From Pine View Farm

2022 archive

Labor Farce 0

David discusses the disassociation between Republican talking points and reality, focusing on Florida Senator Rick Scott’s claim that “we need to get Americans back to work” when unemployment is at the lowest level in four decades.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness takes practice.

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The Shills 0

SFGate’s Drew Magary marvels as ESPN’s relentless promoting of sports betting.

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QOTD 0

Judith Kelman:

Life, I tell my sons, is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

Kelman, Judith, “Introduction,” Stout, Rex, Curtains for Three (New York: Bantam, 1994), p. vi.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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“Paranoia Strikes Deep” 0

At the San Francisco Chronicle, Charlie Jane Anders tries to under stand the sudden explosion in fear and paranoia about trans people. (I would argue that it’s because hate always seems to find a ready market, but that’s just me.) Given the waves of hate crashing into our eardrums every day, I recommend it as a worthwhile read. Here’s bit:

I’ve faced anti-trans stigma for years. Back in 2007, I interviewed for two different jobs over the phone and Skype, and was told the job was mine — until I met the employers in person — and they suddenly needed to look elsewhere. I’ve also been harassed, stalked and threatened.

But the past few years have felt different.

The drumbeat of anti-trans articles and rhetoric seems organized, coordinated. And I’ve seen the effects in my own world. A couple of years ago, a liberal cis woman who used to go out for drinks every week with a group of trans women, including myself, suddenly “came out” as a transphobe and started spouting views that wouldn’t have felt out of place in right-wing media. I couldn’t recognize my friend anymore, and I still don’t understand.

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A Picture Is Worth . . . . 0

Frame One:  Polar bear standing on shrinking ice floes.  Frame Two:  Couple standing in front of house looking a dry, parched landscape.

Click for the original image.

Tony Norman has more.

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Vaccine Nation 0

At the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Drake Bentley runs the numbers.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Politeness in the park.

Thus passeth yet more lives in NRA Paradise.

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All the News that Fits 0

Sam and his crew dissect the dissimulation.

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Warning Flags 0

They are waving them right in front of us and we are not paying attention.

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QOTD 0

Plutarch:

Character is simply habit long continued.

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Originalist Sin 0

The writer of a letter to the editor of the Baton Rouge Advocate points out the flawed reasoning and willful misinterpretation of the historical record by the Originalists.

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It Can’t Happen Here? 0

University of Arizona professor Stuart Brody recently visited Auschwitz and his experience left him with a wonder:

Could a holocaust happen in America? I have no answer, only a question: What in world history, and recent American experience, provides the confidence that it couldn’t?

Follow the link for his story of the visit.

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Establishmentarians 0

They pop up where you might least expect them.

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Republican Family Values, Suffer the Children Dept. 0

Republican Elephant says,

Click for the original image.

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Republican Family Values, “Red Meat for Rednecks” Dept. 0

Some persons are just not happy unless they are hating.

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Devolution 0

Frame One:  Harry Truman in 1945 with a desk plague reading,

Click to view the original image.

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Woke Up! 0

At the Idaho State Journal, retired professor Nick Gier argues forcefully that “woke” is good. A snippet:

So what’s wrong with being woke? For one thing, it was, for some, a dangerous occupation. Socrates, Jesus, Gandhi and MLK died for their beliefs, but we are indebted to them for establishing the moral and political principles of world civilization.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

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QOTD 0

C. S. Lewis:

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

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