January, 2024 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
A “responsible gun owner” decides that politeness is for the birds.
The bald eagle had a gunshot wound from a rifle when it was discovered south of Salem, Missouri, on Jan. 18, officials said.
Favoring Faction over Action 0
If this isn’t putting party over country, I know not what could be.
Today’s Republican Party is a vile and loathsome thing.
A Tune for the Times 0
Mangy comments at the Youtube page:
Donald Trump is disliked by most decent folks, but his very worst enemy is himself. This was never more apparent than in the E. Jean Carroll case where, if Donald had shut up and acted intelligently, the jury might have slapped him with an amount closer to the 5 million from his first case. Because he went on and on, attacking Carroll over and over after the first defamation case was done, the jury came to the conclusion that the only way to get him to stop attacking Carroll was to assess a settlement of WAY more than the original 5 million. The result was an 83 million dollar financial muzzle to get him to stop his ugly barking. So far, it seems to have worked. We’ll see. If not, he’ll likely face a third case in which the jury will have to up the stakes to get his attention. I’m rather hoping that happens.
The Lake Effect 0
The Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini dissects Kari Lake’s embrace of establishmentarians. Here’s a tiny bit, where he quotes a right-wing evangelical he-calls-himself-a Christian pastor who supports Lake:
Afterthought:
What if a town has more than one local church? Do they fight out in the Colosseum or cast spells on each other?
The Crypto Con 0
Emma and the crew react to a crypto con artist’s claim that God made him do it. Listen to him closely: he’s clearly describing a Ponzi scheme. (Warning: mild language.)
Bean Stoup 0
Yesterday, I had a sudden urging for my bean stoup*. I haven’t made it in quite a some time.
I chopped up a couple of stalks of celery and half a large onion. I would have added a bell pepper (green or red–I’m not fussy), but we were fresh out.
I poured a bit of olive oil into my Revere Ware dutch oven (which has served me long and faithfully) over medium heat, let it get up to temperature, then sauteed the vegetables until the onions were translucent.
Next, I broke up a pound of ground beef, added it to the mix, and continued sauteing until the beef was nicely browned.
Then I added one can each of black beans and garbanzo beans (I would have preferred red beans, but I couldn’t find any in the pantry) and one small can each of sliced mushrooms, tomato sauce, and diced hot chili peppers.
I brought the whole thing to a boil, then reduced the heat to its lowest setting–an energetic simmer.
After half an hour, I tasted it and then added spices, as the cookbooks say, “to taste”: ground pepper, basil, dill week, and garlic powder (I should have instead minced several garlic cloves, but, somehow, I short-circuited when I was doing the chopping–as I said, it was a sudden urge). Later on, I decided to add just a bit of sea salt. I should have added a bit of oregano, but short-circuit again.
An hour later, we dished it out, topped it with sour cream, and feasted on a rich and satisfying supper.
And we have enough left over to feast on it again!
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*It’s somewhere between a soup and stew–too thick for a soup, too thin for a stew.
Self-Incriminated 0
At the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Radine Robbins reminds us of Maya Angelou’s statement: When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
Methinks Atrios makes an excellent point or two.
The “Elite” Misdirection Play 0
Michael in Norfolk conjugates the con.
Misdiagnosis 0
One more time, “social” media isn’t.
Courting Disaster 0
Freedom of Screech 0
Rob Miraldi takes a thoughtful at the issues surrounding efforts to hold Donald Trump responsible for coarsening dis coarse discourse. A nugget:
In theory, the answer is no. Threatening national security is not protected; publishing sexually explicit and obscene material is not protected; and lighting the flames of violence with inciteful language is also prohibited.
But the incitement exception has always been tricky, more now than ever. “Every idea is an incitement,” U.S. Supreme Court Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes said in 1925. Maybe only the person who commits violence should be prosecuted, not the person who causes it?
Follow the link for his complete article.
QOTD 0
William Anton, in the voice of Assistant D.A. George Donovan:
The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.
