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His contributions have been important, for sure, but I’ve encountered him in person and he can be a jerk.
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I think if you want to know about the pitfalls of literal translation you only have to read Twain’s re-translation from a French version of “Jumping Frog.” It’s hilarious because he’d (deliberately, obviously) translate something like “vachement,” which is a slangy way of saying “very” into its literal meaning, “cowly.” You’d think the joke would wear thin, but it doesn’t. Seriously some stuff couldn’t possibly be done over word for word because there’s more to serious literature (and unserious) than the meaning of the words. You’ve got the double meanings, like puns, the cultural things that won’t necessarily be understand by foreign readers, the sheer sound of it, the rhythms, the stuff that makes a particular author’s work more than just long strings of words. I’m not great with French, far from bilingual, but I can speak and read it, and you read some translations and you’re going “No, no no, that isn’t right at all.” It has to be one of the hardest jobs. Anyway, glad to know my version is respected. It certainly is by me. : )
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This brings up a very depressing aspect of American history. Generations of Germans since WW2 have looked back in horror at what their parents and grandparents did, and to a significant extent they’ve grown beyond it by learning from it. I won’t say they’ve come to terms with it because what was done goes beyond any possibility of coming to terms. But they’ve documented it, memorialized it, preserved the record of it, built museums around it, all so that they may never forget what happened, so that never again.
Sets an example of what we ought to do after centuries of slavery and murder. Still struggling to get rid of Confederate monuments a century and a half after that war supposedly ended. One of our major policital parties wants to erase discussion of race from our elementary schools. Huge slice of our population want’s to pretend it never happened. Can’t face the horror. What a mess.
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Ukraine has already told the Russian draftees to surrender, and they will be treated well. A bit of sabotage here and there will help the Russian army fall apart faster. Ukraine is going to need some serious POW facilities.
On Putin threatening nukes, didn’t Russia give Ukraine their independence from the USSR when Ukraine surrendered their nuclear weapons to Russia? It’s been a while. Here is is:
Budapest Memorandum:
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Pod Save America had a ad-judging show that included a sort-of former Republican consultant who mentioned that after 1/6 a lot of his continuing supporters shifted to where they said maybe it’s time for him and us to move on, and maybe he shouldn’t run in '24, let’s see about this DeSantis guy and so forth. They didn’t stop liking him, but they quietly had decided that he probably wasn’t quite the right person to be president.
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Now this is cool. They’ve got some spiffy tech over in sunflower land.
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Birchers even said Ronald Reagan was a second echelon member of the international communist conspiracy. But those bircher guys were dismissed as part of the so-called fruitcake right. Those were the days indeed. Today’s Q-wacks make the fruitcakes of yesteryear look like intellectual giants of some pantheon of perspicacity, and they’re not fringe, they’re mainstream Republicans. Kids these days.
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10 day forecast Kherson
Not freezing yet, and no rain. But with that humidity and nightly temperature swing, everything will be soaked with dew before sunrise.
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Now the guys in that clip were said to be in Omsk, in southwestern Siberia, just north of Kazakstan. It’s roughly parallel to Belarus, but no idea what the climate is like. I’ll bet it’s not balmy enough at night to want to sleep out under the stars without even a damn sleeping bag.
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Mystical multidimensional-opening sling ring looks a lot like brass knuckles…just saying.
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Perhaps to make being dropped off at the front with rotten rations and crapped out equipment something to look forward to… poor bastards
Omsk 10 day forecast
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Heckuva job, Pootie.
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Apparently he was, since all the modern Republicans worship Putin.
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And fellow travelers.
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The thing that should scare the crap out of Russia is our MICC* has enough funding to actually produce the weapons while also funding vast corruption. That’s why nations need a prosperous middle class cash cow to cough up the tax Dollars. * The extra C is for Congressional.
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I guess CPAC’s version of aid to Ukraine is “thoughts and prayers.”
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Are our memories so short? The NRA was a HUGE funnel of Russian* money into GOP coffers. Does anyone think that’s stopped?
ETA: * Don’t confuse Russian gov’t money with Russian mob/oligarch money. There’s plenty of the latter to go around, still.
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Proselytizing American fascism far and wide?
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CPAC had better rejoin the union or we’ll sic Ukrainians on them : - )
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