- Sunrise at beautiful Acadia National Park
Good morning Conflucians. It’s a new day, a new sunrise, a new opportunity. The picture above is of a glorious sunrise in Acadia National Park, located near Bar Harbor Maine. The west coast does not have a monopoly on spectacular views or national park splendor and our family has chosen this national treasure for our next vacation experience. As Americans, we owe a debt of gratitude to George Dorr, the individual who dedicated his life to acquiring and preserving this area and then entrusted it to our government so that we and all of our descendants could marvel in its beauty for all time.
Dorr was a private citizen whose life covered the last half of the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s. He came from privilege, the son of affluent Bostonians. He inherited fortunes from both his parents. He attended Harvard University and Oxford and traveled widely in Europe with his parents. He was a gentleman scholar and lover of nature who first visited Mount Desert Island in the 1870s and made the decision to make the island his primary home. The remains of the family residence, Old Farm, at Compass Harbor in Bar Harbor, are part of Acadia National Park today. He never married; instead he focused his time, energy, and intellect on preserving the natural beauty of his beloved island. Over four decades he worked tirelessly to acquire tracts of land for protection. He persuaded and cajoled others to give land or funds with which to acquire them, and he gave several parcels of his own.
What national park will you visit this year?
In the meantime, Rico is coming around with some freshly ground, steaming Kona coffee. So, sit back, put your feet up, and enjoy…
The Sunday Supplements
Funny & Addictive Websites
Looking for a new read? You might find something here at the Weird Book Room. Maybe “50 Ways to use feminine products in a manly fashion” or “The Beverly Hillbillies Bible Study” is just what you’ve been looking for.
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Some people are as dumb as a box of rocks. And then they let everyone else know by posting it on their Facebook page. 15 Funny Facebook Fails.
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Everybody does it; but I’ll bet there are a few facts here you never knew. Facts about farts. Heck, I wonder how I made it this far in life without ever having heard of “mud butt.”
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File these under ridiculous: 11 Most Painfully Obvious Newspaper Articles ever.
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Here are 7 minutes of chuckles and acks!: The Best Fails of 2009.
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Don’t play with your food! Unless of course you’re trying to create an artistic masterpiece. Funny Food Art.
Oddz ‘n’ Endz
Hoping for a little better health and wellness in 2010? You can get started by eating The 11 best foods you’re aren’t eating.
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Ok, so this guy goes into a bar, checks out the bartender, and starts fondling himself. When approached by the cops, he had a difficult time explaining the vaseline on his hands. True story…
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Thank goodness for the junk-in-the-trunk story, because this one is saying there’s a weight loss drug out there that could kill you. At least it’s only being sold in Australia.
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This one might give you nightmares. Sheep gives birth to human-faced lamb. Super creepy!
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For your Sunday dose of awwwwww…Puppy rescued after paws froze to the railroad tracks. The pics are adorable.
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Ruh roh…Pat Robertson may face defamation charges from……….satan! The devil writes to Pat Robertson.
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Yep…even a chimp can do it. Lusha monkey outperforms 94% of Russia bankers’ investment portfolios. And she’s got teh awesome fashion sense too!
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Hmmm…what question does this headline beg? Man’s penis freed from metal pipe with industrial grinder. Don’t bother looking for the answer either.
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So, this cat gets called up for jury duty…
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The Final Word
Some headlines just scream irony. Like this one: Weight Watchers clinic floor collapses under dieters. Not exactly a stellar PR moment for Weight Watchers.
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Well, that’s all I’ve got! Now you show me yours. What stories have caught your eye this fine morning?
Have a terrific Sunday.
SoD
Filed under: General
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100117/ts_afp/uspoliticsobamagastronomyoffbeat
you know the obots will be crying that backtrack has to go to MA on meeechelles birthday.
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE, MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
-53 percent, aren’t confident in Obama to make the right decisions for the country’s future
from the ABC Wapo poll
the poll also finds Obama is liked and 53 percent approve of his overall job hmmmmm
So it appears some political correctness, nice guy but, may be in the OBambi polls, around 10 percent, apply that to the RCP average and OBambi’s average job approval is 39…
Sorry Martha
Scott Brown: Moves into lead in fresh poll
http://www1.whdh.com/features/articles/hiller/BO133471/
I don’t think this is new, though. It’s the same one folks were talking about on Fri.
yea kinda looks like bambi is sinking other dems ships . so to speak .
i gota say that is one spectacular sunrise,
Yup. Made me happy about the day! Thanks, SoD.
You’re welcome. I’m hoping to be standing at the shore one morning there taking a similar shot. If I do, I’ll be sure to share it with everyone here.
I have been to Acadia some years ago. I still think of it as a dream.
Back to reality, tabloids tday
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/tabloids-get-the-gov-kick-the-schools-loose-elections/
Any “can’t miss” tips about Acadia would be appreciated.
In the next 5 years we want to do another trip west to do a triple nat’l park hit with Zion, Bryce Canyon, and the Grand Canyon.
Rocky Mountain National Park is also splendid.
djmm
I’m heading to Denver next month. I hope to have time to take a trip over there. My hubby said most of it is closed in the winter. I’m doing some research at the moment.
The fart facts are very interesting. I wonder how they did the research, but I don’t care to speculate.
I used to teach fifth grade. One of my students showed me the student edition dictionary entry for “fart” – “an explosion between the legs.” We shared a laugh over that.
I laughed like a 7 year old boy at that “mud butt” part. Dear Lord!
That settles it! I’m getting cremated.
Who knew that dead people fart??
I know. It would be the ultimate embarrassment to let one fly at your own funeral.
From the Politico link on the enthusiasm gap
More unintended consequences of Obama’s slash and burn campaign
Oh, NOW Politico cares about sexism? Give me a frakkin’ break.
Good, Dem Leadership choose to rig the Primary, to run a stealth campaign against the Base, to wield the knife of identity politics but unfortunately they won. So now Democratic sponsored misogyny the spitting disdain of women is in vogue and out in the open. And Democratic women finally booking no longer giving a pass to what was their Party, not because they are suddenly seeing the hat trick the DNC, Reid, Schumer, Pelosi and Kennedy pulled but because of Stupak, a dog whistle even they can decode. A fitting outcome to a now sleezy, disgusting Party, I say.
My response to that was—whoa. I remember in the MA primary that Clinton—who clearly won that contest and was getting pretty beat up nationally with misogyny attacks—clearly was a MA fave compared to O. So what’s with that? Is that harking back to MA racial history and some old stuff about integrating Boston schools? I sort of remember that as not exactly MA’s finest liberal hour. I suspect that MA is sort of like other places in this country; it has a broad range of political leanings and right now what is front and center is the feeling that this congress does not listen to people and government programs don’t always deliver on the promises. Maybe the MA hc itself is not working for some people in MA.
Clinton and W working for Haiti relief? That’s supposed to be encouraging to anyone? Why hamper Clinton with W? I thought George was doing the right thing by keeping a very low profile. Maybe HW pushed this one.
Clinton and Bush I have been very successful in fundraising for disasters. Someone speculated the HW isn’t up to it so they went with W. As unbelievable as it is, there are still some people who will respond to $ appeals by W who wouldn’t give to Clinton. They cover the whole spectrum this way. They’re just doing the money thing, not any sort of organizing relief efforts, etc.
Thanks.
Bill Clinton said he would be recruiting GWB for humanitarian efforts after he left the WH. I think it was during the press photo op with the living Presidents: GHWB, BC, GWB, JC and POTUS-elect BO, after the election but before inauguration. GWB was asked what he was going to do once he left office, and Bill injected that he would be recruiting him to help with humanitarian efforts.
Bill and W were just on (ABC?).
Agree completely. Although when O, W and Big Dawg were speaking (yesterday?) I actually had a brief moment of missing W. Cannot stand to watch O speechify. Bill blew them both out of the water with his sincerity and grasp of the problems facing Haiti.
Bill has that special knack of being able to reach through the screen and touch people in a real way.
Bill and Hillary care. And they are so darn smart. oh well..
My guess is this is intended to move the spolight from BC who was looking pretty Pres like and non racist, way out in front of OBambi again.
I think this comes from BC himself. He has always done that and I think it is a good approach. It sends the message that in this effort we are coming together. I thought Bush II sounded like an idiot on this but I do think it is important that he is there and I suspect that his father is not up to it.
If it gets more money for the people of Haiti, great. There are a lot of people who do not like Bill Clinton and, amazing as it may seem to many here, a lot that still like Bush. It worked well with Bush senior, who I guess is not able to get about as much anymore.
that one artical you have were the devil tells P robertson they hes making satan look bad . . thats preety bad when make satan look bad and he ask you to stop …
The Lusha monkey story gives the lie to bankers ‘”achievements”.
Puppy was sweet too.
Beautiful, beautiful picture. Thanks.
Mississippi? Without a doubt.
Alabama? Inevitable.
Texas? A foregone conclusion.
Having said that, I refuse to believe that – given all that the GOP has done to this once-great nation in the past decade – the good people of Massachusetts would be stupid enough to send a Republican to Washington at this point in our history.
I’m sorry but I just refuse to believe it.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
Beautiful picture, SOD. Breathtaking, really. Thanks for posting.
Pride goeth before fall
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/doh-dems-advertising-for-brown/
http://www.theweeklystandard.com/blogs/will-obama-repudiate-smear-campaign
I think Brown just filed a criminal complaint for defamation against the people who put out the rape flyer. (Does Coakley handle that or is there someone else to take it? Weird to have the candidate have to decide about her own campaign.)
What I didnt know about the conscience clauses (is this true?):
“1. The Senate health-care bill, which Martha Coakley favors, contains an abortion conscience clause.
Section 1303(a)(3)
(3) PROVIDER CONSCIENCE PROTECTIONS. No individual health care provider or
health care facility may be discriminated against because of a willingness or an unwillingness, if doing so is contrary to the religious or moral beliefs of the provider or facility, to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.
2. And who supported these kind of conscience clauses? Ted Kennedy. In the letter he wrote to Pope Benedict before his death, Kennedy explained, “I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field and I’ll continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone.”"
You have to hand it to Brown here. Do we need to have pictures and graphics as well to convince women that the Dem party is more than willing to sell them out behind their backs while they blah, blah, blah about women’s rights and protections? That Kennedy letter to the Pope—-was that his beg for eternal salvation? The hubris in that—the total sell out. I am not into heaven, hell, karma or whatever but that really cinches it for me on the Ted Kennedy legacy. I did not know he wrote and said such things. I hope the women of MA send a message even tho’ they must want to elect a woman. Coakley is in the proverbial rock and a hard place.
Yes, RD wrote about it a few weeks ago
Great, so now we have to convert AND join a union.
Amish are exempt from the HCR. I’m pretty good with a hammer and saw. Hmm…
The logistics for relief in Haiti are staggering:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8460787.stm
Thanks for the link. Good information.
Beautiful photo.
Obama’s unicorns are coming home to roost…
“To understand the damage that Obamism has done to the Democratic party in just one year, you need read only two articles.
The first is this piece by dakinikat:
Personally, I figured the GOP was a long gone brand after 8 years of Dubya Bush’s warmongering, war profiteering and bubble-based-depression-creating career. Now look at this. The GOP considers a take back of both houses of congress within the realm of possibility for THIS year.
And how do they propose to accomplish that task? By running against Washington — against Obama.
…”
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-hath-obama-wrought.html
I saw Bill Clinton the other day warning that we would be seeing some violence and anger soon on the news. I think it was good that he got ahead of that because once that starts filling up the airways many people may be turned off on donating to relief organizations.
oops, I was referring to the situation in Haiti, not Mass.
On presidentin: Does O ever quit complaining? He craves that bubble. He applied for the job. He did not like state politics; he did not like the US Senate; he thought more of the same at a higher level was the answer? He has to work on Mechelle’s birthday—how many people get to take their spouse’s birthday as a holiday?
Obama can kiss my ass. My husband has not had my birthday, or his birthday, or Thanksgiving, or even Christmas DAY off in……let’s see…… thirteen years. We’ve also not had any vacation longer than a 4 day weekend in 13 years, and we’ve done that all of 5 times. For all but the last 2 years, he was on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Now he’s in the enviable position of having 4 whole days off a month – he works the other 26 or 27.
Whiny assed titty babies should not be aspiring to be leader of the free world.
I was just thinking about his whining about being “in the bubble” too. But, who the hell is stopping him from being OUT of the bubble? If he wanted it to be different, he could make it so.
The mirage that Obama is a “man of the people” is just so much horse$hit.
Yea, you could tell he was really comfortable hob-knobbing with the regular folk in the PA primaries…real down home with all those bitter clingy types.
He is just unbelievable–and the idiotic reporters who always feel so so sorry for him. It’s really pathetic. Yea, I’m sure he was so lonely on his 10 days in Hawaii, surrounded by family and friends at their compound. He also suggests he is actually making the decisions–that’s a joke.
Not to mention all those parties with the WH press corps, who had been invited to stay for those 10 days to cover him, in a 5-star hotel paid for by taxpayer dollars. They were also allowed to bring “guests.”
Gimme a break.
Will it ever end? I thought the Bush years dragged on forevvvvahhh. I hear people saying O is having the same hard time as Clinton and he will recover. I sort of remember that Clinton’s so called political mistakes in his early years were things like putting a small dent in the military policy on GLBT and getting assault rifles off the streets and his Dem party “friends”. And that he did not have universal congressional majorities. i don’t remember Clinton being a media darling.
The two paths could not be more different.
So here’s Obama’s weekly address and I agree with the words he is saying and yet, they are just words. He is not willing or able to put any muscle behind those words.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/15/weekly-address-getting-our-money-back-wall-street
And who are these idiots on Meet the Press. The people on the left are insisting that Obama is doing a fine job and is equal to or greater than The Greats (Raygun, Big Dawg) at this point in their presidencies. The people on the right are insisting his policies are socialist and that he campaigned from the center but is governing from the left! What the hell world are either of them looking at?
I know. I’ve felt like I’m in alternative universe for quite some time.
Sometimes the problem is definition of terms. I know this, because I have lots of Repub friends and family.
In their mind, “socialism” and “leftism” is intrusive, bullying, power-grabbing, unaccountable, non-responsive Statism in all its forms. In their minds, socialism is a govt saying “STFU and do what we say” while they cut deals for the favored donors. They make no distinction that that is actually fascism or crony capitalism. “Socialism” becomes the catch-all word for all those ills.
By that definition of “socialism”, they are correct that Obama and the DNC are governing in that high-handed way. Sometimes one has to figure out what they are actually saying, and how they define terms, before one can decide if they have a point or not. This is why I still maintain that there are lots of populists on the right (among average Joes, not the leaders) that agree with us on a lot of things – if we could figure out how to not keep talking around each other because we define terms differently.
The problem is that “socialism” has been the bugbear of the right for so long that they simply define it as anything they don’t support. So you get the absurd accusations of “Commie” from the likes of Glenn Beck and Pamela Geller, along with the essentially raycist anti-Muslim bigotry.
The fact is that the Democratic party is doing exactly what the Republican party did for the last eight years; the only thing that’s changed is the labels. For the populists to come together from both sides, they’re going to have to start getting past the labels–”teabagger,” “socialist”–and start dealing with reality. As a cruise through the news and and the blogosphere shows, though, there’s a lot of resistance to reality.
ps–Joseph Cannon has an excellent post on this issue this morning. I’d link, but the last two times I tried to link something–the Poe-died-of-rabies article– Spammy ate it or it disappeared into the ether.
By “people on the left” you mean pundits right? They are not “people on the left.” They are insulated elitists (redundant?) who are in total denial. More than half the population is screaming for their attention–to indicate how we feel–and they are oblivious, occasionally wondering, “What’s that scratching noise?” It’s the sound of a tsunami coming your way idiots.
Stateofdisbelief….I work on Mt Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park. A must is a Wildwood Stables carriage ride through the park. Whale watching cruises are fun but I prefer the four masted schooner Janet May. Let me know if I can be of service. http://www.acadiamagic.com/wildwood-stables.html
Thanks! much appreciated.
Wow…I NEVER watch the Chris Matthews Show, but yet here it is, on my TV and today’s episode appears to be a Hillary post mortem (talking about that book).
They are poking and prodding and picking at her.
Serious CDS going on–for both of them.
Meanwhile, she flew to Haiti to assess the damage and bring supplies. The contrast couldn’t be any clearer.
Sicker by the day: Health care reform gets a little weaker with each ugly deal
Deal by deal, favor by favor, the White House and congressional Democrats are making an ever more unsavory hash of health care reform.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/01/17/2010-01-17_sicker_by_the_day.html#ixzz0csheeFPl
Another watershed moment: Ezra Klein actually tells the truth and criticizes an Obama proposal!
Obama’s bank-friendly bank tax
Good. The more I think on Obama’s tax, the more it seems like an almost insulting proposal. TARP repayment is a provision of the TARP law. Moving it up from 2013 to 2010 is not a grand populist maneuver. It’s a change in timing. And given that the banks are pulling in record profits right now, it’s a change in timing that actually fits their balance sheets.
The bigger problem, though, is conceptual: Confining the tax to repayment of TARP when we’ve got a massive budget deficit and when further stimulus spending is constrained because no one knows how to pay for it is, well, a huge gift to the banks. There’s just no other way to put it.
Obama’s decision to sell this as a vicious attack on the banks seems like reverse-Tom Sawyerism: It’s an effort to make everyone believe that this tax is really bad and tough, when it isn’t. If anything, it’s protecting the banks from a much more punitive tax that isn’t limited to money they already have to repay.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/01/obamas_bank-friendly_bank_tax.html
yes indeed..
“Democrats, like the Red Sox in Game 7, may be too shell-shocked to win as spooked moderates — who come from places much less Democratic than Massachusetts — become more reluctant to take another tough vote on an unpopular bill.”
The spin on this (maybe like a fly-ball coming up off the ground and bounding to the side, to continue the misplaced metaphors) is incredible. Neatly placed fore and aft are the unacknowledged premises that a) the votes for “wealth care” were cast by moderates and b) Cokely’s vote was not caving in to O and the DINOs. a) is wrong: the whole health care fiasco was put in place by right wing corporate loving DEMs, not moderates. b) ditto: the truly tough vote for Cokely would have been to stand by her principles and vote no, as she initially said she would.
But ABC would have its audience debating whether Dem’s should courageously support “Wealth Care” or else move further rightward. Pretty good trick, should work.
SoD,
My in-laws had a place in Bar Harbor, and we visited often. Mt Desert Island is gorgeous. If you haven’t been there before, don’t miss the NPS trip out to Baker Island. There are so many fantastic restaurants in Bar Harbor, repertory theater, improv, all with some of the most gorgeous views in the world. There is bus service all over the island that’s free with a park pass. You can park your car and let someone else drive while you get to relax and enjoy the view. Have a wonderful time!