Not too much luck viewing the Perseids this year. Full moon and too many clouds make viewing almost non-existent.  I keep thinking there might be less overcast outside of town.  Has anyone seen anything that looks like a meteor shower?

Google sky map for Android is a big help as is Star Walk for ipad.  Does anyone else have any software recommendations?

141 Thoughts to “Open Thread……………………………………Saturday, August 13”

  1. Big Dog

    http://www.roanoke.com/datasphere/wb/215214

    http://www.schooldigger.com

    Info on 2010-11 AYP and SOL scores coming out and it doesn’t look good
    for public education even in top rated systems like Fairfax County and
    Montgomery County (Md).

    Headline for early edition story in Sunday’s WaPo by Robert McCartney –
    “Failure to update education law is needlessy threatening schools”

    ” ‘NCLB has outlived its usefulness,’ said Josh Starr, Montgomery County’s
    new superintendent. ‘Test scores are not the equivalent of a profit and
    loss statement …You have to look at multiple sources of information
    to understand how well kids are doing and how well schools are doing.’ ”

    Agree — or not?

    1. I have been screeching about NCLB for as long as I have been on the blogs. No one listened, cared or paid attention. I feel like raising a big I Told You So flag every time I discuss it now.

      Enemies of pulic education will use the results as another reason to put less money in to education, saying the institution is failing. No. it isn’t failing at all. The rear ends in Washington expect something like 85% of all students taking the test to pass. We know that isn’t going to happen. Those are huge pass rates that simply aren’t attainable.

      To expect 100% pass rate by 2014 will never happen. If that remains the objective then do away with all schools. It will not happen. Let’s just dismantle all education and save some money. NCLB is such a set up. Almost no school is making the grade now because that is not how human beings work.

  2. Big Dog

    Mark McKinnon, a veteran Texas politico, told the Washington Post’s
    Dan Balz that Perry “Will put Romney in the microwave and turn it
    up to high”.

    And for how long?

    1. The RN word is stuck in my throat, trying not to come out the ends of my fingers…but it is darn hard.

      The one thing Romney has over Perry–class.

  3. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    You said “Balz”.

  4. @Big Dog

    Totally agree. It needs to immediately be pulled. It needed it 5 years ago. It is a burdensome, poorly constructed piece of legislation that has darn near destroyed the American education institution.

  5. Big Dog

    “Perry is a hard man – he rather be feared than be loved or respected.”

    Mark McKinnon

  6. Steve Thomas

    I like the Leonid metor shower period better. Very fond memories of being a newly-wed, drinking coco and wine, watching the show in a field in Catlet. The field where our wedding reception had been held.

  7. Cargosquid

    Just to let you guys know….I will be leaving on another sooper sekrit mishun for a week. I’ll be heading to……..well, let’s call it SC. I will be infiltrating a sooper sekrit shoreside installation. As they expect the Navy to infiltrate by sea, I will be sneaking in from the landward side…… I will be under cover for about 7 days. I will be forced to lay, immobile, for hours at a time, under the blazing sun. I will be forced to ingest multi colored, mind-altering concoctions in order to stay under cover. If discovered, I will not divulge my connections with anyone.

    Departure time is unknown as its raining and we can’t pack the assault vehicle.

    Wish me luck.

  8. Big Dog

    http:www.sacbee.com/2011/08/13/3834794/molly-cant-say-that-about-rick.html

    “Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be President of
    the United States, please pay attention!”

    Molly Ivins (2005)

  9. Cato the Elder

    @Slowpoke Rodriguez

    What was that line about piddling Chihuahuas again?

  10. @Cargosquid

    It sounds to me like you are going to Myrtle Beach and will be laying drunk for a week. 👿

  11. @Steve Thomas

    Were you married on NOv. 18 and just hadn’t made it home or did you go back to the scene of the crime?

    I used to love to go out to the picnic area of the battlefield to watch the Perseids and the leonids. Then someone got the bright idea to take away the picnic area. Now there is no public area that is dark to go watch celestial events.

  12. DB

    I for one have always agreed with you Moon about NCLB. It just looks at the end test results, not the gains each student has made throughout the school year. A student may fail the SOLs but that doesn’t mean that the student hasn’t made progress. Since there is not a pre and post test for SOL’s there is no way for a school to show the gov’t academic gains the students make during the school year. Why not give the students an SOL in the fall and the spring and measure their progress and then decide which schools make annual yearly progress?

    And each state has their own test, and the tests are not standardized. SOL questions change every year, the state is constantly tinkering with the format, tossing in field questions, etc. The tests 3rd graders took this year is not the same one 3rd graders took last year, and this year’s 3rd graders will take a different test as well. So how can teachers compare results? If the gov’t really wants to look at math and reading scores in the nation, let them give every student the COGAT or the Standford 10 which are standardized and use those scores.

  13. Cargosquid

    @Moon-howler
    We are bringing some Malibu Coconut rum…..My niece introduced it to my wife. Mixed it with pineapple juice and ice…..

    My wife loves it. And she barely drinks anything.

  14. Cargosquid

    Well, now we know why the Tea Party opposed raising the debt ceiling.

    “Minority Leader Pelosi told a group of black democrats that Republicans only raised a fuss during the debt debates because Obama is black.”

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/08/pelosi-agrees-with-rep-jackson-lee-republicans-raised-fuss-over-debt-limit-because-obama-is-black-video/

    Ok, then.

    1. @Cargo

      pssssttttt–Cargo! Look at the bigger picture. We could not go in to default.

  15. Cargosquid

    Raising a fist to death

    “If we were going to die,” Weinstein says, “we would do it on our own terms. We would die standing proud, on our feet, making a statement to the world. We would take as many of those bastards as we could kill.”

    http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/05/local/la-me-survivors-20110805

  16. punchak

    @Big Dog

    I miss Molly!!!

    She was nutty sometimes, but she was funny nutty.

  17. marinm

    The final tally of the 16,000-plus straw votes:

    –Bachmann, 4,823 votes, 28.55 percent;

    –Paul, 4,671 votes, 27.65 percent;

    –Pawlenty, 2,293 votes, 13.57 percent;

    –Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, 1,657 votes, 9.81 percent;

    –Business executive Herman Cain, 1,456 vote, 8.62 percent;

    –Perry, 718 votes, 3.62 percent, all write-ins;

    –Romney, 567 votes, 3.36 percent;

    –Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 385 votes, 2.28 percent;

    –Former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah, 69 votes, 0.41 percent;

    –Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., 35 votes, 0.21.

    Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/13/3074745/bachmann-wins-iowa-straw-poll.html#ixzz1UxUIxPDe

    I think Bachmann got a good bump with the Newsweek story and Paul was within striking distance.

    1. Thank you for posting this information, Marin. How are the babes?

      So are you a fan of Bachmann’s?

      I believe the straw vote shows how irrelevant the Iowa vote really is. Not sure why they do it. See and be seen?

  18. marinm

    Well, it’s a big fund raiser for the Iowa GOP so I think from their perspective it makes (financial) sense and they always want it to be seen as meaningful.

    I think you could argue that Romney not getting many votes means he’s just not what the party faithful are looking for.

    I think in many ways how Mr. Obama energized the progressives last election I see that as happening on the right this election with people like Bachmann, (my fav) Paul, Perry, etc.

    I think Bachmann has her use but not as President. I honestly think what the left did with Ms. Clinton and Ms. Palin have damaged the ability for a woman to be elected for the next 30 years.

    I’m for Obama’s real change. I’m a Paul fan boy. Stop the wars, decrease defense spending, justify spending programs directly to the Constitution, and limit government.

    The babies are doing wonderfully. I have not been. Been ill almost a week with my first bout with kidney stones. I wouldn’t wish this pain on my worse enemy. I feel blessed that Angela has been able to take care of the kids and me all by herself. She’s a saint.

    1. Marin, I am sorry you have been ill. I wondered where you are. Uric acid in a mean mofo. Mr. Howler has gout. Same source of agony but I hear nothing is as mean as a kidney stone. Not even labor.

      I have to take issue with ‘what liberals did to Ms. Clinton and Ms. Palin.’ You are kidding me, aren’t you?

  19. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    I believe the straw vote shows how irrelevant the Iowa vote really is.

    Odd, that was my exact same thought when I read that Bachmann won. I love that Paul got a close second. Ron Paul is my guy!!
    I love the argument I’ve heard about Iran since the debate. “Iran is killing Americans every day!!” Well, yeah, because we’re over there to be killed! Duh!

  20. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    @marinm
    At 41, I have had two bouts of kidney stones. The last time, the pain was so bad, I looked up a home remedy online before I left work to go to the hospital. It said “drink olive oil to smooth the stone along”. I stopped at a Giant and bought a bottle and gulped it down while driving to Manassas hospital (I don’t remember the drive from being out of my mind in pain). I can tell you the oil didn’t do anything but make me want to puke. Best thing I knew was drink as much water as you can stand. It does help. The first one I passed in the emergency waiting room. The second time they took me straight back, gave me flomax and three different pain killers (one was laundinium, so something like that), and it wasn’t too bad a time. My thoughts and prayers are with you, as I know how bad that sux.

  21. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    @marinm
    Oh, and I forgot the really crappy news. If you’ve had them once, you’re almost guaranteed to get them again.

  22. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Here ya go, Marinm…..It ain’t pretty!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZj7H8sfkR0

  23. Cargosquid

    @marinm
    And that’s why I don’t care about straw polls, especially this early. Look at where McCain was polling at this time, or Obama or Clinton.

  24. Morris Davis

    One thing you have to admire about the Iowa straw poll is there is no effort to hide the fact that votes are bought. Voters must have a $30 ticket in order to vote. Most candidates buy the $30 tickets for their supporters, ply them with corn dogs and country music, and send them in to vote … and then if they do well they pretend the result in some way represents democracy at work. The Iowa straw poll has a poor record of predicting ultimate winners. It is, however, a great way to raise cash and cholesterol. I want to meet the man who said, “hey, if I cram a stick into a stick of butter and then deep fry it in hot oil, they’ll sell like hotcakes.” I would have stuck with just selling hotcakes.

    1. That is one expensive poll tax there, Moe. Shoot, I thought just the south was guilty of that one.

      That fried butter made me gag looking at it.

  25. Starryflights

    Ron Paul once said that the 9/11 attacks upon the United States were justifiable. If he were President, he would have let bin laden go free. Obama ensured that bin laden received his just fate. Ron Paul would not be a good President.

    1. He would just tell us to mind our own business. There! That would fix it.

      @ Starry

  26. Starryflights

    Rep. Ron Paul goes to bat for raw-milk consumers
    Texan fights for group under scrutiny by FDA

    By KATIE PERKOWSKI
    WASHINGTON BUREAU

    May 16, 2011, 11:24PMWASHINGTON Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7567442.html#ixzz1UzTnTEHD

    Ron Paul wants to make drinking pasteurized milk illegal. I think there are much more important matters for a President to be concerned about.

    1. I wonder what that would do for bringing back small pox? Isn’t Ron Paul a physician by trade? He should know better.

      Can you say NUT Case???!!!!!

      @Starry

  27. Starryflights

    Ron Paul: Let Iran Have the Bomb
    Thursday, 11 Aug 2011 10:42 PM

    By Martin Gould and Abigail Walls

    Read more on Newsmax.com: Ron Paul: Let Iran Have the Bomb

    http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/ron-paul-iran-bomb/2011/08/11/id/407043

    Ron Paul supports Iran’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons

  28. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Looks like Starry did an 8-ball last night!

  29. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    I wonder what that would do for bringing back small pox? Isn’t Ron Paul a physician by trade? He should know better.
    Can you say NUT Case???!!!!!
    @Starry

    Hmmm, how many people kill themselves each year with alcohol? How many kids kill themselves by playing with OTC drugs, sniffing glue?

    1. Plenty of people do those things. Where is the logic?

      Pasteurization has gone on for about 150 years, cutting down on diseases carried in milk. Why stop doing that? I can see no harm in Pasteurization.

  30. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    Plenty of people do those things. Where is the logic?
    Pasteurization has gone on for about 150 years, cutting down on diseases carried in milk. Why stop doing that? I can see no harm in Pasteurization.

    Of course there is no harm in Pasteurization, and 99% of the people will choose to drink Pasteurized Milk. But if a tiny fraction of the population chooses to drink milk straight from the cow, why is the government wasting money forcing it otherwise? Seems to me that alcohol kills people at an order of magnitude greater than from drinking unpasteurized milk, so why not ban alcohol? It’s about the government telling us everything….meanwhile, they don’t do what they’re actually charged with doing. Actually, I’m somewhat interested in how well suited humans are to drinking cow’s milk anyway. The genes in humans to even process lactase are a relatively recent event in modern humans.

    1. @Pokie

      The flip side of this is obviously why should a presidential candidate concern himself over something that individuals do?

      I think the obvious is that if individuals chose to drink from the cow, have at it. However, unpasteurized milk can’t be rolled across state lines commercially.

      The govt protects people in this case.

  31. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Big Dog :
    http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/295973
    “Tyranny of the Tea Party”?

    Good case evidence for why newspapers are on life support. Krugman. Just the name is like a punch line.

  32. IVAN

    Pawlenty drops out of presidential race.

    1. He was a few cuts above many. Too bad he didn’t have the rah rah stage presence. Actually it was a welcome relief. Can someone without it get elected?

  33. Big Dog

    http://blogs.fredericksburg.com/truthiness

    “As for the Bush-era tax cuts, the top 1 percent of households got
    38 percent of the total benefit. The middle 20 percent got 11 percent.”

    Tea Party dogma — don’t even think of touching a tiny portion of that 38 percent
    — not for the military, medical research, paying our debt — nothing. Period.

    1. @Big Dog,

      It makes me wonder why the middle class is protecting the 1%. Kool aid or promises?

      This makes no sense.

      The middle class needs to start looking out for itself. Its obvious that the upper 1% doesn’t give a rat’s ass.

  34. IVAN

    @ Moon and Big Dog

    That is supposed to be why we have elections.

  35. Cindy B

    I love this blog. Where else can I read a conversation that goes from kidney stones to raw milk to test scores to Iowa? When is the next face-to-face at Mama Mia’s? It’s been too long. I want to meet the babies.

    1. Curtsy, bow. Steve is working on it ….first week in October I think. We will have to check with him. We are waiting for everyone to get back from vacation and we are trying to avoid the Redskins Sunday.

  36. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    @Moon-howler
    About the upper 1%. It isn’t that the middle class protects them so much as the smart ones have learned that going after them doesn’t help. Do you really think the upper 1% doesn’t have a zillion tricks to hide their money from the government? Do you really think they can’t hire lawyers a-plenty to fight anything you might want to do to them? They already pay the lion’s share of taxes, while over 40% pay el-zippo. They just pull their money out of the economy (because they’re not stupid) and stop hiring, stop expanding, etc. As long as new taxes stay away from $250,000/yr or less, fine, go right ahead! I’m just saying, they can keep their money away from those who wish to take it. That’s how they got rich to begin with.

    1. Many don’t hire in the first place. I am thinking of Wall Street bankers and CEOs. I don’t see them creating jobs.

      Some of them are so tight they squeak also…when it comes to people other than themselves. Now that I can understand.

  37. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Here again, I think there’s more common ground than one might think. The problem is that the wealthy have 1000 ways to hide their money, because the tax code is ALL messed up. So while their tax bracket may be “the lion’s share”, they find ways to get out of most of it. I’m for getting rid of all loopholes, and everybody pays a flat tax, end of story. No way to get around it, and everyone pays. I bet the rates wouldn’t have to be bad at all if you got rid of all the loopholes. Save money by eliminating 95% of the IRS. Now until such time as this fantasy-world becomes reality, going after the rich usually just winds up hurting us instead.

  38. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    The middle class needs to start looking out for itself. Its obvious that the upper 1% doesn’t give a rat’s ass.

    Are you saying the lower 40% who pay no taxes and can vote themselves more benefits DO give a damn about the middle class?

    1. @Slowpoke, I suspect some of them ARE the middle class. Why are they off the hook? I refuse to believe that 50% of the people in this country are poor.

  39. punchak

    @Morris Davis

    What? No corn likker???

  40. Juturna

    The government shouldn’t worry about people who drink pasturized or non-pasurized milk. Conversely the government shouldn’t have to bail out flood, hurricane, e-coli victims either. Age old issue over government, no one wants them till they need them, then they can’t get enough. No one wants them until they see a FEMA check headed their way, then they can’t get enough.

    No one wants them until they need someone to blame for their poor choices and they feel victimized. Like now.

  41. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    Many don’t hire in the first place. I am thinking of Wall Street bankers and CEOs. I don’t see them creating jobs.
    Some of them are so tight they squeak also…when it comes to people other than themselves. Now that I can understand.

    OK, I’m not sure who wall st. bankers hire, apart from other wall st. bankers. I guess I’ve led a strange existence in that every company I’ve ever worked for, from 16 through 41, always had a CEO. I get that small businesses create many jobs and have no CEOs, but CEOs don’t hire? Really? I know they’re not hiring now, and won’t until Obama’s out of office, but I think CEOs (or the companies they run) normally do hire a person or three.

    1. That isn’t their money. That is company money. I am speaking of personal income. Those people might very well be hiring with company money.

  42. kelly3406

    I saw that Obama’s job approval rating has dropped to 39%. There was an interesting article by Dana Milbank that discussed how powerless and rudderless the Obama administration has become (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-most-powerful-man-on-earth/2011/08/08/gIQA49w72I_story.html). If his job approval keeps dropping, he may well approach the same level of impotence as Jimmy Carter.

    1. Obama might be the most popular if he told everyone to go screw themselves. If he holds back and tries to reason with people and treat them like they are adults, some whine. If he goes stern, then he is accused of lecturing. The bottom line is, there are light years between now and the 2012 election.

      It has long been a Republican trick, as it were, to get the murky middle’s eyes off the ball. Let’s hope they have more sense. A good president will make decisions that aren’t particularly popular. All of them have done that.

      For right now, Obama’s biggest mistake would be to let the right rattle him.

  43. Juturna

    Gerald Ford is the only president in recent times with a rating lower than Obama’s at this point of their presidency…. Eisenhower, JFK and Clinton never dropped below 40% according to the WSJ. Even Pres Reagan dipped to 38/39%.. Everyone was above 40% with the exception of Carter. Eisenhower, Ford, Reagan and Clinton did not have the wild swings of the others…

    I would look at the consistancy of the ratings and base it on that overall. Obamas does look like 5 o’clock

  44. Juturna

    Everyone was above 60% not 40% except Ford. Those colors are too similar for old people.

  45. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    That isn’t their money. That is company money. I am speaking of personal income. Those people might very well be hiring with company money.

    OK, that goes back to what I was saying earlier…..those types can probably hire enough accountants and lawyers to only pay 1% in taxes. Flat Tax, no loopholes, no exceptions.

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