Current affairs

After getting several unwanted email "newsletters" from the Oregon legislature's unchallenged Spam King, Rep. Dennis Richardson, tonight I followed the Golden Rule and sent him one of my own. Richardson used a public records request to get hundreds of thousands of personal email addresses from the state computer system. Well, give spam and you deserve to get spam.  Here's the email message I just sent to the Spam King. Subject: "Great offer." Rep. Richardson, thanks for sending me another of your unwanted emails. I've sent you a "DELETE" request, but wanted you to enjoy some spam email from me. Since…

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation's outrageous decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screening efforts is a case study in disastrous public relations. Overnight, Komen for the Cure went from "great public-spirited organization" to "handmaiden of right-wing crazies" in the minds of countless Americans. Like me. Until the Planned Parenthood defunding hit the Internet airwaves, I hadn't paid much attention to Komen for the Cure. A couple of times a year I'd see a positive story on the evening news about women (and some men) dressed in pink running together to raise funds and publicize the…

I'm no economic expert. But much of economics is simple common sense. So it's no big surprise to me that the British economy is faltering after David Cameron's conservative government decided several years ago that cutting government spending in a recession was the best way to stimulate growth and job creation. Huh? This "expansionary austerity" notion is another example of faith-based voodoo economics, like believing that cutting taxes results in more revenue. That's also a myth. Recently Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote about Europe's continuing economic problems that have been exacerbated by austerity measures. "The Austerity Debacle" shows why it's…

  Way to go, Jon! At the age of 65, you're nominated for National Geographic's Adventurers of the Year 2012 award, along with Erik Boomer, a youthful 26. (Jon Turk is on the left in the photo above.) You've inspired this 63 year-old. Unlike you, I'll never be the first to circumnavigate Canada's frosty Ellesmere Island, dragging my sea kayak overland for a good share of the 1,500 miles, risking death in ice-choked seas, encountering curious wolves and polar bears. But you've reminded me that us geezers have a lot more living to do, regardless of our Social Security-eligible age. …

Do you think Mitt Romney is a guy who will add jobs to the American economy? Think again. He's a job destroyer, not a job creator. He doesn't care if people get hurt when businesses shut down, so long as CEO's like him make loads of money. Here's the proof: a persuasive video, "When Mitt Romney Came to Town." Watch it and weep... for the workers whose lives were torn apart by Mitt Romney. If you don't have time for the full 28 minute video, there's a three minute trailer.   

There are many reasons why Obama and the Democrats were absolutely right to press for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), billions upon billions of them -- all the dollars that people have lost in the Wall Street-led financial crisis that we've been suffering through since the end of the Bush presidency. Today I came across a persuasive scientific reason for the CFPB in Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking Fast and Slow." (Kahneman, a psychologist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on decision making.) We Homo sapiens aren't Econs; we are Humans. The distinction between Econs and Humans was…

Conservatives would have us believe that this country suffers from an excess of government regulation, bureaucracy, and restrictions on free enterprise. Not true, as evidenced by how successful the German auto industry is. High profits. High wages. High involvement of the government in corporate affairs.  In 2010, over 5.5 million cars were produced in Germany, twice the 2.7 million built in the United States. Average compensation (a figure including wages and employer-paid benefits) for autoworkers in Germany was 48.97 Euros per hour ($67.14 US), while compensation for auto work in the United States averaged $33.77 per hour, or about half…

Tomorrow is Dump Go Daddy Day. If you've got a domain name registered with GoDaddy.com, or some other Internet relationship with Go Daddy, I hope you'll ditch this company.  Two years ago I flew the Go Daddy coop for Dotster, and haven't regretted the move. My reasons were different from why people are dumping Go Daddy now -- mostly because it supported a really bad proposed law, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act, but it really is more like a Stop Free Speech Act). Pleasingly, Go Daddy lost about 70,000 domains last week. May the Go Daddy exodus continue. Here's a…

I'm disappointed in PolitiFact. The fact checking organization has given its LIe of the Year 2011 award to "Republicans voted to end Medicare." Today I emailed PolitiFact, expressing my disappointment with this choice: I've been a big admirer of PolitiFact. I read your site every day and often refer to it on my blogs, where I try to base my opinions on facts rather than faith. But your Medicare "Lie of the Year" is deeply disturbing. Over and over I heard Democrats and Obama say "Paul Ryan wants to end Medicare as we know it." But you left out "as we…

Knee-jerk reactions. They're a big part of what makes politics so dysfunctional in this country. We need to resist making snap judgements about the plan to reform Medicare unveiled today by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Yes, that Paul Ryan. To progressives, he's evil incarnate. To conservatives, he's the second coming of Ronald Reagan. In truth, he's just Paul Ryan. A person. With ideas to improve Medicare. Which is who Ron Wyden also is. A person. With ideas to improve Medicare. Basically, by offering seniors a choice: stay in the current government-run…

Up to now my wife and I have had good feelings about Lowe's. But the company has pulled ads on a reality show about Muslims after caving-in to bigots. The North Carolina-based retailer last week withdrew its ads from the hour-long show that follows the lives of five Muslim families from Dearborn. The decision coincided with pressure from conservative issues groups including the Florida Family Association, which claimed the TV show was “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.” Here's a link to the contact us page on the Lowe's…

The bizarre Senate filibuster rule needs to be consigned to the Trashbin of Crappy Ideas. I got confused trying to make sense of the Wikipedia article about it. Which is why the filibuster is so wrong: democracy should be straightforward, transparent, easy to understand. Elections are won by the candidate who gets the most votes. Control of the House and Senate is determined by which political party has the most candidates elected. But in the Senate, majority rule is dumped in the crapper.  Nowadays it takes 60 votes, rather than 51, for the Senate to do anything significant, because Republicans…