CRANKY OLD FART’S
BROWSER HISTORY
#373 [archive]
Should I say something about the latest killfest in the Middle East? Probably, but I have no original thoughts about it. There are no original thoughts about it. It’s been going on longer than I’ve been alive.
10/7/2023 reminds me of 9/11/2001 — people who’d been treated like garbage for a long time, fought back.
That’s not justification. There is no justification. Justification implies morality, and nothing could be less relevant than that. It’s ugly. Lots of people died. Lots more will die.
Same as 9/11, nobody in power asks why people get so angry they’d kill. They don’t ask because they already know, and don’t care.
Israel plays the role of America, and the Palestinians are the Native Americans. Ask Crazy Horse how this is going to end.
• Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders 1 million to evacuate as ground attack looms
Israel’s completely expected over-response is horrific, of course. Their leaders are calling it “a complete siege” — constant bombing, a blockade to prevent food and fuel from getting in, and they’ve pulled the plug on Gaza’s electricity.
That’s a war crime, maybe several. The UN will no doubt issue a scathing memo.
Hamas, of course, would do the same or worse to all of Israel, if they had the military capability.
• BBC explains why they don’t call Hamas militants ‘terrorists’
Excerpt: Terrorism is a loaded word, which people use about an outfit they disapprove of morally. It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn — who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.
We regularly point out that the British and other governments have condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization, but that’s their business. We also run interviews with guests and quote contributors who describe Hamas as terrorists.
The key point is that we don’t say it in our voice. Our business is to present our audiences with the facts, and let them make up their own minds.
Me again: Strikes me as a fair position, unique in major media so far as I know.
• New legislation in New York would require parental consent for anyone under 18 to access the algorithm-based feeds on TikTok, Instagram and other platforms
Not a perfect solution, but not stupid. Kids could still access TikTok, Instagram, etc, but not the part that feeds users endless posts tailored to their personal interests and user-history.
• Clarence Thomas wants the Supreme Court to make it easier to sue journalists
Like almost everything Republicans say and do, this seems very out of the ordinary. Have there been past Supreme Court Justices who said, We need to look for a case that’ll let the Court make big changes?
I’ve foolishly envisioned the Supremes waiting to see what appeals arrive, not advertising to activists what case they want to hear and how they’ll rule on it.
• How the media should handle reporting on Trump
Excerpt: Journalists cannot ignore him.
But when he says something that illustrates his continued descent into fascist rhetoric, the real news is not so much the particular thing he said, it’s that he said it and that Republican leaders and Republicans generally still aren’t renouncing him.
The thrust of these stories should be that the current state of American politics is such that he isn’t being roundly condemned by his party even as he threatens core American values like the rule of law and freedom of the press.
Me again: I don’t disagree, but it’s futile. Once they’ve hit the big time, and they’re working for major newspapers and TV networks, it’s way too late to explain to journalists what journalism is and how to do it.
• Is Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker about the gulags? Chernobyl? EU immigration? • “We figure if we get a lawsuit it will be a lot of fun” — the zine of birth control, when abortion was illegal and the pill was for married couples only • 1966 — San Francisco’s last, and longest, obscenity trial over a literary work • The whole of the Whole Earth Catalog is now online at Whole Earth Index
• The secret history of jaywalking: The disturbing reason it was outlawed — and why we should lift the ban • The Police Problem
This is my ongoing collection of police brutality, beatings, and general corruption.• Amusing, Interesting, Outrageous, or Profound
And this is my Lemmy page, for anything that’s amusing, interesting, outrageous, or profound (in my opinion).
♫♬ MUSIC ♫• All I Know — Art Garfunkel • Green Onions — Booker T & the MGs • Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) — Kenny Rogers & The First Edition • One is the Loneliest Number — Harry Nilsson • Suite Judy Blue Eyes — Crosby Stills & Nash
❔ MYSTERY LINKS ❔
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• Click • Click • Click • Click • Click
👁 VIDEO 👁• The 1964 New York World’s Fair
The World’s Fair was brought to you by Sinclair gas stations, mostly, but also GE and GM, and jeez, it looks like a gawdawful festival of advertising and corporate-branded amusements. Doesn’t look like fun to me. Looks like downtown Dystopia.• One of skateboarding’s most unfathomable stunts • Swinging The Lambeth Walk, by Len Lye
(1939; 3 mins, 30 seconds)
⚰️ OBITUARIES ⚰️
• Jeff Burr • Ryan Carson • Michael Chiarello • Phyllis Coates • Claude Cormier • Terence Davies • Charles Feeney • Alice Fraser • Thomas Gambino 🖕• Keith Giffen • Dorothy Hoffner • Mang Hoi • Rudolph Isley • Jack Leathem • Louise Meriwether • Lucy Morgan • Kevin Phillips 🖕• Russell Sherman • John Tilley • Shawna Trpcic • Hughes Van Ellis • Allan C. Weisbecker
10/14/2023 Cranky Old Fart is annoyed and complains and very occasionally
offers a kindness, along with anything off the internet that’s made me
smile or snarl. All opinions fresh from my ass. Top illustration by Jeff Meyer. Click any image to enlarge. Comments & conversations invited.
Joey Jo Jo emeritus, John the Basket, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra
special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and
proved that the world isn’t always shitty.
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