Yesterday remained hot, but my little AC kept it bearable, and it looks like there will be one more day, before I am comfortably cool on Tuesday. I did a few chores including a bunch of overdue paperwork. I am current with replies. Tomorrow, I will be out with errands to run.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 4:10 (average 5:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Huffington Post: Governors of both parties are praising the federal response to Hurricane Irene, giving a much-needed vote of confidence to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has been struggling to regain its good name after its response to Hurricane Katrina.
This sounds a lot better than “heck of a job” Brownie. The original wearer of the tin foil, Ron Paul, took this occasion top propose doing away with FEMA.
From Think Progress: The “real” (i.e., inflation adjusted) yields on 5 and 7 year Treasury bonds continue to be in negative territory.
This is an extraordinary situation that ought to be dominating the public debate. What does it mean? Well it means that right now it’s much cheaper for the government to finance some undertaking by borrowing the money and paying for it out of taxes five or seven years from now than to pay for it with taxes. [emphasis added]
To put this in even clearer terms, because paying down the debt will be more costly in real terms than continuing to finance it, stimulating the economy with infrastructure spending makes more sense than ever before, and imposing draconian Republican cuts makes less.
From Common Dreams: Disney’s best-selling Cars toys are being made in a factory in China that uses child labor and forces staff to do three times the amount of overtime allowed by law, according to an investigation.
One worker reportedly killed herself after being repeatedly shouted at by bosses. Others cited worries over poisonous chemicals.
I urge a boycott of all Disney products until they place humanity over profit.
Cartoon:
7 Responses to “Open Thread–8/29/2011”
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5:04 Barely beat the average. I am 73 out of 241 (303).
Today you have a six second window.
4:47 😀
Good one, MJ. We haven’t heard from Patty yet, but I may be number 4 today.
Good one, Johnny.
Thanks for info on Disney. I’ve hated them ever since they turned an entire generation of little girls into “Princesses” — can you imagine what these people be like as grown women? I have a 5-year old grand-niece and cringe at all the bubble-gum pink crap she has amassed.
They certainly enforced the second-class stereotype.