Sunday, November 10, 2019

News and Updates

1. It is entirely possible to get a genuine hangover from nothing but adrenaline.  This is not as much fun as people tell you.

2. We are now expecting our fifth measurable snowstorm in the last three weeks or so, after which the temperature is expected to drop into the single-digits Fahrenheit.  Naturally my neighbor spent this afternoon mowing his lawn.  And I just couldn’t blame him at all.  We went straight from early October to mid-December without hitting any of the weather in between, so the grass is still long and the leaves are still out there.  Wisconsin can be a strange place.

3. It can be an even stranger place if you pay attention to politics.  We don’t have Governor Teabagger (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Industries) punching holes in the state’s future anymore (hello, Foxconn!), but we do have a state legislature that is among the most thoroughly gerrymandered in the nation.  In the last election the GOP got 46% of the votes cast but ended up with 64% of the seats in the legislature.  This is perhaps why when the current governor called a special session to deal with rampant gun violence and the need for common sense gun laws in this state – something that 80% of Wisconsin voters support, which if you do the math tells you that even most Republicans like the idea – both houses of the Wisconsin legislature refused even to consider doing anything remotely related to their constituents’ wishes.  They gaveled the sessions in and out within two minutes and went on to collect whatever bonuses their corporate owners had promised them.  No surprise.  This is the same group of callous sinners that spent most of the fall refusing to allow a legislator with disabilities any of the accommodations to which he is, by law, entitled, because fuck you that’s why.  I’m sure they found it funny.

4. Bottom line:  The Wisconsin State Legislature no longer has any legitimacy as a governing body in a democracy.  Which of course raises the question: what happens next? 

5. Meanwhile on the national stage, der Sturmtrumper’s many and varied high crimes and misdemeanors continue to come to light and in a just nation that valued laws, Constitutions, morals, and human decency he would have been ridden out of town on a rail and stripped of every single asset he has ever owned long ago.  Naturally his base continues to support him, and the rest is left as an exercise for the reader.

6. The meme I wrote back in 2017 that went viral this past summer has gone viral again, to a slightly higher degree in fact.  By my count it has been shared over 38,000 times on Facebook alone.  Those are just the ones I know about, and it doesn’t count all the times it has gone around Twitter.  I’m anonymously famous!  I’m quite happy having it spread without my name being attached to it – this way people can focus on the content and not the author, and I don’t get bugged with the inevitable small-minded nonsense of the offended.

7. Speaking of which, now that Halloween is over you should brace yourself for the annual tradition of people who call other people “snowflakes” getting triggered into frothing rages over coffee cups.

8. I should be grading.  I do not wish to be grading.  A significant chunk of my paycheck depends on me grading.  Therefore I will be grading in the very near future, wishes notwithstanding.  It’s the circle of academic life.

9. You know, if your first reaction to “OK, Boomer” is to say “Not all Boomers…” maybe you have missed the point.

10. If I have learned anything from my last few months at work it is that computers will kill us and we will probably deserve it. 

4 comments:

  1. 1. Experience is a hard instructor, and we, unworthy students.

    2, It was 67° F and sunny here today. This, too, shall change. Presently.

    3. Man, I thought the mormons were Blatantly Corrupt™ - I see, however, that someone over there has been reading over their shoulders and copying their work. I presume you are not engaging in hyperbole.

    4. Sponge Boob’s Square Thingy happens next. Unfortunately.

    5. Pass. I’ve had more than my fair share of exercise, thankyouverymuch for your suggestion. May suggest some anatomically difficult things for you to attempt in return?

    I will take the ‘rest’, though. I think I may have actually earned it. Maybe.

    6. Your anonymity is safe with me. Mostly ‘cause I won’t go near the Facethingynook.

    7. So, are you referring to the traditional War on Crustymass or the more recently declared War on Thinksgiving?

    8. Yes. you should be grading. You are very good at it. And it would appear that you’re running short on excuses for putting it off further. Grab a Hostess Cupcake™ and your red pen get back to work!

    9. “Not all Boomers…” What, precisely was the point? Or the subject, as far as that goes? Something tells me I probably don’t want to know… forget I asked, K?

    10. This would make a wonderful RightFart conspiracy theory if it weren’t for the obvious & indisputable evidence of its absolute truth.

    Lucy

    * It should be noted that I have carefully proofread this comment, and I ran it through Grammarly. Twice. However, I reserve the right to be human and commit blatant and even silly errors. I may not exercise this right, but I have definitely called ahead and reserved it. Any remaining errors may be presumed to be intentional. or perhaps figments of your imagination. Except those that aren’t.

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  2. I look forward always to your posts and am inordinately sad when they are absent that day, but whenever you post and Lucy comments the day is immeasurably brighter.

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  3. It is indeed a brighter day when we can have those conversations. :)

    --

    2. We made it above freezing today for the first time in over a week. It was +3F when I woke up Tuesday morning - I couldn't sleep because my nose was too cold. This is not a small problem, as any photo of me will prove! This getting old thing has its odd moments, yes it does.

    3. Oh no - no hyperbole at all, sadly enough. All of those numbers come straight from reputable sources, and the fuck you to the guy in the wheelchair was done proudly by those twits.

    6. I could definitely use a rest. Remember when politics was dull and you could go days without even thinking about it? Good times, man.

    7. It's up to 40,000 now - the guy who shared it a couple weeks ago is apparently quite the center of attention. Every so often I do a Google image search, and it's now up on a bunch of meme-generator sites too. I like this. It was meant to be shared.

    8. And so I did (thanks!). But never with a red pen. I put too many comments on student papers and if I use red they just get intimidated. Blue. Black. Something a bit more low key. So much of teaching is just psy-ops.

    9. "Not all men..."

    10. I would welcome our new robot overlords except I know that they were programmed by the same people who brought us Windows 8 and PeopleSoft anything. They'll still kill us, but mostly by malfunctioning and taking us with them.

    Copyright 2019. All rights reserved until you get to know them better - then they loosen up. Operators are standing by because we're too cheap to give them chairs. Your red scarf matches your eyes. Offer void where prohibited by statistical probability and the laws of physics. Past performance is not a guarantee of much, really. Please consult a physician before attempting anatomical improbabilities, or at least a cameraman.

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