Shakespearean Daily Diss
“Thou art too bad to curse. All villains that do stand by thee
are pure.” —Timon Of Athens, 4.3.362-63
Entries Tagged as 'Uncategorized'
Great Blue Heron!
Finally got a half-decent photo of this shy bird who’s recently reappeared after an absence of a few months. He flapped across the lake, and hung out long enough for me to prove it! This shot was taken at about two hundred yards, and I’ve hit the limit on enlarging and enhancing it. He’s never let me get any closer with a camera.
Shakespearean Daily Diss
“Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon!”
—Timon Of Athens, 4.3.361
GOP Losing Ground in Voter Registration
It was simply not possible that the Republican Party would face no consequences for the mountain of death, failure and corruption that is the Bush Administration. Despite television’s best efforts, new voters are showing some statistical awareness of Teh Suck:
In several states, including the traditional battlegrounds of Nevada and Iowa, Democrats have surprised their own party officials with significant gains in registration. In both of those states, there are now more registered Democrats than Republicans, a flip from 2004. No states have switched to the Republicans over the same period, according to data from 26 of the 29 states in which voters register by party. (Three of the states did not have complete data.)
In six states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, the Democratic piece of the registration pie grew more than three percentage points, while the Republican share declined. In only three states — Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma — did Republican registration rise while Democratic registration fell, but the Republican increase was less than a percentage point in Kentucky and Oklahoma. Louisiana was the only state to register a gain of more than one percentage point for Republicans as Democratic numbers declined.
The news isn’t all good for the ineffectual Democrats:
Over the same period, the share of the electorate that registers as independent has grown at a faster rate than Republicans or Democrats in 12 states. The rise has been so significant that in states like Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina, nonpartisan voters essentially constitute a third party.
Swings in party registration are not uncommon from one year to the next, or even over two years. Registration, moreover, often has no impact on how people actually vote, and people sometimes switch registration to vote in a primary, then flip again come Election Day.
But for a shift away from one party to sustain itself — the current registration trend is now in its fourth year — is remarkable, researchers who study voting patterns say. And though comparable data are not available for the 21 states where voters do not register by party, there is evidence that an increasing number of voters in those states are also moving away from the Republican Party based on the results of recent state and Congressional elections, the researchers said.
The two-party system is showing signs of strain.
And the Carbon Monoxide Is a Vitamin
China’s legendary air pollution, a by-product of their rapid industrialization and failure to regulate, has been redefined as “mist” in what must be one of the most darkly amusing whoppers of the Beijing Olympic season:
But yesterday Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the IOC’s medical commission, said he was confident that pollution would not harm athletes or visitors, and suggested media coverage had created a false impression of pollution levels.
“The mist in the air that we see in those places, including here, is not a feature of pollution primarily but a feature of evaporation and humidity,” he told the IOC’s annual session. “We do have a communication problem here. Once the misconception has become sort of established in the minds of people, it’s not that easy to get the right message through.
“I would not discourage athletes from wearing protection devices if they are concerned, but I do not think it is necessary. I would not wear one whether I was an athlete or not.” Two days of haze gave way to sunshine yesterday afternoon, but the official measure of air quality remained close to dangerous levels.
Official readings collated by Beijing’s municipal environmental protection bureau yesterday gave an air pollution index (API) of 91 for Beijing as a whole, and 87 at the Olympic stadium. The World Health Organisation regards an API of more than 50 as high, and a reading of 100 or more is considered unsafe. The authorities monitor air quality hourly, including levels of particulates, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, and take limited readings for ozone.
UPDATE: So desperate is the cover-up for Beijing’s little air-quality problem that a US team has had to issue an apology for arriving in masks:
Four US Olympic cyclists who caused an outcry when they arrived at Beijing airport wearing smog masks have today apologised to Games organisers.
The four - Mike Friedman, Bobby Lee, Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed - said that they were wearing the masks because of pollution fears, a touchy subject for the Chinese authorities.
As the Chinese capital remains shrouded in smog today, Jim Scherr, the chief executive of the US Olympic Committee, revealed that the four had said sorry.
Shakespearean Daily Diss
“Thou art the cap of all fools alive.” —Timon Of Athens, 4.3.360
I Guess That’s Why They Call It Concrete
Two hours of drilling with a masonry bit sank the necessary holes to mount the Skamper-Ramp®, which is supposed to prevent li’l critters from drowning in the Cement Pond™. In retrospect, I probably could have finished the job sooner by bearing down harder with the drill, though it’s a tricky balance between making no progress and heating the bit so fiercely that the chuck can’t hold it. But for the sweaty job of boring the concrete (and boring the Sarge, too), it’s a snap, with only a couple of knots in washers to support the thing. We’ll leave it in place as shown when we’re not around, and just flip it out of the way for swimming.
Our own varmints are never near the pool unsupervised. This installation is meant to protect the International Brotherhood of Bunnies, Local 318.
Shakespearean Daily Diss
“When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be
welcome.” —Timon Of Athens, 4.3.357-58
Socialism for the Rich
When banks deplete, you lose. Reuters reminds us who’s going to pay (and pay and pay) for the coming bank bailouts:
U.S. consumers, meanwhile, are “shopped out” and saving less, while the Federal Reserve’s performance in handling the crisis has been poor, [New York University Professor Nouriel] Roubini said, because it failed to see that the problem extended beyond subprime mortgage debt.
Now, Roubini told Barron’s, the government is overregulating, bailing out troubled participants and intervening in every market.
“The regulators should investigate themselves for bailing out Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N), the creditors of Bear Stearns and the financial system with new lending facilities. They have swapped U.S. Treasury bonds for toxic securities,” he told Barron’s. “It is privatizing the gains and profits, and socializing the losses as usual. This is socialism for Wall Street and the rich.”
He said that sometimes it is necessary to use public money to rescue institutions, but in a way that does not bail out the people who made the mistakes. “In each one of these episodes, the government bailed out the shareholders, the bondholders, and to some degree, management,” Roubini told Barron’s.
As for the banks that will go bankrupt, they will include community banks that finance homes, stores, downtown areas, commercial real estate and other mainstays of U.S. towns and cities, Roubini said.
This is what happens when tax-and-spend conservatives are allowed to loot the Treasury on behalf of their wealthy contributors. The dollar weakens, and Americans hurt. Can you think of a primary cause? One that rhymes with “Iraq War”?
Shakespearean Daily Diss
“How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the
city?” —Timon Of Athens, 4.3.351-52
