The Atlantic: Simpler Taxes.
”It is little wonder that the vast majority of the poorest families must pay a tax preparer to claim these benefits.” My old man used to step down from his usual attorney duties to do taxes for a set of minority cleaning ladies in Princeton. For a pittance. As much as he supported progressive taxation, he felt the implementation was designed to keep revenue high on the backs of the poor and did what he could to personally remedy the situation in his circle of influence.
Bloomberg: Coast Guard Reports Blast on Mariner Rig in Gulf.
”A platform owned by Mariner Energy Inc. in the Gulf of Mexico, 80 miles off the Louisiana coast, was struck by an explosion and is still on fire, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.” Hold onto yer butts, here we go again.
Washington Post: Illegal immigration to U.S. down almost 67% since 2000, report says.
Hmmm. No mention of the unrestrained drug wars along the border, making illegal immigration that much more dangerous a proposition.
The Atlantic: Maybe July Wasn’t as Bad as We Thought.
New Scientist: Road to cut off Serengeti migration route.
”It could also be a collision zone for humans and animals, leading to casualties on both sides, and there is a risk that transported livestock would spread disease, the society adds.” Why not bridge or tunnel across large swaths, meeting both needs?
Spiegel Online: Will Russia’s Bloggers Survive Censorship Push?
”With so many of their media sources controlled by the state or government-friendly oligarchs, Russians have turned to their bloggers to keep informed and give voice to their grievances and concerns. But many of those in power are now seeking to impose rigid limits on online freedom.” The internet’s like water ... it finds the nooks and crannies, and escapes most political control structures.
WyoFile: A Legacy of Prejudice: Lawsuits, Failed Pacts Tell Ugly Story.
”Whites here may have legitimate concerns about the quasi-independent state on their borders, such as issues relating to law-enforcement jurisdiction or water rights. But that doesn’t explain the bigotry that often seems a holdover from another time: the high-school sports fans mocking Indian players as ‘prairie niggers,’ for example, or the white civic leader, subsequently elected to the county commission, declaring in a private meeting, ‘I hate goddamn Indians,’ to cite examples from the voting rights trial.” Many think the ‘wild West’ is a part of the past. Live out here for a while, you’ll realize it’s alive and well — and not the fantasy perpetrated on us kids through “Bonanza” and “Gunsmoke.”
ProPublica: FDA’s Findings on Salmonella-Linked Egg Farms: Mice, Maggots, Manure.
”One of the reports, for Wright County Egg [PDF], found “excessive amounts of manure” blocking the entrances to some henhouses—“approximately 4 feet high to 8 feet high” in several areas.” If you’ve traveled west Texas, and seen the feedlots with cows standing on piles of excrement 12 feet high or more, you won’t be surprised. Industrial livestock management needs a kick in the kiester.
BBC News: Iranian insults against Bruni ‘unacceptable’.
“On Tuesday, Kayhan, which acts as a mouthpiece for Iran’s conservative Islamic leadership, reiterated its attack, adding that the Italian-born French first lady deserved to die for supporting her.” Once supposes France will turn a jaundiced eye on further nuclear program developments from Iran, both in direct relations and via the U.N.
BBC News: Assessing America’s ‘imperial adventure’ in Iraq.
”Whatever happens here for the next decade, the Americans will get the blame - unless of course Iraq becomes peaceful and prosperous, in which case no-one will thank them. That is the usual fate of an occupying force.” Which is also why the once-recognizable Republican Party insisted that we weren’t the world’s police force, and that it wasn’t America’s place to go around nation-building.
New Scientist: Bjørn Lomborg: climate change is a problem after all.
We’ll have to see if “better late than never” applies.
The Atlantic: 3 Politically Impossible Fixes for the Economy.
Number three is what will eventually fix us. Though there’ll be a lot of screaming and yelling in the process.
The Atlantic: Flashcard series, 9 Ways to Fix Social Security.
Hopefully Congress isn’t as toothless as the illustration. Better to head off problems now; everyone’s been saying they would do something ... noone has. Makes ya want to kick ‘em right in their ‘lockbox.’
OnEarth Magazine: Beyond Oil: The Oil Industry and Partisanship.
“… if we’ve got a broken system we should go back to the basics, thinking as a game theoretician would and focusing on punishment and reward. There are abundant carrots to entice politicians to support wealthy polluting companies, and there are few sticks to punish them for it.” We need to start playing grassroots ‘Whack-A-Mole’ with those who wish to foul our nests.
ProPublica: Take It With a Grain of (Sea) Salt: Gulf Microbe Study Was Funded by BP.
Discove Magaziner: SPEECH Act now a law: big win for libel reform!
The Atlantic: Deficit Fears and the Pollster-Pundit Complex.
“This article is part of an unfortunate pollster-pundit complex where columnists, who are supposed to inform the public, instead recite public opinion without proper context or criticism, creating an infinite feedback loop that loses the central question: Is the public right? Halfway into the article, Zuckerman finally gets there: ‘Of course, the question remains whether public sentiment coincides with sound economics.’”
rc3.org: Government regulations and freedom.
Read the quote.
Time: The Government’s New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS.
“Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn’t violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway — and no reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking your movements.” The government’s following Facebook Places, Google, OnStar and others. This is a pretty broad interpretation. I don’t think it will stand challenge.
Slate: How can female Democratic pols advertise themselves in the age of Palin?
Mentions our local Governor battle.
NPR: Taliban Spokesman Suggests It May Attack Aid Workers In Pakistan’s Flood Zone.
”In an interview with The Associated Press, Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, suggested militants may attack humanitarian workers in flood-ravaged country.” They obviously don’t want any gratitude to build up over US aid. The devastation’s bad enough, but forcing aid workers to have to watch their backs ...
Eurekalert: Herbicide [Atrazine] causes prostate inflammation in male rats and delays puberty.
“The doses of atrazine mixture given to the rats during the last five days of their pregnancy are close to the regulated levels in drinking water sources.” Uh-oh. Atrazine is the pesticide most frequently found in tap water, and the majority of water treatment plants do not filter it out (because it requires expensive activated carbon filter units). It’s also commonly used on golf courses ... so if you live near one, filter your tap water.
NY Times Op-Ed Contributor: Keeping Science Under Wraps in the Gulf.
”Although we are all doing needed research, we’re not receiving equal money or access to the affected sites. Those working for BP or the federal government’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment program are being given the bulk of the resources, while independent researchers are shoved aside.” What, you mean we can’t trust sniff tests? I’m so shocked (NOT).
CJR: Bloggers at the Treasury.
“Later, Smith mulled the threat of journalists being coopted, but dismissed it on the grounds that the meetings aren’t held that often and bloggers don’t get that much out of them, anyway. [snip] Indeed, she wonders whether meeting the Treasury Secretary is worth bloggers’ time. This is a new day, isn’t it?” Sure is. The article lists who is frequenting these meetings.
Scientific American: Why We’re Suckers for Stories of Our Own Demise.
”You might think that the enterprise of science, with its method and its facts, would inoculate us against the most extravagant doomsday obsessions. But it doesn’t. If anything, it just gives us more to worry about.” Just like we’re suckers for conspiracy theories. I was trapped by an individual at Indian Market who was bound and determined to prove to me that Obama wasn’t born in America. I made a comment about McCain and Panama, and this individual said, “Yeah, but commonwealths pay taxes, don’t they?” We all have the habit of assembling only the facts that support our conclusions. I did eventually extricate myself, diplomatically, and gave him a couple of things to think about in the process. I don’t think he’ll see an “enemy” Democrat in quite the same way again, anyway.
