September 7 Link Log

After posting all the book reviews for the rest of September, I have half an hour left to read as much from the e-mails and blog feed as possible. Categories: Funny, Nature, Keystone Pipeline, Politics, Writing.

Funny 

There are times when Mona Andrei rises to the comedic-and-inspirational level of Erma Bombeck. This is one of them:

http://www.moxie-dude.com/2016/09/07/when-youre-a-mom-its-the-little-things-that-make-you-a-superhero/

Those who remember the Monster House poem cycle (warmly recommended for Halloween) will be glad to find more news from the Monster House neighborhood...

http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/4108993.html

Nature 

Pretty flowers:

http://naomi-the-naturenerd.blogspot.com/2016/09/on-shady-side.html

Sassy deer. (Mine aren't quite that bold, but close.)

http://itsjustlife.me/oh-deer-wordless-wednesday/

Keystone Pipeline

An oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. initially sounded to the correspondents of this web site like a good idea. Still does. Only, can't anyone find a place to build it without exercising "eminent domain," which is abhorrent to (I think) all correspondents of this web site from the Leftmost to the Rightmost...over Dakota property? Of all North American ethnic groups, arguably the one that's got the rawest deal...Cherokee people were heinously mistreated, but at least the ones who survived being banished "for as long as the grass grows and the water flows...to where there was none of either," as Will Rogers put it, found themselves the legal owners of their share of the oil wells down the center of the continent. Dakota people, a few hundred miles further north, did not. Some Cherokee people are among America's wealthiest; some Dakota people are among our least wealthy. If the pipeline has to be built through their land, at least those building and using it should jollywell pay...whatever they choose to hold out for.

http://guerrillarepublik.org/make-stand-water-life-no-dakota-access-pipeline/



Politics (Applied) 

This web site initially thought that "Black Lives Matter" was a reasonable thing to say (actually we still do), but stepped away from the movement after seeing some of the stupidity being said (and done) in its name. Glenn Beck initially disliked the movement--possibly because of the implication that his Whiter-than-White life matters less?--but expresses more empathy for some of those involved in it now. The wacky part is that I think we now agree completely about #BlackLivesMatter. Like, duh, of course, they do, but #AllLivesMatter...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/opinion/glenn-beck-empathy-for-black-lives-matter.html?_r=2

I suspect Eugene Robinson is wrong about the North Carolina electioneering this web site ridiculed in August. Obviously people in North Carolina are not, er um, Virginians, but I can't imagine them being all that inferior; anyone running for office, or trying to get his or her representative into office, in Virginia knows that votes are votes, and will gladly accept as many votes as s/he can get, regardless of his/her opinion of any individual voter or any group of voters. So why link to Robinson's post? Because this web site wants minority voters to grasp the salient point it contains. If you have a right to vote in these United States, and anybody wants--for whatever reason--to deprive you of that right, are you really going to let them do that...just because you've never bothered to get a state-issued photo ID card, as is required for most jobs in any case? Come onnn! Does Robinson really believe that any substantial number of Black Americans are that dumb? I don't believe any substantial number of "blackandhispanic," or any other type of U.S. citizens, including students, including mobility-impaired but mentally competent seniors, can possibly be that stupid. I believe many people in our less privileged minority groups are clever enough to get the richer people in whichever local political party they can bear to look at to pay the $5 or $10 or whatever it costs to get the silly card. March on the DMV (or MVA or whatever it's called in your state). This one probably belonged under "Funny," but I have a horrible suspicion that some people are actually taking it seriously.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-ugliest-most-appalling-spectacle-in-american-politics/2016/09/05/95179af4-714c-11e6-8365-b19e428a975e_story.html?utm_term=.b444a3b1a595

Politics (Election 2016) 

Rosie O'Donnell promises to leave the United States if the #BankruptcyBillionnaire is elected. That's the best argument in his favor I've seen all year!

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/09/07/comedian-amy-schumer-barbara-streisand-and-the-growing-list-of-celebs-pledging-to-leave-america-if-trump-becomes-president/

Writing 

From Jerry Jenkins:

http://www.jerryjenkins.com/one-reason-havent-finished-book-yet/