Fidelity vs Infidelity, and Some In-Between Minutiae

I'd like to mention that I called the 2016 election for Trump at 9:45 on Election night.

November 13, 2020

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I went to a zoo and it only had one dog. It was a shih tzu.

November 13, 2020

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The younger generation, putting the country back together again.

November 13, 2020

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I keep hearing this argument- let the people decide about Trump in 2020. 

Wait a second, the people already decided on Congressional representatives, and the question is whether those current Representatives believe the president committed an impeachable act. Representative democracy does not mean that you vote for president every four years, end of story. They've lost that argument. 

Add to this the fact that Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine unless they would unfairly influence the 2020 election on Trump's behalf. That's a double-lose for that argument.

November 12, 2019

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Our house has a street number, our street has a name, our town has a name, our state has a name, our country has a name, our planet has a name, our galaxy has a name, but our solar system doesn't have a name, does it? I just looked this up and it turns out that it does have a name... The Solar System. It's a star system, and 'sol' is derived from "sun." So our star system is The Solar System. So now maybe you learned something.

November 13, 2018

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Jeesh, this president is soooo busy on his Asia trip... he hasn't even had 10 seconds to think up some cutting nickname for the pedophile soon-to-be senator. It's almost like you don't even know what side he's on... probably trying to figure out a way to compare it to Confederate statues.

November 13, 2017

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Dave Chappelle's joke about the Cincinnati police saying shooting the gorilla at the zoo was the hardest decision they ever had to make...I'm not repeating it here, but it is one of the best jokes I ever heard.

November 13, 2016

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Don't go outside without your moonglasses and moontan lotion.

November 13, 2016

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Haha, Leslie Stahl just asked Trump about all the lobbyists he's bringing on board...he said he needs them for the transition but he's going to phase them out. Drain the swamp, then fill it back up with a temporary swamp!

November 13, 2016

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Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World- "One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."

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It's evidently true that more Democrats need to empathize with the other side if they are to win the presidency. It's also true that if more Republicans learn what empathy is, they might one day get a majority.

November 13, 2016

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In the spirit of imitation being the most sincere form of flattery, we should give a cutting but true nickname to our new president elect, Sexual Assaultin' Trump.

November 13, 2016

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A few weeks ago we got a $750 quote to fix our furnace. Emma did research on the problem, bought the part for $100 and fixed it in about an hour. And that's the least impressive thing she's done over the past two weeks.

November 13, 2013

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Mad men Conversation

Ben- Do you want to watch Mad Men again sometime?  

Emma- Not really.   

Ben- But we can drink whiskey while we watch it.

Emma- OK, wanna watch it right now.

November 13, 2011

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You think part of the reason the Amish are thriving is that they don't worship their children?

November 13, 2010

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From my deadatyourage.com email subscription- "At your exact age, Jimmie Rodgers died of tuberculosis. He was a singer, yodeler and the first country music star."

November 13, 2010

Postscript- I wish that service still existed.

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Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, was born on this day in 1850. I don't think he was the author of this limerick though.

There was a young fellow named Hyde

Who took a girl out for a ride. 

He mucked up her fuck-hole 

And fucked up her muck-hole, 

And charged her $2 beside.

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Buck O'Neil was born on this day in 1911.

"It is the American game. That’s just what it is...I’m 81, but I can feel like I’m 15 when I’m talking baseball, I’m watching baseball. This is it. It does this to any man. It brings you back."

“I met John Jordan ‘Buck’ O’Neil in 1992 when we were making our film Baseball. He was a guide, helping us understand the history of the American pastime as a sport but also as a reflection of our larger national narrative.”

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Jean Seberg was born on this day in 1938.

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Jimmy Kimmel was born on this day in 1967. Late night television is not what it once was, but when he told the story of his son's heart problem in the midst of the Republicans considering taking away protection of pre-existing conditions, that was an all-time moment. My hat is off to him. And the show after him finding out that his good friend Don Rickles left us, perfect.

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born on this day in 1969. From one of my very favorite books, Infidel:

"The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more."

Apparently she just became a Christian.

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Margaret Wise Brown left us on this day in 1952.

"Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere."

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Director, Vittorio De Sica, left us on this day in 1974.

"Art has to be severe. It cannot be commercial. It cannot be for the producer or even for the public. It has to be for oneself."

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I'm not too optimistic about the future of the human race (smart enough to be able to wipe ourselves out, not smart enough to know how not to) but it really would be a significant achievement if within my lifetime we discover extraterrestrial life.

November 13, 2010

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This raccoon makes some very good points. And a few very bad points. One of my very favorite Onion articles!

http://www.theonion.com/articles/come-on-just-open-the-door-and-let-me-in-this-once,30359/

November 13, 2012

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Old article, but prescient. With no question, the Republicans would have done this if the situation was reversed. Why? Because they are tough! They would have quite reasonably said that it's the democratic Senate's DUTY to advise and content, and their president's appointment was a result of them WAIVING that right. Weird situation, no doubt, but it would result in a Supreme Court case, and the correct people could decide the constitutionality.

http://wpo.st/3E-E2

November 13, 2016

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Washington Times- Donald Trump holds high the flag for gay equality

I have nothing to say about this, I'll just let it confuse everybody.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/2/donald-trump-holds-high-flag-gay-equality/

November 13, 2016

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Democracy Now- Embracing the Alt-Right: New Trump Campaign Chief “Created an Online Haven for White Nationalists”

I strongly encourage all Trump supporters to draw a line in the sand, before 100 seemingly insignificant incremental steps turn us into something very different.

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/24/trump_purports_to_reach_black_voters

November 13, 2016

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The Atlantic- ‘No One Is Listening to Us’

Some states' healthcare systems are on the verge of collapse. Get ready for hundreds of thousands more to die. Change your behaviors to become more safe. Or maybe I've been wrong all along, and the best course of action is to downplay it.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/11/third-surge-breaking-healthcare-workers/617091/

November 13, 2020

Postscript- True, hundred if thousands more were destined to die.

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New York Times- The Post-Presidency of a Con Man

I had been thinking about this. Republicans in power are not going to want to coronate him in 2024... it's in their own best political interest to take him down. We'll see!

"Trump is in for years of scandals and humiliations. We will doubtlessly find out more about official misdeeds he tried to keep secret as president. Republicans who hope to succeed him will have reason to start painting him as a loser instead of a savior. He’ll have to devote much of his energy to trying to stay out of prison."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/opinion/trump-prosecution-lawsuits.html

November 13, 2020

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Sam Harris blog- The Roots of Good and Evil

"Are we aspiring for the maximum total amount of individual well-being or the highest average? Are principles of fairness and equality relevant? What if the slave society has very few unhappy slaves and very many happy slaveholders, so its citizens are, in total and on average, more fulfilled than ours? Is that society more moral? If my child needs an operation to save his sight, am I a better person if I let him go blind and send the money to a charity where it will save another child’s life? These are hard questions, and they don’t go away if we have a complete understanding of the empirical facts."

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-roots-of-good-and-evil/

November 13, 2013

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Palindromes!

Did I draw Della too tall, Edward? I did?

Poor Dan is in a droop.

Flee to me, remote elf.

Not so, Boston.

Campus motto: "Bottoms up, Mac!"

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Manson:

"Look down at me and you see a fool,

Look up at me and you see a god,

Look straight at me and you see yourself.

Total paranoia is just total awareness."

Listen, I know this guy is the worst. I'm just posting quotes from him to illustrate how you can see that somebody would get caught up and following him. There's a self-help group guru aspect to many things he says. It's just, you know, he uses that crap to justify the worst.

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More Ebaum's World- 28 Things You've Probably Never Thought About

All planets in the solar system fit between the Earth and the moon.

If you looked at the Earth from 65 million years away, you would see dinosaurs.

There's no reason for the alphabet to be in that order.

Electrons actually pass through a wire very slowly, the reason it seems fast is the same reason that if he had a tube full of marbles and pushed on one end one on pop out the other end almost immediately.

A million seconds is 11 days. A billion seconds is 31 years.

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Charles Bukowski:

I needed a vacation. I needed 5 women. I needed to get the wax out of my ears. My car needed an oil change. I'd failed to file my damned income tax. One of the stems had broken off of my reading glasses. There were ants in my apartment. I needed to get my teeth cleaned. My shoes were run down at the heels. I had insomnia. My auto insurance had expired. I cut myself every time i shaved. I hadn't laughed in 6 years. I tended to worry when there was nothing to worry about. And when there was something to worry about, i got drunk.

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Campbell- "Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth--penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told."

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Aayan Hirsi Ali again- "However, some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice."

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 Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater- “Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”

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Kierkegaard- "There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true."

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Albert Einstein- "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

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Publius- "I have often regretted my speech, never my silence."

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Heraclitus- "To get everything you want is not a good thing. Disease makes health seem sweet. Hunger leads to the appreciation of being full-fed. Tiredness creates the enjoyment of resting."

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Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress- "We take its gifts for granted: newborns who will live more than eight decades, markets overflowing with food, clean water that appears with a flick of a finger and waste that disappears with another, pills that erase a painful infection, sons who are not sent off to war, daughters who can walk the streets in safety, critics of the powerful who are not jailed or shot, the world’s knowledge and culture available in a shirt pocket. But these are human accomplishments, not cosmic birthrights."

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Oscar Wilde- “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”