Enough is enough. RIP Betty White Read more →
We must love one another or die. — W.H. Auden Since we have to die anyway, shouldn’t the quote be “We must love one another and die” or “We must love one another then die”? It reminds me of another famous quote: “Go big or go home.” But again, I have to go home eventually so . . . well, you get the picture . . . Read more →
This has not aged well. Is there a Plan B? As always, it’s easier to promise things than it is to actually deliver them. To beat COVID-19, we need a coordinated national response from the federal government — but Donald Trump refuses to do his job. I've laid out exactly what I would do, and I encourage this president to adopt the plan in its entirety: https://t.co/SOVOPL7uPy — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 7, 2020 Read more →
There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us. We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. — Seneca
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. — Benjamin Franklin
Nikole Hannah-Jones: Parents shouldn't be in charge of their kids' schooling: "I don't really understand this idea that parents should decide what's being taught. I'm not a professional educator. I don't have a degree in social studies." Yet she wants the 1619 Project in schools. pic.twitter.com/UAjFTCvVmg — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) December 26, 2021 You don’t understand the idea? OK, the stupidest way to make decisions is to put them in the hands of people with no skin in the game, who don’t pay any price for being wrong. “Educators” don’t lose one dime or one hour’s sleep if their bright ideas turn out to be disastrous for the child. Read more →
Sometime just over 2,000 years ago, contrary to the song, it was not a silent night. In Bethlehem, a young woman gave birth to a baby in a stable. The story went exactly as one would tell a story if one did not want the story taken seriously. The first witnesses were shepherds, men so unreliable that their testimony was inadmissible in court. Key eyewitnesses were women, also seen as unreliable. The father of the child fell out of the historic record. — Erick Erickson This essay is probably worth a read even though I disagree with pretty much everything in it, starting with the fact that the main reason the story can’t be taken seriously is the woman giving birth while claiming to have never been intimate with a man. I’ve asked my dad about this. He’s a true believer. “If a young woman right now told you she… Read more →
I’m old enough to remember those thrilling times (last year) when we were told that all crime would end if police stopped policing. For example, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot proposed cutting the police budget in the city by $80 million. Now in Chicago, murders have hit a 27 year high, nearly back to 1970s levels, and Lightfoot is requesting U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to send additional federal law enforcement officials to her city. “We cannot continue to endure the level of violence that we are now experiencing,” she said in a long speech on crime. Read more →
Cancun tourists take cover as gunmen on jet skis pull up to beach in hotel zone, open fire into air — abc7.com Read more →
One of my online chess games. A pretty even game all the way until it ended with a colossal mistake, as chess games sometimes do. Some annotations below . . . 5. b3 Rubinstein Opening 37. Qf1 I kind of wonder about this move as it lets Black deliver a queen check on the 2nd rank. 39. Nf6+?? We were both running short of time (in a 2+1 bullet game) and I was about to offer a draw when White did this, missing that he can’t recapture. 40. Qfx6+?? So he recaptures anyway. Read more →
I was discovering that not all of the promises would be kept, that some things are in fact irrevocable and that it had counted after all, every evasion and every procrastination, every word, all of it. — Joan Didion, “Goodbye to All That” RIP Joan Didion Read more →
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. — Ecclesiastes 1:18 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. — Proverbs 4:6-7 Now I’m in a quandary . . . Read more →
The times that we’re living in right now are forcing lots of people on both sides of the aisle to look at a thing, or hear a thing, and be told that what they’re seeing and what they’re hearing is not real. And you can’t do that to people indefinitely and expect them not to push back somehow. You can’t tell people that the border is secure and then show them images of tens of thousands of people flooding over it. You can’t tell people that the evacuation of Afghanistan was a success and then show them people falling off of a plane. … And you can’t ask people who are watching a NASCAR race at home, who clearly hear the crowd yelling ‘F*** Joe Biden’ to pretend that what they’re really hearing is ‘Let’s Go Brandon.’ I think what’s happened is people have just become sick and tired of… Read more →
One of my online chess games. Some annotations below . . . 4. Nxe5?! I never saw this before in a Four Knights Game but it actually has a name: the Halloween Gambit. In exchange for a knight, White gets to chase black knights around the board with pawns. 9. …c6? This is not such a good move if White had played 10 h4 because the knight at g6 doesn’t have many options. Instead, 9 …cxd6 10 exd6 Qf6 11. Qe2+ Qe6 12. Nb5 Qxe2+ simplifies with a material advantage. 11. Nxb5? Just backing the bishop up to d6 looks better. 14. …a5? White could have played 15 Bd2 attacking the pawn. 15. O-O? 15. …Nh6? This gives White time to play 16. Be3 (which he doesn’t) and cut off the diagonal to his king so Black can’t play 16. …Qb6+, which I should have played this move. 16. f5??… Read more →
annie died the other day never was there such a lay— whom, among her dollies, dad first (“don’t tell your mother”) had; making annie slightly mad but very wonderful in bed —saints and satyrs go your way youths and maidens: let us pray — e e cummings Read more →
Schools in Inglewood, CA shut down completely for more than 400 days due to COVID-19, eventually reopening in a “hybrid” model of in-person and distance learning. Kids can be deprived of an education, but in February 2022, Los Angeles will host Super Bowl LVI, mashing more than 100,000 ticket-holders together (plus I don’t know how many ushers, food vendors and other support staff) in a mostly enclosed Inglewood, CA stadium. Draw your own conclusions. Read more →
One of my online chess games. Some annotations below . . . 2. …Bg7 Modern Defense 11. Ng5?! 11. b4 is a safe alternative. 12. Ne6?! 12. Nf6 is positionally better than leaving a pawn hanging at e6, but then what was the point of moving the knight to g5 in the first place? (Spoiler alert: This move will turn out okay.) 14. …Rb8 14 …b6 would have been better. 15. Rd1? In hindsight, I think 15. c5 would have been stronger. The rook move gives Black time to play 15 …c5 (which he doesn’t do) and prevent White’s c-pawn from advancing. 15. …Nf6? Much worse than 15 …c5. 16. …c6?? The game is pretty even here, but Black needs to get the king to h7, out of the White queen’s line of fire. Instead he makes the worst move on the board, allowing a discovered check, losing the queen… Read more →
I don’t like to play a game unless I know I can win. It’s a characteristic trait of the sociopath or psychopath, I forget which.
Getting old: It used to be I went to a lot more weddings than funerals. In recent years, I’ve noticed it’s the other way around..
“I can’t eat a big lunch because it makes me feel sluggish in the afternoon, you know what I mean?” “No.” “You never eat a big lunch then feel sluggish in the afternoon?” “No, my job is too exciting. Never a dull moment.” Read more →
