A Spork in the Drawer

He Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself

Friends on the left, Gov. Bobby "What's a Volcano?" Jindal tells you what you believe:

Because the left wants: The government to explode; to pay everyone; to hire everyone; they believe that money grows on trees; the earth is flat; the industrial age, factory-style government is a cool new thing; debts don’t have to be repaid; people of faith are ignorant and uneducated; unborn babies don’t matter; pornography is fine; traditional marriage is discriminatory; 32 oz. sodas are evil; red meat should be rationed; rich people are evil unless they are from Hollywood or are liberal Democrats; the Israelis are unreasonable; trans-fat must be stopped; kids trapped in failing schools should be patient; wild weather is a new thing; moral standards are passé; government run health care is high quality; the IRS should violate our constitutional rights; reporters should be spied on; Benghazi was handled well; the Second Amendment is outdated; and the First one has some problems too.

Don't try to deny it, Godless Communist scum!

.

That's Just Wonderful

Obama sure picked a winner:

President Obama’s nominee to head the Federal Communications Commission told a Senate committee on Tuesday that his experience as the leader of lobbying groups for the cable television and cellphone industries had convinced him that the agency needs to promote competition over regulation.

Competition.

Sure.

.

Good Old-Fashioned Nightmare Fuel

At least, if you're afraid of snakes:

Julius Escaping from Jenner on Vimeo.

(If you have trouble with Vimeo embeds, as I do, click "Julius Escaping" above.)

[Via Genevieve Koski.]

.

The Authoritarian Mind

The police commissioner of New York City, Ray Kelly, voices his opinion on the NSA's spying program:

“I don’t think it ever should have been made secret.” Unsurprisingly, Kelly believes that the public will happily give up some privacy in the name of safety. “I think the American public can accept the fact if you tell them that every time you pick up the phone it’s going to be recorded and it goes to the government,” Kelly says. “I think the public can understand that. I see no reason why that program was placed in the secret category.”

If Markus Wolf were alive he'd been insanely jealous of the tools we've developed in this country to spy on and, should someone deem it necessary, suppress our own people.

We tend to think of authoritarian and totalitarian societies as being filled with people who live in fear 24/7/365 but here's the dirty little secret: the vast majority of people in such societies adjust to their circumstances and have little to worry about from the authorities. (There are, of course, exceptions, but they tend to prove the rule.)

[Via Pierce.]

.

Produce

With bees and without bees:

[Via PZ.]

.

What A Country!

You would think that anyone who lends or invests money would understand that they might take a loss or lose it all. Them's the breaks, after all. Happily for our financial betters that isn't the case. At some point we decided that lending and investing should be as risk-free as is humanly possible and the "haircut", as they so delightfully call it, should fall on those least responsible for whatever went wrong and least able the withstand it.

If this isn't what makes These United States so great I don't know what is.

.

Consertives Is Weird - Part The Infinite

Say hello to Michael Burgess, Representative from the Great State of Tejas, who has advised his fellow representatives to observe a sonogram of a 15-week "baby". What might they see? Rep. Burgess informs them:

They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?

Rep. Burgess is an OB/GYN.

.

Good To Know

posted by gyma

Validation! Spork and I aren't crazy for covering up our computer "peepholes":

You know those people who put tape over their laptop’s webcam to keep digital peeping toms at bay? They’re not crazy.

A new proof of concept is making the rounds today that demonstrates how a hacker can snap pics off your webcam, right through the browser, with no consent required.

Disabling Flash might also help, but then you'd get all those "Oh, Snap" messages.

 

Logic!

Shorter Fred Hiatt, editor, Daily Kaplan crayon-scribble page: If progressives don't dismantle government programs that help the less fortunate with a progressive president in the White House, conservatives will dismantle those government programs that help the less fortunate with a conservative president in the White House.

.

Samll-Government Conservative

Down in Ol' Virginny:

Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, have used taxpayer money for a range of small personal items they should have paid for themselves under state policy, according to spending records.

The McDonnells have billed the state for body wash, sunscreen, dog vitamins and a digestive system “detox cleanse,” the records show. They also have used state employees to run personal errands for their adult children. In the middle of a workday, for example, a staffer retrieved Rachel McDonnell’s newly hemmed pants at a tailoring shop nine miles from the governor’s mansion. Another time, a state worker was dispatched to a dry cleaner 20 miles away to pick up a storage box for Cailin McDonnell’s wedding dress.

About six months into the governor’s term, the official who oversees mansion spending told the McDonnells that they should not have charged taxpayers for a number of expenses, including deodorant, shoe repairs and dry-cleaning their children’s clothing. The official asked the McDonnells to pay the state back more than $300, which they did, and also gave them a refresher on what the state will and won’t provide for occupants of the governor’s mansion.

Well then, at least he learned his lesson.

But since that time, state records show that the McDonnells have continued to let taxpayers pick up the tab for numerous personal items, including vitamins, nasal spray and sleep-inducing elixirs.

Oh.

Conservatives, always looking out for the taxpayer.

.

Because It's Sunday

posted by gyma

This might be a repeat post, but if so, it's one worth repeating because the Dalai Lama is one perceptive fella.

Saturday Palate Cleanser



.

Dandy

Perhaps backing into another war:

So when Mr. Obama agreed this week for the first time to send small arms and ammunition to Syrian rebel forces, he had to be almost dragged into the decision at a time when critics, some advisers and even Bill Clinton were pressing for more action. Coming so late into the conflict, Mr. Obama expressed no confidence it would change the outcome, but privately expressed hope it might buy time to bring about a negotiated settlement.

There are precisely zero good outcomes in Syria and probably zero least-bad outcomes.

.

Noted Without Comment

.

The Wisdom Of Newton Leroy Gingrich

Sayeth the legend in his own mind:

What Snowden did was very damaging at one level because there are a lot of things a democracy can do to protect itself, as long as they're genuinely secret. And people will tolerate it as long as it's genuinely secret.

Unravel that!

.

A Useful Designation

Before too long everyone disliked by the Powers That Be will simply be called terrorists. It will clarify matters and make business decisions that much easier.

.

Why It Is

Listening to voices:

The poll also finds that 71 percent of Hill staffers found meetings with CEOs and top executives useful to do their jobs, while only 45 percent said the same about meetings with labor leaders.

In addition, 64 percent of Hill staffers said that meeting with corporate lobbyists was a helpful activity in formulating policy, while only 45 percent reported that meeting with labor lobbyists was useful.

Here's the best part:

The poll comes amid rising complaints from the private sector that Capitol Hill doesn’t understand or appreciate business.

Self-awareness, it is a foreign concept.

.

The Problem With Metadata

posted by gyma

I heard Obama on my TV the other day reassuring the country that nobody's listening in on your telephone calls. Whew! That sure makes me feel better.

Except when it doesn't.

Watch this explanation from yesterday's Democracy Now! program and you'll understand why the collection of metadata is such a problem.

A Question Not Being Asked

If America's secrets are so secret that exposing those secrets guarantees death and destruction for the Great American Citizenry then why are low-level, low-paid schnooks like Manning and Snowdon allowed unrestricted access to the most secret secrets?

.

Rigged Game (As If You Didn't Know That Already)

Example #1:

Traders at some of the world’s biggest banks manipulated benchmark foreign-exchange rates used to set the value of trillions of dollars of investments, according to five dealers with knowledge of the practice.

Employees have been front-running client orders and rigging WM/Reuters rates by pushing through trades before and during the 60-second windows when the benchmarks are set, said the current and former traders, who requested anonymity because the practice is controversial. Dealers colluded with counterparts to boost chances of moving the rates, said two of the people, who worked in the industry for a total of more than 20 years.

Example #2:

A contract signed by Thomson Reuters, the news agency and data provider, and the University of Michigan, which produces the widely cited economic statistic, stipulates that the data will be posted on the web for the general public at 10 a.m. on the days it is released.

Five minutes before that, at 9:55 a.m., the data is distributed on a conference call for Thomson Reuters' paying clients, who are given certain headline numbers.

But the contract carves out an even more elite group of clients, who subscribe to the "ultra-low latency distribution platform," or high-speed data feed, offered by Thomson Reuters. Those most elite clients receive the information in a specialized format tailor-made for computer-driven algorithmic trading at 9:54:58.000, according to the terms of the contract. On occasion, they could get the data even earlier—the contract allows for a plus or minus 500 milliseconds margin of error.

The only winning move is not to play.

.

They Just Can't Help Themselves

Rep. Trent Franks takes to the microphone during a committee hearing:

The incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.

Let a thousand Todd Akins bloom!

Franks proceeded to venture into complete incoherence:

But when you make that exception [allowing rape victims to get abortions], there’s usually a requirement to report the rape within 48 hours. And in this case that’s impossible because this is in the sixth month of gestation. And that’s what completely negates and vitiates the purpose of such an amendment.

Okay!

That the Republican Party still exists, and can actually get quite a few people actually elected, makes me sad.

.

This Weekend Have A Few Rounds With The Boys WTF Wednesday

posted by gyma

UPDATE: Can't find anything better than this for the WTF Wednesday post, so this will have to do!

So says the ad for Helicopter Sniper Adventures out of Texas. For $795:

The Helicopter Sniper Adventure in Aubrey will take you and your buddies through an airborne obstacle course, giving marksmen the chance to take down targets from the air in a SEAL-style exercise.

Armed with military-style, semiautomatic rifles, customers soar through the air and shoot at targets in building windows, in ponds and on the ground as the helicopter sweeps over the plains-like trees and scrub.

Sounds like harmless fun, except if you happen to live in the area!

Your Liberal Media

Oy:

The Washington Post today announces “Sponsored Views,” a new online advertising feature that invites organizations to post commentary related to or in response to content from The Washington Post’s Opinion section.

[...]

“Sponsored Views’ premium placement enables participants to provide their perspectives with unparalleled contextual relevance, while still keeping the lines between news and sponsored messages crystal clear,” said Steve Hills, President and General Manager of The Washington Post. “This unique advertising initiative is yet another example of our business team’s dedication to create innovative products for advertisers,” Hills said.

This is everything wrong with what passes for journalism today. On growth hormones.

[Via Athenae.]

.

Mindset

Lurking barely below the surface is a pretty strong authoritarian impulse:

"In World War II, the mentality of the public was that our whole way of life was at risk, we're all in. We censored the mail. When you wrote a letter overseas, it got censored. When a letter was written back from the battlefield to home, they looked at what was in the letter to make sure they were not tipping off the enemy," Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill. "If I thought censoring the mail was necessary, I would suggest it, but I don't think it is."

It seems necessary, for the umpteenth time, to point out that the current "war", defined as being against a tactic, cannot ever be over, let alone "won". So all these programs what "keep us safe" will never go away and, indeed, will have to be constantly expanded as, again, a tactic can't be eliminated.

But we'll be safe from them (until we're not). Safe from ourselves, not so much.

[Via watertiger.]

.