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silveradeptPutting The Weirdo up front today, because, well, he doesn’t fit anywhere else, a question of language - is the "privelege" white folk are supposed to enjoy really special positive treatment, or is it really that most of those people are trying to treat everyone else in a special negative way, seeing the white person as a normal interaction rather than a special one?
So, the old ballparks will go away. Eventually. Yankee Stadium will close after 85 years of service, as a new Yankee Stadium opens up down the street.
And one other odd things that doesn’t categorize - L.M. Montgomery was depressed through much of her life, and ended up killing herself. New information just released from the descendants. Successful writers committing suicide? That puts L.M. Montgomery in good company, I guess.
And now, the stuff that can be categorized or snarked.
The head of food safety in China has resigned his post, after the scandal of baby milk tainted with melamine, affecting close to 53,000 Chinese so far.
Confirming they were serious about it, Pakistani troops fired on United States helicopters that passed into their airspace. Boy, it’s quite the hot seat in Pakistan these days, innit?
The rest of the world is pretty hot, too, as more suspicions on nuclear weapons come through on Iran, with the assumption that Tehran is being unthruthful, Thabo Mbeki resigns as South African president, anti-globalists protest in Sweeden, and relations with Russia continued to spiral downward.
Domestically, if it wasn’t the economy before, it is now - 700 billion bucks available to buy bad debts with, from Treasury, with love. Plus, now all the investment banks can create regular deposit banks, and are thus And nothing in the plan right now that says anything about what the government expects in return. It doesn't ask who really has the authority to do something like this, nor is it asking the taxpayers whether they want to go through with it. Nor does it offer any actual relief for homeowners stuck in the debt trap, meaning that even while nobody has a clue about the important questions of this proposal, the people themselves are going to get stuck with the results. And none of the actual benefits, if some should actually appear. For some, this is the result of some fundamental problems and imbalances with our economy, and for others, perfect instances of how much the Republicans have always been about enriching the already rich at the expense of the lower classes. All in all, though, the consensus in the liberal world is No Deal, at least not as stands. Scarecrow at firedoglake has an excellent checklist for what any bailout plan should inclued, with one fo the non-negotiable points being extra taxes on those who need and benefit from the bailout, the wealthiest, up to the point where the bailout loans have been repaid, along with their associated costs and interest. It would certainly motivate accountability and quick repayment if the companies became profitable again, and those people who ran the companies would have incentive to pay things back so they don’t have their incomes taxed heavily to pay things back. Senator Bernie Sanders agrees with the surtax idea.
Larisa Alexandrovna, at HuffPo, sees this crisis bailout as the final step in removing democracy and substituting an oligarchy of businessmen as the government fo the United States, considering the bill gives Trasury wide-ranging powers and removes judicial oversight from any of the decisions Treasury makes on the matter. Do you trust someone from Wall Street to handle a Wall Street bailout? Or are we supposed to learn some new skills for the coming days?
Of course, The WSJ has plenty of blame to spread around on how we got into the situation, whether from loose rules for balance sheets or bad government rules and regs. Jeremy Siegel takes it one step further in calling for all bank deposits to be guaranteed, so as to prevent a 1930s-style run.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no! (Mamma Mia...) Brunswick, North Carolina, you don't teach creationism in science classes because it isn't science!, not because it’s somehow teaching an atheist agenda without a religious one. *sigh*. Could we move on from something like this, please? Or at least, if insisting on creationism being taught, do so in the right context, of a comparative religious education course? Yes, with the potential climate of a vice-presidential candidate that would cheerily rule with her religion, from a position of ignorance, rather than law and the position of knowledge, it does look like a good time to try the gambit again. But it doesn’t last, and that’s before courts get involved.
All in all, it sounds like America is a nation of masochists, with the way we seem to enjoy getting hurt, hit, pained, and smacked around by the Republicans of the last eight years. And it’s not like certain evangelical segments of the populace have been clamoring for the government to stop the torture and abuse, especially when it’s physical harm done to people of another ethnicity (and still half say it’s justified even when reminded that as one gives, one tends to get). Homosexuals certainly don't escape the notice of the torturers, either, although at that point, they try to call it therapy.
So, moving onward, it is apparently impossible to support clean coal and be against the removal of mountaintops to find coal veins, according to this posting on the Daily Green. Is that a contradiction?
One item on the Republican candidate - more concern that Senator McCain may not end up living out a first term in office - concern magnified by his unwillingness to release medical records.
Pam Meister accuses Senator Obama of breaking the law by negotiating with the Iraqi government on behalf of the United States without authorization because the Senator asked why the Iraqi government wasn’t willing to delay the “Strategic Framework Agreement” until there was a new admnistration. Sounds more like the Senator was interested in why the current administration was trying to rush the thing through before the leader left office, not making any diplomatic demands or requirements. Also sounds remarkably like the Iraqi legislator accused of embarassing the nation because he traveled to Israel and said that Iraq was ready to make peace with them, breaking a 1950s-era law about travel to Israel. Althoguh, in the second case, there’s been a lot of retaliation and prosecution, much of it likely unwarranted in more civilized times.
The WSJ points its finger at Joe Biden and says, "Shame on you for saying that God is on your side.", because Senator Biden believes that God wants us to help each other out. The WSJ scoffs at the tax plans, putting up numbers over twenty years that may not have been adjusted to the relative sizes of the economies, claiming that low tax rates make for less poverty, and then calling out Senator Biden’s lack of charitable giving over the last ten years. Dinesh D'Souza lays down his hand on the George Obama matter in triumph, feeling he’s embarassed the Senator enough about not taking care of his half brother, and using it to take a nice swipe at atheists, off-handedly noting that none of them contributed to the fund, only self-proclaimed Christians (who also happen to like right-wing media). Kevin McCullough piles on, believing Senator Obama's plans will rob the rich and create more government dependency, as well as mentioning the Senator's vote on the born alive infant act as Austin Hill beleives the Senator's plans will simply take from those who have earned it through merit and give to those who haven't earned anything.
Armstrong Williams finds that Senator Obama needs Senator Clinton to help him beat Governor Palin, by using them to get Governor Palin to define herself and the McCain campaign and then skewering her. Pizza Diavola thinks that making a strong stand against the new HHS rule changes would be an easy way for Senator Obama to pick up needed voters and to reassure women that he’s serious about protecting their rights. CNS goes after the Obama campaign for paying female staffers at supposedly 78 percent of what the male staffers are paid, and noting Senator McCain's campaign pays the women slightly more on average than the men. Those statistics are tricky things, aren’t they? If all you look at are the salaries, then it really doesn’t say a whole lot. Even the bit about how many women are in the top staffing jobs doesn’t really say anything about the matter. You’d really have to look at the org chart and who’s in it - if I employ more women in the lower positions, then on average, their salary is lower than the men. Does that necessarily make me sexist, like CNS implies? Not at all. I might be quite progressive, because I have a high number of women on the campaign. Statistics are nice, but they lack context, especially when reported on.
Henry Payne says Michigan will be a battleground state, which makes me wonder where he’s been the last few elections. Michigan hinges on whether the liberal pockets can overcome the rest of the state or not, and it’s usually a pretty close affair.
Finally, Liberal Eagle wonders why this race is so damn close, considering that on the issues, it should be easy to choose whom to vote for. The guess is that people vote from the gut, not the brain, and thus the candidate that appears least offensive or is least smeared wins. Well, either that or we've already made up our minds, and hearing misinformation that confirms our biases only makes them stronger, even if those misinformations are debunked.
In science and technology, the iPhone takes screen captures of what you do, which could then be exploited by crackers or law enforcement personnel to reconstruct your actions. Hooray for privacy-killing security flaws. Hooray also for systems that can't handle long names with non-English characters in them, forcing a traveler to be turned away, spend an extra night, and then still have her boarding pass print out invalid. Furthermore, enjoy the way statistics supposedly say Downs Syndrome tests are risky and increase miscarriage rates, because of provider error, possible error from the test, and the false positive rate meaning more mothers take the tests than need to.
Elsewehre in science, growing one's own treehouse, 10 beautiful underground lakes and rivers,
Ah - a picture of the new time-eater clock, Chronophage. And an on-line dating simulation for women that encourages collaboration among the players to win the hearts of the boys in the sim - common goal, and possibly bonds formed over trying to get to the boy. As opposed, to say, Gospelr, a Twitter-like service for the conspicuously Christian tweeter.
Last out of science, though, Damon Darlin says technology doesn't make us stupid - it unlocks our minds. Even if we make sure we have an equal amount of time-wasting things on our time-saving devices. And can use that knowledge to generate things like vending machiens that deliver freshly cooked pizza in 90 seconds.
The winning item for tonight, however, is most definitely the Pastafarian counter-protest to the Phelps clan that sent the WBC packing. ARRRRR! With that, Covering the Mouse, a blog about finding covers of Disney songs, whether good... or horrible.
The big losers for tonight, however, is the government of Uganda, seeking a ban on the wearing of miniskirts in the country, based on the supposition that they are "indecent" and the men will be distracted from important tasks, like driving, because they will see a ":naked" miniskirt wearer.
So, the old ballparks will go away. Eventually. Yankee Stadium will close after 85 years of service, as a new Yankee Stadium opens up down the street.
And one other odd things that doesn’t categorize - L.M. Montgomery was depressed through much of her life, and ended up killing herself. New information just released from the descendants. Successful writers committing suicide? That puts L.M. Montgomery in good company, I guess.
And now, the stuff that can be categorized or snarked.
The head of food safety in China has resigned his post, after the scandal of baby milk tainted with melamine, affecting close to 53,000 Chinese so far.
Confirming they were serious about it, Pakistani troops fired on United States helicopters that passed into their airspace. Boy, it’s quite the hot seat in Pakistan these days, innit?
The rest of the world is pretty hot, too, as more suspicions on nuclear weapons come through on Iran, with the assumption that Tehran is being unthruthful, Thabo Mbeki resigns as South African president, anti-globalists protest in Sweeden, and relations with Russia continued to spiral downward.
Domestically, if it wasn’t the economy before, it is now - 700 billion bucks available to buy bad debts with, from Treasury, with love. Plus, now all the investment banks can create regular deposit banks, and are thus And nothing in the plan right now that says anything about what the government expects in return. It doesn't ask who really has the authority to do something like this, nor is it asking the taxpayers whether they want to go through with it. Nor does it offer any actual relief for homeowners stuck in the debt trap, meaning that even while nobody has a clue about the important questions of this proposal, the people themselves are going to get stuck with the results. And none of the actual benefits, if some should actually appear. For some, this is the result of some fundamental problems and imbalances with our economy, and for others, perfect instances of how much the Republicans have always been about enriching the already rich at the expense of the lower classes. All in all, though, the consensus in the liberal world is No Deal, at least not as stands. Scarecrow at firedoglake has an excellent checklist for what any bailout plan should inclued, with one fo the non-negotiable points being extra taxes on those who need and benefit from the bailout, the wealthiest, up to the point where the bailout loans have been repaid, along with their associated costs and interest. It would certainly motivate accountability and quick repayment if the companies became profitable again, and those people who ran the companies would have incentive to pay things back so they don’t have their incomes taxed heavily to pay things back. Senator Bernie Sanders agrees with the surtax idea.
Larisa Alexandrovna, at HuffPo, sees this crisis bailout as the final step in removing democracy and substituting an oligarchy of businessmen as the government fo the United States, considering the bill gives Trasury wide-ranging powers and removes judicial oversight from any of the decisions Treasury makes on the matter. Do you trust someone from Wall Street to handle a Wall Street bailout? Or are we supposed to learn some new skills for the coming days?
Of course, The WSJ has plenty of blame to spread around on how we got into the situation, whether from loose rules for balance sheets or bad government rules and regs. Jeremy Siegel takes it one step further in calling for all bank deposits to be guaranteed, so as to prevent a 1930s-style run.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no! (Mamma Mia...) Brunswick, North Carolina, you don't teach creationism in science classes because it isn't science!, not because it’s somehow teaching an atheist agenda without a religious one. *sigh*. Could we move on from something like this, please? Or at least, if insisting on creationism being taught, do so in the right context, of a comparative religious education course? Yes, with the potential climate of a vice-presidential candidate that would cheerily rule with her religion, from a position of ignorance, rather than law and the position of knowledge, it does look like a good time to try the gambit again. But it doesn’t last, and that’s before courts get involved.
All in all, it sounds like America is a nation of masochists, with the way we seem to enjoy getting hurt, hit, pained, and smacked around by the Republicans of the last eight years. And it’s not like certain evangelical segments of the populace have been clamoring for the government to stop the torture and abuse, especially when it’s physical harm done to people of another ethnicity (and still half say it’s justified even when reminded that as one gives, one tends to get). Homosexuals certainly don't escape the notice of the torturers, either, although at that point, they try to call it therapy.
So, moving onward, it is apparently impossible to support clean coal and be against the removal of mountaintops to find coal veins, according to this posting on the Daily Green. Is that a contradiction?
One item on the Republican candidate - more concern that Senator McCain may not end up living out a first term in office - concern magnified by his unwillingness to release medical records.
Pam Meister accuses Senator Obama of breaking the law by negotiating with the Iraqi government on behalf of the United States without authorization because the Senator asked why the Iraqi government wasn’t willing to delay the “Strategic Framework Agreement” until there was a new admnistration. Sounds more like the Senator was interested in why the current administration was trying to rush the thing through before the leader left office, not making any diplomatic demands or requirements. Also sounds remarkably like the Iraqi legislator accused of embarassing the nation because he traveled to Israel and said that Iraq was ready to make peace with them, breaking a 1950s-era law about travel to Israel. Althoguh, in the second case, there’s been a lot of retaliation and prosecution, much of it likely unwarranted in more civilized times.
The WSJ points its finger at Joe Biden and says, "Shame on you for saying that God is on your side.", because Senator Biden believes that God wants us to help each other out. The WSJ scoffs at the tax plans, putting up numbers over twenty years that may not have been adjusted to the relative sizes of the economies, claiming that low tax rates make for less poverty, and then calling out Senator Biden’s lack of charitable giving over the last ten years. Dinesh D'Souza lays down his hand on the George Obama matter in triumph, feeling he’s embarassed the Senator enough about not taking care of his half brother, and using it to take a nice swipe at atheists, off-handedly noting that none of them contributed to the fund, only self-proclaimed Christians (who also happen to like right-wing media). Kevin McCullough piles on, believing Senator Obama's plans will rob the rich and create more government dependency, as well as mentioning the Senator's vote on the born alive infant act as Austin Hill beleives the Senator's plans will simply take from those who have earned it through merit and give to those who haven't earned anything.
Armstrong Williams finds that Senator Obama needs Senator Clinton to help him beat Governor Palin, by using them to get Governor Palin to define herself and the McCain campaign and then skewering her. Pizza Diavola thinks that making a strong stand against the new HHS rule changes would be an easy way for Senator Obama to pick up needed voters and to reassure women that he’s serious about protecting their rights. CNS goes after the Obama campaign for paying female staffers at supposedly 78 percent of what the male staffers are paid, and noting Senator McCain's campaign pays the women slightly more on average than the men. Those statistics are tricky things, aren’t they? If all you look at are the salaries, then it really doesn’t say a whole lot. Even the bit about how many women are in the top staffing jobs doesn’t really say anything about the matter. You’d really have to look at the org chart and who’s in it - if I employ more women in the lower positions, then on average, their salary is lower than the men. Does that necessarily make me sexist, like CNS implies? Not at all. I might be quite progressive, because I have a high number of women on the campaign. Statistics are nice, but they lack context, especially when reported on.
Henry Payne says Michigan will be a battleground state, which makes me wonder where he’s been the last few elections. Michigan hinges on whether the liberal pockets can overcome the rest of the state or not, and it’s usually a pretty close affair.
Finally, Liberal Eagle wonders why this race is so damn close, considering that on the issues, it should be easy to choose whom to vote for. The guess is that people vote from the gut, not the brain, and thus the candidate that appears least offensive or is least smeared wins. Well, either that or we've already made up our minds, and hearing misinformation that confirms our biases only makes them stronger, even if those misinformations are debunked.
In science and technology, the iPhone takes screen captures of what you do, which could then be exploited by crackers or law enforcement personnel to reconstruct your actions. Hooray for privacy-killing security flaws. Hooray also for systems that can't handle long names with non-English characters in them, forcing a traveler to be turned away, spend an extra night, and then still have her boarding pass print out invalid. Furthermore, enjoy the way statistics supposedly say Downs Syndrome tests are risky and increase miscarriage rates, because of provider error, possible error from the test, and the false positive rate meaning more mothers take the tests than need to.
Elsewehre in science, growing one's own treehouse, 10 beautiful underground lakes and rivers,
Ah - a picture of the new time-eater clock, Chronophage. And an on-line dating simulation for women that encourages collaboration among the players to win the hearts of the boys in the sim - common goal, and possibly bonds formed over trying to get to the boy. As opposed, to say, Gospelr, a Twitter-like service for the conspicuously Christian tweeter.
Last out of science, though, Damon Darlin says technology doesn't make us stupid - it unlocks our minds. Even if we make sure we have an equal amount of time-wasting things on our time-saving devices. And can use that knowledge to generate things like vending machiens that deliver freshly cooked pizza in 90 seconds.
The winning item for tonight, however, is most definitely the Pastafarian counter-protest to the Phelps clan that sent the WBC packing. ARRRRR! With that, Covering the Mouse, a blog about finding covers of Disney songs, whether good... or horrible.
The big losers for tonight, however, is the government of Uganda, seeking a ban on the wearing of miniskirts in the country, based on the supposition that they are "indecent" and the men will be distracted from important tasks, like driving, because they will see a ":naked" miniskirt wearer.
