February, 2019 archive
State of Failure or Failed State? 0
Josh Marshall discusses the implications of Donald Trump’s threatened (as I write this, it’s still a threat) state of emergency. A nugget:
Many times over the last two years I’ve recalled this tag line from Slate’s Will Saletan: “The GOP is a failed state and Trump is its warlord.” Now this half applies to the country at large. It was a remarkably prescient line. It explains and illuminates so much.
Read it.
And weep.
Tripping the Light Fatastic 0
There was an OTR (Old Time Radio–see the sidebar over there—-> for some links) show called “The Fat Man.” (It was actually quite a good mystery show.)
It opened with the lines, in an English accent . . . .
“There he goes into that drug store. He’s stepping on the scales . . . .”
Then a robotic voice says, “Weight: 239 pounds. Fortune: Danger.”
(Music) Voice says, “Who is it?
Another voice answers, “The Fat Man.”
My question is this: How high would the weight have to be today for the man to be considered “fat”?
I leave the house from time to time. I’m betting 239 pounds doesn’t cut it any more.
Essay Question 0
What is the difference between Donald Trump’s threatened (as of this writing) “state of emergency” and a coup d’etat?
Justify your answer.
Weak Decaf 0
Farron roasts the Man Who Ruined Coffee.
Just the Vaxx, Ma’am, Reprise 0
The stupid. It burns.
QOTD 0
Rex Stout, in the voice of Nero Wolfe:
I try to know what I need to know. I make sure to know what I want to know.
Stout, Rex, Please Pass the Guilt (New York: Viking, 1973), p. 3.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Just the Vaxx, Ma’am 0
David reports on teens in Australia who are defying their anti-vaxx parents in order to get vaccinations.
I’m old enough to remember images on my telly vision of children stricken with polio in iron lungs.
I have no patience with the stupidity and gullibility of anti-vaxxers.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness takes a break.
Thus passeth another day in NRA Paradise.
