Author: Mark Alexander

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Words of Wisdom

From Doug at Mostly Words:

Chatting with a friend whose father is completely in the clutches of Fox News, and believes Donald Trump will go down in history as America’s greatest President, I could only offer condolences.

My mother was at that point a few years ago, and I’m glad that she came back from the brink, recognized the insanity, and did not vote for Trump again in 2020. I’m pretty sure my brother is still Fox-zombified, but I can’t verify that since I refuse to broach the subject with him again.

I almost typed “I don’t know what the solution is,” but I do know. It’s difficult saying it, because I spent decades as a free-speech absolutist, and I don’t know how you’d go about it beyond “very carefully,” but the plain fact is that democracy doesn’t survive if mass media and social media are allowed to lie with impunity about the facts of public discourse.

Any idiot should be free to speak any idiocies, of course. It should be illegal, though, for companies to broadcast those idiocies, unchallenged and uncorrected, to an audience of millions.

Yeah, that’s a rerun—what I just said, I’ve said before. I’m still waiting for someone to explain that I’m wrong.

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Quote of the Day

Raise your hand if you’d like to see rotting gasbag Steve Bannon testify under oath in front of Congress on live television for 11 straight hours to explain why he shouldn’t be thrown straight the fuck into prison right now for openly plotting to overthrow our government.”  ~ Jeff Tiedrich

He does it because he knows there are no consequences for anything these days.

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Quote of the Day

The civil war in 1861 happened when the South said we are leaving the Union and the North then waged a war to keep them. Today If Red states wanted to leave the North would say ‘check out time is 1pm'” ~ Dean Obeidallah

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You Are Given Two Choices

This is great, although imperfect because of the breakthrough cases, but take it for what it is.

I’ve had a few interactions recently with people who refuse to get the Covid vaccine. One of their arguments is the 99% survival rate. I came up with this analogy.

You are given two choices. The first choice is to go into a room with 99 other people and draw a marble from a box.

60 people draw a blue marble. A large man then smacks them on the side of the head with a cupped first and says they can leave. It hurts, but it wears off quickly.

30 draw a red marble. They get worked over a bit more—black eye, bloody nose, split lip. But they walk out under their own steam and heal within a week.

9 draw a yellow marble. They get the shit stomped out of them. They do not walk out under their own power. Their injuries take months to heal, and some will never be back to normal.

1 draws a green marble. He’s killed—slowly, clumsily. If he’s lucky, he passes out before the shades permanently go down.

The 2nd choice? Don’t go into the room at all.

Why would anyone pick the first option?

~John Mathews

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I Am Reminded Of This…

At a distance of nine light years, Sirius is one of the brightest well-known stars visible in the northern hemisphere that is close enough that its distance is something we can easily wrap our heads around in terms of a human lifetime.

Every winter with the appearance of the star on the eastern horizon, I think back to what I was doing nine years ago when the light I’m seeing now first departed Sirius on its journey outward.

This year that would be 2012. Ben and I had been in Denver a little over a year.

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