From Pine View Farm

Suffer the Children 0

In Lawrence County, Tennessee, it’s now against the rules for students to miss school because they are sick.

Under this policy, when I had measles (it was before the measles vaccine, when I was in the fourth grade, not after RFK Jr.), I could have been “referred to” the court for being home sick with a fever, for Pete’s sake.

We are a society in regress.

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The Squeaker of the House 0

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson as a mouse in flight saying,

Click for the original image.

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Hollow Days 0

If Donald Trump truly wants to eliminate some federal holidays, LZ Granderson has some suggestions for him.

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QOTD 0

Anatole France:

In every well-governed state, wealth is a sacred thing; in democracies it is the only sacred thing.

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Wrestle Maniacs 0

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Signs of the Times 0

Steve M suggests a revision.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A learning aid? Impediment, actually.

Timothy Cook (no relation to Tim Apple) argues that, rather than helping students learn, AI, with its built-in bias towards certainty (often based on stuff AI makes up out of thin air, I will add), will stunt their education. Specifically, it will inhibit their development of critical thinking skills.

He identifies four specific dangers.

      Students lose the ability to sit with “I don’t know.” . . .
      They learn intellectual dishonesty as a strategy. . . .
      They develop intolerance for complexity. . . .

      Most dangerously, they lose their authentic voice. . . .

Follow the link for a detailed discussion of this issue.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Really now.

If you are going to play with your portable phallus, you shouldn’t act surprised if it discharges.

Musical NotesGuns 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.

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All that Was Old Is New Again, Misdirection Play Dept. 0

Afterthought:

Right-wing nutbags have spent decades trying to convince us that the federal government cannot be trusted.

And now we know.

A federal government of right-wing nutbags most definitely cannot be trusted.

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Preoccupations 0

Image one, captioned

Click for the original image.

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“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0

Robert Reich looks how the Trump maladministration maladministrates and hears a rhyme from a long time ago:

The closest historic analogy to what’s happening in Trump’s Washington is the court of Louis XIV, which brimmed with competitive sycophancy and insider deals. As the Duke de Saint Simon noted in his memoir, written in the 1730s:

“His Ministers, generals, mistresses, and courtiers soon found out his weak point, namely, his love of hearing his own praises. There was nothing he liked so much as flattery, or, to put it more plainly, adulation; the coarser and clumsier it was, the more he relished it. That was the only way to approach him; if he ever took a liking to a man it was invariably due to some lucky stroke of flattery in the first instance, and to indefatigable perseverance in the same line afterwards.”

__________________-

*Mark Twain.

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QOTD 0

Laura Penny:

The humanities are despised because they are dangerous. They arm us with the intellectual weapons we need to fight the forces of ignorance and idiocracy, and to free ourselves from freedumb.

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A Tune for the Times, Republican Family Values Dept. 0

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What’s in a Name? 0

Froma Harrop looks at RFK Jr.’s regime as Secretary of Health and Human Services and concludes, well, not very much. A snippet:

Bobby is Exhibit A at what could go wrong when public servants are elevated by reason of birth.

Visit the link to learn why she says that.

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Fly the Fiendly Skies 0

How is this not price-gouging?

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Barnum Was Wrong 0

There’s more than one born every minute.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Get out of Jail free cardOne more time, “accidental” and “negligent” are not synonyms.

And every time the police or news reports refer to an “accidental” shooting, they provide a “Get Out of Jail Free” card for negligence.

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Republican Family Values . . . 0

. . . have never been anything other than a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal signifying not much of anything but a talking point.

For example.

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Unwarranted Search 0

The EFF reports that, if foreigners want student or exchange visa, the Trump maladministration wants access to all of their “social” media. Specifically, they want all accounts set to “public.” The EFF notes that

An overwhelming number of social media users maintain private accounts for the same reason we put curtains on our windows: a desire for basic privacy. There are numerous legitimate reasons people choose to share their social media only with trusted family and friends, whether that’s ensuring personal safety, maintaining professional boundaries, or simply not wanting to share personal profiles with the entire world.

Follow the link for more about why this is a very bad invasive intrusive dangerous idea.

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QOTD 0

Ogden Nash:

Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens . . . .

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