Mid-daily news - 19 November 2008
Nov. 19th, 2008 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptGreetings to all of you - enjoy yourselves immensely, please. After all, when the End Times are so near, despite the preferred antichrist having none of the signs in the Apocalypse of John, you have to get everything in before the Rapture. Although, in these tough economic times, it's harder to keep a lover on the side, being expensive and all. Perhaps now is the time to talk to your partner about changing your relationship?
Starting with news that is out of this world, a toolbag floated away from spacewalkers adding more modules and living space to the ISS. Ooops. I don’t think they’ll go out and try to retrieve it, unless they can use one of the large arms to snag it as it goes by, or something.
In the international sphere, lest you forget, the U.S. still thinks Iran is interfering in Iraq, including arresting alleged Iranian agents. Even as they make plans for shifting the major focus from Iraq to Afghanistan under the new administration.
India claims to have destroyed a pirate ship in the area of Somalia, where recent successes are making headline news, and are now starting to generate opinions on how to stomp them back into hiding, as well as making sure that nobody else gets any funny ideas.
The entire membership list of the far-right British National Party was lost and is feared to be posted on the Internet for all to see. That would be the whites-only British National Party, by the way, which might explain why it was posted. It is a breach of privacy, and if the person who leaked is caught, they should get the full weight of the law on them. I don’t know how many people will be pursuing that too aggressively, though, to be honest. The leader of the party may know who the leaker was, as well.
In the breaking domestic news, Ted Stevens finally loses. Not by much, mind you, but the margin of “ahead” is finaly bigger than the amount of available ballots left to count, and looks like it will stay out of mandated-recount territory. So we can say, finally, with confidence that the American populace would not elect someone with seven federal felonies to the United States Senate.
Richard Cheney and Alberto Gonzales charged with conspiracy to block investigations into abuse of prisoners at a company Mr. Cheney has invested in. It’s unknown whether those charges will actually stick and go to trail, and whether Mr. Cheney and Mr. Gonzalez will actually consent to being charged, or will just invoke their reasoning about what they’re actually liable for and dismiss it completely.
In other Senate matters, speculation on why President-elect Obama and the Democrats kept Senator Lieberman on board and chairing his committee, most of which involves the idea that Senator Lieberman now owes the President-elect big time, and will stay loyal because of that. This may annoy the progressives and all those who thought that Senator Lieberman’s endorsement and stumping for Senator McCain was an act beyond the pale, but if it turns out to be a good gambit, that annoyance will be replaced by happiness at how smoothly President Obama enacts his agenda. This pragmatism earns praise from the WSJ.
Speaking of that smoothness, and getting into opinions, an opinion piece in the WSJ about giving the populace the liberalism they elected, starting with the Employee Free Choice Act, a tool that would make it much harder for management at companies (like, say, Wal-Mart) to stop the workers from organizing and enforcing an anti-union culture through punishments and rewards.
The WSJ feels that the Democratic Congress wants to use the financial difficulties to force Detroit automakers into making green changes to their cars that nobody wants, including letting California set their own rules for anticarbon, and for not budging on the greening requirements for some $25 billion available. So, it’s bad to make a car company actually generate vehicles that have minimal environmental impact, and to provide money for that? But apparently the current administration doesn’t want to free up any more money for the other problems plauging Detroit, instead insisting that Congress use the green money for that purpose. Huh. So, “go green or die”? Is that the options that both Congress and the administration are presenting? Eh, sounds like a fair deal to me, apologies to the UAW and everyone whose jobs will be toasted by such a decision. And letting them count overseas manufactures toward their environmental standards? Cop-out. Better to let them go bankrupt than to let them cheat like that. Besides, the fact that their overseas units can bring their economy standards up means they know how to do it. Maybe after a bankruptcy, they’ll decide to actually sell the efficient cars alongside their SUVs. That’s one prong of the argument - the other is that the Big Three deserve to fail because the UAW has them so knotted up that there's no way they can succeed, and with bankruptcy, all the benefits and wages paid to the UAW will be reduced if not eliminated altogether - and it keeps a meddling government from muting the voice of the American populace. (Although, if we were casting ballots, I’d still say we’re voting against Detroit because they haven’t done the environmental, fuel-efficient thing.)
Thomas Sowell on the profligate spending of governmental entities, with an unsubtle attack on the idea that employers should be providing benefits and wages for their workers. From the tone of things, though, it sounds like Mr. Sowell would be similarly incensed at the government providing such things, so he must be a fan of each individual buying all their things themselves, including retirement and health care. I can only hope that employers and the corporate masters would deign to make such things affordable, either through lowered prices or raised wages to make up for the lack of benefits.
In the Aftermath of Proposition 8 segment, Dennis Prager thinks anyone comparing the struggle of homosexuals to the Jim Crow Era is deluding themselves, because African-Americans should resent the comparsion, being that there isn’t one between then and now, homosexuals already have every right that activists are clamoring for except for marriage, and that society as a whole does not benefit from redefining the words so as to accomodate “some gays” and turn traditional religious groups into hate groups. To this, add Chuck Norris talking about an uppity minority lashing out, unable to accept “the will of the people”, unfairly blaming religious institutions for creating the mindset, and being generally thuggish, although careful not to protest at black churches because that would seem racist and un-PC (while repeating the canard that it’s this way because the black people wanted it that way). Apparently, for Chuck and for Dennis, tradition and the majority should be enough, “the people” have spoken, and those uppity gays should just sit down and shut up. That’s kind of why those throwback comparisons keep appearing - because the rationales being used to justify them are word-tweaked from the justifications for the mistreatment of other minorities throughout history. That some of the movement’s members are doing stupid things doesn’t reflect on everyone, kind of like how everyone has grudgingly come to accept that it is not Islam that wants to conquer the world, but a bunch of people who want to hide behind Islam and conquer the world. Plus, how could the homosexual minority feel safe when people like the American Family Association are publishing tripe like a DVD that says media portrayals of homosexuality are sanitized, implying some dark underbelly waiting to suck the unaware in, and a DVD about how good Christian folk were suddenly subverted because homosexuals took over the city council and made it into a more homosexual-friendly place, with the “It can happen to YOU!” pretty clearly spelled out? If homosexuals really were as tolerated and rights-blessed as they are, why would someone be putting out constitutional amendments to strip them of those rights with the serious thought they would pass? Why aren’t there federal protections in place? Why hasn’t the 1996 DOMA been repealed? The idea that any minority should just sit down and shut up because the majority decided they were second class is anathema to the democratic and the jusicial process.
Last out of this, a note of praise for Senator McCain that we can agree on - Kudos to Senator McCain for not using Jeremiah Wright in his campaign. Perhaps because he saw what it would do to him and his campaign (preferring, instead, to let his VP talk about “palling around with domestic terrorists” and running a “We don’t know who he is” campaign), or perhaps because he wanted the discussion to stay on high levels, Senator McCain did not make much of the pastoral associations. If you shuold run again, Senator, I suggest that next time you don’t pick Sarah Palin, or the first time she says something out of line, you squelch her until she understands what she can and can’t say. Of course, for some, Sarah Palin is the way the GOP should be going for the next election cycle, based on the mass abandoment of GOP voters (and not at all because the Democratic offerings were superior), so we may not get there from here. So how much of “return to the core values” will cause a disintegration of the party, because the social conservatives have very different priotities than the fiscal conservative and the libertarian conservative.
In science and technology, cloning as a possible way of saving endangered species, a new theory that suggests autism and schizophrenia are opposite ends of a genetic spectrum, which, even if shot to hell through experimentation, will likely garner insights into mental health problems (kudos to the researchers for putting up the hypothesis, even if it does end in failure), using rats to detect the presence of land mines, a reminder to keep your web pages up to date and interesting, suggesting the parkour game Mirror's Edge makes us feel nauseous because it gives us the right cues to make us feel like we're really doing it, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and might help enhance the gameplay experience, thinking of ways of building robots that don't hurt humans, which hopefully comes with Microsoft's new robot-application-building software, weaving nanotubes into fabrics to create wearable sensors, a successful test of an Internet-like network innnnnn spaaaaace, and the process of casting silver bullets - not as easy as the Lone Ranger or werewolf films would have you think.
On the very tail end tonight, does anyone really pay attention to the plot in a pornographic film? Even as some directors try steadfastly to stick to one? And stay very close to stereotype while doing so, even as they try? Then again, maybe some of this come out of porn’s unfailing ability to parody or provide a story similar to what Hollywood and others are doing (Like you haven’t thought there would be Potter-pr0n or Twilight-pr0n. Rule 34, man, and the fanficcers usually don’t require as much salary or camera as the video stars). Considering what many watch it for, though, I suppose the loss of a coherent plot and the devolution to simply a set of scenes that start in the same place and end the same way, only changing the actors along the way doesn’t really hurt it any. Contrast, say, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, which, while containing significant amounts of toplessness and sex work, manages to hang together a plot with it.
And, to give you something to take your mind off all that dirty thinking, the Hand-Drawn Map Association.
Starting with news that is out of this world, a toolbag floated away from spacewalkers adding more modules and living space to the ISS. Ooops. I don’t think they’ll go out and try to retrieve it, unless they can use one of the large arms to snag it as it goes by, or something.
In the international sphere, lest you forget, the U.S. still thinks Iran is interfering in Iraq, including arresting alleged Iranian agents. Even as they make plans for shifting the major focus from Iraq to Afghanistan under the new administration.
India claims to have destroyed a pirate ship in the area of Somalia, where recent successes are making headline news, and are now starting to generate opinions on how to stomp them back into hiding, as well as making sure that nobody else gets any funny ideas.
The entire membership list of the far-right British National Party was lost and is feared to be posted on the Internet for all to see. That would be the whites-only British National Party, by the way, which might explain why it was posted. It is a breach of privacy, and if the person who leaked is caught, they should get the full weight of the law on them. I don’t know how many people will be pursuing that too aggressively, though, to be honest. The leader of the party may know who the leaker was, as well.
In the breaking domestic news, Ted Stevens finally loses. Not by much, mind you, but the margin of “ahead” is finaly bigger than the amount of available ballots left to count, and looks like it will stay out of mandated-recount territory. So we can say, finally, with confidence that the American populace would not elect someone with seven federal felonies to the United States Senate.
Richard Cheney and Alberto Gonzales charged with conspiracy to block investigations into abuse of prisoners at a company Mr. Cheney has invested in. It’s unknown whether those charges will actually stick and go to trail, and whether Mr. Cheney and Mr. Gonzalez will actually consent to being charged, or will just invoke their reasoning about what they’re actually liable for and dismiss it completely.
In other Senate matters, speculation on why President-elect Obama and the Democrats kept Senator Lieberman on board and chairing his committee, most of which involves the idea that Senator Lieberman now owes the President-elect big time, and will stay loyal because of that. This may annoy the progressives and all those who thought that Senator Lieberman’s endorsement and stumping for Senator McCain was an act beyond the pale, but if it turns out to be a good gambit, that annoyance will be replaced by happiness at how smoothly President Obama enacts his agenda. This pragmatism earns praise from the WSJ.
Speaking of that smoothness, and getting into opinions, an opinion piece in the WSJ about giving the populace the liberalism they elected, starting with the Employee Free Choice Act, a tool that would make it much harder for management at companies (like, say, Wal-Mart) to stop the workers from organizing and enforcing an anti-union culture through punishments and rewards.
The WSJ feels that the Democratic Congress wants to use the financial difficulties to force Detroit automakers into making green changes to their cars that nobody wants, including letting California set their own rules for anticarbon, and for not budging on the greening requirements for some $25 billion available. So, it’s bad to make a car company actually generate vehicles that have minimal environmental impact, and to provide money for that? But apparently the current administration doesn’t want to free up any more money for the other problems plauging Detroit, instead insisting that Congress use the green money for that purpose. Huh. So, “go green or die”? Is that the options that both Congress and the administration are presenting? Eh, sounds like a fair deal to me, apologies to the UAW and everyone whose jobs will be toasted by such a decision. And letting them count overseas manufactures toward their environmental standards? Cop-out. Better to let them go bankrupt than to let them cheat like that. Besides, the fact that their overseas units can bring their economy standards up means they know how to do it. Maybe after a bankruptcy, they’ll decide to actually sell the efficient cars alongside their SUVs. That’s one prong of the argument - the other is that the Big Three deserve to fail because the UAW has them so knotted up that there's no way they can succeed, and with bankruptcy, all the benefits and wages paid to the UAW will be reduced if not eliminated altogether - and it keeps a meddling government from muting the voice of the American populace. (Although, if we were casting ballots, I’d still say we’re voting against Detroit because they haven’t done the environmental, fuel-efficient thing.)
Thomas Sowell on the profligate spending of governmental entities, with an unsubtle attack on the idea that employers should be providing benefits and wages for their workers. From the tone of things, though, it sounds like Mr. Sowell would be similarly incensed at the government providing such things, so he must be a fan of each individual buying all their things themselves, including retirement and health care. I can only hope that employers and the corporate masters would deign to make such things affordable, either through lowered prices or raised wages to make up for the lack of benefits.
In the Aftermath of Proposition 8 segment, Dennis Prager thinks anyone comparing the struggle of homosexuals to the Jim Crow Era is deluding themselves, because African-Americans should resent the comparsion, being that there isn’t one between then and now, homosexuals already have every right that activists are clamoring for except for marriage, and that society as a whole does not benefit from redefining the words so as to accomodate “some gays” and turn traditional religious groups into hate groups. To this, add Chuck Norris talking about an uppity minority lashing out, unable to accept “the will of the people”, unfairly blaming religious institutions for creating the mindset, and being generally thuggish, although careful not to protest at black churches because that would seem racist and un-PC (while repeating the canard that it’s this way because the black people wanted it that way). Apparently, for Chuck and for Dennis, tradition and the majority should be enough, “the people” have spoken, and those uppity gays should just sit down and shut up. That’s kind of why those throwback comparisons keep appearing - because the rationales being used to justify them are word-tweaked from the justifications for the mistreatment of other minorities throughout history. That some of the movement’s members are doing stupid things doesn’t reflect on everyone, kind of like how everyone has grudgingly come to accept that it is not Islam that wants to conquer the world, but a bunch of people who want to hide behind Islam and conquer the world. Plus, how could the homosexual minority feel safe when people like the American Family Association are publishing tripe like a DVD that says media portrayals of homosexuality are sanitized, implying some dark underbelly waiting to suck the unaware in, and a DVD about how good Christian folk were suddenly subverted because homosexuals took over the city council and made it into a more homosexual-friendly place, with the “It can happen to YOU!” pretty clearly spelled out? If homosexuals really were as tolerated and rights-blessed as they are, why would someone be putting out constitutional amendments to strip them of those rights with the serious thought they would pass? Why aren’t there federal protections in place? Why hasn’t the 1996 DOMA been repealed? The idea that any minority should just sit down and shut up because the majority decided they were second class is anathema to the democratic and the jusicial process.
Last out of this, a note of praise for Senator McCain that we can agree on - Kudos to Senator McCain for not using Jeremiah Wright in his campaign. Perhaps because he saw what it would do to him and his campaign (preferring, instead, to let his VP talk about “palling around with domestic terrorists” and running a “We don’t know who he is” campaign), or perhaps because he wanted the discussion to stay on high levels, Senator McCain did not make much of the pastoral associations. If you shuold run again, Senator, I suggest that next time you don’t pick Sarah Palin, or the first time she says something out of line, you squelch her until she understands what she can and can’t say. Of course, for some, Sarah Palin is the way the GOP should be going for the next election cycle, based on the mass abandoment of GOP voters (and not at all because the Democratic offerings were superior), so we may not get there from here. So how much of “return to the core values” will cause a disintegration of the party, because the social conservatives have very different priotities than the fiscal conservative and the libertarian conservative.
In science and technology, cloning as a possible way of saving endangered species, a new theory that suggests autism and schizophrenia are opposite ends of a genetic spectrum, which, even if shot to hell through experimentation, will likely garner insights into mental health problems (kudos to the researchers for putting up the hypothesis, even if it does end in failure), using rats to detect the presence of land mines, a reminder to keep your web pages up to date and interesting, suggesting the parkour game Mirror's Edge makes us feel nauseous because it gives us the right cues to make us feel like we're really doing it, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and might help enhance the gameplay experience, thinking of ways of building robots that don't hurt humans, which hopefully comes with Microsoft's new robot-application-building software, weaving nanotubes into fabrics to create wearable sensors, a successful test of an Internet-like network innnnnn spaaaaace, and the process of casting silver bullets - not as easy as the Lone Ranger or werewolf films would have you think.
On the very tail end tonight, does anyone really pay attention to the plot in a pornographic film? Even as some directors try steadfastly to stick to one? And stay very close to stereotype while doing so, even as they try? Then again, maybe some of this come out of porn’s unfailing ability to parody or provide a story similar to what Hollywood and others are doing (Like you haven’t thought there would be Potter-pr0n or Twilight-pr0n. Rule 34, man, and the fanficcers usually don’t require as much salary or camera as the video stars). Considering what many watch it for, though, I suppose the loss of a coherent plot and the devolution to simply a set of scenes that start in the same place and end the same way, only changing the actors along the way doesn’t really hurt it any. Contrast, say, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, which, while containing significant amounts of toplessness and sex work, manages to hang together a plot with it.
And, to give you something to take your mind off all that dirty thinking, the Hand-Drawn Map Association.
