2023 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier remarks on the confluence of guns and stupid.
Guns and stupid, guns and stupid,
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you, brother,
You won’t find one without the other.
Extra-Special Bonus QOTD 0
Worst-Case Scenario? 0
The writer of a letter to the editor of The Roanoke Times is less than optimistic about the outcome of this noble experiment.
Artificial Intelligence (Gathering) 0
Artificial “Intelligence” seems to be the hot new toy on the inner webs. A lot of persons are jumping in and playing with them just because they can, without considering the implications of running nekkid through the internet.
At Above the Law, Ayesha Haq, who specializes in legal issues regarding privacy and the internet, is not sanguine about the implications of ChatGPT and similar–er–tools as regards users’ personal information. I commend her piece to your attention; here’s a tiny bit of it:
1. It does not state a legal basis for processing the personal information it receives.
2. Users are not given a mechanism to exercise their “right to be forgotten” or “right to amend” personal information.
3. Personal information is stored indefinitely with no insight on how that data is secured and protected.
4. ChatGPT gathers information from unknown sources on the internet. If a user has any digital footprint, chances are ChatGPT knows a great deal about that user depending on what is available on the internet. This knowledge may be false, and the user has no recourse to correct, amend, or even delete the false information.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Foxy Shady 0
When the judge says something like this, it would seem to indicate that the portents are not propitious.
Follow the link for context.
(Broken link fixed.)
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” exposes a child to his politeness.
There’s a common denominator to all these injuries and deaths both accidental negligent and purposeful:
The gun.
That’s the one constant in gunnuttery.
Suffer the Children 0
Jessica Martinez and Marcy Goldstein-Gelb look at the push to return to the days of Charles Dickens in this, the New Gilded Age. A couple of excerpts from their article:
(snip)
Since 2021, legislators in 10 states have introduced bills, backed by industry, that would loosen child labor laws.
A Tune for the Times 0
Mangy comments at the Youtube page:
Do nothing, power-mad congressman, Jim Jordan of Ohio is REALLY upset that his hero and January 6th co-conspirator, Donald Trump, is in legal jeopardy in Manhattan. To deflect attention from Trump and muddy the legal waters, Jim Jordan has decided to investigate Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, claiming that crime is out of control in New York because Bragg is focused on unfairly prosecuting (and persecuting) Trump, while crime runs rampant. Sadly though, crime is down in all categories since Bragg has taken the DA’s position, and the murder rate in New York is a third of the murder rate in crime-ridden Columbus Ohio. Clearly, with all of Jim Jordan’s grandstanding in order to garner right-wing ‘clicks’ and donations, he has done a damn poor job of keeping an eye on his home state. Just as he stood by while sexual assault went on in the Ohio State wrestling program, Jim Jordan stands by while Ohioans die.