From Pine View Farm

November, 2021 archive

The Strategy 0

Ray:  What are you up to, Mother.  Lola, sitting at a computer:  Checking out my portfolio.  Ray:  Wow, you're loaded.  Lola:  Well, I've invested wisely.  It all comes down to noticing trends and patterns in society.  I put all my money in stupidity years ago.

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Facebook Frolics 0

Shorter Facebook post: “Let’s go a-frolicking.”

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Projection 0

At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tony Norman writes of the Ahmaud Arbery case and trial.

In one passage, he gets to the gist of the motive for the lynching–for a lynching it was (emphasis added).

To the three Georgians who pursued Ahmaud Arbery for five minutes on that stretch of road, he wasn’t a flesh-and-blood mortal deserving of the presumption of innocence. To them, Ahmaud was a shadow — a projection of their collective fears and moral panics.

Follow the link for the complete article..

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Anime Antics 0

The writer of a letter to the editor is less than impressed with antics of Arizona’s Paul Gosar.

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Twits on Twitter 0

Ted Cruz gets a Fauci ouchie.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

And it happens again . . . .

Cambria County coroner Jeff Lees said a young relative of Tripp’s attempted to shoot a deer and instead struck Tripp, who was about 300 yards away, WJAC-TV reported. Tripp was pronounced dead at the scene.

There should be tests for hunting licenses, just as for drivers licenses.

Furrfu.

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The Rittenhouse Rules Revisited 0

Title:  Gun Talk, with your host. the Glib Sociopath.  Image:  Your host says,

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QOTD 0

Franklin Pierce Adams:

The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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A Picture Is Worth 0

Title:  A Great Paradox of the 21st Century.  Image:  Angry looking red-hatted man surrounded by

Via Job’s Anger.

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A Sesame Bun(co) 0

Read more »

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Expectations of the Unreasonable Kind 0

Frame One:  Voice from 747 flying over tiny islet says,

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Disparity 0

Map showing disparaties in nations around the world in COVID vaccination.

Via PoliticalProf.

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The Rittenhouse Rules, One More Time 0

Brian Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, believes that, in the reaction to Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal, some questions remain unanswered. A snippet:

Get out of Jail free cardWhat is a 17-year old boy doing with a semi-automatic AR-15 military-style rifle and why does society (read that his parents, friends, others adults in his presence and the police) allow him to strap that rifle across his body and march right into a protest against police brutality in the middle of Kenosha where emotions are high, flames of burning buildings even higher, and who knows how high many of the participants on both sides of the street might be?

Follow the link for more of his questions.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

The hunt for politeness continues.

The (911–ed.) calls determined that a father had accidentally shot his 11-year-old daughter at a hunting lease near Young and Hickey Road in Hallsville, Texas, with a high-powered rifle. Once HCSO Deputies and Emergency Medical Services units arrived on the scene, they located the victim with life-threatening injuries.

She didn’t make it.

One more time, “accidentally” and “negligently” are not synonyms.

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QOTD 0

Richard Flanagan:

If 30 Australians drowned in Sydney Harbour, it would be a national tragedy. But when 30 or more refugees drown off the Australian coast, it is a political question.

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A Consumerist Economy 0

Werner Herzog’s Bear makes a convincing argument that our society is suffering from a case of consumption. A snippet:

Once upon a time the social contract may have revolved around a social safety net or human rights but those things are pretty immaterial to most Americans. What makes a successful polity in their eyes is maintaining the flow of cheap consumer goods and services. For at least the past forty years this has been at the heart of everything. Workers’ wages have been stagnant, postindustrial and farming communities are falling apart, but you can still get almost anything you want for cheap at the local Wal-Mart. You might not have much, but you can still afford to go to a fast food restaurant and afford a hot meal made by others who have to serve you. The rise of globalization and consumer credit that accompanied the onset of neo-liberalism have made it possible for massive wealth and income inequalities to not lead to revolutionary change.

We are a broken society.

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Vaccine Nation 0

The Bangor Daily News investigates the exodus of health care workers in the second year of the pandemic. According to the story, most of the persons leaving the field worked for hospitals and nursing homes, facilities hit hardest by COVID-19. The work force at those facilities is down by about 10% in Maine, about half the national average. Some have left heath care completely; others are moving to less stressful areas within the profession.

Follow the link for details; here’s a bit that I think is particularly significant (emphasis added):

While many staffers hoped the COVID-19 vaccine could bring an end to the pandemic, nurses have instead been faced with a new reality: treating patients who wouldn’t have had critical or fatal illnesses had they gotten vaccinated. They say it’s really what defined the difference between care in 2021 versus 2020, when a vaccine was not publicly available.

“It’s always felt a little frustrating to treat someone for something that’s preventable,” Oberson said. “People claiming it’s not real or that it’s not serious when you are seeing it first-hand.”

And, in more news of Vaccine Nation . . . .

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Taxonomy 0

Title:  North American Loons.  Frame One:  A yellow-billed loon.  Frame Two:  A black-throated loon.  Frame Three:  Donald Trump wearing a MAGA hat.

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Gutting Out the Vote 0

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