Drama Queen was feeling somewhat better by the time we got there, so she went thrift shopping with us. We bought a few things. Then we went back to their house and helped with some cleaning and yardwork. It was pretty worthwhile.
When we got home, 4-ish, I submitted the Hispanic Ministry budget. I assume someone will look at it no later than Monday, because Sunday is the deadline.
So, I *did* finish all the musical passages for the version of Matthew 26 & 27 I'm working with.
And, as I predicted, stitching them together into one continuous score is taking hours – but it might be done in first-draft form today! I've got from Gethsemane to the tomb stitched together already.
I posted this last night, but for you daytimers, Here's a delightful video clip of someone mimicking multiple Asian languages. My favorite was "crunchy rubber band"...
Have watched this three times now. Still laughing!! 🤣🤣🤣
But. RE: daytimers
For decades I was a 3rd shifter at work, a dyed-in-the-wool, bona fide night owl. Yet, I functioned perfectly well during any and all daytime hours then and still do now, despite my keeping all hours since I had to stop working a year and a half ago.
Which leads me to ask what makes you so sure that at least a couple of us out here aren't one of these...
I've heard of snakes on a plain, but on a shoulder? I think it'd hurt to have an 8' tattoo put on your body. Plus it seems it wouldn't leave much room for anything else. I just wonder if people will leave you alone if you show them your 8' tattoo; will they think you're a stick?
So, Cynthia, you're writing TSAFs under a nom de plume now? That's cool, but couldn't you have come up with a better one than that MARQUEsomething-or-another thing you used today? I mean, really?!
Moving on... As I read today's edition, I found myself wondering when you might do a TSAF on that prolific and all-to-common creature now infesting the environs of Washington D.C. along with the capitol of every state in the country: Politicious obsequious.
If unfamiliar, P. obsequious is as ugly and noxious an example of species-interbreeding as one might ever wish to find, this particular example involving rats and snakes and commonly referred to by several more common and species-appropriate names, such as snakes in the grass, dirty rats (not to be confused with dirty rat bast**ds, a particularly odious sub species) and sons of b**ches, though I've never seen the utility, let alone the appropriateness, of maligning a whole 'nother species in an attempt to appropriately malign this one.
Anyway, just a suggestion. You're just so good at writing about creepy-crawly things.
Well, somebody's always getting triggered about something these days, aren't they? And what particularly triggers me about this is that the word slice-and-dice concerning what's lawful or not or ethical or not or just plain good or not now apparently infects the USF&WS and NMFS, an infection almost as serious as the one that compels people to use a hearty alphabet soup of acronyms when trying to say or write anything about anything concerning anything the government does these days, amirite?
Now, this may not be anything quite on the level of the Championship Word Parsing discussed by yours truly in this space already, but still...
> The Trump administration plans to eliminate habitat protections for endangered and threatened species in a move environmentalists say would lead to the extinction of critically endangered species because of logging, mining, development and other activities.
At issue is a long-standing definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act, which has included altering or destroying the places those species live.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service said in a proposed rule issued Wednesday that habitat modification should not be considered harm because it is not the same as intentionally targeting a species, called “take.” Environmentalists argue that the definition of “take,” though, has always included actions that harm species, and the definition of “harm” has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. <
I'm not sure that bringing the Supreme Court's *definition of words* into the discussion will make much of a difference because, well... never mind.
Play stupid word games, win stupid prizes.
Edit: That last brings up something of interest: community standards
Which the proprietor of this blog may want to review, if he actually has any to review. Which should obviously now be questioned, since after engaging in something I very, very rarely if ever do - placing a few words in a Yahoo comment section following a story which arrives in my inbox via one of their news feeds - resulted in my comment being deleted and me being email-reprimanded quicker than you can say community standards for my words having violated their community standards.
And what did I say about the story (linked below, if interested - which I was, if only to get my ration of online stupidity colliding with IRL consequences all in one shot for the day) ... What did I say about the story from Rolling Stone about a mega successful YouTuber (whom I myself might characterize as a YouTumor, but I digress) and the complete faux pas made of his brand by a Vegas hotel licensed to use his name and brand as a promotion for profit?
What was so egregious as to bring instant cancellation of me and my 1A rights to express myself in Yahoo's space by its A1 - um, don't I mean AI? Hell, I don't know - word and speech watchdog? Well...
So, you can see how I might be concerned about a lack of community standards in this space, since if there actually were any, I'd expect to find myself censored and reprimanded for the coda to my comment above by the time I close this tab and return to my inbox, just as with my still fresh experience with Yahoo. I mean if an upstanding online citizen like Yahoo won't put up with me, what does it say about this Marque guy that he will?
But then what does it say about me that I hang out in a place that fits the MarqueCyst axiom I always try to live by of not belonging to any organization that would actually have me as a member?
My blacksmithing forge is set up outside under a canopy and I have a table piled with metal oddments - scraps, screw-ups, ideas in progress.
There is a rat snake that likes to crawl over the metal to shed. I saw him/her last week, checking things out and drinking from the quench bucket. No shedding yet.
Between 4 and 5 feet long and with a full belly (hopefully full of voles).
Most smiths use propane forges. Coal is still around but metalurgical grade is getting harder to find and more expensive. I have both but rarely use coal and am not very good with it. I worry about the smell with the neighbors. Some people use coke or just plain charcoal to avoid that issue.
Chinese anvils are interesting. The Chinese have figured out it is worth their time to make decent inexpensive anvils and ship them to the US. They are very popular. We use 65 lb Vevor anvils for teaching - save the big expensive ones for smiths who won't ding them up. The smaller anvils are also
convenient for travel.
I have a 100 lb Arm and Hammer anvil from around 1900 and a second hand Chinese anvil. The Arm and Hammer is traditional shape with a square heel. The Chinese anvils are European in shape, with a rounded horn on one end and a tapered flat horn on the other.
I find the "cheap Chinese tools" situation interesting. We don't have as much large scale manufacturing as we once did, but inexpensive and decently made tools have made lots of small scale manufacturing possible. And the existence of people who know how to make things, even just as a hobby, is a much needed counterbalance to knowledge that exists only in the brain but not in the hands.
I've seen some really nice German anvils, where one can crop a ball bearing on it and it will bounce for a minute. The cheaper Chinese anvils...they bounce for a few seconds and they sound tinny. I've been looking for an old anvil, but I've heard they're in short supply and highly sought after.
I've got a Civil War era sausage press that is a work of art. The iron is so high quality it is just plain beautiful. The machining on it is first rate.
Agree on the cheap tool thing making work accessible for the current age. I also have some of the old goods I picked up at garage sales before that became a thing. The old steel was remarkable. I've got a couple Record vices from 50+ years ago that are things of beauty. The new ones, not so much. Functional, useful, but not beautiful.
I know old anvils were easier to find when I got into blacksmithing about eight years ago. Alas I did not take advantage of it.
Old tools carry the imprint of their makers in a way that mass produced tools don't. That connection with the toolmaker is inspiring. And they feel good in the hand.
And beauty and "cool" are not the same thing. Aggressive fonts on the labels and electric colors do not cut it - although they are easier to find amidst the clutter.
I remember seeing a bit of a PBS dramatization of the life of John Adams, some time around the Bicentennial. In one scene, he is out mending fences on his property with the farm hands. He had the experience of doing field work shoulder to shoulder with field hands, as well as the experience of doing diplomacy with diplomats and legislating with other legislators. The closest we have to fostering that kind of cross class interaction is in the military but the people who would benefit most from the experience don't go into the military.
All the talk about encouraging trade school rather than college, focusing solely on income, misses something really important. As it stands, choosing to go into the trades - a decision usually made in high school - comes down to a choice away from civic leadership opportunities and, frankly, status.
It doesn't have to be. I think it would be great to include a leadership education path within trade schools. For one thing, the body gives out before the need to earn a living and such a path would allow the experience to continue to bear fruit.
But more importantly, it would establish a route by which a broader base of the population could bring their experience into corporate and civic leadership, into actually running things. I believe the existence of such an option would be good even for those not choosing it, in that it challenges the existing hierarchy - asserting that knowledge of, say, plumbing, and of the issues argued in The Federalist Papers are not mutually exclusive. It could begin to heal the us-them attitudes I hear in tradespeople talking about government.
Last, it would be a step towards addressing the perceived IQ issues that steer people away from the trades.
Good morning. 39 degrees this morning with highs predicted in the 60s. sunny day.
The mothership is reporting on the bond markets, which investors are not treating as a safe haven as they once were. The FP is headlining the much discussed the Garcia “mistaken” deportation case to El Salvador, admitted to be an error which the Trump administration refuses to try to correct (or ask Trump’s good buddy Bukele from EL Salvador to correct). Suffice it to say that the case (which has caused The Bulwark and others to opine we are now living in a “police state”) is not as clear cut as often reported. (That is not to say it’s not concerning. The sloppiness and cruelty of Trump’s deportations is shocking).
Well, Phil, it's indeed not a "simple" case as to the merits of whether or not Garcia could or should be legally deported as so many folks seem to think.
He came here illegally years ago, remained here illegally for many more years, got into an immigration scrap, was then denied asylum but then granted ongoing protected status against deportation by a lawful order of a sitting judge legally empowered to do so (what sense that actually made is for bigger brains than mine to explain), with said court order then being violated and Garcia being deported by ICE under direction of the Trump administration, and ergo de facto by Trump himself, without the legal due process owed him and which our laws require and in direct defiance of another lawful court order.
Which is the whole shootin' match about him in particular, and the rest of the El Salvador renditioned deportees in general: lawful due process. Something that is the *Constitutional* right of anyone and everyone with their feet on American soil for any reason at the time of their arrest or detainment or interrogation by American law enforcement from *any* law enforcement agency, federal or state, it makes no difference.
Because the Bill of Rights makes no difference or distinction as to the rights therein contained belonging to bona fide citizens or illegal immigrants or any class or demographic of people in between, since it only contains the word "people" when describing to whom those enumerated rights belong and never uses the word "citizen" even one time... zero, zip, nada. And this was by the intentional design and purpose of the Founders.
What exactly that "process" looks like and amounts to varies by circumstance, but what it does *not* look like in any way shape or form is being "administratively errored" out of the country or being illegally renditioned to a foreign land out of the juridistiction of American jurisprudence without recourse to legal counsel beforehand and in contravention of a lawful court order, and then being left to one's fate as the President of this country defies the highest court in the land.
So, while it could be credibly argued that the Bulwark's and others' opinions that we're now living in a police state are at least technically untrue and incorrect in that the rule of law, with all its longstanding and inherent imperfections, is intact and functioning normally for the most part throughout the country, minus the glaring examples of its failure to so function at the hands of Trump and others in the Executive branch in specific cases such as this one and others...
It also can be more than credibly argued that America as a police state is just one step away from the state of things now, that state being the open and gleeful defiance of a unanimous Supreme Court order for executive action by the government, that defiance overtly directed by the executive whose duty it is to follow the law on a matter such as this, which now violates the most basic premise of our Constitution: that we are a nation governed by the rule of law and by the consent of the governed, to whom those who govern are answerable not just through the ballot box but through the more immediate constraint of American jurisprudence and equally by the oath they took to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, that being the instrument by which we all consent to be governed.
That the ballot box is not readily available as a remedy and that the Congress is clearly unwilling to honor its oath to the Constitution and remove from office the now clear existential threat which that heart and soul of our country now faces is more than enough reason to be more alarmist in the view of the current situation than less. At least as far as I'm concerned anyway.
Which is why I don't fault the Bulwark (of which I'm pretty sure most here know I'm a long time member) nearly as much for any "Never Trump" hyperbole they may now engage in as I do the ant-anti-Trumpers or Trump and / or MAGA adjacents or outright apologists at other self-described democracy-affirming publications for their delusions and / or wishful misconceptions of the current state of play in American politics, governance and the naked usurpation of power in the broad light of day in the executive branch.
Just because not everyone hears or recognizes or acknowledges all the bells of a five-alarm fire doesn't mean the damned thing won't burn yours or my or all of our houses down faster than anyone can say, "Huh. Didn't see *that* coming."
I agree that the "police state" worries of the Bulwark crowd are not entirely unfounded. But we aren't there yet.
Garcia had his due process in that he was already subject to a deportation order. The problem was there was a separate, uncontested order that he not be sent back to El Salvador due to threats on his life. The Trump administration sent him back to El Salvador anyway to be housed in an El Salvador prision at American expense.
What is most shocking is that the Trump administreation admits an "administrative mistake" yet refuse to even lift a finger to influece the El Salvador government to return him (or to deport him elsewhere). Trump has their president in the Oval Office, and rather than pressure him publicly, allowed him to say, "He's not coming back." And Trump's DHS secretary is in El Salvador and has been in tnat prision. Clearly, the Trump administration has a great deal of influence that they are unwilling to use, to correct their admitted "mistake".
When Trump wants to pressure foreign governments, he can use and has used a great many tools at his disposal, from tariffs to cutting off foreign aid. He is doing none of that with El Salvador.
But arguing that garcia was deported without due process is flatly incorrect. he had due process which resulted ina deportation order. It is also incorect that Trump has defied a Spureme Court order. Basiclayy, ScOTUS agrees with a lower court that the Trump administration should "facilitate" Garcia's return but is trying to clariy the lower court order to "effectuate" that return.
The real worry is that the next "administrative mistake" may involve a green card holder or even a naturalized US citizen.
Your point about Garcia's due process vis a vie an actual straight-forward "deportation" as an illegal is taken, and a fact of his case of which I was not aware until now. And there'd be no objection here if he'd been deported in accordance with the court order. But he wasn't.
And that he wasn't and now is denied any effort at remedy by willful neglect of Trump and his people is unconscionable and unacceptable, and since I've already been over the word parsing thing about "facilitate", "effectuate', etc., I won't go back there. I'll only say it's all common-sense-defying BS, which is exactly the point of the whole exercise to those in the government perpetuating the hoax that Trump is powerless to act and to act effectively.
We all know - or should know - just as Trump and his people do know - what the ultimate real-world intent of the SCOTUS order is, and that Trump's intent is to prove that he can successfully deny and thwart the will of the highest court in the land, no matter how word meanings are parsed or what legal technicalities involving upper and lower court rulings are involved.
Garcia is now no more than a tool for Trump to push the envelope on Executive power and authority to the breaking point and see whether or not it breaks. That he offers the authority of a tin horn banana republic president who's as deep in Trump's pocket as one can get as an excuse for not taking any remedial action on Garcia's behalf is as transparent as the Saran Wrap on a ham sandwich in a working stiff's lunchbox.
You mentioned what happens when the next "administrative mistake" involves a green card holder of a naturalized U.S. citizen. Well, what I'm waiting to see is how the tension between stand-your-ground laws and qualified immunity plays out when said mistake involves attempting to grab up an innocent U.S. citizen, legally armed with a concealed weapon, off of a street by a group of perhaps masked officers with no identifying markings on their military-style uniforms... or they're in plain clothes with no uniforms at all, and they offer no immediate and clear tangible proof of their authority or who they are as the citizen rightfully fears for his safety and manages to proceed in blowing one of their heads off, and then pays for the rightful defense of his safety and wellbeing with his own life right there on the spot.
Don't think due process will be of much import in those circumstances.
And one probably shouldn't think that it can't or won't happen, given the chances of an "administrative error" coupled with the arrogance and mindset of certain law enforcement officers and their zeal to wield their authority over others.
I can imagine how I'd react if people of whom I had no idea of who or what they were suddenly appeared around me on a sidewalk or in some other public space, or surrounded my car and tried to take me in hand with no clear identification and no reason known to me for them be acting in such a manor.
Yeah. Sure. What could possibly go wrong with that?
Thanks for the link. I'll check it out later after both the nags and I are all fed. I have one you may or may not be interested in since you seem to put a lot of stock in Free Press reporting, if I can remember where to find it. Will see to that a bit later, since I can hear the nags out back demanding their due process as I type this.
Drama Queen is poorly today and has asked for help with the baby, so F, D, and I are headed Uptown. We'll take baby to thrift stores!
Good thing I didn't have anything on the calendar today. I'll find time to make song pages and submit the Hispanic Ministry budget request at some point ...
I feel like I owe to the Finance Council chairman and the new business manager: they are acting very reasonably, answering questions intelligently, signaling that reasonable requests will be approved, and not being racist. I mailed thank-you notes, on my nice picture cards, to them earlier this week.
Totally envious. Our grandbabies are about the same age. My Drama Queen -- her dad's name for her -- is stationed in Okinawa, so Nana doesn't get to be useful and only rarely gets her hands on The Remarkable Diapered One
I still send actual birthday cards to family members. I am trying to form a consistent habit of writing people letters and sending them in the mail. I bought some attractive note cards to use, and some interesting stamps to send them with. Now I just need to follow through.
I send postal birthday cards to many people; I think I sent about 50 last year. I just sent one to one of my Kathy friends (I have several friends named Cathy/Kathy, and coincidentally I'm also married to one as well).
I go to various stores and buy several at a time, whenever I see one I think fits someone.
For Kathy (the recent card), it had a raccoon on the front; "Trash Panda wishes you a Happy Birthday"! On the inside it read "Trash Panda also wants to know if you're eating that cupcake wrapper".
She liked it. I toyed with putting a cupcake wrapper in the card but decided against it. Three years ago I re-gifted her a t-shirt. It read "Don't flatter yourself; the only reason I look up to you is because I'm short". I bought it for my DIL, my son told me she wouldn't like it, so I re-gifted it to Kathy. Katie approved, once I showed her a picture of Kathy and her 6'4" son. Kathy loved the t-shirt and promises to wear it sometime around her son.
18 drives per round, and approximately 70-80 strokes for the rest of it. I've taken to hitting a 5 iron off the tee. I can get it out there about 190-ish with roll, and I'm in the fairway instead of employing a weed whacker to find my ball in the bushes.
On the one and only day I was on a driving range with a bucket of golf balls, coached by a good buddy (the best man at my wedding which was the next day), I hit maybe about half of them. My buddy’s goal was to distract me from “pre-wedding jitters”. He was successful. I was so frustrated, I was not jittery about the wedding.
A golf driving range would be in my purgatory. A full 18 hole golf course would be in my Hell.
Really! That’s cool. I’ve seen it, walked around it in winter, but not played it. It is a surprisingly cool course in the middle of America….links style is my favorite, and Purgatory abides.
A lot of folks at Naval Avionics play there. The other two courses the NAC crowd loved was the IMS SPeedway course (I've walked it) and the course at the former Fort Benjamin Harrison (east side of Indy, just outside I-465). That is also a beautiful course!
Good morning, everyone. Happy Thor's Day! It was a little cold for an outdoor walk, but I found a hat and gloves. No appointments on the calendar today. F is asking to go thrift shopping; maybe we will.
So, how much does a thrift cost now-a-days, what with inflation from tariffs and all. I'm guessing you're not shopping for any imported thrifts, since that would sort of be, well, sort of self-defeating as long as domestic ones remain available, no?
Currently a nice sunrise and 40, but rain showers expected. Heading to Pittsburgh today to visit our daughter for Easter. She's joined the choir in her church since we were last there, so looking forward to seeing that.
My sister will be singing a solo Friday evening at her church. She's good, but it's still a Very Big Deal for her. Her solo is in the 7th movement of John Rutter's "Requiem."
Many years ago, my brother got recruited for the youth choir when the choir director overheard him humming along with the bass line that the organist was playing.
Drama Queen was feeling somewhat better by the time we got there, so she went thrift shopping with us. We bought a few things. Then we went back to their house and helped with some cleaning and yardwork. It was pretty worthwhile.
When we got home, 4-ish, I submitted the Hispanic Ministry budget. I assume someone will look at it no later than Monday, because Sunday is the deadline.
So, I *did* finish all the musical passages for the version of Matthew 26 & 27 I'm working with.
And, as I predicted, stitching them together into one continuous score is taking hours – but it might be done in first-draft form today! I've got from Gethsemane to the tomb stitched together already.
Congratulations on your success so far, and may it continue!
I posted this last night, but for you daytimers, Here's a delightful video clip of someone mimicking multiple Asian languages. My favorite was "crunchy rubber band"...
https://x.com/TRHLofficial/status/1912582713631965445?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1912582713631965445%7Ctwgr%5Ec387a3ec3d447a68d1e3efe19ca4bd890e8c7c96%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnotthebee.com%2Farticle%2Fthis-guy-is-here-to-tell-us-how-to-tell-asian-languages-apart-in-the-most-hilarious-way-possible
Excellent!
Brilliant! Thanks
Have watched this three times now. Still laughing!! 🤣🤣🤣
But. RE: daytimers
For decades I was a 3rd shifter at work, a dyed-in-the-wool, bona fide night owl. Yet, I functioned perfectly well during any and all daytime hours then and still do now, despite my keeping all hours since I had to stop working a year and a half ago.
Which leads me to ask what makes you so sure that at least a couple of us out here aren't one of these...
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HgWCWHTB4Mc
II may not work "in the field" but it's great for laughs!
I've heard of snakes on a plain, but on a shoulder? I think it'd hurt to have an 8' tattoo put on your body. Plus it seems it wouldn't leave much room for anything else. I just wonder if people will leave you alone if you show them your 8' tattoo; will they think you're a stick?
asking for an artistic friend, of course.
You misspelled "plane". Or maybe "Victoria davis Hanson" has struck again!
So, Cynthia, you're writing TSAFs under a nom de plume now? That's cool, but couldn't you have come up with a better one than that MARQUEsomething-or-another thing you used today? I mean, really?!
Moving on... As I read today's edition, I found myself wondering when you might do a TSAF on that prolific and all-to-common creature now infesting the environs of Washington D.C. along with the capitol of every state in the country: Politicious obsequious.
If unfamiliar, P. obsequious is as ugly and noxious an example of species-interbreeding as one might ever wish to find, this particular example involving rats and snakes and commonly referred to by several more common and species-appropriate names, such as snakes in the grass, dirty rats (not to be confused with dirty rat bast**ds, a particularly odious sub species) and sons of b**ches, though I've never seen the utility, let alone the appropriateness, of maligning a whole 'nother species in an attempt to appropriately malign this one.
Anyway, just a suggestion. You're just so good at writing about creepy-crawly things.
And speaking of species...
https://apnews.com/article/trump-endangered-species-act-habitat-protection-rule-a4c5663a5e49cc0325665edc338263b4
Well, somebody's always getting triggered about something these days, aren't they? And what particularly triggers me about this is that the word slice-and-dice concerning what's lawful or not or ethical or not or just plain good or not now apparently infects the USF&WS and NMFS, an infection almost as serious as the one that compels people to use a hearty alphabet soup of acronyms when trying to say or write anything about anything concerning anything the government does these days, amirite?
Now, this may not be anything quite on the level of the Championship Word Parsing discussed by yours truly in this space already, but still...
> The Trump administration plans to eliminate habitat protections for endangered and threatened species in a move environmentalists say would lead to the extinction of critically endangered species because of logging, mining, development and other activities.
At issue is a long-standing definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act, which has included altering or destroying the places those species live.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service said in a proposed rule issued Wednesday that habitat modification should not be considered harm because it is not the same as intentionally targeting a species, called “take.” Environmentalists argue that the definition of “take,” though, has always included actions that harm species, and the definition of “harm” has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. <
I'm not sure that bringing the Supreme Court's *definition of words* into the discussion will make much of a difference because, well... never mind.
Play stupid word games, win stupid prizes.
Edit: That last brings up something of interest: community standards
Which the proprietor of this blog may want to review, if he actually has any to review. Which should obviously now be questioned, since after engaging in something I very, very rarely if ever do - placing a few words in a Yahoo comment section following a story which arrives in my inbox via one of their news feeds - resulted in my comment being deleted and me being email-reprimanded quicker than you can say community standards for my words having violated their community standards.
And what did I say about the story (linked below, if interested - which I was, if only to get my ration of online stupidity colliding with IRL consequences all in one shot for the day) ... What did I say about the story from Rolling Stone about a mega successful YouTuber (whom I myself might characterize as a YouTumor, but I digress) and the complete faux pas made of his brand by a Vegas hotel licensed to use his name and brand as a promotion for profit?
What was so egregious as to bring instant cancellation of me and my 1A rights to express myself in Yahoo's space by its A1 - um, don't I mean AI? Hell, I don't know - word and speech watchdog? Well...
"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes."
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/mrbeast-las-vegas-experience-resorts-world-refunds-1235319381/
So, you can see how I might be concerned about a lack of community standards in this space, since if there actually were any, I'd expect to find myself censored and reprimanded for the coda to my comment above by the time I close this tab and return to my inbox, just as with my still fresh experience with Yahoo. I mean if an upstanding online citizen like Yahoo won't put up with me, what does it say about this Marque guy that he will?
But then what does it say about me that I hang out in a place that fits the MarqueCyst axiom I always try to live by of not belonging to any organization that would actually have me as a member?
I'm a woman of mystery.
That sounds... ominous. Should we merely be afraid? Or should we be very, very afraid?
Mildly anxious and jumpy.
🤣🤣🤣
You mean like this 😬 as opposed to 😱?
Authorship fixed: Thanks!
You seem to be studying up for an Earl-King-grade morning rant! 🤩🤩🤩
Also, don’t you mean “MarqueCyst”?
OK. I took care of that last. One good fix deserves another. Won't make that mistake again!
Hah!
"There's nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head."
.....Thornton Wilder
My blacksmithing forge is set up outside under a canopy and I have a table piled with metal oddments - scraps, screw-ups, ideas in progress.
There is a rat snake that likes to crawl over the metal to shed. I saw him/her last week, checking things out and drinking from the quench bucket. No shedding yet.
Between 4 and 5 feet long and with a full belly (hopefully full of voles).
OK...blacksmithing forge... Do tell.
Metal makes me happy.
I wish we could attach pictures. How do you fire it? Do smiths use coal nowadays?
Anvils. I read about the quality differences between new (Chinese) and old (European/American) anvils. What kind of anvil do you have?
Most smiths use propane forges. Coal is still around but metalurgical grade is getting harder to find and more expensive. I have both but rarely use coal and am not very good with it. I worry about the smell with the neighbors. Some people use coke or just plain charcoal to avoid that issue.
Chinese anvils are interesting. The Chinese have figured out it is worth their time to make decent inexpensive anvils and ship them to the US. They are very popular. We use 65 lb Vevor anvils for teaching - save the big expensive ones for smiths who won't ding them up. The smaller anvils are also
convenient for travel.
I have a 100 lb Arm and Hammer anvil from around 1900 and a second hand Chinese anvil. The Arm and Hammer is traditional shape with a square heel. The Chinese anvils are European in shape, with a rounded horn on one end and a tapered flat horn on the other.
I find the "cheap Chinese tools" situation interesting. We don't have as much large scale manufacturing as we once did, but inexpensive and decently made tools have made lots of small scale manufacturing possible. And the existence of people who know how to make things, even just as a hobby, is a much needed counterbalance to knowledge that exists only in the brain but not in the hands.
Man...the last sentence...for sure.
I've seen some really nice German anvils, where one can crop a ball bearing on it and it will bounce for a minute. The cheaper Chinese anvils...they bounce for a few seconds and they sound tinny. I've been looking for an old anvil, but I've heard they're in short supply and highly sought after.
I've got a Civil War era sausage press that is a work of art. The iron is so high quality it is just plain beautiful. The machining on it is first rate.
Agree on the cheap tool thing making work accessible for the current age. I also have some of the old goods I picked up at garage sales before that became a thing. The old steel was remarkable. I've got a couple Record vices from 50+ years ago that are things of beauty. The new ones, not so much. Functional, useful, but not beautiful.
I know old anvils were easier to find when I got into blacksmithing about eight years ago. Alas I did not take advantage of it.
Old tools carry the imprint of their makers in a way that mass produced tools don't. That connection with the toolmaker is inspiring. And they feel good in the hand.
And beauty and "cool" are not the same thing. Aggressive fonts on the labels and electric colors do not cut it - although they are easier to find amidst the clutter.
I remember seeing a bit of a PBS dramatization of the life of John Adams, some time around the Bicentennial. In one scene, he is out mending fences on his property with the farm hands. He had the experience of doing field work shoulder to shoulder with field hands, as well as the experience of doing diplomacy with diplomats and legislating with other legislators. The closest we have to fostering that kind of cross class interaction is in the military but the people who would benefit most from the experience don't go into the military.
All the talk about encouraging trade school rather than college, focusing solely on income, misses something really important. As it stands, choosing to go into the trades - a decision usually made in high school - comes down to a choice away from civic leadership opportunities and, frankly, status.
It doesn't have to be. I think it would be great to include a leadership education path within trade schools. For one thing, the body gives out before the need to earn a living and such a path would allow the experience to continue to bear fruit.
But more importantly, it would establish a route by which a broader base of the population could bring their experience into corporate and civic leadership, into actually running things. I believe the existence of such an option would be good even for those not choosing it, in that it challenges the existing hierarchy - asserting that knowledge of, say, plumbing, and of the issues argued in The Federalist Papers are not mutually exclusive. It could begin to heal the us-them attitudes I hear in tradespeople talking about government.
Last, it would be a step towards addressing the perceived IQ issues that steer people away from the trades.
Or so it seems to me.
Lucy is our artisan!
Good morning. 39 degrees this morning with highs predicted in the 60s. sunny day.
The mothership is reporting on the bond markets, which investors are not treating as a safe haven as they once were. The FP is headlining the much discussed the Garcia “mistaken” deportation case to El Salvador, admitted to be an error which the Trump administration refuses to try to correct (or ask Trump’s good buddy Bukele from EL Salvador to correct). Suffice it to say that the case (which has caused The Bulwark and others to opine we are now living in a “police state”) is not as clear cut as often reported. (That is not to say it’s not concerning. The sloppiness and cruelty of Trump’s deportations is shocking).
Well, Phil, it's indeed not a "simple" case as to the merits of whether or not Garcia could or should be legally deported as so many folks seem to think.
He came here illegally years ago, remained here illegally for many more years, got into an immigration scrap, was then denied asylum but then granted ongoing protected status against deportation by a lawful order of a sitting judge legally empowered to do so (what sense that actually made is for bigger brains than mine to explain), with said court order then being violated and Garcia being deported by ICE under direction of the Trump administration, and ergo de facto by Trump himself, without the legal due process owed him and which our laws require and in direct defiance of another lawful court order.
Which is the whole shootin' match about him in particular, and the rest of the El Salvador renditioned deportees in general: lawful due process. Something that is the *Constitutional* right of anyone and everyone with their feet on American soil for any reason at the time of their arrest or detainment or interrogation by American law enforcement from *any* law enforcement agency, federal or state, it makes no difference.
Because the Bill of Rights makes no difference or distinction as to the rights therein contained belonging to bona fide citizens or illegal immigrants or any class or demographic of people in between, since it only contains the word "people" when describing to whom those enumerated rights belong and never uses the word "citizen" even one time... zero, zip, nada. And this was by the intentional design and purpose of the Founders.
What exactly that "process" looks like and amounts to varies by circumstance, but what it does *not* look like in any way shape or form is being "administratively errored" out of the country or being illegally renditioned to a foreign land out of the juridistiction of American jurisprudence without recourse to legal counsel beforehand and in contravention of a lawful court order, and then being left to one's fate as the President of this country defies the highest court in the land.
So, while it could be credibly argued that the Bulwark's and others' opinions that we're now living in a police state are at least technically untrue and incorrect in that the rule of law, with all its longstanding and inherent imperfections, is intact and functioning normally for the most part throughout the country, minus the glaring examples of its failure to so function at the hands of Trump and others in the Executive branch in specific cases such as this one and others...
It also can be more than credibly argued that America as a police state is just one step away from the state of things now, that state being the open and gleeful defiance of a unanimous Supreme Court order for executive action by the government, that defiance overtly directed by the executive whose duty it is to follow the law on a matter such as this, which now violates the most basic premise of our Constitution: that we are a nation governed by the rule of law and by the consent of the governed, to whom those who govern are answerable not just through the ballot box but through the more immediate constraint of American jurisprudence and equally by the oath they took to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, that being the instrument by which we all consent to be governed.
That the ballot box is not readily available as a remedy and that the Congress is clearly unwilling to honor its oath to the Constitution and remove from office the now clear existential threat which that heart and soul of our country now faces is more than enough reason to be more alarmist in the view of the current situation than less. At least as far as I'm concerned anyway.
Which is why I don't fault the Bulwark (of which I'm pretty sure most here know I'm a long time member) nearly as much for any "Never Trump" hyperbole they may now engage in as I do the ant-anti-Trumpers or Trump and / or MAGA adjacents or outright apologists at other self-described democracy-affirming publications for their delusions and / or wishful misconceptions of the current state of play in American politics, governance and the naked usurpation of power in the broad light of day in the executive branch.
Just because not everyone hears or recognizes or acknowledges all the bells of a five-alarm fire doesn't mean the damned thing won't burn yours or my or all of our houses down faster than anyone can say, "Huh. Didn't see *that* coming."
I agree that the "police state" worries of the Bulwark crowd are not entirely unfounded. But we aren't there yet.
Garcia had his due process in that he was already subject to a deportation order. The problem was there was a separate, uncontested order that he not be sent back to El Salvador due to threats on his life. The Trump administration sent him back to El Salvador anyway to be housed in an El Salvador prision at American expense.
What is most shocking is that the Trump administreation admits an "administrative mistake" yet refuse to even lift a finger to influece the El Salvador government to return him (or to deport him elsewhere). Trump has their president in the Oval Office, and rather than pressure him publicly, allowed him to say, "He's not coming back." And Trump's DHS secretary is in El Salvador and has been in tnat prision. Clearly, the Trump administration has a great deal of influence that they are unwilling to use, to correct their admitted "mistake".
When Trump wants to pressure foreign governments, he can use and has used a great many tools at his disposal, from tariffs to cutting off foreign aid. He is doing none of that with El Salvador.
But arguing that garcia was deported without due process is flatly incorrect. he had due process which resulted ina deportation order. It is also incorect that Trump has defied a Spureme Court order. Basiclayy, ScOTUS agrees with a lower court that the Trump administration should "facilitate" Garcia's return but is trying to clariy the lower court order to "effectuate" that return.
The real worry is that the next "administrative mistake" may involve a green card holder or even a naturalized US citizen.
FPS's article, well worth reading: https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-supreme-court-deportations
Your point about Garcia's due process vis a vie an actual straight-forward "deportation" as an illegal is taken, and a fact of his case of which I was not aware until now. And there'd be no objection here if he'd been deported in accordance with the court order. But he wasn't.
And that he wasn't and now is denied any effort at remedy by willful neglect of Trump and his people is unconscionable and unacceptable, and since I've already been over the word parsing thing about "facilitate", "effectuate', etc., I won't go back there. I'll only say it's all common-sense-defying BS, which is exactly the point of the whole exercise to those in the government perpetuating the hoax that Trump is powerless to act and to act effectively.
We all know - or should know - just as Trump and his people do know - what the ultimate real-world intent of the SCOTUS order is, and that Trump's intent is to prove that he can successfully deny and thwart the will of the highest court in the land, no matter how word meanings are parsed or what legal technicalities involving upper and lower court rulings are involved.
Garcia is now no more than a tool for Trump to push the envelope on Executive power and authority to the breaking point and see whether or not it breaks. That he offers the authority of a tin horn banana republic president who's as deep in Trump's pocket as one can get as an excuse for not taking any remedial action on Garcia's behalf is as transparent as the Saran Wrap on a ham sandwich in a working stiff's lunchbox.
You mentioned what happens when the next "administrative mistake" involves a green card holder of a naturalized U.S. citizen. Well, what I'm waiting to see is how the tension between stand-your-ground laws and qualified immunity plays out when said mistake involves attempting to grab up an innocent U.S. citizen, legally armed with a concealed weapon, off of a street by a group of perhaps masked officers with no identifying markings on their military-style uniforms... or they're in plain clothes with no uniforms at all, and they offer no immediate and clear tangible proof of their authority or who they are as the citizen rightfully fears for his safety and manages to proceed in blowing one of their heads off, and then pays for the rightful defense of his safety and wellbeing with his own life right there on the spot.
Don't think due process will be of much import in those circumstances.
And one probably shouldn't think that it can't or won't happen, given the chances of an "administrative error" coupled with the arrogance and mindset of certain law enforcement officers and their zeal to wield their authority over others.
I can imagine how I'd react if people of whom I had no idea of who or what they were suddenly appeared around me on a sidewalk or in some other public space, or surrounded my car and tried to take me in hand with no clear identification and no reason known to me for them be acting in such a manor.
Yeah. Sure. What could possibly go wrong with that?
Thanks for the link. I'll check it out later after both the nags and I are all fed. I have one you may or may not be interested in since you seem to put a lot of stock in Free Press reporting, if I can remember where to find it. Will see to that a bit later, since I can hear the nags out back demanding their due process as I type this.
I looked up to see the WI version and we have the Gray Ratsnake that is of special concern. No catching them, Thor. What does he do with them?
They taste like chicken.
The other, other, other, other white meat.
(from the movie "Extreme Days")
Let’s see….chicken, pork, Ostrich…snake…(?)
Relocate them to the far side of the camp, in the Wilderness Survival area.
Drama Queen is poorly today and has asked for help with the baby, so F, D, and I are headed Uptown. We'll take baby to thrift stores!
Good thing I didn't have anything on the calendar today. I'll find time to make song pages and submit the Hispanic Ministry budget request at some point ...
I feel like I owe to the Finance Council chairman and the new business manager: they are acting very reasonably, answering questions intelligently, signaling that reasonable requests will be approved, and not being racist. I mailed thank-you notes, on my nice picture cards, to them earlier this week.
Totally envious. Our grandbabies are about the same age. My Drama Queen -- her dad's name for her -- is stationed in Okinawa, so Nana doesn't get to be useful and only rarely gets her hands on The Remarkable Diapered One
> I mailed thank-you notes <
Oh, how I miss professional business etiquette. Though we were always weak on that here in the redneck-hillbilly environs…
It's the least I can do. I used to write cards all the time to Steve, my mom, and Doris, but they all died.
If any CSLF people want a pen pal, let me know! All the quotidian minutiae!
I still send actual birthday cards to family members. I am trying to form a consistent habit of writing people letters and sending them in the mail. I bought some attractive note cards to use, and some interesting stamps to send them with. Now I just need to follow through.
My friends & family tell me I'm the last of them to keep the post office in business. Not willing to surrender yet...
My mom (RIP) sent notes. My big sister still does. I lost that habit. I'm dong good to send an email or text!
I send postal birthday cards to many people; I think I sent about 50 last year. I just sent one to one of my Kathy friends (I have several friends named Cathy/Kathy, and coincidentally I'm also married to one as well).
I go to various stores and buy several at a time, whenever I see one I think fits someone.
For Kathy (the recent card), it had a raccoon on the front; "Trash Panda wishes you a Happy Birthday"! On the inside it read "Trash Panda also wants to know if you're eating that cupcake wrapper".
She liked it. I toyed with putting a cupcake wrapper in the card but decided against it. Three years ago I re-gifted her a t-shirt. It read "Don't flatter yourself; the only reason I look up to you is because I'm short". I bought it for my DIL, my son told me she wouldn't like it, so I re-gifted it to Kathy. Katie approved, once I showed her a picture of Kathy and her 6'4" son. Kathy loved the t-shirt and promises to wear it sometime around her son.
They all died?What were you writing on these cards?
Weather, church gossip, Scout news ...
Must've been the Scout news ....
Or the Teen Trauma.
Lyrics from Blue Oyster Cult?
"Seasons don't fear the reaper
nor do the wind and the sun and the rain
we can be like they are
c'mon baby
we'll be able to fly
don't fear the reaper
baby I'm your mannnnnnnnnnn
nah nh nah nah nah. "
It's odd...spiders? EEEEK! Snakes? meh...
I’m at peace with spiders. Less so with snakes.
This guy hates snakes as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClwIj3x24Q4
Sage fellow!
I've always admired swashbuckling archeologists.
Everyone has his own set of fits and starts.
I really don't mind snakes. One big reason for that is they do not attempt to enter my home.
Snek attack!
Warm, breezy, lovely weather in Wuhan. I went to the driving range and hit 3 buckets of balls...short irons are righteous, everything else is awful.
China golfers are as lousy as American golfers.
I have a chipping green basically in my back yard (just beyond my fence) and I really need to use it more. My short game is very inconsistent.
18 drives per round, and approximately 70-80 strokes for the rest of it. I've taken to hitting a 5 iron off the tee. I can get it out there about 190-ish with roll, and I'm in the fairway instead of employing a weed whacker to find my ball in the bushes.
That’s a good poke for a 5! I need to work on the strategy of getting out of trouble and not making it worse. Too often turn one bad shot into three.
You standing over a chip and thinking about your bike?
I have a theory that golf courses are a major feature of Purgatory.
It's supposed to be in the 70sF today, here, and the 80s tomorrow and Saturday.
I live in the warm part of CA, and you have warmer weather than we do!
On the one and only day I was on a driving range with a bucket of golf balls, coached by a good buddy (the best man at my wedding which was the next day), I hit maybe about half of them. My buddy’s goal was to distract me from “pre-wedding jitters”. He was successful. I was so frustrated, I was not jittery about the wedding.
A golf driving range would be in my purgatory. A full 18 hole golf course would be in my Hell.
https://www.purgatorygolf.com
I know that course, but haven't played it. Beautiful, but a mother of a course.
Really! That’s cool. I’ve seen it, walked around it in winter, but not played it. It is a surprisingly cool course in the middle of America….links style is my favorite, and Purgatory abides.
A lot of folks at Naval Avionics play there. The other two courses the NAC crowd loved was the IMS SPeedway course (I've walked it) and the course at the former Fort Benjamin Harrison (east side of Indy, just outside I-465). That is also a beautiful course!
I’ve walked both those too, same thing, in winter. There are an amazing number of beautiful courses around Indy.
Yikes! And I thought keeping the grass mowed at my place was a pain!
That's cool.
It's my kind of purgatory. Open to the public, everyone is welcome to suffer together.
Good morning, everyone. Happy Thor's Day! It was a little cold for an outdoor walk, but I found a hat and gloves. No appointments on the calendar today. F is asking to go thrift shopping; maybe we will.
So, how much does a thrift cost now-a-days, what with inflation from tariffs and all. I'm guessing you're not shopping for any imported thrifts, since that would sort of be, well, sort of self-defeating as long as domestic ones remain available, no?
I got a very sturdy chair for $9.
Well, that must sit right well with you.
Thanks for the book recommendation! Yesterday was the shortest 2 hour drive in a long time.
You're welcome. Told you it was zippy.
Currently a nice sunrise and 40, but rain showers expected. Heading to Pittsburgh today to visit our daughter for Easter. She's joined the choir in her church since we were last there, so looking forward to seeing that.
I hope everything goes great! Our choir will practice tomorrow night and Saturday morning, because only half the people can come either time.
My sister will be singing a solo Friday evening at her church. She's good, but it's still a Very Big Deal for her. Her solo is in the 7th movement of John Rutter's "Requiem."
I have enjoyed singing that — it’s been a while, though.
I'm practicing singing base, so I can sing solo, really low.
Many years ago, my brother got recruited for the youth choir when the choir director overheard him humming along with the bass line that the organist was playing.
Sun rising over hard frost. Maybe nearing the end of the last-frost-date range. Used to extend till well into May…
It’s 35 and sunny this morning. Perfect walking weather.
My scarf was in the bedroom. I could have used my scarf. I need to bring it back downstairs.