2014 archive
Makers and Takers 0
Looks like the Regent will be in the news a bit longer.
Details of the indictment were not immediately available, but the source said it stems from the McDonnells’ relationship with former Star Scientific chief executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr.
Frankly, I do not think that MacDonnell was knowingly on the take in a tit-for-tat manner, but I do think he took when he should not have and probably allowed his judgment to affected. I am also confident that he is stunned at finding himself in this mess, for I am certain that he is convinced of his own virtue.
As corruption goes, it’s stupid penny ante stuff, stuff that would get the Regent laughed out of Louisiana or New Jersey, for example. Nevertheless, it illustrates once more the Republican conviction that wealth ipso facto means virtue.
Out to Lynch 2
Could he possibly have blown the racism whistle any louder? (These people clearly do not listen to themselves.)
“I’m past impeachment,” Joshua Black wrote on Twitter. “It’s time to arrest and hang him high.”
Other Florida Republicans are, as the expression goes, distancing themselves from the remark.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness should be a chief concern.
Counceller’s 40-caliber Glock handgun accidentally discharged Saturday afternoon while he was at Wullf’s Gun Shop. Counceller, who was off-duty at the time, said he’d been examining a handgun similar to the one he carries.
“Yes, but He’s Sincere about Being a Bigot” 0
You can’t make this stuff up (emphasis added).
“Specifically, I plan to propose a new section in Article I – the Pennsylvania ‘bill of rights’ – that will prohibit government from punishing an individual or entity if the individual or entity makes hiring or other employment decisions, or provides services, accommodations (including housing accommodations), advantages, facilities, goods or privileges based on sincerely held beliefs,” the memo says.
When I grew up in the Jim Crow South, I knew many folks who made “hiring or other employment decisions, or provide(d) services, accommodations (including housing accommodations), advantages, facilities, goods or privileges” based on sincerely held beliefs–beliefs that they had the God-given right to lord it over darkies, wimmens, and any one else who was not a white folk like them.
Folks who think like that were bigots then, they are bigots now, and they will be bigots tomorrow.
These are folks who put the “sin” in sincerity.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Pursue politeness, just because you can.
According to the story, the shooter saw the guy, grabbed his gun, ran outside, and attempted to drag the fellow into his house. The fellow resisted, putting the shooter in fear of his life, so boom!
This makes sense only in the John Wayne fantasy world where gun nuts dwell.
The Rich Are Different from You and Me . . . 0
. . . and Dan Casey advises them to stop flaunting it.
Evolution You Can Bank on 0
We have a feral pig problem right here in River City:
“Their hair got long, they developed tusks, their teeth elongated, their heads sloped, tails straightened out and their chests became armored in thick cartilage plates,” Bishop said.
A state biologist has called them “the biological equivalent of a military battle tank.”
But that’s not the scariest part.
Rumor is, several of them are banding together, moving to Wall Street, and starting a bank.
Snowden Job (Updated) 0
J. M. Ashby is quite correct:
Google (just to pick one) knows more about you than the NSA ever will.
Addendum:
Dam Nation 0
In the Las Vegas Sun, Paul VanDevelder argues that the race to dam the rivers of the western United States* has exacerbated the current drought, which geological evidence suggests is the worst in a millenium, by disturbing the balance of nature. A nugget:
The tribes. Dozens of them: the Fort Mojaves, the Shoshones, the Chemehuevi and Quechan, the Hopi and Navajo, et al. Where water flows between a rock and a dry place, tribes get first dibs.
_____________________
*A dam to fill the Grand Canyon was narrowly averted as recently as 1963.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Pursue small game, politely.
The woman, whose name was not released, was shot about 3:30 p.m. near Byron Road in Jamestown Township. Her husband, 27, was attempting to shoot a rabbit and did not see that she was in the line of fire, deputies said.
Scam Alert 0
It’s almost certainly coming soon to your area:
White said the scammers have told people to meet them at Walgreens, CVS or Walmart locations to hand over money.
“We want to assure the public from all law enforcement agencies — local, state and federal — that we do not call and ask for money in lieu of being arrested,” White said.
Stray Thought 0
Even though I have not watched a football game on the telly vision all this season (and have realized that life is much more fun without watching large men on steroids run into each other), I can still take some satisfaction that the New England Patriots, a team quarterbacked by a jerk and coached by a bigger jerk, managed to lose a ball game.
I look forward to not watching the Stupor Bowl.
Can’t Kick the Habit 0
Steven M. considers Sam Polk’s argument that wealth addiction is a thing (follow the link for a description of “wealth addiction”).
The problem is that, in this case, we’re letting the addicts decide how society deals with their addiction.
In a way, this is what we do with guns in America, at least at the national level and in the red states: we let the junkies control who can obtain the stuff, how freely it’s sold, and how few restraints we can put on its exchange, by means of their unchallenged access to elected officials.
I don’t disagree with Steven M.’s analysis of the problem. The inmates have bought the asylum.
I do, however, resent the use of the word “addiction” in this context.
I’ve been addicted–cigarettes, in my case–and I’ve known persons addicted to far worse things. Addiction is a physical thing–when you stop the substance, you experience real, measurable physical symptoms.
When “addiction” is applied to excessive acquisitiveness, computer gaming, or sexual behavior (“sex addiction”), it puts a gloss of involuntariness over what is, ultimately, persons behaving badly because they want to, not because their body punishes them when they try to stop.
There’s another, much more descriptive term for “wealth addicts”: Pigs.
