Glenn Reynolds – SO I RAN THIS DEFICIT CHART YESTERDAY, pointing out that things were actually improving in Bush’s presidency until the election of a Democratic congress in 2007:
I also remember when the Bush tax cuts “rewarded the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.”
Why Is There Always A Big Screen TV?
As for Idle No More, the title is profoundly ironic. One of the main problems for native people is the idleness that comes with living on remote reserves such as Attawapiskat in Northern Ontario. However, the Idle No More movement is not aimed at attracting more jobs. In fact, it opposes the very legal changes — contained in Bill C-45 — that would facilitate development, such as making the leasing of reserve land easier, and loosening draconian environmental regulation (a process started last year with Bill C-38). Thus the movement might more appropriately be named “Idle Some More.”
[…]
Consultation is essential, but the idea that First Nations can be “full partners” in resource development in the immediate future is patronizing nonsense for the simple reason that they lack what wonks like to call “capacity.” Similarly patronizing is the claim that native people may be able to bring some unique, spiritual input to environmental issues that are in fact matters of science and technology. Education is the answer to both problems, but the AFN walked out on negotiations over a new First Nations Education Act last October.
Reader Tips
Italian superstar Adriano Celentano understood that, in the pop culture realm at least, American English isn’t so much a language as an attitude. Oll Raight!
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Honey, I Finished The Internet
Glow in the dark highways. (h/t Brian K)
But Glenn Beck Is The Crazy One
…this is my apology on behalf of all the people in Canada to all the people of the United States of America because we gave birth to what is soon to become Al‑Jazeera USA because before Al Gore bought it, Current TV started out as the U.S. operations of our state broadcaster, CBC. And I can tell you they didn’t really change editorial direction when Gore bought them and I don’t think they will change editorial direction all that much with Al‑Jazeera at the helm.
Video at the link.
Batten Down the Hatches – Duck – Lookout
2013 – Welcome to Very, Very Scary Times:
“These are the most foreboding times in my 59 years. The reelection of Barack Obama has released a surge of rare honesty among the Left about its intentions, coupled with a sense of triumphalism that the country is now on board for still greater redistributionist change”.
“I have seen their future and it is almost here right now”.
Deep Impact
The Untouchables
Andrew Potter, Managing Editor at The Ottawa Citizen and bridge over troubled water…
I spent the first 17 years of my adult life in academia. I’ve spent the last five years in journalism.
Potter has a PhD in philosophy. Like many bus drivers.
The key thing to understand about journalists is that they are the lowest rank of intellectuals. That is to say: they are members of the intellectual class, but in the status hierarchy of intellectuals, journalists are at the bottom.
It’s hard to find fault with this statement.
That is why journalists have traditionally adopted the status cues of the working-class: the drinking and the swearing, the anti-establishment values, and the commitment to the non-professionalization of journalism.
Along with an instinctive attraction to harnessing their writing to crude stereotypes.
The key thing to understand about academics is that they are the highest rank of intellectuals.
Lest you confuse him with someone who aspired to intellectual bottom feeder, Potter arrived at his current career “more or less by accident”. Like many bus drivers.
Despite inhabiting opposite ends of the intellectual status hierarchy, some journalists always saw some appeal in looking up towards academia (instead of down on the working classes) …
Known in the journalism business as “subscribers”.
…and some academics saw the appeal of journalism.
Caste system dirty talk. Don’t try to understand it.
Professors, after all, have the cachet of smarts.
Did he mention his three years as a philosophy prof?
Journalists, on the other hand, can become folk heroes.
A sweet deal, as journalists are the primary manufacturers of folk heroes.
And so within journalism there was a natural alliance to be found between journalists who wanted to give their stories some intellectual heft by quoting a serious researcher on the story at hand, and researchers who wanted an audience for their ideas beyond the faculty lounge and the conference circuit.
And that leads us to the punchline…
So far so good.
Riding Mass Transit Is Like Inviting 20 Random Hitchhikers Into Your Car
Why Is There Always A Big Screen TV?
Fact checking Chief Escalade’s hunger strike. The “financials” begin at the 20 minute mark.
Reader Tips
The Tennessee Waltz. RIP Patti Page.
Your tips are welcome in the comments.
al-Gore
He’s living large on oil money now, dear. RT @katrinanation: Al-Jazeera buys Current TV. What’s that mean for Al Gore?
— RB (@RBPundit) January 3, 2013
More: “Mr. Gore and his partners were eager to complete the deal by Dec. 31, lest it be subject to higher tax rates that took effect on Jan. 1.”
Related: #CurrentAlJazeeraShowPitches
Why Is There Always A Big Screen TV?
The best stuff is usually found in the comments;
There is a substantial difference between assimilation into a specific culture or dominant group and integration into the mainstream of socio-economic life. No one is forced to assimilate in Canada. Given the diversity of our demographics, I’d be hard pressed to imagine what you might assimilate with. We are not a homogeneous society that one might find in European countries or the Middle East or even, to a somewhat lesser extent, the US.
Integration is another matter. It relates to joining and participating in the economic system with a view to pursuing economic stability (at minimum) and, for those who choose, pursuing economic prosperity. What you pursue and for what reasons is your choice and you are free to practice your culture and believe in whatever you want while you’re at it. Every group that has come to this country from anywhere has done this and achieved some measure of success,
In my view Canadian Natives need to recognize the difference between assimilation and integration and actively pursue the latter. This is essential if you want to have decent living standards, good health, stability for your children and the ability to influence and have an impact on the broader social and political landscape. All the commissions, studies, treaties, white papers and working groups in the world will not achieve this for you. Nor will protests and media events. On the other hand if you choose to live outside the mainstream and not integrate, then you will live forever in the margins and not much will ever change. It is possible to live outside the mainstream successfully but it takes a great deal of self-reliance, self-discipline and talent. It’s for the few, not the many.
If you continue to try to leverage guilt, historical grievances or a sense of entitlement, nothing will change. Politicians will continue pay lip service to you. They’ll come out for the photo opps and say some supportive words, maybe promise a committee or study but that’s about all you’ll get. The mainstream has little interest in your issues and no appetite for what are seen largely as demands for special treatment. You don’t have the political clout to drive change at the political level and won’t until you integrate. That’s just the reality of socio-economic systems. Integration means participation. If you don’t play you will watch from the sidelines.
Progress is made by those who show up, participate and contribute. If you want the benefits of our economic system, you have to get on board the train. You can practice your culture from the inside and have the best of both worlds.
“WHAP.”
It was that kind of year. Remember back in 2011, when the big sex scandal involved Anthony Weiner, the ferret-like congressperson who committed political suicide by tweet? We all thought, “Oh, well, another Washington politician who wants to regulate everything except his own personal ding-dong. At least there are SOME institutions, such as the Secret Service, the CIA and the Army, where males in positions of responsibility can control their …”
Not Watching For The Asteroid
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Rocket launchers surface during Los Angeles guns buyback
There are two things left out of most of the reports. The first is that it’s completely legal to own these and the second is that if you wanted to kill someone with them, the only way you might be able to do it is by whacking them over the head.
Related: According to a trusted source AR-15 mags, especially PMAGS, are out of stock nationally (h/t ShippedOut)
The Children Are Our Future
And that’s why I asked Santa for a KA-BAR Full Size US Marine Corp Fighting Knife.
Beginning in the spring semester, American University will offer “Contemporary American Culture: The Fifty Shades Trilogy,” a course examining issues ranging from female sexuality to social media marketing in relation to the BDSM-themed Fifty Shades of Grey book series. […] Tuition for the spring semester at American University costs $19,491 for full-time, undergraduate students.
Related: The admission — as 2012 closed — made the university the fourth college or university in that year to admit false reporting of some admissions data used for rankings.
h/t soundofmusak
Reader Tips
Nancy and Ann Wilson perform Stairway To Heaven for legendary British rock band Led Zeppelin, at the Kennedy Center Honors. And a darned fine job they do of it, too.
Your tips in the comments.
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
A Clarkstown police report issued on December 28, 2012, confirmed that The Journal News has hired armed security guards from New City-based RGA Investigations and that they are manning the newspaper’s Rockland County headquarters at 1 Crosfield Ave., West Nyack, through at least tomorrow, Wednesday, January 2, 2013.
According to police reports on public record, Journal News Rockland Editor Caryn A. McBride was alarmed by the volume of “negative correspondence,” namely an avalanche of phone calls and emails to the Journal News office, following the newspaper’s publishing of a map of all pistol permit holders in Rockland and Westchester.
Showing Up To Riot Update:
lohud.com was hacked by 2nd amendment supporters in response to the posting of sensitive gun owner information. This database contains user email, name, username, password, name, phone number and address of ~10,000 lohud.com users
Feel free to make maps of Lohud users with this data
As an aside – here’s a Sun News poll you may be interested in.
This Is Awkward
What good is a $100 bill that can’t be left on the dash of your truck?