I found a solitaire game (really) that tells me when there are no more plays, so aside from the nagging feeling that every play may be my last I no longer have to worry that I missed one somehow. This is perfect, and I will probably never do anything else again. Ever.
2.12.2011
In the eye of the beholder, etc.
Description:
Teams of two to six scour the museum for naked figures and answers to humorous questions.
Youth enthusiasm for Mitt Romney? Really? It's gonna be a long, long two years.
Young conservatives storm Washington for CPAC. Bring on 2012, they say. - CSMonitor.com
Half of the 11,000 attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) are college students. They're hoping to reproduce the youth enthusiasm of 2008 – but this time against Obama.
How retro is this?
Just How Did Mubarak Get So Rich? It's A Family Affair | Crooks and Liars
On Friday, Switzerland froze accounts possibly belonging to Mubarak and his family, a spokesman told Reuters, under new laws governing ill-gotten gains.
Ill-gotten gains? They have a law against ill-gotten gains? Quaint.
But will it ask rich guys to pay even one red cent more in taxes? Yikes! No!
Among Obama's tough budget cuts: money to help needy pay for heat - CSMonitor.com
According to supporters of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), President Obama will propose cutting in half the budget for the program, which helps people pay their heating and cooling bills. This calendar year, some 8.9 million people are expected to ask for help with their utility bills, at a cost of $5.1 billion.
2.11.2011
Freebee
I've read a couple of books recently that don't quite measure up to the high standards of our Work Avoidance book list and another book that can't be posted quite yet - I read the pre-publication version. So to hold us over until something better comes along, here's a link to an anthology of F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories – Flappers and Philosophers – free from Google.
Irony
Suburban Guerrilla » Blog Archive » Jubilation
Mubarak has stepped down. He’s asked the military to take over and manage the country until they elect a new leader.
So in an irony of ironies, we’re cheering a military takeover.
Good news!
It's 0º out there by the widget but don't worry because it feels like 4º. How awesome is that? And, BTW, how stupid are these feels-like numbers anyway? Do you seriously think you can tell the difference between 0 and 4 degrees if you're standing outside in your skivvies? I seriously doubt you can. Also if there were that wind chill thing going on I doubt you'd care.
But there is a forecast high of 47 one week from today. It won't actually happen, but it's nice somebody thinks it might.
And at AlterNet, apparently, they're just finding this out
Debts Should Be Honored, Except When the Money Is Owed to Working People | | AlterNet
Bankrupt states could tell teachers, highway patrol officers, and other public employees that they're not getting the pensions they were expecting, even if already retired.
2.10.2011
What, you mean all that happy talk is just happy talk?
Unemployed Still Far More Likely to Drop Out Than Find a Job « Rortybomb
While today’s jobs numbers show the unemployment rate has gone down, don’t call it a recovery just yet. Less jobs were created than expected — it’s not that more people are finding work, it’s that they’re dropping out of the labor force altogether.
2.09.2011
What I'm suffering from here...
...is aggravated hibernation. Really. All I've wanted to do all day is curl up in a warm place and sleep.
Maybe tomorrow I'll get organized.
Now, the long dirt
It snowed yesterday and everything was white. It'll certainly snow again before the grass turns green. But aside from a few hours of white here and there, the predominant color out there in the world from now until summer will be dirt.
Yeah, I guess you could call these bad reviews
Can 'Spider-Man' the musical survive a nasty drubbing by critics? - CSMonitor.com
The Hollywood Reporter describes “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” as chaotic, dull, and silly, and it calls the music “strictly album filler.” The Los Angeles Times says the show is “a teetering colossus that can't find its bearings as a circus spectacle or as a rock musical.” The New York Times asks, “How can $65 million look so cheap?”
But so far, says the Monitor, "ticket sales are brisk, outselling top-rated Broadway offerings such as the award-winning “Wicked.” Which only goes to prove, well, something. Or not.
Obama to the Chamber of Commerce
Remarks by the President to the Chamber of Commerce | The White House
Maybe if we had brought over a fruitcake when I first moved in, we would have gotten off to a better start. But I’m going to make up for it.
Bunky, we are well and truly lost.
2.08.2011
Hightower on Obama, Inc.
Obama, Inc. | CommonDreams.org
When you dance with the devil, never fool yourself into thinking that you're leading.
Seen one, you've seen 'em all
The whole town looks like this today.
It wasn't a big snow - maybe two inches max - but it was a heavy, wet snow, the kind of snow that turns snowboys into men and makes for wicked snowballs and sturdy forts. And hangs around in the trees waiting to drop down your neck. It's warm, for now — predicted to get colder tomorrow but for today, 32º — and the streets are clear and the shoveling's getting done. We're all pretty much on automatic pilot by now — get up, pull on the boots, go shovel, it's another day.
2.07.2011
So tell us what you really think
AOL Buys Arianna Huffington’s Famous Internet Website
Sweet Jeebus, AOL has agreed to purchase popular liberal/Brangelina Internet destination “The Huffington Post” for $315 million! Why does AOL think this is a wise investment? And will Arianna Huffington’s citizen journalists continue to Win the Afternoon, with the hottest hot scoops (“D-List Celebrity Has Boobs” and “Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Celebrities Who Have Boobs” and “BREAKING: So Many Boobs!”)? There is probably a HuffPo “personality quiz” and/or slideshow that can answer both of these important questions.
I'll skip the sequel if it's all the same to you
Revisiting the Reagan Nightmare
Conservative policies transformed the United States from the largest creditor nation to the largest debtor nation in just a few years.
And other bits...
(H/T TTT)
And don't even think about getting a refund, Bunky
Jim Hillibish: Stop paying for AOL, it's free - East Bridgewater, MA - Wicked Local East Bridgewater
A strange thing is happening at AOL. The Internet content provider in 2006 stopped charging for its services. It ended the fee for e-mail and such, but it did not stop billing AOL members for it.
Result: For five years, AOL has been cashing in on users who don’t know they can cancel the paid service and still get all the benefits.
These are no small bananas –– AOL is earning almost $250 million a year from these poor folks. Amazing.
Not such a terrible loss
UNDERNEWS: Morning Line: The Huffington-AOL deal
The collapse of liberalism as a strong political voice got a new shove with Arianna Huffington selling her liberal readers to the corporate conglomerate AOL.
The Huffington Post, I mean. Not liberalism, which was lost sometime in the reign of St. Ronnie.
Because next thing you know people will be jumping off buildings just so they can stay
Undocumented quadriplegic returned to Mexico from Chicago area - chicagotribune.com
For almost four months, doctors and nurses at Advocate Christ Medical Center cared for the young Mexican laborer who had fallen from a roof and lost the ability to speak, breathe or move most parts of his body.
But Quelino Ojeda Jimenez was in the U.S. illegally, and just before Christmas he was taken from the Oak Lawn hospital, loaded on an air ambulance and flown to Oaxaca, capital of the Mexican state where he was born.
The guys who hired this illegal laborer to work as a roofer have closed up shop and skipped on down the road. So much for giving a shit.
You WILL twit
U.S. Has Secret Tools to Force Internet on Dictators | Danger Room | Wired.com
When Hosni Mubarak shut down Egypt’s internet and cellphone communications, it seemed that all U.S. officials could do was ask him politely to change his mind. But the American military does have a second set of options, if it ever wants to force connectivity on a country against its ruler’s wishes.
Unfortunately, says "futurist," this could be an act of war. No determination yet on crimes against humanity.
Meanwhile Obama claims internet access is an "inalienable human right," by which he apparently means inalienable right to pay a lot of money to your cable company or Verizon, whichever comes first.
Whoopie pie called "frosting delivery vehicle"
UNDERNEWS: Maine fighting over what's for dessert
Jenn Abelson, Boston Globe - In Europe, countries are consumed by debt. In Washington, the health care debate rages on. And in Maine, the whoopie pie is under attack.
Is nothing sacred? Nothing?
And what could possibly go wrong with this?
Clinton Warns Against Hasty Exit for Mubarak in Egypt - NYTimes.com
[Clinton] made no mention of the desired outcome frequently discussed by protest leaders: that Mr. Mubarak would step down, the Constitution would be suspended for a transition that could take up to a year...
Plus, we didn't get our roses yet
Iraq swirls with rumors of Egypt-like protests to come - Yahoo! News
On Sunday, in recognition of Iraqi hardship, Maliki announced that every Iraqi citizen would receive a cash hand-out 15,000 Iraqi dinars – roughly $12.70 – along with their monthly food ration.
'No jobs, no services. Eight years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraqis still have only a few hours of electricity a day. Protests at the shortages last June during a heat wave left two dead..." says Ayad Ali, an employee of the Ministry of Interior.
We were supposed to get roses, weren't we? I'm pretty sure.
The whole global warming thing is not just about how many snowmen you can make
Droughts, Floods and Food - NYTimes.com
While several factors have contributed to soaring food prices, what really stands out is the extent to which severe weather events have disrupted agricultural production. And these severe weather events are exactly the kind of thing we’d expect to see as rising concentrations of greenhouse gases change our climate — which means that the current food price surge may be just the beginning.
2.06.2011
Well put
Militants, Women and Tahrir Square - NYTimes.com
I asked an old friend here in Cairo, a woman with Western tastes that include an occasional glass of whiskey, whether the Muslim Brotherhood might be bad for peace. She thought for a moment and said: “Yes, possibly. But, from my point of view, in America the Republican Party is bad for peace as well.”
—Kristoff in the NYTimes, noted by our Midwest bureau.
Emanuel: Moi?
Emanuel skirts issue of illegal patronage in congressional campaign - chicagotribune.com
Rahm Emanuel looks earnestly into the camera and tells voters city government "isn't about making sure that those who are best connected or have friends are getting jobs."
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