Quote of the Day

"We have developed an allergy to poetry; like the allergy to peanuts, but often worse. Take allegory, for instance. In the modern mind, it can induce a stroke. Most of the Bible, to say nothing of other significant literary works, has become unreadable or incomprehensible to us, because we cannot take “play” seriously"
-- David Warren

For Your Reading Pleasure

Clarkesworld is an SF magazine that sometimes runs reprints. Twice, they have run TOFian reprints. "The Promise of God" ran in June 2016. And in May 2018, they reprinted "In Panic Town, on the Backward Moon."

The Promise of God

— by Michael Flynn —

You shall have joy, or you shall have power, said God; you shall not have both.

It began to grow cold in the cabin after the sun went down, and Nealy thought about building a fire. It would be a fine fire, roaring and crackling and toasting warm. It would light the room with a delicious dancing light, and he and Greta could beek on the outer hearth. He loved the way that firelight played off Greta’s features, making them red and soft and shiny; and he loved the way the smoky smells of the burning wood blended with the earthy smells of Greta herself. Yes, a fire was surely what was needed.

The wood was stacked against the back wall. He had chopped it himself, as Greta had asked. Use the axe, she had told him before leaving to trek down the mountainside to the village. Don’t do it the Other Way.
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In Panic Town, on the Backward Moon

— by Michael F. Flynn —

The man who slipped into the Second Dog that day was thin and pinch-faced and crossed the room with a half-scared, furtive look. Willy cut off in the middle of a sentence and said, “I wonder what that Gof wants?” The rest of us at the table turned to watch. An Authority cop at the next table, busy not noticing how strong the near-beer was, slipped his hand into his pocket, and VJ loosened the knife in his ankle scabbard. Robbery was rare in Panic Town—making the getaway being a major hurdle—but it was not unknown.

Hot Dog sucked the nipple of his beer bottle. “He has something.”

“Something he values,” suggested Willy.

VJ chuckled. “That a man values something is no assurance that the thing is valuable. It might be a picture of his sainted grandmother.” But he didn’t think so, and neither did anyone else in the Dog.

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Potpourri

Bully!

One of the great challenges of the  Late Modern Age is how to define a disparagement so that it does not include oneself. For example, 'sexual predator' must apply to teen-aged boys who are said to go horizontal on the sofa and the girl later has an attack of the vapors, but does not apply to Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton, at least while they are still in office. To wit:

bully (v.): "to overbear with bluster or menaces," 1710, from bully (n.).

Brett Kavanaugh shared the DC Court of Appeals with Merrick Garland, who was its chief judge. Republicans so opposed Garland's appointment to succeed Scalia that they would not even allow a vote. (TOF thought the power play was churlish and did not object to Garland.) But they did not try to smear him.  There was no asisault on the very basics of the law. Anyone who remembers the Massachussetts day care center hysteria -- or the Salem witch hysteria, or the numerous lynchings once common the south and midwest, often in consequence of miscegenation hysteria -- should be wary of swallowing any accusation simply because it is fraught. The latter in particular was often accompanied by chanting, intimidating mobs. Recall also Tawana Brawley, the Duke lacrosse players, and others. No one of the usual suspects "believed the victims" of Bill Clinton.

FDR would never get loyal Democrat and devoted New Dealer, Hugo Black, onto the court today. His youthful indiscretion was his membership in the Ku Klux Klan. He resigned from the KKK in 1925, at age 39. 

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Quote of the Day

"History never repeats itself. Only the laugh track is on a perpetual loop." -- David Warren

Kav-enough?

The Manhattan Contrarian notes that the Democrats seem to acknowledge the failure of their teen-aged groping accusation on Judge Kavanaugh by shifting their pearl-clutching from his alleged teen-aged indiscretions to his "demeanor" in his response to the accusations and/or to whether he drank beer in college. (Quelle surprise!) If he had responded like Spock, the complaints would differ, but who can doubt that his demeanor would have been attacked, regardless?

Meanwhile, the media are in a hoo-hoo because Fred Trump managed to turn over many of his properties to his children and not pay as much in gift taxes as some think he should have. Much is made of 'undervaluing' the properties, although as the Contrarian points out, the values were still high enough that the IRS would have reviewed the transaction and signed off. Recall that, at this time, the Trumps were Democrats and big donors to the Clintons.

For a full discussion, see the link, above.

Quote of the Day

"Blood and kinship relations found racial distinctions, and there has been a campaign since the wars to minimize their significance. One sign that problems have arisen in this attempt has been the transition from integration to diversity, i.e. where as before we wanted all races to share a common life we now want them to live different lives, but put them on display for an alleged pedagogic value. “Separate but equal” returns as celebrated."
-- James Chastek

Quote of the Day

"It is an elite rage of law professors and management consultants. It’s the rage of the powerful, which is always more dangerous than the rage of the downtrodden."
-- R.R.Reno