May, 2010 archive
When Good Sprinklers Go Bad 0
Aside:
I would never choose to have lawn sprinklers. They just encourage the grass to need cutting.
Let the grass live free! Brown it, don’t drown it!
That’s my motto.
But I’m not my condo association and this isn’t Phoenix. There is water water everywhere in these parts.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
Steve Benen on those complaining that President Obama can’t work magic with BP’s wild well:
At this point, the discourse seems to boil down to
- a) those who want to see the president don a wetsuit and head to the Gulf floor;
- b) those who want to see the president don a cape and fly around the planet really quickly in order to reverse time; and
- c) those who want to see the president pound on podiums and lose his cool, as if that would make a difference. (Thanks, Maureen Dowd, for comparing Obama to Spock again. That never gets old.)
Karen said it well.
Republican Party Doubles Down, Throwing Worse Lies after Bad Dept. 0
The Republican Party ran an ad charging that two Virginia Democratic Congressmen applauded Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s call for the U. S.’s reinstating its ban on assault rifles because a lot of U. S.-sold assault rifles are finding their way into Mexico. President Calderon said this in a speech during his recent visit here.
Turns out that the Congressmen both are on record against reinstating the ban (I think the Congressman are wrong about that but that’s me and they are from Virginia) and that neither one of them attended the speech.
The Republican Party, well, it likes its lie so much it’s just going ahead with it. From Steve Benen (emphasis added):
Except, the state GOP is refusing to back down, and will continue to air the ad the party now knows is wrong. As the Virginia Republican Party sees it, Boucher and Perriello didn’t condemn the speech they didn’t hear, so therefore, it’s fair to suggest they might support the policy they oppose.
Afterthought:
This tells us all we need to know about the Republican Party.
It no longer feels the need even to pretend to be truthful.
Internal Contradictions 0
The Boston Globe skewers the silliness of teabaggery:
The Galt and the Lamers 0
Roy Edroso reports.
Nukes and Oil (Updated) 0
Karoli at C&L discusses nuking BP’s wild well.
The idea gives me the willies from the git-go. I’m not a physicist, though I know a little bit about physics and a lot about history. Blowing stuff up is seldom an effective choice, though it appeals to the macho and the frustrated and especially the frustrated macho. Blowing it up is their alternative to getting it u–never mind.
A nugget from Karoli’s post:
This is an incredibly frustrating problem, not only because of the draconian measures needed to stop the spillage, but because we’re being asked to take so much on faith when it comes to the steps needed to stop the leak and clear the oil.
- We’re told dispersants are non-toxic but hazmat suits are needed and the manufacturer’s own instructions recommend they not come in contact with bare skin.
- We haven’t been told what kind of impact dropping all that mud has, particularly when mixed with oil.
- We have no idea how long it will take the microbial agents to eat the oil and clear the water.
We have absolutely no clue as to whether a nuclear device will work and if it does, whether it will do so at the expense of all living things for years to come.- Worst of all, no one has any faith in the information we’re receiving from BP, because they have not been forthright with us and appear to be acting in their best interests rather than our own.
I wasn’t a rocket scientist in school, but common sense tells me the nuclear option may not be the best one.
Via Bob Cesca.
Addendum, a cup of coffee later:
The President on the Oil Spill 0
“Even if the leak were stopped today, it wouldn’t wouldn’t change the fact that these water still contain oil from what is now the largest spill in American history.”
We know now the leak was not stopped. The wild well is still wild.
Remember, BP, not the President, did this thing. I recommend not buying their products.
Transcript here.
Memorial Day Request 0
Please say a prayer for my son, currently on his third tour in a war zone, that he remains and honorer of Memorial Day, not an honoree.
Colorblinders 0
Jamelle Bouie points how “colorblind” isn’t:
(I remember my daddy talking about paying his poll tax. He was white. He could afford it.)
While the Booman describes how the odious Southern Strategy, which the Republican Party created to capture the South, has captured the Republican Party:
Read both posts. And weep along with Lincoln.
Is That Another Chicken Truck? 0
The driver of the chicken truck was ticketed for saturating with fat.
Rand Army of the Republic 0
BartCop imagines Libertarianism carried to its logical extreme (warning: it’s brutal satire).
Hate in the Name of Love 0
Gary Dammann at the Guardian considers celibacy, chastity, sex, morality, and Catholicism, but his thoughts can be generalized to Christianity as a whole and, indeed, to all the peoples of the book. A nugget:
Vaccination Quakery 1
The Boston Globe:
In the meantime, persons have died because of the anti-vaccination hysteria that this bozo started.
I Hope They Look under Every Rock 0
I hope they have computer and physical forensics folks on call, because I find it extremely unlikely that DEL keys ain’t clickin’ and shredders ain’t shreddin’.
Via Intoxination.
Net Neutrality 0
It’s old, because Ted Stevens was still a Senator, but it’s one of the best explanations of net neutrality, United States corporate version, that I’ve seen.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Net Neutrality Act | ||||
|
||||
Via Mosquito Blog.
I Get Mail 0
This has to be the lamest piece of spam that’s slipped through my filters in a long time.
They didn’t even bother to spoof the “From” field convincingly. It came from “alpinecom@btinternet.com” via a Yahoo account in the UK. You’d think that they at least could have made the “From” (which has nothing to do with the actual route of the email) to read From [ISP Name].
Attention Webmail User:
Today, 29/05/2010, we experienced an email outage. No email or address contacts have been lost, but you may notice some of your stored email and address book
contacts are temporarily unavailable. Our technicians are working hard to resolve the issue, and your email will be completely restored within the next 48
hours. We apologize for the inconvenience. Email update . 29/05/2010: Because of the recent email outage, you may notice that some emails from 2/3/10 are
temporarily unavailable. Our technicians are working hard to restore these emails. Your email and contact list will be completely restored as soon as
possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.
To complete your Account Verification process, you are to reply this message and enter your Username and Password in the space provided below, you are
required to do this before the next 48hrs of receipt of this e-mail,or your mail Account will be de-activated and erased from our Database.Username: ( )
Password: ( )[ISP Name] Internet.
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