The Republic of T.

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for August 28th through August 30th:

• ‘Big Government finally got one right’ –
• Oh, The Pain of The Believer: Barack’s Betrayals Offer Lessons We Can’t Deny –
• Saint Martin –
• U.S. Wasted $30 Billion on Contractors –
• The Decade’s Biggest Scam –
• Bachmann sees Irene as divine message on spending –
• Apple’s Tim Cook isn’t the only gay person in the IT village | Lindsey Fallow –
• Is Rick Perry dumb? –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Republicans Against Science –

This CNNMoney Piece, "Firing horror stories" caught my eye, That’s partly because it offered a perspective I don’t always consider, while addressing a painful phenomenon only made more so in this recession.

Think getting fired is hard? Try doing the firing.

And when you are a small business owner it can be particularly hard.

At best, it’s an uncomfortable face-to-face confrontation that can lead to hurt feelings. At worst: physical altercations, hacked servers and lost clients.

"Large corporations have a team of people who can assist with hiring and training new people," said Roberta Chinsky Matuson, president of Human Resource Solutions, a Massachusetts-based consultancy. "Small businesses have much less bench strength when it comes to staffing and training."

They don’t have much when it comes to firing either. Here’s what seven disgruntled employees did to small business owners after they learned they were getting pink-slipped.

It reminds me of something I’ve heard a few times: There’s always three sides to every story — yours, mine, and the truth.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for August 24th through August 28th:

• Wall Street’s moral hazard –
• Let’s honor the real Dr. King, ‘an extremist for love’ –
• Leaving it to the states –
• Famed Scientist Richard Dawkins Destroys Rick Perry on Evolution –
• 5 Reasons Progressives Should Treat Ron Paul with Extreme Caution –
• The new nigger-knocking –
• We need more markets—and veggie eaters –
• Women’s Reproductive Rights Under Threat in Colombia –
• Aging America: Grandparents stepping in to help grandkids as families struggle in bad economy –
• Welfare Reform in a Jobless Economy –

I spent Thursday with my eight-year-old son, wandering through the Smithsonian American History and Air & Space museums. From the war for independence to the Apollo moon landing, it was a tour through some of the most audacious of American dreams, dared and realized. As we walked along the mall that morning, several times people stopped us and asked for directions to the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial. I pointed them in the right direction. That afternoon, we headed toward the memorial ourselves.

The memorial was to be dedicated on the 48th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Hurricane Irene forced a postponement. Yet, as I stood looking at the Memorial, I wondered what Dr. King would say and what he would do if he somehow materialized and looked upon his 30-foot tall granite likeness, and then turned and looked at how far we have gone towards that dream since he died — our how far we have strayed from it. Would his first concerned be violence and divisiveness of our political rhetoric? Would he be concerned about racism so common that we’re now asked not to call it racism at all anymore?

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for August 24th from 08:14 to 19:01:

• Jared Bernstein: Our Porous Safety Net –
• The Mythology Of Economic 'Uncertainty' –
• The ‘Depravity Of The Poor’ –
• Peter Bart: America's Numb Generation –
• Profit on Wall Street, recession on Main Street | Sally Kohn –
• Goldman Sachs CEO Facing Prison –
• Robert Creamer: What Do the Earthquake, Infrastructure and Antiquated Accounting Have to Do With Jobs? –
• We Don’t Need Religion to Have Morality –
• Cory Booker: A Dream Anew –
• Governments Kill –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for August 18th through August 24th:

• Glibertarian solutions –
• How to Avoid Bush’s Iraq Mistakes in Libya –
• Amnesty for the Indefensible –
• The Sources Of Privilege –
• Across The Board Spending Cuts Reduce Spending Across The Board, Even On Newsworthy Programs –
• 8 Ways Conservatives Abuse History … and the Truth –
• GOP and Tea Party Mobs Determined to Raise Taxes — On the Poor –
• Adam Lambert, Cher Tweet The Bachmans A New Hole –
• Add another one to the list of black and unemployed –
• Wendell Potter: Bachmann Gets Her Facts And History Wrong Again: It Was Bush Policies, Not Obamacare, That Led To Iowa Layoffs –

I knew it! Well, at least I suspected as much. What’s true for me had to be true for at least a few other people, right? Turns out, maybe more than a few. At least according to a new study that says surfing the web at work makes you a better worker.

Don’t feel guilty about browsing the Internet at work—turns out it may actually improve your performance.

According to a new study, Web browsing can actually refresh tired workers and enhance their productivity, compared to other activities such as making personal calls, texts or emails, let alone working straight through with no rest at all.

…The researchers found that the Web-surfers were significantly more productive and effective at the tasks than those in the other two groups and reported lower levels of mental exhaustion, boredom and higher levels of engagement.

“Browsing the Internet serves an important restorative function,” the authors said. Personal emailing, by contrast, was particularly distracting for workers. The second study, which surveyed 191 adults, found similar results.

Why is Web-surfing more restorative than, say, responding to a friend’s email? When browsing the Internet, people “usually choose to visit only the sites that they like—it’s like going for a coffee or snack break. Breaks of such nature are pleasurable, rejuvenating the Web surfer,” wrote Dr. Lim, in an email. By contrast, workers can’t control the kinds of email they receive, and reading and replying to each message is “cognitively more demanding, relative to Web surfing, as you need to pay attention to what is said on the email,” she added.

I wonder if maybe I’m an exception, though.

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WARNING: Video depicting severe alcohol withdrawal below.

Well, maybe. The latest report is that there were no illegal substances in Amy Winehouse’s system when she died.

Toxicology tests have found that “no illegal substances” were in singer Amy Winehouse’s system at the time of her death last month, her family said Tuesday.

“Results indicate that alcohol was present but it cannot be determined as yet if it played a role in her death,” the family said in a written statement, citing test results provided to them by authorities.

The 27-year-old singer, beloved for her talent but infamous for erratic public behavior, arrests and drug problems, was found dead at her apartment in London on July 23.

Alcohol was present, but we don’t know yet if drink had anything to do with her death. No surprise, since there are plenty of reports that Amy was still drinking in her final days. Still, that leaves at least one theory about what killed Amy Winehouse, which remains viable even in the light of this recent news.

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Well, I can now add “earthquake” to my list of things I’ve never experience, and add it to my list of things I hope never to experience again.

U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed an earthquake struck central Virginia at 1:53 p.m 4 miles south southeast of Louisa, Virginia near Mineral Va. It has been felt throughout the D.C. metro region. Initial indications are that it measured 5.9 on the Richter scale.

Minutes after the quake, the director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Marcia McNutt — who watched objects falling from the shelves in her office — cautioned that the shaking might not be over.

“What the concern is, of course, is that this is a foreshock. If it’s a foreshock, then the worse is yet to come.”

She said the energy from earthquakes on the East Coast does not attenuate as quickly as it does on the West Coast, and thus even a relatively modest tremor can shake a very broad.

“When something like this happen, everyone has to remember, more than half of the states in the U.S. are considered earthquake country. When something like this happens, remember what to do in the case of a seismic event. Duck, get under something sturdy like a desk or a doorway, get away from falling glass. Make sure that you are not in the way of falling objects like pictures, bookshelves, books, anything that’s not firmly connected the wall.”

It’s not the first we’ve had in the area.

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We’re living in a “Dropout Economy,” and it’s not the post-apocalyptic, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome fantasy that seems to fuel conservative dreams of a government-free utopia. This Dropout Economy comes at a huge cost in lost wages and lost revenue.

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As someone who watched both movies about the West Memphis Three several times, and read the book about the case, this is fantastic news.

Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin, collectively known as the West Memphis Three, have been in prison since 1993 for the murders of 8-year-old boys Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and James Michael Moore. On August 19, 2011, they have been freed. A live stream of the WM3 public hearing in Jonesboro, AK is below.

The West Memphis Three’s sentences have been converted to 18 years with credit for time served, as well as 10 years SIS (suspended imposition of sentence), which is like parole without the restrictions. The WM3 just have to stay out of legal trouble for the next ten years to avoid returning to prison.

As you read this, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin are being freed. The convictions of the West Memphis Three were not overturned. Instead, they agreed to what is called an Alford plea.

I walked in the door minutes ago, looked over the hubby’s shoulder, saw the headline and was stunned. It’s probably one of the best endings to this chapter of a long story that almost certainly isn’t over yet.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for August 12th through August 17th:

• A Bachmann Staffer’s Dominionist Worldview, Gun-Running Charges, and Ties To Ugandan “Kill-The-Gays” Pastor –
• Religious right’s marriage pledge includes a ‘witch-hunt’ against the gay community –
• Dan Savage: It Gets Worse For Kids Before It Gets Better –
• Why should you care about the unemployed? –
• How austerity is ushering in a global recession –
• Look out, here comes the ‘feral underclass’ –
• Working with Dr. Tiller: His Staff Recalls a Tradition of Compassionate Care at Women’s Health Care Services of Wichita –
• Same Gender Means Some Problems –
• Are Michele Bachmann’s Views About ‘Christian Submission’ Even More Extreme Than She’s Letting On? –
• Helping White People Understand the Black Beef with “The Help” –

And, no, this two-part series isn’t about that Bachmann story. It’s not about being the submissive wife of a gay husband, but about how gay husbands undermine submissive wifeliness.

Submissive Wives & Gay Husbands

You’ve probably saw this coming already, if the title of this post is what drew you in to begin with. Part of the threat of same-sex marriage is that it both calls biblical gender roles into question, and undermines complimentarity.

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Not that it’s going to matter much to Michelle Bachmann…

In 2006, Bachmann said her husband had told her to get a post-doctorate degree in tax law. “Tax law? I hate taxes,” she continued. “Why should I go into something like that? But the lord says, be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.’”

Asked about the comment by CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell Sunday, Bachmann reaffirmed that to her, “submission means respect, mutual respect.”

“I respect my husband, he respects me,” she said. “We have been married 33 years, we have a great marriage…and respecting each other, listening to each other is what that means.”

O’Donnell asked Bachmann if she would use a different word in retrospect.

“You know, I guess it depends on what word people are used to, but respect is really what it means,” Bachmann replied.

“Do you think submissive means subservient?” O’Donnell asked.

“Not to us,” Bachmann said. “To us it means respect. We respect each other, we listen to each other, we love each other and that is what it means.”

But… Well… Here.

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If my output is lower than usual this week, well, here’s why.

The Go-Go's – Vacation by EMI_Music

But I’m sure I won’t be quiet for the whole week.

In the new economy, we may all need a “sugar daddy.”

And, no, I don’t mean the candy.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for August 8th through August 9th:

• Leo Hindery, Jr.: "Frailty, Thy Name Is The Unemployed." –
• Tomgram: Barbara Ehrenreich, On Americans (Not) Getting By (Again) –
• A Satire: Serving the Nation, Republican-Style –
• All Is Fair in Love and Class Warfare –
• American idiots –
• America’s Real Job Creators Are Broke –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for August 6th through August 8th:

• S&P Downgrade Brought on by Republican Obstructionism –
• Who Makes Capitalism Work? Adam Smith Would Disagree with Today’s Conservatives –
• Judge H. Lee Sarokin: I Want My America Back — not the Tea Party's America –
• The worst thing the GOP has ever done? –
• How Republican ‘Young Guns’ Created An Epic Clash –
• Silence is still deadly –
• Opinion: What Happened to Obama? –
• Editorial: The Truth About Taxes –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Downgrade Blues –
• Editorial: Race to the Right –

I was walking around the office yesterday when one of my coworkers asked me why she’d seen me walking the halls so often. I told her why, and then it occurred to me that I hadn’t told that story here.

I’ve been remiss. I received so many supportive comments when I posted about my chronic knee pain and my frustration with it. I thought I should post some kind of update.

Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

- Mary Schmich

I used to wonder what the phrase above — from Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich’s now famous column meant. I no longer have to wonder.

The knees were not the first to go, in my case. It was the eyes. But the knees now appear to be on their way out. And they are not going quietly.

Actually, it started a while back. Far enough, in fact, that I can’t pinpoint when it started. For a while, the various methods I turned to to treat it worked pretty well. If I took an over-the-counter pain reliever, and wore a knee brace or a less obtrusive band below the kneecaps, it subsided somewhat.

By “it” I mean pain; burning, searing pain around and behind my left and right kneecaps. In my case, it starts when I’m sitting down, especially if I’ve been sitting down for an extended period. Standing up usually relieves it. Putting my feet up also works. But now the various methods I’ve tried have stopped working. Even standing up doesn’t offer as much relief as it used to. Once the pain starts, it’s there for the duration of the day.

That was in April. Three months later, I can definitely say that things have gotten better. Things have changed. I’ve had to make some changes, but all in all things have gotten better. The news is good.

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Guess which answer I chose.

No, really. It’s a serious question. Serious enough to be studied.

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