[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. --L.]
- The End of…Something
- [Shakesville]
Hanna Rosin's piece in The Atlantic is titled "The End of Men," but a more accurate title might be "The End of Male Privilege."
Well, it would be a more accurate title if she'd ever managed to tease out the idea that struck me as a glaring omission from the piece: Privileged men's achievement gap, and the associated atrophy born of the observable resistance, or inflexibility, to make quick course corrections, is the inevitable result of a culture that continues to sell privileged men a patriarchal narrative of birthright entitlement, despite the fact that it is nothing but an empty promise of an illusory bounty in which most men will never share.
…Our culture has progressed enough that most people cannot trade exclusively on their privilege, but not so much that the desperate, obdurate, and still-plentiful enforcers of the kyriarchy have stopped selling that possibility nonetheless.
The result is a lot of men who have been sold a bill of goods, and don't understand why everything's gone pear-shaped, and don't have the tools to set a new course, because the kyriarchy assured them their whole lives they didn't need those tools. They only needed to be men.
- The Global Transmission of European Austerity
- [Paul Krugman]
The US needs to be thinking about how to insulate itself from European masochism.
- Where did their love go? #afn10
- [Hullabaloo - Digby]
Is the ghost of Richard Nixon working in this administration or what?
Honestly, this [disparaging labor unions after the embarassing results of the primaries this week] is beneath the White house and they need to put a muzzle on it. Primaries are a legitimate part of the democratic process and no president (or his men) should ever, ever dismiss them publicly or imply in any way that members of the rank and file shouldn't have a voice in these decisions. It's truly embarrassing and offensive to see the Republicans responding with more class to their crazed teaparties than the White House does to its labor union and netroots allies. [...]
Two years ago this same conference was the most giddy gathering of Obama worshippers you were likely to see anywhere. I think he took something like 90% in the primary straw poll, far more than in the real primary electorate. The administration should be asking itself not why all these dirty hippies are so unruly and unpleasant, but what happened to all that love? I don't get the sense that anyone's interested in the answer to that question.
- Boehner's Big Oil Bailout
- [Hullabaloo - Digby]
Does that sound insane to you in this environment in which the congress is refusing to extend unemployment benefits? Me too. But John Boehner is actually pushing it…
- Once Again, Californians Vote For Tax Increases
- In what is becoming a very enjoyable ritual after every election, Calitics is once again mythbusting the notion that Californians somehow dislike taxes. The evidence yet again proves that voters will indeed approve tax increases.
- BP says it can't explain Wednesday's plunge
- [MarketWatch.com]
BP offers no explanation for why its share price plunged by 16% in Wednesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The U.S.-listed shares rally in Thursday's early dealings.
- Making Movies with Free Software
- Free Software Magazine: " I'm working on not one, but two animated science-fiction films using free software tools, intended for a free-licensed release on the internet under new distribution models. And, being a writer, I'm going to write about it."
- A refresher on custom taxonomies
- [Justin Tadlock]
…with WordPress 3.0 around the corner and the introduction of custom post types, the usefulness of custom taxonomies will increase greatly.
Post types are your forms of content. Taxonomies are the glue that holds that content together, linking it in all kinds of neat ways.
As I delve deeper into the subject of post types and taxonomies in this series of posts, I’ll give more examples of how these two things are related and how they can be used to create any type of site you want with WordPress.
- The Village press forgets to inform its audience that the Republicans are nihilistic whores for big business.
- [Hullabaloo - Digby]
Andrea Mitchell was asking an environmentalist about Murkowski's attempt to limit the president's ability to act in the face of environmental disaster and the impossibility of passing an energy bill.
Here's how she put it…
That's a very confused comment but it's because Mitchell is avoiding the real reason why the energy bill is dead: it's because Republicans completely refuse to entertain any kind of energy bill that doesn't include offshore drilling <s>-</s> despite the known risks and the fact that we are facing an oil spill of such epic proportions that the entire food chain is going to be affected and there's no end in sight. [...]
The idea that you can't pass some sort of energy bill in this environment is the equivalent of the government throwing up its hands and saying there's no reason to rush to defend ourselves against the Japanese when they attacked Pearl Harbor.
- Union Life: What the Obama White House Fails to Understand about Worker Safety, Security
- [Firedoglake]
With 250 guys on the bench safety becomes a HUGE issue. The contractors know that they have tons of people to choose from, so they push these men very hard. Two weeks ago, a guy was in a hurry and accidently cut off his foot. The guy needed a saw horse to cut a piece of wood but the job box and equipment was in the basement. In fears of getting the job done too slowly this guy cut a corner that cut off his foot. All my husband could say was “what do they expect when they are inspecting your work every hour to make sure you are getting enough done, with the threat that they will lay you off?” My husband said that the attitude is “hurry up, hurry up” and that this pressures causes errors in judgment and mistakes. . . .
My husband cannot take any time off. The anti-union contractor says that it’s not worth paying the benefits of men who don’t work 40 hour work weeks. So, he has a system of keeping track of time off taken. You get a strike for every day you take off, and three strikes you’re out. Last year my husband did not miss a single day of work. Not one. This year, my husband needed a root canal. My husband called all around town looking for someone to do this work late in the afternoon so he would not miss work. But he could not find anywhere that would do this. He missed his first day of work in over a year. Then I got sick with an abdominal infection and was hospitalized. My husband could not take time off to be with me on the first day when my life was at risk. I am having surgery next week and my husband just told them, he won’t be at work the day of my surgery. He said “I told them I couldn’t live myself if something bad happened.” Strike two.
- If BP Can't Stop The Oil Flow, Maybe The Netroots Can Corral It
- [Crooks and Liars]
After 52 days of frustrating helplessness, it's nice to see people reach out, pool creative and technical resources, and find a solution that might actually work to plug the damn hole.
Shoq initiated an effort to brainstorm ideas around ways to redirect the oil rather than stop the flow on June 6th. He was soon joined by Justin Grindal, an engineer who was present during the "top kill" effort last month. They worked together and with others to develop an idea to enclose the well with a wide duct anchored to the sea floor which would corral the oil within and force it up to the surface to be caught by waiting tankers.
It's really as simple as the drawing at the top depicts. Yes, there are specific materials that would have to be obtained, and there is some expertise needed to set the anchors, but it appears to be an elegant solution.
It is the same principle as a chimney. [...]
It has been submitted to BP engineers for review, but there are thousands of ideas in front of them for review, and only a few reviewers. If you know anyone who can get the right set of eyes on this idea, please forward this post to them, or point them toward Shoq's blog.
My first reaction was skepticism and frankly, a little patronizing pat on Shoq's back. This is partly because it was so simple, and partly because of concern that even if it is viable, getting it done would be such a process-laden paperwork-ridden affair that relief wells would be drilled first.
After all, if it's so easy, why isn't it already being done? But every objection I've raised has been answered, and engineers have agreed that it seems like it would work.
The Link(s): Thu, Jun 10th, 9am by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.