Early update - 17 April 2007
Apr. 17th, 2007 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptIt’s officially the last day of classes today. You get an early update because I won’t be around later tonight to post at the regular time. So here we go. Before the day’s done, if you have one nearby that’s participating, go get a free ice cream cone from Ben and Jerry’s.
More pet food recalls. With this continuing saga, I think some policy revisions are in order. The FDA has also issued an olive recall.
To fill the Rage Gauge of many, we find that Jack Thompson has already blamed video games for the Virginia Tech shooting, and Fred Phelps plans on picketing the funerals of the victims.
The Creative Generalist demonstrates that even in baseball, a game where one or the other hand dominates, having a generalist, like an ambidextrous pitcher, can be a big help. So not only can we get switch-hitters, but switch-pitchers, too. That would be neat.
A retired Marine Corps general was offered a position of being the White House’s implementation manager for Iraq. He declined. Why he declined, he said, is because the administration had not developed an appropriate big-picture strategy. Quite possibly, they still haven’t. And with claims of Iraq groups making their own rockets, the violence is likely to go up, not down. Domestically, the Decider mangnaimously said that Congress might actually be within their bounds to draft and pass bills on the Iraq situation that aren't blindly funding everything. He still disagrees, of course, and Dick Cheney says the Dems will cave, although not without first having a veto showdown. Some spine from the legislature would not be unwarranted right now.
Austin Hill, in Townhall yesterday, put forward the idea that because Demcoratic candidates have decided not to appear at the Fox-sponsored Congressional Black Caucus debates, they are unlikely to be good at the Presidential office. This assumption rests on the further claim that Fox News is, as it claims, fair and balanced, does not put spin on the reports it airs, and has become a dominant and popular news channel because of this lack of spin. Thus, according to Hill, the reason those candidates are not appearing is because they’re afraid of what could happen to their reputations and popularity were they to appear on Fox. Well, if they did appear on Fox, it might turn out that they weren’t liberal candidates at all, but conservatives in liberal clothing, or Fox might decide that it wanted Bill O’Reily as the moderator at the last second, or something. Since Fox is generally regarded as a conservative outlet (among the already conservative-leaning media, depending on whose point of view you subscribe to), hosting a debate supposedly on liberal territory and grounds suspiciously looks like a Trojan horse, y’know? Taking this “oh, woe is us conservatives” idea further, Tom Delay (Yeah, that Tom DeLay) accuses the Democrats of having overstepped their boundaries from the start, living in ideological isolation, and not actually having a plan. Not that conservatives have ever been accused of overstepping their bounds (unitary executive? Patriot Act? Terry Schaivo?), living in ideological isolation (Rush, Bill, Sean, George, Alberto, Dick, Pat, Jerry, Fred...), and not having a plan (Iraq) at all.
The best political jab, though, is that a Pew survey finds the most politically knowldegeable people do one of two things - read newspapers regularly, or watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Hats off to the satirists at Comedy Central for making a more informed populace through humor.
Some mentally ill minds decided it would be worthwhile, for whatever reason, to douse playground equipment with cleaner containing a high concentration of sulfuric acid. The matter wasn’t detected until a 2.5 year old child slid down the slide and suffered third-degree burns because of it. Apparently, though, that was the only injury in this incident, which is nice, but I would want to know why someone would coat the equipment in the acidic substance in the first place.
If you’re looking for a good vent against the school system, read the account of someone accused of making a bomb threat to a school... except that the school's clock had adjusted for Daylight Savings Time. Source authenticity is dubious, though. The account itself reads like something that could happen in the education system, though, so I wonder whether it really did happen.
Technological ranting more your style - take potshots at Sony, which in their zeal to upgrade their copy protection, made DVDs unplayable on even their own DVD players. Oh, and while the solution will be a firmware update, the update isn’t out yet. Ship’s sinking, people. Either new ways have to be developed, or you have to do something you’re loathe to do - trust your consumers to buy what they think is worth the price. Which may mean that the price has to change.
This is either the last barb of this entry, or a very useful table. It’s the Tax Freedom Day Table, telling us when in the year, depending on what state you live in, how many working days it will take to pay all the tax burdens of the year. That’s assuming a 7-day workweek, however, and I’m not sure at what wage level, and that one doesn’t actually spend any money. Here the article paired with it, as well as a breakdown of how much the 8-hour workday goes to paying what things. And somewhere in that mess we’re supposed to also be saving money for the days when we don’t work...
Last for this entry: If you’re looking for a diversion after all that sharp-tounged stuff, maybe try creating your own Wired cover. If that’s not entertaining enough, have a look at Rube Goldberg-style ping-pong ball-to-cup shots. If that still doesn’t do it, maybe a Wordsworth rap will satisfy?
More pet food recalls. With this continuing saga, I think some policy revisions are in order. The FDA has also issued an olive recall.
To fill the Rage Gauge of many, we find that Jack Thompson has already blamed video games for the Virginia Tech shooting, and Fred Phelps plans on picketing the funerals of the victims.
The Creative Generalist demonstrates that even in baseball, a game where one or the other hand dominates, having a generalist, like an ambidextrous pitcher, can be a big help. So not only can we get switch-hitters, but switch-pitchers, too. That would be neat.
A retired Marine Corps general was offered a position of being the White House’s implementation manager for Iraq. He declined. Why he declined, he said, is because the administration had not developed an appropriate big-picture strategy. Quite possibly, they still haven’t. And with claims of Iraq groups making their own rockets, the violence is likely to go up, not down. Domestically, the Decider mangnaimously said that Congress might actually be within their bounds to draft and pass bills on the Iraq situation that aren't blindly funding everything. He still disagrees, of course, and Dick Cheney says the Dems will cave, although not without first having a veto showdown. Some spine from the legislature would not be unwarranted right now.
Austin Hill, in Townhall yesterday, put forward the idea that because Demcoratic candidates have decided not to appear at the Fox-sponsored Congressional Black Caucus debates, they are unlikely to be good at the Presidential office. This assumption rests on the further claim that Fox News is, as it claims, fair and balanced, does not put spin on the reports it airs, and has become a dominant and popular news channel because of this lack of spin. Thus, according to Hill, the reason those candidates are not appearing is because they’re afraid of what could happen to their reputations and popularity were they to appear on Fox. Well, if they did appear on Fox, it might turn out that they weren’t liberal candidates at all, but conservatives in liberal clothing, or Fox might decide that it wanted Bill O’Reily as the moderator at the last second, or something. Since Fox is generally regarded as a conservative outlet (among the already conservative-leaning media, depending on whose point of view you subscribe to), hosting a debate supposedly on liberal territory and grounds suspiciously looks like a Trojan horse, y’know? Taking this “oh, woe is us conservatives” idea further, Tom Delay (Yeah, that Tom DeLay) accuses the Democrats of having overstepped their boundaries from the start, living in ideological isolation, and not actually having a plan. Not that conservatives have ever been accused of overstepping their bounds (unitary executive? Patriot Act? Terry Schaivo?), living in ideological isolation (Rush, Bill, Sean, George, Alberto, Dick, Pat, Jerry, Fred...), and not having a plan (Iraq) at all.
The best political jab, though, is that a Pew survey finds the most politically knowldegeable people do one of two things - read newspapers regularly, or watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Hats off to the satirists at Comedy Central for making a more informed populace through humor.
Some mentally ill minds decided it would be worthwhile, for whatever reason, to douse playground equipment with cleaner containing a high concentration of sulfuric acid. The matter wasn’t detected until a 2.5 year old child slid down the slide and suffered third-degree burns because of it. Apparently, though, that was the only injury in this incident, which is nice, but I would want to know why someone would coat the equipment in the acidic substance in the first place.
If you’re looking for a good vent against the school system, read the account of someone accused of making a bomb threat to a school... except that the school's clock had adjusted for Daylight Savings Time. Source authenticity is dubious, though. The account itself reads like something that could happen in the education system, though, so I wonder whether it really did happen.
Technological ranting more your style - take potshots at Sony, which in their zeal to upgrade their copy protection, made DVDs unplayable on even their own DVD players. Oh, and while the solution will be a firmware update, the update isn’t out yet. Ship’s sinking, people. Either new ways have to be developed, or you have to do something you’re loathe to do - trust your consumers to buy what they think is worth the price. Which may mean that the price has to change.
This is either the last barb of this entry, or a very useful table. It’s the Tax Freedom Day Table, telling us when in the year, depending on what state you live in, how many working days it will take to pay all the tax burdens of the year. That’s assuming a 7-day workweek, however, and I’m not sure at what wage level, and that one doesn’t actually spend any money. Here the article paired with it, as well as a breakdown of how much the 8-hour workday goes to paying what things. And somewhere in that mess we’re supposed to also be saving money for the days when we don’t work...
Last for this entry: If you’re looking for a diversion after all that sharp-tounged stuff, maybe try creating your own Wired cover. If that’s not entertaining enough, have a look at Rube Goldberg-style ping-pong ball-to-cup shots. If that still doesn’t do it, maybe a Wordsworth rap will satisfy?
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Date: 2007-04-17 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-19 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-18 01:09 am (UTC)http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/westmoreland/s_501066.html
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Date: 2007-04-19 03:43 pm (UTC)