(Also in our world famous Work Avoidance List)
5.05.2012
Why taking credit for new regulations doesn't count
Workplace Deaths Continue to Rise Across the U.S. | Crooks and Liars
The number of workplace deaths across the U.S. continues to rise, something it has done every year since 2004.…
The report notes that one of the key reasons for the recent increases in workplace death and injury is the weakening of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which on the federal level only has the workforce and funding to inspect each workplace once every 131 years.
Emphasis added.
You can lie on your résumé or you can "inaccurately state your credentials"
Hedge Fund Intensifies Attack on Yahoo Amid Storm Over Padded Résumés - NYTimes.com
On Friday, the hedge fund, which is the middle of a contentious proxy battle with Yahoo, called for the dismissal of the technology company’s chief executive, Scott Thompson, after revealing that he had inaccurately stated his credentials.
I'm not sure exactly what the difference is but I'm betting it's followed by several zeros.
Another day, not another buck
A Clear Warning From the Jobs Numbers - NYTimes.com
The jobless rate dropped in April, from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent, but the decline was caused by 342,000 people dropping out of the work force. A smaller work force means even slower growth.
5.04.2012
The rich get richer
Plutocracy, Paralysis, Perplexity - NYTimes.com
For the past century, political polarization has closely tracked income inequality, and there’s every reason to believe that the relationship is causal. Specifically, money buys power, and the increasing wealth of a tiny minority has effectively bought the allegiance of one of our two major political parties, in the process destroying any prospect for cooperation.
Krugman on income inequality.
(Noted by our Midwest bureau)
Selling Chicago
Panel to make sure ads don’t mar city assets - Chicago Sun-Times
Emanuel’s $6.3 billion budget assumes $25 million in revenues from “municipal marketing” and sponsorship deals that turn city assets into money-makers.
5.03.2012
Imagine my relief
Expensive Men's Underwear - Luxury Men's Underwear - Esquire
There Is No Need to Spend 100 Dollars for Underwear
Oh yeah, the Bushies did it too
Obama may be dancing on bin Laden's grave but the Bushies danced on the grave of 9/11, as (among others) Jon Stewart points out here:
And thank you, I rest my case.
Here I was hoping for a President that did not do what the Bushies did, silly me. It is not to be.
I am one of those guys who is so far left it is presumed I will vote for Obama because I have no place else to go. Well, I'm going.
Planning for the big celebration
AP survey: Steady job gains to sustain US recovery
But the economists think the recovery will manage to reduce unemployment to 7.9 percent by Election Day from 8.2 percent in March.
Falling unemployment would boost President Barack Obama's prospects in November.
Welcome to the new normal.
But none where I live…
Apple expected to expand store-within-store presence at Walmart, Target
Currently, Walmart has over 3,800 locations in the U.S., and Target has 1,700 stores.
…sob…this will be the last town on the planet with no Apple store.
(P.S. Also the last town with 4g or fiber optic broadband. But we have indoor plumbing now.)
Really good old, old writer gets all grumpy about the language
Orwell: Politics and the English Language
Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way…
Yeah, yeah.
American icon says bang bang
Levi Johnston to Name Baby Daughter After a Gun - Yahoo! News
Alaskan baby daddy Levi Johnston, former fiancé of Bristol Palin and father of their child, has another baby on the way and plans to name her after his favorite pistol.
Johnston said he and girlfriend Sunny Oglesby would name their baby "Breeze Beretta," after the Italian handgun.
5.02.2012
So if you were expecting fireworks at the GOP convention this year…
News from The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott has rejected a request from the Tampa mayor to prohibit the carrying of guns in downtown during the Republican National Convention this summer because it would infringe upon "sacred constitutional traditions," according to a letter released Wednesday.
…possibly you were underestimating the situation.
We, ourselves, devouty hope there are no sacred bullets flying around. Also we are thinking, duck.
The law! The law!
Obama-rebuking judge allows Texas to withhold funds from Planned Parenthood | The Raw Story
Just hours after a federal court issued an injunction against Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s plan to revoke public funding for Planned Parenthood, a judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans knocked that ruling down and permitted the state to proceed — at least for now.
And they say it's not a spectator sport.
File under Willard's Excellent Year
Will Washington ever be as cool as Hollywood? | Power Players - Yahoo! News
Mitt Romney's team…argues that Americans do not want a president that is cool, i.e. President Obama, because after four years, where has that gotten you? On the other hand, Ann Romney appears to be working very hard to show her husband is a really cool, funny guy, and that Americans just have not seen that side of him.
But wait!
Newt Gingrich $4 Million in Debt; Staffers and Creditors Fume - Yahoo! News
Newt Gingrich ends his White House dream today with his political committee facing a mountain of debts -- owing about $4 million to scores of businesses and campaign workers around the country who fear they will never get paid.
If The Newt can collect royalties on all the stuff he said about Romney that, now, the Obama people are going to use in campaign ads, well, he ought to not only be good for the $4 mil, he might even turn a profit.
Happily I live in a place far to small to ever host an Olynpics
Are Those Missiles on My Roof? - Yahoo! News
As part of the largest peacetime mobilization in British history, the military is installing the missile system in order to protect the Olympic stadium…
What this guy says
Its misleading message: Mitt Romney is insufficiently willing to invade the air space of sovereign countries.
Just go read it yourself.
Confused, right
The five alleged anarchists arrested by the FBI Monday night after allegedly plotting to blow up a bridge in the suburbs of Cleveland to send a message to the corporations, the government and the one-percenters were confused.
Oh, and speaking of confused, it was apparently an FBI agent that sold these guys the bombs.
5.01.2012
Here it is…
…your story about the May Day…
UPDATE 5-US May Day protests draw police but most are peaceful | Reuters
NEW YORK/OAKLAND, Calif., May 1 (Reuters) - Occupy Wall Street protesters smashed windows in Seattle, fled police on scooters through the streets of New York and clashed with officers in Oakland on Tuesday in a May Day effort to revive the movement against economic justice with demonstrations around the United States.
…now back to the manly rubbing out of Osama bin Laden.
What? A President who acts like George Bush? You're just figuring that out, are you?
Obama In Afghanistan | Talking Points Memo
After a day of rumors and a White House furiously trying to quash reports, it has now been confirmed that President Obama is in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit on the anniversary of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Obama will address the nation live this evening at 7:30 p.m. ET.
My advice is, stay away from school
Kindergartner Charged with Battery. Why Are We Criminalizing Kids? | Parenting - Yahoo! Shine
Increasingly, precincts have become de facto detention centers. In Albuquerque alone 90,000 students, were arrested between 2009-2010. In Texas, an estimated 300,000 kids were give misdemeanors in 2010. That number includes children as young as 6.
Just one of those days
"Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants."
No, I'm not...WHAT?
Cannibal shrimp: The invasion has begun | The Upshot - Yahoo! News
Do not be alarmed, but the cannibal shrimp invasion has begun.
CANNIBAL SHRIMP?
Shrimp as big as lobsters? Maybe we should call the lobsters shrimps then. And we could call the shrimp…I don't know…how about puppies?
Imagine a shrimp cocktail of these puppies.
Well, anyway. Noted by our alert Midwestern bureau, which is also our Gulf Coast bureau (an austerty measure…we have also closed our offices in London, Paris, and Dubuque).
I'm thinking maybe we could blame this on BP too. The puppies, I mean. Not Dubuque. Dubuque is its own fault.
Waiting for Willard
Ann Romney on Mitt: a wild and crazy man inside | Reuters
"He's not. He's funny," Ann Romney, the Republican presidential candidate's wife, told "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday…
"I still look at him as this is the boy that I met, in high school, when he was pulling all the jokes, and really just being crazy. Pretty crazy. So there's a wild and crazy man inside of him ... just waiting to come out."
It's a long hot summer and it's not even summer yet
Obama campaign slams Romney for "Swiss bank account" - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
(CBS News) Less than a week after proclaiming the start of the general presidential election, President Obama's re-election team is unveiling its first negative ad campaign…
Nothing will make it stop.
Possibly the most opaque news story ever written
Help Sprout Fresh Food in Duluth's Lincoln Park Neighborhood - Local News - Duluth, MN - msnbc.com
Duluth, MN (Northland's NewsCenter) -- The Healthy Duluth Area Coalition, Duluth LISC 'At Home' partner, is competing to win a $25,000 grant from State Farm's Cause an Effect Initiative.…
Also it's raining here, and cold, and I'm officially bored senseless. Maybe I'll just go back to bed or something. I don't know. Whatever. Who knows.
Iambic pentameter on Twitter
Weird internets News, Video and Gossip - Gawker
Ther [sic] are, in fact, sonnets being written on Twitter right now. It's just that the people writing them don't realize it. My current favorite Twitter poetry comes from a bot called Pentametron, which lives in Los Angeles, on a cheap server rented by its creator and patron Ranjit Bhatnagar.
4.30.2012
They're coming!
'Supermoon' Alert: Biggest Full Moon of 2012 Occurs This Week - Yahoo! News
The moon will swing in 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) from our planet, offering skywatchers a spectacular view of an extra-big, extra-bright moon, nicknamed a supermoon.
Yeah! Right! Read my lips!
White House Not Politicizing Bin Laden Death, Obama Says - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Monday said his administration isn't politicizing the raid that killed Osama bin Laden…
Never look back!
Yep, sure does
Crucified | Talking Points Memo
Did the Obama administration just roll over for the Jim Inhofe / Fox News rage machine? Kind of feels that way.
The good Americans
But when torture becomes a matter of national public policy and men like Mr. Rodriguez proclaim it proudly on national television rather than from behind cell bars, we have a different order of problem entirely. And the onus for that problem lies not just with our elected officials, but with all of us as a society. After all, once it's on 60 Minutes it's not as if we can turn our heads and pretend we didn't know.
So no re-change then?
Obama campaign video teases new slogan: 'Forward' - latimes.com
It looks like the Obama campaign may have settled on its slogan for the 2012 election: "Forward."
Four years ago Barack Obama ran on another one-word slogan, "Change."
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldiers knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
4.29.2012
Whew, Arizona saves God
Errrr wait, that can't be true, can it?
Why yes, Bunky, it is!
Under Arizona law, "all books, publications, papers and audiovisual materials of a sectarian, partisan or denominational character" are prohibited from public schools and their libraries.
Thanks to Governor Jan Brewer's signature on House Bill 2563, that law now excludes the Bible.
Rain (and a whole lot more) in Spain
George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia is thought be some to be the best book ever written about the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. Be that as it may, Orwell, who went to Spain as a journalist and stayed to fight against Franco's fascists, proves himself an astute observer and a remarkably good reporter here in an edition of his book that also includes a preface by the eminent mid-century literary critic Lionel Trilling worth reading in itself.
If you're not interested in Orwell or in the Spanish war this might not be the book for you, but if you are it is.
If you're not interested in Orwell or in the Spanish war this might not be the book for you, but if you are it is.
Ouch
Dentist Pulls All Ex's Teeth Out; Anna Mackowiak Faces Jail Time
Breaking up is never easy -- having 32 teeth ripped out is even worse.
A scorned dentist is facing jail time after surgically removing all of her ex-boyfriend's teeth after he dumped her, authorities in London said.
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