November, 2013 archive
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Things are getting creepier in Texas.
He’s going to try again Monday with a copy of his birth certificate in hand.
Can anyone seriously believe that anything about this law was legitimate and above-board?
Details at the link.
Facebook Frolics 0
College students who drink too much apparently violate Facebook’s “community standards.”
Without college students drinking too much, what would be on Facebook? And when did Facebook get “community standards”?
As far as I can tell, Facebook’s “community standards” are things of convenience, a movable feast, a convenient foxhole, a hiding place for the zuckers.
Old N(SA)ews 4
In Japan Times, Gregory Clark says there’s not much there there in the fuss over the NSA’s internet vacuum cleaner’s indiscriminately sucking up signals and that, furthermore, the only folks who didn’t know this sort of stuff was happening are folks who don’t pay attention.
He suggests that the real danger is corruption of the public discourse through the use of misinterpreted or twisted information. A nugget:
Over Iraq, bogus reports of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear ambitions (the “mushroom cloud”) and phony al-Qaida links (by a regime dedicated to suppressing al-Qaida?) were all fed into that “twilight world” to call for an attack that today no one even tries to justify.
As the U.S. and U.K. try to dig themselves out of the current diplomatic mess created by their runaway spy agencies, both like to insist they have not used spy information for economic gain. But that is untrue; business information is a major target for all such agencies, especially since it usually falls into the easily code-breakable category.
Read the rest.
The Friendly Skies 0
Forget the Dramamine.
Pack heat. It is the in thing.
Just this week, TSA discovered 29 guns, 27 of which were loaded and nine had rounds chambered ready to be fired, according to information posted on the agency’s website. Screeners have found pistols hidden in tape decks, inside boots, in the lining of carry-on bags and even one that was disguised to look like a writing pen.
I’m not a big fan of the TSA as a concept or as an organization–there’s too much meaninglessly intrusive security theatre–but this makes me more sympathetic to it in theory and reality.
“Compassionate Conservative” Is an Oxymoron 0
Republicans demand, “Say ‘thank you, master, do it again.'”
“This is nothing short of catastrophic,” said Bill Clark, executive director of Philabundance, the largest hunger-relief agency in the region. “We’re looking at a whole lot of hurt.”
Because nothin’ says lovin’ like nothin’ in the oven.
Pah!
“Teapublicans” 0
in the Roanoke Times, F. D. Bloss is fed up:
(snip)
The tea party-dominated GOP, now a Fifth Column, will continue to provoke government shutdowns unless we defeat tea party candidates at the ballot box.
Remember, voting is not a right, it’s a duty.
Do read the rest.
Ricin Beans 3
George Smith harpoons the hysteria over castor beans and ricin.
Science (gasp!) at the link.
Afterthought:
It’s been within that last several weeks that I saw a major network’s TV detective show (can’t remember which one) that propagated the ricin myth.
Cellular Happenings 0
This is a hoot.
It’s a good time to remember another radio scare – the amoeba that attacked Charlotte.
On Aug. 4, 1965, in the spirit of fun, a disc jockey named Rick Fight at the old pop music WIST-AM broke into his afternoon show to report the urgent news that an amoeba was loose in the city.
A Picture Is Worth 0
So much for the claim that the ACA is hurting people:
As TWiB pointed out, the fact that a very small percentage of persons might have to pay more is old news (yes, it’s a long listen, but worth it–subscribe; I did). And, in the great majority of cases, the plans that are no longer “allowable” are no longer allowable because, to be blunt about it, they suck.
And what’s the Republican alternative? As Alan Grayson said, it’s
Don’t get sick. If you do get sick, die quickly.
Me, I’m just trying to stay alive until I qualify for Medicare.
My individual policy premium is going up next year, but that’s because my age keeps going up. Beats the alternative, as far as I am concerned.
Via TPM, which has commentary.
Rand Gestures 0
No there, there.
Is there something emptier than an empty suit? Emptiest suit, maybe?
What It Was Was Football 0
Daniel Ruth reviews Greg Easterbrook’s The King of Sports: Football’s Impact on America.
Just read the review–you don’t even need to read the book–to join me in my disgust at big-time football.