Author: Glenn Hauman

All right, I’m running low on intros to window closing posts. Sigh.

* How Porsche hacked the financial system and made a killing.

* The High Priests of Snark.

* The Bush Years: Then And Now.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
Then: 4.2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2001)
Now: 6.7% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2008)

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE
Then: 10,587 (close of Friday, Jan. 19, 2001)
Now: 9,015 (close of Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009)

BUSH FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 50% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 31% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CHENEY FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 49% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CONGRESS APPROVAL RATING
Then: 48% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

SATISFIED WITH THE NATION’S DIRECTION
Then: 45% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 26% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE (1985=100)
Then: 115.7 (Conference Board, January 2001)
Now: 38.0, which is an all-time low (Conference Board, December 2008)

FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY
Then: 6.4 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 7.6 million (Census numbers for 2007 — most recent numbers available)

AMERICANS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE
Then: 39.8 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 45.7 million (Census numbers for 2007 — most recent available)

U.S. BUDGET
Then: +236.2 billion (2000, Congressional Budget Office)
Now: -$1.2 trillion (projected figure for 2009, Congressional Budget Office)

* Iran’s Hottest Porn Video. Politically and culturally hot, too.

* The Great Boob Bust. My thought: the web is wrecking everything…. which leads to:

* In a new nationwide survey of 1,280 teens and young adults, researchers found that one in five teens are using technology to send sexually explicit pictures of themselves to others — either posted online or sent via cell phone. One in five teens and one-third of young adults had said they had send a nude or semi-nude image of themselves to others…. nearly half of all teens have received a sexually suggestive message via email, text or IM, and that nearly 40 percent of teens have sent such a message. Most young adults have sent one (59 percent) or received one (64 percent).

Of course most survey respondents say they are sending this stuff to their boyfriend or girlfriend, but some of them (around 15 percent) have posted this sort of thing for an online friend.

The scary part is that most respondents agreed that engaging in this sort of behavior “can have serious negative consequences,” but do it anyway.

Although respondents realize how easy it is to save these images and share them (about 40 percent of respondents said they did so) with one’s friends or post them online (perhaps long after they’ve broken up), it doesn’t appear to be stopping anyone….

The online disinhibition effect is also strongly at work here. Nearly one quarter of teens say that technology makes them personally more forward and aggressive. Nearly 40 percent of teens believe that exchanging sexually-suggestive content with others makes dating more likely. And nearly one third of teens believe that such exchanges lead to an expectation of dating or hooking-up.

Robert Parker’s Spenser in a young adult novel? The adventures of Spenser when he was a boy? Ooooookay…

Ann Coulter meets Al Franken and, well, she’s badly outmatched:

Since Ann can’t really compete with Al now that he’s a senator, I understand that she’s now thinking of running for Senator in Idaho. Because when she says "Idaho", you believe her.

…for misspelling Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s name in their memorial reel on World News Tonight. I mean, he was only the man behind the communications satellites that made World News possible in the first place…

Yes, because the windows didn’t meet sales expectations. We here at GlennHauman.com hope that the closing of windows will help improve performance metrics in the coming year.

Li’l Bill O’Reilly. Could you tell the difference?

The top twelve insights of conservatives, 2008: My favorite is "Know-nothingness was no longer a stigma, but a badge of honor." Which makes the cries of "No one could have forseen–!" all the more pathetic. I know lots of people who could and did forsee what was going to happen, these are just a few. My question is why people persist in listening to people with lousy track records.

Child maid trafficking into the US: horrifying…

Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door. They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn’t much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms.

To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair.

But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid.

…and yet, an improvement from where they came from.

Remembering Mildred Loving. There are days I think that all the people who complain that Barack Obama isn’t a US citizen are just the people who remember that when he was born, lots of states wouldn’t have allowed his parents to be married. Since they were, he can’t possibly be a real American. QED.

From the New York Times:

To the Editor:

James Gleick compares the book to the hammer, “a tool ideally suited to its task.” Indeed, who can imagine crawling (happily) into bed with digital media, sharing a digital story with a child or giving a digital download as a present? Books are objects — of our love and of our lives.

David Jelinek
Brooklyn, Nov. 30, 2008

I’m reading that letter on this web page in my bed at 4:30 in the morning, with the screen as my own booklight. Happily, except for the fact that I can’t sleep.

Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that Universal Studios and Dark Horse Comics, the folks who brought us Hellboy II: The Golden Army, are continuing their long-standing relationship and fast-tracking a movie version of The Umbrella Academy. The Eisner-winning series was written by Gerard Way, former intern at DC Comics who later went on to international fame as the frontman for My Chemical Romance.

This proves what I’ve suspected for a long time: if you’re going to do anything big in the world– rock star, movie mogul, Eisner winner– you have to stop being an intern at DC.

Okay, it’s a screenshot from a Facebook thread. But still. (Thanks, Niki!)

Yep, my browser’s slowing down again. In no order:

Half of Doctors Routinely Prescribe Placebos

Half of all American doctors responding to a nationwide survey say they regularly prescribe placebos to patients. The results trouble medical ethicists, who say more research is needed to determine whether doctors must deceive patients in order for placebos to work.

Driftglass:

First Atwater came for Reagan’s "welfare queens"
– but I was not a welfare queen so I did not speak out.

Then Gingrich came for the Liberals and the Unions,
– but I was taught to call everyone who disagreed with me a traitor, so I did not speak out.

Then Falwell and Robertson came for the gays,
– but gays are icky, so I did not speak out.

Then Limbaugh came for the Feminazis
– but strong, smart women terrify me, so I did not speak out.

And when they came for me, I had the fucking nerve to pretend to be Shocked!Shocked! that my Party was being run by degenerate lunatics.

Bacon Apple Pie. Hmmmm…

Obama’s Branding Genius. And somewhere around here is that Obama/Grateful Dead poster…

What I was thinking of saying at Sheri’s funeral: Life’s a Very Funny Proposition After All. I’ll tell you what I did say in another post.

Why women feel colder than men. Mom, this one’s for you.