways, I think I am more relaxed in the evenings, but I have missed the connection for checking out all kinds of things.

    Anyway, my birthday was Friday, and my husband and I went to see Julie and Juila - it was a fun movie and Meryl Streep just WAS Julia Child in every way you can think of - and then we went out to dinner.  A nice evening, and it finally stopped raining!

    Saturday, our older daughter had us to her house for a birthday gathering with the rest of the family - and that was great fun, too.

    Sunday our younger daughter's boyfriend invited us to a gathering at his uncle's house - the first time we have met his family, believe it or not.  No surprise that they are as nice and as much fun as he is, and we all had a good time.

    Back to work...but next week we are on vacation, going to the beach for a much-needed break, and since it's off-season, should be a lot quieter during the week.  Already lining up books to sit on the beach and read!

    Only saw part of Teddy's funeral, as we were getting ready to go out, but I thought the intercessions that were read were beautiful.  And Teddy, Jr?  So, so personal and moving.  I was expecting so much more from Obama that I was disappointed at how flat his eulogy was - maybe it's just impossible to follow all those Kennedys and do justice to a tribute, or maybe he was unable to bring his usual rhetorical gifts to it because he was feeling too much grief, himself - I don't know.

    He's got a lot to live up to, that's for sure, and I can only hope he will finally find some of the real courage the Kennedys have, and do what's right for the country on health care.

    My internet addiction (none / 0) (#18)
    by Fabian on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 09:28:37 AM EST
    is weatherdotcom and imdb.  No TV, so I need weatherdotcom to track rain on the radar - important for waiting for the bus and other things.  The political blogs are fun, but I can live without them for days at a time.

    Parent
    Modem (none / 0) (#26)
    by gyrfalcon on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 11:43:26 AM EST
    Disconnect it from everything, both power and phone or cable line, as soon as you hear thunder and wait for it to go by.  I lost two to not very close lightning before I figured that out.

    I now disconnect almost everything, including the answering machine, when a TS comes close enough to hear.  I've lost modems, answering machines and microwave ovens from not very close lightning strikes, despite having some of those things plugged into good surge protectors.  These things are now made with such flimsy innards that it takes very little to zap them dead.

    It's a pain having to do that, but much less of a pain than the time and expense to replace them and get up and running again.

    Parent

    Go to Best Buy (none / 0) (#27)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 11:53:49 AM EST
    and purchase a protection system... Cost about $80.

    Parent
    For the truly dedicated (none / 0) (#31)
    by Fabian on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 01:28:13 PM EST
    you can buy a whole house protector that installs at your power source.

    Alas, that kind of protection does not come cheap.

    Parent

    Protect your phone line and your ac input (none / 0) (#33)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 06:09:33 PM EST
    and you are a long way towards being safe.... and that is cheap.

    Parent
    Hope those TSs go away soon. (none / 0) (#1)
    by Vico on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 07:51:34 PM EST
    I'm flying through on a flight connection tomorrow, and I've spent more unplanned nights in Denver airport hotels than in any other city.

    Well... (none / 0) (#37)
    by MileHi Hawkeye on Tue Sep 01, 2009 at 11:09:28 AM EST
    ...DIA is rated in the top 10 for best airports to sleep in.

    http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13242948

    Parent

    President Uribe of Colombia (none / 0) (#4)
    by jeffinalabama on Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 08:29:41 PM EST
    has Swine flu. He also had an interesting time at a summit in Argentina. Venezuala, Ecuador, and Bolivia condemned his bilateral works with the US. I'm just shocked about those three countries being upset at Colombia's decision to accept more US aid to fight FARC.

    I came to a realization about (none / 0) (#10)
    by The Last Whimzy on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 12:39:40 AM EST
    Health Care reform over the last 24 hours, that the uninsured should start thinking of the system, as it exists right now, as a gun that is pointed at their head.

    It's very easy to manipulate this and say that doing so is an advocation of violence.  IT IS NOT.

    it is a reframing of this debate in a fundamental way that has been sorely lacking from day 1.

    There's that wicked (none / 0) (#20)
    by Fabian on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 09:57:46 AM EST
    "donut hole" in coverage.

    First you are working and can afford both health insurance and health care.  Then you become very ill and can no longer work or pay for health insurance.  If you have no (minor) children, then you need to become either disabled or destitute in order to qualify for government health care programs.

    You might be able to scrape up some care at clinics (got transportation?) or annual charity events (once a year - whoopee!) but you are SOL for at least a year.

    Parent

    PPP (none / 0) (#14)
    by andgarden on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 07:10:31 AM EST
    tweets that the WaPO story on extremist "Taliban" Bob McDonnell is having an impact on his numbers.

    That's good news, because McDonnell is really an odious individual.

    Happy Birthday... (none / 0) (#19)
    by desertswine on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 09:30:47 AM EST
    and many more to follow.

    Football great... (none / 0) (#29)
    by desertswine on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 12:16:45 PM EST
    Tedy Bruschi retires.

    Dark Avenger, take a time out (none / 0) (#32)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 06:05:28 PM EST
    and come back when you can respond without making personal attacks on others' intelligence, etc.

    This thread is cleaned of those comments and their responses.

    ok, let's see how others respond to him (none / 0) (#35)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 06:56:34 PM EST
    or whether they just ignore him. Thanks.

    Sunday Night Open Thread | 30 comments (30 topical)

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