January, 2017 archive
Whence Stoppeth the Buck? 0
Reg Henry points out that, now that Republicans control the Congress and the Presidency, they will have no one to blame but themselves. A snippet:
Fair enough. So, come Jan. 20, blaming Mr. Obama won’t be permitted either. I am sure the winners will want to abide by their own precedent. However, they may find this spoils the fun.
As best as I can tell, the whole point of being a conservative is to seethe with resentment at what those horrible liberals have done. But if the liberals are not in charge any more, who can you blame but yourself if things don’t go well? This creeping realization will be the long shadow falling over next week’s triumphant celebration.
Do please read the rest.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Provide children with the opportunity to learn politeness.
“Upon arrival, officers learned that a young child had shot their sibling accidentally with a handgun,” the chief said.
“Because His Mouth Is Moving . . . .” 0
The Charlotte Observer observes:
Here’s why. We can’t see what’s in his heart. We can hear what comes out of his mouth. He’s quickly making himself the butt of an old joke: How do you know when Trump’s telling a whopper? His lips are moving.
More observations at the link.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another gun that fires itself.
The gunnularity approacheth apace.
It’s Bubblelicious 0
Right-wing pundits are fond of talking about some sort of “left-wing” bubble–you know, the one populated by folks who don’t get their news from Fox or Breitbart, read whaddya-call-em books, and believe in those quaint things called “facts.”
Historiann takes her pen to that bubble to see what’s inside.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Still under 300K.
(snip)
The four-week moving average decreased to 256,500 last week, from 258,250. . . . .
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits dropped by 29,000 to 2.09 million in the week ended Dec. 31.
All That Was Old Is New Again, Reprise 0
Soloman Jones channels Santayana:
If I have learned anything from watching this moment unfold, it is this: We must remain vigilant on the issue of race. Racism, after all, is America’s original sin. Its painful effects filter through the gaps in time, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation.
But racism isn’t the only thing that has brought us to a moment when the future will cede ground to the past. We are here, quite frankly, because of our tendency to forget the past.
Read the rest.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear points out that “massive resistance” wasn’t just a “Civil Rights” movement thing:
Meta: Down at the Farm 0
The Add-to-Any plugin, which I’ve had installed almost since the beginning of this blog, threw a syntax error preventing the blog from loading.
I FTP’d into the server and deleted that plug-in’s sub-directory, and things seem to be working again absent that plugin. I shall wait a bit before reinstalling it, in case an update comes out.
We shall see.
Also, bloggery will be light today because reasons.
Existential Threats 0
The kerfuffle of Russian hacking has been something to watch, but it’s just a sideshow–a distressing one, perhaps, but one that likely had only marginal effects on the election. I consider it unlikely that it affected the votes of a significant number of persons; it might have solidified some wavering Trump supporters, but I strongly doubt it caused even one Hillary vote to move into the Trump column. (Note that that is just my opinion based on years of being a political junkie.)
As Gary Fifield points out in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, there are far greater threats to our democracy much closer to home. Here’s a bit of his article:
Follow the link for the rest.
