From Pine View Farm

September, 2023 archive

QOTD 0

Will Durant:

Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with chaos.

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Recommended Listening 0

Kimberley Johnson’s interview with Heather Thomas.

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Devolution 0

Grandmother and granddaughter walk through an amazing landscape of greenery, deer, foxes, rabbits, all beneath a rainbow.  Granddaughter is buried in her phone.  Grandmother says,

Click to view the original image.

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Misdirection Play, SOL* Dept. 0

James Rosen reviews the myth behind the misdirection and what the misdirection is meant to misdirect us from. A few tiny excerpts (emphasis added):

The drive for education standards, whether imposed by states or the federal government, is founded on a cruel fiction: If kids from poor families just applied themselves more; if their underpaid teachers just worked harder; if the standards for measuring progress were clearer and tougher — the problems in the classroom would vanish.

(snip)

The notion that more rigorous standards, whether imposed by states or the federal government, can significantly improve public education prevents us from confronting a harsh truth: Teachers, tasked with one of the most demanding and crucial jobs, don’t get paid enough.

(snip)

My experience has shown me that one great teacher is more important than any academic standards that produce only rote and superficial learning.

__________________

In my home state, “SOL” is alleged to stand for “Standards of Learning.”

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The Advice of the Turtle 0

Image of Mitch McConnell saying,

Via Job’s Anger.

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Hate and Mongers of Hate 0

The Portland Press-Herald reports on a surge in antisemitic Zoombombing.

I don’t have any words,

Just go read it for yourself.

Read more »

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The Confounded CEO 0

CEO, holding a martini and looking out over his factory, says,

Click for the original image.

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“Am Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

He had his politeness in the bag.

(And then, to ensure a happy homecoming, he blamed his wife.)

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Marie Antoinette Redux 0

The Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini paraphrases Arizona Representative Andy Biggs’s stance on the impending shutdown of the federal government:

Let them eat cake.

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QOTD 0

Wendy Kaminer:

If we all don’t enjoy the same rights, then no one enjoys any rights at all; some of us merely enjoy privilege.

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For Your Dining Pleasure . . . . 0

This evening, why not treat yourself to a David Brooks Special?

Not a lot of substance, but, true Brooksian fashion, an awful lot of empty hot air.

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The Medicine Show 0

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

There’s a reason why you’re supposed to unload guns when transporting them.

“Linden Police Chief David Dulude said the incident occurred shortly after 3:30 p.m. Witnesses reported a store employee, identified as Larry Lawrence, 39, of Queen City, was in the process of placing groceries in the rear seat of a vehicle, where a dog was located.

“Lawrence then began to pet the dog when a .22 rifle, also located in the rear seat of the vehicle, discharged striking Lawrence in the chest. Resuscitative measures were given to Lawrence by witnesses.

The story goes on to report that those “resuscitative measures” were not successful.

One more time, “responsible gun owner” is an oxymoron.

Musical NotesGuns and stupid, guns and stupid.
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you brother,
You can’t have one without the other.

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Will Bunch: “Red States Have Become Laboratories of Autocracy” 0

Let Will Bunch explain why he said that.

He can explain his reasoning much better than can I, but here’s a teeny bit more context for the above statement:

Under the sway of DeSantis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and far-right lawmakers in Wisconsin and elsewhere, red states have become laboratories of autocracy. They’ve laid the groundwork for anti-democratic rule in Washington by inventing voter-fraud scandals (DeSantis’ election police) and undoing the results of democratic elections (the unwarranted removal of two Florida elected prosecutors). Both DeSantis and Abbott endorse sometimes violent demonization of The Other, with their migrant flights and buses and a killer barrier against refugees in the Rio Grande. Republicans politicize justice by going after the innocent (Wisconsin justice Janet Protasiewicz) and clearing the guilty (Texas AG Ken Paxton). Their opposition to knowledge, science, and the tolerance that DeSantis calls “woke” is destroying education, with 47% of Florida’s public college professors looking for work in other states.

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Republican Reasoning 0

Twp Republican Elephants talk to a school boy.  One says,

Click for the original image.

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Doomed To Scroll 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Phil Reed looks at the depressing effects of drowning oneself in an unending torrent of news, both from traditional and “social” media. A snippet (emphasis added):

The news fed to digital devices is more-or-less bleak in nature, and its nature is outside people’s control—earthquakes, fires, wars, economic collapse, the impending sale of favourite football players to other teams, warts, and diarrhoea, are beyond the control of the person reading the story. All of this will reduce the strength and breadth of their behavioural repertoire (their willingness to do something),(2) focus their attention on the external,(5) and develop a helpless attributional style.(6) The key difference from traditional bad news is that digital bad news, because of the algorithm relating it to a person’s search strategies, will reinforce more strongly the internal dimension of the helpless attributional style.

Follow the link for the full article, including some suggestions for escaping the maelstrom of maliciousness and maintain a sense of perspective.

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The Enemy Within 0

Michael in Norfolk highlights one of our most toxic fifth columnists.

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QOTD 0

Graham Greene:

Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.

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The Art of the Con 0

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The Waiting Game 0

PoliticalProf.

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