■ We wind up Proverbs 22 today with
verse 29
29 Do you see someone skilled in their work?
They will serve before kings;
they will not serve before officials of low rank.
Well, there you go. I pity those poor officials of low rank, having to put
up with unskilled labor!
It brought to mind the only bit of the
I Ching I know:
The great prince issues commands,
Founds states, vests families with fiefs.
Inferior people should not be employed.
… thanks to
Firesign
Theatre.
■ I should note that
yesterday,
we made fun of Lady Googlers staying home from work in response to
the publicized
"Google’s Ideological Echo
Chamber" memo. Ann Althouse
plausibly
argues that the NPR-reported story
could be fake news. I've added an update to yesterday's post. Yes, a
little voice was telling me
that story was "too good to check", but I
ignored it.
■ <voice imitation="professor_farnsworth">
Good
news, everyone!</voice>
The Babylon Bee
reports: New
Google Technology Autocorrects Users’ Thoughts.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—At a special press conference held at the
technology giant’s sprawling campus Tuesday, Google engineers
revealed exciting new technology that autocorrects any errant
thoughts its users are having, replacing them with positions
approved by the company.
I already feel less errant.
■ On a slightly more serious note, the Federalist's Robert Tracinski asks: Okay, Google: How Do You Prepare A Country For Totalitarianism?
For others, even to ask what’s wrong with the memo is sexist: “To go through the emotional, and
physical, labor of explaining the misguided memo would only be to
validate it, and opens the door further for somebody else to raise
the same ‘arguments’ later.” It doesn’t matter whether you
agree with the dissenter, or what your own views are. To even want
to discuss the issue, to even want to ask for reasons, makes you a
wicked dissenter, too.
Among the amusements in Tracinski's article, a Tweeter's reaction to the Memo of Doom is quoted: (1) "if I worked there I
would just walk to his desk and beat the shit out of him"; (2)
musing about "fascists" and "fascism". I wonder if he/she took
his/her brown
shirt off between (1) and (2)?
■ Well, enough about Google's Brave Fight Against Heresy. The
country's still on the fast track to fiscal doom, and, at
Reason, Veronique de Rugy observes: Spending
Caps Are Low-Hanging Fruit in the Fight Against Debt.
Another debt ceiling fight is just around the corner. The
government's borrowing limit will need to be raised yet again by the
end of September to avoid default. Indications suggest that there
will be enough support between Democrats and moderate Republicans to
pass a "clean" increase, meaning no spending limits or cuts will be
attached. However, this fiscal status quo is absolutely
unacceptable, especially because it would be easy to take a small
step toward much-needed fiscal discipline.
Yes, "clean" is a dirty word in this context.
■ And our Google LFOD alert was rung up with the NH1 story: Confederate
flags, 'Black Flies Matter' shirts leave some NH county fairgoers
disgusted. Yes, both were on sale at the Cheshire Fair.
For the record, I find a "Black Flies Matter" T-shirt slightly
amusing, Confederate flags to be an abomination. But a Facebook
poster made the inevitable connection:
"This is NH go ahead and display the confederate (sic) flag. We
embrace the veterans of the civil war (sic) and respect the history
behind it. Also we are the live free or die state. So keep living
free," AJ Evarts wrote in his 5-star review.
Here's the thing, AJ: if you're saying people should be free to buy
and sell just about anything they want, fine. But it would be nice
if you realized that LFOD and the Confederate Flag symbolize two
mutually incompatible viewpoints.
■ Another LFOD invocation in this Union Leader column from
Bill Walker: Tax
marijuana, not entrepreneurs. He observes that "Organized crime
went into recession after Prohibition, but they got their bailout
when in 1937, FDR signed an
anti-marijuana
law." [Link added.] So…
FDR’s nanny-state approach to drugs has never worked well anywhere,
least of all here. How could it? New Hampshire was never about
trying to build a nanny state. We were, and are, about Live Free or
Die.
Legalize and tax marijuana. Cut taxes on our businesses. Bring the best jobs to New Hampshire.
Bill makes a lot of sense.
■ And from all the way in LA, LFOD makes an appearance in Broadway
World: Fringe
Hit TRANSMISSION Gets Award and Extension.
"Transmission" is billed as a "One-Tran Show".
In Transmission, Trinity is on a mission to love and accept herself.
The only problem is that she has a penis, and everyone thinks she's
a boy. Aided by her Tranny Godmother Madonna, her alter ego LaJina
Jones, Punany Poet and her secret lover codenamed "James Franco,"
Trinity comes to accept her transgender reality and is faced with a
choice: Live free or die. Taking a ride on the trans-train unmasks a
universal commonality: Each of us is struggling to transition from a
life of self-doubt and condemnation, to one of internal happiness
and peace.
Ticket prices are not free, but a low, low $15. In Hollywood, that's a steal.