Perspicacious
Adjective
Latin, 17th century
Highly perceptive, keen. Discerning, shrewd
Example: My perspicacious nature showed up early in childhood when I began reading around the age of 2.
Video of the Week – June 5, 2021
Don’t mess with a dog lover! On Monday, May 31, a brown bear with cubs tried to invade the back yard of a residential home in Bradbury, California. The family’s 4 dogs happened to be outside and did what…well, what dogs normally do when there’s an intruder. They started barking ferociously.
That’s when home surveillance video caught 17-year-old Hailey Morinico rushing outside and literally shoving the massive bear off of the fence. She injured her finger in the process, but managed to get the bear to leave.
Don’t try this at home, my fellow citizens! But, like I said, don’t mess with someone’s dogs!
Filed under News
Best Announcement of the Week – June 5, 2021
Last month, Facebook’s Oversight Board upheld a two-year suspension of former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6.
“We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year,” Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs for Facebook, said in a blog post.
The announcement read, in part:
“We are today announcing new enforcement protocols to be applied in exceptional cases such as this, and we are confirming the time-bound penalty consistent with those protocols which we are applying to Mr. Trump’s accounts. Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year.”
Filed under News
Worst Quotes of the Week – June 5, 2021
“Are Peter Daszak and Tony Fauci under criminal investigation? We can only hope they are. They certainly deserve it. At this point, we can’t say for sure. We do know that Fauci hasn’t simply lied about the origins of COVID, pretending to know things he could not know. He has also lied about vaccines in key ways.”
Tucker Carlson, in response to newly-released emails showing that Dr. Anthony Fauci had tried to work with Chinese health officials to learn the origins of the COVID-19 virus
Dr. Peter Daszak is a British zoologist who focuses on disease ecology.
“As I said that day, Jan. 6 was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol. You know, President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office, and I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye about that day. But I will always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years.”
Former Vice-President Mike Pence, speaking at the Hillsborough County Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in New Hampshire
Pence went on to say, “I will not allow Democrats or their allies in the media to use one tragic day to discredit the aspirations of millions of Americans. Or allow Democrats or their allies in the media to distract our attention from a new administration intent on further dividing our country to advance their radical agenda.”
It’s important to note that the Capital Hill rioters were chanting to kill Pence, as they invaded the Capital on January 6.
Filed under News
Best Quotes of the Week – June 5, 2021
“This is an issue that galvanizes, particularly minority voters, and speaking as a Black American, someone who lived through the age of Jim Crow segregation, someone who has seen court challenges where African Americans have had to use the Supreme Court … people have fought and lost their lives to have access to the ballot, to vote. There should be no retrogression in terms of making sure people have access to the franchise and unfettered access.”
Michael Adams, a professor of political science at Texas Southern University, about the Texas Legislature’s stringent voting regulations
“I think we’re doing a great job in terms of recruiting the right kinds of people, providing access to people from every corner, every walk of life in this country.”
Gen. Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense, criticizing Sen. Ted Cruz for his recent demeaning comments about the U.S. military
Austin also insisted that diversity “must be a part of who we are.”
“This sacred right is under assault … with an intensity and aggressiveness we have not seen in a long, long time. It is simply un-American. It’s not, however, sadly, unprecedented.”
President Joe Biden, on efforts by Republican-dominated state legislatures’ to limit voting rights
In Remembrance: 1921 Tulsa Massacre
“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. If you go out and make good things happen, you fill the world with hope. And in doing so, you will fill yourself with hope.”
Barack Obama
These next two days mark the centennial of one of the worst racial massacres in U.S. history. The cataclysm began with a story that played out several times throughout the 20th century: a young White woman claimed a Black man had assaulted her. That launched an angry White mob in the pre-dawn hours of May 31, 2021. And the result was a bloodbath that swept up an entire community; taking more than 300 lives; leaving a legacy of trauma, animosity and pain.
Only within recent years have the details of those events seen the light of truth. The world of 1921 is considerably different than the world of 2021.
Despite the horrors of those days, we really have come a long way in race relations; that is the understanding of what it means to be human and what it means to be a community. And we can only move forward. The angry White gangs of 1921 Tulsa obliterated hundreds of innocent lives. They destroyed an entire community. But they couldn’t destroy an entire people.
Filed under News
Memorial Day 2021
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Filed under News
Retro Quote – Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Filed under History
Word of the Week – May 29, 2021
Clerisy
Noun
German, 19th century
A distinct class of learned or literary people.
Example: I generally write essays and stories for the clerisy of the world.
Filed under News
Chief Writing Wolf 