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silveradeptUp top, test your logical sense. Recall that logically valid arguments may have no truth value when taking the test. And, for those literarily inclined, the Tale of Genji endures, despite more than a thousand years after its creation.
In the International frame, Israel continues to hold attention. A new accusation that Israel is using white phosphorus shells, which sounds like it goes against the laws of war. Additional pressure comes from the mounting desire for a cease-fire and an increasing series of violent acts against Jews in other countries. International consequences. There’s now a really big push, and I guess it has something to do with Hamas, from what I’m reading, to link the conflict in Gaza with Iran in some way, if not attempting to say directly that it's a war between Israel and Iran's proxy. The Prime Minister of Israel makes his case on how Hamas has broken their good faith and cease-fire, justifying the current offensive and dismissing the idea that it is excessive. It's also a bad idea to be working for any media in the area - release the breaking news too early and the censors will have your head and wonder whether you’re an agent trying to help their opponents.
Elsewhere on Iran, Turkey held up a shipment it considered suspicious from Iran to Venezuela because it contained equipment which could be used to manufacture explosives. The official markings on the crate: tractor parts. How do we get there from here?
The dispute between Russia and Ukraine over gas prices, supplies, and outstanding debts has hurt European nations, despite promises from both sides that said supplies would not be affected.
A nice HumInt about how life is now that the new security arrangements have taken hold, which seems to be alternating between “See? They work well together.” and “This oppressive security agreement is hindering us from doing what we need to do.” Stories of the police finding potential suicide bombers seems to suggest more the former, and that we’ve trained a competent force, drive-by killings notwithstanding.
On the domestic desk, publishers are gambling on the successes of big blockbusters to make up for more modest returns on the rest of their catalog, giving out lots of cash to a certain few and hoping to make lots, rather than more modest fees for titles that will turn profits regularly, if not spectacularly. According to the article, it works, so people keep trying it, and not only that, if a publishing house doesn’t bid big, the agents won’t send them what they consider their best work.
The House of Representatives has adopted rule changes that make their rule languages gender-neutral, owing to the significant presence and chairships of female Members of Congress. For those whom language is still the enemy and a subtle reminder of the the idea “no penis, no power”, this counts as a step forward. For others, this is nonsense and unimportant.
New laws coming soon into effect requiring product testing on all items for sale, including handcrafted items, are sparking worries that most of the market for hand made objects will drop out, because most people making those objects can’t pay for the testing, and fear they will be assumed guilty of breaking the law if they sell, resulting in fines they can't pay.
The General points us to a member of a church who feels all of Santa's reindeer, except Rudolph, are homosexuals - based on the Rankin-Basss special, and thus the “reindeer games” that Rudolph can’t participate in are all homosexual in nature. Which is fairly harmless. Depending on which way you look at it, the Bishop of Rome's proclamation that hormone contraceptives are polluting the planet is also harmless wingnuttery or further proof that he is quite out of touch with science.
Potentially dangerous, however, is a ricin threat delivered against several Seattle bars known for their homosexual clientele.
The happy part out of this, though, is the Buddhist temple that takes care of birds deemed to dangerous or unsuitable to be pets.
In opinions, Uncle $cam feels that blog services are doing far too much to profile and monitor their users, as well as aiding the government's ability to shape and control Internet traffic and censor it. Also linked are the Committee to Protect Bloggers, which may understandably be focused elsewhere, like China, and The Open Net Initiative, tracking filtering and censorship practices around the world.
Returning to domestic opinions, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann return to a campaign promise of the Obama team - tax cuts for Americans, but these aren’t tax cuts, because they’re refundable credits. This makes them unmistakably welfare for the poorest, which makes the rich, who already pay so very much, have to pay more to balance things out, while the lowerst-income (those lazy and indolent slackers who don’t pay any taxes, or won’t after the credits) get money and will be able to impose their will on the government so they can suck more money away any time they please. Mixing in with Cal Thomas's insistence that spending plans make people dependent on government, and thus socialism appears, the Democrats spend us into the ground, and everybody fails because nobody was willing to sensibly listen to ideas about not spending more than you have when economic times are good and nobody is willing to tighten their budgets and cut programs to essentials. They’d probably team up with Tom Price, who says that the Republican Party must oppose the "health-care rationing" that the Obama administration is set on, because health-care rationing is the only outcome he can envision from the plan, after all the private insurance providers have been driven away. His alternative is to reform taxes so that it makes sense to own insurance and make it so that each person purchases and controls their own insurance care. Add on Hal Varian, who proclaims that boosting private investment and investing in good projects or the states, instead of federal government spending, is how we get out of a recession, and Thomas Sowell, who feels that the bailout cash was a gift to Democrats to spend how they like and avoid taking flak for it, along with the inevitable delays spending money on building and repairing infrastructure has, and the critics are ready before the President has even taken office. Not that Dan Gainor, or anyone, expects the mainstream media to hold the incoming President accountable on his economic promises, leaving it to the columnists to do so.
Richard Olivastro expresses his distate for the matter surrounding the appointed junior Senator from Illinois, considering all the possible options for Mr. Reid and the Rules Committee to use as charlatanism and defiance of law. Instead, he suggests, Mr. Reid move over to Minnesota and tell Al Franken that he can’t have a Senate seat that he stole. Funny how recounts work like that - whomever’s on the losing side will accuse the other of stealing the seat through some chicanery. In both cases, though, Mr. Reid probably doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on about keeping someone out, should the matters in their states resolve in favor of the petitioners.
In technology, Google releases a beta of Picasa for Intel-based Apple computers, 60 minutes on how fMRIs lets brainthinkies come out, and some of the police, government, and marketing applications for that kind of technology, The FBI's increasing unease about cyberwarfare, which makes me think that “Pluto’s Kiss” might be an eventuality instead of a fiction, even if it isn’t named that, people wanting to rush headlong into cyberwarfare by deploying robotic soldiers, walking nanobots only a molecule or two in size, and how city grids and the urban jungle dull our minds, but that dull can be counteracted with some nature popping up here and there.
At the end of tonight’s dispatches, a look inside the White House at all the staff that make Presidential transitions, visits, and life smooth and undisturbed. That, and the industry that makes it's money selling adult films... would like a bailout. Well, Hustler and Girls Gone Wild are, anyway.
In the International frame, Israel continues to hold attention. A new accusation that Israel is using white phosphorus shells, which sounds like it goes against the laws of war. Additional pressure comes from the mounting desire for a cease-fire and an increasing series of violent acts against Jews in other countries. International consequences. There’s now a really big push, and I guess it has something to do with Hamas, from what I’m reading, to link the conflict in Gaza with Iran in some way, if not attempting to say directly that it's a war between Israel and Iran's proxy. The Prime Minister of Israel makes his case on how Hamas has broken their good faith and cease-fire, justifying the current offensive and dismissing the idea that it is excessive. It's also a bad idea to be working for any media in the area - release the breaking news too early and the censors will have your head and wonder whether you’re an agent trying to help their opponents.
Elsewhere on Iran, Turkey held up a shipment it considered suspicious from Iran to Venezuela because it contained equipment which could be used to manufacture explosives. The official markings on the crate: tractor parts. How do we get there from here?
The dispute between Russia and Ukraine over gas prices, supplies, and outstanding debts has hurt European nations, despite promises from both sides that said supplies would not be affected.
A nice HumInt about how life is now that the new security arrangements have taken hold, which seems to be alternating between “See? They work well together.” and “This oppressive security agreement is hindering us from doing what we need to do.” Stories of the police finding potential suicide bombers seems to suggest more the former, and that we’ve trained a competent force, drive-by killings notwithstanding.
On the domestic desk, publishers are gambling on the successes of big blockbusters to make up for more modest returns on the rest of their catalog, giving out lots of cash to a certain few and hoping to make lots, rather than more modest fees for titles that will turn profits regularly, if not spectacularly. According to the article, it works, so people keep trying it, and not only that, if a publishing house doesn’t bid big, the agents won’t send them what they consider their best work.
The House of Representatives has adopted rule changes that make their rule languages gender-neutral, owing to the significant presence and chairships of female Members of Congress. For those whom language is still the enemy and a subtle reminder of the the idea “no penis, no power”, this counts as a step forward. For others, this is nonsense and unimportant.
New laws coming soon into effect requiring product testing on all items for sale, including handcrafted items, are sparking worries that most of the market for hand made objects will drop out, because most people making those objects can’t pay for the testing, and fear they will be assumed guilty of breaking the law if they sell, resulting in fines they can't pay.
The General points us to a member of a church who feels all of Santa's reindeer, except Rudolph, are homosexuals - based on the Rankin-Basss special, and thus the “reindeer games” that Rudolph can’t participate in are all homosexual in nature. Which is fairly harmless. Depending on which way you look at it, the Bishop of Rome's proclamation that hormone contraceptives are polluting the planet is also harmless wingnuttery or further proof that he is quite out of touch with science.
Potentially dangerous, however, is a ricin threat delivered against several Seattle bars known for their homosexual clientele.
The happy part out of this, though, is the Buddhist temple that takes care of birds deemed to dangerous or unsuitable to be pets.
In opinions, Uncle $cam feels that blog services are doing far too much to profile and monitor their users, as well as aiding the government's ability to shape and control Internet traffic and censor it. Also linked are the Committee to Protect Bloggers, which may understandably be focused elsewhere, like China, and The Open Net Initiative, tracking filtering and censorship practices around the world.
Returning to domestic opinions, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann return to a campaign promise of the Obama team - tax cuts for Americans, but these aren’t tax cuts, because they’re refundable credits. This makes them unmistakably welfare for the poorest, which makes the rich, who already pay so very much, have to pay more to balance things out, while the lowerst-income (those lazy and indolent slackers who don’t pay any taxes, or won’t after the credits) get money and will be able to impose their will on the government so they can suck more money away any time they please. Mixing in with Cal Thomas's insistence that spending plans make people dependent on government, and thus socialism appears, the Democrats spend us into the ground, and everybody fails because nobody was willing to sensibly listen to ideas about not spending more than you have when economic times are good and nobody is willing to tighten their budgets and cut programs to essentials. They’d probably team up with Tom Price, who says that the Republican Party must oppose the "health-care rationing" that the Obama administration is set on, because health-care rationing is the only outcome he can envision from the plan, after all the private insurance providers have been driven away. His alternative is to reform taxes so that it makes sense to own insurance and make it so that each person purchases and controls their own insurance care. Add on Hal Varian, who proclaims that boosting private investment and investing in good projects or the states, instead of federal government spending, is how we get out of a recession, and Thomas Sowell, who feels that the bailout cash was a gift to Democrats to spend how they like and avoid taking flak for it, along with the inevitable delays spending money on building and repairing infrastructure has, and the critics are ready before the President has even taken office. Not that Dan Gainor, or anyone, expects the mainstream media to hold the incoming President accountable on his economic promises, leaving it to the columnists to do so.
Richard Olivastro expresses his distate for the matter surrounding the appointed junior Senator from Illinois, considering all the possible options for Mr. Reid and the Rules Committee to use as charlatanism and defiance of law. Instead, he suggests, Mr. Reid move over to Minnesota and tell Al Franken that he can’t have a Senate seat that he stole. Funny how recounts work like that - whomever’s on the losing side will accuse the other of stealing the seat through some chicanery. In both cases, though, Mr. Reid probably doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on about keeping someone out, should the matters in their states resolve in favor of the petitioners.
In technology, Google releases a beta of Picasa for Intel-based Apple computers, 60 minutes on how fMRIs lets brainthinkies come out, and some of the police, government, and marketing applications for that kind of technology, The FBI's increasing unease about cyberwarfare, which makes me think that “Pluto’s Kiss” might be an eventuality instead of a fiction, even if it isn’t named that, people wanting to rush headlong into cyberwarfare by deploying robotic soldiers, walking nanobots only a molecule or two in size, and how city grids and the urban jungle dull our minds, but that dull can be counteracted with some nature popping up here and there.
At the end of tonight’s dispatches, a look inside the White House at all the staff that make Presidential transitions, visits, and life smooth and undisturbed. That, and the industry that makes it's money selling adult films... would like a bailout. Well, Hustler and Girls Gone Wild are, anyway.
