There she goes, my beautiful world
…And the lack thereof.
Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign just ended.
Hopefully I won’t have to eat those words; it’s the risk one takes when making predictions, and there are plenty of ways I could be misconstruing the results of last night’s Iowa Caucus. I’m not a political expert, nor am I immune to the lure of thinking something to be so because I want it to be so. It would be irrational to count him out, but in considering a candidate so anti-rational as Trump, … Read the rest
The shocker headline, A US town has rejected a proposal for a solar farm following public concerns that solar panels ‘suck up all the energy from the sun’ is such a good illustration that the word following is a journalistic weasel word that it has been added to the list of ways which so-called journalists (as well as real ones) mislead us here on Monochromatic Outlook. The headline from the primary source reads, Woodland rejects solar farm. The … Read the rest
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s comments during oral arguments1 in Fisher v University of Texas at Austin generated controversy both in news and social media. Some are suggesting that Scalia is revealing himself to be a bigot
Scalia has had these sorts of accusations pointed at him several times, and I’ve found it instructive to seek out the court opinions or arguments from which the comments come. For the most part, the accusations have been completely groundless. For example, he … Read the rest
Fox News is telling us there is a war on police.
First, it is galling that Sheriff Lewis can sit there with a straight face and say that the people lack accountability. Coming from a uniformed law enforcement professional, that’s rich. He could shoot a handcuffed, sleeping person in the head with a crowd of reporters watching and cameras rolling and the worst that might happen to him is losing his pension. Unless the person he executed was also … Read the rest
It’s sad and dangerous how easy it is (for everyone) to misunderstand a slogan and react defensively. When a belief is condensed to a few words, it necessarily assumes a whole set of contexts, contexts a reader of that slogan may misunderstand. There are examples of brilliant writing where tremendous nuance has been conveyed in only three words; they are exceedingly rare.
Three-word slogans put into hashtags seem to clarify and encapsulate meaning to their authors, and to the people who … Read the rest
Google has made a big deal out of selling Google Apps as a way for health-care providers to securely store patients’ medical records. As of this writing Google will sign Business Associate Agreements for their Google Apps for Business customers — about five dollars per month.
This is great. While I can’t vouch for Google’s security practices firsthand, I assume that they keep their networks pretty well tied down. I’m not sure how appropriate Google Apps are for the purposes of … Read the rest
In a recent Facebook conversation I bemoaned the fact that most United States residents cannot name even one of their State’s senators, and less than a third can name two.1 That got me thinking about whether my own knowledge of our political landscape is any good. So I gave myself a simple test: to write a list of all fifty states, and identify the junior and senior senators from as many states as I could.
I didn’t do very well. … Read the rest
@TheDemocrats1 are trying to discredit Rand Paul by tweeting a picture of him next to what appears to be an out-of-context quote: «You can’t punish rich people.»
The troubling aspects to this are almost too many to count. But I’ll give it a try.
First, it looks like the Democratic Party now openly considers having wealth a crime. Otherwise, «punishment» wouldn’t be warranted, and defending the rich from being punished wouldn’t itself be any kind of indictment of character.
Second, … Read the rest
As the United States celebrates 238 years of independence from Britain, Scotland is approaching the important decision whether to no longer be a part of the United Kingdom. On the 18th of September, Scots will go to the polls to vote on a referendum on independence.
I cannot pretend to have enough knowledge of politics in Scotland to know whether becoming a neighbor to rather than a member of the United Kingdom is good for Scotland or good … Read the rest
There are of course a number of ways in which Americans traditionally spend the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, many of which have nothing to do with the significance of the founding of this nation, or for which the significance has been forgotten along the way.
Now, a day off is a day off, and I don’t want to be the one to spoil anyone’s barbecue. You can’t really go wrong in my book by spending the … Read the rest