December 2011
46 posts
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Growing wealth widens distance between lawmakers... →
In 1984, one in five House members had zero or negative net worth excluding home equity, according to the disclosures; by 2009, that number had dropped to one in 12.
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Inequality and Democratic Responsiveness →
“For the 887 policy questions on which well-off and poor Americans disagreed by eight percentage points or more (top panel of figure 2), outcomes are fairly strongly related to the preferences of the well-to-do (b = 1.92, p = .000) but wholly unrelated to the preferences of the poor (b = 0.04, p = .92).”
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Repressing Democracy, With American Arms →
People here admire much about America and welcomed me into their homes, but there is also anger that the tear gas shells that they sweep off the streets each morning are made by a Pennsylvania company, NonLethal Technologies. It is a private company that declined to comment, but the American government grants it a license for these exports — and every shell fired undermines our image.
In August,...
If I Were A Poor Black Kid - Forbes →
stfuconservatives:
thenoobyorker:
journalofajournalist:
Foot, meet mouth, meet my jaw dropping.
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, (grabs gun) where does this guy live?
Have you ever wondered what a middle-class middle-aged white man would do if he were a bootstraps-gripping black kid from the inner city? Wonder no further! Black people, apparently you’re doing it wrong, because this guy has it all...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-11) →
Sun Kil Moon (29)
The Owls (2)
The National (2)
Hideki Sakamoto (2)
Akron/Family (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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NY’s Tax Overhaul, Said to Raise Taxes on the... →
Here is the Times article that shows the effective tax rates with the current surcharge, and under the new tax overhaul. The base rate of the 1% gets an increase, but the elimination of the tax surcharge actually DECREASES their overall tax contribution.
Cuomo has said he believes the tax overhaul will help to close the state’s deficit and stimulate the economy by cutting taxes for the middle...
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“Their strategy now is the kitchen sink strategy. Throw everything you can at her...”
– Elizabeth Warren versus Karl Rove and the one percent
In an interview with Lawrence O’Donnell, Elizabeth Warren uncorked an extensive response to that comically dishonest ad from the Rove-founded Crossroads GPS attacking Warren as too cozy with Wall Street. Her answer is worth quoting at length,...
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Swearing Relieves Pain, But Not If Over-Used... →
psychotherapy:
Cursing can provide effective, short-term pain relief say researchers, but not if over-used: the effect is much greater for people who do not make a habit of it. Richard Stephens and Claudia Umland from the School of Psychology at the University of Keele in the UK, report findings that shed new light on the use of swearing as a response to pain in the 14 November online...
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My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-4) →
Kaki King (51)
Sun Kil Moon (49)
The Black Keys (11)
M83 (2)
The Flashbulb (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal? →
From the abstract:
The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia (W. W. Hudson & W. A. Ricketts, 1980)....
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“Hal, who’s empty but not dumb, theorizes privately that what passes for...”
– Infinite Jest, pg. 694-695 & Footnote 281 We’re all so tough and stoic, aren’t we?
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My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-11-27) →
Broken Social Scene (3)
Arcade Fire (2)
The Redneck Manifesto (1)
Bad Company (1)
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy →
For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, “we are going after these scruffy hippies”. Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security...