March, 2014 archive
Citizens Benighted 0
Dick Polman looks at Republicans’ genuflection to Sheldon Adelson this past weekend and sums up today’s political process (emphasis added):
Driftglass has his own take on this.
That Sinking Feeling 0
(Short commercial that will make you think of this at the beginning.)
Read the accompanying article.
Afterthought:
We were wrong. Cali will not fall into the sea because of an earthquake. It will sink into oblivion because of climate change.
It is likely not a good idea to build farms in a desert.
A Rum Choice 0
Shaun Mullen tries to figure out who was less competent as Secretary of Defense: Robert McNamara or Donald Rumsfeld. Click to find out who wins.
They are “An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Another gun that just went off all by its lonesome, because inanimate objects animate themselves at the confluence of gun nut and stupid.
Words fail me.
Amateur Hours (and Hours and Hours and Hours) 0
Jordan Weissmann explores NLRB Director Peter Ohr’s reason for ruling that Northwestern University’s football players are employees of the Uni and not amateurs enjoying frolics for fun on fall afternoons. A nugget:
Why not? Because math:
- Players spend 50 to 60 hours a week on football during a training camp before school starts.
- They also dedicate 40 to 50 hours per week on football during the four-month season. “Not only is this more hours than many undisputed full-time employees work at their jobs, it is also many more hours than the players spend on their studies,” Ohr writes. They spend 20 hours per week in class and more doing homework, sure, but they also work on football outside of official practice time. Ohr’s equation also doesn’t seem to take into account the offseason. But, he writes, it “cannot be said” that they “spend only a limited number of hours performing their athletic duties.”
Read the rest, then turn off that college basketball game.
TSA Security Theatre 0
The resident curmudgeon at my local rag is fed up.
(Then, again, she’s usually fed up, as her SOP is that “other persons don’t deserve nice things.” This time, though, she gets one right.)
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Show politeness at the gun show.
Too stupid to touch guns, let alone sell them . . . .
Chris-Crossed 0
Steven M. thinks that Chris Christie may have closed crossed a bridge too far.
Read the rest, where he expands on his point.
In other news, the Rude One sums up the conclusions of the report in three words.
