May, 2016 archive
Plus Ca Change 0
Tony Norman suggests that the past is repeating itself once more all over again redundantly.
Read it.
Meanwhile, comes this from Paul Berge:
Image via The Bob and Chez Show Blog.
Alphabet (in the) Soup 0
Google’s parent company revealed as investor in loan shark payday lender which has been banned from Google search results for being morally dubious.
So much for “Don’t be evil.”
Keeping Children in Suspense 0
I don’t remember anyone having been suspended when I was in school, and certainly not in elementary school. One fellow came close in high school: He grew his hair out into a “Beatles haircut,” which was quite scandalous at the time. When the principal told him cut his hair, he shaved his head. He was forced to wear a toboggan cap until his hair grew out . . . .
From the Roanoke Times (more at the link):
Among the findings in the Legal Aid Justice Center’s report, “Suspended Progress”:
- One-fifth of all suspensions in the state went to students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade;
- Nonviolent offenses like “disruption,” “defiance” and “disrespect” accounted for the majority of suspensions;
- Black students and those with disabilities were suspended disproportionately to their peers.
Looks to me as if they are suspending kids for being uppity. Now, we can’t have any uppity, now, can we, not here in the South?
Perhaps this might have something to do with it.
QOTD 0
Kerry Greenwood:
If the Lord had meant for us to wear pointy shoes, he’d have put our big toe in the middle.
I may had said it before, but I shall say it again.
Kerry Greenwood makes words dance.
Five Seed Bread 0
I have a new podcast up at Hacker Public Radio.
It is quite well-bread.
You too can podcast at HPR. The topic need only be of interest to hackers, and everything is of interest to hackers.
H/T to Dave Morriss for fixing the typo in the shownotes.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Drive politely.
He then flagged down an officer on the side of the highway and tried to claim that someone else shot him, Capt. Walter Busby said. An investigation revealed it was an accidental self-inflicted shot, according to police on the scene.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Somewhat better.
(snip)
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, rose to a seasonally adjusted 275,750 from 268,250 in the prior week.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits decreased by 13,000 to 2.15 million in the week ended May 7.
Rules 0
I was at a political function this past weekend. One of my acquaintances was kvetching about complaints from Sanders supporters about some primaries, specifically, complaints that they “had not been allowed to vote,” when, in fact, the issue was that they had not ensured that they were properly registered to vote.
Virginia is an open primary state, but many states have “closed primaries,” which means that, if you wish to vote in a party primary, you must be a registered to vote as a member of that party. If you wish to vote in the Democratic primary, you must be registered as a Democrat; in the Republican primary, registered as a Republican; in the Green Party primary, registered as a Green, and so on. Delaware, where I used to live, was a “closed primary” state.
This is nothing new.
Sanders supporters who were not registered as Democrats were not allowed to vote in Democratic primaries in closed primary states, and, frankly, that was their own damn fault.
“How simple would it have been,” fumed my acquaintance, “for Bernie to tell his supporters to register to vote.”
For more about rules, see Balloon Juice.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Honor thy father and thy mother with thy politeness.
A Mississippi woman was severely injured on Tuesday after her son accidentally shot her in the face.
WDAM reported that Richard Lawrence told officers he was sitting in his truck showing his mother his new .38 caliber pistol when the gun mistakenly discharged, shooting the woman in the face.
Thus passeth another day
in the garden of the NRA.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Republican Voter ID laws were a con from the git-go (we knew that, of course), and the Republicans supporting them knew they were a con (we were certain of that also, and now certainty becomes knowledge). From AmericaBLOG:
According to Allbaugh, as reported by the Wisconsin State Journal, “State Sen. Mary Lazich, urging fellow Republican senators to enact a voter ID requirement in a closed-door meeting in 2011, told her colleagues to consider its impact in the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and the state’s college campuses” and “Congressman Glenn Grothman, serving at that time as a state senator, said in the same meeting that he supported voter ID because it would help Republicans win elections.” Allbaugh also quoted Grothman as saying in a closed-door meeting with his Republican colleagues that “What I’m concerned about here is winning,” with respect to his justification for voting in favor of the law.
Meta: KCEA 0
From time to time, I have posted music that I first heard on KCEA-FM, always with a link to KCEA, the radio station of the Menlo-Atherton, California, school district.
KCEA is currently moving its studio. It’s still broadcasting, but the stream is not available.
If you want music that swings and miss KCEA, try the 1920s Radio Network, which happens to be affiliated with my local NPR stations.
I have more links to music that swings, but those two are the best. If you are interested in the others, just ask or go to Icecast or Shoutcast.
