October, 2009 archive
When the Phillies Are Hitting, No One Can Beat Them 0
The Dodgers are going to Los Angeles.
The Phillies are going to the World Series.
The Phillies are hitting.
It’s Not the Crime; It’s the Cover-Up 0
The Catholic Church has no monopoly on malefactors. For every hinky Catholic priest, there is a Ted Haggard.
But the cover-up, well, that’s something else. Management is culpable for protecting and enabling the conduct. And managment continues to spin and evade its culpability.
Watch What They Do, Not What They Say 0
Dick Polman:
Indeed it is. Yet now he turns around and milks it for the folks back home, and garners political kudos in the bargain. The dictionary definition of hypocrisy need not be consulted here, because we’re seeing it in action.
There’s more.
Magickal Thinking 0
I’m making no claims about the supernatural pro or con, but this sure applies to the adherents of the Republican orthodoxy.
Death Panels 2
TerranceDC recounts the story of Ian Pearl, whose health insurance company searched desperately for a way to cancel his policy. A nugget:
Our (the Pearl family’s–ed.) lawsuit uncovered insurance company documents that confirmed my suspicion that I’m a target of discrimination. The documents revealed Guardian had compiled a “hit list” of its costliest members, including patients with muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, and paralysis. Guardian executives referred to us all as “dogs” and “trainwrecks,” and they debated how and when to dump us from the rolls. Laws prohibited the cancellation of the individual members with serious chronic health problems, so Guardian opted to cancel the plan for all members of this specific health plan in New York, an action that violates federal law.
Wiki Games 0
Coming clean:
Chris Bryant, the government’s new minister for Europe, called on the Conservatives to “come clean” after the Observer discovered that details of Kaminski’s previous membership of the far-right National Revival of Poland party had been mysteriously removed.
Editing a Wikipedia page to hide stuff is a mug’s game. The Wikipedia gnomes usually fix it within a couple of hours.
You can see the edit history of the entry here.
We Need Single Payer 0
Contrary to what Republicans say, a trip to the emergency room does not constitute health care coverage.
Imbalance 0
And I thought it was a big deal when my parents raised my allowance from five to eight dollars and got a riding mower so that my brother and I could cut the grass at the farm in less than two hours.
Afterthought:
Speaking of cutting the grass, the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years at college, I had a job cutting grass for the state highway department. They assigned me a nice little tractor with a sickle bar.
On Mondays, we’d drive out to our assigned stretch of road. At the end of the day, we’d park the tractors and the foreman would pick us up, then drive us back in the morning. On Fridays, we’d drive back to the garage to do weekly maintenance. I only rolled it over once. We wrapped a chain around it and one of my coworkers pulled it back up with his tractor.
Then there was the time I ditched it and they had to bring out the motor grader to pull it out of the ditch (one of fellow summer hires ditched his tractor about once a week, but they usually could get Mickey free with a dump truck; I remember the boss saying, “Damn, Frank, when you ditch it, you ditch it good.”)
It was the funnest summer job I had (except for the two weeks of raging poison ivy I got cutting a ditchbank down by Custis tomb).
My brother got all the grass-cutting duties at the farm that summer. I remember his asking my father, “Why doesn’t Frank ever have to cut the grass?”
My father looked at him and said, “He’s cut more grass this summer than you’ve seen.”
Captain Kidd Sails Again 0
I suspect that none of it is going to the file clerks and administrative staff.
Bubble Boys (Updated) 0
Michael Tomasky at the Guardian discussing some focus groups:
Then there are committed conservatives. They’re off the continuum, in three basic ways. First, they fundamentally question his legitimacy as president. Second, they believe that a successful Obama presidency would destroy the country and are “committed to seeing the president fail”. And third, they think he is “ruthlessly advancing a ‘secret agenda’ to bankrupt the US and dramatically expand government control to an extent nothing short of socialism”.
At the root of this is that some persons who characterize themselves as “Americans” don’t accept that the rest of us–80% of the population, in fact–are Americans also.
In their world, those who disagree with them are somehow auslanders–outlanders. And they will not concede that an auslander will ever have anything valid to say.
They are the direct descendants of the Know-Nothings, and they live up to their lineage and to that name.
Addendum, a Few Minutes Later:
The Booman nails it:
(Follow the link. Read the rest.)
Extending the reasoning, therefore, if you are not white (and bigoted) you are not American.
Pah!
In Transit (Announcement) (Update 1) (Update 2) (Update 3) 0
Karen’s comment to this post tells me that it is time for this announcement.
Some time soon, in no less than two weeks and no more than four, From Pine View Farm World Headquarters will be relocating from Delaware to Virginia Beach, Virginia. During the transition, the site will be off-line, I hope for no more than two days.
More information will be forthcoming as I figure out what it is.
Down at the Farm 0
Error establishing a database connection.
Database maintenance.
I hate databases.
And Then There Were None 2
The last video rental store within a convenient distance of Pine View Farm World Headquarters is giving up the ghost.
QOTD 0
This pretty much sums up the whole teabagger thingee.
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.
–Robertson Davies, from the QuoteMaster.
Sportsmanship 7
At a Pop Warner practice in Mass, it’s a wonderful thing:
Michael VonKahle, 48, suffered a shattered eye socket, a broken nose, and a concussion in the fight, which took place in a secluded area during the Friday night practice behind Wilmington Town Hall, according to interviews conducted by police. No charges have been filed.
The coach is blaming the parent. The parent is blaming the coach.
Maybe someone should consider stop organizing kids to their eyeteeth and just letting them play with each other.
They could steal stop signs, drive fast, and tp teachers’ yards like I used to do.
Bushboroughs 0
The new age rage:
Only three years ago, foreclosure was rarely a factor in how people became homeless. But among the homeless people that social service agencies have helped over the last year, an average of 10 percent lost homes to foreclosure, according to “Foreclosure to Homelessness 2009,” a survey produced by the National Coalition for the Homeless and six other advocacy groups.
