“Unlike the Golden Globes, where film and TV stars mingle on the red carpet but compete in parallel categories, MTV is all but erasing the barrier between the two.”
The number of pedestrians being killed by automobiles is way too high.
“The lesson that runs through all these moments is this: if you cling to what you once knew, you’ll be left behind. Keep learning.”
“[Researchers] found that a 2013 California law that granted driver’s licenses to immigrants in the country illegally reduced hit-and-run accidents by 7 to 10 percent in 2015, meaning roughly 4,000 fewer hit-and-runs. In that same year, 600,000 people got driver’s licenses under the law.”
“Is it any wonder, then, that the crack epidemic led to a “tough on crime” crackdown focused on harsher prison sentences and police tactics, while the current opioid crisis has led more to calls for legislation, including a measure Congress passed last year, that boosted spending on drug treatment to get people with substance use disorders help?”
“Nearly 50 percent of Americans tell Simmons they would be less likely to use a product or service endorsed by Trump. At the same time, 29 percent say they would actively boycott a product or service endorsed by the president. Only 18 percent of respondents say a Trump endorsement would make them more likely to use a product or service.”
RIP, Carolyn Kelly, artist and daughter of cartoonist Walt Kelly.
On punching Nazis, which is the sort of thing we find ourselves having to debate these days.
“Neither Social Security nor the Pentagon will go bankrupt unless Congress allows it, and Congress will never allow it. So why maintain the charade? Get rid of the regressive dedicated funding stream, fund Social Security from general revenues, and then adjust taxes and/or deficits as necessary to pay for it. This seems to work tolerably well for every other function of government, so why not Social Security?”
Happy Inception Day, Leon Kowalski.
“The assault of Trump on our constitutional foundations is, in fact, daily, insidious, effective, and cannot be bracketed off into the realm of the unthreatening, however keenly, desperately, we would all like to do that, for the sake of our own sanity and civic health—which depends, after all, exactly on not being compelled to pay attention to politics. A healthy polity lifts public life into a world of reasonable administration and procedural reliability, alongside which we can expand our inner lives and interests without having, as people in autocratic governments must, to think about the boss and the secret police and what is going on inside the palace at every minute.”
RIP, Spike Dykes, former Texas Tech football coach.
The annual White House Easter Egg Roll may be a spectacle this year for reasons unlike any other year.
“A 2013 proposal to allow cell phone calls during airplane flights will be thrown out by the Federal Communications Commission.”
RIP, John Geils, founder and lead guitarist of the J. Geils Band. My blood runs cold…
RIP, Dorothy Mengering, David Letterman’s mom and the best Winter Olympics correspondent ever.
“If you’re mad about this now, just wait until you find out that what United did was pretty much by the book.”
We’d make the same trade, too, Stephen.
“For folks keeping score on Trump’s policy flip-flops, it’s been a busy week. First, there was the Trump administration’s mixed messages on Syria and its rapid shifts on Russia. And yesterday? About-faces on China and the Ex-Im Bank and NATO and Janet Yellen, all in one day.”
“Chalking this up to some kind of new strategy probably gives Trump and his team too much credit. What we’re witnessing is governing chaos, driven by longstanding ignorance and confusion, led by a clumsy president with few core beliefs to help him navigate.”
RIP, Dan Rooney, chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
I’m confused by the article about giving undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses. Undocumented immigrants are LESS likely than citizens to commit crimes, so it stands to reason that very few undocumented would be out driving around with no license. CA started issuing DL’s to the undocumented and hit and runs decreased by 10%? If I agree that correlation equals causation, then that tells me that there were a bunch of undocumented immigrants committing crimes in CA by driving without a license, but now they don’t flee when they get into accidents. That can’t be right, because the undocumented are very law abiding, as a group. How could they have been driving, en mass, without DL’s? What gives?
The article gives the impression that one out of every 10 or 12 hit and runs was committed by an undocumented immigrant, before CA started giving them DL’s.
Bill, that’s a poor attempt at humor or sarcasm or whatever. Illegal immigrants drive. When they have a license, they also buy insurance. When they have a license and insurance, they don’t leave the scene of an accident because they aren’t afraid they will be arrested. Hence the decrease in hit and run. I suppose your solution is door to door searches by jack booted thugs shouting “papers, now”, with instant deportation for anyone who can’t comply.
But Ross, according to California native and self professed expert Art Acevedo, Houston’s latest police chief, illegals are now refusing to call the police when they are victims of violent crimes such as armed robberies and rapes because they are afraid of being held accountable and deported. If that is true as well, it stands to reason that license or no, they are less likely to stick around when causing an accident or other crime, the newfound fear under a Trump administration almost certain to change the outcome of the previous research moving forward.