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Our nuclear future

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

As recent events have demonstrated, one of Obama’s more dubious energy proposals has been a reinvigoration of the nuclear power industry. Mother Jones reports that he, along with a number of other politicians in the tank for the industry, have held up Japan as an example of nuclear power’s safety. In general, they have all asked, “What could go wrong?”.

Now we know. And we may continue to know, for as long as our attention spans will permit.

We can only hope that the Republicans will reflexively oppose expanding nuclear power for the all justifying reason that if Obama is for it, they must be against it. As a stopped clock is right twice a day, the Republican Party is right twice an eon, and if they chose to go that route on the nuclear issue, they would use up half an eon’s ration.

Not likely though. My guess is that they’ll go with Obama on this one, more likely one upping him by removing all those darn regulations that hamper the industry. People in general have short memories, but here in America we have no historical memory at all. Just as so many politicians and other folks of no brain are wondering why we aren’t drilling all over the Gulf with all indeliberate speed, so we’ll be back to planning a nuclear future once Charlie Sheen distracts us sufficiently so that we forget about Japan. I give the process three weeks max.


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Spaceman

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Keith Olbermann posts a picture of himself with the great Bill Lee.


I recognized him right away, “though years have rolled over [his] head” and pounds have descended into his belly. It has always been my firm belief that Bucky Dent would never have had a chance to earn his eternal infamy had Don Zimmer (a/k/a the gerbil) not benched Lee late in the season for annoying Zimmer. Lee was probably the only guy on the team that was loose during that historic September swoon (historic even by Red Sox standards). He was the only guy who might have turned it around early enough to avoid the bitter proof that, if there is a God, he is pitiless and cruel.

The Red Sox, by the way, could do themselves a favor by hiring Lee to do radio play by play, with a contract guaranteeing he could say anything he wants.

Anyway, it’s good to see that Keith is hangin’ out with the right team, and the right hangers on.

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For Ipad fans only

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

If you’re on Ipad fan like I am, you may also have been frustrated, as I have been, by the lack of a way to save web pages and other documents as PDFs. It’s one of the great things about the Mac-PDF capability is built into the print dialog for every piece of software. Well, today, via MacWorld, I found Save2PDF, available at the App Store for both the Ipad and the Iphone. The ten dollar price is a bit steep, but, as far as I’m concerned, absolutely worth it. Of course I downloaded it as soon as I heard about it. You can save anything as a PDF from any app that supports Airprint, and you don’t have to be connected to a network to do so. If you don’t have that option, you can open almost any document in Save2PDF from the “Open With” dialog box and convert the file to a PDF from within the app itself. Not as good as if Apple just built it in, like in the MacOS, but still a great app.


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Rapid Response

Sunday, March 13, 2011

I am in receipt of an email from Nancy Pelosi. She is, she says, absolutely irate about what happened in Wisconsin, and would Iike me to help her do something about it. Specifically, she would like me to hand over some cash to the Rapid Response Fund, another name for the DCCC, apparently.

The email is short on specifics about the nature of the intended response, nor does it explain how it can be rapid, considering that the Wisconsin events began some time ago. Nor is it clear why money is needed more than the voices of some Washington Democrats raised in actual response to the lies spread about state workers by the Republicans and the media.

It would seem after all, that for a very small amount of money, Congressional Democrats and Obama could have rapidly responded rhetorically, preferably in both Washington and Madison. Why isn’t Nancy in this crowd, or Obama addressing it?

Alas, their most vigorous response comes in the form of an outreached hand. As always, the Republicans are far more proficient in cynically draining the funds of their supporters, but, in this case at least, it’s not for the Democrats lack of trying.

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NH Teaparty Republican admits to massive Republican ignorance

Sunday, March 13, 2011

While in New Hampshire, Michelle Bachmann gave the state credit for the battles of Lexington and Concord, telling a group of like brain dead legislators:

“You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord,’’ … “And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has ever arisen in the annals of man in 5,000 years of recorded history.’’

Not to worry. They all sympathized:

“Honestly, when she did it, everybody looked around, obviously, and was like ‘uh oh,’ but she carries herself in such a professional way — they’re all legislators in that room, and every single one of them has made the exact same mistake, maybe not on the same topic,’’ said Andrew Hemingway, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, which organized the event, in a phone interview. “When you’re speaking publicly that much, you’re going to make mistakes and say, ‘I know better.’ ’’ (Emphasis added)

I’m not quite sure how one could make exactly the same mistake, but not on the same topic, but let that pass. Bachmann, however, did make the exact same mistake, twice, in the same speech, which leads this reality based guy to believe that the word “mistake” doesn’t quite apply. In her defense, it’s asking a lot for her to keep track of all 50 states, particularly the small ones that are crammed so close together.

I do so hope she runs. I’m looking forward to the Bachmann-Palin match-up, as they ratchet up the crazy to lay claim to the tea party vote.

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Friday Night Music

Friday, March 11, 2011

I have this on DVD, and re-watched it last week. The Wall was performed in Berlin in 1990 to celebrate the demise of the Berlin Wall. The concert is right up there with the best concerts I’ve ever seen, though I have to admit I haven’t seen that many. You can watch the whole thing, in bits and pieces, on youtube. I chose this because, teachers these days being left wing heroes, or at least martyrs, it didn’t seem quite right to put up Another Brick in the Wall. This video, Mother, with Sinead O’Connor, Roger Waters and the Band does nicely, and it has the added benefit of including a couple of shots of a Band member wearing the baseball cap of a certain team from the Hub.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure the story of a self pitying rocker is really all that fitting for a celebration of freedom, though the finale is certainly apropos.


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Science Friday

Friday, March 11, 2011

I just have to pass this along, from Pharyngula:

A rather bizarre study carried out by German researchers suggests that staring at women’s breasts is good for men’s health and increases their life expectancy.

According to Dr. Karen Weatherby, a gerontologist and author of the study, gawking at women’s breasts is a healthy practice, almost at par with an intense exercise regime, that prolongs the lifespan of a man by five years.

She added, “Just 10 minutes of staring at the charms of a well-endowed female, is roughly equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics work-out.”

“And how”, PZ asks “did they determine this amazing medical fact? “

Researchers at three hospitals in Frankfurt, Germany did an in-depth analysis of 200 healthy males over a period of five years. Half the volunteers were instructed to ogle at the breasts of women daily, while the rest were told to refrain from doing so.

They must have had to do rigorous screening to find 100 healthy males who could go five years without looking at a woman’s breasts. Maybe they were all blind. PZ dismisses this scientifically rigorous test for this reason, but I have another. Just based on off the cuff calculations, and assuming that 10 minutes of boob-watching equals a 30 minute workout, I figure the average heterosexual male would get the equivalent of 10 hours of exercise a day. The average American male’s BMI puts the lie to that.

But, just in case, I think I’m going to go out and get a little exercise.


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The last refuge is a crowded place, but where’s Barack?

Friday, March 11, 2011

Newt Gingrich left his first wife while she had cancer, even going so far as to go to her hospital room to talk about divorce terms, with which he promptly failed to abide. That was all to clear the decks for wife number two, who he later ditched for his present spouse, who was giving him blow jobs in his office while he was impeaching Bill Clinton for getting blow jobs in his office.

What made him do it?

Patriotism:

“There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate,” said Gingrich. “And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn’t trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them.”

This makes sense, and who am I to argue? Presumably we can measure a man’s (the applicability of this to women is, as always, subject to doubt) patriotism by the extent of his off the reservation sexual escapades. Alas, by that measure, we Democrats must once again be perceived as far less patriotic than the Republicans. Sure, we had Bill Clinton, whose reputation for patriotism must now surely go up, in light of Newt’s statement, but his sexual escapades are overshadowed by Newt himself, who easily matched Bill in the adultery department, but with an added dollop of hypocrisy to add to the stew. The Republicans can top every Eliot Spitzer with a David Vitter, a man so patriotic, so passionate about his country, that he had to add a bit of fancy dressing to his whoring. And let’s not forget patriots Mark Foley and Larry Craig, who served their country by having sex with children and other men respectively. Why, some Republicans are so patriotic that they have sex with the beasts of the field. There’s not a Democrat in the country patriot enough to top that.

But, lets forget about the patriots. What we need to worry about are the America hating politicians who aren’t screwing on the side. You know who I’m talking about: Barack Obama.

We’ve all had our suspicions. It sure looks like he’s a Kenyan born Muslim socialist, despite an annoying lack of evidence. But we do have evidence, in fact a massive amount of it, that he’s disturbingly monogamous, proof positive that he doesn’t feel passionately about this country. He’s the president. He must have to work way harder that a mere Congressman. If being president isn’t enough to work him into a passion for his country – if he isn’t reaching for the nearest intern or seeking solace in the nearest airport mens room – then he really must hate America.


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A grand, taxpayer funded scam

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Huffington Post features an article about Ashford University, a for-profit “educational institution” with a quaint 5 building campus into which, through the miracle of private enterprise, the internet, and a massive dollop of fraud, its owners manage to cram approximately 76,000 students. The entire article is well worth reading, but for the lazy, I’ll condense it by presenting the business plan:

Buy a failing small college, along with its accreditation, which is good for 10 years, no questions asked by the government or the accrediting agency. Use pictures of the campus for marketing, but conduct 99.9% your “courses” on-line. Induce gullible potential students trying to improve their lives into borrowing money from the federal government to take your worthless course offerings. Keep your fish on the line for the four weeks that are required in order to allow you to keep the course proceeds, then cut them loose.

What a scam. It essentially amounts to borrowing massive amount of money from the government that only someone else is legally liable to repay. Who cares that the poor suckers will incur a debt for which they get no value, and which, thanks to punitive bankruptcy laws, they can’t even discharge. After all, what could be more despicable than someone who defaults on a student loan? Of course, when the day arrives, as the day surely must, when Ashford University feels the need to file for bankruptcy, no law will prevent it from doing so, nor will the criminals behind this scheme be forced to disgorge a penny of the money they have stolen from their hapless “students”.

Our Republican overlords work themselves into high dudgeon at the thought of public workers making a decent living, thereby somehow imposing a crushing burden on the middle class. How many Republicans will get incensed about the waste, fraud and abuse involved in for-profit “educational institutions” sucking at one of the many public teats reserved for corporations only?


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Another right wing meme exploded

Monday, March 7, 2011

The right has never had any particular penchant for telling the truth, particularly when it gets in the way of a good storyline that justifies screwing the middle class or poor. So, it’s no surprise that the latest right wing meme-that state worker pensions are driving states into bankruptcy-is basically a lie. Dean Baker (though I am an avid Baker fan, I came to this via Balloon Juice) has written an extensive analysis of the situation, and shows that the problem was not created by grasping teachers, or even, to any significant degree, by underfunding. No, the culprits are the usual suspects: the Wall Street Crime Syndicate that destroyed the economy. But even after their work had been done, the situation is hardly dire, except in the fevered imaginations of the right and the serious people within the Beltway. This is the last paragraph from his executive summary:

In sum, most states face pension shortfalls that are manageable, especially if the stock market does not face another sudden reversal. The major reason that shortfalls exist at all was the downturn in the stock market following the collapse of the housing bubble, not inadequate contributions to pension funds.

You can read the whole thing here (pdf).

This unfolding episode gives us a bit of a peek into an alternate universe in which Social Security was privatized in-let us say, 2001. At this moment, millions of people would have lost huge chunks of the only retirement plan in which they had any stake. Instead of accepting the blame for ruining these people’s lives, or blaming the “investment advisers” that would have descended on millions of unsophisticated investors to relieve them of their money, or blaming the Wall Street criminals for torpedoing the economy, the right would be blaming the people that it had forced into a system they lacked the time or knowledge to understand, just as they are blaming the state workers for having the nerve to think they are entitled to the pensions for which they contracted.

We are, by the way, currently experiencing something like that alternate reality. Almost anyone with a 401k will tell you they lost big bucks in 2008, and few of us are back to where we were at that point, never mind ahead. The only reason that situation is not a major issue, other than the willingness of the average American to allow him or herself to get screwed by Wall Street, is that everyone who is looking at a smaller 401k retirement nest egg is at least assured (for the moment) of a social security benefit that is not dependent on the willingness of Wall Street to leave some scraps for the rest of us.


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