November, 2017 archive
One Thing Is Not Like the Other Thing 0
The Charlotte Observer’s editorial board notes the hypocrisy of North Carolina Republicans’ claim that undoing the effects of their racist redistricting is somehow itself racist.
The Lesson 0
When I was a corporate trainer, one of the courses we offered was EEO training, which included topics related to sex discrimination (of which sexual harassment is a subset). The course was not intended to change attitudes–that is generally a fruitless effort unless persons already want to change their attitudes. Furthermore, attitudes are neither quantifiable nor observable; behavior is.
Rather, the course was designed to teach supervisors how not to get themselves or the company in trouble, to put it bluntly. That is, it was directed at how persons behaved in the workplace, not at what they believed or at what they did or said off-duty or off the property.
I found that the persons who most often questioned whether they could continue doing this or that reprehensible behavior generally already knew that the behavior was reprehensible. (If, for example, I take my clothes off before others in my workplace, I can make no argument that doing so is businesslike behavior or an honest misunderstanding. Zilch, nada, none.)
Those questioners wanted to keep on doing whatever they were doing because they liked doing it.
Image via The Bob Cesca Show Blog.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Practice politeness at home.
Officials say a preliminary investigation indicates the man accidentally shot himself on Saturday at a home in West Chester Township, north of Cincinnati. Police were called to the home that night.
QOTD 0
Rex Stout:
I never try to do any deep thinking when I’m driving; the thinking gets you nowhere and the driving might get you where you would rather not be . . . .
Stout, Rex, The Father Hunt (New York: Bantam, 1969), p. 52.
Meta: OTR 0
I stumbled over a new-to-me old time radio website and added it to the sidebar, over there, on the right.
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Palate Cleanser 0
Afterthought:
I didn’t know that Don Ameche could sing. When I think of him, my first thought is of the Bickersons.
No News Is Bad News 0
My local rag, which has a long history of trying to do a good job (that does not mean I always agree with them, by the way), has just implemented yet another 10% reduction in force because the ad revenues just aren’t there.
Facebook Frolics 0
Aside:
And folks thought that computers would somehow make us smarter . . . .
Afterthought:
Instead, they merely amplify the stupid.
“The Cup Conspiracy” 0
Afterthought:
I do not patronize Starbucks. I like coffee (that, frankly, is reason enough), and I refuse to learn an ersatz secret language to purchase it.
Easy Marks 0
Timothy Egan writes about something I’ve mentioned before. Lies don’t work unless persons believe them.
A snippet:
Fake news is a real thing produced by active disseminators of falsehoods. Trump uses the term to describe anything he doesn’t like, a habit now picked up by political liars everywhere.
But Trump is a symptom; the breakdown in this democracy goes beyond the liar in chief. For that you have to blame all of us: we have allowed the educational system to become negligent in teaching the owner’s manual of citizenship.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is child’s play.
The 3-year-old was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital before being sent to a Minneapolis hospital. Authorities say the victim is stable.
If the victim had been packing, perhaps he or she could have returned fire . . . .
