Nine Month American Recovery Watch Remains On High Alert

The One 48 Comments

So, how’s that stimulus spending going for ya?
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Still, spin springs eternal…
Miami Herald; – “What appeared to be bad news for the economy — another increase in the unemployment rate — was tempered by a drop in new job losses.”
Charlotte Observer “Despite 9.7% jobless rate, numbers show rays of hope”.
You see, it’s all about the upbeat view!

While the increased competition for ever-scarcer jobs may sound like bad news to job seekers, some economists say that having more people return to the job hunt could be a good sign. “The fact that labor force participation is rising often signals that consumers are taking a more upbeat view of the labor market and are finally looking for jobs,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics.

The last link is from June, but I went searching for it after hearing it repeated by a different porcine makeup artist on radio yesterday.

Distinguished Lecture, Documentary & Interview Symposia

Reader Tips 24 Comments

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this week’s SDA distinguished lecture, documentary & interview symposium. This week, for your delectation, here from the Science Futures series by the San Diego Science and Technology Council’s Center for Ethics in Science and Technology, and UCSD-TV, is Baroness Onora O’Neill, Principal of Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, presenting her Why Doesn’t the Public Trust Scientists? ¤ lecture, in 2005 (58:32).

I should like to note that while “Scientists” are the exemplary referent matter in today’s lecture, Baroness O’Neill’s considerations (for example, that one can’t replace trust with trustworthiness [quis custodiet ipsos custodes?], statutory regulation, post hoc accountability, &c) apply more broadly to the matter of the public trust of any and every public profession and institution, including politics and the law.

Not Waiting For The Asteroid

Media 109 Comments

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If you were to think that the most embarrassing passage in this inartful attempt at defamation occurs with the revelation that a “professor of journalism” doesn’t know the difference between a “blogger” and a “commentor”, you’d be wrong.
And if you were to conclude that the primary embarrassment is that a one time professional fact-checker failed to notice a prominent feature on the main page of SDA titled “About Kate”, you’d also be wrong.
No, the most embarrassing part is that John Gordon Miller’s wee tantrum was published for nearly two weeks before someone managed to stumble upon it and pass the link along to me.
I guess that’s why Professor Miller calls himself a “journalism doctor”, and not a “circulation doctor”.

“The surge we need is at home”

Religion Of Submission 147 Comments

Required reading;

Why should Islamism matter to us? Because, besides being the ideology that catalyzes jihadist terrorism and threatens our freedoms in sundry other ways, Islamism rejects the premises of Western democracy. Islamists believe that sharia is the perfect, non-negotiable blueprint for law and life, prescribed by Allah Himself. Therefore, Islamists reject the notion of free people at liberty to govern themselves, to legislate in contradiction to God’s law. They reject freedom of conscience: Islam must be the state religion, and apostasy from Islam is a capital crime. They deny the principle of equality under the law between men and women, and between Muslims and non-Muslims. They abjure any semblance of Western sexual liberty: gay sex, adultery, and fornication are brutally punished. They countenance slavery. They encourage polygamy. I could go on, but you get the idea.
[…]
Most of our uninformed national conversation about Islam since 9/11 has been about the degree of Muslim support for terrorism. If you’re going to embark on a quest to remake the Middle East, that’s the wrong question. We should be asking: What is the degree of Muslim support for Islamism? The answer to that question is: immense.
Islamism is the official creed of Saudi Arabia, which, as noted above, is risibly portrayed as a U.S. ally against terrorism. The Saudis have lavishly supported and collaborated with the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s, enabling the Brothers to spread Islamism globally, including in America and Europe. Islamism, moreover, is the dominant ideology in the Arab world and in much of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. It is strengthening in northern and eastern Africa. Despite decades of suppression, it is resurgent in Turkey. Even in Indonesia, where Islamism is not preponderant, it is a growing force.
The fact that Islamists disagree with their terrorist factions on tactics obscures the reality that they heartily agree with the terrorists’ contempt for the West. Most of the places that are sources of Islamist terror do not want Western democracy. They want sharia.

h/t Peter C.
Update – a response from the Great One

Y2Kyoto: I’ll Miss The Beaufort Sea Fishery

Climate Cult 21 Comments

Anthony Watts gets internal memos he’s not expected to see:

“Commerce Secretary Gary Locke recently approved a plan to prohibit the expansion of commercial fishing in U.S. Arctic waters to enable researchers time to gather the ecosystem data essential to managing a sustainable fishery.”

From the comments there – Oooguruk Island June 23rd 2009

“This is at an oil development (Oooguruk – Inupiat for “Bearded Seal”) which my company found in the shallow waters of the Beaufort Sea (yes, I work for an oil company – but it’s not big oil – it’s small oil – only 15 employees : Geologist (with a meteorological background) -Skeptical & damn proud of it! ) “ oooguruk.jpg

Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough

Tommy Douglas: Not Dead Enough 42 Comments

How does a “not-for-profit” monopoly run out of money?

[The Vancouver Island Health Authority] plans to do 4,400 fewer of the magnetic resonance imaging scans to help cover a $45-million budget shortfall, figures released yesterday show.
The cuts likely mean patients will wait in pain even longer for treatment and surgery — and already they are waiting twice as long as last year.
VIHA spokeswoman Shannon Marshall said patients are being booked for March, six months away, for elective MRI scans. Last year, wait times for MRI scans were only three months.
[…]
Last year, medical imaging in VIHA went 9.2 per cent over budget, to $21.2 million instead of the planned $19.4 million. The figures released yesterday showed 18,100 MRI scans were budgeted for last year, but 22,567 were performed.

(A question for Island readers – are your dental offices out there mothballing x-ray equipment?)
h/t Arnie

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