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Another week begins - 20 July 2009
Jul. 21st, 2009 12:32 amUp top, dead men make great movies, it appears. There are always so many of them to choose from. Speaking of, Frank McCourt, author of "Angela's Ashes", dies at 78 years. And eulogizing them well, without the movies, ddjango despairs that journalism will never be like it was with Cronkite.
Outside the United States, a Canadian comic book store owner was accused of voyeurism after allegedly using a hidden camera to observe what went on in the women's washroom.
A United States soldier captured by Afghan militants appears in a video by those militants, the Iraqis are making no bones about how strictly they want the status of forces agreement enforced, as well as making successes in their own right regarding the safety of pilgrims, and a reminder and warning from Iran that the country is not really democratic when it comes to leadership.
Domestically, the R5 Central crew (home of podcasting at its finest...maybe) has found a sign that indicates cranky people and censors ahead.
The birther lawsuit brought by the volunteer about the President's status as commander-in-chief has been joined by two others. As I said when this first came out, if there was any doubt about the truth of the then-Senator’s birth certificate, it should have come out in the findings the Democratic Party would have done on him in case he won the nomination. Or even before he declared as a candidate. The apparatus would not be so stupid as to put up a candidate about whom legitimate concerns over his brithplace could be made. This does not, however, stop people from confronting others about it, including moderate elected representatives. To his credit, one of the Republican representatives from Delaware stood the sane ground, insisting that the President was indeed a natural-born citizen of the United States when confronted by a birther waving a certificate around. Unfortunately, he was addressing a crowd that sided with the birther, not the representative.
Regarding health care, the governors of several states worried health care reform might become an unfunded mandate to the states, which would tax their already strained revenues even further.
And last out before opinions, Vanity Fair's crack team of editors take the red, green, and blue pens to Sarah Palin's resignation speech, and what comes out the other side is both an endorsement of professional line-level editing and a great picture of how much we say off-the-cuff really isn’t important to what we want to say.
Welcome to opinions. Mr. Brown demonstrates his head is firmly attached by talking about how standardized test scores and grades cannot predict successes in life, using Sotomayor and Thomas as examples of how affirmative action can get someone to a spot, and then their effort does the rest in making them great, but also how the presidential nominees of 2004 had Cs and Ds at their respective undergraduates, meaning that legacy programs may be better at admitting the unqualified than any affirmative action program does. The other problem with trying to use grades, where we agree with the WSJ’s complaint, although not with their conclusion, is the redefinition of standards downward and the alteration of tests from things that test to things that have to be passed to maintain funding. I don’t believe that Charter Schools and Vouchers For All! is the right solution to the problem. However, if they wanted to, public schools could steal the great ideas out of them, like small class sizes allowing for more individual instruction, and use them as catalysts for reform.
Thinking economically, Mr. Payne, commenting for the Detroit News, accuses the government of having a very tight grip on GM and forcing it to do things that are highly unprofitable, based on market conditions.
When it comes to military spending, Mr. Lehman says there's far too much contractor waste, lack of competition, and no clear oversight, so that costs have gone way up past what they should be.
And in health care, the WSJ wonders why the Senators and politicos aren't ready to jump on board and put themselves on the public option plan, because if it’s supposed to be good enough for everyone, surely it’s good enough for the politicians? After that, the standard talking points about rationed care, cost-cutting measures, and people all being unceremoniously dumped, either by their employers, or because the government plan squeezes out real competition, onto the public option payroll. Which, of course, while giving inches to certain people,. will end up taking miles away from them before we're all done.
Making scathing remarks about the entire process, Mr. Pruden calls Mr. Franken a pornographer and decries the entire process of his eelction as criminal, with easy acceptance of fraud and other improprieties. Nice bronze quiche you have there, sir.
Up at the silver level, the combination of a group that believes an upcoming FEMA exercise is really an excuse to round up gun-owning Americans and kill them and the group that continues to whore out the figure they supposedly follow in their Pharisee-like shouting on the street corners.
However, you can’t beat Bill’O tonight. So, here’s the set-up line - Ideologue complains about the presence of ideologues on he other side, and takes issue with the placement of the byline at the end of the article, so that you have to read the piece, thinking it’s news, before finding out that someone not affiliated with Newsweek wrote it. I think he’s more chuffed that this same article indicated he and Sarah Palin were part of the leadership group of some not-too-bright conservatives. This was befre he then proved why people might think about that by repeating all the talking points about what the Administration is supposedly doing, especially “a major opportunity to knock out Judeo-Christian traditions, replacing them with a secular philosophy.” Last: Uh, Bill, I always thought Newsweek was an opinion magazine that had lots of newsworthy content in it. Or rather, if you had to wait to the end and then go look up the author before you could figure out what you were reading was an opinion column, what does that say about your distinguishing faculties?
In technology, one way of making sure your data is warrantlessly searched at a border - you encrypt the drive, give a highly random key to someone you trust, and before you come back in the country, remove the one you would normally use to decrypt, leaving only the random key. Which you don’t have, and couldn’t say what it is.
Mr. Aldrin continued his call for a manned mission to Mars as the next step for the space program, rather than merely attemtping to go back to Luna.
The NAACP is launching a mobile-friendly website that will make it easier for people to report police abuse and instances of "X While Black" (or other minority) as it happens.
A new study in Lancet suggests that Africa is not doing enough to help stop spread HIV through homosexual sex, especially gay men, because of cultural denigrations and a lack of information sent at homosexual men telling them the truths about HIV and its spread.
The improper disposal of compact fluorescent light bulbs could create mercury hazards for disposal sites and other areas, and the government has not been good about providing direction on proper disposal thereof. This creates problems when there are also mandates to use the CFLs in place of standard incandescent bulbs.
Elsewhere, An analyst suggests that solar power will be on cost with other sources in six years, the biomass-eating robot is not carnivorous, we're told, the wisdom of the crowds works best when focused on a task with incentives to attract the best, an eye telescope to help those with macular degeneration, attempting to find the cause of why people would want to ampuate their own limbs, and terhertz cameras getting potentially cheaper and smaller. Oh, and did we mention that monkeys (and probably people) want information about the future, firing the same neurons that would indicate, say, a big drink of water was forthcoming.
Last for tonight, Dangerously Fun, cataloging making several things that could be hazardous, but all have great effect.
Outside the United States, a Canadian comic book store owner was accused of voyeurism after allegedly using a hidden camera to observe what went on in the women's washroom.
A United States soldier captured by Afghan militants appears in a video by those militants, the Iraqis are making no bones about how strictly they want the status of forces agreement enforced, as well as making successes in their own right regarding the safety of pilgrims, and a reminder and warning from Iran that the country is not really democratic when it comes to leadership.
Domestically, the R5 Central crew (home of podcasting at its finest...maybe) has found a sign that indicates cranky people and censors ahead.
The birther lawsuit brought by the volunteer about the President's status as commander-in-chief has been joined by two others. As I said when this first came out, if there was any doubt about the truth of the then-Senator’s birth certificate, it should have come out in the findings the Democratic Party would have done on him in case he won the nomination. Or even before he declared as a candidate. The apparatus would not be so stupid as to put up a candidate about whom legitimate concerns over his brithplace could be made. This does not, however, stop people from confronting others about it, including moderate elected representatives. To his credit, one of the Republican representatives from Delaware stood the sane ground, insisting that the President was indeed a natural-born citizen of the United States when confronted by a birther waving a certificate around. Unfortunately, he was addressing a crowd that sided with the birther, not the representative.
Regarding health care, the governors of several states worried health care reform might become an unfunded mandate to the states, which would tax their already strained revenues even further.
And last out before opinions, Vanity Fair's crack team of editors take the red, green, and blue pens to Sarah Palin's resignation speech, and what comes out the other side is both an endorsement of professional line-level editing and a great picture of how much we say off-the-cuff really isn’t important to what we want to say.
Welcome to opinions. Mr. Brown demonstrates his head is firmly attached by talking about how standardized test scores and grades cannot predict successes in life, using Sotomayor and Thomas as examples of how affirmative action can get someone to a spot, and then their effort does the rest in making them great, but also how the presidential nominees of 2004 had Cs and Ds at their respective undergraduates, meaning that legacy programs may be better at admitting the unqualified than any affirmative action program does. The other problem with trying to use grades, where we agree with the WSJ’s complaint, although not with their conclusion, is the redefinition of standards downward and the alteration of tests from things that test to things that have to be passed to maintain funding. I don’t believe that Charter Schools and Vouchers For All! is the right solution to the problem. However, if they wanted to, public schools could steal the great ideas out of them, like small class sizes allowing for more individual instruction, and use them as catalysts for reform.
Thinking economically, Mr. Payne, commenting for the Detroit News, accuses the government of having a very tight grip on GM and forcing it to do things that are highly unprofitable, based on market conditions.
When it comes to military spending, Mr. Lehman says there's far too much contractor waste, lack of competition, and no clear oversight, so that costs have gone way up past what they should be.
And in health care, the WSJ wonders why the Senators and politicos aren't ready to jump on board and put themselves on the public option plan, because if it’s supposed to be good enough for everyone, surely it’s good enough for the politicians? After that, the standard talking points about rationed care, cost-cutting measures, and people all being unceremoniously dumped, either by their employers, or because the government plan squeezes out real competition, onto the public option payroll. Which, of course, while giving inches to certain people,. will end up taking miles away from them before we're all done.
Making scathing remarks about the entire process, Mr. Pruden calls Mr. Franken a pornographer and decries the entire process of his eelction as criminal, with easy acceptance of fraud and other improprieties. Nice bronze quiche you have there, sir.
Up at the silver level, the combination of a group that believes an upcoming FEMA exercise is really an excuse to round up gun-owning Americans and kill them and the group that continues to whore out the figure they supposedly follow in their Pharisee-like shouting on the street corners.
However, you can’t beat Bill’O tonight. So, here’s the set-up line - Ideologue complains about the presence of ideologues on he other side, and takes issue with the placement of the byline at the end of the article, so that you have to read the piece, thinking it’s news, before finding out that someone not affiliated with Newsweek wrote it. I think he’s more chuffed that this same article indicated he and Sarah Palin were part of the leadership group of some not-too-bright conservatives. This was befre he then proved why people might think about that by repeating all the talking points about what the Administration is supposedly doing, especially “a major opportunity to knock out Judeo-Christian traditions, replacing them with a secular philosophy.” Last: Uh, Bill, I always thought Newsweek was an opinion magazine that had lots of newsworthy content in it. Or rather, if you had to wait to the end and then go look up the author before you could figure out what you were reading was an opinion column, what does that say about your distinguishing faculties?
In technology, one way of making sure your data is warrantlessly searched at a border - you encrypt the drive, give a highly random key to someone you trust, and before you come back in the country, remove the one you would normally use to decrypt, leaving only the random key. Which you don’t have, and couldn’t say what it is.
Mr. Aldrin continued his call for a manned mission to Mars as the next step for the space program, rather than merely attemtping to go back to Luna.
The NAACP is launching a mobile-friendly website that will make it easier for people to report police abuse and instances of "X While Black" (or other minority) as it happens.
A new study in Lancet suggests that Africa is not doing enough to help stop spread HIV through homosexual sex, especially gay men, because of cultural denigrations and a lack of information sent at homosexual men telling them the truths about HIV and its spread.
The improper disposal of compact fluorescent light bulbs could create mercury hazards for disposal sites and other areas, and the government has not been good about providing direction on proper disposal thereof. This creates problems when there are also mandates to use the CFLs in place of standard incandescent bulbs.
Elsewhere, An analyst suggests that solar power will be on cost with other sources in six years, the biomass-eating robot is not carnivorous, we're told, the wisdom of the crowds works best when focused on a task with incentives to attract the best, an eye telescope to help those with macular degeneration, attempting to find the cause of why people would want to ampuate their own limbs, and terhertz cameras getting potentially cheaper and smaller. Oh, and did we mention that monkeys (and probably people) want information about the future, firing the same neurons that would indicate, say, a big drink of water was forthcoming.
Last for tonight, Dangerously Fun, cataloging making several things that could be hazardous, but all have great effect.
