January, 2023 archive
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
At the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Brad Baldwin makes a persuasive case that the flood of mis- and disinformation on “social” media is a major reason why persons vote against their own (and the country’s) best interests.
I commend his piece to your attention.
One Thing Is Not Like the Other Thing 0
Sam documents the return of false equivalence.
“What’s in a Name” 0
The Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini suggests an answer to that question:
Follow the link to review his evidence.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another oxymoronic responsible gun owner . . . .
Guns and stupid, guns and stupid.
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you brother,
You can’t have one without the other.
The Wind Was Sown Long Ago . . . . 0
If you have paid any attention to the news, you’ve no doubt heard of the six-year-old who shot his teacher with his mother’s gun. (Here’s the latest as of the time I write this.)
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier, says, to bluntly paraphrase him, that there’s no surprises here.
Here’s a bit from his column; I urge you to read the rest.
“This,” said Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones, “is a red flag for the country.”
Respectfully, Mayor, you new to this country?
This country did not lose its gun-loving mind last Friday. It took decades upon decades of ill-conceived arguments, millions upon millions of gun lobby dollars, and generations upon generations of gutless politicians to make this a country with more guns than people, a country with less than 5 % of the world’s population holding 40 percent of its civilian-owned weaponry.
The Crypto Con 0
By the skin of our teeth, according to David Dayen. A snippet; follow the link for his reasoning.
Via Atrios.
Copywrongs 2
Above the Law has the text of the letter sent to Marjorie Taylor Greene when she used one of Dr. Dre’s songs in a “social” media post. The political nature of the post meant that, under copyright law, permission was required to use the song.
The letter itself? Well, it’s a gem.
At the Crossed Roads 0
At The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rick Diguette takes a look at why we seem to be stalled at dysfunction junction.
No excerpt or summary can do justice to his writing. Just read it.
“Shared Sacrifice” 0
Sam suggests the Fed thinks that the peons are getting too big for their breeches because said peons are not willing to sacrifice food and shelter for the greater good return to shareholders.
Methinks he has a point.
Aside:
The economic theory that Sam savages represents the poisonous economic theory of the Chicago School at its most poisonous–that somehow putting persons out of work promotes prosperity, a concept that I find oxymoronic in the extreme.
Prosperity for whom? Certainly not for those who end up in homeless camps because they cannot afford a place to live. Of course, one can’t have ugly homeless camps ruining the vista, so the next step is to bulldoze them and scatter their inhabitants.
Thereby we achieve the greater good return to shareholders.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” . . . 0
. . . and this polite society’s politeness is going to the dogs (along with everything else).
We are a society of stupid.
QOTD 0
Thomas Haden Church, in the voice of Lowell Mather:
If you are driving a car down Sesame Street, would you in fact end up in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood?
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
To paraphrase Spiro Agnew, “social” media is full of nattering nabobs of nonsense.
An Uncomfortable Truth 0
Brian Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, looks at the Republican Party’s week-long struggle to select a Speaker and reaches the depressing conclusion that voters get what they vote for (emphasis added). A snippet; follow the link for his reasoning.
I believe we deserve exactly what we are getting right now. There have been no surprises. The entire country has known exactly who these people are and exactly what they want to do.
I know that it’s a depressing thought, but I think he may be onto something.