Monday Reads
Posted: December 27, 2010 Filed under: Barack Obama, Catfood Commission, Civil Liberties, Diplomacy Nightmares, Foreign Affairs, Regulation, U.S. Politics, Wikileaks | Tags: blacklist, Charlie on the MTA, Civil War, DEA, death panels, drug war, Janet Napolitano, McCarthy era, memeorandum, Red Scare, surveillance, The Kingston Trio, The Weavers, TSA, Vicksburg, Walter O'Brien, weather, Wikileaks 68 Comments
Good Morning!!
I’m still stuck in central Indiana and there seems to be a blizzard bearing down on the Northeast. They’re predicting 18 inches in northwest greater Boston where I live. I’m hoping I’ll manage to get back there soon, if weather permits.
I had to call the guy who has been helping me with the snow the last couple of winters and ask him to shovel my house out so I don’t come home to piles of solid ice in my driveway and on my front walk. I hope everyone who is getting hit by the blizzard will be okay!
While I was checking up on the Boston weather forecast, I came across this interesting story in The Boston Globe.
If you were around in the late ’50s and early ’60s, you may recall a famous song by the Kingston Trio about the Boston subway system, then called the MTA.
In June of 1959, packaged sandwiches and envelopes of nickels began pouring into the Park Square headquarters of Boston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, postmarked from as far off as California and Hawaii. All were addressed to Charlie — “the man who never returned.’’
The Kingston Trio’s “At Large’’ album was headed to number one, and listeners couldn’t get enough of the opening track, “M.T.A.,’’ about a fellow trapped on the subway because he lacked a nickel for the exit fare. The hit would go on to become a campfire staple and slice of Americana, widely embraced, frequently parodied, and adapted for styles from country to punk.
It turns out that the song the Kingston Trio recorded was
…actually a sanitized version of the original, a campaign song for a 1949 Boston mayoral candidate who opposed the subway fare hike. But by 1959, the candidate had been blacklisted and run out of town, and the song’s most political lyrics were simply edited out
because another folk group, The Weavers (which included Pete Seeger) had been blacklisted because Seeger and another member of the group, Lee Hayes were called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and both refused to name names.
Now the Boston transit authority (now called the MBTA) is displaying the uncensored lyrics of the song along with the backstory at selected subway stations. “Charlie on the MTA” was Walter O’Brien’s campaign song–a protest about a fare increase in subway fares.
The MTA had been formed just two years earlier from the ashes of the Boston Elevated Railway Co., a private company whose shareholders had received a guaranteed dividend for years even as the transit company relied on public subsidies. When lawmakers eventually bought them out to abolish the company, shareholders made out handsomely. Then the taxpayers footing the bill got slapped with the fare hike.
Does that remind you of anything in the present?
“The Progressive Party saw that as a bailout of private interest and inappropriate use of taxpayer money, and [then the fare increase] was one wrong piled upon another,’’ said Jim Vrabel, an activist and historian determined to reclaim the song’s origins. “It’s been kind of trivialized and made kind of a cute song, and people don’t realize the serious political background of it.’’
I hope you’ll take the time to read the entire article. It provides quite a bit of information on what it was like for artists, politicians, teachers, lawyers–really just about anyone left-leaning, during the McCarthy era.
Below is a video of the song will the original lyrics.
If only we had a Walter O’Brien today! He couldn’t afford to pay for advertising so he hired trucks to drive around playing the song in the streets of Boston. Can you imagine the great songs that could be written about the bankster fraud and bailouts and all the people who are paying by losing their homes and livelihoods?
I found another fascinating piece of history via Memeorandum. From the BBC News: “Coded American Civil War message in bottle deciphered.”
In the encrypted message, a commander tells Gen John Pemberton that no reinforcements are available to help him defend Vicksburg, Mississippi.
“You can expect no help from this side of the river,” says the message, which was deciphered by codebreakers.
The text is dated 4 July 1863 – the day Vicksburg fell to Union forces.
The small bottle was given to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, by a former Confederate soldier in 1896.
Also via Memeorandum, “death panels” are back, according to The New York Times: Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir
When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1.
Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.
I don’t have a problem with that as long as it doesn’t lead to denying care to elderly people who want it. Of course knowing that this administration is going to be embracing the Catfood Commission Report, I’m a little leery of what else they might be planning for us old folks. Ice floes anyone?
In other news, via Raw Story, Janet Napolitano has no sympathy for people who feel violated by thugs pawing their breasts, buttocks, and genitals: Napolitano: Pat-downs are here to stay
Airline passengers should get used to invasive full body scans and enhanced pat-downs, the Homeland Security secretary suggested Sunday.
CNN’s Candy Crowley asked Janet Napolitano if she expected changes to the controversial Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening procedures in the near future.
“Not for the foreseeable future,” Napolitano replied.
“You know we’re always looking to improve systems and so forth, but the new technology, the pat-downs — just objectively safer for our traveling public,” she said.
Okay, Janet, how about you have a “pat down” performed by a TSA thug on national TV? Then you can make an announcement about how great it was. The youtube would go viral, millions of people would see your sales pitch on the internet, and perhaps a few would be convinced. Oh, and is the government going to bail out the airline industry when millions of people stop flying?
I guess that doesn’t worry Napolitano though. She plans to start “stepping up security” at malls, and train stations.
“What we have to do is say, well, what other ways are they thinking to commit an act, because our job is not only to react, but to be thinking always ahead, what could be happening,” Napolitano said.
“And so we have enhanced measures going on at surface transportation, not because we have a specific or credible threat there, but because we know, looking at Madrid and London, that’s been another source of targets for terrorists.”
Soon you may have to go through a naked scanner and/or “enhanced patdown” (aka groping session) in order to get into a mall. Oh joy! Thank goodness I do most of my shopping on line…
A few new Wikileaks tidbits…
The New York Times has a story on how the DEA has become a global organization.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cables.
[….]
Because of the ubiquity of the drug scourge, today’s D.E.A. has access to foreign governments, including those, like Nicaragua’s and Venezuela’s, that have strained diplomatic relations with the United States. Many are eager to take advantage of the agency’s drug detection and wiretapping technologies.
In some countries, the collaboration appears to work well, with the drug agency providing intelligence that has helped bring down traffickers, and even entire cartels. But the victories can come at a high price, according to the cables, which describe scores of D.E.A. informants and a handful of agents who have been killed in Mexico and Afghanistan.
In Venezuela, the local intelligence service turned the tables on the D.E.A., infiltrating its operations, sabotaging equipment and hiring a computer hacker to intercept American Embassy e-mails, the cables report.
More at The Independent: Panama row reveals US drug agency’s power
The El Paso Times: WikiLeaks tells why drug king is still free
and the BBC News: Wikileaks: Governments ‘sought US wiretapping help’
At The New Republic, Norm Scheiber explains Why Wikileaks will be the death of big business and big government.
That’s about it for me. What are you reading this morning?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
‘Morning BB.
We have about 15″ where I am in Connecticut, but it’s powder and won’t be a big deal to shovel. In fact I really enjoy doing that. The problem part is 60 mph winds, which makes shoveling pointless so far; ditto the roads. Also that kind of wind blowing freezing snow into your face is somewhat brutal. Though I have to admit I even enjoy that – as long as I have a warm house to return to. And my Siberian/Shepard is in heaven.
That’s good. The thing is, if I don’t get my place shoveled out, it will eventually melt on top and then freeze hard as a rock. It’s supposed to go down in the teens in subsequent days. I had that happen a couple of years ago when I had a sinus infection and was too sick to go out and shovel. I had to chip ice for about a week. I never want to go through that again.
This will be just the weather for that – supposed to go up to 35 or 40 and then freeze again. Wish I were up there and could do it for you. Glad you have a guy.
We are in a “state of emergency” here in MA bu the snow is secondary to the high gusts of winds whipping around out there. In some areas it is up to 50 miles an hour which is whipping the snow back onto the just cleared sidewalks and plunging the wind chill factor making it seem like it is below zero outside.
The Boston area is taking the worst beating so far as my in Reading has just declared they have already got up to 18 inches and it is still snowing. What a mess!
A good day to curl up with a good book, plug in the coffee maker, and stay indoors. This weekend they are predicting temps to rise to the mid 40’s. You cannot beat New England for weather!
I think MA got it the worst.
The winds are down to maybe 35mph here now so it’s saner. Went out in the middle of the night and it was a true blizzard. So incredibly gorgeous.
Lots of areas along the coast up there are getting flooding as well. I guess the wind is bringing the sea water in like a hurricane. I hope that you are snug as a bug Zal.
Thanks for the update, Pat. I see that it is going up to the 40s there by the end of the week. If I can get out of here by Sunday, maybe I won’t have any problems. My brother and sister-in-law are supposed to fly out of Logan late this afternoon. I’m not sure how that’s going to work out.
I got cold just reading about it, brrrrr…I with you on the coffee/indoors plan.
Paul Krugman doesn’t have his head screwed on right any more. I think it started with being taken in by Obama. Even though some sense has peeked through recently, his thinking process is still skewed.
His column today, about rising commodity prices (things like oil, copper, cotton) seems to be more about ridiculing the thinking of his opponents than about making a cogent argument. It ends with these two paragraphs:
Well which is it, are rising commodity prices the result of living in a finite world or global recovery? Those are two very different things with different challenges attached, or is he suggesting we basically ignore the finite element for now? And if it’s a global story and we are big global players, investors in and consumers of those commodities, how are rising prices not about us?
I think Krugman is too busy trying to label who’s smart and who’s not when he should be more objectively analyzing the data. We’re in trouble, Paul, and yes it has a lot to do with us.
Hmmm I agree. He’s all over the board. I think in some small way he’s trying to defend the Fed and QE and at the same time tweak his adversaries on the fact that we should be looking for solutions to finite resources. However, as you point out in a global economy it’s ridiculous to assert that our policies have no impact on stuff like pricing. If something diminishes the value of a dollar then it’s going to impact our imported products, not just the exported ones. So yes, the Fed probably hurt the price of oil for the people here while trying to improve the export situation to create jobs.
I read that early this morning and felt the same way Zal. There was something odd about that post.
“But that’s for the future.”
So in the meantime just ignore it? The article reads like he was trying out two different ideas and then deleted a key paragraph without noticing. Must be one of the adverse effects of Kool-Aid.
We, too, are in a state of emergency in NJ. The drifts are simply amazing – I had to dig out a path to the back yard so that my dog could relieve herself. Some of the drifts are so deep that she couldn’t get through them without disappearing! The snow that is hanging off the roof looks like an iceberg – I want to get some pictures of it because I’ve never seen anything like it!
Snowed in here in eastern NJ too. The drift on my back patio is higher than waist high and the snow hanging off the roof looks like it’s about to fall.
The eerie thing is that after a big snow storm there are usually people going up and down the block ringing the bells looking for jobs digging us out, but this morning there isn’t a soul outside.
I saw that NJ is getting it bad. There are people stuck on the roads, you stay inside and stay safe.
Yes, I’m going to stay put! I read that there were 2 passenger buses stuck on the Garden State Parkway this morning with diabetics in them and police had to walk there to bring food and water to them because the ramps are blocked by stranded cars and police cars and ambulances can’t get through. It said nobody is having a medical emergency. This is the same Garden State Parkway I drove on christmas day and I drive twice a week other times.
If anyone wants to post snow pictures, we can put up a thread for them.
I love snow pics! We had snow last week but its all gone now…
How do you do that? Not that I have any, but just curious.
I have a few of them from earlier this morning. How do I post them here?
The latest accumulations in this part of NJ is 28.7 inches.
I took a couple of pictures but have no idea how to get them from my iphone onto the website.
I like that BB, sounds like a good idea.
We have a little over 2 ft here in NE NJ – I took some pics this AM – how to I upload them?
If you want to send them to
skydancer66@gmail.com,I can do that for you.Okay, i’m a little distracted today : SkyDancingBlog@gmail.com
I can’t wait for the Big Mall bailout of ’11.
Good Gravy, and I live in the supposedly wintery country? – no snow in my neck of the woods. Cold yes, precipitation no. Take care all, and keep warm and safe.
“Okay, Janet, how about you have a “pat down” performed by a TSA thug on national TV?”
Great idea – and everyone up the chain of command as well.
It pisses me off that there are 2 sets of rules. Frankly if we have to submit to random searches then I don’t see why the government should not be included. Particularly since the argument seems to be this isn’t about probable cause at all.
It strikes me as very Tom “I AM the government” Delay that government officials, who made the policy not be required to adhere to it as well.
Nice post BB! Stay warm and dry. The northeast is looking cold for the nest few days!! Try not to get lost in the idiocy of politics! 🙂
Not much from my end except that war is on the horizon. Greed and power are great motivators for leaders of developing nations. War is coming….
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101227/ap_on_re_af/af_ivory_coast
Yup, and hot coco sounds good too. It is no where near zero here and I am inside pondering a walk or not.
If I recall, Vicksburg was the cause of massive desertions. Not only were they starving, but the lice situation was horrible. Many had dug outs along the river banks and that is where they were holding out. It was about that time that the union offered $300 or 400 dollars if they signed up with them. And so many headed to New Orleans in order of collect on that money. Many did it because their families were starved to death.
I have toured the Vicksburg battleground, and have family buried there. All I can say
is war is vuglar, all wars are.
The thing about the Civil war, is that it was fought here…where highways and buildings have taken over the battlefields like a vine creeps along a stone wall. To see all the commercial buildings, and houses built along the areas around Atlanta, where hundred of thousands of people died. It just makes me wonder if those people who live on that land remember what was done there and why the fight was so hard. I have a feeling that many do not. Whenever we go to the Kennesaw Mountain battlefield, I see people having picnics on the fields of battle. They toss their footballs without a thought about the solemn importance of those grassy spaces.
I don’t know. If I were a soldier who died for something like the Civil War Era folk did, it might give me peace to know that families were playing football and having picnics where I once gave my life. Then again I find cemeteries rather dismal.
Me too. my kidlets know that once I exhale my last breath, it’s off to science for the husk that remains.
I don’t have a problem with people gathering at cemeteries, I do when they vandalize them.
It was once said that in order of find your town’s history, you’ve got to point to the cemeteries for the truth.
I hear ya, I heard of a family that was building their home, and found skulls and bones. Instead of reporting to police or historical society, they tossed them
in the river, and went on building their home.
I’ve been to the Oaklawn cemetery in Atlanta….it’s huge. Would love to see the Kennesaw battlefield.
It is truly a problem, even Arlington cemetery is totally messed up. People aren’t buried where they were suppose to be, and records go missing.
The Arlington problem is our government attempting to operate on the cheap though as opposed to people who feel that it is appropriate to treat the remains of other people’s relatives disrespectfully by vandalism.
With snow like that, it’s time to hole up and try and do things that make you happy! It’s almost an opportunity, since you can’t go anywhere!
We’re expecting snow in the higher hills of Seattle on Wednesday. It will likely be a little bit, just enough to freeze to the roads as a thick sheet of ice for a few days and snarl things up a bit. We’ll watch people’s cars skate on our phenomenally many icy hills for a day or two, then it’s gone. Nothing like what you guys endure there.
Stay warm and safe.
Yes, our travails with snow & ice here in the Pacific Northwest are trivial in comparison. I used to wonder why my husband would rush out and shovel off the sidewalks if it snowed. Why bother, I thought, it’ll just turn to slush and melt in a day or two.
But he’s from upstate New York, and knows that if you don’t keep shoveling out, you get buried in snow there.
Hoping all of you stay safe and warm.
The New Republic article is interesting and here is the take on the first to go on-line soon:
Funding for OpenLeaks:
So, the Republic is right, that there will be more like it in the future and maybe ‘The Little People’ won’t be at such a disadvantage in the future. It is hard enough to be heard in D.C., without a lobbyist or some big connection and then our politicos go and work as lobbyists which adds to the mess.
Can we make it so that the word “Snowmaggedon” can only officially be used for one winter because I’m officially sick of the word! (I know, I know it’s all about me, me, me me, me . -heehee What can I tell ya I’m one of those self centered SAHM-rolling eyes)
We’ve got around 3 inches here, the wind is what makes it horrible and puts us below zero. It was way worse last year though.
Naked Capitalism touched on Assange and asks whether 1st Amendment rights apply to Assange. It’s amazing, I actually agree with Ron Paul. I never thought I’d be uttering those words, but there you have it. I agree with Ron Paul. What should be happening is we should be asking ourselves why some of this stuff was classified to begin with and wondering why our government took such shoddy care of something not meant for public consumption. Anyways the article is worth a read.
Just got the power back on here in banjo land. The wind is picking up and all the snow is falling off the trees. Hope that everyone is staying safe!
Power outages during winter suck. You can’t even enjoy eating the ice cream in the freezer because the blasted heat is out. Hope you stay safe too.
Oh you greedy SAHM!!! Is there a faction or group that hasn’t yet been insulted by these people? ….I really think certain bloggers have self-destructive tendencies. They deserve sympathy and maybe an intervention, not ridicule….NO, I’m JUST JOKING. RIDICULE is good! Although I will say a certain one could use editorial intervention….so wordy and rambling that I can’t even read her self-absorbed rants. It’s a good thing she puts her main idea in the first paragraph.
Done ranting…
Agree with Ron Paul too….And yes, I think they should switch from Snomaggedon to Snopocalypse, just to mix things up a bit ;-).
I’m not ridiculing her. I feel sorry for her. She apparently has met some not nice people or had some not nice experiences and insists on putting a subset of people in a box based on those experiences. It’s very sad. If she is blessed enough to be able to take time off to do science fairs and what not, she ought to consider herself blessed. There are plenty of professions that make you choose. I know people that lost their jobs because they HAD TO take time off to care for a sick kid. In a world where profitability matters, not everything is sugar and spice. May she never be asked to choose.
She is generally an angry person…..and self-destructive, as I said. Sometimes I can’t believe the level of self-destruction that has occurred recently. But she projects by being just AWFUL to well meaning people (e.g. SAHMs) and then denialistically defends some pretty AWFUL factions (pharma).
I suspect a little bit of jealousy of SAHMs. And I often feel sorry for her kid. It’s pretty apparent to me that the kid is being pushed too hard, all for the sake of bragging rights. But this is probably not a good conversation for here. But I vent, therefore I am.;-).
Co-sign. I’ve been on both sides (working out of the house, working from home, would LOVE to be able to have the kids be my only job for a few years but that’s nah gonna happen) and neither is easy. I wish we had politicians that were willing to put the policies in place to make the juggling act easier for ALL parents — and really, for all of us generally. Even folks who don’t have kids will usually have to take care of somebody someday, whether it’s an aging parent, a spouse, or themselves. In my perfect world we would all get sabbatical time! (And health care.) Demonizing folks who make different choices (and I am not pointing the finger at any particular individual here) just keeps us divided and gives us more of the same.
Errr, yes, this topic is OT, but I understand the venting! I have a SAHM relative who is indeed heavy into the sacrifice role. This can include oblique and overt put-downs of non-sacrificing females. When that comes up in the middle of an otherwise innocent conversation with her, I do get annoyed. But really, it’s an issue that’s used to divide, not unite people.
Jadzia, hope your baby is doing all sorts of developmental stages precociously!
Choices require sacrifices. In a perfect world we could have it all but this isn’t a perfect world. I have little doubt that by pulling myself out of the working sector that I have diminished my financial well being and standing in the outside work force(and on top of that I’ll be called a “freeloader” for doing so). So yes, staying at home does involve sacrifice. Just as working outside the home means someone might not be able to attend all the functions or do everything they would wish to or it might mean they feel overwhelmed from having to go from their 8 hour day to a science fair to go home to do laundry and cook dinner and then have to turn around and do it the next day. No choice is perfect and all require a degree of “sacrifice.” By making a choice, you are “sacrificing” the other options and all it encompasses(which is monetary compensation in the case of someone who stays home.)
Personally, I would have liked it if they had made maternity leave, familial leave. As you have said Jadzia, everyone is going to have a time where familial obligations(for lack of a better word) come up. Instead of encouraging a society that cares for it’s vulnerable past the time where they are a cystoblast we seem to be heck bent on making it as difficult as possible for them to tend to them and being steeped with resentment for them when they do make that choice. At least that has been my observation. There are men that resent women for maternity leave. Women who resent men for them being able to earn a higher income because they aren’t burdened with being seen as caretaker and so on and so on.
I’ve been both myself. I was a military member up until my oldest was 6. I then worked 2 jobs at MRH(a local for profit hospital) and Kroger(and then Walmart) while my husband attended school. I supplemented my husband’s income working at a Taco Bell in the evenings when they cut his hours. So yes, I do understand how difficult it is to juggle alot of comittments and keep it together.
I was fortunate enough to be able to take European-style leave. I was a stay at home mom for both of my kid’s earliest years and I downsized my career to community college teaching when they were both about 2 years old. I went back to corporate when the youngest entered 1st grade. I had read a lot of development psychology stuff while getting my teaching certificate. My ex and I agreed that we’d tighten our belts during those times supremely tight in order for me to be home the first about 1 1/2 to 2 years. It put an incredible crimp in my career, but I don’t think I’d do anything differently. It was just the choice I felt I had to make and I was never into making any one else feel anything about my choice. Because I was a hybrid at the time, I traveled in both circles of moms. I hated the mommy wars. If women were happy and secure with their choices, we wouldn’t have them.
NW Luna — she’s not really all that precocious yet, except in preciousness. : )
I can imagine you’re having fun with her wardrobe too this season! After having all those little boys, you finally get one where you can play mutually fun dress up! When my girls were little, I noticed they really didn’t have much fun stuff for boys in the dress up or clothing arena. If I had a bunch of money, I’d love to design dress up clothes for boys … you know little king costumes, robin hoods, all those fun things like that. I suppose getting some customers would be difficult, but I always thought boys should be able to express themselves more outwardly in costumes when they’re little. I used to have a basement with a corner of dress up clothes. I used to try to find boy things as well as girl things and it was difficult. I some times miss the days when they were very little and I was home with them and could re-explore my kid roots.
You have NO idea! I actually have done very little shopping (that is to say, none at all) because my younger sister had a baby girl last December. Because her baby is an Amazon and mine is a peanut, they are exactly a year apart in size even though they are only six months apart in birthday, so all of Matilda’s clothes are season-appropriate and because sis doesn’t want to have any more kids, I get a box of clothes every month or so. Her baby was the first granddaughter in our family, and the first grandchild in the dad’s family. So you can imagine the bounty.
Anyway, there are LOTS of parents of little boys who are frustrated at the lack of cute clothes. My boys live in stuff with dinosaurs and pirates on them. It seems like there were a lot more options back in the ’70s when I was a kid — remember Garanimals? Now it seems like all the clothes are way, way more gendered, resulting in all girls’ clothes being pink and frilly (not that I’m not enjoying that), and all boys’ clothes being sports, soldiers, trucks, and very blah colors. The backlash, we haz it.
Yup. We sure do. I wish some designer would come up with something better for kids. I really think there’s a demand for it. And none of that Little Miss Slut stuff we saw in the 80s either. I couldn’t believe the little ‘madonna’ looks that some of my peers were putting their daughters in.
cwaltz, I agree with you. My comments about my SAHM relative may not have been well worded.
The US has no requirement for paid maternity leave, when the minimum paid maternity leave in the European Union is 14 weeks! Iceland has 9 months. Even Indonesia provides 3 months paid maternity leave.
Here in the US there is real lack of support for families and kids despite the lip service (especially for fetuses). Hell, no support for anyone except the rich.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11936218
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11586719
And Jadzia, glad to hear that your precious one is doing well!
Dak — I am envious! And totally impressed that you were able to get back ON your previous track. In my profession, you basically can’t come back. At least I have never known anybody who was let back in after taking more than an 8 week leave.
Heh, it was easier to dress up the boys then it was my daughter in the “little” phase. My daughter had virtually no hair for her first year and spit up on literally everything. Even at 2 she had baby fine hair and with an older brother to keep up with absolutely no time for keeping dresses neat.
Dak, my third would have totally loved your line of thought. He and my youngest love playing pretend. They live vicariously through playmobil action figures quite often. How fun would it be for a little boy to play pirate or archeologist on expedition!
Jadzia, I’m still trying to come back. There are some things I will never be able to accomplish because of my choice. I just wish that I could change that for young woman or men that would like to move in and out of the labor market to parent young children.
Thought I would post this link,
Persistent unemployment and the jobless recovery : The New Yorker
I’m guessing they are going to push the idea that this is structural even though they pretty much threw out the idea of fiscal beyond giving tax cuts to the rich.
That’s what drive me nuts about politicians. They think if they can repeat the same craziness over and over, that it’s true. With so many economists blogging these days, maybe some of us can shoot over the political din about the facts.
I thought of Dkat when I read this, but I can’t tell how narrow of an economics application is involved:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2013775588.html
Sounds like a merge between economics and advertising. Interesting.
Wow, If I could get hired at Google I would probably think I died and went to heaven …
FDL’s Merged Version of Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Now Available | FDL Action
Just posting this link…it may be of interesting to a lot of us.
And in connection with that: The worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com
great! thx!