Author: Kate

More Pavilions at Folkfest

A diminutive white lady, followed by her ten years-old son, makes a desperate effort to keep the place bearable: while on her way, she stoops to pick up three discarded bags of French fries, and throws them in the bin where they belong. As soon as she walks into the lobby, a youngster dumps his uneaten shawarma right in front of the glass door.
[…]
The stench of urine is suffocating. Tears come instantly to my eyes. It gets worse as we set foot in the elevator.
[…]
“She (my wife) was aghast when she first set foot in France”, says Alibekov. “She told me: why, this is Africa!”


… be sure to read it all.

“Events happen in Burma, and then they are systematically unhappened.”

On 2 May 2008 tropical cyclone Nargis struck Burma with such force that even today nobody knows how many people were killed, although the ruling military junta reported exactly how many chickens died. Here is the special quality of this regime, as Emma Larkin writes in her latest evocative book: ‘Events happen in Burma, and then they are systematically unhappened.’ Unhappened is a good word, and very Orwellian, an echo perhaps of Larkin’s wonderful previous book on Orwell’s early years in Burma.

Continue reading
h/t Maz2

Reader Tips

While looking back at the Reader Tips amusements of the last few years I noticed a dearth of Czech artists singing Rolling Stones songs in German. It’s time to rectify that once and for all: from the 1969 album In Einer Welt Für Uns Zwei, here’s Czech superstar Karel Gott belting out Rot Und Schwarz.
You’re welcome.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.

Not Waiting For The Asteroid


Newsmax, a magazine catering to US conservatives, reported the second fastest circulation rise, nearly doubling to 182,000. […] Newsweek circulation fell 40 per cent in the first six months of the year compared with the comparable year-ago period as part of a deliberate cost-cutting initiative and strategy to court higher-end readers.

Math Lesson

There’s physics, algebra, and trigonometry … now we have progressia:

Employing Sally costs plenty too. My company has to write checks for $74,000 so Sally can receive her nominal $59,000 in base pay. Health insurance is a big, added cost: While Sally pays nearly $2,400 for coverage, my company pays the rest—$9,561 for employee/spouse medical and dental. We also provide company-paid life and other insurance premiums amounting to $153. Altogether, company-paid benefits add $9,714 to the cost of employing Sally.
Then the federal and state governments want a little something extra. They take $56 for federal unemployment coverage, $149 for disability insurance, $300 for workers’ comp and $505 for state unemployment insurance. Finally, the feds make me pay $856 for Sally’s Medicare and $3,661 for her Social Security.
When you add it all up, it costs $74,000 to put $44,000 in Sally’s pocket and to give her $12,000 in benefits. Bottom line: Governments impose a 33% surtax on Sally’s job each year.

… so, who benefits?

All Clear

Have you ever wondered whether it’s at least possible that your dislike of Barack Obama might be driven by unexamined, unconscious racism? You can find out for sure one way or another in just a couple of seconds by taking this simple, quick, and one hundred percent accurate Racism Test.

Reader Tips

Tonight’s amusement en route to the Tips is the fifth in the summer series of songs about cities. In the previous entries the cities were praised in part for the kind of people who live there – “folks treat you kind” in Bowling Green, folks “don’t treat you mean” in Abilene, while Chicago has “people who smile at you” – but tonight’s selection is a paean to the city as a stand-alone monument, practically, whose physical features – its location above the blue and windy sea, its little cable cars, and its morning fog – inspire contented longing. From 1962, here’s the inimitable Tony Bennett – who began his career as a singing waiter in New York, for $15 a week – singing I Left My Heart In San Francisco.
Leave your Reader Tips in the comments.

Behind Every Progressive Scheme

… is a new tax:

Carbon taxes, add-ons to international air fares and a levy on cross-border money movements are among ways being considered by a panel of the world’s leading economists to raise a staggering $100 billion a year to fight climate change.
British economist Nicholas Stern told international climate negotiators Thursday that government regulation and public money also will be needed to create incentives for private investment in industries that emit fewer greenhouse gases.

Navigation