Archive for June, 2013

Game Week At The Supreme Court (June 24, 2013)

Posted in Law, Supreme Court on June 24, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L1        “What attribute more than any other attribute describes lawyers and perforce judges.”

L2        “Mirthfulness?  Tenderness?  Pensiveness?”

L1        “Procrastinationness.  Don’t do today what you can put off until tomorrow.  That is why the Supremes wait until they are fleeing town to spew decisions.”

L2        “So they order pizza, chug energy drinks, and pull all-nighters to put out the product.”

L1        “Panty raids to relieve the stress are not unknown.”

L2        “I need that gig.”

. . .

L1        “What about mendaciousness?  Judges are able to institutionalize dishonesty.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled TEDx: THEODORAx or DOROTHEAx or . . . DOROTHyx? (April 8, 2013) and the visual commentary at http://doonesbury.slate.com/strip/archive/2013/06/23.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

The Civil War rages on at the Supreme Court.  Salvos are forthcoming.

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Summer Reruns (June 17, 2013)

Posted in Consumerism, Sports, Television on June 17, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Something in your living room wants all your money

Would you let someone into your den channeled through your television that you would not allow to cross your front threshold?

TV transmitters require passive receivers

Sugeoen Generel’s Warnig:  Telivision Promots Iliteracy

Kill your television

Imprison your television

Run from reruns; run from runs

A TV is not a monitor, it is a mirror.

Do you watch the beer and erectile dysfunction ads or the guys running around hitting each other?

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Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013)

Posted in Internet, Pogo Plight, Privacy, Technology, USA PATRIOT Act on June 10, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

X          “Julian Assange.  Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

. . .

Y          “Bradley Manning.  Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

. . .

X          “Edward Snowden.  Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

X          “Hero.”

Y          “Traitor.”

. . .

[Reflect on the ideas and experience of Daniel Ellsberg in http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/10/edward-snowden-united-stasi-america.]

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Brave 1984 Farm: The Best Of All Possible Worlds (March 19, 2012).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

In a dozen plus years and without a debate or a vote, technology has deprived us of privacy.  With little debate and many hasty votes, Congress has deprived us of privacy at every opportunity.  We as a society should create a rebuttable presumption in favor of privacy even if it appears to sacrifice security.  Our personal insecurities are actually creating greater national insecurity.  

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty, to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”  Benjamin Franklin

Did Bin Laden win?

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On Community (June 3, 2013)

Posted in Community, Guns, Pogo Plight, Society on June 3, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “Seems that you have the ‘guns and ammo’ crowd and the ‘beans and band aids’ folks.”

B      “The ‘bullets and bandoliers’ boys and the ‘kumbaya and jambalaya’ community.”

A          “The ‘whole wheat set’ espouses something called ‘community’ that sounds good but is far more elusive to achieve.  My long-term study of the ‘community clan’ continues.  ‘Develop community’ is a more mature and rational response to the challenges ahead, but most of the adherents would not respond that way in a pinch.”

. . .

A             “I wonder if we are too late and too far gone.”

B           “We may be too self-indulgent, self-absorbed and selfish to take care of anyone but ourselves.”

A      “We have been acculturated to behave as a self-interested consumer consumed with our self and our interests and our own consumption.  We collect stuff but are certain that our stuff is better stuff than the next guy’s stuff, so everything is righteous.”

B             “When we are really challenged, we will need to fundamentally retool our soul and learn to use hand tools.  The transition will be wrenching and will require us to use wrenches.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Beans and Bullets (April 6, 2009).”]

Bumper sticker of the week:

It’s all about me

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