2021 archive
Maskless Marauders, Making Sense of Stupid Dept. 0
Writing at the Idaho State Journal, Mike Murphy offers a theory as to what’s behind the mania of the maskless marauders.
His piece is so well crafted–well, just go read it for yourself.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet more random acts of politeness . . . .
And thus passeth another day in the NRA’s Garden of Bleedin’.
Vaccine Nation 0
Sportswriter extraordinaire Bob Molinaro (emphasis in the original):
We are a society of stupid.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Down home in Alabama . . . .
Much more rising again at the link.
Use-By Date Expired 0
At Notes from the Ironbound, Werner Herzog’s Bear makes a compelling case that the United States Senate is an anachronism, and a dangerous counterproductive one at that. He compares it to France’s Estates-General on the eve of the French Revolution. An excerpt:
Going back to when I learned about this in high school I had always laughed at the crown trying to gain legitimacy in a changing, modernizing society through such an institution. I have stopped laughing, because I have come to realize that the US Senate as an institution is hardly less farcical.
Follow the link for his reasoning.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
This first-grader was back-packin’ heat.
He told the newspaper that the backpack belongs to a first grader.
Wall-Eyed Pikers 0
El Jefe offers an object lesson.
Stray Thought 0
One of the things I like about my new(er) car is that it has no touch screen! The instrument panel is all computerized, natch, but the controls are all knobs and buttons and levers, as should be.
Automobile touch screens are perhaps the best example that “just because you can” is not in and of itself a sufficient reason to use a technology.
How Far Will Wells Fargo? 0
I was banking at Wells Fargo because Wells gobbled up the bank that gobbled up the bank that I was banking at.
Moving a bank account is a hassle, especially if you have set up automatic payments, but I left Wells when the “creating fake accounts” scandal broke five years ago and am glad I did.
If the Truth Hurts, Make It Go Away 0
In the midst of the current who-shot-john over whether students should be taught the truth about American’s history, Leonard Pitts, Jr., offers some thoughts on National Banned Books Week. A nugget:
That’s something worth remembering here in Banned Books Week, a yearly observation sponsored by the American Library Association to call attention to that crude human impulse that, with apologies to the Tennessee moms, stands against liberty of knowledge and ideas. There is, after all, a reason one of the first acts of the Nazi regime was a massive book burning — 25,000 texts consigned to the fire — and it wasn’t to celebrate freedom. The spirit of that atrocity lives on in Tennessee. And in Pennsylvania. And in America.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is a family affair.