Tasty Tidbits 7/6/11

Here’s some Tasty Tidbits for the day:

  1. Casey who?
  2. Cyrus the Above Average.
  3. Bradley who?
  4. How many do you need for a “stampede”?
  5. Nobody here but us Christians, ya’ darned heretics.
  6. Rare earth just became a bit commoner.
  7. Thomas More
  8. Jacknife Theology.
  9. Don’t hold your breath waiting for this 51st State.
  10. Ag-Gag Law?

***

I’m not going to name names, but as for me and my house, we’ll try to fix our gaze a little higher than the Casey whatsername’s trial and acquittal.

Everyone in the country seems to know what happened except the jury. Everyone in the country’s full of it.

The jury system is deeply flawed and unreliable, no doubt, but the press is worse. You, gentle reader, are the product the press “sells.” You’re not paying them anything, but they sell your eyes, ears, and every carnal passion to buyers called “advertisers.” And they’ll feed you poisonous junk food to make sure they’ve got a good supply of eyes, ears and passions to sell.

Goodlookingbabykillingsociopathmother is a very tasty dish, don’t you think? It’s right up there with Hornyashellfrenchbillionairerapist.

***

Speaking of which, Dorothy Rabinowitz at the Wall Street Journal (in front of the pay wall, I believe) make her case that the DSK prosecutor has done what a prosecutor should (in contrast to some prosecutors in recent years who’d probably like to put contracts out on her after they rode dubious cases to fame and riches, but with her heckling and harranguing all the way).

Since I’ve not been glued to the Hornyashellfrenchbillionairerapist coverage, I’m a little fuzzy on how much of the really ugly information about the accuser came straight from the prosecutor. If his lips were as loose as my impression is, that does seem a bit odd. But if he’s been attacked like this with his cards on the table, imagine the lurid coverage he’d have gotten if he’d dropped the charges without explanation, or with a cursory “the victim had credibility problems.”

I make no effort to sort out all the facts, some of which may well implicate DSK in adultery. I’m just joining Rabinowitz in gratitude for prosecutorial restraint in a case that could have been skillfully demagogued into a fabulously successful career like that of, say, Elliot Spitzer (who I followed because of his prosecutorial abuses, not his sex life, though his being caught in flagrante delicto elicited a certain schadenfreude).

***

I didn’t follow Casey whatsername and I don’t plan to follow the psychological twists and turns kinks of Wikileaker Bradley Manning. But I wouldn’t bet against him becoming the next big thing if the government takes him to trial. (“Bradley Manning’s Army of One: How a lonely, five-foot-two, gender-questioning soldier became a WikiLeaks hero, a traitor to the U.S., and one of the most unusual revolutionaries in American history.”) I made it most of the way through page 1 and have no idea what lies beyond that.

***

“Democrats must be in trouble if The Daily Beast is running a headline ‘White Supremacist Stampede”…”

***

Mitt Romney’s last major statement on his Mormon faith, consistent with what seems to be the prescribed LDS talking points these days, played down Mormon distinctiveness. “Aw, shucks! We’re just ordinary Christians like y’all,” but delivered with some gravitas.

Apart from hypocrisy — an explanation of last resort — I don’t get why this religion born in Joseph Smith’s conviction (or revelation, if you must) that all other Christian traditions were wrong, wrong, wrong, should now coyly aver that it’s … just like all other Christian traditions!

Have the other traditions improved? Has LDS deteriorated? Why then the continued separation? What gives?

After the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, a substantial portion of the cultic Worldwide Church of God moved over to near-indistinguishability from generic Evangelicalism (I stopped keeping track after I became Orthodox). Is something along those lines happening in the Latter Day Saints? I don’t really see how it can without them frankly abandoning some of their errant doctrines. It’s hard to ooonch or evolve from a doctrine with sharp, crisp boundaries.

Meanwhile, I’m feeling no pressure to declare my support or opposition to a generic Mormon candidate (from the New York Times, so it may count toward your freebies) running against Obama. The religious enigma is of both more immediate and eternal significance.

***

One of my low-level, nagging economic worries is our dependance on rare earths in many of our electronics, including wind turbines, since most of the known rare earth deposits in the world were in China.

That’s “were,” because the Japanese apparently have found a trove on the Ocean floor.

But my glass is generally half empty, so be warned that Polyanna and her “conservative” kin will take this as proof that a benevolent Gaia has our backs, and will soon yield up an infinite supply of tasty oil from her rich, nougaty center — so let’s not change a thing we’re doing to mollify the hateful liberals who say there are limits in the world.

***

Are my Romish friends planning a fast or feast for St. Thomas More, the Man for All Seasons, today?

***

My son wears my late father’s wristwatch. My brother and sister-in-law, who recently downsized, had his WW II Navy uniforms made into pillows for each of the many members of the family rather than continuing to store them in limited space — or (shudder!) discard them.

Jason Peters says there’s a reason why humans cherish such things.

***

Everything old is new again if it catches on in sunny South California, our 51st state after it secedes. South California’s insurrection might give new life to the whole notion of secession, which Honest Abe thought he’d laid to rest by force of arms.

***

The laws apparently died quickly, but something with longer legs than secession is brewing when legislators in several states propose laws to make it illegal to videotape or photograph in the agricultural facilities that house almost all of our chickens and pigs. Think they’re hiding something?

Bon appetit?!

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