I have noticed a not-at-all subtle shift in the tone of conservative movement rhetoric in America, that (in terms of conservative sources I’m tuned in to) has seemingly unfolded in just the last few months. Since the Reagan revolution, the tendency of movement conservatism has been a zero-tolerance policy toward tax increases on any subset…

This was recently noted regarding the “F*** the Royal Wedding” event page. Could it be that there is a campaign to make Facebook less useable for noncommercial uses? That the annoyance factor itself is the weapon of choice? Facebook should be regarded as part of the main$tream media; a platform for marketing that is adaptable…

Tell me something I haven’t already heard millions of times, or better yet, STFU. Conspiracy theories are to the marketplace of ideas as pyramid schemes are to the marketplace of consumer products. At some point a seemingly normal conversation takes an unexpected turn and you just realize that you have been thrown a ‘pitch.’ Talk…

Would it kill websites such as Mapquest, Google Maps, Bing Maps etc. to offer a ‘high contrast’ option? What we might call a monochrome-printer-friendly (ideally in ‘draft’ mode) option? Perhaps the problem is me, simply not having figured out (yet) how to set the display preferences. Or is it a yet another case of necessity-creep;…

The key to living within one’s means, especially in these times of austerity, risk, competition, precarity and casualization, is the ability and willingness to classify possible expenditures as luxuries or necessities, with a bias for regarding things as luxuries, and being aggressive about enforcing that line in the sand. The most formidable enemy of thrift…

Today is the 100-year anniversary of the catastrophic fire at New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist factory, in which 146 fatialities resulted from the fact that the workers were locked inside. That was before my time, but I am old enough to remember the rhetoric surrounding the Berlin Wall, to the effect that free countries don’t fortify…

Since it’s pledge drive time yet again, PBS member station WTVS has the usual baby-boomer-oriented “pledge programming” slated for the next few weeks on channel 56.1. Meanwhile 56.2 becomes even more repetitive (i.e. less informative) than usual. One presentation they have been treating us to a lot is the US Chamber of Commerce’s Illicit: The…

The excellent blog “Good communication skills” sucks pointed me to an ongoing debate on Debatewise about whether “companies should provide alternative interview methods,” or alternatives to the job interview for the selection process. The points for the affirmative and negative logged so far are as follows: All the Yes points 1. Doesn’t always suit the…

While generally pretty assertive about my non-Objectivism, I must admit I owe a debt of gratitude to Ayn Rand for popularizing the phrase ‘package dealing.’ One textbook example of this practice which is out standing in the field is the US Chamber of Commerce’s funding of PBS’ broadcast of National Geographics’s hour-long production titled Illicit:…

“How long that will take I can’t tell you, but I don’t expect it to be very long, because as Watson begins replacing all those professionals in the job market, what do you think those experts are going to be doing? I know what I would be doing… making improvements in the open source versions…