Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: May 17th through May 23rd

May 17, 2015 JanF Community 160

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).

The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

….

56 Comments

  1. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 45 degrees in Madison on its way up to 57. Partly sunny skies are in the forecast.

    The Supreme Court decision yesterday to not take the right-wing’s case regarding the Wisconsin John Doe probe is very good news. The 7th Circuit said it was a matter for state courts and the national conservative organizations trying to meddle in Wisconsin politics appealed. SCOTUS says no. Now the case goes back to the state supreme court. While that court is 4-3 Republican, there are serious questions about recusal that could land it back at SCOTUS because of Caperton v Massey type biases. And the Roberts Court is not pleased when judges appear corrupt. Good news for people who want to keep the national big-bag-o-money guys out of our state politics.

    Busy day, see all y’all later!

    • Something I read yesterday said that 170 people had been arrested. Yikes! How do you sort something like that out. It will be interesting to see how many are convicted. Do you know anyone willing to sit on a jury on a case involving a biker gang? I would put on my questionnaire that I was prejudiced against old white guys with beer bellies and they would be forced to strike me. :)

      test < – this is my markdowns back (I used the underscore heavily on the SoapBlox). I missed them! More here. I hated having to take my hands off the keyboard when I was typing.

      • Puzzled by the markdowns.Since you mentioned it, I looked and saw a faint underlined word but when I clicked it got Word Press an understanding of which is above my pay grade.

        As for here, cloudy and foggy, thunderstorms on the way. Oh well.
        Hope it will be a good day for all. Am off to check the news and have more coffee. What is going on in Egypt???
        Hope it’s a good day for all.

        • “Markdowns” are shorthand codes to do bolding, italicization, quotes, etc without having to click buttons.

          I am a touch typist and stopping to remove my hands from the keyboard to click on the mouse slows me down a lot. The old moose allowed us to use the _ underscore to signify italic and the * to signify bolding.

          There are a lot of markdown codes, many of which I will never use, and some which don’t work with our theme.

          One we didn’t have before was > to indicate

          Quoted text

          Does my link to Ed Kilrgore’s pieced on WaMo work?

      • They will throw RICO at them. They will find jurors – like they did for Hell’s Angel Adam Lee Hall

        I don’t know anything about the Bandidos and Cossaks – I lived for quite a few years on the Hell’s Angel block on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and knew some Pagans too. Will ask my former biker neighbor – but as far as I know – many of the big gangs are heavily involved in manufacturing, distribution and sale of “crank”.

  3. Good morning, Moosekind! 67 F. here in NoVa under cloudy skies, going up to 87 F. Was complaining to Dearly Beloved yesterday about the lack of rain, which seemed to be falling all around us, but needn’t have bothered. Last night at bedtime there was a tremendous thunderstorm that unleashed buckets of rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning. The tomatoes probably loved it.

    More possible thunderstorms in the forecast, followed by a few days of much cooler weather. They showed pix of the bikers who’ve been arrested on TV: what a loathsome-looking bunch. My life is pretty dull by most standards, but thinking about biker gangs makes me thankful for that. Hope all in Moosylvania and beyond will have a good day!

  4. Eating breakfast, drinking tea. More rain expected today in Seattle Austin. Still not complaining, merely noting that is has rained for nearly every day for the last 2 weeks. 2 boat ramps open on Lake Travis, though “officials urge caution”.

    Still playing California in my head — this is a link to a live performance. Love this song.

  5. Good morning, 50 and foggy in Bellingham today. I’ve got a busy day ahead so I hope my energy is recharged….I slept for over 10 hrs last night! So today I’ll do as much as I can with my “get ready for company” list and whatever happens will have to be just fine. The basics of clean bathrooms, comfortable beds and good food are done, and one welcoming bouquet should be manageable. They are thoughtful guests, so I just need to relax and enjoy their company.

  6. 65 heading for 77 this Tuesday in Fay., AR several hours after I logged on in hopes of checking in quickly before things started happening. So much for that idea. Still having issues with summer pay. I wish the people who keep having these not-so-bright ideas would have to work at my desk for 6 months or so. (That’s my standard comment about programmers, too – that they should have to work at performing the job their application is supposed to address for 6 months before being allowed to program a single line!)

    Jan I hope you can find some kind of indicator – like button or whatever – so we’ll know what we’ve read and what we haven’t. One of the reasons it now takes me so long to check in is that first I’m checking previous posts to see if there have been additional comments. Oh well, things are hotting up again and I need moar coffee. {{{HUGS}}}

    • There are two kinds of Like buttons: ones that are hooked into the database that underlies the site and ones that use third party websites to manage the liking and disliking. Both have pros and cons.

      The biggest “con” of the one that keeps the data here is that it can quickly stop being compatible if the plugin developer stops caring about the little program and it blows up with new releases of WordPress. And I have seen sites where the thousands of records needed to manage the ratings slow the site down.

      I am going to try a simple off-site one I found. The “con” of those, by the way, is that if their site is down, our ratings are down, or worse, it makes our site freeze trying to connect.

      I also think I found a tool to help us track replies to our comments.

        • It did! And you can Like Posts as well.

          Whew!!!!

          I also enhanced the Recent Comments widget to the right. When you are logged in, the comments will show with an excerpt to help you see if it was one you had already seen. For people just visiting the site, they will see the plain list.

          The nice thing about this one is that it knows who you are when you Like. The unLiked comment shows grey … the liked one shows in a color. I am going to go see if I can make the color purple. :)

          • Don’t tell anyone but I am having a lot of fun doing this.

            The new site feels modern and alive … the old one felt lumpy. Probably because it was using technology that was over 10 years old.

    • and I still can’t post videos….. but click the link & listen to the song, it is beautiful, I love the guitar

      • WordPress uses “Roles” to organize who can do what. There is a big jump from Author to Editor; an Author can write posts and schedule them … but can’t embed a video! An Editor can embed a video but can also edit a post to fix a typo or redact content or add a new tag or category or hide a post.

        So we need the category “Trusted Author” – a new role I just invented in my own brain – a person who can write posts that include videos and other scripted links such as Twitter Embeds.

        I know the reason for this limitation, by the way: a script can open up a site to attack or make the display unable to be rendered or suck up bandwidth. The moose had strict rules on scripts. But I think if an author has it explained to them to be careful and limit the scripts (video and Twitter only) the permissions can be extended.

        I found a tool that will allow me to customize the rights and will install it when I have time.

        The first thing on my to-do list is to update the theme, though, so this will be put on the back burner.

        • until I start writing AIDS Walk diaries, links are fine — I’m just grateful this place is here

  8. I am going to rework the header again, btw. I think it needs a photo and I am going to put the moose pond in the far left side and resize everything down again.

  9. Good morning, meese!! Wednesday …

    It is 40 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 59. Cloudy skies are in the forecast.

    A quick scan of the news … made me want to shut down my newsfeed!!! I just found out that the restaurant where the thugs in Texas had a shootout was a breastaurant, a la Hooters. Twin Peaks? JHC on a popsicle stick! If you go out of your way to attract clientele who want to dine and ogle, you do not have my sympathy when pigs take over your place of business and turn it into a slaughterhouse.

    Here is a palate cleanser: Los Angeles will raise their minimum wage to $15 by 2020. The movement towards making a living wage a right is gaining momentum. One of these days, the blinders will come off the eyes of Fox-poisoned voters and they will look past the lies being told on Fox News and vote for their economic best interest. The Republican in South Carolina who hated Obama so much that he would rather go blind than buy health insurance is now literally going blind … and renouncing the Republicans who created the health care gap that is denying him sight-saving surgery. ODS is a killer. And in 2016, when the O part of ODS isn’t even running, it will be impossible for the Republicans to let go of the boogeyman they created and rode to victory in 2010 and 2014. Like one-term Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) telling a crowd of supporters that he trusts the Iranian ayatollah more than he trusts the president of the United States. Bye, bye, Ron … don’t let the door hit you in the butt on your way out.

    See all y’alls later! If the site size changes on refresh, don’t freak out. I am going to rework the header image. I made it bigger because it looked ridiculous on a mobile device but now it looks empty. Some color will liven it up.

  10. Good morning, Moosekind, and happy Woden’s Day! Fair and clear here in NoVa, 58 F. going up to 74 F. today–much cooler than the first two days this week. Don’t have to cook tonight because Dearly is dining out. The Moose is looking well, except that I too was startled when I saw the size of the header. Jan, you are going to alter that at some point, right?

    “Breastaurants”–how utterly revolting! Pardon me if I don’t shed many tears for the biker gang members themselves, they all look like right villains. I do feel sorry for the families they left behind, who will now have to shift for themselves.

    On the home front, I finally got off my lazy posterior and planted the lavender. Also planted the yellow squash and two more peppers. Yesterday Miss Pink Cheeks picked the first strawberries of the season, which we had for dessert last night.

    Hope it’s a good day for all!

    • Lavender is so wonderful – I wanted an acre of it but when I had goats it was impossible – they like it too :)

    • I did not coin that disgusting term, I found it here. Apparently that particular chain, Twin Peaks, wanted a “racier alternative to Hooters”.

    • Speaking of DREAMers, I was sadded to read the story about how the families who would have been helped by DAPA have their lives on hold while the peevish Republican lawsuit winds its way through the courts:

      Tuesday would have marked the date that 3.7 million undocumented immigrant parents of some Americans could apply for deportation relief under President Obama’s November 2014 executive action on immigration. If not for a lawsuit.

      A temporary injunction that capped off a multi-state lawsuit led by Texas put the president’s executive action on hold. Twenty-six states sued the Obama administration stating that the executive action had “violated the president’s constitutional duty to take care that the laws were faithfully executed,” stating that the action went beyond just setting enforcement and deportation priorities.

      Now these immigrants have been left in limbo. Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program would have granted immigrants both deportation relief and temporary work authorization to certain qualified undocumented immigrants who have been in the country since 2010. The DAPA program affects parents of U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) and is part of an extension of Obama’s 2012 action known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Obama’s announcement would have also expanded on the original DACA program by getting rid of the age cap and allowing older undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.

      What a terrible luck of the draw to get the most right-wing anti-immigrant federal judge possible to hear this case … and to move at a molasses pace knowing full well the harm he is doing to families.

      The Alliance for Citizenship sponsored a day of action yesterday to call attention to the plight of these families.

      • Wasn’t “luck of the draw” – the people who filed the suit did a “RWNJ judge search” before they decided which court to start this in. And they don’t care about the harm it does families. These are the truly evil people -the ones for whom other people do not count any more than the fantasy characters in a video game.

        • I kind of knew that but was giving them the benefit of the doubt. That judge is like the Federalist Society bought-and-paid-for judge in Milwaukee who wanted to, literally, make a federal case out of a state court dispute over Wisconsin election laws. He got his butt handed to him by the 7th Circuit and just this past week by the Supreme Court.

          What the heck is taking so long getting this injunction lifted???

  12. Good morning, Meese. It’s a bit cooler here. Have a lot to do and still no coffee nor any more than a very brief glance at the news. The migrant crisis in Southeast Asia is horrific as is the news from Ramadi. It’s interesting how the Iraq War has suddenly become a topic of interest. So many lies, so many revisions,. Will check in later. Hope you all behave today.

  13. My new workout group’s first workout is tonight (Sunday got washed out — too much even for my diehard coach) but I can’t make it because I have my Dem club meeting. Hmmmm. Wish I had Hermione’s time-turner.

    Just read a nice editorial from the Irish Times endorsing “yes” for tomorrow’s referendum: “We are committed to strengthening the institution of marriage – that is why we will vote Yes”

    another “out of nowhere” earworm: Every Breaking Wave by my loves. Yes, it’s a U2 song, but I don’t listen to it much, I think it’s sad. It’s gorgeous, but the lyrics: If you go?
    If you go your way and I go mine
    Are we so?
    Are we so helpless against the tide?
    Baby every dog on the street
    Knows that we’re in love with defeat
    Are we ready to be swept off our feet
    And stop chasing
    Every breaking wave

    Anyway, that’s my morning.

  14. 64 heading for 69 in Fay., AR – the rain that came in overnight brought a cool front with it. Supposed to have lows in the 40s the next two nights (highs in the upper 60s) before heading back up. This was a pleasant, sleep-inducing, rain cell – Denise got the wind storm we got last Sunday in the wee sma’s.

    Truly hope Ireland has learned the lesson America started teaching a couple of centuries back but seems to have forgotten – you must separate Church and State for any hope of peace. All citizens of the State must have both equality of law and equal treatment under the law to having any peace. Otherwise the religion of the people in power will be used to oppress/suppress everyone else – no matter which particular religion is in power during any given time/space continuum.

    Hope all the Meeses have a good Woden’s Day. {{{HUGS}}}

    • Ireland has a lot of troubling laws that are tied to Catholic Church teaching. Some of the most awful forced birth laws are on the books there.

      I am not sure that we have done a great job of keeping the Church and State separate but at least it is in the constitution so those who want to impose christianist law on the rest of us have been slowed down a bit.

      • I think the Catholic Church has lost Ireland. Between the awful abuse scandals, the storoes of the Magdalene Houses finally getting out — and finding bodies buried outside them….. I have some of the Irish papers on my FB feed & articles about the Church… the comments are quite hostile.

      • We have done a better job of keeping Church and State separated than we realize when we look at both how far we have to go and how much a certain group is trying to take us backwards. Because we have done such a good job of it most Americans truly do not realize why Protestants and Catholics in Ireland or Islams and Jews in the Middle East or Shiites and practically anybody can’t “just get along”. It’s not just an issue of creches on the State Capitol lawn or the 10 Commandments (which set?) in the courtrooms – it’s an issue of who can vote, who can live where, who can own what, who can hold what job, who can testify in court… Not just “gentlemen’s agreement” or backroom “understandings” but law. And while there are supposed Americans who would like that just fine – as long as it’s their religion making those laws – most Americans are so many generations away from dealing with that they really cannot conceive of it.

  15. Good morning, 51 and foggy in Bellingham today. Our company arrives this afternoon, and the house is ready, flowers are arranged, and dinner is planned….just need to find my company manners!

    I’ve been getting so tired by the end of the day I can barely function so I’ll pass on going to the pool this morning and rest, with the hope I’ll still have some energy for dinner tonight.

    It’s a very quiet news day in the PNW.

    • Thanks! It combines the shorter height (which gives us more words) with the pond photo I wanted. I wish I was clever enough to do rounded edges on the photo but it will have to wait until fogiv has time to work on it. For now it will do.

      I also moved RonK’s post to the main post because it is just so beautiful and the last post was old news. I have the new theme that will give us a better managed front page but I did a preview on it and it is going to take quite a bit of work to set up so it will wait until the long weekend.

      • Yes, RonK’s image is very appealing. Have lost the thumbs up, thumbs down. But want to thank you for all the work!

        • Hah, the thumbs up came back after I said it was gone. those thumbs have a way about them!

          • They do a synchronization thing with the Likebtn site and it is possible that while that happens they are not quite burned in. I get to like twice because it thinks my phone is a new me!

    • After looking at this for a while, it needs some work. The meeses in the pond are too big compared to the sizing of the logo. I think it is called “perspective”. I will have to find a photo where the moose are not bigger than the moose head. Or maybe a pond with no moose but the anticipation of moose. I like the sizing better though.

  17. Great News! Nebraska is on the way to abolishing the death penalty. That makes it the nineteenth state to abolish it..

    “Nebraska becomes the latest state to acknowledge that the death penalty is an irrevocably broken and unjust practice,” Steven W. Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement Wednesday.

    “The legislature has taken a courageous step forward for human rights. Rather than stand in the way, Governor Ricketts should get on the right side of history by signing this bill into law,” Hawkins’ statement continued. “The remaining states that retain the death penalty should follow Nebraska’s example and do away with this cruel and inhuman punishment forever.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/20/nebraska-death-penalty-repeal_n_7343784.html

    • Rachel Maddow talked about that last night. She talked about how remarkable is is that a non-liberal legislature is doing this “liberal” thing. It was a good segment.

  18. Good morning, meese! Thursday …

    It is 42 degrees in Madison on its way up to 70. Sunny skies are in the forecast. p.s. this weather is crazy!

    My heartiest laugh is reserved for the GOP candidates left out of the Fox News debate scheduled for August. Fox will limit it to 10 although there will likely be at least 16 announced candidates by then. Left out will be fig-leaf candidate Carly Fiorina, the “look we have wimmins too” candidate plus the only candidate who can say certain things about Hillary Clinton without appearing sexist. Fox picks the winners and losers. So is Fox News the propaganda arm of the Republican Party … or is the Republican Party the political arm of Fox News? It will be fun to see how those left out react.

    The president identified climate change as an urgent national security issue in his commencement address to the Coast Guard yesterday. I am going to put up the speech and some commentary. Oil and its burning has been a national security issue for quite some time. It is too bad that no one cared enough in the 1970s after gas prices stabilized following the OPEC-induced price spike, to continue working towards finding an alternative to fossil fuels. Instead, we kept drilling (and spilling!) and burning and now we are in one heck of a mess. In 1969, the Santa Barbara oil spill gave birth to the environmental movement. In 2015, another Santa Barbara oil spill gets a collective yawn. :(

    See all y’alls later!

  19. Happy Thor’s Day, Meese! Our current temperature in NoVa is 57 F., going for a high of 58 F. today under cloudy skies that will bring rain. Ironically, earlier this week when we were having 86 F. with high humidity, Dearly Beloved carted our space heater, which looks like a little black woodstove, out to the garage, thinking we wouldn’t need it any more.

    It’ll be a nice morning for me because Miss Pink Cheeks’ parents have offered to take her to school and then bring Babylicious over here. I might actually get some things done today.

    The Santa Barbara oil spill–how revolting! And the birds, whales, and fish will die. DIL’s sister lives in Santa Barbara, so the whole family has been planning to fly out out there and stay with her. Why can’t we be like Germany and get our energy from renewable resources? The answer: Rethugs.

    Hope that Meese everywhere will have a good day, despite the state of the world.

  20. Good morning, Meese. It’s in the fifties headed for the sixties.
    As always, am running late but will return to see how everyone is and for updates on the news.
    Hope all the news about the denizens of the Pond is terrific!

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