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Good morning, people who make us smile. Do you all have your happiness hats attached, and you're not feeling the digging of the spine into your heads? Good, let's begin. Err, after you turn your clock back, that is. And deal with your lead generation scams that never say you're going to pay out at the end of their "free" or in-game currency rewarded test.
The American Library Association and Safeway are teaming up to produce ceral boxes with infoblurbs about libraries on the back. So library usage for the healthy mind, breakfast cereal for the healthy body? I dunno, I think we should be on the backs of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs for maximum expsoure. Well, either that, or we should find the witches who are supposedly hexing all the Halloween candy and ask them to hex the people into coming in and getting a library card or something.
Pakistan suffers another car bombing, confirmed deaths are over 100. A question to those with better historical memory than I - until we were actively involved in regions like these, did we devote nearly as much ink and e-ink to the turmoils of the area?
Afghanistan's first runner up in the most recent elections has dropped out of the runoff in protest over perceived corruption in the upcoming vote.
A presentation to the United Nations suggests that the United States's practice of using unmanned aerial vehicles to attack targets may be in violation of international law against summary executions.
The standoff in Honduras comes to a close with a unity government that will operate until elections in January.
The United Kingdom's chief drug adviser is calling for a re-ranking of drugs, one that would make alcohol more dangerous that cannabis or E.
Finally, The United States will be lifting a travel ban on persons who have HIV/AIDS.
In domestic news, Hey, look! The economy went up! Won't be feeling that for a while, though. What we may be feeling, however, is increased pressure on corporations to stay honest and not look the other way on irregularities or generate irregularities in the first place.
Elsewhere in the economy, The White House also responded to criticism claiming the Cash for Clunkers Program cost the taxpayers $24,000 per car.
Also, The House health care reform bill is currently 1,990 pages. Question is, does it actually create reform? Or will it just cost significant amounts of money without achieving significant ends?
A Florida man is suing on religious discrimination grounds after he was dismissed from Home Depot for wearing a button that said "One Nation Under God", in violation of the company's policy that only corporate-approved buttons may be worn on employee uniforms. Probably why there is a policy like that - to make it very hard for someone to sue they were dismissed under protected grounds.
the Republican candidate for a special election for Congress has ragequit because far too many people were accusing her of not being conservative enough to be a Republican, highlighting just how much power the very conservative faction has in the party right now, and possibly sending a warning to the major parties that they might have to start competing for the people they thought were part of their base.
President Obama did something his predecessor did not - he made a trip to Dover Air Force Base to salute and observe the return of fallen soldiers on their way to their final resting place. For which at least one Cheney criticized him for politicizing the fallen. (And some of the comment squad there thinks it's a cheap photo-op.) The previous administration did meet privately with families of the war dead, however, so if he was trying to ignore the consequences of the war, he didn't completely succeed.
Care and treatment for H1N1 may be so expensive that even the insured run up against the lifetime maximum of their insurance plans, after which the bills continue to mount, without any insurance plan coverage and without any other insurance plan being willing to cover them for their pre-existing condition, no doubt. This makese the bill coming to the floors pretty important, and Mr. Krugman says we should go with what appears, even if it isn't the most perfect thing, and centrists still sitting the fence or even opposing it should take a hard look at why they oppose it and make sure they aren't opposing it for phantom reasons. As the matter is, so long as Americans continue to value destruction of life over prolonging it, health care reform will continue to be an uphill fight.
A Presidential appointment of ambassador to Spain is being held up by Senator Grassley over a tangentially-related matter regarding the firing of a watchdog. There are really two stories in here - one about the use of holding up an appointment to force the administration's hand on something else entirely, which smacks of dirty pool, and the continued references by the Times article to how much money the nominee gave to the Obama campaign, with the implications that this is a bad practice and should be stopped. It would be nice if Senator Grassley would either give a better reason for his hold than the nominee's support of the firing, and that the Times continues to keep its contribution-reward story in the article it wrote.
The Senate Republicans release a list of ten stimulus-funded projects they think are very silly, while ignoring all the serious and useful ones. Furthermore, some of those I can see as having very real scientific use, like the one looking for radioactive rabbit droppings. They'll tell you pretty easily about the levels of contamination in an area.
Finally, the President issued an executive order resotring many of the powers and oversight capabilities of the Intelligence Oversight Board, rolling back weakening changes the previous administrator made.
In the opinions, some interesting thoughts, via Mr. Gorbachev, from Mr. George H.W. Bush, calling the saint of Republicanism, Ronald Reagan, "extreme" and that he was supported by "blockheads". I guess we're seeing more now that the Republicans were a coalition of diverse people coming together than a singly unified idological group. Vanity Fair runs a piece "written" by Levi Johnston showcasing the dysfunction of the Pailn family, and especially the matriarch of that group.
Mr. Jenkins, Jr. starts off with the belief that the government is betting all it can that spending money left and right is what will bring us out of the recession, aligning his distate for both any sort of outrage that bankers are giving the free money they got to pay executive bonuses and for the helath care reform plan that is currently being debated, and suggesting things like raising the retirement age and instituting a flat tax are the things we need. The WSJ takes up the attack on health care, citing a recent WellPoint (an insurance company) study that modeled their own data and concluded (naturally) that insurance premiums would go way up under the Senate Finance bill, and then praise Joe Lieberman for his willingness to defect from the Democratic caucus in support of a filibuster.
Far further out on the fringe, Mr. Sowell offers his opinion that the President is setting out to become a dictator, through the usage of appointed, unelected "czars" that praise dictators, (whom, if it weren't for the Opposition Party Network, would still be stealthily achieving their agenda, unnoticed) the indoctrination of schoolchildren into doing assignments praising the president and into sexual practices that are contrary to the values of what "most" Americans think, and passing big, long bills quickly. (And, of course, all the people the President associated with earlier on in life. He's rewarding them, too.) Then there's the second part, where he accuses the President of making the same mistakes that let Hitler come to power, things like pleasing your enemies by angering your friends, and making America unreliable, the people of letting him do it without strenuous protest.
Last in opinions, Mr. Hawkins details his messages for "elite" Republicans, explaining to them that their base has gone away from them and they must become more teabagger-like if they wish to stay in office, with a focus on staying ideologically pure and parroting whatever it is their base throws at them, without checking first to see if it has brains to it. Then again, considering at 14% of a surveyed populace thought Fox News was mostly liberal, there may not be hope for certain segments of the conservative base.
In technologies, stem cells have been transformed into the precursors to sperm and egg cells, a camera can capture the action of a neuron firing, a computing interface that uses muscle movement in the hands and arms to create gestural interaction, attemtping to build glaciers to replace the ones melting, cultures with collectivist orientations tend away from depression, an iPhone app the purports to translate between spoken Spanish and English, and DARPA wants to test how well people use their networks to solve time-critical problems that are large-scope, by spotting red balloons scattered across the nation. In a two-week timeframe.
Last for tonight, a town-sized illusion of circles
Oh, and one other thing - video games have been doing a lot of pandering to an ubermacho stereotype lately...could we please not do that? There are a freaking boatload of gamers who are not male, and even more who think the idea of machismo and jerkishness is a quick trip to the banninator. After all, we have plenty of exampled of jerkishness, and when laid out and illustrated, they drive the point home even more than the text itself.
The American Library Association and Safeway are teaming up to produce ceral boxes with infoblurbs about libraries on the back. So library usage for the healthy mind, breakfast cereal for the healthy body? I dunno, I think we should be on the backs of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs for maximum expsoure. Well, either that, or we should find the witches who are supposedly hexing all the Halloween candy and ask them to hex the people into coming in and getting a library card or something.
Pakistan suffers another car bombing, confirmed deaths are over 100. A question to those with better historical memory than I - until we were actively involved in regions like these, did we devote nearly as much ink and e-ink to the turmoils of the area?
Afghanistan's first runner up in the most recent elections has dropped out of the runoff in protest over perceived corruption in the upcoming vote.
A presentation to the United Nations suggests that the United States's practice of using unmanned aerial vehicles to attack targets may be in violation of international law against summary executions.
The standoff in Honduras comes to a close with a unity government that will operate until elections in January.
The United Kingdom's chief drug adviser is calling for a re-ranking of drugs, one that would make alcohol more dangerous that cannabis or E.
Finally, The United States will be lifting a travel ban on persons who have HIV/AIDS.
In domestic news, Hey, look! The economy went up! Won't be feeling that for a while, though. What we may be feeling, however, is increased pressure on corporations to stay honest and not look the other way on irregularities or generate irregularities in the first place.
Elsewhere in the economy, The White House also responded to criticism claiming the Cash for Clunkers Program cost the taxpayers $24,000 per car.
Also, The House health care reform bill is currently 1,990 pages. Question is, does it actually create reform? Or will it just cost significant amounts of money without achieving significant ends?
A Florida man is suing on religious discrimination grounds after he was dismissed from Home Depot for wearing a button that said "One Nation Under God", in violation of the company's policy that only corporate-approved buttons may be worn on employee uniforms. Probably why there is a policy like that - to make it very hard for someone to sue they were dismissed under protected grounds.
the Republican candidate for a special election for Congress has ragequit because far too many people were accusing her of not being conservative enough to be a Republican, highlighting just how much power the very conservative faction has in the party right now, and possibly sending a warning to the major parties that they might have to start competing for the people they thought were part of their base.
President Obama did something his predecessor did not - he made a trip to Dover Air Force Base to salute and observe the return of fallen soldiers on their way to their final resting place. For which at least one Cheney criticized him for politicizing the fallen. (And some of the comment squad there thinks it's a cheap photo-op.) The previous administration did meet privately with families of the war dead, however, so if he was trying to ignore the consequences of the war, he didn't completely succeed.
Care and treatment for H1N1 may be so expensive that even the insured run up against the lifetime maximum of their insurance plans, after which the bills continue to mount, without any insurance plan coverage and without any other insurance plan being willing to cover them for their pre-existing condition, no doubt. This makese the bill coming to the floors pretty important, and Mr. Krugman says we should go with what appears, even if it isn't the most perfect thing, and centrists still sitting the fence or even opposing it should take a hard look at why they oppose it and make sure they aren't opposing it for phantom reasons. As the matter is, so long as Americans continue to value destruction of life over prolonging it, health care reform will continue to be an uphill fight.
A Presidential appointment of ambassador to Spain is being held up by Senator Grassley over a tangentially-related matter regarding the firing of a watchdog. There are really two stories in here - one about the use of holding up an appointment to force the administration's hand on something else entirely, which smacks of dirty pool, and the continued references by the Times article to how much money the nominee gave to the Obama campaign, with the implications that this is a bad practice and should be stopped. It would be nice if Senator Grassley would either give a better reason for his hold than the nominee's support of the firing, and that the Times continues to keep its contribution-reward story in the article it wrote.
The Senate Republicans release a list of ten stimulus-funded projects they think are very silly, while ignoring all the serious and useful ones. Furthermore, some of those I can see as having very real scientific use, like the one looking for radioactive rabbit droppings. They'll tell you pretty easily about the levels of contamination in an area.
Finally, the President issued an executive order resotring many of the powers and oversight capabilities of the Intelligence Oversight Board, rolling back weakening changes the previous administrator made.
In the opinions, some interesting thoughts, via Mr. Gorbachev, from Mr. George H.W. Bush, calling the saint of Republicanism, Ronald Reagan, "extreme" and that he was supported by "blockheads". I guess we're seeing more now that the Republicans were a coalition of diverse people coming together than a singly unified idological group. Vanity Fair runs a piece "written" by Levi Johnston showcasing the dysfunction of the Pailn family, and especially the matriarch of that group.
Mr. Jenkins, Jr. starts off with the belief that the government is betting all it can that spending money left and right is what will bring us out of the recession, aligning his distate for both any sort of outrage that bankers are giving the free money they got to pay executive bonuses and for the helath care reform plan that is currently being debated, and suggesting things like raising the retirement age and instituting a flat tax are the things we need. The WSJ takes up the attack on health care, citing a recent WellPoint (an insurance company) study that modeled their own data and concluded (naturally) that insurance premiums would go way up under the Senate Finance bill, and then praise Joe Lieberman for his willingness to defect from the Democratic caucus in support of a filibuster.
Far further out on the fringe, Mr. Sowell offers his opinion that the President is setting out to become a dictator, through the usage of appointed, unelected "czars" that praise dictators, (whom, if it weren't for the Opposition Party Network, would still be stealthily achieving their agenda, unnoticed) the indoctrination of schoolchildren into doing assignments praising the president and into sexual practices that are contrary to the values of what "most" Americans think, and passing big, long bills quickly. (And, of course, all the people the President associated with earlier on in life. He's rewarding them, too.) Then there's the second part, where he accuses the President of making the same mistakes that let Hitler come to power, things like pleasing your enemies by angering your friends, and making America unreliable, the people of letting him do it without strenuous protest.
Last in opinions, Mr. Hawkins details his messages for "elite" Republicans, explaining to them that their base has gone away from them and they must become more teabagger-like if they wish to stay in office, with a focus on staying ideologically pure and parroting whatever it is their base throws at them, without checking first to see if it has brains to it. Then again, considering at 14% of a surveyed populace thought Fox News was mostly liberal, there may not be hope for certain segments of the conservative base.
In technologies, stem cells have been transformed into the precursors to sperm and egg cells, a camera can capture the action of a neuron firing, a computing interface that uses muscle movement in the hands and arms to create gestural interaction, attemtping to build glaciers to replace the ones melting, cultures with collectivist orientations tend away from depression, an iPhone app the purports to translate between spoken Spanish and English, and DARPA wants to test how well people use their networks to solve time-critical problems that are large-scope, by spotting red balloons scattered across the nation. In a two-week timeframe.
Last for tonight, a town-sized illusion of circles
Oh, and one other thing - video games have been doing a lot of pandering to an ubermacho stereotype lately...could we please not do that? There are a freaking boatload of gamers who are not male, and even more who think the idea of machismo and jerkishness is a quick trip to the banninator. After all, we have plenty of exampled of jerkishness, and when laid out and illustrated, they drive the point home even more than the text itself.
