I lived on Dylan in college, knew every lyric. First time I saw him was when I was a still a teenager and he was touring with Tom Petty. My mom and I went with my geezer/conman second stepfather. He fell asleep, seriously, at a rock concert, dead asleep.  My mom disappeared to get closer to the stage, then came back an hour later smelling of pot and a few tokes happier. I meat a girl whose number I promptly lost on my way out of The Fabulous Forum, as it was known then.

They keep saying they are okay, but he is only a year or so out from quintuple bypass surgery and she is in need of a hernia operation...

Just hoping the rain stops soon, but even then, the aftermath is going to present a whole new set of problems and issues.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The gap in employment rates between America's highest- and lowest-income families has stretched to its widest levels since officials began tracking the data a decade ago, according to an analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press.

Rates of unemployment for the lowest-income families -- those earning less than $20,000 -- have topped 21 percent, nearly matching the rate for all workers during the 1930s Great Depression.

U.S. households with income of more than $150,000 a year have an unemployment rate of 3.2 percent, a level traditionally defined as full employment. At the same time, middle-income workers are increasingly pushed into lower-wage jobs. Many of them in turn are displacing lower-skilled, low-income workers, who become unemployed or are forced to work fewer hours, the analysis shows.
...
While the link between income and joblessness may seem apparent, the data are the first to establish how this factor has contributed to the erosion of the middle class, a traditional strength of the U.S. economy.
...
Economists call this a "bumping down" or "crowding out" in the labor market, a domino effect that pushes out lower-income workers, pushes median income downward and contributes to income inequality. Because many mid-skill jobs are being lost to globalization and automation, recent U.S. growth in low-wage jobs has not come fast enough to absorb displaced workers at the bottom. link

Volume 128
Volume 127

Time Magazine's cover for its September 16 issue features a picture of contented-looking Russian president Vladimir Putin, complete with a black background and a damning caption that declares "America's weak and waffling, Russia's rich and resurgent."

But Time's editors are shielding Americans from the demoralizing picture, putting a cheerful, sky-blue photo on the covers of magazines distributed in the United States.

"It's time to pay college athletes," says the chirpy, non-political U.S. cover, which shows a ball-carrying football player with arm outstretched.

Vol. 129
Vol. 128

Yale law school professor Dan Kahan's new research paper is called "Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government," but for me a better title is the headline on science writer Chris Mooney's piece about it in Grist:  "Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math."

Kahan conducted some ingenious experiments about the impact of political passion on people's ability to think clearly.  His conclusion, in Mooney's words: partisanship "can even undermine our very basic reasoning skills.... [People] who are otherwise very good at math may totally flunk a problem that they would otherwise probably be able to solve, simply because giving the right answer goes against their political beliefs."

In other words, say goodnight to the dream that education, journalism, scientific evidence, media literacy or reason can provide the tools and information that people need in order to make good decisions.  It turns out that in the public realm, a lack of information isn't the real problem.  The hurdle is how our minds work, no matter how smart we think we are.  We want to believe we're rational, but reason turns out to be the ex post facto way we rationalize what our emotions already want to believe.
[...snip...]
When there's a conflict between partisan beliefs and plain evidence, it's the beliefs that win.  The power of emotion over reason isn't a bug in our human operating systems, it's a feature.

A review panel created by President Obama to guide reforms to US government surveillance did not discuss any changes to the National Security Agency's controversial activities at its first meeting, according to two participants.

The panel, which met for the first time this week in the Truman Room of the White House conference center, was touted by Obama in August as a way for the government to consider readjusting its surveillance practices after hearing outsiders' concerns.

But two attendees of the Monday meeting said the discussion was dominated by the interests of major technology firms, and the session did not address making any substantive changes to the controversial mass collection of Americans' phone data and foreigners' internet communications, which can include conversations with Americans.

Robert Atkinson, the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and an attendee, told the Guardian the he "did not hear much discussion" of changes to the bulk surveillance activities.

"My fear is it's a simulacrum of meaningful reform," said Sascha Meinrath, a vice president of the New America Foundation, an influential Washington think tank, and the director of the Open Technology Institute, who also attended. "Its function is to bleed off pressure, without getting to the meaningful reform."

Because a gridlocked Congress won't be passing a new budget anytime soon, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services finalized a rule Friday for $1.1 billion in Medicaid cuts to hospitals under the Affordable Care Act, cuts that could hit hospitals particularly hard in states that don't expand Medicaid through the law. link

Four people were killed and at least 10 were shot - two of the victims police officers - at the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard Monday morning by more than one gunman.

At about 10:20 a.m., one shooter had been reported contained. However, at least one other gunman remained at large.

One of those shot was a D.C. police officer, reported NBC News' Pete Williams. Another was a base security officer.

The conditions of the victims are unknown, but George Washington Hospital reported that at least one victim has been transported to that hospital.

The U.S. Navy said the shooting began at about 8:20 a.m. with three shots fired inside Building #197 at the Naval Sea Systems Command Headquarters, 1336 Isaac Hull Ave. in the Southeast section of the District. U.S. military officials say the gunman - armed with an AR-15, a military-style assault weapon - first shot the base security officer.

Link with live video of coverage

At least one shooter still at large.

The Saints and Texans game were damn good.  I didn't see the Bears game, but it wounded like a real shootout, too bad the wrong team won.

"They finally invented a computer as smart as a person. It blames all its mistakes on another computer."