Another Sunday Post - 28 Sept - 1 Oct 02011

Up top, we take a look at how sports can be a place where equality reigns...if it's equality of -ism slurs thrown from one player to another, that is.


Domestically, officers likely to be in crisis situations are not usually trained on how to handle crisis situations. Some police departments are trying to get everyone trained, but I'll bet the budgets stop other departments from achieving the same results.

Despite the lack of media coverage, Occupy Wall Street is gaining allies. Including the Pilots' union, for example. And once again, the solidarity among union members and their supporters reminds the corporate world that there are other organizations with power and supporters. In response to this, the police are taking peaceful protestors and visiting violence upon them. After these actions, the NYPD's foundation received a rather large donation from JP Morgan, quite likely as a thank you for those actions, although not explicitly so.

Elsewhere in the country, it makes a certain amount of sense - men who are supposedly "cured" of their sexual orientation are cruising the ex-gay therapy sessions, looking for hook-ups.

After taking a shaking, the Washington Monument will remain closed indefinitely.

In technology, an artificial sunlight-to-chemical enegery converter, or a solar cell about the size of a big leaf.

Into opinions, where Mr. Hunter believes that the President knows all the depressing numbers, and doesn't give a damn, opening the door for a Republican to run a Reaganesque campaign against him and win.

A Congressperson from Kansas believes that the federal government's proposed rule to get patient data to the secretary of Health and Human Services can only end poorly, because he's unsure about the government's ability to keep data confidential and because insurance companies, if forced to divulge their formulae, would go out of business and not be competitive.

Mr. Krauthammer believes that Mr. Obama's desire for fairness in the tax code will only hurt the economy and government revenues more, and that worse, since Mr. Obama is a committed liberal ideologue, no amount of practical knowledge, facts, or data can dissuade him from this. Messrs. Cole and Ohanian suggest that the way out of the economic depression is through supply-side fixes, like productivity, rather than demand-side fixes like stimulus spending. No doubt they agree with Ms. Collins that regulations are far too choking on he economy and should be pruned.

Last out, Mr. Pendry lays out his case as to why Sarah Palin should join the Republican race, and why he thinks she will win (because she's the antithesis of the Good Ole Boy Party).

Last for tonight, a series of correspondence between a viewer and Mr. Rogers, and then his father and Mr. Rogers. Programming such as his may never be duplicated. And a request to bring back a popular entertainer from his service in the Army.

Random political thought. - Voting based on issues questions rather than political parties.

I wonder what campaigns in the United States would be like if, instead of picking people, when one went to the ballot box, one was presented with a questionnaire asking about political beliefs. Through the use of a branching tree of questions, many of them likely with multiple paths or statements attached, the voter built a profile of themselves and their views. At the end of the questions, there would be a display that says, "Based on your answers, the candidate(s) that aligns with your views the closest is X (Y, Zed). Press YES to cast your ballot for your selected candidate. Press START OVER to start the question process again." Candidates could still campaign and talk about all of their issues, but it would theoretically be less of a popularity contest, as the questions would be based on the candidates stated or written positions.

How close is this to the ideal of the parliamentary systems in place where one votes for parties rather than candidates?

And some non-political thoughts about a popular BBC television show.

As Dr. Song puts it, "Spoilers." Although hopefully sufficiently abstract so as not to give away The Big Reveal.

Mr. Moffat, you and the writing team need to have a come to The Doctor meeting. You have missed the point of your show in the second part of this series.

Doctor Who is in the style of a radio serial - there's an overarching series narrative, but generally it's about The Doctor and The Companion(s) going places in time and space and having adventures. And running. Your pacing should be such that you can set up all of the pins and then knock them all down in the Grand Finale, but the majority of your episode is always focused on Today's Adventure.

1b: Spending an entire episode on advancing the series plot is something you can do, but if you do, don't burn your good titles on it. That episode could have actually been done a lot better, with much more of what the title promised and still gotten away with as much major exposition as you would have liked.

2: Amelia Pond is The Girl Who Waited. Her faith in The Doctor is deep-seated and very well rooted, no matter how many times she sees the consequences of the Doctor's failures on others. So no, she cannot simply turn it off because she needs to at that particular point. She can't remember Rule One, after all.

3: Try harder next time to not telegraph the way that the Doctor escapes certain death, if you don't mind. If the Doctor is supposed to be that much cleverer and yet there's a great walloping signpost saying "LOOKIE HERE, A CONVENIENT WAY OUT", the audience might say "We're so clever". Or they might say, "How convenient."

Still looking forward to the next, of course. And it's mostly the second half of this series that disappoints.