April, 2018 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Cleanliness is next to politeness.
The bullet passed through Sidwell’s left hand and shot 30-year-old Jeremy Sidwell in the right arm.
Anyone who is too stupid to ensure a gun is unloaded before starting to clean it is ipso facto too stupid to be allowed near a gun.
Q. E. D.
Recommended Reading 0
The Iliad and the Odyssey, translated by Samuel Butler.
I have tried to read translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey a number of times and have not been able to get through them. I found the celebrated Rouse translations boring to the point of impenetrability.
I stumbled over a copy of Samuel Butler’s translation at AFK Books and recommend it highly. He makes the correct compromises between faithfulness to the original Greek and English idiom.
There will still be elements of the translation that the contemporary reader might find difficult, because of the cultural divide. The catalog of ships, for example, might have had great significance for the Ancient Greeks, whereas the contemporary American reader could care less (sort of like the “begats” in the Bible spoke to ancient Hebrews, but not to contemporary readers of the Christian Bible).
Nevertheless, if you want a readable version of the Homeric classics, Butler’s translation is a good place to start. And it’s worth the effort.
Facebook Frolics 0
The EFF looks behind the Facebook curtain.
Ryan’s Derp 0
Paul Krugman wonders how Paul Ryan got a reputation amongst the political media as being a “policy wonk.” An excerpt:
Look, the single animating principle of everything Mr. Ryan did and proposed was to comfort the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted. Can anyone name a single instance in which his supposed concern about the deficit made him willing to impose any burden on the wealthy or in which his supposed compassion made him willing to improve the lives of the poor?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your neighbors.
ABC 57 News spoke with the regional manager of the complex who says it all happened when a neighbor had his gun out.
Stupid is a condition, not an excuse.
There is no jail term long enough for this amount of stupid.
Furrfu.
The Nation’s Largest Crime Family 0
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. All the obsequious hypocritical oleaginous pretense is being stripped away. Except for the “hypocritical” part.
Originalist Sin 0
Elie Mystal notes the malodorous flaw in the arguments of Constitutional “originalists”–you know, the folks who believe that it’s still 1789 or at least can be again. He argues that “originalism” is ipso facto acceptance of segregation as being legal.
A snippet. Follow the link for the complete article:
(Link fixed.)
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
A Rising Rate of Conflation 0
Ed Burmila notes the intensification. A snippet:
The Cost of Staying Alive 0
In the Sunday New York Times Magazine, Siddharta Mukherjee took a fascinating look at a recent study as to what makes health care in the United States consume twice as much of GDP as it does in other industrialized nations. A snippet:
I commend it to your attention.