fuckin' love ray charles.
scooped up one, two more spots in data analysis syllabi.
updated our medicare health plan tracker with 2012 enrollment data.
checked out of the cottage..
..and into a modern workspace for a private code-a-thon. christ, wdidtdt?
have a palm full of twelve dollar bills.
said "hello" to a few people who then responded, "fine, thank you." what a shortcut!
walked downtown, faster than traffic.
saw zero foreigners on foot for about two miles, yet attracted no attention. what's up with that? and thanks.
bought coffee, sat outside. nairobi ignores you, you feel welcome.
wonder about those last two..
..and only if there's a divorce lawyer in the linens aisle.
suppose they're serious about outdoor smoking bans.
woke up for nairobi national park. slow at first..
..but then things picked up. final tally --
dozen or so giraffes
couple herds of zebra
two families of monkeys
miscellaneous ungulates
one li'l leopard
see him or her?
three rare black rhinos
a pride of lions, notice the airport in the background and
..holy moly, hello ladies, fine, thank you, well look at the time, gotta catch my flight.
read..
(1) the new battlefield rules
obama has done many things to distinguish his administration's policies from his prdecessor's
killing may be cheaper and easier than capture, but does that justify an execution without trial?
we take years to decide whether to put an american citizen to death in our criminal justice system, insisting upon multiple layers of inter-branch review. when we are meting out death far from any battlefield, and with time to spare, should not someone in the executive branch be assigned to advocate for the target in order to limit the risk of groupthink? we require the police to get a warrant from a judge before they can search a man's backpack; if there is time, should not..some level of judicial review..be required before we take a man's life?
the legitimacy of the program requires transparency
(2) romney's education white paper
subsidizing parents who want to send their child to a private or religious school; encouraging the private sector to operate schools; putting commercial banks in charge of the federal student loan program; holding teachers and schools accountable for students' test scores; and lowering entrance requirements for new teachers
privately managed charters, for-profit online schools, and almost every other alternative to public schools
states have reduced their investments in higher education and shifted the burden from taxpayers to students
"restore" suggests a return to the past. when in american history did the for-profit sector run american schools? which state ever permitted it until the advent in our own time of for-profit charter corporations and for-profit online corporations?
(3) dear texas: why so proud
texas state legislator debbie riddle went for the jugular of entitlement in the preferred style: "where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education, free medical care, free whatever? it comes from moscow, from russia. it comes straight out of the pit of hell."
if you want better schools in texas, you have to pay for them.
(4) foster children
about one third of cases are thrown out, but because of the backlog, decisions may take six months to a year
the rate of physical abuse in foster care was four times higher than abuse by parents in the city's toughest neighborhoods
marijuana in the house can be grounds for removal
the consequences of family separation
when she was first dragged out of bed in the middle of the night and taken away
swat team tactics
now eight and taking four psychotropic medications to control her behavior-including one that ccan cause irreversible catatonia and drooling
more than half of children in juvenile detention in the state were previously in foster care
in other western countries..the primary goal of the child protection system is to help poor families care for their own children, not split them up..children are removed from the home only as a last resort
(5) cultural limits of capitalism
the brochures were advertising bull semen
money-shots of their 'donor of the month' online
sweepstakes on which celebrities will peg out in the current year
the position we reach when i get the £2000 and you haev my kidney is pareto-optimal
cosmic bliss
one can farm out certain friend-like services to therapists, prostitutes and cab-drivers
at least education will continue to exist even if its deliverey is perverted by money: people will still learn things, even if they have to pay. but some goods, like friendship, might cease to exist, since their status as goods depends on their not being paid for
invent a new activity..which is just like doctoring, except that its internal goal is to earn money for the schmoctor.
try to do origami in a tornado
(6) opium: palliative to recreational
by 1860, the needle and vial were transforming palliative care and surgical recovery, but the vector for their widespread adoption was war: in particular the american civil war, which claimed 620,000 fatalities and created fifty thousand amputees, and during which more than ten million doses of morphine were consumed
(7) america's middle eastern original sin
western-educated asians who returned home, primly moustachioed, to sell freedom to their compatriots
mossadegh was backed by 95 percent of the population
the new york times and the wall street journal compared mossadegh to hitler
we are not liberals like allende and mossadegh, whom the cia can snuff out..khamenei warned
(8) chile too
many latin americans thought democracy and socialism were the same thing
turn chile 'into one big school'
a dagger pointed at the heart of antarctica
our hand doesn't show on this one
cuba in 1952; guatemala and paraguay in 1954; argentina and peru in 1962; ecuador, the dominican republic, honduras, and again guatemala in 1963; brazil and bolivia in 1964; and argentina in once more in 1966
unlike allende..each time lula ran and lost and ran again, he gave up a little bit more of the pt's founding principles, so that the party went from pledging to overturn neoliberalism to promising to administer it more effectively
(9) bradley manning and public data
a down-the-line information libertarian
9/6