First Looks category archive

John Young has a quibble with dis coarse discourse:

It’s odd. I just watched one of those dreary year-anniversary treatments of the Joe Biden presidency, and it left out his most important achievement.

Follow the link to find out what was left out.

The Local offers a fascinating look at why translating profanity from one language to another poses peculiar problems.

At AL.com, John Archibald explores the toxic effects and racist origins of policing for profit. A snippet:

Using the law to control and profit off poor people in general, and poor Black people in particular, continued through the 20th century. Especially in the South, where the convict-lease system incentivized incarceration to provide cheap labor and enrich private contractors. It survived through that whole century and stormed again into the 2000s, as private probation companies invaded states like Georgia and Alabama and many more. The fines those companies charged hit especially hard after the financial crisis in 2008. In Harpersville in Shelby County, then-Circuit Judge Hub Harrington was so shocked at the way poor people were squeezed by ballooning fines and fees that he famously declared it a “debtor’s prison’’ and shut it down.

It is still happening in places like Marion County, where a number of people — including U.S. Army veteran Charles Anderson — were jailed last year for their inability to pay old court fines. In Castleberry in southern Alabama, media scrutiny of a revenue-driven speed trap a few years ago led, at least temporarily, to the dissolution of the police department.

Our local media has been filled with predictions of a snow storm for the last few days. For example.

One thing I have observed is that predictions of snow make people stupid. Understand that, in this area, if there is a snow storm, the odds are that within a day or two, the roads will be passable.

Nevertheless, when we went to our favorite local supermarket today (mind you, not because of the weather forecast, but because we were running low on cat food for our two furry monsters), we found the breakfast food aisle (bacon, sausage, etc.–items we were not planning to purchase) almost stripped bare. When we asked the check-out clerk if she had seen any panic buying, she said, “Not today, but yesterday.”

Which reminds me of my favorite snow experience.

I was working in Thorofare, NJ, which is almost directly across the river from Philadelphia International Airport. Because of a snow storm, we were sent home early. I was heading down Interstate 295 at about 35 mph on my way to the Commodore Barry Bridge, a reasonable pace under the conditions, carefully negotiating a snow-covered highway, when some clown in four-wheel-drive SUV blasted past me.

You will have to remember that, with four-wheel-drive, you can go faster, but you cannot stop faster.

I saw said clown again, about a mile down the road, nestled against the guard rail in the median, facing in the other direction, stuck.

Sometimes, desserts are just.

Richard Kyte takes issue with the growing (and casual) use of profanity in public and in the pubic discourse.

I must say, and perhaps it is a reflection of my age, that I tend to agree with many of his points. To use an old framing, I got no issues with locker room language, so long as it remains in the locker room and not, to pick two random examples, in news conferences and song lyrics. I do not necessarily agree with all his points, but I think his article is well worth a read. Here’s a bit of what he has to say:

I know what those who defend their use of profanity are likely to say: “I don’t mean anything by it,” or “It’s just an expression.” McWhorter (John McWhorter, author of Nine Nasty Words–ed.) insists that profanity is not really language in the usual sense. A profane utterance uses words as a gesture — a spontaneous eruption generated by the right side of the brain. It has no connection to reason.

(snip)

The most fundamental principle of social order in the West is that all people are equal. The social attitude corresponding to that principle is respect.

Aside:

Yes, I know that the “fundamental principle” to which he refers is oft violated and, indeed, seems these days to be falling into eclipse. Perhaps showing persons respect, however pro forma that “respect” may be, could help make that “fundamental principle” seem more real.

To put it another way, what the hell is wrong with just being polite to others, even if you disagree with or, indeed, contemn them?

Posting will be sporadic over the next couple of days. Commitments.

And, no, Martin Luther wasn’t in attendance at this one.

Snopes offers some suggestions for avoiding the hazards on the toxic throughway.

Off to drink liberally.

Now this is too much to bear . . . .

If you have not done so, I highly recommend that you read Lena Horne’s autobiography.

Give me a break.

My local rag tells the story of how the German tradition of the lighted Christmas tree came to Virginia.

Our next number is dedicated to all the boys and girls who think that “happy holidays” is blasphemy.