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Greets to all of you, people of power and influence, emperors of worlds lost to time.
Up top, the murderer of Doctor George Tiller has been convicted for first-degree culpability, a conviction that carries the mandatory sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after twenty-five years. The murderer espoused his beliefs that Dr. Tiller had to be killed so that unbon children would live and confessed to his killing on the stand. I hope that all such killers are found and arrested before they are able to do their work.
The Dead Pool claimed Lee Archer, the only officially-recognized ace of the Tuskegee Airmen at 90 years.
Before beginning, a thing to note for your reading and for all of us - when the President complains about a media that's only interested in combat, confrontation, and the baser parts of politics, thus reinforcing the incivility currently in Washington, the worst thing to do is to prove him right. For us readers, the takeaway message is that the media is always trying to sell us a point of view, even if that view is not partisan.
Around the world, the truth of disaster relief - the real timeline for recovery is far longer than any American's charitable impulse.
A day after some coordinated attacks in Iraq by insurgents, the United States military claims to have killed a significant person in al-Qaeda. Propaganda war? Makes sense. Mr. Blair, former Prime Minister of the UK, is fighting his own battle in testimony before a commission investigating the UK's involvement in the Iraq conflict.
For a different propaganda fight, a hardline Iranian cleric is calling for more executions of protesters in the country, in an attempt to get the government and the civilian parapolice to kill protesters and silence the movement for fear of their lives.
Somalia continues to be a country of conflict, with 19 killed in fighting in the country's capital.
And, to either warm your heart or freeze your blood, a story of the bomb-and-explosive-detecting dogs used in Afghanistan.
In domestic news, for those wondering about debt expansion, some possible perspective - Republican presidents are equally good at raising debt amounts.
On the matter of the President criticizing the Supreme Court, the NYT wants to make hay about the possible breach of decorum, cloaking it in "well, it's not that Presidents haven't criticized the SCOTUS, they just generally don't do so to their faces". In this political climate, where CongressCritters have shouted that the President is a liar, there are people concerned with decorum? How about we start getting concerned with results, and then add on decorum once thinks stop being horribly broken. Besides, that criticism earned the President some high marks from the dial-in MoveOn crowd.
Speaking of good-polling phrases, the Pentagon will begin to seek the end of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that mandates the dismissal of open homosexuals from the military. This is not, however, a legislative effort to repeal the ban on open homosexuals in the military - that has yet to arrive.
Finally, the President attended a session of the Republican retreat, delivering a speech and taking questions and answers from Republicans about his policy and several of the errors of thinking that have become talking points for the opposition. The President really did sell the image of the pragmatic centrist stuck up against ideologues, while also trying to cultivate the idea that people are taking seriously what Washington insiders might know is posturing and theater, so moderation in language would be very helpful toward getting things done. If the President were to go before his other major critic group, the Progressive Caucus, and do this again, tailored to their objections, and come out looking that good from them, it'll say omething about his oratorical skills, but he might also be able to have shot down the worst parts of both sides so that they start working to fix problems instead of score political points. Otherwise, the lot of incumbents might find themselves out of work, replaced by those people out here who really do believe the President is a Mancurian Socialist.
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, there will likely be some crowing from conservatism that they've killed health reform, as Democrats appear ready to switch to jobs and possibly genreate some smaller health care bills for the upcoming year. This could be a blessing for the liberals, though, as well, as doing it piecemeal might also make for better legislation that can pass by majorities - assuming, of course, that the Republican Party doesn't intend on filibuster-threatening everything. Or, that the Democrats force the actual usage of those filibusters and gain significant political capital by being able to show the opposition as dithering, delaying, wasting time, and preventing effective government.
Mr. Bernanke was re-confirmed for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, despite a contentious battle over whether his policies have been correct and effective.
Mr. O'Keefe claimed he was not trying to engage in wiretapping during his filmed stunt, but that he was going to ask embarrassing questions about how people were apparently being ignored by Senator Landrieu's office. Furthermore, the result of pimp-and-whore show he put on to get ACORN defunded has been reversed - a judge ruled Congress could not strip ACORN of its funding the way they did. While that may stop them from stripping funding from Haliburton and other convicted felons, it at least undoes the indignity done to ACORN, for now.
In technology, the possibility of filtering reality to your liking, and the hope that people will be able to break those filters to ensure reality intrudes, and another report indicating critical infrastructure is vulnerable to hacking, with foreign governments suspected as the hackers, robots developing complex predator-prey interactions, resulting in better homing techniques, and "seeing" through opaque glass.
Elsewhere, Super Bowl advertisements as possible political statements, with an ad for a dating service for homosexual males under review and an anti-choice ad by a collegiate quarterback already accepted and slated for broadcast. Well, at least now our corporations can explicitly say what they believe.
In the opinions, an interview with an advocate for neurodiversity, that says people with different brain wirings should be treated as people first and foremost. They can get help if they want to be more neurotypical, but the advocate says people who want to abort the non-NT or forcibly "cure" them are behaving in much the same way a racist felt the "cure" for black people was their death.
Mr. Kamisnki says the West should be more invovled with Ukraine and provide lots of assistance to build them into a secure democracy right on Russia's border. This really sounds like a "spite the Commies with a democracy on their front door" talk.
A claim presented that British publications presenting themselves as newspapers routinely make stuff up to sell papers.
Regarding the matter of the Pants on Fire bomber, Mr. Jeffrey, high priest of CNSNews, seems incensed that we have people who are under watch for terrorism but still get to fly. The WSJ continues to be pro-indefinite detention and possibly pro-torture on interrogations, with their latest on how the interrogation of the Pants On Fire Bomber went All Wrong, including that they only interrogated him for 50 minutes, instead of "50 hours" as the WSJ claims should be. Mr. York says that Mr. Holder has to answer who botched the job by giving the bomber his Miranda rights so soon.
On more pedestrian political matters, the Washington Times declares the President to be full of shit when he talks about the jobs he's created or saved, claiming that no other numbers matter except the increasing unemployment rate and the trillions of dollars wasted that have accelerated that rate instead of retarding it (because it took money from The Market, all praise to its name, that would have created jobs, remember, because of it's Inherently Superior efficiency). The WSJ tacks on their information about the wild defecit spending President, and that the new defecit-hawk President would have to reverse himself entirely to undo the damage he's already done, instead of making gestures of spending freezes.
And going straight for the argument that the President is an egoist convinced of his own miracle-working ability, Mr. Stephens. This, in contrast to Mr. Pruden's assertion that the President is an inept bumbler who can't do anything right, especially not national security.
But last out of our opinions, two of the most headpiano inducing ones we could find. Mr. Bozell misses the point by a mile in complaining that many newspapers ran a similar letter from an "Ellie Light" without verifying her address, with the hidden prejudice that the letter itself defended the President, and thus must be evul libruls Astroturfing, and that the mainstream media, so in thrall with Obama, will spike the story of the "Light" identity because it could be someone connected to the President. Mr. Bozell, if it turns out to be someone from the Administration doing this, found in good investigative journalism, then if the media spikes the story, you may be outraged all you like, and the rest of us should be as well. Otherwise, can the indignation and fund the investigation. It might turn out to be that a group of people decided to adopt the same pseudonym and write to the editor of their various papers. Nothing wrong with that - after all, the founders of the country did it when agitating for the revolution. And that's what a layman like me can think of. I wonder what will happen when a professional investigates? Will you spike the story if it turns out not to follow your agenda?
And then, Ms. Barber believes that discrimination lawsuits based on "disparate impact" are institutionalizing the idea that blacks and minoirities are perpetually inferior and should be held to lower standards, so self-respecting blacks should refuse to play by those rules, and slog their way through whatever stands in their way so they can have the same qualifications as everyone else. Her message is to play by the system's rules, even if those rules are designed to screw you over without ever doing so overtly. Where have I heard messages like that before? To be fair, there is the potential for abuse in such situations, but one of the worst parts about institutionalized discrimination is that it doesn't look like it on the surface. Even if it just forces people to provide good justification for doing things they way they are, it makes the entirety of socierty better by preventing accusations of discrimination.
Last for tonight, Cosmic Motors: Concept art of future vehicles.
Up top, the murderer of Doctor George Tiller has been convicted for first-degree culpability, a conviction that carries the mandatory sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after twenty-five years. The murderer espoused his beliefs that Dr. Tiller had to be killed so that unbon children would live and confessed to his killing on the stand. I hope that all such killers are found and arrested before they are able to do their work.
The Dead Pool claimed Lee Archer, the only officially-recognized ace of the Tuskegee Airmen at 90 years.
Before beginning, a thing to note for your reading and for all of us - when the President complains about a media that's only interested in combat, confrontation, and the baser parts of politics, thus reinforcing the incivility currently in Washington, the worst thing to do is to prove him right. For us readers, the takeaway message is that the media is always trying to sell us a point of view, even if that view is not partisan.
Around the world, the truth of disaster relief - the real timeline for recovery is far longer than any American's charitable impulse.
A day after some coordinated attacks in Iraq by insurgents, the United States military claims to have killed a significant person in al-Qaeda. Propaganda war? Makes sense. Mr. Blair, former Prime Minister of the UK, is fighting his own battle in testimony before a commission investigating the UK's involvement in the Iraq conflict.
For a different propaganda fight, a hardline Iranian cleric is calling for more executions of protesters in the country, in an attempt to get the government and the civilian parapolice to kill protesters and silence the movement for fear of their lives.
Somalia continues to be a country of conflict, with 19 killed in fighting in the country's capital.
And, to either warm your heart or freeze your blood, a story of the bomb-and-explosive-detecting dogs used in Afghanistan.
In domestic news, for those wondering about debt expansion, some possible perspective - Republican presidents are equally good at raising debt amounts.
On the matter of the President criticizing the Supreme Court, the NYT wants to make hay about the possible breach of decorum, cloaking it in "well, it's not that Presidents haven't criticized the SCOTUS, they just generally don't do so to their faces". In this political climate, where CongressCritters have shouted that the President is a liar, there are people concerned with decorum? How about we start getting concerned with results, and then add on decorum once thinks stop being horribly broken. Besides, that criticism earned the President some high marks from the dial-in MoveOn crowd.
Speaking of good-polling phrases, the Pentagon will begin to seek the end of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that mandates the dismissal of open homosexuals from the military. This is not, however, a legislative effort to repeal the ban on open homosexuals in the military - that has yet to arrive.
Finally, the President attended a session of the Republican retreat, delivering a speech and taking questions and answers from Republicans about his policy and several of the errors of thinking that have become talking points for the opposition. The President really did sell the image of the pragmatic centrist stuck up against ideologues, while also trying to cultivate the idea that people are taking seriously what Washington insiders might know is posturing and theater, so moderation in language would be very helpful toward getting things done. If the President were to go before his other major critic group, the Progressive Caucus, and do this again, tailored to their objections, and come out looking that good from them, it'll say omething about his oratorical skills, but he might also be able to have shot down the worst parts of both sides so that they start working to fix problems instead of score political points. Otherwise, the lot of incumbents might find themselves out of work, replaced by those people out here who really do believe the President is a Mancurian Socialist.
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, there will likely be some crowing from conservatism that they've killed health reform, as Democrats appear ready to switch to jobs and possibly genreate some smaller health care bills for the upcoming year. This could be a blessing for the liberals, though, as well, as doing it piecemeal might also make for better legislation that can pass by majorities - assuming, of course, that the Republican Party doesn't intend on filibuster-threatening everything. Or, that the Democrats force the actual usage of those filibusters and gain significant political capital by being able to show the opposition as dithering, delaying, wasting time, and preventing effective government.
Mr. Bernanke was re-confirmed for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, despite a contentious battle over whether his policies have been correct and effective.
Mr. O'Keefe claimed he was not trying to engage in wiretapping during his filmed stunt, but that he was going to ask embarrassing questions about how people were apparently being ignored by Senator Landrieu's office. Furthermore, the result of pimp-and-whore show he put on to get ACORN defunded has been reversed - a judge ruled Congress could not strip ACORN of its funding the way they did. While that may stop them from stripping funding from Haliburton and other convicted felons, it at least undoes the indignity done to ACORN, for now.
In technology, the possibility of filtering reality to your liking, and the hope that people will be able to break those filters to ensure reality intrudes, and another report indicating critical infrastructure is vulnerable to hacking, with foreign governments suspected as the hackers, robots developing complex predator-prey interactions, resulting in better homing techniques, and "seeing" through opaque glass.
Elsewhere, Super Bowl advertisements as possible political statements, with an ad for a dating service for homosexual males under review and an anti-choice ad by a collegiate quarterback already accepted and slated for broadcast. Well, at least now our corporations can explicitly say what they believe.
In the opinions, an interview with an advocate for neurodiversity, that says people with different brain wirings should be treated as people first and foremost. They can get help if they want to be more neurotypical, but the advocate says people who want to abort the non-NT or forcibly "cure" them are behaving in much the same way a racist felt the "cure" for black people was their death.
Mr. Kamisnki says the West should be more invovled with Ukraine and provide lots of assistance to build them into a secure democracy right on Russia's border. This really sounds like a "spite the Commies with a democracy on their front door" talk.
A claim presented that British publications presenting themselves as newspapers routinely make stuff up to sell papers.
Regarding the matter of the Pants on Fire bomber, Mr. Jeffrey, high priest of CNSNews, seems incensed that we have people who are under watch for terrorism but still get to fly. The WSJ continues to be pro-indefinite detention and possibly pro-torture on interrogations, with their latest on how the interrogation of the Pants On Fire Bomber went All Wrong, including that they only interrogated him for 50 minutes, instead of "50 hours" as the WSJ claims should be. Mr. York says that Mr. Holder has to answer who botched the job by giving the bomber his Miranda rights so soon.
On more pedestrian political matters, the Washington Times declares the President to be full of shit when he talks about the jobs he's created or saved, claiming that no other numbers matter except the increasing unemployment rate and the trillions of dollars wasted that have accelerated that rate instead of retarding it (because it took money from The Market, all praise to its name, that would have created jobs, remember, because of it's Inherently Superior efficiency). The WSJ tacks on their information about the wild defecit spending President, and that the new defecit-hawk President would have to reverse himself entirely to undo the damage he's already done, instead of making gestures of spending freezes.
And going straight for the argument that the President is an egoist convinced of his own miracle-working ability, Mr. Stephens. This, in contrast to Mr. Pruden's assertion that the President is an inept bumbler who can't do anything right, especially not national security.
But last out of our opinions, two of the most headpiano inducing ones we could find. Mr. Bozell misses the point by a mile in complaining that many newspapers ran a similar letter from an "Ellie Light" without verifying her address, with the hidden prejudice that the letter itself defended the President, and thus must be evul libruls Astroturfing, and that the mainstream media, so in thrall with Obama, will spike the story of the "Light" identity because it could be someone connected to the President. Mr. Bozell, if it turns out to be someone from the Administration doing this, found in good investigative journalism, then if the media spikes the story, you may be outraged all you like, and the rest of us should be as well. Otherwise, can the indignation and fund the investigation. It might turn out to be that a group of people decided to adopt the same pseudonym and write to the editor of their various papers. Nothing wrong with that - after all, the founders of the country did it when agitating for the revolution. And that's what a layman like me can think of. I wonder what will happen when a professional investigates? Will you spike the story if it turns out not to follow your agenda?
And then, Ms. Barber believes that discrimination lawsuits based on "disparate impact" are institutionalizing the idea that blacks and minoirities are perpetually inferior and should be held to lower standards, so self-respecting blacks should refuse to play by those rules, and slog their way through whatever stands in their way so they can have the same qualifications as everyone else. Her message is to play by the system's rules, even if those rules are designed to screw you over without ever doing so overtly. Where have I heard messages like that before? To be fair, there is the potential for abuse in such situations, but one of the worst parts about institutionalized discrimination is that it doesn't look like it on the surface. Even if it just forces people to provide good justification for doing things they way they are, it makes the entirety of socierty better by preventing accusations of discrimination.
Last for tonight, Cosmic Motors: Concept art of future vehicles.
