May, 2017 archive
Mean Girls 0
Honest to Betsy (and I can attest that Betsy was appalled), you can’t make this stuff up.
Rex Stout was right.
Extra-Special Bonus QOTD, Little Did He Know Dept. 0
Rex Stout:
Avery Ballou: “Is this room bugged?”
Nero Wolfe: “Confound it, it will soon be impossible to converse anywhere about anything.”
Stout, Rex, Death of a Doxy (New York: Viking Press, 1966), p. 60
(verbatim, but slightly rearranged from the original to omit exposition)
The Unmasking 0
In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Ahmed Tharwat reviews Donald Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia. His view of the trip and of Trump are harsh and unflattering. They are certainly worth a read. Here’s a bit (emphasis added on one bit with which I unhesitatingly agree):
America mistreats Muslims, spies on them, arrests them at home and bombs and bans them abroad. America has an affinity for Arab dictators.
Trump is just the real America — America without a mask. Landing billions of dollars in arms deals from the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, that’s all that matters. The oppression of women and denial of people’s freedom and dignity never drove U.S. foreign policy in this part of the world — it only comes up when it’s needed as a pretext to invade and destroy.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Get a load of all the politeness.
They believe her boyfriend, Matthew Felder, no age or address provided, was sitting in the passenger seat of a truck unloading his pistol when it fired, striking Ms. Lowd in the side while she was in the driver’s seat, the release shows.
The Unregulated 0
A letter to the editor at my local rag nails it.
American Taliban 0
Farron explains how the Trump circus is providing cover for bigotry at the state level.
Not Buying It 0
Noah Feldman, who, in addition to being a Bloomberg columnist, is also a Harvard Law profession, parses the recent 10-3 decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the freeze on the Trump administration’s Muslim ban. Feldman analyzes three aspects of the opinion, but this is the crucial bit:
That led Gregory to the heart of his opinion — and the condemnation of Trump as a liar.
(snip)
Here’s where the opinion got personal. Gregory acknowledged that the executive order was “facially legitimate.” But, he said, “bona fide” literally means “in good faith.”
And here, he reasoned, the plaintiffs had provided “ample evidence that national security is not the true reason” for the order. That evidence, the court said, came mostly from Trump himself, in the form of his “numerous campaign statements expressing animus towards the Islamic faith.”
Follow the link for Feldman’s explanation of his reasoning.
Do the Math 0
The Portland Press Herald carries a Washington Post story that does the math and the answer to the equation ain’t pretty. A snippet:
Image via Job’s Anger.
A Fly in the Ointment 0
Take a sip of your Scotch, feel something, fish it out of your mouth, and realize it was that fly that has been buzzing around you all night. Even worse, realize that the damned fly died happy.
There’s an old joke dating from the days when the mob ruled Cuba (America has forgotten that, before Castro’s revolution, Cuba was pretty much ruled by La Cosa Nostra and Batista was their toady) about a bar that sold a drink so good that, the first time you ordered it, if there was a fly in it, you sent it back.
The second time you ordered it, if there was a fly in it, you fished the fly out and downed the drink.
The third time you ordered it, if there was a fly in it, you drank it fly and all.
I’m a common sewer of cheap Scotch. McCollough’s Scotch is okay (any Scotch is better than every anything else), but it’s not that good.
I poured a new drink.
Suffer the Children 0
It’s not scripture. It’s Republican policy.
