2021 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Once again, children discover politeness.
Thus passeth another life in NRA Paradise.
Lowering the Barr 0
Above the Law’s Elizabeth Dye isn’t buying Bill Barr’s attempts to resurrect his reputation. A snippet:
Follow the link for details.
Gutting Out the Vote 0
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on cancel culture, Republican style. A snippet:
Privation Enterprise 0
At the Bangor Daily News, David Farmer makes the case that poverty in America is a policy choice, not a sign of moral failing on the part of the impoverished. A snippet:
There are a host of different policies that could reverse course, but first that we have to stop conflating poverty with morality. Being poor isn’t a sin. It’s the result of specific policies.
Follow the link for his evidence.
Public Good Private Greed
0
Shorter Will Bunch: Them what has, keeps.
A Titanic Challenge 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., is somewhat less than optimistic. A nugget:
This country no longer has that. Rather, it has the Democrats and the Donald Trump Fan Club the Republicans have become.
Too many Democratic lawmakers seem not to understand this. They don’t get that you can no more negotiate with a cult of personality than you can with a shattered window . . . .
A Picture Is Worth, Just Deserts Dept. 0
Aside:
I’m really tired of calls telling me that warranty on my 2003 vehicle will soon expire . . . .
(Actually, I’m starting to fear the vehicle’s about to expire, but, as my old mechanic in New Jersey used to say, it doesn’t owe me a dime.)
The Privatization Scam Redux 0
At the San Francisco Chronicle, Jack Schneider and Jennifer C. Berkshire detail how the current ginned-up “controversy” on critical race theory in public schools, where it is not a thing, can be traced back to Ronald Reagan’s hostility to funding the public good. A snippet (emphasis added):
What matters, instead, is generating enough ill will to drive forward the only education policy Ronald Reagan ever cared about: privatization.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Where do these folks get the notion that a Glock is somehow the new Fanner Fifty? Hell, I had a Fanner Fifty when I was a kid. I knew it was not the same thing as the .32 calibre revolver that my Daddy had inherited from his father.
One was a toy. The other was an instrument of death.
Raging against Reality 0
The phrase, “white rage,” has been bandied about lately in the wake of General Milley’s takedown of the racist fulminations of Matt Gaetz.
At Psychology Today Blogs, Rupert Nacoste offers a definition of what exactly that is. Here’s a bit (emphasis added); follow the link for the full article.
“White rage” is racial neo-diversity anxiety catching that fire. Imagine being made to feel safe by a false sense of racial superiority and then suddenly having to deal with real information that made it clear that your beliefs about “them” were false; they were stereotypes that had nothing to do with real people. Panicked distress; violent emotions; erratic, irrational (lashing out) behavior (call the police); all that occurs because of having to face the now-very-real member of that group — one of “them” standing up to you demanding respect.
Afterthought:
If all you’ve got on which to hang your identity is the color of your skin, you are poor and hollow person indeed.
A Quibble 0
Methinks that what Michael Corrigan thinks “will be interesting if” it happens has already come to pass.