In the future, every single thing we see on the Internet is going to be fake. Thus spake a major high tech investor on the PBS Newshour last Saturday. Early warning avatars surround us. On the smartphone application TikTok, you can make yourself dance like a cartoon or modify your body to look like JLo or The Rock. Or both. (Aargh!) Harmless? Hardly. It means that Donald … [Read more...]
Nevada: Company town, corporate dumpster
The Lord created the world. Mankind built the cities. And the Devilthunk up the small town.Wise old saying Part of Silver State survival lies in learning local code. For instance, when a pol uses the tired slogan “one of us,” it means that whomever opposes him (and it’s usually a him) is somekinda furriner or a prevert, probably from Las Vegas. Same mentality applies when … [Read more...]
The Wages of Sin
Our republic and its press will rise or fall together.Joseph Pulitzer “Reno is so incestuous,” a reporter who became a noted lawyer once told me. The result of that longtime good-ole-boys sterility remains obvious to anyone standing under the Reno Arch today. Into this corrupt post-WW2 mix came two entrepreneurial Italians in a very Italian town. Al Figoni legendarily ran … [Read more...]
Poison Annie’s revenge executed
TRUE OR FALSE? “The Flintstones” is a documentary. “Row versus Wade” involves a fisherman’s choices for crossing a raging stream. A homotextual is someone who drinks homogenized milk while using Twitter. If you didn’t answer false to all three, you may return to Fox News. Regular Barbwire readers know that when I make a mistake, I eat crow with lots of mustard. However, … [Read more...]
The fall of Camelot
At your highest moment, be careful. That’s when the devil comes for you.Denzel Washington The formerly united states of America have been on a drug-induced high since 1945. We were rich, powerful and on top of the world economically, militarily and egotistically. Very addictive opiates. We didn’t know it but we peaked by 1968, the year a dollar bought more than anytime … [Read more...]
Poisoning pigeons in the park
“All the world seems in tune on a spring afternoon when we’re poisoning pigeons in the park.” — Tom Lehrer 1959 I’ve warned you many times and I admonish you again: Don’t let your kids play on the plastic turf at Sparks’ Golden Eagle Park. According to last week’s Tribune, the Sparks City Council spent $64,000 “to purchase SMG SportChamp artificial turf maintenance … [Read more...]