June, 2009 archive
No Parking
0
’nuff said:
(snip)
In a 23-page report released this week, Kochen said developer Mike Bronson admitted recently to installing the signs along the city’s right of way after initially denying it.
Via GNC.
Speechifying 0
Jon Stewart analyzes the coverage:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M – Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Looking for Comity in the Muslim World | ||||
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Traditional Marriage Reprise 0
Dick Polman (emphasis added):
New Hampshire became the sixth state to legalize gay marriage, but we should at least pause to note the significance of this news. New Hampshire is a former Republican bastion – or, as we used to say a generation ago, “a rock-ribbed” Republican bastion – that has now become a swing state dominated by its burgeoning population of independent voters. Increasingly, New Hampshire’s elected leaders act in ways that mirror the mood of those independent voters.
Like I said, “Done deal.”
Dustbiters 0
Bank of Lincolnwood, Lincolnwood, Illinois, ain’t no more.
If You Got Nuttin’, Call Names 0
Bay Buchanan has once again responded to critics of her karate chopping employee Marcus Epstein. This time, though, she’s taken it to the website of the conservative magazine Human Events.
(snip)
She also writes this: “What happened next was a modern day lynching by a faceless, angry, ignorant mob who reveled in the collective assault on their victim.”
Let us consider this critically.
Here’s a guy who gets drunk and, while weaving his way home, attacks a female passer-by just because she happens be Not While, gets arrested, and pleads guilty.
And, when folks notice that, in addition to being a felon who attacks persons without provocation just because of their color, he is also feeding at the wingnut trough and point that out, they get accused of being a faceless, angry, and ignorant?
Faceless, maybe. Some persons commenting on this have posted photos and some have not.
Angry, probably. Unprovoked brutality tends to provoke anger, both in victims and in bystanders.
Ignorant? Hardly. Rather, knowledgeable.
But it’s a wingnut thing: If you got nuttin’, make stuff up and call names.
Microsoft Tricks 0
Microsoft pushes an add-on to Firefox without asking permission.
Susabelle describes it.
This particular add-on is not something you want to have installed, in my opinion. Upon installation, it provides a ClickOnce capability that pretty much lets Microsoft do what it wants when it comes to your browser, as well as opening you up to all kinds of other nasties out there, since we all know the .net Framework is riddled with bugs that are not always fixed as quickly as they should be. The biggest security flaw with the ClickOnce install is that it allows easy installation of malicious software from websites, without your permission and knowledge.
Follow the link for more information and to find out how to remove this thing.
Aside: If regular readers wonder why I contemn Microsoft so much, this pretty much illustrates why.
Simple Answers to Simple Questions 0
Media Matters asks:
It’s multiple choice, folks. Consistent, hypocritical, or consistently hypocritical.
Link via Delaware Liberal.
Historiography 0
DougJ asks for readers to explain to him the conservative view of the Renaissance.
Follow the link. Read the responses.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Bloomberg estimates:
The jobless rate jumped to 9.2 percent, the highest level since 1983, according to the median estimate of 75 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Employers probably cut 520,000 workers from payrolls, the smallest decrease in seven months.
And a lot of the employment has been temp work.
Moral: A healthy economy can’t be built on financial shenanigans boxes of air. And, remember, this mess was not an accident. It was caused by policies. Republican policies.
This Is Not a Training Problem 0
This is a dumbness problem:
Their arrests follow the September conviction of former principal Dana Goodman, who pleaded guilty to having repeated consensual sex with a 17-year-old student last year.
Vote Early. Vote Often. 0
Duncan explains.
We Need Single Payer 0
The chain, which also operates as Happy Harry’s in Delaware, said it will drop out of the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people as of July 6. The chain has 66 Delaware locations, the most of any pharmacy chain in the state.
Not taking a stand on this particular contretemps–follow the link for an article that sets out the arguments of both the state and Walgreens, the issue here is really something else.
Both federal and state governments have been attacking their budgetary costs for medical aid at the wrong end, by limiting payments to doctors, hospitals, drugstores, and other providers.
The issue is at the other end, where the care starts, not where it ends, with a system that pushes the costs for doctors and drugstores and nurses and so on much higher than it needs to be. The University of Maine reports the following (PDF–click on the excerpt for the full report; it’s chock full of facts):
It’s not the cost of doctors and nurses and pharmicists that’s outrageous. It’s the cost of admininistrators, particularly “insurance” administrators, and prescription drugs (PDF) that are out of control. Reducing payments to doctors, nurses, and pharmacists mops up the blood without stopping the bleeding.
Scary 0
Fanaticism is a frightening thing, for it clothes itself in righteousness.
And, armed, it is even more frightening.
Public Service Announcement 0
From an email:
This is PRECISELY the reporting/evaluative strategy used by FOX, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Gingrich, Coulter, Beck, and other reactionay right-wing pundits in couching their arguments these days!
*****************************************************
Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties & local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink by any woman.
Many females use a date-rape-drug on the market called ‘ Beer’. The drug is found in liquid form and is available anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, or from taps and in large kegs.
Beer is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and sleep with them.
A woman needs only to get a guy to consume a few units of Beer and then simply ask him home for no-strings-attached sex. Men are rendered helpless against this approach.
After several Beers , men will often succumb to the desires to sleep with horrific looking women to whom they would never normally be attracted.
After drinking Beer , men often awaken with only hazy memories of exactly what happened to them the night before, often with just a vague feeling that ‘something bad’ occurred.
At other times these unfortunate men are swindled out of their life’s savings, in a familiar scam known as ‘a relationship’. In extreme cases, the female may even be shrewd enough to entrap the unsuspecting male into a longer-term form of servitude and punishment referred to as ‘marriage’.
Men are much more susceptible to this scam after Beer is administered and sex is offered by the predatory females.
Please forward this warning to every male you know.
If you fall victim to this ‘ Beer ‘ scam and the women administering it, there are male support groups where you can discuss the details of your shocking encounter with similarly victimized men.
For the support group nearest you, just look up ‘Golf Courses’ in the phone book.
For a video to see how Beer works click here: Beer Demo
H/T Susan for the chuckles.
Twits on Twitter 0
Tony LaRussa sues Twitter.
From ESPN:
The account bearing La Russa’s name is no longer active. The lawsuit includes a screen shot of three tweets. One posted on April 19 said: “Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk driving incident or dead pitcher.”
We Need Single Payer 0
Reuters:
More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts, the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University reported in the American Journal of Medicine.
(snip)
About 170 million people get health insurance through an employer but President Barack Obama says soaring healthcare costs are hurting the economy and forcing businesses to drop medical insurance for their workers. . . .
“Nationally, a quarter of firms cancel coverage immediately when an employee suffers a disabling illness; another quarter do so within a year,” the report reads.
Twits on Twitter 0
Jennifer Openshaw writes at MarketWatch:
“The guy’s corporate communications team at his current employer discovered this and tweeted back, saying ‘I hope your new employer knows how to use social media better than you do,'” Owyang said.
The article goes on to provide tips on how to be a toot tweet successfully.