![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The random continues - 21 October 2010
Oct. 21st, 2010 01:00 amHello again, fact-checkers of the apocalypse. Those pinning their hopes on 2012 and the Mayan end of days may be off by 50 to 100 years, in either direction, and so patience will once again have to be their trade.
While you wait, why not check out a book about what life is like inside the prison library, written by a prison librarian? Just check as to whom is publishing it - Dorchester Publishing is apparently still selling electronic copies of books through Amazon and others that they have no right sell, those rights having been reverted to the author.
Tom Bosley, best known as Howard Cunningham from Happy Days, joined the Halls of the Dead at 83 years of age, as did Robert Guccione, founder of Penthouse Magazine, at 79.
Also headlining, mostly for the people who have been following this - Elizabeth Moon has been disinvited as a Guest of Honor for Wiscon, after published remarks on her blog generated an outcry from attendees. The bit there is only a single sentence, and has no further explanation or insight into the process that created such a decision, which would have been nice to see.
Out in the world today, a paper in Uganda claimed to out the country&apo;s "100 top homosexuals" with the admonition to "hang them" for being that way. The paper also printed the addresses of the men (and they are all men). Predictably, the witch-hunt followed soon after, with reported attacks, stone-throwings, and hell made for those men because people of deficient morals advocated for murder based on someone's sexual orientation. What part of "Thou shalt not murder" is unclear, here?
Soldiers in Afghanistan continue to complain that their rules of engagement are for too restrictive for them to effectively do their jobs, as well as being less than happy about the negotiations between the Karzai government and the Taliban.
Militants raided the Chechen parliament, killing six people and casting doubt on Russia's claim that they had Chechnya safe.
Inside the United States, the Veterans for Foreign Wars closed off their political action committee after several members complained about their endorsements of Democratic Congressional candidates based on their voting records regarding veterans.
After a judge refused to stay her injunction against the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, recruiters fo the military are being instructed to accept openly gay applicants, with the caveat for all of them that when a stay is granted pending appeal, they can then stop accepting those recruits and then possibly discharge them under the policy.
Washington State's program of providing free birth control methods to the very poor and teenagers is closing in February 2011, due to budget problems. And thus, we get yet another example of how people who are poor often get shafted on important things like birth control because the people who fund government don't think it's worthwhile. I'll bet they also complain about poor people having more children than they can afford who drain the social safety net, too.
The latest advertisement from an anti-Harry Reid group in Nevada tells Latinos that they should not go out and vote in protest over what Harry Reid has done, and that will send him and the Democrats the message they need to hear - make good on your immigration reform promises. It just happens to be convenient that if Latinos stay home, Sharron Angle, extremist, will be more likely to be elected. I'm not sure the community there wants to know what Angle immigration reform looks like in practice.
Finally, Tea Party Nationalism, a report from the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights on what the six organizations at the core of the Tea Party stand for, how they're organized, and how they interact. The groups aren't all about small government - in fact, many of them are more obsessed with Birtherism, stopping all kinds of immigrants from entering the country, rolling the Constitution back to remove protections and rights now in place, and in making sure that those people they deem undeserving are denied government assistance rather than in shrinking deficits and the size of government, but those things won't make you appear to be sane candidates that people can vote for.
In technology, while some scientists are proposing that we send humans on a one-way journey to Mars, prepped by robots and with an eye toward establishing a self-sufficient colony, others, with DARPA funding, are trying to develop a colony ship that can be sent out toward exoplanets that look like they could sustain life.
Looking back as much as forward, a campaign is underway to rebuild the Babbage Analytical Engine, and images and translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls will be available thorugh Google for free to anyone that wishes to study them.
Further analysis of the transplanted lungs that transferred their allergic reaction and the doctor who says organs that have allergies should still be transplanted, even with that risk.
Finally, predictions about the future on the fortieth anniversary of the book Future Shock.
Into opinions we go, starting with the dawning reality on many that these isolated incidents against the First Amendment are not embarrassing gaffes but serious policy stands by the Republican/Tea Party candidates.
Mr. Sowell accuses proponents of multiculturalism as being cult members, and says the real way to integration and assimilation in America is to make sure that disparate groups are firmly enclaved in certain sections of town that can be avoided until they decide that being white and reatining only tokens of their native culture is the way to improve their lot and they start moving away from those enclaves. Programs that try to put people who are of different culture or who are poor into environments where they can thrive as unacceptable, of course, because the people in those rich and/or white enclaves don't want poor brown people dirtying it up and ruining their attempts at isolation. Heaven forbid that someone have a chance at escaping the assumptions that pervade the neighborhood that a conservative will parade around as being an example of welfare drainers, single mothers, and morally deficient black and brown people. Because, according to most of them, poor people are poor because they're lazy and choose to be that way, instead of getting married and working several jobs so they can make just enough to be wiped out by an unexpected expense. If you only encouraged poor people to get married and tied their government assistance to whether or not they're working full-time jobs, they say, those poor people would quickly get off of government assistance and be rich, thriving people. Once they're working those 30 hours a week, I suspect those same people would say, "Well, you've got a full-time job. We can cut off your benefits now and keep you poor and at the whim of your corporate masters. And we'll starve the social safety net of enough resources to be able to help you back up again when you fall the next time. Sucks to be you, doesn't it?"
The WSJ thinks that the current set of waivers being issued to companies to keep certain types of insurance plans in operation is a symptom of the power invested in the Secretary of Health and Human Services to be capricious and arbitrary in who gets pummeled and who gets away, based on her whims, and that the rules themselves must be badly written if they require waivers, ignoring the point they raise in paragraph one, that these waivers are being granted so that workers at those companies have some sort of medical coverage instead of having their bosses and insurers unceremoniously drop them from coverage rather than get them plans compliant with the new regulations. Given the choice between "mini-med" and nothing, in a recession, "mini-med" it is, because nobody wants to take that kind of political fallout. I suppose it's a testament to the success of the conservative framing that paints government as the source of every problem, even when it's corporations making the decision on how they're going to be complaint with those resolutions. Those corporations could have decided to spring for proper plans, but instead said they would just stop offering plans entirely. Yet, if there were a protest about it, I think anti-government protestors would turn out fine, while those who were going to protest the company for shafting their workers in such a manner would be smaller.
Last for today, Wordsmith Mark Twain on the utter uselessness of his proofreaders, because they insist on changing his punctuation and putting in their own. And Tupac Ipsum, or Lorizzle fo'shizzle.
While you wait, why not check out a book about what life is like inside the prison library, written by a prison librarian? Just check as to whom is publishing it - Dorchester Publishing is apparently still selling electronic copies of books through Amazon and others that they have no right sell, those rights having been reverted to the author.
Tom Bosley, best known as Howard Cunningham from Happy Days, joined the Halls of the Dead at 83 years of age, as did Robert Guccione, founder of Penthouse Magazine, at 79.
Also headlining, mostly for the people who have been following this - Elizabeth Moon has been disinvited as a Guest of Honor for Wiscon, after published remarks on her blog generated an outcry from attendees. The bit there is only a single sentence, and has no further explanation or insight into the process that created such a decision, which would have been nice to see.
Out in the world today, a paper in Uganda claimed to out the country&apo;s "100 top homosexuals" with the admonition to "hang them" for being that way. The paper also printed the addresses of the men (and they are all men). Predictably, the witch-hunt followed soon after, with reported attacks, stone-throwings, and hell made for those men because people of deficient morals advocated for murder based on someone's sexual orientation. What part of "Thou shalt not murder" is unclear, here?
Soldiers in Afghanistan continue to complain that their rules of engagement are for too restrictive for them to effectively do their jobs, as well as being less than happy about the negotiations between the Karzai government and the Taliban.
Militants raided the Chechen parliament, killing six people and casting doubt on Russia's claim that they had Chechnya safe.
Inside the United States, the Veterans for Foreign Wars closed off their political action committee after several members complained about their endorsements of Democratic Congressional candidates based on their voting records regarding veterans.
After a judge refused to stay her injunction against the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, recruiters fo the military are being instructed to accept openly gay applicants, with the caveat for all of them that when a stay is granted pending appeal, they can then stop accepting those recruits and then possibly discharge them under the policy.
Washington State's program of providing free birth control methods to the very poor and teenagers is closing in February 2011, due to budget problems. And thus, we get yet another example of how people who are poor often get shafted on important things like birth control because the people who fund government don't think it's worthwhile. I'll bet they also complain about poor people having more children than they can afford who drain the social safety net, too.
The latest advertisement from an anti-Harry Reid group in Nevada tells Latinos that they should not go out and vote in protest over what Harry Reid has done, and that will send him and the Democrats the message they need to hear - make good on your immigration reform promises. It just happens to be convenient that if Latinos stay home, Sharron Angle, extremist, will be more likely to be elected. I'm not sure the community there wants to know what Angle immigration reform looks like in practice.
Finally, Tea Party Nationalism, a report from the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights on what the six organizations at the core of the Tea Party stand for, how they're organized, and how they interact. The groups aren't all about small government - in fact, many of them are more obsessed with Birtherism, stopping all kinds of immigrants from entering the country, rolling the Constitution back to remove protections and rights now in place, and in making sure that those people they deem undeserving are denied government assistance rather than in shrinking deficits and the size of government, but those things won't make you appear to be sane candidates that people can vote for.
In technology, while some scientists are proposing that we send humans on a one-way journey to Mars, prepped by robots and with an eye toward establishing a self-sufficient colony, others, with DARPA funding, are trying to develop a colony ship that can be sent out toward exoplanets that look like they could sustain life.
Looking back as much as forward, a campaign is underway to rebuild the Babbage Analytical Engine, and images and translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls will be available thorugh Google for free to anyone that wishes to study them.
Further analysis of the transplanted lungs that transferred their allergic reaction and the doctor who says organs that have allergies should still be transplanted, even with that risk.
Finally, predictions about the future on the fortieth anniversary of the book Future Shock.
Into opinions we go, starting with the dawning reality on many that these isolated incidents against the First Amendment are not embarrassing gaffes but serious policy stands by the Republican/Tea Party candidates.
Mr. Sowell accuses proponents of multiculturalism as being cult members, and says the real way to integration and assimilation in America is to make sure that disparate groups are firmly enclaved in certain sections of town that can be avoided until they decide that being white and reatining only tokens of their native culture is the way to improve their lot and they start moving away from those enclaves. Programs that try to put people who are of different culture or who are poor into environments where they can thrive as unacceptable, of course, because the people in those rich and/or white enclaves don't want poor brown people dirtying it up and ruining their attempts at isolation. Heaven forbid that someone have a chance at escaping the assumptions that pervade the neighborhood that a conservative will parade around as being an example of welfare drainers, single mothers, and morally deficient black and brown people. Because, according to most of them, poor people are poor because they're lazy and choose to be that way, instead of getting married and working several jobs so they can make just enough to be wiped out by an unexpected expense. If you only encouraged poor people to get married and tied their government assistance to whether or not they're working full-time jobs, they say, those poor people would quickly get off of government assistance and be rich, thriving people. Once they're working those 30 hours a week, I suspect those same people would say, "Well, you've got a full-time job. We can cut off your benefits now and keep you poor and at the whim of your corporate masters. And we'll starve the social safety net of enough resources to be able to help you back up again when you fall the next time. Sucks to be you, doesn't it?"
The WSJ thinks that the current set of waivers being issued to companies to keep certain types of insurance plans in operation is a symptom of the power invested in the Secretary of Health and Human Services to be capricious and arbitrary in who gets pummeled and who gets away, based on her whims, and that the rules themselves must be badly written if they require waivers, ignoring the point they raise in paragraph one, that these waivers are being granted so that workers at those companies have some sort of medical coverage instead of having their bosses and insurers unceremoniously drop them from coverage rather than get them plans compliant with the new regulations. Given the choice between "mini-med" and nothing, in a recession, "mini-med" it is, because nobody wants to take that kind of political fallout. I suppose it's a testament to the success of the conservative framing that paints government as the source of every problem, even when it's corporations making the decision on how they're going to be complaint with those resolutions. Those corporations could have decided to spring for proper plans, but instead said they would just stop offering plans entirely. Yet, if there were a protest about it, I think anti-government protestors would turn out fine, while those who were going to protest the company for shafting their workers in such a manner would be smaller.
Last for today, Wordsmith Mark Twain on the utter uselessness of his proofreaders, because they insist on changing his punctuation and putting in their own. And Tupac Ipsum, or Lorizzle fo'shizzle.
