On August 14, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said of the new law “[t]his landmark law will strengthen our ability to prevent unsafe toys from being sold, remove from the shelves more quickly products that are found to be […]
Archive | January, 2009
New data: under Bush, income for 400 richest Americans doubled
I know a man, a man of a conservative bent, who gets downright irate anytime you use some variation or another of “tax cuts for the rich” in conversation. He can’t be taking it personally, I don’t suppose, since he isn’t rich and, as far as I can tell, he has no prospects for getting […]
Duh of the Day
People say the funniest things. In the latest Lefsetz Letter, Bob Lefsetz, incredulous at how little play the new Antony & the Johnsons disc has gotten in the US, wonders: Are Europeans just that more sophisticated, or does radio suck just that badly in the U.S? I can’t speculate on the first part of the […]
Matthews repairing 'balanced' cred with…imbalance
by Brad Jacobson If you’re Chris Matthews and you’re attempting to regain a reputation for being “fair and balanced” after famously exhibiting excitement about Barack Obama and his presidential campaign, what do you do? How about facilitating a discussion about Obama’s proposed stimulus plan with two lawmakers from the same party, the Republican Party? That’s […]
Photography – Moon and Venus
by Dawn Farmer Sliver of the Moon and Venus
Whom will President Obama appoint as ambassadors?
Much of President Barack Obama’s pre-election stump speeches focused on the perceived need to reinvigorate America’s moral leadership around the world. Indeed, rhetoric on the White House website says, “President Obama and Vice President Biden will renew America’s security and standing in the world through a new era of American leadership.” Critical first steps, many […]
Book about happy drugs will make readers happy—Review: Pharmakon by Dirk Wittenborn
Dirk Wittenborn’s exploration of the drug culture—not the flashy counter-culture of the 1960s but the mainstream medicate-every-problem culture that arose in the 1980s—is at once a biting indictment of social values and a touching portrait of an unfulfilled family. Wittenborn’s Pharmakon manages to do all this and more. The story begins at the crossroads where […]
900 days
Today marks the breaking of the siege of Leningrad, and President Medvedev choose the moment to announce that Russia would attempt to finally calculate Soviet losses during World War II. It will be a large number, but it will just be a number. Such a scale is necessary to witness in some way or another. […]
Reality.org's new ad on the Washington Post a stroke of genius
Clean coal does not exist, contrary to what coal giants Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, and the coal-industry group American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy (ACCCE) claim. The Reality campaign is trying to cut off the clean coal disinformation beast at the knees, and they deserve a great deal of credit for facing it head-on. But […]
Fed up with Fed
by Rick Herschlag Are zero-interest T-bills actually the antidote to usury? Last month, the U.S. Treasury began offering a four-week T-bill with a return of zero point zero percent. That’s growth we can all be proud of. Apparently, the money will be kept in a king size mattress in the Federal Reserve Bank basement. The […]
Photography – Light Bulb
by Dawn Farmer On this date in 1880 Thomas Edison received patent 223,898 for the Electric Lamp. Won’t take many guesses to work out where this patent has been applied with enormous enthusiasm. Vegas Baby!
TunesDay: that new old sound
If you pay attention to my music entries, you may have noticed a recurrent theme. It seems a lot of the bands I hear these days, many of which I really like, remind me of bands from the past. Like The Mary Onettes: I recently tripped across one such example, Sweden’s The Mary Onettes. They […]
Just say "No" to honest, open debate
Out in the west Texas town of El Paso, where bags of drugs are simply thrown over the border from Juarez to be retrieved from back yards on the US side, things almost took a turn for the worst. The City Council decided that the terrible violence of Juarez and its creep across the border […]
Worst marriage ever: Bloom v. Roth revisited
Stage and film star Claire Bloom and author Philip Roth took no prisoners when their 17-year relationship ended in a firestorm. When one of the partners in a marriage is a man who’s been called “a gleeful misogynist” –- in a complimentary article, no less –- it comes as no surprise when their union is […]
ArtSunday: Microsoft and the end of culture
Verily, we have arrived at the end of all culture. Perhaps predictably, the culprit is technology. Or, to be a bit more specific, the culprit is Microsoft, which has now infused the art of songwriting with the same kind of magic and warmth you’ve come to expect from Excel. Microsoft is pitching software designed for […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- Profiling the Tea Party: In defense of the IRS. Sorta. Or not.
- Saturday Video Roundup: “Imagine the Band,” by John Lennon and Wings
- The Rest is Noise (6)—Descent into the Maelstrom
- I hate handguns, but I have still considered owning one
- Redneck jokes are racist
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
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Samuel Smith: One more thing. Re: Organizing for Action and othe…
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wufnik: I tend to agree. There are a couple of other thing…
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Jim Booth: May be much to what you say, here, Wuf. Think abou…
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Frank Dilatush: Interesting Sam, I thought I spoke _directly_ to t…
