From Pine View Farm

January, 2021 archive

A Tune for the Times 0

H/T to my brother in Virginia’s Northern Neck.

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The Great Expulsion 0

The Roanoke Times editorial board remembers.

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Legacy, Headline of the Day Dept. 0

A new term enters international discourse.

Former Northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith says Brussels guilty of ‘almost Trumpian act’ over Article 16 row

Aside:

I do not know enough about the politics of Brexit (other than I think Great Britain has shot itself in the foot) to have an opinion on the substance of the news story.

Nevertheless, I find it simultaneously appalling (because I’m capable of shame) and amusing (because I know poetic justice when I see it) that the name of our previous federal executive is now a portmanteau for “arbitrary, capricious, petty, and stupid.”

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A Pillow of the Community, Reprise 0

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Enter the Thought Police 0

Cancel culture, Republican style:

Indeed, years of anti-abortion rights advocacy and devout party organizing didn’t shield the typically understated Iowa Republican from retribution. Within a day of declaring that Trump should be impeached for his role in the deadly Capitol riot, Millage was forced to step down as chair of the Scott County GOP.

Much more at the link.

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All the News that Fits, “Narrowcasting” Dept. 0

Via C&L.

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The Fee Hand of the Market 0

David Lazarus investigated a hospital bill. A snippet:

Tony Summers, 82, underwent outpatient sinus surgery in October. His stay at San Diego’s Scripps Mercy Surgery Pavilion lasted less than three hours. He described the quality of care as excellent.

Summers received his insurer’s explanation of benefits recently.

There are any number of things we could nitpick about. But what really jumped out at me was a charge of almost $77,000 for “medical services,” a mysterious fee above and beyond the roughly $5,000 billed separately by Summers’ surgeon and anesthesiologist.

Follow the link for the story of his quest to find out what “medical services” warranted charges at the rate of $25,666.66 an hour for a three-hour outpatient procedure.

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QOTD 0

Aeschines:

He is specially deserving of our hatred, in that being wicked he has all the outward signs of virtue.

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Geeking Out 0

Installing OPENSuse into a VirtualBox virtual machine on Mageia v. 7 under the Fluxbox window manager. The wallpaper is from my collection.

Screenshot

Click for a larger image.

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Fumigation 0

Joe Biden in Oval Office watching as men in hazmat suits put papers labeled

Click for the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

As we all know by now, politeness is child’s play.

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Deprogramming the Programmed 0

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The Rule of Lawless 0

Two Republican Elephants crouching under cover during the January 6 attack on the Capitol.  One says to the other,

Via Juanita Jean.

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Twits on Twitter 0

One more time, why does anyone pay attention to David Brooks?

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Bar Exam 0

Trumpette Lin Wood is miffed.

In a Telegram post to “My Followers,” the attorney wrote, “I am fighting battles on every front. The State Bar of Georgia told me today they would demand a mental health exam from me if I wanted to keep my law license. My mind is sound. I have broken no rules. I asked what I had done wrong, I was only told it was about my social media comments. My speech.”

Much more at the link.

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Vaccine Nation 0

In a thoughtful article at The Seattle Times, Danny Westneat compares the different approaches to delivering COVID-19 vaccines in the neighboring states of Washington and Oregon and the larger implications thereof.

Here’s a bit:

There’s a real-time experiment in medical ethics and triage playing out right now between us and our sister state to the south, Oregon.

At its core is an uncomfortable question that nobody wants to fall on the wrong side of: Who really is essential in a society?

So who’s up next?

Here in these parts we are seeing similar arguments being played out on a much smaller scale as neighboring cities struggle with questions of, for example, reopening schools and restarting high school sports. Westneat offers a reasonable and reasoned assessment of the situation.

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QOTD 0

Fiona Gillies, in the voice of Susanna Aurifaber:

In this world, what receive and what we deserve are rarely the same.

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Tagged 0

The tagger.

Words fail me.

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Maskless Marauders 0

Macho man.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

The stupid. It burns.

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