2011 archive
The Coming Electronic Takeover 0
This just doesn’t seem right or fair:
(snip)
The automated toll equipment will not accept cash, debit cards that require use of a PIN, or any card other than Visa or Mastercard. Cash will still be accepted at the main toll plaza between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. daily.
So much for “legal tender.”
Delay-ing Tactics 0
Megan Carpentier, writing at the Guardian, contrasts John Boehner’s leadership with the iron-fisted tactics of Tom Delay, who is currently living off the dole in some penitentiary somewhere.
Boehner may be the only person who could make Tom Delay look good.
A snippet:
A Modest Proposal 0
Jamie of the Intoxination blog has an idea. A snippet:
It’s time to tell them that their benefits are on the line. Let them go out and deal with the insurance companies. Let them and their families get denied care. Make them feel the pain that a vast majority of our nation feels.
Pointing Out the Obvious 0
The Rude One dissects wingnut coverage of a news story, then points out the obvious:
Details of his research (and lots of rudeness) at the link.
Dustbiters 0
More blanked banks. They exceeded their debt ceilings:
-
Integra Bank, National Association, Evansville, Indiana
Twits on Twitter 0
OhMyGov! reports that, although Twitter does not require its users to register as male or female, that analyzing tweets can be revealing:
In other news, they found a nest of twittering twits.
Third Parties 0
The Richmonder observes (emphasis added):
As I remarked in a comment yesterday, I suspect that the folks who astroturfed the Teabaggers are having second thoughts right now.
Facebook Frolics 0
Facebook would pretty much be the last internet place where someone should try to hide. After all, it defaults to naked social:
And guess where.
Victor Burgos was sitting at a computer with his Facebook page open . . . .
Via Dave Barry.
Dett Debt 0
Try the Chinese: It’s Bubblelicious 1
At Asia Times, Mike Davis theorizes that the economies of the European Union, the United States, and China are headed for a collision (he also makes a side trip to the hot rod tales of Henry Felsen, many of which I read). Like almost everything in Asia Times, it’s worth a look.
What caught my eye particularly is this:
In addition to making everything else, China now seems to making its own homegrown banksters, who are adopting the tactics of our own U. S. variant and feeding-frenzying a real estate bubble:
Real-estate speculation, meanwhile, is vacuuming up domestic savings as urban families, faced with soaring home values, rush to invest in property before they are priced out of the market. (Sound familiar?) According to Business Week, residential housing investment now accounts for 9% of the gross domestic product, up from only 3.4% in 2003.
It sounds a lot like the U. S. real estate market, circa 2005.
This can’t be good.
“A Time Most of Us . . . Have Never Seen Before” (Updated) 0
A time of no compromise.
(Hint: The Dems have been trying to compromise.)
Addendum:
Tim F. comments (not on the cartoon, on the situation):
The Republican Party is insane.
Cartoon via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Mary Winter, writing at the Denver Post, takes a look at “strategic defaulters”–persons who walk away from their mortgages because the houses are under water–and asks, “Just who broke a promise with whom?” (emphasis added):
But Paulson had it backwards.
Wall Street bankers, not homeowners, failed to honor their obligations. Bankers took excessive risks, designed loans to generate the greatest number of fees for themselves, pushed no-down and predatory loans on unqualified and financially illiterate customers, and paid lip service to modifications.
When housing collapsed, bankers took $175 billion in taxpayer bailouts and, to show their gratitude, promptly handed out $33 billion in performance bonuses to their executives.
A Dent in Dental 0
Dental deflation:
The going rate nationally per tooth is down to $2.60 from $3.
Three dollars!