First Looks category archive

Josh Gohlke is somewhat taken aback at Americans’ susceptibility to the false claims of the right-wing medicine show. Here’s a bit of his article; follow the link for more evidence of stupid.

Meanwhile, the most extensive trial of the drug’s (Ivermectin–ed.) potential to treat COVID to date, recently detailed by the Wall Street Journal, found invermectin did not help rid patients of the coronavirus, resolve their symptoms, reduce hospitalization or prevent death. One expert said the study “should really help put to rest” the ivermectin craze. Good luck with that.

The disinformation-industrial complex is so devoted to this chimera that it’s accused Paxlovid, the drug that works, of being a repackaged version of the dewormer, coining the term “Pfizermectin.

The Window at the White Cat, by Mary Roberts Rinehart. It is a good mystery well written and well read.

The persons who read for Librivox.org are volunteers, and some of them do better than others. The person who recorded this is one of the best I’ve encountered.

Badtux sees into the future, when all have been assimilated by the Zuckerborg.

Afterthought:

In the olden days, when I was a young ‘un, I read a lot of science fiction; I particularly favored Asimov and Heinlein (Heinlein was rather a jerk, but he was a good writer). I drifted away from science fiction when it became dystopian realistic. I think the last contemporary science fiction book I read was Beyond the Blue Event Horizon.

I remember reading a story, written in the 1950s or 1960s, in which the writer envisioned a world like that described by Badtux, in which persons remained in their rooms glued to their television sets (it was long before personal computers were a thing, or even an idea).

But I can’t for the life of me remember who wrote it.

Isaac Bailey has had it with the Graham cracker.

Rebecca explores how repetition perpetuates truthiness.

Read the transcript.

Last night, the cable went out. No television. No inner webs.

Then the electricity went out. Then the electricity came back. Then the cable came back.

Then the cable went out again and stayed out almost all night.

(I’m guessing that it was the mild spring showers we were enduring. Also, stuff wears out.)

We were forced to amuse ourselves.

Gasp.

Via Job’s Anger.

A moment of truth.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States says, in part,

Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech . . . .

It does not go on to say

. . . and such speech shall be immune from critique or criticism in perpetuity.

I’ve added a new site to the blogroll, over there —-> on the sidebar: Yellowdog Grannie.

It’s a hoot!

A. Why, a Rand gesture, of course.

John Young enumerates some of the similarities between Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine and Donald Trump’s assault on the 2020 election. Here’s one.

Speaking of long views, a basic misconception about Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election is that it was all impulse, not planning.

Much like Putin assembling his forces, Trump telegraphed his intentions long before voters had their say.

Then, like Putin, Trump relied on pliant partisans to do the unthinkable, to rationalize tactics they knew they couldn’t.

It’s a Republican thing.

Off to drink liberally.

Over the years, I’ve posted a number of images from a site named “All Things Amazing” (always attributing the source), a site based in Russia (the URL was a *.ru URL). I appreciated the webmaster’s love for the outre and the impish.

Today, this came into my rss feed. Note that, by the time you read this, the link may not work, or, at least, may not work fully.

(Russian text snipped.)
________________________________________________________________________________________________

yesterday I received this notice
“ATTENTION
On 10.03.2022, the site radikal.ru ceases to work.
From this date, videos and pictures will not be available.
To avoid losing your content, save it to your disk.”

this will be the end of the legendary retro_dome and adski_kafeteri, because 90% of images in these communities were uploaded and stored on this photo-host.

if you don’t know who to thank for the holes instead of images in this community, write a collective letter of gratitude to Putin and his war.
but the holes in this community are incalculably easier to survive, than the holes instead of the windows of Ukrainian residential buildings, hospitals and schools.
Full article
https://adski-kafeteri.livejournal.com/3079318.html

It’s not much, but it is a straw at which to grasp in these troubled times.

I always associated that phrase with the old Superman television show starring George Reeves, in which it was often uttered by Perry White, Clark Kent’s editor at The Daily Planet.

I don’t know the origin of that phrase, but I just learned that it is much older than the 1950s, as it occurs in Mary Roberts Rinehart’s More Tish, which Rinehart wrote a century ago after her stint as a war correspondent in WWI.

Mangy comments at the Youtube page:

Only really weak, insecure, pathetic, or painfully obsequious individuals like Tucker Carlson or Donald Trump would admire and praise Vladimir Putin, a coward who hides from his own people, while sending troops to carry out bloody attacks on citizens of a friendly neighboring country. Such a person is not “manly”, but merely a sociopathic madman. The weaklings that admire him only do so because they believe they are powerful by association.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.