2010 archive
Underlying Rationales 0
I was going to hunt for this cartoon because it was in the local rag this morning, but Shaun saved me the trouble.
Voting Is Not a Right. It Is a Duty. 0
You may tell yourself, “No one will vote for such a dummy.”
Therefore you sit there, eat Cheetos healthful whole grain snacks with celery stalks on the side, and watch YouTube educational documentaries.
Vote or be ruled by dummies.
Facebook Frolics: Freedom of Speech Dept. 0
Whatever you say about someone, just don’t let it be heard:
“I use it probably every day, just to stay connected with friends from high school and friends of my kids’ friends and things like that,” Threlkeld told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But the 39-year-old bus driver had no idea she was risking her job with Buford City Schools when she posted a link to a local newspaper article in March. Threlkeld was shocked when administrators fired her on the last day of the 2009-10 school year — an act she believes was in retaliation for the Facebook post.
The school district claims she was fired for “unprofessional conduct” and promise to fight the suit.
Facebook Fone Funkiness 0
Facebook is playing privacy games again, this time with phone numbers.
I wrote it up at Geekazine. If you have a Facebook account and don’t know about the stealth entries in your Facebook Phonebook yet, you really must read this. Then turn it off (if you can; I haven’t been able to yet–the “turn it off” link crashes I finally got through, but turning it off did not seem to affect entries from other persons’ accounts. Dammit, I don’t even want a Facebook Phonebook).
Zuckerberg keeps supplying evidence that he is not a very nice nor respectful person.
The Logical Result of Republican Economic Theory 0
Jamie draws the moral from “pay and spray” so I don’t have to.
There’s more to it, though.
Under extreme Republican economic theory, if something does not profit the Wall Street bonus babies, it’s not worth doing. Republican economic theory admits no room for the concept of public actions for the benefit of the polity as a whole, because such actions are paid for by (gasp!) taxes.
’tis better to let a home burn than to raise taxes to pay for a fire department.
This is Republicanism.
Bill of Particulars 0
The Booman looks at Republican candidates from across the nation and observes
Read the link for the evidence.
Which Witch 0
I haven’t said much about Christine O’Donnel (R–Hogwarts) because, well, what can you say about someone who’s first television ad starts out with “I am not a witch”?
But I just had to share this cartoon from Delaware Liberal:
Q. What Is “Both Sides Now”? 2
A. The sides of its mouth that a bankster talks out of regarding foreclosure documents.
In effect, that’s what a JP Morgan Chase spokesman told Reuters: “We believe the accuracy of the factual loan information in the affidavits was not affected by whether or not the signer had personal knowledge of the precise details.”
It’s a quote only a lawyer could love, said attorney Eric Garrabrant, of Flaster & Greenberg in Cherry Hill.
“So, if you swear facts are true without knowing they are true, apparently it’s OK, so long as they ultimately turn out to be accurate?” asked Garrabrant, who represents people in foreclosure.
In other news, two dollars boxed on the first two finishers in the 8th at Delaware Park wins the Exacta.
QOTD 0
Anne Rice, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
To write something you have to risk making a fool of yourself.
Home Invaders 1
They are getting more brazen:
But why, then, had the locks on the front door been changed?
It turns out that a Sarasota company working for a lender trying to retake the property through foreclosure sent two men to the Punta Gorda home to break in and change the locks, even though the home was obviously occupied.
It is illegal for any bank representative to enter a property if they have not yet retaken it at a foreclosure sale, especially if there is any sign the home is occupied, foreclosure experts say.
The process of banks hiring people to break into homes, even when occupied, is just the latest oddity of the messy foreclosure crisis in Florida.
Bringing new meaning to the term “bank robbery.”
Via Atrios.
Why Steal an Election When You Can Buy One? 0
The legacy of Citizens Benighted–floods of money from anonymous sources:
Further, never have so many donors been unidentified before elections; so far only about one-third of donors have been identified, the Center for Public Integrity study says.
Via the Booman.
Puppies 0
The new radical danger: the Humane Society.
Certainly, protect those puppy mills.
We all need more of puppy mills.
Truth, justice, and the American Way puppy mills.
Spill Here, Spill Now, Obsfucate 0
From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Nguyen posted enlarged copies of International Safety Management Code audits that he said the board wasn’t able to get from Transocean and instead needed to get from the rig’s flag state, the Republic of Marshall Islands. He said that Transocean twice refused to comply with subpoenas for those documents, contending they were “overly broad, unduly burdensome, irrelevant and not reasonably calculated to lead to admissable evidence.”
The story goes on the point out how Transocean’s lawyers protested that the Coast Guard (I’m paraphrasing here) was not deferring to their right to tie things up in preliminary motions, injunctions, and other out-of-the-public-eye manuevering until hell freezes over.
Facebook Frolics 0
Joanna Weiss considers sincerity and social networking in the Boston Globe. A nugget:
(snip)
Facebook is easy to love because it’s all about self-love, the ultimate online ego boost.
Aside:
I would hardly consider the Facebook interface “elegant”; contrasted to Myspace, though, it’s not actively annoying.
Virginia AG Cuccinelli’s War on Science, Episode II 0
In our previous episode, a retired state judge called on to rule on the case bounced it into the next county.
In episode two:
Cuccinelli has appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court.
The current filing from Cuccinelli was issued Sept. 29 in conjunction with the continuing probe. It is more narrowly crafted to target one state grant – a $214,700 award – in which Mann had a role.
I am beginning to believe that wingnuts oppose science because knowledge is inimical to their mythology.
Once you know the sun is umpty-ump miles away, you can no longer believe in Icarus.
They want to keep believing in their Icarus.
Kook-kook-a-choo
Twits on Twitter 0
Malcolm Gladwell thinks that social media will not change the world.