First Looks category archive

At the Austin American-Statesman, Rex Huppke writes about Texas Governor Abbott’s fixation with razor-wiring the border. He notes that Texas has now strung razor wire along part of the border between Texas and New Mexico. A snippet:

. . . the supposed intent of this decidedly dangerous fencing is to keep migrants who cross the Mexican border into New Mexico from making their way to Texas. Of course the actual intent has nothing to do with seriously addressing the issue of illegal immigration, a problem no border-state governor or presidential administration has ever been able to solve.

It’s a way for Abbott to pretend he’s tough on immigration while pillorying President Joe Biden’s border policies, which have focused more on addressing root causes than cruel stunts. It’s another thing Abbott can add to his “Nobody Is Crueler To Migrants Than Ol’ Greg!” vision board.

Remember, just because you see it on a computer device screen, it ain’t necessarily so.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Lawrence Samuel tries to make sense of All Hallows’ Eve and our fascination therewith. He notes:

Various scholars have argued that Halloween is rooted in human biology, specifically fear—an emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous or presents a threat. In scary situations, adrenaline and other hormones are released as the body prepares for fight or flight.

By constructing artificial threatening scenarios, however, we’re able to contain fear in a safe, socially endorsed manner.

He goes on to offer a theory as to why the Hallowe’en season seems to be getting bigger (and longer) every year.

Robert Reich follows the money.

I reserve the right to correct grammar, spelling, and syntax errors without notification.

If I broke it, I can fix it.

Via All Things Amazing, an image site (some images NSFW).

At Above the Law, Kathryn Rubino reports.Donald Trump’s legal team tries to go viral, citing fear of COVID.

The judge belayed their scheme:

Judge Arthur Engoron denied the request, wryly noting, “Masks are available. We are going to proceed.”

David Pakman notes the irony.

Seth parses the perfidy.

Afterthought:

To the best of my recollection, Congresspersons take an oath to support the Constitution, not to subvert it.

Debian Sid with the Fluxbox window manager. Thunderbird and Firefox are shaded in a tabbed window* and Konsole is shaded below them. Xclock is in the upper right; GKrellM in the lower right. The Fluxbox right-click menu is to the left (I do loves me the right-click menu). The wallpaper is from my collection.

___________________

*A “tabbed window” is one in which two or more applications share the same title bar. You shift between them by clicking on the appropriate area on the title bar. I like tabbed windows because they reduce screen clutter.

Thom discusses how the New Secesh use the fear factor.

By the end of the month, two Alabama hospitals will stop delivering babies. A third will follow suit a few weeks later.

That will leave two counties — Shelby and Monroe — without any birthing hospitals, and strip a predominantly Black neighborhood in Birmingham of a sought-after maternity unit.

(snip)

The closures come as the need for obstetrics care in Alabama is anticipated to rise as a result of its abortion laws. The state has banned almost all abortions since June 2022.

The report points our that Alabama is not the only state where this is happening.

Much more at the link.

Another lawyer gets caught with his briefs down, and Above the Law’s Joe Patrice says it sure looks like ChatGPT to him.

Off to drink liberally.

This is the text of a letter to an elected official that I will be putting in the mail tomorrow:

I am receiving voice mails and texts from you and persons claiming to represent you on my cell phone claiming that you are my Representative.

I do not and have never lived or voted in (your state).

Please stop.

I await his response.

Afterthought:

I do think it’s an innocent mistake. I suspect he purchased a mailing/calling list from the wrong persons.

I look forward to his response.

Jamie Raskin posits that today’s Republican Party is being led by the nose by Russia’s wannabe Tsar.

Via C&L, which has commentary.

At The Roanoke Times, Don Kusler discusses the thought police wolf prowling in the sheep’s clothing of “parents’ rights.” A snippet:

Parents should be involved in the education and upbringing of their children. We have that right.

While it may be my right to direct the education and upbringing of my children, it is not my right to impose my views about parenting on my child’s entire classroom, school or community.

That, sadly, is precisely what the culture warriors of the current parent’s “rights” movement are trying to do.

I commend the complete article to your attention.

Yet another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” exposes a child to politeness.

Police say a woman arrived at the school to pick up one of her children and parked her vehicle in the parking lot of the school. The woman left the car, leaving her 11-year-old and 3-year-old children unattended.

Underneath the front passenger seat was a loaded 9mm Glock handgun which had been stored in an unlocked case, inadvertently left by the female’s fiancé, according to state police.

The three-years-old found the gun and fired it, but, in this case at least, no one was injured.

Afterthought:

One must needs note that “negligently” and “inadvertently,” like “negligently” and “accidentally,” are not synonyms.

At Pyschology Today Blogs, Jeremy Sherman discusses how jerks jerk people about. (For some reason beyond my ken, he chooses to refer to them as “trumpbots.”) Here are his main points; follow the link for an in-depth exploration of each one.

• Wisdom is knowing the healthy moves for the different circumstances.
• The opposite of wisdom is absolute hypocrisy, which can be had by claiming that whatever you do is the best.
• People grant themselves trumped-up (fake) trumpcards, whereby whatever they do is automatically ideal.
• We enable “trumpbots” by thinking that they think or believe or care about anything but winning.