Up top, no matter what sort of animosity we might have had to her mother, congratulations to Bristol Palin for surviving childbirth and delivering a healthy boy. In other celebrity matters, that's Sir Terry Pratchett, civilian, and Disney bails on the Narnia franchise.
Internationally, now provoked, Israel intends on pounding the hell out of the Gaza area to achieve a cease-fire on therms it wants to dictate. The United States President continued to blame Hamas, the President-elect was silent on the matter. Bret Stephens suggests scorched earth by Israel against those who work against it, while Wesley Pruden assumes we're all going to blame Israel for its aggression, rather than those who truly deserve it and keep refusing a good peace settlement. Justin Raimondo thinks the whole thing is about Washington, not Gaza and that the expected “better terms” are what Israel wants when the new administration steps in to try and stop the struggle by forcing it back out of the spotlight and continuing to support Israel. Think collaboration and the ultimate goal actualyl being what Stephens suggested be out in the open.
Somalia's president has quit, and Thailand has a new Prime Minister, although he’s also facing down protesters and opposition in the streets.
The United States is worried about Cambodia, a nation with excellent tolerance for various religions, because Combodians are making ties to Persian Gulf states and the U.S. believes that radical Islam will inevitably follow those goods and money, will take hold in Cambodia, and then take over Cambodia. It’s like Domino theory all over again, I swear.
Domestically, here comes the next Republican scandal, named "Barack the Magic Negro". Which is bad enough by itself, but then the great stuff comes when the song gets defended and several Republicans say they have no problem with it, because they don’t see it as racist or intended to be racist in any way. There was a chance to dismiss it as a fringe element lunacy, fit for Rush and the Dittoheads, and then run away screaming, but no, people chose to defend it, and thus, they have earned every character of their designation as stupid, stupid rat creatures. They have earned this honor along with the person who annotated a UPS signature "terrorist" after a Sikh man, wearing the appropriate garb, signed for the package. These labels don’t apply, though, to those people who did actually stand up and say the song was wrong.
Blagojevich has tapped a successor to Senator Obama's seat, Roland Burris. The question now becomes whether the Senate can and will make good on their threat to not seat any appointment made by the Governor, regardless of the qualifications of the person selected.
One of the Members of Congress wants them to vote on whether or not to give themselves their automatic pay raise for this year, not that he’s hand any success getting to that point before. He might have an argument for this upcoming year. The greater gesture might be having all the Members of Congress and the Executive work at minimum wage and see how fast it stays where it is.
The United States military officially claims it has no VX nerve gas weapons, having destoyed the last mine at the disposal facility. Good for them. Not so good involves a soldier accused of selling IEDs to gang members, no doubt building on the skills he obtained in his two tours of Iraq defusing, deconstructing, and watching them explode. Nothing in the article indicates whether or not the accused soldier had gang ties before his tours. Might this be a warning to the military that lowering the recruiting standards to certain points may come to backfire, when those people come home and put their new skills to work? Plus, while we’re talking about improvements, citizenship for those who are volunteering to die in foreign countries might not be bad, either.
Revision to an MRFF lawsuit, alleging pervasive religious bias in the military and that they don't take complaints of religious discrimination serious enough, adding in Air Force sponsorship of religious exercises, distribution of Bibles to the natives in Iraq, et cetera.
Florida was a strange place this year, as their news demonstrates. Tasered emus and all.
In the opinions, first, and quite importantly, Christopher Hitchens nails why most people are displeased with Rick Warren as the inauguration invocation cleric - including some questions that we should be asking of the President-elect. Will Pastor Warren stand by his assertion that Jews cannot enter heaven? How about his mentor’s statement that Mormons aren’t Christians? And is it wise to have someone who eagerly expects the end of the world, confident in his own salvation, to give the invocation when he may get his wish and find out how wrong we all are about our heavenly fate? Y’know, unimportant stuff.
The campaign to vindicate the outgoing administrator or claim that history will continues, with apparently the new saddest consequence of 9/11 being how it diverted the administration away from what it could have been. Well, at least, that’s the implication I get out of it, and when put that way, actually, I kind of agree. Although I would say that the actions following the tragedy are the sad part taht moved the administration away from what it could have been, saying that the tragedy itself change it is at least in the ballpark. although, that does bring to mind the speculation of what the presidency would have been like had, say, the disasters not happened. Remember, this is the group that spent 1.6 billion USD spent from 2003-2006 on public relations by the outgoing administration in the whitewash effort, used fake firefighters for photo-ops at disaster sites.
Settling back into more usual territory, Mark Hendrickson feels that the populace, no wait, the elite, is killing the country, with demanding ever more fom the government, feeling entitled to it, and refusing to work to better themselves, preferring the government trough to the market, drowning our morals in Britney Spears... but the real blame falling on educators who teach children that this is their right, politicians who steal from the taxpayer to give to the undeserving, and the federal government, who claims to be on the side of the little guy and then arranges for the corporate and government masters to take everything from them. So what looked like it was going to be a screed against the populace turns out to be “Oh, no, the populace is too stupid to break free of their ideological chains and be libertarians. We have to go after the people who make them this way.” In some ways, his sights are lined up right. In others, well, three inches at ten yars. Kind of like heaping all the blame of Detroit failure on the shoulders of the UAW and the union's penetration into the structureof the companies, and glibly insisting that the perfect solution is for the government to force te UAW into a relationship like the ones that foreign automakers have - basically not unionized, at comparable salaries and benefits. Then, of course, the Big Three become profitable... and wonder why nobody is buying their cars. Again.
Fouad Ajami resurrects Samuel Huntington as the prescient prophet of 1993, pointing out how he predicted the impulses of the country to go global or imperial, both with ruinous consequences, predicting the Islamic world as the next great conflict, and espousing the idea of an American Creed - the things we need to hold onto dearly to ensure that America stays America: the English language, Christianity, religious commitment, English concepts of the rule of law, the responsibility of rulers, and the rights of individuals, all derived from the culture of the founding fathers.
William Rusher has an assignment for the Republican Party: Build an affirmative case. Then present it so that the populace understands why the Republicans are better for us than the Democrats, not through minor matters or negative campaigning, but on the premise that Republicanism is in all ways much more sound policy for the populace, in keeping government in check and having a good foreign policy that eliminates threats to the nation.
The WSJ decries the idea of giving more to minority-led foundations as a "race-baiting money grab", based on the idea that foundations should care more about results rather than the demographics of the grants they fund. Merit and then some to that idea. What I’m missing in this situation is whether the claim made that minority-led organizations might have an idea on how to go about spending foundation dollars effectively is true. I doubt that anyone could prove that big foundations are discriminating against minority organizations, but neither do I believe the claim that this is an attempt to fund minority college graduates to do work in nonprofits. Statistical percentages only do so much. Perhaps the low funding rate is because those organizations can’t necessarily spare someone long enough to do grant writing courses, or applications, or interviews, because they don’t have funding? I have no idea. I just feel that the truth is neither of the sides represented in the opinion piece. Anyone who works with or in nonprofits that can lend a hand here?
Sally Pipes is certain that the Obama administration will attempt to make us all on the government plan for health care, and that it will collapse and die from the expense, the politicization, and regulation, resulting in rationed care that’s ineffective, drugs that aren’t available because they’re not cost-efficient, and all sorts of other things that will tweak the populace because we expect to be able to get anything for treatment and have it be affordable. (Not that our private insurance actually does any such thing, either.)
Out of the opinions, Burt Prelutsky ridicules the populace and the elected officials though quotations from older writers, disgsuising them as things that make us laugh or as words of wisdom. The WSJ smirks at Venezuela, Iran, and Russia, feeling that the falling oil prices will hurt their leaders and make it difficult for them to do anything to hurt anyone else.
Let’s do the science and technology thing. We’ll start with looking for water ice on Luna, even as NASA has an uncertain future, the difficulties of programming for multicore processors, with some amount on how silicon chips are hitting one of the thresholds that could make Moore blink and that molecular-size computing could help break, as well as a possible return to the roots of supercomputing to optize work for multicores without having to do too much reprogramming, images of art projects constructed on the nano scale, isolation of the genes that made a 1918 flu outbreak lethal, an emerging field that uses diet as a way of controlling disease or preventing it. And, of course, The Pink Tentacle Top Ten List.
At the very last, Cracked declares this year the year the geeks took over, through fourth wall breaches, mostly. Additionally, something that should be a parody, and isn’t: the discreet packaging was, well, less than discreet. At least it was honest, even if it probably required the hasty construction of some homemade upset stomach remedy.
Internationally, now provoked, Israel intends on pounding the hell out of the Gaza area to achieve a cease-fire on therms it wants to dictate. The United States President continued to blame Hamas, the President-elect was silent on the matter. Bret Stephens suggests scorched earth by Israel against those who work against it, while Wesley Pruden assumes we're all going to blame Israel for its aggression, rather than those who truly deserve it and keep refusing a good peace settlement. Justin Raimondo thinks the whole thing is about Washington, not Gaza and that the expected “better terms” are what Israel wants when the new administration steps in to try and stop the struggle by forcing it back out of the spotlight and continuing to support Israel. Think collaboration and the ultimate goal actualyl being what Stephens suggested be out in the open.
Somalia's president has quit, and Thailand has a new Prime Minister, although he’s also facing down protesters and opposition in the streets.
The United States is worried about Cambodia, a nation with excellent tolerance for various religions, because Combodians are making ties to Persian Gulf states and the U.S. believes that radical Islam will inevitably follow those goods and money, will take hold in Cambodia, and then take over Cambodia. It’s like Domino theory all over again, I swear.
Domestically, here comes the next Republican scandal, named "Barack the Magic Negro". Which is bad enough by itself, but then the great stuff comes when the song gets defended and several Republicans say they have no problem with it, because they don’t see it as racist or intended to be racist in any way. There was a chance to dismiss it as a fringe element lunacy, fit for Rush and the Dittoheads, and then run away screaming, but no, people chose to defend it, and thus, they have earned every character of their designation as stupid, stupid rat creatures. They have earned this honor along with the person who annotated a UPS signature "terrorist" after a Sikh man, wearing the appropriate garb, signed for the package. These labels don’t apply, though, to those people who did actually stand up and say the song was wrong.
Blagojevich has tapped a successor to Senator Obama's seat, Roland Burris. The question now becomes whether the Senate can and will make good on their threat to not seat any appointment made by the Governor, regardless of the qualifications of the person selected.
One of the Members of Congress wants them to vote on whether or not to give themselves their automatic pay raise for this year, not that he’s hand any success getting to that point before. He might have an argument for this upcoming year. The greater gesture might be having all the Members of Congress and the Executive work at minimum wage and see how fast it stays where it is.
The United States military officially claims it has no VX nerve gas weapons, having destoyed the last mine at the disposal facility. Good for them. Not so good involves a soldier accused of selling IEDs to gang members, no doubt building on the skills he obtained in his two tours of Iraq defusing, deconstructing, and watching them explode. Nothing in the article indicates whether or not the accused soldier had gang ties before his tours. Might this be a warning to the military that lowering the recruiting standards to certain points may come to backfire, when those people come home and put their new skills to work? Plus, while we’re talking about improvements, citizenship for those who are volunteering to die in foreign countries might not be bad, either.
Revision to an MRFF lawsuit, alleging pervasive religious bias in the military and that they don't take complaints of religious discrimination serious enough, adding in Air Force sponsorship of religious exercises, distribution of Bibles to the natives in Iraq, et cetera.
Florida was a strange place this year, as their news demonstrates. Tasered emus and all.
In the opinions, first, and quite importantly, Christopher Hitchens nails why most people are displeased with Rick Warren as the inauguration invocation cleric - including some questions that we should be asking of the President-elect. Will Pastor Warren stand by his assertion that Jews cannot enter heaven? How about his mentor’s statement that Mormons aren’t Christians? And is it wise to have someone who eagerly expects the end of the world, confident in his own salvation, to give the invocation when he may get his wish and find out how wrong we all are about our heavenly fate? Y’know, unimportant stuff.
The campaign to vindicate the outgoing administrator or claim that history will continues, with apparently the new saddest consequence of 9/11 being how it diverted the administration away from what it could have been. Well, at least, that’s the implication I get out of it, and when put that way, actually, I kind of agree. Although I would say that the actions following the tragedy are the sad part taht moved the administration away from what it could have been, saying that the tragedy itself change it is at least in the ballpark. although, that does bring to mind the speculation of what the presidency would have been like had, say, the disasters not happened. Remember, this is the group that spent 1.6 billion USD spent from 2003-2006 on public relations by the outgoing administration in the whitewash effort, used fake firefighters for photo-ops at disaster sites.
Settling back into more usual territory, Mark Hendrickson feels that the populace, no wait, the elite, is killing the country, with demanding ever more fom the government, feeling entitled to it, and refusing to work to better themselves, preferring the government trough to the market, drowning our morals in Britney Spears... but the real blame falling on educators who teach children that this is their right, politicians who steal from the taxpayer to give to the undeserving, and the federal government, who claims to be on the side of the little guy and then arranges for the corporate and government masters to take everything from them. So what looked like it was going to be a screed against the populace turns out to be “Oh, no, the populace is too stupid to break free of their ideological chains and be libertarians. We have to go after the people who make them this way.” In some ways, his sights are lined up right. In others, well, three inches at ten yars. Kind of like heaping all the blame of Detroit failure on the shoulders of the UAW and the union's penetration into the structureof the companies, and glibly insisting that the perfect solution is for the government to force te UAW into a relationship like the ones that foreign automakers have - basically not unionized, at comparable salaries and benefits. Then, of course, the Big Three become profitable... and wonder why nobody is buying their cars. Again.
Fouad Ajami resurrects Samuel Huntington as the prescient prophet of 1993, pointing out how he predicted the impulses of the country to go global or imperial, both with ruinous consequences, predicting the Islamic world as the next great conflict, and espousing the idea of an American Creed - the things we need to hold onto dearly to ensure that America stays America: the English language, Christianity, religious commitment, English concepts of the rule of law, the responsibility of rulers, and the rights of individuals, all derived from the culture of the founding fathers.
William Rusher has an assignment for the Republican Party: Build an affirmative case. Then present it so that the populace understands why the Republicans are better for us than the Democrats, not through minor matters or negative campaigning, but on the premise that Republicanism is in all ways much more sound policy for the populace, in keeping government in check and having a good foreign policy that eliminates threats to the nation.
The WSJ decries the idea of giving more to minority-led foundations as a "race-baiting money grab", based on the idea that foundations should care more about results rather than the demographics of the grants they fund. Merit and then some to that idea. What I’m missing in this situation is whether the claim made that minority-led organizations might have an idea on how to go about spending foundation dollars effectively is true. I doubt that anyone could prove that big foundations are discriminating against minority organizations, but neither do I believe the claim that this is an attempt to fund minority college graduates to do work in nonprofits. Statistical percentages only do so much. Perhaps the low funding rate is because those organizations can’t necessarily spare someone long enough to do grant writing courses, or applications, or interviews, because they don’t have funding? I have no idea. I just feel that the truth is neither of the sides represented in the opinion piece. Anyone who works with or in nonprofits that can lend a hand here?
Sally Pipes is certain that the Obama administration will attempt to make us all on the government plan for health care, and that it will collapse and die from the expense, the politicization, and regulation, resulting in rationed care that’s ineffective, drugs that aren’t available because they’re not cost-efficient, and all sorts of other things that will tweak the populace because we expect to be able to get anything for treatment and have it be affordable. (Not that our private insurance actually does any such thing, either.)
Out of the opinions, Burt Prelutsky ridicules the populace and the elected officials though quotations from older writers, disgsuising them as things that make us laugh or as words of wisdom. The WSJ smirks at Venezuela, Iran, and Russia, feeling that the falling oil prices will hurt their leaders and make it difficult for them to do anything to hurt anyone else.
Let’s do the science and technology thing. We’ll start with looking for water ice on Luna, even as NASA has an uncertain future, the difficulties of programming for multicore processors, with some amount on how silicon chips are hitting one of the thresholds that could make Moore blink and that molecular-size computing could help break, as well as a possible return to the roots of supercomputing to optize work for multicores without having to do too much reprogramming, images of art projects constructed on the nano scale, isolation of the genes that made a 1918 flu outbreak lethal, an emerging field that uses diet as a way of controlling disease or preventing it. And, of course, The Pink Tentacle Top Ten List.
At the very last, Cracked declares this year the year the geeks took over, through fourth wall breaches, mostly. Additionally, something that should be a parody, and isn’t: the discreet packaging was, well, less than discreet. At least it was honest, even if it probably required the hasty construction of some homemade upset stomach remedy.