First Looks category archive

Naturally, he got shouted down by a mob of wingnuts at a recent townhall meeting.

Follow the link for details.

He was finishing his new-member orientation in the basement of the Cannon House Office Building and hurrying to make a plane. A woman stopped him and said, “Hang on a minute — don’t you want to hear about the benefits?” Then, he recalls, she showed him “a whole cafeteria” of health insurance plans available to him and his family because he was now a federal employee.

“I told her, ‘I’ve got a plane to catch. If you can make that same offer to everybody I’m representing, then I’ll accept it.’ Then I turned to walk out,” the Wisconsin allergist told me in one of two phone interviews this week. “It didn’t seem right. It didn’t feel right to me that I was being offered something that wasn’t being offered to the people I was representing.”

Via the Wayward Episcopalian

The Coyote’s Byte suggests what we can do when Twitter is down.

My favorite:

Going to the bathroom without telling anyone.

Follow the link for the full list.

From paulapoundstone.com. An excerpt:

America’s growing up. We have a black President, and we’ve spent almost as much time on health care as we have on Michael Jackson.

Via CC.

“Stabilizing” is just another way of saying “running out of people to lay off,” and it’s still over half a million (emphasis added):

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits dropped more sharply-than-expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, boosting views that the labor market and the economy were stabilizing.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 550,000 in the week ended August 1 from 588,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said.

(snip)

However, the number of people collecting long-term unemployment benefits rose by 69,000 to 6.31 million in the week ended July 25 . . . .

But check this out for a comparison.

Read it here.

That’s how long I regularly read the Washington Post.

Past tense. Not past perfect.

Via Atrios.

Back after three days and two nights of little or no connectivity. The network connection in the hotel room was broken–it didn’t work with two different computers and two different ethernet cables.

The cellphone also did not connect from the hotel. Service at the same spot has been excellent in the past and there were strong signals a few miles up or down the road, so, on the way back, I called the carrier to notify them that it looked like one of their towers was on strike. They were shocked when I said I didn’t want a refund or something “done for” me.

There was wireless in the lobby. Because of the nature of the business I was conducting, I decided that that would be enough for now.

But now I’m back.

Light bloggery.

I really don’t know what I think of this.

Like most persons I know, I find something inherently repulsive about dogfighting and the persons who enable it and something warped about those who somehow find it entertaining.

At the same time, there are folks out there who harmed far more persons in far deeper ways who not only haven’t served time, but also are still getting umpty-ump million dollar bonuses.

I am positive, though, that the SCLC should have stayed out of this one.

Some residents of Michael Vick’s hometown are preparing a “celebration” for the former NFL quarterback, and Vick is expected to make an appearance at the event, an organizer said Friday.

The event is being sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SCLC chapter president in Vick’s hometown of Newport News, Andrew Shannon, said Vick is scheduled to speak at the event intended to promote Martin Luther King Jr.’s teachings of nonviolence.

“We believe (Vick) has made atonement and we are hopeful that the public at large gives this young man a chance to move forward with his life,” Shannon said.

Pamela Merritt writes in the Guardian what I’ve been saying. She’s got a good take on Gatesgate too:

The Birther movement is not simply another crazy conspiracy theory – it gives us a window into a society where quite a few people would rather grasp at shadows than acknowledge that the president of the United States is a black man.

Like flies:

First BankAmericano, Elizabeth, New Jersey

Peoples Community Bank, West Chester, Ohio

Integrity Bank, Jupiter, Florida

First State Bank of Altus, Altus, Oklahoma

And that’s just the ones in the eastern half of the country. No doubt there will be more to come.

While we’re waiting, ponder on this.

More:

Mutual Bank, Harvey, Illinois, joins the ranks of the non-existent.

Act now.

No, there will not be a repeat of the 1918 flu epidemic, if only because in those days there really was no such thing as “public health.”

On the other hand, the H1N1 virus is not just media hype. It’s been reported in over 160 countries (when I was a young ‘un, there weren’t 160 countries).

A cruise ship carrying dozens of victims of swine flu among its 5,000 passengers and crew has docked in the south of France, officials have said.

Sixty crew members have so far been diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, while 70 of their colleagues were also showing signs of being infected, they added.

Rusting away in Phialdelphiaville:

Local philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest has pledged a $300,000 matching grant to help a nonprofit purchase the SS United States, the iconic Cold War-era ocean liner docked in South Philadelphia.

The record-setting 990-foot vessel, which has languished at Pier 82 for more than a decade, was offered for sale in January by Norwegian Cruise Lines for an estimated $20 million.

There’s more at the link.

According to the neighbor who heard it from the mail carrier who saw the whole thing, a garbage truck left the street with his little dumpster arms in the air. They snagged the power lines, bringing down the pole. This happened at about 12:30 p. m. The lights came on sometime during the night. Not having any plug-in analog clocks, I’m not sure how long the power, cable, and telephone were off. But it was at least eight hours.

The only non-natural sound on the street during that time was the generator at the house a few doors down; the previous owners fell for the Y2K panic.

The story doesn’t seem to have made the paper, since it didn’t involve a car running into a house.

Off to DMV to take care of some paperwork. In Delaware, they open on Wednesdays from noon to 8 p. m.

When I go there, my goal is always to get the clerk to laugh.

Off to drink liberally.