Archive for 2013

THE HEALTHCARE.GOV MESS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: “Putting things in perspective: March 21st 2010 to October 1 2013 is 3 years, 6 months, 10 days. December 7, 1941 to May 8, 1945 is 3 years, 5 months, 1 day. What this means is that in the time we were attacked at Pearl Harbor to the day Germany surrendered is not enough time for this progressive federal government to build a working webpage.”

MEN ON STRIKE, the Jewish edition. “When everything revolves around the women’s needs and wants, when women have only rights but men only have obligations, men often just up and quit. With good reason.”

SIPPICAN COTTAGE: Our $25,000 House. “Why would we move to such a place, you ask? We had become instantly broke, and the house was free. That’s a great combination. OK, not free; but we bought a fairly big, 1901 vintage, Queen Anne house for $24,400. I consider any house for sale for less than a Kia ‘free.'”

CAMPUS SEXISM: “The writer, Tara Culp-Resser, did not seem to realize that by her definition, the man can be considered a victim of sexual assault as much as the woman — leading to the absurd conclusion that they were raping each other.”

Plus:

The question of what is “rape” — or a “rape culture” — can be distracting. We’re talking about a university’s disciplinary code, not putting people in prison. The case at the link shows the problem of treating the female as the presumptive victim in drunken-but-otherwise-seemingly-consensual sex. But what’s so bad about treating them both as violators of a campus code forbidding drunken sex?

As I said the other day, it might help to ease up on the “rape culture” talk and discuss whether there’s a “bad sex” culture.

Whether or not there’s such a thing as “rape culture” aimed at repressing women, on campus there’s clearly a “rape talk culture” aimed at repressing men. A sensible approach would undermine this primary function.

OPENING UP A BOMB SHELTER sealed since 1961.

Two retractable cots hang from one wall in a cramped room that is illuminated by a single light bulb. Nearby is a crank for the air shaft; across the way are spigots for water stored in tanks.

In one corner is a low, odd-looking toilet sheltered behind a plastic shower curtain.

“Probably leads right into the aquifer,” Denham, 44, joked to the Austin American-Statesman (http://bit.ly/1bFWNe3) before pointing out a disabled periscope near the stairwell. “Perfect for the zombie apocalypse if it comes.”

Lined on shelves of the shelter — built by a retired Air Force colonel who was also something of an inventor — are supplies and equipment for surviving a week or two underground. That was the length of time civil defense officials estimated — at least for public consumption — necessary for radioactive fallout from a nuclear bomb to clear away.

Read the whole thing.