silveradept | Yo, Guy Fawkes Day

Yep, it’s one of the original days where you celebrate a terrorist and show the love for your country by blowing up a part of it, possibly attached to some effigy of the man who tried unsuccessfully to bring about a regime change. Learn more about the Gunpowder Plot from the Gunpowder Plot Society.

Yet Another Beef Recall - it’s getting downright dangerous to eat anything these days.

On one hand, Kurdish rebels free Turkish soldiers, not wanting to escalate tensions into actual conflict. This may not have the placating effect desired, however. On the other hand, With the assistance of the United States, Iraq voids a Russian oil contract, no doubt very likely to increase tensions between the Untied States and Russia, and possibly with Iraq.

In Pakistan, the reaction expected to the announcement of emergency conditions right before a vote has occurred. Mass demonstrations have police using tear gas and their crowd control weapons as the populace protests Musharraf's interference with the democratic process. The United States’ response to the matter has been tepid to say the least.

I think I’m missing something significant in the further discussion, which seems to be focused on whether or not trademarks registered under one interpretation of the law are subject to cancellation if that interpretation changes, but what strikes me as odd from the beginning is that Deutsche Telecom and Red Bull appear to have trademarked colors. Is there any way at all that is even possible? Designs, I can see, but the colors themselves? Next thing you know, people will transform Rubix Cubes into Weighted Companion Cubes or create luminescent shrimp, or such things.

Al Gore wants the media to show some sense and not go out of their way to find someone to contradict views in the interests of “equal time”, when the person on the opposition is clearly outside the bounds of scientific consensus. So I suppose nobody really wants a “Fairness Doctrine” if it rigidly required equal time for everything - including young-earth creationists, those who believe the earth is flat, and the like. Anthropogenic climate change is still up in the air, of course. But, at least according to NASA, matters such as extraterrestrial visits are settled firmly in the negative.

A Clear Channel subsidiary, Premiere, seems to have a thing for trying to keep listeners, regardless of their reputations and viewpoints. Glenn Beck's getting a big contract and Don Imus has been rehired, all because they bring in listeners to radio. Fair enough. Rush isn’t getting off the air any time soon, although Howard Stern was banished to satellite radio. Still seems like at the end of the day, the dollar outweighs all other considerations. Considering what I remember of Clear Channel’s music lineup, it probably extends beyond their talk shows, as well.

Television entertainment is likely to be stagnant for a while, as the Writer's Guild in Hollywood has gone on strike. To see some of the impacts, the Los Angeles Times has a grid rundown on affected shows.

Technologically speaking, wouldn’t it be nice if you didn't have to boot an Operating System to access a select suite of applications? Well, Phoenix is trying to make that a reality, by putting applications in don’t need the entire OS to do the work. Might help with laptop battery life, too, if not a whole lot is loaded.

Philip Klein at The American Spectator thinks that liberals are being a touch harsh on Mayor 9/11, and that this will drive him straight to the Republican nomination, and possibly the presidency, just because every liberal hates him so much, every conservative will vote for him. Riiight. Oh, and the part where Klein says that Keith Olbemann didn’t correct his remarks made when he thought Mayor 9/11 has commented about inviting Osama bin Laden to the presidential inaugral ball? Bullshit. Olbermann corrected his remarks on-air last week, right before firmly thrashing Mayor 9/11 by making him the bronze, silver, and gold medal winner on his Worst Persons in the World segment, all on things that Mayor 9/11 had said that were, well, erroneous. So, hopefully, with another look at the transcripts, Klein will correct himself, as well. While not needing corrections, all the papers that ran that Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth had scientific errors in it neglected to mention that despite those errors, it was "substantially founded upon scientific fact". Even seven years after the campaign, the media still seems to find great delight in picking apart Al Gore. Perhaps in revenge for not being able to trash him sufficiently that he gave up back then.

For a bit, Pat Buchanan almost looked ready to give a logical argument. In Sinking Country, Sinking Currency, he starts well - the dollar’s declining because Americans are borrowing and buying beyond their means. His partial absolution of the Bush regime doesn’t sit well, but trade deficits are more than just one man. It looked nice and logical, and then there was going to be the encouragement to save, cut back on spending, and strengthen the currency. Instead, Pat points fingers and says “See those round-eyes? They’re willing to take that cut in dollar strength so they can take over our markets and keep sucking us dry in technology! And those darker-skinned oil people there are buying up our land and banks!” In the face of a widening trade deficit, wouldn’t the sensible thing to do be to encourage one’s own people to save money, retard spending and credit, and invest in producing goods that are of sufficient quality inexpensively enough to have domestic markets? And then to pay down some of the outstanding debts that are there? You know, pay off the credit card and not suffer the interest rates.

And to tweak Pat before moving on, I wonder what he thinks of tutor services that recruit and train tutors worldwide - maybe he’ll rail about how much we all need to put more time and effort into American education. And if he meant it in a way that actually did good, he’d probably find a lot of support. This might just be the carrot to dangle in front of him...

Speaking of lots of spending going on, Michael Pollen dissects the growing opposition to unhealthy subsidization in farm bills. Or, if one were in a more zingy mood, people don't like pork in the grain bills (Link to Time’s coverage of the same bill package). However, if the idea that sugar-filled liquids make decent small-appliance batteries, maybe there will be a reason to grow all the corn that gets turned into high-fructose corn syrup.

And one more spending-related column for the road - Suzanne Fields frets that the country idolizes adolescence now, with the boomers trying to regress, and to get everyone to pay for their second childhoods. With everyone living longer, the prospects of being able to have a second childhood are much increased. All we have to do is figure out how to pay for it.

Empathy may be a hardwired characteristic of humans, through the use of "mirror neurons". Not to say that everyone uses them in that kind of faculty. They might also help us understand abstractions such as maps and language. Of course, this may be jumping to conclusions, and the mirrors aren’t really as important as we think they are. Might explain subtle shifts in speech patterns to match the person you’re talking with. On the other side of that coin, though, even the existence of usable empathy neurons doesn’t mean that everyone’s on board with the conclusions they might draw.

bellatrys examines the idea that humanity has made leaps of progress compared to history, and finds it more likely to be repeating the same track over and over, with a couple new riffs here and there. It being 5 November, she took her example from the case of Guy Fawkes. History really is cyclical at times, isn’t it?

Working in the similar sort of “play one track, repeat ad nauseam” vein, The Slacktivist produces Part Six of the Gay-Hatin' Gospel series, revisiting the backlash theory and discussing the idea that plenty of the GHG’s devotees really do think that if they let the homosexuals have equal rights, then it gives license for every other abominable sin to claim equal rights as a lifestyle choice, and then the country goes to hell as God is utterly removed from American life entirely. The Slacktivist points out the obvious - just about all of the Seven Deadlies have lobbies or advertising on their side - Lust, Avarice, Envy, Sloth, Pride, and Gluttony all have advertisers working for them, and then there’s television culture and “Action Heroes” who take Wrath to new levels. Beyond that, though, the Slacktivist chides someone whose faith is so weak that they require it to be the law of the land and enforced on everyone, and that reduces their faith to being merely a tool with which to try and win the law over to their preferred interpretation of reality. It’s the same interpretation of faith that people like the Taliban have.

There’s a voting thing going on tomorrow, and the polls stay open late, so I’ll probably go out and vote, on the referenda and proposals at the very least, if not the candidacy races, not having been here long enough to make accurate comment on whether I want candidate A, B, or X in the various offices. Assuming that it is possible to fill out some sections and not others without the entirety of the ballot being scrapped or otherwise rendered unused. Got to go to bed anyway, so that I can get up in time and be energetic and storytelling.