2016 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is a family value.
Police are investigating after a teenage girl was killed in an accidental shooting Monday night.
Officers responded to a home near University Avenue and Rural Road around 9:30 p.m. Police said an adult male family member was handling a gun when it fired, hitting a 16-year-old girl in the face.
In the Heat of the Summer 0
Shorter Dan Casey: If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Really, just read it. Neither summary nor excerpt can do it justice.
Afterthought:
Wuss.
Funny Money 0
Man skates on money laundering charge when Florida judge rules that Bitcoin is not real money.
Aside:
One more time, all currency is fiat currency. No currency or specie, real or virtual, including gold or silver, has value unless persons believe it has value.
Driving while Black 0
Clarence Page recounts one man’s story (the man, by the by, is a Republican U. S. Senator from North Carolina). Here’s a bit:
“Was I speeding sometimes? Sure. But the vast majority of the time, I was pulled over for nothing more than driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood or some other reason just as trivial.
“I do not know many African-American men who do not have a very similar story to tell, no matter the profession, no matter their income, no matter their disposition in life.”
King of the “Subgroups” 0
In The Des Moines Register, Reka Basu challenges Congressman Steve King’s statement that no “subgroup” has contributed anything to civilization matching the contributions of European Christians. With some help, she compiled a list of contributions from others:
Here is some of what they shared:
Algebra. The number zero. Peanut butter. Accounting. Cotton. Gunpowder. Fireworks. Meritocracy. Language. Law. Government. Philosophy. Building construction. Wine. Food. Religion. Philosophy. Corn. Agriculture. Silk. Plumbing. Tools. Jazz. Blues. Beer. Pasta. Paper. Arabic numerals. Books. Writing. Gandhi. Buddha. Astronomy. Chess. Herbal medicine. Bread. Soap. Surgery. Ayurveda. Math. Wireless (Bose). Silicon Valley (largely Indians). Sanskrit. Banking. Money. Insurance. Lacrosse. Music. Hospitals. Optics. Voting. Woodblock type. Stirrups. Art. Philosophy. Farming. Human rights. Blood transfusions (African-American Dr. Charles Drew). Blood banks. Aqueducts. The compass. Porcelain. Massage. Tea. Rock ‘n’ Roll. Chocolate. Coffee. Architecture. Philosophy. Athletics. Tai Chi. Carnatic music. Bharat Natyam dance. Papyrus. The modern state. The public library. Gynecology. Universities. Acupuncture. Sewer systems. Engineering. Democracy. Original thought. Clocks. Maps. Yoga. The Sabbath.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The polite go to the movies.
Witnesses said that a fight broke out between the two men after the aggrieved audience member cursed at the boy. As the father was winning the brawl, the other man pulled out a gun, asking, “What the [expletive] are you going to do now?”
I get that a kid kicking the back of your seat is annoying. Kids rode in the back seat of my car and seat backs got kicked.
Only in NRA paradise may it become a capital offense.
That Other Email Scamdal 0
I’ve been considering how to address the DNC email leak but the gelatin has not yet completely set.
I was going to make two main points.
- As with most of these things, there’s no there there. There is no indication that the thoughts and musing were ever turned into action. Politics can be a dirty business (Donald Trump’s entire campaign q. v.); that political operatives might consider dirty tactics even to discard them should surprise no one but the naive and the stupid.
- In a fact that has been too often ignored by the corporate media, Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat. He joined the party only to run for its nomination. That his deciding to join to party for that reason alone might have engendered some resentment among those who have been laboring long and wearily in the Democratic Party vineyards should also surprise no one but the see above.
Fortunately, Dick Polman decided to write the post so I don’t have to. Here’s bit of his piece; the excerpt opens with a reference to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s sudden resignation from the chair of the DNC:
Yes, it was abhorrent that some staffers suggested making an issue of Sanders’ religion – or lack of religion – in a few southern primaries, but two quick points: (1) the staffers made suggestions that were never acted upon, and (2) these were just DNC staffers, not Clinton campaign staffers.
Running on the Record 0
Hoosier-born Erika D. Smith, writing at The Sacramento Bee, looks at Mike Pence’s record as governor.
That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.
Follow the link to find out why she said that.
Fear and Loathing (and Delusion) in Cleveland 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., can only shake his head and sigh at the Republican Hate-Fest in their fact-free Never Never Land:
Did Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Thiel really say, “It’s time to end the era of stupid wars,” as if it were Democrats who dragged Republicans into Iraq with promises of flowers strewn beneath American tanks?
Did Ben Carson really link Hillary Clinton to Satan? Did the crowd really chant, repeatedly and vociferously, for her to be jailed? Did at least two Republicans actually call for her execution?
Follow the link for more.
__________________
*Remember, in white-wing world, these are not examples of “terrorism.” These are examples of “putting them in their place.”