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Let’s rumble! First, we start with the overwhelming cute: kitties! Rescued kitties nourished and played with by soliders, some who have now made it to the United States are are awaiting the time when their soldiers come home. Lots of pictures of the adorable.
And then, a setback. Hawaii's governor refused entry into the century of the Fruitbat, vetoing a bill that would have given marriage-functionally-equivalent civil partnerships for same-sex couples in the state. And in doing so, said that such a decision should not be decided by one person or a group of legislators. Pot. Kettle. *bang* Ow. *bang* Ow. *bang* Ow.
That said, two rulings in the United States District Court of Boston struck down part of the Defense Of Marriage Act, concluding that the Tenth Amendment grants the states the power to decide on whether they will allow same-sex marriages in one case, and the government’s prejudice against same-sex couples is “irrational” and that such denial is a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment in the other. Thus, liberals have a cheering point for federalism and conservatives may find themselves awkwardly fighting against the Tenth Amendment many of them profess to enshrine. Politics in this country always produces ease of hypocrisy and the need to keep your views updated. (If you looked through my own writings, from the beginning to now, you could probably spot some evolutions of view such that I would be fighting my previous self on issues.)
If you bank with HSBC or other organizations and they send you debit cards in the mail, be careful - the card they send may already be activated, despite supposedly needing a phone call to activate. Soemone committing mail fraud or other such crimes would then be able to get all of your funds with you only wiser when you find your payments bouncing (with associated fees for that tacked on by your bank).
Out in the world today, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates suggested that the United States pre-emptively glass Iran, preferring the problems that would generate to the problems of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Military aid to India might irk Pakistan, according to Pentagon officials, which is always the danger of appearing to take sides in someone else’s conflict, even if what you’re doing has no relation to that conflict.
As the International Court of Justice gets ready to render a verdict on Kosovo's independence declaration, violence marred the area and Serbia around it. If the ruling is in Kosovo’s favor, waht then? Having to fight a war of independence?
Prisoner-swaps may be on the horizon, as the United States and Russia negotiate to exchange spies with each other. With the convictions of the other persons in the case, I’m sure this will be a much easier negotiation to do.
And finally, the military comissions system set up by the previous admministrator and continued by this one has obtained its second conviction. Two, two convictions, ah, ah, ah. In that long of time. Perhaps that says something about the system?
Domestically, well, any port in a storm when it comes to recession solutions, one might say, excepting that some of the ports of call are clearly not ready for primetime. For example, a candidate for Minnesota governor has said they should cut the minimum wage of tip-earning employees down at least to the federal minimum of $2.63 from the $5.25 the state mandates. Because cutting worker wages is exactly what you want to do when you’re trying to stimulate an economy and spending.
And then there’s the oil spill - a place where in their neverending quest to not have to pay for their spill, BP is apparently planning on deducting claim amounts from those who don't want to risk their health and help clean as forfeited income. This from the company that insists the people helping clean up not take basic safety precautions. Health-damned if you do, income-damned if you don’t. Which reminds me - some oil spill claimants may have until tomorrow to file insurance claims, even if they're not currently affected, because of their insurance deadlines. Claim on day 80, even if oil doesn’t hit you until day 100? Seems not right to me. And if you haven’t had enough stomach-turning stuff for one post, a simulation of what would happen if the spill continues for approximately a full year.
In the race to see who is more Tea Party or libertarian than the other, Republican Todd Tihart wins by declaring that "accidents happen" with regard to massive oil spills, in addition to also saying that he once believed children shouldn’t be punished if their parents immigrate in illegally, but he no longer has that compassion in him.
Lest you think that Muslims have found some measure of acceptance in our post-11 September world, think again. A CNN editor was fired for saying that she had some respect for a cleric that was against honor killings and violence against women, even as he justified the use of human explosives and beleives that Zionists have inflated the number of actual dead at the Holocaust. Which, I suppose, means that fans of Orson Scott Card are all anti-homophobic, Anne McCaffery fans are all patriarchy-supporters and Roger Ebert’s fans are all dismissive of video games as an art form. Sanity check, please?
Furthermore, in New york, three different projects to build a mosque, one potentially close to where the WTC towers stood, are met with strong opposition from the residents, some that can be characterized as anti-Islam, some that can sound like venting brought on because they’re still smarting after the 11 September attacks, and some that are less ideological in nature, like logistics, traffic flow, and the like.
Mathematical market model using fractals to discern apparent market pattens says we're going to crash and crash hard in the market over the next few years, like Dow Jones Industrial Average under 1,000 kind of crash.
The Transportation Security Administration has reversed its earlier policy on blocking work websites with "controversial opinions", indicating that “controversial opinions” was more of a catchall for websites that advocating self-injury or things like that, rather than opinions that might differ from the official policy of the TSA.
And finally, Glenn Beck should fire his research team - they could not do what it took two seconds of Google to find out - that there were no cameras in the Senate before 1974, thus there would be no footage of Senator Byrd’s opposition to the Civil Rights Act. Sometimes you have to remember that the past isn’t like the present, Glenn...
In technology, it looks like the proton is a smaller particle that we had previously thought, based on new experiments with the really big particle smasher in Switzerland. Verification and error-checking are underway to make sure the results are valid, with the potential of mucking around with a lot of particle equations should they hold up.
Meet Perfect Citizen, the program the government is launching to attempt to protect critical infrastrcutre in case of cuberattack.
And then, the first FDA-cleared implantable telescope to help those with advanced-stage macular degeneration keep their sight, vibrating car seats to warn us of vehicles in our blind spots,
A double opinion skillfully weaved together opens our section tonight - the director of a film that will star Lindsay Lohan suggests that her bad-girl status and 90-day jail sentence for failing to show up at her court-appointed classes are both media driven, first that Lindsay picked up the bad firl status for doing things the media would let men do with a wink and a nod, and then when they went looking for a narrative of repentance and reform and instead got expletives written on fingernails, they decided it was time to demonize Ms. Lohan and make her into a pariah in the public opinion.
Conspiracist Alex Jones and others transform a TED talk from Bill Gates about increased vaccinations hopefully resulting in lower populations and CO2 emissions into the vaccination becoming a sterilization. The Gates argument is: Better health encourages fewer kids, on average, because you don’t have to have 11 to be sure the 3 you need to maintain your life will survive long enough. Mr. Jones and co go for the simple but wrong: “More kids surviving won’t mean a reduction in population. Sterilization must be the answer, then.”
In politics, Ms. Coulter comes out firing hot at anyone criticizing Michael Steele or trying to point out that Afghanistan was started by someone else - the war is Obama’s, she claims, because he’s been escalating it and “nation-building”, instead of George W. Bush, who went in, stomped people, set up a puppet, declared victory, and went on to Iraq. (And then stuck around for years after that, even after declaring mission accomplished.) Furthermore, she says, Republicans are allowed to be anti-war. They are, yes, but if you’re publicly saying one thing and privately saying another, and you’re the chair of a major political party, the hypocrisy accusations are going to be thick.
Ms. Glick spends much column space saying that if the West is going to fight, they have to fight to win and be willing to hold wherever they fight until they have properly established control that will function in their absence. If you fight, fight to win, then occupy your conquered territory until it’s to your liking. Don’t worry about the locals - they’re going to submit to your colonial guidance [recordscratch] err, wisdom and governance soon enough. And anyone who thinks that perhaps this is the wrong way to go is a defeatist who wants to see terrorists return to power. We’re assuming that when Ms. Glick espouses the buy and hold theory, she thoroughly intends for us to think about whether we still want to be holding that territory in ten years, twenty years, fifty years, however long it will take for us to establish either a proper puppet or for a nascent democracy movement to stand up to us and tell us to get the hell out. If that’s the case, then continue with your advocating, but don’t be surprised if you find few takers. And be prepared to have to deal with the consequences of supporting a government that might decide that it wants to stay Islamic and not tolerate other religious beliefs.
Mr. Blankley is a bit more pragmatic, suggesting that if defat happens in Afghanistan, it is because mixed messages and multiple meanings made for a mess where people think one thing and act accordingly, even if something else was meant.
In our, “No, Really?” department, Mr. Stossel, columnist and analyst, says that lawuers are creating problems, adding unnecessary costs, and stifling innovation with lawsuits, implying they do so because the potential for lots of money is good. Again, Mr. Stossel, columnist, analyst, and maker of opinions with which he hopes to influence the world and get paid handsomely for doing so, is complaining about lawyers influencing opinion and making problems because they think the money is good. You can’t really make this stuff up.
The Washington Times produces an unsigned suggesting the Obama administration is selling out the security of the southern border for ideology and anmesty, claiming that federal law already encourages illegal immigration by asking them to report wage violations, and claiming the increasingly smaller fig leaf that the Papers Please law has safeguards against racial profiling. Said fig leaf, mind you, has a lot of people who think it’s worthwhile, as more than $500,000 USD has come in by small donation amounts to a legal defense fund for the law.
Mr. Williams trots out the Founding Fathers of the United States to back up his own positions on various laws and decisions, including the government spending money on entitlements at all, the Kelo decision, and the right of revolution brought on by the Second Amendment.
The Washington Times is suddenly a defender of the space program, now that it's going to have cuts introduced and that nations they don't like, nations with Islam as the primary religion, are developing space programs. And where were they when all the anti-science idiots were running freely in the halls of government and being elected to education positions across the country? If they’re serious about funding space research, then someone’s got to convince the government that they have to spend the money on it. Possibly by cutting some pork from, say, the military-industrial complex, closing down the two land wars in Asia and then cancelling the contracts that associate with it, so there’s a whole lot of money that can be poured into science and veterans care and other things? Plus, while Islam may have cut science off for a part of their time, doesn’t that mean we need to step up our efforts to reintroduce it and get the brilliant minds that are surely there working on programs and projects that will help us all out?
Last out of opinions for tonight, Mr. Lakoff on the need for progressives to start speaking in the progressive frame, not the conservative frame, and to build the messaging sytems needed to strengthen their frame over the long-term. Progressives need the equivalents of Rush, Beck, Hannity, and the rest of conservative talk radio ant television to keep pushing the messages out under the progressive frame of mind, and then act progressively in legislation, instead of letting pollsters push them more to the right because conservative language is the default for most people in the country, instead of progressive langauge.
Last for tonight, H. Allen Smith reacts to two gifts he received for the holidays, one from his proctologist, one from someone who thought he was an irritating ass.
And then, a setback. Hawaii's governor refused entry into the century of the Fruitbat, vetoing a bill that would have given marriage-functionally-equivalent civil partnerships for same-sex couples in the state. And in doing so, said that such a decision should not be decided by one person or a group of legislators. Pot. Kettle. *bang* Ow. *bang* Ow. *bang* Ow.
That said, two rulings in the United States District Court of Boston struck down part of the Defense Of Marriage Act, concluding that the Tenth Amendment grants the states the power to decide on whether they will allow same-sex marriages in one case, and the government’s prejudice against same-sex couples is “irrational” and that such denial is a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment in the other. Thus, liberals have a cheering point for federalism and conservatives may find themselves awkwardly fighting against the Tenth Amendment many of them profess to enshrine. Politics in this country always produces ease of hypocrisy and the need to keep your views updated. (If you looked through my own writings, from the beginning to now, you could probably spot some evolutions of view such that I would be fighting my previous self on issues.)
If you bank with HSBC or other organizations and they send you debit cards in the mail, be careful - the card they send may already be activated, despite supposedly needing a phone call to activate. Soemone committing mail fraud or other such crimes would then be able to get all of your funds with you only wiser when you find your payments bouncing (with associated fees for that tacked on by your bank).
Out in the world today, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates suggested that the United States pre-emptively glass Iran, preferring the problems that would generate to the problems of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Military aid to India might irk Pakistan, according to Pentagon officials, which is always the danger of appearing to take sides in someone else’s conflict, even if what you’re doing has no relation to that conflict.
As the International Court of Justice gets ready to render a verdict on Kosovo's independence declaration, violence marred the area and Serbia around it. If the ruling is in Kosovo’s favor, waht then? Having to fight a war of independence?
Prisoner-swaps may be on the horizon, as the United States and Russia negotiate to exchange spies with each other. With the convictions of the other persons in the case, I’m sure this will be a much easier negotiation to do.
And finally, the military comissions system set up by the previous admministrator and continued by this one has obtained its second conviction. Two, two convictions, ah, ah, ah. In that long of time. Perhaps that says something about the system?
Domestically, well, any port in a storm when it comes to recession solutions, one might say, excepting that some of the ports of call are clearly not ready for primetime. For example, a candidate for Minnesota governor has said they should cut the minimum wage of tip-earning employees down at least to the federal minimum of $2.63 from the $5.25 the state mandates. Because cutting worker wages is exactly what you want to do when you’re trying to stimulate an economy and spending.
And then there’s the oil spill - a place where in their neverending quest to not have to pay for their spill, BP is apparently planning on deducting claim amounts from those who don't want to risk their health and help clean as forfeited income. This from the company that insists the people helping clean up not take basic safety precautions. Health-damned if you do, income-damned if you don’t. Which reminds me - some oil spill claimants may have until tomorrow to file insurance claims, even if they're not currently affected, because of their insurance deadlines. Claim on day 80, even if oil doesn’t hit you until day 100? Seems not right to me. And if you haven’t had enough stomach-turning stuff for one post, a simulation of what would happen if the spill continues for approximately a full year.
In the race to see who is more Tea Party or libertarian than the other, Republican Todd Tihart wins by declaring that "accidents happen" with regard to massive oil spills, in addition to also saying that he once believed children shouldn’t be punished if their parents immigrate in illegally, but he no longer has that compassion in him.
Lest you think that Muslims have found some measure of acceptance in our post-11 September world, think again. A CNN editor was fired for saying that she had some respect for a cleric that was against honor killings and violence against women, even as he justified the use of human explosives and beleives that Zionists have inflated the number of actual dead at the Holocaust. Which, I suppose, means that fans of Orson Scott Card are all anti-homophobic, Anne McCaffery fans are all patriarchy-supporters and Roger Ebert’s fans are all dismissive of video games as an art form. Sanity check, please?
Furthermore, in New york, three different projects to build a mosque, one potentially close to where the WTC towers stood, are met with strong opposition from the residents, some that can be characterized as anti-Islam, some that can sound like venting brought on because they’re still smarting after the 11 September attacks, and some that are less ideological in nature, like logistics, traffic flow, and the like.
Mathematical market model using fractals to discern apparent market pattens says we're going to crash and crash hard in the market over the next few years, like Dow Jones Industrial Average under 1,000 kind of crash.
The Transportation Security Administration has reversed its earlier policy on blocking work websites with "controversial opinions", indicating that “controversial opinions” was more of a catchall for websites that advocating self-injury or things like that, rather than opinions that might differ from the official policy of the TSA.
And finally, Glenn Beck should fire his research team - they could not do what it took two seconds of Google to find out - that there were no cameras in the Senate before 1974, thus there would be no footage of Senator Byrd’s opposition to the Civil Rights Act. Sometimes you have to remember that the past isn’t like the present, Glenn...
In technology, it looks like the proton is a smaller particle that we had previously thought, based on new experiments with the really big particle smasher in Switzerland. Verification and error-checking are underway to make sure the results are valid, with the potential of mucking around with a lot of particle equations should they hold up.
Meet Perfect Citizen, the program the government is launching to attempt to protect critical infrastrcutre in case of cuberattack.
And then, the first FDA-cleared implantable telescope to help those with advanced-stage macular degeneration keep their sight, vibrating car seats to warn us of vehicles in our blind spots,
A double opinion skillfully weaved together opens our section tonight - the director of a film that will star Lindsay Lohan suggests that her bad-girl status and 90-day jail sentence for failing to show up at her court-appointed classes are both media driven, first that Lindsay picked up the bad firl status for doing things the media would let men do with a wink and a nod, and then when they went looking for a narrative of repentance and reform and instead got expletives written on fingernails, they decided it was time to demonize Ms. Lohan and make her into a pariah in the public opinion.
Conspiracist Alex Jones and others transform a TED talk from Bill Gates about increased vaccinations hopefully resulting in lower populations and CO2 emissions into the vaccination becoming a sterilization. The Gates argument is: Better health encourages fewer kids, on average, because you don’t have to have 11 to be sure the 3 you need to maintain your life will survive long enough. Mr. Jones and co go for the simple but wrong: “More kids surviving won’t mean a reduction in population. Sterilization must be the answer, then.”
In politics, Ms. Coulter comes out firing hot at anyone criticizing Michael Steele or trying to point out that Afghanistan was started by someone else - the war is Obama’s, she claims, because he’s been escalating it and “nation-building”, instead of George W. Bush, who went in, stomped people, set up a puppet, declared victory, and went on to Iraq. (And then stuck around for years after that, even after declaring mission accomplished.) Furthermore, she says, Republicans are allowed to be anti-war. They are, yes, but if you’re publicly saying one thing and privately saying another, and you’re the chair of a major political party, the hypocrisy accusations are going to be thick.
Ms. Glick spends much column space saying that if the West is going to fight, they have to fight to win and be willing to hold wherever they fight until they have properly established control that will function in their absence. If you fight, fight to win, then occupy your conquered territory until it’s to your liking. Don’t worry about the locals - they’re going to submit to your colonial guidance [recordscratch] err, wisdom and governance soon enough. And anyone who thinks that perhaps this is the wrong way to go is a defeatist who wants to see terrorists return to power. We’re assuming that when Ms. Glick espouses the buy and hold theory, she thoroughly intends for us to think about whether we still want to be holding that territory in ten years, twenty years, fifty years, however long it will take for us to establish either a proper puppet or for a nascent democracy movement to stand up to us and tell us to get the hell out. If that’s the case, then continue with your advocating, but don’t be surprised if you find few takers. And be prepared to have to deal with the consequences of supporting a government that might decide that it wants to stay Islamic and not tolerate other religious beliefs.
Mr. Blankley is a bit more pragmatic, suggesting that if defat happens in Afghanistan, it is because mixed messages and multiple meanings made for a mess where people think one thing and act accordingly, even if something else was meant.
In our, “No, Really?” department, Mr. Stossel, columnist and analyst, says that lawuers are creating problems, adding unnecessary costs, and stifling innovation with lawsuits, implying they do so because the potential for lots of money is good. Again, Mr. Stossel, columnist, analyst, and maker of opinions with which he hopes to influence the world and get paid handsomely for doing so, is complaining about lawyers influencing opinion and making problems because they think the money is good. You can’t really make this stuff up.
The Washington Times produces an unsigned suggesting the Obama administration is selling out the security of the southern border for ideology and anmesty, claiming that federal law already encourages illegal immigration by asking them to report wage violations, and claiming the increasingly smaller fig leaf that the Papers Please law has safeguards against racial profiling. Said fig leaf, mind you, has a lot of people who think it’s worthwhile, as more than $500,000 USD has come in by small donation amounts to a legal defense fund for the law.
Mr. Williams trots out the Founding Fathers of the United States to back up his own positions on various laws and decisions, including the government spending money on entitlements at all, the Kelo decision, and the right of revolution brought on by the Second Amendment.
The Washington Times is suddenly a defender of the space program, now that it's going to have cuts introduced and that nations they don't like, nations with Islam as the primary religion, are developing space programs. And where were they when all the anti-science idiots were running freely in the halls of government and being elected to education positions across the country? If they’re serious about funding space research, then someone’s got to convince the government that they have to spend the money on it. Possibly by cutting some pork from, say, the military-industrial complex, closing down the two land wars in Asia and then cancelling the contracts that associate with it, so there’s a whole lot of money that can be poured into science and veterans care and other things? Plus, while Islam may have cut science off for a part of their time, doesn’t that mean we need to step up our efforts to reintroduce it and get the brilliant minds that are surely there working on programs and projects that will help us all out?
Last out of opinions for tonight, Mr. Lakoff on the need for progressives to start speaking in the progressive frame, not the conservative frame, and to build the messaging sytems needed to strengthen their frame over the long-term. Progressives need the equivalents of Rush, Beck, Hannity, and the rest of conservative talk radio ant television to keep pushing the messages out under the progressive frame of mind, and then act progressively in legislation, instead of letting pollsters push them more to the right because conservative language is the default for most people in the country, instead of progressive langauge.
Last for tonight, H. Allen Smith reacts to two gifts he received for the holidays, one from his proctologist, one from someone who thought he was an irritating ass.
