Twilight of the Tourists

Volterra is a remarkable walled Medieval hill city, renowned for its
Etruscan artifacts and alabaster craftwork. Also, apparently, they filmed
some bit of some US movie here, and the place is full of posters, shirts,
books. *sigh*

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***Dave Does the Mastodon

18 hours ago

My son sent this to me, and I am so proud.

1 week ago

"Elon Musk Criticizes Dana Carvey’s ‘SNL’ Impression, Says Show “Has Been Slowly Dying for Years”"

Is there anything so perennial, and predictable, as a thin-skinned celebrity criticizing SNL for hurting their feelings? It's almost as inevitable as people predicting the imminent demise of SNL.

#ElonMusk #snl
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/elon-musk-criticizes-dana-carvey-snl-impression-show-dying-1236057961/

2 weeks ago

The closing words of Russell's Autobiography.

I am finding them quietly inspiring.

https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/6348/

2 weeks ago

"I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken."

-- Bertrand Russell

2 weeks ago

Here's hoping. #election2024

2 weeks ago

So rather than spending the day doomscrolling, I spent much of it posting (and reposting) quotations about #elections, #voting, and presidential #character at my #quotations website.

Lucky for you, I made a consolidated post at my highly neglected blog, so you can see them all in one place.

#election2024

https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2024/11/05/quotations-on-elections-and-character.html

2 weeks ago

I can only assume that half the voting public, according to polls, actually *want* things to get "nasty" for a while. Probably because they assume it will be nasty for someone else, and they are okay with that.

We've been warned.

#Trump #nasty

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-warns-voters-second-term-get-nasty-rcna178653

2 weeks ago

I both loved and was deeply disturbed reading the George Stewart's " #EarthAbides " -- a thought-out and morose tale of the collapse of civilization after a 99.9% deadly plague sweeps the globe.

I won't be watching the MGM+ adaptation, though, both because that's a streaming service I don't have, and because either it will be faithful to the original (and deeply depressing), or not (and so depressing in its own way).

#hammer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glHe-86W-4c

2 weeks ago

Meanwhile the #Trump campaign seems obsessed with getting me to donate to get one of Leon's "GOLD DARK MAGA HAT"s.

Only to line my cat's litter box, Donald,

2 weeks ago

#RIP Greg Hildebrandt, who, with his brother Tim, definitively crafted what #Tolkien 's #MiddleEarth looked like prior to any hint of a Peter Jackson movie.

Thank you, sir.

https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/greg-hildebrandt-iconic-star-wars-and-lord-of-the-rings-artist-has-died-at-85-193026772.html

2 weeks ago

So in his increasingly deranged rants on the campaign trail, Trump is now ...

1. Suggesting he'd be fine if the press at his rallies were shot.

2. Expressing pleasure that Mitch McConnell will be gone soon (nice payback for selling your soul, Mitch).

3. Clearly saying he should have refused to leave the White House in 2021, after losing the election.

That this race remains so tight is mindboggling to me. The cognitive dissonance in this country is astonishing.

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-kamala-harris-presidential-election-a310fbc211ad8f0f5e290547ec284187

2 weeks ago

We're all glad that Kunoichi is back home. #Caturday

3 weeks ago

So sorry to hear about the passing of #TeriGarr . While she had many nifty roles that many people enjoyed her in, my secret favorite is as the "she's not as ditzy as you think" secretary, Roberta Lincoln, in the "Assignment: Earth" episode of #StarTrekTOS

Thank you, ma'am, for many hours of entertainment. #RIP

3 weeks ago

My goal in life is simple: have a week where a headline doesn't show up starting with "Ken #Paxton sues..." (over something precious or good or just).

#Texas

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/10/29/texas-ken-paxton-lawsuit-endangered-freshwater-mussels/

3 weeks ago

Awesome. #Trump 's cronies suggest he just give all his advisors #securityclearances by executive fiat, and bypass all that #DeepState Anti- #Russia Time-Consuming #FBI Background Checking that Might Dare Tell Him No.

I mean, why not? He doesn't care if his advisors are crooks, molesters, spies, or all three. As long as he gets his way, that's all that's important.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/28/trump-fbi-security-clearance-check

Legal Lingo

The views expressed by me on this weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, my church, my party, my candidate, my community, my wife, my friends, or, on occasion, myself.

Views expressed by others are, well, theirs. I reserve the right to delete them, but it’s usually better to let the marketplace of ideas hold sway, even if some packages are long past their expiry date.

Stuff I link to? Sometimes it’s because I agree with it. Sometimes because I disagree with it, but want to point (mockingly, in some cases) to my sources regardless; I have a liberal arts background; I believe in citations. And linking to stuff is what the Internet is about.

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