Off for a few days - 26 November 2008

[silveradept]

Greetings, people of indeterminate name, number, and characteristic! Prepare for newsfeed!

International materials up top: Because they believe it to be a white man's problem, no pun attempted, a student group has stopped their cystic fibrosis fundraiser. The snap response from Unabashed Feminism Department Bureau Chief ldragoon: Stupid, stupid rat creatures, a sentiment I agree with. Crippling and deadly disease do need to be vanquished. Down in the comments, there’s a spirited defense going on that the student council was really trying to change the focus of their efforts so that people from diverse communities felt like they were included and the raised money was going to causes that had a more diverse affected spot. That reasoning is understandable, but the inclusion of the “mostly white and male” line in the resolution is going to generate a hot response. There’s suggestion that the student council has moved back from their initial position.

United States troops shot by apparently Iraqi soldiers while distributing aid, sparking concerns of infiltration. This would be one of those times where the U.S. would very much like for it to have been a friendly fire incident.

Thailand is going to get very interesting soon, as the commander of the army, who won the elections, if facing protests and stiff opposition from the government currently in place. The protesters have occupied a major airport in Bangkok and are alleging that the elections were unfair.

It's over five thousaaaaaand. Yep, centrifuges in Iran are claimed to be 5,000 and climbing.

Today’s slow news component is the Danish crown princess reporting for duty as part of the Danish Army Home Guard. Which, I suppose, is one of those “ooh, women in the military” things, but as the post goes on to explain, the Queen was a major in the Air Force Home Guard, so it’s not like she’s the first, just carrying on the tradition.

Much more appealing, especially to the Unabashed Feminism Department, Saudi Arabia's all-girl rock band... that have to necessarily stay underground, because of the rules about how they can be seen in public, or on art covers, or at all. They’re also looking for a good girl drummer. Less optimistically, The National Center for Public Policy Research is a mouthpiece for Project 21 throwing jabs at women's groups such as NOW for their silence over the "Muhammed" teddy bear incident in Sudan. Wait, so you’re saying now they’re not complaining about something that they did complain about in the past? And I thought had actually resolved, myself.

Domestically, The President-elect has elected to retain the current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates. The key phrase in there for me - Gates is known for his pragmatism. I’m thinking that this is the watchword for the Obama administration - surround yourself with people who can get things done, at compromise if necessary, and who see the value in “good enough”. Then, once established as someone who can wield coalition to get necessary things done, introduce the parts that are more liberal and on the platform, where an audience can consider them reasonably, instead of in a blind panic about something else. Keeping Gates on ensures some continuity, but also gives the President-elect leverage on accomplishing his goals in Iraq and Afghanistan by not having to fight a ideologue on either side of the aisle.

It still doesn't die - there are a couple Supreme Court possibilities that suggest the President-elect does not fit the requirements to be President. The Court is probably not going to hear them, but the challenges are still there.

On the Media has a short spot on the semantic nature of the conflict over homosexual marriage, and the power of the word being the reason for the struggle. That makes sense. For something either a little more brain-deadening or warm-heartening, Westboro Baptist paid Silverton, Oregon a visit, because they elected an openly transgender mayor, and the residents turned out to support the mayor. Four Westboro v. 100-150 others? Love wins. MJS at the General's has many more pictures.

Oh, and in more religious matters - An appeal was denied to a mother who felt that the ruling judge acted inappropriately by taking into account her religious beliefs - it’s unclear whether she was or wasn’t a practicing Wiccan, but apparently, the mention of it was a significant factor in the judge’s decision, saying that children should not be in the custody of a mother who practiced “cult activities”. The appeals court split perfectly on gender lines, with the male majority denying the appeal, and the female minoirty dissenting and objecting strongly to the way the whole hearing was handled. (It’s not just Wiccans, the judge denigrated Mormons as polygamists as well). Apparently, though, neglect, rather than religion, was the reason, according to the judge. So even if the conclusion ends up being true, based on neglect, there should be appeals or rehearings if any of the allegations of religious inquiry or weighting are true.

A federal appeals court has permitted a case of alleged sexual abuse against the Vatican to proceed, potentially requiring the Holy See to be liable for damages and responsible for the actions of the priesthood. It’ll be a while before it gets to that point, but it would be very nice if the Catholic Church really did get a conviction on the record, so that later generations won’t be whitewashed on what happened.

And in our “Hey, think of the kids!” segment, realizing that this has precedent from at least 2005, and thus isn’t as new as we think, six year old children are being handcuffed and arrested when they have tantrums, because those tantrums mean teachers get hit, which is a felony. And thus, the six year-old is hauled down in handcuffs and charged. At six. Have we made it clear yet that she was six and behaving as six year-olds are wont to do? Actually, that could be sixteen, although perhaps not without the kicking and screaming. Anyone willing to lay odds that there’s some asinine zero-tolerace policy at the school, so the teacher couldn’t have exercised good judgment on the matter even if they had wanted to? Just contirbuting to the idea that some young people are just rotten at the core, and will need to be disposed of through the justice system, vigilantism, or for entertainment. Because farts are dangerous.

In the opinions, clarity on why I was so damn confused about what the auto bailout is and/or means - many facets, potentially one root, which, instead of being based on greedy union contracts, according to bradhicks the real root is health care costs getting out of control because modern medicine and the longer life expectancy made certain contracts far more expensive than anticipated. For Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., it's got to be the UAW - everywhere else, even the Detroit Three are profitable, which means it’s time to find some way of gettting the UAW and its expensive contracts and benefits away from the companies’ bottom lines.

One last call for impeachment of the current administrator, before things pass on. Even as a largely symbolic item, it still would hold merit to investigate, even if no results would be returned by the time the impeachment was scheduled. Such data could then be used for criminal prosecution of the current administrator when he becomes the former administrator.

The Heritage Foundation on why the world still need America to swing the big dick stick, because our military is helping to hold Eastasia at the current uneasy truce, will serve as a check on Russia’s expansive desires, and keeps the nuke weapons out of the hands of the terrorists...or builds systems to deter them from using them.

The WSJ think they may have found a farm-subsidy fighter in the President-elect, based on the vow to go through the federal budget line by line and eliminate unnecessary spending, and farm subsidies might just be a choice for cutting.

And, of course, lest we forget, there are still recounts and campaigns going on, which may or may not tip the balance of power to the point where the Democratic Party is able to not worry about filibusters - although if the Republicans really want to threaten such things, in the next Congressional session, the Democrats should actively force the filibuster and make them burn out their energy on it or otherwise let it go to a vote.

Last out of the opinions, Malcolm Kline on the decline of journalists as more people go through journalism school, the papers focus on profitability, and the bloggers start being able to outdo the journalists at accurate and comprehensive reporting. In this opinion, Malkin is better than the Washington Post, and it doesn’t escape notice that all those journalists were pro-Obama, and that all these liberals teaching journalism and their graduates just happens to track nicely with the decline in journalism quality. So, sure, correlation =/= causality, but it sure looks like those liberals are at fault for why journalism sucks from his perspective.

In technology, Huntington' taketh, Huntington' giveth, when it comes to brain tests, phototsynthesis possible on gold leaf with genes attached, new computer modles trying to predict humans, building a better rescue robot, necessary thinking about the ethics of robots that can wield lethal force, including the need to ban lethal autonomus robots until they can think ethically, and The Department of Homeland Security wants to know when other people complain about the United States, so they can monitor you as a potential threat to the nation. Isn’t it nice to know that we’re such a trusting country?

That’s it from this newsdesk for a little while. enjoy your turkey/tofurkey/foods and beverages of choice.

Comments

[greyweirdo.livejournal.com]

While the UAW is not blameless, there is a lot wrong with the Big Three and the whole of US Auto making. No one thing is to blame and no silver bullet is going to save the day.

[silveradept]

That's true. There's no way of marking one cause of the whole thing. Although, one would think with as much time as they've had to see it coming, something would have been thought of.