2019 archive
Fomenting Fury 0
Thom looks behind Donald Trump’s attacks on Representative Ilhan Omar.
Lies and Lying Liars 0
Mike Littwin suggests that Donald Trump believes his own lies and offers the “sanctuary cities” plan (if you can dignify it as a “plan) as evidence.
Truthiness in Labeling 0
Aside:
On a recent episode of The Bob Cesca Show podcast I forget just which one one of the participants I also forget just who pointed out that journalists follow leads, research stories, attempt to determine the facts, and report the facts to the best of their abilities.
Compared to Julian Assange and Wikileaks, Hedda Hopper was Helen Thomas and Walter Winchell was Walter Cronkite and that boy trapped in a refrigerator did eat his own foot.
A Sympton, Not a Cause 0
David is not sanguine. (Warning: Short digression at the beginning.)
QOTD 0
Dorothy Sayers, in the voice of Lord Peter Wimsey:
Of course, there is some truth in advertising. There’s yeast in bread, but you can’t make bread with yeast alone.
Sayers, Dorothy, Murder Must Advertise in a double volume with
The Five Red Herrings (New York, Doubleday, year uncertain), p. 366.
“Jackie Robinson Day” 0
Last night, I tuned into ESPN to watch the Phillies play the bad guys of the day New York Mets.
I did not know that Major League Baseball was celebrating “Jackie Robinson Day.”
Every player wore Jackie Robinson’s number, 42 (a number that is otherwise retired from Major League Baseball). In a refreshing change from the normal drivel of the play-by-play and commentary, the telecast included visits to the play booth by Jamie Foxx, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, and Mo Ne Davis, as well as a filmed tribute to her father by Sharon Robinson. In addition, the commentators discussed the contributions of Jackie Robinson to baseball, civil rights, and American society, as well as larger issues regarding the place of African-Americans in baseball and in society.
As I listened to these tributes to one of the bravest men to don a baseball uniform, I could not stem a rising tide of dismay at the overt racism of the current federal administration.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your neighbors.
(snip)
Hale told police he had a six-pack of beer before going to sleep. He awoke, he told police, thinking there was someone in the apartment so he had grabbed one of his shotguns — this one a 12-gauge loaded with bird shot — and fired it, Hersh said.
Pondering Purism* 0
My two or three regular readers know that I occasionally grump about “purists” on the left.
I find David’s discussion of “purity tests” regarding the herd of declared candidates for the Democratic nomination for president to be interesting. I don’t say that I agree with him completely, but I don’t have to agree with someone completely to find his or her comments interesting.
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* I think the case can be made that, in politics, “purism” differs from “purity.”
I submit that the term “purism” should apply to those of whom I have grumped: the I agree with you on 95% of the issues but I disagree with you on [insert tiny thing], therefore I’m going to vote for [insert whacko third party candidate] crowd.
Lost in a Lost World 0
One of my friends came over last weekend. He told me that this neighborhood made him start to distrust his GPS.
I told, “I don’t use a GPS. I prefer this new thing. It’s called a map . . . .”
Sinsory Overload 0
Brian Klass is disturbed that we seem to have become inured to tennis ball machine of Trumpling. A snippet:
Follow the link for the rest.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Loaded diapers are bad enough, but, really, now.
Guns and stupid, guns and stupid,
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you brother,
You can’t have one without the other.