Dewings, Thoughts
Your Southern Thoughts
Scroll to the bottom of our home page, and in between our shared videos and recent comments, is something new on the Dew: Your Southern Thoughts.
We finally have a place for you to post and discuss what you’re thinking. Ideas. Sayings. Mini-blogs. Tweet-like posts. Similar to Facebook wall posts sans the banal activity. Comments on the site. Things you’ve heard. Something you saw. The odd thought. The even thought. What got your goat. What gave you glee. Whatever, post your comment here, but keep pretty clean, please.
You don’t have to be registered to post, just a name (please don’t abuse this, we’d hate to require registration). We do, however, have spam and naughty word filtering that may cause your post to be reviewed prior to being added.
Note: the comments here are in reverse order (most recent will appear at the top).
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Will Cantrell says: I read in USA Today where a small but growing in numbers group of law school graduates are really upset. It seems that their alma maters oversold the job market—i.e. the jobs at the big hoity-toity firms just aren’t there in the numbers that they were promised when they were recruited to law school. What’s more the jobs for lawyers are shrinking day by day. Couple all of that with the cost of going to law school: $50, 000 to $120,000. I can understand them being upset. ‘Course maybe they should have known better than to listen to the spiel of law school recruiters. The recruiters are LAWYERS for cryin’ out loud! Jeez, what else would you expect!? I wonder how the graduates of used car salesman school are feeling?
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Frank Povah says: Australia goes to the pols tomorrow our time. Not a word about it on the so-called international news here – and the same silence reigned when its firts ever female Prime Minister was appointed.
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Frank, I thought you had the Australia political desk. I just added a couple of stories to our Recommended Reading – refresh our home page and you should see them. Thanks for bringing the omission to my attention.
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Will Cantrell says:
Dr.Laura announced last night on LKL, that her radio would end at the end of the calendar year. Mostly likely this is due to the N-word flap that she started a few days back.
What is it with “the spin” that “Dr”. Laura puts on this though? She certainly seems to be saying that leaving the air was her idea and not initiated by the broadcast company/network that carries her show. Right, “Dr”. Laura. Says she wants to get her First Amendment Rights back. Hmmmnnnn. My feeling is “OK, “Dr”. Laura if that’s what you —a so called psychologist—-need to say in order to feel ‘psychologically good’ about yourself, I have no choice but to go with it. Seems awfully strange though that a “psychologist/psychiatrist” would “kid themselves”. Why not just say “I am leaving the air because I’m tired of this gig and my tirade with the N-word the other day was more than likely ‘prima facie’ evidence of the fact that I am weary. It happens to all of us from time to time and as a result, we say and/or do idiotic stuff”. Better said perhaps, “…the ‘jackass’ in us comes out when we’ve grown weary”.
I guess that ‘spin’ is just human nature. We all do it… well, most of us. “Course the only problem is that now the network, in a dash for ratings, likely replace her with someone like ‘Dr. Sarah’.-
I was kinda agreeing with you there and though you were looking pretty fair and even, then you must have gotten weary and uttered (so to speak) the backhanded slap at Sarah Palin.
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Lee:
I must admit that I am no fan of Sarah Palin as I personally think that she regularly demonstrates a lack of substance. So I am ‘guilty as charged’. However, the intended subtext of the comment about Dr. Sarah was to poke a little fun at the “Dr.” tag of some media types. There are more than few media darlings who have the “Dr.” tag in front of their names and they have no more credentials than I do. (I have none, by the way although I used to subscribe to Psychology Today.) Call me jaded, but it seems as if one way to make a gazillion dollars is to get some radio time and then attach “Dr” to one’s first name.
I’m mulling over the idea of adopting the new byline of “Dr.Will”. Will
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Thank you Will. I can accept your answer if you can accept that after a year and a half, Palin, McCain and Bush offer no threat to the Obama, Reid, Pelosi ambitions for America. Their rherotic wears on me as I am sure it does on you and other thoughtful people. It does however continue to resonate with the lower IQ’s. And it seems to be working. Glory to the democratic stragety of a dummer America equals victory.
Finally, I promise I will not continue to debate this for the sake of shooting back and forth. Not productive. I do find your thoughts cogent and introspective. I just could not figure out why you would get off your gallant horse and go into the gutter with the Palin swipe. Continue the good work. Lee.
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Monica Smith says: No, “the anti-tax rage” is not “fueled by racism.” It is being fueled by private corporations who see themselves in a contest to the death with public corporations and aim to “starve the beast.” In a sense, it’s a preemptive effort since, of course, public corporations having created private corporations (by granting charters) could “pull the plug” and take back what they gave.
Getting third parties to do their dirty work is a characteristic of artificial bodies whose primary organizing principle, after all, is to vitiate the responsibility of the individual persons involved. So Koch Industries, an energy producer, is organizing teabaggers to carry its water.
No doubt, the teabaggers are irate for all sorts of reasons. They just haven’t caught on that not all corporations are the same and it’s the private ones, not the public ones that are to blame for their misery.-
They also haven’t caught on that “lower taxes” is a myth for the middle and lower middle class. Their taxes, which includes less-than-progressive social security, property and consumption taxes, can only go down if income and capital gains taxes are more fairly weighted to upper incomes. The tea party continues to march and vote against their self-interest.
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In what I can imagine is just an all out effort by the AJC to get rid of all longtime subscribers and become part of their new hometown, the AJC is offering a “subscriber exclusive” to win tickets to meet Sean Hannity and Ollie North. Wow. Has one ex-AJC editor put it, “the Journal-Constitution has lost its collective mind.” Perhaps they believe the way to “survive” is to become the print version of AM talk radio. If they keep this up, we may have to change our masthead to “Not Like The Dew”. A photo of their email can be seen here: http://view.subscriptions.ajc.com/?j=fe6d15747567047a7715&m=feee137673610d&ls=fdf812787566047f7d177372&l=fe8315797c62017b7d&s=fe211c7270660674741c79&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe2015767c640275731077&r=0
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Frank Povah says:
I’m sorry Dewbies, but I have to say it again – the news service offered by the teevee networks to the US public is appalling. A couple of months ago, after a political spill, Australia was presented with a female Prime Minister. Not a mention of it here. There has been a General Election called for later this month and there has been no word of that either. Australia has a small population, granted, but it has stood by the USA (for better or for worse) in every major overseas excursion since Vietnam and socialist or not, is crucial to the ANZUS treaty and one of this country’s staunchest allies. Just for the record, Australia is also the only developed country not in acute financial difficulty but it seems that the government that got it there may fall because of the stupid dogmatic ideology of its Mitch McConnell equivalents.
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Alex Kearns says: Sharks are entering the brackish waters of the St. Marys river now. It would seem that Mother Nature is, understandably, a bit irked. Go get ‘em sharks!
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Monica Smith says:
News from a St. Simons Island, GA fishing guide. He reports that he and his “party” caught two “sport fish” (not being a fisherman, I’m not sure what those are) and eight shark. One was five feet long. What seems additionally significant, other than the number, was that they weren’t fishing out in the ocean in the Bight of Georgia, but in the brackish backwaters of the intracoastal region. Of course, we’ve seen dolphin hunting there, so the shark chasing bait is not surprising. What’s unusual is that they’re there at all.
The fishing guide opines that the shark, whose usual habit is the Gulf of Mexico have followed their food supply up the Gulf Stream and got off into the next available suitable habitat.
If so, the question is how long it will take for some of these shark to bite people wading in the surf. And, when they do, will we refer to them as BitingPeople Shark or simply BPs?-
I don’t presume to fully understand the ways of Mother Nature, but she’s amazing. Wonderful share. Thank you.
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Frank Povah says:
Sarah Palin’s latest political catchphrase would go down well in Australia.
Everyone – except perhaps Ms P – knows that “seeing pink elephants” is a metaphor for delirium tremens and I’m not the first to point it out, but it’s the Australian take I like. Down Under – where people love metaphors and similes – delirium tremens is often simply “the DTs” but is more commonly known as “the horrors”.
Where, I find myself wondering, does she get them.
Would Ms Palin hesitate to shoot a mama grizzly if one reared up on its hind legs to defend its cubs when she crossed its path while out gunning for moose? And pit bulls with lipstick. No matter how much makeup you pile on one of them things it’d still look like a punch-drunk pugilist – and one with a pathological hatred of its own kind at that.
Half-baked Alaskan – it’d be funny if it wasn’t so scary. -
Lee Leslie says: I never thought they’d be a day on the Dew where we ran a photo of a tick, a python and a weenie being grilled in the same day. We’ve come a long way.
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Lee Leslie says:
From MoveOn:
You might have heard this: BP is so well connected in Washington that even after being cited for 760 different safety and environmental violations, the company still got environmental waivers for the Deepwater Horizon rig that’s now destroying the Gulf.1
But BP’s not alone in using its DC influence. Check out the list below of other companies’ outrages—then pass it along. And be sure to sign our new Fight Washington Corruption Pledge to support 3 key measures that will protect our democracy from corporate lobbyists!1. Exxon Mobil made billions in profits, and yet paid not one dime in federal income taxes in 2009.2
2. The 2005 energy bill had a little known provision, commonly called the Halliburton Loophole, which exempted natural gas drilling from the Clean Water Act. The result? Water so contaminated that you can light it on fire.3
3. Massey Energy was cited more than 2400 times for safety violations in its mines, but chose not to fix potentially lethal problems because low penalties meant it was cheaper to simply keep paying the fines. This spring, 29 miners were killed in an underground explosion at a Massey mine in West Virginia.4
4. Michael Taylor was the FDA official who approved the use of Monsanto’s Bovine Growth Hormone in dairy cows (even though it’s banned in most countries and linked to cancer). After approving it, he left the FDA—to work for Monsanto. Until last year, when he moved back to the government—as President Obama’s “Food Safety Czar.” No joke.5
5. Internal Toyota documents outline how the company was successful in limiting regulators actions in the recalls last year—saving hundreds of millions while the death toll continued to climb.6
6. GE and its lobbyists—including 33 former government employees—have successfully lobbied Congress to override Defense Department requests to cancel a GE contract to work on a new engine for the Joint Strike Fighter jet. GE will need $2.9 billion to finish the project.7
7. Top executives at 9 top banks including Citibank, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley paid themselves over $20 billion dollars in bonuses just weeks after taxpayers bailed them out to the tune of 700 billion dollars.8
8. During the waning days of the Bush administration, officials responded to a long-term lobbying campain by pre-empting product liability lawsuits for dozens of whole industries. They bypassed Congress entirely and rewrote rules ranging from seatbelt manufacturing regulations to prescription drug safety.9
9. Sunscreen manufacturers including Johnson & Johnson and Schering-Plough, in the interest of profits, are opposing an FDA proposal requiring full reporting on sunscreen labels. The New York Times just confirmed that current SPF ratings don’t even measure sun rays that cause cancer.10
10. BP—a company with a record of 760 drilling safety and environmental violations—was granted safety waivers in order to operate the deepwater drilling rig that ultimately created the worst environmental disaster in US history.1Mad yet? Sign the pledge here and we’ll pass your name on to your member of Congress, and ask them to Fight Washington Corruption too.
http://www.fightwashingtoncorruption.org/
Sources:
1. “BP’s latest plan succeeding, but may make spill worse,” Newsweek, June 2, 2010. http://www.moveon.org/r?r=88880&id=21534-12720341-6tYy5Lx&t=2
2. “GE, Exxon Paid No U.S. Income Taxes in 2009,” ABC News, April 6, 2010 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89262&id=&id=21534-12720341-6tYy5Lx&t=3
3. “Why is Dick Cheney Silent on the Oil Spill?,” Newsweek, June 10, 2010 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89263&id=21534-12720341-6tYy5Lx&t=4
4. “Other Massey Mines Showed A Pattern Of Violations,” NPR, April 13, 2010 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89264&id=21534-12720341-6tYy5Lx&t=5
5. “Monsanto’s man Taylor returns to FDA in food-czar role,” Grist, July 8, 2009 http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-08-monsanto-FDA-taylor/
6. “Toyota tried to cut costs on recalls,” Los Angeles Times, February 22, 2010 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89265&id=21534-12720341-6tYy5Lx&t=6
7. “GE vice chairman openly challenges Gates over F-35 fighter jet engine,” The Hill, June 17, 2010 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89266&id=21534-12720341-6tYy5Lx&t=7
8. “Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts,” The New York Times, July 30, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/31pay.html
9. “Bush Rule Changes Curtail Rights of States, Consumers,” Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2008 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89267&id=21534-12720341-6tYy5Lx&t=8
10. “UVA Reform: It’s Not PDQ,” The New York Times, June 23, 2010 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89268&id=21534-12720341-6tYy5Lx&t=9
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Carlos C. Canada says:
For too long, organ and tissue donation has been misunderstood because of the myths surrounding donation. One donor has the potential to save or enhance the lives of 50 to 60 people.
My life has been touched twice by donation. My wife Karen died in 1995. Through donation she was able to help more than 50 people. With her eyes she was able to give the gift of sight. Her heart valves helped someone live. Her skin helped burn patients, her bones helped cancer patients, while her tendons and ligaments helped sport injuries.
In 2002 I was diagnosed with fatty liver (NASH), which eventually progressed into End Stage Liver Disease (ESLD). In 2009, I received a liver transplant, and am now able to make a positive difference every day.
LifeLink of Georgia provides facts about organ and tissue donation, and encourages people to register to be a life-saving organ and tissue donor. You can help save lives by designating your decision on the Georgia donor registry at http://www.donatelifegeorgia.org,or when obtaining or renewing your driver license. Donation can, and does save lives.
Carlos C. Canada
Liver Transplant Recipient
1035 Timberwale Ln.
Kennesaw, GA 30152
770 713-7354 -
Mandy Richburg Rivers says: Is it just me or have we all been snippy the last few weeks?? Most of the comments I’m reading are leaving teeth marks! I got a nasty-gram for not getting my burger picture right and evidently those of us with kids and careers shouldn’t be allowed in grocery store. Chillax! It’s summer! Drink a beer and read a book!
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Meg Gerrish says: LOL — As I opened the eMail announcing a fresh post on “Southern Thoughts,” the very same thought was going through my head, Mandy. “Gosh, we all seem to be filled with hostility these days.” It’s the heat, my god the heat!
Keep doing however you’re dewing and we’ll all do just fine. I will join you in a cold one, except mine will be an unoaked Chardonnay instead of a beer. (Can we hold off until Happy Hour?) Wishing you and all a safe and happy holiday weekend. — Cheers!
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Lee Leslie says:
In case you missed it or were just feeling too good today, Consumer Reports Trouble Tracker reports a dramatic worsening of consumer financial difficulties last month – “Months of modest improvements have been swept away, the latest numbers show consumers have taken a step back facing increases in financial difficulties and a soured employment picture.”
Here are some of the lowlights:
Key financial difficulties faced by consumers this month included:
• Unable to afford medical bills or medications (16.4%), up from 13.7% in May
• Missed payment on a major bill – not mortgage (9.4%), up from 8.7% in May
• Lost or reduced healthcare coverage (9.3%), up from 7.9% in MayLower-income households, earning less than $50,000 a year, have been disproportionately affected. In the past 30 days:
• 28.1% Have been unable to afford medical bills or medications
• 15.9% Lost or have reduced healthcare coverage
• 13.7% Missed payment on a major bill – not mortgageRead the full story here: http://pressroom.consumerreports.org/pressroom/2010/06/consumer-reports-index-american-consumer-falters.html
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Meg Gerrish says:
I MIGHT have felt bad after absorbing this information, but I already felt quite low enough after attempting to order new checks for an account with bare assets, but was declined for a lack of credit on the charge card (sigh).
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Oh, I could bottom that, but competing at the bottom seems bad sport. I’ve got plenty of checks if you’d like some.
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Frank Povah says:
This Saturday morning, an NBC spieler was burbling on about Sweden’s royal wedding, opining that it was causing such a fuss there because Sweden was a country “with few celebrities”. Are we supposed to reckon this as a good thing or a bad thing? If the USA had fewer ‘celebrities’ perhaps the networks would be forced to give us some real news.
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Austin McMurria says:
So many reports, such shallow reporting. FYI : a few specifics:
1) Depth of the well under and below the ocean floor: The actual oil sand is at 18000 feet, and the total depth of the well is an incredible 35000 feet.
2) There are two lines pumping mud (see diagram): If I understand this correctly, the “choke” line mud is intended to slow the siphon effect, giving the mud in the “kill” line a chance to force its way downhole. One way this can fail is if all the mud simply gets blown back up the line. Another way it can fail is if pressure causes a secondary blowout somewhere in the manifold/BOP system. They likely don’t have good ways to pressure-test any of these fittings in advance. To give you an idea of its size, I’m guessing the Blow Out Preventer unit itself stands 40-60 feet above the ocean floor & weighs several hundred tons.
Source: http://theforvm.org/diary/jordan/how-not-stop-oil-spill-rayne-fdl -
Lee Leslie says:
While walking this morning, I passed a man who appeared to be street person sitting alone on a park bench. He was talking loudly and animatedly. I few years ago, I would have assumed he was having a psychotic episode and might need my help. Now I can pretend he was talking on cell phone. Perhaps, it was both.
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Austin McMurria says:
The thing I like about the Dew is…well it’s like taking a short cruise around the block with each of the authors. And almost always they open the car door for you revealing a clean and neat comfortable seat.
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Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D. says:
It was amazing yesterday seeing the number of people who lined Pennsylvania Avenue to pay their respects to Dr. Dorothy Irene Height. From all walks of life they came to pay tribute to a woman who has meant so much to this country. Included in the program for the Farewell Tribute by the National Council of Negro Women to Dr. Height was the following in a soon to be published book “Living With Purpose” In the book, she left the following words of advice to meet the challenges of today:
“To move forward, we have to look at the world as it is becoming rather than how it has been. We have to see how we have to stretch ourselves to become related to this ever-changing scenery. We have to gain a recognition not only that no one stands alone, but on a positive side, that we also need each other…in the long run, it is how we relate to each other and how well we work together that will make the deciding difference.”
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Frank Povah says:
Will Mississippi’s Governor ask for Federal aid, accept it if offered or decline it altogether?
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Monica Smith says:
Re: the Texas death penalty case.
Immunity (sovereign, absolute, use or qualified) is one of the central issues in our judicial system. As the SCOTUS oral arguments in Pottawattamie County v. McGhee revealed, there’s an assumption that because a prosecutor has no personal involvement in collecting evidence for a trial and the judge takes direction from the jury, these actors in the judicial process enjoy absolute immunity–i.e. there’s no way to hold them accountable. When it became obvious that the SCOTUS might issue a precedential ruling challenging that presumption, the County settled the case and paid off the men whom the prosecutor had framed. The DoJ attorney argued that there is no right not to be framed.
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Lee Leslie says:
Depending upon whether you track stocks using float-adjusted numbers or not, Apple has either just passed or will soon pass Microsoft in total market cap – Apple’s at about $266 billion (they have $42 billion in cash). A hell of note when what seems like just a few years ago Apple was trading for about $14 (now about $266) and tried to sell it to Sun Microsystems (now Oracle and worth less than half of Apple) for a billion dollars. Sun passed on buying Apple saying wasn’t worth it and that Apple wouldn’t survive (Apple, at the time, had about 6% share of the personal computer market). Microsoft, on the other hand, lent Apple a hundred million to stay in business worrying about anti-trust issues if their one competitor failed.
Microsoft, the monopoly, has always been considered evil, selling buggy, boring software, concentrating on killing the competition and forgetting innovation. Now Bill Gates, who Ted Turner referred to as a “philanthropic tightwad,” have opened their checkbook through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and are doing great work helping people around the world. Apple on the other hand, was always cool, counter-culture and innovative. Now that they are on top, will that make them rotten? -
Monica Smith says:
On Google complying with requests to provide information–
I’d just make the point that accumulation is a basic instinct and, like other instincts, prone to becoming excessive, if not tightly controlled. Since bureaucrats are mainly into collecting and organizing information, they are probably particularly liable to going to excess. Moreover, accumulation doesn’t care about value. People can accumulate the most worthless stuff, so that has to be a consideration when they’re doing it on our dime. -
Mike Cox says: Later today, thousands of armed Americans will gather within spitting distance of the capital and protest government intrusion. It is ironic first of all that they are not only allowed to do this, but will be protected by the very government they claim is exerting too much control.
I also have to wonder what would happen if the same number of armed Americans were to gather together and happened to be of Muslim faith and background.
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Last 5 posts by Lee Leslie
- Our forests are too overgrown to fail - August 29th, 2010
- Dog Days News - August 18th, 2010
- The verdict’s in - August 13th, 2010
- Sermon on the stump - August 6th, 2010
- Mission Accomplished - August 2nd, 2010
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