The Associated Press reports today that the indebtedness of over 37 million American graduates now tops $1 trillion.
It’s OUR money, and the Bitemaster predicts we ain’t NEVER getting paid back.
Students Now Over $1 Trillion In Debt
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Monthly Archives: March 2014
Marketing news: Corporations can now sponsor Girl Scout and Cub Scout merit badges!
If you’re in marketing, here’s some super good news: you can now add scouting to your communications arsenal through patch and badge programs that promote the good work that your industry does for America.
Thanks and a hat tip to Above the Law.
World Vision forced to back down on amazing policy towards gays
World Vision recently changed their policy on gay employees and then changed again.
The old policy was to avoid hiring gay employees. They even won lawsuits over it.
The new policy held everyone to the same standards of fidelity. Gays and straights were expected to be celibate if single, and faithful if married. It was strict, but it was fair. It brought a traditional ethic of family, valued by many Christians, to bear equally on both gay and straight employees.
After the policy change to accept gay Christians was announced, the evangelical right switched into high gear and, in effect, forced the organization to retract or lose their funding.
How sad. It sounds like World Vision really tried to do the right thing.
World Vision’s (Failed) Attempt at Justice for Gay Christians | Paul Brandeis Raushenbush.
GOP States Are The Most Dependent On Government
I don’t even know what to say — other than “Bite me!”
Department of Justice does zilch against mortgage fraud, then fakes its statistics
Adapted from Above the Law:
A few months ago, the FBI had quietly admitted that its primary function was no longer law enforcement but rather “national security.” Instead the FBI is putting a huge part of its budget towards “counterterrorism” while its efforts to take down white collar crime is dropping significantly.
This is confirmed by new report from the Justice Department’s Inspector General. It notes that, despite President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder promising that cracking down on mortgage fraud was a top priority, the FBI has actually put it near the bottom of the list of actual priorities.
The DOJ then pretended that it had been fighting mortgage fraud and put on a whole presentation about its success — based on totally faulty numbers. Numbers that it was pretty sure were faulty — and then took nearly a year to admit that their claims of success were based on bogus stats.
Prurient Party Pix Posted Publicly
The article in the Daily News is no big deal — kids are still getting drunk on Long Island. But I couldn’t resist blogging about it so I could write my own headline.
And I will note that, unlike the old days, these scenes of drunken revelry are now photographed and posted on the Internet. Next thing you know, Mark Zuckerberg will run the pix through his new facial recognition software and match each of these kids to their Facebook page.
NYU Langone philanthropist compares anti-rich rhetoric to Hitler’s Germany
“I hope it’s not working,” Ken Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot and major GOP donor, said of populist political appeals. “Because if you go back to 1933, with different words, this is what Hitler was saying in Germany. You don’t survive as a society if you encourage and thrive on envy or jealousy.”
Ken Langone, Top Christie Donor And Home Depot Co-Founder, Makes Hitler Comparison.
And in Politico.
During the Bloomberg years, need for food pantries and soup kitchens grew by 200,000
In a city of plenty, a staggering number of people are struggling to feed themselves and their families.
Nearly one in five New Yorkers, 1.4 million people, now rely on a patchwork network of 1,000 food pantries and soup kitchens across the city to eat.
The first whammy to hit this population was the 2008 recession. Those living paycheck-to-paycheck never did recover, while the number of millionaires rose. The second whammy was November’s slash in the Food Stamp benefit, engineered by cynical Republicans, whose action amounted to a gentleman’s ethnic cleansing.
A classic “Bite Me” from Wikipedia to the FBI
Back in 2010, Wikipedia drew the attention of the FBI because it included the FBI seal in the Wikipedia entry on the FBI.
FBI Deputy General Counsel David C. Larson wrote to Wikipedia demanding that Wikipedia remove the image, claiming that its use violated federal law. According to Larson’s letter, Wikipedia’s use of an image of the FBI seal violated a law that makes it illegal to make or possess badges, identification cards, or other insignia of a U.S agency’s “design.” The FBI’s version misstated the law as: “Whoever manufactures, sells, or possesses any . . . insignia, of the design prescribed by the [Department head]. . . .”
Wikimedia’s general counsel, Mike Godwin (yes, that Mike Godwin), refused. Instead, he responded with a snarky lesson in statutory construction:
May we talk a little bit further about ejusdem generis and your creative editing of the statute?
Entertainingly, in support for your argument, you included a version of 701 in which you removed the very phrases that subject the statute to ejusdem generis analysis. While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version of Section 701 that you forwarded to us.
Senators Okay With Spying On Citizens, But Outraged It Happened To Congress
A headline worthy of BITEME.ME: Senators Okay With Spying On Citizens, But Outraged It Happened To Congress
HuffPo reporter Sabrina Siddiqui goes on to say “Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a staunch defender of government surveillance of ordinary citizens, took to the Senate floor Tuesday with the stunning accusation that the Central Intelligence Agency may have violated federal law to spy on Congress.”
via Senators Okay With Spying On Citizens, But Outraged It Happened To Congress.