From Pine View Farm

Stray Question 0

What’s worse, a stupid joke or a stupid joker?

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The Art of the Deal 0

Donald Trump staring at an easel bearing a canvass covered in incomprehensible scribbles and blotches of paint.  The easel is labeled

Click to view the original image.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Sam and the crew note that persons are starting to push back at ICE and its brown shirt tactics.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

A little paean to politeness in the park:

    They were strolling through the park one day,
    In the merry merry month of June,
    Then someone pulled out his rod to play
    Upon it a polite little tune.
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The Pool Buoy Boy 0

Florida Man.

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QOTD 0

Rex Stout:

The avoidance of idiocy should be the primary and constant concern of every intelligent person.

Stout, Rex, The Rubber Band in a dual volume with The Red Box (New York: Bantam Dell, 2009) p. 44.

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The Medicine Show, Reprise 0

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Trustworthy? That bridge in Brooklyn is still on the market.

Along those lines, you might want to listen to Harry Shearer’s conversation with Gary Marcus on this week’s episode of Le Show. It starts at about the eight minute mark.

Aside:

We recently watched The Matrix.

Methinks they got it wrong.

Machines didn’t subordinate mankind. Mankind seems quite willing, eager even, to subordinate themselves to the machines.

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All the News that Fits 0

Frames 1-5, captioned

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“But It’s One of Them 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, psychology professor Todd Nelson considers why persons are so susceptible to prejudice–that is, prejudging others–and offers some suggestions as to how not to fall into the prejudice trap. Given that dis coarse discourse seems flooded by merchants of hate, I found it a timely read.

Here’s a tiny bit:

We are born with an innate tendency to automatically categorize things (Gardner 1985; Ramsey et al, 2004). That is very helpful and helps us move through life by not needing to analyze every object we see to determine what it is and what its function is. Automatic categorization helps us instantly make those judgments. The problem comes when we bring that to people. People aren’t homogeneous, based on a single feature or even several features. If I see a skinny man with glasses, I can’t assume he is an introvert who likes to read.

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Vaccine Nation 0

Thom discusses the Trump maladministration’s decision to cancel research into a vaccine against bird flu.

Today’s Republican Party does not care about–in fact, disdains–the concept of the general welfare.

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The Medicine Show 0

RFK Jr. swimming in polluted Rock Creek says,

Click for the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

We are again reminded that politeness is a family value.

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QOTD 0

Victor Hugo:

The wicked envy and hate; it is their way of admiring.

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A Tune for the Times 0

Mike Murphy at the Idaho State Journal shares his thoughts on this topic.

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Sabotaging the Common Good 0

One of the (many) things that the Trump maladministration and its dupes, symps, and fellow travelers do not seem to understand–or care about–is that mindlessly slashing federal programs so as to fund tax cuts for fat cats who already have more money than they know what to do with harms real people.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Sam and the crew dissect ICE’s new catch-22.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

And another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” exposes a portable phallus to a child.

We are a society of stupid.

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Today’s Lesson 0

Mrs. Betty Bowers tells a story from 2 Kings 2:23-24 (look it up).

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The Man Who Would Be King 0

Methinks my old Philly DL friend Noz is onto something. He notes that

I suspect that Trump doesn’t actually know what his job is. He thinks President is just the “big boss,” without any recognition that he has a specific, and limited, role in the system.

I think he pretty much nails it. I commend his entire post to your attention.

Aside:

And this is what happens when you run the government like a business.

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From Pine View Farm
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