Well, hello all. Roger here, the king of Sicily. Bird Dog is off getting his annual flea bath, and he's left me to guard the henhouse while he's away.
I apologize unreservedly, in advance. I'm really no use to you fine folks. I don't read newspapers and I don't watch TV. How am I going to discharge my duties as a blogger if I can't claim that I read the newspapers and watch TV harder than you, so my opinion trumps yours? I'm barely aware of what's what in the manufactured reality everyone lives in nowadays. I will shamefacedly admit that I sometimes go outside, during the daylight hours. How can anyone trust my judgment on anything?
For instance, I was barely aware that there are hearings or something being held somewhere, where panels of grim-faced blacklisting, witch-hunting martinets are interrogating people with questions like, "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Las Vegas Raiders coaching staff"?
So here's a smattering of random information you might find amusing or informative or silly or whatever. Also, did you know the Raiders moved to Las Vegas? I didn't. The Rams still play in Los Angeles, though, just like when I was a kid. They'll never move.
Head of California’s largest union arrested on theft, fraud charges
Alma Hernandez, the executive director of SEIU California, and her husband Jose Moscoso were charged on Thursday with allegedly underreporting some $1.4 million of income between the 2014 and 2018 tax years. Another complaint alleged that Hernandez, while working on a political action committee for a Democratic state senate candidate in 2014, approved a $11,700 payment to her husband for services he did not provide. Moscoso also allegedly did not disclose that his air duct-cleaning business had multiple employees, resulting in over $300,000 in unreported wages.
You know, if I ever run for state senate, the first thing I'm doing is getting my ducts cleaned. Because it's all about ducts, really. Since Katherine Helmond is speaker of the US house of representatives, it's all starting to make sense.
Evidence for European presence in the Americas in ad 1021
Our new date lays down a marker for European cognisance of the Americas, and represents the first known point at which humans encircled the globe.
I deal with Europeans from time to time. They don't seem to be cognizant of anything but America, now. We're villains to them, of course, but at least we're the main characters in their lack-of-passion plays, so we have that going for us.
Commerce Tightens Export Controls on Items Used in Surveillance of Private Citizens and other Malicious Cyber Activities
The United States Government opposes the misuse of technology to abuse human rights or conduct other malicious cyber activities, and these new rules will help ensure that U.S. companies are not fueling authoritarian practices.
The United States Government opposes the misuse of technology to abuse human rights unless you're an American, they mean. Say, where did you get that $600 in your bank account, prole?
FlixMobility acquires Greyhound to Expand U.S. Intercity Bus Services
André Schwämmlein, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FlixMobility, said, “Consumers across North America are increasingly seeking affordable, comfortable, smart and sustainable mobility solutions. A compelling offering will draw significantly more travelers away from private cars to shared intercity bus mobility.
There are those Europeans again (FlixMobility is German), getting all cognizant of the Americas again. I've never found Greyhound to be affordable, exactly, or egad, comfortable, or smart, no matter how you define the word. And if it was "sustainable," they wouldn't have been able to buy the company. But hey, I'm quibbling about sunny language used in a press release, and I can't help noticing that the press agent at FlixMobility is named Goebbels. Well, at least they're not buying railcars.
The FDA wants you to be able to buy a hearing aid without a prescription
People with mild or moderate hearing loss could soon be able to buy hearing aids without a medical exam or special fitting, under a new rule being proposed by the Food and Drug Administration.
But not Ivermectin. With or without a prescription.
Cannabis and Male Fertility: A Systematic Review
Research supports a role for cannabis in reducing sperm count and concentration, inducing abnormalities in sperm morphology, reducing sperm motility and viability, and inhibiting capacitation and fertilizing capacity.
Remember, correlation does not equal causation. How do we know it's not a Cheeto overdose causing the problem? Huh, science dudes? What was the question again?
Trump announces media company, social media platform coming next month
Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) said in a statement that its mission was to “create a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the ‘Big Tech’ companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America.”
Dumb and tone-deaf, as usual. You might as well call it WalterSobchak.com, tagline, "we're not wrong, we're just ***holes. You should have advertised it as the "social media company for everyone, not just lunatic leftists." See, this is why the other side still hires people named Goebbels. They know how to play this game.
Check out the original 1851 reviews of Moby-Dick
The rarely imagined character [Ahab] has been grievously spoiled, nay altogether ruined, by a vile overdaubing with a coat of book-learning and mysticism; there is no method in his madness; and we must needs pronounce the chief feature of the volume a perfect failure, and the work itself inartistic.
I've read that the really hard thing to do in fiction is to create memorable, believable characters. Captain Ahab is one of the most memorable characters every produced by a writer. Everyone knows who Captain Ahab is. No one knows who William Young, critic at the New York Albion was.
Facebook settles a federal lawsuit over allegations it favored foreign job applicants
The department's civil rights division said the social network giant "routinely refused" to recruit, consider or hire U.S. workers, a group that includes U.S. citizens and nationals, people granted asylum, refugees and lawful permanent residents, for positions it had reserved for temporary visa holders.
Remember, it's only evil colonialism if you set up shop in sunny climes and lord it over the locals. If you import the benighted to do your scut work for a pittance, it's social media! Sanjay lives in the Amistad Arms apartments, barely scrapes by on what they pay him, and he can't quit or he immediately becomes a fugitive. That arrangement sounds familiar, but at least it's not colonialism.
Have a great day, everyone, and keep those ducts clean!
Photo from
‘Airplane!’ creator