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Salutations to those who enjoy silly stories. Here’s one to start: Director Quentin Tarantino has been sued for plagarism because a sequence in Kill Bill resembles an idea that someone else submitted to Miramax in 1999. Um, how many raygun adventure stories do we have, again? The idea is not unique, the execution is, and I doubt somehow that Tarantino managed to magically make a shot-for-shot copy of this idea. That said, the suit itself shows some of the ravings of the plaintiff. Nothing will come of this, but it’s good fodder for the masses that demand titilation or filler material. (Like lists of the various classifications of "bitches").)
Much more seriously, we agree with the editorial writer here that insisting the law requires you only to give the protections listed in it and not to go further is rather stupid. The law should be the baseline minimum - anyone who wants to do more than that should be encouraged to do so, especially if it helps create a more harmonious atmosphere. And with examples of that, maybe the extended protections will become law, eventually.
Also in education nonsense, the Texas Board of Education has been hard at work making sure your children will not learn history in their history class - removing Thomas Jefferson and replacing him with John Calvin, getting rid of “sex and gender as social constructs” so as to avoid exposure to “transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else” (more on the apparently scary transvestites in your schools later), and steadfastly refusing to allow anyone of Hispanic origin into the social studies curriculum. Oh, and refusing to require that students actually learn what the First Amendment does with regard to religious exercise.
In our parenting department, Dana Shapiro gives us an excellent letter from a parent to their child about marijuana.
a historical mystery is solved - the CIA spiked French bread with LSD in 1951, sparking some very bad trips among the local French populace
Last out, the Dead Pool claims Corey Haim, 80s heartthrob.
Internationally, a paradox in Africa - poor starving nations offering much of their fertile farmland to other nations to grow export crops on. This sounds familiar, like we’ve done it before, and the results were pretty bad then, as I recall. The only possible saving throw here is that such business will have a change of profit heart and use the fruits of their techniques to feed the people whose land they’re using, instead of selling it off for profits.
Continuing in the economic theme, a high-ranking official in China indicated that they had no plans to utilize United States Treasury holdings as political pressure tools, likely calculating that the good will and profits lost from such a move are probably greater than what they could extract from the U.S. if they did.
A religious sect in Zimbabwe is responsible for the deaths of at least 110 children from mumps, a disease that can be defeated through simple immunization. To the rational, this is insane. To those with experience in cults, this is rather normal, even if it is indefensible.
BoingBoing interviews Jake Adelstein as the first part of a long relationship with him and his stories as an organized crime journalist in Japan. He’s met, angered, talked to, and written about the exploits and crimes of the yakuza syndicates in Japan. Bodyguards needed, yes. Titanium-cire umbrella, check. Bigger balls than just about anyone around? Those, too.
So long as they do their jobs properly, the United Kingdom has concluded that people belonging to a notably racist political organization should not be banned from teaching. This makes sense. Teaching racism as a philosophy to follow would be improper. Believing it, however, is someone’s free choice.
In an attempt to keep children needing more supervision, like the autistic, from endangering themselves at lunchtime, an Australian school erected a fenced-in area for the special-needs children to play in. This has not set well with everyone, with Opposition in the New South Wales government alleging it’s inhumane treatment. The school defends the necessity by saying that some kids won’t listen to directions and wouldn’t stop before going out into a busy road nearby.
Also in New South Wales, however, it is now legal to have "sex not specified" on one's official NSW identification documents.
Last out, a national judge in Argentina has reversed an earlier ruling that permitted two men to marry in the country. Strike Argentina off the Fruitbat list, at least for now. The Episcopalians are doing well, however, having elected a second openly homosexual person to be an assistant bishop. The decision needs to be ratified by the churches in her potential bishopric, but the Episcopalians are certainly at the forefront of Christian denominations on this kind of issue.
Domestically, a study indicates the median (the middle of a spread of data points) wealth of a single black woman, ages 36 to 49, is $5 USD. Not average wealth (that’s a mean), but the middle point along the spectrum is pretty close to 0. That tells me there are at least as many single black women in debt as there are out of it. For comparison, the median value for single white women in the same age group is $42,600 USD (and that’s only 61 percent of white white men make in the same age group). For all working black women, the median value is $100 USD, and for Hispanic women, $120 USD. Clearly, minorities are not getting ahead - perhaps this would be a good statistic to throw at people who think of minorities as welfare queens and lazy people - they need this kind of assistance just to stay afloat. (For the married or cohabitating, white women are $167,500 USD and black women are $31,500 USD, so marriage isn’t a panacea.) Speaking of the plight of minorities, the War on (Some) Drugs means large amounts of newly incarcerated on drug charges, who predominantly are minorities, and according to the writer, this means we’re creating an undercaste of minorities who are prohibited by law from exercising their rights and who can be discriminated against for their lives, much like the Jim Crow laws of previous years overtly discriminated against minorities. And then it hides under the cover of affirmative action and says “things are going great - we have black Presidents and CEOs. Clearly we are not racist.”
The Democratic Party has said "To Hell with Bart Stupak" and is now moving forward with health care bills and procedures, for which the progressive applaud, at least that things are moving forward.
On a different result, the children of two lesbian parents are being expelled from the Catholic school they attend, because the parents are lesbians and homosexuality is not acceptable to Catholic teaching. Which, because they are a private institution, they are well within their rights to do. They will draw protest groups asking them to readmit the students, pitting the love and tolerance message of the foundational writings against the "must teach the world about Jesus and the morality he professed (according to our interpretation)" message. The Archbishop of the parish where the school is explains his duty to be faithful to Catholic teachings in a Catholic school, and that while the situation is awkward, they cannot compromise on their beliefs. His argument is basically, “If the parents aren’t going to be good Catholics, then why are they sending their children to a Catholic school?” Past the point of “exclusion is a surefire way to get someone to stop listening to your message of salvation, so in expelling the kids, you’ve lost the chance to convert the parents as well”, there’s nothing really wrong with the logic, even if the results suck. The General is pleased, clearly, and suggests that the school go further and expel the children of parents who use birth control, also against Catholic teachings.
Elsewhere, Flordia wants to attract television and film to their state, but not if you have any of those icky nontraiditional people like homosexuals - there’s tax breaks for filmmakers involved, but only if they’re properly family friendly and suitable for a five year old. So no smoking, no cursing, no “obscene” things and definitely no homosexuals. Then again, if a reasonably respectable news publication such as the Washington Post is going to take heavy flak fire for featuring a kiss between two homosexual men on their cover article about gay marriage in Washington, D.C., then I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that states aren’t up for giving tax breaks to films that have all kinds of families in them. (Oh, did we mention that Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir is also not family friendly enough for the Stars On Ice tour?)
Ah, one last thing. The Traditional Values Council wants you to be afraid of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, because they claim it will allow cross-dressers, "drag queens" and the transgendered (or "transgender activists") to teach your children all about depraved acts, homosexuality, and fetishes, and the school won't be able to fire them! They’ll be trapped and indoctrinated that all of these alternative lifestyles are no different than traditional lifestyles. Excepting, of course, that ENDA does no such thing, and there is no “trapping” of children. After all, there’s always homsechooling or private schooling more in line with the parent’s religious beliefs. Here’s the reality: ENDA does prohibit discrimination on a host of factors, including gender identity. However, instead of the “men dressed as women” indoctrinating young schoolchildren about whatever sexual fetish the TVC performs in its closets while campaigning against them (baseless accusation, meet similarly baseless accusation), what ENDA does say is that employers can set reasonable standards for grooming and dress, and that employees who have transitioned or are transitioning must adhere to the grooming and dress standards for the gender they are presenting (or will present) as.
On the subject of money and medicine, Business Week looks into the lessons we can learn as someone analyses the costs and the decisions involved when a loved one has cancer, of the kind that should have killed him long before it did. The health care system gets a look as well, to try and find where all the money went, and the differences between insurances and what they will pay (and what gets passed on to the consumer) when the bills come due.
And more generally about money and spending, it's good to know that the federal government is devoting significant resources to ferreting out fraud in Recovery act spending.
A curious juxtaposition - not too soon after successfully getting Disney to drop "educational" from their Baby Einstein videos and offer refunds, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood was evicted from its home in the Judge Baker Children's Center. Campaign officials claim it happened soon after Disney talked to the Center. We wonder what was leveraged and pressured and applied that this is the end result.
People, remember that when we say “no cell phones in the theater”, we mean it. Perhaps not to the degree that we would stab you in the neck with a meat thermometer, but dirty looks and other intentional disruptions may head your way.
Look out, it’s technology! Like Facebook's new feature that will allow people to share the location of their status updates, Google rolling out the translation service that does audio in three languages and text in more than fifty, a study indicating we see through tools to tasks, and only see that we're using tools when they malfunction, and your eyes betray you on decision making by dilating your pupils just so.
Finally, Stickybits, an application that lets people attach virtual objects to barcodes, both those already in existence, and those that can be created. While it might not work for Where’s George, it would definitely work for archivist people who want to add barcodes to physical objects. Perhaps “scanning” the display next to an art exhibit would give you a three-dimensional rendering of what it looked like when it was intact? Lots of possibilities for this. I can also see geocaching, letterboxing, and Harajuku Fun Madness-style games taking advantage of the ability to stick barcodes anywhere.
And then, the opinions. The Slacktivist opens the debate tonight with the difference between Jeopardy politics, where facts and answers and correct responses matter, and Family Feud politics, where only the polls matter and the more misinformation that can be dumped on the populace to confuse them from the facts, the better, because misinformed people will poll favorably to what you want to construct as the will of the people. Guess who’s playing what type right now. (Not to say that they haven’t had role reversals over history...)
Michelle Rabil offers insight into what life is like for a woman after discovering and using an effective device to let her urinate standing up. It’s not wanting to become a man, just to be able to enjoy dropping trou without having to risk the toilet seat’s hidden dangers.
The WSJ sings the praises of elections in Iraq and wants the government to stay very involved, using Iraq as a pro-Western regime against the rest of the area. They’ve actually disguised where they want their hands to be pretty well.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics notes with interest the beeline the Washington Times makes toward "national security" and "safety" polls and commentary after claiming the American people think the country has lost international standing. They say the poll was conducted by left-leaning groups to wash their hands of any accusations of taint or bias, but they focus in a lot on the national security issues, instead of more broad issues. Sounds almost like a bait and switch. Much like how Mr. Sowell focuses exclusively on numbers that help his case that government stimulus is actually a private-sector depressant, because the government makes the climate look like lenders won’t get paid back, and completely ignoring the numbers like how much was paid out in executive bonuses or was funneled back into the practices that produced the need for a bailout. Mr. Sowell also believes the policies of the New Deal extended the Depression, instead of letting the magic of The Market (All Praise to Its Name) bring people back to prosperity.
Mr. Beck returns to the Worst Persons derby by not only recanting his attack on social justice, but doubling down, saying that Jesus wasn't about social justice. He gets bonus points in his quest by also praising Senator Joe McCarthy and claiming he's going to reveal a communist in the Obama White House. What, other than the President himself that you’ve been raving about?
Coming very close to victory tonight is the gentleman who enjoyed punching children in the back of the head with his keys between his fingers. The defense says he has mental problems, but he confessed to getting a thrill out of punching the kids while the parents were there.
However, because blowhards on Fox cannot and never will be able to beat actual action taken anywhere in the world, our winners of Worst Persons tonight goes to Principal Trae Wiygul, Assistanct Principal Rick Mitchell, Superintendent Theresa McNeece, all of Itawamba County Agricultural High School and the Itawamba County school board for canceling a prom rather than allow a student to bring her female date to the prom (and dress herself in a tuxedo). According to the lawsuit filed, the student requesting was told that she and her date would have to arrive separately, they could both be tossed if anyone felt uncomfortable with the two of them there together, and that girls must wear dresses - only boys get tuxedoes. The student has returned to school, but is also now the target of hostility because the prom was canceled over her.
Last out for tonight, Cracked wants to scare you - by showing you how video games (and especially MMOs) are deliberately designed to get you addicted, thanks to the mechanics of B.F. Skinner. And worse, they’re really good at it. That, and some abstract street-style art.
Much more seriously, we agree with the editorial writer here that insisting the law requires you only to give the protections listed in it and not to go further is rather stupid. The law should be the baseline minimum - anyone who wants to do more than that should be encouraged to do so, especially if it helps create a more harmonious atmosphere. And with examples of that, maybe the extended protections will become law, eventually.
Also in education nonsense, the Texas Board of Education has been hard at work making sure your children will not learn history in their history class - removing Thomas Jefferson and replacing him with John Calvin, getting rid of “sex and gender as social constructs” so as to avoid exposure to “transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else” (more on the apparently scary transvestites in your schools later), and steadfastly refusing to allow anyone of Hispanic origin into the social studies curriculum. Oh, and refusing to require that students actually learn what the First Amendment does with regard to religious exercise.
In our parenting department, Dana Shapiro gives us an excellent letter from a parent to their child about marijuana.
a historical mystery is solved - the CIA spiked French bread with LSD in 1951, sparking some very bad trips among the local French populace
Last out, the Dead Pool claims Corey Haim, 80s heartthrob.
Internationally, a paradox in Africa - poor starving nations offering much of their fertile farmland to other nations to grow export crops on. This sounds familiar, like we’ve done it before, and the results were pretty bad then, as I recall. The only possible saving throw here is that such business will have a change of profit heart and use the fruits of their techniques to feed the people whose land they’re using, instead of selling it off for profits.
Continuing in the economic theme, a high-ranking official in China indicated that they had no plans to utilize United States Treasury holdings as political pressure tools, likely calculating that the good will and profits lost from such a move are probably greater than what they could extract from the U.S. if they did.
A religious sect in Zimbabwe is responsible for the deaths of at least 110 children from mumps, a disease that can be defeated through simple immunization. To the rational, this is insane. To those with experience in cults, this is rather normal, even if it is indefensible.
BoingBoing interviews Jake Adelstein as the first part of a long relationship with him and his stories as an organized crime journalist in Japan. He’s met, angered, talked to, and written about the exploits and crimes of the yakuza syndicates in Japan. Bodyguards needed, yes. Titanium-cire umbrella, check. Bigger balls than just about anyone around? Those, too.
So long as they do their jobs properly, the United Kingdom has concluded that people belonging to a notably racist political organization should not be banned from teaching. This makes sense. Teaching racism as a philosophy to follow would be improper. Believing it, however, is someone’s free choice.
In an attempt to keep children needing more supervision, like the autistic, from endangering themselves at lunchtime, an Australian school erected a fenced-in area for the special-needs children to play in. This has not set well with everyone, with Opposition in the New South Wales government alleging it’s inhumane treatment. The school defends the necessity by saying that some kids won’t listen to directions and wouldn’t stop before going out into a busy road nearby.
Also in New South Wales, however, it is now legal to have "sex not specified" on one's official NSW identification documents.
Last out, a national judge in Argentina has reversed an earlier ruling that permitted two men to marry in the country. Strike Argentina off the Fruitbat list, at least for now. The Episcopalians are doing well, however, having elected a second openly homosexual person to be an assistant bishop. The decision needs to be ratified by the churches in her potential bishopric, but the Episcopalians are certainly at the forefront of Christian denominations on this kind of issue.
Domestically, a study indicates the median (the middle of a spread of data points) wealth of a single black woman, ages 36 to 49, is $5 USD. Not average wealth (that’s a mean), but the middle point along the spectrum is pretty close to 0. That tells me there are at least as many single black women in debt as there are out of it. For comparison, the median value for single white women in the same age group is $42,600 USD (and that’s only 61 percent of white white men make in the same age group). For all working black women, the median value is $100 USD, and for Hispanic women, $120 USD. Clearly, minorities are not getting ahead - perhaps this would be a good statistic to throw at people who think of minorities as welfare queens and lazy people - they need this kind of assistance just to stay afloat. (For the married or cohabitating, white women are $167,500 USD and black women are $31,500 USD, so marriage isn’t a panacea.) Speaking of the plight of minorities, the War on (Some) Drugs means large amounts of newly incarcerated on drug charges, who predominantly are minorities, and according to the writer, this means we’re creating an undercaste of minorities who are prohibited by law from exercising their rights and who can be discriminated against for their lives, much like the Jim Crow laws of previous years overtly discriminated against minorities. And then it hides under the cover of affirmative action and says “things are going great - we have black Presidents and CEOs. Clearly we are not racist.”
The Democratic Party has said "To Hell with Bart Stupak" and is now moving forward with health care bills and procedures, for which the progressive applaud, at least that things are moving forward.
On a different result, the children of two lesbian parents are being expelled from the Catholic school they attend, because the parents are lesbians and homosexuality is not acceptable to Catholic teaching. Which, because they are a private institution, they are well within their rights to do. They will draw protest groups asking them to readmit the students, pitting the love and tolerance message of the foundational writings against the "must teach the world about Jesus and the morality he professed (according to our interpretation)" message. The Archbishop of the parish where the school is explains his duty to be faithful to Catholic teachings in a Catholic school, and that while the situation is awkward, they cannot compromise on their beliefs. His argument is basically, “If the parents aren’t going to be good Catholics, then why are they sending their children to a Catholic school?” Past the point of “exclusion is a surefire way to get someone to stop listening to your message of salvation, so in expelling the kids, you’ve lost the chance to convert the parents as well”, there’s nothing really wrong with the logic, even if the results suck. The General is pleased, clearly, and suggests that the school go further and expel the children of parents who use birth control, also against Catholic teachings.
Elsewhere, Flordia wants to attract television and film to their state, but not if you have any of those icky nontraiditional people like homosexuals - there’s tax breaks for filmmakers involved, but only if they’re properly family friendly and suitable for a five year old. So no smoking, no cursing, no “obscene” things and definitely no homosexuals. Then again, if a reasonably respectable news publication such as the Washington Post is going to take heavy flak fire for featuring a kiss between two homosexual men on their cover article about gay marriage in Washington, D.C., then I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that states aren’t up for giving tax breaks to films that have all kinds of families in them. (Oh, did we mention that Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir is also not family friendly enough for the Stars On Ice tour?)
Ah, one last thing. The Traditional Values Council wants you to be afraid of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, because they claim it will allow cross-dressers, "drag queens" and the transgendered (or "transgender activists") to teach your children all about depraved acts, homosexuality, and fetishes, and the school won't be able to fire them! They’ll be trapped and indoctrinated that all of these alternative lifestyles are no different than traditional lifestyles. Excepting, of course, that ENDA does no such thing, and there is no “trapping” of children. After all, there’s always homsechooling or private schooling more in line with the parent’s religious beliefs. Here’s the reality: ENDA does prohibit discrimination on a host of factors, including gender identity. However, instead of the “men dressed as women” indoctrinating young schoolchildren about whatever sexual fetish the TVC performs in its closets while campaigning against them (baseless accusation, meet similarly baseless accusation), what ENDA does say is that employers can set reasonable standards for grooming and dress, and that employees who have transitioned or are transitioning must adhere to the grooming and dress standards for the gender they are presenting (or will present) as.
On the subject of money and medicine, Business Week looks into the lessons we can learn as someone analyses the costs and the decisions involved when a loved one has cancer, of the kind that should have killed him long before it did. The health care system gets a look as well, to try and find where all the money went, and the differences between insurances and what they will pay (and what gets passed on to the consumer) when the bills come due.
And more generally about money and spending, it's good to know that the federal government is devoting significant resources to ferreting out fraud in Recovery act spending.
A curious juxtaposition - not too soon after successfully getting Disney to drop "educational" from their Baby Einstein videos and offer refunds, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood was evicted from its home in the Judge Baker Children's Center. Campaign officials claim it happened soon after Disney talked to the Center. We wonder what was leveraged and pressured and applied that this is the end result.
People, remember that when we say “no cell phones in the theater”, we mean it. Perhaps not to the degree that we would stab you in the neck with a meat thermometer, but dirty looks and other intentional disruptions may head your way.
Look out, it’s technology! Like Facebook's new feature that will allow people to share the location of their status updates, Google rolling out the translation service that does audio in three languages and text in more than fifty, a study indicating we see through tools to tasks, and only see that we're using tools when they malfunction, and your eyes betray you on decision making by dilating your pupils just so.
Finally, Stickybits, an application that lets people attach virtual objects to barcodes, both those already in existence, and those that can be created. While it might not work for Where’s George, it would definitely work for archivist people who want to add barcodes to physical objects. Perhaps “scanning” the display next to an art exhibit would give you a three-dimensional rendering of what it looked like when it was intact? Lots of possibilities for this. I can also see geocaching, letterboxing, and Harajuku Fun Madness-style games taking advantage of the ability to stick barcodes anywhere.
And then, the opinions. The Slacktivist opens the debate tonight with the difference between Jeopardy politics, where facts and answers and correct responses matter, and Family Feud politics, where only the polls matter and the more misinformation that can be dumped on the populace to confuse them from the facts, the better, because misinformed people will poll favorably to what you want to construct as the will of the people. Guess who’s playing what type right now. (Not to say that they haven’t had role reversals over history...)
Michelle Rabil offers insight into what life is like for a woman after discovering and using an effective device to let her urinate standing up. It’s not wanting to become a man, just to be able to enjoy dropping trou without having to risk the toilet seat’s hidden dangers.
The WSJ sings the praises of elections in Iraq and wants the government to stay very involved, using Iraq as a pro-Western regime against the rest of the area. They’ve actually disguised where they want their hands to be pretty well.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics notes with interest the beeline the Washington Times makes toward "national security" and "safety" polls and commentary after claiming the American people think the country has lost international standing. They say the poll was conducted by left-leaning groups to wash their hands of any accusations of taint or bias, but they focus in a lot on the national security issues, instead of more broad issues. Sounds almost like a bait and switch. Much like how Mr. Sowell focuses exclusively on numbers that help his case that government stimulus is actually a private-sector depressant, because the government makes the climate look like lenders won’t get paid back, and completely ignoring the numbers like how much was paid out in executive bonuses or was funneled back into the practices that produced the need for a bailout. Mr. Sowell also believes the policies of the New Deal extended the Depression, instead of letting the magic of The Market (All Praise to Its Name) bring people back to prosperity.
Mr. Beck returns to the Worst Persons derby by not only recanting his attack on social justice, but doubling down, saying that Jesus wasn't about social justice. He gets bonus points in his quest by also praising Senator Joe McCarthy and claiming he's going to reveal a communist in the Obama White House. What, other than the President himself that you’ve been raving about?
Coming very close to victory tonight is the gentleman who enjoyed punching children in the back of the head with his keys between his fingers. The defense says he has mental problems, but he confessed to getting a thrill out of punching the kids while the parents were there.
However, because blowhards on Fox cannot and never will be able to beat actual action taken anywhere in the world, our winners of Worst Persons tonight goes to Principal Trae Wiygul, Assistanct Principal Rick Mitchell, Superintendent Theresa McNeece, all of Itawamba County Agricultural High School and the Itawamba County school board for canceling a prom rather than allow a student to bring her female date to the prom (and dress herself in a tuxedo). According to the lawsuit filed, the student requesting was told that she and her date would have to arrive separately, they could both be tossed if anyone felt uncomfortable with the two of them there together, and that girls must wear dresses - only boys get tuxedoes. The student has returned to school, but is also now the target of hostility because the prom was canceled over her.
Last out for tonight, Cracked wants to scare you - by showing you how video games (and especially MMOs) are deliberately designed to get you addicted, thanks to the mechanics of B.F. Skinner. And worse, they’re really good at it. That, and some abstract street-style art.
