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silveradeptAnd thats it for this year. Ring in the new, say goodbye to the old, wonder again why we change over the calendar in the middle of the cold season (here) or in the middle of the warm season (there), when it would probably be smarter to do so at an equinox point.
And thus, your last news update for 2008 Cue Beaker singing Ode to Joy in the round.
Which means more retrospectives, like a list of the best albums of this year, videos of robots in action, and the year in materials. Trumping all others, The General has the year in review focusing on the very important segment of the hairstyles of prominent politicians.
A University of Miami professor concludes that religion is a useful tool in teaching self-control and long-term thinking, based on a review of reasearch. Which either could be "See? God really is important to morals" or "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him", depending on your perspective. Religion is a motivator and helps with impulse control and providing a framework for acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It also works as the opiate of the masses in some cases, because some people even set aside their impulse for self-preservation in pursuit of what they perceive to be religious goals. Jesus is a gateway drug, apparently.
The United Kingdom is reaching into the bedrooms with a new law designed to ban "extreme" porn. And being The Law, it is a clumsy, imprecise object that will no doubt catch a lot of people who are doing consenting adult things in the privacy of their homes or clubs and possibly taking pictures of it. Tied up a model and took pictures to demonstrate to a friend how to do it to their partner? Possibly "extreme" porn, depending on where you are. All this comes about because someone went violent-rage on someone else, and people claim it was the violent porn that he was addicted to that made him do it. Mm-hmm. And I'm sure that whatever weapons he used in the task should be banned, too, because if he didn't have them, he would have been fine. Finally, though, a word of advice for the protesters - don't burn the works, plaster the halls and walls of the Parliament building with them. Make the MPs have to wade through seas of images to get to their jobs.
Of all the success stories you hear from Iraq and the regional areas, remember that in Kurdistan, many very young girls go through female genital mutilation, and they believe the culture and the religion both demand that it be done, despite the pain it causes, even going so far as to declare that those who haven't gone through the procedure are unclean and shouldn't be serving meals. There's still work to do there, even if the major governmental functions have been restored.
A major supply line to NATO and United States troops in Afghanistan has been closed by Pakistan as they raid areas around it to try and flush out militants ambushing supply trains.
Chemistry enthusiast arrested for being chemistry enthusiast, first, because the police believed he was generatign crystal meth in his house, then when the meth thing fell through, because they felt he was generating explosive compounds. The town around him says, "WTF?" and now the kid can't do chemistry except in supervised experiments until he's 26, and has to tell his university chemistry department about the charges leveled against him. Because he had scientific curiosity. This is a situation where I can clearly say that the terrorists have won. Turning our police force into terrorists who arrest without thinking, and then still decide to ruin someone's record even when they've done nothing wrong. Well, okay, it's probably optimism that I think this is paranoia brought on by relatively recent events. The police have probably been doing these sorts of things, especially against young people, for a while now, and we're just getting a snapshot into that world.
As Israel shells Gaza, protestors in Tehran raid the British embassy compound. Because they can't protest at an Israel embassy, considering Iran probably doesn't recognize their existence. Still, misdirected anger much? Although Israel's hostile stance toward boats aiming for mercy medical missions in Gaza isn't helping, even knowing that the government might suspect they were weapons or other arms dealing. Where I can confirm that people think such a mission is terrorist support by radical leftists is in the opinion columns back here in the United States. Thanks a bunch, Front Page Magazine, for confirming that you think medical missions to Gaza are terrorist support.
It's a six-year term for the Russian president now, signed into law by Mr. Medvedev. This is considered a move to bring the current prime minister back to the Presidency after he was constitutionally forced to step down in 2008. Power politics in Russia, where strong men make the rules, regardless of the trappings of democracy. Sounds a little too much like what we have here. Leon Aron thinks it's the beginning signs of a Russian crisis, so forethought on how to handle it is necessary. Even with Russian forecasters predicting the end of America.
Domestically, want a reason why no person should ever be uninsured? Have a look at the healing fields, where volunteers dispense medical treatment to the uninsured for a period of three days in Virginia. Think about how that amy be the only medical care those people get this entire year. And then think about how a nation with the prosperity we claim to enjoy can feel morally sound abou itself while members of its populave suffer from the lack of care. Even if they'll balk at the idea of subsidizing and making available all sorts of treatments, at the very least nobody should ever have to feel that going to a doctor, or a dentist, will bankrupt them from the visit and the checkup. Especially for children. We must be ruthless against the forces that conspire to ensure that children have no chance in the world.
In the opinions, because we always seek the source of power, Inspector Lohman shows what a tangled web our corporate masters weave, deluding us and stripping us of our reality and power, mostly through the laws that grant personhood status to corporations, making them gods. They can basically hold out for money and refuse to carry programming and all their customers will be cheesed, but can really do nothing about it until the money is paid up.
The Unabashed Feminism Department gets a field day with Dennis Prager. In two columns, he describes why it's better for a wife to almost always say yes if her husband wants sex, regardless of her own feelings. Part One makes men into sex-crazed animals who measure their entire worth, and whether their wife loves them, by whether their wife gives it up for them regularly, and wifes don't understand ior pis-tosh this idea and wonder why their men don't connect with them anymore. I note that the unmarrid are excluded, likely as people living in sin or able, in his mind, to get sex from anyone they want, and so the married folk are the ones who need counseling. Says something about partnering for life with a single person, I think. Anyway, Part II is all about how letting mood rule over sex is a concept of the past and a disservice to the duties and obligations of the marriage bed. Because we don't let our moods rule us on whether we want to go to work, we shouldn't let moods rule us on obligations of whether or not the married man gets sex. Plus, sex is an obligation, not some romantic hippy feeling thing, says Prager, and so wives should understand this and "lie back and think of the Queen" or something equally fantasy-laden. Sounds familiar, I'm sure, considering it's been used as a way of keeping women in their place for years. I'd say this column espouses many of the virtues of finding alternate ways of making arrangements, instead of the monogamous marriage route - if women get forced into a duty they don't want, then the men get miserable because the women aren't giving them what they want, and affairs are sure to follow. Might also be a good time to discuss the changing face fo the relationship - perhaps marriage is still a god idea, but the terms regarding sex and intimacy need redefinition so that both sides can be happy and enjoy their lives - even if it does mean the presence of the official mistress.
Comedian David Limbaugh attacks Joe Biden over the matter of Richard Cheney, challenging him to figure out whether he's mad because Cheney wanted to consolidate legislative power in the executive or whether Cheney acted outside the bounds of the vice-presidency, declaring both to be ridiculous, because the outgoing administrator has always been the final decision-maker in the last eight years and has never put Cheney in charge of something he shouldn't be, and offering up a new definition of "unitary executive" than the one we're used to - a simple idea that the President is in charge of the executive branch, rather than the lie we've been fed, according to him, that it means an executive in charge of all three branches. He then closes with a "wait for the Obama regime" proclamation, if we want to see what executive controlling all is really about.
Bruce Thornton climbs on his liberal-bash soapbox, declaring that the criticism of the outgoing administrator during his term amounted to childishness, with disregard for basic facts and willful ignorance as their cornerstones. The populace doesn't know their history or basic facts, but instead chooses to enshrine opinions they like as facts. Apparently, those enshrined opinions that lack factual status include the reasons for the Iraq War, the assault on Constitutional rights, and the way taht the government and the populace have reacted to those of Islamic religion or Arabic descent. He exhorts conservatives to do the adult criticism of Obama that he feels liberals lacked, talking about policy and philosophy rather than throwing tantrums. Notwithstanding his own, of course.
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. blames CAFE standards as the reason why the Detroit hree are dying, and that we should repeal them to let them do what they do best - make big SUVs and light trucks, the things that are profitable. More generally, Paul Rubin opines on how the Internet makes the market work better... and worse, James Bacchus says "Free Trade is good stimulus", so approve those agreements and drop tarriffs, while Thomas Frank says we should not be so eager to proclaim that the free market is all, because, after all, it did kind of just screw us horribly when it wasn't projected to.
The WSJ thinks it will be a bang-up year for 2009 with the Democrats, based on what's carrying over from this year, including appointed Senate seats, bids to make it there, and the ongoing saga of politics. And cries to actually give the populace a voting system they can be confident in and that is accurate.
In technology and the wonders of science (SCIENCE!), those dumb animals aren't nearly as dumb as dumb humans think, although the humans are trying to find new ways of powering animal mind-control devices, the upcoming year set to be warmer than many, which will no doubt continue fueling the climate change debate, a NASA report on the Columbia disaster that faulted equipment and procedure for preventing accident recovery or giving the astronauts a chance to live, more reasons why working the body helps the brain, artificial retinas to help the populace see, fuel cells that generate electricity through biology, and a possible breakthrough in deciphering the sounds of the dolphins. Maybe soon we'll be able to understand them when they say "So long and thanks for all the fish."
Of course, last for tonight, the Lake Superior State List of Words To Be Banned from usage in the coming year. This year's winners include "maverick", "staycation", and "going green" Oh, and less than three. Plus, some nice art for the road, and some without creatures in it, at least not without their vehicles. Enjoy yourselves and be safe.
And thus, your last news update for 2008 Cue Beaker singing Ode to Joy in the round.
Which means more retrospectives, like a list of the best albums of this year, videos of robots in action, and the year in materials. Trumping all others, The General has the year in review focusing on the very important segment of the hairstyles of prominent politicians.
A University of Miami professor concludes that religion is a useful tool in teaching self-control and long-term thinking, based on a review of reasearch. Which either could be "See? God really is important to morals" or "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him", depending on your perspective. Religion is a motivator and helps with impulse control and providing a framework for acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It also works as the opiate of the masses in some cases, because some people even set aside their impulse for self-preservation in pursuit of what they perceive to be religious goals. Jesus is a gateway drug, apparently.
The United Kingdom is reaching into the bedrooms with a new law designed to ban "extreme" porn. And being The Law, it is a clumsy, imprecise object that will no doubt catch a lot of people who are doing consenting adult things in the privacy of their homes or clubs and possibly taking pictures of it. Tied up a model and took pictures to demonstrate to a friend how to do it to their partner? Possibly "extreme" porn, depending on where you are. All this comes about because someone went violent-rage on someone else, and people claim it was the violent porn that he was addicted to that made him do it. Mm-hmm. And I'm sure that whatever weapons he used in the task should be banned, too, because if he didn't have them, he would have been fine. Finally, though, a word of advice for the protesters - don't burn the works, plaster the halls and walls of the Parliament building with them. Make the MPs have to wade through seas of images to get to their jobs.
Of all the success stories you hear from Iraq and the regional areas, remember that in Kurdistan, many very young girls go through female genital mutilation, and they believe the culture and the religion both demand that it be done, despite the pain it causes, even going so far as to declare that those who haven't gone through the procedure are unclean and shouldn't be serving meals. There's still work to do there, even if the major governmental functions have been restored.
A major supply line to NATO and United States troops in Afghanistan has been closed by Pakistan as they raid areas around it to try and flush out militants ambushing supply trains.
Chemistry enthusiast arrested for being chemistry enthusiast, first, because the police believed he was generatign crystal meth in his house, then when the meth thing fell through, because they felt he was generating explosive compounds. The town around him says, "WTF?" and now the kid can't do chemistry except in supervised experiments until he's 26, and has to tell his university chemistry department about the charges leveled against him. Because he had scientific curiosity. This is a situation where I can clearly say that the terrorists have won. Turning our police force into terrorists who arrest without thinking, and then still decide to ruin someone's record even when they've done nothing wrong. Well, okay, it's probably optimism that I think this is paranoia brought on by relatively recent events. The police have probably been doing these sorts of things, especially against young people, for a while now, and we're just getting a snapshot into that world.
As Israel shells Gaza, protestors in Tehran raid the British embassy compound. Because they can't protest at an Israel embassy, considering Iran probably doesn't recognize their existence. Still, misdirected anger much? Although Israel's hostile stance toward boats aiming for mercy medical missions in Gaza isn't helping, even knowing that the government might suspect they were weapons or other arms dealing. Where I can confirm that people think such a mission is terrorist support by radical leftists is in the opinion columns back here in the United States. Thanks a bunch, Front Page Magazine, for confirming that you think medical missions to Gaza are terrorist support.
It's a six-year term for the Russian president now, signed into law by Mr. Medvedev. This is considered a move to bring the current prime minister back to the Presidency after he was constitutionally forced to step down in 2008. Power politics in Russia, where strong men make the rules, regardless of the trappings of democracy. Sounds a little too much like what we have here. Leon Aron thinks it's the beginning signs of a Russian crisis, so forethought on how to handle it is necessary. Even with Russian forecasters predicting the end of America.
Domestically, want a reason why no person should ever be uninsured? Have a look at the healing fields, where volunteers dispense medical treatment to the uninsured for a period of three days in Virginia. Think about how that amy be the only medical care those people get this entire year. And then think about how a nation with the prosperity we claim to enjoy can feel morally sound abou itself while members of its populave suffer from the lack of care. Even if they'll balk at the idea of subsidizing and making available all sorts of treatments, at the very least nobody should ever have to feel that going to a doctor, or a dentist, will bankrupt them from the visit and the checkup. Especially for children. We must be ruthless against the forces that conspire to ensure that children have no chance in the world.
In the opinions, because we always seek the source of power, Inspector Lohman shows what a tangled web our corporate masters weave, deluding us and stripping us of our reality and power, mostly through the laws that grant personhood status to corporations, making them gods. They can basically hold out for money and refuse to carry programming and all their customers will be cheesed, but can really do nothing about it until the money is paid up.
The Unabashed Feminism Department gets a field day with Dennis Prager. In two columns, he describes why it's better for a wife to almost always say yes if her husband wants sex, regardless of her own feelings. Part One makes men into sex-crazed animals who measure their entire worth, and whether their wife loves them, by whether their wife gives it up for them regularly, and wifes don't understand ior pis-tosh this idea and wonder why their men don't connect with them anymore. I note that the unmarrid are excluded, likely as people living in sin or able, in his mind, to get sex from anyone they want, and so the married folk are the ones who need counseling. Says something about partnering for life with a single person, I think. Anyway, Part II is all about how letting mood rule over sex is a concept of the past and a disservice to the duties and obligations of the marriage bed. Because we don't let our moods rule us on whether we want to go to work, we shouldn't let moods rule us on obligations of whether or not the married man gets sex. Plus, sex is an obligation, not some romantic hippy feeling thing, says Prager, and so wives should understand this and "lie back and think of the Queen" or something equally fantasy-laden. Sounds familiar, I'm sure, considering it's been used as a way of keeping women in their place for years. I'd say this column espouses many of the virtues of finding alternate ways of making arrangements, instead of the monogamous marriage route - if women get forced into a duty they don't want, then the men get miserable because the women aren't giving them what they want, and affairs are sure to follow. Might also be a good time to discuss the changing face fo the relationship - perhaps marriage is still a god idea, but the terms regarding sex and intimacy need redefinition so that both sides can be happy and enjoy their lives - even if it does mean the presence of the official mistress.
Comedian David Limbaugh attacks Joe Biden over the matter of Richard Cheney, challenging him to figure out whether he's mad because Cheney wanted to consolidate legislative power in the executive or whether Cheney acted outside the bounds of the vice-presidency, declaring both to be ridiculous, because the outgoing administrator has always been the final decision-maker in the last eight years and has never put Cheney in charge of something he shouldn't be, and offering up a new definition of "unitary executive" than the one we're used to - a simple idea that the President is in charge of the executive branch, rather than the lie we've been fed, according to him, that it means an executive in charge of all three branches. He then closes with a "wait for the Obama regime" proclamation, if we want to see what executive controlling all is really about.
Bruce Thornton climbs on his liberal-bash soapbox, declaring that the criticism of the outgoing administrator during his term amounted to childishness, with disregard for basic facts and willful ignorance as their cornerstones. The populace doesn't know their history or basic facts, but instead chooses to enshrine opinions they like as facts. Apparently, those enshrined opinions that lack factual status include the reasons for the Iraq War, the assault on Constitutional rights, and the way taht the government and the populace have reacted to those of Islamic religion or Arabic descent. He exhorts conservatives to do the adult criticism of Obama that he feels liberals lacked, talking about policy and philosophy rather than throwing tantrums. Notwithstanding his own, of course.
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. blames CAFE standards as the reason why the Detroit hree are dying, and that we should repeal them to let them do what they do best - make big SUVs and light trucks, the things that are profitable. More generally, Paul Rubin opines on how the Internet makes the market work better... and worse, James Bacchus says "Free Trade is good stimulus", so approve those agreements and drop tarriffs, while Thomas Frank says we should not be so eager to proclaim that the free market is all, because, after all, it did kind of just screw us horribly when it wasn't projected to.
The WSJ thinks it will be a bang-up year for 2009 with the Democrats, based on what's carrying over from this year, including appointed Senate seats, bids to make it there, and the ongoing saga of politics. And cries to actually give the populace a voting system they can be confident in and that is accurate.
In technology and the wonders of science (SCIENCE!), those dumb animals aren't nearly as dumb as dumb humans think, although the humans are trying to find new ways of powering animal mind-control devices, the upcoming year set to be warmer than many, which will no doubt continue fueling the climate change debate, a NASA report on the Columbia disaster that faulted equipment and procedure for preventing accident recovery or giving the astronauts a chance to live, more reasons why working the body helps the brain, artificial retinas to help the populace see, fuel cells that generate electricity through biology, and a possible breakthrough in deciphering the sounds of the dolphins. Maybe soon we'll be able to understand them when they say "So long and thanks for all the fish."
Of course, last for tonight, the Lake Superior State List of Words To Be Banned from usage in the coming year. This year's winners include "maverick", "staycation", and "going green" Oh, and less than three. Plus, some nice art for the road, and some without creatures in it, at least not without their vehicles. Enjoy yourselves and be safe.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-02 08:10 pm (UTC)