Author: mongreldogs
-
Week of 2025-0210
Monday Feb 10 Tuesday Feb 11 Wednesday Feb 12 Friday February 14 Saturday February 15
-
Revisiting the Undiscovered Country
For no strong reason — perhaps I just want to relive a time that had could view its moment in history with hope — I rewatched Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country tonight. Although clearly of another era, it holds up pretty well. There’s more to the main story than I remembered and a lot…
-
Missing the point on court packing
This is the sort of idiocy that keeps us mired. The Republicans haven’t resisted “nuking” the “independent judiciary” out of respect for the Democrats’ restraint. I promise you, now that independent judges have thrown speed bumps in the path of the MAGA/fascist/cultist horde, we will see bills to purge the judiciary. But if the Democrats…
-
The Pledge on the day after
At Jenks, we say the Pledge of Allegiance every day at the start of school. (Kids can opt out.) Not usually a big deal to me — I don’t think reciting the pledge makes one patriotic, nor does not reciting it make one NOT patriotic. It’s more or less rote, which is sad, because we…
-
Good riddance to bad rubbish
McConnell is finally stepping down as Republican Senate Leader. Good riddance. Mitch McConnell, more than any other American, is responsible for the perilous state in which we currently find the Republic. While not subscribing to the worst of the MAGA madness, he absolutely is to blame for its rise, its prominence, and its persistence. He…
-
Donald Trump and Kompromat
TL;DR: There is none. Putin isn’t holding some terrible secret over Trump’s head to get him to dance to the Russian’s tune. It’s far far worse than that.
-
Thought on AP and transparency
I’m an AP teacher and have been my entire career, and I think the program can add tremendous value. But the entrenched resistance to transparency makes the College Board look extremely sketchy. They like to make sweeping statements about data-driven policy making — but then tell you that the actual data is proprietary and private.…
-
Facebook “protecting” the Interwebs
I’ve had a surreal experience with Facebook today, specifically, Facebook moderation. I made up a funny meme (well, at least I think it’s funny): and posted it to Facebook. (Yes, I really really dislike Star Trek: First Contact). Within minutes, I received a notice: In case the image gets lost, the note says “It looks…
-
The Story of America
{rescued from the drafts folder, many many years late.} [I just noticed that this is the first I’ve written since the night of Trump’s victory in the election. There’s something in that.] A few days ago I came across an article (I’ve since lost the link 😐 ) saying that the Left will continue losing…
-
Back on the Interwebs!
A screwup in migration to a new SQL database went awry in April and frakked this site. (I’m sure you all noticed the disturbance in the Force.) It took until today for me to have the time to resolve it, but now it is and I think I was able to restore the backup. So…