First of all, peaches or pears? I prefer pears, and so does my boy. CabinGirl thinks we’re weird.
Secondly, thank you to everyone who’s made a contribution to the site in the last two days. I am probably the lousiest self-promoter in the history of the world, but you folks make up for it. You’re great!
Thirdly, can you answer this question?
Between 2003 and 2007, [Clarence] Thomas’ wife, Virginia, received $686,589 in compensation from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, but the justice wrongly checked the box marked “none” on the question related to spousal income. Thomas says his omission resulted from a misunderstanding of the reporting requirement, and he has since amended his answers. But the situation is peculiar: How could a Supreme Court justice, who must pay attention to the nuances of complicated legal cases, misread instructions on a disclosure form?
Can you tell the difference between a wife who has no income for five straight years and one who brings in more than a half a million dollars? I think we need a SCOTUS ethics panel.
Fourthly, Libya’s Interim Government forces got their asses kicked in Bani Walid yesterday. Some of them blamed their defeat on Gaddafi loyalists’ decision to pour oil down the hills of the town. No word on whether it was boiling oil. Either way, it’s kind of medieval. I hope this doesn’t last too much longer.
Fifthly, Michele Bachmann criticized the president for not saving Hosni Mubarak. But she’s a big believer in freedom.
Sixthly, for some inexplicable reason violent crime is down sharply, despite tough economic times.
Violent crime in the United States continues to drop significantly despite the difficult economic environment, according to new statistics released Friday by the Justice Department.
According to the Crime Victimization Survey released annually by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2010 violent crimes dropped about 13% among U.S. residents ages 12 or older.
There must be some explanation. Maybe people are too broke to buy guns and knives?
Seventhly, score one for the bears. What will Stephen Colbert say?
What’s on your mind?
Am I forgetting something, or is Bachmann the first officeholder to explicitly come out against Arab Spring?
On the upside from Libya, the Free Libya Forces took Sirte, which means that the coastal highway – the main artery through Libya – is open from one end of the country to the other, through all the major cities.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/15/libyan-rebels-launch-sirte-offensive
No opinion on peaches?
Pears.
Yeah, pears.
Pears so ripe you need a bib.
Pears so ripe you shouldn’t drive if you’ve had more than two.
Beautiful fall day. If it’s the same where you are, get out and enjoy it.
White peaches are so amazing it’s hard to believe how good they are. Also, if you’ve never eaten a Honeycrisp apple, you really need to. Truly incredible. Basically a combination of the sweetness of a Fuji, and the tartness and firm flesh of a Granny Smith. Also, a really long shelf life. They keep well in the fridge for weeks, so you can stock up right before the farmstands run out.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/09/17/kara-kennedy-daughter-of-sen-ted-kennedy-has-died-at-age-51/
That family knows tragedy like few others.
Walter Mondale’s daughter passed away, also at the age of 51.
From back when there were “moderate Republicans”.
1.) Peaches, definitely. If they’re white peaches, then I’d go with pears. CabinGirl is right, you guys are weird.
2.) Yay!
3.) Yes, obviously. But meh, Thomas shouldn’t be there and he’s a corrupt and conniving SOB, but this is kind of political hackery. He’s not the one who writes the decisions or anything. He just tells his clerks generally where he stands on the issue, and then makes them find a legal rationale for it. He doesn’t need to be aware of any “legal intricacies.”
4.) Wait, didn’t we “win” already?
5.) It’s a whitewash of the history to even say Obama abandoned him in the first place. Obama was as loyal as any person in office could be, and they did everything they possibly could for weeks to save his ass. First he said nothing about the issue, then demanded “reforms,” then said to stop the violence…then eventually said Mubarak must go. I’ll allow a former Obama adviser to set the record straight:
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/495269
6.) Read your comments more often, silly (it wasn’t your entry, to be fair). fladem and I had a discussion about this:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2011/9/7/195148/3808
7.) At first I thought you meant football (I don’t pay attention to sports so I wouldn’t know if they played or not). But, uh…add them up higher on the chart?
I need some pears people or I am going to lose this argument.
I’m with Pears, but only if there are really good pears. Peaches are sweeter, but pears are more delicate and more interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BClZx2W1Hsg
OK, I generally prefer pears to peaches. But I really like plums.
cheater…
Are they Asian pears? Asian pears are amazing! I don’t eat candy any more because of them.
He meant the generic non-Asian pears…
4.) Wait, didn’t we “win” already?
We? You never told us you were Libyan. You comment at strange hours.
Obama was as loyal as any person in office could be, and they did everything they possibly could for weeks to save his ass.
You don’t remember much about the Cold War, do you? Or even Bush’s handling of the protest movement in Pakistan.
It’s interesting how the Libyan uprising was “us,” while not only did we have nothing to do with the Egyptian uprising, but we actually opposed it (despite not being able to identify anything we actually did to oppose it).
It’s all very interesting to provide a quote from an Egyptian activist working to refute the notion that the protests were the result of foreign interference, but I’ve seen our governing “do everything they possible could” to prevent the overthrow of a allied dictator. It doesn’t involve doing nothing, and it certainly doesn’t involve directing military officers with contacts in Egypt to call them and urge them not to obey orders to open fire on the protesters.
I have very odd texture issues with food, so both pears and peaches offer challenges. However, peaches win over pears. Pears are too grainy or gritty or something. As long as I peel a peach, I’m able to eat it.
But only fresh, not canned.
Told you I was odd.
Pears, but only if they are ripe. And decent ripe juicy pears are heard to find.
Peaches, but of course, a Hosui Asian pear is in a class all by itself.
Pears, but not by much.
Pears. I made a pear dessert a while back with bosc pears in a dutch oven. Delicious.
And I’m wondering if crime is down because more middle class folks are edging into poverty — there’s education in them thar middle classers, and becoming poor, maybe they’re bringing a bit more sharing & caring into the mix.
At least, it seems like there’s more courtesy, more humanness, spreading around between people who know the other guy in jeans/tee is just trying to get by.
And rich people aren’t mixing with the poor, or they’d get shot & robbed by a mob that acts as one unit.
Today at the gym there was a locker with a lock … that was open, but unmolested. Like, it looked like the person forgot to push the lock closed, and no one messed with it. Little bits of respect, from person to person….
Crime has been dropping since 1993.
The most likely explanation for why it dropped last year, too, is one that doesn’t treat the decline as something recent.
I like the ‘tipping point’ theory: the policy reforms, particularly in law enforcement and urban policy, from the 1990s brought about such a major decline in crime that a tipping point was reached where police departments are no longer overwhelmed, can dedicate sufficient resources to each case and each neighborhood, and are able to stay ahead of the problem, in a virtuous circle.