From Pine View Farm

May, 2014 archive

“Get Off My Lawn” 0

The default position of the resident curmudgeon at my local rag is that “other people can’t have nice things.” Rarely–only very occasionally–does she deviate.

Generally, though, when she tackles a public issue, the conclusion is forgone. Only the path to it is in question.

This time, it’s about children who want an education.

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Facebook Frolics 0

It’s the real (estate) thing.

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Much Ado . . . . 0

Republicans screaming

As Dave Johnson points out,

Here is the difference: Republicans seem to sincerely believe that Americans only rally around Republican Presidents when the country is attacked. This is probably related to their sincere belief that no Democratic President is legitimate.

So their logic is that if the country heard that this was a terrorist attack they would turn against the President before the election, and to Mitt Romney. And therefore Romney was “cheated” out of a victory.

Benghazi appears to be about a Republican belief that Americans do not rally around their President when the country is attacked, but only around Republican presidents (or candidates apparently.)

Image via Juanita Jean.

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Plus Ca Change 0

Old men lie. Young folks die.

Forty-four years ago today, four young folks died because they dared question the lies.

Old men keep on lying, young folks keep on dying.

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QOTD 0

Adam Smith:

A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him.

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First Rose 0

It’s about ten days earlier than last year’s.

Rose

Today

Read more »

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The Gospel According to GOP 0

Considering the right’s reaction to the notorious botched “execution” in Oklahoma, Tony Norman tries to figure out where the right wing gets its “Christian values.” A nugget:

An exemplar of the kind of “Christian” this nation has become expert at producing, Mr. Inhofe (R–Dungeon of Pain–ed.) couldn’t bring himself to fake even a smidgen of compassion for Lockett, who, while still conscious during his execution, suffered in a paralyzed state for more than 40 minutes until he was finally overcome by a massive heart attack.

What would Mr. Inhofe’s version of Jesus have done in the “Christian nation” he established under the quasi-priesthood of George Washington? He’d presumably be the first to insert a needle into Lockett’s arm, despite being a victim of capital punishment himself.

Like his most “faithful” followers, the Jesus of Mr. Inhofe’s imagination is as irony deprived as he is sadistic.

I was raised Southern Baptist. The little country church in which I grew up did not know the God that Republicans embrace.

More at the link.

Full disclosure:

Lockett appears to have been thoroughly despicable. Nevertheless, though I believe that some deeds are so heinous that their perpetrators forfeit their place in society, I continue to oppose capital punishment because we kill the wrong persons far too often.

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Light Bloggery 0

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QOTD 0

Jean Kerr:

Even though a number of people have tried, no one has yet found a way to drink for a living.

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This Is the Life 0

Oliver Willis narrates the life of Barack Obama as told by conservatives.

I cannot excerpt or summarize it and do it justice. Just go read it.

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Facebook Frolics 0

The humblebrag.

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School for Scamdal 0

Steven M. looks at the latest Republican attempt to gin up something out of nothing once more all over again.

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A Touch of Class 0

Ta-Nehisi Coates argues that we need a better class of racists.

The problem with Cliven Bundy isn’t that he is a racist but that he is an oafish racist. He invokes the crudest stereotypes, like cotton picking. This makes white people feel bad. The elegant racist knows how to injure non-white people while never summoning the specter of white guilt. Elegant racism requires plausible deniability, as when Reagan just happened to stumble into the Neshoba County fair and mention state’s rights. Oafish racism leaves no escape hatch, as when Trent Lott praised Strom Thurmond’s singularly segregationist candidacy.

Elegant racism is invisible, supple, and enduring. It disguises itself in the national vocabulary, avoids epithets and didacticism. Grace is the singular marker of elegant racism. One should never underestimate the touch needed to, say, injure the voting rights of black people without ever saying their names. Elegant racism lives at the border of white shame. Elegant racism was the poll tax. Elegant racism is voter-ID laws.

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Boys in a Bubble 0

Supreme Court on ivory tower:

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness at play.

The two suspects, both 16, were playing with guns in the back seat of the car. Investigators say one of the teenagers, a relative of Castro’s, touched a trigger of a gun and fired a single shot into her back. She died at the scene.

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Football uber Alles 0

Another illegal formulation at Penn State.

NCAA “sports” need to be taken out of universities’ drivers’ seats; they’re driving drunk on money.

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Republican Economic Theory 0

PoliticalProf stuffs Republiconomics in a peanut shell (like a peanut, it has two kernels).

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QOTD 0

Clarence Darrow:

True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.

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Time and Tide 0

Two skeletons in a rowboat named

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

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Chartering a Course for Disaster 0

The Rude One rudely exposes the grift (not that anyone is listening):

By just about any measure, Hawthorne Avenue School in Newark, New Jersey, is a success, even something of a miracle. It scores in the top ten in Student Growth (which is business-laden rubric-speak for “learning”), #1 in the city, #7 in the state. It meets or beats the state targets on literacy and math competence. And it does extraordinary work educating poor and non-white elementary school students.

So, obviously, New Jersey school superintendent and Chris Christie appointee Cami Anderson is going to close it and open a charter school in its place.

More and ruder rudeness about the grift at the link.

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