April, 2011 archive
“Republican Broke” 0
J. M. Ashby suggests a new term:
Follow the link to see his reasoning.
Facebook Frolics 0
Your value as a Facebook user went up.
For Facebook.
The increase was on Facebook’s self-service ads, not the higher-priced premium ads that run on user home pages . . . .
We Need Single Payer 0
Matt Ruben, writing at Philly dot com, considers the Republican war on the sick and infirm.
It’s all about the country club memberships. Here’s a bit:
So the private insurers, and the financial firms heavily invested in them, stand to make lots of money from 40 million new customers, as all of the nation’s seniors would remain in the private market at age 65 instead of being able to get Medicare. And you, your children and your grandchildren would subsidize those profits by paying more and more to the insurers during all those years after age 65.
To add insult to injury, the GOP plan also calls for more tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. So the vast majority of us, who really need Medicare, wouldn’t even get a tax break to help offset the increased costs.
It’s a scam, pure and simple, another front in a class war being waged by the relative few who get rich off their investments, on the majority of Americans who survive primarily by working for a living.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The Do-Bee says, “Always be polite to your playmates.”
Republican Reverse Robin Hoodlums 0
Clarence Page dissects Paul Ryan’s (R–Sheriff of Nottingham) plan to take from the poor and give to the rich. A nugget:
Yet, in even more of a reverse Robin Hood move, the budget plan offers new tax breaks to corporations and higher-income taxpayers. Although income taxes would be stripped of numerous current deductions, top rates for individuals and businesses would be cut to 25 percent from 35 percent under the Ryan proposal.
Know Them by the Company They Keep 0
“If you believe government is the problem, . . . how can we expect you to run a government if you get your hands on one?”
Well, like this:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Via The Richmonder.
“Stand against Racism” 0
Last week, the local NPR station’s Hearsay, its news and analysis show, highlighted the YMCA’s Stand against Racism. From the website:
Scheduled Guests:Regina Malveaux – Executive Director YWCA of Hampton Roads
Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander – Associate Professor of History, Norfolk State University
Most of the show involved discussing the incontrovertible evidence that racism is still deeply ingrained in American culture, as revealed by the response to the election of President Obama.
Follow the link to listen to or download the show. If nothing else, listen to the listener phone call that starts at the 35:30 mark, in which the caller, Nelson, tells what he has seen.
It’s chilling.
A Modest Proposal 0
Thoreau considers the benefit of paying taxes in kind. Here’s one of his thoughts:
Check out the complete list at the link.
Water Polo with the Homeless 1
Back when Ed Koch was mayor of New York and I was working for the railroad, Koch decided that it was okay for the homeless to spend their nights at Penn Station.
For the mayor, it got them out of sight of most of the populace by foisting them on the railroad. (We always wondered why he didn’t invite them to JFK Airport–at least that was city property.)
The three railroads that used that station and their customers and employees didn’t think much of the idea; they did not look kindly to camps being set up in the nooks and crannies of the station (Penn Station is a very large place stretching under several city blocks, with three public levels and many more private ones; it has lots of nooks and crannies). It was not uncommon for employees to come to work to find someone sleeping on the floor in front of their office doors.
I recall one of my co-workers referring to the railroad police’s efforts to deal the situation as “playing water polo with the homeless.”
Now Virginia Beach has taken up water polo with the homeless (there is much more information at the link):
Strand since then has moved his belongings just a half-mile, to another wooded lot. It’s a much smaller tent city, but the 62-year-old former Army engineer said he had no other options.
All I can say it that the city’s motto seems to be, “Move ’em up, head ’em out.”
Afterthought:
There’s not enough money to help the homeless, but there always seems to be enough money to “partner” with a developer.
Lions and Tigers and Bears 0
Well, bear.
Don’t often see them near the beachfront.
(snip)
The male bear was found around 5 p.m. Police were armed with weapons just in case and shot the bear with a tranquilizer dart around 7:15 p.m. while the bear was sitting in a tree. After the bear fell asleep, it started getting dark so the fire department brought in a fire truck with a ladder on it to shine a light on the bear. They sawed off branches from the tree and lowered the bear down in a harness around 8:30 p.m.
Video at the link. The interesting shots start about three minutes in.
Parallels 0
Dennis G. sees parallels between now and then:
In many ways, the current skirmish over funding the Government for the next six months and the larger coming battle over Paul Ryan’s Path to a Galtian Utopia has very strong echoes of the build up to the Civil War. The names of the Parties have flipped, but the battle lines are similar. One side is unwilling to compromise and welcomes chaos with giddy excitement. The other is willing to embrace painful compromise to preserve the Union—agreeing to meet the Confederates far more than halfway time and time again. And yet—then as now—any compromise with the Confederates is never enough. Each new agreement just opens the door to more crazy and a fresh new unreasonable demand.
I’m not sure I buy the comparison completely, but it seems more accurate than I would like to admit.
Follow the link to read the entire post before drawing your own conclusion.
Who’s Sorry Now? 0
Mike Gruss, writing in the local rag, composes the letters of apology that should have been sent after the recent data breach at Epsilon, which exposed millions of email addresses.
A nugget:
Remember how we started this email by calling you a valued customer, even though our nearly public records show that you bought flowers from us only once? We mean “very seriously” just like we meant “valued.”
Read the whole thing. It’s a hoot.
Dustbiters 0
While I was trying to get CentOS to dual boot with Slackware last night, the FDIC was honoring the American Banking Community by debanking more of its responsible fiscals.
The debanked:
-
Nevada Commerce Bank, Las Vegas, Nevada
Western Springs National Bank and Trust, Western Springs, Illinois
And here I thought the FDIC was running out of fodder.
A Pome about the Entitlement Society 0
Not by Henry Gibson.
Actually, it’s by Peter Bergman. Follow the link for the accompanying text:
The Masters of the Universe Have No Clothes 0
Joselph Stiglitz explains. More at the link.
Of course, in one sense, there is no comparison between the tragedy of the earthquake – which has left more than 25,000 people dead or missing – and the financial crisis, to which no such acute physical suffering can be attributed. But when it comes to the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, there is a common theme in the two events.
Experts in both the nuclear and finance industries assured us that new technology had all but eliminated the risk of catastrophe. Events proved them wrong: not only did the risks exist, but their consequences were so enormous that they easily erased all the supposed benefits of the systems that industry leaders promoted.