First Looks category archive

Peter Gunn.

I liked it when it was new, the few times I got to see it when I was a young ‘un, and I like it now that it is old (as am I). It was easily one of the best noir series of early American television.

I’m watching it on Tubi.

Aside:

Noir has not gone away. We are living it today.

We probably all know someone who has fallen down some conspiracy theory rabbit hole, whether it’s from watching crackpot videos on Youtube or following fruitcakes on “social” media or through more traditional ways of believing stuff up because it fits what they want to be. I certainly do.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Loren Soeiro looks at why persons fall for adopt conspiracy theories and offers some suggestions as to how to break through to talk with them. A snippet:

Conspiracy theories seem to offer this certainty by presenting a clear and simple explanation for potentially confusing phenomena. Paradoxically, this information may come with a heightened sense of validity because it seems to be withheld by those in power. Pushing away doubts and feelings of ignorance with conspiracy-themed clarity can, therefore, make people feel better informed, whereas a lack of knowledge would only foster uncertainty.

Now it’s Michael Paul Williams who is hearing a rhyme of the past.

______________

*Mark Twain.

In my youth, I demonstrated against the Vietnamese War, the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a lie of Lie of that time, in such small ways as I could.

Methinks the artist is onto something.

Aside:

Over at No More Mister Nice Blog, Steve M has an interesting take on this issue.

Afterthought:

The unmitigated gall of these uppity students to oppose gratuitous bloodshed!

Who’s doing the devolving here?

The stupid. It burns.

Afterthought:

The most surprising thing about this clip is that Joe Rogan is actually right about something.

Michael in Norfolk finds a straw at which to grasp.

At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, seasoned diplomat and professor of international affairs at the Pennsylvania State University Dennis Jett looks at Republican plans to gut the Civil Service and return to the “spoils system” of the Nineteenth Century. He determines it to be a disastrous idea. Here’s a bit:

(One of the proposals) literally states that any employee of the executive branch “may be subject to any adverse personnel action (up to and including removal) for good cause, bad cause or no cause at all; and may not challenge or otherwise appeal such action.” The only exceptions are for whistleblowers and cases of discrimination where the appeals process established will ensure any complaints fall on deaf ears.

Afterthought:

I can’t but suspect the motive for this is quite simple: to exempt the (next Republican) President from the rule of law.

Aside:

I do not think it a stretch to suggest that today’s Republican Party, at the portion of it in the House of Representatives, is not interested in (small-d) democratic governance.

It is interested in dictating getting its way.

The Lord Peter Wimsey BBC theme song.

If you have not read Dorothy Sayers’s Lord Peter mysteries, do so now. They are most excellent.

My favorite is Murder Must Advertise.

Off to drink liberally.

Have your coffee with a side of politeness.

Sam and the crew discuss the eclipse nut jobs.

Eclipses are natural phenomena. They happen. They are predictable.

They are not signs from God. They are not omens.

They are things that happen, like tides and seasons and snow storms.

Aside:

Honest to Betsy, Rudy Giuliani now looks for all the world like Gollum come to life.

It’s been building for a while.

Former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus said on Thursday that Midland oil magnate Tim Dunn, one of the state’s most powerful and influential GOP megadonors, once told him that only Christians should hold leadership positions in the lower chamber.

Straus, a Republican who is Jewish, relayed the encounter in an interview with former Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

(snip)

The alleged remarks came at a November 2010 meeting . . . .

No posts went ghost today.

Still trying to figure out yesterday.