August, 2015 archive
Bill Maher and Jennifer Granholm Attempt To Explain Women To a Republican, but He Ain’t Having None of It 0
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Separate and unequal, still a thing: The Tampa Bay Times tells one story of re-segregation in the present.
First they abandoned integration, leaving the schools overwhelmingly poor and black.
Then they broke promises of more money and resources.
Then — as black children started failing at outrageous rates, as overstressed teachers walked off the job, as middle class families fled en masse — the board stood by and did nothing.
Follow the link for the rest of the story.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Play politely in the park.
An 8-year-old boy is hospitalized after accidentally shooting himself in the foot.
It happened just after 5:00 p.m. Wednesday at Chelten Avenue and Ardleigh Street in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.
Police say the boy found a gun while walking in the park and picked it up.
Another playful day in the NRA Playground.
Politically Correcting the Record 0
Reg Henry calls out the meanness behind those who whine about “political correctness:
What bunk. As most of us learned in kindergarten as our first practical experience of free speech, when you say something mean, some kid is likely to whack you with a wooden block. In the real world, then as now, reacting to negative language is not necessarily political. Oftentimes, it is just insensitivity and bad manners inviting a reaction.
“Or Your Money Back” 0
I’m not a big fan of Amazon, as they are trying to hijack all of the retail (cue the chorus: all of the retail) and their warehouses are hell-holes for workers, but I do sometimes order books from them because books are what they do best.
Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised at this: I recently ordered some additional Phryne Fisher mysteries (you should too–I’ve read six and am heading for nine) from Amazon; because I was hitting the road for a few days, I paid for overnight delivery. Two of them arrived as scheduled, but one was shipped late. Amazon refunded the entire shipping fee I paid, an amount equal to the cost of one of the books, because of that. I didn’t care and wasn’t going to complain, as I had two books to take with me and stuff happens you know; they did it on their own hook.
I’m still not a big fan of Amazon, but credit where credit is due and all that, eh what?
You’ve Heard about the Cat in the Hat? 0
Now learn about the cat in the bag.
Nor Any Drop To Drink 0
Der Spiegel looks at water and finds the reflection disturbing. A nugget:
But people in developing countries are no longer the only ones affected by the problem. Droughts facilitate the massive wildfires in California, and they adversely affect farms in Spain. Water has become the business of global corporations and it is being wasted on a gigantic scale to turn a profit and operate farms in areas where they don’t belong.
Idols of the Kings 0
In the Roanoke Times, John Freivalds takes issue with the deification of the “Founding Fathers” (emphasis added–follow the link for the rest):
And Ulysses Grant declared “it is preposterous that the people of one generation can lay down the best and only rules of government for all who are to come after them.”
Bordewich, writing in the July 5 Wall Street Journal, adds: “Does it really matter if politicians revise the Founding Father story to suit their own ends? .?.?. Opportunistic misuses of the fathers disregards political debate, militates against compromise and disguises lack of thought behind a veil of propaganda.”
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Polite play placates participants, perchance permanently.
The Fix Is In . . . 0
. . . and Shaun Mullen analyzes the fixers. Here’s a bit:
The truth few dare to speak is that politicians and the media have become so mutually reliant.
Politicians rely on the media to grease the skids of the primary campaign-convention-general campaign cycle (as well as performing side jobs like aiding and abetting anxious Republicans who want Trump gone by repeatedly predicting without a shred of evidence that he soon will be) and the media relies on politicians to justify their existence, indirectly remunerate them for their coverage and reward them with celebrity and stature.
The consequence is that the relationship between pols and media is so incestuous that they have become intolerant of the people who sustain the complex. That’s us. It’s all about them, and pious political pandering and lofty journalistic ideals to the contrary, it hasn’t been about us for a long time.
Read it.
Slam-Dog Millionaire 0
At TPM, Michael Maiello suggests that Donald Trump’s campaign tactics are heavily derived from that school of performance art, the WWE.
I reckon that ought to sound outlandish, but it doesn’t. Not at all.
Today in Anthropology 0
Prototypical wingnut Bible discovered.
Fly the Fiendly Skies 0
The San Jose Mercury-News is tired of air-born piracy. Here’s a bit from their editorial:
Fees that don’t make any sense. Why does it cost $25 to check one bag, but $40 to check a second one, and $100 for a third?
Fees for changing tickets no matter how far in advance they’re purchased. Why is the penalty for changing the departure date the same three months in advance as it is three days in advance?
Fees for reserving seats. Why do the airlines offer “preferred” seats at an additional charge without making it clear on their websites that the selection is optional?
The airline industry maintains that its fee structure is transparent and that passengers are happy. It’s not, and we’re not.
Beer Is Good Food . . . 0
. . . or not.
Afterthought:
I would not have thought it possible, but beer snobs are more boring and pretentious than wine snobs, and manage to be so about so much less.