Greetings, everyone. We now live in a world where the federal government of the United States believes that anyone who actually likes privacy on-line...or signs into AOL...should be regarded as a potential terrorist.
We also find ourselves on the other side of the Susan G. Komen foundation pulling funding from Planned Parenthood, and then the roar of women crying "W.T.F." that convinced them to restore that funding. It's a reminder call to women about what Planned Parenthood does and the economic situations that many of their clients are in. And it's a strong statement on the power that women have, even against men in their government that want to impose their morals on all other women.
It is possible to have your morals and to still respect women - but only if you understand that when you try to impose your morals on someone else, you lose all the leverage you had to convince them of the superiority of your position.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
xenologer has the chair leg of truth here. Listen to it. It does not lie.
Or, if you're not willing to do that, Senators Boxer, Murray, and Shaheen explain in detail why the requirement that even religious health plans and organizations cover screenings and contraception for women is a really good idea. The Senators have a much bigger chair leg of truth. It, too, does not lie.
If you insist, rather stupidly, that only men have any authority, and ministers at that, to talk about this, the Slacktivist will give you a solid thumbs-down for not listening to women and compounding the error by basing policy (political and religious) decisions on not listening to women. Start by listening. Seriously.
The Republican presidential primary continued in its "Romney-but" manner, giving Mr. Google Problem a much needed boost by doing quite well in Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri (although that one doesn't count.) Perhaps this one will go all the way to the convention, as the electorate continues to cycle among all the other non-Romney candidates. We're also getting appropriate images in unfortunate contexts showing up.
Also, The Dead Pool Singers Association want Whitney Houston at 48 years of age. Cause of death unknown, investigation ongoing.
Out in the world, the ambassador of Slovenia who signed ACTA on behalf of that government publicly regrets doing so, and Poland has suspended their ratification process, as well as the Czech Republic, making the fate of the EU's ratification process in doubt.
If you want to follow the ongoing fighting in Syria, have a suggestion or two (dozen) on where to look. It'll get you the background for this years-long conflict of the Arab Spring and get you up to speed on the latest development.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States confirms that drone striked in Pakistan are killing innocents, civilians, rescue workers, and mourners, all of which constitutes war crimes on the part of the government agencies authoritizing and carrying out those attacks.
Finally, Canada's government says that it's okay to rely on information obtained by torture, so long as the government can be uncertain about whether the information was obtained by torture.
Domestically, a federal judge ordered a woman accused of bank fraud to decrypt her hard drive so that police could search it for incriminating information, declaring that they did not find such an order to be in violation of the prohibition against self-incrimination enshrined in the Constitution. I think the judge did so because he knew that actually requiring the police to decrypt the laptop with their forensic tools and techniques would take a functional forever and could destroy the evidence if done improperly. Complicating the manner, the defendant claims to have forgotten the password taht will decrypt the drive.
The Transportation Security Administration is publishing reports of studies done of their X-ray and backscatter screening technology. They should swap notes with the Australian government, which just approved backscatter machines for use in their airports.
Elsetime, TSA agents refused Senator Rand Paul access to the inner area of an airport after his scan came back anamalous and he refused a pat-down. In one sense, it's good that they apply the treatment to everyone alike. In another, that would be more appealing if the process of the TSA worked more effectively.
And finally in matters of trying to catch terror suspects, a person imitating a law enforcement officer pulled over a car with Ontario plates, because he believed the driver must be a terrorist based on his foreign plates.
The White House officially refused to comment on a petition to investigate Chris Dodd for comments he made regarding media cabal donations and expectations of Congresscritters from those donations.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments claiming that Proposition 8 was constitutional. If you'd like to see the full opinion, the Los Angeles Times has the full opinion, where the arguments for taking away rights from people are weighed and found wanting.
In darker allegations, a trans person accused the NYPD of chaining them to a pole for 28 hours in an uncomfortable position while mocking them. This is not the first accusation of this kind of treatment against the NYPD.
Virginia now requires medically unnecessary ultrasounds before abortions can be provided, and an amendment to requrie men receive rectal examinations before receiving prescriptions for erectile dysfunction failed.
The family cat of an Arkanasas Democrat was murdered, had the word "liberal" scrawled on its body, and then was left on the front porch of the house for the family to find. Whomever that pereson is that did so, your feather is forever too heavy to balance on the scales. As is the pastor who stole his neighbor's cat, starved it for three days, and then when Animal Control and the police told him to return it, he threw the cat off of a bridge, where others found it and returned it to its proper owners to nurse it back to health.
In technology, The President looks on in amazement as a 14 year-old demonstrates a marshmallow cannon.
In opinions, someone else has figured out that Glee represents many of the worst aspects of the public school system all together. And then, there's the Alabama legislator who will defend his own pay raise, and then say that teachers don't deserve their own raises, because if you paid teachers a decent wage, then you wouldn't get those who are truly called to teach.
Elsewhere, a fourteen year-old girl expresses her right to free speech, and requests that the Maryland leglislature vote against a proposal to legalize marriage between lesbian women and gay men. Which triggers a lot of emotional response in people, when they think about children, indoctrination, religion, and the process by which people come to their own conclusions as adults and young adults. And about using children as pawns in your own political games. The only commentary I have about that sequence is that it speaks volumes about what little amounts of faith we place in our children and young adults, that we seek to bar marriage between consenting adults because we think the children will be confused about the proper role of marriage. The children are smarter than you think. Trust me.
There's a few letters of note here, as well. Mr. Steinbeck on the changes that Mr. Hitchcock made to his novel in making it appear on-screen, to the point that Mr. Steinbeck wanted his name removed from any association with the film, a request for an exception to the Hays Code to include the word damn because the film hinged on the line in which it would be delivered, a letter from a former slave indicating the conditions and assurances he needed to return to his previous employer, and a scathing retort to a critic who said a poet used too much obscure language and imperfect grammar.
Last for tonight, the issues of Winter asking us to wait, even though we want to always go, go, go.
As a postscript - Ever wonder what your librarian thinks when you insist that your old and out-of-date nonfiction works should find a spot on the library shelves? Now you know. And you know why it's so hard for everyone to get rid of things from their own collections...
That's all out of this entry. Another set of writing prompts coming up.
We also find ourselves on the other side of the Susan G. Komen foundation pulling funding from Planned Parenthood, and then the roar of women crying "W.T.F." that convinced them to restore that funding. It's a reminder call to women about what Planned Parenthood does and the economic situations that many of their clients are in. And it's a strong statement on the power that women have, even against men in their government that want to impose their morals on all other women.
It is possible to have your morals and to still respect women - but only if you understand that when you try to impose your morals on someone else, you lose all the leverage you had to convince them of the superiority of your position.
xenologer has the chair leg of truth here. Listen to it. It does not lie.Or, if you're not willing to do that, Senators Boxer, Murray, and Shaheen explain in detail why the requirement that even religious health plans and organizations cover screenings and contraception for women is a really good idea. The Senators have a much bigger chair leg of truth. It, too, does not lie.
If you insist, rather stupidly, that only men have any authority, and ministers at that, to talk about this, the Slacktivist will give you a solid thumbs-down for not listening to women and compounding the error by basing policy (political and religious) decisions on not listening to women. Start by listening. Seriously.
The Republican presidential primary continued in its "Romney-but" manner, giving Mr. Google Problem a much needed boost by doing quite well in Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri (although that one doesn't count.) Perhaps this one will go all the way to the convention, as the electorate continues to cycle among all the other non-Romney candidates. We're also getting appropriate images in unfortunate contexts showing up.
Also, The Dead Pool Singers Association want Whitney Houston at 48 years of age. Cause of death unknown, investigation ongoing.
Out in the world, the ambassador of Slovenia who signed ACTA on behalf of that government publicly regrets doing so, and Poland has suspended their ratification process, as well as the Czech Republic, making the fate of the EU's ratification process in doubt.
If you want to follow the ongoing fighting in Syria, have a suggestion or two (dozen) on where to look. It'll get you the background for this years-long conflict of the Arab Spring and get you up to speed on the latest development.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States confirms that drone striked in Pakistan are killing innocents, civilians, rescue workers, and mourners, all of which constitutes war crimes on the part of the government agencies authoritizing and carrying out those attacks.
Finally, Canada's government says that it's okay to rely on information obtained by torture, so long as the government can be uncertain about whether the information was obtained by torture.
Domestically, a federal judge ordered a woman accused of bank fraud to decrypt her hard drive so that police could search it for incriminating information, declaring that they did not find such an order to be in violation of the prohibition against self-incrimination enshrined in the Constitution. I think the judge did so because he knew that actually requiring the police to decrypt the laptop with their forensic tools and techniques would take a functional forever and could destroy the evidence if done improperly. Complicating the manner, the defendant claims to have forgotten the password taht will decrypt the drive.
The Transportation Security Administration is publishing reports of studies done of their X-ray and backscatter screening technology. They should swap notes with the Australian government, which just approved backscatter machines for use in their airports.
Elsetime, TSA agents refused Senator Rand Paul access to the inner area of an airport after his scan came back anamalous and he refused a pat-down. In one sense, it's good that they apply the treatment to everyone alike. In another, that would be more appealing if the process of the TSA worked more effectively.
And finally in matters of trying to catch terror suspects, a person imitating a law enforcement officer pulled over a car with Ontario plates, because he believed the driver must be a terrorist based on his foreign plates.
The White House officially refused to comment on a petition to investigate Chris Dodd for comments he made regarding media cabal donations and expectations of Congresscritters from those donations.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments claiming that Proposition 8 was constitutional. If you'd like to see the full opinion, the Los Angeles Times has the full opinion, where the arguments for taking away rights from people are weighed and found wanting.
In darker allegations, a trans person accused the NYPD of chaining them to a pole for 28 hours in an uncomfortable position while mocking them. This is not the first accusation of this kind of treatment against the NYPD.
Virginia now requires medically unnecessary ultrasounds before abortions can be provided, and an amendment to requrie men receive rectal examinations before receiving prescriptions for erectile dysfunction failed.
The family cat of an Arkanasas Democrat was murdered, had the word "liberal" scrawled on its body, and then was left on the front porch of the house for the family to find. Whomever that pereson is that did so, your feather is forever too heavy to balance on the scales. As is the pastor who stole his neighbor's cat, starved it for three days, and then when Animal Control and the police told him to return it, he threw the cat off of a bridge, where others found it and returned it to its proper owners to nurse it back to health.
In technology, The President looks on in amazement as a 14 year-old demonstrates a marshmallow cannon.
In opinions, someone else has figured out that Glee represents many of the worst aspects of the public school system all together. And then, there's the Alabama legislator who will defend his own pay raise, and then say that teachers don't deserve their own raises, because if you paid teachers a decent wage, then you wouldn't get those who are truly called to teach.
Elsewhere, a fourteen year-old girl expresses her right to free speech, and requests that the Maryland leglislature vote against a proposal to legalize marriage between lesbian women and gay men. Which triggers a lot of emotional response in people, when they think about children, indoctrination, religion, and the process by which people come to their own conclusions as adults and young adults. And about using children as pawns in your own political games. The only commentary I have about that sequence is that it speaks volumes about what little amounts of faith we place in our children and young adults, that we seek to bar marriage between consenting adults because we think the children will be confused about the proper role of marriage. The children are smarter than you think. Trust me.
There's a few letters of note here, as well. Mr. Steinbeck on the changes that Mr. Hitchcock made to his novel in making it appear on-screen, to the point that Mr. Steinbeck wanted his name removed from any association with the film, a request for an exception to the Hays Code to include the word damn because the film hinged on the line in which it would be delivered, a letter from a former slave indicating the conditions and assurances he needed to return to his previous employer, and a scathing retort to a critic who said a poet used too much obscure language and imperfect grammar.
Last for tonight, the issues of Winter asking us to wait, even though we want to always go, go, go.
As a postscript - Ever wonder what your librarian thinks when you insist that your old and out-of-date nonfiction works should find a spot on the library shelves? Now you know. And you know why it's so hard for everyone to get rid of things from their own collections...
That's all out of this entry. Another set of writing prompts coming up.
