Linky Post: Michael Moore, Immigration, The end of the Middle Class etc. & Smart Memory Cards

My apologies for having become a really boring blogger (either whining or whining about kittens -- how cliched!). I really need to get some links I've been saving for ages out, so here you go!

1) I've been reminding myself for over six months now to post about this geeky thing that I tweeted about back in December last year: "A compulsive photographer's dream come true!! "Eye-fi" memory cards: what could be better than that?!" Can you imagine not having to connect your camera to your computer or take off the memory card and put it in the computer to transfer the photos you took? They can all be transferred wirelessly? I hope I can get one of these someday! :)

2) Michael Moore:  I should be following his blog because he often writes good stuff, but at least I already follow him on twitter.* Back in March, he tweeted a link to this NYT magazine story saying something about immigration and how important/ relevant it is: "The Tire Iron and the Tamale." (my apologies for not recalling MM's tagline for the story). Also back in March, MM posted a link to this 60 minutes report on children and homelessness which is worth watching.

Last, but not least, earlier in the day today (I haven't gone to bed, so for me it's still Friday 8/5), before news of the S&P downgrading of the U.S.'s debt credit rating, Moore wrote a blog post about how "30 years ago today, the death of the middle class began. One of the darkest days in American history."

Here's how his post begins:

From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house, and this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.
Young people have heard of this mythical time -- but it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981."
Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" -- to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves.
And they've succeeded.
On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike for just two days.

And today they hastily passed a law that will help FAA workers get back to work. Sigh.

He talked about this in his documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, and here's the video:


Food for thought in this other perhaps negatively significant day for this country's economy and politics. Because that's what it is -- S&P's decision was 100% political. I totally agree with my friend Gradmommy who tweeted a little while ago: "This is a Republican conspiracy." I think you may be right sister!

* I heartily recommend it. He doesn't tweet that often and when he does, it's several tweets at once, but all very relevant. Moore & Obama are the only "celebrities" that I follow on Twitter, BTW, I don't have time to waste on irrelevant people, unless it's someone you'd highly recommend -- let me know if I'm missing someone/ something!