You know who else was pepper-sprayed at Occupy Wall Street?
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Did You Know?
Our oceans don't contain water, but a water-like substance?
Actually, this comet contains deuterium which is a component of "heavy water" and is used to power nuclear weapons.
Thoughts On Steve Jobs
Wow. What can you say about the loss of a visionary who can rightly be compared to Thomas Edison or Leonardo Da Vinci?
Steve Jobs has been on the fringes of my life for something on the order of forty years, from the first Apple computers through the 1984 advertisement, to the LC and the Performa, the iMac, iBook, Powerbook, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Pro.
Even if you don't own a single Apple product (and there may be a handful of people who don't in America), you've been heavily influenced by his vision and his goal to put personal computing at the "intersection of art and technology."
He made computing accessible to the average person. He made it popular and possible for you and I.
He remade the world in his image, if you want to make the stretch. Think about what he's changed: music, movies, photography, communication, media, networking (he developed the first home wireless network that meant a damn.) He's overseen computing revolutions, animation revolutions, and communications revolutions. He did it all not by capitulating and adapting to the current standard, but by co-opting the standards and putting his own stamp on them.
He wasn't always successful. Neither was Edison (who had his own scandal, endorsing capital punishment.) Neither was Da Vinci. This is, however, what made all of them great.
Bill Gates is a great businessman, but come on, who talks about Windows innovations, or waits excitedly for the next insanely great thing from Redmond, WA? There is no one, no politician, no athlete, no philanthropist, who has done more to change our world than Steve Jobs. Whether it was a good change or a bad one, only history can judge, and I do not mean to make Jobs out to be a saint.
Just someone with incredible vision and imagination.
The Short Strokes
My apologies to Glen Rice. I worried about him when I heard about him and Sarah Palin, but now that's she's done teasing the entire fapping right wing, at least he got some from her:
It had become obvious that Palin was not going to be a candidate. The reality is that Palin didn't stand a chance, so badly has she squandered her political capital within the Republican party over the past year with cheap stunts, such as an on-again, off-again grandiose national bus tour. Her career in national politics as a candidate is over.
The most straight-forward implication of Palin's decision – along with the announcement by New Jersey governor Chris Christie that he would not be running – is that the Republican field is set. There is now no prince across the water. That means Republican voters will either have to come to terms with Mitt Romney or the alternative, most likely Rick Perry.
So it comes down to the goober and the Gooper. Neither is a really attractive choice for the Republican party. Neither is truly going to catch fire in the general election.
Now Republicans know the trouble Democrats had in 2004. One might almost think that there's a conspiracy to trade mediocrities in order to keep the population quieted.
But I digress...
Effectively, Palin's decision hands the nomination to Obama more forcefully. Even if she had run and miraculously managed to pull in enough votes to win, her charisma might have been enough to pull off an upset. I doubt it, seriously, but then stranger things have happened. Now that she's out of the race, a more boring candidate is sure to win the nomination, and basically all Obama has to do is talk about solutions to the issues and he'll win walking away.
One advantage an incumbent President has: he doesn't have to campaign from anyplace but the Oval Office in order to win re-election. In fact, the best re-elections have seen the President looking very Presidential and the worst mistakes ex-Presidents have made have been while campaigning (think Bush the Elder at a supermarket scanner, or glancing at his watch during a debate against the Big Dog.)
One can say many things about President Obama but he has certainly looked Presidential, especially since Osama bin Laden was killed: confident, mature, articulate. He may have been lost in the early days of his administration. I chalk that up to letting others row the boat for him while he stood on the prow. Once he took charge of his Presidency and his agenda-- perhaps the best challenge he's faced has been the loss of the House-- he's seemed more statesmenlike.
I think this is why the rhetoric against him has amped up and also why the Republicans are scrambling to be dilatory and obstacles. They're running scared, and have much to be answerable for, from the Birther movement to the failures of the Teabaggers to foment the kind of political uprising they had hoped for.
So they should run scared. Obama may not have hit a might tee shot, but his approach to the fairway has put him within feet of the flag.
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Scientists To Bigfoot Hunters: Yurt Doin' It Rong
Expedition sets out for Siberian search to prove SASQUATCH ISREAL!
I've been pretty forthright on this blog about my belief that, of all the paranormal stuff people talk about, the most likely to be real is Sasquatch. I'm not saying they exist, I'm just saying that the science involved-- evolution-- and the massive amounts of underexplored terrain on the planet suggest this is the most likely candidate.
An Exciting Seminar
Most astronomical seminars I read about have an element of "wow" in them, but this one has a definable "wow factor."
Wow. Simply, wow
The Klingons Are Here!
* only from edge on and then only when the power is turned and then only as far as the background is easy enough to replicate.
The Kids Are Alright
Looks like the unions are coming out in big numbers to support Occupy Wall Street
Senators Are Douches
Y'know, normally I'd be all behind my party and stuff, but here's one time they ought to grow a backbone:
Senate Democrats are scrambling to rewrite portions of President Barack Obama's jobs bill, even as Obama tries to blame Republicans for Congress' failure to act.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell moved to call the president's bluff Tuesday by pushing for a quick Senate vote on the bill, but Democratic leader Harry Reid derailed the effort as all sides maneuvered for position in a potentially defining battle in the 2012 presidential campaign.[...]
To pay for his package of tax breaks, unemployment benefits and new spending on public works projects, Obama has proposed higher taxes on family incomes over $250,000 and on the oil and gas industry.
The first request troubles Democratic senators from states like New York, New Jersey and California, where large numbers of families could be hit by the increase. The second has drawn opposition most prominently from Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, whose state is home to numerous oil and gas operations.
The president also proposed higher taxes on hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners, but those increases, too, would disappear under the changes Reid is expected to unveil as early as Wednesday.
WTF????
Look, I get there's a political calculus at play here (damned SCOTUS): millionaires are the fastest source of campaign funds for any candidate for the House or Senate, so the last thing you want to do is piss them off.
But these are "last thing" times.
And I get the whole $250,000 income problem suffered in the northeast, California, and other high tax, high income states. $250,000 really doesn't sound like much when you can easily pay $70,000 a year in rent and need two incomes to survive.
We'll adjust, Senator Reid, those of us in the bluer states who understand this is a crisis of immense proportions.
(or you could just, you know, bump that threshhold up to $300,000 or $500,000 and still capture an enormous bounty.)
And oil companies? Really, Sen. Landrieu? Do we have to look any further back than the Gulf oil spill to see how little they give a damn about the rest of us? Hell, we still have that stupid $50/barrel price floor, under which the oil companies remain subsidized!
So for the sake of a few megagiant corporations who aren't about to move their facilities in the very near future from the single busiest port in America with access to the entire North American market, you'd force 14 million Americans and their families to get deeper in the dungpile?
ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE, THE LOT OF YOU???????
The protests down on Wall Street and across the nation, tens of thousands of young and disaffected people willing and able to work but unable to find a job that will pay them a decent wage and allow them to make a living, should be the first-- the FIRST AND ONLY-- consideration. You are facing an entire generation of people who will need government assistance to get off the floor and create an economy.
Think about that while you roll in your pathetic hedge fund money, Senators.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Occupy More Streets
This editorial in the LA Times says something I really hadn't pondered in reflecting on the OWS movement: it could spell votes in 2012.
Remember all that energy that Barack Obama unleashed in 2008? Now it has a place and a focus.
Good On Ya, Mr. President!
President Obama has scathingly ripped BofA for their new debit card fees
This is an end run to re-insitute fees that had been charged to retailers, that the Frank-Dodd (or Dodd-Frank) bill eliminated.
Christie Not Running
You may have heard that here first, many weeks ago, but it will be official this afternoon.
Today's Right Wing Panty-Twist
...is provided courtesy of ESPN/ABC and Hank Williams, Jr.
Look, it's a free market and Williams is perfectly within his rights to be an asshole. But it's also a free market and ESPN/ABC have every right not to be associated with him.
He's been suspended, which is a good thing. I'd rather see him fired, but it's a judgement call and perhaps this can be a teachable moment.
Debate Is Dangerous
This is why we can't have nice things: we can't even talk about them without our corporate overlords overruling us.
The Luckiest Man On The Face Of The Earth
Now, this is no knock on President Obama. I think he's done a good job in office, especially given the mess he was left with: he's passed some signature legislation that will matter for decades in the progressive agenda.
I think he could have done more, but that's a personal opinion.
And I think he's been hammered hard from the right for being competent. The grand machine that somehow tarred a decorated war hero as a coward and fraud is not silent, and has had a big hand in smearing the President's image.
So while his re-election should be a cakewalk, it's not. His approval ratings have sunk, largely because of the appearance of ineffectuality, summoned in large part by a Congress that is lazy and cowardly.
Why is he so lucky, then? Here's why: he basically gets to choose his opponent.
Now, I'm not suggesting that a black President would be the one to plant a story in the WaPo about "Niggerhead," or that President Obama would prefer to run against Herman Cain rather than Rick Perry or Mitt Romney. I think he matches up well against anyone in the Republican field, and even some who still have the shrinkwrap around them, like Christie.
It is interesting to me that the Republicans have such an incredibly weak field of contenders, that's why I think Obama gets to choose his opponent. Anyone with a brain who is Republican isn't going to run and have to pander to the drooling mobs of half-hearted patriots, and then pivot and run a general election campaign, knowing that all the pandering they did will come back to haunt them. Like it or not, even as far right as this nation has shifted, independent voters still make up the lion's share of uncommitted votes, and independent voters do not like hatred.
Joe Klein highlights this in his column in Time magazine:
A week ago, the owner of a furniture store in Conway, Ark., asked me, "Why don't you media people, especially the cable news, ever ask politicians what they agree on? Why is it always about disagreements?" The folks in Ellston thought that was a very good idea. It's one I'll take home. But it's also a lesson that politicians, even extremists like Bachmann, should heed: the Americans who feel most ignored these days are not the screamers. They are the solid citizens who are sick to death of pols who play to the rant.
Indeed.
The odd thing about the political landscape is how much the people on the left and the people on the right and the people in the middle agree on things: this nation has gotten out of control of the people, money now rules politics which means corporations now rule politics, and the rhetoric you hear from the right echoes the rhetoric you hear from the left.
The disagreements are deep, to be sure. To make the ludicrous claim that the richest one percent pay 20% of the taxes-- while they *earn* over 1000% more in income-- is pandering of the worst kind. The left has it more right than the right, to be sure. That's why I haven't abandoned my liberal principles.
But I digress...
You'd think, as weak as Obama's approval ratings make him appear, the Republicans would be six deep trying to run against him, and yet people you might expect to run, like Condoleeza Rice or Marco Rubio, remain oddly out of the spotlight.
One has to wonder why. My guess would be the volatile nature of the GOP voting base: there's a power struggle going on. One thing Republicans hae always been very very good at is keeping internal discipline even when the walls are crumbling. It happened during the last years of the Bush administration. You never heard about how Bush was a liberal until after he'd left office.
You won't hear about this split until it cleaves the party in two. You're starting to see signs of this: Jim Jeffords was a pioneer, of course, but David Frum has all but abandoned the GOP, Lamar Alexander has resigned what leadership posts he holds in the Senate, and now the long-time head of the Florida Republican party is leaving to take a consulting job. The rats, such as they are, are abandoning ship.
2012 could see a GOP decimated by internal strife and proven deadly wrong on so many of their cherished beliefs (as expressed in the primary run) that they'll be lucky to hold onto the House.
And then, it will be up to Obama to do SOMEthing about the nation.
Monday, October 03, 2011
One The One Hand...
...I really want to see Snowbilly get her lunch eaten.
On the other, why don't we just leave her alone?
You know, for our sake?
Today's Number: $100,000
That's the average foreclosure deficiency, what's owed on a mortgage versus what the bank received in a fire sale, in America.
Because, goodness knows, having a mortgage rammed down your throat by a loan shark is something you should have to live with, in perpetuity.
We really do live in a serfdom.
What It Looks Like When...
(photo credit)
...your planet is blanketed with atmospheric carbon.
Whether you believe global climate change is manmade or not, this ought to give you pause.
A Sardonic Irony
A Nobel prize winner in medicine died last week, just days before being awarded the Prize.
He had an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed four years ago, and managed to extend his life this long.
Using the technology he was awarded the prize for.
Put Christine Quinn On The Hot Seat
The big phony ought to make a stand here: are you with the people, or with the bankstahs?
You want to be mayor. We ought to know.
I Can Solve The Problem
"There's always a balance between privacy and monetizing data, and at this moment folks are trying to find the balance, which is why there's litigation against Facebook," Rob Enderle.
Simple answer: People come first. Always.
Good Point
Say what you will about an Al Qaeda operative who targets Americans and needs to be stopped, even if it means killing him.
He was an American citizen. That means it's just a line between him and me. That line may be a mile wide, but lines tend to narrow as expedience sets in.
I'd like to know why it's OK to kill him.
One Would Hope He Means Much More Than This
Leon Panetta has signaled that the US will not unilaterally intervene in Iran
I'd hope he'd drop "unilaterally" from that statement, full stop.
Art With Meaning
I kind of like this latest wrinkle in the Popular People's Liberation Front of Judea:
Protesters speaking out against corporate greed and other issues in New York City are dressing as corporate zombies and greeting Wall Street workers as they head into the office.Patrick Bruner, a spokesman for the group, says Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are being urged to dress in business wear with white faces and blood, and will march while eating monopoly money. He says financial workers should see them "reflecting the metaphor of their actions."
It is, of course, a most excellent point to make with respect to the people who are responsible for the mess we are in, and have been for thirty-odd years.
See, it's not just the CEOs of Citibank or Goldman Sachs who bear sole responsibility for this mess, although they bear a massive amount of it. And it's not the heads of the trading desks, or the quants who developed the new casino games of derivatives, or the floor brokers who cynically sent grandma to the poor house.
Altho they too bear a large amount of the responsibility.
It's really all of us: from the people who believed a home was a speculative investment to the secretaries who took dictation from the aforementioned asshats and pleaded for a bigger bonus, to the guy who charged $2 for a soda that cost him 50 cents.
Indeed, anyone who's found a way to game the capitalist system for a few pennies, or a few million. Blame doled out on a proportionate scale.
It's the people who nodded quietly during Wall Street when Gordon Gecko intoned "Greed is good." It's people who cheer (or boo) an athlete who makes a quarter billion dollars a year playing a kid's game. It's people who believe a miniscule, incremental tax hike on genetically lucky Americans is a bad thing because, there but for God's hatred, go I; I could be earning that $10 million compensation package. Stupid parents.
The responsibility lies with people who believe the only measure of a nation's net worth is its monetary wealth, not the well-being of its citizens and those who aspire to citizenship. It lies with people who believe that big government is an obstacle but that big business only has our best interests at heart.
The responsibility lies with churches and sinners, with black and white, with men and women. We sit by and cheer those who would lead us into the abyss, all the while believing the abyss is a bad thing.
It lies with all of us who remain willfully ignorant of the world around us, from the high schooler who can't find England on a globe to the bloggers who deny climate change to the people who somehow believe we can emerge from this financial crisis a better nation.
Maybe eventually, but it will require a massive alteration in the perspective of the American people who remain inundated on a daily basis with urges to "Buy! Buy!! BUY!!!!"
We are all insane. We think working for fifty years enriching someone else then spending the last decades or even years of our lives in futile pursuit of something called "relaxation," while sweating out whether we can stretch our life savings out far enough, and "oh what if I get really sick?" is a full life.
That may have been true, when we made things, and created things, and could find a truth in our work, once upon a time.
But once upon a time only works in fairy tales.
Now we are drones, and even if we do still create some value in this world, its been snapped up, marketed, massaged, and cheapened all in the name of "maximizing profit." And yet, we get up every morning, put on the same damned uniform, be it an actual uniform, overalls, a suit and a tie, or "business casual" (an oxymoron, that). We travel the same road most traveled to find our places in the interchangable corporate cogs, and sit in our cubicle farms, poking our heads up like prairie dogs when something unusual happens (usually, someone runs out of creamer for the coffee.)
We are all zombies on this bus.
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