“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
A 2-year-old died in the hospital after police say she “accidentally shot herself.”
Around 1 p.m. Tuesday, Hampton police went to the 500 block of Marcella Road after a call about a shooting, according to a recent press release. Officers found a 2-year-old suffering from a single gunshot wound, and she was taken to a local hospital. . . .
Thus passeth another child in the NRA’s Garden of Eden Ending.
Denial Is Not Just a River in Egypt 0
Seth dissects Republicans’ pretense that Donald Trump is somehow not the person that he is.
Gazing at Gaza 0
I think this post from Lawyers, Guns, and Money goes a long way to helping me understand why I have so many mixed(-up) emotions about the conflict in Gaza. I commend it to your attention.
H/T Noz for bringing it to my attention.
American Legacy 0
America’s original sin of chattel slavery refuses to go away.
It may morph and reshape, it may reclothe and redrape, but it continues to poison our polity.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
AL.com’s Kyle Whitmire considers Vivek Ramaswamy’s behavior in the most recent Republican debate and concludes that we have a problem.
But let’s be clear. He wasn’t in Tuscaloosa Wednesday night because of legislation he’s passed or policies he has implemented.
He was there because he’s a jerk. And a certain portion of the American electorate has decided they like jerks and want more jerks to run things.
Follow the link for his evidence.
A Tune for the Times 0
Mangy points out that it’s probably not a good idea to hand out with the wrong people.
Freedom of Screech 0
No doubt you’ve been unable to avoid at least some coverage of the who-shot-john about the college presidents who were called to testify before the House Education Committee last week, testimony which led to the ouster of one of them.*
At Above the Law, Mark Herrmann offers a perspective on the issue raised by said who-shot-john.
I don’t know whether I agree with him, but I commend it as a worthwhile read.
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*I have paid as little attention to it as possible, primarily because I think nobody who was involved was right, everybody was wrong, and, most especialliest, nobody was thinking clearly.
The Immaculate Deception 0
Marcos Bretón looks at the recent claim by Congressman Eugene McCarthy that “that the United States has never sought land after winning a war, except to bury its war dead.” Anyone who knows anything (well, anything factual) about American history knows this to be false. Indeed, a quick web search for “manifest destiny” might be a good place to start.
And McCarthy was roundly derided for his comments.
Breton, though, argues that, in this (self-)deception, McCarthy is hardly an outlier. Here’s a bit from his article:
Follow the link for Breton’s reasoning.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another child is sacrificed at the feet of the NRA’s leaden idol.
“I Know You Are But What Am I?” 0
Although she’s talking about individuals in personal relationships, I think that Stephanie A. Sarkis’s piece about how toxic people use projection as a defense mechanism applies to how toxic public figures do so in dis coarse discourse. Here’s one of the tactics she lists:
Toxic people excel at deflecting blame. Instead of taking responsibility for their actions, they project their faults onto others, making them the scapegoats for the toxic person’s mistakes.
Follow the link for the others.