lucius septimius 8/28/2022 7:12:15 AM

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lucius septimius 8/28/2022 7:13:16 AM

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Kosh's Shadow 8/28/2022 8:49:05 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 2:

A key point here is that we have a generation of activists running government who know nothing of history. They know slogans and clichés, mostly rooted in a rejection of the idea that there is anything to learn from the past. The past is inhabited by the irredeemably wicked

Poster child AOC

(Had to use some browser tricks to get the actual text of the message)

buzzsawmonkey 8/28/2022 9:57:22 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 2: Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 3:

This ties in to my story earlier in the week of confronting the state-senate candidate who approached me on primary day at the polling place, and my giving him an earful about wholly-electric buses, about which he clearly knew nothing. 

Followup to that story; someone I know from the synagogue was auditing the conversation from a few feet away, and he told me yesterday that he actually went back to that candidate and apologized for my being so rude as to tell him something.  I don't know the substance of the "apology," it's done and the candidate won, and the guy who did this is older than I so decking him was pretty much out of the question.  But I was quietly furious.

buzzsawmonkey 8/28/2022 9:58:10 AM

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Occasional Reader 8/28/2022 10:06:41 AM

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I’ve spent the weekend watching over Little OR, who came home from school Friday with a scratchy throat and moderate fever.  He seems at or near 100% better today (and two consecutive negative Covid home tests).  So, with not much else to report, I’ll repost my thoughts from last night, on “what kind of nostalgia songs could they be writing 40 years from now about these times”:

Occasional Reader 8/28/2022 10:07:30 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 8/28/2022 10:10:29 AM

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On a lighter note, we re-watched Ruggles of Red Gap last night.  Brilliant movie---sweet, funny, patriotic, understated.

Found a new joke on the re-watch.  At the start of the film, the earl played by Roland Young is telling his manservant Ruggles (Charles Laughton) that he has lost Ruggles to rough-hewn American millionaire Egbert Floud (Charlie Ruggles), because the earl's poker hand of three eights had been beaten by Floud's "flush of clubs."  "So, you see, Ruggles," says the earl, "You only lost by an eight."

There's a British expression, being "one over the eight," meaning to be drunk---and the earl had clearly been drinking, since he was getting up at late mid-morning.  So, "having lost by an eight" is both a reference to the poker hand, and a play on the British expression---and the "flush of clubs" suggests an evening of bar-hopping.

None of this is necessary to enjoy the scene, or the film as a whole---but it's always fun to find these little wordplay flourishes in a film.  It's like finding one of the caricature references in a Renaissance painting, or some secret symbol carved into stonework by the masons.

buzzsawmonkey 8/28/2022 10:11:35 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 6:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I saw that in last night's Pub, when catching up this morning. 

Absolutely superb.

Kosh's Shadow 8/28/2022 10:15:21 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 7:

Kirchner helped make a deal with Iran to end the investigation of the bombings of Jewish sites in Argentina.

And Biden is still trying to make a deal with Iran that will let them bomb us in under 10 years. Probably sooner.

buzzsawmonkey 8/28/2022 10:26:57 AM

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By the way, a week or two ago I recommended (not for the first time) that people read, or re-read, Sinclair Lewis' novel of a fascist takeover of the US, It Can't Happen Here.

It is, like most of Lewis's work, somewhat overlong.  But Lewis's eye and ear for American types and their behaviors/reactions is superb.  And it is chilling to see him lay out, in the mid-'30s, so many elements of our current political scene.

Occasional Reader 8/28/2022 10:33:30 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 9:

Why, thank you.

Occasional Reader 8/28/2022 10:37:39 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 10:

Hezbollah was galavanting around Argentina with that government’s blessing.

The AMIA bombing, for those not familiar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMIA_bombing

lucius septimius 8/28/2022 1:16:48 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 6:

Bravo!

doppelganglander 8/28/2022 2:32:29 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 6:
+++++++

buzzsawmonkey 8/28/2022 3:01:32 PM

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Kosh's Shadow 8/28/2022 4:34:00 PM

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In #16 buzzsawmonkey said: I fucking HATE this new phone.

Try this one:

Kosh's Shadow 8/28/2022 4:41:47 PM

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In #16 buzzsawmonkey said: I fucking HATE this new phone.

Toi be fair, I hate the customization Samsung puts on their phones. That is one reason I have a Google Pixel. The other is that Samsung phones are more fragile, and I drop things sometimes.

Kosh's Shadow 8/28/2022 5:02:13 PM

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