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Right, and then more - 18 March 2008
Mar. 19th, 2008 12:31 amSo lots to do, lots to do. Doesn’t help that I waste time doing al sorts of other things, like work. But I’ll get there eventually, to the place where my task is complete.
Yet again, sometimes the oldest hacks are the most successful ones. Codec downloads, huh... obviously, it works.
My professional and book-reading self salutes the passing of Arthur C. Clarke, who died Wednesday in Sri Lanka (think time-shift) at 90 years of age. I wish the transhuman revolution would arrive, with life-extension technology and such, so that we don’t have to lose so many great minds to Death’s clutches.
Internationally, a new parliament convenes in Pakistan, and promises to be much more hostile to Pervez Musharraf. We’ll see how this one plays out.
W. Thomas Smith believes that groups like Hizbollah and al-Qaeda are teaming up to plan and attack the West and/or Israel together. I’d be very surprised if groups across the Sunni-Shia divide started attacking a common enemy rather than each other. Not to mention that with the possible exception of kicking over Israel, I don’t know if there are even any shared goals among the various groups. I just don’t see a team up like that happening, unless there’s a very good reason to do so. If that reason existed, I think someone would have noticed it by now. Although with United States attacks looking like terror attacks, even if they’re supposedly based on good intelligence, there might be one in the future somewhere. Hopefully, the programs and scholarships offered for training better intelligence people work and we get actually good intelligence.
The Star reports on a World Health Organization that pinpoints the ten worst countries in the world for women, in terms of rights, violence, crime, and other factors.
Domestically, San Francisco, stereotypically thought to be a homosexual-friendly place, is feeling heat and aggression from Slavic Christian fundamentalists, including the hate group Watchmen on the Walls. I guess I’m still missing the part where Jesus told his followers to stone and kill other sinners... ah, wait, didn’t he say that the person doing so should be without their own sins? Plus, to make a political point, despite what people say about it, the founding fathers were all for religious liberty to avoid having states barring people from office because of their beliefs. The people banned would vary from state to state, but a lot of them had it in mind to exclude anyone who wasn’t the right brand from being part of the ruling elite. So rather than pick one and enshrine it (and have it change over time and war), the dominant thought becomes, “Well, if I can’t have it, then neither can he.” and we get freedom to practice. Those same freedoms should be extended to other arenas, like sexual orientation and practice, so long as it’s safe sex.
Perhaps attempting to head off the same thing that sank his predecessor, the new New York Governor, David Paterson, admitted freely that both he and his wife had affairs. Which might actually get him praised for honesty, and if there’s no public funds being spent, then he’ll probably be Clinton-like popular.
Economically, two sides to the same coin, looking at the Bear Sterns crisis and other investment bank problems - the up side, from Hale Stewart, and the down side, from AmericaBlog’s Chris in Paris.
Tulsa, Oklahoma accidentally bombed with training ordinance. Thankfully, training ordinance is not the kind that would level city blocks were it to be accidentally released. Which makes me wonder again just how many times a day people could potentially have death rain on them from above by their own military, and the only thing that could be done about it would be to not be in the impact zone?
With regard to the candidates in the general election to arrive, Florida threw in the towel on a re-vote, while it sounds like Michigan’s going to try and give it a go.
Musings and Migraines isn't sure why people are just now noticing that race is a factor in Barack Obama's campaign, having come to that conclusion apparently because of Pastor Wright’s remarks. I’m not sure whether the Red Rabbit considers this to be to Obama’s benefit, detriment, or anything else, but it does seem a bit odd that only now are such things coming into view. Perhaps Obama’s lost his media darling shine? Or maybe now that the Clinton campaign has the perception of being desperate to win and willing to go the low road? Whatever the matter may be, it looks like the comments made by the pastor and Geraldine Ferraro have opened up a venue for people to start openly talking about Barack Obama’s race in relation and not get funny looks or suggestions that one might be a bit shallow or racist for basing so many words on the Senator’s race. Take Shelby Steele's opinion column in the Wall Street Journal, where Steele basically says that Ferraro was right, places Senator Obama’s campaign in the same caliber of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and dismisses the Senator as someone who plotted to use his race to his advantage. Apparently, that the Senator has not made extensive comments about the very real inequities between members of different races in his campaign is a “bargain” between him and whites - he doesn’t talk about racism, they don’t make his blackness a problem. Or Mike Adams concluding that the Senator's pastor was on drugs when he made inflammatory statements, and that the Senator might also be using them, and that such use would explain both of their behavior over the previous amount of time. In any case, the Senator made a speech today about race and the pastor's remarks.
Someone is having fun with their wordplay today - statistics show that people don't trust statistics. Someone had to know about the circularity of the idea, and ran it anyway. So have a laugh.
I didn’t even know there was a movie adaptation of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, much less that people would remember it later. Cinema and beat poetry together.
Last for tonight, I can see why people find Dresden Codak rather funny. Dungeons and Discourses takes quite the romp through various high-damage dealing philosophical attacks.
So, after all that, I’m taking the steampunk'd Dalek and heading off to bed. G’night.
Yet again, sometimes the oldest hacks are the most successful ones. Codec downloads, huh... obviously, it works.
My professional and book-reading self salutes the passing of Arthur C. Clarke, who died Wednesday in Sri Lanka (think time-shift) at 90 years of age. I wish the transhuman revolution would arrive, with life-extension technology and such, so that we don’t have to lose so many great minds to Death’s clutches.
Internationally, a new parliament convenes in Pakistan, and promises to be much more hostile to Pervez Musharraf. We’ll see how this one plays out.
W. Thomas Smith believes that groups like Hizbollah and al-Qaeda are teaming up to plan and attack the West and/or Israel together. I’d be very surprised if groups across the Sunni-Shia divide started attacking a common enemy rather than each other. Not to mention that with the possible exception of kicking over Israel, I don’t know if there are even any shared goals among the various groups. I just don’t see a team up like that happening, unless there’s a very good reason to do so. If that reason existed, I think someone would have noticed it by now. Although with United States attacks looking like terror attacks, even if they’re supposedly based on good intelligence, there might be one in the future somewhere. Hopefully, the programs and scholarships offered for training better intelligence people work and we get actually good intelligence.
The Star reports on a World Health Organization that pinpoints the ten worst countries in the world for women, in terms of rights, violence, crime, and other factors.
Domestically, San Francisco, stereotypically thought to be a homosexual-friendly place, is feeling heat and aggression from Slavic Christian fundamentalists, including the hate group Watchmen on the Walls. I guess I’m still missing the part where Jesus told his followers to stone and kill other sinners... ah, wait, didn’t he say that the person doing so should be without their own sins? Plus, to make a political point, despite what people say about it, the founding fathers were all for religious liberty to avoid having states barring people from office because of their beliefs. The people banned would vary from state to state, but a lot of them had it in mind to exclude anyone who wasn’t the right brand from being part of the ruling elite. So rather than pick one and enshrine it (and have it change over time and war), the dominant thought becomes, “Well, if I can’t have it, then neither can he.” and we get freedom to practice. Those same freedoms should be extended to other arenas, like sexual orientation and practice, so long as it’s safe sex.
Perhaps attempting to head off the same thing that sank his predecessor, the new New York Governor, David Paterson, admitted freely that both he and his wife had affairs. Which might actually get him praised for honesty, and if there’s no public funds being spent, then he’ll probably be Clinton-like popular.
Economically, two sides to the same coin, looking at the Bear Sterns crisis and other investment bank problems - the up side, from Hale Stewart, and the down side, from AmericaBlog’s Chris in Paris.
Tulsa, Oklahoma accidentally bombed with training ordinance. Thankfully, training ordinance is not the kind that would level city blocks were it to be accidentally released. Which makes me wonder again just how many times a day people could potentially have death rain on them from above by their own military, and the only thing that could be done about it would be to not be in the impact zone?
With regard to the candidates in the general election to arrive, Florida threw in the towel on a re-vote, while it sounds like Michigan’s going to try and give it a go.
Musings and Migraines isn't sure why people are just now noticing that race is a factor in Barack Obama's campaign, having come to that conclusion apparently because of Pastor Wright’s remarks. I’m not sure whether the Red Rabbit considers this to be to Obama’s benefit, detriment, or anything else, but it does seem a bit odd that only now are such things coming into view. Perhaps Obama’s lost his media darling shine? Or maybe now that the Clinton campaign has the perception of being desperate to win and willing to go the low road? Whatever the matter may be, it looks like the comments made by the pastor and Geraldine Ferraro have opened up a venue for people to start openly talking about Barack Obama’s race in relation and not get funny looks or suggestions that one might be a bit shallow or racist for basing so many words on the Senator’s race. Take Shelby Steele's opinion column in the Wall Street Journal, where Steele basically says that Ferraro was right, places Senator Obama’s campaign in the same caliber of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and dismisses the Senator as someone who plotted to use his race to his advantage. Apparently, that the Senator has not made extensive comments about the very real inequities between members of different races in his campaign is a “bargain” between him and whites - he doesn’t talk about racism, they don’t make his blackness a problem. Or Mike Adams concluding that the Senator's pastor was on drugs when he made inflammatory statements, and that the Senator might also be using them, and that such use would explain both of their behavior over the previous amount of time. In any case, the Senator made a speech today about race and the pastor's remarks.
Someone is having fun with their wordplay today - statistics show that people don't trust statistics. Someone had to know about the circularity of the idea, and ran it anyway. So have a laugh.
I didn’t even know there was a movie adaptation of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, much less that people would remember it later. Cinema and beat poetry together.
Last for tonight, I can see why people find Dresden Codak rather funny. Dungeons and Discourses takes quite the romp through various high-damage dealing philosophical attacks.
So, after all that, I’m taking the steampunk'd Dalek and heading off to bed. G’night.
