First Looks category archive

Bad Voltage, S03E61.

It gave me a laugh on my drive to this month’s DL.

Off to drink liberally.

Via PoliticalProf.

When I worked for the railroad, I took the train to New York more times than I can remember. The first view of New York was the towers of the World Trade Center above the New Jersey bluffs before the train entered the tunnel to Penn Station.

Many years later, when I was no longer working for the railroad, I had occasion to take the train to New York. The first view of New York was no World Trade Center above the New Jersey bluffs before the train entered the tunnel to Penn Station.

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

Jim Hightower is not impressed by Big Pharma’s hissy fit.

We human beings sometimes do some terrible things in pursuit of the almighty dollar. But to our credit, one moral line we humans don’t cross is to profiteer by gouging sick people on the price of medicines their lives depend on.

Unless, of course, you count executives of giant pharmaceutical corporations as human beings. Gouging patients is their preferred business model.

I commend his entire piece to your attention.

When news coverage went from being a loss-leader and a service to being a profit center, when news went from information to “infotainment,” well, that’s when this discourse became dis coarse.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Claudia Skowron tries to make sense of the pumpkin spice phenomena. A snippet:

Many will argue that the pumpkin spice flavor itself is delicious. Ironically, most pumpkin spices have next to no pumpkin in them . . . .

Monarch of the Glen. It starts off kind of slow, but rapidly becomes an absolute hoot.

It’s currently available on tubi and possibly other streaming services.

I remember hearing the McGuire Sisters on Arthur Godfrey’s radio show back in the olden days, when I was a young ‘un. I liked them then, and I like them now.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

At The Kansas City Star, a retired Army officer and self-described “life-long Republican” explains why he has become disenchanted with today’s Republican Party. Here’s the gist; follow the link for the bill of particulars.

The Christian right’s influence on the GOP continues to grow. As a result, the party has lost its way. It no longer applies the concept of less government regulation of social life. Instead, the GOP increasingly gives the Christian right a path of manically forcing its values on Americans through public policy and laws.

(Broken link fixed.)

Gadzooks! The gullibility!

This blog is 18 years old today.

It may be drivel, but it’s my drivel.

From my recent visit to my dentist (who is excellent, by the way) to have some old fillings repaired:

Dentist: Now let’s numb this other tooth. Be ready for a sting–maybe worse than last one. This may hurt a bit.

(Dentist applies syringe. I hardly feel a thing, but I still flinch, as years of evolution tell us not to allow others to stick pointy things into our bodies.)

Me: I barely felt a thing. Is that some kind of psychological tactic to make me think it wasn’t as painful as it might have been?

Dentist. Well (long pause) yes.

By the way, he is a highly skilled and extremely competent dentist and I am very happy to be among his patients.

For example.

Afterthought:

Fast and stupid is still stupid.

Rebecca discusses the cavalcade of crazy surrounding the fires on Maui.

If you prefer, you can read the transcript.

Via Yellowdoggranny.

Another case of neighborly politeness:

Police responded for a report of a woman shot in a home along the 300 block of Emerson Avenue around 9 a.m. A spokesperson for the Modesto Police Department said a man was clearing his gun and accidentally shot off a round that went through the wall and hit an 83-year-old woman.

The woman was taken to hospital but ultimately died.

(snip)

No charges were filed. Police said the shooting appears to be a tragic accident at this time.

How shall I put it?

Any “responsible gun owner” who cleans a firearm without first making sure it’s unloaded is not in any way “responsible.” He or she is negligent.

I suspect that, if police would stop calling these events “accidents” and start calling them what they truly are–negligence–well, it couldn’t hurt and it might help.

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