Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

EVOLUTION: Wonder how the creationist would deal with this

Awfully tough to saddle a dinosaur when the two species were millions of years apart as represented by this clock:

Sunday, August 14, 2011

OP ED: FRIEDMAN A Theory of Middle class rioting

A Theory of Everyting (Sort of) - NYTimes.com

For those who wonder about the rise of middle class rioting in the streets, this is among the best explanations I have seen.

Friday, May 20, 2011

UNEMPLOYMENT: Over/Under-qualified college grads

Why Can't Coellge Grads Find Better Jobs? - The Curious Capitalist - TIME.com

Sunday, March 20, 2011

UNEMPLOYMENT: Highest in 15-19 Age Range

Broken Dreams - The jobs's they won't get

Teen and young adult unemployment is at an all-time high. This is unsurprising when the entire workforce has faced major disruption. Nearing the end of a severe recession, the lack of jobs comes not only from the few positions available. Compounding the problem is a profound lack of prerequisite preparation for performing even the most minimally demanding workt

Friday, March 18, 2011

UNEMPLOYMENT: OpEd - Kruger

Kruger talks about the unemployed, saying that Washington has forgotten qpp qbout them;
He tells us : "It might not be so bad if the jobless could expect to find new employment fairly soon. But unemployment has become a trap, one that’s very difficult to escape, " and then this: I still don’t know why the Obama administration was so quick to accept defeat in the war of ideas, but the fact is that it surrendered very early in the game. In early 2009, John Boehner, now the speaker of the House, was widely and rightly mocked for declaring that since families were suffering, the government should tighten its own belt. That’s Herbert Hoover economics, and it’s as wrong now as it was in the 1930s. But, in the 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama adopted exactly the same metaphor and began using it incessantly."

Monday, February 28, 2011

EDUCATION Creationists trying again


The Scopes strategy: creationists try new tactics to promote anti-evolutionary teaching in public schools. Under the guise of "academic freedom" creationists are co-opting some old heroes of the fight to teach evolution in the classroom for their anti-science campaign


Tuesday, February 22, 2011

ECONOMY Market Crah Predicted around Christmas 2011

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Politicians lie. Bankers lie. Yes, they’re liars. But they’re not bad, it’s in their genes, inherited. Their brains are wired that way, warn scientists. Like addicts, they can’t help themselves. They want to sell stuff, get rich.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

IGNORANCE A Dialog With Conspiracy Nuts

Alice, Meet the Stupids Family

Shortly after the anniversary of he 9/11 attack, a writer had submitted an article calling for the nation to come together in the same spirit as had motivated us immediately following the actual attack, in 2001.
Apparently totally unable to focus on that content, a number of individuals reverted once again to try to prove that attack was a U,S. Government conspiracy. This is the dialog  between myself and a number of the advocates of this theory, taken directly from the comments appearing at that time. The term “Author,” is, at all times, referring to my comments or responses.

EMPLOYMENT - Job Growth

Where the Jobs Are - 2011

Sunday, January 9, 2011

POLITICS - Obama Administration

Misery With Plenty of Company - NYTimes.com

CRIME - Shooting: Rep Gifford Critical 6 Dead, 12 Wounded

Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Tucson: Did it stem from state of political discourse?

Pardon me for a totally different take on this whole situation, Tragic? Of course. But trying to pin the cause on Tea Party, Palin, Beck, et al, is absurd. There will always be crazies. People talking to voices, or seeing Hitler marching down the street. 

All of us rightfully worry about the surveillance under which we live, justified by the flimsiest of government justifications. Founders, in their constructing the Constitution, did not in their wildest dreams, have any idea of how the Fourth Amendment could possibly fail to protect the privacy of citizens.  Stifling the hate purveyors who dominate much of the media is no guarantee of protection against the crazies.  As a nation, we must somehow find the balance between the technological protections available to us, versus are right to be free from the prying eyes of government.

This will always be a constantly shifting and ever changing fine edge balanced between remaining unseen and unknown, against the protection which professionally managed technology can provide. if for example, YouTube had a built-in capability to identify word or audio combinations suggested in that the submittal was by someone who was potentially dangerous, we might have been warned in advance that this assailant was someone who should be carefully monitored.  Yet, all of us are concerned, and rightfully so, that the NSA has the technological capability, and engages in precisely the same activity, deployed against American citizens.

Does any of this answer the question of privacy?  No.  That said, it is that question which should be asked.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

OPED Revising history through writing

WHEN the new House of Representatives convened on Thursday, the Republican leadership kept its promise to start the session by reading the text of the Constitution aloud. This break from Congressional tradition had a polemical purpose: Representative Robert Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who came up with the idea, remarked that “lots of my constituents have said that Congress has gone beyond its powers granted in the Constitution.

OPED Revising history through writing

WHEN the new House of Representatives convened on Thursday, the Republican leadership kept its promise to start the session by reading the text of the Constitution aloud. This break from Congressional tradition had a polemical purpose: Representative Robert Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who came up with the idea, remarked that “lots of my constituents have said that Congress has gone beyond its powers granted in the Constitution.

CRIME Nebraska School Shooting

The new year is barely a week old, but the nation has already recorded its first deadly school shooting. 

On Wednesday, a 17-year-old student opened fire at Millard South High School in Omaha, sending students rushing to the kitchen to seek safety. The vice principal, Vicki Kaspar, was killed and the principal, Curtis Case, was seriously injured. The gunman, Robert Butler Jr., was later found dead in a car not far from the school, an apparent suicide.

POLITICS - Gibbs Leaves

Robert Gibbs: How the press secretary changed, and who will follow him

ECONOMY - UNEMPLOYMENT

The Job Market -- A lost Decade

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Anonymity and the Dark Side of the Internet

"[Recently written] is a new set of essays on the dark side of the Internet titled 'The Offensive Internet.'The question that drives the volume is 'what can be done about irresponsible information' spread by the Internet, a medium that allows slander to 'be done with a few keystrokes, with complete anonymity, and . . . with no fear that the Internet provider on whose website the slur is found will somehow be held responsible for incorrect . . . or defamatory statements'? In the course of the volume the Internet is characterized as a cesspool, a porn store, a form of pinkeye, a raunchy fraternity, a graffiti–filled bathroom wall, a haven for sociopaths, and the breeder of online mobs who are no better than 'masked Klan members' in their determination to 'interfere with victims’ basic rights.'”

Monday, January 3, 2011