Has America gone crazy? “It’s hard to know why we are the way we are, and — believe me — even harder to explain it to others.” Plus ignorance as a virtue.
Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address: annotated. And the official website for House Republicans has posted on YouTube a doctored version of the SOTU address which cuts out comments where the President was critical of Republican rhetoric on climate change.
How Expensive It Is to Be Poor.
Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Dustbury writes: “Depressed? ‘Buck up,’ they say. ‘Smile a little.’ They are, of course, full of crap.”
Last year Roger Ver renounced his US citizenship to avoid paying US taxes. “Now he’s upset that the ‘tyrants’ in the US government won’t give him a visa to visit Miami.”
From Forbes, hardly a liberal bastion: Bibi Netanyahu — aka ‘The Republican Senator From Israel’ — May Have Made A Fatal Political Mistake.
Solving homelessness in Salt Lake City.
Hetero privilege: holding hands. Also, SCOTUS takes up marriage equality. I too would have cited Loving v. Virginia, because I do that.
Remembering Auschwitz: 70 Years After Liberation. Also, Auschwitz Survivor Gena Turgel Walked Out of Gas Chamber Alive and the BBC flew a drone over Auschwitz.
Research Finds That Guns Do Indeed Kill People.
The strike that changed Milwaukee by Michael Rosen.
Eddie’s cancer updates. Then, Ronald Keith and Michael Edward get married in Chicago, “an event 25 years in the making!”
Ursula Le Guin on the future of literature.
A Pharmacist’s tongue-in-cheek guide to patient etiquette.
Major progressive New Testament scholar Marcus Borg has died.
How Lakes Can Explode Like A Can Of Soda.
Why you can’t actually break spaghetti in two: “Invariably a third piece is formed, and sometimes a fourth.” And speaking of broken: a copy of one of the largest check I’ve seen.
Dustbury’s memory does not serve him well. Sounds like me.
Burger Math and Cereal Killers and the smallpox boat and 8-6-7-5-3-0-….
Yitang Zhang solves a pure-math mystery, involving prime numbers.
Uthaclena goes off the tracks.
My favorite haiku of the month.
Why Are Some People Better at Drawing than Others?
Cartoonist Jorge Gutierrez interviews Sergio Aragonés.
In honor of the first anniversary of Pete Seeger’s death, check out the January 2015 issue of the Monthly Review.
Paul Simon and John Lennon co-presenting the GRAMMY for Record Of The Year at the 17th GRAMMY awards.
K-Chuck Radio: You can go, but we’ll still have hits….
Muppets: Yorick and Zizzy Zoomers. Also, the very significant I Love My Hair and The Color of Me, plus Nick McKaig’s rendition of the theme from The Muppet Show and how Jim Henson worked and a long interview with Frank Oz.
How Yogi Bear’s collar revolutionized television, plus Daws Butler on You Bet Your Life; the cartoon voice artist was quite short.
SamuraiFrog pointed me to The Way They Was: Six Totally Different Shows The Simpsons Has Been.
The Origin Of “The Trix Rabbit”.
What the Marvel Super-Heroes looked like on Saturday mornings.
Ken Levine on hosting this month’s Friday Night Spotlight series on Neil Simon for TCM. And Mark Evanier makes some corrections to those intros.
The NFL finds that Patriots used underinflated footballs. Perhaps coach Bill Belichick can’t help but channel his inner Richard Nixon. Go, Seahawks!
The TV show Parenthood just went off the air. I watched it religiously. From PARADE: What I Learned About My Family From Parenthood’s Braverman Family.
Why local social media goddess Kristi Gustafson Barlette took a break from social media.
From the Onion News Network: Judge Rules White Girl Will Be Tried As Black Adult. And from the Onion: I Don’t Vaccinate My Child Because It’s My Right To Decide What Eliminated Diseases Come Roaring Back.
GOOGLE ALERTS (me)
I am described as a Kirby Delauter Super Fan, which made me LOL, literally. I have witnesses.
I asked Arthur about Facebook quizzes. Here’s one he did: What Is Your 2014 Anthem. He got Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off. I got John Legend’s All of Me: “Wowzers, what a year right? 2014 may have held some special things in it, but this isn’t your first nor your last rodeo. People like you who give their full efforts here on this planet are rare, so anytime you need a reminder of how important you are let this legend from John ride and just reminisce. Thank you for putting so much love, positivity, and good vibes into the atmosphere… it may not seem like too much out of the ordinary for you, but Picasso didn’t know he would grow to be Picasso while he was painting either. We appreciate it, so just stay committed to giving all of yourself (into the right situations of course) in all your endeavors!” Positivity?
GOOGLE ALERTS (not me)
Cole Memorial Hospital’s maternity unit announces that Potter County (PA)’s New Year’s baby on Jan. 1 at 2:20 p.m. Roger Bradley Green.
Exactly what is supporting “Ignorance as a Virtue?” In my perspective it is the same thing that maintains Belief when Reality shows otherwise: Emotion. While our emotions are necessary for motivation, beyond a certain point of agitation, the emotional state actually seems to turn off the rational thinking process. It is reactive, not deliberate. Emotions being a much more ancient evolutionary process than the more recently-developed thinking process, are more powerful. Reverting to “gut decisions” as our previous President prided himself in doing, is a dangerous strategy in our complex modern world. But those enamored with their ignorant reactivity don’t care; that is one of the “strengths” of True Believers. Emotional satisfaction is self-rewarding. Stupid really should hurt.