Weekend Tids and Bits

I KNOW I PUT IT SOMEWHERE… Lou Dobbs, the often-controversial CNN anchor resigned and there’s talk he might make a run for the Senate from New Jersey, where he has a home, or for president in the 2012 race. Dobbs, whose views on immigration and whether or not President Obama is a U.S. citizen stirred much controversy must be  making double sure that he has all the documentation proving he’s the native Texan he says he is.

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WHAT BUTTON PLEASE STARTS THIS WATER PLANT?  The New York Times is reporting that lots of high-tech infrastructure donated to rebuild Iraq and funded by American tax dollars is confronting a serious problem: the Iraqis don’t know how to run the damned things. Read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/world/middleeast/21reconstruct.html?hp

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WE MIGHT HAVE A PROBLEM HERE seems to the stance of the Department of Defense after Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 and wounded more than 30 in a Nov. 5 shooting spree at Fort Hood, apparently sparked by his radical Islamist beliefs. The department announced a 45-day probe to see if there were gaps in the procedures that might have flagged Hasan as a threat. Ordinary civilians might see more than a dozen dead bodies, a trail of peer complaints and suspicious e-mails and conclude that there were  gaps, but the DOD has its methods.

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WE REALLY HAVE A PROBLEM HERE when the breathless media buzz is over how much of the Tool That Did The Deed will be on display in Levi Johnston’s Playgirl shoot, apparently concluded last week.  Johnston is the father of a baby, whose mother is Bristol Palin, whose mother is Sarah Palin, who failed to be elected Vice President of The United States and so seems to be running for President. All of which seems to make perfect sense to folks in certain media and political circles.

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LAST WEEK’S STUFF:

·        Medicare Plan P, for Playing The Odds seems a natural when various medical bigwigs are disagreeing in public over mammograms and other procedures and practices. Why not set medical payments on how often the medicos make the right guess? http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/11/plan-whose-time-has-come-medicare-plan_18.html

·        Sense From Congress? Yes, at least from four Republican senators who note that we’ve created a government of the incumbents, by the incumbents and for the incumbents and have proposed a Constitutional Amendment that would make it perish from the face of the earth. (Sorry, Abe.) http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/11/stunning-departure-sense-from-congress.html

·        Major party honors buzzed up for Sarah Palin, just maybe not from the party you might think in http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/11/hear-hear-major-party-honors-for-sarah.html

Have a great weekend!

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Weekend Tids and Bits

NAKED TRADING  is giving the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro strong second thoughts, and it’s not about knowing for certain which traders are really going long and which are going short. It’s about folks who are licensed to trade on an exchange renting their access to clients. Clients pay to shave fractions of a second in executing trades. The SEC worries that it’s like renting a license to drive, fly an airplane or practice medicine, and that naked trading, along with other schemes, is tilting the playing field to favor sophisticated investors who make money by trading huge volumes of securities on minimal price differences.

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NAKED MISDEMEANOR? Maybe so in Springfield, VA, where a 29-year-old man was arrested by police after a woman and her kid walked by his home and saw him naked inside. With a potential year in jail riding in the balance, the case seems to turn on intent. If the guy intended to be seen, it’s indecent exposure. If he didn’t intend to be seen, it’s not. Lawyers are researching to fine points of Virginia law on whether letting it all hang out without closing the curtains get you hung out to dry.

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FEDS FINDING BETTER THINGS  to do after a directive that says busting folks using pot in the 14 states that allow medical marijuana isn’t a good use of time. That’s a change from the Bush administration, which said never mind state law, a joint is still a ticket to the federal joint. Look for this to mushroom into a major state-rights issue as cash-strapped California seriously considers legalizing and taxing pot across the board, which would remove the medical-use-only fig leaf and update “Just Say No” to “Just Pay The Tax.”

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BUNS TO BOOBS has to be the name for a procedure that takes fat liposuctioned from an overspreading bottom and uses it to enhance an under-blooming top. An uplifting report on msnbc.com says a Miami surgeon pioneered the technique that takes the fat from where women don’t want it and puts it where they do. No implants need apply.  No word on whether the procedure gets points for using a renewable resources or other recycling kudos.

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REST IN (SHARED) PEACE may be coming to Britain, which over the centuries has started to acquire more dead bodies than available burial space and is trying to make the idea of shared graves take wing in London. Seems the earliest tenant is dug up and reburied deeper, making room for the newcomer. There are, as they say, some marketing issues.

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Have A Great Weekend!

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Weekend Tids and Bits

JACK FROST CAN NIP MORE THAN YOUR NOSE if you live in Alaska and decide to pose nude for the online Playgirl magazine, but 19-year-old Levi Johnston will probably have that base covered, if nothing else. Johnston is the father of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s grandchild. He entered the national spotlight when GOP presidential candidate John McCain announced then-Gov. Palin for the veep spot on his ticket and Palin announced that her daughter Bristol was pregnant by Johnston. McCain and Palin lost the election, Levi and Bristol lost interest in getting married, and now Playgirl readers will view Johnston losing his pants.

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YES, BUT THEY’RE OUR EIGHTH-CENTURY WHACKOS seems to be the emerging line in the Obama administration, which is floating the idea that perhaps the Taliban might be part of some future Afghanistan government. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan eight years ago, ousting the extreme Islamist Taliban because they might be giving aid and comfort to Al Qaeda terrorists. Eight-hundred-plus American body bags later, the Taliban still control 80 percent of their country. The trial balloons from the Obama administration float the notion that the Taliban would oppress only themselves, so we should let them while we continue our fight against Al Qaeda.

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YOU COULD BE AMERICA’S NEXT GREAT PUNDIT or you could have had one too many helpings of bean burritos, but the Washington Post is giving you a chance to find out in a contest that ends October 21. The deal is you write a pundit-like essay and a short pitch on why you should be chosen one. The entry form is here. Hint: Moderation in pursuit of audience is no virtue; extremism in pursuit of audience is no vice. And no, Rush Limbaugh didn’t say that – he and his fellow howlers just live it.

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SOCIAL SECURITY COLA IS STARTING TO FIZZ since it looks like there won’t be a Cost Of Living Adjustment boost in Social Security checks for the first time in 35 years. That’s because a recession-battered Consumer Price Index hasn’t increased enough to trigger the raise. It has increased enough to trigger the outrage of elderly advocate group AARP which is urging its membership in e-mails to remind Congress that the 41 million Social Security seniors want to see that increase. Congress, of course, will ignore the political implications of ticking off 41 million voters with the highest turnout percentages. And they lived happily ever after.

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Last Week’s Lessons:

· Give A Man A Fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, the old saw goes. But the print journalism folks who make a living putting yesterday’s news on tomorrow’s fishwrappers have reason to be nervous about the calls for universal broadband internet access at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/10/fish-or-fish-wrapping-universal.html

· The Doofus Directorate may be the Obama administration’s answer to the twin questions of what the Federal Trade Commission does and what to do with it at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/10/doofi-maybe-doofus-directorate.html

· War of Aggression Against The Moon? Plans to bomb the moon have some worried that beings living on the far side may bomb back, while others wonder if the Obama administration doesn’t have enough wars already in Iraq and Afghanistan at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/10/when-in-doubt-bomb-it-out-first.html

· Traditional Media Cash Crisis Solved! Instead of going broke trying to sell rights to publish stuff, the media should get wise and sell rights to have stuff not published at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/10/media-crisis-solved-buy-buy-journalism.html

Have a great weekend!

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Weekend Tids and Bits

BIPARTISAN BONE-HEADEDNESS was on display this week when the Obama administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided American Apparel in Los Angeles, threatening the jobs of 1,800 workers whose documentation didn’t square with federal records. The Bush administration liked to do these things with guns and dogs, but the bone- headedness is truly bipartisan. Here is the largest clothing manufacturer in Los Angeles, one of the few remaining in America, one that pays its workers $10-$12 hourly with health benefits and trains them. So let’s ignore dangerous sweatshops here and overseas and raid these guys, right? As The New York Times editorialized, “A crackdown that forces 1,800 taxpaying would-be Americans into joblessness in a dismal economy is a law-enforcement victory only in the bitterest, narrowest sense. As a solution to the problem of unauthorized workers — 1,800 down, millions to go — it’s ludicrous.”

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NOT THEIR KIND OF TOWN, CHICAGO IS – at least to the International Olympic Committee which shot down Chicago’s bid for the 2016 games despite personal pleas from President and Mrs. Obama. Word is Chicago was the first to go because of doubts raised by Pakistan and similar countries over their citizens getting extra scrutiny to make certain their visit was to see the Olympic torch, not torch the Olympics. Rio, where the homicide rate in 2006 was was 37.7 per 100,000, citizens got the IOC nod. Chicago’s homicide rate in 2007 was 16.

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STIFFS GETTING STIFFED is the problem in Detroit where CNN reports 67 of the dearly departed are in a freezer because neither their families or the county can afford to bury them. If budget money is found in 2010, burials will be on a first-in/first-interred basis, suggesting the first burial will be Detroit’s Sense of Decency.

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NEED AN INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADE? GET INVADED BY U.S. – An Associated Press report this week shows Iraq’s electricity, telephone, water and sewage services are significantly better after the U.S. invasion than before. Beats raising money from government bonds, I guess.

Last Week’s Lessons:

· Live convicts cost less than dead ones is the revelation that may finally bring arguments against the death penalty to a level elected officials can understand at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/death-penalty-debate-dead-certain-at.html

· Please go find a car back seat is the message to students at Tufts University, who are enjoined from having dorm sex in front of their roomies at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/birds-bees-and-tufts-university-birds.html

· It is because we say it is and it’s also a banner year for Chimera Research, the shadowy company the government and media use to find things that aren’t there and didn’t happen at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/10/big-year-for-chimera-research-head-of.html

Have a great weekend!

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WEEKEND TIDS AND BITS

DON”T DO AS A WE SAY, DO AS WE SAY has to be the message President Barrack gets after criticism in the press that he was “too distant” and “too cerebral” on health care reform became criticism that he was “overexposed” from a weekend of making his case on talk shows. For those unable to translate the journalese, “too cerebral” is how the media say “didn’t understand that” and “overexposed” is the code word for demanding that reporters report.

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WATER ON THE MOON says NASA, adding that if you process about a ton of Moon rock, you should get a quart of water. Similar ratios exist elsewhere in nature. If you process a ton of Congressional hearings, you’ll get an ounce of sense. A ton of political promises will yield an ounce of performance. No word on whether NASA might be eying the bottled water market.

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TALK ABOUT INFLATION… Wealthy nations of the world used to be able to screw up the world economy with the help of just eight nations, the so-called G-8 group. Now comes word from an international summit meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, that the new group to watch is the G-20, which will pursue pretty much the same aims as the G-8 and probably with the same result, just at a higher cost. Ain’t international cooperation wonderful?

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DON’T CALL THE LADY ABROAD A BROAD must be the title of the latest entry into the stylebook of the Fairbanks, AK Daily News-Miner, which ran the headline “A broad in Asia” over a photo of former Gov. Sarah Palin, who was in Asia to address an investor conference. The paper promptly and profusely apologized in an editorial, thereby joining a list including comic David Letterman who have experienced self-imPalinment when writing about John McCain’s veep pick.

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TOO JUICED TO JOLT? A recent study of 38,000 people with traumatic brain injuries suggests those with alcohol in their blood had a lower risk of dying. On the other hand, tooling around with alcohol in your blood, especially while driving, raises the risk of traumatic brain injuries, so be sure to consider the tradeoffs before ordering that “one for the road.”

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This Week’s Lessons:

· Campaign reform needs to include public funding of politicians’ sexual frolics, at least covering out-of-pants expenses at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/out-of-pants-expenses-covered-campaign.html

· Journalism had been the Town Pump, but now wants to charge for it, Internet moans at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/journalism-doing-it-for-money-getting.html

· Don’t forget GAPAC, which gives recovering politicians a chance at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/recovering-politicians-in-gapac-deserve.html

· Be sure to mark your planners for the next celebration of National Punctuation Day at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/from-carpe-diem-to-comma-diem-punctuate.html

Have a great weekend!

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Weekend Tids and Bits

START SPEADING THE NEWS . . .New York City may indeed have eight million or more stories to tell, but they better not be about smoking in public parks or on beaches if the city’s health commissioner, Thomas A. Farley gets his way. New York has already banned smoking in the workplaces and in bars and restaurants. Farley wants more. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who would like to keep his city job – not that he needs the dough – was taking a nuanced approach to the idea. One of the unspoken nuances probably was that if Farley does any more of this stuff during an election campaign, he’s getting politically smoked, workplace, bar, restaurant, park or beach be damned.

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FAILURE TO BALANCE was the problem with an Associated Press report earlier this month that said it cost Alaska taxpayers at least $40,000 to cover former Governor Sarah Palin’s resignation and the swearing in of her successor. Not a mention could be found in the September 4 story of what it might have cost Alaska taxpayers had Palin stayed.

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TECHNOLOGY FOR THE BIRDS might be a fair characterization of the internet in South Africa after an experiment pitted a pigeon carrying a data card against a Telkom internet line in transmitting the card’s data over a 50-mile distance. Reuters says the pigeon did it in two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds. In the same time interval, Telkom had transmitted only four percent of the data. South Africa hosts the soccer World Cup next year, but no word whether the plans include upgrading technology or building more pigeon nesting boxes.

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OPERATION BOOTLICK? The Washington Post reported that there were 2,200 fewer Washington lobbyists than a year ago. Cynics might say they were victims of the policies they helped create. Others, most probably at the behest of lobbyists, say they performed a vital public function. Reports of charities collecting used boots so that out-of-work lobbyists could keep their job skills fresh could not be confirmed.

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BACON, LETTUCE AND WHAT? The UK’s Daily Mail enriches us all with a report citing Finnish scientists who say a mixture of wood ash and human urine produces tomato crops four times larger. The technique works on other plants, too, says the report, which avoids getting into the marketing implications, which may be even more than four times larger.

Last Week’s Lessons Reviewed:

· The Obama administration’s top-secret Doofus Directorate floated into view when the Coast Guard discovered that scheduling an anti-terrorist exercise on the Potomac for any future September 11 might not be such a swell idea at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/top-secret-no-more-doofus-directorate.html

· Mainstream Media, those tireless watchdogs of press releases, discovered that President Barack Obama is black and some racists dislike him just for that. Their reaction to the shocking news may be found at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/mainstream-media-shocked-stunner-obama.html

· Dummies got an important new defense last week when one South Carolina person said it was acceptable to say dumb and disrespectful things if you were too damned dumb to know the difference. Clarifies “The South Shall Rise Again,” by admitting difficulties in figuring which way is up at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/harpootlian-defense-dumb-ass-rights-for.html

· “I can see clearly now…” has its drawback when the sight of someone who first heard that song in 1972 is restored, but the rest of him isn’t. The mixed results are at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/medicines-iffy-gifts-modern-medicines.html

· Good fences may make good neighbors, but good bribes might make better ones is the suggestion offered at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/uncle-sams-fencing-skills-those-tempted.html

Have a great weekend!

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Weekend Tids and Bits

CONSERVATIVE PARENTS HOWLED at the plans announced by the White House for President Obama to address schoolkids on the day after Labor Day, the traditional first day of a new school year. The president planned to tell the kids their country needed them to work and study hard, which conservatives branded as “indoctrination.” They may have a point – kids who work and study hard tend to grow up to get good jobs, families and an active intellectual and civic life. Not exactly Red State/Neck-friendly outcomes.

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS decided that its right to publish a photo of a mortally wounded Marine in spite of pleas from the dead man’s father and the Secretary of Defense trumped any “decent respect to the opinions of mankind.” Some news outlets published the photo. Others didn’t need the money that badly.

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BUT IT COULD BE IMPORTANT! was the anguished cry from users as Google’s Gmail went nutso for slightly more than 90 minutes on Tuesday, highlighting the ability of the world to keep turning even if millions aren’t available on almost instant notice. It was just another illustration of the WOGR-EWID, theorem, which posits that an improvement in daily lives works great – except when it doesn’t. The event will no doubt inspire entrepreneurs who will propose messages written on an actual sheet of paper enclosed in a folded sheet of paper and delivered in return for the purchase of a one-time license to be called a “stamp.”

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NATIONAL HEALTH CARE REFORM neglected to file a Living Will, so it’s unclear whether or not President Obama’s address to the nation scheduled for Wednesday will outline “heroic measures” to bring the reform back to life, or a DNR (Damned Noisy Republicans) order posted over a gasping corpse-in-progress. Proponents of the “American Way” of paying more for less care with worse outcomes than other nations sense victory, but bruised and battered advocates of common sense may rally.

LAST WEEK’S LESSONS:

· Push Comes To Shove in a two-parter about the meeting of populist A. Big Push at the Washington lobbyist offices of Cornelius Shove. Read about it here http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-care-chronicles-part-i-push.html and here http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/health-care-chronicles-part-ii-pushing.html

· We found that the Republic needed N.O.T.A.BLES to run for public office on the None Of The Above ticket at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/wanted-political-party-of-n.html

· Satan’s Happy As Hell over the progress of our involvement in Afghanistan, seeing it as Vietnam revisited in http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/yes-we-can-hells-bells-for-afghanistan.html

· Classified Ads You’ll Never See rounded out the last full week of Summer, in which nothing much happens but is written anyway at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/09/online-classless-classifieds-online-ads.html

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

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Weekend Tids and Bits

A Man Who Sticks to his principles, even if they are principles of studied ignorance, stands apart and Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma has certainly established his credential as a stand-apart guy. This week the Express-Star reports Sen. Inhofe told residents of Chickasha, OK about his stand on the health reform bill: “I don't have to read it, or know what's in it. I'm going to oppose it anyways.” For those not as adept at clairvoyance as the senator, the text of the House bill on health care reform is available here.

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Another Stunning Revelation From the British Press rocked the world this week when the Telegraph warned its readers that those who advertise their coming vacations on Facebook or Twitter are inviting burglars, and perhaps higher home insurance rates. Check it out here. While there is yet no official confirmation, other investigative reporters in the United Kingdom are in pursuit of a story saying running about uncovered in the sunshine produces sunburn.

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Journalism Unmatched In Depth has long been the hallmark of the New York Times, which in the same issue explores the problems at the Post Office (losing money to the internet) and offers a novel use for postage stamps. The Post Office article notes that the service is running a $ 7 billion deficit and watching mail volume plummet but says officials are hoping for a rebound. Another article advises men worried about the first amorous bound, never mind the rebound, to perform a night-time personal equipment test involving four or more postage stamps wrapped in a ring around the test object before bedtime. If, in the morning, the stamps have torn along the perforations. . .well, never mind, but you can get the details here.

LAST WEEK’S LESSONS:

· Swami Yami of Summit, NJ made a series of predictions about the end of August that turned out so badly the Swami is considering a career as an economist with the government, where his batting average looks not bad at all. It here: http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/08/swami-yami-predicts-end-of-august-is.html

· Health Reform rumors are being so consistently debunked by the media that reported them in the first place that as a public service, we rebunked a batch of rumors just to keep a level playing field. They’re here at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-reform-rumors-rebunked-advocates.html

· Tiny Rhode Island offer an example of how to succeed more by trying less, giving birth to the Rhode Island Rule at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/08/hope-from-rhode-island-hope-is-rhode.html

· Senator Edward M. Kennedy was a giant of a man who can’t be understood and shouldn’t be mourned only by moral mice. See http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/08/last-man-standing-senator-edward-m.html

· Worthy Competitors Salute a fallen foe, and then there’s the Republican National Committee, which ain’t got no class at http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/08/gop-aint-got-no-class-republican-party.html

Have a great weekend!

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