December 08, 2016

Apropos of nothing again

For some reason, this cheery little jingle by William Butler Yeats has been going through my mind lately:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre  
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere  
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst  
Are full of passionate intensity. 
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.  
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out  
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert  
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,  
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,  
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it  
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.  
The darkness drops again; but now I know  
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,  
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,  
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? 

December 07, 2016

When it rains

I try not to be Debbie Downer here, but lately that's a bit of a challenge. Here are more items from the local news:

*WV's state budget woes increase. That would be fixable given the political will but probably not given the composition and disposition of the state legislature. State officials have said they've cut about as much as they can.

*On a similar note, it looks like public employees and retirees are in for more brutal cuts in health benefits for the next several years.

*The likelihood of a convention to muck up the constitution is increasing. What could possibly go wrong with that?

*Then there's this: our elderly population ranks 50th in terms of well-being. No wonder.

Other than that, things are just peachy here.

(I'll try to be cheerier next time.)

December 06, 2016

Shape of things to come?

This is so not cool. The daily newspaper is starting to creep me out more than The Walking Dead. On the Gazette-Mail webpage today we have:

*an article about how the legislature, thanks to a right wing "think" tank, is considering vouchers for schools;

*another one about how they are considering cutting public education even more by cutting the business inventory tax;

*another one on how the state's public colleges and universities have been cut to the bone and are likely to be cut even more; and

*one more on Republican plans to undo the Affordable Care Act, which covers around 225,000 West Virginians.

The zombies are looking pretty good right now.

December 05, 2016

Make it a double

There were two Front Porch podcasts this week, including one I missed. I think both are worth a listen. Here's one featuring Cpl. Errol Randle about how the Charleston Police Department is fighting racism. And then there's a really good one featuring research Joan Williams on what liberals may not get about the white working class. I hope you check em out.