2022 archive
The Crypto Con 0
Bloomberg columnist Allison Schrager muses on the implications of the crypto crash. A snippet (emphasis added):
Barnum was wrong. There’s not one born every minute.
There’s one born every second.
All the News that Fits, It’s Bubblicious Dept. 0
Sam and a caller discuss the right-wing news bubble and confirmation bias.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Once again, politeness becomes child’s play.
Think for a moment: what is the common denominator in gun deaths?
No, it’s not “death”; that’s the quotient.
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
Noz sums up his sojourn on Trump’s Truth (sic) Social.
Recommended Reading 0
In the olden days, when I was a young ‘un and prowling the local library, I got much pleasure reading the works of P. G. Wodehouse. I know that the author himself was a living anachronism stuck in the Edwardian past, but the man knew how to write.
I look forward to reliving that enjoyment, as I have learned that many of his works are available at Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg and Librivox are two of the most worthwhile projects on the inner tubes.
Headline of the Day 0
Car struck by train in Surprise.
No surprises here.
I worked for the railroad for many years. We used to say, “Don’t race a train to the crossing. If it’s a tie, you lose.”
Exceeded Expectations 0
Farron expects more of the same.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, University of Miami Professor Seth Schwartz explores why many white Americans, particularly Baby Boomers, seem so hostile to immigrants, despite having been raised in a country which once proudly billed itself as “a nation of immigrants.”
It is a perceptive, thoughtful, and timely piece worth the three or four minutes it will take you to read it.
Empty Suits . . . 0
. . . have long been an essential element of Donald Trump’s wardrobe.
A Faustian Bargain 0
Shorter Melinda Henneberger to Kevin McCarthy: Be careful what you sell your soul wish for.
Both Sides Don’t 0
Methinks she has a point. And I think that the female commentator’s (I don’t know her name) comment at the end of the clip that AOC’s comments were “interesting” were (looking for words) appallingly stupid.
It’s quite clear that one thing is not like the other thing.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
The flaw in the bothsiderism that characterizes much of our political reporting, especially on television and most especially on cable news (don’t get me started on AM talk radio), is quite simple.
It ignores facts.
It equates minor misdemeanors with felonies, missteps with malevolence, unintentional and quite human gaffes with poisonous perfidy. It pretends that our home-grown fascists are merely dissatisfied dissidents and ignores their inimical intent. It values ratings over rights, and it values ratings over right.
Facts can be dull and convoluted; they can seem boring; and they don’t get ratings. In contrast, the horse race can be (portrayed as) exciting. The fact of the matter (ahem!), though, is that reporting should be about facts, not about what-ifs and horse races (unless they are real horse races with real horses, but that’s what racing forms are for, which reminds me that I once hit an exacta at Delaware Park–but that’s another story).
We should value the news providers that focus on facts and disdain contemn those who do not, because they are contemptible.
I could go on, but I won’t. But there’s a reason I stopped watching television news (mumble) years ago. When it stopped being a loss leader and a public service and became a profit center, it–er–descended into Hades.
Video via C&L, which has commentary.
