The rest is just stuff, and possibly nonsense. - 29 July 2009

Up top, in the library world of Scotland, a user is nearing borrowing their 25,000th book, which could be a record for the country. Six books a week to start, then doubled recently. Wow.

Furthermore, the women are apparently getting more beautiful over the generations, having more children and more daughters likely to inherit the traits we consider beautiful, while less-attractive men are having fewer children, meaning their genes aren’t being passed on. So, the women are getting more beautiful, but heavens help you if you aren’t cute yourself. Thfffffft.

Out in the world, The United States and its chief creditor continued to express their desire to keep the U.S. dollar stable and powerful through the recession, while also continuing their stimulus package. Not that it seems to be doing much - Mr. Lam says msot of the Chinese populous isn's feeling any stimulus at all.

The hunt is on for a suspected terrorist from North Carolina who may be in Pakistan. Of course, the thing that confuses a lot of people about him is that he sure didn't look or act like a terrorist, so he was good about maintaining his cover and appearing nonthreatening. There’s a point about how you can’t spot a terrorist by his skin color or dress in here, I’m sure. Instead, we should be more concerned about an opposition that is willing to kindap children and then use them as bombs. Mr. West expresses his optimism, though, that the situation in Afghanistan can be resolved successfully.

Hilarity by itself - apparently the good folks at Fox News, who seem to have power over whether or not a Congresscritter is actually part of the Republican Party, have disavowed the progress made in Iraq in getting troops out so much that they've declared that the territory once known as Iraq is now a second state of Egypt.

Domestically, in an attempt to help take the lash to lawmakers lagging on health care reform, the President spoke of the experiences of his parents and grandparents fighting insurance companies, also using them as examples why living wills and advance medical directives are good things to have. He also got to dismiss fears that under a public option, a government bureaucrat will visit all the elderly and inform them they must choose how they want to die a confusion over advance medical directives, but also playing into the Republican talking point that a public option means the elderly will be forced into signing end of life directives favoring their own death or receive substandard care or no care at all if a government functionary decides they aren’t worth the cost.

On that issue, Jon Stewart proves why he’s the most trusted man in news by getting a top Republican strategist to admit that the United States can do excellent government-run health care and has been doing so for years - through the VA. So, if it works for them, wouldn’t that make a nice model to emulate for the rest of us in the public option, or as a single-payer system?

And speaking of, if you asked actual Canadians about their health care system, you might find most of them would rather keep theirs than take on ours, despite the faults and flaws the system there has.

The General has breaking news - namely, according to the method proposed by the Birthers regarding President Obama, Jesus of Nazareth was clearly Jewish, born a Jew, and thus couldn't be the son of a Christian God.

Elsewhere, a Pentagon analyst who confessed to spying for Israel indicated he was a double agent for the FBI, gathering information on the pro-Israel lobby in the United States bdefore the Bureau threw him under the bus.

Colin Powell had mild criticism of how the Gates matter was handled, not excusing Gates for his actions, but also pointing out that even he experienced racial profiling at an airport because of his skin color. He mentioned the best thing to do is “suck it up” - perhaps at the point of incident, because someone looking for an excuse will find one, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a complaint about it afterward and see if you can’t find a pattern that can be addressed. Especially now that the police have multiple-shot stun guns.

Last out before the opinions, the “Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures” file earns another entry - a driver who shot a bicyclist in the head because the driver felt the cyclist was endangering his child by riding on a busy road.

Going forth on our opinions, The Slacktivist thinks the birther conspiracy might be the way that journalists can get back to doing their job - telling the truth, rather than scurrying to find some opposing viepoint and presenting the two as equally true, because the birthers are so clearly false and crazy that it’s very easy for journalists to tell the truth and say the birthers are wrong and liars. Despite all sorts of other prominent persons (including Lou Dobbs) who are willing to let such a conspiracy have more legs than it deserves.

The WSJ complains that the taxpayers are being bitten when the government takes on Delphi pension plans (and are bitter that the UAW parts of those pensions are still being guaranteed fully by GM, when other Delphi people may find themselves with sharp reductions).

Mr. Owens criticizes the President's role in Israel, especially in comparison to how hands-off he's being in Iran.

The WSJ is less bitter and more suggestion-filled at ways of getting environmental help to developing nations without having to resort to carbon caps or the penalties of trade protection in the form of carbon taxes in the developed world, suggesting that the United States listen to India when they express concerns about the impact of both of those ideas.

Ms. Noonan thinks that the health care bill will proabbly be considered bad because the President tried to push it through at the wrong time, misreading the nation’s concerns about government in their lives, the cost (and the economic recession), and the way that the law is a big club, not a fine-point scalpel. I heard a citation made on Countdown last night indicating some 70+% of the populace supports the public option, though, so if both of them are right, the nation is in a deeply conflicted place at the moment.

ddjango reminds us that the military and government do all sorts of things that violate ethics and laws in the name of national security and under several clouds of secrecy so that people don't even know when all those laws are bing violated, as well as the distinct possiblity that citizens have been used for experiments without their knowledge or consent.

In the running for our post-specific dishonorings, a tweet has sparked a defamation lawsuit, which places itself on the list almost instantly because the people who reacted to it went straight for the lawsuit without passing Go or collecting $200. Nothing known yet whether the person making the tweet can prove that they were speaking the truth, which would exempt them from defamation, if I recall correctly, but I guess this is another thing - more people than you think are seeing what you write on the Web.

Mr. Kersey and Mr. Van Beek go straight to blaming unions and the lack of charter schools as to why Detroit school district is facing possible bankruptcy filings, the sole causes of “violence, a shrinking student body, and graduating just one out of every four students who enter the ninth grade on time” along with poor performance on the proficiency exam. Because it’s always the union’s fault and competition is needed so that parents students have a choice to be stuck in governemnt schooling or scrape together enough to afford charter or private schooling. It has nothing to do at all with Detroit and the wider Michigan economy, the lack of investment in the city, the continued difficulties with suburbian white flight and then hiring gates and guards to versus downtown, et cetera, et cetera.

In technology, trying to preserve the original moonwalk suits and lunar lander, the declassification and release of images that show how much Arctic ice has retreated over the years, concerns that terrorists may be able to trigger a nuclear attack, not by gaining launch controls, but by engineering the inputs of information to get to the desired attack conclusion, refining designs that will let sunlight drive a Stirling engine to generate electricity, as well as trying to find methods of using organic components to make efficient photovoltaics, and using nanoparticles with simple logic capabilities to ensure drug delivery happens only in the right area.

Last for tonight, nerd merit badges, so you can proudly display your achievements. Like painting a picture of your favorite Duck Hunt. Or being the genius that makes miniature objects for dollhouses that are very tiny. And very cute.

Almost through another of our months - 30 July 2009

Greetings. Up top, stories of captured miniature UFOs, Yellow-Yellow, who is smarter than the average bear and can break into supposedly bear-proof food containers, and comics about housepets with libertarian viewpoints.

In the world, Kurdish opposition parties gained in elections, but not enough to unseat the ruling powers in the Kurdish areas of Iraq. Compared to their neighbors, Iraq is calm and quiet. Iran, on the other hand, braces for more protestors mourning the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, even though many more may be staying home in fear of Basij and the Revolutionary Guard.

Domestically, let’s play with the health care thing, where the Republicans and the health care industry have teamed up to stop or water down health care reform, with support from the very rich, who will only be mildly inconvenienced, if that, should surtaxes pass, intent on focusing the debate on teh least consequential part, the short-term cost and utilizing the media to make sure that the real reformers are shut out or marginalized.

After all that, the military is planning on teams to assist civilian authorities in case of an H1N1 outbreak.

And, because the “Stupid, Supid Congresscritters” file isn’t already full enough, Representative Pete Sessions, who hates earmarks, earmarked money to a corporation to do dirigible research - something they had never done before - claiming they were in Dallas when they were really headquartered in Chicago. Admittedly, the anti-earmark stance happened after this particular one went through, but you really can’t make this stuff up.

In the opinions, Ms. Walsh gives us an explanation why the United States hasn't hit the social-democratic stride - there are too many people willing and able to exploit the cultural and racial differences between subgroups of the populace to prevent those subgroups from uniting under one banner for their causes - and that extends to the racial attacks and the birther claims against Barack Obama.

Amanada Marcotte may have the best opinion written today on the Gates matter - a reminder that we shouldn't have to make the same calculations about the police that we would with armed criminals, which she quoted from Digsby, making the point initially and talking about some of the racial components, as well as the authoritarian trend in police actions and the justifications for those actions. Despite the reports that keep coming out where the police are behaving exactly like that and then hiding behind their badge, gun, and authority, to make sure they don’t get punished for it, because you were clearly asking for it. Like women are asking for it when they get raped. Or how Job's friends must have felt like he was asking for the big smiting from God.

If you want to track the trend of the Obama opinion, Gallup offers a Flash utility to see all the positive and negative from day to day.

Elsewhere, Mr. Bihde says that the Fed should be broken up, because it hasn't been doing the job it was tasked to do, or any of the additional tasks given to it over time. The Fed was in another opinion, one where the WSJ says the Fed should listen to the Chinese when they make noises about currency worries.

The WSJ is keeping an eye on a suit in Pennsylvania that will decide whether the government can hire law firms to prosecute for them if those firms have made significant financial contributions to re-election campaigns and organizations.

The current president of Honduras defends the decision and the method of removing Mr. Zelaya, the previous president.

On health care, "Mr. Dalrymple" says that universal health care is bad - Britain is the perfect example, both of having universal health care and of the incompetence and stupidity of government running such. He also says anyone saying that there’s a right to health care is mistaken. The WSJ repeats a conservative talking point that the flexibility of doctor decisions for treatment will soon be replaced by inflexible bureaucratic decisions. Mr. Frank, to round us out, suggests that the Gates comment is the perfect trap to draw the people's attention away from forcing through excellent health care reform. Always nice to have a sane voice, although his commentary on how “elitism” always works against liberals seems sketchy - mostly because at some point, the people do want “elites” in charge.

Playing for quiche, Mr. Bolton is still declaring that Israel is going to attack Iran, and that nobody should be surprised when it happens, because the United States has adopted the weak and ineffective strategy toward dissuading Iran’s nuclear interests.

In the middle, I have to say I predicted this in my head, said it aloud to nobody in particular, but may not have blogged about it, but I’m so not surprised that American beer manufacturers are nonplussed that the beer summit at the White House features precisely zero beer that is owned by an American company. It’s one of those things you saw coming, and wished wouldn’t happen, but it did anyway. *sigh*

On top, The WSJ swings for the fences, trying to tie together the corruption of one Democrat evading his taxes as an indication as to why people should vote against higher taxes. Unfortunately, much like Casey, while presenting their case, the WSJ strikes out on the bigger issue - there’s more than just the Congresscritters evading their taxes. After all, by their own admission, the higher taxes are, the more rich people will cheat on them to avoid paying their full value. So, while it is scandalous that the Congresscritter would dodge paying his fair share, too, you cannot then turn around and not be scandalized by all the other people, liberals and conservatives alike, that are also dodging paying theirs. Who else isn’t paying up, WSJ? Can you compile a nice list of all the rich people who should be paying massive taxes but manage to pay pennies, if any at all?

In technology, AI assistants intending to be less irritating than Clippy, the possibility that an ice age helped Hume brain size grow, trying to figure out the story behind 51 headless and naked Vikings buried in England,

Last for tonight, good-looking animals in good-looking photographs. The lizard mohawk is excellent. If you would like something more abstract, try Chapter 1: The Discovery.

If, instead, you are looking for a laugh, e-mails (and more) from Crazy People will probably hit the sweet spot.