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30 Aug 2010 Bush's poodle is a superstitious
goober:
“Those who scorn God and those who do violence in God’s name, both represent views of religion. But both offer no hope for faith in the twenty first century.” Tony Blair, speaking at Georgetown University for the Common Word conference of Muslim and Christian scholars. good riddance: Blockbuster to Go Bust in September
Teabaggers: Outraged that Bush bailed out the banks, although they blame Obama for it, but outraged further that the Demoncrats might tax the loot. A recentTelegram letter tried to defend the teabaggers against the racism charge, in particular, in a muddy way, by invoking the compromise that gave 3/5 of a census person to slaves. Apparently that was his way of saying the Teabaggers are a "big cave" movement, that he won't disavow the inclusion of birthers, truthers, Birchers, Republicans, Becktards, Dittoheads, plutocrats' bootlickers, gun droolers, libertarians, dominionists, Klanners, anti-Semites, immigrant-bashers, gold bugs, etc. He claims the Tea Party is NOT a party, just a movement, so it doesn't have a platform, just principles, but wouldn't say what those alleged principles are. Looks to me like he's saying that since all his 'Bagger brethren agree that the Negro in the White House must go, it must be done. He seems to think that makes a majority, when obviously it's just the looniest of the people who didn't vote for Obama in the first place.
Aug 2010 There are 48 4,000-ft mountains in New Hampshire, by the criteria of the AMC. Should be 48 spectacular views, right? No, because the summits of most are now crowded with dense scrub spruce trees, so there is essentially no view at all. My solution would be for the US Forest Service to helicopter in a big wood chipper and a crew to clear view lines. It would attract more climbers to the less-climbed mountains, and relieve pressure on the ones that do have views. We just climbed popular Mt Osceola - nice view south (and a difficult view north), with its eroded trail; then Mt Tecumseh nearby - hardly any view, trail in much better condition. The teen does these climbs in half the time of the old man, running part of the way. Later in August: We climbed 2 2300-ft peaks near Lake George, NY, Prospect and Buck mountains. Great views from both. Filtered-out spam has been hitting 100/day, just in my alumni account, and Verizon stops uncounted additional ones. Later in Aug.: over 200/day sometimes! Mostly penis enhancers, drugs for impotence and pain, and fake watches, plus some suspicious software, "business opportunities," and a few Nigerian scams. Haven't seen the penny-stocks scams in a long time, and I never did get the fundagelical and winger magic money scams for the particularly feeble-minded. Sure-Jell is powdered pectin, and Certo is liquid. Both are made by Kraft, but their proportions in recipes are quite different. Since I didn't know this before, and made a batch of jelly with Certo that did not set-up, I think Kraft should mention this in its recipes. Sure-Jell is considerably cheaper.
 10 Aug 2010 Fark story: Small government Tea Party candidate from New York vows to use eminent domain to stop the "Ground Zero" mosque, presumably without his head exploding from cognitive dissonance LGF
Sharon Angle speech and photo op in San Diego: The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, is a far-right organization that propagates absurd anti-government conspiracy theories. The group has called the establishment of Medicare “evil” and “immoral”; has denied the link between HIV and AIDS; has argued that the FDA is unconstitutional; has promoted “one of Angle’s previously expressed theories that abortion may cause breast cancer“; and has even warned that President Obama may have used a “covert form of hypnosis” to win over voters.  1 Aug 2010The Washington Post has a piece on an upsurge of visitors to Colonial Williamsburg, teabaggers looking for validation of their opinions. The staff are bemused. Good news, so far. The Mass. legislature and Gov. Patrick disagree over the insane gambling bill, and he will veto it, largely because the corrupt goober in charge of the House tried to ram through a no-bid award of slot machines for his district's race tracks. DeLeo continues to lie: “Make no mistake about it, anything short of Governor Patrick signing this bill represents a decision to kill the prospects of 15,000 new jobs and bring immediate local aid to our cities and towns,’’ said DeLeo, with 100 lawmakers standing behind him. - Boston GlobeI wrote a note of support to Gov. Patrick. My notes to Sen. Chandler and Rep. Day, some months ago, were never acknowledged. 30 July 2010 Where Are The Prosecutions? SEC Lets Citi Execs Go Free After $40 Billion Subprime Lie Zach Carter, Campaign for America's Future What is the penalty for bankers who tell $40 billion lies? Somewhere between nothing and a rounding-error on your bonus. Citigroup CFO Gary Crittenden will pay $100,000 to settle allegations that he screwed over his own investors. The year of the alleged wrongdoing, Crittenden took home $19.4 million. That's right. Crittenden will lose one-half of one percent of his income from the year he hid a quagmire of bailout-inducing insanity from his own investors. That's it. No indictment. No prison time. Crittenden doesn't even have to formally acknowledge any wrongdoing. [continues]28 July 2010 Attention Bigots: There Is Already a Mosque Near the WTC Site Wonkette operative “Evan B.” writes: “The debate over the planned mosque at Ground Zero seems a bit retarded to me; I work directly between the planned mosque and a mosque that has existed before 9/11 and continues to operate to this day. The existing mosque and the proposed mosque are probably 800 feet apart; one city block, let’s say.” This is humorous! LISTEN UP, HATEFUL ASSHOLES: The end is near! The Muslins have already invaded that city you call godless yet love because terrorism happened there! YOU ARE RIGHT TO BE VERY, VERY SCARED AND ANGRY ABOUT THIS! So you have to kill yourselves right now! It is the only way! When the right-wing noise machine starts promoting another alleged scandal, you shouldn’t suspect that it’s fake — you should presume that it’s fake, until further evidence becomes available. Paul Krugman, NYT 9 Nov 1863, Gettysburg
 15 July 2010Pyrosomes are a class of colonial urochordates, often luminescent, which typically form a cone or cylinder that is centimeters to meters long. They are best known from tropical surface waters, but also live at great depths. A report [and another] read today says the BP oil disaster is killing large numbers, which may have significant effects on the food chain. This is a little-studied, hard to study, group of animals, which I had never heard of until now, and I don't know what to make of the reports. Nature report of their role in marine carbon cycle, Armstong 2009 Underwater nature films Pyrosoma atlanticum
12 Jul 2010 Ross Douthat actually made some sense! The Class War We NeedBut of course he blames Obama for much of this, as if these were new problems, instead of just the same old politics. And George Will had an article on the evils of social activism, interesting and informative if you can ignore his perspective. Another round of Prohibition, anyone? Did a sense of shame ever reside in our Republican toadies? You can't stop people who are never embarrassed by themselves. Will's readiness to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse can be cited as world class sycophancy. - Norman Mailer, about George Will, 3/14/2002 Boston Globe letter11 Jul 2010 Dana Milbank at the Washington Post had a well-researched article about how Gov. Jan Brewer and Sen. Grampa McCain, etc. were flat-out lying about the crimes of Mexican immigrants. He used the real police and FBI data. The wingnuts just went ballistic in the comments (nearly 2000, so far), without any counter evidence (of course), with vile and idiotic ad hominem attacks, irrelevant shaggy dog stories, and far-winger rants. Headless bodies and other immigration tall tales in ArizonaI've never understood how illegal immigration is supposed to be a liberal plot. Seems to me the major direct benficiaries are landlords and business owners, prime tea bagger material. Liberals just want them treated humanely. Liberal commentators also point out how Reagan, Bush, etc gave amnesty to previous generations of them, but the wingers know amnesty is part of Obama's plot to impose socialism. The Rethuglicans, in control and out of control, have done nothing constructive about the "problem" they now scream about. (Their border wall is a sick, expensive, incomplete joke.) Just partisan politics. 9 Jul 2010 Biggest defaulters on mortgages are the rich by Jed Lewison, NYT
30 jun 2010 Local petty corruption?: the parking lot at the Worcester Public Library has meters, cheap enough at 25¢ per half hour. But several meters were damaged, then removed, more than a year ago. I assume those unmetered spaces are taken by the first city employees to arrive in the morning. Who damaged them? There is not an epidemic of meter vandalizing, so I believe it was specific. And yes, I use those spaces when I can. Study: US media redefined torture after US started practicing it [not a surprise] The NYT belatedly comments on agribusiness abuse of antibiotics. Scientists and health researchers have been complaining for decades. 29 jun 2010 Report faults U.S. for being too optimistic about Afghan security capabilities By Karen DeYoung
22 jun 2010 advertising scam: betterlinkadvertising 18 jun 2010 All songs about bells, or at least all the folk songs I've ever heard about bells, are awful. And why is Bruce Springsteen rich and famous? His good song is Pink Cadilllac, and all the others sound like each other, muddy and mumbled. New theme for the decade, First we hang all the bankers. 17 Jun 2010 Pharmaceutical Companies Back Away From New Research16 Jun 2010 WASHINGTON – The two chief authors of the Senate energy and climate bill joined 20 other Democrats Tuesday evening to help defeat a motion that would have stripped $35 billion in special tax breaks for big oil companies. Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) cast their votes against the amendment introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to H.R. 4213, the "American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act." It failed 35-61. -- Rawstory
16 Jun 2010 2010 Census I've been working for the Census for several weeks, part of the follow-up crew to get info from the people who did not mail in the Census in reasonable time. The hours are fairly flexible, the money reasonably good, my colleagues are interesting, and I get excercise climbing hills and stairs. Our sector is all within about 3 miles of home, and I've learned a lot about neighborhoods of Worcester I hardly knew existed. Most of the respondents have been helpful, once I catch them at home, but there are some whiney teabaggers (is that redundant?), suspicious (of my job) immigrants, and nasty jerks (probably hiding something, and/or mentally ill.) Landlords do not know the law, and are mostly unhelpful when I resort to them for information. The most common obnoxious peple are the ones who mailed in the Census a month or two late, yet berate the government for being incompetent and wasting money (a news article said that it costs about 23 cents to process a mailed-in form, and $57 on average for us to follow up on the non-responders). That said, some people say they did send the form on time, and I believe some. (However, many tenants claim to have only one or two people in their apartment, and are likely lying, as was a certain overpaid, arrogant public employee, concerning a mother-in-law apartment.) I think sternly worded reminders of the law should be given after several gentle ones, with publicized fines for non-compliance. One cranky nit-wit said the census is a waste of money, since the government could just spend a few seconds with its computers and get all the information. Where does he imagine data comes from? As for the buildings—I am mostly visiting triple-deckers, Worcester's most common, private low-income to low-middle income housing. Most have been covered with vinyl siding, many had their front porches removed (typical slumlord move), the back stairwell is often the original battleship-gray paint. The woodwork inside is sometimes the old stuff, in beautiful condition, sometimes hidden under multiple layers of paint, sometimes removed and replaced with cheap modern crap. In one neighborhood the houses often had a panel beside the front door with the remnants of speaker tubes and doorbells. I didn't see anything that made me want to jail the slumlords, but they won't get any sympathy, either. The few really disgusting apartments were the tenants' fault. Most of the people in poor neighborhoods drive much nicer cars than I do. And as for the Census bureaucracy —the rules keep changing for us enumerators, and it seems even worse for the crew leaders. At first we were supposed to make only 3 contact attempts, then 6, then "whatever it takes." Although resident interviews are best, we were encouraged to ask neighbors and landlords after initial attempts, but those proxy responses are now problematic. Refusals and deletions now require a crew leader to confirm (refusals are often unpleasant, so there is a tendency to avoid repeated nastiness, but sometimes we can catch another, more reasonable resident later.) The local office is weeks behind processing some of the incoming reports (but our pay checks come on time!) When no one answers at a house or apartment, we leave a Notice of Visit, with a Census office contact phone number, so they can phone in their info or schedule an enumerator visit, etc. Several people from my sets tried and failed with that, so I have been leaving my own cell number lately. Each data set comes as a binder with addresses to check on, a set of labeled questionaires for the non-responders, and a set of maps. The maps are completely useless; I tried using them, but always ended up using web maps or my own map book. The Census-numbered addresses within apartment buildings sometimes have no relation to the actual apartment numbers, so I wasted time trying to contact people who had actually turned in the form on time (and most apartment buildings do not have tenant names on the mailboxes or door-bells, and the door-bells seem to be functional less than half the time, anyway.) However, there is not enough work. The next phase is validation, checking on the vacancies, deletions, refusals, incompletes and probably sampling the normal ones with repeat interviews. So far, the bureaucracy is not being informative, which is frustrating. As a genealogist, I'm disappointed with the info requested. There is vastly less interesting information than in Censuses from a hundred years ago. Then the Census asked, among other things, name, age, relationship, marital status, time married, occupation, home/farm rental/ownership, birth state/country, parents birth state/country and language, race, disability, ability to read/write, immigration and naturalization dates for immigrants, school attendance for children, and for (married?) women the number of children born and number living. See the census forms from 1900, 1910 (PDFs). We are not asking for citizenship. Why? One reason is so as to get a fuller count of residents. Non-citiizens aill be more likely to feel included, and not scared off. There certainly is a point to asking for citizenship, but politicians left and right from places with a high non-citizen population want the numbers to be a high as possible. Even the deranged right-wing (e.g., Bachmann), which was telling people to refuse to be counted, was apparently not trying to tell the Census to only count citizens. One of my colleagues is a college student of Hispanic origin. He was searched, interrogated and nearly arrested by Worcester police for "breaking and entering" while doing his job correctly. Only the arrival of a supervisor led to his release. I worked the validation phase for 2 weeks, which largely meant double-checking deletions and poorly documented vacancies. Lots of apologies for rechecking, insincerely blaming the Government for my assignment, when the usual problem was actuallly lazy tenants and landlords who don't know/won't obey the law. Five ridiculous gun myths everyone believes, thanks to the movies 14 Jun 2010 Pakistani intel continues support of Taliban Slate, from Guardian In an explosive report released by the London School of Economics, researcher Matt Waldman accused Pakistan's spy agency, the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, of supporting the Taliban. According to the report, "Pakistani intelligence is so deeply involved in the arming and funding of the Afghan Taliban that it holds a seat on the militant leadership council and has sent the president, Asif Ali Zardari, to make prison visits to captured leaders," the Guardian reported.22 May 2010 The problem of portolan charts; how did they originate? Washington Post Widely applicable, but directly relevant to the Texas School Board textbook situation, where the nutters are trying to impose their lies and biases on Texas, and thereby much of the country: "Writing letters to elected representatives has the same effect on public policy that praying to Jesus has on cancer." - Tim Kreider, comment on RawStoryTelling lies to the young is wrong. 8 May 2010 One of the more idiotic teabagger talking points is that Clinton, Frank, the Dems, or somebody, 'pushed' the banks into lending to people who couldn't afford a mortgage. It's never explained how that could happen. As I saw it, the banks, allowed to speculate by Rethuglican deregulation of their industry, saw an opportunity to make billions by passing along the risk to speculators. It mostly worked, except they were still holding some of the garbage when the bubble burst, and we the taxpayers, and our children, are left to make up the loss.29 apr 2010 Reagan admin ‘hyped Soviet failures into threats,’ documents show RawStory by Daniel Tencer12 Apr 2010 Massachusetts is poised to pass casino gambling bills. What a disgusting situation. The reasons given are lies supported by misleading and partial statistics and analyses. At a personal level, I support what amounts to a tax on stupidity, but at a societal level I think it is counter-productive. Gambling on games, cards, dice, etc. contributes nothing whatsoever to society. The profits usually go to distant millionaires, often with organized crime connections, instead of being spent within the community. There is a culture of loan-sharking, drug use, and prostitution that goes with casinos. I find it hard to believe that the problems of increased crime rates, or decreased family solvency and cohesion caused by gambling addiction will be adequately addressed by the state. The state cannot eliminate gambling, but actively encouraging it is wrong. "The Connecticut legislature is considering a bill that would remove teh statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases. Guess who is opposing the bill. No, it's not NAMBLA. No, it's not a mob of sexually precocious toddlers. It's…the Catholic Church! You probably didn't see that one coming. The reason they oppose it isn't some conservative legal principle. They spilled the beans already — it's the cost to the church. The proposed change to the law would put "all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk," says the letter, which was signed by Connecticut's three Roman Catholic bishops. Oh? Why are they worried? Do they have a gang of septuagenarian child molesters tucked away somewhere in the bosom of the Connecticut church? Pharyngula, 12 Apr 2010 When you are looking at truth versus gossip, truth doesn't stand a chance - Barbara Mikkelson, Snopes.com
The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it. - Edward Dowling, 1941 What has 'theology' ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody? When has 'theology' ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? … What makes you think that 'theology' is a subject at all? - Richard Dawkins, biologist (Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, 1991)   The major Fox clown-whore made 32
million dollars last year for his
efforsts to drive the country insane and encourage a coup.Using my right wing reporting tool kit: this was reported in a teabagger newspaper: ‘Glenn Beck raped and killed a little girl.’ "Virginia has been making big leaps lately in the category of general craziness. We all remember the Legislature’s heroic work in passing a bill to protect Virginia citizens from having microchips planted in their bodies against their will. And that the sponsor said he was concerned the chips could be a “mark of the beast” that would be used by the Antichrist at the end of days." - Gail Collins, NYT 9 Apr 2010 Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld Knowingly Kept Innocent Men at Guantanamo A new statement from inside the old Administration, backed by General Colin Powell himself, claims that President Bush and Vice President Cheney kept innocent men in Guantanamo so they wouldn't harm their push for war in Iraq. ...All year, so far: Tiger Woods' golf and bimbo scores have been an international obsession, impossible to avoid. As for me, if he vanished from the news, I wouldn't notice or care.  Apr 2010 The Skeptic's
Dictionary - posts on media spin, update on the satanic ritual
accusation insanity, Texas revisionism ...The Straight Dope - "in 1950s Chicago, bombs were a routine means of interpersonal communication. " National Geographic - New Giant Lizard Discovery "an Unprecedented Surprise" Human-size lizard hid from science high in the trees. [The quote is dumb, but the story cool.] Old Beatles' songs on the radio: they've aged well, and most music is/was soon forgettable. 5 Apr 2010 on the use of drones to kill Taliban: 2 Apr 2010 Fark comment thread on Texas history revisionism and other recent wingnut statements madmann 2010-04-022 Apr 2010 CIA’s top spy: No losses from waterboarding ban Michael Sulick, head of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, told a student audience last week that the spy agency has seen no fall-off in intelligence since waterboarding was banned by the Obama administration.  3 Apr 2010
- Rawstory comment: Dear Teabagging Hick Terrorists,on the Health Care "Reform" process: "When you think of the vast majorities they have in Congress, and they had the bribe back room deals, corruption," Hannity continued, "that's because of the Tea Party movement, all these Tim McVeigh wannabes." *  on the idiotic hoopla aver politicians and
clowns using the term "retarded:"Fark comment: You know, sometimes it's really hard not to feel elitist."Retarded" was invented as a euphemism for the people earlier called "feeble-minded," imbeciles, morons, etc., which are terms we are still allowed to use (and frequently do) for people who annoy us with opinions or actions we disagree with. The new PC euphemism for people genuinely afflicted is "developmentally delayed," and the mocking version is "rides the short bus." 21 Mar 2010 Thomas Friedman at NYT on the benefits of immigrants. America's Real Dream Team I have the pleasure of knowing one of the honored students.  20 Mar 2010The Fishing Lobby Wins Again19 Mar 2010 Empathy failed12 Mar 2010 2009, from Strident Centrist Treason committed by Richard Perle and Douglas Feith.March 2010, Montreal We just spent 4 days in Montreal, and had a nice time. It would have been more fun if we had more money, but when is that not true? It is unfortunate for us that the Canadian dollar is about at par with the US dollar now, unlike on our previous trips. As people usually write: Montreal is close enough to drive to easily (about 5 h), but foreign enough to be interesting. Everyone we tried could speak English - sometimes it was clearly their second or third language, and sometimes there were only little clues that French was their first language. I asked a Biodôme guide for help in pronunciation, and then she asked me a question on English grammar (how to use the plurals of 'fish'.) We even heard a family that switched back and forth among themselves. Our French is poor, and clerks and guides hear that and speak to us in English. Other times, something about us says 'English-speaker' or 'American' before we speak (and it's not always just looking clueless.) Highlights: the Biodôme (again) [see penguin webcam], the Botanical Garden greenhouses, the sights of Vieux Montréal and the Latin Quarter, a Tiffany glass exhibit at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, the variety of ethnic restaurants (we ate Lebanese, Indian, Mexican and French), the fast and clean Metro (where a ticket-booth worker said "Welcome to Montreal" when we presented our passes.). Lowlights: too many smokers, Quebec highways are horribly signed, and even Canadian TV "news" is obsessed with Tiger Woods. We did an interested-student tour of McGill, but at 34,000 students, it just seems too big and not far enough away for our too-soon college student. Quebec drivers have a poor reputation on Cape Cod, about par with New York and New Jersey drivers, but in Montreal they were very courteous. The "underground malls" in Montreal (and Toronto) continue to unimpress, but maybe they are useful in the depths of winter. A little side trip along the way was to the Snowflake Museum in Jericho, Vermont. This is in the Red Mill, of the former Chittenden Mills, now also used for village offices and a nice gift shop. Jericho also happens to be where my grandfather was born, 25 Dec 1906, but the family is not mentioned in the History of Jericho. The criminals who are the banking system don't credit our mortgage payments until the last moment, to maximize the interest charged. The electric and phone companies credit us quickly, 1-2 days after mailing the check, because they don't charge interest. All of them charge extra, sometimes, for paying by phone or computer, even though it saves them time and payroll. But the credit card companies are in another league of criminality. T  urdblossom has published a whole book of
lies and excuses, and he's proud that his administration tortured
people. Military
veterans note note that he and other neocon chickenhawk torture
fans.did not serve. Frank
Rich
comment, 14 Mar 201014 Mar 2010, interesting NYT op-ed by Sean Wilentz, defending the reputation of Ulysses Grant against the Confederate revisionists and Ray-gun idolators. Looking at school department records from the 1920s and 1930s - school nurses took note of underweight, under-nourished poor children. Now those poor children are fat, and the media are having a tut-tut frenzy. Mrs Grundy is sure she knows what the problem is, and how to solve it. 11 Mar 2010 "Rep. Alan Grayson came to the House Floor today to introduce the Public Option Act, which would allow all Americans to buy into Medicare at cost. The bill is 4 pages long, and calls for an unsubsidized option for any American to choose Medicare over private insurers. ..." Okay, it makes sense at first, but then I wonder, how would that actually get calculated? Insurers have risk pools, because different groups have different risks and therefore different costs/prices. How would the government do that? And how exactly does a government calculate "cost"? A recent Kathleen Parker column (?) (that I can't find online now) claims that the current version of the "health care reform" bill extends the Nebraska, Florida, Louisiana bribes to cover many more places, for much longer. And Pelosi has buried the single-payer concept. While the insurers are raising premiums by double digits all round. To me, the "reform" has become just an example of corruption-by-compromise, which will do nothing useful. And Faux News lies, lies, lies.  Meanwhile,
the tea-baggers are gathering steam,
claiming to be for fiscal responsibilty and to be unlike the Dems and
Reps. Who can argue with that? But behind that veneer, they vear off
into all sorts of wing-nuttery of religion, libertarianism, states'
rights, racism and gun droolery (see 'Oath Keepers'
below). They seem incapable
of understanding what "the government(s)" does(do) for them, or how it
gets paid for. A relative emailed a teabagger rant to me a few days
ago, full of complaints about the government. Yet the husband has a
very secure government job, with phenomenal vacation time, pension plan
and health insurance. And another relative sent a popular far-right
rant by "Michael Connelly, Retired attorney, Constitutional Law
Instructor, Carrollton, Texas" about thow "ObamaCare" was
unConstitutional for several reasons — yet as far as I seen, even
the
worst wackos in Congress and the Supreme Court are not making those
arguments [2 weeks later, yes the pols are, now]. Connelly's supposed
qualifications and background are
invisible to Google. _______________________
I
have
my
own
states'
rights
scheme.
Massachusetts contributes
far
more to
the Feds than it gets back, as do several other states. Yet the
worst
(most red-neck and corrupt) politicians are from the states that get
far more than they contribute. So I propose a Constitutional amendment
requiring that states get back at least 95% of what they contribute,
with borrowed money spent in the same proportions, with a 3/5 majority
required for each override, except in case of Congressionally declared
war. It would include all expentitures and revenues. What would
that do for pork projects, agriculture and business subsidies? I have
no idea how that would be applied to multi-state and international
companies._______________________
You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. — Ray Bradbury Whatever happened to the nutter obsession of a few years ago with music lyrics, and playing records backwards? It would be interesting to have an IMAX movie about sailing the Straits of Magellen. But I'd get seasick.
3 Mar 2010 BOSTON — (AP) The state Senate voted Tuesday to ban text messaging while driving and to require motorists 75 and older to undergo regular cognitive and physical screenings. ...It creates the possibility of testing drivers likely to have faltering driving skills. As for "turn[ing] “active seniors into shut-ins” by denying them access to cars," if they can't pass a test administered by their own doctors, they damn well should NOT be on the road. 23 Feb 2010 The software for HP 6500 OfficeJet all-in-one is crappy, crappy, crappy. It crashes for no obvious reason, requiring hours' worth of time and aggravation to fix. Apparently it conflicts with other standard apps, like Adobe. All I'm trying to do is scan a line drawing. It sux, sux, sux. The drawing:
 9 Feb 2010 pandering pols and brain-dead fishermen The Congressional act that is the legal backbone of U.S. fisheries management came under fire this week, as U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., requested an independent review of the science that supports the current timelines for rebuilding fish stocks.The fishermen, including generations of my ancestors, spent 400 years destroying the fishing stocks, moving further and further off-shore, going deeper and deeper, to less and less desirable species. Now, when the government makes a slow start at restoring stock health, they still scream. The basic law in question was passed 14 years ago. Nothing much has improved, and the government is trying something else, which seems to have worked in other parts of the country. 18 feb 2010 Pro-torture teabagger Sen. Scott Brown expresses sympathy for, or solidarity with, with the Austin terrorist. What's next - a statue of Timothy McVeigh, a postage stamp for a KKK anniversary?
18 Feb 2010, from Pharyngula: Christopher Maloney is a quack. "Maloney is a naturopath in the state of Maine, where quacks like him get to call themselves "doctors". These so-called "doctors" get to make recommendations like this, in which he disparages standard flu vaccines and suggests these useless prescriptions:Republicans, hypocrisy and politics The Republicans get to benefit from the current financial problems in all ways: The get to keep the loot they stole under Bush. Their bankers and investors get to keep the loot they steal/stole from us during the bailouts, while the politicians wail (but in fact do nothing). If the Dems had refused to vote for the bailouts Bush wanted, they would be blamed for the crash. They get to blame Obama (and Clinton), even though it was obviously the Bush administration's policies that caused it. (Yes the Dems were complicit, and some Repubs possibly acted responsibly.) When the economy gets better, they get to say it would have happened anyway, or even faster without the Dems. They get to bring home the pork projects they voted against, and still complain about waste and fraud.
 Hell, no.   2D Goggles
Dangerous Adventures in ComicsThe Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage Steam-punk comics and blog. 12 Feb: Darwin Day 
Faux "News" and the drug-addled clowns are pretending that the climate is not changing, because it snowed in DC.  ___________________________________ It is because it is more egotistical that the patriotism of the American is more easily roused and more easily affronted. He has been educated to despise all other countries and to look upon his own as the first in the world; he has been taught that all other nations are slaves to despots and that the American citizen only is free, and this is never contradicted. For although thousands may in their own hearts f __________________________________________
 7 Feb 2010 We were in Providence for a meeting, but had time to kill and shopping to do, so we went to the Providence Mall. Nice mall, as such things go, but a horrible, horrible parking garage. Then we were back on the streets, with no signs to clue us in about where to turn next. Ended up quite lost, late for the meeting, but found a police cruiser with two cops, who wrote very careful and accurate directions to get us there. Maps would have worked eventually, but there's nothing like expert help. 8 Feb 2010 Jacob Weisberg in Slate: Down With the People: Blame the childish, ignorant American public—not politicians—for our political and economic crisis
Teen Pregnancies, Births, and Abortions Increase21 Jan 2010: The US Supreme Court endorses political corruption. Olbermann's scenario part 1, part 2 Leftist ideas on Haitian history are as stupid, insane and unrealistic as the righties'. What you see is news, what you know is background, what you feel is opinion. — Lester Markel (1894-1977)  Jan
2010Scott Brown trounced Martha Coakley, to become our new Senator. The Democrats and "moderate" chattering class are wailing that now now nothing progressive will get done. Somehow it doesn't matter that the Dems still have 58 members in the Senate, and that Dim Bush pushed through his agenda with a slim majority just a few years ago. Why did Coakley lose? Obama hasn't overcome the Bush disaster. Coakely assumed she'd win handily, then campaigned badly. Coakley was the leader in the Fells Acres daycare travesty of justice. The reichwing hate machine lied, lied, lied. Brown is handsome and articulate (even though nearly everything he says is ridiculous.) So the minority party, strong supporters of torture, militarism and unjustified war, suppression of civil rights, bad education, income disparity, superstition and government handouts to their base, prevents any action by the majority party, strong supporters of superstition and handouts to its base, and tacit supporters of torture, militarism and unjustified war, suppression of civil rights, bad education and income disparity. Rackjite on Brown, and again,
 Followup:Thursday January 21, 2010 06:00 am 'Oath Keepers' Leader Arrested for Child Rape; Cops Find Stolen Grenade Launcher In His House By Susie Madrak We first noticed Marine Sgt. Charles Dyer, aka "July4Patriot," back in March, when we ran one of the first reports on the "Oath Keepers" bloc of the Tea Party movement — an organization devoted to recruiting military and police-force veterans into a Patriot-movement belief system predicated on a series of paranoid conspiracy theories, especially the notion that the federal government intends to begin rounding up citizens and putting them in concentration camps. Dyer played a prominent role in connecting the Oath Keepers to the Tea Party movement, speaking at a July 4 Tea Party rally in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. And he's been involved in organizing militia "maneuvers" in Oklahoma. Dyer cropped up again in the news — this time in the police blotter for allegedly raping a 7-year-old girl: An ex-military man has been arrested on charges of rape of a child and forcible sodomy.Oh, and guess what police found when they searched his home: During the search the sheriff’s deputies noted several firearms and a device believed to be a Colt M-203, 40-millimeter grenade launcher, a complaint filed in the United States District Court of Western Oklahoma by Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco Special Agent Brett Williams said.As the story from KAUZ-TV notes, Dyer had a history of making bizarre claims in his videos — as well as violent fears of being arrested. “We come home and those bastards want to talk about how we’re domestic terrorists and a threat to this country. It makes me so angry,” said Charles Dyer, who has been accused of committing rape.GossipBoy is reporting that the rape victim was a close family member. They also report that Dyer had been in touch with a fellow militiaman linked to explosives dealing, and that when bomb-sniffing dogs searched Dyer's home, they indicated explosives had been stored there recently. Meanwhile, unsurprisingly, the folks at American Resistance Movement — a group Dyer was also prominently involved in — are claiming that Dyer was set up, and the girl who accused him was "programmed" to do so. Accordingly, they've set up a "Free July4Patriot" fund, with a little button on their front page so you can donate. Also, Dyer's YouTube page remains active. Every movement attracts its freaks. But the Patriot movement attracts an inordinate number of them — and particularly people with a pedophilia problem. (I can list at least 10 different prominent figures in the Northwest's Patriot movement in the 1990s who had a history of being charged with abusing and abducting children.) Evidently, being a pedophile leads to resentment of the government — probably for its desire to lock you away. consumer comments We just discovered Horseneck Beach in Westport, Mass. It seem to be the closest ocean beach to us, about 90 min. Parking is $7, the bathhouses are new, the beach is long and wide and clean, the waves are fairly big. You can't use boogy boards in the lifeguarded area, but can walk beyond that. And Handy Hill Creamery is on the way, on Rt 88, with good ice cream, fast and friendly service. Stewart's is a NY chain of gas stations/convenience stores. We are quite impressed, compared to the Mass. chains. They are clean, spacious, with good prices, light food service and ice cream, booths to eat and read at, toilets. My wireless Logitech mouse died, and apparently they don't make similar ones now. It ate batteries, but a wonderful feature was tha built-in volume control. Nothing similar available at Bestbuy. Boston Public Library (BPL.org) supposedly has huge digital resources online, but I find the system awkward to use, buggy, with unhelpful staff, and often no usable results. Today, it doesn't matter what I want, the answer is: This document is not available due to either: - the document is outside of your library's subscription, or - the document is very recent and is currently being loaded - please try again later. [I'm logged in directly, and looking for Boston and New York info from 1896-1953. (Jul 2010, and other times) [Unsatisfactory answer: BPL is arguing with ProQuest about paying for service.] Walgreens has fairly cheap photo developing, but its web site does not give prices for film processing, or even indicate thay can do it, only having prices for digital printing and related services. A moron at the phone help desk couldn't understand the situation. The actual store employees are always helpful. July 2010 I was pleasantly surprised to find that Clark Color Labs still exists, and has very good prices, and will develop my obsolete 110 film. We still have a couple of dozen rolls of print film, and several disposable 35mm cameras, a fairly good 35 mm SLR, a cheap 35mm panoramic camera, reloadable very cheap 35mm cameras that originally were intended for underwater use, and a 40-year-old 110 camera with one film cassette left. And a disc camera for which there is no film, and several defunct 35mm cameras, and defunct digital cameras, ... We have have had a number of digital cameras with very short lives - a bit of dust jams them fatally (as does major shock.) Digital is enormously convenient when it works, except for the shutter lag time, and the inability to see the screen in bright light. But they are fragile, and eat batterys. 22 jun 2010 advertising scam: betterlinkadvertising I hate dropdown lists. I hate web site dropdown country lists that start with "Albania." That's just incompetent design. First of all, the site should know what country you are connecting from. Even if not, it should offer the most likely countries first. I especially hate US dropdown lists for states. Yes, the "M" states are confusing, but the zip code is completely sufficient, and always needs to be included as well. And if the lists must exist, let them fully open. I needed a few feet of fine fishing line for a craft project, and was resigned to buying a small reel with a life-time supply. But the clerk at Dick's Sporting Goods asked what I actually wanted, and offered me several thicknesses, and cut off a long piece for free. Nice! When Honey Farms and Cumberland Farms has "2 for $x" items, they really do enforce the single price when I want just one bag, bottle, etc. I don't think that's true at the supermarkets, but could check. That's obnoxious. Once again, I note that the compact fluorescent "bulbs" last a small fraction of their alleged lifetime. Expensive, supposedly dimmable bulbs lasted less than a year, infrequently used, rarely dimmed. I look forward to LED lights taking over the market, or some newer, safe technology. So far LEDs are expensive, but the prices are dropping and the uses expanding. Why do computer monitors burn out quickly? Our regular TVs are more than 25 years old, and one is watched several hours per day. But several monitors have died in under 5 years, including a Dell flatscreen in about 1 year. CD drives in computers and boom-boxes also die quickly, usually with very, very light use — we have lost several. Media Monkey works much better than iTunes to organize and play our music files. The free version is sufficient for me. eMusic.com is a source of relatively cheap mp3s, but it hijacks FireFox with its own unauthorized toolbar. And it lacks much of the music I would like to have. AVG is good, free anti-virus software, but it also inserts an extra, annoying toolbar into FireFox, apparently without permission. We have a new HP OfficeJet 6500 all-in-one printer/scanner. It calls for its installation CD after every reboot of the PC. That's crappy software design. The software is crappy, crappy, crappy. It crashes for no obvious reason, requiring hours' worth of time and aggravation to fix. Apparently it conflicts with other standard apps, like Adobe. All I'm trying to do is scan a line drawing. It sux, sux, sux. Latest annoyance: it is printing things a day after it was supposed to, and printed out a form with word salad! March - had to uninstall and reinstall again to get it to do anything. This takes at least an hour, with reboots to finish both uninstalling and installing, after going through the hours of mess of trying to figure out where the problem is. And the uninstall froze too. I had some hundreds or even thousands of image, music, doc and pdf files that were frozen - they could not be opened, moved, renamed or deleted. After trying several products, and asking advice of friends and online for years, I finally found Unlocker Assistant, freeware that works. Image and music files just need to be renamed or moved within a hard drive, usually. Pdf files were more of a problem, but I finally discovered that what works is to move them to another drive. The only problem is that Unlocker Assistant does not remember which locations to move things to. The early version would only move one file at a time, but the latest can move many files at once, and sometimes whole folders. (Jan 2010) Nov 2009 - Travelodge, Latham, NY Cheap ($54) and really shabby. Bad directions. Mar 2010 - rue Sherbrooke, Centreville, Montreal moderate weekday price, clean, helpful staff, desk lamp has a non-working switch requiring the wall plug to be inserted/pulled and it was not fixed, tub drained badly, next to Metro but not in heart of Latin Quarter as claimed, crappy coffee maker, CRT TV with few channels May 2010 - -- Latham, NY Cheap ($45), comfortable, clean, modern. One night --didn't even turn the TV on. |
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By
Daniel Tencer at 
"Two
of
the government supporters said they knew of civilians, including
friends, who had been killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong
time. But, they said, they are prepared to sacrifice the civilians if
it means North Waziristan will be rid of the militants, in particular
the Arabs. 
The
Great School Delusion, at 
1
Feb
2010,
Christopher
Hitchens
in Slate
