Author's archive
What You Watch Is Watching You 0
From Ars Technica, via Bruce Schneier:
Scary details at the link.
Aside:
And people fret about government surveillance . . . .
Methinks corporate surveillance is much more dangerous.
The Unswayables 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear offers a theory as to why Donald Trump’s cult is so loyal to a man who has repeatedly demonstrated that he is loyal to no one and nothing. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
Trump and his MAGA slogan symbolize the maintenance of all kinds of hierarchies. His name on a sign means support for men in charge, white people in charge, LGBTQ people in the closet, Christianity assumed, and immigrants deported. While not all Trump supporters fit all of these categories, each has at least of one these hierarchies in mind when it comes to their support. Trump could indeed shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose support because what he does is literally meaningless. All of his meaning is symbolic.
I commend the entire piece to your attention.
(Missing link found.)
Happy Birthday to Me 0
This blog first came live 19 years ago today from my guest room on one of the original IBM Pentiums (given to me by a co-worker who was cleaning out a closet) running Slackware v. 10.x. I wanted to learn how to self-host a website.
A lot has happened since then, including database crashes, data loss, migration to a hosting provider, migration from shared hosting to a VPS, etc., etc. I’m no longer self-hosting, but I’m still learning stuff . . . .
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
Eamma and the crew discuss Fox News’s attempt to make birtherism great again.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Settle disputes over parking places with politeness.
Thus passeth another day in the NRA’s Gun Den of Eden.
This New Gilded Age 0
At Above the Law, Joe Patrice notes that, in real estate price-fixing management company RealPage’s own words, the price-fix was in.
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
A Tune for the Times 0
(Warning: Short commercial at about the one-minute mark, but the tune is worth it.)
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?
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.
Republican Thought Police 0
“Vengeance is ours,” sayeth the Republican Thought Police.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
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.
A Tune for the Times 0
Mangy sings of Trump’s promises.