January, 2017 archive
Lies and Lying Liars 0
The Charlotte Observer skewers the non-apology apology of a Republican operative who authored a “fake news” story.
The San Francisco Chronicle has more on this particular faker.
(What’s unusual about this is that the faker got his comeuppance. Wonder if he’ll get picked up by Fox News?)
Stray Thought 0
There is bittersweet pleasure (but no comfort) in watching “conservative” opinion writers, who have made careers of justifying Republicans and Republicanism, express dismay at what they have helped create.
For example. And example.
And that’s just from this morning’s casual reading . . . .
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is a family value.
Billy Williams then got a gun from a safe, opened the front door and fired one shot, authorities said. The front porch light was not on.
No charges have been filed because hey! stuff happens.
“Shoot first,” the first rule in NRA Paradise.
For Sale 0
In the words of the immortal Yogurt, “It’s the merchandising.”
All That Was Old Is New Again 1
Despite what Republicans would have you believe, magickal thinking does not work.
There is no magic; there is only the con.
Collapse of Creed 0
Samuel H. McGill, president emeritus of Monmouth University, is not optimistic. He sees domestic dominoes falling.
In my view it is the erosion of commitment to this creed in the United States that explains much of our current political and social malaise. It explains the polarization of the public into self-justifying political “bubbles,” political entities unwilling to hear or speak to each other without ascribing the most base motives to the other. A sense of common cause no longer resides in the ideology of conflicting parties. What has evolved is a quest for absolute power by self-righteous combatants.
I would point out that, in my observation, the “quest for absolute power by self-righteous combatants” applies much more to one party than to the other. After all, in American history, only one party has ever made the absolute failure of an elected President its policy goal.
Do please read the rest.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
There’s no politeness like unexpected politeness.
She noticed her foot was bleeding and she thought it was cut from the glass.
(snip)
Sheriff’s officials determined the bullet came from a nearby gun range and was an accident.
Dollars to doughnuts, if this had happened with a bow and arrow, a spear, a catapult, or a Medieval mace, it would be considered negligence and charges would be in the offing, but the polite are inoculated from guilt because of the special Teflon of gunnuttery.
“Self-Love” 0
Der Spiegel takes a close look at what makes the Donald tick. A snippet:
At the end of the chapter called “Revenge,” Trump advises his readers to constantly seek to take revenge. “Always make a list of people who hurt you. Then sit back and wait for the appropriate time to get revenge. When they least expect it, go after them with a vengeance. Go for their jugular.”
The Climates They Are a-Changing 0
In my local rag, a local professor considers the warmest year on record (emphasis added):
The warming trends we have been seeing since 1970s have not paused in any way and are caused by influx of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels and the release of carbon dioxide. Anything else is a zombie theory.
Click to see the image at its original location.
