2010 archive
Distracted Driving 0
Bad idea: sexting behind the wheel.
Stray Thought 0
The “middle” is not between Republicans and Democrats.
The middle is where the Democrats are. Republicans have left that building.
Republicans vs. Reality 0
In this corner, Republicans, who claim the stimulus did not help save or create jobs.
In this corner, reality:
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
According to Republicans, jobs are out there:
“The key story here is the extreme uncertainty over the near-term path of claims as a result of the annual retooling shutdowns, which throw the seasonal adjustments into chaos,” Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics LLC in Valhalla, New York, said before the report. Shepherdson projected claims would drop to 420,000.
Venomous Virtuousness: The Weird Fallacy of Withholding One’s Vote 0
Voting is not a right. It is a duty.
Several weeks ago, I was chatting with an acquaintance about politics (imagine! me talking about politics).
He was most distressed with a local Democratic candidate for Congress over the candidate’s votes on several major issues and was planning to express his discontent by not voting in that race in November.
(Frankly, I share his distress. Indeed, I had pointed out to one of the Congressman’s staffers that “. . . not voting for the health care bill because it doesn’t save enough money is like a surgeon’s refusing to operate because he can restore only 70% of a patient’s vision, rather than all of it.” The staffer was not happy.)
As Hamlet points out, there is a rub. We agreed that a victory by the Congressman’s opponent would be far more detrimental to the public good than the Democrat’s continued incumbency. Yet, he was willing to support through inaction the opponent.
It is simply not true that all politicians are alike and that there’s no difference between the parties. Anyone who believes that has slept for the last three decades or looks to avoid responsibility for his or her inaction.
Furthermore, anyone who expects a candidate, even the best candidate, to reflect perfectly his or her own views is living in WackyWorld. (John Cole has an excellent musing on that today.)
I cannot understand how persons can consider withholding a vote from a better candidate to the implicit benefit of a lesser one to possess any legitimacy as a protest. It’s “I’ll shoot the polity in the foot so I can feel virtuous” reasoning.
In the American electoral structure, the election goes to the candidate with the majority (actually, in most jurisdictions, with the plurality) of votes. Sometimes, indeed, the choice is indeed between worse and worst. In that case, worse is still better than worst.
Someone is going to win. Not voting at all because you don’t like one amounts to voting for the other.
The only choice may be to hold your nose and vote for the better of the two, even though, in your eyes, the better may not be good enough.
Worse is still better than worst.
Voting is not a right. It is a duty.
Spill Here, Spill Now, Scuba No 0
Via Article IX, which suggests that “no new drilling” would be a more palatable and accurate term than “moratorium.”
Spill Here, Spill Now, Gastric Distress Dept. 0
From the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting on a gas blowout in the Marcellus shale foundation:
Hanger said that EOG had employed only one mechanism to keep the high-pressure gas well under control and that that measure had failed at the hands of employees who were not certified in well-control techniques.
He also said EOG, which is based in Houston, wasted valuable hours by failing to promptly notify officials about the blowout.
Rather than calling DEP’s 24-hour emergency line, the driller left three phone messages at night with a DEP employee who was on vacation. Then, the Texans twice tried calling the county sheriff, who in Pennsylvania is not responsible for emergency response. Finally, three hours after the blowout, EOG called 911.
Of course, if there were no government regulation, the blowout would never have happened. Read the whole story for other things that would never have happened: spills, blowouts, polluted water, and so on.
Also, pigs, wings.
Reality vs. Republicanism. 0
Good Choice 0
A truth that seems to escape some persons is that private actions do not always benefit the public good.
Covering every available bit of land with housing and shops, while destroying the wildlife and wildlife living space that helps make living in the part of the world enjoyable, does not benefit the public good.
The purchase would guarantee that the last major tract of undeveloped land along the Lynnhaven River, which boasts oyster beds, wetlands and a maritime forest, is preserved. It also means an end to Virginia Beach firm L.M. Sandler & Sons controversial Indigo Dunes project, which called for more than 1,000 homes.
Some things do belong to all of us and should be protected from marketeers. That’s why we have parks, and that’s why this is a good idea, even when times are tight.
Stray Question 0
When merchants reconstitute concentrated fruit juice, must they hold a reconstitutional convention?
Local City Governments Discover iPads 0
They appear to be going right from paper to over-priced Apple products.
Remember, “Apple” and “over-priced” mean the same thing.
Details at Geekazine, because I’m too lazy to write the same post twice.
I Get Mail 0
This one was about how the Regent is all wet. Follow the link for the deluge details:
Governor McDonnell’s move to revive state spending on bottled water comes at the same time that the Governor has introduced state budget proposals that would cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for K-12 education, including the elimination of school breakfast programs for low-income children.
Word Play 0
Received via email, origin unknown:
Did you know that the words “race car” spelled backwards still spells “race car”?
That “eat” is the only word that, if you take the 1st letter and move it to the last, spells its past tense, “ate”?
And if you rearrange the letters in “so-called tea party Republicans,” and add just a few more letters, it spells: “Shut up you free-loading, progress-blocking, benefit-grabbing, resource-sucking, violent, hypocritical *******s, and face the fact that you nearly wrecked the country under Bush.”
How weird is that?
Cantor’s Cant, No Duplicity Too Baldfaced Dept. (Updated) 0
Steve Benen on Our Boy Eric’s hopping bandwagons whose funding he opposed:
If Cantor were the only hypocrite in his caucus, the larger phenomenon wouldn’t be nearly as offensive. But at last count, 128 House Republicans — nearly three-quarters of the total — have tried to claim credit for creating jobs through a Recovery Act that they fought to kill, and continue to disparage.
Addendum:
The Richmonder was there.
Going Rogue Elephant 0
Dean Baker in the Guardian. The whole thing is worth the five minutes it takes to read:
Of course this is true, but it is also true that a drunk driver who runs into a school bus did not intend to be involved in a fatal collision. As a society, we have no problem holding the drunk driver responsible for a predictable outcome of their recklessness. Driving while drunk dramatically increases the risk of an accident. This is why it is punished severely. A person who is responsible for a fatal accident while driving drunk can expect to face many years in jail. Even someone who drives drunk without being in an accident often faces jail time because of the risk they imposed on others.
It would be a stretch to refer to Buccaneer Petroleum’s wild well as an “innocent mistake,” given the corners they cut, the chances they took, and the false paperwork they filed.
Also, stuff that can’t be called an accident.
No accountability for the no account.