You wonderful people. You’ve seen me Definitely Not At My Best twice just since New Year. And … well, you wonderful people. That’s all I can say right now. There will be more soon on that and other things. But for now … on with the blogging, the linkage, the trivia, and the dogs … Um. Well. On the topic of that E.C. I so recently maundered about: How to deal with an existential crisis. Illustrated, yet. Thug sues Nike for not posting a warning on its shoes that they could be dangerous if used for face-stomping. Things you never…
Category: Miscellaneous
As soon as I post this, I’m going to make Thursday’s “bad” post public again. If clever people and hobby-horse riders want to make the comment section All About Them, that’s on their heads, not mine. Your encouragement, good cheer, and wisdom delivered via email and via comments on yesterday’s apology post helped me get over myself. (The irony was not lost on me that I squealed like a little girl over comments on a post titled “Live Boldly.” It was amazingly nice of y’all not to mention that. 🙂 ) I’m still going to take a week off. I…
On Thursday I posted something I wish I hadn’t. It was meant to be part one of a two-parter. I knew exactly what I wanted to say in part two, but posted the partial because it was getting long. I expected to provoke discussion and some disagreement. That’s how it goes — all to the good. I didn’t expect to be so totally misinterpreted. I was stunned at the message people thought I was conveying. It didn’t even resemble the message I intended. At first I thought a few individuals just didn’t get it. Or were deliberately twisting my words.…
Kurt Hofmann: “Resolved to be a gun criminal.” Well, now there’s a resolution that should be pretty easy to keep! Starbucks orders little pub to cease and desist. Little pub tells Starbucks … This cop n gun story is so scary-weird on so many levels, I can hardly believe I exist in the same universe with it. (H/T Hobbit) Take this FWIW, but here’s a former cop on how to behave if somebody puts a gun to your head. The one time something like that happened to me, calm (which said cop recommends) was definitely an asset. But I was…
If you made stuff like this up for a movie, it would be too ridiculous to believe. The NSA intercepted shipments to insert backdoors into electronics. (H/T JB in comments) Thirty-eight hauntingly abandoned places. Wendy McElroy: “The Redistribution of Dreams.” So well said, so sadly thought. New Years resolutions and free will. And to close with an awwwwww: dog escapes his new home and returns the shelter … for love. (H/T BW)
This judge wins the Ultra-Statist of the Week prize for excusing the NSA while kicking Snowden. I’ve been asking myself this question, too. When will insurance companies say, “Enough’s enough!”? We need more judges like Donald Beatty. (H/T Hobbit) Going “offshore” … in South Dakota. A sign of the times? And another sign of the times. Great one! College shooting ranges are on the rise. (Tip o’ hat to L.A.) The president of Uruguay. No matter what else you may think of him (or not think of him, since I’m guessing you spend a very, very small portion of your…
… for the weirdest item ordered from my Amazon links this season goes to the Dragon Claw Ashtray. (Even weirder: it features no claws. But definitely dragons. Er … dragon parts.) Congratulations, Anonymous Winner! I can’t decide whether this beats last year’s Barack Obama Chia Pet. They’re both certainly Olympic contenders for weirdness. I shall be back shortly with some actual, you know, content. Meantime, I thought y’all might enjoy this. I certainly did.
Senator Joe Manchin may be a conniving anti-gun suck. But he has just become the biggest Democrat truth-teller on Obamacare. “Meltdown … falls of its own weight … becomes more than we can absorb.” Devastating stuff! Ever hear of Ocorrafoo Cobange, a scientist at the Wassee Institute of Medicine in Asmara? Neither has anybody else. But 157 professional journals were happy to accept the extremely fake-sounding scientist’s extremely fake article. “What This Poet Says About Our Culture Is So Brilliant It Could Break Something in Your Brain.” Well, maybe not that brilliant. But definitely very astute. And very funny, besides.…
Soooo, what are the chances the Obama administration (or any other) will enact all these proposed restrictions on the NSA? Not likely, ya think? And could this be the reason why? Obamacare (again). It’s as if they figured out everything that would make insurance and health care better, then did the exact opposite. Localizing coverage even further instead of enabling insurance companies to sell across state lines was one of those things. That’s gotten some mention, thanks to the cancer patients it’s going to kill. But in all the other hand-wringing, I don’t think most pundits have yet figured out…
Commonsense about polygamy is finally appearing in the mainstream. (No, I don’t think government should be involved, but otherwise, this is good stuff.) If you want to live innovatively off-grid, maybe it’s best not to do it in a city. Or at least not to talk about it if you do. (H/T H.) That Texas “affluenza” brat who killed four people and turned one of his friends into a vegetable may not have to pay any consequences for his actions. But his parents might. The courts might never stop the NSA’s outrages (despite hopeful rulings to the contrary). Congress? They…