Josh Marshall on the stupidity that is west back settlement policy

Ackerman's Nonsense | TPM

But the essence is this. What we're talking about is the right to have your kids build their house and start their family down the street from you when they get married -- a 'right' few people in the world have.

There's some important context to understand here. A good number of the settlements are deep into the West Bank. But in modern transportation terms, most function as bedroom communities that are a reasonable commute from cities in Israel proper, where many of the settlers actually work. So, you live in settlement X, maybe when your daughter gets married and wants to start her own family there's no more room in the settlement and she and her husband have to buy a home fifteen miles away in Israel proper. To say such a freeze amounts to throwing away grandparents or telling people not to have children is really malicious nonsense.

I couldn't have said it better myself (obviously)

Bank Profits .. or lack thereof

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Pixie Dust Has Many, Many Uses

The revival may be short-lived. Analysts who have examined the quarterly profits and government tests say that accounting rule changes and rosy assumptions are making the institutions look healthier than they are.

The government probably wants to win time for the banks, keeping them alive as they struggle to earn their way out of the mess, says economist Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University in New York. The danger is that weak banks will remain reluctant to lend, hobbling President Barack Obama’s efforts to pull the economy out of recession.

Citigroup’s $1.6 billion in first-quarter profit would vanish if accounting were more stringent, says Martin Weiss of Weiss Research Inc. in Jupiter, Florida. “The big banks’ profits were totally bogus,” says Weiss, whose 38-year-old firm rates financial companies. “The new accounting rules, the stress tests: They’re all part of a major effort to put lipstick on a pig.”

Quote is actually from Bloomberg but I saw it at balloon juice so they get the linky love too. (Yeah, like they would notice the HUGE increase in traffic via this blog)

In the interests of full disclosure I will say that I hope that Citigroup stays in business because their intercountry banking is how I pay my child support but I don't particularly like shovelling more taxpayer's money into the sinkhole that the money center banks have become. I can always use western union!

Yes, Dr Black is correct

Eschaton

At the risk of stating the obvious, 9.4% unemployment is really high. I don't really get the sense that media coverage reflects this reality

This is the thing that gets me too. 9.4% unemployment, especially with the very strict definition that the Bureau of Labour Statistics uses, is too fucking high and there should be people up in arms about it.

RIP Dr George Tiller - Part II

Daily Kos: The George Tiller I Knew

In 1980 I was pregnant with my first child. I had no insurance and couldn't afford a doctors appointment until I was approved for a medical card.. Mom told Dr. Tiller and he brought me into his office where he examined me, free of charge. I can credit him with the very first picture taken of my

Go read the rest

RIP Dr George Tiller

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

The abortionist, George Tiller, was shot to death ... in a Wichita church this morning. It was the culmination of a campaign of domestic terrorism against him:

I think that Andrew Sullivan hit just the right note on this. I just can't fathom this.

For more coverage hit any of these places:

CNN
Fox News

BBC
Swampland(Time.com)
Daily Kos
TBogg
Pharyngula
Redstate
Little Green Footballs