February 25, 2012

Kites on ice, kids on marble.

Today on Lake Mendota, guys with kites (and sails) to pull skis (and sleds):



And in the Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda — a year after the protests — it looks like this:



The kids (and adults) are lying on the ground not because they sleep overnight there — like last year's protesters — but to gaze up into the dome.

21 comments:

Ron said...

A clear case of cheese planking!

Carol_Herman said...

Do the "bodies" roll over when a blind person comes along tapping a cane?

God, An Original A-hole said...

It looks nice out there on the ice. The clear blue sky is overhead, filled only with the occasional kite. Worldly concerns are far away. And the spirit is freshened with life!

I always feel close to God in places like that.

edutcher said...

We just got a dusting here, but it looks like you had enough to use the skis.

Glad you could have a day out.

Petunia said...

I'm amazed that the ice is thick enough to be safe. Even though it was cold today, the snow we had the other day will insulate things, and the weather was pretty warm before that. Hope no one fell in.

Nice to see people lying in the Rotunda for a legitimate, interesting reason for a change.

Wince said...

As a follow-up to yesterday's suicide as hate crime post, more "hate crime" insanity in today's news. Unlike New Jersey, the Massachusetts hate crime statute mercifully does not contain a "permissive inference" provision.

Was the alleged male victim attacked because he was gay? Were the alleged female attackers told by their lawyers to say they are lesbians and to say that the gay man they fought with used racial epithets toward them?

A "victim" battle royal.

Photos of the alleged attackers at the following link.

Lawyer: Lesbians’ assault on gay man can’t be hate crime

Three women identified by their lawyers as lesbians were arraigned yesterday on a hate crime charge for allegedly beating a gay man at the Forest Hills T station in an unusual case that experts say exposes the law’s flawed logic.

“My guess is that no sane jury would convict them under those circumstances, but what this really demonstrates is the idiocy of the hate-crime legislation,” said [liberal] civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate. “If you beat someone up, you’re guilty of assault and battery of a human being. Period. The idea of trying to break down human beings into categories is doomed to failure.”

Prosecutors and the ACLU of Massachusetts said no matter the defendants’ sexual orientation, they can still face the crime of assault and battery with intent to intimidate, which carries up to a 10-year prison sentence, by using hateful language.

“Someone who is Jewish can be anti-Semitic,” said ACLU staff attorney Sarah Wunsch. “The mere fact that someone is a member of the same class doesn’t mean they could not be motivated by hatred for their very own group.”

But Carolyn Euell, 38, mother of two of the defendants, Erika Stroud, 21, of Dorchester and Felicia Stroud, 18, West Roxbury, told reporters the alleged attack “can’t be hateful” because both her daughters are lesbians.

Prosecutor Lindsey Weinstein said the two sisters and one of their domestic partners, Lydia Sanford, also a defendant, viciously beat the man Sunday, repeatedly punching and kicking him after he bumped them with his backpack on a stairwell.

She said the victim, who suffered a broken nose, told cops he believed the attack was “motivated as a crime because of his sexual orientation” since the three women “called him insulting homophobic slurs.”

But attorney Helene Tomlinson, who represented Sanford, told the judge her client is “openly identified as a lesbian ... so any homophobic (conduct) is unwarranted.” She said the alleged victim was the aggressor and used racial slurs: “He provoked them.”

Felicia Stroud’s attorney, C. Harold Krasnow, said, “They don’t know what his sexual orientation is, just like he doesn’t know what theirs is.”

Krasnow later noted the low bail the judge gave the women, $100 to $500 cash, and suggested the prosecution’s case was weak.

Civil-rights attorney Chester Darling agreed. “No one should go to court. It’s knuckle justice,” he said. “It’s a fair exchange.”

But Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said prosecutors will have no problem proving the women committed a hate crime, even if they are lesbians.

“The defendants’ particular orientation or alleged orientations have no bearing on our ability to prosecute for allegedly targeting a person who they believe to be different from them,” he said.

traditionalguy said...

The families showing the rotunda to their kids warmed my heart. It is the peoples house.

coketown said...

They should install a laser light show in the dome. Or hand out pot brownies.

God, An Original A-hole said...

Perhaps you can behold a bit of the Divine when you gaze up into the dome like that?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KCFleming said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KCFleming said...

What's interesting about EDH's post is the story admits that certain classes of people may be excluded from hate crimes because they are themselves in the preferred class.

Two sets of laws, one for the desirable class, one for the undesirables.

JAL said...

Where's the balloon?

JAL said...

Domestic violence between lesbians may be underreported for similar reason, Pogo.

KCFleming said...

Indeed.
It doesn't fit the narrative.

BTW, when declaring one is of the favored class, how do we know that it is true, except by self- report?

Chip Ahoy said...

SOS. It's a breakfast Béchamel with hamburger meat by another name and the shingles are ditched.

Chip Ahoy said...

My friend told me to stop calling ladies birds. And I go, "what should I call them?" He told me I should call them chicks.

Tonight a lady asked me what sign I am. Odd question.

"What sign am I?"

"Yes, what sign are you?"

"I am ♉."

I don't understand myself sometimes. I have no reason to lie like that. That's my brother Dale, not me. I am ♋.

Bob said...

Perhaps the people in charge of the Capitol building should consider installing some chaise longues for viewing purposes. If you were to arrange a half-dozen of them in a circle, people in the gallery above could look down and see the loungers arranged like petals on a flower.

Rusty said...

You got any idea the stuff people have been walking in and then you want to lie down on that floor?

Toad Trend said...

I prefer the ice, blue skies, open spaces. As another commenter pointed out, beware thick snow on that ice. Tread lightly and don't go alone.

Negatory on the marble, institutional construct. Leave that for field trips and official state business. Laying on the floor is a bit lowbrow, don't you think? Its eaiser to snap a photo of the underdome and take it home with you for viewing later. Leave the dirt and germs on the marble rather than carry them home with you on your backside.

Phil 314 said...

I want an update on the tape residual. Did they get it all?

Meade, I expect follow up...

AND FILM!