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Way later than it should be - 3 March 2009
Mar. 4th, 2009 01:22 amLoading your news now... while you wait, please be entertained by martial art clubs learning new technique from each other and a 71 year-old woman achieving black belt rank in Taekwondo. If fear is your thing, marvel at the asteroid that whoosed by the earth at a close distance, astronomically speaking.
Also, a useful tool while you wait - The RIAA Radar, where you can tell whether a group or artist you like is curretnly being represented by the cabal that wants you to have to pay them multiple times over if you want to do anything that First Sale doctrine should let you do without difficulty.
News loaded. Major headline: The Bush Administration really was worse than you thought - they claimed extraordinary powers to wiretap you warrantlessly, to regulate your speech, and the CIA destroyed evidence, all according to memorandums released today by the Obama administration. The article claims most of the positions in those memos were eventually abandoned, but the underlying concept behind them certainly was not.
As if things weren't bad enough, there are some companies that want you to pay your dead relatives' outstanding debts, even though you probably have no legal obligation to do so. But they want you to feel guilty that they didn’t get their money before someone you knew died so that you’ll pay up.
More on the “Blame Nancy” angle: Politico talks about the "disfavor fule" the Speaker apparently keeps to make sure she remembers her grudges and repays those poor dealings with appropriate revenge.
Economics: Dow Jones Industrial Average drops below 7,000. You can hear the screams as the market finally corrects itself after having bubbled for a while. The recovery, in terms of stock prices, won’t be happening for a while, it looks like. This gives the President's opposition more ammunition to claim that he's the reason why the economy is continuing to fall down, even as negotiations on how to go about fixing banks stall out.
Republicans criticize President Obama for the supplementary $400+ billion USD appropriations bill, claiming it consists of a significant amount of pork projects, almost half of which go to Republicans.
Opinions: Ms. Parker is certain no amount of spending on schools and education will reform education, but instead, the culture must return to mythical 1950s Judeo-Christian values about avoiding welfare, instilling Christian faith and values into children, and removing roadblocks to letting parents choose which school their children go to, including religious ones. While Mr. McGurn is not so much into the values thing, he does feel that if Congress kills a voucher program in D.C. by not voting to reauthorize it, the President and Congress are killing the chances of a lot of kids to get a real education, including those who are currently attending the same school as his daughters. Sounds like education reform is needed to get the public schools up to the levels of these private and religious institutions they’re pushing hard for. What would it take?
Ms. Riley beleives that foundations and philanthropy are soon going to be bullied into being and giving money to politically-charged causes, instead of carrying out their missions and the will and intent of their donors. Ms. Riley paints the transition as increasing pressure from groups to get foundations to give more to minority-led organizations, organizations that serve marginalized populations, and to have more minorities and diversity as part of their board, lest accusations of racism or other ugly words arrive. In a weird sort of way, it would be starting the affirmative action debate, but this time with philanthropic money instead of university admissions.
Messrs. Smith and Patch fear that the SCOTUS will rule that any contribution made to a campaign means the person who benefited from that campaign would have to recuse him/herself from decisions that involve the donor. Which would be arguing that the Justices are not the intelligent and wise people they’re supposed to be.
In technology, trying to manipulate quantum entangled photons so that they can be detected by the unaided eye, Twitter's 140-character limit as the new standard for interesting journalism or blogging, because smaller writing is better in this case, and possibly because nearly 60% of the world's population has a mobile phone, so news-by-SMS or Twitter could be just the right thing, a gesture-based computer that turns itself to watch your input, graphene as the latest Phlebotinum, why robots should never be trusted to wield weapons, and computers defeating humans at Go, with handicaps, which means that our AI algorithms are getting better. Oh, and a nuclear reactor that could run for a couple hundred years without a refueling need on a small amount of U-235 and a lot of U-238.
At the end, a question - What would it take for you to buy an electric car?
Also, a useful tool while you wait - The RIAA Radar, where you can tell whether a group or artist you like is curretnly being represented by the cabal that wants you to have to pay them multiple times over if you want to do anything that First Sale doctrine should let you do without difficulty.
News loaded. Major headline: The Bush Administration really was worse than you thought - they claimed extraordinary powers to wiretap you warrantlessly, to regulate your speech, and the CIA destroyed evidence, all according to memorandums released today by the Obama administration. The article claims most of the positions in those memos were eventually abandoned, but the underlying concept behind them certainly was not.
As if things weren't bad enough, there are some companies that want you to pay your dead relatives' outstanding debts, even though you probably have no legal obligation to do so. But they want you to feel guilty that they didn’t get their money before someone you knew died so that you’ll pay up.
More on the “Blame Nancy” angle: Politico talks about the "disfavor fule" the Speaker apparently keeps to make sure she remembers her grudges and repays those poor dealings with appropriate revenge.
Economics: Dow Jones Industrial Average drops below 7,000. You can hear the screams as the market finally corrects itself after having bubbled for a while. The recovery, in terms of stock prices, won’t be happening for a while, it looks like. This gives the President's opposition more ammunition to claim that he's the reason why the economy is continuing to fall down, even as negotiations on how to go about fixing banks stall out.
Republicans criticize President Obama for the supplementary $400+ billion USD appropriations bill, claiming it consists of a significant amount of pork projects, almost half of which go to Republicans.
Opinions: Ms. Parker is certain no amount of spending on schools and education will reform education, but instead, the culture must return to mythical 1950s Judeo-Christian values about avoiding welfare, instilling Christian faith and values into children, and removing roadblocks to letting parents choose which school their children go to, including religious ones. While Mr. McGurn is not so much into the values thing, he does feel that if Congress kills a voucher program in D.C. by not voting to reauthorize it, the President and Congress are killing the chances of a lot of kids to get a real education, including those who are currently attending the same school as his daughters. Sounds like education reform is needed to get the public schools up to the levels of these private and religious institutions they’re pushing hard for. What would it take?
Ms. Riley beleives that foundations and philanthropy are soon going to be bullied into being and giving money to politically-charged causes, instead of carrying out their missions and the will and intent of their donors. Ms. Riley paints the transition as increasing pressure from groups to get foundations to give more to minority-led organizations, organizations that serve marginalized populations, and to have more minorities and diversity as part of their board, lest accusations of racism or other ugly words arrive. In a weird sort of way, it would be starting the affirmative action debate, but this time with philanthropic money instead of university admissions.
Messrs. Smith and Patch fear that the SCOTUS will rule that any contribution made to a campaign means the person who benefited from that campaign would have to recuse him/herself from decisions that involve the donor. Which would be arguing that the Justices are not the intelligent and wise people they’re supposed to be.
In technology, trying to manipulate quantum entangled photons so that they can be detected by the unaided eye, Twitter's 140-character limit as the new standard for interesting journalism or blogging, because smaller writing is better in this case, and possibly because nearly 60% of the world's population has a mobile phone, so news-by-SMS or Twitter could be just the right thing, a gesture-based computer that turns itself to watch your input, graphene as the latest Phlebotinum, why robots should never be trusted to wield weapons, and computers defeating humans at Go, with handicaps, which means that our AI algorithms are getting better. Oh, and a nuclear reactor that could run for a couple hundred years without a refueling need on a small amount of U-235 and a lot of U-238.
At the end, a question - What would it take for you to buy an electric car?
