Spring is in full force here, and in the evenings when I go out the air smells indescribably sweet, so here’s a related song. It’s a bootleg from a John Hiatt concert, with an intro explaining its connection to the movie The Lost Weekend. Here’s an open thread.
Reader Interactions
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eric
I am seriously in love with the new “Spock” audi web commercial. cudos to that ad exec.
Linda Featheringill
It really is spring time and it looks like I will actually have a garden.
SOME PEOPLE don’t want to help me establish the garden but I’m sure they’ll help me eat the produce. [Yes, I’m a bitter old broad today.]
No lilacs around here. That’s a shame.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Linda Featheringill: If my wife tried to set up a garden, and then threatened me with “if you don’t help, you don’t get to eat what I grow in it,” I would be like “That’s fine. I’ll even make room in the fridge for your fruits and vegetables.” And she knows I would do that. She decided we needed a water cooler even though we have a fridge with a filtered water dispenser; I have yet to get a drink out of it.
Cassidy
O/T, how the hell is BF given a timeout for “rampant douchebaggery, as our bloghost puts it, but same said bloghost will completely bork the whole blog to let T&H out of the corner to shit everywhere.
rikyrah
http://truth-out.org/news/item/16238-now-they-want-to-take-away-the-8-hour-day-and-40-hour-week
Linda Featheringill
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
The Universe, in its infinite wisdom, decided to not put the two of us in the same household.
See how lucky you are? :-)
jayboat
John Hiatt is one of the greatest under-appreciated talents of our generation.
Suffern ACE
@rikyrah: when I was hourly, I had a comp time option. Not that I could ever find a free day to take that comp time that my boss would agree to let me have.
Mike in NC
@rikyrah: Republicans believe paying people to work should be entirely optional, just like tipping your waiter or waitress.
drbloor
@eric: saw it this morning. “Bilbo” for the win.
schrodinger's cat
Spring has sprung. My allergies are in full bloom along with the flowers. I am going to put in my container garden this weekend. Herbs and tomatoes. Is there anything else that can grow in containers?
handsmile
Niall is decidedly the second-most discussed Ferguson in the news today.
A 71 year-old man retiring from his job is, in all likelihood, the biggest story in the world at the moment: “Sir Alex Ferguson retires as Manchester United manager after 27 years”:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/may/08/alex-ferguson-retires-manchester-united
MikeJ
@Suffern ACE: Even if you could take your accrued time off, it’s still a loser for working people unless comp time accrues at 1.5hrs/hr.
Mike in NC
The media reaction to Mark Sanford’s election to Congress in SC can only mean they’ll be speculating that he will be the one to beat for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. Watch out Rick Santorum!
rikyrah
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-02/the-republican-power-grab-in-north-carolina
Suffern ACE
@Linda Featheringill: there is a book called “wicked plants” that might assist you in planning your garden. Not that I’d recommend poisoning some people, but some people might help if they knew you were planting things that might be used against them in the future. Those people might take an interest in knowing exactly which plants those were.
the Conster
@Mike in NC:
Every Republican nominee for president has to win SC according to the CW, so did someone forget to tell either Mitt or Newt?
Debbie(aussie)
OT. Is it Mother’s Day this Sunday 12th May. I gAthered that we celebrate iron the same day all over the western world. Father’s Day be different.
Punchy
Saaaaaaaaaaaaay what? Really? Homeschoolers can now play on local school teams?
So public skools are da ebil, but their sports teams are da bomb?
Omnes Omnibus
@Cassidy: When did this happen?
Linda Featheringill
@schrodinger’s cat:
Peppers do well in containers, too.
Debbie(aussie)
Sorry for errors FYWP will not allow correction
Linda Featheringill
@Suffern ACE:
Ahhh, a person after my own heart!
BENJAMIN
@Omnes Omnibus:
Cole said no paper rule could be found, but he shat, then wiped his ass with leaves.
schrodinger's cat
@Linda Featheringill: How about arugula?
Big R
@Suffern ACE: Unless you worked for the government, that was illegal. FYI.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
here. As you can see, teh “ban” is not exactly etched in stone.
Mark S.
@Cassidy:
Who is BF?
Also
Just a weird factoid for your morning.
Amir Khalid
@handsmile:
As a Liverpool fan, I hate to say it; but Alex Ferguson is better at his job than Niall Ferguson, is far less of a hypocrite, and has brought more happiness to the world.
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: Huh.
Mark S.
@Amir Khalid:
Wee bit of an understatement.
burnspbesq
@rikyrah:
Is there any reason to believe that that bill or anything like it could pass the Senate?
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
FTFY, Mr. Rucho.
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
No. And there’s no reason at all to think that the President would sign it if it somehow reached his desk. But it’s a good indication of the kind of things the Republicans would like to do if they get back in charge, and hence something that might be nice to use to
scareinform voters about the dangers of voting (R).muddy
There are little drifts of maple flowers all around me. I cough drily and without effect. Still, it’s gorgeous and worth it. Has anyone ever noticed how maple seeds work as a group to germinate? Fascinating. Nature’s wingnut. Actual wingnut, not metaphorical.
burnspbesq
@rikyrah:
What the Republicans in the N.C. Legislature would really like to do is break up the Wake County school district altogether and return the schools to municipal control. Wake County has run a highly effective intra-district transfer program for a number of years, which has allowed students from Raleigh to attend high-achieving schools in places like Cary and Garner, much to the chagrin of the local racists.
Mike in NC
@Roger Moore: Cronyism is what it’s all about. Recently NC Governor Pat McCrory replaced all five members of the Board of Elections who just happened to be considering an investigation into the source of more than $200K in campaign contributions that McCrory pocketed in 2012. All a coincidence I tell you!
burnspbesq
@Amir Khalid:
This development becomes even more of a win for Liverpool if David Moyes is named as Fergie’s successor.
burnspbesq
Former State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh (who has returned to Yale Law School) gave a rather important speech at the Oxford Union last night. Everyone involved would undoubtedly deny it, but I think this is as close to a statement of the Obama Administration’s intentions with respect to the War on Terra as we’re likely to see any time soon. Well worth reading.
http://www.lawfareblog.com/2013/05/harold-kohs-speech-at-the-oxford-union/
Ash
Flight got canceled due to them needing some piece from France. So now I’ll have to do this all over again tonight!
handsmile
@Amir Khalid:
And in addition to all those virtues, SAF probably has no fookin’ clue who Andrew Sullivan even is.
On another matter, have you written here at BJ of your opinions on the Malaysian electoral outcome? As it’s been necessary to be only an occasional lurker hereabouts recently, I did miss any such account. If so, could you kindly provide a thread title or approximate date. Thanks!
burnspbesq
@Ash:
Ouch. Wear yourself out today, so that you can fall asleep immediately after takeoff (if not before).
PsiFighter37
@Mike in NC: A recent NYT article informed me that waiters make a minimum wage of barely over $2/hr. That is nuts and not right at all…
peach flavored shampoo
@handsmile: I read “SAF” as Singapore Air Force.
Also, too I find it amusing that he was knighted for coaching a team, rather than playing for it.
ricky
Ah, spring. A time when the air energizes the South Carolina chapter of the he-man woman-haters club.
What does a fella have to do to lose in these Southern woman hating states? Drive some young groupie off a bridge
after a late night beach party?
MikeJ
@Debbie(aussie):
The first mother’s day I spent in England I called my Mom and thoroughly confused her as it was still a month away in the US.
Roger Moore
@PsiFighter +37:
Depends on where they work. Most states have rules that let employers count some amount of tips against minimum wage, but there are a few states- apparently concentrated here on the Left Coast- that have the same minimum wage for tipped and untipped employees. The Labor Department has the details.
BENJAMIN
@burnspbesq:
“(1) Disengage from Afghanistan, (2) Close Guantanamo, and (3) Discipline Drones.”
Of course he’s not speaking for the WH, but it seems like it’s another trial balloon.
He’s suggesting this has been the plan from outset? Being adaptable, evolutionary, is the way to deal with asymmetrical warfare.
drkrick
@handsmile: Thatcher dead and Sir Alex retired. There’s a guy somewhere in Liverpool with a polished lamp and one more wish. (Stolen from a FB timeline)
gene108
@burnspbesq:
Huh?
The highest achieving schools in Wake County are the magnet schools in Raleigh.
Some New Jersey transplants that got voted onto the school board tried breaking up the unified county system and making it based on municipal control, but that didn’t go over well with residents. They were soon replaced.
40+ years of a unified county school system is something that isn’t going to be taken apart easily, because Wake Co. residents like having good schools throughout their county and like not having to worry that their little ones education being adversely impacted, if they decide to move from Cary to Fuquay-Varina.
handsmile
@burnspbesq:
Thanks for that alert and link. It has been my hope (admittedly far-fetched but a boy can dream) that Harold Koh would be the first Asian-American to be nominated for the Supreme Court.
His remarks are reminiscent of those delivered last November (and notably also at the Oxford Union) by Jeh Johnson, former general counsel of the Defense Department:
http://www.lawfareblog.com/2012/11/jeh-johnson-speech-at-the-oxford-union/
ricky
@burnspbesq:
Thanks for the link. It was an interesting speech.
But let me ask. What makes a speech at the Oxford Union
really important as opposed to only rather important?
Amir Khalid
@handsmile:
I commented about this yesterday. Basically, I noted that the election went pretty much according to my initial expectations. Barisan continues its slide in popularity at the federal level: its Parliamentary majority is the smallest ever, and of course it has no 2/3 majority; it lost the popular vote for the first time, to Pakatan Rakyat.
I’m disappointed that Pakatan didn’t win Parliament, since some polls had indicated they had a real chance, but I’d always considered such hopes a bit optimistic. I suspect that where the polls went wrong is that they counted the poplar vote as a mass rather than going constituency by constituency. But like they say, slow and steady wins the race …
Just Some Fuckhead
Burns, good to see you bounced back from that totally justified Cole smackdown.
burnspbesq
@ricky:
Part of it is the enormous respect that people both in and out of government have for Professor Koh. To the extent that the speech is a critique of Administration policy, it’s far more likely to be taken seriously by the Administration than a screed from the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, or a UN Special Rapporteur.
And part of it has to do with the content. I find it to be a pretty fair catalogue of both the successes and the shortcomings of the first Obama Administration’s handling of these issues. I especially like the call for Obama to veto the FY 2014 NDAA if Congress continues to impede the closure of Guantanamo (I suspect that his suggestion that those prisoners who can’t be released should be transferred to the naval brig in Charleston was intended as a shiv into Lindsey Graham’s ribs).
BENJAMIN
@burnspbesq:
You really see it as critique?
It seems more like a minor modification of policy, aka trial balloon?
Amir Khalid
@BENJAMIN:
Prof Koh is no longer part of the Obama administration. A trial balloon would surely be floated by someone still on the inside.