From Pine View Farm

The Fires This Time 0

Jimmy Kimmel discusses being in Los Angeles during the fires this time.

Afterthought:

I spent a lot of time in California on business trips.

I must confess, I don’t like California and I agree with Alexander Woollcott about Los Angeles. The Cali scenery is beautiful–especially the high Sierras–but I guess I’m just an east coast guy at heart.

But that doesn’t mean I dislike Californians or wish them ill.

I–all should–contemn those folks who are trying to score political points off the California fires and those who are suffering from them.

But it seems that those who sell hate always finds buyers, because hate sells, for hating is always easier than thinking.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Yet another child . . . .

And again we are reminded that “accidental” and “negligent” are not synonyms.

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

In the current kerfuffle over kids and cell phones, Peter Gray, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, hears many rhymes with “moral panics” in the past. Here’s the ones he mentions specifically:

  • Penny Dreadfuls and Dime Novels in the Victorian Era
  • The Motion Picture Panic of the 1930s
  • The Post-WWII Comic Book Panic
  • The Video Game Panic of the 1990s and Early 21st Century

Follow the link for a detailed discussion of each.

_____________

*Mark Twain.

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QOTD 0

Maurice Davis:

We know, and we must never forget, that every path leads somewhere. The path of segregation leads to lynching. The path of anti-Semitism leads to Auschwitz. The path of cults leads to Jonestown. We ignore this fact at our peril.

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A Blast from the Past 0

Arthur Godfrey sings “Teterboro Tower.”

When I was a young ‘un, the CBS Arthur Godfrey radio show was a morning staple in our house.

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Facebook Frolics 0

Rebecca Watson comments on Mark Zuckerberg’s decision the greenlight hate speech on his “social” media platforms. (Warning: Mild language.)

Or you can read the transcript.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Truthful? Let Beloit professor Robin Zebrowski answer that:

. . . AI has no concept of truth.

Follow the link for the context of that statement.

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Republican Thought Police in This New Gilded Age 0

Title:  It's 2025.  Time To Be Oligarchically Correct.  Frame One, captioned

Click for the original image.

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Clouded Thinking 0

David discusses the storm of stupid that the California fires seem to have sparked in right-wing reactions thereunto. (Warning: Short commercial starts at the 4:30 mark.)

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Where Is She Now? 0

Florida Man wanted to know.

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Because It Is. Okay? 0

I don’t care what closed captions say or what one of my favorite mystery writers writes.

“All right” is two words.

Furrfu.

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QOTD 0

Hugh Gaitskell:

Fascism has become the last defence of a crumbling economic system. It is the last bulwark of Capitalism.

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Missing in Inaction 0

The Editorial Board of my local rag looks at statements by a number of Republican regarding the fires in California and editorializes that

Withholding relief from California fire victims would be unconscionable

The editorial itself is behind the paywall, but its title summarizes it nicely.

But that leads to a larger question:

    Where is the evidence that today’s Republican Party has a conscience?
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“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but If Often Rhymes”* 0

PoliticalProf hears a rhyme from a century ago.

__________________

*Mark Twain.

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Still Rising Again after All These Years,
Republican Thought Police Dept.
0

Scott Maxwell parses the perfidy of Florida AG Ashley Moody.

No excerpt or summary can do his article justice. Just go read it.

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Facebook Frolics 0

At AL.com, Kyle Whitmire finds himself less than impressed with Mark Zuckerberg’s reasons for abandoning fact-checking Fakebook Facebook; Whitmire notes the irony (emphasis added):

Seemingly overnight, Facebook — which insists on being called Meta now — swapped out its political identity more swiftly than its name. The world’s largest social media company announced it would suspend fact-checking, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg called “biased” and prone to mistakes. Zuck did not cite examples, nor weigh any errors against the good that fact-checking may have done. Instead, he cited his opinion as a fact. And who will be left at the company to fact-check him?

And that’s just the start. Follow the link for the rest.

Meanwhile, in more news of the Zuckerborg . . . .

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This New Gilded Age 0

Via the Majority Report, a business professor argues that “income inequality is out of control,” then Sam and the crew discuss his remarks.

Afterthought:

We are reaping the harvest of Reagan’s trickle-on economics.

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Job Interviews 0

PoliticalProf.

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The Crypto Con 0

He says it came to him in a dream, which, methinks, is a fancy way of saying he dreamed it up.

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QOTD 0

Eleanor Bron:

Both men and women are fallible. The difference is, women know it.

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