Really Late Night Thread

"Almost Summer" - Jason Collett

Continuing my musical love affair with our many talented friends from the Great White North.

I had one of those oppression by technology kind of evenings -- after putting in eleven very solid hours today, I went home, walked the dog, grabbed a quick dinner out with the family, and then sat down for some well deserved vegging out in front of the tube with laptop in hand.  Of course I checked my work email and had nine or ten comments regarding a brief that I have been laboring on from several different outside law firms.  Although the tenor of the comments was very positive, I felt compelled to run back to the office and incorporate the various suggestions and corrections.  (Well first I stopped to get a four pack of Boddington's Pub Ale -- hey, I only consumed three of the four pints.)

Anyway, four hours later, here I am.  But the work looks pretty damned good and I am going to relish those five hours of sleep.  

Even as bleary eyed as I am, I've got to think my head is clearer than either Howard Dean's or Nancy Pelosi's.  What the fuck is wrong with them?

Consider this a wide open thread.  Hopefully injunction papers will be filed tomorrow and I might even be able to write again soon.  

Comments

[Crissa]

We're working on our front steps. There are fifty three of them. So far, over working four hours a night on maybe five different nights, we've deconstructed six steps, dug out a stump (and had it ground), cut several pieces for steps and realized the blocks we were delivered were not the ones we wanted, finally got the stuff we wanted... And now we have material for 80 steps (which will each be slightly less steep than the current steps) and the last two nights we've dug out an area, put in stone, and tonight... We finally set the risers for one step. Which is 4" off our driveway and then goes halfway across our nine-foot wide front and ends up level with the roadway. @whee...

[Emma]

We've finally got to the end of the most excruciatingly inept and empty election campaign in Australia's history, and we should know how it turns out in about 28 hours. Unless it's really close in which case, I dunno, a week? And a month for the Senate. Those Hare-Clark system elections are a bitch to count.
I'll be holding my nose to give Labor a second preference, so they'll get my vote in the end, after it has encouraged a Green candidate. And with luck the Green vote in the Senate, which looks like coming out at an unprecedented 15%, will give them the balance of power. I'll keep you posted.

[Sir Charles]

Crissa,

That sounds like real work -- not juust pushing paper like some of us.

Emma,

Keep me posted. Here's the NY Times take on it today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/world/asia/20australia.html

It sounds like the U.S. isn't the only place where nativism is an issue.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Sir Charles:
You are too young to remember the 'hard hat' phenomenon of the late 60s, where the construction workers were known for both working frantically to keep their unions white and for beating up Vietnam War protestors. But apparently they are at it again, with many of them 'pledging' that they will refuse to work on Park 51. Is there any liklihood that these people will receive sanctions from their unions, or that the unions will themselves receive sanctions if they do not act against their members?

If not, can you come up with any justification for non-action?

[Sir Charles]

Jim,

I remember the hard hat phenomenon quite well -- I'm not that young. In later years, when I've seen documentaries concerning it, I've grimaced when I've notice the hat stickers of local unions in NYC that I've done work for from time to time.

I seriously doubt that there will be a problem manning this job. Unemployment is quite bad in the trades eight now -- someone is going to do the work.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Wisdom of the Week: (h/t Desert Beacon)

The young orator challenged the idea that ordinary Americans weren't really business oriented. "The man who is employed for wages is as much a businessman as his employer. The attorney in a country town is as much a businessman as the corporation counsel in a great metropolis. The merchant at the crossroads store is as much a businessman as the merchant of New York. The farmer who goes forth in the morning and toils all day, begins in the spring and toils all summer, and by the application of brain and muscle to the natural resources of this country creates wealth, is as much a businessman as the man who goes upon the Board of Trade and bets upon the price of grain. The miners who go 1,000 feet into the earth or climb 2,000 feet upon the cliffs and bring forth from their hiding places the precious metals to be poured in the channels of trade are as much businessmen as the few financial magnates who in a backroom corner the money of the world."

(William Jennings Bryan -- The "Cross of Gold" speech)