Author's archive
From Wimp to Warrior 0
Thom discusses “little wars” as a political tactic.
Copyright Infringement? 0
More stuff you can’t make up.
“Merchants of Death” 0
Little remembered now, in the 1920s and 1930s, the “merchants of death” theory was the notion that munitions manufacturers and banks had engineered World War I so as to sell arms. Indeed, the first couple of Leslie Charteris’s Saint novels used that theory as a background to their plots.
The origins of World War I were much more complex, far less coherent, and, frankly, much sillier than the reasons posited by the “merchants of death” theory. Nevertheless, as Solomon Jones points out as he recalls the death of Philandro Castile, the U. S. now has its own actual merchants of death.
A snippet:
Follow the link.
Twits on Twitter 0
Dick Polman investigates the Case of the Missing Twit.
State Fair 0
No, not the one with Pat Boone. The other one. (Link NSFW.)
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Damage Control 0
Farron describes how members of the Trump administration are trying to clean up the mess after the Trumpler-in-Chief’s warmongering rhetoric about North Korea.
The Return of Swampwater 0
A rumor has been floated that Donald Trump is considering outsourcing Afghanistan to Erik Prince and Blackwater (which has since been renamed several times I forget its current alias because it did such a good job the first time).
A snippet:
Wall-Eyed 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Constance Scharff points out one of the many fundamental flaws in Donald Trump’s fulminations about a border wall, this one about its ability to deter somehow magickally cure the epidemic of opioid (remember, when Not White persons use it, it’s called heroin) addiction. Here’s a key bit; follow the link for the rest:
A wall – to keep drugs or people out – doesn’t address the fundamental problem that we face. Opioid addiction wasn’t born out of an influx of drugs into the country. It was born out of an internal problem of overprescribing drugs that are unsafe for long-term use. Law enforcement aimed at international drug cartels does nothing to address this.
But, in the Trumpled world, pointing the finger at others, especially if they are brown, is always so much more satisfying than accepting responsibility, is it not?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet more polite play.
Had the other boy been armed, no doubt this would not have happened.
Afterthought:
You probably tire of these posts. Me, I tire of the sacrifice of lives on the altar of profits for munitions makers.
Unhappy Cat (Updated) 0
The cat is on a liquid diet until a vet’s appointment tomorrow morning. She is not happy, so she is trying to affection me into giving her some food. Heaven forbid she lose an ounce, but, really, now, cats aren’t supposed to have what she has–cleavage.
I just hope she doesn’t resort to violence before we get her into her carrier. After all, she’s packing knives.
(Yeah, I know. Just what the internet needs. Another cat picture.)
Addendum:
Diagnosis: Inflammatory bowel syndrome. because the size of the bowel walls are in excess of three cm.
Rx: Change of diet to prescription diet.
Comment: Trust me, you do not want a cat, or anything or anyone else, with inflammatory bowel syndrome. It is not pretty.