2011 archive
Bushonomics in Pictures 0
Republicans want you to forget their legacy.
What Would Jesus Protest? 0
Terry Eagleton considers the question at the Guardian:
The fracas Jesus created in this holiest of places, driving out the money changers and overturning their tables, was probably enough to get him executed. To strike at the temple was to strike at the heart of Judaism. This itinerant upstart with a country-bumpkin background was issuing a direct challenge to the authority of the high priests. Even some of his comrades would probably have seen this astonishing act of defiance as nothing short of sacrilegious.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
MarketWatch reports that J. P. Morgan is trying to re-up the real estate bubble:
Investors can find opportunities in apartment and shopping-mall REITs, according to Marty Cohen of real-estate fund manager Cohen & Steers, who advises caution around single-family housing, commercial and retirement properties. Jonathan Burton reports.
“Although the U.S. housing market remains extremely depressed, we believe that given current valuations and demographic dynamics, now may be the time to consider an investment in housing,” the report said.
Methinks they are feeling the pinch of the decline in commissions.
Twits on Twitter 0
Homeland twits (emphasis added):
The Associated Press is reporting that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is currently developing plans to monitor social networks like Facebook and Twitter in order to collect information for law enforcement purposes. And while that is sure to raise some eyebrows among civil libertarians, Undersecretary Caryn Wagner took pains to reassure the public that this will not be some kind of “Big Brother” situation.
Two words:
Yeah.
Right.
Everybody Must Get Fracked 0
Can you imagine an American energy company admitting responsibility for anything?
British energy firm Cuadrilla Resources said a study of its drilling along Lancashire’s Fylde coast, northwest England, concluded “it is highly probable” that the fracking “did trigger a number of minor seismic events.”
Misdirection Plays, Wall Street Wreck Dept. 0
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman:
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
The foreclosure engine remains strong:
That has resulted in hundreds of distressed properties hitting the sales market in recent years, bringing down prices and preventing the region from regaining its footing, the experts told scores of residential real estate workers at a forum at Old Dominion University Wednesday afternoon.
“Distressed sales have become a significant part of the market,” said Vinod Agarwal, an economist at Old Dominion University.
Sales of foreclosures as a percentage of the overall sales market in Hampton Roads hit a high in February of about 43 percent, according to multiple listing service figures and Old Dominion’s economic forecasting project.
Herman Cain’t 3
Clarence Page sums up the right wing reaction to Herman Cain’s situation, which, roughly summarized, amounts to “You are not allowed to criticize him because he’s black and Republican” (emphasis added):
“In the eyes of the liberal media,” Bozell wrote on the conservative NewsBusters website, “Herman Cain is just another uppity black American who has had the audacity to leave the liberal plantation.”
As an African-American, I find it heartwarming that so many conservatives have become eagle-eyed watchdogs against any hint of racism, even if it only shows itself when liberals are the suspected instigators.
mixed in with elements of this, from a stunning takedown of David Brooks at Balloon Juice:
Afterthought:
I used to do what we called “EEO training” for a previous employer. It could more properly been called, “How to stay out of trouble with the law for supervisors” training.
I was constantly surprised by the number of times we heard, “I didn’t know you shouldn’t do that. I had no idea it could come across like that. Now I understand.”
A lot of the training boiled down to simple politeness, to not saying and doing things you shouldn’t say and do in public.
The law properly gets involved because of the power imbalance at work.
If you go to a bar and someone makes a pass at you or says something disgusting or bigoted or bullying, you can leave without penalty and find another bar. (If that someone tries to prevent you from leaving, it becomes assault and is actionable.)
You can’t leave work without penalty.
You are a duck in a shooting gallery for a harasser; he or she can keep shooting, regardless of how many times he or she misses.
After-Afterthought:
This was not “sensitivity training” in any way.
“Sensitivity training” is, by and large, crap, because it tries to go where it shouldn’t: inside of people to their “attitudes” (whatever they are–my description about your “attitude” is based on my judgment of your behavior).
We didn’t care about attitudes.
We cared about behavior while on duty or on the property. That is the extent of the company’s jurisdiction, barring felonious conduct.
If you get people by the behaviors, their hearts and minds will follow.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Under 400k for the first time in weeks, but not by much:
Fewer dismissals, a precursor to bigger gains in payrolls, may help sustain the spending by households that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Federal Reserve officials yesterday projected that it will be 2013 before the jobless rate drops below 8 percent.
Modern Times 0
A dream with a YouTube video in it. Weird.
We Need Single Payer 0
In the Tampa Bay Times (the renamed St. Petersburg Times), Robyn Blumner describes her treatment for cancer. After praising the doctors, she moves to the subject of billing (emphasis added).
First, trying to be an educated consumer of health services by understanding pricing schedules is like cracking Enigma code. Second, the way the medical establishment and private insurance system is organized ensures that Americans get impersonal, redundant medical care for the highest cost, a subject I will discuss in my next column.
Any one who has had the simplest test done at a hospital become bewildered by the flurry of bills: two or three from different departments of the hospital, one from each doctor, one from the janitor, several from persons you never heard of. It is easy to imagine that the process is impenetrable on purpose.
Republicans like to talk about shopping for health care as if it were like shopping for a television.
Try it.
The sleazy used car dealers down the side streets are paragons of openness and disclosure when compared with the business end of the health care industry.
