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…)
“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…)
“I’m surprised more people don’t ask, “Which way is the Klan voting?” and then say, “Thanks, I’ll obviously vote the opposite way.” “
Quote from “The Bollard”, ‘Racisms’, April 5th 2016, by Samuel James.
Personally, I refuse to let the KKK tell me how to vote.
Look, on the face of it, the quote seems like plain common sense. Do I agree with the KKK? No? Well, let’s see who they like most and vote against them.
Every complex problem out there has at least one simple, easy-to-understand, common-sense, wrong answer. This is a perfect example. Read on and I’ll explain. (more…)
NOTE: This article was written as a response to another, originally published in “The Bollard” on April 5th. It can be read here.
A guy wrote once that, although debate and compromise are valuable things in the right place, there are some positions that are completely, flatly wrong. These, because they’re just so obviously invalid, are no longer worth discussing, and compromise with them is plain dumb. (more…)
(NOTE: This article has been revised again; the pros and cons listed have been kept up to date, even though the intro is vintage campaign.)
Major media outlets are full of reactions to recent announcements that the President will be asking to increase the ceiling on Syrian refugee acceptance for next year. Unsurprisingly, the stories are largely focused on the reaction to the announcement; contention drives the media profit mill, and so it would be unusual to see any other form of response from them.
Since it’s the height of the upcoming Presidential election cycle, it’s also not surprising that every hopeful candidate has (more…)
There is global outrage at the recent terror attacks on civilians, and rightly so. The group calling itself the Islamic State (I’ll be referring to them as Daesh, following the example of France’s President Hollande) has claimed responsibility for not only the attacks in Paris, but also bombings in Beiruit and a passenger jet in Egypt, Metrojet Flight 9268. In all, several (more…)
The Not Fake News 