Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, October 9, 2022
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29 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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According to Maggie Haberman, when Trump was released from the hospital after his bout with Covid, he wanted to wear a Superman shirt under his dress shirt, so he could rip off the dress shirt and rise from his wheelchair before the adoring multitudes.
@CSK:
Maybe he could have pulled off a Bizarro Superman T-shirt.
@Kathy: I think this would be more what would spring to my mind:
https://vimeo.com/30954731
@CSK:
You ruined my morning, now I’ll have the image of that fat tub of lard in a skin tight leotard in my head all day. At least with summer over I won’t be confronted with a guy 50# overweight on the beach in a Speedo. AHHHHG…
@Kathy: @Kylopod: @Sleeping Dog:
I wonder who talked him out of doing so?
In case it wasn’t clear to you that Ilya Shapiro is a POS:
Truss and Kwarteng will face fury of Tory MPs in week of crisis meetings
The road ahead is pitted with potholes, I suspect a few washouts too.
Not sure exactly what I’ve been sleep-shopping for on Amazon, but this came up on my “based on your recent searches” suggestions:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/f.html?C=2SEUDMK280ZF6&K=MEJHGF2XJMC5&M=urn:rtn:msg:20221007192450fed0f9298d6448c882d51964ab50p0na&R=14I3RVBODJXBE&T=C&U=https%3A%2F%2Fbusiness.amazon.com%2Fabredir%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F1258824000%3Fref%3Dem_1p_0_ti%26ref_%3Dpe_2313360_672089870&H=TNDAMLOJ8HTVSGXACUFWRTNA6RAA&ref_=pe_2313360_672089870
Well, it’s not Rex Stout or Lois McMaster Bujold, but maybe…
‘Force to be reckoned with’: Ketanji Brown Jackson shines in first week
You go girl, show us all how it’s done.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
That does look enthralling.
– Arwa Mahdawi
@CSK:
Ayup, indeed. Thank dawg I’m 40 years past something like this being on my assigned reading list!
@Flat Earth Luddite:
Me, too.
On another thread, blockchain (the technology most associated with BitCoin and other Crypto currencies came up and I mentioned that I check in on it every couple of years, just to see if anyone has found an actual use for it in the real world. Why do I bother? Because the underlying technology is cool and it might someday turn out to be useful. I do this for a number of technologies and one seems to be on the cusp of finally breaking through.
Way back in 2007 a company, Witricity, was formed to promote technology that could send power wirelessly to devices. I attended at least one trade show where there was a living room mock-up with a television playing with no power plug or other wiring. But the constraints and concerns made me highly skeptical that it was practical in the real world. I checked in on them a week or so ago and think they may have finally found a killer app. They are using it to wirelessly charge electric cars via a pad embedded in a garage floor. The traditional wireless power technology we use for, say, charging our phones becomes exponentially less efficient the farther away the charging plate is. That’s why even a phone case that’s too thick cuts off the power flow. But they are claiming 98% efficiency with distances of a foot.
I’m certain that there’s a story that goes with this. My question is whether I want to know what that story is. [exploding head emoji]
@OzarkHillbilly: “Republican politicians like Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, have been vying for more control over state universities and trying to regulate what can be taught about race and identity.”
And just as Ben Sasse is leaving the Senate to become President of UF. And he was the sole candidate the trustees were seeking. Makes me wonder why. My inner cynic is not sanguine.
@Flat Earth Luddite: @CSK: Wasn’t ever on mine, but I was one of those drag on society liberal arts types.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I was an English major.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:..
I’m certain that there’s a story that goes with this. My question is whether I want to know what that story is. [exploding head emoji]
Streakers Sleepytown U 1973
(I’m still looking for the photo of the skinny dippers in the pond in front of the University Library in the middle of the day.)
@CSK: Music History. [Cue jokes by Tom and Ray Magliozzi] I took an MA in English (heavily biased away from literature studies) while I was back getting my teaching certificate.
So, how close are we to begin saying, “Well, Capitalism sounds good in theory, but in practice…”
That’s already so of “trickle down” voodoo “economics.”
Well, here’s one worry off the table now, at least.
How could you get away with an M.A. in English that wasn’t about literary studies????
@CSK:..English major.
In 1969 one of my college roommates got a Masters Degree in English something or other.
We all ragged him about it. He and a few other freaks bought some land with a very old farm house on the edge of nowhere in Union County, Ilinois and started a hippie commune and proceeded to live off the land. I visited the place a few times but wasn’t all that enamored with living with goats and chickens. And I like flush toilets instead of an outhouse.
Lost track of him.
Just last year I found out he retired from NASA.
For anyone who didn’t already know, the third season of Derry Girls is now up on Netflix.
Mel Gibson’s William Wallace is referred to as a “Scottish drag queen” in the first five minutes so already awesome.
@Mister Bluster:..Illinois…
I even had the EDIT key and read the post multiple times and still didn’t catch the error.
@CSK: Three factors:
1) many of the students in the grad program were associated with the teacher preparation program, so we had several courses more in the pedagogy line (for example, I took 3 different grammar courses in my program and 2 or 3 writing instruction courses)
2) the school I attended had the largest ESL/EFL training program in the state at the time
3) We had an additional English Language Learning emphasis that attracted large numbers of foreign students–mostly from China and Japan–who were coming to learn to teach English as a speaking skill mostly, with lower emphasis on reading and writing.
@Mister Bluster: You probably needn’t have mentioned it. Neither did I until I went back looking for it. It’s one of those “yu cn red thes even tho mowst of the wrds are mispelt” things where the brain assigns the right word.
@MarkedMan: There are quite a lot of people/companies trying to use blockchain to “increase security” on Internet of Things, Internet of Drones, Internet of Robots, etc.
Lordy lordy me….