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Another late night entry - 13 May 2009
May. 14th, 2009 12:29 amGreetings, persons of interest. Today, we find that the New York State assembly took the first step toward legalizing homosexual marriage by passing a bill from their house. The measure will travel to the other house of legislature, the state senate, where a much tougher fight is expected.
Engaging the internation community, a phone whose name is rooted in a slang word for penis probably isn't going to get the best press.
Domestically, a Texas couple shot at a family that had stopped near their property so that their children could go to the bathroom, killing a seven year-old with a headshot, and severaly wounding a 30 year old friend of the offroading family. The defense for the defense appears to be the laws in Texas that let property owners use lethal force in the case of a home invasion or trespassing. Oh, these are shotgun shootings, so about 40 yards off, and by their own account, one shot, then handed the gun to her husband so that he could continue shooting. Murder charges are possible. The General provides some context of the shooting.
John Yoo, architect of several memoranda that defended and attempted to legally justify the use of torture has had a weekly column with the Philadelphia Inquirer. Much like how Karl Rove can still write for the WSJ, and Dick Cheney is still on the television. If this disgusts you as much as it does others, here's how you can send in your own op-eds to the Inquirer. One of the General's legion sends in his letter to the Inquirer, as an example to get you started.
Fight Club as the way to improving employee morale? Well, it might help get some of the aggression out, but against one’s co-workers? Must be a heckuva bad work environment.
Despite keeping her crown, it appears that Miss Prejean had done some other photography work that might violate the standards of the pageant. This time, at an age where she would be an adult. Although we say that a nipple is not really, say, the Hilton sex tape, it continues to indicate that far from being the godly warrior she would like to protray herself as, she’s well, human and working in an industry that profits off of women exuding sexuality? Her defense on these pictures? They were taken on a windy day without her knowledge. As she looks straight at the camera and appears to be, y’know, posing.
More seriously, Governor Spitzer spoke of the need to effect fundamental change in the financial sector, to fix the idea that some companies can be allowed to become too big to fail, and that everything we’ve done so far has been moving deck chairs. The underlying problem of creative accounting to make you look better than you are isn’t being addressed, either. As a possible place to look for solutions to our economic and social woes, perhaps stealing the best part of the Dutch system is warranted?
The Obama administration has threatened to curtail information-sharing with the Untied Kingdom if it releases more details about a prisoner's treatment at Guantanamo Bay. Which sort of makes you wonder who’s really in charge there - the guy who says he’s for openness, or the guy who wants to bury the past.
Social Security and Medicare have been hit fairly hard by the recession, and so their supposed ends will be accelerated based solely on the idea that the aging populave will continue to draw more and there isn’t any sort of younger generation that will step into the workforce. Or no new proposals, like taxing employer-provided health care benefits as a possible revenue stream (although I suspect many conservative opinion-writers will instead see it as another prod to make us all slaves to the government by eliminating private health care, which as “everyone knows”, will never work, produce waitlines for care, if not closing doors to new people entirely, and shortchange doctors, and thus any doctors who sign on to be partners with it are only making a deal with the devil himself).
In the opinions, Mr. Neiwert points out who DHS was talking about in the much-publicized memo, and finds it a bit disconcerting that so many conservatives see themeselves as part of that role.
Mind Hacks reproduces a short column indicating that we ignore the social aspects of drinking at our peril, especially if we want to try and figure out why so many people get so stinking drunk.
The WSJ complains taht donor intent just got mauled when the Trust that Leona Helmsley set up for after her death did not respect her (legally nonbinding) mission statement for the money to go take care of dogs.
Opinionating more politically, Mr. Pruden feels that Mr. Obama is finally starting to grow up and see the world as it is, instead of trying to make his utopia into reality, although Mr. Dickson thinks the current round of cuts won't be nearly enough to make up for all the extra spending, and people who think the worst is over have another think coming, according to Mr. Kessler.
Last out, Mr. McGurn is troubled by the lack of talk on trade from the Obama administration, in contrast to Mr. Clinton's quick and authoritative insistence that trade was a part of his presidency when he took office.
Let’s play with science - starting with a parasite that takes over and controls fire ants, which is a painful proposition to anyone the swarm gets sent against, and then add on some technology, where Twitter appears to be changing the way they do serendipity, by trying to eliminate the fragmented conversation parts so that people don’t see @replies to people they also aren’t following, robots on parade at the ICRA show in Japan, more things from Google, including some fine-tuning options for your searches, more arms and defenses erected for the coming cyberwars, and some finally-serious thinking about cleaning up the debris orbiting the planet, now that a shuttle has to navigate it to catch up to the telescope.
Last out, a brassiere that helpfully tells potential partners when the wearer would like to get married. And using paper creasing to create art.
Engaging the internation community, a phone whose name is rooted in a slang word for penis probably isn't going to get the best press.
Domestically, a Texas couple shot at a family that had stopped near their property so that their children could go to the bathroom, killing a seven year-old with a headshot, and severaly wounding a 30 year old friend of the offroading family. The defense for the defense appears to be the laws in Texas that let property owners use lethal force in the case of a home invasion or trespassing. Oh, these are shotgun shootings, so about 40 yards off, and by their own account, one shot, then handed the gun to her husband so that he could continue shooting. Murder charges are possible. The General provides some context of the shooting.
John Yoo, architect of several memoranda that defended and attempted to legally justify the use of torture has had a weekly column with the Philadelphia Inquirer. Much like how Karl Rove can still write for the WSJ, and Dick Cheney is still on the television. If this disgusts you as much as it does others, here's how you can send in your own op-eds to the Inquirer. One of the General's legion sends in his letter to the Inquirer, as an example to get you started.
Fight Club as the way to improving employee morale? Well, it might help get some of the aggression out, but against one’s co-workers? Must be a heckuva bad work environment.
Despite keeping her crown, it appears that Miss Prejean had done some other photography work that might violate the standards of the pageant. This time, at an age where she would be an adult. Although we say that a nipple is not really, say, the Hilton sex tape, it continues to indicate that far from being the godly warrior she would like to protray herself as, she’s well, human and working in an industry that profits off of women exuding sexuality? Her defense on these pictures? They were taken on a windy day without her knowledge. As she looks straight at the camera and appears to be, y’know, posing.
More seriously, Governor Spitzer spoke of the need to effect fundamental change in the financial sector, to fix the idea that some companies can be allowed to become too big to fail, and that everything we’ve done so far has been moving deck chairs. The underlying problem of creative accounting to make you look better than you are isn’t being addressed, either. As a possible place to look for solutions to our economic and social woes, perhaps stealing the best part of the Dutch system is warranted?
The Obama administration has threatened to curtail information-sharing with the Untied Kingdom if it releases more details about a prisoner's treatment at Guantanamo Bay. Which sort of makes you wonder who’s really in charge there - the guy who says he’s for openness, or the guy who wants to bury the past.
Social Security and Medicare have been hit fairly hard by the recession, and so their supposed ends will be accelerated based solely on the idea that the aging populave will continue to draw more and there isn’t any sort of younger generation that will step into the workforce. Or no new proposals, like taxing employer-provided health care benefits as a possible revenue stream (although I suspect many conservative opinion-writers will instead see it as another prod to make us all slaves to the government by eliminating private health care, which as “everyone knows”, will never work, produce waitlines for care, if not closing doors to new people entirely, and shortchange doctors, and thus any doctors who sign on to be partners with it are only making a deal with the devil himself).
In the opinions, Mr. Neiwert points out who DHS was talking about in the much-publicized memo, and finds it a bit disconcerting that so many conservatives see themeselves as part of that role.
Mind Hacks reproduces a short column indicating that we ignore the social aspects of drinking at our peril, especially if we want to try and figure out why so many people get so stinking drunk.
The WSJ complains taht donor intent just got mauled when the Trust that Leona Helmsley set up for after her death did not respect her (legally nonbinding) mission statement for the money to go take care of dogs.
Opinionating more politically, Mr. Pruden feels that Mr. Obama is finally starting to grow up and see the world as it is, instead of trying to make his utopia into reality, although Mr. Dickson thinks the current round of cuts won't be nearly enough to make up for all the extra spending, and people who think the worst is over have another think coming, according to Mr. Kessler.
Last out, Mr. McGurn is troubled by the lack of talk on trade from the Obama administration, in contrast to Mr. Clinton's quick and authoritative insistence that trade was a part of his presidency when he took office.
Let’s play with science - starting with a parasite that takes over and controls fire ants, which is a painful proposition to anyone the swarm gets sent against, and then add on some technology, where Twitter appears to be changing the way they do serendipity, by trying to eliminate the fragmented conversation parts so that people don’t see @replies to people they also aren’t following, robots on parade at the ICRA show in Japan, more things from Google, including some fine-tuning options for your searches, more arms and defenses erected for the coming cyberwars, and some finally-serious thinking about cleaning up the debris orbiting the planet, now that a shuttle has to navigate it to catch up to the telescope.
Last out, a brassiere that helpfully tells potential partners when the wearer would like to get married. And using paper creasing to create art.
