![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And all the rest, too - 13 December 2007
Dec. 14th, 2007 12:52 amThe cooking went well, and the mirabella was well-received at the potluck party today. And I ended up spiriting off with a baguette and some garlic-flavored dipping oil in the gift exchange. Tomorrow, I get up and do a staff meeting, and then have a day off. Then, on again when it comes to Saturday, with programs and all. All of that builds up to hit something else entirely as the lead item tonight, namely the Young Adult Library Services Association's list of nominations for Great Graphic Novels for Teens. Good chance that those will start showing up on library shelves, if they’re not already there.
SET@Home apparently needs some donations. So for those with an interest in seeing whether radio signals can detect an intelligent civilization, maybe a few bucks can be spared. Might be tough to find them, though, as Morgan Stanley says that recession is on the way, thanks to overextended credit in all sorts of places.
A large part of the probably small amount of people who follow baseball were eagerly awaiting the release of the Mitchell report on steroids in baseball. Those looking for dirt were not disappointed, as at least 85 names, including several All-Stars, were disclosed as having used performance-enhancing drugs over the last decade. Despite all the names, the recommendation to baseball is not for suspensions or sanctions. So now we know - plenty of people have been on the juice for quite a while now, and so a lot of those good-looking records are probably going to get their * as well. And as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bradhicks notes, while there will be a lot of talking about the business of baseball and how this scandal will do bad things to revenues, the more important question, and the one that may be at the root of why the juice was set loose in the first place, is "How do you change the game of baseball to make it interesting again?". Without roids, the pitchers, who can train themselves into superiority, dominate. Which means boring 1-0 scores. Sooo, in an effort to make the game more competitive, maybe some rules need a bit of a tweak or three. If fans dig the long ball, change the rules to make things more hitter-friendly, like moving the mound back, taking off some of the hill, or shrinking the strike zone so that every pitch that is a strike has a chance of being bashed. Otherwise, our kids might be talking about another BALCO scandal with a different crop of players.
Out in the news world, remember when Republicans were the legislative majority and wanted to steamroll any opposition in their way? Well, now that they’re in the minority, suddenly, the right to filibuster looks like a wonderful necessity of democracy. And the requirements for a two-thirds vote at just about anybody’s request.
If you ever wondered why government jobs are still popular at the Washington level, realize that it's not the salary, it's the perks. And the gifts. And in this giant pile of things given, Mr. Bush wisely kept the thing that cost the least - Gandhi’s seven warnings. We can only hope he heeds them.
Britain's new prime minster may be opening negotiations with Taliban chieftains in Afghanistan, trying to see if the situation can be resolved through negotiation rather than the use of military force. If satisfactory agreements can be reached, then perhaps one of the fronts can be closed, even while keeping a weather eye out for people the United States would dearly love to see long enough for their head to be removed.
Delivered perhaps as much as a raspberry as an honor, Alberto Gonzalez was named Lawyer of the Year by the American Bar Association. As noted in the article with his award, being named to the post is not necessarily an endorsement of his practice, in the same vein that Time has selected Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin for “Man of the Year” in the past. The ABA is right - Gonzalez was the most influential lawyer in the United States this year. Not necessarily for good, but he was influential.
A different type of influence, and our Most Guts (Temprorarily) award goes to a gentleman in Berlin. Told he was unable to carry his liter of vodka with him on an airline flight, he promptly downed the entire liter. And then proceeded to be a man who had just chugged a liter of vodka, including suffering the alcohol poisoning that went with it.
WingNutDaily continues to amuse, and I wonder whether Bill’O or others will start taking up the cause. After what appears to have been clarifying legislation about how and where protections such as nondiscrimination apply, including schools, WND jumps all over the Gay-Straight Alliance sending a message to Califrnia chapters suggesting that curriculum be devised so that LGBTQ history appears in the textbooks and classes of the schools. Because, you know, there are a lot of LGBTQ people in history, and many do great things or have significant court cases named after them. We’ve added other minorities’ histories into the books, even if only in limited ways, and if it had existed then, I’m sure WND would be fighting the idea of teaching black history in schools after integration. Not talking or teaching about LGBTQ people has certainly not made them go away, at least no more than teaching abstinence has stopped teenagers from having sex before they’re out of high school. Of course, WND wants you to believe that the Homosexual Agenda will be so effective on young children’s minds that they’ll turn out either LGBTQ or friendly to those, and turn their backs on the religion that raised them. Because children are so very susceptible to whatever you put in front of them, and must be bubbled away until the point where the church teaching is so ingrained that it won’t be shaken free. How little faith WND and the apparent droves of parents leaving public schooling for homeschooling have in their children. Of course, if you actually believe America is a Christian nation, to the point of introducing a governmental resolution to give special accord to the Christian winter festival, then of course this is a plot by homosexuals to brainwash children. If you swallowed that lie, then you’re probably in complete agreement with the church that was barred from collecting toys for the children of inmates on the basis of their congregation not hating gays enough. And you probably also cheered for the good Christian men who assaulted a Jew on the New York subway system for saying "Happy Hanukkah" after they wished him a Merry Christmas. A Muslim man came to the aid of the Jew as the three Christians assaulted him. Sometimes it amazes us that in such a world filled with wonders and delights and diversities of the mind and body, some people still insist on not expanding their awareness of people outside very restricted notions, and then make decisions that are clearly against the teachings of their religion, because they choose to emphasise their favored interpretation over what’s written in the text.
Tonight, however, they have competition, as Ratzinger, Former Head of the Inquisition has launched an attack on climate change prophets, claiming they need to provide firm evidence derived from science, rather than relying on dogma. He’s not being a climate or eco-denier, but he’s unconvinced. So, religious leader says better science is needed. Well, at least he’s not matching dogma for dogma. Still, there’s a note of amusement here.
Terence Jeffery says that waterboarding someone, whose information "probably saved lives", is good enough for Americans to thank the government entity that clearly violated the law and its own guidelines in doing so. Any court of law would have thrown out the material as tainted evidence, considering it was an illegal process that obtained it. Even if the information had been perfectly true, and millions of lives were saved, and it was all traced back to the waterboarding that did it, it would still be illegal. And it should take a clear chain of events like that to give people a small pause that perhaps, in this one case, it worked and can be forgiven. I don’t think we’ll be thanking the CIA for flouting the rule of law until they can prove to us that all of that illegal stuff produced really damn good results.
Have to hand it to Lisa De Pasquale tonight, though, for managing to put everything in perspective. Take one baseless claim, that American liberals are offended by the mere existence of the opposite viewpoint, rather than anything said viewpoint actually spouts or publishes, and thus seek the systematic removal of all conservative viewpoints from the media. Conservatives are of course, above such things, and if they should cheerily compare waterboarding, an exercise where the victim has no control over the air and water potentially flowing into his lungs, with swim and dive training, where at the end of a lungful of air, there is nothing stopping the swimmer from returning to the surface to take another lungful before submerging again, then we should all just nod and smile at the comparison between two things that have only two things in common - water and air. And then buy the t-shirt mocking those who object to such a comparison. Apparently, though, I am a “Hugo Chavez Democrat” because I say “Bullshit!” when someone asks me to blithely accept a comparison between torture that is illegal, other-inflicted, and of dubious moral value and a supposed exercise designed to increase lung capacity and the ability to stay under water longer. One other thing, if you’ll recall: Mr. Chavez’s constitutional referendum failed. Kind of like Lisa’s arguments.
Where the real crusading from conservatives might be is over the Matthew Murray shooting sprees. Lest you think that this was about “gun-free zones” allowing someone with murderous intent to run free, let’s pull back the hood a bit and see that Murray was disturbed, yes, but rather than getting help while he was in a ministry program, they expelled him. And the two places where there were shootings were related in Murray’s life. Plus that the organization that expelled him had a cult-like mentality, according to the Cult Awareness Network. Yes, the populace not having guns to return fire with may have contributed to more people dying and being injured, but Matthew Murray sounds like someone who wan’t going to stop until he was dead, and as many of the people who screwed him up were going with him. So what’s at fault for this, again?
Speaking of dogs, perhaps Kobiyashi's next competition will be a canine? Although the contest was on speed rather than quantity, so maybe the little one needs to change circuits.
Continuing in news of the weirder, depending on your preference, All Hail the Federation, or Sieg Zeon. The choice is yours in a new pair of cosplay bars based on Mobile Suit Gundam. Drinks will be served in mecha glasses, and the staff will be dressed as characters. Just remember, if someone shouts “It’s a Gundam!”, there’s a good chance that someone will die. Don’t order the Gundam. Lest you find that you have recorded several sets of memories of a frightening event and they then replay in apparent slow motion.
Last for tonight, however, is the obligatory list. This one, however, involves lots of nudity. It is Yuppie Punk's top 10 Live Television Streakers, and each of them has the moving pictures of the incidents. Be forewarned, this is probably not for work, unless you have a workplace where everyone can gather round the monitor and make fun of the streakers without anyone getting offended. Or the videos being blocked.
Anyway, bed. Have to get up. Meeting tomorrow.
SET@Home apparently needs some donations. So for those with an interest in seeing whether radio signals can detect an intelligent civilization, maybe a few bucks can be spared. Might be tough to find them, though, as Morgan Stanley says that recession is on the way, thanks to overextended credit in all sorts of places.
A large part of the probably small amount of people who follow baseball were eagerly awaiting the release of the Mitchell report on steroids in baseball. Those looking for dirt were not disappointed, as at least 85 names, including several All-Stars, were disclosed as having used performance-enhancing drugs over the last decade. Despite all the names, the recommendation to baseball is not for suspensions or sanctions. So now we know - plenty of people have been on the juice for quite a while now, and so a lot of those good-looking records are probably going to get their * as well. And as
bradhicks notes, while there will be a lot of talking about the business of baseball and how this scandal will do bad things to revenues, the more important question, and the one that may be at the root of why the juice was set loose in the first place, is "How do you change the game of baseball to make it interesting again?". Without roids, the pitchers, who can train themselves into superiority, dominate. Which means boring 1-0 scores. Sooo, in an effort to make the game more competitive, maybe some rules need a bit of a tweak or three. If fans dig the long ball, change the rules to make things more hitter-friendly, like moving the mound back, taking off some of the hill, or shrinking the strike zone so that every pitch that is a strike has a chance of being bashed. Otherwise, our kids might be talking about another BALCO scandal with a different crop of players.Out in the news world, remember when Republicans were the legislative majority and wanted to steamroll any opposition in their way? Well, now that they’re in the minority, suddenly, the right to filibuster looks like a wonderful necessity of democracy. And the requirements for a two-thirds vote at just about anybody’s request.
If you ever wondered why government jobs are still popular at the Washington level, realize that it's not the salary, it's the perks. And the gifts. And in this giant pile of things given, Mr. Bush wisely kept the thing that cost the least - Gandhi’s seven warnings. We can only hope he heeds them.
Britain's new prime minster may be opening negotiations with Taliban chieftains in Afghanistan, trying to see if the situation can be resolved through negotiation rather than the use of military force. If satisfactory agreements can be reached, then perhaps one of the fronts can be closed, even while keeping a weather eye out for people the United States would dearly love to see long enough for their head to be removed.
Delivered perhaps as much as a raspberry as an honor, Alberto Gonzalez was named Lawyer of the Year by the American Bar Association. As noted in the article with his award, being named to the post is not necessarily an endorsement of his practice, in the same vein that Time has selected Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin for “Man of the Year” in the past. The ABA is right - Gonzalez was the most influential lawyer in the United States this year. Not necessarily for good, but he was influential.
A different type of influence, and our Most Guts (Temprorarily) award goes to a gentleman in Berlin. Told he was unable to carry his liter of vodka with him on an airline flight, he promptly downed the entire liter. And then proceeded to be a man who had just chugged a liter of vodka, including suffering the alcohol poisoning that went with it.
WingNutDaily continues to amuse, and I wonder whether Bill’O or others will start taking up the cause. After what appears to have been clarifying legislation about how and where protections such as nondiscrimination apply, including schools, WND jumps all over the Gay-Straight Alliance sending a message to Califrnia chapters suggesting that curriculum be devised so that LGBTQ history appears in the textbooks and classes of the schools. Because, you know, there are a lot of LGBTQ people in history, and many do great things or have significant court cases named after them. We’ve added other minorities’ histories into the books, even if only in limited ways, and if it had existed then, I’m sure WND would be fighting the idea of teaching black history in schools after integration. Not talking or teaching about LGBTQ people has certainly not made them go away, at least no more than teaching abstinence has stopped teenagers from having sex before they’re out of high school. Of course, WND wants you to believe that the Homosexual Agenda will be so effective on young children’s minds that they’ll turn out either LGBTQ or friendly to those, and turn their backs on the religion that raised them. Because children are so very susceptible to whatever you put in front of them, and must be bubbled away until the point where the church teaching is so ingrained that it won’t be shaken free. How little faith WND and the apparent droves of parents leaving public schooling for homeschooling have in their children. Of course, if you actually believe America is a Christian nation, to the point of introducing a governmental resolution to give special accord to the Christian winter festival, then of course this is a plot by homosexuals to brainwash children. If you swallowed that lie, then you’re probably in complete agreement with the church that was barred from collecting toys for the children of inmates on the basis of their congregation not hating gays enough. And you probably also cheered for the good Christian men who assaulted a Jew on the New York subway system for saying "Happy Hanukkah" after they wished him a Merry Christmas. A Muslim man came to the aid of the Jew as the three Christians assaulted him. Sometimes it amazes us that in such a world filled with wonders and delights and diversities of the mind and body, some people still insist on not expanding their awareness of people outside very restricted notions, and then make decisions that are clearly against the teachings of their religion, because they choose to emphasise their favored interpretation over what’s written in the text.
Tonight, however, they have competition, as Ratzinger, Former Head of the Inquisition has launched an attack on climate change prophets, claiming they need to provide firm evidence derived from science, rather than relying on dogma. He’s not being a climate or eco-denier, but he’s unconvinced. So, religious leader says better science is needed. Well, at least he’s not matching dogma for dogma. Still, there’s a note of amusement here.
Terence Jeffery says that waterboarding someone, whose information "probably saved lives", is good enough for Americans to thank the government entity that clearly violated the law and its own guidelines in doing so. Any court of law would have thrown out the material as tainted evidence, considering it was an illegal process that obtained it. Even if the information had been perfectly true, and millions of lives were saved, and it was all traced back to the waterboarding that did it, it would still be illegal. And it should take a clear chain of events like that to give people a small pause that perhaps, in this one case, it worked and can be forgiven. I don’t think we’ll be thanking the CIA for flouting the rule of law until they can prove to us that all of that illegal stuff produced really damn good results.
Have to hand it to Lisa De Pasquale tonight, though, for managing to put everything in perspective. Take one baseless claim, that American liberals are offended by the mere existence of the opposite viewpoint, rather than anything said viewpoint actually spouts or publishes, and thus seek the systematic removal of all conservative viewpoints from the media. Conservatives are of course, above such things, and if they should cheerily compare waterboarding, an exercise where the victim has no control over the air and water potentially flowing into his lungs, with swim and dive training, where at the end of a lungful of air, there is nothing stopping the swimmer from returning to the surface to take another lungful before submerging again, then we should all just nod and smile at the comparison between two things that have only two things in common - water and air. And then buy the t-shirt mocking those who object to such a comparison. Apparently, though, I am a “Hugo Chavez Democrat” because I say “Bullshit!” when someone asks me to blithely accept a comparison between torture that is illegal, other-inflicted, and of dubious moral value and a supposed exercise designed to increase lung capacity and the ability to stay under water longer. One other thing, if you’ll recall: Mr. Chavez’s constitutional referendum failed. Kind of like Lisa’s arguments.
Where the real crusading from conservatives might be is over the Matthew Murray shooting sprees. Lest you think that this was about “gun-free zones” allowing someone with murderous intent to run free, let’s pull back the hood a bit and see that Murray was disturbed, yes, but rather than getting help while he was in a ministry program, they expelled him. And the two places where there were shootings were related in Murray’s life. Plus that the organization that expelled him had a cult-like mentality, according to the Cult Awareness Network. Yes, the populace not having guns to return fire with may have contributed to more people dying and being injured, but Matthew Murray sounds like someone who wan’t going to stop until he was dead, and as many of the people who screwed him up were going with him. So what’s at fault for this, again?
Speaking of dogs, perhaps Kobiyashi's next competition will be a canine? Although the contest was on speed rather than quantity, so maybe the little one needs to change circuits.
Continuing in news of the weirder, depending on your preference, All Hail the Federation, or Sieg Zeon. The choice is yours in a new pair of cosplay bars based on Mobile Suit Gundam. Drinks will be served in mecha glasses, and the staff will be dressed as characters. Just remember, if someone shouts “It’s a Gundam!”, there’s a good chance that someone will die. Don’t order the Gundam. Lest you find that you have recorded several sets of memories of a frightening event and they then replay in apparent slow motion.
Last for tonight, however, is the obligatory list. This one, however, involves lots of nudity. It is Yuppie Punk's top 10 Live Television Streakers, and each of them has the moving pictures of the incidents. Be forewarned, this is probably not for work, unless you have a workplace where everyone can gather round the monitor and make fun of the streakers without anyone getting offended. Or the videos being blocked.
Anyway, bed. Have to get up. Meeting tomorrow.
