From Pine View Farm

November, 2013 archive

Twits on Twitter 0

Adulterated twits.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

You can’t make this stuff up.

Civil society, NRA style.

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Flaming the Fans 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Matt Beardmore tries to understand why sports fans get violent. A nugget:

. . . on Opening Day 2011 before a game between the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. Giants fan Bryan Stow was savagely beaten and suffered brain trauma during an attack by Dodgers fans and just returned home a few months ago.

“Fan violence is really an adult form of bullying,” said Kathy Samoun, who was so moved by the Stow incident – and many others involving fan violence – that she founded the Bay Area-based Fans Against Violence non-profit organization, which “encourages fan safety at professional sporting events through education, discussion and partnerships with like-minded organizations.”

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Big-Time Football: Irretrievably Corrupt 0

Bob Molinaro yearns for simpler days:

Should I go ahead and cast a Heisman vote for Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston if by Dec. 9, the final day of balloting, we’re still waiting to learn whether Winston will be charged with sexual assault? And if I don’t vote for him before we know anything more, am I presuming his guilt? I liked it better when Heisman selections could be based on stats, TV highlights and Brent Musburger’s gosh-darn hyperbole.

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“Uncontroversial Facts” 0

Noam Chomsky takes down 9/11 Truthers.

Even if you don’t like Noam Chomsky because you think he’s much too radical (he’s not, by the way, as history has proved), watch this. It’s a master wielding a scalpel in public discourse.

Via TPM.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness continues to abound.

Christopher Jackson, 35, was waiting for another shopper to leave a parking space when Ronnie Sharp, 61, began sounding his horn behind Jackson’s vehicle, the Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office said.

Sheriff Brian Hieatt said Jackson got out of his vehicle and confronted Sharp, punching him, and Sharp responded by severely cutting Jackson on the arm with a knife and pulling out a rifle. The rifle was not loaded.

Have you noticed that this stuff almost never happens at a Target store?

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QOTD 0

Clausewitz:

The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would prefer to take over our country unopposed.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

The holidays promulgate a plethora of politeness.

Macomb County Sheriff Lt. John Michalke said a 56-year-old White Lake Township woman was handling the gun — being passed from person-to-person inside the home in the 58000 block of Deerfield — and pulled the trigger, causing it to discharge and strike her sister in the arm. The woman who fired the round apparently didn’t realize the gun was loaded, he said.

Police say the shooting occurred after the homeowner, a 48-year-old Washington Township man, retrieved the loaded Glock 21 handgun from a nightstand to show to his guests.

One more person who is just too damned stupid to own a firearm . . . .

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The Christmas (Shopping) Spirit 0

They’ve got it.

Authorities say a police officer suffered a broken wrist as he broke up a brawl between two men waiting in line for Black Friday shopping deals at a Southern California Walmart store.

But wait! There’s more!

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A Christmas Story 0

Just read it.

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Thinking Black Thoughts 2

Bruce Maiman tries to understand why persons subject themselves to shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving and finds, as Ecclesiastes teaches us, that it’s all illusion.

A nugget:

Another study found that camping out, standing in line the night before, induces a sense of loyalty that researchers call a “collective consumption ritual.” While most of us find waiting in line torturous, these people like it. They even look forward to it. One researcher said, “For the person who’s been doing this for decades, this is as much of their Thanksgiving tradition as having turkey.”

There ya go: The orgy of greed vs. the serenity of family*!

It probably doesn’t pay to tell these people that the best deals don’t even happen on Black Friday. The Wall Street Journal found that nearly one-third of last year’s Black Friday bargains being advertised had been available previously at lower prices.

But as one analyst explained, “People associate Black Friday with good prices, and that eliminates the need to check price.”

________________

*Methinks that dependeth on the family.

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American Sticktoitiveness 0

Guy camped out in front of Black Friday sale for

Via My Local Rag.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Be polite to your elders.

An Ooltewah man who shot and killed what he thought was a middle-of-the-night prowler — actually a 72-year-old man with advanced Alzheimer’s disease — Wednesday in Walker County, Ga., hasn’t been charged but he might be later, authorities said.

(I trust that the gun nut is happy that he’s fulfilled his Wyatt Earp fantasy and demonstrated his capacity for courtesy.)

Afterthought:

The more stories of this sort that I see, the more I am convinced that many gun nuts have one trait in common.

They are frightened little men.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Bring up children politely.

The Fredonia Marshal’s Office says Donoho allegedly brought out a gun while inside a home with his child and five other children about 5 p.m. Saturday.

He’s accused of pointing the gun at the children and firing off a shot inside the home. There were no injuries.

After all, children learn best by example.

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Facebook Frolics 0

The internet is a public pool, and the FBI wants to go fishing in it:

A daybreak, guns-drawn FBI raid on the wrong house has spurred a lawsuit in which the bureau’s legal laser sights are now focused on the occupants’ Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Details at the link. Here’s the thumbnail:

The Feds raided a wrong house, looking for someone who had moved out two years before, frightening and humiliating the current residents. (The FBI, it would seem, is incapable of determining who lives where when. Maybe they need to talk with the NSA. Or possibly public records.)

The residents have now sued.

Now the FBI, as might any bureaucracy, is looking for some way out from under, natch, by smearing the victims.

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QOTD 0

Alfred Adler:

The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.

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One Shop Stop 0

Strange.

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Into the Valley of Death . . . . 0

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A Picture Is Worth 0

Boehner:  Failed to dismantle Obamacare in 46 votes.  Succeeded in signing up for Obamacare in one day.

He chose the “orange plan.”

Via BartCop.

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American Taliban 0

Republican, carrying

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

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