Good morning, everybody. As I write this, Portugal just creamed PRK by a whopping 7-0. Sweet Jesus. Anyways, here\’s your morning constitutional: A worker on the Deepwater Horizon rig claims to have told BP that he found a leak on the rig just weeks before the explosion. Russia has begun to cut off natural gas to its neighbor Belarus, saying Belarus owes it over $200m. Poland\’s presidential election is heading into a runoff, after no candidate was able to win enough votes to win outright. In Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos easily won the presidency yesterday with 69...
Continue reading...Poplicola
Uh-oh, SpaghettiOs
If you’ve got some SpaghettiOs in your pantry, you may want to take a look at this: Campbell Soup Co. is recalling nearly 15 million pounds of canned SpaghettiOs with meatballs because of possible under-processing, the U.S. agriculture department said. The recall includes 14.75-ounce cans with a use-by date between June 2010 and December 2011 of three varieties of the product: “SpaghettiOs with Meatballs,” “SpaghettiOs A to Z with Meatballs” and “SpaghettiOs Fun Shapes with Meatballs (Cars).” Consumers who have purchased those products with a plant code of “EST4K” should not eat them and should return them...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is from Roger \”Life of the Party\” Cohen, who in...
Continue reading...Morning Constitutional – Friday, June 18 2010
Good morning, everybody. The NBA has a new champion. Now, your morning constitutional: The interim leader of Kyrgyzstan says that the toll of the recent ethnic violence could be as much as ten times worst than previously believed. Democrats, while trying to restrict special interests, make loopholes for special interests. Liberal Senators threaten to abandon energy legislation if it does not include a price on carbon. Slate: Pick up just about any novel and you\’ll find a throwaway reference to a dog, barking in the distance. North Korea fans actually Chinese actors. A Republican-led filibuster was successful...
Continue reading...More transparency… unless you like guns.
Today in hypocrisy: finally, a cause liberal and conservative interest groups can rally together in opposition to. I’m no expert by any means on campaign finance, but here’s how I understand the story thus far: Supreme Court issues ruling lifting restrictions on campaign funding by corporations. General outcry ensues. Congress resolves to Do Something. Something takes the form of the DISCLOSE Act, which would require corporations, unions, and non-profits to report their top donors (defined as anyone who gives them $1,000). It also would require organizations to identify themselves in ads, and the orgs’ top donors to...
Continue reading...Dale Peterson wants you to vote for somebody else
Dale Peterson, who we mentioned earlier during his race for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner, may not have won the primary, but he is not going gentle into that good night. Nay, he’s got somebody he wants the fine folk of Alabama to vote for: John McMillan. As long as it\’s not dummy Dorman Grace. And he really “blasts” the point home. Don’t you wish you had Dale Peterson watching your back?
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is a long one from Gail \”The Colander\” Collins, who...
Continue reading...New York Times Columnist Line of the Day
If you’re one of the four-or-so frequent readers of this here blog, chances are you also occasionally check out the New York Times op-ed page. You may even know the names: Thomas “Friedman’s Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose” Friedman, Gail “The Colander” Collins, Nicholas “The Dark Crystal” Kristof, &c. Well, I’ve decided to devote a daily feature to these folks, by daily pointing out one line that is either awesome, funny, insightful, intelligent, ridiculous, or utterly divorced from reality. I hope you enjoy. Today\’s is from Tawmy \”Friedman Waffles\” Friedman, who in his column...
Continue reading..."There is no doubt, there is nothing equivocal, there are no ambiguities. What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong."
British Prime Minister David Cameron today apologized in Parliament for the events of Bloody Sunday, after Lord Saville’s inquiry was finally completed and released. From the Guardian: The prime minister told a sombre Commons: “The conclusions of this report are absolutely clear. There is no doubt, there is nothing equivocal, there are no ambiguities. What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong.” “Some members of our armed forces acted wrongly. The Government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of our armed forces and for that, on behalf of the Government – and indeed...
Continue reading...Homeownership sometimes isn't so good for society
Ryan Avent takes a look at Felix Salom’s arguments about the benefits of homeownership, but finds that sometimes, its societal benefits are a little overstated: It’s clearly right that homeowners take an active interest in local policy in an effort to protect and enhance local services and the value of their homes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that homeowners are generating societal benefits. Take schools, for example. Homeowners take many actions to boost the performance of local schools, both because they’re interested in obtaining a quality education for their children and because school quality is capitalized into...
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