Two days together in the media - 27-28 October 2009
Up top, for those who have children or are interested in the effects marketing has on those who do have children, The Walt Disney Company, who purchased the makers of the Baby Einstein series of videos, are offering refunds for up to four DVDs purchased as part of a settlement for a lawsuit alleging the DVDs did not increase intelligence in babies, as was claimed.
Instead, why not use something like The University of Utah's sliding scale of common objects all the way down to an atom of carbon.
Out in the world today, a Saudi journalist was sentenced to sixty lashes for her part in an episode of a program detailing boasts and frank talk about the sex lives of people in the country. We have great allies, don't we?
Not that the Middle east is the only place where such things happen. In Kenya, a priest blamed the marriage of two homosexual men in London as a failure of women to do their jobs to seduce and capture men for procreation.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his doubts about the United States' reliability as an ally, over several issues including the kerfuffle about the election fraud. On the United States side of the conflict, some of the members of the military there hope the United States stays on until they feel confident their mission is accomplished. (The article would like you to believe all the troops there want to stay until the mission is finished, but I doubt all of them believe that in their own heads.)
United Nations nuclear inspectors took a tour of the latest "secret" facility in Iran.
The United Nations is scaling back expectations of a climate change treaty, based upon the recalcitrance of several nations toward carbon reductions. For the reasons of refusal from several nations, Investor's Business Daily says the Untied States should refuse, too, so as to not waste money on what they consider to be a sham. Others have more dire warnings about such a treaty, claiming that it will establish a world government that the United States will cede control of itself to, which is a bit on the dire (and tin foil hat) side. Straddling somewhere in the middle is Mr. Stephens, who reviews a book and gives praise to people who think there might be a simple solution to the problem, if you are stupid enough to believe there is one, in his opinion.
Last for this section, the Scientologists took a big fine in France, but the court stopped short of banning them from the country altogether. Of course, since Scientology is rapidly being replaced by Fictionology, soon this will no longer be a problem.
On the domestic side of things, the government's response and distribution of H1N1 vaccinations may be used as a precursor to how the government would run all of health care, for good or for ill, depending on how it turns out. On the writing of bills, critics of the current process say there have been too many closed-door meetings and not enough transparency, including a lot of the promises made by candidate Obama. Now, some of that may be kvetching from a party that seems determined to oppose whatever happens at all costs and is looking for more hooks to display more "secret plots" or other material, but more transparency is good as a general statement.
While we still ahve the don't ask, don't tell policy, the President did sign the Matthew Shepard Act into law, adding gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability onto the list of bias crimes. Good for him, but there's still better to be done.
According to the Senate majority leader, the Senate bill going to the floor will have a public option in it, although it may be an option that states can then choose to opt out of.
The latest possible objection to the health care bills - Does the government have the constitutional authority to require everyone purchase a product or service? Well, we do require insurance to be carried on automobiles and houses, should we decide to purchase them, so one could extend that logic out to requiring someone keep their bodies in good order, since they own them.
There will be a subpoenaing of documents related to the Countrywide financial scandal, including Congresscritters, which the WSJ finds a good thing, but we all should be happy with if the investigation is thorough and spares no person from the eye or the full force of justice if they're found to have engaged in inappropriate action.
The Washington Times believes top donors to the Obama campaign are being rewarded with special sneak peeks and sessions inside the White House, including using the theater and the bowling alley. In response, The White house said most of the people being rewarded has other affiliations with the White House than being donors, many of which were longer-lasting than the contributions.
An investigation is ongoing into the issuance of tickets to non English-speaking drivers, for which the chief of police in Dallas says a federal law requiring commercial drivers to speak English was misapplied.
And last out, the previous administrator has signed on to be a speaker at a series of motivational speaking seminars...which have, in between their star speakers, several high-pressure sales attempts to get people to buy other things they will probably not need, according to the Rachel Maddow show.
In the opinions, Mr. Brooks gives his reasons for the increased opposition to health care reform in polls - it strips choice from the people and gives it to the government (a government already doing too much, they say), makes our innovators and medical professionals less important, so they won't work as hard to develop new drugs and heal people and Americans are people who believe the poor should suffer for being poor, err, people should take responsibility for their actions (as opposed to all those freeloaders who will wait until they are sick to get insurance). As an aside, that poll question referenced? The Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics Department would like a word, possibly on the end of a cluebat, with the question framers about how to avoid bias.
Mr. McGurn fires scattershot at the Obama presidency and its supporters, claiming all they do is blame Mr. Bush for their problems, instead of taking responsibility, but misses at every turn. Statements made by White House staffers and the President are either given hidden meanings or Mr. McGurn believes they are not the truth, despite, for example, the previous administration being significantly hostile to science and stem cell research. Politico aims to turn the tables and ask "What if Bush had done that?" as a way of chastising the media for being clearly in favor of Mr. Obama. Finally, Mr. Phillips says the liberals are the jackbooted thugs seeking to squash all dissent from their views, while conservatives are trying to be civil and play by the rules. Has Mr. Phillips been looking at the teabaggers and others of that ilk? They're certainly not playing civil, and they consider themselves more conservative than conservatives. The spectrum is always in place. If you want to accuse the White House of being further on the left than others, go ahead. But don't try to generalize it outward to say "All liberals are this."
Ms. Zito brandishes poll data saying the populace is not happy with their government, regardless of their political affiliation. True enough. Question now is whether or not that means the election of real change agents, or merely flipping the coin back over to another side.
Mr. Shinn says that the United States needs to committ to the long term in Afghanistan, because insurgent groups will do their best to simply wait out their opponents.
The editors of the WSJ say that the United States should attempt to influence more trade agreements in East Asia, so as to stop China from becoming the power there that dictates trade.
The WSJ is after TARP and hopes that it is closed down as swiftly as possible, because it has become an all-purpose bailout fund, instead of the limited thing it was supposed to be.
Tonight's technology: the first wind turbine ever, in 1941, 15 minutes of sensory deprivation is all you need to induce hallucinations, because the brain abhors a vacuum of stimuli, finding pathways to attack to reverse the cognitive impairment caused b sleep deprivation, meaning college students will be testing those out as much as possible during finals week, circumin found in turmeric may be deadly to cancer cells, so get a taste for some spice to toast your tumors, and an augmented reality system that lets people see as if a wall wasn't there.
Last for tonight, the esteemed Will English IV tells us how Dance Dance Revolution helped him get fit and keep his asthma in check. That, and one unfortunate juxtaposition thanks to the CNN website redesign.
Instead, why not use something like The University of Utah's sliding scale of common objects all the way down to an atom of carbon.
Out in the world today, a Saudi journalist was sentenced to sixty lashes for her part in an episode of a program detailing boasts and frank talk about the sex lives of people in the country. We have great allies, don't we?
Not that the Middle east is the only place where such things happen. In Kenya, a priest blamed the marriage of two homosexual men in London as a failure of women to do their jobs to seduce and capture men for procreation.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his doubts about the United States' reliability as an ally, over several issues including the kerfuffle about the election fraud. On the United States side of the conflict, some of the members of the military there hope the United States stays on until they feel confident their mission is accomplished. (The article would like you to believe all the troops there want to stay until the mission is finished, but I doubt all of them believe that in their own heads.)
United Nations nuclear inspectors took a tour of the latest "secret" facility in Iran.
The United Nations is scaling back expectations of a climate change treaty, based upon the recalcitrance of several nations toward carbon reductions. For the reasons of refusal from several nations, Investor's Business Daily says the Untied States should refuse, too, so as to not waste money on what they consider to be a sham. Others have more dire warnings about such a treaty, claiming that it will establish a world government that the United States will cede control of itself to, which is a bit on the dire (and tin foil hat) side. Straddling somewhere in the middle is Mr. Stephens, who reviews a book and gives praise to people who think there might be a simple solution to the problem, if you are stupid enough to believe there is one, in his opinion.
Last for this section, the Scientologists took a big fine in France, but the court stopped short of banning them from the country altogether. Of course, since Scientology is rapidly being replaced by Fictionology, soon this will no longer be a problem.
On the domestic side of things, the government's response and distribution of H1N1 vaccinations may be used as a precursor to how the government would run all of health care, for good or for ill, depending on how it turns out. On the writing of bills, critics of the current process say there have been too many closed-door meetings and not enough transparency, including a lot of the promises made by candidate Obama. Now, some of that may be kvetching from a party that seems determined to oppose whatever happens at all costs and is looking for more hooks to display more "secret plots" or other material, but more transparency is good as a general statement.
While we still ahve the don't ask, don't tell policy, the President did sign the Matthew Shepard Act into law, adding gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability onto the list of bias crimes. Good for him, but there's still better to be done.
According to the Senate majority leader, the Senate bill going to the floor will have a public option in it, although it may be an option that states can then choose to opt out of.
The latest possible objection to the health care bills - Does the government have the constitutional authority to require everyone purchase a product or service? Well, we do require insurance to be carried on automobiles and houses, should we decide to purchase them, so one could extend that logic out to requiring someone keep their bodies in good order, since they own them.
There will be a subpoenaing of documents related to the Countrywide financial scandal, including Congresscritters, which the WSJ finds a good thing, but we all should be happy with if the investigation is thorough and spares no person from the eye or the full force of justice if they're found to have engaged in inappropriate action.
The Washington Times believes top donors to the Obama campaign are being rewarded with special sneak peeks and sessions inside the White House, including using the theater and the bowling alley. In response, The White house said most of the people being rewarded has other affiliations with the White House than being donors, many of which were longer-lasting than the contributions.
An investigation is ongoing into the issuance of tickets to non English-speaking drivers, for which the chief of police in Dallas says a federal law requiring commercial drivers to speak English was misapplied.
And last out, the previous administrator has signed on to be a speaker at a series of motivational speaking seminars...which have, in between their star speakers, several high-pressure sales attempts to get people to buy other things they will probably not need, according to the Rachel Maddow show.
In the opinions, Mr. Brooks gives his reasons for the increased opposition to health care reform in polls - it strips choice from the people and gives it to the government (a government already doing too much, they say), makes our innovators and medical professionals less important, so they won't work as hard to develop new drugs and heal people and Americans are people who believe the poor should suffer for being poor, err, people should take responsibility for their actions (as opposed to all those freeloaders who will wait until they are sick to get insurance). As an aside, that poll question referenced? The Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics Department would like a word, possibly on the end of a cluebat, with the question framers about how to avoid bias.
Mr. McGurn fires scattershot at the Obama presidency and its supporters, claiming all they do is blame Mr. Bush for their problems, instead of taking responsibility, but misses at every turn. Statements made by White House staffers and the President are either given hidden meanings or Mr. McGurn believes they are not the truth, despite, for example, the previous administration being significantly hostile to science and stem cell research. Politico aims to turn the tables and ask "What if Bush had done that?" as a way of chastising the media for being clearly in favor of Mr. Obama. Finally, Mr. Phillips says the liberals are the jackbooted thugs seeking to squash all dissent from their views, while conservatives are trying to be civil and play by the rules. Has Mr. Phillips been looking at the teabaggers and others of that ilk? They're certainly not playing civil, and they consider themselves more conservative than conservatives. The spectrum is always in place. If you want to accuse the White House of being further on the left than others, go ahead. But don't try to generalize it outward to say "All liberals are this."
Ms. Zito brandishes poll data saying the populace is not happy with their government, regardless of their political affiliation. True enough. Question now is whether or not that means the election of real change agents, or merely flipping the coin back over to another side.
Mr. Shinn says that the United States needs to committ to the long term in Afghanistan, because insurgent groups will do their best to simply wait out their opponents.
The editors of the WSJ say that the United States should attempt to influence more trade agreements in East Asia, so as to stop China from becoming the power there that dictates trade.
The WSJ is after TARP and hopes that it is closed down as swiftly as possible, because it has become an all-purpose bailout fund, instead of the limited thing it was supposed to be.
Tonight's technology: the first wind turbine ever, in 1941, 15 minutes of sensory deprivation is all you need to induce hallucinations, because the brain abhors a vacuum of stimuli, finding pathways to attack to reverse the cognitive impairment caused b sleep deprivation, meaning college students will be testing those out as much as possible during finals week, circumin found in turmeric may be deadly to cancer cells, so get a taste for some spice to toast your tumors, and an augmented reality system that lets people see as if a wall wasn't there.
Last for tonight, the esteemed Will English IV tells us how Dance Dance Revolution helped him get fit and keep his asthma in check. That, and one unfortunate juxtaposition thanks to the CNN website redesign.