![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Material for a Saturday - 16 January 2010
Jan. 19th, 2010 01:08 pmMorning, everyone, enjoy or be dismayed the following idea - a headline about a literacy program clearly did not go through the spellchecker. After that, the artwork of Mark Bodnar, in all it's cartoony, almost Tex Avery style glory.
Out in the world, the World Health Organization is investigating claims that it may have caved to pressure from drug companies to make the H1N1 virus more dangerous than it actually was.
Ha! A new study comissioned by West Point suggests that al-Qaeda's attacks have mostly killed Muslims, not Westerners, which, if al-Qaeda were solely against Westerners, would indicate the presence of some severe failures.
The Chinese authorities have shut down the first gay pageant in the country, claiming that it was not properly licensed, while acknowledging that it would be a "sensitive issue".
And last out, baby elephant! First one born to the Melbourne Zoo.
Domestically, an antitrust suit first brought against the media cabal in the early 2000s has been reinstated, after an appeals court determined the dismissal of their case was in error. One of these cases will stick, and then we'll see the power of the cabals broken.
Haitians in the United States illegally are temporarily safe from being deported back to Haiti, under the sound logic that sending them back would worsen their situation significantly...and many of them have nothing to go back to, now that the earthquake has destroyed so much. the United States is sending military personnel to help, while stressing that they are not attempting a takeover. There has been a great outpouring of support for Haiti, and those that want to donate, should. I can also see the point of view that says get your own house in order before you help your neighbor build theirs, because we do have a lt of people in this country who need help, too. Why does it take disaster to bring out the human response from people? What is it about our everyday lives that stops us? Why do our legislators and executives believe it is more important to spend money on weapons that kill than on helping people to live full lives?
There are others who suggest aid start becoming contingent on its actual use in infrastructure that can stand another earthquake, and blames the ruling class's corruption as a large part of the problem.
A special election in Massachusettes has the potential of derailing the health care bill, if the Republican wins and then the 41 stand in solidarity against cloture votes. And thus, the politics of delay (on both sides) could result in nothing being done at all. Or we could have an even more watered-down bill in search of one Republican Senate vote.
Speaking of delays, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, Admiral Mullen, is being advised to delay implementation of an effort that would lift the ban on openly gay military members serving in the military, claiming "now is not the right time." That's right, only in the sense that the right time has been the last decade or more.
Last from here, coke found in space shuttle hangar. NASA investigates, but doesn't think it will do anything to affect the scheduled launch of the shuttle in question.
In the opinions, The Slacktivist on why what Pat Robertson said was not only bone-headedly stupid, it was contrary to the very core of the religion Robertson claims to follow. That's without the "evil has efficacy, seeminngly more than G-d does" rider. Although, and excellent response in the satirical vein is the return letter from Satan Herself, pointing out that Robertson is wrong - Haiti didn't get anything out of the supposed deal, no gold, no riches, no earthly power, no nothing. Satan implies that Robertson needs to stop slandering him, lest his own deal come under renegotiation.
And then,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
theweaselking provides us with why, unless you are a Left Behind fanatic, you do not want to see The Book of Eli.
Elsewhere on religion, a discussion as to how well atheism can help people who must confront and deal with death, and how it can do the job just as well as religious belief.
Mr. Henninger presents the case that Republicans need to provide support to the President on his national security agenda, because nobody else will support his decisions, mostly because they seem to be continuations of the last President, rather than much of an attempt at changing direction.
Mr. Rove goes after the President on transparency, first through signing statements, second on the broken promise of televising and posting health care debates and bills for public comment, all contributing to his conclusion that President Obama pulled a bait-and-switch on the American people and their desire for good health care and transparency in government. For once, Mr. Rove is mostly not wrong. My only quibble is that we can't divine whether the President went into this intentionally or not, and "bait-and-switch" implies intent.
Mr. Boskin claims that politicians and scientists have been changing the numbers when they don't like them, feeling justified that their ends are more important than accurate numbers or, in fact, numbers that reflect reality in any way. He spends most of his time on "jobs saved", stimulus spending, and the new green regulations, claiming all of those numbers have been and continue to be wildly exaggerated and not real, destroying the government's credibility with the people.
Mr. Fund confidently declares that Majority Leader Reid will retire at the end of his term, rather than seek re-election, because he knows he won't be able to be re-electe as Majority Leader, if he manages re-election at all. (And he's hurting his son's chances, too! Get out, Reid, save your son!)
Mr. Macey correlates the amount of bailout cash with the amount of bonus cash distributed by the banks, and says the best way to dry up the bonuses is to dry up the bailout. There will also be an extra added effect of stopping risky behavior, because the shareholders won't see guaranteed profits and dividends, either, and they will want their investments to be much less risky...ish, because they'll be assuming the risk instead of the government.
Mr. Dole believes that new ways of paying for health care reform will ultimately leave the elderly with less care as their Medicare plans get taxed and there are no profits to pay that tax from.
And now, time for those people deserving special attention (and/or quiche) for tonight. Starting with once Republican Party boss Rush Limbaugh, calling for no more aid to Haiti, because he believes the United States has donated already through paying their income tax, and that donations to the ICRC through the White House web site may be intercepted and used to fund the Democratic Party, as if they would take a cut off the top. Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot, and his callous disregard for the suffering of others, using a made-up justification for it is appalling. I'm afraid to wonder how man people listened to him and agreed with all of those statements.
Second on the list of people needing a course correction, Mike Adams, who delivers an insult to Buddhists and Christians everywhere with his excerable comparison between the two belief systems, starting with stories of people who became Christians and had happy endings compared to the two Buddhists he knows, both whom are living in sin by his definition by being polysexual and homosexual, respectively. Then, he lists why he thinks there are so few Buddhists - they're all self-contradictory (the desire to eliminate desire), they all want to become their own personal god, and Buddhists have no agreed conception of moral good or evil, because they don't agree on the number of gods (we note there is no monotheist option, only atheists, polytheists, and pantheists, so clearly they're all Vile, Deparved Sinners), and because they do not agree on moral good and evil, they will not condemn evil actions. Thus, Christianity is the only Truth, and Buddhism only offers illusions.
Mr. Adams has clearly Not Done The Research, as anyone with a passing study in Buddhism would be able to tell him how wrong he is about Buddhist ethics, knock on his head for noticing the koan at the heart of Buddhism regarding desire, and then possibly make a mysterious statement about how his statement about Christianity and Buddhism is more true than he realizes, and that it reflects poorly on Christianity (at least, from a Buddhist perspective.) Mr. Adams is worse than most street-corner preachers I've met, and he somehow manages to have a syndicated column. If one sought justice in the world on this occasion, one comes up wanting. But he will hopefully enjoy his hot, flaky pastry.
Last for tonight, some statistics about the adult films business, in visual and textual form, the most memorable fictional drugs in movies and television, and the Irony Mark, which could cover most of what the sarcasm mark previously mentioned intended.
Out in the world, the World Health Organization is investigating claims that it may have caved to pressure from drug companies to make the H1N1 virus more dangerous than it actually was.
Ha! A new study comissioned by West Point suggests that al-Qaeda's attacks have mostly killed Muslims, not Westerners, which, if al-Qaeda were solely against Westerners, would indicate the presence of some severe failures.
The Chinese authorities have shut down the first gay pageant in the country, claiming that it was not properly licensed, while acknowledging that it would be a "sensitive issue".
And last out, baby elephant! First one born to the Melbourne Zoo.
Domestically, an antitrust suit first brought against the media cabal in the early 2000s has been reinstated, after an appeals court determined the dismissal of their case was in error. One of these cases will stick, and then we'll see the power of the cabals broken.
Haitians in the United States illegally are temporarily safe from being deported back to Haiti, under the sound logic that sending them back would worsen their situation significantly...and many of them have nothing to go back to, now that the earthquake has destroyed so much. the United States is sending military personnel to help, while stressing that they are not attempting a takeover. There has been a great outpouring of support for Haiti, and those that want to donate, should. I can also see the point of view that says get your own house in order before you help your neighbor build theirs, because we do have a lt of people in this country who need help, too. Why does it take disaster to bring out the human response from people? What is it about our everyday lives that stops us? Why do our legislators and executives believe it is more important to spend money on weapons that kill than on helping people to live full lives?
There are others who suggest aid start becoming contingent on its actual use in infrastructure that can stand another earthquake, and blames the ruling class's corruption as a large part of the problem.
A special election in Massachusettes has the potential of derailing the health care bill, if the Republican wins and then the 41 stand in solidarity against cloture votes. And thus, the politics of delay (on both sides) could result in nothing being done at all. Or we could have an even more watered-down bill in search of one Republican Senate vote.
Speaking of delays, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, Admiral Mullen, is being advised to delay implementation of an effort that would lift the ban on openly gay military members serving in the military, claiming "now is not the right time." That's right, only in the sense that the right time has been the last decade or more.
Last from here, coke found in space shuttle hangar. NASA investigates, but doesn't think it will do anything to affect the scheduled launch of the shuttle in question.
In the opinions, The Slacktivist on why what Pat Robertson said was not only bone-headedly stupid, it was contrary to the very core of the religion Robertson claims to follow. That's without the "evil has efficacy, seeminngly more than G-d does" rider. Although, and excellent response in the satirical vein is the return letter from Satan Herself, pointing out that Robertson is wrong - Haiti didn't get anything out of the supposed deal, no gold, no riches, no earthly power, no nothing. Satan implies that Robertson needs to stop slandering him, lest his own deal come under renegotiation.
And then,
theweaselking provides us with why, unless you are a Left Behind fanatic, you do not want to see The Book of Eli.Elsewhere on religion, a discussion as to how well atheism can help people who must confront and deal with death, and how it can do the job just as well as religious belief.
Mr. Henninger presents the case that Republicans need to provide support to the President on his national security agenda, because nobody else will support his decisions, mostly because they seem to be continuations of the last President, rather than much of an attempt at changing direction.
Mr. Rove goes after the President on transparency, first through signing statements, second on the broken promise of televising and posting health care debates and bills for public comment, all contributing to his conclusion that President Obama pulled a bait-and-switch on the American people and their desire for good health care and transparency in government. For once, Mr. Rove is mostly not wrong. My only quibble is that we can't divine whether the President went into this intentionally or not, and "bait-and-switch" implies intent.
Mr. Boskin claims that politicians and scientists have been changing the numbers when they don't like them, feeling justified that their ends are more important than accurate numbers or, in fact, numbers that reflect reality in any way. He spends most of his time on "jobs saved", stimulus spending, and the new green regulations, claiming all of those numbers have been and continue to be wildly exaggerated and not real, destroying the government's credibility with the people.
Mr. Fund confidently declares that Majority Leader Reid will retire at the end of his term, rather than seek re-election, because he knows he won't be able to be re-electe as Majority Leader, if he manages re-election at all. (And he's hurting his son's chances, too! Get out, Reid, save your son!)
Mr. Macey correlates the amount of bailout cash with the amount of bonus cash distributed by the banks, and says the best way to dry up the bonuses is to dry up the bailout. There will also be an extra added effect of stopping risky behavior, because the shareholders won't see guaranteed profits and dividends, either, and they will want their investments to be much less risky...ish, because they'll be assuming the risk instead of the government.
Mr. Dole believes that new ways of paying for health care reform will ultimately leave the elderly with less care as their Medicare plans get taxed and there are no profits to pay that tax from.
And now, time for those people deserving special attention (and/or quiche) for tonight. Starting with once Republican Party boss Rush Limbaugh, calling for no more aid to Haiti, because he believes the United States has donated already through paying their income tax, and that donations to the ICRC through the White House web site may be intercepted and used to fund the Democratic Party, as if they would take a cut off the top. Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot, and his callous disregard for the suffering of others, using a made-up justification for it is appalling. I'm afraid to wonder how man people listened to him and agreed with all of those statements.
Second on the list of people needing a course correction, Mike Adams, who delivers an insult to Buddhists and Christians everywhere with his excerable comparison between the two belief systems, starting with stories of people who became Christians and had happy endings compared to the two Buddhists he knows, both whom are living in sin by his definition by being polysexual and homosexual, respectively. Then, he lists why he thinks there are so few Buddhists - they're all self-contradictory (the desire to eliminate desire), they all want to become their own personal god, and Buddhists have no agreed conception of moral good or evil, because they don't agree on the number of gods (we note there is no monotheist option, only atheists, polytheists, and pantheists, so clearly they're all Vile, Deparved Sinners), and because they do not agree on moral good and evil, they will not condemn evil actions. Thus, Christianity is the only Truth, and Buddhism only offers illusions.
Mr. Adams has clearly Not Done The Research, as anyone with a passing study in Buddhism would be able to tell him how wrong he is about Buddhist ethics, knock on his head for noticing the koan at the heart of Buddhism regarding desire, and then possibly make a mysterious statement about how his statement about Christianity and Buddhism is more true than he realizes, and that it reflects poorly on Christianity (at least, from a Buddhist perspective.) Mr. Adams is worse than most street-corner preachers I've met, and he somehow manages to have a syndicated column. If one sought justice in the world on this occasion, one comes up wanting. But he will hopefully enjoy his hot, flaky pastry.
Last for tonight, some statistics about the adult films business, in visual and textual form, the most memorable fictional drugs in movies and television, and the Irony Mark, which could cover most of what the sarcasm mark previously mentioned intended.
