cheese it, the cops!

Video or stand-up version of my @splicetoday column on the CNN debate, night 1: Marianne Williamson, Amy Klobuchar, and Death. Sorry about the thumbnail; I look hostile. But I'm really very nice.

Recent items:

 

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times literary supplement: an authoritative but anti-authoritarian account of 'the dawn of civilization' (review of the great james c. scott's against the grain) [drive]

times higher eduction: teaching beauty and existentialism to the students of now  {drive}

larb philosophical salon: western philosophy as white supremacism

wsj: hatred enhances your self-esteem

Rolling pretty good these days!

Quotes from Joe Biden, interviewed by Chris Cuomo on CNN. By common acclamation, this was better than his debate performance.

"I even went so far in the middle of that busing controversy was saying I'd use helicopters if that was necessary to make the point and really got in a town meeting that got very hot. But what the issue is now is for example -- and it was then, voluntary busing, we supported it."

"The third one is do you have an administration through their nonelected officials, Department of Housing decide every school should be equally balanced across the board. That's a different issue." (Neither the "Department of Housing" nor, as he claimed in the debate, the then-nonexistent Department of Education, was responsible for overseeing school busing.)

"I don't -- anyway, I -- but here's the deal, what I do know, and this is good and the bad news, the American people think they know me and they know me."

"Since that occurred, I had the most sought after endorsement for the mayor of Atlanta, a black woman who's a great leader, Mayor Bottoms endorsed me."

 

"I don't believe there's anybody out there who believes that I have anything other than a keen and consistent interest in making sure every child -- these are all our children."

 

"This guy is moving to form hate to split, that's the only way he can sustain himself."

 

"No more NATO. Look, I went to the conference that we have, it's called the (inaudible) conference, used to be. The first speech stood up the chancellor, the former chancellor of Germany stands up, she says we have to go in alone." [Merkel is still chancellor.]

"Why did we set up NATO, Chris? So no one nation could abuse the power in the region in Europe, it would suck us in, in a way they did in World War I and World War II. It's being crushed."

"Look, I come out of the arms control era. Guess what, there's two ways you do this. You work or you defend."

 

"And that's the reason why you have security, is because we've allowed stability in the region. They get it. But what they're doing now is we're not dealing with China's problem for us. China's problem is they're stealing intellectual secrets."

 

"They're doing a whole lot of things that make no sense for us to stand still."

"In terms of the economy, Chris, I've been proposing for a long time and look -- I know I'm middle class Joe, I get that part. The middle class built this country. You didn't have Wall Street build this country, how did they do that? You gave people a chance."

"How can you have dignity unless you can live in a neighborhood that's not fouled by the environment and what's going on?"

"And the big idea on education, on health care, on dealing with the environment, I love how, you know, all of a sudden, I wish I had been labeled as moderate when I was running in Delaware back in the days where it was --"

"But the question is, whose issues are best prepared in their wheel house, they've demonstrated they can deal with them?"

"The president when he delegated authority to me from the moonshot to Ukraine, he gave me the authority to make this because I knew where he was."

"A woman came up to me I guess it was, I don't know, a month ago, I guess, I was in New Hampshire, said why shouldn't I vote for a woman? And I said you should. If you think that person is most qualified at the moment, right now, to deal -- I'm not suggesting you vote for a woman."