Planned Parenthood

Circus America

Lindsay Lohan is in court again, and of course, there's lots of press coverage to make sure we all have a good close look and a great chance to understand the ins and outs of the issues and nuances of Lindsay's difficulties.

Meanwhile, Bradley Manning is stripped naked every night; he's "interrogated" every day; he's allowed one phone call and to send one letter per month; he rarely gets to talk with his lawyer; and the Press Poodles do nothing, see nothing, report nothing.

This is what we call justice?

Late Winter

Gray and rainy-looking. Colder than it oughta be.

Worth Remembering

A basic rule:
Every snarly complicated problem has a solution which is simple and elegant and wrong.

Common Sense Correlative:
It didn't suddenly get fucked up yesterday, and it's not going to get unfucked by tomorrow.

Infrastructure Issues

Small-c conservatives do in fact get it.  We did not build roads because we're a great nation - we became a great nation because we built roads.

From a report out of The New America Foundation:

Under-investing in infrastructure carries costs for households, businesses, and the government by increasing maintenance, wasting time, and allocating resources inefficiently.  These costs reduce efficiency and impede economic growth.

Ya want your government to act more like a business?  Then insist on business-savvy investment in things like Physical Plant and Human Resource Development for starters.

Teachers' Pay (updated)

Here's a look at what teachers get paid in various countries.  And, gosh, there seems to be a connection between higher pay and better school performance.  Hoodathunkit.

This chart can be easily (mis)interpreted to mean that we're paying more for teachers and getting less in return.  The problem with that assumption is that Finns have (on average) about $450/month more disposable income than the average here in the US.  And their bennies are better, primarily because their healthcare coverage costs a lot less.  Surprise, surprise.

The oddest thing tho' is that generally, the cost of living is quite a bit higher in FInland vs the US except for some very important items - Mortage Rates & Utilities - but they're eatin' our lunch on education. 

I wonder if we could possibly learn something from Finland.  They seem to be doing something very very right.

Nobody Tells Us

I was in a running battle on FaceBook last week with an old high school buddy who insists that Gubmint Workers are greedy and that the real problem is that their retirement bennies are causing the states to go broke.

When I'm talking politics or anything else, my training tells me to listen, process, deconstruct, reconstruct and then rebut.  I'm learning (gradually) that the talking points from Right Radicals need to be dismissed loudly as soon as they fall outa their little pie holes - no matter what it is, I'm trying to retrain myself to demand verification and backup.

Unfortunately, as Mr Churchill said, "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to gets its pants on."

From McClatchy:

A close look at state and local pension plans across the nation, and a comparison of them to those in the private sector, reveals a more complicated story. However, the short answer is that there's simply no evidence that state pensions are the current burden to public finances that their critics claim.

The Beauty Of Ugly Things

From J Henry Fair via Gerald Peters Gallery in NYC

Great photos and some obvious talent at work, but I get the feeling that the net effect is to give us another way to rationalize the destruction of our habitat.

Refrigerant Manufacturing Waste

Hog Fecal Waste Lagoon

BP Oil Spill - Deep Water Horizon

Coal Ash Pond

Stupid Republican Tricks

I just copied and pasted all these in directly from NYT.  The 3rd one down is the one that really chaps my ass.  I was ridiculously lucky in my career, and got to work with a bunch of skilled and committed people who busted their humps night and day to make the world a little safer for humans.  This feels like somebody wants to throw all that away.

I plan on making some calls, to see if there's any kind of bright side to this, and put up an update later.

The Budget Fight Continues

House Republicans’ efforts to slash federal spending could derail the economic recovery and would not address the real sources of budget deficits.

February 27, 2011OPINIONEDITORIAL

Slashing Community Service

House Republicans voted to cut programs that encourage Americans to serve their communities and the country. A look at the possible fallout.

March 2, 2011OPINIONEDITORIAL

Cutting Poison Control

House Republicans’ request to cut nearly all the money for poison control centers perfectly illustrates the thoughtlessness of their austerity bill.

March 4, 2011OPINIONEDITORIAL

On Climate, Who Needs the Facts?

When it comes to preventing and mitigating the effects of global warming, among House Republicans, politics trumps science.

March 5, 2011OPINIONEDITORIAL

Government Mule

Louis CK

Takes some getting used to, and ya gotta stay with it to get where he's trying to go.

Wish You Were Here

The Tribe Explained - update

Here's a bit more on Agnotology from Wired Magazine.

"People always assume that if someone doesn't know something, it's because they haven't paid attention or haven't yet figured it out," Proctor says. "But ignorance also comes from people literally suppressing truth—or drowning it out—or trying to make it so confusing that people stop caring about what's true and what's not."

I get into arguments all the time.  Usually online, but sometimes, I just can't let some random comment by some random acquaintance slide by unchallenged.  I also have a few drinkin' buddies and when we get together, it's time to play "What's Yer Fuckin' Problem?".  It gets pretty heated on occasion, but we're still good friends and at least nobody's ever hit anybody.  I've been trying to work on tempering my more aggressive impulses.  I wouldn't say that I have a short fuse for the most part, but there are definitely some things that'll set me off, and this idea of WIllful Ignorance is at the heart of the matter for me.

I'm always looking for obscure (or just different) and seemingly unrelated concepts; trying to find ways of mixing ideas together to come up with something new or at least something that pushes me forward in my own development in whatever small way is possible.  I guess I tho't everybody did the same, and I should hope that most still do, but it's pretty apparent that an awful lot of folks don't.

Anyway, my new synthesis has to do with putting Agnotology together with the ice cream scene from Thank You For Smoking.  I can argue with somebody who is impervious to the facts all I want, but I'm never going to change his mind.  So the point of the exercise is not to wear myself out on him, but to argue in a way that could influence whoever else might be listening.

The Tribe Explained

From David Roberts at Grist:

It's a numbingly familiar pattern in media coverage. The conservative movement that's been attacking climate science for 20 years has a storied history of demonstrable fabrications, distortions, personal attacks, and nothingburger faux-scandals -- not only on climate science, but going back to asbestos, ozone, leaded gasoline, tobacco, you name it. They don't follow the rigorous standards of professional science; they follow no intellectual or ethical standards whatsoever. Yet no matter how long their record of viciousness and farce, every time the skeptic blogosphere coughs up a new "ZOMG!" it's as though we start from zero again, like no one has a memory longer than five minutes.

He starts off talking about how "Climategate" has triggered 5 separate investigations, and all 5 have come back in total agreement that there's nothing there to get excited about.  Then he gets to the good stuff about how it doesn't matter what the facts are because The Tribe has already made its point, the Press Poodles have dutifully reported the bullshit contentions as if they actually mean something, and a few of us are left wondering if there might be something to the charges after all (kinda the point, y'know?).

So what really got me though is that this phenomenon of staying willfully ignorant has a name - Agnotology.

The lesson we've learned from climategate is simple. It's the same lesson taught by death panels, socialist government takeover, Sharia law, and Obama's birth certificate. To understand it we must turn to agnotology, the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt. (Hat tip to an excellent recent post on this by John Quiggen.)

I'm having trouble getting this post wrapped together so it can make the kind of sense to a reader that I think it does to me.  (I get a little too amped up when I learn something new like this)  Read the two pieces.

Wisconsin

There's a bunch of polling results coming out now, indicating Gov Walker is losing in the court of public opinion - most of them are running something like 60-40 against his attempt to bust the unions.

So here's what I'm wondering:  how long before his consultants tell him it's OK to claim victimhood at the hands of the big bad, all-powerful unions?  DumFux News has guys calling the protesters thugs, and the union workers freeloadin' losers.  It's gotta be getting close to the time they switch it around and try depicting the unions as the fat cats and the poor little ol' Guvner as besieged on all sides by the evil greedy proletarian commies.

Hey, Colorado

Feeling a little sentimental I guess.  One of the favorites I used to sing to the kids at bedtime.

The Cost Of War

From WaPo

Without once referring to his son's death, the general delivered a passionate and at times angry speech about the military's sacrifices and its troops' growing sense of isolation from society.

"Their struggle is your struggle," he told the ballroom crowd of former Marines and local business people. "If anyone thinks you can somehow thank them for their service, and not support the cause for which they fight - our country - these people are lying to themselves. . . . More important, they are slighting our warriors and mocking their commitment to this nation."

My first reaction is, "blow it out your ass, General."  I don't like that being my first reaction, but there it is.

There are lots of people losing their businesses, their jobs and their homes because when the military goes off to war, it leaves giant holes in local economies.  Do you think the people in towns like Fayetteville aren't aware of the cost?

Some dozens of people have been murdered by veterans returning with PTSD - a condition that is deliberately ignored by the military in many cases, with many service members being discharged and untreated for it;  many dozens of veterans have committed suicide.  Are the families of those dead soldiers and those murder victims somehow unaware of the cost of these wars, General?

And what about those of us who try to keep track of what's going on?  What about people who were against the wars in the first place, but who go right on paying their taxes, and waving their flags, and donating money to veterans' relief funds?  Every fucking day, General.

I can only imagine how lousy it must be for you to have had a son killed in a war you think nobody cares about.  And I pray every minute of every day that I never have to do more than imagine it.  But you're doing what you signed up to do, General Kelly.  So do it.  Or resign your commission and stop doing it.  But either way, stop whining about it.  And stop walking around with your chest all puffed up, trying to act like you're more important than what you claim to be fighting for.

The Turn Around

via Political Carnival:

Yes, it's class warfare alright.  It's the guy making $500k convincing the guy making 35 that the guy making 50 is fuckin' him over.

Classic.

The Take Away

St George of Carlin