March, 2018 archive
“The Right To Be Stupid” 0
Watch the Republican spin wildly as he attempts to blame the victim.
Via Raw Story, which provides detail and a summary.
Facebook Frolics, Phoning Home Dept. 0
Pap and Farron discuss how Facebook has “scraped” phone calls and contacts using its Android app.
All the News that Fits 0
Ralph Peters, ex-Fox News commentator, has more. Here’s a bit:
This wasn’t a case of the rats leaving a sinking ship. The best sailors were driven overboard by the rodents.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/syndicated-columnists/article207476394.html#storylink=cpy
Image via Job’s Anger.
Everything You Know Is Wrong 0
In the Raleigh News and Observer, Frank Hyman wonders why U. S. southern history is taught so incompetently. A snippet:
Why aren’t students learning that North Carolina voters (white males over 21 in those days) opposed secession? The slave-owners in the General Assembly overruled them and launched us into a war not wholly supported by most Tarheels.
The answer to his question is quite simple.
The South may have lost the war, but it won the peace. From the end of Reconstruction on, southern racists conducted their own reconstruction, reconstructing history to justify racism, oppression, and theft of labor.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
This is your country on Trump.
Detroit’s WDIV 4 reported Friday that attacker John Deliz, a recently-discharged patient, came up to the 19-year-old woman wearing hijab while she was checking in to see if she had broken her jaw when falling on ice earlier in the day on February 20.
The American Dream ix now the American nightmare.
All the News that Fits 0
Sinclair Broadcasting is making its stations push wingnut propaganda. Here’s a bit of a report from SeattlePI:
Many KOMO employees view the segments as propaganda that doesn’t meet the station’s editorial standards, according to the Times article. In the past, they have tried to limit their exposure by scheduling them during times of low viewership.
But Wednesday’s segment shows Sinclair, which currently owns or operates 193 television stations in the U.S., has succeeded in getting the must-runs on during prime time.
I gave up on broadcast news long ago, not for being slanted (though some of it is, much more often to the right than to the left), but for being superficial.
About the only time we turn on TV news is when there’s a snowstorm . . . .
QOTD 0
Robert van Gulik in the voice of Judge Dee (if you are not familiar with the Judge Dee mysteries, well, you should be):
If we measure our knowledge not by what we know but by what we don’t, we are just ignorant fools, Hoong, all of us.
van Gulik, Robert, “the Two Beggars” in Judge Dee at Work (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 114
Return of the Words 0
The Las Vegas Sun reports that someone listened to Donald Trump. Trump probably wishes he hadn’t.
A snippet (emphasis added):
But in his order rejecting the motion to dismiss, Garaufis pointed directly at Trump, noting that his numerous “racial slurs” and “epithets” — both as a candidate and from the White House — had created a “plausible inference” that the decision to end DACA violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
“One might reasonably infer,” Garaufis wrote, “that a candidate who makes overtly bigoted statements on the campaign trail might be more likely to engage in similarly bigoted action in office.”
A Troll under the Internet 0
In the Hartford Courant, Matthew Kauffman tells a fascinating tale of how he toyed with an internet fraudster for two weeks. From the opening of his article:
Give it a read.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The hunt for politeness continues apace.
He was wrong. Hutto shot twice.
The Start of the Deal 0
Reg Henry wants in on the deal. A nugget:
Well, I wish some lawyer would give me $130,000 to keep quiet about something that never happened. Hey, mum’s the word, as far as I am concerned. I’d take a secret like that to the grave for $130,000. In fact, I am open to negotiation — $130,000, $100,000 or $56.43. Lawyers of America, let’s make a deal.
Follow the link for the rest.
QOTD 0
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Aside:
Bennett Cerf told the story that Wright once had to testify in court. When the attorney asked, “What is your occupation,” Wright responded, “I am the world’s greatest living architect.”
Later, a friend asked Wright how he could bring himself to say that. Wright replied, “I had to. I was under oath.”
Lies and Lying Liars 2
Yes, she can make this stuff up.
