Phony climate scientists suing first amendment defenders for calling them out on their lies, cover-ups, and manipulations of data (with the first amendment itself charged, in effect, with the chilling of speech, in a complete and utter inversion of its intent) — and the Ur “conservative” magazine for which the first amendment defender wrote ditching him, just as it has others who have preached the very conservatism it purports to stand for when that conservatism actually takes a forceful stand and refuses to surrender to the wishes of consultants, etc.
Writes Steyn, in the conclusion to his update of the case against him, and speaking to the broader implications for free speech on trial here:
As readers may have deduced from my absence at National Review Online and my termination of our joint representation, there have been a few differences between me and the rest of the team. The lesson of the last year is that you win a free-speech case not by adopting a don’t-rock-the-boat, keep-mum, narrow procedural posture but by fighting it in the open, in the bracing air and cleansing sunlight of truth and justice.
Ironic, in that that’s also how a lot of us believe you win elections.
At any rate, time for that particular spot on the web to join up with FOX News and call themselves GOP TV. Or perhaps they can just try to “rebrand” conservatism as the very pragmatic, big government “center-rightism” that now stands athwart the very ideological and radical big government leftism running roughshod over our history, yelling “hey, can we slow this down a bit, fellas? People are starting to notice.”
(thanks to dicentra)
I might pop over there now and then to read Nordlinger’s “Impromtus,” but there’s not much over there now to pay attention to. Goldberg, in particular, has turned into a major disappointment.
It would be a form of poetic justice if the discovery phase of this trial exposes the lies of Mann, the hockey stick, and Global Warming – one of their own being the instrument of their destruction.
So, using the state to shut down language, “not rocking the boat”, isn’t a clear violation of First Amendment rights? It isn’t obvious that once that concession is made, even more concessions will be extracted?
And NRO is supposed to be staffed with smart people who know their history.
As an aside, I started reading “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” again. We’re a lot further down the road toward a fascist dictator than I realized.
let your heart sweet heart be your compass when you’re lost is my feeling about it
and if Mr. Steyn feels he needs to fight this fight alone then I stand with him in spirit but far enough away to where he still feels like he’s fighting this fight alone, like how he wants it
Not
. In his world, fairly or not, the boat is gonna get rocked. Your job is to sit still and ride it out.
Okay, that was embarrassingly bad html failure
don’t rock the boat!
With friends like the yellow menace, who needs enemies, right?
Fucking idiot.
Stand proud, stand without balls, trust that when the wolf comes knocking, you can get it to stand down with tea and gender studies. Idiots. Even if they win, they’re losers.
I’m not going to miss reading Steyn at NRO. I always thought it was a bit lazy of him to still hang his hat there.
and you never did think that it ever would happen again
in America didja
Mark Steyn fuck yeah
>don’t rock the boat!<
flaccid fedora
When I want advice on courage, I tend not to inquire of creatures that are literally yellow.
buck up or stay in the truck especially if you didn’t wear the right shoes for this sort of thing
Years ago I decided I was never going to be one of the “cool kids” and that it really wasn’t that important. Very liberating.
So the first of Hewitt’s Thursday interviews is always Steyn, as it was today.
Hewitt begins by reading from the very article that Jeff linked, above. They begin to discuss how expensive it is to defend against this kind of nonsense, and Mark says he’ll have to set something up.
In the Tribble feed, I mention that NRO and Steyn have parted ways, because the NRO crowd is a bunch of weenies.
Duane flipped out. I had harshed his mellow. Other Tribbles exult in the utility of the ignore button.
I’m out of there, too, looks like. Not until things cool down, as before, but forever.
Wow. I wondered where Steyn went at NRO.
There is a reason Rich Lowry looks like the kid whom everyone beat up in the schoolyard.
What a truckload of cowards at NRO.
I soured on Nordlinger after hearing him and Mona Charen dump all over Ted Cruz during on of their Ricochet podcasts.
Figures that Hewitt’s fat lackey freaked out when someone pointed out NRO’s capitulation to lawfare tactics.
I guess Hewitt doesn’t want to bad-mouth NRO on air because he still wants to interview those folks.
Still, people wanting to contribute to Steyn’s legal fund shouldn’t do it at NRO anymore.
Wotta freakish creep I am for letting Steyn’s Hewitt fans know about the split.
The sad thing is that it was National Review (hard copy) which birthed me into my current mode of thinking. I started reading it in grad school. I stopped subscribing about … oh 7 years ago.
this is the final nail.
Standing athwart history and yelling stop is over, I guess.
nro – squishy cinos
Hewitt writes for NRO, Di. correct? Weekly columns. Bread. buttered.
FTR, I stopped listening to Hugh … wait, I never listened to him.
the fat-ass lifeydoodle chick bugs me
2016: Obama’s America news
Dinesh D’Souza indicted for violating U.S. election law
Back during the Steyn/Steorts dust-up over fruit cordials, I read a conjecture by a commenter that rings true to me. Now that the GOP’s big money donors are making the push for amnesty, NR needs all hands on deck to shill for them. Steyn is likely a loose cannon when it comes to that particular issue so he needed to be pushed overboard. I think NR has always been kept afloat primarily by donations rather than subscriptions, so now that Romney’s no longer paying the bills they have to take the bucks where they find them.
I find it extremely depressing that we have to decode what’s written at what used to be the flagship of the conservative movement in the same way the Kremlinologists used to try to read between the lines of Pravda, but as you said this is our America now.
Hewitt writes for NRO, Di. correct?
I thought it was Lileks. Or Prager. I could be wrong.
Which, it’s interviews with Lileks and Steyn that got me listening to Hewitt. I just canceled my subscription to the Hughniverse. There’s no reason to interact with the Tribbles if they’re more interested in asking about the kids than knowing what we’re up against.
He was on against Levin, anyway.
That’s two bookmarks gone today.
Dinesh D’Souza indicted for violating U.S. election law
Also, the NY Dept. of Labor is going after James O’Keefe: http://capitolcityproject.com/okeefe-project-veritas-targeted-new-york/
No, this isn’t the gloves coming off or even the brass knuckles going on: it’s up to baseball bats to the kneecaps.
They put one of ours in the hospital, we put one of theirs in the morgue? Do we even HAVE that ability?
How do we stop this bullshit without becoming the Ukraine?
I’m guessing that we don’t.
We should call it the Derbyshire Treatment.
How do we stop this bullshit without becoming the Ukraine?
Now, now. Such crazy talk will make Rick Moran brand you as a wild-eyed right-wing extremist.
From the bottom of nr’s Reuters Dinesh DiSouza link:
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.
The article was just published today. So the ‘limited period’ is what, an hour? Or perhaps certain stories are beyond comment…
I was going to point out that, thank God!, there’s no way a single person could ever donate more than $2,500 to a Democrat campaign. I mean, that’s just never happened. But I guess I won’t.
Such crazy talk will make Rick Moran brand you as a wild-eyed right-wing extremist.
I’ll save him the effort.
HEY RICK! WILD-EYED RIGHT-WING EXTREMIST HERE!
There. That should make us all feel much better.
I just finished D’Souza’s last book.
According to an indictment made public on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, D’Souza around August 2012 reimbursed people who he had directed to contribute $20,000 to the candidate’s campaign. The candidate was not named in the indictmen
Uhm … hello. I have a name for you – Goffrey Fieger.
>there’s no way a single person could ever donate more than $2,500 to a Democrat campaign <
ax the palis in gaza?
Oh, wait. Didn’t finish my thought. I did enjoy his book. DOn’t think I’m completely sold on the theme (Obama is an anti-colonialist).
I honestly don’t think Obama is much of anything, but one out to help himself.
They’re certainly clearing the decks of all the loose cannons aren’t they?
Derb and Steyn so far. I’ll wait for them to toss VDH over since he’s not down with amnesty.
>I honestly don’t think Obama is much of anything<
some choom but mostly chicago thug politician
I’m sure Roger L. Simon is heartbroken that Steyn and NRO no longer have a united front because can’t we just get along and moderate and compromise and make sure we don’t look too right-wing compared to Hillary! Clinton?
At times I wonder why Andrew McCarthy continues to write at National Review, but then his other habitat at Pajamas isn’t exactly the strongest contrast imaginable.
not many staunch sites out there
I’ll wait for them to toss VDH over since he’s not down with amnesty.
He’s next. Maybe Roger L. Simon will dump him too if he doesn’t get behind amnesty because Hillary! is the all-purpose shibboleth to shake in front of them backwoods teagaggers.
Consumer satisfaction surveys indicate that the ‘Sunshine Conservatives on a Cloudy day’ brand is rapidly losing popularity sending customers to try newer brands and competitors. Yes, even the “No So-Cons ” flavor sales numbers are way down.
National Review –> NewsWeek 2.0(The blog)
It’s just as well. A dead tree (the NR jokey way of referring to traditional paper publications) offers neither fruit nor shade. All it produces is a snack for hive minded insects like termites, something for mushrooms to grow on, and a mild risk of injury to bystanders as the wind gradually shakes it apart, branch by branch.
I honestly don’t think Obama is much of anything<
some choom but mostly chicago thug politician
He’s basically the worst of leaders. He is simply out for himself. He doesn’t really care. Any sort of ideology he stands for is just a political expedient.
No So-Cons is tasty and refreshing!
“We should call it the Derbyshire Treatment.”
They threw Coulter out first for having opinions that could be constructed as islamophobia.
(And she later got Christie-Mania and started huffing the Romney inevitability glue. Maybe edgy isolation is lonely?)
Well..technically they threw out Pat Buchanan first, and several times, but he wasn’t actually with them in any real sense so it looked kind of like an annual ritual Bircher Expulsion 2.0 sort of gesture. That was over perceived mild “elders of zion” brand antisemitism evidenced by his hostility to IPAC and isolationist streak.
And they also regularly re-threw Ron Paul out in a similar “gooble gobble NOT one of us”ritual.
Now they get by on “writing John McCain is totally wrong, BUT…” articles that are supposed to paper over the appalling failure of the GOP to do anything but contemptuously fart at conservative issues and voters and roll over for hoped for belly scratches from democrats who routinely describe them as demons on less kind and honest.
The GOP starting to look like S&M porn instead of an opposition party and apparently NRO wants to slap anyone who talks about it.
“No So-Cons is tasty and refreshing!”
Thus it’s almost constant failure on the market.
2016: Obama’s America news
Gov. McDonnell rejected plea offer to face one felony, spare wife any charges, avoid trial
You must be listening to Levin.
Uglier and uglier.
yep
Now he’s pointing out that Harry Reid has made more money in office than just about anyone.
Get out of my church, “Brother” Reid. Better yet, take a leap in the Marianas Trench.
NY Governor Cuomo Subpoenas Conservative Activist James O’Keefe
This is not America (Bowie)
I’m Afraid of Americans (Bowie)
Given what a bunch of nasty fascists we’re (collectively) turning into, can’t blame him.
The grapevine says it’s an old Dartmouth pal, Wendy Long.
I find it hard to believe that D’Sousa could be that stupid…unless he was tapping dat ass.
Yep…I’d noticed Steyn’s absence at NRO and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why.
But between the don’t-rock-the-boat crowd and a man that’s already beat the rap in Canada, I’ll take Steyn.
I think history will conclude that NR was one of the biggest casualties of the Romney implosion. It must have been pure bliss for them to go to their Manhattan cocktail parties and D.C. shindigs backing such a colorless non-threatening squish instead of having to defend some god-bothering snowbilly totally lacking in Ivy League education. And I think they truly did believe their own Romney “inevitable” hype given how legitimately bad Obama had proven to be as president. They really thought they were living the dream. Just soft-pedal any issue that might bring the slightest controversy, throw anyone the least bit polarizing under the bus and skate their way to victory and a seat at the table.
But when the Romney campaign did its best impression of a German dirigible trying to land at Lakehurst, NJ as many of us feared it would, NR found themselves with absolutely nothing left to discuss and a bunch of writers whose rhetoric skills had never been deployed for anything other than Romney advocacy. As I predicted above, I think we’ll see them pushing amnesty soon because there’s money to be had in shilling that for a while. Once that’s done though, their usefulness will have ended.
>I find it hard to believe that D’Sousa could be that stupid…unless he was tapping dat ass. <
ruining class purge no?
D’Sousa made that movie against Obama.
He can’t be allowed to get away with that level of disrespect, else other punks will think they can get away with that kinda stuff, and then you lose control of the whole operation.
Pour encourager les autres, dontcha know.
As a variant on the “Who goes Nazi?” game, maybe we can guess who gets indicted and who figures that the feds got ’em dead to rights.
Ares Armor vs. Local Government
Did someone say “chilling effect?” Oh yeah. Steyn.
If you have one of these, how can you say you don’t give one?
Asking for a friend.
Pickachu, I choose you to fuck off.
so-cons = “no perverts ‘marrying’ other perverts” and no baby killing
So the anti-purists at NRO are purging the politically unreliable?
Hey Alanis! This is irony.
Alanis Morissette – Ironic
Richie Havens – Freedom at Woodstock 1969 (HD)
Charles Ives — Songs My Mother Taught Me
Charles Ives — The Things Our Fathers Loved
stop with the “white privilege” already
Charles Ives – Symphony no. 2 – I., Allegro Moderato
National Review: At least some of our archives are still pretty good!
woody wilson’s era
woody wilson’s era
So what? Calvin Coolidge was at work in those days as well.
John Philip Sousa’s March, “Semper Fidelis”
Though I never knew him, I miss the days of “Silent Cal.”
Now we’re stuck with Chatty Barry who won’t STFU.
>So what? Calvin Coolidge was at work in those days as well. <
he'd fit right in with lowry and nro
mr calvin bowed downed to the rinos. much to the country’s regret. hey andrew mellon is the fed gov’t still effin’ with you?
Cal was a good president and a thrifty man.
Also RWR’s favorite president.
And the dullards’ credential is vouched intact. Well done, dullard.
>Cal was a good president and a thrifty man.After negotiations, the pact was signed in Paris at the French Foreign Ministry by the representatives from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, British India, the Irish Free State, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, the United Kingdom[4][5] and the United States. It was provided that it would come into effect on July 24, 1929. By that date, the following nations had deposited instruments of definitive adherence to the pact: Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, the Soviet Union, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Siam, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. Eight further states joined after that date (Persia, Greece, Honduras, Chile, Luxembourg, Danzig, Costa Rica and Venezuela.[6]) for a total of 62 signatories. In 1971, Barbados declared its succession to the treaty.[7]
In the United States, the Senate approved the treaty overwhelmingly, 85–1, with only Wisconsin Republican John J. Blaine voting against.[8] While the U.S. Senate did not add any reservation to the treaty, it did pass a measure “interpreting” the treaty which included the statement that the treaty must not infringe upon America’s right of self defense and that the United States was not obliged to enforce the treaty by taking action against those who violated it.<
ended war right.
>And the dullards’ credential is vouched intact<
thrifty man cal kinda stupid about foreign affairs.
ole cal was complicit in the 19teens proggtardia. he fiscally conservative and socially proggtard.
>And the dullards’ credential is vouched intact<
why am i a "dullard" for pointing out coolidge's weak stuff?
Congress makes the laws, nr.
Lower taxes, little to no regulation on business and a fan of laissez faire economics.
And he didn’t like unions or strikers.
reading the recent coolidge stuff the dude became obsessed with fiscal stuff. hello foreign policy!
>And he didn’t like unions or strikers.<
depends: gov't no: private yes. same with fdr. northeast a'holeclass or ruining class
Car in, thank you for misspelling that bastard’s name. I hate that I have to share mine with him.
ole cal was placeholder for the proggtards. we haven’t moved that way for awhile.
>As could be expected, they immediately
brought into play against the Charter a whole set of slanders,
distortions, abuse, half-truths and absolute falsehoods which all
represent the dismal range of their capacity. Ispeak from experience
as one who has been a favourite target for their sort of behaviour for
the past thirty years, and who could well lay claim to the laurels of
seniority and worthy service. Though the powers that be may not
know it, or rather, would sooner not know it, nay, cannot afford to
know it (for where else would they find more obedient. unscrupulous
and servile creatures), the media are the principal, albeit
unintentional, creators and encouragers of opposition. since they
are totally suspect and nobody believes them. People almost automatically
take for gospel the opposite of what the papers say. Once.
all-powerful, the media were capable of pointing the finger that
condemned people to death. As they lost all credibility they also lost
some of their power, and at the very least were obliged to change
their methods, if not their ends. Nowadays, they do not directly fix
the noose around people’s necks, but they do endeavour to destroy
their honour and slay them with a hail of repeated slanders and lies,<
havel potpwl page 127
Fourteen years in this house and my pipes have never frozen, until today. (Or at least I think that’s what they did. My water bill is all paid up, and yet bupkis from all the faucets.)
No apparent reason. It was in the 30s all day. We were never in the polar vortex. I turned up the heat in the house because the floor is poorly insulated and I set up a couple of teeny space heaters in the crawl space, for all the good that will do.
There’s a shower at work, and we Marmons keep spare bottles of water around for just such an occasion. However, the toilet? I think I’ll just go outside and use the same dirt mound as the cat.
winter is so gay no wonder they named the olympics after it
>Fourteen years in this house and my pipes have never frozen, until today<
use a heat gun/hair dryer from the meter forward. good luck. turn on a spigot whilst you do this.
having defrosted pipes from the last global warming episode (last week) have some patience ’cause changing the state of h2o from solid to liquid requires alot of energy.
Yonder a supernova shines.
Beware the busted pipe, on account of ice expanded.
>winter is so gay<
yoube warming denier and homophobe to boot
McDonald’s exists for just such occasions. Go ahead; they expect it.
I’m not crawling in there. Even in the winter, SPIDERS and thick dust and that is such a man’s job.
Hazards of being a single woman strike again. I know it will take longer to defrost pipes this way, but any temperature above freezing should do it eventually.
Assuming that they’re frozen and that the utility didn’t accidentally turn my water off instead of someone else’s.
Between losing water and losing heat, though, I’ll take water.
Get yer “ghost gun” now.
Also, today was national pie day and we celebrated it at work with pumpkin, french silk, apple, turtle, coconut cream, berry berry, and lemon meringue.
So my day can’t be all bad.
another one bites the dust news
Wind turbine fails, falls in Fayette Co. (Pictures)
oh noes
Williams Expands in PA Again, Adds Local HQ in Fayette County
Locate your water meter (I assume as there is one, accessible to be read) and there, possibly, the whole house shut-off, if it happens you do have a busted pipe. Better to close ‘er off rather than leave the flow to run.
I’ve got the key for the meter, which is under about 6 inches of icy snow right now. At 11pm, I’m not in the mood to dig around until I find it, then futz with the bolt that holds the lid on, then futz some more with the actual shutting off.
Getting water in the crawl space doesn’t worry me much. Our water isn’t priced so high that a leak will kill me.
Granted it’s generally unlikely any great harm would come from a flooded crawl space . . . on the other hand, have a heart: think of the poor schlub who has to float himself into the lake to repair the pipe.
they get chunky at your temps. add some heat and let it flow
Dave Mason – Let It Go , Let It Flow
If the lake freezes, he doesn’t get wet.
WIN WIN
A leak might provoke your foundation to shift. Water under a house is never a good thing, unless it drowns the skunk den that’s taken up residence.
Likely the frozen pipe is near a bend. Did you remember to close your crawlspace vents and cover your spigots?
i don’t ask for very much but you would think *someone* would have the basic human decency to cc me on the National Pie Day memos
i should never have to wear this expression on my face what I have on it right now
nobody should
burpbank what pie do you want?
It’s unlikely the foundation will shift. The house is from 1959 and my hard clay soil is exceptionally unyielding. Meaning that the foundation is already settled in.
My spigots for outdoor water are designed so that the turn-off is 18 inches back from the outside of the house. I can’t remember the name, only that it was pretty hard to find replacement parts when the packing finally wore away and they began to leak like gangbusters. They don’t need hats in the winter, IOW.
My crawlspace vents (those most exposed) are located primarily on the south side of the house, where the sun would have touched them some.
Again, why would this happen now? Fourteen years and no problems; I’ve done nothing different, and it hasn’t been that cold either today or for the past month.
I’ma call the water utility tomorrow and ask what up.
good news -9F on monday!!11!!
>Again, why would this happen now?<
2016: Obama’s America
John Bradley says January 23, 2014 at 6:38 pm I’m Afraid of Americans (Bowie) Given what a bunch of nasty fascists we’re (collectively) turning into, can’t blame him.
– To the PW commitariat: “A cautionary tale”
– Today someone in my family was shown, close up and personal, that we are now a bonifide police state where citizems are just convienient uints to be taxed, manipulated, and tyranically dictated too. We no longer have civil rights, the Islamist terrorists from the “religion of peace” has forced us into a dyed in the wool Fascism, happily manned by the fucking Progressive Marxist machine.
– Unless someone somewhere takes a stand against this tyranny we’re done.
Wait a minute.
The water was fine this morning. Pipes don’t freeze during the day. Not on a sunny day in the mid-30s.
The utility screwed up.
They shut off my water because of my Twitter feed?
I can buy that, unfortunately.
“Given what a bunch of nasty fascists we’re (collectively) turning into, can’t blame him.”
Not that free speech, liberty, or rule of law are dancing around and doing kart wheels in the UK at the moment either. Or the EU states. Even Canada is getting pretty weird.
Hyper stupid? Nay. ‘Tis ULTRA stupid. On a stick. Lordy.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-22/guns-make-voting-even-harder-.html
Steyn ever explain what the disagreement in legal strategy was about? I’m guessing NR wants to settle.
Sorry Geoff, but trip down memory lane for the Geoffry Fieger deal:
“Fieger and Johnson were indicted in 2007 on charges of illegally funneling $127,000 to Edwards’ 2004 presidential campaign by recruiting straw donors — employees, family members of employees and others — to make contributions in the then-maximum allowable amount of $2,000 per donor.
Fieger said during the trial that the Edwards donors were reimbursed, but the payments to staffers actually were bonuses and that any employee contributions to Edwards were made voluntarily. Fieger said the reimbursements were not banned under campaign finance laws.
Fieger was acquitted in June 2008. Jurors said the government failed to prove the attorney knew he was breaking the law.”
$20,000 versus $127,000 back in 2004.
Di, glad it was just a screw up.
In the future, open all your under sink cabinets when it drops below freezing. We are on a raised foundation and haven’t had a frozen pipe evah, even though it’s 7F. Do you have electric heat? Run it while you’re out to keep everything warmed up (even the cats). It might cost in your electric bill, but it beats replacing any pipe.
Did you shut off all your outside faucets last fall? Those guys are expen$ive to replace.
I suppose the other possibility is Steyn’s so pissed off at finding himself back at square one, legally speaking, that he no longer trust’s NR‘s legal minds to represent his interests.
Who could blame him? I’d venture that National Review needs him more than he needs them.
Must be there is a special “Edwards contribution clause” in election law.
From: Phil Jones
“To: “Michael E. Mann”
Subject: HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Date: Thu Jul 8 16:30:16 2004
I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow – even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is !
Cheers
Phil”
h/t maggie’s farm
Your Twitter feed caused your utility company to deny you water? Then I’m lucky to be allowed even air!
Those setback spigots are only good for 5 years, is my experience. Throwaway disposables from China. But if someone (else) leaves a hose attached to fill the dog’s water bowls and the area experiences an unexpected early freeze, then the setback won’t matter. Also as my experience.
They didn’t shut me off. I just called.
Last night, I shut off the heaters I had aimed into the crawlspace and let the furnace go down to 55 as usual.
This morning, I got a teeny bit of water out of one faucet before it stopped again. Something melted somewhere.
Woman at the utility said that people’s pipes have been freezing up randomly this year, even in this weather.
I’m supposed to find where the main pipe comes into my house. Would that be in the crawlspace? I know where the main sewer line is, but blamed if I know where the water comes IN.
My house is so old, who knows what they were thinking.
I winterized my hoses and the like long before we had a frost, so that’s not it.
Generally the supply will come from the street and enter the front, though sometimes from an alley to the rear — but if you know where your meter is, that’s got the main going through it, so the one side (streetside) belonging to the utility, the house side to you. If the meter is outdoors, the entry will be proximate into the house.
There’s a metal “manhole” out near the street where the turnoff is. There’s also an electronic thingy attached to the “manhole cover” that permits them to read the meter by passing a detector over it.
I’m reckoning that the entry is a direct line between that manhole and my house, and that I’d have to get into the damned crawlspace to see it.
I’m not getting in there, sorry. Time to call in the reserves, whoever they are.
Dicentra, one possibility goes like this — go to your local hardware and ask for an electric pipe-heating strip, follow the instructions (wrap it around the main), plug it in and viola (a passage of time later), thawed water.
I don’t know where the main is.
I’m not going into the crawlspace.
I hate my life.
Oh go into the crawlspace: look at it as an opportunity to buy that full-body Carhart overall you’ve always wanted.
I am not going into the crawlspace. I’ve been swearing at the crossword clues again this morning threatening my computer with bodily harm.
If I can’t deal with crossword clues, I can’t deal with the crawlspace.
I’m going back to bed.
I was just hit with an 8900 tax bill for getting paypal donations. Of 14K.
Probably a coincidence.
Woah. That seems nuts on its face. That’s what, 60+% of the total?
One of our lawyers can help you there, Jeff.
Dicentra, woman up and go in the crawlspace. Face your fears and conquer them! And as a bonus, get your water back on.
Taxes on gifts?
It’s not fear, it’s menopause. The mood swings are 10x worse than when I was younger.
TMI? I tried to hint at it earlier, but it went right over your head.
I can’t deal with anything without pitching a fit and making things worse. Last night I was a raging fiend who nearly electrocuted myself over impatience at the stupid extension cords.
I have to go into work anyway. We missed our deadline and I have to edit the release notes and I emailed my church guy, who is supposed to help me in just such a circumstance.
Also, if I could direct this irrational rage in some useful way — to reduce Jeff’s tax burden on donations — that would be really awesome. No reason to let this destructive force go to waste.
OK. I don’t have to go into work, and someone told me that if you heat up the thingy under the manhole, that might work.
That’s my plan, but first, a nap.
I had my doc put me on Paxil so I wasn’t a threat to society. I feel your rage.
Try not to spin out of control if the guy from church doesn’t get over there and fix it before you get home. In the meantime, black cohash and green tea.
Doubled my black cohosh, can’t drink green tea but I’ve been on L-Theanine tabs, and I already take Effexor (Paxil makes me sleep 18 hours a day and is the primary reason I never finished my dissertation). The rages come and go, even during the span of a day.
Church guy came over and dug out the manhole near the street where the meter is. Then we poured hot (not boiling) water over the pipes therein and aimed a space heater at it for a good half-hour.
Nada. He opened and shut the valve with the key and felt no pressure come or go. He’s gonna call a guy who might know a guy. Not even he is going to venture into the crawlspace.
My furnace (gas) and electricity is working, so my complaints are actually few.
37°F and the sun is shining. It’s not warm, of course, but it’s also not cold. Maybe the winter fog got in somewhere it ought not and froze things up.
I actually switched to paroxetine a year or so ago, since I’m a cheapskate. Paxil also made me sleepy, but less stabby so it was a trade-off.
Make sure you shut the kitties up in your office or a bedroom since they will have no qualms about the crawlspace and then you’ll be forced to venture in to “rescue” them. Our late kitty decided she needed to explore under the house when Hubs was putting in our hardwood floor and found a piece of subflooring that needed to be replaced. Pitiful meows were heard until we coaxed her over where she could be reached after she jumped through the hole in the floor.
Good luck with the plumbing.
How has a thread this long not devolved into a discussion of firearms?
The crawl-space entrance is outside. I left the cover off all night and most of the day; when we put it back on, I had him leave a cat-sized opening just in case. My cat didn’t venture in, but a neighborhood cat might, and I don’t want to find a putrescent corpse next spring.
The church guy called around and someone suggested that I call the water utility back, so I did and they sent out a guy within minutes, and it turns out the thingy that’s supposed to prevent the meter box from freezing is busted open from the cold, and the valve is all frozen up, but it’s their thing so they’re fixing it by replacing the freeze thingy, the valve, and adding insulation.
On their dime.
Q’plaugh!
Now to figure out why the cat’s breath smells of sulfur and decomp this past week and whether he also might have an abscess that makes his sinus infections recur mere weeks after getting a shot from the vet.
“I was just hit with an 8900 tax bill for getting paypal donations. Of 14K.
Probably a coincidence.”
I’m guessing they are claiming that you are self emplyed and a lot of that is back FICA for being self employed. They tired to do that to me a while back when I had natural gas lease dividends coming in. This was with H&R Block doing the taxes. Eventually they told me to use a different 1099 form. Then things went digital where they want you to pay $60 a years for software updates to do your taxes for you unless you are a 1040EZ type.
Did someone say gunthread?
“I had my doc put me on Paxil so I wasn’t a threat to society.”
A few years ago I spent six months on prescription strength SIMETHICONE so I wouldn’t be a danger to society. I let my gut bugs get too feral. People totally noticed. I felt like a morlock.
You need to get married, palaeo. You’re making yourself sick with you own cooking.
>Did someone say gunthread?<
over here, over here, over here
Turns out a whole lot of the main line is frozen or something…
>Turns out a whole lot of the main line is frozen or something <
that be water co.'s problem no?
At least the water company is on the hook for the repairs and not you. You’ll just be inconvenienced by them while they fix it.
It’s not the main line, but it’s coming in from the main to the meter box. Water Guy #2 put a big hose down into the hole and packed it with insulation, the other end is in his pickup. He’s waiting for Water Guy #3.
Feels like one of those fairy tails where an ever-bigger fish has to come along to do the task.
Yes, it’s the Water Company’s thing, else they’d tell me good luck and hire a plumber.
“I was just hit with an 8900 tax bill for getting paypal donations. Of 14K. “
Cash is king in this world.
Some people don’t know that.
Dumb assesSilly souls…i used to live on the main line: bryn mawr!
Four hours later, still no water.
Looks like the pipe from the main into the box where the meter sits froze way up under the ground, but toward the main line so they have to keep at it.
Two guys now. They’re flummoxed at the extent. It’s only been just over 24 hours that it froze up.
They’re getting double or triple time to be flummoxed.
Expect this to take a while.
Also, doctors operate on children’s tonsils for billing puposes.
We used to run into sweated lead pipe joints at the house supply-entry in Philly every once in awhile (it’s an old-assed city), and god help you if that joint was weak and broke with no streetside shutoff near at hand. Solution? Dry-ice.
WATER!
FLUSH!
Four guys and seven hours total. That was some freeze-up.
A good thing you didn’t venture into your underhouse underworld after all. Disturbing the napping black widow spiders and their centipede friends can wait until you need to patch duct that’s ripped open by the rats and rodents that came in when you left your crawlspace open…after dark, the worst possible time evah!
I had some of that underground action when a Ms. Skunk dug in around my HVAC unit, got herself in heat and attracted every male skunk in the county; and lived the party life for a week or so. Until I trapped her with peanut butter, in a covered cage, and eased that contraption to the lake, where it was sank and sat until she was party favors for the catfish. No mercy shown for that party skank.
My suburbs don’t attract much in the way of mammalian life. Skunks? Bunnies? Squirrels? Deer? Nope. And only some mysterious ‘coon tracks several years ago, with no further sign of their existence.
The Great Basin doesn’t produce nearly as much critterage as areas outside it. If I lived in the foothills, maybe, but even the avians at the feeders around here are pretty boring stuff. I follow some dudez on Flickr who live near the mountains here in SLC and their bird feeders are far more varied than mine.
I did see a downy woodpecker, today. That’s as wild as it gets.