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Pocket change

Pocket change

Last updated on: May 26, 2007 at 4:03 pm by Fred Clark

Pocket change 2007-05-26T16:03:51-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Josh Marshall links to this article on Sen. Clinton's health care proposals, summarizing the news this way: "Edwards campaign accuses Hillary of swiping his health care proposals."

Apart from the specifics of this particular instance, I've always wondered why candidates in the primaries didn't do more of this kind of "swiping." For example, Matthew Yglesias suggests that there's a lot to like in Gov. Bill Richardson's energy proposals. If Richardson's campaign never makes it past Ultra-Super-Bionic-Tuesday (or whatever the new, earlier-than-ever, mega-primary day is called) why should it have to mean that his ideas on energy policy are also left behind?

A bit of policy syncretism can be a good thing.

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How dumb do you have to be to believe, simultaneously, that: A) the Iranian government is the greatest threat to national, and international security; and B) the Iranian government's intelligence apparatus is far less competent than ABC News?

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Pharoute linked to this in comments: "The monumental task of warning future generations."

The monumental challenge is to address how warnings can be coherently conveyed for thousands of years into the future when human society and languages could change radically.

See also:

"EPA Expected to Issue Million-Year-Long Regulation," from NPR

"This Place Is Not a Place of Honor"

"Danger! Do NOT Dig Here"

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Things I don't understand, Part MCXVI

Why would a state or local government lease a highway to a private operator?

Either the thing operates at a loss, in which case no sensible private operator would want to deal with it, or the thing is profitable, in which case leasing it out doesn't seem like a smart move.

Am I missing something? Or is the current enthusiasm for leasing out public infrastructure nothing more than the sleight-of-hand budgetary trick it appears to be?

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Matt also links to this April 1962 Atlantic Monthly article warning against the dangers of "Jukebox Piracy."

This reminded me of a recent installment of Little Steven's Underground Garage (warning: sound), in which he read excerpts from Gary Marmorstein' book The Label: The Story of Columbia Records. Part of Columbia's early success was due to its embrace of radio — which other labels feared would undermine record sales. After all, why would people buy their records when they could hear them for free on the radio? So while the other labels worked to keep their records out of the hands of radio DJs, Columbia started sending them records for free. Hmmm.

One of Little Steven's current heavy-rotation faves on the Garage is the new album from Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las. Weiss was 16 when "Leader of the Pack" hit No. 1 in 1964. Now it's 2007 and she's got a new record out and it rocks. Pretty cool.

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Via Carl at FoolBlog I learn that New York City's recent ban on aluminum bats didn't include funding for wooden bats to replace them. I second Carl's take on this: "Time for MLB and/or Louisville Slugger to step up."

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Not long after posting this — about the call by some Southern Baptists to pull all their children out of the public school system — I heard this NPR report from New Orleans:

Teacher Dorothy Riley is supposed to be retired, but she came back to teach kindergartners at Drew Elementary School in New Orleans' Ninth Ward.

"I felt as though if a child ever needed a teacher, it was after Katrina," Riley says. Riley lived with her mother in Lafayette after the hurricane, but she says she felt she had to return to New Orleans.

"I don't think it was my decision. I think it was a decision from the Lord to go down and touch somebody and bring these children up," she says.

Dorothy Riley's notion that teaching in public schools can be a kind of calling and a service to others is probably incomprehensible to the me-mine-ours moguls of the SBC and the religious right.

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Kevin Drum and Tamara Draut explain that it's not just me. Most people aren't as financially secure as their parents were.

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More evidence that the World's Worst Books are dangerous:

Grist examines a poll on global warming and finds that 4 percent of Americans believe that climate change is due to "the coming end of the world or biblical prophecy."

Will Bunch notes that "The No. 2 book on Amazon right now is a 'Christian' plea for attacking Iran." That would be The Final Move Beyond Iraq, by Mike Evans. Amazon says that people who bought this book also liked Evans' book, The American Prophecies: Ancient Scriptures Reveal Our Nation's Future.

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