2012 archive
Dustbiters 0
Yesterday’s tails of fail. One would think that, eventually, there would be no more banks to blank.
Here is yesterday’s crop of responsible fiscal fatalities. Note that Georgia increased its lead in fast and loose:
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Second Federal Savings and Loan Association of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Heartland Bank, Leawood, Kansas
First Cherokee State Bank, Woodstock, Georgia
Shots Fired 0
I stayed away from the Aurora, Colorado, shootings yesterday, having learned to avoid jumping to conclusions. And, really, what could I add?
If you want to read about it, your best bet for the latest is their local rag.
I suspect that, as the smoke clears, it will turn out to be just another nut with guns exercising his Constitutional right to nuttery, inflicting pain and suffering on anyone in range just because he can.
For another view on gunnuttery and how we talk about it, I recommend this.
Mitt the Flip the Fabrications 0
Rachel Maddow parses the prevarication.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Via Raw Story.
TSA Security Theatre 0
There are seven million stories in the naked airport: Alyona reacts to this story. Also, in part two, the there’s one born every minute dept.
Facebook Frolics 4
Like, no likes, dude. OhMyGov! reports on, like, like botnets:
According to Cluley, most suspect accounts are usually run by a single person operating thousands of profiles via specialized computer software. Most of the fake accounts appear to come from the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.
For corporations, the revelation that most of their social media fans don’t exist may mean a redesign of their social media strategy with more sophisticated media analytics. For government agencies like the U.S. Department of State and Defense–the notion the citizens they serve may also be fake poses a problem for agencies that measure success based on only Facebook.
Bachmann Smearer Overdrive (Updated) 0
Addendum, Later That Same Day:
Dick Polman considers the reaction. A nugget:
Banksters in Training 0
In the San Jose Mercury-News, Victor Dorff describes what he considers a new attitude amongst his students: that cheating is just part of the game.
A nugget:
He goes on to wonder how to combat the cheaters.
Mr. Dorff misses the point.
The students are demonstrating that they can learn from their betters, using proven tactics to master their universe.
They aren’t just copying the answers.
They are copying the success strategies of the rich, the influential, the revered, the kowtowed-to.
The Wall Street.
Twits on Twitter 0
Nerdcore twits:
If you are not quite sure what nerdcore is, Dual Core is probably the best example (warning: the rap is good; the recording isn’t).
QOTD 0
Arthur Ashe, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.
A. P. Ticker’s Scrapple News 0
Scrapple, you will recall, is made from the bits that didn’t make the cut for sausage.
Warning: Good taste shortage (in the video, not in scrapple, at least, not in Habersett brand scrapple; Rapa brand wouldn’t make the cut for Habersett, but that’s another issue).
George Zimmerman: “To God Be the Glory” 3
What is it about whack jobs and God?
Emphasis added.
Toward the end of the hourlong interview, however, Zimmerman backtracked on that statement.
“I do wish there was something, anything I could have done that wouldn’t have put me in a position where I would have had to take a life,” he said. “I do want to tell everyone I’m sorry that this happened. I hate to think that because of this incident, because of my actions, it has polarized, divided America. I’m truly sorry.”
Perhaps he could have started by not stalking the innocent black kid.
I think I shall be ill.
Afterthought:
Note the linguistic passive voice framing which implies that somehow Zimmerman had nothing whatsoever to do with actually pulling the damn trigger.
Sounds like a corporate press release.
Zimmerman’s tale of what happened doesn’t pass the WTF! test.
AfterAfterthought:
Chauncey Devega finds the lesson of the interview:
(snip)
This is the source of their love for Zimmerman, and sincere rage at his arrest and prosecution. If anything, the murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman should have just been a minor inconvenience for all involved–except of course the victim, his family, and community. He is just a black anyway, so what’s the big deal? They die everyday in America and no one cares either way.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Have fun in the summer, but, please, do so politely.
A few minutes later, police received a call about shots fired in the first block of Cummings Avenue. Upon officers’ arrival, they found three homes and vehicle parked in front of one of the homes had been shot multiple times, Price said.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
(snip)
Estimates for first-time claims ranged from 350,000 to 390,000 in the Bloomberg News survey of 47 economists. The Labor Department initially reported the prior week’s applications at 350,000.
It’s called “shutdown” and happens every year in the late summer.
Also, Bloomberg’s experts continue their pattern of not being the persons to ask for help help in picking the ponies.
Aside:
Look, I know it would be extraordinarily difficult to predict next week’s figures with accuracy. On a percentage basis, they aren’t off by much.
That’s not why I keep harping on this. Given how difficult the prediction would be, why the heck does Bloomberg make such a big deal about the numbers missing their touts’ predictions? Their experts’ failure, low or high, is almost always in the first one or two paragraphs of the story.
One wonders whether maybe Vinnie or The Snake is running numbers based on Bloomberg’s “experts.”