2018 archive
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.
And Now for Something Completely Different 0
During some discussion on the radio about the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth, I learned that Leonard Bernstein had written music for Benny Goodman.
This is one of the pieces he wrote.
Justice Decried 0
Thom explains to a right-wing caller that a legally-obtained, well-founded search warrant is not a violation of civil liberties; indeed, itt is rather the epitome of them. (The conversation gets a bit contentious towards the end, but remains civil.)
Drinking Liberally Virginia Beach Today 0
When fellowship is needed, join us . . . .
When: Thursday, April 12, 6 p.
Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)
Sign up to have your inbox flooded with one or two emails a month here.
Alice in Blunderland 0
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Share the politeness.
(snip)
“He was just passing through and started to shoot,” he said of the suspect. “He shot my wife and my daughter.”
Ryan’s Derp 0
Reckon he figures he’s done all the damage he could.
Now for a Little Eye Candy 0
Another photo from my brother in Virginia’s Northern Neck.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
Thom explains how Nixon’s odious Southern Strategy led to Donald Trump.
Which Hunt? 0
Juanita Jean corrects some terminology.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Boys and their toys . . . .
Brymer then mistook the real gun for the airsoft gun and shot Smith.
Smith was transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Recommended Reading 0
I trained as an historian and, through that training and a lifetime of reading history and sociology, I am convinced that the past illuminates the present. Accordingly, I recommend A History of China by William Eberhard, as China is important and most Americans, including me, are woefully ignorant about its history and culture–well, not just ignorant, more like farcically misinformed and bigoted.
I do not claim that it answers every question nor that it is without bias (I don’t know enough about Chinese history to make that claim), but the author’s credentials are impeccable and the book is readable and accessible, having been written for the general reader; it can give perspective to why China is what it is now.
You can get it from Project Gutenberg (easily the most noble of internet projects) and read it with the free FBreader.
Maps of China through its history from Chinahighlights.com illuminate the narrative.
To get a sense in English of day-to-day life in ancient China, you probably can’t do better than Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee mysteries, which I first encountered in a marvelous little bookshop on 33rd Street across from Madison Round Garden (it’s not at Madison Square any more and it is round) in New York City when I was involved in an extensive training project there in the early ’80s. I’m rereading them now.
