May, 2012 archive
The Daemons Within 0
This is what happens when a religious belief is based on priggishly taking offense at everything possible. (Hint: Ignore the geek stuff. Look for the daemonic.)
Words fail me.
QOTD 0
Horace Mann, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
We are prone to seek immediate pleasure or good, however small, rather than remote pleasure or good, however vast.
Facebook Frolics 0
Dick Destiny offers advice on how to use Facebook, rather than have Facebook use you. His advice has merit.
A nugget:
This had made a profile in which there are serial posts up until TimeLine was announced. And then an increasing gap, punctuated by a couple music videos I want to remain on one page of scroll, and whatever I have posted to Facebook in the last couple days.
By doing this your Facebook existence is mapped only in the present, or whatever slice of it you wish to present. All status changes and activities are immediately hidden. And if you wanted to see something posted last week, if it wasn’t one of my YouTube things, you can’t. You have to come here. Period. And if you don’t know how to do that because your primary cyberspace experience is Facebook, you won’t be able to do it. Which is fine with me.
I have taken a different approach.
The only thing I post to my Facebook page is my blog posts (the link is automated) and the occasional smapshot of a duck or a goose or a cloud. Since this blog is public, advertising it over Facebook is fair game.
Any Facebook messages I get are emailed to me. Unless they are important, I ignore them.
As First Son once observed, this has made my Facebook page a “very weird internet place.”
The Bleat Goes On 0
Ed Quillen investigates the never-ending stories, pointing out that, when the war is won, the battles continue. A snippet:
No. I get scores of impassioned pleas about saving old-growth forests, preventing potential pipeline leaks, protecting endangered species and reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide. An apocalypse looms unless I send money. And I’m sure that things will keep getting worse, for no matter how much money they get, they’ll always need more.
But right-thinkers are just as likely to avoid victory. To them, the republic is always under attack by sinister forces. When I was in college, marriage was rather unpopular among liberal sorts and often criticized as a form of oppression. And back then, hardly anybody, especially a liberal, wanted to join the military.
But when gay and lesbian groups began agitating for equal rights to marriage and military service, did the right-thinkers celebrate? Have they shouted “Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Even America’s homosexuals have seen the light”? Of course not.
More examples at the link.
Whiter Shades of Pale 0
Field considers the morphing myths of race and considers the question:
Read it.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Now coming to an election near you. Robyn Blumner considers the most recent attempts to disenfranchise voters. A nugget:
The same can be said for all the dead people voting in South Carolina. That state’s attorney general, Republican Alan Wilson, claimed recently that more than 900 votes had been cast by dead people. But after the South Carolina Election Commission looked into the claim, it didn’t hold up. There was no evidence that anyone had fraudulently voted in the name of someone dead.
QOTD 0
Golda Meir, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.
Light Bloggery (Updated) 0
Someone told me about something called “book.”
I intend to investigate this mystery.
Addendum:
I found one of those ebook thingees.
A Quotation from Republican Jesus 0
Republican Jesus spake, and, when he spake, he spakest in this manner:
Let them eat cake.
Tagged 0
They were seven letters on the license plates: ICUHAJI.
Phonetically, it could be read, “I see you, Haji.”
To the Department of Motor Vehicles, the message was considered offensive to Arab Americans and grounds for the tags’ revocation.
But to a former sergeant in the U.S. Army, the plates sent a message of support for the soldiers who served with him during two tours in Iraq.
I’m inclined to agree with the state, though I had to consider it for a while.
The tag is not quite “Hey! Raghead!” but it’s awfully damned close.
QOTD 0
Mardel Grothe, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
In all human affairs, the wisest course is to be passionate about the role of reason and reasonable about the role of passion.
“Conception without Representation” 0
Thom and Lizz Winstead consider the creepy right-wing fascination with lady parts, along with some other issues.
