2011 archive
Birds in the Bush 0
When the parents return to the nest with food for the tykes, they take a roundabout path, dodging, pausing, doubling back, while frequently looking around. I’m no birdologist, but it appears to me that they’re being cautious to avoid leading predators back to the nest.
No birds were touched in the taking of this photograph.
Gang of Six Warfare 0
Pure political theatre.
Any “big solution to a big problem” conceived in crisis mode is likely to solve nothing.
Nevertheless, I appreciate that President Obama has to play the hand he has been dealt from the bottom of the deck by the three-card monte dealers called the Republican Party.
The good part starts about halfway through, when the subject of Allen West (R., Cyberbully) comes up.
When Life Gives You Lemons . . . 0
. . . break something.
“I hit the first $25,000 car I could see,” Cross told the Herald. “I didn’t hit a car under $20,000. Then I moved a van that they wouldn’t come down on the price for. I moved it with the lemon they sold me. I just held it to the floor until I couldn’t move it anymore. I took out seven vehicles, including my own.”
The public is rallying to his defense.
Via Dave Barry.
QOTD 0
Jessamyn West, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
How can you tell whether or not you have had enough until you’ve had a little too much?
Bible Thumpers 0
It seems to have been part of a variation of the old badger game, in which theft, rather than extortion, was the goal:
Like so many who recommend reading the Bible, they ignore the messages.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Standing Up for the Budget 0
The Stand-Up Economist on how it works:
We don’t have a budget deficit because the left wing believes in mandates, or because the right wing believes in markets. We have a budget deficit because the centrist voters believe in magic!
Via DelawareLiberal.
A Modest Proposal 1
I have a pretty low opinion of Ralph Nader.
His best days are far behind him, and his fits of scolding everyone have become tiresome.
Then there’s that enabling George the Worst thing.
But I must admit that he raises a good question in a recent column in the Chicago Trib, to wit (I’m paraphrasing here):
Read it.
Fake Fruit 0
Counterfeiting entire walled orchard fruit stands, er, Apple Stores, in China.
There is no truth to the rumor that I’m starting that they were inspired by Wall Street Banks, who posed as legitimate businesses with solid products while selling bags of air securitized mortgages and credit default swaps.
“It looked like an Apple store. It had the classic Apple store winding staircase and weird upstairs sitting area. The employees were even wearing those blue T-shirts with the chunky Apple name tags around their necks,” she wrote on her blog.
The scale of the operation does inspire a sort of grudging admiration.
More at the link.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
For all practical purposes, no change:
QOTD 1
H. L. Mencken, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
It was morality that burned the books of the ancient sages, and morality that halted the free inquiry of the Golden Age and substituted for it the credulous imbecility of the Age of Faith. It was a fixed moral code and a fixed theology which robbed the human race of a thousand years by wasting them upon alchemy, heretic-burning, witchcraft and sacerdotalism.
Oscar Material 0
“Duck, Dodge, and Dismantle” 2
Aside:
The interviewer spins wheels to get her to commit to concessions.
Of course, if she did so, they would not longer be “concessions.”
They would be the starting point in the next round of talks.
(I nearly wrote “negotiations” instead of “talks,” but there aren’t any “negotiations.” It takes two to “negotiate.” Going limp on the floor and yelling “my way or the highway” in Republican fashion is not “negotiating.”)
Cantor’s Cant 0
Scott Lehigh of the Boston Globe reviews documents that Eric Cantor claims support his budgetary positions and finds out that–surprise–they do not.
It doesn’t get much more revealing than that.
Follow the link for the evidence.
Medicare or Millionaires 0
Which do you prefer?
Via TPM, which has the Republican response, q. v.
John Cole comments on said Republican response: