Analytics

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Post #7550 M: What the Slide in the U.S. Dollar Means for Consumers; JD Vance Places Candle Outside Hooters Where ICE Agents Were Heckled; Dumb BLEEP of the Week

 Quote of the Day

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: 
if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
Carl Jung  

What the Slide in the U.S. Dollar Means for Consumers

JD Vance Places Candle Outside Hooters Where ICE Agents Were Heckled

Dumb BLEEP of the Week

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Rob Rogers via smerconish

Musical Interlude: 1963 Top 100 Hits

Kyu Sakamoto - Sukiyaki

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Monday, February 2, 2026

Post #7549 M: Opportunity and Achievement; Melania's $40 Million Docu-Bribe Movie Premieres & Dems Make ICE Demands; Pretti Shooting Breakdown Exposes the ICE Narrative

 Quote of the Day

The great pleasure in life is 
doing what people say you cannot do.
Walter Bagehot  

Opportunity and Achievement

Melania's $40 Million Docu-Bribe Movie Premieres & Dems Make ICE Demands

Pretti Shooting Breakdown Exposes the ICE Narrative

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via US News

Musical Interlude: 1963 Top 100 Hits

The Angels - My Boyfriend's Back

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Sunday, February 1, 2026

Post #7548 Social Media Digest

 Facebook



X/Twitter




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P0st #7547 M: Constitutional Rights Don’t End at a Protest; Trump Meets #1 Fan Nicki Minaj; Immigrants consume less welfare benefits than native-born Americans

 Quote of the Day

A room without books 
is like a body without a soul.
Marcus Tullius Cicero  

Constitutional Rights Don’t End at a Protest

Trump Meets #1 Fan Nicki Minaj

Immigrants consume less welfare benefits than native-born Americans

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Phil Hands via US News

Musical Interlude: 1963 Top 100 hits

Andy Williams Can't Get Used to Losing You

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Saturday, January 31, 2026

Post #7546 J

 Pandemic Report

Weekly CDC stats: The 4 mega stats haven't been updated since last week. This week's regional trends show an upswing in California and the Southeast. I've seen some reports of a first child COVID fatality in Colorado and a bounce back in flu cases after 3 weeks of declines. Measles outbreaks in SC remain of concern.



The Sick Times:

Via AHCA:

The latest COVID-19 news items:

  • "Recent Northwestern Medicine study used app to track symptoms, recovery of long COVID patients"

Other Notes

The blog has attracted almost 19K pageviews this month. about 9 times the rate of the more reliable pageview trend. We'll close the month with 40 posts, maybe more if this post is published on Saturday. X/Twitter remains a mixed bag. There's a lot of work that goes into many political posts, which attract scant impressions, and then I I do one on a list of childhood cartoon characters and it gets over 70 impressions. Go figure.

My surname. Apparently very common in French Canada, but not in the states, except of maybe around New England, where much of the Quebec diaspora went. Now when I go to medical appointments, I automatically get up at "Ronald...?" (I often mention the true story that when Dad would register our family for a restaurant waiting list, he would sign in as "Gillmet"). It's not just the pronunciation; reportedly, 2 of my paternal uncles' birth certificates got the surname wrong, and my grandparents never noticed or had it corrected. For example, my Uncle Ray reportedly found out when he served in the Army during the Korean War that the "le" was omitted (the first and last e's are silent). Instead of having it corrected, he seemed to take a perverse pride in the misspelling, like a badge of honor. Maybe 15-20 years back, my female cousin invited me to an extended family reunion, but I got the invitation addressed to "Ronald Guilmette", which really pissed me off.

Another odd fact about my name: I will sometimes engage in vanity searches (of my own name. (I used to see listings for old blog posts all the time searching on topics, not so much recently.) But part of it was curiosity to see if my own academic scholarship was being referenced (I have a listing of articles and book chapters here) . Almost all of my work is sole-authored; it's not for lack of trying on my part but a lack of interest from others. I had offered to put Dr. Scamell's (my chair's) name on a couple of papers, but he declined, not wanting to share credit for my work. I would hang out with other UH alumni at conferences or MIS faculty at UTEP and try to brainstorm topics, but it was like I was the only one floating ideas, and it was like kids bored on summer vacation. Now, to be honest, I am pretty much a control freak about what's published under my name. So I had a second interest in doing a vanity search. In my last year in academia (ISU as visiting professor for a year) I had befriended a junior black faculty member, and we also talked about doing some research projects when area professors turned my life into a living hell because I allowed students in my data structure course to program in the computer language of their choice instead of mandating PL/1 (The department chair and I had discussed all about this when he assigned me to the class; I had not taught Pl/1. and he had assigned a resource to interface with PL/1 programming issues.)  It seemed like I spent half the time outside of class that spring looking in vain for a follow-up job and fighting off a hostile department chair who threatened to relieve me of my teaching assignments if I filed a complaint against him. The fact is, I had never thought of doing it until he threatened me. The sooner I could get out of Normal, IL, the better. I needed at least some cooperation from the chair to move on. So, I don't know if the dude was paranoid, if someone started a false rumor, or if he was just being preemptive. I was pretty much isolated from other faculty by the end, and my black friend probably could read the politics of the situation; he was still a nice guy considering the situation and said something like he would put my name if he ended up publishing any research. I immediately begged him not to. I don't take credit for work I don't do, and I'm very particular of what appears under my name.

But the reason I raised the surname issue is that I had mentioned to my siblings yesterday, sending out an important email. It hadn't bounced back. I had sent her past emails (I thought) without issue. Sh had changed her email domain a year or 2 back. Long story short: somehow, I had written her maiden name instead of her married name in my contacts email address. I have to laugh at my muscle memory. She got married in the 80s 

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Post #7545 M: Trump Scrambles to Clean Up Mess in Minneapolis; SOHO Debate: Will A.I. Benefit EVERYONE?; McClanahan on Bleeding Minnesota

 Quote of the Day

The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. 
All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. 
But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, 
and do not try to reconcile yourself with the world. 
The heroic cannot be common, nor the common heroic.
Ralph Waldo Emerson  

Trump Scrambles to Clean Up Mess in Minneapolis

SOHO Debate: Will A.I. Benefit EVERYONE?


McClanahan on Bleeding Minnesota

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Gary Markstein via US News

Musical Interlude: 1963 Top 100 Hits

Fingertips-Pt 2 - Little Stevie Wonder

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Friday, January 30, 2026

Post #7544 M: Alex Pretti's Murder Wasn't An Accident; Jimmy Kimmel on the Vile and Heartless Murder of Nurse Alex Pretti by ICE in Minneapolis; The Economics of... Immigration

 Quote of the Day

I like a person who knows his own mind and sticks to it; 
who sees at once what, in given circumstances, is to be done, 
and does it.
William Hazlitt

Alex Pretti's Murder Wasn't An Accident

Jimmy Kimmel on the Vile and Heartless Murder of Nurse Alex Pretti by ICE in Minneapolis

The Economics of... Immigration

Choose Life

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Gary Markstein via US News

Musical Interlude: 1963 Top 100 Hits

"HEY PAULA" Paul and Paula

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