If we say we’re fixing the problem, maybe nobody will notice it’s still there. Granted, I think it’s good that the United States is looking into “regulatory proposals that could mandate broader inspections of imports and stiffer penalties for ignoring safety rules.” However, it occurs to me that their track record on such issues is somewhat less than stellar.
It turns out “privatization” of some government functions isn’t very libertarian at all. DarkSyde over at Daily Kos points out all the warts on the face of outsourcing such things as emergency services, but the short version is that “the level playing field is dissolved in favor of government sanctioned monopolies awarded in secret no-bid contracts” and “only the profit is privatized – usually into a tiny number of already obscenely wealthy hands — while overhead, cost, and losses are offloaded onto the taxpayer….”
They chose poorly. Do you remember seeing Ezra Klein telling Larry Kudlow how things really stand on universal health? Well Ezra appears on TV regularly talking about health care and health insurance issues; he researches and writes about it as his day job. Keeping that in mind, it really wasn’t terribly clever of Delta Dental to decide his $2000 root canal wasn’t medically necessary after the fact.
It only makes sense if you are anti-sex. This article called “Increasing access to birth control increases use of birth control makes the very astute point that “So more women are using Plan B, which means fewer unwanted pregnancies and fewer abortions. Who could be upset with that?” Seriously, who could be upset with that, unless what they really have a problem with is the fact that women might be having sex? Somehow the logic of “the right way to prevent abortions is to prevent unwanted pregnancies” is lost on the so-called “pro-life” movement. If they were really pro-life, they would loudly and continually denounce their inner faction that thinks it is right to enforce their opinion with violence, vandalism, and murder. If they were really pro-life they would be just as actively picketing prisons where the death penalty is carried out.
Interesting. Do you think Ted Rall has gone too far, suggesting that we know little enough about the real motivations of suicide bombers that the profile includes many, ahem, lawful combatants?
iPhone follow up. A recent poll shows that many Japanese people would love to have an iPhone. But only if they add a bunch of features. Oh, and over half of them wouldn’t actually change cell phone carriers to get one.
Nicely written. This item on traveling and passenger’s rights is worth reading, and doesn’t mention the “bye-bye plane” baby (really, which would you rather have on your flight, a happy toddler saying something over and over or a screaming, crying, unhappy toddler?) Since we do live in a highly mobile society where people routinely need to get from one place to another in a timely fashion, we need the right to do so in dignity and safety. This means no planes sitting on tarmac for hours. This means our luggage arrives with us. This means we can’t be arbitrarily delayed and denied on nothing more than the say-so of one capricious airline or TSA employee.
Restore the Constitution. Restore Habeas.
Outrageous. Marines were ordered to make things even more violent in Iraq. Um, that’s the opposite of what we thought they were supposed to do. Gee, that couldn’t have anything to do with why the Prime Minister of Iraq is inviting our troops to go home “anytime they want”.
Coincidence. Right? Last night I happened to see a newer Volvo, and looking at its size and profile I casually remarked “That’s a Volvo? What’s Ford trying to do, kill the line?” Today I happened to read that Ford is thinking of selling Volvo.
We don’t need no steenking watchdogs. It turns out that the Bush Administration hasn’t bothered to report to the intelligence oversight board. Senator “Go **** Yourself” Leahy put it better than I possibly could: “It is deeply disturbing that this administration seems to spend so much of its energy and resources trying to find ways to ignore any check and balance on its authority and avoid accountability to Congress and the American public.”
Statistics are only meaningful when you look at the underlying data. A recent study shows that video game playing among adolescents has a minor effect on reading and homework, and no effect on social skills. Earlier coverage tried to scare us by reporting that the drop was over 30%, a closer read showed that “while boys did indeed spend 30% less time reading, it was 30% of 8 minutes per day. And although 34% less time was spent on homework, this only applied to girls, and only on weekends….” Yeah, I think the more important point is that the typical adolescent boy spends only 8 minutes a day reading, not that if he were a gamer he’d only spend 5.6 minutes.
And finally. Support Dave Johnson. He makes the internet a better place.
Ghastly thing war and is the worst failure of man… one should though, exempt to some degree those children who are asked to kill for their country from full responsibility for carrying out those very acts they were trained to do. And as the soldier pointed out the entire society is martialized and I would imagine one can only understand (and judge) having been there in mortal danger themselves.