2013 archive
The Medicine Show (Updated) 0
The tale of the Regent’s romance with a company that makes a series of dubious “dietary supplements” is getting more like a soap opera every day (emphasis added).
The emails show that McDonnell attended the luncheon at the urging of his wife, Maureen, catching his own advisers off guard the day before the event. The governor found time to make an appearance while his office was consumed with a series of crises, including a rare earthquake and a powerful hurricane that hit the state in the week before the reception.
Efforts that the McDonnells undertook to boost Star are now the focus of an FBI inquiry. Both the governor and his wife attended the Star lunch, which was cited by investors in online postings as a reason to believe in the company despite its shaky finances.
Besides the catering, Star and its chief executive, Jonnie Williams Sr., have given McDonnell and his campaigns more than $120,000 in disclosed gifts and campaign contributions.
The implication that the Regent was henpecked into the whole thing is really just too too much, but how very Republican.
Addendum:
Bacon, Eggs, and Homemade Bread 0
It’s been a long time since I started my day with a bowl of cereal.
I am genetically blessed with low cholesterol, so one of my few little luxuries is a traditional breakfast with really good coffee (no payola here–I’m just a very satisfied customer; it’s one of those aforementioned luxuries which comes by UPS at regular intervals).
Nevertheless, I just might have to buy myself some Cheerios.
Driving while Brown 0
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and right back atcha.
Disappeared 0
Earlier this year, Psychology Today carried an interview with a man who makes people disappear.
He can’t use an eraser, because once it’s out there, it’s out there. So he uses misdirection.
A nugget:
In fact, you help people bury their online identities. How do you do it?
Usually I’m hired by people who want to hide something embarrassing online or by wealthy people who fear abductions—so a predator trying to plan a kidnapping won’t find any real information about their family on the Net. I take my client’s name and create fake digital identities for it with Facebook and Twitter accounts, blogs, business websites. The idea is to make the false identities dimensional and give them a strong Internet presence. Then I take the content to be hidden and manipulate it. If something negative happened to Joe Johnson in L.A., I make it Chicago, then spread it online. I make it appear that the negative info is about Joe Johnson in Chicago—not the one in L.A.
A fascinating read.
Possessed 0
The most powerful argument against religion is those who call themselves religious.
I Don’t Know What To Make of This 5
The suit is likely a non-starter, as Petraeus was CIA director and national security and all that.
But it promises two things: providing lots of comic relief and not ending well.
The other certainty is that it’s more of what Dick Destiny calls the “culture of lickspittle.”
The Entitlement Society, Facebook Frolics Dept. 0
Pocket change.
The California Coastal Commission and Parker said they have reached a $2.5 million settlement to pay for coastal conservation programs after the Napster co-founder built a large movie-set-like wedding site in an ecologically sensitive area of Big Sur without proper permits.
What the entitled wants, the entitled takes.
Sacrifice, Republican Style 0
It something for others to do.
Accepting billions in federal dollars and expanding care to the uninsured would mean tacitly accepting the reality of Obamacare. And that is tantamount to treason in the Republican party. So, as a result, when the law goes into full effect next year, millions of Americans will be left on the outside looking in, denied coverage for no other reason than the misfortune of residing in a red state.
Beating Shields into Indictments 1
Llewellyn King has qualms about the proposal for a “shield law” to enable reporters to protect their sources.
No, he’s not concerned that such a shield law would protect the guilty, but, rather, that it would jeopardize the innocent. A snippet (emphasis added):
Once there is a law, common decency, societal values and tradition are abandoned. Clever prosecutors see laws not as barriers but opportunities. One fears that the law rather than supporting the broad protections of the First Amendment could, in fact, detract from them.
The basic tenet of the proposed law is to require judicial review before the mastiffs of government begin their sniffing. Their (sic. from context, the mastiffs of government–ed.) goal is always to root out the source of the reporter’s information and to punish, and possibly destroy, that person.
I don’t know whether I agree with him, but my years of observing political news leads me to agree wholeheartedly with the last sentence–the one in bold.
When the government expresses “national security concerns” as regards news, it’s frequently newspeak for “personal and political embarrassment concerns.”
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite when you visit your national parks and monuments.
The View from the Bunker 0
Laurie Essig reflects on the passing of Jean Stapleton and nostalgia for Archie Bunker’s fanstasy of the Good Old Days. A nugget:
“Move ‘Em Up, Head ‘Em Out” 0
Melissa Harris Perry rounds up the stupid.
Bachmann Spinwheels 2
Michael Smerconish, himself a representative of shrinking tribe, that of sane conservatives, thinks that Michelle Bachmann is more than a representative.
He thinks she’s a representative representative. A nugget:
“Create Your Profile” 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., has some thoughts.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
I was going to post about this, but the Booman beat me to it.
So skip that book on abnormal psych; kick back; pop a ‘lude; follow the link; and read the post and, especially, the comments.
Fake Healers 0
Honestly, some people never listen, even when God speaks to them directly.
If God didn’t believe in medicine, he wouldn’t have given us doctors.