Yes, that is ironic

“We used to hustle on over the border for health care… And I think, isn’t that kind of ironic now?” — Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, admitting that her family used to go to Canada for medical treatment when she was a child; Canada has a single payer system, which Palin opposes. (Time, March [...]

Brit’s have their priorities sorted

“Drinking problem solved,” reads the headline in The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Soon Britons will be able to get smashed at the pub while their pint glasses won’t.” Apparently, in the face of a horrendous number (87,000) of alcohol related injuries, many of which stem from shattered pint beer glasses, the government has found a solution.
No officials [...]

The real unemployment rate

The figure we most often hear is 10% unemployment. But that’s not the whole truth — it’s a politically spun figure that minimizes the real story. According to BBC America, we might actually be looking at unemployment closer to 17% if factoring in the “lost workforce,” or those people that have decided to drop out [...]

Our media stinks

So, how many of you took the last few week’s news about better unemployment figures to heart? How many of you would be disappointed to hear its just another failure of our media to report the real state of the nation? How many would be dismayed that even our President is promulgating entirely misleading figures [...]

The Force is not with them

From whatever angle of their approach — age, race, economic status, geography — they have come to a remarkably similar conclusion. Almost all indicators are pressing the Republicans into minority status.

No real ID?

I’m happy to notice the Real ID Law looks like it’s getting more and more opposition and may be scaling back (or dare we hope, dying?). According to the Washington Post the Obama administration has moved to reduce the scope of the law — passed after the September 11 terrorist attacks — that was designed [...]

Low IQ connection

I found this post interesting, although the lack of citation means that it’s potentially meaningless. But the graphic somehow explains a lot:

What I really identified with, though, is not the fancy chart that shows how red states tend to have lower IQs, but some of the comments posted by other readers. The fact that the majority [...]

Hear hear

“This isn’t about yelling, this isn’t about politics, this isn’t really just about proposition 8.” This is about humanity, and those of us who don’t have enough of it.

Hear hear, Mr. Olbermann.

Defending elitism

Oh my god, I haven’t been writing much lately. My apologies. I promise to amend the situation in the near future, but in the meantime here’s some excellent writing from Sam Harris published in Newseek:

…You can learn something about a person by the company [Palin] keeps. In the churches where Palin has worshiped for decades, [...]

Save the Constitution

I wish there was more I could do to support Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s recent motion to impeach our so-called President. I understand why Speaker Nancy Pelosi would rather not support any action to impeach. She’s dead wrong. Mr. Bush has violated so many laws (35 by Kucinich’s account) and broken our Constitution. Do we really [...]

Unheeded warnings: Bush knew war in Iraq was a bad idea

According to a recently disclosed report offered up by the Senate Intelligence Committee, everything that has gone wrong in Iraq — insurgency, economic chaos, the rise of Al-Qaeda — was anticipated by the CIA in 2003 and Bush knew it. Bush’s claim that he is a credible messenger because he reads the intelligence once again [...]

Halfway between the gutter and the stars

Within mere hours of of Kenya Airways Flight 507 going down, the world knew about it. My own dashboard showed me an alarmingly large red circle in my Buzztracker, noting a major event of world news.
It’s truly amazing that we’ve reached a level of technology and information sharing that we have a near consensus-awareness of [...]