“Men such as those in Spitzer’s position do not so much pay for women to have sex with them; they pay for women to go away AFTER having sex with them.”
Psychologist David Buss quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
A lesson Bill Clinton never learned.
Category: Issues of the Day
Worst headline of the day, so far
“Friends defend call girl who took down Spitzer”
Excuse me, Spitzer took himself down.
The Lost Children
The week before last Margaret Talbot had an article in The New Yorker on the T. Don Hutto Residential Center near Austin, Texas. Hutto is a detention center for illegal immigrants and their families, though not Mexican nationals who are immediately returned to Mexico when apprehended. The immigrants at Hutto (there is another center like it in Pennsylvania) are held awaiting action on their case. So are their children.
I’ve been trying to read this article for several days. I get through about three or four paragraphs and I throw the magazine down in disgust. The story it tells about us and our country is just too depressing.
Read along with me a little:
Children were regularly woken up at night by guards shining lights into their cells. They were roused each morning at five-thirty. Kids were not allowed to have stuffed animals, crayons, pencils, or pens in their cells. And they were not allowed to take the pictures they had made back to their cells and hang them up. When Hutto opened as an immigration-detention center, children attended school there only one hour a day. Detainees, including children, wore green or blue prison-issue scrubs. In November, 2006, Krista Gregory, who lives in Austin and works with church groups there, got a call from a couple of Hutto employees who, she says, were unhappy about the lack of supplies for child detainees. Gregory arranged for local churches to donate toys, baby blankets, and Bibles.
Staff members, who wore police-type uniforms, were mostly people who had backgrounds in corrections rather than in child welfare. Detainees said that when parents or children broke rules guards threatened them with separation from their children. Kevin Yourdkhani, at the prompting of one of Hines’s law students, wrote a brief description of one such occasion. “I was in my bed and my dad came to fix my bed,” he wrote. “When the police came and saw my dad in the room, he said, ‘If He comes and see my dad again in my room His going to put my mom in a siprate jail and my dad in a sipate jail and me a foster kid.’ I cried and cried so much that I lost my energy. I went to sleep. I felt If I will be siprated I can never see my parents again, and I will get stepparents and they will hurt me or maybe they will kill me.”
The adults incarcerated committed no serious crime. The children, of course, committed no crime at all. And this is how we treat them. Sometimes I am just so embarrassed to be an American.
You really should read this article.
I don’t usually believe in hell
… but there are times when it seems to fit the crime.
U.S. soldiers at a military base in Iraq were provided with treated but untested wastewater for nearly two years by KBR, the giant government contractor, and may have suffered health problems as a result, according to a report released yesterday by the Pentagon’s inspector general.
I’m thinking these KBR bastards probably are running around with flag lapel pins too.
Go directly to jail
The Washington Post, among others, reports that:
“More than one in 100 adult Americans is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal government ….”
What’s interesting about this is, according to historian Gordon S. Wood:
“Traditionally accused criminals were held in jail only until they went to trial; then if convicted they were fined, whipped, mutilated, or executed, but not incarcerated.” Wood points out that debtors were the sole exception. “But actions for debt could send the debtor to prison where he languished….”
I like the traditional approach better than the current approach.
The Wood quotation is from “Debt and Democracy” in the June 12, 2003, issue of The New York Review of Books.
Losers
Princess Sparkle Pony’s Photo Blog has some suggestions for additional Florida Confederate Heritage license plates after a Florida legislator introduced the idea.
Here’s his, but go see the others.
You’d think the bastards would want to play down the fact that in that particular rebellion THEY LOST.
Link via Crooks and Liars.
Damn right I’m a liberal
Cheers and Jeers has Dan Kurtzman’s Liberal Manifesto. Go read it.
A hypothetical situation
Just take three minutes out of your busy life and go read what Jesus’ General has written and watch the video.
And always let FUBAR be your expectation when experts act.
Is Your Printer Spying on You?
Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer – and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of “Alias,” right?
Unfortunately, the scenario isn’t fictional. In a purported effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information.
Worst president ever line of the day
George W. Bush: “[B]ut most people in America understand that the rich people hire good accountants and figure out how not to necessarily pay all the taxes and the middle class gets stuck.”
Wouldn’t that be an argument for raising taxes on the “rich people” to even the playing field?
Oh, and Ephraim, didn’t you say here last September that “Only the rich pay taxes”? Seems your president disagrees with you. 🙂
Idol thoughts while watching The Grammys
NewMexiKen wouldn’t want to dis a career as an archivist like I had, but it occurs to me every once in awhile — like while watching the Grammy Awards show — that I should have given more thought to being a rock god.
There was a group of about 20 British school kids (13-15 year olds) on the plane last night from Atlanta to Albuquerque. They were flying from London to Taos for a week’s skiing. Privileged brats. (Though the U.S. is cheap these days if we’ll let you in.) Personally, I’d have given a visa to Amy Winehouse instead.
(While I think of it, I saw Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke on DVD last week with Jill. This is Lee’s four part documentary on New Orleans and Katrina. After the first two parts, we wondered what could be added, but actually it’s pretty riveting over the better part of the full four parts. I strongly recommend you see the film — if only to better understand what happened in light of so much contemporary news that got it wrong and the overall chaos. It will make you very disappointed in our country.)
Aretha, honey, no one loves you more than I do, but you’ve got to consider Jenny Craig or something.
This photo has nothing to do with anything, but I suggest it’s worth seeing and reminding ourselves every day until November.
Dylan has been right about so much, and certainly not least with: “I was thinkin’ ’bout Alicia Keys, couldn’t keep from crying.” She is something.
I saw an ad today for a wireless SD memory card for digital cameras. Move photo files from your camera to your computer via your home wireless network. 2GB for $100, so it’s pricey, but that will change. It’s called Eye-Fi.
I’d like to point out that the video for the Record of the Year was posted here nearly six weeks ago — Rehab.
Liberty
What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow.
“What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned but never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.
Judge Learned Hand
Remarks are excerpted from a speech Hand gave at “I Am an American Day” in 1944. Hand was born on January 27 in 1872. Many consider Judge Hand the most influential American jurist to have not served on the Supreme Court.
Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge is a lengthy book review of the major legal biography of Hand. The 1961 obituary from Time is worthwhile.
Top Ten Rejected Titles for The George W. Bush Movie
From the home office, Letterman’s Top Ten Rejected Titles for The George W. Bush Movie:
10.”Jackass 3″
9.”The Lyin’ King”
8.”The Departed As Of January 20th, 2009″
7.”Stop Or My Vice President Will Shoot”
6.”Dial M For Moron”
5.”Das Boob”
4.”When Sally Met Cheney’s Daughter”
3.”White Men Can’t Govern”
2.”The Nightmare Before Hillary”
And the number one rejected title for George W. Bush Movie:
“Raging Bull****”
Thanks to DP for the pointer!
Rebates
What will you do with your $600? Buy some crap made in China or Malaysia? How will that help the economy exactly?
With the understanding that it would take longer to get into the economy and that urgency is an issue, here’s what I would have done if I were the czar. I’d buy $150 billion (the cost of the stimulus package) worth of infrastructure repairs — roads, sewers, bridges, schools.
Let’s see — the work would have to be done in the U.S., much of the money would be in paychecks spent locally, we’d all benefit. Even the wealthy who won’t see any of the rebate*, would be better off with improved roads and bridges that don’t collapse.
_______
* The rebates are phased out if your adjusted-gross income is more than $75,000 ($150,000 for couples), slightly more if you have children. Those making more than $87,000 ($174,000) get nothing (again depending on children).
Worst art critic ever, too
Go read, shake your head with wonder, and then think, “Yep, that’s my president.”
But only for 360 more days.
(I do kinda like the painting.)
Best line of the morning, so far
A study determines that the Bush Administration lied in order to get the Iraq War started. The innovation of this study: statistics. Administration officials, according to the study, lied 935 times.
Remarkably, the President lied more than the Vice President. I’d have bet against that, myself, but it seems Vice President Cheney — while lying less — lied well with men in scoring position.
Best snark of the day, so far
“It’s time to grow up and recognize that if we’re serious about this threat, we’ve got to take reasonable, measured but nevertheless determined steps to getting better security.” — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
“[Chertoff] frankly has as much credibility on telling people to ‘grow up’ as Geoffrey the Giraffe.” — Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-NY
Chertoff was defending rules effective January 31st requiring Americans to have a birth certificate or passport to re-enter the U.S. from Canada or Mexico.
The Deeply Corrupt Country We’ve Become
Functional Ambivalent is angry — and he writes his best stuff when he’s angry.
Juno
If you’ve seen the wonderful movie Juno — and you should, it’s entertaining and poignant — then the following may interest you:
When I read Flanagan’s op-ed piece yesterday, my reaction was “Oh, take a breath. Life isn’t that serious. It’s only a movie.” Slate’s writers say it better than I thought it.
How do you rate?
Via Hullabaloo, Roger Ailes’s “Political Junkie Year In Review Contest.” Good stuff.
No papers
The Department of Homeland Security announced the final regulations Friday that [implement] the Real ID act, legislation that requires states to standardize their driver’s licenses, forces current license holders to re-apply with certified copies of birth certificates and marriage licenses, and penalizes states that don’t comply by making their licenses unacceptable for federal purposes, such as entering Federal buildings. Without any hearings, the measure was slipped into a must-pass military spending bill in 2005 by Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI).
Capt. Vasili Borodin: I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck… maybe even a “recreational vehicle.” And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?
Captain Ramius: I suppose.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: No papers?
Captain Ramius: No papers, state to state.
Close Guantánamo
“On January 11, we are calling on everyone opposed to torture and indefinite detention to WEAR ORANGE to symbolize their sadness and disgust with the national shame that is Guantánamo Bay.”
American Civil Liberties Union
Bloggers, do your part. And don’t take the orange personally if you’re Irish.
Thanks to Jill for the reminder.
Best line of the day, so far
“Still, my faith in the Internet’s information democracy wilted with I once suggested to a friend facing eviction that we Google ‘renter’s rights’ to learn his options, and watched him type in ‘rinters kicked out.'”
Joe Bageant in Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War
NewMexiKen is three-quarters through Bageant’s book, which I first mentioned here last week. It’s readable, revealing and important, a good compliment to Barbara Ehrenreich’s classic Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Bageant returned to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, after being away for 30 years. There he learned that his family and friends — the people he grew up with, went to school with, hunted with — are fast becoming a permanent American underclass. He writes of these people with honesty and disdain, but mostly with respect, humor and love — and a lot of important insight.
Hang ’em high
Less than two hours into 2008 a drunk (who registered .16, or twice the legal limit) killed two people on an Albuquerque street.
For the most part, NewMexiKen is opposed to the death penalty. But I suggest that, if you drink and drive and kill someone, and if you are convicted by a jury of your peers, you be hanged by the side of the road where the homicide took place and that your body be left hanging there permanently as a warning to others.
Yes, I am serious. Drunk drivers kill more people every three months than have been killed by all the terrorists in our country’s history. Which are you more afraid will kill you?
‘You can be sure that the directors of other zoos have their tape measures out now.’
The Mercury News has a report on the oversight weakness at the nation’s zoos.
“With a wall only 12 1/2 feet high, he said ‘the tiger can almost stand up and reach it’ and would have little difficulty escaping ‘with a little bit of a hop.'”
In other words, tigers have been on good behavior at zoos and San Francisco’s inadequacies may or may not have been an exception.