Progressive Review

• Notes from the cove: Life's good here (except when we try to brand things)
  As Bill Nimitz said of Portland, Maine's new slogan, "I've seen old telegrams with more sizzle." It also interferes with our efforts to give Maine a new slogan, based on the most common phrase uttered by Maine restaurant servers when someone orders a Coke: "Is Pepsi okay?" "Yes, life's good here" but for more than […]
• Meanwhile...
  Another reason to avoid Verizon Weird things schools have banned 83% want to keep student loan rates from increasing, an opinion that holds constant across party lines. Almost two-thirds support lowering interest rates to 0.75 percent, the rate at which banks can borrow from the U.S. Treasury.  Quotes If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of […]
• TWA 800 back in the news
  From the start the TWA 800 crash has been on our list of unsolved mysteries. One reason: Despite the official claim that the incident was caused by a structural problem, people forget that what we think of as standard airport security today was kicked off by the TWA 800 crash. The questionable finding that it was in an internal problem did not change securit […]
• Confused again
  Trying hard to keep this all straight, but as we understand it, you are a terrorist is you have any dealing with Al Qaeda, yet it's okay for the Obama folks to arm Al Queda in Syria. Now it's gotten more complicated: Sky, UK - The Taliban has said it was behind an attack that killed four US troops in Afghanistan, just hours after Washington announc […]
• How times change
  White House press pool - The stage for the president's speech is set up on the East side of the Brandenburg Gate, in the old East Berlin. The sun is pounding down and there are around 6,000 invited guests according to German authorities. New York Times - The last time President Obama paid a visit here, as a candidate in 2008, he was cheered on by 200,00 […]
• Meanwhile. . .
  The threat of ag-gag laws The government's sweetheart deals with Booz Allen US marriage rates at historic low Photos of Obama & Putin looking sad Remarkable interview with a jazz musician & band leader Infrequently asked questions Have you noticed how easy it is to see through politicians who talk about transparency? Action notes Orchestral work […]
• Research finds link between air pollution & autism
  Bloomberg - Researchers from Harvard University’s School of Public Health found that pregnant women exposed to high levels of diesel particulates or mercury were twice as likely to have an autistic child compared with peers in low-pollution areas. The findings, published today in Environmental Health Perspectives, are from the largest U.S. study to examine t […]
• Rebuilding America: Mix & match
  Sam Smith  If you want to scare the establishment, get people together who it doesn't think belong together. If you are students having a problem with your principal don't just go to his or her office with the usual troublemakers; walk in with some of the smartest kids, some jocks, a few punks, blacks, whites, latinos, and, best of all, the kids wh […]
• The Hillary trap
  Sam Smith  If and when, as now seems likely, Hillary Clinton is nominated as the next Democratic candidate for president, the nature of political debate will change radically. Right now, the Republicans are keeping quiet, waiting for it to happen and then all hell will break loose. The reason is that the true story of Hillary Clinton has been ignored, mythol […]
• IRS is spying on you, too
  MSN - The Internal Revenue Service is collecting a lot more than taxes this year -- it's also acquiring a huge volume of personal information on taxpayers' digital activities, from eBay auctions to Facebook posts and, for the first time ever, credit card and e-payment transaction records, as it expands its search for tax cheats to places it's […]
• What food stamps have really done
  Greg Kaufmann, Nation - University of California at Davis economist Hilary Hoynes and her colleagues looked at adults born between 1956 and 1981 “who grew up in disadvantaged families (their parent had less than a high school education)”, and the impact of access to food stamps early in life. The authors find that “access to food stamps in utero and in early […]
• Problems we hadn't started worrying about yet
  In all, 13 175 injuries related to toilets presented to ERs during 2002–2010. The most common mechanism involved crush from accidental fall of toilet seat, described in 9011 (68.4%, 95% CI 6907–11 115) cases. Most crush injuries were isolated to the penis (98.1%). Of crush injuries, 81.7% occurred in children aged 2–3 years and 99.3% occurred in the home. Cr […]
• DC's war on free enterprise
  UPDATE: DC caved on the proposed fines. Now they will only be $50. If you want a good example of free enterprise, check with a  street vendor and not a Fortune 500 CEO. And the fact is, many cities dislike free enterprise, witness this planned restriction on DC street food vendors: "Food trucks that park at an expired meter could face $2,000 fines for a […]
• America's war on aspargus farmers
  Now I Know - According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, American asparagus farms were worth just over $233 million in 1999. That, to date, is their highest total value. A decade later, those farms (or, those which still existed, as the farm sizes fell by two-thirds over that same decade) were worth just under $90 million. The drop off is stark, but it’ […]
• Biggest protests in 20 years hit Brazil
  Reuters - As many as 200,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Brazil's biggest cities on Monday in a swelling wave of protest tapping into widespread anger at poor public services, police violence and government corruption.The marches, organized mostly through snowballing social media campaigns, blocked streets and halted traffic in more tha […]