Orphan Elephants Lack Social Knowledge Key for Survival

Psychological impact from loss of family structure parallels PTSD in people.

http://bit.ly/16pD8OA

(no subject)

A War on the Poor

http://nyti.ms/1aMKr4u

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9/11 Suspects Can’t Mention being Tortured during Trial Testimony because Their Torture is Classified

http://bit.ly/16GQHWK

'Our members are panicking': Families brace as billions in food stamp cuts kick in (comments are, of course, racist, classist, and generally ist-ist as fuck.)

http://nbcnews.to/16RwT8A

THOSE PEOPLE

http://www.scarymommy.com/those-people/

Cash is better than cans at food banks

http://bit.ly/tUIP9l

http://momofftrack.com/2011/12/4340/

SHOULD YOU DONATE KRAFT DINNER TO THE FOOD BANK?

http://bit.ly/17DDy4F

With a bird's eye view, seeing everything but spotted by very few

http://nyti.ms/HtwLAP

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Dancing With the Cars

http://nyti.ms/16sWl1V

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I didn't realize conductors had to point at the sign! Guess I never paid attention. Cute video, though.

http://newyorkers.livejournal.com/6220078.html

Cut in food stamps will hit retailers

One in five U.S. households is on food stamps, and many people could be rattled as their benefits are chopped.

I hate the phrase "is on food stamps". Why not simply "uses" food stamps or "needs" or "receives" food stamps instead? "Is on" makes food stamps sound vaguely like drugs.

http://lat.ms/HzPVV7

So here is one of the top level comments for that article, reproduced in all its vicious glory:

Liberals like to to think that poor people are poor through no fault of their own. They like to think the poor worked hard in school and got good grades, but just didn't get lucky enough to get the good jobs. They also think that poor kids are raised in households that have parents who each work 3 minimum wage jobs, or, if it is a single income family, the mom works 3 minimum wage jobs and left her husband because he was abusive.
Reality, these people screwed around in school and now feel like they should be paid for screwing up.

How is this bullshit, let me count the ways....

But seriously, let's just imagine for a second that every single person in the nation decided to agree with his proposition that you should be punished your whole life for the mistakes you made in childhood. And let's say that in response to that belief, students worked their little asses off, universally. Not just here and in Asia, all over the world! (Except maybe Finland.) Those kids at sucky schools had the insight to realize it and worked just that much harder, and the difference between the highest ranked student and the lowest at any large high school was only a matter of a few thousandths of a percentage point, if that.

And then what would happen? I can tell you what would happen. We would have an awful lot of doctors and lawyers and engineers, and none of them would get paid very well because supply would indeed have outstripped demand. We would have a lot of highly educated janitors and truck drivers and cashiers, and they wouldn't get paid well either because ANYbody can do those jobs. And we would have a very small number of mechanics and electricians and plumbers who would get paid pretty darn well, relatively speaking, though since nobody else would you would find a lot of people would just live with clogged up basement sinks.

Not everybody is going to be president, or an astronaut, or a doctor. There really is a limit to how many of those the market needs. Everybody, even the ones with the stupid jobs that anybody can do, deserves to make a living wage from ONE job working REASONABLE hours. Because somebody, in the end, has to sweep the streets.