Friday, September 17, 2021

“No country was ever saved by good men,” Horace Walpole once observed, “because good men will not go to the length that may be necessary.”

 In English, we sometimes say that to be feeling down is to “have the blues.” The expression in French is pretty much the same except, well, you replace “blues” with “cockroach”—avoir le cafard.


In Death By Black Hole, a collection of science essays, Tyson writes:


  • "So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"


No country was ever saved by good men,” Horace Walpole once observed, “because good men will not go to the length that may be necessary.”



Fresh voices rise in Liberal heartland



I’m a lifetime Liberal – but I’m thinking of voting for Labor in NSW

Pete Shmigel

I’m looking at Chris Minns through the same pragmatic prism that many nonaligned voters use. And he’s looking all right


While I respect those with more collectivist and distributive outlooks, I remain on the side of individualism, free enterprise, smaller government with a strong safety net and the need to question change in our society before we adopt it.

Pete Shmigel is a writer and recycler who is formerly a Lifeline CEO and political adviser


9,000-Year-Old Beer Buried Alongside Two Skeletons In China


VEJAS LIULEVICIUS:  Communism in Power: From Stalin to Mao.


myGovID & myGov may sound similar, but they’re different! Up pointing index First, use the myGovID app to prove who you are Victory hand Then use your myGovID to securely sign in to Closed lock with key Find out how to connect @ mygovid.gov.au/mygov
ATO Twitter myGovID v myGov


Soon after the clouds had cleared, leaving a crystal blue horizon, the dead were counted. Between 400 and 600 people perished. What made this storm all the more tragic was that among the dead were 265 World War I veterans. At the height of the Great Depression these veterans had been sent to build a road on the low lying islands of the Florida Keys as a part of the Public Works for Veterans programs. While working, they were housed in inadequate tent-like structures provided by the Roosevelt administration. When the National Weather Bureau issued warnings for a hurricane they were not evacuated. 

Shortly after the natural disaster had occurred, writer Ernest Hemingway was contacted by the editors of New Masses to write an account of the storm from an insider's perspective. Hemingway's response was the article, "Who Murdered the Vets?: A First-Hand Report on the Florida Hurricane," published September 17, 1935, just weeks after the event. Although billed as a personal account, in reality it was an outraged demand for accountability for the needless death of the veterans. 

A hostile tone was established within the first few lines. "Whom did they annoy and to whom was their possible presences a political danger?" Hemingway asked. "Who sent them down to the Florida Keys and left them there in hurricane months?" 

Hemingway presented the veterans not merely as murdered but almost as though they had been assassinated for someone's personal political gain or simply that they were disposed of as an unnecessary burden to the public after courageously serving their country. 

Hemingway continued by pointing out that the men in charge certainly knew the possible consequences of being in Florida during hurricane season, let alone in insufficient shelter. 

The writer of this article lives a long way from Washington and would not know the answers to those questions. But he does know that wealthy people, yachtsmen, fishermen such as President Hoover and Presidents Roosevelt, do not come to the Florida Keys in hurricane months.... There is a known danger to property. But veterans, especially the bonus-marching variety of veterans, are not property. They are only human beings; unsuccessful human beings, and all they have to lose is their lives. They are doing coolie labor for a top wage of $45 a month and they have been put down on the Florida Keys where they can't make trouble. It is hurricane months, sure, but if anything comes up, you can always evacuate them, can't you?



PREVIOUS TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENTS AT LEAST ALLOWED HEAVY DRINKING AS AN ESCAPE: Now they’re confiscating alcohol delivered to locked-down Australian apartments if booze volume exceeds state-sanctioned limits.



On Profiteering

Angelique Richardson



Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have won a $3 million Breakthrough Prize for their research on mRNA technology, which has been used to great effect in Covid-19 vaccines.


A review of Swedish Chef's new restaurant, Dorg Schnorfblorp Horganblorps. "A swordfish sailed past my head and smacked clumsily against the wall. 'Herdy come da fishy wishy!' Our chef had arrived."


MoMA’s Online Courses Let You Study Modern & Contemporary Art and Earn a Certificate. Very tempting.


"Turn a Google Sheets spreadsheet into a blog page and RSS feed."


The cars used in the filming of Mad Max: Fury Road (the War Rig, Nux Car, Immortan Joe's Gigahorse) are up for auction.


As part of a big push to get more Americans vaccinated against the Delta variant, the Biden admin. mandated vaccinations for federal workers & the Labor Dept. will make them mandatory for businesses w/ 100+ employees. More like this, pls.