Friday Links

*Unemployment hits 10.2%, but apparently the real unemployment number is over 17% when you factor in people who have taken part-time work in lieu of non-existent full-time jobs, and people who have stopped looking for jobs because...well...I have no fucking clue why you would stop looking for a job when you don't have one.

So I think this underemployed number that the media likes to trot out is stupid. It's stupid because you shouldn't count as unemployed if you are employed. Even part-time. You certainly shouldn't count as unemployed if you're too fucking lazy to look for a job. While I understand that the statistic is called "underemployed" for a reason, it's still too often used by the media as a better judge of the labor market. Personally, I think we should just go Bush-era Homeland Security style, and start using a color coded scale ranging from green (for a great labor market) to red (for a shitty labor market).

*China gets golf. Tiger was sidelined for the last HSBC Championship -- a golf tournament known as the "Asia Major" that takes place in Shanghai every fall -- his return has brought back rabid galleries that were missing last year. With those rabid galleries comes a gazillion little Chinese men that have no fucking clue about golf etiquette. True, this is coming from an American golf fan -- a species of golf fan responsible for the "GET IN THE HOLE!" yell that has now officially zoomed past the douche zone and follows every golf shot on the PGA Tour. Still, the Chinese seem to be a particularly annoying new golf fan base who -- if you can believe this -- won't put down their nosy electronics during golfers swings. As the reporter in the linked story above says:

Most fairways have the feel of the electronics department of the downtown Shanghai Best Buy.

*Lots of whores due to flock to Dallas for NBA All-Star game and the Super Bowl in 2011. Whatever. Same old story that gets rehashed every year. But this is newsworthy -- from the linked Dallas News story -- there's a National Prostitute Diversion Conference. Here's a thought: Do hookers flock every year to take care of the attendees of the National Prostitute Diversion Conference?

*Baltimore Sun engages in actual journalism. Snarky? Yes. Undeserved...probably not. But credit due where credit is earned. The Sun and the Independent are doing an exchange program with their crime reporters. By way of Britain's massive crush on all things The Wire related the Sun's Justin Fenton ad the Independent's Mark Hughes are switching countries for a short time and comparing crime trends. The two papers have set up blogs, updated daily, and the two reporters are filing regular stories for the print editions. It's good stuff. It's the type of interesting journalism that papers like the Sun should be doing more of.

Hate's On the Rise...Because We Say It Is

Baltimore is a violent city. Pretty simple. I'd have thought that the local daily would be aware of this. Turns out not so much...Or perhaps they are using one isolated instance of white, neo-nazi thugs assaulting an elderly black man as evidence for a easy-to-write scare piece about hate crime on the rise. That wouldn't be possible...would it? Baltimore Sun piece titled Hate Rise?:

When people pack assault rifles at presidential forums and town-hall meetings dissolve into shouting matches, it's easy to imagine such anger spilling over into the nation's simmering stew of racial prejudice.

A day after a self-proclaimed white supremacist was arrested in Baltimore for attempted murder in an assault on a 76-year-old black man, law enforcement officials and politicians expressed concern Wednesday that the tenor of current politics could prompt an increase in hate crimes.

"I think that for people who may be on the fringes already, the mood right now in the country might just be the little push they need to act on their feelings," said Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger. "Fortunately, we're not seeing that just yet."

Actually, it is pretty hard to imagine honest -- but passionate disagreement on a huge national policy issue "spilling over into the nation's simmering stew of racial prejudice." What I can imagine is a couple of thugs who happen to be white, senselessly beating the shit out of an elderly black man for no other reason than they didn't like the way he looked. You know why I can imagine it? Because pointless violent crime happens all the fucking time in this city -- And it has nothing to do with a national debate on health care! The Sun disagrees though...I think:

There is no telling whether Calvin E. Lockner, 28, the man charged in the beating early Tuesday, was inspired by the national brawl over health care reform, but he told police officers that he "did not like people who were different from him."

Lockner goes by the nickname "Hitler," a name ascribed also to President Barack Obama by some of his more virulent critics.

Wait -- So there's no telling if the neo-nazis beat up the black guy because they don't like the public option being back on the table? Great reporting. What other assumptions are you going to throw out there with the caveat that there is "no telling" if it's true or not? Why not just report what you actually know about the case instead of further stoking racial tensions? Not sexy enough? Doesn't draw the same amount of page hits?

Related: Nick Gillespie takes on the subject (though not the Sun article in particular.)

Young Adults Haunted By Mental Health Issues Like Having Lots of Free Time to Drink Booze

Did you know that nicotine dependence is a mental health issue? Or that college students drink a lot of beer? Now you do:

Nearly half of college-age adults struggle with a mental health disorder, from alcohol dependency to depression and anxiety. But only a quarter seek treatment, according to a study published today.

"This study gives a picture of the magnitude of the problem and the extent to which these disorders go untreated," said Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and lead author of the study. "It really lays out the challenge of providing services to meet the need, particularly of alcohol use disorders." [...]

Among college students, alcohol abuse and dependency were the most common at 20 percent, followed by personality disorders such as obsessive-compulsive and paranoid disorders at 18 percent. Non-college students were most likely to report personality disorders and nicotine dependence.

The rates of mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar disorder, were 11 percent for college students and 12 percent for non-students. The same rates were found for anxiety disorders in each group.

The study did not measure the prevalence of such disorders among adults of other ages.

Great. Really newsworthy stuff. Even better, the Baltimore Sun didn't just pick up this pointless story off the wires; they actually had one of their 4 remaining reporters write a quasi-original article about it. That's the way you run a paper.

Fat Chick Tells Us to Vote for Obama, I Smell Vomit Somewhere on Me

The Baltimore Sun runs against the tide of the mainstream media and....endorses Barack Obama. Is there just a standard mad lips like form that newspapers use to write the Obama endorsement?:

Senator Obama's campaign has been extraordinarily open - inclusive across generational, ethnic and class lines. His top advisers include Democrats and Republicans, giving substance to his promise of bipartisan leadership. He created a disciplined organization that raised record sums yet stayed within budget. Senator Obama's campaign testifies to his managerial skill and talent for surrounding himself with smart, hard-working people.[...]

With the likelihood of vacancies on the Supreme Court in coming years, the next president will have an opportunity to shape the judicial branch's liberal-conservative balance for a generation on such crucial questions as abortion, civil liberties and civil rights. We believe that unlike Senator McCain, who has said he would name justices sympathetic to the views of the court's most conservative members, Senator Obama would avoid ideologically driven appointments that further polarize the country on contentious social issues.

Senator Obama is a relative newcomer on the national stage. But he has proved to be that rarest of public servants, an inspirational leader who would transcend any enduring racial barriers and call upon the best in the American character, a public servant who also possesses the finely honed political skills necessary to turn the nation's highest ideals into practical policies that benefit citizens.

That is why The Baltimore Sun endorses Barack Obama for president

Translation: We endorse Barack Obama because he's to the left on economic and social issues, he's running the (so-far) leading campaign, he has raised lots of money, and he seems to be a pretty cool guy.

That's how I read it, because one would think if you really cared about bipartisanship you would endorse the guy who has actually engaged in it, as opposed to the guy who just gets endorsements from politically opportunistic "Republicans". Or, if you cared about, "running a campaign within budget" you might want to look at the guy who is farther away from raising $1 billion dollars and has actually had to work to stay under budget, instead of the candidate who has enough cash to buy his own satellite TV channel. And we can just forget, as the Sun obviously has, that the important part of Obama's "disciplined campaign" isn't staying within a $700 million budget, instead it's running a Bush-like operation where everything is operated under a veil of secrecy. I'm pretty sure most journalist on the trail no matter how close they are to Obama '08's collective taint would agree that of all things the campaign may be, open is not one of them. Running that type of tight operation was most likely a deciding factor in the primary run when contrasted to Hillary's leaky ship.

I'm not making a case for McCain, I couldn't do that, but I've grown tired of giving credit to Barack Obama for things Barack Obama hasn't done. If you want him to win, just come out and say you want him to win because the direction he wants to move the country (decidedly left) is the direction you want the country to move. The media doesn't need to pretend to be unbiased anymore, that shtick is over. Just come out of the closet and say, "We want the lefty to win".

But as always take what I say with a grain of salt, or a speck of vomit. This is coming from a guy who still has pieces of wings stuck in his beard from 2 a.m. last night and for the love of him can't quite locate where the stench of vomit that's been following him around all morning is coming from. And speaks of himself in the 3rd person. So whatever. I'm going to go buy new pants.

A 'Lean' Budget With an 4% Increase in Spending

Baltimore Sun:

Governor proposes lean operating budget

After a bruising special session to address Maryland's chronic deficits, Gov. Martin O'Malley proposed one of the leanest state budgets in the past two decades, relying on cuts in open space and road maintenance and a slowdown in an education spending initiative to place the state on sound financial footing.

The governor proposed a 4 percent increase in the state's operating budget - the lowest in five years and one of the lowest in the past 25 years. A 7.5 percent increase was approved by the General Assembly last year.

Lean? A 4% increase counts as lean? It might be a modest reduction in the growth of government spending, but certainly it isn't 'lean budget'. Especially during a time when the taxpayers have been told to suck it up and pay more, due to the dismal financial situation of the state.

Full article here.

Getting our Priorities Straight

If it wasn't so sad, it would be an amusing order of stories on the Sun's front-page

Low-hanging pants resolution introduced in City Council

City grapples with homicides after 'horrible weekend'

This I Love

The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild -- engaged in contract negotiations with the Baltimore Sun -- hires PR firm to:

The guild, which represents 480 Sun employees, has hired the Baltimore office of public relations firm Weber Shandwick to represent its viewpoint to the media and the financial community so that the negotiations are not viewed as a "classic labor versus management" fight, but rather the guild's interest in maintaining the quality of the newspaper, Hill said.

Look, I think I get what they are trying to do; but you still have to admit that the irony of newspapermen hiring a PR firm to "represent their viewpoint to the media.." is just tasty in every way.

Full article here. Via Baltimore Crime.

Abstaining from Facebook, Beats Feeding Homeless People

The Baltimore Sun. Losing readership, firing reporters; the only major newspaper covering a city with record violence and abysmal public schools, yet still manages to find time to cover the important things. Newsworthy items like unbearable, cunty undergrads giving up Facebook for Lent. This is not a wire story, not even a column, but an actual news story involving a paid reporter. I won't take this opportunity to go on a rant against the Sun, because this story is light (I think and hope it is), well written and hilarious, but believe me when I say the Sun does a less than admirable job of covering Charm City.

Back to the story itself, where thank god, we are blessed enough to be able to listen to our aforementioned cunty co-eds go on about their sacrifice in way that makes you wish you had their addresses to pass along to Mike Tyson, or maybe a hippopotamus.

Some penitents are relying on will power alone, but others have let roommates change their passwords so they can no longer access their own accounts. A few have deleted their profiles.

"The second day, I almost went on," says Analiza Saraza, a 19-year-old international business major at Mount St. Mary's. "It was like, 'www.F-A-C ... .'" At the same time, she had to stop herself from checking Instant Messenger, which she also renounced this year.

[ellipsis]

"I think it's been like six days, but I can see it being quite difficult in the future," says Tommy Laughlin, a Loyola material engineering major who erased his whole profile.

My good-natured ribbing aside (I gave up mean-spiritness for Lent myself. The jokes and insults are only in good fun for the next 30 days folks.) I do cringe if this is what passes as religious piety in our society today; if you want to take your faith seriously, by all means do so. Sacrifice your time to perform community service; like walking sheltered dogs, or performing oral treats on that slightly weird, hairy introvert, that lives down the street from you and might also blog for a libertarian site in his spare time. But be serious, and then maybe I might take you and your faith serious too.

Full article here.