Today's Eternal Sadness

"We wear our Widow's Weeds like nuns, and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifice."



Memorial Day is actually the one day I wish we could forget.  But as long as we seek  retribution while mistaking it for justice; as long as we see the extreme cowardice of brute force and insist on calling it gallantry; as long as we're willing to cover the stench of corpses rotting on the battlefield with dress uniforms and neatly folded flags, then we'll continue to have wars - which means we'll continue to have the dead and broken warriors that go with it, which means we'll continue to pretend there's something noble in sending people we love to fight and to bleed and to die in some shit-hole halfway around the world in order to get some dickhead politician re-elected so he can make sure ExxonMobil and Pfizer and Halliburton and Grumman and Goldman Sachs can add a few extra pennies to their quarterly earnings per share, which makes sure those companies have lots of extra cash to contribute to other dickhead politicians so we can keep this parade of war porn cranking along smoothly and efficiently.

In the meantime, maybe we could take just a moment away from our little celebratory circle-jerk and try to focus on a few of the reasons for this particular day.

One lousy fucking day - 0.3% of the year.

Anyway, take a look at this from Addicting Info:

Twenty-Two: the estimated number of veterans who commit suicide every day.

Three hundred and fifty: the number of active-duty military members who killed themselves in 2012.

Eight hundred and forty-one: the number of active duty troops who attempted suicide one or more times in 2012.

Eight thousand: the estimated number of troops who die by their own hand each year and that is a low estimate.

Military Crisis Line: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Military One Source: 1-800-342-9647

Wounded Soldier And Family Hotline: 1-800-984-8523

Today's Quote

"Negro poverty is not white poverty. Many of its causes and many of its cures are the same. But there are differences—deep, corrosive, obstinate differences—radiating painful roots into the community and into the family, and the nature of the individual. These differences are not racial differences. They are solely and simply the consequence of ancient brutality, past injustice, and present prejudice." --Lyndon Johnson

Ta-Nahisi Coates does nothing to help me as I wrestle with what I do or don't need to do about "Reparations".

Sometimes, I understand completely why people spend so much time and energy longing for the good old days, when (they think) everything was so much simpler and easier.  Shit makes my head hurt.

God Love The Onion

hat tip = Little Green Footballs

Sitting Waiting Wishing --Jack Johnson

Now I was sitting waiting wishing
That you believed in superstitions
Then maybe you'd see the signs
But Lord knows that this world is cruel
And I ain't the Lord, no I'm just a fool
Learning loving somebody don't make them love you

Must I always be waiting waiting on you?
Must I always be playing playing your fool?

I sing ya songs I dance a dance
I gave ya friends all a chance
Putting up with them wasn't worth never having you
And maybe you been through this before
But its my first time
So please ignore
The next few lines cause they're directed at you

I cant always be waiting waiting on you
I cant always be playing playing your fool
I keep playing your part
But its not my scene
Wont this plot not twist?
I've had enough mystery.
Keep building me up, then shooting me down
Well im already down
Just wait a minute
Just sitting waiting
Just wait a minute
Just sitting waiting

Well if I was in your position
Id put down all my ammunition
I'd wondered why'd it taken me so long
But Lord knows that I'm not you
And If I was I wouldn't be so cruel
Cause waiting on love ain't so easy to do

Must I always be waiting waiting on you?
Must I always be playing playing your fool?
No I cant always be waiting waiting on you
I cant always be playing playing your fool, fool

Today's Yeesh

Can't imagine why Repubs are having such difficulty appealing to Them Wimmins.



This lunkhead says it straight out - women are ornamental.  And so what he obviously thinks is a great idea is to treat them like so many prize heifers to be won (ie: owned) by the awesomely virile and irresistible manliness of GOP candidates and party organizers.  Because we fucked up 94 years ago when we "gave" them the vote, so now I guess we gotta pay some attention to 'em, even tho' they're not really people, they're just "the gals".

Y'know fellas - they don't even pull this kinda high school fuck-around bullshit in high school anymore.

Yay, Free Enterprise

The whole banana by Col Bateman guest-posting on Charlie Pierce's blog:

Last week I mentioned the harassment that the women of Mothers Demand Action Against Gun Violence received in the past few months since the group was initiated on Facebook. The hatred is real, violent, and should not be ignored. What I did not appreciate at the time is the reason why the rabid gun advocates were so angry with these women. Now I know.

"Open Carry Texas" (which I think of as "Wimps With Mommy Issues"), conducted an open carry, en masse, at a Chipotle Restaurant — then the moms shared the word. They posted pictures of these morons carrying rifles in a family restaurant. Then they asked that the chain bar weapons on their private property. As Founder Shannon Watts put it: "The Chipotle petition received more than 10,000 signatures within just a few hours." The corporation realized where their business interests lie and that guns are wrong in their establishments across the entire nation.

In a statement Chipotle released Monday, the company said, "the display of firearms in our restaurants has now created an environment that is potentially intimidating or uncomfortable for many of our customers."

These women are doing what nobody else had managed to do before now. They are actually affecting change. Not through legislation, but through the free choice they have to patronize, or to NOT patronize, private companies that allow guns to be carried in their stores, restaurants, malls, and more.

Watts has become a target, and a heroine. She is the sort of woman that I want my daughters to grow up to be, facing a threat to our nation and taking it head on. Is she afraid? Of course. Anyone would be in her situation. Gun advocates (most who identify themselves as such are also NRA members) have threatened her life, they have threatened to rape her, they have threatened her family, and they have demonstrated their earnestness by showing up at her house. But she has not stopped, she has not quit, and she has not backed down.

This is moral courage, and indeed physical courage, of the highest order.

Today's Pix

Logical Fallacy # 14 - Band Wagon

Just try to remember that once upon a time (1974), the Ford Pinto was the best-selling car in the US - and that was after it was discovered they had an annoying tendency to explode (of course that little gem of consumer information would be a well-guarded secret for another 3 years, but that's a different rant - or better yet, just watch Fight Club again).

In Contrast

Two kinds of people in the world - those who have more time than money and those with more money than sense.

People (and remember, "corporations are people, my friend") who have enough money get to pay for their crimes by donating cash to whatever government agency gets in on the action.  When the government is being starved of the funds it needs to operate properly, you're going to see the evolution of semi-entrepreneurial efforts to make up those short-falls.  Eventually you get exactly what we're seeing now - people in government selling freedom to wealthy law-breakers for whatever price can be negotiated over a few breakfast meetings downtown.

So Credit Suisse "pleads guilty" and mails a few big fat checks to Eric Holder and to Andrew Cuomo et al, and they go on their merry way.  A few upper management suits have been fired, but are you willing to bet they don't land on their feet somewhere else?  Or that they didn't picked up a nice severance package on their way out the door?

Meanwhile, a woman named Cecily McMillan is going to prison because she elbowed a cop who (essentially) sexually assaulted her while trying to arrest her during one of the dust-ups between NYPD and Occupy Wall Street - and she was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 5 years probation even tho' something like seven jurors wrote letters to the judge saying that while they had to vote to convict, they think she deserves leniency and shouldn't be punished by having to serve time in jail.



No peace without justice.

Crank It Up

The fact that there are 100,000 gun casualties in the US every year starts to look like little more than prelude.

Quick Review: We have a self-sustaining cycle where the NRA floods our election process with money to peddle the bullshit about how Da Gubmint is coming to take yer guns, which riles up the rubes who go to the polls to put their local gun freaks in office, who then press for ever-more liberal "gun rights" and gun-related policies, which makes a shitload more money for the gun makers, who then boost the NRA, which collects more money from the whole Ammosexual Community in order to flood the next election with more money...

Not that the NRA's the only outfit that does this, mind you - that's how the game is played.

But there's a nasty little twist when it comes to the guns.

The NRA has had to contend with it's own bit of paranoia for a good long time; afraid that people would eventually wise up and see that simply having access to a gun is a big part of the problem we have with gun violence.  So every time there's been a big deal shooting, they've had to spend significant time and money and energy on damage control, which kinda cuts in on the profits, y'know?

Anyway, they hit on the brilliant notion of doubling down (big surprise, right?), but that's getting to be old hat now, so they had to dress it up in a fresh new jumper and smear even more lipstick on it by sloganizing it with, "Good guy with a gun vs bad guy with a gun", which of course is hooey because once everybody has a gun, how the fuck are you supposed to know who's who?

Enter Gary Kiehne, running in the GOP primary for the nomination in Arizona's 1st district:

“If you look at all the fiascos that have occurred, 99 percent of them have been by Democrats pulling their guns out and shooting people. So I don’t think you have a problem with the Republicans.”

“But I can assure you that if you don’t have a firearm, you ought to go buy one.”

So there it is:  The Good guys with guns will stop the bad guys with guns, and the bad guys are Democrats.

We are so fucked.

Today At Fox Nation

Here're 3 of the top stories at Fox Nation today, and I've circled the numbers of the comments for each article.

OK - we're all about hyped up nationalistic pride and compulsory expressions of patriotism, so yeah - yay, troops!

But wait - problems at the VA?  Problems that are real; and problems that probably can actually be laid at Obama's feet?  But crap, that means I'd hafta consider acknowledging that I want Da Gubmint to do something - it just confuses me.  So y'know what?  Uhm... if these guys didn't have the guts to die on the battlefield like they were supposed to, then they can't expect me to go outa my way to do anything special about it now.  Buncha moochers.  Fuck 'em.

Now you're talkin'!  All we need is a little glimmer of daylight and we'll be able to find some quack to speculate wildly about Hillary's "condition", and that means we can go on ignoring our problems while we squat in the dirt chanting Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!

No soul and no honor.

About That Spring Thing

"Conservatives" are always telling us that Da Gubmint is too big; that we need to down-size congress and if we could just spend a lot less money on it, government would shrink back to a more manageable thing - like what we had back in the - whatever the fuck - 1920s(?)

So, how come what they wanted was a massive collection of 10-30 million "Patriots" to show up in DC in order to take down the Kenyan Usurper's International House of Tyranny?

Well - Operation American Spring turned out to be a demonstration of just how powerful the idea of "small is better" can be.  And wow - they caught us way off guard this time.

Word is that almost a thousand Strict Constitutionalist Warriors rallied on the mall, and then, when they amassed by the nearly dozens in front of the White House, it took all of Washington so completely by surprise that the TeaBillies were able to pull it off beautifully, and everybody's pretty sure Mr Obama and Cruella Moochelle are packing up and leaving for exile in Morocco any minute now, because who could witness such a compelling thing and not be moved to comply with the will of the (several cement-for-brains) people?

But wait - ya gotta figure an awful lot of these yahoos were probably wearing camo. So maybe they really did number in the several millions, but we just couldn't see 'em!?!

Damn clever.

Today's Pix

Larry Wilkerson

"...the invisible hand of Adam Smith in "Wealth of Nations" is not an invisible hand - it's now the hand of oligarchs..."

One of the great mysteries of the colossal cluster fuck known as the George W Bush administration is that (apparently) nobody was listening to Larry Wilkerson.

Or was it that Larry wasn't speaking quite as clearly then as he is now?  Dunno, but we'd better start listening to him now if we're to have any real chance of stickin' around long enough to find out.

Anyway, from The Real News:

Little Wing (cover) --The Corrs (Jimi Hendix)

Sweet Harmony (cover) --Maria Muldaur (Smokey Robinson)

If you can dream it, it can be done
And tho' a task was made for two,
It can still be done by one

New From Heckbender

Logical Fallacy # 13 - The Gambler's Fallacy

The gambler's fallacy, also known as the Monte Carlo fallacy or the fallacy of the maturity of chances, is the mistaken belief that if something happens more frequently than normal during some period, then it will happen less frequently in the future; likewise, if something happens less frequently than normal during some period, then it will happen more frequently in the future (presumably as a means of balancing nature). In situations where what is being observed is truly random (i.e. independent trials of a random process), this belief, though appealing to the human mind, is false. This fallacy can arise in many practical situations although it is most strongly associated with gambling where such mistakes are common among players.

Today's WTF

Idaho.  (That's it - I've got nuthin' else cuz there's just nuthin' else to get.

Watch this clip and then tell me there's anything anybody can say to make sense of what's going on up in here.



You might be able to make one point:  Gov Butch "insisted" on including the Wacko Biker and the Old Bible Sage, and maybe he did that to try to show people he's inclusive and not threatened by out-lying opinion, but - seriously, I mean...just...holy fuck, Idaho.

It's Just Business

Old White Dicks

WARNING - NSFW - WARNING

John Oliver is stretching the envelope:

The Adventures Of Voteman

The Danes are getting pretty insistent on the whole Get-Off-Your-Ass-And-Go-Vote thing.



hat tip = Democratic Underground

A Prediction

Repubs continue trying to spin Benghazi into something more than the standard-issue mundane little fuck up that happens in big organizations every day.  This one happened to get 4 of us killed in rather gruesome fashion - and of course that really sucks and I wish we could figure out how to keep that shit from going down - but since when did Americans getting killed in service to their country become so worrisome to Republicans?  They love that shit.

Anyway, the point here is not about making trouble for Obama and that should be obvious to everybody outside of the Rube Demographic - the 25% of the GOP's voter base who'll swallow any dick the RNC waves in their face.

They'll do everything they can do to keep it all simmering; and I suspect they'll go on fishing for anything that Winger Media can use to fan the flames during the Mid-Terms, but the strategy is to make trouble for whoever the Dems run in 2016, and the tag line will be a redux from 2000 - "aren't you tired of all the scandal?"

They're betting on Hillary getting that Dem nomination, and since they're taking some real hits on their Do-Nothing-Block-Everything-Stall-For-Time-So-We-Can-Go-On-Doing-Nothing approach to "governance", recalling "The Scandal Fatigue" is about all they've got.

You know I'm right.

One From The Rude One

This is a guy after my own heart:

 5/12/2014

GOP Senator Marco Rubio Is a Frighteningly Stupid Man Who Thinks He's Ready to Be President

One-time Savior of the Republican Party, Senator Marco Rubio, he of the muy beneficial Cuban background (although, you know, Hispanics aren't idiots - believe it or not, they can tell a Mexican from a Puerto Rican from a Cuban), he of the parched lips, he of the allegedly once-reasonable side of the GOP, thinks he's all grown up and ready to be president of these here United States. Oh, sure, he was a bit coy during his Sunday interview, saying that his party of lunatics, whores, and lepers is just filled to the brim with potential candidates. But, yeah, he's ready.

And how can you tell he's ready? Because Marco Rubio talked about complex issues like a brain-damaged Twitchy commenter. "I think a president has to have a clear vision of where the country needs to go and clear ideas about how to get it there," he told ABC combover Jonathan Karl. And part of his clear vision is that you can go fuck yourself with your climate change.


When Karl asked him about it on Sunday, Rubio answered, "I don’t agree with the notion that some are putting out there, including scientists, that somehow, there are actions we can take today that would actually have an impact on what’s happening in our climate." Here's the fuckin' deal: unless you are a scientist and you have slam-dunk evidence in your hand, you don't get to disagree with the "notion" that nearly every climate scientist is wrong. It's like when a fan thinks he can tell the coaches of a pro football team what plays to run by screaming at them from the stands. You know, Senator, a law degree from the University of Miami entitles you to a lot of things. Ignorantly questioning climatologists with statements like "I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it" is not one of them. "These scientists" will kick your ass all over your soon-to-be drowned state.


But let's put aside the usual blah-blah-blah climate change denialism. We're pretty much fucked there, and we're not gonna do a goddamned thing about it until we're having Road Warrior-esque drinking water battles. (*)


Instead, have a read of Rubio's erudite statements on how Democrats want to keep people working at Burger King: "I want people to look at the Republican Party as the party that shows them the way to a new American century versus a Democratic Party that shows us how this is the new normal and we just have to get used to it, that the cashier at Burger King will always be a cashier, and all he or she can hope for is an increase in the minimum wage...And what we say is: No, the cashier at Burger King might be a cashier today, but he or she will be a manager tomorrow, and maybe they're paying for school so she can be a doctor in 10 years."


In order to understand that mindbogglingly stupid paragraph, picture this: The skeleton of Ayn Rand has Marco Rubio sitting on her lap. She's got her bony hand up his ass, operating his mouth like the meat puppet he is. Got it?


What is the magical path by which that Burger King worker becomes a doctor, something that is totally within the realm of possibility? So let's use our brain TVs and imagine that Burger King worker. Let's call her "Claudette." Claudette maybe has her high school diploma, so let's say she's around 20. Chances are that, as a full-time worker at Burger King, she'll make somewhere around $7.40 an hour. Even after working a second job, she might make under $15,000 a year with no benefits. If you can imagine someone like that, she might inform you that, after three years at BK, "I still live at home with my mother and try to go to school on the side. I do dream of something more, but it's really hard to get jobs right now."


Oh, wait. We don't have to imagine Claudette because she's a totally fucking real Burger King employee.


How the fuck is she becoming a doctor, Senator Rubio? Only through the government helping through programs like student loans, health care, and, yes, a higher minimum wage so that she can actually save something and not just exist to serve your kids Whopper, Jrs. And Claudette's a best case scenario (other than middle class kids in high school, the GOP fantasy minimum wage workers). What if she had kids? A sick parent? No place to live? That's where government is supposed to step up and says, "Hey, you wanna be a doctor? Let us help you try to achieve that dream." Not "It's your fault you can't make more than $7.40 an hour after 3 years at Burger King."


Show us the way to the "new American century"? Motherfucker, it's 2014, not 2000. We're in the century, the real century. Deal with what's happening, to the climate, to the people, now, not in some fake future constructed in the cash-stuffed offices of think tanks and SuperPACs.

(* from Raw Story)

By the end of this century, billions are likely to be gripped by water stress and the stuff of life could be an unseen driver of conflict.

So say hydrologists who forecast that on present trends, freshwater faces a double crunch -- from a population explosion, which will drive up demand for food and energy, and the impact of climate change.

--and--

"Climate change can alter the availability of water and therefore threaten water security."

Already today, around 768 million people do not have access to a safe, reliable source of water and 2.5 billion do not have decent sanitation. Around a fifth of the world's aquifers are depleted.

Lost In The Noise

So, how come you sign all those petitions and you try to send money to 37 different organizations for 162 different campaigns and/or people and/or issues and/or causes, but nothing ever really gets done; and it always seems like the Congress Critters you're bombarding with all of this "input" send you "replies" that say practically nothing about anything you've been trying to get across to them?



Could somebody please explain to me why we're lagging behind places like Finland and Brazil, when we're talking about the high-tech tools that we fucking invented!?!

Here's the POPVOX website cited in the podcast.

The Illusion Of Asymmetric Insight

The Misconception: You celebrate diversity and respect others’ points of view.

The Truth: You are driven to create and form groups and then believe others are wrong just because they are others.





Well we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and
Show ourselves
When everyone has gone
Some are satin some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They're the faces of the stranger
But we love to try them on

Well we all fall in love
But we disregard the danger
Though we share so many secrets
There are some we never tell
Why were you so surprised
That you never saw the stranger
Did you ever let your lover see
The stranger in yourself?

Don't be afraid to try again
Everyone goes south
Every now and then
You've done it, why can't
Someone else?
You should know by now
You've been there yourself

Once I used to believe
I was such a great romancer
Then I came home to a woman
That I could not recognize
When I pressed her for a reason
She refused to even answer
It was then I felt the stranger
Kick me right between the eyes

Well we all fall in love
But we disregard the danger
Though we share so many secrets
There are some we never tell
Why were you so surprised
That you never saw the stranger
Did you ever let your lover see
The stranger in yourself?

Don't be afraid to try again
Everyone goes south
Every now and then
You've done it why can't
Someone else?
You should know by now
You've been there yourself

You may never understand
How the stranger is inspired
But he isn't always evil
And he is not always wrong
Though you drown in good intentions
You will never quench the fire
You'll give in to your desire
When the stranger comes along.

God Love The Onion

Crushing On Elizabeth

From truthout.com:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) introduced a bill addressing two of her top legislative priorities: The crushing burden of student debt and tax loopholes that allow the wealthiest Americans to shell out a smaller share of their incomes than do many of those in the middle class. The measure would allow people who took out student loans at a higher rate than they could get today to refinance their debt the same way one might refinance a home mortgage. It would also give people with high-interest private loans to roll them over into the Federal Direct Loan program.

The measure would cut into the government’s revenues, and Warren would make up that shortfall by implementing the “Buffett Rule,” which would raise taxes on those making $1 million or more in income.

Seriously, I wanna have babies with that woman.

Today's Pix

Cuz It's Hard To See

An awful lot of people came to love Archie Bunker because the perverse twist in American TV Culture is that sometimes the characters meant to be the Negative Exemplars morph into "the guys telling the real truth" - the ones who're just speaking from their hearts, ignoring the imposition of Political Correctness blah blah blah.  They're supposed to show the deep dark id of the lower brain, but somehow way too many of us mistake it for what I think is a pretty fucked up version of child-like innocence.



If I'm a racist asshole, then I'm a racist asshole.  And if I don't know I'm a racist asshole, then it just means I have some work to do; particularly on my Self Awareness.  It doesn't mean it's OK to say whatever stoopid thing that pops into my skull just because I don't know it's a stoopid thing to say.  AND, it doesn't mean I get to go on choosing to remain stoopid.

Do The Right Thing

hat tip = Addicting Info

Happy Day, You Muthuhs

Kickstart For MayDay SuperPAC

Last month, I posted a bit from Think Progress about how Average Nobodies like you and me get dicked around or flat-out ignored because we don't have an effective lobbying effort in place.

So, then along comes Lawrence Lessig, fronting for an idea that's basically fighting fire with fire.  We gotta do something, and this is as good as anything else I can think of - which usually includes throwing bricks thru their windows and setting fire to cars and shit.



Go here to make a pledge

Meanwhile, Back At The Real World

Pretty nifty website from Da Gubmint - National Climate Assessment

On The Draft

Just a quick side note:
Football is my all-time favorite thing, and I'm trying hard to stay with it, but it's really not good when the run-up to the draft looks just like the Emmys or the red carpet bullshit on Oscar night.

I hate thinking about it, but the time may be coming when I just hafta to walk away.  We'll see what happens with the head-injury thing, and the long-term care for ex-pros, and especially how the teams and the league react once Michael Sam gets taken.

Imagine That

Pew Research has found that 55% of Russians think it's unfortunate that the Soviet Empire is gone.

55%

Most Russians think they'd rather return to theirs lives under "communism" than keep things the way they are now under Putin and the new Russian aristocracy.

Is Our Children Learning?

Yes - they're learning how to take the shortcuts necessary to get the money without having to do the work, which is almost exactly what the Law of Unintended Consequences is all about, which is in full flower when it comes to the straightup bullshit that so many people like to call "School Reform".

Here's a new site I stumbled upon today: CURMUDGUCATION

And here's a full post that lays it all out:

Since the president has declared this week National Charter School Appreciation & General Ain't Charters Swell Week, you are probably thinking, "How can I be part of the charter school excitement?"

In the past, many charters were launched that focused solidly on providing unique and exciting educational experiences for their communities. These schools were innovative. These schools were connected to their communities. These schools were icing on the public school system cake. And these schools were run by chumps. There's only one question you need to answer to gauge the success of your charter school -- am I making money.

Here's how to properly cash in on the charter school movement.

Diversify!
Not the school -- your portfolio. Set up multiple companies. Create a holding company that owns the building, and charge the school rent and facilities fees. Create a school management company, and hire yourself to run your school. Form your own custodial contracting company. Write your own textbooks, and then sell them to yourself. Buy a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter and set yourself up as a lunch concession with ten dollar sandwiches.

Don't Overlook the Obvious
"Non-profit" just means "not wasting money by throwing it away on stockholders." Taking money hand over fist that you can't call profit? Just put it all in a big wheelbarrow and pay it to yourself as a salary. There's no legal limit to what you can be paid as the charter school operator. The only limits to your salary are the limits set by your own sense of shame. If you have no shame, then ka-ching, my friend. Ka. Ching.

Ain't Too Proud To Beg
Have a fundraiser. When you wave schools and children at people, they fork over money like crazy, whether you actually need it or not. The only way it could work any better would be if you found a way to work in the American flag and puppies.

Students Are Marketing Tools
Students have a job at your charter, and that's to make your charter look good and marketable. If they won't do the job, fire them. If they aren't for sure going to graduate, fire them before senior year (100 percent graduation rate makes great ad copy). If they are going to create bad press for disciplinary reasons, fire them.

Students Are Also The Revenue Stream
The other function of students is to bring money in while not costing any more than is absolutely necessary. Never take students with special needs (unless you can use them to make the school look good without incurring extra costs). If a student will require extra disciplinary or academic intervention, fire him.

Always remember, however, that students need to be fired during Firing Season -- late enough to hold onto the money they bring, but early enough that they won't hurt your numbers.

Only Use McTeachers
Personnel costs will eat up your revenue. Make sure your teachers are young, cheap, and easily replaced. Remember -- with the proper programs in a box, teaching requires no more training and expertise than bagging up an order of fries. Why pay New Cadillac wages when all you need are Used Yugos. It should go without saying, but they should never, ever be allowed to organize. Keep them too demoralized to cause trouble, and if someone insists on causing trouble, fire her. Pro tip: TFA can be a great source of people who don't even want to be teachers and will gladly take themselves out of your way.

Remember -- You Are A Public School
You are entitled to public money, public resources, public buildings, public anything you can get them to give you. Never pay a cost out of your pocket when you can get the taxpayers to foot the bill. You also want to accent the "public" in your marketing, as it helps reduce parents' reluctance to screw over the actual public schools.

Remember -- You Are A Private School
Never let anybody see your financials, ever. This is your business, and nobody -- especially not the taxpayers who pay you -- is entitled to know anything about how you run it. "Transparency" is a dirty, dirty word.

In general, rules are for chumps. Make sure you are only playing by the ones that best serve your ROI.

Make the Right Friends
It's true that not everybody can afford to buy, say, an entire legislature or the governor of a state, but even outside of New York, it's possible to use the giant pile of money you've accumulated to help important people understand what a great public service you're performing.

We've come a long way from the days when charter school operators made the mistake of thinking that their schools should focus on educating young men and women. In Modern Times, we better understand that a well-run charter operation can contribute to an important job -- the business of taking money away from undeserving taxpayers and putting it in the hands of the deserving rich. By focusing on the One True Function of charter schools -- making money -- you can develop a robust business that will make it possible for you to send your own children to real private schools that provide the kind of education that, thank goodness, you will never try to incorporate into your own charter operation.

Logical Fallacy #12 - Ambiguity

Today's Pix

Today's Keith

The last segment; the winner for tonite; this is why I miss Olbermann, and why we need to remember that we need guys who'll step up and do this.

Stating The Obvious

Because sometimes, ya just gotta say it straight out.

From No More Mister Nice Blog:

This study has been conducted five times since 1971. The percentage of reporters identifying as Democrats has dropped, too, though not as much, while the number calling themselves independents has increased. Yes, the right thinks this proves the existence of media bias.

You know what could really turn this around? Imagine if right-wing kids could watch conservative journalists practice in real time. What if they could actually see journalistic conservatism modeled for them that way? How different everything would be if -- I know this sounds crazy -- a conservative channel were the highest-rated news source on American television. Yeah, I know -- crazy, right?

The existence of Fox News, and the fact that it's extremely successful in the ratings, should be an inspiration to right-wing wannabe journalists eveywhere. It isn't, though, for two reasons:

First, nobody at Fox News actually practices journalism. Nobody digs out stories, finds scoops, offers depth and perspective and background on what's happening in America and the world. It's all advocacy. There's no reporting.

Second, the Fox party line is that journalism is evil, even though, ostensibly, Fox is in the business of journalism. If the central news source in the right-wing universe tells its audience every day that the news business is in league with the devil, well, you can't be surprised when righty kids don't want to turn Satanic.

And my first reaction is, "well duh".  But if it's really all that obvious, then more people would be completely hip to the scam of Wingnut Media, and we wouldn't have anywhere near the problems with Deliberate Ignorance that we have in this joint right now, and we'd also have something that more closely resembles a Functioning Government.

Today's Eternal Sadness

My "Eternal Sadness" posts have always been about people dying because of our incredibly stoopid refusal to rein in the activities of the Ammosexuals among us who can't seem to wean themselves from the NRA's gun porn.

But I think I'll expand the definition a bit, and start including newsy items that indicate to me that there's something really shitty going on - the cause of which we can be pretty sure of - that we prob'ly won't; or can't; or just plain don't, do anything about.

So here's today's fer-instance:

"The rate of earthquakes increased dramatically in March and April," Williams said. "That alerted us to examine this further and put out this advisory statement."

While Oklahoma's buildings can withstand light earthquakes, the damage from a magnitude-5 temblor could be widespread. Oklahoma's last major earthquake was in November 2011, when a magnitude-5.6 earthquake centered near Prague, Oklahoma, destroyed 14 homes and injured at least two people.

"Building owners and government officials should have a special concern for older, unreinforced brick structures, which are vulnerable to serious damage during sufficient shaking," Bill Leith, a USGS senior science adviser for earthquakes and geologic hazards, said in the joint statement.

While scientists haven't ruled out natural causes for the increase, many researchers suspect the deep injection wells used for the disposal of fracking wastewater could be causing the earthquake activity. Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is a method of extracting oil and gas by cracking open underground rock.

Ongoing studies have found a link between Oklahoma's high-volume wastewater injection wells and regions with an uptick in earthquakes.

It doesn't seem to me that it could be much clearer.  Ya start pumping jillions of gallons of waste water into the ground, and fairly soon after that, you get a humongous increase in both the numbers of earthquakes and in the magnitude of those quakes.

I remember a time in the mid-60s when the Army was pumping waste water into at least one deep well under The Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, and gosh, suddenly we were having earthquakes in a region where earthquakes that could actually be felt by normal humans were practically unheard of (kinda like Okla-fuckin'-homa).  They stopped pumping that shit into the ground, and gosh again, no more earthquakes.

The difference now of course is that it's about energy - we can't stop suckin' that fossil tit because we think we're on the verge of dominating the world again - this time with our Exceptionally American Methane Dick and the awesomeness of our trusty sidekick, Canuckistan Tar Sands.

But there's another big difference now as well - we don't believe there's anything we can do about it because Big Energy and their Coin-Operated Politicians are in charge and we got nuthin' to say about nuthin'.

So, a few questions:

With all this nifty new gas and oil hitting the market, when can we expect the gods of the free market to start pushing down on the price?

Since we're prob'ly not going to do anything to stop the waste water disposal; and since we can expect more and bigger earthquakes because of it, who gets to pick up the tab for digging the mangled corpses out of the rubble?  Who gets to pay for rebuilding the towns and the cities?  Who gets to take care of the broken survivors?  Can we count on the oil companies for any of that?

We get to pay for it all - at the pump; on our monthly utilities; tax breaks and straight up subsidies for oil and gas companies; home insurance; disaster relief; and and and.

We pay for it on the front end, and in the middle, and afterwards too.  We also get to pay in terms of blood thru the sacrifice of our friends and family members - not just people in uniform fighting and bleeding and dying in desert shit holes; now we get to watch ordinary people fighting and bleeding and dying here at home as well.

They're demanding my permission to fuck me in the ass; I hafta bring my own lube; and then they expect me to give 'em cab fare home.

No soul and no honor.