Meatballs

Is actually not very good. I think I still love it anyway.

Lost Holiday

Life

Made good
and bad
decisions tonight.

Home alone.

Can you be
Sad
But
Satisfied?

Meta

This is a test.

so...

long time no blog.


watch this space for further developments,

Wow!

Just checked my blog and there are a ton of spam drafts...  somehow my e-mail to post address must've got out.  At least i changed it to save emails as drafts.

Test

Testing a new blog app from my phone...

IGNORANCE

Just found out my old school district will not be letting students watch The President's address on the 8th.

Here is the e-mail sent to the teacher's from one of the principals -

From: Ernie Salazar
Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2009 1:37 PM
To: - North Campus High School
Subject: Presidential Address


We have been instructed not to show the live broadcast of the President’s address to the students on September 8^th, 2009 at 1:00 pm.   Please line this off your calendar for this month.  We plan to record the event, after which, we will evaluate the message and where best to use it, if at all.  Some parents may opt their children out of a lesson, with the understanding that there may be an alternate assignment.

Again, please do not show the live broadcast.  Thanks 

Ernie Salazar
Principal
Deer Park High School-North
832-668-7300

hey!

i can post to blogger from my phone now!

LEAGUE OF MELBOTIS: The League (Finally) Watches: Watchmen

LEAGUE OF MELBOTIS: The League (Finally) Watches: Watchmen: 

"I won't belabor what is a lengthy post here with a plot synopsis, but in re-reading Watchmen and seeing the movie, its fascinating to note that we should be starting our second generation at this point who has no concept of the Cold War as a fact of life, and how and why it influenced so much of culture. I, for one, fully believed I would be nuked at some point in my life, probably before I was old enough to drink. The very specific fear of a terrorist driving a plane into my office building seemed rather small in comparison. I do not know if the Cold War means anything to those in their twenties or younger."

TomPaine.com - E. Coli Conservatism

TomPaine.com - E. Coli Conservatism: 

"The Associated Press studied the records and found that between 2003 and 2006 the Food and Drug Administration conducted 47 percent fewer safety inspections. FDA field offices have 12 percent fewer employees. Safety tests for food produced in the United States have gone down by three quarters—have almost ground to a halt—in the previous year alone. What does that mean, in practical terms? Consider the peanut butter."

Let's hear it for the strong moral principles that lead to the poisoning of the American people and their pets!

GO CONSERVATIVISM!!!

Daily Kos: Not Quite Liveblogging Glenn Beck

Daily Kos: Not Quite Liveblogging Glenn Beck: 

"50 mins or so: Well, I have no idea what the overall 'plot' of Beck's little program is supposed to be, other than John Galt Pity Party."

ok...  who's ready to form another band?

John Galt Pity Party - Live at Super Happy Fun Land...

The Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly: 

"A group of people are working diligently to put out a raging fire, and the failed minority party, which helped set the blaze, can't imagine why no one is taking their more-lighter-fluid agenda seriously."

perfect.

Mutual Assured Destruction - the 80's and the world of The Watchmen

Watchmen Review: Watchmen Proves The Cold War Is An Alien World

Watchmen Review: Watchmen Proves The Cold War Is An Alien World
This article is pretty right on.
I'll be 39 at the end of this month.The 80's were all about Reagan and AIDS.

Reagan never of course said the word,but it was there.
When people today think about Reagan they think about economics (FAIL) 

or maybe Bedtime for Bonzo

 but Reagan was all about the cold war.

I remember having nightmares about nuclear war.

Reagan escalated the rhetoric.

The Evil Empire.  

Dr. Strangelove became War Games.

Things were out of control.  

Matthew Broderick could've killed us all with a 300 baud modem.

Then we would have never been blessed with Project X.  

Anyway, yes - as this article states - the cold war was madness - as is the war on terror... it is rhetoric used to scare and control us. To make us accept the ever growing police state.

But in the mind of a teenager in the 80's (or at least this teen), the threat of nuclear destruction seemed very real.
I believed, like Sting, that the russians loved their children too - but if a crazy general or a teenager with a commodore 64 could start a nuclear holocaust then what did that even matter?  and then there were people like Kissinger and Reagan.  

We've outlawed the soviet union - the bombing starts in two minutes.  

80's nostalgia is weird to me.

Sure we listened to The Cure -but we were also full of fear

in a world out of control...

We were crazy.

We are crazy.

End of an era: Touch and Go Records will stop distributing smaller indie labels - Jim DeRogatis

This is sad.

End of an era: Touch and Go Records will stop distributing smaller indie labels - Jim DeRogatis: "In a move certain to have a wide-ranging negative impact on the independent music scene in America, Chicago-based Touch and Go Records has announced that it's eliminating the part of its operation that has provided manufacturing and distribution services to dozens of smaller record labels across the country for the last two decades."

File Under: The New Deal Worked! SUCK IT!

Paul Abrams: Winning the Economic Argument: Show Opponents This Graph, and Ask Them to Explain: 

"As pointed out in the above-referenced article, the key observation in this graph is the downturn in 1936-37. This is as close to a 'scientific experiment' as there can be in macroeconomics: from '33 to '36 Roosevelt unleashed the New Deal and what passed at the time as massive spending. The GDP grew every year by double-digits.

Then, in a reversion to his true roots as a fiscal conservative, FDR decided that it was time to slash spending to balance the budget. The economy contracted. Then in '38, realizing the error of his ways, Roosevelt started spending again, and GDP grew every year thereafter."

File Under: Great Moments in Capitalism

Two Pennsylvania Judges Accused Of Jailing Kids For Millions Of Dollars In Kickbacks: 

"In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers."

MAKE: Blog: HOW TO - Make Skittles vodka

MAKE: Blog: HOW TO - Make Skittles vodka: 

"Infusing vodka with Skittles is a very popular trend right now"

Guy came in the candy store today asking about this...

he ended up getting Cantaloupe flavored jelly bellys...

I'm curious to hear how it turns out.

Projected impact of the stimulus - in Texas

AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT PLAN:

THE IMPACT FOR TEXAS

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is a nationwide effort to create jobs, jumpstart growth and transform our economy for the 21st century. Across the country, this plan will help businesses create jobs and families afford their bills while laying a foundation for future economic growth in key areas like health care, clean energy, education and a 21st century infrastructure. In Texas, this plan will deliver immediate, tangible impacts, including:

•

Creating or saving 285,700 jobs over the next two years. Jobs created will be in a range of industries from clean energy to health care, with over 90% in the private sector. [Source: White House Estimate based on Romer and Bernstein, “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.” January 9, 2009.]

•

Providing a making work pay tax cut of up to $1,000 for 8,170,000 workers and their families. The plan will make a down payment on the President’s Making Work Pay tax cut for 95% of workers and their families, designed to pay out immediately into workers’ paychecks. [Source: White House Estimate based on IRS Statistics of Income]

•

Making 346,000 families eligible for a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable. By creating a new $2,500 partially refundable tax credit for four years of college, this plan will give 3.8 million families nationwide – and 346,000 families in Texas – new assistance to put college within their reach. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of U.S. Census data]

•

Offering an additional $100 per month in unemployment insurance benefits to 677,000 workers in Texas who have lost their jobs in this recession, and providing extended unemployment benefits to an additional 125,000 laid-off workers. [Source: National Employment Law Project]

•

Providing funding sufficient to modernize at least 937 schools in Texas so our children have the labs, classrooms and libraries they need to compete in the 21st century economy. [Source: White House Estimate]

In addition to this immediate assistance for Texas, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will help transform our economy by:

•

Doubling renewable energy generating capacity over three years, creating enough renewable energy to power 6 million American homes.

•

Computerizing every American’s health record in five years, reducing medical errors and saving billions of dollars in health care costs.

•

Launching the most ambitious school modernization program on record, sufficient to upgrade 10,000 schools.

•

Enacting the largest investment increase in our nation’s roads, bridges and mass transit systems since the creation of the national highway system in the 1950s.

The "FDR Failed" Myth | OurFuture.org

The "FDR Failed" Myth | OurFuture.org: 

"In fact, like every decade between 1850 and 1990, the 1930s suffered two distinct downturns. The official U.S. Business Cycle Dating Committee established that the downturn that began in August 1929 ended in March 1933 with the remarkable economic expansion that started within days of FDR’s bold—if trial and error—New Deal programs. By any normal definition, the Great Depression had ended by late 1936, with all major indicators surpassing their previous peaks.
A second cyclical downturn officially began in May 1937 when FDR, always a fiscal conservative, mistakenly thought the economy had become self-sustaining and slashed public spending programs to balance the budget. These harsh and premature spending cuts caused another severe recession that ended after 13 months in June 1938.
Even in this severe downturn, annual GDP did not fall back below its 1929 peak. And although many suffered and most economic measures did fall back below their 1929 levels, not one fell anywhere close to its March 1933 low. For example, although industrial production fell sharply in the 1937-38 recession, at its low point, in April 1938, it remained 49 percent above its level of March 1933.
When the economy again contracted sharply in late 1937 and early 1938, FDR quickly reversed course and rapid growth immediately began again. GDP soared by 10.9 percent in 1939 and industrial production soared by 23 percent."

O.k., all you free market fundamentalists, take a look at this and tell me what you think...

then I can tell you that you're wrong - and at least I'll have some data to back me up.