We should all sing some revolting songs.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Actually, Asshole, I Imagine You Don't Understand Their Stress
It is indeed stressful from going from being rich to slightly less rich. I won't deny that. I live pretty well, but my finances aren't exactly perfect or care free. Still I'm pretty sure people with no money have that kind of stress every fucking day of their lives. Jeebus.
People at all income levels have actual problems, including financial ones, but our new elites are quite possibly the worst people who ever lived.
“People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress,” said Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. “Could you imagine what it’s like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?”
People at all income levels have actual problems, including financial ones, but our new elites are quite possibly the worst people who ever lived.
In Love With A Plan To Provide Incentives To Establish A Market For...
Got an email from Senator Sanders about how dental care is fucked up and bullshit in this country. Which it is. I know we're not going to achieve my free health care for all option anytime in the near future, but we really should provide a, uh, public option for basic childhood dental care in this country. No cosmetics, no non-necessary orthodontics, but free clinic for kids to get basic necessary dental care.
More generally, as the money in dentistry is in more cosmetic dentistry it seems we've decided that dental care isn't really medical care. Well a lot of it is. People need their teefers and they need to be free of pain and serious infection.
More generally, as the money in dentistry is in more cosmetic dentistry it seems we've decided that dental care isn't really medical care. Well a lot of it is. People need their teefers and they need to be free of pain and serious infection.
Simple Answer
She (likely) had sex, maybe even enjoyed it, and then became pregnant.
A mystery to childless me is why many parents think shielding their children from knowledge of TEH SEXYTIME is extremely important. Even if that was possible, what purpose does it serve?
A mystery to childless me is why many parents think shielding their children from knowledge of TEH SEXYTIME is extremely important. Even if that was possible, what purpose does it serve?
Boycott Catholic Hospitals
The tragedy is many people don't have a choice, but people who do should stay away from health care institutions that are not interested in actually providing proper health care to half the population.
The Worst Thing About Google
I don't care where in the search results a specific Santorum page pops up, but I hate that their algorithms increasingly seem to favor recently updated sites. That's great for news, because it's, you know, news, but it's made Google increasingly useless as a research tool. Once upon a time if, say, Little Ricky said something stupid, I could do a Google search and easily find if he said a similar stupid thing a few years ago. Now the first several pages of search results will inevitably be just repeated quotes of the current gaffe.
Hey, More Free Money For Banks
Not that it's necessarily the wrong thing to do, but...how about more free money for people who aren't rich assholes with a penchant for destroying the world? It'd be nice if we had more policy options other than "free money for rich assholes." Oh well, you battle global economic meltdown with the corrupt idiotic elites you have...
The Worst People In The World
I think proof that people who comment on newspaper sites are the worst people in the world is that inevitably, in response to a relevant article, someone will actually defend texting-while-driving. None of us are perfect and we all do things we shouldn't, but to actually defend something like that while being mad at critics of it...
Delusion
It's happened bit by bit, I suppose, but at this point the Republicans don't even bother with plausibility.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Journey To The Center Of The Nonsense
I admit I still get a bit surprised when I read/hear otherwise very smart very liberal people singing the greatest hits of David Brooks and the Totebaggers. But then I remember I was sorta there once. The gateways into "Very Serious Stuff" are The Economist, NPR, and the NYT. They vary a bit, but all are basically left-leaning Republican outlets, if left-leaning Republicans existed.
Luckiest Man Alive
In today's really important news, Jaleel "Urkel" White is going to be on Dancing With The Stars. No that doesn't matter at all to me, but I was reminded that years ago I saw or heard an interview with him which really impressed me. Basically he was saying that despite some obvious negative consequences of spending several years playing a character like that, he still thought he was incredibly lucky to have had the part and he'd be quite happy to play it until he died. It was a good job, paid him real money, and that was something to be grateful for. Know nothing else about the guy, but thought that was pretty healthy.
Changing Just A Little Bit
I think the important factoid to add to this is that DC vehicle registrations are flat during a time of growing population and growing affluence. This (mostly) isn't about the recession or poor people not being able to afford cars, it's about people deciding they don't want to bother with one.
I imagine there's a pretty big peer group effect to all of this, a bit of a tipping point. It's easier for me to not have a car because most of my friends don't have cars. People don't propose plans based on the assumption that all involved have cars. There's no regular "need" for one.
Cars are useful things and much of the country is built around them, but even in urban hellholes policy has been focused on the car for too long. Hopefully this will catch up a bit to reality.
I imagine there's a pretty big peer group effect to all of this, a bit of a tipping point. It's easier for me to not have a car because most of my friends don't have cars. People don't propose plans based on the assumption that all involved have cars. There's no regular "need" for one.
Cars are useful things and much of the country is built around them, but even in urban hellholes policy has been focused on the car for too long. Hopefully this will catch up a bit to reality.
Time For Another Blogger Ethics Panel
Back in the early days of blogging, sometime around 8000 BC, many journalists thought the fate of the universe depended on whether or not bloggers had ETHICAL STANDARDS and TRANSPARENCY that didn't exist anywhere else in the universe. They often fretted about the possibility that the beautiful minds of bloggers would be tainted by the immense of amount of filthy lucre being dangled in front of them. Or something. It never made all that much sense, especially as the Washington media is a giant mess of conflicts of interest, financial and otherwise.
I Like Democracy
No I don't think voters will always do the right thing and constitutions should have minority protections and establish basic rights, but unelected assholes who think that some issues are just too much for the electorate to handle (Read: will fail to approve policy path particular unelected asshole wants to implement) have a very different view of how the world should work than I do.
Not Enough Liquor In The World To Get Me Through It
And speaking of lame duck sessions, whatever happens in November, the following two months are likely to be a complete horror show. Which is, of course, why the assholes with a penchant for destroying the world want to keep it behind closed doors as long as possible.
Theft
When a billion bucks or so goes "missing" it isn't due to complexity, or accounting errors, or those crazy moments right before the firm went bankrupt. It's theft. The money was stolen from customers and then given to somebody else. Precisely why, by who, and to whom are questions that should be answered, but the underlying issue shouldn't be obscured. People were robbed.
"Real Talk"
Um, Ezra? That "real talk" is just the latest in the endless series of "Democracy is too messy for voters" from the assholes who helped to destroy the world. Major tax overhaul in a lame duck congressional session without any consent from the voters. Awesome!!!! REAL TALK!!!
Monday, February 27, 2012
I Wanna Be Sedated
Some days I vacuum up too much of the internet into my noggin. Discussion topic for the evening:
When was the golden age of cinema? Feel free to narrow your answer to the golden age of the Oscars if you wish.
When was the golden age of cinema? Feel free to narrow your answer to the golden age of the Oscars if you wish.
Not The Most Important Thing In The World
The people involved are likely well-meaning, but stupid. It's a problem, there's an easy fix, and I look forward to some good (hopefully) ramen in the urban hellhole.
And Justice For All
I suppose I'm cranky and cynical these days, because I don't really think equal justice is a priority for the people in charge right now. They may have their reasons, some of them even good ones, but ultimately we have justice for rich people and institutions and justice for everybody else. In United States, bank robs you!
Deep Thought
The good news is that in 2017, President Rubio will be able to reinvade Iraq in order to overthrow its brutal dictatorship.
But Nobody Actually Has To Pay
Forgetting the particulars of existing laws and treaties, conceptually nobody actually has to pay for Greece! The ECB can print free money and give it to Greece. Or Greece can default, and the ECB can give money to the banksters. To some extent, this has been happening anyway, if in more indirect ways. There are some potential costs of doing this (moral hazard, inflation), but it's really hard to see how those potential costs outweigh the obvious current actual costs. Unless you're the sociopathic assholes who run the world.
Nice Religious Freedom You Have There, Have Fun Trying To Destroy It
As is so often the case I feel the need to make a rather obvious point here, but the only possible reasons for religious people to really want the government to get more involved in religion are either a) you really really really want theocracy, which doesn't really have anything to do with religious freedom (let's call this the evil reason) or b) you really don't understand that "religion" does not actually precisely equal "your religion" (let's call this the stupid reason). I'm sure there are people in column a) and column b), but I find the latter to be fairly fascinating. Is their exposure to the world really so limited? Has it not occurred to them, driving around, that all of the names given to the various Christian denominations might suggest that there are genuine differences in belief and practice? There are obvious important questions religious people should be asking about some of our dumber perennial controversies, such as when we're discussing organized prayer in schools, the question for religious people should probably be,"which prayers?"
The Rot At The Top
Decades later, it's amazing how the effectiveness of the strategy, in the US and abroad, of demonizing the poor for getting a few extra bucks per week, while rich assholes take all the money, persists.
The Wage Is Too Damn Low
Even in England and the rest of Yurp there are plenty of places where car ownership is close to being a necessity, but it's also increasingly just too costly. It's one thing to not own a car, but here we have a trend of people just not bothering to ever get licenses.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
When They All Didn't Just Get Along
The truce in the war within Christianity has caused some of them to forget very recent history.
Secular atheists/agnostics are not a threat to religious freedom in this country and never have been. It's those who want the government to think their religion is just a little more special who are.
Secular atheists/agnostics are not a threat to religious freedom in this country and never have been. It's those who want the government to think their religion is just a little more special who are.
Marcy Wheeler & David Dayen on Virtually Speaking
Much as I hate to prematurely interrupt a thread, emptywheel and dday talking with each other on this special Oscars Edition of Virtually Speaking Sundays, is coming up up in about 15 minutes and should be rewarding to listen to.
Sunday On Fred Hiatt's Crayon Scribble Page
The front page of wapo.com's "Columns and Blogs" section tells me I can choose from Colbert King, Kathleen Parker, David Ignatius, George F. Will, and Danielle Pletka and pal.
Sunday Bobbleheads
This Week has Santorum, Rick Snyder, and Deval Patrick.
Face the Nation has Governors YellsOnYouTube and O'Malley.
Meet the Press has Jerry Brown, Jan Brewer, and Santorum.
Document the atrocities!
Face the Nation has Governors YellsOnYouTube and O'Malley.
Meet the Press has Jerry Brown, Jan Brewer, and Santorum.
Document the atrocities!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Tort
The way the civil lawsuit thing is supposed to work is that people hurt by negligent actions get compensated for what it cost them, and then also receive punitive damages--money intended to discourage the defendant from doing the same thing to other people.
Once in a while there is a case with a large plaintiff award that seems to be absolutely outrageous. The archetypal case is the old lady who spilled McDonald's coffee on herself, and got awarded a zillion dollars.
Except the tort system in this case worked.
There's a movie.
It turns out she really was badly hurt, and she didn't get a zillion dollars. Most importantly, the punitive damages led McDonald's to stop serving scaldingly hot coffee.
That's how it's supposed to work.
Deep Thought
The subject of this blog post is drawing attention from the most important issue of the day.
Theater
I'm curious whether anyone in the Romney campaign thought they would really come anywhere near filling this stadium, or filling it enough to not look completely absurd, or if they just expected the press to portray the show as scripted instead of the show as it really was. They do the former quite often...until they don't. It's rather weird.
Shred
Heckuva job.
Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua ordered aides to shred a 1994 memo that identified 35 Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of sexually abusing children, according to a new court filing.
...
During 10 appearances before a grand jury in 2003 and 2004, Bevilacqua denied knowing details or playing a significant role in the handling of sex-abuse complaints, saying he delegated those duties to Lynn.
"I saw no evidence at any time that we did any cover-up," he testified.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Obvious Point
If the government is paying a private firm run by cronies oodles of money to transition people to jobs, they are unlikely to get much value for their money if there aren't any jobs.
Who's The Boss
Not the Greek government or the people who elect them anymore. Their entire stock of wealth is going to be extracted.
Extraction
I guess the evolution of the scam goes something like this: first start overpaying cronies to do stuff. So, you know, at the local level you overpay for trash removal or bus service, but at least there's trash removal or bus service. At the national level you overpay for military toys. At least military toys get made, and perhaps even some useful R&D comes out of it. Not my preferred way to spend money, but at least something's happening.
Then people realize that's all a lot of work. Best to just stop providing useful public services altogether, and instead just find ways to download taxpayer money into the bank accounts of your rich friends. So, run a big financial company into the ground. Run a company whose job it is to provide free labor to private companies. That sort of thing.
Then people realize that's all a lot of work. Best to just stop providing useful public services altogether, and instead just find ways to download taxpayer money into the bank accounts of your rich friends. So, run a big financial company into the ground. Run a company whose job it is to provide free labor to private companies. That sort of thing.
Light Some More Money On Fire
Governments take over the worst companies in the world, and than taxpayers pay people obscene amounts of money to run them into the ground.
Meanwhile, connected cronies are making large amounts of money by handing over the unemployed to companies for free labor. So it's all good really.
Lloyds Banking Group has painted a subdued outlook for the UK economy as the bailed out bank revealed it had plunged to a £3.5bn loss in 2011 and would pay out £375m in bonuses.
Meanwhile, connected cronies are making large amounts of money by handing over the unemployed to companies for free labor. So it's all good really.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Putting Some People In Prison Might Work
They walked off with a billion bucks. Absent prison, I imagine many others will be inspired to imitate. And why not?
Disappearance. It just disappeared. Poof!
Federal regulators are narrowing a list of possible new safeguards for customers at futures firms, a response to the collapse of MF Global and the disappearance of more than $1 billion in client cash.
Disappearance. It just disappeared. Poof!
Ungrateful
Such a funny world.
Stoesser and other farmers know Iraqis struggled during the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation. They know most countries , and people , buy based on price.
...
"That's just not right," the 63-year-old Stoesser fumed. "If we've got some rice to sell, they ought to pay a premium for it just because this is the country that freed them."
Fine Citizens
Stealing homes, then destroying them and their communities.
Across the country, big banks and other large investors are buying up tens of thousands of foreclosed rental properties. They're not always model landlords, according to tenants and regulators. Some banks are failing to follow local and state housing codes, leaving tenants to live in squalor — without even a number to call in the most dire situations.
I Thought We Fixed All This
Isn't looking forward going to solve all of our problems?
Banks keep stealing houses. I honestly don't know why the people in charge don't think this is a serious problem. It's a serious problem even if you think deadbeat loser homeowners deserve all of the misery they receive.
Banks keep stealing houses. I honestly don't know why the people in charge don't think this is a serious problem. It's a serious problem even if you think deadbeat loser homeowners deserve all of the misery they receive.
Go Away
I have no idea if the local airport expansion is a good idea, but if it drives out US Air I might go with 'yes, please.'
Light Some More Money On Fire
Bonuses!
If only they could operate as they did before they needed to be taken over by the government!!!
Sir Philip Hampton, appointed chairman after the October 2008 bailout, said that the bank needed to be run on "commercial grounds" if taxpayers were to get their £45bn investment back. The taxpayer is currently sitting on £20bn of losses on its 82% stake, despite the 2% rise in the shares to 28p by 8.30am.
However, the bank ignited the row over City pay as it prepared to pay out bonuses to its 17,000 investment banking staff and even as it attempted to show pay restraint by freezing the salaries of its 10,000 most senior staff and its investment banks. It insisted bonuses were down, but average staff costs inside the investment bank remained steady at £144,000.
If only they could operate as they did before they needed to be taken over by the government!!!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
I Admit I Don't Know
It's easy to observe and joke that there are certain people, like the three stooges in the Senate, who basically want war everywhere all the time. And we can theorize about why they - and those who encourage them - want war everywhere all the time, keeping in mind the fact that different people might have different reasons for this view. But ultimately I don't know why.
Fetus Comes Alive
Things are pretty shitty for a lot of kids in this country. Once upon a time conservatives at least pretended to come up with ways to deal with the various problems. They don't even bother anymore.
Queens
Echoing some commenters, the point isn't that (all of) Queens is some hideous place, it's just that to outsiders New York is basically "Manhattan." People don't want to pay the big bucks to travel to New York and not be near Manhattan. People also don't want to pay the big bucks to travel to New York and then have to be rental car dependent. There's a functioning monorail ride after all, just not one that functions very well in (much of) Queens. The Chicago convention center where Netroots Nation was a few years ago was in kind of a crap isolated location, but it was at least a relatively short cab ride to not crap locations.
The Devil Himself
As much as the Villagers love religious belief, they quickly get uncomfortable when people actually start talking about what religious beliefs actually are, other than believing that women should stop being slutty slut sluts and gay people should go away.
Devils, angels, heaven, hell, purgatory, and, yes, ghosts and other spirits aren't crackpot beliefs, if by crackpot we mean nutty and rare. They're common. I'm not the one to ask about support for these beliefs in scripture, because I don't know and don't much care, but regardless lots of people believe in this stuff and attach it to their religion.
Also, too, The Omen was a biopic.
Devils, angels, heaven, hell, purgatory, and, yes, ghosts and other spirits aren't crackpot beliefs, if by crackpot we mean nutty and rare. They're common. I'm not the one to ask about support for these beliefs in scripture, because I don't know and don't much care, but regardless lots of people believe in this stuff and attach it to their religion.
Also, too, The Omen was a biopic.
How Could You Completely Fail To Understand Your Own City
You'd have to be insane to think that some out of the way spot in Queens would actually draw big conventions.
The Plan So Far
So this is the current plan for Greece:
1) Make everyone poorer (well, not EVERYONE, of course)
2) ...
3) MASSIVE GROWTH WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I suspect there might be a flaw in this plan.
1) Make everyone poorer (well, not EVERYONE, of course)
2) ...
3) MASSIVE GROWTH WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I suspect there might be a flaw in this plan.
Half The Population And A Few Of Them Vote
The script plays out pretty much the same way every time the Republicans plant the flag in the uterus. A bunch of men take to the teevee and the op-ed pages talking about the "culture war" (what the fuck is that anyway) and slutty slut slut sluts. Everyone concludes the Dems should cower in fear and come up with their own mandatory chastity belt plan. Then, slowly, it begins to occur to people that maybe the womenfolk are people too and have a few opinions on this stuff.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
You Are Horrible People
My twitter machine feed was filled with retweets of something from the "JFKjrForum" by the monkey who runs the Mark Warner twitter account. Apparently there are a bunch of people there who think interest rates are going to spike to 7% unless we cut granny off from the teat. Or something.
I used to be slightly more open to this stuff, totebagger style. You know, reasonable people can disagree, blahblahblah. But these are just corrupt and evil people who want to steal all of that money. Not sure when I finally understood that, but much later than I should have.
I used to be slightly more open to this stuff, totebagger style. You know, reasonable people can disagree, blahblahblah. But these are just corrupt and evil people who want to steal all of that money. Not sure when I finally understood that, but much later than I should have.
North Philly Rising
I love the urban hellhole, but a few years ago I probably wouldn't have expected that this kind of project would be possible.
It isn't all good. Full details beyond the scope of this post, but there's been some deliberate "slum clearing" going on here. I generally think gentrification concerns are overblown, but there's a difference between relatively slow neighborhood evolution and policy aimed at cleaning out the riffraff.
It isn't all good. Full details beyond the scope of this post, but there's been some deliberate "slum clearing" going on here. I generally think gentrification concerns are overblown, but there's a difference between relatively slow neighborhood evolution and policy aimed at cleaning out the riffraff.
A Minor Plea To Some Random Dudes On The Internet
I know a lot of you are mostly well-meaning and a bit late to this party, but nobody really cares about the precise nature of how and which abortions give you an icky feeling. Either you're pro-choice or you aren't. The rest is, at best, booooooring.
The Golden Age Of Television
I don't think the issues are simple or that everything should be free, but I do think (and the issues differ between music, movie, TV industries) that big content producers underestimate the degree to which THE INTERNETS promote and encourage interest in their products. From a pure consumer perspective, television, in particular, is much much better than it ever was. The longer form story telling which is relatively new, a departure from the 'make shows that people can watch in any order on the reruns' era, is made possible because people know they can, one way or another, legally or illegally, catch up on episodes they missed because they weren't glued to the box at the right moment.
Go, Ricky, Go
As I've said, I appreciate Rick Santorum drawing lines around his beliefs. I have no interest in religion in politics, but for too long we've had this basic agreement that "religion (Christiany/Jewishy religion) is good for politicians but let's agree not to disagree too much in public."
Fraud
There's one phrase that seems to be a magic "oh it's ok then" for any fraud committed by the lovely people in the financial industry. It's "the borrower was behind a couple of payments." First, you shouldn't lose your house simply for getting behind a couple of payments. Foreclosure is a big expensive deal for all involved. If the incentives are such that it's worthwhile to foreclose on people who just missed a couple of payments then the incentives are completely messed up. Secondly, and I can't believe I even have to write this, no matter how many payments a borrower is behind, it isn't actually a license to commit fraud.
True About Pretty Much Everything
Krugman writes:
One of the most annoying stances of the Sensible Centrist Very Serious People crowd is that even though they are dominant force in Washington, despite not having any real constituency, they imagine themselves to be an extremely brave oppressed minority speaking truths that nobody else dares. Except for every damn day on every page of every one of our national newspapers.
But thinking about today’s column, I realized that it’s even worse than that. What defines centrist heroes, as far as I can tell, is that they are people who, faced with a catastrophic slump driven by private-sector abuses, and a severe shortfall of spending, declared that our most urgent priority is … to reduce budget deficits.
That’s often described as a courageous position, but it’s actually anything but: nobody in the Beltway dinner-party circuit has ever been ostracized for demanding entitlement cuts. And aside from being totally conventional, it’s also deeply wrong-headed — and if you ask me somewhat unethical, too, because it involves exploiting a crisis to push an agenda totally unrelated to that crisis.
One of the most annoying stances of the Sensible Centrist Very Serious People crowd is that even though they are dominant force in Washington, despite not having any real constituency, they imagine themselves to be an extremely brave oppressed minority speaking truths that nobody else dares. Except for every damn day on every page of every one of our national newspapers.
So What's It For Then
The Yurpeans know that austerity will make the debt problem work worse. So, uh, more austerity then!
The 10-page debt sustainability analysis, distributed to eurozone officials last week but obtained by the Financial Times on Monday night, found that even under the most optimistic scenario, the austerity measures being imposed on Athens risk a recession so deep that Greece will not be able to climb out of the debt hole over the course of a new three-year, €170bn bail-out.
It warned that two of the new bail-out's main principles might be self-defeating. Forcing austerity on Greece could cause debt levels to rise by severely weakening the economy while its €200bn debt restructuring could prevent Greece from ever returning to the financial markets by scaring off future private investors.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Jobless in CC
Continuing trend of office space being converted into residential in the downtown of the urban hellhole...
It's Been 10 Years Or Maybe More
The best I can come up with for the TEN YEAR BLOGIVERSARY of this sucky blog is to present the first ever WANKER OF THE DECADE award. I put this up here now as a commitment device so I actually do it. I still have a couple of months. Maybe a few runners up and the grand prize. Maybe a little chance to revisit all the wanking that this blog has highlighted over the years.
Freedom To Conform
I've long had a big whiff of this kind of thinking in our oddly conformist libertarians. Freedom to some of them means the freedom to win the game if you play well enough.
"Markets"
Good for Iceland, but are we now at the point where "markets" just means "rich criminal financial institutions?"
Iceland’s approach to dealing with the meltdown has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn.
Choices
Indeed.
When Wolfgang Schäuble proposed that Greece should postpone its elections as a condition for further help, I knew that the game would soon be up. We are at the point where success is no longer compatible with democracy. The German finance minister wants to prevent a “wrong” democratic choice. Similar to this is the suggestion to let the elections go ahead, but to have a grand coalition irrespective of the outcome. The eurozone wants to impose its choice of government on Greece – the eurozone’s first colony.
Nobody Could Have Predicted, Not Our Fault, Who Could Have Known, Nothing To Be Done
The people who run the world make predictions and decide on policy based on those predictions. Some people tell them they're wrong. A few months later it turns out they were, in fact, wrong. But it's never their fault.
"Escrow"
A very cunning plan. Greece will get its money, but only if the other countries can continue telling it what to do.
Taser
I've never understood why taser use by cops is a laff riot rather than a national scandal, cops flouting due process to administer cruel and unusual punishment at will.
I admire Digby's persistence in reporting on this issue.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
More Of This
I actually appreciate the honesty. It shouldn't be news that a professed hardcore Catholic doesn't think much of non-Catholic Christians. All this ecumenical just call it faith and we can all get along stuff has always just covered up for the fact that, shockingly, people who have strong beliefs in stuff have strong beliefs in that stuff and think other people are wrong and probably going to hell for it. None of this is my belief system but nor am I offended by it. I respect your right to believe whatever you want but I don't actually have to respect those beliefs. Little Ricky doesn't have to either.
Catfood
I've posted something like this before, but just once I'd like to see someone ask a politician or pundit who is moaning about how we need to cut Social Security about how large Social Security payments actually are, the average or median or whatever. I don't expect them to get the answer precisely right, but I really wonder if any of the wannabe Catfood Commission leaders have any idea at all.
What's To Be Done About The Lower Classes
I was thinking about BoBo's latest Charles Murray inspired claim that that what the lesser humans among us need is some "bourgeois paternalism." Apparently they're behaving badly, in ways which hurt BoBo's aesthetic sensibilities, and Upper Class Daddy is going to have to bring out the rod. Because what poor people - and their kids - need is leadership and discipline from the proper sort of people. Like BoBo.
Mostly these people need decent schools, affordable simple health care, and, yes, a bit more money without working 3 jobs. A stern lecture from Daddy BoBo probably won't do much for them.
Mostly these people need decent schools, affordable simple health care, and, yes, a bit more money without working 3 jobs. A stern lecture from Daddy BoBo probably won't do much for them.
No Harm
Another apologia for the foreclosure fraud industry. Yes another "the deadbeats really deserved it so who cares" piece. This sentence is a marvel.
It doesn't really matter if the person who takes the home has a right to it, as long as that naughty homeowner gets what they deserve. And this view is why we have the legal and economic disaster we have today.
The robosigning and related fraud happened for a reason. They fucked the whole system up. I keep reading articles about how post-settlement there's going to be a lot more foreclosures. I don't understand how this will be true unless they're just going to see the settlement as green-lighting the fraudulent practices going forward as well.
That can lead to confusion over who had the legal right to process the foreclosure. But it doesn’t mean the foreclosure itself was unwarranted.
It doesn't really matter if the person who takes the home has a right to it, as long as that naughty homeowner gets what they deserve. And this view is why we have the legal and economic disaster we have today.
The robosigning and related fraud happened for a reason. They fucked the whole system up. I keep reading articles about how post-settlement there's going to be a lot more foreclosures. I don't understand how this will be true unless they're just going to see the settlement as green-lighting the fraudulent practices going forward as well.
Good For Them - And Us
While I certainly don't dismiss that the idea that SCOTUS members have genuine security concerns, they're pretty fortunate for not living inside the security bubble constantly. As are we. The view from inside the security bubble is probably pretty weird.
Food Safety
I love when transparent bullshit is generated by city officials and then lovingly praised by the local fishwraps.
It isn't about money, but it is about "cleaning up" an area for (mostly) tourists. It has nothing to do with "food safety," and everything to do about ratcheting up the harassment of groups trying to provide for the homeless until they do it somewhere else.
Proposed Health Department regulations on outdoor food handouts in Philadelphia should be the catalyst for more community and church-based volunteer groups to move indoors with their laudable efforts to aid the homeless.
...
The city's top health official, Deputy Mayor Donald F. Schwarz, insists that his main objective is food safety - and not coming up with just another fee to fatten the city's treasury.
...
And, yes, moving the Parkway handouts indoors would remove them from the museum district - a venue where vast public and private investments are being made to promote the city's tourism economy. There's no need to apologize for trying to meet the twin public-policy goals of making the city attractive to visitors and also showing compassion to the homeless.
It isn't about money, but it is about "cleaning up" an area for (mostly) tourists. It has nothing to do with "food safety," and everything to do about ratcheting up the harassment of groups trying to provide for the homeless until they do it somewhere else.
Sunday Bobbleheads
This Week has AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JOHN MCCAIN and Robert Gibbs.
Meet the Press has Paul Ryan and Chris Van Hollen.
Face the Nation has Rick Santorum.
Hopefully they talk about the ladies and their birth control. The media mirrors Congress.
Document the atrocities!
Meet the Press has Paul Ryan and Chris Van Hollen.
Face the Nation has Rick Santorum.
Hopefully they talk about the ladies and their birth control. The media mirrors Congress.
Document the atrocities!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Wanker of the Day: Atrios
That would be Atrios whose birthday it is today. Happy Birthday!
Atrios is famous for his wonderfully succinct posts which nevertheless contain the universe. He is also famous for his desire to have a pony and for his immense ability to name new political phenomena.
Take, for instance, the immortal phrase "preznit give me turkee." Atrios himself once stated:
If 'preznit giv me turkee' is only thing i have contributed to civilization i will still die happy
But that is not all he has contributed to civilization. Never mind "wanker of the day", there's much more:
The Friedman Unit:
The Friedman Unit (F.U.), is a tongue-in-cheek neologism coined by blogger Atrios (Duncan Black) on May 21, 2006.[1]
A Friedman Unit is equal to six months in the future.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The Huffington Post cited it as the "Best New Phrase" of 2006.[9]
The Big Shitpile: Atrios' term for the consequences of the still-present financial crisis where sub-prime loans were ground up with OK securities and derivatives and made into that sausage nobody wants to eat. Or the big shitpile.
Very Serious People:
I use the phrase “Very Serious People” a lot; it seems to me to capture the way respectable opinion keeps demanding utterly foolish policies. But where did I get the phrase?Heh, indeedy.
Well, it’s not original; I’m sure I stole it from someone. But when I look the phrase up on the web, it gets attributed to … me.
So where did I get it from? If anyone knows, please weigh in.
Update: So it appears to be Atrios. Actually, Duncan Black is a great coiner of phrases, all of which I like. Unfortunately, VSP seems to be the only one I can use in the Times.
Nice Work
It's a mystery why there are no real paid jobs if the government is forcing people to work for free.
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Rot At The Top
Just the occasionally reminder that if you're getting outraged because a teacher or bus driver is making a bit more money than you think they're entitled to, first ask how much their bosses are making.
Uterus Control
I get the sense that too much the Democrats think that when Republicans do things like plant the flag on the uterus that the politics will take care of itself. That is, people will see the crazy and run to the Democrats. But a few more full throated defenses of the right of women to be actual people might help a bit.
Knock It Down
The odds of the urban hellhole stretch of I-95 coming down are pretty low, but unsurprisingly I'm for it.
"A Better Way To Do It"
Somewhere no one can see them, presumably.
The presence of food lines in the heart of the city's museum district has been a long-simmering source of tension between those who want to help and those who think there is a better way to do it.
Gambling Our Way To Prosperity
I actually don't mind legalized gambling, I just look in horror at all the people who imagine it's an economic development engine and a major revenue source for states.
Just take a trip to Atlantic City, idiots.
Just take a trip to Atlantic City, idiots.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Up In Your Junk
My memory was that the public really didn't side with Terry Schiavo's husband. At least, people who cared much about the issue weren't with him. People generally would have been happy if the courts had ruled against him. What changed was when Congress took it up, and suddenly people could imagine life if Tom DeLay was The Decider in their personal business and assholes were giving speeches on the House floor about their lives.
The New Business Model
I'm not sure why the Tories think there will be any real jobs if they're forcing people to work for free in exchange for meager government paid benefits.
I never thought anybody could be more incompetent than theWashington Generals post-9/11 Democrats, but Labour seems to really want to win that prize...
I never thought anybody could be more incompetent than the
Lady Parts
And along those lines, one thing I know which others don't is that this stuff actually matters to women. Some of them might vote if you give them a reason!
Crazy talk I know.
Crazy talk I know.
Not So Dumb About The Politics
One thing I think the Professional Advisers and basically all of the professional Washington class fail to understand is that members of THE LEFT aren't necessarily completely idiotic about politics. One reason I don't want the Democrats to gut Social Security is because I think it would be political suicide to gut Social Security. I don't always think the politics lines up neatly with my political desires. Many even very liberal bloggers and similar suffer from the pundit's fallacy much less than most pundits do. Tom Friedman imagines that the Tom Friedman agenda will garner 256% of the vote, even though the Friedman Agenda is about indistinguishable from the Obama Agenda. I know when my views are relatively popular or not, because I can read polls and tend to give them a bit more weight than "the views of people at my dinner parties" or "my cab drivers" when trying to figure out the art of the possible. To the extent that I'm interested in changing the status quo, I actually have to have a good sense of this stuff.
Better Theater
The Senate Dems really should host an all female hearing on male prostate, genital, and reproductive health. Giant medical penis diagrams! Laser pointers!
Austerity
I'm sure complete and total societal breakdown will be good for the bond market.
It turns out that practically every single traffic light in central Athens was destroyed in the orgy of violence that erupted during parliament's dramatic vote on the loan deal.
Some 200 traffic wardens have been rushed down town to bring order to the roads . But four days later traffic chaos still reigns supreme. Apparently, the cash-strapped transport ministry doesn't have the funds to replace the lights.
Rape
That's basically what this is. Want an abortion, your punishment is being sexually assaulted by a doctor with a vaginal probe for no medical reason.
Ah that nonintrusive small government moral high ground the modern libertarian Republican party possesses.
Ah that nonintrusive small government moral high ground the modern libertarian Republican party possesses.
Take The Car Keys Away From Plouffe
The Washington Post editorial board is not "the rest of the country." People like their Social Security and Medicare. There is no way to "fix" Social Security in a way which stops people from trying to steal the money.
The Policies Are Working So Well
Obviously we must continue with them.
The Spanish economy has shrunk for first time in two years, increasing fears the country could be heading for a recession.
The country's economy shrank by 0.3% in the three months to December, after stagnating in the previous quarter.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
No Interest In Fixing The Economy
It's worth pointing out something rather obvious, that no one in charge in Europe has expressed any interested in fixing the economic problems of Greece. Mass unemployment is not the issue they're concerned about, the continued financial success of European bankers is. These things aren't necessarily at odds. There are probably win-win solutions.
Urban Hate
Responding a bit to some of the comments here, I guess what's weird is that there is a shifting and somewhat contradictory narrative about urban hellholes going on. For a long time the narrative has been "urban hellhole filled with criminal welfare receiving minorities where you will be instantly shot to death if you walk outside." And now that narrative runs simultaneously with the "urban elitists on Sex and the City who ride subways to work." It's fascinating gibberish.
Your Fault
Germany has done well selling its crap to other Eurozone countries. Based in part on the idea that all countries should run trade surpluses, they've devoted themselves to driving their trading partners into poverty. Amazingly that hasn't been so good for Germany.
Anything That Pisses Off Liberals
I remain a bit fascinated by how much suburban car culture is part of modern conservative identity politics. Contrary to widespread opinion I'm not trying to forceably relocate everybody to rabbit hutches in Manhattan (maybe Queens), but the degree to which urban existence seems to anger some people is fascinating to me. Obviously my view of this comes largely from the comments sections of various city newspaper sites, and I'm not suggesting this is something universal, but for some portion of the population the city just makes them MAD MAD MAD. I'm not sure why. I assume most of them can generally avoid the place. Maybe if the sports teams would move to the suburbs they'd stop caring. I'm really just not sure.
All for people living where they want to live. Personally I don't want to live anywhere I need a car (want, maybe, but not need), but don't care that others feel otherwise...
All for people living where they want to live. Personally I don't want to live anywhere I need a car (want, maybe, but not need), but don't care that others feel otherwise...
Other People Need To Suffer
Repeating myself for the millionth time here, but I really wasn't being hyperbolic when I wrote that the people who run the world are sadists. They apparently truly believe that only through the mass suffering of people other than themselves can paradise be achieved. Then the question becomes, of course, whose paradise?
Gambling Our Way To Prosperity
I love the "trying to keep the riffraff out" provisions.
Ah. You're "a little different."
But to gamble at the $132.5 million casino, patrons must meet criteria set forth in an access plan that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board approved in December. As the first of two "casino resorts" to open in the state, Valley Forge is required by law to have an access plan.
Gambling will be allowed by patrons of the Valley Forge Convention Center and its amenities, including restaurants, bars, and retail shops, who spend at least $10, stay at one of the center's two hotels, or use the spa.
Anyone attending a meeting, convention, or other event at the Convention Center could also gamble, as could those with dining and entertainment memberships there.
"We want to make sure the patrons know that we are a little different," Scheri said. "In order to get on the casino floor, there are some things they have to do."
Ah. You're "a little different."
The Great Game
They're our bastards until they aren't.
The case is based in large part upon a batch of documents discovered in an abandoned Libyan government office last September. These showed that the abductions were plotted with the help of MI6: it was all part of the rapprochement between Gaddafi and the UK and US that saw the dictator abandon his WMD programme and open oil and gas exploration opportunities to western firms.
When a researcher for Human Rights Watch stumbled upon the documents, no attempt was made to deny MI6 involvement in the rendition operations they described.
Instead, Whitehall sources immediately said the operations were part of "ministerially authorised government policy". The statement was intended as a clear signal that a secretary of state had signed off a "clause 7 authorisation" under the Intelligence Services Act.
Fortunately There's A Policy For That
More austerity!
At least we can cheer on a derivative!
And generally:
Heckuva job.
The Italian economy entered its fourth recession since 2001, contracting more than economists forecast in the fourth quarter as government austerity measures weighed on growth.
Gross domestic product declined 0.7 percent from the previous three months, when it shrank 0.2 percent, national statistics institute Istat said in a preliminary report in Rome today. The contraction was more than the median forecast of a 0.6 percent decline by 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
At least we can cheer on a derivative!
Official figures released on Wednesday showed that the number of people out of work was up by 48,000 on the previous three months, on the International Labour Organisation measure.
Analysts pointed out that the increase in unemployment was the slowest since last June, when the jobs market was deteriorating sharply, after improving through much of 2010.
Alan Clarke, of Scotiabank, said: "If there was any doubt that the UK economy had turned the corner and that the worst news was in the past, then today's labour report should lay those concerns to rest."
And generally:
It's official – the eurozone shrank in the last three months of 2011, by 0.3%.
...
Germany - GDP fell by 0.2% in Q4
France - GDP grew by 0.2% in Q4
Italy - GDP fell by 0.7% in Q4.
The Netherlands - GDP fell by 0.7% in Q4.
Portugal - GDP fell by 1.3% in Q4
Heckuva job.
I'll Admit
People who don't clean up after their dogs make me reconsider my death penalty opposition. But please don't kill your neighbors.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
They Should Be Hitting Home Runs
It's just the usual issue of people who were born on third base and who manage to stay there, or quite often even manage to steal second, lecturing the lower classes about their need to hit home runs even if their parents couldn't afford to buy them bats.
Gas
The (mostly) annual gas price panic is apparently here early.
Sucks for people who buy a lot of it, of course, though I'll take the opportunity to remind people that, no, roads don't pay for themselves. Gas taxes and other fees don't even cover expenditures on federal and state highways, let alone the rest of the road network.
Sucks for people who buy a lot of it, of course, though I'll take the opportunity to remind people that, no, roads don't pay for themselves. Gas taxes and other fees don't even cover expenditures on federal and state highways, let alone the rest of the road network.
How They Do It Do it
This is actually pretty standard Republican nonsense. They get to attack Democrats for failing to "save" SocialSecurityAndMedicare while simultaneously attacking them for "cutting" programs.
Fortunately We Have A Policy For That
Greece's economy is still imploding, so of course we will continue with the current successful policies.
The Greece situation isn't simple - they can rely on outside help or default and leave the Euro - but the people dictating the terms of the outside aid are clearly sadists who enjoy suffering. Like most of the people who run the world.
The Greece situation isn't simple - they can rely on outside help or default and leave the Euro - but the people dictating the terms of the outside aid are clearly sadists who enjoy suffering. Like most of the people who run the world.
The Evolution Of Our Crappy Safety Net
Basically we're not as generous to poor people as we once were and stuff more well off people get (Medicare) costs more.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Your Leaders
I think Ed Kilgore put this pretty well.
I'm actually genuinely a lot more respectful of religious beliefs/believers than I would guess a lot of people imagine, but that respect doesn't obligate me to have any interest in/deference to/respect for specific religious leaders.
Catholic liberals are a tough breed who deserve great respect, particularly when their religious leaders betray their best traditions and confirm their detractors’ worst insults. But while “pluralism” depends on mutual respect, it does not require deference to other people’s private authority figures. The attitude of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops towards contraception is a constant problem for U.S. Catholic lay people, though one they manage to handle just fine most of the time. Frankly, it’s only a problem for the rest of us if we allow it to be, and we shouldn’t.
I'm actually genuinely a lot more respectful of religious beliefs/believers than I would guess a lot of people imagine, but that respect doesn't obligate me to have any interest in/deference to/respect for specific religious leaders.
Free Money
All the budget talk is stupid. The Fed can just print free money and pay for stuff. In non-recession times that would be problematic, but right now it's completely sensible.
Bilking
I'll never be rich,* because if I had a bit of extra money it would never occur to me to nickel and dime a charity organization while I had a full time job elsewhere.
*not that I'm poor
*not that I'm poor
Breakdown
I have no idea if the new potential owners of my local fishwraps will be any worse than the last couple of owners of my local fishwraps, but I think we're probably entering the last days of the "objective" newspaper model that we've had for the last 70-80 years ago. I don't think the big danger is the breakdown of that model - flawed in concept and practice - but that it'll take several years for readers to understand that the old model is no longer operative. Kind of like people played along with Fox's claims to "Fair and Balanced" for years.
Maybe Twelve Trillion Zillion
If the money isn't clawed back and/or people don't go to jail, this will be a lesson in how to steal billions of dollars worry free.
SUPERTRAINS
Sure the budget is just positioning, but it's good to have slightly better positioning.
While cutting other spending, Obama aggressively accelerated efforts to upgrade aging roads, bridges and introduce high-speed rail with a six-year, $556 billion package.
Bacalao
I'm not surprised that people in the fishing industry facing the prospect of immediate abject poverty might choose "destroying their long term careers" over "homelessness now," but the better temporary solution would be to have temporary income support while the cod population grows.
Socialism!!!!
Socialism!!!!
Don't Tell Me What I Should Be Happy With
Posts like this were in some ways less about the issue itself and more about a set of actors telling another set of actors with different interests and priorities about what they should accept and clap for and what they shouldn't. I try to never lose sight of the fact that even people who are roughly on my side of things don't necessarily share my precise priority rankings. Even if we accept that tradeoffs are necessary, what's an acceptable tradeoff to me isn't necessarily one for you. More than that, usually the tradeoffs themselves are entirely manufactured.
I don't like people who fancy themselves in the "sensible center" telling me what I should clap for. I don't expect the Bishops to much like it either.
I don't like people who fancy themselves in the "sensible center" telling me what I should clap for. I don't expect the Bishops to much like it either.
Paying For Journalism
Submitted without comment.
Yes, there are pressing issues facing the nation, from unemployment to foreclosures. But there is still room, it seems, to contemplate the fixed pale-blonde halo framing the delicate head of Newt Gingrich’s wife. She has been asked about her hairdo “at every stop,” said Kellyanne Conway, a pollster and senior strategist for the Gingrich campaign. “Men say, ‘I love your hair,’ women compliment her and then say, ‘How do you keep it so perfect?’ ” (The secret: hair spray, specifically Kenra Volume Spray 25.)
Callista Gingrich’s bob is the latest addition to a distinguished roster of political hair to be parsed for meaning, from Hillary Clinton’s headbands to John Edwards’s $400 trim to the Sarah Palin up-do that even many Democrats grudgingly admired. Mrs. Gingrich’s hair is only the second-most-talked-about of the current campaign season, with her husband’s rival, Mitt Romney, coming in first. Hair is, literally, an extension of politicians’ selves, inviting scrutiny, Facebook posts and hair punditry: What does it say about them? What does it really say?
Who Gets The Big Bucks
I don't know the answer to that, but I do imagine elite members of the Washington Post "family" draw nice paychecks.
Bailing Out The Banks. Again.
Since it's usually not made clear, I will make it clear. The Greece bailout is not a bailout of Greece, it is a bailout of the banks who lent them money.
Eurozone finance ministers are then to agree to the bailout on Wednesday provided Greece meets its end of the bargain. Berlin is insisting most of the money is held in a separate account and is used purely to service Greece's debt.
Fortunately We Have A Hammer
No I have no idea what if anything we should do when bad things happen around the world, but I do know that most of our great thinkers who opine in our great newspapers and on the teevee are aware of options ranging from "blowing shit up" to "arming other people so they can blow shit up."
One suspects they just like it when shit blows up.
One suspects they just like it when shit blows up.
What's, Uh, The Point?
So there's a compromise that EJ Dionne is happy with, non-Catholic liberals don't really care what kind of Rube Goldberg machine is used to provide appropriate health coverage for women as long as it works, and the Bishops are, as was easily predicted, still going to make a stink because they're not interested in "compromise." And, frankly, they shouldn't be. They think that contraception is a very bad thing and want people to stop using it. I obviously don't agree with that, and don't think their anti-women beliefs should be driving public policy. Dionne basically says: don't fight with the Church, respect their feefees, pass a "compromise" that EJ Dionne thinks everybody should be happy with. The Church then keeps fighting. Which they should do if this is an issue they care about.
Everybody in DC needs to stop this fantasy that if only we find all the magic compromises then people will stop caring about this stuff. I'm not religious, but if I genuinely had beliefs that those in the Church profess to have, I wouldn't be happy with some sort of compromise. Why the hell would I? I'd be fighting to outlaw contraception completely if I thought it was strategically reasonable to do so within a broader agenda.
And, no, liberal non-Catholics don't care about picking a fight with the Church, we care about providing proper health coverage for women, though we don't much feel the need to respect and defer to people who don't want to provide proper health coverage for women. They don't much respect us either.
Everybody in DC needs to stop this fantasy that if only we find all the magic compromises then people will stop caring about this stuff. I'm not religious, but if I genuinely had beliefs that those in the Church profess to have, I wouldn't be happy with some sort of compromise. Why the hell would I? I'd be fighting to outlaw contraception completely if I thought it was strategically reasonable to do so within a broader agenda.
And, no, liberal non-Catholics don't care about picking a fight with the Church, we care about providing proper health coverage for women, though we don't much feel the need to respect and defer to people who don't want to provide proper health coverage for women. They don't much respect us either.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
The Morals Of The Lower Classes
Basically Village Elders expect the masses to live the moral lives they themselves don't in order to demonstrate what remarkable moral leadership they have shown. No this does not make any sense.
Philadelphia Will Do
There are worse places.
It’s certainly true that Wall Street’s money played an important part in New York’s comeback, helping to transform the city from a symbol of urban decay into a gleaming leisure theme park. Consciously or not, as a city, New York made a bargain: It would tolerate the one percent’s excessive pay as long as the rising tax base funded the schools, subways, and parks for the 99 percent. “Without Wall Street, New York becomes Philadelphia” is how a friend of mine in finance explains it.
Respect Must Be Paid
Most of these people don't care about the policy, they just want the appropriate respect and deference they imagine is due to the leaders of their tribes, and so keep imagining that if only there's enough bowing and scraping "compromising" we can get back to, oh, I don't know, helping the poor or something.
Like maybe by giving them free contraceptives?
As for Rick Warren, my understanding of CA law is that it's pretty much what Obama originally proposed...
Like maybe by giving them free contraceptives?
As for Rick Warren, my understanding of CA law is that it's pretty much what Obama originally proposed...
The Worst Train Station In The World
The Port Authority Bus Terminal is a hell of a lot more pleasant.
Sunday Santorum
Meet the Press has Santorum and Jack Lew.
Face the Nation has Ron Paul, Mitch McConnell, and Jack Lew.
This Week has Santorum, Paul Ryan, and Jack Lew.
Document the atrocities!
Face the Nation has Ron Paul, Mitch McConnell, and Jack Lew.
This Week has Santorum, Paul Ryan, and Jack Lew.
Document the atrocities!
Net
Part of our elites justification for looting the Social Security Trust Fund or cutting Medicare involves characterizing public insurance programs that benefit everyone as welfare programs.
Avedon has the text. Second post.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
All Dollars Are Created Equal?
The CPAC panel of conservative attorneys thinks that's a great idea:
Anonymous political speech. Foreign money in U.S. elections. The proliferation of super PACs. How grave a threat do any of things pose to American democracy? Not much, according to a panel of conservative attorneys, who gathered Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.It's the best democracy money can buy.
The high-profile legal minds on the CPAC panel largely agreed that the changes to the campaign finance landscape are grounds for celebration.
Saturday Night
Tonight I learned that Bernie Taupin is one of the listed writers of We Built This City.
Very important.
Very important.
Divine
Even completely gutted and looking about how you'd expect 200 years after the zombie apocalypse, it's still an incredible building. Hopefully this happens and happens well.
But The Code Was Cracked
Years and years ago excuses were made for the legacy investments of the big airlines, but bailout after bailout later (explicit and through bankruptcy), it's clear that the people who run most of the airlines are just bad at it (or good, depending on whether you think their incentives really are to maintain a successful profitable business or to pump, extract value, declare bankruptcy or merge, repeat. ) Southwest cracked the code, including a bit of luck here and there, and their practices aren't mysterious.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Toot
One can never really know what the various forms of inside/outside pressure have on the state of the world, but I would be more than a bit surprised if dday didn't have a nontrivial impact on the foreclosure fraud settlement, given my brief glimpses of the shadows on the cave walls. That isn't to say it's awesome and he's thrilled with it, just that without him (and others) it would've happened anyway and been a hell of a lot worse.
And Toot for pointing out that settlement details don't actually exist.
And Toot for pointing out that settlement details don't actually exist.
When The Ladies Who Hate The Ladies Hate Just A Little Too Much
While the direction of its thrust obviously isn't all bad, it's still the case that Sally Quinn has once again provided a Rosetta Stone of sorts for the alien anthropologists who, 500 years from now, are tasked with figuring out just what the hell went wrong.
We'll Tell You What's Reasonable
I'm curious if all the Villagers who were oh so concerned the feefees of the Bishops will applaud this compromise - which, for me, is fine on substance, politics, message, whatever - even if the Bishops still have hurt feefees?
No fan of the Bishops on this, but they're entitled to have hurt feefees whenever they want, and it isn't for the pundits to tell them when they should settle.
No fan of the Bishops on this, but they're entitled to have hurt feefees whenever they want, and it isn't for the pundits to tell them when they should settle.
New York Times Twits
As I said, if the Times does it then it's ok. And, no, Bill Keller, the law isn't what you want it to be the law is what it is. Definitely a Nobel Peace Prize in Missing the Point nominee here.
(ht reader r)
(ht reader r)
There Be Monsters
Pretty much.
In the time I was mayor, I used to do meetings with City bankers and I'd often open by saying, 'This isn't the world I would have created . . .' [Bankers' bonuses are] like penis extensions, among a small league of men - mine is bigger than yours.
. . . The world is run by monsters and you have to deal with them. Some of them run countries, some of them run banks, some of them run news corporations.
Random Thought
None of the recent events will stop the eventheliberals from writing pieces about how some Grand Compromise involving a bit more contraception here, a few more restrictions on poor women having abortions there, will allow us to put all of this Lady Party nastiness behind us forever.
Villagers
The WaPo (find it yourself) says the robo-signing settlement "rough justice — very rough — in a case of rampant, but essentially victimless, alleged law-breaking."
Forgery and fraud to steal houses. No victims of that!
Forgery and fraud to steal houses. No victims of that!
What's It All About Then
People can't be this stupid. They have to know that completing imploding the Greek economy won't improve its ability to pay its debts, so...
Thursday, February 09, 2012
So This Is Pretty Good Then
Oh, wait, what?
The $25 billion settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses may trigger a wave of home seizures, inflicting short-term pain on delinquent U.S. borrowers while making a long-term housing recovery more likely.
Their Internet
Not much to add, other than the simple fact that SOPA-type legislation has nothing to do with copyright protection, and everything to do with the big guys destroying the ability of the little guys to participate. They "know" (probably correctly) that such laws will never impact them. If the New York Times says it's fair use, it's fair use, if I say it's fair use, it's copyright violation. If the powers that be yank the domain names of Eschaton World Industries, there won't be much I can do. Obviously no one's going to take nytimes.com.
Spox
The contrast between the official government organ, the New York Times, and a journalist reporting on a story couldn't be more striking.
Bailout Shmailout Failout
Anyway, for the 400th time I don't know if the Greek bailout 'deal' is real or just another 'if we proclaim it enough it will be true.' But, either way, I predict we'll be back in another few months or so...
As I Said, Just Assholes
The incentives were probably genuinely there in some circumstances (though incentives were all messed up), but to a great degree Our Galtian Overlords just didn't think the moochers and parasites who forced them to lend them money to buy overpriced homes deserved any help.
Fannie Mae (FNMA) pulled the plug on a 2010 plan to forgive borrowers’ mortgage debt because company executives were “philosophically opposed” to the idea, a former company employee told House investigators.
What's It All About Then
Not the church or church-related entiites.
No "compromise," no proper health coverage for women.
That was no consolation to Catholic leaders. The White House is "all talk, no action" on moving toward compromise, said Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "There has been a lot of talk in the last couple days about compromise, but it sounds to us like a way to turn down the heat, to placate people without doing anything in particular," Picarello said. "We're not going to do anything until this is fixed."
That means removing the provision from the health care law altogether, he said, not simply changing it for Catholic employers and their insurers. He cited the problem that would create for "good Catholic business people who can't in good conscience cooperate with this."
No "compromise," no proper health coverage for women.
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
OK Then
I see where the moral authority is.
In a interview with Connecticut magazine published on the magazine’s Web site last week, a surprisingly frank Cardinal Egan said of the apology, “I never should have said that,” and added, “I don’t think we did anything wrong.”
He said many more things in the interview, some of them seemingly at odds with the facts. He repeatedly denied that any sex abuse had occurred on his watch in Bridgeport. He said that even now, the church in Connecticut had no obligation to report sexual abuse accusations to the authorities. (A law on the books since the 1970s says otherwise.) And he described the Bridgeport diocese’s handling of sex-abuse cases as “incredibly good.”
They're Crooks Who Have Been Stealing Homes
I'm just not sure how a 'look forward' settlement forces them to change their behavior.
The thing is, while this stuff was institution-wide, it isn't the institutions that are to blame. It's individuals who are. Having shareholders and investors pay to bail them out isn't exactly much of a punishment.
The thing is, while this stuff was institution-wide, it isn't the institutions that are to blame. It's individuals who are. Having shareholders and investors pay to bail them out isn't exactly much of a punishment.
Quite True
I'll keep the baseball, but football stadiums, at least if there isn't non-significant additional non-football programming, can probably happily survive in the burbs. In the urban hellhole the stadium complex works in large part because it is essentially the suburban model of a giant parking lot at the intersection of a couple of major highways, plus a subway stop. Though one can envision a possible future where "giant parking lot empty most of the year" ceases to be the best economic use of that land...
Vacation's All I Ever Wanted
Traveling for a few days, so posting might be erratic.
Whoever has the keys, chime in if you're inclined...
Whoever has the keys, chime in if you're inclined...
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
This Is The First Time This Has Ever Been A Concern In The History Of Journalism
I'm no big Ed Rendell fan, but it's cute when journalists suddenly fret about wealthy well-connected people buying up media outlets.
It's a real issue, of course, as it's been a real issue...always.
It's a real issue, of course, as it's been a real issue...always.
It's All So Complicated
I really just don't buy the 'complicated chaos' explanation for MF Global. They just stole the money.
First We'll Hunker Down In Desert Compounds...And Then...
I've never had any clue what the latest phase in our grand imperial adventure was all about.
And we just spent a bunch of money ramping up! Well, no worries, there's probably an overpaid teacher somewhere, so we'll cover it somehow.
BAGHDAD — Less than two months after American troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining American influence in the country.
And we just spent a bunch of money ramping up! Well, no worries, there's probably an overpaid teacher somewhere, so we'll cover it somehow.
Do The Pennsylvanians Love Their Grandchildren Too
One thing about my state is that it's old. Median age tied with Florida. Imagine this has a bit to do with the politics of trying to gut state aid to higher ed.
Lie Of The Year
It's only electoral suicide if the Dems manage to make something of it. They've done a poor job of casting themselves as the defenders of Social Security and Medicare lately.
Nobody Could Have Predicted
Karen Handel, Queen of the Ladies Who Hate Ladies, has resigned from Komen.
Win Win
The incentives in housing/mortgage system are so screwed up that there isn't one explanation for why banks seemed to prefer foreclosures to allowing short sales, though given that some are increasingly embracing short sales I think one answer which doesn't get enough attention is that they are assholes. As in, their approach wasn't simply based on financial considerations but instead a desire to punish the moochers and freeloaders who forced the banks to lend them money to buy overpriced houses.
Since It Isn't Said Enough
Only tangential to this, but while we frequently muse over the 'stupid or evil' question before inevitably realizing that we don't have to choose, I don't think it's pointed out enough that many members of Congress are, in fact, stupid people.
Progress
This is something.
One of the largest companies that provided home foreclosure services to lenders across the nation, DocX, has been indicted on forgery charges by a Missouri grand jury — one of the few criminal actions to follow reports of widespread improprieties against homeowners.
Monday, February 06, 2012
It's Always Been About Birth Control And Sex
I don't expect the eventheliberals who have been denying this for years to ever come around, but it's never really been about abortion, it's always been about women not being properly punished for having unapproved sex.
Happy Hour Thread
Enjoy.
...some people are reporting some issue with the site. I think with IE. I haven't been able to duplicate it, will try to figure it out...
...some people are reporting some issue with the site. I think with IE. I haven't been able to duplicate it, will try to figure it out...
Abortions Are Sexy Hot
I annoyed a few not quite getting the joke people a few days ago by tweeting "I wish I could have an abortion." What I was mocking was the apparent view of some conservatives that not only are abortions such an easy procedure that lazy sluts would prefer to go out and have them all the time rather than bothering with birth control, but that there's actually something fun and enjoyable about them. It's what the Onion was getting at with its giant abortion clinic as part of an entertainment complex, and to think that story's true you have to buy into the premise. Abortions aren't simply no big deal, they're actually sexy goodtime fun.
Also, too, on the business side it's incredibly lucrative. We're all getting rich with our basement abortion clinics, probably funded by Soros.
Also, too, on the business side it's incredibly lucrative. We're all getting rich with our basement abortion clinics, probably funded by Soros.
Other People Need To Suffer
The thing is, even if you think Greece has been a bad child and it needs to be spanked, it isn't, for the most part, ordinary people who made the bae policy choices. It was the people who run the country. No matter what, they're unlikely to suffer much. But, hey, if grandpa can't get any diabetes meds then the system will be purified. Or something.
And It Wasn't Even That Good
People are entitled to be optimistic, but the good jobs report we had wasn't even that good. A few more like that and we can breathe a bit easier, but as Krugman says things are not even close to being ok yet and, more than that, there isn't yet any solid reason to think that we're going to continue to move in that direction.
We've been here before. We had a few good months at the beginning of 2010, and even though everybody knew that it was largely due to Census hiring they popped the champagne corks anyway.
We've been here before. We had a few good months at the beginning of 2010, and even though everybody knew that it was largely due to Census hiring they popped the champagne corks anyway.
There's Nothing Wrong With Earmarks
The process and specific implementation can be corrupt, but they aren't intrinsically problematic or corrupt. Congratulations idiot members of Congress for reducing your own power with a fake issue.
What's It All About Then
Just how did "private sector wages" become part of this conversation.
Whose private sector wages?
Mr Samaras last week threatened to veto the package unless concessions were made on private sector wages, claiming the cuts would prolong a recession already in its fifth year. Mr Karatzaferis also opposes further austerity measures.
The two sides were still far apart over projected cuts of 25 per cent in private sector wages, 35 per cent in supplementary pensions and the closure of about 100 state-controlled organisations with thousands of job losses.
Whose private sector wages?
Sunday, February 05, 2012
One True Christian
I actually welcome religious people arguing about theology, though our great and glorious liberal media should should stop equating "Christian" with panty sniffing sex obsessed Randian freaks.
Also, too, god hates shrimp.
Also, too, god hates shrimp.
Universal Public Daycare
Unlikely to happen, but it is a mystery to me why there isn't more conversation about it.
And That Has Bugger All To Do With Anything?
The sticking point.
Very often things are not about what they're supposedly about.
ATHENS — The Greek finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, said on Saturday that talks between the government and its foreign creditors on a second rescue deal were “on a razor’s edge,” adding that though progress had been made on some levels, crucial issues were unresolved.
...
“Two major, interrelated issues remain unresolved — labor relations and wages in the private sector, and the fiscal measures that must be taken to ensure we are within the target for 2012,” Mr. Venizelos said after a two-hour conference call with euro zone officials. Despite the barriers, a deal must be reached in bailout talks by Sunday night, he said.
Very often things are not about what they're supposedly about.
Maybe People Should Just Watch What They Say
It's stunning to me that anybody out there thinks Ari Fleischer should be hired to do anything.
Sunday Bobbleheads
This Week has Ron Paul.
Meet the Press has NEWT, Bloomberg, Mitch Daniels, Deval Patrick, and Xavier Becerra
Face the Nation has Rudy 911.
Document the atrocities!
Meet the Press has NEWT, Bloomberg, Mitch Daniels, Deval Patrick, and Xavier Becerra
Face the Nation has Rudy 911.
Document the atrocities!
Saturday, February 04, 2012
Holy Crap
Apparently I missed that there were some more voting related program activities today. Presumably some horrible person will triumph!
Laws Are For Other People
It's important to remember that so many of the laws that our culture warriors want aren't for them, they're for other people. There is a battle to prevent poor women from having abortion, there is a war on some drugs taken by some people, etc. Elites know (mostly correctly) that these laws will never apply to them, that their daughters will have no trouble taking care of that little problem when the time comes.
They're just awful horrible people.
They're just awful horrible people.
Friday, February 03, 2012
Urban Elites
Obviously some version of "coastal elites" is nothing new, but once upon a time subway riding highrise dwellers were, you know, poor people trapped in the urban hellhole and the real elites lived in places like Greenwich or Bel Air.
Times change.
Times change.