Random regurgitation - 14-15 March 2011

Good morning. Up at the very top, why you should never pet a service dog, or even ask to pet a service dog, while the dog is working.

Our information continues with the Union of Concerned Scientists keeping us in the loop about what might happen next, and doing so such that laypersons can follow. Unfortunately, it appears some of the latest explosions may have ruptured or destroyed the containment vessels for the nuclear core. And there are fires in another part of the reactor complex. That said, things are still doing well in that only a small amount of radioactivity has been released, despite all the disaster scrambling going on. (This doesn't stop some commentators from chiding their opponents for inflating things for their political gain before mixing in their own politics in their reassurances that all is well.) Elsehwere, the death toll of thos ekilled by the quake and tsunami continues to rise. Rescue has likely given way to recovery and cleanup at this point.

Now that the reason for their holding out has been passed, without their involvement (and potentially without being legal), the fourteen Wisconsin Democrats who had left the Capitol building as a desperation move returned to work, buffered by cheering crowds of protesters along the way. Suffice to say, the protests continued in a classy manner, with more than a few zingers on signs. The attacks on the people are not limited to Wisconsin, or Michigan, or just unions - a case against Wal-Mart of women discriminated against based on their gender that hsa mushroomed into a giant class action, if dismissed, would signal that some companies are too big to sue and that the last resort of the people to affect change against a major company could be removed or nerfed to the point of being useless.

Out in the world today, African nations are working together to find ways of managing their shared water resources so everyone wins. And thus, water wars are won before they are even thought of, and without the actual war bit.

Large Buddha statues destroyed by religious zealots in Afghanistan will not be rebuilt, according to UNESCO.

Advocacy for the women in Norway who sought asylum, were denied, and continue to stay on in the country. The "No One Is Illegal" campaign hopes to bring those women back into full status as refugees and give them legal standing to stay. Elsewhere, domestic workers in Mexico aren't getting education, fair wages, or the protections other laborers receive under law, as others in Mexico City have stopped the demolition of public parks to build a sport stadium, social media in Taiwan is making the voices of the indigineous population much more easily heard and felt, a venture started by a woman in India now employs more than 2,000, mostly women, across two provinces, the glass ceiling in Brazil is intact in the sciences, even though there are many females in the sciences - one cannoy merely substitute quantity for lack of seniority and hope nobody notices, and Mauritan women are getting into politics thanks to training provided to them from an NGO. Women are awesme and doing awesome things. That's what makes decisions that a teenager is not mature enough to bypass parental permission for an abortion based on her grammar, having not asked for parental permission first, and being onconvinced about a vacation taken overseas with he rmother as sufficient signs of maturity and informed decision-making engender the WTF reaction. Perhaps if the case is unsealed with name redactions, we can get a fuller picture of what went on, including how much the judge's personal viewpoint (represented by endorsements from ani-abortion groups) influenced his decision.

There's also The conclusion of a welfare working Group that the best way to stop long-term dependence on the benefits is that poor people just need to stop breeding if they want to get their welfare benefit, instead of pouring more resources into getting those people on the benefit off the benefit and into work where they can support themselves.

Domestically, Honolulu TSA employees are under investigation for not having put checked baggage through screening, and Senator Schumer wants to look into the hiring practices of the TSA, as they seem to find all sorts of people who are not fit for the work.

A Zero Intelligence policy put an eleven year-old child at the police station charged with making criminal threats when he said that he wished for a gun to rid himself of his tormentors, bullying that had been copmlained about for a very long time in front of this event. The administrator denies and downplays that this has been going on in this school for so long and with so many incidents. He's probably either clueless or lying on that front.

A state house representative in Kansas suggested that immigrants to Kansas be dealt with in the same manner as feral hogs - shot from a helicopter. When pressed, teh membe said he was only joking and that he was just trying to talk like someone from the southeastern region of Kansas.

Multiple independent labs have confirmed the presence of crude oil in the shrimp, fish, and crabs of the Gulf of Mexico, confirming the worries of everyone around that the seafood affected by the Deepwater Horizon disaster is not safe.

Finally, Congressman Ron Paul would like to see the legalization of hemp, as well as believing that libertarians and progressives could probably unite to take care of most of the problems the country has, even though they'll have strident disagreements about other bits. We could use a viable third-party candidate on both sides of the spectrum, if for no other reason than to be able to get a sense of where people really put their beliefs.

In technology, blood-alcohol level testers may become standard equipment in motor vehicles as an attempt to stop drink driving, but that criticis say will prevent a glass of wine or a bottle of beer with dinner when going out.

The decision of Etsy to roll out a new People Search tool has exposed the names and purchase histories of persons who buy, sell, and leave feedback on the popular site, without notifying them of the change. The user base is not happy about those changes.

The Department of Homeland (in)Security has seized the domain of and arrested a person, claiming that he violated the copyright laws of the United states by linking to video streams that may have violated the copyright laws of the United States. Not only do domain seizures potentially violate the Consistution of the United States and established legal decisions, but criminalizing the distribution of links has quite the chilling effect on speech and content on the Internet and allows for great ease for the government to simply censor any website sit doesn't approve up by making linking to them illegal. Wouldn't they love to do that to Wikileaks...

Finally, Mashed-up banana peel can be used as a water purifier for certain elements, like lead or copper.

In opinions, Mr. Pendry says "We'll never see the evidence to prove or disprove the Birthers or the Secret Muslim Theorists, but I do know that Barack Obama is not a Christian, that he does Hate America, doesn't respect the Constitution, the states, or the people, doesn't want to defend the country, and is clearly not Our President". I wonder if he was penning columns about the need to respect Our President when it was the previous administrator who won, or when the disasters that are our Land Wars In Asia were foisted on the people as an attack to try and make the protesting voices silent. His evidence is meager at best and buys into the very conspiracies he claims not to be able to pass judgment on at worst. Let's take a look:

1. Liberation theology, which Barack Obama believes in, is not Christianity, because it puts social justice and Marxism before G-d, instead of being a true theology that only concerns itself with G-d and what he said. Wait, what did Jesus say..."The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me." (Mark 14:7) Or, perhaps we should go straight to G-d Himself - "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land." (Deuteronomy 15:11) Social justice, and even the possibility of Merxist redistribution is woven directly into the fabric of the religion you profess and you claim Barack Obama doesn't. It behooves you to read the work and become familiar with it before giving commentary. Especially when...
2. ...you can be accused of idolatry yourself - Barack Obama, says Mr. Pendry, is not a devotee of The Market (A.P.T.I.N.), nor of unquestioned obesiance to the military when they ask for money, nor in sacrificing the environment for the sake of cheap energy prices, and thus Hates America. Only Republican Jesus, as far as I know, says anything about how the poor deserve their suffering, the rich deserve their riches, and the aims of Christians and capitalists are to make sure that amoral market capitalism runs as freely as it can. I don't see that in the founding documents. Speaking of...
3. Barack Obama Hates America's Constitution and its separation of powers. Because he apparently signs into law things like health care mandates, and he makes commentary on the way that state governors are treating their employees and unions. Hell, because he blieves that public employees have the right to oganize and bargain. Because he has advisors and administrative departments that Mr. Pendry believes operate outside of Congressional oversight, and because he told the Justice Department to stop defending a law that he does not believe in. (And because he supports The Gay Agenda! First openly gay people in the military, and now they might be able to get married!)
4. Finally, Barack Obama Hates America because he doesn't believe the United States is perfect in all its ways, which makes him automatically suspect of being an American in the first place, because Everyone Knows True Americans think the United States is flawless.

Dueling with Mr. Pendry for the dishonor of Worst Person in the World tonight is Mr. Boortz, who emphasises the boor in his column that first expresses glee that unions in Wisconsin aren't able to take the dues of their members out of the paycheck automatically, and then turns to the college students that have been turning out in numbers to protest what's been done and tells them to shut up. His reasoning why the college students should be quiet?

1. College students don't actually affect any change in the world. Their egoes are getting in the waay of reality, and no matter how much they think they can make a difference, nobody actually listens to college students protesting, because...
2. College students don't have real-world experience, so they can't comment seriously on real-world issues. Mr. Boortz believes that all these college students are still living off of their parents and have no experience at all with working to meet their own needs, or filling out their own tax forms, or anything that would make them worthy of esteem in his eyes.

He says the students need to get a clue and live in the real world before he will look past his ageism and believe them. He also discounts all the other people who were present at that protest that do have those years of experience working for a living and doing their own taxes. Mr. Boortz is the clueless one, here. Most of those students don't have a full ride or the parental support to allow them not to work, whether during the school year or during the summer, to defray the continually rising costs of their education. Not to mention having to labor under the insistence of all the morons like Mr. Boortz that say those people should have no rights because they're not living independently or because they vote for Democrats ("foolishly", as the lawmaker that wanted to strip them of their ability to vote said). They shouldn't have to magically fix a geopolitical crisis like Haiti before you pay attention to them. Why do you really want to dismiss them, Mr. Boortz? Is it because they tend to be liberal and vote for liberal policies and you think that's wrong? Is it because they have learned, with this example, how important it is for working people to be able to bargain collectively and work to improve their lot, even in the public sector? Is it because you want to make sure they turn out to be old bitter Tea Partiers or disillusioned liberals, chasing phantasms of the past instead of working to fix the present that the Corporations and their Republican allies are rapidly stripping of everything they can get their hands on? Why do you think college students don't deserve a voice, Mr. Boortz? What about them scares you that much that you insist nobody listen to them?

Elsewhere, Mr. Seitz sees the quake in Japan as a proper slap across the face of the normally self-absorbed and smug cable news networks, and is at least okay with the idea of all the players finally doing reporting that underscores the seriousness of the affair, and provides information rather than punditry.

Last for tonight, a condom manufacturer is banking that items such as Gene Simmons' famously long tongue as an illustration on the condom itself will be appealing to those who want to purchase the product.

And as the postscript, the USA men's collegiate basketball championship tournaments got underway today. Thus, we have a letter of note expressing empathy from one person in very high-stakes, high pressure situations to another - William Jefferson Clinton to Chris Webber, after Webber called a non-existent time-out during the championship game. Both Clinton and Webber would go on to be roiled by scandals relating to their personal behavior while they were public figures.