Silver Adept (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silveradept) wrote2008-07-02 11:56 pm
silveradept) wrote2008-07-02 11:56 pm
Into the new month headfirst - 2 July 2008
A madhouse today - all sorts of people here for different things. Apparently, a time typo escaped our notice, and so some people were expecting a program at 3:30. Those that were signed up got the scoop that it was actually at 1 today, so there was still a good program. And the hordes did descend for the 3:30, and my co-worker made something ot make them not go away empty-handed, but it surely taxed the stamina.
Starting the news in international relations, the foreign minister of Iraq is urging adoption of a deal that would keep United States troops in the country past the point of their U.N. mandate, claiming that th U.S. has dropped any notion of immunity from local law currently enjoyed by contractors. And even with calling fifteen of the eighteen benchmarks "satisfactory", there’s no hurry for this administration to turn over responsibilities and power to the Iraqi people, some of which probably is the fault of a slow government in Baghdad, but other parts are probably due to the way the country was invaded and occupied. With opinions like Numan al-Faddagh, who sees a greater and freer and Iraq, thanks to America knowcking down Saddam, I’m sure all sides will find the narrative they want to have regarding the country. Terence Jeffrey is still touting the surge success, I’m still trying to decide whether this will be a story of bad things done with good results, of bad and worse things done with bad intentions.
The European Union is developing rules to permit non-hospital health care without first obtaining one's home doctor's approval, and to be reimbursed for getting treatments that their home country would normally provide if the treatments were obtained in another country. In some ways, this is the benefit of belonging to a national or multinational social insurance conglomerate - it’s easy to get care and reimbursement, so long as you stay in-network.
Domestic matters, as always - The Atlantic details a crime wave that left an inner city and went to the suburbs. Apparently, the destruction of low-income Section 8 housing and the giving of vouchers to encourage the inner-city poor to find better housing elsewhere backfired in a horrible way, with the gangs going out and recruiting, and then engaging in new turf wars, and some people who left the projects clustering in the new areas... instead of a high concentration of bad things, we get bad things spread out over a much greater area, which could make things worse even though they’re supposed to make them better. What looks to be most telling, though, is that the people were sent away and told to live like they were middle class, without knowing or having any of the support structure that goes along with it. They were just the poor in a new place, and that doesn’t help anyone actually get out of poverty.
On a different sort of matter, but one that still affects the poor more and possibly hurts their chances of getting out of dangerous lifestyles, Less aid to Michigan universities and colleges means tuition increases, probably to the point where many people who want to go to university get priced right out of the market. Will this continue on in other places? Quite possible. I would guess that this trend will spread to other places as the economy continues to shake things out.
The Village Voice reminds us that Scientology tactics of obfuscate and litigate have a long history, and will continue even after someone has won judgment against them. All of the attention and attacks are enough to drive people insane, no doubt. For some, Scientology itself may have driven them insane. All the more reason for the great hordes of the Anonymous to flow as the water does and wear away at the empire until it collapses.
Six persons have been fired or suspended for their lack of action in helping a woman in the emergency room and then falsifying patient data to make it appear that she was conscious and moving when she was not. So how did this happen? Was it just that there wasn’t a staff person free to see her until she collapsed and became an emergency? Or did people notice her and ignore her, because she seemed fine at the time, and then became an urgent case? These things don’t happen in a vacuum, I would hope.
Candidate opinions - Cal Thomas wants voters to pay attention to all the things said in the Democratic primary, rather than letting them get buried in the new talk of unity. One would think the Republican challenger wouldn’t want to let good issues die, so I would expect many of them to have a resurgence in the general election campaign, if they haven’t already begun to do so now.
Other opinions are circulating around the upcoming holiday. I’ve been trying to avoid them, for the most part, because one can only really see "America is the Greatest Nation Ever" and all those who don’t believe in my interpretation (Protestantism, militarism, and free enterprise unfettered or uncaring about what it does) of its founding principles should try some other country better suited to their beliefs, "Independence Day means that we should give thanks to all our troops who help keep us free" as if our military force against foreign persons and nations through time were the sole reason that America is still standing, and "Our principles are the greatest - if we start acting more like the world wants us to, we'll become weak and ineffective like they are" before saying, “Stop abusing the holiday.” The celebration of the birth of a nation and the principles that founded it is excellent - but should probably be a time of study as much as a time of celebration that the nation is still here. For as much as people will tout the Declaration and the Constitution, it might be a good time to go over it and read the source documents. Of course, some national pride is good, too. Having an Amerocentric view of history and making us out to be the heroes of the world while everyone else rolls over doesn’t really work all that well for me.
Science has an interesting way of getting around - the Buzzball, a motorized hamster ball for humans. Posthuman Blues suggested it would be a precursor to a spherical lunar transport, but I think it would be an interesting way of getting people around here on Terra. And, I admit, it does resemble the big spheres from the classic American Gladiators, so I can imagine playing a bit of bumper balls with these. Constructed solidly and properly, we might even be able to handle a little road rage without giant wrecks.
There’s also using object-recongition software to track penguins, and a market trading agent programmed to adjust its behavior based on the behavior of the other players, getting more aggressive when others are, and more maximizing when there’s less aggerssion around, and a way of taking pictures without pointing a camera at the object being photographed.
Singled out for special abuse tonight is Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, who asserts that women are abused because they refuse to submit to their husbands and take on their divine roles as wife and mother. “Blame the victim”, for starters, rather than the men who expect unreasonable things from their wives, justify it with the religious book, and then neglect the part that says that husbands are supposed to respect and take care of their wives and children right after they tell the wives and children to respect their fathers and husbands. The men don’t escape notice, either, though, because they apparently have two options when they’re faced with an uppity woman who doesn’t know her place - they become abusive, because, by God, women will submit to the God-given Male Authority, or they become weak, spineless, passive wimps because they’re not asserting their God-given Male Authority. Either way, it’s the woman’s fault for trying to be a man. Thankfully, the General provides a third way out - publicly insulting your wife in front of reporters. As revenge, perhaps his wife can buy him an anti-abortion, pro date-rape shirt from Amazon. By the time this posts, the item will probably be removed, but imagine it as the slogan, emblazoned on a T-shirt, and you get the idea. Jezebel and others find it not the greatest of jokes, assuming it is one.
On the next to last mark, five tips for giving people good praise. Because, as Humes, we are praise junkies. This is just the way of making things a purer solution of lovey goodness.
Last for tonight, One of the more intriguing ideas I’ve been linked to is The Something Store, which will send you... something, for the price of $10, shipping included. You won’t know what the thing is you got until you get it. For all we know, it might be something from the Particle Zoo, which has plushie versions of subatomic particles.
So, from here, I’m going to turn the machines off, swap out the batteries, and then send the old one away to the recycling center (free of charge, no less).
Starting the news in international relations, the foreign minister of Iraq is urging adoption of a deal that would keep United States troops in the country past the point of their U.N. mandate, claiming that th U.S. has dropped any notion of immunity from local law currently enjoyed by contractors. And even with calling fifteen of the eighteen benchmarks "satisfactory", there’s no hurry for this administration to turn over responsibilities and power to the Iraqi people, some of which probably is the fault of a slow government in Baghdad, but other parts are probably due to the way the country was invaded and occupied. With opinions like Numan al-Faddagh, who sees a greater and freer and Iraq, thanks to America knowcking down Saddam, I’m sure all sides will find the narrative they want to have regarding the country. Terence Jeffrey is still touting the surge success, I’m still trying to decide whether this will be a story of bad things done with good results, of bad and worse things done with bad intentions.
The European Union is developing rules to permit non-hospital health care without first obtaining one's home doctor's approval, and to be reimbursed for getting treatments that their home country would normally provide if the treatments were obtained in another country. In some ways, this is the benefit of belonging to a national or multinational social insurance conglomerate - it’s easy to get care and reimbursement, so long as you stay in-network.
Domestic matters, as always - The Atlantic details a crime wave that left an inner city and went to the suburbs. Apparently, the destruction of low-income Section 8 housing and the giving of vouchers to encourage the inner-city poor to find better housing elsewhere backfired in a horrible way, with the gangs going out and recruiting, and then engaging in new turf wars, and some people who left the projects clustering in the new areas... instead of a high concentration of bad things, we get bad things spread out over a much greater area, which could make things worse even though they’re supposed to make them better. What looks to be most telling, though, is that the people were sent away and told to live like they were middle class, without knowing or having any of the support structure that goes along with it. They were just the poor in a new place, and that doesn’t help anyone actually get out of poverty.
On a different sort of matter, but one that still affects the poor more and possibly hurts their chances of getting out of dangerous lifestyles, Less aid to Michigan universities and colleges means tuition increases, probably to the point where many people who want to go to university get priced right out of the market. Will this continue on in other places? Quite possible. I would guess that this trend will spread to other places as the economy continues to shake things out.
The Village Voice reminds us that Scientology tactics of obfuscate and litigate have a long history, and will continue even after someone has won judgment against them. All of the attention and attacks are enough to drive people insane, no doubt. For some, Scientology itself may have driven them insane. All the more reason for the great hordes of the Anonymous to flow as the water does and wear away at the empire until it collapses.
Six persons have been fired or suspended for their lack of action in helping a woman in the emergency room and then falsifying patient data to make it appear that she was conscious and moving when she was not. So how did this happen? Was it just that there wasn’t a staff person free to see her until she collapsed and became an emergency? Or did people notice her and ignore her, because she seemed fine at the time, and then became an urgent case? These things don’t happen in a vacuum, I would hope.
Candidate opinions - Cal Thomas wants voters to pay attention to all the things said in the Democratic primary, rather than letting them get buried in the new talk of unity. One would think the Republican challenger wouldn’t want to let good issues die, so I would expect many of them to have a resurgence in the general election campaign, if they haven’t already begun to do so now.
Other opinions are circulating around the upcoming holiday. I’ve been trying to avoid them, for the most part, because one can only really see "America is the Greatest Nation Ever" and all those who don’t believe in my interpretation (Protestantism, militarism, and free enterprise unfettered or uncaring about what it does) of its founding principles should try some other country better suited to their beliefs, "Independence Day means that we should give thanks to all our troops who help keep us free" as if our military force against foreign persons and nations through time were the sole reason that America is still standing, and "Our principles are the greatest - if we start acting more like the world wants us to, we'll become weak and ineffective like they are" before saying, “Stop abusing the holiday.” The celebration of the birth of a nation and the principles that founded it is excellent - but should probably be a time of study as much as a time of celebration that the nation is still here. For as much as people will tout the Declaration and the Constitution, it might be a good time to go over it and read the source documents. Of course, some national pride is good, too. Having an Amerocentric view of history and making us out to be the heroes of the world while everyone else rolls over doesn’t really work all that well for me.
Science has an interesting way of getting around - the Buzzball, a motorized hamster ball for humans. Posthuman Blues suggested it would be a precursor to a spherical lunar transport, but I think it would be an interesting way of getting people around here on Terra. And, I admit, it does resemble the big spheres from the classic American Gladiators, so I can imagine playing a bit of bumper balls with these. Constructed solidly and properly, we might even be able to handle a little road rage without giant wrecks.
There’s also using object-recongition software to track penguins, and a market trading agent programmed to adjust its behavior based on the behavior of the other players, getting more aggressive when others are, and more maximizing when there’s less aggerssion around, and a way of taking pictures without pointing a camera at the object being photographed.
Singled out for special abuse tonight is Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, who asserts that women are abused because they refuse to submit to their husbands and take on their divine roles as wife and mother. “Blame the victim”, for starters, rather than the men who expect unreasonable things from their wives, justify it with the religious book, and then neglect the part that says that husbands are supposed to respect and take care of their wives and children right after they tell the wives and children to respect their fathers and husbands. The men don’t escape notice, either, though, because they apparently have two options when they’re faced with an uppity woman who doesn’t know her place - they become abusive, because, by God, women will submit to the God-given Male Authority, or they become weak, spineless, passive wimps because they’re not asserting their God-given Male Authority. Either way, it’s the woman’s fault for trying to be a man. Thankfully, the General provides a third way out - publicly insulting your wife in front of reporters. As revenge, perhaps his wife can buy him an anti-abortion, pro date-rape shirt from Amazon. By the time this posts, the item will probably be removed, but imagine it as the slogan, emblazoned on a T-shirt, and you get the idea. Jezebel and others find it not the greatest of jokes, assuming it is one.
On the next to last mark, five tips for giving people good praise. Because, as Humes, we are praise junkies. This is just the way of making things a purer solution of lovey goodness.
Last for tonight, One of the more intriguing ideas I’ve been linked to is The Something Store, which will send you... something, for the price of $10, shipping included. You won’t know what the thing is you got until you get it. For all we know, it might be something from the Particle Zoo, which has plushie versions of subatomic particles.
So, from here, I’m going to turn the machines off, swap out the batteries, and then send the old one away to the recycling center (free of charge, no less).