February, 2014 archive
News, Ripped from the Ticker 0
It’s Comcastic! (Also, language.)
One Man, No Vote 0
At my local rag, Darryl Lease considers the latest tactic of the Republican Gut Out the Vote effort.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is essential to a successful camping trip.
“Fear Goggles” 0
Excerpt:
The Stand-Your-Ground Defense is like bleach. It does work for whites, but it will ruin your colors.
Below the fold because it autoplays on some systems.
The Duke of Hazardous, Koch Fiend 0
The Duke of Hazardous has a history with ALEC.
Virginia Beach has an interest in the Duke of Hazardous, as it gets a large portion of its water from the Dan River, site of the Duke’s depredations.
“We Know Where You’ve Been” 0
The ACLU explores location data and its uses. From the blurb accompanying the video:
As long as it is turned on, your mobile phone registers its position with cell towers every few minutes, whether the phone is being used or not. Since mobile carriers are retaining location data on their customers, government officials can learn a tremendous amount of detailed personal information about you by accessing your location history from your cell phone company, ranging from which friends you’re seeing to where you go to the doctor to how often you go to church. The Justice Department and most local police forces can get months’ worth of this information, without you ever knowing — and often without a warrant from a judge.
Not that it does much good, but I keep the GPS turned off in my phone unless I actively need it, even though various apps keep nagging me to turn it on to “provide better service.”
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
A polite society is a clean society.
Police say the 22-year-old initially left the house after the shot was fired.
Now, about those intelligence tests for having firearms . . . .
The Lost Cause 0
What is your (and my–my ancestors wore the grey) “Southern Heritage”? What do the Sons of Confederate Veterans venerate?
They venerate a mentality that makes me think of a couplet from an absolutely horrifying film–horrifying because it brought evil to life–about vile persons who do vile things for fun and profit.
The Booman tells the story that brought this couplet to mind. Read the couplet, then follow the link.
I feel soiled just reading the story that the Booman tells.
Slavery was evil; the Confederate States of America was formed to protect and perpetuate evil; the myth of the Old South, with its happy darkies contentedly singing as they work, is a lie in the service of evil; and the modern adherents, proponents, and propagandists of this lie serve evil.
Ask me nicely, I’ll tell you what I really think.
Legacy 0
William Pfaff wonders what the United States will leave behind as it winds down in the Middle East.
He is not sanguine.
Dragnet 0
Pickens, South Carolina, police round up the usual suspects.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
For all practical purposes, no change.
(snip)
Today’s data showed the four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, increased to 338,500 from 336,750 the week before. The average for the comparable survey week in January was 332,250.
