When Willie Nelson covers your song, it becomes his. Sorry, Eddie. Paul Simon already knew.
In Closing: want; poor babies; history lesson; definitions; dumb questions; biometric database; maybe salt isn’t the devil; reasons; files; and just for fun, how many people have your name. There’s another Bridget Magnus in Canada, but I’m apparently unique in the US.
It’s 3.14. Also, 3.1416. Perhaps celebrate with some pie?
In Closing: still fake; still bad for real Americans who like to have jobs; sounds like a wild goose chase to me; not having money is not actually a crime; and just maybe the FBI misjudged this and people have figured out that 24 was a TV show.
The opinions presented are my own. I’m not getting paid for this review. I bought my own copy and read it pretty much as fast as I could.
This week, the latest entry in Patricia Briggs‘s “Mercy Thompson” series came out. I’ve been following this series since the 3rd book was new (and the Alpha and Omega series from the beginning). So for those not familiar with the world: Mercy is a VW mechanic whose Native American heritage shows up in the form of being able to turn into a coyote; her husband is the Alpha of the werewolf pack in the Tri-Cities area of Washington state; due to circumstances that would take multiple novels to fully explain, the Faerie races have declared war on the United States Government; the werewolves are trying very hard to stay neutral in this war with limited success.
This particular installment begins when Mercy wakes with an uneasy feeling. Little does she know that by nightfall, she will be on the evening news after the pack defeats a troll on a bridge, and she makes an interesting declaration. You can check out the first chapter here. Or get your own digital copy here.
Let’s be clear. This novel is a bit of a departure from the tone of the series. The first half or so is pretty amusing, since Mercy does have a rather wicked sense of humor. However, lacking is that tear-jerker climax about 70-80% of the way through the book. This is a book that is primarily concerned with the plot arc. It establishes certain facts that will assuredly be important in the next books. It ties certain short stories into the larger plot. Bonus appearance by Baba Yaga! This is not the place to pick up the story, but it is a decent read.
And I do seriously wonder how Mercy’s lavender plant will turn out. It could be very interesting indeed.
In closing: a little bit of TPP; a few NSA, FBI, encryption, and privacy items for you; exercise and your brain; a bit of political stuff (psst! He’s right behind you!); Vegas judges; I notice Generation X is missing from these graphs; and bonus kittens.
Have you all missed me? Finals is upon me and all is chaos. Nonetheless, the need has arisen to clean out many tabs of items I had hoped to share with you. Let the Blood Shorties begin!
It just won’t die!: I am of course talking about the TPP. The world has certainly turned, since Hillary has made weasel words about maybe it’s not a good idea. Do I believe Hillary? I believe she will say whatever she thinks will get her elected. In the meantime, more bits have been leaked. Make sure your CongressCritter knows where you stand (and remind him that unlike corporations, you vote).
Speaking of voting: Sometimes dollars speak louder than words. And yes, it would be nice if the news media would report news that actually matters.
The Price of Medicine: Not all drug price hikes make the news. Of course, since the price tag for most of us is laundered through our insurance companies, all we see is rising premiums.
Come on, Generation X! Get your act together!: You are behind on saving for retirement. Couldn’t have anything to do with being stuck in crappy jobs (when you can find jobs at all). Terrifyingly enough, it turns out that I am ahead of over half of all Americans when it comes to savings.
The Smartphone App Saving Detroit: It’s called “Improve Detroit.” And apparently, it works!
Now Accepting Applications: Speaker of the House.
Secret Society: The Hidden Christians of Japan.
Sure they did: FBI has prevented lots of people from becoming ISIS terrorists! They just can’t tell you about any of them.
Wow: Prehistoric Tsunami.
Finland: We keep sending people to study what they are doing right, then we do the opposite.
What could possibly go wrong?: Put a single, newly sober young woman into a room with a bunch of recovering alcoholics in meetings as often as every day and trust that nothing will go wrong.
And finally: How to pet a kitty.
I’ve got a lot of Spying On Americans links for you today. Between John Oliver and Ed Snowden simplifying the whole thing down to They have pictures of your genitals (haven’t seen it yet?) and the PATRIOT Act being up for renewal, there’s a lot of publicity. Like Hansel, it’s so hot right now.
So let’s start with this, since I’ve been linked to it multiple times in the last 24 hours: a nice overview of the major Spying On Americans initiatives.
About the argument of “but we need to collect this data, to prevent terrorist attacks. And stuff.” Turns out that didn’t work. Oh, right, and it’s probably illegal too.
The Snowden Revelations have done good. At least one program was shut down.
Spying On Americans doesn’t end with phone calls and emails. Oh no, they want to know where your car is, too. And they don’t want anybody questioning how they found it.
And come on folks, preventing people from using the phone in an emergency is such a bad idea I can’t even imagine why this is a thing.
In Closing: So let me get this right, leg extensions are bad for you, but plyo is good? Don’t get me wrong, I’m for squats and more squats but plyo isn’t for everyone; a few items on wages and employment and capitalism; seems the NYT kicked up a bit of a storm on higher education; limit your Facebook time; learned the hard way; many domestic abuse victims stay because of their pets; Cyndi Lauper, voice of reason; news with a side order of racism; huh, somebody noticed that the Baby Boomers who swore Social Security would be bankrupt by the time they could collect are, um, collecting; Gary Hart tells the truth. I will never be “Ready for Hillary.”
One more time, nice and slow, since some people don’t get it.
Never put anything online that you wouldn’t read out loud or show to your mother, your boss, and a judge. And, let me add, that includes video.
In Closing: making us less safe; still true; liberal news media; the Slammer; yoga and more yoga; Summerlin.
Federal Judge uses Common Sense: It is super effective.
Net Neutrality: It’s not dead yet.
Our waning privacy: The FBI is trying to scare Congress. The NSA might find themselves near the end of their leash (a girl can dream).
Strangest thing you’re likely to read today: I promise.
Ok, maybe it’s not a magic anti-aging pill after all: Resveratrol.
Women With Ballots: scary! Be sure to vote, ok?
The Pope: Look, he either speaks the words of God or he doesn’t.
Alcohol: Why doesn’t a bottle of liquor have calorie info on it?
Resume: Um, yeah.
I apologize: I mentioned this story last week, and I am sorry to have gotten pulled in to the hype.
Modern: World War I.
I was going to write something about Ebola, but the stupid out there is so strong it burns. Look I know that I’ve had a total of one course in Microbiology, but clearly I know more about the subject than 90% of Congress. Seriously, I hope I that Ron Paul, Joe Heck, and Howard Dean know more than me since they’re doctors.
In Closing: selective breeding; change; a couple diet items; a big turn-off; African Samurai; TPP sucks; fail; backdoor; a higher minimum wage is good for a small government.
So Jeff Skilling got a new sentence handed down for his role in the financial shenanigans at Enron. Actually, it’s a reduction of the sentence he was given back in 2006 for stuff that happened throughout the 90s and caused the company’s collapse in 2004. In case you’ve forgotten:
Enron’s collapse put more than 5,000 people out of work, wiped out more than $2 billion in employee pensions and rendered worthless $60 billion in Enron stock. Its aftershocks were felt across the city and the U.S. energy industry.
That’s over and above defrauding local power companies and gouging “Grandma Millie.”
For years, Enron was able to make people think things were much better than they were. They were able to make people believe they were making money.
Which brings me to this item from ThinkProgress:
America’s colleges and universities used more than $2 billion in student fees — an average of more than $500 per student — to subsidize rapidly growing university athletic budgets, as Ohio University professor Richard Vedder wrote at BloombergView today. Those fees can top $1,000 a year at some schools, and as Vedder writes, reliance on them ends up making college more expensive for students and often places the burden on the poorest students. And most of the time, students don’t even know they’re paying the fees.
In addition to student fees, athletic programs are relying more on money from general university budgets, so taxpayers are also spending millions of dollars a year to cover shortfalls as athletic budgets continue to grow faster than academic budgets.
Now, I have long thought that the accepted wisdom of “sports brings in money and students so we have to fund it” was flawed. If sports are really profitable, why are students and taxpayers paying so much money to support them? I have suspected that the “accounting” used to make sports profitable would have made Jeff Skilling drool. How did they pay for the stadium? It would never have been built without wealthy donors who like having their names on buildings. What about the maintenance for that stadium? Oh, that’s a different budget. What about the scholarships for athletes? Another budget. The coaches? Oh, they’re faculty so that’s yet another budget. Security, ticket sales, advertising the big game? Three different budgets. So most of the expenses of a good athletic program are offloaded onto other areas, leaving only the juicy profits and the bragging rights.
The idea that the money for sports is — really, truly — being paid for by students rips back the curtain on the Great Oz. In an age where the cost of college is rising much faster than either inflation or the wages they can expect to earn, where a student loan crisis is on the horizon, how can any college justify these costs?
No wonder so many young adults don’t know how to handle money. Where would they have learned?
In case you didn’t get the title, University of Nevada Las Vegas’s sports teams are the Rebels. Enjoy this unintentionally hilarious radio ad.
In Closing: a few items on the NSA, FBI, and the government spying on us including a petition you can sign; some stuff on food, obesity, additives, and whatnot; about time somebody used some freaking common sense; assorted nonsense about the latest attempt to make abortion so hard to get that it might as well be illegal; and corporate America running amok or returning from insanity.
In Closing: the cat came back; the wages of austerity; aww rats; adventurous surrogate mother wanted; rubber duckies; well yeah, it looks silly when he does it; too redacted; Clouds! Pork Exercise! Mexico! Pass the word; backtrack; never occurred to them that’s not an option for everybody; locking up the dumb b**** for not knowing what’s good for her baby; dealing with climate change; some bosses think Jesus wants them to break laws they don’t like (I seem to remember a line about rendering unto Ceasar…); on math; on history; and a prototype of facebook.