From Pine View Farm

October, 2013 archive

Cooch and the Cuckoos’ Bedroom Eyes 0

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Susie Sampson’s Sister Scorns Selfies 2

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QOTD 0

Phyllis Diller:

The real reason your pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can’t see him laughing at you.

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DeBug 0

Health Care.  1980s, Public:

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Update: Open tag fixed.

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A Picture Is Worth 0

Wonder what the internet actually looks like?

Find out.

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The Rich Are Different from You and Me 0

They don’t sweat in the shop.

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Outreach 0

Chart showing grown

Via PoliticalProf.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Show fellow drivers how polite you can be.

The incident occurred shortly before 5:30 a.m. Thursday on southbound I-680. Both drivers exited at Mission Boulevard and turned right onto Brown Road, and one driver fired a gun at the other car, hitting the driver, according to police.

The shooter then fled and has not been located by police.

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All That Was Old Is New Again 0

In the Roanoke Times, John Winfrey sees precedent for teabaggery, and it’s not pretty. (Unfortunately he trips over Godwin’s Law along the way).

A nugget; follow the link for the rest:

From the beginning, the tea party intended to shut down our government and destroy all of our social programs. Just how far is it willing to go? Its members have gained the power to do that, and it fits their ideology. Surely by now we realize that we are dealing with an ideology, not rational, moral thought.

In the fairly recent past, the world has seen how ideology can trump common sense and basic morality. It happened with the Church and Galileo, and later during the Inquisitions. It happened with Hitler and National Socialism, with Mao Zedong in China and with Pol Pot in Cambodia. We should no longer be surprised that ideology can trump common sense and basic morality; it has been done so many times throughout history.

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A Question for Windows Users 2

From the Inky:

CryptoLocker, a new form of malware infecting computers nationwide, locks up files and holds them for ransom.

CryptoLocker, is not a myth or rumor, says Snopes.com, and it makes files “as good as deleted,” unless you pay as much as $300 dollars or euros, according to Sophos, an Internet security provider.

(The article goes on to detail how to protect yourself.)

I have one Windows computer; it’s set to dual-boot with Linux, meaning that, at boot time, I can choose one or the other. Mostly, I run Linux (currently, I have Mageia installed), but I periodically boot into Windows to grab updates and keep my Windows knowledge up-to-date.

Thursday, I booted over to Windows.

Thirty minutes and two reboots later, Windows declared that it was updated. Yesterday, the AV declared that it needed to be updated; as part of the update, it wanted to add a search bar to my browser and other useless stuff to the program load. It also demanded a reboot.

Then Java demanded an update, and it tried to sneak McAffee on the computer. Finally, as I tried to watch a video, the video player I have been testing wanted an update; it tried to sneak four additional things onto my computer.

It was 30 minutes before I could start watching my video.

When you give Linux permission to update programs, the updates run silently in the background and no reboot is required and no attempt is made to smuggle unwanted stuff onto the box (the only time a reboot is required is when the Linux kernel itself is updated, so you can start using the new kernel).

So this is my question for Windows users:

Why the hell do you put up with this?

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QOTD 0

Marcus Aurelius:

The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues.

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Extra Special Bonus QOTD 0

Thoreau (no, not that Thoreau; Thoreau from Unqualified Offerings):

The worst dishonesty is the sort that disguises itself as disinterested truth-seeking.

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Brains, or Not 2

Someone at Fox News decided to complain that the “Walking Dead“* is a sign of American decay, much like the Police Gazette, dime novels, silent films, Esquire Magazine, the wireless, comic books, and many other predecessors.

Tony Norman isn’t having any of it.

“Is watching ‘The Walking Dead’ seriously hurting American society?” Dr. Manny Alvarez asked in the lead sentence. “I would argue ‘Yes.’ Hate me all you want, or call me paranoid and misinformed, but there is one common theme that is pervasive in American pop culture today: violence. Even more specifically, zombie violence. The idea of a zombie-infested world inspires fantasies of monsters possessed by an uncontrollable rage to kill, and viewers get a thrill imagining what it would be like to participate in this new world order.”

Zombies possessed of an uncontrollable rage sounds a lot like Fox News regular Sen. Ted Cruz and his gang of nihilists who shut down the government with no winnable strategy.

Do read the rest.

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*It could not possibly be as stultifying as The Beverly Hillbillies.

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News, Ripped from the Ticker 0

The usual warnings.

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Twits on Twitter 0

Deep background in the background of the background twits.

Having worked in passenger rail, I can attest that a passenger train is a public place and should be considered as such.

The twitter may have been, at worst, rude to twit about twittees talking in a public place, but the twittees were stupid.

Also, fewer anonymous sources grinding axes on “deep background” and more willingness to stand behind one’s opinions in public would likely benefit the polity.

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HTMHell 0

Republican in trashed living room:  The Obamacare website didn't work, so I had to destroy everything.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

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The Voter Fraud Fraud 0

Sometimes, the mask slips:

Via TPM, which reports that the man who told the truth has been canned, even though, according to him, one of his best friends is black.*

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*Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, yes, he said that.

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U. S. Chamber of Horrors 0

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QOTD 0

Denis Diderot:

From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.

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Can’t Catch a Break 0

You can’t make this stuff up.

An intoxicated Floridian who allegedly battered his pregnant girlfriend told police that he was being unfairly arrested since “Obama said cops always listen to women.”

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