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One of two very late posts - 3 March 2010
Mar. 5th, 2010 12:46 pmHello, patrons of the arts and sciences. Today, we begin with pictures from the World Press Photo Awards, that document for us more than we will ever see in our lives. From there, we learn Roger Ebert has found his speaking voice again, thanks to a customized synthesizer profile that allows his computer to speak with his own voice, instead of with Microsoft Bob. The profile was developed from the many commentaries that Mr. Ebert has done for movies over time.
Finally, The Smithsonian has declined to accept the suit OJ Simpson wore when he as acquitted of the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Out in the world, The United Kingdom's House of Lords voted in favor of removing a ban on homosexuals using churches to perform their civil ceremonies. This does not compel religious leaders to allow homosexuals into their churches, but it does permit those that wish to allow homosexuals to use their church grounds to do so.
A NATO ship sank a logistics center for pirates raiding the Horn of Africa, destroying a large boat that would provide supply and refueling for smaller attack ships.
United Kingdom efforts to increase biofuel usage may be causing more climate damage than they save, based on the carbon released by cutting of rainforests and other areas to make fields for biofuel crops. Something is not working here, clearly.
A prominent imam in the United Kingdom issued a fatwa against radicalization of Islam and condemning the usage of human bombs. Unfortunately, the impact of it may be rather limited, as he is not of the sects most likely to produce human bombs.
Last, Tran Van Hay, possibly the person with the world's longest hair, has passed away.
In the United States, formal legislation to repeal the ban on homosexuals serving in the military was introduced today.
Furthermore, Senator Bunning has relented on his objections, allowing the bill to extend unemployment benefits (among other things) to be passed. Senator Bunning said he would continue to insist that Congress find ways of paying for their programs, rather than continuing to deficit spend, so we might see more of this tactic in the future. Beforehand, Senator Bunning had tested out the General's Intertubes broadcast with a proposal for the unemployed, lacking bread, to eat sh*t instead. While it wouldn't pass in either house, the bill to give Congresscritters a pay cut would be a much better option, if one wants to make it look good in the symbolism department.
Finally, some worries about the debts of the American government that aren't officially noted in the debt figure, because of the methods of accounting the government uses to detemine its official debts.
Technology unfolds with pizoelectric technology providing a haptic response to touch screens, so that one gets a better feel for the buttons, a study, needing more rigorous confirmation tests, that suggests the brain might prefer equality to inequality, and an indication that we are happier with good experiences than we are with material things. So get the massage instead of the flat-screen.
In the opinions, The Indianapolis Star puts forward an unsigned about the continued stranglehold special interest money has on corporations and the indifference Congress has toward the ethical problems of campaign contributers getting earmakrs. They lay the problem out pretty well - in the current time, money is equated with speech, so those that have the money get to speak, and thus get rewarded with earmarks and contracts, often worth more than the money they invested in purchasing the voice of their Congresscritter. The Washinton Times adds their voice to the plea to get corrupt bums out by detailing the charges against the VA's director of special events, where she supposedly billed taxpayers for trips, required subordinates to get in on a marketing campaign for a friend's private business, and granted herself lots of compensated time off.
The attorney for Mr. Handley, who pled guilty on obscenity charges for manga, details why the law as it is poses serious chilling effects on protected speech and has serious shortcomings in determining a non-vague standard for what obscenity is. Mr. Chase lays it all out nicely, including how "community standards" really can mean "the most conservative, repressive person in the community's standards" when applying the Miller standard.
Mr. Hedges speaks of the decline of American desire for news and objective facts as the reason behind the death of real journalism.
On the other side of the spectrum, Mr. Reynolds accuses Mr. Gore of lying about the increased presence of water vapor in the atmosphere, claiming that the material Mr. Gore cited only predicted increases, and those predicted increases have not come to pass, so Gore is a liar and climate change is also a lie.
Senator DeMint takes time off from his duties as a blocker to opine about the dangers of a federal land grab he believes will happen, based entirely on a leaked memorandum detailing how the President could prevent certain lands from being developed by designating them to be monuments. Because it "reads like a wish list for the environmental left", of course the President is planning on doing just that, without telling or consulting anyone. Doing so also reaps the consequences of "more jobless because there's less land to develop or exploit the resources of", according to the Senator.
Mr. Stephens draws a very tortured line between Milton Friedman, economist at the University of Chicago, and the reason why the death toll in Chile on the earthquake is small. It's because, apparently, when Pinochet took power, he liberalized and privatized the economy, on advice from students of Friedman, and his successors did so as well, resulting in great amounts of personal wealth for Chileans, giving them the ability to build and enforce building codes, those same codes that kept most of the buildings standing after the quake. The Market (All Praise To Its Name) saved lives, he suggests. We blink at his chain of logic. Ms. Klein does us one better in refuting it and pointing out where Mr. Stephens' analysis falls short or leaves out the complete picture.
Mr. Boortz writes the foreword to today's quiche derby, hitting the "elitist Democrat, dumb people", "government takeover" and "Obama hates the private sector, and by extension, hates Americans having jobs" talking points all within a few paragraphs. It's quite the model of efficiency, actually. It does draw heavily on you believing that the Democrats and the President are deliberately destroying the economy through entitlement demands so they can rework our free-market democracy into socialism, though.
Mr. Berlau goes into great detail about how the government will be able to force corporations to do the bidding of radical lefitsts if it passes a bill allowing for "proxy access" to those companies. From what I gather, it's a means of letting shareholders have a voice in their company running, on issues like CEO pay, but also a means of letting shareholders run their own candidates without the burden of having to finance them. What this means to Mr. Berlau, however, is that unions and pressure groups that own a significant amount of corporate stock in their pension funds will be able to run candidates more friendly to them at the expense of the corporation, and their stock holdings will force boards and CEOs to give in to their radical demands if they want to be elected And this is a problem...how? Publicly traded company - shareholders are voters, shareholders run and elect candidates based on those votes. Mr. Berlau is now suddenly frightened that interest groups that he's unfriendly to will be able to make their voices be heard in corporations. Perhaps now he'll join the crowd that thinks the Citizens United decision was a bad one? It would be logically consistent. From the beginning of his column, though, it doesn't look to be the case.
Going further in, Mr. Sowell ventures beyond his expertise in decrying how intellectuals venture beyond their expertise and drag everyone down with them, as the economist, in a publication called "Investor's Business Daily" talks about political beliefs that intellectuals have, the political consequences of those political decisions, how intellectuals don't know as much as the people they're making decision for, and makes historical comparisons between policies of the past and the time now, critical of the current administration, of course. There has to be a word for this situation. Hypocrisy, maybe, although that's always implied deliberate knowledge in my experience. Either way, it's worth the silver medal.
The Gold Effort for tonight, however, and winner of the flaky pastry, (and giving Investors Business Daily two of the three podium positions), is Phyllis Schlafly, convinced that liberals are under every rock, and that they're now indoctrinating high schoolers into radical socialism through a Presidential program. Organizing for America, the item in question, is an internship program for learning the trade of community organization and then from there, work in community service. Ms. Schlafly says Republicans will be weeded out somehow, through questions that get students to reveal their politics, like "What issue do you think is the most important" If that's the case, then why is she worried that already-left students will be taught leftist ideology? It's not much of a threat to you if people who are already sympathetic to your opposition get help from there - they were probably already going. If she wanted to try and scare you, it would have been much better to do "they're going to make your kids learn all this socialism, regardless of their political beliefs or yours!", but that's probably even more fact-checkable. So... yeah, maybe this shouldn't be the gold effort after all...
Last for tonight, sacred sites around the world, based on creation stories, places where the deities came down to Terra, and the places where the gods make their residence.
Finally, The Smithsonian has declined to accept the suit OJ Simpson wore when he as acquitted of the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Out in the world, The United Kingdom's House of Lords voted in favor of removing a ban on homosexuals using churches to perform their civil ceremonies. This does not compel religious leaders to allow homosexuals into their churches, but it does permit those that wish to allow homosexuals to use their church grounds to do so.
A NATO ship sank a logistics center for pirates raiding the Horn of Africa, destroying a large boat that would provide supply and refueling for smaller attack ships.
United Kingdom efforts to increase biofuel usage may be causing more climate damage than they save, based on the carbon released by cutting of rainforests and other areas to make fields for biofuel crops. Something is not working here, clearly.
A prominent imam in the United Kingdom issued a fatwa against radicalization of Islam and condemning the usage of human bombs. Unfortunately, the impact of it may be rather limited, as he is not of the sects most likely to produce human bombs.
Last, Tran Van Hay, possibly the person with the world's longest hair, has passed away.
In the United States, formal legislation to repeal the ban on homosexuals serving in the military was introduced today.
Furthermore, Senator Bunning has relented on his objections, allowing the bill to extend unemployment benefits (among other things) to be passed. Senator Bunning said he would continue to insist that Congress find ways of paying for their programs, rather than continuing to deficit spend, so we might see more of this tactic in the future. Beforehand, Senator Bunning had tested out the General's Intertubes broadcast with a proposal for the unemployed, lacking bread, to eat sh*t instead. While it wouldn't pass in either house, the bill to give Congresscritters a pay cut would be a much better option, if one wants to make it look good in the symbolism department.
Finally, some worries about the debts of the American government that aren't officially noted in the debt figure, because of the methods of accounting the government uses to detemine its official debts.
Technology unfolds with pizoelectric technology providing a haptic response to touch screens, so that one gets a better feel for the buttons, a study, needing more rigorous confirmation tests, that suggests the brain might prefer equality to inequality, and an indication that we are happier with good experiences than we are with material things. So get the massage instead of the flat-screen.
In the opinions, The Indianapolis Star puts forward an unsigned about the continued stranglehold special interest money has on corporations and the indifference Congress has toward the ethical problems of campaign contributers getting earmakrs. They lay the problem out pretty well - in the current time, money is equated with speech, so those that have the money get to speak, and thus get rewarded with earmarks and contracts, often worth more than the money they invested in purchasing the voice of their Congresscritter. The Washinton Times adds their voice to the plea to get corrupt bums out by detailing the charges against the VA's director of special events, where she supposedly billed taxpayers for trips, required subordinates to get in on a marketing campaign for a friend's private business, and granted herself lots of compensated time off.
The attorney for Mr. Handley, who pled guilty on obscenity charges for manga, details why the law as it is poses serious chilling effects on protected speech and has serious shortcomings in determining a non-vague standard for what obscenity is. Mr. Chase lays it all out nicely, including how "community standards" really can mean "the most conservative, repressive person in the community's standards" when applying the Miller standard.
Mr. Hedges speaks of the decline of American desire for news and objective facts as the reason behind the death of real journalism.
On the other side of the spectrum, Mr. Reynolds accuses Mr. Gore of lying about the increased presence of water vapor in the atmosphere, claiming that the material Mr. Gore cited only predicted increases, and those predicted increases have not come to pass, so Gore is a liar and climate change is also a lie.
Senator DeMint takes time off from his duties as a blocker to opine about the dangers of a federal land grab he believes will happen, based entirely on a leaked memorandum detailing how the President could prevent certain lands from being developed by designating them to be monuments. Because it "reads like a wish list for the environmental left", of course the President is planning on doing just that, without telling or consulting anyone. Doing so also reaps the consequences of "more jobless because there's less land to develop or exploit the resources of", according to the Senator.
Mr. Stephens draws a very tortured line between Milton Friedman, economist at the University of Chicago, and the reason why the death toll in Chile on the earthquake is small. It's because, apparently, when Pinochet took power, he liberalized and privatized the economy, on advice from students of Friedman, and his successors did so as well, resulting in great amounts of personal wealth for Chileans, giving them the ability to build and enforce building codes, those same codes that kept most of the buildings standing after the quake. The Market (All Praise To Its Name) saved lives, he suggests. We blink at his chain of logic. Ms. Klein does us one better in refuting it and pointing out where Mr. Stephens' analysis falls short or leaves out the complete picture.
Mr. Boortz writes the foreword to today's quiche derby, hitting the "elitist Democrat, dumb people", "government takeover" and "Obama hates the private sector, and by extension, hates Americans having jobs" talking points all within a few paragraphs. It's quite the model of efficiency, actually. It does draw heavily on you believing that the Democrats and the President are deliberately destroying the economy through entitlement demands so they can rework our free-market democracy into socialism, though.
Mr. Berlau goes into great detail about how the government will be able to force corporations to do the bidding of radical lefitsts if it passes a bill allowing for "proxy access" to those companies. From what I gather, it's a means of letting shareholders have a voice in their company running, on issues like CEO pay, but also a means of letting shareholders run their own candidates without the burden of having to finance them. What this means to Mr. Berlau, however, is that unions and pressure groups that own a significant amount of corporate stock in their pension funds will be able to run candidates more friendly to them at the expense of the corporation, and their stock holdings will force boards and CEOs to give in to their radical demands if they want to be elected And this is a problem...how? Publicly traded company - shareholders are voters, shareholders run and elect candidates based on those votes. Mr. Berlau is now suddenly frightened that interest groups that he's unfriendly to will be able to make their voices be heard in corporations. Perhaps now he'll join the crowd that thinks the Citizens United decision was a bad one? It would be logically consistent. From the beginning of his column, though, it doesn't look to be the case.
Going further in, Mr. Sowell ventures beyond his expertise in decrying how intellectuals venture beyond their expertise and drag everyone down with them, as the economist, in a publication called "Investor's Business Daily" talks about political beliefs that intellectuals have, the political consequences of those political decisions, how intellectuals don't know as much as the people they're making decision for, and makes historical comparisons between policies of the past and the time now, critical of the current administration, of course. There has to be a word for this situation. Hypocrisy, maybe, although that's always implied deliberate knowledge in my experience. Either way, it's worth the silver medal.
The Gold Effort for tonight, however, and winner of the flaky pastry, (and giving Investors Business Daily two of the three podium positions), is Phyllis Schlafly, convinced that liberals are under every rock, and that they're now indoctrinating high schoolers into radical socialism through a Presidential program. Organizing for America, the item in question, is an internship program for learning the trade of community organization and then from there, work in community service. Ms. Schlafly says Republicans will be weeded out somehow, through questions that get students to reveal their politics, like "What issue do you think is the most important" If that's the case, then why is she worried that already-left students will be taught leftist ideology? It's not much of a threat to you if people who are already sympathetic to your opposition get help from there - they were probably already going. If she wanted to try and scare you, it would have been much better to do "they're going to make your kids learn all this socialism, regardless of their political beliefs or yours!", but that's probably even more fact-checkable. So... yeah, maybe this shouldn't be the gold effort after all...
Last for tonight, sacred sites around the world, based on creation stories, places where the deities came down to Terra, and the places where the gods make their residence.
