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And that's it for today - 12 March 2007
Mar. 13th, 2007 12:05 amIn terms of actual work done today... nada. Zip, zero, squat. That’s okay, though. Tomorrow we’ll make up for it and hopefully start and finish most of the work yet to be done in the other classes. There’s actually a lot less to do than I think there is, but until it’s done, I won’t realize the full aspects of that. So better to get it all done and realize how little there really was.
We give you links, glorious links!
Out of the Washington Post, an apology for Wal-Mart that says even if all the claims about wage-busting and anticompetitiveness are true, the economy, and especially the poor, benefit more from Wal-Mart's presence than if it weren't there. I’m more worried about the situation where Wal-Mart becomes the only big box in town and then either folds or discontinues something important, like the knitting row that’s going on in Texas. In any case, it’s probably a lot more suspicious that Haliburton is headed to Dubai (possibly to avoid paying quite so much in tax) than Wal-Mart is taking over. I may not be sure by how much, though.
One of the high-ranking Senators on the Democratic side of the aisle, Joe Biden, has said Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez should resign because he puts politics before his obligations to the law. With the way some of those laws have been written, however, the previous and current incarnations of the Congress also carry some blame on the use and permissions to use things like National Security Letters. And in making cases like Ray LeMoine, who after spending six months in Islamic countries, was detained by Homeland Security because he sold shirts outside sports arenas withotu permission. Your tax dollars at work. The Washington Post even adds on that it's getting harder and harder to make a profile of terrorists, because they're coming from all walks of life. Which is what a lot of people were saying a lot earlier on - profiling generally is useless because there are a lot of people who won’t fit it who do want to do harm, and a lot of people who do who have no intention of causing harm.
The United Nations team in Sudan accused the government of Sudan of orchestrating crimes against humanity in Darfur, calling for stronger Security Council steps and punishment. Beyond what the media fixation in Iraq and the Middle East is, things like Darfur occur, and appear not to currently have enough attention and requirements on them.
You may make Terminator jokes now. Skynet 5A satellite has been launched. Moving on, since this has likely been done four times before... would you privatize defence? An analogy drawn in the sand of the chatterbox. Don’t know how effective it is at getting the point across, but it’s trying to say just how silly privatized medicine is.
Speaking of insurance, because of new requirements meant to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain government health plans, citizens who have difficulty finding their citizenship papers are losing coverage or not enrolling in the plans. The numbers are not a complete guarantee that citizens are not enrolling, but the anecdotal evidence is that there are missed checkups or lack of care because the documents cannot be produced or found easily enough to make qualifications. The new regulations are also apparently causing delays in those who are applying.
Salon has an article about a fight being led in the higher echelons of energy policy to stop building coal-fired plants until they can reduce their carbon dioxide emissions to natural-gas levels or to zero. Something like that isn’t far enough for one of the Letters at 3AM in the Austin Chronicle, which says when gas goes up, the U.S. goes down. In a prety inevitable fashion - we can keep ourselves more afloat by doing things now to brace for the impact when it happens, but Michael Ventura says that we should get used to the era upcoming where China is the world’s sole superpower.
Religion and Christianity is always in the news here in the United States... in one form or another. AlterNet has a blurb about new programs fast-tracking into state legislatures that take aim at issues normally considered under church-state separation, like vouchers/tuition tax credits, faith-based initiatives, and science standards debates aiming to make creationism and evolution receive a “balanced treatment”, among others. There’s significant leeriness over the introduction of two Bible-as-literature courses in Georgia, because the teachers or the students may pervert the class from one focusing on the work as a piece of literature (constitutionally acceptable) into one focusing on the rightness or morality of the teachings and the religion that followed, which is most likely not constitutionally acceptable. Reaching into the vault is a three-part sequence on BattleCry, an organization that bring together lots of youth for rallies and rock concerts (presumably of properly vetted Christian bands). Not too disturbing, until you read the list of what they’re standing for. Part One, Part Two, and Part Three about a BattleCry rally experienced by Sunsara Taylor. She doesn’t hide where she stands on the issues, so read it in that light. Even those who bill themselves conservatives and religious are getting into saying things about religion and the way it’s being treated - Your Christian President for example, which opposes Bush and liberals alike. Either fanning this sort of thing or reassuring us that it’s going to fall apart through confusion, Americans get an 'F' in their religious literacy. To mixed reactions in the USA Today article. I suspect that a lot of things would change if religious peoples were walked through their holy books and forced to look at them with critical eyes, with literature eyes, with eyes for historical contexts. Whether they came out of it with a deeper faith, a decision to follow another faith (like faith in the magic 8-ball of Neil Gaiman's blog, or the talking Oujia board), or no faith at all would all be acceptable results. But at least they would be informed decisions.
Diplomats need to keep their noses clean at all times, I guess. Israel recalled their ambassador to El Salvador after he was found naked, drunk, and tied up in the yard of his residence.
Excessive e-mail checking my lower our IQs by as much as ten points - twice the drop reported from marijuana smoking. So, that whole Crackberry thing really does have effects, huh...
In the “random” department, The American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention. For those days when Jurassic Park is not a myth and a story, but a reality.
Following from an earlier linking (of some time ago) - the betel-nut sellers in Taiwan now have an exhibit of photographs in a Taipei gallery. Definitely an interesting set of images for these roadside vendors.
Last bit for tonight is a really cool image - fireworks, lightning, and a comet, all in one panorama. That’s just a cool picture.
And thus, I abscond for the night. Hopefully the dentists are kind to me tomorrow...
We give you links, glorious links!
Out of the Washington Post, an apology for Wal-Mart that says even if all the claims about wage-busting and anticompetitiveness are true, the economy, and especially the poor, benefit more from Wal-Mart's presence than if it weren't there. I’m more worried about the situation where Wal-Mart becomes the only big box in town and then either folds or discontinues something important, like the knitting row that’s going on in Texas. In any case, it’s probably a lot more suspicious that Haliburton is headed to Dubai (possibly to avoid paying quite so much in tax) than Wal-Mart is taking over. I may not be sure by how much, though.
One of the high-ranking Senators on the Democratic side of the aisle, Joe Biden, has said Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez should resign because he puts politics before his obligations to the law. With the way some of those laws have been written, however, the previous and current incarnations of the Congress also carry some blame on the use and permissions to use things like National Security Letters. And in making cases like Ray LeMoine, who after spending six months in Islamic countries, was detained by Homeland Security because he sold shirts outside sports arenas withotu permission. Your tax dollars at work. The Washington Post even adds on that it's getting harder and harder to make a profile of terrorists, because they're coming from all walks of life. Which is what a lot of people were saying a lot earlier on - profiling generally is useless because there are a lot of people who won’t fit it who do want to do harm, and a lot of people who do who have no intention of causing harm.
The United Nations team in Sudan accused the government of Sudan of orchestrating crimes against humanity in Darfur, calling for stronger Security Council steps and punishment. Beyond what the media fixation in Iraq and the Middle East is, things like Darfur occur, and appear not to currently have enough attention and requirements on them.
You may make Terminator jokes now. Skynet 5A satellite has been launched. Moving on, since this has likely been done four times before... would you privatize defence? An analogy drawn in the sand of the chatterbox. Don’t know how effective it is at getting the point across, but it’s trying to say just how silly privatized medicine is.
Speaking of insurance, because of new requirements meant to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain government health plans, citizens who have difficulty finding their citizenship papers are losing coverage or not enrolling in the plans. The numbers are not a complete guarantee that citizens are not enrolling, but the anecdotal evidence is that there are missed checkups or lack of care because the documents cannot be produced or found easily enough to make qualifications. The new regulations are also apparently causing delays in those who are applying.
Salon has an article about a fight being led in the higher echelons of energy policy to stop building coal-fired plants until they can reduce their carbon dioxide emissions to natural-gas levels or to zero. Something like that isn’t far enough for one of the Letters at 3AM in the Austin Chronicle, which says when gas goes up, the U.S. goes down. In a prety inevitable fashion - we can keep ourselves more afloat by doing things now to brace for the impact when it happens, but Michael Ventura says that we should get used to the era upcoming where China is the world’s sole superpower.
Religion and Christianity is always in the news here in the United States... in one form or another. AlterNet has a blurb about new programs fast-tracking into state legislatures that take aim at issues normally considered under church-state separation, like vouchers/tuition tax credits, faith-based initiatives, and science standards debates aiming to make creationism and evolution receive a “balanced treatment”, among others. There’s significant leeriness over the introduction of two Bible-as-literature courses in Georgia, because the teachers or the students may pervert the class from one focusing on the work as a piece of literature (constitutionally acceptable) into one focusing on the rightness or morality of the teachings and the religion that followed, which is most likely not constitutionally acceptable. Reaching into the vault is a three-part sequence on BattleCry, an organization that bring together lots of youth for rallies and rock concerts (presumably of properly vetted Christian bands). Not too disturbing, until you read the list of what they’re standing for. Part One, Part Two, and Part Three about a BattleCry rally experienced by Sunsara Taylor. She doesn’t hide where she stands on the issues, so read it in that light. Even those who bill themselves conservatives and religious are getting into saying things about religion and the way it’s being treated - Your Christian President for example, which opposes Bush and liberals alike. Either fanning this sort of thing or reassuring us that it’s going to fall apart through confusion, Americans get an 'F' in their religious literacy. To mixed reactions in the USA Today article. I suspect that a lot of things would change if religious peoples were walked through their holy books and forced to look at them with critical eyes, with literature eyes, with eyes for historical contexts. Whether they came out of it with a deeper faith, a decision to follow another faith (like faith in the magic 8-ball of Neil Gaiman's blog, or the talking Oujia board), or no faith at all would all be acceptable results. But at least they would be informed decisions.
Diplomats need to keep their noses clean at all times, I guess. Israel recalled their ambassador to El Salvador after he was found naked, drunk, and tied up in the yard of his residence.
Excessive e-mail checking my lower our IQs by as much as ten points - twice the drop reported from marijuana smoking. So, that whole Crackberry thing really does have effects, huh...
In the “random” department, The American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention. For those days when Jurassic Park is not a myth and a story, but a reality.
Following from an earlier linking (of some time ago) - the betel-nut sellers in Taiwan now have an exhibit of photographs in a Taipei gallery. Definitely an interesting set of images for these roadside vendors.
Last bit for tonight is a really cool image - fireworks, lightning, and a comet, all in one panorama. That’s just a cool picture.
And thus, I abscond for the night. Hopefully the dentists are kind to me tomorrow...
