QUANTIFIED: How Unpopular Is Barack Obama? More Unpopular Than You Think. “Outside of a handful of states–California (49/48), New York (50/47), Massachusetts (50/47), Maryland, which benefits from the D.C. boom (56/43)–the numbers are brutal. Even blue states like Minnesota (40/57) and Oregon (44/54) have had it with Obama. And in his last redoubts, California et al., Obama is not much more than breaking even.”
Archive for 2014
October 10, 2014
October 9, 2014
MICKEY KAUS: Moe Tucker Conservatives?
Wickham focuses on the flip-flop and contradiction angles, but maybe UKIP has backed into an intriguing model for a 21st century First World party, namely fighting against all the modern forces pulling the economy and the culture apart. The forces: Technology and trade increase income inequality (UKIP’s Nigel Farage: “The country’s got a big, big problem and in the course of the last decade the ‘rich’ have got remarkably richer.”) Uncontrolled immigration brings discordant cultures and lower wages, making it harder for unskilled workers to live traditional, ordinary middle class lives. Even if wages weren’t going down, it would be harder to have social equality when incomes depend increasingly on smarts, skills and knowledge. Income differences take on a nasty new edge. Endless, inconclusive wars — disorienting in themselves — increase the gap between military and civilian culture, between those who serve and those who don’t.
Not sure I agree with Kaus’s analysis here, but he’s onto something.
#GAMERGATE WRITING FROM CATHY YOUNG: The Gender Games: Sex, Lies, and Videogames.
YEAH, DON’T DO THIS: ‘I Have Ebola’ Prankster Panics Airline Passengers, Prompts Full Hazmat Response.
THE “MARGIN OF FRAUD” JUST EXPANDED: Supreme Court blocks Wisconsin’s voter ID law. “In a related action, a district court judge in Texas ruled that state’s voter ID law is racially discriminatory and violates the Voting Rights Act. The state attorney general’s office said it would appeal.”
MICHAEL TOTTEN: The Walking Dead in an Age of Anxiety: Why we’re obsessed with zombies.
Well, it’s a good idea to be prepared.
THE HILL: Cruz Rallies Kansas Conservatives. “Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) waded into the Kansas Senate race Thursday, touting beleaguered Republican incumbent Pat Roberts as the contest’s only true conservative. The conservative hero’s support is crucial as Roberts tries to energize his campaign and ward off a challenge from well-funded independent Greg Orman in a race that could jeopardize the GOP’s hopes of winning Senate control.”
Orman’s as much an “independent” as Bill Maher is. Plus: “Cruz noted that when he waged a 21-hour filibuster to protest ObamaCare last year, Roberts was one of only a handful of senators who came to the floor to support him.” I would have preferred Milt Wolf, but I think it’s important that Dems not control the Senate.
SEX IS SEX, but money is money. “I didn’t come from Russia to the United States so that I could live in fucking Illinois!”
SOCIAL MEDIA and the magic number.
GET READY FOR “BAD LUCK” AT THE Amazon Emergency Prep Store. Plus, Emergency & Long-Term Storage Food Deals.
Plus, Fall Deals on Men’s Shoes. Also, Women’s Shoes.
Plus, Generators and Portable Power for Storm Season. Winter is coming.
#RAPECULTURE: Female teacher who sought sex with 10-year-old boy walks free.
A primary school teacher who wanted to have sex with her 10-year-old student, and had his name tattooed on her chest, has walked free from court.
County Court judge Mark Taft said he was at a complete loss to understand why mother of eight Diane Brimble, 47, had engaged in “such utterly inappropriate conduct which must dismay every parent”.
“You breached the trust reposed in you by [the boy’s] parents who properly expected that a classroom teacher would care for their son in a professional manner,” Judge Taft said on Thursday when sentencing Brimble on a two-year community correction order and 200 hours of unpaid community work.
Brimble will be placed on the sex offenders register for eight years, be assessed and treated for any mental health condition, take part in offender treatment programs and has lost her career as a teacher.
It’s hard to teach women not to rape when the consequences are so small. One doubts a male teacher would have gotten such lenient treatment.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Couple Had Sex In Back Seat Of Police Cruiser. “After being arrested, a Wisconsin couple had sex in the back of a police cruiser, an encounter that was interrupted when a cop heard the woman ‘begin to moan loudly’ while her legs were ‘touching the ceiling’ of the vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.”
Well, to a trained investigator that sort of clue is unmistakable.
IT’S COME TO THIS: Schools Ban Swings Because Everything Is Dangerous. “In any case, schools that eviscerate their playgrounds are actually putting their kids at risk—just a different kind of risk. Think obesity. Depression. Diabetes. One thing we know that combats all three is playing outdoors: an activity that has included swinging since Tarzan’s time.”
WELL, I CERTAINLY HOPE SO: Are We Overthinking The Dangers Of Artificial Intelligence?
GOOD NEWS: Texas Deputy Tests Negative For Ebola. “The sheriff’s deputy who went into the apartment where an Ebola victim was living tested negative for the virus, the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed Thursday afternoon.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE: 10 Recipes Even You Can’t Screw Up.
AT AMAZON, fall deals on Men’s Clothing.
Plus, bestsellers in Grocery. Stock up!
A GUN THAT Makes And Fires Paper Airplanes.
BRING BACK RECESS: How Exercise Can Boost Young Brains.
TALK ABOUT BEING DESPERATE TO HOLD ONTO CUSTOMERS: Comcast got me fired after billing dispute, says California man.
DIDN’T HOWARD WOLLOWITZ INVENT THIS ALREADY? We Are Getting Close to a Robot Hand That Grips—and Feels.
PANIC AT THE DISCO: Ebola Fears Drive LaGuardia’s Airplane Cleaners to Strike.