Category: Shorties

Healthcare Follow-Up: “Health spending went up 6.9 percent in 2005, approaching $2 trillion. The total amount represents about $1 of every $6 spent in the United States, compared with about $1 out of every $10 in the early 1980s.” But that’s slower growth. Yay, I guess. More on the Governator’s plan. And smacked down by his in-laws! Let Mr. Kennedy show you what a real universal coverage plan looks like.

The Bare Minimum: By now everybody knows about the minimum wage hike bill going through Congress right now. I wonder if it will be vetoed. In any event, here’s Life at America’s Bottom Wage and U.S. Home Prices Unaffordable for Many Workers.

You want to put what where? The SMU community isn’t sure they want the Bush Library. Go, Mustangs!

Um yeah, a headscarf is not the same as a bomb. Airport screeners get [long overdue] training in how to to tell a devout Muslim from a rabid “Islamofascist.”

“Surge” is something storms and waves do, not American troops. Some sage words. Seriously though, “storm surge” was what destroyed parts of New Orleans. “Surge” cannot and will not put Iraq together again. Let’s call it what it is: escalation.

Make it as secure as you like, your employees will manage to find ways around it. The problem of corporate security in a webmail world.

If you want to fix the picture, you’d better take a look at the frame. Issues important to women, and the media that undermines them.

And finally, obligatory comparison of iPhone to other devices. The biggest difference, of course, it that you can get the other devices today. Pull up a bowl of popcorn and let’s watch the legal battle ensuing. Um, yeah. Cisco owns the trademark to iPhone, and has since purchasing it in 2000. The trademark was created in 1996, which means it predates the original iMac. Cisco even has a product called the iPhone. Oops!

Hot Time in the Big City, um, I Meant Glacier: China is worried about global warming, but maybe not as much as Canada, eh?

Don’t Fix what you can Replace for a Few Million Dollars More: follow up on low-income rental housing in New Orleans.

More Americans Expect Rain of Fire and Brimstone than Alien Invasion: Specifically, in 2007, 60% think there will be a terrorist attack in the United States, 70% think global warming will get worse, 29% think we will actually get our troops home, 35% expect reinstatement of the draft, 35% predict a cure for “cancer”, 19% think we will find extraterrestrial life, and 25% think Jesus will return. Yes, that’s right, one in four Americans expects the events described in Revelation to start happening in 2007. Look around you; one in four thinks the world ends before the ball drops in New York again. Somehow, I don’t consider that a strategy for dealing with global warming.

Now with 27% Less Agonizing, Eating Holes In Your Brain Death: Genetically engineered cows may resist Mad Cow Disease. No word on whether they can transmit it to unwitting humans. Now tell me something; is it really easier to genetically modify every cow on the planet than to just stop feeding them bits of ground up old sick cows? I mean, really?

We don’t need no steenking Federal help: A peculiar Katrina after-effect. “Frustrated by poor federal cooperation, U.S. states and cities are building their own network of intelligence centers led by police to help detect and disrupt terrorist plots.” ‘Nuff Said.

Numbers Only Lie When They Are Misused: Ezra Klein on Universal Healthcare.

Fly in Wall Street’s Ointment? Maybe: two items on probably slowing consumer spending and a potentially slowing economy.

And finally, Do the Right Thing: I have been harping for years about studies that show teenagers’ brains just aren’t functioning early in the morning, pointing out how dumb it is to make them attend classes at 7 or 8 AM and then letting them loose by 1 or 2 PM so they can roam town virtually unsupervised until Mom and/or Dad get home at 5 or 7 PM. It turns out a legislative commitee agrees with me! But not because it will improve academic performance. No, because they think it will reduce traffic accidents! The great irony is that the insurance industry will probably be the driving force behind getting high school hours set to reasonable times. It’s about time.

Sorry for the delay in posting. I was travelling last week. I hope to relate some thoughts on travel and the modern world that occured to me, but not today.

It is also worth noting that I have been just about buried under comment spam lately. You guys never see this stuff because I have to approve comments by new posters. A few minutes ago I set up a filter to automatically delete comments that contain the names of a couple of high profile pharmaceuticals for men, and I hope that does some good.

On to the Shorties!

Life, on earth, in one of the most imporbable places. One scientist described it as “a bit like a person agreeing to live in a blistering sauna and be hosed at random with freezing water.” The region in question is by a volcanic sea vent blasting 400 degree Celcius water, yet the water meters away is barely above freezing.

Medical Refugees Flee to India. Yes that’s right. Medical care for certain conditions is so expensive in the United States that people are traveling to India for essential medical treatment. I guess maybe medicine can be outsourced after all.

Meanwhile, Congress has approved a bill to pay Medicare doctors a bonus for doing a “good job”, as defined by the Government of course. What could possibly go wrong?? “Doctor Brownie, you’re doin a heckuva job!”

More than you ever wanted to know about Total Travel Information Awareness, and even more.

Gee imagine that: when women are able to participate in basic decisions about their families, their children benefit. By “benefit”, I mean that they have less malnutrition, more education, and better health care. The next time some closet mysogynist tells you feminism is a problem, nay the root of all problems in this country, you tell them about this.

Everybody else seems to get it, but Washington doesn’t understand that the Iraqis want the Americans OUT. It’s a big chicken and egg thing. The Americans say “It’s chaotic here! You need us to keep the peace. Once things have calmed down we’ll get out of here.” The Iraqis reply “Yes, it’s chaotic here. Because you are here. It isn’t going to calm down as long as you remain here, so please go now.” To which the Americans reply “We can’t do that! It’s chaotic here….” Lather, rinse, repeat.

A ray of sunshine in the civil liberties nightmare, “bipartisan legislation authored by Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and John Sununu (R-NH) that would add privacy and civil liberties safeguards to the Real ID Act.”

And finally a story to make any boy over the age of 5 smile (if not giggle hysterically), “How Cow Farts Become Fuel.”

History of the AK-47.

Something that will make a fascinating museum someday.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s a bad idea for police officers to break down someone’s door without bothering to knock and let the people inside know they are police officers rather than home invaders, particularly on the say-so of a junkie.

Speaking of guns, it turns out 80% of convicts who used guns got them from illegal sources. Think about it: gun control laws work on the premise that criminals will bother to follow the law.

Ok, I understand why you need to show your ID to be served alcohol, but for pancakes?? The bad news is some IHOP manager decided confiscating the drivers licenses of diners might reduce the number of people who leave without paying. The good news is IHOP corporate said “WHAT??”

RFID Passports are a bad idea, but what about RFID luggage tags? They might reduce lost luggage, but only if airlines are willing to suck up 5 to 10 times the cost of baggage tagging.

Business Week tells us about LEGO. Don’t forget to watch the slideshow.

Jim Hightower on the maintenance of the American infrastructure.

Lots of people are talking about Newt Gingrich saying there ought to be limits to free speech on the internet — at a First Amendment Awards Dinner! And as scary as that is, Mr. Gingrich seems to forget that the internet is also international. Just the same, thank goodness he’s no longer an elected official!

And in closing, two all-too true cartoons: one, two. Ford Motor Company? Number one is looking at you. As for number two, let’s hope the Democratic Party accepts their progressive mandate.

Ready for Thanksgiving? No? Hrm. Enjoy some food ideas from Slashfood and Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

If the Small Business Administration were worth lighting on fire, the American Small Business League wouldn’t exist.

Because sometimes you just have to know, WikiHow.

The must-read-blog of the day is Echidne of the Snakes. Next time I remember, I’ll go ahead and add her to the list of Things I Read.

Get this through your heads, John McCain is not a moderate. He’ll try to look like one for campaign purposes, but he is still the guy who won’t miss an opportunity to hug President Bush. He’s still the guy who thinks torture is bad, except that the bill he wrote to ban it doesn’t apply to Guantanamo. Nice loophole, there. Maybe he should run a Craigslist ad to the effect of “Lost: credibility. If found please send to Senator McCain’s office.”

Music fans, Japanese culture fans, technophiles: take note. Literally! Laser Koto.

Thank goodness these guys only Hack in the name of peace, love, and harmony, because they’ve already cracked the new super-secure British passports.

And finally, a Marine that should make you feel thankful. After all you (probably) have hands. Talk about keeping cool under pressure!

“I was conscious, surprisingly awake through the whole thing,” Wright, 31, who grew up in West Seattle, says. “I can replay every moment in my head. I opened my eyes and looked at my arms and remember thinking, ‘Damn, both of them?’ “

The explosion had blown off Wright’s right arm below the elbow and his left at the wrist. Wright’s left eardrum was ruptured and his helmet and safety glasses were torn away. Looking down, he saw his left femur protruding from his thigh, and knew he could bleed to death.

“I was pissed that I couldn’t pick up my rifle, but I couldn’t concentrate on little details,” he recalls.

Young Marines around him, some without combat experience, needed him. Their commander had been killed. With a firefight raging, Wright knew he had to remain cool to save them and himself.

“If I freaked out, they would. I needed to get us to better cover out of the ‘kill zone.’ I figured I could have handled the RPG blast, but one or two bullets hitting me might have done me in,” Wright says.

Ok, imagine that. You are a young marine. Your commander is dead and the ranking officer is barking orders despite the fact that both his hands have been blown off. But he’s staying calm so you have no business freaking out!

And the most impressive part is that he served for another two years after that. Enjoy retirement, Sgt. Wright. You more than earned it.

I don’t often have enough material for Shorties before 9 AM, so here you have it: the first ever Shorties Double Feature.

Security Theatre Act XIV: Security Hacker.

Election Roundup: Let’s start with Middle Class Voters Abandoning GOP, and follow up on yesterday with the Republicans’ favorite wedgie issue — I hope everyone saw that one coming.

If you only read one link today: Then let it be this item from Maya’s Granny.

Housing follow-up: Even the British have noticed that the housing decline is negatively impacting the American economy.

Two items on Education, sort of: If College fundraising is at record levels, and college tuition is rising faster than inflation, where the heck is all the money going? Meanwhile at the school district level, more schools are considering making a D a failing grade. I have mixed feelings about this: when I was teaching, I generally found that anybody who made less than about 85% on one of my tests didn’t understand the material; on the other hand, I fear that saying anything less than 70% is failing is just asking for grade inflation (“Well Johnny, you got 4 points for putting your name on the paper, which brings you up to 69.6% and let’s round it up!”)

A great idea, or a chance to pass the Soma? There’s nothing unusal about an HMO holding medical seminars, where a doctor stands up and presents on a topic and participants have a chance to ask questions afterwards. But it’s very unusual for these seminars to be strictly for patients to attend. (What’s Soma?)

And finally: I hope all you food addicts have discovered Slashfood. Have a great weekend. Enjoy fall color while it lasts.

Security by obscurity, or maybe it’s just as well that American kids don’t know geography: A man in Washington State was arrested when the 14 year old he was trying to meet for illicit purposes decided she wanted to meet him earlier than planned and ended up flying to Washington DC. There are so many levels of stupidity, I won’t even go into them all.

Lou Dobbs: Let’s stop pretending a 700 mile fence on a 2000 mile border (and no fixes to our other borders) is going to change anything. Choice quote, but do read the whole thing:

American middle-class families are all too often left out of the discussion of immigration reform in Washington. Instead, this country’s special interest groups dominate the debate. Big business associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and organized labor unions enjoy the benefits of open borders and hope to keep the status quo: big business, to exploit the cheap labor that is provided by illegal aliens, and labor organizations, to add to their membership rolls.

Between 12 million and 20 million illegal aliens are living in the United States. But as that range suggests, no one — not the Border Patrol, not Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security — has any true idea how many illegal aliens are here. Why not?

I suspect one major reason is the same federal government that refuses to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws is determined not to accurately measure the number of illegal aliens in the country so as to further cover up both the cost of illegal immigration and the necessity of creating a rational public policy.

Dinosaur guts! and the interesting things they tell us about life millions of years ago.

A Missive from the Duhpartment of Research: “Some Gulf Coast Rebuilding May be Unwise. Gee, do you think? Maybe some of the things that were build shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Bookends on House Prices: The Associated Press says it’s the biggest drop in home prices in 35 years, but Reuters tells us it’s because builders slashed prices. Oh well, at least they aren’t having to promise Detroit style bargains.

Maybe they don’t hate us for our freedoms: A Federal judge has ordered the release of graphic, crime scene films from Abu Gharib. No word on whether anyone who accesses the released footage will then immediately be accused of posessing child pornography.

The enemy of my enemy… oh wait, the friend of my, oh never mind: New Jersey Supreme Court sucessfully puts the Gay Marriage Political Football back in play just 2 weeks before a national election. Way to go. I think. Comments about [liberal] activist judges in 3…2…1…….

Two items about the issues facing America’s working classes: Please read before voting. Alternet presents The Permanent Middle Class (I don’t know, many of them are the “has credit so isn’t quite destitute” class) and someone else who is tired of red/blue and believes voters both want and deserve Answers.

“If I looked well, I wouldn’t be in the hospital!” If you are ever unfortunate enough to be a patient at Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center, make sure you don’t seem like you might be homeless. Now they have been caught sending newly released patients to Skid Row, regardless of whether or not they have other places to go.

That’s it. Have a great weekend and don’t forget to read those voter guides to find out where candidates allegedly stand before voting.

We interrupt your October Suprise to bring you this October Suprise: Next week, a battle fleet headed by the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower and a second fleet of support vessels will arrive off the coast of Iran. There may be a second aircraft carrier on the way. How’s that for diplomacy? Sure beats pedophile Congressmen.

Meanwhile, in the next country over…: a new study estimates at least 600,000 Iraqis have died in the war and occupation. It is only fair to point out that President Bush disputes that figure, and 2660 Iraqi civilians are confirmed killed in Baghdad alone last month. Oh, and the United States Army plans to maintain troop levels there until 2010.

Elsewhere in the “Axis of Evil”…: North Korea says sanctions would be an act of war. And somehow or another, McCain blames Clinton for this mess. His rationale for this is that when North Korea did bad things, Clinton “rewarded” them with talks. Now lets see: diplomacy is bad, sanctions via the UN weren’t happening because China would veto them (remember, McCain was one of the guys who supported sending John Bolton to the UN), and if Clinton had done anything military against them he would have been accused of trying to get people to forget about Monica. I hope that was tasty Kool-Aid, Senator.

Axis Roundup: Iraq had no nukes, but we invaded them. Iran has a program through which they hope to develop nukes; a battle fleet is steaming their direction as we speak. North Korea has nukes and is testing them, potentially destabilizing the region; the Administration hopes the UN — ineffectual as our Ambassador to the UN says they are — can do something maybe. I hope you have found this scorecard useful.

If you can’t get enough gay scandal: Here’s a gay activist who is tired of the hypocrisy in the Republican party, and the attitude of “Send your money, cast your votes, and for pity sake stay in the damn closet.” He will be outing two Republicans a day, beginning with low level aides, working his way through elected and appointed officials, and ending — he claims — with “senior” Republican officials. Ed Schultz is hoping he can cut a deal to have this fellow announce his information on the air. Could it be we may finally find out why exactly Gannon-Guckert spent so much time at the White House? Appropriately enough, he begins this grand outing parade today, National Coming Out Day.

And in closing: Lou Dobbs and Barbara Ehrenreich on the War Against the Middle Class. Don’t forget to check out Barbara’s new activist group, United Professionals.

Naming these “Shorties” items will be a lot easier now that I’ve discovered Horror Movies That Suck, which has reviews if that’s your thing.

How the lottery may kill the Electoral College. Ok, it’s more complicated than that. It turns out that the man behind the movement which “if approved by enough legislatures, would commit a state�s electors to vote for the candidate who wins the most national votes, even if the candidate loses in that state,” thus effectively undercutting the Electoral College, is also the guy who invented the scratch-off lottery ticket.

Not a full-on episode of Security Theatre, but funny nontheless. One fellow feels we are all the way up to Act 456, wherein those confiscated liquid items are dragged behind the security checkpoint, unsupervised. Woe is me, I’m only up to Act XIII! Even Britain, where the whole liquid bomb scheme was allegedly hatched, is relaxing the carry-on rules, wisely saying “We will never compromise on the safety of passengers, but it is right that we continually strive to strike the right balance between properly robust security and arrangements which minimize the burden on passengers and business.” If only we could be so reasonable here in the United States.

“The shocking facts about health care in the United States are well known. There’s little argument that the system is broken. What’s not well known is that the dialogue about fixing the health care system is just as broken.” A nice overview of the problems with health care — or more accurately health care insurance — why most people want the same thing, and why their elected officials aren’t giving it to them.

“As Children Suffer, Parents Agonize Over Spinach” but nobody asks the critical question: Who’s been pooping in the spinach? According to The Washington Post, it is the Government’s fault. Or rather, lax government oversight. God forbid we should hold the actual people who created the problem responsible.

Yes, women do play video games! And that means there are web sites aimed at them, groups of professional, corporate sponsored women gamers, and a clan of women gamers big enough to have a Wikipedia article written about them.

“Statistics indicate times are good, with low unemployment and high productivity. But many voters say rising prices cut into their income.” Oh, and if you’d like a discussion of these issues with more statistics, charts, and econotalk, The Mess That Greenspan Made has laid it all out for you. One telling moment this week was on CNBC, when they had opposing Bond Geeks talking about what the Fed is likely to do at the next meeting. The short version is that nobody knows just yet whether inflation or a “hard landing” is a bigger risk to the economy right now. Maybe we need a new term — something catchy like “stagflation” — to indicate times when the official economic numbers say that things are benign, but people’s experience says otherwise. Of course odds are against that because guys like Larry Kudlow never actually have conversations with Joe and Jane Average.

And finally, if you ever get to wondering whether or not the news you receive is biased, don’t forget that things like Google News exist. They aggregate so you don’t have to try and hunt up all those English language news sites from around the world.

Trivia: Did you know that ground was broken for the Pentagon on September 11, 1941? Or that you are more likely to die of the flu than of a terrorist attack?

What is more disrespectful, turning the American flag into a floor mat, or stepping on it?

Good news for those of you traveling by air to and in England: starting next week security rules will be relaxed:

Larger bags will be allowed along with some liquids – such as toiletries, including toothpaste.These items may have to be placed in plastic bags so they can be easily examined at security.

Musical instruments will also be allowed on board again, after professional musicians complained the measures were hindering them.

This move did not come soon enough for J.K. Rowling.

Congress is very very busy. Much too busy to do anything like lobbying reform. Find out where your Congresscritters stand before voting in November, mmkay? At least they are finally working on a bill that addresses port security. They’re only 4 and a half years late on that. Oh, and a 700 mile long fence along the Mexican border, thus insuring that at least illegal immigrants from Mexico will be physically fit. Never mind Canada. Never mind the economic forces in Mexico that make it seem like a good idea to come to the United States illegally. Certainly never mind the employers willing to exploit these illegal workers. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Two items on education and stupidity, one of them news (“Study: H.S. dropouts face steeper costs”) and one of them opinion (“Are You Too Stupid to Enjoy the Economy?”), but both worth reading.

For your amusement, a couple of cartoons: thing one and thing two.

Apparently, writing in the Americas began 3000 years ago.

Whatever else may be going on in Iraq, “Iraqis feel weight of high prices, few jobs”. A choice quote:

“Economic development and the establishment of social order and public services … are the conditions which must be set that will result in the support of the local people, and ultimately cause the defeat of this terrorist-backed insurgency,” Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer said earlier this week.

We are talking about unemployment rates of 30-60%, CPI increase of 70%, prices of some essential items tripling since 2003, and average monthly wages of $200. It was not specified whether “average” wages were mean or median, nor whether the “average” included the unemployed. Either way, I think most of us would have a hard time getting by in such circumstances.

On the use of torture, we have The Myth of the Ticking Time Bomb.

I don’t know how many studies we need to say this, but once again it is official: the polar ice caps are shrinking, the oceans are getting warmer, and “greenhouse gases” have something to do with it. At least Honda is working on a car that works on pure ethanol, and a better way to make that ethanol.

Finally, Rest in Peace, Ann Richards. I am proud to say I voted for her. Twice.