I truly have never been more discouraged about this country than I have been in the last few years… this Supreme Court definitely plays into that discouragement.
I would hate to see John Oliver give this awful Supreme Court Justice $1,000,000 a year for life, but he certainly does not need to be on the Supreme Court bench. Of course Clarence Thomas is 75 years old, statistically he will likely be out of here within 8 or 10 years. However, at the end of the day, John Oliver has made a bet with himself that Clarence Thomas will not accept his offer.
I moved to St. Louis after living and working in Mississippi for over three years. While I left some good friends behind I was more than glad to get away from the religious conservatism that dominates politics down there. My first impression of Missouri was of St. Louis which left me with a hopeful feeling. Then I discovered the rest of Missouri. While St. Louis is more of a purple with bluish hues, the politics of the rest of the state is a Trumpian dystopia concerned with protecting so called guns rights and waging cultural battles against basic individual rights and freedoms, especially against women and folks with alternate lifestyles. It is deeply red, and, for me, very discouraging to the point of being depressing. Of course, I am an Okie by birth and with Oklahoma’s super hard turn to the far right, I find my native state even more depressing.
I used to be a bit of a Bill Maher fan, but not so for the last several years. I now find him to be a self-righteous pendejo, and thus hard to watch. However, the video below was embedded in an article that appeared in the online version of the St. Louis Jewish Light: ‘Where do you think Israel is going?’ Bill Maher quips in viral eight-minute clip.
Maher makes a lot a sense to me in his segment. At some point you just have to move on. Of course, it took me a few years to stop lamenting about some of the fallout from my divorce, but you just do it. Sometimes you just need to let go.
Given that this is Bill Maher, the language is reasonably clean.
If you want a good quick review of the current history of Israel and The Occupied Territories, I discussed a recently published book by Daniel Skotach at this link: Can We Talk About Israel?
And is almost always the case, there are two sides to the story, if not more. I discussed a 2005 Arabic language movie about the recruitment of two young West Bankers to be suicide bombers here: Paradise Now | Revisited
While not Jewish myself, my wife is, so much of this strikes close to home. Especially so as our October trip to Israel – a lifetime dream of my spouse – was cancelled abruptly.
“But the truth is, that when a Library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn’t anger me.” ~~ Mark Twain in a letter to Mrs. F. G. Whitmore, 7 February 1907
Ron DeSantis has asked Pope Francis to fire the nuns in this picture.
“They are obviously setting a bad example for our children visiting such a pornographic exhibit,” he stated with his resting disgust face, “what was the Pope thinking letting these nuns loose with a selfie-stick instead of rulers?”
“Besides, finding humor in the male anatomy is a blatant example of Critical Size Theory, and makes some of us question our manhood,” the Governor continued, pulling up his white boots.
Finally adding, “A man’s wee-wee should never see the light of day. The Italian government should require this museum to put a kilt on this statue… for decency sake. I really don’t care if it is considered one of the greatest pieces of art ever produced. Everyone knows that those supposed art critics work for Disney.”
Yup, I intentionally channeled my inner Andy Borowitz.
If you are of my generation or older you remember the day President John F. Kennedy was shot, 22 November 1963. I was in 6th grade at an elementary school in Toms River, New Jersey. It was the first time in my educational career that I had had a male teacher. He was a very tall, skinny man who I remember mainly because he was male and his reaction to the Kennedy news. When they announced over the loudspeaker that the President had been assassinated, this man cried. However, when I raised my hand after Continue reading “Reconsidering JFK – A Wondrium Course”
One of the guiding principles of my life is live and let live. If I were being honest, I would have to admit to falling short of this goal far too often, but it is a light I steer towards. In that same vein I have a mantra I recite whenever I am speaking or thinking about religious beliefs or sexual orientation, “Life is tough, whatever gets you through the day, whatever gets you through the night.”
I recently watched on Wondrium a very interesting and worthwhile pair of courses on the US Constitution taught by Eric Berger, a professor at the University of Nebraska Law School. The two courses were:
While the US Constitution is not that long and is not that hard to read, reading it and understanding it are two distinct things. Both of the first two courses are good, but the second was more interesting to me as Continue reading “What Do You Know About the Constitution?”
I thought for a minute that a tornado must have grabbed the whole town I live in, Chesterfield, Missouri, and dumped it in Oklahoma while I slept. But no, we’re still here. I had to remind myself that I live in Missouri and in the particularly onerous 2nd district, the district which has given us such Republican notables as Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin and Ann “What Climate Change” Wagner.
