Dick

Mark Halperin was suspended by MSNBC after calling the president a “dick.” James Fallows puts the whole thing in proper perspective:

Of course Mark Halperin should not be fired for saying on MSNBC that President Obama had been “kind of a dick” when sounding angry at Republicans during his press conference yesterday. I say that notwithstanding the certainty that if some other “mainstream” journalist had said the same about George W. Bush on MSNBC or CNN, the outrage would never have been allowed to ebb on Fox and the Limbaugh show.

The real problem is the dickishness of our mainstream political analysis, especially from the “savviest” practitioners. Back during my days as media critic, I argued in Breaking the News and a related Atlantic cover story that the laziest and ultimately most destructive form of political coverage came when journalists seemed to imagine that they were theater critics or figure-skating judges. The what of public affairs didn’t interest them. All they cared about was the how.

In this case, the “what” of Obama’s press conference — the unbelievable recklessness of mainly House Republicans in inviting the largest self-inflicted economic wound in American history — deserves every bit of frustration Obama showed, and lots more. In the long run we’ll have some sense of whether Obama’s typical surreal unflappability, whatever its origins (I have my theories, but for another time), was the wisest long-term response to today’s Republican party — and whether this unusual flash of emotion worked in directing public attention to a looming and entirely unnecessary blow to America’s wellbeing.

But the real news of the press conference, of course, was the economic, financial, political, and Constitutional showdown Obama was discussing. Not to understand that, and to act as if this was a free-skate program where a contestant should be judged on poise, costume, and sticking the landings, is just dickish.

And, I guess if there’s one lesson to be drawn from this, it’s that none of us at V+V will ever be invited to join the MSNBC crack political news team, and if by some unlikely event we were, we’d be canned within the first hour.

Fugazi, meet Wu Tang.

Latest tracks by WUGAZI

This is just kind of incredible. Yeah, it’s a Fugazi/Wu Tang mash-up. Yeah it is.

There will be a full album coming soon. It’s called “13 Chambers.” (Get it?)

Morning Constitutional – Thursday, 30 June 2011

Former bachelor Brad Womack from the show, “The Bachelor” is a bachelor once again after the March 2011 engagement has been called off. Now, your Morning Constitutional.

John 14:27

I park the car behind the house, on the grass on the far side of the driveway. I come in through the back door. I’m expected. The back door leads directly to the kitchen, and nothing’s cooking. It’s only 11:15, so nothing would be.

No one greets me. The long walk from the door through the kitchen takes years. I remember last week. I remember how frail she looked, how much frailer than the week before, and the week before that, and the month before that. My foot hits the threshold of the living room. It touches carpet. My shoes are so loud, they’ve been crashing into the linoleum, but she knew I was here the moment I pulled into the driveway. Her bed looks out onto the street, and she saw my car.

Continue reading »

Hump-Day Song of the Week: Gone by Bouncing Souls

Morning Constitutional – Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Arlene, the first storm of the 2011 hurricane season, is slated to hit Mexico’s shoreline late tonight. Now, your Morning Constitutional:

The Yemen Air Force accidentally bombed a bus, killing four innocent people and wounding twelve.

Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan who is wanted for genocide by many Western nations, was welcomed with open arms in China.

Greece passed legislation to pull them out of debt which includes large tax hikes and deep spending cuts.  Plenty of public unrest.

Palestine has a soccer team, and they beat Afghanistan 2-0 in the first round of World Cup qualifiers.

Bank of America agreed to set aside $14 Billion to pay investors whose portfolios tanked do to bad mortgages (No, this pot of cash is in response to the push to help stop foreclosures and assist the borrowers who got screwed).

After Michele Bachman used Tom Petty’s “American Girl” at her official presidential candidacy announcement, the all American rocker  requested she cease-and-desist from using the song any further. (Also, the lady has a way with facts, not sure Petty knows what he is in for)

NY Times/CBS Poll puts Obama’s approval ratings at 47 approve, 44 disapprove.  Also, republican voters are unhappy with lack of good candidates in their presidential primary.

The Supreme Court will hear a case to determine whether law enforcement can use GPS tracking devices without a warrant.

Medicare’s bill for hospice care rose to more than $12 billion in 2009 from $2.9 billion in 2000, one of many signs that health care costs will continue to rise.

And, monarch butterflies have a magnetic sense of orientation, so maybe you do too.

Marriage Equality

Linda Hirshman brings up an interesting rationale for depriving same-sex couples marriage equality: the idea that “traditional marriage” is actually just a name for “subordinating women into wives.”

As the arguments for heterosexual marriage inequality were used to fight same-sex marriage, so the success of same-sex marriage is a living refutation of the argument that marriage requires congenital natural inequality with women on the bottom. Even the campaign for same-sex marriage, consisting of a torrent of moving stories about the happy same-sex couples who want to get married, is a feminist windfall. Maybe marital equality and happiness aren’t so incompatible after all.

As it turns out, it’s the only argument I’ve ever heard that makes any sense. Too bad it’s absolutely terrible, and thank god it’s exceptionally out of date.

Chewing gum makes you smarter, happier

Paul Kedrosky points to a new study showing that chewing gum makes you (not your teacher, of course) smarter and happier:

RATIONALE:

Recent research suggests that chewing gum may improve aspects of cognitive function and mood. There is also evidence suggesting that chewing gum reduces stress. It is important, therefore, to examine these two areas and to determine whether contextual factors (chewing habit, type of gum, and personality) modify such effects.

OBJECTIVES:

The aims of the present study were: (i) to determine whether chewing gum improved mood and mental performance; (ii) to determine whether chewing gum had benefits in stressed individuals; and (iii) to determine whether chewing habit, type of gum and level of anxiety modified the effects of gum.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS:

A cross-over study involving 133 volunteers was carried out. Each volunteer carried out a test session when they were chewing gum and without gum, with order of gum conditions counterbalanced across subjects. Baseline sessions were conducted prior to each test session. Approximately half of the volunteers were tested in 75 dBA noise (the stress condition) and the rest in quiet. Volunteers were stratified on chewing habit and anxiety level. Approximately, half of the volunteers were given mint gum and half fruit gum. The volunteers rated their mood at the start and end of each session and had their heart rate monitored over the session. Saliva samples were taken to allow cortisol levels (good indicator of alertness and stress) to be assayed. During the session, volunteers carried out tasks measuring a range of cognitive functions (aspects of memory, selective and sustained attention, psychomotor speed and accuracy).

RESULTS:

Chewing gum was associated with greater alertness and a more positive mood. Reaction times were quicker in the gum condition, and this effect became bigger as the task became more difficult. Chewing gum also improved selective and sustained attention. Heart rate and cortisol levels were higher when chewing which confirms the alerting effect of chewing gum.

CONCLUSIONS:

Overall, the results suggest that chewing gum produces a number of benefits that are generally observed and not context-dependent. In contrast to some previous research, chewing gum failed to improve memory. Further research is now required to increase our knowledge of the behavioral effects of chewing gum and to identify the underlying mechanisms.

Tax cuts don’t create jobs

Republicans like to say they can’t raise taxes because doing so would kill jobs. They’re wrong.

The chart above, from Center for American Progress, shows clearly that the greatest years of job growth occurred when top marginal tax rates were the highest.

In fact, if you ranked each year since 1950 by overall job growth, the top five years would all boast marginal tax rates at 70 percent or higher. The top 10 years would share marginal tax rates at 50 percent or higher. The two worst years, on the other hand, were 2008 and 2009, when the top marginal tax rate was 35 percent. In the 13 years that the top marginal tax rate has been at its current level or lower, only one year even cracks the top 20 in overall job creation.

Raise taxes, create jobs. Doesn’t sound obviously correct, but becomes apparent after investigating.

Building bike and pedestrian infrastructure creates more jobs than building for cars

Meagan Cahill notes a new study showing that projects to build bike and pedestrian infrastructure create signficantly more jobs than more roads for just cars:

On average, the “road-only” projects evaluated created 7.8 jobs per million, while the “bicycling-only” projects provided 11.4 jobs per million. For example, a roadway-focused project with no bicycle or pedestrian components in Santa Cruz, Calif. generated 4.94 jobs per $1 million spent. In contrast, a bicycle-focused project in Baltimore, Md. produced 14.35 jobs per million.

Of course, multi-modal transportation projects also have other purposes, like lessening our need for fossil fuels, encouraging exercise, and increasing safety.

The arc of the moral universe is long

…but it bends toward justice.

Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin does a remarkable job charting the past few decades and notes:

We’ve certainly come a long way over the last half-century. In 1960, homosexuality was a criminal act in every state and territory in the union. By 2000, when Vermont enacted civil unions, more than a third of the U.S. population lived in states where gay people were still legally criminals. All that change of course with the 2003Lawrence v. Texas decision. Gay people were no longer criminals, but they weren’t recognized in any other way either.

The past decade has been a very slow march toward correcting that.

It sure has been a hell of a decade, at least in one regard.

Also, just remember that the New York state senate is Republican-led. This makes it the firs time a Republican-led legislature conferred more rights to non-heterosexuals. Mr Speaker: Are you watching? It could be you as well making history.

Other conservatives are coming around. Even David Frum, former special assistant to President George W. Bush, has come around:

Most conservatives have reacted with calm — if not outright approval — to New York’s dramatic decision.

Why?

The short answer is that the case against same-sex marriage has been tested against reality. The case has not passed its test.

….

If people like me had been right, we should have seen the American family become radically more unstable over the subsequent decade and a half.

Of course, nobody sane actually expected that to happen.

Whatever happened to video dating services?

Before okStupid, iMelody, Watch.com, hell, MyFace, and all those other “on-line” dating services, there was good, old-fashioned video dating. Instead of stupid profiles and words—oh so many words!—you got true, immersive media: the motion picture. Talkies even! What kind of low-rent Luddite dystopia have we moved toward? What’s next—reading newspapers on Kindles? WE DON’T HAVE TO READ ANYMORE WE HAVE THE FOX NEWS AM I RIGHT

Which brings me to this, on the off chance you still haven’t seen it. Which I find hard to believe.

Now, go have a excellent weekend.

A Brief History of the Corporation

Probably should be required reading:

On 8 June, a Scottish banker named Alexander Fordyce shorted the collapsing Company’s shares in the London markets. But a momentary bounce-back in the stock ruined his plans, and he skipped town leaving £550,000 in debt. Much of this was owed to the Ayr Bank, which imploded. In less than three weeks, another 30 banks collapsed across Europe, bringing trade to a standstill. On July 15, the directors of the Company applied to the Bank of England for a £400,000 loan. Two weeks later, they wanted another £300,000. By August, the directors wanted a £1 million bailout.  The news began leaking out and seemingly contrite executives, running from angry shareholders, faced furious Parliament members. By January, the terms of a comprehensive bailout were worked out, and the British government inserted its czars into the Company’s management to ensure compliance with its terms.

If this sounds eerily familiar, it shouldn’t. The year was 1772, exactly 239 years ago today, the apogee of power for the corporation as a business construct. The company was the British East India company (EIC). The bubble that burst was the East India Bubble. Between the founding of the EIC in 1600 and the post-subprime world of 2011, the idea of the corporation was born, matured, over-extended, reined-in, refined, patched, updated, over-extended again, propped-up and finally widely declared to be obsolete. Between 2011 and 2100, it will decline — hopefully gracefully — into a well-behaved retiree on the economic scene.

You have the whole weekend to read the rest. There will be an exam.

Ever seen water flow right through concrete?

Now you have. 1500 gallons of water in 5 minutes.

Friday Funny: Zagats

Probably the greatest SNL sketch of all time.

For some reason, they’re having push-up contests on the New York State Senate floor

The above image tweeted by City Hall News, and hashtagged #gettingbatty.

The New York State Senate is beyond its scheduled term considering same-sex marriage. Here’s pretty much where it goes from here from PolitickerNY.

Ladies and gentlemen, the worst thing ever

Yup. It’s the trailer to the new Footloose remake. In case you were wondering how they’d pull it off, this is how they failed.

Jesus Christ it looks terrible. And I don’t even mean terrible for Hollywood. I mean terrible for Yemen.

Looks like some filmmakers got together to protest the remake by making their own remake. It can’t be any worse, at least.

Better knowing your district; or, how redistricting can actually suck

Republican Illinois Congressman Tim Johnson has been attempting the unbelievable: calling every single one of his 300,000-or-so constituents. However, the year is now 2011, which means—you guessed it—redistricting, or, for those who don’t pay attention to every little thing about politix, redrawing his congressional district to account for changes in the population highlighted by last year’s census. Anyways:

Johnson calls from the airport. He calls from the treadmill. Over 10 years, this habit has cost him a vast chunk of his life and left him with little legacy of landmark legislation. But, if nothing else, it has meant he really knows the people in his district.

Or, at least, he used to.

This year, the Illinois legislature has drawn a new district for Johnson, leaving out a vast number of the people he’s been calling. If he gets reelected and wants to keep up the practice, he’ll have to start again with hundreds of thousands of strangers.

Morning Constitutional – Thursday, 23 June 2011

Good morning… if it is a good morning, which I doubt.  I’m feeling a bit Eeyore-ish today, not enough sleep and a bit fuzzy in the head.  But speaking of Eeyore, the new Winnie the Pooh movie coming out this summer looks pretty cute, and John Cleese is in it, too.  What?  You’re not five and therefore don’t care?  Fine.  Here’s some news:

President Obama outlined his plan for Afghanistan, which would involve bringing home 33,000 ‘surge’ troops.

France plans to follow the US timetable for withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan.

Alleged Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger was taken into custody by the FBI after 16 years of evading capture.

The unlikely duo of Barney Frank and Ron Paul band together to introduce a bill that would legalize marijuana and allow states to set up their own rules for governing its use.

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has been released after three months in jail on charges of tax evasion–though many believe he was detained due to his vocal criticism of the Communist Party.

The Winklevi twins have dropped their appeal of a settlement with Mark Zuckerberg.

Self-help author James Ray was found guilty of negligent homicide in the case of three people who died while participating in a sweat lodge ceremony he operated.

J.K. Rowling will sell the Harry Potter series in e-book form for the first time, through a new website, Pottermore.

Opponents of San Francisco’s proposed ban on male infant circumcision have sued to get the measure off the ballot.

While not running for president, Donald Trump did achieve another dubious distinction: he’s now the highest paid reality show star ever.

Should the lady tennis players at Wimbledon stop their unseemly grunting?

From the Desk of Duh-Inducing Research, a new study from Harvard tells us that eating French fries and potato chips can cause weight gain.

Finally, US Airways’ confusing dress code for men: baggy pants revealing underwear are not all right (and warrant removal from plane if not pulled up), but wearing just women’s underwear with no pants on top is a-okay.

No, Thank YOU! (Sappy Human Interest Story of the Day)

As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m now in possession of an oh-so-endearing forehead scar.  It’s right in the middle, too, so it looks kind of like the first zig in Harry Potter’s lightning scar.  Or, as 6-year-old N. puts it, “please can you show me your Frankenstein scrape again?”

In addition to the aesthetic issue, there’s also the fact that I’m supposed to keep my scar out of the sun for, oh, about a year, to make sure it doesn’t burn (which would make the scarring worse).  So I dug around my scarf collection, bought a few cheap headbands, and, most fun, used the occasion as an excuse for my first shopping foray on Etsy.  Believe me when I say I’m not much for shopping, online or otherwise (in stores, I have about a 20 minute limit before I get extremely cranky), but Etsy is addictive.  I ordered a few things from a few places, including a sweet vintage sun hat.

I’d been looking forward to the mail for a few days now, and today my first package arrived, from the totally wonderful EMBERvintage.  Girls (or dudes shopping for girls), check it out, seriously.  So much adorableness.

This picture makes me feel so freaking warm and fuzzy.  Hand-drawn thank-you note, assuring me I’ve earned good karma by shopping vintage; multi-colored tissue paper wrapping; plus a freebie: earrings and bracelet with “traditioanl Buddhist meditation/prayer beads” from another Etsy vendor.

And the hat is great.  Works with brim up or down and I think avoids the “why are you wearing that hat and not working in a field?” or “shouldn’t you be at the beach in a hat like that?” sun hat conundrum.  I also got a rad mini skirt from the same shop, which I’m equally excited about wearing.

Bottom line: I’m fairly certain no clothing purchase has ever made me happier.