Every year, plenty of stuff doesn’t make it into this blog, and that’s why I do Internet Wading posts—for the “best of the rest” stuff. I don’t do these posts as often as I should. Roger Green does his "Ramblin’ with Roger" posts regularly (like his latest), and that’s where I got the idea—but I’m not nearly as organised (in many ways, actually…).
Nevertheless, I wanted to share a few things that just didn’t make it into a post this year, for whatever reason.
First up, the federal budget is nothing like a family’s budget. Back in February, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) took apart a story from ABC News (USA) that made this analogy. This is particularly relevant now with all the talk about the “fiscal cliff”, because it shows how the analogy—and conservatives—are wrong.
Sticking with politics, a couple recent tidbits about the last election: Steve Singiser grades the pollsters on Daily Kos and finds—surprise!—the greater their Republican bias, the less accurate they were. Worst was Rasmussen, which many people already knew, and it’s why I don’t quote them on this blog. Among the most satisfying consequences from the election, the latest Nielsen ratings show that Fox Noise “commentator” Sean Hannity has lost half his audience since President Obama’s re-election. Apparently it has something to do with Hannity constantly claiming that President Obama would lose in a landslide. Clearly, being spectacularly wrong has consequences.
On a very recent issue, Jeff Greenwald asks on The Guardian site, “Who paid for the Log Cabin Republicans' anti-Hagel New York Times ad?”. He concludes that the gay Republican group is being used: “Gay advocates are the exploited tools in this effort. We should at least have some transparency about that fact.” Interesting, though I have no idea if he’s right.
Speaking of gay politics, I can’t believe that I didn’t blog about the speech actress Sally Field gave at HRC's 16th Annual National Dinner. She explained why she loves and supports her gay son, Samuel Greisman, and why she’s an advocate for LGBT people. It was a moving speech and I could have sworn I’d posted it here.
Finally, something not about politics at all: It’s about an airplane. Many years ago, Boeing recruited people to provide input into the design—and naming—of their new plane, which ultimately was dubbed The Dreamliner. I was part of their “World Design Team”, providing some feedback (for the record, I advocated for more leg room). Last month, they sent out a “Dreampass”, allowing people to view videos of take off and landing from the cockpit, as well as 360 views of the fuselage, engines and wings. I thought it was pretty cool—but, as part of the World Design Team, I suppose I would.
And that’s all the wading that fits in this year. More—and more often, I hope—next year. Happy New Year—and Happy Internet Wading!
2 comments:
You DEFINITELY didn't post this to your blog. Maybe to Facebook, but I check it only occasionally myself.
Yeah, I think I did share it on Facebook and Google+, whihc is why I thought I posted it here, too. I sometimes post content just to them, things that never become blog posts, in part so my updates on those aren't all pointers to blog posts (although lately, sometimes it basically was…). But I do try and post the stuff I really like here, too—I just missed it this time, I guess.
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