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Moskos Sent to Minors

Not me, but Daniel Moskosof the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hey, there’s no relation, but there aren’t too many Moskos’s on this side of the Adriatic. Hopefully, later this year, Moskos will be the first Moskos to play major league baseball (or any other sport, for that matter).

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Daily Roundup

Two interesting articles: 1) Bring back the drunk tank. 2) Chicago Fighting Police-Misconduct Lawsuits–and Winning.

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Union Power

From our local “International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers,” comes the best union logo I’ve ever seen. From Astoria Ugly:

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“My name is Frunk-en-steen”

That’s a “Young Frankenstein” reference, for all you kids out there. That’s from back in the days when Mel Brooks was funny. Or at least funny to a seven-year-old. I watched that from the family Datsun with my dad and brother at the old Sunset Drive-Inon McCormick Blvd in Skokie, ILL. Man, I sound like I’m getting old… Maybe I…

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Say What?

“Nuclear facilities in Japan … were built to withstand earthquakes — but not an 8.9 earthquake.” What?! And why not? It’s not like such big earthquakes have never happened before. The idea that nuclear plants (and waste) need to be kept safe FOREVER seems to be the fatal flaw of the pro-nuclear position. Hubris, people. Hubris. Anyway, poor Japan. My…

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Philadelphia

I’m off to Philadelphia for a conference. Just for the record I got nothing against the city. But one of my students just cracked me up by saying, “Philadelphia? What a dump. Imagine if New York and D.C. had a baby. …And beat it.” Ouch.

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It’s the Inequality, Stupid

From Mother Jones. Worth a look. If you don’t support “income redistribution,” can we at least stop redistributing income from poor to rich? A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the…

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Collective Bargaining 101

I know it’s important, but I’m a bit clueless here. Can somebody explain to me just what collective bargaining means? Why is it important to unions? And what would happen if it were taken away?

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“…Cause that’s where I’m from!”

Representing my home borough of Queens (even though I’m not from here and the line I’m quoting is actually talking about Brooklyn). Click through to read the text. (by Dustin Glick) And I fully agree that “Beer + Kielbasa = Happy”.

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Be Thankful… and nice to strangers

All this revolution and celebration got me thinking… One of the things I’m always surprised at when I travel, at least when I travel anywhere other than the US and Western Europe, is just how sweet and kind and generous the average person on the street is. I’ve seen it Egypt, in Syria, in Thailand, and in Mexico. In so…

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