Joan McCarter on Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center's announced plans to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (snippet):

"....But this time the threat is real. This action by the American extremists is most definitely providing a tremendous propaganda tool to the real Taliban. It is fomenting anger toward America and will endanger American troops. Ironic that the American Taliban, who accused the left of endangering the troops and national security just by opposing the Iraq debacle, is the real threat to our troops...."

Freedom of speech is one thing. Using freedom of speech to purposely insult and inflame the passions of friends is another. The moronic and childish tendencies of the American conservative movement never ceases to amaze me (and most rational-thinking people).

Our elitists continue to fuck us over (snippet):

The CEOs who cut the most jobs during the recession earned more than their peers, according to a study being released today by a liberal think tank in Washington. "When CEOs slash jobs they are often very richly rewarded," said Sarah Anderson, lead author of the Institute for Policy Studies' report, "CEO Pay and the Great Recession." Separately, the report estimated that the CEOs of the nation's largest publicly traded companies make an average of 263 times more the typical U.S. production worker. The institute used the Forbes.com layoff tracker to identify the 50 firms that laid off the most employees between November 2008 and April 2010. It then used the Associated Press online survey and company financial reports to arrive at 2009 compensation totals. The institute calculated that the 50 CEOs - who together cut 531,363 jobs - averaged $12 million in salary, bonuses, stock options and other perks, 42 percent more than the average compensation for all of the CEOs on the Standard & Poor's 500. The report said 7 out of 10 of these top job-cutters laid off workers even though their companies ended the year profitably....

When I started college, we still used slide rules. Before I graduated, I was using this "incredible" 4-function calculator with fixed decimal which I picked up for only $45 (probably $250 in today's dollars):

I've still got it, and it still works!

Bits for August 2010

Woo Hoo!!! California just extended the term for the carpool sticker on my 2002 Prius for 4 more years!
Two beers are now officially better than one
Donate rice to the needy while answering vocabulary questions (put that high school English class to good use!)
Artsy use for toilet paper rolls.
Even though it's still not primarily their fault, Democrats are going to get trounced in the November elections due to the increasingly bad economic news. But as each day passes, they own more of it.
Eating berries may activate the brain's natural housekeeper for healthy aging
Yet another blow to personal privacy.
Strange photo. Possible explanations.
"When Doctors Admit Their Mistakes"
Men: calculate your sex appeal. My score: 24.
A review of the Verizon/Google internet access proposal
An animated map showing the 2,053 nuclear explosions that took place around the world during the 20th century.
This year's hurricane forecast. Kinda scary.
Top 10 plays from the 2010 NBA Finals.
A hair salon for a part of your body that doesn't see the light of day.

Student loans have become a tremendous burden to the U.S. economy (snippet):

....Americans owe some $826.5 billion in revolving credit, according to June 2010 figures from the Federal Reserve. (Most of revolving credit is credit-card debt.) Student loans outstanding today — both federal and private — total some $829.785 billion, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com. “The growth in education debt outstanding is like cooking a lobster,” Mr. Kantrowitz says. “The increase in total student debt occurs slowly but steadily, so by the time you notice that the water is boiling, you’re already cooked.” By his math, there is $605.6 billion in federal student loans outstanding and $167.8 billion in private student loans outstanding. He estimates that $300 billion in federal student loan debts have been incurred in the last four years....

At least Americans are still getting educated.

15 Reasons Housing Is Going From Bad To Worse

1. Record low home sales- New home sales are now at their lowest on record, and existing home sales began a steep decent in July. (And this is the busy time of year. Wait until winter.) 2. New home sale construction is also near record lows. There is already an excess of houses. (This is actually a good thing- but it does tell you how bad things are.) 3. Demand for mortgages is at a 13 year low. (Showing that low interest rates are insufficient to stimulate demand.) 4. Foreclosures are at record highs. (And getting worse.) 5. Repos are at an all time high. (See #4.) 6. Banks are writing off a massive amount of debt. (And they are going to be writing off a lot more before they are through.) 7. Record delinquencies- more than 10% of all Americans are behind on their mortgage. (Hence #4.) 8. Banks have significantly raised their lending standards. (Low interest rates aren’t useful to people who don’t qualify.) 9. Home prices are still too high and out of line with what people can afford. (Especially upper end real estate. With reduced income and no “wonky” financing, the McMansion market is being killed.) 10. With 28% of all households having one adult currently looking for employment, unemployment levels are high. (And unemployed people don’t buy homes.) 11. Bankruptcies are on the rise. (See #10 and #15) 12. Even Obama is bearish on housing. (Business Insider found a great “grumpy face” of the president for this one.) 13. Tax credits pulled home sales forward- shrinking current demand. (And future demand as well.) 14. Fannie and Freddie could be up to $5T in the hole. (You know, I doubt I’ve typed $XT more than a dozen times in my life. That’s a big number.) 15. U.S. economy is drowning in debt. (As well as many Americans.)

Thanks, George Bush. You definitely left a lasting impression on all of us.

Hold on to your hats. Real conservatives support legalization of pot:

BITS FOR JULY 2010

Free Microsoft Office Training Manuals (e.g. Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.)
Oh, Arizona. We cry for laugh at you.
So, you thought it was safe to go to bed? Maybe not.
If you've been craving some hoops, here's a Shannon Brown highlight video
Do you have difficulty controlling your spending? Then get yourself one of these wallets.
Whooping cough epidemic hits California. If you're a resident, you should know this.
Fully-armed Neo-Nazis are now patrolling Arizona's borders. Looking for, you know, brown-skinned people. Talk about a State that's shooting itself in the foot, the hand, the head..... Sheesh.
Climate change: full speed ahead....
Brightly colored food = Bad health
Oh boy, this is going to be fun. Look for the FCC to awkwardly come up with a specific list of expletives that won't be allowed in broadcasting/media. How will the media disseminate the list to the public?!
Oops! Consumer Reports just nixed the iPhone 4
Friday Fun: First Images....
Just a small taste of the total distain Cleveland now has for Lebron James after he disowned a city that literally raised him, watched him and worshiped him. Team owner is not too happy, either.
Single-dip or double-dip? Time will tell....
As reported previously, Illinois is really swirling into the financial crapper

From Maddowblog:

Since taking office in January 2009, President Obama has put done-and-dusted to financial reform, health reform, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the economic stimulus, the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the reorganization of the Minerals Management Service and student loan reform.

Please, Don't Drunk-Dial FreedomWorks

"The Best Chance They've Ever Had"

Hard-hitting commentary on Afghanistan War by Rachel Maddow:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Party of NO - keeping us in the past

Your Conservatives/Republicans hard at work, creating today's problems:

FreedomWorks Nov 03, 2006 OFFSHORE DRILLING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO Good for the economy and good for the environment Most Americans understand the need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and provide the extra supply of oil and natural gas to lower our energy costs. The Mineral Management Services (MMS), an agency of the Department of Interior, estimates that the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) contains enough natural gas to heat 100 million homes for 60 years or enough oil to replace current Persian Gulf imports for 59 years. Unfortunately the federal government has held back 80% of the country's OCS from oil and gas exploration and production. But despite these findings, there are those from radical environmental groups that oppose critical access to domestic oil and natural gas, claiming they are protecting the environment. Actually the facts tell us that offshore rigs and platforms can be beneficial to marine wildlife. Once in place, the platform's substructure acts as an "artificial reef," providing hard surfaces for encrusting organisms such as spiny oysters, barnacles, sponges, and corals. These creatures are the basis of the food chain in what becomes a new marine ecosystem for numerous types of fish, sharks, sea turtles, spiny lobsters, and sea urchins, so basically speaking,the rigs create critical two factors for marine life: Shelter and food. The food chain begins with the formation of barnacles on these structures below the waterline. This sets the stage for small fish seeking shelter and food that the steel legs provide. Many local Gulf coast scuba divers enjoy underwater visits to Gulf platforms to sight-see tropical fish and organisms normally associated with natural reef systems located in the Caribbean and far away places. Local divers call these trips "Rig Diving" because the word rig is commonly used in place of platform. The areas of the Gulf Coast that have access to the platforms have seen increased business due to the popularity of “rig” diving, that means the platforms are not only beneficial to the environment but also good for local economies, attracting new tourist to Gulf Coast towns. Also new technologies make platforms safer from oil leaks, automatic well-head cut-off valves keep oil under the seabed if the rig or platform breaks away. Investigations showed that there was no significant environmental damage from the offshore platforms despite two Category 5 hurricanes last year in the Gulf. Actually, the only oil spills after the hurricanes came from beached oil tankers damaged from the storms and not from the platform pipes themselves. Also, all proposed drilling areas would have platforms very far from the field of vision from coastal beaches as not to have any impact people enjoying their “day at the beach.” Allowing greater access to the outer continental shelf for new oil and natural gas exploration is a win-win for Americans; less dependence on dangerous foreign dictators holding us hostage with oil prices, and creating beneficial artificial reefs for marine wildlife.

And two years later George Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling instituted 20 years earlier by.... his father!

In honor of our increasingly fractured and childish U.S. society, I give you a 4th of July Weekend Celebration Video:

See if you can find the scary part of this chart from Calculated Risk:

For your holiday weekend viewing pleasure, here's Monty Python explaining repression by the autocracy:

Race to the Bottom? California’s Support for Schools Lags the Nation Anyone trying to understand today’s headlines can find the story behind the story in a new CBP School Finance Facts released today. Race to the Bottom? California’s Support for Schools Lags the Nation shows that by almost any measure California ranks near or at the bottom with respect to the level of funding for public schools relative to that of other states. For example, even without adjusting for the state’s comparatively higher costs, California spends far less per student than the rest of the US – $2,546 less per student in 2009-10. That means California’s schools would have had to spend an additional $76,400 for each 30-student classroom to reach the per student spending level of the rest of the nation. Because California spends less to support public schools it has more students per classroom than any other state – averaging 21.3 students for each teacher in 2009-10, compared to 13.8 students per teacher for the rest of the US. While California’s support for public schools has lagged the nation during at least the past four decades, the state’s standing has declined dramatically during the last three years. As a result, an increasing number of California school districts are facing bankruptcy. Looming school district bankruptcies and a dramatic decline in the state’s education rankings should be seen as a reason to maintain support for California’s schools. Instead, Governor Schwarzenegger’s “cuts only” approach to balancing the budget would slash $1.5 billion more from general purpose funding for K-12 education. A more balanced approach won’t alleviate the need for spending cuts, but would leave California schools in a better position to recover when the state’s economy improves. – Jonathan Kaplan

From The California Budget Project