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And that's it - 09 November 2007
Nov. 10th, 2007 09:54 amTonight’s lead story is something apropos of the late Ronald Reagan - his library forgot where it put some documents. Well, okay, it may have had them stolen away by someone through poor security practices and the like, but we couldn’t resist making the joke - after all, the dead don’t usually come back to smite us for making fun of them.
In more serious business, Mukasey passes Senate muster, will become Attorney General, despite not actually providing any sort of firm stance on whether he considers certain interrogation techniques to be illegal torture. His promise not to be a Bush lackey appears to have done the trick. We’ll see if he goes through with it. If he said that he would follow the will of the people, then he'd have no trouble at all jusitfying torture - a lot of people in the country say that it can be justified, even if only rarely.
Going international, a quick trip around the news shows gunmen being gunned down in raids in Iraq, while prisoners not considered to be a threat are released, but not in any sort of quantity compared to those who are still there. Georgia's president has called for early elections, a move intending to quiet the mob that has been building since his declaration of emergency conditions. In Pakistan, however, the former prime minister and opposition leader was placed under house arrest, although she was subsequently allowed to at least meet with executives from her political party.
Joseph Stiglitz, in Vanity Fair, says the next president has a very un-enviable job - cleaning up the economic mess that Mr. Bush has created. History is a Weapon also provides statistics and thoughts about how much social and political mess has been made, as well, so that there’s a long, hard slog ahead for any President who wants to bring the United States back into being a land of the free and democratic, rather than the empire abroad and incarceration factory at home.
Just in time for the holiday season, oh look, new warnings that al-Qaeda intends to strike in shopping malls. Nothing like a good healthy dose of fear with your consumer frenzy. And unlike New Zealand, which admits that the legislation that it passes can be "a bit of a camel", even if the warning or any regulations passed to prevent such a thing are totally baseless, the U.S. won’t be admitting that it’s wrong any time soon.
If you’re having trouble choosing just the right thing for someone, maybe try for something reminiscent of older times, like Old Soviet video games. If that’s not it, try getting over your fear of intelligent robots and buy one.
A new meaning to the phrase “Your mother wears combat boots.” In the case of two privates, this is an absolutely true statement. And Mom is apparently outperforming the kids on the tests. Out in the field, an ingenious soldier found a way of mounting shielding on a Humvee machine gun. To, y’know, protect the gunner from getting shot at. Why hasn’t this been thought of before?
Wired gets into the quiche competition themselves, making comparisons between Paultards and Apple fanatics to see who comes out as the looniest. Well, it should be no surprise to see who wins. But you’ll have to click the article to find out. I’m not sure wither holds a candle to the gent who believes the government is manipulating the CPI so that it doesn't have to pay out the correct amount of Social Security benefits.
The strange gets stranger, however, with Jell-O scultupres, and then goes out into left field with the United States government recommending that if people wish to dispose of potentially-abusable drugs, they encase them in fecal matter of some kind.
A cool and useful idea for bibliophiles involves glass front shelves placed in between the studs in the wall. Cool ideas that, if they become large-scale sustainable, could really help with the depletion of petroleum, include recycling biomass into a processable crude petroleum product.
And thus, a lot later, and with some rest, I finish yesterday’s reports. Onto today.
In more serious business, Mukasey passes Senate muster, will become Attorney General, despite not actually providing any sort of firm stance on whether he considers certain interrogation techniques to be illegal torture. His promise not to be a Bush lackey appears to have done the trick. We’ll see if he goes through with it. If he said that he would follow the will of the people, then he'd have no trouble at all jusitfying torture - a lot of people in the country say that it can be justified, even if only rarely.
Going international, a quick trip around the news shows gunmen being gunned down in raids in Iraq, while prisoners not considered to be a threat are released, but not in any sort of quantity compared to those who are still there. Georgia's president has called for early elections, a move intending to quiet the mob that has been building since his declaration of emergency conditions. In Pakistan, however, the former prime minister and opposition leader was placed under house arrest, although she was subsequently allowed to at least meet with executives from her political party.
Joseph Stiglitz, in Vanity Fair, says the next president has a very un-enviable job - cleaning up the economic mess that Mr. Bush has created. History is a Weapon also provides statistics and thoughts about how much social and political mess has been made, as well, so that there’s a long, hard slog ahead for any President who wants to bring the United States back into being a land of the free and democratic, rather than the empire abroad and incarceration factory at home.
Just in time for the holiday season, oh look, new warnings that al-Qaeda intends to strike in shopping malls. Nothing like a good healthy dose of fear with your consumer frenzy. And unlike New Zealand, which admits that the legislation that it passes can be "a bit of a camel", even if the warning or any regulations passed to prevent such a thing are totally baseless, the U.S. won’t be admitting that it’s wrong any time soon.
If you’re having trouble choosing just the right thing for someone, maybe try for something reminiscent of older times, like Old Soviet video games. If that’s not it, try getting over your fear of intelligent robots and buy one.
A new meaning to the phrase “Your mother wears combat boots.” In the case of two privates, this is an absolutely true statement. And Mom is apparently outperforming the kids on the tests. Out in the field, an ingenious soldier found a way of mounting shielding on a Humvee machine gun. To, y’know, protect the gunner from getting shot at. Why hasn’t this been thought of before?
Wired gets into the quiche competition themselves, making comparisons between Paultards and Apple fanatics to see who comes out as the looniest. Well, it should be no surprise to see who wins. But you’ll have to click the article to find out. I’m not sure wither holds a candle to the gent who believes the government is manipulating the CPI so that it doesn't have to pay out the correct amount of Social Security benefits.
The strange gets stranger, however, with Jell-O scultupres, and then goes out into left field with the United States government recommending that if people wish to dispose of potentially-abusable drugs, they encase them in fecal matter of some kind.
A cool and useful idea for bibliophiles involves glass front shelves placed in between the studs in the wall. Cool ideas that, if they become large-scale sustainable, could really help with the depletion of petroleum, include recycling biomass into a processable crude petroleum product.
And thus, a lot later, and with some rest, I finish yesterday’s reports. Onto today.
