StumbleUpon | commerican's blog posts

http://commerican.stumbleupon.com/review/36726748/

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:45:27 -0700

When it was around, the Houston Astrodome (in Texas) was enclosed, so live grass couldn't grow in there. Icky, greasy, and slick fake plastic grass was installed in the fields instead. It is known as astroturf. The word already has a negative connotation, because many fans and players didn't like it (see appropriate adjectives).

So when it's used to describe the activities of corporate-sponsored "concerned citizen" groups, it is meant in a derogatory way. It suggests the group is greasy, plastic, and worst of all, FAKE.

Not only is this funny, but it may actually be more damaging to both the puppet/puppeteers than to those they are attempting to thwart, in that enough people have the good sense and scruples to see that this is astroturf, and would therefore discount the concerns of the puppets and hold the puppeteers in contempt.

And really, that's what's happened. (Hooray for ambiguous contractions!) Those of us who are aware of the astroturf nature of the t-baggers, etc, laugh away their illegitimate concern. The more they howl and scream into the echo chamber of corporate greed, the less we take them seriously.

http://commerican.stumbleupon.com/review/36097387/

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:01:24 -0700

Please don't send me friend requests without contacting me via PM first, even if it's to argue. Yes, I keep my friends close and my enemies closer...

http://commerican.stumbleupon.com/review/34839538/

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:36:12 -0700

It is often attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well might the use of the thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing that men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at the slave-owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves into the position of the latter;--what a cheerless prospect, with not even a hope of change! picture to yourself the chance, ever hanging over you, of your wife and your little children--those objects which nature urges even the slave to call his own--being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder!

-Charles Darwin

http://commerican.stumbleupon.com/review/34836889/

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:40:03 -0700

Lakes in the Hill Country are drying up. One of the hottest summers and severe drought are giving us a taste of what's to come.

http://commerican.stumbleupon.com/review/33919193/

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:32:00 -0700

Heat wave in central Texas - 100+ degrees for more than two weeks now.

http://commerican.stumbleupon.com/review/33254536/

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:42:26 -0700

Stumble is fixed! No more manually choosing topics!

http://commerican.stumbleupon.com/review/33076603/

Mon, 25 May 2009 03:58:05 -0700

Houston is the butthole of Texas.

http://commerican.stumbleupon.com/review/32122375/

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:32:41 -0700

Two bad metaphors in a row!

http://commerican.stumbleupon.com/review/31841127/

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:48:23 -0700

I normally enjoy using stumble, but for some reason the crappiest batch of webpages has been delivered to my virtual door recently.

http://commerican.stumbleupon.com/review/30539322/

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:36:59 -0800

Over a century ago, an Austrian 'economist' by the name of Boehm-Baewerk sought to refute Marx's rendition of the labour theory of value. He and others like him believed that in one crushing blow they pulled the rug out from under Marx's ideas, whilst championing the exploiters Marx was attempting to unmask with his analysis.

In truth, the Austrian did no such thing, instead giving a classic example of the straw man fallacy, and becoming yet another case of a vulgar economist denying facts because they interfere with pet theories.

Modern right-wing economists (and similar cheerleaders) still insist the LTV has been disproved by marginal/neoclassical/Austrian economics and that Marx is unequivocally wrong in this regard. Such assertions are made out of ignorance or malice or both, usually the former. These folks should make a greater effort to understand what the claim is before they think they can refute it. For the latter, fuck you. You deserve it and you know it.