Took me a while, but I said I’d have tales (and tails) from the Mother Earth News Fair. So here are a couple. The young lady with the radiant smile is — you can tell! — a member of the furry community. She wears her tail happily and presented me with a bushy faux wolf tail of my very own. Furry folk are much misunderstood and (you won’t be surprised) sometimes discriminated against for their playful self-expression. (The example at the last link happened on private property, so the security guards in question were probably within their rights — which…
Category: Miscellaneous
Stuff I’ve been collecting for use in larger essays that I’ve decided just to toss out here: Found this while researching the history of the Fourth Amendment for a S.W.A.T. magazine article: “In praise of John Wilkes: how a filthy, philandering dead-beat helped secure British–and American–liberty.” Overall freedom rankings by state. To be taken with a grain of salt, of course. Your personal freedom doesn’t depend on your state’s. But it’s interesting. Especially for anybody seeking a new place to live. Ego-boo. Look what I found at #10 on a list of 1214 Books You Must Read Before You Die.…
He must mean Mother Earth, who is holding up pretty well despite her age and predictions of her imminent demise. If he means me, he forgot to add “damn good looking despite the gray silver hair and wrinkles.” But thanks, Dave. I blush. I thought you and Lenie rocked, too. (And so did Bryan Welch.) I hope you’ll blog more experiences from Mother’s show.
If you’re headed for the Mother Earth News Fair this weekend, I should mention … Dave and Ilene Duffy will (as far as I know) be there all weekend. Show hours are 9-7 on Saturday, 9-6 on Sunday. I’ll definitely be there all day Saturday. On Sunday you’ll find me there in the morning and early afternoon. Depending on how much is going on (or not), I may head for home before the end of the day. TMEN has planned a great — and BIG — event, with lots to see and do. And they’ve given BHM what looks like…
Harold Camping speaks. One could be charitable and say the man’s getting senile. But does senility bring such arrogance, narcissism, and complete disregard for what he wrought on those who were foolish enough to believe him? And yes, of course. He wasn’t wrong. Didn’t even make a “math error” this time. (In fact, he now says he never made a math error in the first place, not in his 1994 Doomsday prediction, nor anywhere else.) Judgment Day came exactly as he predicted. We simply didn’t notice. Three times now, apparently. Presumably we will notice — albeit briefly — when the…
… about the collapse of the economy. The 50 things aren’t really news to people who’ve been watching closely. But the article is sharp and it’s fascinating that bits of libertariana and free-market economics are sneaking in to relatively mainstream econ stats, these days. Take fact #16, for instance — inflation as measured from 1970 to the present and 1913 to the present. A lot of readers might think nothing of the use of 1913 as a base year for counting inflation. Wouldn’t notice, wouldn’t question. But you and I know why that year matters. And what if a few…
One small step for human decency and the fourth amendment. Love the second comment: “Here’s something to think about; a bill needed to be passed to prohibit a gov’t employee from touching your or your families (sic) ‘anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast.’ Really? REALLY?” But don’t worry. The TSA has no intention of letting decency, sense, or the Constitution get out of hand. Neither does Erik Prince. Does that man just seem scarier every time his name turns up in the news, or what? (H/T PT) And how come, if “justices” are so worried about the possibility of violence…
Yegads. It’s enough to drive even a dedicated “creators’ rights” person into the anti-IP camp. From W.K. (who also wonders if one can make a living coming up with euphonious acronyms for bad laws) — meet the proposed “PROTECT-IP” Act. You can just call it (as they do on Ars Technica’s Law & Disorder Blog) the Revised Net Censorship Act: The PROTECT IP Act makes a few major changes to last year’s COICA legislation. … But what the PROTECT IP Act gives with one hand, it takes away with the other. While the definition of targeted sites is tighter, the…
I’m headed to another town to pick up a foster dog. I’m not ready for this. I told the local group I’d start fostering this summer, but things have been so unsettled I was considering ways to weasel out of my commitment. This is such a sad case, though. I couldn’t say no. The incoming dog is a nine-year-old who’s bouncing back to the group because a placement made six years ago has gone sour. The dog, a female black Lab mix, was very much loved. Then the adopter had babies, and “Betsy” never took to them. Eighteen months ago,…
In the Mothers Day spirit: 11 Awwww-Inspiring Surrogate Moms. Mozilla says “NO” to the DHS. Wonder how that’ll work out. Good for Billings Gazette readers. Boohiss to Best Buy for firing an employee who did the right thing. The 10 secret warning signs of inflation. 🙂 So what do you think happened to silver last week? And where’s silver going from here? Torture: “Still Stupid, Still Wrong, Still Immoral.” The only thing wrong with Dahlia Lithwick’s opinion is that she doesn’t state it emphatically enough. “The Emperors’ Clothes.” A heartrending cry as Pakistanis wake up to their governmental catastrophe, post…