Swerdloff's Tumblr Blog

"Oh, great. Thanks for the warning about cutting back “population” the hard way. Germany."

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:36:56 -0400

“Oh, great. Thanks for the warning about cutting back “population” the hard way. Germany.”

- “The worst thing that you or I can do for the planet is to have children.”

"Where the White House has gone way overboard is in its decision to treat Fox as an outright enemy..."

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:17:47 -0400

“Where the White House has gone way overboard is in its decision to treat Fox as an outright enemy and to go public with the assault. Imagine the outcry if the Bush administration had pulled a similar hissy fit with MSNBC.”

- PostPartisan - Obama’s dumb war with Fox News

N.B. I don’t support Fox and have seen some atrocious things on there. Oddly, I find myself in the position of supporting Fox because what the Administration is doing is worse than anything Fox could do - they’re demeaning the office of the President.

As with everything this administration does, turn the parties around, substitute Bush and his team for Obama and his, and if you have differing reactions based on who the actor is, ask yourself why.

"And so it is with luck - unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on..."

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:06:48 -0400

“And so it is with luck - unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and as a result miss other types of jobs. Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.”

- Be lucky - it’s an easy skill to learn - Telegraph

"It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this..."

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:06:50 -0400

“It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.”

- American Beauty (1999) - Memorable quotes

This is how I’ve felt about a lot of things in life. Inexplicable beauty everywhere.

"A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which..."

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:18:16 -0400

“A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.”

- Essay - The Collider, the Particle and a Theory About Fate - NYTimes.com

"We’ve got ourselves a real health care shooting war now,” said Robert Laszewski, a..."

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:17:04 -0400

““We’ve got ourselves a real health care shooting war now,” said Robert Laszewski, a former health insurance executive turned consultant. “The industry has come to the conclusion that the way things are going in Congress, we’ll have a … formula that will be disastrous for their business, so they can’t stand on the sidelines any longer.””

- My Way News - Dems scramble after warning from health insurers

Well, duh. It’s hard to have empathy with insurance companies who deny coverage to the sick, but it’s also naïve to think that changes to the health care system wouldn’t have ramifications. Wishful thinking otherwise.

"Remember, during the Bush years, when our friends on the left (rightfully) bemoaned those who..."

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:03:13 -0400

“Remember, during the Bush years, when our friends on the left (rightfully) bemoaned those who “questioned the patriotism” of opponents of the war in Iraq? Those who harrumphed that to not support the president was to support the terrorists? Well, that was then. Here is the DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse, speaking to Politico’s Ben Smith: “The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize.””

- Praise Our Nobel Laureate, You Churlish Anti-American - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

"So for the FTC to go after bloggers and social media – as they explicitly do – is the same as..."

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:42:54 -0400

“So for the FTC to go after bloggers and social media – as they explicitly do – is the same as sending a government goon into Denny’s to listen to the conversations in the corner booth and demand that you disclose that your Uncle Vinnie owns the pizzeria whose product you just endorsed.”

- FTC regulates our speech « BuzzMachine

Under what theory of the First Amendment is the FTC regulating the Internet?

"As the journalist Henry Hazlitt wrote in his classic, “Economics in One Lesson,” you..."

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:14:27 -0400

“As the journalist Henry Hazlitt wrote in his classic, “Economics in One Lesson,” you can’t raise living standards by breaking windows so some people can get jobs repairing them.”

- Cash for Clunkers Fails to Help Economy and Environment - WSJ.com

"Here’s an example, from Leigh Allen of San Francisco, who said she relies on The Times to keep her..."

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:09:54 -0400

“Here’s an example, from Leigh Allen of San Francisco, who said she relies on The Times to keep her informed: “I often don’t hear about the latest conflict until I read a Facebook rant from an old high school friend or talk on the phone with my mother (both in conservative Orange County, Calif.). It’s embarrassing not to be able to respond with facts when I hadn’t even heard about the issue.” Michele Cusack of Novato, Calif., said that when someone asked if she had heard the latest about Acorn, “I had to answer ‘no’ because I get all my news from The New York Times.””

- The Public Editor - Notes About Bias, From Opposite Points of View - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

This is what I’ve been ranting about all these years. That we, as Americans, are being let down by our journalists slanting their coverage. We are simply not served by slanted coverage - report and then let Americans sort out the truth.

"If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs are..."

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:55:42 -0400

“If laid-off workers who have settled for part-time work or have given up looking for new jobs are included, the unemployment rate rose to 17 percent, the highest on records dating from 1994.”

- Jobless rate reaches 9.8 percent in September - Yahoo! Finance

Are you angry at the government yet? Pissed about the “stimulus” that Obama keeps telling us “worked?” If it worked, how? Would things have been better if we hadn’t sold our soul to foreign governments?

There’s a reason Conservatives and Moderates (I’m...

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:09:00 -0400

There’s a reason Conservatives and Moderates (I’m the latter) like Jon Stewart. He’s the only man on television (I don’t count Fox as television) who “reports” on this stuff. I’m just as frustrated as he is.

I’ve been writing about politics for a long time and I think there are a lot of misunderstandings about where I’m coming from, so let me clear them up.

I’m pro-choice. Anti-death-penalty. Pro 1st AND 2nd amendment. I believe in freedom to do what you want, and that your freedoms end where mine begin, and the law is there to deal when they overlap, and not at any other time.

I believe in Capitalism because commerce fosters freedom.

I believe that there are no enlightened rulers, only flawed people doing their best to lead the country while looking out for themselves at the same time.

I think Jimmy Carter had good intentions but was misguided, I think GWB had good intentions but was also misguided.

I prefer Clinton to Reagan, and wish that the “silent majority” would rise up and shut both the lunatic Christian fringe and the lunatic Leftist fringe up, so we could get on with our lives.

I support legalizing drugs for so many reasons I can’t count, but the two biggest are that prohibition never works, and the mere illegality of drugs is what creates the economic space to drive people to be criminals - if a dealer can make $100 in 10 minutes for selling whatever, why would said dealer want a $10/hour job?

I believe that there should be a safety net for people when they fall off the path, but not a safety hammock.

Until someone explains it to me some other way, I will continue to believe that “social justice” is “you have more toys than I do, I want some of your toys, my ancestors were kept down, give me your toys.” I will point out that my ancestors 3 generations back in Russia and Germany weren’t, what’s the word I’m looking for, free, exactly. Not slaves, certainly, but definitely not first class citizens. Until I get Social Justice for what happened three generations ago to my family, why does anyone else get Social Justice for theirs?

I also believe that the “soft” racism of low expectations is actually hard racism. I don’t judge people on the color of their skin - I didn’t support Obama because I thought (and still think) his policies are wrong. The fact that he’s African American? That’s cool! I can’t wait for the day the black French and British Prime Ministers call up our president. See what I did there?

And the single greatest tragedy I see is that the American People are not being well served by the fourth estate. If I had to pinpoint the one biggest problem this country faces, I’d say that Jon Stewart pointed it out - I’m embarrassed for our national media, that they were scooped on ACORN, that a convincing case can and has been made for their extreme bias, from Dan Rather attempting to sway an election with false documents to the NYTimes burying their ACORN story on page A14.

An open note to journalists:

Hi,

I’ll keep this brief. You’re not serving our interests anymore. At some point, you decided that the American People are idiots. Insulting your customers, covering up and underreporting news that doesn’t fit your narrative, and otherwise being biased only works to marginalize and destroy you. Report the news, let us sort and sift through it. Then we’ll start buying your newspapers again. Ok?

"“We need to rethink what is racist and who can legitimately call whom racist,” Swain..."

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:38:12 -0400

“

“We need to rethink what is racist and who can legitimately call whom racist,” Swain said, citing the argument that blacks can’t be racist because racism requires power.
———-
I’m pretty sure the quote doesn’t say “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Unless the ones judging are black, then it’s ok.”
Am I the only one who thinks that that quote is incredibly racist and demeaning to African Americans? And the rest of us?
I see what they did there, with talking about a power dynamic. Does that mean that in African nations, ONLY people with black skin can be racists? Does that make the Saudis of Saudi Arabia racist but not the Saudis of America? If an African American moves to Africa, can they be a racist then?

These are the sorts of things that make me fear that people have become seriously unhinged in their views of reality.

”

- Analysis: ‘Racist’ claims defuse word’s power - Race & ethnicity- msnbc.com

Experimenting

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:00:08 -0400

I have a project that I’m working on that uses Tumblr and probably Wordpress.

We’ll see what happens with it.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the reason that this is so...

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:19:05 -0400

It wouldn’t surprise me if the reason that this is so popular on Youtube is that it’s what a lot of people would like to say to President Obama, but can’t, because he’s Obama, and he promised Hope, Change, and a New Way, and to gainsay him isn’t acceptable at this time.

The point holds, though - the stock rally was short lived - as soon as people realized we were borrowing to pay back what we borrowed, the question became “how is the US Government doing anything more complicated than paying off its Mastercard with Amex?” Sadly, it’s not.

crackhead: Umm…WTF? | via BuzzFeed

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:10:18 -0500

crackhead:

Umm…WTF? | via BuzzFeed

Brilliant Ukrainian army recruiting video. I’m...

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:00:49 -0500

Brilliant Ukrainian army recruiting video. I’m considering signing up.

The Revolution Started

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:34:36 -0500

Obama can raise the tax rates on income, but he cannot force people to generate income to be taxed. —The Revolt of the Kulaks Has Begun
When I told people this during election season, they looked at me like I had two heads because Obama was going to raise taxes on the rich, and they’d get money back. A friend of mine actually put a hand out and said that because he was poor I should hand money to him then and there, circumventing the government. I nearly punched him in the nose.

It looks like it’s going to be a Republican Congress in 2010, particularly since it looks like the rest of the world is treating the US as the bad credit risk it is.

It’s enough to drive you mad.

Calvin and Hobbes. Fifteen Years Ago… | The Truth About Cars

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:45:19 -0500

Calvin and Hobbes. Fifteen Years Ago… | The Truth About Cars

"This case illustrates how our criminal justice system punishes the innocent more harshly than the..."

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:23:14 -0500

“This case illustrates how our criminal justice system punishes the innocent more harshly than the guilty.”

- Concurring Opinions