Guns Don’t Kill People, Five-Year-Olds Kill People
May 2, 2013 1 Comment
The Conscientious and the Negative
May 1, 2013 Leave a comment
Will Oremus writes in Slate about a Contactually finding that “negative people” are better at responding to e-mail messages than “their positive, bubbly colleagues.”
The most surprising thing about this is that Oremus finds it surprising. I’ve long thought there was a connection between perceived negativity and conscientiousness.
More than twenty years ago, in what is only the most memorable of several such experiences I’ve had, a soon-to-be-famous playwright asked an overworked cast to come in an hour early for an unscheduled rehearsal. All of the actors cheerfully agreed, except the one that everyone expected to complain. The complainer pointed out how much time they were already being asked to devote to the show and only reluctantly agreed to the added rehearsal time. When the time for the extra rehearsal came, aside from the stage manager (me), only the complainer was on time. Even the playwright herself didn’t show.
Maybe conscientious people expect others to be equally conscientious and their disappointment makes them negative, while those who cheerfully ignore responsibilities they don’t care to fulfill rarely have reason to feel disappointed in others.
Perry Hides Behind His Own Victims
April 29, 2013 2 Comments
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas wants an apology from the Sacramento Bee for running a cartoon by Jack Ohman that links his touting of loose business regulations to the tragic fertilizer plant explosion that leveled blocks and killed 14. Says Perry, in a letter to the paper,
I won’t stand for someone mocking the tragic deaths of my fellow Texans and our fellow Americans.
Perry learned this trick from George W. Bush, who accused anyone who questioned his war decisions of attacking the men and women he was sending to die.
Kudos to the Bee for honoring the dead by holding Perry’s feet to the fire in an effort to prevent similar catastrophes in the future, and shame on anyone who lets politicians hide from responsibility behind the victims of their own decisions.
Saturday Night Zodiac Cat – Taurus
April 20, 2013 Leave a comment
Buzzfeed has the full repertoire of Zodiac cats.
April 20 – May 20: Taurus Cats form strong friendships with a few people rather than being the kind of cat who’s, like, all over everyone’s lap regardless of how much they deserve it. If you are a Taurus Cat, you also never give up once you’ve set your mind to something, which is possibly occasionally kind of annoying if you happen to have a persistent meow.
Bush Still Clueless
April 17, 2013 1 Comment
George W. Bush is coming out of hiding to open his presidential library, and you’ll be happy to know he feels fine about his record as president. Bush reminds me a lot of Dan Quayle.
When, after Bush Sr. chose him as his running mate, concern was expressed about Quayle’s family pulling strings to keep him out of the Vietnam War, which he supported, he explained,
I did not know in 1969 that I would be in this room [as a vice-presidential nominee] today.
In other words, he didn’t understand the question. Rather than address his failure to do his duty, he spoke about a political blunder.
Bush, ahead of the library opening, explains away his unpopularity this way:
I’m comfortable with what I did.
What makes him think anyone cares?
Does he really think concern about the deaths of U.S. soldiers and Iraqis, torture and its consequences to our national image, the debt his administration racked up, or any of the other disasters of his presidency can be balanced by, “Well, as long as Bush feels okay about it…”? Does he think his critics are more worried about whether he feels bad than about the millions who were affected by his policies?
When your critics are wrong, a meaningful response details what they’re wrong about and why, but Bush, like Quayle before him, and not for the first time in his public life, doesn’t understand the question.
Tweet of the Day – 0dysseus on Political Parties Breaking from their Past
April 13, 2013 Leave a comment
Between Rand Paul at Howard & President Obama with Chained CPI the “Party of Lincoln” is just as true as “Party of FDR”
— 0dysseus (@zerOdysseus) April 12, 2013
Right-wing Marriage Experts (Very) Single?
March 28, 2013 Leave a comment
The arguments against gay marriage coming out as the Supreme Court ponders DOMA and California’s Proposition 8 are not only entertaining, but they provide a fascinating look at the way the minds of some of these right-wingers work.
Talk show host Matthew Hagee argues that when women are allowed to marry each other, they’ll stop having kids (leading, of course, to the most horrible thing that could befall a society–economic collapse due to a lack of consumers).
David R. Usher, president of the Center for Marriage Policy, argues that women who can choose each other will use men only as sperm banks and sources of child support.
Have any of these wingnutters ever been in a relationship with a woman? What sort of life must a man lead to fear that when women are allowed to marry each other none (or very few) will ever choose to marry a man?
Wednesday Night Zodiac Cat – Aries
March 20, 2013 Leave a comment
Buzzfeed has the full repertoire of Zodiac cats.
March 20 – April 19: Aries Cats are pounce-first-and-ask-questions-later type of cats. If you are born under this star sign, you are likely to figure out how to get into the cream before any of the other cats. As an Aries Cat, you are always the first to the top of the cat tree.
Gun Fears vs. Reality
February 21, 2013 1 Comment
Police don’t believe Oscar Pistorius’s claim that he felt threatened by the person locked in his bathroom, who turned out to be his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, now dead, but it doesn’t strike me as very different from the paranoid fantasies with which gun owners now routinely argue their need for limitless firepower. Gayle Trotter recently testified before congress that women’s safety requires the ability to instantaneously repel multiple violent attackers in their homes, though the only support she could come up with from the whole history of violent attacks was one that had been handily repelled by a woman with a non-assault weapon.
Just as some woman might some day face multiple intruders determined not to flee until she’s killed each one, so could an armed intruder in Pistorius’s bathroom have been about to shoot him through the door. This possibility forced him to shoot first.
Until gun owners learn to distinguish between their fears and reality, no one is safe. As Steenkamp, Trayvon Martin (whose shooter feared he might be armed), and many less publicized victims have shown us, it’s impossible to avoid looking as though we might be about to threaten someone’s life.
Tuesday Night Zodiac Cat – Pisces
February 19, 2013 Leave a comment
Buzzfeed has the full repertoire of Zodiac cats.
February 19 – March 20: Pisces Cats are very spiritual and intuitive. If you are a Pisces Cat, you are sensitive and prone to extremes of emotion – purry one minute and scratchy the next. Meow!
Thursday Night Video – Al Green, “Love and Happiness”
February 14, 2013 1 Comment
Live on Soul Train. Happy V-Day, everyone.
Monday Night Video – The Spinners, “Rubberband Man”
February 11, 2013 Leave a comment
My brother Andrew underwent ACL surgery a few years ago and recently gave one of our nephews the old rubber bands he used for rehabbing his knee. Our nephews and niece are great at making use of found objects.
Andrew says that the rubber bands remind him of the props used by The Spinners in their video for “Rubberband Man.” The odd, odd exercises start around the 3 minute mark.
