2014 archive
The Enemy Within 2
Speaking of Pigg River, to quote Pogo. “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Foreign Policy in Focus reports:
The United States currently lacks safety protocols and effective inspection regimes for the dangerous materials it has amassed over the last 60 years. We don’t have enough inspectors and regulators to engage in the work of assessing the safety and security of ports, bridges, pipelines, power plants, and railways. The rapid decline in the financial, educational, and institutional infrastructure of the United States represents the greatest threat to the safety of Americans today.
And it’s getting worse.
More at the link.
Via Asia Times.
Geography 0
Learning that there is a Pigg River just leaves me hog-tied.
Last week, 30,000 gallons of cow manure spilled into the river from a holding lagoon near the intersection of Calico Rock Road and 6 Mile Post west of Rocky Mount.
Flim-Flam Artists 0
Some Republican lies are so outrageous that you have to wonder whether Republicans themselves actually believe what’s coming out of their mouths or whether they are just willing to say whatever they can to con the rubes.
This is one of them.
Collateral Damage 0
Political grandstanding affects real live dead people.
The Galt and the Lamers 0
Coming soon to a theatre near you!
Roomba Rumba 0
We recently splurged on a Roomba, because, frankly, vacuuming this place is annoying. The vacuum cleaner sucks real good, but it’s heavy and awkward, plus there’s about an hour of moving stuff about to every 15 minutes of vacuuming–chairs, coffee tables, cat stuff, throw rugs, and so on.
I don’t expect the robot to replace the vacuum, but it looks as if it will supplement it nicely.
Beer Nuts 0
This might make even Pennsylvania’s screwy alcohol laws seem sane. John Romano reports:
Get it?
The distributor won’t make or market the beer. The distributor won’t pick up, deliver or even see the beer. Heck, the beer won’t even leave the refrigerator at the brewery.
And, still, the distributor will make a profit.
Mind the Gap 0
From the site:
Elon James White talks with Fatima Goss Graves, VP of Education and Employment at the National Women’s Law Center, about the Wage gap and the breakdown of how the gap works for Women Of Color.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Better news than usual.
(snip)
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, fell to 316,250 — the lowest since the end of September — from 321,000 the week before.
Privilege 0
One of the wonderful things about privilege is being empowered not to notice that you have it.
Out of His Own Mouth (Updated) 0
Dick Polman comments on Louisiana Congressman Vance McAllister, who was captured on camera locked in an embrace with his soon-to-be-ex-best friend’s wife. A nugget (emphasis added):
Republican Family Values–a fraud and a scam.
Read the rest.
Addendum, Later That Same Morning:
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Oh, so “handling” is what they call it now.
He didn’t make it.
The American Inquisitors 2
Shaun Mullen laments American cowardice in the face of the Bush torture regime. A nugget:
And so we arrive at another defining moment in the long road since an incurious news media finally began acknowledging something that a number of bloggers, myself included, and civil libertarians had known for years: Despite repeated denials by George W. Bush and his coterie of henchmen, notably Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, they approved of Nazi-like torture techniques under the cover of grotesque legal opinions that violate the Constitution and Geneva Conventions.
One question that nags me, one that I suspect cannot be answered, is this: To what extent was the policy of torturing captives–and it was policy, not the deeds of the infamous “few bad apples”–motivated by simple sexual sadism, both immediate on the part of the torturers and vicarious on the part of those who authorized the policy?
Adding Insult to Injury . . . 0
. . . is not just a cliche. It’s a Republican strategy to attract women voters.