July, 2011 archive
Foreign Agin’ 1
In considering the internal disagreements of the GOP faithful on foreign policy (basically, isolationism vs. all war all the time), Juliette Kayyem identifies the single principle of Republicanism (emphasis added):
The Republican Party no longer believes in anything, except that they want to be in charge of the pie, so they can consume said pie.
Gay-Dar Fail 0
He’s not.
The law on which this refusal was based dates back to the Reagan days, when AIDS was thought to be restricted to male homosexuals (and therefore was No Big Deal and the Wrath of God all in one) and no screening tests for HIV existed.
Mencken Was Right, Nancy Grace Dept. 0
Mencken was right when he said, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”
A surfeit of stupid, reported by John Kass in the Chicago Tribune. Here’s one example:
“I said, ‘Oh my God, help me,'” Sammay Blackwell, 26, told her local News on 6. “She hit me again, causing my vehicle to flip two-and-a-half times, landing on the driver’s side, and I just laid there playing dead.”
Charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon, the alleged Oklahoma nutball reportedly told police she’d been “trying to save the children.”
More stupid to come: As Steve Chapman points out in the same newspaper, bad cases make bad law:
(snip)
The point of these measures is retribution against a single villain who allegedly escaped the severe penalty she deserved. But a law specifically aimed at preventing a repeat of today’s notorious case will almost certainly be irrelevant to the shocking crime of tomorrow. In these instances, the unforeseen and surprising are the norm.
From the push for Caylee’s Law, you might assume the problem with American justice is that there are not enough criminal laws on the books. In fact, there are some 4,400 such statutes at the federal level alone, on top of thousands more enacted by the states.
And, as Chapman goes on to explain persuasively, the law of unintended consequences is likely to result in any “Caylee’s Law” ensnaring some innocent someone into an unwarranted felony conviction.
The problem with the Casey Anthony case is that the prosecution either did not have or botched the case (I’m suspecting the former–suspicions are not evidence).
And now the lynch mob is forming to string up someone–anyone–in retribution.
Nose. Face. 0
TSA Security Theatre 0
Thoreau comments.
A Modest Proposal 0
Dana Garrett has a suggestion:
So instead of a balanced budget amendment, I recommend an amendment to the constitution that requires Congress to raise taxes across the board whenever the nation undertakes a major military endeavor to cover the FULL cost of the military endeavor.
It doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, but it does point out the absurdity of the current budget kabuki in Washington.
Follow the link to read his entire argument.
Weak Tea 0
Writing at SWVA Today, a small regional website in Southwest Virginia, Robert Cahill takes a common sense look at teabaggery.
His sensible analysis deserves wider currency. A nugget.
That’s why I am so puzzled by the folks calling themselves the Tea Party and their man in Congress, John Boehner. They seem to think they are the average American but they, or at least their leaders, surely have a different vision of being a citizen than I do.
Last year, according to recent news reports, General Electric made over $14 billion.Yet thanks to the large number of tax breaks available to mega-businesses, such as GE, they did not pay any federal taxes. That’s what I read: GE paid none. Apparently Boehner and his buddies think this is just a wonderful arrangement. Me, well I don’t think it’s so fine and dandy.
QOTD 0
Benjamin Jowett, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
The real measure of our wealth is how much we’d be worth if we lost all our money.
When Life Hands You Lemons . . . 0
. . . don’t make lemonade in Midway, Georgia.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Philly dot com takes a look at foreclosures in Willingboro, N. J., one of the original Levittowns.
The foreclosure market is still going strong:
In 2005, 209 foreclosure actions were filed against homeowners in Willingboro. In 2006, when the crisis hit, the number shot up 34 percent to 281, according to an analysis from American Foreclosures Inc., a firm that collects detailed foreclosure data.
Since 2005, about 2,400 foreclosures have been filed in the township of 12,000 homes, according to the analysis.
I am going to predict that the foreclosure segment of the economy is starting to weaken and that jobs created by the need to process foreclosures may be in jeopardy.
Why? Because I am starting to see commercials on television inviting Joe and Jane Viewer to call this number! or click that website! to learn how they, too, can get in on the foreclosure bonanza and pick up a houses for “as little as $1,000.00!”
I think this is the foreclosure-based economy’s equivalent to all those mailings we used to get from CountryWide and AmeriQuest, inviting us to jump on the mortgage-go-round.
Foreclosure entrepreneurs are running out of a market; they need to drum up new marks.
No doubt this will be followed by shows on cable channels with names like, “Flip This Foreclosure.” Other, lesser cable channels will follow with clones. Viewers by the twos and threes will drive ratings.
After a couple of years, pundits will start to wonder whether there is a “foreclosure bubble” that has become unsustainable.
Other pundits will argue that “God ain’t making no more foreclosures,” so the market for foreclosures should continue to thrive and grow.
And then–well, you know.
Crash.
This time, though, no one will become unemployed and homeless, because everyone who is not a CEO or hedge fund manager already will be living in tent cities and begging at freeway exits.
Coming up:
The emerging new market in tricked-out shopping carts: the latest rage in tent cities.
And a new show on the latest trend to help families make ends meet: Pimp My Bride.
iJunk Mail 0
I have an idea.
Save 200 bucks and get a netbook instead. It comes with a keyboard and without a walled orchard.
Numbers Gaming 0
Thom Hartman reviews the history of predictions that Social Security and Medicare will go broke. They have been consistently wrong.
He also points out why the predictions keep coming. (Three hints: Banksters. Three-card monte. Country club memberships.)
A Newt Is a Small Lizard, Cantor’s Cant Dept. 0
Beat down. Jeff Shapiro in the Richmond Times Dispatch, the most conservative newspaper of influence in Virginia (emphasis added):
Having walked out of Joe Biden-led budget-and-deficit talks; undercut John Boehner on a big fix and engaged Barack Obama in verbal fisticuffs over the fine print of a possible deal, Cantor looked more the insipid pill than the professional politician. It was, David Weigel wrote for the online publication Slate, the “official Newt-ification of Eric Cantor.”
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving chap.
(Link fixed.)
TSA Security Budget Theatre 0
I seldom have much truck with Bob Barr. I cannot read anything he writes without remembering his disgraceful and cynical championing of the impeachment of President Clinton.
Nevertheless, as my old boss used to say, even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes.
His take on TSA’s exploding implants warning seems to be on target:
Even as TSA continues to employ every scare tactic it can muster to justify its existence and large budget, it is extending its reach far beyond the airport checkpoints that have given rise to so many horror stories of invasive pat-downs and naked body scans. At TSA, mission creep has become an art form.
TSA and agents with its parent, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), now consider it their mission to stop private vehicles on highways and search them. They have also begun to search bus and train passengers, sometimes after they exit the carriers; and the feds believe also they have authority to search people at shopping malls and elsewhere, such as sporting events. It is only a short step from such expansive ideas, to the notion that to protect the country, TSA and DHS have to be able enter (sic) private homes and businesses in order to ensure there are no terrorist tools therein.
Celluloid Celebrity 0
Conor Friedersdorf, who sometimes subbed for Andrew Sullivan before Sullivan left the Atlantic, checks out the celluloid paean to Sarah Palin, The Undefeated* (Variety’s review is a must-read) in Orange County, California.
He did not have to worry about being disturbed by twits on Twitter, Facebook frolickers, or sexting seniors.
A nugget:
(snip)
“So, um, what made you come out here tonight?”
“We’re going to Disneyland tomorrow,” Jamie said, “but she just got here, so we decided we should go out.”
“We looked online for the latest movie playing,” Jessie added. “But all the Harry Potters were sold out, and then we saw ‘The Undefeated.’ We don’t even actually know what we’re seeing.”
“Well welcome to California,” I said. “You’re about to see a documentary about Sarah Palin.”
“Oh, really?” they said, and started giggling again. I think they were expecting an action flick. When I returned to my seat, I thought maybe I’d talk to them after the movie, and get the perspective of two people who went in with no expectations. But they only lasted 20 minutes before walking out.
Via John Cole, who points out that, in choosing between the witch and the sorcerer, the audience chose the sorcerer.
_____________________
*Quitting is not technically the same as losing.
