August, 2011 archive
Once Upon a Time in Big Mac Land . . . . 0
There was once a radio mystery series called The Fat Man, loosely based on Sidney Greenstreet’s character in The Maltese Falcon (“loosely” in the sense that the Sidney Greenstreet character was called “the fat man”).
The stories opened with the Fat Man’s going into a drugstore and weighing himself on the penny scale (remember pennies?). The announcer intoned,
Weight, two hundred and thirty-nine pounds. Fortune: Danger.
Back in those days, 239 pounds was considered fat. Today, it appears to be the new normal.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Punishing the Poor for Being 1
Barbara Ehrenreich, who spent a year living on minimum wage jobs and then wrote about it, sees things getting worse for those who have the least.
The Guardian excerpts the new afterword for her book. A nugget:
Perhaps the constant suspicions of drug use and theft that I encountered in low-wage workplaces should have alerted me to the fact that, when you leave the relative safety of the middle class, you might as well have given up your citizenship and taken residence in a hostile nation.
Most cities, for example, have ordinances designed to drive the destitute off the streets by outlawing such necessary activities of daily life as sitting, loitering, sleeping, or lying down. Urban officials boast that there is nothing discriminatory about such laws: “If you’re lying on a sidewalk, whether you’re homeless or a millionaire, you’re in violation of the ordinance,” a St Petersburg, Florida, city attorney stated in June 2009, echoing Anatole France’s immortal observation that “the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges.”
Economic Hardship, Auto Dept. 0
Pagani had applied for an exemption from federal auto safety rules requiring child-safe “advanced“ airbags, arguing that complying with the rule would have caused “substantial economic hardship,“ according to documents from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
One would think that an extra hundred grand or so on the selling price really wouldn’t be noticed.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Foreclosures still keeping housing affordable (emphasis added):
Nearly one of every three homes sold in July – 30 percent – were in foreclosure or sold for less than what the homeowner owed, according to Real Estate Information Network Inc. That’s up from 25 percent a year ago.
QOTD 0
Samuel Johnson, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.
Another Reason Windows Is Less Than Desirable 0
Today, I updated several Linux computers. No reboots were required.
I updated one Windows computer.
Two reboots were required, interrupting my enjoyment of an episode of Mystery Is My Hobby.
Twice.
Wonder now why I think Windows sucks is less than desirable?
It is because Windows sucks is less than desirable.
And Now for Something Completely Different 0
This is not an animation (though the YouTube is a video). The images were created directly from programming code as the code runs.
H/T Mark for the link.
A New Model for Governance 0
Government of the committee, by the committee, for the should be committed.
Wrapping up the Case 0
The motorcyclist was not harmed.
I think the most illegal thing I did when I was their age was climb the local fire lookout tower and enjoy the view.
The fun stuff came later.
More rap about wrap and other uses for that stuff that sticks to everything except what you want it to at the link.
“Average and Below Average” 0
Official Government-Sponsored Texas Established Church Prayer Meetings, Reprise 0
Daniel Ruth wonders whether the old phrase, “know them by the company they keep,” should apply to Governor “Wingnut Rick” Perry.
If Barack Obama was held to account for all the looney-tunes comments made by his former minister, Jeremiah Wright, shouldn’t Rick Perry be subject to the same standard of spiritual scrutiny?
Saturday’s ministrations were hardly a group of faithful souls known for offering up their hopes for the betterment of the nation’s spiritual health. The list of fundamentalist preachers lending their support to Perry’s rally looked like something out of the Oliver Stone Theological Seminary.
Follow the link to see some examples of the company he keeps.
“Despise” 0
In case you think Chauncey de Vega’s use of the word “despise” cited in the preceding post is too strong, here’s a nugget from E. J. Dionne:
Yet the world is looking to the United States to help power a recovery and provide leadership at a time when we are suffocatingly inward-looking — and when ultraconservatives are so dogmatic about slashing government that they are prepared to boot away our nation’s influence. Default? No problem.
“We weren’t kidding around, either,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told The Washington Post. “We would have taken it down.” He said it with pride, yet the “it” involved the American economy and America’s standing around the globe. This is patriotism?
Down Jones 0
The Republicans’ debt ceiling fanaticism is paying off with what Bloomberg describes as a rout in global stocks.
Why were they willing to defy good sense and past practice and cause the first downgrading of the credit of the United States of America since 1789?
Chauncey de Vega has a theory:
And they are willing to take the rest of us down with him.
Before you dismiss his theory because it sounds icky and gross and “we don’t want to talk about that,” click to read the whole thing, then decide whether or not he’s got a point.
These are not nice people.
Tea Leaf Leavings 0
Dick Polman parses the Standard and Poor’s report on the downgraded credit rating of the United States.
Whatever you think of S&P, which has a demonstrated record of incompetence (AAA-rated securitized mortgages anyone?), Mr. Polman’s analyis is quite worthwhile. A nugget:
Hence, a credit downgrade. Such is the tragic damage wrought by ideologues – at a time when most Americans deplore the ideologues.
One more time: Truman was correct.
