Finally another week from Hell (also known as “my job”) comes dwindling to an end. And I may even be undisturbed this weekend, since my usual sources of weekend angst are busy celebrating their New Year. That means day-drinking, and that means craft beer, and THAT means a run down to Swiss’s preferred beer purveyor where we can swap ribald stories over some high octane brews. Unlike Mexican Sharpshooter, we are not exactly experts and the beers served at this venue tend not to have wide distribution, so we won’t impinge on his reviewing territory. However, it’s at least warmed up enough here that letting out the beer does not involve an act analogous to trying to piss through a button.

While Swiss and I get a load on, you delightful reprobates can comment on today’s news. Here’s a few examples of things that randomly caught my attention.

 

As has been discussed extensively, the Department of Futile Gestures has brought charges against people they can’t touch for engaging in political speech. Never mind that the First Amendment doesn’t specify “citizens,” or that, yet again, our Fifth Estate doesn’t know the difference between a “campaign” and an “election.” Of course, the logical continuation would be the indictment of the Obama State Department folks for funding OneVoice to meddle in the Israeli elections campaigns to favor the leftist opponents of Netanyahu.

 

Noisy calls for the resignation of a Federal official for failing to get involved in matters having nothing to do with anything interstate. Well, I’m torn- on the one hand, it’s ridiculous to make a (literally) federal case out of things which aren’t even vaguely federal. On the other hand, the more federal officials who are sent packing, the better.

 

It is important for the all-wise government to step in and regulate home schools to ensure that they do just as poor a job of education and just as effective a job of indoctrination as public schools, or so writes Diane Moon Glampers.

And although California requires private school employees receive a background check, parents who work with their kids are actually exempted from being checked to see if they have past criminal records…

I… don’t even know where to begin with that one.

 

If you ever want to see a pitch-perfect example of outright lying with statistics, this excellent article does a wonderful analysis and take-down of a typical bit of bullshit that’s been heavily passed around to gin up FUD. While I’m at it, here’s another splash of cold water dose of reality.

 

Music time, of the Old Guy variety. High on my list of Concerts I Wish I Had Attended was the Carnegie Hall reunion of a crew of ex-Mingus band members. This extended jam is insane fun, and the best part is Roland Kirk following George Adams’s outside solo. Kirk starts conventionally, then suddenly… well listen and hear. I don’t know if Adams was ever the same after that musical spanking. This is some stunning playing by a group of the finest musicians to ever appear together on a single stage.