Monthly Archives: January 2013
New York doesn’t make anything anymore
A rather chirpy story from UPI (chirpy if you work in medicine) hit the papers today. Per the headlines, nine of the 20 largest employers in the State of New York are hospitals or healthcare networks. The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System is the #1 employer in the state, with some 37,000 employees. That’s about […]
Sh*t (many) Democrats believe
Okay, turnabout is fair. I’ve gotten too burned out on our two party duopoly to try and cut the Democrats much of a break. And in any case, many of the talking points that Democrats have picked up are off-base if not totally wrong. And this list also belongs in the group of ‘Don’t Know […]
Sh*t (some)Republicans believe (updated)
This is an updated list. I originally put it up last September, just after the conventions, when the Presidential campaign began in earnest. I’ve updated it somewhat, but this seems to cover the subject pretty nicely. This list probably seems patently unfair to Republicans, and (to be fair) not all Republicans believe everything on this […]
Still don’t know much about history: III
In 1968, Republican operatives working on behalf of Richard Nixon persuaded the South Vietnamese delegation at the Paris Peace Talks to turn their backs on an otherwise acceptable peace offer in October. The goal was to deny the Democrats a chance to claim a peace settlement in the war prior to the election. Nixon went […]
The garbage trail that leads to me
The gestation for this column starts with the computer I’m typing on. It’s an old warhorse Dell workstation, scavenged several years ago at the end of its useful life from a company that was modernizing. I have grown to like it (I’m a Mac convert) and put up with its idiosyncracies. But within a few […]
STILL don’t know much about History…II
So here’s the deal: About a month ago, I posted an article about the problem of not having a common history in the United States. And by that, I meant that there are those inside of their own news bubbles who are not going to chance a lookup on Google to confirm or debunk some firmly-held […]
Inauguration Day 2013
Okay, in honor of his historic inauguration for a second term, I hereby declare a temporary honeymoon period with President Obama. While I have the same concerns today that I’ve expressed here before, I think his speech was worth hearing, and his embrace of Stonewall as part of the long history in this country of […]
Originally posted on Transform Now Plowshares:
Ongoing Security Vulnerability at Y12 Nuclear Weapons Complex Revealed Four and a half months after Sister Megan Rice, Greg Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli enter facility, hole in perimeter fence still not repaired Actual entry point, photo by OREPA, December 17, 2012 Second photo of actual entry point, photo by…
The car service guy from Hell
Okay. This is the ONLY time when I have averted violence and a bad outcome through quick thinking. I have never thought this fast before. I don’t expect to think this fast ever again. It was three years ago. I had broken my leg in a bicycle accident. I was not supposed to put weight […]
Don’t know much about history…
I know when I’m watching a bad interview on TV or the Internet. The question comes up: “What was the most influential book you read in (high school, college)?” Standard answers include the Bible, Catcher in the Rye, Atlas Shrugged (though not in MY crowd), A Separate Peace, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. You know […]
The Brooklyn Culture Jam 