From Pine View Farm

2011 archive

On the No Account 0

The Nation:

The real choice for America is between austerity and accountability. Proponents of austerity in countries around the world argue that those who have been hardest hit by economic instability must sacrifice (see Ari Berman, “How the Austerity Class Rules Washington,” for a dissection of how the austerity class rules the Beltway). Proponents of accountability argue that those responsible for the instability—banksters, hedge-fund managers, CEOs—should shoulder the greatest burden.

The problem with accountability here is that the folks who crashed and burned the economy are, as my father would have said, fundamentally no account.

The only account they count is bank account.

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Glitz on the Fritz 0

A friend of mine used to say, “The lowest possible level of technology that accomplishes the goal is the proper level of technology.”

Case in point.

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Droning On 0

Offered without comment. Click to read the rest.

Let me offer important alternative argument – the US government has a record of making terrible mistakes in this covert war. On 2 September 2010, the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan claimed to have killed Muhammad Amin, the alleged Taliban deputy governor of Takhar province in Afghanistan, in a drone strike. There was only one problem: Michael Semple, a Taliban expert at Harvard University, subsequently interviewed Muhammad Amin and confirmed that he was alive and well and living in Pakistan in March 2011.

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Premonitions of the Fall 0

I date the decline of American business to the time when products (and persons) stopped being “products” (and persons) and became “brands.”

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Corporate Takeovers 0

And just how is this different from a “leveraged buyout” followed by laying off all the employees, selling the assets off, and running off with the money?

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QOTD 0

James Boswell, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

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Mitt the Flip, Pillow of Industry 0

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Tax Cult 0

Republicans worshipping at the Cult of Grover Norquist

Via Balloon Juice.

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Herman Cain’t 0

Daniel Ruth takes a look at the Cain-paign:

All the Herman Cain story suggests is that a black political candidate is just as capable of acting like a hypocritical saucy fellow as white candidates.

Click to read the rest.

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Worst Persons 0

The former owner of two for-profit juvenile detention facilities was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison for his role in a kickback scheme that led the state Supreme Court to vacate the convictions of thousands of juveniles who appeared before a now-jailed Pennsylvania judge.

There is no upside to selling prisoners or “for profit” prisons.

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QOTD 0

Raymond Smullyan:

Why should I be worried about dying? It’s not going to happen in my lifetime!

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On Trashing Teachers 0

At Science 2.0, Enrico Uva takes a look at teachers and teaching and concludes that much energy is wasted in fixing what ain’t broke.

A recent article in the Atlantic surveyed the tiresome debate over whether teachers are overpaid. It’s really not the key issue. Students will not benefit from our salaries, regardless of how much money is wired into our accounts. You rarely hear of anybody focusing instead on the following:

      (1) Improving morale among teachers
      (2) improving dismal teacher training
      (3) raising hiring standards
      (4) and most importantly forming bridges between industry, research and schools.

By scapegoating teachers, politicians divert attention from their failures in supporting and funding (the means by which support is most commonly shown for government services) teachers, even as flocks of administrators, some of whom have no teaching experience and consequently no clues, continue to grow.

Read the whole thing; it’s short.

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The Four F’s: America’s Scrap Heap 0

Find ’em, fleece ’em, fire ’em, forget ’em.

The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America’s unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.

Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America’s 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

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Republican Family Values 0

The gift that keeps on giving.

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Everybody Must Get Fracked 0

This should be interesting:

The (South Fayette, Pennsylvania–ed.) township has filed for an injunction against its own zoning hearing board, saying a majority of the board members and their families have financial ties that warrant a forced recusal in hearing a challenge by energy company Range Resources to the township’s drilling regulations.

The legal appeal could shake up decision-making across the commonwealth, where the combination of small towns and a big industry make the occurrence of officials holding leases nearly inevitable. Now, in South Fayette’s case, taxpayers are paying solicitor fees on both sides.

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Facebook Frolics 0

Judge is Facebook friends with defendant, who is a figure in local politics.

Judge dismisses charges DUI charges, questioning the credibility of the arresting officers.

Should the judge have recused himself?

Read more »

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The Entitlement Society 0

Wall Street Bull
Click for a larger image.

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QOTD 0

Thomas Carlyle:

Teach a parrot the terms ‘supply and demand’ and you’ve got an economist.

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Dustbiters 0

The FDIC is nibbling its way through the Midwest and West this evening.

Bank no more on these turkeys:

You’d think they’d run out of master of the universe in need of emasterculating.

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Mitt the Flip Takes His Own Side(s) 0

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Via Raw Story.

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