April, 2018 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Cleanliness is next to politeness.
The bullet passed through Sidwell’s left hand and shot 30-year-old Jeremy Sidwell in the right arm.
Anyone who is too stupid to ensure a gun is unloaded before starting to clean it is ipso facto too stupid to be allowed near a gun.
Q. E. D.
QOTD 0
Robert van Gulik:
If we ever succeeded in reaching the utmost of what we are longing for, there would be a sense of surfeit.
van Gulik, Robert, The Phantom of the Temple (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), p. 131.
Recommended Reading 0
The Iliad and the Odyssey, translated by Samuel Butler.
I have tried to read translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey a number of times and have not been able to get through them. I found the celebrated Rouse translations boring to the point of impenetrability.
I stumbled over a copy of Samuel Butler’s translation at AFK Books and recommend it highly. He makes the correct compromises between faithfulness to the original Greek and English idiom.
There will still be elements of the translation that the contemporary reader might find difficult, because of the cultural divide. The catalog of ships, for example, might have had great significance for the Ancient Greeks, whereas the contemporary American reader could care less (sort of like the “begats” in the Bible spoke to ancient Hebrews, but not to contemporary readers of the Christian Bible).
Nevertheless, if you want a readable version of the Homeric classics, Butler’s translation is a good place to start. And it’s worth the effort.
Facebook Frolics 0
The EFF looks behind the Facebook curtain.
Ryan’s Derp 0
Paul Krugman wonders how Paul Ryan got a reputation amongst the political media as being a “policy wonk.” An excerpt:
Look, the single animating principle of everything Mr. Ryan did and proposed was to comfort the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted. Can anyone name a single instance in which his supposed concern about the deficit made him willing to impose any burden on the wealthy or in which his supposed compassion made him willing to improve the lives of the poor?
And his “deficit reduction” proposals were always frauds. The revenue loss from tax cuts always exceeded any explicit spending cuts, so the pretense of fiscal responsibility came entirely from “magic asterisks”: extra revenue from closing unspecified loopholes, reduced spending from cutting unspecified programs. He’s been a flimflam man all along.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your neighbors.
ABC 57 News spoke with the regional manager of the complex who says it all happened when a neighbor had his gun out.
“This accident occurred on our property but as we understand it that you know this is gentleman cleaning his gun and it accidentally discharged,” said Brooke Davis, Regional Property Manager.
Stupid is a condition, not an excuse.
There is no jail term long enough for this amount of stupid.
Furrfu.
The Nation’s Largest Crime Family 0
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. All the obsequious hypocritical oleaginous pretense is being stripped away. Except for the “hypocritical” part.
Originalist Sin 0
Elie Mystal notes the malodorous flaw in the arguments of Constitutional “originalists”–you know, the folks who believe that it’s still 1789 or at least can be again. He argues that “originalism” is ipso facto acceptance of segregation as being legal.
A snippet. Follow the link for the complete article:
But Brown (Brown v. Board of Education, the case that resulted in the Supreme Court’s overturning segregation–ed.) trips them up because the institution of segregation post-dates the adoption of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Clearly, the original authors of those Amendments thought segregation was okay. Congress had many, many opportunities to outlaw segregation, yet did not act. And, of course, Plessy v. Ferguson upheld segregation laws as perfectly constitutional. At every time, up to and including the time that Brown was decided, large pluralities of American legislators and legal scholars believed racial segregation was compatible with the Constitution.
(Link fixed.)
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be prepared for politeness while proceeding speedily.
Both the driver and passenger were ejected in the crash. A firearm the driver was carrying in a holster on his hip discharged, striking the man in the leg as he tumbled from the bike, troopers said.
I guess safeties are things of the past.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
Someone shows politeness to Muslim family:
“It’s been scary,” said Kathryn Piper, who recently opened Five Pillars Butchery with her husband, Hussam “Sam” Al-Rawi. “It’s an attack on our home, it’s not just our business.”
(snip)
Piper said she’s worried about the safety of her family, including her two young children. She believes someone targeted their business because of their faith.
The Cost of Staying Alive 0
In the Sunday New York Times Magazine, Siddharta Mukherjee took a fascinating look at a recent study as to what makes health care in the United States consume twice as much of GDP as it does in other industrialized nations. A snippet:
I commend it to your attention.