Category: Rants

I’ve been loosely following the recent discussion about the White House’s desire to phase out Social Security. Although for years I’ve quietly expected that Social Security will be gone by the time I’ve eligible to benefit from it, I’ve never really focused on the issue. But now, Bush and company are forcing my attention: and ...

The New York Times has a story today about how the major weight-loss programs don’t offer hard data about the effectiveness of their methods (Diet and Lose Weight? Scientists Say ‘Prove It!’.) This isn’t a big surprise, since what sells is the promise of weight loss, not necessarily the weight loss itself. That’s why people ...

Salon has video from an upcoming documentary showing how soldiers “uparmored” their Humvee using scrap metal found in Iraq: Sneak peek: “Gunner Palace”.

CNN reports: Army seeks more armored Humvees. This is good to see, but it’s terrible that it didn’t happen until it became a public relations problem. The U.S. Army is renegotiating with a Florida company to increase production of uparmored Humvees from 450 a month up to 550 a month, a senior Pentagon official said ...

Following the flap where a soldier asked Rumsfeld about the lack of armor for troops, I see that the current news is that a reporter planted GI’s question for Rumsfeld. By doing so, the Pentagon and the White House want to make people think it was an attack on a member of the administration, and ...

Found on Atrios: Despite Rumsfeld’s comment that the government is working as hard as it can to provide armor for troops, actual capacity is only 75 percent, and the sole manufacturer of body armor is just waiting for the Pentagon to place an order. The American Street » what price physics?. Armor Holdings Inc., the ...

If there’s any doubt that the Bush administration values loyalty over competence, look to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. No post-invasion plan for Iraq, Abu Graib, and now a complete lack of regard for the troops he’s sending to a war zone. One soldier, identified by The Associated Press as Army Spc. Thomas Wilson of the ...

The November 3 election results news made it clear that the presidential election was won by fundamentalist Christians who were more concerned about moral values (i.e., the decay of American society and especially the ‘threat’ of homosexuality). However, Frank Rich in his New York Times column (free subscription required) points out that the quickly-spun theory ...

DailyKos has some great forward-looking advice: Don’t Mourn, Organize. Today’s going to be a crap day, no doubt, but we’ve got to look ahead. Josh Marshall also says some great things. My biggest question: how do you make people see what they refuse to see? So many things should have tipped this election away from ...