Monthly Archives: September 2011

Is penmanship being written off? – CBS News

Yeah, I’m catching up on my Sunday Morning posts. Haven’t done a lot for awhile and this past week was a pretty good one. Here, we discuss the death of penmanship. To be fair though, I think the real problem is that we use fewer and fewer words in our language and can’t spell them for shit.

If I can not figure out what you are trying to write, who cares if I can read it or not?

A Long, Turbulent Journey For Afghan Female Pilot : NPR

Everyone acts like we spent the past decade getting Afghanistan to come our of the Dark Ages and join the 21st century.

That is a simple – and wrong – explanation. Between religion, culture, and decades of war, yes, the place is a tad behind the times. Some of that, however, is by choice.

I mean, we’ve got so-called Christians who are too afraid to leave their homes because they are afraid of gay people. So bigotry, hatred, and sexual hatred isn’t anything new.

That said, this story about how an Afghan pilot has to take her daughter on her chopper during potential combat missions is just damn unsettling.

I get why she does it. You just wish someone would pull their head out of their ass and create conditions where she doesn’t have to make the decision in the first place.

You can give folks weapons. You can train their to use them. You can slap names on buildings that make it the Ministry of Whatsit. But you can’t make a nation out of guns and name plaques. You’ve got to get them to want to do it.

Japanese Seniors: Send Us To Damaged Nuclear Plant : NPR

Sometimes a tragedy just spawns other forms of tragedy.

In Japan, many elderly citizens are volunteering to clean up the nuclear plant at Fukujima, sparing the lives of younger workers with small children.

This is beyond admirable. It is humbling that folks would do such a thing.

This is not the tragedy, though it is pretty much a volunteer death sentence to those folks.

The tragedy is that their nation’s leaders are not taking them seriously.

The other tragedy is that the only motivation we get from the elderly here in the US is a bunch of racist morons who complain about the government and travel to Tea Bagger rallies using their Social Security checks and buying pills in faraway WalMarts with their Medicare money.

Just makes ya sick some days.

FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical’ | Danger Room | Wired.com

Your tax dollars at work.

The FBI is teaching its new agents that Muslims – all Muslims – are dangerous and to be suspicious of them.

So much for that “liberty and justice for ALL” bullshit we say we run our nation by.

Check the article for links to some of the odious training material.

Mother Jones covers more bigoted proposals from the nation that supposedly guarantees freedom for all.

This is despicable reactionary crap from a bunch of folks more afraid of living than of living correctly.

The last Ford Crown Victoria ever built

To be fair, I haven’t owned an honest-to-God tuna boat since the ’76 Bonneville I had in college finally gave up any attempt to contain piston pressure.

That said, this is sad. No huge ass V8 land yachts in the Ford stable. That’s just weird.

And no more Crown Vic police cars once the existing ones die off. That’s just, well, un-American.

I know I did a similar story when the last old Beetle came off the line in Mexico and that still tears me up. Definitely more so than this will, but I have to acknowledge the passing.

What’s a bond, a Treasury, a T-bill? | Marketplace From American Public Media

Marketplace has been really good at explaining the economy lately in layman’s terms. Here is an explanation of some of the more safe and less volatile financial instruments you’ve heard a lot about recently.

For more like this and general economics news, read the Breakdown blog or try to listen to the various incarnations of the show. The local NPR plays it at 6:30 PM here instead of the better timed 5:30 I was used to in Vegas.

Pity.

Fancy a Pint? Brew Throughout the World

It turns out that once a national economy reaches a certain level of stability, the amount of beer drinking goes up.

Granted, we’re in a recession and even so-called stable economies have been knocked on their heels but the rule still applies.

What is even a bit more surprising is that once a nation gets a certain amount of wealth, they then turn from beer to higher prices spirits. Thus, this news that Scotch exports are up 22% since 2010 is actually not that much of a surprise.

I mean, *I* can’t afford the good stuff these days, but someone is.