2011 archive
Mitt the Flip: No There There 0
One thing is certain:
Mitt cannot be accused of selling out.
To sell out, one must have a principle to put on the market.
Everybody Must Get Fracked 1
One of the trucks stops at Ron and Jean Carter’s home and refills a 550-gallon plastic “water buffalo” container that supplies the couple with water for bathing, cleaning clothes and washing dishes. A loud hissing noise emanates from the vent stack that was connected to the Carters’ water well to prevent an explosion Ñ an indication, they say, the well is still laced with dangerous levels of methane.
Recent testing confirms that gas continues to lurk in Dimock’s aquifer.
Pennsylvania has started monitoring their gas Galtian overlords more closely, despite the best efforts of their wingnut governor, because the public demands it.
The industry continues to claim it saw nothing, it was not there, it did not even get up that morning.
Stray Thought 0
I cannot help but wonder whether these folks could have found work with a Wall Street bank.
In an Age of an Age . . . 0
Given that one’s date of birth is likely a matter of public record, this would seem rather frivolous.
The actress is not named in the lawsuit filed Thursday that refers to her as Jane Doe. It says she lives in Texas and is of Asian descent and has an Americanized stage name.
I’m certain that the lawyers will make out all right.
Hands across the Sea . . . 0
Right wing hands, that is.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Banks were giving short shrift to short sales.
Now there’s a drift to a shift in the shrift to short sales.
This may give the market a lift.
The transactions, known as short sales, typically change hands at a discount of about 20 percent to homes not in financial distress, compared with a 40 percent price cut for bank-owned homes, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Short sales jumped 19 percent in the second quarter from the prior three months while foreclosure sales were flat, the data seller said.
A Modest Proposal 0
Barbara Brotman, writing at the Chicago Trib, suggests a strategy for keeping debit card charges in check.
Paying by check.
She describes the experience:
Clerks fall silent, perplexed. They summon supervisors to ask what they should do.
At one store, I was escorted to a special register staffed by someone who still knew the ancient ways: The taking of the driver’s license, the request for the home phone number, the electronic petitioning of the check approval gods.
It won’t work, of course. If persons start writing checks for $0.79 cups of coffee, merchants will refuse them (as well they should–remember “minimum check payment” signs?) and banks will levy fees on them.
Flash from the Past:
When I got my first checking account, back before banks discovered that composing seductive deceptive fine print paid better dealing above the board, there was a 10 cent fee per check.
No one thought twice about it.
The bank was providing a service and deserved reasonable remuneration.
It’s when they went after unreasonable remuneration that they turned down the wrong path.
Facebook Frolics 0
It’s a frolicking federal case:
Anthony Douglas Elonis, 28, was charged in January with interstate communication of threats.
When federal defender Benjamin Brait Cooper asked agent Denise Stevens if she could explain “disclaimers” that Elonis made with the alleged threats, she said she didn’t know how to. Later, she said the disclaimers “actually made [the posts] seem more threatening to me.”
For example, in a Nov. 6, 2010, post about his estranged wife, Tara, Elonis wrote: “Did you know that it’s illegal for me to say I want to kill my wife? . . . Now, it was OK for me to say it right then because I was just telling you that it’s illegal for me to say I want to kill my wife. I’m not actually saying it.”
QOTD 0
Eleanor Roosevelt, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.
Occupy Hallowe’en 0
Mike Gruss, writing in the local rag, conjures up the scariest costume of all: Dress as a Occupy Wall Street protestor:
This is what makes this, the protester, such a hideously frightening Halloween costume. People don’t like to be told by scary ordinary folks that things aren’t going well. They want politicians to tell them things aren’t going well. Otherwise, it’s eerie.
Follow the link for costume hints (and an exceptionally good Gruss column).
Black Teabags 0
Clarence Page takes a look at the racist undertones of teabaggery. A nugget:
“I don’t believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way,” he told CNN recently. Had he contended too many African-Americans use racism as an excuse for failure to succeed and even failure to try, Cain would have gotten no grief from me; I’ve made that argument often.
(snip)
But what made the claim truly bizarre is that two days later, Cain branded himself a victim of racism. Specifically, he said some black people are “racist” because they disagree with his politics. So blacks aren’t held back by racism, but Cain is?
Lord, give me strength.
Click to read the rest.
QOTD 0
Dwight D. Eisenhower, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Un-American activity cannot be prevented or routed out by employing un-American methods; to preserve freedom we must use the tools that freedom provides.
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
At Philly dot com, Jeff Gelles cites banks’ complaints that they are wounded, yea! to the quick! by having their swipe fees regulated, then asks:
Follow the link to read his summary of the history of swipe fees (hint: they increased as the number of competitors providing debit cards decreased) and his answer to his question.