3719 Some are more equal than others, or something....

Thursday, April 18, 2013

We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us,

but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.

-- Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus), rhetorician (c. 35-100) --

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There was a huge explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant last night, at about 8 pm.  Authorities predict between five and fifteen dead and more than 160 injured, but they're still pulling people out of wreckage, so those numbers could go much higher.  The ones they are sure died are firefighters and a police officer.  It's a small town, and a large part of the town was flattened by the blast, including a nursing home.  So far, it is believed to be a chemical accident.

I shall wait to see if there is a big national fund set up for the injured and families of the dead, the people who lost their homes and possessions.  I shall watch for biographies of victims.  I shall wait for the politicians and their speeches.  Will there be people praying all over the nation?

I shall wait for someone to explain how a hurricane or a bomb attack is more terrible than an accident.  It isn't to the people involved.

Story at http://entertainment.verizon.com/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CDA5NSA5G0%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=931&page=1.  (And what a slap that Verizon put this under "entertainment".)

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Later:  I turned on the TV at noon to see if they had better info, and found the entire newscast was about a memorial service for Boston.  If I lived in that little Texas town, I'd feel very ... snubbed.

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On Holy Thursday, before Easter, the Pope went to a youth detention center and washed the feet of young prisoners, both male and female.  The washing of feet by the pope, usually those of other priests, is a Holy Thursday tradition.  The washing of female feet most certainly is not, and many church traditionalists were horrified and angered.  Like spitting-mad.

Ok, ladies.  How does that make you feel?

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I spent some time one late evening wandering around "Dumb Political Quotes"-type sites, and I discovered something odd.  Members of one party seem very prone to really ridiculous statements, while members of the other party sometimes says things that that pretty stupid.  The difference is that the first party is prone to declarations demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge and logic, while the other party just gets names wrong, or uses the wrong word or terms offensive to the audience.

 For example, we have these from Dan Quayle:

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit . . . Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

Not a simple slip of the lip. The first one is stunning, literally.

I could fill this page with Bush-isms of the same amazing quality. Palin, anyone?

When you look at stupid quotes from the other party, there's very little to be found, and those that exist are just things like calling a female reporter "Sweetie", or getting a town or person's name or a country's language wrong. Or trying out a German phrase and calling yourself a sweet roll.  Obama's worst stupid statement seems to be referring to the 58 states. That's not so hard to understand. His mind runs ahead of his mouth. He was probably thinking of the 48 contiguous states, so it came out 58 (actually, "57 and one more to go"). Big deal. A far cry from a Mars atmosphere, or the impossibility of pregnancy from rape.

Am I biased?  Well, I know I'm biased, but I mean is my bias coloring what I observed?  Or DOES one party tend to promote their most stupid people?

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I have discovered Susie Sampson and her Tea Party Report videos.  They're funny.  Susie, in the guise of a conservative reporter, comes off with some real zingers.  Try this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjshdQc5cjg&list=UU1J66cMCW46dOueINxNbFtw, or this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aRDaSPuGKE&list=UU1J66cMCW46dOueINxNbFtw.

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3718 Weird sighting!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Boys have swag; men have style; gentlemen have class.

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Reddit folks have been examining Boston photos, and have settled on two suspicious-looking dudes, mostly on the basis of the straps on their backpacks compared to FBI photos of the bomb bag.  One reddit suspect is nicknamed "The Blue Robe Guy" (because "robe" is so much more sinister than "jacket"). 

I looked at one of the many photos of B.R.G., and about fell off my chair.

I'd swear that's my late husband Jay.  Same color and texture of hair.  In some other photos he looks very tall, like Jay.  Same body type, slope from chest to little pot belly.  Same face, in general.  Same smile.  Same rounded shoulders and neck thrust.  Same slope at the back of his head.  Jay kept his beard slightly longer, but hey!  Beard!  Jay also had that same white patch at his chin.  Same nerdy look.  He always carried a backpack in his hands, never on his back.  The only difference is that Jay always wore glasses, could not wear contacts.

This IS Jay in his early 40s.  He actually would have been 61 last month.

But I guess if you're a ghost, you don't need glasses any more.  And you don't age.
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3717 Something to consider

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason

is that you’re stupid and you make bad decisions.

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• Boston is famous for the Boston Tea Party.
  
• Yesterday was Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, celebrating the beginning of the uprising against the government of the time.
• Yesterday was tax day.
• Those idiots in the mountains out west, stockpiling weapons to fight the government, refusing to pay taxes, you know, that crew, had been passing a rumor that the Obama administration was going to "manufacture a disaster in April that will allow them to take away even more of our rights."  April?  Where did that come from?

(Um, like, I'm confused.  Wasn't it the Patriot act that started that s**t?  You know, that multi-hundred page "law" that was written before 9/11, just waiting for an opportunity to get passed?  And wasn't it that same administration that decided that the President could declare war without the approval of Congress, in direct opposition with the very clear dictates of the Constitution?  Oh well.  I guess some people can't keep their presidents straight.)

Anyway, the Boston bombing doesn't have "all the earmarks" of a Muslim terrorist organization.  Anyone can get a pressure cooker.  Anyone can find out how to build a bomb.  There was no suicide bomber to ensure the timing.  There was a second blast, but in the middle east it goes off in the same area to get the emergency responders, not a block away.  So what "earmarks" are they talking about?  What ethnicity is likely to be able to leave a large heavy package on the street with no one wondering about it?

It looks domestic to me.

It looks like a declaration of civil war.
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1303 Quit Bugging Me!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The next time you find yourself on a plane, sitting next to someone who cannot resist chattering to you endlessly, quietly pull your laptop out of your bag, carefully open the screen (ensuring the irritating person next to you can see it), and hit this link.

(Can anyone tell me what the writing says, if anything?)
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