Jeff’s Take On His Platonic Friendship With Juliet (Slate)
Some people complain that only women talk about platonic friendships and that men are, essentially, faking it. Well, it ain’t always so. …
Read more...Why the Very Concept of Male-Female Friendship Makes People Uncomfortable (Slate)
It was famously said in the movie, When Harry Met Sally: Harry Burns: You realize of course that we could never be …
Read more...5 Scientific Reasons Powerful People Will Always Suck | Cracked.com
It’s so comforting to read this with elections about a month away. But it does help explain why voters are almost always …
Read more...
I’m So Tired of Congress
It’s hard to believe, but earlier in my lifetime the folks in Congress actually tried to govern. Really. As time has gone on, it stopped working. Compromise ceased to be. Over the past few decades, the power brokers have managed to cripple a critical piece of American government. I’m sad to see it happen.
Read more...The Billionaire Koch Brothers’ War Against Obama (The New Yorker)
There’s a difference between enlightened self-interest and simply self-interest. It seems that for the Kochs, the line between the two is heavy …
Read more...
Tea Party Mad Hatters – Or, Shouting Through the Looking Glass
It’s tragic when ideas worthy of consideration are buried under waves of narcissistic bluster aimed mostly for inciting higher ratings or higher campaign contributions. The time has come, this blogger says, to talk of many things; of tea parties and pundit rants, of bedfellows and flings.
Read more...Do-gooders get voted off island first: People don’t really like unselfish colleagues, psychologists find
This explains a lot about my life. It also explains some of the short-comings of society in general. Do-gooders get voted off …
Read more...Proposition 8, Health Care Reform – Unconstitutional? | The Faster Times
The thing that annoys me most about many tea-bag-partiers isn’t so much that they disagree–honest debate is expected, but that they so …
Read more...The world is subtle… and that’s why it’s beautiful | Phil Plait
There once was a time that we were good at this. I’m hopeful that it’s a skill we will again embrace. The …
Read more...The Rage Is Not About Health Care – Op-Ed
The rage is mostly about the fear of changing demographics. Op-Ed Columnist – The Rage Is Not About Health Care – NYTimes.com.
Read more...An Open Letter to Conservatives
You can’t claim the author didn’t cite enough references. True, the dems still have Howard Dean, but still…geesh! An open letter to conservatives …
Read more...How Conservatives Ruined Government, Enriched Themselves, And Beggared The Nation
Discussion between Bill Moyers and Thomas Frank. Sort of like listening to a liberal version of Fox News. Still, some very valid …
Read more...New Partisan Vitriol in Senate Health Vote – The New York Times
Yet another symptom of the decline of an ideal (sad to say). NYT: New partisan vitriol in Senate health vote – The New …
Read more...
Healthcare and the Bully Syndrome
As I’ve been observing the tactics of the current healthcare “debate”, I’m often reminded of a very true story from my past.
Read more...
Debate? No. Demagogy? Yes!
It’s really interesting to me (and not in a good way) how the sheeple in the public and Congress are so easily swayed by “The Big Lie”. Then again I’m also amazed (and not in a good way) that people hang on every venom-coated word spewed by the “fair and balanced” pundits
Read more...
Quick Hits From the Emperor Overlord
As Emperor Overlord of the United States, my days are full. I mean really full. You think you’re busy. That’s nothing in comparison. I try to leave it to the Washington branch to take care of the details, or even leave it up to all y’all to use common sense to fix things. So I can’t begin to convey how miffed I am that I have to take time away from playing Pop Answers on Facebook to deal with this schoolyard stuff.
Read more...
Lobbyists Lobby For Lobbying
Long time readers of this blog know that I place a heap of blame on lobbyists for the ills of this country. So, excuse me for not shedding any tears when lobbyists complain that President Obama is severely limiting their access.
Read more...
Fed Up With Partisan Knee-Jerks
Watching President Obama’s not-a-State-of-the-Union address in front of a joint session of Congress after his first month in office show in no uncertain terms how screwed up our political system is. A number of times, especially early on before the word got passed around that it looked bad on TV) when the Democrat-side of the chamber was applauding, the Republican-side sat on their hands in unison. It was embarrassing.
Read more...