May, 2018 archive
Recommended Reading 0
Poets and Murder, by Robert van Gulik.
I think it is easily van Gulik’s best novel.
Okay, so I’m a mystery buff. But I will note that Robert van Gulik’s stories are reputed to give the best picture of day-to-day life in ancient China available to English readers. That is a tribute to van Gulik’s skill, as van Gulik was a Dutch diplomat and scholar who wrote in English.
Russian Impulses 0
Shaun Mullen takes a look at where we are this week and what might be to come.
The Lie of the Land 0
My local rag’s editorial today is certain to provoke a reaction. I look forward to an outpouring of Lost Cause bilge in the week’s Letters to the Editor. Indeed, the fun has already started in the online comments.
Here’s a bit to give you an idea of why:
The same goes for schools or public buildings named for leaders of the rebellion. Surely a community can identify other figures more deserving of such tribute.
At the very least, cities and counties should be free to make these decisions independent of Richmond’s consent. Lawmakers need to get out of the way.
I realized this morning even before I opened the paper, that one (not the only one certainly, but one) of the dynamics in the refusal of the Secesh, old and new, to recognize that the Old South was built on cruelty, exploitation, and theft of labor; that the narrative of racial superiority was created as an elaborate rationale so the exploiters could tell themselves and others that what they were doing was not only okay, but divinely ordained.
Persons now do not want to admit even to themselves what their ancestors did (and they still like the idea of theft of labor), so they perpetuate and nourish the lie.
The lie will live until white Americans cease the denial and make peace with the history they have, not the history they made up.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Exercise politeness in your automobile.
Now, about those IQ tests for gun purchases . . . .
Just Another Day in NRA Paradise 0
The current fad among the krool kids seems to be to take a gun to school and blow random persons to kingdom come. This is a uniquely modern and uniquely American phenomena.
Yes, there are occasional mass shootings (normally defined as shootings in which three or more persons are killed or wounded) in other countries, but nothing like what we are seeing here. When I was in school (it seems like a lifetime ago, because it was), school shooting did not happen. So what’s different now?
At Psychology Today Blogs, George Everly offers five reasons for the carnage–for carnage it is. Here are the reasons he cites as primary; follow the link for his justification for each one:
1. Predatory bullying and marginalization.
2. Weaponized social media.
3. Inadequate access to mental health services.
4. Media coverage.
5. Firearms.
In related news, the Seattle Times’s Danny Westneat wonders what this means (a snippet, emphasis added):
After the inspiring gun protests this spring, I’ve noticed something disturbing creeping in that I recognize from my own generation. There’s acceptance of our country’s insane blood rituals. There’s a realization that “This is America,” as the No. 1 song says.
“Prepare to see students rise up and be called ‘civil terrorists’ and crisis actors,” wrote Cameron Kasky, a Parkland survivor. “Prepare for the right-wing media to attack the survivors.”
It’s not the America I want or grew up in, but it’s clearly the America that someone wants, or we see more other than “thoughts and prayers” emanating from Washington, D. C.
One wonders how twisted and immoral a mind must be to consider such carnage acceptable.
Twits on Twitter, Politics of Hate Dept. 0
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports on a recent study that shows a correllation between Donald Trump’s tweets and surges in hate crimes against Latinos and Muslims. A nugget:
Follow the link for the transcript of an interview with the researchers.
Trumping Up the Charges 0
Jay Bookman discusses the serial mendacity of Devin Nunes. A nugget:
Yet when the ballyhooed memo was made public, it too proved to be nonsense . . . .
