2012 archive
Everybody Must Get Fracked 0
Next up, Utah:
Yet Gasco and the petroleum industry lobby are strong, and their pursuit of profits knows no boundaries. Using their partners in Congress, they’re now tapping into Americans’ frustration over high gasoline prices to pressure President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to approve Gasco’s scheme to develop this wild place. Never mind that drilling for natural gas in Desolation Canyon will do nothing to curb the price we pay for oil-based gasoline, which is set on the global marketplace.
Mitt the Flip and the Bully Pulpit 2
This week, much of Left Blogistan has taken unholy glee in Mitt the Flip’s short career as a barber. Here is an example.
PoliticalProf thinks that focusing on the details of what happened over four decades ago misses the point. He thinks that the intervening four decades carry a lesson of their own:
In other words, I don’t sense that Mitt Romney has made much effort in his life to understand or even empathize with people who aren’t like him.
In a characteristically long and detailed post well-supported with citations, Chauncey Devega also sees and considers an empathy deficit. A nugget:
(snip)
Mitt Romney, prep school bully of the weak and vulnerable, corporate raider bully who takes pleasure in terminating employees, nominee of a political party of bullies and “real Americans,” and he who wants to be President of the United States, has made it abundantly clear that empathy is not a public virtue to be cultivated or encouraged.
Read both posts in full. Though conceived and published separately, they complement each other most eerily.
Who Owns History? (Sticky)
0
Update: I’m going to stick this at the top of the page for a while. Unstuck.
Chauncey Devega of the We Are Respectable Negroes blog wants to purchase a bit of history.
It might be more accurate to say “ransom,” rather than “purchase”:
TSA Security Theatre 0
It is really all for show.
The Cult of Apple 0
Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.
Cult of Death 0
Truly vile:
Although Martin’s face does not appear on the paper targets, they feature a hoodie with crosshairs aimed at the chest. A bag of Skittles is tucked in the pocket and a hand is holding a can resembling iced tea.
Via Bob Cesca.
Wall Streat Weak 0
At Bloomberg, Jonathan Weil considers J. P. Morgan Chase’s gambling losses and Jamie Dimon’s statements about them. A nugget:
Don’t bother asking JPMorgan how it accumulated all these losses. That information is proprietary, as if the taxpayers who bailed out the bank in 2008 don’t have any business knowing. Here’s an idea for a new rule: If a too-big-to-fail bank can’t disclose what its trading desk is doing for fear of blowing itself up, then the bank shouldn’t be allowed to do it.
The Slippery Slope 0
Excerpt:
I would like to read to you what The Jesus said about homosexuality.
I’d like to but he never said anything about it.
“Freedom Chocolate” 0
In my local rag, Darryl Lease has fun with Michelle Bachmann’s short-lived fling with Swiss citizenship:
The Swiss have universal health care, for crying out loud.
And they’re worse than the French about fighting wars. (I’ve long argued we should rename Swiss cheese “Freedom cheese.” Ditto chocolate.)
Read the rest. It’s quite good fun.
Facebook Frolics, Sharing Is for Others Dept. 0
Loyal to his Mammon.
Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion through the IPO, the biggest in history for an Internet company. Saverin’s stake is about 4 percent, according to the website Who Owns Facebook. At the high end of the IPO valuation, that would be worth about $3.84 billion. His holdings aren’t listed in Facebook’s regulatory filings.
The Law of Unintended Consequences. 0
So, what about that whole self-esteem movement thingy?
Arsenic and Old Plates 0
What’s in your gullet?
Radio Times investigates what’s in our food. From the website:
To listen, follow the link or click here (MP3).
“Not Just for Breakfast Any More” 0
Wait for it.
Bobs for Jabs, Reprise 0
The Richmonder rounds up the dollar cost to taxpayers of treating peaceful protesters as if they were invading aliens.
Read it.
“Ignore the Man Behind the Curtain” 0
If you thought wingnuts were whacky before, wait till the fear that somewhere, sometime, two people might be happy being with each other fully sets in.
Why all the fuss? It’s the misdirection play all over again once more redundantly. As long as minds stay in the bedroom, they overlook the boardroom*:
(snip)
Regressive Republicans have no problem intruding on the most personal and most intimate decisions any of us makes while railing against government intrusions on big business.
They don’t hesitate to hurl the epithets “shameful,” “disgraceful,” and “contemptible” at private moral decisions they disagree with, while staying stone silent in the face of the most contemptible violations of public trust at the highest reaches of the economy.
_____________________
*Pun stolen.
The Fire Next Time 0
The Chicago Tribune investigates “flame retardant” furniture and finds that they do a lot of things–except retard flames:
Follow the link to read the series.