.
(Reuters) – The coming Chinese Year of the Horse may bring conflicts and disasters related to fire but strong gains in stocks linked to wood, the year’s two dominant elements, say Hong Kong’s practitioners of the ancient art of feng shui…
“The upcoming Horse year is also a ‘yang wood’ year, when people will stick more to their principles and stand firm,” said Raymond Lo, a practitioner for more than 20 years who has students all over the world.
“So it is hard to negotiate or compromise as there are more tendencies for people to fight for their ideals.”…
But the good news is that the fire element will drive market sentiment, implying strong performance by stocks…
“Wood-related sectors will flourish, including culture, education, agriculture, lumber and media,” said another feng shui practitioner, Lai Hon-fai…
Too much fire portends disasters such as volcanic eruptions, explosions and power outages during summer, warned Yeo.
The risk of a new wave of bird flu persists, Lo said, and officials in China should be on their guard because the coming year will be full of sex scandals…
From what I can google, it’s supposed to be a pretty good year for Rabbit people (like the Spousal Unit) and better still for Sheep/Goats (me). But for Dog people — born in, say, 1970 — there’s a golden connection…
***********
Apart from fortune cookies, what’s on the agenda for the start of the Lunar New Year?
Central Planning
I like the financial aspects about being born in 1970.
Paul’s prophecy is a little scary though. Have another baby? Yikes!
NotMax
Mess o’ superstitious claptrap.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Central Planning: My wife’s a dog person(so are the dogs born in 2006)) but I think having another baby is not in the cards. Myself and the kid are pig people.
geg6
1958 dog person, representing! No babies for me though.
OzarkHillbilly
1958, so dog, carpenter so wood is what I work with, should be a good year. Sp why do I get the feeling I’m screwed?
OzarkHillbilly
Also, every girl friend I ever had said I was a dog, so that is no surprise.
Schlemizel
Think Progress and an interesting article about a guy who is screwing the nutters. His method is one I had thought of long ago & should have followed up on as it is a gold mine.
The story is way too long for the amount of real info in it but an interesting read
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2014/01/30/3134851/conservatives-food4patriots/
sparrow
The 27% strikes again!
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/01/chart-day-awful-lot-people-think-obamacare-hurting-them
One of the things I am always imporessed by in authoritarians is their ability to self-delude. I can be pretty partisan at times, and I have cought myself assuming dem policy = good without thinking it through. But I don’t think I could reach the kind of levels of delusion that would make me say a law that has no effect on me whatsoever has had a “terrible effect”… these people are mentally sick.
Warren Terra
Does the Feng Shui expert have any advice on whether it will be a good year for the credulous?
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
There’s a lot of that going around.
As for what’s on the agenda: tonight, more snow! And tomorrow, freezing rain and then more snow! And next week, a lot more snow and then subzero temperatures…again!
This is really starting to get tiresome.
Mustang Bobby
Year of the Dragon — 1952 — here. Coincidentally, I’m of Welsh ancestry, which has the red dragon on the flag.
Nothing planned this weekend except catching up on TiVo and working on my novel-in-progress.
MomSense
What about those of us who are not dogs? Any good news for us?
JPL
@danielx: I feel for you. If you need advice on snow removal, contact Nathan Deal because he knows what to do now.
Baud
Interesting, since the meme of the day in the MSM is that the tea party is on its heels and Boehner has taken control of his caucus. We shall see….
JPL
Happy New Year! I plan on starting the New Year all over and maybe this time will be better. The boss of the blog sounds like he is in bad shape but as long as Steve is okay, life is good.
Baud
Happy New Year, Amir Khalid.
Do they do a ball drop from the Petronas Towers to celebrate?
BruceFromOhio
Fire, wood, and sex scandals – sounds about right.
Happy Friday to all, and a Happy New Year, too! The deep freeze has lifted in El Buckeye, its almost balmy outside. Looking forward to a weekend of being able to go outside without threat to life and limb, sampling home brews, and the last hand egg contest until September.
danielx
@Baud:
The tea party shall never die while the unholy trinity of Gohmert, Bachmann and King have anything to say about it.
SFAW
Gong shi fa t’sai, AL, and many more.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemizel: “There’s a sucker born every minute.” – David Hannum (NOT PT Barnum)
SFAW
@danielx:
If only Tod Browning were still around …
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
I hope not. That would mean half a million new Rethugs every year?
PaulW
I’m 1970, I’m Dog, what what?
jibeaux
Got paid and am ordering seeds to start indoors, yay!
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: ‘Fraid so, but most of them aren’t born, they are created.
scav
Happy New Year to critters of all materials! I’m always up for a new year and an excuse to visit Argyle Street? Firecrackers in falling snow can be rather fun.
Cervantes
@Schlemizel: Thanks. Fascinating what Baler gets away with, but Rick Perlstein’s article on the general subject is better.
Cervantes
@Baud: Malaysia is a majority Muslim country. Islam is the state religion. The Chinese minority celebrates its New Year, and in urban areas there’s some good-natured inter-communal festivity all year round — but everyone knows their place.
gene108
Plenty of Lunar calendars out there that do not have a New Years today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_calendar
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
rikyrah
Atlanta’s Problem with White Stuff
PHILIP BUMP
JAN 30, 2014 2:50PM ET / POLITICS
The ice storm that shut down Atlanta this week was a “fiasco” that was “manmade from start to finish,” according to Atlanta Magazine’s Rebecca Burns, writing for Politico. But we have to note that, in part, the men who made the fiasco were white ones.
One of the recurring reasons given for people being stranded on roadways on Tuesday night, staying the night in stores and schools without a route home, was the decision to close schools and businesses at about the same time. That move sent huge numbers of people onto the roads simultaneously. Burns points out that a million vehicles tried to leave the city of Atlanta proper to get back home to the suburbs, in a region that is heavily car-dependent.
Some areas, like Cobb County in the northwestern part of the metro area, had a harder time than others. In Cobb, schoolchildren were stranded at schools. At one point, a police dispatcher warned, “Don’t come into Cobb County,” since at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night, “all major roadways and some intersections in [Marietta] were still gridlocked with traffic.”
You can see Cobb County on the map at right; we’ve shaded it gray to show its relationship to the city of Atlanta itself. This is a transit map, from the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, or MARTA. Burns notes that MARTA doesn’t serve much of the region, though it was a good route out of the city during the storm. (It’s how Burns herself got home.)
But: “There are few connections between MARTA and systems such as Cobb County Community Transit (CCT), which mostly operates bus routes between major commercial centers in Cobb and the heart of downtown Atlanta,” Burns writes. Notice that the lines within that gray block of Cobb County are purple, and not the orange on the rest of the map. That’s CCT, the separate transit system within Cobb County. Cobb County doesn’t use MARTA because Cobb County has consistently blocked expansions of MARTA into its jurisdiction. And that is at least in some part because of race.
When the Atlanta Braves announced their intention to move to Cobb County last year, the issue of transportation came up. Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jay Bookman outlined the debate, noting that it was a continuation of longstanding fears. This is a long quote, but an important one:
When the Braves’ decision was announced, the head of the Cobb Taxpayers Association immediately worried that it was merely a Trojan horse used to disguise the larger goal of smuggling MARTA inside the county walls, with all the “crime” that would bring. That’s an odd leap of logic, but it tells you a lot about how visceral that issue remains.
The chairman of the Cobb Republican Party, Joe Dendy, was equally blunt:
“It is absolutely necessary the (transportation) solution is all about moving cars in and around Cobb and surrounding counties from our north and east where most Braves fans travel from, and not moving people into Cobb by rail from Atlanta.”
Emphasis added to highlight the concerns: 1) crime being shuttled into Cobb County by MARTA and 2) moving people into Cobb by rail from Atlanta. Cobb County is 66 percent white. Atlanta is 54 percent black. Burns notes that 1965 and 1971 efforts to expand MARTA into Cobb County (and other suburbs) failed, “with votes following racial lines.” This is talking around the issue. Cobb County spiked an expansion of public transit because it was worried about black people funneling in.
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/01/atlantas-problem-white-stuff/357548/
Belafon
I thought this was a pretty good article for those people denying climate change: Why are companies preparing for it if it’s not real?
OzarkHillbilly
Simple way to make stem cells in half an hour hailed as major discovery
I hope it’s true but I hear echoes of ‘cold fusion’.
Comrade Mary
I’m a Rat, but not a Cannibal Rat, that’s cruel.
rikyrah
Brain surgeon walked six miles during snowstorm for emergency operation
By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News
Not a snowstorm, a traffic jam or a daunting six-mile walk through fresh powder could stop an Alabama neurosurgeon from getting to the hospital where he was needed for emergency surgery.
Dr. Zenko Hrynkiw had to travel from Birmingham’s Brookwood Medical Center to Trinity Medical Center to perform the operation Tuesday, but a sudden snowstorm had snarled all traffic, with thousands of drivers getting stranded for hours.
Authorities in Alabama had declared a state of emergency only for the southern half of the state, leaving out hard-hit Birmingham and sending available equipment the other way.
Getting to the hospital by car would’ve been nearly impossible
Instead, the neurosurgeon decided to make the trek by foot.
“It really wasn’t that big of a deal,” Hrynkiw said Thursday. “I walk a lot, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
He said he left Brookwood around 10:45 a.m. ET — and by 12:45 p.m. he was already operating on the patient.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/30/22511890-brain-surgeon-walked-six-miles-during-snowstorm-for-emergency-operation?lite
rikyrah
Another bogus Obamacare story: The GOP’s ‘Bette’
By Michael Hiltzik January 30, 2014, 5:20 p.m.
The centerpiece of the Republican party’s attack on the Affordable Care Act following President Obama’s State of the Union address this week was the story of “Bette.”
Bette was an otherwise unidentified Washington state resident featured in the official GOP response to the Obama speech delivered by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). According to Rodgers,
Bette had written her a letter stating that she had “hoped the president’s healthcare law would save her money – but found out instead that her premiums were going up nearly $700 a month.” The lesson, according to Rodgers: “This law is not working.”
Bette has now been tracked down by her hometown Spokane Spokesman-Review. She’s Bette Grenier, who owns a small business with her husband. Unsurprisingly, her story is much different from the sketchy description provided by Rodgers. That description perplexed experts, including Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, who couldn’t understand how a state resident “would have no choice but to pay $700 per month more for a policy that meets the Affordable Care Act’s coverage requirements,” the newspaper reported.
Grenier told the newspaper that she wrote Rodgers after her insurance company informed her that her $552-a-month catastrophic health plan would not be offered in 2014. It offered her an alternative plan complying with the ACA at $1,052 a month.
But that sounds like her insurer trying to steer her to an overpriced option. A compliant plan meeting the Affordable Care Act’s coverage mandates actually is available from Washington’s insurance exchange for much less — and with a deductible far lower than the $10,000 she was paying under the old plan and broader coverage, though lacking a provision for four free doctor visits a year provided by her old plan.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-bette-20140130,0,1703947.story#ixzz2rz0qlWxr
rikyrah
What It’s Come to in the Garden State
by BooMan
Fri Jan 31st, 2014 at 07:52:21 AM EST
Do you want a sign of how debased New Jersey politics have become over the years? At the end of an article on whether or not Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey David Samson has earned his bipartisan reputation for integrity, the Senate President made the following observation:
“I know it’s New Jersey, but…”
But, what?
This is coming out of the mouth of the top Democrat in the Senate.
“I know it’s New Jersey, but…”
But, could we have the barest shred of ethics around here?
And Sweeney is a Christocrat.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/1/31/75221/8617#6
rikyrah
Watching the GOP Flail
by BooMan
Thu Jan 30th, 2014 at 07:12:42 PM EST
Watching the House Republicans try to figure out how to pass some kind of immigration reform without inviting a fatal backlash from their racist base is one part comedy and one part tragedy. It’s funny because they all try to pretend to be standing on principle, but they are really trying to wait until most members have been renominated and cannot be defeated in a primary challenge. And it’s sad because the modern GOP has taken on all the attributes of a xenophobic, nationalistic, race-based fascist party. Even the people who want to do the right thing seem to want to do it less because it has intrinsic merit and more because they are dimly aware that fascism isn’t a long-term winning political strategy, at least so long as we keep having elections.
I keep hearing “reasonable” Republican strategists arguing that the party cannot continue to alienate Latinos and Asians, but they say that because they know it will cost them elections. You almost never hear them slam the racists (unless anonymously) and it’s even rarer that they make a moral case for immigration reform.
At some point, a decent person stops trying to convince a group of vile, angry bigots to reform and walks away from the group.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/1/30/191242/413
mainmata
Jon Stewart was a total d*ck with Nancy Smash last night on the Daily Show. He laid into her on the broken ACA website – which is no longer broken – and then asked why Congress didn’t fix it (WTF?) and then extrapolated from this event that the government can’t do anything right. I think Nancy was gobsmacked by this bizarre screed. First, it is the Executive that implements the law, including the website, not Congress. Second, this is really old news. Where has Stewart been? Third, it is clearly not the case that the government can’t do anything right. His attempt to Benghazify the website issue just made him look really stupid. He needs to spend way less time with his fellow 1%ers methinks.
rikyrah
House GOP outlines immigration principles
01/31/14 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Last year, senators working on immigration reform followed a fairly traditional path. Democrats negotiated with Republicans, while working in consultation with the White House, business leaders, labor leaders, immigrant advocates, and the religious community. The process produced a popular proposal that, according to independent estimates, would boost economic growth, reduce the deficit, and offer a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.
This year, the House is following a less traditional path. House GOP leaders have already rejected the popular and bipartisan Senate legislation, refusing to even allow members to vote on it. Instead, they have an outline of sorts, which is the result of negotiations between Republicans and other Republicans.
The entirety of the document is available online here (pdf).
It’s important to note that scrutinizing the new Republican plan is difficult since there is no actual plan. What’s more, at this point, there’s no bill and no promise of a bill. In policy analysis, the details make all of the difference, but House GOP leaders have chosen to deliberately steer clear of any specifics, offering just 858 words on a one-page piece of paper
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/house-gop-outlines-immigration-principles
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: I think ‘Cobb County’ is named for a relative of noted nice guy Ty Cobb.
rikyrah
Perkins’ defenders speak up
01/30/14 03:55 PM—Updated 01/31/14 06:25 AM
By Steve Benen
When venture capitalist Tom Perkins recently became the subject of a national controversy, comparing contemporary liberals to Nazis, there was a lingering question: why in the world did the Wall Street Journal publish his now-infamous letter to the editor? Today, the answer to that question came into sharper focus.
To briefly recap, Perkins made the case that liberal criticism of the wealthiest 1% has “parallels” to Nazi genocide. “Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930,” he wrote, “is its descendent ‘progressive’ radicalism unthinkable now?” Soon after, Perkins appeared on Bloomberg Television and apologized for his word-choice, but defended his message. During the same interview, he boasted he “could buy a six pack of Rolexes” while arguing the rich feel put upon.
It seemed odd that the Wall Street Journal would publish Perkins’ letter, knowing that many would likely find it offensive. Did the paper’s editors want to make him look bad? As it turns out, no – the newspaper published Perkins’ message because it’s sympathetic to his argument.
Under a curious “Perkinsnacht” headline, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal argues today that progressive criticism of Perkins “is making our friend’s point about liberal intolerance.” Though the editorial board concedes that his Nazi comparison was “unfortunate,” today’s editorial nevertheless thinks Perkins was onto something.
Wait, it gets worse.
The Journal’s editorial board proceeded to publish an odd indictment of “liberals in power,” including allegations that there are “federal agencies” trying to “shut down” the Koch brothers, and “President Obama’s IRS targeted conservative political groups.”
For the record, there are no agencies trying to shut down the Koch brothers and the IRS “scandal” is discredited nonsense.
The piece concludes, “The liberals aren’t encouraging violence, but they are promoting personal vilification and the abuse of government power to punish political opponents.”
What we’re left with, then, is a Wall Street Journal letter to the editor that compared liberals to Nazis, and a Wall Street Journal editorial that rebukes the comparison, but still feels as if the offending letter has merit.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/perkins-defenders-speak
Yatsuno
1972. Water Rat. But so far it’s not a bad year.
rikyrah
Going on offense to expand the vote
By Greg Sargent
January 30 at 4:55 pm
Here’s a very interesting development that suggests Dems are beginning to take the war over voting far more seriously than in the past — and are gearing up for a protracted struggle over voting access that could make a real difference in 2016.
A group of leading Democratic strategists is launching a new political action committee that will raise money for a very specific purpose: Getting Democratic secretaries of state who favor expanded voting elected in four states — Ohio, Colorado, Iowa, and Nevada.
Jeremy Bird, a national field director for Obama’s presidential campaign, tells me the effort will aim to raise in the “significant seven figures” to spend on just those four races (read more about the races right here). That could have a real impact, Bird says, because the average secretary of state candidate in such races spends an average of $500,000 total. The group’s board of directors has ties into the world of Obama and Clinton donors.
“The idea is that we need to flip the switch on this entire voting rights conversation, and go from defense on voter suppression, to offense on expanding access to voting,” Bird says of the effort, called iVote. “This isn’t a short term effort. We’ve got to be systematic. We’ve got to be dogged. We’ve got to be sure we’re out-organizing them.”
To put what this means in perspective, remember that during the height of the 2012 campaign, there was a legal battle over early voting in Ohio. The Obama campaign, which wanted early voting in part to get more African Americans to the polls, prevailed. But that was anything but assured. Would a loss have cost Dems Ohio? Probably not. The Obama campaign also prevailed in other legal battles over early voting. Would a loss in one or more of those have mattered? Probably not.
But those were short term victories, and Dems are increasingly recognizing that it’s time to ratchet up the intensity and electoral organizing around access to voting. A GOP super PAC is planning to spend millions in secretary of state races. “We’ve got to be on offense against the other side,” Bird says.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/30/going-on-offense-to-expand-the-vote/
Cervantes
@OzarkHillbilly: No, it’s promising stuff. I know the team.
rikyrah
Here, Bro, I Have a Hot Tip For You
by BooMan
Thu Jan 30th, 2014 at 08:46:32 AM EST
One way you can advantage your family as governor is to let them know in advance that there will be a major renovation of a commuter rail station that will vastly increase the value of the surrounding property. Then, your brother can form an alliance with some preexisting building outfit that is also a major donor to the Republican Party, and they can snap up a bunch of property, renovating it modestly or building a new dwelling, and then sell it at an enormous profit. Never mind that these builders do not specialize in doing modest upgrades of low-grade residential properties.
Yes, the Ferreiras teamed up with Todd Christie, the governor’s brother, to flip a bunch of residential housing, just like any schlub could do throughout the Aughts if they could cobble together a couple hundred grand for seed money. But they had the advantage of knowing exactly where to buy.
Why would the Ferreiras take time out from renovating the World Trade Center complex to flip a few houses in Harrison, New Jersey with the governor’s brother?
This is such low-level stuff that it hardly qualifies as news, but it’s still corrupt.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/1/30/84632/4139
Bill D.
They don’t have fortune cookies in China. They are a Chinese-American invention and not a traditional Chinese food.
rikyrah
A simple test for Republicans on poverty
By Greg Sargent
January 30 at 2:59 pm
Republicans like Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, and Mike Lee have talked a lot about poverty lately. That’s a good thing. Senator But Sherrod Brown asks a good follow up question: If they want to do something to help the working poor, why don’t they support a currently existing bill to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit?
Brown has been pushing a bill called the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2013, which would permanently extend the EITC — which, in general, is a policy device for helping poor people that Republicans support. The bill, which would also extend the Child Tax Credit, is supported by at least three dozen Dems, such as Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, and Elizabeth Warren.
Republicans tend to like the EITC, which has conservative roots, because it doesn’t require employers to pay workers more, and since it’s a tax credit for those who work, it’s seen as an alternative to safety net solutions that lull people into a state of dependency (see Paul Ryan’s Hammock Theory of Poverty).
No Republicans have signed on. But now that Senators like Rubio and Lee are talking about poverty, Brown plans to ask them to join his bill.
“We’re hearing the right words coming from Republicans who say they want to address poverty in the name of religious teaching,” Brown told me today. “This is the easiest mechanism for helping people who are working hard for little money – it rewards their work.”
Brown’s bill would not only make the EITC permanent; it would expand it to childless adults — another goal Republicans have generally supported. One of the leading ideas Rubio laid out in his recent speech on poverty was something very similar to expanding the EITC to childless adults. Rubio’s idea is for a “federal wage enhancement.” As Jonathan Cohn explains, the goal of Rubio’s plan is to “create a program in which childless adults get the same benefits as those with families.”
But as Cohn also details, Rubio is not willing to spend any extra money to do this, which would almost certainly mean taking money away from children to extend the tax credit to adults without children. Brown’s bill, of course, would require more spending. And this gets to a core problem with GOP efforts to craft a new poverty agenda: the unwillingness to spend more money to help poor people.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/30/a-simple-test-for-republicans-on-poverty/
rikyrah
The Morning Plum: GOP leaders stiff-arm the nativists
By Greg Sargent
January 31 at 9:20 am
So House Republicans have now released their principles on immigration reform, and they rule out a “special path to citizenship,” while providing for undocumented immigrants to “live legally and without fear in the U.S.,” but only after “specific enforcement triggers have been implemented.”
It’s dispiriting that Republicans have ruled out a path to citizenship. But it’s important to understand how much of a shift these principles nonetheless represent. Less than two years ago, the de facto party-wide position — echoed by the 2012 GOP presidential nominee — was self deportation, i.e., doing everything possible to get them the hell out of here. Now the party’s operating principle is that they should all stay, provided certain conditions are met — a real change from pandering to GOP base nativists to stiff-arming them in a big way. As the New York Times puts it today: “From absolute denial to the brink of grudging acceptance is a big step away from neo-nativism.”
The key unknowns now: Will Republicans insist on prohibitively onerous triggers before legalization? Will Republicans ultimately insist reform must preclude citizenship for the 11 million? Will Republicans support steps to clear out some of the existing legal channels to citizenship, making legalization (without a “special pathway” to citizenship) a somewhat better deal for Democrats? If the first two are Yes, those are probably deal-killers. If the third is Yes, therein lies the possibility for a deal.
But all of this will be settled by a larger question: Do Republicans think they need an actual policy agenda — actual policy accomplishments — to win in 2014?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/31/the-morning-plum-gop-leaders-stiff-arm-the-nativists/
anothe Holocene human
@rikyrah: ha, NJ thinks it’s so bad. Illinois pols in both parties tried to ram through an unneeded airport bc they had bought land in a wheat field in anticipation.
JJ Jr wadn’t no outlier. He musta t’d off the wrong person.
rikyrah
he is strictly amateur hour.
………………..
Sen. Marco Rubio: Obama Has Lost All Credibility, No Chance For Immigration Reform While He’s In Office
Published January 30, 2014
Fox News Latino
Sen. Marco Rubio, a major player on immigration policy, said Wednesday that there was no chance now of passing a broad overhaul because Republicans have lost trust in President Barack Obama.
The first-term Florida lawmaker, a potential White House contender in 2016, cited GOP concerns about whether the president could be trusted to enforce tough security requirements in the Senate’s bipartisan immigration bill that Rubio helped write.
Rubio said the Obama administration has lost credibility as a result of how it handled the 2012 attack against a U.S. outpost in Libya and accusations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups.
Rubio said doubts about Obama and his team colored his conversations with lawmakers he had hoped to persuade to back the immigration overhaul, now stalled in the House.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2014/01/30/sen-marco-rubio-immigration-reform-unlikely-under-president-obama/
Origuy
I live in a part of East San Jose, which is, if not majority Asian, is at least a large percentage. Firecrackers started going off in my neighborhood and are going off as I write this. They’ll keep going for days. I threaten to get some of them and hold on to them until November 5. Guy Fawkes Day is my cultural tradition, time for them to lose some sleep. But I never do. In Vietnamese, happy new year is chúc mừng năm mới, pronounced chook moong nam moy.
If you’re in the SF Bay Area, Lunar New Year lasts until the SF Chinatown parade in three weeks. I always do the Treasure Hunt, which takes place during the parade. It’s lots of fun. You get a list of clues to places in the Chinatown/North Beach/Financial District area. The clues are riddles, puns, old pictures, etc. You have to figure out where they refer to, go there and solve additional puzzles to answer a question.
Bill in Section 147
@mainmata: Although I like Jon Stewart he actually puts effort in trying to be 3rd way or bipartisan. So he often adds extra punch to nothing-burgers if they make the Democrats look bad. The web site fail actually really happened so it was a clear and obvious proof of FAIL. Ha-ha-ha. Sad for him those bits really are not that funny. Mainly because the parties involved are clearly upset and unhappy with the failure. Another example is when he showed Obama promising as President he would close Gitmo. Still not closed…ha-ha-ha.
He is at his best when making fun of someone who is actually pretending they did not do anything wrong or never said what they explicitly said. I do not know any Democratic official who is pretending the site was perfect at launch and I think Obama still would like to close Gitmo and both failures have been pretty clearly acknowledged.
I haven’t watched that episode yet so I need to.
What I actually hate about Stewart is that he usually is very nice to book tour salesmen. Even when the salesman is odious. I do not know who sets up those deals… but Eric Prince, etc. I almost always skip those tongue-baths.
Mnemosyne
@Bill D.:
They don’t have corned beef and cabbage in Ireland either — it was an adaptation Irish immigrants made when they came to the US. American pizza bears only the vaguest resemblance to what they call “pizza” in Italy. Etc.
We’re going to have a Chinese New Year celebration at work in that spirit — for us, it’s celebrating the contributions that Chinese-Americans have made to the US (including dumplings and fortune cookies) and not necessarily doing things they way they would in China.
Mnemosyne
So I had my Wonko the Sane moment yesterday when I picked up a new set of knitting needles and saw this on the back:
Let me reiterate — these are friggin’ knitting needles. If you have to be told, Don’t let your kids play with pointy sticks, then you probably shouldn’t be allowed to have kids in the first place. I think I know of exactly one potentially fatal injury with a knitting needle, and even with that, she was smart enough to leave it in place and let the doctors deal with it.
I guess the real lesson is, don’t let Cole anywhere near a knitting needle. Macrame is more his style (H/T to “Archer”).
Cris (without an H)
Year of the Horse. The crossing guard at school pointed out that this may be an auspicious sign for the Denver Broncos.
Epicurus
@Mnemosyne: Please remember that all those warning stickers are placed there at the direction of the company’s legal departments. It also implies that someone (mis)used a product in just such a fashion. I mean, who uses a friggin’ hair dryer in the bathtub?? Jeez….
Mnemosyne
@Epicurus:
What’s weird is that I have never seen a similar message on any other brand of knitting needle. (These were Knitter’s Pride, aka KnitPro.) The parent company is a UK company, so I’m wondering if that was the genesis of the warning label. The needles I have that were made in Japan or the US don’t have anything similar.