August, 2009 archive
Brendan Goes to a Town Hall 0
A nugget:
It is difficult to have a reasoned debate with someone who lacks the pre-requisite.
Seen on the Street 0
More oddities from the highways. Or, in this first case, the lowways; the highway is under the ship:
No There, There 0
Maybe I’ve been wrong in characterizing the Republican Party and its fellow travelers as hypocrites.
If one has no principles, one cannot be charged with betraying them, now, can one?
The Anonymous Liberal speaks (emphasis added):
Down by the Coffee Mill Stream 3
I left my coffee grinder at a friend’s house (long story).
Fortunately, I have this, which I picked up at a resale shop for a couple of bucks several years ago; it filled a hole on my knickknack shelf.
It’s not as fast as electric, but I can use any exercise I can get.
(The pliers are for the adjustment ring under the wingnut. At last, a wingnut that works with the people, not against them.)
She Moved to England for Her Health 0
Bee Lavender writes at the Guardian:
In the US I devoted a huge amount of time to chasing appointments, finding specialists, fighting with insurance companies. With the National Health Service I have never had any trouble getting referrals, nor have I ever had criticism of the services rendered. If anything, I have felt spoiled – especially at the start of the recent flu crisis, when men in hazmat suits showed up in the middle of the night to take my temperature. In fact, though I have private top-up insurance here in the UK, I’ve never had cause to invoke it.
Best healthcare in the world.
Except for almost everywhere else west of the Urals.
But easily the richest health insurance CEOs in the world. And they aim to keep it that way.
Now This Is How “Pay for Performance” Should Work 0
’nuff said:
(No, I’m not advocating instituting the Nigerian form of government in the United States, but a little accountability for incompetence would be nice.)
Lies and Lying Liars 1
They can’t tell the truth because they are not on the side of truth.
In their world, money trumps truth.
Paul Krugman:
Professor Hawking, who was born in Britain, has lived there all his life, and has been well cared for by the National Health Service, was not amused.
In Which I Am Victimized by My Own Ritual 0
When I go to Virginia, I take U. S. 13 all the way down.
When I come back, I take U. S. 13 to U. S. 113 to U. S. 13.
Not a good idea today.
Take beach traffic heading north from the Delaware beaches.
Add an collision at the most inappropriately named town in Delaware.
Result: 45 minutes to go five miles.
I’m done in for the day.
Inside the Box 0
A. C. Graying at the Guardian. Read it. A nugget:
On the other side are those who espouse a belief system or ideology which pre-packages all the answers, who have faith in it, who trust the authorities, priests and prophets, and who either think that the hows and whys of the universe are explained to satisfaction by their faith, or smugly embrace ignorance. Note that although the historical majority of these latter are the epigones of one or another religion, they also include the followers of such ideologies as Marxism and Stalinism – which are also all-embracing monolithic ownerships of the Great Truth to which everyone must sign up on pain of punishment, and on whose behalf their zealots are prepared to kill and die.
Out of the Mouths of Boobs 0
Jon Stewart has the–er–poop:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Glenn Beck’s Operation | ||||
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Booty Scuttled 0
No dancing on this plank:
But thanks to the Norfolk Bar Task Force, Jackson had to remain a landlubber.
Jackson, a Virginia Beach resident, says Deputy City Attorney Cynthia Hall shut him down unfairly, and her actions have cost him thousands of dollars.
“She never gave me a chance,” he said Friday. “She automatically assumed I was some kind of dirty stripper.”
History Repeats Itself 0
Rick Perlstein channels Richard Hofstadter.
Frankly, I think a strong case can be made for junking the whole concept of journalism degrees and instead requiring aspiring journalists to study history.
Maybe then they could recognize when what was old is new again.
Via Atrios.
From Burglary to Gurglary 0
In southeastern Virginia, it’s one if by land, two if by sea:
“These guys panic, trying to escape, and they turn their boat over, and they go in the drink,” Croft said.
One of them was heard yelling, “Hey, Mike, are you OK?” according to a search warrant filed in Circuit Court.
They swam away before police got there.
Other than that first name, they also left another clue: Their boat.
My One and Only Comment on the Never-Ending Stream of Stupid Woodstock Retrospectives 0
From whence did all these columnists get the brown acid?
Lies and Lying Liars 0
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
These guys will do or say anything to monger fear and hate. Conviction and truth have nothing to do with it.
Via John Cole.
Dustbiters (Updated) 0
I missed the unemployment figures because I had somewhere to go and something to do (no, it was not remunerative). Atrios caught them here.
Lots of dust getting bitten today. This is a big one:
Bloomberg has more:
Branches and deposits of Colonial, Alabama’s second-largest bank, were turned over to Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based BB&T in a deal brokered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the regulator said today. The failure of Montgomery-based Colonial followed a Florida expansion that saddled the lender with more than $1.7 billion in soured real-estate loans.
BB&T pretty much stayed out of the real estate orgy, concentrating on, like, banking.
Biting more dust:
Betcha without mark to market, they could still claim they were solvent.
Aside: A friend of mine was telling me about a friend of hers in Florida whose house was foreclosed a couple of years ago. Her friend had a 30-year straight mortgage. As the real estate bubble expanded, the assessment went up. As the assessment went up, the real estate taxes increased, upping the annual escrow amount that was added to the monthly mortgage payment. The PITI payment eventually became so large that the homeowner, who could still afford the PI, could no longer afford the PITI. She now lives in Rhode Island and has a foreclosure on her credit record.
And thus the innocent are punished.
Addendum:
More blanked banks: