2009 archive
Happy New Year 0
Not.
I have spent the day in the La-Z-Boy hoping that my chills would turn into a fever, because fever’s break and chills don’t.
So, rather than look forward with the hope that 2010 will be better, I decided to look back, to awaken childhood New Year’s terrors from days gone by.
Click to go below the fold. If you dare.
The Actual Reason Is That They Find It Stimulating 0
Torture is their pornography:
“Delusional, Crazy, Nuts, Insane” (Updated) 0
You sort of have to admire the chutzpah:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Panic Is Mandatory 0
Apparently MoDo isn’t happy unless all about her are losing their heads, my son.
Transparency in Government Hands 1
Go here, watch the vid, and guess what those hands will be doing.
The Internet Is a Public Place 1
There was a time when that alone could have ended the police investigation. Not now.
Officers learned that a video of the incident had been posted on YouTube.
You can guess the rest of the story.
Shorter Yale Defense 0
Theft bestows ownership rights as long as Yale wasn’t there when it happened.
When ancient Grecian antiquities looted hundreds of years ago are being returned to their country of origin, this really seems to translate into “I know I am, but what are you?”
A Glimpse inside My Stocking 0
A glimpse of stocking could be something shocking.
Or not.
I wrote up my neatest Christmas gift in years at Geekazine:
Eastern Shore Wildlife Preserve 0
Click or double-click or right-click each picture for a larger image, depending on your browser.
Looking west towards the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The near bridge to the right of the picture crosses the Intracoastal Waterway; the far bridge to the left of the picture, known as the “High-Level Bridge,” crosses the North Channel of the Chesapeake Bay.
Oh, Let’s Just Strip Search Everyone. 2
After all, the concept of human dignity and privacy has nothing to do with anything, does it?
Meanwhile, back in reality.
Internal Contradiction 1
The U. S. Chamber of Commerce is beating the drum against unions again.
The last time I looked, no union was asking for multi-million dollar bonuses and country club memberships and crying that their rights were being violated if they didn’t get them. (Living wages and health care maybe, but not multi-million dollar bonuses.)
A snippet from the Bloomberg story (emphasis added):
“The whole culture that currently allows us to be a low-cost producer while paying top wages would probably be destroyed” by the legislation, Craig Milum, president of Milum Textile Services, a Phoenix-based linen supplier, said in an interview.
The internal contradiction: If they are treating their employees so damn good, what are they afraid of?
Full disclosure: I worked in a heavily unionized industry for many years. Unionized workers are no different from any others, except maybe for the living wage thingee and the health care.
A basic lesson of labor history is this:
- Management creates unions.
Driver’s Ed 2
Come to think of it, I don’t think Mr. Timmons actually told us that this was a no-no. But he did sort of imply that running into cop cars was not a good way to pass your driving test:
Aside: You knew you were in with Mr. Timmons when he let you drive his Karman-Ghia instead of the school district’s 1956 Chevrolet with three on the tree–which was old even then–to rack up driving time for the course.
Corncuspicience 0
Sure, it’s a little teeny study, and I am suspicious of making big conclusions from little teeny studies, but . . . .
Via Seeing the Forest, who muses:
Everyone is getting fat. Just look around.
And corporate America has never been known to let safety stand in the way of a buck. Just ask Philip Morris.
The EPA, OSHA, and the CPSC were not created as power-grabs. They were created in self-defense.
Maybe the “con” in ConAgra does indeed stand for “con.”
Twits on Twitter 0
McClatchy:
There’s eveb an iPhone application specifically designed to identify checkpoints, according to Sgt. Dave Gibeault, head of the Fresno Police Department’s traffic unit.
Good Bill 0
Reinstate Glass-Steagall The banksters are, of course, whining.
“The impact on Wall Street would be severe,” Wayne Abernathy, an executive vice president at the American Bankers Association, said in a telephone interview.
My heart bleeds.
A Novel Proposal . . . 2
. . . on cellphone etiquette, in a newspaper column about cellphones on airplanes.
Snakes on a Plane 0
John Cole said this so I didn’t have to.
I stumbled on some of the coverage of yesterday’s attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane (you could tell it was “Northwest” because of the word, “Delta,” on the tail) on CNN (“Coddling Nevous Nellies”). I was channel hopping. None of the major networks was doing wall-to-walleye coverage, but CNN was covering its heart and popping nitroglycerin pills like mad.
I listened to a snippet.
The anchor was interviewing by phone one of the passengers from the plane. I don’t have the conversation verbatim, but it went something like this:
Anchor: Were you scared when it was happening?
Passenger: Not really.
Anchor: How about now, now that you’ve had a chance to think about it?
Passenger: No, not really.
I cut the television off.
The anchor’s disappointment at not being able to foment fear was thick as asphalt on a hot summer day and twice as icky.
I remember a time when Americans weren’t expected to be afraid, be very afraid, all the time.