July, 2009 archive
Bushonomics: The Hangover 0
There is a growth sector of the economy:
Today, an alternate universe — the repo business — dominates. And business is very good.
As the U.S. foreclosure crisis grinds on, the detailed work of processing, repairing and selling thousands of homes repossessed by banks is real estate’s new gold. In the past year, repo-related business has rapidly grown to national scale, fueling job growth in Colorado, Texas, Ohio and elsewhere to service the meltdown in markets like Sacramento and the Central Valley along with Phoenix, Las Vegas and Florida.
I’m waiting for a new Court TruTV show: Operation Repo: McMansion.
Driving Blind 0
It’s 20 miles long and 30 feet high and they still run into it.
Return of Beyond the Palin Meets the Sirens 0
Walter Brasch at ASZ eavesdrops on the sirens’ call.
In other news, DougJ at Balloon Juice speaks of myths.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Not.
It took just $70 for a young person to buy a .32-caliber revolver from “some guy” at a Portsmouth gym. In Suffolk, gang members share handguns hidden under bushes and beneath houses, taking them and returning them like spare pennies at a convenience store.
Weapons pilfered by teens and adults from homes in neighboring Gates County, N.C., last year filtered back to southeastern Virginia within months on the black market.
In Virginia, it’s against the law for anyone under 18 to buy a gun or to possess a handgun or “assault” firearm in public unless they’re hunting or carrying out duties in the armed forces. It’s also illegal for juveniles to possess any gun on school property, unless it’s an unloaded rifle or shotgun that’s in a closed case or on a vehicle’s firearms rack.
But authorities say guns are widely available to youngsters. That has turned teenage disputes into crime scenes time and time again, and has ratcheted up the violence in felonies committed by juveniles – particularly robberies.
And, in other news, the National Rifle Association opposes efforts to require legitimate gun owners to report when guns are stolen.
Ideals of the Founders 0
Frankie Martin writing in the Guardian:
As a young American brought up to believe I’m part of a superpower, Chomsky’s identification of fear as essential to what it means to be American caught me off guard. Privileged to be witnessing a conversation between two world-renowned academics in the fields of anthropology and linguistics, I listened.
Follow the link and read the whole thing, especially Mr. Martin’s reflections on the Founders, which, following this opening, will likely surprise you.
We Need Single Payer 0
Avedon at Eschaton:
. . . .when someone claims they oppose healthcare reform because it is too expensive, there really is only one sensible response: “If you are worried about costs, why don’t you support single-payer, which will save hundreds of billions of dollars?”
“There’s Honest Graft and There’s Dishonest Graft” 0
Riddle Me This 0
Test your knowledge; follow the link to take the quiz:
Before you gaze misty-eyed at the flag today, see how many you can get, from these test questions on the Immigration Services Web site.
Then and only then read this.
Twits on Twitter 0
The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America, as Amended, 2009 0
Relevant amendments, and some striking parts that do not need amending, are highlighted.
There have been some changes since the last time I posted this, but also some glaring omissions and failures. See if you can find them:
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
unless we don’t like them. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness,unless the United States Attorneys’ offices can be packed with sycophants on the sly. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
Return of Beyond the Palin Meets Mothra 0
To answer Mithras’s question, in the neocon world of make-believe in which this story originates, if you just clap hard enough, Tinkerbell will live.
Farewell Tour 0
Does anyone else find this a little ookie (emphasis added)?
He added the family wants to have other memorials around the United States.
I Got the Blue Cheese Blues 0
Why isn’t the opening in my bottle of chunky blue cheese dressing large enough to let the chunks through?
Beware the MetroGnomes 0
Some Republican is alarmed that Democrats might force something French down our throats–the metric system.
Steve considers:
T-Mobile Website MASSIVE FAIL 0
T-Mobile has redesigned its website. It appears that they have fallen into the clutches of those who value appearances over function (not that that ever happens in the field of web design, oh noes) and who are unaware of web standards.
It’s all flashy now, with lots of moving parts.
It just doesn’t work right any more.
It seems to work fine unless you want to look at your account. It lets you log in, then it gives you the finger.
It doesn’t work in Opera, Firefox, Konqueror, or Lynx (with Lynx, it won’t even let you log in).
It does work in Windows Internet Destroyer.
I have been a satisfied T-Mobile customer since they were Voicestream. I have received good service that meets my needs at a fair price, along with excellent customer service and technical support.
I will not cancel my account over this, but I reserve the right to be highly irritated.
School Days, School Days . . . 0
. . . good old Golden Rule Days.
AKA, what happens when wingnuts control the guv’mint.
Via Cookie Jill.
What a Difference a Travel Day Makes, Dustbiters Dept. 0
Where did all those banks go? They went to oblivion, every one, while I was dodging traffic.
Founders Bank, Worth, Ill.
Millennium State Bank of Texas, Dallas, Texas
The First National Bank of Danville, Danville, Ill.
The Elizabeth State Bank, Elizabeth, Ill.
Rock River Bank, Oregon, Ill.
The First State Bank of Winchester, Winchester, Ill.
The John Warner Bank, Clinton, Ill.
I know it’s Independence Day weekend, but this kind of parade we could do without.