From Pine View Farm

December, 2018 archive

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Once again, politeness is child’s play.

The girl, later identified as Maliyah Palmer, was at home with her 12-year-old brother and 16-year-old sister when the boy discovered a 9mm handgun in a dresser drawer in their parents’ bedroom and accidentally shot his younger sister in the head. Police arrived on the scene around 11 p.m., before Maliyah died at the hospital.

Also, once again, “responsible gun owner” is an oxymoron.

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“Follow the Rubles” 0

Via Spocko’s Brain.

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All the News that Fits 0

Man wearing MAGA hat says to a friend,

Click for the original image.

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QOTD 0

James Dean:

Only the gentle are ever really strong.

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A Christmas Carol 0

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All the News that Fits 0

Shorter Shaun Mullen: Inquiring minds don’t want you to know.

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A Trumpled Christmas 0

Mary and Joseph approach the inn innkeeper says,

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Know Them by the Company They Keep 0

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

If the story can be believed, yet another gun discharged itself all on its ownsome.

The shooting happened shortly after 7 p.m. in the 1900 block of Airport Road. Police Lt. Rodney Dozier said Dakota Logan Watkins, the victim, was fatally wounded by a bullet that appears to have discharged unexpectedly from a semi-automatic handgun.

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Give a Gift of Privacy 0

The EFF runs down its Christmas list of the creepiest privacy-invading tech gadgets of the season. (Natch, something from the Zuckerborg is at the top of the list.)

Read it and, as we would say on the railroad, be governed accordingly.

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Taking a Powder 0

Transcript here.

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QOTD 0

Cal Ripken, Jr.:

I don’t know how everyone else feels, but I’m exhausted.

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Russian Impulses 0

Shaun Mullen has the latest. A snippet:

The big surprise in the report is that while the use of social media shifted over time, peaking at key political moments such as presidential debates or party conventions, the barrage not only did not abate after Trump won, but increased after he was inaugurated. Indeed, there is evidence that the disinformation campaign ramped up as the 2018 midterm elections approached.

Aside:

As I’ve mentioned before, the most distressing thing about this whole shebang is the gullibility of a large portion of the American populace.

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Spin City 0

Joe Patrice skewers the Tumpists’ argument that there is such a thing as a “perjury trap.” A snippet (follow the link for the rest):

It all goes back to the “perjury trap” argument so many lawyers are disgracing themselves to push. It is not, in fact, a perjury trap to catch someone in a lie. It is a perjury trap to prosecute someone for wrongdoing where they would otherwise avoid prosecution — for example, a crime that is time-barred — by making them lie about it. The term addresses the injustice of functionally doing an end-run around the protections that the system affords potential defendants by punishing them for a separate crime just because law enforcement can’t touch them for the underlying offense.

But for Dershowitz, when Flynn made false statements to federal investigators, those statements could not be material because investigators knew they were false. In his mind, apparently, materiality requires investigators to rely upon the false statement.

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Obamascare 0

Dick Polman takes a long and penetrating look at the ruling from a Texas Federal District court that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, even you the Supreme Court ruled otherwise six years ago. If you want to know what’s going on, his analysis is a good place to start.

Here’s a bit (italics in the original):

Cue the conservative Wall Street Journal’s editorial: “Millions of people now rely on Obamacare’s subsidies and rules – which argues against judges repealing the law by fiat.”

Repealing the law by fiat…True that. Conservatives always complain about “judicial overreach,” about liberal judges “legislating from the bench.” Yet here we have a classic example. The broad sweep of this ruling – if allowed to stand – would wipe out everything in the law, from the popular protection of people with preexisting medical conditions, to the popular coverage for young people until age 26, to the expansion of Obamacare via Medicaid – which has become so popular that it’s now a feature in 36 states, including Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, and West Virginia. Those I’ve listed are all red states.

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Goldman’s Sacks, Mnuchin Minutiae Dept. 0

Thom and David Dayen discuss the career of Treasury secretary Mnuchin, aka “The Foreclosure King,” who Dayen describes as “the fox that is guarding the hen house.”

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Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0

Yet more schoolyard trumpling.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Display politeness in satisfying your material wants.

On December 4, police responded to a shooting inside of the Walmart.

The victim shot herself in the foot after dropping her purse, which had her loaded 38 caliber Derringer gun inside of it.

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Rounding Up the Research 0

Learn more here.

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QOTD 0

Rex Stout:

Besides, it was always the case that if and when super-egotists finally get it, they get it good and hard.

Stout, Rex, The Broken Vase (New York: Bantam, 1982), p.88.

Read more »

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