March 11, 2017

At the Sand Arch Café...

fullsizeoutput_152

... maybe you can get in edgewise.

fullsizeoutput_153

Photos taken just before sunset yesterday in Arches National Park.

(And do please consider shopping through The Althouse Amazon Portal.)

28 comments:

gspencer said...

Tight squeeze photo, middle, just to the right,

Early work of the Rapa Nui people before moving south?

Original Mike said...

Charming graffti seen on campus last night on way to hockey game: "Dead men don't rape".

Patrick said...

Loved Arches when we went last year. Still proud of my then 8 year old for doing a ten mile hike, and then another Mike and a half or so out to Delicate Arch. I keep telling myself my kids will appreciate these forced marches eventually!

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Great photos. Hopefully you got a chance to hike Arches at different times of day. It has a distinctly different quality in the evening light than it does at high noon.
When I started doing road trips in the Southwest I was surprised and delighted to see the green dinosaur of Sinclair gas stations. I remembered them from childhood road trips but had just assumed they had gone the way of the, well, dinosaur. I know they're common in other parts of the country but maybe my early middle-aged brain was more attuned to nostalgic triggers than my young adult brain had been. Funny the things that give you happiness.

traditionalguy said...

What? No Graffiti Artists tagging the walls? How do they do that? Pat them down for spray cans at the entrance?

Those 1000 year old guys made them nice graffiti. Maybe Meade can do a Kilroy was here logo while no one is looking.

Anonymous said...

Looks like that canyon is "Mad Max, Fury Road".

madAsHell said...

I was always surprised by the way that Obama, and Candy Crowley jumped on Romney during the second debate in 2012. They were ready to pounce when Romney wandered into the trap. It was almost like they knew where his talking points were going.

Now, we have some indication that Obama was listening to Trump's communications. Do they keep records of FISA warrants more than 7 years?...or did the hard drive crash?

MaxedOutMama said...

Anyone know the species of the scrub trees in the last photo? I'm impressed by their grit.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Arches is fun... because there are arches.

Quaestor said...

Anyone know the species of the scrub trees in the last photo? I'm impressed by their grit.

Could be creosote bush, but there's no trace of green on them in the photo.

sane_voter said...

Fact of the day. The difference between natural arches and natural bridges is that natural arches are formed by any erosive process while natural bridges are initially formed by a water stream. Natural bridges are a subset of natural arches.

While in Utah, consider visiting Natural Bridges NM. It is much less crowded than Arches with fewer than 100,000 non-local visitors a year compared to 1.3 million for Arches. Arches is definitely a must see and stunning, but can be crowded. Both are hot as Hades in the summer.

rhhardin said...

Connie from Oklahoma is on the move in Oklahoma, now operating in Creek County.

You get points for each county.

Laslo Spatula said...

From the Fauxhaus Blog:

Why Porn Has Gotten So Rough

"...free XXX tube sites have not only left the adult industry in tatters, but are a pox on society: a danger to sex workers, forcing them into extreme acts of degradation due to dwindling demand, and to our youth, allowing them unfettered access to hardcore pornography."

Unfettered access: I believe most of us agree that children's access to porn should be fettered. This is not the good old days, where access to a few old issues of tattered Playboy magazines could feed a boy's erotic hunger for weeks. Now children have access to depictions of every sex act conceivable, and many that seem inconceivable until you actually see them (see: DVDA, to begin).

But this post is not about protecting the children and their roles as sexual consumers: it is about porn being Free. The author argues that free porn leads to "extreme acts of degradation". Does one only watch such scenes if they are free? The urge to watch women blindfolded and gagged and tied to a chair while sucking an endless procession of cocks would not exist if it actually cost something? Free ice cream makes people want more extreme, degrading ice cream?

And, of course, Government is the answer:

"...the answer, Ovidie says, is for various governments to begin regulating these tube sites...If free access to porn is limited, then producers can get their funding back, start working legally again, and pay their talent fairly.”

Yes, the Government. Perhaps the Government can establish restrictions on Porn like they do on pharmaceuticals, and people will have to get their extreme degrading porn mail-order on the cheap from Canada. Or Albania. I imagine there is a lot of degrading porn in Albania.

Or perhaps Government can set up Pricing Standards:

DVDA (can include fellatio in the five spot): $50.00 per 5 minutes.

Anal Orgy with Bondage: $40.00 per 5 minutes.

Bukkake (minimum three ejaculations): $20.00 per five minutes.

Black Man/White Woman Monster Cock sex: $10.00 per 5 minutes.

Basic blowjob Dry (no facial): $5.00 per 5 minutes.

Gay Sex without condoms: $5.00 per 5 minutes.

Gay Sex WITH condoms between two minorities, and a text scroll delineating safe sex habits and Political Action websites: $0.50 per 5 minutes.

Can you see the obvious problem here? Putting a price on "Black Man/White Woman Monster Cock sex" is RACIST. Sure, Samuel L. Jackson can afford it, but The Brother in the hood who likes his White Women getting good-and-fucked is shit out of luck. Unless there is a Porn Welfare Program. Which would probably happen, the Government being the Government.

But the bigger issue is the Government will attempt to shape our sexual appetites through pricing controls -- say "Government Approved Sex Acts", everybody -- and recent Politics show that they're NOT going to adversely affect Gay Sex. So every "Anal Orgy with Bondage' will now have a bit of male-on-male ass action to help keep the price down. That can certainly throw off a viewer's 'rhythm', I imagine.

What will our Society be like when the only affordable Porn is Gay Porn? Will our young boys grow up more open and accepting, or will they just grow up with an insatiable thirst for cock? (to be continued)...

Laslo Spatula said...

Time for a Poll:

Should the Government get involved with Porn?

1. Yes. Protect the Children.

2. Yes. The women in Porn need Health Care benefits, probably more than most people, especially for their orifice areas.

3. No. I believe in the Free Market. Let the 'Unseen Hand' do it's work. There's a masturbation joke there.

4. I am OK with Mild Government interference, like keeping under-age children out of porn scenes. But don't fuck with my Anal.

5. I don't want the Government putting man-on-man ass action into my porn viewing habits. But the Gay Guys can watch that stuff, I don't care. Live and Let Live. Or let Suck. Whatever.

6. The Government should try to empower more Fat Chicks into Porn. Because body-shaming.

7. I was for Government intrusion into Porn before Nancy Pelosi sucked my cock.

I am Laslo.

Mark said...

Spring forward now.

BJM said...

This photo reminds me of Cyan's current game Obduction.

Big Mike said...

@Laslo, not just no, but HELL NO!!! Because there's nothing the federal government does that they don't massively f*ck up.

viator said...

The singular André Rieu & His Johann Strauss Orchestra performing the Main Title Theme from The Godfather movie at the Sand Arch cafe.

Trumpit said...

I want someone other than stupid, erratic Trump to be Commander in Chief when the soon to begin war starts to get rid of Kim's weapons of mass destruction and Kim himself. Rest assured that it's coming soon. Kim plans to set off a massive underground nuclear explosion in the coming days, but his fate will be sealed in any event.

Sprezzatura said...

I'd think Meade would like mountain biking there.

Really fun, technical stuff.

And, you can rent good bikes.

Don' know if Meadehouse needs to only do match-matchy stuff. Althouse wouldn't be up for those trails.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Trumpit said...
I want someone

And people in Hell want ice water.

mockturtle said...

Great photos!

MaxedOutMama said...

Thanks Quaester. Much appreciated.

Quaestor said...

Rest assured that it's coming soon.

Sounds like someone is just itchy all over to nuke somebody. Who could that be? Not me. Not Lazlo. That would interfere with those world-shaking porn issues he's dealing with. Not Unknown/Inga. Can't be. She spells nuclear with two u's and no e. Seems to be only Trumpit. The other day Trumpit got all in a lather with us because we had jolly old time lambasting Hillary over her bottle blonde/botox/Resist!/Resist what? failed makeover attempt. Now she wants to kill somebody — preferably Trump, but Kim Jung Un will do in a pinch. Trumpit doesn't want to do it herself, she wants State power to do it for her. Typically female isn't it? Clytemnestra wanted Agamemnon out of the way, but she needed Ægisthus to do the deed. Hillary wanted Vince Foster dead, but not wanting to do him herself called up a hit through those dimly lit backchannels she had used before on Jerry Parks when he tried dossier-building on the Clintons, and most recently used on that little twerp Seth Rich for spilling the beans to Assange.

So who ARE you, Trumpit? Why are you anxious for war? Why do you hate President Trump? Why do you get so defensive over Hillary and her silly attempts to remain relevant? Are you, in fact, Hillary Rodham Clinton in disguise? Makes sense — the bloodlust, the prickly temper, the undetectable sense of humor. We can't hear the cackle, but I surmise you issued one when you typed "that stupid erratic Trump". Come clean, Trumpit...

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, @Meade, if either of you are basketball fans and near a TV around 3:00 Eastern Daylight Time tomorrow, it will be Michigan vs Wisconsin in the finals of the Big Ten tournament for all the marbles.

OldManRick said...

While you are at Arches, I highly recommend a short side trip to Corona Arch - one of the finest in the US.

References:
https://utah.com/hiking/arches-national-park/bowtie-corona-arches
http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/potash-road/index.html

Another great arch for photographs is Mesa Arch in Canyonlands.

http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/canyonlands/mesa-arch-trail.html

Lewis Wetzel said...

So I'm watching this new TV series called Time After Time. It seems to be loosely based the novel of the same name from 1979. I read it back in the early 80s.
The idea is that H.G. Wells actually did invent a time machine, Jack the Ripper stole it and took it forward to our time, and H.G. Wells goes forward to our time to track Jack the Ripper down. It was made into a movie with Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenbergen.
The TV series reboot is appalling. The Wells character is horrified by the violence of the modern age, when of course the real Wells was a socialist/fascist/racist who endorsed political violence as well as eugenics. The theme of Well's The Time Machine was eternal class warfare.
At one point in the series pilot, Jack the Ripper tells Wells that he is astonished that in the modern age (our time, in America), anyone can buy a rifle or pistol. Wells is horrified. See? Even Jack the Ripper is shocked at the sanctioned violence of our time!
But in the real Victorian England, gun control laws were non-existent. The first gun control laws in Britain go back only to 1903. The law covered pistols, not rifles or shotguns. You had to buy a pistol license for a few pence from the post office. Real firearms laws in Britain weren't introduced until after WWI.
The series is aimed at millennial viewer, of course.

Trumpit said...

"Why are you anxious for war?" To save millions of lives. Kim the killer will soon obtain ICBMS and he will wreck havoc with the U.S. and the rest of the world. You can run, but you can't hide from an ICBM. Trump and others have said that they won't allow the Iranians to build a nuclear weapon, yet Kim already has them. Trump, rightly, won't give that psychopath the time to build an ICBM, so KIM will be killed for starters and his WMD will be destroyed by a massive assault on his regime.