June, 2022 archive
“A Democracy, If You Can Keep It” 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., is, shall we say, concerned about Republicans’ embrace of violence to gain their ends. Among the examples he cites are the January 6 attempted coup d’etat, threats against Adam Kinzinger and his family, and Eric Greiten’s combat cosplay.
Here’s a bit of his article; follow the link for the rest.
(snip)
This is now our norm. Republicans no longer talk policy or ideas. Republicans only threaten.
Isaac Asimov famously called violence “the last refuge of the incompetent.” But violence — self-defense excepted — is also the last refuge of the loser, the last gasp of those who have no more words, the tacit confession of those who know, but are loath to admit, that they got nothin’.
The question is stark. Whose last gasp will it be: theirs or our democracy’s?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
We seem to be in dog days of politeness.
QOTD 0
Richard Moll, in the voice of Bull Shannon, and Marsha Warfield, in the voice of Roz Russell:
Bull: Why are weddings such a royal pain the keister?
Roz: Maybe to prepare you for marriage.
A Tune for the Times 0
Mangy comments at the Youtube page:
Lauren Boebert’s recent empty-headed comments about Jesus and guns makes it clear that the reason many fundamentalist Christians profess to love Jesus is because they are convinced that, for all intents and purposes, THEY are Jesus. Their entire concept of Jesus is totally based on their own biases, fears, animosities, prejudices and desires. Forget what the Bible says. Their ‘gut’ tells them what the REAL Jesus was like, and he was EXACTLY like them. If they would like to shoot some people, Jesus would have wanted to shoot the same people. If they hate gay people, Jesus would have hated them too. If they hate feeding the poor, THEIR Jesus would be happy to have let those folks starve. Mangy Fetlocks decided to write a little song to summarize this egocentric religious viewpoint.
Originalist Sin 0
PoliticalProf clarifies the con.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Texas Republicans declare that, if first you don’t secede, try, try again.
As Michael in Norfolk points out, Goldwater was right about one thing.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Once again, politeness goes to the dogs.
Stray Thought, Still Rising Again Dept. 0
It occurred to me yesterday that so many persons who are white like me are hostile to any remembrance of Juneteenth because it emphasizes what precisely was the cause that was lost in what has mythologized as the Lost Cause.
To put it another way, celebrating, or even recognizing, Juneteenth calls out the lie that the Civil War was about anything other than chattel slavery.
A Question of Identity 0
Rebecca Watson takes a look at right-wing provocateur Matt Walsh’s recent efforts demonize LGBTQ persons. It is a timely video in the context of the current Republican war on transgender school kids (which is, again, a very small number of persons). (Warning: language.)
Transcript here.
The Drop in the Bucket 0
