News

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Welcome to Democrazy

“Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” – Sir Winston Churchill –

A successful democracy has always rested on two fundamental pillars. The first is compromise; the ability for even the most intractable of political foes to sit down at a table and hammer out laws that neither of them like, but that both of them can live with. The second is the exclusion of extreme elements. Simply put, government cannot function if the lunatics are running the asylum. Continue reading →

The 10 Best (or Worst?) Manic Pixie Dream Girls of All Time

For those not familiar with the term, “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” is a term coined by film reviewer Nathan Rabin in 2007 for a type of character we all know well.

She is generally petite, attractive, high on life, playful, prone to quirky antics and shenanigans, maybe minor crime that doesn’t hurt no-one, and will inevitably be obsessed with teaching a more straight-laced, brooding male character to “loosen up a little”, “be free”, “be happy” or similar.  They probably “meet cute” early in the work, too.
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USPS To Close Over 3600 Branches

The United States Postal Service operates at a huge loss, 8.5 billion in fiscal 2010, and is taking steps to close the gap.

We just don’t need or use our physical post offices as we once did. Our checks are directly deposited, we schedule our bill payments through our bank, we read our magazines and look at our catalogs on the internet. The volume of mail handled drops every year and the price of postage cannot keep up with the costs of maintaining post offices in nearly every zip code. Continue reading →

Nerd News Roundup: Weekend Edition

  Well hello there my droogs. As promised, and because you’ve been such good little nerds and nerdettes, I’ve collected up bits and pieces of news that came out of Comicon this weekend. But wait, there’s more! I couldn’t just start up a weekend edition that was more of the same great article you receive during the week. What fun would that be? So, let’s give a hearty NNR welcome to the brand new TV section!  Considering all the sci-fi and fantasy programming hitting the airwaves this fall, it only makes sense. This weekend, Snow White gets serious, The Man In Black voices his concerns, Cable isn’t dead and a horror icon returns in this special Weekend Edition of the Nerd News Roundup!

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Boehner’s Debt Ceiling Plan Would Be Worst Thing Evar

I know this ain’t Ezra Klein’s blog, but let’s wonk out for a moment.

Boehner’s debt ceiling plan really, really sucks. According to the president of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, Mr. Sobbing Spray Tan’s debt ceiling deal “could well produce the greatest increase in poverty and hardship produced by any law in modern U.S. history.”

In short, the Boehner plan would force policymakers to choose among cutting the incomes and health benefits of ordinary retirees, repealing the guts of health reform and leaving an estimated 34 million more Americans uninsured, and savaging the safety net for the poor. It would do so even as it shielded all tax breaks, including the many lucrative tax breaks for the wealthiest and most powerful individuals and corporations.

Get the deets here.

New Jersey Passes Law to Protect Unemployed from Employers

The State of Employment: Too bad suckers! If you don’t have a job already, you’re never going to get one because employers only want the employable and the employable are already employed (but, like, they’ll settle for someone who got laid off on, like, Thursday at the earliest).

“I feel like I am being shunned by our entire society,” said Kelly Wiedemer, 45, an information technology operations analyst who said a recruiter had told her that despite her skill set she would be a “hard sell” because she had been out of work for more than six months.

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Tuesday Morning Headlines

I am wearing pads of cottons over my baby blues, so damaged are my eyes from watching John Boehner in High Definition last night. That was my fault. I should not turned to a HD channel. I just didn’t think of it, you know? One minute I was chillin’ on the couch, playing with my new Droid3, the next minute this spectacular glow filled the living room, eclipsing the glow from my Yankee candles, exploding forward, washing over me, filling my brain like the juice of a radioactive orange. I shall heal. Worry you not about me. Continue reading →

Breaking: UN Declares Ban On News Until 2012

No more. No mas. We are full. Stay out news.The UN announced today that due to the massive news surplus in the first seven months of 2011, no more events will be permitted, anywhere in the world, for the rest of the year.

A spokesperson from the UN said today that the General Assembly have voted to ban all newsworthy happenings for the rest of the year; “After the horror of the Japanese tsunami, the roller-coaster ride of the Arab Spring and the global recession and debt crises, we were already emotionally shattered. Now after the shocking events in Norway and the spectre of famine hanging over the Horn of Africa we give up. 2011 is full; there will be no further events until 2012”.

This move was welcomed by journalists all over the globe; Continue reading →