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Enjoy The Stuff - 17 March 2011
Mar. 18th, 2011 12:14 pmToday, we lead with something totally unrelated to what will follow, and that might be very interesting to those studying the Tone Argument - Dear Author talks about the myth of the YA Mafia, but more importantly, the fact that honest and critical reviews will mean you might not be friends with authors or publishers, but you will be appreciated by readers. If as a reviewer, you're also a potential author, then the best way to still get sold despite having made not-friends of people is to write a book they can't help but publish. Good writing in all these cases pays off handsomely.
Elsewhere, a survey result that has statistics about requests for reconsideration in libraries - many of which look unfavorably upon the ALA and its OIF office, which may be perceived as being unresponsive to requests for assistance, and others which betray that library workers are often not standing on their selection policy when confronted with such requests. Some of that may be due to their personal beliefs (see comments), but there are other possibilities, including that being seen as a defender of Those Books might make your career prospects uncomfortable, especially if the brass doesn't support you (also see comments).
The passage of the union-stripping bill in Wisconsin has been challenged in court as a violation of the state's open meetings law. Of course, it will take a long time to be decided, but the challenge is underway. In the meantime, implementation of the bill has been stopped.
For those of you who are keeping an eye on your own states to see if similar things will be attempted,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kittydesade needs volunteers to help chronicle anti-union items in other non-Wisconsin locales. For examples of material sought, see this tag, chair leg of truth (IT DOES NOT LIE). Contact adsartha or kittydesade to sign up or get more details.
Out in the world today, A major haul of water to keep the Fukushima nuclear reactors and spent fuel cooled appears successful. The major method of hauling was specially-modified helicopters dropping water on the cooling pools. Even in this case, the United States is now worried that the situation could devolve into something that has decades-long implications and effects.
According to diplomatic cables that have been released by Wikileaks, concern about the problems with the power plants were raised in 2008 and not acted upon by the Japanese government. Which makes sense, unlike a pundit that believes the quakes were a sign from G-d or the pundit that claims the media is covering the incident too much for the actual danger that the people are in.
Elsewhere, A United States soldier is claiming that the storyline of the movie "The Hurt Locker" used his personal stories without his permission, and the portrayal has hurt his reputation in his unit significiantly.
Domestically, occasionally successful but never accurate propagandist James O'Keefe thinks he has damning evidence of NPR being a puppet organization of George Soros...but his evidence has been freely available for a very long time, so any secret conspiracy stuff alleged is, well, bunk.
The Transportation Security Administration admits that its terahertz radiation backscatter device provides a dosage of radiation ten times stronger than what they claimed.
The passage of a continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded has all sorts of people up in arms. The Gun Owners of America are incensed that BATF will still be able to restrict the gun ownership of persons who might suffer from PTSD and to require a registry that keeps track of when multiple firearms are sold, a position I suspect the NRA agrees with.
CNN does something head-shaking, by writing an article about whether white people are an oppressed people and suffer racism in the United States and doesn't come to the conclusion "NO" immediately, instead listing all the things that might point to white people oppression, letting white supremacists talk as if they were normal people, and making it sound like a serious issue and not providing any balance.
In the sciences, confirmation that the pursuit of ephemeral or hedonic happiness does not result in long-term well-being, and thus, the rat race is not your friend.
And in technology, a manner by which one can fizz whole fruit with CO2 gas.
In opinons, Mr. Dionne, Jr. says that the prevailing narrative of the people who want to cut benefits, union collective bargaining, and raise taxes on the people who can't afford it to give tax breaks to those who don't need it is wrong. We're not broke, and if we were of the idea that the people who have lots of money can afford some tax revenues, we might even be able to make the long-term problems go away along with the short-term ones. Assuming, of course, the politicians suddenly decide to represent the people that elect them, not the people and corporations that fund their campaigns and offer them wealthy jobs when they retire from government.
Mr. Carroll is less than pleased with the perceived lack of follow-through from the United States after the President said that Gaddafi had to leave as the leader of Libya. He believes Western credibility is being destroyed by the minute as the military follow-through on any part of that statement is lacking.
Mr. Sowell believes the Republicans can gain significant ground with African-Americans by blaming gentrification, high housing prices, high black unemployment, and bad education on Democrats and the special-interest groups those Democrats are supposedly beholden to - environmentalists (who raise the rent and make it harder to build affordable housing), unions (whose demands for good minimum wages make black people more unemployed), and teachers' unions (whose rules about seniority and discipline make it impossible to fire all the awful teachers that are in the public school system, where all the black kids go because their parents don't make enouguh to send them to private schools).
Mr. Williams is annoyed that people tend to blame spending problems on Presidents rather than the Congress, and after reiterating his belief that Social Security is theft, suggests that lots of people would be willing to trade their Social Security and Medicare for a plot of land that the federal government doesn't deserve to have anyway.
Mr. Zuckerman says the reason the economy hasn't come roaring back is because the American people aren't seeing signs that their wages are going up, they're still trying to pay their debts, and there aren't any jobs available for those that are gone. (They call it weak spending, weak housing, and no jobs, but I like mine better).
Finally, a call for the President to declare that Sharia law will never happen in the United States in advance of a demonstration calling for the establishment of Sharia law in the United States. Because, apparently, they still believe that the President is a Secret Muslim who will be sympathetic to the rally? Or that he can be bullied into doing so through the use of domestic terrorism, because Democrats Are Weak Appeasers? Either way, it would be nice if they had facts to support their allegations and insinuations as to why such a statement would be needed. We ask for the same thing from the headline that claims young girls in America are being married to suspicious Muslims in the Middle East, based on two anecdotes in the story. Only after they talk about the Muslim Menace do they then point out "Oh, yeah, and child brides are wrong, against international agreements, and nobody should be subjected to this sort of thing anywhere in the world."
Last for tonight, though, A list of reasons why Fred Rogers is a memorable and wonderful figure. And One Mr. Henson describing a process by which someone can make puppets out of ordinary materials.
Elsewhere, a survey result that has statistics about requests for reconsideration in libraries - many of which look unfavorably upon the ALA and its OIF office, which may be perceived as being unresponsive to requests for assistance, and others which betray that library workers are often not standing on their selection policy when confronted with such requests. Some of that may be due to their personal beliefs (see comments), but there are other possibilities, including that being seen as a defender of Those Books might make your career prospects uncomfortable, especially if the brass doesn't support you (also see comments).
The passage of the union-stripping bill in Wisconsin has been challenged in court as a violation of the state's open meetings law. Of course, it will take a long time to be decided, but the challenge is underway. In the meantime, implementation of the bill has been stopped.
For those of you who are keeping an eye on your own states to see if similar things will be attempted,
kittydesade needs volunteers to help chronicle anti-union items in other non-Wisconsin locales. For examples of material sought, see this tag, chair leg of truth (IT DOES NOT LIE). Contact adsartha or kittydesade to sign up or get more details.Out in the world today, A major haul of water to keep the Fukushima nuclear reactors and spent fuel cooled appears successful. The major method of hauling was specially-modified helicopters dropping water on the cooling pools. Even in this case, the United States is now worried that the situation could devolve into something that has decades-long implications and effects.
According to diplomatic cables that have been released by Wikileaks, concern about the problems with the power plants were raised in 2008 and not acted upon by the Japanese government. Which makes sense, unlike a pundit that believes the quakes were a sign from G-d or the pundit that claims the media is covering the incident too much for the actual danger that the people are in.
Elsewhere, A United States soldier is claiming that the storyline of the movie "The Hurt Locker" used his personal stories without his permission, and the portrayal has hurt his reputation in his unit significiantly.
Domestically, occasionally successful but never accurate propagandist James O'Keefe thinks he has damning evidence of NPR being a puppet organization of George Soros...but his evidence has been freely available for a very long time, so any secret conspiracy stuff alleged is, well, bunk.
The Transportation Security Administration admits that its terahertz radiation backscatter device provides a dosage of radiation ten times stronger than what they claimed.
The passage of a continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded has all sorts of people up in arms. The Gun Owners of America are incensed that BATF will still be able to restrict the gun ownership of persons who might suffer from PTSD and to require a registry that keeps track of when multiple firearms are sold, a position I suspect the NRA agrees with.
CNN does something head-shaking, by writing an article about whether white people are an oppressed people and suffer racism in the United States and doesn't come to the conclusion "NO" immediately, instead listing all the things that might point to white people oppression, letting white supremacists talk as if they were normal people, and making it sound like a serious issue and not providing any balance.
In the sciences, confirmation that the pursuit of ephemeral or hedonic happiness does not result in long-term well-being, and thus, the rat race is not your friend.
And in technology, a manner by which one can fizz whole fruit with CO2 gas.
In opinons, Mr. Dionne, Jr. says that the prevailing narrative of the people who want to cut benefits, union collective bargaining, and raise taxes on the people who can't afford it to give tax breaks to those who don't need it is wrong. We're not broke, and if we were of the idea that the people who have lots of money can afford some tax revenues, we might even be able to make the long-term problems go away along with the short-term ones. Assuming, of course, the politicians suddenly decide to represent the people that elect them, not the people and corporations that fund their campaigns and offer them wealthy jobs when they retire from government.
Mr. Carroll is less than pleased with the perceived lack of follow-through from the United States after the President said that Gaddafi had to leave as the leader of Libya. He believes Western credibility is being destroyed by the minute as the military follow-through on any part of that statement is lacking.
Mr. Sowell believes the Republicans can gain significant ground with African-Americans by blaming gentrification, high housing prices, high black unemployment, and bad education on Democrats and the special-interest groups those Democrats are supposedly beholden to - environmentalists (who raise the rent and make it harder to build affordable housing), unions (whose demands for good minimum wages make black people more unemployed), and teachers' unions (whose rules about seniority and discipline make it impossible to fire all the awful teachers that are in the public school system, where all the black kids go because their parents don't make enouguh to send them to private schools).
Mr. Williams is annoyed that people tend to blame spending problems on Presidents rather than the Congress, and after reiterating his belief that Social Security is theft, suggests that lots of people would be willing to trade their Social Security and Medicare for a plot of land that the federal government doesn't deserve to have anyway.
Mr. Zuckerman says the reason the economy hasn't come roaring back is because the American people aren't seeing signs that their wages are going up, they're still trying to pay their debts, and there aren't any jobs available for those that are gone. (They call it weak spending, weak housing, and no jobs, but I like mine better).
Finally, a call for the President to declare that Sharia law will never happen in the United States in advance of a demonstration calling for the establishment of Sharia law in the United States. Because, apparently, they still believe that the President is a Secret Muslim who will be sympathetic to the rally? Or that he can be bullied into doing so through the use of domestic terrorism, because Democrats Are Weak Appeasers? Either way, it would be nice if they had facts to support their allegations and insinuations as to why such a statement would be needed. We ask for the same thing from the headline that claims young girls in America are being married to suspicious Muslims in the Middle East, based on two anecdotes in the story. Only after they talk about the Muslim Menace do they then point out "Oh, yeah, and child brides are wrong, against international agreements, and nobody should be subjected to this sort of thing anywhere in the world."
Last for tonight, though, A list of reasons why Fred Rogers is a memorable and wonderful figure. And One Mr. Henson describing a process by which someone can make puppets out of ordinary materials.
