Since I’ve been lax about posting today, and you haven’t had one of these lately:
- Nelson Mandela, Peaceful Liberator, Dies (NYT) — This was the breaking news that made me think, “I should do a Virtual Front Page.” He was 95.
- France takes military action in CAR (BBC) — While people in this country were yammering about Sarah Palin and some guy named Martin Bashir, 100 people were dying in the Central African Republic. France is going in to try to stop it. Because France does stuff like that nowadays, unlike certain other countries that could be mentioned. Ahem. But in our defense: The UN Security Council unanimously approved French action, which is something it doesn’t do for us.
- Pope to Set Up Commission on Clerical Child Abuse (NYT) — The new broom gets set to do some more sweeping.
- Stolen cobalt-60 found; thieves likely dead or dying (WashPost) — This takes the “Dumb Crook News” meme to a new level.
- GOP Family Feud: ‘Showboat’ DeMint Takes on ‘Tyrant’ McConnell (NPR) — In case you wondered what our boy was up to lately.
- Taboo, X-rated shop, announces it is closing (The State) — Oh, no! So where am I going to buy dirty stuff if I need some? Oh, year, the internet. In fact, why was there a shop for this in 2013 anyway? Showrooming?
Related Posts
So…Amazon has a website that works and uses drones to deliver gifts, while Obama has a website that doesn’t work and uses drones to kill people.
/buh dum dah
Try the veal.
6. Sometimes you want to put your hands on a product before you make the purchase. Had this been any other small business would Columbia have run them out of town or are they just discriminating against a particular retail product? And Columbia is trying to become small business friendly.
I really don’t care about Taboo at all (and thought it a garish blight on an otherwise blighted section of town). Devine at the base of the hill is just a nasty strip of crap. I would look up who owns all those other wrecks, but I don’t want to know the answers. More upstanding area citizens, I’m sure…
But I really, really care about the illegitimate way the City of Columbia changed the rules after the fact. Zoning is supposed to be prescriptive. Wielding it punitively is just wrong for a municipality to do on every level.
um, have you been down there lately–lots of spiffed-up properties, including Smashburger and Moe’s Southwest Grill. The Whole Foods penumbra is hearty.
Aren’t you just a little ray of sunshine! Bless your heart.
I was responding to the removed comment as well.
Do you close your eyes as you coast down Devine through and past Beltline?
It is transitioning upward. The rattier and more downmarket shops are being replaced with nicer ones.
Yeah, what, is it two or three tattoo parlors on the block?
Mark, not tattoo parlors: Marshall’s, PetSmart, Michael’s, and four projected other tenants. There are also moves afoot to clean up Gills Creek in the vicinity and make the (admittedly crazy and perpetually busier) maze of adjacent intersections more pedestrian-friendly.
classy
Reacting to a blessedly removed comment!
#5 is disappointingly not about Glenn McConnell….
Kathryn, Thank you so much for posting your perceptive observation and judgement. Some comments are amazing – thought I had linked to the Fox News blog for a second!
It was a complement to you on your posting relative to William’s crazy comment.
Thanks!
/walks in, looks at comments in this thread about Mandela
/quietly backs up, and closes door behind me
Some comments above may not entirely make sense because of some comments I have removed. I say MAY not, because I’m not entirely sure what they were reacting to.
In any case, I apologize for any continuity confusion…
I saw the offending comments before they were removed and I have to say that as offensive as they were they pretty much reflected the views of Dick Cheney and Ronald Reagan back in the 80s. Perhaps they should have been allowed to stay. I think it’s important to allow all views be expressed unless they cross the civility barrier. Not sure those did.
Bud I completely disagree. Those comments were odious. They were racist rants. They did not represent civil dialogue – which can be made quite pointedly at times. Racism is the exact opposite of thoughtful expression; it is not about openness and inquiry. This has been an ongoing theme with that commenter for a long time. That should not be rewarded with a platform to vent his fearful hatred.
I don’t know how you brought Cheney into this, but I will humor you with a response. In the 1980s Mandela was a patriotic kind of freedom fighter long locked up in prison (which we had had a hand in causing back in 1962 – under JFK’s presidency). It is normal for standing governments to be suspicious of freedom fighters, especially those of very different political persuasions. That said, our support of South Africa and more than tacit acceptance of apartheid especially by the 1970s was a taint on our nation and one of the true low points of the Cold War (although there were many).
What made Mandela great was not the life he lead before prison; we honor him for the life he embraced in prison and held to upon his release. Mandela also illustrates, pointedly, how very lucky we were to have had Martin Luther King, jr in the 1950s-60s. Both of these men lived leadership. They were able to marshal and move public opinion in a way that empowered people to embrace their own humanity. These men left the world a better place. We don’t have to believe them perfect, or even without serious personal flaws, to appreciate the positive changes they brought to our conceptions of civilization and humanity.
Like