March, 2025 archive
The Neighbor Hood 0
At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Maxwell King argues that Mr. Rogers would probably look soomewhat askance were Donald Trump to move into his neighborhood. Here’s a bit:
The recent sight from the White House Oval Office — two of the most powerful people in the world ganging up to berate and humiliate a struggling war hero trying to save his country from an invading force — chilled viewers all around the world. What would Fred Rogers have made of that?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Another “responsible gun owners” just could not resist the temptation to play with his portable phallus.
The stupid. It burns.
Stray Question 0
Why do so many persons seem to think that daylight savings time “makes more daylight” when all it does is move daylight about?
Distracted Destructive Driving
0
Honest to Betsy, you can’t make this stuff up.
The Crypto Con 0
C&L reminds us that cypto is the laundry soap for money-laundering and that Donald Trump is heading for the laundromat.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
The dialog (at the 31-minute mark): Masterminds, as you call them, don’t go around with illuminated foreheads.
The closed caption: Masterminds, as you call them, don’t go around with illuminated for-ets.
The intelligence: Artificial. The stupid: Real. The question: What the heck is a “for-et”?
A Tune for the Times 0
From the Youtube page:
One of our favourite Coldplay songs is “Viva La Vida” – with its nod to Frida Kahlo, its lavish strings, its rotation and roar, its bells and history, and its heel-thumping singalong harmonic personality. It means “Long Live Life” and was released in 2008.
Our version takes the sense of history, the pain, the trauma, and the notion of world rule, and applies it to the most disgusting media spectacle to date – with already several to choose from – of the new US administration. Like many around the world, as well as disheartened friends in the US, we watched the undignified ambush of Zelensky’s trip to the White House with dismay and pity. It was a very unbecoming sight – just at a human level – even without all the higher stakes, deals, implications, and nightmares unfolding as another win is handed to Putin, and more pressure placed on Ukraine.
Like many we are hoping for a miraculous path forward that can somehow turn Trump’s intensity into an outcome that can transform into a lasting peace – but given how misdirected the fury and energy and narrative is at the moment, it’s quite hard to see it turning out other than a quickfire US withdrawal of support. If that happens, we’re in a cowardly new world.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Another person hears that rhyme from Munich 87 years ago.
And, in possibly related news, Field has a wonder.
__________________
*Mark Twain.
When Fiction Becomes Reality 0
At The Philadelphia Inquirer, Kathryn Grossman makes a strong case that, under the Trump maladministration, we are being transported into the world of George Orwell’s 1984.
The Deserter 0
Der Spiegel takes an in-depth look at Donald Trump’s decision to abandon America’s allies, as illustrated by his recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A snippet (emphasis added):
Methinks it safe to say that, under America, America is no longer “a shining city on a hill,” to quote Ronald Reagan.
What it seems to be becoming gives me shudders.
And methinks it is influenced in great part by the legacy of America’s original sin of chattel slavery.
QOTD 0
Hugh O’Brian, in the voice of Wyatt Earp, and Mason Alan Dinehart, in the voice of Bat Masterson:
Masterson: Well, just what is vagrancy?
Earp: If you’re playing poker and you win, you’re a sportin’ man. But if you lose, you’re a vagrant.