From Pine View Farm

March, 2015 archive

The Privatization Scam 0

Another privatization scammer goes bust.

An Australian company has reached a $5.73 billion agreement to buy the bankrupt business that holds the lease to the Indiana Toll Road.

IFM Investors purchased ITR Concession Co., which holds the lease on the 157-mile highway across northern Indiana for another 66 years. ITR Concession had declared bankruptcy on more than $6 billion in debt last September, and a federal bankruptcy judge in Chicago approved a plan to put the lease out to bid.

It’s not just bad policy, it’s bad business to try to wring private profits from public responsibilities.

Via Eschaton.

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Facebook Frolics, Reprise 0

Heh.

A US federal judge said Facebook Inc must face a nationwide class-action lawsuit seeking to force the social media company to provide refunds when children spend their parents’ money on its website without permission.

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Facebook Frolics 0

The idea of a black man in the White House continues to drive Republicans bonkers.

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QOTD 0

Ken Jennings:

Being a nerd really pays off sometimes.

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Break Time 0

Off to drink liberally.

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Cavalcade of Stupid (Updated) 2

Juanita Jean finds a nugget in this pile of manure:

I think it’s real sweet of Republicans to make us a list of the 47 craziest United States Senators. It saves us the effort. And as an added benefit, we get to watch them all run backwards with their shoes tied together now.

Addendum:

Steven D. asks a question.

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Truth in Labeling 0

The Kraken is all for it. Here are a few of his examples:

It is on that basis that I issue this plea; stop referring to the reactionary, sociopathic authoritarians in the republican party as “conservatives.” Stop referring to our economic system as “the free market.” Stop referring to the massive giveaways to the narcissistic billionaires corrupting our country as “tax relief.” There are numerous other examples but these are near the top of the list.

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To the Vet for a Worming 0

Close-up of olive branch held by the American eagle showing a worm labelled

Via the Bob and Chez Show Blog.

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Still Rising Again after All These Years 0

The South may have lost the war, but it is still fighting to win the peace.

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Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0

Better.

Initial jobless claims dropped 36,000 to a three-week low of 289,000 in the period ended March 7 from a revised 325,000 in the prior week, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 305,000 new applications.

(snip)

The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, fell to 302,250 from 306,000 the week before,

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits declined by 5,000 to 2.42 million in the week ended Feb. 28, while the unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.8 percent. These figures are reported with a one-week lag.

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PickPACkets 0

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Foxy Shady 0

Leonard Pitts, Jr., thinks Fox News’s decision, not only to countenance, but to support Bill O’Reilly as more persons publicize his perfidy says a lot about Fox News. A snippet (emphasis added):

For the one falsehood, (NBC News’s Brian–ed.) Williams received a six-month suspension without pay. For a handful of apparent falsehoods, O’Reilly has received unstinting support from his bosses at Fox.

This rather neatly makes the point I sought to make a month ago. Namely, that Fox – the window-dressing presence of a few bona fide reporters notwithstanding – is not a real news-gathering organization but, rather, the propaganda arm of an extreme right wing that grows ever more cult-like and detached from reality as time goes by. Fox is a belief system, not a news network. Exhibit A is the fact that O’Reilly is not now fighting for his professional life.

To anticipate what his believers will say in his defense: Yes, he is a pundit and yes, pundits are entitled to their opinions. But that does not release them from the obligation to be factual.

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QOTD 0

K. Eric Drexler:

Any powerful technology can be abused.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

It’s in the bag . . .

Franklin County Sheriff’s Office officials say a woman was shot in both legs and her boyfriend shot through his hand after her gun went off in her purse Saturday afternoon.

Lt. Phillip Young said the woman’s Glock went off while the couple sat in a vehicle outside a residence in the 1400 block of Virgil H. Goode Highway in Bassett about 3:30 p.m. The man, who was in the driver’s seat, put a drink can in the woman’s purse before putting his hand on her leg.

. . . and another gun that fires itself. I swear that we have reached the gunularity.

Via Southern Beale.

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Facebook Frolics 0

And some persons claim that there is no such thing as “rape culture.”

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A Congregation of Dunces 0

Jon Stewart comments on the cuckoo.

Below the fold in case it autoplays.

Read more »

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Whip Saw 0

The temperature today is almost 60 Fahrenheits higher than the temperature seven days ago.

This is not right.

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Incongruously Assembled 0

Television crew to group of clowns behind desk labeled

Via Bob Cesca’s Bob and Chez Show.

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The Hollow Men 0

I call shenanigans (emphasis added).

A former University of Oklahoma fraternity member who was shown in a video chanting a racial slur has issued an apology, as have the parents of a second student.

In a statement Tuesday, former OU student Parker Rice called the incident “a horrible mistake” and “a devastating lesson” for which he is “seeking guidance on how I can learn from this and make sure it never happens again.”

Think he would be saying this if he hadn’t got caught?

I’ll suggest some guidance.

Don’t act like a racist bunghole.

There’s some guidance for you.

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WWJD? 0

Really, now.

State police say one brother used a “Jesus” vanity license plate to assault another when they fought in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Forty-five-year-old James Wiles, of Springhill Township, is charged with simple assault and harassment for allegedly throwing the plate at his 47-year-old brother during an argument Feb. 24.

Aside:

It seems to me that the persons most vocal about Jesus are those who know him the least.

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