Random Notes from a Crank

The drama of the summer transfer window has been interesting for Tottenham Hotspur. I didn't know there was so much hubbub about transfers until I started following the Premier League. The Spurs have been active in signing a number of players: Hojbjerg, Hart, Doherty, Reguilon, Bale, and now finally a striker in Vinicius. 

Now it's just a matter of days before Rose gets sold and Foyth and Sessengon are put out on loan. 

Moscow Don got Covid-19. Even though he's known for being a germaphobe, it's no surprise he got it. Apparently, they did debate prep without masks. I guess thoughts and prayers are in order to that douche bag. Still, what a bunch of clowns. 

The debate commission has plans to make the next two debates more orderly. The only move that will help is giving the moderator the power to mute the tRump's microphone when Biden is being asked a question or when Biden is talking. 

The article, "How the Virus Won" or "How the Pandemic Defeated America," in the The Atlantic is essential reading for when the next pandemic hits. It's not a matter of if, but it's a matter of when. 

Random Notes from a Crank

One of the more trenchant articles I've read in a while is Anne Applebaum's "Why Do Republican Leaders Continue to Enable Trump?" in the The Atlantic. She deftly goes through the rationalizations people use to continue supporting Moscow Don even in the wake of his gross incompetence, among myriad other issues. 

One rationale she didn't provide is the one I've seen wherein a person states that the tax cuts helped their family, and they are going to support Moscow Don because he helped his or her family. This shoddy rationale is often provided by someone who claims to be Christian. Nothing like caring for one's fellow man, huh? 

I've studied all kinds of religions/mythologies. In fact, I studied the Gospel quite a bit when I was younger and Christian and even thought about being a minister at one time. It's not a hard argument to make that Christ's teaching espouse Socialism. 

And speaking of politics, here's something I shared on social media about what being a liberal really means. I got it from one of Mrs. Nasty's friends on Facebook. 

All of this except for that I'm not Christian...

"Reposted and sincerely believed.
I'm a liberal, but that doesn't mean what a lot of you apparently think it does. Let's break it down, shall we?
Because quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for.Spoiler alert: Not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines:
1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected. Period.
2. I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Somehow that's interpreted as "I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all." This is not the case.
I'm fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it's impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes "let people die because they can't afford healthcare" a better alternative.
I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I'm not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen.
3. I believe education should be affordable. It doesn't necessarily have to be free (though it works in other countries so I'm mystified as to why it can't work in the US), but at the end of the day, there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.
4. I don't believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don't want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever.
I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor.
Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Somehow believing that makes me a communist.
5. I don't throw around "I'm willing to pay higher taxes" lightly. If I'm suggesting something that involves paying more, well, it's because I'm fine with paying my share as long as it's actually going to something besides lining corporate pockets or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.
6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes.
What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their head above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion-dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn't have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.
7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer in school, etc. (BTW, prayer in school is NOT illegal; compulsory prayer in school is - and should be - illegal).
All I ask is that Christians recognize my right to live according to my beliefs. When I get pissed off that a politician is trying to legislate Scripture into law, I'm not "offended by Christianity" -- I'm offended that you're trying to force me to live by your religion's rules.
You know how you get really upset at the thought of Muslims imposing Sharia law on you? That's how I feel about Christians trying to impose biblical law on me.
I’m a Christian saved my grace Be a Christian. Do your thing. Just don't force other people to believe the same!
8. I don't believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I just believe they should have the same rights as you.
9. I don't believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN'T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they're supposed to be abusing, and if they're "stealing" your job it's because your employer is hiring illegally).
I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc).
10. I don't believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc.
It's not that I want the government's hands in everything -- I just don't trust people trying to make money to ensure that their products/practices/etc. are actually SAFE.
Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they're harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc.
Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.
11. I believe our current administration is fascist. Not because I dislike them or because I can’t get over an election, but because I've spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities.
Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.
12. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed.
Which means those with privilege -- white, straight, male, economic, etc. -- need to start listening, even if you don't like what you're hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that's causing people to be marginalized.
13. I am not interested in coming after your blessed guns, nor is anyone serving in government. What I am interested in is the enforcement of present laws and enacting new, common sense gun regulations. Got another opinion? Put it on your page, not mine.
14. I believe in so-called political correctness. I prefer to think it’s social politeness. If I call you Chuck and you say you prefer to be called Charles I’ll call you Charles. It’s the polite thing to do.
Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better.
When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you're using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person?
15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something else.
16. I believe that women should not be treated as a separate class of human. They should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse. Why on earth shouldn’t they be?
I think that about covers it.
Bottom line is that I'm a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.
Copy & paste if you want. I did. Author unknown."

Random Notes from a Crank

I was at the local post office on Monday. People were doing the social distancing thing, which they obviously should. However, the women in line behind me coughed rather raspy directly into her hand. 

They need to do some PSAs for adults about how to properly cough into one's elbow. 

I'm glad that woman was behind me. I got the hell out of there quickly. 

In the recent issue of The Atlantic, Christopher Orr has an interesting essay about Scooby-Doo: "The Secret of Scooby-Doo's Enduring Appeal." 

I admittedly have a thing for red-headed women. I think it all started with Daphne. 

Oh sweet Daphne...

In that same issue, there's a solid article about one health expert's fight for proper treatment for opiod addiction in a part of rural America. The title online is "America's Other Epidemic: A New Approach to Fighting the Opiod Crisis as It Quietly Goes On," but in the print magazine the title is just the quotation, "At 14, I could've pointed out everybody who would be dead." 

Random Notes from a Crank

I've been trying to catch up on my magazine reading, and the December issue of The Atlantic is quite good, an issue that is chocked full of interesting reads. 

I've thought about reading Tara Westover's memoir, Educated, and her short interview titled "Left Behind" in print is titled "The Places Where the Recession Never Ended" online and is quite illuminating. Since I live in a rural part of the Midwest, I tend to agree with a number of the contentions at the end of the interview, such as these areas tend to be the harbinger of the "old economy" and that the opioid epidemic is hitting rural areas hard. 

As pundits and well-seasoned writers are wont to do when examining the Republican Party, "How America Ends" looks at how the GOP under Moscow Don is targeting a shrinking demographic and how the party might be prone to doing all sorts of heinous crap to keep their hold and sustain their perception as "real Americans." 

Here are some factoids from the last two versions of the Harper's Index:

• Percentage of Uber riders who never tip: 60
• Who always tip: 1
• Estimated number of people who could go unaccounted for in the 2020 census because of an "increased climate of fear": 4,000,000
• Average effective tax rate, as a percentage of income, paid by the richest 400 households in the United States in 2018: 23
• By the poorest half of American households: 24
• Percentage by which owning a dog lowers one's risk of death: 24
• Percentage of American men who say they would not feel "very comfortable" with a woman as president: 51
• Of American women who say so: 41
• Percentage of Americans aged 13 to 38 who would be willing to post sponsored content to their social-media accounts: 86
• Number of pending patent applications for variations of the phrase "OK, Boomer": 6

In the online version of The Atlantic, Cohen penned a good piece about Romney's speech about voting yes for conviction: "In the Long Run, Romney Wins." I think he's right. He was the only GOP with guts to do what's right. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In the October issue of The Atlantic there's a short article by Jeffrey Goldberg based on his interviews with former Secretary of Defense James Mattis: "The Man Who Couldn't Take It Anymore." Like the author, I wish Mattis would speak out more. 

The anonymous author who wrote an op-ed column a while back about the unhinged, racist, intellectually dubious, and easily influenced nature of Moscow Don has published a book: "Book by Anonymous Describes Trump as Cruel, Inept, and a Danger to the Nation." 

It's a narrative that should seriously concern any American citizen. In one of the early ¶s of the article, it paints a chilling but not surprising portrait comparing Moscow Don to "a twelve-year old in an air traffic control tower, pushing button of government indiscriminately, indifferent to the planes skidding across the runway and the flight frantically diverting away from the airpot." 

I've compiled a bunch of metrics and stats from past Harper's Indexes dating all the way back from May:

• Factor by which users of marijuana edibles are more likely to require emergency care than marijuana smokers: 33
• Percentage of U.S. adults who admit to shopping while drunk: 26
• Average amount of those adults spend annually on purchases made while drunk: $736
• Estimated value of drunk shopping to the U.S. economy each year: $39,400,000,000
• Number of U.S. counties in which a full-time worker making minimum wage can afford a one-bedroom apartment: 22
• Percentage by which a same-sex couple is more likely to be denied a home loan than other couples: 73
• Estimated percentage of New York City police officers who have received tickets for speeding tickets for speeding and running red lights: 59
• Of New York City drivers in general: 36
• Percentage of Republican or Republican-leaning whites who are bothered by hearing a non-English language in public: 47
• Of Democratic or Democratic-leaning whites: 18
• Factor by which more migrants with criminal records are apprehended at the Canadian rather than the Mexican border: 3
• Percentage chance that a U.S. woman who is denied an abortion will be in poverty six months later: 61
• Factor by which more Americans died in school shootings than in combat last year: 3
• Rank of Candid among countries resettling the most refugees in 2018: 1
• Minimum number of years for which the United States previously held that distinction: 59
• Number of U.S. state that require permits for children's lemonade stands: 34
• Estimated number of active police officers who use racist, bigoted, or violent language on Facebook: 20
• Of retired police officers: 45
• Percentage by which the federal minimum wage is worth les today than it was in 1968: 31
• Number of years for which the federal minimum wage has remained unadjusted: 10
• Number of U.S. representatives and senators who are naturalized American citizens: 14
• Number of those who are Democrats: 14
• Number of think tanks in the United States: 1,872
• Factor by which this figure has increased since 1980: 2
• Percentage of American adults who think the Iraq War was not worth fighting: 62
• Of veterans: 64
• Portion of violent protest movements seeking regime change from 1900 to 2014 that were successful: 1/4
• Of nonviolent protest movements: 1/2
• Rank of Brazil among countries with the highest amount of annual forest depletion: 2
• Rank of Russia: 1
• Minimum number of Afghan civilians killed this year by the Afghan military and international forces: 577
• By the Taliban: 423
• Average number of times per week Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is mentioned on Fox News: 42
• On CNN: 14
• Number of states whose Supreme Court benches are all white: 24
• Number of those states in which at least a quarter of the population consists of people of color: 8
• Minimum number of U.S. universities that have offered courses related to the marijuana industry: 14
• Rank of subscription television services among the forty-six major U.S. industries in terms of customer satisfaction: 46
• Of breweries: 1

Some initial thoughts based on all that data...

Thank the Gods for beer. 

Prejudice against same-sex couples is quite alive. 

Arguments for a much higher minimum wage have some ammunition. 

As much as people want to talk about the "thin blue line," to think there are not problems with policing in this country is foolishness. The tickets for NYC cops is somewhat jejune but not an aberration. People in power can easily abuse that power. 

The GOP has become a nativist party that has become obsessed with painting Democrats as socialists. 

Legalized marijuana has its challenges. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I've been catching up on my magazine reading. 

In Harper's there's a solid article by Andrew Cockburn titled "The Military Industrial Virus: How Bloated Budgets Gut Our Defense" that everyone should read. 

Here's a ¶ that you should read now: 
"Yet deep scrutiny indicates that defense contracts are not particularly efficient job generators after all. Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have calculated the number of jobs spawned by an investment of $1 billion in various industries, ranging from defense to health care, renewable energy, and education. Education came in first by a wide margin, producing 26,700 jobs, followed by health care at 17,200. Defense, generating 11,200 jobs, ranked last. 'All economic activity creates some employment,' Pollin told me. "That isn't an issue. The relevant question is how much employment in the U.S. gets created for a given level of spending in one area of the economy as opposed to others.' The fact is that defense spending generates fewer jobs than green energy, education, and other critical industries." 

Nick Hanauer's "Better Schools Won't Fix America" in The Atlantic (titled "Education Isn't Enough" in the magazine) is a worth a read. He lays out the myth of "educationism," the belief that better schools will fix America's problems. Based on his experience and data analysis, the real problem is that we're living in a new Gilded Age. The article reminds me of the adage that my Dad liked to say: "A wise man will change his mind, but a fool never will." 

Parts of what's left of my hair has been turning gray for a few years now, but now I have a single gray hair in one of eyebrows. It looks weird. I don't want to pluck it like I'm some vain person, but I need more gray hair in my eyebrows, so it doesn't stand out so prominently. 

What's really gotten gray is my beard when I grow one. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Moscow Don's racist twitterstorm about the Squad shouldn't surprise anyone. 

"An Oral History of Trump's Bigotry" in the June issue of The Atlantic does a fine job of showing how his "go back to their countries" idiotic comment is par for the racist course. 

People need to read "12 Facts That Show Why Bottled Water Is One of the Biggest Scams of the Century" from Business Insider. 

A friend on FB shared an image about hemp that I found interesting. Here are the points:

• "Anything made from plastic can be made from hemp.
• Hemp requires about half the amount of water that cotton needs.
• 1 acre of hemp produces the same amount as 4.1 acres of trees.
• 1 acre of hemp produces more oxygen than 25 acres of forest." 

I'm told all that is true. 

America needs to start growing lots of damn hemp, people. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I finally got around to reading David Frum's fine article in The Atlantic. In the magazine, it's title is "How Much Immigration Is Too Much?" On the Interwebs it's titled "If Liberals Won't Enforce Borders, Fascists Will."

To me, Frum is on the mark about the US immigration policy being supported more by nostalgia and not asking hard questions. As he states, "But immigration needs to be thought of as a system, not a symbol [like a stupid wall]. And the system is not working. No intentional policy has led the U.S. to accept more low-wage, low-skill laborers and fewer cancer researchers. Yet that is what the United States is doing." 

And as he gets to the close of the article, he offers this point: "More than any other area of government, U.S. immigration policy is driven by nostalgia--by ancestral memories of a world long gone. Give me your tired, your poor...

This is no way to think about the problems of today. These are new times, calling for new thinking." 

In another article in The Atlantic, this time in the May issue, a Professor of Linguistics describes how the language is changing in a way that is a bit odd. Check out "Why Grown-Ups Keep Talking Like Little Kids." His analysis brought up some syntactical changes people have been making all the time.  

The last three times I've walked the dog the song below has played with my iPod on shuffle. It is one of my favorite Lucero tunes. However, I'm trying to understand what the universe is trying to tell me.




As I watched the White Sox-Cubs game tonight, I thought about the cities that have two baseball teams, and I asked my son which of the sets of teams he'd root for: 

• New York: Yankees or Mets
• Bay Area: As or Giants

My son went with the Yankees and Giants, and I went the Mets and As. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Recent weeks have seen two people announce their intentions to be candidates for President. Both are women ~ Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris ~ who now join Elizabeth Warren as presidential hopefuls. 

My hope is that Sanders does not run. The real question mark for me is whether Biden is going to run. I also assume Beto O'Rourke and Corey Booker are running. 

Maybe I'm being agist, but I'm tired of old people running for the job. So I hanker for someone who could at least be considered middle-aged or an early senior for President. So I have my eyes on Gillibrand and Harris. 

Btw, Moscow Don is a senile, pathological lyin' clown. 

The title of this article made me think, "DUH": "Trump Voters Now Blame Him for the Government Shutdown." 

Gee, did they really think Mexico is going to pay for his exorbitant, illogical, ineffective boondoggle? Jesus H. Christ. 

Random Notes from a Crank

The esteemed James Fallows has an interesting article in The Atlantic: "Reinventing America." It's a synopsis of he and his wife's journeys around the US to see what's really going on in lesser-known communities and how there are some real positive outcomes in these smaller and medium-sized communities. 

The article has me intrigued about he an his wife's book. 

If one ever wants to hire a good lawyer, I'd have to suggest Michael Avenatti. That dude is relentless. 

This guy in now following him on Twitter. 

I never thought I'd be praising the former head of Exxon, but in times like these, crap like this happens. Rex Tillerson gave the commencement speech at VMI, and while he didn't name Moscow Don directly, it's clear that Tillerson is troubled by the White House's lies and bullshit and corruption. Read "Rex Tillerson Says 'Alternative Realities' Are a Threat to Democracy." 

Here are a few statements that are noteworthy: 

• "If our leaders seek to conceal the truth or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom."
• "If we do not as Americans confront the crisis of ethics and integrity in our society and among our leaders in both public and private sector ~ and regrettably at times even the nonprofit sect ~ then American democracy as we know it is entering its twilight years." 
• "Without personal honor, there is no leadership."

Random Notes from a Crank

The Atlantic has a couple of articles worth a thinking person's time in the April issue. 

The first is "The Nancy Pelosi Problem," an article that demonstrates that the vitriol spewed against Pelosi by various people has a gendered proclivity. As the article shows, she's been pretty darn good at her job as Majority and Minority Leader. But a lot of what she's up against (and the Democrats for that matter) is showcased in the study that presents how people react to "John Burr" and "Ann Burr."

Another good piece features Julie Washington's work and research. She's a linguist who is trying to use AAV to help students succeed. Check out "The Code-Switcher: Julie Washington's Lifelong Quest to Change the Way We Teach Young Speakers of African-American English." 

"More Guns Do Not Stop More Crimes, Evidence Shows" by Melinda Wenner Moyer in Scientific American should be required reading. I read it when it came out in October. The article won the American Society of Jounralists and Author's Excellence in Reporting Award.

In a more recent article in Scientific American, "The Number of Americans with No Religious Affiliation is Rising," the author reports on how the number of "nones" is getter larger in the US. I tend to agree with Shermer's statement that "This shift away from the dominance of any one religion is good for a secular society whose government is structured to discourage catch basins of power from building up and spilling over into people's private lives." Also, like the author, I find some of the beliefs of these non-religious people puzzling and downright silly.

Random Notes from a Crank

For years I've been reading reports about how optimists do better in life and live longer. Much to my surprise, the December/January issue of The Atlantic has a uplifting article for we pessimists of the world. Check out "The Power of Negative Thinking."  I'm particularly fond of "defensive pessimism": "Forget about hoping for the best. Instead, focus on preparing for the worst." 

In the same issue, Julia Ioffe's "Putin's Game," aka "What Putin Really Wants," details why and how Russia interfered in the presidential election and why they will probably interfere in future elections. It also details the current state of the country and Putin's popularity. It's a longish article but well worth the read. 

This short article from Deadspin doesn't surprise me at all: "Cops Say an Eagles Fan Punched a Police Horse after Being Ejected from the Stadium."

Which reminds me of Mongo punching out a horse in Blazing Saddles...

Random Notes from a Crank

"How Trump Is Ending the American Era" is a sobering article written by a guy who worked under Condoleezza Rice during Dubya's administration. He has a clear-headed analysis of the trouble we're in. 

On our drive to Philadelphia, I got to be in one state I've never been in, West Virginia. The slogan on the billboard as we entered was "Wild and Wonderful." That sounds more like an advertising phrase for some porn rather than a state's marketing slogan. 

The short amount of time we spent in West Virginia was good. The sliver of the state we passed through was quite pretty. Wheeling is an interesting city tucked in a valley alongside a river. 

Going through Wheeling made me think about the great character Chris Stevens from Northern Exposure, one of my favorite TV shows of all time. 

And that led me to a Northern Exposure wiki page about the character. Mash the link above if you're interested. 

Here are some relevant videos.





Mash HERE to watch the famous "piano fling scene." 

Stay Positive: Public Schools

"The War on Public Schools" by Erika Christakis in The Atlantic is worth a read. It's written by someone who gets it. 

For me, here are some important passages:

• Few people care more individual students than public-school teachers do, but what's really missing in this dystopian narrative is a hearty helping of reality: 21st-century public schools, with their record numbers of graduates and expanded missions, are nothing close to the cesspools portrayed by political hyperbole. 
• Not only is the idea that American test scores were once higher a fiction, but in some cases have actually improved over time, especially among African American students. Since the early 1970s, when the Department of Education began collecting long-term data, average reading and math scores of 9- and 13-year-olds have risen significantly.
• ... [S]chool districts with strong unions actually do a better job of weeding out bad teachers and retaining good ones than do those with weak unions. This makes sense. If you to pay more for something, you are likely to care about its quality; when districts pay higher wages, they have more incentive to employ good teachers (and dispense with bad ones). 
• Oddly, the idea of addressing our supply-and-demand problem the old-fashioned American way, with a market-based approach, has been largely unappealing to otherwise free-market thinkers. 
• We ignore public schools' civic and integrative functions at our peril.

Random Notes from a Crank

I recently read an interesting article in Mother Jones titled "Prison Break" by Dashka Slater that details how the state of North Dakota's prison system is taking some notes from Norway's prison system. The current methods of the American prison system aren't working, so it makes sense to try something different. 

I find the Supreme Court's decision on Trinity Luthern vs. Comer very troubling: "The Supreme Courts Strikes Down a Major Church-State Barrier." 

Check out Jonathan Rauch's "The Conservative Case for Unions." 

Random Notes from a Crank

CVS enjoys giving me coupons, but what's the point if I can't use them on booze and milk? 

Speaking of booze, I watched the initial episodes of Brockmire, and that character really enjoys his Sazerac Rye. 

Can't say that I blame him. 

Great show so far by the way. 

I finally got around to reading Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta, a dystopian graphic novel about Britain under fascist rule. Page 2 of the first issue features radio news/propaganda playing, and one panel says this: "Mr. Karel went on to say that it is the duty of every man in this country to seize the initiative and make Britain great again." 

Let that sink in. 

If I were at this dude's college, I'd take his class for sure: "Professor Caveman." 

Another interesting article from The Atlantic is "Welcome to Pleistocene Park." Scientists in Siberia are combating climate change by bringing back grasslands. The really sexy part of the whole project is that they want to genetically resurrect wooly mammoths. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I enjoy satirical letters to the editor. Check out John Kilgore's "Trump Move Great for Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster." 

The Church of the FSM has been noted before on this blog via an article from The Atlantic. 

Here's an article from Alternet that is quite disturbing but not surprising: "A United States of Hate Has Exploded Under Trump." 

As I watch Parks and Recreation, I find myself attracted to the character of Leslie Knope. 

How you doin'?

Random Notes from a Crank

Ta-Nehisi Coates is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. "My President Was Black" is fitting take on President Obama. And as Coates deftly analyzes, "Pointing to citizens who voted for both Obama and Trump does not disprove racism; it evinces it. To secure the White House, Obama needed to be a Harvard-trained lawyer with decade of political experience and an incredible gift for speaking to cross-sections of the country; Donald Trump needed only money and white bluster."

Here's yet another reason why we should start calling the president-elect "Moscow Don": "Experts Say Trump's 'Policies' Dovetail with What Vladimir Put Would Like for Russia." 

I was on Amazon yesterday contemplating whether I wanted to buy a package of 1000 moist towelettes for thirteen bucks. Those things are helpful. 

I made some tater tot casserole this weekend. It was outstanding. 

I keep forgetting to do a "Sunday Hangover" post about the national championship. It's a difficult game to write about. For me at least. 

Random Notes from a Crank

At the Friendly Atheist, there's a short article about how a group of humanists, agnostics, and atheists at the U of Wisconsin do an annual "Graveyard of the Gods." Check out "In Madison, 'Graveyard of the Gods' Asks Students when Their Theology Will Become Mythology." 

Also religiously related is The Atlantic's interesting article on Pastafarians: "The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster." I like the critique of organized religion they're doing, but in some cases, it's actually becoming like a religion. 

Over at the Daily Stoic, Stephen Hanselman gives out some good advice about Election Day: "A Stoic Remedy for Election 2016: Choices, Character, and the Common Good." 

My beloved Cubs won the World Series last night. My years of torment are finally over. 

And some people are likely to be gettin' it on: "Brace Yourself for a Chicago Cubs Baby Boom Next August." 

Random Notes from a Crank

I detest people who tell me that I "should believe in God" and people who want to insert all kinds of religious-based nonsense into politics and government. Now we have people wanting to put "In God We Trust" on cop cars and governmental buildings. As a curative to this crap, read "The Danger of Claiming That Rights Come from God" from Psychology Today. 

This happening is a bit of a surprise, but The Atlantic has endorsed Hillary Clinton for the presidency. That current affairs/cultural magazine has only endorsed a presidential candidate twice before with Lincoln and Johnson. Check it out: "Against Donald Trump." 

Here a some juicy quotations from the article: 

• We are impressed by many of the qualities of the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, even as we are exasperated by others, but we are mainly concerned with the Republican Party’s nominee, Donald J. Trump, who might be the most ostentatiously unqualified major-party candidate in the 227-year history of the American presidency.
• Donald Trump, on the other hand, has no record of public service and no qualifications for public office. His affect is that of an infomercial huckster; he traffics in conspiracy theories and racist invective; he is appallingly sexist; he is erratic, secretive, and xenophobic; he expresses admiration for authoritarian rulers, and evinces authoritarian tendencies himself. He is easily goaded, a poor quality for someone seeking control of America’s nuclear arsenal. He is an enemy of fact-based discourse; he is ignorant of, and indifferent to, the Constitution; he appears not to read.
• We believe in American democracy, in which individuals from various parties of different ideological stripes can advance their ideas and compete for the affection of voters. But Trump is not a man of ideas. He is a demagogue, a xenophobe, a sexist, a know-nothing, and a liar. He is spectacularly unfit for office, and voters—the statesmen and thinkers of the ballot box—should act in defense of American democracy and elect his opponent.

In light of Friday's bombshell from the Washington Post about Donald Trump, the Tic Tac company made some comments: "Tic Tac Denounces Donald Trump."