Davison online
The life and times of the world’s
most self-deluded online superstar
News & Commentary
Brexit and the consequences of ignoring experts
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-eu-negotiator-europe-euratom-airline-safety-negotiations-theresa-may-worse-anyone-guessed-a7858586.html Did anybody realise that the work needed to establish a new customs IT system was unlikely to be done in time, and what that would mean? Was everyone already aware that UK airlines like easyJet would need to...
Impeach
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/world/europe/trump-intelligence-russian-election-meddling-.html Two weeks before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump was shown highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered complex cyberattacks to sway the 2016 American election. We are well past the time when...
Microsoft should be ashamed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/24/recycling-innovator-eric-lundgren-loses-appeal-on-computer-restore-discs-must-serve-15-month-prison-term/ ...but they probably won't be.
New princess keeps place in line of succession
https://apple.news/A1sTiWfJAR1ucZ6jIlypcogI love this bcause it focuses all the attention on sexual equality and none on the fact that monarchies are FUBAR in the first place.
Change needed
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/what-i-saw-treating-the-victims-from-parkland-should-change-the-debate-on-guns/553937/ The CDC is the appropriate agency to review the potential impact of banning AR-15 style rifles and high-capacity magazines on the incidence of mass shootings. The agency was effectively barred from studying gun...
Cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-promises-cuts-medicare-medicaid-social-security-36a0e8a57ae0/ This is what's next for the GOP, now that they've cut taxes for the rich and for corporations.
Living in Trumpland
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-09/has-anyone-seen-the-president I talk to Bigs instead. Bigs hails from Uganda. A few years ago he ran for Ugandan political office, and was beaten and jailed. When he learned that the Ugandan regime planned to kill him, he sought, and was granted, political asylum in the U.S. In Washington he set out to...
Maps matter
https://www.salon.com/2018/02/06/how-the-republicans-rigged-congress-and-poisoned-our-politics/ Republicans held the U.S. House in 2012, despite earning 1.4 million fewer votes than Democratic congressional candidates, and won large GOP majorities in the Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina state legislatures even when more voters backed Democrats....
Treason: Yes, let’s go there
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-cracks-the-seal-on-talk-of-treasonYou may have noticed by now, but I'm not one to pull any punches on Donald Trump. As a conservative, I see him as a statist abomination, a plump, be-wattled authoritarian-wannabe man-baby with the intellectual horsepower of a toaster oven.One thing we've learned in the last two...
The death rattle of the GOP
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-gop-a-conspiracy-of-dunces Call me old fashioned, but I remember when working hand-in-hand with a hostile foreign government to undermine American institutions was called "treason."
Essays
Phantom Menace: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Whatever you do, don't blink. This fourth Star Wars film is the easily the most quickly paced of the lot. Too bad that's not the only problem. Of course, I still think it's worth seeing several times. WARNING: This review may include spoilers! There is a lot to like about George Lucas' latest entry into the Star Wars canon, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. There's also quite a bit to dislike, and the result is an oddly mixed reaction that probably makes this the...
Copyright, Copywrong
A quick legal primer for those venturing into the world of online authoring. A public service announcement from yours truly, hereby fullfilling most of my court-ordered community service hours. Can you afford to pass it up? A potential $100,000 fine says, "no." Confusion Aplenty There seems to be widespread confusion on the Internet these days. No, I'm not talking about Clinton's Kosovo policy (though I certainly could have been, couldn't I?). I'm referring those wonderful...
Online Love, Online Hate
Don't hate me for trying to be the best friend I can be. Hate me for other, more substantive reasons like my failure to floss daily. Rules for email engagement. Ignore these at your peril. If I've told you to read this, there's a reason, and you're it. An Open Letter to Some of My Friends I like you. Okay, well, I'll admit it: I love you. Not in the same head-over-heels way I do my wife, the Pittsburgh Steelers or Macintosh computers (and not necessarily in that order!...
How Few Thoughts a Brain Holds 2
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, my brain returns to fan the flames of discontent while leaping off the bridge of rational thought and into the black night of a thousand mixed metaphors. Extra vitrol, no charge. Regarding the current NATO attacks on Kosovo, President Clinton talking "moral imperatives" is like Bill Cosby's Fat Albert advocating a diet plan for the marathon runners: There's simply no credibility. Is Clinton the worst foreign policy...