November, 2017 archive
Out of the Ashes? 0
In my local rag, Phil Terrana savages the nihilists–you know, those folks who want to tear everything down hoping that out of the rubbish will rise whatever cockeyed paradise they desire. He gives an example of how that works:
When Is “Sexual Harassment” Sexual Harassment? 0
The short answer, natch, is when the target feels harassed.
I expressed my opinion of the relationship between political leanings and sexual harassment a while ago: there is no relationship; the impulse to harass is independent of the voting booth (though there may be a relationship in how persons react to allegations of sexual harassment–I’ve not explored that, but it could be fruitful ground for a future post).
Now comes Gina Barreca with eight things to know about sexual harassment. I commend her article to your attention.
Afterthought:
Of course, the stink is stronger when the perpetrator has made a career of crowing about how virtuous and “Christian” he or she is; a healthy dollop of hypocrisy makes the goulash spicier.
Nonetheless, the perpetration, as distinct from the perpetrator, is no more reprehensible for that.
A Charted Flight of Fancy 0
Stephen Colbert explores Louie Gohmert’s chart of crazy.
The Clandestine Keyboard Corps 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Christopher Lane discusses a recent report on the tactics of Twitter twits and Facebook frolickers, who, armed with bots and weaponized blather, to promulgate propaganda, tarnish truth, and gull the gullible.
Read it.
In Common 0
Jay Bookman asked a question via Twitter.
Do I write about the outrage of someone with Trump’s history of sexual harassment gloating about Franken’s downfall?
Or about the fact that in this “middle class tax cut,” the middle class gets $1 for every $9 that goes to rich and corporations?
Follow the link for his own answer.
Life in the Cattery 0
The kittens love to play with bendy straws.
Indeed, the living room has become a straw-buried field.
The Trumpled Year in Review 0
Donald Drezner is cautiously optimistic. A summary of his argument would seem to be, “It could be worse.” A nugget (emphasis added):
This is, to be clear, no thanks to Trump himself. One way the system could have worked was if the president learned the norms and rules of the presidency and adapted to them. That hasn’t happened — if anything, the opposite has occurred. Trump’s behavior has gotten worse. He clearly views himself as a monarch more than a president, taking credit for anything good and claiming he has powers that he does not. He has tried to cajole the FBI and Department of Justice to investigate his political opponents.
.
“Call 911” 0
Alex Steed shares a story of privilege.
Firefox 57 First Look 0
Firefox 57 came in an upgrade to Slackware –Current today. I have not tested it extensively, but here are my first impressions.
I did not put a stopwatch on it, but it is indeed noticeably, even significantly faster.
It left my privacy settings intact (such as no third party cookies, delete history on exit). It also left my preferred search engine (Startpage) still set as default.
It did not touch my bookmarks or any of the appearance themes I’ve installed.
It did break my extensions, but there are already a number of compatible extensions available. I found substitutes for what I consider my most important plugins (classic NoScript and speed dial). I’m still looking for a proper user agent changer plugin. If classic NoScript becomes available for it, I’ll probably go back to that.
It came with an activated “Gnome Shell Integration” plugin, which I turned off.
It also synced, following my existing sync settings. (That’s I how ended up with two script blockers on Firefox 52 on the laptop–I disabled classic NoScript and went with the new one).
So far v. 57 looks like a nice piece of work.
“Come into My Parlor” 0
California man recreates Sherlock Holmes’s sitting room with period items.
You can hear him discuss the process with the Baker Street Babes.
The Best People . . . 0
Well, maybe not.
The New Pharisees 0
David Von Drehle does not mince words about Roy Moore. Here are a few of his words:
This self-righteous popinjay, running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate, has inspired mostly silence from the respectable pulpits of Alabama. It seems we Christians are well practiced at averting our eyes from the lurid sideshows beneath our big tent: the willfully ignorant Young Earth creationists, the cartoonish faith healers, the tearful televangelists caught with a hand in the till or a prostitute on the side.
Aside:
It’s been a long time since I saw “popinjay” in a sentence.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your fellow congregants.
A man spoke up and said he carries his everywhere he goes. He pulled the gun out, emptied the magazine and chamber, and then started passing the gun around.
Once the gun came back around to its owner, police say the man put the magazine back in and recharged the chamber, but accidentally squeezed the trigger. The gun went off, hitting himself in the hand and his wife in the abdomen.
Had more persons at the meeting been packing, no doubt this would not have happened.
