2022 archive
Vaccine Nation, Words Fail Me Dept. 0
Honest to Betsy, you can’t make this stuff up (and you wouldn’t want to). Warning: Short commercial at the end, but you can skip it if you want to. But honest to Pete and Betsy both . . . .
We are a society of stupid.
Originalist Sin 0
Robert Reich argues that the self-styled Constitutional “originalists” would have to find that the filibuster is contrary to the original intent of the Founders. Here’s a bit of his argument; follow the link for the full article, in which Reich delves into the racist origin and evolution of the filibuster.
This led James Madison to argue against any super-majority requirement in the Constitution the Framers were then designing, writing that otherwise “the fundamental principle of free government would be reversed,“ and “It would be no longer the majority that would rule: the power would be transferred to the minority.” And it led Alexander Hamilton to note “how much good may be prevented, and how much ill may be produced” if a minority in either house of Congress had “the power of hindering the doing what may be necessary.”The Framers went to great lengths to ensure that a minority of senators could not thwart the wishes of the majority. After all, a major reason they convened the Constitutional Convention in 1787 was because the Articles of Confederation (the precursor to the Constitution) required a super-majority vote of nine of the thirteen states, making the government weak and ineffective.
Methinks he makes his case.
Nevertheless, I think Reich’s argument will fall on deaf ears from the “originialists,” who show great ingenuity in redefining the Founders’ “original intent” when it suits their ends. Indeed, one can make a strong argument that the only bit of “original intent” to which “originalists” are truly committed is the 3/5s clause.
The Appeal of the Disinformation Superhighway 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Mark W. Susmann and Duane T. Wegener explore what’s appealing about misinformation and why some cling to it even after it’s been soundly debunked.
Granted, there’s nothing new about misinformation (and disinformation), but the disinformation superhighway has accelerated its speed, volume (both in the sense of quantity and the sense of loudness), and persistence. If you are curious about why persons cling to falsehood despite irrefutable evidence of falseness, you will find this an interesting read.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
We are again reminded that politeness takes practice.
The story goes on to quote the local sheriff as saying that “target practice is not illegal” (those are the words in the report, not necessarily the sheriff’s exact words).
We are again confronted by one who knows not that “negligent” and “accidental” are not synonyms.
Devolution, Reprise 0
The Portland Press-Herald’s Greg Kesich sees an ominous trend (emphasis added):
At some point, the party went from hating Democrats to hating democracy . . . .
Follow the link for his reasoning.
Aside:
I can’t tell you exactly when the tipping point came about, but I can tell you when the tipping started: When Richard Nixon implemented the “southern strategy” (an idea, by the way, that he did not originate) and welcomed overt bigotry and racism into the Republican Party.
Devolution 0
Rex Huppke is less than optimistic about the fate of the polity; he fears that glorification of stupid which has taken root in some quarters does not bode well. Here’s just a tiny a bit from his article (emphasis added):
You can draw a straight line from the glorification of numbskullery and the rejection of facts to the Jan. 6 attack.
Yet somehow, since Jan. 6, the stupidity being peddled has only gotten worse. Trump and an astonishing array of Republicans and right-wing media types continue to insist the 2020 election was stolen. There is zero evidence to support that and, in fact, even the former president’s most loyal flunkies who have ham-handedly “audited” election results in various states have come up with zilch.
Twits on Twitter 0
Just when you thought that the twits on Twitter couldn’t get any more stupid, they prove you wrong . . . again.
One more time, “social” media isn’t.
A Picture Is Worth, Facebook Frolics Dept. 0
Don’t believe me? See for yourself.