2014 archive
An Eggistential Question 0
Which came first, the salad or the settlement?
Hunt Safely 0
I grew up with hunters.
My father did not hunt, but my cousin and his friends did. I know that the steak in the grocery store did not somehow magically appear encased in cellophane. Somewhere, an animal died so we could dine on its bits.
Humans are omnivores. I can live with that (see the recipes link, up there, at the top of the page.)
Here are some essential hunting tips.
Banking by the Book 0
I’ve mentioned this before, but here’s another angle.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
The Basketball Racket 0
Sportswriter extraordinaire Bob Molinaro takes the opportunity provided by the end of the NCAA basketball tournament to reflect on how the NCAA fosters friendly amateur competition does business and (my words, not his) steals labor. A snippet.
And that’s a bad thing?
Do please read the rest.
Afterthought:
It’s reaching the point that, whenever I see the letters “NCAA,” I read “RICO.”
Tipping Point 0
Random meanness.
(snip)
San Francisco was abuzz over the trail of teeny-tiny two-seaters that turned up turned on their sides — and a fourth propped up on its rear end — in two sections of the city.
Speaking of mean for the sake of mean . . .
Republican Family Values 0
The gift that keeps on giving.
Afterthought:
Men misbehave; women get fired.
Now that’s family values.
Influential Friends 0
It’s all about who you know.
Gotterdamerung 3
At Asia Times, Ramzy Baroud evaluates the cost of over a decade of the Wars of George the Worst.
He is not optimistic for the fortunes of the United States as arbiter of world affairs. Two snippets (emphasis added).
(snip)
The US has truly lost the initiative, in the Middle East region and beyond it. The neo-cons’ drunkenness with military power led to costly wars that have overwhelmed the empire beyond salvation. Now, US foreign-policy makers are mere diplomatic firefighters, from Palestine, to Syria to Ukraine. For the Americans, the last few years have been less a “reality check”, more the new reality itself.
Read it, and weep for the devastation wrought by the wars of the Mongers of War.
The Secesh 0
Gun nuts show their colors.
Misdirection Play, Blame God Dept. 0
Humans love to blame God for things that humans do. A letter to the editor in my local rag called out the state of North Carolina for attributing Duke of Hazardous’s tar sands spills as “acts of God” (the precise term was “natural disaster”), though it was the Duke, not God or nature, who failed to maintain the retention ponds which failed to retain.
At the Tampa Bay Times, Timothy Egan recalls visiting some 25 years ago the site of the recent mudslide in Washington. He points out that it, too, was no act of God, but an act of man.
(snip)
Stevenson pointed uphill, to bare, saturated earth that was melting, like candle wax, into the main mudslide. Not long ago, this had been a thick forest of old growth timber. But after it was excessively logged, every standing tree removed, there was nothing to hold the land in place during heavy rains. A federal survey determined that nearly 50 percent of the entire basin above Deer Creek had been logged over a 30-year period. It didn’t take a degree in forestry to see how one event led to the other.
Persons do love to hide behind God to escape responsibility for their own evil, venality, and hate. Indeed, entire religions thrive on enabling persons to blame God for their own evil, venality, and hate.
Blaming God is a growth industry.
Drinking Liberally Norfolk Tomorrow 0
Drinking Liberally is a gathering place for liberals. Socialize and laugh in a friendly atmosphere.
When: 6 p., Tuesday, April 8.
Where:
Uno Chicago Grill
5900 Virginia Beach Blvd
(Janaf Shopping Center) (map)
Tuesdays for Norfolk, Thursdays for Virginia Beach to make it easier for persons with commitments on either day to catch at least one per month.