Whitney Houston has passed

Whitney Houston has died at age 48. Her body was found at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. She was such a talented singer but she married to a (well-endowed, as insinuated on a bad MTV reality tv show) low-life Bobby Brown who destroyed her and her voice and her career. For those of us who remember the 1988 Olympics, this video of her singing live at the Grammies is extra touching.

Gingrich on Elitist Subway Riders

Newt Gingrich insinuates that New Yorkers who ride the subway are elitist. While addressing an Ohio crowd, Gingrich told them

"Those who, you know, live in high-rise apartment buildings writing for fancy newspapers in the middle of town after they ride the metro, who don't understand that for most Americans the ability to buy a home, to have their own property, to have a sense of belonging is one of the greatest achievements of their life, and it makes them feel like they are good solid citizens."

This coming from a man who had a $500,000 credit line at Tiffany's. Yeah sure, Newt, subway riders are elitists. At $2.25 per ride, the subway is a luxury only the elitists can afford. Uh huh. Here are some choice comments from Huffington Post: This one is from "Huffpost Super User" pdxbuckeye:

It is the prime directive of the Republican playbook.

If I am guilty of it I must accuse my opponent of it. The more guilty I am the louder I must level the charge against my opponent.

Pretty much down the line, if a Republican levels a charge, epithet or any other characteri­zation at someone it is actually that Republican that is guilty of it.

This also applies to social policy. Decry the breakdown of the family, probably divorced 3 times or soliciting prostitute­s at the least. Decry homosexual­ity, soliciting gay sex in airport bathrooms, draft legislatio­n regarding use of electronic devices to solicit minors and be the one soliciting young page's yourself. The examples of this type of hypocrisy is so abundant it can not be simply an accident, it is a strategy.

Yeah I've noticed this too. Republicans are an endless source of hypocrisy.

From Blayzen:

Yeah, I'm sure the guy adjacent to me, having a debate with himself about brands of cat food is an elitist. I should interrupt him and ask.

In Newt Country, cat food is dog food is pig food is human food. Being picky is elitist. Ok?

And finally from thundarthelibrarian on Gothamist:

When I read this in the dining car of the R train this morning, my monocle popped right out of my eye and into my truffle and caviar omelet.

I would not be surprised if some Little Newt finds this quote and uses it as evidence.

Steve Jobs passes away

Steve Jobs has passed away. Coincidentally I was listening to Siegfried's funeral march on Böhm's recording of Wagner's Götterdämmerung.

Particle faster than the speed of light

OMG! Particles found faster than light found at CERN!

Spanish "killer bull"

2010 Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. No deaths on this run; not to worry, there's always next year.

Recently it seems Yahoo is becoming more inclined to use sensational headings on their stories. This one entitled "Killer bull in Spain fatally gores man" is completely misleading but it did its job in catching my attention. It turns out drunkard in Spain enters bull ring and gets gored to death by a well-known aggressive bull. Oh those Spainards and their death games. A comment by a "Ken" outlines a new business venture:

For once a sport pitting man against animals gives the animal the advantage, I love it. I'm thinking that here in America we should institute the running of the bears (preferably grizzlies and browns) and all the runners have to wear vests made out of bacon! There will be no shortage of idiots who'll do it and the proceeds from the broadcasting of it can go to the humane society!

China is not happy with the downgrade

• Can't tell if this is posturing or not:
  China tells U.S. "good old days" of borrowing are over"

US Downgrade

US debt interest payments as percentage of GDP. From usgovernmentspending.com.

Standard & Poor's downgrades US debt one notch to AA+. See WSJ and Bloomberg. Despite a "flaw" in the calculations, S&P appears to maintain its downgrade. Honestly, the calculation flaw probably does not make a big difference in American's current future prospects.

On the other hand, we are talking about the S&P ... the same people who gave AAA rating to certain mortgage-backed securities. Paul Krugman says as much.