Ergonomic Fail

Sitting down to the computer, I had a realization about the pain near my shoulder blade. The pain comes from mouse-clicking. I've got some kind of ergonomic fail going on.

Lake Arthur Pulls The Concealed-Carry Permits For Cops

The bright light of publicity:

The mayor of the tiny town of Lake Arthur, New Mexico, has shut down his town’s volunteer reserve-officer program after it was reported they awarded a badge to Trump-backing billionaire Robert Mercer, reports Bloomberg.

According to the report, Mayor Ysidro Salazar issued a statement saying he has shuttered his town’s volunteer reserve-officer program and has instructed current officers to return their credentials which allowed them to concealed carry in all 50 states.

Responding to a Businessweek story that reported that out-of-towner Mercer was given a badge that also allowed him to carry a weapon, the mayor said it was time to shut the whole program down.

“Because of the notoriety this was bringing, I decided to go ahead and disassemble the unit,” Salazar said, before adding the report, “didn’t put the town in a very good light.”

Along with shutting down the program, Salazar put Police Chief William Norwood, who oversaw it while serving as the town’s only full-time paid police officer, on administrative leave, pending a hearing by city officials represent the town’s 433 residents. Previously 150 volunteers were authorized by the the department, but that number had been decreased to 84 badge-carriers.

Reorganizing The DMTC Extra Programs

As DMTC Archivist, I've been indiscriminately saving extra DMTC programs for the last sixteen years, and I had accumulated about ten boxes of them in the basement. Too many. I have finally organized them by show, allowing for just 30 per shows (some shows had more than a hundred each), and I've pared the ten boxes down to just four.

For the future.

DMTC 30th Anniversary Video

I didn't realize this interesting video was out there. It was from the DMTC 30th birthday celebration in 2014. Short snippets of many shows (I started doing shows at DMTC in 2000). Notable Broadway stars include Mara Davi (at 7:23) and Jessica Crouch (at 7:50 - apparently she opens a show in NYC in a few months). I momentarily appear at 9:52.

NEW RULES - DUA LIPA - by Blacka Di Danca & Laure Courtellemont

Two of my fave dancers!

Happy 90th Birthday To Tom Lehrer!

He's still going strong!My mom had his first album (they show the album cover in the article at the link):

Lehrer — who grew up on New York City’s Upper East Side — certainly sees a connection between his mathematical training, which began at Harvard at the prodigiously young age of 14, and his compositions. He was drawn to songwriting in his teens; after failing to respond to classical-music training, he switched to the study of popular music. In an interview in 2000, he summed up the fields’ dual impact. “The logical mind, the precision, is the same that’s involved in math as in lyrics,” he said. “It’s like a puzzle, to write a song.”

Lehrer agrees with mathematician Stanislaw Ulam (one of the builders of the atomic bomb) that rhyming “forces novel associations … and becomes a sort of automatic mechanism of originality”.

Weekend Zumbathon With the Barreto Brothers, Pakko, and Rosalie Fortner (From Santa Maria)

More Conservative Horseshit

Because I'm a liberal, I didn't get to see this horseshit Facebook was offering conservatives in the 2016 election:




Mexicans disagree about priorities:

MEXICO CITY (The Borowitz Report)—Hoping to resolve the seemingly intractable conflict over immigration, Mexico surprised the world on Thursday by agreeing to pay for Donald J. Trump’s psychiatric care.

...While some Mexican taxpayers argued that a full course of psychiatric treatment could prove more costly than a border wall, Peña Nieto warned against skimping on such a necessary expense.

“When the safety and security of the world is at stake, eight hundred dollars an hour is a bargain,” he said, but added that Mexico would try to find a therapist who takes insurance.

Meanwhile, the Soros Rewards Program is doing well:

Dear Valued Soros Protester™,

We’d like to thank you for your participation in the recent March for Our Lives and for being such a loyal Soros Protester™. Together, we sent a message to Congress and the NRA, and we are fostering a real conversation about sensible gun control in our country. Throughout our storied history of compensating work-shy millennials to protest in favor of the Soros Liberal Agenda™, we’ve set unprecedented crowd size records, made nearly 3.5 million clever posters, and paid out nearly $25 million in Soros Bucks™. However, effective today, we will be restructuring our Soros Protest Rewards Program™ to offer you better incentives as a thank you for your time, your Instagram posts, and your delightfully clever protest signs.

New Mexico is my home state. Don't tell ICE.

Zombie Raccoons in Ohio

I've seen aggressive raccoons when they are in a group, but I've never seen a zombie raccoon:

Witnesses describe the furry black-masked creatures assuming aggressive postures toward humans, showing no fear and impervious to attempts to scare them off with noises or movements.

Robert Coggeshall, a retired banker turned nature photographer, described the “extremely strange behavior” of a raccoon that entered Coggeshall’s front yard as he played with his dogs.

“He would stand up on his hind legs, which I’ve never seen a raccoon do before, and he would show his teeth and then he would fall over backward and go into almost a comatose condition,” Coggeshall told WKBN.

Libertarians Are Defunct

For the moment, Libertarians are basically defunct.

Kevin D. Williamson was just fired at The Atlantic - for good reason. I don't think we'd get along. I don't agree with the last sentence of this article. Still, I like the rest:

The GOP’s political situation is absurd: Having rallied to the banner of an erratic and authoritarian game-show host, evangelical leaders such as Jerry Falwell Jr. are reduced to comparing Donald Trump to King David as they try to explain away his entanglement with pornographic performer Stormy Daniels. Those who celebrated Trump the businessman clutch their heads as his preposterous economic policies produce terror in the stock markets and chaos for the blue-collar workers in construction firms and manufacturers scrambling to stay ahead of the coming tariffs on steel and aluminum. The Chinese retaliation is sure to fall hardest on the heartland farmers who were among Trump’s most dedicated supporters.

On the libertarian side of the Republican coalition, the situation is even more depressing: Republicans such as former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who once offered important support for criminal-justice reform, are lined up behind the atavistic drug-war policies of the president and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose big idea on opiate abuse is more death sentences for drug traffickers. Deficits are moving in the wrong direction. And, in spite of the best hopes of the “America First” gang, Trump’s foreign policy has not moved in the direction of Rand Paul’s mild non-interventionism or the more uncompromising non-interventionism of his father, Ron Paul. Instead, the current GOP foreign-policy position combines the self-assured assertiveness of the George W. Bush administration (and many familiar faces and mustaches from that administration) with the indiscipline and amateurism characteristic of Trump.

Some libertarian moment.

James Vandeventer is Running For Congress From Oklahoma

James was a fellow candidate for the 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall Election, so his race for the Second Oklahoma Congressional District (Tulsa area, and NE Oklahoma) piques my interest:

Oklahomans 1ST! It's time for NEW Visionary Leadership!

We don't have to live like this!

KIDS, Teachers, Vets, Elderly, Poor, 1st Responders & those in need ARE #1!

Time 2 GO MARKWAYNE! 3 TERMS ARE UP!



Take Oklahoma to the TOP!

YES ON SQ788 Medical Marijuana!

Protect Our 2nd Amendment but we need SENSIBLE Laws TO KEEP Guns out of the HANDS of the WRONG People!



Gateway to Native America! Miami, Sallisaw, Durant!

Claremore, how about a Boardwalk at Claremore Lake? Oolagah? Eufala? Or? We have a BEAUTIFUL STATE! LET'S Showcase it and make some $$$$!

Grove, how about a theme park to showcase Grand Lake?

All Religions Protected!

STOP the HATE! Rebuild Our Churches!

Let's Put God back in Our Hearts, Homes, & Churches!

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR!


...I am running as a HYBRID Candidate! I was a lifelong Reagan Republican until approx 2003. I have VOTED for many Candidates REGARDLESS of PARTY!

WHY? BECAUSE Oklahomans/American Patriots like you, COME 1ST! I don't care what your Religion is, what color you are, and I REALLY DON'T WANT to know about your sex life! WHO you love and MARRY IS YOUR BUSINESS! NOT THE GOVT OR CHURCH! LOVE THY NEIGHBOR!

WE ARE NOT SENT OUT AS POLICE FOR Christ! We WERE SENT TO SPREAD LOVE, FORGIVENESS, AND THE TEACHINGS of GOD!

Clueless Dog

The Real Reason For The Trump-Bezos Rivalry

Money:

President Donald Trump’s net worth declined by more than $600 million in the past year, according to the Forbes 400 List of the richest people in America. However surprising Trump’s loss may be, the reason for it is even more unexpected. Trump’s real estate holdings, specifically those in New York City, have taken a big hit in the past year, as retail values are struggling in response to Amazon’s e-commerce gains.

...Appearing on CNN Tuesday, Forbes assistant managing editor Kerry Dolan leveled blame for Trump’s real estate losses on e-commerce’s domination over retail, mentioning Amazon. Specifically citing the lease of the Niketown store and the Trump Tower property, Dolan said that retailers are suffering—even on the high end. It would appear that Amazon’s strategy of e-commerce over brick and mortar retail is winning, and that is having an effect on real estate values, she added.

91% of Average

After the last spell of rain, the 2017-18 rainy season (Nov. - Apr.) at Sacramento Executive airport is now 91% of average - nearly a carbon copy of the 2015-16 rainy season two years ago, which ended at 91% of average. There are chances for more rain over the next week, however, so maybe we'll just barely edge rain totals two years ago.

Meanwhile, SoCal is in bad shape. The LA Times reports the rainy season at Los Angeles is just 37% of average.

Stupid Wine Tariffs

Given worldwide overproduction of wine, the U.S. can ill-afford losing Chinese market share - one of the few places with growing demand - but that’s what Republican misrule will give us:

But China, which included wine on a list of 128 products worth $3bn targeted for potential tariffs, is confident that its growing market power, fuelled by a rising middle class, will give America pause.

That's true even when it comes to wine, which represents a tiny fraction of the trade between the two countries.

Exports represent only 5% of overall US wine sales. And only about 5% of wine exports, some $79m, are destined for China.

Wine-makers are worried about tariffs anyway. They say even if they can afford to lose business in China now, the country is critical to the industry's future.

"We're not in a position to lose market share," Mr Parr says.

Every Dystopian YA Novel

Easter Procession Past My House

Like clockwork, every year:

Modern Times

Then this stupidity:

MADISON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A student shot in his school's cafeteria in two years ago received detention this month for walking out of class as part of a national day of protests against school shootings.

Against the wishes of Madison Junior/Senior High School's administrators, Cooper Caffrey and 42 other students participated in the March 14 walkout, a month after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. But some in this community of 8,500 residents about 30 miles north of Cincinnati say that if anyone has a right to protest, it's these teens.

Caffrey, now 16, was one of two students shot and two others injured during the resulting confusion Feb. 29, 2016, when James “Austin” Hancock, now 17, stole a gun from his great-grandmother, brought it to school in his backpack and ultimately used it at lunchtime. The other student shot, Cameron Smith, was hit in the back and unable to walk for weeks, according to his grandmother.

And maybe a motive:

Appearing on CNN Tuesday, Forbes assistant managing editor Kerry Dolan leveled blame for Trump’s real estate losses on e-commerce’s domination over retail, mentioning Amazon. Specifically citing the lease of the Niketown store and the Trump Tower property, Dolan said that retailers are suffering—even on the high end. It would appear that Amazon’s strategy of e-commerce over brick and mortar retail is winning, and that is having an effect on real estate values, she added.

Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs"

There seemed a dearth of interesting movies this last weekend, so against my better judgement I went to the Tower Theater to watch Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs." To my surprise, I was pleased by the entire film. One review I read claimed there were long, dull stretches in the film, but if there were any there, I never noticed them at all. Among others, stars Bryan Cranston as Chief and Scarlett Johansson as Nutmeg. A really fun movie!:

Reconsidering The Value of "The Death of Stalin"

I wasn't that impressed with Armando Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin,” but that isn't necessarily a reflection on the movie. It all depends on how one views it. People with connections to Russia and life in the old Soviet Union might view it quite differently. I was struck by this review of the film:

Western audiences are accustomed to images of Stalin as a terrifying despot and mass murderer; now that his reputation has been rehabilitated under Putin, Russian audiences are used to seeing Stalin as an almighty leader who brought the USSR to victory over the Nazis. The idea of presenting a comedy about Stalin to either of these audiences is startling. Critics on both sides of the crumpled Iron Curtain have expressed disgust at its willingness to laugh at such a dark subject, but many viewers have been delighted. In considering the laughter that The Death of Stalin produces and portrays, it’s important to remember that laughter comes in many varieties: giddy, aggressive, delighted, sycophantic, relieved, sadistic, mirthful, embarrassed, subversive. Laughter is a sophisticated tool that can convey meanings unavailable to the strictly serious-minded.

As I watched The Death of Stalin, I thought of Soviet literary critic Viktor Shklovsky’s famous theory of ostranenie, or “enstrangement,” the artistic device that gives us a new understanding of the familiar by making us see it as if for the first time. By disrupting habits of perception that have become automatic, ostranenie allows us to reach a new understanding, a sharper feeling. I saw The Death of Stalin with a friend, a Jewish refugee from Soviet Moscow, and together we alternated between hysterical laughter and gasps of horror at the scenes of people being taken away in the night or summarily shot. The laughter made the horror seem new.

A useful way of thinking!