March 2009
59 posts
9
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back. The only way to serenity.
Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell, trans.
Courtney Love Sued For Twitter Defamation →
Courtney, Courtney, Courtney. Just stay away from the keyboard. Better that way.
That said, I’m a bit dubious about any legal claim by someone capable of calling herself “Boudoir Queen,” apparently unironically.
The Brak Show →
The best episode ever: Goldfish. Remember: Three hams will certainly kill him.
Oy.
They seem to have blocked Tumblr at work. BOOOOOOOOOOOO.
M.T.A. Increases Fares and Cuts Services →
cosmicdancer:
via The New York Times:
The fare hikes on the subway and buses, including an increase in the base subway and bus fare to $2.50, from $2, will take effect on May 31.
Best part of the article:
Norman Siegel, a past and present candidate for the city’s public advocate and a longtime civil liberties lawyer, tried to portray the board as out of touch, asking the board, “I am curious...
“The world, despite its disasters, tragedies and villainies, can’t end...”
– From The World Behind the World: Living at the Ends of Time by Michael Meade
Could someone explain...
…the recent spate of shows featuring parents who, for reasons obscure to me, decided to have preposterous numbers of children (e.g., Jon and Kate Plus 8, 17 Kids and Counting, and the new one with a title that slips my mind at the moment but is something like “HEY, WE’VE GOT 12!! WE HAVE *12 KIDS*!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?” Ok, I exaggerate, but not by much)?
Maybe I’ve...
Your Money - A Layoff Survivor’s Duty to the Less... →
“One of the signature emotions of this particular recession, besides the populist rage that boiled over this week, is a bit of survivor’s guilt. After all, if you still have the same job or salary that you had a year ago, you’re among the lucky ones. With a different career move or two, you might have wound up among those whose household income has suffered a huge hit. You probably have...
Where's the Bailout for Publishing? →
“Like a lot of writers, I am wondering when Congress and the administration will propose a bailout for the publishing industry. Carnage is everywhere. Advances slashed, editors fired, publicity at subsistence levels, entire imprints vanished into thin air. Moreover, unlike some of the industries that the government, in its wisdom, has decided to subsidize, the publishing of books is crucial...
“Imagine for a moment that you’re a self-absorbed, selfish asshole. That all of...”
– NonyNony (via fuddmain)
“Adoption fucked up my head far worse than abortion. I’ve googled over the years...”
– On Living Pro-Lifers’ Choice for Women (via anthropophagous) (via clothedinsky)
The whole post from which the above quote is taken is moving and powerful, and very much worth reading in its entirety.
Beyond mad at AIG...time for action.
clairecmc:
There will be a letter sent to the CEO of AIG from most, if not all, of the Democratic Senators momentarily. This letter will demand that any bonuses be withheld or repaid immediately. The letter goes on to explain that we will proceed to recover the bonuses through taxation if AIG fails to recover this money for taxpayers. We state the obvious in the letter, bonuses should not...
Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the... →
Thought-provoking — and extremely sad — article. On its face, the article is about parents whose children die of hyperthermia when the parents inadvertently leave them in a car; the subtext is about how cruel we can be to each other and what provokes that cruelty. To wit:
“Humans, Hickling said, have a fundamental need to create and maintain a narrative for their lives in which...
“AIG’s arguments are absurd on their face. Had AIG gone into chapter 11...”
– Dear Robert Reich. I love you very much. Love, Me. (via girlinboyland)
Yep.
a good and timely reminder
thesmarttart:
abbyjean:
Appropriate and necessary use of the word rape: To describe what has happened to someone who has been forced or coerced into a sex act. Inappropriate and unnecessary use of the word rape: To describe what has “been done to you” by the IRS and/or US Government by requiring you to pay taxes. (shakesville)
Thank you, thank you, thank you, reblog.
Indeed.
I'm just saying.
The lady whose office is down the hall from mine tends to scurry around. I don’t know why she doesn’t simply walk like everyone else in this office, but she doesn’t. She scurries, and occasionally breaks into a run.
And she prints from websites. A lot. She does not, however, print several pages at a time and walk down the hall to get the batch when she’s finished. Instead,...
Defeating Temptation: 10 Questions to Ask Yourself... →
Fine article on how to fend off impulse buying. (via robot-heart)
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”
– John Kenneth Galbraith
A.I.G. Planning Huge Bonuses After $170 Billion... →
And here, yet another object lesson on a principle that no one seems to want to acknowledge: wealth generally has nothing whatsoever to do with merit. (via mudwerks)
Tumblr of the week →
sparklingpants:
Wait, maybe scanwiches was already my tumblr of the week? Whatever, STFU Marrieds deserves mention. Who ARE these smoochy woochy people? And how many of them will be divorced in the next two years?
Ok, I’m married, and even I find this stuff nauseating. Seriously, don’t click unless you haven’t eaten in the past couple hours. Ew.
“Jim Cramer isn’t an aberration. What he did and the excuses he offered are ones...”
– Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com (via vruz) (via retropolitics) (via thesmarttart)
BigLaw Associates "are overworked and underpaid"... →
“BigLaw was getting the BigBucks because General Counsels figured no one would ever blame them for losing a case if they paid top dollar. And what happened to BigLaw with the oodles of money and perks they were throwing around? A big-time contraction. Their clients, it seems, decided that in a Great Recession it might be wise to watch the bottom line, and shelling out piles of dough to...
Old People Tumblrs
fuddmain:
vb:
thenelsontwins:
I couldn’t agree more, these young pups make me want to stab myself in the neck.
yogisarah:
I’m following too many super young people on Tumblr and its making me feel old and kind of sleazy. Any suggestions of Tumblrs I should follow written by old people (that is, internet old people, meaning people who are 30+) would be much appreciated.
Why, just today I...
“The commentators on CNBC murmur about the Market as if it were the Island on...”
– CNBC Under Fire: Sticking Up for the Big Guy? (via think4yourself) (via freckledawesome)
Westboro Church protest meets students’ mocking →
“The students held a sign reading ‘Figs Doom Nations’ and planted themselves across the street from the WBC, drawing from a Biblical passage in which Jesus disparages a fig tree. ‘If you need scanty biblical evidence for anything, we’ve got it,’ said fourth-year Carmel Levy as he handed out flyers containing biblical citations that read: ‘Jesus rebuked the fig...
GOP Rep: “Our Goal Is To Bring Down Approval... →
“We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. “Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint…”
Well. Nice to...
“It’s disrespectful to the people who don’t have much to flaunt your wealth,”...”
– Even Well-off Consumers Aim to be Less Conspicuous
“J’aime la vérité même si elle est laide.”
– Matthieu Durocher (via rwatuny)
“In essence, Joiner proposed that people who kill themselves must meet two sets...”
– Why do some people kill themselves? - health - 25 February 2009 - New Scientist (via wreckandsalvage)
On Hoping Other People Blow It Part 2, Civil...
notthatkindagay:
catbus:
“I want Barack Obama to fail and I want to help ensure he does. If Barack Obama is successful in implementing his stated agenda, America will fail and the American dream will die for millions. We already know Barack Obama’s economic policy will fail, but it will hurt millions of hard working Americans. I will join the RedState Army of Activists and fight for...
Flight attendants getting fined because passengers... →
robot-heart:
The FAA can fine a flight attendant thousands of dollars if you bring an oversized carry-on onto the plane, if you listen to your iPod after you’ve specifically been told not to, or if you get up out of your seat when the fasten-seatbelt light is on. So if your flight attendant seems extra-bitchy when she tells you for the fourth time to turn off your cell phone or if she forces you...