2015 archive
Your Tax Dollars at Work 0
Recycling:
In related news, it would seem that the Sea Dragon has problems much more serious than can be remedied by a few jalopy egg-beaters.
Meanwhile, Congress continues to push the F-35, which nobody wants except manufacturers of weaponry and their sycophants and lapdogs.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Maintaining a positive trend:
Jobless claims increased by 7,000 to 282,000 in the week ended May 23, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington.
(snip)
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, climbed to 271,500 from a 15-year low of 266,500 the prior week.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits increased by 11,000 to 2.22 million in the week ended May 16. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits rose to 1.7 percent from 1.6 percent. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
. . . B-B-But It Was Only “Family Research” 0
Putting aside the culture warrior schadenfreude, I think it might be a bit strong to refer to a 14-year-old boy trying to navigate the teenager hormone zone while growing up in a clearly screwed-up family in the same phrases that one might use for a 50-year-old man (or woman, as recent headlines tell us seems quite possible) lurking in the bushes next to the jungle gym in the playground.
Let’s just stick with the incest thing, okay?
Via Raw Story.
Literate Cat 0
Fool cat’s holding the book (a Bennett Cerf collection) upside-down.
Stray Question (Updated) 0
It’s been a long time since I was a high school senior.
Just when did “senior pranks” become a thing?
Addendum, Later That Same Day:
According to The Guardian, high school seniors’ doing stupid stuff has graduated to a “tradition.”
Back in the olden days, when I was a young ‘un, we tried to hide our stupid, not broadcast it.
Furrfu.
Misty Water-Colored Memories 0
Reg Henry wants some truth served with his Memorial Day.
In fact, if you count the conflicts that really did represent life or death to the nation in recent generations, only World War II unambiguously qualifies (although the Korean War arguably has a claim).
As for the rest, they were undertaken for reasons ranging from the shabby to the reckless. American forces were too often committed in the service of some political notion later revealed to be crackpot or fanciful. This was not the fault of those who served so honorably.
Read it.
Stray Thought 0
No right-wing Bible-thumper will think to suggest from Sunday’s pulpit that the flooding of Texas may be a sign from the Almighty that the climates they are a-changing.
Not a single one.
GPS: Global Positioning Singularity 0
Gidget the Gadget takes the con.
There’s a reason I prefer maps–the old-fashioned kind that you can fold up.
How Stuff Works: Trickle-On Economics 0
A parable in pictures at Job’s Anger.
Chartering a Course for Disaster 0
John Romano has a strategy for dealing with school-yard bullies.
How do you deal with troublemakers in the classroom?
You know the type. The ones who refuse to listen, and the ones who are slow to learn. The ones who don’t care about the disruptions they cause, or the hours they waste.
As another school year winds down, I have a humble suggestion for dealing with those schoolyard agitators who want to take over every classroom:
Stop electing them to the Legislature.
Details at the link.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Whatever shall we do about the epidemic of self-politeness?
At least this fellow had the good grace to be embarrassed when caught politing himself.
A man shot in the leg at the county park on Monday accidentally fired the gun, police said.
Police identified the victim as Antonio Quantico Davis of North Charleston. He had a gunshot wound to his left leg, police said.
“Davis initially stated that he had been shot by another person, then later changed his story, admitting that he had accidentally shot himself,” police said.
Word Salad 0
Oh, my. Scrabble gets pwned.