January 30, 2017

At the Black Ice Café...

P1050727

... you don't have to stick with what real. You can slide on the ice — eyes, -ize — like we did 6 years ago, the last time there was black ice on Lake Mendota.

I'm tapping the past for a seasonally appropriate photograph for a post. It's been too winter-dull here lately for me to want to get out the camera.

And, please, remember The Althouse Amazon Portal.

51 comments:

mccullough said...

The lake needs a Zamboni

Pete said...

What, no bike riding videos?

Barry Dauphin said...

It looks like dark blue ice :)

Bob Ellison said...

You have a pretty face, but your photos usually show the back of your head. You're holding back!

heyboom said...

Wife and I just got back from a weekend in San Francisco for her birthday. We noticed only a handful of homeless and the city was a whole lot cleaner than when we were there for my birthday in November. Not sure what happened. Our only complaint was the lingering odor of weed everywhere we went. Hate that smell!

Meade said...

There is a really wonderful smell on the streets around here these days. Reminds of Katsuratree in the fall but that couldn't be possible And then I realized it's the sweet piney smell of Christmas trees put out at curbs.

Michael K said...

59 today in Tucson but feels warmer.

Have to drive to Phoenix at 4 AM tomorrow to replenish the piggy bank with the new house producing a hole in my pocket.

From personal experience, I can attest that burly men jobs seem to be paying well in Arizona.

buwaya said...

" And then I realized it's the sweet piney smell of Christmas trees put out at curbs."

So late?
The San Francisco custom is for the first pickup after New Years.

Hagar said...

A federal lawsuit accuses banking giant Wells Fargo of illegally denying student loans to young immigrants who are protected from deportation and allowed to work and study in the U.S. under a program created by former President Barack Obama. The suit filed Monday in San Francisco says the young immigrants in the country illegally have Social Security numbers and documents that meet banking requirements for identification. But it says Wells Fargo denies them loans based on their citizenship status. The suit seeks a court order declaring the policy discriminatory and forcing Wells Fargo to grant the loans.

????

ganderson said...

Where are your stick and shin pads?

ganderson said...

Where are your stick and shin pads?

BJM said...

I'm seriously reconsidering my relationship with Amazon. Not a boycott but a preference cascade...which as Glenn pointed out last February is how the left got Trump.

Meade said...

"So late?"

Yes, it is late for here too. But city crews have been especially busy plowing snow and sanding ice this winter. V dangerous driving conditions.

rhhardin said...

NYT email

"The acting attorney general, an Obama holdover, has ordered the Justice Department not to defend President Trump's immigration order"

There's the deep state for you. His job is to give the order its best defense; the counterparty argues the other side with the best attack.

No defense is an attack on the executive branch.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

K&P: Black Ice

HoodlumDoodlum said...

rhhardin said...
NYT email
"The acting attorney general, an Obama holdover, has ordered the Justice Department not to defend President Trump's immigration order"
There's the deep state for you. His job is to give the order its best defense; the counterparty argues the other side with the best attack.


Kim Davis says what?

buwaya said...

A book recommendation from my son, which worked out - available on the Althouse Amazon portal!

The Witcher series, Andrzej Sapkowski, and I am told by impeccable authority one has to start with "The Last Wish".
Apparently selling like crazy in Amazon.

This is apparently all the rage among at least some of our game-playing youth. If you all want the videogames instead, Amazon has that too I guess. I hear the one to get is Witcher 3/Wild Hunt

This is Polish heroic fantasy, turned into successful videogames. What is the world coming to?
Makes fine mind-candy, if you are inclined to this sort of thing.

What got me is the voice of it - it left me scratching my head - this thing is deeply Slavic, the peasant - boisterous tone along with the broad humor and strain of melancholy. Then I thought of Sienkiewicz and it fits. Sapkowski's magicians and monsters are in their own way characters out of Sienkiewicz's steppe, echoes of Pan Zagloba and that crew.

If you want to check out Sienkiewicz, look for the modern Kuniczak translations, most are available on Amazon, though sadly not on Kindle for the Kuniczak versions, or so it seems. The Edwardian Curtin translations are available free, but IMHO they are clunky and don't carry the "voice" anywhere near as well.

Bob Boyd said...

"Jonathan Adler at the Washington Post notes that Yates explanation for her decision has an unusual and possibly unique basis.

"Yates does not claim that she cannot defend the executive order because it is unconstitutional or because the Justice Department would be unable to offer good-faith arguments in defense of its legality. To the contrary, Yates claims she is ordering the Justice Department not to defend the executive order because it is not “wise or just.” This is quite significant. I am not aware of any instance in which the Justice Department has refused to defend a presumptively lawful executive action on this basis."" - from Hot Air

http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/30/cair-files-lawsuit-against-trumps-executive-order-as-acting-ag-tells-doj-told-not-to-defend-it/

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

A tweet said Executive Orders carry the weight of law... whatever that means.

If they do, carry the weight of law, then isn't the acting AG committing insubordination?

Bob Boyd said...

She must be planning to run for office somewhere blue.

Mark said...

So, is anyone surprised at what is essentially an attempted coup by the acting attorney general, an Obama holdover?

Anonymous said...

Sally Yates:
“I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right,” Ms. Yates wrote in a letter to Justice Department lawyers. “At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful.”

NYT

rhhardin said...

The right course, when you don't agree, is resign. Women don't know that.

buwaya said...

Winter photography of people struggling with the elements in high contrast B&W are an excellent way to comment, in a melancholy tone, on the tragedy of the human condition.
This way you can find a reason to be depressed in the spring and summer.

Mark said...

One of the fundamental precepts of our constitutional order is that everyone is entitled to counsel, to have representation in court. This principle applies to presidents and legislatures too. Not only are they entitled to have someone defend their actions -- even if the attorney disagrees (and it is a violation of professional ethics to put your personal desires first and refuse to do so) -- but the judicial system requires adversarial representation, it requires the benefits of arguments from both sides of a legal question.

At the first politically viable moment, this acting AG should not only be fired, but disbarred for refusing representation and thereby obstructing the full adjudication of justice.

Anonymous said...

At least 5 judges believe there is overreach, Ann Donnelly, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, NY; Leonie Brinkema, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, VA; Thomas Zilly of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, WA; U.S. magistrate judge Judith Dein and District Court judge Allison Burroughs, both of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston. A Constitutional crisis is the making since those holding the green card holders, visa holders, etc. are refusing to release persons, or even their names.

U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California Dolly Gee became the sixth federal judge to block Trump’s executive order on deportations. She ordered the immediate return to the United States of Iranian national Ali Vayeghan, a U.S. visa holder, from Los Angeles back to Dubai. Vayeghan was en route to see his son, a U.S. citizen, in Indiana. Gee ruled that Trump’s immigration ban violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

Mark said...

And any Justice Department attorney who follows her unlawful directive should be fired too.

Quayle said...

Has anyone stopped to consider why the particular 7 countries, and not a lot of other Muslim majority countries?

Answer is: we can't depend on the authenticity or accuracy of the background documents ostensibly created in or by the 7 countries.

Has to do with the lack of a reliable governmental foundation.

Or to put it in simple Washington DC terms, our bureaucracy don't got a peer bureaucracy in those 7 countries on which they can depend.

Anonymous said...

I saw 'Black Ice' open for 'Drone Strike' at the Tacoma dome in '93.

Great show.

MaxedOutMama said...

Hagar - but from a banking viewpoint, the DACA status may change in 2 or 3 years, and the loan may become uncollectible. So that is fact-based, rather than discriminatory on a barred basis. The difference between being a legal resident and not is very real.

We have become a strange society.

MaxedOutMama said...

Key & Peele, Black Ice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efiW2K8gASM

Hagar said...

That is the second thing - I have never understood about a bank or anyone else having to lend you money. In fact I think I remember an old saying that if your bank won't lend to you, you should not be borrowing in the first place, or words to that effect.

My wonder about that paragraph (from the Associated Press, BTW) was that it clearly states that these people are in the country illegally, but still have Social Security numbers and documents ...

This is a topsy-turvy world at the moment, and just too much for me to keep up with.

Hagar said...

And of course, it would appear to any normal person that someone here illegally just might not be here to repay the loan, if given.

Or is repayment no longer "legally" required? If so, I have 6 more months to go on my mortgage and I wish someone would have told me sooner!

JackWayne said...

Yates fired. Trump doesn't mess around. Well done!

Original Mike said...

"So late?
The San Francisco custom is for the first [Christmas tree] pickup after New Years."


Second (and last) tree pickup in Madison always begins after Martin Luther King Day. We always wait until the last minute to take our tree down.

What with the trees (ours disappeared at the end of last week), our wreath, and a evergreen bough planter my wife makes near the front door, it's very aromatic arounf here now.

Clyde said...

"Acting Attorney General"? Does she have her SAG card?

Hagar said...

"Yates fired." Good.
Now on to the State Department signers of the statement opposing the executive action.

Clyde said...

Well, she ain't "acting" any more. Adios, Sally! The Bossman says, "You're fired!"

Hagar said...

Uh, MxedOut Mama, forgot to say that my first thing was wonder that these people had Social Security numbers.

Whatever the Professor says, my attitude is that any illegal alien known to the U.S Government and recognized by it in any other way than prompt arrest and deportation, ipso facto is now a legal alien, and it is the U.S. Government and its employees and their activities that we need to get after.

Jupiter said...

"And, please, remember The Althouse Amazon Portal — it's how you can support this blog simply by thinking of me when you're doing shopping that you're doing anyway."

Sorry, but I don't send money to Jeff Bezos if I can help it.

Jupiter said...

rhhardin said...
"The right course, when you don't agree, is resign. Women don't know that."

It would appear that defying President Trump achieves the same result. And if Yates didn't know it today, she'll know it tomorrow.

Hagar said...

John Fund: "California should not secede from the United States."

Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard: "Believe me; it is a really bad idea!"

Bad Lieutenant said...

I don't mind if the people of California secede from the United States. But the land stays. I'm sure Mexico will treat y'all real nice.

CWJ said...

Love the photograph!

Guildofcannonballs said...

Why hasn't Hillary! whacked Kaine yet? She must really be sick as a dog.

jaydub said...

We should just cede California Norte back to Mexico, then the whole state can become a defacto sanctuary. Oh, wait. Mexico doesn't allow sanctuary cities or states within its own borders because it rigorously enforces its own borders. I think there are a few Cubans and Guatamalans who can attest they don't grant sanctuary to refugees, either. So, it's extremely important that we allow an unimpeded steam of illegals and refugees to cross into the US, particularly the ones from Cuba and Central America that the Mexicans are unable to intercept at their Southern border.

Is it just me, or does the lefty logic involved in this whole debate seem somewhat illogical?

urbane legend said...

Hagar said...
Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard: "Believe me; it is a really bad idea!"

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. Now that's a name!

Sydney said...

I keep hoping that all the brouhaha over Trump's use of executive orders will make Congress wake up and pass a law that curtails the power of the executive. However, I'm starting to believe that none of the politicians will do that because they hope to create a world where their party is in permanent power without checks or balances.

Hagar said...

Is it just me, or does the lefty logic involved in this whole debate seem somewhat illogical?

First, Mexico does intercept these people. The Mexican police then load them onto railroad cars, truck them up to the U.S. border, point across and yell "Vayanse! Andele! Chop-chop!"

But the interviews I see on TV with "Chicano" activists from California are peculiar. Most of these people seem to be advocating for a union between the U.S. of A. and Mexico, and I am pretty sure that that is by no means what folks in Mexico have on their minds.

Unknown said...

You are not the person I think off when I shop. In fact I rank Glenn Reynolds ahead of you in Amazon sales priority.

BTW, since your smartphone has both a still camera and a video camera in it, I fail to see your reluctance to up-date your Lake Mendota photo as nothing but sheer laziness on your part.
I think the true issue concerns dressing up to go out and traveling to the lake on a cloudy day to photograph a frozen expanse of water.

Meade said...

"In fact I rank Glenn Reynolds ahead of you in Amazon sales priority."

He's very deserving. I too like to support Glenn's blog through his Amazon portal.