October, 2013 archive
Stray Thought 0
Senator Ted Cruz is the reincarnation of Senator Joe McCarthy.
Different topics, same tactics.
Shutdown Shenanigans 0
When I lived on the Main Line a long time ago, I always looked forward to Clark DeLeon’s writing; he had a delightful column on bits and pieces in the Metro (I forget exactly what it was called) section. Eventually, he left the Inky and I left the Main Line.
Recently, he was back in the Inky writing about the recent Republican decision to ungovern America. A nugget:
“Pardon me, Is the majority always drunk?”
Theft of Services 0
What happens when public responsibilities are taken over by private(eers).
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Today has been a blood-red letter day for politeness.
More guns will, no doubt, prevent this from happening again.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
More news of the polite:
A hospital said that the two boys arrived in critical condition. One was later upgraded to fair.
Had everyone been packing, no doubt nothing would have happened.
Via C&L.
“Not Surveillance” 0
(Much more at the link.)
She’s right, though I disagree with her conclusion.
Surveillance is mindful, directed, and rational. It selects a target and follows it, whether for noble or ignoble ends.
The NSA is a mindless vacuum cleaner sucking up everything it finds just because it can, hoping it might find something. It has become a candidate for Hoarders.
I do think it’s quite wrong and illegal for it to do so, but I also think that recognizing the difference between “surveil” and “suck” is vital. The NSA doesn’t surveil.
It sucks.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Keep politeness in the family.
Bad News for the Cooch 0
The Richmond Times-Dispatch, usually a reliable right-wing lapdog, can’t bring itself to endorse him. It’s sitting out the endorsements this year.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The NRA will no doubt claim that, had she been armed, this would not have happened, because that’s just how they roll.
Via Balloon Juice.
Conspiring Minds Want To Know . . . . 0
PoliticalProf provides a handy guide to finding the conspiracy theory that’s right for you.
Follow the link; you’ll be glad you did. I can’t scale it down to fit here and keep it legible.
So Why Did They Do It? 0
Updated: A half-formed version of this post excaped captivity prematurely.
Long-time Maine Republican Matthew Gagnon has an interesting take on the current shenanigans within the Republican Party. He thinks it’s a battle over means, not ends. A nugget. (Read the rest, then bookmark Matthew Gagnon. He’s a sane voice from the right.):
Yet to the average Republican activist, those three senators are as different as night and day, and the source of their perceived difference is mostly in their tactical approach to governing.
Given that, why did they do it? Because, as Chauncey Devega explains, it just felt sooooo goooood.
Facebook Frolics 0
Putting words in your mouse . . . .
Knowing her friends would get a kick out of the mask too, she shared the link on Facebook.
Soon her friends began seeing an update from Kilpatrick on their Facebook pages that appeared as if Kilpatrick was encouraging them to buy the mask: “Good news everyone. These are 40% off today.”
But Kilpatrick had not posted it. Facebook had turned the link into a personal endorsement called a “sponsored story” paid for by Amazon.
It’s growing practice. Google has given it a “+1.”
If you agreed to the TOS, you have agreed to let them do this (with Facebook, the TOS and privacy policies are moving targets–they change them so much). It’s still slimy.
Much more at the link.
“Redskins” 0
I’m ambivalent over the movement to get the Washington Redskins to change the name of their team (which, by extension, should extend to the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves and even to my own alma mater, as well as to many other high school, college, and pro teams), as I used to be a Redskins fan, back in the Jack Kent Cooke days, before the dark days of the incompetent and egomaniacal Dan Snyder.
On the whole, as I consider how Manifest Destiny treated Native Americans as lower life forms to be abused and exterminated, and then later as figures of comic relief in Hollywood oaters, I’m inclined to think, yeah, do it, make at least a gesture of atonement for the genocide.
It will not atone, but it would be a gesture.
One thing, though, I can say quite heartily is that the fuss has brought all sorts of inanity to the surface.
Cantor’s Cant 0
Explicated here.
