Census Bureau to parents: please poison the well of your child’s self-image.
The issue of race on question 9 in the 2010 Census causes a great deal of discussion and anger among many Americans. See this discussion at the web site of New York radio talk show Brian Lehrer for polite and intelligent discussion from people who have, as they say, skin in the game.
This issue is complicated further when reporting the race of minor children. The U.S. Census Bureau explains race as a matter of self-identification. Instructions [.pdf file] …

Mr. Moriyama worked with these guys for 30 years, but why listen to him?
Vignette from a diversity training class held in a 90 year old  industrial manufacturing facility:
Japanese-American chemical engineer Kichirou Moriyama (name changed) spent the last 30 years becoming a successful project manager and supervisor. His work requires him to direct the efforts of process operators who are typically high school graduates and union members who are between 30 to 60 years old. The operators are the ones who actually open the valves, add the catalysts, take the samples …

At 0:18 video proof the N-word non-incident was a setup?
We came across this video, an apparent training session for those who want to crash our tea parties and capture all the horror on film. It actually has some good advice on making viral videos.
You may want to put those video tips to good use. As Andrew Breitbart said at his 15 APR 10 Tax Day Tea Party Address [registration required], you are the media.
p.s. This satire pokes fun at the press, the unions, and professional activists, who for their own …

Section 2703 of the health care bill is about providing “home health services” (i.e. they come to you, you don’t go to them).  Section (h) defines the complete list of chronic conditions this part of the bill recognizes:

The cyborg pirate women of Walmart: buy this or I’ll look more provocative!

Bill relies on BMI to define chronic overweight condition.
The health care bill as passed defines in section 2703 [warning: loads slowly] that being overweight is a chronic condition. The condition is defined in the bill as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 25.
Match that with Health.com’s estimates of different celebrities’ BMI and you have the following list of people who have this chronic condition.

Here is what it looks like to the end user who falls for the trick that redirects a Google search for “Buz Mills” to an anti-Mills web site that is labeled “Paid for by Governor Jan Brewer”.
1.  Voter enters “Buz Mills” in Google Search Engine.

Voter enters “Buz Mills” in Google Search Engine.

2.  The search results will usually show that the first result is a sponsored link labeled “Buz Mills for Governor.” (See the screen capture below.) The sponsored search result is part of Google’s AdWords program, in which you can …

Jan Brewer’s sponsored search redirect leads to falsely labeled web site.
Buz Mills is running for Arizona governor. If you Google “Buz Mills” the first sponsored result is labeled “Buz Mills for Governor” but in fact it is a site sponsored by opponent Jan Brewer. You’d be forgiven for not noticing that right away because when you play the opposition video Brewer’s team made to discredit Mills, it contains criticisms such as these:

Number of budget briefings attended by Buz Mills.  Zero.
Number of budget hearings where Buz Mills has given testimony.  Zero.

The …

The Arizona Republic reports that Sergio’s Shuttle has been raided as part of a crackdown on human smuggling. There are many such shuttle bus services in border towns like Nogales. They do not hide but instead list destinations and prices for what to the casual onlooker appear as a strange type of one-way only bus service. This is all so normal and unhidden a part of the Arizona landscape that you will find in that same Arizona Republic a listing for Sergio’s Shuttle service.

Who are our nation’s statesman today? The first response would be the President and  then our Congressmen. But think about what a statesman is. Do the President and our Congressmen inspire confidence in us? Do they remove fear when things are rough? Do they set an example for all to follow? And do they fight for what is right in the face of being unpopular? I would say they do not. Today we do not have any statesmen. Today we have politicians. We have elected officials who are not out …

AP reports that the president has been emboldened by the success he enjoyed by nominating Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “He approaches this decision the way aggressive coaches prefer to call strategy – playing to win, as opposed to playing not to lose.”
Contrast this with the AP report on the RNC leadership response to the Steele controversy at this week’s Southern Republican Leadership Conference:
“And, while there are both hard-core Steele opponents and fierce Steele allies, several Republican officials at the New Orleans conference said that most committee members and party chairmen simply …

If you read in bed to quiet the random worries, recriminations, get rich quick schemes, and other idiocies that would otherwise keep you up for hours, it probably bothers your spouse who doesn’t. Try this: get a cheapie .mp3 player (8GB Sandisk refurb for $40, free shipping) then go to LibriVox.org and download some free books on tape. Kiss you spouse good night, set your player for 20 minute auto shutdown, and turn the light off. I hope it works for you.

Outspoken and Brassy?
AP writer Liz Sidoti describes Michael Steele as an “outspoken and brassy” GOP Chairman who is “normally a bombastic showman.” He may in fact be that way but that is not what we are seeing reported. We instead watch a guy wait politely for his turn [video] when CNN host D.L. Hughley, with all the gravitas incumbent on his status as a stand-up comic turned political pundit, calls the Republican Party conventioneers Nazis. Granted, Steele did show some bombast in that interview, but unfortunately the target was Rush …

Not Very Convincing Arguments Against Our Very Dumb Video
Andrew Leonard in his column at Salon.com calls our ObamaPad video clever but also “so very dumb.”  I would like to defend it.
Thankfully he starts the defense himself in his 5th paragraph when he likens the internet to the interstate highway system. The alert reader will notice that the cars you drive on those highways are not built by the federal government.
He writes that to-date, health insurers have done a terrible job of delivering affordable healthcare. Continuing the analogy from the video, …

At Stuntbrain.com is a short piece that illustrates with little doubt that the president can not say “I don’t know” when in fact he does not know.