Simone Weil | Existential Ennui

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Arizona, class action lawsuits, climate change, Fox News Channel, Fox Noise, Humor, immigration, John McCain, JonStewart, Keith Olbermann, Media, MSNBC, philosophy, science, SCOTUS, Simone Weil, WalMart, Women's issues

Fresh from the invigoration of being granted personhood for purposes of financially buying its own congressmen and women, corporate persons have moved on to even greater heights today.

The SCOTUS, judicial biggie of the land, has effectively made them lawsuit-proof, by knocking down the million-plus-plaintiff discrimination suit filed against Wal-Mart.

You know that they meant business when they let Scalia write for the 5-4 majority. It seems that the women, did not have one single common claim among them, since DISCRIMINATION BASED ON SEX was deemed not to qualify.

It appears that all a corporation must do is have a “stated” policy of non-discrimination at the head office pinned to the wall. It’s actual store managers are left to promote and pay as they deem fit *wink wink nod nod*. Yep, pretty darn slick wouldn’t you say?

But one more reason to make every effort to avoid spending your precious dollars at Wal-Mart.

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Time to change your diapers again Johnny McCain, you dirtied yourself once again. I should have known some such crap was a coming when I saw his Tweet that he and Kyl were going to “tour” his beloved fire-devoured Arizona. They did, and then held the proverbial press conference to show their civic concerns.

McCain, older than Eve herself, and who cannot possibly think of running again, sucked up to the racist element in his state by blaming the fires of “illegals who were out there starting fires to signal each other.”

He could, of course, point to no specifics. Later, his minions explained that they had got their information from the state’s forestry department. Funny thing. The Forest Service has no freakin’ idea about what Johnny was talking about. “You know, sometimes he forgets his meds,” they chortled. (Oh, I made that last thing up, but not the rest!)

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Some scientists in Australia have gotten piqued at the continuing “debate” over climate change. They claim that there is really no debate at all. It’s a done deal. The climate is changing, and we are responsible. They run a really excellent site called The Conversation and there is a section with numerous articles on climate change. Take a look. It seems filled with the arguments and with explanations of the games the pseudo-science right light to play to obscure the true facts. Oh and they have plenty of other subjects. The website is an EDU domain. (h/t to Think Progress.)

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Some times I think there is a failure in my generation of really great women. I’m talking about women who were out side the norm in every way, who walked alone, unafraid of being defined as “odd” or not being subject to being slotted into some category. Simone Weil comes to mind, who lived in the same place and time as Simone de Beauvoir. There is a lovely bio of her at Lapham’s Quarterly. Go read it. It’s worth it.

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Don’t know if you got a chance to see it or not, but Jon Stewart was on Fox Sunday with Chris Wallace. Wallace did his best to start things off belligerently, implying that Stewart had dodged the interview (presumably out of fear). But as you might expect, Stewart walked all over Wallace who never had a clue.

What went unanswered was Wallace’s claim that their “audience” was very happy with them as being fair and balanced presumably. Stewart went unchallenged when he remarked that every poll and study also suggested that Fox news watchers were the most misinformed people of all news watchers. You can see excerpts and links to actual polling at above link.

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In case you didn’t hear, Keith Olbermann is back on the airwaves again starting today. His new show is on channel 358 (Current TV) on most cable networks. We have sure missed him on MSNBC. Shultz has been a belligerent disappointment and so frankly has O’Donnell, both of whom come from the “if I don’t like what you say, I’ll yell over you” school of interviewing, made so popular at Foxy Noise. His list of sidekicks looks like fun too. Be sure to watch.

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What’s on the stove? chicken stir fry with homemade spring rolls and crab Rangoon.