From Pine View Farm

February, 2010 archive

Wind 0

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Dialectic 0

The Booman on the inherent contradictions of teabagging:

One piece of constructive advice I have for the people who are working to organize a Tea Party is that you’ll never succeed in sending people to Washington to be your federal representatives and then having them vote against the federal government doing anything. That’s just something Republicans say they are going to do when they are out of power. Lately, they’ve started voting that way, but it will last only so long as they are in the minority and then they will go back to building up huge deficits, cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans, and generally doing the bidding of Wall Street. It’s just the nature of the federal government that if you control it, you use it to do stuff.</blockquote>

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And Now for Something Completely Different 0

Chinese temple art:

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Packing the Court 0

It is idea that seems attractive at a distance, but, close up, it’s a non-starter.

FDR tried it and failed. I think that precedent would prevail.

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QOTD 0

Charles Darwin, from the Quotemaster:

False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.

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Comment Rescue, Fee Hand of the Market Dept. 1

A commenter to this post said:

What they need to do is stop the direct to consumer advertising, like all the other countries, with the exception of New Zealand.

I agree.

The advertisements for prescription drugs directed at private citizens put a lie to the theory that market forces will encourage businesses to act morally (remember that private citizens cannot purchase prescriptions drugs without a prescription; all they can do is pester their doctors for prescriptions).

Market forces encourage business to sell more stuff using any means possible.

For example.

Note that this article talks about the FDA’s failure to regulate. If the FDA is failing to regulate (and it is), it is not because the persons who work there don’t care.

It’s because 30 years of Republican Economic Theory and Faith in the Fee Hand of the Market have spayed the FDA.

The FDA is a gelding, as are most other regulatory agencies.

Republicans, under the tutelage of their corporate masters, have made it so.

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Sticky: Please Report Broken Stuff 2

I have moved this site to a new server. Please use the email link at the top of the page to tell me of any broken links, missing pictures, or anything else whifty. Please include a link to the specific post or page in your email so I can fix it quickly.

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Wes Montgomery 0

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Housekeeping 0

I have deactivated the Gatekeeper plugin in favor of Akismet.  If all goes well, no more “What color is an orange?”

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An Armed Society Is a Polite Society 3

Yahoos with guns make us all safer.

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What I Have Learned from Drug Commercials 2

It is really quite astounding what one can learn.

Apparently, as a nation, Americans can’t make a (ahem) move without drugs.

For example (Warning: May be almost as offensive as the commercials themselves):

Read more »

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The Entitlement Society 0

Warren Buffett on the banksters:

“It is the behavior of these CEOs and directors that needs to be changed: If their institutions and the country are harmed by their recklessness, they should pay a heavy price — one not reimbursable by the companies they’ve damaged nor by insurance. CEOs and, in many cases, directors have long benefited from oversized financial carrots; some meaningful sticks now need to be part of their employment picture as well,” he wrote.

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Dustbiters 0

While I was offline and then occupied with migrating the site, I lost track of the banksters.

I see that they are still showing their mastery of the universe by going out of business.

One down so far this week:

And two:

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QOTD 0

Andrew Sullivan:

(Republicans) have shown they don’t really care about the debt; what they care about is power.

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Hung Out To Dry 3

No legal protections for clotheslines in Virginia:

This year Puller tried a different name for the onetime backyard fixtures: “natural drying devices.” Her bill, SB221, was prompted by a constituent whose community association wouldn’t let her put up a clothesline. It passed the Senate 37-3.

(snip)

Still no dice. The (House of Delegates) panel tabled the measure, effectively killing it. The 5-2 vote broke down along party lines, Democrats for and Republicans against.

Since this proprosal protects an individual freedom (to hang clothes out on the line) and makes environmental sense, but does not involve guns, it is quite logical that Republicans would oppose it.

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iVodka 0

According to Bloomberg, there’s an app for that.

Diageo Plc is ramping up marketing to U.S. iPhone users and middle-aged American women as it seeks to restore sales growth and pricing power in the world’s most profitable spirits market.

(snip)

One of the distiller’s new initiatives is an application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone that allows the user to scan the barcode of a bottle of Smirnoff or Tanqueray gin and be shown cocktail recipes based on that liquor, Moseley said.

Diageo also aims to tap middle-aged women, who it says account for 62 percent of vodka purchases made in stores, by advertising and running promotions through food and lifestyle Web sites such as NBC Universal Inc.’s Today show.

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The Entitlement Society 0

David Bochover on the banksters bonuses for showing up to work policies demolishes the “we have to pay for talent” sophistry:

Bankers are not paid what they are because they have an irreplaceable skill, but because they operate in an industry that inevitably produces huge revenue in certain economic conditions. Well-positioned employees then grab the lion’s share of the available rewards before they get to the shareholders, who in the modern world, are mostly ordinary people through their pension holdings and savings (and, in the case of state-owned RBS, through their taxes). This brazen plunder is then retrospectively justified using the “talent” argument.

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Twits on Twitter 0

From the Guardian:

Twitter users were warned to look out for a phishing scam which sends tweeters a message saying “This you????” followed by a link. Curious recipients who click on the link are taken to a fake Twitter login page, where scammers are waiting to get their details.

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QOTD 0

George Harrison, via the Quotemaster:

As long as you hate, there will be people to hate.

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I’m Back (Updated) 0

I’ll muck with the theme tomorrow. Something’s not working with my Pine View Farm theme, but the database has been restored and seems to work okay on the new hosting outfit. There won’t be much posting until I finish unpacking and have the place looking more like home.

It’s been kind of nice to have a little vacation from blogging. Feeding the blogbeast can take some effort.

But I have saved up this gem, which pretty much sums up Republican Economic Theory:

Non Sequitur

Addendum, the Next Day:

Well, I’ve fixed everything but the color of the title at the top of the page. It’s starting to feel like home–like a new place with one piece of furniture that just doesn’t match and needs to be reupholstered. The upholstery has been ordered.

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