Another link round-up

I know it's been a while since I posted, and I should make up for that with a really cool, long post but I'm feeling lazy and lots of people have been emailing me interesting articles.  Here are the links:

• This article is from a Minnesota blog about the harm caused by the Bush tax policy in Minnesota.  Kinda short, but still interesting
• Here's a blog post over on Daily KOs about DEA hypocrisy - apparently they have been handing out licenses to pharmaceutical companies to grow marijuana while still placing a high priority on raiding semi-legal pot farms.  They are also trying to legalize some derived parts of marijuana so that Big Pharma can make a profit without competition from ordinary people.
• My buddy Justin sent me a link to this article over on NPR about raising taxes on the rich.  The article mentions that many millionaires have petitioned to pay more in taxes, then questions whether doing so would be "class warfare".  To see what I think about this, check out this post.
• This is not a link, but I fucking hate the term "class warfare".  Why is it that this term only gets busted out whenever fair taxes on the rich are proposed?  Here are a few examples of actual "class warfare":  Poor people and blacks deliberately targeted for subprime mortgage loans that they did not understand / could not afford.  Grossly underfunded schools in inner cities across the nation.  No access to health insurance for millions that can't afford it - and millions of people with health insurance having no access to care.  A volunteer military fighting wars for oil and other mysterious reasons made up of disproportionately poor and minority men.  I could go on, but there would be no room for anything else on this post.....
• Actually, I will go on!!  A failed and disastrous "War on Drugs" that has cost billions and disproportionately imprisoned millions of young minority men.
• And finally, something that Libertarians and I agree on - public funding for stadiums.  Here's a post on Forbes Blog (which I don't normally recommend, as I find it fucking stupid other than their post on the wealth of fictional characters, which is hilarious) about the city of Glendale, Arizona spending millions to keep their losing (games AND money) hockey team in town.  I love my sports teams but this is just straight up giving public money to sports team owners.

Okay, well that was actually pretty good for just a bunch of links right?  I am also currently uploading a bunch of photos from my recent week-long bike trip (more on that soon) to my new Flickr account, and should be able to post that in a couple minutes.

-Cy

I call chicken wings Lil' Flappers!

www.tomhaverfoods.com

That is all.

More tunes from the Replacements

So remember the other day when I told you I discovered the Replacements?  I liked them so much I wanted to post some more of their songs.  Here are three more of their songs that I liked a lot:

I like how he yells "YOU'RE MY FAVORITE THING!"

Bank accountability, or lack thereof

This post contains serious information, so I tried to include as many pictures/Raylan Givens videos/Sidney Crosby gifs as possible.  Enjoy!

Part 1:

Eric Schneider: For America!

There are some interesting articles over in the Rolling Stone magazine (hat tip to Dad for the article!) and the less flamingly-liberal New York Times about New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman opening an investigation of some of the major players in the financial crisis.  The AG "requested" documents from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.  Read the full post to see what the consequences could be...

Progressive Values, Part 2: Universal Health Care

In the first post of this series, I outlined what a progressive tax system should look like.  I mentioned that fairly taxing the richest individuals and corporations among us would raise a lot of money for the US government.  One thing that this money should be spent on is a Universal Health Care or Medicare For All program.

Warning: This post is going to be intense!  If you get confused, just remember that health insurance companies are like fictional character Gordon Gecko in Wall Street (great movie, by the way):


 Gordon Gecko would argue that having private companies offer health insurance policies, is the best health care system.  That is what the US currently has.  Let's see how that's working for us:

This post is for mom

Because it was Mother's Day this past weekend, and because my mom did not care for the rap videos that I posted a while ago, this post is for you, mom!  Maybe you will like these videos better.

A year or two ago, I downloaded a few albums by The Replacements.  But I had never really listened to them.  Last week at work, I realized I was sick of all the things I usually listen to on my ipod, so I figured I'd give The Replacements a shot.  Turns out they're awesome!  Who knew?  Well apparently a lot of people, but not me.

My favorite song so far is Unsatisfied.  I like the sense of something missing - I think a lot of people feel this way about their life.  The lyrics are repetitive, but it works somehow:



My second favorite is Hold My Life.  I like the speed of this song, and the main hook is so catchy...It's been stuck in my head for days:



And finally, I also like this song a lot:



Happy late mother's day mom!  Thanks for taking care of me all of these years.

A ridiculous ride to the zoo

Last weekend, my girlfriend Anna and I decided that since we both like bike rides, and Anna likes zoos, we should combine both of these things with a bike ride to the Minnesota Zoo.  So I grabbed my new bike, and Anna grabbed her old one-speed, and off we went (click on any of the pictures for a bigger version):

I had a slight advantage, as I was riding a brand-new 21-speed touring bike, while Anna was riding this insanely heavy single speed bike.  It's about 40 miles to the zoo and back, and according to Google Maps it should take about two hours each way. Here's a map of the proposed route:

Notice how easy it is to cross the river on the map!