March, 2010 archive
Roundups 0
There is an probably apocryphal quote from the 1930s which I have seen attributed to Winston Churchill and others whose names I forget. I have tried several times to track it down have not yet succeeded:
Q. Will America have fascism?
A. Yes, but they will call it anti-fascism.
Mithras dissects the McCain-Lieberman Bill mandating military detention of American citizens suspected (not guilty, suspected) of terrorism. In order to preserve America, they propose to destroy it.
I, for One, Could Deal with a Utopia 0
As long as it wasn’t filled with mixed nuts.
Little Napoleons and Waterloos 0
I was listening to this podcast today. A caller called in (as callers tend to do) and remarked that, in discussing health care with his friends and business associates, he has noticed a “significant lack of altruism.”
He summed it us as (I am paraphrasing this), “I’ve got mine. You’re on your own.”
“I’ve got mine. You’re on your own,” pretty much sums up Republicanism, does it not?
Video via TPM.
The Entitlement Society 0
A revealing insight into the thinnking of the bonus babies and how they come to believe they are Masters of the Universe.
From the beginning of the essay:
Wall Street just looted the public on a massive scale. Having found this to be a wondrously lucrative exercise, it looks set to do it all over again.
I’ve forgotten where I found the link. When I remember, I’ll add the credit.
Bagging Reality 0
Take the quiz. From DelawareLiberal:
1. How much does the federal government collect in taxes as a % of GDP?
2. How much does the typical family making $50,000 per year pay in federal taxes?
3. Are taxes higher, lower or the same since Barack Obama was inaugurated?
Follow the link to check your answers and to see how yours stack up against teabaggers’ responses.
Relax. You can’t do much worse than they did.
To Beck or Not To Beck 0
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Conservative Libertarian | ||||
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Some while ago, I accompanied my friend to the optometrist.
He had Glenn Beck on his telly vision in the waiting room.
I had to leave and wait outside. The dumbness and hate were beyond my capacity for endurance.
And there are persons who think his politics are sane. God help us all.
Video via TPM.
Nothing Makes Food Taste Better Than “Free” 0
But this is just macabre: Crashing funerals for the food.
We Need Single Payer 0
We have rationing. It’s not rationing based on need or any rational measure; it’s rationing based on demand for country-club memberships.
(snip)
Health care reform legislation pending before Congress would not restructure that system, although it could provide more transparency.
The whole article is worth a read.
A related story points out that health insurance premiums have doubled in the last ten years.
The quality of health care sure hasn’t doubled in the last ten years.
Afterthought:
Profiting from misery–>miserable profits.
The system is broken.
True Colors 0
Why am I not surprised?
When a party practices the politics of hate, hate is the harvest.
I’m too disgusted to write any more.
Old Time Radio Can Be Embarrassing 0
Embarrassing because it mirrors the way we were.
I was listening to an episode of The Man Called X here (just to be clear, the show was before my time–not much before my time, but still before my time).
The episode is set in the Congo (called the “Belgian Congo” when I was young, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
The “native miners” are not showing up for work (turns out that the “native miners” are being duped by duplicitous white men, because, being natives who are Not White, they are incapable of thinking for themselves) and Ken Thurston, “the Man Called X,” delivers this line:
“No matter how much you offered them in trinkets and money, they wouldn’t come back?”
Trinkets and money.
It is not a very flattering mirror, is it?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
That’s why there was an event to educate girls about the dangers of firearms in Wilmington:
Dustbiters 0
Regulators continued rounding up the small fry (that’s why it’s called “small Fryday”).
Reports are that the Mr. Bigs are still at large, larger, largest.
But you can’t bank on these folks any more.
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State Bank of Aurora, Aurora, Minnesota
First Lowndes Bank, Fort Deposit, Alabama
Bank of Hiawassee, Hiawassee, Georgia
Appalachian Community Bank, Ellijay, Georgia
Advanta Bank Corp., Draper, Utah
Keeping up with the our Financial Geniuses does get tiresome.
Bracket Fever 0
I lost interest in college basketball when the Carolina Four-Corner was effectively banned by the introduction of a shot-clock and, in the intervening period, have become skilled in tuning out much ado over not much of anything sports coverage in March.
It is with sadness that I note that the ex-local rag has decided to extend brackets to beers. I have no interest to lose in that.
Brackets are for holding up shelves.
Now, if they wish to bracket cheap relatively inexpensive Scots whiskey, maybe I’ll pay attention. I’m a common sewer of cheap relatively inexpensive Scots whiskey.
Scam Alert 0
Scammers are pretending to represent Publishers’ Clearing House’s Prize Patrol, taking advantage of the psychological truth that, when confronted with the possibility of already having won, persons’ brains stop working.
May the Farce Be with You 0
Oh, my.
Greater Wingnuttery, Life under the Regency Dept. 0
Satire, but it’s reasoning is so eerily pseudo-academic (in a scholastical sense) as to read like true wingnuttery.
