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Greetings, everyone. We begin with what might be the first recorded use of the neologism "steampunk", a neo-Victorian twist on William Gibson's "cyberpunk", and the inspiration for a lot of modification, costuming, and aviator goggles.
Following on that (because my brain makes connections between the idea of the retro-future spinning the normally awful era into a time of adventure and the following idea set), as The Future progresses, more and more men are turning from breadwinner to bread baker, subverting the dominant male paradigm in greater numbers (whether they want to or not). Depending on the cultural flexibility of the region those men are in, they can adapt to their new role with greater or lesser ease. Such a shift also makes for letters of note granting a short recess for someone to attend the first rite of maleness if their child should be a boy, but insisting that if it is a girl, then the court would hold a celebration of women for the same duration.
Also, signal-boosting a request for people to say what love means to them.
Warplanes and airstrikes by the army forces loyal to Qadaffi against rebels target an oil production facility the rebels recently seized. Meanwhile, the United States Defense Department answered calls for a no-fly zone by correctly indicating that it would mean airstrikes and bombs on their part as well, intended to destroy the capacity to fly planes at all.
Wisonsin's capitol building ordered reopened by a judge, but the people have not been let back inside. The Republicans intend on passing a resolution to hold the missing Senators in contempt of their body, which they then hope will let them issue warrants to have the legislators forcibly returned to the building to vote on the bill.
And just remember through all of this that major media outlets have been and continue to perform utterly craptastically in getting you the truth in this whole affair. That is, when they're not lying outright, as the Fox Propaganda Network has done, or at least attempting to paint the existence of public-sector unions in as negative and greedy a light as possible. (They just want more of your tax money, and they force everyone to pay them, whether they want to or not, among other things.)
Out in the world today, the governments of Europe will be banning the sale of many herbal products that make health benefit claims.
The United States is beginning the deployment of an anti-ballistic missile defense network in Europe to counter a perceived Iranian nuclear threat.
A Pakistani minister calling for an amendment to a proposed death penalty for blasphemy of Islam was assassinated in his own vehicle.
A Somalian fighter who defected from al-Shabbab, an al-Qaeda affiliated group, indicates that foreign fighters make up a significant part of the trainers and soldiers in the al-Shabbab organization.
Domestically, PFC Bradley Manning was charged with 22 additional crimes due to his alleged involvement in the Wikileaks affair, including a charge of aiding the enemy, seven months after he was arrested.
...The Ohio legislature calls forth a fetus to act as a witness in support of their bill to outlaw abortion after a heartbeat can be detected. And not a dead one, either - a live one, still in utero, to give testimony.
Then again, the historical record regarding the United States and ethical treatment of its people is not exactly stellar - there were a lot of experiments in our past where doctors deliberately infected persons with diseases to study how it spread. And now, I think, I understand a bit better why an earlier gaffe of mine made such a strong response.
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that funeral picketers are legal and allowed to express their views as a free speech issue, proving once again that the country was made stronger than what most of the people picketing said funerals want it to be. The justices suggested, however, that a minimum distance could be enforced to make sure the protesters don't get too close.
Finally, Oprah's magazine runs an article in favor of the use of MDMA (Ecstasy) therapeutically.
Elsewhere, why, again, are employers doing credit checks on prospective employees, and why does the law allow them to do so?
In opinions, evangelicals getting loud about a story that says love wins in the end are using the description of Hell as a bludgeon against that concept, saying "If it's in the Bible, then it must be literally truthful and real, and so there must be eternally damned souls, so love can't win in the end, because punishment must happen!". Excepting, of course, that the evidence in the Bible about hell is pretty scant, at best, and is probably being used as an example, or a parable. But that doesn't deter Team Hell, becauset they're reading the source materials for a different purpose than other Christians are. In doing so, they expose the fundamental divide between reading the narrative as the source of authority and reading the narrative as the story of a being who has the authority and uses it in certain ways.
Besides, if The Bishop of Rome can at least personally exonerate the Hebrew people for the death of the Christian prophet (hopefully personally only because it was already done ex cathedra by one of his predecessors), then surely there's room for us to negotiate about the physical reality of Hell.
Mr. Carroll is unimpressed with the support of the President for a plan to move up the timetable on some of the implementations of the Patient Affordable Care Act, calling it "flexibility to implement a government takeover of health care faster".
An opinion about how being both a person of color and a woman in the reporting gig is both a good thing (in being able to get people to talk more freely to her) and a bad thing (because her colleagues still Other her).
Mr. Hanson continues in the new talking points vein that says the Obama administration has been confused or ineffective in their response to the Middle East because they haven't gone in guns blazing and also done more domestic drilling to offest oil insecurity. Elsewhere, Mr. Helprin says that our naval role as Team America: World Police must be maintained, both to be TA:WP and because our shipping needs demand that we field lots of naval vessels to keep the goods undisturbed.
Finally, Mr. Sowell says that the people of the Middle East are too stupid and lack the necessary culture to sustain a republican or democratic form of government, no matter what their aspirations and our hopes for them might be.
Last for tonight, keep an eye out for Tiny Satchel Press - they've got some really good offerings for people who fall outside the white middle-class hetero hero default. And hope that none of your best manga series are being produced by Tokyopop - the people in charge there seem to be unwilling to stick with their successes long enough to be successful.
Oh, and a set of plans to possibly construct a Dalek with. Just in case you need to go out and ex-ter-mi-nate!
Following on that (because my brain makes connections between the idea of the retro-future spinning the normally awful era into a time of adventure and the following idea set), as The Future progresses, more and more men are turning from breadwinner to bread baker, subverting the dominant male paradigm in greater numbers (whether they want to or not). Depending on the cultural flexibility of the region those men are in, they can adapt to their new role with greater or lesser ease. Such a shift also makes for letters of note granting a short recess for someone to attend the first rite of maleness if their child should be a boy, but insisting that if it is a girl, then the court would hold a celebration of women for the same duration.
Also, signal-boosting a request for people to say what love means to them.
Warplanes and airstrikes by the army forces loyal to Qadaffi against rebels target an oil production facility the rebels recently seized. Meanwhile, the United States Defense Department answered calls for a no-fly zone by correctly indicating that it would mean airstrikes and bombs on their part as well, intended to destroy the capacity to fly planes at all.
Wisonsin's capitol building ordered reopened by a judge, but the people have not been let back inside. The Republicans intend on passing a resolution to hold the missing Senators in contempt of their body, which they then hope will let them issue warrants to have the legislators forcibly returned to the building to vote on the bill.
And just remember through all of this that major media outlets have been and continue to perform utterly craptastically in getting you the truth in this whole affair. That is, when they're not lying outright, as the Fox Propaganda Network has done, or at least attempting to paint the existence of public-sector unions in as negative and greedy a light as possible. (They just want more of your tax money, and they force everyone to pay them, whether they want to or not, among other things.)
Out in the world today, the governments of Europe will be banning the sale of many herbal products that make health benefit claims.
The United States is beginning the deployment of an anti-ballistic missile defense network in Europe to counter a perceived Iranian nuclear threat.
A Pakistani minister calling for an amendment to a proposed death penalty for blasphemy of Islam was assassinated in his own vehicle.
A Somalian fighter who defected from al-Shabbab, an al-Qaeda affiliated group, indicates that foreign fighters make up a significant part of the trainers and soldiers in the al-Shabbab organization.
Domestically, PFC Bradley Manning was charged with 22 additional crimes due to his alleged involvement in the Wikileaks affair, including a charge of aiding the enemy, seven months after he was arrested.
...The Ohio legislature calls forth a fetus to act as a witness in support of their bill to outlaw abortion after a heartbeat can be detected. And not a dead one, either - a live one, still in utero, to give testimony.
Then again, the historical record regarding the United States and ethical treatment of its people is not exactly stellar - there were a lot of experiments in our past where doctors deliberately infected persons with diseases to study how it spread. And now, I think, I understand a bit better why an earlier gaffe of mine made such a strong response.
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that funeral picketers are legal and allowed to express their views as a free speech issue, proving once again that the country was made stronger than what most of the people picketing said funerals want it to be. The justices suggested, however, that a minimum distance could be enforced to make sure the protesters don't get too close.
Finally, Oprah's magazine runs an article in favor of the use of MDMA (Ecstasy) therapeutically.
Elsewhere, why, again, are employers doing credit checks on prospective employees, and why does the law allow them to do so?
In opinions, evangelicals getting loud about a story that says love wins in the end are using the description of Hell as a bludgeon against that concept, saying "If it's in the Bible, then it must be literally truthful and real, and so there must be eternally damned souls, so love can't win in the end, because punishment must happen!". Excepting, of course, that the evidence in the Bible about hell is pretty scant, at best, and is probably being used as an example, or a parable. But that doesn't deter Team Hell, becauset they're reading the source materials for a different purpose than other Christians are. In doing so, they expose the fundamental divide between reading the narrative as the source of authority and reading the narrative as the story of a being who has the authority and uses it in certain ways.
Besides, if The Bishop of Rome can at least personally exonerate the Hebrew people for the death of the Christian prophet (hopefully personally only because it was already done ex cathedra by one of his predecessors), then surely there's room for us to negotiate about the physical reality of Hell.
Mr. Carroll is unimpressed with the support of the President for a plan to move up the timetable on some of the implementations of the Patient Affordable Care Act, calling it "flexibility to implement a government takeover of health care faster".
An opinion about how being both a person of color and a woman in the reporting gig is both a good thing (in being able to get people to talk more freely to her) and a bad thing (because her colleagues still Other her).
Mr. Hanson continues in the new talking points vein that says the Obama administration has been confused or ineffective in their response to the Middle East because they haven't gone in guns blazing and also done more domestic drilling to offest oil insecurity. Elsewhere, Mr. Helprin says that our naval role as Team America: World Police must be maintained, both to be TA:WP and because our shipping needs demand that we field lots of naval vessels to keep the goods undisturbed.
Finally, Mr. Sowell says that the people of the Middle East are too stupid and lack the necessary culture to sustain a republican or democratic form of government, no matter what their aspirations and our hopes for them might be.
Last for tonight, keep an eye out for Tiny Satchel Press - they've got some really good offerings for people who fall outside the white middle-class hetero hero default. And hope that none of your best manga series are being produced by Tokyopop - the people in charge there seem to be unwilling to stick with their successes long enough to be successful.
Oh, and a set of plans to possibly construct a Dalek with. Just in case you need to go out and ex-ter-mi-nate!
