“Howdy boys we got Part 2 of Walrus’ playlist going tonight. Hope you enjoy it.”
Archive of entries posted on July 2022
Straight Line of the Day: Have You Considered Afghanistan For Your Next Vacation?
Straight Line of the Day: Have you considered Afghanistan for your next vacation?
Effort To Attract International Airlines to Afghanistan Underway
Aionline.com | Peter Shaw-Smith | July 21, 2022A country risk profile published by Texas A&M University in April assessed Afghanistan’s risk level as ‘Extreme.’
“Travel is unsafe due to the unstable security situation involving armed conflict, terrorism, crime, and civil unrest,” it said. “There is an extreme risk to personal safety and security because of widespread military operations, terrorism and insurgent attacks, and high levels of kidnappings, hostage-taking, suicide bombings, landmines, and vehicle-borne or other improvised explosive devices. Due to extensive warlordism and lawlessness, Afghanistan has long been beset by weak governance in many regions.”
…
“Who will fly there? Who, commercially, is interested in going there?”
He said that in all aspects of airport operations, GAAC would need assistance from overseas companies to restart operations, and those entities might see Afghanistan as a risk not worth taking. “[GAAC] simply don’t have enough of the expertise required to operate an airport safely,” Miles said.
Asked to assess GAAC’s prospects of winning international support for its efforts in Afghanistan, Aslam was sanguine. “There will always be nay-sayers,” he said. “The reality may be different, but that doesn’t mean there are no challenges.”
We Are Rome (3 of 3): Hollywood
Cicero again (might be thinking of rappers, too):
“But when poets are so highly extolled, what darkness they bring into the soul! What fears they incite! What passions they enkindle!
“They present debauchery and adultery in a pleasing manner; they rehearse varied forms of deception; they teach theft, robbery, and arson.
“Every example of evil which exists, or has existed, or can be imagined, they lay before the eyes of the illiterate rabble.
“No heavenly conflagration, no flood, no earthquake has spread devastation among men comparable to the ruin which the poets have brought upon morality.”
…
“Because they considered the stage and all theatrical art degrading, [Rome’s founders] desired not only that this class of people should be ineligible to posts of honor which were open to other citizens, but also that the names of such persons should be erased from the tribal rolls by the censor.”
We Are Rome (2 of 3): Woke
Cicero paraphrases a scenario described by Plato centuries earlier:
“There is no distinction between citizen and foreigner; teachers fear their pupils and flatter them; pupils scorn their teachers; the young affect the gravity of age, and old men revert to youthful pranks in order not to be tiresome and displeasing to the young.
. . .
“From this boundless license, the following result inevitably follows: so sensitive and effeminate do the feelings of the citizens become that, if the least restraint is applied to them, they are enraged and cannot endure it. Then they begin to ignore the laws also, and are completely without any master.
. . .
“This extreme of license, which is their only idea of freedom, is a sort of root from which the tyrant springs and, if I may say so, is born. Even as the extreme power of the aristocracy brings about the downfall of the aristocracy, so freedom itself punishes with slavery a people whose freedom has no bounds.”
We Are Rome (1 of 3): Congress
A 1929 translation (by Sabine and Smith) of a
51 B.C. work by Cicero (“On the Commonwealth”)
“Because few men possess excellence, few are able to recognize and judge it.
“Thus, being ignorant of its nature, the masses suppose that men of wealth, influence, and important family connections are the best.
“When, as a result of this error on the part of the commons, the wealth rather than the excellence of a few men has come to control the state, these leaders cling stubbornly to the title of aristocrats, utterly lacking though they may be in the substance of excellence.
“For riches and reputation and power, if devoid of wisdom and of moderation in conduct and in the exercise of authority, are characterized by shamelessness and insufferable arrogance.
“There is, indeed, no uglier kind of state that one in which the richest men are thought to be the best.”
Straight Line of the Day: Biden’s Idea of a Discussion Is…
‘Doesn’t Sound Like A Recession To Me’: Joe Biden Downplays Economic Woes As U.S. Enters Recession
The Daily Wire | Jul 28, 2022 | Tim PearcePresident Joe Biden suggested that the U.S. economy was not in a recession Thursday despite new economic data showing that the U.S. has entered a recession.
Biden spoke at the White House, touting economic data showing a growing labor market and some new investments. Biden also advocated for the passage of the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act in Congress, claiming that both would boost economic growth.
“That doesn’t sound like a recession to me,” Biden said, wrapping up his comments and leaving the podium without taking questions.
Straight Line of the Day: Biden’s idea of a discussion is…
Friday Filler
Straight Line of the Day: A Democratic Exercise Regimen: …
Cartoons and Memes
Rock ‘n Roll Throwdown : 1980s C : Final Four Round
3 games left.
I will be on a short vacation next week so these matches will be open for voting until August 9th. Enjoy.
Match 1
(49) Footloose – Kenny Loggins vs (52) Would I lie to you – Eurythmics
(49) Footloose – Kenny Loggins
- 87-68 (16) Everybody wants to rule the world – Tears for Fears
- 84-73 (17) Let’s go crazy – Prince
- 223-77 (1) When doves cry – Prince
- 237-56 (40) Miami Vice Theme – Jan Hammer
VS
(52) Would I lie to you – Eurythmics
- 87-66 (13) Take on me – A-Ha
- 107-58 (20) West End girls – Pet Shop boys
- 232-52 (61) Smooth Operator – Sade
- 187-147 (12) Walk like an Egyptian – Bangles
This poll is no longer accepting votes
Match 2
(2) Money for nothing – Dire Straits vs (14) Power of Love – Huey Lewis and the News
(2) Money for nothing – Dire Straits
- 185-44 (63) We’re not gonna take it – Twisted Sister
- 205-34 (31) Against all odds – Phil Collins
- 343-59 (15) Boys of Summer – Don Henley
- 321-42 (58) And she was – Talking Heads
VS
(14) Power of Love – Huey Lewis and the News
- 177-27 (51) Better be good to me – Tina Turner
- 137-96 (19) Summer of ’69 – Bryan Adams
- 284-43 (62) Freeway of Love – Aretha Franklin
- 171-152 (6) Addicted to love – Robert Palmer
This poll is no longer accepting votes
Straight Line of the Day: Feeling Cranky? Irritable? Have You Consulted Your Climate Psychiatrist?
Straight Line of the Day: Feeling cranky? Irritable? Have you consulted your Climate Psychiatrist?
Feeling Cranky? Irritable? You’re Not Alone Amid Widespread Heat Wave
John Murphy | AccuWeather | Jul. 22, 2022“Almost everybody knows that they get really cranky and really irritated when the heat goes up,” Robin Cooper, the president of Climate Psychiatry Alliance, told AccuWeather National Reporter Kim Leoffler.
“You can’t be in the mindset that, ‘Oh, it’s a heat wave, it’s temporary, I’m just going to get through it.’ No — heat waves can be killers.”
and for the — shall we say, less perceptive? — out there:
“Don’t stay in overheated apartments,” she said.
And now for some hard-hitting reporting, not phoning it in at all:
Larger pets were also cooling off in their own ways, such as a Pembroke Welsh Corgi [“larger”? — ed.] named Fraya in Ontario, Canada. Freya could be seen, in a photo taken by her owner, Jennifer Stuber, after having apparently taken a dip in the cool water along Cherry Beach in Toronto.
“It was her fourth time this summer, twice this week since it has been very warm!” Stuber told AccuWeather.
That’s what you call an in-depth investigation. In depth. That’s a joke, son!
Rock ‘n Roll Throwdown : 1980s C : Round 4 Results
Getting near the end. I will be on vacation next week so the Final Four matches will have voting open until August 9th.
Results
- (49) Footloose – Kenny Loggins 237 ~~ (40) Miami Vice Theme – Jan Hammer 56
- (52) Would I lie to you – Eurythmics 187 ~~ (12) Walk like an Egyptian 147
- (2) Money for nothing – Dire Straits 321 ~~ (58) And she was – Talking Heads 42
- (14) Power of Love – Huey Lewis and the News 171 ~~ (6) Addicted to Love – Robert Palmer 152
