30 Shorties of Night

Letters from the Occupation: Journalist Elizabeth Ryan’s letters from Post-war Japan have been found, and there are hopes they will turn into a book.

Indoctrination?: Is it indoctrination to refuse to lie to students? “Teaching the controversy” is often nothing more than an excuse to give equal time to disproven theories.

She was never convicted: Lizzy Borden only allegedly took an axe, and gave her mother 40 whacks. Now she is a museum subject.

Altogether too true: A little chart of national media election coverage.

Netroots Voter Registration Drive: Seriously people.  Register to vote already. It’s important.  And it’s even more important that you get your butt off that chair and vote in the elections.  You waive your right to complain if you won’t do **** **** about the status quo. No excuses, no nonsense about jury duty (that list often gets pulled from the drivers license database, anyway).  Take 3 minutes to register to vote, and commit to making your opinion known.

Need something to be an activist about?: Proposed changes to the Department of Health and Human Services guidelines would make it easier for just about anybody who works in any sort of medical facility to prevent women from receiving some medical services and medications on “moral grounds”.  This proposed change potentially effects 98% of all women in the United States. We have until the 25th to make it clear that this is not acceptable.

If you think these aren’t related, you’re wrong: USA Today goes on about how too few medical students are opting for the un-glamourous world of General Internists. Scroll down and you’ll see “Members of the medical school class of 2007 graduated with an average debt of $140,000….”  That’s up from $60,000 in 1990 and $95,000 in 2000.  Then USA Today went on some more about “Medical schools, journals start to fight drug industry influence.”  Maybe if these young men — and let’s not use gender-neutral language to hide the fact that they are mostly men — didn’t graduate with the equivalent of an extra house payment hanging over their heads (and committed to 3-5 years of underpaid overwork if they ever want a “real” job), they wouldn’t need gifts from the drug companies. We won’t successfully “reform” the system without addressing how medical school gets funded.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: the kind of employer who doesn’t mind ignoring illegal immigrant workers is the same kind of employer who is willing to ignore other labor laws.

The Governor Sends His Regrets: We must stop using that airport because it’s too convenient.

Somebody ran the numbers: Obama won’t raise your taxes unless you make a whole lotta money.  McCain won’t lower your taxes unless you make a whole lotta money. Lest you think this is the ranting of a buncha liberal latte sippers, the data is from Business Week.

Gotta supress this science stuff: Experiments consistently prove that junk food is junk.

He finally said it: Obama has finally called a lie a lie.

Squeeze: American workers caught between high gas prices, high health insurance costs, and falling wages.

And just a brief rant: Victoria’s Secret has pants.  They have them in a cut called The Bridget Fit.  This is misleading advertising, as I would have to be at least 6-8 inches taller than I am to fit into that.