April, 2011 archive
How To Spot a Racist 0
Sentences starting with “I am not a racist” are usually a pretty sure fire indication.
Watch the video at the link, if you can.
I lasted about two and half minutes before I couldn’t take it any more.
Via Balloon Juice.
Facebook Frolics 0
This is just creepy.
But the eight identified online call girls and prostitutes whose bodies were found in Atlantic City and Long Island – their murders remain unsolved – share another bizarre connection: They have all been reborn on Facebook.
(snip)
Authorities last week discounted links between the two high-profile investigations, but in someone’s twisted mind, the killing sprees have become intimately related. Facebook pages have been created for all eight women, along with missing New Jersey native Shannan Gilbert.
When the Dollar Is the Only Value . . . 0
. . . you hear things like this.
Let’s look at the assumption in it:
- The investigation, not the evidence of misconduct which led to the investigation, is held responsible for the bank’s troubles.
There’s something upside down and backwards about that kind of reasoning.
QOTD 0
Thomas Jefferson, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
Stray Question 0
Why does the rose with the sharpest thorns always get the worst case of black spot?
Track Record 0
When considering this:
. . . remember that these are the same folks who said the mortgage-backed securities, derivatives, and credit-default swaps were good things.
The Entitlement Society 0
Steven M theorizes about why too much is never enough for the plutocracy. He sees an end of a sense of noblesse oblige amongst the willingness to plunder the poor and downtrodden. A nugget:
It also seems to me — as I think I’ve said before — that the rich see America the way drug dealers see an impoverished neighborhood: whatever damage they seem to be doing to their surroundings, they thrive, so they come to believe they’re thriving, at least in part, because they’ve turned the neighborhood into a hellhole.
Can’t Tell the Liars without a Scorecard (Updated) 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., tallies the score. Follow the link for the play-by-play and an analysis of why the score turned out the way it did.
I reviewed 100 such statements on Politifact’s web site. By my count, of the 70 that originated with an identifiable individual or group (as opposed to a chain email or miscellaneous source), 61 were from the political right. That includes Rush Limbaugh saying President Obama is going to take away your right to fish, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer saying beheaded bodies are being found in the desert, Sarah Palin claiming death panels will stalk the elderly — 90 percent of the most audacious lies coming from conservatives.
Addendum, the Next Day:
J. M. Ashby:
Heh.
Race to the Bottom of the Teapot 0
Every once and a while, teabaggers reveal what truly lies beneath their (you will pardon the expression but in some ways it is most accurate) movement.
Belly Up 0
One more time.
The internet is a public place.
Dorothy McGurk, who said she was unable to work because of injuries from a 1997 car accident, was being paid $850 (£520) a month in maintenance for life.
(snip)
A New York judge ruled her alimony should be cut to $400 a month.
Tax Fax 1
In a long article at Philly dot com, Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele analyze the BIg Lie that American corporations are taxed too heavily (or even, in some cases, at all). A nugget from the introduction:
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
One of the more egregious falsehoods being peddled by the corporate tax cutters is that companies doing business in the United States are taxed at an exorbitant rate. Not so. Though the United States has one of the highest statutory rates on the books at 35 percent, the only fair way to measure what companies actually pay is their effective rate – what they ultimately pay after deductions, credits, and assorted write-offs. By that yardstick, companies in the United States consistently pay taxes at rates lower than corporations in Japan and many nations in Europe.
First Rose 0
My container roses survived the winter quite nicely.
Also, light bloggery.
Twits on Twitter 0
Mitt the Flip makes a blip.
What Atrios Said 0
What Atrios said. (Though the voting profile doesn’t apply to my state. Wish it did, but doesn’t. Southern Strategy and all that.)
If It Moves, It Must Be a Target 0
Offered without additional comment, from Philly dot com:
“Why not?” seems to be the sum total of the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s rationale for legalizing the hunting of porcupines – which, with a top velocity of 2 m.p.h., are only a little more difficult to “hunt” than a bag of hammers.
Read the whole thing. If you can find a reason for this other than the one I offer in the title to this post, please share your theory in a comment.
