Month: October 2013

A Scary Halloween Story

You thought it was your imagination, but no. It’s true.

They

Are

Watching

You!

Look out!

“I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

In Closing: enjoying the view; don’t forget that Yellowstone is essentially a giant, flat volcano; organized crime; family tree; I’m willing to take it as a police failure that Target feels it needs it’s own crime lab; reforestation; how does one get electricity into an underground drug tunnel??; Google Glass; deficit; Obamacare; GOP has a problem; sardines; ingenuity; television; and Happy Halloween.

Clarity

Ok. There are some people — millions of them to be honest — who are unhappy that their insurance policies are being cancelled. The policies were reasonably priced, the consumers argue. What these consumers fail to understand is that they were crap policies that were inexpensive because they didn’t actually cover much of anything! If any of these people ever actually had a claim, they would have discovered just how bad those policies were, and would probably be far less satisfied. Obama’s claim that if you liked your insurance you could keep it? That assumed you had coverage rather than an insurance fig-leaf.

So getting mad at the government for forcing predatory insurance companies to stop issuing “insurance” that didn’t actually cover much of anything is like getting mad about a crib recall notice because after all, your kid didn’t die.

And for the record, the real way forward is still Medicare For All.

In Closing: cars; problem; recession; some choice NSA, spying, and privacy links; statins; Republicans; Geometry; poor babies; Iran; Too Many Secrets; debt; trash; and an awesome art collection.

Crosswalk to Nowhere

IMG_20131022_105556

Yes, apparently you have to push the button to legally walk down the sidewalk here. It’s been driving me nuts all semester.

In Closing: oh come now, we can all use more NSA and privacy links, particularly when it’s starting to garner international outrage; speaking of international laws, looks like America doesn’t care about them too much; well, I guess a good ad campaign can’t hurt; how much of the stock market is made up by computers?; outrage; a little too true; the crooks in Washington are still trying to figure out how to steal your mom’s money; the USPS; spitting in the wind; the only demographic group that doesn’t favor legalizing pot by a majority is people over 65, of whom 45% still think it’s a good idea; this exists; it turns out “the 13 year old tricked me into having sex with him for drugs” is a lousy defense; bad idea, Sheldon; The Grinch is in Washington; and Mike Tyson.

A Very Successful Failure

While the Government was having it’s temper tantrum and existential crisis, the very bill the Republicans claimed to have been fighting quietly started working. Of course, we’ve all heard about how the official Federal website hasn’t been running as well as we expect well-established online services like Google to run. Because it’s totally reasonable to expect rock solid performance from what is in many respects a Beta Test. Stick with that story.

In the meantime, a system that was supposed to deal with a half million people over the course of this month racked up 476,000 users in the first 19 days of the month. They could conceivably hit the half-million mark by the time the weekend is over, and more like 750,000 by Halloween. So two little things here. First, this system is racking up 50% more traffic than anybody thought it would. Second, so much for the idea that nobody wants affordable health insurance. Not bad for a failure!

I am still not a fan of the mandatory insurance aspect of Obamacare, particularly since there is no public option. However, I don’t think it’s fair to call it a failure.

In Closing: Modern bridge replacement; PSA; I’m not sure where the Obama Administration gets off telling the Supreme Court what they can and cannot hear (right of Americans to receive redress of grievances, baybee, it’s in the FIRST Amendment); there but for the grace of god; CEO pay; middle path; maybe schools make kids fat?; and I think Drew is on to something here. I wonder what he would have thought about that Wonder Woman outfit from a few weeks ago.

The Last Will and Shorties of Rosalind Leigh

On Education: Children living in poverty are everywhere, and standardized tests are not ready for them. For pity sake, we’re wasting time teaching kids who are still figuring out how to hold a pencil how to fill in little bubbles on scantrons. All hail the holy power of earning a completion certificate degree.

On Spying on American Citizens: Hilary says we need an adult conversation. Good luck in a world where we are all apparently afraid there’s a terrorist under the bed. But if they can track all Americans (illegally), how are they going to sort through enough information to find anything useful? Unless the goal is to be able to blackmail every single one of us? No wonder Snowden doesn’t think the internal reporting system works. There’s hope for reform, but it still looks like whitewashing to me.

Fat People with Thin Skins: Apparently don’t understand how the Unfollow button works.

Coolest Pope since Ever: Sold Harley, gave proceeds to charity.

On the working poor: It’s more than possible to work full time and still live in poverty. Some argue that the low wages paid to fast food workers turns into high profits for companies and high taxes for the rest of us who must subsidize their food stamps, Medicaid, and housing assistance. Then the poor have to put up with food stamp systems that go down, and risk losing their job for helping a fellow human being.

Whatever Happened to Vanilla Ice?: He cleaned himself up, realized he owned a bunch of property, fixed it up, and started hanging out with the Amish.

On Republicans: When Pat Robertson says your too extreme, it might be time to revisit your views. I’m still a little worried that the current “dialog” on a budget is going to turn into “dialog” on how we “have to” cut Social Security, Medicare, and anything else that doesn’t directly help rich people and/or influential Congresscritters.

Common Misconceptions: Enjoy.

Bankrupt, yet record profits?: How does that work, American Airlines??

Yeah, we could use some good news: Iran appears to want to talk like sensible people about nukes.

Human Rights: the comic.

And now for something adorable: 4 new cubs at a Vegas lion habitat.

Caturday: Three Items for your Furry Friends

Happy Caturday everyone! Instead of posting the traditional cat pictures as many bloggers do, I offer some items for your cat. Disclaimer: I am not receiving any compensation whatsoever for this post; these are merely products used and appreciated in my own home.

Yesterday’s News Cat Litter:

This stuff was recommended to me by a veterinarian. After years of using the clumping stuff, we’ve made the switch. There’s stuff I like and stuff I don’t about it. First the good stuff:

  • Made from recycled paper, so it’s environmentally friendly. 
  • Biodegrades quickly. Once it gets wet, it puffs up and starts to fall apart. This will also give you a rough idea of your cat’s urine output.
  • Safe for post-surgical felines.
  • And finally, the thing that sold me on this stuff, it doesn’t track around the house nearly as bad as the clumping stuff. Sure, some makes it out of the box, but they are of a size that’s easy to sweep up.

And now for the things I don’t like. Ok the thing I don’t like: It simply doesn’t control odor as well as the clumping stuff. Treat that as a gentle hint of when the litter needs to be changed.

The Furminator!

Is your furry friend furry? Fluffy? Long haired? Easily matted? Not a sphinx? If you have a cat with fur, you need one of these. Heck, if you have a dog with fur, you need one. A quick Google Image search for “Furminator before after” will tell you everything you need to know about this product. You might just find yourself wondering how hard it is to turn pet fur into yarn so you can make a sweater for your cat out of cat fur.

Blue Wilderness Cat Food:

Ok, seriously now. We saw the dog-version of this stuff advertised on the idiot box (probably during an episode of Bad Ink, which is at least partly fun because it’s a local show), and began to wonder if it might help certain aromatic issues. We are on board with many tenets of the Primal/Paleo community, so why would we feed cats food with more corn grits than tuna in it? And who decided cats needed corn or soy in their diets? They’re carnivores that don’t digest plant matter well! The ingredient list on Blue Wilderness is impressive. My cats now eat better than some humans I know. And — unlike some healthy pet foods I can think of — the cats love it. Their coats are shinier and softer (and require a little less furmination). One word of warning, some cats might take a day or two to get used to it; imagine transitioning to healthy balanced meals from a diet of junk food and you’ll get the picture.

Hope you enjoy these. Let’s close up with a nice assortment of links on the Republican Party, government shutdown, debt ceiling battle, and the Chinese telling us to cut it out.

Shutdown, Debt Ceiling, and Hostage Taking

So here we are over a week into the Government Shutdown. From where I sit, it sure looks like the Republicans are being more like RepubliCANTs, completely unwilling to negotiate in a world where negotiation doesn’t mean “give us everything we want.” Not that the DemocRATS are angels here, please understand. Right now nobody likes Congress very much. Individual states like Nevada are chewing their collective fingernails (and probably, secretly, making contingency plans).

It’s gotten to the point where the markets are accounting for the fact that next week, the Government may well stop paying interest on the National Debt. That’s what the debt ceiling means in real life. If our nation stops paying the bills, it’s reasonable for holders of our debt to decide it’s not worth as much, and might even be worthless. Everybody always thought “oh that would never happen, it would be too catastrophic!” Now our [Republican] elected officials are falling over themselves to say it wouldn’t be that bad. “Oh jinkies, it might be a good thing!” Oh yeah? Tell that to China. Turns out they are our biggest foreign creditor.

Looking for a silver lining? At least big corporate mergers that enrich hedge fund managers and executives at the expense of employees and consumers may have to slow down a tweak.

Let’s hope enough moderate Republicans decide they don’t want to preside over our nation going into default.

In Closing: Securing the internet from the NSA; Student loans a drag on housing; Lief Erickson; USMC reading list; Jimmy Carter on the Middle Class; keeping a schedule on a crappy job; if part time employment spiked prior to Obamacare, how did Obamacare cause it?; pay no attention to the next trade pact that’s not going to be good for American workers.

Music Monday: How To Lose A War

 

I was reading the news over the weekend when I happened upon this Reuters story:

Four soldiers belonging to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan were killed by insurgents during an operation on Sunday, while a fifth was shot dead by a security guard over the weekend in the country’s south.

Of course I am saddened that at this late date, we are still generating dead soldiers in Afghanistan. But I have one question: Why do a bunch of armed soldiers need security guards? 

The answer of course is that these days, we hire contractors to do all kinds of things on a military base: build things, maintain things, serve food, and apparently provide “security” to men with guns. Back in the old days, these are all things that were done by men and women (ok, mostly men) in uniform. For example, the Seabees. Their motto is still “We Build * We Fight.”

Instead, we now have a large complement of civilians who must be defended in a war zone. At least if the camp cook was a soldier, he could use his knife against an attacker on base just as easily as against a potato. Can you imagine General George S. Patton marching the Third Army 60 miles in 2 weeks with a bunch of Sodexo employees in tow? Neither can I.

Outsourcing is officially interfering with the ability of our Military to function in an actual war.

In Closing: Ok, here’s your assorted links on the government shutdown, the impending debt ceiling battle (Yoohoo Yoho! Making our bonds worthless would not help world markets!); ain’t that the truth; some obligatory NSA items; most of the time that would be a crime; the War on Drugs has been lost; school anti-bullying programs often have the opposite of the intended effect (how about the adults insist on everyone treating people with respect instead of some fancy-assed program?); don’t forget that the Supreme Court goes back to work today, shutdown or no; and I couldn’t make it up if I tried, Thanksgivukkah.