Ursula K. Le Guin Chases Flying Squirrels

Most Recent Flying Squirrel

(#1)

Women Writers Are so Privileged —
Nobody Has to Fight Past Anything to Read Them

In a book about Ernest Hemingway’s boat called Hemingway’s Boat, Paul Hendricks laments how badly Hemingway’s writing has been neglected and how people who call him macho just don't understand. To appreciate Hemingway, Hendricks says, “You just have to fight past the misconceptions and stereotypes.”

(#2)

Slumping Texas Governor Veers Hard Right,
Courting Tea Party Vote.

(headline on a story in Slate by Will Oremus, 25 Oct. 11)

It’s the Texas Tetrathlon: slump, veer, court, and fake. Think of the physical and moral flexibility involved in it. Remarkable!

(#3)

Creeping Socialism in Ohio

Asked about the connotation of the phrase “income inequality,” LaTourette [Rep. Stephen LaTourette, R-Ohio] said,

“It’s a redistribution of wealth — which is socialist, which is communist and all of that — but I do think that when you pit millionaires and billionaires against everyone else, that’s a nice populist message, and we’ve got to get our hands on it.”

(From: “Income gap slides into GOP talk,” by Marin Cogan and Jake Sherman, Politico, Oct 30, 2011.)

A Republican representative agreeing with socialists and communists in defining income inequality as an imbalance so immense and so unjust that it must result in a redistribution of wealth? Goodness. Things must be changing in Ohio.

(#4)

From The New Republican Dictionary: to respect: to cause embarrassment or humiliation; to grope.

In an interview on Fox news, Nov 13, 2011, Gloria Cain said of her husband: “He totally respects women.”

(#5)

Mars Probe Launched

“It’s not your father's rover,” Mars program director Doug McCuistion told the Orlando Sentinel. (From Slate, 27 Nov. 2011)

My father’s rover was launched in 1946 from a silo in Topeka and was never seen again, although many persons in southern Kansas mentioned unexplained yelping noises overhead that day.

(#6)

Wouldn’t it be loverly if everybody who reads this never bought a book from Amazon again?

Terrified that independent booksellers might get some tiny share of the season of gifts, good will, and profits, Amazon has just announced that anybody who goes into a local bookstore, scans an item, goes home, and buys the same item from Amazon will get up to five dollars off the price.

If you are really into destroying your community in order to save a buck, Amazon will provide you a phone app for this specific purpose.

(#7)

You Go, Snowe!!!

Senator Olympia Snowe (R.-Maine) has called for Amazon to cancel its promotion of a price-check app and its offer to reward customers reporting book prices to Amazon with up to $5 off. Snowe calls the maneuver “an attack on Main Street businesses that employ workers in our communities. Small businesses are fighting every day to compete with giant retailers, such as Amazon, and incentivizing consumers to spy on local shops is a bridge too far.... During the busiest shopping season of the year, we should remember that our local restaurants, bookshops, and hardware stores are the economic engines in our communities.”

(#8)

In Abraham Lincoln’s Home Town

The State of Illinois has refused contracts to the Catholic diocese of Springfield, because the diocese refuses to recognise same-sex couples as foster parents. The Bishop protests against this injustice: “In the name of tolerance, we’re not being tolerated.”

This sentence is a magnificent flying squirrel, demonstrating a startling flight of sterile circularity: Our human right to deny people their human rights is divine..l You have to encourage diversity and freedom of religion, so if we disapprove of diversity, you have to let us punish it freely… Intolerance of bigotry is bigotry and therefore tolerance of bigotry is righteous -- so long as it’s our bigotry and your tolerance.

(#9)

Media CEO English

“The grass roots they can generate is, frankly, concerning,” Cary Sherman, chairman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, said of the Internet community.

— Amy Chozick
A Class of Media Worlds (and Generations)
NY Times, 22 Jan 12

Excuse me, Mr Sherman, but you stopped before you explained what the generated grass roots is concerning. So, tell us, what is generated grass roots all about? Frankly?

— UKL

(#10)

Good Intentions Meet the Double-Hyphen Dilemma

“A leading child health expert at the National Institutes of Health has lent his support to an effort to end a controversial anti-child obesity campaign...”

Rachael Levy
Slatest, Feb 9 2012

We do not understand what is controversial about our campaign for obesity and against children.

— UKL

(#11)

A Piece of Work

The budget developed by Paul Ryan, just approved by the House of Representatives, cuts $3.3 trillion from programs for low-income families.

Mitt Romney’s opinion of this budget: “It’s an excellent piece of work.”

— UKL

(#12)

Why Everyone is Moving from New York, New Orleans, and Los Angeles to Chico, Cloverdale, and Petaluma

Anne Rice, talking to Maureen Dowd (“She’s Fit to be Tied,” The New York Times, March 31, 2012):

“Very few people act out their fantasies, except in Northern California.”

(#13)

Reaction Before Action
or,
Boldly Going Forward Ass First

21 April 2012. Mitt Romney has given a speech described by his campaign as a prebuttal.

(#14)

Alma Mater (insert Brand Name here), Hail to Thee!

“You can potentially do a lot of teaching over the internet, but it's really when the brands come into play that you start to make a difference to the overall structure of the industry.”

— Matthew Yglesias, writing about Harvard
offering credit for open enrollment online classes
Moneybox
May 2, 2012

(#15)

A New Entry in The Newspeak Dictionary

Bipartisanship, n. Partisanship, a bigoted mind-set.

Example: “I have a mind-set that says bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view.”

R. Mourdock, Republican senatorial candidate, 2012.)