September, 2011 archive
Looking for Ponzi’s Descendants 0
Amy Goodman thinks she has found his heirs:
Social Security is actually solvent, with a trust fund of more than $2.6 trillion. The real Ponzi scheme threatening the U.S. public is the voracious greed of Wall Street banks.
I interviewed one of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest organizers. David Graeber teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has authored several books, most recently “Debt: The First 5,000 Years.” Graeber points out that, in the midst of the financial crash of 2008, enormous debts between banks were renegotiated. Yet only a fraction of troubled mortgages have gotten the same treatment.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Outdoor recreation, the courteous way:
Haverhill (HAY’-vruhl) police say divers found a Glock semiautomatic pistol Wednesday in the Merrimack River. It was near the spot where the body of 30-year-old Matthew Bleistein of Lancaster, Pa., was found suspended by a rope around his waist on Saturday.
There’s something disturbing about the love between gun nuts and the rifled objects of their affection.
Facebook Frolics 0
Status: Dubious.
Although social media websites connect users more easily to family, friends and acquaintances, they also have opened the door to con artists who prey on unsuspecting victims, state Attorney General Beau Biden said.
Scams committed through social-networking sites are rapidly spreading versions of the traditional “affinity fraud,” in which criminals connect with victims through common interests shared through social networks, Biden said.
If You Don’t Know Where You’ve Been, You Can’t Figure Out Where You’re Heading 0
Last year, it was discovered that a history text book used in Virginia schools was riddled with egregious errors.
Now it has resurfaced, with some of the potholes filled, but the roadbed still seems defective:
Sheriff, a teacher of the Civil War, reviewed the second edition of the “Our Virginia” chapter dealing with that subject. While pleased to see many errors had been corrected, Sheriff wrote in an email that some misleading characterizations remain.
“For example,” she said, “the book might lead children to believe that slavery did not exist in the Union itself; that the North and South were entirely different from one another; or that white Northerners immediately and universally greeted the Union’s black soldiers as heroes.”
One reviewer cited in the story made a list of factual and textual errors that was over four pages long.
Now comes the state board of propaganda education wanting to let this turkey back in the schools.
It would seem to me that the publisher of this text book is more concerned with sales than with students.
TSA Security Theatre 1
Jennifer Abel reads to us from the ACLU database of complaints about TSA cops copping feels, and then points out that:
For a surfeit of skeevy screening stories, follow the link.
I’m glad my road warrior days appear to be over.
Light Bloggery 0
Home improvements.
When Good Junk Mail Goes Bad 0
I just received a letter from a car dealer thanking me for all the time I’ve spent with them “discussing my transportation needs.” You can see it here (JPG)
I have never set foot in the establishment; indeed, I have only a vague notion of where it is, though I have no doubt driven by it many times.
I certainly would not do so now.
It has demonstrated that it is as honest as, well, a car dealer.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Big whoop.
Still well over 400k.
An elevated level of dismissals raises the odds U.S. companies may put off plans to increase employment, making it difficult for joblessness to fall below 9 percent. Citing ongoing weakness in the labor market, Federal Reserve policy makers announced yesterday they would use another unconventional monetary tool to spur economic growth and job gains.
Lay off more highway workers to fix this.
QOTD 0
Judith Martin (Miss Manners), from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
The invention of the teenager was a mistake, in Miss Manners’ opinion…. Once you identify a period of life in which people have few restrictions and, at the same time, few responsibilities – they get to stay out late but don’t have to pay taxes – naturally, nobody wants to live any other way.
The Cost of Endless War 0
Beating plowshares into swords exacts a toll.
Facebook Frolics 0
Political frolic leads trial and acquittal:
Prosecutors failed to retrieve the message he allegedly posted on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s page in February that praised Egypt’s uprising.
Vikas Mavhudzi is not an obscure private person. He’s the Prime Minister’s primary political opponent.
Your Lyin’ Eyes 0
Bloomberg looks at the report on eye-witness identifications in criminal cases from the Innocence Project, the American Judicature Society and the Police Foundation.
If that seems implausibly high, consider this: Three- quarters of convictions overturned on the basis of DNA evidence involved eyewitness identifications. In more than a third of those cases, multiple eyewitnesses identified the same innocent suspect. (There is no way of knowing how high the rate of eyewitness error might be in cases where DNA is not a factor, though there is no reason to think it is lower.)
Some witness errors result from faulty memories that have been further clouded by the stress that often accompanies seeing a crime. Witnesses are especially prone to error when identifying a suspect of a different race. Other misidentifications are a product of everyday human frailty combined with substandard — yet widespread — police procedures.
Read the whole thing.
You can’t believe what people say they saw, especially when the reputation of police and prosecutors is judged on convictions, not on justice.
Driving while Brown 0
The Republican-dominated Pennsylvania state House of Representatives is considering making English the official language of the state.
My ex-local rag sums it up:
Like requiring photo identification to vote, or empowering police to pull over anyone “suspected of being unlawfully” in the country, these English-only measures tap into anti-immigrant feelings that actually dishonor this nation of immigrants.
The amount of free-floating bigotry in Wingnut World appalls one.
The willingness of the “party of Lincoln” to capitalize on it disgusts one.
Punkin Slumpin’ 0
Irene takes out All Hallows’ Eve:
“I think there’s going to be an extreme shortage of pumpkins this year,” said Darcy Pray, owner of Pray’s Family Farms in Keeseville, in upstate New York. “I’ve tried buying from people down in the Pennsylvania area, I’ve tried locally here and I’ve tried reaching across the border to some farmers over in the Quebec area. There’s just none around.”
Gitmo 0
It’s long past time that this sadistic and shameful stain on the moral standing of the United States was expunged:
Holder said at the European Parliament that even if the current administration fails to close it ahead of elections, it will continue to press ahead if it wins the November 2012 presidential vote.
No doubt the Republicans will proceed to wet the nation’s pants in fear.
They are happiest when they can convince the populace to cower and shiver behind locked doors.
A Happy Juxtaposition 0
Stephen Colbert discusses original sin and Rick Santorum.
No, they are two different discussions in the same segment, but the link seems appropriate.
Via Mano Singham.
Facebook Frolickers To Morph to Twits 0
A devastateding combining of intellectual power.
Facebook members will soon be able to pipe their profile directly to a connected Twitter account.
The social networking giant said it was working on the feature in a document sent to developers about upcoming changes.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Remember when banks gave away toasters? This is ever so much more Amy Vanderbilt:
I can’t wait for a Law and Order episode ripped from this headline.
Afterthought:
Holy moley, Law and Order had been on the air twice as long as M*A*S*H.
Via Bob Cesca, who’s on a roll this week.
QOTD 0
H. L. Mencken, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here). The Quotemaster has been on a roll lately:
Bachelors know more about women than married men. If they didn’t they’d be married, too.
