From Pine View Farm

March, 2023 archive

Arrested Development 0

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier points out that no one should be surprised that Donald Trump didn’t get arrested yesterday. In his article, he notes

TRUMP SAYS HE’LL BE ARRESTED TUESDAY blared the typical chyron on cable news, with variations persisting for more than 72 hours, all proving that an industry pretty much fixated on Trump’s every utterance for going on eight years still hasn’t learned the true value of that which follows TRUMP SAYS.

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QOTD 0

Clarence Darrow:

I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.

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“Words Mean What I Want Them To Mean” 0

First woman:  Our school are woke!  CRT is woke!  Libraries are woke!  Libs are woke!  Books are woke!  Second woman:  I see--define woke!  First womaaN;; Uh, woke--woke is--woke--uh--woke is--stuff I don't like.

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Guns and Posers 0

A Rand gesture.

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This New Gilded Age, Little Timmy Gets a Job Dept. 0

Mike and Farron point out that Little Timmy gets to go back to the assembly line, thanks to today’s Republican Party.

Today’s Republican Party is a vile and loathsome thing.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Be polite in the drive-thru lane.

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If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0

Frame One:  Kevin McCarthy says,

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Dis Coarse Discourse 0

Yes, it’s true. Twits own Twitter.

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Spring Broken 0

He vacationed in St. Petersburg and turned into Florida Man.

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QOTD 0

Tryon Edwards:

Prejudices are rarely overcome by argument; not being founded in reason they cannot be destroyed by logic.

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And Now for a Musical Interlude 0

Aside:

The contrast between this performance and the stupid jingle in the ad that followed was–well, words fail me.

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The Fee Hand of the Market Meets the Misdirection Play 0

Title:  The Exciting Adventures of the Invisible Hand of the Free Market Man.  Frame One, captioned

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How Stuff Works, “The Dictator’s Handbook” 0

David talks with Professor Alastair Smith about his book, The Dictator’s Handbook. I find it an interesting perspective on realpolitik.

(At about the 10 minute mark, the discussion turns to U. S. politics. If you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, I’d strongly recommend picking up the discussion there. And, remember, voting is not a right, it’s a duty.)

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Self-politeness is the politest kind.

Close to midnight on Saturday, Lansing Police were called to a house on West Jolly near Waverly Road. According to authorities, a man accidentally shot himself while holstering a handgun at his home.

We are a society of stupid.

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The Myth of Multitasking 0

Many years ago, I tried out for a tech support job where my potential employers had built “multitasking” into the job description. One was expected to deal with phone calls, emails, and chats simultaneously. It was a great experience, but I ended up not making it through the training period.

Now comes Peg Streep at Psychology Today Blogs to explain that multitasking is a myth (emphasis added); follow the link for the complete piece.

Yes, the very organ that sets us apart from all the other creatures, and it is truly fabulous in myriad ways. But it does have its limits and those limits come into play when we try to multitask. The brain’s huffing and puffing in these moments makes us think we’re getting more done but, in Marci’s words: “When we multitask, we don’t get more done. We just expend more effort and strain areas of our brain.” The area of the brain in question is the prefrontal cortex, the command center of executive function, and multitasking just creates bottlenecks, disrupting communication between the parts of the brain as neuroimaging makes clear. But our thought processes collude and, because multitasking feels like more work, we’re likely to believe that, like a physical workout, feeling the strain is a good thing and that we’re being more productive. Nope.

Aside:

The rock that sank my boat had nothing to do with my technical or people skills. Rather, this company placed great emphasis on telling callers and chatters when you would get back the them. I wasn’t able to get that down.

Driving away from that office for the last time was one of the two times in my life I have felt as if a physical weight were being lifted from my shoulders.

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Republican Family Values in This New Gilded Age 0

Republican Elephant to little boy:  I outlawed drag shows because your safety is my number one priority.  Not, get going, you're late for your shift at the slaughterhouse.

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War and Mongers of War 0

It was two decades ago that U. S. started the Great and Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq. I remember standing outside in the smoking area at work. It was the same spot where we had stood and looked up at empty skies in the days following September 11. Though we were just a few miles east of Philadelphia International Airport under one of the approach routes, there were no planes for days . . . .

I was chatting with my boss (who was, by the way, one of the best bosses I ever had). He was opining that “Iraq will be sorry that we have a Texan for president.”

My response was simply, “Dave, I have a bad feeling out this.”

I take no comfort in my qualms having been justified.

That moment came to mind because of something my old friend Noz wrote yesterday about the run up to the Great and Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq. Here’s a bit of his post:

Don’t buy the 20 years after the fact spin that the Iraq War only appeared senseless in retrospect. The ridiculousness of the idea was right there in the open from the start. Lots of people tried hard to tell the public how ridiculous it was, and they were mocked and marginalized for it. Meanwhile, the people who mocked and marginalized them mostly kept their influence to this day, without ever paying a real price for the death and destruction they made happen. That’s a big legacy of the Iraq War.

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QOTD 0

Jean de La Bruy:

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.

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Sugar Bombs 0

Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss cereal offenders.

I remember when I was a young ‘un, back in the olden days, when Coco Puffs first came on the market, my brother and I talked my mother into buying a box.

We found them–er–less than desirable.

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Extra-Special Bonus QOTD 0

Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards and Gavin MacLeod as Murray Slaughter:

Moore: You said you voted for Peterson, didn’t you?

MacLeod: Yeah.

Moore: You mind my asking why?

MacLeod: Sure. He was a Moe.

Moore: What’s a Moe?

MacLeod: Eenie Meeney Miney Mo.

And that’s how democracy dies.

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