Yearly Archives: 2005

social security update

Government

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has a “fantastic explanation of the Bush administration’s ‘solution’ to the Social Security ‘crisis’”:http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_05_01.php#005638. In short, both the ‘crisis’ (reduced benefits starting in 2041) and the ‘solution’ (reduced benefits starting in 2012) are the same.

The CBPP has kindly provided the “numbers to back that up”:http://www.cbpp.org/5-10-05socsec.htm, showing that the President’s plans don’t even solve the solvency problem they claim to solve. Instead, they create trillions of dollars in new debt for no reason at all.

next course: plague of frogs

Oddly Enough

And you thought nothing odd ever happened in my home town. Apparently there was a “rain of shrimp”:http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/bell/20050510-9999-1m10bell.html recently, which is the La Jolla version of a rain of fish.

cosmetology is not a science

Science

Note to self: “don’t move to Kansas”:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002265204_evolution06.html.

_The first [proposal] recommends that students continue to be taught the theory of evolution because it is key to understanding biology. The other proposes that Kansas alter the definition of science, not limiting it to theories based on natural explanations._

_”Part of our overall goal is to remove the bias against religion that is in our schools,” said William Harris, a chemist who was the first witness to speak yesterday on behalf of changing the state’s curriculum._

I’m personally in favor of teaching the “supernatural theory” that magical pixies inhabit my television and whisper messages to me while they put on fanciful light shows to lull me into a stupor. Perhaps I should write a textbook.

If you’re getting tired of this debate (I am), you might like the “Fafblog version”:http://fafblog.blogspot.com/2005/05/science.html instead. Ah, humor… eases the pain…

Brazil is standing up to the man

Sexuality

From the Guardian:

_Brazil yesterday became the first country to “take a public stand”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,1475965,00.html against the Bush administration’s massive Aids programme which is seen by many as seeking increasingly to press its anti-abortion, pro-abstinence sexual agenda on poorer countries._

In other words, they decided it wasn’t worth $40 million to make bad public health decisions. Go, Brazil!

forty-second streeeet!

Environment

A group called “vision42″:http://www.vision42.org/ has proposed making the entire length of 42nd Street in New York City car-free. The existing street would become a pedestrian area with a light rail line down the center.

As the New York Times points out, “the idea is not new”:http://www.vision42.org/news/articles/041805_nytimes/, but it seems like this time it may have a better chance of succeeding. The group is organized and thorough, and the city is hoping to improve its chances for the 2012 Olympics.