April, 2016 archive
Errata 0
Last night we watched the latest episode of Bones from our DVR, in which Emily Deschanel stated that the Iliad (it sounded like “Ilium” on the soundtrack) told the story of Odysseus and Scylla and Charybdis.
It doesn’t. That’s from the Odyssey.
We are a society of stupid.
Deduct This! 0
Warning: Taste (Very Little)
Moved below the fold because it autoplays on some systems.
(Parenthetical Remark: Autoplaying is evil. It is more evil than HTML email.
I am looking for a pattern, but have not found it. I can’t blame it on Windows, as it occurs on Linux also. These pestilences autoplay on some Linux distros and not on others, in some browsers and not in others, and I have not isolated a pattern.
Eventually, though, I shall track down the trouble and I shall shoot it. Troubleshooting is what I do.
By the by, if you catch something autoplaying, email me from the link over there on the sidebar
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and I shall push it below the fold.)
A Cat’s Cradle of Procedural Opacity 0
I was at a gathering earlier today in which the process for choosing delegates to my party’s local and state conventions and, ultimately, to the national convention, was the topic (no, I’m not planning to be a delegate to anywhere). The person in charge of the gathering stated in passing that the selection process still makes his brain hurt.
Daniel Ruth wrote in his column yesterday that our parties’ processes for nominating candidates are a hodgepodge of procedural pitfalls surrounded by tripping hazards surrounded by thickets and despairs of their rationalization. A snippet:
Can it get any worse? You betcha, as long as a Koch brother can stroke a cat.
Follow the link for why he says that.
Solidarity Reimagined 0
One day those who have been seduced by the snaring economy will realize that they have been duped.
While they work for pittances, Silicon Valley reaps the premium and sucks them dry. It’s bubblelicious.
I carried a union card for 24 years.
Shortly after I started at my first employer, my job became a union job and my pay went up because I was no longer without protection. (I won’t go into the technical details of why this happened–it had to do with “deferred agreements” and stuff like that there).
When I got promoted into a non-union job, I continued to pay my union dues and maintained my seniority as a fall-back. When the time came that I needed a fall-back (my whole office and all the persons in it in Wilmington, Delaware, got offed), it turned out that I didn’t need to exercise my seniority rights, as I fell back into another industry. Nevertheless, those rights were there and I could have used them to put bread on the table had the other opportunity not come along all on its ownsome.
I never had to avail myself directly of the union’s services, because the union had already fought to protect me; I benefited from the sacrifices of persons who were willing to die for workers’ rights. I appreciated those protections, and, the more I learned about labor law, the more I appreciated them. I appreciate them still.
The union made my life better.
“Right to work” laws are in truth “right not to get paid fairly” laws and are one of the most successful cons in American political and labor history.
Image via Juanita Jean.
Afterthought:
In the phrase, “everyone is an entrepreneur,” methinks “entrepreneur” is “exploited” misplet.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your little sister.
The bullet grazed the girl’s right armpit, Green said.
And, in more news of the polite . . . .
“Words Mean What I Want Them To Mean” 0
At The Nation, William J. Astore considers the vocabulary of endless war. One might say that his article is an extrordinary rendition of enhanced obfuscation techniques.
A snippet:
The Snaring Economy 0
When “sharing” is a business, it’s not “sharing.”
It’s a business.
(snip)
A change of the law voted through parliament in January has obliged tenants to get permission from their landlords before putting their flat on Airbnb.
But according to reports in France, it’s the first time a tenant has been ordered to compensate the landlord.
Authorities in Paris, which is the world’s number one city for Airbnb rentals, have long tried to crack down on illegal rentals on the home-sharing site.
If I were a landlord, I’d want to know when a tenant was running a business out of my property also. I don’t know anything about French insurance practices, but I got a dollar to a croissant that the insurance company would want to know that you’ve turned your home into a boarding house.
Plus Ca Change, Flail the Bern Dept. 4
Eight years ago, as Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination fell behind Barack Obama’s, I gave forth a screed* in which I suggested that, as hope for her campaign faded, she had begun acting like a jerk. (People sometimes do that when they start to lose hope in a cause. My two or three regular readers also know that, in my opinion, she has redeemed herself in her subsequent conduct.)
In an eerie reprise of history, the role is reversed and it is now her opponent who is acting like a jerk.
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*I haven’t done a screed for a long time. I think I got them all out of my system in this blog’s youth.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness rides again.
KSP said a boy was dismounting from his horse and the .22 caliber pistol he was carrying fell from the holster and hit the ground. The gun discharged, injuring the boy’s mother Jereen Stamper, 39.
You may ask, “Why is a 12-year-old packing heat on a horse trail?” It’s the NRA dream: every city, Dodge City; every hill, Boot Hill.
“The Birds” 0
Shorter Reg Henry: Hitchcock had nothing on this campaign.
