May 03 2008
This is the latest carpetbagger insult to our people here in New Orleans. Mass Culture seeks to have it’s way with us and turn our cultures and our city into another version of Disneyland.
Like I’ve stated before, I don’t perform for tourists… I just live my life.
Here is the reference article: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/f…
Cross-posted from GentillyGirl. http://gentillygirl.com
May 03 2008
cross posted from The Dream Antilles
This past week we were all treated to a proposed executive repeal of the venerable Law of Supply and Demand by McCain and Clinton. Today, not to be undone, El Presidente made it clear that they were too late, he had already issued an executive order nullifying the Law of Supply and Demand. And by golly, he was going to take credit for that.
According to Bloomberg:
Hillary Clinton and John McCain are both pushing a “gas-tax holiday” to give consumers an 18.4- cent-a-gallon price break. Clinton says the plan will take excess profits from oil companies. McCain says it will help families buy school supplies.
Economists have a different take: They say the oil companies may end up the biggest beneficiaries, while the aid to families wouldn’t be enough to buy a $35 backpack.
The trouble with the plan, they say, is that oil prices are rising because of low supplies, and companies will continue to charge the average $3.60 a gallon and just pocket the money that would have gone to federal taxes.
And this doesn’t even mention that old bugaboo, the Law of Supply and Demand, which holds that decreasing price usually stimulates consumption. This is that Law: If a bottle of beer was $2 and now it’s $1, wouldn’t you consider having 2 instead of one? So the proposal, supposedly decreasing the price, would lead to greater oil consumption and then, uh oh, higher prices.
May 03 2008
Please forgive me for usurping an open thread, but: I cannot believe that a site which has terrific pony parties almost every day of the week is ignoring the very real ponies running this afternoon in the 134th Kentucky Derby.
The last triple crown winner was Affirmed in 1978:
May 03 2008
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 U.S. rocket strike in Baghdad wounds 20
By Waleed Ibrahim and Tim Cocks, Reuters
2 hours, 25 minutes ago
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The U.S. military fired rockets at a target near a major hospital in eastern Baghdad on Saturday, wounding 20 people and damaging a number of ambulances, the head of the hospital said.
No patients were wounded at the hospital in the Sadr City stronghold of anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, but 20 people at the scene of the blasts had been hurt, said Dr. Wi’am al-Jawahiri, manager of the al-Sadr hospital. Jawahiri said windows at the hospital were shattered when three missiles hit what the U.S. military in Iraq called a militant “command and control” centre around 10.00 a.m. |
Now with Business and Science.
May 03 2008
In upholding the Indiana voter suppression, er disenfranchisement, er “ID” law, the US Supreme Court’s decision contained the following head smacking passage (hat tip to BooMan and Adam B):
The record contains no evidence of any such fraud actually occurring in Indiana at any time in its history. Moreover, petitioners argue that provisions of the Indiana Criminal Code punishing such conduct as a felony provide adequate protection against the risk that such conduct will occur in the future. It remains true, however, that flagrant examples of such fraud in other parts of the country have been documented throughout this Nation’s history by respected historians and journalists, that occasional examples have surfaced in recent years, and that Indiana’s own experience with fraudulent voting in the 2003 Democratic primary for East Chicago Mayor — though perpetrated using absentee ballots and not in-person fraud — demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election.
May 03 2008
People here object to the kind of language….that I used to my wife…..in front of a bunch of people….so we can’t talk about what I called my wife…. in front of a bunch of people, that would be wrong…..but it wasn’t wrong for me to use that kind of language……in front of a bunch of people.
We are in Iraq for the oil!………..No we aren’t!………….ok, um….ok, um……Ok, um….sorta?
Tweety
“You know, if somebody else were to say that, they would be accused of being a communist, or radical, or a leftist…for John McCain, a war hero, to say that we’re fighting in the Middle East to protect our oil sources is an astounding development.”
If we cut the gas tax….the Oil Corps won’t just raise their prices!
Kick Russia out of the G-8! I’m sure they won’t mind a bit!
Fareed Zakaria calls “the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years.”
May 03 2008
I forgot about pony party because I have an out of town guest.
Oops. Here is your morning art…..
And a pop song to contemplate….
I like that whole “too shy” concept even though it doesn’t describe me….
Save your money on “Iron Man”….. I went to humor a friend. Short summary: white dude redeems himself with help of female personal assistant with secret crush on him mixed with skeptical realism, and loyal best friend who happens to be black second and doesn’t get to do much. Basically world order is restored by the rightful heir: the middle aged white man.
Have a great day. Please don’t recommend pony party, hang out chit chat and then go read the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list. Probably won’t be another pony party as I am in host mode. So bootleg up peoples.
May 03 2008
A Saturday funk, with a stomach not wanting to cooperate so I decided to read my Docudharma. But the wolves were not helping my mood.
I was answering ek hornbeck when my doorbell rang. My creaky old bones rise and stagger to the door…”why would someone ring a bell at my place at 10 AM on a Sat?” “Don’t they know I’m cranky?”
May 03 2008
A married woman in Texas was with her lover in his pick up truck in her family driveway when her husband came home and saw them together. She cried “RAPE” and he fired his gun at the pickup as her lover (remember, he thought the guy was a rapist) drove away.
After the smoke cleared, the prosecution charged the woman with involuntary manslaughter.
From CNN:
A Texas woman who caused her lover’s shooting death by falsely crying rape was convicted Friday of involuntary manslaughter.
snip
In late 2006, Darrell Roberson came home from a late-night card game to find his scantily clad wife with another man in a pickup truck in the driveway. Tracy Roberson was with her lover but cried rape, and her husband fired four shots into the truck as Devin LaSalle drove off, killing him.
May 03 2008
There have been 4,373 coalition deaths — 4,065 Americans, two Australians, 176 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, three Latvian, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians — in the war in Iraq as of May 2, 2008, according to a CNN count. { Graphical breakdown of casualties }. The list below is the names of the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Coast Guardsmen whose deaths have been reported by their country’s governments. The list also includes seven employees of the U.S. Defense Department. At least 29,911 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. View casualties in the war in Afghanistan.May 03 2008
Out on the streets, that’s where we’ll meet
You make the night, I always cross the line
Tightened our belts, abuse ourselves
Get in our way, we’ll put you on your shelf
Another day, some other way
After Hiatus, States Set Wave of Executions
HUNTSVILLE, Tex. – Here in the nation’s leading death-penalty state, and some of the 35 others with capital punishment, execution dockets are quickly filling up.
Less than three weeks after a United States Supreme Court ruling ended a seven-month moratorium on lethal injections, at least 14 execution dates have been set in six states between May 6 and October.“The Supreme Court essentially blessed their way of doing things,” said Douglas A. Berman, a professor of law and a sentencing expert at Ohio State University. “So in some sense, they’re back from vacation and ready to go to work.”
May 03 2008
I like to mute the soundtrack and play some tunes while I watch this.
via videosift.com
If I knew how, I’d put a cool soundtrack over this.
There’s more stuff below.