n2doc
n2doc's JournalNYT: Callous Choices in the House
For months, House Republicans have been trying to wriggle out of the agreement they made in August that will force deep cuts in military spending. Now we know how they propose to do it: They will take tens of billions out of programs for the poorest Americans, particularly food stamps, along with health care for the middle class.
The House Agriculture Committee voted on Wednesday to cut $33 billion over the next decade out of food stamps. That would immediately end benefits for two million people, and reduce benefits for the remaining 44 million people who use the program. A family of four would find their benefits lowered by $57 a month beginning in September, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The committee trimmed job training for food-stamp recipients by 72 percent; 280,000 students would no longer be eligible for free meals.
To understand how callous this vote was, consider the choices the committee and the full House could have made. The budget deal reached last August — the one Republicans triggered with their disastrous debt-ceiling crisis — calls for a painful sequester of $600 billion to both military and domestic spending over a decade. The Republicans could have accepted the military cuts they had agreed to or they could have joined with Democrats in reducing the cuts by raising taxes on the rich.
Instead, the 2013 budget, written by Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, put all the cuts on the domestic side. Representative Mike Conaway, a Texas Republican, explained that the Constitution requires Congress to pay for defense but that food stamps and other domestic programs were lower priorities.
more
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/opinion/callous-choices-in-the-house.html?src=recg
Paul Krugman: Earth to Ben Bernanke
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: April 24, 2012
When the financial crisis struck in 2008, many economists took comfort in at least one aspect of the situation: the best possible person, Ben Bernanke, was in place as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Bernanke was and is a fine economist. More than that, before joining the Fed, he wrote extensively, in academic studies of both the Great Depression and modern Japan, about the exact problems he would confront at the end of 2008. He argued forcefully for an aggressive response, castigating the Bank of Japan, the Fed’s counterpart, for its passivity. Presumably, the Fed under his leadership would be different.
Instead, while the Fed went to great lengths to rescue the financial system, it has done far less to rescue workers. The U.S. economy remains deeply depressed, with long-term unemployment in particular still disastrously high, a point Bernanke himself has recently emphasized. Yet the Fed isn’t taking strong action to rectify the situation.
The Bernanke Conundrum — the divergence between what Professor Bernanke advocated and what Chairman Bernanke has actually done — can be reconciled in a few possible ways. Maybe Professor Bernanke was wrong, and there’s nothing more a policy maker in this situation can do. Maybe politics are the impediment, and Chairman Bernanke has been forced to hide his inner professor. Or maybe the onetime academic has been assimilated by the Fed Borg and turned into a conventional central banker. Whichever account you prefer, however, the fact is that the Fed isn’t doing the job many economists expected it to do, and a result is mass suffering for American workers.
more (Major article)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/magazine/chairman-bernanke-should-listen-to-professor-bernanke.html?_r=1&hp
Pizza Hut Middle East’s Cheeseburger Topped Pizza
Classic all-American fast foods, hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza, have been given an artery-clogging upgrade in places like the UK and the Middle East.
First, there was the hot dog stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut UK. Now, Pizza Hut in the Middle East has created an even bigger food wonder: the cheeseburger pizza.
Pizza Hut’s Crown Crust Pizza has mini cheese burgers nestled in its crust. It’s topped with meat, lettuce and tomatoes and drizzled with a signature dressing.
Another Crown Crust option is a pizza with fried chicken in the crust topped with breaded chicken tenders and strips, and glazed with barbecue sauce.
more
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2012/04/pizza-hut-middle-easts-cheeseburger-topped-pizza/
Woman Collapses at Heart Attack Grill
The Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas has lived up to its name, yet again. A woman is recovering after she collapsed at the restaurant Saturday night.
The woman, a Las Vegas resident in her 40s, was eating a double bypass burger, smoking cigarettes and having a margarita, said the restaurant’s owner, Jon Basso.
She was found unconscious at the restaurant and during the resuscitation, said Basso, who’s been following her condition. She’s doing okay and is now recovering at the hospital he said.
With customers from around the world, “It’s the mecca for unhealthy lifestyles,” he said.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2012/04/woman-collapses-at-heart-attack-grill/
That place is a menace!
Wrong lesson: Gun safety class ends with couple wounded
By Duncan Adams | The Roanoke Times
A firearms safety course went awry in Bedford County Saturday when a man shot himself in the hand with a .45-caliber handgun and the bullet passed through his hand and struck his wife, seated nearby, in the leg.
Shot were Michael L. Deel, 54, and Michelle K. Deel, 49, both of Roanoke. Emergency dispatchers in Bedford County received a call at 12:25 p.m. reporting a shooting on Chapel Woods Drive. The Bedford County Sheriff’s Office said county rescue units and deputies responded.
The Deels were attending a firearms safety class being taught and hosted by Thomas F. Starke, 57, according to the department.
The sheriff’s office said Starke told deputies that he had left the room, heard a shot and returned to find the Deels had been shot.
more
http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/307848
Wind Damages Country’s Highest Astronomical Observatory
By Sarah Jane Keller Email Author April 23, 2012
The atmosphere is a nuisance for optical telescopes, so placing them on mountaintops where the air is thinner is a good strategy. But this winter, being above the riffraff was too much for North America’s highest astronomical observatory.
Sometime after October, no one knows exactly when, violent winds over Colorado’s Front Range blew the 15-year-old observatory’s dome to pieces.
The University of Denver’s Myer-Womble Observatory is perched at 14,148 feet near the summit of Mount Evans. “The elevation is the main thing going for it, and of course by getting above low altitude one gets above the haze layers,” said the observatory’s director and DU astronomer, Robert Stencel, “It also buys you very clear, dry, and stable air overhead at times.”
Earlier this winter, Stencel and his students looked at the building’s interior webcam and noticed unusual shadows inside. Then Stencel found some photos that winter hikers posted online. Something seemed wrong on the mountain.
In summer, visitors can take North America’s highest road to Myer-Womble, but it’s a cold and lonely place in the winter. Stencel recruited mountaineer Adam Jones, who is training to climb Everest, to check out the observatory. Jones hiked up above the weatherbeaten tree line and discovered a big hole in the observatory’s 22-foot dome.
more
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/jet-stream-observatory-damage/
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayMember since: Tue Feb 10, 2004, 01:08 PM
Number of posts: 47,953
