March 15, 2011

Today, at the protests, a man says "Hang them all!"

I talk to a couple sitting in the Capitol rotunda about what they mean by "democracy" and whether they care about the death threats against Republican state senators. Outside, I encounter a homeless man who hates politics, says "Hang them all!" but loves what the protesters are doing. Then we see a man who notices I overheard something he said (which he said before I got the camera running). He reframes his statement, and that's what you hear.



DSC00734

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is that cop doing?

Is he out there staring down anyone that thinks that they dare try to enter the building illegally.

Unknown said...
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alan markus said...

@ 1:20 - that exasperated affected look that the girl makes at you - reminds me of your Blogging Heads episode with Michelle Goldberg - I think it was about Obama's Dreams of My Father book. Of course, Michelle is much cuter than this girl, but man, were those facial expressions hard to watch!

You seem to bring out the "but, ma-um" effect on these young ladies.

vbspurs said...

I am entitled to one frivolous comment per year, so here goes.

I love the redhead's boots!

retire05 said...

Doris, did anyone ever tell you that the "I heard it from a friend who has a friend that told them...." doesn't hold water?

I have yet to hear about any voucher system in Wisconsin, but I can only hope. It would be a win-win for the state. Giving you $6,500/yr per student would save the state $2,000/yr per student, it would close some public schools and cost some of the immature teachers their jobs and create great loss for the corrupt unions.

Sounds like a winning plan to me.

Carol_Herman said...

I love the way Meade can hold a camera in a gloved hand! And, wow. Out to the side!

The pictures have been marvelous!

It's like you own your own magazine! You make editorial picks. The photographs are FIRST RATE! Well balanced. And, the weather looks so good, there, too.

I hope you love doing this stuff!

I just LOVE this blog! Nobody comes off looking bad. Yes, Americans can be proud! I think, for instance, that Europeans would be "too sophisticated" to do stuff like this.

When will the "locals" start recognizing Meade?

Are lots of professors recognized, easily, on campus? (Not true at Cal State LA. But very true at Caltech, where so many professors are loved and respected.)

I guess you have to explain to students, sometimes, that you won't take their pictures. And, you won't interview them. Huh?

Unknown said...

The couple at the beginning of the video want to say, "Democracy means I get my way", but Ann keeps pounding their heads against that damned old logic again and again.

PS Nice-looking redhead.

And, no, vb, I don't mean the boots.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Why is grandpa telling that redheaded girl to get off his concrete lawn? I mean, I can see that he's trying to do it in a polite way, but the generation gap between that guy and the future, at least as depicted in the picture, couldn't possibly be wider.

Keep fighting for the past, guys. What's the destination, precisely? Tammany Hall?

Lucius said...

I was waiting for Ann to throw a "what about the polls for Obamacare when it passed?" at the simpering couple in the Rotunda but, really, it would've been wasted (perhaps it's editied out?).

Their apathy is so-- pathetic-- I'm not even sure I could honor them with the "protester" label. They have the air of unwanted dinner guests, the kind of people who think argument/debate of *any* kind is just vulgar because, how could they ever not be self-evidently right?

Meanwhile . . . Meade's out 'debating' a "Twilight" starlet, and we don't get to eavesdrop (much)!.

But I *do* appreciate the photo-- brings out the milky skin tone much better than the video. And what a posture! Reminds me of a shot in Amy Heckerling's "Loser".

@vbspurs: And they're nice boots, too!

Is your avatar a Tintoretto, btw?

I'm Full of Soup said...

The seated girl said Dems have recived more death threats. She said it with such confidence that she must actually believe it as if someone somewhere is keeping track of it. You know, like a box score.

Anonymous said...

I thought I was going to watch the 2 videos, I couldn't get through the first. OMG. Are those 2 products of the Public Fool System? What are they good for? This just confirms to me that this will not last much longer. Those 2 have no future in any society other than under a Totalitarian government. They are just lost. If there is any sort of collapse, these will be the first to go. We need a collapse, because some serious culling needs to occur.

vbspurs said...

Hi Lucius! It's (Gio) Bellini's "La Madonna col Bambino tra le sante Caterina e Maria Maddalena" located in the Accademia of Venice. :)

Sprezzatura said...

To avoid being mean, I wouldn't have brought it up, but since folks are discussing those boots: As soon as I saw this picture I thought something was wrong w/ those boots.

Maybe it's that they have such a blunt tip--that is very un-sexy, but this sort of boot should be sexyish. Of course, ninety five percent of the women who wear these sorts of black (or brown) boots don't pull it off.

The five percent of girls who do look good in this sort of boot are really thin, and the boots are extremely tightly fit, and the boots are not clunky.

IMHO.

vbspurs said...

I agree that the boots are a hard act to pull off, being Doc Martens-like, but there is something rather Mary Magdalenish about the girl. A demure siren who hasn't realised her dominatrix potential.

I could never get away with those stub-toed boots.

Ann Althouse said...

"Meanwhile . . . Meade's out 'debating' a "Twilight" starlet, and we don't get to eavesdrop (much)!."

Hang on! That's a future episode. I have so much film editing to do. This was one I could get out fairly easily. I've got some great stuff coming.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...
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Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Especially when wearing boots, but just as often with plain old heels, a lot of women (too many, IMO) are in the habit of thinking it sounds cool to trounce around in them in a fascist style.

When this happens, I like to imitate their precise stride in a much more exaggerated, even Hitlerian, goose-step manner. The emphasis has to be on mocking the loud sound made during the down-step of these jackboot-wearing wanna-bes.

If they're too thick to get the point at the moment, I'm sure they catch on eventually. And besides, it cracks me the hell up, along with anyone else who's with me.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

But I don't think a young, punkish Midwesterner in an exurban setting would be as prone as a pretentious East-coast fashionista to abusing her boots in that manner. When you're actually trying for the punk look, sounding like a Nazi stormtrooper defeats the purpose.

Sprezzatura said...

vbspurs,

You completely nailed what was bothering me.

For this girl, this clunky style is probably as good as it gets. But, this sort of boot is best on someone who is less of a kid, where the sexier (better) version can really shine.

Of course you've had a blog that featured shoe photos (of a certain VP), so it's safe to assume that you know more about shoes that some (straight) guy, aka me.

But, I do have a dozen pairs of Ferragamos, not to mention my own favorite boots; one is Mephisto (tan, super tight suede, very clean w/ none of the yucky old man style typical of Mephisto), the other is Gucci (black, w/ fine laces & two buckles over the laces). So, I'm not entirely uninitiated, where footwear is concerned.

Reagan said...

Meade's got to be proud out crotchetizing with folks 1/2 his age.

Almost Ali said...

The [exhausted] couple lounging on the floor, you should'a clobbered 'em with their own assertion. The girl especially, the political mind of a Barbra Streisand; total air-head.

Next time take a moment to ask exactly which democrat was threatened. But do so convincingly, with shocked concern:

"Oh my God! Who was threatened!"

Lucius said...

@Ann: Ah, then we shall patiently await more (ahem) footage!

Yeah, those boots-- now that I look again, I may have been
grading on a curve. I think they're okay, but a different toe would optimize the effect. In truth, I'm sortof fed up with seeing women in generically 'stylish' boots this winter: it's at the point where the simple fact of wearing a boot is supposed to be some effortless grand fashion statement, without further thought to it.

But she's a redhead, I can't help it! --Definitely got a sort of Northern Gothic, Cranach by detour to Hot Topic sort of vibe going on.

Maybe actual Docs would serve her just as well--might make her look more 'centered' somehow? A more plausible splash of 'toughness' to her skinny pale redhead vibe?

@vbspurs: Oh, Bellini then!-- I was about to flounder around from Giorgione to the Mannerists, I couldn't quite tell. Just took a wild guess . . .

Lucius said...

@pbAndj: Your "five percent" analysis is perspicacious. I salute you.

Phil 314 said...

Listening to the couple on the floor, especially the guy I kept thinking:

firm, fixed conviction not based in reality

Professor, don't you understand that the people who voted for those Republican representative are his/her constituency. Don't you know, that's not Democracy.

Known Unknown said...

Leave it to boots to bring people of different political stripes together.

Known Unknown said...

Also, re: the girl-in-boots.

The boots aren't the problem. It's the girl. As you can tell by the rest of her outfit, she hasn't really committed to the boots.

Known Unknown said...

What is that cop doing?

He's probably wondering where he left his darn handcuffs.

vbspurs said...

pbAndj wrote:

So, I'm not entirely uninitiated, where footwear is concerned.

Actually! I am only marginally interested in footwear, myself. I am a watch and handbags gal, boasting only a dozen pairs of shoes. Truth.

Did you see "Frost/Nixon"? Where the writers made sure they got in a little anti-homosexual dig about the Gucci loafers? Because slip-ons are so effeminate for red-blooded Republicans of that generation (and they were...).

vbspurs said...

Lucius, I love the chiaroscuro style, but I am no expert otherwise. :)

vbspurs said...
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Lucius said...

What *do* we think about that bag, now that E.M.Davis insinuates, correctly, I think, that we're losing the bigger picture?

Should she go with something smaller? black? patent-y?

Should we put a nose-ring on her? Put her in Alexander Wang? But maybe she's actually more groovey than punky? Should we go for laid-back Midwestern funky flair? Should she rock some dark rinse jeggings maybe?

She needs our *decisions* here!!

Alex said...

Ritmo - so the young are automatically right and moral? Especially leftist ones.

Sprezzatura said...

"a little anti-homosexual dig about the Gucci loafers"

I never saw that. But, I think the stereotype is related to all loafers. Hence the phrase, "light in the loafers."

Anyway, professional athletes and rappers have made it more than acceptable to be a straight, non-metro guy w/ a plenty of shoes. And, the craftsmanship that goes into good shoes is admirable--especially when the alternative is junk from China.

I gave up on watches many years ago because phones have clocks, but I still have a bunch of high end watches.

I don't do hand bags. I own and use plenty of Louis Vuitton luggage and trinkets. But, I only sported my LV "man purse" for a week before it went into purgatory ("in the closet" (ha)). And, w/ very few exceptions, all of my LV is the Taiga stuff, so most folks don't know that it's LV, which is perfect.



Lucious,

I already feel mean for picking at her boots.

But, I did notice that her hair color seems off. Maybe it's that her real hair color is showing in the part. Or, maybe it's that her eyebrows are so different than her hair.

Even so, getting distracted by the proverbial trees seems silly, when the main point is that this girl is a cute kid. And, she seems to be a nice kid, since she's putting up w/ these two infiltrating geezers who are chatting her up while they take a video of her.

P.S. I wonder if she and Meade are talking about buttons. She's got her pink button and Meade is probably wearing his button that says 'militant homosexual.'

Mark Larson said...

Wow, this thread has gone completely "Manolo the Shoeblogger".

Ann&Meade, what I have not seen discussed much since it was originally brought up was the idea that Walker was also going to push thru a law requiring WI voters show photo ID at the polls. If the left is going to push thru a recall election (armed with petitions signed by plenty of dead people, no doubt), shouldn't this be a priority?

Known Unknown said...

Maybe the Professor should send this photo to The Sartorialist

The Dude said...

Sure, redheads are good, at least to those of us who appreciate the finer things in life, but I prefer they not be hunchbacks.

WV: tones - what her muscles lack.

paul a'barge said...

Who is the little hottie with the henna hair and the hot B/D boots?

Lucius said...

@pbAndj: She is cute, I agree. If she wasn't adorably full of "demure siren"hood, as vbspurs eloquently puts it, I wouldn't be teasing her so like an obnoxious thirteen year-old.

Behind her back. Pseudonymously. On the interwebs. Sigh.

[hands head in shame]

Godspeed, demure siren! And now: let's await the video!

Known Unknown said...

Sure, redheads are good, at least to those of us who appreciate the finer things in life, but I prefer they not be hunchbacks.


I'm thinking it's the hood/angle of the photo that gives off the early-onset osteoporosis vibe.

Alex said...

Ah nice, Ritmo came back to fling more poo.

Rusty said...

Althouse.com.!
Come for the politics.
Stay for the fashion.
It's Fabulous!





WV word of the day-xtesta
Somehow appropriate.