Christopher Six
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Six Takeaways: The end of the world, and Comic Sans

10/9/2018

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  1. The Darkerist Hour — Astronaut Scott Kelly made the awful mistake of quoting Winston Churchill on Twitter this week. “One of the greatest leaders of modern times, Sir Winston Churchill said, ‘in victory, magnanimity.’ I guess those days are over.” He twuttered, and we can make a few guesses as to what he was referring. But that’s not the story. The story is the backlash he received by those who take issue with some of Churchill’s “contemporary” views. Kelly, unfortunately, compounded the backlash by apologizing, drawing an equal backlash from Churchill supporters. It’s dangerous ground to apply modern standards to historical figures, but is becoming more and more popular over time. Sad, considering Churchill is one of the primary reasons we don’t goose step down Main Street. The BBC has the story.​
  2. This might explain why no one in my circle responds -- Google+, launched just a few years ago, when the world was young and before Facebook could sway elections, was going to be the next, well, um, Facebook. That never happened, and this week Alphabet announced it was pulling the plug, which may surprise some of you who thought it was already dead. And that’s the official explanation. Lack of use. Oh, and a newly announced privacy lapse affecting up to 500,000 users.
  3. Closing time, James -- I wish this was an entry about GoldenEye, where that line came from, unfortunately, that was basically what scientists said this week about climate change. Now, I know many question the science, or whatever. I think we need to get down to brass tax. Man-made or natural, the climate is changing. The occasional blizzard, or more specifically weather, doesn’t change that. It’s happening. Weather and climate are not the same. It might be a good idea to do something about it. Back to the BBC for the story.
  4. Kids do the darndest things -- Cheating a bit here, but it can’t be seven takeaways. So two stories about kids. The first is a very helpful youngster who aided mom with the shredding. The family had also saved up $1,000+ to repay their family for their Utah football season tickets. You know where this is going. Don’t worry, though. This story has a happy ending. Dr. Pepper and Utah both stepped up to cover the money and provide a first class experience at the stadium. The second story: an 8-year-old girl found a pre-Viking era sword in a Swedish lake. A drought lowered the level of the lake near the Swedish-American girl’s family vacation home, revealing the sword. The obvious question: Is this the basis for a system of government? I’m pretty sure I heard somewhere that supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.​
  5. Tippy? Or Tipsy? -- Look out for the birds in Gilbert, Minn. Apparently, their in their cups.
  6. No word on Comic Sans -- According to The Guardian, Australian researchers have developed a new font — Sans Forgetica — that helps people remember information. It’s all courtesy of RMIT University in Melbourne. Participants in the study remembered 57% of text written in Sans Forgetica compared with 50% in a plain Arial. Baby steps.
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Summing up Kavanaugh

10/9/2018

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From the outset, I want to point out I opposed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. This was based on my belief that his interpretation of presidential immunity is dead wrong, his part in drafting the Patriot Act, and the fact I felt he was too partisan a candidate. 
 
That said, President Trump and the Republican Party won in 2016, and have every right to nominate whoever they damn well please. 
 
When Dr. Ford’s accusation came up, that became a moment of due diligence. It is disappointing that all these years on from the Thomas/Hill debacle, The Judiciary Committee still doesn’t have a clean way of doing this sort of thing. 
 
From the moment the letter landed in Dianne Feinstein’s hands things were handled poorly, with little thought to the accused or the accuser. Rather than get to the truth, both parties made their minds up without a shred of evidence in hand and resorted to grandstanding and auditioning for cabinet posts and 2020. Shameful. 
 
A true investigation suited neither party. Democrats wanted a withdrawal, as they knew the accusation would be nearly impossible to corroborate, save someone present that day folding like a deck of cards, and Republicans knew the longer you looked at this stuff, the more likely something else would come up. Because one thing was certain, Brett Kavanaugh and his prep school and college buddies sure did like their beer and getting a little wild.
 
Meanwhile, the motivation for getting it done quickly, just in case things go really south in the midterms, was looming.
 
One thing is certain in all this. The President, the parties, the Committee and the candidate threw all decorum out the window. And the President’s victory dance last night put an exclamation point on that. Sadly, I think we have done little here to advance the cause of women who come forward.
 
All accusations of sexual misconduct must be taken seriously, and thoroughly investigated. Women’s claims cannot simply be dismissed. Conversely, men have the right, and must be considered innocent until proven guilty. Just because an accusation is made does not mean it is true, no matter how much we believe it. It must be proven. Some have argued that this was only a “job interview,” not a court of law, so the rules don’t apply. Doesn’t wash. That is how our country must work.
 
It was, however, a hearing before the judiciary committee, and conducted under oath. I have a reasonable belief Kavanaugh perjured himself more than once, and if Democrats knew what they were doing, they would have spent more time nailing him on that than giving speeches. That’s why you have staff. You telling me they don’t have the Googles? No one knows about Urban Dictionary? Because until last week, Devil’s Triangle only had one definition.

​And perjury is an automatic disqualification. 
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Six Takeaways: The non-Kavanaugh edition (almost)

10/3/2018

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  1. Challenging the narrative -- Out of the gate, while the world focuses on Judge Kavanaugh and President Trump’s controversial remarks at one of his political rallies last night, the story that fascinates me is the extensive New York Times piece on how Donald Trump made his fortune, or, perhaps more accurately, how it was made for him. Nothing shocking here, really, he’s a New York real estate developer, and the son of one, so you’d expect every trick in the book, and some you might even have thought of, would be used to expand and protect the family fortune. But this is a truly exhaustive piece of journalism, definitely worth reading.
  2. Under the weather? -- Hard to believe, but the “Spanish Flu” outbreak happened a century ago. The Economist had a great article this week not only detailing the scope of the epidemic, but also the attempts over the last 100 years to determine where it all began. I’ve always been fascinated by this era of history, the loss of the world’s innocence, in a way. It was all brought home to me, however, as I began to learn about my own family’s history. My own great great grandmother was a victim of the flu.
  3. Forehead smacker -- ESPN had a report this week out of Tennessee, where a high school athletic director has been placed on administrative leave after saying girls "pretty much ruin everything" in a video address to students. Seriously. You’d like to think, even if you had these thoughts, in this day and age you’d realize not to utter them in public. Regardless, this guy is an educator.
  4. Getting to the point — Is there anything more American than the iconic yellow number 2 pencil? Well, yes, a lot of things, apparently. The Washington Post has a fascinating read on how Dixon Ticonderoga uses loopholes in the law to produce almost all of its pencils in Mexico, while reaping benefits to the tune of $5 million.
  5. We are programmed to receive -- If you have a cell phone, you got the alert. Now your president can send you alerts in times of national emergency. Now, the law states the President can’t send you one of his famous tweet-quality personal messages, but really, that’s OK. I, for one, welcome my great orange Trumpian overlord.
  6. Once a Striper, always a Striper -- That was the mantra of one of my colleagues back in my days at Stars and Stripes. And it’s true. This week, at the Newseum, a documentary about the paper — “The World’s Most Dangerous Paper Route” — premiered. I’ve heard good things, and look forward to checking it out. Gen. David Petraeus and Sen. Lindsey Graham joined narrator (and Stripes alum) Steve Kroft of CBS News's "60 Minutes" and journalist Tom Philpott in a panel discussion. Enormously proud to have played a small part in that papers amazing history.

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