“Now that the president and the Democrats in Congress have set a fall deadline for legislative action on universal police protection for all Americans, battle lines are being drawn on Capitol Hill. On the right are conservative defenders of America’s system of for-profit, private mercenaries. The Democrats are divided among progressives who favor universal, publicly funded police who would protect all citizens against crime, and moderate and conservative Democrats who argue that any citizen security reform should leave America’s existing system of soldiers for hire in place.”
Michael Lind, Debate over government-funded police protection heats up
By using simple substitution one can see how weird the healthcare debate is.
(via absurdlakefront: notthatkindagay)
(via asprettyasasong)
Well, it's nice to know God has some common sense.
Joe the Plumber won’t run for office: “You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, ‘No.’”
“Look closely at the way women are treated, says Valerie Hudson. Look at the nonchalance with which a nation’s men beat their wives, or the dismissive way a country condones genital mutilation. These are clues, she says, about that nation’s likelihood of waging war… .
It has been widely assumed that other factors are more predictive of whether a nation might be unstable or aggressive. The three most likely candidates were poverty levels, lack of democracy, and the nation’s adherence to Islamic values.
But the WomanStats project offers a fourth predictor of a nation’s instability. Violence against women (VAW, in the shorthand of WomanStats) trumps the other explanations, proving to be three times more predictive of a nation’s instability than whether a country is Islamic, and one-and-a-half times more predictive than whether a country is undemocratic, Hudson says.” concurring opinions (h/t dave) (via abbyjean) (via clothedinsky)
It has been widely assumed that other factors are more predictive of whether a nation might be unstable or aggressive. The three most likely candidates were poverty levels, lack of democracy, and the nation’s adherence to Islamic values.
But the WomanStats project offers a fourth predictor of a nation’s instability. Violence against women (VAW, in the shorthand of WomanStats) trumps the other explanations, proving to be three times more predictive of a nation’s instability than whether a country is Islamic, and one-and-a-half times more predictive than whether a country is undemocratic, Hudson says.” concurring opinions (h/t dave) (via abbyjean) (via clothedinsky)
Learn a New Language Shower Curtain: choose from French, German or Italian. I do love educational shower curtains. I used to have a world map.
“Beck and his guests at the opening of his show all agreed that the Nazis were not rightwing but a bunch of leftwingers (like Obama and Nancy Pelosi). That is pretty weird when you think about how that tidbit of agitprop must disappoint a lot of white supremacists. All those white guys who hail Hitler and the Nazis because they were so good at kicking the crap out of Socialists, labor unionists, Communists and Soviets, women who didn’t know their place, and even “degenerate” Dadaists and surrealists, and don’t forget the Jews. What self-respecting Neo-Nazi or Ku Klux Klansman (or good ol’ boy at the Council of Conservative Citizens) wants to hear that Hitler was like Michael Moore and Al Franken? But it doesn’t matter because Beck is not appealing to his viewers’ brains but to their guts. And all those “isms” sound the same to ‘em anyhow.”
Joseph A. Palermo: Glenn Beck Spins the Holocaust Museum Shooting
The decline of MySpace and Bebo
“Once industry darlings, MySpace and Bebo are falling behind in the world of social networking. Charles Arthur and Jemima Kiss examine their decline - and rivals’ rise”
“Can you imagine what a craven, bumlicking ass-goblin you’d have to be to get a job working for the Wall Street Journal, not mention up front that you used to be a Goldman, Sachs managing director, and then write a lengthy article calling your former boss a “national hero”– in the middle of a sweeping financial crisis, one in which half the world is in a panic and the unemployment rate just hit a 25-year high? Behavior like this, you usually don’t see it outside prison trusties who spend their evenings shining the guards’ boots. I can’t even think of a political press secretary who would sink that low. Hank Paulson, a hero? Are you fucking kidding us? Exactly what part of Paulson’s record is heroic, Evan? The part where he called up SEC director William Donaldson in 2004 and quietly arranged to get the state to drop capital requirements for the country’s top five investment banks? You remember that business, right, Evan? Your hero Paulson met with Donaldson and got the rules changed so that Goldman and four other banks no longer had to abide by the old restrictions that forced banks to actually have a dollar or two on hand for every ten or so they lent out. After that, it was party time! Bear Stearns in just a few years had a debt-to-equity ration of 33-1! Lehman’s went to 32-1. By an amazing coincidence, both of these companies exploded just a few years after that meeting, and all of the rest of us, Evan, ended up footing the bill, thanks to a state-sponsored rescue of Bear and a much larger massive bailout of Wall Street in general, necessitated in large part by the damage caused by the chaos surrounding Lehman’s collapse.”
“‘It’s time to enshrine Hank Paulson as national hero’… what the fuck?” by Matt Taibbi, The Smirking Chimp
Hand silkscreened giant condom pillow with giant fabric condom
“Nothing like the image of a condom 100 times its actual size lying on your bed to remind you to wrap before it up before you get it on!
This pillow measures about 18” by 17” and both sides are lovingly hand-pulled silkscreens printed on white poplin fabric by yours truly. The ‘happy condom’ pattern printed on the inside is also drawn by me, burned onto a screen and hand printed. I don’t use any machines. All I have is a screen, a squeegee and a backing board, and PROUD OF IT! i do not test print on fabric- I test print on newsprint and reuse it many many times, this way I minimize waste.
There are two pockets- one on either side. The smaller one is used to hold actual condoms, and the larger one holds an oversized fabric condom. And it’s real stretchy too!”
(via LittleElk’s Etsy Shop)
Six Stages of Technological Grief. Yep, this about sums it up. (Click to biggify.) (via www.notquitewrong.com)
Aw. (via katiecupcake)
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