2024 archive
And Now for a Musical Interlude 0
Fair winds and following seas to Steve Lawrence.
A Choice, Not an Echo, Reprise 0
At AL.com, John Archibald looks at Katie Britt’s response to the State of the Union address.
He was not impressed:
America was looking for proof of normalcy.
And it got “The Three Faces of Eve.”
Follow the link to see why he said that.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Via David Pakman’s Youtube page, Brittany Page explores the New Secesh’s attempts to whitewash (I use that term advisedly) slavery and slaveholders. (As my two or three regular readers know, I have found David to be a reasoned and reliable commentator.)
Afterthought:
I had ancestors who wore the grey. Indeed, one of them is immortalized in the Harper’s Ferry wax museum signing John Brown’s death warrant.*
I do not deny them, but neither do I try to justify what they did. (Understand, perhaps, as one who trained as an historian, but not justify.)
Those who refuse to learn from past evils doom themselves to repeating them.
_________________
*I may have mentioned this before in these electrons, but it was a moment for me when, on a visit to that museum some years ago, Second Son, still in school at the time, looked at the exhibit and said, “So, he was on the wrong side.”
That brought home to me with emphasis that, yes indeed, he was on the wrong side.
It was the wrong side then, and it is the wrong side now.
And it is still rising again after all these years.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
A case of filial politeness.
Afterthought:
It occurs to me that one of the sales techniques of the merchants of death is marketing fear. They have done so successfully, so that “shoot first, don’t ask questions,” has now become the default response of far too many oxymoronic “responsible gun owners.”
A Tune for the Times 0
Warming: Mild language.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” exposes children to politeness.
Establishmentarians 0
Long-time Baptist pastor Stephen Jones argues that right-wing extremist they-call-themselves Christians get it precisely backwards:
Follow the link for context.
The Party of Flaw and Disorder 0
Michael in Norfolk documents the duplicity.
“Put or Put Up” 0
To paraphrase what the judge said to the mope.
Recommended Viewing 0
Hamish Macbeth. The series starts off kind of slow, but quickly gains speed. The Lochdubh Assassin, season 3, episode 3, is an absolute hoot.
I saw it on Tubitv.com.
Withdrawal Symptoms 0
Ohio women take drive-through banking to the next level.
Florida Fly-by-Night Man 0
At the Tampa Bay Times, Daniel Ruth notes that Florida governor DeSantis (remember Desantis–he was much in the news a few months ago) and his staff refuse to disclose where DeSantis goes using a state-owned jet funded by Floridians’ tax payments. Ruth offers several theories for the refusal to disclose this information.
It’s entirely possible the governor moonlights as a CIA contract assassin, who jets off to the Middle East on weekends to do battle with Hamas terrorists in the tunnels under Gaza.
Or maybe in the end, all the mystery is simply a matter of a little man, surrounded by silly, venal lap dogs who want to deny the public’s right to know — because they can, or think they can. Because if the public exercises their right to know stuff, then they’ll, you know, know stuff. That’s no fun.
Follow the link for the rest of Ruth’s column. It’s a gem.
Republican Thought Police 0
At AL.com, Williesha Morris catalogs the crazy. A snippet:
One library in north Alabama even flagged a book for removal because the author’s last name is Gay.
Read the rest.