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Category: Society Page 27 of 69

Must See Reality TV

By

On February 9, 2009

In Policy, Politics, Society

You have to see this MSNBC clip in the context of this remark from a reader of TPM:

Here’s what JC wrote: “In this clip, Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb are still being treated as a circus sideshow by CNBC… They’re predicting the end of finance, and offering the only clear path out of this mess that I’ve seen offered (with the knowledge to back it up), and CNBC keeps asking them for stock tips. It’s ludicrous. Wall Street media — CNBC at least — doesn’t realize how bad this is yet. They’re stuck in a bubble where they think everything will go back to normal in a few months….”

He hits it spot on. These two guys are talking about a deep structural crisis in the world economy. And these CNBC yahoos can’t stop asking for stock tips. Really surreal.

Yeah, this post was a wholesale ripoff of TPM, but they were too on-point to do it any other way.

Weekend Music: Covetous Things

By

On February 6, 2009

In Music, Society

Some things are eternal.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMwZ8MtxMkE[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbwN3t08Nlc[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-wGMlSuX_c[/youtube]

RIP Millard Fuller, Co-founder of Habitat for Humanity

By

On February 3, 2009

In Personal, Society

Millard Fuller, co-founder and long time hands-on manager of Habitat for Humanity, died today.  He was 74.

From its beginning in 1976, headquartered in a tiny gray frame house that doubled as Fuller’s law office, Habitat grew to a worldwide network that has provided shelter to more than 1.5 million people.

Habitat home buyers are required to work on their own houses, investing what the Fullers called “sweat equity.”

Preaching the “theology of the hammer,” Fuller built an army of volunteers that included former U.S. presidents, other world leaders and Hollywood celebrities.

One of Habitat’s highest-profile volunteers, former President Jimmy Carter, called Fuller “one of the most extraordinary people I have ever known.”

[ . . . ]

Jeff Snider, executive vice president of Habitat during the early ’90s, recalled Fuller as a man driven by his commitment to the destitute. Once, Snider said he suggested setting aside some of the money Fuller raised.

“He had one and only one response, which was, ‘The poor, Jeff, need the money now,'” he said. “So we ran the place full tilt, on the edge all the time, and it was stressful — but he was right.”

In another life, I spent a decent amount of time working with community service programs in Americus, Georgia, and I had a couple of chances to meet with Mr. Fuller.    He was one of those people you remember, and I do so fondly.   I was terribly disappointed to read, in the obituary, that he did not always live up to my expectations of him, but that doesn’t change the incredible work that Habitat for Humanity has done in the US.   Habitat is head-and-shoulders above the rest of the field as the best example of the positives that faith-based initiatives can offer.   Mr. Fuller deserves remembrance and thanks for that.

Robert Reich on Daschle’s Withdrawal:

By

On February 3, 2009

In Politics, Society

I hope he’s right:

My guess is that official Washington underestimated the public’s pique at what appeared to be the old ways of Washington. Hill staffers tell me that many offices have been inundated with telephone calls, emails, letters and faxes expressing concern (to put it mildly) about Daschle — not only his failure to pay back taxes but his relationships with major players in the health care industry and rich consulting contracts with the private sector since leaving the Senate, and even the fact that he was given a car and driver by one of them.

I have a hard time fathoming that people care that much.  But I hope so.

China’s Labor Troubles: Yours, Too?

By

On February 2, 2009

In Policy, Society

The Times Online reports:

Bankruptcies, unemployment and social unrest are spreading more widely in China than officially reported, according to independent research that paints an ominous picture for the world economy.

The research was conducted for The Sunday Times over the last two months in three provinces vital to Chinese trade – Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu. It found that the global economic crisis has scythed through exports and set off dozens of protests that are never mentioned by the state media.

Now, I’m taking that with a grain of salt – not because I particularly doubt the sources in the article, but because I’ve found that it’s so much “news” about China is passed through filters that result in the China that writers and reporters think you should see, instead of the China that is.  That said (and here is where my own filter kicks in), if things really are moving towards massive unrest in China, I think that’ll hit Western consumers just as hard as the financial mess.  All those cheaper places people have started shopping at, lately?  Direct pipeline of goods from China.  And when that pipeline gets interrupted by unrest?  Where are these stores going to turn?  As best I can tell, they don’t have any other meaningful options.

Friday Notes: Please No More Snow Edition

By

On January 30, 2009

In EU, Music, Politics, Society

Surprise, surprise, people are still dumping money into Obama’s coffers.  It appears that the inaugural committee raised about $8 million more than it had budgeted.  Aim your dollars at more important things, folks.

~

Iceland on the fast track to the EU?  Probably a good idea overall, but its a pretty sad circumstance that brought us to that:

The conservative government in Reykjavik, in power for 18 years, collapsed this week, the first government to fall as a result of the financial meltdown which has wrecked the Icelandic currency, the krona, wiped out savings and pensions, required a massive IMF bailout, sparked unprecedented riots in Reykjavik, and forced the formation of a caretaker centre-left government until new elections can be held, probably on 9 May.

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Gov. Rod Blagojevich is gone, but let’s not forget that he wasn’t the only one behaving badly.  As I’ve written, the Senate refusal to seat Roland Burris was a bad idea – you don’t get to refuse someone just because you don’t like them.  And that bad judgment seems to have extended to the House, where Adam Bonin found – buried in the stimulus bill – the following:

SEC. 1112. ADDITIONAL ASSURANCE OF APPROPRIATE USE OF FUNDS.

None of the funds provided by this Act may be made available to the State of Illinois, or any agency of the State, unless (1) the use of such funds by the State is approved in legislation enacted by the State after the date of the enactment of this Act, or (2) Rod R. Blagojevich no longer holds the office of Governor of the State of Illinois.

Yes, that says what you think it says.  Adam explains:

Got that, Illinois Senate?  If you want the money, remove Blagojevich from power or otherwise pass a bill making clear that you trust him with the money.  This provision was inserted by Reps. Bill Foster (D-IL) and Mark Kirk (R-IL), and could cost the state $50 billion in federal aid.

Beyond the general yuck factor, does anyone else remember the Bill of Attainder clause in the Constitution?  It basically says that Congress can’t pass a law punishing an individual without judicial trial; that’s the courts’ job.  Similar concerns rest here: it’s not for Congress to decide who’s fit to be Governor of Illinois; that’s something to be handled in Springfield.

A circus, it seems, and everyone wants in on the action.

~

Rep. Peter King of the GOP – party of limited government, remember – wants to save you from camera phones.

~

Ugly:

[A] CNN investigation has uncovered evidence that for hundreds of Rohingya refugees — members of a Muslim minority group — abuse and abandonment at sea were what awaited them in Thailand, at the hands of Thai authorities.

Extraordinary photos obtained by CNN from someone directly involved in the Thai operation show refugees on their rickety boats being towed out to sea, cut loose and abandoned.

One photo shows the Thai army towing a boatload of some 190 refugees far out to sea.

And who will speak for these refugees?  No one, I’m guessing.

~

Once a Nazi, always a Nazi.

~

13 year old girls can rock:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uEKsYHrYlk[/youtube]

How to Write a Complaint Letter to an Airline

By

On January 28, 2009

In Society, Travel, UK

I have reproduced, for your education and viewing pleasure, the best airline complaint letter I’ve ever read.  I’m not really one for passing viral things around, but if you’ve not seen this yet, you really ought to give in a read. And yes, it has in fact been confirmed by Virgin Airlines as authentic.  Behold its glory after the jump.

Read More

UK & Civil Liberties

By

On January 26, 2009

In Society, UK

More like this.

WWRRMD?*

By

On January 24, 2009

In Personal, Society

*What Would Rudy Ray Moore Do?

Friday Notes: Breaking the Ice Edition

By

On January 23, 2009

In DC, Law, Policy, Politics, Society, Tech

Frozen Potomac

I understand that we’re getting alll the way into the 40s today, before plunging back into the frozen winter.  Sounds like a good time for my annual solicitation for employment near the Equator.  I mix an excellent martini.

~

Matt Cooper thinks that if we really want to change government, we should get serious about improving defense procurement.  I think that the public appetite for this is fairly thin, but if it were done right, it could bring massive returns.

~

Getty Images goes looking for content at Flickr.  Interesting.   There are loads and loads of phenomenally skilled photographers on Flickr, but I can’t help but feel like this is just one more step in the direction of making it harder to make a living as a professional photographer.

~

Apple, making sure your kids sell candy instead of dope.  Or something like that.  (DopeWars has been on every handheld I’ve had since 1998).

~

Thomas Fuchs and Felix Sockwell ofter some branding help to the GOP.  Some of them are actually quite thoughtful.

~

I’d really like to see some follow-up on, and independent confirmation of, NSA whistleblower Russell Tice’s claims aired on Wednesday night:

TICE: Well, I don’t know what our former president knew or didn’t know. I’m sort of down in the weeds. But the National Security Agency had access to all Americans’ communications, faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications. And that doesn’t — it didn’t matter whether you were in Kansas, you know, in the middle of the country, and you never made a communication — foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications. (emphasis supplied)

He goes on to explain how the NSA, under the guise of trying to ensure that they weren’t reaching into communications they shouldn’t, were doing exactly that.   Now, I do tend to believe that the NSA has done that (see, e.g., statements that some NSA employees were listening in on intimate conversations between deployed soldiers and their wives).  A systematic wholesale monitoring on the scale of what Tice is talking about, however, goes well beyond my original suspicions.  But not beyond possibility.  I’d like to see his claims taken seriously and investigated.

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