okay this sounds painful

Woman 'injected client's buttocks with cement'

maybe the euro and the debts aren't the problem. maybe it's just government by idiots

EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

when they came for the baseballs no one objected, and when they came for the tether balls everyone was silent . . .

. . . so now a Toronto elementary school has banned all "hard" balls--including soccer balls . . .

. . . because an adult--not a kid, an adult--got a concussion after being hit in the head with one.

now the department of justice wants to criminalize . . .

. . . lying about yourself on social media sites.

in another shocker it turns out that the Federal Homeland Security apparatus . . .

. . . helped coordinate the nationwide police crackdown on the Occupy protesters.

and for a new low in politics, we will now analyze Herman Cain's wife's pelvis for honesty

Proving that nothing is too ridiculous to get space these days, US News and World Report turns loose a body language "expert" on Gloria Cain's interview about the sexual harassment charges against her husband.

The money quote:

"Her arms are out in front of her hands, laying one over the other in her lap, which I call a blanket hand cross," Wood says. "She is protecting her pelvis, which signals her feeling like her sexual relationship with her husband has been exposed or attacked, but she is clearly not hiding anything."

Whether Cain is guilty or not, analyzing his wife protecting her pelvis from Greta van Sustern's questions is some how . . . just what you'd expect.

among the things I truly hate . . .

. . . are the times that I have to agree with Pat Buchanan.

headline of the day, unfortunately

Sex With Animals Can Lead To Penis Cancer: Study

the new york times says the rape of young boys at penn state won't really affect the university in the long run . . .

. . . because, well, people really won't care very long.

Which is, sadly and horribly, probably true.

evolutionary psychologist stephen pinker on the decline of violence in the world

This may challenge a lot of people, but Pinker is a heavyweight of the Richard Dawkins, Richard Feynmann, Stephen Hawking breed in his own field.  It will be controversial (the link to the Scientific American review below is not positive), but it will not be ignored.

From a podcast promoting his new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Why Violence Has Declined:

“Believe it or not, violence has been in decline for long stretches of time. And today are probably living in the most peaceful time in our species’ existence.” Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker at the ScienceWriters2011 conference in Flagstaff on October 17th. His new book is The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.

“The decline of violence has not been steady. It has not brought violence down to zero. And it is not guaranteed to continue. But…it is a persistent historical development, visible on scales from millennia to years, from the waging of wars and genocides to the spanking of children and the treatment of animals.”

the three people to fire immediately, according to management consultants . . .

This from Bloomberg:

Fire immediately:

1.  People to whom you have given too much work with inadequate resources to accomplish the mission (and who actually point this out).

2.  People with enough experience to realize which ideas have a good chance of succeeding, and which ones don't (and who actually explain why).

3.  People who have spent years developing specific expertise and have the temerity to bring that expertise to the table.

I wish this was satire.  But it isn't.

in which the daily kos gets pwned (a headline of the day, sort of)

But you will want to click the links before you figure out what's going on

PROOF the TEABAGGERS are RACIST, VIOLENT, and DISGUSTING

and in yet another unsurprising obama-era military intervention . . . .

Will Rogers, who apparently knew President Obama was coming, once said,

Now you can't pick up a paper without reading where our Marines have landed to keep some nations from shooting each other, and if necessary we shoot them to keep them from shooting each other. 

Guess what?  We're now apparently sending troops to Nigeria:

U.S. troops are on their way to Nigeria to help fight Boko Haram, in yet another newfangled military intervention into Africa. Boko Haram are an Islamic terrorist group, but its not clear what danger they’ve ever presented to America. Nevertheless, this new war is not much different from the Obama administration’s other martial adventures in the region, in Somalia with al Shabaab, in Uganda with the Lord’s Resistance Army, and beyond.

surprise, surprise

Deficit 'super committee' may put off decisions

not really in need of a title

click for a larger image

i really hate to admit . . .

. . . that I agree with Barry Switzer re:  Penn State.

A lot of people knew.

my second science fiction story is up at ray gun revival

It's titled "Bleed," and again it is probably too gory for jason.

The first one, "Flawed Tool," is available in their archive.

and today's headline that i couldn't have made up

Teens using vodka tampons to get drunk

remember, please, who the President was when the United States . . .

. . . decided that we needed to make the world safe . . . for cluster bombs.

gee. no kidding.

Generation Jobless: Students Pick Easier Majors Despite Less Pay

If I had a buck for every time a student has told me that he or she selected X as a major because it involved no math or science beyond general education courses, I'd be wealthy.

comment rescues: corporate oligarchy and the government revolving door

Two thoughtful comments on my post yesterday about the corporate shadow government deserve greater attention (at least for the other three people reading) and a decent response.

keith clinkscales has a big "thank you" for herman cain and penn state . . . .

. . . . because otherwise people might actually be paying attention to this particularly Clintonesque headline:

ESPN Executive Denies Masturbating Next To Erin Andrews On Plane

And to think that, back in the 1990s, all we were worried about was whether our kids would be asking us what "oral sex" meant.

Next thing you know, they'll be letting homosexuals get married.

two takes on president obama and wall street

Politico weighs in on the President as the ultimate hypocrite who demonizes Wall Street bankers by day while making them the lynchpin of campaign fundraising (and policy decisions) by night.

Meanwhile, at The Atlantic, columnist Daniel Indiviglio makes the fascinating argument that Wall Street bankers will still make the same amount of money, bonuses or no bonuses, and that they will engage in far riskier behavior without the bonuses.  So, of course, there is therefore nothing to be done to change the situation, because--after all--they are the real government.

the corporate oligarchy that has become our shadow government

Although I begin this post by pointing you to a list of fifty-one former corporate lobbyists (including four cabinet-level officers) holding senior positions in the Obama administration and recalling the vast array of lobbyists called in for "consultation" about healthcare reform, this is about process rather than partisanship (Bush certainly did the same, or worse).

Simple fact:  highly paid corporate positions are where senior government folks go to spend their "out" years when the other party is in power.

When they come back in, they know it is a time-limited gig, and they naturally represent the interests of their once and future employers as much if not moreso than the interests of the general public.

occupy delaware and brian selander's damage control

Not long after I posted the Dana Garrett video on my site, I received the following email sent to my State email address at DSU from Brian Selander.  I should make clear that my State email address has never been linked to this blog by any means, which means that Brian had to go seek it out.

Here is the email in its entirety (not really any point in blanking out my DSU email since the Governor's office is now using it, is there?):

FW: Brandywine Park Selander Brian (Governor) [brian.selander@state.de.us] Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 12:52 PM To: Steven Newton Steve – saw that you posted Dana’s video, and thought you should see this as well. From: Barlow Michael (Governor) To: 'rmorse@aclu-de.org' <rmorse@aclu-de.org> Sent: Mon Nov 07 11:12:09 2011 Subject: Brandywine Park Rich – I am following up on our conversations Saturday afternoon about the permits for H. Fletcher Brown Park and Brandywine Park.  I understand that Occupy DE rejected the offer made by DNREC to allow camping in an area of Brandywine Park.  I also understand that the language of DNREC’s Brandywine Park permit may have raised concerns, specifically the language that says that Occupy “may not congregate, solicit the public, display signs, or distribute materials outside of” the area designated in the permit for overnight use.  To be clear, DNREC’s concern was camping, and its permit was not intended to limit lawful speech in areas outside the designated area of the park.  To the extent the permit conditions suggested that, the language used was overbroad and a mistake.    DNREC issued that permit quickly in hopes of getting it into your hands even though a permit had never been sought.  To be clear, if we had discussed the specifics over the weekend, I am sure it was something we could have clarified or corrected.  In any event, I appreciate your cooperation throughout this process.    Regards, Mike Michael A. Barlow Legal Counsel                                                  Office of Governor Jack A. Markell Dover:  302.744.4101 / Wilmington:  302.577.3210 Michael.Barlow@state.de.us http://governor.delaware.gov

Other than that I should feel important because Brian is apparently one of the  ten people who visit this blog (or else he tracked me down from leaving a  reply at Kilroy's), I will leave it as an exercise for the student to determine  exactly what this response means.

in solidarity with dana garrett and occupy delaware

Whether I agree or not with all of the aims of Occupy Delaware is immaterial.

What the State government is doing to throttle Occupy Delaware is wrong, but probably dictated by the corporate lords of the First State.

My friend Dana Garrett lays it all out (eight minutes; please take time for it all):

The world (and even Delaware) is in the midst of interesting times.

My friend Dana Garrett is doing what he has habitually done:  putting himself out there for his beliefs.

why we won't cut the defense budget even if the supercommittee (predictably) fails to cut the government

Leon Panetta may be full of angst that massive Defense cuts will occur is the Congressional supercommittee can't agree on cuts and tax increases elsewhere, but he needn't worry.

The Military-Industrial complex is so thoroughly entertwined in the American political economy that it is now an inoperable cancer.

dilbert's creator scott adams with a few modest proposals

In today's WSJ.

I'm particularly struck by the simplicity of his campaign proposal:

I can also imagine a constitutional ban on all election contributions for any candidate that polls above 10%. In our current system, a multibillionaire could get his own neck fat elected president if he put enough money into it. For candidates below the 10% polling level, perhaps there would be no limits whatsoever on campaign funding. That way, new candidates have a chance to break into the field.

For candidates polling above 10%, their campaigns would only be allowed to use public funding. That levels the playing field. Incumbents would typically poll above 10% and no longer feel obligated to satisfy corporate donors or unions just to attract campaign funds.

what's necessary for a functioning free society: michael shermer's list.

I like Michael Shermer even when I don't agree with him.  His argument for dumping "In God We Trust" [all others pay cash] as the national motto was nothing new, but his LA Times op-ed included one of the best single paragraphs I've ever read on the bottom line for a free society.  For easier reading, I break it down into a list:

The rule of law; 

property rights; 

a secure and trustworthy banking and monetary system; 

economic stability; 

a reliable infrastructure and the freedom to move about the country; 

freedom of the press; 

freedom of association; 

education for the masses; 

protection of civil liberties; 

a clean and safe environment; 

a robust military for protection of our liberties from attacks by other states; 

a potent police force for protection of our freedoms from attacks by people within the state; 

a viable legislative system for establishing fair and just laws; 

and an effective judicial system for the equitable enforcement of those fair and just laws.

Notice that Shermer doesn't proscribe the how along with the what.  We need a stable economy for a free society, but he doesn't get into small government vs regulation etc etc.

I think this is a good list, possibly not quite complete, but good.

For example, I think that an awful lot depends on his definitions of "civil liberties."  Do they include just the traditional "Bill of Rights" kinds of liberties, like freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, do they more closely represent FDR's "four freedoms," and would they cover anti-discrimination law?

I think we need to do more thinking along the lines of what is essential and what is only preferrable in a free society.

two different forms of neo-colonialism in africa: the us and china. not much to choose from between them.

It is becoming increasingly clear that China is forging ahead as a world superpower by using strategic economic investments rather than military force, while the US is dusting off old Cold War templates.

Here is John Glaser's wrap-up of current US operations in Africa, the vast majority of which have been initiated under the Obama administration:

The United States is in the midst of fighting a new war in Africa, following familiar foreign policy conventions applied previously, particularly in Latin America and the Middle East, to ruinous results.

The strategy is characterized by military aid to and reliance on brutish, undemocratic regimes, proxy militias, and targeted special operations as opposed to invasion and occupation. All of this is done without the consent of Congress and for the most part in secret.

and descending further into the abyss, the obama administration declares itself to be immune to court decisions

Just great.  He can be tried, and if found guilty can then be executed.  But if the military tribunal finds him not guilty, he can still be held for the rest of his life.

Thank you, Barack Obama.

From Reuters:

MIAMI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. war crimes tribunal that will try the alleged planner of a deadly attack on a U.S. warship has no power to free him if he is acquitted, military prosecutors said in court documents made public on Wednesday.

...

Nashiri, a 46-year-old Saudi Arabian of Yemeni descent, could be executed if he is convicted of charges that include conspiracy, murder and perfidy.

But the U.S. government has said that regardless of the trial's outcome, it has authority to hold the alleged al Qaeda conspirator until the end of hostilities in the U.S. war against terrorism -- essentially for the rest of his life.

headline of the day

Adult deer found inside python in Everglades

More amazing that an intact 76-pound deer in a python's belly would be an actual adult congresscritter in Washington DC.

headline of the day

Human ancestors mated with more than Neanderthals

You can bet that the more socially conservative cave people dismissed this as a lifestyle choice.

mitt romney panders on foreign policy. it can be outsourced to Israel.

Not much point in dicussing this seriously, since Mitt will likely have changed his position by the time you make a comment.

Still, this could reduce the deficit, as Mitt might not even need a Secretary of State, since Israel's already got one:

It seems that a President Romney will allow the Israeli government to decide American policy toward that country. The free daily newspaper Israel Hayom — a media outlet closely associatedwith right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — asked Romney if, as president, he would ever consider moving the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In his answer, Romney made some astonishing claims. First, that his policy toward Israel will be guided by Israeli leaders; second, on the Jerusalem issue, he’d do whatever Israel tells him to do; and third, he does not think the United States should take a leadership role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

ROMNEY: The actions that I will take will be actions recommended and supported by Israeli leaders. I don’t seek to take actions independent of what our allies think is best, and if Israel’s leaders thought that a move of that nature would be helpful to their efforts, then that’s something I’ll be inclined to do. But again, that’s a decision which I would look to the Israeli leadership to help guide. I don’t think America should play the role of the leader of the peace process, instead we should stand by our ally. Again, my inclination is to follow the guidance of our ally Israel, as to where our facilities and embassies would exist.

my grandson as GI Joe for halloween. not news but important to me.

Clue:  he's the one who doesn't look like a witch.

headline (and story) of the day: 1927 edition

From Drug War Rant:

peace dividend? we don't need no stinkin' peace dividend.

Anybody who thinks, delusionally, that the "withdrawal" from Iraq somehow constitutes an opportunity to reduce the US interventionist footprint in the Persian Gulf area, should read the NYT and think again:

The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces inKuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.

Unfortunately, the longer you study America's imperial activities around the world, the more prophetic Chalmers Johnson starts to become.

tell me again that Barack Obama is different from George W. Bush in terms of his total and complete disregard for civil liberties or government accountability. go ahead. i'm waiting

From Pro Publica:

A proposed rule to the Freedom of Information Act would allow federal agencies to tell people requesting certain law-enforcement or national security documents that records don’t exist – even when they do.

Under current FOIA practice, the government may withhold information and issue what’s known as a Glomar denial that says it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records.

The new proposal – part of a lengthy rule revision by the Department of Justice – would direct government agencies to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist."

The irony here is that ... hell, there is no irony here.

in a world where economics more than military might defines great powers, old men in Bejing have demands

In exchange for contribuing $100 billion or more to Europe's recovery package, China wants only a few concessions:

1.  Stop criticizing the old men in Bejing when they manipulate the worldwide currency markets.

2.  Take a large percentage of the money in renminbi.  Or better yet maybe in mxyzptlks.


Quoth the President of France

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France welcomed the prospect of a Chinese contribution to the eurozone rescue package. “Our independence would not be put into question by this,” he said in a television interview. “Why would we not accept that the Chinese had confidence in the eurozone and place a part of their surpluses in our funds or our banks. Would you rather they placed it with the US?”

needing little comment unless you cannot figure out the answer.

today's headline confirms something I have always secretly suspected. or feared.

Unrelenting sex drive may signal deadly rabies

From MSN.

This leads me to wonder, then, if foaming at the mouth during or after orgasm may be a "dead" giveway.

in any less oppositional time this would just be funny. in today's world I am waiting for a Republican to demand a special prosecutor

The State Dept has spent $70,000 buying copies of President Obama's books to give away.  (And, no, apparently neither W nor Clinton did this.)

Not much of a scandal, and not much off the top of a multi-trillion-dollar deficit.  Mostly funny.

Yet not as funny as the fact that our own "Supermax" prison in McLean VA has banned the President's books:

The federal government's most secure prison has determined that two books written by President Barack Obama contain material "potentially detrimental to national security" and rejected an inmate's request to read them.

You really can't make this stuff up.

this is just cool

Cracking an 18th-century secret society's code.

one of the only things that will ever get us out of Afghanistan: China gets into Pakistan

The old men in Bejing have many faults, but like the old men who used to inhabit the Kremlin they know that nuclear war on the Indian subcontinent would spoil everybody's day.

So, finally, China is stepping up as a regional power (rather than use us as military contractors in Afghanistan) and seeking bases in Pakistan.

This is a good thing.  Repressive as they may be at home, the geezers in Bejing and the USA have a common interest in regional stability there, and if the price of us getting rid of that obligation is that China gets Pakistan, I'm OK with that.

India, of course, will not be thrilled.

and you thought the TSA Gestapo was just for airports. silly wabbit.

Coming to a highway near you:  TSA random stops.

You gotta love these two lines from the story of their new VIPR operation in Tennessee:

You're probably used to seeing TSA's signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR).

...

Tuesday's statewide "VIPR" operation isn't in response to any particular threat, according to officials.

In other words:  "Just because we can, whenever we want to."

All of a sudden, parts of Ron Paul don't sound so whacky any more, do they?

nah, of course Goldman Sachs (better known as the unofficial Treasury Department) is completely on the up and up

Nothing to see here, folks.  Move along quietly.

the unintentionally ironic headline of the day (or maybe it was intentional)

Romney, Perry spar over who helped illegal immigrants more

From CBS

In any other debate, the winner would be the one who helped people more, right?  So I can sort of understand the headline writer's dilemma.

But still....

comment rescue: Think123 on the "real" war against wall street

A great piece of writing in the comment section of the previous post that deserves its own headline:

This greed and corruption protest is something liberals and conservatives can come together on. Mainly because it's true and clear for all to see.

The real genuine Wall Street protesters are the ones with high powered lawyers. Citi just agreed to settle fraud charges for $250 million. AIG sued Bank Of America for $10 Billion claiming they were conned by BOA.

the inherent characteristics of populist movements should not keep us from asking why they arise

I'm sure everyone can recall this image, the one that initially tarnished the Tea Party with charges of racism:

I am equally sure that this image will be used to make the same charges about the Occupy movement:

The charges in both cases are true and false.

the games schools play to avoiding providing services to children with special needs and disabilities--a second consideration

Disclaimer:  there are a lot of great special ed teachers, guidance counselors, and school psychologists out there.  This article is not about them, or directed at them.  It IS about the schmucks who too often find jobs in the school system wherein their ability to keep the school for paying for providing services is what keeps them employed.  I am tired of pretending that they don't exist in large numbers.

Here is an incomplete list of some of the myths and just plain falsehoods used by school districts to avoid compliance with IDEA or 34 CFR for children with special needs and disabilities.

Myth #1:  "We know more about your child's disability than you do."

rick perry is a birther. who'da thunk it--not

I guess this was predictable.

Wonder if that will make Steve Forbes re-think endorsing him?

why is public education so adversarial toward the parents of special needs children? a first consideration

For the past fifteen years I have been representing children (my own and others) in 504 and IEP meetings around the mid-Atlantic region (including Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York).

My role is "parent advocate," which is virtually the only loophole favorable to parents under the whole IDEA and 34 CFR structure that governs the education of children with disabilities and special needs.  Parents have the absolute right to bring in any advocate they please (with some restrictions on actual attorneys) without prior notice to the school district.

When you arrived, unannounced, as a Parent Advocate, a number of things generically happen.  First, there a lot of shuffling and whispering, as the others on the "team" tell each other that there's an outsider in the room.  Then there is the inevitable but ever so polite request that I provide my bona fides for knowing anything at all about public education or special needs children (they, of course, being school district employees, are immune to such questions).

Then they start the meeting.  If you've ever been a parent unhappy with your child's educational experience in a special ed or 504 disability setting, please feel free to skip the next painful section:  you've been through it too many times.

in which I return (probably unwisely) to the strange American fascination with moralizing about the deplorable use of Hitler in political rhetoric

When I ran a post several days ago noting that American political rhetoric had long ago trivialized Hitler and the Holocaust, a anonymous commenter objected:

Nobody is burning David at the stake. People just asked that he get rid of that cheesy Hitler movie. He finally did. Good for him.

If your defense is look at all this other rotten stupid stuff people do, so why can't David be stupid too, that's pretty lame. The guy is an elected official.

...

I think the issue is portraying the President (Bush, Obama, Clinton, George Washington) as Hitler. It's as low as you go in American politics. Why do it? Why defend it?

That so misses the point by a breathtaking margin that I am moved to return to the subject of Third Reich imagery and comparisons in American politics (as well as rank hypocrisy in the Delaware blogosphere on the same topic) in the following disjointed manner:

electric cars as the ultimate nimby refusal to deal with underlying issues

Coyote blog makes the best point about how people just don't get the issues involved with electric cars (I mean, aside from the fact that my commute and recharging would pretty much require me to stay overnight at my job every other day):

Press responses from Fisker Automotive highlight the problem here:  electric vehicle makers want to pretend that the electricity to charge the car comes from magic sparkle ponies sprinkling pixie dust rather than burning fossil fuels.  Take this quote, for example:

while this won't end the global warming debate, you could hold out a faint hope that it might change the nature of the argument

The Berkely Earth project, a collaboration of a whole passel of extremely reputable climatologists, has issued a new set of findings regarding global temperature change over land for the past 100 years.  They used a statistical model that incorporated virtually every known data set, and came up with the following:

Their conclusions include the following:

WaPo fact check doesn't say that joe biden is insane, just that things he says are insane (and wildly incorrect)

Which shouldn't surprise anybody.

I'm thinking Joe on the campaign trail this year will be a shoe-in for the Spiro Agnew accuracy in speech-making award.

it is now illegal to read or speak parts of the bill of rights when dealing with the tsa

Which doesn't really surprise me.

the saddest, most painful, and most important piece you will read today

If you love children, read it.

note to delawareliberal and the anti-defamation league ...

... we, as a culture, trivialized Hitler and the Holocaust a long, long time ago.

So why not forget about burning David Anderson at the stake?

as we police the world yet again, you have to wonder where is our compelling strategic interest ... in Uganda

Will Rogers once famously quipped that the US would send the Marines to any country that could get twenty people together to ask for them.

Obviously President Barack Obama is a fan of the Will Rogers Doctrine.

100 Green Berets are referred to as the "first wave" of US troops hitting Uganda.

Think back ... when the Obama administration created Africacom, they told us that it was primarily for use in supporting development, gathering intelligence, and improving logistics.

That facade lasted only a few months before we involved ourselves in military operations in Somalia.

Exactly who thought this was a good idea now?

Undoubtedly the headline of the day ...

IRAN SPACE MONKEY LAUNCH ATTEMPT FAILS

from Discovery

the best visual explanation of the similarities and differences between tea baggers and occupiers

Libertarians, corporations, and "Occupy Wall Street"

I wasn't enamored with the Tea Party from the very beginning, and I said so.

I am bemused about Occupy [enter name of urban area] more than anything else.  Such demonstrations in dictatorships inevitably lead to more repression on the part of the regime, international pressure, calls for the ouster of a ruler who has lost his legitimacy, general strikes, and sometimes civil war.

Yes, a few cops are going to break some heads, the mullahs in Iran and the old farts in China will blather, we're already on schedule for an election that will settle Barack Obama's fate, people actually have to be working to go on strike, and of all the fringes of the political spectrum the Wall Street warriors are probably the worst armed and least likely to resort to anything much beyond name-calling and mild civil disobedience.

In short:  we won't have an Arab spring because we're not a sheikdom and it's not spring.

What Occupy Everybody is really about

Michelle Bachmann is a religious zealot nutcase who would take away any of your civil rights that Jesus told her to ...

Welcome to the world of the Bachmann administration where the government would want to force a plastic wand up the vagina of any pregnant woman considering an abortion.

Those of you who think Michelle Bachmann is somehow a Libertarian Republican, try squaring that belief with the idea that the government should have to power to insert surgical instruments into women's bodies on an ideological whim.

He's back--with the twin caveats that who he is and what constitutes "back" may require explanation

I was once the Delaware Libertarian, and then I stopped.


Inspiration waned, the cut-and-thrust became increasingly banal, and I realized that another blog hashing over the day's news from any particular ideological perspective represented little more than public masturbation (wanna shake hands now?).


There's nothing inherently wrong with masturbation (and I thank Christine O'Donnell for mainstreaming that discussion), but it is only briefly pleasurable and it really doesn't accomplish anything.


And like my friend Waldo with regards to the conservative movement/GOP and my longtime commenter Anonone with respect to the Obama administration/Democrats, I began to feel that the Libertarian Party/movement walked off and left me.


I have almost as much difficulty today supporting a Libertarian movement that sympathizes with the Tea Party as I suspect a committed progressive has supporting a Democratic administration that just barely pays lip service to your ideals while continuing to fund a "defense" establishment and a growing internal police state, while cutting deal after deal with corporate donors.


So "who I am" has changed a bit...

Pictures worth not just thousands of words, but trillions of dollars

This from Kids Prefer Cheese (written by real, actual economists and such):

It has become almost fashionable to claim that the Fed is not doing nearly enough to revive the economy. This conclusion follows from the same logic that the "stimulus was too small" meme employs: Has the economy recovered? No? Then policymakers have not done nearly enough.

Check out what's happened to the monetary base since the crisis began:

The base has gone from a path of roughly doubling each decade to more than tripling in three years. 

Then this is the new proposed gerrymandered Congressional district in Maryland,