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We begin today with the Republican Party once again proving itself the party of sociopaths, insisting that there be spending cuts to offset any hurricane relief, and having a frontrunner candidate suggest the minimum wage of the United States be lowered to match prevailing wages where all the outsourcing goes.
Things have progressed to the point where comparisons between the current state of the country and dystopic movies are remarkably uncomfortable...
Out in the world today, a mobile women's health clinic that fits on a boat allows for women to receive necessary services outside of any local laws banning or restricting practices or procedures.
There are people doing good work for all those who do not have medical insurance or money to afford care, but the lines that form are the kind that require snacks, drinks, and a blanket. Why aren't we doing better work to fix this crisis?
Academic publishers make a significant amount of profit off of research funded by tax dollars, edited by peers, and then finally presented to them for publication, for which they charge quite a bit of money to access the article. How does such a system continue? Well, when there are requirements to get published in certain journals to advance your career, and only certain houses control most of the journals, the economics is stymied by the institutions.
Turkey has agreed to host a radar for NATO's ballistic missile shield, after Russian objections prevented the radar's installation in Poland.
Finally, The United States and Pakistan claim that the person stepping into the number two position of the post bin-Laden al-Qaeda has been killed. Which will be helpful, I'm sure, to be used as a shield against the accusations of significant waste and fraud in the spending in the Two (three?) Land Wars in Asia.
Domestically, Salon says even though a black man beat a white man in the Democratic primary run off to stand as the candidate, the previous forty years of solid Republican identification of the Deep South means that the black man will not win in his general election.
A Princeton labor economist is the President's choice to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, assuming, that is, he can pass the gauntlet of the Senate. And speaking of the current President, did we mention how much there are ties between the current President and corporations who routinely dodge taxes or get their pet politicians to write loopholes for them? And even the vaunted supposedly independent party in Americans Elect may be working toward goals that assist Republicans.
Now that both parties, and even the supposed independents are working against the working person, there's really only one thing or two to do - get comfortable with which part of the underground economy you're going to be a part of so that you can scrape by in the economy that believes only the ultra-rich deserve any sort of luxury.
A representative in the United States House would like for the country's United Nations dues to be strictly voluntary, as a way of pressuring the U.N. to do what the U.S. wants. One might expect the U.N. to ask the U.S. to pay all that it actually owes first.
In technology, Google chairman admits that the G+ service is not a social network, but an identity service, and that there is value in benig able to identify and rate up or down real people on the Internet. Mr. Schmidt believes Whuffie is the way of the future.
Despite being in arythmia for ninety-six minutes and declared dead by an emergency room doctor, first responders and a nurse revived a man, believing that his carbon dioxide readings indicated his other organs were still alive and doing well thanks to the CPR.
In opinions, Mr. Mehr-Levi pans the Arab Spring, because it hasn't produced Western-style democracies fully-formed, and he's certain that Bloodthirsty Religionists affiliated with the current part of Eurasia we're at war with will all take power in the voids left by revolutions. And, of course, all the weapons the dictators had will be sold to terrorists.
Mr. Spencer is still trying to jusitfy himself as not an Islamophobe by claiming that his detractors don't meet his standards for acceptable evidence and refutation of his claims and are not sufficiently untouched by The Bloodthirsty Religion as to be able to accuse him.
Dr. Razzaque suggests that young children get religion as a vaccination against falling into radicalization later on in life, as the positive loving experiences of young childhood will make hateful religion less likely to take hold. I can see several commentators suggesting that this is justification that their religion should be the one every child gets. I'm not sure that happy religion has that inoculating effect, as I suspect radicalization has more factors than just whether or not one gets positive exposure to religion early on.
Ms. Charen expresses contempt for Mr. Biden because instead of railing against the moral outrage of China's one child per family policy that results in abortions and sterilizations, he pointed out that having one wage-earner taking care of four retirees is unsustainable. Considering that he was speaking in China, I somehow doubt that moral objections would have done a whole lot of good. Doesn't mean Ms. Charen can't use it for fodder, of course, because part of the virtues of conservatism is that one is always true to principles regardless of whether it will do any good or not.
The Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics Department has a field day with the wild supposition that the U.S. population's dissatisfaction with the federal government is solely due to a Democrat being in the White House and trying to govern from a Democratic position, pointing out the error in their own idea by mentioning that the economy improved during those periods that government approval increased, for starters.
Mr. Flynn pans Mr. Trumka's statement that labor unions will be looking for a good jobs plan from the President, accusing Barack Obama of having been a patsy to labor unions and their job-killing requirements of wages for the totality of his term. Mr. Becker claims that all the government intervention in the "spend more" direction of the last few years has been detrimental to growth and recovery. (Always nice to know when someone is going to categorically dismiss.) Comedian David Limbaugh concurs with this opinion, claiming the President has no intent of actually creating jobs because he continues to let regulatory agencies exist and enforce their rules. The favorite target is the EPA, because conservatives tend to think that cheap energy is more important than environmental preservation (and because climate matters are the easiest vector of attack for conservatives to get against the EPA), and the health care bill runs a close second, but truthfully, any regulation from the government is bad to those claiming the mantle of conservatism these days. The terminal position for this is Mr. Gordon, who suggests the correct way out of the economic malaise is to stop issuing any new federal debt and let the GDP increases drop the debt-to-GDP ratio back to something sane. One should stop extending unemployment benefits, because when you cut off their money, you can convince those bums to get back to work and drop unemployment, instead of holding out for a job they actually want and will pay well, and get rid of the Davis-Bacon Act so that all those poor unskilled black people can get back to work at lower wages than union standard.
Mr. Brown implies that if you're focusing your attention on things like Israel-Palestine, then you must be totally okay with against Arab enslavement of Africans in Mauritania, and aren't you an awful person for supporting the Palestinians, who are also Arab and must also believe that enslaving others is perfectly okay? Shame on you...and on Mr. Brown's syllogism implication. Mr. Moran sees a similar fate, or death, for Africans in Libya, because the Arabs are just that evil. After all, Egypt is banning things that real Americans proudly embrace, like revealing swimwear and alcohol, and other countries are experiencing zones where Sharia rules and the state is pushed out entirely, which is against the "requirement" that immigrants assimilate that's a standard assumption of Americans.
At least Mr. Thornton takes time to explain that his position is based on the belief that there's a lot of ground to cover between what he sees Sharia as and what he sees as the foundations for liberal democracy. With a position like that, one might almost thing Mr. Thornton is...reasonable.
The Washington Times sees the movement of David Petraeus to the CIA as a way of silencing him so he can's speak out against the President and give ammunition to his opposition, in addition to removing a competent general, who might have been able to win the Land Wars in Asia from the field.
Out of opinions, one that I can agree with wholeheartedly - picking Presidents based on their media-genic looks and not their policy positions is Stu-pid.
And one I cannot - an accusation that the President doesn't believe in American exceptionalism, because he sees it as a product of less-than-desirable motives like racism, sexism, and greed and wants to transform the great America into a mediocre country by moving away from that exceptionalism.
Last for tonight, graphic designs for super hero movie posters that are better than the official ones, and lessons learned from romantic comedies. Intended lessons by the film-makers, even if they think they're breaking the mold somehow.
As a post-script, a letter from a children's author about the very wonderful gift of a dream that he received.
Things have progressed to the point where comparisons between the current state of the country and dystopic movies are remarkably uncomfortable...
Out in the world today, a mobile women's health clinic that fits on a boat allows for women to receive necessary services outside of any local laws banning or restricting practices or procedures.
There are people doing good work for all those who do not have medical insurance or money to afford care, but the lines that form are the kind that require snacks, drinks, and a blanket. Why aren't we doing better work to fix this crisis?
Academic publishers make a significant amount of profit off of research funded by tax dollars, edited by peers, and then finally presented to them for publication, for which they charge quite a bit of money to access the article. How does such a system continue? Well, when there are requirements to get published in certain journals to advance your career, and only certain houses control most of the journals, the economics is stymied by the institutions.
Turkey has agreed to host a radar for NATO's ballistic missile shield, after Russian objections prevented the radar's installation in Poland.
Finally, The United States and Pakistan claim that the person stepping into the number two position of the post bin-Laden al-Qaeda has been killed. Which will be helpful, I'm sure, to be used as a shield against the accusations of significant waste and fraud in the spending in the Two (three?) Land Wars in Asia.
Domestically, Salon says even though a black man beat a white man in the Democratic primary run off to stand as the candidate, the previous forty years of solid Republican identification of the Deep South means that the black man will not win in his general election.
A Princeton labor economist is the President's choice to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, assuming, that is, he can pass the gauntlet of the Senate. And speaking of the current President, did we mention how much there are ties between the current President and corporations who routinely dodge taxes or get their pet politicians to write loopholes for them? And even the vaunted supposedly independent party in Americans Elect may be working toward goals that assist Republicans.
Now that both parties, and even the supposed independents are working against the working person, there's really only one thing or two to do - get comfortable with which part of the underground economy you're going to be a part of so that you can scrape by in the economy that believes only the ultra-rich deserve any sort of luxury.
A representative in the United States House would like for the country's United Nations dues to be strictly voluntary, as a way of pressuring the U.N. to do what the U.S. wants. One might expect the U.N. to ask the U.S. to pay all that it actually owes first.
In technology, Google chairman admits that the G+ service is not a social network, but an identity service, and that there is value in benig able to identify and rate up or down real people on the Internet. Mr. Schmidt believes Whuffie is the way of the future.
Despite being in arythmia for ninety-six minutes and declared dead by an emergency room doctor, first responders and a nurse revived a man, believing that his carbon dioxide readings indicated his other organs were still alive and doing well thanks to the CPR.
In opinions, Mr. Mehr-Levi pans the Arab Spring, because it hasn't produced Western-style democracies fully-formed, and he's certain that Bloodthirsty Religionists affiliated with the current part of Eurasia we're at war with will all take power in the voids left by revolutions. And, of course, all the weapons the dictators had will be sold to terrorists.
Mr. Spencer is still trying to jusitfy himself as not an Islamophobe by claiming that his detractors don't meet his standards for acceptable evidence and refutation of his claims and are not sufficiently untouched by The Bloodthirsty Religion as to be able to accuse him.
Dr. Razzaque suggests that young children get religion as a vaccination against falling into radicalization later on in life, as the positive loving experiences of young childhood will make hateful religion less likely to take hold. I can see several commentators suggesting that this is justification that their religion should be the one every child gets. I'm not sure that happy religion has that inoculating effect, as I suspect radicalization has more factors than just whether or not one gets positive exposure to religion early on.
Ms. Charen expresses contempt for Mr. Biden because instead of railing against the moral outrage of China's one child per family policy that results in abortions and sterilizations, he pointed out that having one wage-earner taking care of four retirees is unsustainable. Considering that he was speaking in China, I somehow doubt that moral objections would have done a whole lot of good. Doesn't mean Ms. Charen can't use it for fodder, of course, because part of the virtues of conservatism is that one is always true to principles regardless of whether it will do any good or not.
The Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics Department has a field day with the wild supposition that the U.S. population's dissatisfaction with the federal government is solely due to a Democrat being in the White House and trying to govern from a Democratic position, pointing out the error in their own idea by mentioning that the economy improved during those periods that government approval increased, for starters.
Mr. Flynn pans Mr. Trumka's statement that labor unions will be looking for a good jobs plan from the President, accusing Barack Obama of having been a patsy to labor unions and their job-killing requirements of wages for the totality of his term. Mr. Becker claims that all the government intervention in the "spend more" direction of the last few years has been detrimental to growth and recovery. (Always nice to know when someone is going to categorically dismiss.) Comedian David Limbaugh concurs with this opinion, claiming the President has no intent of actually creating jobs because he continues to let regulatory agencies exist and enforce their rules. The favorite target is the EPA, because conservatives tend to think that cheap energy is more important than environmental preservation (and because climate matters are the easiest vector of attack for conservatives to get against the EPA), and the health care bill runs a close second, but truthfully, any regulation from the government is bad to those claiming the mantle of conservatism these days. The terminal position for this is Mr. Gordon, who suggests the correct way out of the economic malaise is to stop issuing any new federal debt and let the GDP increases drop the debt-to-GDP ratio back to something sane. One should stop extending unemployment benefits, because when you cut off their money, you can convince those bums to get back to work and drop unemployment, instead of holding out for a job they actually want and will pay well, and get rid of the Davis-Bacon Act so that all those poor unskilled black people can get back to work at lower wages than union standard.
Mr. Brown implies that if you're focusing your attention on things like Israel-Palestine, then you must be totally okay with against Arab enslavement of Africans in Mauritania, and aren't you an awful person for supporting the Palestinians, who are also Arab and must also believe that enslaving others is perfectly okay? Shame on you...and on Mr. Brown's syllogism implication. Mr. Moran sees a similar fate, or death, for Africans in Libya, because the Arabs are just that evil. After all, Egypt is banning things that real Americans proudly embrace, like revealing swimwear and alcohol, and other countries are experiencing zones where Sharia rules and the state is pushed out entirely, which is against the "requirement" that immigrants assimilate that's a standard assumption of Americans.
At least Mr. Thornton takes time to explain that his position is based on the belief that there's a lot of ground to cover between what he sees Sharia as and what he sees as the foundations for liberal democracy. With a position like that, one might almost thing Mr. Thornton is...reasonable.
The Washington Times sees the movement of David Petraeus to the CIA as a way of silencing him so he can's speak out against the President and give ammunition to his opposition, in addition to removing a competent general, who might have been able to win the Land Wars in Asia from the field.
Out of opinions, one that I can agree with wholeheartedly - picking Presidents based on their media-genic looks and not their policy positions is Stu-pid.
And one I cannot - an accusation that the President doesn't believe in American exceptionalism, because he sees it as a product of less-than-desirable motives like racism, sexism, and greed and wants to transform the great America into a mediocre country by moving away from that exceptionalism.
Last for tonight, graphic designs for super hero movie posters that are better than the official ones, and lessons learned from romantic comedies. Intended lessons by the film-makers, even if they think they're breaking the mold somehow.
As a post-script, a letter from a children's author about the very wonderful gift of a dream that he received.
