From Pine View Farm

August, 2024 archive

QOTD 0

Phoebe Atwood Taylor, in the voice of Asey Mayo:

Funny. Civ’lization doesn’t seem like such a swell thing when you’re in it, but when you ain’t got it, it begins t’ appear like there was somethin’ in it after all.

Taylor, Phoebe Atwood, Death Lights a Candle (Woodstock, VT: Countryman Press, 2005) p. 125

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A Tune for the Times 0

(Warning: Short commercial at about the one-minute mark, but the tune is worth it.)

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Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

The New Secesh decide that, if all else fails to bring back the Confederacy, let’s craft a Way-Back machine?

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“Facts Are What People Think”* 1

Cartoon lampooning the reluctance news media, especially main stream broadcast media, to call out Trump's lies for being lies.

Click to view the original image.

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*Ronald Reagan.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

David debunks de bunk.

Aside:

This conspiracy theory is, indeed, laughable from the git-go, as David points out.

But it’s not really about elections.

It’s about rallying the bigots and racists who are Trump’s base.

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Republican Thought Police 0

Vengeance is ours,” sayeth the Republican Thought Police.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

A 5-year-old Utah boy died when he accidentally shot himself with a handgun in a small town south of Salt Lake City on Thursday, police said.

Lt. Mike Wall with the Santaquin Police Department told KSL-TV the boy found a 9 mm handgun in the back room of his house and fired a single shot.

He may have “accidentally” shot himself, true, but some “responsible gun owner” negligently left that firearm where he could get at it.

Too many guns. Too much stupid.

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If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0

The Lake effect.

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QOTD 0

Audrey Hepburn:

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.

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A Tune for the Times 0

Mangy sings of Trump’s promises.

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This New Gilded Age 0

Thom looks at the elitest reasoning behind the “Reagan Revolution” and at how it has backfired big time.

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Republican Family Values 0

Michael in Norfolk calls out the con.

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Market Farces 0

Peter is reading

Click to view the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Yet another random act of politeness claims yet another child.

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The Scofflaw 0

At the Las Vegas Sun, Leonard Green looks at Donald Trump’s practice of using songs at his rallies, even after being served legal notice by the songs’ copyright holders not to do so.

He closes his article with a suggestion for the next song’s copyright Trump should infringe.

Follow the link and name that tune.

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What’s in a Name-Calling? 1

At Psychology Today Blogs, Loriann Oberlin explores the psychology of name-calling, which has become an increasing aspect of dis coarse discourse. A snippet (which sounds a lot like someone in the news):

Calling others names they do not deserve stems from insecurities, displaced aggression, or the need to dominate and/or control a partner/friend/coworker/etc.

Those who do not have much ego strength build themselves up by tearing down innocent others. It’s a maladaptive pattern that could stem from learned behavior—that is, witnessing others do this in childhood. It may also arise from unresolved emotional issues.

Follow the link for her suggestions for dealing with this pestilence upon the polity.

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QOTD 0

Frank Zappa:

Take the Kama Sutra. How many people died from the Kama Sutra, as opposed to the Bible? Who wins?

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And Now for a Musical Interlude 0

A great performance, but a tenuous premise . . . .

(I had this tune in my head because I recently heard it sampled in a BBC episode of Agatha Christie’s Crooked House at The Old Time Radio Theater–link on the sidebar.)

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Dis Coarse Discourse 0

Rat:  How long does it take for the sun to travel around the Earth?  Goat:  What are you talking about?  The sun doesn't travel around the Earth.  The Earth travels around the sun.  Rat:  Don't tell me you fell for that Earth-round-the-sun hoax, you gullible government stooge.  Goat:  When did we all lose our minds?  Pig:  I may never have had one.

Click to view the original image.

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Lies and Lying Liars Dance a Walz 0

The speed with which Republicans have moved to misrepresent, besmirch, and smear the record of Minnesota governor Tim Walz takes one’s breath away. Indeed, it might lead an optimist to conclude that Republicans are afraid that he might attract votes in November.

At the Idaho State Journal, Mike Murphy debunks de bunk spread by Idaho Republican Party chairwoman Dorothy Moon in a recent column about Walz. Here’s one bit of the bunk he debunks; follow the link for the others.

Moon begins her scrutiny of Walz by saying “Under Walz, Minnesota put tampons in boys’ bathrooms….”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop right there, Chairwoman Moon. You are off to a bad start. This is not what happened at all.

The bill Gov. Walz signed was a budget item providing free menstrual products to all students who needed them beginning in fourth grade, making Minnesota one of 28 states that currently require schools to provide period products.

Two female students, ages 14 and 16, proposed the idea to the Minnesota legislature. The girls had been taking extra tampons to school to share with classmates who could not afford them.

One of the girls summarized their efforts: “It wasn’t part of a political agenda. It was to make students feel safe.” Too bad our adult political leaders often fail to be so levelheaded.

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