Memory is such a funny old thing. Yesterday when former Nawlins mayor Ray Nagin got convicted on multitudes of counts of corruption, the NPRistas tsked about Nagin’s long and tragic fall from the days he was the “face of New Orleans” during Hurricane Katrina. Do they actually remember what the “face of Katrina” looked like? A corruption conviction is positively lovely by comparison. (And it was for his “heroic” Katrina recovery work that he was convicted.) Just another grubby crook.
I became a writer by accident. For two years, I wouldn’t admit I was one because in my experience, they were mostly a bunch of drunken ne’er-do-wells. But maybe that’s a good thing.
This focuses on what will trigger the next stock market mess. Implications (about triggering effects) go way beyond that. You’ll see what I mean.
You wonderful people. You’ve seen me Definitely Not At My Best twice just since New Year. And … well, you wonderful people. That’s all I can say right now.
There will be more soon on that and other things. But for now … on with the blogging, the linkage, the trivia, and the dogs …
This is a companion piece to Tuesday’s “Live deliberately.” Part I defines the problem. Part II is a challenge to become the solution.
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Twenty years ago, when the Internet was barely a thing, Jeffrey R. Snyder set Fidonet and Usenet groups afire with his essay, “A Nation of Cowards.”
Snyder demolished the then-common advice, “Don’t resist criminals. Just give them what they want. Your life is more valuable than your property.” He wrote in no uncertain terms that meek submission diminishes and devalues life. And personal character. And culture. He went on to nail virtually all “gun control” as hokum. Elitist hokum. Deadly hokum.
The 9/11 hijackings (in which the majority of those airline passengers fatally followed recommendations not to resist) put an exclamation point on Snyder’s message about handling criminals. Twenty years of gun-rights activism wrote Snyder’s message in bold and underlined it.
Today, violent freelance crime is down and every crook with half a brain knows that he may lose the other half to an armed homeowner, c-store clerk, or concealed-carrying pedestrian.
Senator Joe Manchin may be a conniving anti-gun suck. But he has just become the biggest Democrat truth-teller on Obamacare. “Meltdown … falls of its own weight … becomes more than we can absorb.” Devastating stuff!
Ever hear of Ocorrafoo Cobange, a scientist at the Wassee Institute of Medicine in Asmara? Neither has anybody else. But 157 professional journals were happy to accept the extremely fake-sounding scientist’s extremely fake article.
And here’s one that deserves to lose billions thanks to its blatant collaboration. (The news about what RSA did isn’t new; that came out in September and was in fact suspected for years before that. But the fact that they profited so handsomely by it … well, let’s just hope they pay for that profit by going completely out of business. In this case, mere millions in losses might do the trick.)
To end on a cheerier note, here’s a little dog that served as a living, breathing monitor while his little girl underwent surgery. “It sounds silly, in this age of technology, when we have millions of dollars worth of equipment beeping around me, that we had a little dog who was more sensitive than all the machines.”
I think I missed this one earlier. The good folks at S.W.A.T put my January 2014 article online: “Just who’s the boss here?”
You already know the answer to that question. This one was aimed at an audience that might not be as cynicalfed updisgustedwise informed about current events as you.
Obamacare (again). It’s as if they figured out everything that would make insurance and health care better, then did the exact opposite. Localizing coverage even further instead of enabling insurance companies to sell across state lines was one of those things. That’s gotten some mention, thanks to the cancer patients it’s going to kill. But in all the other hand-wringing, I don’t think most pundits have yet figured out some of the more far-reaching impacts of this huge step backwards. This one’s ominous, as well. (H/T H 4 2.)
But the O-care follies get stranger yet. Be glad you don’t live in a U.S. territory. Their troubles make the most egregious state catastrophes look … well, like glitches. (You remember October’s “glitches,” yes?)
Per jed in comments: The 35 naughtiest dogs on the planet. (Very funny, but Distractify.com really ought to note a little more clearly that all those come from the fabulous site Dogshaming.com, which has given me a year of laughs since friend A. sent me their URL.)
