129 years on, no pardon to Billy the Kid - Yahoo! News
SANTA FE, New Mexico (AFP) – New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson Friday refused to pardon Wild West outlaw Billy the Kid...
12.31.2010
I don't remember why we're talking about this but anyway let's not
A whole new kind of New Year
New Year's Eve? There's an App for That - DNAinfo.com
MANHATTAN — Ringing in the New Year? There's an app for that....
... the free Times Square Official New Year’s Eve Ball Drop App...will live stream the countdown straight to users' iPhones, iPads and new-edition Androids.
12.30.2010
But it's enough to scare Glenn Beck
The Worst Clichés of Politics From 'Tax-and-Spend' to 'Maverick'
For the past two decades, the ideological divide in America has been between Republicans who call themselves "proud conservatives" and Democrats who stammer, "Well...um...er...I don't believe in labels." When pressed, most of these skittish Democrats invoke the fig-leaf term "progressive" to describe themselves rather than the more familiar and descriptive moniker of "liberal.After a campaign year in which the Democrats lost 63 House seats and seven Senate seats, it is safe to call this the worst rebranding effort since Blackwater -- the scandal-scarred security contractor -- tried to transform itself into Xe Services. Nobody is fooled when liberals put on this bargain-basement camouflage.
Cryptome on Wikileaks
The original Wikileaks initiative is dead, replaced by a bloated apparatus
promising 260,000 cables at slower than a snail's pace. At the rate of 20
cables a day it will take 13,000 days to finish -- some 35 years.The original merits of Wikileaks have been lost in its transformation into
a publicity and fund-raising vehicle for Julian Assange as indicated in the
redesign website which billboards him.Its once invaluable, steady stream of documents, packaged in its own, no-frills
format, is now a tiny dribble of documents apparently regulated by a compact
with a few main stream media which amplify the material well beyond its
significance. Days go by when nothing new is offered except outpouring of
manufactured news about Assange and a slew of trivial news and bombastic
commentaries for and against the initiative.
12.29.2010
Bushcare
UNDERNEWS: New Iraq constitution provides better healthcare than America
Current - Article 31 of the Iraqi Constitution, drafted by your right-wing Bushies in 2005 and ratified by the Iraqi people, includes state-guaranteed (single payer) healthcare for life for every Iraqi citizen.
12.28.2010
Discovery
It turns out that if I stand in the middle of a room long enough eventually I remember why I'm there. This is a big thing, really huge. It means that now, instead of wandering aimlessly back and forth, all I have to do is stand still and all will be made clear. Saves a lot of energy.
I wonder if I can read a book while I'm waiting.
12.27.2010
OK! Some other time!
Close call. I was just getting ready to go out on a purely optional, highly postponable errand, clomping through the kitchen in my unlaced boots, when I glanced out the window and saw a huge cloud of snow blow across the neighbor's back lawn, propelled by an enormous blast of no doubt icy cold wind and I said to myself, what's the friggin' hurry here?
Next: Get groped at the Gap
‘Homeland’ security coming to hotels, malls | Raw Story
WASHINGTON – The United States is stepping up security at "soft targets" like hotels and shopping malls, as well as trains and ports, as it counters the evolving Al-Qaeda threat, a top official said Sunday.
And by the way, why do sentences like this get written when the very next paragraph - the very next sentence, in fact - names the "top official" as Janet Napolitano? Why can't we just have Janet Napolitano in the first sentence and be done with it?
Just asking.
Dude, why can't we just have a little snow and get on with it?
Lotta Snow | Talking Points Memo
Like Broadway for aspiring actors, the avenues of New York crush the dreams of even the most talented snow.
Some blizzard
I give it four inches, although it's a little difficult to be sure because it was (and still is) very windy, so there are low spots drifted to a foot or more and higher spots blown almost bare. All the streets are plowed, traffic is moving normally although there is not so much of it because the schools and some of the stores downtown are closed. So for a blizzard this was not much to get worked up about.
Spare us the purple prose, please
Huge Blizzard Snarls Travel and Transit in the Northeast - NYTimes.com
Through the afternoon, the storm grew into an adventure. The snow came down in great sweeping curtains, drifting over parked cars and park benches to be sculpted into aerodynamic shapes.
Everywhere, the winds whispered and moaned in their secret Ice Age language....
Right. That would be in Manhattan. Here, not so much, although it did eventually snow and - I'm just peering through my frost-etched windowpane (sorry, reading too much NYTimes) - there looks to be maybe four inches on the ground. It looks like light snow (yes, I will go inspect it more closely in time but I'm still working on my emergency cup of coffee so it will be a while before I get outside) and it's blowing pretty hard, so probably it is drifting some, somewhere.
The bad news about snow cover is that it's, well, cover, of course, but the streets are plowed, the kiddies don't have to go to school (at least one teacher I know will be grumpy because she's not getting a snow day out of this), and all in all it doesn't look like much to get excited about, here.
12.26.2010
But baby it's still cold outside
Bundle Up, It’s Global Warming - NYTimes.com
THE earth continues to get warmer, yet it’s feeling a lot colder outside. ...
How can we reconcile this? The not-so-obvious short answer is that the overall warming of the atmosphere is actually creating cold-weather extremes.
And yes it does make sense. Read the article at the link.
12.25.2010
Under the tree
Gap between rich and middle class grows - Dec. 23, 2010
The richest 1% of U.S. households had a net worth 225 times greater than that of the average American household in 2009, according to analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. That's up from the previous record of 190 times greater, which was set in 2004.
12.24.2010
Somebody's got to do it
19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind
The United States has become a nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little. Do you know what our biggest export is today? Waste paper.
Bah, says Krugman
The Humbug Express - NYTimes.com
If you listen to the recent speeches of Republican presidential hopefuls, you’ll find several of them talking at length about the harm done by unionized government workers, who have, they say, multiplied under the Obama administration....
But anyone paying attention knew why public employment had risen — and it had nothing to do with Big Government. It was, instead, the fact that the federal government had to hire a lot of temporary workers to carry out the 2010 Census — workers who have almost all left the payroll now that the Census is done.
12.23.2010
Treasury: And would you like fries with that?
U.S. Has Approved Billions in Business With Blacklisted Nations - NYTimes.com
Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has granted special licenses allowing American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by The New York Times has found.
At the behest of a host of companies — from Kraft Food and Pepsi to some of the nation’s largest banks — a little-known office of the Treasury Department has made nearly 10,000 exceptions to American sanctions rules, approving deals involving countries that have been cast into economic purgatory, beyond the reach of American business.
So you'll just have to take the TSA's word, Bunky
TSA has no regular testing system for its pornoscanners - Boing Boing
...when Andrew Schneider, AOL's public health correspondent, contacted the TSA to find out what maintenance and testing is in place to ensure the safe operation of the scanners, he discovered that the TSA appears to have no regime at all to ensure that they are functioning within normal parameters.
Cool, and soon to be bone-crunchingly cold
The new Duluth Harbor Cam, spotted by our alert Midwest bureau, replaces the old and now defunct Duluth Webcam on our Work Avoidance list. The new harbor cam has exciting new features! including a picture of the famous arial (lift) bridge and thrilling time-lapse videos of ships zipping in and out of the harbor, as well as still photos and much, much more. Woohoo!
Also piles of snow, soon to become, undoubtedly, deeper.
Also piles of snow, soon to become, undoubtedly, deeper.
12.22.2010
When they hand out the prize for ugly...
...can this brand new bank in Gfd, MA possibly be ignored? I think not.
Imagine our delight
W.Mass. to get better landline telephone service - Boston.com
GREENFIELD, Mass.—Western Massachusetts is getting better telephone service.
This little piece from Boston.com notes that Verizon, under pressure from the state attorney general, has graciously agreed to now and then check its lines to see if they really work and fix stuff, more or less, that doesn't.
Such joy.
And more
Five unusual Census 2010 facts - New Jersey - CSMonitor.com
With an average 1,196 people per square mile, the Garden State [New Jersey] has a population density that's higher than India and Lebanon but not quite on par with the Netherlands.
(Click the link.)
Where the snow is
In Syracuse, They Let It Snow - NYTimes.com
As of Tuesday, even before winter had officially begun — at 6:38 p.m. Eastern time — 71.9 inches of snow had fallen this month, making it the city’s [Syracuse, NY] snowiest December ever.
And what will be the point of WikiLeaks when nobody can read?
APNewsBreak: Nearly 1 in 4 fails military exam - Yahoo! News
MIAMI – Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released Tuesday....
The report by The Education Trust found that 23 percent of recent high school graduates don't get the minimum score needed on the enlistment test to join any branch of the military. Questions are often basic, such as: "If 2 plus x equals 4, what is the value of x?"
The military exam results are also worrisome because the test is given to a limited pool of people: Pentagon data shows that 75 percent of those aged 17 to 24 don't even qualify to take the test because they are physically unfit, have a criminal record or didn't graduate high school.
(Italics mine.)
12.21.2010
12.20.2010
On unintended consequences
Suburbs' red-light revenues on the blink - chicagotribune.com
Former Bellwood administrator Roy McCampbell once compared red-light cameras to a lottery or casino — a "guaranteed amount of money."
But as the cameras reduce the number of drivers who roll through red lights, the number of $100 fines is also dropping.
Down the hatch with Sarah P
Sarah Palin Jabs Michelle Obama's Anti-Obesity Campaign With S'mores
Sarah Palin took a shot at Michelle Obama during Sunday's episode of her reality TV show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska," jabbing the first lady's anti-obesity campaign for attempting to deprive Americans of dessert....
"Where are the s'mores ingredients? This is in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert."
Obama makes Charles Krauthammer happy
Some now see Obama as the 'comeback kid' - CSMonitor.com
Over at the Washington Post, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer also shakes his head admiringly as he describes Obama’s “comeback,” noting that he’s “already a year ahead” of where Bill Clinton was when the former president finally recovered from the midterm whupping he took in 1994.
"Erin Brokovich" becomes YA reality show
The cancer-causing metal made infamous by the movie "Erin Brockovich" is turning up in tap water from Chicago and more than two dozen other cities, according to a new study that urges federal regulators to adopt tougher standards.
12.19.2010
Must. Grope. More.
Airport Security: Loaded Gun Slips Past TSA Screeners - ABC News
Last fall, as he had done hundreds of times, Iranian-American businessman Farid Seif passed through security at a Houston airport and boarded an international flight.
He didn't realize he had forgotten to remove the loaded snub nose "baby" Glock pistol from his computer bag. But TSA officers never noticed as his bag glided along the belt and was x-rayed. When he got to his hotel after the three-hour flight, he was shocked to discover the gun traveled unnoticed from Houston.
The Great Crash
Overbooked classes strain UMass faculty, students - The Boston Globe
Overbooked classes are among the academic hurdles many undergraduates face at the University of Massachusetts Amherst — a campus struggling to break into the top ranks of public universities after losing nearly a fifth of its tenured and tenure-track professors in the past two decades....
“We’re offering less than we could,’’ said Sigrid Schmalzer, a history professor. “This is a cheaper way of selling degrees, but I really worry about what’s happening to the quality of our education.’’
12.18.2010
Noted
Revealed: Chamber lobbied against 9/11 health bill to save foreign members on taxes | Raw Story
The US Chamber of Commerce lobbied to kill a bill that would have helped cover medical expenses and compensation for first responders and survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to documents available online.
Saved by a snare
'Holly' the coyote rescued from Lake Michigan - Chicago Breaking News
A Fire Department boat rescued a coyote spotted floating on a patch of ice hundreds of yards out on Lake Michigan this morning.
Standing tall for shotgun weddings in the House
House Republicans Block Child Marriage Prevention Act
WASHINGTON -- On Thursday, the House took up the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2010. The bill would ensure that child marriage is recognized as a human rights violation, and develop comprehensive strategies to prevent such marriages around the world....But last night, the bill was voted down in the House by Republicans who argued the bill is too costly and could lead to increased abortions....
Yeah, that killed my buzz right there
The Gingrich Who Stole Christmas - NYTimes.com
Yes, the race for the White House is practically under way. Already, there are at least seven Republican presidential primary debates on the schedule. The way this is going, the Republican presidential hopefuls will eventually be on television every single minute. Possibly they can be convinced to do something more entertaining than talk about earmarks.
We're looking at you, Spidey
"It [is] well known that Marvel is a company that advocates for leftwing ideologies and causes."
And, oh yeah...
Just when you thought there was no hope
Portable North Pole - PNP Communication Console
Santa Claus and his amazing PNP (Portable North Pole) console will be online during the entire holiday season.
(H/T Michael)
What you saw is what you got
Naomi Klein: Beware of Obama's Chicago School of Economics boys | Comment is free | The Guardian
Barack Obama waited just three days after Hillary Clinton pulled out of the race to declare, on CNBC: "Look. I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market." Demonstrating that this is no mere spring fling, he has appointed the 37-year-old Jason Furman, one of Wal-Mart's most prominent defenders, to head his economic team.
If you think "military intelligence" is an oxymoron you'll love, well...
Bachmann gets on Intelligence Committee | StarTribune.com
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, vying for a leadership position in the new Republican-controlled Congress, was given a new spot on the House Intelligence Committee on Friday.
12.17.2010
Can you spell "priority"?
Congress Passes Tax Cut and Unemployment Package - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — Congress at midnight Thursday approved an $801 billion package of tax cuts and $57 billion for extended unemployment insurance.
(This bill is considered a compromise. Can you spell "compromise"?)
12.16.2010
More of the same
Without much notice or debate, the Obama administration has greatly expanded the outsourcing of key parts of the U.S.-led counterinsurgency wars in the Middle East and Africa, and as a result, for its secretive air war and special operations missions around the world, the U.S. has become increasingly reliant on a new breed of specialized companies that are virtually unknown to the American public, yet carry out vital U.S. missions abroad.
The shame
Bernie Sanders Puts Barack Obama to Shame | Rolling Stone Politics
Week after week, month after month, we watch politicians who disappoint us, not just as leaders but as people, failing to achieve the basic life-competency standard we expect of most grown-ups, doing things we wouldn’t tolerate from 15-year-olds. Whether it’s Mark Foley writing sexy letters to little boys, or Charlie Rangel or Duke Cunningham or Jerry Lewis doing the pay-for-play game, or even assholes like Orrin Hatch roaring with partisan excitement when the individual mandate – his own idea – was recently declared unconstitutional by a federal judge (who himself has financial stake in the health care business), these guys fail the common decency/honesty test with unnerving regularity. It’s sad but true, but in 99.9% of all cases, you wouldn’t think of looking up to an elected official as a moral role model.
No more uncertainty! Business booms!
Report: Walmart Jacks Up Toy Prices Just In Time For The Holidays - The Consumerist
According to a Nov. 30 e-mail obtained by Bloomberg News, Walmart HQ instructed store managers to immediately jack up prices on 1,800 different toys "to better enable your store and the company to have a successful financial month."
Yea, business! Rah rah!
All you have to do in Atlanta...
Icy roads making for dangerous driving in South - Yahoo! News
ATLANTA – Ice-slicked roads created treacherous driving conditions that caused a fatal accident Thursday and delayed school openings across a swath of the country, mainly in the South, while the East Coast braced for more snow.
...is say the word ice and traffic gets snarled. This accident reported above was not in Atlanta but I'm just saying. When I lived in Atlanta - which was a long time ago so maybe things have changed - they closed the schools when the temp got to 32º. That's plus 32. In Duluth it was minus 30, but that was even longer ago when I used to walk two miles to school barefoot and uphill both ways. But maybe things have changed.
Nevertheless we have some ice here from a big rain earlier in the week, but mercifully little of it, and hardly any snow and only "possible" snow in the weekend forecast, so for now at least the really evil stuff (sure it's cold, but so what) hasn't reached us yet here in our pleasant valley. Sooner or later it will but there's no rush.
Notes from some other planet somewhere
"I want to dispel any notion we want to inhibit your success,” President Obama told 20 CEOs this morning, according to a source in the room. “We want to be boosters because when you do well, America does well."
This morning's quiz
In 2007, he cried while delivering a speech on the floor of the House, in support of funding for the war in Iraq. “After 3,000 of our fellow citizens died at the hands of these terrorists, when are we going to stand up and take them on?” he sobbed.
Then this year, he voted against providing money to take care of our fellow citizens who became ill while doing rescue and reclamation work at ground zero after the terrorist attack.
Twice.
Who?
12.15.2010
Why we have more to worry about than you may think
The 13 Most Common Gawker Passwords Exposed
It is startling to note that over 3,000 users chose "123456" as their login password, according to the Journal. Almost as jarring: Nearly 2,000 people went with "password," and more than 1,000 users decided that "12345678" was a secure choice.
12.14.2010
Here's the thing...
Emanuel testifies in Chicago residency hearing | Raw Story
Rahm Emanuel told elections officials on Tuesday that when he went to work as the White House chief of staff almost two years ago, he left his family's "most valuable possessions" at his Chicago home, showing he always intended to move back....
He said he left behind baby clothes, his wife's wedding dress, photo albums and family china.
...you can't be mayor if you don't live there. If this guy Emanuel is not smart enough to figure that out, WTF?
It's all gone off the track, hasn't it
Holbrooke's Last Words On Afghanistan Downplayed As Joking Exchange By Obama Administration
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is trying to dismiss the reported last words of veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke, its point person on Afghanistan and Pakistan who passed away this week, as a joke.
Administration officials said Tuesday that Holbrooke's final words, "You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan," were part of a jovial back-and-forth with the medical staff.
12.13.2010
Ooops
UNDERNEWS: Insects enjoy genetically modified corps in India
Telegraph, India - Insects expected to drop dead after feeding on genetically modified cotton plants have instead been found for the first time in India to be thriving and even successfully breeding on the plants.
12.12.2010
Can a guy be regarded as a sage for predicting something so friggin' obvious it makes your teeth ring?
Axelrod predicts passage of tax cuts legislation - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON – A senior White House adviser predicted Sunday that President Barack Obama's tax-cut deal with Republicans will pass by year's end, and a Democratic leader said the House won't "hold this up" despite anger over some parts.
Guess so.
The school that gave George Dubya a degree is not finished with you yet
Quote Of The Year 20120: Christine O'Donnell's 'I'm Not A Witch' Takes Top Honor
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Christine O'Donnell's TV ad declaration "I'm not a witch" during her U.S. Senate campaign topped this year's best quotes, according to a Yale University librarian.
She's kidding, right?
Now perhaps the president can convene a one-day summit of the unemployed and the working poor to ask them what they think, for a change.
If they're so smart, why don't they go someplace warm to live?
Higher IQ Scores Found in Cold Weather States | Smart Journalism. Real Solutions. Miller-McCune.
It turns out those benumbed residents of Maine, Montana and Minnesota have something to brag about. A paper recently published in the journal Psychological Reports concludes that of the 48 contiguous United States, those with cooler average temperatures tend to have populations with higher IQs.
A whole lotta diggin' goin' on
Minn. Metrodome collapses in Midwest blizzard - Yahoo! News
Eastern Minnesota's Oakdale area got 20 inches of snow Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. The storm was moving eastward, where it dumped about a foot of snow in Chippewa County in northwestern Wisconsin and was expected to drop 20 to 24 inches by Sunday morning in the Eau Claire area.
Because what you don't know won't hurt you, sucker
Post-Meltdown, Banks Still Rule Derivatives Trade - NYTimes.com
On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.
The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives...
The banks in this group...have fought to block other banks from entering the market, and they are also trying to thwart efforts to make full information on prices and fees freely available.
12.11.2010
Deck the halls!
Obama-GOP Tax Cut Bill Turning Into 'Christmas Tree' Tinseled With Gifts For Lobbyists, Lawmakers
WASHINGTON — In the spirit of the holiday season, President Barack Obama's tax-cut deal with Republicans is becoming a Christmas tree tinseled with gifts for lobbyists and lawmakers....
The tax deal, reached behind the scenes and still informal, now includes ethanol subsidies for rural folks, commuter tax breaks for their cousins in the cities and suburbs and wind and solar grants for the environmentalists – all aimed at winning votes, particularly from reluctant Democrats.
In case you were needing a little boost
I'm doing 'God's work'. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs - Times Online
So, it’s business as usual, then, regardless of whether it makes most people
howl at the moon with rage? Goldman Sachs, this pillar of the free market,
breeder of super-citizens, object of envy and awe will go on raking it in,
getting richer than God? An impish grin spreads across Blankfein’s face.
Call him a fat cat who mocks the public. Call him wicked. Call him what you
will. He is, he says, just a banker "doing God’s work"
And where will the Freak work now?
Goodbye to Old Coney Island -- Opinion - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com
One by one, the venerable institutions of old Coney Island are vanishing. Ruby’s, the last of the boardwalk-facing bars, has served its final drink; Shoot the Freak, one of the most popular game booths, won’t reopen in the spring.
Click the link for cool pictures.
You can not make this stuff up
Feds dismiss need to recall lead drinking glasses - Yahoo! News
LOS ANGELES – A federal agency reversed itself Friday and said lead-laced Wizard of Oz and superhero drinking glasses are, in fact, for adults — not children's products subject to a previously announced recall....
The CPSC has no limits on lead content on the outside of adult drinking glasses.
Awesome!
Assange's Lawyer: He's Upbeat, Surprised By Cyber-Attacks (EXCLUSIVE)
Since he first landed in a London jail upon his arrest on Tuesday, the only thing that WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange has been requesting is access to a computer.
Dude. Is it still OK to laugh? Sometimes I'm not sure.
And what do you bet the price of cake goes up too?
White House: Tax deal helps poor - POLITICO.com Print View
Larry Summers, the president’s outgoing chief economic adviser, conceded that families earning less than $20,000 a year will pay more in taxes next year, after President Barack Obama agreed with Republican demands to replace the expiring Making Work Pay tax credit with a one year cut in the payroll tax used to fund Social Security and Medicare.
Or undoubtedly malarkey, take your pick
More WikiLeaks Surprises: Putin Applauds, Hitchens Derides « Failed Empire
And such is undoubtedly the case with most observers: disciples of authentic democracy and freedom respect and uphold the WikiLeaks agenda, while those who despise democracy abhor it.
Here's where I always get confused in the whole WikiLeaks discussion (if one call anything where both sides are so far over the top a discussion - shouting match, more like): How is WikiLeaks a champion of democracy? I don't recall an election with Assange's name on the ballot. I don't recall voting for any WikiLeaks thing, or against it. I don't recall any elected official appointing anybody at WikiLeaks to decide what should be secret and what not, or illegal or not, or whatever. What's so democratic here?
12.10.2010
Oh this is just wrong
A remake of True Grit? I love the Coen brothers but True Grit can not be re-made. True Grit is just fine the way it is.
Why am I not feeling the joy here?
Obama seeks ex-President Clinton's "candid advice" - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Facing a battle over a tax-cut package that has prompted a backlash within his own party, President Barack Obama on Friday is turning to one of his predecessors, Bill Clinton, for advice.
But they're around here somewhere, we're pretty sure kind of
FAA loses track of 119,000 aircraft | Raw Story
About 119,000 of the aircraft on the U.S. registry have "questionable registration" because of missing forms, invalid addresses, unreported sales or other paperwork problems, according to the FAA.
But don't worry, Bunky!
Home Prices Falling Fast, Eroding American Wealth And Threatening Recovery
Worse, home prices are forecast to drop an additional 10 percent next year, according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings, a major credit ratings agency.
Because...
Why are wall street bonuses rising? - The Curious Capitalist - TIME.com
Investment banks and financial firms are reportedly planning on handing out fatter paychecks and bonuses this year than in 2009.
Everybody needs a retirement plan
C&L Opening Bell: Still, Nobody Cares About the Deficit Yet Again | Crooks and Liars
One of the most depressing features of our modern democracy is that politicians aren't really even scared of being voted out of office anymore. What seems to actually frighten them is the thought that they won't get a plum job on K Street or Wall Street once they leave. This is why they're so eager to cut taxes for the rich while pushing for Social Security cuts: They know it makes a nice little bullet point on their résumé that their prospective employer will see as a mark of class solidarity.
Expensive gas for the Hummer; Wall Street frolics; we are screwed
Experts expect gas prices to continue to rise through 2011 | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/10/2010
As he pumped $60 of regular unleaded into his H3 Hummer Thursday, Chuck Miller anxiously calculated how much he's blown since gas prices, suddenly and sharply on the rise again, hit $3 a gallon....
A weaker U.S. dollar may be only part of the story, said Michael Greenberger, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, where he teaches a course about futures markets and complex investment vehicles.
"The overriding cause of this," Greenberger said Thursday, "is excessive speculation by Wall Street types."
Running out of degrees here
We only had one left at 6:00 this morning. I don't have to work today so I went back to bed. Where it's warm. Apparently now that the sun is up we have found three more.
12.09.2010
Welcome to the club
Europeans Criticize Fierce U.S. Response to Leaks - NYTimes.com
PARIS — The United States considers itself a shining beacon of democracy and openness, but for many Europeans Washington’s fierce reaction to the flood of secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks displays imperial arrogance and hypocrisy, indicating a post-9/11 obsession with secrecy that contradicts American principles.
The reaction to the WikiLeaks promulgating the leak of U.S. State Department documents on both sides is way over the top, as far as I can see.
This is got to be perfect, right?
A "todo" app for your iPhone (or iPad or Touch) called "Put Things Off."
Never having to say you're sorry
Falling Off the Bandwagon - NYTimes.com
“This is beyond politics. This is about justice and doing what’s right,” said Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana as she slammed “the almost, you know, moral corruptness” of tax cuts for millionaires.
It was a stirring statement, and would have been even more so if Landrieu had not been one of the few Democrats who actually voted to put the tax cuts on the books in the first place in 2001.
12.08.2010
There'll always be a Minnesota too, I guess
Midwest phrase, Come with - chicagotribune.com
John Spartz, assistant professor in the department of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth, explored the famous phrase ["come with"] in his PhD dissertation: "Do You Want to Come With?: A Cross-dialectal, Multi-field, Variationist Investigation of With as a Particle Selected By Motion Verbs in The Minnesota Dialect of English."
But not with me
White House Privately Pushing Data Showing Bush Tax Cut Extension Politically Popular
WASHINGTON -- Hoping to build support for the tax-cut deal that the president reached with Congressional Republicans, the White House has begun pressing Hill Democrats with polling data showing that extending the tax rates for the rich is politically popular.
1905, woohoo!
From Wikipedia...
Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are banned from the Brooklyn Public Library for setting a "bad example."
I'm reading another book about Teddy Roosevelt. More later.
Nobody in Ohio is average
Pass the Caribou Stew - NYTimes.com
“My dad has taught me that if you want to have wild, organic, healthy food,” she pontificated, “you’re gonna go out there and hunt yourself and fish yourself and you’re gonna fill up your freezer.”
Does Palin really think the average housewife in Ohio who can’t pay her bills is going to load up on ammo, board two different planes, camp out for two nights with a film crew and shoot a caribou so she can feed her family organic food?
OK kids, you gotta admit...
U.S. State Department Hilariously Announces ‘World Press Freedom Day’
The United States, which is currently engaged in a complete war against some weird guy with a website, is going to host “World Press Freedom Day,” the Department of State announced....
...this is funny.
Whatever it is
WHAT SOME WOULD HAVE PREFERRED: “Now, I know there are some who would have preferred a protracted political fight, even if it had meant higher taxes for all Americans, even if it had meant an end to unemployment insurance for those who are desperately looking for work.” The assumption here is that he would have lost the fight. It’s pretty much always Obama’s working assumption that he will lose any fight. And then, funnily enough, he does.
I hope I do not have to explain to you...
Obama facing tough sell in own party on tax deal - Yahoo! News
"This country was founded on compromise," the president said.
...the irony of this statement by Barack Obama.
12.07.2010
Right
I sympathize, I do, with the argument that Obama couldn't win here, with the crap-ass Congress he has and his own inherent bent towards being concilatory. Trouble is, his job at that point wasn't to win. It wasn't to compromise in the hopes of winning even just a little.
It was to sharpen his teeth and lose, HARD.
The way we're all going to be losing, year after year after year, because we keep avoiding the argument.
Republicans are not afraid to drive the bus off the cliff and Democrats are, and that's why the Republicans will always win.
Well, hey, if it makes Wall Street analysts happy it certainly makes me happy
Oil prices hit $90 milestone - Yahoo! News
NEW YORK – Oil prices on Tuesday jumped above $90 a barrel for the first time in more than two years, a key milestone for Wall Street analysts who say tightening supplies will eventually drive prices above the $100 mark next year.
Although it means my heating cost will go up (or would, if my thermostat setting didn't go down) and WTF, the government in its infinite wisdom has cut the fuel assistance fund in half because, you know, if you're out of luck you're out of luck and you might as well be cold too.
Humbug.
"A date which will live in infamy"
USS Shaw explodes after being hit by bombs - Yahoo! News Photos
Pearl Harbor Attack: Dec. 7, 1941
I didn't need the peanut butter really...
...I have enough here to get through the rest of the week, at least. But damn, I had it on my list and then I made the mistake of deleting it from the list before I actually picked the peanut butter off the shelf and right there, in that split second between deleting and picking, I was distracted by a donut and the rest is history.
A very good donut, true. But still. Maybe I need a minder of something. I don't know.
So is he going to blow us all up now?
Judge denies WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange bail - Yahoo! News
LONDON – A British judge denied Julian Assange bail on Tuesday after the WikiLeaks founder told a London court he would fight efforts to extradite him to Sweden to face a sex-crimes investigation.
I thought the news over the weekend was that Assange and his merry band of WikiGeeks had posted a giant, encrypted file of really, really scary super-bad secrets online and intended to dump all these secrets (a "poison pill") if Assange was arrested (a nice Hollywood touch: Take one more step and ze bomb goes off). So now he's arrested (I just assume you can't be held without bail if you're not arrested). Ka-boom?
Meanwhile I'm just thinking about all the geeks running around in the blacknets and firing off their encrypted emails (Oh wait, you didn't think all this passion for transparency and openness extended to them too, did you? Silly, silly. No, that only applies to State.) What to do, what to do?
Yay! Tis the season for more Al Gore jokes
FORT LAUDERDALE — South Floridians woke up Tuesday morning to temperatures hovering around the very low 40s that sometimes felt like the mid-30s because of the wind chill factor.In Fort Lauderdale, a low temperature record of 42 degrees for Dec. 7 that had been in place for 169 years was broken, said Dan Gregoria, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.
Because, obviously, duh, how can you have global friggin' warming if it's 42 degrees in Ft. Lauderdale? Just tell me that. Ha!
Also what is the Carleton College swim team doing there? I have no idea, and the photo caption is no help. Of course anybody from Minnesota who doesn't want to be in Florida this time of year is flat-out nuts, but aside from that.
12.06.2010
No kidding, you really can not make this stuff up
‘Obama must answer’ for UN spying: Assange | Raw Story
President Barack Obama should resign if it can be shown that he approved spying by US diplomatic figures on UN officials, the founder of WikiLeaks said in an interview published Sunday.
"The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the US is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval," Julian Assange told Spanish daily El Pais.
Hey, look, I'm not a big Obama fan so it's OK with me if he resigns, we can have Biden for a president. Would that be all right with Assange? Will somebody ask him if he approves of Biden? And soon - because if he doesn't like Biden either let's get this done while Pelosi is still third choice. Otherwise we could wind up in real trouble here.
Forty years?
For Europe, WikiLeaks offers cyberdrama with Julian Assange as main character - CSMonitor.com
The Australian founder of WikiLeaks is in the midst of publicizing 251,287 secret US diplomatic cables dating from the past four decades.
So "dump" is really the accurate word here.
Snappy!
There is an upgrade to VMWare Fusion, the virtualization software I use to run Linux on my Mac (yes, I know, there is absolutely no reason for me to do this but gimme a break, I do it anyway) and it's fast. As in you hardly know it's there.
But he won't
Let’s Not Make a Deal - NYTimes.com
So Mr. Obama should draw a line in the sand, right here, right now. If Republicans hold out, and taxes go up, he should tell the nation the truth, and denounce the blackmail attempt for what it is.
Right
GOP, Dems nearing deal on taxes, jobless benefits - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON – An outline of a bipartisan economic package is emerging that would temporarily extend the Bush-era tax rates for all taxpayers, while extending jobless benefits for millions of Americans.
This so-called bipartisan package has been in the cards for quite some time now and all the drama in the Congress last week was just a warm-up act. The R's hold the middle class and the jobless hostage to get their fat cat tax cut extension and - no surprise here - get away with it. My guess is the only remaining detail under discussion is who gets this whole thing to run on again in 2012. The detail is the timing and the D's will take a dive. Again. Because gee, those R's are sooooo mean.
12.05.2010
How could you have Christmas dinner without a dirk?
Pushing a Right to Bear Arms, the Sharp Kind - NYTimes.com
...the recent lifting of a ban on switchblades, stilettos, dirks and daggers in New Hampshire, has given new life to the knife rights lobby...
In fact, knife advocates contend that the Second Amendment applies to knives as well as guns. They focus their argument elsewhere, though, emphasizing that knives fill so many beneficial roles, from carving Thanksgiving turkeys to whittling, that they do not deserve the bad name they often get.
A worthy note
The Obama administration has, in its assault on Wikileaks, launched the greatest government censorship since World War II. It, along with some private institutions such as Columbia University, has threatened citizens if they even read matter in media that is constitutionally protected.
Part of the problem is that the Obamites are control freaks, but beyond that we suspect they greatly fear the content of future releases since nothing published so far explains their hysterical reaction.
(Note that my disapproval of the WikiLeaks leaks does not translate to approval of all the over-the-top reaction they've encouraged. That is another subject for, perhaps, another day.)
And more
Obama isn’t about compromise | Ian Welsh
Until folks get it through their skulls that Obama is not and never was a liberal, a progressive or left wing in any way, shape or form they are going to continue misdiagnosing the problem. That isn’t to say Obama may or may not be a wimp, but he always compromises right, never left and his compromises are minor. He always wanted tax cuts. He gave away the public option in private negotiations near the beginning of the HCR fight, not the end. He never even proposed an adequate stimulus bill. He bent arms, hard, to get TARP through.
He’s a Reaganite. It’s what he believes in, genuinely. Moreover he despises left wingers, likes kicking gays and women whenever he gets a chance and believes deeply and truly in the security state (you did notice that Obama administration told everyone to take their objections to backscatter scanners and groping and shove them where the sun don’t shine, then told you they’re thinking of extending TSA police state activities to other public transit?)
Yeah ,wolf
Mounting State Debts Stoke Fears of a Looming Crisis - NYTimes.com
The State of Illinois is still paying off billions in bills that it got from schools and social service providers last year. Arizona recently stopped paying for certain organ transplants for people in its Medicaid program. States are releasing prisoners early, more to cut expenses than to reward good behavior. And in Newark, the city laid off 13 percent of its police officers last week....
“It seems to me that crying wolf is probably a good thing to do at this point,” said Felix Rohatyn, the financier who helped save New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970s.
So you don't have to read Dickens any more?
Victorian Literature, Statistically Analyzed With New Process - NYTimes.com
The titles of every British book published in English in and around the 19th century — 1,681,161, to be exact — are being electronically scoured for key words and phrases that might offer fresh insight into the minds of the Victorians.
WikiLeaks something something blah blah
Look, I drank the Kool-Aid on the subject of classified documents many years ago so don't expect me to be all yippee about leaking the secrets in the diplomatic pouch. WikiLeaks can squeal all it wants about Australian porn filters or miscreant bankers but, as I've said before, as far as I'm concerned this leaking of State Department documents is a leak too far.
It is also, as far as I've been able to see (if you expect me to read all 200,000 documents you need to refill your meds) a lot of fuss about not very much at all. It's got the newspapers clucking for a few days but hey, Paris Hilton can do that all by herself.
What the present leaks appear to reveal is that the State Department is supporting U.S. policy around the globe. Which is exactly what they're supposed to do. This is not to say I agree with the policy, but simply that the place to wrestle with it is not at State.
Take, for example, the "revelation" (yes, those are sarcastic quotes) that the Obama administration pressured Spain to drop a legal proceeding against Dubya Bush. So what? Obama has never made any secret of his disinclination to prosecute the Bushies, his "Justice" (ditto) Department has appeared in defense of thugs, and to all appearances he has not only continued but extended some of the least savory Bush policies. Yeah, I think all that needs to change too. But I do not give a fig about what happens in Spain.
Nor am I outraged that diplomats report the government of Afghanistan is corrupt - I'd be outraged if they didn't - or that the Saudis have more than one iron in the fire, or that the leaders of China are unhappy with what they find on Google. Something something blah blah. Not much. You see what I mean.
But listen. I continue to believe that in the case of our differences with Iran a diplomatic solution would be preferable to a war. Ditto North Korea. Ditto Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, here and there - mostly, wherever. And to the extent WikiLeaks has made diplomatic solutions less likely - even just a little - and war more, I think the WikiGeeks, no matter how passionately they believe they're really living in the Matrix (and no matter how cool it is to have servers in a cave), have done us all a big disservice.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
But just so you know, I am also in favor of reinstating the draft.
And you can consider yourself lucky if you get to keep the pot
Noted by our Midwest bureau:
All the President’s Captors - NYTimes.com
We’re now at the brink of a new economic disaster that will eventually yank a chicken out of every pot.
(And, may I add, from the same opinion piece...)
Obama should have pounded home the case against profligate tax cuts for the wealthiest before the Democrats lost the Senate. Even now Warren Buffett — not a socialist, by the way — is making the case with a Christie-esque directness that usually eludes the president. “The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we’ll all go out and spend more, and then it will trickle down to the rest of you,” he told Christiane Amanpour on “This Week” last Sunday. “But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.”
(The only problem I have with that is...wait, the Democrats lost the Senate? Dude, the Democrats haven't even lost the House yet. They may be lame ducks but they're still ducks. Or maybe just quacks.)
12.04.2010
Let the games begin
JPMorgan sued for ‘abetting’ Madoff | Raw Story
NEW YORK — The trustee charged with recouping assets for victims of Wall Street fraudster Bernard Madoff said Thursday he was seeking $6.4 billion from JPMorgan Chase for supporting the scam.
Fat cats: Give us your money or we'll take away your gruel (and Merry Christmas, suckers)
Senate Republicans Defeat Reauthorization Of Jobless Aid, Tax Cuts
Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats Saturday defeated a bill to reauthorize unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and a plethora of tax provisions for the middle class not because of the bill's trillion-dollar deficit impact, but because it did not include tax cuts for the rich....
After Saturday's vote, it seems the only way Democrats will be able to overcome Republican opposition to the benefits will be by attaching them to a reauthorization of tax cuts for the rich.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said after the vote that he expected a tax cut deal to be reached by Thursday.
Promises, promises
She Who Must Not Be Named - NYTimes.com
This is it. This is the last time I’m going to write the name Sarah Palin until she does something truly newsworthy...
"Keeping government open"
WikiLeaks Archive - Resentment, and Shrugs, Around the World - NYTimes.com
PARIS — In the world of diplomacy, known for its ambiguity and opacity, the WikiLeaks organization says its function is to “keep government open.” But with the release of some 250,000 American diplomatic cables, the outcome may be more ambiguous, closing doors to United States diplomats, turning candor to reticence and leaving many people leery of baring their souls and secrets to American officials.
12.03.2010
For the easily surprised...
U.S. Adds 39,000 Jobs in November - Rate Rises to 9.8% - NYTimes.com
In a jolting surprise to the economic recovery and market expectations, the United States economy added just 39,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent, according to the Department of Labor....
More than 15 million people remained out of work last month, and 6.3 million of them have been unemployed for six months or longer.
This is starting to remind me of people who write weather forecasts and don't look out the friggin' window. Surprise, my ass.
And we have moron Republicans (and yes, you, Juan Williams) saying hey, why don't they just go get a job. Here's an idea: We could find a few hundred jobs in the Congress if we just throw the current collection of rascals out. Let them just go get a job.
Catfood commission slinks off
Stand Up And Be Counted! | Talking Points Memo
By the statements of the members, we know only 11 were in support. But actually put their votes on the official record? Nah.
Worms? Does that include worms?
A shopping guide for the holidays : The New Yorker
“Nobody’s ever too old for toys,” a ten-year-old named Addie Ezersky told the writer. “Even if they say they are. That is my theory.” A young mother the writer knows agrees. She says that toys will endure, for two reasons: to give parents a break to use the bathroom or wash dishes, and to keep kids away from what they really want to play with—namely, sharp objects and disgusting things.
There'll always be an England
Rod King and the slow-driving movement : The New Yorker
Rod King, the founder of a British slow-driving advocacy organization called 20’s Plenty for Us...
Beep, beep.
Unpersuasive
American Diplomacy Revealed — as Good - NYTimes.com
Assange himself clearly understands nothing of Iran or the Middle East or diplomacy. In an interview with Time, he expressed approval for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “coming out with a very interesting statement that leaders should speak in public like they do in private whenever they can” and bought into Netanyahu’s view that this, in Assange’s words, would “lead to some kind of increase in the peace process in the Middle East and particularly in relation to Iran.”
Huh? Netanyahu was referring to Arab leaders’ now-documented private calls for a U.S.-led war against Iran, an option he also favors. And that, for Assange, is a step forward to peace! He’s all over the place.
What should we make of this brainy naïf who told my colleague John Burns that America is a threat to democracy? He’s a loose canon; let him be. My impression is he’s self-armed with a spade and he’s digging.
And what of the messenger’s message? The cables are intriguing, offering plenty of voyeuristic titillation but no gasp of discovery. They provide texture but break little new ground. Yet their publication has done significant damage to the courageous work of America’s diplomats and may endanger lives. That’s a tradeoff that I find troubling and unpersuasive.
Exactly that.
Alas
Freezing Out Hope - NYTimes.com
It’s hard to escape the impression that Republicans have taken Mr. Obama’s measure — that they’re calling his bluff in the belief that he can be counted on to fold. And it’s also hard to escape the impression that they’re right.
The real question is what Mr. Obama and his inner circle are thinking. Do they really believe, after all this time, that gestures of appeasement to the G.O.P. will elicit a good-faith response?
Trading stuff we don't need to trade for stuff we don't need to trade for
Senate plans weekend votes on Democratic tax plans - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON – A deal to extend expiring tax cuts for all taxpayers is starting to take shape even as Senate Democrats plan weekend votes on bills that would let the tax cuts for the wealthy die.
Planning a trip?
Underclothes That Display The 4th Amendment When X-Rayed by TSA
4th Amendment Wear is a series of underclothes that have the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution printed on them with metallic ink that so that it will show up when worn through a TSA X-Ray machine.
12.02.2010
I may have to revise my opinion of WikiLeaks somewhat (probably not much)
Obama and GOPers Worked Together to Kill Bush Torture Probe | Mother Jones
In its first months in office, the Obama administration sought to protect Bush administration officials facing criminal investigation overseas for their involvement in establishing policies the that governed interrogations of detained terrorist suspects. A "confidential" April 17, 2009, cable sent from the US embassy in Madrid to the State Department—one of the 251,287 cables obtained by WikiLeaks—details how the Obama administration, working with Republicans, leaned on Spain to derail this potential prosecution.
This is cold
The local agency that administers fuel assistance to the area's low-income residents is planning to do more with much less this year. It expects about half as much money from the federal government as last year, rising fuel costs and more people to apply.
Last year, Community Action gave out up to $1,240 per household, which was for families at 100 percent of the poverty level. This year, the agency is planning on doling out a maximum of $515.
It gets cold here in New England and there is no way you can heat a house or even an apartment all winter on $515. Even if you can afford to double it - or even triple it - you're liable to have some chilly evenings in store. And now with people out of work an barely able to manage as it is it's unconscionable to cut fuel aid like this.
I say let the congressbimbos come here and live the winter with no heat themselves. Screw them and all their horses, every one.
My bet would be on the zombies
Lame Ducks Gone Mad - NYTimes.com
Maybe things will work out. Maybe the White House will not cave, and the Republicans will not be intransigent, and the Democrats will get their act together and be canny and unified.
Maybe we should not rule out the possibility of zombie otters.
The question of the hour
Bailouts Are For Banks: Unemployed People Get Zilch
How could there have been so many billions for Wall Street, so much room to lower taxes for people with golf memberships and country houses, yet a $500-a-week check to help him pay the rent while he looks for another job suddenly threatens to bankrupt the nation?
12.01.2010
Story not told
Robert Reich (The Big Economic Story, and Why Obama Isn't Telling It)
Unless the President and Democrats explain why the economy still stinks for most Americans and offer a plan to fix it, the Republican explanation and solution – it’s big government’s fault, and all we need do is shrink it – will prevail.
That will mean more hardship for tens of millions of Americans. It will make it harder to remedy the bad economy. And it will set Republicans up for bigger wins in the future.
No, not even Obama's panel, it turns out
National debt: Will anyone buy Obama panel's bold plan? - Yahoo! News
The co-chairmen of President Obama's fiscal commission have agreed to a bold plan to slash federal deficits and put America's fiscal house in order. The problem is they're not sure if the rest of the bipartisan commission – let alone Congress – will sign on....
"We'll get somewhere between two and 14 votes," said [co-chairman] Bowles...
It is a wonderment indeed
Enough To Make You Crazy | Talking Points Memo
Sometimes you have to step back and just marvel at the madness of it all.
So ha, take that, you wimps
Senate fails to advance unemployment insurance measure - Nov. 30, 2010
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Senate failed Tuesday to advance a bill that would have extended the deadline to file for federal unemployment insurance through next year.
Democrats sought to pass the $56.4 billion measure through unanimous consent, but Sen. Scott Brown, Republican of Massachusetts, objected, saying the extension should be paid for by rescinding unobligated discretionary funding.
It was our very own naked senator from the commie hippie pinko state of Massachusetts who shot down an extension of unemployment benefits in the Senate. Quelle disgrace.
Here's a guy who would feel at home in the TSA
Do Scans of Our Teeth Help or Hurt? - NYTimes.com
A cone-beam CT scan with minute radiation exposure seems to be a small price to pay for a healthy smile with no headaches and no snoring....
The writer, a dentist, is a clinical professor at New York University College of Dentistry.
Spuds!
Washington state potato booster in spuds-only protest - Yahoo! News
SEATTLE (Reuters) – The head of the Washington State Potato Commission ended a self-imposed diet of potatoes-only that he said allowed him to shed more than 20 pounds in two months.
Chris Voigt, 45, began his spuds-only regimen to protest a U.S. Department of Agriculture rule barring low-income recipients of food vouchers under the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program from using their benefits to purchase white potatoes.
And while Voigt is not recommending his diet to others as a "healthy sustainable" weight-loss plan, it did help him lower his blood sugar, cut his total cholesterol by over a third, and reduce his weight from 197 to 176 pounds, he said.
11.30.2010
But I didn't get anything to put on my refrigerator, so that's too bad
I took the 7:00 bus this morning down to the VA hospital in Leeds (Northampton) for my ultrasound and was back before noon. Cost: $2.50. So not bad. And I'm not pregnant, it turns out, which is fine with me. Whatever else I may or may not be I have to wait and find out from my doctor. This was just a routine screening but, of course, it might possibly turn out they find what they were screening for (imminent death); I am, however, enthusiastically hopeful.
Unfortunately, while this was going on, I didn't get to lie in any one position long enough to go to sleep but while I was rolled over onto one side I was able, briefly, to see the video screen on which this ultrasound thing was being displayed. It reminded me of the 1952 Rose Bowl (Wisconsin v. USC) which I saw on a black-and-white TV in Duluth, Minnesota, a city with no TV. So I couldn't make any sense of that either, except Wisconsin lost.
OK...
Harvard scientists reverse the ageing process in mice – now for humans | Science | The Guardian
...remind me why we need younger mice.
(And while we're on the subject, are we really sure we want younger people? Can you imagine how screwed up that would be? Do you really want to be in high school again? I don't. Oh no. Not a chance. How would you like to be 34 and flipping burgers? Thanks, I'll stay old.
(Also, why do we need Harvard?)
Bad sex
No Bad Sex in Fiction Award for Franzen | Jacket Copy | Los Angeles Times
The annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award was announced in London Monday, and American author Jonathan Franzen, who was in the running for passages in his novel "Freedom," did not make the cut. It just goes to show that the visibility afforded to Franzen's big literary bestseller may not be enough to guarantee recognition at awards time. (Franzen didn't get the National Book Award either.)
The award went to London-born writer Rowan Somerville for his novel "The Shape of Her."
11.29.2010
A leak too far
WikiLeaks Archive — Cables Uncloak U.S. Diplomacy - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at back-room bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats.
Because the less money people have the more they'll spend, and the next thing you know we'll all be rich, I tell you, rich
Federal Eye - Obama announces 2-year pay freeze for federal workers
Bowing to growing budget concerns and months of Republican political pressure on federal pay and benefits, President Obama will announce a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers Monday, the White House said.
11.28.2010
No! No!
I'm not kidding - yesterday I saw a car with a Christmas tree tied on top. And it's not even December yet. Ain't there no decency left?
Also it snew last night. OK, if you actually want to see it you have to crawl around peeking under grass blades, but still it's there. Take my word. I have an excellent snow detector. And I wouldn't mind it if it would calm these white Christmas people down a little but it won't, they'll just keep right on chirping to the very end.
Bah.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)