2014 archive
High Crimeas and Misdemeanors 0
Writing at Japan Times, Andrey Borodaevskiy sees a disturbing undercurrent to the Russian people’s support for Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian policy: cult of Putin personality.
I don’t know enough to agree or disagree, but I think it is worth a read, not only for what he has to say, but also because our own media has a disturbing case of parochial tunnel vision as regards events in the rest of the world.
Personality cult does not come from the grass roots. It is cultivated from above, more often than not inspired by the person who is the object of the cult, as was the case with Josef Stalin — the biggest “seducer of the masses” of all (except perhaps for Chinese leader Mao Zedong, who also was an Oriental-style ruler, not a product of Western civilization).
In a nutshell, personality cult is a euphemism for dictatorship.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Practice self-politeness.
The story is datelined “Wasilla,” which, like Clarissa, explains it all.
More Facebook Frolics 0
So much for that “no religious tests” for office malarkey, at least in the Palmetto State.
Facebook Frolics 0
Facebook creates yet another reason to keep the GPS on your cell phone turned off.
The idea is to make it easy for people to meet up in real life, so they can have conversations in person instead of comment threads, temporarily replacing Likes and LOLs with eye contact and actual laughter. A live meet-up is also an excellent opportunity to grab a selfie with your pal and upload it to the Facebook owned Instagram.
And I thought the idea behind social networking was to avoid having to deal with people face-to-face.
Afterthought:
Whatcha wanna bet that the persons using this the most will keep right on bitching about the NSA, even as they run naked through their Facebook “friends”?
Welfare Cowboys 4
Pap and Robert Kennedy, Jr., discuss Mili(tant) the Moocher.
Part 1: The history.
Part 2: The Moocher.
Aside:
Pap makes an error of fact in Part Two. It was the Philadelphia Police, not the Feds, that tried to bomb the MOVE house. I lived in the Philadelphia suburbs at the time and could see the smoke from my bedroom window. Also, MOVE was a quite an oddball outfit, more apocalyptic cult than anything else,* and extremely annoying to their neighbors, who wanted them to go away.
The Gloomy Historian offers an additional perspective; there’s an excerpt below the fold:
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Three men were hunting in a group when two of them were shot by an unknown man, according to Clay County Sheriff Kevin Johnson.
No doubt someone got confused over the difference between wild pig and long pig.
Facebook Frolics 0
General Mills gives a bright “Cheerio!” to its customers.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
A trend?
(snip)
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, dropped to 312,000, the lowest since October 2007, from 316,750 the week before.
Claims may be in for some bigger swings in coming weeks as the Easter holiday, which varies from year to year, can complicate the adjustment of claims data for seasonal variations.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits declined by 11,000 to 2.74 million in the week ended April 5, the fewest since December 2007.
The Drug Racket 0
How it works:
But the cost per dose is much different: $2,000 versus $50. With a recommended two-year, 24-injection course of treatment, the difference per patient is huge.
Ophthalmologists, who buy the drugs and are then reimbursed for them, used the pricier Lucentis often enough to account for about $1 billion in Medicare spending in 2012, according to recently released data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Indeed, Lucentis is a key reason ophthalmologists are at the top of the Medicare list.
It’s not as simple as the excerpt, which was excerpted specifically to be eye-catching, implies. Follow the link for the details, then decide whether “racket” is the right word.
American Hustle 0
Follow the money.
We Had a Bit of a Blow Last Night 3
Stop it! That’s “a blow,” not “some blow.” Also, winter seems to be back.
Picture at the link.