abqtommy
abqtommy's JournalLimerick of the day...
Humans are too clever by half,
Good for a tear and good for a laugh.
We plot and we plan,
Every child, woman and man
But still wind up someone's fatted calf.
Come on, Limericists! Pile on!
My thought of the day, a paraphrase of what I read in the book Forge Of Heaven by C.J. Cherryh:
"It's easy to confuse innocence with stupidity."
That's as close as I can put it but I wouldn't use the word "stupidity" since I don't think that's a
correctable condition. I'd use the word "ignorance". There's a cure for that. Of course there's also
a cure for "innocence" and all this is only a deflection to spare us from our real problems which is
how in hell are we going to put out the tRUMP/reTHUG fire that's been started and kept burning to
destroy us and our country? Maybe it's time we lost our innocence AND our ignorance...
As is my wont on a Saturday evening I tune in to watch Three Stooges episodes on MeTV
on my cable. The first episode I saw was the "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard sketch. see link*
Pre-ramble:
When I was a schoolboy many years ago I loved to watch the Three Stooges. I'd laugh at their
outrageous physical comedy and puns. One day I saw Moe Howard as a guest on one of the morning
cartoon shows in Spokane, WA. He explained that all the persons who oplayed the Three Stooges
were in fact trained musicians but when it came down to making a living the only thing they had
to fall back on was their comedy. Moe even played a short violin selection and he was a good
musician. Well, that was interesting and educational for me!
Sample dialogue from this Doctor sketch:
Head Doctor Graves: How did you find the patient in room xxx?
Curly: Under the bed.
Doctor Graves: What did you do for him?
Curly: Nuttin'! What'd he ever do for us?
And I realized that this 1930s sketch anticipated a documentary of tRUMP Hospital!
*link to performance:
From Al Jazeera: "The world cannot forget the Rohingya...
... Abandoned by the international community, the Rohingya have only one glimmer of hope: international justice".
From article: This week marks exactly three years since the Myanmar military poured into Rakhine State and launched a vicious operation against the Rohingya people. Over the course of a few weeks, thousands of women, men and children were killed, mutilated and raped, whole villages were burned to the ground, and hundreds of thousands fled into neighbouring Bangladesh.
snip
Close to a million Rohingya continue to live as refugees in Bangladesh, mainly in the southeastern district of Cox's Bazar. Bangladesh has generously welcomed and hosted people who fled for their lives, but an overcrowded refugee camp is no place for a life of dignity. A whole generation of Rohingya children is growing up in deplorable conditions, with little access to education, or hope for the future.
What the refugees want the most is to return home to Myanmar, but that is simply not possible today. The 600,000 Rohingya who remain in Rakhine State live in an open-air prison. Every aspect of their lives is controlled by the state: To leave one's village to attend school, to make a living or to go to a hospital usually requires special permission or a well-placed bribe.
more at link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/world-forget-rohingya-200825104219706.html
Religious and political bigotry is a worldwide "thing". I hope that some people who need to know
this will become better informed and work towards a solution.
The Hippopotamus Song by Flanders & Swann Featuring Donald Swann & Michael Flanders
cross-posted from a reply in this thread: https://www.democraticunderground.com/122871251
Full lyrics:
Verse 1]
[FLANDERS & SWANN]
A bold hippopotamus was standing one day
On the banks of the cool Shalimar
He gazed at the bottom, as it peacefully lay
By the light of the evening star
Away on a hilltop sat combing her hair
His fair hippopotami maid
The hippopotamus was no ignoramus
And sang her this sweet serenade
[Chorus]
Mud, mud, glorious mud
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me, follow
Down to the hollow
And there let us wallow in glorious mud
[Verse 2]
The fair hippopotama he aimed to entice
From her seat on that hilltop above
As she hadn't got a ma to give her advice
Came tip-toeing down to her love
Like thunder the forest re-echoed the sound
Of the song that they sang as they met
His inamorata adjusted her garter
And lifted her voice in duet
[FLANDERS]
Falsetto!
[Chorus]
[FLANDERS & SWANN]
Mud, mud, glorious mud
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me, follow
Down to the hollow
And there let us wallow in glorious mud
[Verse 3]
Now more hippopotami began to convene
On the banks of that river so wide
I wonder now what-am-I to say of the scene
That ensued by the Shalimar side?
They dived all at once with an ear-splitting splosh
Then rose to the surface again
A regular army of hippopotarmy
All singing this haunting refrain
[FLANDERS]
Now's yer chance!
[Chorus]
[FLANDERS & SWANN & AUDIENCE]
Mud, mud, glorious mud
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me, follow
Down to the hollow
And there let us wallow in glorious mud!
link to lyrics: https://genius.com/Flanders-and-swann-the-hippopotamus-song-lyrics
link to performance:
Mud truly is glorious. Children and adults both enjoy it, with adults paying to have their bodies coated with it at expensive spas and salons while children just naturally attract it!
From The Guardian: Steve Bannon's relationship with Boris "Ya Doesn't Have To Call me"
Johnson and Dominic Cummings.
I found these news items to be interesting in light of the recent arrest and arraignment of Steve
Bannon on criminal charges. Evidently ideologues of a feather do flock together...
"Steve Bannon: ‘We went back and forth’ on the themes of Johnson’s big speech..."
from the article: In a London hotel, the far-right activist told how he had exchanged texts with the former foreign secretary on his big resignation speech (...)
photo caption: Boris Johnson has denied having links to the US activist Steve Bannon.
"Register for free and continue reading"
link: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/22/boris-johnson-steve-bannon-texts-foreign-secretary-resignation-speech
Note: When I first read this article early this morning it was presented in full. Now it's registration protected. The gist of the rest of the story was that after the press pointed out that Johnson's denial
of any relationship with Bannon was a lie No. 10 backed off of the denial. Nigel Farage was also mentioned having contact with Bannon. Probably worth registering to read the rest but not for me.
Use your own discretion.
Next Article: "Steve Bannon hails Dominic Cummings and predicts lurch to right for No 10"
by Mark Townsend Sat 1 Aug 2020 08.10 EDT
Steve Bannon, who has previously backed a range of notorious far-right political figures, has publicly endorsed Dominic Cummings for the first time, calling him a “brilliant guy”.
Donald Trump’s former chief strategist also said that Boris Johnson will become an increasingly populist prime minister after jettisoning his political positioning as a “globalist” to “opportunistically jump on Brexit”.
But Bannon, who helped mastermind Trump’s successful bid for the presidency, reserved his highest praise for Johnson’s most senior aide.
“A brilliant guy. I think Cummings is very smart where he puts his efforts. What I like about him is he has the ability to focus on the main things,” Bannon said, hailing the Downing Street strategist for his role in Brexit and Johnson’s 2019 election triumph.
snip
a little more at registration-controlled link:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/01/steve-bannon-hails-dominic-cummings-and-predicts-lurch-to-right-for-no-10
Note:After I thought things over and decided to write this op I returned to The Guardian website but
the articles were no longer available and I had to go into my History to retrieve them.
Thanks to the SDNY for getting this guy and his conspirators off the street and again into the public view.
How do I get rid of Grovelbots Big Board?
A limerick for tRUMP...
It doesn't take much of a thinker
To know that tRUMP is a stinker.
He prattles and prates
And increases the hates
As he goes down like a lead sinker.
Feel free to add your own!
Update 8-9-20 re: navigation/page back in Latest Threads page here on DU: I run WIN 7.
I think I've finally got this as good as it's going to get and I'll describe what I've found just in case
anybody else has a similar problem...
1) I went into my Firefox settings and turned off the accessibility feature that allows 3d parties to
access my puter.
2) After doing that I've found that I still have a navigation problem if I only open a post to read.
BUT if I choose to post a reply then after my reply is successful the rest of my navigations on the page behave normally. This is really good since I like things to work as designed even if I have to fudge a little.
3) Due to the nature of what I'm seeing I believe that there's still a problem with the DU update but only concerning the Latest Threads page since I haven't had any problem at all with the My Posts or
DU Lounge pages.
4) The above only applies if I leave the "Started Time" at 24 hours on the Latest Threads page...
And that's it. I guess we should be happy that puters and this internet thing work at all... 
Update to recent post about current problems navigating some DU pages:
see: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213850246
I tried deleting the second DU tab I'd been using. That means I now do all my navigating in one tab.
What I'm seeing now is that on the Latest Threads page is that the first op I open requires that
when I use the "page back" function to return to the main page I have to use the "back" arrow
located in my address bar (as opposed to the "back" function in the pop-up menu that appears with a right mouse click) to achieve proper function. But that works and after that any "back" function I
choose works fine.
I've observed that DU has pretty well cleaned up operation. I no longer see weird symbols appearing in the text of various ops so well done!
I'll also admit that for a long time now whenever Firefox updates there's always some feature that
fails to operate in what was previously a "normal" manner. That's a feature, not a bug but then I'm
getting what I pay for! (hint: I don't pay anything to use Firefox.)
So for now I'm happy that things are working in the best possible way but stay tuned...
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Member since: Fri Sep 26, 2008, 10:10 PMNumber of posts: 14,118