January, 2019 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is the pits.
Back when I learned hunting safety from the NRA in the olden days, when it was a hunting society and not a marketing tool of the merchants of death, I was taught never to point the gun at myself or others for the love of God.
Originalism Sin 0
David and his guest discuss the phony rationales for Constitutional “originalism.”
The Letter of the Lawyer 0
Joe Patrice parses an electronic epistle that Matthew Whitaker’s wife wrote in protest of a Slate article questioning the legitimacy of Whitaker’s position as “acting” Attorney-General. Here’s a bit; the italicized parts are from her email.
Are you hoping that all future appointees’ qualifications are to have sat at a desk and pushed paper around for 30 years?
Like a committed career government servant instead of a political grandstander? Is this supposed to sound like a bad thing?
It is a small comfort to me that the people who will want to work with him in the future are, let’s hope, really unlikely readers of Slate and similar publications.
Yes, we live in a world of media silos and thankfully for Whitaker the people who will want to work with him are too busy watching Alex Jones.
This is only a partial parsing; follow the link for the full treatment.
QOTD 0
William Makepiece Thackery:
Aside:
I’m reading the ebook of Vanity Fair from Project Gutenberg, so page numbers are meaningless. The quotation comes from the penultimate paragraph of chapter X.
Thackery’s style is verbose (as was that of most Victorian authors), conversational, and quite surprisingly snarky. I recommend the book, but caution you not to expect to breeze through it.
Walling a Wall-Eyed Piker 0
Mike Littwin comments on Nancy Pelosi’s and House Democrats’ strategy. A snippet:
Pelosi’s power play — to deny Trump his night of pomp and circumstance, a night in which he asks the nation to accept the notion that he is somehow fit to be president, a night he would surely spend slamming Democrats for refusing to pony up the $5.7 billion for a border wall — won’t end the shutdown. But for someone who has dreamed of a full-on military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue as he watches from his seat of honor, Trump must be enraged. As I write this, I await the rage-tweets to come.
Follow the link for the rest.
Starr Chamber 0
Shaun Mullen explains how the side effects of Ken Starr’s misbegotten and partisan investigation of Bill Clinton’s sexual peccadilloes may come back to haunt Donald Trump.
Aside:
When I was in grad school, one of my professors was fond of remarking on the “ironies of history.” If Shaun is correct, as he usually is, this would surely make his list.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Get a leg up on politeness.
Aside:
Clearly, this fellow is competent to pack heat.
Also, pigs, wings.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
At AL.com, John Archibald skewers the Alabama Attorney-General Marshall’s claim that “he would never use the law as a means to politcal ends.” A state court recently ruled that a hastily-passed Alabana law to protect Confederate monuments was unconstitutional; Archibald argues that Marshall’s decision to appeal that court’s ruling is as political as it gets. A snippet:
Marshall will do everything in his power to make sure places like Birmingham and people like the descendants of slaves have no say in whether the monuments to the Confederate Lost Cause stand on their land and in their faces like a giant middle finger.
Petty Arseny 0
Shorter Donald Trump: I’ll take your ball and go home.
QOTD 0
Charles James Fox:
It is intolerable that it should be in the power of one blockhead to do so much mischief.
Aside:
He was speaking of George III of England, but the words still ring true, do they not?
Winter Morning 0
H/T Susan for the pic.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Again, politeness is child’s play.
Thus passeth another day in NRA Paradise.
Misdirectioned Play
0
You can argue that it’s also a misdirection play, as Russia is over there———————>.
Suffer the Children 0
Donald Trump’s government shutdown is now taking food out of the mouths of children.
Vance County Schools officials announced on Facebook late Tuesday that lunch menus “have been revised to a minimum level to conserve food and funding” starting Jan. 21. The county is about 50 miles northeast of Durham, along the Virginia state line.
More at the link.
