Richard Florida graphed it:
The percentage of adults who say they are "very religious” according to Gallup polls is negatively associated with national relative upward mobility (-.51)—a pattern that is graphically represented on the above scatter graph.
New research indicates that one-third of the homeless population in the US is "formally obese":
"I thought we’d see a lot more people who were malnourished or underweight," said Jim O’Connell, the medical director of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and co-author of the study. … Obesity-related diseases among America’s 3 million homeless are a looming problem, said O’Connell. Diabetes is typically managed with diet and exercise, neither of which are easily controlled on their lifestyle. Insulin is also problematic because needles are often not permitted inside shelters. "This is going to be a national issue," said O’Connell, who described the homeless situation as anticipating trends in the mainstream U.S. population. Project current health trends into the future, and one in three U.S. adults will be diabetic in 2050.
One of the two snow leopards born at the zoo of Amneville, eastern France, is pictured on June 5, 2012. By Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP/Getty Images. Update from a cat lover:
Okay, now I can forgive you for publishing the kittycopter yesterday.
Bruce Bartlett counts rich nontaxpayers:
Republicans are always quick to attack Democrats for waging “class warfare” whenever they suggest that the wealthy ought to pay more taxes to help reduce the deficit and prevent the decimation of programs to aid the poor. But Republicans also engage in class warfare when they suggest that the poor are to blame for deficits because so few pay federal income taxes. Those among the wealthy who are paying no income taxes at least deserve equal time.
Nicholas Marzano believes he's the subject of a secret reality show, and everyone in his town of Hillside, Illinois is in on it. He's suing HBO in federal court for, in his words, "filming and broadcasting a hidden camera reality show depicting the day-to-day activities of plaintiff" without his consent. His suit, filed in April, alleges that HBO has hidden cameras throughout his home, installed controlling devices in his car, enlisted the help of local police, and recruited actors to portray "attorneys, government and law enforcement officials, physicians, employers, prospective employers, family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers," all so that their show about his life can continue.
President Reagan died on June 5, 2004. Let's win one for the Gipper!
— Scott Walker (@ScottKWalker) June 5, 2012
Jonah Goldberg thinks not. Doug Mataconis sees them as something of an overreaction:
We elect officials to serve specific and set terms of office for a reason, among those reasons are the idea that it takes a certain amount of time for anyone, whether they are a State Legislator, Governor, Member of Congress, or President, to get settled into their role and begin enacting the agenda that they were elected to implement. Obviously, the people who voted against those officials aren’t going to be happy with the policies that they implement, and indeed it is partly the job of the opposition party to stem the power of the majority run roughshod over the will of the minority, though. However, there comes a time when one must recognize that elections mean things and that one has to accept the outcome of an election while preparing for the next one.
The human species has numerous ancestors and relatives for whom a crispy insect was and is an attractive meal. Some of our kindred species feast on raw, crispy vegetables, and for those species for which leaves and stalks are not a first choice (and we humans would be in that category), a preference for those foods is quite useful if we need to survive on fallback foods. In short, we have an evolutionary legacy as primates that suggests that crispy and crunchy foods should be attractive to us, at least sometimes and under certain conditions.
With the advent of cooking, dietary conditions changed drastically. Crispy became available to our ancestors via the Maillard reaction. Cooking made the nutrients in meat and certain plant foods, such as tubers, more available to us and more palatable as well. Our ancestors who liked crispy cooked foods may have done particularly well in the reproductive sweepstakes, since cooking allowed greater access to a whole range of high-quality food items in varied environments.
(Photo by Adam Kahtava)
"Suppose for the sake of argument that our national debt has become a huge problem. How did it become a problem? Because of the Bush tax cuts, the Iraq War, and the recession (which, whatever its root causes, came about under Bush).
Suppose for the sake of argument that future spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security has become a huge problem. How did it become a problem? Because of massive increases in the cost of medical care, which has been exacerbated by Republican obstruction of national health care policy (the US spends about 50% more on medical care as a proportion of GDP than other western countries)
If Romney wins, and uses the so-called debt crisis to end collective bargaining rights, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid as we know them, it will be nothing less than another Reichstag fire," – "Metrosexual Black AbeJ," Balloon Juice.
In case you missed it, some pretty solid evidence that, compared with Obama, he lies with brazen abandon.
The Dish 