![Winter-Solstice[l]](https://www.moonhowlings.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Winter-Solsticel-300x263.jpg)
Long awaited Winter Solstice is here. Winter has begun, officially. Since ancient times, man has prepared for the winter with dread. People froze, starved, and had to share their quarters with wild beasts. There was darkness.
Tomorrow will have the least hours of daylight in the year The good news is, after tomorrow, the days will gradually get longer with more and more daylight with each passing day.
Ancient man knew a great deal about earth’s movements, all things considered. Stonehenge and other monoliths continue to amaze modern man because of its accuracy thousands of years before the telescope was even a glimmer in DaVinci’s eye.
Meanwhile, today will be unseasonably warm. Go figure. Will you celebrate the Winter Solstice?
Stonehenge Winter Solstice 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxOm9ljhm44
Solstice explanation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqJTpsg3o_c
I had a dream last night that I flipped past FOX News and stumbled upon “Megan Kelly’s White Christmas Special”. Kelly and Gretchen Carlson were interviewing some guy from the New Black Panther Party, who was claiming that white Santa was a war criminal, and they were getting all worked up about it. Then Carlson got redder and redder until her head actually popped off the neck and shot up to the ceiling. Kelly started wailing on the New Black Panther guy with her fists, screaming “Look what you’ve done!” Then i woke up.
I once had a dream that an enraged bull was chasing Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz all around the football stadium of my old high school — of all places. And all the students and teachers and fans were cheering for the bull.
What on earth do you have against Rachel Maddow?
She is polite to all her guests and is always gracious.
Don’t ask me. It was the angry bull chasing her. I didn’t say the bull caught her. I recall vaguely that she was running pretty fast, whereas Schultz was really dragging. Hmmm, could it be that the “bull” was symbolic — as in MSNBC bull.?
What does Mr. Bentley have against Gretchen Carlson that he dreamed about her head popping off?
The intended joke there isn’t that I wish violence upon her. It is that she is so perpetually angry and indignant, by choice. Hence the imagined image of her becoming so worked up about some asinine segment with the “New Black Panther Party” that her head pops off.
This is humor fulfilling its primary value from an evolutionary standpoint – as a social sanction against inflexible bahavior. Your joke comes off meaner because Maddow is being attacked by an external entity.
Well, until Gov. Gun Control was elected gov. of Virginia, Beretta USA had us on their short list for a new plant.
Isn’t that nice. We’re already losing business because of McAuliffe.
That’s Baretta’s choice. So they are protesting the duly elected governor of Virginia?
@Rick Bentley
Maddow also isn’t an indignant, always pissed off person. She treats her guests well, even when they are people whose policy and politics differ from those of Rachel.
Gretchen is a smart woman. She graduated from Stanford. I don’t understand why she dumbs down for Faux News. You just don’t get in Stanford if you are innately stupid.
“Gretchen is a smart woman. She graduated from Stanford.”
That just can’t be … this must be a Don Draper scenario. (The real woman died, and this woman took her identity).
We are speaking of the blonde woman who used to be on Fox and Friends in the morning who always had her nose out of joint over something? Former Miss America. Played the violin. Graduated from Stanford. Am I thinking of the wrong person?
@Moon-howler
She graduated “cum laude” from Stanford.
Stanford doesn’t give out degrees to dummies.
And she didn’t have rich or famous parents with pull.
Personally, I can’t stand her!
Me either …I cannot stand her. But she’s not dumb which makes it all the more disturbing.
Michele Bachman babysat Carlson when she was a kid. ‘Nuf said.
You are kidding me. Please tell me you are kidding me.
They are looking for a replacement for their Accokeek, MD factory. Beretta wants to move out of Maryland because of their (Maryland’s) recently gun control laws. No one is preventing Beretta USA from making and selling guns. Sounds like a weak PR decision to get attention.
So they are creating a fake crisis…
Most of the NRA howling in the past few years has been fake crisis.
Translation: “Texas gave us a better deal.”
Moon — Personally, I recommend that you pass to Mr. Bentley one of those Lakota dream catchers that we always get from St. Joseph’s. Looks like he could use it. One of the larger ones.
Can’t believe I’m in a discussion of dreams. Somebody must have spiked the eggnog.
Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters
A Deadly Mix in Benghazi
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
December 28, 2013
Fifteen months after Mr. Stevens’s death, the question of responsibility remains a searing issue in Washington, framed by two contradictory story lines.
One has it that the video, which was posted on YouTube, inspired spontaneous street protests that got out of hand. This version, based on early intelligence reports, was initially offered publicly by Susan E. Rice, who is now Mr. Obama’s national security adviser.
The other, favored by Republicans, holds that Mr. Stevens died in a carefully planned assault by Al Qaeda to mark the anniversary of its strike on the United States 11 years before. Republicans have accused the Obama administration of covering up evidence of Al Qaeda’s role to avoid undermining the president’s claim that the group has been decimated, in part because of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The investigation by The Times shows that the reality in Benghazi was different, and murkier, than either of those story lines suggests. Benghazi was not infiltrated by Al Qaeda, but nonetheless contained grave local threats to American interests. The attack does not appear to have been meticulously planned, but neither was it spontaneous or without warning signs.
http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/?smid=tw-bna#/?chapt=0
So the video was a factor in the attacks after all.
@Cato the Elder
Well, they’ve been trying to make a move for over a year. Several facilities, hundreds of employees…it’s unusual for a for profit to make a move based on conviction. No money in conviction.
Maybe they can persuade Rick Perry to pay for everything. How is Delaware? Moving that far from east coast ports is also a consideration.
Nope.
Nice gal, that Gretchen Carlson. Stanford grad, summer study program at Oxford. Accomplished violinist and former violin soloist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Miss America. Beauty and brains. Doing well with the cable network which consistently runs its rivals right off the ratings charts. Probably earning a nice pile of money for her work. Good for her.
The fact that you just unabashedly referred to her as a ‘gal’ speaks volumes.
I totally agree with Scout.
It’s very sad when someone you know has that kind of academic pedigree allows themselves to be used and manipulated.
It doesn’t matter about popularity ratings, Wolve, I rather pride myself on now following the pack as a matter of fact. At the end of the day, she sounds like a dunce and she isn’t.
Who has Faux News run off, btw?
That gets back to Moon’s question, wolve: why does a woman with that kind of stellar background allow herself to act like such a dunce on national television in front of millions of people? Surely she could find employment that allows her a modicum of personal dignity.
Fox has figured out (just like the Reality shows) how to attract viewers – part of it is outrage at some things and part of it is ‘dumbing’ down the program to have the viewer think they are smarter. If you watch the programs you can see how they intertwine the same message in different ways – Gretchen soft balls a theme in the morning – with a ‘can you believe this’ look on her face, Megan Kelly picks up on it – looking into the camera with a very stern look, and Hannity hits it home with his ‘panel’ of experts without giving anyone of them any time to answer as he shouts over them. It is really a very well crafted choreographed station.
Oh, Scout, get off your high horse. We all know you are the smartest person in the whole world and anyone who doesn’t agree with you is naught but a personally flawed yob. I call Gretchen a “gal” and you all say she acts like a dunce. And I am called out for the “gal” thing. Lord Almighty. The SS Crap-On-Fox-News is in port again.
It never leaves port. It’s a permanent fixture.
Mr. Howler also gets called out over ‘gal.’ I guess you two just can’t help yourselves. Maybe Elena will come along and explain it. I have grown weary and just chalk it up to OMD.
2013 Ratings: Fox News Number One for 12th Straight Year. If that was an NFL team, they would be calling it a “dynasty.”
Counting..1…2…3…4…5…
Is that how you select your news shows? The old ‘popularity’ contest?
I have watched enough Fox News in my life to realize that they are the home of misinformation and infused opinion. It really isn’t the place to get unbiased news.
I guess some folks just need to have a good daily dose of corn-fed Bull S**t.
Hi, you all!
Have a great last day of 2013!!!
2013 wasn’t all that good, looking back on it. Thanks for the sentiments, Punchak.
ARe you partying tonight?
Looking at Carlson’s wikipedia page – she actually has a degree in sociology. Graduated from Stanford cum laude. And Bachmann really WAS her babysitter.
Well, some people are just evil and/or emotionally stunted. I think that explains it.
That explains it. Something in the water. Michelle Bachman can’t be all that innately stupid either. She did attend William and Mary. You don’t get in that school if you are academically stupid. I guess its a matter of academic smarts being different than social and political smarts.
I know that what you’re saying is rational. Perhaps this is just my own prejudice working, but … I just have a hard time believing that either of those women is functioning at a normal level.
Women like Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin are clearly of normal or higher intelligence, but emotionally stunted and mean. Megan Kelly and Lauren Green are clearly smart, but so thoroughly immersed in right-wing nonsense that they lose track of what’s real. Sarah Palin’s clearly neither an idiot nor a brain surgeon – just a cynical figure somewhat out of her depth.
But Carlson and Bachmann are doing such a convincing portrayal of being hopelessly stupid. As you’ve been saying, it is an interesting phenomenon.
Maybe they each had concussions or head injuries that could explain this?
The fact that Rachel’s parents would even take her to Michelle Bachmann to be baby sat for is scary. Wouldn’t most of us screen our sitters more carefully?
Yes, Fox gets all the ratings – in the words of one of our supervisors – that means that there are more pajama wearing people watching fox than say msnbc. What I do want to figure out is why those people watching fox do not have something better in their life to do such as spend time with family or get a hobby. The only thing I can see is them getting some sort of entertainment or stimulation from all the negativity.
I have too many things going on in my life and very little time to watch tv – job, PTO, kids, hobby, family, etc. Where do all these Conservatives/Republicans get the time…..
I think it has to do with older people. Older people think they are right, have always been right and are often unwilling to even try to see something through someone else’s eyes. My mother was an exception. I don’t know too many more and I refuse to classify myself that way.
My parents both became more moderate as they aged. I think they felt that they didn’t have all the answers, couldn’t have all the answers, and would never have all the answers. And they were traditional people. My father pursued several hobbies and my mother always had at least one book opened. I don’t remember them fearing much.
On my walk today with my husband, we talked about why older people (and many younger ones as well) become so fearful as they become older. I think people become out of the loop with society, either because they become more infirm and can’t get out as they used to do, or because they stop socializing for other reasons. Because they lack experience interacting with younger people or a variety of people, they become fearful of these “others”- mainly because they lack the experience to size them up and see that, for the most part, they aren’t a threat. It’s so much easier to stay home, watch faux News, and have your fears confirmed. I believe statistics would probably prove that Faux attracts an older crowd.
“On my walk today with my husband, we talked about why older people (and many younger ones as well) become so fearful as they become older.”
I see it a lot in males in their 40’s and 50’s. Some of my cohorts are set in their career path, fear losing their current job and the world possibly passing them by, and just clearly want the world to freeze in place so that they can stay where they are. IMO when i hear some of what they say, they are just literally afraid of change. Any change is bad.
By contrast I’m an arrogant guy who thinks he’s smarter than the people around him, and feels his skills will be current for decades, whose family is no longer dependent on him – and am afraid of nothing, and have become less conservative in the past couple of years as the pressure of supporting a family has come off me.
(and don’t think I’m as afraid of changes in society as I was 5 years ago).
I think the job market and supporting a family does make some people more fearful of change. We’ve always given ourselves a lot of wiggle room by not buying the most house we could afford or by budgeting for only one breadwinner. That gave us more flexibility without the fear of wondering if we could withstand a job loss, major illness, etc.
I suggest that older people see themselves losing control of their lives so they cling to their comfort level.
I am also going to suggest that a lot of youngsters don’t have the sense to fear things that some of us older folks know represent a danger.
I have often thought back to some of my parents ideas (which I thought were ridiculous and antiquated at the time) and thought that the parents weren’t so far off base.
This being the open thread … no one’s commented yet about the MSNBC anchor(s) making fun of Romney’s black grandchild. I think it’s really abhorrent. From what I occasionally see of MSNBC, there is some level of hatefulness there.
I usually like Melissa Harris-Perry but in this case I think she was wrong–dead wrong. People’s kids really should not be targets unless that person makes them a target. I thought Sarah Palin dangled her kids as targets and then got mad when people took pot shots at them.
Mitt Romney never dangled his kids or his grandkids. He is owned an apology.
Ah, hope I don’t get skewered but is this a case of I can say it but you can’t? Shouldn’t work I for anybody.
@Moon-howler
“older people”
What does that mean / really? At what age do you go from “old” to “older” to “elderly”?
Some people are T-Rexes at 55 or younger, while others are still young beyond
80. I DO believe the way we segregate the generations today, is not a good thing.
If one is healthy enough to live in a “real” neighborhood with people of all ages around,
one does tend to keep up. Interaction with others is very important.
As for fear / I can certainly see people in their 50s worry about their jobs. Kids in college, poor health + poor health insurance, big mortgage, and the like. There’s real cause for fear.
Agreed, Punchak. Young people don’t seem to have the sense to associate drinking/driving, speed, risky behavior type stuff with creating life altering experiences that can stop them dead in their tracks.
Not sure what defines age. I would say open-mindedness.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2103 Biggest gifts/pledges per the Chronicle of Philanthropy –
Mark Zuckerburg (Facebook) gifted $992M
Paul Knight (Nike) pledged $550M
Michael Bloomberg pledged $350M