How much pleasure there is in eking out the last little bit of use of a bar of soap!
At least 5 or 6 more hand washings, don’t you think?
Ahhhhh.
Sphere: Related ContentTuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
So, What is “is”?
Ah, Dear Gentle Reader(s), who will ever forget the immortal words of the President when he said, “It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is…”
Now we have a new phrase to contemplate. Because of what a judge felt was some prosecutorial misconduct, she ordered a new trial for a defendant. The prosecution is arguing that the judge should not grant a new trial because the testimony of the witness whose testimony was involved in the brouhaha was “truthful, but inaccurate.”
It’s a federal case. The title of the article cited reads “Prosecutors defend false testimony as 'truthful, but inaccurate'.” It’s fun to read.
Truthful but inaccurate.
Well, that lets the Bush administration off the hook for a great many supposed ills. “What I said in court was truthful, your Honor, but a tad inaccurate.” “When I spoke of weapons of mass destruction, I was being truthful, but inaccurate.”
Sphere: Related ContentSunday, September 20, 2009
Here a Czar, there a Czar…
Sphere: Related ContentOf all the inanities of the right wing blather, nothing makes less sense than the “czar”-ing of the Obama administration.
Google search indicates that possibly Nixon was the first person to use the word—unofficially.
It’s just a shortcut way of talking about a person’s responsibilities. Yet the right wing blathosphere would have us believe that there’s a Russian cabal running the country out of the West Wing.
Nutty people.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
This cannot be good
First Amendment’s protection of “free” speech is poised to allow the false metaphorical “Fire!!!!” in a crowded theatre to become, for the first time, protected.
How a corporation came to be regarded as an entity entitled to the same protections as human beings is a mystery to all who aren’t minions of mega-profits, but there it is.
And here, from the website of The National Law Journal, is the first whiff of the possible demise of politics as we know it:
After an extraordinary 90 minutes of oral argument in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, it seemed likely that the [Supreme] Court, swayed by arguments in favor of First Amendment rights for corporations, was ready to embark on a new course that critics say could unleash a flood of corporate wealth into elections that are already awash in more regulated kinds of campaign spending.
If “We, the people” have been guaranteed that our voices will be heard in the halls of government, we are about to lose much of whatever influence our voices may have to the virtually unlimited treasuries of corporations, whose money equals speech in the eyes of the Supreme Court.
Shhhhh, Dear Gentle Reader(s). Practice being quiet.
Sphere: Related ContentSunday, September 06, 2009
O Afghanistan
Technorati Tags: Afghanistan,Tom Friedman,Nicholas Kristof,President Obama,George Will,Charlie Wilson,The New York Times,The Washington Post
All of a sudden, there is a spate of political pundits focusing on the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, and what they are saying isn’t pretty.
On September 1, George F Will offered “Time to get out of Afghanistan” in The Washington Post.
Today, September 6, Thomas L. Friedman offers “From baby-sitting to adoption” and Nicholas D. Kristof “The Afghanistan abyss” in The New York Times.
Friedman and Kristof are both progressives, Will isn’t.
Friedman and Kristof suggest debate and caution regarding increasing American troop levels. Will suggests off-shore military involvement.
Iraq is/was a war of “choice.” Is Afghanistan a war of futility?
How does President Obama deal with the unintended consequences of Charlie Wilson’s War?
Trust, but verify.
Sphere: Related ContentSaturday, September 05, 2009
Ohh, Wasp! Wherefore thy sting?
Um, here’s one for you, Dear Gentle Reader(s). Back on August 22, NPR broadcast an item, “Orchids: 'Inflatable Love Dolls Of The Floral Kingdom.'” Basically it discussed the way certain orchids trick unsuspecting bees into a pollination tryst.
Down in the story occurs this referring to a certain type of wasp which also is fooled by an orchid:
"having sex with anything that moves, on balance, is a good reproductive strategy for males." A male wasp that's overly picky about its mates will end up leaving less offspring than a male that goes off and has sex with anything that looks like a wasp.
“…anything that moves…”
Hmmm.
Sounds like some people I’ve known.
Sphere: Related ContentSaturday, August 29, 2009
Oligarhy? And this guy’s influential?!?
Glen Beck needs help.
Here’s a link to a You Tube video taken from his newscast of last Thursday.
Watch closely—well, not really; don’t watch if you don’t want to—to see Mr Beck make a fool of himself on national television, and think about how easily it would’ve been to prevent that moment if only he’d had some intelligent backup from his assistants, and editors, and the Fox directors, and just about anyone else who is working behind the scenes.
Watch Beck cleverly come up with the word du jour for his telecast.
And then weep for the right wing who hail this guy as an intellectual hero.
Weep for the rest of us, too. We have collectively fallen so far. Thank SCOTUS for their 2000 interference.
Sphere: Related ContentWednesday, August 26, 2009
50 years?
Sphere: Related ContentTechnorati Tags: U.S. Supreme Court,David SouterThe BLT (blog of Legal Times) tells us that retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter has put a hold on his papers for 50 years.
That means the machinations of the Rehnquist Court during the time of the 2000 Bush v Gore deliberations will not be available to most people who cared—like those whose relatives died in Iraq.
Say it ain’t so, Dave.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Tory/Spectator::Republican/Townhall.com
It is, Dear Gentle Reader(s), ubiqitous.
One might think the Republican right might be the only group of people who would rather snipe and cavil than enter into a serious discussion about matters of import.
Wrong.
For an example of how the right wing Tory (ooops, Conservative) Party of the U.K. thinks, just trundle over to the website of The Spectator. Much smoke and quip, little substance.
Read, for a sentence or two, you won’t need more, the article entitled “If the NHS is ‘fair’, give me unfairness any day.” It’s written by one James Delingpole, possibly a leading quipster for the Spectator stable. He’s not quite WFBuckley supercilious, but he comes close.
Ah those conservatives. As dependable as the rising sun. But infinitely of less worth.
Sphere: Related ContentTuesday, August 18, 2009
Would you pull the switch?
A bit of a controversy, Dear Gentle Reader(s), has arisen over the death penalty, and it comes from recent writings by two members of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Here’s the original link. It’s a New York Times article referring to a recent Court decision to hear a death penalty case.
Here are two interesting viewpoints:
1) “The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death,” Justice [John Paul] Stevens wrote in a concurrence joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer, “clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing.”
2) “This court has never held,” Justice [Antonin] Scalia wrote, “that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent.”
While the first example seems a given; the second seems somehow illogical.
Don’t we all, by now, understand that “a full and fair trial” is more of a goal to which we might aspire but might never know if we have attained?
Full? Has every last iota of evidence been offered and considered? Fair? Is the prosecution interested in Justice or conviction rate? Is the defense interested in Justice or manipulating the system?
If Justice Scalia’s statement is correct, and the Constitution does not forbid the execution of a person in the situation described by him, ought it so to do?
Sphere: Related ContentSunday, August 09, 2009
R.I.P.
Technorati Tags: Atomic energy,Atomic bomb
Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945. Estimated 39,000 instant deaths. 2nd atomic bomb attack on an enemy city.
Sphere: Related ContentSaturday, August 08, 2009
A must read
Technorati Tags: Andrew Sullivan,Right Wing Populism
Hie thee, Dear Gentle Reader(s), over to Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish to be enriched a submission by one of his readers.
It’s a response to one of Sullivan’s entries in which he asks “Is your bubble bursting?” a reference to the dismay some progressives are evincing about the slowness of Mr. Obama’s progressive campaign agenda.
The unnamed reader explains, quite accurately, the right wing populism now sweeping the country.
If you’ve ever wondered about those people, this writer nails ‘em.
Sphere: Related ContentThursday, August 06, 2009
Hiroshima
Remember, Dear Gentle Reader(s), that today is Hiroshima Day—64 years ago the atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
A pause for reflection is in order.
Sphere: Related ContentMonday, August 03, 2009
Deja vu—all over again. Alas.
The news today, in part, deals with the “confessions” and show trial of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s dissidents.
The world has seen these confessions and trials before.
There’s a new book out, The Stalin Epigram, by Robert Littell which depicts the Soviet judicial system in the 1930s, especially the way torture, “confessions,” and show trials were used to cleanse the system of dissidents.
One wonders, Dear Gentle Reader(s), how the religious leaders in Iran cannot see the parallels between their treatment of their countrymen and the way Stalin treated his countrymen during his regime.
There is a difference in magnitude, but not in historical similarity.
Trust, but verify.
Sphere: Related ContentThursday, July 30, 2009
Boko Haram—More widespread than you’d think?
Sphere: Related ContentTechnorati Tags: Religious Extremists,EducationThe phrase, Dear Gentle Reader(s), means, in effect, education is sinful. Well, that’s one way to interpret it. Go here for a more detailed and, probably, more accurate discussion.
It’s a name given to a particular Islamist cult in Africa currently wreaking havoc in Nigeria.
The cult is more interested in “Western” education, to be sure, but too many religionists are leery of modernizing education for their potential adherents.
In California, fundamentalist Christians helped to destroy a move for more creative thinking in the 1990s; in Afghanistan and Pakistan the Taliban and other Islamists destroy girls’ schools; text books from Saudi Arabia often seem lodged in the 7th century.
The war against terror won’t be won in the military battlefield; it needs must be won in the classroom.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
11.14.2139
Note to self: Suggest to nieces and nephews they put a clause in their wills for their grandchildren that there be established a national holiday on November 14, 2139, in honor of the master rapscallion of greed, Bernie Madoff, who would’ve been released from prison on that day, had he lived out his sentence.
Have a good B.M. Day, everyone!
Sphere: Related ContentSunday, July 12, 2009
ERP?
A dilemma, Dear Gentle Reader(s) has descended.
It seems one was ensconced in a dentist’s chair, preparing for a routine replacement of a rather superficial filling (one not requiring extensive drilling) when one responded to a packing of string under the gum area with a wince.
“Too much pain?”
“Um, well, I feel it.”
“OK. Let me give you another shot.”
“Thank you.”
Skip ahead four weeks.
“Explanation of Dental Benefits” from MetLife: “For benefit determination purposes, procedure D9110 is not a covered dental expense since it is considered a part of procedure D23 91 and benefits are not separately payable for this procedure.”
“Hmmm,” one hmmms. “What is D9110? Dunno. Let’s look.” Referring to the procedure code at the top of the page, D9110 is…Wait for it…Emergency Relief of Pain.*
So one didn’t get enough “relief of pain” from the first shot, and the second shot cost $100!
Perhaps one ought to seek the services of a different dentist.
Perhaps.
Too bad, though. It was a pleasant 2 year relationship.
*Hence, ERP
Sphere: Related ContentFriday, July 10, 2009
Huh?
There is a law school, Dear Gentle Reader(s), which goes by the name of Ave Maria School of Law, that is currently engaged in a wrongful termination law suit and, in so doing, is raising some interesting diction (in the sense of word choice) issues.
You can read about it on the web site of The National Law Journal.
What is most interesting is this: [Ave Maria School of Law] is trying to declare law professors as ministers to avoid a wrongful termination suit from proceeding.
The professors aren’t ordained, but somehow they’re ministers because they work for a religious institution.
Word games—the bane of logic.
Fun times.
Sphere: Related ContentTuesday, July 07, 2009
Enough, Already!!!
Dear Gentle Reader(s), how much more do we have to know about Governor Palin? Better, has anyone read anything, anything at all, new about her in the past month or so?
There can’t be very much interest in her political future. Except for extremists in the right wing of the electorate—and there aren’t enough votes there for her to be a serious contender—no one seriously considers her a “contender.”
There might still be enough of a concern for people to begin to ask serious questions of Senator McCain, i.e., “What on earth were you thinking?” Other than that, let the woman do whatever she wants to do.
It’s time for the punditry to let go. We’ve already paid enough attention to that particular train wreck.
Sphere: Related ContentSaturday, July 04, 2009
Eye-rolling Smiley
Sometimes, Dear Gentle Reader(s), it’s so easy, that one thinks an effort is hardly worthwhile.
Case in point—over at the Townhalldotcom Muckroom, Bill O’Reilly’s column starts with this titbit: “In fact, we are becoming a nation of braying sheep…”
Ah, Bill-o—to use the Hallowed Keith’s word—, sheep, my boyo, don’t bray, they bleat. Jackasses bray.
Either way, though, Bill-o’s covered.
Happy Fourth, America. Remember the troops.
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