From Pine View Farm

QOTD 0

Thomas Paine:

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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“Facts Are What People Think” 0

Veteran newspaper editor Martin Baron is not sanguine at the state of dis coarse discourse. Here’s a tiny bit from his article:

And perhaps most concerning to me is that we now live in a time when people are unable or unwilling to distinguish between what is true and what is false. It is only natural — and, in a democracy, expected — that we will disagree about which policies are best. Yet today we cannot agree on how to determine a fact. All of the elements we have historically relied upon to establish facts — education, expertise, experience and, above all, evidence — have been denigrated, dismissed and denied.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A helpmeet of hackers? Security maven Bruce Schneier reports that

AI agents are now hacking computers. They’re getting better at all phases of cyberattacks, faster than most of us expected.

Much more at the link.

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Republican Family Values, Dragnet Dept. 0

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Dragnet 0

Title:  The Next Arraignment.  Image:  Lady Justice having her booking photos taken.

Click for the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Another case of neighborly politeness.

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

in a letter to the editor of the Las Vegas Sun, Bob Ory hears a rhyme that sounds awfully like “a difference without a distinction.”

________________

*Mark Twain.

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QOTD 0

Erma Bombeck:

When humor goes, there goes civilization.

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Break Time 0

Off to drink liberally.

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How Stuff Works: The Trump Ministry of Truth 0

I do not think it much of a stretch to say that one of its guiding principles is “What they don’t know won’t hurt us.”

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A competent legal researcher? Why, you might even say it’s unprecedented.

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A Slip of the Tongue 0

David suggests that Stephen Miller said the quiet part out loud on CNN (and points out that CNN failed follow up on it).

Learn more about “plenary authority.”

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Republican Thought Police 0

Methinks my old Philly DL friend Noz pretty much nails it.

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The Mismatch Game 0

Title:  America:  What Does Not Belong?  Images:  Apple Pie.  Soldiers invading U. S. Cities.  Baseball.  Kings.  Statue of Liberty.  Stsstue of Liberty with a Hitler mustache.  The right to vote.  Boot stomping on human face.  Commedian making fun of the president.  President firing comedian.  Hot dogs.  King eating all the hot dogs and applie pies.

Click to view the original image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Yet another “responsible gun owner” demonstrates politeness on the pavement.

So many guns. So much stupid.

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QOTD 0

Rosa Parks:

People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Manipulative? Per Thomas Claburn at El Reg,

AI companion apps such as Character.ai and Replika commonly try to boost user engagement with emotional manipulation, a practice that academics characterize as a dark pattern.

Remember, Big Tech doesn’t want to provide a service to you.

They want you to service them.

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

    Thom hears a rhyme
    From another time
    When men in hoods
    Roamed the woods,
    With crosses ablaze
    Through nights and days.

_____________-

*Mark Twain.

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