Saturday, November 28, 2015

What's It All About Then

Sure there was always some possibility this was over a conflict with a co-worker or other kind of personal issue. People snap about that stuff. But it wasn't very likely.

I Think This Is How Google+ Was Supposed To Work

Sillier every day.

Pro-Life Murderers

You can understand why our media has problems with this stuff. Both sides, also, too.

Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit

Thanks for informing your readers, New York Times.
The shooting came at a time when Planned Parenthood has been criticized because of surreptitious videos made by anti-abortion groups of officials discussing using fetal organs for research.

"Surreptitious." Yes that's a full and appropriate way to describe videos. Oh, yes, "deceptively-edited"might be a start.

Assholes.

Morning Thread

We're heading out to visit a little palace today.

Friday, November 27, 2015

Evening Thread

All yours

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

I Guess The Hippies Were Right Again

But, you know, at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. Usual stuff.

Less than a year ago, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York proclaimed that the key to transforming the state’s education system was tougher evaluations for teachers, and he pushed through changes that increased the weight of student test scores in teachers’ ratings.

Now, facing a parents’ revolt against testing, the state is poised to change course and reduce the role of test scores in evaluations. And according to two people involved in making state education policy, Mr. Cuomo has been quietly pushing for a reduction, even to zero. That would represent an about-face from January, when the governor called for test scores to determine 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation.


Basically they couldn't get with foisting on suburban districts the stuff they've been destroying urban schools with for the past dozen or so years.

Nice, Polite Brits

Sure there's a culture of respecting the queue, but if anyone suspects you're jumping the queue they'll cut you.

Vaporware

Happy to be wrong about self-driving cars, but that we're planning for a technology that doesn't exist...
There’s also the consideration of specific lanes for autonomous vehicles. How many should be built, and when?

“Do we need 12-foot lanes? Can we get by with 9½- or 10-foot lanes?” said Biter, the Florida transportation official. “We can turn that four-lane express highway into a six-lane express highway with literally the same right-of-way footprint.”

Sure restriping lanes isn't the biggest deal, but I suspect for these things to actually work to whatever extent they will, a lot of public infrastructure will have to be added...

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Debates

After years of hearing Democrats complain about how the news shows are wall-to-wall Republican crap, it's pretty weird to hear Democrats talking about how we need fewer debates - less airtime! Because what we really need is to hear Republicans all the time, just like the rest of the year. Martin O'Mally is right about this.

Afternoon Thread

Holiday blogging schedule!

Nobody Actually Says That

When have you heard anyone actually say "In God We Trust?" Anywhere? Ever?

Happy Turkee Day

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

CoT: Shootout

CoT.


Afternoon Thread

Busy with stuff.

America's Worst Humans

Harry Houck.

Post-Apocalyptic Hellscape

Tennessee man horrified by need to walk several blocks in order to obtain free parking.

I am glad that Penn and Temple are no longer slum-looking schools, and that Drexel is coming up fast, but I could appreciate them more if I did not have to park several blocks away to avoid parking meters.

Burn it all down.

New Jersey Dreaming

New Jersey is weird state. It's big. It has a large population. It also doesn't have its own TV media market. Sure it has some local media outlets, but most coverage comes from Philly or New York City. That must be a bit weird. Local identity is forged by many things, and media coverage is one of them.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Late Night Thread


Going To Trial

My understanding is that the victims in this case were perfectly fine with the plea deal reached with the other two defendants. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the 3rd...
Knott faces trial on a count of conspiracy, two counts of aggravated assault, and related offenses in the Sept. 11, 2014, attack on a gay couple in Center City. Jury selection is expected to take place Dec. 9. Opening statements would likely begin the next day.

Michael Barry, chief of the District Attorney's Central Division, told Judge Roxanne Covington during a pretrial motions hearing Tuesday that Knott had posted "a number of tweets which clearly indicate a general dislike to a disgust of gays and lesbians and people of other backgrounds."

He said he was seeking to admit her tweets as evidence in her trial because "they are overwhelmingly relevant" and show a motive for her behavior on Sept. 11, 2014.

What's Going To Happen

Predictions are always hard, especially about the future, but I honestly can't see how the clown car show ends. I guess I'm just a silly blogger because if I were a big boy reporter I'd know that Christiementum is here and unstoppable.

Lunch Thread

I admit I got nothin'.

This Shouldn't be Surprising

But it is.
A charge of murder is expected to be filed against a white Chicago police officer accused of shooting a black teenager 16 times, just one day before a deadline by which a judge has ordered the city to release a squad-car video of the incident.

Everybody Gets A Medal

Christie did his best to be the biggest asshole this week (and still failed!), so it's his turn.




There's no polling to justify this, but, hey, this journalist is just gonna feel it at you. I guess Barbaro's wheel-o-beat-sweetener landed on Christie, so he'll keep humping that leg until Christie drops out. Polls are for gay wizards like Gandalf and Nate Silver.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Late Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Don't worry.

Crazy Days, Man

For some reason Trump and Carson, talking about all those Mooslems they saw in New Jersey cheering on the falling WTC, remind me of Evil Bert.





Only Evil Bert is real!

America's Worst Humans

Carol Costello.

Are The Kids Still On My Lawn?

Quite frequently I come across a comment (because I read too much of the internet) like "we'll never see a talent like that again." Yes, it's quite amazing that the pinnacle of human talent happened to arrive just at your formative years, about when you were between the ages of 15-25. Six billion people on this planet, and new ones being formed every day, and the greatest moments of art and music just happened to arrive at that time of your life. What a coincidence!

I'm old enough now to see younger people expressing such sentiments too, and I respond like an old to some extent, thinking "no that actually sucked you idiot!" Maybe it did, maybe it didn't, but the kids are always on the lawn, with their hippity hop and their fleek and whatever the hell it is they're up to now.

Maybe In Another Friedman

They already announced that Bertha won't start moving again for another month, but I put this in my calendar awhile ago because I figured it wouldn't happen.
Tunnel-boring machine Bertha, whose front end remains in pieces along the downtown waterfront, is to resume digging Nov. 23, according to a new timetable from the construction team.

That's from July. The new date for the completion of the training and arming of the moderate Bertha is December 23, because massive public works projects always start 2 days before Christmas.

There's Always Money For Killing Machines

Not much else though.
Prime Minister David Cameron will announce plans Monday to boost Britain’s military equipment budget by 12 billion pounds ($18 billion), the latest in a range of government commitments to fight terrorism and other security threats as Europe remains on a state of high alert.

I'm sure the "military equipment budget" will do a heckuva job in its mission "to fight terrorism."

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Late Night, EST


Radical Proposals

If only some cranky blogger with a silly baby blue blog template from 2002 had suggested this.

No I'm not the first or only one, but I think it was an underappreciated proposal even from the good people who get more respect than I do. They "printed" a lot of money, they just gave it to the banks instead of us. The "monetary policy" mechanism shouldn't be banks 5 seconds after the banks basically destroyed the economy. The banking function is supposed to be efficient capital allocation. That's the justification. They aren't actually any good at that. They're good at slapping down money on the craps table, then blackmailing the House into making them whole when they lose it all.

Burbsplaining

One local problem is that so many of our local elite - media figures, Big Charity, CEOs, etc... - don't actually live in the city. "Philadelphia Magazine" has become much better in its coverage of the city, but for years was a magazine for suburban Main Liners. All of this has changed a bit in recent years, but I'm still occasionally shocked that people I long associated with "Philadelphia" either never really lived in the city or moved "back" quite recently.

The point isn't that one has to be a resident to comment or try to influence what happens here. You don't have to be a resident to be a genuine stakeholder, and plenty of nonresidents pay taxes to the city. The problem is that it's so many powerful and influential people. It's like the urban hellhole version of the "deep state." As a group they're powerful, and to a great degree they don't live here. But they have big microphones and big pocketbooks.

America's Worst Humans

Donald Trump.

Of Course They Make Themselves Look Better

But the more "hilarious" thing is that it's almost 2016, and we're still training Iraqi troops. I guess we gave up on painting schools, at least.
Such changes are at the heart of an expanding internal Pentagon investigation of Centcom, as Central Command is known, where analysts say that supervisors revised conclusions to mask some of the American military’s failures in training Iraqi troops and beating back the Islamic State. The analysts say supervisors were particularly eager to paint a more optimistic picture of America’s role in the conflict than was warranted.

In recent weeks, the Pentagon inspector general seized a large trove of emails and documents from military servers as it examines the claims, and has added more investigators to the inquiry.

Nobody ever actually explains what this "training" involves. It sounds nice. I suspect it involves finding a new bunch of recruits, giving them weapons, pointing them at the supposed bad guys du jour, and hoping for the best. Rinse and repeat.

Fairly Typical

Fine the people who can't afford to pay, ignore the people who can.

Bye David

Don't let the door, etc..