Changing Course
It’s 2012, and and we are destroying the earth. I have watched for 40 years, since the Club of Rome Report. I have watched America cover its eyes and drag its feet. I have seen the future lose its claim …
Author: Phil Mayes
Paul Ryan is Tarnishing Quickly
Paul Ryan’s squeaky-clean image as a fiscal conservative is not holding up very well: He voted for the bills that created the massive deficits. The 2001 Bush Tax Cuts The 2003 Bush Tax Cuts Medicare Part D (the prescription benefit) …
Guess what 30% of Republicans Believe?
…that Obama is a Muslim. Sigh. The Pew Forum.
The Cost of Patent Trolls
A paper by two Boston University researchers puts the annual cost of patent trolls at $29Bn.
Political Protest Now Banned in America
OK, there is no Federal legislation banning it, but the de facto situation is pretty close. Salon reports that for the G20 summit, Chicago police will be deploying a sound cannon, causing anyone within 100m of the device’s directed sound …
Variability in Hospital Pricing
I’m a week late with this, but the NYTimes ran a breath-taking article on variability in hospital pricing, showing that the cost of operations varied tremendously, e.g. an appendectomy ranged from $1,500 to $182,955.
Us and Them
After the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband (NYTimes), Slate …
Newsflash: There are Only 7 Terrorists in the Entire World
“We can reduce the size of the haystack when we are looking for that one-in-a-billion terrorist,” said TSA Administrator John Pistole.
Sick Rantorum
Rick Santorum has spoken out against contraception, calling it “a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.” What does he have against pleasure? The injunction against contraception is nowhere …