Stuff to Know 13 September

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Goldberg
Date: Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 2:52 PM


THIS LOOKS LIKE A BLOG!!!

---------- Forwarded message ----------

1.  David Brooks frequently puts forth a column about the troubles we face that concern our erosion of character and values.  Here he talks about young adults who seem lost:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/opinion/if-it-feels-right.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

2.  This NY Times editorial explains that Life Without Parole should only be used as an alternative for the Death Penalty.  In my opinion the Death Penalty is more expensive to carry out that life imprisonment and is cruel.  I wish I could say that it is cruel and unusual, but if you hang around Texas and Georgia too long, it becomes almost casually usual:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/opinion/the-misuse-of-life-without-parole.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

3.  In case you missed the GOP debate last night, don't feel bad - so did I.  I wasn't actually planning to miss it, I just something else to do, read and finish my book for class the next day.  According to this column by the Washington Post, it looks like it was a book review by the authors - Perry on Romny's and Romney on Perry's.  Looks like the most prolific author - the Newt, did not get any books mentioned.  Apparently nothing really happened at their "debate":

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rick-perry-mitt-romney-clash-on-social-security/2011/09/12/gIQAyyM9NK_print.html

4.  The definition of the Republican Party was the main issue in the debate, not the side issue of Social Security.  When they start slamming each other about who is a real republicant and who is too extreme, then these debates will be interesting.  Not sure where it is all going to go, but I think Romney will win it, and then the Tea Party will get pissed and think about it (forgetting the Dixiecrat's last century debacle), and run their own gig or take their bags and sit it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/us/politics/13repubs.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2&pagewanted=print

5.  The tent for this circus is the wrong size.  It is the participants (the clowns, the sword swallowers, fire eaters, human canon balls, and bearded ladies) who run out of seats for the spectators.  It's a tough room to work this crowd:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-paul-911-boos-20110912,0,341511,print.story

6.  50 years ago, it was Woolworth's lunch counters that were the scene of social unrest and discrimination.  Fast forward to the upscale cocktail bars of Atlanta today, different story, and different reason, but the same discrimination:

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/racial-bias-trial-bought-1174721.html?printArticle=y

7.  This editorial from the LA Times concerns the renaming of High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Whatever it is called, its a nutritional and digestive problem.  With all of the news and revelations that the product is bad for you, the system of capitalism for the manufacture is to CHANGE THE NAME.  It's still the same old crap, but maybe you won't know it by a new name.  Value Jet changed to Air Tran, Blackwater changed to XeServices, Anderson Consulting changed to Accenture, Marafuku changed to Nintendo (wonder why?).  So, in the case of the HFCS, instead of making a healthy product, just foist off the same poison under a different name:

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/racial-bias-trial-bought-1174721.html?printArticle=y


--

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye."
       -- Miss Piggy

"Behind the phony tinsel of Hollywood lies the real tinsel."
       -- Oscar Levant

"That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong."
       -- William J. H. Boetcker

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."
       -- Edgar Allan Poe