So the Democrats managed to get a cloture vote on their health care bill in the wee hours this morning (not a single Republican voted for cloture, so tell me again why the Democrats spent so much time kissing their asses). There are some more delaying tactics by Republicans in store, but that was the big one, and unless Joe Lieberman decides he wants to feel Harry Reid’s lips on his ass one more time, the bill should pass later on this week. It’s a piece of crap, but maybe something less crappy will come out of conference (but probably not), and then the President will sign it with much fanfare. Insurance companies will pretend to be all bummed out as they count their profits, Republicans will slam Obama and the Democrats from now until 2012, and Joe Lieberman will smile that stupid fucking smile of his as he cashes his insurance industry bonus check.
Winter officially begins today (at about 12:46PM where I’m at). That means we lose another couple seconds of daylight today, and things start improving (slowly) tomorrow. Seems like the days get shorter a lot faster than they get longer.
I’m doing my laundry yesterday, and I get informed that I’m doing it wrong. You’re supposed to put the water in first, then the detergent, and then the clothes. This is clearly ridiculous, of course. It’d be awfully hard to judge how big of a load to choose, and then you’d have to, like, sink all the clothes. What a pain that would be. I mean, maybe back in the olden days when you had to use soap chips or something, but with liquid detergent there’s just no need to “premix.”
For you folks who are digging out from under all that snow this weekend, good luck. We got a few snow fluffies overnight here, but nothing worth getting the shovel out for. Have a good Monday.
Doing laundry may be the last form of agitation in my life. I have also settled for developing a dryer sense of humour.
:cold:
:blues:
Yesterdays’s snow has produced at least one good thing. I didn’t go to work this morning.
yay Solstice!
way glad to get over that hump.
no snow at the moment here, feels weird.
wishing everyone the best possible fortune of course!
This may be a little obscure but I love it.
:blues: :bow: :gate:
The City got much less snow than Shelter Island. Looks like about 6″. But when people shovel their sidewalks they throw the snow to the curb and when the plows come through they do the same thing with the street snow so there are 3 foot mounds that must be climbed to get from the car to the sidewalk. Ugh!
Solstice site
http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html
look at “The ancients:
huge efforts to observe the solstices”
Newgrange, a beautiful megalithic site in Ireland. This huge circular stone structure is estimated to be 5,000 years old, older by centuries than Stonehenge, older than the Egyptian pyramids! It was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on winter solstice.
Maeshowe, on the Orkney Islands north of Scotland, shares a similar trait, admitting the winter solstice setting sun. It is hailed as “one of the greatest architectural achievements of the prehistoric peoples of Scotland.”
Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, built a thousand years ago by the Chacoans, ancestors of the Pueblo people. Even cultures that followed a moon-based calendar seemed also to understand the importance of these sun-facing seasonal turning points.
I think that Scarborough is using Morning Joe to position for a run in 2012. He was just crazy this morning attacking the HCR bill. If there is anything that could make me like it, it is that dirtbag attacking it. He also kept taunting Harold Ford about running for something in NY. I find that usually when people are making that kind of assertion, they often are trying to avert scrutiny from their own intentions.
Speaking of running…
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani expected to announce Tuesday he will not run for U.S. Senate
No Rudy! No Judi!
Thank goodness.
yay Amy!
heh!