But that's just me
I’ve been cleaning the garage over the past few days. Most of the clutter so far has been empty cardboard boxes. Easy to get rid of, but perhaps symptomatic of a larger problem.
Stay healthy and safe.
One man killed, three wounded in shooting on Woodard Avenue in west Macon
1 dead, 8 injured in mass shooting in West Philadelphia
9 people shot and injured in mass shooting in Milwaukee
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on:
Once your faith, sir, persuades you to believe what your intelligence declares to be absurd, beware lest you likewise sacrifice your reason in the conduct of your life. In days gone by, there were people who said to us: “You believe in incomprehensible, contradictory and impossible things because we have commanded you to; now then, commit unjust acts because we likewise order you to do so.” Nothing could be more convincing. Certainly anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. If you do not use the intelligence with which God endowed your mind to resist believing impossibilities, you will not be able to use the sense of injustice which God planted in your heart to resist a command to do evil. Once a single faculty of your soul has been tyrannized, all the other faculties will submit to the same fate. This has been the cause of all the religious crimes that have flooded the earth.
Voltaire (Translation from Norman Lewis Torrey: Les Philosophes. The Philosophers of the Enlightenment and Modern Democracy. Capricorn Books, 1961, pp. 277-8)
Stay healthy and safe.
4 shot overnight in Norfolk near NSU
4 wounded after gunmen shoot into crowd in Lawndale
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on:
CNN ran an article today entitled Florida’s new standards on Black history curriculum are creating outrage. Coincidentally, on this day six years ago I posted the following on Facebook.
I’ve heard it said that education can help solve bigotry, racism, etc. I think this is a great idea, and I’ve assembled a curriculum for the people that need to be educated.
Year 1, Months 1 and 2
- Captured, chained and packed onto a ship with no hygiene and little or no food or water
- Two month voyage
Year 1, Month 3
- Removed from ship and sold at auction; likely separated from family if that hasn’t already happened
- Forced to work at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week in a field with little to no water, no breaks, no sunscreen, etc. Severe corporal punishment for failure to meet performance standards. Possible day off in the future to worship according to your owner’s religion.
- Raped (required for women; optional but strongly encouraged for men)
- Children sold to new owners
- Sold to new owner; likely separated from any family
- Physical and verbal abuse. Constant reminders that you’re 3/5 of a person, an animal, an inferior life form, etc.
- All rights removed
- No education, including reading and writing, with the exception of this course work
- Living quarters provided: wooden shacks with no utilities
Year 1, Month 3 – Year 250
- Repeat Year 1, Month 3 until death; any progeny will assume responsibility for your course work
Year 250: Continuing Education
- Begrudgingly freed by owners
- Rights legally granted but unavailable in practice
- Ongoing threats of physical violence up to but not necessarily murder
- Ongoing verbal harassment
- Separate and inferior education
- Limited or no access to retail establishments, entertainment venues, public transportation, health care, and other services
- Higher education, career, and other opportunities denied
- Harassment and brutality from law enforcement officials
There’s a lot more I could add, but let’s face it; most of the students would beg to drop the class before they got to the ship.
I think it could work. Education is always worth a try.
Stay healthy and safe.
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on:
Happy birthday to Marlow and Maryann.
Stay healthy and safe.
Man killed, four others injured in shooting on Levin Street
3 children and woman killed, suspect dead after apparent murder-suicide at OKC home
4 in hospital after shooting in Russell neighborhood
1 dead, 4 injured in East St. Louis shooting
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on:
Cocaine Bear is streaming on Amazon. See you there.
Stay healthy and safe.
TBI: Four officers shot, suspects killed during standoff in Clarksville
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on:
The other day I saw an AT&T Fiber van in my neighborhood. Maybe they were finally upgrading us. I checked the website that evening. No such luck. Not that I need that kind of internet performance; but that’s never stopped me before.
Stay healthy and safe.
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on:
I tried reading Foundation a few times but never got far because I thought it was boring. The TV series based on the novel is approaching that threshold.
Stay healthy and safe.
Victims share stories of survival after downtown mass shooting
Police: 4 injured, including 17-year-old, in CUF neighborhood street party shooting
Chicago shooting: Biker recalls being shot in face while riding through Washington Park
7 hurt in Rockford drive-by shooting
Old Town drive-by shooting leaves 4 wounded
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on:
This arrived last week.
Old Gods of Appalachia podcast
Stay healthy and safe.
4 hurt in southeast Grand Rapids shooting
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on:
Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to rack up sales and critical praise. Meantime, developers at some other large game studios have sounded a bit of an alarm. Their message, in so many words, is that the game is an outlier and that consumers shouldn’t expect it to set a new standard for quality. My favorite quote, according to this article, comes from game designer Chris Balser.
“people too often only look at the fruits of labour and not the labour itself.”
Granted, this could be taken out of context, but that aside, my response, along with some others has been “Huh?” Sorry, but the work put into a product isn’t a purchase criteria.
IGN summed it up well.
Stay healthy and safe.
4 shot, 3 killed in North Philadelphia shooting at basketball court: police
1 dead, 6 injured after mass shooting at Minneapolis punk show
Suspects arrested in Pine Bluff shooting that injured 4 people
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on:
Okay, then.
Zoom, which made remote work possible, thinks employees near an office ‘need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams’.
Stay healthy and safe.
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on: