Mid-weekend material - 14 June 2008
Jun. 14th, 2008 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptDespite the several accounts of the world's end yesterday, a new study tell us Friday the 13th is no less lucky than any other day, but, as we all know through a thing called confirmation bias, we look for the things that already confirm our assumptions.
The professional self has material to ponder and render his verdict on, about an Ohio library sued because they barred a Christianity-based financial planning workshop from using their meeting room, citing policy that prevents partisan politics, religious events, or social events from occurring in the library. Details about how religious the presentation was going to be are murky, of course, but from the gist of the article, and the sound bites from the group doing the suing, I'm guessing there was going to be more than just incidental Bible-quotation in a sea of practical financial advice, for which the library is justified in saying "Um, no." If it's going to be "Praise God and here's how to arrange your finances to be pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, minus your most excellent tithe to your church and donation to us", then that's better suited for the church than the library. Really, for giving sound financial advice, I don't think there's a need to invoke the Bible, unless using it as an example of good investment, like telling the story of the three servants with their varying levels of talents.
Naturally, a little monkey business to get through before we begin - a monkey, having escaped the zoo, attempted to flee by jumping on a speedboat. His jailbreak was unsuccessful, but no doubt will give the chasers a nice story to tell.
Starting with news of war. A coordinated Taliban attack on a prison killed guards, soldiers, and let loose several hundred insurgents. Coalition people were downplaying this as a sign of Taliban tactical resurgence, while acknowledging that they did get pwned on this particular incident. Wired has a gallery of before and after battle pictures to show what kind of devastation is wrought by the decision to fight and kill each other.
Mr. Bush, having been smacked around by the court, considers whether he needs to pass more laws that will give him the power to ignore the Constitution again. Which, in a perverse sort of way, is how the system of checks and balances works, even if the end result will be that things go back to the way they were, but now under the guise of a law that needs to be challenged for Constitutionality. Before resuming his campaign to keep prisoners muted and unable to access a civilian trial, Mr. Bush spent some time walking in the Vatican gardens with the pope.
As an alternative to impeachment, which is unlikely, a truth and reconciliation commission is offered as a way of learning and fixing all the corruptions and problems and illegalities involved with the current administration. If they tell the complete truth about everything, nobody gets put on trial. Lie, and get drilled for the crimes you confessed to and the ones that get uncovered. As a way of trying to root out the corruption and get the country back on track, it's a good idea. If they could promise to repeal all the self-serving, "security theatre" laws and all the ones that intrude on our Constitutional rights, in addition to all the confessions, just maybe we'll get back toward the rule of law ad Constitution. I'd look forward to seeing just how long the Bush and Cheney testimonies would last.
Parade Magazine showcases some of the soldiers who are doing well after losing limbs or being disfigured. Would that all of the returning soldiers received this kind of treatment and prostheses.
Other planetary news includes more ice shelf breakups, even during the winter of the Antarctic, which leads Karl Schroeder to speculate that even if the Singularity arrives on schedule, it will be too late to save us.
In domestic news, Time Russert, of NBC News fame, dies of coronary thrombosis at 58 years of age.
Last time I posted, someone was complaining about virtual slavery to taxation. Best not to forget that for some companies that recruit workers into the United States, they exist in something much closer to actual slavery, forced to live in company accommodations, shop at the company store, and given no freedom to look around nor orientation to their new life in the States. And those are the ones that aren't trafficked for sex work.
The Shameless Marketing department offers up a gem of a juxtaposition - Kurt Cobain Converse shoes, which makes people who think punk is about resisting selling out throw up at the exploitation of the dead icon. A different faux pas - "Mr. Eisner, nobody will worry about the message sent by this noose piece of jewelry if we market it as a Pirates thing".
Speaking of shameless marketing, the Vatican has stamped its seal on Mary: The Musical.
In Weird News, a person was arrested for heroin possession after deputies found it in his diaper. Proving yet again that there are a lot of ways people think of for moving drugs around. Best quote: "During the pat-down, "officers felt a large hard object in the pants area on Keys," according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office."
Getting into the opinion columns, first about the candidates, Charles Krauthammer continues to paint Senator Obama as asking for defeat when victory is within America's grasp, and encourages Senator McCain to make victory in Iraq one of his central campaign planks.
Richard H. Collins finds the other conservative talking point, that Senator Obama is rehashing the failed politics of the sixties and seventies. I'm not old enough to get perspective on this one. Is that accusation actually true, or is it another way of conservatives trying to make Obama into the "free love and communism for all" candidate?
Plunderbund thinks the idea of a sock monkey in a suit with an Obama label is just a little bit racist, even after the people who came up with the idea said their intend was not to be offensive. When they come back on-line, you can check out The Sock Obama for yourself.
And then into more general matters, John Hawkins exposes five "liberal myths" that look more like liberal strawmen. Most of those arguments look like variants on the actual complaints, suited nicely to be "disproven" by the evidence put forward.
Hugh Hewitt finds it shocking and inconceivable that the SCOTUS would extend basic court rights to human prisoners, arguing that their fanatical devotion, their ideology, and the method of their crimes should exclude them from having the same right to trial as everyone else. We should violate the Constitutional right to a jury trial for these people, having already judged them guilty of their crimes, says Hewitt.
Our technology department offers a dog bath that bubbles the water small enough to lift the dirt away. So no need for shampoo, but you still have to get the dog in the bath. They also have bacteria that eat waste and excrete crude oil, although it's unknown whether they will be able to do so at high volume.
Wining an award tonight for "Most Courageous Public Leader" and/or one of the Best Persons in the World today, Brazil's president launched a conference to promote equality between heterosexuals and homosexuals, and called homophobia "the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head.". I'd like to hear an American leader or candidate say something as strong as that, and then have the policy to back it up.
Winning a fresh-from-the-oven quiche for Fail, however, is Heelarious, a company that makes soft, but functional, high-heeled shoes for babies.
Last for tonight, The City of Shadows, which uses black and white and long exposures to turn the mass of commuters into a mass of ghosts. If your aims are slightly less highbrow, then take a look at Gummy Lighthouses, and see what happens when detail-oriented objects are manufactured on a press that can't quite capture all of them. For a cool thing showing off some recycling clout, Astro Boy made entirely of recycled Tokyo Metro train tickets. Thus, bed.
The professional self has material to ponder and render his verdict on, about an Ohio library sued because they barred a Christianity-based financial planning workshop from using their meeting room, citing policy that prevents partisan politics, religious events, or social events from occurring in the library. Details about how religious the presentation was going to be are murky, of course, but from the gist of the article, and the sound bites from the group doing the suing, I'm guessing there was going to be more than just incidental Bible-quotation in a sea of practical financial advice, for which the library is justified in saying "Um, no." If it's going to be "Praise God and here's how to arrange your finances to be pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, minus your most excellent tithe to your church and donation to us", then that's better suited for the church than the library. Really, for giving sound financial advice, I don't think there's a need to invoke the Bible, unless using it as an example of good investment, like telling the story of the three servants with their varying levels of talents.
Naturally, a little monkey business to get through before we begin - a monkey, having escaped the zoo, attempted to flee by jumping on a speedboat. His jailbreak was unsuccessful, but no doubt will give the chasers a nice story to tell.
Starting with news of war. A coordinated Taliban attack on a prison killed guards, soldiers, and let loose several hundred insurgents. Coalition people were downplaying this as a sign of Taliban tactical resurgence, while acknowledging that they did get pwned on this particular incident. Wired has a gallery of before and after battle pictures to show what kind of devastation is wrought by the decision to fight and kill each other.
Mr. Bush, having been smacked around by the court, considers whether he needs to pass more laws that will give him the power to ignore the Constitution again. Which, in a perverse sort of way, is how the system of checks and balances works, even if the end result will be that things go back to the way they were, but now under the guise of a law that needs to be challenged for Constitutionality. Before resuming his campaign to keep prisoners muted and unable to access a civilian trial, Mr. Bush spent some time walking in the Vatican gardens with the pope.
As an alternative to impeachment, which is unlikely, a truth and reconciliation commission is offered as a way of learning and fixing all the corruptions and problems and illegalities involved with the current administration. If they tell the complete truth about everything, nobody gets put on trial. Lie, and get drilled for the crimes you confessed to and the ones that get uncovered. As a way of trying to root out the corruption and get the country back on track, it's a good idea. If they could promise to repeal all the self-serving, "security theatre" laws and all the ones that intrude on our Constitutional rights, in addition to all the confessions, just maybe we'll get back toward the rule of law ad Constitution. I'd look forward to seeing just how long the Bush and Cheney testimonies would last.
Parade Magazine showcases some of the soldiers who are doing well after losing limbs or being disfigured. Would that all of the returning soldiers received this kind of treatment and prostheses.
Other planetary news includes more ice shelf breakups, even during the winter of the Antarctic, which leads Karl Schroeder to speculate that even if the Singularity arrives on schedule, it will be too late to save us.
In domestic news, Time Russert, of NBC News fame, dies of coronary thrombosis at 58 years of age.
Last time I posted, someone was complaining about virtual slavery to taxation. Best not to forget that for some companies that recruit workers into the United States, they exist in something much closer to actual slavery, forced to live in company accommodations, shop at the company store, and given no freedom to look around nor orientation to their new life in the States. And those are the ones that aren't trafficked for sex work.
The Shameless Marketing department offers up a gem of a juxtaposition - Kurt Cobain Converse shoes, which makes people who think punk is about resisting selling out throw up at the exploitation of the dead icon. A different faux pas - "Mr. Eisner, nobody will worry about the message sent by this noose piece of jewelry if we market it as a Pirates thing".
Speaking of shameless marketing, the Vatican has stamped its seal on Mary: The Musical.
In Weird News, a person was arrested for heroin possession after deputies found it in his diaper. Proving yet again that there are a lot of ways people think of for moving drugs around. Best quote: "During the pat-down, "officers felt a large hard object in the pants area on Keys," according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office."
Getting into the opinion columns, first about the candidates, Charles Krauthammer continues to paint Senator Obama as asking for defeat when victory is within America's grasp, and encourages Senator McCain to make victory in Iraq one of his central campaign planks.
Richard H. Collins finds the other conservative talking point, that Senator Obama is rehashing the failed politics of the sixties and seventies. I'm not old enough to get perspective on this one. Is that accusation actually true, or is it another way of conservatives trying to make Obama into the "free love and communism for all" candidate?
Plunderbund thinks the idea of a sock monkey in a suit with an Obama label is just a little bit racist, even after the people who came up with the idea said their intend was not to be offensive. When they come back on-line, you can check out The Sock Obama for yourself.
And then into more general matters, John Hawkins exposes five "liberal myths" that look more like liberal strawmen. Most of those arguments look like variants on the actual complaints, suited nicely to be "disproven" by the evidence put forward.
Hugh Hewitt finds it shocking and inconceivable that the SCOTUS would extend basic court rights to human prisoners, arguing that their fanatical devotion, their ideology, and the method of their crimes should exclude them from having the same right to trial as everyone else. We should violate the Constitutional right to a jury trial for these people, having already judged them guilty of their crimes, says Hewitt.
Our technology department offers a dog bath that bubbles the water small enough to lift the dirt away. So no need for shampoo, but you still have to get the dog in the bath. They also have bacteria that eat waste and excrete crude oil, although it's unknown whether they will be able to do so at high volume.
Wining an award tonight for "Most Courageous Public Leader" and/or one of the Best Persons in the World today, Brazil's president launched a conference to promote equality between heterosexuals and homosexuals, and called homophobia "the most perverse disease impregnated in the human head.". I'd like to hear an American leader or candidate say something as strong as that, and then have the policy to back it up.
Winning a fresh-from-the-oven quiche for Fail, however, is Heelarious, a company that makes soft, but functional, high-heeled shoes for babies.
Last for tonight, The City of Shadows, which uses black and white and long exposures to turn the mass of commuters into a mass of ghosts. If your aims are slightly less highbrow, then take a look at Gummy Lighthouses, and see what happens when detail-oriented objects are manufactured on a press that can't quite capture all of them. For a cool thing showing off some recycling clout, Astro Boy made entirely of recycled Tokyo Metro train tickets. Thus, bed.
