S-C-A-R-Y

From reason.com...

The British government plans to put 20,000 families in "sin bins," where they will be under 24-hour video surveillance. The cameras will make sure parents make their children go to bed on time, eat proper meals, and go to school. The government will also send out agents to check up on the families. Some 2,000 families are already in the program.

I don't know what else to add, except that thank goodness this isn't happening in the U.S.; yet.

Media - Double Standards

Going to see comedian Joe Rogan at a club in Philly tonight. This will be short so I can get work done.

First, a NY Times reporter was held hostage in Afghanistan, secretly, for 7 months. Here. The NY Times withheld the story in the interest of the reporter's safety. I wonder if the NY Times is so thoughtful when the hostage isn't a member of its family.

The Washington Post has had a feature called Mouthpiece Theater. I'll admit I didn't watch it, and I'm not sure what it was all about. But from reports I'd guess it was supposed to be edgy commentary. Which apparently worked fine until one segment suggested Hillary Clinton would be served Mad Bitch beer. That was apparently enough to get the entire thing yanked. Now, I hate people who cry First Amendment when referring to businesses or individuals. The good old First bars government from passing laws restricting speech and says nothing about business. But this is slightly asinine

Its noted that, first off, the Post, and papers in general, are in business to irritate, secondly, while the publisher blamed the poor state of internet watchdogs at the paper it has been online for 14 years and has been CUTTING copy editors and that it regularly includes and allows offending pieces. A sampling of those pieces ... Readers complained to Ombudsman Deborah Howell about this dig at the late Jerry Falwell by Berkeley Breathed and this "Mother Goose and Grimm" jab at Jews. When Tom Toles drew a hospital bed attended by a "Dr. Rumsfeld" to make a point about the state of the U.S. military, livid vets and the Pentagon brass gave Howell an earful.

The law of unintended consquences

This is a perfect example involving health care incentives established by law. Unintended; not necassarily unforeseen..

Still, it feels to me like the article is leaving a big, pink elephant of a solution unnamed. Maybe that is just selection bias on my part.

Ignore the pink elephant that may or may not be there. Even then the article ends on a very unsatisfactory note, in my mind. Read the article (or don't) and then (if you did) let me know if you found the ending as unsatisfying as I did.

Wake me up, when August ends

Its really just there for the heat & humidity. And one birthday of note.

Of course, if we just went ahead and banned August, that might help with the heat an humidity. The birthday could be moved. Its not like September is anything to sneeze at. And besides, its a pretty sparsely used month, in my mind. One major holiday. The unofficial end of summer. But other than September 11, and a handful of birthdays, what happens in September? You hardly ever run into someone with a September birthday. So its wide open.

And August? Its just a wreck. Some evidence:

• Hiroshima & Nagasaki occured in August
• Its when Anne Frank was arrested
• its when the first income tax was collected
• Elvis & Marilyn Monroe both died
• WWI - started in August

and the kicker:

• Publishers (apparently) don't release books in August *GASP*

Here's an article arguing for, well, not exactly banishing August, but making it more bareable. Its the third or so year they've run it, I've wanted to post it in the past, so here it is. Pretty funny stuff.