Personal Musings category archive
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
Sam discusses our deplorable political news coverage.
A Quibble:
I do not endorse Sam’s comments about Biden and Hamas. In particular, I disagree with Sam’s claim that Biden is “completely enabling” Netanyahu’s tactics.
Expressing support for the existence of Israel, which is what Biden has done, is not “enabling” Netanyahu’s tactics. Netanyahu would do what he is doing with or without Biden’s support for the existence of Israel.
I also deplore the deaths of civilians in Gaza and in Israel. But I think it’s delusional to think that the U. S. is either responsible for or could have prevented them.
But that’s just me. (And international history was not my field. My field was U. S. Southern.)
But I think Sam’s primary message regarding dis coarse discourse is spot on.
A Simple Solution To Prevent Strikes 0
Pay workers a fair wage.
Furrfu.
The Candidates Debase 0
Jim Wright watched the Republican candidates debate so we didn’t have to.
I sure didn’t waste my time watching it. I’ve successfully avoided Silence of the Lambs all these years.
I’m certainly not going to subject myself to Squeals of the Damnable.
The Pick-up Artist 0
I pulled into the parking lot at our DL gathering place behind a ginormous pick-up–you know, one of those pick-ups bought by guys who don’t really need a truck.
The pick-up had fronted into a parking place near the entrance to the little parking lot, then, as I entered the lot, started to back out.
When he saw me, he stopped.
Fortunately.
I went past him and backed into my own parking spot a few places down and continued listening to a podcast until it came time to enter the facility (I prefer to back in; it makes pulling out safer). He then finished backing out of his space, drove a few spaces over in my direction, paused for a moment as if uncertain of what to do, and then tried to back into the space next to me.
I was beginning to question his–er–accuracy when he stopped, looked in his mirrors for a moment, then gave up, and moved on down the lot around the corner and out of my sight.
And I thought to myself, “Buddy, the last place you need to be going is to a bar dining establishment which serves alcohol.”
Stray Thought 0
Spending a few minutes (or even a few hours, if it comes to that) once a year to cast a ballot is a small price to pay for preserving democracy . . .
. . . especially when you consider that persons are willing to spend days getting a ticket to a Taylor Swift concert.
Voting Is Not a Right. It Is a Duty. 0
I learned that from my Daddy by example.
He never missed an election, nor have I.
Indeed, I have memories of his making sure his poll tax was paid, back when I was a young ‘un growing up under Jim Crow, when segregation was de jure, and not, as it is today, primarily de facto. (No, it hasn’t gone away. If you think it has, you are kidding yourself. It may not be as obvious, but it still is. Just ask Florida Man.)
We voted Monday at a local early voting site. It was a swift and painless process which took less then 10 minutes from parking the car to pulling out of the parking lot.
And I urge you vote too, if not early, certainly on election day.
Taking a few minutes–or even a few hours–to vote is a small price to pay for preserving democracy.
Don’t exercise your right. Do your duty.
Stray Thought 0
I keep seeing these ads for finance and loan apps to put on my phone.
I wouldn’t touch a one of them on a bet.
And, speaking of bets, don’t get me started on sports betting apps.
I’m not a gambling addict, and I don’t want to become one.
But they want me to.
Stray Thought 0
I was sitting here watching a commercial for sports betting (which I consider con of epic proportions, but that’s a whole nother story), and I realized just how much fuller my life is now that I don’t pay attention to football.
Stray Thought, How To End Friends and Infuriate People Dept. 0
If someone running for public office wishes me contribute to his or her campaign, sending an unsolicited text to my cell phone is a sure way not to make it happen.
If anything, that’s even more irritating than the unsolicited emails.
I can filter the emails.
The Wedding Industrial Complex 0
I also had two weddings, but they were years apart and to different persons.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
A reference in a Philo Vance mystery led me to pull out my old copy of The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology* the other day.
As I was idly thumbing through it, it occurred to me that there are many similarities in the events it recounts and the current Republican-fed hysteria over “grooming,” trans kids, and LGBTQ+ in general. Both are based on fiction, feed on ignorance and fear, and persecute the innocent and faultless, while empowering the despotic and tyrannical, who cynically exploit them.
I’m sure more parallels will come to me over time.
________________
*I’ve had the book for years. I got it in connection with a research paper I was doing back in the olden days, when I was a young ‘un.
Speaking of Questions . . . . 0
May it be that persons who loudly pat themselves on the back while proclaiming their patriotism, wear American flag do-rags while waving the Stars and Bars, and call for the imprisonment of those who do not look or think like them, may it be that those persons do mot fully embrace the concept expressed by the Founders that, in the phrasing of their day, “all men are created equal”?
Stray Question 0
As I observe my household, I have to wonder, did humans domesticate cats or did cats domesticate humans?
The Golden Rule, per Evangelical
They-Call-Themselves Christians
0
Do unto others.
Aside:
They worship no Jesus that I know.
Intimidations of Immorality 0
I am not a lawyer (though I once thought I wanted to be one, until I met some law students and decided I never wanted to be that uptight), but, to the best of my understanding, attempting to intimidate potential witnesses and members of a jury pool is viewed less than favorably.
One Thing Is Like the Other Thing 0
When I was a young ‘un, back in the olden days, it was perfectly okay to use race to keep persons out of college (and many other places).
Now, per the Supreme Supremacist Court, it’s not okay to use race to help them get into college.
Yup. They are still rising again after all these years.
Prioritization 0
If I had an extra four grand lying around, I don’t think I’d spend it on a pair of sunglasses.