The world is going to shit, and the media is taking us there . . .
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/iranian-news-agency-plagiarizes-the-onion/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Last Updated: Saturday, 6:13 p.m.
Apparently unaware of the unwritten rules of both ethical journalism and
satire, an Iranian news agency published an edited copy of a report
from The Onion on Friday, without crediting the original or
acknowledging that it was fiction.
The Fars News Agency, which is close to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, posted its version of the report on its English-language Web site under the same headline used by The Onion for the original four days earlier: “Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad To Obama.”
September 30, 2012
September 29, 2012
TSA Gun Check
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/business/tsa-is-finding-more-guns-at-airport-security-checkpoints.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1348930555-BE1Fm8d+gxuqAp/o84Tktw
The list of potentially lethal weapons was certainly eye-opening: 47 guns (38 of them loaded, including six with rounds in their chambers), three inert hand grenades, supplies of black powder, hunting knives, timing fuses and a sword.
The list of potentially lethal weapons was certainly eye-opening: 47 guns (38 of them loaded, including six with rounds in their chambers), three inert hand grenades, supplies of black powder, hunting knives, timing fuses and a sword.
A firearm that was found in carry-on baggage. Airport
officials said hundreds of guns and other weapons are found each year. Then, consider that the list was compiled by the Transportation Security Administration, of weapons found in airline travelers’ carry-on bags in the seven days that ended on Sept. 20.
September 28, 2012
Eric Hoffer
From the Wikipedia entry on Eric Hoffer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer
Well, there you have it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer
Hoffer believed that rapid change is not necessarily a positive thing
for a society, and too rapid change can cause a regression in maturity
for those who were brought up in a different society. He noted that in
America in the 1960s, many young adults were still living in extended adolescence.
Seeking to explain the attraction of the New Left protest movements, he
characterized them as the result of widespread affluence, which, in his
words, "is robbing a modern society of whatever it has left of puberty
rites to routinize the attainment of manhood." He saw these puberty
rites as essential for self-esteem, and noted that mass movements and
juvenile mindsets tend to go together, to the point that anyone, no
matter what age, who joins a mass movement immediately begins to exhibit
juvenile behavior.
Hoffer further noted that the reason why working-class Americans did
not, by and large, join protest movements and subcultures was that they
had entry into meaningful labor as an effective rite of passage out of
adolescence, while both the very poor who lived on welfare and the
affluent were, in his words, "prevented from having a share in the
world's work, and of proving their manhood by doing a man's work and
getting a man's pay," and thus remained in a state of extended
adolescence, lacking in necessary self-esteem, and prone to joining mass
movements as a form of compensation. Hoffer suggested that this need
for meaningful work as a rite of passage into adulthood could be fulfilled with a two-year civilian national service program (not unlike programs during the Great Depression such as the Civilian Conservation Corps).
He wrote: "The routinization of the passage from boyhood to manhood
would contribute to the solution of many of our pressing problems. I
cannot think of any other undertaking that would dovetail so many of our
present difficulties into opportunities for growth."
Well, there you have it.
September 27, 2012
Marin Tennis Courts
San Rafael
Kentfield
1. College of Marin. College Avenue. 6 courts
Fairfax
- Albert Park, 2nd Street & Lindaro - 4 lit courts. Key required.
- San Rafael High School, 3rd Street @ High Street
- Boyd Memorial Park, B+Mission Sts - 1 lit court.
- Grestle Memorial Park, S.Rafael Ave+Clark Str. - 1 lit court.
- Maria B. Freitas Memorial Park, Montecito Rd.+Trellis - 2 lit courts
- McInnis Park, at the end of Smith Ranch Road, left just after the railroad
- Del Mar Courts, Tiburon Blvd. @ Miraflores
- Lagoon Courts, Lagoon Road across from Lyford Drive
- Beach Road Courts, Beach Road @ Tiburon Blvd.
- Town Park, Pixley @ Tamalpais Drive+Eastman Ave- 2 lit courts
- Granada Courts, Prince Royal @ Granada KEYS ARE NEEDED FOR BOTH OF THESE COURTS.
Kentfield
1. College of Marin. College Avenue. 6 courts
Fairfax
- Fairfax Tennis Courts, Park Road @ School Street
- Piper Park, Doherty Drive, one block off Magnolia Street
- Magnolia Avenue Park, Magnolia & Alexander
- Redwood High School, Larkspur
- Boyle Park, East Blithedale @ East Drive - 5 lit courts.
- Tam High School, Mill Valley
- San Marin High (San Marin Drive & Novato Blvd.)
- Pioneer Park, 1007 Simmons Lane - 4 lit courts
- No public courts in Ross, one site only for residents with keys.
- Memorial Park, Sunny Hills Drive @ Sir Francis Drake Blvd. 2 lit courts
- Red Hill Tennis Courts, Red Hill School, Shaw Drive off Sir Francis Drake Blvd.
- Martin Luther King School, Coloma @ Bridgeway
- Marin Ship Park, Harbor Drive @ Marin Ship Way
- North Street Park, North Street @ 4th Street
September 26, 2012
New Shoes
Robert's new shoes have arrived from Walmart. Sick of paying high prices, he bought a pair of tennis shoes online at Walmart. $13.99. Including shipping. Woo Hoo!! They even say "Starter" on the side.
Robert will take them for a test drive. If they work out well, this may be conclusive proof that he is a genius.
Robert will take them for a test drive. If they work out well, this may be conclusive proof that he is a genius.
Sunset Magazine: Top 8 Ferry Trips
Top 8 ferry trips
Get your open-water fix, fast and cheap, from an all-day ferry trip amid breaching orcas to a 10-minute ride on California's
last family-owned operation
September 23, 2012
Report: Beyond Guns and God: White Working Class
Here's a very recent report on the beliefs and political tendencies of the white working class in the US. "White working class" defined as non-hispanic whites without a four-year college degree who hold non-salaried jobs.
http://publicreligion.org/research/2012/09/race-class-culture-survey-2012/
From the press release announcing the report.
Challenging Five Myths About the White Working Class
Myth 1. White working-class Americans strongly identify with the Tea Party movement. White working-class Americans (13%) are no more likely than white college-educated Americans (10%) to say they consider themselves part of the Tea Party. White working-class Americans (34%) are also about equally as likely as white college-educated Americans (31%) to say the Tea Party movement shares their values.
Myth 2. White working-class Americans have abandoned traditional religiosity and a strong work ethic. White working-class Americans are more likely than Americans overall to identify as white evangelical Protestants (36% vs. 21%). They do not attend religious services less frequently than Americans overall (48% vs. 50% attend at least once a month), and do not report that religion is less important in their lives (60% vs. 59% say religion is important in their lives). White working-class Americans also work hard, averaging more hours per week than white college-educated Americans (51 vs. 46).
Myth 3. White working-class Americans vote against their economic interests. Low-income white working-class Americans and white working-class Americans who have received food stamps within the last two years were significantly less likely to support Romney, whose economic plan would reduce funding for government programs like food stamps.
1. White working-class Americans embrace different consumer preferences, lifestyle choices, and parenting choices than white college-educated Americans.
White working-class Americans are more likely than white college-educated Americans to value deference to authority over autonomy. When asked to choose between pairs of traits that emphasize children’s autonomy versus deference to parental authority, nearly two-thirds (65%) of white working-class Americans favor authoritarian childrearing traits, compared to around 4-in-10 (41%) white college-educated Americans.
2. White working-class Americans are less likely than white college-educated Americans to feel connected to government. While a majority (51%) of white college-educated Americans say they think of the U.S. government as “our” government rather than “the” government, only 39% of white working-class Americans think about the U.S. government as “our” government.
3. White working-class Americans are more likely than white college-educated Americans to believe that blacks and other minorities have received too many advantages and government attention.
5. Despite being economically disillusioned, white working-class Americans strongly believe in American exceptionalism. Although white working-class Americans are less likely than white college-educated Americans to believe the American Dream still holds true (47% vs. 63%), they are more likely than white college-educated Americans to believe that God has granted America a special place in human history (70% vs. 42%).
http://publicreligion.org/research/2012/09/race-class-culture-survey-2012/
From the press release announcing the report.
Challenging Five Myths About the White Working Class
Myth 1. White working-class Americans strongly identify with the Tea Party movement. White working-class Americans (13%) are no more likely than white college-educated Americans (10%) to say they consider themselves part of the Tea Party. White working-class Americans (34%) are also about equally as likely as white college-educated Americans (31%) to say the Tea Party movement shares their values.
Myth 2. White working-class Americans have abandoned traditional religiosity and a strong work ethic. White working-class Americans are more likely than Americans overall to identify as white evangelical Protestants (36% vs. 21%). They do not attend religious services less frequently than Americans overall (48% vs. 50% attend at least once a month), and do not report that religion is less important in their lives (60% vs. 59% say religion is important in their lives). White working-class Americans also work hard, averaging more hours per week than white college-educated Americans (51 vs. 46).
Myth 3. White working-class Americans vote against their economic interests. Low-income white working-class Americans and white working-class Americans who have received food stamps within the last two years were significantly less likely to support Romney, whose economic plan would reduce funding for government programs like food stamps.
- White working-class voters in households that make less than $30,000 per year were nearly evenly divided in their voting preferences (39% favored Obama, 42% favored Romney). However, a majority (51%) of white working-class voters with annual incomes of $30,000 or more a year supported Romney, while 35% preferred Obama.
- Half (50%) of white working-class voters who have not reported using food stamps in the past two years supported Romney, while less than one-third (32%) supported Obama. By contrast, white working-class voters who reported receiving food stamps in the last two years preferred Obama to Romney by a significant margin (48% vs. 36%).
- White working-class Americans are somewhat divided on abortion. Half (50%) say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 45% who say it should be illegal in all or most cases.
- While half (50%) of white working-class Americans are opposed to allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally, more than 4-in-10 (43%) favor same-sex marriage.
- Only 1-in-20 white working-class Americans say that either abortion (3%) or same-sex marriage (2%) is the most important issue to their vote. By contrast, a majority (53%) of white working-class Americans say the economy is their most important voting issue.
- Seven-in-ten (70%) white working-class Americans believe the economic system in this country unfairly favors the wealthy, and a majority (53%) say that one of the biggest problems in this country is that we don’t give everyone an equal chance in life.
- A plurality (46%) of white working-class Americans believe that capitalism and the free market system are at odds with Christian values, while 38% disagree.
- Nearly 8-in-10 white working-class Americans say that corporations moving American jobs overseas are somewhat (25%) or very (53%) responsible for Americans’ current economic distress.
- Over 6-in-10 (62%) white working-class Americans favor raising the tax rate on Americans with household incomes of over $1 million per year.
1. White working-class Americans embrace different consumer preferences, lifestyle choices, and parenting choices than white college-educated Americans.
- A majority (56%) of white working-class Americans report that they would prefer to shop at Walmart as opposed to Target, while 6-in-10 (60%) white college-educated Americans say the reverse.
- Only 31% of white working-class Americans have a close friend or family member who is vegetarian, compared to a majority (53%) of college-educated Americans.
White working-class Americans are more likely than white college-educated Americans to value deference to authority over autonomy. When asked to choose between pairs of traits that emphasize children’s autonomy versus deference to parental authority, nearly two-thirds (65%) of white working-class Americans favor authoritarian childrearing traits, compared to around 4-in-10 (41%) white college-educated Americans.
2. White working-class Americans are less likely than white college-educated Americans to feel connected to government. While a majority (51%) of white college-educated Americans say they think of the U.S. government as “our” government rather than “the” government, only 39% of white working-class Americans think about the U.S. government as “our” government.
3. White working-class Americans are more likely than white college-educated Americans to believe that blacks and other minorities have received too many advantages and government attention.
- Six-in-ten (60%) white working-class Americans agree that discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against blacks and other minorities, compared to only 39% of white college-educated Americans.
- Nearly half (49%) of white working-class Americans agree that over the past few decades the government has paid too much attention to the problems of blacks and other minorities, compared to 32% of white college-educated Americans.
- White working-class Americans in the West (40%), Midwest (48%), and Northeast (48%) are less likely than white working-class Americans in the South (58%) to believe that over the past few decades, the government has paid too much attention to the problems of blacks and other minorities.
5. Despite being economically disillusioned, white working-class Americans strongly believe in American exceptionalism. Although white working-class Americans are less likely than white college-educated Americans to believe the American Dream still holds true (47% vs. 63%), they are more likely than white college-educated Americans to believe that God has granted America a special place in human history (70% vs. 42%).
Recipe: Cocktails
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/magazine/come-september.html?src=dayp&_r=0
Oh, the days grow short when we reach September. Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson got that right in “September Song,” didn’t they? Cheerful it’s not, but for a year in my early 20s, the only music I could stand to hear was Weill’s. I was adrift, and politically charged cabaret numbers — often sung in a language I did not understand — somehow anchored me. I downed plenty of whiskey back then (and still do), but as with music, my taste in drinks was growing up. It was then that I first made a martini, first tasted absinthe and could, for the first time, call myself a regular at a New York bar — one where an indulgent bartender might sometimes pop onto the sound system the Lotte Lenya tape I just happened to have in my backpack.
Albertine Cocktail
(Adapted from ‘‘The Savoy Cocktail Book,’’ 1933 edition.)
Ingredients
- 1 oz. Cointreau
- 1 oz. yellow Chartreuse
- 1 oz. kirschwasser (a clear, dry cherry brandy)
- A dash of maraschino liqueur.
Preparation
- Shake well with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.
- Cabaret Cocktail
-
Ingredients
- A few drops of absinthe
- 1 1/2 oz. dry gin
- 1 oz. dry vermouth
- 1/2 oz. Benedictine
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
- 1 brandy-cured cherry.
Preparation
- 1.
- Swirl a few drops of absinthe in a chilled coupe. Shake the other ingredients with ice in a mixing glass, then strain into absinthe-coated coupe. Garnish with cherry.
September 22, 2012
Romney Gaffe
This morning Robert and Mira had something of a disjointed and unenlightened conversation about Mitt Romney's recent gaffe at a fancy fund raising party. Romney made a sort of divisive comment of the kind that candidates for President are not supposed to make.
He said the following:
He said the following:
"There are 47%
of the people who will vote for [President Obama] no matter what. All right, there
are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that
they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to take care
of them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing,
to you name it." Associated
Press / September 17, 2012.
Robert's only real comment on this is that Mr. Romney's statement, read literally, is very difficult to understand. Read less literally, it seems that Mr. Romney thinks that Obama's core base is full of folks who feel the government owes them something more than it should. But the words he chose are mean-spirited. They are bad.
It seems to Robert that Mr. Romney forgot for a moment that he was speaking in public (and when a candidate speaks to anyone who is not on his close staff, it is "in public.") He got carried away and let the rhetoric fly a little too far. Perhaps, as the New Yorker jokes, he could not control himself after getting drunk on a bowl of rum raisin ice cream.
It is unclear to Robert how much this matters. He's not going to vote for Mr. Romney in any event, and the folks that are truly undecided voters probably don't care too much either.
September 21, 2012
September 19, 2012
Mexico City Tacos and Tamales Recommendations
From the NY Times.
1. Corner of Baja California and Insurgentes Sur; Colonia Hipódromo.
2. Avenida Hidalgo, between Lecaroz and El Globo bakeries; Colonia Coyoacán. Each tamal costs about 12 pesos.
1. Corner of Baja California and Insurgentes Sur; Colonia Hipódromo.
2. Avenida Hidalgo, between Lecaroz and El Globo bakeries; Colonia Coyoacán. Each tamal costs about 12 pesos.
3. Flor de Lis, Huichapan 21 A, Colonia Condesa; (52-55) 5286-0811. Two tamales with beans and salsa cost about 40 pesos.
4. El Turix, Emilio Castelar 212, Colonia Polanco; (52-55) 5280-6449. Each slim torta costs about 22 pesos.
5. El Capricho, Augusto Rodin 407, Colonia Mixcoac;(52-55) 5563-9158. Each giant torta costs about 80 pesos.
6. La Castellana, multiple locations; tortaslacastellana.com. Each torta costs about 30 pesos.
7. Beatricita, Londres 190-D, Colonia Zona Rosa; (52-55) 5511-4213; Each taco is about 25 pesos.
8. El Charro, Mercado de Coyoacán, Location No. 289-290, Colonia Coyoacán; (52-55) 5554-8719. Each taco costs about 9 pesos.
9. Tacos Manolo, Luz Saviñón between Anaxágoras and Cuauhtémoc, Colonia Del Valle. Each taco costs about 8 pesos.
Facebook Update
After a few good days on the market, Robert is down only 12.6% on his ill-advised investment in Facebook. Woo Hoo!
September 17, 2012
Open Letter
Open Letter to Mom who Can't Stop Following Her Child Around the Playground
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/to-the-mom-who-cant-stop-following-her-child-around-the-playground/
Mildly funny. Perhaps because it is perfectly ambiguous who she is making fun of.
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/to-the-mom-who-cant-stop-following-her-child-around-the-playground/
Mildly funny. Perhaps because it is perfectly ambiguous who she is making fun of.
September 14, 2012
September 13, 2012
September 12, 2012
Throwing Like a Girl
Why do girls throw balls like girls?
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/08/throwing-like-a-girl/306152/1/
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/08/throwing-like-a-girl/306152/1/
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