2025 archive
A Tune for the Times 0
From the Youtube page:
Step into The Great Fatsby — a Cole Porter–style musical romp through Trump’s gilded Gatsby fantasy, where greed glitters, democracy wilts, and everyone’s in on the grift. Champagne, chaos, and Cole Porter rhythm collide in this Jazz Age fever dream.
Foxy Shady 0
Fox News falls for racist AI slop.
Why am I not surprised that Fox went for this like a dog for a milk bone?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Another “responsible gun owner” shoots first, gets questioned later.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said it was later determined that the people attempting to enter the home were members of a cleaning crew who mistakenly arrived at the wrong address.
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.
This New Gilded Age 0
Aside:
I’m with Thom about watching election returns on television.
I’m quite happy to read about them the next morning.
The Rule of Lawless 0
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier finds Doanld Trump’s SNAP decisions somewhat–er–disquieting. Here’s a tiny bit from his article.
Thus the president defies multiple court orders to feed hungry children, or am I oversimplifying?
You have to wonder at this point why the administration even bothers to retain lawyers, to go into courts, to file briefs, to meet deadlines. Under Trump, Trump is the law. Any legal judgment not in his favor is simply ignored.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Your BFF? Don’t bet on it, per Heather Lench, who notes that
- AI can now convincingly create or alter emotional expressions.
- People rely on emotional expressions to determine what is important and how to behave.
- Chatbots allow people to create personal echo chambers where AI is appreciative and positive.
- Emotions expressed by avatars can be altered to deceive others.
Follow the link for a detail exploration of each point.
Devolution 0
Aside:
Not that I have ever been fan of “Reagonomics.” Reagan’s embrace of the Laffable Curve, aka “Trickle-On Economics,” has done much to contribute to the erosion of the middle class, but, as regards tariffs, he got it right.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Michael in Norfolk decodes de code:
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” performs a random act of politeness while playing with his portable phallus.
So many guns.
So much stupid.
Facebook Frolics 0
The Zuckerborg is planning to add your AI chats to its assimilation algorithm.
Pamela B. Rutledge has more at the link.
Which lead to the question, are you using AI or is it using you?
QOTD 0
Thomas Jefferson:
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
I wonder what he would have said about “social” media?
This New Gilded Age 0
Thom runs the numbers.
Suffer the Children 0
We are again reminded that that is not scripture. Rather, it’s a Republican family value.