Yea....about that.....
Friday, March 25, 2011
Pity There Was No Union
This would never have happened. The union would have insisted on a safe work environment, INCLUDING REDUNDANT EMPLOYMENT!
Victoria Jackson's Slip Is Showing
Wow. I mean, wow. If this doesn't explain a lot....
My dad limited my exposure to carnality during my youth – no TV and no PG or R movies. He said things you see stick in your head forever. He wanted me to have a virgin mind when I got married. Dad kept me innocent. That was his job. Maybe that is why I play "airheads" so well. I'm playing "innocence."
Because nothing says "innocence" like a blank slate?
It also says "willfully ignorant and dumb," Vicky. Sorry. You lose the right to criticize other people's lives and beliefs when you forfeit the chance to gain the knowledge of how they work. Thanks for playing.
You Can't Hear The Fapping For The Tubesocks
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Confirmation
I've always sort of known this was true, even if there was no real evidence to prove it, but South Americans had to get here somehow, and it seems most likely they came from the north.
A Tragic Reminder
It's ironic that on this one hundredth anniversary of the worst workplace disaster in NYC until 9/11, we're trying to hold onto ground that workers fought so hard for.
I had never heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy until college. One of the main buildings on campus at NYU was this factory, renovated and of course, upgraded to code. A code that didn't exist at the time of the fire.
Even then the magnitude of the tragedy, commemorated on a small bronze plaque, was unfathomable. People, mostly women, were locked into factories on the high floors, the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors, to prevent theft. There was one unlocked fire door on each floor, but in a twist, near that stairway was where the fire occured, engulfing it in flames.
The foreman with the key to the locked stairway was one of the first out of the building.
People slid down the cables of the freight elevators or jumped into the shafts, which prevented more people from being rescued. An exterior fire escape was already broken and buckled under the weight of dozens of people, who fell to their deaths.
It was Saturday, the end of a long six day work week. Nine hours, Monday through Friday, seven hours on Saturday. 146 people died that Saturday in March, of 500 employed on those floors.
In the aftermath of this tragedy came workplace safety rules and the rise of the ILGWU, one of the most powerful unions in the country. The owners of the building won a criminal trial, but lost a civil suit and were forced to pay $75 to each victim. Their insurance paid them $400 per casualty. They earned a profit in the deaths of their workers. Indeed, one owner even went back to locking fire doors at another factory and was fined $20.
We seem dangerously close to going back to those days. We ought to remember.
Piling Up
There's a bias in the human psyche to look for patterns, particularly in negative events and particularly when people are running around predicting doom.
Don't do it. For example, several people have pointed out to me that there have been more earthquakes so far this year than normal and aren't we heading into the last katun of the Mayan calendar?
Ironically, about thirteen years ago, there were even more, but there was no Mayan prediction for 1998, nor was there an Internet as we know it today, so no one seemed to give a damn, or much notice.
Nobody Asked Me, But...
1) Just when it looked like things might settle down a little at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant as power was restored to the pumps comes this story. Given the distinctly understated tone of previous official Japanese statements, this has to be looked at with a bit of alarm. Still, keep in mind that fossil fuels simply kill more people annually than nukes, hands down.
2) By the way, Time Magazine last week had an excellent description of what a meltdown might mean. Unfortunately, it was so good, they hid it behind their paywall now. I recommend finding a dentist's office and reading it.
3) There's something I've always wondered about Times' columnist David Brooks: How does a guy who seems to be only marginally attached to reality manage to keep posting at The Paper Of Record?
4) I haven't weighed in on the whole "Friday" foofaw because frankly, I didn't know what it was about. Now, I just don't care, except to say that this is what it's come down to America: If you don't have a publicist, even at 17, you ain't worth shit.
5) A tornado touched down in western Pennsylvania, which is not news even if it is rare. What is news is it happened while snow was falling from the storm. But hey! No such thing as global climate change, right?
6) I'll tell you who is #winning: #snarkasm!
7) WTF?
8) Apparently, Bigfoot limps like a guy wearing a gorilla suit trying to keep the bottom up.
9) When you click on this link, make sure you sit for a few minutes. Dayum!
10) Finally, Ed Harris has portrayed a rogue Marine general, Ludwig van Beethoven, a crazed crime boss, and Jackson Pollock. This role may be a bit too insane for even him.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
I Often Ask Myself, When I Read Bullshit Like This...
Wealthy white guy with private insurance (that he would not have to give up) writes how his private insurer was able to authorize and pay for an emergency procedure.
Meanwhile, the hospital across town, another baby dies in its mother's arms, because that same insurance company refused to pick them up because they couldn't afford the premiums.
Shame on you, Johnson. For shame, exploiting your own daughter to make a cheap political point.
Sour Grapes Much?
Or perhaps this is merely making lemonade out of really rotten lemons and trying to sell it as fresh.
Oh, Thank God!
If they had done as piss poor a job on the sequels as the Dino Di Laurentiis film, I'd be hiding in my basement
Remember When?
Remember when Scott Walker, (R-the Failed State Of Wisconsin) claimed that messages supporting his vicious anti-union stance were more in favor of it than not?
Yea. About that...
Hmmmmmmmmmm....
I'm not sure that privatizing liquor sales to a company controlled by the state's governor under the guise of "creating jobs" is an appropriate message for a dictator, much less a Republican governor...What's the slogan to be? "Need a job? I'll drink to that!"
Ur Doin' It Rong
When you take up the challenge of living on a food stamps' recipients budget of $7 a day, your first stop shouldn't be Trader Joe's. Plus, Costco charges $35 per annum for its memberships, so that's probably right out too. Poor people can't scrape up that kind of cash if they only get a $7 a day allotment for food.
But hey! Enjoy mocking the poor, why not, right?
If God Was Married...
...it sure would explain a lot of the psychotic behavior in the Old Testament.
Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, then....
It's perhaps a good thing he's not President of the United States. He'd likely have the Teabaggers and other "purists" supporting him...
Oh, Really? Suddenly, FOX Discovers Wars Cost Money?
The cost of the American and European assault on Libya already easily tops hundreds of millions of dollars, and has the potential to rise significantly if the operation drags on for weeks or months.
Coalition efforts to undermine Muammar al-Qaddafi’s air defenses and save the rebels from defeat have lasted for four nights already. If the U.S. role continues to be limited, with the Pentagon using its existing budget to cover the expense, the price tag on involvement will only rise moderately.
As of Tuesday, a U.S. defense official told Fox News the U.S. has fired 161 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Libyan territory, with 24 missiles being fired overnight Monday into Tuesday. Each missile is priced at $1 million to $1.5 million apiece and dispatched B-2 stealth bombers -- round-trip from Missouri -- to drop 2,000-pound bombs on Libyan sites.
Fair enough. Wars do cost money and if only we hadn't, you know, run a budget surplus into the single biggest debt ever built on this planet, perhaps FOX would be right to point this out.
And yet, a few hundred million pails when compared to:
The Pentagon has requested $553 billion for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, plus $118 billion in war costs for Iraq and Afghanistan.
So let me see...four nights = $100 million, times ninety would be...carry the one...$9 billion. So, its less than ten percent of the cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars today, and those wars have been scaled back (in toto) from the Bush administration.
Now, go Google "Bush war cost: Fox News" and see if anything comes up...
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Best Description Of Sarah Palin You'll Ever Read
This:
Sarah Palin has become the political equivalent of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. America regrets the one night stand they had with Palin, but now she has broken into our house and is ready to boil our bunny. Sarah Palin is America’s ultimate political stalker. It all makes you wonder where Michael Douglas is when we need him most.
The rest of the article has some other juicy ones.
Remember Those Breathless Predictions Aired Recently By FOX News?
You know, the imminent catastrophe that was going to see California slide into the sea because of the Goatse...I mean, supermoon?
Well, That's One Less Pain In The Ass
I take issue with the "non-invasive" terminology. It makes anal sex sound like a Bush strategy.
Who'da Thunk?
We're catching up faster with Star Wars than with Star Trek, which had a ten year head start!
Of course, there's that whole nasty "one world at peace with itself and the rest of the galaxy" bullshit that we'll never achieve, and at least Star Wars had a dictatorial regime declaring war willy-nilly with other older civilizations.
Oh. Wait....
Guessing Game
Guess which party Mayor McCheese....errrr, I mean, Mayor McShurely(youjest) belongs to?
I Wonder If There's Intelligent Life On This Planet
And by "this planet" I mean Earth.
This is a naturally forming geologic formation, much like the "face" on Mars.
So it turns out...
....black holes can get full up and explode.
See? Republicans are only trying to eliminate the miniscule threat of a rogue black hole entering our Solar System and sucking us in by taking a daily dump and storing it away for that day.
London Bridge Is falling Down
OK, it's not the London Bridge. It's not even a bridge in London, it's NYC's own GWB. But it is cool, dontcha think?
In The Grand Tradition of "Is It Just Me, Or Do My Jeans Make Me Look Fat?"
FOX Business asks the obvious question that any failing cable network would.
C'monnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, Seven!
The only place in any state where that phrase can mean two different yet similar things. Nevada would need to install casinos in their cathouses to beat that.
Steal The Bacon
Naturally, everyone is circling deficit reductions like sharks with toothaches: they want to bite but they are waiting for someone with stronger teeth to cut into the fish first. But Obama can't write a bill, can't pass a bill and certainly can't kill a bill before it's passed. That's Congress's job.
Right, Boener?
The Difference
You want to understand the difference between this global recession and nearly every other?
About one-fourth of Egyptian workers under 25 are unemployed, a statistic that is often cited as a reason for the revolution there. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in January an official unemployment rate of 21 percent for workers ages 16 to 24.
My generation was taught that all we needed to succeed was an education and hard work. Tell that to my friend from high school who studied Chinese and international relations at a top-tier college. He had the misfortune to graduate in the class of 2009, and could find paid work only as a lifeguard and a personal trainer. Unpaid internships at research institutes led to nothing. After more than a year he moved back in with his parents.
Millions of college graduates in rich nations could tell similar stories. In Italy, Portugal and Spain, about one-fourth of college graduates under the age of 25 are unemployed. In the United States, the official unemployment rate for this group is 11.2 percent, but for college graduates 25 and over it is only 4.5 percent.
The true unemployment rate for young graduates is most likely even higher because it fails to account for those who went to graduate school in an attempt to ride out the economic storm or fled the country to teach English overseas. It would be higher still if it accounted for all of those young graduates who have given up looking for full-time work, and are working part time for lack of any alternative.
Many of you, my loyal readers, know this already. Work is hard to come by. Money is even harder.
Companies are not hiring in droves, despite an economy that's turned around neatly in the past 18 months, and when they do hire, there's a buyers' market for skillsets out there. Who wants to take a chance on an entry-level naif when you can hire a desperate family man or woman for essentially the same salary who has experience at that position?
In the past, of course, the opposite was true: companies shed experience because they knew they could get cheaper and "teach 'em right" in the bargain when the time came to hire. This time, the recession hit home, literally. As housing values and prices plummeted and people worked harder to meet their mortgage payments, one layoff was enough to make them scramble and scramble hard to find work.
Which, of course, raises the question for Speaker Boener, "Where are the fucking jobs, man?" You can actually hold a legitimate floor debate about the "controversy" over In God We Trust on our currency, you can entertain not less than 100 anti-abortion bill submissions in three months, but you haven't passed one fucking bill designed to create one fucking job except to increase the military or bureaucracy.
Indeed, your recent "budget" legislation will cut 700,000 jobs, according to Moody's.
This is our future we're talking about here, Boener. Man up, put on your long pants, put away the tissues and start behaving like this matters.
Want
It's a little intesting how many women who swear they would never do nude shoots for the public seem to have no problem passing them around like used quarters.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Has She Peeked In The Windows To Check The Kitchen Counter?
In a related story, right wing bloggers suddenly give a shit about missing Latinas.
The Next Time...
...one of your anti-union friends goes off half-cocked...and is there a "full cocked"?...about unions and the workplace, direct them to this documentary.
The Undead On Radioactivity
I can understand Ann Coulter's cheerleading for radioactivity. After all, the more zombies created, the more of her books she can sell.
Considering How Terrified The Pants-Wetters Got...
...that Goatse supermoon turned out to be more like the Clark Kent moon
Look To The East For Four Hosemen
The Apocalypse must certainly be on. Thomas Friedman actually made sense this weekend!
A Bold Move
Some of the more...strident...opposition have made an issue of Obama's excursion to Brazil with all that's going on in the world.
As if he's there on vacation or something. Turns out, not so much...
It was the president’s first stop in a day in which the administration hoped to emphasize its commitment to building economic and diplomatic ties to Latin America’s biggest country. But never far from Obama’s mind was Libya, where US and European air strikes were launched against Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy’s forces Saturday. Obama was expected to huddle throughout the day to discuss the crisis.
The operations against Libya’s strongman encroached on what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton characterized as a vital trip for US diplomacy — a tour designed to improve sometimes strained relations with Brazil, the world’s seventh-largest economy and an important market for US products.
“Obviously, there is a lot going on around the world and much that demands our urgent attention,’’ Clinton said Friday. “But as I often say, we have to deal with both the urgent and the important at the same time.’’
On Saturday, Obama met in Brasilia, the capital, with Brazil’s new president, Dilma Rousseff. Both have expressed interest in improving relations, and the two leaders signed preliminary trade agreements.
See, had he not gone, Obama would have risked a stronger Chinese presence in a nation that will be key to the United States' recovery.
Here's the thing: Brazil is one of the so-called "BRIC" nations, four nations (including India, China, and Russia) that have growing economies and growing political influence in the world. As such, they seek a greater voice in world affairs. Brazil, as an example, is seeking the US' endorsement to have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (Russia and China already have, and no doubt India will petition as well). Too, Brazil would like to develop its offshore oil reserves as soon as possible, and Obama would of course love to have American companies at the heart of that initiative.
The alternative is to have China drilling practically in our own backyard.
If he doesn't make this trip, Obama risks insulting a nation that will hold a grudge for a while and has the means to punish us for it. And then the right wing would be all up in arms about his failure to keep China at bay.
But for now, they would like him digging thru the rubble in Japan while flying sorties over Benghazi, apparently.
A Momentous Occasion
Perhaps the single most important development in New York City history took place 200 years ago tomorrow.
To get a sense of the distinction between the unplanned city and the city of today, all you need to do is walk along Seventh Avenue from, say, 23rd Street to Houston.
North of 14th, the streets are laid out logically, making a serial and numerical progression. Below 14th Street, you will find places where 4th Street actually crosses 10th Street, and nevermind how Barrow Street goes.
For Once, Republicans Are Right
Congressional Republicans called on President Barack Obama to more fully explain the goal of the allied military action in Libya and how it will be accomplished.
“Before any further military commitments are made, the administration must do a better job of communicating to the American people and to Congress about our mission in Libya and how it will be achieved,” House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said in a statement yesterday.
The U.S. and allied forces hit Libya’s air-defense systems and created a no-fly zone over the country, according to Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United Nations Security Council on March 17 authorized the use of “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians.
Now, I'm sure the Republican interest is purely from the standpoint of "what's good for America" and would have zero to do with political grandstanding and posturing, with a little saber-rattling thrown in for good measure. After all, that would be exploiting a situation for political gain, something we surely can't have when the nation is at war and Obama is a War President.
After all, why would the Republicans hate America?
While it's heartening to me to see that there is a genuine coalition involved...hell, even Germany and France have taken sizable roles in Libya, and Qatar has supplied its Air Force...it still distresses me to see America taking a couple of pot shots at a nation which is a zero-threat to American interests.
And no, I'm not ignoring Lockerbie. Gaddafy made nice with the Bush administration. You'd think we can let bygones be bygones, since that was touted as The Bush Doctrine In Action. Apparently, the Republicans think so too, and are giving full-throated support to our ally, Muammar.
And in truth, does it matter to the Libyans on the ground whether the Tomahawk missile that just pounded their land was fired by an American, a Brit, an Egyptian or a Saudi? A, it's all American anyway, and B, it still kills innocents.
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