April, 2017 archive
Republican Family Values . . . 0
. . . have never been anything other than a con for the rubes.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness can’t be contained in one room.
(snip)
Investigators believe the victim was shot by another student, who was in a separate room when the gun discharged.
The Court Is in Sessions 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., excoriates Attorney-General Jeff Sessions’s intent to somehow emasculate consent decrees governing how certain police departments treat Not White persons. A snippet:
In a memo released last week, Sessions worries about tarring police with the actions of a few “bad actors.” Yet DOJ investigations repeatedly found that, far from being isolated events, police abuse – unlawful stops, searches, harassment and beatings targeting African-American citizens – were endemic to the very culture of these departments. They were not flaws in the system. They were the system.
Fly the Fiendly Skies 0
Many years ago, my ex had a great flight on United Airlines.
They couldn’t get a plane off the ground and reaccommodated her to other airlines in both directions.
Aside:
I understand that United is working on a new slogan:
You can’t beat United Airlines, because United Airlines beats you first.
Also, too (H/T my brother for the link).
Virginia Beach Drinking Liberally Thursday 0
When fellowship is needed, join us . . . .
When: Thursday, April 13, 6 p.
Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)
More here.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” (Updated) 0
Mary Jane makes you more polite.
“Mr. Troutman stated that as he went to hand the revolver to Mr. Moore, the hammer engaged causing it to shoot a round into Mr. Moore’s arm,” the report noted.
No doubt the hammer engaged all on its ownsome, without intervention from external agency, such as, for example just to mention a possibility, the bozo holding the gun in his hand.
(Actually, Mary Jane probably does make persons more polite, or at least more laid back, but it sure as shootin’ don’t make gun nuts smarter.)
In related news, remember what I said yesterday about guns turning “hes and shes” into “males and females”? Police-speak seems to exist in a place apart from humanness.
Addendum, Later That Same Day:
Badtux goes off on guns that “just go off.” (Warning: Language.)
Forensics, Schmorensics 0
Elie Mystal comments on Attorney-General Sessions’s decision to abolish the the National Commission on Forensic Science, created by President Obama just a few years ago to raise standards for forensic science. In the light of the work of the Innocence Project and similar groups, those standards seem sorely in need of raising, or maybe of being created in the first place(PDF from Virginia Law Review). Here’s an excerpt from Mystal’s post:
Meta: Maintenance The Mystery of the Disappearing Sidebar (Sticky)
0
Update: I’m having issues with the sidebar. It appears when I click on individual posts, but not when viewing the front page. I am working on it, but doing so carefully. In the meantime, I’m not getting upset (keep repeating to yourself, “Frank, it’s only a hobby learning opportunity”) and hope you don’t either. I will document my adventures in this post in the area below the fold. In the meantime, you may see strange things happening as I test, but the regular stream of drivel will continue unless everything stops working. If you want to email me, the email link, which is normally over there —-> on the sidebar, is frank@pineviewfarm.net.
I will update this post as I try to shoot the trouble.
“Flip-Floppery at Its Worst” 0
(Link fixed.)
At The Guardian, Moustafa Bayoumi is not buying it. A snippet:
What I do believe is that our president is a bad actor. He was a bad actor on his old television show, and he’s still a bad actor today. And he’s a bad actor in both senses of the term, which is to say his actions are poorly executed and morally questionable.
Innocents Abroad, Collateral Damage Dept., Reprise 1
Truth? You can’t handle the truth.
Just ask your iJunk.
(I had to remove the video. Something in the embed code was making my sidebar disappear. You can view it here. Here’s a summary from the webpage: Ignorance is pandemic to American society, but maybe technology can help? Everyone has intimate relationships with their smartphones and the information that it delivers to us, however what will Apple allow us to see? Metadata+, a drone tracking app that uses information culled from news reports, appeared in the App Store, only to disappear again for mysterious and ridiculous reasons. Correspondent Naomi Karavani weighs in on how Apple can help or hinder important progress.)
The Rockets’ Red Glare, Reprise 0
Update: The video has been taken down for some reason not stated. It showed John Oliver heaping scorn on American media figures masturbating to missiles over Syria and on Trump’s hypocrisy. Oliver asked, “What did they actually achieve” and concludes the answer is “Nothing.”
Warning: Language.
Via Raw Story.
Innocents Abroad, Collateral Damage Dept. 0
(This is one of the problem posts mentioned in the “Sticky.” I’m experimenting. Later: It’s working now. I created a new post with same content. I’ll be damned if I know why it didn’t post on schedule, as I can see no difference between this one and the original–it was visible in preview mode but would not appear on the front page. *&%&^% computers.)
To official America, some lives are more important than others. Nick McDonnell does the math for those so-called “surgical strikes.”
That number yields some grim math. Last year, the coalition acknowledged 4,589 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. If the NCV was 10 throughout, then U.S. policy in 2016 was to tolerate the incidental killing of a maximum of 45,890 innocent Iraqis and Syrians in order to destroy ISIS.
More math at the link.
The Rockets’ Red Glare 0
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Ever notice how a “child” becomes a “juvenile,” a “little boy” becomes a “male,” and a “little girl” becomes a “female,” once he or she is introduced to politeness (emphasis added)?
The victim is an approximately 3 to 4-year-old female, who suffered a wound to the head. She is being treated at Memorial Hospital and undergoing surgery.
