David Baer @david@arktos.social

My eldest has reached the age where the school brings in police officers to teach the kids that drugs and alcohol are bad, and they should make good choices about what to put in their bodies.

And then I see this article, reminding me that alcohol producers’ business models depend on those who drink to excess, causing injury, death, family breakdown, burdens to public services, etc.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/10/19/alcohol-firms-promote-moderate-drinking-but-it-would-ruin-them?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/alcoholfirmspromotemoderatedrinkingbutitwouldruinthemasoberbrawl

When does my child learn about the dangers of capitalism?

Repurposed church altar at Dinosaur BBQ, Newark. Not pictured: POS terminals sitting on top.

RT @MarciGlass@twitter.com: @spcboise@twitter.com and the Presbytery of Boise will be erasing all of Idaho’s medical debt through @RIPMedicalDebt@twitter.com. $1.5 million of debt relief for our state (and beyond). https://twitter.com/MarciGlass/status/1190692641135943685

An October crocus on our street

This quote from the White House press secretary is... really something.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/john-kelly-says-he-warned-trump-hed-be-impeached-if-he-hired-a-yes-man-as-chief-of-staff-to-replace-him/2019/10/26/e4d5d028-f827-11e9-8cf0-4cc99f74d127_story.html

Inner harbor, Baltimore - early morning

Halloween

OK... tonight's game isn't over, but it's shaping up to be the kind of stinging defeat that the Astros deserve.

I was going to be cheering for the Nats anyway, but this seals it.

Astros Staffer's Outburst Illustrates MLB's Attitude Toward Domestic Violence - Sports Illustrated
https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/10/22/houston-astros-roberto-osuna-suspension

Sigh... This is why we can't have nice things.

ProPublica: Inside TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free

USS Constellation, Baltimore

Looking north up the river, the Tappan Zee Bridge in the distance

West bank of the Hudson

The Hudson River, from the top of the Palisades

Oops... “It was recently discovered that several thousand scientific articles could be invalid in their conclusions because scientists did not understand that Python’s glob.glob() does not return sorted results.”

http://www.blog.pythonlibrary.org/2019/10/13/thousands-of-scientific-papers-may-be-invalid-due-to-misunderstanding-python/

“Because frivolousness and stupidity are neither high crimes nor misdemeanors, his decision, however contemptible because it betrays America’s Kurdish friends, is not an impeachable offense.”

Maybe George Will has Trump’s financial records, and can therefore state confidently that Trump’s obsequiousness toward Erdogan is rooted in “frivolousness and stupidity,” rather than pecuniary self-interest. The rest of us reserve judgment about whether this is impeachable.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-spiraling-president-adds-self-impeachment-to-his-repertoire/2019/10/10/8c1a739c-eb7c-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html