2016 archive
“Everything You Know Is Wrong” 0
Cenk and the gang consider what Trump’s success says about Republican voters. I don’t buy everything they say–I often pick stuff to post because I find it thought-provoking, rather than necessarily persuasive–but I think their skewering of the punditocracy is right on the mark.
Trumping “Objectivity” 0
As Science 2.0, Ryan J. Thomas wonders whether Trump may accidentally perform a public service by bringing to an end the unqualified “on the one hand on the other hand” fact-free never-call-out-a-lie reportage that passes for “objectivity” in the news industroy. A snippet:
Objectivity is a much misunderstood concept and is too often uncritically mythologized as central to American journalistic practice. What interests me is how the pressure to be objective – and therefore disengaged from the very real impact Trump is having on the democratic process – may impede journalists’ crucial role as stewards of democracy.
Follow the link for a long and thoughtful meditation focusing on a recent kerfuffle at NPR.
Maine Governor’s Secret for Success 0
Shorter Greg Kesich: Hate sells.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Exercise politeness on the public thoroughfare.
“Initial witness accounts indicate that a child in the back seat of the vehicle got a hold of a gun and discharged the firearm, sending a single bullet into the drivers back,” the sheriff’s office said.
First responders arrived on the scene soon after the shooting and found her without a pulse and breathless. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
More guns would, no doubt, have prevented this.
Seeing the Light 0
Highway engineering for the iJunk Generation:
Rows of red LEDs have been embedded in the pavement after a 15-year-old girl was killed when she stepped in front of a tram while looking at her smartphone and listening to music. Two other people have been seriously injured in separate but similar incidents.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness toddles along.
A toddler has accidentally shot and killed himself in Georgia.
Police in Paulding County are investigating after a three-year-old got hold of a gun and it went off, killing him.
Thus passeth another day in NRA paradise.
States’ Rights . . . 0
. . . are a sometime thing.
Without taking a stand on the specific legal issue at at stake, I can still point out that some states clearly think that they are more equal than others.
