Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Our Reality TV President is going to issue an Executive Order against Twitter: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/28/politics/trump-twitter-social-media-executive-order/index.html
It’s about them being able to censor his opinions by flagging his bullshit. In doing so, he seeks to censor Twitter’s opinions of his opinions on their private platform. We live in a fake timeline. These are not American values. This is not Constitutional. Anyone who supports this guy is complicit in his disgusting betrayal of American values. I mean, what the fuck are we doing anymore? President Snowflake shit the bed a year ago and here we are debating whether to institute fascism or not.
Food Safety: It’s up to us now
Posted on: May 18, 2009
As my 1100 watt microwave heats up my WeightWatchers SmartOnes Fettucini Alfredo with tasty “hand-cut” pieces of broccoli, I can’t help but to wonder how long I should actually microwave it. The instructions are based on a 1200 watt microwave. But unfortunately it’s my problem to figure this out. If I’m wrong I risk bacterial contamination.
Some might say that’s the price of convenience. Others will charge that large processed food producers should be more responsible about tracing their ingredients, testing their cooking instructions, and informing consumers of risks to eating these products. What’s shocking is that the New York Times reported that:
[A]ttempts by The New York Times to follow the directions on several brands of frozen meals, including ConAgra’s Banquet pot pies, failed to achieve the required 165-degree temperature. Some spots in the pies heated to only 140 degrees even as parts of the crust were burnt.
A ConAgra consumer hotline operator said the claims by microwave-oven manufacturers about their wattage power could not be trusted, and that any pies not heated enough should not be eaten. “We definitely want it to reach that 165-degree temperature,” she said. “It’s a safety issue.”
In 2007, the U.S.D.A.’s inspection of the ConAgra plant in Missouri found records that showed some of ConAgra’s own testing of its directions failed to achieve “an adequate lethality” in several products, including its Chicken Fried Beef Steak dinner. Even 18 minutes in a large conventional oven brought the pudding in a Kid Cuisine Chicken Breast Nuggets meal to only 142 degrees, the federal agency found.
So, now I’m not supposed to believe my owner’s manual that says my microwave is actually 1100 watts? Isn’t that illegal? I’ve always been on board the personal responsibility bandwagon, which argues that people should be responsible for what they eat. Yet, it’s disturbing that food producers are selling products that are “unpalatable” when properly cooked.
I don’t buy it. My instructions tell me to microwave for 2.5 minutes, stir, and heat for another minute (both on high). I heated for 2.5 minutes, stirred, heated for 1.5 minutes, stirred, and heated for another minute. What the heck does Heinz think they’re selling me? A dream in a box? It cost less than $3 and allows me to prolong cutting up 4 melons until later tonight. The broccoli never tastes as good as fresh broccoli, so what’s so (un)palatable?
The product is a solution to a time-related or convenience-related problem. It’s not a solution for good nutrition or excellent eating habits. Why can’t they just print the instructions for a few common wattage microwaves and tell me how to cook it so it doesn’t have harmful bacteria. If it tastes crappy it’s just a reminder that I’m eating pre-prepared food out of a plastic tray that I bought in a box and nuked for several minutes. It’s not exactly fine dining, nor is it supposed to be.
So, it appears that I have been partially wrong. Producers could do more to help me be responsible. Consumers could be smarter too (that’ll be the day). Either way, I’m going to continue to sorta-enjoy my overcooked pasta-in-a-box that I eat 2-3 times a month if I’m unlucky.
Obama girls name dog “Bo”
Posted on: April 13, 2009
Lol. Obama is too frequently referred to as “Bo”. This sounds really stupid to anyone who has ever known someone whose name is Bo, but that doesn’t stop people from calling the President, “Bo”.
The best part about this is that no one can call Obama “Bo” anymore because it will be referring to the presidential dog and thus be insulting. That’s hilarious.
Family Guy: What Happened?
Posted on: March 16, 2009
This is a little weird to blog about tonight’s episode really sucked. I’m among those who have loved this show for years but now I’m over it. So, here’s a little over-analysis of tonight’s episode:
The show – sans commercials – is 21 minutes 15 seconds.
- The intro is 30 seconds.
- The video of Conway Twitty singing played for 2 minutes 45 seconds.
- The Dust in the Wind montage went on for 30 seconds.
- The opera scene went on for 57 seconds.
So, that leaves 16 minutes 33 seconds of actual material. That’s pathetic: 4 minutes 42 seconds of bullshit.That’s 22% of the show. One out of every 5 minutes of this stupid show is crappy music. It didn’t use to be this way. Once upon a time, Family Guy did this in moderation (extreme moderation compared to tonight). It was humorous because it was unique to Family Guy; but, when this characteristic overwhelms the personality it gets old quick.
What’s even more amazing is that they took a shot at The Simpsons, saying Homer was loved more in 1993. At least the Simpsons can still come up with enough material to produce a complete show. So it goes, one show dies and another takes a tiny step up – South Park. This has always been a toss-up before because Family Guy has always held a special place in my heart (that didn’t come out right), but I’m over it. South Park’s 13th season premiere was fantastic, thank God for Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
I Love Kiva.org
Posted on: February 27, 2009
This site is amazing. Right now there are 47 individuals or groups seeking loans. A few nights ago I looked and there were 4. Then 3. Then 10. Then 4. Then 6. By reloading the page every few minutes I found that people were making loans faster than others were requesting them. I’ve compiled a non-exhaustive list of countries that loans can be made to:
Togo
Ukraine
Ghana
Sierra Leone
Nigeria
Honduras
Pakistan
Uganda
Tajikistan
Paraguay
Peru
Senegal
Viet Nam
It’s fantastic that I can lend money to people in these countries. Most of these country’s citizens lack access to credit and the little money they borrow can go a long way for increasing crop yields or expanding their businesses. I would love to see a loan request from Bangladesh. This partner started up there. I’m going to add to the list over time, but needed a starting place. In March I’ll start posting the loans I make; it should be fun.
UPDATE 1: 2/28/09
I’ve been keeping this post updated, although the last update was seamless. There are currently 465 loans being requested and after looking through the first 10 pages out of 24 I’m adding some new countries to the list:
Mexico
Bolivia
Costa Rica
Cambodia
Mali
Lebanon
Cameroon
Philippines
Tanzania
Samoa
Afghanistan
Benin
Nicaragua
Azerbaijan
Dominican Republic
Impressive. This site never fails to amaze me. When I originally posted about Kiva I had never seen this many people but had visited it off and on for a week or two. I’m not checking it much more regularly. It changes quickly. Someone got their loan in the time it took me to type this (~3 minutes) and now there are 464.
UPDATE: 3/11/09
Guatemala
There are now 129 loans waiting to be made. Here are some fun facts from Kiva, this week:
3,100 entrepreneurs funded
1 loan was made every 21 seconds
12,936 lenders made loans
$1,007,050 was lent this week
While these numbers are encouraging consider that it adds up to $52 million annually (I know it’s a little more call it $53 million if it makes you happy; hell call it $60m, $100m, whatever). If 1 million people loaned $75/year, or 3 million people loaned $25/year the number would be higher.
- In: Politics | Uncategorized
- 1 Comment
Yesterday, Karl Rove wrote another piece for the WSJ. This caught my attention:
The Bush tax cuts were not targeted to “the wealthiest few.” Everyone who paid federal income taxes received a tax cut, with the largest percentage of reductions going to those at the bottom. Last year, a family of four making $40,000 saved an average of $2,053 because of the Bush tax cuts. The tax code became more progressive as the share paid by the top 10% increased to 46.4% from 46% — and the nation experienced 52 straight months of job growth after the cuts took effect. And since when is giving back some of what people pay in taxes “transferring wealth?”
Here’s what the Bush tax cuts look like from a different perspective. David Cay Johnston writes in the NYT:
* Under the Bush tax cuts, the 400 taxpayers with the highest incomes – a minimum of $87 million in 2000, the last year for which the government will release such data – now pay income, Medicare and Social Security taxes amounting to virtually the same percentage of their incomes as people making $50,000 to $75,000.
* Those earning more than $10 million a year now pay a lesser share of their income in these taxes than those making $100,000 to $200,000.
* The alternative minimum tax, created 36 years ago to make sure the very richest paid taxes, takes back a growing share of the tax cuts over time from the majority of families earning $75,000 to $1 million – thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars annually. Far fewer of the very wealthiest will be affected by this tax.
The analysis examined only income reported on tax returns. The Treasury Department says that the very wealthiest find ways, legal and illegal, to shelter a lot of income from taxes. So the gap between the very richest and everyone else is almost certainly much larger.
Interesting…
The U.S. government sued UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, to try to force disclosure of the identities of as many as 52,000 American customers who allegedly hid their secret Swiss accounts from U.S. tax authorities.
U.S. customers had 32,940 secret accounts containing cash and 20,877 accounts holding securities, according to the Justice Department lawsuit filed today in federal court in Miami. U.S. customers failed to report and pay U.S. taxes on income earned in those accounts, which held about $14.8 billion in assets during the middle of this decade, according to the court filing.
So it appears that David Cay Johnston was right: his numbers aren’t as accurate as they could be what with $14.8 billion being hidden and all. I like Karl Rove. He has politics in his veins, knows what he believes, why he believes it, and actively works to make his beliefs a reality (an expert in legislature and bureaucracy). I like Dick Cheney for the same reasons. Their politics suck, but that aside, they’re brilliant (think about what they got away with – that’s just what we know about). It’s no wonder Republicans feel the same degree of animosity for Rahm Emanuel that the Democrats feel for Rove or Cheney.
Meanwhile, the Drudge Report is sending countless hits to a blog post by Jake Tapper that includes a $338 billion tax increase on those making $250,000 or more annually. The tax hike is the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. I don’t know what to think about this. It’s annoying because there are better ways to design tax cuts. Hell, if they really cared about lowering taxes they would reform and simplify the tax code. Isn’t it sad how many of Obama’s to-be secretaries and other various Congressman have tax discrepancies? How many Republicans have suffered the same fate?
I for one am against tax cuts. You read that correctly. Tax cuts are supposed to be good because they stimulate the economy and put the power of that stimulation into the hands of the people. That’s nice, but the problem is that when the government has less tax revenue they acquire more debt. The government doesn’t spend less just because they have less, but instead take on more debt. Hillary was just in China encouraging them to buy more debt while ‘looking the other way’ on the subject of human rights. I’m not a huge human rights advocate; I would like my rights back first thank you very much. The point is that we are “mortgaging” what we believe in, our values, and ultimately this debt deteriorates our nation’s economic and financial security (this is not a winning strategy). So when taxes go up our government takes on less debt. It sucks. But “fiscal sanity” is a myth. It doesn’t exist anymore. Both parties embrace it and neither follow it.
Selling our country to the Chinese is not a prudent national defense policy. It’s the opposite of one. Raise taxes, again, and again, and again, and again, until somebody finally snaps and scares some fiscal sanity into Congress.
Black Dispatches: Slave Spies
Posted on: February 21, 2009
UPDATE: I found 2 transcripts of the same video clip. Here’s a link to Carl Azuz (student reporter) who apparently replayed Barbara Starr’s clip about Mr. Dagler. I looked for Ken on LexisNexis (back 100 years) and searched the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post back to the 19th century (yes I realize this is somewhat recent news) and got nothing. There’s 1 more transcript but it’s the same clip as Azuz’s except it’s from February 23. I checked CNN ImageSource and got nothing but I’m not signed up and don’t understand the difference between “personal use” and “professional use.” As a poli sci student about to graduate I don’t see a difference. Anyway, I would like to see this clip.
I’m going to reprint an article on CNN.com by Barbara Starr and Bill Mears that can be found at (2/20/09): http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/20/spy.slaves/index.html
WASHINGTON (CNN) — William Jackson was a slave in the home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis during the Civil War. It turns out he was also a spy for the Union Army, providing key secrets to the North about the Confederacy.
William Jackson, a slave, listened closely to Jefferson Davis’ conversations and leaked them to the North.
Jackson was Davis’ house servant and personal coachman. He learned high-level details about Confederate battle plans and movements because Davis saw him as a “piece of furniture” — not a human, according to Ken Dagler, author of “Black Dispatches,” which explores espionage by America’s slaves.
“Because of his role as a menial servant, he simply was ignored,” Dagler said. “So Jefferson Davis would hold conversations with military and Confederate civilian officials in his presence.”
Dagler has written extensively on the issue for the CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence .
In late 1861, Jackson fled across enemy lines and was immediately debriefed by Union soldiers. Dagler said Jackson provided information about supply routes and military strategy.
“In Jackson’s case, what he did was … present some of the current issues that were affecting the Confederacy that you could not read about in the local press that was being passed back and forth across local lines. He actually had some feel for the issues of supply problems,” Dagler said.
Jackson and other slaves’ heroic efforts have been a forgotten legacy of the war — lost amid the nation’s racially charged past and the heaps of information about the war’s historic battles. But historians over the last few decades have been taking an interest in the sacrifice of African-Americans during those war years.
Jackson’s espionage is mentioned in a letter from a general to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell refers to “Jeff Davis’ coachman” as the source of information about Confederate deployments. Video Watch grandson of slaves: “They call me Little Man”
Dagler said slaves who served as spies were able to collect incredibly detailed information, in large part because of their tradition of oral history. Because Southern laws prevented blacks from learning how to read and write, he said, the slave spies listened intently to minute details and memorized them.
“What the Union officers found very quickly with those who crossed the line … was that if you talked to them, they remembered a great more in the way of details and specifics than the average person … because again they relied totally on their memory as opposed to any written records,” he said.
Jackson wasn’t the only spy. There were hundreds of them. In some cases, the slaves made it to the North, only to return to the South to risk being hanged. One Union general wrote that he counted on black spies in Tennessee because “no white man had the pluck to do it.”
No one was better than Robert Smalls, a slave who guided vital supply ships in and out of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. He eventually escaped and provided the Union with “a turning of the forces in Charleston Harbor,” according to an annual report of the Navy secretary to President Lincoln.
“A debriefing of him gave … the Union force there the entire fortification scheme for the interior harbor,” Dagler said.
One of the most iconic spies was Harriet Tubman, who ran the Underground Railroad, bringing slaves to the North. In 1863, she was asked by the Union to help with espionage in South Carolina. She picked former slaves from the region for an espionage ring and led many of the spy expeditions herself.
“The height of her intelligence involvement occurred late in 1863 when she actually led a raid into South Carolina,” Dagler said. “In addition to the destruction of millions of dollars of property, she brought out over 800 slaves back into freedom in the North.”
As the nation marks Black History Month in February, Dagler said that history should include the sacrifices of the African-Americans who risked their lives for their nation. Many paid the ultimate sacrifice.
“They were all over the place, and no one [in the South] considered them to be of any value. Consequently, they heard and saw virtually everything done by their masters, who were the decision-makers,” Dagler said.
Whatever happened to William Jackson, the spy in Jefferson Davis’s house?
Unfortunately, that remains a great unknown.
“He simply disappeared from history, as so many of them have.”
More can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dispatches
I still can’t find any sign of Ken Dagler’s book. I would love to read it. That’s in part why I’m posting this, as a reminder.
Another article: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/black-dispatches/index.html
Alleviating Poverty
Posted on: February 15, 2009
I had an interesting idea, which led me to an even more interesting website. I was happy I wasn’t the first person to have this idea. I’m not sure what it was, but in a reading for my Poli Sci 421 class, Politics of Food and Hunger, I read about the Hassans in Bangladesh. The received a $138 dollar loan from a Microcredit bank in order to buy urea and other things they needed to improve their crop yield.
At the time I wondered, wouldn’t it be great if people like me (a college student working 15 hours a week as a pizza guy) could loan the Hassans the money they need to improve their crop and thus their livelihood. A quick google search brought me to Kiva.org, a website that allows people to finance micro-credit loans through PayPal. The implications for this are immense.
The First World can lend someone in the Third World money. Anyone can invest money into Yaneth’s crafts business (she’s already repaid one loan) and reap a benefit (profit).
The benevolent Democrat in you can put money aside to help alleviate poverty in LDCs while the evil Republican in you can take the profit from that loan, move it into a U.S. account, withdrawal it, and spend it in the local economy (perhaps at the farmer’s market). Both sides benefit from this transaction and thus both sides alleviate poverty (albeit slightly) in their respective regions.
Now imagine that 1 million people each put $25 toward micro-credit loans in the Third World. The risk is so widespread that even if someone thinks they might not be repaid, it’s not a loss that will be mourned. Write it off as a donation. I’m not sure if it’s possible in the U.S. but would be surprised if it wasn’t.
This is how to alleviate poverty the capitalist way, but it would only work on a widespread level. Provide those who repay or have a decent business plan with a loan and deprive those who don’t meet their obligation. Think about it.
For those who have not read Charles Krauthammer’s “Net-Zero Gas Tax” in this weeks Weekly Standard it is a must read. On a serious note, I’m a little left-leaning but I do enjoy The Weekly Standard and National Review. In fact, my next subscription will be National Review and it’s the only one missing. I even subscribe to Progressive. Why? Cause for $12 for 12 months I’m not interested in saying no. I love print journalism and because of articles like Krauthammer’s I am willing to support print journalism just for exposure to new ideas.
Ideas like this. I’ve known about the federal gas tax and how raising it could have benefits, but like your typical whiny gas guzzler I smile when it costs me $21 for 14 gallons in my ’96 Toyota Tacoma. That makes me happy. Think about that. Happiness, over cheap gas. That’s just strange.
Krauthammer writes that the average gas consumer uses 14 gallons per week. Week 1, reduce payroll taxes by $14/week. Week 2, impose a $1/gallon gas tax. This way “the reimbursement precedes the tax expenditure.” Elderly would receive the reduction through Social Security, the unemployed through unemployment insurance, the employed through payroll taxes. It’s brilliant in its simplicity. The government doesn’t get an extra penny from most while the benefits are enormous:
“A tax that suppresses U.S. gas consumption can have a major effect on reducing world oil prices. And the benefits of low world oil prices are obvious: They put tremendous pressure on OPEC, as evidenced by its disarray during the current collapse; they deal serious economic damage to energy-exporting geopolitical adversaries such as Russia, Venezuela, and Iran; and they reduce the enormous U.S. imbalance of oil trade which last year alone diverted a quarter of $1 trillion abroad.”
He further argues that a gas tax will make us more energy independent (when combined with nuclear, coal, and more drilling), will persuade the market to produce fuel-efficient cars (rendering CAFE standards useless), and stop dumping CO2 into the atmosphere (a self-proclaimed “agnostic” on man-made warming Krauthammer – like me – doesn’t think anything good will come from dumping tons of CO2 in the atmosphere).
In some parts he gets radical: $1.25-$1.50 gas tax. This would put the price of a gallon of gas at around $2.90-3.00. I’m a little less compassionate and think we should provide the rebate 3 weeks in advance and then jack the price of a gallon of gas to $4 for a week or two and then drop it to $3. By making up the difference and refreshing the “psychological impact” of $4/gallon gas the market will change. Some may argue that this imposes an unnecessary market distortion. However, as Krauthammer argues, the true distortions are CAFE standards and mandates for “greener” cars (in an auto bailout for instance) that have no market.
“This [Bush 43] administration made decisions that allowed the free market to operate as a barroom brawl instead of a prize fight,”
L. William Seidman, New York Times
This should be a national priority. It would affect those who are unemployed (and not receiving unemployment), illegal aliens, and commuters the most (not pointed out in the article). I should disclose that I drive less than 10 miles a day and get on average 240-280 miles per 15 gallon tank. This won’t affect me for another 6 months but I wouldn’t agree to it if I didn’t think that it would give the U.S. a political and/or economic edge over the energy-exporters. Hugo Chavez’s social programs are funded by oil revenues. Iran’s nuclear program is funded by oil revenues (something Krauthammer notes). Russia’s “balls” are funded by energy revenues (oil and natural gas, look into Gazprom – most recently their cutting off of Ukraine). Global power is important (so is balancing the trade deficit – seriously, just go read the article already) and if we are going to be a viable country next generation this should actually be very high on the priority list. This needs to be done by next month.
If Bush were an intelligent man he would perform this task in the final days of his presidency. There is very little hope of him achieving a respectable legacy in the short-term, and he has acknowledged that it will be in the long-term that his legacy is vindicated. Doing this would allow him to do something good for the country and after handing the reigns to Obama – who would probably defend the decision lending him more liberal-credibility – the program could continue with a distinctive bipartisan hue.
Besides, what driver doesn’t want fewer “idiots” on the road?
EDIT: Krauthammer writes that truckers and others might have to receive an extra rebate. This makes sense because higher shipping costs are passed on to the consumer and this is not what is needed during a recession.
Cognitive Coup 