Author's archive
Arms Race 0
Reg Henry muses on American gun culture. A snippet:
(snip)
The core problem is that a sizable number of Americans have made a golden calf to worship. But that graven image is not golden; it is made of shining gun metal. As long as the almighty gun is put on a pedestal in our culture, praising the Lord and passing the ammunition in the general context of our world only perpetuates the suffering.
Do please read the rest.
Suffer the Children 0
That’s not scripture.
That’s Republican policy.
No Rest for the Weary 0
At the Hartford Courant, Emory University Professor Benjamin Reiss discusses the fascinating story of how sleeping in public became taboo and how that taboo results in differential treatement of the disadvantaged. A snippet:
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
Afterthought:
The great American bigot seems to have interpreted the Trump presidency to say, “You, just do you.”
The Trumper-Go-Round 0
Paul Waldman looks at the spin cycle. A snippet (emphasis added):
(snip)
These are lies. They’re not “unconfirmed,” they’re not “misstatements,” and they’re not “exaggerations.” They’re lies. They should have been greeted with headlines reading, “President Trump lies to public about Russia investigation”
Follow the link for the numerous examples he was able to cite in one short article.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The term “gun butt” acquires a new meaning.
QOTD 0
Rex Stout, in the voice of Nero Wolfe:
No man should tell a lie unless he is shrewd enough to recognize the time for renouncing it.
Stout, Rex, Before Midnight (New York: Bantam, 1957), p. 99
The Demon under the Rocker 0
Because the internet needs another cat picture.
Twits on Twitter, Meet Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
The linguistic gymnastics of the Secesh to convince others and themselves that the United States Civil War was something other than what it was–an attempt to preserve an economy based on oppression, exploitation, and theft of labor–never cease to amaze.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Shot at a sleepover:
Thus passeth another day in the NRA’s Garden of Eden.
Afterthoughts:
How craven can the use of the passive voice be? “The gun was discharged.” The weasel wording, it burns! It was discharged oh so passively, no blame attaches.
When I was a young ‘un, back in the olden days, I was taught to assume that all guns were loaded until demonstrated otherwise.
Preaching Propaganda 0
Mike discusses evangelical “Christians” devotion to Donald Trump. (Warning: Language.)
Shoo-Fly Pie 0
This is a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch desert. The name comes from the legend that, when you set the finished pie on the windowsill to cool, you must remain there shooing away the flies that swarm it.
This version comes from the Neffsville Mennonite Cookbook, which was compiled by the Women’s Missionary and Service Commission of said church, in Lancaster, Pa. There are three shoo-fly pies in the cookbook, but this one’s so good I haven’t bother to try the other two . . . .
I’ve had this cookbook for 35 or 40 years. Many years ago, when I worked for Amtrak, we held residential (meaning that the trainees stayed over for several days at the training site) training classes at various hotels in the Lancaster area, as Lancaster was central in the terms of Amtrak geography, convenient to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Chicago. Shoo-fly pie became one of my favorites.
When I was purchasing the frozen pie shells (making your own pie crust is not worth the effort), I mentioned that I was planning to bake shoo-fly pies. The lady behind me in the check out asked, “What’s in it?” I said, “Sugar.”
Frequently, if someone has never had it, he or she is told, “Imagine pecan pie without the pecans.” Frankly, that is a comparison of desperation, because there really isn’t anything else quite like it.
In Their Own Words 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., lets Trump supporters have their say.