2013 archive
A Text-Booked Case 0
Legislation cleared the Senate Courts of Justice Committee on Monday. It would make texting or emailing while operating a vehicle a reckless offense in certain instances, give police more latitude to stop suspected offenders and impose fines of up to $500.
A similar measure is pending in the House of Delegates.
As I was driving home from my brother’s yesterday, I kept half a weather-eye on a driver behind me.
I finally figured out what she was doing.
In her right hand, she held her iJunk and the steering wheel.
In her left hand, she was pecking at the iJunk.
For about five miles.
All this at 55 MPHs.
I was most relieved when she turned right and aimed at someone else.
Facebook Frolics 2
Mark Zuckerberg failed to make Business Week’s list of the worst CEOs of 2012–by the width of an electron.
Follow the link to see who did make it.
Doomsday Preppers 0
I’m sort of a First Amendment absolutist, but the First Amendment starts out with “Congress shall make no law . . . .”
The First Amendment applies to the State.
There is no legitimate reason for media to romanticize nutcases. “Nutcases sell commercials” is not a legitimate reason.
The hostage situation in Midland City, Ala. is over.
At a press conference Monday evening, authorities offered the first few details about the end of the small-town saga, which had stretched nearly a week.
Steve Richardson, a special agent with the FBI in Alabama, confirmed to reporters that the kidnapper, Jimmy Lee Dykes, was dead, and that the small boy Dykes had held in an underground bunker since last Tuesday was at least physically unharmed, and being treated at a local hospital.
Bat-Hit Crazy 0
I wonder if he can claim Obama derangement syndrome in his defense?
(Not that I’m condoning the action of the other driver, mind you.)
Misdirection Plays, Lift and Separate Dept. 0
Barry Saunders, at the Charlotte Observer, explains (follow the link for the full explanation):
Guns don’t kill people: nipples do.
Say what?
You could easily reach that conclusion after reading Friday’s N&O.
You see, at the same time that state Sen. Stan “Bring ‘em loaded” Bingham was introducing a bill to allow armed volunteers to patrol schools, two other North Carolina legislators were introducing a bill to outlaw exposed female nipples.
I have often asked why Republicans have such a skeevy preoccupation with sex.
There are many reasons, but one is that sex grabs the attention–it makes for great misdirection plays.
Back from the Shadows Again 0
Spent yesterday watching the wonderful electrifying Super Bowl at my brother’s place, where the internet goes to die.
Tales of Takers and Makers 0
Takers take from those who make, in this case, from someone who made sandwiches.
Her employer paid her $648 a week — $324 less than she was owed under laws that require that workers earn time and a half for clocking more than 40 hours a week. When she complained, Orellana said, her boss threatened to cut her wages and then fired her.
More tales of the takers at the link.
Bubble Boys 4
TPM tells me that
“My greatest fear in the state of Maine: newspapers,” LePage told students at St. John Catholic School in Winslow, Maine. “I’m not a fan of newspapers.”
which leads in nicely to Harvard professor Lawrence Bobo’s (no relation to David Brooks) discussion of rightwing intellectual inquiry as something hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar and buried under Funk and Wagnall’s back porch. If you wonder why Republicans so easily tout and believe stuff that just isn’t, that hermetic seal explains a lot.
A snippet:
There is a deeper problem of delusion here, fed by a closed, self-reinforcing sound bite universe of howling distortions that span television news (e.g., Fox), radio (e.g., Limbaugh) and the right-wing Internet (for example, Public Policy Polling shows that half of GOP voters believe that ACORN stole the 2012 election for Obama). Ironically, the depth of this problem is revealed by the suggestion from Jindal and Barbour that stupid comments alone are what got the Republicans in trouble and is keeping them in trouble. I don’t think so (though this doesn’t help).
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
It’s all just a smokescreen of whatever will cloud the issue today.
Victory March 2
Mark Morfords thinks that the divisive Republican electoral strategy of the “Culture Wars” is over, though he recognizes that there are still large enclaves of resistance and a long mopping-up process to come. A nugget:
And the Republicans lost.
We shall see.
Signs of the Times 0
Daffodils. February. Really.
