I just finished reading The Man Who Would Not Shut Up, a biography of Bill O’Reilly. It is a very sympathetic depiction of him. It turns out that he is carbon-based. Of course, all the way through it, I kept wondering, “Why am I reading this?” And I’m half-way through a biography of Glenn Beck—I can’t wait to see if he turns out to be carbon-based too.

1. I’m right about hamburger! American Meat Institute President J. Patrick Boyle was on the “Colbert Report,” last night and he said that hamburger should not be eaten rare. The USDA recommends cooking all hamburger up to at least 160°F (that’s 344 K, if you’re cooking in the lab). It all comes down to surface—just searing the surface of a steak will kill the bacteria, but hamburg is almost all surface. (Did you hear the story about the genetics students who made e. coli that smelled like banana? It’s true. Clever kids.)
2. As relief aid begins to trickle into Pakistan, there is much speculation about why the world is being so ungenerous about this catastrophe. Twenty million people have been displaced, hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed, and almost two million acres of farmland flooded or washed away. In addition, 1500 people have died. I had to ask myself why I gave money to Haiti but not to Pakistan. There is no good reason, so I gave my usual pittance. Now you have two reasons to give: decency and guilt. (I’m providing the guilt, in case you didn’t notice.)
   Donate to Pakistan Flood Relief
3. You know things have gotten bad when Pat Buchanan is the voice of reason. On Monday Newt Gingrich attacked the Islamic community center, saying, “Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington.” Bachanan later said that he, “went too far with that comment.” But Buchanan is not the only person making sense in this ridiculous debate. On Monday’s Rachel Maddow Show, guest host Chris Hayes (“Who’s the black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks?” Wrong Hayes.) made the argument that in four years, we will all look back on this with the same embarrassment that “freedom fries” now engenders.
4. I’m sure you’ve heard that Faux News’ parent company gave a one million dollar donation to the Republican Governors Association. In response, Democratic Governors Association Executive Director Nathan Daschle has written a letter to Roger Ailes asking that Fox News (a) put a disclaimer on all coverage of governors and gubernatorial races, and (b) cover this story itself—which Faux has been strangely silent on.
5. Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s “nigger, nigger, nigger” rant has resulted in her not renewing here contract which is up at the end of the year. On Larry King Live she said that, “my First Amendment rights have been usurped by angry, hateful groups.” I don’t think that’s right. No one is saying she doesn’t have a right to her rant; we’re just saying she’s an asshole.
6. The last American combat brigade in Iraq has left the country today, but here’s the strange thing: the Pentagon has not confirmed that the move marks an early end to combat operations. And, of course, there are still roughly 50,000 non-combat troops remaining. More when I know what the hell is going on.

There was a good side to my arguments yesterday. I used the “why do you care?” argument in the Prop. 8 case, and it seemed to work. They agreed that, in fact, whether or not there were same-sex unions made no difference to them. This is the thing about Republicans: most of the time they don’t realize that what they care about really has no relevance to their lives. If we could get them to realize this all the time, you know what they would be? Democrats.

1. The Washington Post has done an investigation of Top Secret America. It is a long (each article is about 5,000 words) three-part series. The highlights? The system is comprised of almost 1,300 government organizations and 2,000 private companies located at 10,000 places throughout the US; upwards of a million people have top-secret security; there is a great deal of redundancy and waste—for example, over fifty organizations track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks; and 50,000 intelligence reports are produced each year—so many that a lot are simply ignored. And still they can’t stop the Jihadists from opening a culinary school.
2. Those Mexicans are so backward! According to Bay Windows, “Same-sex couples who get married in Mexico City, the only place in the nation where they can do so, are validly married everywhere in Mexico, in all 31 states, the Supreme Court ruled Aug. 10 in a 9-2 vote.” That means the US is the only North American country to not recognize same-sex unions. Gooo team!
3. The flooding in Pakistan has not received much news coverage. Millions of dark skinned people suffering? Yawn. It is not surprising, however, that a former cricket player—Imran Khan—has launched a fund-raising drive to help out Pakistani flood victims. Cricketers have to stick together.
4. As I long suspected, getting hit in the head is a bad thing. It seem that Lou Gehrig may not have died from Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
5. Paul Ryan continues his disingenuous claims about balancing the budget. Ezra Klein takes on his claim that he doesn’t want to destroy Medicare (he does). Ryan wants to replace it with a voucher system. Sound familiar? It’s amazing: even when Republicans have “new” ideas they are old.
6. See, my faith in Rod Blagojevich has paid off: he was only convicted of lying to the FBI. Just kidding (about my faith, not the verdict). As far as I can tell, he’s guilty as sin—and I say this as one who tried very hard to believe him. The prosecution will retry him on the other 24 counts. Even with the one count he was convicted on, he could get up to five years.

Now go spread the word to them’s that need it.

Social Security (which included unemployment benefits) turns 75 today—at a time when Republicans are back to pushing for its destruction. This is a good example of why a party of strong ideology (like the Republicans) is bad and a party of pragmatism (like the Democrats) is good. The Republicans were not always so ideological, however. Here is a quotation by President Dwight D. Eisenhower from a letter to his brother Edgar on 8 November 1954:

Of course, compared to the neo-fascists of the Republican Party, even Barry Goldwater looks pretty good. But he didn’t have the best political ad of all time:

It’s Friday the 13th, but I don’t believe in luck. The current political crisis is not a question of luck. Simply put, the Republicans are eager to sacrifice the good of the country (and the world) just to gain political power. It is repulsive. If they had not gone off the deep end, I would not be so partisan. But how can anyone of good conscious be a Republican today? John Dean (Nixon’s Whitehouse Counsel) and I are far apart politically, and yet on all the issues that come up in politics today, we are in lock step. That’s right: if Nixon were a politician today, he would be a moderate Democrat. If Reagan were a politician today, he would be a conservative Democrat or a liberal Republican. Regardless, he would be more reasonable than Ben Nelson.

But since it is Friday, we all deserve a little levity. So I give you Chico Marx. Just watch what he does with the apple:

1. The word is that Obama’s deficit commission is mostly looking at ways to destroy Social Security and Medicare. As a result, Paul Krugman refers to it as the “catfood commission.” In three blogs today (one, two, and three), Krugman demolishes the “same old disingenuous arguments making the rounds.” I thought after Bush’s 2005 debacle, this was over. Sigh.
2. The Gun Owners of America and the Christian Coalition are for Net Neutrality. The liberal sell-outs! The Teabaggers are taking a bold stand against Net Neutrality. Goooo team!
3. Representative Maxine Waters held a 90-minute press conference today in which she defended herself against ethics charges. Although I rather think that Charlie Rangel is guilty, even if the case against him is over-stated, I believe that Waters is innocent. There does seem to be something very wrong with the Ethics Committee.

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed Chico.

The Rachel Maddow Show had big news tonight. I owe the first two items here to it. I know how evil she is: she’s a prominent member of the Professional Left. But Ms. Maddow is one of the few jewels in corporate medialand. I also wish to thank Canadian Living for the exceptional Snow Peas and Carrots with Sesame and Garlic that I just ate. It was amazing.

1. This is important, but don’t expect to see much coverage on it. Several people very close to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer are associated with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Why is this important? Brewer was a big proponent of the Arizona “Breathing While Brown” law—better known as SB 1070. CCA runs 6 of the 15 jails in Arizona and has a contract with the Feds to hold federal prisoners—which those arrested under SB 1070 would be. Of course, the people of Arizona voted for the bill because of fear and hatred. But don’t ever lose sight of the fact that the people behind such legislation are in it for the money and power (which is just money, in the end). [Stephen Lemons’ article]
2. BP just paid the biggest OSHA fine ever. For the oil spill? Nope. They paid $51 million for problems at their Texas City refinery that had an explosion that killed 15 people and injured 170 others. But don’t think this is what the fine was for. No. They had already been fined $20 million dollars for that. You see, oil is so profitable it just isn’t cost effective to prevent the murder of company employees. Pay the fines and move on. There are a lot of fishermen who are looking for work! Goooo team! [Why is the best coverage from the Financial Times?]
3. There is a growing Republican meme that the unemployed are just spoiled people who won’t take the jobs available. Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported on Michael Hatchell, a 52-year-old mechanic from North Carolina who has turned down “dozens” of job offers during the 59 weeks he has been unemployed. Newt Gingrich has picked up on this and publicly shamed Mr. Hatchell. According to the Republicans, businesses should make rational decisions, but individuals should not. For example: a business should not invest in capital improvements because of “uncertainty” about future tax policy. But individuals with 30 years experience should take minimum-wage jobs, even if they pay less than unemployment insurance. Do Republicans have no shame? Apparently. [Business Insider Offensive Article on Unemployed]
4. Someone from the Administration actually has something negative to say about someone other than the Professional Left! Jared Bernstein, Chief Economic Advisor to the Vice President, blasted John Boehner and other Republicans for their opposition to the Recovery Act. [It’s fun reading]
5. And finally a little encouragement: Alan Abramowitz presented Five Myths About Midterm Elections. Number two is: It’s an anti-incumbent year. He points out that this is said every mid-term election and every mid-term election the vast majority of incumbents retain their seats. [It is worth a read]

You may now return to your regularly scheduled lives.

My work within the yearbook industry has required a lot of photo-editing. I can’t tell you how many obscene gestures kids will try to sneak into class photos that then need to be “corrected” by adding or removing fingers and other appendages. Then there are those unfortunate shots that require the addition of modesty-preserving elements such as longer shorts, higher necklines, and occasionally even underwear. (Don’t ask.) My reason for explaining all this is to prove that I’m not a pervert, only perhaps a bit more likely to notice awkward bits in seemingly innocent photos.

I have been under the impression that Emma Roberts is a modest, self-respecting GIRL, so what is it exactly that is dangling from the front of her pants? I understand that on the full-size movie poster it’s probably quite clear that the object in question is ummm, well, something that isn’t a penis. But you would think that someone (other than myself) would have checked the photo for details that might not translate into the teeny world of JPGs. If I were Miss Roberts (or her mother) I think I’d be a bit piqued with the publicity firm responsible. Maybe there will be an opening for an eagle-eyed photo editing grunt like myself!

A great deal of conservative economic theory depends upon the idea that people in an economy make decisions based upon “perfect information.” Along with this and the questionable assumption that all people are rational, economists on the right explain how the economy will be just fine if we simply let it be. This is obviously a big subject that is debated between people who are much smarter and well-educated than I am. But I do have serious doubts about this “perfect information” assumption.

Yesterday, I went to Amazon to see about getting Liars for Jesus by Chris Rodda. For now, I am not going to get it because I have spent a lot of money the last couple of days buying books for a play about Evariste Galois that I am working on. But I noticed an interesting thing (although I have seen similar things many times before): the cheapest used copy is $28.92, while a new copy is only $23.99. And the new copy qualifies for free shipping if you spend just $1.01 more! (The used copy will cost an extra $3.99 for shipping.)

Since the prices change over time (although it is two days now and it hasn’t), here is a screenshot to show you what I mean:

I have long been suspect of this “perfect information” business, because I often find bargains simply because I will spend hours dismantling the shelves of book and electronics stores. But I’m a freak. Most people do not get the best price on an item, even when the best price is just next door. The situation is supposed to be much easier online. But if Amazon sellers don’t even know that their own items are over-priced compared to Amazon itself, how are consumers supposed to know who has the best price on the Internet generally, much less downtown or at the mall?

I am too busy to write anything of much interest here, so I thought I would just provide a few quotes from the late, great John Maynard Keynes. My outside work took me to The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations (by Robert Andrews) to find for a quotation from Keynes. It was probably his most famous:

Many of Keynes quotations address the pretensions of economists and those who think them gods. I rather like the following, because it so nicely sums up many people I know—almost 75 years after Keynes wrote it:

And one more about roughly the same people:

Just to show that an evening spent with H W Fowler’s Modern English Usage can be dangerous, I am now going to spend a little time with the word mutual. Because I am a product of the United States where the only things that really matter are commodities, my first and most profound connection to this word is the Mutual of Omaha ad song, so familiar to viewers of Wild Kingdom:

I dare say that I learned everything I knew about how to use “mutual” in a sentence from Dickens’ title alone—until last night. What I found out last night was that using the word in this way is incorrect. And it isn’t just Fowler (dead almost 80 years) who says so. Only 58% of the most recent Usage Panel think that the construction “our mutual friend” is correct—a majority, but not a large one.

So what is the big deal? Let me quote Fowler:

The question obviously comes to mind: if Dickens uses “mutual” in this way, can it be all that wrong? It turns out that this use of the word was already quite common long before 1865, when Dickens wrote it. So we are talking some 200 years of this being common usage.

I think we should all make friends with this usage. Then it can be our mutual friend.