Growing up, I heard a lot about what the Founders were thinking when they drafted and adopted the confusingly worded 2nd Amendment to the Constitution. The dominant argument (by NRA types) was that the Founders intended the right to bear arms as a safeguard against tyrannical government, a protection should an evil King George III ever arise again and seek to take away our precious liberties. It seemed to be a compelling argument to my young self. But it wasn't the last word on the subject.
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This is speculative fiction from the near future, when the world can no longer ignore global warming. Lots of things touched on here, from science to economics to government to terrorism, sometimes dramatized, sometimes just straight talk.
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#VeryTardyReview
Compare with the 2021 5-part Netflix drama.
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Read my review of the novel it is based on. This is one of the rare cases where the movie lives up to the book. Both are excellent.
The City of Richardson's City Council elections are now completely over. The Richardson ISD school board elections are, too. Congratulations to Arefin Shamsul, new Richardson City Council Person for District 6. Congratulations to Chris Poteet, new Richardson ISD Trustee for Place 7. Both runoff elections were effectively over with the announcement of the early vote when polls closed at 7pm on June 5. Neither runoff upset the results of the May 1 general election. Both candidates who led then went on to win the runoff, by about the same amounts.
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"I am running against a candidate that has raised 77% of her campaign funds from not only outside the district, but also outside the state of Texas! 69% of her campaign funding is from the same Washington DC organization." — Chris Poteet.
I care less about where donations come from than who they come from. That a non-profit for developing leaders for education equity thinks highly enough of Amanda Clair to donate just affirms my decision to support her. Chris Poteet attacking her for it is disappointing. Besides, he's the odds-on favorite to win this runoff election. Why come out and attack a non-profit organization developing leaders for education equity? It's a bad look.
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After the jump, more random thoughts.
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| From 2019 11 21 Kom Ombo and Edfu |
If the shoe fits, wear it. For two thousand years. Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Temple of Kom Ombo on the Nile River in Egypt.
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| From 2019 11 21 Kom Ombo and Edfu |
Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Temple of Kom Ombo on the Nile River in Egypt. It shows what's left of a ceiling. What makes it striking to me are the colors. Although paintings in the ancient tombs often still show their original colors, it's rare to see colors this vivid on outdoor parts of temples. This ceiling was probably originally indoors, and I have no idea how many centuries ago the walls came down, but still, I find the 2,000 year-old colors stunning.
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| From 2019 11 21 Kom Ombo and Edfu |
Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Temple of Kom Ombo on the Nile River in Egypt. It shows a panel of hieroglyphs. It's unsettling to me to think that a great civilization once lost its ability to read and write. Its records were indecipherable for over a thousand years until modern linguists figured out the system. If a global calamity wiped out today's civilizations, what would archaeologists of the future (of whatever species or planetary origin) have to go on to decipher our written wisdom?
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Early voting is open for both the City of Richardson and the Richardson ISD's runoff elections. Early voting runs from May 24 - June 1. Election Day is June 5.
CoR has one place on the ballot, Place 6. RISD has one place on the ballot, At Large Place 7. All registered voters in CoR and RISD can vote in these elections, whether or not you voted in the May 1 election. (But you do have to be registered already. You can't register at the polls. That would be too easy. And, in Texas, making it too easy to vote is verboten.)
Here is how I'm voting.
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| From 2019 11 21 Kom Ombo and Edfu |
Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Temple of Kom Ombo on the Nile River in Egypt. The perspective is down a roofless hallway in the 2,100 year-old temple. In the distance, beyond the palm tree, is the Nile River.
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Texans are always comparing the state to California. I know because I live in Texas. I don't know if Californians compare their state to anyone else. One claim Texans always make is about how many Californians are moving to Texas. There's no doubt that the two states are on different trend lines. Texas is set to gain three Congressional seats in the 2020 census. California, for the first time ever, is set to lose one. What's behind this? Texans usually credit the lack of a state income tax or the light regulation on business. Paul Krugman, in his latest newsletter, points to another cause.
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| From 2019 11 21 Kom Ombo and Edfu |
Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Temple of Kom Ombo on the Nile River in Egypt. Or maybe it's a giant's game of Jenga, just as it was left as it was being played 2,100 years ago.
Bonus photo after the jump.
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Marilyn Frederick will "fight back against the radical left's agenda." Those aren't my words. Those are the words from an endorsement that Marilyn Frederick herself posted to her campaign's Facebook page. The quote is from the Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, Allen West.
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Based on the Ron Chernow biography, previously reviewed in The Wheel.
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| From 2019 11 20 Abu Simbel |
Chico, California, is not Richardson, Texas. But recent events there have a lesson for us here. The story is in The Intercept. In 2018 the Camp Fire burned the neighboring town of Paradise to the ground. Residents of Chico welcomed thousands of evacuees, opening their homes and shelters and turning parks and even a Walmart parking lot into campgrounds, with the Chico residents donating tents and sleeping bags. But...there always has to be a but.
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The Richardson Police Department is eager to move on. Not everyone. The rank and file still have a complaint they want investigated. Let's just say the City Manager, to whom the department reports, wants to move on. From what, you ask? Pull up a chair. This will take a while.
The nominal need to move on is that long-time Police Chief Jim Spivey is retiring at the end of May. So, in a Friday news dump, the City named Assistant Chief Gary Tittle as the new Police Chief effective June 1. But before we get distracted by the new chef, we have some other pots simmering on the stove to deal with.
The recent election for two Richardson ISD trustees completes the transition to a new election system that consists of five single-member districts and two at-large places. Or rather, the run-off election June 5 for the at-large Place 7 will complete the transition. And if there's anything that demonstrates the need for single-member districts it's the voting map for that at-large Place 7 election.
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| From 2019 11 20 Abu Simbel |
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The City of Richardson's City Council elections are over (except for the run-offs). The Richardson ISD school board elections are over (except for the run-offs). The RISD bond approval elections are over. Some of the elections were over early in the evening. Some dragged late into the night. Some went as expected. Some offered surprises. After the jump, my verbose reactions to all of them.
After the jump, more random thoughts.
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#VeryTardyReview
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| From 2015 03 21 Saigon |
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The Academy Awards will be given out Sunday, April 25, 2021. I've seen all the nominees for Best Picture. That means my opinion means something. Right?
2020 was a strange year for movies. More movies were released by streaming services this year compared to past years. Some so-called major releases were postponed until 2021. All that resulted in, in my opinion, a decent selection of Oscar candidates, but inferior to the selections of previous years. If I expanded the field of nominees, I would include two or three movies that I considered snubs.
My ranking of the Oscar nominees is based on the grades I gave the movies immediately after seeing them. In case of ties, I ordered them by my considered judgment today. Note this is not my prediction of which movie will win, but which I would vote for, had I a vote.
The envelope please. The winner of "The Wheel Award for Excellence in Motion Pictures" goes to...
The open mike at Richardson City Council meetings is usually uneventful, but Monday night's Visitors Section was different. A 13-year veteran of the Richardson Police charged supervisors in the department of illegally using quotas to evaluate and discipline officers. "Illegally" was her word, not mine.
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| From 2019 11 20 Abu Simbel |
Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Temple of Philae in Aswan, Egypt. It shows a well-dressed tourist wearing "camel pants" (Egypt's version of "elephant pants"), the perfect choice for a hot dry climate like Egypt's.
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The City of Richardson's City Council elections are here. The Richardson ISD school board elections are here. The RISD is asking voters for approval on an important bond package as well, the first since 2016. I've watched some forums. I've read the questionnaires. Now it's time to decide how to vote. That's what I'm here for. Early voting begins Monday, April 19. Election Day is May 1. Here is all you need to know.
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| From 2019 11 20 Abu Simbel |
Bonus photos after the jump.
The snubs are after the jump.
The sky is blue.
[...]
It was not my intention to give the impression that I believe the sky is any particular color. Besides, I'm the real victim here. They ganged up on me in 2019.
Eventually he gets to the meat of his apology. I accept him at his word when he says, "I made a mistake, and I am sorry...Please accept my apologies. I promise to learn from this and do better."
So let's take him at his word and accept the apology. Besides, there's another social media comment Kyle Kepner made on another subject altogether that needs attention. The subject is the mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado. Kepner's response raises the question, "Is Kyle Kepner too gullible or too reckless to serve on City Council?"
