Turkey Day festivities - 22 November 2007

[silveradept]

At least, for those of us in the United States of America, where we have the second harvest festival in as many months, this one sanctioned by the Christian establishment. The pumpkins were still in force, as were the second-place candidate for national bird, other great foods, some of which are eaten only really once a year (which is a shame), and much more for conversation and laughs. And creme puffs. Especially the creme puffs. Yummy, yummy creme puffs. And much excellent food elsewhere. Hooray for harvest festivals.

Hopefully everyone got through their family gatherings today without resorting to blows. Jezebel offered some suggestions for conversations if you and your family diverge on political beliefs, but for some, that won’t do, as they insist there's a war on Thanksgiving, just like the war on Christmas. Or they make the claim that prayer to YHWH was the reason the Pilgrim settlers' crops improved in their insistence on how much the country is Christian and that Thanksgiving is a holiday where one can only give thanks to YHWH. Anything could have set them off. You can have your revenge on them, though, if you feel as pope_gulty feels about a supposedly culturally, politically, ethnically, and religiously correct cartoon. Or you can just use Elastic Waist's comebacks for well-meaning but obnoxious relatives.

The news doesn’t stop too much for the holiday, and there will probably be a few accounts of violence done tomorrow by those seeking special discounts on items available for a limited time. Others will participate in Buy Nothing Day, which attempts to avoid such seeking and try to make a statement through a single day’s nonconsumption. Perhaps they will then go out and hack a feed, and display a pop culture icon spouting gibberish.

NASCAR nation is apparently a hot topic for the Republican candidates, with Mayor 9/11 being sighted at a recent race, and then Fred Thompson comparing the Democratic candidates to NASCAR drivers - Mayor 9/11 courting the racing crowd, Thompson probably angering them but also trying to court them himself. I also like it how the Republicans think the Democratic party is the leftmost party, and that all the candidates there are the leftest of the left. One socialist candidate would put them all to shame.

Of course, with inspid, unbalanced, and otherwise bad debate formats from CNN and others, we may never have a chance of knowing whether there is something like that socialist candidate at all. If you live in New Hampshire or Michigan, time’s running out - the New Hampshire primary is Jan 8, after Michigan was permitted to move its up to Jan 15.

The stupid doesn’t stop either, unfortunately - police in Accokeek, Maryland went to the wrong address with their warrant and ended up holding them hostage and killing their dog. Perhaps if the family had kept a pet gigantic sea scorpion as well there would have been more accountability and the police would have been more polite. Supposedly, the deputies realized what was wrong immediately, and are not acknowledging that the dog was shot.

Just when I keep thinking that our schools have de-stressed enough to not be hair-trigger paranoid about everything, I get something reminding me that they’re still as high-strung as ever. A student who scribbled a "death note" with classmates names, in the same vein as the manga with the same name has been suspended. Everything must be taken seriously, of course. Here’s the question - what are they going to find wrong about the student that justifies their actions, and how much of the student’s situation, social circle, and place in the school social order are they going to ignore in looking for their justification?

A different police decision-making process produced a gentleman in a diabetic coma being tasered twice for fear that he was a suicide bomber. Since he couldn’t respond to the policepeople, and apparently looks Middle Eastern, he got plenty of voltage, and then a “sorry” when the truth won out. Here. Have some quiche in return.

For those counting the days until our robot overlords take over, there’s a ladybug-type robot that cleans restrooms, and a work assistant robot.

Despite their spraying techniques being flimsy and their evidence generally falling down in the face of some actual research, the RIAA appears to have enough clout with the courts that the Free Software Foundation is creating a fund to get expert witnesses in technical matters to testify in defense of those who are served with the cabal's suits. Not to say we don’t approve of the existence of the fund, or the help that the experts will provide, but I think this shows just how much the average person in the jury of their peers needs translators to filter out the BS and attempts to confuse them.

Wired closes out the posts tonight, first with 10 Great Snake-Oil Gadgets, of which nine everyone can agree on, but on the tenth, the dowsing rods, there is discussion as to whether they actually do work according to their stated goals.

Comments

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, All Hallows Eve was instituted by the Christians as well. All Saint's Day (Nov. 1) was invented to subsume the ancestor worship of Celtic religions in the British Isles, but Hallowe'en is entirely a creation of its own right.

Are you in Washington? I didn't think about it ahead of time; I hope you didn't spend the day alone?

Have the best

-=Kiyoshi

[silveradept]

Well, can you really count a holiday instituted to stop pagans from worshipping their gods? Although, along that logic, most of the Christian holidays wouldn't really count in their current places.

Yeah, I'm in Washington, but I did not spend yesterday by myself, so any fears you had can be soothed.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it. =^_^=

Have the best

-=Kiyoshi

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I wish PA would change our primary! Ours is in May, and really doesn't count for squat by then.

Isn't it illegal for the police to enter a house without a warrant? So...if they were in the wrong house, that means they didn't have a warrant for that house, right? So...shouldn't the police get in trouble for it?

[silveradept]

If everyone wants their primaries to count, they want them to be early. The problem with that is that it will lead to a national primary day, and the populace will have to make a decision and stick to it. Something that Americans are kind of nervous about in their primaries.

Yes, it is illegal for police to enter a house without a warrant unless they can prove they had reasonable suspicion that a crime was taking place there (meaning if the police saw someone in your house with a knife brandished, they could probably use the keyless entry technique and have it stand up in court). Yes, they should get in trouble for it. No, they won't.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

And if there was a national primary day, wouldn't it sort of make the pending election pointless? Wait, no, I guess not, but a national primary day limit how much caucusing the candidates do in each state, too...but it also might bring things more to an even ground. We barely get any caucusing, because our primary vote doesn't count, but as soon as the winner is announced, we'll get both candidates caucusing.

Why won't they?

[silveradept]

Even with a national primary day, you may not get much campaigning, because the people want to go to the states that have the most votes in delegation and/or the electoral college.

They won't get punished (much) because the people who were wronged would have to convince either a judge or the appropriate superior that there was injury and wrongdoing done in accidental or deliberate ways. And like it or not, there's a lot of things that the police can hide behind that would mean no punishment for any of the officers involved, or none beyond a small wrist-slap and an admonishment to check the address better next time.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

"but on the tenth, the dowsing rods, there is discussion as to whether they actually do work according to their stated goals."

There is? Links? I was pretty sure that science had more or less debunked that one too.

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

Oh, I read that as "it's questionable anyone paid enough money for them hence they failed as snake oil".

[silveradept]

Anecdotes in the comments, most likely, but a significant amount of them attesting that something happens with the dowsing rods. Now, it may not be as advertised, a source of water for well-digging or something like it, but that's all it was, anecdotes in the comments.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well, you know what they say about data not being the plural of anecdote. I'm not going to believe that somebody is using some completely inexplicable method to find things until we either explain it, or show through solid science that the effect is real.