2020 archive
It’s Not a Right. It’s a Duty. 0
We voted today at our nearest in-person early voting facility. As we are both above the cut-off age, we qualified for in-car curbside voting. It took approximately an hour to get to the actual curbside. According to the policeman who was directing traffic, today’s was the shortest wait of the week so far. As far as we could tell, both voters in their cars and those in line to enter the building were waiting quite patiently.
Now it’s your turn.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another responsible gun owner discharges his responsibility.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, William A. Haseltine muses about whether there is value in publicly debating something that is clearly false. He starts by discussing why he turned down the opportunity to debate a scientist affiliated with the Trump administration about “herd immunity” and COVID-19. Here’s a bit from the opening of his article:
While some may have jumped at the opportunity to publicly debate the merits of the approach, I declined the invitation—I do not believe in giving credence to false ideas.
He goes on to question whether holding a civil debate about something known to be false may serve perversely to dignify and perpetuate the falsehood. As we are inundated with batches of botnets, troops of trolls, and a proliferation of professional propagandists emitting endless streams of excrement into the disinformation superhighway, methinks his article is worth a read.
Huntering for a Misdirection Play 0
At The Boston Globe, Joan Vennochi offers a theory as to why the Trump campaign is making such a fuss about Joe Biden’s progeny. A snippet (emphasis added):
Flooding the Disinformation Superhighway 0
The San Francisco Chronicle’s John Diaz comments on the flood of flummery on “social” media. A snippet:
Two words of caution: tweeter beware.
No one needs that reminder more than President Trump. He embarrassed himself early Friday morning by retweeting an article by the satirical Babylon Bee website that stated Twitter shut down its entire network “in a last-ditch effort to stop negative stories about Joe Biden and his family from spreading.”
In high dudgeon at 3:07 a.m., Trump retweeted the satire (from a site with what should have been the telltale motto, “Fake news you can trust”): “Wow, this has never been done in history. This includes his really bad interview last night. Why is Twitter doing this. Bringing more attention to Sleepy Joe & Big T.”
The Disclaimer 0
E. J. Montini reads the fine print.
A Parable of the Primitive 0
Follow the link to learn of a strange and exotic culture facing extinction.
Irish Soda Bread 0
The Phryne Fisher mystery I’m currently (re-)reading makes frequent mention of Irish soda bread, so I decided to try my hand at baking some.
I followed this recipe, which I suspect is less than authentic, as it calls for margarine (this recipe claims to be authentic).
I deviated from the recipe in a couple of ways.
As we commonly do not buy oleo, I used butter instead, and I did not brush the loaf with a buttermilk and butter mixture. Rather, I put a dish of water in the oven and brushed the loaf with the hot water a couple of times as it baked, a trick that makes for crustier crusts.
It was quite tasty and very well received by the household. Half the loaf is already gone, and the rest might now survive tomorrow.