2013 archive
Droning On 0
Sic Transit Monopolus.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Good fences make good neighbors. Otherwise, otherwise.
Going the Extra Miley 0
There are lap dogs, there are service dogs, there are hunting dogs, and then there are twerking dogs . . .
Via Cowgirl Up.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
La Politesse sur le Market-Frankford El.
A woman sitting on a nearby bench suffered a graze wound to her right cheek and a bruise on an arm from an impact projectile, said SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams.
The projectile “hits the metal bench, bounces off [a] wall, through the trash can, and strikes her,” Stanford said.
Of course, had the lady been packin’, she could have offed the sonuvabitch right then and there. She would have just been standing her ground.
That is civilized society, NRA style.
Had My Fill, Buster 0
Dick Polman comments on the Senate’s rule change on the filibuster.
Two nuggets:
(snip)
And nowhere in the Constitution – not in a phrase, not in a syllable, not even implicitly – does it empower a Senate minority to block those nominees. In fact, founding fathers James Madison and Alexander Hamilton specifically warned in the Federalist Papers that tyranny of the minority would be a bad thing. They said that requiring a Senate supermajority (anything more than 51 votes) should be limited to the real big stuff, like ratifying a treaty or convicting an impeached president or ousting an elected official for criminal behavior.
As Polman points out elsewhere in the column, the Republicans own obstructionism made this happen.
JFK 4
Fifty years ago today at about this time, I was in last-period gym class showering up and rushing to make the school bus. Some of the kids had heard a rumor that something had happened to President Kennedy.
As we were immature white students in a segregated school system in the Jim Crow South, we had little love or respect for that n****r lovin’ Yankee, so joking was taking place.
Then Coach Young, he of the piercing light-blue eyes who could see right through you (who also gave me my first baseball glove years earlier, as he and my father were friends) came into the locker room. His look stilled the room . . . .
I remember watching the funeral and the cortège on television.
I’m not sure, but I think school was closed for a couple of days.
Rear-Guard Actions 0
As I’ve said before, I’m not a big fan of Al Sharpton, but sometimes he’s right.
The generations raised to accept racism as normal and right, as, indeed, the will of Republican Jesus, are indeed shrinking, but they are not going out without a fight. If you doubt me, read today’s paper.
Hermetically Sealed 0
Heaven forbid I should ever live in a place like this.
Irretrievably Corrupt 0
The culture of big-time football, that is, the players, the coaches, the conferences, the leagues, the universities, the owners, the whole ball of wax, but especially the fans who enable and tolerate it.
Republican Jesus 0
The teachings of Republican St. Paul Ryan:
Via Escape from Whitemanistan. Follow the link for commentary.
Privileged Communication 0
Email to George Zimmerman from his lawyer surface in an unexpected place.
Republicans: Gits on Gettysburg 0
Dick Polman on the latest wingnut tizzy in a teapot:
One.
That was William Howard Taft, in 1909.
And it bears noting that a goodly part of the Republican Party wishes that the other side had won the Battle of Gettysburg anyhoo.
More tales to tantrums at the link.
QOTD 0
R. Austin Freeman, in “The Anthropologist at Large”:
. . . there is no harm in a daily paper–so long as you don’t read it.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Consistency: Polite in public, polite at home.
Douglas Hope, 43, appeared to have committed suicide, but an autopsy will be performed, Sgt. Greg Lyon with Atlanta police said. Atlanta police went to Hope’s home to execute a search warrant, but instead found him dead around 2 p.m., Lyon said.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
A little better.
(snip)
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure, decreased to 338,500 last week from 345,250 the prior week.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits increased by 66,000 to 2.88 million in the week ended Nov. 9.