Massachusetts

The argument in favor.

And Mitt Romney is running from his association with the commonwealth. Go figure.

Peaceful places

A very interesting story about the nation's most peaceful states, based on homicide rate, violent crime rate, incarceration rate, police presence, and availability of small arms. Click through and find your happy place.

RIP

Ron Santo, standout former third baseman for the Chicago Cubs, 70.


The first baseball glove I had when I was a kid was a Ron Santo signature model. Even then the glove was old, and I didn't know who Santo was. The glove had a metal button at the bottom left of the outer shell that secured a strap across the back of my wrist. Every time I caught a ball, the button would sound a metallic rattle that I can still hear. Nobody else in my little league had a glove that made that sound.

I caught my first fly ball in a game with that glove, a fly ball that I can still see. I was in right field at Tarken playground in Philly and I saw the ball come off the bat and through the twilight. To me. I was terrified, and what made matters worse was that I had no read on the ball, no angle. I couldn't react to the ball, couldn't move. I stood frozen and watched the ball for a clue as to where it might be headed, eager to break in any direction, as soon as I could figure out which.

I kept standing there and kept looking up. The ball got closer and closer. As it approached, I bent my elbow to raise my glove and watched the ball land inside. I heard the pop of the pocket, the rattle of the button and the cheers from my bench along the third-base line, behind which my father stood watching (at that level, a fly ball was a serious threat, no sure bet to be caught). I smiled as I threw the ball in, resumed my defensive stance and shook with nerves for the rest of the inning. I caught my first fly ball, and I didn't have to move.

Had him played perfectly.

RIP

Leslie Nielsen, 84.

RIP

J.D. Salinger, 91. I remember being around 10 years old and sitting on my grandparents' sofa when my parents returned from shopping and mother handed me a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye." I wasn't very enthusiastic about it, but I started reading it and soon was several pages into the book and laughing out loud. There was a time when I could pretty much rectite the book from memory. Naturally, I never was assigned the book in high school English.

Uncovered

It appears that Men's Health magazine, like many of its readers, has been caught with its pants down.

Fact check

Who could have predicted that Sarah Palin's book would be a fact-challened pile of bullshit?

It says a lot about the condition of the Republican party that she is one of its "leaders" and high-profile stars. I would root for a Palin-Jindal (or any number of lying, empty-vessel GOP shitheads long on ambition and short on ethics in the VP slot) ticket in 2012 if the mere existence of such a ticket weren't a threat to my country.

RIP

Sen. Ted Kennedy, 77.

Opt Out

OK, I get it. Conservatives don't like paying taxes. And I'm sure that's not just because "taxes are bad" is the only Republican message that has gotten any real, sustained traction outside the party in years.

So if conservatives don't want to participate in a society in which everyone helps each other and contributes to the greater good, I say let them opt out. Let them put their precious money where their mouths are and march on down to City Hall or municipal building or whatever and sign a form stating that they no longer wish to pay taxes. Fine. Their names and addresses will be entered into a database so that they never again will be saddled with the crushing burden of paying taxes.

Of course, opting out also means that they no longer will be permitted to make use of anything that was built or is maintained with tax revenue. So they can start by handing over their driver's licenses, which they won't need anymore anyway because they no longer will be permitted to use the roads, not even as a passenger in someone else's vehicle. If someone on the opt-out list is found to be traveling on a road maintained by tax revenue, the vehicle is to be impounded immediately. By the way, no using public transit either.

Sure, their kids won't be able to get to school anymore, but if they go to public school, well, it's not their school anymore anyway. Opt Outers also can forget about going to any municipal park, playground or library, which doesn't matter because, being unable to use the roads, there's no way to get to them anyway.

Not being able to use the roads pretty much means that people who don't want to pay taxes will have to stay home. And I hope they don't own that home, because if the property tax isn't paid, well ... so get ready to sell that home and rent something. And I hope that rental isn't burglarized and doesn't catch fire, because police and fire protection are two more things Opt Outers can kiss goodbye. And I hope that rental property has a well, or nothing's going to come out of the faucets. And I hope it has a septic system, or they can forget about flushing the toilet. And have fun paying a private hauler to come to your rented home to collect your trash.

But even though you no longer pay taxes, you still are subject to the laws of the community you live parallel to (but not within since you aren't contributing financially to it's maintenance or well-being). If you break the law, you will be arrested and will have to appear in court.

But don't worry, that's all on the house. And isn't passing off the costs onto someone else what it was really all about?

What other kinds of services Opt Outers can forget about once they stop paying taxes?

On a related note, with all of their ignorant noise about smaller government and fewer taxes, I find it suprising how conservative the populations of condo associations are, given the added layer of rules, bureacracy and fees. I guess that even though they claim to hate big government and taxes, they will gladly live in a place that requires payment of association fees and special assessments, as well as compliance with association rules regarding minutiae such as what colors they are permitted to paint their shutters, if it means they get to infringe on the freedoms of their neighbors.

'Bad' words

doing good.

British scientists have shown that swear words can have a powerful pain-killing effect, according to a new study published in the journal NeuroReport.

The researchers originally thought that swearing would make pain worse by focusing a person’s attention on the injury and its implications. To prove their hypothesis, they set up an experiment with 67 college students.

The students were asked to plunge their hands into frigid 41-degree Fahrenheit water for as long as they could stand the pain. Half were told to repeat their favorite curse word while their hands were submerged. The other half were asked to repeat a neutral word describing a table, such as solid or brown, while keeping their hands under water. Then the whole experiment was repeated with the two groups switching types of word. (Favorite swear words were, as you might guess, the ones starting with "F" and "S." But since the subjects were British, the researchers also got an earful of "bollocks.")

To the researchers’ surprise, the cursing group not only reported lower levels of pain, but also were able to keep their hands in the icy water longer. The men in the study, for example, were able to keep their hands in the water for an average of 190 seconds while swearing, but for only 140 seconds when uttering a neutral word.

Let's see "friggin' " and "forget you" do that shit.

Given their analgesic effects, as well as morale and team-building value (and that they're just plain fun, too), I think it's time to stop maligning expletives as "bad" when they're really pretty fucking cool.

Friends

More important than you might think.

In the quest for better health, many people turn to doctors, self-help books or herbal supplements. But they overlook a powerful weapon that could help them fight illness and depression, speed recovery, slow aging and prolong life: their friends.

Researchers are only now starting to pay attention to the importance of friendship and social networks in overall health. A 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends. A large 2007 study showed an increase of nearly 60 percent in the risk for obesity among people whose friends gained weight. And last year, Harvard researchers reported that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age.

“In general, the role of friendship in our lives isn’t terribly well appreciated,” said Rebecca G. Adams, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. “There is just scads of stuff on families and marriage, but very little on friendship. It baffles me. Friendship has a bigger impact on our psychological well-being than family relationships.”

[...] While many friendship studies focus on the intense relationships of women, some research shows that men can benefit, too. In a six-year study of 736 middle-age Swedish men, attachment to a single person didn’t appear to affect the risk of heart attack and fatal coronary heart disease, but having friendships did. Only smoking was as important a risk factor as lack of social support.

[...] “People with stronger friendship networks feel like there is someone they can turn to,” said Karen A. Roberto, director of the center for gerontology at Virginia Tech. “Friendship is an undervalued resource. The consistent message of these studies is that friends make your life better.”

I guess it's true what the great, often quoted "they" says: You can never have enough friends.

MRSA and pork

Could it be that antibiotics in feed are leading to the development of antibiotic-resistant infections? Go read.

Sometimes you wanna go

where everybody files for unemployment.

Eddie Doyle was the guy who really did know everybody’s name, at least when he started working at the tavern that inspired the television show "Cheers."

To the tens of thousands of tourists that later passed through, Doyle remained behind the bar to offer a smile, a beer and tips about where to find the Boston that wasn’t shown on TV.

Now Doyle is out of a job, laid off from "Cheers" after 35 years.

The bar’s owner has said a tough economy and sagging business forced the move, which was one of several layoffs.

You don't suppose the fact that Doyle is "around 66" years old had anything to do with his layoff, do you?

The future of newspapers

is almost here, and it doesn't involve paper.

Staffers chosen to participate in an online-only version of the Seattle P-I were notified of their selection Wednesday and Thursday. The selections indicate The Hearst Corp.'s plan for such a Web site is advancing. Two reporters said they received "provisional offers" from P-I New Media head Michelle Nicolosi or Hearst executive Ken Riddick. They said they were told they will be given formal offers if the Web site gets the go-ahead from Hearst's senior management.

The reporters wouldn't give details, saying they had been asked during their interviews not to comment. Nicolosi also declined to comment. Riddick, who has been at the P-I over the past two days, didn't return a call seeking comment.

One metro reporter, Hector Castro, said Riddick didn't ask him not to speak. The general assignment reporter, at the P-I for nine years, said he turned down Riddick's offer. He said the offer increased his health insurance cost, cut his salary by an unspecified amount, offered to match his 401(k) contributions, required him to forgo his P-I severance pay, reduced his vacation accrual to zero and required him to give up overtime.

According to Castro, Riddick said Hearst plans to start the site the day after the paper quits publishing, which Hearst has said will occur on a date not yet specified if no buyer has emerged by March 10.

I guess the savings from cutting jobs and losing the print product weren't enough, so management is using this opportunity to squeeze a little more money out of the staff. Hard to say whether that's based on necessity because the paper is in such bad financial shape, or if it's just garden-variety corporate greed.

Either way, the print product is probably finished, and other papers are likely to follow suit. So I guess Art Sulzberger wasn't kidding in 2007 when he said, "I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years," regardless of what he subsequently said in that speech to NYT employees.

I wonder if this will affect students' decisions to go into what soon may no longer be called print journalism. The thrill that we all used to get from seeing our bylines is likely to be diminished in a Web-only environment, being that anyone can publish online.

Liquid cigarettes

Soft drinks. They can contain benzene, mercury, BPA and reactive carbonyls, which have been linked to diabetes. And a stimulating, possibly addictive, drug is thrown in for good measure.

I once had a job in which we were given a 15-minute break at around 10:15 a.m. I usually drank a can of Mountain Dew during this break, and I soon found that I began feeling anxious at around 10 a.m., as though I had forgotten to do something important. I would feel nervous, with that sinking of the stomach that one experiences just before remembering that super important but forgotten thing. Being at work, I worried that there was some job-related task that I had overlooked, and thought backwards in search of something I might have forgotten to do. That never turned up anything, so I started scanning my personal file to see if I had dropped a ball there. Nothing.

I finally connected the anxious feeling to the caffeine jolt my body was anticipating. I stopped drinking that yellow, syrupy piss and the feeling went away.

Do yourself a favor and drink apple juice. Or any fruit juice not contaminated with high fructose corn syrup. Read the labels and know what you're putting into your body.

Linked

It's certainly nice to have been linked to on Paul Krugman online, as I have read his column for years for clarity regarding economic waters purposely muddied by those who put personal interests ahead of national interests. He's among the best political writers out there and tops when it comes to writing about the economy. It's cool to appear on such a high-profile radar.

As you may know, Krugman is a Very Good Friend of my Very Good Friend Susie. So there's only one degree of separation between a Nobel Prize winner and me, someone with a semi-regular series of posts titled "Douchebag of the Week." Behold the power of the Internets.

And it's nice to know that Krugman apparently is a fan of Nuclear Assault. Come to think of it, I think I remember him from the pit at a Megadeth show at City Gardens in Trenton in the late '80s. Of course, that could have been my friend Ray.

Code stupid

This could be the most powerful argument against dress codes: They didn't help the Bush administration perform any better and, from all accounts, George enforced a dress code rather strictly.

Every time I read a memo or e-mail about the dress code at whatever company I happened to be working for at the time, I wondered who had enough time on their hands to worry (and write) about something that had nothing to do with the company's business. It always seemed like a waste of time to me. But then again, I never bought into the notion that workers were more capable, competent, talented or productive in Dockers than in blue jeans. As noted in a previous post on this subject, I'm hardly alone in thinking that.

I remember a company meeting with a particularly clueless owner. Business at the company was bad, and we were treated to a rambling speech about the big plans he had to grow the business each year for the next five years. Part of his plan was to do away with dress-down Friday, as if that additional weekly wave of khaki would be accompanied by an onslaught of new clients begging our business-casual representatives to take their business.

Needless to say, things have gotten worse for the better-dressed company, and there have been at least two rounds of layoffs. And with such competent management, more are all but certain.

The bottom line: Telling adults how they have to dress does not improve their work performance and is bad for morale. And any manager who relies on dress codes to improve productivity or profitability has probably run out of ideas.

Redemption

We stand on the threshold of a new era. In two days we finally will turn the page on a presidential administation that has damaged our great nation in so many ways and has brought so much fear, anxiety and outright suffering to so many. An administration that has fanned the flames of hatred, bigotry and ignorance for its own gain, hacking open a rift between our people that may take generations to heal.

As we say good riddance to the politics of fear, lies and exploitation, we swear in a man who won the presidency with a message of hope that this nation can be restored to its former glory. Once again the United States can be a symbol of freedom, equality and opportunity instead of a bully that treats its founding principles as nothing more than advertising slogans and protects its short-term interests at the expense of its long-term interests with threats, lies, bullets and bombs.

On Jan. 20, our nation will have the opportunity to begin to redeem itself in the eyes of so many of its own people and in the eyes of the world. Perhaps we, as individuals, also should seize this opportunity for redemption. January 20 can be Redemption Day, when we atone for our own missteps and make amends with those we have wronged, intentionally or otherwise; when we break the cycle of anger begetting anger and revenge begetting revenge. For any individual, this might mean making a difficult phone call, going to confession or performing community service. But we can let go of negativity in favor of reconciliation, peace, happiness and harmony.

And, of course, in that spirit, we can expand our capacity for forgiveness on that day and allow ourselves to be more receptive to the apologies and conciliatory gestures of others.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. This passage in the Lord's prayer acknowledges that forgiveness is a two-way street, that we can't expect someone to let go of any ill will they may be feeling toward us if we can't do the same for someone else.

In short, you get what you give.

Every day, we have the opportunity to walk the walk, to show the grace and strength of character that it takes to forgive, to acknowledge our mistakes and to seek forgiveness. Perhaps if we set aside one day a year to recognize that opportunity, we will celebrate and use it more often.

It may not seem like one person's picking up the phone and saying "I'm sorry" or telling another person "I forgive you" and really meaning it would make much of a difference in the world, but what if it's not just one person? What if thousands of us did this? What if millions did? And even if it is just one person, replacing discord with harmony is a net gain.

Movin’ Out

Drink it in, folks: the sweet image of the Bushes packing their shit and getting the fuck out. You may never see a more beautiful photo of a moving truck.

Naturally, Dana Perino lied about this last week. Can’t help herself, I guess.

End of cheap gas

Natural gas, not gasoline, which also is due for a price increase now that the election is over.

The era of cheap gas is coming to an end, Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has told ministers from the world's major gas-exporting countries.

Mr Putin said the cost of extracting gas was rising sharply, therefore "the era of cheap energy resources, of cheap gas, is of course coming to an end".

H/T Susie.