2011 archive
Hard To Swallow 0
Radio Times looks at part of the collection of Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum. From the website:
Follow the link to listen.
Plus Ca Change 0
Cornelius Vanderbilt, famous 19th Century Wall Street bonus baby:
Design Flaws 0
Andy Borowitz reports:
But Dr. Logsdon added that Rep. Bachmann remains an attractive candidate, especially for those Republican voters who find former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin “too cerebral.”
Bachmann History Overdrive 0
Those who do not know history are condemned to make fools of themselves in public.
See the Backmann roundup here.
Meanwhile, in Cloud Cuckoo Land (more at the link) of “the cloud” . . .
Shortly after the gaffe, the Wikipedia page for actor John Wayne was altered to change his birthplace from Winterset, Iowa to Waterloo, apparently as an effort to cover for the misguided politician.
I don’t know where believing that changing a Wikipedia entry somehow changes history falls on the
scale. I think it manages to hit both ends at the same time.
TSA Security Theatre 0
Now showing at Comically Vintage.
Vocabulary Lessons 0
TomDispatch looks at how words about war have been redefined.
Here’s a sampling. Follow the link for all nine of them and the reasoning underlying his definitions:
- Enemy: Any super-evil pipsqueak on whose back you can raise at least $1.2 trillion a year for the National Security Complex.
- Covert War: It used to mean secret war, a war “in the shadows” and so beyond the public’s gaze. Now, it means a conflict in the full glare of publicity that everybody knows about, but no one can do anything about. Think: in the news, but off the books.
- Withdrawal: We’re going, we’re going… Just not quite yet and stop pushing!
Via Asia Times.
Facebook Frolics 0
Special SWAT team edition.
TSA Security Theatre: Huggies and Hisses Dept. 0
My college freshman roommate took ROTC for a couple of years.
I remember his saying about some of the upperclass officers, “Give some people a flat hat and they think they rule the world.”
From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:
It’s time to take away the TSA’s flat hats.
QOTD 0
Ambrose Bierce, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.