Regular readers of these disambiguations know that I have strong views about accountability. There are two reasons. One is that we’ve known since childhood that wrongdoing should be punished. The absence of punishment is an affront to our sense of right and wrong and it leads to the second reason. In the absence of punishment… [read more]
POST 1100 9/11 It’s 23 years since that terrible day. I went there a few weeks afterward and saw the devastation and the thick cloud of toxic dust that the clean up workers were breathing. Some agency of the federal government told them it was safe to breath that air. But the rate of cancers… [read more]
POST 1097 Cow Pie #1 Republicans tell us they’re for small government, low taxes, no deficits and no debt. Good thing. Otherwise, we’d have a crazy amount of debt, right? Here’s how the Rs helped us with this, looking at just their tax programs. The unpaid-for George W. Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003… [read more]
POST 1096 First, A Few Takes From the DNC Convention I’ve never seen anything like that. Nobody else has, either. We saw, An IVF baby, now a young man, clapping and jumping, tears streaming down his face, pointing at the vice presidential nominee, yelling, “That’s my dad! That’s my dad!” A daughter introducing her dad… [read more]
POST 1087 Definitions IED: An improvised explosive device (IED) attack is the use of a “homemade bomb and/or destructive device to destroy, incapacitate, harass, or distract.” IEDs are used by criminals, vandals, terrorists, suicide bombers, and insurgents. NEWS & TERRORISM Communicating In A Crisis Judicial IED: A Judicial IED (J-IED) is a judicial decision that… [read more]
POST 1081 The Supreme Court rang the death knell on our democracy on Monday, July 1, 2024. They announced the end of presidential accountability, something neither found nor implied anywhere in the Constitution, and declared the official start of American despotism. It was upon us instantly. They could have easily decided the deplorable presidential immunity… [read more]
POST 1074 The Two Greatest Days in Politics in the 2000s November 4, 2008: Barack Obama won the presidential election. We were with him in Grant Park. It was beyond glorious. May 30, 2024: Donald Trump was convicted of 34 criminal counts. Accountability is at last sinking its righteous claws into him. It is beyond… [read more]
POST 1066 Read all the way to the bottom for some good stuff. About Those Interesting Times Of course, that expression, often claimed to be a Chinese curse (but without verified attribution), didn’t include the word “not” in the original. Decide for yourself if it was intended to hope for something other than bland life… [read more]
Post 1,042 However odd it might be, we love our Super Bowl commercials as a form of entertainment. Millions tune in just for them, not so much for the football game. And with the cost for just 30 seconds of ad time at $7 million, the ad agencies and the companies they create ads for… [read more]
Post 1,034 Violence – Part 1 From David French’s piece Political Christianity Has Claws: ” . . . when you combine theology and ideology but subtract virtue, you’ve created a formula for viciousness and strife. Raise the stakes to an existential or eternal level, remove the restraints of kindness and self-control, and watch the worst… [read more]
