Late day tonight - 12 November 2007

[silveradept]

Working those late shifts just really does bad things to one’s sanity. I think the tea helped to tide me over and keep me warm. Others might enjoy drinking chocolate, which probably is a lot more unhealthy, but probably a lot more palatable to the general populace than the jasmine tea I had. It’s getting in the rainy and windy seasons, so things are about to get cold and damp. That will make for fun walking to and from work, but I intend to do it - y’know, to be the good enviro-conscious person and walk on those days when I don’t have to drive elsewhere. Probably saves me a little bit of money every time I do it.

Before we get into roiling political and ideological warfare, we point out that until November 26, people in first world countries can obtain a One Laptop Per Child laptop if they buy one for someone in a developing country. For a donation of $399, $200 of which is tax-deductible, you can get one and give one. Here's one review of the OLPC laptop, conducted by an adult, and one review conducted by a child.

Speaking of money, what would $611 billion US, the current cost of the war in Iraq, buy? Probably things a lot more immediately and long-term useful to the country and the world. And while its laudable that Mr. Bush is visiting the wounded and amputees, assuming he’s not doing it just for the photo opportunities, seeing what war can do to you makes me wish we could get past a large part of that biological nature.

And in domestic politics, expect to see a whole lot more of "Swift Boat"-style campaigning, where supposed issue groups campaign for or against candidates, under the veneer of championing an issue of some sort. Why there? Unlimited spending on the issue and not much for required disclosure.

A new book suggests that the reason people start flipping out at Hillary reasserting that she is biologically XX is because women leaders fall into two stereotyped categories: cute, nice, but dumb incompetents, and iron-powered frosty bitches. To make the transition from ditz to dominator, most people assume that the woman has shed her warm and cuddly side, even if it’s not true at all. Although Hillary and other Democrats may take much more fire from the loyal liberal base as they dance around actually calling themselves liberals, preferring “progressive” and shying away from what they consider a tainted term. I’d be more inclined to say they don’t call themselves liberal because they aren’t, and this is a matter of actual truth-telling. Liberals are like the seven four socialist workers convicted and executed for deaths they were nowhere near, with one more comitting suicide and three more getting life sentences (thanks, Red Rabbit), having had their writings used as evidence to convince the jury that they were responsible.

If you want to save some more money... and are okay with learning how to do these sorts of things, you might try some extreme cooking, where the car, the dishwasher, or a slow-moving lava flow could be the perfect cooking tool.

J. Michael Straczynski weighs in with his take on the writer's strike, showing that we already believe that residuals and royalties are good ideas to keep writers writing by keeping them in food and other essentials by paying them regularly when people view and buy their work. We do it for authors, why not for other writers?

In the “if we knew then what we know now” department - drugs don't treat ADHD well in the long-term - after about three years, therapy and drugs are about on par with each other for effectiveness. Plus, long-term drug usage like that might make for shorter and lighter kids. Additionally, babies and toddlers with disorders may be driving robots to help them explore the world. More science stuff includes using radio waves to make a scanning tunneling microscope scan about 100 times faster, which could also mean that the microscopes get much more precise and accurate in their measurements. For those interested in agriculture and genetics, plants may be bred to cause RNA interference in pest insects, effectively killing them when they try to eat the crops and stopping them from spreading or causing too much damage.

Wired is running a small article on the best conspiracy theories of both past and present, and having people vote up and down some of the user-submitted ones. This could be a good way to know what your fellows are thinking (or at least have heard on the grapevine).

Knowing what say, Kent Hovind and others who like young-earth creationism are thinking requires touring their museums built to the glory of the creator. There’s plenty of quiche ingredients there, just waiting for people to use them.

Going one step back from the really out-there fringe to the regular fringe, a panel of Idaho representatives are considering repealing no-fault divorce and trying to find ways to get mothers to stay home with the kids. Warm and fuzzy family values sort of stuff, right? The kind that you’d find on Fixed Noise, no doubt. Because single-parent households headed by women have higher drug and crime rates, apparently, and divorce contributes to this. Some of the members are smart, however, and say that we should be helping families of all stripes, not trying to turn back the clock and force women back into marriages that they can’t easily get out of, back into roles as caretakers and such. You can hear the apron strings tying around a woman’s neck and choking her, can’t you?

And with more of those kinds of family values, I’m letting Keith Olbermann’s show tonight influence the blog posting. His #1 story talked about how much Fixed News uses all sort of sexualized imagery, while at the same time, decrying the increasing sexualization of the culture. In these cases, it’s not just Bill’O who’s responsible for this, but just about every Faux show there is does this. The push of the actual piece is to demand the ability to choose only the channels that you want to support to make up your cable package, but there’s a lot of snickering that can be done at the apparent hypocrisy here. So, one more reason to point and laugh.

The winner of tonight’s quiche-to-the-face competition is the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which attempted to find Iranian terrorists by tracking the purchase of Middle Eastern foods. There were no prosecutions, and the program was scrapped quickly after coming into existence, but there were some massive amounts of stupidity somewhere that allowed it to get off the ground in the first place. Yes, even bigger than Fox “News”.

Early morning tomorrow, so it’s time for bed now. G’night.

Comments

[uncle-pervy.livejournal.com]

Glad to see you enjoying "Countdown." Feels good that I turned you onto it just before you headed out West...it helps make your posts much more hilarious with the references to "Fixed News, Fox Noise" or other things of Keith's repretoire.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

robots for babies - yay.

And I'm really getting sick of people trying to blame everything that goes wrong on working mothers, single-parenthood, and divorce. Daycare and pre-schools do NOT "hurt mothers" - they give the child the socialization skills they need before they head off to Kindergarten and Elementary Schools. Take away pre-school, and what the hell did I go to college for?

[silveradept]

I'm still not one-hundred percent sure whether Countdown is a news or a comedy program, myself, given the large amount of poking fun at things that Keith does. But, much how like people get their news from the Daily Show, Countdown is a good offering for people who want news and humor in their diet.

[silveradept]

Why, you were supposed to find yourself a nice boy and get your MRS degree, of course. None of this silly stuff about finding employment, unless you wanted to be a teacher or nurse or maybe a librarian (but if you're going to be a librarian, you're admitting you want to be a spinster for the rest of your life). And of course, as soon as a boy claimed you has his own, you're supposed to fall madly in love with him, be content to be a baby factory and a housewife who cooks, cleans, and raises the kids.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

...are we back int he 50s? Did the feminist movement never happen?

[silveradept]

Isn't that kind of the point of many of these "Moms in homes" movements - to return the country back to an age before mothers worked, were empowered, or otherwise could speak for themselves?

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem with women who honestly choose/want to stay at home. I think if I ever had the opportunity to raise my children without having to work I'd probably jump at it, too. I just have a problem with other people telling me that that's what I should do

[(Anonymous)]

From GwenOphelia:

Really, the best quote of that article, which gives some insight on to what is really going on here:

"Divorce is just terrible," Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, said. "It's one of Satan's best tools to kill America."

Ah Satan, he's a willey one, plotting the doom of America (God's promised land TM) through divorce, feminism, and the homosexual agenda. I realize this is one quote, out of context, set up in the article to be inflammatory. But really, insert whatever progressive cause you want for "divorce" in that quote. Advance the theocracy, down with this crazy secularism that is ruining my (white male) right to be the head of a household and have slaves, er, a wife and children, to do my bidding and help ME have a fulfilling life.

I see a lot of parallels to the abortion debate - one group wants to legislate what EVERYONE does, making sure there is no room for personal choice. It's just too bad that there are individual circumstances, everyone should choose MY way of thinking, the RIGHT way dammit.

How great would it have been if you held on to the link for the Voluntary Human Extinction Project and put it right after the article? Let's make the debate about staying home with the kids a moot point by never having them! ;-)

It's stuff like this that makes me want to never get married and DEFINITELY never have kids. Neither could possibly be fulfilling enough to erase all the politics that comes with them.

*waiting for Satan to appear and strike me down for speaking such blasphemy against fulfilling my role as baby machine and supporter of the religious-sanctioned patriarchy*

*crickets*

[(Anonymous)]

From GwenOphelia:

I'm with you annaonthemoon, I think it's a good thing to support women who want to stay home...and men who want to stay at home...and women who don't want to stay at home...and men who don't want to stay at home. But I think you hit it on the head, it should be a choice. The thinking behind the focus group isn't choice, it's legislating what the "right choice" (which should be the only choice, clearly) is. I can support giving parents who stay at home governmental support structures, monetary or otherwise. I cannot support it under this guise of "You'll get help if you make the choice the government wants you to". I cannot support it if it involves making women stay in marriages they don't want to. I cannot support it if it isn't equally encouraging men to stay home (after all, if parenting is such noble and great work, men should be clamoring to do it too. But that doesn't seem to enter into the debate here...hmmm)

[silveradept]

Yep, one quote, out of context, sure, btu it shows so much about how the panel is being influenced, day by day, by people who are trying to conserve philosophies that the expiry date has long since passed on.

There are parallels to all sorts of debates there - on one hand, the "I say that this is wrong, and all people must obey me, because I am God, even though I just say that I speak for him" department, that can't usually be swayed by logic, studies, or anything else that discredits them, and the other side that at least acknolwedges the existence of shades of grey and the difficulty that would result from attempting to impose and enforce a monolithic worldview on everyone.

I think you've nailed the reason why there has to be love for marraige in today's society - the governmental beneifts are nice, but the arrangement has to work out, or there are no benefits that can help it. Same with children.

Waiting for Godot Satan? You see, my mind has gone off in a completely different direction, to a Frank Zappa song.

[(Anonymous)]

From GwenOphelia:

Godot, Satan, whatever. One is a completely fictional character someone made up, the other is a supposed character in a play. Same amount of realism to me. Although we could add in some Faust here and complicate things...

But kudos, it sounds much funnier to say I'm waiting for Godot to strike me down :-) I wonder what he would strike me down with...boredom maybe? Speaking and speaking in lengthy unintelligible sentences until I take my own life to escape?

[silveradept]

Well, that depends. If he's Buck Godot, he's probably going to cause your undoing through comedic timing and intricate plotting. (And perhaps occasionally a zap gun)

[(Anonymous)]

From GwenOphelia:

Sounds like a regular ol' Saturday night date to me. ;-)

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Oh, but you see GwenOphelia, the men are the ones who have to go out and get the jobs, because surely a household that has the woman working and the man staying at home wouldn't earn as much money if it was the other way around. Because us girls....we're not supposed to go after those big salary careers. They've got that glass ceiling for a reason, and trying to break through it will only cause trouble! *rolls eyes* I swear, sometimes reading some of the things that come out of the government you really start to think that the whole feminist movement never happened. Perhaps soon they'll devise a way to take away our right to vote too or figure out a way to go back to making the woman the man's property and the only suitable occupation for an unmarried woman in her 20s is being a governess or a teacher. Clearly, us women who want to have both a career and a family have something wrong with us....even worse if you don't want a family at all.

I don't see where anyone gets off saying that divorce laws need to be stricter. Sometimes, things just don't work! Whether it happens 2 years down the road, 5, 10, 15 or even 20 or more...the fact is that there is always a reason why a couple needs to dissolve their marriage. Sure, having kids does make it harder when you're getting a divorce, but the whole "stay together for the kids" thing is ridiculous. Why should anyone stay in a relationship they don't like for the benefit of someone else? And when you can amicably divorce and both remain in your child's life, that's far better than sticking it out for a few more years and subjecting the child to listening to their parents fight.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Gotta watch out for that Mephistopheles too.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

one group wants to legislate what EVERYONE does, making sure there is no room for personal choice. It's just too bad that there are individual circumstances, everyone should choose MY way of thinking, the RIGHT way dammit.


Exactly. And if you don't agree with me? Off with your head!

[redrab.livejournal.com]

A couple of clarifications regarding the Haymarket Riot: Eight anarchists and union organizers were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder; Five were sentenced to death and four were executed on Nov. 11, 1887; the fifth took his own life the day before by placing a dynamite cap in his mouth and lighting it (it had been smuggled in to him); the remaining three received life sentences and were pardoned on June 26, 1893. But thanks for the link.

[redrab.livejournal.com]

It's even worse than you think. This was reported in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051500875_pf.html), May 16, 2006:

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.
...Women should also make sure all vaccinations are up-to-date and avoid contact with lead-based paints and cat feces...
The report recommends that women stop smoking and discuss with their doctor the danger alcohol poses to a developing fetus.

Talk about limiting your choices.

[silveradept]

Thank you for the corrections, they have been added in. Unlike Fixed Noise, we strive for accuracy in our posting.

[silveradept]

I know that has to be somewhere in my archives, because there's no way that I would let an idea like that pass without roasting it and serving it to the readership.

Always nice to know where your government stands in relation to taking care of your body - if you're a woman, your child-producing capability trumps any other thing you might think of or want.

[(Anonymous)]

From GwenOphelia:

Thanks for the article redrab. Even though it raised my blood pressure about 20 points. So many things wrong with that article it makes my head hurt, although the comments partially restored my humor (especially the part about burning tighty whiteys on the lawn of the CDC hehehe). Good to know that I'm just a walking womb, a permanently potential mother (not a woman, not a human being, but a potential mother) who would only take care of myself when prompted by the thought of the unconceived child I'm not trying to have. christ...as you said silver, glad to know where I stand with federal agencies.

[redrab.livejournal.com]

The battle over "a woman's right to choose," reproductive freedom, is the front line. If we give an inch, we are just vessels. Or conversely, as
Monsieur Hire (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097904/) says to a prostitute in the Leconte film, "You're just holes!"

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Is the government going to send someone over to my house daily to scoop my cat's litter box?

however, I do note that it says "has asked" and not "requires" - that still gives us some semblance of a choice in the matter.

Sorry, but I'm not going to consider my body a baby factory until I make that choice to have children.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I love this article.

Research shows that "during the first few weeks (before 52 days' gestation) of pregnancy" -- during which a woman may not yet realize she's pregnant -- "exposure to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs; lack of essential vitamins (e.g., folic acid); and workplace hazards can adversely affect fetal development and result in pregnancy complications and poor outcomes for both the mother and the infant," the report states.

...and this is why I know of at least FIVE women who didn't know they were pregnant and had continued to smoke and drink alcohol until they actually found out they were pregnant.

Oh, and let's not forget all of us babies of baby boomers. Our mom's drank and smoked if they wanted to, and most of us turned out fine.

I don't advocate smoking and drinking while pregnant, and actually, I dislike smoking in general, but there's no reason to tell a woman not to drink on the off chance she's pregnant.

oh, and:

Preconception care should be delivered by any doctor a patient sees -- from her primary care physician to her gynecologist. It involves developing a "reproductive health plan" that details if and when children are planned

I'm sorry, but if my doctor EVER asked me something like "when do you plan on having kids" when I'm in for my annual, I'd be peeved. If I was planning on having a baby, I wouldn't be in asking for a 12 month refill on birth control. I look at the annual exams as a way to make sure I don't have cancer and to get a refill on birth control. When *I* get to the point that I want to start having babies, I'll ask my doctor about things, but not any sooner.

[redrab.livejournal.com]

Sorry for bringing the party down even further, but now it looks like we'll be getting a homophobe (http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/13/holsinger-recess-bush/) for Surgeon General in another one of President Codpiece's recess appointment. So look for even more regressive new federal guidelines.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Sweet!
[/sarcasm]

[uncle-pervy.livejournal.com]

It's on the same branch as Daily Show, but closer to the trunk of News than Jon Stewart. Keith was a reporter, sports writer, columnist & got Countdown for doing news topics...but he enjoys throwing in funny things to work with his style. Jon is a comedian first and foremost. He makes fun of the news shows like Countdown & Bill-O in a satirical way but it's actually reported on quite a bit of news items.

The best way to figure out whether Countdown is a news show or comedy program is this:

Which of the two are still airing with new content during the Writer's strike?

If you answered Countdown, then you get a cookie.