An Alternative

If you're looking for an alternative to the grim prospect of a Saturday evening spent contemplating the Texas or Florida legal systems, I recommend Moone Boy, now available on Hulu. Quite good!

Happy Hour - It's Here!

I read things like this, Fukushima Radiation Leaks Rise Sharply, Officials Are Baffled As to Why
and just figure we're fucked

Urban Noise

It's almost impossible tg enforce a regulation against horn blowing in any reasonable way. A friend suggested an effective horn tax by putting a limit on the number of honks. Once you go over, you gotta pay to have it turned back on again at your annual car inspection or similar.

In 1972, the city’s noise code was overhauled. Horn-honking “when there is no imminent danger” became a criminal offense. The Sanitation Department redesigned its garbage trucks to operate at a noise level no louder than a vacuum cleaner. Car owners had 10 minutes to shut off a wailing alarm.

It's Saturday, Saturday

I read all the internets and did find anything to talk about. What's going on?

Morning Thread II

I'm refusing to turn on the news. I figure it will be nothing but blather about what the Zimmerman jury is doing RIGHT THIS SECOND.

Morning Thread

Twit of the Day

Laura Rozen.

Friday Evening

Sucky blogging today, was busy with stuff in my wireless broadband wasn't behaving very well.

In Texas

They're confiscating all tampons and pads from women entering the state legislature because of security.

Happy hour thread.

Afternoon Thread II

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

It's Working!!!

Of course the people in charge of deciding the fate of Greece don't think ameliorating economic misery is really their goal. No bit of bad data will convince them that maybe they did the wrong thing.

Greece's jobless rate scaled a new high in April, as a crippling recession takes its toll after more than three years of austerity implemented in exchange for funds under an international bailout deal.

The beatings will continue...forever.

Those Consumers

All the best minds on the planet can't figure out why people without jobs and money refuse to spend!

But something seemed amiss on this afternoon, as it has almost every weekend for more than a year. As with so much else now bedeviling France, the economy is to blame. French consumers simply are not spending the way they used to, and that is an impediment not only for the merchants of the Marché aux Puces, but also for the country’s ability to emerge from recession.

Such mysteries. And why won't they just give a few speeches for a hundred thousand euros a pop? Lazy bums.

Half-life

One of the more bizarre elements of employers wanting liberal arts colleges turned into vo-tech programs is that it's hard to think of a time when specific job skills had a shorter half-life.

Late Night Happy

This video makes me happy.

Ireland Votes in Legal Abortion

Well, sort of. Only in cases where the woman's life is endangered. But in the Irish context this is -- well, I never thought it would happen in my lifetime. And it makes for more placid contemplation than recent US events on this front. Anyhow some context chez moi if you are interested.

Who To Root For

This one is pretty tough.

Policy Is So Boring

Your buzzfeed political editor.

Imagine many of my neighbors will care when they stop getting their tiny bit of "welfare," as will Big Ag when they keep getting theirs.

Happy Hour Thread

Buy some elitist wine with your food stamps, moocher lieberals.

The Secret Welfare System

As I've written before, an issue in American politics isn't just that too many whites can't stand the idea of blah people getting any of "their" money, it's that they truly think there is some secret welfare system that only blah people have access to. Plenty of white people have had whatever it is amounts to "welfare" in this country and have found it to be quite stingy. All those young bucks with their cadillacs and t-bone steaks must be getting the really good welfare.

Make The World Brand New

Maybe we could fix a bridge?

Crazy talk I know.

Windows Killed Netbooks

Tech's not my beat, but the rise of Chromebooks is likely due to the fact that once upon a time you could by a Windows XP-based netbook that worked pretty well for cheap, and now you can't. Later versions require too much processor/battery power and, of course, in the case of Windows 8, suck. I still use my $280 or so netbook from 4 years ago. It will be very sad if/when it dies.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

Almost forgot.

360K new lucky duckies. Just one week, but wrong direction...

Nobody Believes You Now

Pincus's Greenwald broadside seemed like a lazy reprint of an oppo dump. A lazy and stupid oppo dump by what I increasingly think are the stupidest fucking people who run our intelligence agencies.

I'm not sure if it's better if they're run by evil geniuses or corrupt morons, but....

Better Things Than Man

I suppose a corollary to the question below is... are there any candidates running on significantly expanding the welfare state the citizen deal? I'd try to raise some money for those people, even if they were full of shit. I'll accept some sweet little lies, as long as they are sweet.

On This Barstool I Can't Stay

What should we do my peeps? This sucky blog has emphasized different things at different times. Roughly speaking I'd say I was a bit more activism/fundraising focused once upon a time. Should we do that some more?

They Had Lights Inside Their Eyes

No deep thoughts or anything to say that hasn't been said, but the degree to which we tolerate daily gun violence in this country is nuts. Living in an urban hellhole, I get a pretty good glimpse of the gun violence which actually makes national news and which doesn't. It isn't a perfectly clear pattern, but black people killing black people rarely gets much attention.

Overnight

Rock on.

Synergize The Confluence Of The Pathways

Sadly, I have never been ridiculous enough to earn the big bucks.

Late Night

Rock on.

Freedom's For Rich People, Fighting's For Poor

I haven't watched Two American Families, but as described it really is the story of our times. Our prosperous society should offer sufficient benefits to both those who play by all the rules, and also to those who even screw up a bit as we all do. That isn't happening right now.

Other People Are Robots

I think my biggest insight from reading Vonnegut was that there are actually a lot of Dwayne Hoovers out there. The character in the novel is mentally ill, but I think it's reasonable to see his syndrome, the belief that he is the only free willed person in the universe, as is fairly common among people we don't actually classify as having mental illness. I try to run from these people.

Your Minority and VaginaMotorcycle Dominated Liberal Media

Still white conservative males.

Afternoon Thread

For anyone following along, Zimmerman will not testify in his own defense.

I Wrote Some Stuff

I forget to link to my USA Today columns most of the time, sometimes because I'm shy, sometimes because I forget, and sometimes because I hated being edited (no criticism of the editors intended), but the real point I wanted to make in this column is that affordable college education no longer exists, and the olds should understand that.

Much Ado

Actually managed to go see a movie this weekend. Fairly rare event for whatever reason. Anyway, Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing isn't The Best Movie Ever, but if you like your Shakespeare and you like your Whedon you'll probably love it. Denisof and Acker are very good, as is Nathan Fillion as Dogberry.

Never Down

I might just have a faulty memory, but I remember when the nation was gripped by Palin madness, and in my possibly faulty memory, I was not. I thought it was funny and wasn't worried. I suppose I could check my bloggy archives to affirm this memory, but I'd rather just pretend I was fucking right.

Starbursts!

Run!

I've grown very weary of the freak show side of politics over the years, but I admit there's something a bit fascinating about the Palin part of the freak show. I don't mean Palin herself, I mean the news coverage of her. It isn't what it was, of course, but there was that post-2008 election period when her every utterance was a front page story (MUST CREDIT POLITICO). It was an interesting window into the minds of DC reporters who were seemingly unaware that she lost an election and would never win another one.

Insanity

It never occurs to Gina Kolata, who has been on this beat forever, that this is anything but a perfectly sensible way to develop and distribute a potentially life-extending drug.

The discovery of the mutation and of the two women with their dazzlingly low LDL levels has set off one of the greatest medical chases ever. It is a fevered race among three pharmaceutical companies, Amgen, Pfizer and Sanofi, to test and win approval for a drug that mimics the effects of the mutation, drives LDL levels to new lows and prevents heart attacks. All three companies have drugs in clinical trials and report that their results, so far, are exciting. 

“This is our top priority,” said Dr. Andrew Plump, the head of translational medicine at Sanofi. “Nothing else we are doing has the same public health impact.”

If it seems perfectly reasonable to you, too, read Dean Baker and his book, The End of Loser Liberalism.

Morning Thread

Late Night

Rock on.

Foxy

And Beckel's the "liberal." Also, too, played one on CNN's Crossfire for years.

Moot

Just revisiting this issue a bit... There was a time when "trying to make CNN better" was a big part of what I thought about. It isn't that I thought fixing CNN was the most important thing in the world, but more that maybe, just maybe, this little blog flapping its butterfly wings could have an impact on such a thing. That thought came out of the world in the 90s, when the insanity of cable news seemed to rule our world. Things have changed a lot since then.

The Establishment

The issue is that the old guard establishment basically identifies as Republican - you know, all that center-right country crap - so it'll take them another 40 years or so to accept that the people who govern in their name are, you know, the worst people the world.

Feeding, Clothing, Bathing

Homelessness is complicated. Anyone who works with dealing with homeless issues will tell you that some homelessness is "voluntary,"in that people, mostly with mental illness and drug addiction, choose to be homeless relative to the available options. They don't want to be "in the system." But this would almost certainly be true even if the tiny palliatives we give to their existence were gone.

Wanker of the Day

Lawrence O'Donnell.

How About 22 Weeks?

It's good that Dems have finally realized that at least in places they can actually win elections, women's reproductive health rights are actually a winner for them. Spent so many years watching them cower in fear on issues that would have been winners for them, if only they wouldn't cower in fear. Rumor is 10-15% of the population or so are women and they sometimes can be motivated to vote.

Sex Makes Us Stupid

There are definitely good reasons to hold Spitzer's prostitution scandal against him, and to a lesser extent Weiner's junk shot scandal, but still there's always an element of prudishness about coverage of all politician "sex scandals."

Not My Kids

I guess what gets me about the inter-generational bashing is that I don't even have kids, and yet I manage to get that they're currently being dealt a pretty shitty hand.

At least they've got the internets.

The Kids Are Alright

There's nothing new about the olds hating on the kids, but it's especially gross to hate on the young people for failing in the economy after giving them the glorious gift of a horrible shitty economy.

And, no, olds, you would not be able to work yourself through college without help or debt today. Public university used to be free or cheap, it no longer is.

Why?

Press reports and conventional wisdom always state that military commanders always want MOOOAR TROOPS and MOOOOAR WAR. Assuming this is basically true... why?

Part 2

In which Snowden predicts he will be accused of being in cahoots with the enemy. Not really sure what that means.

The recipients of Snowden's information were people who read newspapers.

Morning Thread

Here's a bit of a local story. Dewey Beach was incorporated in 1981 and its charter specifically limits what kinds of taxes may be levied. To make up the shortfall, the town has been charging high fees for licenses, inspections and such. Now, a local businessman is contesting those fees, alleging that they are, in effect, taxes prohibited by the charter. The businessman, Alex Pires, ran for the Senate against Carper last go around. 

Yannow, somebody has to pay something, sometime.

Late Night

Rock on.

Monday Evening

Feels like Friday for some reason.

Like A Bird Without A Song

Governor Goodhair just makes me miss Molly Ivins.

I come up with the occasional bon mot, but I mostly don't think of myself as a writer/critic. The best are artists, using their words to make us truly understand things we only had a sense of.

Success

We have to fight wage theft in all of its various manifestations.

I Used To Care

Once upon a time I saw CNN as an institution worth trying to save. It was always flawed, but there were reasons to think it was aiming in the right direction (if rarely hitting the target). But, yeah, who cares anymore.

You Smell Like Butter

Whatevs.

In its formal response to the parliamentary commission on banking standards, the government said it would introduce a new licencing regime for top bankers, stop bonuses being paid to bosses of bailed out banks and look at ways of injecting more competition into banking.

But the government failed to adopt ideas for sweeping changes to the way the Bank of England is managed and rejected proposals to make banks financially stronger through tightening a measure of capital known as the leverage ratio. Nor would it give a clearer remit to the new regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority.

Promising

I actually liked the movie adaptions of Mother Night and the Bruce Willis Breakfast of Champions, though didn't really like the previous Slaughterhouse Five adaption. This sounds more promising.

We need a good version of Cat's Cradle.

No damn cat, no damn cradle.

Fundraising Funday Day The Final!!!

It's almost over. We've laughed, we've cried, we've fought, we've had makeup sex. Not a bad week, really.



One time donation:

recurring monthly donation set at $10/month!

Thanks so much to all who contributed!

These Shoes Should Be Made For Walking

It is one of my pet peeves, but most shoes should be, you know, actually comfortable for walking. This applies mostly to women's shoes, but not just. Too many shoes are designed for standing, not walking, for someone being transported from one place to another by car with little or no walking involved. I live in an urban hellhole. Walking is always necessary, unless you hire a driver.

Against FlipFloppery

I'm not interested in aesthetic or fashion snob arguments about just about anything clothing-related, but flip-flops are bad for you. They mess up your feet and legs. Do not wear them if you are going to walk any nontrivial distance.

Invasion From Greenland Inevitable

Nothing against any of these individuals workers, and it sucks that they're going to get an effective pay cut, but ZOMG WE HAVE 650,000 CIVILIAN DEFENSE WORKERS.

Furloughs for Department of Defense civilians begin Monday, a move that amounts to a 20 percent cut in pay for hundreds of thousands of defense workers over the next three months and will disrupt operations at installations around the country, Pentagon officials warn.

The furloughs, which were ordered by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to meet mandated budget cuts forced by the sequester, will affect more than 650,000 civilian defense workers.

That doesn't include the contractors, of course.

Ain't No One Left Here To Blame But Me

I've been emo-prog blogging about unemployment for years. I obviously failed to fix the economy. I am sorry.

Morning Thread

Have some Avedon to start the week.

Late Night

Rock on.

Sunday Night

enjoy

Happy (hic) Hour

Anybody

Well, anybody David Gregory knows.

Sunday Bobbleheads

CoT translates Meet the Press.

Summer Fundraising Fun Day 6!!!

The week's almost over. We have laughed, and we have cried. Shared so many beautiful moments together.


One time donation:

recurring monthly donation set at $10/month!

Thanks to all who have helped to keep my blogs mighty and strong!!!

The New New New New New New New New New New Deal

I have no idea how to inject this into the bloodstream of the Very Serious People, but a guaranteed minimum income would really help to fix what ails us.

The Fatness Of AlGore

Weird weather so far this summer in this part of the country. It's been hot, though that isn't all that weird, but we've also had an immense amount of rain, which is. And the humidity never takes a break.

Guns

Sitting in for KagroX at this end of the holiday morning, Joe Nocera and Jennifer Mascia.

Nocera's also has been been giving NCAA practices some long overdue attention.