Exposed to massive Hunger Games marketing here just now, but I'm thinking - [url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/03/hunger-games-and-trayvon-martin.html]give it a miss.[/url]
[quote]Adam says that the pivotal moment in the evolution of Hunger Games Tweets came on or around March 23rd, after he posted a tweet by someone named Alana Paul, a petite brunette who went by the handle @sw4q. Alana’s tweet was not the most offensive or nakedly racist of the bunch (that award could go to Cliff Kigar, who dropped the N-bomb, or to @GagasAlexander, who complained of “some ugly little girl with nappy…hair.”) but perhaps the most telling. “Awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the little blonde innocent girl you picture,” she wrote. She cc’ed a friend on the tweet, @EganMcCoy.
“That tweet was very telling, in terms of a mentality that is probably very widespread,” says

Adam, speaking softly from his office high above Toronto’s downtown financial district. He doesn’t sound angry, but he also isn’t amused. The phrases “some black girl” and “little blonde innocent girl” are ringing in my head as he talks, as are thoughts about how the heroes in our imaginations are white until proven otherwise, a variation on the principle of innocent until proven guilty that, for so many minorities, is routinely upended.

Adam tells me that, on the post featuring a screenshot of Alana’s tweet, he added, “Remember that word innocent? This is why Trayvon Martin is dead.” As he says it, I am thinking the same thing: of our culture’s association of whiteness with innocence, of a child described without an accompanying adjective, of a child rendered insignificant and therefore invisible because of his or her particular shade of skin.[/quote]

[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/man-whose-wmd-lies-led-to-100000-deaths-confesses-all-7606236.html]Curveball is proud of his lies [/url]

Funny how jumping to conclusions based on a grainy video and existing political prejudices can cause one to say stupid s**t that needs to be hastily retracted later.

I used like to snigger about "the biggest bust in the history of the NFL*" but from now on whenever his name comes up I'm just gonna sit quietly and reflect.

HELENA, Mont. -- Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf was arrested again Monday, just days after he posted bail on similar charges that he burglarized a home and stole prescription drugs, authorities said.

 

Leaf was first arrested on Friday after police found oxycodone pills in his golf bag that an acquaintance later said Leaf stole from his home. Then early Monday, three days after posting a $76,000 bond, he was arrested again on accusations that he broke into another home outside Great Falls, Central Montana Drug Task Force commander Chris Hickman said.

The probation violation is related to a plea agreement Leaf made in Texas after being accused in 2009 of burglarizing a player's home while he was a quarterbacks coach for Division II West Texas A&M. An investigation turned up that Leaf had obtained nearly 1,000 pain pills from area pharmacies in an eight-month span.

 

His plea agreement gave him 10 years of probation. Randall County District Attorney James Farren said he planned to file a motion Monday to revoke Leaf's probation.

 

Farren said the Texas judge in that case could set a hearing date, extradite Leaf for the hearing and then return Leaf to Montana for the proceedings in that state.

 

"Our argument will be that he should go to prison," Farren said.

 

Leaf arrest's [sic] on Friday was the result of a monthlong investigation that started with a tip that Leaf had been receiving small, rattling cash-on-delivery packages at the post office worth $500 or more once or twice a week.

-----------------

*Biggest bust not nick-named "The Boz".

Say good night, Ricky.

DNC Mouthpiece In Chief Debbie Wasserman-Schultz explains how the most corrupt mayor in modern LA history is just fine with her as the face for the upcoming Democratic National Convention and how dare anyone say otherwise!

If you're in Tampa when the GOP convention is in town, you won't be able to carry wood, hard tubes or anything else that could be used as a club, as well as water guns, super soakers, air guns, paintball guns, explosives, switchblades, hatchets, slingshots, brass knuckles, Mace, chains, crowbars, hammers, shovels, or any container containing urine, fecal matter or other bodily fluid.

If you're in downtown Tampa, you won't be able to carry ropes, straps, tape or string longer than 6 inches, glass containers, ceramic vessels, light bulbs, padlocks and bicycle locks, things that could be used as portable shields and gas masks.

If you're in the vicinity of the convention center itself, you won't be able to carry aerosol cans, camping gear, coolers and ice chests, fireworks, lasers, bottles, cans, thermoses, sticks, poles, ladders and umbrellas with metal tips.

But in all those areas, you will be able to carry a gun:

"It was just kind of common sense," Assistant City Attorney Mauricio Rodriguez said. "We felt if we're going to regulate people carrying sticks and poles, why wouldn't we regulate people carrying firearms, because those could pose significant risks to police and other protesters."

But later, city attorneys removed the ban on guns after finding that Florida Statute 790.33 prohibits local governments from enacting any laws on the sale, purchase, transfer, taxation, manufacture, ownership, possession, storage or transportation of guns or ammunition.

Enacted last year, the state law allows judgments of up to $100,000 against local governments that enforce local gun ordinances. It also says local officials could be removed from office and fined $5,000, with no representation from the city or county attorney.

to doing Today show spots on preparing party snacks with Tori Spelling:

In fairness, both Madeleine Albright and Hilary Clinton have also done TV appearances about cooking snacks. 

says 200k new jobs in March.  ADP usually misses the mark when it comes to what DoL numbers look like, but given first time UI claims and ISM numbers, I'm going to guess that the general economists' consensus is right and that we're going to have another set of fairly robust numbers on job creation this Friday.

I'm especially curious as to what Household Survey will look like--DoL payroll surveys tend to miss smaller outfits but Household Survey tends to be "noisier."

Be that as it may, if we stick with a few more months of job growth in the neighborhood of 200k/month, I think we'll be able to unpucker and say that we're actually in genuine recovery territory. 

Now, if I can just do better on this afternoon's interview than the other interviews I had this academic year...

I don't care if you know for certain that strings were pulled to get GWB out of his guard service and so figure that reproducing the memo that states this outright on MS Word is just helping the truth along, I don't care if you just want to make Zimmerman's racism explicit and so doctor the tapes of his 911 call.  It's both morally wrong and counter-productive.

Seriously.  Just stop it.

I guess it's not as bad as a white American male figuring that even if he's pretending a Syrian lesbian, it's okay because he's still telling their truth blah blah hegemonic discourse blah blah blah or people saying that Guatemalan Indios have a different standard of truth than white people and so Rigoberta Menchu can make s*** up for her Communist propaganda, but it still galls.

[url=http://registan.net/index.php/2012/03/31/karzais-misdirection/]Joshua Foust[/url]<

[quote]President Karzai wants Afghans and the world to know that fleeing a faltering government and financial sector is cowardly. He doesn’t assuage the business community, nor put forward security and good governance plans that would ease their minds, but curses them.

There are a million things I could write about how that’s funny coming from a man who spent some time in exile himself, who keeps part of his family safely in the West, who heads a government staffed by the most dual-citizens this side of… actually, probably anywhere. Or why arguably more cash per GDP dollar leaves Afghanistan (often in government hands) than anywhere else. But what chafes is that for all the shady businessmen who may very well be trying to take the money and run, there are many, many more Afghans who simply want a better life for themselves and their families, and know that in no small part thanks to Karzai, Afghanistan faces a very bleak time ahead. Doing business in Afghanistan has never been easy; private security has now been effectively banned, and the government alternative is more expensive and of questionable quality. Even the poorest Afghans often pay five to tens times the nationally regulated fee in order to obtain a national ID, without which registering for school, receiving benefits, registering legal cases, or travelling is virtually impossible. To mock those who are leaving for something better is callous, even for him.

I suspect things in Kabul will still function over the next year or two as they have done for the last year or two; the end of 2014, however, looks set to go down like the New Year’s Eve scene from the Godfather II. No one I’ve spoken with, Afghan or foreign, expects Karzai to stay past then. It’s possible he may survive, in Afghanistan, past 2014. But not likely. [/quote]

Just stick it out for a couple of years, before doing a Ben Ali. Good on you, sir, well played.

And what's he talking about?

"We live in an era where, a simple grass roots movement propelled by the discontented constituents of leaders, whom were entrusted with our safety, can and shall make a significant impact. Chief of Police Tooley blatantly lied. He attempted to appease the masses by stating that he was 'blindsided' by the media's release of this monster's attack on an innocent, homeless and peacekeeping bystander. It has already been revealed that Chief Tooley not only received an email petitioning his attention to the matter on behalf of the Seminole County Sheriffs Office, yet he was also provided with the video taped evidence of the attack and chose to do nothing but pass the buck in hope that the problem would simply go away. Mr. Hargrett's feeble attempt to patronize the public by stating that Lieutenant Collison did not receive any preferential treatment is nothing short of irritating and belittles our intelligence. There are only two possible explanations, either Lieutenant Collison's son received preferential treatment, or Sanford PD always neglects to [use] handcuffs and does not arrest assailants of innocent victims, neither of the two are acceptable, so clearly you are a liar Mr. Hargrett. I challenge you reading this to stand together and not 'simply go away' as Chief Tooley and his corrupt subordinates wish, but to have our voices heard and to hold accountable those whom let this atrocious attack pass unpunished until the media revealed it. This animal could have attacked anyone of us, our children or loved ones in his alcohol fueled rage. Chief Tooley has already proved his incompetence and willingness to lie to the public and 'circle the wagons' in order to protect his corrupt police officers. We must now be heard by his superiors, the Sanford City Mayor Elect, Jeff Triplett, the three continuing members of the City of Sanford City Commission and Commissioner Elect Mark McCarty will be conducting a Workshop and Open Forum on Saturday, January 8, 2011, from 10:00a.m. until approximately 1:00p.m., in the Railroad Depot Room, located on the 2nd Floor of Sanford CityHall, 300 North Park Avenue, Sanford, Florida. Please attend, voice your concern, and demand accountability from all whom participated in this illegal cover-up."

I haven't been around as much lately because I got totally immersed in Friday Night Lights. All five seasons are on Netflix. A phenomenally good series. Really well done. It should lasted another five years, or more. Seems to me that NBC dropped the ball on marketing.

Senator Boxer sponsors law to suspend passports of those with unpaid tax debts.

Warren Buffett's company owes back taxes going all the way back to 2002.

So, Senator--who gets to break the news to Buffett and his board members that their passports are going to be pulled?

Obama spent the usual three years at Harvard Law. Romney spent four years at Harvard getting a joint JD/MBA. It's not the lie of omission so much as the breathtaking lack of respect for the intelligence of his audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN_q0VhbJZ4

Hmmm. Minions. It needs more minions. And lasers--*lots* of lasers.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5e2_1333668975

You've got to wait 30 or so seconds before the trouble starts off to the right.

I will further note that the attacking skiff closes very fast on the tanker.

Best Wishes, Traveller

....of how awesome I am!

Wally Whyton was actually kind of an interesting guy. He had several hit albums from 1957 to 1960, and they were produced by a guy named George Martin.

Wally went on to host many children's programs in the U.K, one of which was called Tuesday Rendezvous. The Beatles made their second TV appearance (and first London appearance) on his show, performing "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I love you."

I don't know why this is in bold, but there it is.