CrashPlan - Bob Rankin

Click here. Another Bob Rankin article I want to keep. This one is CrashPlan -- back up your data, remotely or via cable, to a friend's computer. There's a free version. If you both have CrashPlan, you can store backups on each other's computers. Each person can choose how much drive space they'll be willing to allow. 128-bit encryption means neither of you can access the other's data -- you don't even know what's there.

Radical Republican Platform, 1956

As the ultra-right toil away in Tampa crafting the most socially destructive Republican Party Platform ever, click here to link to the Platform created for Eisenhower's re-election campaign in 1956. Times have changed somewhat.

I've lazily cut-and-pasted some excerpts from another site:

“The Eisenhower Administration will continue to fight for dynamic and progressive programs which, among other things, will:

• Stimulate improved job safety of our workers, through assistance to the States, employees and employers; 
• Continue and further perfect its programs of assistance to the millions of workers with special employment problems, such as older workers, handicapped workers, members of minority groups, and migratory workers; 
• Strengthen and improve the Federal-State Employment Service and improve the effectiveness of the unemployment insurance system; 
• Protect by law, the assets of employee welfare and benefit plans so that workers who are the beneficiaries can be assured of their rightful benefits; 
• Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex;
• Federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts; 
• Extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable; 
• Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex; 
• Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment; 
• Revise and improve the Taft-Hartley Act so as to protect more effectively the rights of labor unions, management, the individual worker, and the public. The protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower Administration.”

Seven Free Cloud Services - Bob Rankin

Click here for a link to another Bob Rankin article I want to keep, but I don't want it to get lost in my massive collection of emails.

Who Is Paul Ryan?

Be afraid: Be very afraid. Paul Ryan, an acolyte of Ayn Rand who once stated that he made his staffers read Atlas Shrugged, is a dangerous man. In Batocchio's article at Vagabond Scholar, But Paul Ryan Seems Like Such a Nice Fellow, he cites an article in New York magazine by Jonathan Chait entitled The Legendary Paul Ryan. Batocchio says:

I wanted to link Jonathan Chait's piece "The Legendary Paul Ryan" again, because it's one of the best introductions to Ryan, especially for people who aren't political junkies.

It's a long article, but it's an easy, entertaining read.

Excellent Article On Keystone Pipeline

It's a long read, but well worth it. It presents points of view from both sides and doesn't make any killer arguments for or against, but it's good writing, and thoroughly enjoyable. By John H. Richardson -- and from Esquire, of all places. Who'd a thunk it? Click here.

Recover From A Hard Drive Failure

CLICK HERE for a link to another Bob Rankin posting which could save you in the event of (seeming) disaster -- ranging from rebooting in Safe mode to paying thousands of dollars for data recovery.

Vagabond Scholar

I've discovered a new blog that seems to be a "must read." CLICK HERE for a link to Battochio's blog, Vagabond Scholar. I read two of his articles recommended by Digby at Hullabaloo -- a solid source if ever there was one -- and I highly recommend it.

Here's what he says at his site when you click on "About Vagabond Scholar":

This blog covers politics, film, theater, poetry, literature, history and what-have-you. (Mostly, it's tardy long-form blogging.) For the brave of heart with lots of time at hand, my blogiversary roundups (linked below) provide a decent overview of past posts, wide in variety, uniform in their suspect quality. I've guest posted or cross-posted a few other places – Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo, the Campaign for America's Future, and Blue Herald, where I did a series called Right-Wing Cartoon Watch. As for the blog's title, from my second blogiversary post:
…There are times I wonder why the hell I picked it. As I wrote early on, I've long thought it would be a fun name for a column, and later learned it was the title of a biography about historian George Santayana. I have a wide range of interests, and until a few years ago, I had spent most of my life moving around (seven states, three continents) studying or teaching. I think of a "scholar" as one who values the life of the mind and the arts, is driven to learn more and who tries to be honest, not someone who possesses all the answers already. There's a saying that "I don't trust the man who says he's seen the light. I trust the person who's still looking." That said, sometimes "Vagabond Scholar" strikes me as a stuffy or pretentious blog title that doesn't quite fit with the more satirical posts or my nom de blog, but I guess it sounds vaguely more respectable than "Semiliterate Bum."