Monthly Archives: June 2007
I find it amusing that this cartoon appeared on Toothpaste For Dinner immediately after the Ron Paul Defense Corp descended on my post about him and budgetary… Read more
Ron Paul Loves Budget Pork
I would love to see self-styled “libertarian” super-patriot Ron Paul explain which article of the Constitution authorizes appropriating public money for: antibiotic testing of seafood in his hometown. “personalized medicine in asthma” for the “disadvantaged” of his hometown. shore protection measures for his home county. cancer center expansion at his county hospital. a Cedar bayou created in his home county. the “operation” of a dozen other bayous, swamps, lakes, creeks and waterways in his constituency. converting a clipper ship to a classroom for his hometown university. building new jetties on his local river. a shipping channel between his hometown and Corpus Christi Texas. “transportation enhancements” for a local theater. buying new buses (local and “regional”) for his hometown. a replacement rail bridge in his hometown. new trolleys in his hometown. funding a scholarship in the name of a tax-exempt religious entity. “vanadium safety readiness”… Read more
The easiest way to tell the class of a neighborhood is to look outside: the number of children playing outside is inversely proportional to the class of their parents, and thus the… Read more
Culinary Dissonance: The feeling of discomfort that arises when consuming a favorite food that one knows is a nutritional train-wreck. i.e. bacon & mayonnaise… Read more
Keep Calm & Carry On: T-shirts from a more dangerous, less alarmist… Read more
20 sq. ft. and a Credit Card
While I found all of James Kunstler’s article on Peak Suburbia interesting, the thing that struck me the most was the following graph, taken (by Mr. Kunstler) from the pages of Shopping Centers Today, the house organ of the International Council of Shopping Centers, dedicated to serving the global retail industry. I had intuited over my years sojourn in the environs of London that I was somehow spending less time in commercial spaces, but those numbers are just staggering. Eight times as much retail space in the States as in the UK? How can I square that with my experiences of more variety in the types of stores I can go to, even in deepest darkest Essex? How do I explain the profusion of shops in walking distance of my flat while still assuming the validity of that statistic? I had assumed on getting here and wandering around that there was much, much more retail going on that anywhere else I had ever been. Perhaps the two are not as opposite as I had initially… Read more
Narcissistic Blog… Read more
In The Company Of American… Read more
Sonic Youth Records For Starbucks – How… Read more
The Hypocrisy Of The Modern Parent
It seems to me that there is an epidemic of hypocritical thinking going on amongst Anglo-American parents and the media that panders to their every ill-informed prejudice in the hopes of putting more advertisements in front of their eyeballs. On the one hand, one can scarcely open a newspaper, magazine (particularly those that appear in doctors waiting rooms) or internet site targeted at parents and not be assaulted by a half-dozen variations on the children spend too much time watching tv/playing video games/surfing the web tripe that passes for concerned, attentive parenting these days. On the other hand, it is impossible to have a conversation with or read discussion group postings by parents that does not, at regular intervals, revolve around the idea that the world is a much too dangerous place for children to be outside in alone,what with all of the kidnappers, molesters, crazed motorists and vicious teenage gangs lurking around every corner and behind every bush to… Read more