First Looks category archive

Off to drink liberally.

Fun and fellowship for liberals, on Tuesday instead of Thursday because of the holiday. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere.

When: Tuesday, November 20th, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street
Virginia Beach, Virginia (Map)

More here.

One of the recurring strategies in the campaign to sell out off public resources is to argue that the target of the day “should be run like a business.”

This tactic is especially popular when the target is not like a business in any way and often serves as a cover for reducing the pay and benefits of the (usually relatively low-paid) persons employed in that endeavor, while increasing the pay of executives and consultants feeding at trough while the endeavor is made more “business-like.”*

Thomas Zachek skewers this strategy as it is applied to schools. A nugget:

Anti-union forces and the political right often argue that teacher compensation and evaluation should be in line with “the private sector.” What part of the private sector, exactly? A private-sector worker can be anyone from the pizza delivery guy making minimum wage to Charlie Sheen making $1.25 million per episode.

What private-sector job does teaching really correspond to? Teachers don’t do what doctors or lawyers do. Or salesmen, middle managers or roofers. Trying to educate a room full of children or teens just is not like other pursuits. (Sometimes I think a teacher’s job is most like a cross between a standup comic and a lion tamer.)

Name me five occupations in the business world that expect the level of education and preparation we expect from teachers, with similar workloads and responsibilities, for similar pay. Heck, name one.

Read the rest.

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*Overpaid CEOs and consultants at the trough are often the most “business-like” attributes of the products of the “run like a business” crew.

Love letters from World War II written by a New Jersey woman to her boyfriend in Vermont washed ashore during Superstorm Sandy.

A 14-year-old found the 57 letters inside a box walking along a beach in Atlantic Highlands the day after Sandy struck. They chronicled life for Dorothy Fallon and Lynn Farnham from 1942 until the week before they married in 1948.

If I saw a box walking along a beach, I think I would have noticed too.

When Sherlock Holmes passed away at some future date (so far as I know, he is still keeping bees in Sussex) and went to Heaven, he was immediately called into the presence of God.

“Holmes,” said God, “can you help us?”

“Why certainly,” he replied. “Please place your problem before me.”

“Well, it’s Adam and Eve. They’ve . . . disappeared. Can you find them?”

“Allow me to commence my investigation,” responded Holmes.

A few hours later (or whatever passes for hours in the celestial sphere) he reappeared with the recalcitrant couple in tow.

“What have you to say for yourselves?” thundered the Deity.

“Well,” Adam replied, “it’s all the newcomers.”

“Yes,” said Eve. “They keep asking us for autographs!”

“Hmmph!” grumped the Deity. “I can understand why you needed a break. Off with you. Now, Holmes, how did you find them?”

“Elementary, my dear God,” he replied. “They were the only ones with no navels.”

In other news, I knew the name that Holmes spoke to his friend in this episode of Elementary before it was spoken on the show.

After all, to Sherlock Holmes, she is always “the woman.”

Thomas Ricks appears on Fresh Air to discuss how being an US Army General turned into a tenured post. From the website:

Ricks is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He covered the military for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal for many years, and was part of two teams that won Pulitzer Prizes for military coverage. His new book, The Generals, is about what he sees as a decline of American military leadership; it offers an argument about why the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan have been so long and so frustrating.

He says it boils down to one word: accountability. Back in World War II, successful generals were generally promoted, while unsuccessful generals were relieved of their commands. But that began to change during the Korean War.

Follow the link to read the full story or the transcript or to listen to the show.

Off to drink liberally.

It is gratifying and noteworthy that Republican attempts to gut out the vote failed mightily in Ohio and Pennsylvania (Florida, as I write this, is still up in the air, but much of Governor Rick Scott’s teabaggery was soundly rejected at the polls).

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us tomorrow and enjoy the afterglow.

When: Thursday, November 8h, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

More here.

and his entire staff.

Working the polls.

Vote. It’s not a right. It’s a duty.

And turnout is the best way to keep them from frauding the election.

Animation Via MoJo.

The Orlando Sentinel’s Scott Maxwell is also longing for the end of the campaign.

Facebook isn’t safe anymore either.

In the old days, I’d roll my eyes when people rushed to post pictures of their breakfast: a freshly poured glass of orange juice with a witty cutline like: “juice. yummy.”

Now, OJ seems downright nostalgic compared with the woman bragging about how she stiffed her waitress out of a tip simply because the waitress was wearing an Obama button — and the customer wanted to teach her a lesson about wealth redistribution. (More depressing was the gleeful chorus of “likes” from those pleased about her sticking it to the minimum-wage worker who dared to have a different opinion.)

About the only persons who don’t want it to end are the punditocracy, who will have to come up with their own ideas once more, at least for a while.

In this house, we have not answered the telephone without checking the caller ID for weeks.

We check the caller ID and then don’t answer the phone.

Anyone who cares to can leave a message, which we then delete.

Database issues. Looks like I’ve got it stabilized and just lost a few posts from yesterday and this morning. We shall see.

I hate databases.

The bridge over the railroad tracks in Narberth always looked rickety to me as I crossed it back when I lived there. It still looked rickety when I took First Daughter to lunch at the Greeks’ back in July (and she got me a Greek’s 90th Anniversay tee-shirt!).

Now it’s closed.

Via Contradict Me.

As of right now, the worst is supposed to be north of us, so the local broadcast media is not yet in “Ohmygodweareallgonnadie” mode.

Not yet.

Clouds are already looking ominous.

Addendum, 12:51: Raining enthusiasstically.

Addendum, Nighty-Night Time: The rain shower ended in about an hour. Since then, clouds, no apocalypse. My ISP sent me a useless email assuring me that they are on the job. I know they are on the job; I have my beefs with them, but stability is not one of them.

But this gem from Delaware Liberal, followed by this one admitting at least one–er–mis-prediction.

My old stamping grounds are ground zero for landfall.

Off to drink liberally.

Via Balloon Juice.

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere.

When: Thursday, October 25th, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

More here.

Reactionaries (re)in action.

Via Balloon Juice.