Seldom Balanced – Usually Fair
From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:
Many right-wing evangelicals are still whining about the rights recently won by the LGBT community. They don’t think members of that community should have the rights afforded to other Americans, and shouldn’t be accepted by the larger society. But that is a battle they are losing — and losing badly.
From The Moderate Voice:
Modern music can make it in the Great Music portfolio because modern musical instruments not only sound better than the old ones musicians had to play in the distant past but also because modern musician were able to use different rhythms, chords and instruments.
For example during the Classical period of music, there were thousands of rules about what could and could not be done in composing music. The Italian Court was in charge of establishing the rules and the way they controlled musicians was by prohibiting the publication of music that was against the rules. Illustrating this point was Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata where in the first movement Beethoven wanted to play a natural G in a section of the music but that was against the rules because a natural G does not appear in a C# minor scale, the key signature of the piece. Beethoven wanted the music to be published but also wanted the music to be true to his intentions and use a natural G.
So how did Beethoven get around the rules?
From our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit:
What’s the point of Aetna having paid that clown a good salary if all he did was rubber-stamp the recommendations of the nurses.
Wondering why a few conservative friends fail to be impressed.
Barry Goldwater was an avid photographer. He got started as a kid when his mother showed him how to use a box camera. It became a lifelong passion.
He took pictures all over Arizona. Tens of thousands of photographs. He documented the ordinary life of native Americans and became an advocate. He took pictures of vast desert vistas.
When he was in Washington, he became a loud conservative voice. He was a bitter opponent of John F. Kennedy and what he stood for.
And they became close friends.
Kennedy was a frequent guest at the Goldwater home. Goldwater’s wife and kids later reminisced about Jack Kennedy’s visits. Barry and John enjoyed each other’s company.
In those days, political opponents could become good friends without betraying core principles. Ted Kennedy was sometimes seen sitting with elderly segregationist John Stennis of Mississippi, occasionally laughing softly together at some inside joke. Politicians back then were even known to enjoy ironic humor.
Continue reading “My Conservative Friend’s Funny Pictures”
From Max’s Dad:
My father spent 45 years in the stock game. From stock broker to account executive to financial planner he always said all those titles were bullshit. I’m a salesman he’d proclaim, almost proudly. The other two things my old man said in his 45 years pushing stocks on a daily basis was “stock market goes up, stock market goes down” and of course, “I was just about to call you” whenever one of his panicky investors would call and interrupt his newspaper reading.
The stock market plunged the last two days after Wall Street realized we have a goddamned maniac running the country. Just a warning. To those of us versed in history, we know, that when Republicans get control and cut taxes to the rich and run up the debt what inevitably happens is 1929, 1987, 2007 and perhaps 2018.
From Tommy Christopher:
Criticism of Donald Trump’s outrageous accusation that Democrats were “treasonous” and “un-American” for not applauding his State of the Union address left his spokesperson flat-footed and lashing out at Trump’s critics.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was clearly unprepared to respond to criticism of Trumps’s inflammatory and offensive attack.
From Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post:
Our society and culture are literally built on lies – look at the plethora of lying TV, radio, magazine, and newspaper ads we are exposed to numerous times each day! Even a major TV network – Fox “News” – lies repeatedly to smear political opponents. One of their main commentators, Sean Hannity, is a chronic liar. The only thing that differs occasionally are the severity and extent of the lies, but, especially at Fox, they are ever-present!
From The Journal of Improbable Research:
Imagine that you’re just about to sign an important contract – would you prefer it to have been precisely drafted, or would you be happy for it to be “optimally vague” ?