I'm wondering and can't seem to find a definite answer to the question: do people who are counted as "discouraged workers," that is, out of the workforce and excluded from the official measure of unemployment, get to collect unemployment benefits? Logically, it seems very likely that only people officially considered unemployed would receive unemployment benefit payments from the government. A bit of reflection on the implications of causes the "unemployment benefits reward people for not working" argument fall flat on its face, and exposes it as rather cruel.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday Protests
I went to the protests this Saturday with the intention of capturing an eyewitness experience for those unable to attend. Parts one and two available at http://www.youtube.com/user/keithblse.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Financial Crisis Commission Concludes It Wasn't a Natural Disaster
The brainiacs on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission took a 600 page report to "discover" that the financial crisis was not an act of God. Wow, glad we could clear that up. This is the result when MBAs, suffering from extreme tunnel vision to "maximize shareholder value," combined with no clue that when they're all trying to outsmart each other and maximize future plausible deniability for their highly questionable, overly-risky gambling decisions, that is, "financial products," they all just end up tricking themselves. Then these short-term, profit focused, bonus-obsessed business robots collectively deny any and all responsibility, creating the illusion that they could not have seen it coming. And the sad thing is, since they deluded themselves, there is no hope that politicians and certainly not the public can understand that this is a massive load of bullshit. This has created, as Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short said in last night's LSE public lecture event, "socialism for the capitalists, and capitalism for everyone else." How true, and how sad.
FCIC Discovery
FCIC Discovery
Obama on drug legalization
You'll shrink demand by legalizing it, Obama. You're not going to change the attitudes about drugs. They've been around for millennia, it is not a new fad, so stop beating around the bush and pushing the debate onto a later date. By the way, well put Mr. Mackenzie.
Obama talks drugs
Obama talks drugs
Thursday, January 27, 2011
A Call for Unity
Young People of US and UK,
I have noticed a harmful, divisive tendency to judge the merits of student and worker movements by comparing the relative conditions of countries. But to believe that citizens of a country are without grounds for protest, demonstration, or complaint simply because that unwanted direction or outcome is already the case in another country is no more than an exercise in relieving the guilt of being disconnected from real problems, occurring in real life, right now. This view is borne of cultural ignorance, brushing off the importance of cultural contextualization. The chain of "What are they complaining for, they don't have it nearly as bad as ______," when drawn to the extreme, would inevitably lead to the conclusion that no citizens of any country besides, say, the Congo, have a "right" to protest or demonstrate anything.
I have noticed a harmful, divisive tendency to judge the merits of student and worker movements by comparing the relative conditions of countries. But to believe that citizens of a country are without grounds for protest, demonstration, or complaint simply because that unwanted direction or outcome is already the case in another country is no more than an exercise in relieving the guilt of being disconnected from real problems, occurring in real life, right now. This view is borne of cultural ignorance, brushing off the importance of cultural contextualization. The chain of "What are they complaining for, they don't have it nearly as bad as ______," when drawn to the extreme, would inevitably lead to the conclusion that no citizens of any country besides, say, the Congo, have a "right" to protest or demonstrate anything.
Revolutionary Philosophy
From Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulation":
"It is always the goal of the ideological analysis to restore the objective process, it is always a false problem to wish to restore the truth beneath the simulacrum. This is why in the end power is so much in tune with ideological discourses and discourses on ideology, that is, they are discourses of truth -- always good for countering the mortal blows of simulation, even and especially if they are revolutionary."
"It is always the goal of the ideological analysis to restore the objective process, it is always a false problem to wish to restore the truth beneath the simulacrum. This is why in the end power is so much in tune with ideological discourses and discourses on ideology, that is, they are discourses of truth -- always good for countering the mortal blows of simulation, even and especially if they are revolutionary."
Gun control
Silly liberals, you think Giffords' assassination attempt should warrant stricter gun laws? Not even Lennon's actual assassination prompted anything of the sort.
Reagan's response to Lennon's death
Reagan's response to Lennon's death
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Jon Stewart on Tucson
As usual, Jon Stewart is a voice of unmatched sincerity, insight, and sensibility where there is otherwise distressingly little. If you didn't catch Monday's Daily Show, here is Jon's comment on the incident in Tucson:
"So here we are again, stunned by a tragedy. We have been visited by this demon before. Our hearts go out to those that have been injured or killed, and their loved ones.
How do you make sense of these types of senseless situations? is really the question that seems to be on everybody's mind, and I don't know that there is a way to make sense of this sort of thing. As i watched the political pundit world, many are reflecting, and grieving, and trying to figure things out. But it's definitely true that others are working feverishly to find the tidbit or two that will exonerate their side from blame or implicate the other. And watching that is predictable, I think, as it is dispiriting.
Did the toxic political environment cause this? A graphic image here, an ill-timed comment, violent rhetoric, those types of things?
I have no fucking idea.
"So here we are again, stunned by a tragedy. We have been visited by this demon before. Our hearts go out to those that have been injured or killed, and their loved ones.
How do you make sense of these types of senseless situations? is really the question that seems to be on everybody's mind, and I don't know that there is a way to make sense of this sort of thing. As i watched the political pundit world, many are reflecting, and grieving, and trying to figure things out. But it's definitely true that others are working feverishly to find the tidbit or two that will exonerate their side from blame or implicate the other. And watching that is predictable, I think, as it is dispiriting.
Did the toxic political environment cause this? A graphic image here, an ill-timed comment, violent rhetoric, those types of things?
I have no fucking idea.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Erick Erickson is an Idiot
"Notable" right-wing blogger Erick Erickson posted the following mind-numbingly absurd statement: "Ironically, by perpetuating the lie...that the right and the tea party incited this evil act, the left and media may very well incite violence against the right." You know, until you said that, I didn't want to...nevermind.
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