From Pine View Farm

October, 2014 archive

Over the Top and through the Woods 0

Am I the only person who thinks Halloween jumped the shark a couple of decades ago?

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Apocalypse (on Sale) Now 0

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Halloween Hologram 0

A Franco-American journalist was stunned when she spotted a grave marker hologram with her face on it – inscribed with a fake name, date of birth and death – in the window of a funeral parlour. Here’s how it happened.

Short version: The manufacturer of the display just grabbed any old image of the inner webs without verifying that it was free to use. Long version: Follow the link.

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We Are Doomed 0

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All the News that Fits 0

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The United States of Phobia 0

Kevin Horrigan comments on fear and the mongers of fear. A nugget:

Unreasonable? You say my fears are unreasonable? That all we have to fear is fear itself? I fear fear itself, but I fear lots of other things, too. Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, that’s the ticket. I fear all the things Republican politicians say I should be fearing.

To judge from the news, we Americans are the most fearful people on Earth. We’ve come to be proud of how afraid we are, strapping on our guns and parading through the streets.

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A Monstrous Election 0

Daniel Ruth compares the relative merits of Florida governor Lex Luthor Rick Scott, Attila the Hun, and Godzilla. He finds the choice difficult. Here’s a bit of his reasoning:

Mr. Godzilla also has some problematic concerns, such as temperament. And his retail political talents could certainly use some refinement. However, Scott is also known for speaking in an incomprehensible tongue.

Working to his advantage is Mr. Godzilla’s unfortunate overexposure to radiation. This might well suggest a Godzilla administration in Tallahassee would be far more sensitive to environmental concerns, which have languished during the Scott administration.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

The face of politeness:

. . . a southwest Iowa man is in critical condition after accidentally shooting himself in the face.

Red Oak police say 28-year-old Cody Allen Keith Tunnell was handling a weapon when it went off. He told authorities he thought the weapon was unloaded.

Basic gun safety says not to point even an empty gun at another living creature. Now, about those IQ tests for gun buyers . . . .

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QOTD 0

P. T. Barnum:

Witchcraft is one of the most baseless, absurd, disgusting and silly of all the humbugs.

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Deja Vu All Over Again 0

The contagion of hysteria over contagion is nothing new. It has all happened before.

Via Kos.

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Nutshell 2

Southern Beale sums up the hysteria, which, you will note, is being ginned up by the usual right-wing fear mongers.

It is truly amazing to hear the same people who bitched and moaned about how TSA body scanners at U.S. airports violated their civil rights now attack nurse Kaci Hickox for not submitting to a 21-day house arrest on her return from Africa.

We are a society of stupid.

Afterthought:

I was agin’ the body scanners, mostly because I considered them a waste of money and effort, silly security theatre, not because I thought they violated civil liberties. Civil liberties are no more; corporations have stolen them. For example (via Bruce Schneier):

Adobe’s Digital Editions e-book and PDF reader—an application used by thousands of libraries to give patrons access to electronic lending libraries—actively logs and reports every document readers add to their local “library” along with what users do with those files. Even worse, the logs are transmitted over the Internet in the clear, allowing anyone who can monitor network traffic (such as the National Security Agency, Internet service providers and cable companies, or others sharing a public Wi-Fi network) to follow along over readers’ shoulders.

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Citizens Benighted 0

Timothy Egan wants to lead a tour.

Justice Anthony Kennedy doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy I’d want to share a beer and a brat with, or be stuck next to on a long flight. But I would like for the most influential swing voter on the Supreme Court to step away from his legal aerie and wade through some of the muck that he and four fellow justices have given us with the 2014 campaign.

How did we lose our democracy? Slowly at first, and then all at once.

Follow the link for a travelogue.

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The Culture of Violence 0

The pathology of white violence grips another city.

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Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0

Still looking up a mite:

Fewer Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits over the past month than at any time in more than 14 years, a sign the strengthening U.S. economy is buoying the labor market.

The four-week average of jobless claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, fell to 281,000 in the period ended Oct. 25, the lowest since May 2000, from 281,250 the week before, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. Compared with the prior week, applications for benefits rose by 3,000 to 287,000.

(snip)

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 29,000 to 2.38 million in the week ended Oct. 18.

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Legacy, Bushie Style 0

Thom and Vincent Bugliosi consider how President George the Worst’s Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq fathered ISIS.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Play politely.

The shooting happened in the 7600 block of SE 121st Place in Belleview, deputies said.

The teen told deputies he and the 14-year-old were “playing around” with guns.

The older teen “stated the victim was pointing a .20 gauge shotgun at him” at which time the older teen “picked up a 9mm handgun, pointed it at the victim and accidentally fired the gun,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

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Acts of Faith, Wingnut Dept. 0

Wingnut buys baldness cure

Via Kos.

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QOTD 0

Joseph Lancaster:

Many thousands of youth have been deprived of the benefit of education thereby, their morals ruined, and talents irretrievably lost to society, for want of cultivation: while two parties have been idly contending who should bestow it.

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In the Eye of the Beholder 0

Not just in Pennsylvania, folks.

Two women discussing porn scandal on Pennsylvania state court.  One says,


Click for a larger image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness is essential to marital bliss.

Both Snyder and his wife told police at the scene that he had been cleaning his .40-caliber Glock handgun when it accidentally went off, police said.

(snip)

The investigation determined that Snyder and his wife were not cleaning the gun when it discharged. Instead, Snyder was demonstrating to her how to properly load the weapon when it discharged. The bullet struck her in the lower abdomen and exited out her upper thigh, police said.

. . . bringing new meaning to the term, “lying together.”

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