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Cheers, technology enthusiasts! Celebrate a day named after Ada Lovelace, possibly the first computer programmer and, in my opinion, the potential real-world counterpart of Irene Adler.
For those looking for silly and the responses it gets when someone takes it too seriously, the story of a permission slip and the e-mail exchange that followed.
And for those looking to find rare things that others may not have thought of or seen - a comparison between Jewish and Southern culture, including their re-enactment rituals, and the shared idea of tragedy and trauma as the underpinnings of both cultures.
Finally, as time goes by, the amount and size of food on the table of the Last Supper has grown significantly. Perhaps this is the effect of the Prosperity Gospel? Or, more pedestrianly, the fact that as time went by, more food was available in stable markets contributed to the increase in sizes - looking backward and assuming that they had what we had.
Out in the world today, after a demonstration of, well, some amount of [more than 2,000 REDACTED in light of new evidence] students outside the hall she was set to speak at, Ann Coulter's event was canceled. Unsurpringly, Ms. Coulter is now trying to build it as a discrimination/hate case against her as a conservative, as opposed to the public safety issue the university said it was. Finding the truth about the matter appears to be damn near impossible, not just because of Ms. Coulter's intent to build a case, but all the finger-pointing, blame, and timelines that make it pretty hard to figure out who said and did what, when.
Domestically, It's official. The President signed into law the health care bill passed by the Senate and House of Representatives. And then, he will make good on his word and sign the executive order to reassure the vehemently anti-choice Democrats that the bill does not actually fund abortions. While there was a jubilant mood today, the Republicans are already into their roles as Opposition, offering bills to repeal the one just passed and amendments to the reconciliation package to force it to return to the House.
Attempting to hold Rush Limbaugh to his on-air promise (or at least to point out yet again that he is a hypocrite), a travel agency has offered him a free one-way ticket to Costa Rica. Recall that Mr. Limbaugh said on his program that if the health care bill passed and was signed into law, he would move outside the country, possibly to Costa Rica. We hope that Mr. Limbaugh is either a man of his word or apologizes for the words he used. He may, however, be one-upped by Mr. James Edwards, who hits several race-based "points" in his short rant about the health care bill, including “massive wealth transfer”, “blacks and browns always vote for socialism because it affects them the most” (without taking it out to the logical conclusion that this happens because there’s massive inequalities that might need fixing), and “blacks and browns shouldn’t be allowed to vote because they always vote for bigger government, something the Founders knew they would do.”
As for the elected officials, some of them have promised they won't cooperate with anything from here until November. The obvious rejoinder is the one mentioned - how does that threat change the status quo?
Having gotten that out of the way, we can get down to actual information, such as highlighting the many and varied taxes that will be levied as a result of the bill, although, being the Washington Times, they’re going to focus on the ones that affect the rich and the Joe Average Conservative.
Technologically, brain waves during meditation - more theta and alpha, indicating awareness and wakefulness, but also excellent rest, the He-Ne rain of Jupiter, the person who is credited with building the World Wide Web is now trying to build a semantic world wide web, another gadget that may be useful to the lifeblogger crowd, the first successful test of bending visible light around an object from multiple angles, and high suspicion that recent attacks on Google are the product of the Chinese government, which can only further the animosity between the company and the government.
And on opinions. First, Mr. Zerzan suggests the Dodd financial reform bill requires more scrutiny, as its intended consequences would give the Fed the power to regulate large businesses as if they were banks, because they deal in financial products. So the Fed can regulate whether Wal-Mart invests its pension funds in aggressive ventures that could wipe out the fund instead. That sounds like a good idea. But Mr. Zerzan suggests it will be used capriciously to declare anyone the government wants to get their hands on a systemic risk and then regulate them within an inch of hteir financial lives. We may both be right.
On health care, Dr. Peel suggests that patient records are insecure because of HIPAA, and that elecetronic records will only make the process of letting people who shouldn't know what's on your chart easier. Stronger controls and the ability to tell a doctor not to disclose certain data are the solutions suggested. The examples she cites, of data mining and of insurance companies using that information to muck with rates or deny coverage, are good for increased privacy, but also are a call to make with the real health care reform where we should be secure in the knowledge that going to the doctor doesn’t result in the loss of our job or our insurance.
Less, erm, informative, is an unsigned from the Washington Times criticizing the exemption of legislators, the executive, and their staff from the requirements of the health care bill. The Times wants you to believe that it says a lot about those in Washington when they make bills for you, the average person, but exempt themselves from the requirements. Had it been an actual health care bill with things like a public option or a single payer system, this exemption attack would hold more weight.
Less, er, sane, than that is Mr. Thomas, who starts out okay talking about costs and then devolves into rationing and bureaucratic control of your health care, as if it were a government takeover of the health system, which it is not. That particular thread is picked up and ran with all the way to the madhouse by Mr. Sowell, complete with “government gets all your medical records”, “the bill was passed without committee hearings or extended debates”, and a non-sequitur about how Obama could use this process to make illegal immigrants citizens, who would then turn him into a two-term President to do more work at “the dismantling of America” with. Has politics always been like this, and my belief that there were saner, cooler times much like those who wish for a nonexistent, Cleaver-esque 1950s to return?
As the matter is, that’s what we’ve got for tonight. Enjoy it. Or don’t.
For those looking for silly and the responses it gets when someone takes it too seriously, the story of a permission slip and the e-mail exchange that followed.
And for those looking to find rare things that others may not have thought of or seen - a comparison between Jewish and Southern culture, including their re-enactment rituals, and the shared idea of tragedy and trauma as the underpinnings of both cultures.
Finally, as time goes by, the amount and size of food on the table of the Last Supper has grown significantly. Perhaps this is the effect of the Prosperity Gospel? Or, more pedestrianly, the fact that as time went by, more food was available in stable markets contributed to the increase in sizes - looking backward and assuming that they had what we had.
Out in the world today, after a demonstration of, well, some amount of [more than 2,000 REDACTED in light of new evidence] students outside the hall she was set to speak at, Ann Coulter's event was canceled. Unsurpringly, Ms. Coulter is now trying to build it as a discrimination/hate case against her as a conservative, as opposed to the public safety issue the university said it was. Finding the truth about the matter appears to be damn near impossible, not just because of Ms. Coulter's intent to build a case, but all the finger-pointing, blame, and timelines that make it pretty hard to figure out who said and did what, when.
Domestically, It's official. The President signed into law the health care bill passed by the Senate and House of Representatives. And then, he will make good on his word and sign the executive order to reassure the vehemently anti-choice Democrats that the bill does not actually fund abortions. While there was a jubilant mood today, the Republicans are already into their roles as Opposition, offering bills to repeal the one just passed and amendments to the reconciliation package to force it to return to the House.
Attempting to hold Rush Limbaugh to his on-air promise (or at least to point out yet again that he is a hypocrite), a travel agency has offered him a free one-way ticket to Costa Rica. Recall that Mr. Limbaugh said on his program that if the health care bill passed and was signed into law, he would move outside the country, possibly to Costa Rica. We hope that Mr. Limbaugh is either a man of his word or apologizes for the words he used. He may, however, be one-upped by Mr. James Edwards, who hits several race-based "points" in his short rant about the health care bill, including “massive wealth transfer”, “blacks and browns always vote for socialism because it affects them the most” (without taking it out to the logical conclusion that this happens because there’s massive inequalities that might need fixing), and “blacks and browns shouldn’t be allowed to vote because they always vote for bigger government, something the Founders knew they would do.”
As for the elected officials, some of them have promised they won't cooperate with anything from here until November. The obvious rejoinder is the one mentioned - how does that threat change the status quo?
Having gotten that out of the way, we can get down to actual information, such as highlighting the many and varied taxes that will be levied as a result of the bill, although, being the Washington Times, they’re going to focus on the ones that affect the rich and the Joe Average Conservative.
Technologically, brain waves during meditation - more theta and alpha, indicating awareness and wakefulness, but also excellent rest, the He-Ne rain of Jupiter, the person who is credited with building the World Wide Web is now trying to build a semantic world wide web, another gadget that may be useful to the lifeblogger crowd, the first successful test of bending visible light around an object from multiple angles, and high suspicion that recent attacks on Google are the product of the Chinese government, which can only further the animosity between the company and the government.
And on opinions. First, Mr. Zerzan suggests the Dodd financial reform bill requires more scrutiny, as its intended consequences would give the Fed the power to regulate large businesses as if they were banks, because they deal in financial products. So the Fed can regulate whether Wal-Mart invests its pension funds in aggressive ventures that could wipe out the fund instead. That sounds like a good idea. But Mr. Zerzan suggests it will be used capriciously to declare anyone the government wants to get their hands on a systemic risk and then regulate them within an inch of hteir financial lives. We may both be right.
On health care, Dr. Peel suggests that patient records are insecure because of HIPAA, and that elecetronic records will only make the process of letting people who shouldn't know what's on your chart easier. Stronger controls and the ability to tell a doctor not to disclose certain data are the solutions suggested. The examples she cites, of data mining and of insurance companies using that information to muck with rates or deny coverage, are good for increased privacy, but also are a call to make with the real health care reform where we should be secure in the knowledge that going to the doctor doesn’t result in the loss of our job or our insurance.
Less, erm, informative, is an unsigned from the Washington Times criticizing the exemption of legislators, the executive, and their staff from the requirements of the health care bill. The Times wants you to believe that it says a lot about those in Washington when they make bills for you, the average person, but exempt themselves from the requirements. Had it been an actual health care bill with things like a public option or a single payer system, this exemption attack would hold more weight.
Less, er, sane, than that is Mr. Thomas, who starts out okay talking about costs and then devolves into rationing and bureaucratic control of your health care, as if it were a government takeover of the health system, which it is not. That particular thread is picked up and ran with all the way to the madhouse by Mr. Sowell, complete with “government gets all your medical records”, “the bill was passed without committee hearings or extended debates”, and a non-sequitur about how Obama could use this process to make illegal immigrants citizens, who would then turn him into a two-term President to do more work at “the dismantling of America” with. Has politics always been like this, and my belief that there were saner, cooler times much like those who wish for a nonexistent, Cleaver-esque 1950s to return?
As the matter is, that’s what we’ve got for tonight. Enjoy it. Or don’t.
