April, 2010 archive
The End of a Brand 0
Bret and Bart will be sad.
Signs of Spring 0
90 Fahrenheits and sunny today.
Shiftless 2
I’ve said for years that shifting gears should be part of Drivers’ Ed (not that anyone listened–now that I’ve got a blog, even more persons get the opportunity not to listen to me).
Little did I know that it was excluded as an anti-crime measure:
“All Your Internets Belongs to Us” 0
Clay Shirkey describes how major media is responding to the digital world (emphasis added):
Diller, Brill, and Murdoch seem be stating a simple fact—we will have to pay them—but this fact is not in fact a fact. Instead, it is a choice, one its proponents often decline to spell out in full, because, spelled out in full, it would read something like this:
“Web users will have to pay for what they watch and use, or else we will have to stop making content in the costly and complex way we have grown accustomed to making it. And we don’t know how to do that.”
Bare the Stearns 0
Robert Reich discusses the secret bailouts of AIG and Bear Stearns–bailouts that took place before any bailouts were authorized:
Fitzgerald was right: The very rich are different.
And they have their own rules, which they don’t want anyone else to know about.
QOTD 0
Pete Seeger, from the Quotemaster:
Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t.
Cre(a)ti(o)nism 0
South Dakota has passed a law:
The South Dakota Legislature thinks that scientific laws are made up by people to suit agendas.
Accordingly, they have invented some agendist stuff to make a political declaration that climate change is a myth.
Follow the link to link to read the text.
Next: South Dakota decrees that bumble bees can’t fly.
Analogy 0
Weatherman:Climatologist::Stretcher Bearer:Doctor.
The issue isn’t whether the Earth undergoes periodic natural climate changes. It certainly has and will continue to.
The issue is whether adding large amounts of extra, artificially created (that is, man-made) carbon dioxide to the atmosphere has significantly altered the periodic natural climate change. Any argument that distracts from this question is a herring of the brightest red.
But They Only Gypped Some 0
In a world without walls, who needs Windows (to borrow a phrase)?
The stuff gives off fumes which are not only dangerous to persons, but which also corrode metal.
Quality construction at a price that’s right.
It’s Bushie FEMA trailers on steroids.
There’s an App for That 0
If we have to use coal–and it appears we shall have to for some time–we shouldn’t kid ourselves: Clean coal ain’t.
Via Article IX.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Republicanism 0
Making stuff up. It’s what they do best. It is, in fact, all they got.
McClatchy:
The Jamestown settlers? Socialists. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton? Ill-informed professors made up all that bunk about him advocating a strong central government.
Theodore Roosevelt? Another socialist. Franklin D. Roosevelt? Not only did he not end the Great Depression, he also created it.
Joe McCarthy? Liberals lied about him. He was a hero.
If you are too busy to read the article, watch the video.
Via Balloon Juice.
Life under the Regency 0
Kook-kook-ka-choo, from the Virginian-Pilot (which could be considered liberal only by Virginia standards, which means it’s almost moderate):
Read the whole thing. Lots of chuckles around the seriousness.
More at the Slant.
iYawn 0
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Stephen Gets a Free iPad | ||||
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Via the Inverse Square Blog.
Light Bloggery 0
I’m taking the day off to unpack and stuff.
New Depths of Tone Deaf 0
Oh, my goodness.
As I think I have mentioned here before, I attended Catholic churches for 18 years. Something to do with being married to someone brought up in the Catholic Church.
All the priests I knew were decent fellows who were trying as best they could to do the jobs they had taken on. Not a one of them has ever had his honor questioned.
It is a shame to see them betrayed by their management in such a fashion. I wonder whether the Catholic Church has considered what protecting malefactors does to the religious who are not malefactors.
I would guess not.
For every hinky priest, there is a hinky Protestant preacher.
The individual misconduct was individual sin; protecting the malefactors was organizational sin, for which the organization must answer.
I have seen it before in other large organizations. The first impulse is to circle the wagons. The second, third, and fourth impulses are to circle, circle, circle. And the circle remains unbroken, as the sin perpetuates.
The sex abuse problems in the Catholic church are management problems. Management knew about it, management protected it, management thereby encouraged it.
I wonder what St. Peter will have to say when these clowns appear at his doorstep.
