Daylight saving 'not as bad as you would think' at clock museum - The York Daily Record
It's tragic when you forget to re-set your alarm clock for daylight saving time. Think about the chore awaiting the curator of the National Watch & Clock Museum in Columbia.
Daylight saving time starts this weekend: But what if it's all just a waste of time? - latimes.com
Daylight saving time begins this weekend. From coast to coast, most Americans will dutifully "spring forward" by one hour early Sunday morning. We're told this helps save energy and allows us to enjoy more sunshine during the summer months.
But a number of critics say this is all a big fat waste of time. Daylight saving time does nothing but create chaos and confusion, they say, and might actually waste more energy than it tries to save. It should be abandoned immediately, they contend.
…is give one feature writer on every newspaper in the country a chance to write this very story twice a year. (And who can even imagine how many bloggers?)
I once heard a woman, being interviewed by a TV news reporter in Georgia, declare that daylight saving time should be abolished because Eastern Standard Time is God's time. So who am I to argue with that?
Barney Frank sent to the congressional penalty box - 2chambers - The Washington Post
Speaking on the House floor during debate over jobs legislation (which you can watch here), Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) accused House Republican leaders of stealing the idea for a bill introduced by Reps. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) and permitting Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) to introduce a similar proposal.
Note: Add "Judge's Nameplate" to List of Things Not to Steal - Lowering the Bar
For a reason or reasons unknown, but possibly explained by the lighter and what may or may not be a baggie of contraband on his lap, 21-year-old Steven Mulhall stole Judge Michael Orlando's nameplate from the door of the judge's courtroom in Broward County, Florida. At some point thereafter, Mulhall posed for this picture with his prize, and his girlfriend appears to have posted it on Facebook. (They are only the latest in a growing horde of people who don't seem to understand that by posting things on the "Internet," you make them "public," thus creating potentially incriminating "evidence.")
LSD should be considered for alcoholism treatment, study says - HealthPop - CBS News
LSD should be considered for alcoholism treatment, study says
Undernews: FBI director isn't sure whether Obama can murder people in U.S.
FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday said he would have to go back and check with the Department of Justice whether Attorney General Eric Holder’s “[criteria] for the targeted killing of Americans also applied to Americans inside the U.S.
From the NYTimes this morning (no link):
On Wednesday, White House officials summoned dozens of leaders of nonprofit organizations that strongly back the health law to help them coordinate plans for a prayer vigil, press conferences and other events outside the court when justices hear arguments for three days beginning March 26.
…Sensitive to the idea that they were encouraging demonstrations, White House officials denied that they were trying to gin up support by encouraging rallies outside the Supreme Court…
And with a perfectly straight face, too. Those guys are good.
IE 9, on most secure Windows yet, next browser to fall at hacker contest
In addition to IE and Chrome, the group [of popular web browsers] included Apple, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox.
'It's the economy, stupid.' Can Mitt Romney woo South with that pitch? - CSMonitor.com
Mitt Romney has built his campaign around his background as a business leader who can best manage a fragile economy. But that's far from a slam-dunk pitch with voters in the South.
Mystery candidate wins Ohio primary race – USATODAY.com
CINCINNATI
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William R. Smith is the invisible candidate.No one has seen him; no one has heard him speak. Outside of his home county of Pike, there is probably no Democrat who could recognize him on sight.Tuesday, the Waverly resident won -- barely -- the popular vote in the 2nd District's Democratic primary, while Brad Wenstrup was busy in the Republican primary upending a GOP incumbent member of Congress, Jean Schmidt.
FBI Counter-Terror Agent: TSA's Incompetence "Frightens Me" - Lowering the Bar
In a post last month (cited last week by Boing Boing), Steve Moore explains the utter pointlessness and incompetence of the TSA. What does he know about it? Well, he was an FBI agent for many years, ran the L.A. branch of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, investigated terror plots overseas, and is trained in airline security procedures up to and including how to safely shoot somebody on an airplane. (Well, safely for everybody else.) He's been paying a lot of attention to the TSA over the years and his conclusion is that the "TSA is one of the worst-run, ineffective and most unnecessarily intrusive agencies in the United States government.... Frankly, the professional experience I have had with TSA has frightened me."
Gingrich Victory Party - Tom Junod on Newt Gingrich's Georgia Win - Esquire
These weren't sanctity-of-marriage Republicans; these were second-and-third-marriage Republicans. These were Republicans whose favorite song isn't "Amazing Grace" but rather "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues." These were the Republicans who spearheaded Atlanta's suburban expansion in the seventies by moving out to the "swinging-singles" apartment complexes across the Chattahoochee River; the Republicans who voted for Jimmy Carter because of his association with Southern rock bands and then voted for Ronald Reagan because they thought that Carter turned out to be a weakling and a prig, and they didn't like waiting in line for gas; the Republicans who lost their houseboats on Lake Lanier in their divorces and lost pieces of themselves when Dale Earnhardt, redneck writer Lewis Grizzard, and the Johnny of Atlanta's fabled pickup joint Johnny's Hideaway died; the Republicans who might not wear gold chains and leisure suits anymore but have them in their DNA. Sure, they had bills to pay, but by God they also had stories to tell, and they liked Newt because he promised to help them with the former while not judging them for the latter. He was their guy because he was part of their history, and his last-gasp victory in Georgia was as much a victory for a localized subculture as Ron Paul's second-place finish in Maine.
Obama Campaign’s Vast Effort to Re-Enlist ’08 Supporters...
...where scores of political strategists, data analysts, corporate marketers and Web producers are sifting through information gleaned from Facebook, voter logs and hundreds of thousands of telephone or in-person conversations to reassemble and re-energize the scattered coalition of supporters who swept Mr. Obama into the White House four years ago.
During the administration of former U.S. President George Bush, the U.S. refused to sell bunker-penetrating bombs and refueling aircrafts to Israel, as a result of American estimates that Israel would then use them to strike Iran's nuclear facilities.
Following Obama's entrance into the White House, however, the United States approves a string of Israeli requests to purchase advance armament.
AG Sort of Explains When and Why the President Could Drop a Bomb on You - Lowering the Bar
"The good news is that Holder promised not to hunt citizens for sport."
How to Fund an American Police State | The Nation
So much money has gone into armoring and arming local law-enforcement since 9/11 that the federal government could have rebuilt post-Katrina New Orleans five times over and had enough money left in the kitty to provide job training and housing for every one of the record 41,000-plus homeless people in New York City. It could have added in the growing population of 15,000 homeless in Philadelphia, my hometown, and still have had money to spare. Add disintegrating Detroit, Newark and Camden to the list. Throw in some crumbling bridges and roads, too.
But why drone on?…
Indeed.
Eric Holder Drone Speech - How We Can Help President Obama Today - Esquire
Attorney General Eric Holder's appearance at Northwestern on Monday, during which he explained the exact circumstances under which the president can order the killing of just about anyone the president wants to kill, was not promising. The criteria for when a president can unilaterally decide to kill somebody is completely full of holes, regardless of what the government's pet lawyers say. And this...
"This is an indicator of our times," Holder said, "not a departure from our laws and our values."
...is a monumental pile of crap that should embarrass every Democrat who ever said an unkind word about John Yoo.
(But it won't.)
President Obama's muddy transparency record - Josh Gerstein - POLITICO.com
“Obama is the sixth administration that’s been in office since I’ve been doing Freedom of Information Act work. … It’s kind of shocking to me to say this, but of the six, this administration is the worst on FOIA issues. The worst. There’s just no question about it,” said Katherine Meyer, a Washington lawyer who’s been filing FOIA cases since 1978. “This administration is raising one barrier after another. … It’s gotten to the point where I’m stunned — I’m really stunned.”
Why is it my computer's dictionary offers me choices for Amerian English and British English, but says nothing of Australian English, South African English, Puerto Rican English, or Indian English?
Proposed US law bans protesting near anyone who rates a Secret Service detail - Boing Boing
HR437, "the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011" makes it illegal to protest in the vicinity of anyone who rates a Secret Service detail (even if you aren't aware of the person's presence), thus sparing politicians and VIPs the ugly and unseemly spectacle of having to confront voters who disagree with their policies. Only three Congressmen voted against it.
Bill of Rights | U.S. Constitution | LII / Legal Information Institute
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
And appropos the ongoing discussion around here about how I have to vote for Obama in November "because the other guys are worse"…
Report: US To Offer Legal Backing For 'targeted Killings' Of Americans Overseas | Fox News
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to outline the legal framework for the use of lethal force in targeted killings of Americans overseas in a major speech at Northwestern University law school, an Obama administration official said Sunday night.
…no friggin' way.
The other guys are worse but Obama's plenty worse enough.
Michigan casinos: Map of 25 existing and 22 more that are planned | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
The map is at the link. Somehow I find this depressing and, given that one of the planned casinos is in Benton Harbor (#13 on the map), onf of those the state government has taken over and is running by fiat, odiferous.
Hackers Elect Futurama’s Bender to the Washington DC School Board | PCWorld
Electronic voting has earned a pretty bad reputation for being insecure and completely unreliable. Well, get ready to add another entry to e-voting's list of woes.
One Bender Bending Rodríguez was elected to the 2010 school board in Washington DC. A team of hackers from the University of Michigan got Bender elected as a write-in candidate who stole every vote from the real candidates. Bender, of course, is a cartoon character from the TV series Futurama.
From Twinkies to yellow pencils, 175 years of firsts in Chicago - Chicago Sun-Times
Happy birthday, Chicago! The city of broad shoulders became a city exactly 175 years ago Sunday. If the big day caught you by surprise, it shouldn’t have — it’s right there on the city seal, “INCORPORATED 4th MARCH 1837.”
