Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Things to Know - 23 November



mike112311


1.  Thom Hartmann with the text and video of the news.  Easy:

http://www.truth-out.org/news-thom-hartmann-occupy-wall-street-bringing-down-big-banks-and-more/1321984652

2.  Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone on the shameless conduct by police in dealing with a non-violent group of Occupy protesters.  It is from events like this that the reconstitution of OWS will change the fabric of our future:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/uc-davis-pepper-spray-incident-reveals-weakness-up-top-20111122#ixzz1eSrFLnFe

3.  Here is the profile of a destructive member of the super committee who really had no intention of negotiating:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jon-kyls-search-and-destroy-mission/2011/11/22/gIQA5BZVmN_print.html

4.  For those of you who are interested, here is the collection of video and sound bites of the GeeOpie "debate" last night:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-national-security-debate-highlights/2011/11/22/gIQAcNDmmN_video.html?hpid=z2

5.  Oregon's governor has stopped killing people on death row.  See, it's easy.   It's more humane, and its a whole lot cheaper:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/11/oregon-governor-kitzhaber-executions-death-penalty.html

6.  Steve Lopez, no stranger to the down and out in Los Angeles (remember the "Soloist"?), explains how help is need for those at the zero percent level:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1123-lopez-home-20111123,0,2015386.column

7.  As has been said before, whenever Bozo PorkieGrinch blows out a bombastic blast, he is asking for trouble.  His comment on child labor laws will haunt him forevever:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-history-20111122,0,1667371,print.story

8.  Gregory Rodriguez is now contributing a piece about every 6 weeks.  This one on the illness that is a pallor over our nation is worth waiting for:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rodriguez-decline-20111121,0,2504277,print.column

9.  Thomas Friedman comes out BIG for Obama, but only if he follows Tommy's suggestions:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rodriguez-decline-20111121,0,2504277,print.column

10.  The writer of this column is a Senior at Pomona College, and I consider him to be extremely bright and articulate (he's in the Politics class that I audit).  He brings forward the anxiety that college students feel about the collapse of Wall Street, the dim light ahead in the future, and what this all means to him and all those in college today:
http://tsl.pomona.edu/articles/2011/11/18/opinions/793-fear-and-fretting-in-an-economic-crisis

--
Juan Matute


"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some
kind of federal program."
       -- George W.Bush (Nov. 2, 2000)
"As I grow older , I regret to say that a detestable habit of thinking seems to be getting a hold of me."
       -- H. Rider Haggard
"Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor."
       -- Robert Frost
"I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers."
       -- Mahatma Gandhi
"Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today."
       -- Herman Wouk


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Fwd: Things to Know - 22 November





1.  If the police actions against the Occupy movement was designed to snuff out the ideology, that is not happening.  If anything, the movement will come back even stronger.  Police action can only go so far.  It will eventually fail because the emotion to question the civility of our ways will prevail:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/9397

2.  This kind of story makes you wonder.  Corporations run the halls of most of our congressional legislators, so why not try and squeeze more out of the working stiffs by taking away their classification for overtime pay?:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/9403

3.  Civil disobedience has always been with us, as it is today, and in the future.  Our history is steeped in it.  This article invites you to understand the world of the protester who does his thing by standing still, holding a sign, and getting carted off in plastic cuffs by the police.   That's about all we ever see.  This article takes you beyond that, to the point of "post and forfeiture" whereby you pay $100 to just get all your stuff back and get released.   What happens if you want to speak to a judge and jury to plead your reasons for civil disobedience?  What would happen if thousands turned down the "post and forfeiture" junction and flooded the jails and courts?   Read on and consider what is involved, and what you need to be prepared for it:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/39741/

4.  Newt proposes getting rid of unionized janitors and "empowering" children to take the jobs, stating that child labor laws "are stupid".  He is either mentally unstable, or really trying to guarantee himself news coverage:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/gingrich-calls-child-labor-laws-truly-stupid/2011/11/21/gIQAFYKHiN_blog.html?hpid=z2

5.  Eugene Robinson offers his post mortem on the failure of finding any compromise the the super-dupers:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robinson-republican-obstinance-responsible-for-supercommittee-failure/2011/11/21/gIQAvTcXiN_print.html

6.  The NY Times also weighs in on the failure, and why the GeeOpie guys are at fault - Grover N. - your bad:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/opinion/the-deficit-supercommittee-collapses.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

7.  This, from the cutting-edge Santa Monica News Bureau - Fox viewers are not so smart:
http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/11/21/fairleigh_dickinson_publicmind_poll_shows_fox_news_viewers_less_informed_on_major_news_stories.html

8.  170 economists from colleges and universities have signed on to a petition in support of the Occupy Movement.  I wonder if Newt is going to tell them all to get a job after they take a bath?:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/170-economists-sign-statement-support

9.  A Republican (notice that I can actually use that term), muses about the abysmal condition of his party, and wonders where and when it went nutso:

http://nymag.com/print/?/news/politics/conservatives-david-frum-2011-11/


--
Juan Matute

"One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time."
       -- Robert Kennedy
"Art is science made clear."
       -- Jean Cocteau
"Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that's not true. Some smaller countries are neutral."
       -- Robert Orben
"Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation."
       -- Judith Martin
"I am no more humble than my talents require."
       -- Oscar Levant


Friday, November 18, 2011

Things to Know - 18 November


Porkie - you should have stayed at #6 with 4%.  Now, the media, which you have

characteristically and arrogantly aliented will be unrelenting.


1.  Having a need to take a break from OWS, let's go back to the days of Watergate, Nixon and Hoover (J. Edgar).  I gotta go see the move:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/9130

2.  Not exactly a direct reference to OWS, but a collateral problem of a lack of public facilities, and an analysis of the situation and an observation of the universal response:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/39681/

3.  The Washington Post is doing its duty to the public with this article.  Newt is wallowing in lobby money from the folks at Big Pharma. The self-professed historian is nothing but a snake oil salesman's charmer.  No scruples.  No values.  Just a belly full of hot air and a briefcase full of bombastic adverbs and adjectives.  A real P.O.S:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gingrich-think-tank-collected-millions-from-health-care-industry/2011/11/16/gIQAcd72VN_print.html

4.  David Brooks writes about the problems besetting the Eurozone - European Union, or whatever you want to call it.  The great European experiment is an economic work in progress.   That's what it is intention was in the beginning, but what is giving it fits is the sociology elements and variables that are not cooperating.  The tribes don't mix well in all cases. When things are not going well, the ethnocentric bullets start flying.  The Greeks and the Italians are blamed for their entitlement lifestyles....well that does not bode well for holding up the big tent.  Now we are off to the blame game, and the purpose of holding the Euro is now being called into question.  Crap it's just class warfare on a different cable network:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/opinion/brooks-the-technocratic-nightmare.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

5.  Herman Cain's presence has stirred interest, controversy, and old wounds to be reopened.   He's really not a serious candidate, and his continued presence underscores the lack of talent:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1116-banks-20111116,0,1110627,print.column

6.  Here is a job creator military project?   The MIC is making twenty 30,000 pound bunker-buster bombs for $314 million.  JFL.   I know that our service men and women in Afghanistan will feel so much safer now that we have these weapons on hand.  I wonder how many roadside IEDs each one of them will be able to take out?   Does the $314 million include delivery by UPS, or are there several more millions required to transport and store them?  Is this a great country or what?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bunker-buster-bomb-20111117,0,3582708.story

7.  Paul Krugman concurs that the given situation in Congress, failure by the so-called super committee is a win.   Our legislative branch is so dysfunctional.  Over half have sworn allegiance and their oath to Grover Nordquist, their proposed legislation is written by lobbyists, and their decision making is outsourced to committees.  Caca:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/opinion/krugman-failure-is-good.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212&pagewanted=print

8.  Hector Tobar's story is a classic example of the beauty of our Immigrant Nation.  You see, people come in from other countries with the the American Dream in mind, and they work hard to achieve it.  They are not tainted or jaded by generations of take-it-for-granted apathy that affects a great swath of our nation.  Immigrants of all stripes and colors are what keeps this nation vibrant and alive.  Stories like this remind us that the greatness of our continued existence comes from within and outside:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tobar-20111118,0,6585792,print.column


--
Juan Matute

 "Fear is the soul's signal for rallying.
       -- Henry Ward Beecher
"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."
       -- Ernest Hemingway
"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."
       -- John Adams
"Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?"
       -- Edgar Bergen
"Anarchy - it's not the law, it's just a good idea."
       -- Unknown


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Fwd: Things to Know - 17 November



Mike Luckovich cartoon: Parade balloon

mike11172011

Newt's Fan Club has many members


1.  As all the "debates", OWS raids, weather and earthquake disasters swirl around us, the income distribution widens in this country.   Most people call it the "economy", and yes in a scientific sense it is an economic issue.  However the collateral damage is that our society is being destroyed.  Our sense of community through unmet expectations, a loss of a sense of fairness and justice is eroding our moral fiber as a nation.   This cannot last very long, and it will not.  We are already seeing the baby-steps of the beginnings of a revolution.  Do I sound like a crazed neo-something or other left over from the 60's???.....maybe.    There is too much doom and gloom and lack of hope to sustain the American Dream:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/us/middle-class-areas-shrink-as-income-gap-grows-report-finds.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

2.  It is awfully difficult not to develop a sense of outrage.  Stuff like this, if it is true, is a real disappointment. Disappointed because you would think that the greedy bastards would have gotten the message by now.  No, they have not.  It's an insult to think that "they" think that they can get away with it without repercussions:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/9121

3.  When you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig.  A very dirty, deceitful, greedy, and sick pig:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/9125

4.  With observations, journalistic pieces, and opinions by so many people involved in reporting the human experience of our times, the violent reaction by the police -"the servants of the 1%" - the Occupation Movement will not fold, and will come back to haunt, and will eventually succeed over time.  How peaceful the transition, and how fair and just it operates will be determined by political leadership that has not as yet come forth.
http://www.truth-out.org/print/9159

5.  Considering the Dysfunction of Congress, this suggestion of failure looks like a great idea:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-we-can-succeed-through-supercommittees-failure/2011/11/16/gIQA7hLXSN_print.html

6.  Most of us agree that political campaign funding winds up corrupting the intent of our representative form of democracy.  If we are to learn anything from the OWS emotions, it is that we cannot sustain the 1% controlling the system.  Here is one great suggestion to begin getting us back to what the US Constitution means:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/opinion/in-campaign-financing-more-money-can-beat-big-money.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

7.  Newton Leroy "Porky" Gingrich, by mere fact of just standing around while all the others imploded, is now the latest "Not-Mitt" figure in the spotlight.  How long do you give him before he wallows in his baggage?  He'll be around long enough for me to continually dump a daily load on him.  He deserves it:
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/professor-of-profits/?pagemode=print

8.  Guns.
  
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/opinion/collins-something-to-shoot-for.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print


Juan Matute

"I'm a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house."
       -- Zsa Zsa Gabor
"So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause."
       -- George Lucas
"No one can have a higher opinion of him than I have, and I think he's a dirty little beast."
       -- W. S. Gilbert
"Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think."
       -- Ambrose Bierce
"This isn't right. This isn't even wrong."
       -- Wolfgang Pauli

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Things to Know - 16 November




newmikecolor


1.  The process of reconstitution is beginning:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/9094

2.  This is the significance on the delay of the decision of the Keystone Pipeline. by Bill McKibben:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/9076

3.  How the government shutdowns work to the advantage of the 1% and Jack Abramoff airs his game plan on influencing legislators (in case you missed it):
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/39617/

4.  Noot is up at bat now, and here is one high-level fast pitch to him.  There will be more.  You can bet on it.  I'm waiting for the inside brush-backs which he cannot dodge:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-newt-gingrich-wont-last/2011/11/15/gIQAmTNcPN_print.html

5.  Here is an interesting piece by someone who does not give the Tea Party or OWS much chance of any endurance and that they will eventually flame out.  He give his reasons why, and you might find them interesting:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/39604/

6.  Mandatory health care insurance is the subject, and here is an opinion from a professor at well-established school of law
:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/opinion/health-insurance-and-the-broccoli-test.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

7.  Another curve ball from the the mound of the NY Times, and it's high and inside, but hardly a brush back.  Ball two on Noot:
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/the-second-coming-of-gingrich/?pagemode=print

8.  Thomas Friedman fits in well here.  He"s in India, writing about their problems.  Kind of takes your mind of the GeeOpie and OWS:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/opinion/whos-the-decider.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

9.  Occupy Los Angeles is targeted to be removed as well.  The reconstituting process is probably being contemplated. We'll see where this goes:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1116-occupy-la-20111116,0,7952898,print.story


Juan Matute

"The only way to be truly misogynistic is to be a woman."
       -- Randy K. Milholland
"There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers."
       -- William James
"Someday we'll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car."
       -- Evan Davis
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts."
       -- Albert Einstein


Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Things to Know - 15 November




1.  Do we have any volunteers to serve a subpoena on Dick Cheney tomorrow?  Check this out:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/39589/

2.  So, far do you think Karl Rove is going to go, and what is he going to get in trying to slime Elizabeth Warren?:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/9006

3.  The hot-button Supreme Court issue is on deck:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/8987

4.  Thom Hartmann and his video and text of the news.  One thing that is not on here, and which I picked up from Matt Cartmill (he of College Bowl fame), is that the Bank of America has silently moved all of its toxic investments (busted homes and foreclosures, etc) from one side of its ledger to the retail banking side, which effectively moves the liability of that paper over to the FDIC side.   Now, the tax payer is on the hook for all of BofA's bad loans if it fails.  Where is the outrage?:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/9027

5.  You want to watch somebody wing it and screw it up at the same time, watch the Hermanator:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/cain-melts-down/2011/11/14/gIQAeHErLN_blog.html

6.  Bank of America has no shame.  Here is another unconscionable rip-off fee; charging customers to receive their the unemployment benefits:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/11/14-5

7.  It's unanimous.  If a GeeOpie guy is elected president, we are guaranteed to launch a unilateral military incursion into Iran and we will be saddled with World War 3.  And, how are we going to pay for that?....for starters.  Have we not learned anything from our past military blunders?:

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/before-we-bomb-iran-lets-have-a-serious-conversation/?pagemode=print

8.  Not only do they want to start wars, they love to torture as well.  Nice group of guys (and lady).   Who would Jesus vote for?:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/opinion/the-torture-candidates.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

9.  Much is on the table to discuss on the merits of Medicare for All:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-chermerinsky-healthcare-20111115,0,3665371,print.story 

10.  The inevitable happened at 1:00AM last night.  The Police came in, raided, seized the gear, and cleared the OWS crowd out, and made arrests.  There is probably going to a lot of writing about this phenomena (the OWS itself, and the speculation of how mayors, police chiefs, and the entrenched reigns of power reacted).  However, in my opinion OWS has not gone away.  It will come back.  My concern is that may reconstitute itself in some form of violence, on either side.   Those who think that it is all over, and that the streets are back in full control should think twice:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/nyregion/police-begin-clearing-zuccotti-park-of-protesters.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

--
Juan Matute

"If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run - and often in the short one - the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative."
       -- Arthur C. Clarke
"Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before."
       -- Edith Wharton
"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."
       -- H. L. Mencken
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
       -- Will Rogers



Monday, November 14, 2011

Things to Know - 14 November





1.  This article takes place in Washington, Georgia.  A rural city with the same polarizing problems of Washington D.C. and elsewhere.  Looking at ourselves in a micro-political way may shed light on the bigger problems of the nation.  Things are ugly all over, but understanding and working through the local issues may help resolve the national dysfunction:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/two-washingtons-bitterly-divided-georgia-town-reflects-discord-in-nations-capital/2011/11/11/gIQAaA4RGN_print.html

2.  How long can we continue to depend on a sustainable supply of fish in the ocean?: 

http://www.truth-out.org/print/8974

3.  E.J. Dionne informs us that the GeeOpie candidates in the their wisdom of bozodom have hijacked the moral integrity of whatever it is that they are:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/conservatives-mindless-opposition/2011/11/11/gIQAa33BJN_print.html

4.  Pure speculation by Bill Keller on how Romney can win, and what it would mean:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/opinion/keller-how-romney-could-win.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

5.  Paul Krugman takes Romney to task for suggesting that the Veterans Health Administration should morph into a voucher system:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/opinion/krugman-vouchers-for-veterans-and-other-bad-ideas.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

6.  The old world of the KKK is alive and well today in Alabama.  Only, now it exists in a new format and a different ethnic target.  The South - where ignorance and intolerance is an enduring tradition:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/opinion/on-the-rise-in-alabama.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

7.  This one has been making the rounds, and in case you have missed it, here it is.   It is Warren Buffet's quick 5-minute fix to fix Congress:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/buffett.asp

8.  This is not a matter of "political correctness" but it does demonstrate that Atheists in the military should have their space along with the office-recommended faith.   To deny them is to be no better than the intolerance and ignorance found in our most backwater sectors of the community:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-military-atheists-20111114,0,6680206,print.story
--
Juan Matute

"I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell."
       -- Harry S Truman
"Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody."
       -- Benjamin Franklin
"How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and shirt size?"
       -- Woody Allen
"Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf."
       -- Lewis Mumford


Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Things to Know - 9 November





1.  Take this quiz to see where you stand (or sit and read) with current events:

http://www.people-press.org/2011/11/07/what-the-public-knows-in-words-and-pictures/?src=iq-quiz?src=prc-newsletter

2, This narrative and video of "The Story of Broke" has been making the rounds.  If you have not seen or heard it, do  so now:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/8754

3.  The class of warfare that is being waged by the extreme right in reaction to OWS has Paul Krugman a bit upset:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/8744

4.  As we read this now, we will all know that Mississippi has turned down legislation defining "person hood" at the moment of conception.  Pretty bold statement from a place like Mississippi.  Do you think that removing that same status from a corporation is possible?  Read on:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/8723

5.   Ready for a light-hearted break?:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/39447/

6.  Tom Friedman sees similarities with Indian and OWS frustrations:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/opinion/friedman-india-and-america-two-peas-in-a-pod.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

7.  A quick glance on yesterday's election results:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-election-roundup-20111109,0,5636236,print.story

8.  Blue Laws are a hallmark of the South.  Georgia is almost there in joining the 20th Century:
http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/sunday-alcohol-sales-prove-1220719.html

--
Juan Matute

"Boxing is the only sport you can get your brain shook, your money took and your name in the undertaker's book."
       -- Joe Frazier
"There is no greater importance in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you."
       -- Norman Mailer
"Free advice is worth the price."
       -- Robert Half
"Politics is made up largely of irrelevancies."
       -- Dalton Camp
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool."
       -- Jane Wagner


Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Things to Know - 8 November





1.  History may be in the offing.  Georgia will have an opportunity to inch its way into the 20th Century (19th century by some accounts):

http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/voters-get-their-say-1219206.html?printArticle=y

2.  The Keystone Pipeline has pitted Obama against his loyal young supporters who worked form him in his last election.  The promise to strike big gains for the improvement of the environment, if not carried out be turning down the pipeline, may be very bad news for the Obama campaign:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/8668

3.  If you have time, read this one through to the end.   The OWS has an affect of giving a platform to activist and gifted writers to come forth with, in this case, a critical manifesto.   I really like it.  It can be taken as a very thoughtful piece written with passion, or it can be seen as one brick in the wall that forms a new socio-economic system:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/8669

4.  A creative way of working around a foreclosure to keep the owners in the property and avoiding neighborhood blight.  How does it reg received by a couple of stiff-necked and non-creative GeeOpiers?:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/39433/

5.  Georgia's recent immigration law is hammering its bureaucracy and creating unintended consequences.  One problem, as we know is a lack of workers to pick the crops, and this in another one.  Stay tuned for more:
http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/cox-red-tape-created-1219404.html?printArticle=y

6.  Here is an example of the welfare state gone amok:

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/farm-state-lawmakers-pushing-1219205.html

7.  The Pizza man should have stayed behind the counter, and away from driving people to and from Italian restaurants:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-2012-campaign-gets-seedier/2011/11/07/gIQAwsJGxM_print.html 

8.  There is nothing unusual about UCLA's new cuisine menu for its students.   40% of the student body is of Asian ethnicity, and the city of Los Angeles is about as diverse a city that you can find in the USA.   It's great!.  Meanwhile, all of the MBA and Urban Planing students are out chasing Taco trucks in West LA, or looking in East LA for the "primo tamale".  Life is good:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-college-dining-20111107,0,1806458,print.story

9.  This article points out the hypocrisy of the GeeOpie stands on two federal programs that require universal participation:

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fi-lazarus-20111108,0,5499244,print.column

10.  Calling out the GeeOpie dominated state legislatures for purposely trying to suppress the opposition voters:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-vote-20111107,0,677375,print.story

11.  The NY Times editorial that asks that bankers refrain from receiving bonus payments ends it for today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/opinion/end-bonuses-for-bankers.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print


--
Juan Matute

"The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught."
       -- Marquis de Vauvenargues
"The will to be stupid is a very powerful force, but there are always alternatives."
       -- Lois McMaster Bujold
"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."
       -- Oscar Wilde
"It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations."
       -- Sir Winston Churchill
   


Monday, November 7, 2011

Things to Know - 7 November




1.  Paul Krugman is on the Green Bus.  He's questioning whether the fossil-brained Congress will get off its stalling tactics and get moving.  Moving to sustainable resources is actually cheaper, when you consider the costs of burning fossil fuels (oil, gas) should include the costs to the environment (air, water, and our health).  Just read on to see why fracking and letting energy industries off the hook without regulation is like a criminal subsidy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/opinion/krugman-here-comes-solar-energy.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

2.  This is going to be fun. Romney is now going to distance himself from the rest of the GeeOpie pack of candidates and expand his creds on foreign policy.  He's opening himself up to even more flip-flops in an area in which he has absolutely minimal experience other than standing on street corners in a foreign country and hawking the visions of the Angel Moroni:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/8632

3.  Here's the nut-and-bolts description of an incident in Washington D.C. with the Occupiers and a Koch-sponsored event:

http://www.truth-out.org/print/8636

4.  The only GeeOpie figure that could gather enough interest to run, is actually a statue of a dead guy whose positions on the issues are not very popular with his party:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/39366/

5.  E.J. Dionne and the matter or religion as it pertains to candidates philosophy on public policy and the separation of church and state for believers and non-believers:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/election-2012s-great-religious-divide/2011/11/06/gIQAiRbdtM_print.html

6.  There is an interesting discussion here on merging disciplines of humanities and hard sciences.  Kind of like a turf war for some, but I think the opinions that they are distinctly separate are foolish.  Neuroscience is the common ground of thought between the two that molds them together:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/bodies-in-motion-an-exchange/?pagemode=print  

7.  To those who don't think that the so-far short life of OWS has not accomplished much, read this.  The writer of this column also pretty much slams Milton Friedman's tenet that corporations have no real business in acting out a policy of social responsibility.  Milton, you are dead wrong - on both counts;  Dead, and Wrong:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20111106,0,1522324,print.column

8.  Doyle McManus and his speculation on next year's election.  There really is nothing else to talk about.  Just the normal flame-out of the month for the GeeOpie and the the do nothing Congress:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus-forecasts-20111106,0,3737928.column

9.   Fracking is the process by which extremely high-pressure liquids are blasted into below-earth pockets of fossil fuel material to force gas to the surface.  Read this link to see if there is any connection between this controversial process and the recent earthquake in Oklahoma:

http://www.ogs.ou.edu/pubsscanned/openfile/OF1_2011.pdf  


10.  You should know that it is a beautiful clear and cold morning here in Claremont.   There is snow up on Mt. Baldy, about a
25 minute drive up the road.  Beautiful!


--
Juan Matute

"The only people who say worse things about politicians than reporters do are other politicians."
       -- Andy Rooney
"Knowledge is power, if you know it about the right person."
       -- Ethel Mumford
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles."
       -- George Jean Nathan
"I once said cynically of a politician, 'He'll doublecross that bridge when he comes to it.'"
       -- Oscar Levant
"Weather forecast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning."
       -- George Carlin