April, 2015 archive
Engulfed and All That Jazz 0
Wayne Curtis argues that to be engulfed is the destiny of New Orleans, unless something is done soon.
This is arguably the largest, slowest, manmade disaster in human history. It takes real enterprise to erase a million acres. Three hundred years of building levees to contain the river starved the marshes of floodwaters and silt. Global warming caused the Gulf to rise. And rampant oil and gas exploration carved out a chessboard of canals for drilling and navigation, which has led to saltwater intrusion destroying freshwater marshes.
That something seems unlikely to be done. Follow the link to read of the complicity of the Louisiana state government and the petroleum industry in the slow drowning of a city.
Moral Compost 0
Jim Wright attacks the myth of the “national moral compass.” A nugget:
Our country has lost its moral compass.
Right.
Listen, as soon as you say to me “the country has lost it’s moral compass” you and I are done talking.
Because you are engaged in a logical fallacy, a fantasy of your own making, and while that may be your right, it’s my right not to participate in your delusion.
The very notion of a national morality is counter to liberty; it is tyrants and the totalitarianism of theocracies and ideologues which attempt to impose morality on the citizenry by force or threat.
Do read the rest.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
For all practical purposes, status quo ante.
(snip)
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, climbed to 284,500 from 282,750 in the prior week. The comparable reading for the March payroll survey week was 305,250, signaling employment could have picked up.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 50,000 to 2.33 million in the week ended April 11. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.7 percent, where it’s been since mid-March. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
The Case of the Disappearing Talking Point 0
Dick Polman investigates. Follow the link for the rest of the case file.
Gee, I wonder why they were so quiescent.
Actually, there’s no need to wonder. Here’s why: Obamacare is a success. It has demolished every dystopic Republican prediction, and, at this point, five years after its passage, it would be politically nuts to campaign against it.
Yes, we still get the random rhetorical blast – Ted Cruz wants to repeal “every word of Obamacare,” Marco Rubio talks about a “post-Obamacare era,” Scott Walker occasionally strokes the conservative base by mouthing the word “disaster” – but there is no sustained fervor.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Practice politeness (until you get it right).
The woman fired a shot and a hot, expended shell casing landed inside her shirt, police said. When she tried to remove it, the pistol accidentally discharged and a bullet struck her in the thigh, officials said.
Everybody Must Get Fracked 0
Fracking rocks your world.
When the volume of injections decreased significantly, so did the shaking.
The scientists concluded that removing saltwater from the wells in the gas production process and then injecting that wastewater back underground “represent the most likely cause” for the swarm of quakes, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
Rebooted with Extreme Prejudice 0
According to the Colorado Springs Police Department, officers responding last night to a 911 call about shots fired discovered that a “fed up” Lucas Hinch took his computer into a back alley and “fired 8 shots into the computer with a handgun, effectively disabling it.”
(snip)
The late Dell XPS 410 model . . . is survived by a monitor and a keyboard.
Natch, it was running Windows. The reference to the BSOD is dead giveaway.
Linux doesn’t get the BSOD, though there is a BSOD screensaver.
(Linux gets “kernel panics,” but I’ve seen that only once, nine years or so ago.)
Spill Here, Spill Now 0
Buccaneer Petroleum continues to plunder.
Just Because You Can Do Something Online . . . 0
Doesn’t mean you should.
Promulgating Ignorance 0
The party of stupid tries to legislate yet more stupid.
Without discussing abortion,* what these idiots don’t seem to realize that, if a woman suffers a miscarriage, she may need to undergo the same procedure that is commonly used for early-term abortions so as to heal properly and possibly to serious infection.
Next, they’ll want to return to throwing women into the river to find out whether they are witches.
__________________
*I’ve stated my position before: It’s the woman’s decision and no one else’s.
