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Lazy day today, involving large amounts of heat and humidity. One box fan is doing okay, but really, some air conditioning would not be turned down, assuming I didn’t have to go too far for it. But I’m used to this, so I’ll manage to endure. I am not such a Potter fanatic that I had midnight tickets - in fact, I have no tickets at all, and will probably wait until someone else gets it on DVD and then watch that. I may be a bit more interested in the book that will be released later this month, but I will probably wait on that for a bit, until someone else gets it or the library laundry list is sufficiently low that I can borrow it and read it. Instead, I watched baseball. So I got to see Suzuki Ichiro circle the bases without the ball leaving the park. And then several other people circle the bases because their baseballs did leave the field of play. With the professional ability of athletes these days, though, if the fences aren’t there, I’d bet a lot of them could run down balls that currently pass for home runs and get them back into the field before the hitters crossed the plate. Excepting, perhaps, those fields where the ball will fall into a body of water. Anyway, congratulations to the American League, for winning their ninth All-Star Game in ten years.
Getting off and running, A Senate panel has refused to fund the office of the Vice President. This comes over several matters, including Mr. Cheney’s claim that his office and the office of the President are not executive agencies, and do not have to comply with executive orders requiring them to report how much they classify and declassify. Secrecy about their secrecy - with this administration, I’m not surprised. Gonzaleslied to the populace about whether or not there were violations of Patriot Act procedures that resulted in wrong information being collected, which has only recently come to light through a FOIA request. Mr. Bush continues to obstruct a Congressional investigation, citing executive privilege in directing White House aides not to answer Congressional subpoenas. I wonder, when this is all over, whether we’ll find out that most of the things classified were stupid things (okay, that’s no different than now, I’d guess) and that all the obstruction and interference was for something very small. Of course, it could also be for something big that we won’t discover until later, possibly after pardons issued by a later President.
The administration also says that there's no likelihood of reducing troop levels in Iraq. Most likely because he believes accounts that say the surge is working, reducing violence and quelling terror. At the same time, there's talk of building a short-range missile-defense platform to protect from offshore launches. Just in case some fight actually does come to our shores, with the technology to launch? Or is it that things aren’t working so well with Iraqis being urged to take up arms because their security forces can't hack it yet? Considering that the TSA failed a recent security test here at home, maybe it’s just failure all around.
One last quip is a “make what you like of it” pairing - Louisiana Republican crusading against gay marriage in 2006...appears as client of the "D.C. Madam", apologizes today for his indiscretion. Hat tip to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_eric_m_ for pointing out the pairing, but I’m a bit at a loss on what to do. Eric suggests that now that the Senator has apologized, he will become a champion for both gay marriage and for legalized prostitution. Still, nice to see that some people who want to see other people get no benefits of marriage are hard at work making their own marriages adulterous. (Also, through that entry, I appear to have picked up another reader. Whether temporarily or permanently, say hello, ldragoon. Readership, greet your new plaything... err, fellow, accordingly.)
And then there are the non-politicians, rehashing old jingoist propaganda of progressive America versus stuck-in-the-past Islam, or making up scare stories of lesbian gangs "taking over" the country and indoctrinating young girls to both the homosexual and gang lifestyle (of which Jesus' General provides a satirical account of such gangs), a gathering that honored a judge who would not put aside his personal religious beliefs to uphold the rule of law, gathering under the symbol of the secession of the Confederacy. Or the county government that passes a measure requiring that immigration status be checked before someone can use public services and if the police suspects someone is breaking the law, including traffic stops. So it’s not Driving While Black in Prince William County, it’s Driving While Hispanic. And increased Internet access being blamed for an increase in teenage pregnancies in China, because the girls are meeting boys on-line and then going to have sex with them. I have no idea bout the state of sex education in China, but from the sounds of things, it could use some upgrades, so that those girls who meet boys know how to protect themselves, and to insist that the boys use protection as well. Also considering the restrictions on children, I would think there would be a very aggressive sex-ed campaign in place. Those who are there, or who have been there, maybe you can give some context on this?
Something sad and aggravating at the same time - a mentally-ill woman, denied treatment because her parents are Scientologists, stabbed her father, sister, and mother, killing the father and sister and putting the mother in serious condition. This is one of those cases where denying someone appropriate treatment can kill you. Faith healing may help you, but should be no substitute for qualified medical care. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone laid the blame of this at the feet of the Church of Scientology, even if the mentally-ill woman is going to be charged with the crimes.
A new hypothesis for how to reduce criminal activities across the board - cut down lead exposure to toddlers and children. According to this study, lead-poisoned children, as they grew up, tended toward criminal activity. Have some pictures on the lead-crime connection. If this turns out to be true, then maybe we won’t need the TASER-powered shotgun shell, for those occasions where non-lethal capacitance has to be discharged without the benefit of wires. The proliferation of non-lethal weaponry means less people dying, but also potentially the ability to be more aggressive, confident in “non-lethal” force that will
In the “Isn’t there something productive you could do?” department, Oregon residents raising a stink about "phallic-symbol" posts designed to protect pedestrians from cars. My response? Unless your water tower is a gigantic phallus, you don’t have a third leg to stand on. There’s even pictures of the posts, which, I won’t deny, are phallic-looking. Like a significant amount of other things. Maybe we can then go on to ban large cars because we don’t want to see “phallus-substitutes” on the road? Also from the same department is the drink-food pairing labels on a soft drink machine at Burger King. Isn’t there something productive we could be doing, rather than affixing labels like that?
Communications from the land of Mary Jane (sort of) include a letter to a senator who used to be a marijuana smoker, but now supports draconian marijuana punishments and a proposal to revisit marijuana laws with a fresh mind, including possibly thinking of the revenues that could be generated by a legalized and taxed marijuana, much like the legalized and taxed tobacco and grain/fruit products.
The “Montezuma’s Revenge” department gleefully cackles as it delivers unto us the diet pill with some explosive side effects. The maker of the pill has been up-front about what could happen should you stray from the diet, yet it seems that it’s not enough of a problem for people to not buy the pill. Who knows? Maybe this will be the best diet assistant there is, just because the effects of going off the diet are more embarrassing than someone chiding you about looking like you’ve gained a bit. For those that have the, errr, fortitude to stay on the plan, all the best skill and fortune to you.
And that’s another installment of the Silver News Network. Stay tuned to us once a day for all your biased news needs.
Getting off and running, A Senate panel has refused to fund the office of the Vice President. This comes over several matters, including Mr. Cheney’s claim that his office and the office of the President are not executive agencies, and do not have to comply with executive orders requiring them to report how much they classify and declassify. Secrecy about their secrecy - with this administration, I’m not surprised. Gonzaleslied to the populace about whether or not there were violations of Patriot Act procedures that resulted in wrong information being collected, which has only recently come to light through a FOIA request. Mr. Bush continues to obstruct a Congressional investigation, citing executive privilege in directing White House aides not to answer Congressional subpoenas. I wonder, when this is all over, whether we’ll find out that most of the things classified were stupid things (okay, that’s no different than now, I’d guess) and that all the obstruction and interference was for something very small. Of course, it could also be for something big that we won’t discover until later, possibly after pardons issued by a later President.
The administration also says that there's no likelihood of reducing troop levels in Iraq. Most likely because he believes accounts that say the surge is working, reducing violence and quelling terror. At the same time, there's talk of building a short-range missile-defense platform to protect from offshore launches. Just in case some fight actually does come to our shores, with the technology to launch? Or is it that things aren’t working so well with Iraqis being urged to take up arms because their security forces can't hack it yet? Considering that the TSA failed a recent security test here at home, maybe it’s just failure all around.
One last quip is a “make what you like of it” pairing - Louisiana Republican crusading against gay marriage in 2006...appears as client of the "D.C. Madam", apologizes today for his indiscretion. Hat tip to
_eric_m_ for pointing out the pairing, but I’m a bit at a loss on what to do. Eric suggests that now that the Senator has apologized, he will become a champion for both gay marriage and for legalized prostitution. Still, nice to see that some people who want to see other people get no benefits of marriage are hard at work making their own marriages adulterous. (Also, through that entry, I appear to have picked up another reader. Whether temporarily or permanently, say hello, ldragoon. Readership, greet your new plaything... err, fellow, accordingly.)And then there are the non-politicians, rehashing old jingoist propaganda of progressive America versus stuck-in-the-past Islam, or making up scare stories of lesbian gangs "taking over" the country and indoctrinating young girls to both the homosexual and gang lifestyle (of which Jesus' General provides a satirical account of such gangs), a gathering that honored a judge who would not put aside his personal religious beliefs to uphold the rule of law, gathering under the symbol of the secession of the Confederacy. Or the county government that passes a measure requiring that immigration status be checked before someone can use public services and if the police suspects someone is breaking the law, including traffic stops. So it’s not Driving While Black in Prince William County, it’s Driving While Hispanic. And increased Internet access being blamed for an increase in teenage pregnancies in China, because the girls are meeting boys on-line and then going to have sex with them. I have no idea bout the state of sex education in China, but from the sounds of things, it could use some upgrades, so that those girls who meet boys know how to protect themselves, and to insist that the boys use protection as well. Also considering the restrictions on children, I would think there would be a very aggressive sex-ed campaign in place. Those who are there, or who have been there, maybe you can give some context on this?
Something sad and aggravating at the same time - a mentally-ill woman, denied treatment because her parents are Scientologists, stabbed her father, sister, and mother, killing the father and sister and putting the mother in serious condition. This is one of those cases where denying someone appropriate treatment can kill you. Faith healing may help you, but should be no substitute for qualified medical care. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone laid the blame of this at the feet of the Church of Scientology, even if the mentally-ill woman is going to be charged with the crimes.
A new hypothesis for how to reduce criminal activities across the board - cut down lead exposure to toddlers and children. According to this study, lead-poisoned children, as they grew up, tended toward criminal activity. Have some pictures on the lead-crime connection. If this turns out to be true, then maybe we won’t need the TASER-powered shotgun shell, for those occasions where non-lethal capacitance has to be discharged without the benefit of wires. The proliferation of non-lethal weaponry means less people dying, but also potentially the ability to be more aggressive, confident in “non-lethal” force that will
In the “Isn’t there something productive you could do?” department, Oregon residents raising a stink about "phallic-symbol" posts designed to protect pedestrians from cars. My response? Unless your water tower is a gigantic phallus, you don’t have a third leg to stand on. There’s even pictures of the posts, which, I won’t deny, are phallic-looking. Like a significant amount of other things. Maybe we can then go on to ban large cars because we don’t want to see “phallus-substitutes” on the road? Also from the same department is the drink-food pairing labels on a soft drink machine at Burger King. Isn’t there something productive we could be doing, rather than affixing labels like that?
Communications from the land of Mary Jane (sort of) include a letter to a senator who used to be a marijuana smoker, but now supports draconian marijuana punishments and a proposal to revisit marijuana laws with a fresh mind, including possibly thinking of the revenues that could be generated by a legalized and taxed marijuana, much like the legalized and taxed tobacco and grain/fruit products.
The “Montezuma’s Revenge” department gleefully cackles as it delivers unto us the diet pill with some explosive side effects. The maker of the pill has been up-front about what could happen should you stray from the diet, yet it seems that it’s not enough of a problem for people to not buy the pill. Who knows? Maybe this will be the best diet assistant there is, just because the effects of going off the diet are more embarrassing than someone chiding you about looking like you’ve gained a bit. For those that have the, errr, fortitude to stay on the plan, all the best skill and fortune to you.
And that’s another installment of the Silver News Network. Stay tuned to us once a day for all your biased news needs.
