March 8, 2018

Haiku

Orange groves in bloom
South Texas in the Springtime
dizzying perfume.

March 8, 2018

How does Trump get away with it? Let's remember what Karl Rove said

"That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Rove

Trump has applied this principle with steroids.

We are so busy chasing down yesterday's ten scandals that we forget the hundreds that came before. Meanwhile he's creating ten new scandals to distract us from what we were scandalized about just yesterday.

It is Gish-galloping reality.

March 7, 2018

I'm just gonna leave this here.

March 6, 2018

SciAm - Trailblazers: Women in Science

Sally Ride, the first American woman to go to space, once said that she didn’t set out to be a role model, but after her first flight, she realized that she was one. Like her, the 12 women scientists in this collection became unintentional heroes through perseverance and hard work, making great discoveries in all areas of science. From Vera Rubin’s examination of the internal dynamics of galaxies to Nobel Prize winner May-Britt Moser’s study of the brain’s GPS-like navigating system, read up on the achievements of women who became role models for us all.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/store/books/trailblazers-women-in-science/

Introduction
Trailblazers: Women in Science
by Karin Tucker

1.1 Tea, Coffee and Cocoa for the Sick
by Florence Nightingale

1.2 Marie Sklodowska Curie
by The Editors

1.3 The Dynamics of the Andromeda Nebula
by Vera C. Rubin

1.4 The Fossil Footprints of Laetoli
by Richard L. Hay and Mary D. Leakey

1.5 The Molecular Biology of the AIDS Virus
by William A. Haseltine and Flossie Wong-Staal

1.6 Telomeres, Telomerase and Cancer
by Carol W. Greider and Elizabeth H. Blackburn

1.7 Methane: A Menace Surfaces
by Katey Walter Anthony

1.8 Jane of the Jungle
by Kate Wong

1.9 Brain Trust
by Kimberly G. Noble

1.10 Where Am I? Where Am I Going?
by May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser

1.11 Speaking Out on the “Quiet Crisis”
by Brendan Borrell

February 27, 2018

Trump is a Hero

Sandwich.

Pasty white bread, full of baloney, surrounded by lettuce.

February 24, 2018

Flashback - House Leader McCarthy Told Colleagues Putin 'Pays' Trump (MAY 17 2017)

The Washington Post is out with a report that a month before Trump secured the Republican nomination, a House leader joked with colleagues that Putin "pays" Trump.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” House Majority Leader and California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy reportedly said in mid-June 2016, referring to the leading presidential candidate and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Californian Republican known for defending Russia.

Some lawmakers present laughed, to which McCarthy said: “swear to God.” House Speaker Paul Ryan told lawmakers to keep the exchange between them.

“No leaks," he said. "This is how we know we’re a real family here.”




https://www.nbcnews.com/card/report-house-leader-told-colleagues-putin-pays-trump-n761281

February 23, 2018

What is the definition of arms for purposes of the second amendment?

Because there's lots of weapons you're not allowed to have in your possession:

biological,
nuclear,
explosives,
bazookas,
RPGs,
apache helicopters.

So where do assault weapons fall in this? Why would they qualify under 2nd amendment protection but not A-bombs?

I'm starting to think that this has all been a terrible misunderstanding about what arms the 2nd amendment refers to.

I think the intent was to refer to the distinctive emblems or devices, originally borne on shields in battle and now forming the heraldic insignia of families, corporations, or countries. Those are the arms they were thinking about.

After all, you can't have a well regulated militia without snazzy shoulder patches to make those uniforms really snap.

So I support the 2nd amendment and think we all should have the right to wear those pretty arm patches whenever we want.

February 22, 2018

'He Never Went In': BSO Suspends Officer Who Was at Parkland Shooting

Source: NBC Miami

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel on Thursday said he has suspended without pay the school resource officer who was at the Parkland school where 17 people were shot dead.

Israel said school resource officer Scot Peterson took a position outside of the school but "never went in" as the onslaught occurred, citing security footage.

"In the case of Scot Peterson, our school resource deputy, I want to clarify any rumors conjecture or stories that may have been out there," Israel said.

Read more: https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/He-Never-Went-In-BSO-Suspends-Officer-Who-Was-at-Parkland-Shooting-474889753.html

---

Even a trained deputy succumbed to the pucker factor.

February 22, 2018

So, one moment we don't want teachers laying a finger on our kids

Next moment we want them to point a weapon at them and pull the trigger.

Wait, wut?

February 17, 2018

Given Muller indictments today, what about the CIA chiefs meet with sanctioned Russian spies?

Friday, February 2, 2018

Washington (CNN) CIA Director Mike Pompeo did meet with the head of Russia's foreign intelligence agency, an official barred from entering the US under 2014 sanctions, as well as the head of Russia's internal security agency, according to a US official with direct knowledge of the meetings.

The official said Pompeo did not meet with the head of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency behind efforts to meddle in the 2016 US election. The CIA followed a multi-agency legal process to give access to Russian officials under sanctions, the official said.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo defended the meeting in a Thursday letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, declaring that he and other officials met with Russians for the same reason their predecessors did -- "to keep Americans safe."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/01/politics/pompeo-russian-spies-meeting/index.html

Are these events totally unrelated?