I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Monday, September 24, 2012

Linkee-poo is dancing cheek to cheek

The Great New England Vampire Panic. So, how does one become a consulting folklorist anyhow? Lots of great story bone material in there. Also, some really good history of New England that gets glossed over with the focus on the Pilgrims and witch trials. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

The new Laser Tag. That looks so totally cool, and yet, I have a feeling this will cause trouble. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

"I believe America is great, because we fight for individual liberty. But we're also great when we pull together and help each other out. That's an important aspect of our national character too. It's what I just realized three or four hours ago, when I ran out of potable water." On the late realization of things. As Red Green said, "I'm pullin' for ya. We're all in this together." (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Since the mid 1970's our food supply has been corporatized as a response to the growing cost of calories. It was an intentional move by the Nixon administration watching the rising tide of discontent because of their pocketbooks. And now we're seeing the long term problems of that strategy. That's Juan Cole with the top 10 problems with corporate food. We solved the problem of cheap calories, but now it's killing us and costing us more in the long run. That's what's known as cost shifting. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

So, just who is benefiting from government largess? Between the "makers" and the "takers", I think it's the "makers" that get the most. In this case, WalMart benefits from their employees getting SNAP (aka, food stamps). What's not in here is the ongoing scandal of WalMart helping their employees apply for Medicaid. (Grokked from the Slactivist)

"According to a Boston Consulting Group survey and referenced by Obama, 48 percent of executives at companies with $10 billion or more in revenues said they plan to bring back production to the United States from China — or are considering it." A combination of higher wages in China, lowering wages in the US, higher cost of transportation and a lower cost of domestic energy all coming together. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

In case you're buying into the conservative argument that President Obama hasn't been doing anything, the list of Obama accomplishments. Probably not listed on there is the successful defense of if the president's kill list, winning an injunction so they can continue to hold people indefinitely without charge, and the continuing surveillance culture in our country. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Apparently on October 7th one thousand pastors will endorse a candidate for president (guess which one) from the pulpit. All in an effort to tell the IRS to go stuff it. Confidential note to those pastors, tax exemption is not a Constitutionally guaranteed status. Revoking your tax exempted status neither interferes or endorses a religion. And I have a feeling that someone could make the argument that endorsing a candidate is not a religious function, but a political one, which may require you to report donors to the FEC. But I do give you credit, processing 1000 revocations does bring about an economy of scale. (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)

"'I'm grateful to (Romney) for formulating his stance so clearly because he has once again proven the correctness of our approach to missile defense problems,' Putin told reporters, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti." I'm not a fan of missile defense systems, but, yeah, thanks Romney. Hey, has anybody ever explained how what you say from a position of power (or in your case, wannabe power) has the capacity to change things. There are ramifications. And because of your incompetence on foreign affairs, you're causing all sorts of problems even before the election. And if you consider Russia "our number one enemy" (hey, have you heard, the Cold War with the USSR is over, we "won"), this is what's known as giving aid and comfort to them. Might want to think about that (I know, who am I kidding). (Grokked from the Slactivist)

Tweet of my heart: @saladinahmed: "Attacking Obama strengthens the Republicans!" sounds a hell of a lot like "Attacking Bush strengthens the terrorists!"

No comments: