First Looks category archive

Mangy comments at the Youtuve page:

Having taught pretty much all levels of students, Mangy Fetlocks feels schools should be safe places for students to learn and grow and that a responsible, nurturing society should be willing to do all that they can to ensure that that is the case, even if it means ‘giving up’ something, like the ability to buy and own weapons of war, since in that case, nothing is actually ‘given up’, but rather, simply exchanged for something more valuable that is for the greater good. While Mangy is a lifelong gun owner, he values kids way more than he values any perceived security derived from high-powered weaponry. At the risk of offending a few snowflakes, he wrote this song anyway because this is America, and real patriots speak out if they think it will benefit us collectively.

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

If you have Netflix, the “docuseries” Dirty Money.

Be forewarned. It ain’t pretty.

Do you have some friends or associates who do unsavory things to you behind your back?

Psychologist Erin Leonard offers a taxonomy of toxicity. Maybe you’ll recognize someone.

Susan Young, opinion editor at the Bangor Daily News, looks at the current wave of attempts to ban books and points out it is ultimately about control. A snippet; follow the link for the complete article.

Why do leaders and others want to keep some books away from people? Because of the ideas they contain. It is easier to control people if they have only one common set of information, if they are not fully aware of the complexity of the world and the myriad options it presents.

Off to drink liberally.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

Yet another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” exposes a child to politeness.

In the United States, there are now more guns than people.

Make no mistake: the common denominator in all these incidents is not the responsible gun owners, nor is it the victims, children or otherwise. It’s not even the stupid.

It’s the guns.

Snopes debunks nine deepfake photos (purporting to be) of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

If you have Netflix, check out the Murdaugh Murders.

It’s an excellent and moving documentary. There is no narrator; it’s told through the voices of those who were there compiled from interviews and live footage.

It’s also timely. The verdict just came down.

Greta Thunberg follows the money.

Aside:

Yesterday, I had to turn on the AC for a short while to drive some of the humidity out of the house. A few hours after I turned it off (it had done its job), the temperature dropped 30 Fahrenheits in about three hours.

Yet again, politeness becomes child’s play.

Off to drink liberally.

Michael Hiltzik skewers the specious sophistries being used to push for raising the age of eligibility for social security. A snippet; follow the link, where he debunks more bunk.

As for whether it’s “easier” to work into one’s 70s than it used to be, that may be true for authors of think tank papers in air conditioned offices, but perhaps not for the millions of Americans who spent their careers hauling, digging, driving and building, outside in the elements.

Where were Crockett and Tubbs when Miami needed them?

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