The Black Death

This is simply fabulous:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN_phBiMqKc

Class warfare, part 3 zillion

Yet another state has proposed raising taxes on low-income residents to pay for new corporate tax breaks. Leading lawmakers in Missouri want to eliminate a property tax credit for low- and moderate-income seniors and people with disabilities in order to help finance new tax credits for businesses.
Sadly, swaps like this are increasingly common; both Michigan and Wisconsin have cut low-income programs this year to pay for business tax breaks.

Because clearly low-income old people and disabled people dont need all that money

Power!

From DR. BOLI’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MISINFORMATION.

Power. Surprisingly enough, and contrary to popular belief, it turns out that with great power comes no responsibility whatsoever. 

courtesy of the brilliant Dr Boli

Environmentalism, or Boy I'm glad I'll be dead before this becomes a Huger Problem

If you want to know which environmental problems America will lead on and which it will screw over the world on, I think it helps to ask whether rich people are seriously affected by the problem in question. Rich white people get skin cancer, so we took the lead on forging the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer. More rich white people benefit from fossil fuels economy than will be harmed by global warming (they think) so we are screwing over the world on global warming.

Gee, why is it I dont like most recent music?

Alyssa points out:

I think it's fascinating that music has become totally unmoored from skill, or artistic sensibility, it's a part of the celebrity production process. Producers and songwriters and editors and the people who do your hair and help you pick your dress before you hit the red carpet are essentially performing the same function. Releasing a single is the same thing as showing up for an event, or posing in Maxim, or whatever. I don't know if that's because popular music is so simplistic and formulaic that you can engineer anyone into achieving the basics and going through the motions, or because it's much harder to fake acting skill, or because a single is obtainable, it's three minutes. I just think it's fascinating that people are shameless enough not to care if they sound good or not, or to consider faking it an essential part of the process of being a celebrity.

And given that I think most of the music she likes also falls into this description, I daresay she's right. So it's nice to know that being an old cranky geezer gets me to the same place as the young hip culture critic :)

Quote of the week

“objectification” is a funny word invented by feminists because we look so cute when we’re angry