July, 2010 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Miss Manners would be proud.
One:
I feel the same way about tailgaters, but trying to off them is probably not the best way to express it:
Haislip was tailgating Crickenberger, who then ran a stop sign, a sheriff’s news release said.
“Crickenberger became mad as to the way Haislip was driving,“ the release said.
When Haislip pulled off at the Harvey Williams Garage, Crickenberger followed him. Cursing between the men turned physical, the release said, and Crickenberger reportedly took a .380 handgun from his car and shot Haislip in the neck.
Two:
And squeezing off a couple of rounds withing city limits just for the heck of it is frowned upon by persons within range:
Three:
The Driving Lesson.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jeremy Boggs said in court Tuesday that Campbell fired six times at the vehicle Samual Campbell was driving north on Jack’s Hill Road. Boggs said four of the shots hit the vehicle and two missed.
“Campbell believes that his uncle did this because he accuses him of driving too fast on the roadway,” the search warrant stated.
QOTD 0
Rex Stout, quoted by his daughter, Rebecca Stout Bradbury, in the introduction to The Bloodied Ivy:
An educated person is one who has the capacity to distinguish the important from the unimportant . . . .
The Journey Home 0
Teenage girl steals puppy.
Parents find it was stolen and make her give it back.
It says something that this is considered news.
Spill Here, Spill Now 0
Buccaneer Petroleum’s approach to drilling: They thought they were playing with Tinker Toys and Erector Sets.
From the St. Petersburg Times:
Meanwhile, there are a plethora of allegations that BP pushed workers to speed the completion of drilling using cost-cutting methods. The rig rental was costing about $1 million a day and work was 43 days behind schedule. On the day of the explosion, BP managers didn’t bother with a time-consuming “cement bond log” test that would have discovered problems in the cementing of the well. The company also did not use 21 “centralizers” to position the well before cementing — the recommended number — and instead used just six. And there are other examples where the company chose the less expensive and more risky option. It may not be that any one of these actions alone led to the blowout, but the combination was deadly.
Misdirection Play 0
The Nation analyzes the instant replay of the Sherrod play. To anyone who has studied the race-baiting demogues of the Jim Crow era, the Pitchfork Ben Tilghmans and the like, it’s a familiar strategy, much older than the excerpt below describes. Fake left with the race and go right with the economy:
Breadlines, Anyone? 0
Why more stimulus is needed:
The report, a result of a survey by the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties, showed local governments are moving to cut the equivalent of 8.6 percent of their workforces from 2009 to 2011. That suggests 481,000 employees will lose their jobs, according to the report, which said the tally may yet rise.
VoteVets Energy Ad 0
Aside:
The slap at Iran may be good marketing, but it ignores that Iran imports more fuel than it exports; I believe I’ve read that it has the resources, but not the refining capacity.
Via the Richmonder.
Stray Thought 0
It’s not black folks who are afraid to confront racism in America. They confront it every day.
It’s we white folks.
Lynchpins of Lying 0
The failure of anyone, federal, state, or local, to attempt to stop lynching, not just in the South but elsewhere, for centuries, is one of the most shameful facets of American racial prejudice.
And now Republicans are trying to quibble over what constitutes a lynching. From TPM:
This one’s really one for the history books under the subheading of right-wing #outragefail, as the young folks might put it. Lord starts off vaguely sympathetic and works up into a crescendo of high-dudgeon because Sherrod says her relative was lynched when in fact he was arrested by a sheriff and then beaten to death on the courthouse steps while allegedly resisting arrest even though he remained handcuffed through the fatal beating.
“Lynching” referred to the killing, not to the weapon.
For a detailed take-down of Lord’s lie, see the Inverse Square.
Words cannot measure the depth of disgusting to which this falls.
Af-Pak Wiki-Leaks 0
It was pretty clear things weren’t going well.
It was not clear that they were going this badly.
And, no, “potentially embarrassing” is not sufficient reason for hiding official actions from public view, at least not and maintain any level of democracy.
Yet that, natch, is why governments dislike leaks and, in particular, are gunning for Wiki-Leaks–it’s not the potential for the dangerous; it’s the potential for the embarrassing.
What Is Good for Wall Street Is Not Necessarily Good for Anybody Else 0
Balloon Juice. Scroll to the list of bullet items in the bottom 2/3rds of the post.
We err when we let ourselves be convinced that the only measures of economic success are stock prices, dividends, and bonus payments to executives.
Important, maybe, at least the first two; the last should be eliminated and replaced with salary increases (or decreases, as warranted); only, no.
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
Is in employees’ pockets. From MarketWatch:
Read the whole thing, then tell me again why Social Security should be privatized.
QOTD 0
Alexandre Dumas, pere, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
The difference between treason and patriotism is only a matter of dates.
Spill Here, Spill Now, As the World Turns Dept. 0
Does Tony Hayward still want his life back?
Will he get it back, and will he like it when he does?
Tune in next time for the continuing story of
As the Well Wilds.
ChocoCrispies Had Nothing To Do with This 0
From the BBC:
Its new Plus schoolwear range includes clothes for pre-school children with waistlines of up to 23ins, a size usually worn by eight-year-olds.
Symbiosis 0
Joan Vennochi notices the interplay between teabaggers and racists, as revealed by the Shirley Sherrod matter.
Read the long version. Because, well, she nails it.
“Someone Says, ‘Flashmob'” 0
Eva Wiseman in the Guardian:
Mob (a near-future science fiction story) by Tom Scott from hurryonhome on Vimeo.
If the embed doesn’t work, go here.
