From Pine View Farm

October, 2024 archive

And Now for a Musical Interlude 0

Share

Happy All Hallows Eve 0

Black cats

Via All Things Amazing, an image site (some images NSFW).

Share

Which Witch? 0

This witch.

Share

The Disinformation Superhighway 0

Spocko makes the case that some Twitter users X offenders have created an HOV lane for voter fraud fraudsters.

Share

Flotsam 0

Image:  Donald Trump standing atop a pile of garbage in a garbage scow with flags reading

Click to view the original image.

Share

“There’s No Legal Strategy Called Rope-a-Dope” 0

Seth takes a closer look at the last week of the campaign.

Share

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

He is bullish on politeness.

A McDonough County teen was arrested on Tuesday after admitting to shooting livestock and being involved in a road rage incident in McDonough County.

(snip)

The complainant told the McDonough County Central Dispatch that they suspected four of their bulls had been shot. When deputies and detectives arrived on the scene, two of the four bulls had died. Two other bulls had been shot and the owner was tending to their injuries.

Share

True Decievers 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Robert Klitzman takes a look at recent research into the psychology of cults and cultists. He suggests that it may shed some light on dis coarse discourse. Here’s a tiny bit:

Given the rise of social media, current political cults differ in certain regards from past such groups, suggesting a new form of cult. Traditionally, these groups tended to meet in person, even living together, as Moonies and Jim Jones’ followers did. Yet today, social media serves to bind members closely. Unlike certain past groups, a current political cult can’t physically isolate followers from outsiders, but social media helps maintain boundaries, if more indirectly and informally, by harshly criticizing opposing perspectives and ostracizing any members who adopt these. Since these candidates cannot wholly screen out opposing information, they instead fiercely deride it as “fake news.”

Share

QOTD 0

Traditional Scots saying:

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!

Share

A Tune for the Times 0

Share

The Back-Up Plan 0

At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Gene Collier offers his take on Donald Trump’s campaign–er–strategy. A nugget; follow the link for his reasoning.

. . . Trump is not try­ing to win. He’s try­ing to en­rage his loy­al­ists to fight for him when he doesn’t.

Share

“The Last Firewall” 0

Just in case you wondered why Republicans are so determined to gut out the vote . . . .

Frame One, title:  The Last Firewall.  Frame Two, captioned

Click to view the original image.

Share

That Trumpled Economy 0

Mrs. Betty Bowers reminds us of the reality of the “Trump economy.” A quote:

Four years ago, thousands of Americans were dying every day, and there was no toilet paper.

Share

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

A cliche comes to life.

Musical NotesGuns 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.

Share

Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

El Reg reports that Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, ain’t buying it. A snippet:

“I think AI is really interesting and I think it is going to change the world and at the same time I hate the hype cycle so much that I really don’t want to go there, so my approach to AI right now is I will basically ignore it,” said Torvalds.

“I think the whole tech industry around AI is in a very bad position and it’s 90 percent marketing and ten percent reality and in five years things will change and at that point we’ll see what of the AI is getting used for real workloads,” he added.

Follow the link for context.

Share

“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes.”* 0

Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman hears a rhyme.

So too does Yastreblyansky.

________________

*Mark Twain.

Share

QOTD 0

Hal Holbrook:

We don’t have truth delivered to us very often, especially in this very commercialized world.

Share

A Tune for the Times 0

Via C&L, which has commentary.

Share

A Choice, Not an Echo 0

Little girl on a walk with her grandfather.  She asks,

Click to view the original image.

Share

Voting Accomplished 0

We went out for breakfast, then swung by the Central Library to cast our ballots. (Virginia Beach satellite early voting sites are open this week, so you don’t have to drive way down into the boondocks to City Hall to vote early.)

There was a line, but it moved along very nicely.

Now all we have left to do is sweat out the wait until the results are in to find out whether we still have a democracy.

Share