2021 archive
The Olympic Wrestler 0
Janet Jones, who holds a doctorate and works with horses and riders, explains why the statue of the sumo wrestler at the Olympic steeplechase competition spooked some of the horses. A nugget:
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Show your politeness to the nice TSA agent.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers caught the man with a 9mm handgun loaded with seven bullets, including one in the chamber, at one of the airport security checkpoints on August 5.
The story goes on to say that it was the third instance of someone’s trying to pack heat in the fiendly skies in a week.
Facebook Frolics 0
Says the frolicker: My posts “do not reflect who I am today, what I stand for or how I will conduct myself as St. Petersburg’s next mayor.”
Vaccine Nation 0
At the Austin American-Statesman, William Lambers remembers Dwight Eisenhower’s other V-Day and argues that we should follow Ike’s precedent. An excerpt:
True Believers 0
Farron, sitting in for David, discusses an article by Chancey DeVega discussing Trump loyalists fealty to their dear leader.
Read the article that Farron discusses.
The Snaring Economy 0
The EFF explains how Doordash dashed its “independent contractors’ wage slaves’ hopes of equitable remuneration by keeping them from knowing what their tips would be. A nugget:
But what’s good for Dashers wasn’t good for Doordash: the company wants to fulfill orders, even if doing so means that a driver spends more on gas than they make in commissions. Hiding tip amounts from drivers allowed the company to keep drivers in the dark about which runs they should make and which ones they should decline.
That’s why Doordash changed its data-model to prevent Para from showing drivers tips. And rather than come clean about its goal of keeping drivers from knowing how much they would be paid, it made deceptive “privacy and data security” claims.
Follow the link for an explanation as to how Doordash’s claims earned the label, deceptive.
(Broken link fixed.)
A Failed State? 0
Writing at the Idaho State Journal, Leonard Hitchcock is less than optimistic. A nugget:
And even now, almost half of our citizens believe that the last presidential election was fraudulent. There is no verifiable evidence that that’s true, yet, because it’s the claim of the election’s loser — that same con-artist — millions of his followers choose to believe it.
Know Them by the Company They Keep 0
I know someone with relatives in Hungary, relatives who just happen to be Jewish.
I know from them that Orban is as bad as bad can be.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
And yet another child is sacrificed on the NRA’s altar . . . .
Freedom’s Just Another Word for–Just What Exactly? 0
Paul Krugman considers Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s response (or lack thereof) to the growing public health COVID crisis in Florida. He wonders why DeSantis persists in pandering to (and on) the pandemic in the face of rising infection and death rates and why he actively fights common sense public health measures such as masks* and immunization records.
A nugget (emphasis added):
So let’s talk about what the right means when it talks about “freedom.” Since the pandemic began, many conservatives have insisted that actions to limit the death toll — social distancing, wearing a mask and now getting vaccinated — should be matters of personal choice. Does that position make any sense?
(snip)
My answer is that when people on the right talk about “freedom,” what they actually mean is closer to “defense of privilege” — specifically the right of certain people (generally white male Christians) to do whatever they want.
Follow the link for his reasoning.
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*If masks are so debilitating, how is it that surgeons and nurses have managed for years to successfully complete complex surgeries while wearing them?
Heck, I’ve gotten so used to wearing one that I almost feel nekkid when I’m in a store without on–oh, never mind.
Fly the Fiendly Skies . . . 0
. . . and meet the geriatric berserker.
Addicted to Rage 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Jeremy Sherman explores a behavior which he has dubbed “maladdiction,” an addiction to rage. Methinks he may be onto something.
Here’s a bit:
The more outraged we are at others, the more righteous we feel; the more righteous we feel, the more we feel duty-bound to be outraged at others. One can really rev out on that vicious cycle. It’s highly addictive.
Call it “maddiction” an addiction to getting mad for the self-purifying sensation. Maddiction is the source of common undiagnosed madness, a mental illness because, though it makes one feel purged of sin, it’s an indulgence in the greatest violation of all: Ignoring reality.
I commend the entire piece to your attention. I think it offers a perspective on dis coarse discourse.