No fooling, here's an entry - 1 April 2009

It’s a day where fools abound and play pranks on each other. This entry may have things that turn out to be untrue. I’ve tried to weed them out, but I can’t guarantee total accuracy. Not fooling, however, we have the 20 worst foods in America, following on from sixteen more secrets that restaurants don't want people to know. Oh, and pistachios on recall.

There’s also people losing hands and then beating their assailants with the stump, and the chef that butchered a rabbit live in front of his audience to help them understand how meat becomes. And Mendota, California, with a 41 percent unemployment rate.

If you want mental trauma instead, read up on No Longer Quivering, the blog of people who walked away from the Quiverfull movement and are dedicated to raising awareness about its problems and horrors. Or the school that sent a letter to the parents of a recently deceased girl threatening to exclude her from the prom. Or the rumors, adapted from "The Ring" as best I can tell, where the deadly item in question is a text message.

The purveyors, pimpers, and producers of FUD in America have finally united under one banner, and The General has their public opening statement. They were definitely involved in the program that identified schoolchildren as being particularly likely to become terrorists, and while they tried to sew some to help the Music Cabal by making people believe their ISPs were turning on them, that one fizzled out because those same ISPs were already staring down the pitchfork mob.

On the political stage, the United States has said it will seek a seat on the Human Rights Council, hopefully with the intent of bringing it back toward a more civil tone and discussion.

The United States and Russia continue to work toward reducing their nuclear arsenals, even as they bicker over missile defense and have to listen to howls saying that disarmement in the face of Iran and North Korea is suicidal.

Domestically, the FAA says that they're not releasing their data on bird strikes by airplanes, citing that people will misinterpret the statistics and draw bad conclusions. Like they always have been. Why not let the people who can use that data have a swing at it and see if they can’t drop the number of strikes or build better airplanes?

Governor Palin selected a strongly anti-homosexual, anti-choice lawyer as her state Attorney General. Perhaps they will both try to perpetuate the idea that genetic testing leads to designer babies, a position that has Mr. Le Page tearing his hair out. Although, I could see them supporting it if we ever found a test that had a high reliability rate for determining homosexual tendencies.

Taxes appear to be the interesting problem for this year - the HHS nominee just paid some back taxes, and a California IRS agent admitted to cheating on his own taxes.

Into the opinions - The new President has co-opted the peace movement and is using them to cheer on his escalation of conflict, according to the Center for Media and Democracy. From across the President’s aisle, Mr. Sowell calls him a rookie president, slamming him for his lack of leadership experience, accusing the media of being sycophants, thinking he's insulting allies that need to be kept close, and cowering in the corner waiting for the catastrophe that will inevitably result. Whether it’s his reported unwillingness to make the UAW, the sole and only cause of the Detroit Three dying, suffer and give up more, (because sacking a CEO and declaring ultimatums won't be enough - the unions have to die), or, the alternative, forcing the hand of the companies to go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Treasury Secretary working against the increased liquidity situations his plan should be creating, or the directed outrage at AIG and business as the way of distracting the people from the real disruption of their government, doom lies just around the corner, if we would only wake up and see it.

And then, there’s the budget, which Democrats look to be punting on and the Republicans are pushing an alternative for that takes cutting spending as its savings instead of additional taxation.

Mr. Horowitz attempts to be a sane voice in the insane wilderness, by saying that the sky is not falling, but doing so through backhanded measures “No, you’re all right, he’s the worst person ever, but it’s not going to cause our doom,” is the message, “so let’s stop with the histrionics. That’s liberal territory.”

The Slacktivist takes the pistachio recall, notes just about everyone is in favor of giving regulators access to production facilities and the ability to fine violators - except for the segment of the populous that sees food safety as getting closer to the Antichrist, and thus something that must be sort-of-resisted. They probably are also wide-eyed and worried at the Treasury Secretary apparently being amenable to the third-rail item of a global exchange currency that would supplant the dollar as the world's reserve.

Mr. Buchanan declares that Notre Dame is not a Catholic university due to their invitation of President Obama to speak at their commencement, based on the President’s clearly pro-choice positions and actions that allow for all the horrors that Catholics should be fighting against - embryonic stem cells, abortion, and the like. Because one cannot, in any situation, have an institution of higher learning ask someone with a divergent viewpoint to speak to the student body. The Oklahoma Legislature beleived it was true in their resolution and investigation of Richard Dawkins. How is the call to say that Notre Dame is no longer Catholic any different? Are we really insisting that anyone who receives an education from Notre Dame not be allowed to examine the evidence and the positions of the opposition, and instead be required to repeat the dogmatic positions of the church? That would fly in the face of the apologetic tradition, and in the face of the idea that faith is stronger when the person who believes does so having examined the evidence to the contrary.

However, winning the coveted failure and quiche of flaming doom, John Hawkins, who is convinced that he has the seven techniques liberals use most to lie about conservatives, based on the premise that while conservatives think of liberals as misguided or emotional (with the implied “there, there” head-patting and “You’ll be wiser when you’re older” clearly there), liberals think conservatives are evil, and thus, liberals lie. If we all only knew the truth about liberalism, it would stop existing in the country, because we’re all such center-right people. So, are we talking about liberal liberals, like the ones outside the United States? Because if that’s them, they don’t hardly exist, it seems, even now. But if we’re talking Democratic liberals, the slightly more left center-rightists, then I don’t think he’s got a leg to stand on. As for whose values matter, I've already given a piece of my mind on that.

Anyway, onward to the “techniques” the evul libruls use to lie about the virtuous conservatives. And not only do they lie, they lie continuously, I note. So, we have... an appeal to motivations, using anonymous sockpuppets to smear, tugging on the heartstrings, rewriting the past, saying “everyone knows”, taking people out of context, and using strawmen. So, in order, “he’s a socialist”, “someone said he’s not even a real citizen”, “he’s a baby-killer”, “American has always been a Christian nation”, “everyone knows you support the troops”, “He won’t provide a real birth certificate” and “liberals are always liars”, yes? (Well, some of them are weaker. Come up with your own examples.) Then, with one last straw man, he mercifully finishes his bloviation. “Unlike liberals, conservatives believe most Americans share our values and so, if you want to know what we think, all you have to do is ask us and we will tell you.” I doubt most Americans support the idea that we should be Christians, or that people who are hard on their luck don’t deserve a helping hand, or that corporations deserve special protection and more rights than people do, or many of the other planks of a conservative platform.

In technology, selling the idea that coal could become an octane fuel, albeit at the cost of continuing to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the Renegade Futurist on why the latest CAPTCHAs aren't any good, Venice ready to generate algae-based electricity in the next couple years, the unveiling of the Orion spacecraft that will headline the mission to Mars, the possibility that Hume ancestors also cared for mentally disabled children, proposing maps of mammalian brain circuits, supported by new power in hardware to make mapping easier and faster, building nanofluidic complex three-dimensional objects, discovering that our wastewater is breeding drug-resistant bacteria, using humaniform robots to learn about intelligence, creating better multitouch interfaces, using a vibrating touch screen to render Braille on an electronic screen, how commodity object thefts are teaching us about societal changes, with the premise that if the prices for scrap continue to go up, there will be more theft of stuff that can be scrapped, and Freedom, a program that nixes Mac networking for an enforced period of time so that people can work. The onyl way to break its hold before the time is to reboot the computer.

Last for tonight, packaging fruit drinks in skins that feel like the fruit's natural packaging. Cool! And cmpriest‘s tale of changing the smoke detector.

Now, if I could just keep the cats off the keyboard - 2 April 2009

Greetings, all. there was a curious protest on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus's plight yesterday. More seriously, a graphic novel of William S. Burroughs, never published, is having the paintings touring the country and free Photoshop tutorials and brush sets so that you can go further down the rabbit hole in Photoshop.

Oh, and my professional self gets to lead off with The librarian's job in one panel, from Unshelved. More positively, Reading reduces stress levels better than anything else, requiring a mere six muntes to bring heart rates down to normal levels and leaving the readers with lower stress levels than when they started.

In the international sphere, true to their image, the Taliban in Afghanistan rejected a reconciliation idea, calling the idea lunatic. We’ll see what actual practice produces. In a similar vein, Iran denied that its envoy and the United States envoy had warm and promising talks at an international conference. Iraq still has a litle work needed on catching all the mutineers who staged an uprising.

Perhaps most interestingly, the G-20 meeting got underway in London, drawing financial protesters in addition to the normal anti-capitalist and anti-globalization crowds, for which the United States President did some relationship repairing as part of a busy pre-conference schedule.

Possible trigger warnings for the domestically abused - Keira Knightly stars in an advertisement against domestic violence that involves her being beaten on camera. It’s a good ad, and I find it interesting and sad that the broadcast authority that clears ads for airing on television is having trouble approving the ad for broadcast, because of the violence involved. What does that say about what people think of domestic violence and abuse? I’d like to see this ad be run on U.S. television - we could use to see something like it. Or better, we could use to see what real domestic violence looks like, without having actors.

Domestically, the defense lawyers have asked for the conviction of Ted Stevens to be overturned based on withheld evidence. The prosecution did not apparently turn over interview notes where the contractor involved in the corruption charge estimated that his costs were less than initially reported. The WSJ takes this as confirmation that the prosecutors were really just out to get a conviction, instead of give a fair trial.

Mr. Palin said that the more than $150,000 spent on wardrobe for Mrs. Palin during her Vice Presidential candidacy was "out of control", confirming what everyone else had figured out months ago.

Debate continues as to whether a bridge between Microsoft campuses should be built with stimulus spending money.

Working the opinion columns, Mr. Fund thinks the current auto industry partnership with the government is the beginnings of a Randian situation, there's always worry about the budget deficit amounts, along with the tax increases, where apparently trying to cut waste in military spending is a fool's errand compared to the stimulus and budget, and where again, there is an acknowledgement that trying to make businesses pay costs means that only consumers will pay those costs without thinking about whether or not that can be changed, the Justice Department is being politicized, this time over whether or not D.C. can get a House seat and two Senators, and the G-20 group, of which Mr. Obama is taking part, will be hamstringing developed nations by increasing state power in them. All this leads to why Mr. Lambro chooses Mr. Zogby, who has approval in the 50 percent range, as his pollster of choice. The thought being that “fair” is a negative response and that the populace is crashing down from their expectation high. Mr. Turd Blossom agrees, believing that the populace has wised up and that the Obama administration is keeping score on who is supporting him and who is not.

Mr. Steyn believes that the beginnings of controlling automakers will lead inevitably to restricting people's health care and then restricting their thoughts and actions through pervasive censorship, because, after all, they're giving you the money you need to survive and do business. The Washington Examiner's Byron York is similarly critical of a bill that would let the government determine the salaries of persons working for companies that the government has a major stake in, expecting the government to simply write the checks and let the companies decide on their own compensation.

The WSJ is unhappy that the Sudanese dictator can travel outside Sudan with an arrest warrant out for him, so long as he chooses places that haven't signed on to the ICC, while members of the previous administration that gave legal opinions and signed of on torture might be arrested if they travel abroad because of a Spanish judge opening a trial for the Americans. I can understand the frustration about justice, but in this case, I think it’s working pretty well. If he Sudanese President were to venture to a place that would enforce the warrant, it would be up for him. The Americans may just have to stay in America. The WSJ would like the President to thumb his nose at such proceedings and declare that they can only be tried in American jurisdiction, but the nature of the accusations may preclude him from that, especially considering the allegations that the torture was conducted outside the borders of the United States. This reflects a trend I’m seeing in conservative commentary about the need for American law to be the only thing used when deciding cases involving Americans - more on this at some later point.

Mr. Laffer hates the estate tax and considers it wasteful, as people either fritter it away or employ lawyers so as to step around the taxes and leave their estates intact. He suggests that if we must tax, we do it to the people inheriting the money instead of those leaving it, but he’d rather just see all that money pass on without any taxes at all. Mr. Boortz considers the maintenance of the estate tax to be a breaking of Mr. Obama' promise not to raise taxes on the populous.

Last out for today, The Slacktivist on why a fundamentalist, "no-outside-influences" family had to ban any kind of unapproved music from the hosuehold - because no matter what kind of music it is, even cheesy 80s power-ballads, music is a force to be reckoned with. It gives people ideas that may not be expressable in words, and that are bigger than they are, and will totally havve them looking outside the attempt at a hermetically sealed existence.

In science and technology: fuel cells that use yeast powered by blood glucose, some FUD about how people can build their own EMP weaponry and use it against civilian airliners, a hypothesis that rain forests develop winds that push water around the globe, research indicating long-neck dinosaurs were using it to sweep wide at ground level, rather than raise high and treetop-munch, an implantable telescope for the eye to help with macular degeneration, University of Washington scholars indicate that there is no substitute for getting out into nature, using new techniques to find planets not discovered in old Hubble pictures, and simulating manned missions to Mars on Terra, including the isolation that comes from being with just a crew in a very cramped space for a very long time.

Last out: The Mighty God King has found the difference between Pixar and Dreamworks pictures. And The OVO reminds us that H.P. Lovecraft was highly racist, but that doesn't seem to affect his popularity. Nor do the facts in any way prevent cmpriest from becoming her own urban legend, and earning her the right to use “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated”.