One very special snowflake, our “Creepy-Tings”. From the Denver Post, “Feds chase criminal case against artist who marred rocks in parks“:
She calls it art, proudly signing her urban-influenced sketches and posting photos of them online, like a sort of Banksy in the wild.
The National Park Service calls it criminal.
The agency on Thursday announced it was investigating 21-year-old Casey Nocket’s recent cross-country jaunt during which she allegedly painted faces and sketches on rock formations in as many as 10 national parks, including Rocky Mountain National Park.
The agency, which did not name Nocket, said its investigation spans the nation’s most iconic Western parks. Investigators said the woman’s vandalism was found in Yosemite and Death Valley national parks in California, Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and Zion and Canyonlands parks in Utah. National Parks Traveler on Thursday posted a photo of Nocket’s trademark scribble inside Rocky Mountain National park…
Nocket, who hails from Highland, N.Y., posted her coarse scribbles — sometimes even photos of herself sketching — on her Instagram and Tumblr accounts under the name Creepy-Tings.
After a backpacker posted photos of a Nocket painting along a trail near Yosemite’s Vernal Falls on the website Reddit, the site’s savvy Internet sleuths tracked the photo to Nocket’s social media accounts…
The Internet rage grew with Nocket’s apparent lack of remorse.
A painting she posted on her Instagram account of a blue-haired lady on a rock overlooking Oregon’s Crater Lake prodded one of her followers to ask if she was using paint or chalk. Nocket responded that it was acrylic: “I know, I’m a bad person.”
In response to angry posts on her Tumblr site early Thursday, she defended the paintings, saying, “It’s art, not vandalism. I am an artist.”…
Young lady, you are no more an artist than my little dog, piddling against a wall to prove that he wuz there. And if you’d confined your pathetic scribbles to public bathrooms and industrial sidings, you wouldn’t be damaging the irreplaceable. So yes, you are a bad person, or at least a bad actor, and I hope you are not only punished to the full extent of the law but internet-shamed until you scrabble around in your dim little brain and find yourself a clue.
***********
Apart from idiots behaving badly, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
feebog
I just finished a mystery novel by Colin Cottrel wherein the killer was an “artist” who staged killings in colorful settings with the victim always wearing an orange hat. The killer got started by taking pictures of dressed up road kill. I know, sounds kinky, but the novel was pretty good. The title was taken from a GWB misspeak, so bonus points for reference.
Hungry Joe
Yet another empathy fail — I can’t begin to imagine what conditions must be like in this quarter-wit’s brain.
Our agenda? The time has come: We have to decide between the Leaf and the Volt. I keep getting whipsawed from one to the other. Suggestions?
Violet
Waiting for my parents’ doctor to call to go over their blood work results. Do not try to keep up with my exciting life.
The Dangerman
I assume this is evidence that long term smelling of acrylic paints causes brain damage?
Baud
I’m with the luddites. Artistry is not a defense.
srv
What does Banksy think?
Luthe
Really, if she wanted to paint on rocks, she should have asked Clive Bundy if he had a few
in his headto spare. There are millions of acres of private land in the west she coulddesecrateadorn with her art, but instead she chooses National Parks?What an ass-waffle.shelley
You want to make a temporary ass of yourself, use water-colors.
Corner Stone
I read that the first time and thought it said “married rocks”, and I was all like, “Damn you Obama!”
Baud
On a more important note, does anyone have an HTC One m8 or an LG G3? Which should I get?
Steeplejack
Gonna try to have the steak dinner I didn’t have last night. Which means I need to get that potato in the oven to bake for an hour.
Also trying to decide whether to spring for Amazon’s Fire TV Stick, which they’re offering to me (as a Prime customer) on double-secret sale for $19 (half price). It’s the souped-up successor to the Chromecast gizmo. I didn’t have one of those, but I gave one to some friends for their non-smart TV and it worked well for them. The big attraction of the new stick, aside from the low price, is that it would make it easier to stream Netflix and Amazon Prime stuff to my smart but not so new TV. I have until Wednesday morning to decide.
srv
@Baud: Luddites don’t use Android.
Laertes
Hope they throw the book at her hard enough that it makes a noise that other entitled assholes can hear.
Corner Stone
Spare the outrage. Those rocks have survived a few millennia worse than a little bad artistry.
And for those calling for her head, she gets to be punished but it’s somehow ok to have war criminals walking free?
That’s what’s wrong in this country. We get our panties bunched about false quarantines and bad sketches that hurt no one, yet somehow agree it’s just fine to let state sanctioned torture float on by.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Decided to go steak and salad. I don’t want dinner right this minute, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to wait an hour.
Corner Stone
If we can’t prosecute the entitled tech guy who destroyed a natural space of wonder to have his wedding, why are we so het up on this, all of a sudden?
Trollhattan
@Luthe:
Could not have said it better.
Unless she’s a 900-year old Anasazi priestess; in which case we probably owe her this. They were the new world’s first masters of Instagram, you know.
srv
@Corner Stone:
I’m glad we can all focus on the blonde witch.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: Potato privilege just reeks off you. Who are you to expect the humble potato to wait on you?
SatanicPanic
She’s still an artist… just an irresponsible and shitty one. And hopefully one who will be paying a bigass fine, though if we could arrange for her to scrub her paintings off as part of her restitution that would be cool.
Corner Stone
I say we quarantine her. Just because reasons.
Citizen Alan
Stories like this just make me sad for the future of the species. There have, of course, been much darker periods in human history. But I can’t think of an era when there was such a spirit of nihilism in the world, a belief that everything that exists is but a piece of tissue, existing only long enough to contain our snot before being tossed away. I regularly thank God for the fact that I don’t have children.
Anne Laurie
@Corner Stone:
Funny you should ask about Sean Parker — he’s been ordered to produce an ‘apology app‘.
ranchandsyrup
Someone is excited to switch to solid food.
raven
Off to see Hooray for the Riff Raff!
srv
@Corner Stone: A little Ebola would go a long way to cutting down those park crowds.
Has anyone done virus art?
dmsilev
Stuck at work for the next while because a piece of equipment decided to throw a hissy fit. Since hissy fits on this particular piece of equipment can cause (small) explosions, there’s a whole long list of things to check before leaving it alone for the night. Why do hissy fits always start at 4:30 PM instead of 9:30 AM?
alhutch
@Hungry Joe: Volt (maybe even wait for the 2nd gen arriving in late ’15, if you can). Range extending engine when you need it makes the difference to me.
srv
@Hungry Joe: Go Tesla or don’t get home.
EriktheRed
I live in what is generally considered a non-wingnut state (IL), but right down the road from me…..
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/27/1339596/-Wanted-ROTC-Military-Science-Professor-No-Non-Christians-Need-Apply
Trollhattan
@Hungry Joe: @alhutch:
That’s pretty much how I’d compare them. For somebody who just commuted and did local trips and who had a rock-solid way to recharge both at home and potentially, work, then the Leaf makes sense. Otherwise, the Volt gives unlimted range to essentially anywhere while still offering electric-only commuting and running errands, which IMHO is slicker than a standard hybrid.
SatanicPanic
@Corner Stone: yeah, I can’t remember anyone ever getting upset about torture. Not once.
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: I used to have a boss that would frequently come into my office at 5:05 pm on a Friday with a problem he suddenly needed me to look at. Bastard.
I would have preferred a machine. Still, I feel your pain.
Joel
@Corner Stone: she should be fined the appropriate maintenance and repair costs, which I imagine range in the tens of thousands of dollars.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@ranchandsyrup: OMG. Cuteness overload.
Laertes
@Corner Stone:
Nobody’s calling for her to be beheaded. An appropriate punishment would be a big fine and some community service. Something corresponding roughly to the expense of repairing the damage she did, and inconvenient enough that it penetrates her sense of entitlement and will discourage copycat vandals.
As to war criminals going free, I regret that probably about as much as you do, but I don’t see how it’s relevant. Maybe you can connect the dots for us?
Hungry Joe
@srv: The mid-price Tesla is due out in about three years, so we’ll get a three-year lease on this car to tide us over. (Unless someone wants to kick in the extra $50K for the current Tesla … )
@alhutch: Range is of course a factor, but this will be our in-town car; we have a Prius for when we feel emboldened to venture out of San Diego County.
Corner Stone
@SatanicPanic: As long as she gets an appropriate sentence relative to our opprobrium re: torture.
That’s all I ask.
SatanicPanic
@Corner Stone: Why?
Laertes
What’s any of this got to do with torture? One of us is crazy. Is it me?
Corner Stone
@srv:
Hmmm, topically relevant, yet timeless. Sense of connectedness and expression. Larger picture thinking.
Damn.
ranchandsyrup
@The Fat Kate Middleton: :) thx.
SatanicPanic
@Laertes: I don’t get it either.
Elizabelle
Give that aspiring artist a government-paid for cell, which she can decorate with all the chalk she desires. If the Bureau of Prisons is down with her beautification scheme.
Make an example of this young miss.
Artfluenza is no more compelling a defense than Affluenza.
Leave our fine parks Alooooone!
Corner Stone
@SatanicPanic: It’s because you’re incapable of celebrating the aesthete of the true artiste.
max
@Baud: On a more important note, does anyone have an HTC One m8 or an LG G3? Which should I get?
Well, there’s in M8 in the house. Swore off LG a couple years ago when I partly borked the LG I had (it wasn’t my fault), and then couldn’t fix it because LG wasn’t posting ROM images for that phone. That was on top of the fact that every LG product I ever bought went bad faster than any other manufacturer’s similar product would. (Imagine my surprise wandering through the hardware store looking at washer/dryers and seeing LG was making those and very expensive ones at that. Oh, hell no.)
So I’d be biased on the G3. Maybe they have sorted that all out (seen it happen very occasionally – HP sorta made a quality comeback from the Fiorina years).
Anyways, the M8 has a very sensitive screen, HTC does tend to load a lot of crap on their phones (but they aren’t as awful as the AT&T bloatware – yeesh), but it works well enough. The size of the phone combined with the thinness means that the one that was here cracked (it was in the wrong pocket), but there was a replacement warranty on it, which they did come through on.
max
[‘HTH.’]
KG
@Corner Stone: the answer is obvious. Ms. Nocket likely can’t afford a good attorney, which means she will get a public defender (at least it’ll be a federal public defender which would, in theory, be better than a state PD), which means she’ll have to plead out. your other examples can afford good attorneys.
Elizabelle
@ranchandsyrup:
And M’s got the teeth to do it!
Do not see the dogs lurking under the high chair, confident of good snacks.
WereBear
@ranchandsyrup: It’s great to just be that happy about something :)
We got our kitten back from the altering, and he’s just now starting to walk properly as the ketamine wears off. Our next-youngest cat is treating him like Pod-Mithy. It’s both funny and heart-breaking — they were best buds yesterday, and should be tomorrow.
Trollhattan
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
Yup, that’s a lot of adorbs for one sitting.
Hungry Joe
@SatanicPanic: I, too, confess to being flummoxed. We can’t get upset about a clueless, crappy artist defacing our national parks because we didn’t get upset enough about torture? Who didn’t? I certainly did, and made my voice heard … but I didn’t try, personally, to arrest Dick Cheney, so I guess I should stifle any outrage about Yosemite and acrylic paint.
KG
i like to think that the ancients that left cave paintings were actually the miscreants of their tribes, the elders shaking their heads and attempting to banish the painters from the clan/tribe.
Baud
@max:
Thanks. I was partial to the LG because of the extra gig of memory, but I definitely want something reliable.
ranchandsyrup
@Elizabelle: heh. They’re down there for sure.
@WereBear: Hope your kitten recovers quickly and well.
SatanicPanic
@Corner Stone: Yesterday I went to McDonald’s and the ice cream machine was broken so they gave me Chicken McNuggets as a replacement. The McNuggets were good, but they didn’t fill my need for fake ice cream and frankly I am still craving it. Until then I can’t be hectored into caring about anything besides a McDonald’s ice cream cone and bad artists who deface places that I like to visit, especially Joshua Tree. My reasoning is eminently reasonable.
max
@SatanicPanic: She’s still an artist… just an irresponsible and shitty one. And hopefully one who will be paying a bigass fine, though if we could arrange for her to scrub her paintings off as part of her restitution that would be cool.
Seconded. Those were some exceptionally crappy sketches she left behind for future generations.
@Corner Stone: We get our panties bunched about false quarantines and bad sketches that hurt no one, yet somehow agree it’s just fine to let state sanctioned torture float on by.
Who’s we, white man? I disapprove! Unfortunately, everyone agrees that desecrating rocks in the national parks is gross, whereas 50% of the country is pretty sure the cattle prod thing was A-OK. makes it difficult to carry through on the outrage. Of course, we could compare this to the hunt for Bill Clinton’s penis versus say, Enron and Dick Cheney. Same problem.
max
[‘Bleh.’]
Karen in GA
@ranchandsyrup: Congrats! Solid food is so much easier to throw.
Corner Stone
@SatanicPanic: No idea what fast food has to do with the fact that we’re excoriating this young and vital artist but did not, in fact, even bother to try to punish war criminals and torturers.
ranchandsyrup
@Karen in GA: LOL! True
E.
Cornerstone and all, the outrage here is because Americans tend to be — pretty much all of them — really proud of our National Parks. Even people who don’t go to them are proud of them, and proud of being proud of them. So when somebody like Nocket just totally misses that boat completely, just completely fails to see that what she is doing is utterly beyond the pale of decent behavior, we all get to be astonished and shocked and pissed off. It isn’t because painting a rock is a particularly bad thing on the overall taxonomic chart of Bad Things, it’s because we are so amazed that anyone could think it is anything short of downright awful. Torture on the other hand, I am not actually kidding here, is seen by many as having two sides to it. Not so painting rocks in National Parks.
Ruckus
@Trollhattan:
Been passed on the freeway by a dofus in a Volt. And not in a good way. But the thing seems to accelerate pretty good to around 100 so power doesn’t seem to be an issue.
I’d go with the Volt for the reason you gave as well. We are pretty stuck with gas for a while, until someone comes up with a better battery, we learn to sell hydrogen to your average person, or we have no where to drive to. You could use a Tesla, but the cost is 3-4 times the Leaf/Volt so that’s right out for the vast majority.
Trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
Who the fuck is “we”–you and the mouse in your pocket?
Also, too, she’s definitely young and definitely not “vital.”
SatanicPanic
@Hungry Joe: For one, I think if the Bush Admin had posted torture pix on Instagram it might have made prosecuting them a bit easier. Maybe I’m naïve.
Anne Laurie
@KG:
The cave painters demonstrated considerable technique and invented entirely new forms and methods.
This Nocket fleshlump is just smearing shite on surfaces. And if she used actual shite, instead of the extruded plastic variety, it would at least be biodegradable.
MomSense
@Violet:
Oh, Violet. I’ve been through stretches of taking care of kids and parents at the same time and it is really taxing. You have been providing loving care for a long time now so I do hope that you are making time for your own rest and regeneration. I admire your commitment and the love you have for your parents.
Karen in GA
Since we’re asking about tech stuff (and by “we” I mean a small handful of us), what are the odds that I can run Photoshop Elements 12 (or 13) on a laptop that costs under $600?
I know, I should get a monstrously powerful iMac iScreaming iDesktop. Sadly, my interests outpace my income.
realbtl
@Hungry Joe:
From what you told me about your work needs etc plus the solar, go with the Leaf. If I didn’t have to deal with below zero winter temps I’d be in one now as the big city is only 20 miles away.
SatanicPanic
@Corner Stone: Your refusal to empathize with my need for creamy McDonald’s ice cream is on a par with Bush’s refusal to turn himself in to the Hague for War Crimes. I am disappointed with you, my friend. Very disappointed.
MomSense
@Hungry Joe:
I’m not the person to ask. Today was probably my last day commuting on my bike. It is just too cold in the morning. I’m switching from my bike to my new balance for my work commute. My kids use the cars to commute to school.
El Caganer
Is this the right thread for the Monday Night White People’s Problems Meeting?
Liberty60
@Corner Stone:
I hear ya.
Yesterday a cop pulls me over for speeding, and I says to him, “What, why are you so hard on me, when Dick Cheney is walking around free?”
Karen in GA
@El Caganer: No, that’s down the hall. This is Argument.
Elizabelle
@El Caganer:
tee hee
Hungry Joe
@Corner Stone: I remain flummoxed. Seriously, I’m not understanding this at all. Are you saying that because we, as a nation, did not “even bother to try to punish war criminals and torturers,” we — as individuals, as a bloggish-type community, whatever — should refrain from commenting on/getting upset about anything less egregious than torture? How about the GOP’s shutting down of the government? That wasn’t as bad as torture, so I guess we should have kept mum on that one. And Citizen’s United, however awful we may think it is, well, we’ve no right to get upset about it because, hey, it isn’t even the same league as torture.
Or am I missing something? (And yes, that’s a real question.)
Corner Stone
@Trollhattan: I’m afraid I don’t understand the non sequitur there. I don’t have a mouse in my pocket.
Listen, this isn’t hard. We need to address real issues that actually impact society and our future, and drop off this kind of nonsensical hatefest as a kind of panacea. It’s art, it’s subjective. So she made proprietary use of the commons to make a statement, so what? How is that more worthy of punishment than those who took our proverbial innocence into the basement and dunked it 192 times?
Trollhattan
@Ruckus:
I think that’s a good read on things. The density of charging stations really needs to ramp up before electric-only cars can make complete sense. In big metro areas that could be achievable relatively soon; elsewhere, not so much. Rapid-charge technology isn’t really here either, but I think they’re getting better at that. A universal swappable battery is another possibility–that could solve a lot of issues.
I’d need a second fulltime job to even think about a Tesla but am really smitten by both the looks and their performance. They can launch like a rocket.
Corner Stone
@SatanicPanic: You shouldn’t be patronizing McD’s in any event. They won’t pay their employees a minimum wage, and therefore, are worse than mediocre artists using the acrylic medium.
Peej
@WereBear: he’s got that evil vet smell on him.
WereBear
I would like to state, for the record and all Eternity (the Internet being what it is) that I am sick to death of the whining about the Issue duPost when There-Are-Bigger-Crimes that the whiner vastly prefers to get upset about.
I don’t care what it is — there’s always something bigger.
Sure, complain about W’s war crimes, but did he murder six million people because of their religion? But you can shut up about Hitler, because Stalin starved more millions than that just to get the hard cash for the food they should have eaten. And shut up again, because there’s someone worse than Stalin, isn’t there, because Chairman Mao killed maybe even a few million more just to not admit he was a lousy leader.
What next, throw all our diseases into a pit and only the most awful, excruciating, and terminal get funding? We install a jello-pit at the UN so countries can fight it out over who has the worst atrocities? And we shouldn’t say anything about the climate problem because a meteor would be worse and faster?
It’s just childish oneupmanship and gets nothing done. The next time ya feel the urge, just lift your stupid fingers and move them over to actually doing something about it, why don’t you?
I’ll even be pleased if you come back and tell us what you did.
Trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
She broke federal law and the law should be enforced. Period.
If somebody would like to change the laws regarding what is currently illegal in national parks, then they may propose those changes. I would fight such changes tooth and claw. Just as I’d reinstate the law prohibiting firearms in national parks.
The end.
Laertes
@Corner Stone:
It’s not. And nobody said it was.
This has been SATSQ.
KG
@Anne Laurie: the blue haired lady isn’t that bad, i’ve seen worse gypsy girl tattoos. i just have a hard time getting worked up over this. i understand the need to have graffiti laws and all that, but this is just sort of a “eh” thing for me.
Corner Stone
@Liberty60: Were you punished, roundly? Then I don’t think it’s the same thing, at all.
Peej
I got home to find that the power was off in the neighborhood. Therefore anything I was planning on doing has been shot to hell. The big question is how long the battery on the cell phone is going to last.
WereBear
@Peej: I’m sure he does. But after the day he’s had, I’m not about to add a bath on top of it.
Corner Stone
@Trollhattan:
Finally! We arrive at an agreement!
SFAW
What to do this evening, what to do …
I know! I’ll go check the Boston Globe, to see what their endorsement of Martha Coakley has to say. That should give her the boost she needs to beat Baker.
SatanicPanic
@WereBear: Have you considered global warming? I think that’s the worst crime against humanity, ever. Until we deal with that, everything else is just white people problems.
MomSense
@ranchandsyrup:
Aw, such a sweetie.
Mary G
HBM went back to his family after 14 months of hard work. Two weeks later I ditzed out in my bathroom and slipped and fell. I have fallen dozens of times without injury. This time made up for all of them. I managed to plant my right foot firmly and twirled around 180 degrees, causing a truly spectacular compound fracture of tibia, tubular and ankle bones and dislocating the ankle as well.
Of course, I had taken the cell phone out of its pouch that I wear it in around my neck and not put it back, so I had to scootch through my bedroom and down the hall on my back using hands and elbows and left foot to propel myself. It took about an hour and I think it was quite the accomplishment under the circumstances, if I do say so myself.
I called 911 and got hauled off to the ER, where it took them seven fucking tries to start an IV so I could have pain meds. Then they tried to reduce it there.
Even with medication that was a rotten thing to do and did not even begin to work. So I had surgery later that Night, spent three days having antibiotics pumped in and now I am incarcerated in a “skilled nursing facility” with the roommate from hell. I got to go outside today, which was awesome!
Also this is first time I’fe been able to get on the Internet, so today is a good day. Please excuse the typos as I’m on my Kindle Fire, which sucks for typing.
Corner Stone
@Hungry Joe: If we can’t do something about state sponsored torture, then how can we do something about anything else?
tybee
@E.:
making her move to texass would be punishment enough
Baud
@Mary G:
No good deed goes unpunished. Get well soon.
SFAW
@WereBear:
Except for Obama, of course – History’s Greatest Monster.
Corner Stone
@Mary G: Well crap. It always comes down to this. Performance art can never come anywhere close to harsh reality.
That stinks, get well.
Baud
I’ll have to get up early on Sunday so the first post in Anne Laurie’s garden thread can be “How can you talk about gardening while Dick Cheney walks free?”
tybee
@Hungry Joe: given GM’s versus Nissan’s attention to detail and reliability: the Leaf.
Ruckus
@Trollhattan:
Had a long discussion with an owner one day and I’d say I’m pretty sold. Except for the price and my transportation needs. I’ve owned one car in the last 40 yrs, I move stuff around and a car just wasn’t practical. So I’m stuck with trucks, vans, etc. Did own a Honda Element which fit my needs and got not unreasonable gas mileage, 22-23 around town, 27-28 highway. Of course they stopped making it, I’m sure, not because I liked it, there had to be some other reason.
Corner Stone
@tybee: What’s this all about with your hard on for Texas living? It seems the lady doth protest too much, at some point.
tybee
@Corner Stone:
you’re no lady.
bemused
@SatanicPanic:
Talenti gelato Sea Salt Caramel is to die for. Target & Walmart carry it, lot of other flavors too.
SiubhanDuinne
@WereBear:
Tho. He’th mithing thomething?
Ruckus
@Mary G:
Wow.
At least it sounds like you are doing better. Good luck and hope you heal right on up.
Hope that HBM is in a good place now, good on you for doing that.
@Baud: already said the smartass thing I was going to.
Steeplejack
@Mary G:
(A) Thanks for the update, and (B) how terrible! My thoughts are with you for your quick recovery. I hope you have someone who can do things for you—bring you your computer and treats, check on your house and dog, etc. And let us know if there is anything that we can do. (Maybe there is a willing Juicer in your area.)
Schlemazel
@Corner Stone:
How can you be outraged by a minor war criminal when there is ethnic cleansing going on in Africa?
See, this is an easy game to play, we can all play along.
EDIT: I see @Baud: got here too.
chopper
@Ruckus:
they stopped making the element because i made the mistake of telling somebody that it’s the greatest vehicle ever made.
MomSense
@Mary G:
Oh MaryG, damn that is too much. I am so sorry. How are you feeling now? I hope that you are healing well and that you will recover fully and quickly.
Sending best wishes for healing and a big hug.
chopper
@Schlemazel:
there’s probably an intergalactic war going on somewhere in the universe. trillions of intelligent, worthwhile lifeforms dead.
Laertes
Oh, wait. I understand now.
Shorter Corner Stone: “I care way more about torture than you guys do.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Karen in GA:
Don’t give me that, you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings!
Corner Stone
@Schlemazel:
Finally!
Hungry Joe
@Corner Stone: How can we do anything else, if we didn’t do something about state-sponsored torture, you ask?
Well, somehow we managed to pass the weak-though-it-may-be Affordable Care Act, so millions of Americans can now get medical care. We’re reducing penalties for marijuana and in some cases even legalizing it. We’ve been pushing for gay marriage and winning. We’re fighting to reduce global warming. We’re pushing back against the corporatization of public education.
And much more … even as we do nothing about state-sponsored torture. Now, let’s assume we NEVER do anything about our recent history of state-sponsored torture. That’d be (is!) a disgrace, an outrage, a shonda, a stain on our country. But it wouldn’t mean that everything else would stop, that that’s the end of all progress forever, that we can never again discuss any other matter without being bald-faced hypocrites.
So it seems I’m still not understanding your point.
Violet
@MomSense: Yeah, it is taxing. My parents are doing pretty well and this was kind of a follow up. Their doctor is amazing and a geriatric specialist, which is really nice because there are differences in things as we age and a geriatrician knows that when looking at blood work and other signs.
Fortunately the call went pretty well and although there are a few items to do, there isn’t anything really major. Good news!
Household is exciting too now because a family member is now sick with a viral infection that turned into a bacterial chest infection and includes laryngitis. Doctor today prescribed antibiotics and full voice rest for the week. Yay. It’s like doing charades to communicate. Getting a small whiteboard tomorrow for ease of communication. I’m tired of interpreting hand signals.
bemused
A fitting punishment for Nocket should be that she remove and clean up every rock she painted. Of course, that would involve transportation, room and board to all the parks plus supervision so she doesn’t any more damage while undoing her “art” but those expenses could be added on top of whatever damages she may have to pay.
Laertes
@Hungry Joe:
Just goes to prove that you care less about torture than Corner Stone does.
Violet
@Mary G: Oh my gosh that is awful. I’m so sorry to hear about it but glad you got help and are on the mend. Are you going home any time soon? I hope so. Please take care of yourself. Sending healing thoughts through the tubes.
Steeplejack
@Ruckus, @chopper:
We had a middling-long discussion on the Element here a while back. The inside story allegedly was that Honda wanted the Element to be bought by young, outdoorsy hipsters, but it was being bought by middle-aged ex-hippies pining for their old VW Microbus, which was cutting into sales of the Pathfinder, so they deep-sixed the Element. I don’t see why having a good-selling car with a rabid fan base is a problem, but I’m not a marketing genius.
WereBear
@Mary G: Cripes!
That is the worst thing on this thread, right now. I sure hope things get better.
WereBear
@SiubhanDuinne: I LOL’d!
And we are not planning to explain it to him. I hope in the morning he regards the whole thing as a bad acid trip.
Karen in GA
@Mary G: Ugh. Glad it wasn’t worse, at least. But yeah, it sucks as it is. Sending healing thoughts.
Stan of the Sawgrass
@Anne Laurie:
Also: the cave painters went deep into the caves, way way back beyond any living space. I could be wrong, but none of the cave painting sites were discovered before the late 18th century, maybe later. If they’d been in the equivalent of a National Park, we’d have known about them all along; they wouldn’t need to be “discovered.”
“Artist” is a claim of identity, not just an excuse for bad behavior. I’m an artist, but I don’t do stuff that makes a lot of noise after 11pm because the neighbors. Maybe another “artist,” as a performance piece, should kidnap– no, that’s awful, probably worse than what “Creepy-Pirsn” did. Better: seeing her sentenced to scrub off her “art” (and surrender her cellphone and camera first,)
followed by a looong term of community service.
Because: acrylic paint can be washed off with difficulty with denatured alcohol, but it’s going to go into the rock below the surface, and it will leave a permanent mark on any fairly-porous rock surface. A lot of this damage is permanent.
peggy
@Mary G: What a miserable experience. Get well.
Mike in NC
I understand we have a shitty ex-president who is now a shitty artist. But at least not defacing national parks.
WereBear
Obviously, neither are they. When one accidentally gets a good result, one is supposed to maintain that they “meant to do that.”
srv
@E.: We’re purists – what Edward Abbey said.
All those NP roads and parking lots are the graffiti of the masses despoiling these sacred treasures. Hard to get worked up by some girl with acrylics.
Ruckus
@chopper:
Well at least it’s not my fault.
Still, Thanks. My 15, no make that 16 yr old POS van is getting long in the tooth so I’d like to find something to replace it. An Element would be perfect. Of course.
Violet
@Karen in GA: Hey there! Sorry Iggy didn’t get into the finals for the dog picture contest. We tried! Did they tell you what his rank was or did they just release the top ten?
Ruckus
@Steeplejack:
As a past (happy) Element owner I take exception to your description of the average owner. I have never owned a VW microbus. I did learn to drive in a beetle in HS driver ed but that’s as close as I ever got. Or wanted to.
Howard Beale IV
@SiubhanDuinne: Shut your festering gob your tit. Your type really makes me puke you vacuous coffin nose malodorous pervert!
(oh, sorry, you want room 12a just along the corridor. Stupid git.)
MomSense
@Violet:
I am picturing you playing sick bed charades which sounds like the worst kind of charades ever. Hopefully the white board will help so at least you know what you are being asked for.
Hope the antibiotics kick in and your family member is much improved.
Are you getting any time for yourself?
Stan of the Sawgrass
Casey’s Uncle Ed enables her once again:
“She’s got a lot of talent,” he said. “She’s not seeing that she is doing something that is not condoned. She probably has a different approach to it.”
I think it’s called “sociopathy.”
Anne Laurie
@Mary G: Owwwww! You are a mighty woman, but I wish you hadn’t had to prove it quite so… dramatically!
May your recovery be swift, and as pain-free as possible. Do let us know if there’s anything can be done at long distance…
Violet
@MomSense: Thanks. It’s actually kind of funny but it feels like a one-sided conversation as I guess and guess until I get the communication right. I preferred the text messaging we were stuck with when said family member was traveling for work and came down with this mess. Had to go to the doctor in another country while not being able to speak. Fun! Didn’t get any antibiotics there and finally cut the trip short and came home. It has been a crap ass couple of weeks.
Getting some time for myself. The weather here is lovely and I’ve been out in the garden when I can. Absolutely nothing has been done in the garden for awhile so it’s in great need of attention. Last spring when I was in the middle of the worst of the stuff with my parents I never got around to harvesting the onions. They went to seed and now the seeds have sprouted and I have onion sets. I’ll be transplanting those over the next week. Win!
WereBear
@Violet: Have you invented a new saying?
When life make you neglect your onions you get onion sets?
It needs some work and a catchy graphic.
satby
@Mary G: oh Mary G! You’re a tough cookie, get well soon. Do you have animals needing care or anything?
debbie
The Ohio GOP may be challenging Nixon’s CREP for the scumball crown:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/10/27/who-got-access-to-fitzgeralds-personal-data-to-check-license.html
There was widespread outrage when someone accessed Joe the Plumber’s records. Firing her wasn’t enough for the teabaggers. Where are the libertarians now?
Violet
@Mary G: Also wanted to add that maybe there is an opportunity to find someone to live with you when you return home and help you out like HBM did before he moved out. Maybe in exchange for a free room or something. Dance around in your bones who posts here got a job via Craigslist as a companion for an older woman. There are people in need like that and people who need those jobs. I know Craigslist sounds iffy but perhaps there are other ways.
A friend of mine got a sweet deal when he was in medical school for a free place to stay with a wealthy couple so long as he checked on them every day and had dinner with them on Fridays. They wanted a medical student so the person had some familiarity with medical stuff. You might find there are people like that who could be helpful to you in exchange for a cheaper place to live.
Howard Beale IV
@Ruckus: Unfortunately the Volt, for some twisted reason, needs premium.
PhoenixRising
@Ruckus: they stopped making the Element because everyone who had one loved it, more than we love our own mamas, and we were destroying the market for all the other interchangeable Civ-Cord-RVmobiles that Honda makes using the same chassis, engine & transmissions.
Because if there’s a Honda you can hose out once you remove the seats, kayak and Newfoundland, who would want an Accord?
PS I am not a crank. But I’m also not over it. Had to sell my Element when shoulder rehab finished & I still couldn’t shift it.
MomSense
@Violet:
Well soak in some sun and enjoy your garden. Sounds heavenly.
Violet
@WereBear: That’s funny! Definitely needs a catchy graphic. Maybe a smiling onion?
It was funny when I first saw them come up. The bed is full of weeds and I was looking at it (sighing, I’m sure) and saw the tiny, thin sets and thought, “What are those? I don’t recognize those weeds.” I knew they were right where the onions were last year and they looked like onion sets, but smaller and thinner, so I decided to test one. Pulled it out, and sure enough it smelled like an onion. I’ve got a huge patch of them. Enough to have a hundred onions probably. Don’t think I’ll need that many!
Karen in GA
@Violet: Just the top ten — no ranking. I think Iggy was approaching 900 votes, if he didn’t go over, which was pretty respectable. Thank you again.
Howard Beale IV
Yay, I can drive again.
Violet
@Karen in GA: I wish I’d got my act together sooner. I always get a kick out of promoting things like that and asking for votes. I know I got him a few by posting in some late night threads. And then encouraging people to use more than one device. Oh well. He’s far cuter than any of the top ten dogs, imho. How’s he doing with his heartworm treatment?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Mary G: Please feel better soonest.
cckids
@Mary G: Holy crap! That is awful. My spouse had one of those twisting accidents 20 years ago – as you know, so, so painful. His foot was pointing to about 5:30; looked like someone tried to twist it off.
My condolences, I wish you better painkillers and a good recovery.
Tree With Water
If I were a judge, I would sentence the “artist” to 10 years of clearing the brush that accumulates in the nostrils of the Mt. Rushmore presidents, if only to see the look on her face while I laughed into it. It’s a good thing for birdbrains like her I’m not.
Shana
@Hungry Joe: All I can say is that I walked past several cars parked in the Dulles airport garage this weekend at the charging stations and saw more Leafs than anything else.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Karen in GA: Must it be Apple, or can you tolerate Windows?
I picked up an i7 laptop for under $500 not long after Windows 8 came out. It was a perfect storm of Staples coupon plus sale, but if the need isn’t urgent, you could luck out.
If it’s urgent, Amazon has several new i3 laptops priced in the $400s. So does Tiger Direct. TD also has some decently-powered refurb and off-lease laptops around $300.
I’m reasonably sure those will run the full Photoshop fairly well (comparing them to the specs for my main CAD machine), so Elements should be fine.
Shana
@bemused: Also Giant if you’re in the DC/MD/VA area.
Persia
@Baud: I have an LG and I love it. Look for Gorilla Glass if you’re worried about the screen cracking. I know the LG has it but am not sure about other phones.
Steve from Antioch
Other than getting some flair for one’s ***I really care*** suspenders, I don’t understand the point of arguing that the failure to punish folks for torture has anything to do with whether or not we should enforce laws generally in this country.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Steve from Antioch:
Being contrary has it’s rewards, it seems.
Ruckus
@PhoenixRising: 3
We must have been the only two to own sticks. Which they quit making after what 3-4 yrs? I bought an 03 and one of the first ones my dealer had sold and I lived about 40 miles from where they made them. What I liked was that it worked, it was more than reasonably comfortable for short or long trips, held a lot of stuff, etc, etc.
PurpleGirl
@ranchandsyrup: Awwww, how cute she is.
PurpleGirl
@KG: Cartoon in a Playboy: Inside a cave, several early men are standing, looking at a painting on cave wall. The painting is an abstract thing of colors and lines. Man One to Painter: “Nock, we had better luck with the hunt during your representational period.”
PurpleGirl
@Mary G: Please accept many, many virtual hugs. That sounds awful. Hope your healing proceeds apace and well.
Jack the Second
Being surprised at people making art is like being surprised at people having sex.
There are only two reasons to punish this woman. The first would be if she was particularly egregious in her choice of rocks. Did she tag a rock next to Ol’ Faithful, that will ruin millions of people’s enjoyment of a landmark, or did she desecrate a rock in the middle of hundreds of thousands of square miles of rocks, many of which are also similarly desecrated, but you don’t know because no one took a selfie? The other would be to prevent imitators.
Aside from the cumulative nuisance of thousands of artists of varying skill and taste making the public space a technicolor nightmare, the amount of harm done by this artist is laughably small. Exposed to the elements, that graffiti will be gone in a few decades, a couple of centuries, tops, as the rocks slowly continue to erode. The only reason those cave paintings survived is that they were sheltered from the elements. There are probably initials carved in trees with little hearts around them all over the national parks which will outlast that graffiti. If it wasn’t placed prominently, there are plenty of other rocks without paint on them to look at.
Humans make art. We draw in crayon on the walls, we paint our houses garish colors and put up too many Christmas lights, we scrawl on desks and in the margins of books. We blast sculpture into the side of sacred mountains and move stones to spell out giant obscenities or depict giants with impressive genitalia. We build cities in funny shapes in strange places. We should all try responsible every now and again, but if you’re offended by people leaving marks wherever they go, you’ve picked the wrong species to be born into.
Scamp Dog
@Mary G: Owww. That sounds painful, and tossing in the fact that it took so long to get any assistance, sounds like a thoroughly miserable experience. Best wishes for a speedy and uneventful recovery!
grandpa john
@Corner Stone: Who the hell is this we you keep referring to? I sure as hell remember seeing a hell of a lot of people here who called for punishment and jail time for those responsible for those acts of torture and degradation of the integrity of the country. Unfortunately we were not in the position to achieve these actions since we are not politicians and thus can’t sell our souls for campaign cash.
Steve from Antioch
@Jack the Second:
Yeah, this stuff will erode away in a couple of hundred years, which, ing geologic terms, is not even a blink of an eye.
Most people will be dead in less than 1/2 that time, which makes one wonder why we make such a big deal when someone murders someone else. It’s not like there is a shortage of people in this world anyway.
So if people are going to be offended just because someone puts a baby in a microwave, then they’ve chosen the wrong species to be born into.
//There, am I doing this right?
dance around in your bones
The most I have ever done while hiking is pile up a few rocks in a nice little sculpture – maybe add a bird feather or two if I’ve found some.
Nowadays you aren’t safe taking ANY bird feathers out of – basically, anywhere. This girl sounds like a dink.
Been busy all day, first time I’ve checked in on BJ!
E.
@Jack the Second: I know, I try to be responsible now and again, but sometimes I just have to pin some innocent smallish person down and make art on them. But tattoo ink aint forever, and neither is their face which I have lovingly adorned with my sublime and unique artwork. So I try to tell them that when they get offended, which those overly-sensitive types always do. Born into the wrong damn species, if you ask me.
Jack the Second
Let crimes against people be judged on people’s terms, and crimes against nature be judged on nature’s terms. These rocks weren’t murdered, like that rock formation tipped over by those videographing assholes. It’s improper to call them tattooed, on their timescale it’s more like falling asleep at a party and being sharpied.
The short term and long term environmental impact of some discolored rocks is zero. Hell, if she used a spray can the global damage is probably worse than the local damage. Not to mention the pollution released by the car she drove there in, on the ugly ass road cut through the middle of the otherwise unspoiled parks.
dance around in your bones
@Mary G: Oh, what a nightmare!
I’m so sorry you had to go through that…when I broke my hip a few years ago, at least I had my daughter and her husband in the house. Without them I don’t know what the hell I would have done. It was SO painful.
I hope you heal well and always keep that cell phone around your neck from here on out. Peace and healing vibes to you :)
Glidwrith
@Hungry Joe: Why not a Chevy Spark? I have one and am enormously pleased with it.
Arclite
Even the Daily Caller is pissed at this person. When you’ve pissed off both BJ and the Daily Caller, you’ve really left yourself no where to go. Basically, she’s fucked.
Anonymous for this post
@Karen in GA:
You can run GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program?) on any computer, I’m using an old Dell with a dead battery. It isn’t quite as easy to use as PhotoShop, but it does the same things to a photo.
J R in WV
We are Royal, aren’t We?
Or perhaps Editorial We…?
But probably not a mouse in we’re pocket.
ZBIV
Just for the record, this is what you get when everyone gets a trophy for everything when they are growing up. Some of the fools actually believe they walk on water.
rea
The toddler needs a diaper change, but how can we spend time on that while Dick Cheney remains free?