October, 2016 archive
QOTD 0
Homer:
(Odysseus to Telemachus) . . . the sight of arms sometimes tempts people to use them.
Butler, Samuel, trans., The Iliad and the Odyssey (San Diego: Canterbury Classics, 2011), p. 577.
Alternative Realities (Updated) 0
As I have mentioned here from time to time, I do not watch debates. I refuse to spend two hours watching something I can read about in 15 minutes the next morning. Nevertheless, I do pay attention to politics; you may have noticed that. (This year, of course, there’s the extra added end-of-the-this-noble-experiment-this-is-it-this-is-the-big-one-I’m-coming-to-join-you-Elizabeth factor.)
This morning, my local rag carried an interview with some persons who attended last night’s debate at a local movie theatre. I offer, without further comment, a quotation from one of them (emphasis added):
“Being a businessman myself, I appreciate his discipline,” Sherwood said.
Addendum, A Picture Is Worth Dept.:
Image via Michael in Norfolk, who has citations.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Still well under 300k.
(snip)
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, increased to 251,750 from 249,500 in the prior week.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 7,000 to 2.06 million in the week ended Oct. 8. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.5 percent. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
I Have High Blood Pressure 0
I skipped the debate and watched an episode of Midsomer Murders. It was coherent, well-written, logical (if a bit outre), and well-performed.
I’ll read about the debate tomorrow, after I take my blood pressure medicine.
Swiss Dark Chocolate Money
0
I’m not sure that I agree with his blanket condemnation of the U. S. Department of Justice, but it is certainly true that too often it is the whistleblower, not the whistleblowee, who suffers.
Republican Cosmo: Accessorizing Well 0
Desperate Republicans are starting to speak of writing in Mike Pence for President. Ignoring that Pence is an ideologue incompetent at governance, attempting to paint him as a virtuous alternative to Donald Trump is a daunting task; consider the company he keeps.
Click to see the image at its original location.
If you close your eyes to sin, you are one with the sinner. If you attempt to excuse the sin, you are worse than the sinner, because you know better and do not act.
The “harsh truth” (one of my college friends was very fond of that phrase) is that, so long as Republicans countenance–indeed, applaud and propagate–not nice conduct, they cannot legitimately claim to be nice people or representatives of niceness–as if questions of legitimacy have stopped them in the past or will stop them in future. The only legitimacy they question is that of elected Democratic Presidents.
The whole damn Republican party is a gang of accessories before, during, and after the fact of not-niceness. They are certainly fashionable, as Republicans do so like to accessorize.
They claim to represent niceness, of course, just as the used car salesman claims that the junker in front of you is a creampuff. That car is still a junker, and Republicans are still not nice.
Trumpling the Ladies 0
Click to see the image at its original location.
In related news, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, Azadeh Aalai explores the assumptions and behavior of rape culture as personified in Trumpery. Here’s just a bit of her long and thoughtful article; do please follow the link for the rest:
The self-proclaimed party of “family values” has come out of the closet to reveal that “family values” was never anything more than a pick-up line for grabbing voters by the ba**ot.
Video via Boing-Boing.
