From Pine View Farm

“Activist Judges” 0

They are not the judges you have been told they are.

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Wounded 0

Uncle Sam, sporting two black eyes labeled

Click for the original image.

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QOTD 0

Brian Dietzen, as Jimmy Palmer:

The only thing worse than being scared is being scared alone.

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A Tune for the Times 0

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Untaught History 0

Not just in Alabama, folks.

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The Epidemiologist Writes the Prescription 0

Man lies in hospital bed linked to a battery of instruments as Donald Trump tosses a roll of paper towels off his head.

Via Job’s Anger.

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Misdirection Play, Going Viral Dept. 0

Sam comments–well, more accurately, casts scorn–on a Fox News attempt to market the notion that the coronavirus and precautions against it are parts of a plot to bring down Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, life doesn’t go on.

Afterthought:

The sad and frightening thing is that persons who spend their days hermetically sealed inside the Fox News/AM talk radio bubble will likely be susceptible to this–at least until they self-quarantine.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Just mean for the sake of mean.

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Ups and Downs 0

Man holding newspaper with headline about the falling Dow says to wife who is stacking rolls of toilet paper in the closet:  The toilet paper you've hoarded is not our 401K.

Click for the original image.

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Dumb Watches 0

El Reg reports that, when it comes to monitoring your health, your smart gadget ain’t so smart. Here’s bit from their story:

ECG (electrocardiogram–ed.) sensors are becoming more widespread, embedded in wearable devices like smartwatches, while machine learning software is being increasingly developed to automatically monitor and process data to tell users about their heartbeats. The US Food and Drug Administration approved 23 algorithms for medical use in 2018 alone.

However, the technology isn’t foolproof. Like all deep learning models, ECG ones are susceptible to adversarial attacks: miscreants can force algorithms to misclassify the data by manipulating it with noise.

The report goes on to point out that, in tests, properly trained real live human beings did better at identifying and discounting said “noise.”

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QOTD 0

Paul Farmer:

I critique market-based medicine not because I haven’t seen its heights but because I’ve seen its depths.

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Out of His Depth and In Over His Head 0

Bob Cesca points out that, as the coronavirus spreads, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the United States is suffering a crisis of competence at the highest levels. A snippet; follow the link for the rest:

The presidency isn’t a show, elections aren’t a game and the president should never be a game-show host.

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“Socialism” 0

Shorter Dan Casey: That word does not mean what they tell you it means.

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Bigotry Goes (Corona)Viral 0

I have noted from time to time in these electrons the increase of incidents of cruelty and bigotry directed at persons (who look as if they might be) of Asian descent since stories of the coronavirus entered the news. As if a virus gave a damn . . . .

Valentina Stoycheva, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, examines how persons excuse themselves from culpability for their cruelty during such a health scare. An excerpt (emphasis added):

It follows from cognitive dissonance that if I treat a person of a different race poorly but want to tell myself I am a good person, this poses a problem. However, if I commit an absolutely unthinkable and demeaning act of hostility towards an Asian person during the Coronal outbreak and tell myself I am keeping myself and my family healthy, I can keep my racist biases deep in the unconscious and consciously still consider myself a good and caring human being. But a health crisis is more than an excuse, it is also a catalyst for prejudices due to the panic it creates.

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Drinking Liberally Virginia Beach Thursday 0

Join us for fellowship and camaraderie and to discuss living in an age of actual viral viruses.

When: Thursday, March 12, 6 p. m.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

Read the chapter blog and sign up to have your inbox flooded with one or two emails a month here.

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Anxiety Attack 0

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Dialectic 0

Ed at Gin and Tacos analyzes the internal contradictions between long- and short-term goals facing both the Democratic and Republican parties. Here’s a bit of what he has to say about the latter; follow the link for the rest. It’s an interesting take.

In the GOP, as I’ve written about many times in the past, some people seem to realize that the party base of older, white, and largely rural voters is rapidly shrinking in comparison to more diverse and urbanized America. They are forever coming up with some new strategy to broaden the party’s appeal, the kind of thing that 20 years ago would have been called “minority outreach” without causing widespread cringing. The problem, of course, is that the party’s best short-term strategy for maximizing its success is to double down on white nationalism, something they’ve done with increasing regularity since 1980. Each election cycle someone in the Party says “Ok this time let’s try to appeal to Hispanics, it’s important!” and then when it doesn’t work immediately, and when they sense that it’s not going to gain them anywhere near as many votes as the usual dog-whistle (or plain old whistle) stuff, they go back to what they know.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Self-politeness is the politest kind.

He told police he was shot while on a freeway in the city, according to authorities.

Troopers spoke to the victim and began an investigation. After investigating the claim, they determined the man had shot himself by accident. Troopers also found a bullet hole in the inside and bottom of the victim’s pants pocket.

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The Voter Fraud Fraud 0

Have you noticed that, when actual cases of intentional voter fraud (as opposed to someone’s attempting to vote in the wrong precinct or forgetting to register or the like) come to light, they are almost always perpetrated by Republicans?

For example.

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QOTD 0

Arnold Schoenberg:

Market value is irrelevant to intrinsic value. . . . Unqualified judgment can at most claim to decide the market-value — a value that can be in inverse proportion to the intrinsic value.

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From Pine View Farm
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