September, 2011 archive
Cantor’s Cant 0
Daniel Ruth discusses Eric Cantor’s posturing on FEMA and Irene:
This would be a bit like Cantor happening upon a car wreck and offering to help the bleeding victim just as soon as he sells his house to pay for the stitches.
There is much delightful more at the link.
Serendipity, Cthulu Dept. 0
Today, I learned from the LinuxBasix podcast episode that there is a whole website devoted to exploring and reading the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
I recommend going to the archives link at the bottom of the page and starting at the beginning.
Reseg, Voting Rights Act Dept. 0
Facing South reports on evil people who want evil things.
Twits on Twitter 0
Football twits:
College football is only a game, folks.
True, an unholy game stained by corruption, cheating, concussions, and fraud, which will taint my local rag’s sports pages for the next five months, besotting sportswriters with its miasma, but still a game.
Hidden Taxes 0
When government employees have to step in to pay for what they need to do their jobs because their employers refuse to, that is for all practical purposes a hidden tax, one born solely by those employees:
Then, with the first day of school just around the corner, DeCotis paid a visit to Teachers Rule, an educational supply store in Rockland, where she stocked up on supplies and personalized items for the students’ first day.
In all, DeCotis spent several hundred dollars – all from her own pocket – to get ready for the first day of classes.
“Some people think I’m crazy to spend so much,’’ she said as she perused the aisles one morning. “But I’m not alone.’’
Public school teachers paying for classroom supplies is not new. But today’s stumbling economy has deepened the need, as budget-crunched schools look to trim costs and more students show up without even basic supplies.
Governments get away with this because, despite rightwing propaganda to the contrary, the great majority of teachers care deeply about doing their jobs and serving their students. So they pay this de facto tax and just keep in trying to teach.
Stray Thought 0
Television shows used to have heroes.
Now they have zeros.
Twits on Twitter, Scholasticism Dept. 0
Kyle Wingfield, writing at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, discusses the University of Iowa’s awarding of a scholarship based on skill at being a twit on twitter:
(snip)
Putting style or form above substance is rampant in our slogan-obsessed politics. Complain all you want about the vagueness and vacuity of “hope and change,” but Obama didn’t invent the bumper sticker.
Staying with politics, the problem may be not only how we select our leaders but how narrowly we cast the field.
Robosigns of the Times 0
Like Crabby Appleton, the American banking industry appears to be rotten to the core.
At the time, robo-signing was thought to be contained to the affidavits that banks file when a mortgage is issued and somebody buys a house. The documents are used to prove they have the right to foreclose if the homeowner isn’t making mortgage payments. Companies that process mortgages said they were so overwhelmed with paperwork that they cut corners.
But now, as county officials review years’ worth of mortgage paperwork, in some cases combing through one page at a time, they are finding suspect signatures — either signed with the same name by dozens of different people, improperly notarized or signed without a review of the facts in the paperwork — on all sorts of mortgage documents, dating as far back as 1998, The Associated Press has found.
Great Feats of Prestidigitation 0
Steve Chapman, who normally seems sane and reasonable, manages to convince himself that a merger of Southwestern Bell Cingular AT&T and T-Mobile, which would reduce the number of major cell phone carries to two and a half (with Sprint being the half) would increase competition in the cell phone industry.
Next, he will quantify the number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin.
Also, pigs, wings.