From Pine View Farm

December, 2022 archive

The Lake Effect, One Fish, Two Fish, Whoops! No Fish 0

(Warning: Short commercial at the end.)

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Misdirection Plays 0

At NOLA.com, the writer of a letter to the editor calls out a ludicrous litany of poisonous, perfidious propaganda ripped from the right-wing’s misdirection playbook.

I commend his letter to your attention.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

And so passeth another life in NRA Paradise . . . .

A case of road rage ended the life of a young woman on Tucson’s east side on Christmas Eve.

The Tucson Police Department said Jada Thompson, 21, was killed when someone shot at the vehicle she was riding in it near Speedway and Swan.

(Broken tag fixed.)

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QOTD 0

Jeffrey Kluger:

A fishnet is made up of a lot more holes than strings, but you can’t therefore argue that the net doesn’t exist. Just ask the fish.

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And Now for a Musical Interlude 0

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Originalist Sin 0

At the Sacramento Bee, Erwin Chemerinsky points out that the self-styled originalists on the Supreme Supremacist Court are quite willing to ignore “original intent” when it suits them. A snippet; follow the link for his evidence.

Thomas Jefferson coined the metaphor of a “wall of separation between church and state.” Ironically, the Supreme Court conservatives who supposedly want to tie the Constitution to its 18th-century origins ignore this central constitutional principle.

(snip)

Unfortunately, the current conservative majority on the Supreme Court is obliterating any notion of a wall separating church and state.

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The Galt and the Users 0

At The San Francisco Chronicle, Stanford professor Keith Humphreys argues that those who would place the blame for drug problems on liberals and liberalism are looking in the wrong direction. A snippet:

Many conservative commentators attribute the city’s drug problems to its political liberalism, but this is incorrect. San Franciscans’ liberalism is why the government offers generous health and social care services, without which overdose deaths would be higher, not lower.

What bedevils the city instead is its libertarian, individualistic culture.

Methinks he has a point, as libertarianism is the philosophy of “Me! Me! Me!” and liberalism is the philosophy of “we’re all in this together.”

Follow the link and decide for yourself.

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Republican Family Values 0

Scrooge and the Grinch say to Texas Governor Abbott,

Click for the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Yet another oxymoronic responsible gun owner chooses to be polite in the drive-thru lane.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

The Supreme Supremacist court has spoken.

Here’s a shortened version of their ruling:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

(I found the poem here.)

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Fly the Fiendly Skies . . . 0

. . . but be prepared for a jarring experience.

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QOTD 0

William Beck, in the voice of Detective Inspector Piers Tarrant:

The modern holy trinity is money, sex, and celebrity.

Aside:

The show aired in 2005, when Twitter and the Zuckerborg were in their infancy. Today, “likes” and “retweets” might replace one, if not two, of those items.

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Recommended Viewing 0

If you have Netflix, watch the Netflix serious, Roman Empire.

However, do not watch it in the series order. Watch it in chronological order: Season Two, about Julius Caeser; then Season Three, about Caligula; then Season One, about Commodus.

And, if you have never read Marcus Aurelius, consider doing so.

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The Crypto Con, Reprise 0

Bradley Murray, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, looks at why so many persons who should have known better–indeed, likely would have known better have they stopped to think for a moment–fell for the scam. I commend his piece to your attention.

Aside:

Some years ago, I listened to a Linux podcast–now podfaded. One of the hosts was all into bitcoin. I saw right-off that it was the most fiat of all fiat currencies, based on and backed by nothing other than believers’ faith, but he actually believed it was real.

(Broken link fixed.)

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The Crypto Con 0

Transcript here.

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Misdirection Played Out 0

The writer of a letter to the editor of the Portland Press-Herald says it’s time to close the lid on the Republicans’ farcical flap over Hunter Biden’s much-storied maybe-mythical laptop.

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The Declaration of Independent 0

Krysten Sinema as a hand puppet manipulated by

Click to view the original image.

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Vaccine Nation 0

Thom runs the numbers.

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Republican Family Values 0

It is become increasingly difficult for me to avoid concluding that the core value of today’s Republican Party is little more than mean for the sake of mean.

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Angel Anvil 0

Florida Man.

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