2013 archive
Clerical Charlatans 0
This is not only dangerous; it’s also nuts.
If God didn’t believe in medicine, he wouldn’t have given us doctors.
Sleazy Card Tricks, Reprise 0
If you or someone you know is considering “prepaid” shopping cards, beware the strings:
Some prepaid cards have upfront fees that range from $2.99 to $14.95 to activate the card. But many cards won’t charge such fees if you get the card online. In some cases, you may have to load a minimum of $20 or so to activate the card.
Much more at the link.
Who’s Sorry Now? 0
Everyone, it seems, Angela Hill is sorry to say:
Of course, you then have to apologize for overapologizing, and then apologize for that and …
Even comedian Bill Maher slammed “apology mania” in an op-ed to The New York Times, mocking celebrities, athletes and politicians who too often offer forced, insincere mea culpas.
“When did we get it in our heads that we have the right to never hear anything we don’t like?” he wrote, calling for an amnesty “on every made-up, fake, totally insincere, play-acted hurt, insult, slight and affront.”
The Galt and the Lamers 2
Thom debates a Glibertarian.
Facebook Frolics 0
The resident curmudgeon in my local rag has a beef with, well, actually, everyone and everything, but today it’s with folks who keep tooting their own horns on the Faceborg.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Party politely.
During the confrontation, the employee pulled a gun and opened fire, wounding the other man.
If both of them had gotten the drop on each other, certainly no one would have been hurt.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Libraries 2
Rachel Maddow explains how George the Worst plans to cruise into history.
The Galt and the Lamers 0
At MarketWatch, Paul B. Farrell discusses the difference between a “market economy” and a “market society” and gloomily concludes that we are moving towards the latter:
But unfortunately, market capitalism “has exacted a heavy price … drained public discourse of moral and civic energy.”
The good professor is a great teacher, with only one glaring flaw in his logic: he’s too idealistic, too quixotic. You don’t have to be a fatalist to know that without a total economic collapse, market capitalists — including 1,426 billionaires, Wall Street bankers, hedgers, lobbyists and every other special interest getting rich off the new market society — will never voluntarily surrender their control over the American political system.
(Link fixed.)
Facebook Frolics 0
For a good time, like this.
Sleazy Card Tricks 0
Virginia has eliminated state income tax refund checks in favor of debit cards.
When my mother’s accountant was preparing her final tax returns, she (the accountant) called me for bank information; she told me that direct deposit was preferable to the debit cards because the accounting firm’s clients had been having “no end of problems” with the debit cards. According to her, one of the problems is that some merchants are refusing to accept the cards. (What about people who don’t have bank accounts? Apparently, they are stuck.)
The writer of this letter to the editor of the Roanoke Times outlines some more of the problems.
It’s difficult to see how this was anything but yet another “privatization” scam to skim public funds into corporate coffers while providing poorer service for more-er money.
The Return of Nightmare on the Campaign Trail Meets Elm Street on Friday the 13th 0
Scott Herhold explores how politicians’ scandals have become transient and passing things
Consider Anthony Weiner, who has announced his interest in running for New York mayor less than two years after an errant tweet showing his underpants led to his resignation from Congress.
Or take Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina governor of “Appalachian Trail” fame, who is now running for Congress in a campaign being undermined by his ex-wife.
I think he’s got something.
Since making a grainy out-of-focus sex tape seems to be the door to celebrity and to success in “reality” television world, I can’t say this trend is surprising. Also, not long ago, politicians’ private shenanigans were generally kept out of the news, unless the pol managed to go out of the way to put himself there. Anyone who remembers the passing of Nelson Rockefeller remembers those days.
What does appall is that many of the scandalous were caught doing those very things which they oppose in their campaigns, especially those on the “family values” side of the aisle.
That the public accepts them back into the political arena rewards them for their hypocrisy.
Shock and Awful 0
Part one:
Choose your own ending:
Via Rawstory.
Dustbiters 0
Banks continue to go “poof!”
Bank no more on
A Whiter Shade of Vile 2
Because Republican Jesus is all about hatin’ on folks.
The bill, sponsored by 12 of the Senate’s 23 Republicans, is in response to an anti-discrimination suit filed by Attorney General Bob Ferguson against a floral shop in Richland whose owner refused to provide flowers for the wedding of a longtime customer who is gay. She cited belief in Jesus Christ as grounds for refusal.
The legislation, Senate Bill 5927, is worded broadly, going beyond a religious objection in allowing discrimination against gays and lesbians.