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From Pine View Farm by Frank Bell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.pineviewfarm.net.
From Pine View Farm

September, 2009 archive

Brendan Remembers 9/11 0

In this week’s column.

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September 8, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: First Looks |

A. Because They Are in It for the Money 0

Prework: Read this (I read the story yesterday; John Cole captures the gist).

Read more »

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September 8, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Masters of the Universe |

Never Wrong. Always Right. 0

Because they are Masters of the Universe.

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September 8, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Words Fail Me |

What’s Wrong with This Picture? 2

Offered without further comment:

When Elaine Cioni found out that her married boyfriend had other girlfriends, she became obsessed, federal prosecutors say. So she turned to YourHackerz.com.

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September 8, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Too Stupid for Words |

Drink Liberally 0

Tonight and every Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, 2nd and Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p. m.

It’s safe to attend. I won’t be able to make it.

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September 8, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: First Looks |

“Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home” 0

’cause we miss you:

John Losey, an entomologist at Cornell University, launched the Lost Ladybug Project last year to try to figure out why once-common native ladybug species had all but disappeared across the country. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, recruits citizen scientists — especially children — to search for ladybugs and send photos of them to Losey.

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September 8, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: C'est Rire |

You Know You Are a Geek When . . . 0

. . . you see an automobile commercial talking about RPMs and you think of “Redhat Package Management.”

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September 7, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Geek Stuff |

Have You Contacted Your Congresspersons . . . 0

. . . or are you just bloggin’ and bitchin’?

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September 7, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Political Theatre |

QOTD 0

From an email quoted on Andrew Sullivan’s blog:

All the right-wing e-mails my dad shares with me (because he’s right-wing, not as an advisory to me) point to a whole lot of people very frightened by having a black president but using language like “we don’t know who he IS.” If Obama were white and graduated from Harvard, edited the Law Review, worked on poverty reduction in Chicago, and then got elected to the Senate, he’d still be pegged as a liberal, but people (white people) would “know who he is.”

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September 7, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Political Theatre |

Study Hard. Stay in School. 0

Why education?

John Cole asks:

Who do you all think will be the first wingnut to find a hidden coded message in the text of the speech? The odds on favorite for that kind of lunacy would be Glenn Beck, but then again the one lunatic who pushed the “Republican car dealers is being punished!” nonsense would be a good bet, too, as would that clown who freaked out over dijon mustard. There is just so much quality amateur wingnuttery going on these days that there really is no safe bet anymore.

Image via Garp Garp.

Text below the Fold

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September 7, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Political Theatre |

Social Insurance 0

Jim Henley considers health insurance as “social insurance.” The whole think is worth a look; I’ve omitted all but his definition of “social insurance” and his conclusion:

(“Social insurance” is defined as) . . . pooling risk of uncertain events over time, e.g. the risk of job loss. But it can also be precisely about pooling certainties. Everyone lucky is going to spend a fair amount of time healthy and some time sick and/or dying. (A minority of people will be unhealthy all their lives.) There is no uncertainty about whether you will need medical care at some point in your life. There is only uncertainty as to timing and magnitude.

(snip)

There are perfectly coherent ideological arguments against social insurance. If you believe all taxation is theft, that government is illegitimate, social insurance is a form of taxation, and a crime. If you believe that what’s good about “the American system of free enterprise” is that fear of catastrophe keeps people in line, then social insurance undermines social cohesion, and that’s bad. If you believe that “people make their own luck,” or that fortune is a sign of divine favor and misfortune the judgment of the Almighty, then social insurance rewards the undeserving. I don’t find these arguments compelling any more, but they exist and are viable positions.

There are also incoherent arguments against social insurance, the chief of which is the notion that any version of it must somehow be worse than the bizarre patchwork of subsidies, regulations, entry barriers and backstops that we have now. But these are arguments against doing social insurance, not refutations of the concept.

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September 7, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Political Theatre |

Emails 0

Oliver Burkeman, writing at the Guardian, has obtained super-secret completely made-up presidential emails.

One of them:

To: Malia Obama
Subject: Re: Day off next Tuesday?

No you can NOT take the day off school in order to avoid being turned into a communist by “the most dangerously liberal president in America’s history”. . . Also, communists and liberals are totally different. Ask your sister.

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September 7, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: C'est Rire |

Contradictions 0

I could not have said it as well as Noz.

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September 6, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Beyond Beyond the Fringe |

Dossiers 0

On the Media reports:

Overstretched and short on recruits, the U.S. military has been going to great lengths to find out everything they can about potential enlistees. The only problem is most of these prospective soldiers are under 18 and, in many cases, are disclosing personal information without their (or their parents) knowledge. Mother Jones columnist David Goodman explains how the U.S. military is working behind the scenes to enlist the youth of America.

A key to their strategy is using certain video games to collect data.

Follow the link to listen or listen below (MP3):

The transcript is scheduled to be added Monday.

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September 6, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: First Looks |

Ahh! To Be in Pennsylvania for the Whisperings of Autumn 0

Teacher strikes. It’s tradition in southeastern Pennsylvania.

The contract for the 1,070-member (North Penn School District, Montgomery County) union expired Tuesday. Talks broke off Friday afternoon, and no new bargaining had been agreed to as of last night.

Union officials said the school board had made work-rule changes that amounted to a lockout, mainly adding 20 minutes to the elementary-school schedule. The board contended that any work stoppage would be illegal without 48 hours’ notice.

By and large, teachers in this part of the world are paid pretty well. Not great, but okay.

In such circumstances, strikes and threats of strikes usually have more to do with working conditions and with a sense of being generally mistreated by management than with any quantifiable item, though unions will ask for pay or hours changes because you cannot negotiate courtesy.

I worked in a unionized industry for many years. The managers and departments who had “union problems” (grievances, work-to-rule, and stuff like that) were invariably–not usually, invariably–the ones who treated their workers like dirt.

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September 6, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Personal Musings |

MMR 0

Law and Order SVU takes on the anti-vaccination kooks.

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September 6, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Too Stupid for Words |

Philadelphia Shrinquirer FAIL 0

Couldn’t find the morning paper after going to several places (the Wilmington paper just isn’t worth the effort of carrying it to the car).

The owner of Claymont News told me that “everyone is sold out,” because the Shrinky reduced the size of the delivery for the holiday. Did have a nice chat with another customer about how Brian Tierney has, to quote him, “. . . done the Inquirer no favors.”

I ended up getting a Washington Post instead of a New York Times because, well, what’s Sunday without Sunday comics and an agony column?

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September 6, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: First Looks |

Carrion Eaters 0

Who could make this stuff up?

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September 6, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Words Fail Me |

Greater Wingnuttery XXXVIII 0

The President’s magical mystical powers, as imagined by wingnuts.

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September 6, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: First Looks, Republican Lies |

Can This Marriage Be Saved? 1

From the Henny Youngman news wire:

Members of the ship’s crew saw the man suddenly run out of his cabin with his hands covering his ears, and shouting: “I can’t stand it any longer.”

They initially thought he was suffering from an ear injury and went to help him but found he was unhurt.

“While we were still puzzling over the this, his wife ran up and continued nagging him,” said a crewmate.

“The husband covered his ears again and said: ‘I need a break’ before jumping over the side into the rushing river.

Via Wait! Wait!

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September 5, 2009 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: C'est Rire |
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