To me it is amazing how easy misinformation can be taken as gospel by those who want that misinformation to be true. I knew partisanship could be strong, but I didn't realize how quickly and efficiently it can work. With lots of repetition and a willing audience, you have the makings of a powerful elixir for the craving masses.
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The date above is an interesting date. It was on that day a number of hoodlums attacked the Capitol. Now there is an attempt to have a commission to investigate what happened on that day. Yet the Republicans are not for it. Unlike the 9/11 Commission, this one may not accomplish its intended goal--to delve into what happened on that day and what transpired before that day in planning.
Some of what is happening and has happened reminds me of the actions of a cult. But their cult leader seems to be on hiatus, playing golf.
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I'm reading an interesting article in The Gambit. It's on the topic of climate change and affordable housing, a mix of topics that is rarely brought up. I find it a great article that is written in a laid-back fashion, which makes it easier, I believe, to delve into an area that could be overladen with numbers, theories, and charts.
Also, the article makes a provocative comment. At a meeting of stakeholders and business leaders a moderator asked the question, "How many of you think New Orleans will be around in 50 years?" and about half the room raised their hands. "Then he asked, 'What about 75?' and not a single person raised their hand."
That is amazing.
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I just felt like reading some great writing, so I read some nonfiction of John Updike. Here is a random paragraph from his Higher Gossip: Essays and Criticism:
When against my better judgment, I glance back at my prose from twenty or thirty years ago, the quality I admire and fear to have lost is its carefree bounce, its snap, its exuberant air of slight excess. The author, in his boyish innocence, is calling, like the sorcerer's apprentice, upon unseen powers--the prodigious potential of this flexible language's vast vocabulary. Prose should have a flow, the forward momentum of a certain energized weight; it should feel like a voice tumbling into your ear.
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