Fables of the reconstruction

Tastykake May Fold

Tastykake has delayed the filing of its annual report with the SEC because its accountants and lawyers are focusing all of their energy on trying to sell the company. Tasty Baking has been restructing its debt agreements since early January, partly as a result of problems they're having with their new production facility at the Philadelphia Navy Yard but also because of the downstream effects of the bankruptcy of the company that owns SuperFresh, A&P and Pathmark. As part of the restructing deal, Tasty Baking agreed to try to find a buyer by June who could pay the bills.

Tastykake promises to file the annual report within 15 days, and says it will include a warning from its auditors that the company may not be able to continue as a going concern.

Kicking Whole Household Off Food Stamps If One Family Member Strikes Is Not New, Not Workable

Brendan Skwire says that the Republicans' recent initiative to kick all family members of striking workers off food stamps is actually a policy adopted originally ... in 1981.  Why haven't we heard about it? Because, he says, it's largely symbolic:

[W]hile the language is offensive, it’s largely unworkable if the idea is to kick people already receiving [food stamps] off the program. When you apply, there’s a requirement to report if you’re on strike. If you’re already receiving SNAP, it’s a lot harder to determine that, simply due to the fact that the welfare offices where the majority of SNAP cases are handled are overworked, understaffed, inefficient, and in general swamped. ... [N]o one has the time (or for that matter the resources) to go through every applicant’s files to see which ones belong to unions and which unions are on strike at any given time. The only way this “policy” (and I’m using the term charitably) could work is if a striker went into the county assistance office and said “hey guys, those food stamps i’m getting? Cancel them, I’m on strike”.

There you have it: A great example of the real beauty of the internet, where people who actually know things tell other people who don't.

Real Firearms Are Not Like Video Games

Guns are dangerous to the user if you don't know what you're doing:

see more funny videos at FailBlog

Getting smacked in the face by a cruiser-style shotgun is a comparatively gentle reminder that you need to be taught properly how to handle and shoot a gun before you get anywhere near live ammunition.

Set Clocks Forward One Hour

Daylight Saving Time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday.  I wanted to set this post to appear at 2:05 a.m. just for the hell of it.  It's a time that doesn't exist! Turns out Typepad won't let me. 

They Don't Use the Richter Scale Anymore

Apparently, the Richter scale was phased out 20 years ago. Today they use the moment magnitude scale, which measures the total energy of the quake. (The Richter scale just measured the distance the land moved.) People still say "8.9 on the Richter scale", but they should say "magnitude 8.9 earthquake."

Obama Declines to Get Involved With NFL Contract Negotiation

Good:

"I'm a big football fan, but I also think that for an industry that's making nine billion dollars a year in revenue, they can figure out how to divide it up in a sensible way," Obama said. "I've got a lot of other stuff to do."

I'm glad.

1. He's right. Presidents should stay out of trivial crap like this.
2. Most white (and a few black) NFL players that I have met or heard talk are raging wingnuts. The overwhelming majority of black players would side with Obama. It would split the union and make a pro-owner result more likely. Also, Republican voters and politicians presumably would take up the cause of the owners more fervently than they already do. If Obama urged compromise (I know, inconceivable), Republicans would call for drone attacks on Kevin Mawae.
3. It would definitely hurt him politically.