Sunshine Over Their Shoulders Makes Me Happy

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Sunday January 01, 2012 · 5:02 PM PST

2012/01/01 · 17:02

Open government and full disclosure in the bright sunshine are civic ideals that deserve our constant attention. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons in the national interest to temporarily keep government actions from public disclosure, but people should still have the right to talk about what they know of those government actions and to continue to demand disclosure. Foreclosing debate on certain government actions has a chilling effect in other areas where debate is not only warranted, but urgently needed.

Shutting down debate also limits the acquisition and development of rhetorical intelligence. If you can't understand why your claim isn't evidence and why your evidence isn't proof, or worse, why an opponent's arguments win even though they shouldn't, you are vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation. The best way to hone those skills is with open and vigorous debate that lets in the sunshine of truth.

wiseacre

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Wednesday December 14, 2011 · 3:05 PM PST

2011/12/14 · 15:05

I've been reading all the accolades and thinking about my own situation. I'm often on a different wavelength than many others here. More times than I'd like I'll open my mouth and get ...crickets. Other times it rains anvils and pickaxes. But sometimes I connect, and then it's awesome. And even when I'm just lurking, I'm also learning.

wiseacre

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Thursday December 08, 2011 · 6:09 AM PST

2011/12/08 · 06:09

Criminal conspiracies are prosecuted in court daily. To prove a conspiracy, you need to show beyond a reasonable doubt that (1) two or more people agreed to commit a crime, and that (2) one of the people took one overt step in furtherance of the agreement. The overt step taken need not be criminal, and, since crooks don't usually memorialize their agreements in writing, the existence and terms of the agreement can be inferred from their acts. Inferences are not only permissible, they are essential in order to identify and prove a conspiracy took place. However, not just any old inference will do.

wiseacre

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Thursday October 20, 2011 · 3:57 AM PDT

2011/10/20 · 03:57

People keep talking about this thing called "love".

Based on all the crap going on in the world, and the horrible things that have happened in the past, I don't see any objective evidence that love exists. And I've never felt love myself, at least not the way it's been described by others.

If one can't prove love exists using the scientific method, and I've never experienced it personally, then to me all this talk about love is just myth, a fairytale to make people feel better about their lives.

Rational grownups have better things to do with their lives than waste time on superstitions. Love only exists if you can prove it does.

wiseacre

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Tuesday August 09, 2011 · 9:52 AM PDT

2011/08/09 · 09:52

Zaid Jilani at ThinkProgress went to a lot of trouble to get the goods on ALEC at their annual meeting in New Orleans a few days ago. I urge everyone to read the report and watch the video on RawStory of ThinkProgress reporters getting thrown out of the conference by security.

TP also got hold of a list of ALEC's corporate sponsors. There are the usual suspects, big energy, big pharma, big retailers. But I was surprised to see the level of participation of non-US based international corporations, from England (British Petroleum-estimated contribution $100,000), France (Sanofi-estimated contribution $25,000), Germany (Bayer-estimated contribution $50,000), and Japan (Takeda-estimated contribution $100,000). Maybe I'm naive, but if we're concerned that American corporations are writing model legislation and then sending in their robopoliticians to do their bidding, shouldn't we be even more concerned that foreign corporations are doing the same thing? Can it even be said with a straight face that the legislative members of ALEC are representing American interests, when they are funded by foreign corporations to such a significant extent? Isn't this violating some oath of office somewhere?

Do the Tea Partiers know that some of their biggest funders aren't American? Are they ok with that?

TP's list of documented ALEC contributors for this year's conference over the fold.

wiseacre

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Monday August 01, 2011 · 11:13 PM PDT

2011/08/01 · 23:13

Meet my new hero, Bill Maher, and his new motivational movie for the GOP! Perfection!

wiseacre

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Friday July 29, 2011 · 2:28 PM PDT

2011/07/29 · 14:28

No, I'm not claiming the long-term unemployed (LTUs) are entitled to a job with the government. Although that perspective has worked for us before in times of economic hardship. Like the CCC and the WPA. I'm saying I want to work, so how about you stop paying me unemployment benefits and hire me?

My unemployment benefits are due to run out completely in 3 months when I hit 99 weeks. Benefits after 26 weeks, as I understand it, are paid by the federal government and not state governments. I find it bewildering that the feds would rather pay me unemployment than hire me. I've applied for over 100 federal jobs in the last year and a half: I was qualified for all, well-qualified for most, and I was so well-qualified or overqualified for some that I find it hard to believe that there were others who were more qualified who applied for that same job.

What gives?

wiseacre

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Monday July 25, 2011 · 8:01 AM PDT

2011/07/25 · 08:01

This is a short diary and sorry if it's been reported elsewhere.

The New York Times is stating that Breivik

told police what there were “two further cells in our organization,” reporters were told.

wiseacre

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Sunday July 17, 2011 · 9:31 AM PDT

2011/07/17 · 09:31

I've been following the Murdoch implosion with epic schadenfreude, and, in slogging through the British press, I keep running across the British Values Survey and its new sociological categorization of persons according to values rather than class. This new model is called the Cultural Dynamics Values Modes Model - VM, for short.

Since the VM is loosely based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, it can be expected to yield useful information about other Western populations in addition to Great Britain (others have challenged Maslow's universality.)

In these new BVS-based categories of "Settler" "Prospector" and "Pioneer", I am guessing many Kossacks will end up under the "Pioneer" category. And if we do, ok, so what?

Poll

11 votes Show Results

According to the VM test, my mode is

11 votes Vote Now!

According to the VM test, my mode is

Roots (Settler)

0 votes

Smooth Sailing (Settler)

0 votes

Brave New World (Settler)

1 vote

Certainty First (Settler)

0 votes

Golden Dreamers (Prospector)

0 votes

Happy Followers (Prospector)

0 votes

Now People (Prospector)

0 votes

Tomorrow People (Prospector)

0 votes

Transitionals (Pioneer)

0 votes

Concerned Ethicals (Pioneer)

4 votes

Flexible Individualists (Pioneer)

0 votes

Transcenders (Pioneer)

4 votes

Pie

2 votes

For Baby Dennis, On Father's Day

wiseacre

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Sunday June 19, 2011 · 11:21 AM PDT

2011/06/19 · 11:21

You remember Baby Dennis, the former child star? At least vaguely, right? In the sailor suit, in some of those old movies from the 30's and 40's?

That was Dad.

wiseacre

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Saturday June 18, 2011 · 5:10 PM PDT

2011/06/18 · 17:10

National Geographic is reporting an unimaginable phenomenon:

Seven hundred and fifty light-years from Earth, a young, sunlike star has been found with jets that blast epic quantities of water into interstellar space, shooting out droplets that move faster than a speeding bullet.

wiseacre

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Wednesday June 15, 2011 · 11:01 AM PDT

2011/06/15 · 11:01

I just got turned down for health insurance by Aetna through AARP; they claim I am too risky to insure.

I last saw a doctor two years ago after I got H1N1. There were no complications. I've had minimal grad student insurance since then and never used it. It expires in August and I was looking for better coverage.

Two years previously, I saw a doctor when I broke a rib. No complications, no surgery, no drugs beyond a painkiller for a week. A year before that, I twisted my knee. Same story - no complications, no surgery, no drugs beyond a few days' worth of painkiller. That year I also got the flu with pneumonia treated with antibiotics. Uneventful recovery.

My last comprehensive physical in 2005 revealed no abnormalities whatsoever. The only time I've been hospitalized in my adult life has been when I gave birth 22 years ago.

But apparently I'm uninsurable.

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Sunshine Over Their Shoulders Makes Me Happy

Why I continue to show up

Conspiracy Corner

Do You Believe In Love? Prove It!

ALEC's International Funding

Bill Maher and the Soul of the GOP

One Solution to Long-Term Unemployment - Hello Feds?

Breivik Isn't Alone

Are Kossacks Pioneers?

For Baby Dennis, On Father's Day

Newborn Star Shooting Water Into Interstellar Space

Hardly Ever Get Sick? Uninsurable!