Personal Musings category archive
Stray Thought 0
“Freedom of speech” does not mean freedom from criticism.
Nor, for that matter, does it mean that anyone is obligated to give a damn about what you spoke.
Maskless Marauder 0
I have to agree with the masked fellow who was ahead of me at the drug store the other day. I overheard him saying to the clerk, “Why do they want to go around infecting people? I just don’t get it.”
On the other hand, I don’t get persons who are driving alone in their cars and wearing masks. I put mine on when I get out of the car to deal with people; the rest of the time, it hangs from my cell phone holder.
“The New South” 0
When I was in grad school for history, I wanted to concentrate on the ante bellum South.
I had several reasons for this, including an interest in the causes of the Civil War; the disconnect between history that happened and the “Virginia Cavalier” mythology I was taught in my all-white Jim Crow elementary school; a Virginia heritage that dates to the 1600s; and an ancestry that includes slaveholders, Confederate officers, and proponents of slavery.
In our first meeting, my faculty advisor, whose interest was “the New South,” asked me why I was interested in a society that was–I can still see him say it–“gone with the wind”
But, as we see every day, it was not gone with the wind.
It has not even gone.
And, ironically, that novel to which said adviser so sarcastically alluded was without question one of the most poisonous and effective works of political and social propaganda ever propagated.
Stray Thought 0
I’ve started to reread The Lord of the Rings.
For some reason, it seems appropriate to these times.
The Miscount 0
The unemployment numbers that the BLS released last week were significantly lower than the actuality.
Again.
It does appear to have been an honest SNAFU, complicated by new unemployment situations resulting from layoffs and closures due to COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders. Nevertheless, the Trump administration’s (and Fox News’s) crowing about the figures released last week has been demonstrated to be wholly unwarranted.
A snippet (details of the SNAFU at the link):
I find it quite credible that it was an error, rather than an intentional lie, especially as the BLS voluntarily–er–regretted the error.
We live in strange times and many persons are in unprecedented (un)employment situations.
Barefoot and in the Kitchen 0
From the intro to the radio program, Rocky Jordan, which ran from 1949 to 1951 and was picked up by Del Monte several months into its run.
Del Monte! The brand preferred by more women than any other line of canned fruits and vegetables in the world!
Not that it betrays any stereotypes or sexism or anything like that there.
Stray Thought 0
The rule of law works so long as rulers believe that laws apply to rulers.
Stray Thought 0
I’m so old that I can remember when the Republican Party had a conscience.
Stray Thought, Long Time Out Dept. 0
You know the Sports Department at my local rag is getting desperate from the lack of sports news when they run the results of the Canadian Football League draft on the sports page where they would normally have box scores.
I can’t find it on their website, but I saw it with my own eyes.
Anniversary 0
Despite Disney’s attempts to turn today into “Star Wars Day” (whatever the heck that means, this is what deserves to be memorialized today.
Stray Thought 0
It is quite clear that the very very rich, ensconced in their multiple houses, ginormous yachts, and do-nothing sinecures, have no clue about what life is like for the rest of us.
Kludge 0
Someone not at all techy asked me to define “kludge” today in connection with a conversation about a kludge.
The best I could come up with was this: “It’s like prose by Dickens. You know there’s meaning in there somewhere, but you have to work very hard to find it.”
Aside:
I tried to read The Pickwick Papers multiple times and never got past chapter five.
Stray Thought, One Tool in the Toolkit Dept. 0
It occurred to me last night that Donald Trump and his dupes, symps, and fellow travelers have not realized that you can’t bully a virus.
And the Farce Renews 0
Once again, we have sprung forward in docile and sheep-like service to an unproven and likely baseless notion.
Suffering from Consumption 0
I just took a legitimate on-line survey from a legitimate on-line survey outfit in which “watching the news” was referred to as “consuming content.”
You don’t “consume” news, for Pete’s sake. You watch it or read it or listen to it or perhaps even witness it first-hand.
You “consume” peanut butter (or sardines or chocolates or what have you).
We are a society of stupid.
Stray Thought, Textual Interpretation Dept. 0
Judging from the activity of my telly fones, the “Do Not Call List” is thoroughly castrated, so I reckon that my wish for a “Do Not Text List” is a lost cause. But, honest to Betsy, I’m sick of unsigned texts from unknown phones asking me to support/contribute to/vote for this or that pol/cause/campaign.
If they signed their names, I might feel more charitabl–On second thought, no.
Obnoxious and intrusive is obnoxious and intrusive, signed or unsigned.
Devolution 0
We have gone from the President who “could not tell a lie” to the President who cannot tell the truth.
“Those Who Forget History . . . .” 0
I suspect that I am not the only person to fear that the leaders (Johnson:EU::Trump:NATO) of certain English-speaking countries that fought World War II have chosen to forget lessons learned from that struggle.
PETA PITA 0
Sometimes I can sort of maybe understand where PETA is coming from a perhaps a tiny little bit, then they come out with something like this.
