Interesting look at where temperatures are crazy.

 I often question if the South and Southerners are just stupid about climate change. They deny and prevaricate if anything should be done about this.

Well, maybe they aren't stupid. Perhaps they are just reflecting on their lived experience. While temperatures are crazy in the Northwest, southern Florida, the interior west, and western coast areas, it is just as important to see that temperatures are normal or even below in much of the traditional South. 

Since even Ed and I notice how much national news is based out of New York, I can see how Southerns think it has been blown out of proportion by liberals. But I think it is more due to the fact that liberals live in areas hyper-affected by climate change in temperatures. As changes spread to the rest of the country, early and robust tornadoes, stronger and more destructive hurricanes, and wildfires across the west and Canada, many don't see this as a real problem.

I am NOT saying I agree, but I am saying that we need to get buy-in from the whole country on changing how we live.

Rigby and Noodle on a Walk int he Country

 We are watching two dogs named Rigby and Noodle. They get a big ass walk (like 90 minutes) around the fields and village here.

Now, I am not a fan of a 90-minute walk in the morning, but it is the cost of staying here. And, I will say, the walk is quiet and bucolic. Here are some pics from today's walk.

Come to America - Bribery is Legal

 The Supremes have ruled a new law about Bridery. Here is the poopski. I will sum up a little.

1. The Mayor of Portage, in 2013, ran the competition for a new garbage truck company. They chose Great Lakes Peterbilt.

2. In 2014, after this was chosen and the $1.1 million purchase was made, the Great Lakes Peterbilt paid the Mayor $13,000 dollars.

3.  The FBI investigated and found it the process had been manipulated by the mayor to ensure the company won the bid. 

4. A jury convicted the Mayor of accepting an illegal gratuity. The Mayor insisted it was for consulting services to the Great Lakes Peterbilt company. BTW: This seems a pretty shady practice in my mind anyway. How can you consult for a company you are judging, but whatevs.

5. The verdict was upheld by the State Supreme Court.

6. The Mayor appealed to the Supreme Court.

7. The Supreme Court said that since it was after the fact, the US statute does not concern gratuities, only to brides.

8. Get this, in their justification, they said that this would mean, "Could students take their college professor to Chipotle for an end-of-term celebration? And, if so, would it somehow become criminal to to the professor to a steak dinner? Or to treat her to a Hoosiers game (college basketball for those outside the US)?

    I would think that taking a professor out to dinner, a professor who is paid by the college and is not paid by the student, would be okay. But apparently, I am not as smart as a Supreme Court Justice.

But that conviction was too much for this court. In this court, the person who MADE the decisions and was "supposedly" employed as a consultant DURING the decision process, getting $13,000 later, was acceptable.

In at least one way, this is a totally expected outcome. You cannot expect at least 2 of the Justices who received $100s of Thousands in "gratuities" to find it illegal. 

Welcome

First Furries, now this..

 MAGA has a problem understanding the truth versus movies or jokes. The previous issue (and still quoted) is that some classrooms have litter boxes in the room for kids that identify as cats to use for the bathroom. This is a story that refuses to die no matter how many times it is disproved. ALWAYS "a friend of mine's child has seen this." I will spend no time on this asinine urban myth.

Now, the state of Florida has passed a law that allows people unlimited freedom to shoot black bears who are cocaine or crack. Are bears running around with white nostrils? No. 

Where some idiots convinced that a movie loosely based on (ONE) real event is an epidemic? Yes. Those idiots are the Florida legislators and Ron DeSantis.

Where did this particular stupid as hell idea come from...

"Get in line!" Get it?

PLOT AGAINST 1st AMENDMENT...

 .. or just a tempest in a teapot.

Louisiana, in a move straight out of the 1800s, passed a law demanding that every public classroom, Kindergarten through College, post a copy of the Ten Commandments in class. This has been judged as illegal (Separation of Church and State) for at least six decades. The court has knocked it down every time it has been raised. 

But Louisiana not only passed this, but they dared anyone to sue them, with the Governor saying he could not wait to be sued. This is easy to say when your state's budget is used to defend it, not your money. 

And I want to freak out. But why. Forget for the moment that it is illegal. Forget this is a stupid thing for Louisiana to spend money on - much of that money comes from the rest of the country due to their constant flooding and hurricane disasters. Forget that this gives Evangelical conservatives a chubby.

But, really, why should I care. I mean, they are stupid and there are already a shitload of idiotic things that Louisiana does that I don't care about.

But really, apart from the asinine shittynes of it, who cares? Let's look at it this way, can you remember 1 poster from your elementary school years.

D.A.R.E. is the only poster from school most of us remember (some of you are too old to remember these pieces of Nancy Reagan's mind swimming on paper). They went up, went into almost any school and no one paid attention. They were memorial as a poster, but who can still say what D.A.R.E. stands for?

So, who cares? Not me so much. I find the outlawing of teaching about slavery, the history of Native Americans, women's suffrage, and a mention of gay rights much worse.

Wrest Manor (Palace?)

 Yesterday we took a stroll around Wrest Park. We couldn’t take the pups into the manor itself, but we did travel the gardens with them.

We did not know that a lot of Bridgerton was filmed here, but the tree above is where Penn and Colin had their first hidden kiss.

A Day out for a Walk with the pups

 It is an interesting trip here because we are walking the pups in areas we haven't been.  With another 3 weeks in England, we don't have to hurry to see things ourselves. We can take our time,

In this case, that means we can take the dogs to many places. There are some, definitely interiors, that they can't go to, but I do like taking them elsewhere.

In these pictures, we are at Houghton House. It is a derelict manor house, and the grounds have been turned into horse fields or farmland.

Yesterday at Bletchley Park

Doesn't look like a military installation does it?

 We went to Bletchley Park a few days ago for a second visit. We had gone years ago with Barbara and Gareth. We loved it so we went back.

It has changed a lot. I am not putting in a lot of pictures because it is a museum, and photos of exhibits are boring if you don't go ("Oh, wow, glass gas with gas mask"). 

Last time at Bletchley, most of the emphasis was on Alan Turning and the Engma code-breaking. But since this information was presented, there have been a lot of books about the time and Alan Turning - both as his expertise in running the top secret project to break the German military codes and his experience later as a gay man caught and then chemically castrated. 

But this time there is more of a "holistic" view of the time. They did not discuss only the bomba, the code-breaking machine, but also the other needs of espionage like how to make sense of morse code in a foreign language or how to interpret silence in context.

It was quite interesting. 

I am including one photo of the library set up as it would have been in the day. This was where the military brass and administration worked.  It would have covered the whole room, but here it is.

It was a grand day out.

Wrest Park

 A day out with the pups.

Us and Wolfie and Chester

We’ve arrived and are having a great time with Wolfie, the girl, and Chester, the boy.  They adorable   

Chester cannot get comfortable. 

Eddie and Wolfie hanging out

Chester in the Sun. 

Headed off to Maulden

 Well, we are beginning quite a trip. Our first stop is in England, in Maulden. We are watching 2 pups for about 10 days. We are excited because they are the same breed as our old pup, Ashford - Welsh terriers. AND Maulden is in a new part of England for us.

This is Chester and Wolfie. I cannot wait.

Harlem Renaissance Part Two

Explanation Below

Last weekend, when I went to the Met, there was a show about the Harlem Renaissance as painted by contemporary Black Artists. There were some very cool paintings by a few artists I never heard of and now love.

This work is all by Aaron Douglas. 

The top piece is explained here:

They bring a sense of motion and life. (They remind me of Italian Futurism.) The bottom two here are religious.

Harlem Renaissance at the Met

 Last weekend, when I went to the NY Metropolitan Museum (the Met), there was a show about the Harlem Renaissance as painted contemporary Black Artists. There were some very cool paintings by a few artists I never heard of and now love.

This work is all by Archibald Motely Jr.

So bright and alive.