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An actual post! - 10-14 July 02011
Jul. 14th, 2011 11:20 pmI am still here, in fact. Still managing the news as best I can and trying to keep up. Occasionally, I will succeed, and in doing so, I will post.
Out in the world today, South Sudan exists after a referendum splitting it away from the previous country.
Australia proposes fining women who refuse to lift their face coverings more than five thousand dollars AUD.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch must testify before the UK Parliament about the actions of members in his employ hacking voicemails and seeking sensitive data about previous UK Prime Minister Mr. Brown.
The United States State Department is concerned that technology that could be used for missile-building but also has civilian purposes is being sold by China to Iran and other countries of concern, apparently in violation of their aggreement as part of the Missile Technology Control Agreement.
Last out of this section, troops sent in a surge to Afghanistan began to return to the United States.
Domestically, totally unlike the television shows, the actual business of determining death is much less high-tech, much less well-funded, and much less staffed by people with the right credentials.
the President is still willing to sacrifice things most cherished to his base and the people most likely to re-elect him. Elsewhere, Republicans failed to repeal a law that would mandate a change to CFLs from incandescent light bulbs at the end of this year.
A woman in California drugged her husband, restrained him, then cut off his penis and ground it in the garbage disposal. The article is deliberately vague about what the motives were, mentioning only that "he deserved it".
Finally, the second living recipient of the Medal of Honor for action in Iraq or Afghanistan, Sergeant First Class Leroy Arthur Petry, received his award from the Commander-in-Chief today.
In tech, The Department of Justice claims they can force you to decrypt your computer so that they can get evidence to inidict or convict you from yout computer. Well, this follows from the claim that they can seize your computer at the border, and other such things. Blargination. Self-incrimination? What self-incrimination?
A protocol by which one can convert a television show into a series of frame with subtitles suitable for reading on an eReader. Instacomic power!
A computer that was given the ability to read and understand the user manual for the game Civilization was able to increase its victory rate against the game AI by thirty percent. This, despite having to learn the context and meaning of the words in the game without having outside context.
Finally, Neptune has completed one solar revolution since its discovery more than one hundred and fifty years ago.
In opinions, the CEO of Merck and Company Corporation exhorts you, the average American, to tell your Congresscritter that his company and other pharmaceutical manufacturers should not be regulated in any way at all. On the other side, Mr. Nugent says that you, the Average American, should be mad as hell at the way the government continually screws you over, and vote out everyone that's there so as to start fresh again, and that by doing so, one will magically be able to elect honest people who will reduce the government back to its proper size, avoiding settling for the idea of slow growth because of the European socialist policies of Obama - policies that are pretty far away from European socialism, or even Canadian socialism.
The editors of the WSJ would have you believe that a solution that does not address revenues is a sensible one and that Republicans are right to not make any deals that have tax increases, even to the point of letting the President increase the debt ceiling and then expressing their disapproval in a resolution because said editors are confident all of the blame for the bad economy and bad job market will land solely on the President, who will be tasked with choosing what parts of the government to shut down and which checks not to send out. Mr. Krauthammer accuses the President of not having put forward a serious budget proposal, the Democrats for sitting on their hands and doing nothing, and both of then demagouging to death the Republicans who put forward the bold and serious Ryan proposal and voted for it. However, we do at least agree that the Democratic Party should actually introduce a budget bill and allow it to come up for a vote, if for no other reason than to be able to get rid of the attack vector that allows conservatives to point at their own budget proposal, unserious though it may be, and say, "Where's yours?"
Tait Trussel wants all of the people who voted for Obama in 2008 to realize that he's been a politician about his big issues instead of following through on them. Which would make Mr. Obama like any other politician in history. Mr. Hurt accuses the President of barely-hidden condescension and know-better-ism in the vein of Jimmy Carter, and every conservative knows how well Jimmy Carter is regarded. Mr. Solway goes significantly farther than that, accusing the President of being tempramental, ideological, and all-around stupid, an accusation that he must feel remarkably smug about, believing he's boomeranged the criticsm of George W. Bush back onto President Obama...although in this case, Mr. Solway must resort to caricatures like Dinesh D'Souza's "anti-colonialism" canard to support his assertion, as well as using the "empty suit" argument (his only virtue is his persuasiveness and the teleprompter) while accusing the man in the suit of being an ideologue. Even Mr. Rove accuses the President of being both incompetent and devious in the same article. It does sound a lot like the criticisms of George W. Bush, but I think they settled pretty quickly on "devious, with an air of disarming incompetence" after a lot of the Republican agenda started passing.
Mr. Hanson is on the anti-war train regarding Libya, considering it a stupid war no matter where you are on the political spectrum. One wishes that he applied the same sort of vigor toward analyzing the other wars, rather than appearing to only be against war when a Democrat does it.
Last out, Mr. Stossel opines about an entrepreneur who will give $100,000 USD to students to drop out of college and start a business, believing running the business will be more educational than actual education. Well, it might train people who will try to steal more elegantly than using a bribe, a bucket, and fishing line. I'm guessing, though, he wants things more to be like a conversion experience where the liberals read something conservative and suddenly abandon their previous ways, returning to the gospel of my-country-over-all, exceptionalism, and schooling that reinforces a jingoistic worldview in the guise of patriotism.
Out in the world today, South Sudan exists after a referendum splitting it away from the previous country.
Australia proposes fining women who refuse to lift their face coverings more than five thousand dollars AUD.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch must testify before the UK Parliament about the actions of members in his employ hacking voicemails and seeking sensitive data about previous UK Prime Minister Mr. Brown.
The United States State Department is concerned that technology that could be used for missile-building but also has civilian purposes is being sold by China to Iran and other countries of concern, apparently in violation of their aggreement as part of the Missile Technology Control Agreement.
Last out of this section, troops sent in a surge to Afghanistan began to return to the United States.
Domestically, totally unlike the television shows, the actual business of determining death is much less high-tech, much less well-funded, and much less staffed by people with the right credentials.
the President is still willing to sacrifice things most cherished to his base and the people most likely to re-elect him. Elsewhere, Republicans failed to repeal a law that would mandate a change to CFLs from incandescent light bulbs at the end of this year.
A woman in California drugged her husband, restrained him, then cut off his penis and ground it in the garbage disposal. The article is deliberately vague about what the motives were, mentioning only that "he deserved it".
Finally, the second living recipient of the Medal of Honor for action in Iraq or Afghanistan, Sergeant First Class Leroy Arthur Petry, received his award from the Commander-in-Chief today.
In tech, The Department of Justice claims they can force you to decrypt your computer so that they can get evidence to inidict or convict you from yout computer. Well, this follows from the claim that they can seize your computer at the border, and other such things. Blargination. Self-incrimination? What self-incrimination?
A protocol by which one can convert a television show into a series of frame with subtitles suitable for reading on an eReader. Instacomic power!
A computer that was given the ability to read and understand the user manual for the game Civilization was able to increase its victory rate against the game AI by thirty percent. This, despite having to learn the context and meaning of the words in the game without having outside context.
Finally, Neptune has completed one solar revolution since its discovery more than one hundred and fifty years ago.
In opinions, the CEO of Merck and Company Corporation exhorts you, the average American, to tell your Congresscritter that his company and other pharmaceutical manufacturers should not be regulated in any way at all. On the other side, Mr. Nugent says that you, the Average American, should be mad as hell at the way the government continually screws you over, and vote out everyone that's there so as to start fresh again, and that by doing so, one will magically be able to elect honest people who will reduce the government back to its proper size, avoiding settling for the idea of slow growth because of the European socialist policies of Obama - policies that are pretty far away from European socialism, or even Canadian socialism.
The editors of the WSJ would have you believe that a solution that does not address revenues is a sensible one and that Republicans are right to not make any deals that have tax increases, even to the point of letting the President increase the debt ceiling and then expressing their disapproval in a resolution because said editors are confident all of the blame for the bad economy and bad job market will land solely on the President, who will be tasked with choosing what parts of the government to shut down and which checks not to send out. Mr. Krauthammer accuses the President of not having put forward a serious budget proposal, the Democrats for sitting on their hands and doing nothing, and both of then demagouging to death the Republicans who put forward the bold and serious Ryan proposal and voted for it. However, we do at least agree that the Democratic Party should actually introduce a budget bill and allow it to come up for a vote, if for no other reason than to be able to get rid of the attack vector that allows conservatives to point at their own budget proposal, unserious though it may be, and say, "Where's yours?"
Tait Trussel wants all of the people who voted for Obama in 2008 to realize that he's been a politician about his big issues instead of following through on them. Which would make Mr. Obama like any other politician in history. Mr. Hurt accuses the President of barely-hidden condescension and know-better-ism in the vein of Jimmy Carter, and every conservative knows how well Jimmy Carter is regarded. Mr. Solway goes significantly farther than that, accusing the President of being tempramental, ideological, and all-around stupid, an accusation that he must feel remarkably smug about, believing he's boomeranged the criticsm of George W. Bush back onto President Obama...although in this case, Mr. Solway must resort to caricatures like Dinesh D'Souza's "anti-colonialism" canard to support his assertion, as well as using the "empty suit" argument (his only virtue is his persuasiveness and the teleprompter) while accusing the man in the suit of being an ideologue. Even Mr. Rove accuses the President of being both incompetent and devious in the same article. It does sound a lot like the criticisms of George W. Bush, but I think they settled pretty quickly on "devious, with an air of disarming incompetence" after a lot of the Republican agenda started passing.
Mr. Hanson is on the anti-war train regarding Libya, considering it a stupid war no matter where you are on the political spectrum. One wishes that he applied the same sort of vigor toward analyzing the other wars, rather than appearing to only be against war when a Democrat does it.
Last out, Mr. Stossel opines about an entrepreneur who will give $100,000 USD to students to drop out of college and start a business, believing running the business will be more educational than actual education. Well, it might train people who will try to steal more elegantly than using a bribe, a bucket, and fishing line. I'm guessing, though, he wants things more to be like a conversion experience where the liberals read something conservative and suddenly abandon their previous ways, returning to the gospel of my-country-over-all, exceptionalism, and schooling that reinforces a jingoistic worldview in the guise of patriotism.
