Maiello: Defeat the Press
Ramona: Pointers on Bad Disaster Coverage
Miami Fans Mistakenly Chant "Let's Go Eat" During Playoff Game
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Maiello: Defeat the Press Ramona: Pointers on Bad Disaster Coverage Miami Fans Mistakenly Chant "Let's Go Eat" During Playoff Game |
Blowing |
At first I was not going to open the e-mail I got from my brand new Congressman this morning because I expected it to be the same-old-same-old that I have received in the past from my Congress critters telling me what they think about the latest issues. What a pleasant surprise it was instead to be asked what I think for a change -- and the choices were not phrased all that leading. Here they are:
Not at all sleepy. It's just brimming with post WW2 optimism.
On December 23, 2011, the dons of Harvard University finally got to see Adam Wheeler sentenced to a year in prison. Wheeler, a twenty-five-year-old whom they admitted in 2007 on the strength of an academic record he’d fabricated out of thin air, had been caught again—and this was not something a young gentleman does to America’s most highly self-regarded institution of advanced credentialing.
How good are you at guessing what TV shows are popular where? I was surprised by some of what AdAge's two new interactive maps revealed.
Top Network Shows by County Type
Counties have been assigned descriptive demographic labels like Boom Town, Tractor Country, Moneyed Burbs, Minority Central, Evangelical Epicenters, Service Worker Centers, Immigration Nation, etc. It's a marketing site. [Read more]
If you haven't already seen today's xkcd cartoon, I hope you will take a few minutes to look at some interesting, some amusing and some appalling information about how much different things cost in 2011 dollars.
If, like me, you think that dollars or whatever token form money takes represent human time and energy, then xkcd has seriously underestimated the total economic productivity of the human race so far at $2,396,500,000,000,000. [Read more]
In attempting to avert catastrophic climate change and/or replace petroleum as our primary energy source, are we inadvertently hastening it? That is the question that came to mind after studying these images and their accompanying article, Geotimes - April 2008 - Desert Power: A Solar Renaissance: [Read more]
"I've been browsing through conservative websites tonight, and the amount of crowing over the 'Obama downgrade' is really pretty remarkable. S&P made it crystal clear that brinksmanship over the debt ceiling was the reason for the downgrade, and Republicans not only provoked the brinksmanship and bragged about it for months, but have since gleefully promised to repeat their performance at every opportunity. And yet they're now insisting that this is all Obama's fault. It's a display of chutzpah that's shameless even by their standards." [Read more]
My reply to A Better Payroll Tax Cut | ThinkProgress
How can I convince you that what you are considering is in reality a general pay cut.
What is a payroll tax to employers is a form of compensation to employees. In the case of FICA it is deferred compensation in the form of a retirement annuity. Last year's cut letting employees take the compensation now rather deferring to retirement was one thing but now to even consider cutting the employer's portion without requiring that it be passed on to employees is effectively a cut in their pay and a windfall to the employers.
Of course owners and the self-employed will love the idea but don't progressives generally support labor? [Read more]
A bridge collapsed over Skagit River tonight near Mount Vernon. This was on Interstate 5 both north bound and south bound, four lanes total. No word yet on how many cars went into the water. This is so sad. How many of these will we have to have before we start financing infrastructure? Most of our bridges are in sad shape.
I'm not sure how many of you have read the Seattle newspaper The Stranger. "Goldy" is a sudonym (I hope I spelled that right) - the writer is pretty hardcore and unrelenting on many progressive issues, gun ownership no exception.
By Cass R. Sunstein, Bloomberg View, May 20, 2013
There is no standard definition of the all-important term “wing nut,” so let’s provide one. A wing nut is someone who has a dogmatic commitment to an extreme political view (“wing”) that is false and at least a bit crazy (“nut”).
A wing nut might believe that George W. Bush is a fascist, that Barack Obama is a socialist, that big banks run the Department of the Treasury or that the U.S. intervened in Libya because of oil.
When wing nuts...
By Elias Groll, Passport @ ForeignPolicy.com, May 22, 2013
[....] The rioting -- the worst social unrest to strike the country in many years -- was sparked by the lethal police shooting of a 69-year-old, knife-wielding man last week in the suburb of Husby, the epicenter of the riots. Roaming gangs of angry youths have since clashed with police and Husby residents have complained of racist treatment by police officers, who they say have used epithets such as "monkey."
What's happening in Husby is clearly a symptom of Sweden's failed effort to integrate its massive immigrant population. Housing segregation is rampant in the country, and Husby is a case study in how immigrant populations have come to dominate Stockholm's outer...