We’ve heard the jokes; we’ve seen the memes. Kellyanne Conway is now a national laughing stock. Which happens, so big whoop, right?
For those few of you who may have missed this story, CNN published the best account I can find — not snarky, not snotty at all, which is worthy of note as they tend to give Conway a hard time whenever they can.
If you don’t (more…)
I’ll admit, for a few minutes yesterday, I was getting very worried about whether or not we were about to go conquer Iran.
Bear in mind, if we ever do go in, it’ll probably be a Friday afternoon (more…)
I don’t know about you, but when I woke up to discover that we’re having a refugee problem with Australia, it made my brain hurt for a bit. I mean, I know they’ve got this cane toad problem, and some of the most poisonous nasty creatures on earth live there — I mean, spiders and snakes, sure, but a snail? A deadly stinging tree? Gina Rinehart, for God’s sake?! — but that’s no reason to flee the country. Or maybe it is; I don’t know. I’ve never met the woman. (more…)
Warning: Not for the sensitive. Stop reading right now if you’re not a jaded cynic; there’s no shame in it.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re aware of the chaos caused by the recent seven-country immigration ban. Of particular interest to those pillars of rectitude, the unbiased press, was a picture of a five-year-old in handcuffs. Which, while indeed horrific, was only one of many stories told about the events (more…)
“I Hate This Place”
-Spider Jerusalem
“All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy… One of its primary functions is to regiment men by force, to make them as much alike as possible and as dependent upon one another as possible, to search out and combat originality among them. All it can see in an original idea is potential change, and hence an invasion of its prerogatives.
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable…”
-H.L. Mencken, “The Smart Set” (more…)
While the White House and a couple of Senators are loudly Trump-eting about the alleged Russian involvement in an email hack, we’re missing out on a major news story: The civil war in Syria is all over bar the shouting. (And inevitable reprisals.)
Don’t mistake me: The email thing is important. I believe it will drive our news for much of the next year, and the results could be extremely impressive. But Aleppo is huge, and (more…)
Since their recent semi-acquisition by communications giant Univision, “The Onion” has begun putting out some surprisingly reasonable stuff in their Politics section. The present edition features a useful infographic entitled “How To Stay Politically Active After The Election”, and there’s another interesting piece on Justice Ginsburg’s plans for the winter break.
…OK; I admit it. My headline is a complete fabrication. I made it up. Much like The Onion did this.
This is how clickbait works: You see something that’s shocking; you say to yourself, “This can’t possibly be true!” And then you click on it, and someone makes money from their sponsors.
(News alert: I don’t actually have any sponsors. Too bad, too; I could use the money.) (more…)
This is a picture of a SiG MCX.
It’s a highly efficient modular tactical infantry weapon, designed to be easily modified so as to be the proper gun for any situation. It’s lightweight, reliable, and deadly. Oh, and a homicidal maniac used one to kill fifty people in Orlando the other day.
At the moment, the nation is sick and tired of hearing about guns and shootings. We’ve had enough, and if the problem doesn’t get solved, We The People are about to fire a whole raft of Congressmen and Senators. And the lawmakers in question know this full well, so they’re making a lot of extra noise about it this time around.
In fact, so very much noise is being made that I think we’ve lost sight of what exactly it is that we’re talking about. (more…)
The current national discussion on gun control is taking place between a large number of people, many of whom have differing levels of expertise with the use or identification of weapons. Many of those desiring greater restrictions on firearms are unfamiliar with them, which is entirely reasonable; firearms aficionados and collectors would be the most likely to educate themselves on the subject, whereas those who fear or mistrust them would be likely to avoid any contact with the weapons in question.
Unfortunately for the dialogue, this lack of expertise detracts from the credibility of those wanting change. Additionally, decades of intricate and confusing gun laws have muddied up the conversational waters even more. Since profitable discussion requires mutual respect, and since the subject is simple enough to learn, read on. (more…)
Every time something horrific happens, every op-ed writer in America puts out their thoughts on it: why it happened, how it could have been prevented, the senselessness of it all. And what’s sad is, a lot of people are getting sick of it, ignoring it, moving on. We see so very much that’s horrible and we just can’t face one more thing in a litany of more things. And the last thing we need is some self-important armchair political hack telling us who did what wrong and who’s at fault.
So why am I, yet another self-important windbag, writing anything? Why do you need another helping of empty wind from someone else who doesn’t matter? Why do we need any of them yapping at us when what we really want to do is grieve in peace or fix the damn problem already and get on with the business of living but this time in safety?
Good questions. Here’s the answer: (more…)
The Not Fake News 
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