We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. — Charles Swindoll
More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of: “Insurrection”
What is an “insurrection”? I guess I could look it up. Have any of the arrested protestors been charged with insurrection? If not, why do we keep saying it?
The Revolutionary War was definitely an insurrection, which suggests that insurrection is not always a bad thing.
This Day in History: January 6
On Jan. 6, 2021, a group of unarmed citizens frustrated by their inability to date Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez walked into a building.
This Day in History: Aretha Franklin
On Jan. 3, 1987, Aretha Franklin became the first (biological) woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
This may be an opportunity for someone inducted before 1987 to put on a dress and say “Wait a minute, I identify as a woman” and knock Aretha out of the history books.
It worked for Amy Schneider.
Betty White, 1922-2021
Enough is enough.
RIP Betty White
Love One Another Or Die
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 . . .
What’s the Plan B?
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
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
Who Should Decide What’s Being Taught in Schools?
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.
The Beginning of the End
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.
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 was pregnant but had never been intimate with a man, would you believe that?”
He won’t even talk about it. He just believes it. I don’t even get into the fact that if God in fact fathered the child, it sounds disturbingly like a rape.
I’ve heard of this kind of thing happening in mythology, humans being impregnated by gods, but still, in all the cases I can think of, it happens via a physical act. Can the woman still claim to be a virgin?
Refunding the Police
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.
Gunmen on Jet Skis: Another Reason I Prefer to Just Stay Home
Cancun tourists take cover as gunmen on jet skis pull up to beach in hotel zone, open fire into air — abc7.com
Woke White Boy on Smash-and-Grab Robberies
2 suspects tied to organized retail theft crew arrested in Redondo Beach as police see more thefts at the Galleria — ktla.com
Good! Police gotta crack down on these smash-and-grab robberies. Just one more sign of the wave of white supremacist violence sweeping the country.
The suspects’ names are Malik Trevon Oaks and Jamol ClaytonPhillips.
Wait — what?!
Fuckin racist cops . . .
— WWB
Chess Game of the Day: Rubinstein Opening
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.
Joan Didion, 1934-2021
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.
RIP Joan Didion
Two Quotes From the Same Book
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
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.
Now I’m in a quandary . . .
What You’re Seeing and Hearing Is Not Real?
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 being told that what they’re seeing and what they’re hearing is not what they’re seeing and hearing.
And this is the perfect trope. I don’t think people who yell it are necessarily enemies of the president. I think they’re enemies of being told that what they’re seeing and what they’re hearing isn’t real, that it’s somehow a figment of their imagination. People are sick of that.
Chess Game of the Day: Halloween Gambit
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?? I’m going to give that two question marks because I think it’s pretty much over now.
16. Qd5? 16. …Bxh6 gives Black one less piece to attack with.
22. f6? I don’t know if it makes sense to hand out question marks in a completely lost game but 22. Rae1 is an obvious move here.
24. fxg7? There aren’t any good moves left. This leads to a forced mate.
25. hxg4 Or 25. Kg3 Qf2+ 26. Kxg4 Be2+ 27. Qxe2 h5+ 28. Kg5 Qf6#.
Annie Died the Other Day
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 wayyouths and maidens: let us pray