Running Bear's October 2023 Coffee Shop

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troyphoto said:
I'll answer TomO's question about why and try to keep it very generic to avoid the no-no topic

Because we live in an echo chamber of reinforcing thoughts and moving the Overton Window farther and farther.
My degrees/experience are in Journalism and in Politics on the grassroots level.

Over the last four decades, I remember listening to that brash man who bashed people from Rio Linda and sold ties for a while. I was all in. Then came the financial collapse of 2008, and I went full grassroots in the tea movement, seeing it as a middle-of-the-road, everyone-is-angry movement (I was very wrong about that). I somehow landed in the Indiana power structure for those local groups. (Closed-door meeting with Mike Pence in 2012 before he ran for Governor of IN, that type of what we were doing).

I was part of the groups' efforts to oust Dick Lugar from the Senate... we did, but we failed in the end result. That's about when I started to question...

After a lot of self-examination, and learning masters level communication theory (what PR is, and why it works), I realized that I hadn't changed. But the language around the right and left had. The rhetoric was driving people's understanding toward the extreme ends of the spectrum.

If you're not sure what the Overton window is: that's the window of allowable discourse within a topic. It moves a little back and forth. Think of the 1860s... it shifted hard to the anti-slavery end in the North of the US, and hard to the pro-slavery end in the South. It was no longer a shared window.

We're in about that same situation now. The political discourse is split. Look at where you invest your news time. Is it mostly talking heads pontificating? Then you're probably in the new Overton window for your end of the equation. The windows don't overlap any longer. You've probably been affected by the PR that has been pulling the Overton windows farther and farther away, so you only get "It's our way or the highway!" motivation.

I didn't leave the XYZ party, they left me... I'm still where I was 20 years ago.
Click to expand...
Very well said!
 
santafewillie said:
OK All. I have posted for two days about this capsule camera that you swallow that takes pictures inside of your small intestine mainly. It may take others as well. In case any of you are confronted by this procedure, this is the capsule camera in all of it's glory. That's the retrieving magnet used to get it from the strainer that is attached to it. The ball point pen is for size comparison.
View attachment 174890

Camera. light, memory chip and battery all in one; supposedly took 50,000 pictures on it's trip through the digestive system. Never felt a thing, and couldn't see it standing in front of a mirror in the dark.
Click to expand...
You have to bend over and turn around to see it working. At least all good things passed in the end, right?

As for poly-tics, if you'd like a refreshing take on current events, hit the U-tubez and look up Beau of the Fifth Column. He's a former "contractor" in the security industry. Yes he was over there when there was active bang-bangs occurring.

He and his employers got into trouble for smuggling Russian women into the US. So, with a felony on his record, he went back to being a good ole southern boy. He's not conservative, but before you write him off, go search for his "gun control" videos.

Yes, his accent is real, but like any good southerner, he can ramp it up, or diminish it. It's not as pronounced now, as it was four years ago when his channel was first taking off...

Now if only I could get my wife to watch him. But she's stuck in Mormon-Colonel-Sanders (AKA Glenn Beck, and yes he jokes about that name) land... Told you I used to be into talk radio. :)
 


Good Morning All!
45F @ 86% and partly. Supposed to get to 65F by noon. We will see.

Sex/Poli .. stuff at work. Many moons ago we were filling out some sort of federal form. One of the items wanted was:
List employee's broken down by sex:
We wrote in: Sex is not our problem here, booze is.

Birthday was wonderful. M grinned almost the whole time we were gone.
Dinner was Prime Rib ( very rare ) with potato; I did a baker with the kitchen sink added, she did mashed, along with asparagus, bread and sauteed mushrooms. Prawns as appetizer. Mud pie for desert. Pix is of our view at the table.
Ceders.jpg


Bennette Bay upgraded our room to a huge thing when they found out it was her BDay. Had a living area almost as big as our living room, good sized bedroom, bath and that tub which was about 6ft across. View from our deck:
BennettBay.jpg

Made it back home Yesterday about 1500 and decided to go and get a few BDay beers at our local watering hole. Ya, a few - soon as the guys found out it was her BDay, they piled up drink chips for her. Made it home about 1830 or so.

All in all the 2 days were a blast for both of us even though the sun did not show.

Oh, saw the EB Empire Builder on the way there in Colburn about 1700 - that is almost 12 hours late. Also, Sandpoint has the double track in across the long bridge with a double cross over in place about 1/2 mile West of the station. Could not get anyplace for a good pix, so will take the drone next time for that. I do not know what they are gonna do with the MRL Junction as there are now 2MT going into that. Next time I will do a little more exploring and see if I can find a BNSF guy to ask questions.

Later
 
Afternoon All,

Started out today doing both inside and outside chores. I had the doctors phone appointment. The doc is concerned about my kidney function so more blood work tomorrow, another phone appointment next week and a referral to the kidney doctor. Wonderful. Tomorrow late afternoon I have a training session for a sleep study. Friday Kathy has an appointment at the VA for her foot.

TomO- When it comes to Politics, I usually keep my own council. Both son and wife have very strong opinions and they don't agree.

Joe- The backdrop really works well. I'm with you about the disappointment of Washington.

Troy- Very well said.

Mac- Great photos.

Guilford Railman- Nice video.

Willie-Nice looking work on the layout.

Karl- It looks like the "girls" had fun, but I think you're framing them, they are obviously innocent.

Todd- Sounds like a great time.

David- Nice photos both model and 1:1.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 




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