Jan. 27th, 2009

silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
Before we begin, the new American Consumer Product Safety Act is still slated to require extensive testing for materials such as children's books, potentially putting the Youth Services section of your local library out of commission until all the books can be tested and certified... when they figure out how to do it and where the materials can be sent to tset. The ALA would appreciate it if you told the CSPC to stop dragging their heels and realize just what sort of expense it would take to test all our books... so a library exemption really is in their best interests. That, and we’d lose out on neat things like zoomorphic calligraphy.

Oh, and big congratulations to author Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, winner of the 2009 Newberry Award.

Plus, Ox-year, ahead. Congratulations and be prosperous.

There's going to be a lot of dogs and pups needing adoption in the greater Seattle area very soon. As things are, the shelters that they have been deposited at, pending their use as evidence for the trial of the puppy mill(s) that they were seized from, are stretched past their break points and could use a lot of help and supplies.

Greetings, troops For those serving in Iraq, good news, in that the Marine commander thinks it's safe for all Marine troops to withdraw. Suffice it to say, there’s been a lot so far done over these last few days. A lot of which will annoy, aggravate, and irritate people. A Batman imitator was arrested under a statute that prevents people from wearing hoods, a church in Texas believes that the bedroom is not a holy temple to the gods, for which I suspect more people find religion in the bedroom than they ever do in church, and telemarketers and scammers have been buying do-not-call lists so they can... call the people on them. Often from countries outside the jurisidction of the do-not-call, so they can’t easily be slapped out of business for violating the list.

The Avatar, the last Airbender movie is having a casting call. And asking for some very strange dress. If you’re Korean, apparently you need to wear a kimono, as that’s your traditional culture dress. And the Belgians need lederhosen. So, wait, they’re looking for ethnic extras, but they whitewashed the principal cast? Anyone else see a problem here?

In similar shading problems, A UK school has suspended two students, declaring that their hair color is an unnatural blonde, and thus falls outside the acceptable hair policy. If the two female students dye their hair brown, they can return to sit their examinations. I assume the school is also looking for unnatural browns, blacks, and reds to be fair across the board.

Finally, The Slacktivist gives, erm, heck about Brannon Howse, founder of the Christian Worldview Network, peddler of accusations that Reverend Lowery was being a racist with his benediction, because he said that America still had bigots. If he needs proof of that possibility, Austin Cline has a comment or two on the resurgence and Internet-savviness of nativist militia movements, including their apparent rise in popularity. Or he could just look at the bakery that called a confection "Drunken Negro Heads', or perhaps, "Drunken Nigger Heads", all the while claiming not to be racist in any way. (Because he’s got a bro-in-law that’s Cuban, y’know?) Or, perhaps, taking a look at A Sam's Club employee told to take his Obama portrait shirt off because a customer complained about it. What, us, racist? Never.

Going around the world, Icelans's Prime Minister has resigned. The country itself went bankrupt, so I suspected this was in the works for a while.

In an attempt to reconcile a schismatic group to the Catholic Church, the Bishop of Rome reinstated four bishops previously excommunicated, including one who had recently said on the record that historical evidence was against the Holocaust. If this Bishop weren’t German, would it still have this kind of effect? The official position of the Vatican is that the bishops are not heretical, even if the Holocaust denier is a liar. Did we mention this exhibit of what the Holocaust looked like from the SS perspective appeared from the Holocaust Memorial Museum?

Oh, and the Bishop of Rome has his own Youtube channel.

A finalist in the Miss World competition has died, falling victim to a drug-resistant infection. Doctors had attempted to curb the posions by amputating her hands and feet, but the infection stayed on.

Observe this picture of a 17 year-old who has had seven children at the time the photo was taken, in may of 2008. At the time, her father was hoping to have her tubes tied, but Argetntinian law prevents this from being done to minors (likely for very good reasons). However, I’m willing to guess that abstinence-only education is the norm there, as well as a lack of access or information about various birth control options. That, and the teenager is pretty lucky, I would say - seven children before 18.

A Danish mother has been accused of genitally mutilating her two daughters, as a tradition ran full-force into the law. Perhaps she needs some assistance from the two boys that stopped an older man threatening to kill a woman, with his gun in her mouth, by hitting him with their baseball bats.

The Japanese government is cracking down on vending machines that purport to sell used underwear of school-age children, or was a month ago. Probably still is and has been for a while. Although this does mean that perhaps one cannot get everything from a vending machine in Japan. In a related concept, although expanding, rather than shutting down, the concept of the "breastaurant" is gaining traction.

Additionally, government planes do bombing runs in Darfur, a Saudi Arabian prince declares a need for better realtions between America and the Middle East, as well as the Middle East and the Middle East, the United States is accused of tossing missiles into Pakistan, aiming for al-Qaeda strongholds, killing 18, the Abu Ghraib prison of Iraq has been renamed to the Baghdad Central Prison en route to reopening, and one confirmed incident of Hamas fighters firing rockets from media buildings, which is rephrensible by itself, but also invited the wrath of the IDF to bomb or level the place.

In the United States, The mother of David Koresh, founder of the sect that created "the Waco incident" was found stabbed to death at the house of a sister.

Feeding the idea that those captured during the Cocnept War and later released from United States custody will return to their former occupations, two previous residents of the Guantanamo Bay facility have appeared in a video attributed to al-Qaeda. Which makes many even more agitated at the President’s order to close the facility and relocate the prisoners.

Disgraced minister Ted Haggard has new accusations that he solicited and had relationships with a man in his 20s, so no pedophilia, but this can’t help Haggard’s attempts to make himself back into a man of God that the anti-homosexual crowd will accept.

Meningitis infections, preventable by vaccine, have killed five Minnesota girls. Once again, get your vaccinations. It’s a matter of life and death sometimes, autism wankery be damned.

Filmmaker Michael Moore is in potential legal trouble over his apparently uncredited and unauthorized use of a photo taken depicting a solider cradling a young girl. The photographer was also unpleased that the context of the photo on Moore’s web site made it appear as though the soldiers were responsible for the young girl’s injury and subsequent death.

Kirstin Gillibrand was appointed to the Senate seat of New York vacated by Hillary Clinton, raising eyebrows across the Democratic spectrum.

In matters regarding the new government, confirmed - Preisident Obama removed restrictinos on funding international groups that provide abortion services or information about abortions. Additionally, the Speaker of the House has apparently said she wants support for birth control added to an economic stimulus package, claiming that contraceptive and family planning services will help the budget line. As mercenary as it sounds, she’s probably right - the small amount for birth control now will probably save larger amounts of social services money down the road when a mother who can’t afford her child has her, perhaps even over her own wish not to, and tries to raise her.

Avoiding the direct aproach for earmarking, those looking for money in the new stimulus bill are resorting to shadowier ways of presenting their requests. This is an important issue for the President, because "It's the Economy" that’s on the people’s minds this year. The Republican Party is doing what it does best, claiming that their economic policy has resulted in a robust and strong economy, even as banks fail and other economic ventures die.

Finally, President Obama used comedian Rush Limbaugh as an example on what sort of behavior would nto be helpful in teh upcoming years. Listening to the partisan and divisive Limbaugh and then attempting to get things done was not going to cut it. To avenge his honor, the comedian responded, declaring that the President's use of his name was an attack attempting to divert the populace from his own plan and to get the GOP to turn on him and exclude him, with the implication that he is an ideologically pure Republican.

In to opinions! The WSJ still complains about stimulus thinking being based on bad theories... as well as apparently not spending a whole lot this year right now, as George Melloan declares that big government spending means waste and leaks that will drown actual attemtps at recovery, the WSJ deamnds accountability from state and local governments like what we insisted on from automakers and financial houses, as Shikha Dalmia and Henry Payne denigrate Detroit's acceptance of the bailout (it turns them into a noncompetitive entity by forestalling all the right and difficult decisions they have to make to become profitable), and thinks that the green revolution will crash and burn as people decide they don't want green power things on their skylines, L. Gordon Crovitz appaulds the idea of going back to basics and actually tagging a number on toxic assets, so they can then be cleared, bought, sold, et cetera, instead of being stuck in limbo. Finally, Austin Hill predicts that there will be a nasty backlash against the Obama administration once the people realize that they're not playing on the same field as their rulers. As, y’know, more politicians have scandals or get away with things ordinary Americans can’t.

David R. Stokes doesn't like the close-Gitmo decision, based on his certainty that a terrorist will beat the system for one reason or another and then will do his very best to create more terror attacks inside the United States, as a free person. Them’s the breaks, man - killers and evil people do go free. Why the special interest in these particular ones? Ben Johnson also doesn't like the decision, again based on the certainty that once released, the detainees will go back to being terrorists, well, that and apparently the President is dismantling our totally-necessary Concept War apparati by insisting that we conform to the rule of law, a position that David Rivkin and Lee Casey agree with, citing the need for special courts and procedures for detaining terrorists while in conflict. Michelle Malkin has no kind words for John Murtha's quip about how terror suspects should be detainable in regular prisons, accusing him of porking, name-grabbing, endangering the safety of his neighbors, encouraging collaboration between crooked lawyers and their clients, and being against the Concept War’s success.

Bill Roggio adds to the pessimism by pointing out that Europe and NATO are unlikely to add more troops to the Afghan conflict, which means we could have Iraq all over again, this time with President Obama.

Philip K. Howard comes back to tell us that we need to scrap law as it is and redefine it into a lean machine that declares what absolutely cannot happen and prescribes zones where people are free to use their own judgment without fear or repercussions.

The Black Republican echoes a previous comment on the need to judge the President by his deeds alone, and not by some softer standard, which, in a way, leads through to Victor Davis Hanson predicting that the media nad the left will look increasingly foolish and control-hungry as time goes on, which shifts down to Bill'O predicting the collapse of many more media outlets, because of their naked leftward slant and their joy at sending Mr. Bush on his way. Comedian David Limbaugh berates the sore winnerness of the left and media outlets, and is probably not sad to see those media outlets fold, nor would Michael Gerson, who likes the post-racial bit, but thinks it sucks how everyone's claiming that intellect and smarts are back in power, based mostly on how Mr. Bush was perceived to be fairly anti-intelligence. Because everyone who hates Bush is childish and doesn't take into account his great deeds and his willingness not to respond to people that insulted and patronized him, in both recent times and in ways stretching all the way back to his Supreme-Court decided victory in 2000. Because liberals hate great conservatives for petty reasons, always.

Brent Bozell III belives that despite the skin color of the President, young men of that same color will continue to want to be thugs, rappers, and hood men, because they're cooler than the Pres, and so the role models won’t change, like they should. More optimistically, Peter Pham has hopes that President Obama will be able to forge much better links with Africa during his presidency, if he commits the resources to do so.

Charles Krauthammer weighs in on President Obama&spos;s inaugural, finding it flat and lacking compared to his previous speeches, without oratorical flourish or mantra or anything else to latch on to, which he twists into somehow being a reflection of the candidate, approvingly for being past race by invoking Washington instead of King or Lincoln, disapprovingly for not having meat to chew on in policy or in direction of the country.

Last out, Phil Harris uses his column space to reaffirm his belief in the being represented by the Tetragrammaton, using the Infinite Improbabilty argument to justify it, as well as the peace of mind that comes from knowing there’s more to life than this...as well as a challenge to science to artificially generate life. Pretty standard stuff.

Of much more force, violence, and general depratvity, Matt Barber is spitting nails about how much President Obama is enacting every plank of "the extremist homosexual and transsexual lobbies" removing the barrier that stands in the way of other states having to acknowledge same-sex marriages, ending “don’t ask, don’t tell”, and by giving legitimacy and protection of law and “special rights” to people “based on sexual behaviors that are deviant, changeable, and widely regarded both here and around the world as immoral.” Which makes the President, just based on that plan so liberal as to be beyond the pale. Oh, that’s right. He hasn’t actually done any of that yet. We have to, y’know, give the elected officials their chance to shoot it down by using the same rhetoric you’ve carefully constructed.

In technology, how genes could be the wave of the future economy, really dense storage, relying on quantum states for data, as opposed to really dense storage that relies on whole planets for their data, blood-pressure monitors much smaller than a fignernail, a New Scientist list of devices that are almost ready for primetime that people will like, keeping an eye on Arkansas, now that a new fault line discovered could rock the state, 41,600 text messages in one month, a lizard that became a father at 111 with an 80 year-old partner, and a robot that pulls a good Spider-Man impression.

There’s also Nuclear Slide Rules, technology of the past to tell you how screwed you are in case of nuclear problems, which now have Internet equivalents. And the Internet will tell you just what you can expect if things go wrong.

Last for tonight, abandoned amusement parks in Asia, where once again we’re reminded of the end movies of Final Fantasy VII. Plus, some photos of the current President as a young man, some insight into the momorization of lines, and finally, because I know that there are at least some bento maniacs on this blog, game and movie-related bentos, or which there are many more on this stream, some more high-art bentos, and, of course, a how-to on some of those previously seen.

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silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
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