From Pine View Farm

May, 2015 archive

QOTD 0

Margaret Chase Smith:

I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny: Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.

Aside:

So much for that.

Share

And Now for Something Completely Different 0

Think twice about the Disney Princess Industrial Complex.

Share

Persons Fret about the “Surveillance State” . . . 0

. . . even as they eagerly sign up for the “Surveillance Society.”

Last month, news outlets reported that John Hancock was the first insurance company to offer discounts to policyholders willing to wear a Fitbit, and presumably let the company track their activity.

And, in related news.

Share

The Rich Are Different from You and Me 0

Looters arrested in Baltimore.  Wall Street Banker still roaming the streets.

Via Job’s Anger.

Share

Mind the Gap 0

My ex was a nurse. Whenever she was a patient and had to wear a hospital gown, she would always grab two and wear one frontwards, the other backwards.

This summer, Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park will join a select group of medical centers that are trying to close the dreaded gluteal gap patients get with most hospital gowns.

Beyond complaints about flimsy materials and faded colors, patients in focus groups have told the hospital they feel exposed with current gowns — in ways that promote an unnecessarily hierarchical relationship with caregivers.

For some fool reason (as my mother would have said), they need a study to confirm that persons don’t like walking around with their rear ends hanging out on public display.

Share

Sucklers at the Public Teat 0

John Cole has the best headline I’ve seen about the propagation of House of Windsor.

American media’s fascination with the idea that rich persons who attend ceremonies for a living are capable of procreation does rather baffle one, eh, what?

Share

News, Ripped from the Ticker 0

Warning: Worse taste than usual.

Share

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness as child’s play:

Authorities say a child was flown to a hospital after reportedly being shot with a BB gun in suburban Philadelphia.

Share

QOTD 0

Cicero:

Endless money forms the sinews of war.

Share

Twits on Twitter 0

Warmongering cotton-mouthed snake-in-the-grass twits.

Share

Tricks of the Traders 0

Share

All the News that Fits, Ministry of Propaganda Dept. 0

The Las Vegas Sun’s Brian Greenspun points out that, too often, propaganda masquerades as news and serves, not the pubic interest, but the public biases. A snippet:

In today’s world, there are three different media. There is entertainment media, there is the news media and then there is the kind of media that calls itself “news” but is really a form of manipulation that takes advantage of a significant portion of our population by telling people what they want to hear without regard to truth or justice.

(snip)

Just look at Congress.

We have people in charge of science and technology who believe the world is 5,000 years old. We have people in charge of foreign policy who believe venturing away from the shores of America is a foreign concept. We have people who talk about women in a first-class way who legislate laws about women as if they were second-class citizens.

I ask myself why that is every day. And now I know the answer.

There is an entire industry of very smart people who realize they can manipulate Americans like sheep just by telling them lies, over and over again. Lies the people are only too willing to hear. Sound familiar?

Read the rest.

Share

Have Cake, Eat It Too 0

Organization of persons who habitually rush to judgement alleges “rush to judgement.”

Share

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Ensure that the young conduct themselves politely.

Sources report that police were called to a home near Cholla Street and 83rd Avenue to investigate a shooting about 9:30 p.m. There, investigators learned a boy, 2, who shot himself in the face while playing on a bed with his grandmother. Apparently, the gun was “rolled up in sheets,” but it’s unclear how the child discovered it.

Share

Listen Up, Y’Hear 0

Editing audio in audacityI have a couple of new podcasts up at Hackerpublicradio.org, and you can too.

One is about Mutt, a command line email client which manages email the way email was meant to be managed; the other is about vim, a powerful and versatile text editor, but one with an extremely cryptic command set which many, including me, have found intimidating.

Share

Activate the Wayback Machine 0

Justice Scalia:

Share

QOTD 0

Ray Bradbury:

The Internet is a big distraction.

(Heh.)

Share

The Wages of Sin The Fruits of Fanaticism 0

Cartoon parodying homophobics who hide under the cover of religion, get derided by the public, then raise wads of money on


Click for a larger image.

In related news, GoFundMe is trying to get out of the business of subsidizing the hate-full, to the dismay of Wingnutistan.

Share

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

The question in this scenario is quite simple. Who’s the biggest turkey?

Missouri Department of Conservation officials are investigating a Tuesday accident in which an Arkansas man shot another hunter after mistaking him for a turkey in Wayne County.

Share

A Clue for the Clueless 0

Jim Wright has more.

Share
From Pine View Farm
Privacy Policy

This website does not track you.

It contains no private information. It does not drop persistent cookies, does not collect data other than incoming ip addresses and page views (the internet is a public place), and certainly does not collect and sell your information to others.

Some sites that I link to may try to track you, but that's between you and them, not you and me.

I do collect statistics, but I use a simple stand-alone Wordpress plugin, not third-party services such as Google Analitics over which I have no control.

Finally, this is website is a hobby. It's a hobby in which I am deeply invested, about which I care deeply, and which has enabled me to learn a lot about computers and computing, but it is still ultimately an avocation, not a vocation; it is certainly not a money-making enterprise (unless you click the "Donate" button--go ahead, you can be the first!).

I appreciate your visiting this site, and I desire not to violate your trust.