August, 2010 archive
Contrasts 0
It is most interesting how folks who work hard and diligently pay into social security for 35 or 40 or 50 years suddenly become deadbeat slackers when it’s time for them to collect social security benefits.
More here.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To GO 0
A little better but not enough to make a never mind.
The weekly average over the past month climbed to the highest level since November even as the latest reading provided some relief to the drumbeat of negative economic data in recent weeks. Employers have delayed hiring plans and some have renewed firings as the year-old recovery shows signs of petering out, raising the risk consumer spending will weaken further.
Hoisting the Teabag 0
I wouldn’t have bought a used car from him anyway, even before he signed up with the forces of living in a past that never was.
Rigell’s running to the right because the incumbent is thunderingly moderate and he has an independent challenger who is resoundingly teabaggish.
The incumbent, Glenn Nye, is certainly more moderate than he would be if I got my druthers.
In fact, the incumbent is so moderate that some of my more leftie acquaintances are threatening not to vote, rather than to vote for him.
I can’t understand their position. Not voting for someone who is okay-not-great while giving someone who is definitely not okay an advantage mystifies me.
This is Virginia, for Pete’s sake, not Vermont.
The Dog Days of Summer 0
The dog’s owner has been trying to keep the dog “contained,” but it seems to keep slipping through the cracks.
An Animal Control officer’s report says Coco broke free of a collar/leash and got into Dwain Ware’s backyard on Friday.
(snip)
“(The dog) has been terrorizing the neighborhood,” said Mr. Ware.
Va. Beach Democratic Committee Fourth Saturday Breakfast 0
Special Guest: State Senator Ralph Northam
Date: Saturday, August 28th Time: 9-10:30 a. m.
Location: Bubba’s Deli & BBQ, 3600 Dam Neck Rd, Virginia Beach (west side of Dam Neck Rd. between Princess Anne Blvd. and Rosemont Rd.; access via service road at Lansdowne Ct. next to the Farmers Market).
Cost: Adults $10.00, Under 12 &6.00 for all-you-can-eat buffet (it’s a pretty good buffet, too–plenty of variety).
More information and suggested items to donate here.
Fact-Free Zones 0
From the inside of the teapot (emphasis added):
Grimes, for example, rebuts the pro-Obama arguments of friends this way: “The problem is, you guys are trying to sell this on facts. You can have all the facts, but if you don’t trust the mind-set or the value system of the people involved, you can’t even look at the facts anymore.’’
Reimer, meanwhile, wants smaller government, but not cuts to Medicare or TRICARE (the military health care program), on which she and her husband rely.
Afterthought:
Scary black man.
Sheesh.
And, ya know, they don’t realize it. It’s camouflaged as “the mind-set or the value system,” even in their own eyes.
Stray Thought 0
I just saw a Windows 7 commercial.
It made me think.
It made me think this:
I so am glad I don’t do Windows.
It’s the Silly Season 0
But the not a mosque not on the World Trade Center site fuss is anything but silly. Glenn Greenwald explains. A nugget:
That’s exactly the message that will be sent, and that’s what makes this conflict so significant. Obviously, not all opponents of Park51 are as overtly hateful as those in that video — and not all opponents are themselves bigots — but the position they’ve adopted is inherently bigoted, as it seeks to impose guilt and blame on a large demographic group for the aberrational acts of a small number of individual members. And one thing is certain: if this campaign succeeds, it will proliferate and the sentiments driving it will become even more potent. Hatemongers always become emboldened when they triumph.
The hate does get so tiresome.
“Evil or Stupid” 0
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Parent Company Trap | ||||
|
||||
Via TPM.
Riding the Hate 0
Republicans cannot let go of the odious Southern startegy.
Dan Kennedy in the Guardian:
Far worse is the racial, ethnic and religious hatred that has been unleashed, starting with the proposed Islamic centre to be built in New York several blocks from the devastated World Trade Centre site, which Obama endorsed and then (to his discredit) unendorsed (see Footnote), sort of, the next day.
Footnote:
Obama neither endorsed nor “unendorsed” the project. He said that, under the American concept of religious freedom, the project could be built, so long as it complied with existing laws.
Cyberspacey, Have Cake, Eat It Too Dept. 0
Vivian Paige mentioned this yesterday: Philly is looking to collect the business privilege tax from Philly-based blogs that carry ads or sell products. I suspect that, even though bloggers are making the fuss, the policy probably extends to any website that meets its criteria.
But here’s the kicker, as reported by the Seattle Times (and Vivian Paige referred to this possibility yesterday):
As a self-(un)employed type person, I know a little bit about business taxes.
You really can’t be a business, even a part-time sideline type business, for federal taxes and a hobby for state and local taxes. End of story.
I think that “based in Philly” could be made an issue if someone cares to make it and has money to burn.
For example, I’m in Virginia Beach, Virginia. My hosting company is based in Phoenix, Arizona (yes, I considered boycotting them but I was already paid through next year a). Where the server is physically located I have no idea.
So, where is this website based? Virginia or Arizona or on some server farm in east someplace or other? The mailing address on the check would probably be the determinant.
Aside:
The story also contains this statement:
Some bloggers are complaining that the fee would impinge on their free speech and would discourage dissent.
“Freedom of speech” is just as irrelevant here as it is to Call-Me-a-Dr. Laura. Freedom of speech is not freedom to be guaranteed an audience.
Full Disclosure:
I decided a long time ago not to get involved with ads for this site, not least because I couldn’t see much income potential from my two or three regular readers. The game could not possibly be worth the candle. I also find most sidebar ads unappealing; I think I’ve only clicked on one in five years of reading blogs and that was for Will Bunch’s new book because I wanted the link.
I don’t live in Philly, but I know a number of Philly-area bloggers, but only two or three of them actually live in the city. I have no idea of their positions on this issue and none of them were mentioned in the article linked above.
Life Insurance, Have Cake, Eat It Too Dept. 0
Bloomberg reports on another reason to take your the life insurance benefits in a lump sum, rather than to use those vouchers the insurance company wants to send you. This lady took the vouchers and got taken:
Had Williams’s money been in a bank, instead of an account managed by an insurer, federal and state law would have required the bank to verify signatures on checks and cover losses. Williams’s predicament spotlights the uncertainties people face by accepting so-called retained-asset account checkbooks from insurers.
The entire article, which is detailed and thoroughly researched, is worth a read.
Mean Streets 0
Unstable Isotope finds a Beckian guide to Washington, D. C.
It’s–oh, never mind. Just take a gander. It panders to the xenophobes and the haters speaks for itself.
