Common Sense and the sensus communis: anatomy of an American pressure cooker

Gay-Lussac The pressure of a fixed mass and fixed volume of a gas is directly proportional to the gas’s temperature. This relationship is known as the Gay-Lussac’s Law and a pressure cooker is an example of the law in practice. Cooking under pressure creates the possibility of cooking with high temperature liquids because the boiling [...]

I got nothing Open Thread

Apparently the other front-pagers have been renditioned to Gitmo. I don’t have a post ready so y’all talk amongst yourselves.

Manic Monday News Links

Good Morning Conflucians! Here is my frantically rushed summary of the latest news. I may add a few more odds and ends. Politics and Politicians Paterson Says He Will Run Despite White House Pressure At a parade in Harlem, the governor refused to discuss his conversations with President Obama’s political team, which has made clear [...]

Res ipsa loquitor

The above video was recorded at the 9/12 Tea Party in DeeCee. NOTE: If you are confused as to why the tea baggers are so hostile to a “Public Option” in health care insurance, think of it using this preexisting analogy: Imagine if any time you needed to send a package or letter you were [...]

Resurfacing

Some of you may have wondered where I went.  Others, particularly those of you new to this board, wonder who the f$^* I am and why am I crashing this party.  (I am the proprietress but not one of the current general managers). Anyway, I’m still around.  It’s just that I spent so much time [...]

Sunday Morning at the Confluence Bed and Breakfast

Good morning Conflucians! The Confluence Bed & Breakfast is now serving breakfast accompanied by your own personal copy of the morning news. If you’d like, we’ll even deliver your treats and paper bedside. So let me fluff up those pillows while you get comfy beneath those incredibly luxurious 1000 thread count sheets. If the waffles [...]

Eric Boehlert Needs to Get a Grip

I love Eric Boehlert. His book, Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush, was terrific. And he even mentioned The Confluence in his recent effort, Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press. But really, this is too much. A President was killed the last time right-wing hatred ran wild [...]

Mather does not Cotton to the Pseudo-Puritanism of O’Keefe and Giles

O’Keefe and Giles, in their portrayal of pimp and prostitute, reek of puerile classism. Were it not for the overwhelmingly noxious fumes emanating from the handful of ACORN employees who were apparently willing to enable a child prostitution ring exploiting illegal immigrants, the stink of the ill-informed moral superiority of O’Keefe and Giles would drive [...]

White Privilege

Little Isis’ post “A Conversation on Race: Let’s Not” triggered a discussion of “white privilege.”  I thought the topic worthy of it’s own post.  I’m writing this with the foreknowledge that some people (I use the term loosely) will distort my words and call me names.  But they’ve already done that and I’m still here. [...]

Your Breakfast Read, Saturday Edition

Here are a couple of stories to keep you busy. As always, make us aware of any nice story you come across. Health Care Clusterf*@k I’ve lost the overview. Does ANY bill seriously address this issue? Acne, Pregnancy Among Disqualifying Conditions A proposal to make preexisting health conditions irrelevant in the sale of insurance policies [...]