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Salutations, fans of science fiction and the characters in them - have fun with the GeekDad debate as to whether Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds is the better space cowboy.
Professionally, the extension of USAPATRIOT unchanged continues to be a major problem for those who prefer to know that their records have been requested. Additionally, one must always be careful about sending or crafting jokes - sometimes they fall into the wrong hands, and the people for whom the joke is intended do not find it funny at all. Regardless of its truth value, that is.
Internationally speaking - Canada’s women’s hockey team beat the United States 2-0 for the gold medal at the Vancouver Olympic games, in a game that was really about two excellent teams playing each other and Canada’s goaltender being superior. What you are far more likely to hear abotu, however, is the display of alcohol and tobacco consumption on the ice soon after their victory, something the IOC does not condone, considering it poor sportsmanship.
Later on, the Canadian men’s hockey team defeated the United States men’s team 3-2 in overtime, after the United States tie the game with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation time, having removed the goaltender for an extra attacker.
Much more seriously, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile, rattling and collapsing buildings and sending up tsunami warnings for Hawaii and other island nations. thankfully, the waves turned out to be smaller than predicted.
Iraq's army received a 20,000 person boost as members who were part of Saddam Hussein's army when the United States invaded were reinstated into the force. All pushing still toward an actual withdrawal of most of the United States forces in the country, assuming something else doesn’t get in the way.
The World Meterological Association agreed to add more data points and attempt to measure temperatures several times a day, in an attempt to create a more 21st-century and robust data set to answer questions about climate change. You may also expect lots of triumphant posturing from various opponents about how all of this means climate change is still a debate and/or not real. It may occasionally even include some sort of science, if we’re lucky.
Protesters in the Netherlands walked out of a church service in response to the continued position of Catholicism against homosexual marriages - and in anticipation of the papal visit to the United Kingdom, groups like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are also attempting to influence the pontiff and the believers.
Domestically, the big major news event was a discussion between the President, key Democrats, and key Republicans about what it would take to actually pass a health care bill in the current political climate. Predictably, the Republicans came to the table insisting the correct approach was to scrap current progress and start over, without any assurances from them that doing so would result an an actual bill, forcing the Democrats into the position of “well, then, we’ll get it done, without your help.” (No word yet on whether that will be the actual tactic, as we’re not sure whether the Democratic Port-a-Spines are attached and functioning Could be a case of serious mistrust between the two legislative houses. In the meantime, Speaker Pelosi has suggested that lawmakers be willing to sacrifice their jobs to get proper health-care reform passed.) As with any event, the columns brigade will get to work busily fitting what transpired into their preferred narratives. Check the opinions for some of the early results. And those thinging the whole bill can go through the reconciliation process - get your facts straight. Reconciliation applies to budget matters only. So someone would have to pass a bill, like the Senate bill, then could use reconciliation to straighten out gimmicks and giveaways put up to get votes, but that’s it. They can’t get the whole package through in the reconciliation process.
Elsewhere, however, Republicans were busily attempting to block the extension of unemployment benefits to those still out of work. In particular, Senator Bunning was busily keeping his block, even commenting about how he missed his basketball game because things weren't going his way. This, while American reliance on the government is at a record high thanks to the recession. Really, people are depending on whatever they can to get work - so much so that some Detroit area schools have partnered with Wal-Mart to offer a for credit couse about job-readiness that comes with part-time after school work at the retailer.
The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing after a video alleging that ACORN staff gave assistance on avoiding law enforcement to persons posing as a pimp and prostitute surfaced in 2008. So, Congress, will you be repealing your bill of attainder that defunded the group any time soon?
Last out, have an infographic about the progress and regress of homosexual marriage in the United States.
In technology, the future has arrived - jetpacks for sale! Jetpacks for sale! $75,000 a jetpack!
Furthermore, how you can claim locations on Google Maps so as to have authority control and prevent misinformation from appearing.
And then peeking into the brain and finding brain-strengthening practices like zazen help with regulating and de-sensitizing the body to pain, the hallucinatory architecture of the future, evidence in support of the idea that competition with other species drives evolution more than environmental adaptation, and that life in the trees is better for longevity, a person dying, having managed to do so without records, identification, or anyone knowing if he really is who he says he is, the suggestion that a temple complex in Turkey is responsible for the shift from nomadic to more settled behaviour in the area, as maintenance of the temple grounds necessitated learning new methods to feed without wandering too far, a new book indicating that the best way to combat racism is to talk about it with your kids, instead of believing a diverse society will manage to impress upon them the benefits of multiculturalism,
Finally, Newsweek in 1995 on why the Internet will be a failure and the United States government pressured to go after Indonesia because they encourage the use of open-source programs in their government, something the property cabals are trying to paint as “piracy” or “lack of respect for intellectual property”. Knowing the strength of the lobby, I wouldn’t be surprised if they get their wish.
Engage your opinion-evaluation centers and prepare for the rush. The Geeks of Doom take Mark Driscoll to task for his sermon against Avatar as a Satanic picture. I thought we already tried the Satanic Panic idea before, and while there was some hysteria, it ultimately faded. (According to the Slacktivist, we may be in the middle of another one, called the Tea Party.) At least he’s making a little more sense than Representative Trent Franks, who claims that blacks are now worse off than they were when they were slaves, because a 50% abortion rate (due mostly to lack of contraceptives, mind) is worse than a 100% slavery rate.
Mr. Gore responds to critics of climate change by pointing out what others have - mistakes do not defeat the entirety of the research.
Mr. Hanson says the President is doing what he should have been doing long ago, but now, it's too little and too late to prevent the demise of his agenda.
Mr. Will expresses his praise for Congressional Gridlock, indicating his pleasure with the atmosphere of “no” and how the founders of the country intended for no to be the default mode of government, and really this is just liberals whining anyway. If Barack Obama wanted to get stuff done, says Mr. Will, he should happily give the Republicans whatever they want and not worry at all about anything liberal, because it won’t happen.
More specifically on health care, Mr. Hewitt gives us lists of House members he wants his followers to call and e-mail to frighten them into voiting against a helath care reform plan, including sneaking past the filters designed so that you talk only to the House person in your Congressional district.
Mr. Barone assumes the President sees the nation as victims of greedy corporations needing saving by government, a viewpoint they reject because Americans would never self-describe as such, and believe in their independence and that making efforts should reap rewards. Excepting the spots when it’s true, we note, and that people really do get dicked around by big corporations. Americans are usually pretty pissed about getting shafted by anybody, be it government, corporation, or their neighbours. They believe in that independence and rewards for effort, yes, and they also believe people who impede that for their own selfish reasons, to pervert the relationship, or to stifle honest competition should be sent down to the lowest levels of hell. To characterize this as “Big Brother Knows Better” is to distort what’s actually being said - “Corporations are screwing you, and we’re probably the only entity that can force them back into line.” So let’s try again. Mr. Tucker says that The Market (All Praise to Its Name) is a perfectly good way of ensuring high-quality products and that government interference is unnecessary and drives up cost, under the name of protecting people from corporations. His example, that of a recall because of e. coli tainted meat, has one significant flaw in it - the outbreak had to happen before the company closed down. It reacts to the last disaster, instead of trying to catch the next one. It requires people to be injured before the company will do anything. And, as people have already demonstrated throughout time, even if a product is unsafe, some people will take their chances on it because it’s less expensive than the safe product. If it takes a product being demonstrated to be unsafe on a wide scale to get it off the market, then it’s too late. So while he decries the “government takeover” of health care, his alternative seems to be leaving the people to take their lives into their hands on the health care market, gamble, and hope they survive. Even Mr. Krauthammer is more sensible on this - and his analogy of the Toyota recalls would fit better.
Not that Republicans are helping - especially when they call one of their signature reforms a government takeover of health care, so they can call for it to happen and then be against it when it does.
Ms. Gingrich Cushman accuses the President of not listening to the people, by presenting his plan before the summit (which is all posturing, of course) and not doing like what Newt Gingrich, her dad, is doing and holding summits with the American people to see what they believe. Sprinkle in some Rasmussen statistics about how the people don’t like the bill and want to start over, don’t like the way the president is handling things, and prefer a piecemeal approach and it really does look like he’s just not listening. Except that people like the components of the plan, when presented to them, and I’m betting a solid amount of those negative feelings about his handling are that he hasn’t been doing enough, not that he’s been doing too much. This is why we call them Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics - numbers, devoid of context, will say anything you want them to. (As, apparently, might Mr. Gingrich, in his accusation that staffers are really the people who write legislative bills and Mr. Fund’s further commentary that those staffers are True Believers trying to rewrite one-sixth of the economy in one audacious stroke.)
Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota thinks emergency rooms should be able to turn away people who can't pay them, and thus, costs will magically go down...because then they don’t have to charge anyone else for the uncompensated care they’re doing in the ER. In his favor, he’s only saying this about minor issues that would be better treated at a primary care clinic. Against him, however, is the knowledge that people do go to the emergency room for minor things because they’re the only people who won’t turn the uninsured away. Wouldn’t it just be easier with a government plan?
However, saved for last is the stick by which many conservatives take their measure, either as thinking she’s okay, or running as far away from her as they can, Ms. Coulter, pontificating that the reason Democrats haven't already passed a bill is because the American people hate socialist health care, apparently complete with death panels (Lies), abortion coverage (Damned Lies, thank you very much, Mr. Stupak), and new government commissions to nationalize health care (okay, so we can’t do the statistics thing here, but I’d bet she’s down with the claims that the health care proposals all involve lots of new taxes that will impact the middle class more than the rich they intend to soak, not that the WSJ really seems to think rich people should pay more of taxes). That would be before she confirms she’s still a Birther, thinks elected Republicans are RINOs and the Tea Party is where the real GOP is at, (because they are devotees of the Market, All Praise To Its Name) and that the American people spoke loudly at the town halls and said “NO!” to health care. (Yes, those same town halls where astroturf groups had a field day spreading Lies, Damned Lies, and defective Statistics.) Like hell the populace would say no to real, functional health care - too many of them are without it for them to say, “Yes, we prefer to pay more for less coverage that can be arbitrarily dropped at any point once the company figures out how to do so, and to be denied coverage at any sort of affordable rate once we're sick and have been dropped once.” Once again, Ann Coulter, proof that you can in fact be paid to say anything, no matter how nonsensical, because there will always be a market for it.
Just remember, all, that there are substantial costs associated with doing nothing, as well. Very substantial costs.
In competition for the flaky pastry, Ms. Coulter, above, only warrants a bronze medal effort. Yes, there’s worse. Ms. Rios, for example, cannot stand the change she has seen in her beloved Wheaton College, headed away from its inception as a stop on the Underground Railroad and such luminous alumni as Billy Graham toward a liberal college that perverts the meaning of justice include homosexuals for consideration and allows the reading of Marx and Ayers, instead of their instantaneous denunciation and return to studying only the Bible and its commentators. (Okay, exaggeration on the last, but not much.) The college defends itself well, saying “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles”, but Ms. Rios brushes it aside by saying, Well, yes, but they’re all leftists that are teaching it. Leftists can’t be trusted, because all liberals and leftists are secularists and out to destroy G-d instead of glorifying him and producing good scholars that don’t question their religious beliefs and work to make sure those beliefs are enshrined in the law and the discourse of the nation.
At the top of the dungheap is John Yoo, justifier of torture, taking to the columns to once again justify torture and claim that the Obama administration is benefiting from his legal advice because they have the same powers that the last executive did, so he clearly can’t be wrong. And because of Mr. yoo’s continued defense, places like the Washington Times can proclaim openly on their pages that the United States should continue with assassination-type attacks, whether by humans or by unmanned aerial vehicles. Because the terrorists are subhumans and should die for their crimes, without arrest or trial.
Last for tonight, a church on a nudist resort that worships without clothing, ten of the worst female action figures of recent history, a close up look at how the Mad Hatter's Hat is constructed, and The Trustocorp photo stream, providing new and possibly more accurate signage for your urban environment.
Professionally, the extension of USAPATRIOT unchanged continues to be a major problem for those who prefer to know that their records have been requested. Additionally, one must always be careful about sending or crafting jokes - sometimes they fall into the wrong hands, and the people for whom the joke is intended do not find it funny at all. Regardless of its truth value, that is.
Internationally speaking - Canada’s women’s hockey team beat the United States 2-0 for the gold medal at the Vancouver Olympic games, in a game that was really about two excellent teams playing each other and Canada’s goaltender being superior. What you are far more likely to hear abotu, however, is the display of alcohol and tobacco consumption on the ice soon after their victory, something the IOC does not condone, considering it poor sportsmanship.
Later on, the Canadian men’s hockey team defeated the United States men’s team 3-2 in overtime, after the United States tie the game with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation time, having removed the goaltender for an extra attacker.
Much more seriously, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile, rattling and collapsing buildings and sending up tsunami warnings for Hawaii and other island nations. thankfully, the waves turned out to be smaller than predicted.
Iraq's army received a 20,000 person boost as members who were part of Saddam Hussein's army when the United States invaded were reinstated into the force. All pushing still toward an actual withdrawal of most of the United States forces in the country, assuming something else doesn’t get in the way.
The World Meterological Association agreed to add more data points and attempt to measure temperatures several times a day, in an attempt to create a more 21st-century and robust data set to answer questions about climate change. You may also expect lots of triumphant posturing from various opponents about how all of this means climate change is still a debate and/or not real. It may occasionally even include some sort of science, if we’re lucky.
Protesters in the Netherlands walked out of a church service in response to the continued position of Catholicism against homosexual marriages - and in anticipation of the papal visit to the United Kingdom, groups like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are also attempting to influence the pontiff and the believers.
Domestically, the big major news event was a discussion between the President, key Democrats, and key Republicans about what it would take to actually pass a health care bill in the current political climate. Predictably, the Republicans came to the table insisting the correct approach was to scrap current progress and start over, without any assurances from them that doing so would result an an actual bill, forcing the Democrats into the position of “well, then, we’ll get it done, without your help.” (No word yet on whether that will be the actual tactic, as we’re not sure whether the Democratic Port-a-Spines are attached and functioning Could be a case of serious mistrust between the two legislative houses. In the meantime, Speaker Pelosi has suggested that lawmakers be willing to sacrifice their jobs to get proper health-care reform passed.) As with any event, the columns brigade will get to work busily fitting what transpired into their preferred narratives. Check the opinions for some of the early results. And those thinging the whole bill can go through the reconciliation process - get your facts straight. Reconciliation applies to budget matters only. So someone would have to pass a bill, like the Senate bill, then could use reconciliation to straighten out gimmicks and giveaways put up to get votes, but that’s it. They can’t get the whole package through in the reconciliation process.
Elsewhere, however, Republicans were busily attempting to block the extension of unemployment benefits to those still out of work. In particular, Senator Bunning was busily keeping his block, even commenting about how he missed his basketball game because things weren't going his way. This, while American reliance on the government is at a record high thanks to the recession. Really, people are depending on whatever they can to get work - so much so that some Detroit area schools have partnered with Wal-Mart to offer a for credit couse about job-readiness that comes with part-time after school work at the retailer.
The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing after a video alleging that ACORN staff gave assistance on avoiding law enforcement to persons posing as a pimp and prostitute surfaced in 2008. So, Congress, will you be repealing your bill of attainder that defunded the group any time soon?
Last out, have an infographic about the progress and regress of homosexual marriage in the United States.
In technology, the future has arrived - jetpacks for sale! Jetpacks for sale! $75,000 a jetpack!
Furthermore, how you can claim locations on Google Maps so as to have authority control and prevent misinformation from appearing.
And then peeking into the brain and finding brain-strengthening practices like zazen help with regulating and de-sensitizing the body to pain, the hallucinatory architecture of the future, evidence in support of the idea that competition with other species drives evolution more than environmental adaptation, and that life in the trees is better for longevity, a person dying, having managed to do so without records, identification, or anyone knowing if he really is who he says he is, the suggestion that a temple complex in Turkey is responsible for the shift from nomadic to more settled behaviour in the area, as maintenance of the temple grounds necessitated learning new methods to feed without wandering too far, a new book indicating that the best way to combat racism is to talk about it with your kids, instead of believing a diverse society will manage to impress upon them the benefits of multiculturalism,
Finally, Newsweek in 1995 on why the Internet will be a failure and the United States government pressured to go after Indonesia because they encourage the use of open-source programs in their government, something the property cabals are trying to paint as “piracy” or “lack of respect for intellectual property”. Knowing the strength of the lobby, I wouldn’t be surprised if they get their wish.
Engage your opinion-evaluation centers and prepare for the rush. The Geeks of Doom take Mark Driscoll to task for his sermon against Avatar as a Satanic picture. I thought we already tried the Satanic Panic idea before, and while there was some hysteria, it ultimately faded. (According to the Slacktivist, we may be in the middle of another one, called the Tea Party.) At least he’s making a little more sense than Representative Trent Franks, who claims that blacks are now worse off than they were when they were slaves, because a 50% abortion rate (due mostly to lack of contraceptives, mind) is worse than a 100% slavery rate.
Mr. Gore responds to critics of climate change by pointing out what others have - mistakes do not defeat the entirety of the research.
Mr. Hanson says the President is doing what he should have been doing long ago, but now, it's too little and too late to prevent the demise of his agenda.
Mr. Will expresses his praise for Congressional Gridlock, indicating his pleasure with the atmosphere of “no” and how the founders of the country intended for no to be the default mode of government, and really this is just liberals whining anyway. If Barack Obama wanted to get stuff done, says Mr. Will, he should happily give the Republicans whatever they want and not worry at all about anything liberal, because it won’t happen.
More specifically on health care, Mr. Hewitt gives us lists of House members he wants his followers to call and e-mail to frighten them into voiting against a helath care reform plan, including sneaking past the filters designed so that you talk only to the House person in your Congressional district.
Mr. Barone assumes the President sees the nation as victims of greedy corporations needing saving by government, a viewpoint they reject because Americans would never self-describe as such, and believe in their independence and that making efforts should reap rewards. Excepting the spots when it’s true, we note, and that people really do get dicked around by big corporations. Americans are usually pretty pissed about getting shafted by anybody, be it government, corporation, or their neighbours. They believe in that independence and rewards for effort, yes, and they also believe people who impede that for their own selfish reasons, to pervert the relationship, or to stifle honest competition should be sent down to the lowest levels of hell. To characterize this as “Big Brother Knows Better” is to distort what’s actually being said - “Corporations are screwing you, and we’re probably the only entity that can force them back into line.” So let’s try again. Mr. Tucker says that The Market (All Praise to Its Name) is a perfectly good way of ensuring high-quality products and that government interference is unnecessary and drives up cost, under the name of protecting people from corporations. His example, that of a recall because of e. coli tainted meat, has one significant flaw in it - the outbreak had to happen before the company closed down. It reacts to the last disaster, instead of trying to catch the next one. It requires people to be injured before the company will do anything. And, as people have already demonstrated throughout time, even if a product is unsafe, some people will take their chances on it because it’s less expensive than the safe product. If it takes a product being demonstrated to be unsafe on a wide scale to get it off the market, then it’s too late. So while he decries the “government takeover” of health care, his alternative seems to be leaving the people to take their lives into their hands on the health care market, gamble, and hope they survive. Even Mr. Krauthammer is more sensible on this - and his analogy of the Toyota recalls would fit better.
Not that Republicans are helping - especially when they call one of their signature reforms a government takeover of health care, so they can call for it to happen and then be against it when it does.
Ms. Gingrich Cushman accuses the President of not listening to the people, by presenting his plan before the summit (which is all posturing, of course) and not doing like what Newt Gingrich, her dad, is doing and holding summits with the American people to see what they believe. Sprinkle in some Rasmussen statistics about how the people don’t like the bill and want to start over, don’t like the way the president is handling things, and prefer a piecemeal approach and it really does look like he’s just not listening. Except that people like the components of the plan, when presented to them, and I’m betting a solid amount of those negative feelings about his handling are that he hasn’t been doing enough, not that he’s been doing too much. This is why we call them Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics - numbers, devoid of context, will say anything you want them to. (As, apparently, might Mr. Gingrich, in his accusation that staffers are really the people who write legislative bills and Mr. Fund’s further commentary that those staffers are True Believers trying to rewrite one-sixth of the economy in one audacious stroke.)
Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota thinks emergency rooms should be able to turn away people who can't pay them, and thus, costs will magically go down...because then they don’t have to charge anyone else for the uncompensated care they’re doing in the ER. In his favor, he’s only saying this about minor issues that would be better treated at a primary care clinic. Against him, however, is the knowledge that people do go to the emergency room for minor things because they’re the only people who won’t turn the uninsured away. Wouldn’t it just be easier with a government plan?
However, saved for last is the stick by which many conservatives take their measure, either as thinking she’s okay, or running as far away from her as they can, Ms. Coulter, pontificating that the reason Democrats haven't already passed a bill is because the American people hate socialist health care, apparently complete with death panels (Lies), abortion coverage (Damned Lies, thank you very much, Mr. Stupak), and new government commissions to nationalize health care (okay, so we can’t do the statistics thing here, but I’d bet she’s down with the claims that the health care proposals all involve lots of new taxes that will impact the middle class more than the rich they intend to soak, not that the WSJ really seems to think rich people should pay more of taxes). That would be before she confirms she’s still a Birther, thinks elected Republicans are RINOs and the Tea Party is where the real GOP is at, (because they are devotees of the Market, All Praise To Its Name) and that the American people spoke loudly at the town halls and said “NO!” to health care. (Yes, those same town halls where astroturf groups had a field day spreading Lies, Damned Lies, and defective Statistics.) Like hell the populace would say no to real, functional health care - too many of them are without it for them to say, “Yes, we prefer to pay more for less coverage that can be arbitrarily dropped at any point once the company figures out how to do so, and to be denied coverage at any sort of affordable rate once we're sick and have been dropped once.” Once again, Ann Coulter, proof that you can in fact be paid to say anything, no matter how nonsensical, because there will always be a market for it.
Just remember, all, that there are substantial costs associated with doing nothing, as well. Very substantial costs.
In competition for the flaky pastry, Ms. Coulter, above, only warrants a bronze medal effort. Yes, there’s worse. Ms. Rios, for example, cannot stand the change she has seen in her beloved Wheaton College, headed away from its inception as a stop on the Underground Railroad and such luminous alumni as Billy Graham toward a liberal college that perverts the meaning of justice include homosexuals for consideration and allows the reading of Marx and Ayers, instead of their instantaneous denunciation and return to studying only the Bible and its commentators. (Okay, exaggeration on the last, but not much.) The college defends itself well, saying “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles”, but Ms. Rios brushes it aside by saying, Well, yes, but they’re all leftists that are teaching it. Leftists can’t be trusted, because all liberals and leftists are secularists and out to destroy G-d instead of glorifying him and producing good scholars that don’t question their religious beliefs and work to make sure those beliefs are enshrined in the law and the discourse of the nation.
At the top of the dungheap is John Yoo, justifier of torture, taking to the columns to once again justify torture and claim that the Obama administration is benefiting from his legal advice because they have the same powers that the last executive did, so he clearly can’t be wrong. And because of Mr. yoo’s continued defense, places like the Washington Times can proclaim openly on their pages that the United States should continue with assassination-type attacks, whether by humans or by unmanned aerial vehicles. Because the terrorists are subhumans and should die for their crimes, without arrest or trial.
Last for tonight, a church on a nudist resort that worships without clothing, ten of the worst female action figures of recent history, a close up look at how the Mad Hatter's Hat is constructed, and The Trustocorp photo stream, providing new and possibly more accurate signage for your urban environment.
