2024 archive
Russian Impulses 0
Michael in Norfolk points out the same Republicans are starting to realize the extent to which Russian propaganda has infected their base. Follow the link for his reasoning.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
. . . and another “responsible gun owner” discharges his responsibility.
We are a pathetic polity.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
This time, it’s the Chicago Tribune’s Sean Kim Butorac who hears a rhyme from over two centuries ago.
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*Mark Twain
Republican Thought Police 0
At AL.com, John Archibald looks at a bill currently being deliberated (I use that term very loosely) by the Alabama legislature (another term I use very loosely) and wonders
Could a librarian be arrested for shelving the Bible where minors can find it?
Follow the link to see what led him to ask such a question.
Nor Any Drop To Drink 0
More mean for the sake of mean.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
At NorthJersey.com, Jim Beckerman asks how dis discourse became dis coarse. Here’s how he starts his article:
“It” being: everything. Our current mess. The low information, disinformation, gullibility and hysteria that are breaking out like measles during Election 2024. Who was the prophet — if only we had listened! — who warned us it was all coming? And begged us to do something before it was too late?
George Orwell, with his doublethink and his thought police? Richard Hofstadter, who warned us about The Paranoid Style in American Politics? Maybe.
But there’s another thinker, less well known, who may have nailed it better than either.
Follow the link to learn who, in Beckerman’s opinion, correctly foresaw the current state of dis coarse discourse and his reasons for reaching that opinion.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Self-politeness is the politest kind. A snippet:
According to the Lake County sheriff’s office, deputies were called to West Rose Avenue near Mundelein at approximately 2:50 p.m. Saturday for a report of a 17-year-old with a gunshot wound to his left leg.
The teen at first told deputies he was standing outside with two friends when a vehicle approached and someone inside the car shot at them.
Guns and stupid, guns and stupid,
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you, brother,
You won’t find one without the other.
A Tune for the Times 0
Warning: Mild language.
Megaphones on the Disinformation Superhighway 0
Steve M argues that a strong factor for the spread of mis- and disinformation is not necessarily the often anonymous liars who make it up, but rather well-know persons provide megaphones. A snippet:
But we’ve known for years that disinformation spreads most rapidly when high-profile people spread it. Thirty years ago, false rumors about Bill Clinton were spread widely in a video called The Clinton Chronicles, which featured an appearance by Reverend Jerry Falwell, who was a hosehold name at the time; Falwell also promoted the video. In 2004, the false attacks on John Kerry’s service record in Vietnam were made openly by named right-wing operatives. And the most famous promoter of many right-wing lies — that Barack Obama wasn’t born in America, that the 2020 presidential election was rigged — was Trump, who is very much not an anonymous figure.
I commend the entire article to your attention.
The Crypto Con 0
Yes, indeedy-do, it seems that there’s an app for that.
Self-Made Men Lucky Ducks
0
Sam talks with Professor Ingrid Robeyns about the tendency of persons to attribute to virtue or divine favor that which is actually the result of pure dumb luck.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Once again, a “responsible gun owner” allows his politeness to become child’s play.
And he was not the only “responsible gun owner” to allow a child to discharge his responsibility.
We are a society of stupid.