June, 2016 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Thus passeth another day in NRA Paradise:
QOTD 0
Norman R. Augustine:
All too many consultants, when asked, ‘What is 2 and 2?’ respond, ‘What do you have in mind?’
And for Something Completely Different 0
Woody Woodpecker was one mean dude. Unlike Bugs Bunny, who was always fighting back, Woody usually started the fight. The TV show was fun to watch though; Walter Lantz always appeared in a short segment about the history and making of cartoons.
Via Big Blue Swing.
Sidebar Sadness–Sticky 0
The sidebar of this blog, which is normally over there on the right, suddenly doesn’t like me. It has disappeared. While I troubleshoot this, you can view the sidebar by clicking the title to view any single post and the sidebar will reappear. I suspect this may take a couple of days to figure out, because I am not going to tear my hair out over this.
Later:
I reduced the number of posts showing on the front page from 20 to 15 and the sidebar is back. We’ll see what happens.
I’m unsticking this from the front page, as the situation seems stabilized.
Ryan’s Derp, Trustworthiness Is So Old Hat Dept. 0
Shaun Mullen, in what is almost an aside buried in a longer piece about the current state of the campaigns, reports on the latest conservative con: Republicans want to eliminate the concept of “fiduciary responsibility” (emphasis added):
In Republican World, everyone is on the take; the take is all there is.
A Warren’s Place . . . Is in the Senate 2
As you can tell from my sidebar, although I agree with many of Bernie Sanders’s positions and could easily vote for him were he the nominee, I do not share Farron’s adulation for Bernie “The Second Coming” Sanders nor his disdain for Hillary Clinton. I do wholeheartedly agree with his main point: Elizabeth’s Warren’s place is the the Senate, sowing confusion amongst the Republicans, not in the Vice Presidency, showing sights to foreign dignitaries.
I remind you once again of a fact often overlooked by Bernie Bros: Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat.
He’s the guy who transfers into the school a week before the ball and decides he wants to be Prom King.
If It Walks like a Ducktail . . . 0
Garrison Keillor attempts to understand the appeal of Donald Trump and finds an analogy in the ducktailed teenaged hoodlums of the 1950s. A snippet.
There’s no philosophy here, just an attitude.
He is a little old for a ducktail. By the age of 70, most ducks have moved on, but not Donald Trump. He is apparently still fond of the sidewalls and the greasy sweep in back and he is proud as can be of his great feat, the first punk candidate to get this close to the White House. He says that the country is run by a bunch of clowns and that he is going to make things great again and beat up on the outsiders who are coming into our neighborhood.
His followers don’t necessarily believe that. What they love about him is what kids loved about Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious: that he horrifies the powers that be.
Blame the Messenger 0
This should be interesting. From El Reg:
(snip)
The lawsuit argues that the medieval terror bastards used Twitter and Facebook and Google’s YouTube channel to garner supporters and funds. It also claims Google is partially funding the terror group by sharing advertising revenue with them.
“This complaint is not about what ISIS’s messages say,” explained Ari Kresch, a lawyer with 1-800-LAW-FIRM representing Gonzalez. “It is about Google, Twitter, and Facebook allowing ISIS to use their social media networks for recruitment and operations.”
All the defendants claim that they are doing their best to weed out malicious users.
I doubt the father has a legal leg to stand on, but I can understand the drive to blame someone.
Meta: Database Weirdness 2
I have several posts scheduled to pop yesterday and they are not visible.
I’ve checked them both in the WordPress interface and in phpMyAdmin and can find nothing unusual. They all report as “Published,” all have visibility set to “Public,” and all display in “Preview” mode. Granted, not a one of them was profound, but I found them amusing. Just for good measure, I did a “Check,” “Repair Table,” and “Optimize Table” on the database. No change.
Now I’ve got a puzzle to solve.
I wonder whether this one will be visible?
(Moments Later) Yup.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Draw a bead on politeness.
“This looks like a tragic accident,” Fontaine said.
The boy and his father, Patrick Ursiny, were target shooting in their yard at 4290 Melwood Road, Fontaine said. When they reset the target, the 15-year-old boy was attempting to reload the small caliber pistol when it accidentally discharged, hitting him in the head, Fontaine said.
No.
Unintentional, maybe, but, if you point a gun anywhere but at the ground as you reload it (or to do anything else except fire at your target), it can be called many things, but “accident” isn’t one of them.
The Ballad of the Yammering Yam 1
Then came the campaign of Orange Julius,
Who said he knew how to rulius.
As the convention came near,
It became quite clear
That all he would do was foolius.
