Month: June 2011

Cyrus: Shorties of a Serial Killer

8 Years: Somehow I managed to overlook my Blogiversary.

Next time you have a hard time getting through to your doctor’s office: Remember that the Feds are tying up the line trying to figure out how hard it is for you to get an appointment.

He’s just so nice: Matt Damon is trying to find ways to help African people get clean, safe water. And he’s good looking, and he can act.

On Fitness: Ladies, please ignore the fact that it comes from a publication called “Men’s Journal.” The Truth is unisex.

Let’s Get This Out of the Way: Everybody knows that yet another appeals court says there’s no Constitutional problems with the Affordable Care Act, right? Ok, moving on then.

In other news, Bill Gates Doesn’t Understand Capitalism: Ignoring the diseases of poverty isn’t a failure, it’s a sign that there’s no money in it. That’s why it’s called “poverty.”

Shut up and get back to work!: Yeah, it sure would be nice to have paid sick days. I have no idea how you’d do that for those of us who are self-employed.

Professor is Correct Again: Cutting the budget deficit won’t put a single person to work. In fact, it will put some government employees out of work. It will also reduce GDP — which by definition includes government spending. Who are the President’s economic advisers? The ghost of Herbert Hoover? A least he understands that there is no way to balance the budget without taxes.

Computer Security: Don’t stick strange memory sticks in your computer! You don’t know where they’ve been! Stupidity makes hacking possible.

Missing Cute White Girl of the Week Club: Why it’s bad for all of us. Amen, brother.

Senator Bernie Sanders: Speaking Truth in a place where it has been lacking.

To those of you who just got out of medical school: Sage words of a Dinosaur.

Too Big To Fail: Simply must be Too Big To Exist.

Sahara: The sign is going to be at the Neon Museum.

Most expensive used car ever: A painstakingly restored 1963 Volkswagen Microbus.

Looking forward to it: Shatner‘s latest film is a documentary wherein he interviews all 5 actors who have played a Star Trek captain.

Speaking of documentaries: Everything you know is probably wrong.

Screw Infrastructure: Apparently it is more cost effective to build a bridge in China and have it shipped here. We won’t have any lasting recovery until we get away from the Latte Economy.

Tomorrow, I’ll have some exciting news for you. In the meantime, stay cool.

A Plea for Civility

Can we please all stop with the name-calling?

Seriously, I don’t care if you’re liberal or conservative, we need to stop hurling around insulting names. It doesn’t do a bit of good, certainly doesn’t persuade anyone to your way of thinking, and it makes everyone who agrees with you look like an asshole.

I’m tired of hearing about Mooselini, the Chimpinator, McLame, Speaker Boner, Rummy, General Betray-us, Tweetie, Slick Willy, George Snuffleupagus, the O-Bomber, Wiener’s wiener, Rahmstein, Bachman-Poptart-Underdrive, Al Frankenstein, the Koch-heads, Dumb-o-craps, Repuglicants, MoDoDo, GingGrinch, and any other creative insults you can think of. Can’t we refer to people with their names and/or titles like civilized adults? “The President,” or “Senator So-and-so”, or “Mr. Clark”?

Now, I will concede a handful of exceptions. The Governator earned his nickname fair and square. So did “Heckuva Job” Brownie — the President himself gave him that nickname. To refer to Pat “Go F*** Yourself” Leahy is a compliment to his restraint. The Cyborg Dick Cheney, well, he is a cyborg.

The rest of it? Knock it off, already! It’s a distraction from real issues, like our eroding Constitutional rights, the developing American oligarchy, the endangered social safety net, the disappearing middle class, our crumbling infrastructure, the failed War on Drugs; our anemic economy, and the elimination of women‘s rights.

In Closing: Dam, dam, dam; Hollywood‘s out of ideas; the most sensible thing I’ve read about the Wal-Mart ruling; it’s a good start; and exercises at work.

Happy Solstice

And first day of Summer. Does anything say summer quite like fresh fruit?

In closing: glitch, or back door to true universal health care?; digital destruction; good luck with that first line; trickle down; enough war; Science American Style; it’s the jobs, stupid; tied; origins of the Japanese; explains the evening “news“; and 747-8.

Red Riding Shorties

In other news, sky blue, water wet: The cable industry recognizes that poverty is as big threat to their subscriber base as Netflix.

Duhpartment of Research: What do cats do all day? Mostly sleep and rest.

World’s Oldest Known Museum: Turns out to have been in ancient Babylonia.

Views of Vegas: From the Strip and from one of the mountains north of town.

Couldn’t have anything to do with it: Worker’s share of national income is plunging faster than a supermodel’s neckline.

Congress Can’t Outlaw What They Aren’t Told About: surveillance programs go unnoticed. It’s a bad thing.

Cancer Needs Sugar to Survive: Low carb diets prevent cancer.

Sure Would Be Handy: Let’s see, we have lots of unemployed people, and we have roads to fix, schools to build, and lots of infrastucture that needs to be constructed or repaired. Gee, why don’t we try putting those things together??? Aw, that’s crazy talk.

If you say so: Has anybody come up with a really good use for these things? Lots of people say I need them and then they can’t explain why.

Can’t Resist: I know I said it earlier elsewhere, but HA HA! Righthaven smacked down! Yes, the source of that article was intentionally ironic.

I’d Bet a Dimon It

Oh Jamie, Jamie, Jamie. Me thinks thou dost protest too much.

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was actually able to say with a straight face that the reason the economy has stalled is too much banking regulation. Somebody pass the man a fire extinguisher; his pants are surely ablaze. Fed officials “dispute” it. Heck, when Jim Cramer says you’ve gone too far, that’s a big hint.

We already — still — have a problem where banks think the rules don’t apply to them. That’s even more true at the “too big to fail” institutions. The Feds can’t make banks follow the law. The states don’t even have authority to make them follow the law. And yet Jamie thinks he has too many regulations?

Just ignore those pesky regulations, Jamie. Keep ignoring the law. And especially, ignore those angry consumers who are tired of getting screwed.

 

In closing: on health care; Jesus wouldn’t approve of Ayn Rand; national debt; local news; spam; band-aids on a bullet wound; I hope it never happens to his wife; the elements; food prices going up; wage “growth“; Hooverites; fossil sea turtle; and the continuing saga of Whitney Elementary.

Another Book Review

This time, the BlogHer book event is A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. My version is right here. Next up will be Terry McMillan’s Getting to Happy.

In Closing: Ezra; Beetles; Faux-pas; finances; debt; wieners; banks; speculation; carbs; demand; testing; Reich; and free books.

The Recovery

I was reading along, minding my own business, when I came across this USAToday item about how Americans have come to expect that they won’t be in any better financial situation next year. Near the bottom is buried this little gem, emphasis mine:

A typical recovery pattern goes like this: stock market bottoms, economic growth bottoms and then hiring and wage increases return. What’s unique and scary about this recovery is that the last piece of the recovery is not there.

The author goes on to talk about how weak job creation has been throughout this “recovery”. It’s almost like he was thinking of this chart from Calculated Risk:

 

Now let’s keep in mind the various bits of financial news we’ve had this week: there were only 54,000 jobs created in May, barely enough to employ a third of the people new to the job market; housing prices are officially in a “double dip“; major stock market indexes are down for the 5th week in a row; 45 banks have failed this year, and almost a thousand more are in trouble; certain forces in government are talking about severe austerity that would cripple job growth and throw millions of people into poverty and disease, despite the contrary wishes of the American people.

Now tell me, where exactly do we get the idea that despite all this, we are actually in some sort of “recovery”? Only if you measure corporate profits without any regard for Human-Americans do we have anything of the sort.

In closing: history for sale; Roman fishing vessel may have had a live storage tank; sluts must be punished; at least they admit that meat isn’t the only source of protein (I also like the emphasis on fruits and veggies over grains); damned liberal facts!; truth isn’t what the media wants you to believe; I don’t quote the good professor enough; depressing; 3rd grade; 60 small changes; HA! Manager comes up with a check fast when the moving truck and sheriff’s deputies show up!; turns out that physical activity is good for kids (who knew???); and the War On Drugs is officially a FAILURE.

Just a few items on the economy

So let’s just start with Robert Reich, pointing out the disconnect between Washington and the economy.

The economy, by the way, is in lousy shape. It’s just that between inflation reporting that automatically inflate GDP and corporations raking in record profits, it’s easy to pretend that things like anemic jobs numbers, people leaving the workforce, dropping housing prices, declining wages, high fuel prices, and all the other things that effect those of us in the trenches don’t matter.

But here’s an odd glimmer of hope. One Fed official thinks it’s time to start raising interest rates. His reasoning is that it will encourage saving. Traditionalists should be ripping their hair out yelling about how it will kill the “recovery” (you know, the one we aren’t really having) by making it harder for businesses to borrow money (you know, the money banks aren’t really lending).

Some of those traditionalists might stop for a moment to consider that it would also stifle inflation (the inflation the feds have been trying to pretend hasn’t existed since the Clinton Administration). None of them will point out that it will make it more attractive for everyone to own bits of the national debt (the debt that Congress is arguing about). It is too much to hope that anyone other than myself is beginning to question whether super-low interest rates actually do much for the economy.

 

In Closing: porn; abortion; blast from the past; War on Drugs; humiliation; security; and cats.