Shorter Excerpts

emilyposts: It’s a dog collar that is also a bottle opener....

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:15:09 -0500

It’s a dog collar that is also a bottle opener. Hmmm….

Hmmm…a well-trained dog could then bring me a beer (like, say, one of the New Belgium Hoptobers I’ve got stashed away) and open it.

If only the pet deposit here wasn’t prohibitively expensive.

sexmusic: inside of love // nada surf

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:13:09 -0500

sexmusic:

inside of love // nada surf

reckon: Anne Sexton i12bent: Anne Sexton (Nov. 9, 1928 -...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:41:42 -0500

reckon:

Anne Sexton

i12bent:

Anne Sexton (Nov. 9, 1928 - 1974), brilliant American poet, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967, troubled by a bipolar disorder…

From The Double Image, Pt. 1

I am thirty this November.
You are still small, in your fourth year.
We stand watching the yellow leaves go queer,
flapping in the winter rain.
falling flat and washed. And I remember
mostly the three autumns you did not live here.
They said I’d never get you back again.
I tell you what you’ll never really know:
all the medical hypothesis
that explained my brain will never be as true as these
struck leaves letting go.

I, who chose two times
to kill myself, had said your nickname
the mewling mouths when you first came;
until a fever rattled
in your throat and I moved like a pantomine
above your head. Ugly angels spoke to me. The blame,
I heard them say, was mine. They tattled
like green witches in my head, letting doom
leak like a broken faucet;
as if doom had flooded my belly and filled your bassinet,
an old debt I must assume.

Petition to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:44:39 -0500

Petition to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner:

azspot:

Too Big to Fail is Too Big to Exist

Financial institutions that are “too big to fail” played a major role in undermining the American economy and driving our country into a severe recession.

Financial institutions that are “too big to fail” put taxpayers on the hook for a $700 billion bailout and more than $2 trillion from the Federal Reserve in virtually zero interest loans.

Huge financial institutions have become so big that the four largest banks in America (JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup) now issue one out of every two mortgages; two out of three credit cards; and hold $4 out of every $10 in bank deposits in the country.

Just five banks in America (JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley) own a staggering 95% of the $290 trillion in derivatives held at commercial banks. Derivatives are risky side bets made by Wall Street gamblers that led to the $182 billion bailout of AIG, the $29 billion bailout that allowed JP Morgan Chase to acquire Bear Stearns, and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The concentration of ownership in the financial services industry has resulted in higher bank fees and interest rates that consumers are forced to pay for credit cards, mortgages and other financial products.

No single financial institution should be so large that its failure would cause catastrophic risk to millions of American jobs or to our nation’s economic well-being.

No single financial institution should have holdings so extensive that its failure could send the world economy into crisis.

We believe it is time to break up the banks and insurance companies which are too big to fail.

We believe that passage of The Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act is essential for a strong American economy and a secure future for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.

We urge the immediate enactment of the Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act, which directs the treasury secretary to compile a list of those financial institutions that are too big to fail in the next 90 days, and to break up these banks and insurance companies a year after the legislation is signed into law.

"…the biggest federal subsidy for private insurance coverage is untouched by Stupak’s amendment. It’s..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:43:57 -0500

“…the biggest federal subsidy for private insurance coverage is untouched by Stupak’s amendment. It’s the $250 billion the government spends each year making employer-sponsored health-care insurance tax-free. That money, however, subsidizes the insurance of 157 million Americans, many of them quite affluent. Imagine if Stupak had attempted to expand his amendment to their coverage. It would, after all, have been the same principle: Federal policy should not subsidize insurance that offers abortion coverage. But it would have failed in an instant. That group is too large, and too affluent, and too politically powerful for Congress to dare to touch their access to reproductive services. But the poorer women who will be using subsidies on the exchange proved a much easier target. In substance, this amendment was as much about class as it was about choice.”

- Ezra Klein (via azspot)

Exactly.

(via southpol)

Kind of goes hand in hand with the “40+ percent of Congresspeople are millionaires” stat I’ve seen today, doesn’t it?

Guts

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:41:12 -0500

peterwknox:

All this ‘sudden’ discovery of the Palahniuk short story ‘Guts’ is lame. Predictably, parents would object to it being assigned in high school English, but it’s been out for almost 6 years, and included in his novel Haunted. Chuck even used to read it aloud for groups.

But even better than the actual short story, is Chuck’s essay ‘The Guts Effect’ in which he discusses why he stopped doing it at readings. Because people were passing out. 67 people actually. And that essay is terrific, well written, and illustrates the power of storytelling.

A year and a half ago, a NY girl was reading the story on the subway platform, waiting for the L train to come, and passed out just from reading it. Her blog post about it is awesome and worth reading as well.

Having read the story, and attended a reading in which it was read, I still don’t get how you pass out hearing/reading it. When he read it at UGA there were even laughs in the darkly appropriate places.

(via matt-t)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:42:06 -0500

(via matt-t)

"Abortion is a very broad term. The pro-life contingent would like you to think it only applies to..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:55:34 -0500

“

Abortion is a very broad term. The pro-life contingent would like you to think it only applies to selfish, irresponsible women, murdering babies out of fear of inconvenience. That’s a caricature they have invented to push their own agenda. Many of the women who seek out abortions are women who have been raped, who have learned that their child could not survive, have learned that giving birth could physically and permanently harm them. Or, thanks to newer and vaguer language, women who have already lost the life they were carrying, and need intervention to save their own.

I was one of the latter. I hope I will be lucky enough to never be again. But if I am, I hope the insurers don’t force me to carry that fetus until I medically harm myself, all for the sake of saying that they do not cover abortion services.

”

- Robin Marty, Will the Stupak Amendment Force Women Who’ve Miscarried to Lose Insurance Coverage? I Think So.

(via thesmarttart+robot-heart-politics) (via claudia)

Landing a job like getting into Harvard

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:40:36 -0500

Landing a job like getting into Harvard:

afghanibanani:

lepanopticon:(via emilyposts)

“The odds of any one of these 30 million securing one of the 2.4 million full-time jobs available is 8 percent, the same as the admissions rate of the Ivy League gold standard, Harvard University.”

At least no jobs I’m aware of are charging $60+ “application fees.”

Yet.

sparkleneelysparkle: (via...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:06:59 -0500

sparkleneelysparkle:

(via deadendgoogles)

AAAAAAAAaahahahahahahahaha. Ahhhhhhhhhahahaahahaha.

(dies)

"In honour of Movember, and those generously participating, here’s my list of 10 Literary Moustaches:"

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:52:52 -0500

“In honour of Movember, and those generously participating, here’s my list of 10 Literary Moustaches:”

- 10 Literary Moustaches for Movember | Reading Copy Book Blog

$200 million gets you a lot of fountains: the Dubai Fountain (at...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:03:20 -0500

$200 million gets you a lot of fountains: the Dubai Fountain (at the base of the brobdingnagian Burj Dubai building.)

fleetfootedfox: hangingfire: lizlet: moth: Henson, we failed...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:49:33 -0500

fleetfootedfox:

hangingfire:

lizlet:

moth:

Henson, we failed you. Dark Cristal, from Robot Chicken.

Sweet lord Jesus. My poor childhood. What have we wrought?

My inner ten-year old is weeping. WEEPING I TELL YOU.

(It’s genius, but OH GOD.)

Is there any of my childhood left that Robot Chicken hasn’t parodied?

‘Tea party' rally scheduled at Capitol today | ajc.com

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:26:49 -0500

‘Tea party' rally scheduled at Capitol today | ajc.com:

So those of you working downtown: if you see an increased number of deranged, angry, (and likely white and male) people milling about, this is why.

Don't Ask, Don't Give

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:07:55 -0500

Don't Ask, Don't Give:

southpol:

Joe and I are launching today a donor boycott of the DNC…

What is this?
We are asking voters to pledge to withhold contributions to the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America, and the Obama campaign until the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is passed, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) is repealed, and the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is repealed -– all of which President Obama repeatedly promised to do if elected.

Why are you asking people to take this pledge?
Candidate Obama promised during the campaign to be the gay community’s “fierce advocate.” He and the Democratic party have not kept their promise

…

You have to admit, gay rights is controversial – wouldn’t it be political suicide for Democrats to push gay rights?
Democrats should not have promised to support gay civil rights rights in exchange for our votes if they never intended to keep the promise. If we’re not controversial during the campaign, when politicians are happy to accept our votes and our money, we cannot accept being labeled controversial after our candidates win. We kept our part of the bargain, we voted for Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress. It’s entirely reasonable for us to ask our elected officials to keep their part of the bargain too.

"The Stupak amendment was designed to do just that, a power move easily predicted by anyone who has..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:03:45 -0500

“The Stupak amendment was designed to do just that, a power move easily predicted by anyone who has watched the way policy victories are managed over the last couple of decades. The one consistent characteristic is that they are never unambiguously positive for the left. The arguments are always self-servingly pragmatic —- “blue dogs have to vote their district” —- but the real purpose is to drive home the absolute certainty that liberals are never really in charge. That is why there is never any desire among the ruling elite to sell the idea that liberalism itself — its philosophy, its values, its ideology —- is something positive with which a majority of people, including Blue Dogs, can identify. If the public ever came to believe that, who knows what might happen?”

- Hullabaloo

"There are only 76 women in the House out of 435 —- 17%. 59 of them are Democrats and 17 are..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:59:55 -0500

“

There are only 76 women in the House out of 435 —- 17%. 59 of them are Democrats and 17 are Republicans. Three of the Democrats are non-voting members (DC, Virgin Islands and Guam.)

Out of the 56 women in the Democratic caucus, only two voted for Stupak. All 17 Republican women voted for it.

What this adds up to is that 97% of the Democrats who voted for the Stupak amendment were male. 90% of the Republicans were male.

I would have to guess that if more than 17% of the congress were women, there would be a little bit less likelihood that women’s rights would be so often used as a handy tool to placate neanderthals. That’s just a guess. Habits are hard to break.

”

- Hullabaloo

elvira: copacetic: guillee: CSS Ninja t-shirt.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:47:44 -0500

elvira:

copacetic:

guillee:

CSS Ninja t-shirt.

"Obama and the Democrats have no real vision for a transformed health care system, so they’ve gone..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:46:04 -0500

“Obama and the Democrats have no real vision for a transformed health care system, so they’ve gone for a slightly modified version of business as usual. They’ve cut backroom deals that win a few meager concessions toward the public good, while at the same time ensuring the profits of the insurance companies, Big Pharma, and other health care profiteers by entrenching their control of the health care system and rewarding them with larger markets and fatter profits. They’re doing what Democrats have done since at least the Clinton years—acting like kinder, gentler Republicans rather than the defenders of the common people. A whole lot of Americans don’t like the current health care system, and a whole lot more hate insurance companies. The Democrats should have been able to translate that into some kind of populist support for real change. Instead, they dithered and compromised, and failed to invoke any compelling ideology. Health care ought to have nothing to do with profits or even with “affordability.” It should be a basic human right in a civilized society. But that’s precisely the kind of statement the Democrats are unwilling to make—so they end up saying nothing at all.”

- Obama’s Unhealthy Victory (via azspot)

And, in the event they lose seats in 2010, they’ll wonder how it all happened, and, sadly, assume they need to run more “centrist” (re: conservative, further right) to win people back.

aewsome: molls: take a look @ me now. I promise not to make a...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:43:19 -0500

aewsome:

molls:

take a look @ me now.

I promise not to make a habit of reblogging Phil Collins, HOWEVER, this song reminds of a great episode of This American Life about break ups. If you have ever broken up with anyone ever, you should listen to it. Especially the part about this song.