From Pine View Farm

January, 2021 archive

The Diggers 0

Image of Republican Elephants wearing

Via Job’s Anger.

Share

The Man from Martial 0

Writing at the Las Vegas Sun, Ed Koch (not the late New York Mayor, the Sun reporter) explores the legal and political history of martial law in the United States. It is, sadly, a timely read; here’s a bit:

Since the early 19th century, presidents and Congress have had the right to employ martial law in the wake of national disasters, violent insurrections, etc. Governors also can take similar action, but only in their own states.

There was an attempt in 2006 to give the chief executive the right to call out state national guards without getting the OK from state governors. It rode in as part of much larger legislation.

The Senate later repealed that part of the law and restored the 1807 Insurrection Act to limit the president’s martial law powers to its original — and current — limits.

My guess is that 14 years ago, lawmakers must have feared that one day a lunatic wannabe autocrat would wind up in the White House and would not want to leave after losing a reelection bid in a lawful balloting procedure. For the sake of the republic, I pray that never happens.

Afterthought:

Methinks his prayers were not answered.

Share

Maskless Mania 0

Share

Resolute 0

Mitch McConnell's New Year's Resolutions:

Click for the original image.

Share

QOTD 0

Mark Twain:

If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but deteriorate the cat.

Share

Rosy-Colored Glasses 0

Paul Krugman is an optimist.

Even though what he says is true, the falsehoods have become too deeply ingrained to be dislodged by something as trivial as evidence.

Share

Dis Coarse Discourse 0

Title:  Things You Don't Hear after a Democratic Wave.  Frame One:  News reporter gesturing towards a woman holding books, saying,

Click for the original image.

Share

Twits on Twitter 0

Absolutely bonkers twits.

Share

Light Bloggery 0

Connectivity issues. I’ll be troubleshooting some connectivity issues on my home network this afternoon.

Addendum:

So, of course, when I go to shoot the trouble, everything is working smooth like butter.

Intermittent problems are the hardest to solve.

Share

The Photo Op 0

PoliticalProf.

Share

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

The polite just keep on truckin’.

On Thursday morning, officials received reports of a person shooting at semi-trucks along I-35, between the 75 and 86 mile markers.

Share

QOTD 0

Billie Holiday:

Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what’s more than enough.

Share

Stray Thought 0

I used to look forward to watching college football on New Year’s Day. but the venality and corruption of the NCAA has cured me of that.

Now I spend my New Year’s reading (gasp) books.

But, if you want to wallow in the fascination of large men running into each other, check out AL.com.

It’s an excellent website, but it does indeed reflect Alabama’s fascination with corpulent collisions.

Share

War Correspondence 0

In a fascinating read full of history that may surprise you (some of it certainly did surprise me), Charles Ludington reviews the history of Christmas as a celebration, as well as explores its use as a political weapon by the right-wing. A nugget:

. . . the fake “War on Christmas” has been around for a long time, and it serves a particular white Christian nationalist purpose. The “war” was begun in the 1920s by notorious anti-Semite Henry Ford, who reacted angrily when Jewish organizations had the temerity to ask that the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution be enforced, thereby disallowing Bible readings and Christmas pageants in public schools, a common practice at the time. The centripetal forces of the Depression and World War II silenced the conflict for a generation, but the war recommenced in the 1950s when the John Birch Society accused communists (and the United Nations) of conspiring to secularize Christmas for the purpose of socializing America. More recently, in 2004, Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly declared that Christmas was under threat and rallied his troops every Yuletide, right up through President Trump’s December 2016 declaration of victory.

Share

A Test Flailure, Notion of Immigrants Dept. 0

Share

Facebook Frolics 0

A frolicking friend request.

Share

Chris-Crossed 0

Woman says to Chris Christie,

Click to view the original image.

Share

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

One more time, “responsible gun owner” is an oxymoron.

Share

Trickle-On Economics, No Surprises Here Dept. 0

Share

An Accidental Truth 0

David Farmer has a Pence-ive thought.

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.