tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-183572782026-03-20T02:11:25.040-05:00Giving Bias a Good Name Since 2005Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.comBlogger1085125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-87091751334908359892019-01-20T14:03:00.000-06:002019-01-20T14:03:36.728-06:00

I remember when "Trey Garrison" (or is it Norman Asa Garrison III?) used to write for the late, unlamented "Dallas Blog", a rightwing blog run by Tom Pauken, chairman of the Texas Republican Party from 1994 to 1997, among other party positions and appointed government position. Both Pauken and Garrison were provocative and usually wrong. Garrison also wrote very occasionally for "The Dallas

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-67053718503942896292018-10-31T12:00:00.000-05:002018-11-04T12:36:37.444-06:00

Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa penned an op-ed for The Dallas Morning News explaining why she voted for Beto O'Rourke for US Senator from Texas. I love Destiny, and not just because she was the only one who begged me "Please don't go" when I quit blogging in 2010. She's probably one of the few writers who could successfully coax me to come back. She's a terrific writer, but she is also

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-40655416724617840482018-08-27T09:52:00.001-05:002018-08-27T09:54:48.852-05:00

Senator John McCain was one of the most interesting, puzzling, confounding politicians of our generation. I'm not going to go through all the details. That's what Wikipedia is for. But consider these facts. In 2004 McCain was talked about as a vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket with John Kerry. In 2008, McCain himself picked Sarah Palin for his own vice presidential candidate.

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-30931513559959147542018-07-12T08:24:00.001-05:002018-07-12T13:10:07.168-05:00

Do you wonder how much Facebook knows about you? Or just what it knows that leads to Facebook filling your feed with ads like this: Say NO to sweaty holsters that print and hurt. Say YES to one that carries three extra magazines and can be worn with Gym Shorts. Fall back in love with concealed carry. Rest assured that Facebook's algorithms can't be all that good that it thought I

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-56091860532667243192018-05-27T18:09:00.001-05:002018-05-27T18:16:03.200-05:00

It might not seem like it, but I often try to understand how people that I otherwise recognize as intelligent and educated can hold beliefs that I consider to be, for lack of a better word, wacko. What's the difference in how their mind works and how mine does that might explain the different beliefs we hold? John Ehrenreich, in a Slate article ("White Evangelicals' Continued Support of

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-7711200572718472532018-02-17T09:33:00.001-06:002018-02-17T09:41:38.521-06:00

A blogger I've admired for over a decade (I think it's been that long; my memory might fail me) has recently decided to scrub the Internet of all of her old opinions. I know, I know, foolish quest. The Internet is forever. Anyway, she posits a new law: "Nobody should be allowed to put any of their dumbass thoughts or feels on the internet until at least 30." When I was young, a

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-89374576957203031582018-02-08T09:03:00.001-06:002018-02-08T09:09:15.054-06:00

Remember Jade Helm 15? Maybe you don't, at least if you're a relatively sane American not given to conspiracy theories. To refresh your memory, Jade Helm 15 was a series of joint military exercises conducted in the US southwest in 2015. The right wing went batshit crazy accusing Barack Obama of all sorts of evil motives. According to Wikipedia,    Jim Shea of the Hartford Courant's

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-61506643626015913772018-01-12T11:13:00.001-06:002018-01-12T11:20:11.556-06:00

Our current president has so normalized aberrant behavior that hearing him describe African countries as "shitholes" comes as no surprise. Republicans don't bat an eye, offering no comment (as long as he signs their tax cuts for the rich, they'll tolerate anything from him). Democrats are scandalized, not by his choice of language, but by his racism. And the White House itself

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-20896544209589170552018-01-06T12:00:00.001-06:002018-01-06T12:00:28.258-06:00

The Mega Millions $450 million jackpot was won by one lucky person. Not me. I knew that before the drawing because I didn't buy a ticket. But after the drawing, I knew that I wouldn't have won because the numbers I would have picked weren't the winning numbers. You see, I always don't play the same numbers. Once again, the numbers I always don't play didn't win. Lucky me. 

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-39447131766289000902017-12-29T09:49:00.000-06:002017-12-29T09:49:03.602-06:00

It's often claimed that Americans have little knowledge of the rest of the world. It's the source of jokes. You know, like the report of the American tourist in Japan surprised by how many American brands he sees all around: Toyota, Sony, Nikon. Today we have evidence of self-centeredness in the White House (as if more evidence on that front is needed). In the East, it could be the COLDEST New

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-76850689643007817762017-12-28T11:41:00.001-06:002017-12-28T11:52:00.761-06:00

Before the election, racial resentment closely predicted who was going to vote for  [Trump], and after the election, it absolutely nailed who had voted for him. So what is it? If the nation elected its president on that basis more than any other factor, shouldn't we know better what racial resentment is? Can't we just call it racism?-- Jim Schutze No we can't. Nothing gets a racist to plug

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-17640684882306645472017-12-22T10:07:00.001-06:002017-12-24T10:00:42.331-06:00

It occurs to me that this eponymous blog deserves a proper name. I'm thinking of "Blockchain Blog." Thoughts? The Long Island Iced Tea Corporation's stock rose by 432 percent on Thursday after the company announced that it would be changing its name to 'Long Blockchain Corp. Bloomberg

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-65536633408647982312017-12-21T08:58:00.001-06:002017-12-21T09:07:07.797-06:00

Congress passed and the President will sign the "Tax Cut and Jobs Act." The "Tax Cut" is assured. The "Jobs" are an act of faith. All Republican senators voted in favor of the bill. All Democratic senators voted against it. What does this tell us about the state of American politics? It tells us that Republicans are in favor of small government. Their governing

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-9895308442503596832017-12-19T10:06:00.001-06:002017-12-19T10:06:59.721-06:00

In early middle age, more and more Christmas cards you send aren't returned, because your friends' addresses no longer change so much from year to year.In late middle age, sending Christmas cards gets more depressing as first a few and then more each year get returned marked "deceased."Be thankful for middle, middle age. It's not a stable state of nature and it won't last

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-37934960895297800552017-12-18T15:56:00.001-06:002017-12-24T10:02:27.355-06:00

According to the New York Times: The Inuit have a word for changes they are seeing to their environment: uggianaqtuq. It means "to behave strangely." Tragically, according to Vox: The Trump administration is backing away from calling climate change a national security threat, a move that contradicts nearly three decades of military planning. Behaving strangely, indeed. 

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-62162523957159089732017-12-18T10:28:00.001-06:002017-12-18T13:27:12.566-06:00

Yes.

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-79690798633887389412017-12-16T16:55:00.001-06:002017-12-24T10:07:29.817-06:00

When Al Franken defended his boorish behavior towards a woman on a USO tour, his defense was that he intended it as a joke that, in hindsight, was never funny. Donald Trump "jokes" repeatedly, for example encouraging rough treatment by police when arresting suspects. Or at least that's how his apologists explain his statements: just joking. Most people don't accept the "just

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-41560849436811351902017-12-16T11:02:00.002-06:002017-12-16T11:23:58.666-06:00

Searching the archives of this blog, I notice that there is no mention of Donald Trump. Maybe that's not surprising, as I took an extended hiatus from 2010 to 2017. In any case, it's time to rectify that. In case you didn't know (i.e., in case you have been living under a rock for that last two years), Donald Trump is a bully, a blowhard, a narcissist, a compulsive liar and a political

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-74497019455866099542017-12-15T16:27:00.000-06:002017-12-16T10:27:34.998-06:00

Someone just forwarded me an email that began "You didn't get this?" When I went to reply, Gmail offered me three ready-made answers, the first of which was "No, I didn't get it." I clicked that and then clicked Send. The entire text of my reply was generated automatically by Gmail and suggested to me. Soon our conversations will be nothing but Google talking to itself.

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-4463379340625725432017-12-15T16:22:00.000-06:002017-12-18T12:58:27.019-06:00

I'm back. Expect random thoughts at random intervals.

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-33105695331831463762010-10-11T07:56:00.004-05:002017-12-16T11:23:58.600-06:00

An anonymous poster submitted a comment to an old article (read here) regarding Rep. Angie Chen Button's role as a DART board member in DART's $900 million cost overrun in 2008. DART is still reeling from that. I don't know about a Button-Jeffus connection the anonymous poster refers to nor the requirements for a conflict of interest charge, but if what he or she says is true, this particular

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-87304196800704273682010-03-21T22:59:00.001-05:002017-12-16T11:23:58.780-06:00

With full awareness of the immodesty of saying, "I told you so", I couldn't help but look back with much satisfaction on a post I made last August, titled "Health Care End Game" and subtitled, "Spoiler alert: How it will end." Now the end has come. That old post was remarkably prescient. Close vote. No GOP support. Budget reconciliation. The one prediction that failed was the expectation that

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-2630056016153448262010-01-22T18:07:00.005-06:002017-12-18T13:10:33.356-06:00

This blog comment deserves to be a blog post of its own: Destiny said: "This is getting old. And I figured OBVIOUSLY the only reason you're not coming back is because no one has written you a song yet begging you to. (you're so dramatic) So here, I wrote this for you and produced the music video as well, all by myself...in your honor." In response, all I have to say is...

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-10090100472571116452009-09-16T05:00:00.000-05:002017-12-18T13:10:33.345-06:00

"Wake up Maggie, I think I got something to say to you It's late September and I really should be back at school I know I keep you amused but I feel I'm being used Oh Maggie, I couldn't have tried any more You led me away from home just to save you from being alone You stole my heart and that's what really hurt The morning sun when it's in your face really shows your age But that don't worry me

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18357278.post-78865697832602340412009-08-31T17:30:00.004-05:002017-12-16T11:32:32.595-06:00

When good governance demands confidentiality In an editorial, The Dallas Morning News calls for school districts to publicly release the names of candidates it is considering to fill the position of superintendent. The News says there are 40 school districts statewide searching for a new superintendent and most will name only a single finalist. After the public has a suitable opportunity to

Ed Cognoskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06595340868770406595noreply@blogger.com4