2014 archive
And Now for Something Completely Different 0
The rituals of the Nacerima Tribe.
The Honorable Thing 0
Halford Ryan, writing at the Roanoke Times, examines the myth of “Southern Honor” and finds it a utilitarian thing, a myth to rationalize a society based on bondage and exploitation. A nugget:
The leading lights of the Confederacy rebelled to preserve their communal honor by championing slavery.
Follow the link for the examples he provides.
Great Moments in Journanimalism 2
Generally, my local rag does a pretty good job, but, really, now . . . .
This was yesterday’s headline.
This is today’s headline.
You can click on a picture to read the associated story.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
A little better.
(snip)
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, fell to 294,750 last week from 299,000.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits declined by 45,000 to 2.4 million in the week ended Sept. 20, the fewest since June 2006. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits that week held at 1.8 percent.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Home-grown politeness.
No other students or children were involved in the accident, according to the release.
The story does not mention whether the gun fired itself, as so many seem to do, or had help.
There’s a House in the Land 0
In There’s a House in the Land (Where a Band Can Take a Stand), Shaun Mullen revisits the 1970s, that armpit of a decade that gave us leisure suits, adjustable rate mortgages, and, ultimately, Ronald Reagan. He tells of his time living at a group home (no, not that kind of group home–a home in which a group of persons drawn together by coincidence and the need for a place to live resided) on a farm in southeastern Pennsylvania The names and places have been changed to protect the innocent, but the events come alive in this memoir.
The book opens with Shaun’s arrival at the farm and closes with his departure. Other than that, it is in no way chronological, but, rather, thematic, focusing on the persons who lived at and visited the farm and the events they shaped and which shaped them. Shaun brings them to life, drawing you into their lives in this episodic narrative.
Were you to try to outline the book in a “topic outline” (remember topic outlines?), it would appear to ramble. It winds from gardens to goats, from music to musings, from parties to pub crawls. The lack of chronology leads to a sense of timelessness, as if the farm were suspended, like Brigadoon, in its own time and place.
The memories, though, are not all happy and the people are not all nice. There is death and injury and sadness, as comes to all lives, all told matter-of-factly and humanely.
Despite its generally light-hearted tone, the book is tinged with darkness. It is peopled with Viet Nam veterans recovering from that pointless, stupid war; wounded souls fleeing broken homes or relationships, transients passing through looking for their own healing spot. Some of them find it; some don’t. All become real.
Cantor’s Cant, the Payoff 0
Nothing particularly new here, but Cenk sums it up very nicely.
Numbers Gaming 0
Lipstick on a pig (emphasis added):
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness starts at home.
Sources tell Action News that a 2-year-old boy was playing with a gun when the weapon accidentally discharged, hitting him in the head.
. . . about three miles from where I used to live.
Bowdlerdash 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., comments on the right’s campaign to bowdlerize American history, leaving out the bits they don’t like (which, not surprisingly, are the bits that give the lie to their propaganda). A nugget:
Read the rest.
War and Mongers of War 0
On the take: