Archive for March 2, 2010
Have Any Clothes That Were Made in Cambodia?
Do you have any clothes that were made in Cambodia? I do. Just bought a sweater last week that was made there. Wish I’d read this first:
[T]he average production employee [in Cambodia] generated about $200,000 in annual retail sales and received $750 in income.
Is it any wonder companies are moving production overseas? We need global laws that mandate working conditions such as wages and benefits so no matter where a company locates, they’ll have to pay their workers roughly the same amount. Oh, and fixing our health care system would help. I’m willing to bet workers in Cambodia don’t have health insurance which saves the company a bundle too.
Jim Bunning’s Claim That It’s All About Funding Is a Lie
When Jim Bunning placed a hold on passing an extension of unemployment benefits he said it was all about where the money to pay for it was going to come from (though he enthusiastically voted for an unfunded extension in 2003). That is a lie. The guy is obviously on a rampage against the Obama administration. What else can one think given this breaking news: Bunning Holding All Nominees.
Break Time — PC’s
The picture below has been tacked to the bulletin board in my office for years. I have no idea where it came from but I thought I’d share.
The caption reads:
“Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a ‘home computer’ could look in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 30 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use.”
Isn’t that wild? And I wonder what the steering wheel’s for.
Look Inside Rush Limbaugh’s New York Penthouse
Rush Limbaugh’s New York penthouse is on the market for, ahem, $13.95 million. Check it out here — in all its gaudiness.
New York will be happy to see him go. Buh-bye.
What Happens When the Safety Net is Dismantled
What happens when the social safety net is dismantled? People resort to selling food stamps so they can buy shoes for their kids.
Speaking of food stamps, haven’t we gotten rid of them yet? Lazy people; acting like hobos.
O.J. Simpson Proves He’s a Legend in His Own Mind
Geez. If there was ever any doubt that O.J. Simpson thinks very, very highly of himself, this erases it: Smithsonian Refuses O.J. Simpson Suit. The Smithsonian said no thanks.
Unreal.
Sarah Palin Organizing “Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America”
Per Alternet: Heads Up: Prayer Warriors and Sarah Palin are Organizing Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America.
Imagine a religious movement that makes geographic maps of where demons reside and claims among its adherents the Republican Party’s most recent vice presidential nominee and whose leaders have presided over prayer sessions (one aimed at putting the kibosh on health-care reform) with a host of leading GOP figures.
It’s a movement whose followers played a significant role in the battle over Proposition 8, California’s anti-same-sex marriage initiative, and Uganda’s infamous proposed Anti-Homosexuality Law, more commonly associated with the Family, a religious network of elites drawn from the ranks of business and government throughout the world. But the movement we’re imagining encompasses the humble and the elite alike, supporting a network of “prayer warriors” in all 50 states, within the ranks of the U.S. military, and at the far reaches of the globe — all guided by an entire genre of books, texts, videos and other media.
Imagine that, and you’ve just dreamed up the New Apostolic Reformation, the largest religious movement you’ve never heard of.
South Dakota to Teach Climate Change Denial in its Schools?
Teaching climate change denial in South Dakota is moving through the state legislature there:
South Dakota may soon make climate-change denial the law of the land, if an effort underway in the state legislature is successful. Via Brad Johnson, we learn that the state House of Representatives recently passed a new law calling for “balanced teaching of global warming in the public schools of South Dakota.”
The resolution, approved by a vote of 36-30, states that public schools should be required to teach students that “global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact” and that a variety of “climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological dynamics” could be changing the weather. Yes, that’s astrological, as in horoscopes. And as Brad Plumer points out, thermology involves the science of infrared body imaging. Not quite clear what role that might play in global warming.
