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I lead tonight with a disclaimer that may or may not need to be repeated every so often - opinions expressed in this journal, even by their original authors, may not actually be the real opinions of those authors. As serious as some of them look without the benefit of facial and auditory cues, they are not really real. In previous years, this wouldn’t be so necessary, but what passes for satire then are serious bizness here. I personally can’t tell whether Blackle is serious or a satire. the colorful PET bottle windmills in Osaka, however, are just fun.
It appears that the Wall Street Journal will become the property of News Corporation, putting it under the same umbrella as Fox television. It has yet to be determined whether the Journal will become a talking-points memo for conservative viewpoints, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the proximity to Fox starts rubbing off on the WSJ.
Regarding health care and children, one could rightly strike at him with a “Think of the children!” argument with his continued insistence that there’s no need to expand a program that insures uninsured children, because he fears that the government being successful at solving problems means that people will expect the government to solve problems, and ohnoes, the government might have some sort of federalized health care system. And for sake of that ideology, children remain uninsured. Won’t you think of them, Mr. Bush?
Actually, “think of the children” could be a pretty good way of opposing many of Mr. Bush’s plans. Like the one that has nearly half the American presence in Iraq hired out to mercenaries, or “private security”, if you like. Which has probably resulted in quite a few child deaths. What about them? Putting the two together, OpinionJournal has Mr. Reinhoudt castigating the Democrats for adding on spending on health care, when the current shortfalls haven't been figured out yet, shortfalls that are the creation of the current administration, if I recall correctly. Maybe we need to put in a fiscal responsibility bill that requires the government to run under the tax revenues of the last reported fiscal year, with severe penalties, like little-to-no funding at all for the next fiscal year, if anyone spends over their budget allowance. We’d probably get to see a lot of pork dropped in a hurry, and we might actually start building both a reserve for unexpected occurrences, and free up money that’s tied down in financing our debts by paying some of them off. With as much as some people tout the value of corporate leadership and how it’s a shining example of the way to run things, why not put things into place that way? Cut up the governmental credit cards and force them to live within their means. After some years of this, I think the country would be in better shape than before. Some things may suffer, like paying $1,000 plus for a rare Starbucks mug, but on the whole, I think we’ll do okay.
Continuing with the children theme, since it seems to be popular, a mother has been determined to be worth about 80% of her fetus, judging by the sentencing in the murder case in the article. 16 years for mom, 20 for fetus. As was noted in whomever it was that pointed out the article, it’s a better deal than the 60% that slaves got compared to the owners. While not a murder, a Florida woman has been accused of using aliases to adopt 11 children, collect their assistance payments, and basically keep the children chained and not permitting them to use the bathroom. That’s abuse of the children and of the support system supposed to help children live normal lives.
An aboriginal man has won his case against the Australian government for taking him from his family and putting him in foster care as part of an assimilation policy. I wonder whether something similar has happened here. I want to say that it’s somewhere in the United States history, but I’ll be damned if I can remember where. My first inklings are that this happened with our own native population, and then possibly again with the large amounts of Africans imported into the United States as slaves. Those of you that know your history, please save me from being doomed to repeat it.
Moving elsewhere in the political system, Congressional suckitude is nothing new, reports Liberal Seagull. Even more annoying, says Liberal Eagle, is that they're being suckered into approving of expanded wiretapping for the same reason they approved Mr. Bush's war - for fear of being seen as “soft on terrorism”. This is already after we learned that they've been spying on us anyway, even after Congress said "no". Mr. Bush did something rare as well - he promised a veto on a bill that would make the statue of limitations on wage discrimination to be 180 days after the last paycheck, rather than 180 days after hire. I’m with Liberal Seagull on this one - seems to be pretty common sense to not allow an employer to get away with it just because they can hide it for six months and then, years down the road, when it really becomes apparent, just be able to claim that there’s no recourse.
While the United States fights a war against brown-skinned people in the Middle East, Douglas MacKinnon believes a different group of brown-skinned people, illegal immigrants, have declared war against the United States. In addition to describing lawsuits filed and strikes against non-immigrant businesses, MacKinnon believes illegal immigrants are a drain on civic services, and they participate in criminal activity against the people who are here legally. And through all of this, the federal government and the mainstream media is apparently complicit. If he thinks that deporting all the illegal immigrants back to their native countries will fix all of these problems, or slow them down in some way, I think he’s dreaming.
The following article would probably make Jack Thompson wet himself in glee, as Natalie O’Brien of The Australian worries that terrorists and other unsavory groups might use Second Life for training, propaganda, and money-laundering for their operations. So, they’re using the Internet to recruit, post propaganda, and transfer money. What’s different here, again? And in this case, it might even be a bit more easily traceable, since I’m sure that Second Life keeps track of currency bought, sold, and transferred between user accounts and their associated bank parts. If you look, you can probably find all that material as well on the regular Internet. Now there’s just an avatar to the name. And we have our own versions of radicals, too. One of the Republican presidential candidates says threatening Mecca and Medina in retaliation will be a deterrent to terrorism. I laugh and say, “No, that’s a justification.” Elsewhere, virtual worlds are becoming more popular to study Humes with. Since you can’t just detonate a nuclear weapon in New York, simulations have to do the heavy lifting. And sometimes people do things you don’t expect, like dumping 47 tonnes of animal carcasses by the side of the road.
Something a bit brighter and sneakier are Ten things your IT department won't tell you, which purports to be a list of things you can do to make your work life easier that might run afoul of various security policies in place at work. Smartly, the article notes that doing a lot of those things might open up the network to being compromised (which is why they’re blocked in the first place), so if you engage in those sorts of activities, do so with your IT squad’s blessing, or know very firmly what you’re going to be doing such that you don’t leave a possible entryway. So leave the rocket rollerblades at home, okay?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a loser. A Wisconsin man has claimed the $250 prize for having the worst opening sentence to a nonexistent novel. All about taking an interrupted piss. Well, enjoy the money, and don’t spend it on any trashy novels, okay?
Stuff regarding things we buy - Chrysler has offered lifetime warranties on many of its vehicles. Either as a desperation bid to stave off destruction, or as the final nail in the coffin, Chrysler offers this ploy. The car would have to be inspected by a dealer every five years for the warranty to stick, and the warranty only applies to the original owner of the car. Equally as interesting, Mercedes-Benz is offering start-stop technology in their vehicles, matching BMW. The start-stop technology stops the engine when the brake pedal is depressed and the vehicle is at a stop. When the brake pedal is lifted, the engine starts again. This will reduce the total amount of emissions put out by the vehicle by only requiring engine power when the driver actually wants to go somewhere. Finally, a person purchased a pair of flip-flops from Wal-Mart and received significant pain when she wore them. The original account, available with lots of pictures of the feet as they get very angry and then manage to return to normal, thanks to some treatment, is available at Lamana Photography. There is a dispute raised on the Consumerist thread as to whether the injury was through some sort of chemical burn from the manufacturing process involved, as the injured person claims, or whether it was a severe allergic reaction to some component of the shoes. If the manufacture is responsible, then there’s significant danger possible with those flip-flops, and the slowness of Wal-Mart and others to respond to it could result in other injuries. If a strong allergic reaction, then it would be nice to know whether or not this could be the vanguard of another possible allergy to keep an eye out for/put warning labels on. A significant part of the commentary, however, denigrates either Wal-Mart or the claimant without offering much to the discussion. Wade in with caution and a shotgun, if needed.
University of Oxford study says "sinister" gene raises the chance of being sinister. I predict that this revelation will have precisely as much effect on the populace as the Bibles that a Fort Worth newspaper has agreed to carry with their newspaper. Actually, considering the ire that the Bible stunt has already generated, the sinister study will have less of an effect on the populace than the Bible stunt.
And the last part for tonight? Some cinematic hypothetical questions that should be asked of the presidential candidates. Extra points for being able to rattle off the sources of all of those questions in order. I, on the other hand, need to sleep, then get up, eat, shave, shower, think, rehearse, and then have an interview that will hopefully go well.
It appears that the Wall Street Journal will become the property of News Corporation, putting it under the same umbrella as Fox television. It has yet to be determined whether the Journal will become a talking-points memo for conservative viewpoints, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the proximity to Fox starts rubbing off on the WSJ.
Regarding health care and children, one could rightly strike at him with a “Think of the children!” argument with his continued insistence that there’s no need to expand a program that insures uninsured children, because he fears that the government being successful at solving problems means that people will expect the government to solve problems, and ohnoes, the government might have some sort of federalized health care system. And for sake of that ideology, children remain uninsured. Won’t you think of them, Mr. Bush?
Actually, “think of the children” could be a pretty good way of opposing many of Mr. Bush’s plans. Like the one that has nearly half the American presence in Iraq hired out to mercenaries, or “private security”, if you like. Which has probably resulted in quite a few child deaths. What about them? Putting the two together, OpinionJournal has Mr. Reinhoudt castigating the Democrats for adding on spending on health care, when the current shortfalls haven't been figured out yet, shortfalls that are the creation of the current administration, if I recall correctly. Maybe we need to put in a fiscal responsibility bill that requires the government to run under the tax revenues of the last reported fiscal year, with severe penalties, like little-to-no funding at all for the next fiscal year, if anyone spends over their budget allowance. We’d probably get to see a lot of pork dropped in a hurry, and we might actually start building both a reserve for unexpected occurrences, and free up money that’s tied down in financing our debts by paying some of them off. With as much as some people tout the value of corporate leadership and how it’s a shining example of the way to run things, why not put things into place that way? Cut up the governmental credit cards and force them to live within their means. After some years of this, I think the country would be in better shape than before. Some things may suffer, like paying $1,000 plus for a rare Starbucks mug, but on the whole, I think we’ll do okay.
Continuing with the children theme, since it seems to be popular, a mother has been determined to be worth about 80% of her fetus, judging by the sentencing in the murder case in the article. 16 years for mom, 20 for fetus. As was noted in whomever it was that pointed out the article, it’s a better deal than the 60% that slaves got compared to the owners. While not a murder, a Florida woman has been accused of using aliases to adopt 11 children, collect their assistance payments, and basically keep the children chained and not permitting them to use the bathroom. That’s abuse of the children and of the support system supposed to help children live normal lives.
An aboriginal man has won his case against the Australian government for taking him from his family and putting him in foster care as part of an assimilation policy. I wonder whether something similar has happened here. I want to say that it’s somewhere in the United States history, but I’ll be damned if I can remember where. My first inklings are that this happened with our own native population, and then possibly again with the large amounts of Africans imported into the United States as slaves. Those of you that know your history, please save me from being doomed to repeat it.
Moving elsewhere in the political system, Congressional suckitude is nothing new, reports Liberal Seagull. Even more annoying, says Liberal Eagle, is that they're being suckered into approving of expanded wiretapping for the same reason they approved Mr. Bush's war - for fear of being seen as “soft on terrorism”. This is already after we learned that they've been spying on us anyway, even after Congress said "no". Mr. Bush did something rare as well - he promised a veto on a bill that would make the statue of limitations on wage discrimination to be 180 days after the last paycheck, rather than 180 days after hire. I’m with Liberal Seagull on this one - seems to be pretty common sense to not allow an employer to get away with it just because they can hide it for six months and then, years down the road, when it really becomes apparent, just be able to claim that there’s no recourse.
While the United States fights a war against brown-skinned people in the Middle East, Douglas MacKinnon believes a different group of brown-skinned people, illegal immigrants, have declared war against the United States. In addition to describing lawsuits filed and strikes against non-immigrant businesses, MacKinnon believes illegal immigrants are a drain on civic services, and they participate in criminal activity against the people who are here legally. And through all of this, the federal government and the mainstream media is apparently complicit. If he thinks that deporting all the illegal immigrants back to their native countries will fix all of these problems, or slow them down in some way, I think he’s dreaming.
The following article would probably make Jack Thompson wet himself in glee, as Natalie O’Brien of The Australian worries that terrorists and other unsavory groups might use Second Life for training, propaganda, and money-laundering for their operations. So, they’re using the Internet to recruit, post propaganda, and transfer money. What’s different here, again? And in this case, it might even be a bit more easily traceable, since I’m sure that Second Life keeps track of currency bought, sold, and transferred between user accounts and their associated bank parts. If you look, you can probably find all that material as well on the regular Internet. Now there’s just an avatar to the name. And we have our own versions of radicals, too. One of the Republican presidential candidates says threatening Mecca and Medina in retaliation will be a deterrent to terrorism. I laugh and say, “No, that’s a justification.” Elsewhere, virtual worlds are becoming more popular to study Humes with. Since you can’t just detonate a nuclear weapon in New York, simulations have to do the heavy lifting. And sometimes people do things you don’t expect, like dumping 47 tonnes of animal carcasses by the side of the road.
Something a bit brighter and sneakier are Ten things your IT department won't tell you, which purports to be a list of things you can do to make your work life easier that might run afoul of various security policies in place at work. Smartly, the article notes that doing a lot of those things might open up the network to being compromised (which is why they’re blocked in the first place), so if you engage in those sorts of activities, do so with your IT squad’s blessing, or know very firmly what you’re going to be doing such that you don’t leave a possible entryway. So leave the rocket rollerblades at home, okay?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a loser. A Wisconsin man has claimed the $250 prize for having the worst opening sentence to a nonexistent novel. All about taking an interrupted piss. Well, enjoy the money, and don’t spend it on any trashy novels, okay?
Stuff regarding things we buy - Chrysler has offered lifetime warranties on many of its vehicles. Either as a desperation bid to stave off destruction, or as the final nail in the coffin, Chrysler offers this ploy. The car would have to be inspected by a dealer every five years for the warranty to stick, and the warranty only applies to the original owner of the car. Equally as interesting, Mercedes-Benz is offering start-stop technology in their vehicles, matching BMW. The start-stop technology stops the engine when the brake pedal is depressed and the vehicle is at a stop. When the brake pedal is lifted, the engine starts again. This will reduce the total amount of emissions put out by the vehicle by only requiring engine power when the driver actually wants to go somewhere. Finally, a person purchased a pair of flip-flops from Wal-Mart and received significant pain when she wore them. The original account, available with lots of pictures of the feet as they get very angry and then manage to return to normal, thanks to some treatment, is available at Lamana Photography. There is a dispute raised on the Consumerist thread as to whether the injury was through some sort of chemical burn from the manufacturing process involved, as the injured person claims, or whether it was a severe allergic reaction to some component of the shoes. If the manufacture is responsible, then there’s significant danger possible with those flip-flops, and the slowness of Wal-Mart and others to respond to it could result in other injuries. If a strong allergic reaction, then it would be nice to know whether or not this could be the vanguard of another possible allergy to keep an eye out for/put warning labels on. A significant part of the commentary, however, denigrates either Wal-Mart or the claimant without offering much to the discussion. Wade in with caution and a shotgun, if needed.
University of Oxford study says "sinister" gene raises the chance of being sinister. I predict that this revelation will have precisely as much effect on the populace as the Bibles that a Fort Worth newspaper has agreed to carry with their newspaper. Actually, considering the ire that the Bible stunt has already generated, the sinister study will have less of an effect on the populace than the Bible stunt.
And the last part for tonight? Some cinematic hypothetical questions that should be asked of the presidential candidates. Extra points for being able to rattle off the sources of all of those questions in order. I, on the other hand, need to sleep, then get up, eat, shave, shower, think, rehearse, and then have an interview that will hopefully go well.
