From Pine View Farm

September, 2012 archive

QOTD 0

Ogden Nash:

Middle age is when you’re sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn’t for you.

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The Voter Fraud Fraud, Millenium Bug Dept. 0

The lady has voted since 1932.

She does not drive, so she does not have a license (and getting a license in Pennsylvania is a convoluted process–I know; I used to live there).

She did not have a passport because she never expected to travel internationally (and, if she had had one once, it likely would have expired by now).

She could not get an ID because whoever programmed the damned computer didn’t believe she could be.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said Friday it had established a new procedure for the very oldest state residents to obtain the newly required voter ID after its computer system would not recognize the age of a 105-year-old woman.

The Republican gut out the vote effort proceeds apace, encountering only small bumps in the road as it moves to disenfranchise voters Republicans don’t like.

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Droning On, Out of Sight, Out of Mind 0

The geniuses at Apple are keeping its iJunk safe from news about robotic death raining from the sky:

Begley hunkered down and made his first iPhone app, Drones+, which tracks drone strikes by aggregating information from a Bureau of Investigative Journalism database.

(snip)

Begley said that Drones+ was rejected twice by Apple on technical grounds since he first submitted it to the Cupertino, California-based maker of iPhones, iPads, iPods and Macintosh computers in July.

A third rejection came this week, according to Begley, with Apple informing him that Drones+ would not be allowed in the App Store because many people were likely to find the content objectionable.

iJunk apps don’t download themselves and force users to run them.

Apparently, in Apple world, robotic death raining from the sky is quite acceptable, thank you, so long as no one learns of it on iJunk.

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Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0

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Rules of the Row, Citizens Benighted Dept. 0

Robyn Blumner considers the state of political discourse and suggests some new norms. Here’s one.

Rule One: Identify yourself. Reputation is a powerful civilizing force, while anonymity exerts the opposite push. The role of anonymous money for vicious political attack ads coarsens the debate. The people giving would never affix their names to what’s being said. Stop the cowardice and lower the temperature.

The rest pretty much flow from that one.

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Like, Wow 2

Facebook is cracking down on fraudulent “Likes.”

Ensuring the integrity of “Likes” is serious business for Facebook, which depends on advertising revenue. Many of the ad campaigns companies conduct on Facebook are designed to garner “Likes,” a sign that their marketing message has resonated with consumers.

“It’s their currency,” said Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at research firm Altimeter Group. “Facebook is playing the Federal Reserve, to take the counterfeit currency off the market to ensure that there’s quality in the marketplace.”

I wonder how many regular users actually pay attention to who likes this corporation of that bit of over-priced lickspittle merchandise.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Look politely:

The argument started with the two exchanging dirty looks, police said.

The shooter pulled out a pistol, the teen’s brother dropped the laundry detergent and his mom froze up, police said. The 17-year-old tried to run but was struck in the side of his back.

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Sucklers at the Government Teat, Local Babbitt Dept. (Updated) 0

I must congratulate the local rag for uncovering Virginia Beach’s surreptitious effort to lobby the public, that is, the taxpayers of Virginia Beach, on behalf of building a sports palace for the rumored maybe sometime mystical build-it-and-they-will-come professional sports team.

Here’s the lead; sordid details at the link.

Part of the nearly $700,000 the city’s economic development authority has spent on plans to build an Oceanfront arena has gone toward Internet and social media campaigns that advocate the project.

“New Arena Means New Jobs, New Revenue and New Era for Virginia Beach,” said the headline Friday on BringItVA.com.

The related Bring It VA Facebook page includes testimonials about the economic impact of the arena – “Who can’t be in favor of a project like this?” one said – interspersed with “Did you know?” claims such as “The arena will create over 1,200 full-time jobs.” And @BringItVA carries the message on Twitter.

There’s a reason that developers are unwilling to build sports palaces on their own hook.

They know it’s a money-losing proposition.

I could go on, but I won’t. Just read the article.

Addendum, Later That Same Morning:

A columnist at the local rag has a novel analysis of the prospects for the sports palace.

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Sucklers at the Government Teat 0

Daniel Ruth looks behind the curtain at the backstories of those “small-guvmint” Republicans who “graced” the stage in Tampa.

Ryan, Rubio and Bondi, the Peter, Paul and Mary of the public trough, are supposed to represent the next generation of fiscally tight-wadded champions of the working classes fending off the oppressive, ham-handed faceless bureaucrats, while they owe their entire careers (and political celebrity) to that very same government they claim to want to rein in.

If it wasn’t for government, they might actually have to go out and get real jobs.

They just want the whole teat for themselves and their sponsors.

Read the rest.

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Have Cake, Eat It Too 0

IOKIYAR. Contradict Me explains.

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QOTD 0

Vladimir Nabakov:

I cannot conceive how anybody in his right mind should go to a psychoanalyst.

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