Though the case never went to trial, Darrah is the real hero of this titanic struggle. Without him, Friends of the Parks was powerless. Also without him, the case could have set a dangerous precedent. It would have allowed the powerful and wealthy to foist their vanity projects on the people’s shoreline — and control those edifices for decades, even centuries, to come.
via Lucas reaps bitter fruits of arrogance as Chicago museum plan collapses – Chicago Tribune.
News 9 obtained a copy of the contract with the state.
It shows the state is paying ERAD Group Inc., $5,000 for the software and scanners, then 7.7 percent of all the cash forfeited through the courts to the highway patrol.
But Trump also openly talks about the value of hyperbole (also known as bullshit). He wrote about it in The Art of the Deal. Trump tells us – in the clearest possible language – that he always sets the table for negotiating by making a big opening offer. If Trump is consistent with decades of history – and with what he says about his approach to negotiating – then his more extreme statements are just psychology. That’s what an FBI profiler would tell you. People don’t suddenly change their basic mode of operation at age 69, especially when it is working.
via The Risks of a Trump Presidency | Scott Adams Blog.
Have you wondered why Republican Bill Kristol and others are looking for a third-party candidate who will guarantee a Clinton win over Trump? That’s probably because they know Clinton is in the pockets of the defense industry, and perhaps so are they.
This happened on May 4 when it was announced that “CuriousGnu” – a blogger who shares with me an ongoing curiosity about numbers and statistical data –had blogged that “78% of Reddit Threads With 1000+ Comments Mention Nazis”.
via I created Godwin’s Law in 1990, but it wasn’t a prediction – it was a warning.
But the fact is, I designed Godwin’s Law not to be predictive, but to be “memetic” — not to show that debates would invariably become overheated but to spur debaters to invoke history mindfully, with deeper analysis rather than with glib allusion, because that’s the way for a speaker or writer to show that he or she is not taking the easy rhetorical path.
In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.
via Taking a Fence Down.
