Yeah, I'm tired - 04 August 2007

[silveradept]

Got up, helped droewyn celebrate level 30, came back, hung out with friends, scheduled my ride to Metro on Monday, need to stabstab the people who I’m supposed to be interviewing with for not telling me anything so far about what’s going on and/or to make up their minds about when they want to interview me. Hopefully, there’s a whole lot more communication going on soon, or I’m really going to be aggravated.

Anyway, onward to another more rapid-fire edition of things, considering it’s early in the morning and I want to go to sleep. So, first, semi-good news out of the Minnesota bridge collapse - the death count could end up being very low because traffic was stopped and the river was running slower than usual, among other things, like people moving quickly to assist others.

Drug spammer gets thirty years for running illegal pharmacy, even in the face of judicial orders telling him to stop selling prescription drugs. So that’s what spamming and then selling the drugs will get you - prison. Not that it’s likely to make a dent in the amount of spam we get daily.

Rich Tucker says something that is chilling, Orwellian, and likely true for the next generation if not further along - war is an inevitable thing. He uses it in the context of justifying letting the matter of Iraq play out, so that we learn what works and what doesn’t for the next inevitable conflict. I think that’s one of the parts people miss out of 1984 when they focus on the Newspeak - there’s also a segment in there about how any surpluses are shunted out to the places of continual war, so that there’s a state of almost-poverty everywhere. And then, United States Defense secretary Robert Gates says that he's disappointed by the lack of political progress in Iraq. So while the troops may be holding and making some progress, the politicians seem to be learning the ways of the United States government a little too well.

Outsourcing has been outsourced. Or something like that. Specifically, a call center for an Indian company opening a U.S. branch is in... Ohio. Perhaps it’s become true that lower wages don’t compensate for the ability of a native American to connect with other Americans when calling in for support. As such, they might be able to explain why the Washington Post is congratulating itself on supposedly exposing a position change regarding Chelsea's schooling that, well, doesn't exist.

Rapid-fire out of the news of the strange - dog shoots man, non-fatally, after knocking a loaded gun off the table. Bad man, for leaving a loaded gun where someone can get to it and in a state that permits the discharge of a bullet. Victor Willis, the "cop" from the musical group Village People says that their songs were not about homosexual activities. The United States has a new Poet Laureate, Mr. Charles Simic, an immigrant. Perhaps he could make some appropriate lyrics for the songs that reinforce the non-homosexual content.

Arkansas couple welcomes 17th child into the family, and not only that, all of the kids names begin with J. The mother has been pregnant for a little over a quarter of her life. Our advice to her is that perhaps she should become an abstinence trainer just so that the idea of having seventeen children seems a bit odd to her. Of course, she might be predisposed to tell all of her children to be abstinent. Seventeen children, yeesh. How anyone could make that work is beyond me.

The “Why? Why?!” department mutely pointed us to Scrollovers, a JavaScript that changes the color of the link when mouseover’d, but all then scrolls that new color into place. Pretty much a visual thing, with little for purpose, unless there’s something that would require or be aided by such a maneuver. I can’t think of anything immediately.

Of course, that could be because it’s late and I’m tired. Either way, bed.

Comments

[urbankotq.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The whole "war after war" thing is enough to make you go back to an isolationist policy, but it seems that every time we do that, the rest of the planet gets into serious trouble.

Also, keep in mind that the Founding Fathers designed the government's lawmaking system to slow down any big changes enough to allow lots of debate on anything that probably shouldn't go through. Slow is good. This massive political polarization that keeps anything from happening does not bode well, however. And that's just our Congress; perhaps they should take a page out of the Iraqi Congress's book and break for a month to spare us any more foolishness.

[silveradept]

Well, America may be one of the few countries in the world that seems to like actively interfering in other people's business. Many others are content to see what the United Nations will do, which, as a body, moves about as slowly, if not more so, than the Congress.

Yes, slow is good, when slow is being used to make sure that the very best policy is being passed and that many of the potential consequences have been thought through and discussed. Obstructionist, however, is not good, and that seems to be the way things are - if there's not the same party in all three houses, then nothing gets done.

[urbankotq.livejournal.com]

Oh, my friend showed me what might amount to the core of this madness. Have you seen this (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/8916), this (http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/bush_nspd51_gives_bush_dictatorial_power.htm), or this (http://salvationrevelation.com/martial-law/)? Since I usually stumble upon this stuff pretty late, I find it likely you have, but I figured I'd throw them out there just in case.

I favor adherence to the Constitution over everything else when considering governmental policies, which puts me squarely in the conservative bracket. In light of those executive orders in the links, I now find myself siding against the President's actions despite my conservatism, which the media tends to link inextricably with support for Mr. Bush. I need to stop listening to the media in general.

[urbankotq.livejournal.com]

Oops. Rather than "despite" my conservatism, I meant that my conservatism has caused my disapproval of Mr. Bush's actions. Apologies.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Oh no, not gay at all. Especially not those costumes. *rolls eyes*

SEVENTEEN CHILDREN! That are all biologically theirs! wow, that woman's strong.

[silveradept]

Some of them delivered by vaginal birth, some by C-section. Without current medical technique, I suspect that she wouldn't have lived to see number seventeen.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

you're probably right. but just even thinking about doing something like that seventeen times....granted, I haven't even done it once yet, but I've got plenty of friends who have and who say after the third or fourth one that pregnancy and childbirth is something they never want to do again.

And oh my, think of the doctor's bills, the insurance cost....Heck, the household costs of having seventeen children!

Holy Crap!

[silveradept]

I have a strong suspicion that these people are quite religious and both believe firmly in the adage of bringing all pregnancies to life, as well as not practicing any form of birth control. For some amount of kids, I could see Dad being very adamant about it, but Mom not, but at seventeen, there's no way they both can't believe that they're anything but blessed with fertility.

The insurance must really not like them, and I suspect that whatever the working parent(s) make for money, it must be good.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Well, and the article says that they hope to have more!

I suppose. Blessed with fertility, to have the babies who will help spread the word of that J guy to all the little heathens, those people who think they need to stop after one or two children.

I wonder what he does for a living? I mean, with all those little ones, I'm sure mom doesn't work outside of the home.

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

I liken job hunting to looking for a significant other. You just have to make yourself the best you so that they want you, not chase them around believing they are best for you.

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

Stupid return key. Anyways, the end of my comment was supposed to be "job hunting is one of the most depressing activities we are forced to engage in". I really mean it. But let me be the first one to say that once you find the right fit, it all seems worth it. At least to me, it does.

[silveradept]

Yeah, I understand. Going about the job hunting process really does suck. At least when looking for potential significant others, there's a good chance that you'll have happy patches along the way. Job hunting is a bit of an all-or-nothing prospect.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

And there's also that adage about "not looking for a significant other" because that's when they'll find you...but you can't not look for a job. I mean, you could, and just wait for it to fall into your lap, but I don't know many successful people who that has happened to. So, I'm not sure I'd agree that job hunting is like significant other hunting.

Plus, like you said, while searching for "The One", you have the opportunities to have fun with people, casually date other people, etc, but there isn't really a job searching equivalent. No, I think it's either "find job" or "no job".