One of the interesting things about being a data-centric person is an appreciation for those who keep their data straight. It’s right up there with appreciation for those who must straighten out data which has been obscured by others. By considering an end result such as a “quintile” and then using inferences drawn at that stage as new sources, it is possible to convince oneself of many things which are not true.
For example, the “average income for the quintile” (of US households by income quintile, 2010) is roughly $11K for the lowest quintile, and roughly $170K for the highest.
Two facts will illuminate this seemingly impossible disparity. First, the lowest quintile has 0.42 earners per household*, while the highest has 1.97. Second, the age breakdown for the … Continue reading
[This is still a bit rough. The beatings will continue.]
Are we in the grip of domestic enemies of the Constitution? I believe so. Because I believe so, I have a duty to consider action to defend the Constitution. Much hinges upon two questions:
I will attempt to answer both of these in a train of thought I call Ethical Resistance. More pointedly, I will try to set up a framework for answering these questions rather than answer them specifically, and hope thereby to teach a man to fish, rather than provide fishsticks.
Employees of the United States Government including all members of Congress are required to take the … Continue reading
I caught some flak from a nice enough but seriously stupid person for my latest post about the GOP’s malfeasance toward the Tea Party.
I already blocked her (this was all on Facebook) so no direct quotes, but she called me a Progressive troll and hoped I would trot out some more modern cliches next time. She contended that the term “RINO” is a lefty plant and seemed to think that criticism of the GOP from the right was not possible. In her universe, the GOP is the sum total of conservatism.
How many more of these empty-headed Rockefeller Republicans are clogging up our party? As I said, we have a far bigger task ahead of us than it seemed–the Republican Establishment and … Continue reading
Idiots.
He said his mother walks with a cane and had to stand in a long line like everyone else.
“The registration process is a snap. You just blow through that. The problem comes when you go to the photo ID place,” she said.
Lasater said there were no places to sit down, and that the testing center made no provisions at all for that sort of thing, and his mother could not stand for that long.
So, they left.
Lasater said it should not be so hard to vote.
…
Democratic leaders announced this week that they’ve filed legislation to repeal the new voter photo ID law.
Of … Continue reading
I’m still stunned that there are federal employee unions. Who knew?
» Federal Employees Union Releases ‘Teabagger’ Ad – Big Government.
Honest to God, I thought this was illegal. For precisely the reason shown above.
God-Damned Idiots.
I cannot describe how angry I am at the clown-car Republican candidate debates, Chris Christie, Mitt Romney, the punditry, the establishment–yep, pretty much the whole lot of ’em.
I have always been hostile to a third-party gambit; I still am. But the GOP seems hell-bent to have one. Ever since the Tea Party behaved magnificently and returned the GOP to power in an historic crushing mid-term defeat of the Communists currently defiling our Capitol, the GOP has been absolutely set on destroying the morale of the organization which restored the spirit of the Republican Party. Well, it’s not going to work.
If the RINOs insist on sabotaging the work of the Tea Party *to elect Republicans*, they will harm only themselves. The Tea Party has never … Continue reading
Get yourself a cup of coffee. The time has come to speak of LGF.
For those who do not know, Little Green Footballs (LGF) is a forum blog run by Charles Johnson, and which was influential and well-respected in its day. I enjoyed my time there greatly, but I’ve never been able to get right with what Charles Johnson did to a user named “Dianna”.[1] She’s one of the nicest people one could hope to befriend online, who did him no harm or even insult. Oh sure, Zombie went over the line at times and God knows BabbaZee lived over the line and only occasionally wandered back on this side of it. But when BabbaZee was right, she was right, and she knew about totalitarian control structures. On the … Continue reading
Been spotty around here. I’ve been travelling, sick, busy, sick, and finally had a network meltdown at home just when I wanted to write a post to remind me of all my great post ideas. All of this while I am caught flat-footed in trying to change the look of this place. Trust me, if you are reading this in October of 2011, this is not the look I’m aiming for. Meanwhile, I need to get cracking on my novel.
So it’s been kind of sketchy around here. But I think you’ll like what’s coming.
We’ve assumed that ObamaCare is the prize, and that the financial crisis is The Crisis not to waste.
But what if ObamaCare is The Crisis, and the administration will gladly let it go by the wayside? Their eager echo of Randy Barnett’s request for all due haste in taking it to the Supreme Court left us all scratching our heads. There are some good theories out there, but none seem to fit well enough to get my spider-sense to stop tingling. Now the administration dumps the CLASS act just because the implementation is prohibited by law (based on some requirements we stuck in at the last minute, whew!). But breaking laws with impunity is a defining characteristic of this administration, so I don;t think they are tearing limbs … Continue reading
I had this as a draft before Palin announced she would not run:
The GOP has been had again, and deserves its fate. The candidates are now trotting to the tune called by their media betters, with the exception of Gingrich, who will never be President anyway. Why are they not talking about fourteen trillion dollars in outright debt, or sixty trillion in unfunded liabilities? Why are they STILL answering the same God-Damned questions about gays (gays), abortion (stem cells, HPV), and guns (death penalty)?
Because they have failed to defend Sarah Palin, and now they are being picked off one by one. We had a chance to take the narrative and run with it, but instead we are being run behind the media bus. Trip once, and … Continue reading
