odds & ends

I really like the rhyme I learned recently which was inspired by the orientation of the statue of Brigham Young in Salt Lake City:

There sits Brigham, like a bird on a perch:
His hand to the bank, and his back to the church.

I just became aware of the owl on the dollar bill. My friend called me a conspiracy theorist just for showing it to her. I say, if you have empirical confirmation, that's as value-neutral as it gets. Now, if you want to speculate as to why it's there ... I have to say as an innocent evocation of wisdom. Texe Marrs blames it on Satan but is clearly batshit insane.

But speaking of pseudo-pagan symbolism, I only just realized how much the statue of liberty resembles the poppy-headed goddess of ancient Crete. Holy junkies!

Ayn Rand, criticizing the proliferation of welfare programs, suggests that if shoes had been provided by the state, and a conservative proposed to take away the entitlement, indignant leftists would accuse conservatives of wanting the poor to go barefoot. For its force, this argument depends on our ignoring the fact that millions of poor people do go barefoot (including 't afford shoes.

Some conservatives say the U.S. can't be a bastion of racism today because we have a Black president. By that logic, 16th-century England under Elizabeth I was a model of women's rights.

I saw Jesse Jackson on TV during the 2000 election criticizing Bush's heartless decision to execute a mentally retarded man. Too bad he hadn't spoken up when Clinton did the same thing during the 1992 campaign season.