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Most Americans oppose making tax cuts for wealthy permanent
I know one poll doesn’t answer all questions, but the recent CBS poll is the only one I’ve seen on this issue, and since it’s not done by a clearly biased organization like the Cato Institute, Fox News, or MoveOn, I’d rather trust it for now. Here are some results (done by me painstakingly learning the somewhat arcane world of R graphics! Hooray!):
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Dan Savage’s “reasoning” looks like Rush Limbaugh’s
I’m trying to process why I was so repelled by Dan Savage’s uncontrolled tirade at L.R. in a recent column. It’s not that I expect more of Savage - his regular column demonstrates every week that one should not expect clear thinking from that source - It’s because this week I’ve seen young people linking to that particular post as if there were ( Read more... ) -
Dear Dan Savage: Good Intentions Do Not Justify Stupid Rhetoric or Prejudice
Dan Savage’s column has always been a sometimes-entertaining example of pandering to one’s audience and earning revenue through controversy. Now, however, Savage seems to have made the leap from occasionally funny sexual entertainment shockster to ideological Doberman. Sure, his narrow-minded bias is employed for only the best of motivations, but ( Read more... ) -
2008 Income and Taxes
So I was getting frustrated with partisan rhetoric about taxes and income. Yes, talking about percentages and rates and proportions and whatnot can often increase clarity with complex data, but sometimes these are also used to conceal or distort some aspect of the information. I decided to make my own graph of 2008 incomes by percentile of the US ( Read more... ) -
Book Review: Le Guin’s “The Dispossessed”
First, lemme say I generally have loved LeGuin reads in the past. I found The Left Hand of Darkness to be thought-provoking and well done, and (of course) the entire Earthsea series was brilliant. I finally made it through The Dispossessed, and am of two distinct minds about it.
Mind 1: Her prose is, as always, good. She tackles a topical topic ( ( Read more... ) -
No, Google, that is NOT what I meant.
I was searching for a rape-prevention program called “men’s strengths” or “men of strength” or something similar, for citations in a chapter I was writing yesterday. I asked Google. Google was not helpful (as you can see below), and was actually just a teensy bit insulting. ^~^
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Rules for Driving in South Texas
1. Do not operate your vehicle without your cell phone held firmly to your ear. Driving without a cell phone in this configuration is highly dangerous; it could result in missing important updates from friends and family, such as: “Take a left on Tenth Street,” “So anyways I says to my baby momma…” or “I’m right here, girl! Where YOU at?” Do ( Read more... ) -
Four Awesome South Texas Birds I Don’t Know
I shot these pics yesterday while kayaking on an arroyo near (in?) Los Fresnos. I have no idea what any of these birds are, except the cormorant. The rest are pretty much just awesomebirds. Maybe I should learn about birds.
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