2011 archive
Punishment 0
There has been no trial, just wrong word merely punishment.
The treatment accorded Bradley Manning is detestable. It is, indeed, Cheney-esque.
Networkscape 0
Making visible the invisible:
Immaterials: Light painting WiFi from Timo on Vimeo.
Via Andrew Sullivan.
We Need Single Payer 1
The high cost of health care in the U. S. all about the country club memberships–and not for the doctors. Derrick Jackson in the Boston Globe:
IF MASSACHUSETTS is the model, then national health care reform is ultimately doomed. That can be the only conclusion after this week’s news that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is in the homestretch of paying out nearly $28 million in retirement and severance pay in the last five years to its last two CEOs.
(snip)
But Massachusetts is not alone. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan doled out $1.54 million to 34 board members, even as the company was losing $145 million, the Detroit Free Press reported in 2008. In 2009, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, nationally touted as a well-run alternative to the vilified “public option,’’ was exposed for paying out millions in bonuses, charter flights, Caribbean junkets, and severance for a CEO who had been busted for drunk driving.
Read the whole thing. Then you will need a doctor for those heart palpitations.
Walled Orchards 0
John Naughton has doubts about Apple’s dominance, via Itunes’s, in the on-line media sales world. A nugget:
Eco’s metaphor applies with a vengeance to the new generations of Apple iDevices, which are rigidly controlled appliances. You may think you own your lovely, shiny new iPhone or iPad, but in reality an invisible virtual string links it back to Apple HQ at One Infinite Loop, Cupertino.
Read the whole thing.
And Now for Something Completely Different 0
And truly weird. (Warning: Mild innuendo and out the other.)
Twits on Twitter 0
The internet is a public place. The principles of civil discourse apply (if you can afford the lawyer).
While the case didn’t go to a jury, First Amendment experts say it highlights the need for celebrities and average people to watch what they say online.
(snip)
“The laws controlling what is and isn’t libelous are the same regardless of the medium in which the statements appear,” (First Amendment Attorney Doug Mirell) said.
In a parallel vein, the local rag has banned anonymous comments on opinion pieces (not on news stories) and considers the experiment a success. From the editor of the editorial page:
The content of the comments on letters, editorials and columns has been so uniformly better, in fact, that we’ve been running them regularly in our letters column.
There is a difference between being intense and being insulting.
“The Right Wing Goon Squad” 0
Chris Matthews on the Republican Party’s odious Southern strategy.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Via Bob Cesca.
QOTD 0
Mae West, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Experience is by far the best teacher. You know, ever since I was a little girl I knew that if you look both ways when you cross the street, you’ll see a lot more than traffic.
Stray Question, True Colors Dept. 1
How long before Wisconsin Republicans seize the radio and television stations (at least the ones that aren’t already Fox), declare martial law, and announce the coup?
The Huckaster Takes on the Force 0
It is likely not wise to take on The Force, but it’s safer than taking on the GingGrinch.
Addendum:
Ta-Nehisi Coates points out the Huckaster’s differential standards: One for a Palin, the other for a Portman. And he has the citations to prove.
Republicans will say whatever sounds good in the moment. They are persons of sound bites, not substance.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go, Special Friday Edition 0
Slight cause for hope from the monthly February figures:
The increase in payrolls partly reflected a return to more seasonable weather and followed a 63,000 gain in January, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists was for an addition of 196,000 jobs last month.
Meanwhile, in the world of No Mountebank Too High No Lie Too Big, Republicans claim credit, even as they blackmail the polity with layoffs.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Someone finally caught a voter fraudster.
Guess what. A Republican office-holder:
“I Was a Communist for the FNC” (Updated) 0
If Fox News Channel’s lies were not so dangerous, they would be pathetic and silly. But they are, so they’re not.
Bill McKibben tells of learning, at age 50, that he is a Communist, at least in the whacked out world of Glenn Beck:
But then I reconsidered. What exactly was I doing when those e-mails arrived? I was downloading an iPad app, At Bat 11, which lets me (for only $14.99) hear the broadcast of any baseball game anywhere in the country. Since I live in New England, I use it to track our beloved Boston squad, whose moniker I had never before deeply contemplated. Now – well, enough said.
And the next morning, on my first full day as a communist? I spent most of it outdoors, at the annual New England festival for young cross-country ski racers. More than 500 kids from across the region were competing, and I was standing on the toughest hill cheering. And here’s the thing – at least with the first- and second-graders, I was cheering for everyone equally. Not only that, but did you know where this particular type of skiing was invented? Norway.
Read the rest of Mr. McKibben’s red reminiscences at the link.
Addendum:
Field weighs in on the latest (at least for a minute or two) lie.