May, 2009 archive
Okay, So I Like Silly 1
But for once I think the local paper came up with a cute headline:
So you don’t have to follow the link: The story is a puff piece about how, since Joe Biden became vice-president, the response to “I’m from Delaware” is no longer,
“Oh, what state’s that in?”
(Yes, that’s one I got first-hand.)
Drink Liberally 0
Live charitably.
Drinking Liberally, Triumph Brewing Company, Chestnut between Letitia and Second (wonder if that’s the same Letitia I went to school with?), Philadelphia, Pa., Tuesday, 6 p.
I’ll be there to pick up my brownberry which I fell out of my coat four weeks ago and which they found on Thursday. (Hmmmm, wonder how often they sweep–never mind.)
Text Education (Updated) 0
Outfits offering information about sex via text messages are proliferating:
Sex education in the classroom, say many epidemiologists and public health experts, is often ineffective or just insufficient. In many areas of the country, rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases remain constant or are even rising. North Carolina — where schools must teach an abstinence-only curriculum — has the country’s ninth-highest teenage pregnancy rate. Since 2003, when the state’s pregnancy rate declined to a low of 61 per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19, the rates have slowly been climbing. In 2007, that rate rose to 63 per 1,000 girls — 19,615 pregnancies.
The article goes on to point out that those who advocate ignorance abstinence-only sex education are bent out of shape because their little darlings might actually learn something.
They persist in denying that hormones, not knowledge, causes kids to explore sex.
Addendum, the Next Day:
The Guardian has more.
It’s a Wonder I Get Anything Done on This Computer 2
Yeah, I know it’s a little blurry. Best I could do with my cell.
All Over Once Again Redundantly, Except . . . 0
Dick Polman recounts the history of American waterboarding, which dates back to the Moro uprising in the Phillipines over 100 years ago (it was called the “water cure” back then when I was a young ‘un).
Once again, there was a Republican president.
This one, though, wasn’t having any of it (emphasis added):
But Theodore Roosevelt, the new president, didn’t buy those arguments. He didn’t try to manufacture any legal justifications. He didn’t bless the errant behavior by claiming that it was all conducted at the behest of his all-powerful executive authority. Instead, he kicked butt in a cable sent to the U.S. military authorities in the Philippines. The text can be found on page 100 of “Theodore Rex,” the second volume of the TR biography written by Edmund Morris. The key passage:
The president desires to know in the fullest and most circumstantial manner all the facts…for the very reason that the president intends to back up the Army in the heartiest fashion in every lawful and legitimate method of doing its work; he also intends to see that the most vigorous care is exercised to detect and prevent any cruelty or brutality and that men who are guilty thereof are punished. Great as the provocation has been in dealing with foes who habitually resort to treachery, murder and torture against our men, nothing can justify or will be held to justify the use of torture or inhuman conduct of any kind on the part of the American military.
Bridal Dress-Up 0
I used to know a fellow who cashed in $40,000 of his retirement to pay for his daughter’s wedding. Sorry, but disposable cameras on every table at $15.00 a pop is hardly a “tradition.”
One hopes that this presages a return to sanity in the wedding biz.
Kristin Mihok, owner of All About Weddings in Townsend, also has seen a sharp decline in wedding budgets in recent months. Where her brides had been spending between $20,000 and $30,000 before 2008, they are now spending between $8,000 and $20,000.
But one doubts it.
Twits on Twitter 0
Fool, Money, Health, Soon Parted, Supplement Dept. 0
It’s a lot easier and safer just to eat healthy.
Seen on the Street 0
Some oddities from my travels.
(Why do scenes of Star Wars battles deter me from using this facility?)
Medical Know-Nothings 0
James Randerson in the Guardian. Read the whole thing:
(snip)
According to the Health Protection Agency there were 1,348 cases of measles last year, compared with 56 in 1998. In 2006 a 14-year-old boy died of measles – the first fatal case for 14 years. The reduction in herd immunity is causing unnecessary suffering.
The decision by many of my neighbours not to vaccinate their children is on a par with the drunk who decides to get into his car to drive home. It is a personally reckless action that also endangers the lives of everyone else on the road. Society should view the MMR refuseniks with the same degree of scorn.
I understand the psychology of the MMR refuseniks.
They want something or someone to blame and some way to act.
One of the harsh truths that separates grown-ups from children is this: Sometimes bad stuff happens and there is no one to blame and no way to prevent it. It just is.
Mis-Lead 1
The lead in this story misses the point of the legislation (emphasis added):
It’s not anti-business sentiment.
It’s anti-pickpocket sentiiment.
Missing the Point 0
As usual, I am late to the party, but I must comment on this story (emphasis added).
More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.
As someone who is a white, evangelical Protestant (contrary to how many behave, “evangelical” does not refer to a political philosophy), I must say, these folks haven’t read the same Bible I have.
They must have found some kind of anti-Gospels which counsel hate and cruelty in the name of the God of love.
I Miss All the Excitement 0
This was just about the time I was driving through Georgetown.
No, not that Georgetown. The not-rich Georgetown in Delaware:
(snip)
Officers found the device, evacuated homes in the 800 block of East Market Street (U.S. 9/Del. 404) about 3 p.m. and recovered the device with a robot. Georgetown police, state police and state fire marshals were on the scene.
The Stupid Bowl 0
Sure, the BCS system is stupid, but this is even more stupider.
Republicanism: Slogans looking for a cause.
In his opening remarks during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee, Barton — the panel’s ranking Republican — recalled the hearing he held on the same matter several years ago.
“That time, I had hoped through a spirit of volunteerism, the BCS would decide to go to a playoff system,” he said. “That hasn’t happened yet. It is interesting that people of good will — I think everybody on whatever side of the issue is a person of good will — keeps trying to tinker with the current system.”
“It’s like communism, you can’t fix it.”
And the cause they find is . . . .
. . . . college bowl games?
Furrfu.
H/T David Dayen via Facebook.