Global warming? Not on Romney’s and Obama’s lips: “For all their disputes, President Obama and Mitt Romney agree that the world is warming and that humans are at least partly to blame. It remains wholly unclear what either of them plans to do about it. Even after a year of record-smashing temperatures, drought and Arctic ice melt, none of the moderators of the four general-election debates asked about climate change, nor did any of the candidates broach the topic. Throughout the campaign, Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney have seemed most intent on trying to outdo each other as lovers of coal, oil and natural gas — the very fuels most responsible for rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. […] Many scientists and policy experts say the lack of a serious discussion of climate change in the presidential contest represents a lost opportunity to engage the public and to signal to the rest of the world American intentions for dealing with what is, by definition, a global problem that requires global cooperation.” From the Times.
Road to the White House runs down Orlando boulevard: “Crowded with garish strip malls, used car lots and billboard advertisements for personal injury law firms, the boulevard might best represent the even divide among the voters along the Interstate 4 corridor across central Florida. In the heart of the biggest battleground state of all, both campaigns are fighting for Semoran Boulevard and every other inch of ground from Tampa to Orlando, an expanse that could well determine the outcome of the presidential election in Florida, if not the nation. Obama and Romney are neck and neck in the state. The Interstate 4 corridor is home to not only 43 percent of the state’s electorate, but also to just about every sort of voter who exists in America. They include minority and ethnic voters in Orlando and Tampa, suburban voters in the bedroom communities surrounding the two cities, and rural voters in the strawberry fields and orange groves between the two urban centers. […] Florida’s other population centers are far more predictable. South Florida votes reliably Democratic in presidential elections. With the exception of Democratic strongholds near Tallahassee and Gainesville, other parts of the state, particularly the Panhandle, are more likely to vote Republican. Slightly younger and more transient than the rest of the state, voters along I-4 went for Obama in 2008 after voting for President George W. Bush in 2004. Obama can’t count on a repeat, though. Some of those who enthusiastically backed Obama in 2008, including some blacks, have little love for him this time around.” From McClatchy.
Biden’s bite: “Adding another wild-card to the 2012 campaign’s final days, a former aide to Vice President Joe Biden has written a tell-all Washington memoir in which he lacerates the former Delaware senator as an “egomaniacal autocrat” who was “determined to manage his staff through fear.” The book is hardly an objective study of the vice president, however. Author Jeff Connaughton, a Biden Senate staffer turned lobbyist, is by his own admission deeply disillusioned with the capital and embittered about his experience with the man who inspired him to enter politics. […] Connaughton wrote “The Payoff,” which came out last month, in the fashion of guilt-racked whistle-blower: he was a party to a corrupt system and now wants to blow the lid off the game. […] He is harshly critical of his own party and the Obama administration, arguing that the president is no different than most other Washington Democrats in his willingness to kowtow to Wall Street. President Obama and Biden, he writes, are “both financially illiterate.” “The Payoff” is every bit the cri de coeur of a man who, as he writes, is “willing to burn every bridge” in order to indict the transactional Washington lobbying and political culture.” From Politico.
Justifying the exorbitant cost of a luxurious meal: “We have taken our places. This evening’s performance, sold out months in advance, is about to begin. The programme, handwritten in a traditional script on a rolled parchment, tied with string, tells us to expect a prologue, two chapters and an epilogue, without interval. I’m nervous with anticipation but I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that it’s not because I am waiting for the curtain to rise on a Wagner opera or a Shakespeare play. I’m actually waiting for my dinner. This is no ordinary meal, however. It’s the 19-course tasting menu at one of the world’s best restaurants, Frantzén/Lindeberg in Stockholm. Ranked number 20 in Restaurant magazine’s influential annual survey, it earned two Michelin stars in its first two years and is almost certain to get a third. Food doesn’t get much, if any, better than this. Yet there seems something wrong about the effort and expense that fine dining like this involves. And when the average bill is the stiffest in the Nordic region, around €350 (or £280) per head, that unease can turn to moral outrage. What on earth could justify spending so much money on what is ultimately just fuel for humans, especially in a world where almost one billion people still go hungry every day? Answering these questions was the main reason I was at the table at all. I was writing a book on food and philosophy and felt I needed to experience some of the extremes of food luxury. Of course, I also love eating, so it was a wonderful excuse. But I really don’t think I could have justified the reservation without some rationale other than pure pleasure. After all, this was going to be the most expensive three hours of my life.” From Aeon.
Voyager’s math miracle: “Nasa’s Voyager spacecraft have enthralled everyone with their exploits at the edge of the Solar System, but their launch in 1977 was only possible because of some clever maths and the persistence of a PhD student who worked out how to slingshot probes into deep space. […] Today, 35 years after leaving Earth, Voyager 1 is 18.4 billion km (11.4 billion miles) from Earth and about to cross over the boundary marking the extent of the Sun’s influence, where the solar wind meets interstellar space. Sometime in the next five years, it will likely break through this so called “bowshock” and head out into the galaxy beyond. Its twin, Voyager 2, having flown past all the outer giant planets, should pass over into interstellar not long after. It’s easy to take this monumental achievement for granted, but the gateway to the outer Solar System remained shut for the first 20 years of the space age. […] That was until a 25-year-old mathematics graduate called Michael Minovitch came along in 1961.” From the BBC.
Ellen on Bic Pens for Women:
Flagler County Jail Bookings
Flagler County Jail bookings, Oct. 24-25, 2012
Brandt Hardin says
Obama has time and time again tried to champion Clean Energy Sources. Public access to real facts is being whitewashed by this rhetoric while conservative hands paint the Blackface on our President. Watch them mix and apply the paints to his face in a portrait of Obama being Bamboozed by the Far Right at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/10/bamboozling-obama.html
Stevie says
http://pacenow.org/about-pace/what-is-pace/
This program was started before Obama came into office. Fannie and Freddie shot it down because they would back mortgages with PACE applied to the property. Obama has done nothing in 4 years to get this program fixed. Millions of jobs could have been instantly created and solar installations would be everywhere had he done his job and provided leadership. Dependance on foreign oil and carbon emissions would have dropped rapidly. Home owners with solar equipment would enjoy stable energy rates if not net zero electric charges. You get things done by making the climate right for productive output, not by dictating like he does. Obama’s character is fundamentally flawed. This is why Obama needs to go.
Liana G says
Seems like a good place to air my election thoughts
If, come election day, I decide to vote for one of the major parties, it will be for RR. Here’s why. Although none of these parties represents my beliefs, they do represent my biological survival instincts as a woman. Both are of a practical and ideal age group, both are highly successful and motivated, and both are very much attractive and possess good health.
These characteristics are desirousl to both men and women – from all backgrounds too (sorry, not buying into the Latino support for the current administration). And as an Asian who is always mistaken for Latina, R/R are equally as attractive to real Latina females, whatever that means. Because, only in the US is Latino considered a separate race. But in the socially constructed context of racial categorization by Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, there are only 3 races – Mongoloid/Asian, Caucasian/ White, Negroid/Black – and Latino can fall either in race 1 or 2.
Dorothea says
@Liana G
I tried to make sense of your decision, but could not. What do the physical descriptions of the candidates, whether race, age, or whatever you deem appropriate qualities, have to do with your biological survival instincts as a woman? The only conclusion I could draw from your comment is that you consider Romney and Ryan good-looking men who would father good looking children, which would somehow further the biological survival instincts of women. What a strange Stone Age concept. I would worry more about a president who counseled a woman to possibly die rather than have an abortion, even when the Mormom hierarchy had already approved the abortion. Also, remember that when the apple fell from the Romney tree, Romney the father was a far better human being than the flip-flopping, lying son he produced.
Injecting race into the campaign as you do, makes you an ideal devotee of the Romney/Ryan dog whistle tactics. What category of your three races are the many bi and tri-racial citizens of our country’s diverse population and how does it matter when deciding for whom you will vote? As a member of the human race, I don’t think it shouldn’t matter at all.
Karma says
@Linda G
I applaud you for having the courage to tell everyone who you are and who you are voting for. I am sure you have heard about the young black actress Stacy Dash who posted her support for RR on her twitter account and the back lash that followed.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/twitter-explodes-after-black-actress-endorses-romney-as-the-only-choice-for-your-future/
As must free thinking women understand, nothing is going to change for women under Romney. He can not change Roe V Wade. Many will use fear tactics and their Rachel Maddow talking points to want you to think other wise.
Here is a perfect example of how they will twist a story to make themselves look good. Yesterday the new GDP numbers came out. The GDP was 2% for the last quarter, up from 1.3% from the previous quarter. Sounds great right? Only one problem, 1/3rd of that number comes from defense spending alone. The same people democrats want to cut. Without government spending, the GDP would be about 1%.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1927233527001/breaking-down-the-latest-fiscal-numbers/?playlist_id=903226511001
Eva Adams says
I don’t think you “can make climate right” without the news media’s help. James Painter and Teresa Ashe recently studied the “presence of climate scepticism in the print media in six countries (Brazil, China, France, India, UK, and USA)”. They found that in the US 34% of articles expressed the opinion of skeptics even though more than 90 % of the climate scientists do not buy in to the oil and coal supported opinions of the climate skeptics. In Brazil only 3% of the main media articles reflected the opinions of global warming skeptics. In China it was only 7%. How can any US president make any changes if our media don’t have enough reporters that can separate fact from fiction in climate science.