This announcement brought a flashback for me. In the summer of 1973 I found myself in North Vietnam in a city on the coast called Vinh. It was a mine clearing operation.
Henry Kissinger made our lives miserable by constantly negotiating where the free fire zones and safe zones were. We had constant map updates.
Well, one day I am in a z boat moving inland, an NVA gunboat suddenly opened up behind us with a heavy machine gun.
We were upwind and did not realize we were being shot until bullets started whizzing by us and pinging off our motor.
Yikes! It turned into a race back to our ship. We made it but the boat was shot up. Why the two of us did not get hit remains a mystery to me.
What the hell happened? I was given an old map by a day which resulted in us going through a free fire zone.
Thanks Henry, and by the way, his Nobel peace award was a farce - Le Duc Tho was right not to accept the award.
Not a full description of the man, as any Chilean or Cambodian or Vietnam vet could tell you. De mortuis nil nisi bonum and all that, but he was a loathsome person responsible for many deaths. Not sure what his Jewishness, education, or great age has to do with it.
I'd like to see that spat between you and the so-called "journalist" from Indiana.
But I no longer have a Twitter account, and to see the thread (hahaha) I'd need to log in. So if you want to share it here in the comments, I doubt even your wife would object.
Being a former coach, I am most definitely not in favor of revenge cuts from school teams. But I don't see enough facts here to make a good judgment. What was the cause of the original feud? What if the kid really wasn't good enough to be on the varsity? Having said that, I never once in my entire coaching career cut a kid. But I heard from plenty of "experts"(mommies and daddies) over how much playing time their kids should get.
The kid was all-conference the last two years. Your team has so much new, better, talent this year that the 2-time all-conference kid isn't good enough to make the team this year? Exceedingly unlikely.
I enjoyed John Kass for years, looked forward to his columns and was even quoted in them a couple times. We lived in the same town then, my child knew Kass' lovely wife from daycare. Then he went insane. His writing on non-political/cultural things (that is, recipes and food - that's all that remains) was still interesting to me after he left the Trib, but now his bitterness about all things political seeps into everything. I had to stop reading his little newsletter because it was just so depressing.
I enjoyed his column until he started to support the war in Iraq - and one column in particular about Saddam likened to a rat (which he was). He promised that if he were wrong about the W Bush/Cheney administration's claims about WMDs in Iraq he'd do penance. From then on, he veered way right - then further and further.
I remember when Kass wrote a lot of human interest stories. He even wrote about a couple of my cases and mentioned me by my then name. That was before he got radicalized by the far right.
I also used to enjoy his column years ago. He was sometimes repetitive, but I overall I liked it. I have a long-time friend who seems to have changed his world view a bit due to the influence of social media. He is frequently sending me postings from X. It raises the question of whether or not I have or could go off the rails a bit from the influence of social media. No one who has thinks of it that way, and beliefs are mostly a social thing for all of us.
I resolved a couple of years ago to read and listen to media with different POV's. Hopefully I can be somewhat objective.
Now Kass is selling merch, smh. I still get his FB posts and he's selling "No Chumbalone" hats. Seems like they ought to be red like MAGA hats. https://www.facebook.com/john.kass.3
He definitely wasn't always "a villian" (my autistic son's description of anyone who is always angry without a good reason). His advocacy for justice for John Wrana was admirable. Not so strident back then. Things really deteriorated in recent years.
I think enforcing existing rules would make intersections safer more so than making up new ones.
I ride my bicycle a lot and right turning cars are a big risk if you don't know how to be careful. Basically you should always be prepared for a car to turn. It is not uncommon for them to not signal. That is a problem when you ride to the right of traffic.
I assume you’re talking about places and occasions other than red lights, but there are a lot of other cyclists for whom a red light is just tinted illumination. They need to follow the rules, too.
Most bicyclists in my community seem to be unable to read or understand what those red octagonal signs mean either. I've slammed on my brakes many times to avoid killing them - - - and their kids trailing behind them as they ride without regard to non-stopping traffic on the cross streets
I suggest that we resist thinking of cyclists and motorists as being groups in opposition to each other. I can assure you that plenty of cyclists are frustrated by other cyclists who behave badly. "Cyclist" *should not* be a group identity IMO. Every mode of transit has individuals who do unsafe dumb things - cyclists, motorists, pedestrians and scooter riders. That is never going to change.
OK, but on a per-vehicle basis, I'm seeing a lot more unsafe, illegal behavior by cyclists, including the recent one who sailed through a red light focused on his mobile phone.
"I don’t favor restrictions or bans on activities that are more than 99% safe and have distinct advantages ... I’d much rather municipalities dramatically increase the penalties for collisions caused by those turning right when the light is red." This is exactly how gun-owners feel about restricting and banning their 99.9% safe activities rather than dramatic penalties for few unsafe ones.
You’re misreading what I wrote. Gun owners are 99.9% safe, like right-turners on red are. So, like Eric, they don’t want bans and restrictions. I improved the wording of my comment to make this clearer.
Sorry, Pete, but that’s not what you wrote initially. You said 99.9+% of the gun-owners, not their safe actions. Why not just own the initial hyperbole? I owned my “voters vs. gun owners” cited articles. Good faith debate is important here—I did not misread your initial post.
The point is the same. Gun owners are 99.9% safe. I was never talking about a fraction of gun owners opinions, I was talking about their safety record. That’s the analogy: gun owners are like Eric, the safe right-turner. They don’t want bans and restrictions; they want harsh penalties for violators. Thanks for helping me to clarify this point.
*Wow! A boatload of great Tweets today! Said as a sneeze, "Bless You" sounds like one.
*Buttermilk-Brined-Spatchcocked turkey is the hands down bomb. I found it in a video by Samin Nosrat (author "SaltFatAcidHeat")
*The old photos were fun and spooky-much like the book of them called "Wisconsin Death Trip" I wondered about all the stern tight lipped faces; thought I knew why but didn't really. Many theories: bad teeth, long exposure time to hold a smile, a pre exhisting custom of unsmiling images in paintings (it was associated with madness, drunkenness, immaturity, buffoonery etc.), they typically were made of the wealthy who wanted to look stern and powerful, the pricey photographers set an elegant stage and directed them not to smile. Another being that photography was so new and somewhat rare that those having their photo imagining that it would be timeless and be thinking of time, death and memory. I just never really liked my big toothed smile.
*Loved the music-your house must be a festival at Thanksgiving! And for the heads of on the challenging Wassail song. I might be able to get the hang of the chorus.
Lots of good txeets this week. I am an egghead who (I think) gets the Siren/Lorelei reference, but doesn’t think the txeet is particularly funny. What am I missing?
Neil Steinberg: "At this point, I’m the old man by the fire, clawing my hands into an approximation of the mighty bear’s paws, telling stories of the hunt."
I liked several of the Tweets today. I did not vote for the Shark Triathalon Tweet, however, as everyone knows that the swim is the first part of a triathalon (followed by the cycling, then the run), and the shark would eat you during the swim, thereby eliminating its competition . . . .
To steal from Bette Davis on Joan Crawford ... [Film stars when there were such.]
"Say nothing but good about the dead.
"Henry Kissinger is dead.
Good."
When I saw this last night, I had the same thought.
This announcement brought a flashback for me. In the summer of 1973 I found myself in North Vietnam in a city on the coast called Vinh. It was a mine clearing operation.
Henry Kissinger made our lives miserable by constantly negotiating where the free fire zones and safe zones were. We had constant map updates.
Well, one day I am in a z boat moving inland, an NVA gunboat suddenly opened up behind us with a heavy machine gun.
We were upwind and did not realize we were being shot until bullets started whizzing by us and pinging off our motor.
Yikes! It turned into a race back to our ship. We made it but the boat was shot up. Why the two of us did not get hit remains a mystery to me.
What the hell happened? I was given an old map by a day which resulted in us going through a free fire zone.
Thanks Henry, and by the way, his Nobel peace award was a farce - Le Duc Tho was right not to accept the award.
Thanks. Mort Sahl said that satire died when Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. MG
Wow! 10 likes on a “good that he’s dead” post about a 100 year old Jewish, Harvard educated diplomat…??
Not a full description of the man, as any Chilean or Cambodian or Vietnam vet could tell you. De mortuis nil nisi bonum and all that, but he was a loathsome person responsible for many deaths. Not sure what his Jewishness, education, or great age has to do with it.
Yikes! Or in your language sanctus fumo. 🙄
https://theintercept.com/2023/11/29/henry-kissinger-death/
I'd like to see that spat between you and the so-called "journalist" from Indiana.
But I no longer have a Twitter account, and to see the thread (hahaha) I'd need to log in. So if you want to share it here in the comments, I doubt even your wife would object.
Though Belcaster's actions and comments are suspect, perhaps we need to know further details regarding Savage's treatment at Hinsdale South.
We have a few signs in my community that say: NO TURN ON RED WHEN PEDESTRIANS ARE PRESENT.
These signs are placed downtown where pedestrian traffic is heavier during business hours.
Being a former coach, I am most definitely not in favor of revenge cuts from school teams. But I don't see enough facts here to make a good judgment. What was the cause of the original feud? What if the kid really wasn't good enough to be on the varsity? Having said that, I never once in my entire coaching career cut a kid. But I heard from plenty of "experts"(mommies and daddies) over how much playing time their kids should get.
The kid was all-conference the last two years. Your team has so much new, better, talent this year that the 2-time all-conference kid isn't good enough to make the team this year? Exceedingly unlikely.
I enjoyed John Kass for years, looked forward to his columns and was even quoted in them a couple times. We lived in the same town then, my child knew Kass' lovely wife from daycare. Then he went insane. His writing on non-political/cultural things (that is, recipes and food - that's all that remains) was still interesting to me after he left the Trib, but now his bitterness about all things political seeps into everything. I had to stop reading his little newsletter because it was just so depressing.
I enjoyed his column until he started to support the war in Iraq - and one column in particular about Saddam likened to a rat (which he was). He promised that if he were wrong about the W Bush/Cheney administration's claims about WMDs in Iraq he'd do penance. From then on, he veered way right - then further and further.
I remember when Kass wrote a lot of human interest stories. He even wrote about a couple of my cases and mentioned me by my then name. That was before he got radicalized by the far right.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-04-15-0704140110-story.html
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-01-04-0701040094-story.html
I also used to enjoy his column years ago. He was sometimes repetitive, but I overall I liked it. I have a long-time friend who seems to have changed his world view a bit due to the influence of social media. He is frequently sending me postings from X. It raises the question of whether or not I have or could go off the rails a bit from the influence of social media. No one who has thinks of it that way, and beliefs are mostly a social thing for all of us.
I resolved a couple of years ago to read and listen to media with different POV's. Hopefully I can be somewhat objective.
Now Kass is selling merch, smh. I still get his FB posts and he's selling "No Chumbalone" hats. Seems like they ought to be red like MAGA hats. https://www.facebook.com/john.kass.3
He definitely wasn't always "a villian" (my autistic son's description of anyone who is always angry without a good reason). His advocacy for justice for John Wrana was admirable. Not so strident back then. Things really deteriorated in recent years.
My daughter is autistic, and your comment made me smile.
A Kass column that has stuck with me was written when Alan Keyes was running for the Illinois Senate.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-09-01-0409010142-story.html
Restrictions on right turn on red don't work. Drivers frequently turn in spite of no right turn on red 7 am to 7 pm signs.
Then they ought to get ticketed, don’tcha think?
Absolutely!
I think enforcing existing rules would make intersections safer more so than making up new ones.
I ride my bicycle a lot and right turning cars are a big risk if you don't know how to be careful. Basically you should always be prepared for a car to turn. It is not uncommon for them to not signal. That is a problem when you ride to the right of traffic.
I assume you’re talking about places and occasions other than red lights, but there are a lot of other cyclists for whom a red light is just tinted illumination. They need to follow the rules, too.
Most bicyclists in my community seem to be unable to read or understand what those red octagonal signs mean either. I've slammed on my brakes many times to avoid killing them - - - and their kids trailing behind them as they ride without regard to non-stopping traffic on the cross streets
I suggest that we resist thinking of cyclists and motorists as being groups in opposition to each other. I can assure you that plenty of cyclists are frustrated by other cyclists who behave badly. "Cyclist" *should not* be a group identity IMO. Every mode of transit has individuals who do unsafe dumb things - cyclists, motorists, pedestrians and scooter riders. That is never going to change.
OK, but on a per-vehicle basis, I'm seeing a lot more unsafe, illegal behavior by cyclists, including the recent one who sailed through a red light focused on his mobile phone.
Hey, the 3 TOTW nominees I voted for are currently in the lead! That never happens to me.
Your discussion of the "the" is not complete without referencing The The.
https://youtu.be/7ZYgKCbFbWY?si=Shb7oT8uaQFTwuAe
Or indeed the THE, as in "THE Gwyneth Paltrow."
That song is incredible. How do I get Cassandra Violet to marry into my family and show up for a holiday?
"I don’t favor restrictions or bans on activities that are more than 99% safe and have distinct advantages ... I’d much rather municipalities dramatically increase the penalties for collisions caused by those turning right when the light is red." This is exactly how gun-owners feel about restricting and banning their 99.9% safe activities rather than dramatic penalties for few unsafe ones.
Um…
https://www.axios.com/2023/04/28/fox-news-poll-voters-want-gun-control
Those results are for all voters, not gun owners.
True, but given the number of gun-owners in the country, it makes your 99.9+% seem just a little hyperbolic. Also… https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/19/gun-owners-support-safety-policies-00062335
You’re misreading what I wrote. Gun owners are 99.9% safe, like right-turners on red are. So, like Eric, they don’t want bans and restrictions. I improved the wording of my comment to make this clearer.
Sorry, Pete, but that’s not what you wrote initially. You said 99.9+% of the gun-owners, not their safe actions. Why not just own the initial hyperbole? I owned my “voters vs. gun owners” cited articles. Good faith debate is important here—I did not misread your initial post.
The point is the same. Gun owners are 99.9% safe. I was never talking about a fraction of gun owners opinions, I was talking about their safety record. That’s the analogy: gun owners are like Eric, the safe right-turner. They don’t want bans and restrictions; they want harsh penalties for violators. Thanks for helping me to clarify this point.
*Wow! A boatload of great Tweets today! Said as a sneeze, "Bless You" sounds like one.
*Buttermilk-Brined-Spatchcocked turkey is the hands down bomb. I found it in a video by Samin Nosrat (author "SaltFatAcidHeat")
*The old photos were fun and spooky-much like the book of them called "Wisconsin Death Trip" I wondered about all the stern tight lipped faces; thought I knew why but didn't really. Many theories: bad teeth, long exposure time to hold a smile, a pre exhisting custom of unsmiling images in paintings (it was associated with madness, drunkenness, immaturity, buffoonery etc.), they typically were made of the wealthy who wanted to look stern and powerful, the pricey photographers set an elegant stage and directed them not to smile. Another being that photography was so new and somewhat rare that those having their photo imagining that it would be timeless and be thinking of time, death and memory. I just never really liked my big toothed smile.
*Loved the music-your house must be a festival at Thanksgiving! And for the heads of on the challenging Wassail song. I might be able to get the hang of the chorus.
Lots of good txeets this week. I am an egghead who (I think) gets the Siren/Lorelei reference, but doesn’t think the txeet is particularly funny. What am I missing?
I think it's about "unfollowing" a mermaid who is luring you.
Neil Steinberg: "At this point, I’m the old man by the fire, clawing my hands into an approximation of the mighty bear’s paws, telling stories of the hunt."
Me: "Sorry, you were saying what?"
I liked several of the Tweets today. I did not vote for the Shark Triathalon Tweet, however, as everyone knows that the swim is the first part of a triathalon (followed by the cycling, then the run), and the shark would eat you during the swim, thereby eliminating its competition . . . .
Re: Yucky Tom. They Might be Giants?