"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
“In Poland, we don’t ask, we do. Why problem make when you no problem have you don’t want to make?” — Robert Stoltenberg as the Polsk bjørnejeger (Polish bear hunter) in TrollHunter Contagion (2011, USA) Contagion is the best virus epidemic movie to date. Extremely realistic and gimmick-free, a straight depiction of what it would […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic roundup of news about banned and challenged books. I thought this article about the still-widespread opposition to ebooks was interesting, particularly this paragraph: Add to that the e-book’s ease of transport, its international vocation (could the Iron Curtain have kept out e-books?), its indestructibility (you can’t burn e-books), […]
GOP Debate Audience Boos Contraception. Oh give me a break! Nearly everyone in that audience uses contraception or has a spouse who does, and none of them are planning to give it up. So what are they really booing? They’re booing the other tribe: liberals, Democrats, progressives, those hippies down in Tucson. A rough translation […]
I took a blogging break over the weekend. A friend came to visit and we put him up on the Murphy bed in the home office, limiting our access to the computers. Yeah, I could have done something with the iPad, but who has the patience to peck out an entire blog post with one […]
No, I haven’t turned into a teabagger. This is one of my periodic “bag” posts, a collection of links and short observations that by themselves wouldn’t get a post of their own. ——————– As a motorcycle rider, I’ve always thought there’s something wrong with law enforcement and the courts when it comes to cagers who […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic roundup of news about banned and challenged books. Right on the heels of the racially-motivated confiscation and banning of textbooks in Tucson schools (see my previous posts, here and here) comes SB 1467, a bill before the Arizona state legislature that will require teachers to limit their speech […]
“On the very day that George Mallory and Sandy Irvine disappeared on Everest, another party of British climbers slowly made their way to the summit of a quite different mountain and in very different circumstances. At 2,949 feet, Great Gable was not a serious or difficult climb, but it was said to be ‘the most […]
I grew up thinking there were a couple of ground rules to the sport of democracy as it is played in the United States. One is the separation of church and state, the other is the protection of minority rights. If you’re a typical American, you don’t want your government taken over by a religious […]