August, 2011 archive
FAA Deal 1
To paraphrase the Secretary, the way to create job is not by laying workers off.
Left unsaid was the “except in Wingnut World.”
Endless War All Over the World Tonight 0
Asia Times reports on what appears to be the principle export of the United States. Here’s a bit from the intro:
Read the whole thing. It ain’t pretty.
Here’s more from Nick Turse at TomDispatch.
Chasing Lamborn, Reprise 0
Hanlon, who I normally find muy sympatico, does not think that Congressman Lamborn’s characterizing President Obama as a “tar baby” was racist.
I must disagree.
Unfortunately, in a new bug-not-a-feature, Hanlon’s blog now requires me to create a user name and password with some service called “LiveFyre” (not with his blog, which I would quite happily do) and I’m not going to do that, so I cannot comment directly. It’s not worth the annoyance.
So I will disagree right here, because I have a website and I can do that thing.
Hanlon quotes Lamborn, then says
It’s nothing at all like using “niggardly.” Niggardly is a word with a long history that has nothing to do with race or racial slurs. Those who attribute racism to its use display their own ignorance.
He identified the primary reason I disagree when he wrote this:
honestly who even says “tar baby” any more . . .
There is one group who says “tar baby” any more.
And it ain’t, to quote the immortal Bugs Bunny, Wendell Wilkie.
I’m a Southern boy.
I can decode the damned code.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Everything is proceeding according to plan to reinvigorate the rental industry:
Yet, in a research paper issued a week earlier, Morgan Stanley analysts Oliver Chang, Vishwanath Tirupattur and James Egan argued that the home ownership rate is even lower than the Census Bureau statistics say.
In fact, once they factored in delinquent mortgage borrowers (the ones who are likely to lose their homes at some point), Morgan Stanley calculated that the home ownership rate is more like 59.2%.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Resolve family religious differences politely.
(snip)
The criminal warrant states Dorce admitted to shooting Whitty (his mother–ed.) about 15 times with a 9mm handgun, including reloading the weapon after it jammed.
Teabagger Roots 0
Chancey de Vega quotes from Salon:
From the earliest years of the American republic, white Southern conservatives when they have lost elections and found themselves in the political minority have sought to extort concession from national majorities by paralyzing or threatening to destroy the United States.
Follow the link for his discussion.
The Voter Fraud Fraud, Again (or Still) 0
Facing South reports on the fraudsters:
Find me those people that think that this is invading their rights, and I will go take them to the DMV myself and help them get that picture ID.
Think Progress did a quick calculation of what the governor’s ID taxi service might involve. With about 178,000 eligible S.C. voters lacking ID cards, they estimated it would take Gov. Haley more than seven years in driving time to get everyone processed — “assuming there’s no traffic.”
You can guess how that promise turned out:
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Voter Fraud on Koch:
From the write-up:
Taking the Tenth 0
Steve Chapman, at the Chicago Tribune, skewers rightwing allegiance to the Tenth Amendment (emphasis added):
Conservatives, however, do. Pretend, that is. When there is a conflict between state sovereignty and conservative policies, their reverence for the 10th Amendment abruptly goes by the wayside.
Follow the link for examples drawn from today’s news.
It’s easy to be a Republican.
You don’t really have to believe in anything other than the main chance and you just have to say whatever you think will keep the three-card monte going.
QOTD 0
James Baldwin, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.
Chasing Lamborn (Updated) 0
Anyone who thinks Congressman Lamborn’s tarbaby remark was not racist would be disabused of error by the expressions of the two black ladies sitting behind me who heard about it for the first time at my meeting last night.
I looked at them and said, “They’re not even trying to hide it anymore.”
You don’t say things such things unless you think such things.
Sure, he apologized.
He was sorry for letting his slip show.
Addendum, the Next Morning:
Always Read the Directions . . . 0
. . . for your Gilbert Chemistry Set:
Beachwood Police Chief William Cairns says the teens mixed several ingredients, including chlorine, when the blast occurred in a home Tuesday night.
Afterthought:
Chemistry sets would probably be considered too hazardous for today’s fragile flowers of youth.
A Moment of Clarity 0
Matt Damon calls out some wingnuttery, and the cameraman too (Warning: Mild Language):
Via DelawareLiberal.
Goldman’s Sacks 0
Excerpt:
It’s not government that doesn’t work. It’s when Republicans run government that doesn’t work.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Stay healthy, the courteous way.
Visit your local yogurt shop today.
Three female employees ran to the back of the store and out the rear door. The robber followed them, police say, and demanded that a woman sitting at a desk to open the store’s safe. But the employee told the robber that she could not open the safe.
Twits on Twitter 0
Really really big twits.
Transformers, More than Meets the Eye 0
You can’t make this stuff up. (Warning: Brief, stupid, extremely boring momentary nudity.)
More proof that some men go into designing fashions because they hate women.
Via Dave Barry.
