Stitching it all together - 23 October 2008

Pithy, potentially self-deprecating remark here. And then, the news.

Internationally, blade severs man's arm, he and co-workers get blade off, dash to hospital to reattach arm. Arm reattached, but normal function is a bust.

The White House says the deal is done on allowing United States troops to stay in Iraq past the expiry of their United Nations mandate, removing the thought that the military personnel there might be forced to go home through lack of mandate.

Blackwater has warships, too, and is willing to send them over to Somalia to fight pirates. So, when are they going to be hired to conquer the United States and slaughter those who oppose again?

The White House has also spoken of the need to maintain foreign aid, even in times of economic crisis, trying to keep things going well in less-developed countries even as the more-developed countries have to realize the real value of their assets, rather than the paper value.

Climate change may be accelerating faster than predictions, which is, well, not good, if it turns out to be true.

Domestically, evangelist Tony Alamo was designated a flight risk as accounts that he had a 9 year-old child bride came to the surface. And a rather disturbing opinion expressed - Pharyngula comments on a now-removed posting advocating that if a "gay-friendly" high school were to be constructed, that someone would blow it up, while also recommending stoning for the homosexual high school students so as not to build the school. And we decry this kind of fundamentalism in other countries... right?

Smokers are recommended to receive a pneumonia vaccine, because they have higher risks of lung and respiratory infections. This is the first smoker-specific vaccine recommendation.

The New York Attorney General is pursuing freezes of AIG's executive payments and buyouts in the investigation to see whether they spent bailout money properly.

Is the New York Times possibly another large institution ready to default? It would seem very odd for a paper that has lasted this long to suddenly go belly-up, but it’s not unthinkable. Subscriptions and advertising has probably not been easy.

In politics, providing some support numbers for some assertions I saw there yesterday, Musings & Migraines posts lists that point out Bill Clinton has the best economic rank of recent presidents, as well as Dwight Eisenhower having a low Misery Index (although Truman was the president claimed in the list).

The Republican National Committee spent $150,000 U.S. on clothes and accessories on Sarah Palin, her children, and her soon-to-be children - using campaign funds for personal reasons, kind of like how Palin charged Alaska for some personal things, too? Sense a trend? Of course, this is just another cheap shot at Palin, when the real culprits are elsewhere, according to Daniel Henninger.

Pew research indicates that Senator McCain is receiving significantly more news coverage, mostly negative. Pew research also notes most of this new coverage is based on things that the Senator or his running mate have said and did. As they turned more offensive and attack-oriented and negative, the media coverage matched them. Like any well-deserved mockery they get for accusing Barack Obama of supporting both teams in the current Major League Baseball playoff final. Little Green Footballs also picks up some nice negativity and mockery from the left as well by making it seem that it's a shock that William Ayers, in his earlier days, was a communist who advocated violent overthrow of the government. Duh. He’s admitted as much.

What should [no longer] be taken seriously, though, is the McCain supporter who [fabricated a story about] had a "B" carved into her cheek after the person robbing her saw the bumper sticker. Both campaigns have condemned the move, and we hope that the person who perpetrated the crime is brought to justice. If such a thing has happened, anyway. The account is a hoax, and I'm very sorry that you had to suffer through that when it was thought to be real.

In the opinion realms, the “Biden warned that Obama can’t succeed and will be tested!” thing has taken off. Michael Reagan has bought it, and riffs on it that we can't afford a candidate who will need on-the-job training, despite the statement itself saying nothing other than “There will be a crisis for the next president, who has to be ready for it.”

Senator Biden and Senator Obama receive a ringing endorsement because of Senator Biden's work and promised continued work on domestic violence against women. If anyone wonders whether men can be feminists, hearing the way Seantor Biden is described by the poster, I’d say he hits the description pretty well.

Robert F. Turner basically blames Congress for every terror attack against United States personnel for the last thirty years, first through attempting to make them the controllers of the military, then FISA, and all the things that basically stop the executive from running rampant on civil liberties in the name of national security. Yep, in a state where nobody is permitted any sort of privacy, we could have detected attackers earlier and stopped them. Is that really a trade you’re willing to make?

In tech, Buzz Aldrin suggests that those who go for the pioneering Mars mission stay there permanently, as Mars planetary resources should be able to sustain them, sticky tape like Scotch brand emits X-rays when peeled off a surface in a vacuum, launching people into suborbital space in basically a micro-rocket, sensing Wi-Fi networks with your shoes, and scientists erasing specific memories in mice.

The art squad is awesome. This octopus is made of chopsticks. And our Shameless Commercialism department recommends the Unemployed Philosopher's Guild for interesting stuff.

For very sobering stuff, in PDF form, consider what might happen to you or your significant other if the Roe v. Wade decision is reversed or overturned. In many states in the country, abortions could easily become illegal with zealous prosecutions.

More material arrives, shovel by shovel - 24 October 2008

As with all things, when driving, be alert, keep your eyes on the road, and look out for obstacles. When designing frights for the Spook Day, please be recalling that realism has unintended consequences.

First, before the rest, a correction to make - the story reported on yesterday about the apparent attack by an Obama supporter to a McCain supporter, based on politics? A fucking fabrication. Thus, we return to the status that Republican supporters are those documented as attacking and intimidating those who support Senator Obama. The original story has been edited to reflect this development.

In the international section - more changeover of Iraq to Iraq forces, which might mean that the Iraqi forces can handle themselves. Supposedly, the deal is done, but there is apparently no contingency plan if the deal should implode.

The Canadian dollar has fallen to new lows in exchange value versus the American dollar. Not a few years ago, both currencies were on relative parity.

Domestically, release the robotic hounds? The possibility of using robots to hunt and subdue humans. Depending on deployment, perhaps lethally.

Reprehensible behavior from the official campaign to enshrine discrimination in California’s constitution - members of the Yes on 8 campaign sent blackmail and extortion letters to businesses that had donated to the No on 8 campaign, promising to out them as supporters if they didn&apos donate to the Yes on 8 campaign. The cited example in the article demanded $10,000, because the businessman donated $10,000 to the No campaign. Arrests should be in order for this.

On other Prop 8 matters, the WSJ understands not why a teacher's union would donate $1 million to the No on 8 campaign, feeling that the money could be better spent on improving education as opposed to left-wing causes. I don’t know if they understand why the Seventh-Day Adventist church opposes proposition 8, or why both Apple and Google have opposed the measure and donated sums to the No crowd, either, since that money could be better spent improving their products.

And if you want to see the view from the trenches, witness theremina‘s first-hand account of being surrounded, poked, called names, and attacked by Yes on 8 supporters, all for having turned her phone on to record the other belligerent behavior going on. In a lot of ways, that is a representative face of the supporters of Proposition 8, even if most of them feel that they would never resort to physical violence against the opposition.

The chief of voter registration in Clark County says ACORN submitted many more bogus or suspect registrations without their suspicion tags than the ones that they did, and CNS constructs it to imply that the statements about ACORN engaging in voter registration fraud are true, and the heroic efforts of the Clark County Chief stopped them. Amanda Carpenter decries the NBC-led partnership of "election protection" because it has no conservatives and has apparently partnered with ACORN, who have already been convicted of voter registration fraud in her mind. The Slacktivist decries the latest ACORN "scandal" as an attempt to turn the FBI into the GOP's hatchet men, as well as trying to investigate and insinuate that something is happening when nothing is. If one wishes to protest the treatment, petition away.

Tinkering with retirement? The possibility of 401(k) losing the federal subsidy and tax breaks, to be put into a different, federally-administered retirement account, under the auspices of the Social Security Administration. It’s speculation at this point, and may very well hinge on the election outcome. If it were to happen, I would find it interesting, because I thought Social Security was supposed to be a method of having retirement income. Perhaps this new plan would add mandated pre-tax savings so that the variances of the stock market don’t hit so hard in bear markets.

Walter E. Williams feels a socialized system of care will be bad, based on his data showing the time between GP seeing to treatment in countries that have socialized medicine. So of course adopting a socailized medicine program here will mean everyone has to wait too long to be treated. What about any other issues, like affordability or effectiveness of treatment?

Regarding candidates, an excellent summary of both the highest hopes and darkest fears of Senator Obama supporters. Joe Klein also presents a respectful disagreement between Senators and General Petraeus that ended amiably, but with Senator Obama saying that if he is elected Commander-in-Chief, he will be commanding, rather than passively accepting whatever is presented to him as a framework for showing how the Senator has grown into a person that looks like he can lead the country and that will be unruffled by weird things coming his way.

Looking at him from the other side, Cal Thomas uses Senator Biden's remarks as his justification why nobody should vote for Senator Obama, because he’s apparently untested and too young and inexperienced, while John McCain would be a solid choice and has lots of experience dealing with international crises. Throwback jerseys for the conservatives, yo.

Alan Reynolds expresses skepticism at the ability of a President Obama to raise revenues and cut spending to pay for his new proposed programs. It would still be awesome to have a mandates budget where expenditures are tied to a percentage of revenues (and adjusted as needed), and the remainder be used to pay down debts and restore funding to areas sorely needing proper reserves.

Pew research builds on a previous study that analyzed the amount of coverage on both candidates (McCain's negativity begat negativity) and concludes that most of the voting populace surveyed believes in media bias to the point that they fell the media is pulling for Senator Obama to win. Some part of that may be evidenced through the yoinking of an Ohio plumber into the national media spotlight and the scrutiny of this average Joe that followed. For others, it’s that the mainstream media apparently "drinks the Kool-Aid" that the Obama/Ayers association does not mean that Senator Obama is planning on anarchically destroying the government or moving the country to become a Socialist or Communist Republic.

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann see the current election cycle as a push-pull between economic populism on the Democratic side and social populism on the Republican side. I don’t particularly like the characterization of social populism as a conservative response born from religion and resistance to change, that has a fair share of economic conservatism (stop taking what’s my hard-earned stuff and giving to those always-unemployed, useless poor bums) in it. I think that as a whole, the social populism might be more liberal than we expect - it’s just that for one reason or another, that liberalism or tolerance is suppressed or constrained because of the environment or the presence of a loud-mouthed nut, on either side of the fence.

Too little, too late - McCain interview shows his disagreements with the current administrator, of which the spokesperson says the administrator does not take criticisms personally. I suspect the “McSame” idea has firmly entrenched itself in many voters’ minds, and, really, the party association is a bit of an albatross, even if Senator McCain is supposed to be different. Matt Towry agrees, and suggests that the Republican Party let itself be consumed into ash, to try and find their phoenix rebirth later with new views and candidates.

Last out of the matter, Nathan Tabor's column urges all the religious to take on their Biblically-ordained duties to elect good government and to provide the social justice, safety net, and assistance that churches have historically done as part of their missions. In other words, shake off the dependence on government and help people (hopefully not get people off their dependence on government to get them addicted to church).

In technology, helping debunk UFOs, 1953-style, the need to report failure in science as much as success, because it is on other people’s failures that those successes are often built, stealing virtual goods has real-life consequences, circuits made from brain cells, and a fluorescent cat.

Your dosage tonight has been expertly measured to provide useful things to you. It is up to you to figure out what they are.