One more reason the mainstream media is dying. They’re still stuck back in the “reefer madness” days. Case in point: CNN (via an alleged new-media affiliate) discovers a “new” drug that strips users of their free will. Gasp! OMG! The horror! But the name of the supposedly new drug sounded very, very, very, extremely, wildly familiar. And sure enough. It’s been around forever and its been quite well known to science for 130 years. As to stripping away free will — dubious. But it’ll make you heave your guts out and hallucinate and it can kill you, as thousands of…
Category: Miscellaneous
A 10-year-old artist’s work is booted from an exhibition. Seems to me the reasons given for removing it are the very reasons it should have stayed. A history of the Raggedy Ann doll. Why care? Well, turns out the story involves some very contemporary-sounding issues about vaccines. Caveat: Three different sources give different accounts (others here and here). The latter is the most dramatic and so much at cross-purposes to the other two that it makes one’s head spin. Or maybe it’s just government spin. Hm. I’ve heard sociopaths sound sound just like this after being caught: trivializing the pain…
One year ago today, a man named Ian Tomlinson was attacked by police. He died minutes later. They tried to cover it up, of course. Most Americans have probably never heard of Tomlinson. Let’s just say our country has no monopoly on armed thugs roaming the street in uniform. Tip o’ the hat to Jim Bovard for this lovely interactive map that shows current rates of return for census forms. Good going, Texas! Some of your counties have rates as low as 19%. Interesting that basically the whole southern tier of states is balking at the snoopery. (To see your…
A collection of stuff that’s accumulated in my, “Gee, isn’t that interesting!” file over the last week or two. Well, actually some of it is from the, “Gee, isn’t that scary?” file: Step-by-step plan for fed takeover of private retirement funds. Hey, they’re gonna need the money, you know. The most important chart … of the whole century. Debt saturation and the diminishing return on every dollar. Very dramatic. Very simple. Definitely one for the scary file. When you work hard and play by the rules the house wins. From the comments section: Philalethes linked to this excellent article, “Linux,…
I’m thinking today about the next “big” piece I want to write (either for this blog or for the print edition of Backwoods Home). So I won’t have too much to say until my brain works that out. The piece will be based on Albert Jay Nock’s concept of freedom lovers as something like the biblical “remnant,” expounded in his essay “Isaiah’s Job.” If you follow that link, you’ll see that the copy of “Isaiah’s Job” I chose (there are copies all over the ‘Net) is on the site of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons — a damnfine…
Declan McCullagh reveals everything we need to know — with links upon links upon links — about the alleged privacy of the census. Heck, and I thought my zip-lining experience was spectacular! Okay, so this is how these kids get to school. Now, how do they get back? Will wonders never cease? An on-duty cop is caught driving drunk — and gets treated like you or I would! And, if you can stomach it, the Wall Street Journal sums up the political deals Pelosi and the Obamistas made in the last few days before the health care vote. So much…
Monday’s coming a little early. Posting this Sunday night, just after learning the Dreadful Bill has been inflicted upon us. No-brainer Nostradamus: The Rs will sweep to victory in November promising to repeal the ghastly law. Then they won’t. How is it possible that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are the only three people in the world who can’t see that the Dems have toasted themselves by doing this thing to us? Along those lines, here’s an unusually good article from a usually not-so-good source, the Weekly Standard: “Dead Congress Walking.” Post-passage PR. Obama plans a three-part, multi-year blitz to persuade…
Okay, I’ve missed a few “Monday Miscellany” posts. So here’s some Thursday Miscellany to make up for that. We already know that even mild pressure from authority figures can make most people commit evil acts. And we know that placing ordinary people in authority over helpless others can be just as disastrous. (Although some skeptics question specifics of that experiment). Now, a French documentarian shows us that the power of TV can do the same. Humans are scary critters. On the other hand, it’s amazingly good news when the most mainstreamy of mainstream media suddenly gives respectful treatment to the…
Got a bitterly amusing voice mail last night. It was forwarded to me as an MP3 file by Rich Lucibella, publisher of S.W.A.T. magazine (for which, oddly enough, I write; Rich and editor Denny Hansen are terrific people). Anyhow, my latest S.W.A.T. article is called “Proudly Redneck.” It points out that in this veddy, veddy PC age, the one group it’s still socially acceptable to stereotype is “rednecks” — crackers, rubes, hayseeds. You know, us country folk. The article opens with eight bad old racial or ethnic slurs that no polite person uses these days and goes on to ask…
HOME! Waking up in the tropics, then struggling home through a blinding snowstorm 26 hours later is not fair! Not fair at all! But thank heaven for heroically dedicated friends; I didn’t have to drive myself that last crazy six hours. Why is every mainstream media article about the census a propaganda piece that could have been written by flacks at the Census Bureau? And why does every one of them repeat the lie about “just 10 questions”? Sure, there are merely 10 questions for people who live alone, but there are seven additional questions for each other resident —…