2023 archive
Fly the Fiendly Skies 0
You just might get a surprise.
Another Sign of Decline 0
I discovered, thanks to this cartoon, that there are multiple websites devoted to explaining emojis.
We are devolving.
QOTD 0
Kerry Greenwood:
Civilization is as thin as cigarette paper. The Romans knew that, and the Greeks. We have forgotten it.
Greenwood, Kerry, Earthly Delights (Scottsdale: Poisoned Pen Press, 2008) p. 112.
Kerry Greenwood makes words dance.
Recommended Viewing 0
We recorded it from TCM some while ago and watched it tonight, (I first watched it many years ago on Monday Night at the Movies and was looking forward to seeing it again.)
It is, in my opinion, Robert Mitchum’s finest movie. If you can find it on a streaming service, it is well worth your while.
Republican Culture War Coffers 0
Michael in Norfolk follow the money.
Click Here To Get Scammed 0
Thom warns us not to get taken in by “smishing” (he explains the term in the video). His advice is well worth a listen.
Aside:
I ignore emails and texts from (those purporting to be) political activists. And, believe me, I get a lot of emails and an annoying number of texts. (In Thunderbird, my preferred mail client, I filter the emails into a special folder and delete them unread.)
I also get texts from persons who think I am Jeremy from North Carolina, even though I’m not Jeremy and I have never lived in North Carolina (and given what’s happening in North Carolina these days*, I wouldn’t move there on a bet) and I’ve had my cell phone number for years.
Even when said emails and texts are legitimate, they are almost always overwrought and often obnoxious. They are designed to appeal to emotions, not to brains.
My advice, for what it’s worth: Use your brains.
I do my contributing, political and otherwise, the old-fashioned way.
I use the United States Postal Service.
As I told someone who called me on the telly phone yesterday claiming to represent a cauxe that I support, “I do my contributing by mail.” Then I hung up the phone.
_______________
*I’m so old, I can remember when North Carolina was considered a “progressive” Southern state.
Know Them by the Company They Keep 0
The Rude One pulls nary a punch.
Methinks, though, that he could just as easily–perhaps even more accurately–have used the term “Secesh.”
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Show your politeness to your parent.
According to Rio Grande City assistant police Chief Jose Solis, the woman was in a vehicle with her 21-year-old son and a third family member when the gun accidentally went off, shooting her in the back.
Myths of Murders 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Danny Mulligan, Erica Marshall-Lee, and Desireé G. Frain lament our daily bloodbath of gun violience. Then they go on to posit that “. . . sensational media coverage not only rewards shooters with notoriety—it manufactures misleading and divisive narratives about gun violence.” They proceed to explore four myths that they believe said media coverage promotes:
- Myth 1: Mass shootings are a major driver of American gun violence
- Myth 2: Suicide is caused solely by the neurochemical imbalances that cause mental illness
- Myth 3: Gun violence is mainly caused by individuals with mental illness
- Myth 4: Gun violence can be explained by monocausal narratives
Follow the link for their debunking of these myths and their thoughts on possible corrective action.
