From Pine View Farm

Russian Impulses 0

Jay Bookman.

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Just Funnin’ 0

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A Formula for Success 0

Katherine Foss considers Americans’ creepy phobia about mothers’ breast-feeding babies the way nature intended. She thinks she may have found the culprits.

It was the formula companies that spearheaded the shift in public perception. From the first ads for milk substitutes (formula) in the 1860s, these companies have used deceptive practices to successfully persuade women that their “inadequate” milk should be replaced with artificial food. Advertisements, not doctors, prompted the initial breast-feeding decline in early 20th-century America, correlating with spikes in mortality among young children.

More at the link.

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A Glimpse Inside the Walled Orchard 0

Tim Cook at Apple staff meeting:  We're now an one trillion dollar company.  Staffer:   Wow! That's twenty iPhone Xs.

Click for the original image.

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Responsible Fiduciaries 0

Apology, schmapology. What’s gone is gone.

Where are the criminal charg oh, never mind. They have impunity.

In yet another apology for the San Francisco-based bank, Wells said a calculation error involving a mortgage underwriting tool resulted in 625 customers being incorrectly denied or not offered modifications to make their loans more affordable. In about 400 of those cases, the homes were ultimately foreclosed on.

Follow the link for more responsible fiduciaries.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Be polite to your friends.

The 40-year-old gun owner was showing his .380-Beretta semi-automatic handgun to a 49-year-old Paterson man when “the gun discharged one round, striking the gun owner in his left hand and his friend in the right hip,” Fair Lawn Police Sgt. Brian Metzler said in a prepared statement.

. . . and another gun fires itself.

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QOTD 0

Susan Rice:

The U.S. cannot go it alone simply when it is convenient.

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Recommended Listening 0

Midnight Cab.

This is an excellent and quirky mystery series from the CBC. It stumbles a bit towards the end, but regains its stride in the last episode. Click the “More Information” button for more, well, you know, information.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Donald Trump looking at the new engraving on the Statue of Liberty:

Via Job’s Anger.

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Walking in Another’s Shoes 0

Peter Gray, who is not black, tries to imagine how his daily routine might change if he were. A nugget:

3. Now here’s something I’ve done recently that’s clearly illegal: I bought a secondhand small kayak trailer. In my home state, the law requires that I register it and attach a trailer license to the back. I tried doing that right after I bought it, but ran into a bureaucratic snag. The licensing procedure required information that did not seem to be available for this second-hand, partly homemade trailer. So, after considerable effort, I finally gave up trying to get the license. I don’t drive it far from home and my assumption is that I’m not likely to be stopped and that, if I am stopped, I will simply be told that I need to get a license and I will thank the officer kindly for that information. But what if I were Black? My guess is that the chance of my being stopped for hauling even this small trailer with no license would go up greatly . . . .

Follow the link for the rest.

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Small Hands, Big Feet 0

Dana Milbank reflects on Virgina Republican Denver Riggleman’s–er–obsession? dalliance? preoccupation?–with Bigfoot and offers a modest proposal. A snippet:

So it is my informed opinion that Republicans should take a page from Teddy Roosevelt, who in 1912 bolted the Republican Party to create the Bull Moose Party. Now that Trump has led his partisans to abandon most of what the Republican Party stood for two years ago, and has led them into a mythical land of alternative facts, they ought to rename the entity they’ve created: the Bigfoot Party.

For a party slogan, I suggest a twist on Robert F. Kennedy’s famous paraphrasing of George Bernard Shaw: There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that are not, and say, yes they are!

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Practice random acts of politeness.

The woman was standing in her front yard when she was hit in the chest by a single gunshot, according to a press release. The shot had come from a residence across the street.

A 63-year-old male was identified as the accidental shooter, the injury a result of unsafe use of a firearm. The bullet had gone through a wall of the house before hitting the woman.

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Endless Loopy 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Edward A. Wasserman considers how positive and negative reinforcement affect Donald Trump’s tweeting behavior. In the course of the article, he muses why negative reactions to Trump’s more outlandish tweets has not resulted in their having been moderated. Then he posits an answer:

Wait, you exclaim! Shouldn’t all that negative coverage punish Trump’s making such flagrantly false statements? Yes, it should—if Trump found those negative appraisals to be aversive. However, to someone who finds the limelight intoxicating, any coverage—positive or negative—can be positively reinforcing. That means that assiduously checking every one of his claims and excoriating Trump for these falsehoods—both large and small—are actually counterproductive! If that’s so, then we’re stuck in a feedback loop that’s only making the matter worse, not better.

I commend the complete article to your attention.

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A Picture Is Worth 0

Blue baseball cap bearing the motto,

Via PoliticalProf.

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Dirtied Laundry 0

Maids making bed in White House see that, instead of a bedsheet, they have a KKK uniform.  One says to the other,

Via Job’s Anger.

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QOTD 0

Dave Sim:

Everyone is normal until you get to know them.

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Geeking Out 0

Mageia Linux v. 6 with the Fluxbox window manager using the OxAR style, with the venerable xclock and GKrellM system monitor.

Click for a larger image.

Finish reading this post »

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

For the sake of the children, fill your home with politeness.

They say the two children were in the master bedroom when it happened. The children were getting guns out of the gun safe that is kept in an area between the master bedroom and master bathroom.

Officials say the safe was locked but the boy knew where the key was. The little girl took out an unloaded glock pistol, and the boy pulled out a .22 magnum rifle with a bullet in the chamber but no magazine. That’s when the little boy fired the gun, hitting the girl.

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Denial Is Not Just a River in Egypt 0

Man wearing

Click for the original image.

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Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0

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