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Welcome to you, faithful readers. Be amused with a worry about too much chaining up of people going on in Wonder Woman, with a missing attachment that would have suggested many other ways of restraint without diminishing the quality of the adventure. We chuckle, we laugh, and we suggest you research the origins of Wonder Woman to know why.
For those more interested in cute crafty things, fifty modifications to your My Little Pony to give it increased geek cred.
The I Write Like bit has the big time quite nicely, although it has a darker motive - it advertises vanity publishing schemes after you put in whatever your writing sample is. For those interested in racial or gender diversity...you'll find none of it here, either. Lots of white dudes, very few white women, nobody that's a person of color. When asked to fix the situation, the creator said he doesn't just approve writers based on their gender or race, because he chooses not to see that and we're living in the totally post-racial world, mmkay?
Out in the world today, cats once again prove to be smarter than what humans think they are, successfully replicating the calls of an intended monkey target. All Hail Our Feline Overlords.
Make sure you’re not eating before reading this article: United Kingdom sewer workers cleaned about about 1,000 tonnes of rancid fat. Blargh.
An Amnesty International report on the North Korean health care system found doctors performing amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight in inssufficiently stocked hospitals. They pointed to several government policies in place that prevent adequate medical care reaching all citizens.
Surprising no person, Anwar al-Awlaki, whose apparent unique factor is his United States citizenship, was placed on a terrorist blacklist, and now the Government will attempt to freeze and seize his assets and prevent him from traveling to the United States.
Iran's police have detained 40 persons in connection with two mosque bombings that killed 27. In typical fashion, the Iranian government accused the United States of being behind the attacks, using and funding a Sunni group called Jundullah (who claimed responsibility for the attacks) to create instability in the country.
For those looking for good news, the United States ceded control of their final prison complex in Iraq to the Iraqi government.
And finally from this section, the case for removing troops from Afghanistan while still working very hard to give them solid national government, with good services and the ability to protect itself, articulated by Ms. Maddow, who sees that our intentions are wonderful, but they’re also really romantic and not all that likely to happen. It might be the third way between complete military commitment that makes the military-industrial complex see dollar signs and the complete withdrawal that the opposition clamors will be premature and allow terrorists to take hold of the country.
Domestically, the wealthy have started to save, and that may manage to kill recovery hopes, because the wealthy spending makes up a significant part of the economy. Which might explain why Republicans seem confident that tax breaks for the wealthy are the best economic stimulus. While they continue to deny unemployment benefits to others, who have proven mulitiplier effects on that money, because they have to spend it.
The Republicans might also lose a bit of ground on their argument that Democrats won’t be able to find fraud and waste in the social safety net, with a fraud sting and arrests that had been siphoning $251 million USD away from those who really need it.
The Senate passed their version of a financial regulatory bill, meaning the President should be able to sign it soon. The creation of a consumer protection agency was one of the major contentions of the bill, and appears to have survivied relatively intact. The focus, though, is on new bank rules and regulations, and that’s where the opposition will accuse the bill of basically generating lots of jobs for lobbyists and lawyers while simultaneously screwing small banks and companies, or claiming that this historic bill will be a big backfire, like the stimulus bill "obviously" is and the health care bill will be.
Finally, West virginia's governor appointed someone to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Senator Robert Byrd.
On the matter of the Deepwater Horizons disaster, some good news - the cap and the well seem to be holding steady, although pressure has not reached the ideal amount. That means that further testing will likely be required, delaying the prospect of a relief well until the tests come back satisfactory. (One can comment about how ignoring the tests is what got us into this in the first place. It’s okay.) And then there’s the bad news - BP lobbied the United Kingdom government to participate in a prisoneer sxchange with Libya in order to preserve an oil deal worth $900 million USD. That was then - now they’re trying to buy up scientific experts to shore up their defense when the EPA comes knocking with fines about their spill. And those bought would also not be disclosing what they found, unless it helped the company.
Utah officials believe they have found two government employees responsible for the compiling and then leaking of lists of supposed illegal immigrants in the state. The leak went to law enforcement and media outlets, and so far, has not been released publicly. We do know that it contained very fine-grained information, including the due dates of pregnant women in the state. If you want to see a hive of wretched scum and villany, check out the comments to the article praising the illegal action, even going so far as to mistakenly label them as “whistleblowers”, claiming that state governments should give their lists of suspected illegal aliens to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well, and accusing the federal government of inaction or even support for illegal immigration.
Only one bit of technology, but it’s Virgin Galactic running a test flight of SpaceShip Two, suggesting they may be ready soon to accept tourists who want to go to the edge of space.
In opinions, Mr. Cockburn believes that the President is reaping the whirlwind that he sowed when he promised American an easy way out, instead of an entrenched fight against the last thirty years of economic and political disaster that we're suffering the results of now.
The NRA leadership's decisions regarding safe and sane gun ownership have become increasingly insane, with the latest being a refusal to let law enforcement look at records involving one specifice gun that may have been used in serial killing.
An ugly-looking facefault from Mr. Cohen, insisting that trans people tell their intimate partners at the outset about being trans, stopping just shy of saying it's okay to out a trans person to the community, and basically encouraing attackers to blame their victims for why they assaulted them.
Speaking of victim-blaming (although the analogy probably doesn’t completely fit), Mr. Ortega says that illegal immigrants from south of the U.S. are culturally and historically ingrained to flaunt the rule of law, having had so many dictators in their past, so they feel no shame about their illegality, and that amnesty would be justifying their flaunting. Instead, we’re supposed to affirm our superior culture by relentlessly hunting them all down and deporting them, no exceptions, no leniency, to make them respect our rule of law, even if they won’t respect their own. That’s an ugly justification for things like the Papers Please Law, but it certainly seems to be more believable than “We just want the federal government to enforce its own laws.” And it shows up again, this time with A member of Congress using Tanakh and the Christian Foundational Writings to justify Papers Please and harsh "rule of law" stances after a different member used the same source to argue in favor or less harshness.
And in our triad of “pay no attention to us, focus on them instead”, Bill O'Reilly claims the Tea Party isn't racist, it just has a few nuts, and if we're judging by that standard, the NAACP is racist against white people, because there's Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. Pay no attention to our racists because you have your racists, too. When you stop with yours, we’ll stop ours. That’s flimsy at best when it comes to something that should be a no-brainer. Racism everywhere should be condemned and distanced from, regardless of who’s being the racist. Then again, he does work on a network that calls itself “fair and balanced”, so maybe that’s what he’s seeking - not justice or right, but balance.
I don’t know whether this will become a Republican talking point now, but in the previous world, where the President was supposed to be an out-of-touch elite instead of a socialist destroyer, I can totally see someone keeping tabs on how much golf this President plays compared to his predecessors as something that would be slung around as if it were a valid point. President is an all-time job, yes, but even Presidents need time off to avoid burnout. And golf is an excellent game for both health and for having time to think about things while lining up your next shot.
I think, though, they have bigger fish to fry. For example, those unconvinced that the debt and defecit commission will recommend anything that will actually work, or those enraged that the American people didn't get a full confirmation hearing for Dr. Berwick, and will thus just suffer as he drives the health care sector into rationing of care without being able to say that’s not what they want, even as insurance companies dictate to them what rations of care they can have now, or those who feel the free market system requires defense from the Socialists and collectivists in the White House (exactly where are they, honestly?).
And then there’s someone who needs to go to the Inigo Montoya School of Inconceivability, because she missed it by a mile. Ms. Gunlock says that the previous administration was tougher on Russia's human rights based on their being pleased with a lack of criticism and "condescension" from the Americans. Um, well, we think those words do not mean what you think they mean. There could have been quite serious dialogue about the issues, just undertaken from the perspective of people trying to right things and understand where someone else is, instead of assuming your own position is morally superior and talking down to the other side. Y’know, condescension. Complain all you want about nothing getting done, but don’t mistake a lack of smarm for a lack of substance.
Also attending, The Washington Times, who believe that the Obama Administration cannot try to promote LGBTQ issues worldwide and keep the Muslim countries they're trying to court happy, as if this were some sort of zero-sum game. To achieve this false duality, the Times goes for as many exreme examples as they can get, trying to paint Islam as The Bloodthirsty Religion, claiming that the Wahabism of Saudi Arabia, for example, is totally the mainstream in Islam, and then setting up the prohibition against LGBTQ people in such places as something that will cause inevitable conflicts and diplomatic damage because the U.S. wants other countries to recognize that LGBTQ people are people too and deserve rights, like marriage. We don’t believe this administration stupid, so we don’t expect them to go deliberately making waves against the current. Instead, as any good Taoist will tell you, you apply your force in the points of least resistance to create your results. The administration can, indeed, walk and chew gum at the same time, and promote issues while remaining friendly and cordial with nations that are not as friendly on those issues.
Last for tonight, a classic piece - MIT students test the efficacy of aluminium foil helmets on stopping radio waves, find while some frequencies blocked, others are amplified.
For those more interested in cute crafty things, fifty modifications to your My Little Pony to give it increased geek cred.
The I Write Like bit has the big time quite nicely, although it has a darker motive - it advertises vanity publishing schemes after you put in whatever your writing sample is. For those interested in racial or gender diversity...you'll find none of it here, either. Lots of white dudes, very few white women, nobody that's a person of color. When asked to fix the situation, the creator said he doesn't just approve writers based on their gender or race, because he chooses not to see that and we're living in the totally post-racial world, mmkay?
Out in the world today, cats once again prove to be smarter than what humans think they are, successfully replicating the calls of an intended monkey target. All Hail Our Feline Overlords.
Make sure you’re not eating before reading this article: United Kingdom sewer workers cleaned about about 1,000 tonnes of rancid fat. Blargh.
An Amnesty International report on the North Korean health care system found doctors performing amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight in inssufficiently stocked hospitals. They pointed to several government policies in place that prevent adequate medical care reaching all citizens.
Surprising no person, Anwar al-Awlaki, whose apparent unique factor is his United States citizenship, was placed on a terrorist blacklist, and now the Government will attempt to freeze and seize his assets and prevent him from traveling to the United States.
Iran's police have detained 40 persons in connection with two mosque bombings that killed 27. In typical fashion, the Iranian government accused the United States of being behind the attacks, using and funding a Sunni group called Jundullah (who claimed responsibility for the attacks) to create instability in the country.
For those looking for good news, the United States ceded control of their final prison complex in Iraq to the Iraqi government.
And finally from this section, the case for removing troops from Afghanistan while still working very hard to give them solid national government, with good services and the ability to protect itself, articulated by Ms. Maddow, who sees that our intentions are wonderful, but they’re also really romantic and not all that likely to happen. It might be the third way between complete military commitment that makes the military-industrial complex see dollar signs and the complete withdrawal that the opposition clamors will be premature and allow terrorists to take hold of the country.
Domestically, the wealthy have started to save, and that may manage to kill recovery hopes, because the wealthy spending makes up a significant part of the economy. Which might explain why Republicans seem confident that tax breaks for the wealthy are the best economic stimulus. While they continue to deny unemployment benefits to others, who have proven mulitiplier effects on that money, because they have to spend it.
The Republicans might also lose a bit of ground on their argument that Democrats won’t be able to find fraud and waste in the social safety net, with a fraud sting and arrests that had been siphoning $251 million USD away from those who really need it.
The Senate passed their version of a financial regulatory bill, meaning the President should be able to sign it soon. The creation of a consumer protection agency was one of the major contentions of the bill, and appears to have survivied relatively intact. The focus, though, is on new bank rules and regulations, and that’s where the opposition will accuse the bill of basically generating lots of jobs for lobbyists and lawyers while simultaneously screwing small banks and companies, or claiming that this historic bill will be a big backfire, like the stimulus bill "obviously" is and the health care bill will be.
Finally, West virginia's governor appointed someone to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Senator Robert Byrd.
On the matter of the Deepwater Horizons disaster, some good news - the cap and the well seem to be holding steady, although pressure has not reached the ideal amount. That means that further testing will likely be required, delaying the prospect of a relief well until the tests come back satisfactory. (One can comment about how ignoring the tests is what got us into this in the first place. It’s okay.) And then there’s the bad news - BP lobbied the United Kingdom government to participate in a prisoneer sxchange with Libya in order to preserve an oil deal worth $900 million USD. That was then - now they’re trying to buy up scientific experts to shore up their defense when the EPA comes knocking with fines about their spill. And those bought would also not be disclosing what they found, unless it helped the company.
Utah officials believe they have found two government employees responsible for the compiling and then leaking of lists of supposed illegal immigrants in the state. The leak went to law enforcement and media outlets, and so far, has not been released publicly. We do know that it contained very fine-grained information, including the due dates of pregnant women in the state. If you want to see a hive of wretched scum and villany, check out the comments to the article praising the illegal action, even going so far as to mistakenly label them as “whistleblowers”, claiming that state governments should give their lists of suspected illegal aliens to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well, and accusing the federal government of inaction or even support for illegal immigration.
Only one bit of technology, but it’s Virgin Galactic running a test flight of SpaceShip Two, suggesting they may be ready soon to accept tourists who want to go to the edge of space.
In opinions, Mr. Cockburn believes that the President is reaping the whirlwind that he sowed when he promised American an easy way out, instead of an entrenched fight against the last thirty years of economic and political disaster that we're suffering the results of now.
The NRA leadership's decisions regarding safe and sane gun ownership have become increasingly insane, with the latest being a refusal to let law enforcement look at records involving one specifice gun that may have been used in serial killing.
An ugly-looking facefault from Mr. Cohen, insisting that trans people tell their intimate partners at the outset about being trans, stopping just shy of saying it's okay to out a trans person to the community, and basically encouraing attackers to blame their victims for why they assaulted them.
Speaking of victim-blaming (although the analogy probably doesn’t completely fit), Mr. Ortega says that illegal immigrants from south of the U.S. are culturally and historically ingrained to flaunt the rule of law, having had so many dictators in their past, so they feel no shame about their illegality, and that amnesty would be justifying their flaunting. Instead, we’re supposed to affirm our superior culture by relentlessly hunting them all down and deporting them, no exceptions, no leniency, to make them respect our rule of law, even if they won’t respect their own. That’s an ugly justification for things like the Papers Please Law, but it certainly seems to be more believable than “We just want the federal government to enforce its own laws.” And it shows up again, this time with A member of Congress using Tanakh and the Christian Foundational Writings to justify Papers Please and harsh "rule of law" stances after a different member used the same source to argue in favor or less harshness.
And in our triad of “pay no attention to us, focus on them instead”, Bill O'Reilly claims the Tea Party isn't racist, it just has a few nuts, and if we're judging by that standard, the NAACP is racist against white people, because there's Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. Pay no attention to our racists because you have your racists, too. When you stop with yours, we’ll stop ours. That’s flimsy at best when it comes to something that should be a no-brainer. Racism everywhere should be condemned and distanced from, regardless of who’s being the racist. Then again, he does work on a network that calls itself “fair and balanced”, so maybe that’s what he’s seeking - not justice or right, but balance.
I don’t know whether this will become a Republican talking point now, but in the previous world, where the President was supposed to be an out-of-touch elite instead of a socialist destroyer, I can totally see someone keeping tabs on how much golf this President plays compared to his predecessors as something that would be slung around as if it were a valid point. President is an all-time job, yes, but even Presidents need time off to avoid burnout. And golf is an excellent game for both health and for having time to think about things while lining up your next shot.
I think, though, they have bigger fish to fry. For example, those unconvinced that the debt and defecit commission will recommend anything that will actually work, or those enraged that the American people didn't get a full confirmation hearing for Dr. Berwick, and will thus just suffer as he drives the health care sector into rationing of care without being able to say that’s not what they want, even as insurance companies dictate to them what rations of care they can have now, or those who feel the free market system requires defense from the Socialists and collectivists in the White House (exactly where are they, honestly?).
And then there’s someone who needs to go to the Inigo Montoya School of Inconceivability, because she missed it by a mile. Ms. Gunlock says that the previous administration was tougher on Russia's human rights based on their being pleased with a lack of criticism and "condescension" from the Americans. Um, well, we think those words do not mean what you think they mean. There could have been quite serious dialogue about the issues, just undertaken from the perspective of people trying to right things and understand where someone else is, instead of assuming your own position is morally superior and talking down to the other side. Y’know, condescension. Complain all you want about nothing getting done, but don’t mistake a lack of smarm for a lack of substance.
Also attending, The Washington Times, who believe that the Obama Administration cannot try to promote LGBTQ issues worldwide and keep the Muslim countries they're trying to court happy, as if this were some sort of zero-sum game. To achieve this false duality, the Times goes for as many exreme examples as they can get, trying to paint Islam as The Bloodthirsty Religion, claiming that the Wahabism of Saudi Arabia, for example, is totally the mainstream in Islam, and then setting up the prohibition against LGBTQ people in such places as something that will cause inevitable conflicts and diplomatic damage because the U.S. wants other countries to recognize that LGBTQ people are people too and deserve rights, like marriage. We don’t believe this administration stupid, so we don’t expect them to go deliberately making waves against the current. Instead, as any good Taoist will tell you, you apply your force in the points of least resistance to create your results. The administration can, indeed, walk and chew gum at the same time, and promote issues while remaining friendly and cordial with nations that are not as friendly on those issues.
Last for tonight, a classic piece - MIT students test the efficacy of aluminium foil helmets on stopping radio waves, find while some frequencies blocked, others are amplified.
