Shorties – Shortwoman.com

Happy Death Shorties 2U

Hey folks, time to get some tabs closed and share a few ideas.

On AirBnB: Now let’s be clear here. Clark County Nevada (where The Strip is) does not allow short term rentals of private homes. And no, it’s not because the hospitality industry has them by the throat. It’s because the locals don’t want party houses in their neighborhoods. But here’s some actual research on the impact these short term rentals have on the local housing market — where legal.

A few items on health insurance in the United States: It’s in a state of crisis.

And a few words on Abortion: I understand that Vice President Pence wants to End Abortion In Our Time. I hope that also means he wants to end rape and severe birth defects and risks to maternal life too. Here’s a few words about some of the issues.

Measles: As long as we’re on health related topics, here’s an infographic about how fast it can spread.

Green New Deal?: I know this is not a popular position right now, but I think this idea needs some work. No mistake, I want to see more clean energy such as solar and wind. But there’s too much wrong with what’s on the table. Switching to electric cars is not an end all solution. First, it does nothing about the fact that so much sprawl has made cars a necessity — and made it almost ridiculously difficult for anybody without a car to work outside certain large metro areas. Second, it only moves the pollution from the car itself to the dirty coal plant it comes from. And finally, it’s not ready for prime time. The range on a Tesla 3 is estimated at 264 miles. Per Google, it’s 270 miles from Vegas to Los Angeles. Lots of people make that trip regularly, and sometimes traffic gets backed up. Until the day you can do it without a stop to recharge (and I only know of one charge station in between) and a comfortable margin of error, it’s a no-go.

Huh, maybe that’s why the kids are not happy: turns out most people under 40 have been shafted by the economy.

But let’s end on a fun note: Some of the best pens you can buy, at a variety of price points.

Shorties or Dare

How do you solve a problem like Maria: And why are we still dragging our feet about making sure Puerto Rico gets the help it needs? Fun fact: Puerto Ricans have been American Citizens for over a hundred years. Oh, Source.

On wages: Or, didn’t know Axios was still out there.

Diet Tip: HCG is the only “diet drug” out there with a black box warning saying it doesn’t work for weight loss.

On Hunting: and the NRA.

And finally, Oopsies: Turns out there are many corporate owned Democrats that take a bunch of money from the private prison corporations that benefited from family separations.

A Shorties Place

Hello everyone, and sorry for the delay in posting.

Good news: Hospital acquired infections are down.

Not so good news: things are not so great economically for the class of 2018.

Don’t ask questions you don’t want answered: Turns out people think a living wage is a good idea. I find a good argument to be “if you like eating a fast food lunch, somebody has to prepare it. And students should be in school, so it needs to be an adult.”

On Democrats: Ok, I get it. Not all candidates are viable. But the party can’t keep running corporate-owned candidates under a mantle of “be reasonable! Who else are you gonna vote for?” Gee I don’t know, Republicans? Maybe somebody who actually has the appearance of caring for voters? Maybe we could have something like a “primary” to determine who “viable” candidates are? I hate when an election boils down to “which one do I hate least”.

We could really use Fred Rogers: Seriously. I think I’d even vote for him. Oh but who am I kidding, I’d vote for Teddy Roosevelt if he were alive.

On Child Marriages: Thought they only happened overseas? Wrong. But oddly enough they only seem to happen to girls….

Mandatory Insurance is not Universal Health Care: Nurses think Democrats could get a few votes out of the idea of true single-payer universal health insurance. But no, that idea has had no political traction since the administration of Richard M. Nixon. Insert sarcasm here about leftists and socialists.

And last: Fun with Naval Tats.

The Shorties Cure

Hey folks, sorry for light posting. Life got in the way of writing. Hope to return to a more regular schedule Shortly.

Poor Chuck: Don’t get me wrong, I consider Chuck to be one of the problems with the modern Democratic Party — although it’s possible he’s just a symptom. Anyway, he sure is taking heat for this government shutdown ending. Like lots of source links? Enjoy.

More on kids: it ain’t easy being a poor kid in America.

An actual expert: An Obstetrician on the topic of late term abortion.

Rent: Unfortunately, the big institutions that brought us the housing crisis aren’t particularly interested in being nice landlords either. Hmm, maybe that’s why rental law is governed on the state level.

Go Vegas!: First, here’s some fun and free/cheap things to do in town. Oh yeah, and Go Golden Knights!

And finally,

Whiskey: turns out it kills germs.

I’ve had both right and left leaning links today. Turns out that when you return to the true center, you find both truth and untruth on virtually every point of the political spectrum.

Flatshorties

Time for another tab dump!

Apparently, they don’t teach tact in business school: “What’s wrong with middle America”? Ok, maybe there’s a point about infrastructure and schools, but the rest of it is just a tweak inflammatory.

New Author: Be on the lookout for Ken Liu.

Superbug: Isn’t Pestilence one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Yes, yes it is.

Recipes to try: Slow cooker shredded meat. What kind of meat? Well, what do you have?

On Education: “[G]aps between higher- and lower-income students persist, with some changes that vary by subject and grade. Meanwhile, the proportion of low-income students in U.S. schools has increased rapidly, as has the share of minority students in the student population. The chances of ending up in a high-poverty or high-minority school are highly determined by a student’s race/ethnicity and social class.” I will leave to the readers’ imagination what effect this might have on the political leanings of parents.

We Need to Talk About Shorties

Addiction: It’s not what you think.

Housing: I worked in the housing industry for much of my adult life, and I find what this guy has to say interesting.

“Let’s not invite the guy who abuses us over”: Or “Let’s not call the cops if we think they’re likely to harm us.”

Consensus on Climate Change: “Facts are not enough…. We need to connect to people’s hearts.”

Protect Your Vote: Here’s some tips.

Why a picture of hot lava? Why not a picture of hot lava?

Gettin’ the Band Back Together: Some of you might have noticed that my old blogroll did not survive last summer’s site updates. I will be putting together a new and improved Blogroll in the next several weeks. If you know a site I need to consider, let me know!

The Shorties on the Train

What do Dave Johnson and Donald Trump have in common?: Both agree that we have infrastructure that needs to be fixed. But I’m not hearing mainline Democrats or Republicans joining in. It’s not a brave political statement to say “Maybe we could put some people to work fixing some roads.”

Speaking of American Politics: I’m not the only one who noticed it’s crazy out there. Hillary has her share of foot-in-mouth disease. And Bernie is closer to the true center — the one that wants decent jobs and affordable healthcare — than anybody in the establishment wants to admit (which is why Trump is more welcoming to Sanders followers than Hillary; see the speech text above).

The Noose Gets Tighter: The Senate failed by ONE VOTE to pass a law allowing the FBI to look at your browser history for funzies. Remember come November. Meanwhile, US Customs wants to know the social media accounts of people entering the country. Because no terrorist is smart enough to say “no I don’t have Twitter” or give a username more generic than the one they use to keep up with the latest ISIS jihabi memes. Meanwhile, the TSA is still pushing their “get out of the security line free” card as a way to shorten lines at the airport. One user gave the ringing endorsement of “not so hard as signing up for Obamacare.”

Free Electronic Music: Moby wrote himself some yoga and meditation music. He decided to share. Very nice of him.

Not sure what to say about Brexit: So here’s one of the more intelligent things I’ve read on the issue.

Obligatory Economy Item: Wages have been stagnant for over 40 years when adjusted for inflation. Maybe some of these ideas could help. Oh, and don’t let anybody scare you about Social Security. Forbes is hardly a “liberal rag,” and they say that the latest scaremongering is way overblown.

Shortiesface

Another Bad Trade Agreement: TTIP is turning out to be a bad deal too. At least the Europeans seem to have figured that out. It’s yet another deal so bad, they can’t actually let people know what’s in it.

Democrats: More than a few choice words about Hillary, Bernie, and the future of the Democratic Party (which can’t get rid of Debbie quickly enough for me).

Losers: On keeping weight off once you’ve lost it. Hint: if you go back to the stuff that made you fat, you will get fat again. Oh, and here’s some free exercise tips.

I’ll believe it when it’s law:A law has been proposed in Congress saying that companies can’t prevent you from saying not nice things about them online. I seriously doubt their corporate masters will allow this to come to pass.

Can’t decide if this is innumeracy or racism: Economist removed from plane for doing a differential equation.

Don’t forget about the NSA: They are doing more warrantless searching of American citizens than ever.

The Other Side of the Shorties

Hey folks, I’m in the final push towards finishing this degree, so no promises regarding regular posting. So, here’s the shorties!

It’s easy to go after the more numerous target: yeah sure, doctors make a bunch of money. So if you’re trying to reduce medical costs, they have a target painted on their collective back. Kindly don’t pay attention to the boatload of money healthcare organizations spend trying to get paid, and certainly don’t pay attention to profits.

Disconnect: To listen to the media, this proposed law in New York would let cops see if you’ve been texting before a crash. However, to listen to cops and the manufacturer of the product, it just says if you’ve been “using” your phone. So, can it tell whether I was “using” the phone legally with a hands free device? Can it tell whether I was “using” the phone to stream music through my stereo? Can it tell whether it was actually being “used” by a passenger? And can it tell whether the “use” was something I initiated, or a push notification from an app or my carrier? Unless the answer to all of the above is “yes” — and I find that doubtful — this is a dumb idea.

Vintage Vegas: nightlife.

The Freaking TPP: Maintaining [New] Balance.

Didn’t I say this?: Seriously, didn’t I say Google already had all the information? Oh, yeah. I did.

Jinkies!: Korean Pirate Ghost Ships!

And that’s all for tonight.

10 Shortiesfield Lane

Hi everyone. Sorry there was no music yesterday. Hopefully I can make it up to you with some delicious shorties.

On Phone Security: Do you like being able do to things like buy things or pay bills using your phone? Government insistence on back doors and custom hacking software will make your phone vulnerable to Bad Guys who can rob you blind through your phone. Oh, and the cops don’t even think there’s any information to get off that phone in San Bernardino. It’s just a fishing expedition designed to make you less secure.

Some random food items so I don’t lose track of them: eating relatively healthy at a fast food place; healthy eating at chain restaurants; and cheap but healthy cooking.

Unequal Returns: Poor kids who go to college don’t get nearly the income boost that middle and upper class kids get with a college education.

DWB: Or, cell phone cameras continue to throw light on misconduct.

Just because it’s Super Tuesday: One Hillary link and one Trump link.

Oh, and one more thing: If you want to actually fix the immigration system — rather than slapping some patches on it — you have to address the fact that by law, there is an annual ceiling of 675,000 legal immigrants. There are roughly 12,000,000 undocumented (or unlawful, if you prefer) immigrants. Even if all of them were legal immigrants, it would take over 17 years to get them all normalized status under the current law. People coming to this nation — legally, as refugees, whatever — now are taking years to get to court at all. That’s part of the reason there are undocumented immigrants in the first place. Telling them to go to the back of the line is a joke, because the line would be over 17 years long. Any immigration “reform” that doesn’t address the ceiling and doesn’t address employers who exploit cheap labor from undocumented workers (who will often gladly work for illegally low wages in unsafe environments because it’s still better than where they came from) is nothing more than window dressing.

Happy Tuesday.