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The Wires
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Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

Washington Post: “The last known location of 'Portrait of Fräulein Lieser' by world-renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was in Vienna in the mid-1920s. The vivid painting featuring a young woman was listed as property of a 'Mrs Lieser' — believed to be Henriette Lieser, who was deported and killed by the Nazis. The only remaining record of the work was a black and white photograph from 1925, around the time it was last exhibited, which was kept in the archives of the Austrian National Library. Now, almost 100 years later, this painting by one of the world’s most famous modernist artists is on display and up for sale — having been rediscovered in what the auction house has hailed as a sensational find.... It is unclear which member of the Lieser family is depicted in the piece[.]”

~~~ Marie: I don't know if this podcast will update automatically, or if I have to do it manually. In any event, both you and I can find the latest update of the published episodes here. The episodes begin with ads, but you can fast-forward through them.

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Sunday
Feb102019

An American's Guide to the Seven Deadly Sins

By Brother Akhilleus

... I put it to all the evangelicals, deliriously worshipful of Fatty, to consider how many of the Seven Deadly Sins can be ascribed to his wonderfulness.

Let’s check them off, shall we?

Pride.

In spades. Enough for seven additional variations of this particular sin. Also, smarter than all the generals. Check. Got it.

Envy.

Has there ever been a leader so envious of his predecessor that he sought, so furiously, to diminish his every accomplishment? I’m sure if Fatty could make the sweet, smart, decent Obama kids vanish, he would, they showing up his own venal, rapacious rabble.

Wrath.

There is no wrath like that of an ignorant, narcissistic, needy knucklehead scorned. A glance at a single day’s worth of angry, contemptuous tweets seals the case.

Sloth.

How many hours a day does he actually work? One? Two, at most? Sloth, like you read about. He couldn’t be slothier if he had three toes and hung upside down in a tree.

Avarice.

Why, just today we find that he had organized a scheme to weasel money at his inauguration. He was a clutching, scheming, avaricious ass hat before he was even sworn in.

Gluttony.

Keeping McDonalds in the black by himself. Plus, just look at that fat ass.

Lust.

Pussy grabbing, porn star banging, adultery on a scale with sex mad philanderers from Victorian pornographic novels.


Of course, I’m leaving off other sins that could be a lot more deadly: stupidity, ignorance of world affairs, and treason for just a few.

Is this the guy chosen by god? He must been having a bad deity day.

Let us just say that evangelicals clearly don’t care if their Glorious Leader runs the gamut of sins, venal, mortal, deadly, or doofus. As long as they can stick it to their enemies.

I’m thinking that’s a sin too. But I’m too exhausted of all this evil now to go on. Time to watch some Mr. Rogers on YouTube and clear the mind of such Trumpian-winger foulness.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (4)

""What matters isn't how a person's inner life finally puts together the alphabet and numbers of his outer life. What really matters is whether he uses the alphabet for the declaration of a war or the description of a sunrise--his numbers for the final count at Buchenwald or the specifics of a brand-new [WALL]" Mr. Rogers

February 10, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

I watched "Won't You Be My Neighbor" last night. In the first fifteen minutes, it showed King Friday the 13th being afraid of change and wanting to build a wall. I think that was the first episode. Wow!

It looks as if Fred Rogers tried to treat every person with respect and kindness. Sounds pretty Christian to me.

February 10, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

@Nisky Guy: From the Pittsburgh City Paper (June 2018):

"Connected over a week’s worth of episodes, one plot line addresses change, violence and border issues. Fearful of change, King Friday XIII (the puppet ruler of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe) orders a border wall to be built to keep the neighborhood safe. Lady Aberlin takes balloons, tied with messages of peace and love to them, and floats them across the wall, convincing the king to tear down the wall. Those episodes were the first five shows."

Just in case somebody didn't realize Donald Trump is a throwback to the bad ole days.

February 10, 2019 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Marie,

Nice selection of images of president* sinner. Reminds me of medieval stained glass windows created to show the largely illiterate worshipers how not to be. Unfortunately, these images depicting Fatty’s many sins show his largely illiterate worshippers how to be exactly like their hero.

February 10, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus
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