December, 2009 archive
One Reason I Avoid Walmart 1
The Boston What’s Left of the Globe:
The class-action lawsuit, filed in 2001, accused the retailer of denying workers rest and meal breaks, refusing to pay overtime, and manipulating time cards to lower employees’ pay.
Plus I like stores with ceilings.
The End of the Phone Book? 1
Bloomberg:
“I haven’t opened a phonebook in years,” said Belardini, a 39-year-old Rome-based lawyer. “The best use I put them to is as door stoppers or footrests.”
I think I’ve used a phone book twice in the past year.* One of those times, I was looking up something in the white pages and, despite my $300.00 bifocals, I had to get a magnifying glass to read the listings. When I need a phone number, I tend to look it up on the internet because the computer is right there in front of me and because I can, like, you know, actually read the numbers.
Back in the olden days, the phone book was service provided by the telephone company. Then came deregulation and now I get two phone books each cycle, sometimes three, one of wastes away in a drawer until the cycle repeats itself while the others head directly into the recycling bin.
____________________
Also, I’m old. I already know who I’m going to call.
Parking Wars 1
Leave your quarters at home if you’re visiting Salisbury, Md.:
Three parking meters were stolen from the downtown area Wednesday morning, according to city police.
The Entitlement Society 1
Remember that the Brits bailed out RBS the way the States bailed out AIG.
This is bogus, not bonus:
What’s the big deal?
They did a great job running RBS into the ground. If they walk, they won’t be able to do it again.
Cybervows 1
When it is a virtual wedding, is the cake topped with avatars?
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up 0
Shorter Republican talking point: Opposing rape is not in the collegial spirit of the Senate.
Jeez oh man, do these folks actually listen to themselves?
Philadelphia Inquirer Minneapolis Star-Tribune FAIL (the Inky Picked It Up from the Wires)
0
If something gets repeated often enough, the mindless media just keeps repeating it.
The Friday after Thanksgiving is not and never has been the “biggest retail shopping day of the year,” but, if reporters believe it is, it becomes so in their world.
The sad part is that this delusion infects reporting that matters, such as political and economic stories. Reporters keep repeating stuff they’ve heard without regard to fact.
Aside: The actual article is worth reading.
We Need Single Payer (Updated) 1
But anything would be better than what we’ve got.
A old man, just a tad older than I, walks into an emergency room, complains of pains consistent with heart trouble, gets told to wait, and dies an hour later in the waiting room. From Will Bunch:
Addendum:
According to the Inky, Rivera died 11 minutes into his visit to the ER; 49 minutes passed before anyone noticed (except, of course, for the three losers who heisted his watch).
Daftghanistan 0
[RANT MODE ON]
Anyone who is surprised by Mr. Obama’s decision to push the war in Afghanistan wasn’t paying attention during the campaign, when he repeatedly said that one of the reasons the war in Iraq was wrong (aside from the whole war for a lie thing) was that it took attention away from Afghanistan.
It continually surprises me how many of my leftie friends listened to him throughout the past two years and didn’t hear what he was saying, and are therefore worked up because his actions in office are consistent with his statements during the campaign.
Don’t like it if you think it’s a bad idea, but for Pete’s sake stop acting surprised at something as predictable as a blizzard in Colorado.
[RANT MODE OFF]
Do I think it was a good decision?
No.
The Republicans made such a mess that there were no good decisions left. Making messes is what Republicans do. It results from making decisions rooted in ideology and fantasy, rather than in objective reality (and, if you want to argue whether there is such a thing as objective reality, please go stand in front of that bus coming down the street, then come back after it has hit you and we can talk)
It was probably the least bad decision, but I fear that the Previous Federal Administrator long ago frittered away the possibility of anything resembling success–success being a stable regime not inimical to Western interests–while he played Army Men in Baghdad.
Afterthought:
The other thing to stop being surprised at is that generals want more troops.
Of course, generals want more troops.
Generals always want more troops.
Some Have Said 0
In English, the passive voice has several legitimate uses:
-
1. When the speaker wants to emphasize the recipient of an action over the doer of the action (“The house was destroyed” rather than “the fire destroyed the house,” when the house is the topic).
2. When the doer of the action is unknown (“The till was emptied”).
3. When not pointing out the doer of the action makes for tact (“This blog post sucked eggs–wait! that’s active could have been writtten better.”).
And one illegitimate (sadly, the most common) use:
- When the speaker wants to avoid acknowledging responsibility for his or her actions (“Mistakes were made“).
Gag Me with a Spoon 0
I just heard this poem as the soundtrack for a blankety-blank Levi’s commercial.
Sacrilege.
(I knew there was a reason I preferred Wranglers.)
I’ve Always Wanted a Lamborghini 0
And I promise I won’t crash it.
QOTD 0
Jonathan Swift, via the Quotemaster:
Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.
Dysfunctional Family 0
I listened to the interview that StevenD refers to in this post and have been wondering about how to address the topic.
Fortunately, he did so I don’t have to.
“The Family” seems to believe in a Christianity as imagined by L. Ron Hubbard.
Brendan Writes a Column 0
In Philadelphia, there has recent been a rash (that is, two) accidents in which bicyclers ran into pedestrians and the pedestrians died. At least one was a hit-and-run–the bicyclist is still unidentified.
Philadelphia City Council, which Mayor Green once called the “worst legislative body in the Free World” (it’s not; the Pennsylvania state legislature takes that honor), is considering requiring bikes to be registered, I guess so there will be little tiny license plates that no one can see the next time a biker is involved in a hit-and-run with a pedestrian.
Brendan finds this outrageous.
I find it silly.
Police are overwhelmed trying to keep track of dangerous, inconsiderate, selfish, and just plain stupid drivers of motor vehicles. Dangerous, inconsiderate, selfish, and just plain stupid bicyclists get scant enforcement attention. Registering bikes will not change that.
What will change it is ticketing bicyclists for traffic violations and putting points on their motor vehicle operators licenses for moving violations, such as running red lights and going the wrong way on one-way streets.
It is true that pedestrians often put themselves in harm’s way. It is also true that rude, inconsiderate, and stupid behavior by adult cyclists in their funny clothes seems to be the norm.
I can count on my right big toe the number of cyclists I have seen actually stop at a stop sign or a red light in the past month. There is a reservoir of ill will towards bicyclists amongst motorists (including amongst me), nurtured by cyclists who act as if they are exempt from the rules of the road.
If this very bad bill passes, cyclists can blame themselves.
Full disclosure: I have two bicycles on the back porch. (I haven’t been riding them often. The little hills in upper Delaware look a lot bigger from two wheels than from four.) I look forward to riding them in the flatter terrain of Virginia Beach.
But I always stop for stop signs and red lights, ride on the correct side of the road, and obey one-way street signs.