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A few other things - 29-30 July 2010
Jul. 31st, 2010 11:50 amYour Good Morning scare - pictures of a pilot ejecting from a stunt aircraft moments before the plane impacts with the ground.
If you bought into the hype of Glenn Beck's gold-selling scheme (and it is a scheme, boy howdy), perhaps you would like to see just how badly you were suckered and how much Goldline makes off the rubes who trust Beck? Smug and superior feelings for those who haven’t bit are optional.
If you’re looking for the proper RAGE dose, though, note that credit scoring agencies have a financial incentive to let your identity be stolen, to try and shake you down for "protection" against that theft, and to sell your private financial information to anyone who wants it so they can use it for whatever purpose they want to, even if that purpose has absolutely nothing to do with any sort of credit or debt or loans. And pass the responsibility for making sure you’re not a vcitim of identity theft and any blame or financial liability from such theft if it happens to you. Not their problem, supposedly. Oh, and did we mention insurance companies are turning tidy profits on the deaths of people while also not putting those benefit amounts in FDIC-insured accounts held by the beneficiary, but instead keeping them in the general company funds to continue turning profits with? And then claiming those beneficiaries can write drafts from those accounts as they would any other cheques, when that’s not actually true, either?
On more interesting and more positive fare, the Letters of Note show off Ghandi's love for the British people, even as he worked against the government those people put in place, a properly MAD rejection letter, a note from Barack Obama to the Canadian author of the Life of Pi, and correspondence from Bill Watterson about cartooning and from Charles Schulz about an autograph request. The letter from Watterson being the much rarer of the two items, and another painful reminder that while we had ten years of Calvin and Hobbes, we don’t have anything else from that brilliant mind.
One last thing before we delve in - creepiness has nothing to do with how attractive you are. Creepiness will make you unattractive. And being able to spot the difference between “socially awkward” and “flat-out creep” is a very valuable skill. Trust your instincts on it.
Into the world, where Pakistani's general insists that he is not a link between the Afghanistan Taliban and Pakistani resources being poured into them, playing his role in a bigger dance between Afghanistan, the United States, and Pakistan.
Last out of this section, the Symbol Degradation Department, headed by![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
hybridelephant.myopenid.com points out the Anti-Defamation League just upgraded the status of the swastika to "universal" hate symbol, despite its usage by pre-20th century people for a very long time before the context of the current default definition appeared. As with all things, symbols are what you make of them. It’s certainly not worth putting that era down the memory hole, but they are no longer with us. It’s been a few generations, and one would think it would be smarter to revert the symbol back to the peaceful meaning, so as to deny anyone the ability to wield it as a weapon again. But, we are strange people about our past, and so we continue...
Domestically, peering into the impressive process that sorts the correspondence addressed to the President, selecting out of thousands ten per day that go all the way to the President's eyes and warrant a personal response from him. The rest of us will unfortunately receive form letters from this office. Such is the way of things when you’re the leader of a country of many millions.
Thoroughly discredited propagandist Andrew Breitbart is now thoroughly discredited conspiracist Andrew Breitbart, claiming the President is behind the flap over Shirley Sherrod so that his credibility would be destroyed. Supposing for an instant that there was credibility left after the fake pimp video, really? Wouldn’t the President have more important things to do? Thigns like crushing journalists and censoring are really more the domain of the Committee to Re-Elect the President, wouldn’t you think? Besides, Breitbart will have to deal with the lawsuit being brought against him by Ms. Sherrod. Oddsmakers, what’s your predictions on whether this sticks or not?
An update from very long ago - the elderly male couple torn apart by Sonoma County officials, kept in separate places, had their possessions sold off, and prevented them from seeing each other even as one partner died, despite having signed power of attorney papers naming each other as the people to make those decisions? Settlement of $635,000 USD, and the county continues to deny that it did anything wrong at all. This is why you need everyone to be able to get married to the person(s) they love. So that when someone wants to be a predator, they’ll have to find wealthy but legally unmarried couples that are that way by choice to exploit, instead of just being able to take advantage of the situation of the law and to claim that legal documents drawn up by the two are invalid by characterizing one of them as insane.
The Tea Party supporters might be the swing voters for the midterm elections, which looks good for the Republicans and for anyone wanting to burnish their conservative credentials. We’re not sure whether supporters of racism against the President will be included in that caucus or not. They do include, however, people that want to try and have an original amendment against accepting foreign titles and awards passed so they can force Barack Obama to give up his citizenship for having accepted a Nobel Prize. Even when it doesn’t quite work out that way when you apply the language. But props to the research department that came up with this one - it’s by far the best subtle attempt to put one over on the the President.
Speaking of people rabble-rousing, Newt Gingrich would like you to remember that Islam is the Bloodthirsty Religion, and that you are under siege by hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of people who want to impose their own religion, justice system, and standards of behavior on you. Of course, he gives lip service to the idea of Islam as peaceful by exempting those “modern” Muslims that have no such ambitions and are perfectly okay practicing their religion under the laws of America. But there’s still that world of dangerous foreigners waiting to take over, either through terror or through infiltration of the govenment, which they will seize and turn immediately into an Islamic state. (And we’ll apparently go along with this. *snicker*) So be afraid, and perhaps think of me in two years when I might be running for President.
The majority of the Papers Please law injuncted against, which means people are still secure in their persons in Arizona, at least until the issue is fully resolved after all appeals. This will hopefully buy sufficient time for Congres to come around to the immigration issue and do something solid and constructive about it. In the mean time, options may be on the table on how to accomplish needed ends now while waiting for legislation to cement those options in place. It’s still tough to push a bill through a Senate minority determined to oppose everything. And in Arizona, appeals are on the way, while demonstrations rage against those who will continue their usual Latino-heavy neighborhood sweeps as if nothing had changed. Expect to see the issue continue to be framed as the question of whether the federal government has sole responsibility for creating and enforcing a uniform immigration policy versus states taking things into their own hands to enforce what the federal government has been lax at. It’s a false dichotomy - the Arizona advocates all say, after all, that they’re just enforcing what’s already on the books, so they give at least some ground that the Feds do have jurisdiction over the matter. After that point, it becomes, correctly, a question of whether or not the statutes applied in the law violate federal law (maaaybe) and whether the application of those statutes violate federal protections against discrimination based on a protected status, like race. (Odds are good they will, just because “everyone knows” an illegal immigrant doesn’t look white.) If you’re on the other side of the question, painting the decision as an attack on the rule of law and judicial activism certainly looks to be a good start, assuming you can back up the talk, although this piece wanders a bit far out into the fringe by claiming the administration is conspiratorially dropping cases against black intimidators, sweethearting with unions, trying to intimidate businesses, and getting in bed with Latinos, based on their previous actions.
Mr. Rangel continues to wait as a Congressional ethics panel weighs the evidence of many charges brought against him for violations of disclosures and other related incidents. The editorial knives get sharpened as The WSj wants us to see this scandal as a microcosm of general Congressional corrupted culture, and calls for the resignation or other dismissal of Mr. Rangel.
Last out, the Congressional Budget Office says that whatever it is we do to try and stem the deficits, it's going to hurt for a while. They, however, mention that raising revenue is also a part of the solution, not just cutting spending.
In technology, proof that Arthur C. Clarke understood what would be the satellite communications revolution before it was completely in place.
Search engine poisoning using some tricks that will put malware-infested sites at the top of search results.
Welcome to opinions, the place where all people feel they’re correct. It is a place where Karl Rove can continue to insist that we talk about victory in Afghanistan, and crushing the Taliban, even if we already achieved the stated goals of the conflict a long time ago and we’re really there to help try and stablize the area. “Mission creep” is usually something people deplore, isn’t it?
Mr. Cooper celebrates 100 days of the Deepwater Horizon disaster by claiming the federal government has been indifferent to the response, shown no leadership, made deals in secret, and not really cared about the Gulf coast and its economy by imposing a drilling moratorium. Very few words about the company that precipitated the disaster, the continuing revelations that show it was eminently preventable, and further data showing how much that company doesn’t want you to have an accurate picture of how much stuff was spilled. It’s all the government’s fault for not summoning Superman to stop things, and then not starting to fire people as time went on, and for not keeping the focus on that pipe all the time, to the exclusion of something else, or even for trying to use that disaster as an incentive to get away from dirty energy sources such as that into making more efficient and cleaner sources. To keep up that narrative, one must of course whitewash the environmental impact of the oil spill, by claiming it wasn’t as bad as other incidents and that there’s resilience in the area. We have always been at war with Eastasia, whatever do you mean?
Mr. Heubusch lays out the blueprint for the Republican argument to keep tax cuts even in periods of record deficits - Reagan did it, and all was well. All glory to the hypno...Saint Reagan. For someone trying to sound more serious about the matter, although with the already-determined conclusion that tax cuts are always Inherently Superior, Mr. Ferrara cloaks supply-side economics and tax cuts everywhere in the mantle of American tradition and attempts to show how other economic theories cause horrible effects on the market, saying that this were great until the previous administrator and the Fed of that time abandoned supply-side and the current one doubled down on it, creating the disaster that we have today.
The Times points out an abuse of the hold process for appointments, detailing the hold placed on an appointment for Deputy Attorney General over a matter involving ensuring that ballots get out to military people overseas on time. The argument put forward is that Justice is encouraging states to apply for waivers to that provision on ballots sent out, so they don’t care about military voting, while they have plenty of space on how felons can become re-enfranchised, so clearly this administration cares more about felons voting than soldiers. I wonder why Justice is encouraging application for waivers. Do they consider the requirements unduly ornerous? Do they want swamped states to be able to miss their deadlines if they get caught in a pinch or a crush and don’t have time? I don’t know. Provide some information, please, instead of trying to draw false equivalencies.
Well, we knew this had to happen at some point - Mr. Perazzo puts out what is likely a large lot of hit jobs on Mr. Assange, founder of Wikileaks, intending to paint the founder as someone who is okay with people dying because he's displaying classified and secret information, someone who wants to help the enemies of the United States defeat them, and an unapologetic "black hat" hacker and cracker. Yep - someone trying to expose corruption and problems in a regime obviously is in league with their enemies. And when Assange leaks something you consider helpful, will you change your tune? Wouldn’t the best solution be to perhaps stop doing those things that will get you in trouble if leaked, at least where possible?
Mr. Williams comes out swinging against tariffs and Congressional subsidies...if you want cheaper sugar, that is. I wonder whether he’s similarly against other tariffs and subsidies, like the ones given to oil and gas companies, agribusinesses, and other industries already wealthy enough to afford their own lobbying fleet. He’s apparently now concerned with our health, too, because we substitute HFCS for sugar, because it’s cheaper, even though it’s significantly less healthy.
And finally, we go back to an old meme, one that I haven’t seen in a while and am...interested in its continued survival. Mr. Prager revives the idea that liberals and the left hate conservatives with his top three reasons: Liberals think conservatives are evil people, while Conservatives just think liberals are wrong, Liberals hate people who fight real evil in the world, who are uniformly conservatives, and conservatives just get in the way of liberal utopia world, so they have to be hated because they stop perfection from appearing. On the first point, Tea Party, anyone who’s talked about the “secular socialist” government, and just about anyone lamenting the downfall of America, for reasons as diverse as wealth redistribution to support of abortion. They’re all pretty convinced of the evil of liberalism, not merely wrongness. On the second part, I reject your premise that Communism and Islam are inherently evil things, and I note your curious lack of talk about the people who killed Dr. Tiller, or anyone who attacks or kills someone who is QUILTBAG, the Christians claiming everyone different than them are justly killed in disasters and accidents, or many other examples of evil, even by the Christian metric, that seem to be a-okay with conservatism. As for the third, well, that almost sounds like an argument that conservatives should simply vanish so as to allow the liberal utopia to appear. If it truly is utopic, then why would you want to stand in the way of it?
Last for this posting - 20 last comments that make their utterers famous.
If you bought into the hype of Glenn Beck's gold-selling scheme (and it is a scheme, boy howdy), perhaps you would like to see just how badly you were suckered and how much Goldline makes off the rubes who trust Beck? Smug and superior feelings for those who haven’t bit are optional.
If you’re looking for the proper RAGE dose, though, note that credit scoring agencies have a financial incentive to let your identity be stolen, to try and shake you down for "protection" against that theft, and to sell your private financial information to anyone who wants it so they can use it for whatever purpose they want to, even if that purpose has absolutely nothing to do with any sort of credit or debt or loans. And pass the responsibility for making sure you’re not a vcitim of identity theft and any blame or financial liability from such theft if it happens to you. Not their problem, supposedly. Oh, and did we mention insurance companies are turning tidy profits on the deaths of people while also not putting those benefit amounts in FDIC-insured accounts held by the beneficiary, but instead keeping them in the general company funds to continue turning profits with? And then claiming those beneficiaries can write drafts from those accounts as they would any other cheques, when that’s not actually true, either?
On more interesting and more positive fare, the Letters of Note show off Ghandi's love for the British people, even as he worked against the government those people put in place, a properly MAD rejection letter, a note from Barack Obama to the Canadian author of the Life of Pi, and correspondence from Bill Watterson about cartooning and from Charles Schulz about an autograph request. The letter from Watterson being the much rarer of the two items, and another painful reminder that while we had ten years of Calvin and Hobbes, we don’t have anything else from that brilliant mind.
One last thing before we delve in - creepiness has nothing to do with how attractive you are. Creepiness will make you unattractive. And being able to spot the difference between “socially awkward” and “flat-out creep” is a very valuable skill. Trust your instincts on it.
Into the world, where Pakistani's general insists that he is not a link between the Afghanistan Taliban and Pakistani resources being poured into them, playing his role in a bigger dance between Afghanistan, the United States, and Pakistan.
Last out of this section, the Symbol Degradation Department, headed by
hybridelephant.myopenid.com points out the Anti-Defamation League just upgraded the status of the swastika to "universal" hate symbol, despite its usage by pre-20th century people for a very long time before the context of the current default definition appeared. As with all things, symbols are what you make of them. It’s certainly not worth putting that era down the memory hole, but they are no longer with us. It’s been a few generations, and one would think it would be smarter to revert the symbol back to the peaceful meaning, so as to deny anyone the ability to wield it as a weapon again. But, we are strange people about our past, and so we continue...Domestically, peering into the impressive process that sorts the correspondence addressed to the President, selecting out of thousands ten per day that go all the way to the President's eyes and warrant a personal response from him. The rest of us will unfortunately receive form letters from this office. Such is the way of things when you’re the leader of a country of many millions.
Thoroughly discredited propagandist Andrew Breitbart is now thoroughly discredited conspiracist Andrew Breitbart, claiming the President is behind the flap over Shirley Sherrod so that his credibility would be destroyed. Supposing for an instant that there was credibility left after the fake pimp video, really? Wouldn’t the President have more important things to do? Thigns like crushing journalists and censoring are really more the domain of the Committee to Re-Elect the President, wouldn’t you think? Besides, Breitbart will have to deal with the lawsuit being brought against him by Ms. Sherrod. Oddsmakers, what’s your predictions on whether this sticks or not?
An update from very long ago - the elderly male couple torn apart by Sonoma County officials, kept in separate places, had their possessions sold off, and prevented them from seeing each other even as one partner died, despite having signed power of attorney papers naming each other as the people to make those decisions? Settlement of $635,000 USD, and the county continues to deny that it did anything wrong at all. This is why you need everyone to be able to get married to the person(s) they love. So that when someone wants to be a predator, they’ll have to find wealthy but legally unmarried couples that are that way by choice to exploit, instead of just being able to take advantage of the situation of the law and to claim that legal documents drawn up by the two are invalid by characterizing one of them as insane.
The Tea Party supporters might be the swing voters for the midterm elections, which looks good for the Republicans and for anyone wanting to burnish their conservative credentials. We’re not sure whether supporters of racism against the President will be included in that caucus or not. They do include, however, people that want to try and have an original amendment against accepting foreign titles and awards passed so they can force Barack Obama to give up his citizenship for having accepted a Nobel Prize. Even when it doesn’t quite work out that way when you apply the language. But props to the research department that came up with this one - it’s by far the best subtle attempt to put one over on the the President.
Speaking of people rabble-rousing, Newt Gingrich would like you to remember that Islam is the Bloodthirsty Religion, and that you are under siege by hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of people who want to impose their own religion, justice system, and standards of behavior on you. Of course, he gives lip service to the idea of Islam as peaceful by exempting those “modern” Muslims that have no such ambitions and are perfectly okay practicing their religion under the laws of America. But there’s still that world of dangerous foreigners waiting to take over, either through terror or through infiltration of the govenment, which they will seize and turn immediately into an Islamic state. (And we’ll apparently go along with this. *snicker*) So be afraid, and perhaps think of me in two years when I might be running for President.
The majority of the Papers Please law injuncted against, which means people are still secure in their persons in Arizona, at least until the issue is fully resolved after all appeals. This will hopefully buy sufficient time for Congres to come around to the immigration issue and do something solid and constructive about it. In the mean time, options may be on the table on how to accomplish needed ends now while waiting for legislation to cement those options in place. It’s still tough to push a bill through a Senate minority determined to oppose everything. And in Arizona, appeals are on the way, while demonstrations rage against those who will continue their usual Latino-heavy neighborhood sweeps as if nothing had changed. Expect to see the issue continue to be framed as the question of whether the federal government has sole responsibility for creating and enforcing a uniform immigration policy versus states taking things into their own hands to enforce what the federal government has been lax at. It’s a false dichotomy - the Arizona advocates all say, after all, that they’re just enforcing what’s already on the books, so they give at least some ground that the Feds do have jurisdiction over the matter. After that point, it becomes, correctly, a question of whether or not the statutes applied in the law violate federal law (maaaybe) and whether the application of those statutes violate federal protections against discrimination based on a protected status, like race. (Odds are good they will, just because “everyone knows” an illegal immigrant doesn’t look white.) If you’re on the other side of the question, painting the decision as an attack on the rule of law and judicial activism certainly looks to be a good start, assuming you can back up the talk, although this piece wanders a bit far out into the fringe by claiming the administration is conspiratorially dropping cases against black intimidators, sweethearting with unions, trying to intimidate businesses, and getting in bed with Latinos, based on their previous actions.
Mr. Rangel continues to wait as a Congressional ethics panel weighs the evidence of many charges brought against him for violations of disclosures and other related incidents. The editorial knives get sharpened as The WSj wants us to see this scandal as a microcosm of general Congressional corrupted culture, and calls for the resignation or other dismissal of Mr. Rangel.
Last out, the Congressional Budget Office says that whatever it is we do to try and stem the deficits, it's going to hurt for a while. They, however, mention that raising revenue is also a part of the solution, not just cutting spending.
In technology, proof that Arthur C. Clarke understood what would be the satellite communications revolution before it was completely in place.
Search engine poisoning using some tricks that will put malware-infested sites at the top of search results.
Welcome to opinions, the place where all people feel they’re correct. It is a place where Karl Rove can continue to insist that we talk about victory in Afghanistan, and crushing the Taliban, even if we already achieved the stated goals of the conflict a long time ago and we’re really there to help try and stablize the area. “Mission creep” is usually something people deplore, isn’t it?
Mr. Cooper celebrates 100 days of the Deepwater Horizon disaster by claiming the federal government has been indifferent to the response, shown no leadership, made deals in secret, and not really cared about the Gulf coast and its economy by imposing a drilling moratorium. Very few words about the company that precipitated the disaster, the continuing revelations that show it was eminently preventable, and further data showing how much that company doesn’t want you to have an accurate picture of how much stuff was spilled. It’s all the government’s fault for not summoning Superman to stop things, and then not starting to fire people as time went on, and for not keeping the focus on that pipe all the time, to the exclusion of something else, or even for trying to use that disaster as an incentive to get away from dirty energy sources such as that into making more efficient and cleaner sources. To keep up that narrative, one must of course whitewash the environmental impact of the oil spill, by claiming it wasn’t as bad as other incidents and that there’s resilience in the area. We have always been at war with Eastasia, whatever do you mean?
Mr. Heubusch lays out the blueprint for the Republican argument to keep tax cuts even in periods of record deficits - Reagan did it, and all was well. All glory to the hypno...Saint Reagan. For someone trying to sound more serious about the matter, although with the already-determined conclusion that tax cuts are always Inherently Superior, Mr. Ferrara cloaks supply-side economics and tax cuts everywhere in the mantle of American tradition and attempts to show how other economic theories cause horrible effects on the market, saying that this were great until the previous administrator and the Fed of that time abandoned supply-side and the current one doubled down on it, creating the disaster that we have today.
The Times points out an abuse of the hold process for appointments, detailing the hold placed on an appointment for Deputy Attorney General over a matter involving ensuring that ballots get out to military people overseas on time. The argument put forward is that Justice is encouraging states to apply for waivers to that provision on ballots sent out, so they don’t care about military voting, while they have plenty of space on how felons can become re-enfranchised, so clearly this administration cares more about felons voting than soldiers. I wonder why Justice is encouraging application for waivers. Do they consider the requirements unduly ornerous? Do they want swamped states to be able to miss their deadlines if they get caught in a pinch or a crush and don’t have time? I don’t know. Provide some information, please, instead of trying to draw false equivalencies.
Well, we knew this had to happen at some point - Mr. Perazzo puts out what is likely a large lot of hit jobs on Mr. Assange, founder of Wikileaks, intending to paint the founder as someone who is okay with people dying because he's displaying classified and secret information, someone who wants to help the enemies of the United States defeat them, and an unapologetic "black hat" hacker and cracker. Yep - someone trying to expose corruption and problems in a regime obviously is in league with their enemies. And when Assange leaks something you consider helpful, will you change your tune? Wouldn’t the best solution be to perhaps stop doing those things that will get you in trouble if leaked, at least where possible?
Mr. Williams comes out swinging against tariffs and Congressional subsidies...if you want cheaper sugar, that is. I wonder whether he’s similarly against other tariffs and subsidies, like the ones given to oil and gas companies, agribusinesses, and other industries already wealthy enough to afford their own lobbying fleet. He’s apparently now concerned with our health, too, because we substitute HFCS for sugar, because it’s cheaper, even though it’s significantly less healthy.
And finally, we go back to an old meme, one that I haven’t seen in a while and am...interested in its continued survival. Mr. Prager revives the idea that liberals and the left hate conservatives with his top three reasons: Liberals think conservatives are evil people, while Conservatives just think liberals are wrong, Liberals hate people who fight real evil in the world, who are uniformly conservatives, and conservatives just get in the way of liberal utopia world, so they have to be hated because they stop perfection from appearing. On the first point, Tea Party, anyone who’s talked about the “secular socialist” government, and just about anyone lamenting the downfall of America, for reasons as diverse as wealth redistribution to support of abortion. They’re all pretty convinced of the evil of liberalism, not merely wrongness. On the second part, I reject your premise that Communism and Islam are inherently evil things, and I note your curious lack of talk about the people who killed Dr. Tiller, or anyone who attacks or kills someone who is QUILTBAG, the Christians claiming everyone different than them are justly killed in disasters and accidents, or many other examples of evil, even by the Christian metric, that seem to be a-okay with conservatism. As for the third, well, that almost sounds like an argument that conservatives should simply vanish so as to allow the liberal utopia to appear. If it truly is utopic, then why would you want to stand in the way of it?
Last for this posting - 20 last comments that make their utterers famous.
