Archive for March, 2021

Locating Those Irascible (But Not Quotidian) Quotation Marks (March 29, 2021)

Posted in Writing on March 29, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The practice perplexes me.  Injecting punctuation, even if it is only the utilitarian ‘full stop,’ (‘full stop’,) inside the quotation marks is misleading, inaccurate and inappropriate.  Quotation marks should bracket only the exact statement and absolutely nothing more.” 

J          “That is not the American way.  That may even be un-American.  For some Brits, that is the British way.  Yet I understand your concern.  However, the convention suffices for almost everyone, so I oblige and abide.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary discussing the disruptions in supplies and supply lines at “Covid-19: BAU v. BAU (February 24, 2020)”, the need for more localized farming and regional manufacturing at “Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Basically, Back To Basics:  Finding Food; Printing Rutabagas.  Happy Earth Day! (April 20, 2020)” and three perspectives on our current political, cultural, economic and social circumstances at “On Roiling And Rolling Collapse (March 9, 2015)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Where do you locate the “air quotes?”  (“air quotes”?)

Leave a comment »

Lawyers And Clients: Peas In Pods; Hands In Gloves (March 22, 2021)

Posted in Courts, Judges, Law, Perjury, Perjury/Dishonesty on March 22, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “You tell me the name of a person’s lawyer and I will tell you about the person. The Rho is .97.”

J          “You tell me the name of the person and I will tell you about the person’s lawyer. The Rho is .97.”

. . .

J          “97 percent of all persons have no moral compunctions about lying or their lawyer lying on their behalf.  What does that say about lawyers?”

K          “What does that say about 97 percent of all persons?”

. . .

K          “Pea in pod.”

J          “Hand in glove.”

. . .

[See the conversation more than eight years ago between the “Lawyer” and the “Client” in the e-commentary at “Assigning Blame: The Lawyers: 50 Percent; The Non-Lawyer Public: 50 Percent; The Judges: 100 Percent (December 3, 2012)” and the e-commentary more than fifteen years ago on perjury – the backbone of the American legal system – at “Perjury, The American Way (February 20, 2006)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Where are the judges?

Leave a comment »

Information Silos / Echo Chambers (March 15, 2021)

Posted in Truth on March 15, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “They are more like prison towers.”

J          “With no windows.”

K          “Precluding a more expansive view.”

J          “And preventing the inflow of fresh air.”

. . .

K          “I talk with individuals who are considered ‘bright’ and consider themselves ‘brilliant’ who do not get it.  They can never get it.  They are prisoners in their own self-selected information silo.  They clutch the key to their prison cell and lock themselves inside.”

J          “More important than intellect is emotion.  They must desperately want to get it to be able to get it.  To get it, they must get out of their own echo chamber.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Constructing Thoughts:  Overton Window; Morrison Door; Basic Box (August 19, 2019)”, ““Free” Speech At The “Free Speech Forum” (October 22, 2018)” and “Tulsi, MSM, NYT, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, Real News, Fake News, Neo-McCarthyism.  Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 28, 2019)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Get out much?

GIGO

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.  We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.  The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”  H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Leave a comment »

Covid: One Year (March 8, 2021)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Vaccine on March 8, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “A few folks got religion on Wednesday, March 11, a few more on Thursday, March 12, and a whole lot more on Friday the Thirteenth.  By Monday, March 16, religion was gotten by all.”

J          “I remember receiving reminders of meetings of upcoming events throughout the days up until Wednesday and then ‘Cancelled’ and ‘Delayed’ and ‘Rescheduled’ and ‘Postponed’ and ‘Closed’ all day on Thursday.  I said then that we as a society should have gotten two weeks ahead of it.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

It’s just the flu?

Leave a comment »

RIP: 2020: Vestigial Democracy; 2021: Free Speech (March 1, 2021)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Elections, First Amendment on March 1, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “At the end of the year, they scroll through pictures of folks we lost in the past year.  In 2020, the year of the Virus, we may have lost ‘Vestigial Democracy’ and in 2021, the year of the Vaccine, we have already lost ‘Free Speech’ without recognizing either loss.  We are off to a terrible start.”

J          “I disagree about the lost democracy.  It was clean or clean enough for me in the real world of dirty politics.  Free speech is another thing.  The First Amendment protects against government intrusion, but now the ‘governments’ are private sector Behemoths who are beyond regulation.  However, I am not totally against bans on speech that is akin to yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”

K          “These private sector bans will come to haunt us.”

. . .

[See “YouTube Censors Senate Testimony From Doctor On Possible Covid Drug” by Jonathan Turley dated February 4, 2021.]

[See the e-commentary at “YouTube:  Your University:  America’s Community College (December 8, 2014)” at a time when it seemed a more benign platform.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Did they make it Amendment One for a reason?

Leave a comment »