You Can't Pay Rent With Food Stamps

From the NYT:

About six million Americans receiving food stamps report they have no other income, according to an analysis of state data collected by The New York Times. In declarations that states verify and the federal government audits, they described themselves as unemployed and receiving no cash aid — no welfare, no unemployment insurance, and no pensions, child support or disability pay.
Their numbers were rising before the recession as tougher welfare laws made it harder for poor people to get cash aid, but they have soared by about 50 percent over the past two years. About one in 50 Americans now lives in a household with a reported income that consists of nothing but a food-stamp card.

The Lord Of The Rings

was supposed to offend your liberal sensibilities for some reason not quite clear to me.
A conservative Brit offers up the ten best conservative-satisfying movies made in the last 10 years, none of them by conservatives unless you count Mel Gibson, who is just crazy. Oh, wait.

And I say, what about Inglorious Basterds, an overrated piece of crap I actually sat through last week? I mean, they scalped Nazis. And they were led by a Southern, non-Jew. What could be better than torture and revenge?

Happy New Year From The Big Picture

From the Red Shoe Drop in Key West to the kids setting off fireworks in an African slum, the whole world celebrated 2010.
I spose it's like that every year, but tonight it just brought tears to my eyes, thanks to the fabulous folks at The Big Picture.
Hat tip MetaFilter.

Ooh, Interpol Is Coming

to et all yr cheezbgrs!
I saw an interesting comment on a local paper's blog asserting Obama had just given Interpol the right to search American homes and arrest American citizens, but thought nothing of it.
So, thanks to the Internet, the savior of Western all civilization as well as its curse, it has become necessary for the New York Times to put one of its Pulitzer winners on the story.
Yep, that's right, folks, nothing to see here. Move along. And STFU!

Dear Washington Post: I Am Stunned

WARNING: Inside baseball alert. If you're not a news junkie, you probably don't give a shit. And I don't blame you.

The Wapo's editorial page — and often its choice of freebie slots to right-wing liars like Sarah Palin as well as other questionable space choices — has come in for some deserved and frequently severe criticism from progressives, especially when it comes to President Obama.
I won't list them all here, I don't want to do the research, but Media Matters probably has run it down pretty well. If you're curious, just Google them.
So tomorrow's editorial knocked my socks off, so to speak. (I am wearing slippers.)
They actually took the right-wing nutjobs to task in a harshly critical editorial for their ridiculous criticism of Obama's record on terror.
Haven't looked to see if any bloggers have picked it up yet, but it's certainly worth mentioning. Maybe the slow ship that is the Village — the term used to identify the highly incestuous D.C. press corps and various pundits — is slowly turning around under all this heat from progressive.
I'm thinking that maybe the White House and other Dems are also fighting back hard, but not publicly, because in D.C., access is everything and it's a lot of hooey Kabuki.
Only today, Dkos commenters were expressing similar astonishment that Politico's Mike Allen, known as Cheney's stenographer by many who regularly read him, had called out Newsweek's stupid headline about Obama's terror briefing, which made it sound as if he had forewarning of the Detroit incident when the story said no such thing.
Allen is currently negotiating with Wikipedia for its entry on him for actually mentioning the Cheney criticism and Wiki's page was frozen to further tinkering.
Anyhoo, the concluding WaPo sentence:

A groundless campaign to portray Mr. Obama as soft on terror can only detract from that effort.

Cringe Comedy

I had forgotten what fun whatwhitepeoplelike can be. I don't take it personally. It's good to laugh at yourself, said the espresso-drinking, public-market shopping jazz fan. Did I tell you I love TV? But not Survivor.

Historically speaking, the music that white people have kept on life support for the longest period of time is Jazz.  Thanks largely to public radio, bookstores, and coffee shops, Jazz has carved out a niche in white culture that is not yet ready to be replaced by Indie Rock.  But the biggest role that Jazz plays in white culture is in the white fantasy of leisure. All white people believe that they prefer listening to jazz over watching television.  This is not true.

Quote O' Teh Day

I was mad at these guys for awhile because they quoted somebody I knew to be a tool and failed to even interview anyone with any expertise. I hope they've changed.
Anyhoo:
Any economic forecast that you see that includes a decimal point should be considered a guess at best.

"...Excel doesn't recognize a twoish or threeish."
Simon Johnson from Planet Money today on This American Life

The Worldwide Recession

Japan has its problems, too, as if its infamous dead decades  lost decade — the result of government policy error, Krugman says, too tentative — weren't wasn't enough.

The rent is surprisingly high for such a small space: 59,000 yen a month, or about $640, for an upper bunk. But with no upfront deposit or extra utility charges, and basic amenities like fresh linens and free use of a communal bath and sauna, the cost is far less than renting an apartment in Tokyo, Mr. Nakanishi says.

The Contrarienne's Dilemma

is all about...oh, wait, I forget.
Um, rhymes with pain.
Oh, yeah. The brain.

Brains in middle age, which, with increased life spans, now stretches from the 40s to late 60s, also get more easily distracted. Start boiling water for pasta, go answer the doorbell and — whoosh — all thoughts of boiling water disappear. Indeed, aging brains, even in the middle years, fall into what’s called the default mode, during which the mind wanders off and begin daydreaming.

But there's a positive aspect to all this:

The brain, as it traverses middle age, gets better at recognizing the central idea, the big picture. If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can.

So what you need to do is...wait for it...challenge yourself. I think meeting new people, talking to them and, most importantly, listening to them, has been a rejuvenating experience.

Jack Mezirow, a professor emeritus at Columbia Teachers College, has proposed that adults learn best if presented with what he calls a “disorienting dilemma,” or something that “helps you critically reflect on the assumptions you’ve acquired.”

The article is not very detailed, but the writer has a book coming out soon.

Time For Geitner To Go, Honorary Contrarienne To Take Over

Some guy named Joe Costello talking about Yves Smith.

Four other heroes of what he calls Feminomics are (of course) Elizabeth Warren, Meredith Whitney, Gretchen Morgenson and Sheila Bair.

Elizabeth Warren

 

Meredith Whitney

Gretchen Morgenson

Sheila Bair

Internet Aughts

is what Ezra Klein, a pretty good reporter/blogger for the Washington Post, thinks it will all come down to in time.
Time will tell, as they say. See ya in a decade, Ezra.

Our future will have a lot more to do with the internet than with Iraq. At least, so I hope.

Coming Up

100th anniversary of the biggest natural disaster in Washington State (recorded) history.
March 1, 1910:

"White Death moving down the mountainside above the trains. Relentlessly it advanced, exploding, roaring, rumbling, grinding, snapping -- a crescendo of sound that might have been the crashing of ten thousand freight trains. It descended to the ledge where the side tracks lay, picked up cars and equipment as though they were so many snow-draped toys, and swallowing them up, disappeared like a white, broad monster into the ravine below" (Roe, 88).

Nov. 8, 1910 52,000 male voters grant Washington women the right to vote, ten years before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

A Dreamy 2010

From Huffpo writer Gerald Sindell:

Justice Antonin Scalia is showing signs of serious judicial burnout -- ever more sarcastic and intemperate. He's not enjoying the court and the prospect of having to outlast Obama's second term, which will end in January of 2017 when Antonin will be 81, grates on him. He'll be thinking of resigning all this summer, and when the court returns in the fall, he'll announce. Two weeks later, Justice Clarence Thomas will also resign and the two will make public their plans for a joint memoir and tour via Thomas's motor home, both to be named, "None of your damn business."

He invites reader participation. I liked this one:

Dick Cheney's heart will attack him for the last time and Obama will send his dog to his funeral as a White House representative.

I would add one myself, but Dave Barry said the value of the dollar dropped below the lentil in 2009.

I Can't Watch Glenn Beck

Even when he's played by Jon Stewart. That and nine other top comedy videos of the last year.

10:39 AM Best Thing About 2010 So Far

No football on TV. Because no TV. I know I'm gonna miss some stuff but, look, I haven't even reached the Mad Men DVDs on Netflix yet.

The Power Of Nightmares

As a journalist, I can attest that scary, scary, scary wins out over hope, hope, hope any day.
Somebody convinced the BBC it was worth a six-part series of 10-minute shows. You can watch them all on YouTube. Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight.

ABC News Busted By Gawker

Bad journalism story of the decade.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

The Simple Life

All adults are autonomous and equal. There is no religion. There is no calendar. The only time is now. God is the sun. There is no worship. No one knows what comes after death. There are no settlements. And baboons taste good. Many children do not survive. The dead are not mourned, neither birth nor marriage celebrated. There is no marriage.
As we all were 100,000 years ago.

It is impossible to overstate just how much Onwas—and most Hadza—love to smoke. The four possessions every Hadza man owns are a bow, some arrows, a knife, and a pipe, made from a hollowed-out, soft stone. The smoking material, tobacco or cannabis, is acquired from a neighboring group, usually the Datoga, in exchange for honey...

...Onwas then reaches into the fire and pulls out the skull. He hacks it open, like a coconut, exposing the brains, which have been boiling for a good hour inside the skull. They look like ramen noodles, yellowish white, lightly steaming. He holds the skull out, and the men, including myself, surge forward and stick our fingers inside the skull and scoop up a handful of brains and slurp them down. With this, the night, at last, comes to an end.

Help, I'm Trapped In Pepperoni And Can't Get Out

and they make me sing in ronishop quartet.


And 29 other creepiest commercials of the year. Personally, I thought the sushi breath one sounded good, too.