Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, June 3, 2023
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27 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Well, Trump’s lawyers have told the DOJ that they can’t fing the document hewas discussing on the tape.
‘I can’t’: Georgia gun shop owner to close store as US reels from mass killings
@OzarkHillbilly:
While I’m not optimistic, let’s hope that Waldman is the leading edge of a trend. Unfortunately, he’ll be the exception.
@Sleeping Dog: Yep, still I applaud his decision to no longer be a part of the problem.
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ETA: The edit button AND the like button function simultaneously! Yay!
Ivanka Trump apparently now wants to be known as Ivanka Kushner. Isn’t that like locking the barn door after the horse has escaped? And what good will it do? The Kushner name is nearly as rancid as the Trump name.
Too tired to look for something new, so I’m going with a quick unconventional:
Bach’s Toccata and Fugue interpreted on a piano
@Kathy: I first became interested in classical music when my Dad took my brother and me to Disney’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea in 1954. Captain Nemo played it on the organ aboard the Nautilus.
Uh oh… Now they’ve done it. Arkansanians have pissed off the librarians.
@OzarkHillbilly:
CT is beefing up our already strict laws.
https://apnews.com/article/connecticut-gun-control-bill-passage-sandy-hook-e876f348662416522794093493824fb0
In an insane world there are pockets of sanity.
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Conquered the moderation bug by using a new-ish name and a different email.
No longer shall you be denied my pearls of wisdom.
@Daryl: is this the brother Daryl, or the first Daryl?
@Mr. Prosser:
I lack an origin story for my taste, such as it is, in music.
Just as well, seeing the intermittent nature of my desire to hear any music.
Anyway, here’s Nemo
I regret to inform you all that Chick-fil-A no longer sells the Lord’s chicken:
http://www.rawstory.com/chick-fil-a-woke/
@CSK: Yowie kazowie! And she switches to even more woke chicken than the chicken that she was eating. I would be SMH, but I grew up with the PNW version of the same rationales (and rationalizations).
@Mr. Prosser:..Disney…
I know I saw 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I just don’t remember when. Maybe some Disney TV production.
I know I read the Jules Verne novel but it was long enough ago (50 years ?) that my faded memory is limited to the vivid descriptions of the undersea life.
When I was very young my parents took me to the RKO Palace in Rochester, New York to see Fantasia. I’m pretty sure my brother was not yet born so I was probably 5 years old. All I remember is being scared by the Sorcerer’s Apprentice when Mickey’s plan goes awry and hundreds of brooms are carrying buckets of water that flood the castle! I’m sure the music contributed to my fright.
One thing I noticed watching the scene again was that in the end the Sorcerer did not need to be wearing his hat to use his powers to repel the flood and fix Mickey’s catastrophe.
Cartoon Magic!
@Mister Bluster: When I took my Science Fiction for Physics credit class (to compliment my previous acoustics and photography for physics credit classes), our professor noted that Verne’s writing emphasized description of the natural and physical phenomena over detail about setting, mood, and other more traditional elements. So I’m not surprised. In 20,000 Leagues, my professor claimed that about 50% of the total text was dedicated to description of what was underwater. For me, that explains why I don’t care for Verne’s novels very much. All of the arcanum detracts from the story.
The other reason that I remember reading 20,000 Leagues is that I tried to get my friend John to read it. He was extremely depressed. One thing that kept his intrest was his fish tank full of exotic specimens that he talked about all the time. I thought that the Verne story might distract him from his despair. He never read it. A few weeks later he was dead by his own hand.
And yes it was 50 years ago. 1973.
I still think of him to this day.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I’m not, and never hve been, remotely whst you csll religious, but isn’t referring to “the Lord’s chicken” a trifle blasphemous?
@CSK: Maybe one definition of woke is any act or policy that is not bigoted.
@CSK:
Wouldn’t Satan’s chicken be flame-broiled and tastier anyway?
In related developments, people who are not without sin shouldn’t throw stones.
@CSK: Given that blasphemy is giving to God traits that he doesn’t have or ascribing actions to him that he did not do (with the principle example from the Bible being that someone said that Jesus casts out demons by the power of Satan), I’m not sure that “the Lord’s chicken” counts as anything other than idiotic. Then again, if you hadn’t asked (i.e. simply stated that it seems a trifle blasphemous), I probably wouldn’t have volunteered a comment on it. After all, it’s not anywhere near as inflammatory as when members of Westwood Baptist Church hold up signs that say “The angels in heaven rejoice every time a faggot is thrown into the fires of hell.” Either way, it seems to be a reflection on the quality of spiritual training this young woman is getting in her church (assuming that she actually attends church–not all “evangelicals” do).
@Kathy: @Mister Bluster: The Disney film made a deep impression on me. Before then my movie experiences were Snow White, Pinocchio and Cinderella and Treasure Island (Long John Silver, what a guy) and a ton of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. But the sets, the design of the Nautilus and the way it glided under water. The characters, fully adult and the language was not simplified. A real change.
This is the person Elon Musk is pushing these days:
“The goal is to make ‘pride’ toxic for brands,” Walsh tweeted. “If they decide to shove this garbage in our face, they should know that they’ll pay a price. It won’t be worth whatever they think they’ll gain. First Bud Light and now Target. Our campaign is making progress. Let’s keep it going.”
Matt Walsh is making a career of hating LGBTQ+ people.
Maybe Musk can go all in and officially join the Proud Boys. A few months ago Bill Gates said something to the effect that he expected one day Musk would be a major philanthropist. I think he may be right, the klan is severely underfunded, Musk’s billions could do wonders.
@Mr. Prosser:
I recall seeing it. Whether at a theater or on TV, I’ve no idea. I recall very little about it.
I never got into XIX Century science fiction, either*. I read From the Earth to the Moon. I recall pieces, but not much of the story. It’s a classic for space travel enthusiasts with any interest in the history of space travel.
*I sometimes wonder how backwards present SF will seem to people some decades from now. A lot of earlier XX Century SF is laughably outdated already.
Who’d have guessed opening the exit door while taxiing could be so expensive?
I wonder why people do things like that, knowing there are bound to be consequences. The report does not say whether the passenger was drunk or high.