March, 2015 archive
The 47 Percent: Not Who You Think They Are 0
The Las Vegas Sun’s Brian Greenspun thinks he has found them:
I have found the 47 percenters.
They call themselves United States senators. And they are doing their best to destroy what makes this country great.
(snip)
We all know there is precious little Congress has been able to agree on in the past few years. Notwithstanding the fact that Americans do not want to shut down the government, do want to extend and maintain Social Security and also want to provide medical insurance for all Americans, it is clear there is a significant minority of people in the Congress who wish otherwise. Unfortunately, it is the American people who suffer as a result of this childish behavior.
Snoop Doll 0
You too can have the new, improved Tell-All Barbie.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics 0
Numbers don’t always mean what they appear to mean.
It had a gazillion of them per capita, but they weren’t the manly-man kind with gun racks in the cab and dead deer piled atop the hood. Turned out the state highways department registered all its pickups cast unto 100 counties at its headquarters in Raleigh, skewing results.
More numerical nonsense at the link.
Facebook Frolics 0
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” works only if you find a way to get to know someone.
IOKIYAR 0
Jeb “Oh God Please Not Another” Bush edition.
No self-awareness. No self-awareness whatsoever.
Afterthought:
I have been exchanging emails with my brother about the bogus Hillary Clinton email server brouhaha.* Neither of us are Hillary fans. As I told my brother, I don’t like Hillary, but I don’t think she is evil. Annoying, but not evil.
The Republican Party, though, is a vile and loathsome thing, a gibbering Lovecraftian monster that makes Nyarlothotep look like a cuddely little teddy bear.
Ask me nicely, I’ll tell you what I really think.
_________________
*This came up at my recent LUG meeting and everyone yawned, because there is no there there. One of the participants pointed out, “They are Blackberry people,” and having your own little Blackberry email server is a Blackberry thing.
I know that no one is listening, but the only lesson of the “homebrew email server” fuss is that the media is clueless about how the internet works.
The Fantasy Lives of the Galt and the Lamers 0
I am always fascinated by rational, kind, sane persons who call themselves “Libertarians” and who are unable to see that Libertarianism is little more than an elaborate rationale for “I’ve got mine and to hell with you.” I know a few folks like that.
I stumbled over a Mother Jones interview with Jeopardy champion Arthur Chu which was a more interesting read than I expected. I was particularly taken with this nugget, in a series of questions about Gamergate and related issues.
They discussed why some internet users insist on threatening and harassing those with whom they disagree from behind a curtain of anonymity, then become upset when called out about it and defend themselves by contending that harassment, misogyny, and sexism in the world of computer games is somehow not real because it’s done from behind avatars. It was in that context that Libertarianism appeared:
That’s why so much of nerd culture involves these power fantasies full of magic—literally reshaping the world through thinking about it—and superheroes with super abilities. It’s also why a lot of the people in geeky subcultures gravitate towards libertarianism. There’s a strong ideological belief in wiping out “politics,” because politics means having to interact with people, and negotiating with people who have different interests.
I commend the rest of the interview to your attention.
iJunk 0
Jamesetta Walker writes in my local rag that the idea of the Apple watch leaves her unimpressed. (Follow the link for the full tail of her travails.)
One of my friends has an Android watch. It enables him to talk to his phone. When I watch him use it, I am flooded with feelings of “why bother?”
Frankly, “because you can” is not ipso facto a sufficient reason for doing something.
The Sergeant Schultz Defense 0
Sergeant Schultz, you may remember if you are old enough, turned a blind eye to the antics of Colonel Hogan and his motley band, saying, “I know nothink! I see nothink!.”
Jonathan Freedland points out that this same defense is used by international banksters to deny culpability in the antics of their underlings in stealing from their customers, violating the public trust, and destroying national economies. A snippet:
At present the financial uber-class expect to have the best of both worlds – all the rewards of being in charge without paying the price of responsibility. It’s an individual version of the injustice laid bare during the great crash: that while gains are privatised, losses are socialised. The bankers get the big bonuses when things go right, the taxpayers bail them out when things go wrong.
In a way, the buck-passing has a logic. In an organisation such as HSBC, with 300,000 employees, it’s a Herculean task for one individual to know what they’re all up to. But that’s why these top jobs get Herculean rewards. The implicit deal for top chief executives and chairmen should be quite simple. Either you’re blessed with an extraordinary managerial talent that enables you to watch over so many people at once that you deserve these stratospheric sums of money – or you’re not, in which case you should be paid on a par with lesser mortals.Catch-22. It’s the best catch there is.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
How do the polite splet “stupid”?
They splet it “n-e-g-l-i-g-e-n-t.”
A Shelburne man was shot Friday in a mishap at a Charlotte gun range, the Vermont State Police say.
Joshua Scarfone, 19, was target shooting at theLaberge Gun Range off of Lime Kiln Road in Charlotte on Friday afternoon when JoshuaRamstrom, 20, of Hinesburg experienced “a negligent discharge,” Trooper Angela Baker said in a statement.
“Negligent discharge” my anatomy.
It was s-t-u-p-i-d.
Where Eagles Dare 0
Two bald eagles are building a nest.
Picture at the link.
Twits on Twitter 0
Hail to the twits!
WHEEEEEEEE! 0
The funnest Republican thing–mongering war.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Settle disputes with your neighbors, politely.
An argument broke out, and it quickly got heated: Outlaw, 53, pulled out the gun and fired at point-blank range, hitting Pitts-Devine eight times in the torso, the sources said.
He then calmly walked upstairs to his second-floor apartment, closed the door and shot himself in the head. He died about an hour later at Penn Presbyterian, according to police.
Sources say Outlaw had no criminal record, and had a permit for the gun he used in the vicious attack.
According to the story, Mr. Outlaw also had a history of making paranoiac claims about his neighbor’s actions.
NRA paradise approacheth apace.
It’s Cultastic 0
Shaun Mullen explains an analogy (I remember boning up on analogies for my SATs):
Full Disclosure:
The explanation is Shaun’s. The analogy is mine.
The Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to co-opt Tibetan Buddhism is of a piece with the Republican Party’s attempt to co-opt Christianity. Both are attempts to hoodwink persons of faith–however misguided that faith may be–for earthly power; both are contemptible for their crude, craven, and manipulative cynicism.
I wonder whether Republicans can recognize or admit how similar their tactics are to those of the Chinese Reds? Can they see themselves in the mirr–oh, never mind.
