August, 2018 archive
The Mixed Legacy of John McCain 0
If you have followed this blog since before the 2008 election, you know I was not a particular fan of John McCain’s politics and political behavior. I have long believed that his reputation as a “maverick” was based more on appearances than on actions.
Nevertheless, he remained one of the few men and women of principle in a party that seems to have abandoned even the pretense of principle. Badtux points out that he did from time to time choose to stand up for polity above party, perhaps most notably during the last two years, which alone makes him stand out from his fellow Republicans, even as his maverick reputation was overblown and undeserved.
All this is by of pointing you towards a long and thoughtful consideration of McCain’s political career over at Shaun Mullen’s place. He expresses well what I would only express poorly.
Happy Birthday to Me 0
From Pine View Farm is 13 years old today.
It’s been a long strange trip, one that I could not have predicted.
PVF started as hobby project to learn more about Linux. Initially I self-hosted it from an old IBM PC 300 (one of the original Pentiums) in my guest room using Slackware 10 and noip.com. Now the website is out there somewhere on a most excellent hosting provider whose tech support is unparalled. And, along the way, I’ve learned a lot about Linux, HTML, and css.
PVF is still a hobby, or, perhaps more properly, an avocation, to which I am deeply committed. I hope to continue shooting my mouth off on the inner webs for a long time to come.
For every time I consider giving it up, something new comes along to feed the outrage.
Comin’ Round the Bend 0
Shorter Jay Bookman: You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
The Austin, Texas, city council has passed a measure eliminating “fee waivers” for Confederate groups who wish to march in the Austin Veterans Day Parade. Said groups, natch, are protesting that they are being discriminated against. At the Austin Statesman, Alberta Phillips points out the ludicrousness of their plaints. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
Follow the link for the rest.
Spinning Tales 0
At Delaware Liberal, Jason 330 tracks the evolution (revolution?) of Donald Trump’s spin.
Bandwidth 0
Jim Wright, who had a career in intelligence work, theorizes as to why the American polity is vulnerable to dis- and misinformation. It is worth your while. Here’s a bit:
More powerful, more far-reaching, more scalable, more destructive to the very fabric of our society than any nuclear bomb.
This form of warfare is incredibly powerful, far more so than any other weapon – because it reaches directly into your mind and shapes how you see the world.
Information warfare is infinitely scalable, it can target a single individual, or the entire global population, it can target a single decision-maker, a government, a population, or alter the course of history.
For example: The president of this country watches a certain news/talk/infotainment show. Every day. Without fail. And that show, the information presented there, directly shapes how he sees the world. You can watch this happen daily in real-time. Those who control that show, has direct and immediate influence on the president, and thus on the country, and thus on a global scale. It is a astounding national security vulnerability. One our enemies are well, well aware of and one, a vulnerability that our own counter-intelligence people cannot plug due to the very nature of their own Commander-in-Chief.
This is unprecedented in our history.
Taylor-Made 0
My local rag digs into a story about a signature accomplishment.
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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
. . . and a polite society is a clean society.
The argument escalated as Randell Wright got his gun to emphasize the point, but he claimed Jakari wouldn’t back down, saying “Then we started wrestling for the gun, and it went off.”
