tvashtarkatena

NASA put a spacecraft in orbit around Mercury today after a 6 1/2 year journey. For this trip, slowing the spacecraft down enough for this maneuver took a number of gravity 'desist' maneuvers involving Earth, Venus, and Mercury itself. One onboard camera is cooled by a paraffin 'bath' that freezes on the dark side and absorbs reflected heat from the sun while photographing the sunny side. linky The New Horizons spacecraft will fly by Pluto in 2015 - the last of the unvisited original nine 'planets'. In many ways, this is a great time to be alive.

There are no reasonable answers to fallacious questions. Cutting your hand off will stop your finger from bleeding, but you won't have stopped the bleeding. As matter of fact, you'll have made matters worse: permanently decreasing public employee compensation will further degrade public services and reinforce the race to the bottom. If pensions, work-rules, seniority based pay, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc then California world beater in every category of public sector performance. It isn't. Virginia outscores California, Illinois, NJ, NY, Wisconsin, etc in every category. http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp_report_card.aspx There *are* states with collective bargaining rules that score well, The data certainly don't support the claim that collective bargaining is necessary for the efficient delivery of high quality public services, effective public administration, etc. And yet, without collective bargaining, Virginia's schools still suck. Surely this would suggest there isn't a link at best? Hell, having lived in that state I'm surprised anyone would trot it out as a model for anything - except never ending suburban sprawl, regional incompetence and general shittiness. But Jay's packing up the Buick and moving out to Virginny! Oh dear, those dirty little facts getting in the way of Jay's ideology JayB would prefer if the U.S. followed the Texas model of governance. He's apparently not willing to live in such a shithole himself, however, preferring instead the bask in the benefits of a more enlightened, liberal state. What not-so-closeted hipster wouldn't? Ah, the Angry Hairless Monkey and its many contradictions.

How does one gauge the 'motivation' of a bus driver or DOT clerk? As long as the bus gets driven and I get my driver's license, I'm good. Many public sector jobs (not all, but many) are repetitive by nature. Obviously, they 'attract' folks who are good with that. Repetitive private sector jobs, which would be most of them, attract pretty much the same. But then, there are police, fire, etc - who seem to be as 'motivated' as anyone in the private sector, which is no stalwart bastion of 'motivation' by any remote stretch of the imagination. And then again, there are the legions of private sector workers whose motivation cannot be distinguished from that of a slug on a cold morning. Of the many public and private workers I know personally, I see absolutely no difference in level of 'motivation' - what they put into their work. The teachers, police, fire fighters, public defenders, politicians, military, and other public workers I know seem to occupy the upper echelons of 'motivated'. I have to wonder if Jim is comparing a lower level, repetitive public job to a higher level, interesting private one in his 'motivation' comparison.

Stand by for another round of surreal YouTubin'.

On the list of competing influences, regional Sunnis seem to play a more important role, family ties and all, than we do. We only eat at the restaurant. They own it. Sunnis would not...ever...ask our permission to help their kin next door during what they perceived as a regional deal breaker.

I'm not sure a GOP presidency would be doing that much different, given the severe constraints that US is under. There would likely be more bellowing, as is the habit of the blowhard, the half wit, and the socially malformed, all aflame with one righteous grievance or another against the sins of sloth, sluttery, and suckling the apple from the fisting baby. The GOP verbal response would, of course, exhibit a certain well marbled bullying that would make the likes of Ike stab himself in the eye with his own campaign pin. The kind of punctuated, on camera jacking off that instantly identifies the loudest, fattest guy in the room. Of action, however, that song has long lost its royalties.

I don't take anything those guys say at face value, but when they say they were surprised by an event like the Saudi incursion, I do take that at face value. It's believable - more believable than the Saudis risking being denied the U.S.s 'permission' - why would they do that? Short answer: they wouldn't. They got us, not the other way around. They don't have to. So the gobmints story, in this case, sounds the most probable.

and don't forget to remind those who require at least some verification how stupid they are. That's the most important part of being Fair and Balanced .

If you repeat this wee bit of blogospherical wisdom enough it actually becomes true.

Hey Lance, talk to me after that happens. Until then, its probably best to appreciate what you've got, at least in part.

Sorry. Got my sources lined up already. Thanks anyway.

There's a whole lotta bullshit flying around these days, comparing compensation of McDonald's flippers with highly skilled state employees, etc... I would agree, of course, that if we want the best government we can have (and why would we not?), then state employee compensation should be competitive and commensurate with private at every skill/experience level, and that, of course, includes retirement.

OMG, a FOIA? That's WAY TOO MUCH WORK. Verify? Hell, we'd have never gone into EYEraq had we done that! No...I'll take this bloggerz word for it. Hopefully I can buy gold on the same site and save even more time.

For someone who regularly extols the virtues of the internet, you don't seem to be using it much. Has your Democrat Party membership crippled your critical faculties? I'll be the first to admit I don't use it nearly as much as you do, but that's hardly a vote of confidence for my side.

All the more reason to celebrate Jim's reasonable and well reasoned approach rather than the standard, party line denigration of workers rights supplied by JayB et al. But of course, True Believers are duty bound to immediately slam the slider to 11, either Right or Left. Anything less is treason. Having said that, I believe most employers who do offer benefits subsidize retirement, often through some kind of matching program. Any statements to the contrary (against public employees) constitutes another layer of bullshit on top of a very large pile at this point.

A bloggerz op ed that calls the Saudis a bunch of assholes. Ground breaking!

Saudi involvement in Bahrain was a surprise to us as well as everyone else. But, hey, by all means, keep spreadin' your bullshit to 'balance' theirs.

Let this guy decide....

Big Brother seems like such a good idea when He's torturing the Other Guy, eh? Love the new Small Gubmint mentality the Right 'adopted' in, oh...inauguration day, 2008. But, given widespread calls from The Reevers to continue prosecuting DOMA cases, repeal medical marijuana laws, monitor certain churches, and start up yet another war, I'd say the Right's long time love of Big Brother hasn't faded one bit. Now, thair hatred of librul teachers...that's another matter.

Also, its extremely unclear to everyone exactly who we'd be helping in Libya....

The Arab League is calling for military intervention in Libya. They seem to have no problem crossing borders to involve themselves in Bahrain, well...perhaps they can take it upon themselves to take care of Mr. Qaddafi, too.

For the first time since 1819, five Somalis were convicted for piracy for attacking this 'merchant ship': Soooo...whacha got in the cargo hold?

The Defining Issue of Our Times! You wouldn't snatch a purse, would you???!!!!

Two wings but never flies.

The quake shifted the earths axis by 6 inches and shortened day length by 2 microseconds.