Right now, Monday, December 21st at 11:48 p.m. EST / 8:48 PST. Have some solstice lore. Last year was a warm, friendly winter in these parts (very much not the case for all of you, I know). This year, as you easterners run around in tee-shirts and sweaters, our winter has already been very, very, VERY long — even though it’s only just this moment officially begun. Good Yule to you, faithful readers! Enjoy the return of the sun.* —– *Unless you’re reading this in the southern hemisphere, in which case enjoy summer while it lasts. —– This holiday season,…
Author: Claire
The other day I heard somebody refer to the “golden age of television.”
I immediately leaped to the conclusion that he meant that fuzzy black and white age in which all of America watched Leave It to Beaver, Gunsmoke, and Ed Sullivan’s variety hour and gathered the next day to share their mutual cultural three-channel (if you didn’t count PBS, which was at that point some guy standing at a blackboard writing equations), pre-programmed experience.
Just as I was about to remind the speaker that his “golden age” was mere seconds in geological time from when Newton Minow created waves — and a meme — by damning all of television as “a vast wasteland,” I realized that’s not what he meant.
He meant now. This very minute.
It’s near freezing outside. Thirty-five degrees. And raining. Oh darn, I wish the dogs would allow me to lie abed this morning. Any chance of that? You s’pose? —– Uh oh. The natives are getting restless. The want gov to bomb Agrabah. Jafar would be mightily displeased. And you know how Jafar gets when he’s angry. —– Ah, so that’s what you were doing! Or not doing. On Amazon. Through November and early December I was puzzled by the dearth of anything that looked like holiday buying. Then last weekend … shazam! In flooded orders for musical instruments, creative toys,…
Of the new Omni-bust budget deal Jim Bovard sez: “Republican congressional leaders are like a football coach who believes the secret to winning is to punt early and often.” Rand Paul sez stop the bill — and he has some fairly decent ideas for alternatives. OTOH, Marijuana.com sez there are a couple of decent provisions in the 2,000 page monster sellout. On the other other hand, the USPS announces a completely unsurprising but curiously retro policy on carrying publications that contain — gasp! — ads for the dreaded Demon Weed. One wonders why they couldn’t have just kept their mouths…
It’s ignoble to admit it. Or rather, it’s ignoble to feel it but I might as well admit it. I’m feeling grouchy and vindictive today and glad somebody “got what was coming to him.” The somebody is my felonious acquaintance D. He finally got the sort of prison sentence he’s been looking for. I wrote about D. last summer after learning he’d been arrested — again — and was this time facing a life sentence. He didn’t get life. But recognizing a three-strikes catastrophe looming, he plea-bargained and is now serving 8 years. His first-degree assault charge was dropped to…
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Whatever you think (or whether you think) of Caitlyn Jenner, this is good. Seems Caitlyn refuses to toe the politically correct line on victimology. Meet the lobbyists who represent the world’s worst dictators to Your Representatives in Washington. I failed to acknowledge two very big historic dates earlier this week. First, the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Second, the Boston Tea Party. Here’s an interesting retrospective on the tea party. (Amusing how the Brahmins downplayed it.) And here’s an eyewitness account. You, too can evade the no-fly list. (Well, maybe. I’m sure this wouldn’t work for international flights where…
With Christmas cheer warming up and possibly even some chestnuts roasting over open fires, it seems like time for a little lite stuff. (Cheerfully stolen from furrydoc) A song for politicians and v*ters everywhere (Source; per Laird in comments) And a modern freedomista Christmas classic from Neema Vedadi and FreedomFeens (with Ben Stone aka Bad Quaker as Santa). (Source) And finally … Decorating with Canine from Brigid at Home on the Range.
Yes! We must ban guns. So that gangs of robbers will have to use alternatives. (H/T MJR) Obama cynically decries cynicism. ISIS judge says kill all the “defective” children. I guess Middle Eastern mommies and daddies should be glad it’s being done by “humane” methods rather than public beheadings or burning the infants alive in cages. Patrick Buchanan asks whether elites will blow up the GOP. He then proceeds to chronicle how the GOP has already been blown up. Interesting glimpse at history and (these days non) smoke-filled rooms, though. It’s always hard to tell a real crisis from one…
Does anybody — anybody? — remember just 22 years ago when microbrewers Bert and Sherry Grant were hounded mercilessly by the ATF for daring — those foul, vile, deadly criminals! — to put nutritional labels on their ale? Well, this time next year the FDA is going to start mercilessly hounding microbrewers who — those foul, vile, deadly criminals! — fail to put nutritional labels on their products. (Via Tam). Ah, the land of the free and the home of the overgoverned! Ain’t it grand? I wonder if the FDA checked first with the ATF to see whose contradictory book…