TOKYO — Japanese officials announced Sunday that the cooling system at a second nuclear reactor crippled by Japan’s devastating earthquake had failed completely, even as they took the extraordinary step of flooding a separate reactor with seawater in a last-ditch effort to avoid a nuclear meltdown.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Your Scary Overnight News
Nothing to worry about.
Global Horror Show
Between stuff we've brought on ourselves, and Mother Nature's little interventions, things have been less than awesome recently.
Our Galtian Overlords
They'll happily run us all through the wood chipper for a slight bump in their portfolio values.
The Big City
I don't think there's any way to judge the winner of the corruption olympics, but I do reject the easy assumption that corruption in the "big cities" is necessarily and always worse than elsewhere. Sure big cities are big, so in absolute dollars there's more to take, but the truth is there just aren't a lot of people shining the light on corruption elsewhere, especially now that small papers have folded.
My personal take is that some degree of local corruption is inevitable, and the line between "corrupt" and "the way things are done" is not always as clear as people think. But once we pay the inevitable corruption tax, do things actually work? It's one thing to have 30% going out the door if your roads get built, and your trash gets picked up, and your bus system runs reasonably well. Its another thing if the corruption is so bad that things don't work as they're supposed to.
My personal take is that some degree of local corruption is inevitable, and the line between "corrupt" and "the way things are done" is not always as clear as people think. But once we pay the inevitable corruption tax, do things actually work? It's one thing to have 30% going out the door if your roads get built, and your trash gets picked up, and your bus system runs reasonably well. Its another thing if the corruption is so bad that things don't work as they're supposed to.
Some Days, Internet Pissing Contests Don't Seem To Matter Much
Days like this there's too much of people declaring that Event X Proves Them Fucking Right while lecturing other people not to Draw The Wrong hasty Conclusions From Event X.
They Don't Care
We have a generation of legislators who really just don't give a shit about the consequences of what they do. Why exactly they want their jobs I'm not entirely sure, but nonetheless.
Friday, March 11, 2011
SUPERTRAINS
From email:
The proposals are due in less than a month, so presumably the money Lex Luthor rejected will just get divided up between existing established projects.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that he is making available approximately $2.4 billion, through a competitive process, to states eager to develop high-speed rail corridors across the United States.
The proposals are due in less than a month, so presumably the money Lex Luthor rejected will just get divided up between existing established projects.
No Need For Pain
While I can never figure out exactly what the Fed has statutory authority for - though I suspect 'whatever they say they do' is probably the correct answer - conceptually there's no need for any of the misery which is surrounding us. Bernanke could fire up the helicopters and shower money on us all. They could just print billion dollar bills and hand them out to state governments. Sure there are a couple of potential problems. One is inflation, though measures like this which happen once and then stop aren't likely to create sustained inflation. And, yes, there is the 'rewarding bad actors' and moral hazard problems where you don't want the state governments to believe that the bailouts are always around the corner.
But, you know, we've already rewarded a lot of bad actors, ones who happen to be really fucking rich, and who still rightly believe the bailout is just around the corner.
But, you know, we've already rewarded a lot of bad actors, ones who happen to be really fucking rich, and who still rightly believe the bailout is just around the corner.
The Andrea Mitchell Shared Sacrifice Tax
Of course the gasbags who are oh so convinced that what we need to do RIGHT NOW is cut spending that helps babies and poor people, will also tell you that we can't possibly raise taxes on rich people or they will go Galt!!!
Flunking
For a long time I thought a big problem was that the public discourse in economics was trapped at the level of Econ 101. Now it seems the problem is too many economists don't even understand that much.
There Doesn't Have To Be A There There
The thing is with all the right wing "stings" is that there doesn't have to be anything legitimately problematic for everyone in our media and government to fall all over themselves to condemn it and everyone involved to be fired 3 days ago. Thank you Tom Vilsack. The Planned Parenthood stuff, even with deceptive editing, was basically controversial only if you think it's controversial for teen girls to get necessary medical care, which apparently a lot of people do.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Thursday Evening
I actually did go to happy hour (no, Gomez, I usually don't). Some times getting out of the house is just what the doctor would order. Though wow is the weather shitty.
Two Jags John Prescott
Prescott was a Labour Transport Minister who the press mocked for having two Jaguars. This cartoon reflects well the attitude that many drivers have towards everyone not in a car. Yes, the bus might slow you down a bit when it stops, but it's also filled with 50 people not surrounded by a giant individual metal boxes.
Facts Are Stupid Things
And, yes Tucker Carlson is a hack, but in our world he's also nominally a "journalist."
America
Normally I'm quite amused by my local newspaper commenters, but sometimes they can be more than a little depressing.
I Bet Tax Breaks For Large Companies And Rich People Will Do The Trick
I admit to being a bit shocked at the new development in this country, which is the existence of governors who truly do not care if they turn their states into shitholes. I don't expect Republicans to enact my favored agenda, and I do expect that generally there will be a bit of an urban-rural shift in emphasis under Republican governors in much of the country, but I thought that some motivation for wanting to run a state was having some pride in that state.
But He's So Cute When He Yells At Constituents
Kudos to the NYT for actually taking a moment to point out that New Jersey's governor is a big liar.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
GOP Daddies
I've seen a similar dynamic play out in academia a bunch of times. Basically, lots of people support the idea of bringing in some hard-nosed administrator who's going to kick a bunch off asses and get the place into shape. Of course, everyone imagines that it's other peoples' asses that are going to be kicked, and they are then shocked to discover that maybe it isn't such a good idea to put a clueless authoritarian asshole who gets a kick out of causing pain in charge of things.
And so it is with Republican governors.
And so it is with Republican governors.
Growth!
After decades of decline, the urban hellhole's population actually increased a bit (.6%) since the last census. It'll take some time, but hopefully all the various powers that be manage to adjust to the new non-shrinking reality.
Illinois Abolishes Its Death Penalty
According to various people on the twitter. Good. Aside from all of the various and important issues of injustice and discrimination surrounding the death penalty, it's just a bad idea to empower the State to kill its own citizens.
TOD
Nothing wrong with supporting all attempts at energy efficiency, but energy efficient construction not served by transit and surrounded by acres of parking lot isn't very energy efficient. Give the way we've built this country, we're going to have such development with us for a long time, but we should consider how people are supposed to get to and from such places when evaluating how energy efficient they truly are.
More importantly, we do have plenty of places that are actually quite well served by transit, but a combination of decades-old zoning and land use policies and NIMBYism (not always unjustified) has prevented appropriate development at these locations.
More importantly, we do have plenty of places that are actually quite well served by transit, but a combination of decades-old zoning and land use policies and NIMBYism (not always unjustified) has prevented appropriate development at these locations.
Thank Me
I'm not a New Yorker or a cyclist, and I get that some bike lanes might be poorly designed or even inappropriate or certain streets, but what annoys me is when drivers get bent out of shape by pedestrians and cyclists who, for the most part, they should be thanking for not contributing to additional traffic. Sure some cyclists behave badly, but they're mostly just putting themselves at risk, not actually causing congestion at the opening of the Lincoln Tunnel. Ditto for pedestrians. What they have chosen to do is not surround themselves in large metal boxes to join in with the other numerous large metal boxes on the roads. If they had chosen to do that then Manhattan would truly be the giant parking lot of OneJag's dreams.
The Trouble With Free Parking
Since OneJag writes about economics, let me give him a wee economics lesson. The reason why he has to drive around looking for a parking space is because the parking is free and at the price of zero people a lot more people want to park in Manhattan on some random evening than there are spaces, and this would be true even if a dozen or so parking spots given over to the bike tyrants would be returned to their natural state of Jag parking. Of course then people like OneJag, instead of paying a market rate for parking in cash, pay the market rate for parking in time wasted circling around looking for a free spot. This, not a few cyclists or bike lanes, contributes immensely to the congestion on city streets, as much of it is caused by people circling around looking for free or cheap on street parking.
OneJag Cassidy Enraged By Lack Of Sufficient Free Parking
Even New Yorkers...
I honestly thought the piece was a parody the first time I read it. Take the subway or pay to put your Jag in a lot.
...Aaron has more.
A minor but not completely insignificant example. Like many New Yorkers who don’t live in Manhattan, one of my favorite pastimes is to drive from Brooklyn, where I live, into the city for dinner and find a parking space once the 7 A.M.-7 P.M. parking restrictions have lapsed. Years ago, this was a challenge, but a manageable one. These days, especially downtown, it is virtually impossible. When the city introduces a bike lane on a given street, it removes dozens of parking places. All too often these days, I find myself driving endlessly up and down Hudson, or Sixth Avenue, or wherever, looking in vain for a legal spot—and for cyclists. What I see instead is motor traffic snarled on avenues that, thanks to bike lanes, have been reduced from four lanes to three, or three to two. As of old, I sometimes almost run into a delivery boy riding the wrong way down the street, but even the delivery boys don’t seem to use the bike lanes for this purpose. (Perhaps they, too, are frightened of incurring the righteous rage of the helmeted.)
I honestly thought the piece was a parody the first time I read it. Take the subway or pay to put your Jag in a lot.
...Aaron has more.
Morning
Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida.
All attacking education and unions. Who's next? New York?
All attacking education and unions. Who's next? New York?
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
"Pain Across The Board"
Except for rich people and the natural gas industry which is going to destroy the state.
So awesome.
So awesome.
Too Much Washington Journalism Presents Things As
"[A] political horse-race issue where lobbyists get to say anything they like without being fact-checked."
Your Liberal Media
Lots of journalists are, you know, union members, and seem to quite enjoy the protections of those unions. But for some reason Labor representatives are nowhere to be found.
The Depressing Thing
Is that I heard a Dem member of Congress, and not someone you'd think of as being one of the bad guys, talking about Rhee as if she was the second coming of Jesus, only better.
Our Dumb Leaders
Also, too, please stop spending me fundraising and petition emails about Republican spending cuts that you've basically agreed to.
And The Dark Cloud Comes To Pennsylvania
So, shorter my new evil governor: fuck teachers, fuck state workers, and let's frack the state into oblivion.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Poop Dogg And The Enema Man
We should put this guy in charge of everything. As Dave Weigel said on the Twitter, this is Alan Simpson. Who wouldn't put him in charge of Social Security?
Trash
I do think the powers that be in my urban hellhole greatly underestimate the negative impact of lack of regular street cleaning, or public garbage receptacles, in most neighborhoods. It is a city filled with too much litter. Some of that's because people suck and they litter (though more public garbage cans would improve that). Some of that's because some days it's windy on trash day and stuff gets blown around. But whatever the reason, there should be a more organized effort to fix the problem, at whatever level.
Morning Thread
by Molly Ivors
Here is a shocker.
Wingnut spokesmeathead Joe the Plumber (NB: not an actual plumber) is a perfectly pleasant guy. (Aren't they all, on some level?) And he has no intention of allowing complete ignorance of the Wisconsin budget to interfere with his right to opine upon it.
Go, First Draft!
Here is a shocker.
Wingnut spokesmeathead Joe the Plumber (NB: not an actual plumber) is a perfectly pleasant guy. (Aren't they all, on some level?) And he has no intention of allowing complete ignorance of the Wisconsin budget to interfere with his right to opine upon it.
Go, First Draft!
Monday, March 07, 2011
Interpreting Chunky BoBo
Echidne tries, but it's really quite simple. Every Ross Douthat column on this subject is, basically, "the slutty sluts should stop being slutty," with the occasional "also, too, abortion bad." He just knows the world doesn't entirely share his hatred and disgust for women, so he tries to package it into any more palatable argument he can find, the way that Regular BoBo does.
Some Things You Can't Make Up
NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER DEBATES
THE ROLE OF CIVILITY IN DEMOCRACY
Final event of major NEH-funded series
Features Filmmaker Ken Burns, former U.S. Representative Lee Hamilton,
former Dept. of Justice Official John Yoo, and PBS’ Hari Sreenivasan
Presumably we'll hear about how uncivil it is to say Fuck John Yoo when he says it's ok to crush the testicles of children.
Free Lunch Republicans
No, nobody remembers Whitman's little scam. Or that Ground Zero air quality stuff for that matter.
Campaigning For President Is Hard Work
At least if you're in it to win it. Sure you can run a fake campaign and trick Politico into covering it and get BoBo or maybe even Chunky Bobo to write something nice about you, especially if you mention that you think girly parts are icky, but after that you have to raise money. More than that, you have to convince other people to raise money for you. And you have to convince other people to convince other people to raise money for you. Then after you're done hanging out with rich people you have to spend some time pressing flesh with the masses next to the deep fried snickers bar stall at the country fair. And some of those people are icky, and they're certainly not rich, but you have to talk to them anyway. A lot of them, at least in Iowa.
Turnover
Partisan considerations aside, it's good to get new people in the Senate. So, please, more retirements!
Generational Warfare
I think in a very broad sense there is a generational shift between those who experienced the cities-in-decline decades and those experiencing the cities-kinda-sorta-getting-better-again decades. So much urban policy was directed at jobs-and-destinations, desperately trying to attract large employers and turning cities into urban theme parks for suburban visitors, with cultural and sporting events being the draw.
An Actual Urban Hellhole
I don't know the long sordid history of attempts to improve Camden in full, but I do know that a lot of money was spent on "attractions" to attract outsiders, to turn it into some sort of destination for visitors, rather than to improve the lives of residents. And since nobody who plans this stuff seems to have any idea what they are doing, each "attraction" on the waterfront is basically an isolated building surrounded by acres of parking lot, ensuring that even if people, say, show up to the Aquarium, they park, visit, return to their cars, and leave.
The Jesus Cloak
Those of us who remember the Wayne DuMond atrocity know that Huck has long been a deeply dishonest man. But, you know, he's an affable Godly Christian, so he gets a pass. He wouldn't lie for Jesus, would he?
Poverty In America
I haven't watched, but, yes, kudos for the teevee actually showing the harsh reality of existence for many in the greatest country in the world.
In the current rules of discourse, $250,000 makes you poor when it comes to taxation and 50,000 makes you absurdly rich with respect to everything else. No none of this makes any sense.
In the current rules of discourse, $250,000 makes you poor when it comes to taxation and 50,000 makes you absurdly rich with respect to everything else. No none of this makes any sense.
I'll Miss The Glenny Hour
I don't often watch, but the running commentary I get through twitter and email is usually an amusing way to transition to the end of the day. Caliphate!
Losing Tic-Tac-Toe
So the Dems will ultimately fall all over themselves to take credit for the Republican budget cuts they acquiesced to, at which point the Republicans will run against them for cutting things. This is quite easy to do as cuts in the abstract are "good" while specific cuts are "bad."
Monday
And I started the week with yet another column from Chunky BoBo telling us which sex he thinks is naughty and which sex he thinks is nice.
Wakey, Wakey
Katha Pollitt
"Is the GOP going to set up a replacement network of clinics to provide Pap smears and breast exams and STD testing and such? Or is Jesus now the national gynecologist?"
"Is the GOP going to set up a replacement network of clinics to provide Pap smears and breast exams and STD testing and such? Or is Jesus now the national gynecologist?"
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Education Skeptic
I'm also somewhat of an education skeptic, especially given the pricetag. I don't know how the BoBos and Chunky BoBos of the world expect people to graduate college and start having babies on one income and $100K+ debt.
What's It All About Then
Today on This Week:
August 2009 on the Twitter:
And one day earlier:
Ties? Oh. Ties.
On getting President Gadhafi of Libya to step down, McCain said: “He's insane. But perhaps the people around him would begin to depart the sinking ship, and by, again, a no-fly zone, declaring our assistance or support of a provisional government, perhaps which is being formed up now. There's a lot of steps we can take, providing significant humanitarian aid.”
August 2009 on the Twitter:
Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his "ranch" in Libya - interesting meeting with an interesting man.
And one day earlier:
TRIPOLI, Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator John McCain praised Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi for his peacemaking role in Africa and said Congress would support expanding ties, Libyan state news agency Jana said on Friday.
Ties? Oh. Ties.
Since Washington ended its major sanctions on Libya, U.S. energy companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron have been active in Libya.
Politics Is Unseemly
While I'm certainly not a fan of the Kochs' political agenda, and obviously we can talk about the whole politics/campaign finance/money issue, it's also the case that actual rich philanthropists should consider spending more time on politics than on charitable giving for many issues. Spending more time on politics doesn't necessarily mean spending money to elect people to federal office, it can simply mean recognizing that some issues are best dealt with by the government. There's nothing wrong with private charity, but it isn't always a substitute for the universality that the state can provide.
Sunday Bobbleheads
This Week has the elusive John McCain.
Face the Nation has McConnell and Kerry.
Meet the Press has Bill Daley and Michele Bachmann.
Document the atrocities!
Face the Nation has McConnell and Kerry.
Meet the Press has Bill Daley and Michele Bachmann.
Document the atrocities!
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