We're finally getting some « spectacular stuff » released into the public domain on New Year's Day (screw you Disney!).
Category: Rants
Post
WWI Collides with D&D and Memes
It’s two years old, but I’m just seeing it for the first time. It’s « one of the best visual “explainers” » I’ve seen that describes the spark which ignited World War I. It tells the story of that horrible June day in 1914 via a series of memes and the lens of a Dungeons...
Post
Why Do All New Apartment Buildings Look the Same?
The « bland, boxy apartment boom is a design issue, and a housing policy problem. » | Curbed.
Post
End of Year Retrospectives: 75 Book Covers
"There are some gems among the 75 Best Book Covers of 2018."
Post
Deadly Chinese Fentanyl is Creating a New Era of Drug Kingpins
"Fentanyl's potency has « transformed the global trafficking — and policing — of narcotics."
Post
11:00 | 11-November-1918
100 years ago today, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the guns along the 440-mile line stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea fell silent. The war started 1 August 1914 just as German Chancellor Otto von Bismark once famously predicted around 1884, by "some damned fool thing in the Balkans;" in this case, the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, a city of agony in the 20th century). But on 11 November 1918, it was finally "all quiet on the Western Front."
Post
9 November: Schicksalstag
In the next few days, there will be much remembrance of the events of 100 years ago—the end of World War I. Not as much in the U.S., where World War I is like the Korean War, a largely forgotten conflict, even though 115,516 Americans died between 1917-1918, along with over 320,000 sickened, most in the influenza epidemic of 1918.
Post
World War II After World War II
"There are obviously many websites on WWII weapons, and many on post-war weapons, but I have always been fascinated with WWII weapons being used after the war."
Post
Tragically Brilliant
Steve Bell’s ‘toons for The Guardian are always brilliant. But «in this one», he’s surpassed himself.
Post
Beery Originalist Quotables
Here are a few Original Originalist quotes worth Originally quoting, from a few of our first Original Founders:
Post
Every Building
"On this page you will find maps showing almost every building in the United States. Why did we make such a thing? We did it as an opportunity for you to connect with the country’s cities and explore them in detail."
Post
German Roofer Finds Message from Grandfather
A message in a bottle on the roof of a Goslar, Germany, cathedral was found by the grandson of the writer. An authentic lesson from history: “On March 26, 1930, four roofers in this small west German town inscribed a message to the future. “Difficult times of war lie behind us,” they wrote. After describing...
Post
Squeezed to Death
"On every airline flight, a crew member talks to passengers in the exit rows to see whether they can, as Federal Aviation Administration regulations specify, “pass expeditiously through the emergency exit” if needed. Given how passengers have grown in inverse proportion to the spaciousness of airliner seats, anything like “expeditious” evacuation of an entire airliner seems doubtful."
Post
Of Manifestoes and Buildings and Truman and Stuff
[Edited two days later to fix some typos and unclear, stream-of-consciousness-type unclear phrases.] During the recent effort to rename the Russell Senate Office Building, it would have been nice to remember that both Richard Russell, the building’s current namesake, and John McCain, the proposed replacement namesake, (while useful tools to poke the likes of President...
Post
Atomic Poetry
On 1-Jun-1945, six weeks after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, new U.S. President Harry Truman convened a meeting to update the status on and debate the use of the soon-to-be-born atomic bomb. But first, at the Pentagon, a group consisting of James Byrnes (soon to be Secretary of State), generals George C. Marshall and Leslie...
Post
The Conscience Stirs
I pretty much wish I had remained disconnected from FB while also being innovative enough to stay connected to the real people in my life without Facebook's corrupting middle man kleptocracy. I sense that there is another housecleaning coming; my involvement will need to be further curtailed. I'm thinking of what we can do next ... there are far better possibilities, surely, than this unholy mess of greed and venality.
Post
‘Splaining Things to the Kids
A Democratic Socialist explains «what Democratic Socialism actually is»: Not just a return to the halcyon days of the New Deal. “I’m a staff writer at the socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of DSA, and here’s the truth: In the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism. And we want to do that...
Post
Treading a Careful Path in Post-Castro Cuba
"There is a discrete left-opportunist trend that seeks to throw all developments in Cuba post-1959 into the dustbin and forget about it. This does as little for us as the right-opportunist line; both fail to grasp the full reality of revisionist corrosion and capitalist restoration in Cuba, although one cloaks itself in stultified theory."
Post
Warm Summer Night
Is there anything better than a warm summer night playing in – er, rather sitting near the lawn sprinkler under a street light while watching the 21:00 evening arrivals at KBNA? Well, maybe if I was still 10 …
Post
A Final “Hangin’ Out the Warsh”
«This is Bill’s final column» out of countless ones he wrote over 71 years for the Falls City Journal. With this column, he said farewell; the Journal has been sold and moved to a much smaller space in downtown Falls City which it had occupied until 1950. It’s all extremely symbolic of the state of...
Post
More Grief
This is kind of like how I feel about my (possibly four) upcoming surgeries: I don’t want to do this, but I have to, and I hate it. Received a kind e-mail yesterday telling me of the death of Bill Schock of Falls City, NE, on Thursday evening, six weeks short of his 100th birthday....
Post
We're Ready …
While waiting for “Sunset Boulevard” on Sunday at Opry Mills, Carol, Frank and I were … say it with me … “All right, Mr. DeMille, [we’re] ready for [our] close-up!” Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Post
That Curtain-y Feeling
That feeling you get when you hang your first curtains in the first house you ever owned? Priceless. Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, April 30, 2018
Post
Deer Tracks
With the recent freeze/heat weather cycle, the Saddlebrooke Deer Herd are a little pressed for food, it appears. The… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Post
Scenes from Old Age …
[Scenes from old age (level 54 edition)] From “Mail Call Three” episode of M*A*S*H (S6,E20; 1978, when I was 15), Radar complaining about his widowed mother having a boyfriend and maybe getting married: “Old people shouldn’t get married. SHE’S ALMOST 50!!” Get off my lawn, O’Reilly!
Post
The Speed of Events Overtakes Me
“BREAKING: An armed teacher reportedly fired a gun in a school in Dalton, Georgia, police say. No students have been hurt. Police have the teacher in custody, who was barricaded inside a classroom.” A. “Arm all the teachers!” B. Welp, that didn’t take long. Oops. C. “Well then arm all the janitors!” D. Prez says...
Post
Sprung
It’s in the 60s, the tree is blooming big time, and the crew down the street is mowing a yard. And sadly, two are dead… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 26, 2018
Post
Yawny Fergus
Fergus Beagle avoids the camera studiously, so I snuck up on him and caught him mid-yawn. Incredibly, he turns 11 next… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 26, 2018
Post
Sleepy Bosco
Bosco likes to sleep facing the wall, sun not required. (He’s hanging tough; while the osteosarcoma has spread from… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 26, 2018
Post
Elegant Queen Sascha
The ever-elegant Queen Sascha likes the sun as well. Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 26, 2018
Post
Goose and His Elefunk
Some sun!!!! Goose and his Elefunk take advantage of rare sight in Music City: Light. He’s forgotten what it is, but he likes it! (Yes, I’m projecting.) Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 26, 2018
Post
Arm Me With …
#ArmMeWith … so many other things than a Glock. Posted by Steve Pollock on Saturday, February 24, 2018
Post
An Army of Teachers
Fact/gut check: Arming 20% of the nation's teachers would result in an army of over 640,000 men and women, as many as… Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, February 22, 2018
Post
Ice Lights
We got snow over ice … at least on our patio lights. Don’t want to know about the streets. Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, January 12, 2018
Post
On Shitholes
Every single day is a new low. How low can we go? There is no bottom. So pretty goddamned low. Shithole low.
Post
Shithole Mouth
[Once again, my conscience overflows and will not give me rest without giving vent to something political/religious. So… Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, January 12, 2018
Post
Shuttling Between Failures
The story is sordid and long, but the details were made clear by Matt Viser's excellent Globe piece. To wit: Lorenzo sold the Donald the Eastern Shuttle for an overvalued $365 million (if DT had created a brand-new shuttle from the ground up with brand-new planes, not old worn-out 727s, estimates were that he could have done it for $300 million.) Of course, the money was all borrowed. It was 1989; Eastern (and Continental) were already almost dead from Lorenzo's sledgehammer and the economy was tanking. Pan Am 103 was bombed, the first Gulf War was about to begin. It was incredibly bad judgement to overpay a bunch of other peoples' money for something that was guaranteed to tank.
Post
Same Here
There's this thing that has been closely guarded for going on 40 years in 2018. It's my secret. So as it hits its 40th birthday in our new year, I decided it's time to tell the world.
Post
Roy Moore's Gotterdammerung
“Antonio: ‘Mark you this, Bassanio, The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!’” Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3, Page 5. We thank thee,...
Post
They Don’t Like the New ‘America First’ As Much As They Did the Lindbergh Version
So let's see if I've got this. Germany, a country in which there are still many women alive who were raped by invading Russian Red Army soldiers and in which the human products of those rapes are still living, now trust … Russia more than the United States.
Post
Questions. We Got ‘Em.
Why? Because, as reporter Anne Kingston notes, women are "female reproductive vessels" and not human beings. And because Long Dong Silver has always, and will always, get a free pass. And both of these are realities for reasons which surpasseth understanding.
Post
American Carnage: 3-Dec-17
Nazis are just "the normal people next door" and nothing bad should happen to either them or the New York Times for pointing this out, says The New York Times.
Post
We Are Not Amused.
A confession from the Churl: His Majesty is throwing his snit fit not about the tree, but because I had the temerity,… Posted by Steve Pollock on Saturday, December 2, 2017
Post
Tessa: Turkey Bird Good!
Shhhhhh. Turkey bird good. Don’t tell Mummy! Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, November 23, 2017
Post
Resuscitate Net Neutrality
Look, give me an early Dec. 14 birthday present and make some calls. To put it bluntly, you ain't gonna like what… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 [Corporations suck. And they’re not people. Assholes.]
Post
American Carnage: 17-Nov-17
The Diddler’s Club What we learned this week: • Al Franken is the latest member of the “People Who Diddled People Who Didn’t Want to be Diddled” Club. This Diddlers Club, of which we’re all so very proud, officially now consists of the nation’s President; at least two former presidents; two or three sitting United...