January 2010
“I think Roomba is a good influence on you.”
– Carolyn
December 2009
“Public option or not, there needs to be something in the legislation about cost...”
– Robot Heart: Sex, Religion, and Politics: Is the healthcare bill worth it?
How does 2011 sound for cost containment? The Republicans would love to do some cost containment on Medicare and Medicaid—they just conveniently forgot about it this year. Alternatively, we could require...
All the cool kids are doing it...
Ask me anything. Not that you couldn’t do that with an email before. But it’s a slow day and if you’re already reading this, you’re probably no busier than I am.
Whenever something tips over noisily, Caboo walks down to the basement and puts himself in his crate. We’re not sure if he gets spooked by the noise or whether he assumes it was his fault and exiles himself in shame.
Should I recycle envelopes with plastic windows? |... →
The answer, for the most part, is yes. Now I can spend a lot less time tediously tearing out plastic envelope windows.
Is the healthcare bill worth it?
robot-heart-politics responds my previous post:
Have you ever tried to support a family of four on $54,000/year? I mean, yeah, if you’re single, that’s more than good money. But if you’ve got a family, that’s paycheck to paycheck. And the salary given above is only $4000 above the national average. Does that really constitute “well above”?
As I don’t...
Why Progressives Are Batshit Crazy to Oppose the... →
robot-heart-politics:
(via soupsoup)
Some things that sort of bother me in this article:
We can debate whether $9,000 for a family earning $54,000 is “affordable”; what we know is that it’s a hell of a lot more affordable than the status quo, under which the family might have to pay more than twice as much to receive equivalent coverage. In fact, Burner’s example is unfortunately chosen; she...
How do I replace Roomba's default sounds with the...
“I’m alive.”
“My tummy feels funny.”
“When my work is finished, I’m coming back for you.”
Billions to Fight Foreclosure, but Few New Loans -... →
This sort of thing is how I spend my time these days.
Obama Curbs Secrecy of Classified Documents →
Is this full transparency? No. But the Obama administration is certainly a rosier shade of translucent than past administrations.
Security failure?
Where are the Republicans going with this one? I understand that it’s hard to resist shouting “Democrats are weak! Democrats want the terrorists to win!” But this is probably a good time to resist the urge. Afterall, the attempted attack failed. And whether or not there were screening or intelligence shortfalls, the system worked. The Underwear Bomber went to great lengths to...
1 tag
“Fixing the problem doesn’t mean voting out the feckless Democrats or the...”
– Lawrence Lessig
Black coffee and Dayquil on an otherwise empty stomach is probably a bad way to start a Tuesday.
Books You Can Live Without - NYTimes.com →
The New York Times asked authors which books people should throw out if they should cull their collections. Some of them really struggle with the answers. But the answers they come up with are wonderful:
If a country, like Czechoslavakia, no longer exists, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to take the travel guide along with you when you go.
If the reproductions in an art book are so fuzzy and...
Plane suspect was listed in terror database after... →
We’re probably going to hear this detail a lot over the next couple weeks. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s father warned the U.S. that his son could be a danger. Despite this, it looks like Umar’s record was otherwise clean. He was not placed on a no fly list. He flew. He tried to blow up an airplane.
Was this an intelligence failure? Should he have been prohibited from flying? If...
I improved a hymn
Hymnals change slowly. Sometimes too slowly. Generally, this is a good thing. A song that’s lasted a thousand years is probably a pretty cool song. But often, the more recent additions don’t have that staying power. “Earth and All Stars” is one of those.
The song was written in 1922, sort of as a byproduct of modernism vomitting itself to death. The song is optimistic....
“In the past, there was a general understanding, a sort of implicit clause in the...”
– Paul Krugman, somehow coming up with the wittiest thing I’ve heard all day. (via lemoniceforever) (via vruz)
Some guy tried to blow up an airplane on...
It seems he succeeded in setting his pants on fire.
On "Happy Holidays" (or, keep your corporate paws...
When extending holiday greetings, I generally wish people “Merry Christmas.” While I have close friends who celebrate everything from Chanukah to Ramadan to the Winter Solstice, Christmas is my holiday and I want to share what I’m genuinely celebrating and hope those friends who are celebrating on different days for different reasons will share with me to the extent that is...
Which would be the greatest honor: being beaten up...
I mean “honor” in the street sense.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Court grants summary judgment for studios in Gary... →
by Ben Sheffner, Copyrights & Campaigns, h/t Groklaw
In a major legal victory for copyright owners, a federal judge in Los Angeles has granted summary judgment for the movie studios in their suit against Gary Fung, owner of IsoHunt and several other popular BitTorrent index sites. Judge Stephen Wilson cited extensive, unrebutted evidence that Fung, a Canadian citizen, had knowledge of the...
“A woman jumped a barrier at the start of Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter’s...”
– CNN.com
You can’t just knock over the pope. That sort of thing isn’t cool.
“This is 9/10s of a loaf. And for a family out there that right now doesn’t...”
– Barack Obama on the Senate healthcare bill.
I disagree. I think it’s only 7/10s of a loaf. What do you think the bill is, loaf-wise?
Senate approves health care reform bill →
So we’ll have something on the books.
It’s Christmas Eve, which makes it time for...
What does the unrest in Iran mean?
Can somebody help me translate the disjointed news stories into a narrative? Iran has some serious civil unrest. Is it likely to lead to any sort of change?
By comparison, we also have higher-than-usual levels of civil discontent. But the probability that it will lead to any serious changes is pretty low. Sure, a few elections might tip one way or the other, but we’re not looking at...
Sarah Palin wins PolitiFacts Lie of the Year for... →
Palin, in a rather contorted response, says that “death panel” was a metaphor. As we know, Palin is something of a poet. And I mean “poet” metaphorically.
That said, the Senate Healthcare Bill has some serious problems.
2 tags
Reason Magazine's Matt Welch Says Obama is Lying... →
Jeff Miller writes,
Read the post at the link above. He’s blatantly lying about the most important legislative initiative of his presidency, right? And why doesn’t that bother you?
The linked article takes issue with three separate statements. 1) “Every single criteria I put forward…” 2) “95 percent” 3) “I didn’t campaign on public option.” I...
The whole point of equal protection under the...
…is that people get the full protection of the law, even when you don’t like what they allegedly did. Robot-heart-politics and katoleary linked to an article titled, “7th Grader Raped at School, Officials Rush to Victim-Blame,” which was shocked that anybody would reserve judgment on the guilt of the 14-year-old alleged rapist or the veracity of the 12-year-old...
On those healthcare polls...
At first glance, it looks like the current healthcare bill is pretty unpopular.
According to a Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday morning, 53 percent of the public disapproves of the proposed changes, with 36 percent supporting the bill.
And yet…
The Quinnipiac survey also indicates that while a majority of Americans oppose the health care plan, they back two options that were cut...
Today's plan
Today I am reading a prospectus and supplemental prospectus for Aegis Asset Backed Securities Trust Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates/Series 2005-5. It’s 600 pages of recession inducing legalese. Will I finish reading it, or will I succumb to eyeball-bleed induced dehydration?
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
jeffmiller:
When you buy drugs from the guy on the corner, you’re creating jobs. When you buy video games with your kid’s college fund savings, you’re creating jobs. When you smash someone’s window with a brick and someone has to fix it, you’re creating jobs. When you shoot someone with a gun and a doctor has to save the victim, you’re creating jobs. When you visit a prostitute, you’re...
The words you left out
jeffmiller:
I don’t like the idea of using debt to finance a recovery, that’s true; I don’t think government should be in the business of manipulating the economy. It’s different when private actors borrow money, since they aren’t “borrowing” with ability to use force to collect money to make the payments in the future.
But this isn’t my point, which you’ve omitted from above. My point is...
“We’re basically the drug-addict parent who breaks his child’s piggy bank so he...”
– Jeff Miller, who doesn’t like the idea of using debt to finance a recovery. Presumably he feels the same way about businesses that use debt to finance a start up or expansion? (Say, all of them.) Or about people who borrow against future earnings to finance an education?
Um ... no.
jayparkinsonmd and soupsoup quote Joe Weisenthal’s article, “Shortage of iPhone Developers Exposes the Flaw Behind the Output Gap”
“The problem that folks like Paul Krugman don’t acknowledge is that this spare capacity doesn’t match demand. If there were an insatiable thirst for, say, new houses and new office parks, we’d be all set! But that’s not the case. In reality, demand is...
“I’m sorry, but debating the kill-billers on the policy merits of their...”
– Nate Silver (fivethirtyeight.com)
“Men have become feminized ….”
– digital_dreamer, comment on What Can Manly Men Expect of Women? | The Art of Manliness (via robot-heart-politics)
I’ve heard some variation on this theme pretty frequently—but it usually means something different. Sometimes it means that men are encouraged to stop using...
Dick Cheney, Conservative of the Year?
So says Human Events.
I’m impressed by George W. Bush’s willingness to keep a low profile. He isn’t President anymore and he isn’t inclined to try to defend or rehabilitate his legacy by taking pot shots at the current administration. The same can’t be said of Cheney.
I can’t blame Cheney for being grumpy. Obama has been pretty relentless with his “I...
Did Christianity Cause the Crash? →
(via givemesomethingtoread)
No.
But the argument is worth discussing.
America’s mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated—one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now. Known as the prosperity gospel, and claiming tens of millions...
I feel nostalgic about rotary phones and 8-bit...
But not CRT monitors. Remember lugging those suckers up and down the stairs? That sucked. Flat panels can replace them as thoroughly and unregrettably as toilet paper replaced whatever came before toilet paper. There’s nothing to miss about CRTs.
Except degaussing.
How to Drive
In the following situations, it is acceptable and encouraged to use your four-way flashers:
You are temporarily parked somewhere. (Note for Bostonians: This doesn’t make it acceptable park where you’re parking. The four-way flashers are simply a convenient way to communicate your intentions.)
There is an emergency and everybody should pay careful attention to your car for their own...
In an ideal world, the road would not have moguls.
Democrats Say They Clinch Deal on Health Care... →
I’m with the Rolling Stones on this one.
You can’t always get what you want. But if you try some times, then you just might find, you get what you need.
Iraqis say Iran has seized oil well in Iraq,... →
Let’s add this to the list of things the world doesn’t need right now.