Journeys Through Joy, Sadness, and Cruelty
One of my least favorite facts. On this day in 1985 The Singing Nun (Jeanne-Paule Marie "Jeannine" Deckers) committed suicide due to financial hardship.
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There was a 12% solar eclipse this morning at sunrise, so I climbed up on my roof to see it. Reminded me of the Bikini Atoll nuclear test.
Video:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18p1hsurGL/
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A Smattering of Thoughts on the Oscar Debacle
-If you are on Will Smith's side, whose side are you on? Will Smith is not on Will Smith's side. He apologized. I'm bewildered how people would opt for Angry Will versus Apologetic Will.
-Women don't need men to defend them with physical violence, from jokes.
-Will Smith is part of a tiny minority who even knew about his wife's condition. My theory is that 99.99% of the people criticizing Chris Rock for "making fun of her condition", didn't even know she had the condition, yet they are inflexibly convinced Chris Rock must have known. It's not like the room gasped. The room laughed in the moment.
-Will Smith could have got attacked by Will Smith for laughing at the joke to begin with. (Laughing was a travesty in itself because it's a crap joke.)
-If this is the threshold for permissable violence, watch out. I don't think anybody wants attacked when they offend someone else for any reason- politics, religion, or through some oversight.
-Chris chided Penelope Cruz for potentially getting upset if Javier Barden won and she didn't. I somehow don't think Barden should have body slammed him if she took offense. Who knows, maybe she struggles with anger issues and it's a sensitive subject. How would we know? Or maybe supporting Barden would be insane.
-There are a lot of quasi-conspiracy theories. Maybe it's no more than this- Chris made a dumb joke about her short hair, Will laughed, Jada rolled her eyes, Will stormed the Capitol (I mean rushed the Oscar stage), struck Chris is a violent rage, and that was that. Don't forget the concept of parsimony- often the simplest explanation is the correct explanation.
-Or maybe there's a little more to it. Maybe will felt like he had to prove his John Wayne-style manliness to Jada. Not to traipse too deeply into Will's speculative subconscious... but maybe he figured that perhaps then she'd finally believe that he's enough for her and she'd quit looking elsewhere. And hey, maybe not!
*A quick aside: John Wayne must have had something to prove to somebody... apparently it took 6 security guards to stop him from attacking Sasheen Littlefeather. If he had, I wonder if they would have let him go back to his seat. Decades later, still fighting Indians. Couldn't grow up or move on. "Get out of the new road if you can't lend a hand."
-Would it be a better world if comedians just attacked hecklers, versus destroying them with words? What about if we all just attack anyone who offends us, always assuming the worst of their intent in the absence of evidence? Maybe we should fire all of our diplomats and hire more military? Nah, words are better, and where words fail, violence erupts.
I think the reason this has captured my imagination is because it boils down to a big, central, unanwered question. Are we a culture driven by emotion and violence, or reason, peace and conversation?
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The magnetic field surrounding the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, captured with an Event Horizon Telescope.
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This is true... governors need to bid against each other and FEMA for ventilators (monetizing human lives)... a process the federal government has the ability to streamline in an emergency. But orders from the top are- "the federal government is not a shipping clerk."
March 29, 2019
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Me to Gretel- "This is a potato."
Gretel (dancing)- "A puppy toe! A puppy toe! A puppy toe."
Whoever coined the term "terrible twos" might have been a psychopath. These are the terrific twos.
March 29, 2016
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Today Obama said, “The notion that two months or three months after something as horrific as what happened in Newtown happens and we’ve moved on to other things? That’s not who we are.” That's not who we are??? That's exactly who we are!!! That's who he is!!! He moved on to sign the Monsanto Protection Act!!!
March 29, 2013
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If Rand Paul isn't a racist (and I don't think he is) then why does he talk with that racist accent?
March 29, 2013
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On this day in 1951, the Hypnosis Murders in Copenhagen. Palle Hardrup and Bjørn Schouw Nielsen were convicted of a double murder that resulted from a failed ank heist, even though Nielsen apparently hypnotized Hardrup beforehand!
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On this day in 1971, Lieutenant William Calley of My Lai Massacre infamy was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
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On this day in 1973, the last United States combat soldiers left South Vietnam.
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On this day in 2020, the president had governors bidding against each other to get critical supplies to fight Covid. Governors who were nice to him got preferential treatment with federal stockpiles.
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President John Tyler joined us on this day in 1790. He has a living grandson!
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Cy Young was born on this day in 1867. Perhaps the most unapproachable baseball record- 511 wins. Will anyone hit 300 again?
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Powerhouse songwriter, Eric Idle, joined us on this day in 1943. Nudge, nudge, know what I mean? Say no more. "Life's a piece of shit, when you think of it."
From his autobiography: "I still remain foolishly optimistic even with the threat of global warming, which worries me slightly less than personal cooling."
https://youtu.be/SJUhlRoBL8M
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Suicide enthusiast Bud Cort was born on this day in 1948.
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Amy Sedaris, the embodiment of human delightfulness, was born on this day in 1961.
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Other notable birthdays- Sam Walton (1918), Elle MacPherson (1964)
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The Onion- Ted Cruz Opens Up To Town Hall Audience About Early Days As Larva Feeding On Porcupine Carcass
http://onion.com/1SkMmzy
March 29, 2016
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IFLScience- Acupuncture Is No Better Than A Placebo For Treating Back Pain, Says Report
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/exercise-better-acupuncture-treat-lower-back-pain
March 29, 2016
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Taste of Cinema- 10 movies you should watch if you like the films of Woody Allen
Great list! Yes, I could have guessed that Frances Ha would be number one.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2017/10-movies-you-should-watch-if-you-like-the-films-of-woody-allen/
March 29, 2017
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Mother Jones- More Than 2,000 Americans Have Died of the Coronavirus. Trump Is Tweeting About His TV Ratings.
Even for Trump, bizarre beyond words. Bragging about his Coronavirus briefing ratings. Imagine for a second Bush bragging about his ratings after updating the country about 911. Add to this the fact that Trump has always been obsessed with ratings and he exaggerates and contradicts his own experts to make things seem rosy... evidently for the ratings.
https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/03/more-than-2000-americans-have-died-of-the-coronavirus-trump-is-tweeting-about-his-tv-ratings/
March 29, 2020
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Homoshrapnel
Guardian- Air force looked at spray to turn enemy gay
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/13/usa.danglaister
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Sopranos:
Paulie Walnuts- "I don't understand. When I was a kid, you two were old ladies. Now I'm old, and you two are still old."
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Tennessee Williams- "All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness."
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Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion- "Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God's approval and reward, or to avoid his disapproval and punishment? That's not morality, that's just sucking up, apple-polishing, looking over your shoulder at the great surveillance camera in the sky, or the still small wiretap inside your head, monitoring your every move, even your every base though."
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Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon- "If you can approach the world's complexities, both its glories and its horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that however deeply you have seen, you have only scratched the surface, you will find worlds within worlds, beauties you could not heretofore imagine, and your own mundane preoccupations will shrink to proper size, not all that important in the greater scheme of things."
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Walt Whitman- God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards.
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John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces- "Canned food is a perversion,' Ignatius said. 'I suspect that it is ultimately very damaging to the soul."
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Antisthenes- "There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself - an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly."
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Errol Morris- "Only the unimaginative carpenter fails to blame his tools."
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Blaise Pascal- "People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive."
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Dumb Short Joke of the Day:
This is my step ladder. I never knew my real ladder.
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