Open Letter to the new CIA director.
A little book for kids (or maybe not for kids!) about file sharing from Defective Yeti and Goopy called Files Are Not for Sharing. Can you say satire? Sure you can!
From the world of healthcare we have three completely unrelated items: Jim Hightower’s 4 Big Lies About Universal Healthcare; a new book about “medical tourism”; and a missive from the Duhpartment of Research, “People who can walk to shops and services in their neighborhoods are more fit and less likely to die in car crashes.”
I am the mommy, I am the internet filtering software. ‘Nuff said.
Follow up on John Stossel and his views regarding the American educational system. You may recal my discussing him way back in January.
A few items on the minimum wage. If Alternet strikes you as being too “progressive” for you, here’s the Christian Science Monitor. They discuss people having to hold down multiple jobs to make ends meet. I wonder if raising the minimum wage to a “living wage” would have the net effect of job growth as those people pare down to one job (leaving job openings for the currently unemployed). This is a completely unsubstantiated theory, but worth thinking about. The people at Let Justice Roll have been campaigning for a “living wage” on a state-by-state, non-partisan basis for some time now. I became familiar with their work last week, and was impressed by the stark common sense of “A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.”
Of course the Senate has blocked legislation raising the minimum wage. Indeed, Congress has spent most of the week doing things that are against the wishes of the people who elected them but good for the deep pocket big business interests that keep them in golf money. Two things to watch for in the coming months are the so-called “analog hole” and Net Neutrality.
And a couple of science items. Scientists have found a giant underwater volcano that is bigger than Washington D.C.! Elsewhere, a completely different groupf of scientists say the earth is warmer now than it has been in 400 years, and yes it is the fault of humans.
in re jim hightower: so it goes when the folks that are hired to govern must pander their arses to big money to fund election. A republic is government of representation and those that can afford to hire representatives have the loudest voice. Until election reform takes place we can expect only that those aforementioned principles will be efficiently carried out as they have been for so long.
“The People” can be represented but they too must pay for their representation… perhaps the election process could be carried out via public T.V. (with air time meted out even handedly “media nuetrality” if you will) and funded only through the X- dollar contribution to the political fund much like the one currently suggested on the IRS return… until then: whores they are and (a)V(ar)ICE is what they sell; blame the johns!
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