2017 archive
A Question of Honor 0
Badtux has the answer.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
From time to time, politeness may require empty gestures.
Kenny Payne, the police chief in Plaquemine, Louisiana, told news outlets that the shooting appears to be accidental.
Tax Cheats 0
Jay Bookman considers Republican justifications for tax “reform” and finds them questionable.
Art Sieves 0
The most significant loss is a painting by Swiss-French artist and architect Le Corbusier, dating from 1927, which has an estimated value of 1.5 million francs.
The story does not go on to report that Inspector Clouseau may be called out of retirement for the case, but there is, as always, more at the link.
How Stuff Works, Dominance and Desire Dept. 0
I must say that, in none of the places I’ve worked–and by that I mean my own little corner of the company, not the company as a whole–have I heard of, let along witnessed, predatory sexual behavior such as that recently in the news.
Nonetheless, the recent news stories in no way surprise me.
I know that such conduct went on in parts of at least one company I worked for. It was early in my career, which started just as the Mad Men days were coming to a close. As one of my co-workers told me at the time, “No woman wants to be in the elevator with [Vice President X]. He thinks every woman in [Department Y] is a member of his harem.” I also recall that, when an accomplished and diligent woman in my department received a promotion, it was accompanied by a whispering campaign that she had “slept her way” into it (she didn’t).
Historiann argues that there much more going on workplaces which tolerate such behavior than sexual hanky-panky. Here’s a bit of her piece; follow the link for the rest.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Now, about those “responsible gun owners . . . .?
It’s All about the Algorithm 0
El Reg reports on Facebook’s promise to clean up its bots. It reports in passing on an earlier case of fakery and what it tells us about Facebook and “social” media.
It’s five years since the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones set up a fake business on Facebook and gained thousands of “likes” and clicks, many of which were, er, from fake accounts too. Facebook didn’t seem to care. It was all “engagement”, which justified its advertising model.
(snip)
Also recall that when Facebook introduced its controversial “Trending Topics” in 2014, it used teams of lowly paid human “curators”. Last spring it fired almost all of them, choosing to rely instead on algorithms. That decision, allied to Facebook’s incentives which rewarded clicks, meant that Trending Topics became a cesspool of spurious material.
It Wasn’t “Gone with the Wind.” It Was Never There. 2
Will Bunch deconstructs John Kelly’s misguided and historically–what’s a stronger word than “false”? Oh, yeah, complete and utter bullshit–claim that the Civil War resulted from a “failure to compromise.”
Indeed, it resulted from a refusal–the South’s refusal–to compromise.
Here’s a bit from Bunch’s article (follow the link for the rest).
The Civil War was not the result of “a lack of an ability to compromise,” but because 11 American states were determined to fight — to the death, if necessary — to defend a way of life in which an oligarchy of plantation owners became wealthy by enslaving human beings, based upon the color of the skin.
Kelly’s statement reflects what I have pointed out before–that the North may have won the war, but the South won the peace, weaponizing racism and propagating propaganda about a “land of gracious living” peopled by “Southern gentlemen and Southern belles” that never existed except in Gone with the Wind and other pieces of preposterous puffery, while papering over the violence and brutality that created for those “Southern mansions.”
That propaganda has penetrated the nation’s soul and perverted white Americans’ view of themselves, of their virtues and faults, and of their fellow citizens and residents.
Seeing the effects is easy.
You just have to open your eyes.
“A Choice, Not an Echo” 0
Dick Polman observes that the Republican Party faces a choice. A snippet:
They must choose, in the words of ex-Republican foreign policy adviser Max Boot, “whether they are loyal to the rule of law or the rule of Trump.”
I must confess that I am not confident that today’s Republican Party is capable of making the correct choice.
“It’s Mine! All Mine!” 0
If you want to study political economy, Donald Trump, Jr., may not be the optimal teacher.
