Greetings. There's another place to say great things about people going on at ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
littlebutfierce's place. The direct link is to the post itself - and there's an index of people already nominated, courtest of dingsi. If you want to skip straight to my thread, go right ahead and leave commentary.
A quick, potentially inspirational piece: What's on the inside is correct, especially when it comes to creative expression, even when what's on the outside looks different than what you feel.
A time-sensitive matter - Mr. Gaiman is offering a story of his writing and his reading for free t download on Audible. Each download donates money to charity. Downloads only count until 31 October.
Out in the world today, The United Kingdom's population is very unhappy about the austerity direction the government is taking. Not surprising, considering who gets hit the hardest by such a thing. It's not quite to the level of the Greek anti-austerity protests, which now routinely involve violent clashes, but it could easily get there. For those of us Stateside...figure out which of your candidates think this is a good idea. Then repudiate them.
Everyone hates the draft Egyptian Constitution. Which could mean it's just right in terms of balances, or it could mean lots of Very Bad Things.
In the States, a New York City police officer was arrested - he had plans to kidnap, kill, and cannibalize women.
billboards that were prominently displaying the penalties for voter fraud as a means of intimidation have been taken down, although we don't have any knowledge of who sponsored them in the first place, which will just make it easier to have it happen again. Elsewhere, an Arizona county admitted that they had sent out lots of materials with the wrong date to vote in the Spanish-language section of their get out the vote materials. Oh, wait, not just Arizona - it happened in Ohio, too.
Solitary confinement in prisons is often used as a repressive tool against those who beleive pisoners should still be afforded dignity, and the means by which someone can be put in solitary are entirely subjective, do not have successful appeals, and often rely only on a single person to make the decision as to whether someone goes in (for years) or not.
A Gallup survey concluded that overall, 3.4 percent of the population of the United States self-identifies as LGBT, based on a sample taken of more than 121,000 persons. (In a country of nearly 300 million persons, just for frame-of-reference). Now, that's not even the full QUILTBAG. Furthermore, even though it's a survey, and presumably, the results are anonymous, I wouldn't be surprised if actualy numbers were higher because of internalized fear of repercussion. Or because people who would normally be counted in that population aren't self-identifying that way, for whatever reasons they have. What I can see is a round of complaining about "special rights" for QUILTBAG because they're such a "small minority" that nobody should listen to their complaints or their struggles. I hope we're better than that.
Unfortunately, we have situations where men believe we're farther along in The Future than we are, saying modern technology removes all the risks of childbirth, and thus we don't need abortions to save the life of a mother. And others who rally around someone who says they don't believe in abortion exceptions for rape victims, and that pregnancies resultign from rape are gifts from God. There's the obvious wrong of the lack of empathy, sympathy, or any recognition oat all of a woman's feelings about rape, but there's also the wrong of speaking like one knows what God intends. Of course, on these issues, it's not like anyone thinks women are important to listen to on this. Because they're voting their hormones, and not their brains. Which is apparently the female version of "men are controlled completely by their penises, so what they do with them can't be helped" or something? (Afterward, the post was removed. Can't imagine why.[/sarcasm])
This is not isolated people who have failed to be vetted. It's the new Republican platform to remove the exceptions for rape and incest, and most of them would like to outlaw all abortion in all cases. The Republican Party does not want women with reproductive choice. That's not a political statement, it's their position.
In a recession, federal spending on low-income support programs goes up. Of course, this being the Washington Times, they're looking for as damaging-to-Democrats headline as they can get. But truthfully, the recession is driving this trend, and for as much as the Republicans are falling all over themselves to protect the vaunted "job creators" from the evils of government, as they see them, those job creators aren't doing a whole lot to actually create jobs.
Speaking of jobs and things like that... Mitt Romney attempted to say he would get tough on China...in a place that made a successful appeal to the current administration to get tough on China. And then, he talked about how much the stimulus of the Obama administration was a failure...at a location that benefited greatly from stimulus dollars. Oh, and then there was the claim that Jeep, a marque of Chrysler (now owned by Fiat) was going to move all its production to China...when Chrysler is actually going to add jobs both in the States and in China. There's hypocrisy, and then there's lying. In a job where you really need the country to trust you, rushing to scare them based on a blog post that misreads an article is not going to inspire that trust. And trust matters - if the country thinks you're bullshitting them, it becoems that much harder for them to support you.
Here's an example: The Salt Lake City Tribune endorses Barack Obama in an editorial that pleads for a Mitt Romney that could demonstrate why he deserves to be President and that would have been a competent and unwavering moderate. They'll take the leader who is detailed and has demonstrated that he's able to lead over the man with no details and no solid positions. And that's in the heart of one of Mitt Romney's best support groups.
Last out, The Green Party candidate, Dr. Jill Stein, filed suit against the Commission on Presidential Debates, claiming that their criteria for including candidates in Presidential debates deliberately excludes persons not in the Democratic or Republican parties and prevents her from making her case to the country. A debate including candidate not Democrats or Republicans was aired on networks such as al-Jazeera, and eventually picked up by C-SPAN. (A full transcript, if available, would be appreciated.)
In technology, here's how to turn off one of the user tracking methods Apple put in the new iOS release.
Additionally, whales can imitate the vocal range and some of the sounds that humans make. Now, if we could teach each other language skills...
Also, take a textual tour inside one of the many data warehouses that Google has built to serve its and your needs - the scale here is quite immense, to the point where an individual server is far too small to be thinking about.
Less happily - thieves were able to modify point-of-sale terminals in Barnes and Noble stores to skim credit and debit card numbers and PINs. As technology advances, the ability to do bad things with it advances, too...
Into opinions, where it's probably better to acknowledge the existence of second-wave feminism and say that it was part of the past than to try and deny that some of the more inflammatory things said in second-wave feminism were said. It tends to put someone in the same situation as a person suggesting that some Levitical prohibitions are old and don't need to be followed, while others should be vigorously enforced.
Last for tonight - same "costume" idea, but the men's version and women's version are...very different. Which is a simple extension of the idea that women fighters become more protected by wearing less clothing, itself an extension of the idea that women are always supposed to be on display for men, while men are allowed to dress for the weather. And that means, of course, conflating the idea that beautiful women are healthy women, so to get healthy, women must do things to make themselves more beautiful.
littlebutfierce's place. The direct link is to the post itself - and there's an index of people already nominated, courtest of dingsi. If you want to skip straight to my thread, go right ahead and leave commentary.A quick, potentially inspirational piece: What's on the inside is correct, especially when it comes to creative expression, even when what's on the outside looks different than what you feel.
A time-sensitive matter - Mr. Gaiman is offering a story of his writing and his reading for free t download on Audible. Each download donates money to charity. Downloads only count until 31 October.
Out in the world today, The United Kingdom's population is very unhappy about the austerity direction the government is taking. Not surprising, considering who gets hit the hardest by such a thing. It's not quite to the level of the Greek anti-austerity protests, which now routinely involve violent clashes, but it could easily get there. For those of us Stateside...figure out which of your candidates think this is a good idea. Then repudiate them.
Everyone hates the draft Egyptian Constitution. Which could mean it's just right in terms of balances, or it could mean lots of Very Bad Things.
In the States, a New York City police officer was arrested - he had plans to kidnap, kill, and cannibalize women.
billboards that were prominently displaying the penalties for voter fraud as a means of intimidation have been taken down, although we don't have any knowledge of who sponsored them in the first place, which will just make it easier to have it happen again. Elsewhere, an Arizona county admitted that they had sent out lots of materials with the wrong date to vote in the Spanish-language section of their get out the vote materials. Oh, wait, not just Arizona - it happened in Ohio, too.
Solitary confinement in prisons is often used as a repressive tool against those who beleive pisoners should still be afforded dignity, and the means by which someone can be put in solitary are entirely subjective, do not have successful appeals, and often rely only on a single person to make the decision as to whether someone goes in (for years) or not.
A Gallup survey concluded that overall, 3.4 percent of the population of the United States self-identifies as LGBT, based on a sample taken of more than 121,000 persons. (In a country of nearly 300 million persons, just for frame-of-reference). Now, that's not even the full QUILTBAG. Furthermore, even though it's a survey, and presumably, the results are anonymous, I wouldn't be surprised if actualy numbers were higher because of internalized fear of repercussion. Or because people who would normally be counted in that population aren't self-identifying that way, for whatever reasons they have. What I can see is a round of complaining about "special rights" for QUILTBAG because they're such a "small minority" that nobody should listen to their complaints or their struggles. I hope we're better than that.
Unfortunately, we have situations where men believe we're farther along in The Future than we are, saying modern technology removes all the risks of childbirth, and thus we don't need abortions to save the life of a mother. And others who rally around someone who says they don't believe in abortion exceptions for rape victims, and that pregnancies resultign from rape are gifts from God. There's the obvious wrong of the lack of empathy, sympathy, or any recognition oat all of a woman's feelings about rape, but there's also the wrong of speaking like one knows what God intends. Of course, on these issues, it's not like anyone thinks women are important to listen to on this. Because they're voting their hormones, and not their brains. Which is apparently the female version of "men are controlled completely by their penises, so what they do with them can't be helped" or something? (Afterward, the post was removed. Can't imagine why.[/sarcasm])
This is not isolated people who have failed to be vetted. It's the new Republican platform to remove the exceptions for rape and incest, and most of them would like to outlaw all abortion in all cases. The Republican Party does not want women with reproductive choice. That's not a political statement, it's their position.
In a recession, federal spending on low-income support programs goes up. Of course, this being the Washington Times, they're looking for as damaging-to-Democrats headline as they can get. But truthfully, the recession is driving this trend, and for as much as the Republicans are falling all over themselves to protect the vaunted "job creators" from the evils of government, as they see them, those job creators aren't doing a whole lot to actually create jobs.
Speaking of jobs and things like that... Mitt Romney attempted to say he would get tough on China...in a place that made a successful appeal to the current administration to get tough on China. And then, he talked about how much the stimulus of the Obama administration was a failure...at a location that benefited greatly from stimulus dollars. Oh, and then there was the claim that Jeep, a marque of Chrysler (now owned by Fiat) was going to move all its production to China...when Chrysler is actually going to add jobs both in the States and in China. There's hypocrisy, and then there's lying. In a job where you really need the country to trust you, rushing to scare them based on a blog post that misreads an article is not going to inspire that trust. And trust matters - if the country thinks you're bullshitting them, it becoems that much harder for them to support you.
Here's an example: The Salt Lake City Tribune endorses Barack Obama in an editorial that pleads for a Mitt Romney that could demonstrate why he deserves to be President and that would have been a competent and unwavering moderate. They'll take the leader who is detailed and has demonstrated that he's able to lead over the man with no details and no solid positions. And that's in the heart of one of Mitt Romney's best support groups.
Last out, The Green Party candidate, Dr. Jill Stein, filed suit against the Commission on Presidential Debates, claiming that their criteria for including candidates in Presidential debates deliberately excludes persons not in the Democratic or Republican parties and prevents her from making her case to the country. A debate including candidate not Democrats or Republicans was aired on networks such as al-Jazeera, and eventually picked up by C-SPAN. (A full transcript, if available, would be appreciated.)
In technology, here's how to turn off one of the user tracking methods Apple put in the new iOS release.
Additionally, whales can imitate the vocal range and some of the sounds that humans make. Now, if we could teach each other language skills...
Also, take a textual tour inside one of the many data warehouses that Google has built to serve its and your needs - the scale here is quite immense, to the point where an individual server is far too small to be thinking about.
Less happily - thieves were able to modify point-of-sale terminals in Barnes and Noble stores to skim credit and debit card numbers and PINs. As technology advances, the ability to do bad things with it advances, too...
Into opinions, where it's probably better to acknowledge the existence of second-wave feminism and say that it was part of the past than to try and deny that some of the more inflammatory things said in second-wave feminism were said. It tends to put someone in the same situation as a person suggesting that some Levitical prohibitions are old and don't need to be followed, while others should be vigorously enforced.
Last for tonight - same "costume" idea, but the men's version and women's version are...very different. Which is a simple extension of the idea that women fighters become more protected by wearing less clothing, itself an extension of the idea that women are always supposed to be on display for men, while men are allowed to dress for the weather. And that means, of course, conflating the idea that beautiful women are healthy women, so to get healthy, women must do things to make themselves more beautiful.
