Davison online
The life and times of the world’s
most self-deluded online superstar
News & Commentary
Trump doesn’t know good from great (or bad)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/26/in-his-first-major-tv-interview-as-president-trump-is-endlessly-obsessed-about-his-popularity/?utm_term=.5b91d0a11d15The way President Trump tells it, the meandering, falsehood-filled, self-involved speech that he gave at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters was one of the greatest...
“Alternative facts” from the White House
http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/wh-spokesman-gave-alternative-facts-inauguration-crowd-n710466Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, said the White House press secretary gave "alternative facts" when he inaccurately described the inauguration crowd as "the largest ever" during his first appearance before the press this weekend.White...
Trump’s “American Carnage” speech
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-funeral-oration-at-the-death-of-reaganism/2017/01/21/4fc8bef6-dffb-11e6-918c-99ede3c8cafa_story.htmlI have been a consistent Trump critic, but my expectations are never quite low enough.Nobody would mistake him for Reagan, but we can now also dispense with the idea that Trump would change once elected.
Trump not particularly coherent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/french-people-translate-donald-trump-us-president-language-speech-a7539461.htmlAn example of why translators struggle with Trump's word salads:Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of...
Trump at the CIA
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/21/510977543/campaign-trail-trump-on-display-as-he-goes-to-cia-on-first-day-as-president On his first full day in the White House, President Trump went to the CIA presumably to try and offer an olive branch to members of the intelligence community he often maligned over their conclusions that Russia had conspired to...
Sean Spicer, Trump’s minister of propaganda
http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/21/media/sean-spicer-press-secretary-statement/index.html"This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period," Spicer said, contradicting all available data.Aerial photos have indicated that former president Barack Obama's first inauguration attracted a much larger crowd. Nielsen ratings show that Obama also...
George Will, high and inside
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/01/20/a-most-dreadful-inaugural-address/?utm_term=.53b073b97473#Oblivious to the moment and the setting, the always remarkable Trump proved that something dystopian can be strangely exhilarating: In what should have been a civic liturgy serving national unity and confidence, he vindicated his...
Trump Airlines
Courtesy of the New Yorker.
Perry, nuclear chief
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/us/politics/rick-perry-energy-secretary-donald-trump.htmlWhen President-elect Donald J. Trump offered Rick Perry the job of energy secretary five weeks ago, Mr. Perry gladly accepted, believing he was taking on a role as a global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry that he had long championed in his home...
Comey loses the faith of the Democrats
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/314161-dems-outraged-with-comey-after-house-briefingin a great number of ways Obama's FBI, NSA, and Justice Department have been disasterous. I do not expect better from Trump.
Essays
Good Times, Bad Times on the Internet
A mea culpa regarding my computer virus rants over the years. I wasn't really that wrong since the latest represents an innovation in virus technology, but you can listen to me grovel anyway. Includes "bonus rant" on the First Amendment and free speech on the Internet. Good Times Ever since the "Good Times" e-mail virus hoax of a few years back, I've been telling everyone who needs telling that e-mail simply doesn't work that way. Even if somebody sent you a virus in an...
Getting Down with Titanic
James and the giant metallic peach. Hope floats? Not hardly, and neither do big broken ships. From good to bad in the time it takes to freeze an ice cube. WARNING: This review may include spoilers! The $200 million Titanic that Writer/Director/Producer/Editor/Egotist James Cameron brought to the big screen is the most lavish, beautiful picture I have ever seen. It's also—and this will come as no surprise for those of you who know me—the most depressing, topping even...
Dear Mom & Dad: Get an iMac
What can I say? I think it worked. July 28, 1998 Dear Mom & Dad: Get an iMac. I can't communicate it any more plainly than that, but if you force me to, I am willing to try Esperanto, mime, or semaphore. You've had what I'll politely term a "marginally successful" relationship with your current and first computer, a Compaq 486 SX, and I can only hope that the trials you've endured with that machine haven't ruined your enthusiasm toward computers in general. If it's ruined...
The Death Penalty: Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong
I don't know if it's true what they say about Catherine the Great and her stallion, but I like to think that here I've brought the same combination of unbridled passion and imagery to the topic of capital punishment. Granted, my horseplay is a little more figurative and literary, but trust me, this is solid entertainment. Hey, have I let you down so far? Neigh! I don't mean to spoil the ending for anybody, but odds are pretty good that we're all doomed. Specifically, unless...