A dialogue about Trump and Biden.

Composed by my son John (at Facebook):

“Biden is too old to be president.” 

“But Trump is also old.” 

“But Biden is older.” 

“But since they’re both very old, it’s unfair to focus so much on how old one of them is. Besides, Trump lies.” 

"I can see why we should promote women's rights as a covert national security concept."

"But if 'they' know we're doing that, it will undercut the cause of women's rights."

A comment by me, on jac's "Why are young men often passionate about religion and war? Can women put an end to war?"

"Now, maybe you think my mom's 'nuts.' You're entitled to your opinion. I don't think she's nuts."

LOL.

An empty wheelchair... "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot."

John Callahan leaves the wheelchair forever.

"I was nearly 30 before I realized that my parents had been talking a Wodehousian language during my youth..."

"... and that normal people didn't refer to each other as 'old bean' or 'the mammal' or share a refreshing snort before dinner."

"Having these all on the same list is kind of like saying, 'You know what my pet peeves are? People who crack their knuckles, genocide, extreme poverty, and shopping cart wheels that get stuck.'..."

"... I mean, OK, but the juxtaposition is a little insensitive."

Jac is offended by TIME's list of the 50 worst inventions.

"Women appear much less happy when spending time with their children and parents than men do."

Now, how are you going to explain that? I mean, the way you have to, so that women are the good ones and it's the men who are bad.

The unselfish husband.

"If a man were to invite a lady to marry him on the ground that he ardently desired her happiness and at the same time considered that she would afford him ideal opportunities of self-abnegation, I think it may be doubted whether she would be altogether pleased."

Addicts have a choice.

Right?

It's St. Patrick's Day, and you know what that means around here.

Happy Birthday, John!

"Even on their own terms the politics and business of the world were absurdly evanescent."

"One week politicians, people who worked in the City, and people whose job it was to report their doings would all be kept out of their beds by a financial crisis which, six months later, would be little talked of. By that time perhaps there would be . . . a corruption scandal in local government, which would then be followed by a flurry of public concern over crimes of violence, which in its turn would be pushed out of people's minds by their fury over some proposed new tax; and so it would go on. Each of these things would seem important for a time, then each would pass away and scarcely matter again except to historians. In fact, the truth is that most of them made little or no difference even to the daily lives of most of the population living through them. People immersed in this stream of ever-changing events were filling their minds with . . . ephemera and trivia, what people in electronics mean by 'noise.'"

Is it a mistake to follow politics?

"I can't remember ever having a 'hero' when I was a kid, or at any other time."

"And if I did, it was a ridiculous idea, not a concept that I'd insist remain untarnished for the kids of the present and future."

"If you make sure that nothing bad ever happens to you..."

"... you'll also make sure nothing really good ever happens to you either."

Finches rock.

Celeste Boursier-Mougenot gave the birds their guitars. (Via Jac.)

Maybe I'm the first to think: The Fynches.

"Marvin Gaye would not have had a hit with 'Why Don’t We Venture to Consummate Our Relationship?' or even 'Let’s Have Sex' instead of 'Let’s Get It On.'"

A not-random sentence from John McWhorter's fascinating and elaborate defense of Harry Reid.

(Via Jaltcoh.)

"Love is in; angst is out."

One of 9 musical trends of the 00s.

Internal stuttering to tease the word "art" out of the middle of "heart."

It's the number 1 song of the first decade of the 21st century.

Lifehacker and me.

You know me, the generic student.

LOL. I love the way they credit my son John Althouse Cohen on the picture, which was taken in May 1981, as I was studying (and lactating). John was born March 17, 1981.

"No one in our family can ever say anything obvious."

My son Jac said it in 1989 when he was 8, and my ex RLC blogs it now under the title "Obviosophobia."

And it would be obvious — yet wrong! — for you to observe that he misspelled "Obviosophobia."

Now, I'm checking up on R's blog, and I see he's into old quotes — even as he quizzes his 12-year-old son about regret. He remembers: "Someone once called my work 'beautiful but not important.'" Bearing out the truth of Jac's childhood remark, he adds "What a perfect description of this world!"

Are you afraid of not saying things like that?

"Rape is - or should be - an art... And, as such, the privilege of committing it should be reserved for those few who are really superior individuals."

That's a quote from Hitchcock's movie "Rope" — with one word substitution: "rape" for "murder."

The few who are privileged to commit [rape] ... are those men of such intellectual and cultural superiority that they're above the traditional "moral" concepts. Good and evil, right and wrong, were invented for the ordinary, average man — the inferior man, because he needs them.

The scene, 9 minutes long, is embedded at Jac's blog, with commentary on Roman Polanski.